Healthcare news + federal legislation, updated daily. Every item opens a discussion thread.
Maryland is putting $3 million behind a new zero-interest loan program for nursing students, an initiative announced Thursday, August 20th, by Governor Wes Moore and the national nonprofit Social Finance to chip away at a statewide shortage of roughly 7,000 open nursing positions. The Maryland Pay It Forward Fund pairs $2 million from the state’s …
This data note presents key data points describing the current state of the Medicaid program as it affects women.
Considering the existing challenges to hospital-based maternity care in rural areas and the potential for it to worsen, this data note analyzes the availability of hospitals providing inpatient maternity care in rural areas for Medicaid enrollees and illustrates how access to these services could be affected if additional rural hospitals were to close or eliminate those services.
Researchers and disability rights advocates warn that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Education Department and its erosions of civil rights oversight risk widening the disparities autistic children face in diagnosis, school support, and discrimination protection.
Nurses are known for compassion. So why is it so hard to show that same compassion to each other? That question sits at the center of the latest episode of the Love n’ Leary Nursing Podcast. Hosts Marion Leary, PhD, MPH, RN, and Rebecca Love, RN, MSN, FIEL, sat down with Renee Thompson, DNP, RN, …
🎫 This is a big one: Nurse.org’s first-ever collaboration with an NFL team! Secure your tickets now and join us at Hard Rock Stadium for an inspiring celebration as we honor the nurses that keep South Florida healthy. Purchase tickets starting at $72.07! Includes a custom Nurse Appreciation badge reel + post-game on-field access opportunity. …
An analysis of hospital claims data in Florida found that firearm injuries of children disproportionately hit families in a handful of ZIP codes, almost all of them in Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, or Tampa Bay.
The new Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program promises eligible beneficiaries access to popular weight loss drugs for as little as $50 a month. But for some, having the very medical conditions these drugs are approved to treat means they don't qualify for the discount.
Four patients who came to Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown in Nashville for routine joint replacement surgery were injected with potassium phosphate instead of a spinal anesthetic, and at least two of them are now paralyzed with another in intensive care, according to CBS News. The health system confirmed on August 21st that a pharmacy …
About half of U.S. adults say they can’t afford healthcare. California is among at least eight states that have set spending growth targets for the healthcare sector. It may soon impose enforcement penalties aimed at pushing hospitals and other providers to meet those goals.
The American Nurses Foundation has received $5 million to bring practical artificial intelligence education to nurses in rural, remote, and underserved communities, the American Nurses Enterprise (ANE) announced Thursday. The funding comes in equal parts: a $2.5 million grant from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and $2.5 million from Google.org. The three-year initiative, called Nurse AI Training …
This page displays an interactive map of the current status of state decisions on the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Additional Medicaid expansion resources are listed (with links) below the map.
The author is the founder and CEO of Clasp, a company that partners with healthcare employers to finance and repay student loans in exchange for work commitments. Nurse.org received no compensation for this article. At Clasp, we talk to healthcare students every day, but one student said something recently that was a first. He and …
This issue brief uses data from KFF’s 2025-2026 survey of Medicaid directors and from a proposed rule on provider taxes to describe states’ current provider taxes, explore how rules governing provider taxes are changing because of the 2025 reconciliation law and the regulations implementing that law, and summarizes which changes may affect each state.
Healthcare workers at a Michigan hospital have been on strike since last September. Violence on the job is one reason behind it, with federal data showing hospital workers are seven times as likely to be injured on the job due to violent acts as members of the general working population.
Image source: New York Post Somewhere in a Dallas NICU, a nurse is charting on a days-old boy with a critically underdeveloped left heart, a court order shaping his care, and a three-state parentage fight attached to his name. Both of his names. The baby’s gestational carrier is a nurse herself. McKenna West is a …
If this is the first time you’re reading something I’ve written for Nurse.org, an introduction is probably appropriate. I’m an emergency department registered nurse, healthcare advocate, and the founder of Safe Staff, a nonprofit organization focused on healthcare workforce safety through transparency, secure documentation, and data. I still see healthcare very much through the eyes …
More cataract patients, wanting not only restored but improved vision, are paying extra for their doctors to use a laser when a scalpel would do.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode belong to the hosts and guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, beliefs, or position of Nurse.org. When Colette Delawalla, PhD, was wrapping up her doctorate at Emory University, she was days away from submitting the biggest grant of her career. Nine months of …
These specialized units can help keep older patients out of the hospital, lower their healthcare costs, and more.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) has a new specialty on its list, and nurses who have been doing the work for years finally have a title that matches it. On June 17th, the ANA Board of Directors recognized patient blood management nursing as a nursing specialty, approved the submitted Patient Blood Management (PBM) nursing scope …
The American Red Cross has declared a national blood supply crisis, only the second such declaration in the organization’s history, after blood donations fell to a four-year summer low and the national supply of type O positive blood dropped below a single day’s worth. The declaration went out on July 27, 2026, and it has …
The nursing shortage isn’t news. Its persistence is the real story. What’s new is a clearer understanding of what that cycle costs. A February 2026 study in Nursing Outlook from Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing quantified the cost, line by line. Across 1,501 med-surg nurses at seven Emory hospitals, turnover hit 24%, …
A bipartisan bill now in front of Congress would make it illegal for Medicare-participating health care facilities to force nurses to stay past the end of a scheduled shift. The Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act, filed as S.5319 in the Senate and H.R.10056 in the House, was reintroduced August 6 by Senator Jeff Merkley …
I started my nursing career in the CVICU taking care of ECMO patients. I loved the technical complexity, the acuity, and the feeling that I was taking care of some of the sickest patients in the hospital. When I later moved into travel nursing and spent five years on the road, I kept looking for …
Part of Nurse.org’s Nursing AI Watch, our ongoing investigation into how artificial intelligence is reshaping nursing practice. In his first essay, nurse and clinical AI strategist Mark Smith asked how healthcare learned to value software before nursing. In this second of three, he goes looking for the answer in the research record, and finds the …
An estimated $60 billion in federal Medicaid spending in 37 states (including the District of Columbia) would likely exceed new federal limits on state directed payments for hospital services once fully implemented, a new KFF analysis finds. States with the biggest potential reductions in Medicaid payments to hospitals include California, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Arizona and Michigan.
