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A retired health care executive has entered next year’s race for North Carolina governor, with Jesse Thomas describing himself Tuesday as a “no-nonsense Republican” who aims to attract voters within the “wide middle ground between the two extremes.” Thomas, who led the Medicaid plan offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to hundreds of thousands of consumers, announced his bid on a Greensboro-area podcast last week, when he also filed his candidate committee paperwork. (8/8)

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Tuesday that he has filed official objections to several rate increases requested by the state’s health insurers. Neronha filed objections to health insurers’ proposed rate increases with the state’s Office of Health Insurance Commissioner, which received requests earlier this summer from multiple insurers seeking to raise their rates. Those companies included Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna, and Harvard Pilgrim in the large market. (Gagosz, 8/8)

City councilors in West Virginia’s Democrat-controlled capital city voted against a proposal from the state’s long-time abortion provider to start a syringe service program in one of the country’s most opioid-devastated areas. The 17 to 9 vote on Monday came two years after the council and the Republican-controlled state Legislature passed regulations restricting the programs, which are supported by the Centers for Disease Control as scientifically-proven methods to curb drug use and prevent the spread of infections like hepatitis c and HIV. (Willingham, 8/8)

As street drugs have become ever more powerful and deadly, a small nonprofit in Manhattan dedicated to preventing overdoses has drawn politicians and health officials from around the country searching for possible solutions to the opioid epidemic. But now, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor is warning that the group’s methods are illegal, and is suggesting that his office could crack down — and perhaps even end the effort. (Otterman, 8/8)

In blistering 100-degree heat one recent afternoon at Valley State Prison in California’s Central Valley, inmates crowded around small windows in a prison yard to pick up their daily doses of buprenorphine, an opioid addiction medication. At one window, Quennie Uy, a nurse, scanned inmate identification cards, then retrieved strips of the medication, slipping them through a sliding panel below the window. One by one, inmates deposited the strips in their mouths, then flashed their palms — proof they had not pocketed the drug that was helping to stanch their cravings. (Weiland, 8/9)

Crisis centers across the U.S. fielded 5 million calls, chats and texts to 988 in its first year, up 35% compared to the old 10-digit line, according to federal officials. Local organizations who handle the calls are seeing that uptick. In South Florida, the nonprofit 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast said calls have increased by 50% since the change to 988.That's a good thing, according to the organization's CEO and president Sharon L'Herrou. She said that the new number has increased awareness of their resources. (Ramos, 8/8)