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Since it launched in 2022, nearly 10 million calls, texts and chats have been received as part of the 988 system, and in Rhode Island, the 988 and BH Link hotline have answered more than 33,000 calls, officials said Monday. And they said Rhode Island now has the country’s highest in-state answer rate, meaning that 98 percent of the calls are answered by people in the state rather than being patched through to call centers in other states. (Fitzpatrick, 5/20)

Medicaid expansion has already provided more than 450,000 low-income North Carolinians with health insurance. Could it also help them find better-paying jobs? State lawmakers believed that was the case when they approved legislation making North Carolina the 40th state to expand access to Medicaid in March 2023. (Baxley, 5/21)

Delaware will test a Medicaid program allowing delivery of meals and diapers to postpartum enrollees for three months after giving birth. The pilot program approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday is the latest effort to expand coverage of social supports aimed at improving the health of Medicaid beneficiaries. (Millman, 5/20)

A $4.5 million federal investment is bringing Makerspace to Coppin State, and health care services to West Baltimore. A $2 million portion of the funding will be allocated to open an Open Works Maker Space at Coppin State University. The facility will provide high-tech tools, an industrial co-working space, and technical education programs for students of all ages. Also included are workforce development programs that will support local entrepreneurs and community projects. (Olaniran, 5/20)

When the doors closed last year at the only cancer center in the Florida Keys, public officials and local residents worried that Monroe County's 82,000 residents may lose more specialized medical care in the future. Those concerns were evident this month when the Lower Keys Hospital District Board announced it was going to convene a special committee to set minimum care standards on the Lower Keys Medical Center’s next lease. (Cooper, 5/20)

A potent animal tranquilizer is likely behind an increase in drug overdoses in Chicago this month, health officials warned on Monday. The overdoses happened between May 11 and May 14, and drug samples from those cases tested positive for elevated levels of medetomidine. This powerful veterinary tranquilizer is not approved for human use. Chicago health officials said medetomidine has not previously been detected in Chicago. (Dodge, 5/20)

The surgery was supposed to alleviate worry, but now, years later, Whitney Carter’s mind kept flicking back to it, wondering if it could be undone. She sometimes descended into these moods, taciturn, withdrawn, as if all hope had gone extinct. She sat on the couch in the half-light, blinds shut against the heat. The whole thing made her feel less than, like some essential part of her had been removed. (Boodman, 5/21)