Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Newly Unionized Minn. Home Health Workers Agree On Contract; N.C. Lawmakers Back Bill To Change Medicaid Oversight
Just a few months after voting to unionize, home health care workers announced Thursday they have agreed on a contract that would raise their pay floor to $11 an hour, provide funding for training and offer pay protections, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota said. The contract is now heading for a ratification vote by members and still needs approval by the Legislature, which in 2013 pushed through legislation allowing the union certification vote. (Lopez, 1/15)
The Department of Health and Human Services would no longer supervise day-to-day operations of North Carolina's Medicaid program under a bill that received key support Thursday. A General Assembly subcommittee endorsed a measure to shift the state Medicaid office from direct control of the department — run by Gov. Pat McCrory's administration — to a new eight-member Health Benefits Authority. (Robertson, 1/15)
Some California physicians who treat workers with job-related injuries and dispense drugs to their patients are exploiting a loophole in state regulations governing drug costs to increase their reimbursements by as much as 400 percent, a new study has found. (Walters, 1/15)
Amid calls for Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek to resign over a contracting scandal, sources close to Gov.-elect Greg Abbott said Thursday Abbott won't make a decision about Janek's future until after the completion of state investigations. Also on Thursday, Janek's chief of staff, Erica Stick, told Janek she would leave her job Feb. 6, citing in her resignation letter the ongoing reviews of the agency. Stick, whose husband, an agency executive, resigned in the wake of the scandal, had been placed on paid leave during the investigations. (Langford and Hamilton, 1/15)
In his first State of the State address since being re-elected, Gov. Sam Brownback said Thursday night that his efforts to fight poverty and reform Medicaid have been a success and outlined a controversial second-term agenda. Brownback, a Republican who defeated Democrat Paul Davis in November, acknowledged that the state has a budget problem. But he pointed to indicators like the state’s unemployment rate — 10th lowest in the country — as evidence that his sweeping income tax cuts are working. (Marso, 1/15)
