State Highlights: Baylor St. Luke’s Losing Medicare Funding For Heart Transplant Program; First Confirmed Human Case Of Keystone Virus Found In Florida

ProPublica: Medicare To Terminate Funding For St. Luke’s Heart Transplant Program in Houston
The federal Medicare program informed Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center on Friday that it would cut off funding to its heart transplant program in August, saying the Houston hospital has not done enough to fix shortcomings that endanger patients. The decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a devastating blow to what was once one of the nation’s most renowned heart transplant programs. (Ornstein and Hixenbaugh, 6/22)

USA Today: Keystone Virus In Florida: Mosquito Virus Makes First Jump To Humans
A 16-year-old boy, the first confirmed case of the Keystone virus in humans, is leading researchers to believe the virus could be widespread in North Florida. Researchers from the University of Florida identified the Keystone virus in the teenager after he visited an urgent care clinic in North Central Florida in August of 2016. Medical professionals suspected he had Zika virus, considering his case was seen during a Zika outbreak, but he didn't. He tested positive for the Keystone virus, spread by a mosquito cousin to the Zika mosquito. He had a rash and fever. A report of his case was published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. (May, 6/22)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Officials Downplay Health Threat From Little-Known Mosquito-Borne Virus That Caused Symptoms In Teen
Texas health officials are downplaying any current health risk from a little-known mosquito-borne virus found for the first time to have infected and caused symptoms in a person. University of Florida researchers reported this month that based on their analysis, a teenager tested for Zika two years ago actually had the Keystone virus, which can be found in some animal populations along coastal regions stretching from Texas to the Chesapeake Bay. (Ackerman, 6/23)

Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Grand Jury: Society Must Stop Criminalizing Mental Illness
Too many Tennesseans with mental illnesses are arrested and jailed instead of being referred for treatment, a recent Nashville grand jury determined. There must be more societal awareness of what to do when someone is having a mental health crisis, jurors also decided. The vast majority of people who have a mental illness do not pose an immediate risk to the community, regardless of whether they own a firearm. People diagnosed with a mental illness committed less than 5 percent of gun-related killings in the U.S. between 2001 and 2010, according to a 2015 study recently cited in The New York Times. (Boucher, 6/25)

Columbus Dispatch: A Year Later, No Money Has Been Spent From State Fund To Help Parents Keep Kids
After a years-long fight, the families and their supporters had reason to celebrate. Ohio finally was creating a fund that could be tapped to help pay for desperately needed services for children at risk of entering the justice or foster-care systems. ... But after a year, the $5 million in the state’s “crisis stabilization fund” has gone unused. (Price, 6/24)

Texas Tribune: Special Education Advocates Worry Texas Governor's School Safety Plan Will Accelerate School-To-Prison Pipeline
As a recent spate of school shootings has provoked nationwide panic, some advocates and parents, like Tunchez, are worried school and state officials' response to the May massacre at Santa Fe High School could harm some students more than it protects them. Criminal charges have since been dropped for Tunchez’s son, who has ADHD and anxiety, but he missed more than two weeks of school, spent a couple of days in juvenile detention and failed the state standardized English test required for him to graduate. (Swaby, 6/22)

Dallas Morning News: Former ER Doctor Who Signed Bogus Documents Found Guilty With 2 Nurses In $13 Million Health Care Fraud
Dr. Kelly Robinett was a semi-retired emergency room doctor with more than 30 years of experience who didn't want to see patients much anymore when he took a job for about $400 a week signing medical paperwork. That decision cost him his livelihood, his reputation and quite possibly his freedom. The 70-year-old Carrollton man was convicted Friday of four fraud charges for his role in a $13 million home health care scam made possible by what prosecutors called his rubber stamp signature on fraudulent documents. (Krause, 6/23)

