State Highlights: Analysis Finds ‘Very Bad Outcomes’ For Severely Mentally Ill In Oregon; Georgia Approves Bill Legalizing Needle Exchanges To Contain HIV

The Oregonian: State’s First-Ever Analysis Reveals ‘Shocking’ Outcomes For People With Mental Illness, Advocates Say 
Oregon health officials have completed a first-ever analysis of a massive state effort to move people with severe mental illness into less restrictive settings, finding outcomes that a leading advocacy group said are “shocking.” Within half a year of leaving a residential facility, two in five people ended up in an emergency room, one in 10 went to the Oregon State Hospital and one in 20 became homeless, according to an Oregon Health Authority review released in February. (Zarkhin, 4/4)

The Washington Post: Georgia Latest State To Legalize Needle Exchange To Stop HIV
James Lane has a backpack full of syringes slung across his shoulder as he goes to exchange used needles for sterile ones at a small booth set up by an Atlanta needle exchange clinic. The clinic, which operates in an area known as a hot spot for drug use in Atlanta, collects and distributes syringes. It’s among just a few of its kind operating publicly in Georgia and a godsend to Lane, who says he turned to heroin and cocaine to self-medicate for post-traumatic stress. “It’s not the right answer. I know that. But right now I’m able to sustain my life,” he said. He said he also exchanges needles on behalf of five friends who are embarrassed to show up in person. (Mansoor, 4/4)

Austin American-Statesman: Texas Day Care Safety Bill By Sen. Joan Huffman Headed To House
Senate Bill 568, which passed 30-1, increases financial penalties for child care operations violating state standards, directs fines from violations to an account for safety training programs, requires many day care facilities to carry liability insurance and gives the state the power to place restrictions or special conditions on facilities that have shown a pattern of violations. (Collins Walsh, 4/4)

New Hampshire Public Radio: House Votes To Tighten Gun Restrictions In Schools
A bill to restrict guns on school grounds passed the House on Thursday in a mostly partisan vote. Under the proposed rules, anyone carrying a gun on school property or school buses would be fined and charged with a misdemeanor unless they're a member of the military or a law enforcement or school resource officer. (Gibson, 4/4)

Health News Florida: Senate Won’t Act This Year On Surgeon General
Citing a past sexual harassment investigation at the University of Florida, Senate President Bill Galvano said Wednesday the Senate will not vote during this year’s legislative session on confirming the state’s new surgeon general. The move could put physician Scott Rivkees, named surgeon general Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, in limbo for months. (Sexton, 4/4)

KQED: UC Berkeley's Insurance Plan Change Will Limit Mental Health Care For Students, Therapists Say
Weksler said many of her colleagues have voiced their concerns on a community listserv about what the switch to Blue Shield might mean for students' access to services going forward, in a climate where there are more students seeking therapy than there are therapists to provide it. (Veltman, 4/4)

Kaiser Health News: On The Border, Volunteer Doctors Struggle To Provide Stopgap Care To Immigrants
It wasn’t the rash covering Meliza’s feet and legs that worried Dr. José Manuel de la Rosa. What concerned him were the deep bruises beneath. They were a sign she could be experiencing something far more serious than an allergic reaction. Meliza’s mom, Magdalena, told the doctor it started with one little bump. Then two. In no time, the 5-year-old’s legs were swollen and red from the knees down. De la Rosa noticed a bandage-covered cotton ball in the crook of Meliza’s elbow, a remnant of having blood drawn. During their time at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, Meliza had been sent to a hospital, Magdalena explained, cradling the child with her 5-foot frame. (Barry-Jester, 4/5)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Lawmakers Want VA To Cover PFAS Exposures, As CDC Report Details Risks From Past Pease Contamination
Federal lawmakers want more health care for veterans exposed to toxic PFAS chemicals, including at the former Pease Air Force Base. Around 400 military installations, including Pease, are thought to have PFAS contamination stemming from use of firefighting foam. (Ropeik, 4/4)

St. Louis Public Radio: Childhood Asthma Rates Are Highest In North St. Louis, Wash U Study Finds
A Washington University study has shown that more than a dozen north St. Louis neighborhoods have high rates of childhood asthma. The study, soon to be published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, identified five ZIP codes in St. Louis that are hot spots for childhood asthma, meaning that they contain clusters for the city's highest rates of the illness. The report used census and health data from multiple government agencies. (Chen, 4/4)

