Shalina Chatlani

Health insurance companies are under increasing scrutiny for allegedly using artificial intelligence bots and algorithms to swiftly deny patients routine or lifesaving care — without a human actually reviewing their claims.

Proposed Medicaid cuts may reduce access to mental health care for minorities, as providers like Charmeka Newton face financial challenges.

Proposed Medicaid cuts may reduce access to mental health care for minorities, as providers like Charmeka Newton face financial challenges.

Charmeka Newton, a psychotherapist who has her own practice in Lansing, Michigan, is passionate about serving Black and Hispanic patients. They’re often looking for therapists who will understand how their race, ethnicity, and culture may affect them, she said, and she helps provide that care. Medicaid is a major source of health care for people of color. […]

Charmeka Newton, a psychologist who has her own practice in Lansing, Michigan, is passionate about serving Black and Hispanic patients. They’re often looking for therapists who will understand how their race, ethnicity and culture may affect them, she said, and she helps provide that care. Medicaid is a major source of health care for people […]

If Republicans in Congress make extensive cuts to Medicaid, mental health providers worry that reimbursement rates will stagnate or decline.

Republicans in Congress are aiming to make extensive cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program that covers a total of 72 million low-income people and people with disabilities, or 1 in 5 U.S. residents. If that happens, Newton and many other mental health providers worry that already-low Medicaid reimbursement rates will stagnate or even decline.

Charmeka Newton, a psychologist who has her own practice in Lansing, Michigan, is passionate about serving Black and Hispanic patients. They’re often looking for therapists who will understand how their race, ethnicity and culture may affect them, she said, and she helps provide that care. Medicaid is a major source of health care for people […]

A Republican proposal circulating on Capitol Hill that would slash the 90% federal contribution to states’ expanded Medicaid programs would end coverage for as many as 20 million people.

If the Trump administration succeeds in shutting down the federal United States Agency for International Development, known globally as USAID, state colleges and universities stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in annual research funding.

If the Trump administration succeeds in shutting down the federal United States Agency for International Development, known globally as USAID, state colleges and universities stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in annual research funding.

Local and state officials are developing directives to support — or possibly thwart — potential ICE visits to public schools.

Even as states worry about looming Medicaid cuts, they are failing to collect tens of millions of dollars in drug discounts every year, according to a report by a government watchdog.

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fan out across the country to conduct high-profile migrant arrests that President Donald Trump has called for, local and state officials are developing their own directives to support — or possibly thwart — potential ICE visits to public schools.

The skyrocketing popularity of weight-loss drugs is fast becoming a state budgetary concern. In deciding whether to cover the medications for state employees, policymakers must choose between the long-term benefits of reducing obesity and the short-term costs.

State Medicaid programs are grappling with whether to cover GLP-1 drugs, both for reasons of equity and to save on future health expenditures.

Andrea Deutsch, the mayor of Narberth, Pennsylvania, and the owner of a pet store in town, doesn’t get health care coverage through either of her jobs. Instead, she is enrolled in a plan she purchased on Pennie, Pennsylvania’s health insurance exchange.

State Sen. Victor Torres represents predominantly Hispanic Osceola County in central Florida. At Sunday Mass at his local church, immigrants often tell him they are scared to seek health care. “They say, ‘My mother is ill, or my kid is sick, but I don’t have insurance,’’’ the Democrat said in an interview. “And I tell them, ‘You cannot be turned away. Go to the hospital. Don’t wait until the last minute when it’s too late.’”

As prescription drug prices continue to rise, states increasingly have been turning to lawsuits to fight the power of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs — the middlemen in the drug supply chain.

All 50 states have enacted laws designed to lower prescription drug costs by curbing the power of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. But a federal law called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, means that doesn't apply to Americans covered through so-called self-funded health care plans. That could change if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law enacted by Oklahoma.