Health, Science, Environment

The Illinois Department of Family and Human Services says it’s not ready to implement cost-saving measure implemented by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration.

Western Illinois landowners and farmers are needed for a survey about the challenges they face on their land. The Illinois Extension’s survey will turn the feedback from landowners in Adams, Pike, Brown, Hancock and Schuyler counties into educational programming and resources to help them.

Officials on Monday announced Washington University's Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital would no longer offer puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgeries to minors, even those who are exempt from a newly enacted ban on treatment for transgender youth.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's office filed a brief arguing a trial court decision that forbid the state from zeroing out the Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood services should be reversed.

Three government-run health clinics in St. Louis County serve patients who can’t afford treatment elsewhere. But the health department has faced rising costs and staffing shortages. A new plan would garner the department millions more in federal funding each year.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra visited St. Louis on Wednesday.

Advocates argued Illinois' rule changes were too costly for low-income patients. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office said co-pays should not have been charged yet anyway, though they are expected to resume eventually.

The state will repay educational costs for health care workers who are willing to work in underserved areas. Another program will increase the number of medical residencies in Missouri.

The state is moving forward to change how it calculates payment rates for its Self-Directed Supports program — a situation families say took them by surprise and that they fear could mean rates for caretakers are frozen at low levels or become unpredictable.

The St. Louis County Department of Health will soon distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for free at county public libraries. Visitors can ask library employees for naloxone, and librarians will distribute it with no questions asked.