Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Baltimore Nabs $1.26M Homeless Health Care Grant; Budget Shortfalls Plague Calif. Coroner's Office
The Baltimore Sun: Health Care For The Homeless Get $1.26 Million Federal Grant
Baltimore’s Health Care for Homeless Inc. will receive $1.26 million to provide housing assistance and support services to low-income people with HIV and their families as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Cohn, 7/5)
KQED: Decades of Budget Shortfalls Frustrate L.A. County Coroner
The shortage of resources has serious public health implications, such as delaying health alerts to ambulance crews and emergency room doctors when there’s a spike in overdoses such as those occurring now with fentanyl and other opioids. Likewise, we rely on pathologists’ reports to head off disease such as the tuberculosis epidemic that broke out a couple years ago on L.A.’s Skid Row. Findings by coroners’ departments help to identify trends in another public health issue, violent crime. Finally, slowness in investigating questionable deaths causes additional anguish and sometimes financial hardship to friends and relatives of the deceased. (Richard, 7/5)
The Texas Tribune: Pay Caseworkers And Fosters More, New Chief Says
The new commissioner of the state’s embattled child welfare agency wants lawmakers to make a sizable investment in Child Protective Services and the state’s foster care system. ... Whitman, a former chief of the Texas Rangers who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to his new post in April, sat down with The Texas Tribune to discuss the problems facing the Texas Department of Family and Protective services — and how he thinks a police officer’s perspective can help fix them. Among those troubles are a spike in the number of children sleeping in CPS offices and psychiatric hospitals, high staff turnover and a spate of high-profile child deaths. Whitman says his agency is hiring 20 “crime analysts” to help track down at-risk kids. (Walters, 7/6)
Concord Monitor: New 10-Bed Crisis Unit Opens At N.H. Hospital, A Year Behind Schedule
After a yearlong delay, New Hampshire Hospital opened a new 10-bed mental health crisis unit Tuesday. It’s meant to take pressure off local emergency rooms, where patients often languish for days while they wait for a bed to open up at the state-run psychiatric hospital in Concord. (Morris, 7/5)
Modern Healthcare: N.J. Hospitals Brace For $200 Million Cut To Charity-Care Funds
Although the New Jersey Legislature voted last month to add $50 million to subsidies for charity-care hospitals, Republican Gov. Chris Christie line-item vetoed the measure when he signed the fiscal 2017 budget on June 30, according to the New Jersey Hospital Association. (Teichert, 7/5)
Minnesota Public Radio: So, How Good Is That Allina Nurses Health Coverage?
Allina Health wants nurses at its Twin Cities area hospitals to move to its corporate health plans. Union nurses say no. It remains a stumbling block in contract talks, although experts say the corporate and nurses' plans are both generous. ... Measured against national insurance trends, all three of the health plans are good, said Cynthia Cox, associate director of health reform and private insurance at Kaiser. (Benson, 7/5)
Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Launches Air/Ground Ambulance Transport Network
Sacramento’s Sutter Health has launched a new medical transport network to quickly serve critically ill, injured and fragile patients throughout Northern California. The network features air ambulances operated by McClellan-based California Shock Trauma Air Rescue, Calstar for short, and ground ambulances operated by American Medical Response, headquartered in Colorado. Sutter Health said it has stationed 12 critical care ground ambulances at 11 Sutter hospitals and helicopters at four Calstar air bases in Northern California. (Glover, 7/5)
San Antonio Express-News: Health Care Credit Rating Downgraded For BCBS Of Texas’ Parent Company
S&P Global Ratings has cut the credit grade of Health Care Service Corp., the parent company of health insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, expecting a third year of marginal-to-weak profitability as insurers struggle to make money since President Barack Obama’s signature health care law took full effect in 2014. (O'Hare, 7/5)
Minnesota Public Radio: Hallberg's Picture Of Health: Medical Marijuana And Pain
A year into Minnesota's medical marijuana program, doctors are getting a new condition for which they can prescribe the treatment: intractable pain. Doctors on Friday began evaluating potential medical marijuana patients with intractable pain. Their treatments would begin in August. Dr. Jon Hallberg, MPR News' regular medical analyst, joined All Things Considered host Tom Crann to talk about how this change will work in a clinical setting. (MPR News Staff, 7/5)
Kaiser Health News: If You Want To Spend A Bundle On Your Bundle Of Joy, Go To Northern California
Everyone knows that real estate is no bargain in Northern California. It turns out that giving birth ain’t cheap either. New research on the cost of childbirth in the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas ranks Sacramento and San Francisco as the two most expensive for both vaginal delivery and Cesarean sections. Sacramento is No. 1, San Francisco No. 2. (Gold, 7/6)
