Health care

Counselor Angelena Plummer sits in a room used for therapy at her private practice, A Positive Life, on March 3, 2023, in Rapid City. (Nicole Schlabach/For South Dakota Searchlight)

Need mental health care in SD? You may have to get in line

BY: - April 1, 2023

Angelena Plummer, owner of a counseling practice in Rapid City, knows what it’s like to wait for mental health care. A few years ago, she called a therapist after a distressing life event. When she found out the wait was three months for the next available appointment, Plummer recalled, “it was a literal jaw drop.” […]

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U.S. judge rules insurers don’t have to cover many free preventive health services

BY: , and - March 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas. The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer […]

Aberdeen Fire & Rescue paramedic interns are trained on LIFEPAK monitor defibrillator equipment. (Courtesy of Aberdeen Fire & Rescue)

State spends $11.6 million to update equipment for South Dakota ambulance services

BY: - March 29, 2023

Dozens of ambulance services in rural South Dakota have been operating for years with outdated or broken patient care tools because the agencies don’t have enough money to purchase new equipment, but that’s beginning to change thanks to an infusion of funding. Gov. Kristi Noem and state lawmakers approved three initiatives in 2022 that allocated […]

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Postpartum Medicaid expansion is the first step to maternal health equity, experts say 

BY: - March 29, 2023

Arkansas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States: 43.5 deaths from 2018 to 2021 for every 100,000 live births, according to the latest federal data. But the state only extends postpartum Medicaid to 60 days after childbirth.  A bill by Arkansas Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, aims to change that and would seek […]

COMMENTARY
Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at a January 2022 event in the state Capitol at Pierre. (Twitter/Governor Kristi Noem)

A state that’s ‘pro-birth’ should also be truly ‘pro-life’

BY: - March 26, 2023

No matter where you fit on the political spectrum, the news on June 24, 2022, was staggering: The Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that guaranteed women the right to an abortion. Polls indicate that two-thirds of the country saw this as a crippling blow to the rights of women. For […]

Dave Lacknauth, director of Pharmacy Services, Broward Health Medical Center, shows a bottle of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a press conference on Dec. 23, 2020, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Moderna plan to hike COVID vaccine price to $130 a dose rebuked at U.S. Senate hearing

BY: - March 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — The CEO of Moderna on Wednesday defended the company’s decision to drastically increase the price of its COVID-19 vaccine later this year, arguing that an expected drop in demand, changes to its distribution process and the overall benefit of the vaccine warrant the higher cost.  That decision was met with bipartisan condemnation from […]

Close-up of someone holding naloxone nasal spray. (Courtesy of NIH/NIDA)

‘Why wait?’ SD businesses can purchase opioid overdose medication under new law

BY: - March 20, 2023

Bystanders who witness an opioid overdose in a public space, restaurant or workplace only have one option under existing state law: call 911 and wait for help to arrive. But waiting puts lives at risk, said Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls. Under current law, medications used to treat opioid overdoses in emergency situations — such […]

(Darwin Brandis/iStock Getty Images Plus)

As opioids overdose deaths keep rising, report urges lawmakers to develop new approaches

BY: - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers should view America’s staggering opioid crisis, including the rise of illicit fentanyl, through an “ecosystems” approach, argues a massive RAND Corporation report published Thursday. That means they should examine the gaps and interconnections among emergency response, data collection, education, treatment, housing and law enforcement, the report advises. The 600-page volume — which […]

Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Dr. Jamie Metzl, left, testifies before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic with former New York Times editor and author Nicholas Wade, Dr. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under former President Donald Trump, in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 8, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Congress unanimously votes to require declassified information on COVID-19 origins

BY: - March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — The divided 118th Congress approved its first bill Friday, after lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted unanimously to send President Joe Biden legislation that would require declassification of intelligence on the origins of COVID-19. The four-page bill, which the House voted 419-0 to clear, would require the Director of National Intelligence […]

Dr. Paul Auwaerter testifies to the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. (Screenshot/subcommittee hearing video)

Lawmakers hear theories on COVID-19 origins in U.S. House hearing

BY: - March 8, 2023

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans mostly agreed Wednesday that scientists and the intelligence community should fully investigate the origins of COVID-19 without political interference over whether the virus emerged from nature or through a lab leak. Members from both political parties said throughout the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing that determining […]

Former Gov. Mark Dayton testified at a Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, March 7. Fairview CEO James Hereford (left) and Sanford CEO Bill Gassen (second from left), also testified. (Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer)

Former Minnesota governors: Sanford should not control U of M hospital

BY: - March 8, 2023

Two former Minnesota governors on Tuesday expressed concerns to lawmakers about a potential merger between two already large health care systems — Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health. Former Govs. Tim Pawlenty, the last Minnesota Republican to win statewide office, and his DFL successor Mark Dayton, came together to urge lawmakers to prioritize Minnesotans’ interests […]

Members of Congress protest in support of abortion rights ahead of an arrest at the U.S. Capitol on July 19, 2022. Members left to right are Cori Bush of Missouri (in black shirt), Nydia Velazquez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jackie Speier of California, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Alma Adams of North Carolina and Barbara Lee of California.

This International Women’s Day, U.S. anti-abortion laws violate human rights, groups say

BY: - March 8, 2023

Ahead of International Women’s Day, hundreds of U.S. and global human rights groups, doctors, and attorneys have asked the United Nations to intervene on behalf of the millions of women in the U.S. who have been left without access to legal abortion and vital forms of reproductive health care in the wake of last summer’s […]