Healthcare news + federal legislation, updated daily. Every item opens a discussion thread.
While Democratic congressional candidates are floating the restoration of federal Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid funding, Oregon officials are crafting a more ambitious plan to implement universal coverage in their state.
This article is part of Nurse Safety Laws, a Nurse.org series on the laws that protect nurses from workplace violence in all 50 states and Washington, DC. This piece covers what the law says after a workplace assault. Disclosure: The author is the founder and owner of Safe Staff, a healthcare workforce safety and documentation …
Editor’s note: The author is a current Sigma Nursing member and reported Nurse.org’s earlier news coverage of this story. My Sigma Nursing membership is up for renewal. The reminder landed in my inbox on September 17. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn’t have given it much thought. Renew. Pay the fee. Move on. Except this time, I …
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores Medicare, a federal health insurance program covering more than 68 million people, established in 1965 for people age 65 or older and later expanded to cover people under age 65 with long-term disabilities. In addition to detailing Medicare eligibility, coverage, and spending, the chapter examines the increased role of private plans in providing benefits and the financing challenges posed by increasing health care costs and an aging population.
The average Medicare beneficiary will have 28 Medicare Advantage prescription drug (MA_PD) plans available for general enrollment in 2027. The number of plans varies widely across states.
Getting financial assistance from hospitals often involves filling out cumbersome forms. Some states now require hospitals to identify and automatically enroll patients eligible for charity care.
This article is part of Nurse Safety Laws, a Nurse.org series on the laws that protect nurses from workplace violence in all 50 states and Washington, DC. This piece covers the criminal penalties, state by state. Disclosure: The author is the founder and owner of Safe Staff, a healthcare workforce safety and documentation platform that …
Potent sedating medications are often used on agitated people with dementia in long-term care facilities despite federal efforts to discourage their use. A clash over whether to drug a Michigan woman illuminates the wrenching decisions families and guardians face.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated 100,000 more immigrants will be uninsured by 2034 because of Medicaid eligibility changes under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that take effect Oct. 1. A KFF Health News survey of nine states found many more are at imminent risk of losing health coverage.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated 100,000 more immigrants will be uninsured by 2034 because of Medicaid eligibility changes under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that take effect Oct. 1. A KFF Health News survey of nine states found many more are at imminent risk of losing health coverage.
Staff raced against rising floodwater to evacuate 36 residents from a nursing home in New Richland, Minnesota. It’s one of 100 facilities KFF Health News identified as facing some of the nation’s worst flood risk.
In the ICU, I learned to read dying off a monitor. Rhythms, pressures, oxygen saturations. The numbers told the story long before the body did, and the machinery of rescue often made the body’s own signals harder to recognize and treat. When I moved to inpatient hospice, the monitors were gone. For the first time …
Disclosure: Chamberlain University advertises with Nurse.org. Chamberlain did not sponsor or pay for this interview, and our advertising relationships do not influence our editorial coverage or school rankings. Learn more in our advertising policy. If you have ever precepted a new grad, you know the nursing pipeline starts long before orientation. On this episode of …
This brief describes the verification process for Medicaid work requirements in Nebraska and examines early data on outcomes for individuals subject to work requirements.
Autumn Daniels went to the hospital with a severe migraine. After four hours in the waiting room, she left to try a different facility — but the ER still charged her.
The death penalty is legal in 27 states, and lethal injection is the primary method. That means involving medical professionals to store, test, and inject the drugs. After a botched execution in Tennessee, doctors and nurses there say medical professionals need to be removed from the process completely.
In most states, people with Medicaid coverage will have to prove they’re working, volunteering, or studying starting Jan. 1. But Montana put the rules into effect early, and they’re sowing uncertainty and anxiety.
In another concerning example of AI agents going rogue recently, an OpenAI agent hacked into an Australian government website containing health care data. While some industry CEOs are calling for a slowdown and demands for regulation grow, host Chip Kahn focuses on the implications for health care when these same kinds of AI systems are already at work in hospitals — in billing, in scheduling, and increasingly in decisions about patients.
