Health Care

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says berries sold at Costco stores may be linked to an outbreak of hepatitis.

The frozen berry brand, 'Townsend Farms organic Anti-Oxidant Blend', has been pulled from Costco's shelves, and the store says to toss out any remaining product.

Although Idaho Costco stores carry these frozen berries, the health department says illness associated with the fruit hasn't been reported in Idaho.

Here's more information from the Department of Health and Welfare:

This week we are bringing you the story of Dan Sperry. He's a U.S. Army veteran from Idaho and for the last two decades he's lived with post traumatic stress disorder or P.T.S.D.  We met Dan in 2010 and began to record his story of how he's found a new life by using a service dog. 

When the 2013 legislative session wraps up, a big policy question will remain: Will the state make Medicaid available to a greater number of Idaho’s poor? The federal health care law encourages that move. It’s a debate that involves potential costs and savings, along with patient well-being. And it turns quickly to chronic conditions, like mental illness.

Last year, we told you about a group of stakeholders working together to create a state plan to help Alzheimer’s patients and their families.  The Idaho Alzheimer's Planning Group has now released that plan. 

This week an NPR  series has focused on worker deaths in grain storage bins around the country.  Now the Justice Department and others are beginning to respond. NPR reports Friday the Department will again consider criminal charges in a case of a boy who died in a grain bin three years ago in Illinois.

Idaho has had its share of tragedies in grain bins.

The Idaho House of Representatives could be in for a marathon debate over the latest state-based health insurance exchange plan. The  discussion will start Wednesday  morning, less than a month after the Senate spent nearly six hours debating a similar proposal.

Idaho Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill joked Tuesday the debate in the House over an online insurance marketplace could be twice as long since that chamber has double the Legislators.