New Jersey Forgives $100M In Medical Debt For Nearly 50,000 People
The initiative, announced Tuesday by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, will be one of the largest efforts by a state to help people unable to pay medical bills. Also in the news: how Maine's deadliest shooting could have been averted; another measles case in Georgia; and more.
Reuters:
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Forgives $100 Mln In Medical Debt
Nearly 50,000 people in New Jersey will have $100 million in medical debt erased, Governor Phil Murphy said on Tuesday, in one of the largest cases of a state providing direct relief to people unable to pay medical bills. Murphy allocated $550,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds and partnered with Undue Medical Debt, a non-profit that buys unpaid medical bills from hospitals at a discount, to execute the one-time debt abolishment. (Cui, 8/20)
Other health news from Maine, Montana, and Georgia —
AP:
Final Report Outlines Missed Opportunities To Stop Maine’s Deadliest Shooting
Both the Army Reserve and police missed opportunities to intervene in a gunman’s psychiatric crisis and initiate steps to seize weapons from the spiraling reservist responsible for the deadliest shootings in Maine history, according to the final report released Tuesday by a special commission created to investigate the attacks, which killed 18 people. The independent commission reiterated its earlier conclusion that Maine law enforcement officers had authority under the state’s yellow flag law, but didn’t use it, to seize reservist Robert Card’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings. The 215-page report also pointed out that no one used New York’s red flag law to initiate steps to seize the gunman’s weapons when he was hospitalized last summer, even though the law had been used on non-New York residents before. (Whittle and Sharp, 8/20)
AP:
Montana Asbestos Clinic Seeks To Reverse $6M In Fines, Penalties Over False Claims
A health clinic in a Montana town that was polluted with deadly asbestos will ask a federal appeals court on Wednesday to reverse almost $6 million in fines and penalties after a jury determined it submitted hundreds of false claims on behalf of patients. The jury verdict came last year in a lawsuit brought by Texas-based BNSF Railway, which separately has been found liable over contamination in Libby, Montana, that’s sickened or killed thousands of people. Asbestos-tainted vermiculite was mined from a nearby mountain and shipped through the 3,000-person town by rail over decades. (Brown, 8/21)
CIDRAP:
Georgia Reports Another Measles Case As Oregon Outbreak Hits 30
The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) yesterday reported a measles infection in an Atlanta resident who wasn't fully vaccinated, marking the state's fifth case of the year, according to a statement. The DPH said the patient was exposed to the virus during international travel, adding that it is working to identify people who had contact with the patient during the infectious period. (Schnirring, 8/20)
From California —
Los Angeles Times:
Nearly $1 Billion Left Unspent By Centers For Disabled Californians
Nearly $1 billion allocated for regional agencies that purchase supportive services for Californians with developmental disabilities went unspent in a recent year and was ultimately returned to the state, even as some disabled people and their families said they needed more help. California provides assistance to people with autism and other developmental disabilities through a system of nonprofits called regional centers, which are contracted with the California Department of Developmental Services. (Alpert Reyes, 8/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Valley Fever Cases Rise To Record High In California In 2023: CDPH
California in 2023 reported a record-high number of valley fever cases — a potentially debilitating infection caused by inhaling fungal spores in dirt or dust — and 2024 is on track to surpass that, state health officials said Tuesday. (Ho, 8/20)
AP:
3 People Charged After Death Of Federal Prison Worker Who Opened Fentanyl-Laced Mail
A federal prison inmate and two other people were charged Tuesday with conspiring to mail drugs to a penitentiary in California where a mailroom supervisor died this month after opening a letter that prosecutors said was laced with fentanyl and other substances. According to prosecutors, Jamar Jones, a prisoner at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, California, plotted with Stephanie Ferreira, of Evansville, Indiana, and Jermen Rudd III of Wentzville, Missouri, to send him drugs that he could sell at the prison. They disguised the shipment as “legal mail” from a law office, investigators said. (Sisak, 8/20)
KFF Health News:
Cautious Optimism In San Francisco As New Cases Of HIV In Latinos Decrease
For years, Latinos represented the biggest share of new HIV cases in this city, but testing data suggests the tide may be turning. The number of Latinos newly testing positive for HIV dropped 46% from 2022 to 2023, according to a preliminary report released in July by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The decrease could mark the first time in five years that Latinos haven’t accounted for the largest number of new cases, leading to cautious optimism that the millions of dollars the city has spent to remedy the troubling disparity is working. (Sánchez, 8/21)
