State Highlights: Advocates Call On New York Senate To Ban Conversion Therapy; Some Blue Cross Patients Face Paying 100% Of ER Visits In Texas

The Associated Press: NY Advocates Renew Push For Law Banning 'Conversion Therapy'
Advocates are making another push for a New York law banning therapy that attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors. Dozens of social workers joined students, LGBT activists and lawmakers Wednesday at the state Capitol to call on the Republican-led Senate to take up the legislation banning gay conversion therapy. The measure has passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly several years in a row. (4/25)

Dallas Morning News: Some Blue Cross Policyholders Could Pay 100% Of ER Bill If Visit Is Not Life Threatening 
The already baffling emergency room billing landscape is about to become even more perplexing for some consumers covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the largest health insurer in the state. Starting in June, when some policyholders go to the emergency room, if their ailment is later determined to be not be serious enough, they could be on the hook for 100 percent of the medical costs. In a memo shared with brokers and consultants on April 18, Blue Cross said the new policy — which takes effect June 4 — applies to fully insured group and retail HMO members.  (Rice, 4/25)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: University Hospitals Details Response To Fertility Freezer Incident In Memo To Staff
A memo sent to all University Hospitals employees outlined the steps the fertility center there has taken to improve safety after a freezer incident in March. ... This week, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court presiding Judge John Russo ordered that the more than 40 lawsuits filed against University Hospitals' fertility clinic will be joined into a single case. (Washington, 4/25)

KCUR: Kansas City Hospital To Close, Will Lay Off More Than 100 Employees 
Select Specialty Hospital-Western Missouri, a long-term acute care facility on East Meyer Boulevard in Kansas City, is closing its doors and laying off 105 employees. The hospital announced the closure in a notice to the state of Missouri under the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act. According to the notice, employees losing their jobs include nurses, nursing assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and other personnel. (Margolies, 4/25)

Chicago Sun Times: Health And Hospitals System Officials Respond To Inspector General Report 
The Cook County Health and Hospitals System is standing by its mission to provide care for all after a March report by County Independent Inspector General Patrick Blanchard found that not following guidelines set by insurers resulted in the hospitals system being denied over $66 million in 2017. Stipulations by private insurers, as well as government programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, dictate whether or not the insurers pay up after people receive care. (Hinton, 4/25)

Texas Tribune: New Health Survey Aims To Quantify Hurricane Harvey's Physical, Mental Toll
An information-gathering initiative unveiled Wednesday by Rice University, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Houston Health Department seeks to better quantify it. The Hurricane Harvey Registry will collect responses to an online survey that asks Houston-area residents about where they rode out the storm and their health condition — physical and mental — before and after. (Collier, 4/25)

Arizona Republic: Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Opens 1st Airport Urgent Care
The nation's first full-service urgent care located in an airport is opening at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The urgent care, located in Terminal 4, is equipped to offer patients physicals, drug tests, lab tests, X-rays and prescriptions, as well as treat numerous ailments and injuries. (Gebers, 4/25)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Health Secretary Rebekah Gee Could Have To Stop Seeing Patients Under Proposed Law 
Louisiana House Republican Chairman Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, is pushing legislation that would make it harder for people the governor appoints to run state agencies to keep an outside job, a proposal that might affect the current Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rebekah Gee. House Bill 849 would require agency heads appointed by the governor to refrain from being paid and otherwise compensated for outside work if it's for an entity or industry their agency oversees. Department secretaries would also be prohibited from volunteering or working for free for any nonprofit or group if the entity benefiting is regulated by the agency they lead or receives funding from that agency.  (O'Donoghue, 4/25)

Texas Tribune: A Texas Health Commission Employee Was Fired. Then She Received The Private Information Of More Than 100 Clients.
Tracy Ryans got mail — straight from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, including a box full of state assistance application forms with hundreds of people’s social security card numbers, green card certificates, billing statements, check stubs and photocopies of driver’s licenses. HHSC wasn’t supposed to have sent them. (Evans, 4/25)

The Associated Press: Legionnaires' Cases Linked To Co-Op City In The Bronx
Health officials have confirmed three cases of Legionnaires' disease, one of them fatal, at an apartment complex in the Bronx. The New York City Health Department says the three cases occurred within the past year and center on three connected buildings at Co-op City. Investigators are looking into the building's internal plumbing. The building does not have a cooling tower. (4/25)

The Associated Press: Parents Spared Jail In Death Of Girl Who Didn't See Doctor
The parents of a 2-year-old Pennsylvania girl have been spared jail time in the pneumonia death of their daughter after vowing to seek medical care in the future for their other children. Jonathan Foster, 35, and Grace Foster, 34, were sentenced Wednesday to five years' probation on involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment convictions in the November 2016 death of daughter Ella Grace in Upper Tulpehocken Township, about 45 miles northeast of Harrisburg. (4/25)