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The variation in prices paid to hospitals for providing similar care is either one of the biggest problems plaguing the Massachusetts health care industry or is no problem at all. It depends on whom you ask.That was clear Tuesday at the first meeting of a special commission assembled to study price variation over six months and make recommendations for addressing it. The panel was created through legislation passed earlier this year to avoid a controversial ballot question that would have attacked price variation by redistributing money from higher-paid hospitals to their lower-paid competitors. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/13)

It has been four months since WLRN launched Pricecheck, an online guide to bring clarity to health care costs in Florida. Along with our partners WUSF in Tampa and Health News Florida and with input from our audience, we created a searchable database of prices of common health care procedures and supplies aiming to answer a single question: "How much does it cost?" (Hudson, 9/13)

A key component of the Obama administration's efforts to reform Medicare is a program that financially rewards doctors for reducing costs compared to a benchmark. That was a tough hurdle last year for Philadelphia-area doctors participating in so-called Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs. None of the nine in the region earned a bonus for 2015, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Brubaker, 9/13)

Texas is currently plotting a major overhaul of its foster care system after a federal judge declared it broken last year, increasing pressure on lawmakers to address the issue in the interim and during the 2017 session. Straus said legislators must seek to lower case worker turnover — "We need to keep them on the job," he said — and look at prevention and early intervention programs. Straus said children can also be helped by fixing the state's public school finance system, which the Texas Supreme Court upheld earlier this year. (Svitek, 9/13)

A home-health agency owes the state $612,023, according to an release from State Auditor Dave Yost this morning. P.E. Miller & Associate, Inc., based in Columbus, provided services with unqualified aides and billed the state before proper service authorized was acquired. From July 2011 to June 2014, out of 1,833 services, the auditor’s office found 308 errors, resulting in Medicaid payouts totaling $573,184. (Fochesato, 9/13)

Healthcare Management Partners, an advisory firm, relocated its headquarters to Nashville from Philadelphia as it prepares for a wave of expansion. The company works with distressed hospitals, home care and senior living facilities to determine how the business can turn around. Over the years, its developed an expertise in rural and facilities in small communities, said founder Scott Phillips, who will continue to be based in Philadelphia. (Fletcher, 9/13)

In the near future, Baird and others say, drones could transform health care — not only in rural areas by bringing critical supplies into hard-to-reach places, but also in crowded cities where hospitals pay hefty fees to get medical samples across town during rush hour. By providing a faster, cheaper way to move test specimens, drones could speed diagnoses and save lives. (Landhuis, 9/13)

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed bills Tuesday that would have repealed the sales tax on diapers and tampons, saying that they would cost the state budget too much money. Now the two legislators who authored the legislation have an idea they say will make that argument irrelevant: Tax candy instead. (Dillon, 9/13)

Six years after a similar initiative was rejected, a clear majority of California voters supports a measure on the November ballot that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in their state, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.Proposition 64, which would legalize personal use, is backed by 58% of California voters, and that favorable view extends across most lines of age, race, income and gender, according to the survey. (McGreevy, 9/13)

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to hold a countywide election in March, possibly setting the table for a sales tax initiative to fund homeless services. County officials had debated placing several possible funding measures to deal with homelessness on the November ballot. In July, they voted to put forward a tax on marijuana businesses, but then quickly reversed course after pushback from some homeless advocates and drug treatment providers. (Sewell, 9/13)

When officials see such high doses prescribed, they become suspicious that the drugs might be going to an addict or a dealer. Investigations led Morgan’s pain-treatment doctor to drop him as a patient out of concern that he could lose his medical license. Now, Morgan is tired of the pain, tired of fighting the bureaucracy and, at times, tired of fighting to live. (Perry, 9/14)

The Trevinos are one of 1,200 families helping Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Division of Research build the Autism Family Biobank that the health care giant set up last summer for its Northern California member families with autistic children. Through samples of saliva or blood, Kaiser researchers are collecting the genetic material of each child and his or her biological parents, as well as medical and environmental information for all three members of the family. (Seipel, 9/13)

Maryland health officials on Tuesday said they have nearly eliminated the backlog of people who have been charged with crimes but require psychological treatment or evaluations, reducing the need to put those people in jails that can’t address their needs. ... The reduction comes after mental-health advocates and corrections officials raised concerns this summer that a shortage of beds at Maryland’s five state mental hospitals had reached a crisis point. (Hicks, 9/13)

Contra Costa County’s public mental health care system is in crisis, advocates told county leaders on Tuesday while lobbying for more funding in next year’s budgets — and for officials and the community to step up efforts to find new money anywhere possible. The problem, mental health care advocates told the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning, is a system whose services are sought out by 900 people each month, almost double the number of people in 2010, with no appreciable boosts in staffing. (Richards, 9/13)

North End residents on Tuesday criticized a proposal from Spaulding Rehabilitation Network to relocate a neighborhood nursing home to Brighton and sell the building, insisting the plan will harm seniors who have lived in the close-knit community their entire lives. The residents, many of whom held signs that said “Save Our North End Nursing Home,” spoke during a City Council hearing against the proposed sale of the Fulton Street property that currently houses the 140-bed Spaulding Nursing and Therapy Center. The Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, which runs the facility, plans to close that property and a nursing home in West Roxbury and transfer operations to a Brighton location. Spaulding is owned by Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest health system. (Anderson, 9/14)

MetroLink commuters in north St. Louis County will soon have access to health care services at their local stations. The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded $7.3 million in grants Monday to help communities connect commuters to health services, and St. Louis was one of 19 communities in 16 states that nabbed a piece of the funding. (Liss, 9/14)

Seven more people are now suing Tropical Smoothie Cafe amid a hepatitis A outbreak in which at least 109 people have contracted the liver disease.The newest lawsuit also aims to hold 10 other companies and individuals responsible for the illnesses that have been tied to frozen strawberries imported from Egypt and served in smoothies at locations primarily in Virginia. (Shulleeta, 9/13)