State Highlights: Lawsuit Alleges That Ga. Falls Short In Helping People With Disabilities Maintain Medicaid Coverage; Ore. Tops List For Per Capita Hep C Deaths

Georgia Health News: Georgians With Disabilities Don’t Get Required Help To Renew Benefits, Suit Says 
Three Georgians with disabilities have filed a lawsuit alleging that state agencies have failed to provide accommodations to help them maintain their eligibility for food stamps and Medicaid. Thousands of Georgians with disabilities face a similar risk of a benefits cutoff, the lawsuit contends. (Miller, 4/30)

The Augusta Chronicle: State Improving But Concerns Remain About Care For Patients Moving Out Of Gracewood  
The state of Georgia is doing a better job of moving medically fragile developmentally disabled patients out of state hospitals such as the Gracewood wing of East Central Regional Hospital, a court-appointed observer said in a recent filing. But it is still not investigating and reporting deaths promptly when they occur, including one man who died just days after being moved from Gracewood, and it cannot follow its own procedures for reporting on and safeguarding those it deems at high risk of injury or death. (Corwin, 4/29)

The Oregonian: Oregon No. 1 In Hepatitis C Deaths Per Capita
In the hepatitis C epidemic across the country, Oregon is No. 1.Oregon has a higher hepatitis C death rate than any other state, national data published this week show. The state also has a high ratio of people infected with the virus, which can cause cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. Many don't know it...The data show that the overall U.S. rate is six deaths per 100,000 people from hepatitis C. But in Oregon, the death rate is 15 per 100,000 -- more than 500 people a year. (Terry, 4/28)

ProPublica: Independent Monitor Faults New York State For Delays In Aiding Mentally Ill 
Under the terms of a landmark settlement, the New York State Department of Health in 2014 was ordered to assess and then relocate residents of many of the state’s scandal-scarred adult homes — facilities that had for years been warehousing the mentally ill in squalid and often violent conditions... Earlier this month, in the latest critical report, the monitor warned that the relocation process had bogged down in delays, with the number of residents stuck in the assessment phase nearly doubling, many of them for months on end. (Sapien, 4/28)

WBUR: Brigham And Women's Hospital Offers Buyouts. Here Are Some Forces Behind Them 
The offer arrived Thursday morning in the inbox of all staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital, the state's largest maternity hospital. Those 60 or older would be eligible for a voluntary buyout the hospital plans to finalize by late July. (Bebinger, 4/28)

Des Moines Register: Mercy Iowa City Joins Statewide Health Network
Mercy Iowa City officials announced recently that the hospital has entered into a strategic affiliation agreement with with the statewide Mercy Health Network, headquartered in West Des Moines. In a statement released Friday afternoon, hospital officials report that the agreement will allow Mercy Iowa City to retain its name and local control. The new affiliation, which takes effect June 1, also gives the Iowa City hospital access to the Mercy ACO, the largest accountable care organization in the state.  (Berg, 4/28)

The New York Times: Lincoln Center To Host Theater Festival For Autistic Audience
While many theater productions are driven by showy visuals, loud bangs and huge plot twists, Lincoln Center’s new Big Umbrella Festival is striving to deliver the exact opposite. The monthlong festival, coming in April 2018, is designed to cater to children on the autism spectrum. The festivals organizers hope to educate and inspire, and to make theater a safe space for those who may have previously found it less than inviting. (Chow, 4/28)

Sacramento Bee: CA Assembly Speaker Talks Single-Payer Health Care, Donald Trump
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, visited The Bee Capitol Bureau on Wednesday to discuss some of the biggest issues facing the California Legislature this year. Here’s what he had to say. (Koseff, 4/28)

Los Angeles Times: The Amputation Rate For Diabetics In Poor Areas Is High. This Boyle Heights Clinic Is Trying To Change That
Maria Valdez didn’t have a lot of options. A wound on her foot that had become infected wasn’t healing because of her diabetes. She started using a wheelchair to get around. A year and a half ago, it seemed likely she was going to lose part of her leg. On a recent weekday, Valdez lay on a bed in a clinic in Boyle Heights. Her doctor, Stanley Mathis, pulled off her sock and lifted her foot toward the ceiling. The heel, which once was so decayed he could see the white of the bone, was now covered in smooth skin. (Karlamangla, 5/1)

