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Texas could be the epicenter for the nation's next major fight over stricter requirements for immunizations as rates of schoolchildren who refuse shots for non-medical reasons climb in America's second-largest state. The number of Texas kindergarten through 12th grade students who reported filing conscientious exemptions for at least one immunization last school year increased 19-fold since 2003 — though that is still less than 1 percent of enrolled students, according to the Immunization Partnership, a pro-vaccination Texas nonprofit. (12/7)

Coloradans with terminal illness soon can begin making written requests for life-ending prescriptions under the state’s new aid-in-dying law, and authors of the law say multiple people already have inquired. “I fully expect people to begin requesting prescriptions on the first day that the law is effective,” said Kat West, national director of policy and programs for Compassion & Choices, which ran the end-of-life options campaign in Colorado. The law, approved by about two-thirds of voters Nov. 8, goes into effect as soon as Gov. John Hickenlooper certifies the election results, expected between now and the end of December. (Brown, 12/7)

A new pilot program led by Gov. Greg Abbott’s office aims to provide specialized care and services for 500 of the most emotionally traumatized foster children in Texas. The governor’s criminal justice division and the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services announced Wednesday they are planning to spend $8 million on a program for foster kids who are considered the most difficult to find permanent homes for. The two offices are focused on children who are victims of crime, admitted to inpatient psychiatric medical hospitals, and who have been admitted to at least two residential treatment centers in the past year. (Evans, 12/7)

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, led by MacArthur Fellow and primary-care physician Jeffrey Brenner, has won renown for its efforts to address the complex needs of Camden's sickest residents. Now, on the heels of establishing the National Center for Complex Health & Social Needs this year, the Camden Coalition has won a grant of up to $1.65 million over three years from Aetna Foundation to develop a curriculum that will help other cities adopt the data-driven approach Brenner has used in Camden. The grant is scheduled to be announced Thursday at the first conference of the National Center, which is happening Thursday and Friday at the Sheraton Society Hill in Philadelphia. (Brubaker, 12/7)

Two former employees of an Iowa dental-office chain told authorities the company was billing Medicaid for procedures that were unnecessary or weren’t being performed – leading to a $300,000 settlement of fraud allegations. Lifepoint Dental Partners, which has five clinics, agreed to pay the money to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed in April by the former employees and federal prosecutors, according to court records released Wednesday. The lawsuit’s allegations were raised by the company’s former chief financial officer, Todd Willson, and a former financial coordinator, Peggy Lemley. They are to receive $45,000 of the settlement. The federal and state governments, which finance Medicaid, will get the rest. (Leys, 12/7)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is giving the Department of Family and Protective Services an $8 million grant to improve emergency and long-term placements for up to 1,000 of the state’s neediest foster children. The money — which comes from the federal Victims of Crime Act — will fund a pilot program intended to help bring stability to foster children by attempting to keep them out of psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment centers. The pilot sites have not yet been selected but will likely be located in urban areas. (Ball, 12/7)

Preparing for what likely will be a difficult debate during the 2017 legislative session, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee next week will start delving into workers' compensation insurance issues. The committee is scheduled Dec. 13 to receive a presentation on workers' compensation issues, after state regulators in October approved a 14.5 percent rate increase for businesses. That increase, which is currently tangled in a legal battle, stemmed heavily from a Florida Supreme Court decision that found unconstitutional strict limits on attorneys' fees in workers' compensation cases. (12/7)

And with the recent presidential election, many people wonder if the Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare," will continue. No matter what changes may occur, they won't take effect until 2018, according to David Wiley, an insurance agent with HealthMarkets in Atlanta. Here's what else he said you need to know if you're self-employed and are looking for health insurance. (Caldwell, 12/7)

Minnesota’s leaders continue to negotiate over a possible special legislative session, as their latest self-imposed deadline came and went with no agreement. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders of each party want to bring the Legislature back this month to pass infrastructure funding that didn’t get done this spring and a tax cut package that Dayton vetoed. They also want to pass temporary relief for Minnesotans facing rising health insurance premiums on the state’s individual market. Even though there’s bipartisan agreement that all three of these things should be done, Democrats and Republicans have not yet agreed on the specifics — and haven’t been able to in on-again, off-again negotiations since May. (Montgomery, 12/7)

The saying “dogs are a man’s best friend” is just a phrase, but to those living on the streets and battling housing insecurity, it can be the honest truth. For people who are contending with homelessness, their companion animals are the world to them. They are their family, their children and their sense of security. But getting proper medical care for their animals can often be even harder than getting it for themselves. (Hosea-Small, 12/7)

Free after eight years of federal imprisonment, one of the nation’s most celebrated cannabis convicts came home to California on Wednesday, walking off a United Airlines flight into the warm embrace of supporters — and a profoundly changed world. Charles “Eddy” Lepp, a defiant 64-year-old Vietnam vet and ordained Rastafarian minister, was convicted on federal felony charges in 2007 for doing something that California now considers legal because of last month’s passage of Proposition 64: growing marijuana. (Krieger, 12/7)