Rural Healthcare
Auburn University receives grant to expand telehealth access to rural Alabama
Auburn University has received a $2 million grant to expand a model for telehealth services to help address disparities in rural areas throughout the state. The grant, provided by the Alabama Department of Finance, will support the creation of four telehealth health and wellness centers in the Black Belt region for two years, following a […]
GOP states embrace Uber, Lyft to take low-income patients to medical appointments
This story originally appeared on Stateline. This month, Mississippi becomes the latest state to partner with ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to ferry residents to their medical appointments. It’s a bid to improve overall health in a state where advocates and medical groups have called health care a crisis that’s getting worse. Ryan […]
You might need an ambulance, but your state might not see it as ‘essential’
When someone with a medical emergency calls 911, they expect an ambulance to show up. But sometimes, there simply isn’t one available. Most states don’t declare emergency medical services (EMS) to be an “essential service,” meaning the state government isn’t required to provide or fund them. Now, though, a growing number of states are taking […]
University of Alabama and rural communities receive federal funding to combat opioid crisis
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) last week announced $1.45 million in funding aimed at bolstering rural communities in Alabama’s fight against the overdose risk associated with fentanyl and other opioids. $600,000 of the $1.45 million will go to two organizations to help address “immediate needs […]
Policy, rural care gaps hurt Alabama women’s access to health care
For many women in Alabama, systemic problems and state policies make access to affordable quality health care a challenge. America’s Health Rankings, an annual assessment of the nation’s health, ranked Alabama 46th in the 2022 report on the health of women and children. Only Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana came behind Alabama in the latest […]
ADPH proposes physician oversight for birthing centers
The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) last week approved a set of rules for public comment that would require birthing centers to have oversight by a physician or medical director. The rules proposed would also require birthing centers to be within 30 minutes of a hospital with OB-GYN services. “The real central issue that […]