Public Health

WellCare is incentivizing Kentucky Medicaid recipients to get their COVID-19 vaccine with $100 gift cards. 

For the first time since April, COVID-19 hospitalization rates in adults 65 and older are increasing, the CDC reported.

Nearly half of Puerto Rico's population could lose health coverage without additional Medicaid funding from Congress, ABC News reported July 22.

Plumas District Hospital in Quincy, Calif., had to close down and transfer patients July 19 because of a power outage, the hospital said. 

Congress is eyeing two options for cutting down the 2.2 million-person Medicaid coverage gap, and insurers could see profits either way. 

The Commonwealth Fund released a report July 16 that analyzes the state of healthcare coverage and affordability from March to June. 

A $51.3 million COVID-19 overflow hospital in Memphis, Tenn., has closed permanently without ever treating a single patient, reports NBC affiliate WMC-TV.

Provisional data shows California had the most fatal overdoses among U.S. states in 2020, according to a ranking Kaiser Family Foundation released July 20.

As COVID-19 cases rise in all 50 states, hospitals across the nation are once again dealing with capacity issues in terms of beds and staffing as patients present with COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Arkansas Blue Cross' Blue and You Foundation is providing $5.29 million in grants to eight behavioral health programs in the state, according to a July 16 news release.