Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Spotlight Falls On NYC Shelter System In Wake Of Subway Shover's Arrest
The New York Times: Accused Subway Shover Found Little Help In New York’s Chaotic Shelters
Before Carlton McPherson was accused of fatally shoving a stranger in front of a subway train last week, he was placed by New York City into specialized homeless shelters meant to help people with severe mental illness. But at one shelter, in Brooklyn, he became erratic and attacked a security guard. At another, he jumped on tables and would cycle between anger and ecstasy. At a third, his fellow residents said it was clear his psychological issues were not being addressed. (Harris, Ransom, Parnell and Newman, 3/31)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri Lab To Pay $13.6 Million To Settle Medicare Urinalysis Overbilling Case
A Missouri laboratory agreed this week to a $13.6 million settlement to resolve allegations that it performed expensive and unnecessary urine tests and billed Medicare for them. The company and two of its owners will be barred from federal health care programs for 15 years. (Merrilees, 3/29)
Chicago Tribune: After Federal Cuts, Illinois Rape Crisis Centers Ask State For Help
The burnout that has hit so many in her line of work came for Phyllis Lubel last fall. She had just finished a particularly grueling 16-month stretch in which she logged close to 300 hours inside Lake County emergency rooms, where she took on the arduous task of trying to help survivors in the immediate aftermath of a sexual assault. After nearly 26 years with the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center in Gurnee, first as a volunteer and then as an advocacy services specialist, the 58-year-old Skokie native had reached a breaking point. I need to have a life, she thought. I can’t keep this pace up. (Lubel, 3/31)
Houston Chronicle: EPA Finds Elevated Toxin Levels Near Fifth Ward Creosote Site
The Environmental Protection Agency has identified potentially dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in several new vapor samples taken near a Union Pacific rail yard in Fifth Ward, where residents have for years worried that the creosote process once used to treat rail ties at the site had contaminated their properties and made them sick. Residents still living on top of an underground plume of creosote-contaminated water blame it for the area's elevated cancer rates. (Ward, 3/29)
In updates from California —
Politico: For Terminal Patients, Dying In California May Get Easier
California could become home to the nation’s most sweeping assisted dying policies with a new bill that would allow dementia patients and out-of-state residents to end their lives here. First, the proposal will have to overcome opposition from the state’s influential religious and disability rights groups. It could also face pushback from doctors and hospitals that have historically been hesitant to loosen rules around the process. (Bluth, 4/1)
Los Angeles Times: Doctors Warn Of A 'Wild West' In California Cosmetic Surgery
Inside a clinic wedged next to a smoke shop in a South Los Angeles strip mall, Dr. Mohamad Yaghi operated on a 28-year-old woman who had traveled from Las Vegas to have fat trimmed from her arms and stomach. Yaghi had been offering liposuction for roughly seven years when he started making incisions that day in October 2020, but he was trained as a pediatrician, according to a formal accusation later filed by state regulators. (Alpert Reyes, 3/31)
Fox News: California Offers Free Fentanyl Test Strips For 'Safe' Drug Use, Advises 'Never Using Alone'
In an effort to curb the incidence of fentanyl overdoses and to protect drug users in California, the state has rolled out free fentanyl test strips for a limited time. According to California Department of Public Health specialist Pike Long, the fentanyl test strips "are a useful addition" to the state's harm-reduction strategies, such as "never using alone and always carrying naloxone." (Joseph, 3/29)
CBS News: Public Advised To Stay Out Of Ocean Water Due To High Bacteria Levels
Yet another powerful storm that doused Southern California has led to potentially high bacteria levels flushing down inland rivers and streams and into the ocean, prompting health officials to issue an advisory on Saturday. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials say that the heavy rains could cause discharge from drains, creek and rivers that is contaminated with bacteria, chemicals, debris and trash from city streets into the ocean. (Fioresi, 3/30)