Nashville Tennessean: Unhealthy Workers Cost Nashville Businesses $500M
The impacts on productivity from workers with diabetes, hypertension and obesity cost Nashville-area businesses $500 million annually, a new study reveals. The financial drag of absenteeism and "presenteeism" (coming to work with reduced energy and output due to being unwell), coupled with costs of medical treatment, promise to be an impediment to the future economic vitality, according to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce's study. The study is a follow-on to a a 2015 report that compared Nashville to peer cities on a variety of health and behavior measures. (Fletcher, 4/30)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Health Systems To Propose Mental Health Hospital
Three nonprofit health systems in the Milwaukee area plan to present a joint proposal next week to replace the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division’s acute-care psychiatric hospital in Wauwatosa. The three health systems are Ascension Wisconsin, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Rogers Behavioral Health. (Boulton, 4/28)

Des Moines Register: Des Moines Man's Disability Payments Falter During Feds' Probe
Roughly 15 million Americans receive Social Security Disability. That number has skyrocketed over the past 30 years in part because of an aging population, but also because Congress has expanded the kinds of disabilities, like pain and mental illness, eligible for benefits. Fraud has grown along with those numbers, but no one knows how much. Last week, the assistant deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration’s budget office told the U.S. House’s Ways and Means Committee he could not estimate how much fraud takes place. (Rood, 4/30)

Denver Post: Live-Donor Liver Transplant Saves Girl At Children's Hospital Colorado
At 3, Peri [Erikson] hasn’t been hitting the gym, but she’s definitely feeling stronger. On March 21, she underwent a liver transplant at Children’s Hospital Colorado that has helped solve medical problems that began at birth with her diagnosis of biliary atresia, a rare and life-threatening disease of the liver and bile ducts. And though her condition wouldn’t have placed her high on the list of patients seeking potential deceased liver donors, Peri took a different route. She found a living donor — and she didn’t have to look far. (Simpson, 5/1)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Economic Impact: Health Care And Retail Jobs Will Be In Demand During The Next 10 Years
What jobs will be in hot demand in the Richmond region during the next decade? Jobs in the health care and social assistance sector and in the retail industry top the list. For instance, the health care and social assistance sector is expected to need nearly 40,000 workers in the Richmond metro area over the next decade, according to Chmura Economics & Analytics’ JobsEQ technology platform. (Chmura, 4/30)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Philadelphia Jury Awards $20M To Cinnaminson Woman In Pelvic-Mesh Trial
A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury has awarded $20 million to a Cinnaminson woman who charged that a vaginal-mesh product made by Johnson & Johnson failed to work as advertised, caused her chronic pain, and necessitated multiple corrective surgeries. The award Friday — which included $17.5 million in punitive damages — followed a three-week trial in which the victim’s lawyers argued not only that the mesh was defective, but that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Ethicon had concealed the risks of the product even as they were marketing it. (Mondics, 4/28)

The Associated Press: California Seeks Control Of Unruly Medical Pot Industry
California is trying to get control of its unruly medical marijuana industry. State regulators released draft regulations Friday intended to impose order on the loosely organized marketplace created over two decades ago. The proposal would establish the first comprehensive rules for growing, testing, transporting and selling medical pot in the state that is home to 1 in 8 Americans. (Blood, 4/28)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: HPS Unites, Simplifies Patients' Medical Bills
Health Payment Systems provides its service, which is sold by insurance brokers, to employers who self-insure, or pay most of the medical bills of employees and their family members. That includes most employers with 200 or more employees, as well as many smaller employers. (Boulton, 4/29)

Boston Globe: Fifteen People Taken To Hospital After Possible Chemical Spill At Malden Healthcare Facility
Seventeen employees at a Malden healthcare facility were treated at local hospitals Friday after a hazmat team was called to the building to investigate complaints of a chemical smell, according to authorities. All of the workers had been released by Friday night, but authorities said they were still trying to determine what triggered the incident. (Gans and Corpuz, 4/28)