Last week, Paul Grant, a 42-year-old construction estimator from New Gloucester, told the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging that he faced paying more than $900 out of his own pocket for a 90-day supply of insulin to keep his 13-year-old son alive. Read More
In addition to rising rates of Lyme disease, Maine is seeing a smaller but growing caseload of other potentially serious and even deadly infections that should be of concern to anyone who works or plays outside. Read More
Last fall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Shingrix, a new shingles vaccine. Read More
Maine’s opiate prescribing law took effect in January 2017, affecting an estimated 13,000 people who were taking prescribed doses of painkillers above the newly adopted daily limit, the equivalent of 100 milligrams of morphine per day. Read More
The agreement means Mainers in the northern half of the state will have access to Mass General’s clinical resources, providing high-level medical expertise not readily available in the Bangor area to patients of Eastern Maine Medical Center. Read More
As of May 10, Maine students must receive the meningococcal vaccine before entering 7th grade — typically around age 11 — followed by a second dose when they are 16 or before they enter their senior year of high school, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on April 18. Read More
According to data released Thursday, the number of filled prescriptions in the state dropped by 32 percent between 2013 and 2017. Read More
On Wednesday, the license plate proposal won the unanimous endorsement of the Senate, and Gov. Paul LePage signed the bill on Thursday. Read More
For the first time in decades, Bangor-based St. Joseph Healthcare is planning a multimillion-dollar investment in its facilities and its future, both within the hospital’s inpatient areas and at its outpatient campus at 900 Broadway. Read More
“This is just one more example of how the decisions being made by the top management of Calais Regional Hospital are hurting local people who seek care at this facility,” said Maine State Nurses Association President Cokie Giles. Read More
With health insurance premiums for individuals slated to rise nationwide by as much as 20 percent or more in 2019, Maine is looking to revive a mothballed mechanism to help hold those costs at bay. Read More
“We have people who drive two hours to get to this facility,” said Dr. Bart Eisenbarth, chief dental officer at Penobscot Community Health Care. “The financial component is a real roadblock.” Read More
The law requires insurers to pay for health care provided by licensed naturopaths just as if the care were given by other licensed providers. Read More
At least one client has been infected with hepatitis C virus, and the Maine CDC urges anyone who has received a tattoo from an unlicensed artist in the area to contact a medical care provider. Read More
In recent years, a number of Mainers have been hit with unexpected medical bills for services they believed would be covered under their insurance policies. Read More
The harsh flu season that has sickened thousands of Mainers since September seems to have turned a corner. Read More
“All it takes is a phone call,” Dr. Noah Nesin, medical director at Bangor-based Penobscot Community Health Care, said. Read More
Legislators gave preliminary endorsement to a measure to create and fund a “hub-and-spoke” model of addiction care in each of Maine’s eight public health districts. Read More
About 1,400 people in Maine will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018 and 900 will die with the disease, according to the predictions of a new study. Read More
Maine has seen a small uptick in TB cases in recent years, coupled with the troubling appearance of treatment-resistant strains of the TB bacterium. Read More
