Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/tag/health-care/)
Hospitals are required to disclose prices for the first time, a move the industry fought for years. However, the prices may be of little help in deciphering byzantine medical bills or for comparison shopping because they don’t reflect what patients actually pay.
Pauls Valley Regional Medical Center is once again the poster child for struggling rural hospitals as it battled a cash crunch and lawsuit verdict it had to pay. Then, on Oct. 12, the hospital closed.
Licenses for a total of 46 nursing homes are owned by a handful of Oklahoma cities and one town. Here’s a list of the nursing homes and their owners.
Watch the debate over State Question 788, which is on the June 26 primary ballot and would legalize medical marijuana in Oklahoma.
Inmates in Oklahoma prisons must have advanced liver disease before becoming eligible for treatment that cures hepatitis C, a potentially deadly and growing disease. Since July 1, only five inmates have been given the drug treatment.
Hours after a grand jury met to look into allegations of financial mismanagement at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, lawmakers sent subpoenas to three of the state’s top budget officials. Meanwhile, the exodus of leadership at the Health Department continues in the wake of the agency’s sudden cash crunch.
The top official and a senior deputy at the Oklahoma State Department of Health have resigned amid findings that the agency overspent and mismanaged finances for years.
The federal government has missed a state-requested deadline to approve a plan to shore up the Affordable Care Act marketplace. As a result, officials expect higher premiums and fewer Oklahomans receiving coverage.
A fee for health insurance is part of the state’s plan to stabilize the Obamacare marketplace. Oklahomans who receive insurance from their employers or purchase it themselves outside the marketplace would pay up to $60 a year.
Since 2015, some state licensure boards for health professionals have had to wait weeks or months for their disciplinary actions to take effect. Boards say the delay, caused by a required review by the attorney general, puts public health at risk.