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Cortez Masto’s bill would improve Indian Health Service recruitment, Senate panel told
Representatives from the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Health Center and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week urged a Senate panel to approve legislation to help recruit and retain health care workers at Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities. The IHS Workforce Parity Act, co-sponsored by Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and […]
Rosen pushes to revitalize tribal housing funding program
Nevada Democrat U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen urged her colleagues to increase funding for tribal housing in a letter sent to the Senate Committee on Appropriations Thursday afternoon. Native Americans in tribal areas have some of the worst housing needs in the nation, facing higher poverty rates, overcrowded housing, lack of plumbing and heat, high development […]
Nevada is part of new IRS tax filing pilot program, but it won’t be broadly available until March
The IRS announced eligibility requirements for the free, direct filing system that Nevada and 12 other states are piloting during the 2024 tax season, helping an estimated 20 million people. But it won’t be fully functioning until mid-March, after many who qualify have already filed. The new “Direct File” system is currently open on a […]
Lawsuit filed against CCSD in 2022 Las Vegas High School beating
A lawsuit accuses Clark County School District of being “deliberately indifferent” to a Las Vegas High School student who was beaten in her geometry class in February 2022. Law firms Bertoldo Carter Smith & Cullen and Robert L. Langford & Associates filed the case, Lainez Lemus v. CCSD, in Clark County District Court. They allege […]
NV senators join dozens of colleagues praising steps toward Medicare Advantage accountability
Democratic Nevada U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto are among more than 60 senators who signed a broadly bipartisan letter supporting the Biden Administration’s efforts to improve Medicare Advantage transparency. The letter sent this week comes after Cortez Masto was one of four U.S. senators who in December called on the Centers for Medicare […]
Scholarship program assists undocumented Nevada students
Nevada college students who are undocumented can apply for TheDream.US national scholarship, the largest scholarship for undocumented people in the U.S. The deadline closes Feb. 29. Last week, Make the Road Nevada, a nonprofit organization that advocates for immigrant and working-class families, partnered with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, (UNLV) and Nevada State University […]
Open enrollment on Nevada health exchange ends with 2nd largest increase ever
Nevada’s health insurance marketplace had its second largest open enrollment period in the state’s history, according to data released this week. Enrollment, which ended January 15, increased by 3%, with 99,312 Nevadans enrolling in a health plan and 20,984 enrolling in a dental plan. Of the 99,312 Nevadans who received health plans, over a quarter […]
Nevada flunks the American Lung Association report
Nevada received F’s in four out of the five public policies on which the American Lung Association grades states, according to the organization’s annual “State of Tobacco Control” report released Wednesday. Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Nevada and the U.S., with 16 million people living with tobacco-related disease, […]
Nation’s first Gen Z congressman discusses gun violence at UNLV
Six weeks after the mass shooting that claimed the lives of three UNLV faculty members, a group of students gathered to share their experiences and highlight the need for more federal policy action. “You don’t think it will happen to you until it does,” said Ketzia Jimenez, a third-year UNLV sociology student who was at […]
Cortez Masto, Cornyn team up on mobile mental health services legislation
Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn this week introduced a bipartisan bill to increase Medicare payment rates for mobile mental health services. The Medicare Mobile Crisis Improvement Act would allow Medicare to cover most or all costs of a patient’s care during behavioral health crises. The legislation “builds on […]
Clark County offers fast-track licensure to address foster parent shortage
The Clark County Department of Family Services will start offering fast-tracked classes for foster care licensure this weekend through the end of September to address the shortage of foster parents. “Family Services started offering expedited training in 2023, in response to the extreme shortage of foster parents in Clark County. We are finding that this […]
Like many of the hospital’s employees before them, group of Sunrise health workers vote to unionize
SEIU Local 1107, the largest healthcare and public service union in the state, now represents the bulk of employees at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center healthcare workers, including speech-language pathologists, clinical pharmacists, and social workers, who voted to unionize on Jan. 11 and 12. The next step for some 275 employees is to fill out […]