Editor’s note: Nurse Blake partnered with Nurse.org to promote the 2025 State of Nursing Survey cited in this article and has contributed other articles to Nurse.org. Blake says proceeds from the book go toward providing free copies to hospitals and nursing programs across the country through the Nurse Support Network, a nurse community he founded. …
This is sponsored content from NurseApproved, written by the sponsor. NurseApproved and Nurse.org have an ongoing business partnership, including potential client referral fees. Sponsored content is held to Nurse.org’s advertising standards, and it does not influence our site rankings or editorial coverage. Learn more in our advertising policy. When I was helping build NurseGrid back …
This brief describes the role of Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs) in program integrity efforts, examines caseload and case outcome data, and current issues facing MFCUs.
Recent outbreaks of foodborne illness and high-profile recalls have made this issue a concern of voters.
Taylor Swift released “Patient Zero” on Sept. 25, 2026. It’s one of four new tracks on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, an expanded edition of her 2025 album. The title sounds clinical, but the song is about a bad ex. Swift borrows the language of an outbreak to describe a relationship she survived …
On January 1st, 2018, I took the first step to a healthier me and decided that my New Year’s resolution would be to start running. Living across from a park with a 3.36-mile running lane made it easy to access a path, but getting up and out of the house was an arduous task initially. …
Every employee at St. Mary’s Health System in Lewiston, Maine, now wears a button that can summon nearby colleagues and security when they need help. In August, the healthcare system rolled out Canopy, a new safety platform that connects to all five of the system’s locations, giving all 1,220 employees wearable duress buttons they can …
This issue brief answers some key questions about abortion in the United States and presents data collected before and new data that has been published since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
This is an opinion piece; the views expressed are the author’s. Disclosure: Dr. Walker is the founder and CEO of SarAI, an artificial intelligence-powered maternal health platform. SarAI is not affiliated with Sigma Nursing and has no financial interest in the matters discussed in this article. There is a plainspoken expression in Black communities for …
Part of Nurses on the Ballot, Nurse.org’s new research series tracking verified nurses running for office in 2026, starting with the eighteen on congressional ballots this November. Among them: four incumbents, ten challengers, four candidates in open seats, and the only Senate race in the country with two nurses in it. Updated September 22, 2026: …
Part of Nurses on the Ballot, Nurse.org’s new research series for the 2026 midterm elections. More than 50 members of Congress belong to the House caucus dedicated to nursing, and this page keeps a current public accounting of it: membership, leadership, history, and the bills its leaders are prioritizing now. There is a caucus in …
As the oldest baby boomers turn 80, researchers worry there won’t be enough room in nursing facilities for a rapidly graying nation.
Part of Nurses on the Ballot, Nurse.org’s new research series tracking every verified nurse running for office in 2026. This November, at least 140 nurses are on state legislative ballots in 42 states, and the partisan split defies the stereotype: 61 Republicans, 75 Democratic-aligned candidates, three nonpartisan or undeclared candidates, and one minor-party candidate. Congress …
Part of Nurses on the Ballot, Nurse.org’s new research series on the nurses and nursing issues of the 2026 midterm elections. We reviewed the platform of every US Senate and governor nominee, and of every verified nurse candidate in the series; the candidates who put nursing commitments in writing are here, from both parties, in their …
The 2025 reconciliation law includes new eligibility restrictions for many lawfully present immigrants for Medicaid and CHIP that become effective October 1, 2026. This brief provides an overview of implementation of the immigrant eligibility changes based on CMS guidance and issues to consider for affected individuals and states.
Like many Americans, Joshua and Ashley Durham saw their health insurance premiums rise by hundreds of dollars a month this year. Despite being healthcare practitioners all too aware of the risks, they chose to go uninsured. Others, though, can’t afford to go without.
Paragon Anesthesia has issued a public response after one of its former certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) was found to have modified single-use laryngoscope blades at home and reused them on surgical patients at Johnson City Medical Center (JCMC) in Johnson City, Tennessee, WJHL News Channel 11 reported. The company provided its press release to …
This policy watch examines recent and anticipated managed care rate setting challenges and the potential implications of MCO exits.
