Health Care

Community health centers in New Hampshire — and nationwide – are bracing for the possible loss of millions of dollars in federal funding if Congress doesn’t take action by the end of this month.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price made a quick trip to New Hampshire Thursday afternoon to announce $200 million in federal grants targeting community health centers, to increase access to mental health and opioid abuse services.

The Manchester VA Medical Center has appointed a 12-member task force to make recommendations on the future of New Hampshire’s only veterans hospital.

The appointments were the latest step toward reform since the Boston Globe reported in July on a whistleblower complaint, which described a fly-infested operating room, surgical instruments that weren’t always sterilized and patients whose conditions were ignored.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen joined a growing list of Democrats who are co-sponsoring a national single-payer health insurance plan put forward by Vermont’s Bernie Sanders.

The 2016 Presidential candidate has long championed universal health coverage, including efforts in his home state to pass a government-run program.

Sanders' latest national effort is garnering the support of at least fifteen Democratic Senators, though the bill stands little chance of passing in the GOP-controlled legislature.

It's looking like New Hampshire customers buying individual plans on the state's health insurance exchange will have their choice of three carriers next year: Anthem, Harvard Pilgrim and Ambetter. 

 A company that provides health insurance under "Obamacare" and through New Hampshire's expanded Medicaid program is confirming its decision to continue its participation in the tumultuous individual market.

Ambetter by NH Healthy Families covers 77,100 Medicaid and health insurance marketplace members. The company said Thursday it will remain in the market for 2018 and is committed to working with state officials to stabilize the market and offer affordable options.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is asking President Donald Trump to take several steps to promote stability in the national health care marketplace until reform is achieved.

In a letter to Trump dated Wednesday, the Republican governor says for the sake of those who aren't able to have employer-based health insurance, and for those who pay the full premium without subsidies, the president should urge Congress to reform "Obamacare" with a clear roadmap and path forward.

Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny says he can’t remember another time when trying to map out New Hampshire insurance markets was quite as tricky as it is today.

“This kind of uncertainty is unprecedented,” Sevigny said Tuesday, when asked to put this year’s marketplace planning into context. 

Governor Chris Sununu said he was “incredibly disappointed” after Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act came to a halt late Thursday night in Washington.

At the first of two public forums Wednesday night in Manchester, the heads of Elliot and Southern New Hampshire Health Systems took questions on what their proposed partnership would mean for patients, staff and the region's healthcare landscape.

The public will have a first chance this week to talk face-to-face with leaders of Southern New Hampshire Health and Elliot Health System about their plans to create a new regional hospital system.

Senator Maggie Hassan met with health care leaders in Exeter Monday to talk about the need for a bipartisan plan forward in Washington--and to criticize President Trump for his handling of the health care issue.

Standing in the glass atrium of Exeter Hospital, the first-term Democrat did not mince words about what she sees as the flaws in the Republican approach to health policy. 

Staff at the Newport Health Center shared their concerns about the Senate healthcare bill with New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan Wednesday. 

The center provides people in the Newport area with basic healthcare, including primary and pre-natal care, x-rays and lab services. After a quick tour, Sen. Hassan sat down with administrators and staffers to discuss the current healthcare debate. No one voiced support for the Republican plan, but many criticized the current system. 

Governor Chris Sununu says he remains committed to reforming Obamacare but opposes the plan proposed by Senate Republican leaders.

The governor's opposition comes as the Senate's top Republican says he is pushing off a scheduled vote on the Senate's version of the bill.

Minuteman Health, Inc. announced that it will no longer sell insurance policies in New Hampshire as of January 1, 2018.

The Massachusetts-based non-profit, created as a co-op through the Affordable Care Act, has sold policies in each of the last three years through the health insurance exchange, and earlier this spring, submitted an application to New Hampshire regulators to again do so in 2018.

Governor Sununu says his staff is reviewing the US Senate’s version of the health care reform bill, made public Thursday.

As the Senate released the bill, Sununu published a letter to Congressional leadership along with New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Chuck Morse and House Speaker Shawn Jasper.  

The last few years have seen a wave of consolidations in New Hampshire healthcare. Now, Southern New Hampshire Health and Elliot Hospital are looking at forming a new “regional healthcare system” — though the details of what, exactly, that partnership might look like are still unclear.

Crotched Mountain Foundation's board voted Monday to close its longtime specialty hospital in Greenfield, likely by the end of August.

Despite uncertainty over the Affordable Care Act and the GOP’s plan to replace it, four insurers have filed initial applications to sell policies next year in New Hampshire’s marketplace.

After visiting Michigan and West Virginia, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price swung through Concord and Manchester Wednesday on a ‘listening tour’ regarding the opioid epidemic. Price spent about an hour at the State House meeting in private with treatment providers, families affected by opioid misuse and first responders.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price will be in Concord Wednesday as part of a multi-state ‘listening session' on the opioid epidemic.

New Hampshire’s United States Senators are criticizing the health care legislation passed by the House last week, saying it would undercut efforts to curb the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Speaking in Concord Monday, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan criticized the American Health Care Act for its elimination of the Medicaid expansion program.

  New Hampshire's Democratic U.S. senators are holdings a news conference to talk about what they call the "devastating" effects of Republicans' proposed health care overhaul.

Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen are dubbing the plan "Trumpcare." They'll discuss it at Concord Hospital on Monday morning.

The two are focusing specifically on how the change might affect people with drug addictions. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover addiction treatment programs. And thousands of people on Medicaid expansion in New Hampshire also have access to treatment.

Following the introduction of new prescribing guidelines, surgeons at Dartmouth-Hitchcock are reducing the number of opioids they give patients after undergoing certain minor procedures.

Doctors say the initiative is an important step in reducing the number of painkillers available as the state reels from an ongoing opioid epidemic.