Soon after Howard Johnson suffered a spinal cord injury in October 2015 while working as a delivery driver for U.S. Food Service, he suffered a financial one: His workers’ compensation award was nearly $47,000 less than what he would have received if the injury had occurred a year earlier. Johnson hurt himself while trying to dislodge a partially frozen trailer door and sought remedy through the Kansas Workers’ Compensation Act — the only option for employees hurt at work. The significant difference in his compensation was the result of a change in the guidelines doctors follow to assess impairment, attorneys said. [...]

Until two weeks ago, Meade District Hospital had never admitted a COVID-19 patient. Then, it admitted three in one weekend. For the southwest Kansas town of roughly 1,700, three hospitalizations is the equivalent of several thousand in metropolitan Kansas City, said Gary Morsch, founder of an organization that helps staff rural critical access hospitals. Morsch was working in the Meade hospital’s emergency room that weekend. He said the hospital had two beds set aside for coronavirus patients, and needed to stretch only to accommodate the third. However, he said, it’s a sign of what’s to come in small towns and rural [...]