State Highlights: Colorado Lawmakers Open Wide-Ranging Discussions On How To Create Public Option; North Carolina Looks At ‘Innovative’ Ways To Expand Oral Health Care

Colorado Sun: Colorado Lawmakers Approved A Public Option For Health Insurance. Now The State Has To Figure Out How To Actually Build It.
State lawmakers this year passed a bill making Colorado one of the first states in the country to create such a plan. It would guarantee consumers have at least one comprehensive health insurance option across the state, even if private carriers pull out. It would offer coverage at prices competitive to or below current rates. Access and affordability were its buzzwords. But lawmakers left the rest of the details blank. It would be up to [Insurance Commissioner Michael] Conway and Kim Bimestefer, the head of the state’s Medicaid department, to make it all work, a task no state official anywhere in the country has ever actually done. (Ingold, 7/30)

North Carolina Health News: Can North Carolina Dental Hygienists Help Fill Coverage Gaps Through A Public-Private Partnership Program? 
Hygienists in North Carolina have been lobbying for years to be able to clean teeth, take X-rays, check gum health and apply sealants when a dentist is not on-site with them. At long last, they seem to be one step closer to being able to do just that in certain schools, elder care facilities and special-needs centers in some parts of the state. The N.C. Board of Dental Examiners recently endorsed a rule change that could give hygienists a slightly broader scope of practice in one of the most restrictive states in the country. (Blythe, 7/31)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: Manchester VA Expands Walk-In And Urgent Care Access
The Manchester VA announced Monday that it has expanded its network of walk-in and urgent care providers across the state, including a couple in the capital area. Eligible veterans enrolled in the VA health care system can visit a provider in the network without prior authorization from the VA, as long as they have received care from the VA or a community provider in the previous two years. (7/30)

The Associated Press: Alleged Phony Pharmacist Filled 745,000 Prescriptions
Authorities have charged a woman with impersonating a pharmacist and illegally filling more than 745,000 prescriptions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Charges against Kim Thien Le were announced Tuesday. Prosecutors say that from late 2006 through 2017, Le — who didn’t have a pharmacist license — used the license numbers of registered pharmacists in order to impersonate them and dispense prescriptions at Walgreens pharmacies in Santa Clara and Alameda counties. (7/30)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: UnitedHealthcare Awards $1.1 Million To Northeast Ohio Nonprofits
UnitedHealthcare is giving $1.1 million in grants to four Northeast Ohio nonprofits to improve access to health care, according to a news release. The grants are part of UnitedHealthcare’s Empowering Health initiative, which aims to address the social determinants of health, things like access to healthy food, transportation and housing. (Christ, 7/30)

Kaiser Health News: This Indiana Clinic Has Patient-Care Stats Worth Bragging About
When I visited Dr. James Gingerich, he launched into some of the nerdiest bragging I’ve ever heard. We were chatting in front of his stand-up desk at Maple City Health Care Center, the clinic he founded and runs in Goshen, Ind. “Here’s our data,” he said, and started clicking through a set of preventive care benchmarks. (Weissmann, 7/31)

NH Times Union: Lebanon Considering Legal Action Over PFAS Rules
The city is looking for partner communities willing to join it in a lawsuit against the state’s new rules on PFAS chemicals in water, City Manager Shaun Mulholland said Tuesday. “We are considering possibly filing an injunction against the process in which the rules were implemented,” Mulholland said. The state is changing the limits on PFAS, a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and many others that are used in manufacturing. The state had set the limit of PFAS in drinking water at 70 parts per trillion, identical to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s limit, but the outcry after the chemicals were found in water in several communities is prompting action in Concord. (Fisher, 7/30)

Boston Globe: Attorneys General Urge Congress To Act On ‘Forever Chemicals’
Calling on Congress to reduce toxic chemicals in drinking water, Attorney General Maura Healey joined her counterparts in 21 states Tuesday in urging federal lawmakers to pass legislation to help states address their threat to public health. The manmade chemicals, known as PFAS, are widespread and have been used for decades in products such as flame retardants, pans, pizza boxes, clothing, and furniture. (Abel, 7/30)

Health News Florida: AHCA Chief Sides With Miami Hospital In Federal Audit
A top Florida health official on Monday disagreed with the findings of a draft federal audit that contends the state overpaid hundreds of millions of dollars to one of Florida’s biggest public hospitals and that $436 million should be returned to the federal government. Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Mary Mayhew said in a statement that the agency “disagrees with the findings” of the draft audit and that returning the money would impair Jackson Memorial Hospital’s ability to serve uninsured and poor patients in Miami-Dade County. (Sexton, 7/30)