A cyberattack has kept the Alabama Board of Nursing’s entire online licensing system offline since September 1st, WBRC FOX6 reported. More than 80,000 nurses across the state are unable to renew their credentials online and the cyberattack has also delayed new graduates trying to get licensed. The board has not said who was behind the …
As a nurse, I understand why medicine depends on objective data. We rely on lab results, imaging studies, vital signs, and physical examinations to help guide decisions. We are trained to avoid unnecessary testing, unnecessary radiation, and unnecessary interventions. I fully understand the risks of overdiagnosis, radiation exposure, and the reality that many childhood illnesses …
Sigma Nursing’s Board of Directors announced a “leadership change, effective immediately” in a statement posted Friday, September 18, and said it has begun the process of identifying an interim CEO. The board’s statement did not name Davis, did not say whether he was terminated or resigned, and announced no findings from the external investigation; Sigma has …
Newly released surveillance video shows a patient chasing and striking workers in the Jackson Memorial Hospital emergency room on May 30, then repeatedly punching nurse Yanira Eguileor and knocking her to the floor before staff pulled him away. Eguileor is suing the hospital and Miami-Dade County for $5 million, alleging inadequate security. Her attorney, Michael …
The KFF State Profiles for Women’s Health database offers the latest national and state data and policies on a broad range of state-level statistics and policies of importance to women including health status, insurance and Medicaid coverage, use of preventive services, contraceptive coverage, sexual health, maternal and infant health, and abortion policies. Many indicators also provide state-level information for women of different racial and ethnic groups.
The 2025 budget reconciliation created the Rural Health Transformation Program, which will award $50 billion in state grants over a five-year period. This brief provides an overview of the program, describing its structure, how funds can be used, how funding compares to Medicaid spending reductions in the reconciliation law, and how the funds are being distributed across and within states.
This brief describes current fiscal conditions using the latest state revenue and spending data from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) and analyzes how these conditions may impact states’ Medicaid budget decisions going forward.
An experiment to provide meals to some Medicaid recipients shows food can be cost-effective medicine. But even as federal officials tout the power of nutrition, Medicaid budget cuts could lead states to think twice about covering healthy food for sick residents. One has already reconsidered.
This story covers sexual assault. Support resources are listed at the end of this article. The woman was 18 when her Jiu-Jitsu instructor, nurse anesthetist Joel Gingery, met her at Halifax Health Medical Center while on duty and sexually assaulted her in a hospital on-call room. Gingery was convicted of two counts of sexual battery …
Editor’s note: The author is Dean of the College of Nursing at University of Phoenix. Nurse.org generates student referrals for the school through its education marketing business, but received no compensation for this article and retained full editorial control. As nurses seek opportunities to advance their careers, as well as hone their practice and become …
A Pennsylvania grand jury says a nurse’s attempted “exorcism” of a bedridden nursing home resident was the incident that cracked open a far wider investigation into the county-run facility where it happened. Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta presented the findings of the grand jury report at a news conference on Thursday, September 10th. The …
When Angela DiDonato, DNP, CRNA, FAANA, was president of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists, she kept hearing the same question from state legislators: “Don’t you need a doctor to tell you what to do?” She was in Harrisburg fighting for legislation, and lawmakers did not understand what a nurse anesthetist actually does. That frustration …
States are spending rural health dollars on tech startups, betting that untested companies will succeed where doctors have vanished and hospitals have collapsed. Louisiana’s call for innovative technology drew more than 200 pitches, seeking from $250,000 to $3 million in seed money.
Working in the cardiac cath lab, Jose David “JD” Ramos, BSN, RN, from Miami, Florida, witnessed firsthand the frustration, and sometimes danger, that delayed access to care data can lead to. For instance, treatment pushed back because a necessary image couldn’t be found; records scattered across electronic health systems that don’t “talk” to each other, …
NurseLinkHub uses a single essential cookie to keep you logged in. We don't sell your data or run third-party ad trackers. See our Privacy Policy.