By: Tess Vrbin - June 4, 2025, Arkansas Advocate
Arkansas lawmakers reviewed two rules Wednesday in response to a new law aimed at improving the state’s maternal health care landscape for low-income pregnant women.
The Joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee spent nearly an hour discussing Arkansas’ new policy of presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women, part of the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act that will go into effect in August.
Participants in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Institute for Community Health Innovation’s doula training program are now able to receive college credit, thanks to a continued partnership between UAMS and the University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana (UAHT).
Rich Shumate, Columnist
May 28, 2025, Arkansas Advocate
All four Arkansas Republicans in the U.S. House reacted with undiluted pleasure last week after they and their colleagues pushed through a budget reconciliation bill, by a single vote, that makes significant changes in Medicaid and the SNAP food assistance program, including shifting costs from federal to state budgets.
By: Tess Vrbin - June 9, 2025, Arkansas Advocate
Arkansas remains among the worst states for child well-being, ranking 45th nationwide for the second year in a row, according to the annual Annie E. Casey Foundation report released Monday.
The group’s 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book measures 16 indicators of child well-being in four categories: education, health, economic well-being and family and community.
The report ranked Arkansas:
-36th in education
-45th in economic well-being
-46th in family and community
-47th in child health
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently held commencement ceremonies to confer degrees and certificates to 1,186 students in its five colleges and graduate school.
UAMS awarded a total of 1,207 degrees or certificates: 168 to students in the College of Medicine, 183 in the College of Nursing, 643 in the College of Health Professions, 85 in the College of Pharmacy, 78 in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, and 50 in the UAMS Graduate School. Twenty students earned multiple degrees or certificates.
