State Highlights: Ohio City’s Last Abortion Clinic Reopens For Business; Sacramento Approves Hospice For Terminally Ill Homeless People

The Associated Press: Ohio City's Last Abortion Clinic Gets License, Can Resume
The last abortion clinic in Toledo, Ohio, has been granted a license allowing it to resume performing most abortions. Capital Care of Toledo applied for the license after receiving a state-mandated patient-transfer agreement from the ProMedica hospital system in February. Restrictions passed by Ohio lawmakers in 2013 mandated the transfer agreements be with local hospitals and barred public hospitals from providing them. The University of Toledo Hospital ended its transfer arrangement with Capital Care two months before the law was enacted. (5/16)

Sacramento Bee: 'It's The Right Thing To Do.' Sacramento City Council Approves Homeless Hospice, Despite Objections
The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday evening gave unanimous support to a project that would offer residential care for homeless people suffering from terminal illnesses. Following an emotional public hearing, the council ultimately rejected a neighborhood association's appeal of the hospice. The care facility will be one of the first of its kind in the country. (Hubert, 5/16)

Los Angeles Times: Former Students Recount Decades Of Disturbing Behavior By USC Gynecologist
When Chelsea Wu walked into Dr. George Tyndall's exam room at USC's student health clinic, she was 19 and, in her own words, "naive." The sophomore had never seen a doctor without her parents by her side and had never been to a gynecologist. "I was blindly trusting of doctors. I pretty much followed whatever they say," Wu recalled. During the 2016 appointment, Tyndall asked prying questions about her sex life, showed prolonged interest in her Chinese heritage and made comments about the tone of her pelvic muscle as he thrust his fingers inside her, Wu said. (Ryan, Hamilton, Parvini and Pringle, 5/16)

Boston Globe: Despite Promises, Some Low-Paid Nursing Home Workers Still Waiting For Wage Increases
Nearly two years after Massachusetts lawmakers approved $35.5 million in public money to boost wages for the lowest-paid nursing home workers — who care for some of the state’s most frail residents — a new report indicates some workers may still be waiting for their money. Following several extensions and lapsed deadlines, 12 nursing homes are still not in compliance with state regulations, according to the report from the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services. (Lazar, 5/16)

Des Moines Register: Andy McGuire: 'Health Care Is A Right, Not A Privilege'
Andy McGuire said she is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate best equipped to handle the major issues facing the state. "When you listen to people all around the state — you even listen to the other people who are running — health care is what comes up," she told the Des Moines Register's editorial board Tuesday. "As a doctor, health care is a right, not a privilege." McGuire, 61, is a physician, health care executive and past chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party. She is among the six Democrats vying for the party's nomination in a June 5 primary. The winner will take on incumbent Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. (Pfannenstiel, 5/16)

California Healthline: California’s Deadly STD Epidemic Sets Record
Diagnoses of sexually transmitted diseases hit a record high in California last year — with sometimes deadly consequences, according to preliminary state data released this week. More than 300,000 cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis — the most common sexually transmitted bacterial infections — were reported in 2017. That represents a 45 percent increase since 2013 and the highest number since the state started tracking these infections, California Department of Public Health numbers show. (Rowan and Matthews, 5/16)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Express Scripts To Remain In St. Louis And Retain Name Under Cigna Ownership, New Filing Shows
Even though Express Scripts is being acquired by insurance giant Cigna, the St. Louis County-based company will keep its name and continue marketing and branding under the Express Scripts moniker, according to details included in a merger proxy filed Wednesday. In March it was announced that Express Scripts, the largest public company to ever call St. Louis home, was being sold to health insurer Cigna in a $67 billion deal. When the deal was announced, many details were not disclosed about how the new companies would operate after the merger finalizes. (Liss, 5/16)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. State Health Leader Rebuts Allegations Of Illegal Restraint At Youth Center
Last week, the Disability Rights Center of New Hampshire released a report that accused staff at the Sununu Youth Services Center of using unlawful restraint against residents multiple times over the past few years. Now the state is rebutting those allegations. (Biello, 5/16)

