Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Fla. Gov. Signs Law To Protect Consumers From Surprise Medical Bills; Ohio Steps Up Suicide Prevention Efforts
The movement to protect consumers from surprise medical bills won a major victory Thursday when Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed a bipartisan bill that will exempt patients from having to pay balance bills from out-of-network providers in certain situations. (Meyer, 4/14)
State officials are hoping more research, access to around-the-clock crisis hotlines and efforts to end the stigma of suicide will help reduce the hundreds of lives lost when people kill themselves each year in Ohio. (Welsh-Huggins, 4/14)
More Georgia facilities run by a financially troubled nursing home operator are under federal and state regulatory scrutiny, a state health care agency said Thursday. Clyde Reese, commissioner of the Department of Community Health, made the disclosure during an interview with GHN. He did not specify the number or location of the nursing homes operated by New Beginnings Care that are being reviewed. (Miller, 4/14)
Detroit's hard-pressed school system has found elevated levels of lead and copper in nearly a third of its elementary schools, contamination that one expert says could be found nationwide, wherever school authorities spend the time and money to look. The news gave parents in the 46,000-student district yet another reason to worry, and prompted the teachers' union to appeal for help from autoworkers, who trucked bottled water to a school where some students were drinking from bathroom sinks after the water fountains were shut down as a precaution. (4/14)
The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to struggle to permanently fill the top position at the St. Louis VA medical system, with the second potential candidate over the last nine months leaving federal service before the job could be filled. The position of medical center director has been open for almost three years, filled by temporary administrators who rotate through every few months. Last summer, a top candidate for the job withdrew for personal reasons. More recently, one under consideration left public service before an offer could be made, according to Huntley. (Raasch, 4/14)
Low-income Minnesotans on Medicaid are much less likely to receive cancer screenings than people with other health coverage, new research has found. Minnesota nonprofit MN Community Measurement found that a little more than half of Medicaid recipients got recommended colorectal cancer screening, while three-quarters of people with other coverage were screened. (Zdechlik, 4/14)
As a young surgeon, Dr. Jorge A. Enriquez watched his peers fly across the ocean to do charity work in far-flung places. But he was struck by the needs of his own community here amid the agricultural lands of the Central Valley. (Leigh Brown, 4/14)
A new comprehensive mental health care center will provide 24-hour mental health and addiction urgent care, outpatient behavioral health treatment and beds for people in crisis. (Sisk, 4/14)
A health-tech innovation campus planned for Denver's River North neighborhood has snagged three big names in health care as tenants 鈥 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Terumo BCT and the American Diabetes Association. (Rusch, 4/14)
To better shield poor people and racial minorities from excessive impacts from Duke Energy鈥檚 statewide coal ash clean up, North Carolina will require 鈥渆nvironmental justice鈥 reviews of any landfills the state permits. The reviews, to be evaluated by outside environmental-justice experts, will explore adverse socioeconomic, environmental and health risks from the facilities on these groups. (Clabby, 4/14)
