WHRO Public Media • 22nd April 2026

New website from Virginia Beach man puts hospital prices on display

Hospital prices are public under federal rules, but in practice, experts say the data often sits in large files that are difficult to search or interpret.Virginia Beach-based computer engineer Richard Callaghan built HospitalCost.com to help patients actually use that data to their advantage.The platform compiles data from 17 federal sources that includes 58 hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina and the costs of 104 priced procedures.On this website, users can compare hospital prices, insuran...

WHRO Public Media • 21st April 2026

How one Virginia Beach company coordinates organ and tissue donations across the state

In a nondescript building next to Sentara Princess Anne Hospital in Virginia Beach, a middleman connects life-changing organ and tissue donations with recipients across the country.In glass-enclosed rooms, workers in protective gear handle donated tissue at tables. Another mops the floor while someone records information at a computer.In a larger room, more than 20 storage tanks stand side by side, filled with liquid nitrogen. The tanks keep tissue at extremely low temperatures to preserve it fo...

WHRO Public Media • 17th April 2026

A state survey found nearly a third of Virginians think using cannabis makes them better drivers, raising safety worries as legal market looms

As Virginia weighs whether to move forward with a legal retail cannabis market as early as 2027, officials and researchers said one question remains unsettled: how legalization may affect impaired driving — and whether current data can offer answers.A 2024 survey conducted by the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority found that roughly 30% of drivers believe they are safer behind the wheel after using cannabis.“That statistic is alarming,” said Jamie Patton, the agency’s chief administrative offic...

WHRO Public Media • 13th April 2026

Community groups raise transparency concerns as they’re left out of Virginia maternal health funding

Several organizations in Hampton Roads said they recently received rejection notices for funding from the state’s Perinatal Health Hubs Pilot Program, nearly a year after the funding was expected to roll out.$2.5 million was included in the state budget in 2025 after years of legislative efforts to expand community-based maternal care. It aims to improve outcomes for pregnant women, particularly Black women and those in underserved communities.Dozens of organizations applied. Many said they rece...

WHRO Public Media • 6th April 2026

Virginia hospitals filed more than 1 million medical debt lawsuits since 2010, a new report finds

Patients in Hampton Roads have previously told WHRO they’re often left in the dark when it comes to medical bills, with missing details, unexpected charges and little clarity on what they owe.Some said they never received itemized bills. Others said their accounts were sent to collections while they were still disputing charges.Now, a new report suggests those experiences are part of a broader system — one that can lead to lawsuits, wage garnishment and long-term financial strain for patients ac...

WHRO Public Media • 31st March 2026

As Virginia looks to expand reproductive rights, funding cuts may threaten access

Voters will decide whether to enshrine reproductive rights in Virginia’s constitution later this year. But there may be an even bigger obstacle for those seeking care.“Reproductive health care is about access, and whether Virginians have the right protected in the state constitution, but also whether they can actually access care — whether there are providers in their communities and whether they can afford it,” said Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia....

WHRO Public Media • 26th March 2026

NIH funding shifts cut number of grants, but economic impact remains strong in Virginia

A new analysis shows federal biomedical research funding continues to drive billions of dollars in economic activity, even as fewer projects are being funded nationwide.In Virginia, more than $600 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health supported 6,843 jobs and generated roughly $1.7 billion in economic activity in 2025, according to a report from United for Medical Research, a national nonprofit research organization.But the report also found a sharp drop in the number of gran...

WHRO Public Media • 25th March 2026

New steam blasting option for prostate cancer treatment aims to reduce side effects

For the first time, local doctors are providing a new prostate cancer treatment using water vapor that is expected to minimize side effects typically associated with treatment.But doctors said it will likely be usable for a small group of patients and is still evolving.Robert Given, an oncologist at Urology of Virginia and a professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, performed the first water vapor ablation procedure for prostate cancer outside of a clinical trial on the East Coast in Virgini...

