Jackson County voters approved a new tax that is expected to bring in about $8 million annually for programs like free meals and transportation for the county’s seniors. Question 1, which will charge owners an additional 5 cents for every $100 of assessed property value, passed by a margin of 53.1% in favor to 46.9% […]
Suzanne King
Suzanne King is The Beacon’s health care reporter and has covered the beat since November of 2023. Previously she covered the telecommunications and technology industries for The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Business Journal. She also covered local government, crime and education at newspapers in western Massachusetts and upstate New York. She grew up in Missouri and has lived in Kansas City for almost 30 years. Suzanne holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Posted inHealth
What’s in your weed? A Missouri state lab to check industry claims
Missouri plans to spend millions from state marijuana taxes on a laboratory to help regulators keep tabs on the safety and potency of more than $1 billion of joints, edibles and other cannabis products sold annually across the state. Health experts and consumer groups applauded the added regulatory check, outlined in an Oct. 11 report […]
Posted inHealth
Kansas City nurses say their new contract will mean higher pay and better patient care
Registered nurses at two HCA-owned Kansas City hospitals get “substantial” pay raises under new three-year contracts ratified in October. National Nurses United, the union representing registered nurses at Research Medical Center in Kansas City and Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, said in a press release that the pay bump will make it easier to […]
Posted inElections
As money for senior citizens runs out, Jackson County voters consider a new property tax
Janet Baker has to say “no” more often than she would like to the aging Kansas Citians her organization serves. Even to a woman newly confined to a wheelchair who called a couple of weeks ago requesting Meals on Wheels, Baker, executive director of KC Shepherd’s Center, had to say “no.” “This makes me sick,” […]
Posted inHealth
No more banana, spearmint or candy-flavored tobacco products in Kansas City if council votes for ban
At a Thursday afternoon meeting of the Kansas City Council, the ordinance was sent back to committee for further review and discussion. Vanilla custard, chocolate cake, fruit loops or gummy bears. They’re all on the menu at your local vape store. But an ordinance the Kansas City Council will take up today could outlaw them […]
Posted inHealth
Loss of a Kansas City, Kansas, maternity ward reflects a ‘troubling trend’
This summer, Providence Medical Center in Wyandotte County joined the growing list of community hospitals that no longer deliver babies. The for-profit hospital in a residential corner of northwest Kansas City, Kansas, said a decade of declining birth numbers prompted its decision to shutter its labor and delivery department at the end of June. Since […]
Posted inWichita
COVID vaccines have arrived in Wichita. Here’s what else you need to stay healthy
Sedgwick County is coming off a summer COVID wave as it heads into cold and flu season. Health officials hope that surge prompts far more people to sign up for the new COVID vaccine, which is recommended annually for people 6 months and older. Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported […]
Posted inHealth
An Overland Park pharmacist quit the drug insurance game. He says it could save you money
Nick Romo spent a decade as a pharmacist under the rule of insurance companies and their middlemen. Too often, customers couldn’t get the drugs their doctors prescribed or ran into prices so high they walked away empty-handed. So two years ago, he opened Pharmington Drugs in south Overland Park in rebellion against it all. “I […]
Posted inHealth
Missouri and Kansas keep losing pharmacies, and a key part of health care
Less than two years ago, neighbors near Brush Creek Boulevard and Troost Avenue had choices when they needed to pick up a prescription — or a carton of milk. A CVS pharmacy stood on the northeast corner of their intersection. Its retail rival, Walgreens, was just a block south at Troost and Emanuel Cleaver II […]
Posted inHealth
Kansas City pharmacists’ walkout a year ago highlighted industry troubles. The problems haven’t gone away
Kansas City pharmacists walked off the job last September to protest working conditions and brought widespread attention to the troubled retail pharmacy business. The industry is battling economic pressures, changed buying habits and labor shortages.