State Highlights: Widow Cites Unsigned Letter About St. Luke’s Transplant Team’s Failings In Lawsuit; Nonprofit Group Sharply Criticizes Calif. Strategy To Fight Wildfires

Houston Chronicle: An Unsigned Letter Alleged Mistakes During Heart Transplants At St. Luke's. Now A Widow Is Suing. 
In the complaint, filed late last month in Harris County District Court, Judy Kveton alleges that her 64-year-old husband died as a result of mistakes by Baylor College of Medicine doctors and St. Luke’s nurses during and after his transplant in January 2017. It asserts that hospital leaders should not have allowed the surgeon to continue operating after receiving complaints about his performance. And it accuses the hospital of fraudulently marketing its heart transplant program, exaggerating the quality of its outcomes and “luring” patients “into a deadly situation.” (Hixenbaug and Ornstein, 12/14)

The Associated Press: Report Rips Expensive Decisions In California Wildfire Fight
When a wildfire burned across Big Sur two years ago and threatened hundreds of homes scattered on the scenic hills, thousands of firefighters responded with overwhelming force, attacking flames from the air and ground. In the first week, the blaze destroyed 57 homes and killed a bulldozer operator, then moved into remote wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest. Yet for nearly three more months the attack barely let up. (12/15)

The Associated Press: All Evacuation Orders Lifted In Deadly California Wildfire
The remaining residents who fled from the deadliest wildfire in California history were allowed to return to their home Saturday and assess the damage. All evacuation orders were lifted in Paradise more than a month after the fire broke out Nov. 8, killing at least 86 people and destroying 14,000 homes in the town and nearby communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. (12/15)

Tampa Bay Times: State May Publish More Data On Heart Surgery Deaths
A state panel is considering a proposal to publish statistics online that would detail the number of deaths at Florida children’s heart surgery programs each year and be updated as often as every six months. The move would make the centers subject to an unprecedented level of transparency, letting prospective patients and their families know whether programs are struggling far more quickly than is currently possible. (Bedi and McGrory, 12/17)

Dallas Morning News: Criminal Case Grows Against Arlington Mental Hospital Accused Of Holding Patients Against Their Will 
An Arlington mental health hospital, indicted last month on charges of illegally holding patients, was indicted on 11 new counts Thursday by a Tarrant County grand jury. Sundance Behavioral Healthcare System now faces 20 counts of violating state mental health codes, nearly all of them related to holding patients illegally. Lawyers representing Sundance said their position on the charges is unchanged, repeating their belief that the case is an instance of "unprecedented overreach" that will have major consequences. (Sarder, 12/15)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: California To Monitor Warning Letters Sent By The FDA To Doctors
The California medical board has begun monitoring warning letters sent by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to doctors engaged in potentially harmful practices following a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation about the failure of states to act on allegations raised in the letters. The investigation found that 73 doctors around the country with active medical licenses had been the subject of FDA warning letters alleging serious problems over a five-year period, but only one had been disciplined. (Fauber, 12/14)

Pioneer Press: Minnesota Could Save Millions With Better Oversight Of Medical Assistance Programs, Audit Indicates 
The Minnesota Department of Human Services does a decent job overseeing who gets public medical assistance, but improving that work could mean big savings for the state. That’s the finding of the Office of the Legislative Auditor, a government watchdog, which released an examination of the department’s compliance in its medical assistance for adults without children program. In 2017, Minnesota spent about $1.8 billion on medical assistance for 297,000 adults without children, the report found. (Magan, 12/14)

The Baltimore Sun: Investigation Into Inmate's Suicide Faults Maryland Women's Prison's Treatment Of People With Disabilities 
An investigation into Maryland’s only prison for women following the 2017 suicide of an inmate found the facility violated the constitutional rights of individuals with disabilities who are placed in segregation and did not take sufficient steps to “prevent future harm.” The investigation, released Friday by Disability Rights Maryland, reviewed the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women and its role in the death of inmate Emily Butler, who was found dead in her cell from an apparent suicide by hanging on Nov. 12, 2017. At the time of her death, Butler, who had a history of mental health issues, was serving a 14-year sentence for a charge related to arson and would have been eligible for parole this past April. (Reed, 12/14)

