healthcare

For at least the next dozen years, rural areas will continue to have only about two-thirds of the primary care physicians they need, according to a report released Monday.

Just months after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a Washington law to keep medical debt off consumers’ credit reports, the Trump administration is looking to block such policies.

Congress has roughly two months to find bipartisan agreement to curb rising health insurance costs if lawmakers want to avoid another government shutdown.

St. Patrick Hospital over the last few months has increased its security presence in Missoula and Polson in response to an increase in violence and illegal weapons on its medical campuses.

Lily Walsh writes, "There are an increasing number of professionals, organizations, coalitions, and community members across the state dedicated to preventing suicide."

Ellen Tenenbaum writes, "The quality of care that I experienced showed that the little things are the big things."

In Montana, a collection of health providers and associations proposed a list of ideas for the cash, including creating a loan repayment fund for rural clinicians to try to ease worker shortages.

Jennifer Mayor writes, "Your hospital is devastated to lose ObGyn services, and the care we provided across service lines, cultivated over a decade, as a team."

More than 78% of people surveyed by the nonpartisan health organization KFF in late September said they want lawmakers to keep the enhanced credits.

With the Trump administration scaling back federal efforts to protect Americans from medical bills they can’t pay, advocates for patients and consumers have shifted their work to contain the nation’s medical debt problem to state Capitols.