State Highlights: Many Florida Nursing Homes Struggling To Meet New Backup Power Rules; Warring Factions Over Mass. Ballot Initiative Both Pull In Nurses For Ads

The Wall Street Journal: A Year After Hurricane Irma, Most Florida Nursing Homes Still Working On Emergency Power Plans
Most nursing homes in Florida are still working to meet new backup-power rules, which were triggered by a dozen patient deaths after Hurricane Irma knocked out air conditioning at their residence a year ago. About 75% of Florida’s 684 nursing homes received a seven-month extension beyond a June 1 deadline to put in place a permanent emergency-power plan, according to state data. All of the nursing homes are still considered compliant because extensions require them to keep temperatures at or below 81 degrees for at least 96 hours after a power loss through temporary measures. (Kamp, 9/7)

Boston Globe: In Ad War Over Ballot Question, Both Sides Give Nurses Leading Roles
In a 30-second television advertisement airing across Massachusetts, a nurse looks toward the camera and declares that government-mandated restrictions on nurses’ caseloads would put hospital patients at risk. ...The two factions warring over ballot Question 1, a measure that seeks to regulate nurse staffing in hospitals, have both released ads — and both are using nurses in scrubs to argue their case. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/6)

Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Is A Health Care Mecca. Why Don't We Know More About Our Health?
They call it Music City, but at its core, modern Nashville is really a health care city. Two of the largest hospital corporations in the nation are headquartered here, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center was recently named one of the best hospitals in the country. The local health care industry spans hundreds of companies and hundreds of thousands of employees and generates billions in revenue each year. But beyond all that business, between the pristine hospitals and corporate headquarters, Nashville knows surprisingly little about the health of everyday residents. And the little we know, unfortunately, isn’t very good. (Kelman, 9/6)

Dallas Morning News: Did Gov. Greg Abbott Give Anti-Abortion Group Sway Over How Hospitals Handle DNR Orders? 
A powerful, if lame-duck, GOP lawmaker has renewed his beef that Gov. Greg Abbott is grabbing power at lawmakers' expense. On Thursday, House State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook sharply criticized Texas' Health and Human Services Commission. He said the agency was about to underhandedly grant an influential anti-abortion-rights group a victory in the rule-writing process that the group couldn't secure in last year's special legislative session. (Garrett, 9/6)

Iowa Public Radio: Iowa Providing Fewer Family Planning Services After 'Defunding' Abortion Providers
For years, [Chelsea] Chism-Vargas was getting free birth control pills and annual reproductive health exams at Planned Parenthood through a federally-funded family planning program for low-income and underinsured Iowans. ...But Iowa’s Republican-majority Legislature replaced that program with a state-run system that excludes abortion providers. It blocked Planned Parenthood, UnityPoint Health and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics from participating. (Sostaric, 9/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Grants Go To Some Georgia Health Centers Hit By Hurricanes
Thirty-two Georgia health centers that lived through the worst of the 2017 hurricanes will receive $9.6 million in federal grants. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the awards Thursday. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria swept through Georgia last year, causing damage, maiming and killing people. (Hart, 9/6)

Houston Chronicle: Did Harvey Make Us Sick? Still More Questions Than Answers
New findings by Rice University researchers show the stagnant water inside some flooded homes carried indications of antibiotic-resistant bacteria up to 250 times higher than even the floodwater outside. The same markers for the bacteria were found in the sediment left behind weeks after the water receded. The significance of the discovery is that such bacteria could lead to infections more difficult to treat, said Lauren Stadler, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice and lead investigator for the study. (Deam, 9/6)

Texas Tribune: Texas Reps. Tracy King And Richard PeÑA Raymond Talk Health Care, School Finance, Border Security.
At a Texas Tribune event this Thursday in Laredo, Reps. Tracy King, D-Batesville, and Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, talked with Tribune CEO Evan Smith about topics that affect the communities they represent in South Texas: the next legislative session, healthcare, border security and more. (Rodriguez-Ortiz, 9/6)

