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A computer glitch exposed protected health data or personal information for more than 3,000 Colorado residents who receive state health benefits, Gov. John Hickenlooper's administration revealed Monday. The confidential information was disclosed in letters mailed to wrong addresses between May 25 and July 5 — the second data breach this year involving the Colorado Benefit Management System, the troubled computer system that distributes aid to needy residents. Colorado officials are sending notices to those whose information was disclosed and asking those who received the errant letters to destroy the document. (Frank, 8/17)

Arizona abortion clinics must report to state health officials what happens to the remains of aborted fetuses, under a new temporary rule ordered by Gov. Doug Ducey and approved by Attorney General Mark Brnovich. If the fetal tissue is transferred to another person or entity, except for a funeral home or crematory, health officials must also disclose the identity, any compensation received for the tissue, and whether the patient agreed to the transfer. The questions have been added to forms that clinics are required to file with state health officials. (Sanchez, 8/17)

A Minnesota health insurance company started a public push on Tuesday to maintain its foothold in the state’s public programs. Minnesota contracts with health plans to cover low-income residents on MinnesotaCare and Medical Assistance. A new statewide competitive bidding process is slated to leave out UCare, forcing its 360,000 consumers to pick a new plan and costing the company a sizable portion of its business. (Potter, 8/18)

He thought it was pneumonia. Michael Trost, 52 and seemingly healthy, just wasn’t feeling right. During a chance break at work as a wood finisher, Trost’s wife brought him to an emergency room near where they live at the edge of the Poconos in Dingmans Ferry, Pa. "They’ll give me a chest x-ray and antibiotics and I’ll be on my way," Trost thought. (Gordon, 8/19)

A spaghetti dinner with people in prairie dress and a church service in German is all in a day's work for Kerri Lutjens. The 33-year-old nurse, who doesn't speak German, has spent the past few years gaining the trust of several communities of Hutterites, a deeply religious people with ancestral ties to the Amish who live in insular farming communities in the Plains, Upper Midwest and Canada. Although she provides a broad range of care to the eight South Dakota Hutterite colonies she serves, Lutjens has paid particular attention to vaccinating children in these communities and preventing outbreaks like one in Ohio last year in which 383 people, most of them unvaccinated Amish, got the measles. (Burbach, 8/18)

Nearly two dozen of Maine's top law enforcement and health care officials are joining Republican Gov. Paul LePage this week to develop strategies for combating the state's drug epidemic. Among those expected to attend Thursday's drug summit are Brig. Gen. Gerald Bolduc of the Maine National Guard, Roy McKinney, director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Bruce Campbell of the Bangor Area Recovery Network. (8/19)

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin provided a fairly blunt reply to the proposition that the War on Drugs failed. “By some measure, it has failed,” said Durbin, D-Ill. “If the measure is the cost of drugs on the street, it has failed. But when we look at the individual lives saved, there are certainly heroic great stories to be told. But we have to be honest about what works and what doesn’t.” Before hosting a roundtable discussion Monday in Granite City on heroin abuse, Durbin extolled the virtues of drug treatment –- and the increasing availability of drugs like Naloxone that reverses a heroin overdose. (Rosenbaum, 8/17)

New York is using $8 million in federal funding to expand screenings for colorectal cancer. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office announced the move on Monday. The Democratic governor's office says the state sees nearly 10,000 new cases of the disease and 3,000 colorectal cancer deaths each year. The expanded screening program will focus on underserved and high-need areas in New York City, Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester and the North Country. The screenings will be carried out by local health care providers. The money will also support efforts to promote screenings, which Cuomo notes can help doctors identify colorectal cancer early enough for successful treatment. (8/18)

A nursing home being sued by Attorney General Hector Balderas has filed a lawsuit alleging Balderas has violated the state’s public records law by refusing to release communications between his office and two out-of-state law firms working with the AG. In the lawsuit filed in state District Court in Albuquerque, Bloomfield Nursing Operations LLC alleges Balderas’ office has either improperly denied or partly denied the company’s requests for documents, or has not produced them in a reasonable amount of time as required by the state Inspection of Public Records Act. (Baker, 8/18)