Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Attorneys: Medicaid Unwinding Notices In Florida Were 'Incomprehensible'
News Service of Florida: Plaintiffs Push Back In Fight Over Florida's Medicaid Unwinding
Saying that notices sent by the state “border on incomprehensible,” attorneys for Medicaid beneficiaries fired back this week in a potential class-action lawsuit alleging Florida has not provided adequate information before dropping people from the health care program. (Saunders, 10/18)
More health news from across the U.S. —
North Carolina Health News: Lawmakers Give Authority Over NC's Mental Health System To DHHS
North Carolina’s six local behavioral health management companies — known as LME-MCOs — will see some significant restructuring soon. For years, patients, their families and mental health advocates have lodged repeated complaints about the lack of services some of the LME-MCOs provide and about the difficulty people have navigating the mental health system. State lawmakers have also had their share of frustrations with trying to hold the organizations accountable when problems arise. (Knopf, 10/18)
Reuters: Religious Liberty May Bar Defendant's Forced Medication, US Court Says
A Mississippi man's religious objections to being forcibly treated with psychiatric medication must be considered first before he can be involuntarily medicated and made to stand trial for threatening a judge, a federal appeals court has concluded. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached that conclusion in a Tuesday opinion that replaced their own earlier, less-expansive ruling in August in favor Bryant Lamont Harris. (Raymond, 10/18)
Los Angeles Times: Psychiatric Patients Restrained At Sky-High Rates At This L.A. Hospital
L.A. General's locked psychiatric unit has restrained patients at a higher rate than in any other in California, a Times analysis has found. (Poston and Reyes, 10/19)
The Colorado Sun: Colorado Is Paying Parents To Take Care Of Children With Disabilities
The $2,000 per month that Anna Hegwer receives from Medicaid to take her 11-year-old daughter on outings and teach her to cook and clean is helping keep her family from its breaking point. Without it, the Parker mom would feel overwhelmed by the stress of trying to figure out how to pay the bills when she can’t take her eyes off her daughter, Chloe, who has an intellectual disability and severe attention deficit disorder. (Brown, 10/17)
CalMatters: Once Hailed As A Drought Fix, California Moves To Restrict Synthetic Turf Over Health Concerns
“Emerging research is making it clear that artificial turf poses an environmental threat due to its lack of recyclability and presence of toxins such as lead and PFAS,” said state Sen. Ben Allen, the Redondo Beach Democrat who authored the bill. With the new law “local governments will again be able to regulate artificial turf in a way to both protect our environment in the face of drought and climate change but also by preventing further contribution to our recycling challenges and toxic runoff,” he said. (Agrawal, 10/18)