WHRO Public Media • 25th March 2026

Medicaid payment halt leaves thousands without care as Fishing Point, state clash over fraud probe

Weeks after Fishing Point Healthcare paused services, Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones said the city is working with state agencies to ensure patients continue receiving care.Fishing Point Healthcare had been serving more than 4,000 Medicaid patients before suspending operations as a result of an ongoing fraud investigation by Virginia’s Department of Medical Assistance Services. Jones said they are trying to stabilize access by working with Newport News Fire Department and community pharmacy bu...

WHRO Public Media • 12th March 2026

FBI confirms ODU shooter's identity, will investigate fatal campus shooting as a terrorist attack

One person is dead and two more were injured in a shooting at Old Dominion University that is being investigated as a terrorist attack, FBI officials confirmed Thursday.Dominique Evans, the special agent in charge of the Norfolk FBI field office, confirmed the shooter was Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Army National Guardsman who pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and was sentenced to prison in 2017.Officials have not formally released information about the victims' iden...

WHRO Public Media • 10th March 2026

She thought it was a rash. Years later, doctors diagnosed her with a rare, life-threatening disease.

When Kaniah Gunter first developed an itchy rash in 2007, she thought maybe it was because of a different detergent or soap.Later, her eyelids began swelling so severely, she said, that her face looked unrecognizable in the mirror.Then came the weakness.The Norfolk mother said she struggled to get out of bed, climb stairs, tie her shoes and even turn a doorknob. She began tripping and falling. Breathing felt harder. Swallowing became painful. Her hair started falling out.“I always been an athlet...

WHRO Public Media • 6th March 2026

Virginia bill would limit medical insurers’ control over lab referrals

When a patient undergoes a biopsy, the small tissue sample is often sent to a pathologist for analysis, a step that determines whether the patient has cancer or another serious disease.Sometimes, where that specimen goes can make a difference in how quickly a diagnosis is made.A bill now awaiting Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s signature aims to keep that decision with physicians and their patients, ensuring patients receive lab results more quickly.“Currently, there are practices where the insurance...

WHRO Public Media • 5th March 2026

ODU, Virginia Beach police partner to train counselors working with first responders

Old Dominion University and the Virginia Beach Police Department are launching an effort to train student mental health counselors by embedding them directly inside police departments and other first responder agencies.Starting in fall 2026, selected graduate students in ODU’s counseling program will continue taking classes while completing a yearlong internship counselling police officers.The program, called Frontline, aims to address a common barrier first responders say they face when seeking...

WHRO Public Media • 5th March 2026

After cancer and hair loss, a Virginia Beach veteran found confidence — and a resource she didn’t know existed

When Rosalyn Francis began losing her hair during cancer treatment, she tried to stay strong.But watching her hair fall out was different.“Wisdom is in the crown of a woman,” said Francis, a Virginia Beach resident, veteran and three-time cancer survivor. “Not having any hair makes you feel unworthy. It makes you feel like you’re not beautiful.”Francis has survived lymphoma twice as well as breast cancer. Cancer runs in her family, she said, though she believes the stress of military service may...

WHRO Public Media • 27th February 2026

Measles is on the rise in Virginia, but Hampton Roads remains case-free so far this year

Virginia has already confirmed 10 measles cases in the first two months of 2026, double the number of cases reported in all of 2025.Most of them are in Northern Virginia. None have been confirmed so far this year in Hampton Roads.Laurie Forlano, state epidemiologist and director of the office of epidemiology at Virginia Department of Health, said the recent increase doesn’t indicate significant local transmission.“In Virginia, we are not experiencing what we would consider an outbreak,” Forlano...

WHRO Public Media • 19th February 2026

Virginia bill would ban noncompete clauses for health care professionals

A proposal moving through the Virginia General Assembly would ban noncompete agreements for doctors, nurses and other licensed health care professionals, a change supporters said could help keep clinicians in communities that are already facing shortages.Noncompete clauses that limit where a clinician can work after leaving a job, particularly preventing them from going to work for local competitors, have become routine language in many health care contracts.Under the measure, employers could no...