This analysis estimates the number of states impacted by and the amount of current federal spending on Medicaid state directed payments for hospital services that exceeds the new limits established by the 2025 reconciliation law when fully implemented.
This brief provides an overview of health coverage of noncitizen children to provide greater insight into the potential role of Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) coverage in limiting the 2025 reconciliation law's impact on coverage for lawfully present immigrant children.
Some seriously ill patients improve on hospice. About 1 in 16 patients enrolled in hospice care lose eligibility as a result. Here’s how to get appropriate care after receiving a terminal diagnosis.
Coverage for hundreds of thousands of Arkansas Medicaid enrollees next year is in question after the Trump administration refused to renew a key state waiver. The state might not be the last to have to adjust to an arcane rule change under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode belong solely to the host and guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, beliefs, or position of Nurse.org. Most nurses already know the name. In December 2017, RaDonda Vaught was a neuro ICU nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. A 75-year-old patient …
I wasn’t the little girl who dreamed of becoming a nurse. I wanted to train horses and maybe become a veterinarian. Nursing wasn’t even on my radar until my grandmother looked at me and said, “Be a nurse. You’ll always have a job.” In May 2001, as a newly divorced single mom of two young …
This analysis of available 2025 prior authorization data finds insurers denied at least 1 in 8 standard requests for prior authorization across three insurance markets: Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, and the federally facilitated ACA Marketplaces. Denial rates varied wide segments by insurer. The analysis highlights limitations of the data and challenges for consumers interpreting it.
Special Medicaid programs in many states allow disabled people to work while receiving benefits, and most limit how much participants can earn and the assets they can hold. Some Iowans are pushing lawmakers to remove those limits, which they say can dampen their career prospects.
Trigger warning: this article references a criminal trial involving child deaths and a suicide attempt. If you or someone you love is struggling with postpartum mental health symptoms, please visit Postpartum Support International, call their 24/7 helpline at 1-800-944-4773, or text “Help” to 800-944-4773. As nurses, we are told to document like we might have to …
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode belong solely to the hosts and guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, beliefs, or position of Nurse.org. Lulette Infante was 18 when she landed in New York City. She had two suitcases, three younger siblings to help raise, and a plan to become …
The Medicare program will spend at least $13 billion on the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program in 2026, as 68% of Medicare Advantage enrollees are in a plan that qualifies for higher payments under the program.
North Carolina and other states have embraced “I Gave Birth” wristbands as a way to encourage women to seek help when they have postpartum complications. They’re gaining steam as the Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid threaten postpartum care.
Hospitals and other medical providers are increasingly asking for payment before providing care, collecting more of what patients might owe as rising insurance deductibles add to Americans' financial pressures.
Part of Nurse.org’s Nurse Strike Intelligence data series, built on a proprietary database tracking a decade of U.S. registered-nurse strikes (2017–2026). This piece looks across the aisle: why the physicians nurses work beside almost never strike, why that’s starting to change, and what the difference reveals about where nursing’s voice can be heard. Our Nurse Strike Intelligence …
This article introduces Nurse.org’s Nursing Workforce Benchmark, a new research series analyzing nursing workforce strain across all 50 states using hospital staffing surveys, state workforce projections, and federal shortage designations. Ask most nurses whether there’s a staffing crisis and you’ll get a complicated answer. They’ll tell you that there are plenty of nurses. There are …
This article is part of Nurse.org’s Nursing Workforce Benchmark, a new research series analyzing nursing workforce strain across all 50 states. This article examines why licensed nurse counts don’t reflect how many nurses are actually available to staff a unit. It’s the question nurses hear constantly, from administrators and policymakers who’ve seen the numbers and …
Virginia Medicaid started covering doula care four years ago. But logistical and administrative challenges leave many expectant parents without the support of a doula.
A federal disclosure rule is offering new insight on the effect of healthcare monopolies on pricing, following a wave of U.S. mergers.
This article is part of Nurse.org’s Nursing Workforce Benchmark, a new research series analyzing nursing workforce strain across all 50 states. This article examines the nurses who hold a license but aren’t working in nursing: who they are, why they left, and what it would take to bring some of them back. Every state has …
This article is part of Nurse.org’s Nursing Workforce Benchmark, a new research series analyzing nursing workforce strain across all 50 states. This is the final article in the initial series, examining why graduating more nurses is necessary but not sufficient to close the staffing gap. Ask a nurse whether training more nurses will solve the …
Trigger warning: this article discusses child death; postpartum depression and anxiety. If you or someone you love is struggling with postpartum mental health symptoms, please call Postpartum Support International at 1-800-944-4773 or text “Help” to 800-944-4773. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nurse.org. …
The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) has filed a federal unfair labor practice charge against Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, alleging the hospital illegally prevented neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses from walking off the job when a historic strike began last month. The charge, announced July 27, 2026, with the National Labor Relations Board …
Part of Nurse.org’s Nursing AI Watch, our ongoing investigation into how artificial intelligence is reshaping nursing practice. In this contributor essay, nurse and clinical AI strategist Mark Smith asks the question underneath our entire reimbursement series: how did healthcare learn to measure the value of machines before the value of the people working beside them? …
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