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A prominent consumer group is calling on customers of two leading health insurers to boycott a vast new database of patient medical records until privacy concerns are addressed. At issue is the California Integrated Data Exchange, or Cal Index, backed by $80 million from Anthem Inc. and Blue Shield of California. (Terhune, 12/16)

A recent series of job cuts shows that tough financial times remain for the state’s hospitals – and may get worse next year, experts say. The biggest cuts have come in two hospital systems in Columbus. (Miller, 12/16)

California increased its projected cost for providing health care to retired workers by 11 percent to $72 billion, Controller John Chiang said. Chiang, a Democrat, called on lawmakers to set aside money into an investment fund so that earnings can cover some of the costs that grew $7.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The $72 billion represents present day costs for future benefits. “The price tag associated with providing health care to retired state workers has quietly grown to rival or even eclipse the funding gap associated with public pensions,” Chiang said in a statement. “If we continue to do nothing, we will be sowing the seeds of a future crisis.” (Marois, 12/16)

A psychiatric bed registry that was part of a package of reforms passed by Virginia lawmakers this year is not working as hoped, state mental health officials said Tuesday. The registry was created to provide clinicians real-time information to help place Virginians in need of involuntary commitment in public and private hospitals. (Shin, 12/16)

Health care plans would have to cover eating disorder treatments under proposed Missouri legislation. State Sen. David Pearce of Warrensburg recently filed a bill requiring coverage for diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of the disorders. Coverage would include specialist services recommended by a patient's treatment team. Under the measure the Department of Insurance would be required to make an annual report to lawmakers regarding those insured and treated for eating disorders. (12/17)

A proposed rule from the New York State Department of Health could cover treatments for gender dysphoria, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy, under the state's Medicaid program, according to a published report. (12/16)

A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a ruling ordering Massachusetts prison officials to provide taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery for an inmate convicted of murder. Michelle Kosilek, born Robert Kosilek, is serving a life sentence for killing spouse Cheryl Kosilek in 1990. Kosilek has waged a protracted legal battle for the surgery she says is necessary to relieve the mental anguish caused by gender-identity disorder. In 2012, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf became the first judge in the country to order sex-reassignment surgery as a remedy for an inmate's gender-identity disorder. Courts around the country have found that prisons must evaluate transgender inmates to determine their health care needs, but most have ordered hormone treatments and psychotherapy, not surgery. (Lavoie, 12/16)

Kenneth McGill's face was drooping, his voice slurred and one side of his body numb in 2012 when he told a nurse at the Jefferson County Jail that he was having a stroke. A U.S. District Court jury has awarded McGill $11 million after finding Monday that Correctional Healthcare Companies and its employees at the jail were deliberately indifferent to his medical needs when he had a stroke. Sixteen hours had passed before McGill received treatment. The Jefferson County commission, Sheriff Ted Mink and the nurse were named in the 42-page lawsuit. The county would have to pay only if the company fails to do so, and the county would not be held liable for the $7.6 million in punitive damages, said McGill's lawyer, Anna Holland Edwards. (McGhee, 12/16)

A federal jury has awarded $11 million to a Colorado jail inmate who was left permanently disabled after he said he was denied treatment for 16 hours after suffering a stroke, court documents showed on Tuesday. Kenneth McGill, 46, alleged in a lawsuit that he sustained “major permanent disabilities” as a result of delayed medical treatment he received in 2012 while being held at the Jefferson County jail in suburban Denver. Following a 10-day trial in U.S. District Court in Denver, jurors on Monday found the county’s contract healthcare provider, Correctional Healthcare Companies Inc, liable for his injuries. (Coffman, 12/16)

Many health care practitioners find themselves overwhelmed and depressed, yet there are few outlets for them to get help. A program at UNC-Chapel Hill is targeting doctors who are burnt out. (Howell, 12/16)