Health care

As human-driven climate change makes winters shorter, ticks are spreading to new parts of the country. And when ticks find hospitable homes, they bring new tick-borne illnesses to the humans who live there. Now, surveyors in Montana are searching for invasive ticks to track and prepare for the diseases they can carry.

Montana health officials will ask federal regulators to approve work requirements for Montanans on Medicaid expansion. The state also wants enrollees to pay premiums and co-payments for doctor visits.

The state psychiatric hospital has a new CEO. This will be the fifth leader of the embattled facility in the past four years.

State lawmakers have overridden Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto of a bill that will pay county jails for holding inmates awaiting space at the state psychiatric hospital.

Briefs: Polson medical center expansion will double primary care services; Montana launches teacher apprenticeship program; Public comment opens on proposed BLM oil and gas leases; FWP urges anglers to kill and report brown trout caught on the Flathead River.

The Montana State Hospital lost its federal certification in 2022 due to patient deaths. That decertification means the state can’t bill Medicaid or Medicare for patient services – a funding loss that has cost the state millions of dollars. State health officials plan to apply for federal recertification next year.

The state health department plans to request federal approval to enact both Medicaid work requirements and co-payments for doctor visits in September. The department opened a 60-day public comment period.

People on Medicare or Medicaid struggle to access mental and behavioral health services. That’s according to a new federal report.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the Big Beautiful Bill by July. The mega-bill aims to fund Trump’s tax cuts and other policies largely by cutting health care.

Montana has received federal approval to provide Medicaid-funded housing services to assist those with behavioral health needs find housing.