Ohio Nursing Homes Put Frail Patients In Homeless Shelters, CMS Data Reveal
Inspectors for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have faulted seven Ohio facilities for discharging people to homeless shelters, which aren't capable of caring for seniors with medical needs. Often, the issues trace back to insurers that cut off residents’ benefits, Signal Ohio reported.
The scene was concerning enough to prompt the homeless shelter staff to call the fire department. A woman using a walker had shown up, incontinent and carrying “a large bag of medications.” She was diabetic, managing a tibia fracture and alcohol-related dementia, and she was “dumped” at the shelter, according to federal inspectors. (Zuckerman, 4/13)
Lower courts blocked the effort to send home Haitian immigrants, part of an already shrinking workforce in nursing homes. The Supreme Court will hear the case this month. (Rowland, 4/14)
Medicaid news from New York and Nebraska —
With tough new regulations looming in the president’s domestic policy bill, officials are coming up with plans to keep New Yorkers insured. (Goldstein, 4/14)
Nebraska is racing to implement Medicaid work requirements by May 1 — eight months before the national deadline set by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last summer. And not only is the state first out of the gate, its government plans to do it without hiring any additional staff, even as other state health departments prepare to bring aboard dozens if not hundreds of new employees to determine who should remain enrolled and who should be booted from the safety net health insurance program. (Ollstein, 4/14)
More news from across the U.S. —
More than 2,000 military veterans in Middle Tennessee will have to transition to a new care facility after a recent announcement that their current facility is closing. The McMinnville VA Clinic, about 75 miles southeast of Nashville, is winding down operations and will close May 31. “We understand the decision to transition services at this facility reflects broader efforts to address staffing challenges and improve the delivery of care,” read a joint statement sent to Military.com from Tennessee U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, and Congressman Scott DesJarlais. (Dennis, 4/13)
Seeking to cap the cost of medicines, the Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board set an upper payment limit for a widely prescribed diabetes treatment, marking only the second time a state panel has taken such a step. (Silverman, 4/13)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Sunday he’ll move ahead with plans to open five city-run grocery stores, with the first set to debut next year in East Harlem. The first store will be constructed on city-owned land next to a food hall in East Harlem in northern Manhattan, an area where nearly 40 percent of residents receive public assistance benefits. “At our stores, eggs will be cheaper. Bread will be cheaper. Grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation,” Mamdani said. (Craig, 4/13)
San Francisco saw a “significant decline” in sexually transmitted infections in 2025, city health officials said Monday, crediting expanded prevention efforts and the growing use of a post-exposure antibiotic. Cases of syphilis fell 24%, chlamydia dropped 18% and gonorrhea declined 5% compared with 2024, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. (Vaziri, 4/13)
A Catholic priest is called to serve. But for Father Ray, that call was getting harder to answer. After seven years as pastor at St. Augustine Parish in South San Francisco, the Rev. Raymund Reyes, 62, was in kidney failure. He was tired all the time, and dialysis three days a week wiped out what little energy he had left. He was put on a waiting list for a kidney transplant, but told it could take eight years. (Allday, 4/13)
The Texas attorney general’s office is investigating Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s apparel for the presence of so-called “forever chemicals,” which have been linked to health problems. “Emerging research and consumer concerns have raised questions about the potential presence of certain synthetic materials and chemical compounds in their apparel,” the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. The probe “will examine whether Lululemon’s athletic apparel contains PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’ that their health-conscious customers would not expect based on the brand’s marketing.” (Roeder and Meier, 4/13)
Decades of anger and frustration are turning into cautious optimism for some victims of contaminated drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, as about two dozen of more than 3,700 lawsuits seeking compensation for damages appear headed for trial later this year in federal court in North Carolina. (Magner, 4/13)
The mountains closed early. The skiing was not great. Workers dependent on ski crowds didn’t bank the cash they wanted to cover things like the soaring cost of health insurance and housing. The pressures on mountain-town workers are high this spring as the high-country transition season descends. (Blevins, 4/13)
鶹Ů Health News:
New Orleans Takes Steps To Assess And Clean Lead In Playgrounds After Investigation
New Orleans plans to revamp the commission that oversees city parks and playgrounds and is seeking $5 million in federal aid after an investigation published by Verite News and 鶹Ů Health News found high levels of lead contamination in playgrounds throughout the city. Mayor Helena Moreno signed an executive order on April 7 that creates a task force to improve the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission. (Parker, 4/14)