State Highlights: Calif. Weighs Experimental Drugs; Conn. Privatization Of Group Homes Worries Parents Of Kids With Disabilities

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown To Again Weigh Access To Experimental Drugs For The Terminally Ill
For the second consecutive year, Gov. Jerry Brown will have to decide on a measure that would allow gravely ill patient access to experimental drugs. The Assembly on Tuesday gave final legislative approval to Assemblyman Ian Charles Calderon's so-called "right-to-try" legislation, which authorizes drug and medical device manufacturers to make their products available to terminally ill patients, even if the products have not yet been cleared by the federal Food and Drug Administration. (Mason, 8/23)

The CT Mirror: Parents Of Disabled Urge Malloy To Scrap Privatizing Group Homes 
Parents of intellectually disabled adults expected to be transferred from state-run group homes to private care reacted Tuesday with a mix of anger and appeals for compassion. About three dozen parents, unionized caregivers and their clients argued at SEIU 1199 headquarters in Hartford that the planned privatization of 40 state-run homes would weaken care and shatter the bonds formed between workers and clients. ... Critics of the private, nonprofit group homes for the developmentally disabled say they receive insufficient state funding to provide comparable care. They struggle with employee turnover rates that typically exceed 20 percent — which is a big problem given the close bonds clients seek to form with their caregivers. (Phaneuf, 8/23)

Kaiser Health News: California Court Helps Kids By Healing Parents’ Addictions
Hearing Officer Jim Teal sounded his gavel. “This is the time and place set for Early Intervention Family Drug Court,” he began, gazing sternly at the rapt faces of parents who sit before him. “Graduation from this court is considered a critical factor in determination that the children of participants will be safe from any further exposure to the danger and destructive impact of parental substance abuse.” Substance abuse is a factor in up to 80 percent of cases in which a child is removed from home. Recently, the number of children entering the foster care system has surged after years of decline. Roughly 265,000 kids entered foster care last year — the highest number since 2008, according to a recent government report. And there are signs that the opioid epidemic may be to blame. (Gold, 8/24)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Medical Residency Programs Expanding
The best hope for averting a projected physician shortage in Wisconsin is starting new residency programs in rural areas and filling them with graduates from the state's medical schools. That’s one of the key points in a report to be released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce, a coalition that includes the Wisconsin Hospital Association, the state’s two medical schools and other organizations. (Boulton, 8/23)

ABC News: Teen Is The 4th Person To Survive Brain-Eating Amoeba In 50 Years
A Florida teen has become only the fourth person in the last 50 years to survive an infection by Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba. Sebastian DeLeon, 16, continues his recovery after contracting the infection earlier this month.He was taken to Florida Children's Hospital in Orlando, Florida, with a severe headache on Aug. 7. Doctors believe the teen, a camp counselor, was exposed to the amoeba at a freshwater lake a few days earlier. (Mohney, 8/23)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Executive Council To Vote On Staffing Contract For Psychiatric Care In N.H.
The Executive Council Wednesday is scheduled to vote on a more than $36 million contract with Dartmouth-Hitchcock to provide psychiatric services at New Hampshire Hospital. The decision of whether to extend this contract has been delayed for months due to ongoing labor disputes. The Executive Council pushed back final approval of the contract earlier this summer and instead opted for a contract extension through October. Now the council will decide whether to continue the contract through 2019.  (Sutherland, 8/23)

The Associated Press: San Diego Man Who Lost Ability To Speak And Walk Seeks To Have Voting Rights Restored
A former producer at NPR who lost his ability to walk and speak asked a judge Tuesday to restore his right to vote under a new California law that makes it easier for people with disabilities to keep that right and regain it if lost. (8/23)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Suburban Docs Form Groups To Coordinate Care
PMA Medical Specialists L.L.C., a group of 54 physicians with offices in Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, has applied with a Maryland company to form an Accountable Care Organization with 7,800 Medicare beneficiaries, the group said Tuesday. Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, are designed to improve care and reduce costs by emphasizing coordination. Typically, Medicare and the ACO share the savings, if there are any. (Brubaker, 8/23)

