Health
USDA penalizes Alaska $12 million for overpaying food stamp benefits
Alaska’s Department of Health owes the federal government $11.9 million because it overpaid food stamp benefits last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has informed the state. In a Friday letter to Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg, USDA Acting Under Secretary Kumar Chandran said the state’s payment error rate has been too high for […]
Alaska’s food stamp program rebound continues with more users, timely benefits
After years of backlogged applications kept thousands of Alaskans from accessing food aid, the state’s health department appears to be maintaining the program’s recovery. State officials said they overcame the backlog in March. Deb Etheridge, director of the Division of Public Assistance, said the agency is processing roughly 90% of its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program […]
Alaska has a new nonprofit newsroom in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
The Mat-Su Sentinel, a new, nonprofit newsroom based in Palmer, began publishing online this month with a mission to contribute local reporting to the region. Founder, editor and reporter Amy Bushatz has worked in news for more than two decades, including as the executive editor for Military.com and as a part-time reporter for the Anchorage […]
U.S. Supreme Court rejects attempt to limit access to abortion pill
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a much-anticipated decision Thursday that mifepristone, one of two pharmaceuticals used in medication abortion, can remain available under current prescribing guidelines. The high court unanimously rejected attempts by anti-abortion groups to roll back access to what was in place more than eight years ago, writing that they […]
Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids’ use of social media
WASHINGTON — Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights. Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media […]
EPA threatens to step in if Alaska does not update its water pollution limit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is prodding the state of Alaska over its failure to update water pollution rules. On Thursday, the EPA issued a formal determination that the state should update pollution limits that are based in part on the amount of fish consumed by state residents. Under federal law, those limits are supposed […]
Alaska’s Medicaid backlog triggers lawsuit
On a life-flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Sierra Ott’s newborn son Liam would not stop bleeding from a routine needle prick. Doctors in the Anchorage neonatal intensive care unit diagnosed him with a blood clotting disorder. Without medication, he is at risk of extreme joint pain and even bleeding out from what would not normally […]
U.S. Senate GOP prevents contraception access bill from moving ahead
WASHINGTON — An attempt to reinforce Americans’ access to contraception failed Wednesday when U.S. Senate Republicans blocked a bill from advancing toward final passage. The 51-39 procedural vote required at least 60 senators to move forward, but fell short after GOP lawmakers said the measure was too broad as well as unnecessary. Alaska Sen. Lisa […]
Bird flu’s spread from poultry to cattle to humans provokes worry among feds, states
Dairy farmers throughout the country are on guard and the federal government is mobilizing after an outbreak among cattle herds of highly pathogenic avian influenza — once thought to be confined to poultry flocks. What’s more, the virus, also known as H5N1 or bird flu, was diagnosed in a third dairy farmworker last week, marking […]
States are already collecting more abortion data. And HIPAA won’t always keep it private.
Years before the Dobbs decision, providers like Dr. Kylie Cooper were already uncomfortable with some of the reporting requirements for abortion procedures in states where they practiced. Cooper was a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for several years in Idaho before she reluctantly left the state in 2023 because of the near-total abortion ban that is now […]
Alaska health officials point to wastewater sampling as useful disease-tracking tool
The Alaska Division of Public Health is hoping to expand wastewater-monitoring programs that have proved useful in detecting outbreaks of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, a report said. Testing at Anchorage’s John M. Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility, the municipality’s main wastewater plant, was able to provide notice of a spike in COVID-19 cases in January […]
Medicaid unwinding deals blow to tenuous system of care for Native Americans, Alaska Natives
About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the covid-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income families. A chorus of stories recount the ways the unwinding has upended people’s lives, but Native Americans are proving particularly vulnerable to losing coverage […]