State Highlights: Ohio Co-Op Accused Of Fraud; California Heads Toward Serious Doctor Shortage

Columbus Dispatch: Did Healthcare Co-Op Rip Off Small Ohio Communities?
A 4-year-old group of governments created to lower health-care costs for thousands of public employees has been ravaged by accusations of mismanagement and millions of dollars in deficits. The Ohio auditor’s office and some county prosecutors are investigating the Ohio Public Entity Consortium Healthcare Cooperative, a self-insurance program with headquarters near Plain City. (Narciso, 8/15)

San Jose Mercury News: UCSF Study: State Faces Shortage Of Primary Care Clinicians
California is heading for a serious shortfall of primary care doctors, physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners over the next few decades — a crisis that could force patients to seek medical help for routine illnesses at hospital emergency rooms instead, a new study released Tuesday warns. That alternative is among the most troubling scenarios if a predicted shortage of 4,700 primary care clinicians occurs in California by 2025, according to authors of the UC San Francisco Healthforce Center report. (Seipel, 8/15)

Sacramento Bee: Diabetes Monitor Bill Will Save Lives
Assembly Bill 447, which is making its way through the Legislature, would require Medi-Cal to cover continuous glucose monitors. AB 447 would not only help improve the lives of Medi-Cal patients, but also would help lower health care spending and save taxpayer money. (Berit Bagley, 8/15)

The Baltimore Sun: As Judge Considers Holding State In Contempt, Md. Health Secretary Defends Psychiatric Care
Maryland’s top health official spent more than 90 minutes in court Tuesday morning defending the pace at which the state is moving mentally ill criminal defendants out of jail and into treatment. A Baltimore judge is weighing whether to hold the state in contempt for failing to follow court orders to immediately move those individuals into treatment. At times, they have languished in jail for months waiting for space to open in one of the state-run psychiatric hospitals. (Wood, 8/15)

St. Louis Public Radio: For Those Who Are Injured, The Price Of Gun Violence Is Lifelong
According to state data, 190 patients in the city of St. Louis with assault-related gunshot wounds racked up more than $16 million in charges from St. Louis hospitals that year. The figures reflect initial costs, before the bills are negotiated down by insurance companies and individuals. (Bouscaren, 8/16)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Public Health Management Unit Wants To Reclaim Its Independence
The National Nurse-Led Care Consortium, which has been part of Public Health Management Corp. since 2001, wants to leave the Philadelphia organization, alleging that PHMC’s escalating management fee and other problems have jeopardized the consortium’s ability to fulfill its mission of supporting community care led by nurses. The management fee PHMC charges the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC) has soared to $403,800 for the year ended June 30 from $196,800 four years earlier, while the consortium’s overall revenue climbed just 27 percent, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court seeking to break that deal. (Brubaker, 8/15)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Board Of Medicine Allows Conditional Return Of Doctor Suspended Over Drug Use 
The state Board of Medicine has agreed to allow an anesthesiologist accused of diverting a powerful painkiller for his own use to resume practicing medicine on a limited basis. The board approved a conditional return for Dr. Christopher Manfred, who agreed Jan. 30 to voluntarily stop practicing medicine after the state issued an order temporarily suspending his license over allegations involving the painkiller hydromorphone, an opioid that goes by the brand name Dilaudid. (8/15)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Country Ordered To Close Illegal Shelter For Foster Children
More than a year after telling Sacramento County Child Protective Services to stop using a clerical office as a makeshift youth shelter, state officials have ordered the agency to end the illegal practice by a September deadline. The California Department of Social Services wrote in a July letter to Sacramento County Child Protective Services that it must stop letting kids sleep at the county office on Auburn Boulevard near Watt Avenue. (Garrison and Chabria, 8/15)

Houston Chronicle: Houston-Area Organizations Meeting Needs Of Hearing Impaired 
A big misconception among adults with a hearing impairment is that they don't think anything can be done to improve their hearing and are unaware of new hearing technology that can improve hearing in daily activities. Some adults delay getting help because they think they can't afford to purchase hearing aids. Local organizations such as Hear-Say Partners in Hearing - a nonprofit organization for adults with hearing loss that offers hearing loss counseling, recycled hearing aids and affordable new hearing aids, as well as university speech and hearing clinics - can offer hearing testing and speech therapy services that can assist adults who need low-cost services. (Benton, 8/15)

The Washington Post: There’s Plague In Arizona. Authorities Warn Of Fleas That Can Infect People And Pets.
Public health officials in two Arizona counties are warning residents about the discovery of plague bacteria, an endemic concern among those who live in the American Southwest but unsettling, nonetheless, given the disease's devastating impact on human history. Navajo and Coconino counties are adjacent to one another, and in each community the findings are identical: Fleas carrying Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, were discovered this month and pose a potentially grave threat to people and their pets, especially cats. (deGrandpre, 8/15)

Denver Post: Lawsuit: Botched Liposuction Highlights Need For Colorado Oversight Of Drugs, Procedures At Plastic Surgery Centers
Allegations that a botched liposuction sent a patient into heart failure has raised questions about why Colorado allows plastic-surgery centers to operate without state oversight, and whether health officials are putting patients in peril by failing to root out sloppy handling of powerful painkillers and anesthetics. The lawsuit names as a defendant Elizabeth Lammot Campbell, who provided anesthetic services for several area plastic surgeons. (Osher, 8/15)

The Associated Press: Prison Doctor Sues State Alleging LGBTQ Discrimination
A psychologist at a California prison facility has alleged she was twice locked in a room with a dangerous inmate in retaliation for reporting mistreatment of LGBTQ inmates. Lori Jespersen sued the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Monday for violations of civil rights and whistleblower protection laws, as well as the Prison Rape Elimination Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. (Ronayne, 8/16)