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Health officials in Arizona are pressing federal officials for better cooperation after an outbreak of measles at an immigration detention center was prolonged because some employees were slow to be vaccinated. The outbreak started in late May in the detention center in Eloy, Ariz., and has grown to 22 cases, currently the largest episode in the country of the disease, which was once eradicated in the United States. The cases include nine employees of the facility, which is overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency. (Preston, 7/12)

After spending six months studying new ways to control ever-growing health care costs, a state-hired consulting firm presented a plan to Connecticut's Health Care Cabinet Tuesday that calls for the largest reorganization and consolidation of health-related state agencies in two decades. The proposal urges the creation of a new super-agency of sorts – the Connecticut Health Authority – that would absorb the responsibilities of more than a half-dozen existing state agencies. It also would create a quasi-independent oversight agency – the Office of Health Reform – with broad powers to track and limit health care cost increases in the state. (Constable, 7/13)

The state’s attorney general claims in a lawsuit that a medical provider has failed to provide proper services to inmates in a suburban New York City jail, where 12 have died in the past five years, including four since March. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the allegations Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against Armor Correctional Health Medical Services, which is being paid $11 million annually to care for inmates at the Nassau County Correctional Center on Long Island. (Eltman, 7/12)

The Utah governor's order to block funding to Planned Parenthood was probably a political move designed to punish the group, a federal appeals court wrote in an ruling that ordered the state to keep the money flowing. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver decided Tuesday there's a good chance the governor's order violated the group's constitutional rights. (7/13)

In 2010, customs agents seized roughly 2,500 kilos of meth at the San Ysidro border crossing. In 2014, they confiscated more than double that amount — 5,800 kilos. One hit of meth is about a quarter of a gram — 5,800 kilos equals 5.8 million hits. That’s how much was confiscated. Nobody knows how much is actually getting in. What’s worse is the methamphetamine that’s coming across from Mexico is stronger than ever, and the price on the street is lower than ever. That leads to more meth use and more meth-related problems. (Goldberg, 7/12)

Dallas County commissioners on Tuesday authorized aerial pesticide spraying to kill mosquitoes and combat West Nile virus. A 3-0 vote at a specially called meeting of the Commissioners Court means the county's Department of Health and Human Services can begin spraying from planes, though officials said they will get consent from the cities within the county first. (Schmidt, 7/12)

A surgery technician pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking fentanyl — an opiate more powerful than morphine — from a suburban Denver hospital — a crime that raised concerns that hundreds of patients might have been exposed to HIV. Rocky Allen, a former Navy medic who authorities say is HIV positive and got hooked on painkillers while serving in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to federal charges of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deception. (Slevin, 7/12)

The prison sentence Rocky Allen faces for stealing a syringe filled with a powerful painkiller could hinge on whether he introduced dirty needles into circulation at the hospital where he worked as a surgical technologist, a federal judge said Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Moore asked the probation department to investigate whether Allen had previously used the saline syringe that he swapped out with a fentanyl syringe he stole from the hospital where he worked. (Osher, 7/12)

Three members of the Berkeley City Council are backing a resolution to oppose the planned closure of the Alta Bates Medical Center emergency room and inpatient hospital. The full council will vote on the issue at its meeting Tuesday night. Sutter Health, which owns Alta Bates, said last fall that it would close the acute care hospital and emergency department sometime before 2030. That’s when tough California seismic standards kick in. Sutter said it would consolidate emergency and inpatient services at its Oakland Summit Medical Center and make Alta Bates an outpatient hub. (Aliferis, 7/12)

State regulators have declared that residents at a troubled Brockton nursing home are in “immediate jeopardy” after finding that workers failed to respond appropriately when one resident suffered a heart attack and another desperately needed oxygen. A state health department spokesman Tuesday declined to say whether the two patients survived. But he noted the state imposes immediate jeopardy status when a nursing home’s actions are likely to result in “serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident.” The state health department on July 1 ordered the nursing home, Braemoor Health Center, to stop accepting new patients, threatened to remove it from government programs that cover most residents’ bills, and recommended fines as high as $10,000 a day until safety is restored. (Lazar, 7/13)