The Associated Press: Any Doctor On Board? US Surgeon General Gives Aid On Plane
When the call went out for a doctor on board, the U.S. surgeon general says he gladly stepped in to help with a medical emergency on a commercial flight. Dr. Jerome Adams, an anesthesiologist, said he assisted someone on a Delta Air Lines jet as he prepared to fly Wednesday to Jackson, Mississippi. Adams tweeted that a call went out requesting a doctor. (5/16)

Boston Globe: Former Steward Health Care Executive Files Harassment Suit Against Company
A former top executive at Steward Health Care has sued the company for harassment and discrimination, saying she was subject to sexual and racial comments that were part of an overall management culture that demeaned women and blacks. (Kowalczyk, 5/17)

Chicago Tribune: Advocate, NorthShore To Partner On Pediatric Care A Year After Merger Called Off 
Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem, which called off a planned merger last year after the Federal Trade Commission moved to block the deal, on Wednesday announced plans to collaborate on pediatric care. The partnership between Advocate Children’s Hospital and NorthShore aims to improve communication between doctors and spur technical advances that ease the care process and give health providers more patient history. Pediatric patients often receive care from multiple health care providers, and by teaming up, Advocate and NorthShore will be able to compile more comprehensive records on each child, making it easier to provide quality care, the hospitals said. (Bomkamp, 5/16)

The New York Times: L.G.B.T. Students In Oregon Were Bullied And Forced To Read Bible, Report Says
In the hallways of a rural Oregon high school, gay and lesbian students were taunted with homophobic slurs. In the cafeteria, students pelted a transgender student with food. And when gay and lesbian students got into trouble, the school’s principal assigned a specific punishment just for them: readings from the Bible. Students detailed those allegations in recent state investigative reports into the North Bend School District, a coastal area about 100 miles north of California. In the reports, gay and lesbian high school students described years of harassment and bigotry from school employees and other students, and a deeply religious culture that silenced their complaints. (Haag, 5/16)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Asks Court To Dismiss California AG's Antitrust Lawsuit
In a case with broad implications for health-care pricing and transparency, Sutter Health has asked the San Francisco Superior Court to refuse to hear the California attorney general’s antitrust lawsuit because it would impose expensive, unwieldy regulations that would upend Sutter's business. (Anderson, 5/16)

Sacramento Bee: Nurses Want Mark Zuckerberg’s Name Off S.F. Hospital
Nurses say patients at a San Francisco hospital renamed in 2015 for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife fear for their privacy given recent data breaches and security scandals on the social media platform. ...Protests by some nurses at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center seek to have the hospital revert to its original name, the station reported. (Sweeney, 5/16)

San Jose Mercury News: Sutter Health Network Restored; Bereaved Daughter Recounts Ordeal
Sutter Health said service has returned to normal after a network outage, but its effects are likely to linger for a Santa Clara woman who said Wednesday she couldn’t reach a hospice’s 24-hour hotline for many hours after her father’s death at an assisted-living facility. During the outage, which began about 10:30 p.m. Monday, a Sutter spokesperson said sites such as the system’s Santa Rosa center saw relatively little disruption, but that San Francisco’s California Medical Pacific Center was forced to delay some surgeries and Berkeley’s Alta Bates had to cancel some surgeries. (Kelly, 5/16)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Dover, Exeter Hospitals To Become Part Of Mass General Nonprofit Network 
A new regional nonprofit corporation is being developed to collaboratively deliver health care on the Seacoast. On Tuesday, officials at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, Exeter Health Resources and Massachusetts General Hospital announced they had signed a letter of intent to form the entity, which has not yet been named. (Haas, 5/16)

The Associated Press: Judge To Decide Florida Ban On Smokable Medical Marijuana
A Florida judge will soon decide if patients approved to use medical marijuana will be allowed to smoke it. Leon County circuit court Judge Karen Gievers heard testimony Wednesday from two women with terminal illnesses challenging the state's ban on smoking cannabis. (5/16)