The Board which oversees Iowa's medical marijuana program today denied a petition to allow the use of the dried marijuana plant known as "vaporizable flower." The petition request was submitted by medical marijuana provider Bud & Mary's, which was formerly known as MedPharm. Doctor Jacqueline … [Read more...]
State will stop requiring COVID test reports in April
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services says it will no longer require the reporting of positive COVID-19 tests on April 1st. The department started taking test reports in March of 2020 as the pandemic hit Iowa. The Department announcement says since the development and widespread … [Read more...]
AARP Iowa wants cap on insulin for those not on Medicare
AARP Iowa state director, Brad Anderson, says the organization is pushing for state lawmakers to enact a cap on insulin costs like the one now in place for federal Medicare users "While more than 18,000 Iowans on Medicare will now save on average 725 dollars per year on insulin -- there are still … [Read more...]
State, federal officials consider increased access to overdose reversal medication
As state lawmakers consider making it easier for more Iowans to buy a nasal spray that reverses an opioid overdose, federal officials are considering rules that would reclassify naloxone as an over-the-counter medication, so anyone could buy it. Iowa law currently limits who may buy naloxone to … [Read more...]
Bill would create tax credit for Iowa’s nurse preceptors
Nursing programs around the state are asking lawmakers to create a tax incentive for nurses who agree to guide nursing students through something similar to an apprenticeship. Dr. Candace Chihak, chair of the nursing department at Briar Ciff University in Sioux City, says these nurses are called … [Read more...]
13% of U.S. nursing homes that closed in 2022 were in Iowa
Seventeen Iowa nursing homes closed last year. Iowa Health Care Association CEO Brent Willett says all but two were in rural communities. "These facilities are closing as a result of financial strain, primarily related to the cost of staffing facilities," Willett says. "Year on year wage … [Read more...]
Iowa Cancer Consortium releases 5 year plan
A coalition of Iowa health care providers, researchers, cancer survivors and others is releasing its five-year Iowa Cancer Plan. Rachel Schramm, program manager of the Iowa Cancer Consortium, says behind heart disease, cancer is the number-two cause of death in Iowa, so people need to take an … [Read more...]
Radon tests recommended with high risk in Iowa
A federal EPA report says Iowa's soil has the nation's worst concentration of radon, with about seven in every ten Iowa homes containing enough of the gas that action is needed. Liz Orton, outreach coordinator for the Iowa Cancer Consortium, says radon is invisible, tasteless and odorless -- and … [Read more...]
New state campaign to focus on education about fake pills, fentanyl
The state is launching an advertising campaign targeting children, teens and parents to educate them about the deadly dangers of counterfeit pills and fentanyl. State Medical Director Robert Kruse says the two-fold messaging is designed to reach children as young as five years old, middle and … [Read more...]
More Iowans are registering to be organ donors
Whenever a person's life is lost, there's an opportunity for lives to be saved -- if that person was a registered organ and tissue donor. Heather Butterfield, spokeswoman for the Iowa Donor Network, says their final figures are in for 2022, during which she says many hundreds of lives were … [Read more...]