Natalie Krebs

The state of Iowa has agreed to pay an additional $386 million in state and federal dollars to the two private insurance companies that manage the state’s Medicaid program for low-income and disabled residents.

Last year, opioid-related deaths in Iowa decreased by 33 percent, marking a five year low for the state, according to statistics released this month from the state's Department of Health Statistics.

UnityPoint Health, one of the state's largest healthcare systems, has announced it is pursuing a merger with South Dakota-based Sanford Health. 

Iowa has received one of the top rankings for child well-being in the state, according to the annual Kids Count Data Book released Monday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. 

A senior official at the Department of Human Services testified in a federal court in Des Moines Wednesday that the state agency has been working to provide more mental health services to a state-run school for delinquent teenage boys.

A clinical psychologist said the use of solitary confinement and a physical restraint device at a state-run school for deliquent teenage boys "falls way outside of professional standards."

An official at a state-run school for delinquent teenage boys testified in federal court Monday that the use of an isolation chamber and physical restraints is for the protection, not punishment, of the students.

A state-run school for delinquent teenage boys has failed to meet professional standards for treating and screening mental illness, according to expert witness testimony during the opening day of a federal trial against the Boys State Training School in Eldora.

The ACLU of Iowa has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a law that denies transgender Iowans on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgery.

Medical marijuana supporters delivered a petition with more than 1,500 signatures to Gov. Kim Reynolds' office Thursday morning urging her to sign a medical marijuana bill that would raise the state's THC cap. 

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has announced he is joining four other states in suing pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and its former chairman, Richard Sackler, for using unlawful practices to sell the opioid painkiller OxyContin.

Planned Parenthood has taken legal action to challenge a law that blocks the organization from receiving two grants for sex education programs. The law, which was part of health budget bill passed last month, prohibits organizations that provide abortions from receiving funding for sex education. 

 A San Francisco based telemedicine company will provide another option for Iowa women to access birth control -- online.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is one of 44 attorneys general who is taking part in a lawsuit alleging that 20 of the country's largest generic drug makers have conspired to inflate and manipulate drug prices.

Miller said the suit argues that executives at drug manufactures Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, Pfizer and others had an "informal working relationship" to allocate markets and rig bids for more than 100 drugs.

Iowa has scored on par with the nation when it comes to preparation for health emergencies such as disease outbreaks and natural disasters, according to the sixth annual National Health Security Preparedness Index.