State Highlights: CMS To Probe N.J. Hospital About Alleged Efforts To Over-Extend Life Of Vegetative Patient; New Michigan Hospital Plans Call For Only Quieter, Safer Private Rooms

ProPublica: Feds To Investigate Hospital Alleged To Have Kept Vegetative Patient Alive To Game Transplant Survival Rates
The federal agency that oversees transplant programs said it would investigate Newark Beth Israel Medical Center after ProPublica reported that the hospital was keeping a vegetative patient on life support for the sake of boosting its survival rate. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “takes allegations of abuse and mistreatment seriously,” spokeswoman Maria LoPiccolo said in an email on Monday. “CMS is actively monitoring the situation and is in close communication with” New Jersey’s Department of Health, she added. The department said Friday that it was reviewing the allegations. (Chen, 10/8)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Hospitals Doing Away With Shared Rooms, Going All Private
A private hospital room was once almost a luxury. Today, private rooms are increasingly standard at many southeast Michigan hospitals, and shared rooms are being phased out to reduce the possibility of hospital-acquired infections and improve comfort for patients and their visitors. Hospitals traditionally charged more for a private room, but this move toward more private rooms is typically not resulting in higher costs, according to health care insiders, because major payers such as Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan now have policies against paying extra simply based on the sort of room a patient is in. (Reindl, 10/9)

Modern Healthcare: Colorado's Proposed Public Option Uses Lower Hospital Pay To Cut Premiums
Colorado state agencies unveiled a draft proposal of a public insurance option on Monday that they say could reduce residents' average monthly premiums, largely by paying hospitals less. The draft report on the so-called state option released by the Colorado Division of Insurance and the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing projected that people who enroll could save at least 9% to 18% on their monthly premiums compared to expected individual market rates in 2022, the year the public plans would launch. (Livingston, 10/8)

The Associated Press: California Eases Mandatory Sentences, Restricts Body Cameras
California will soon end some mandatory sentences, make it easier to expunge old criminal records, bar charging inmates for medical care and ban police from using facial recognition software on body cameras under more than two dozen criminal justice bills that freshman Gov. Gavin Newsom announced signing into law late Tuesday. The measures continue the state's march away from get-tough measures that once clogged California prisons, prompting a federal court-ordered population cap. (10/9)

The Associated Press: Assessor Of Biggest Arizona County Indicted On Fraud Charges
The assessor of Arizona's largest county has been indicted in connection with 11 felony offenses, including human smuggling, sale of a child and communications fraud in an adoption fraud scheme, authorities said. The Arizona Attorney General's Office confirmed the 32-count federal indictment Tuesday against Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen for conspiracy, theft, forgery, and 29 counts of fraudulent schemes, The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday. (10/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Antitrust Case Against Sutter Health Due To Begin This Week
Opening arguments in a landmark antitrust case against Sutter Health, Northern California’s largest health care system, are poised to begin Thursday, and industry experts say the outcome of the trial could have ripple effects for consumers nationwide. At the heart of the lawsuit, filed in 2014 by a group of self-funded employers — and joined by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in 2018 — are allegations that Sutter abused its market power to raise prices for employers and insurers. (Ho, 10/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Prisons Head Acknowledges ‘Inmate Suicide Crisis’ After Reports
The number of inmates killing themselves in California prisons is “far too high,” the state admitted in a new report on the worsening suicide problem in California’s correctional system. The report confirms a Chronicle investigation that revealed the inmate suicide rate in California prisons has climbed four years in a row and reached an unprecedented peak last year with 26.3 suicides per 100,000 prisoners — substantially higher than the suicide rate in other large prison systems across the country. (Fagone and Cassidy, 10/8)

Georgia Health News: Embracing Telemedicine And Other Innovations
During the 2019 legislative session, for example, the Georgia Legislature passed bills to require parity in payment for providers offering medical care via digital or telehealth transmission. Legislation also allowed physicians to practice telemedicine across state lines so that more doctors and specialists would be available, something especially needed in rural Georgia, where we have a doctor shortage. (Miller, 10/8)

NH Times Union: Bee Saviors Stung By Criticism Over Proposed Pesticide Ban
Farmers, lawn service scientists and educators supplied stinging criticism Tuesday of legislation that activists are pursuing to ban the use of pesticides that can be toxic to bees. A working group of the House Environment and Agriculture Committee hosted the first work session on HB 646 since the panel voted in February to hold the measure for more study. The bill would impose a ban on most uses of pesticides that are toxic to bees in response to a massive decline in the bee population here and in many other states. (Landrigan, 10/8)

