State Highlights: Illinois Moves To Restrict Use Of Physical Restraints In Schools; N.Y.’s Medicaid Spending Creates Problems For State’s Progressives

ProPublica/Chicago Tribune: Schools Aren’t Supposed To Forcibly Restrain Children As Punishment. In Illinois, It Happened Repeatedly.
The adults gathered in a hotel ballroom in Peoria — school employees, caregivers, health care workers — fell silent as their instructor, a muscled and tattooed mixed martial arts fighter, stared at them to demand attention. Over five days of training, the participants would learn how to physically control children who pose a danger to themselves or others. But first, Zac Barry focused on what he views as the most important lesson. (Richards, Cohen and Chavis, 12/20)

The New York Times: New York Progressives Meet Immovable Object: A $6 Billion Budget Gap
For much of this year, it seemed that nothing could stand in the way of progressive activists’ agenda in New York. Not conservative backlash, not big money’s lobbying, not even Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s hesitations. Then came the $6.1 billion budget gap. The looming fiscal crisis, revealed by state officials last month, is New York’s biggest since the Great Recession. And more than any of the other political forces that progressives toppled this year, it threatens to derail their momentum. (Wang, 12/20)

The Associated Press: Early PG&E Blackouts Forewarned Later Problems
The state senators grilling the CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. were upset — like millions of other Californians, some spent days in the dark when the nation’s largest utility shut off power during windstorms this fall. The lawmakers demanded that the executive explain why blackouts intended to prevent downed power lines from sparking deadly wildfires caused so much trouble of their own. (12/20)

Modern Healthcare: Gundersen, Marshfield Clinic Scrap Merger Plans
The would-be merger between Gundersen Health System and Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System is a no-go. Seven months after the two Wisconsin-based systems announced they were exploring a potential merger, they announced Thursday they have decided to stay independent after all. In a joint statement, the systems said the decision came after months of "productive, collaborative discussions" about how to enhance care across Wisconsin, northeast Iowa and southeastern Minnesota. (Bannow, 12/19)

North Carolina Health News: Vidant To Open An OB Clinic In Martin County 
An Eastern North Carolina hospital that stopped offering labor and delivery services earlier this year will no longer offer gynecological services for lack of staff. Martin General Hospital discontinued its maternity services at the end of October and said at the time that it would continue offering gynecological services at the hospital and in its clinic, Roanoke Women’s Healthcare. But the hospital’s two obstetricians found other jobs, leaving the hospital without physicians who can offer gynecological care, hospital spokeswoman Heather Wilkerson confirmed. (Engel-Smith, 12/20)

Boston Globe: Will The State’s New Paid Leave Program Suffer As Big Employers Opt Out?
When business groups hammered out a deal for the state’s new paid family and medical leave program, they pushed for a measure that would allow companies to find alternative coverage from the private sector. Smart move. Exemptions allowed by the new law have turned out to be popular, with nearly 3,000 employers applying for waivers by the Dec. 20 deadline to opt out, and 2,700-plus already receiving state approvals.But a division is emerging between big companies and small ones. (Chesto, 12/19)

Kaiser Health News: Loophole Averted After Surprise-Bill Brouhaha In Texas
It appears Texas will get one of the strongest laws in the nation against surprise medical bills after all. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, wavered last month when the Texas Medical Board drafted the rules for its implementation. The board, made up of health care providers, tried to get a blanket exception to the law for virtually all nonemergency cases. (Lopez, 12/19)

Miami Herald: Public Bathrooms Let Homeless Relieve Themselves In Dignity
Unaffordable housing is the root cause of homelessness. Cities with the highest homeless populations are those with the least amount of affordable housing. Miami ranks as the seventh least affordable housing market in the world, and is the second least affordable market in the United States. So I was astonished that the Herald would include a quote from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, the agency tasked with ending homelessness in our city, saying “philosophical” opposition to public restrooms, based on the belief that they “only encourage homeless people to stay on the streets rather than move to a shelter where they can receive a continuum of care, education, job training and financial support to make the transition to permanent housing.” (Peery, 12/19)

CalMatters: Mental Health Care Outcry Targets Kaiser — And State Regulators
The state is facing mounting pressure to enforce parity laws that are supposed to guarantee equal care for physical and mental health issues — with a spotlight this week on mental health care problems at health giant Kaiser Permanente. This week, Kaiser mental health clinicians are on a five-day strike, protesting long patient wait times and strenuous working conditions for providers. They say children and adults with serious mental health needs, including schizophrenia, anxiety and severe depression, are often waiting 6 to 8 weeks — sometimes longer — to see a therapist. And they contend that Kaiser’s behavioral health services have in many ways worsened in recent years, despite being under a corrective plan overseen by the state Department of Managed Health Care. (Wiener, 12/18)

The Star Tribune: Renville County Hospital Plans To Merge With HealthPartners 
Renville County Hospital and Clinics is planning to merge with HealthPartners, the Bloomington-based health insurer that currently operates seven hospitals and dozens of clinics across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. RC Hospital & Clinics, as the health system is called, has headquarters in the west-central Minnesota city of Olivia, about 100 miles west of the Twin Cities. The city also is located about 40 miles north of Springfield, where Mayo Clinic announced this month that it would close a hospital next year. Allina Health System then said it would open a clinic in Springfield. (Snowbeck, 12/19)

Kaiser Health News: California Attempts To Revive Compassionate Cannabis Programs
For years, Richard Manning knew what he needed to cope with his physical pain, rage and PTSD — much of which he traced to a career-ending knee injury he suffered while on a domestic security detail with the Marines.Cannabis may not have been a cure-all, but it was the closest thing he’d ever had to one. (Kreidler, 12/20)