State Highlights: D.C. Zika Testing Program Botched Results; Ga. Gov. Signs Optometry Bill But Also Issues Related Executive Order

The Washington Post: D.C.’s Botched Zika Testing Leaves Dozens Of Families Monitoring For Symptoms
Three people in the District were wrongly told they did not have the Zika virus last year, and 26 others who may have been infected were mistakenly given a clean bill of health, according to the final accounting of results botched by the city’s public health lab, officials say. At least one of the three who did not know she had the virus was pregnant at the time. She has since given birth, and the baby did not have microcephaly, the severe birth defect caused by Zika and characterized by an abnormally small head size and often an underdeveloped brain. (David, 5/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Gov. Deal Gives A Second Glance To An Optometry Bill
Gov. Nathan Deal took an extra look at a bill that expands the abilities of optometrists in the state. He signed into law Tuesday Senate Bill 153, which intitally related to hearing aids but was transformed into a bill that allows an optometrist to diagnose and treat certain eye conditions through injection — a procedure previously only ophthalmologists performed. (Baruchman, 5/9)

Arizona Republic: Arizona State University Students Finish $80,000 Mobile Dental Clinic For Charity
Four years, thousands of work hours, $80,000 in fundraising and a last-minute miracle later, a group of Arizona State University students has finished a large-scale charity project just in time for its last two members to graduate. Five women and one man make up Engineering Smiles, a group that designed a mobile dental clinic that will serve tens of thousands of people in Nicaragua and underserved communities in Arizona and California. (White, 5/9)

Denver Post: Why Did Private Insurance Rates Rise After Colorado Hospitals Got $6.4B?
Eight years ago, Colorado created a program to give hospitals more money to cover uncompensated costs on the promise it would lower insurance rates for all. The state’s hospitals received $6.4 billion since then to cover charity care and unpaid bills from indigent patients — all money intended to reduce the cost-shift to people with private insurance. But private payers — which make up the majority of Colorado — never saw the benefits trickle down. (Frank, 5/9)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: New Jersey Moves To Help Elderly And Disabled
New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino on Tuesday announced the expansion of a hidden-camera loan program, to make it available not just in private homes, but also in nursing homes and other institutional settings. The Safe Care Cam program of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, started in December to help people who suspected that their loved ones were being mistreated or neglected, allows state residents to borrow free micro-surveillance equipment to keep an eye on loved ones. The state is not disclosing how many of the cameras it purchased or how many are in use. (Brubaker, 5/9)

Miami Herald: Deaf Patients Win Right To Sue Baptist Health For Discrimination 
Two deaf patients from Miami won the right to sue Baptist Health South Florida for discrimination after a federal appeals court on Monday reversed a lower court’s dismissal of their case — and published a detailed opinion that advocates say spells out the responsibility for all hospitals to ensure “effective communication” with patients who cannot hear. The patients, Cheylla Silva and John Paul Jebian, filed a lawsuit in 2014 under the Americans with Disabilities Act after they said Baptist Hospital Miami and South Miami Hospital — both owned by Baptist Health — had refused to provide in-person interpreters of American Sign Language. (Chang, 5/9)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Nursing Homes Among Nation's Worst, Study Says
A new report shows that the quality of Ohio’s nursing homes is lower than the national average, though the reason is unclear. The report, by the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University, looked at residents who stay in a facility for 100 days or more. It showed that Ohio ranked below the national average on all 10 of the quality measures used by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, including instances of urinary tract infections, unexplained weight loss, pain, pressure ulcers and use of antipsychotic medications. (King, 5/10)

Boston Globe: State Launching Tax-Free Savings Plan For Disabled Residents 
Disabled Massachusetts residents are about to get their own version of a college savings plan: a tax-free account that lets families set aside up to $14,000 a year for an array of expenses ranging from health care to education, without losing federal disability benefits. It’s a national program some eight years in the works, and the culmination of a tireless effort by families to make their case to Congress. (Healy, 5/10)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Her Doctor's Visit Co-Pay Jumped From $40 To $114. The Hospital Could Not Explain Why 
Those experiences suggest that the price of an office visit - likely the simplest and most common encounter patients have with the health care industry - is far more complicated than most people anticipate. Perhaps because patients know what they paid for office visits in years past, concerns over their rising prices came up over and over. The effort required to comprehend those prices is emblematic of the snarled system of health care billing.  (Lipinski, 5/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Medical Marijuana Expansion Bill Signed Into Law
Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law Tuesday a measure that expands the state’s medical marijuana program. Senate Bill 16 makes six more conditions eligible for treatment with a limited form of cannabis oil allowed in Georgia: AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, epidermolysis bullosa, peripheral neuropathy and Tourette’s syndrome. It also allows patients in hospice care to possess the oil. (Baruchman, 5/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In Low-Key Rollout, DNR Begins Giving Water To Those With Tainted Wells
With livestock-contamination of drinking water a growing concern in Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources has quietly started efforts to provide temporary water supplies to people with tainted wells. The DNR posted an update on its website in April that said it would provide temporary emergency drinking water when tests show that a water supply is contaminated and is likely due to groundwater contaminated by manure, a person on the property contracts a water-borne illness or there is a sudden change in color or odor of well water. (Bergquist, 5/9)

Boston Globe: Medical Marijuana Industry Preps For Advent Of Legal Pot 
With retail pot shops set to open next year in Massachusetts, advocates are worried that medical cannabis patients could be forced to pay higher prices for the drug, lose access to specialized preparations, or simply end up marginalized among the coming flood of recreational users. To ensure medical marijuana lasts, proponents are lobbying for changes that include making it easier and cheaper to register as a patient, guaranteeing a steady supply of marijuana just for patients, and encouraging investment by allowing nonprofit medical dispensaries to convert to for-profit businesses. (Adams, 5/9)