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By this weekend, the last patients will be discharged and Mercy Hospital Independence will close, joining dozens of rural hospitals around the country that have not been able to withstand the financial and demographic challenges buffeting them. The hospital and its outpatient clinics, owned by the Mercy health care system in St. Louis, was where people in this city of 9,000 turned for everything from sore throats to emergency treatment after a car crash. Now, many say they are worried about what losing Mercy will mean not just for their own health, but for their community’s future. (Smith and Goodnough, 10/8)

New York will become one of the first major U.S. cities to expand low-cost healthcare to uninsured immigrants regardless of their legal status under a pilot program to launch next spring, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday. The pilot, called Direct Access, will initially apply to 1,000 immigrants. Some of them are in the country legally but still ineligible for support under the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. The program is expected to expand in the following years. (10/8)

A Florida Senate panel on Wednesday demanded answers from a state Department of Health official about how many special-needs children have recently lost services as the state transitions to a new Medicaid system --- and why. Several members of the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee said they'd had calls from constituents --- "in tears," in the words of Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach --- over losing critical health-care services for their children. (Menzel, 10/8)

A patient scheduled for surgery makes sure that both the hospital and surgeon are in the health plan’s network prior to the operation. But after the surgery, a surprise bill arrives for hundreds of dollars. It turns out that the anesthesiologist used in the procedure was not in the patient’s insurance network – and the patient had no idea. Such “balance billing’’ situations often confound and upset consumers receiving medical care – and can lead to tough collections practices. (Miller, 10/8)

California's new law, which the 77-year-old former Jesuit seminarian struggled with before signing, was modeled after legislation enacted in Oregon nearly 18 years ago. Whether they call it "death with dignity" or the "corruption of the medical profession," "physician-assisted suicide" or "medical killing," those on both sides of the end-of-life debate do agree on one thing: That Oregon's example offers important lessons for California and its 38.8 million residents, who in the near future will be able to ask a doctor to prescribe them a lethal dose of medication so they can hasten their own deaths. (La Ganga, 10/8)

Camden County is launching a pilot program to support drug-overdose victims who are revived by police only to then wait weeks for a spot in an inpatient treatment center. Dubbed Operation SAL - an acronym for Save A Life and also a tribute to the son of a local addiction-issues advocate - the $150,000 program is designed to help up to 50 people receive intensive outpatient treatment during that waiting period after an overdose. (Lai, 10/8)

In the span of three years, the number of hospitals that the state owns could go from zero to two -- both in Newark, potentially allowing it determine exactly what healthcare in that city will look like for decades to come. The New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority has emerged as a potential bidder for Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, just two years after the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey handed over University Hospital to the state. (Kitchenman, 10/8)

Nemours Children's Health System and the Clinic for Special Children in Lancaster County signed a five-year agreement to collaborate on the care of children with rare genetic disorders, the two tax-exempt organizations announced. The clinic, near Strasburg, Pa., was founded in 1989 to treat Old Order Amish and Mennonite children with genetic disorders. (Brukbaker, 10/9)

Pharmacists at one of the largest drugstore chains in Minnesota can now distribute an antidote over the counter that can reverse opiate overdoses. CVS has announced that pharmacists at stores in Minnesota and 11 other states are now able to distribute the anti-overdose drug naloxone without a prescription. Another pharmacy based in southern Minnesota is exploring a similar program that's expected to launch before the end of the year. (Collins, 10/8)

Health care has been a hot-button policy issue for years in the Florida Legislature, and it’s starting to look like the session scheduled to start on Jan. 12 will be no different. Battles over Medicaid expansion and payments to hospitals treating low-income patients were so bitter in the spring, it brought the Legislature to a halt. (Shedden, 10/8)

A task force formed to address the state's heroin epidemic held its first meeting on Thursday, with 35 people on three teams focusing on law enforcement, education and treatment, officials said. The three working groups will hold additional meetings to come up with solutions and strategies to turn back the tide of overdose deaths, addiction and drug-related crimes, said U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty, who volunteered to establish the working groups after a pair of drug summits in August. (Sharp, 10/8)

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday called for Flint to switch back to Detroit’s water system to address a public health emergency over lead and grapple with broader concerns about the effects of the aging pipes distributing the city’s water supply. Flint stopped using water from the Detroit system last year as a cost-cutting measure, opting instead for a supply direct from the Flint River. But since the swap, residents have complained of the water’s funky smell, taste and appearance, as well as adverse health reactions, and doctors discovered that the corrosive river water was drawing lead from aging pipes in some homes. (Karoub and Eggert, 10/8)

A doctor who says she is “dedicated to the natural treatment of cancer” has been ordered to appear before the Florida Board of Medicine on Friday to explain the death of a toddler from an unapproved drug. Martha Grout MD, who left Florida 20 years ago after catching flak for her alternative methods, nevertheless holds a current Florida license. The incident occurred at her alternative medicine center in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she practices “homeopathy,” a style of medicine that is not legal in Florida. (Gentry, 10/8)

The first step to put medical marijuana to a statewide vote next year came Thursday, with supporters filing initiative petitions with the Missouri secretary of state. The two petitions from pro-medical marijuana group New Approach Missouri, would ask voters whether to amend the state constitution to allow physicians to recommend the drug to patients with certain illnesses, such as cancer, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as "any other chronic, debilitating or otherwise equivalent condition." (Ballentine, 10/8)

Backers of medical marijuana want Missourians to decide if doctors can be allowed to prescribe the drug to critically ill patients. Two ballot initiatives that would do just that were filed on Thursday. Sheila Dundon of Columbia is a registered nurse and a breast cancer survivor. She says past cancer patients advised her to try marijuana to help curb the effects of chemotherapy. (Griffin, 10/8)