Listen The precarious finances of Nashville General Hospital have made the safety-net facility even more expensive to run. Administrators are asking the city for a targeted investment of tax dollars to cut down on some recurring costs.
Tennessee Intends To Raid Welfare Funding To Enforce Medicaid Work Requirement
Listen The Tennessee legislature has designed a budget maneuver to pay for proposed rules around Medicaid. Republican states, including Tennessee, are adding requirements that Medicaid recipients have to work if they can. But enforcement is proving to be costly.
Fund Launches For Uninsured Musicians To Get Medical Tests
The death of a 28-year-old drummer from East Nashville has inspired a fund meant to pay for primary care and diagnostic testing for musicians. Ben Eyestone, who played for Margo Price and Nikki Lane, died from colon cancer last year just days after being diagnosed. He was uninsured but had tried to get a colonoscopy […]
Why Governor Haslam’s Opioid Restrictions Took So Long To Advance
Listen Governor Bill Haslam is headed into the final months of his time in office, and he’s decided that combating the opioid epidemic will be his last big legislative push. Haslam started the session by endorsing a proposal that would impose stricter rules on prescribing the painkillers. Not until last week did that measure begin […]
Saint Thomas Installs Baby Webcams In NICU, Keeping Parents Connected From Home
Listen The neonatal intensive care unit at Saint Thomas Midtown is the first in Middle Tennessee to go live with baby webcams, a technological upgrade that hospitals around the country have been installing. But the video streams are seen as more than a modern convenience.
Senator Alexander Presses Again To Shore Up ACA Marketplace
Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is putting some election-year pressure on Congress to shore up the individual insurance marketplace. As the head of the Senate’s health committee, he promised the bi-partisan legislation as a way to mitigate any damage from canceling the individual mandate to buy insurance.
Childhood Poverty Drops In Nashville, But Analysts Worry It’s Moving To The Suburbs
Listen Nashville health officials are trying to decide whether a steep drop in childhood poverty is something to celebrate. County-by-county data published Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows a much smaller percentage of children in Davidson County are growing up poor.
With David Briley As Mayor, City Looks At What It’ll Take To Stabilize General Hospital
Listen Megan Barry’s resignation as Nashville’s mayor basically ends months of debate about whether to close General Hospital. David Briley pushed back against the mayor’s plans, even before he took over her job.
Tennessee Considers Team To Study Suicides, One Case At A Time
Listen Suicides have been surging in Tennessee, and state health officials don’t know why — in part — because they haven’t been studying them closely. The legislature is considering a proposal to review each suicide, case by case.
Tennessee’s Next Governor: Should TennCare Beneficiaries Be Required To Work?
Listen The push to require Medicaid recipients to get jobs has at least some support from everyone running to be Tennessee governor — even the Democrats.
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