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For the first time in several years, Los Angeles County officials are taking ambitious steps to expand the region's network of hospital trauma centers. But that plan could soon hit a roadblock. The county pays for 14 of the specialized emergency rooms, which treat only the most serious injuries, with help from a voter-approved parcel tax known as Measure B. The tax generates about $250 million a year, and officials recently pledged some of that revenue to develop a new, long-awaited trauma center in Pomona. (Karlamangla, 9/15)

The Alabama Legislature on Tuesday approved a cigarette tax increase as lawmakers busted through months of deadlock over a looming budget shortfall. Lawmakers gave final approval to the 25-cent-per-pack increase and agreed to a separate proposal to shift $80 million in education dollars to shore up the state cash-strapped general fund budget. The 11th-hour agreement could stave off deep cuts to prisons, Medicaid and other critical state agencies when the fiscal year begins in two weeks. (Chandler, 9/16)

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association says the state's hospitals are under serious financial strain and need help. The association plans a news conference Wednesday at the Richmond Community Hospital to highlight the role hospitals play in Virginia's economy and the need for government action. Hospitals have tried unsuccessfully to convince the GOP-controlled General Assembly to pass Medicaid expansion. (9/16)

The executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network said a new report from CMS addressing health disparities in Medicare will help to deal with barriers faced by racial and ethnic minorities, rural residents and the LGBT population. (Gorn, 9/15)

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City invited Kathleen Sebelius to help it celebrate its first decade of grant making, but the woman who has served as both U.S. health secretary and Kansas governor came armed with a big idea for the next decade. “I think the challenge over the next 10 years is: How do you make Kansas City the healthiest region in the country?” Sebelius said at the foundation’s Tuesday luncheon in Kansas City, Mo. “I think that is a very reasonable goal. I don’t think that is at all out of reach.” (Sherry, 9/15)

People who live in small towns across Kansas are struggling to save institutions that in their minds define their communities. Schools are often at the heart of these efforts. But recent changes in the health care system are making it increasingly difficult for rural hospitals to make ends meet. That’s true of both hospitals in Harper County, located along the Oklahoma border southwest of Wichita, where a long-standing rivalry is complicating efforts to find a solution. The rivalry between Anthony and Harper dates back more than a century. Harper Hospital’s chief financial officer, Sandra Owen, has lived in the county for 20 years — which means she’s still a newcomer. But she knows the story. (Thompson, 9/15)

Citing the state budget impasse, an agency controlled by Gov. Bruce Rauner has stopped paying health-care claims for at least 146,000 state workers, retirees and their families receiving coverage through self-insured plans. However, payments to other health-care providers will continue, for the time being, on behalf of at least 158,000 patients covered by the state’s managed-care plans. Those plans are Health Alliance HMO, HMO Illinois, Blue Advantage and Coventry Health Care HMO. (Olsen, 9/15)

The Nazimek children played with a speech and language pathology assistant on the floor of their Yorkville home on a recent morning, receiving services for speech and hearing deficits while they played. But the speech and language pathologist who oversaw those services, Paula Hamilton, says she will soon no longer be able to work with young children if [Illinois] does not pass a budget that provides funding for the services. Her company provides government-funded Early Intervention services to children with a variety of disabilities until they are 3 years old, and has not been paid since the fiscal year began July 1 without an approved state budget. (Freishtat, 9/15)

Blanca Borrego has been living in the U.S. illegally for a dozen years, so she didn’t think she was risking arrest when she went to her gynecologist’s office this month. Her husband works and has private health insurance for the family. But sheriff’s deputies surprised the mother of three, handcuffing her in front of her 8-year-old, U.S.-born daughter and taking her to jail, where she was held in lieu of $35,000 bond. The charge: tampering with a government record, a felony. Borrego, 44, originally from Monterrey, Mexico, had given the staff at the clinic a fake Texas driver’s license as identification and they alerted deputies, who found a fake Social Security card in her purse, leading to the charges. ... She has no criminal record. County and hospital officials said they were simply enforcing the law. (Hennessy-Fiske, 9/15)

A bill that would allow loosened standards for sexual and reproductive health education and could allow for the return of abstinence-only education in schools made it’s way through a House committee Tuesday and is headed to the floor of the House of Representatives. Senate Bill 279 originally created new standards for licensing counselors. But with new language added during the hearing, the bill could whittle away at some of the standards created under the 2009 Healthy Youth Act, which created a vetting process for sex education in North Carolina schools. (Hoban, 9/15)