WHRO Public Media • 18th February 2026

A new kind of nursing classroom is on the street in Hampton Roads

The first thing people notice when they step inside ECPI University’s new Mobile Simulation Lab is how much it feels like a hospital room, even though it sits inside an RV parked on the school’s campus.Inside, two life-size mannequins lie in beds beneath shelves stocked with oxygen equipment and medical supplies. A mannequin the size of an infant rests nearby.Simulators in the mannequins produce heartbeats and pulses, and nursing students use them to practice blood pressure checks, IV insertions...

WHRO Public Media • 10th February 2026

A retail cannabis market is nearly a done deal in Virginia, but when sales will start is still up in the air

Virginia is inching closer to allowing legal adult-use cannabis sales, but lawmakers are still divided over how soon the state can open a retail market.A House committee has advanced legislation that could begin sales as soon as late 2026. Other proposals would delay the rollout into 2027, as lawmakers weigh how quickly Virginia can build a regulated marketplace they say would effectively protect customer health.Supporters of regulated sales said the current system leaves many Virginians relying...

WHRO Public Media • 9th February 2026

UVA scientists have solved the medical mystery linking kidney disease to heart failure

Doctors have long known that chronic kidney disease can sharply increase a patient’s risk of heart failure. More than half of people with advanced kidney disease ultimately die from cardiovascular complications, even when obesity, hypertension and diabetes do not fully explain the connection.Researchers at the University of Virginia and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York now say they have identified a kidney-specific mechanism that may help solve the puzzle.The team found that d...

WHRO Public Media • 4th February 2026

Virginia bill to provide medical aid in dying advances after close Senate subcommittee vote

A bill that would allow medical aid in dying for certain terminally ill Virginians is moving forward in the state Senate.A Senate subcommittee voted Tuesday, three to two with one abstention, to advance the measure to the full Senate Education and Health Committee. The vote was largely split along party lines.Bill patron Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Herndon) said the proposal is designed to give dying patients more autonomy.“We know that when someone knows that they're going to be dying, they want to...

WHRO Public Media • 2nd February 2026

Dentists say these Virginia bills will expand access. Hygienists say they risk patient harm.

Two bills moving through the Virginia General Assembly are fueling a growing fight inside the state’s dental community, as lawmakers look for ways to reduce long waits for routine dental care.The legislation, backed by the Virginia Dental Association, aims to address workforce shortages that have left some patients, particularly in rural and underserved communities, waiting months for cleanings and checkups. waiting months for cleanings and checkups.One bill would allow dental assistants to earn...

WHRO Public Media • 30th January 2026

Virginia’s free and charitable clinics push for $15 million in state funding as ACA coverage losses loom

Free and charitable clinics across the state said they are preparing for an influx of patients as fewer Virginians sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. They’re pushing the state for more funding to handle the mounting need.Early federal estimates suggest more than 300,000 Virginians could lose coverage over the next two years if enhanced ACA premium tax credits are not extended and if Medicaid work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks take effect...

WHRO Public Media • 27th January 2026

Virginia’s opioid crisis swept from the mountains to the cities. Hampton Roads sees both problems and progress.

For years, Virginia’s opioid crisis was often framed as a rural, white problem centered in the state’s Southwest.But new data shows that large cities and Black communities have been hit increasingly hard, including several in Hampton Roads.The analysis from Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Department of Health looked at opioid-related harm - a measure capturing the economic toll of the opioid crisis, including lost labor from premature deaths, health care spending and criminal j...

WHRO Public Media • 23rd January 2026

When hospital bills aren’t itemized, Hampton Roads patients say they pay the price

When Katy Cady opened the medical bill in her mailbox, the number didn’t look right.The total — $2,454.78 — came from her labor and delivery at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in 2023. The bill listed only a single charge and a payment deadline, without a breakdown of services.She asked for an itemized bill. When she got it a few weeks later and reviewed the breakdown, she noticed charges that didn’t add up — including two epidurals, even though she had received only one.She called the hosp...