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Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum said Thursday she's worried that vulnerable Iowans face a "disaster" as the state implements a cost-saving plan to hire a private business to manage the Medicaid health insurance program. Jochum, a Dubuque Democrat who has an adult daughter with severe developmental disabilities, said her family has the financial resources to care for her daughter if necessary. But she feels obligated to speak on behalf of other Iowa families who don't have enough money to care for their loved ones if Medicaid services aren't available. (Petroski, 4/16)

Access to medical care has long been a dilemma for rural Americans. In some pockets of Texas, the problem has grown even worse after a doctor's Medicaid and Medicare fraud scheme decimated a chain of rural medical centers that provided health care not easily found for hundreds of miles. The sentencing this week of Dr. Tariq Mahmood concludes a legal saga that included the closure of four rural hospitals he operated. But for the communities now facing a gaping void in medical care, the problems are far from over. (Warren, 5/16)

Clayton-based Centene Corp. could finally make headway on its long-term goal to spread its business across the state, thanks to the Missouri Senate. Senators narrowly approved a Department of Social Services budget last week that expands managed care of the Medicaid program. (Stuckey, 4/15)

Emergency medical service workers who went to Ground Zero after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 have suffered from an usually high number of health problems, a new study shows. Previous research has documented the health problems suffered by firefighters who worked at Ground Zero, but the new study is the first to examine the health consequences of the toxic dust and emotional stress on workers such as paramedics and emergency medical technicians. (Szabo, 4/16)

Columbia University has not removed TV celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz from his faculty position as a group of top doctors has demanded, citing his "egregious lack of integrity" for promoting what they call "quack treatments." "Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine," said a letter the 10 physicians sent to a Columbia dean earlier this week. They say he's pushing "miracle" weight-loss supplements with no scientific proof that they work. The New York Ivy League school responded Thursday, issuing a statement to The Associated Press saying only that the school "is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members' freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion." (Dobnik, 4/16)

California is in line to receive as much as $550 million a year for two years in federal funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, thanks to the Medicare vote this week in the U.S. Senate. (Gorn, 4/16)

Leaders of the state’s health benefit exchange postponed a vote Thursday on capping the amount that patients can pay each month for expensive specialty drugs. (Sangree, 4/16)

Los Angeles spends more than $100 million a year coping with homelessness, including as much as $87 million that goes to arrests, skid row patrols and mental health interventions, according to a report released Thursday. ... Many departments rely on emergency response teams from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency, to respond to community complaints. But the teams, drawn from just 19 people covering the entire county and supported by $330,000 in city general fund money, are ill-equipped to respond adequately, the report said. (Holland, 4/16)

Hartford HealthCare and UnitedHealthcare reached a last-minute deal this week that kept the hospital chain from dropping out of the insurer’s network — the latest in a series of public contract disputes between hospitals and insurance companies. Some state officials want to do something about them. (Levin Becker, 4/17)

Across Greater Minnesota, nursing homes are in a bind, trying to keep nurses from being scooped up by better paying jobs, often at hospitals. That's especially true in southeast Minnesota where nursing home workers are often lured away by higher-paying jobs and working conditions at Mayo Clinic. (Baier, 4/15)

Partners HealthCare, which a few months ago considered selling Neighborhood Health Plan because of record-high losses, said it will hold onto the insurer because its financial condition has improved. (Dayal McCluskey, 4/17)

A proposed rule that would have kept cigarette smoke away from infants in foster care was tabled Wednesday during a meeting of the House Health Committee at the North Carolina General Assembly. This is the fourth time Rep. Tricia Cotham (D-Matthews) has proposed a rule to protect foster children from smoke, and the fourth time she has faced pushback by her fellow representatives. (Ferris, 4/16)

Nurse midwives came to the General Assembly to show their support for Senate Bill 695, legislation that would remove what they called “unnecessary” physician supervisory requirements. (Namkoong, 4/16)

The “emergency” of heroin and opioid abuse in Maryland is getting attention from state lawmakers and health leaders. Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford’s office announced on Thursday that the third of six drug task force summits will be hosted in Calvert County later this month. (Somers, 4/16)

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signed House Bill 2258 into law Thursday. The measure means Kansas families receiving government assistance will no longer be able to use those funds to visit swimming pools, see movies, go gambling or get tattoos on the state’s dime. Those are just a few of the restrictions contained within the law that aims to tighten regulations on how poor families spend their government aid. It will go into effect July 1. (Holley and Izadi, 4/16)