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UCLA Health System failed to properly secure its records and quickly notify as many as 4.5 million patients in a recent hacking incident, a new lawsuit contends. A Redlands law firm has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Los Angeles resident Miguel Ortiz, a patient of UCLA since 2011, seeking class-action status on behalf of all current and former patients of the health system. (Shively, 8/11)

Relatives of children with disabilities are joining therapy providers in a lawsuit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, weeks before the agency is scheduled to slash payments to a therapy program for the poor. The families and therapy providers have asked a Travis County judge to stop the state from implementing the budget cuts on Sept. 1, alleging they will cause "immediate and irreparable injury" to thousands of kids in the state's Medicaid program. (Walters, 8/11)

A group of home health providers and parents of disabled children has sued the Texas health agency, seeking to block deep cuts in Medicaid therapy payments set to take effect Sept. 1. The cuts would eliminate some $200 million in Medicaid spending on physical, occupational and speech therapy services, as directed by the Legislature in a rider tacked onto an appropriations bill. The cuts would primarily affect care for children with disabilities who require ongoing therapy, but they also could impact adults requiring therapy from injuries or surgery. (Hawryluk, 8/11)

There are dozens of counties in Texas without even one physician. There are even more without a psychiatrist. In total, more than 3 million Texans don’t have a psychiatrist. So how do you convince young medical school students to become psychiatrists, social workers and psychologists? And to move to places that have more cows than people? One state lawmaker says a bill to award dollar bills would be a good place to start. (Silverman, 8/11)

Just weeks after a $1 billion hole in Florida's health care budget threatened to cause a government shutdown, another budget crisis could already be looming. State economists predict Medicaid will cost the state an additional $500 million in 2016-17, in large part because enrollment in the subsidized health care program is expected to grow. With the private health plans that cover Florida's Medicaid population already seeking more money from the state and hospitals requesting more for charity care, the need for an additional $500 million would be "impossible for the state to fulfill," Gov. Rick Scott said in a letter to state budget officials last week. (McGrory, 8/11)

A health care panel formed by Gov. Rick Scott will meet Wednesday and focus, in part, on ambulatory surgical centers --- an issue that has spurred debate in the Legislature.The House during a June special session approved a bill that would have allowed patients to stay at ambulatory-surgical centers for up to 24 hours, eliminating a regulation that currently prevents overnight stays. Also, the bill would have allowed the creation of "recovery care centers," where patients could stay for up to 72 hours after surgery. (8/11)

The Pioneer Institute called the offices of 96 [Massachusetts] dentists, ophthamologists, dermatologists and gastroenterologists (the doctors who perform colonoscopies) last month, asking for the price of five basic services. The results show that prices vary widely. But getting the information wasn’t easy. (Bebinger, 8/11)

Illinois' state-funded drug treatment has dried up at the same time the Chicago area has developed the nation's worst heroin problem, a Roosevelt University report concludes. The report, to be released Tuesday, found that Illinois' per capita treatment admissions are among the lowest in the country, ahead of only Texas and Tennessee. The state has slashed treatment spending by nearly 30 percent since 2007, according to the report, and Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed budget calls for further cuts. (Keilman, 8/11)

Among the 10 largest public, national universities in the U.S., ASU is the first to outsource psychiatric services. The other nine — all of which offer on-campus psychiatric care — include Ohio State University, University of Central Florida and, at the smallest, Pennsylvania State University’s main campus, which has more than 40,000 students. (White, 8/11)

In a sharp rebuke, the chairman of a powerful Senate committee on Tuesday admonished state officials for failing many of California's 63,000 foster children, who critics say are too often prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs with little follow-up or coordinated care. (Seipel, 8/11)

City and state workers have tested dozens of cooling towers for Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx, a painstaking process augmented over the weekend by six staffers and three vehicles from Westchester County. The workers got along well, said Caren Halbfinger of the county health department. “These are all professionals who are used to responding to emergencies,” she said. (Ramey and Dawsey, 8/10)

Two West Virginia facilities involved in mental health and substance abuse treatment are receiving a funding boost from the federal government. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin says $1.6 million has been awarded to Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center in Princeton. The Westbrook Health Services Integrated Health Care Program in Parkersburg will receive $400,000 in funding. (8/12)

Setting a future course for the troubled Los Angeles County jail system, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to move at least 1,000 mentally ill offenders out of lockups and voted to build a state-of-the-art jail focused on mental health treatment. The moves come in response to a growing debate about how the county incarcerates its inmates — particularly the mentally ill, who make up 20% of the roughly 17,000 people behind bars. (Sewell and Chang, 8/11)

The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Richmond-based Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. has been sued by the federal government for participating in what it calls an $80 million kickback scheme. (8/11)

The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. is being sued by the federal government for allegedly participating in an $80 million “kickback scheme” that the government claims defrauded federal health insurance programs of hundreds of millions of dollars. The lawsuit claims the defendants “knowingly and willfully” offered or paid $80 million in kickbacks to health care providers in the form of sham “process and handling” fees of $18 to $21 per blood sample. (Blackwell, 8/11)

A group seeking to ask voters in 2016 to legalize medical marijuana raised more than $770,000 in July, buoyed by contributions from its leader, Orlando attorney John Morgan, according to a newly filed finance report. "People United for Medical Marijuana" raised $770,534 during the month and spent $756,419, as it tries to collect enough petition signatures to get on the November 2016 ballot. The Morgan Firm PA contributed about $704,000 of the July total, with Coral Gables retiree Barbara Stiefel chipping in another $40,000, the report shows. (8/11)

The Washington Department of Health has instituted a policy that allows new parents to bring their babies to the office with them. Every day. As in Monday through Friday. In an effort to promote employee health, baby bonding and breast feeding, the agency enacted an “Infants at Work Policy” that allows moms or dads to tote the tots to work. Babies from 6-weeks to 6-months-old will be welcome at the health department office where they can sit on laps, snooze in a stroller or even attend a board meeting as their parents juggle the assignments of the day with diaper duty and all the rest of the chores that come with a bouncing bundle of joy. (Baker, 8/11)