Health and Welfare

The story behind 9-month-old's death is featured in a video produced by the Partnership to Eliminate Child Abuse, a coalition of medical schools and children's hospitals from Kentucky and Indiana. The kickoff event for the partnership was held Wednesday at Kosair Children's Hospital. The partnership will launch a media blitz soon to raise awareness about the signs of child abuse.

A new motorcycle operator’s test in Kentucky should better assess a biker’s skills in traffic. The test, developed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, was implemented May first.  In 2012, State Police spokesman Michael Webb says Kentucky has seen a 69 percent increase in motorcycle crashes.  Webb says it’s difficult to predict if the revised test will reduce the number of cyclists earning a license.

Medicaid provider Coventry Cares has reversed an earlier decision and will continue paying for a costly medication that helps drug addicts stop using opiates, a company spokesman said Monday. Matt Eyles, a spokesman for Coventry, said the company decided to reverse course after talking to representatives of a chain of addiction treatment clinics that threatened last week to sue Coventry.

State officials have not yet given private Medicaid operators permission to do business in the Louisville area, but that hasn't stopped one company from trying to make inroads. Currently, Passport Health Plan runs Medicaid in and around Louisville. The federal government has ordered the state to open the region to competition, but the area remains closed. In anticipation of a change, United Healthcare recently sent letters to dental centers in the area, encouraging them to sign up with United once the state allows outside companies to begin operations.

The bicycle is in increasing popular in central Kentucky among commuters.   Among commuting cyclists, figures from the U-S Census Bureau ranks Lexington 64th out of 244 communities with populations greater than 65 thousand.   Each day, Lexington cyclist Mike Galbraith makes a four mile commute to work.  And, Galbraith, who’s an instructor with the League of American Bicyclists, says there is interest in extending bike routes in rural areas.    In Fayette County, he says the Legacy Trail offers such an opportunity