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Nashua's AIDS Task Force provides transportation, counseling and medicine to HIV-infected patients.

But after March 1st, it may offer very little.

That's because the state expects to lose the majority of its federal funding for AIDS related services.

For Nashua's more than 100 clients, that's life-threatening news.

NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich-Kern has the details.

When the prescription drug benefit to Medicare was rolled out earlier this year, there was a lot of confusion over how much it would cost, what plans would be available and how much of an impact the so called "donut hole" would have. Since then, many private companies have stepped forward to offer plans, the cost has been lower than expected and a majority of seniors seem to be happy with the Medicare Part-D program. With the signup deadline looming at the end of this month, we'll take a look at how well New Hampshire seniors are dealing with the changes to the prescription drug benefit, what federal officials have been doing at the national level to help them better understand the new program and what the overall reaction has been to Medicare Part-D now that the program has been up and running for almost a year.

Laura's guests are Tom Maher, Regional Director for Medicare Today, Regional Director for the Healthcare Leadership Council and Dr. Charlotte Yeh, Region One Administrator for the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners and Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Region I, a Boston-based agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that administers Medicare and Medicaid.

New Hampshire has announced it will be the first state to offer young women between the ages of 11 and 18 a free vaccine that can help protect them against cervical cancer.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has more.

The corporation that owns Portsmouth Regional Hospital has been sold to a consortium of private equity groups.

HCA Incorporated shareholders today voted overwhelmingly for the 21 billion dollar sale at their annual meeting in Tennessee.

Despite the company's switch in ownership, Portsmouth Regional isn't being sold.

A local group on the Seacoast got the sale postponed, because it claimed to have the right to buy the hospital before anyone else.

New Hampshire Public Radio's David Darman has more.

A new report by a physician's group says that there will be a shortage of family doctors by 2010. We'll look at the state of primary care here in New Hampshire, how healthy it is or isn't and what factors may be contributing to a decline in both doctors going into primary care and those running successful practices. Laura's guests are Gary Woods, past president of the New Hampshire Medical Society and a physician specializing in hand surgery with Concord Orthopaedics, and Gail Fayre, Program Director for the NH-Dartmouth Family Practice Residency at Concord Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Community and Family Medicine. We'll also hear from Dr. Rick Kellerman, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians who released the study on family doctors, Terry Bennett, a General Practitioner, and Matt Masewic, a family physician who is shutting down his practice, Boscowen Family Practice, after two years of operation due to financial strain.