Health News Florida: Proposal Targets Cost Of Emergency Transportation For Patients
Insured patients in Florida shouldn’t have to pay large bills if they require emergency medical transportation services. They also should have access to copies of their medical records free of charge, a state advisory board agreed Thursday. (Sexton, 12/14)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Aurora Agrees To Pay $12 Million In Alleged Violations Of Federal Law
Aurora Health Care has agreed to pay $12 million to the federal and state governments to settle allegations that it violated the federal anti-kickback law by paying excessive compensation to two cardiologists. The settlement hinges on the Stark Law, which prohibits physicians from having a financial relationship with hospitals and other health care providers to whom they refer patients. (Boulton, 12/14)

Kansas City Star: Records, Picture Of Jail Inmate Changed After Death
Jailers began falsifying the record of Richard Degraffenreid’s short stay at the Jackson County Detention Center even before paramedics arrived to try reviving him from what turned out to be a fatal drug overdose. As the ambulance neared, former jail guard Charles Obasi said he began working to make it appear that everything had been done by the book during the 2 1/2 hours Degraffenreid was strapped into a restraint chair. (Hendricks, 12/16)

Dallas Morning News: Prison Time For Another Man Who Ripped Off Health Insurance Program For Troops
A Travis County man was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in federal prison as part of a $36 million fraud scheme involving the collection of unnecessary lab tests of saliva and urine that were billed to the U.S. military's health care system. Jody Sheffield pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Prosecutors say that soldiers in Killeen, where Fort Hood is located, were given $50 Walmart gift cards in exchange for taking part in the drug toxicology and DNA cancer screening tests that were not needed and were "the product of kickbacks" to physicians. (Krause, 12/15)

KCUR: Former Kansas City Doctor Sentenced To 10 Years After Pleading Guilty To Child Enticement 
A pediatric rheumatologist who once worked at Children’s Mercy Hospital was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after he pleaded guilty to coercion and enticement of a minor. In his guilty plea agreement in September, Mark Franklin Hoeltzel admitted that he created a fake Facebook persona under the name “Ryan Gardner” to contact minor girls, including an 8th grader from whom he requested sexually explicit photographs. (Margolies, 12/14)

Boston Globe: State Shuts Down Medical Marijuana Operator Over Pesticide Use
The state Department of Public Health (DPH) on Thursday ordered Triple M to immediately stop selling medical marijuana products and quarantine its inventory, after inspectors determined that marijuana cultivated by the company “could pose an immediate or serious threat to the public’s health, safety, or welfare.” (Adams, 12/15)

Boston Globe: Detecting Pot Use In Drivers Will Be Tricky
In the coming year, police in Massachusetts will likely have to deploy a litany of tests before arresting drivers for being high on marijuana, state officials said Friday. Because there’s no accurate breathalyzer for cannabis use, officers will probably need to use a combination of their observations, roadside assessments, saliva tests, and a 12-step expert evaluation at the police station, said Walpole police Chief John Carmichael, a member of the state’s commission on operating under the influence. (Martin, 12/15)

The Associated Press: Higher Percentage Of California Pot Passing Safety Tests
A higher percentage of California marijuana products are passing strict safety tests, but the sudden closing of a lab that state authorities found wasn’t correctly checking for pesticides has raised new questions about the system intended to protect the purity and potency of legal cannabis. California broadly legalized marijuana at the start of the year, and mandatory testing began in July 1. During the first two months the failure rate was about 20 percent, but state data collected through November showed improvement — about 14 percent of nearly 24,000 products were blocked from store shelves by tests. (Blood, 12/16)