The Associated Press: Audit Finds Many Michigan Child Protection Agency Failures
A child welfare investigator in Michigan found evidence a male caretaker had sexually abused a child, and the child's mother continued to allow the man — her live-in boyfriend — access to her children during the investigation. State auditors say the investigator didn't refer the case to a prosecutor or file a court petition, assessed far too low of a risk of future harm to the child and closed the investigation with no monitoring of the family afterward. (9/6)

The Associated Press: Texas Player Treated At Hospital After Heat Illness
Texas sophomore offensive lineman Patrick Hudson was treated in intensive care and remains hospitalized because of a heat-related illness at practice this week, the school said Thursday night. Hudson, who is 6-foot-4, 335 pounds, was being treated for "exertional heat cramps" Wednesday when medical staff noticed his body temperature rising and he was placed in a cold tub, Texas head athletic trainer Anthony Pass said in a statement. (9/6)

Los Angeles Times: State Says Disney Failed To Properly Clean Cooling Towers Linked To Legionnaires' Outbreak; Disney Disputes Claims
In what became one of the nation’s biggest Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks, 22 people fell sick with the dangerous lung infection last fall in Orange County, including one who died. Local health officials said the outbreak seemed connected to Disneyland, as 19 of the 22 people who were infected had visited the park. But they never pinpointed a cause of the infections. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration in March cited the park and fined it more than $33,000 for failing to properly clean cooling equipment linked to the outbreak and for other related violations. Cal-OSHA didn't announce the fine. The Times requested and recently obtained the citation. (Karlamangla, 9/6)

St. Louis Public Radio: Quincy Housing Authority Acquires Federal Funds To Remove Lead From Public Housing
Quincy housing officials aim to address properties built in 1942. Houses built before the 1978 federal ban on lead-based paint most likely contain traces of lead. The HUD funds will be used to hire a contractor to conduct testing and lead abatement for five properties, which contain a total of 254 units. (Chen, 9/6)

California Healthline: California: A Health Care Laboratory With Mixed Results
California’s expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act enabled many low-income HIV patients to get health insurance previously denied to them. Still, those with mental health needs, who had been receiving coordinated care through a separate federal program, suddenly faced gaps in treatment, payment disputes and doctors who had little understanding of life with HIV. A report on HIV patients is one example in a special California edition of the journal Health Affairs showing that though the state is often a national beacon in health care, some of its innovations fall short of expectations. (Gorman, 9/5)

The Associated Press: Doctor Disciplined For Looking Up Vegas Shooter Drug Records
A doctor was disciplined by Nevada state pharmacy regulators after they found he improperly accessed prescription records of the dead gunman in last October's mass shooting in Las Vegas, his lawyer said Thursday. Dr. Ivan Goldsmith could have lost of his ability to prescribe medications, but attorney E. Brent Bryson said he was instead ordered to pay a $10,000 fine; $16,000 in attorney fees and costs, and serve one year of probation. (9/6)

Houston Chronicle: Home Care Agencies Turn To Older Workers To Fill In Labor Shortage
With few financial incentives to bring in new workers, the home-care industry is facing a labor shortage that is expected to worsen with time. Industry experts anticipate a need for at least 13 million new in-home caregivers by 2030. “We’re facing a shortage of qualified people to serve rapidly growing demand,” said Jeff Bevis, CEO of Ohio-based FirstLight Home Care. To fill in the gaps, agencies such FirstLight are tapping into an older work force willing to care for clients older or closer to them in age on a part-time basis. (Najarro, 9/7)

Boston Globe: Marijuana Shops Could Open In Mass. By Early Fall
Recreational marijuana stores could open in Massachusetts in “early fall,” according to state Cannabis Control Commission chairman Steve Hoffman. The commission, which had initially aimed to have retail pot stores up and running by July 1, has issued provisional licenses to 30 existing medical marijuana facilities, including retail shops and cultivators. (Adams, 9/6)