State Highlights: Calif. Immigration Policy Driving Boost In Medi-Cal Sign-ups; Indiana Confronts HIV Outbreak

Los Angeles Times: Medi-Cal Rolls Could Swell Under Obama's Deportation Relief Plan
President Obama's executive actions on immigration, which have sparked a fierce political backlash nationwide, could also provide an unlikely boost for another of his goals: increasing health insurance signups. Immigrants living in the U.S. without permission can't enroll in Obamacare, but an unusual policy in California allows those granted temporary relief from deportation to sign up for Medi-Cal. That means up to half a million more Californians could apply for the state's low-income health program, according to data released Wednesday by UC Berkeley and UCLA. (Karlamangla, 3/25)

The Washington Post: Indiana Is Battling The Worst HIV Outbreak In Its History
The HIV epidemic that now grips Austin, Ind., seemed to come out of nowhere. Since the first diagnosis in mid-December, the number of infected there and in the surrounding region has skyrocketed — 26 by the beginning of March, 72 as of this Wednesday. It’s the worst HIV outbreak in state history, and has local and federal officials scrambling to stem the spread of the disease. (Kaplan, 3/26)

California Healthline: Progress Reported In State's Handling Of Nursing Home Complaints
Progress has been made in clearing a huge backlog of nursing home complaints, and steps have been taken to ensure it won't happen again, according to testimony on Tuesday at a joint legislative hearing. (Gorn, 3/25)

Health News Florida: The Nurse Will See You Now: Expanded Authority Proposal Gets Moving In Legislature
After initially stalling last week, a bill that would let nurses see patients without having the oversight of doctors, finally got moving Tuesday. House Bill 547 was the final proposal heard by the Health Innovation Subcommittee, and even though lawmakers approved it on a 9-to-4 vote, unclear whether the bill is enough of a priority, or even if it has enough support—to get through the House. Still, Republican Rep. Cary Pigman says he wants fellow lawmakers to hear him out and, “to recognize it’s a work in progress. It’s likely a multi-year work in progress.” (Hatter, 3/26)

ProPublica: The Fallout Of Workers' Comp 'Reforms': 5 Tales Of Harm
In some states, the cuts have been so drastic that injured workers have plummeted into poverty, losing their cars and even their homes. In others, workers spend years battling insurance companies for the surgeries, prescriptions and basic help their doctors recommend. The five case studies below are emblematic of the bewildering labyrinths injured workers have to navigate as a result of these cutbacks. (Grabell, 3/25)

The Associated Press: Paid To Sleep: NY Cracks Down On Napping Workers
By day, Tanya Lemon was a 35-year-old single mother who took care of her four children. By night, she worked 12-hour shifts as a nurse at a state group home in suburban Syracuse, paid to watch over vulnerable residents as they slept. That's also when she got her own sleep, prosecutors say — a routine that led to felony charges when Dennis Dattalo, a 25-year-old disabled man who couldn't speak, ran low on oxygen while on her watch and later died. The case has brought renewed attention in New York to the problem of fatigue among health care workers — and in particular highlights the low-paid nurses, aides and others who care for vulnerable people at night, when sleeping can all too often become part of the job. (Virtanen, 3/26)

The Des Moines Register: Health Groups Urge Caution On Medicaid Privatization
Representatives of hospitals, doctors and nursing homes joined with patient advocates Wednesday to urge the Iowa House to pass a bill giving legislators some oversight of the state's shift to privately managed Medicaid. "If managed care is done right, it can do some important and innovative measures to improve quality and access, as well as reducing costs," said Mary Nelle Trefz, a lobbyist for the Child and Family Policy Center. "But that's an important caveat: If it's done right." (Leys, 3/25)

The Associated Press: Groups Express Support For Iowa Bill On Medicaid Oversight
The Iowa Legislature should have more oversight of this year's plans to transition the state's Medicaid program into private managed care, representatives for several medical groups told a House panel Wednesday. (Rodriguez, 3/25)

Modern Healthcare: Maryland Hospitals See Impressive Gains In Patient Safety
Hospitals in Maryland are seeing impressive gains in reducing readmission rates and preventing patient harms from hospital-acquired infections, medication errors and other safety events, according to a report released Wednesday by the state's hospital association. (RIce, 3/25)

Reuters: California Bill That Would Allow Assisted Suicide Passes Senate Panel
Physician-assisted suicide would be legal for terminally ill patients in California under a bill passed on Wednesday by a committee of the state Senate. The bill, passed by the Senate Health Committee, would allow patients who are mentally competent and have fewer than six months to live to obtain prescriptions for medication to end their lives. (Bernstein, 3/25)

The Wall Street Journal: California Lawmakers View Right-To-Die Video Left By Brittany Maynard
California lawmakers pursuing right-to-die legislation on Wednesday aired a posthumous video of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old San Francisco Bay Area woman with brain cancer whose move to Oregon to legally end her life last year drew wide attention. In the video, Ms. Maynard, who ended her life on Nov. 1, appeals to state legislators, and lawmakers elsewhere, to pass laws that allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of doctors. Ms. Maynard said in the video she was “heartbroken” to have to leave behind “my home, my community and my friends in California” to take advantage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. (Lazo, 3/25)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Two Kansas Counties, Two Vastly Different Health Outcomes
When it comes to standard measures of health, Kansas is a laggard. Whether we’re talking about obesity rates, incidence of diabetes, acute or chronic diseases, or childhood mortality, the Sunflower State typically ranks in the bottom half of state health rankings – and in recent years it’s been sinking even lower. That’s bad enough. But there are vast disparities within the state itself. Averages only give a rough-and-ready sense of the state’s overall health picture; dig deeper – down to the county level – and you’ll find that some counties actually perform quite well while others perform poorly. Nowhere is that more apparent than in two counties that sit cheek by jowl, both in metropolitan Kansas City: Johnson and Wyandotte counties. (Margolies, 3/25)

news@JAMA: Using Health Care Data To Track And Improve Public Health
Each year, County Health Rankings releases a report and an interactive website with detailed health data for every county in the United States. Most of the data available, however, are several years old. For example, for the 2014 report, measures for risk behaviors were based on data from 2006 through 2012, premature death on data from 2008-2010, and preventable hospitalization on data from 2011. America’s Health Rankings publishes annual data for health in states. For the 2014 report, infant mortality rates were based on data from 2011 and 2012, premature death rates from 2012, and rates of insurance from 2012 and 2013. (Sharfstein, 3/25)

The Des Moines Register: Mentally Ill Seniors Shifted Out Of State Institution
Administrators at the state Mental Health Institute at Clarinda have started transferring mentally ill senior citizens from the institution to private nursing homes, a spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. The transfers will affect only about a dozen patients in a geriatric mental health program, but they are considered some of the toughest cases among the residents of two mental institutions that the state plans to close by July 1. (Leys, 3/25)

The Des Moines Register: Private Unit Considered For Mentally Ill Seniors
The Iowa Health Care Association, which represents most of the state's nursing homes, has shown interest in helping set up a small private facility for senior citizens with mental illnesses that make them aggressive. Although no such program has been formally proposed, the association recently sent the Iowa Department of Human Services an estimate of what it might cost. (Leys, 3/25)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Some Farmers Warming To Affordable Care Act
Until the federal health insurance marketplace opened in late 2013, farmers and ranchers were more likely to be uninsured than many other occupational groups. The Affordable Care Act changed that by requiring them — and most other U.S. citizens — to buy insurance. But it also gave them coverage options they didn’t have before. Jon Bailey, of the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs, said it’s hard to make sweeping generalizations about how the health care law is working for farmers and ranchers. (Thompson, 3/25)