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The 68 layoffs announced last week at the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services were accompanied by plans to close a program serving people who are homeless or getting out of psychiatric hospitals or prison, to eliminate an intensive team that works with people living in the community who have mental health or substance issues, and to end a behavioral health program for veterans. (Levin Becker, 4/19)

With the most extensive food safety regulations in history set to take effect soon, state agriculture officials across the country are preparing to enforce the federal law, but say their ability to inspect farms and enforce the new standards depends on the receipt of promised federal funds. (Ollove, 4/19)

The number of fentanyl-related fatalities reported in Sacramento and Yolo counties rose to 12 on Monday after county officials said a previously undetermined death was reclassified as caused by the painkiller. (Buck, 4/18)

A jury in Wisconsin has awarded medical software company Epic Systems $940 million in damages in a trade secret lawsuit against Indian information technology provider Tata Consultancies, believed to one of the largest trade-secrets verdicts on record. (Weber, 4/18)

When news of lead pipes contaminating public water systems across the country broke late last year, the Monitor asked how many lead pipes exist in Concord’s public water system. The answer then: just one. (Brooks, 4/18)

Hundreds of Los Angeles homeowners who live near the site of the worst U.S. methane leak have filed claims against state regulators and the governor, seeking $3.5 million each in damages for government failures they blame for the gas blowout. Those cases marked the first batch of more than 3,000 such claims expected by the end of this week, opening a new front in litigation stemming from the accident at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field, said an attorney for the claimants on Monday. (Gorman, 4/18)

Since the end of 2014, a Las Vegas-based debt collection firm has filed more than a thousand lawsuits against St. Louis area residents, claiming that they still owed money for treatment performed years ago at SSM Health emergency rooms. (Liss, 4/18)

The South Jersey Behavioral Health Innovation Collaborative on Monday announced pilot programs to develop better-coordinated care for people with mental-health and substance-abuse disorders. (Brubaker, 4/18)

Two employees of Larned State Hospital gave rare public comments Monday about difficult working conditions at the mental health facility. Kyle Nuckolls and Lynette Lewis described for a legislative committee how mandatory overtime and limited time between shifts are taking a toll on workers at the short-staffed facility and their families. (Marso, 4/18)

A new prison health contractor started moving into nine North Florida facilities over the weekend, an initial step toward providing care for more than 80,000 inmates, the state Department of Corrections said Friday. (4/18)

An Oregon-based memory care firm will take questions from the public Tuesday night about its plan to build a residential facility in Oak Lawn for people with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia. (Koeske, 4/18)

A San Antonio family nurse practitioner faces possible disciplinary action by the Texas Board of Nursing after the agency accused him of engaging in non-therapeutic prescribing practices. (O'Hare, 4/18)

A Miami doctor has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for his role in a $30 million Medicare fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors said Monday that 51-year-old Dr. Henry Lora also was ordered to pay more than $30 million in restitution to the government. He pleaded guilty in February to health care fraud conspiracy and other charges. (4/19)

The head of a home health care company based in northwest suburban Schaumburg was convicted by a federal jury Friday night of more than 20 counts of Medicare fraud. (Owen, 4/19)

The Silicon Valley techies visiting his office were typically slender Asian Americans in their 30s who worked out regularly and ate healthy meals. But, as Sinha repeatedly found, they either already had or were about to get diabetes. "It was such a discordance from what I'd learned about in medical school," Sinha said. "Maybe, I thought, this is just an anomaly." It wasn't. What Sinha noticed a decade ago is now supported by a growing body of scientific research: Asians, in part for genetic reasons, are disproportionately likely to develop diabetes. They get the disease at younger ages and lower weights than others, experts say. (Karlamangla, 4/19)