State Highlights: 911 Operators Cited As Lynchpins in NYC Medical Fraud Ring Affecting Thousands; Oregon’s ERs Reporting Striking Rise In Number Of Child Sexual Abuse Cases

The New York Times: They Called 911. Then N.Y.P.D. Workers Sold The Data, Officials Say.
For years, Angela Meyers, a 911 operator with the New York Police Department, fielded emergency calls, then filed reports about the calls within the department. But according to court documents, when someone called 911 after a car accident, Ms. Meyers did something else: She also passed victims’ information to an insurance fraud ring in Queens. (Watkins, 11/7)

The Oregonian: Oregon Advocate Concerned And Heartened By Rising Child Sexual Abuse ER Visits
More than twice as many sexually abused adolescents checked into emergency rooms in 2016 than 10 years ago, according to a new national analysis. That’s not the finding lead author Jesse Helton of Saint Louis University expected when he did what he believes was the first-ever analysis of child sexual abuse emergency visits using data from across the U.S. (Zarkhin, 11/7)

The Associated Press: Elevated Lead Levels Found In 27 Virginia Beach Schools
Virginia Beach City Public School officials say elevated lead levels have been detected at 27 of its schools. News outlets report the school district sent a notice to families Wednesday to share the results of tests conducted over the summer. They found 61 drinking and food-prep water sources had lead levels greater than state and federal limits. (11/7)

The Baltimore Sun: UMMS Board Files First Disclosures Since ‘Healthy Holly’ Scandal Over Deals Rocked Hospital System And Baltimore 
Board members at the University of Maryland Medical System have filed financial disclosures with state regulators for the first time since news of deals between the system and a third of its directors rocked the hospital network, dismantled its leadership team and helped take down Baltimore’s mayor last spring. Among the 13 UMMS board members appointed this summer — 11 by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and one each by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, both Democrats — only two, both appointed by Hogan, disclosed business with the system in the latest filings with the state Health Services Cost Review Commission. (Rector, 11/8)

Boston Globe: MGH Settles For $13M With Doctor Who Challenged Double-Booked Surgeries
Mass. General agreed to pay him $13 million and offered him his old job back to settle his wrongful termination lawsuit. MGH also agreed to honor Burke with a hospital safety initiative in his name, according to his lawyer, Ellen Zucker. (Saltzman, 11/7)

The Associated Press: Alien Grasses Are Making Wildfires More Frequent In The U.S., Study Finds
For much of the United States, invasive grass species are making wildfires more frequent, especially in fire-prone California, a new study finds. Twelve non-native species act as “little arsonist grasses,” said study co-author Bethany Bradley, a University of Massachusetts professor of environmental conservation. (11/7)

Nashville Tennessean: Police Officers' Mental Health At Center Of Federal Grant For Nashville
Federal law enforcement is sending $95 million to Tennessee to cut into a backlog of untested rape kits, to combat an influx of heroin and meth, and to continue the battle against the opioid epidemic, among other efforts. A slice of that funding focused on improving police officers' mental health hit close to home for Phil Keith, an administrator with the U.S. Department of Justice who came to Nashville on Thursday to announce the slate of federal grants. (Tamburin, 11/7)

Detroit Free Press: Detroit's Preterm Birth Rate Was 15.3% In 2018, The Highest Since 2005
Despite recent claims that the City of Detroit’s handpicked program to fight preterm birth is uniquely successful, the city’s preterm birth rate is now at a 13-year high, according to the latest statistics from the State of Michigan. The newest state data comes on the heels of Mayor Mike Duggan's vigorous public defenses of the Make Your Date program's efforts to fight preterm birth. The mayor was compelled to defend the program after a critical inspector general's report found that the mayor gave Make Your Date preferential treatment when teaming up five years ago. (Stafford, 11/7)

The Acadiana Advocate: Carencro Heights Elementary Closing Friday In Lafayette As Flu Outbreak Continues 
Carencro Heights Elementary will close Friday as the school system fights an influenza outbreak at the elementary school campus. The Lafayette Parish School System announced the closure Thursday morning after 85 confirmed cases of the flu were reported, up from 57 confirmed cases Tuesday, according to Jennifer Gardner, chief administrative officer for the Lafayette Parish School System. The sick students make up about 13% of the school's student population. (Gagliano, 11/7)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County Proposes Tax Increase For Health And Human Services
Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and County Council President Dan Brady want the council to place a tax increase on the March ballot for an additional $35 million for health and human services, but they won’t say precisely how the new tax money would be spent. The levy request comes on the heels of a $179-million cash windfall to the county from settlements with opioid manufacturers. (Astolfi, 11/7)

