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The hospital industry in Massachusetts is sharply divided on proposed legislation that could make it harder for health systems to continue the wave of mergers and acquisitions that have been altering the medical landscape. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/14)

Supporters of greater transparency in health-care costs celebrated a victory Thursday with Gov. Jay Inslee’s signing of legislation that will expand a database of medical prices available to the public. The new law improves upon a measure passed last year that created the all-payer claims database by requiring for the first time that Washington insurance companies share their cost data. Previously the database had access only to limited price information. (Stiffler, 5/14)

Community Access is not a bed and breakfast, although it feels that way when you walk through its unmarked door off Second Avenue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Also known as Parachute NYC, this quiet seven-bedroom facility is one of four publicly funded mental health centers in New York City (located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx) that provide an alternative to hospital stays for people on the verge of a mental health crisis. Parachute’s respite centers have no medical staff, no medications, no locks or curfews and no mandatory activities. They are secure, welcoming places where people willingly go to escape pressure in their lives and talk to trained “peer professionals” who can relate to what guests are going through because they are recovering from mental illness themselves. (Vestal, 5/15)

As they reviewed legislative issues affecting children, [Florida] lawmakers and state agency heads said this week they will push again in 2016 for two key bills that died in the abrupt end to this spring’s regular session. An overhaul of the state’s mental-health system and an upgrade of early-learning programs topped a list of legislative priorities at Wednesday’s meeting of the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet in Stuart. (Menzel, 5/15)

Starting July 1, primary care physicians in Kansas may see patients who pay them a flat monthly fee without fearing that such agreements are subject to state insurance laws. Josh Umbehr, a doctor who runs a Wichita practice that has gained notoriety for practicing under the no-insurance “direct primary care” model, pushed the Legislature to pass a bill that specifies such plans are not health insurance. Gov. Sam Brownback announced last week he had signed the bill. (Marso, 5/14)

Locate 1.2 million people. Find even the thousands of them who don’t speak English or don’t have a place to live. Get them to fill out a 26-page application. Process those forms. And get it done by the end of the year. (Freyer, 5/15)

The most prominent measure hanging in the balance would reauthorize $3.6 billion of annual taxes on medical providers that are due to expire Sept. 30. An extension is necessary to avoid punching a large hole in Missouri’s $9.4 billion Medicaid health care program for low-income residents. If the reauthorization fails Friday, some legislators suggested that a special session would be needed to try again to pass the bill. (Lieb, 5/15)

Connecticut doctors and hospitals have received close to $300 million in federal funds to adopt and use electronic health records, but the state still lacks a way to ensure they can be shared quickly and easily among medical providers. (Levin Becker, 5/15)

Louisiana would prohibit abortions based on gender under a bill that won overwhelming, bipartisan passage Thursday from the state House despite questions about whether provisions that allow for lawsuits and damage claims go too far. (DeSlatte, 5/14)

Federal prosecutors say the Westchester Medical Center has settled a lawsuit that alleged it paid kickbacks for referrals and overcharged Medicare. The hospital in Valhalla agreed to pay nearly $19 million. The U.S. attorney's office said the medical center helped open a cardiology practice specifically to generate referrals to the hospital, then maintained a financial relationship with the practice, violating kickback laws. (5/14)

The national right-to-die group Final Exit Network was convicted Thursday of assisting in the suicide of a Minnesota woman, after a Baltimore doctor who helped lead the organization and was present for the woman's death testified against the group. Jurors, who deliberated for about 90 minutes, also found the group guilty of interfering with a death scene. The group faces a maximum fine of $33,000. Sentencing was set for August. It was the first time Final Exit Network has been convicted for its actions. (5/14)

A genetic analysis of HIV samples taken from about half the people infected in the largest HIV outbreak in Indiana history shows nearly all of them have the same strain of the virus, a finding one health expert says is a sobering reminder of how rapidly HIV can spread among intravenous drug users. (5/14)

The University of Maryland Medical System is poised to enter the Medicaid and Medicare managed care market in the state with an agreement to acquire Riverside Health Inc. Timonium-based Riverside employs about 100 people and provides health coverage to 25,000 people enrolled in the Maryland HealthChoice program. (Cohn, 5/14)