San Jose Mercury News: San Francisco Fight Over Homeless Shelter Sparks GoFundMe Duel
The prospect of a 225-bed shelter in San Francisco’s trendy South Beach neighborhood has kicked off a bitter fundraising battle between area residents who say homeless people should be helped somewhere else and supporters who say no one should be sleeping on the streets. To some residents in the pricey and touristy neighborhood along the Embarcadero, plans to build a new homeless shelter amid expensive apartment towers threaten public safety and tourism. (Baron, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Legislative Committee Kills Flavored E-Cigarette Ban
Hawaii lawmakers on Thursday killed a proposal that would have banned flavored electronic smoking devices and e-liquids, saying they suspected teenagers would continue to get the products online even if sales were prohibited. Supporters said the bill was needed to fight an alarming surge in teenage vaping. Hawaii would have been the first state in the nation to impose such a ban if it was enacted. (4/4)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Eight Dycora Nursing Homes In Wisconsin Put Into Receivership
Eight nursing homes in Wisconsin operated by Dycora Transitional Health & Living have been put into receivership, providing another sign of the industry’s increasing struggles in the state. Dycora is the third company to have its Wisconsin nursing homes placed in receivership in roughly the past two years. (Boulton, 4/4)

California Healthline: Exemptions Surge As Parents And Doctors Do ‘Hail Mary’ Around Vaccine Laws
At two public charter schools in the Sonoma wine country town of Sebastopol, more than half the kindergartners received medical exemptions from state-required vaccines last school year. The cities of Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Nevada City, Arcata and Sausalito all had schools in which more than 30% of the kindergartners had been granted such medical exemptions. Nearly three years ago, with infectious disease rates ticking up, California enacted a fiercely contested law barring parents from citing personal or religious beliefs to avoid vaccinating their children. Children could be exempted only on medical grounds, if the shots were harmful to health. (Ostrov, 4/4)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Villanova Prof Contracted Sepsis And Needed An Amputation — And Her Health Plan Wouldn’t Pay
Stephanie Sena was about to have half her foot amputated, an urgent procedure to keep a blood infection from spreading to the rest of her body. But the surgeon required payment up front and the insurance plan the 39-year-old Villanova University adjunct professor bought months earlier was refusing to pay. She had less than 24 hours to come up with $1,920. (Gantz, 4/5)

Texas Tribune: University Of Houston, Sam Houston State Medical Schools Get House Approval
The Texas House approved two new medical schools in Texas this week, one at Sam Houston State University and the other at the University of Houston. The decisions bring both universities' plans for medical schools one step closer to reality, though both still need Senate approval. (Anchondo, 4/4)

Arizona Republic: Marsh & McLennan Buys Phoenix's Lovitt & Touché Insurance Agency
Phoenix insurance agency Lovitt & Touché has been purchased for an undisclosed price. A subsidiary of Marsh, the world's largest insurance broker and risk adviser, announced the transaction. Lovitt & Touché, one of Arizona's largest independent agencies with a history dating to 1911, has 181 employees in offices in Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas. (Wiles, 4/4)

Miami Herald: Antibiotics Needed After Unvaccinated AR Student Gets Sick
An unvaccinated student in Arkansas was diagnosed with whooping cough, so now other junior high students have to take antibiotics in order to come to class, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Whooping cough, also called pertussis, “is a highly contagious respiratory disease,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Alanis, 4/4)

Boston Globe: Locked Out Of Care That Eases His Dying Days
For years, medical marijuana dispensaries have allowed spouses and other caregivers to enter their premises by simply signing them in, whether they had a state-issued caregiver’s registration card or not. But word recently trickled out from the Cannabis Control Commission that caregivers without a card should be excluded, even though the law gives dispensary operators discretion to admit “visitors.” (Murphy, 4/4)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Jefferson Health Hits A Jackpot With Its Cannabis Bet Despite Some Recent Stumbles
Thomas Jefferson University’s big gamble on cannabis may be beginning to pay off despite a recent series of setbacks that have included the departure of a key executive, the implosion of a venture to create the world’s largest medical marijuana patient database, and a stalled academic research program. (Wood, 4/4)

Health News Florida: Tampa Businessman Joe Redner Plans To Appeal Marijuana Juicing Ruling
Tampa businessman Joe Redner has lost the latest round in his attempt to grow his own medical marijuana for juicing.But the strip club owner known for battling the government says he plans to appeal the decision by the First District Court of Appeal. Redner has a doctor’s orders to juice marijuana to keep his stage 4 lung cancer at bay. He says it’s kept him in remission for seven years. (Ochoa, 4/4)