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A bipartisan bill that would bolster telehealth across Colorado by preventing insurance plans from requiring in-person care to patients when it can be appropriately provided remotely passed the House Wednesday. The bill, which now moves to the Senate, would expand current state law on telehealth — care delivered remotely via computers, cameras, smartphones and other devices. Insurance companies can require in-person health care delivery, as a condition of coverage, for patients residing in counties with more than 150,000 residents. (Draper, 1/28)

Four years after an aggressive legislative effort to keep Planned Parenthood from receiving state dollars for health care for low-income women, the Texas Senate is back at it — this time over funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings. The proposed Senate budget would change how funding is distributed from the joint federal-state Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program, which provides cancer screenings for uninsured women. (Ura, 1/28)

The movement to transform the way medical care is paid for — by rewarding the quality of care over the quantity — received a big push Wednesday from a national coalition of health organizations, including three major players in Massachusetts. (McCluskey, 1/28)

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Wednesday that he would allow three late-hour regulations drafted by his Democratic predecessor to move forward, including a measure that prohibits discrimination in the state Medicaid program on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. (Wagner, 1/28)

A bill aimed at giving young women free or low-cost IUDs and dramatically cutting the teen birth rate in Colorado is expected to be introduced in the Colorado House by the end of this week. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 1/28)

Last month, a Miami child welfare judge ordered the state to find beds at mental health treatment centers for two siblings, both of whom had become grievously ill from abuse or neglect. When administrators from the Department of Children & Families returned to court Wednesday, they had met the judge’s order half-way. One of the two children, DCF said, had been admitted to a residential treatment center for psychiatric care. The other was still waiting for a bed. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman chided lawyers and administrators at both DCF and the Agency for Health Care Administration — which runs the state Medicaid program for needy Floridians, and is responsible, at least indirectly, for securing treatment beds — for making children like the siblings wait for necessary care. (Miller, 1/28)

Nearly one year after lawmakers and small-business owners cast a critical eye at the contractor managing mental health and substance treatment for Idaho's poor, company officials say approval ratings remain high and problems are few. Executives from Optum, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, told the House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday that they had a 95 percent satisfaction rating among members who receive services from Medicaid mental health providers. (Kruesi, 1/28)

While Forest Health Medical Center [in Ypsilanti, Mich.] appeared on a list of hospitals and clinics penalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, its administration says the hospital actually was rated very well. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rated hospitals across the country and penalized those with high rates of potentially avoidable mistakes known as hospital-acquired conditions by reducing their Medicare payments by 1 percent over the 2015 fiscal year. (Baird, 1/28)

Dallas has some of the most expensive hospitals in the country for patients getting surgeries covered by private insurance, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday. (Landers, 1/28)

As the popularity of electronic cigarettes continues to grow, California’s top public health official warned residents Wednesday about their dangers and announced a new campaign to reduce their use. Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health, said he feared that the increased use of e-cigarettes could chip away at the gains California has made in reducing smoking rates and changing the culture of smoking. The state has the second-lowest adult smoking rate in the nation, he said. (Gorman, 1/29)