The Baltimore Sun: First Cases Of Flu Reported In Maryland
Flu season is off to an early start in Maryland with health officials reporting Tuesday that the state already has 11 confirmed cases. “We don’t know yet whether flu activity this early indicates a particularly bad season on the horizon,” said Maryland Health Secretary Robert R. Neall in a statement. “Still, we can’t emphasize strongly enough — get your flu shot now. Don’t put it off. (Cohn, 10/8)

The Washington Post: D.C. Elementary School Student Diagnosed With Bacterial Meningitis
A student at a D.C. elementary school has been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, prompting officials to alert parents of the diagnosis and urge them to have their children evaluated for the disease. An epidemiologist at the District’s Department of Health sent a letter Friday to parents whose children attend Burrville Elementary School in Northeast Washington and had been in contact with the infected student. Bacterial meningitis is a contagious and potentially deadly bacterial infection that leads to inflammation of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. (Stein, 10/8)

The Oregonian: No Mercy
Executives of Portland-based Mercy Corps knew co-founder Ellsworth Culver had been credibly accused by his daughter of serial sexual abuse but allowed him to continue at the renowned international relief agency in a top role for more than a decade. The $471-million-a-year charity twice rebuffed Culver’s daughter, Tania Culver Humphrey — 25 years ago when she first detailed her allegations to Mercy Corps officials and then again last year when she asked them to reexamine how they handled the initial review. (Crombie, Williams and Nakamura, 10/9)

Boston Globe: Newton Aims To Keep Students With Epilepsy Safe And Ready To Learn
Newton Public Schools has implemented its own system for ensuring the safety of students with epilepsy, ahead of proposed legislation at the state level, according to the city’s director of School Health Services. The proposed legislation, known as The Seizure Safe School Act, currently filed in Massachusetts would ensure school personnel — including nurses, teachers, and volunteers — are not only prepared but also can recognize and respond appropriately and efficiently to the student experiencing a seizure. (Beiner, 10/8)

Sacramento Bee: CA Law Protects Special Needs Students At Nonpublic Schools
Assembly Bill 1172 allows the state Department of Education to immediately suspend or revoke the certification of a nonpublic school if a student’s health or safety is being compromised. Nonpublic schools are generally private, nonreligious schools that contract with local school districts or the county office of education to serve students with special needs. (Morrar, 10/8)

North Carolina Health News: Blue Cross, Duke To Back Oral Health Access
As North Carolina struggles to meet the oral health care needs of many of its residents, especially in rural areas, three philanthropic organizations have come together with a promise of millions of dollars over the next five years to help expand access. The Duke Endowment and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation and its foundation in South Carolina announced recently that they plan to invest $35 million in initiatives and projects in the bordering states. (Blythe, 10/9)

KQED: Black People Disproportionately Homeless In California
In Monterey County, the percentage of black or African American people who are homeless is more than seven times higher than the county’s black population. It is nearly six times higher at the state level.While only 3.5% of people living in Monterey County identify as “black or African American,” 25% of the county’s homeless population identifies as such, according to the homeless census, also known as the Point-in-Time Count. (Cimini, 10/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Man Accused Of Killing Homeless Men In New York Investigated For Separate Attack
The 24-year-old man accused of killing four homeless men as they slept in lower Manhattan is being investigated for an assault on another sleeping homeless man a week earlier, New York Police Department officials said Tuesday. Investigators believe Randy Santos, who is accused of bludgeoning the four men to death early Saturday, used a stick in a separate incident on Sept. 27 to strike a man sleeping near the waterfront on Manhattan’s West Side, officials said. Mr. Santos is believed to have also tried to throw the man into the Hudson River, according to officials. (Chapman and Honan, 10/8)

Sacramento Bee: New Mumps Cases In Outbreak At Elon, High Point University
Nearly a dozen more cases of the highly contagious mumps virus have been reported at universities in central North Carolina as public health officials work to contain the outbreak. Elon University reported three new confirmed cases of mumps on the Alamance County campus, the school said Monday. And High Point University reported eight more confirmed cases this week, according to ABC11. (Duncan, 10/8)