The Baltimore Sun: Penis Transplant Performed On Soldier At Johns Hopkins In Baltimore Considered A Success 
More than a year and a half after surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital performed a complex genital transplant on a soldier who also lost his legs in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, the man says he has normal functions and is “feeling whole.” The man, who chose to remain anonymous, received a donated penis, scrotum and part of an abdominal wall during a 14-hour surgery in April 2018. The progress report came Thursday in a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine from about two dozen doctors, mostly from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, but also from Cooper University Health Care in Camden, New Jersey, and Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. (Cohn, 11/7)

Kaiser Health News: Bruising Labor Battles Put Kaiser Permanente’s Reputation On The Line
Kaiser Permanente, which just narrowly averted one massive strike, is facing another one Monday. The ongoing labor battles have undermined the health giant’s once-golden reputation as a model of cost-effective care that caters to satisfied patients — which it calls “members” — and is exposing it to new scrutiny from politicians and health policy analysts. (Almendrala, 11/8)

North Carolina Health News: NC's Peer Support Ecosystem Grows Rapidly 
In a state marked by a mental health care workforce shortage so severe that more than a quarter of all counties have no psychologists at all, another type of provider group is quietly growing. These professionals didn’t get their training in college or graduate school and they can’t prescribe drugs. What they do offer is first-hand experience in mental health or substance use disorders. And with that insight, they can support others having similar challenges. (Engel-Smith, 11/8)

Texas Tribune: Texas Opening Five Acres To House Austin Homeless
Crystal Brimm said she was gone all of 20 minutes. That's all the time it took for the Texas Department of Transportation to clean the encampment where she lives under U.S. Highway 290 and Ben White Boulevard on Wednesday, after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered homeless people to be removed from state overpasses in Austin. Abbott has spent months railing against Austin and its local leaders, accusing them of worsening what he calls a dangerous homelessness crisis by relaxing camping ordinances. (Rich and Pollock, 11/7)

The Star Tribune: HealthPartners Closing Pharmacies, Cutting 300 Jobs 
HealthPartners is closing 30 retail pharmacies as well as its mail-order pharmacy operations next year due to economic pressures that officials said give an advantage to larger operators in the industry. About 300 jobs will be eliminated with the closings, including positions for about 100 pharmacists. HealthPartners, which is a nonprofit health insurer that also runs clinics and hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin, said it will work with patients before the closures to make sure they continue to have access to needed medications. (Snowbeck, 11/7)

Boston Globe: Lowell Water Treatment Plant To Stop Accepting Toxic Water From N.H. Landfill
Under pressure from lawmakers and environmental advocates, officials in Lowell said Thursday that they had suspended a contract with a New Hampshire landfill that sent a large volume of toxic runoff into the Merrimack River, a source of drinking water to more than a half-million people. Federal regulators had recently renewed a permit allowing Turnkey Landfill in Rochester, N.H., to send as much as 100,000 gallons of daily runoff to a Lowell treatment plant that empties into the long-polluted river. (Abel and Lovato, 11/7)

MPR: 5 Years Of Legal Marijuana Could Bring Minn. $300M In Revenue, Expert Says
Five years of legal recreational marijuana in Minnesota could generate $1.12 billion in sales, $300 million in tax revenue and 20,000 jobs, an industry expert estimates. MinnPost reports the analysis came from Sal Barnes of the Marijuana Policy Group, who spoke at the CannConMN Symposium, a conference on the impacts of cannabis legalization. (Nelson, 11/7)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Medical Marijuana: Minority Quota For Dispensary Licenses Struck Down
Madison County judge has struck down a state law granting minority-owned medical marijuana businesses a leg up during the competitive licensing process. The ruling against Ohio's "racial quota" is the latest blow to state lawmakers' attempt at making the industry more diverse. It could lead to more dispensary licenses being issued beyond the current total of 56 statewide. (Borchardt, 11/7)