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A West Hollywood woman sued insurer Anthem Blue Cross for refusing to cover the cost of an expensive drug that she says would cure her hepatitis C infection. Shima Andre said in the lawsuit that Anthem has refused to pay the estimated $99,000 it would cost to be treated with the controversial drug Harvoni, which has been shown to destroy the deadly virus in most patients. In a denial letter, Anthem explained that the drug was “not medically necessary” because Andre does not have advanced liver damage, the lawsuit said. (Pfeifer, 5/18)

A consumer advocacy organization has launched a campaign to get state officials to explain why they revoked Blue Shield of California's tax-exempt not-for-profit status last year. (Lauer, 5/18)

After the Florida Department of Health denied Jackson Health System its bid for a trauma unit in South Miami-Dade April 30, Jackson is fighting back, saying that the department changed the requirements of the application beyond what is outlined in state law, leaving the hospital in a “guessing game.” In a petition to the department on Monday, Jackson fought back against the department’s claims that its application for a license to operate a trauma unit at Jackson South Community Hospital was denied because it was missing documentation and some of the information was not up to state standards. (Herrera and Chang, 5/18)

The Black Caucus in the Alabama House of Representatives today proposed a budget plan that shifts money to cover what it says are critical services without raising taxes. The plan proposes changes to a budget bill approved by the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee last week. ... Compared to the committee plan, the Black Caucus plan would add $34 million for Medicaid, $19.7 million for Corrections, $4.8 million for Public Health and $1 million each for Law Enforcement and Finance. It would offset those increases by skipping a $15 million repayment to the Alabama Trust Fund due next year and making other reductions from the committee approved plan. (Cason, 5/18)

Proposed restrictions on minors seeking abortions without parental consent could put the state at risk of a lawsuit, a Senate Democrat said Monday. (Ura, 5/18)

Abortion rights supporters say more than a dozen states have banned one option that could improve early access: telemedicine. Iowa and Minnesota are the only states that offer so-called "telemed" abortions. Women who choose this option confer with a doctor through an Internet video connection and can then be prescribed two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, which when taken in sequence induce an abortion. Women who opt for a medication abortion can be no more than nine weeks into their pregnancy. (Andrews, 5/19)

More than half of all new HIV infections in Oregon occurred in Multnomah County in 2012. That same year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a pill that effectively prevents a person from contracting the virus. No one really knows about the medication today, public health officials say. (Hernandez, 5/18)

Employers struggling to pay for workers' health coverage can slow annual spending by about 5 percent by switching to high-deductible health plans, but the burden likely will fall on patients and health care professionals who'll be expected to pick up the slack. The costs might drive patients to delay care or struggle to come up with a $5,000 deductible, while hospitals ultimately might have to write off any balance due. One Western Pennsylvania hospital has even begun requiring patients having elective surgery to meet first with a finance counselor. (Twedt, 5/18)

You probably never would have guessed it, but one of the front lines of public health in New Hampshire is on the second floor of an elementary school in Claremont - in a storage closet. Here a dental hygienist meets with a second grade girl to talk teeth. ... Looking into a child’s mouth can tell you a lot about her health. In fact, oral hygiene is a sort of canary in a coal mine for not just a child’s health, but also the environment she grows up in. In New Hampshire, some are tackling oral hygiene through both caring for children’s teeth and the environment the child grows up in. (Rodolico, 5/19)

What happens during the first months and years of a child’s life matters - a lot. Researchers know, for example, that middle- and upper-income children are more likely to have positive, nurturing relationships with the adults who care for them and, as a result, they do better in school, form healthier relationships and are less likely to suffer from mental illness. Meanwhile, children who grow up poor are often subjected to abuse and neglect that creates unrelenting “toxic” stress that damages their developing brain, increasing the likelihood they will be diagnosed with developmental delays and emotional disorders. ... Over the past several years, as attention was focused on the collapse of New Hampshire’s adult mental-health system, advocates and community-health workers have launched programs aimed at young children and families in two of the state’s poorest areas. (Wallstin, 5/19)

California will have to invest millions of dollars to better protect its 63,000 foster children from the excessive use of powerful psychiatric medications in a state where prescribing physicians, caregivers and the courts have long supported the drugging of as many as one in four foster teens. (de Sa, 5/18)

About once a week, healthcare providers call the 24-hour palliative-care hotline at the University of Vermont Medical Center with the same basic question: How should they respond to patients who want to take advantage of the state's new law allowing physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who want to die? (Schencker, 5/16)

Facing a $1 billion budget deficit, Arizona's Republican-led Legislature has reduced the lifetime limit for welfare recipients to the shortest window in the nation. ... The cuts of at least $4 million reflect a prevailing mood among the lawmakers in control in Arizona that welfare, Medicaid and other public assistance programs are crutches that keep the poor from getting back on their feet and achieving their potential. (5/18)

Medical providers and first responders on Monday urged Sen. Kelly Ayotte to consider further incorporating mental health treatment into her efforts to address New Hampshire's heroin and prescription drug crisis. Ayotte, a Republican, is co-sponsoring several pieces of legislation related to drug addiction treatment, including one that would direct the federal government to develop a strategy to help infants diagnosed with newborn withdrawal. At a discussion she led at Catholic Medical Center, hospital officials told her that the number of infants born at the hospital after being exposed to drugs in the womb has more than doubled to 7 percent in the last year. (Ramer, 5/18)

A Cape Cod doctor has been charged with illegally prescribing opiates and overbilling the state's low-income health program. Attorney General Maura Healy said Dr. Mohammed Nassery was indicted Friday on 11 counts of illegal prescribing, nine counts of Medicaid false claims and one count of larceny. Healy said Nassery has agreed not to practice medicine in Massachusetts. (5/18)

Despite concerns from some lawmakers that they were taking the first step toward legalizing marijuana, the Texas House tentatively approved a bill Monday that would allow epilepsy patients in Texas to use medicinal oils containing a therapeutic component found in the plant. (Batheja, 5/18)