Indiana Ban On Gender Care For Trans Minors Can Take Effect: Ruling
A federal appeals court ruled that Indiana can indeed block young transgender people from accessing hormone and puberty blocker treatments, which form part of gender care, undoing a lower court decision that had blocked the law. Also in the news: pain and suffering jury award caps.
The New York Times:
Appeals Court Allows Indiana Ban On Transition Care For Minors To Take Effect
Indiana’s ban on hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender minors can go into effect, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday, undoing a lower court decision last year that had largely blocked the law. The three-paragraph ruling by a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago, said it was staying a preliminary injunction that the district court had issued in June, just before the law was scheduled to take effect last summer. (Smith, 2/27)
CBS News:
Colorado Doctor Says Removing Pain & Suffering Jury Award Caps Could Increase Consumer Costs, Force Some Doctors Out
Some people opposed to removing caps on pain and suffering damages are speaking with CBS News Colorado following this story showing why some Colorado attorneys feel the removal is necessary to ensure people who suffer life-altering injuries receive the money they deserve. ... Some Colorado doctors worry removing those caps could make it hard for small business owners to stay afloat, and could end up passing higher costs on to consumers, because doctors' insurance premiums would increase. (Weis, 2/27)
Fresh Take Florida:
Sunshine State Looks To Require Some Insurers To Cover Costs Of Skin Cancer Screenings
Lawmakers are poised to make it easier and cheaper for Florida residents to undergo potentially lifesaving skin cancer screenings by ensuring that all costs are covered by health insurance. (Friedman, 2/27)
North Carolina Health News:
Dentists Lobby For Better Medicaid Reimbursement
The phones at many dental offices across North Carolina have been ringing repeatedly in recent months with requests for oral health care from newly enrolled Medicaid recipients. The state’s expansion of Medicaid benefits to nearly 600,000 low-income residents on Dec. 1 opened a robust array of services such as dental exams, routine cleanings and more complicated care for many people who previously had little access to a dentist because of the cost. (Blythe, 2/28)
KFF Health News:
California Lawsuit Spotlights Broad Legal Attack On Anti-Bias Training In Health Care
Los Angeles anesthesiologist Marilyn Singleton was outraged about a California requirement that every continuing medical education course include training in implicit bias — the ways in which physicians’ unconscious attitudes might contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Singleton, who is Black and has practiced for 50 years, sees calling doctors out for implicit bias as divisive, and argues the state cannot legally require her to teach the idea in her continuing education classes. She has sued the Medical Board of California, asserting a constitutional right not to teach something she doesn’t believe. (Cohen, 2/28)
Fresh Take Florida:
Lawmakers Look To Localize Purple Alerts For Missing Adults With Mental Disabilities
Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee are considering major changes to the state's Purple Alerts used to help find missing adults who suffer from an intellectual or developmental disability. The bills, sponsored by Democrats, would limit the number of statewide alerts in favor of local, countywide notifications where someone may have vanished. (Teitel, 2/27)
AP:
States Promise To Help Disabled Kids. Why Do Some Families Wait A Decade Or More?
When Lilly Miller was in elementary school, teachers told her parents they needed to immediately sign up their youngest daughter, who has Down syndrome, for a wait list so the state would pay for a day program when she grew up. The teachers predicted a six-year wait. The Millers have been waiting 10 years. Lilly is now 21 and has aged out of special education programs in the public schools in their hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Her parents, also teachers, have hired a home caregiver. A day program, where she would learn new job skills or flex existing ones while socializing, would cost between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, Marvin Miller said. (Hanna, 2/28)
