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But what’s clear is the state regulatory terrain for midwives poses a problem for consumers when the nation is experiencing an increase in the number of births taking place outside hospitals, usually in homes or freestanding birthing centers. The percentage of out-of-hospital births crept up from 0.87 percent of all births in 2004 to 1.36 percent in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Ollove, 7/19)

Minnesota has seen an increase in cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, especially in Olmsted County. The highly contagious disease is more serious than the average cold or cough, but there is a vaccination for it. The vaccine, however, has changed over the years. (7/19)

In a Mental Health Unit pod, an inmate is kept under suicide watch in at the Bexar County Jail, Monday, July 18, 2016. The pod is reserved for inmates who pose no threat to others. Upon intake, inmates are evaluated for mental and physical health problems before being released into the jail population. Between the beginning of the year and July 14 there have been 924 suicide attempts at the jail. Three inmates have died as a result, all in the last three weeks. (Druzin, 7/19)

After a planned merger with Partners HealthCare failed last year, South Shore Hospital is trying to reinforce its place in the market with more than $200 million in facilities and software upgrades. The 370-bed Weymouth hospital has received $137 million in bond financing from the state’s economic development agency and plans to raise money from donations to help cover the remainder of the costs. ... Attorney General Maura Healey threatened to sue to block the deal. (McCluskey, 7/20)

The Orlando VA Medical Center in Lake Nona opened the first four of its 40 mental health beds on Tuesday. Officials expect the new building to be fully operational by the end of the year...That includes inpatient services, inpatient mental health care, advanced cancer therapies and a 24/7 emergency department, which is expected to open by September. (Miller, 7/19)

A lawsuit filed in Arizona federal court Friday claims that faulty Theranos blood test results contributed to a patient’s heart attack. The suit, which seeks class-action status, accuses the blood-testing company and/or its partner, Walgreens Boots Alliance, of consumer fraud, negligence, breach of contract and civil conspiracy, among other causes of action. According to the suit, the plaintiff, identified only by the initials R.C., had blood drawn at a “Theranos Wellness Center” in a Walgreens pharmacy in Sun City West, Arizona, in February 2015. The patient had been sent there for a routine test of cholesterol and blood sugar, to “monitor R.C.’s annual heart health.” (Brooks, 7/19)

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente will stage pickets at seven regional hospitals Wednesday to draw attention to staffing levels they say are affecting the quality of care and putting patients at risk. The pickets will include Kaiser hospitals in Oakland, Vallejo, Santa Clara and San Francisco, and will not result in work stoppages, said Katy Roemer, a registered nurse at Kaiser Oakland and board member for the California Nurses Association, which represents some 86,000 nurses statewide. Nurses will be protesting the hospital's failure to hire more nurses, including resource nurses, who provide support to bedside nurses, and training nurses for specialty areas that have a shortage of staff, such as labor and delivery and intensive care, Roemer said. (Ioffee, 7/19)

Friends and family filled every row of a federal courtroom Tuesday as a Houston family doctor lauded as a "pillar of the community" was sentenced to federal prison for aiding a Medicare billing scheme involving home health services that were not necessary or not provided...[U.S. District Judge David Hittner] sentenced Warren Dailey to five years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. (Banks, 7/19)

In the first of a series of programs on mental health in Minnesota, Tom Weber looks at police training for mental health crises. According to The Washington Post research into police shootings, 12 men were fatally shot by police in Minnesota last year. Five of them showed signs of mental illness. How is - or how should - police response be different if the suspect has a mental illness? (7/19)

Peter Pappas, the Union's television color analyst, pleaded guilty Tuesday to receiving nearly $500,000 in kickbacks for filling unneeded prescriptions for himself and recruiting others to the scheme. In addition to his television duties, Pappas works as a pharmaceutical salesman. (Tannenwald, 7/19)

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are sharing in a $4.7 million grant from the Defense Department to study “brain tsunamis,” the often-devastating secondary injuries from a blow to the head. The study aims to examine nearly 200 patients at the UC Medical Center by placing monitoring electrodes directly on the brain during surgery and on the scalp. The goal is to compare readings from the electrodes to measure “spreading depolarizations,” seizure-like waves that radiate slowly through the brain following a traumatic injury. (Saker, 7/19)