State Highlights: CDC Disputes Claims That Missing Researcher’s Promotion Was Refused; Minn. Gov. Advises $15M To Fix ‘Immoral’ Senior Care Problems

The Washington Post: The CDC Says Its Missing Researcher Wasn’t Denied A Promotion. Police Say Otherwise.
The Atlanta Police Department was clear: A researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had disappeared the same day he learned why he was passed over for a promotion. But exactly one month after Timothy Cunningham vanished, abandoning everything he would need to survive and leaving no clues about his whereabouts, the CDC issued an unusual rebuke of that police finding. (Horton, 3/13)

Pioneer Press: Mark Dayton, Lawmakers Propose Overhaul Of Senior Care Oversight After Abuse Complaints Jump 
Gov. Mark Dayton wants to invest $15 million on new protections and oversight to keep Minnesota’s most vulnerable citizens safe. The Democratic governor highlighted a group of proposals with bipartisan support that would streamline reports of abuse, increase licensing requirements for long-term care facilities and strengthen penalties for those who hurt seniors and vulnerable adults. The proposals come after it was revealed last year that the state Department of Health investigated too few allegations of abuse in long-term care homes and those responsible for harming residents were rarely punished. (Magan, 3/13)

The Star Tribune: Dayton Proposes New Measures To Crack Down On Mistreatment In Senior Homes
Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled a series of far-reaching proposals Tuesday to protect vulnerable adults from abuse and fix the state’s deeply flawed system for investigating maltreatment in senior care facilities. Flanked by a bipartisan group of legislators at a morning news conference, Dayton outlined measures that would impose tougher penalties for criminal abuse, regulate certain new and growing branches of the industry and expand consumer protections for the roughly 82,000 Minnesotans who live in senior facilities across the state. (Serres, 3/13)

Kansas City Star: OptumRx Program Hits $20 Million In Donated Medications
On Thursday Reel looked on from the back of a room at the Duchesne Clinic in Kansas City, Kan., while leaders of OptumRx, United Healthcare and Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer celebrated $20 million in prescription drugs donated to tens of thousands of poor Kansans. It all started with that conversation between Reel and his boss, who was a member of the Kansas State Board of Pharmacy, a regulatory group based in Topeka that licenses the state's pharmacies. (Marso, 3/13)

KCUR: First 2018 Measles Cases In Kansas Reported In Three Johnson County Infants
Three infants in Johnson County are among the first reported cases of measles in the United States this year. The Johnson County Health Department said Tuesday that the three infants, all under a year old, had been at the same day care center in Overland Park. Nationwide, there have been just 13 measles cases this year as of late February, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and none in Kansas. Nancy Tausz, Health Service Division Director of the Johnson County Health Department, says the emergence of the virus should serve as a reminder of why the vaccine is so important. (Smith, 3/13)

The Star Tribune: Optum Names Andrew Witty, Former Glaxo Chief, As Its New CEO 
The former chief executive at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, Andrew Witty, has been named chief executive at Optum, the huge and still fast-growing health care services business of UnitedHealth Group. Witty will step down immediately from the UnitedHealth Group board of directors and succeed Larry Renfro as Optum's leader. Renfro will become managing partner for a series of domestic and international funds called Optum Ventures. (Snowbeck, 3/13)

Kaiser Health News: California’s Tax On Millionaires Yields Big Benefits For People With Mental Illness, Study Finds
A statewide tax on the wealthy has significantly boosted mental health programs in California’s largest county, helping to reduce homelessness, incarceration and hospitalization, according to a report released Tuesday. Revenue from the tax, the result of a statewide initiative passed in 2004, also expanded access to therapy and case management to almost 130,000 people up to age 25 in Los Angeles County, according to the report by the Rand Corp. Many were poor and from minority communities, the researchers said. (Gorman, 3/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: University Medical Center Operator Might Leave Hospital Over Louisiana Budget Impasse 
LCMC Health informed Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration Monday (March 12) that it will walk away from running University Medical Center in New Orleans on July 1 if the state doesn't drastically change its budget situation. If LCMC pulls out, it could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars and the University Medical Center's billion-dollar facility would suddenly become the state's responsibility to maintain. More than 2,000 people who work for the hospital would have their jobs put in jeopardy, and it would be unclear how 1,000 medical residents and 2,400 other health care students would receive training next year. Both LSU and Tulane's medical schools would be affected. (O'Donoghue, 3/13)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Leaders Urge Outreach, Testing Over HIV, Syphilis Cluster
Behavior that can lead to sexually transmitted infections is one of the most urgent issues parents should talk to their children about as city leaders respond to the dramatic spread of HIV and syphilis here, said Michael Gifford, president and CEO of the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin. Gifford was among a dozen health leaders who discussed the HIV and syphilis cluster in Milwaukee that has affected at least 127 individuals, including young teens. (Spicuzza and Causey, 3/13)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: BJC Warns 33,000 Patients About Potential Data Breach
BJC HealthCare, one of the area's largest health care providers, said it had notified more than 33,000 patients that their personal information may have been accessed. Due to a data storage error, the health system said that personal information may have been accessible including date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license number, insurance information and treatment-related information.  (Liss, 3/13)

Health News Florida: How Widespread Is Child Food Insecurity In Orange County?
Food insecurity—not having reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food stresses families living in poverty. To get a grasp on child hunger for our series marking Sunshine Week, 90.7’s Crystal Chavez took a look at the need for free and reduced lunch at Orange County Public Schools. (Chavez, 3/13)

Orlando Sentinel: Central Florida Counties Maintain Health Ranking In Annual Report
Seminole County once again ranks among the five healthiest counties in Florida, while the rankings for Lake, Orange and Osceola counties remained comparable to last year’s, according to the 2018 County Health Rankings released on Wednesday. (Miller, 3/14)

Houston Chronicle: Harris County Agrees To Buy Closed Riverside Hospital In Third Ward 
An approximately $5.3 million grant from the nonprofit Houston Endowment Inc. is expected to help finance the purchase of the property at 3204 Ennis Street. The hospital — Houston’s first nonprofit hospital for black patients  — was plagued in its final years with financial and legal troubles before shutting its doors and ending up in bankruptcy proceedings. (Zaveri and George, 3/13)