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A measure to reinstate limits on lawsuit awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases is heading to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's desk three years after the state Supreme Court overturned lower caps. The Missouri House on Tuesday voted 125-27 to approve a measure that limits noneconomic damages in malpractice cases. It's a change supporters have been calling for since the state's high court eliminated caps in a 2012 decision that hospital and doctor's groups warned would increase insurance costs, stall expansions of hospitals and deter doctors from practicing in the state. (French, 4/22)

During the past five years, Colorado’s teen pregnancy rate plummeted 40%, a dramatic reduction that public health officials attribute to an unusual contraception program financed by investor Warren Buffett. Now the future of the program, which made birth control devices available to thousands of Colorado women at reduced costs, is in jeopardy. It is set to expire this summer and some state lawmakers are balking at using state money to continue the project. (Frosch, 4/21)

Doctors in Kansas City rake in more money from pharmaceutical companies than physicians in any other U.S. city, according to a survey by BetterDoctor.com. The San Francisco-based company, a web and mobile-based physician search service, found that Kansas City doctors were paid an average of $2,945 by drugmakers, the most in the nation. (Margolies, 4/21)

It took an average of 54 minutes for callers to reach a Department of Social Services worker by phone last month. That’s an improvement over February’s 70-minute average, and one of the lower average monthly wait times in the past year. But client advocates say it’s far too long for people to wait for help with health care coverage, food stamps or other programs that provide for basic needs. (Levin Becker, 4/21)

Republican Rep. Matt Dean, who chairs the House Health Care Finance Committee, joined MPR News' Tom Weber to talk about his bill to end MinnesotaCare. (4/21)

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has rewritten the state's abortion clinic regulations, a move that abortion-rights supporters say was unnecessary and intended to hinder the operation of clinics. (4/21)

Here is the good news: Maine lawmakers want health insurers to start paying for fertility treatments. Many more hopeful Mainers might soon be able to have children. Here is the icky news: Only married people would qualify, and only if they hadn’t become infertile because of a sexually transmitted disease. So far, 13 states have laws requiring insurers to cover assistive reproductive therapies according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. (Guo, 4/21)

There are growing worries about the future of an ambitious federal demonstration aimed at improving coordination of care for millions of low-income and disabled Americans who are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. Health plan leaders and state officials expressed concern during a webinar event on April 16 that current federal-state demonstrations in 11 states may not yield the cost savings the Obama administration and the states hoped for – at least in the projected time frame. (Dickson, 4/21)

A lawmaker's push to increase Texans' access to raw milk stirred controversy on Tuesday, as dairy farmers, doctors and consumer advocates gathered at the Capitol to debate the merits of unpasteurized milk. House Bill 91 by state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, would allow licensed farmers to sell raw milk at farmers' markers and through direct delivery to consumers. The proposed legislation would not allow the sale of raw milk in supermarkets. While raw milk is currently legal in Texas, it can only be sold at farms. (Hershaw, 4/21)