Latest Health News from the Kansas Health Institute

A Salina-based oncologist has been named director for the University of Kansas School of Medicine expansion in Salina.

The association that represents community programs for the developmentally disabled filed a mandamus action Friday with the Kansas Supreme Court asking for an immediate rollback of Medicaid and other budget cuts.

In Kansas, two groups of people can be denied the right to vote: criminals and the mentally ill.

The signing of a bill Friday to enact a statewide smoking ban was a victory for public health officials, Gov. Mark Parkinson said.

A follow-up bill has been introduced in the Kansas House that would alter the statewide smoking ban signed into law by Gov. Mark Parkinson on Friday.

Democrats on the House Social Services Budget Committee refused to go along with the committee’s recommended cuts to SRS and the Kansas Health Policy Authority.

After making substantial changes, a House committee on Thursday approved a bill that assigns new duties and in some cases titles for the different levels of Emergency Medical Services workers.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday upheld proposed cuts in the budgets of the Kansas Health Policy Authority and the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

A proposed constitutional amendment meant to protect Kansans from a possible "individual mandate" to have health insurance "is a symbolic measure and nothing more," according to a KU law professor who clerked under U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Byron White.

A bill that sets the stage for requiring state-regulated insurance plans to cover autism was heard Wednesday in the Senate insurance committee.

Some of the Legislature's strongest supporters of early childhood development programs signed off on sharp cuts in children's programs, re-emphasizing the signal from Senate GOP leaders that tax increases will be necessary.

“There’s nothing in here that puts a focus on quality of care. It's a sieve,” said Mitzi McFatrich of Kansas Advocates for Better Care.

A compromise appears to be in the works on a proposal to expand tax incentives for companies that create or maintain jobs in Kansas.

A bill that would tax makers or first vendors of soda pop and other sugary drinks at 1 cent per teaspoon of sugar is scheduled to be heard Wednesday by the Senate Assessment & Taxation Committee

Advocates for the disabled stuck 58 crosses in the ground outside the Statehouse in an effort to call attention to the 58 who have died while on the state's waiting list for Medicaid-funded in-home services.