State Highlights: CEO Of Maryland’s Medical System Resigns Amid Baltimore Mayor Scandal; California Turns To Florida For Wildfire Evacuation Ideas

The Associated Press: Chief Of Maryland Medical System Resigns Amid Scandal
The president and CEO of a major medical system in Maryland resigned Friday following revelations of numerous questionable financial arrangements involving board members, including Baltimore's embattled mayor. Robert Chrencik had led the University of Maryland Medical System since 2008 before being sent on a leave of absence in late March. He departed on the requested leave amid embarrassing allegations of "self-dealing" involving members of the $4 billion hospital system's volunteer board. (4/26)

The Washington Post: California Seeks Lessons From Florida For Fire Evacuations
With Hurricane Michael strengthening as it took aim at Florida’s Panhandle, Mark Bowen and his employees watched the live footage through tears. They weren’t looking at increasingly dire storm forecasts last October. They were watching cameras trained on rural Bay County’s three main evacuation routes leading away from sugar-white beaches. Traffic was flowing smoothly when there should have been gridlock. (Kay and Elias, 4/27)

The Wall Street Journal: PG&E’s Radical Plan To Prevent Wildfires: Shut Down The Power Grid
PG&E Corp. can’t prevent its power lines from sparking the kinds of wildfires that have killed scores of Californians. So instead, it plans to pull the plug on a giant swath of the state’s population. No U.S. utility has ever blacked out so many people on purpose. PG&E says it could knock out power to as much as an eighth of the state’s population for as long as five days when dangerously high winds arise. Communities likely to get shut off worry PG&E will put people in danger, especially the sick and elderly, and cause financial losses with slim hope of compensation. (Gold and Blunt, 4/27)

NH Times Union: NH Hospitals Keeping Close Eye On 'Superfungus'
Hospital officials in New Hampshire are monitoring a drug-resistant species of fungus that has made national headlines recently. Candida auris causes infections that can lead to death, particularly in hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems. More than one in three patients with invasive C. auris infections that affect the blood, heart, or brain die. (Haas, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Catholic Group Sues Over Michigan Policy On Adoption
A Roman Catholic social services agency that declines to place children with same-sex couples has filed a lawsuit to stop Michigan from penalizing the group if it sticks to its policy on foster care and adoption. Catholic Charities West Michigan in Grand Rapids filed the lawsuit Thursday. The group says Michigan law allows it to practice its religion by turning down same-sex couples. But the group says services will be threatened by a recent change at the Department of Health and Human Services. (4/26)

Kaiser Health News: Will Ties To A Catholic Hospital System Tie Doctors’ Hands?
As Catholic health care systems across the country expand, the University of California’s flagship San Francisco hospital has become the latest arena for an emotional debate: Should the famously progressive medical center increase its treatment space by joining forces with a Catholic-run system that restricts care according to religious doctrine? At issue is a proposal that UCSF Medical Center affiliate with Dignity Health, a massive Catholic health care system that, like other Catholic chains, is bound by ethical and religious directives from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (Gold, 4/29)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: How Many Worker Deaths Have There Been In The Last Year? No Agency Has The Answer.
PhilaPOSH gets data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but the federal agency covers only private-sector employees, leaving out public-sector workers, independent contractors, and anyone else engaged in a more informal work arrangement. That’s especially concerning in a time when an estimated one in five jobs in the United States is held by a worker under contract. (Feliciano Reyes, 4/26)

WBUR: A Workable Alternative To Nursing Homes In Vermont — Adult Family Care
As baby boomers age and the workforce shrinks, there may not be enough people or money to care for all our elders, especially those with medical needs. In many ways, that reality has already arrived in Vermont. A small but growing number of Vermont families are easing the burden by opening their homes to elderly strangers who need a lot of care. (Corwin, 4/27)

Seattle Times: Closure Of High-Tech Medical Firm Arivale Stuns Patients: ‘I Feel As If One Of My Arms Was Cut Off’
Co-founded in 2014 by genomics pioneer Leroy Hood, [genetics-focused health-care startup] Arivale was touted as the latest thing in what Hood called “scientific wellness”: using genetic and other high-tech diagnostics to help patients boost their health and minimize their risk of future disease by making data-driven, personalized adjustments to diets and other lifestyle factors. (Roberts, 4/26)

Kansas City Star: Brain Fungus Death Sign Of Bigger Problems In Kansas Prisons
The Star’s analysis of Corizon’s performance documents from July 2015 through December 2018 — hundreds of pages of raw data obtained through open records requests — found that almost a third of the time the company fell short of contract requirements for treating inmates who said they were sick. (Marso, 4/28)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Foster-Care Suit Will Proceed As Class-Action Litigation
A lawsuit that argues Arizona's child-welfare system has failed children in foster care will proceed as a class-action matter, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday. The decision has major implications for the thousands of children currently in the custody of the state Department of Child Safety, as well as future foster children. (Pitzl, 4/26)

Seattle Times: Net Neutrality Crucial For Modern Health Care, Cantwell And DelBene Argue 
Two members of Washington’s congressional delegation, along with a Democratic commissioner from the Federal Communications Commission, visited Harborview Medical Center on Friday to demonstrate why having unfettered internet access is as important to doctors as the utilities that make a hospital function. Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Suzan DelBene, both Democrats with backgrounds in the tech industry, were there to advocate for net neutrality — a set of regulations that requires internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all websites equally rather than creating fast lanes for those that can afford to pay for them. (Blethen, 4/27)

Arizona Republic: Court: Judges Can Require Treatment For Transgender Kids In Arizona
Arizona judges can require parents to provide counseling, therapy and other expert help to children who may be transgender, even if one parent doesn't support treatment, the state's highest court ruled Thursday. But the courts can only intervene when a child would be "at risk for physical danger or significantly impaired emotionally" without access to those services — a higher standard than the "best interest" test often used in family-court cases. (Polletta, 4/26)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Jail To Build New Medical Ward In $89M Expansion
Sacramento County’s jail is set for a major expansion, as its Elk Grove facility adds an $89.3 million medical and mental health ward to accommodate the increase in inmates diverted from state prisons to county jails in recent years. On Tuesday, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors authorized the county to start receiving bids for the seven-building, 86,000-square-foot project next to the existing Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center. (Yoon-Hendricks, 4/26)

Kaiser Health News: Hurricane Maria’s Legacy: Thousands Of Puerto Rican Students Show PTSD Symptoms
Food shortages, damaged homes, fear of death, loved ones leaving. The cumulative stresses of Hurricane Maria contributed to thousands of schoolchildren developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in Puerto Rico, according to a study published Friday. The study in JAMA Network Open found that 7.2% of the students reported “clinically significant” symptoms of PTSD. More girls tended to show signs of PTSD than boys. Researchers surveyed 96,108 public school students five to nine months after the 2017 hurricane. The cohort included youth in third through 12th grades across different regions of the island. (Heredia Rodriguez, 4/26)

The Associated Press: Company Seeks $1.2 Million Grant For New Medical Facility
A privately run health care company is seeking more than $1 million in state taxpayer money to redevelop a former hospital campus in southern Delaware. The state Council on Development Finance meets Monday to consider a request by Nationwide Healthcare Services for a Strategic Fund grant of about $1.2 million. The grant would be used to build a new “wellness village,” including a 150-bed skilled nursing center, on the site of the old Milford Memorial hospital. (4/29)