State Highlights: Connecticut Has Significant Drop In Uninsured Rate In Rural Areas; Experts Link California’s Record Number Of Valley Fever Cases To Climate Change

The CT Mirror: CT Sees Sharp Decline In Uninsured Low-Income Adults In Rural Areas
The uninsured rate for low-income adults (below 138 percent of the federal poverty level) has fallen since 2008-09 in nearly all states, but small towns and rural areas of states, including Connecticut, that have expanded Medicaid have seen the sharpest declines, according to the study by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. The study examined the status of insurance coverage for low-income adults in the 46 states with significant rural populations. (Rigg, 9/28)

KQED: With Climate Change, Valley Fever Spreads In California—And This Year Could Be The Worst Yet
The number of reported Valley fever cases set a record in California in 2016, with more than 6,000 infections. That number jumped to 8,103 in 2017, an increase of more than a third—growth many experts link to climate change. This year could be the worst yet. (Gorn, 9/29)

Kansas City Star: Youth Suicides Blamed For Small Uptick In Child Death Rates
Twenty Kansas youth killed themselves in 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available, up from 18 in 2015. Two thirds of the victims were boys. (Hendricks, 9/29)

Des Moines Register: Iowa State Agency Leaves Federal Medicaid Money Unclaimed
Nine months after state officials said they solved a problem that was costing Iowa an estimated $224,000 annually, the problem has yet to be fixed. ... Under federal rules, Iowa’s Ombudsman for Long-Term Care can ask the federal Medicaid program to reimburse the state agency for some of the advocacy work it does on behalf of seniors who rely on Iowa's privatized Medicaid program for their long-term care. But to collect that federal money, the ombudsman’s office has to bill the federal government for the work that's performed. Last year, the agency said it expected to collect $224,000 in federal reimbursements for work performed in 2017. To date, however, the office has submitted only one invoice to the federal government, and that is for $154 worth of staff time. (Kauffman, 9/28)

Kansas City Star: Child Welfare Chief Says Fines Will Come If Kids Sleep In Offices
The leader of the Kansas child welfare system said Friday the state’s foster care contractors will face fines if they continue to have children sleep in their offices in the aftermath of a teenager being charged with raping a 13-year-old at an Olathe welfare site. Gina Meier-Hummel, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, made the penalty public during a meeting of the state’s child welfare system task force amid questions and concerns about the earlier sexual assault. (Woodall, 9/28)

Georgia Health News: Managing Diabetes Through A ‘Virtual’ Clinic
In May, though, [Stephen] King began a diabetes program through his insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia. The state’s largest health insurer has launched a “virtual’’ diabetes clinic in partnership with Onduo, a Massachusetts-based diabetes management company. The program is free to most Blue Cross members who have work-based or individual insurance in Georgia, as part of a large pilot program. (Miller, 9/28)

WBUR: Health Care Hacking On The Rise, Mass. General Study Finds
Health care hacking is on the rise, according to a new Massachusetts General Hospital study. The researchers looked at all the reported breaches of health care information from 2010 to last year. (Goldberg, 9/28)

The Washington Post: Epidemics Examined In N.Y. Exhibit
In 1793, New York created its first health department in hopes of staving off a yellow fever outbreak that had occurred in Philadelphia. It was too little, too late: Despite the best efforts of early public health officials, a yellow fever epidemic reached the city, killing hundreds of New Yorkers and causing others to flee. It would not be the last time the city contended with a widespread disease outbreak. “Germ City,” a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, tells the story of the metropolis’s long history with microbes. (Blakemore, 9/29)

Austin American-Statesman: City Audit Finds Fault With Austin Police Mental Health Practices
Austin has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings of people suffering from mental health issues, and the Police Department’s mental health policies are not in line widely accepted law enforcement practices, a city audit has found. ...As a result of these lapses, the audit found that people experiencing a mental health crisis in Austin may find themselves at a higher risk of a bad encounter with officers compared with those in a city that is more closely in step with international best practices. (Wilson, 9/30)

Pioneer Press: Deal With Fairview Means $70M More Next Year For UMN Medical School
The University of Minnesota Board of Regents on Friday unanimously approved an eight-year agreement with Fairview Health Services that will dramatically increase funding for the medical school while creating incentives to better work together. The deal replaces the original M Health agreement reached in 2013, which was seen as a precursor to a merger between the U, University of Minnesota Physicians, and Fairview, which bought the U’s East Bank hospital in 1997. No one’s talking about a merger anymore, but the agreement creates a new organizational structure with aligned incentives. (Verges, 9/28)

Texas Tribune: Texas Spent Less On Special Education. But Did It Break The Law?
Like the boy needed less money for books, children with disabilities needed less expensive educational services that year, due to the "declining severity of special education needs," Texas has argued, preparing for a face-off with the U.S. Department of Education in a federal appeals court this week. But the U.S. government says Texas violated an unambiguous federal law requiring states to maintain the same amount of funding each year for special education services in order to continue to be eligible for federal special education grants. (Swaby, 10/1)

The New York Times: A Veteran Had A Yard Sale To Pay For His Own Funeral. Two Men Helped Him Raise $58,000.
When two men visited a yard sale in Western Pennsylvania last month, they browsed under the shelter of a blue tarp through the typical wares: dishes and vases, books and DVDs, old paintings and used clothes. They spent about $10 between them. One of the men, David Dunkleberger, 27, picked up a carton of glass bottles and some newspapers from the summer of 1977, when heavy rains brought catastrophic flooding to the area. The other man, Ed Sheets, 27, bought a railroad stock certificate. (Fortin, 9/30)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Fighting Human Trafficking, Protecting Victims Drives Salvation Army Honorees
From November 2016 to November 2017, a special task force that battles human trafficking in Northeast Ohio recovered more than 130 victims and placed them in a myriad of recovery services, from shelters to substance abuse counseling. That task force is on track to pull even more victims out of traffickers' clutches, and on the road to improved lives. (Washington, 9/28)

WBUR: Working While Homeless: A Tough Job For Thousands Of Californians
A 2017 survey of the homeless population in San Francisco found 13 percent of respondents reporting part or full-time employment. That's in a city with an estimated 7,499 people experiencing homelessness. This year, an estimated 10 percent of the 4,990 people living unsheltered in San Diego said they were currently working. (Wagner, 9/30)

Chicago Tribune: Telehealth Company MDLive Expanding In Chicago 
Though MDLive is headquartered in Florida, it has about 20 employees in Chicago and plans to open a local office early next year, likely in the West Loop. Berner, 47 and a Chicago-area native, said the company he leads as CEO is continually hiring in Chicago. MDLive has more than 27 million members, and partnerships with major health care systems and organizations, including Deerfield-based Walgreens, which directs customers to MDLive’s services via its new digital platform. (Schencker, 10/1)

Kansas City Star: Kansas Nurses Charged For Stealing Pain Meds From Patients
Ten Kansas nurses and nurse aides have been charged with Medicaid fraud, stealing narcotic medications and mistreating vulnerable adults after an enforcement sweep by the state’s attorney general. At least eight are still licensed to work in the state, according to the Kansas State Board of Nursing and Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services online search tools. (Marso and Rizzo, 9/28)