State Highlights: Worries Surround Rural Health Training, Finances In Miss., Ga.; N.H. Health Execs Fret Over Mental Health Access Issues

Stateline: Rural Doctors’ Training May Be In Jeopardy
In nearly two years as a medical resident in Meridian, Mississippi, Dr. John Thames has treated car-wreck victims, people with chest pains and malnourished infants. Patients have arrived with lacerations, with burns, or in a disoriented fog after discontinuing their psychiatric medications. Thames, a small-town Mississippi native, said the East Central Mississippi HealthNet Rural Family Medicine Residency Program has been “exactly what I was looking for.” (Ollove, 4/24)

Georgia Health News: Ideas And A Sense Of Urgency Permeate Rural Health Care Symposium
Policymakers, medical professionals and those interested in rural health care converged at a symposium at the University of Georgia School of Law last week to discuss the unique challenges of rural medicine... One of the biggest and most often mentioned challenges facing rural hospitals is their lack of cash on hand, or accessible cash to meet future costs. (Male, 4/24)

NH Times Union: Lack Of Access To Mental Health Services Concerns Health Execs
Executives from six of the state’s largest health care systems wrote to Gov. Chris Sununu on Monday to express their “deep concerns” about access to mental health services in the state, and the backlog of patients in emergency rooms awaiting admission to the state’s psychiatric hospital. “Given the state’s insufficient investments in additional bed capacity at New Hampshire Hospital, our emergency departments have become a boarding place for behavioral health patients in acute crisis,” states the April 24 letter from Dr. Travis Harker, chief medical officer at Granite Health, a collaborative involving Catholic Medical Center, Concord Hospital, LRG Healthcare, Southern NH Health and Wentworth-Douglas Hospital. (Solomon, 4/24)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Push To Link Public Health Efforts To Climate Programs
California’s fight against climate change would be overhauled under legislation advanced by an Assembly committee on Monday. The legislation, a revised version of a measure introduced earlier this year, would link the state’s efforts against greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, and other pollutants, which cause public health problems such as asthma. (Megerian, 4/24)

Sacramento Bee: Mentally Ill Inmates Seek Punitive Damages To Change State Prisons 
In a trial underway in front of U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, plaintiffs want a jury to find nine corrections department employees liable for malice and oppression to rectify abuses they say their client suffered during a brutal 2012 cell extraction. Along with general damages, the attorneys say a punitive award would send a message to the prison system and its staff on how to carry out the best practices – and avoid the worst – when inmates have full-blown psychotic breakdowns. (Furillo, 4/24)

The Tennessean: Judge Rules In Favor Of Tennessee Clinic In Meningitis Outbreak Case
A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a state pharmacy board can be found at fault for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that took the lives of some 77 patients who had been injected with fungus contaminated drugs. In a nine-page ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel concluded that lawyers for a Tennessee pain clinic had presented sufficient evidence in her Boston, Mass. courtroom for the claims that the two agencies acted recklessly to go forward. (Roche, 4/24)

Health News Florida: Partnerships With Health Care Providers Boost Florida Blue's Profits, CEO Says 
While other health insurers left the Affordable Care Act’s individual market in the state, Florida Blue is staying put and even turning a profit. Pat Geraghty, the company’s CEO, attributes that success to partnerships and investments Florida Blue has made with health care providers. (Ochoa, 4/24)

Pioneer Press: 20 Measles Cases In Hennepin County Prompts Warning: Get Vaccinated
Minnesota health officials are asking parents and medical workers to be on the lookout after 20 children have come down with measles in Hennepin County. The state Department of Health requests people watch for potential cases and help make sure Minnesota children are protected through vaccinations. (4/24)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Ranks Near Bottom For Children's Health, Access To Care
Texas is so accustomed to dismal ratings when it comes to children's welfare that mediocre would look good. Once again, the Lone Star State is near the bottom of the heap when it comes to children's health care. (Christian, 4/24)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Akron Mayor Appoints First Health Equity Ambassador 
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan has appointed Tamiyka Rose to serve as the city's first health equity ambassador. The new position will advise the mayor and his staff on policy initiatives and lead the city's efforts to decrease racial and ethnic disparities, specifically premature birth and infant mortality rates. (Becka, 4/24)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Utah Man Dies In Philly After Double-Lung Transplant He Couldn't Get At Home For Smoking Pot
A Utah man who was denied a double lung transplant in Salt Lake City because he had smoked marijuana, according to his family, died in Philadelphia on Saturday, several weeks after receiving new organs at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Riley Hancey, 20, smoked a joint with friends on Thanksgiving, his father, Mark, said in an interview. The next day, the avid skier was stricken with pneumonia. By mid-December he was on life-support in a University of Utah hospital intensive care unit. (Wood, 4/24)

WNPR: Pediatric Refugee Clinic At Yale Helps Children 'Move Beyond The Trauma' 
The screening process for refugees entering the United States involves multilayered security checks, interviews and an overseas medical exam. ... It’s in these spaces, like a program at Yale University, where their stories begin to unfold to the doctors and physicians-in-training. (Mack, 4/25)

Houston Chronicle: Ambulance Company Owners Convicted In Health Care Fraud Case
A pair of brothers who own a Houston based ambulance company will each spend more than four years in federal prison after their conviction in a a government health fraud case. Kevin Olufemi Davies, 29 and Melvin Olusola Davis, 28, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced Monday. They pleaded guilty in December 2016. (Glenn, 4/24)

Reveal: New Bill Would Require Pot Worker Training In Safety And Sexual Harassment 
Marijuana growers in California would be required to train employees about worker safety and sexual harassment under state legislation headed for a hearing tomorrow. Sponsored by the UFCW Western States Council, the Cannabis Workers Protection Bill would require marijuana business owners of all kinds to put at least one employee per year through a 30-hour Cal-OSHA training. (Walter, 4/24)