Sacramento Bee: Newsom Signs Law To Prohibit Condoms As Evidence Of Sex Work
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Tuesday that prohibits condoms as evidence of prostitution when prosecuting someone for sex work crimes. Sex workers are also protected under the new law from arrest when they report rape and other serious felonies. (Wiley, 7/30)

KCUR: 2 More Walgreens Will Offer Primary Care To Seniors In Kansas City Test Program 
Two healthcare giants are expanding a pilot program in the Kansas City area aimed at using their drug stores to provide primary care and other services to Medicare beneficiaries. Humana and Walgreens announced on Tuesday that they plan to open two primary care centers in area Walgreens stores in addition to the two they opened last year. (Margolies, 7/30)

Houston Chronicle: Vaccination Rates Show A Dropoff 
However, the rates of vaccinations for Texas students have been dropping as more and more parents are seeking waivers to the required vaccinations. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, kindergartners are required to have 10 immunizations to be enrolled in Texas schools. They are not required to have the meningococcal vaccination. However, parents of kindergartners have been seeking more and more exemptions. Since the state first reported exemption rates in 2006, the rate for kindergartners has risen from 0.3 percent in the 2005-06 school year to 2.15 percent for the 2018-19 school year. (Kent, 7/31)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Free Health Screenings Offered Alongside Backpacks At New Orleans Back-To-School Event 
Students in the New Orleans area will get more than just a free backpack at the back-to-school event held by Inspire NOLA this year. Eye, ear and teeth check-ups will be offered, along with access to mental health care at the event on Saturday, August 3. Doctors will also be on hand to sign off on the required physical for student athletes. Inspire NOLA, which operates seven charter schools in New Orleans, started Passport to Student Success, in 2017, but moved to offer health screenings along with backpacks and school supplies this year. (Woodruff, 7/30)

Boston Globe: Treatment Center For Video-Gaming Addiction Proposed For Western Mass.
A spiritual retreat center in Western Massachusetts, home to 19 acres of bucolic fields and forested trails, may become a residential treatment facility for young men who need to detach from technology and overcome their debilitating addiction to video games. Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare is awaiting a special permit approval from the town of Leyden, near the Vermont border, to launch the Greenfield Recovery Center, intended for people with “gaming disorder.” (Kuznitz, 7/30)

The Advocate: St. Martin Hospital Launches An $11.2 Million Expansion
Braving the weather, nearly 200 residents and hospital employees joined state and local officials to break ground for the new $11.2 million expansion and renovation at St. Martin Hospital in Breaux Bridge. The project, which is funded through a bond approved by Hospital Service District No. 2 voters in March of 2018, will see the hospital more than double in size with an additional 30,000 square feet that will include a new nursing unit with 25 new patient rooms, a new, state-of-the-art MRI suite and a new surgical suite that will allow the hospital to offer surgical services for the first time. (Boudreaux, 7/30)

The Baltimore Sun: University Of Maryland Appoints First Woman Chair Of Surgery 
The University of Maryland School of Medicine appointed the first woman in its history to head the department of surgery, after Dr. Stephen Bartlett left the position in 2017 to take another job within the university. Dr. Christine Lau also was named chief of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Currently a professor of surgery and chief of the division of thoracic surgery at the University of Virginia, Lau will start at the University of Maryland in December. (Bowie, 7/30)

The Oregonian: In Rare Lawsuit, Oregon Transgender Woman Sues Insurance Companies To Pay For Facial Surgery 
A transgender woman in Oregon has filed a $375,000 lawsuit against her insurance companies and her employer, saying they’ve discriminated against her by refusing to pay for facial surgery that would make it more likely that strangers would perceive her as female. Christina Ketcham, a 59-year-old Clatsop County employee, has already undergone sex reassignment surgery, hormone replacement therapy, worked with a voice coach and changed her name, clothes and hairstyle to reflect her gender identity, but her doctors also recommend that she undergo “facial feminization surgery” to continue on that path. (Green, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Trump Says Baltimore Is ‘Worse Than Honduras’ In Terms Of Violent Crime
President Trump suggested Tuesday that Baltimore is “worse than Honduras” in terms of violent crime, escalating his criticism of the district of House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.). Trump made the remarks in an interview with The Washington Post. (Kranish and Sonmez, 7/30)

State House News Service: Host Agreements Seen As Impeding Marijuana Sector’s Growth
The Cannabis Control Commission has been wrestling with host community agreement (HCA) policy for nearly a year while activists and business owners have pointed to the required agreements as one reason for the slower-than-anticipated rollout of the retail marijuana market and as a barrier that’s keeping small businesses from establishing themselves in the new industry. (Young, 7/30)