Health and Medicine

Virginia’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled over campaign is in full force for the holiday season. As WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno reports that means more officers on the road looking for impaired drivers.

Thirty-six percent of Christmas Day traffic fataliities in the United States involve driving under the influence. On New Year’s that number jumps to 40-percent. As WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno reports Virginia’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled over campaign is working to make holiday roads safer.

For more information ActLikeIt.org

The association representing Virginia’s hospitals has unveiled a new website designed to help you know what health care consumer laws are on the books — and best understand pricing before any scheduled hospital procedures. The Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association started with a statewide poll, one that found that most Virginians are unaware of state and federal health care rights laws,  some protecting patients from things like surprise medical bills, others promoting transparency in health care cost information. Then it conducted focus group session in three cities, one of them in Roanoke, where most people expressed similar unfamiliarity. That has led to the “Control Your Care” campaign, the main goals being to explain those state and federal laws in plain English and provide helpful health care cost information. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:

 

CLICK HERE for the Control Your Care website

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin delivered remarks at the renaming ceremony of the Virginia Veterans Care Center in Roanoke this morning. As WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno reports the Center is one of three state veterans care centers operated by the Virginia Department of Veterans Services recieving new names.

Three Virginia Veteran care centers have been renamed including one in Roanoke. Govenor Glenn Youngkin was in the area this morning for a ceremony to mark the renaming. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno has more.