State Highlights: Johns Hopkins Promised To Elevate Florida Hospital–Then Patients Started To Die At Alarming Rate; Appeals Court Upholds California’s Aid-In-Dying Law

Tampa Bay Times: Heartbroken
The internationally renowned Johns Hopkins had taken over All Children’s six years earlier and vowed to transform its heart surgery unit into one of the nation’s best. Instead, the program got worse and worse until children were dying at a stunning rate, a Tampa Bay Times investigation has found. Nearly one in 10 patients died last year. The mortality rate, suddenly the highest in Florida, had tripled since 2015. (McGrory and Bedi, 11/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Right-To-Die Law Upheld By State Appeals Court
A state appeals court rejected a challenge Tuesday to California’s right-to-die law for terminally ill patients, overturning a judge’s ruling in May that had briefly blocked enforcement of the law. The statute, in effect since June 2016, allows a dying adult patient to take lethal drugs that a doctor has prescribed. (Egelko, 11/27)

The Washington Post: Active-Shooting Alarm Was Set Off In Error At Walter Reed, Navy And Bethesda Center Say
For more than an hour Tuesday, patients, staff and visitors were locked down and barricading themselves in offices during what they were told was a report of an active shooter that drew swarms of Montgomery County police to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. But why that alert went out and whether it was a false alarm that sparked a genuine response or a drill preparation gone awry was murky for hours after the event in statements issued by the U.S. Navy and the officials at the medical campus near Washington. Through the afternoon, differing explanations were offered. (Hermann and Morse, 11/27)

The Associated Press: 3 More UMd Adenovirus Cases Diagnosed After Student’s Death
Three more cases of adenovirus have been confirmed at the University of Maryland, College Park, attended by an 18-year-old who died of complications from the respiratory infection. News outlets report the three new cases over Thanksgiving break bring the total number of cases at the school to nine, including freshman Olivia Paregol, who died Nov. 18. (11/27)

Dallas Morning News: Novus Co-Founder Reaches Plea Deal With Prosecutors In $60 Million Health-Care Fraud Scheme 
The former vice president of marketing and co-founder of a shuttered hospice company has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors for his role in a $60 million health-care fraud scheme. Samuel D. Anderson has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to court documents. Anderson was one of the co-founders for Novus Health Services, and Optim Health Services, which essentially operated as one company with the same employees and an office in Frisco. (Wigglesworth, 11/27)

The Baltimore Sun: New Head Of State's Largest Health Insurer Sees Broad Mandate To Improve Care, Cut Costs
The new CEO of Maryland’s largest health insurer wants to explore means of lowering health care costs for all state residents, as well as expanding its own reach through the Medicare and Medicaid government health programs. Brian D. Pieninck, named president and CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShied as of July, discussed what he aims to achieve heading the carrier in his first expansive remarks to the media. (Cohn, 11/26)

Seattle Times: Seattle’s Polyclinic To Join UnitedHealth Group As Changes Sweep The Healthcare Industry 
In yet another move that shrinks the local community of independent physicians, The Polyclinic, a 101-year-old Seattle-based physicians’ group, will sell a controlling stake to UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest players in a business being reshaped by cross-industry acquisitions. The deal, announced Tuesday by Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann during an investor meeting in New York, would merge Polyclinic’s 210-physician practice with a United Health subsidiary known as OptumHealth that manages physicians’ groups around the country and is also acquiring the Everett Clinic. (Roberts, 11/27)

Tampa Bay Times: Pasco Schools Psychologist Comes Under Fire In Transgender Flap
The wrath of conservative groups opposed to what they see as special treatment of transgender students has come down hard on Pasco County schools in the past few weeks. And a district school psychologist who strives to help LGBTQ students adjust as they struggle with their identity has come directly into the crossfire. (Solochek, 11/27)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Judge Rejects Imprisoned Westlake Cardiologist’s Challenge To Federal Criminal Case
A Westlake cardiologist serving two decades in federal prison for subjecting patients to unnecessary heart tests has lost a challenge to his criminal convictions. Dr. Harold Persaud argued in a motion to vacate that lawyers who represented him at trial did not properly object to allowing testimony from experts federal prosecutors used at trial. (Heisig, 11/27)

Miami Herald: Nova Orthodontic Patients Possibly Exposed To Viruses
Patients of the Nova Southeastern University orthodontics clinic in Davie may have been exposed to viruses, including HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, due to a failure by some dentists to properly sterilize equipment, university administrators said Tuesday. NSU officials informed patients of their possible exposure to disease on Nov. 23 in a letter signed by Linda Niessen, dean of the College of Dental Medicine. (Chang, 11/27)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Clinics Report Sharp Slowdown In Medical Spending Growth 
Health care spending at Minnesota clinics slowed sharply last year as physicians discouraged unnecessary procedures and steered patients to lower-cost sources for prescription drugs, lab tests and imaging scans. But some clinics did considerably better than others. The total cost of care for privately insured patients rose just 2 percent from 2016 to 2017, at a time when some health care economists had predicted at least 5 percent growth, according to a report released Tuesday by Minnesota Community Measurement, a health care nonprofit. (Olson, 11/27)

