Health

The practice could save thousands of lives a year, said the head of one federal agency.

A paper in JAMA Psychiatry says mental health providers should ask if patients are using artificial intelligence chatbots, just as they would ask patients about sleep habits and substance use.

In an email on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Lamont administration said changes to the program, as outlined in Lamont's original budget proposal, are no longer expected.

The Trump administration does not want children to have access to gender-affirming care — and is using federal policies and financial threats to make that happen. Massachusetts is among the states assuring families the care will be protected. But those promises are hard to keep when hospitals, including Baystate Health in western Massachusetts, stop providing the treatment on their own.

The state cited Bickford for over a dozen violations in the weeks after a 93-year-old resident wandered outside of the facility undetected, later dying after exposure to the extreme cold.

Starting April 1, Massachusetts health care providers and labs will be required to alert the state when they encounter cases of the tick-borne allergy alpha-gal syndrome.

Rising concerns about violence in hospitals and emergency departments has led doctors and nurses to demand stronger legal protections for health care workers — and tougher penalties for those who assault them.

The Medicaid State Plan service allows people who may otherwise need a nursing home level of care to schedule supports and other services in their own homes.

Aides that provide medical care are required to have dementia training, but that requirement doesn’t apply to homemaker companion agency workers. Part of a state bill would change that.

Members of the Green Mountain Care Board are at work on guidance that would tell hospitals to charge private insurers 1% less in 2027 than they are this year.