health care

Michigan lawmakers are renewing an effort to give physician’s assistants, or PAs for short, more authority. Colin Jackson has more.

The new state budget includes almost $50 million to implement recommendations from the Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. We have more from Rick Pluta.

Bills to shield central parts of the federal Affordable Care Act from being reversed are working their way through the state Legislature. Rick Pluta has more.

Michigan House lawmakers are renewing the effort to ban co-pay accumulator programs. That’s language in some health plans that stops copay assistance payments from counting toward a patient’s deductible. Colin Jackson has more.

The first hospice training facility in the state of Michigan has opened in Pittsfield Township. It features a simulation lab where caregivers can learn the skills they need to provide patients and their families with end-of-life care. WEMU’s Josh Hakala was there for the ribbon cutting.

U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell joined fellow Representative Primila Jayapal and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to introduce a "Medicare for All" bill. As WEMU’s Josh Hakala reports, getting it passed is personal for the 6th District Democrat.

All too many in the greater Ypsilanti community go without preventative health care because services are either inaccessible or unaffordable. A new partnership between Packard Health, University of Michigan School of Nursing, and a local church plan to change that. Clinical services will soon be provided to residents of Ypsilanti Township's West Willow neighborhood. WEMU's Cathy Shafran and Concentrate Media's Rylee Barnsdale were joined by Dr. Raymond Rion and Becca Fleming from Packard Health to discuss plans for the new clinic.

Bills to limit the number of patients a nurse can care for at one time have been re-introduced in the Michigan Legislature. Colin Jackson has more.

The state Senate gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would prohibit discrimination against people who’ve had an abortion. As we hear from Rick Pluta, it’s part of plans to implement the abortion rights amendment to the state constitution.

The latest study on the nursing staffing crisis in Michigan is not the result of the pandemic, but rather working conditions. WEMU’s Cathy Shafran has more.