Whooping Cough Cases Prompt Officials To Push Vaccinations
State health officials are urging parents to get their teenagers immunized in the wake of a whooping cough outbreak at a northeast Albuquerque high school.Even if teens had the pertussis vaccination...
View ArticleJudge To Hear Behavioral Health Audit Lawsuits This Week
The audit that led the Martinez administration to freeze Medicaid funding for more than a dozen behavioral health non-profits in New Mexico is at the center of a hearing Tuesday in Santa Fe.
View ArticleVaccinations Survey Reveals Personal Reasons For Exemptions
Most parents asking for an exemption to mandatory vaccinations in New Mexico schools were anglo, according to a survey done by the state Department of Health. The survey reveals details behind the...
View ArticleShould NM Legislature Tax, Regulate E-Cigarettes?
E-cigarettes – those pen-like nicotine dispensers people inhale without the smoke – are posing challenges for governments trying to reduce the number of people who take up smoking. Today a Legislative...
View ArticleFree App Enrolls New Mexicans in Obamacare
Medical residents at UNM created a free app to help New Mexicans get hooked into health care.
View ArticleMost NM Enrollees Eligible For Health Insurance Discounts
Almost 75 percent of the nearly 8,000 New Mexicans who have enrolled in insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act are eligible for discounts, according to numbers released by the New Mexico Health...
View ArticleOptumHealth: Martinez Administration Knew Of Potential Fraud In 2009
A company that oversaw $135 million worth of Medicaid services in New Mexico told a legislative committee Monday that it had been sounding alarms long before payments were frozen to 15 behavioral...
View ArticleCall In Show: Public Health Bills To Be Debated In Santa Fe
KUNM Call In Show Thu. 1/30 8a: This year's New Mexico State Legislature is underway in Santa Fe, with a number of public health-related bills already introduced. We'll talk with the sponsors of some...
View ArticleLawmakers Advance Ban On E-Cigarette Sales To Minors
State lawmakers advanced a bill Thursday evening that would ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors.
View ArticleWhat Is Public Health?
KUNM Call In Show Thu. 2/20 8a: What is public health? Maybe the term makes you think of vaccinations or controlling and preventing diseases like diabetes and influenza. But the field is much larger...
View ArticlePreschool Obesity Rates Drop Nationally
Young children are beginning to show signs of lower obesity rates – 43 percent over ten years, according to a new Centers for Disease Control Study.
View ArticleFunding For Developmental Disability Services Still Stalled
Thousands of people with developmental disabilities in New Mexico have been waiting to receive the full spectrum of services available through a government program, some for more than 10 years. The...
View ArticleInsurers Vie For Low-Income Patient Data
As the March 31st deadline for signing up for individual insurance under the Affordable Care Act looms, insurance companies tried to obtain personal information in order to contact potential customers...
View ArticleWater Fluoridation: Poison Or Positive Public Health Initiative?
KUNM Call-In Show Thu.
View ArticleState: Feds Wrong About Decline In Behavioral Health Services
New Mexico’s Human Services Department says more consumers, not fewer, are receiving services since the takeover last summer of a dozen behavioral health providers accused of fraud. HSD’s response is...
View ArticleWas Crisis Officer Present When APD Shot Foothills Camper?
When police interact with people facing mental health issues, they send an officer trained in crisis intervention to diffuse a volatile situation. Those officers are key in preventing the kind of...
View ArticleHomeless Group Calls for Homes, Not Handcuffs
UPDATE: March 26, 2014—Hundreds marched Downtown last night to protest the Albuquerque Police Department's killing of a foothills camper on March 14. As the demonstration wound down, APD opened fire...
View ArticleParents of People With Mental Health Issues Fear Calling 9-1-1
In the wake of two shooting deaths by the Albuquerque Police Department in two weeks, more families of people living with behavioral health issues are calling for reform of the department’s practices....
View ArticleAZ Firm Cuts Pay For NM Behavioral Health Workers
One of the five Arizona companies that took over operations from New Mexico behavioral health providers last year is announcing salary reductions. The company says it had to cut pay because it was...
View ArticleHundreds Head To Santa Fe Health Care Event Ahead Of Deadline
Midnight Monday is the deadline to sign up for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act. Over the weekend in New Mexico people lined up to get covered, either through the insurance marketplace or...
View ArticleAPD Chief Statement On Crisis Officer Contradicted
Contrary to initial reports from the Albuquerque Police Department, no Crisis Intervention Team officers trained to de-escalate situations involving people with behavioral health issues were called to...
View ArticleIs Illegal Sewage Dumping Contaminating New Mexico's Drinking Water?
Scientists in northwest New Mexico have been testing three rivers that serve thousands of residents’ drinking water supplies, and they’re alarmed by initial results that found human and animal waste...
View ArticleAPD's Mental Health Quandry
KUNM Call In Show Thu. 4/17 8a: The Albuquerque Police Department recently made national headlines for the shooting of a man in the Sandia foothills who was mentally ill.
View ArticleWill NM's Medical Marijuana Program Be Snuffed Out?
KUNM Call In Show Thu. 5/22 8a: New Mexico’s Department of Health has announced proposed rule changes to the state's medical marijuana program. The changes include increased fees for patients and for...
View ArticleNM Seniors Not Hungry For Food Assistance
Thirteen percent of seniors in New Mexico are under threat of not getting enough eat, according to an analysis of the most recent data by the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger.But a lot of...
View ArticleKUNM Earns Two NMBA Awards For Excellence
KUNM's Public Health Reporter Deborah Martinez took first place in two news categories for large market radio stations at the annual New Mexico Broadcasters Association awards banquet last night in...
View ArticleState To Pay, Certify Promotoras
A new law aimed at paying community health workers will kick in this summer. These women and men provide health and social services to their neighbors and act as a vital link between time-strapped...
View Article