Minnesota Public Radio News: Allina, Nurses Resume Talks As Strike Threat Raises Stakes
With the threat of an open-ended strike looming, Allina Health and its union nurses plan to hold contract talks Tuesday. Nearly 5,000 nurses walked off their jobs earlier this summer, and the nurses have authorized another strike, which this time would be open-ended. They must give Allina 10 days' notice of a strike.Allina and the Minnesota Nurses Association have been engaged in a months-long battle, primarily over generous nurses-only health plans. The company has wants the nurses to move to its corporate plans which have higher out-of-pocket maximum costs. (Moylan, 8/23)

St. Louis Public Radio: Four VA Employees Test Positive For Higher-Than-Average Lead Levels 
Four employees who work in a Veterans Affairs records office in north St. Louis have tested positive for higher than average levels of lead in their blood, though officials stressed that the measurements still fall within the range that is normal for U.S. adults.  The results come after a federal safety regulator cited the Goodfellow Federal Center complex for high levels of lead dust in a file room occupied by the Veterans Affairs Records Management Center. (Bouscaren, 8/23)

Nashville Tennessean: Challenges Persist As Nashville Seeks To Be Health Tech Leader
Nashville is poised to emerge as a national leader in the area of health care information technology but needs to harness its existing expertise to build its reputation as a technology epicenter. A new report by Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program outlines the city's strengths and weaknesses in establishing itself as an epicenter of health care information technology, or HIT. (Fletcher, 8/24)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: West Nile Virus Detected In Five Cuyahoga County Communities
Mosquitos caught in traps set by the Ohio Department of Health in five Cuyahoga County communities have tested positive for West Nile Virus. The Cuyahoga County board of health said Tuesday it was notified by the state that infected mosquitoes were found in traps in Bentleyville, Brooklyn, Parma, South Euclid and Strongsville.  (Higgs, 8/23)

Minnesota Public Radio: Bottled Water For 80 Wash. County Homes After Contamination Alert
Minnesota health officials are ordering bottled water for 80 homes in southern Washington County after determining perfluorochemical levels in the well water of those homes now exceeds a new federal health advisory level. Residents were told this week about the contamination and will receive the bottled water at no cost until carbon filter systems can be installed in their homes, the Minnesota Department of Health said Tuesday. (8/23)

Columbus Dispatch: Crypto Cases Top 250; End Of Pool Season Should Help
There must be something in the water — still — because local cases of a waterborne diarrheal disease continue to climb, surpassing 250 by Tuesday. That number, which exceeds the cases in Franklin and Delaware counties combined in the past five years, probably will keep rising over the next few weeks before it levels off, health officials say. (Tate, 8/24)

Oakland Tribune: Judge Dismisses Bay Area Cities' Suit Against Monsanto For Polluting Bay With PCBs 
A judge has tossed a lawsuit filed against Monsanto Co. by the cities of San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley claiming that the St. Louis-based business is just as responsible as them for cleaning up harmful polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in San Francisco Bay. U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Davila, however, left the door open in his ruling Monday for the cities to amend and re-file the complaint. ... PCBs are known to cause a number of health issues, including cancer, in humans, and destroy populations of fish, birds and other animal life. Finally banned by Congress in 1979, the chemical was used in a variety applications, such as paint, sealants and lubricants. (Green, 8/24)

The Baltimore Sun: Raw Sewage Has Been Leaking Into Baltimore's Harbor For Five Days, City Says 
Untreated wastewater has been flowing from a hole in an East Baltimore sewer for at least five days, leaking more than 10,000 gallons of raw sewage into the harbor, while the city Department of Public Works continues to search for the cause, officials said Tuesday. The overflow, discovered Thursday in the 21-inch sewer in the 1500 block of N. Chapel St., has been spilling untreated wastewater at an intermittent clip of 10 gallons per minute, public works spokesman Jeffrey Raymond said. (Campbell, 8/23)