Lisa Schencker

Lisa Schencker is a Tribune business reporter covering health care. She writes about patients, hospitals, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies. Before joining the Tribune in 2016, she worked at Modern Healthcare and at daily newspapers across the country, including the Salt Lake Tribune for seven years.

Rush University Medical Center on Sept. 13, 2022. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Rush health system scaling back gender-affirming care for minors

July 15, 2025 at 5:15 p.m.

Rush University System for Health is latest Chicago area health system to scale back gender-affirming care for minors.

Gail Mendiola bandages patient Christine Mertzelos after receiving treatment for a diabetic ulcer at Humboldt Park Health on July 10, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago’s safety net hospitals face potential service cuts, layoffs after signing of ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill

July 13, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Illinois stands to lose about $48 billion in federal funding for Medicaid over 10 years, according to KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy.

A jogger runs along Huron Street, east of Fairbanks Court, next to a vacant lot where Northwestern Memorial Hospital hopes to build a new tower. The lot is bordered by Fairbanks, Huron, McClurg Court and Erie Street. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)

Northwestern Memorial Hospital hopes to build new tower, with more than 200 beds, on Streeterville campus

July 8, 2025 at 5:01 p.m.

A lack of enough hospital beds during times of high demand has caused “significant backups in the Emergency Department."

COVID-19 and flu vaccines are available during a walk-in clinic on Dec. 3, 2023, at St. Procopius Dual Language School in the Pilsen neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Illinois-based American Academy of Pediatrics sues Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine changes

July 7, 2025 at 5:32 p.m.

The lawsuit alleges that a decision in May to remove COVID-19 vaccines from the federal list of recommended vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women was unlawful.

Deerfield-based Baxter International has named a new president and CEO, about five months after its former leader abruptly retired.

Baxter International appoints new CEO, months after former leader abruptly retired

July 7, 2025 at 3:14 p.m.

Deerfield-based Baxter International appoints Andrew Hider new CEO, months after former leader José Almeida abruptly retired

Kristina Lewis, who relies on Medicaid, paints a craft project in her apartment in Alsip on June 27, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

‘Having Medicaid keeps me alive’: Illinois residents anxiously watch as Congress considers Medicaid cuts

June 30, 2025 at 12:35 p.m.

Across Illinois, 3.4 million people are on Medicaid — about one-fourth of the state’s population.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted to approve Advocate Health Care's plan to construct a new hospital at the former U.S. Steel South Works site near the lakefront. (Advocate Health Care)

Plan to replace Advocate Trinity Hospital with new, smaller hospital on South Side gets state approval

June 24, 2025 at 6:39 p.m.

Some Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board members expressed concern about the new hospital's smaller size.

Medical assistant Cierra Shackelford prepares an exam room for a patient visit at the Birth Center of Chicago on June 17, 2025. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Birth Center of Chicago announces sudden, temporary closure, forcing patients to make new plans

June 17, 2025 at 5:23 p.m.

Part of the challenge of operating birth centers is that neither private insurance nor Medicaid reimburse birth centers or midwives at the same levels as care from doctors in hospitals

Bo Wheeler plays with his son, Max, on May 27, 2025, in Schererville, Indiana. Max and his sister, Vivi, were delivered via emergency cesarean section, both weighing less than 2.5 pounds. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)

An ‘unwanted fraternity’: Dads with babies in Northwestern NICU gather to support one another

June 14, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.

“We do a really good job of taking care of women,” said Dr. Craig Garfield. “But we don't really know what to do with the dads."

The malaria research ward in the infirmary at Stateville prison where many of the inmates volunteered to be exposed to malaria-infected mosquitoes for research purposes is seen on June 1, 1967. (Joe Mastruzzo/Chicago’s American)

New paper sheds light on experience of Black prisoners in infamous Illinois prison malaria experiments

June 11, 2025 at 4:33 p.m.

The role of Black prisoners helped lead to the practice of using genetic testing to understand how patients will react to medications, according to the paper.

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