Patty Wight

3 weeks ago | bangordailynews.com | Patty Wight

Vaccination rates among school-aged children in Maine are above 97 percent, according to the latest annual report from the state Center for Disease Control. It’s the second year in a row that Maine has achieved so-called “herd immunity.”Maine reached that threshold last year when an average rate went above 95 percent. That’s enough protection to make it difficult for an infection to spread among the larger population.

3 weeks ago | mainepublic.org | Patty Wight

Maine Independent Senator Angus King said he has concerns about the new U.S. and Israeli-backed program that's delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza. King recently met with some of the 38 Mainers who are two weeks into a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began delivering aid to Palestinians at the end of May after a nearly three month blockade. There are reports that dozens of Palestinians have been killed and injured while waiting for food.

3 weeks ago | mainepublic.org | Patty Wight

Northern Light Health said contract negotiations with Anthem have stalled over reimbursement rates. Northern Light said that annual reimbursements from Anthem have increased less than 1.5% a year, while average inflation for health services is more than 7% a year. “Anthem’s unwillingness to keep pace with the costs of providing care directly contribute to the risks facing rural healthcare,” shared James Rohrbaugh, Northern Light Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

3 weeks ago | mainepublic.org | Patty Wight

As the U.S. Senate takes up the Congressional House Republican's budget bill, Maine Independent Senator Angus King sums it up this way:"Somewhere between disastrous and catastrophic," he said. King said the bill would kick tens of thousands of Mainers off of Medicaid health insurance because of work requirements and other changes. And he said that most able-bodied adults enrolled in the program already work.

3 weeks ago | mainepublic.org | Patty Wight

Several Maine hospitals are being affected by cyber incidents. Central Maine Healthcare, which operates hospitals in Lewiston, Bridgton, and Rumford, is experiencing an outage after shutting down its IT systems Sunday due to what it characterizes as "unusual activity" in its computer software. And last week, Covenant Health, which operates St. Mary's Health System and St. Joseph Healthcare in Bangor, discontinued access to all data systems following a cybersecurity incident.