KCUR: ‘I Just Want My Teeth Not To Hurt’: Treating Kids Who May Never Have Seen A Dentist 
Neena Patel tells the kinds of stories that make your mouth hurt. She’s a dentist with Miles of Smiles, a nonprofit organization offering free services to low-income kids in Clay and Platte counties who don’t have access to dental care. She regularly sees young patients who haven’t been to the dentist in years – or ever. ... According to a needs assessment conducted in 2000, the second-biggest need in the Northland was dental care for low-income children. Miles of Smiles was created two years later. Since then the organization has treated more than 19,000 children, both in their North Kansas City office and through mobile clinic visits to about 40 area schools. Access to free dental care has given thousands of children the chance for a healthier adulthood. (Lutz, 6/23)

Nashville Tennessean: Aging In Place: Nashville's Seniors Seeking More Housing Help
Seniors and disabled people living on fixed incomes, like [Lillian] Williams, are among the most vulnerable in the region’s affordable-housing crisis. Their collective need for housing assistance is growing as their population surges. The number of adults ages 65 and older in Davidson County grew 26 percent from 2010 to 2017. In comparison, the total population increased 10 percent during that time, according to U.S. Census data. (Mazza, 6/25)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Bucks National Trend With Stagnant Smoking Rates
While the national adult smoking rate hit another record low last year, the statewide rate remained stagnant, frustrating local health officials. About 14 percent of U.S. adults were smokers last year, down from about 16 percent the year before, figures from the Centers for Disease Control show. (Meibers, 6/22)

Arizona Republic: Judge: Arizona Corrections, Officials In Contempt, Must Pay $1.45M
A U.S. District Court judge has found the Arizona Department of Corrections, its director, Charles Ryan, and its medical director, Richard Pratt, in civil contempt of court for repeatedly failing to meet the conditions of a 2014 court settlement over health care in state prisons. In a ruling Friday afternoon, Magistrate Judge David Duncan also imposed sanctions of $1,455,000 for failed standards from December through February. (Kiefer, 6/22)

KCUR: At New Events In Kansas City, Music And Movies Make New Memories For People With Dementia 
Called Memory Cafés, the monthly events are a local version of something started by a Dutch psychiatrist in 1997. Volunteers have since spread the meetings across the globe. Kansas City writer Deborah Shouse learned about Memory Cafés while researching her book, “Connecting in the Land of Dementia,” about her mother’s journey with Alzheimer’s. (Kniggendorf, 6/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: Risky Teen Leadership Retreats Under Fire As Operators Consider Changes
A prominent judge and social justice activist has called for the suspension of Bay Area youth leadership retreats that employ reckless methods in the name of empathy-building, a reaction to The Chronicle’s recent exposé of programs that have been attended by thousands of local high school students for decades. The call comes amid conversations among retreat leaders nationwide about how suspect, even unethical practices became so embedded in the so-called Camp Anytown movement, an effort initially designed to foster awareness of prejudice and create change. (de Sá, 6/22)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio University Expands Program To Reduce Infant Mortality Rates
OU’s family program now can help even more babies, pregnant women and families, thanks to a grant from the Ohio Department of Health. The grant will expand the program, which provides counseling and other services to expectant or new mothers, into four southeastern Ohio counties: Pike, Scioto, Jackson and Morgan. (Meibers, 6/24)

Texas Tribune: Legal Marijuana, Assault-Style Gun Control Texas Democrats' Platform
With little to no debate, state party Democrats on Saturday afternoon signed off on their 2018 platform, a list that reflects the ideals leaders and members support ahead of the November election and 2019 legislative session. The platform includes support for legalizing the possession and recreational use of marijuana, providing tuition-free community college to Texas residents and maintaining the Top 10 Percent Rule, which requires all public universities to admit all Texans who graduated in the top 10 percent their high school's class. (Samuels, 6/23)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A Killer Left DNA Evidence Behind. But The Milwaukee Police Destroyed It.
But even with continuing advances in DNA technology, (Deborah Lynn) Oberg’s killer likely will never be caught. That’s because the Milwaukee Police Department destroyed the evidence in her case — along with at least 50 other homicides. (Barton and Luthern, 6/22)