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It took a few years, but dental hygienists finally may have gotten the ability to provide basic dental care to thousands of poor children and elderly Georgians without a dentist present. That’s a big deal because most counties in Georgia don’t have enough dentists to meet the need and emergency-room visits for dental care cost taxpayer-funded health programs big money, supporters of the legislation said. (Salzer, 4/6)

Assemblywoman Autumn Burke says she just wants to help children whose unidentified vision problems may be holding them back academically. But her bill encouraging more comprehensive eye exams when students enroll in school has divided eye doctors – the latest skirmish in a long political history of medical groups squaring off over their scope of practice. (Koseff, 4/6)

Six months after health insurer Land of Lincoln went under, the state is telling former members how to get reimbursed for money they lost due to the insurer's midyear collapse. It's uncertain, however, how much money consumers might actually see. Meanwhile, the Illinois Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association has already been paying health care providers for their Land of Lincoln claims. As of March 15, the association had paid about $33.5 million to providers for 80,000 claims, said Michael Batkins, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Insurance. More claims from providers are expected. (Schencker, 4/6)

At the end of the legislative session last week, the Georgia House passed a resolution to create a study committee on Georgians’ Barriers to Access to Adequate Health Care. The state’s HIV criminal laws are among the health care topics the committee is tasked with examining. Besides punishing spitting, the current laws can also be used against HIV-positive people who do not disclose their status before having sex, sharing needles, performing paid sex work or donating blood, or who assault a law enforcement officer through spitting, biting, or throwing bodily fluids. (Knight, 4/6)

Legislators are continuing to battle families with relatives in state-supported living centers about the facilities’ future. In 2014, a state commission found that Texas could “no longer afford” operating costs for the state-supported living centers. Despite the centers' low enrollment and high operating costs, legislators have expressed reluctance over the years to completely do away with them. (Evans, 4/6)

Massachusetts lawmakers appear increasingly likely to raise the minimum legal age for sale of tobacco to 21, a move that would make the state just the third in the nation to enact that requirement statewide. The tobacco measure could be included in the overhaul of Massachusetts’ marijuana legalization law that state lawmakers expect to pass by the end of June. (Miller, 4/6)

Nearly half of all sixth-graders in Richmond missed class this school year because they didn’t get the right shots. But the Richmond City Health District blames poverty rather than a growing anti-vaccination movement, and it is making an effort to help residents overcome barriers. Last year, 760 Richmond Public School students had not received their Tdap — tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis — vaccine on the first day of school, representing 44 percent of the sixth-grade population, according to data from RPS. (Demeria, 4/7)

Iowa organizations that provide services to victims of sexual violence say they face potential funding cuts at the state and federal levels. A cut to state funding for victim services is being discussed as a way to help make up for a budget deficit. (Sostaric, 4/6)

New England Baptist Hospital, which specializes in orthopedic care, aims to join a proposed merger between Lahey Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center... Combining all three hospitals would bring the new network closer in size to Partners HealthCare, the state's dominant health care system. (Bebinger, 4/6)

San Francisco began working with Pestec, a pest control company, to treat more than 23,000 storm drains in the city for mosquitoes. Its eight-member San Francisco Mosquito Abatement Courier Team (SF MAC Team) completes most treatment by hand, getting around on bike or foot. (Placzek, 4/6)

Legacy Community Health, the largest system of community-based health care in Texas, will open three new facilities in the Houston area in coming weeks to keep up with growing need, the company said Thursday. The new additions to the network of health care clinics brings the total to 25 in the region. Legacy served 125,000 patients last year. (Deam, 4/6)

Bexar County and the city of San Antonio have made clear their opposition to the transportation of spent nuclear fuel through the San Antonio region to a potential “interim” site in West Texas. The Waste Control Specialists site in sparsely populated Andrews County could potentially begin accepting high-level waste in 2021, storing up to 40,000 metric tons for 40 to 100 years. (Brodesky, 4/6)

For the past three years, the owner of Whirlygigs Toy Shop in downtown Exeter has donated hundreds of teddy bears to Exeter Hospital’s emergency department to help ease the fears of its youngest patients. Since starting the bear drive, [Geoffrey] Pendexter has heard stories shared by parents whose kids found the emergency room wasn’t such a scary place after they were handed a teddy bear. He recalled one time when a child showed up at the hospital for a CT scan and calmed down as soon as she received a bear. (Schreiber, 4/6)