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Medical residents who work in under-served parts of Nebraska could receive up to $120,000 in loan repayments under a new bill in the Legislature. Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln proposed a loan reimbursement program Tuesday for areas designated as having a shortage of health care professionals. The bill would largely apply to rural areas which lack doctors. (1/13)

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to move toward consolidating three departments dealing with different aspects of public health. But they did so over the objections of mental health advocates who worry that those services will get buried in a larger health agency. The move, proposed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, would integrate the departments of public health—responsible for controlling disease outbreaks, managing substance abuse programs and conducting health inspections—and mental health with the Department of Health Services, which runs county hospitals and clinics. (Sewell, 1/13)

The state is “woefully inefficient and inconsistent” in its oversight of parental fees for 24-hour, out-of-home care for disabled children in California, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars unbilled and charging some parents with similar incomes more or less than others, the state auditor said Tuesday. (Siders, 1/13)

More than half of Colorado hospitals receiving Medicare payments will lose a portion of those reimbursements this year as penalty for having relatively high rates of readmissions. Hospital readmissions deemed avoidable — unplanned and occurring within 30 days of discharge — happen 2 million times a year at a cost estimated by the government of $26 billion a year. (Draper, 1/14)

Madison County [Miss.] economic development officials had to cope for years with the sting of losing in 2008 a $450 million Department of Homeland Security research lab for which Flora was among a group of finalist cities. Tim Coursey, executive director of the county Economic Development Authority, said the experience of competing for that facility — Manhattan, Kansas, was ultimately chosen — convinced him Madison County had the technology and the know-how to support a top-notch research facility. He said such a place is taking shape in Canton. (Ayres, 1/14)

In the upcoming legislative session, the North Carolina General Assembly must pass a new Medicaid plan, one that utilizes accountable care organizations, Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Aldona Wos said Tuesday. Speaking at Community Care of North Carolina’s Innovation Forum held at the McKimmon Center on the NC State University campus, Wos called on attendees to champion ACOs as the health care solution that would preserve doctors’ ability to treat patients. (Hoban, 1/14)

State officials have proposed several changes in the Medicaid waivers that define the state’s approach to helping frail elders and people with disabilities live in community-based settings rather than in nursing homes. The proposed changes, now posted on the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services website, were filed with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Dec. 31. (Ranney, 1/13)

[Montana] Attorney General Tim Fox has approved the sale of Community Medical Center in Missoula to a joint business venture between Billings Clinic and a Tennessee company. Fox said Monday that his Office of Consumer Protection still must sign off on the way $74.8 million received from the sale will be distributed. Because Community Medical Center is a nonprofit, the proceeds from its sale to a for-profit group must go to a foundation with a health-focused mission that serves the same area as the hospital. (1/13)

Health care topics getting visibility in the first week of the General Assembly include proposals on autism, facility regulatory rules, Medicaid payments, and raising the state cigarette tax. (Miller, 1/13)

Christa Allen wasn't your typical inmate. Back in 2002 — four years before she was sentenced to time in the Rockville Correctional Facility — Allen had undergone a male-to-female gender-reassignment surgery. Shortly after she entered Rockville, Allen explained her medical situation to prison officials and doctors. Specifically, she informed them that the doctor who had performed the surgery had prescribed her a female hormone as well as a vaginal stent. (Guerra, 1/13)

An Indiana lawmaker has introduced a bill to prohibit abortions if the provider knows the procedure is being sought because of the fetus's gender or due to a genetic mental or physical disability such as Down syndrome. The bill filed by Republican state Sen. Travis Holdman would make it a felony for providers to perform abortions in those instances. (Wang, 1/13)

The governor, a Democrat, nominated his acting health commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker, to take over formally at the Health Department. Dr. Zucker stepped into the spotlight late last year after he concluded that hydraulic fracturing, a controversial form of extracting natural gas from deep underground known commonly as fracking, could not be conducted safely in the state. (Craig, 1/13)