Health
RSSAlaska News covers health policy, public health trends, and healthcare system developments affecting Alaska communities and residents.
Alaska issues intent to award $30 million to 37 rural health projects
Alaska issued notices of intent Friday to award $30 million to 37 rural health projects, with recipients required to spend funds by June 30, 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews11h ago2 min readAI
Most of Alaska's $272M rural health award remains unawarded
Alaska has awarded less than 2% of a $272 million federal rural health grant, leaving over 200 clinics waiting while the state reviews nearly 1,800 applications on a tight federal deadline.
by Melinda Communities.News12h ago2 min readAI
UAA students to train inside ANTHC facilities under new workforce partnership
UAA students will train at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium facilities under a new partnership, routing graduates toward one of Alaska's largest employers.
by Melinda Communities.News12h ago2 min readAI
Alaska takes comment through Aug. 26 on the plan behind its mental health and substance use funding
Alaska's Division of Behavioral Health opened comment on its 2027 mental health grant application, but the notice lists a 2025 deadline that appears to be a typo.
by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min readAI
Alaska tells school kitchens cooking produce is safest Cyclospora step
Alaska school kitchens are told cooking produce to 158 degrees is the safest way to kill Cyclospora, as washing alone cannot remove the parasite amid a national surge in cases.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Alaska will lose federal funding for minors' gender care on Oct. 13
Alaska Medicaid and Denali KidCare will lose federal funding for gender-transition care for minors starting Oct. 13, though children already on hormone therapy get up to six months to taper off.
by Walter AlaskaNews1d ago3 min readAI
Alaska's home care waivers are renewed to 2031. A year in a nursing home here costs $364,453.
Federal regulators renewed four of Alaska's Medicaid home and community-based care waivers through June 2031, allowing thousands of people to receive support at home instead of institutions.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago3 min readAI
A program that lets people with ALS try experimental treatments just got five more years
A federal program that lets people with ALS try experimental treatments when they can't join a clinical trial just got five more years, in a bill Sen. Murkowski led through the Senate.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago2 min readAI
Alaska takes public input Wednesday on child care facility safety rules
The state holds a session Wednesday to hear from providers and families on child care safety rules, one of several as Alaska revisits its regulations.
by Walter AlaskaNews4d ago1 min readAI
Petersburg Medical Center disputes Medicare cut to its interim outpatient rate
Medicare cut Petersburg Medical Center's outpatient reimbursement rate to 95 percent from 115 to 117 percent, and the hospital is disputing roughly $600,000 in clawed-back payments.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
Tanana's rebuilt village clinic has opened
Tanana's village health clinic has reopened after a tribe-led rehabilitation of a building that needed structural repair, one of nearly 40 clinics TCC runs in the Interior.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Federal government to pay ANTHC $463 million over unpaid health costs
The federal government will pay ANTHC $463 million it owed for years — money the tribal health system had been covering itself across rural Alaska.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Cyclospora cases nationally up sixfold; Alaska Department of Health urges produce washing
Cyclospora cases nationwide have jumped sixfold since May, and Alaska has recorded five cases this year; the CDC urges thorough washing of fresh produce under running water.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago2 min readAI
Alaska's worst-ever syphilis outbreak is now reaching newborns
Alaska is in its worst syphilis outbreak ever, up twentyfold since 2016 — and it's now reaching babies. A record 14 newborns were born with it in 2025, though it's preventable with prenatal testing.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
A rare bacterial infection in Alaska turned out to be mostly a lab error
A spike in a rare Campylobacter infection in Alaska last year was mostly a lab miscount. Six real cases remained statewide, one of them fatal.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Senate confirms CDC director; Alaska's vaccine question stays open
Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz as CDC director 51-44, with Murkowski and Sullivan voting yes, ending a nearly year-long vacancy while vaccine policy remains uncertain.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Senators move to renew the grants behind rural Alaska's telehealth links
Four U.S. senators, including Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, introduced a bill to renew the federal ECHO grants that fund rural Alaska's telehealth links between local clinics and distant specialists.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
20 Alaska Native students are training to bring health care home to rural communities
Twenty Alaska Native students are training as nurses, midwives and doctors on tribal scholarships — many aiming to bring care home to rural communities.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
IHS picks Sitka and Bethel tribal health groups for first-ever elder care construction program
Indian Health Service picked Sitka and Bethel tribal health groups to build and expand skilled nursing facilities, the first time the federal program has funded long-term elder care in Alaska.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago1 min readAI
Alaska makes its first awards under a $272 million rural health program
Alaska is making its first awards under a $272 million federal rural health program, $4.5 million to 19 projects, with more coming each Friday. Demand hit $2.5 billion.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Medicare drug premiums are likely to rise for Alaska seniors in 2027
The federal subsidy keeping Medicare drug premiums down ends this year, so many Alaska seniors will likely pay more in 2027. Low-income enrollees on Extra Help are mostly shielded.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Alaska files telemedicine rules with July 4 effective date
The Alaska State Medical Board filed permanent telemedicine rules effective July 4. • Providers must register with the state and update prescribing workflows. • These rules replace pandemic emergency standards for opioid treatment.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min readAI
Murkowski cosponsors Senate bill to pay providers for breast cancer risk assessments
Sen. Lisa Murkowski cosponsored a bill to pay doctors for breast cancer risk assessments, addressing cost barriers that delay detection in rural Alaska.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Southcentral Foundation treats traditional food as medicine at a free Anchorage gathering
Southcentral Foundation hosts a free two-day Traditional Foods Gathering July 27 and 28 in Anchorage, treating Alaska Native harvests as medicine and health, not just culture.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Six graduate a Tanana Chiefs apprenticeship built to staff Interior clinics
Six apprentices finished Tanana Chiefs Conference's yearlong clinical training in Fairbanks — the first cohort where everyone who started made it through.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 6d ago1 min readAI
A Medicare rate bump for psychiatric care reaches Alaska's hospitals
Inpatient psychiatric care gets a 2.3% Medicare rate bump Oct. 1 — and it reaches Alaska, where mental health care runs through hospital psychiatric units.
