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Legislation to allow California’s nurse practitioners more independence in treating patients has fizzled for the year — and it’s not the first time. A proposed bill to expand the scope of nurse practitioners was scheduled to be heard by an Assembly committee this week, but was pulled by the measure’s author, state Senator Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), after he determined that it did not have the votes needed to pass. (Bartolone, 7/1)

The labor dispute is the latest obstacle for New Hampshire Hospital, which has faced a nursing shortage in recent months and had to delay the opening of a new 10-bed crisis unit. The unit, which was completed last July, is set to launch Tuesday. It is meant to ease pressure on emergency rooms, where patients often wait for a bed to open up at New Hampshire Hospital. (Morris,6/30)

Eleventh-hour contract talks between Piedmont Healthcare and UnitedHealthcare ended Thursday evening without an agreement. So starting at midnight, five Piedmont hospitals, along with Piedmont physicians, would be out of network to tens of thousands of United members. That means they will face higher out-of-pocket costs to visit those facilities. (Miller, 6/30)

If Secretary of State Brian Kemp runs for higher office, he first needs to quell a rebellion among one of Georgia’s most important constituencies. Our AJC colleague Chris Joyner reports Thursday that Kemp removed the head of the state nursing board, which is steadily clearing a backlog of complaints against nurses, without consulting the agency’s board members. And he’s replacing him with a less experienced director from the cosmetology board. (Galloway, Hallerman and Bluestein, 6/30)

UW Health and UnityPoint Health said Thursday that they had agreed to explore combining their operations in Madison. The agreement would align UW Health's University Hospital and its physicians with UnityPoint Health-Meriter and its physicians. It also would combine Physicians Plus Insurance Corp., part of UnityPoint Health, with the health insurance company created by the recent merger of Unity Health Plans Insurance Corp., an affiliate of UW Health, and Gundersen Health Plan, part of Gundersen Health in La Crosse. (Boulton, 6/30)

Texas MedClinic, which runs urgent care centers in San Antonio, New Braunfels and Central Texas, will become an in-network provider for patients covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas health insurance plans Friday. (O'Hare, 6/30)

HealthRight L.L.C., of Conshohocken, has agreed to acquire HealthNext L.L.C., a Philadelphia company that offers employers roadmaps for reducing health-care costs, HealthRight said Thursday. The price was not disclosed, but John Palumbo, chief executive of HealthRight, which provides consumer health services online, estimated the combined value of the two companies at $100 million. (Brubaker, 6/30)

Baker and his older brothers Wayne and Walter all joined the Marines right out of high school. Wayne was sent from boot camp to Vietnam in 1972, followed a short time later by Walter, who helped bring back equipment from the war. ...All three were stationed at Camp Lejeune, the sprawling Marine base in North Carolina where authorities now acknowledge the drinking water was contaminated by chemicals for decades. (Jones, 6/30)

Senate Bill 277, which last year triggered one of the most contentious debates in the state Capitol in years, takes effect Friday. But tens of thousands of Californians still remain vehemently opposed to a mandate they consider a violation of their parental rights. The law, however, is being hailed by its proponents as a victory for public health. They say state records show it is already achieving measurable results in raising the number of vaccinated children. (Seipel, 6/30)

Grocery market shelves are about to look a lot different in Vermont beginning Friday because of a new state law that requires all food labels there to say whether products contain genetically modified ingredients. It’s been the source of fights within the industry, including a last-minute effort to supersede Vermont’s law with a national one that would make GMO disclosures through codes on labels that are readable by smartphones. With the state law set to take effect, however, producers have had to prepare strategies for selling in Vermont. (Kim, 6/30)

Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area ranked as the most expensive places to have a baby of 30 major metropolitan regions in the U.S. according to an analysis released Thursday. Sacramento came in first (congrats to you) where a vaginal birth cost $15,420 on average. The San Francisco Bay Area was a close second at $15,204. Minneapolis trailed in third place by almost $4,000, coming in at $11,527, and the least expensive of the 30 largest metropolitan areas surveyed was Kansas City, Missouri, where a vaginal delivery costs an avery $6,075. (Aliferis, 6/30)

California women are significantly less likely to die from childbirth complications than mothers nationwide, but racial disparities persist, according to a new report. There were 7.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in California in 2013, according to the California Health Care Foundation report released Wednesday. Nationwide, during the same year there were 22 maternal deaths for the same number of live births. (Guzik, 6/30)

Friday marks a year since medical marijuana became available to Wyatt (Hauser) and other Minnesotans. (Jessica) Hauser and others who pushed state lawmakers to allow it say the drug has changed many lives for the better. ... Overall, while most patients report seeing benefits from the drug the past year, others are still having a hard time finding doctors who would certify them. Many say it's too expensive, so they end up getting marijuana off the black market. (Feshir, 7/1)

California voters will face a long and weighty list of statewide ballot measures this November — 17 measures in all made Thursday’s fall election deadline and they include big decisions on the death penalty, marijuana use and taxes on the wealthy. “It’s incredible the amount of substance and complexity on the November ballot,” said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California. “It’s going to be overwhelming for voters to deal with.” (Gutierrez, 7/1)