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Connecticut’s hospitals intensified their push Wednesday to block hundreds of millions of dollars in tax increases recommended for their industry by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. But the administration fired back that hospital executives are exaggerating the burdens they face while ignoring the benefits Connecticut’s poorest communities would reap from the governor’s plan. (Phaneuf, 4/5)

The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities has pulled a controversial proposal that aimed to prohibit Medicaid-funded independent care-providers from being paid for more than 40 hours a week. Public outcry over the proposed overtime rule was swift and sustained, with dozens of consumer advocates and families turning out during a hearing in February to oppose the change. (Price, 4/5)

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously in favor of advancing a proposal by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown to crack down on widespread violations at the state's nursing homes. Senate Bill 932 would increase regulatory oversight of nursing homes, raise penalties and sharply limit the ability of nursing home operators to self-correct violations. Committee members present voted 5-0 to send the bill to the full Senate for consideration. (Canaves, 4/5)

Nearly four decades after he derailed a pioneering transgender program at Johns Hopkins Hospital with his views on “guilt-ridden homosexual men,” psychiatrist Paul McHugh is seeing his institution come full circle with the resumption of gender-reassignment surgeries. McHugh, the hospital’s chief of psychiatry from 1975 to 2001, still believes that being transgender is largely a psychological problem, not a biological phenomenon. ... Hopkins, however, is moving beyond McHugh. This summer, it will formally open a transgender health service and will resume, after a 38-year hiatus, an accompanying surgical program. (Nutt, 4/5)

As the nation’s Republican leaders huddle to reconsider their plans to “repeal and replace” the nation’s health law, advocates for universal health coverage press on in California, armed with renewed political will and a new set of proposals. Organized labor and two lawmakers are leading the charge for a single, government-financed program for everyone in the state. Another legislator wants to create a commission that would weigh the best options for a system to cover everyone. And Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who hopes to become the next governor, has suggested building on employer-based health care to plug holes in existing coverage. (Bartolone, 4/6)

California law enforcement officials objected Wednesday to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed streamlining of the state’s marijuana regulations, saying his plan could endanger public safety. Brown’s administration released documents late Tuesday outlining proposed changes to square the state’s new recreational pot law with its longstanding law on medical marijuana. (Blood and Elias, 4/5)

A major player in Canada’s cannabis industry is acquiring one of only seven legal Florida medical marijuana cultivators through a complicated purchase that according to one analysis values a state cannabis license at close to $200 million. Aphria, a publicly traded firm based out of Ontario, plans to invest $25 million in a shell that will purchase most or all of the assets of Chestnut Hill Tree Farm, the Alachua nursery that operates CHT Medical. (Smiley, 4/5)