by Alaska News1w ago1 min readAI
Alaska updates Medicaid pay — providers say it's still too low
Alaska's annual Medicaid rate update is here, and hospitals and tribal clinics say it still doesn't cover the real cost of care — a chronic squeeze on rural and Native health services.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Alaska sends kids Outside for care. A Wasilla project targets that.
Alaska sends children thousands of miles away for behavioral health care. A Wasilla proposal would build the kind of local services that could keep them home.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Alaska veterans fly to Seattle for cancer care. The Senate is arguing over why.
Alaska has more veterans per capita than any state and no VA cancer center. A Senate fight over precision oncology money decides who gets care close to home.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Alaska deploys $272M federal award to reshape rural health care delivery
Alaska got 272 million dollars to fix rural health care through hiring, technology, and access. • 1,800 groups applied in round one across five health focus areas. • Money must be spent by September 2027 with strict cost limits. • Year two applications open late summer 2026.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
TCC seeks contractor for new Rampart health clinic, proposals due August 21
Tanana Chiefs Conference is seeking a general contractor to build a new health clinic in Rampart, with proposals due August 21 and construction expected to finish by the end of 2027.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
A New Law Aims to Bring Alaska's Most Complex Patients Home
Alaska just created a new kind of care home so its most complex patients aren't shipped out of state — though for now it's a license on paper, waiting on federal Medicaid sign-off.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Alaskans can call 988, but in many places no team can respond
Alaskans in crisis can reach the 988 line, but many communities have no local team to respond. The state's new answer, for now, is a training network.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Alaska launches new online system to report elder abuse, harm
Alaska's Division of Senior and Disabilities Services has launched a new federally compliant online reporting system for vulnerable adult harm, critical incidents, and assisted living complaints, with the old system redirecting until May 22, 2026.
by Alaska News3mo ago2 min readAIIHS proposes $93M sanitation cut as Alaska Native villages face sanitation gaps
Indian Health Service proposes cutting sanitation funding by 93 million dollars in Alaska Native villages that still use honey buckets. • Over 2,000 water and sanitation projects remain unfunded across Indian Country. • Senator Murkowski challenged the cut, saying sanitation prevents illness. • Congress rejected similar cuts last year and plans to fight again.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readAI
Ketchikan's hospital, its own residents can't get answers
Ketchikan's hospital is losing money it won't fully document and renovating an ER whose bed count its own administrator can't name — while patients wait in hallways.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Alaska corrects fiscal year 2027 waiver rate chart as 3.2% Medicaid increase takes effect
Alaska corrected a rate chart for Medicaid home and community services after finding an error, but the underlying 3.2% payment increase that took effect July 1 remains unchanged.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI
Alaska child vaccination rate at 55%, well below national average
New state data shows 55% of Alaska toddlers have finished the recommended vaccine series and kindergarten measles coverage is 77% — below national averages and the herd-immunity threshold.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Murkowski bill targets Alaska's rural health shortage with immigrant credential grants
Sen. Murkowski introduced a bill to fund grants helping internationally trained health professionals already in the U.S. get licensed and work in Alaska's rural clinics and hospitals.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago2 min readAI
Alaska clarifies Medicaid psychotherapy billing rules for master's-level clinicians
Alaska's Division of Behavioral Health clarified that master's-level clinicians pursuing licensure can bill Medicaid for psychotherapy under supervision, letting clinics deploy new therapists immediately.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