Pioneer Press: Study: Young Minnesotans With Diabetes Struggle To Manage Blood Sugar Levels 
Young adults with diabetes are struggling to manage their blood sugar levels, putting them at greater risk of ending up in the hospital than older adults, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. The research, released on Monday, found that young adults age 18 to 44 were more likely to have high blood sugar. They also are three to five times more likely than older adults to be hospitalized due to out-of-control blood sugar levels. (Faircloth, 11/27)

Denver Post: Former Colorado Inmate Files Federal Lawsuit, Alleges He Was Encouraged To Kill Himself While He Was Suicidal 
A former inmate who says he was suicidal during his time in a Fremont County jail alleges in a newly filed federal lawsuit that he was restrained for a month without mental health treatment and encouraged to go ahead and kill himself. ...The case is among numerous lawsuits filed against Correctional Healthcare Companies, located at 6200 S. Syracuse Way in Greenwood Village, and its affiliates. Plaintiffs’ attorneys in Colorado and around the country have alleged CHC has shown a pattern of profit-motivated medical neglect that has cost offenders their lives or caused permanent injury. (Mitchell, 11/27)

The Star Tribune: UnitedHealth Group Buying Seattle Clinic
UnitedHealth Group is acquiring a large Seattle-based clinic for primary and specialty care that further expands the Minnetonka-based company’s growing business that provides care directly to patients. Chief Executive David Wichmann told investors meeting Tuesday in New York that the deal to purchase Polyclinic will supplement the Everett Clinic business in the Seattle area that UnitedHealth is acquiring through a separate deal for DaVita Medical Group. (Snowbeck, 11/27)

Des Moines Register: Pregnant Iowa Teens Thrive Under Guidance Of A Doula
The Des Moines-based nonprofit has offered doulas since 2004 to help young mothers such as [Victoria] Dicks navigate what can be an overwhelming situation. The group says the program is working. ...The [Young Women's Resource Center] often serves women who have experienced abuse, and those traumatic experiences can affect how they approach pregnancy and bond with their child, said Ashley Ezzio, a doula and the center's childbirth and perinatal specialist. (Ryan, 11/27)

San Jose Mercury News: Gunman In Thousand Oaks Mass Shooting Fired 50-Plus Shots, Tossed Multiple Smoke Grenades, But Still No Motive
The gunman who terrorized the packed Borderline Bar and Grill earlier this month fired 50-plus rounds striking 13 victims, with only one surviving, and tossed multiple smoke grenades that added to the confusion that night, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub told reporters on Tuesday, with officials still searching for the killer’s motive. Ian David Long, 28, of Newbury Park had seven high-capacity, 30-round magazines in his possession, five of which were found fully loaded after the suspect fatally shot 12 people and then took his own life, Ayub said. (Gazzar, 11/27)

MPR: An Old Minnesota Jail Is Now A Leader For Inmate Mental Health
The new, $52 million jail opened this fall in Moorhead with 209 beds. Its 18-bed behavioral health unit is in the back of the building. Soundproofing helps keep the noise down, and inmates housed there can get mental health care without leaving the unit. (Gunderson, 11/28)

California Healthline: California To Track Deaths From Flu More Closely, Including Seniors
California’s Department of Public Health says the flu killed 329 people under age 65 in the last flu season, from October 2017 to August 2018. But that is likely only a small fraction of the total deaths in the nation’s most populous state because the department didn’t count the hundreds of deaths of people 65 and older. The state figure could account for just 1 in 10 flu deaths. (Rowan, 11/27)

Boston Globe: Getting Food To Those Who Need It, With Heaping Portions Of Dignity And Compassion On The Side
According to the Greater Boston Food Bank, one in six Bostonians is food insecure. One in 11 people in Eastern Massachusetts is food insecure, and one in nine is a child. ...Finances are particularly stretched during New England winters, when heating costs spike. Something has to give. Often, it’s the groceries. And so these organizations make a crucial difference. They serve food, but they also provide something else: dignity and compassion. (Baskin, 11/27)

KQED: Ag Official: E. Coli Outbreak Could Hurt Salinas Valley Lettuce Growers For Years
The E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce that has sickened dozens of people in the United States and Canada could hurt the Central Coast's farming industry for years, according to one of the region's top agricultural officials. The Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that the romaine tied to the outbreak appears to be from the Central Coast, and that romaine produced outside that region is safe to eat as long as it's labeled correctly. (Goldberg, 11/27)

San Jose Mercury News: Tainted Romaine Link To Salinas Valley Frustrates Farmers
Lettuce is king on California’s Central Coast, where row crops and produce stands line the roadways in a region that boasts of being the Salad Bowl of the World. So it struck deep when federal authorities this week linked a rash of severe bacterial infections to romaine lettuce from California’s Central Coast. Now farmers who adopted a host of safety measures after local spinach was tied to a deadly 2006 outbreak fear another battle to win back consumers’ trust. (Woolfolk and Hagemann, 11/27)