State Highlights: Colorado Mother Arrested On Murder Charges After Making Up Daughter’s ‘Rare’ Medical Conditions; Lists Of Connecticut Schools Short On Vaccines Grows To 134

The New York Times: Woman Charged With Murder After Claiming Her Daughter Was Terminally Ill
After the Make-a-Wish Foundation was told that Olivia Gant, who was 6, had a terminal illness, it made one of her dreams come true. In 2017, the girl was transformed into a superhero Bat Princess for a day so she could save other princesses from evil villains. A local CBS station in Denver captured a heartwarming scene as Olivia, dressed in a blue Batman mask, shiny purple cape and custom logo, walked through a cheering crowd holding swords above her head and battled with a volunteer dressed as Ursula, Disney’s sea witch from “The Little Mermaid.” Olivia later sang “Part of Your World” with Ariel. (Rueb and Padilla, 10/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Connecticut Had 134 Schools That Fell Short Of U.S. Measles-Vaccination Rate Guideline
The number of Connecticut schools with vaccination rates that don’t meet federal health guidelines has grown, according to newly released data. There were 134 schools in the state with immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations of kindergartners that dipped below 95% during the 2018-19 school year, up from 102 from the previous year, according to data released Monday by the state Department of Public Health. (De Avila, 10/21)

The New York Times: Disneyland Visitor With Measles May Have Exposed Hundreds To Infection
Measles, which was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, has returned with a vengeance this year, with 1,250 individual cases confirmed in 31 states so far in 2019. Though no other measles cases have yet been linked to last week’s visit, places that have a high volume of visitors, like Disneyland, strike a special fear among public health officials. (Hassan, 10/23)

The Associated Press: Disneyland Visitor Had Measles, May Have Exposed Others
Los Angeles County health officials say a visitor to Disneyland this month may have exposed others to measles. The Department of Public Health says a county resident with a confirmed case of measles visited the theme park on Oct. 16 from 9:15 a.m. to 8:35 p.m. (10/23)

The New York Times: As Homelessness Surges In California, So Does A Backlash
Insults like “financial parasites” and “bums” have been directed at them, not to mention rocks and pepper spray. Fences, potted plants and other barriers have been erected to keep them off sidewalks. Citizen patrols have been organized, vigilante style, to walk the streets and push them out. California may pride itself on its commitment to tolerance and liberal values, but across the state, record levels of homelessness have spurred a backlash against those who live on the streets. (Fuller, Arango and Keene, 10/21)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Workers Vote To Strike
Nearly 4,000 Kaiser mental health workers in California represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers voted to strike the week of Nov. 11, the union announced Wednesday. The union described Kaiser's mental health employees as the "proverbial stepchild," citing fragmented care amid an otherwise integrated system, overwhelming caseloads, excessive wait times for appointments and inadequate pay and benefits. (Kacik, 10/23)

Philadelphia Inquirer: A Brutal Summer For Philly Hospital Workers Is Driving Nurses To Fight For ‘Successorship’
This year, the nurses at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children celebrated a major victory. They had won powerful staffing guidelines in their new union contract, the first in the state with enforceable standards for how many patients one nurse could be required to care for at a time. ... But now, the fate of the contract is in question. As St. Christopher’s is purchased for $50 million by Tower Health and Drexel University as part of a bankruptcy sale, Tower says it will not honor a contract it didn’t negotiate — a standard move for a buyer — and nurses are readying for a fight to get its new owners to do so. (Reyes, 10/23)

Kaiser Health News: Washington State Law On Behavioral Care Balances Parental Rights, Teens’ Autonomy
When Ben Packard met with the 16-year-old girl a little over a year ago, she was a patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she’d been admitted after trying to kill herself. Her parents were distraught. “They wanted to know what was going on, and why their kid wanted to die,” said Packard, a mental health therapist on the psychiatric unit who worked with her and her family. But Washington is one of many states that carved out exceptions to the rights of parents to know about or consent to certain types of care their minor children receive, including mental health and drug and alcohol treatment as well as reproductive health services such as birth control and abortion. (Andrews, 10/24)

The Associated Press: NYC, California Sue Postal Service Over Smuggled Cigarettes
California and New York City sued the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday to stop tens of thousands of cigarette packages from being mailed from foreign countries to U.S. residents, saying the smugglers are engaging in tax evasion while postal workers look the other way. The lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court blames the Postal Service for deliveries from Vietnam, China, Israel and other countries, saying the failure to enforce a federal law aimed at banning cigarette mail deliveries costs California an average of $19 million annually in tax revenues and New York City and state over $21 million each year. (10/22)

The Baltimore Sun: Number Of Maryland Children Tested Positive For Lead Poisoning Fell 11% In 2018
The number of Maryland children who tested positive for lead poisoning fell 11% in 2018, state health and environmental officials said Wednesday. The number of children with at least 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, the standard benchmark for determining lead poisoning, fell from 2,049 in 2017 to 1,825 last year. But the number of children found with the highest levels of lead contamination was virtually unchanged, at nearly 400 cases. (Dance, 10/23)

North Carolina Health News: New Hanover Regional Weighs Potential Sale
New Hanover Regional Medical Center serves six counties. At 647 beds, as of the state’s last count, it’s also the largest county-owned hospital in North Carolina. But last month, the county signaled that may soon change. The New Hanover County commissioners, by a vote of 3-2, passed an “intent to sell” resolution at a Sept. 16 meeting. County and hospital officials stressed that the resolution is about exploring a range of options for the medical institution’s future. Those options include remaining a nonprofit in county ownership or affiliating with a larger health care system. But they also haven’t ruled out an outright sale either. (Engel-Smith, 10/23)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ex-Cuyahoga County Jail Director Indicted On New Charges That Accuse Him Of Making Jail Unsafe During String Of Inmate Deaths
Former Cuyahoga County Jail director Kenneth Mills was charged Wednesday and accused of making the jail unsafe during a period of time when seven inmates died. A Cuyahoga County grand jury handed up an indictment charging Mills with two second-degree misdemeanor counts of dereliction of duty. (Ferrise, 10/23)

Boston Globe: 2 Children In Boston Infected With Meningococcal Disease
Two young children in Boston were diagnosed with meningococcal disease, which is infectious and can lead to meningitis, a bacterial infection of the brain and spinal cord, officials announced Wednesday.“ Both cases have been associated with day care centers specializing in serving children who have experienced homelessness, however it is not currently known if the two cases are connected,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Public Health Commission said in a statement. (Lovato, 10/23)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Hospital Association Executive Fired For Comments On Social Media
An executive of one of Iowa’s most influential medical associations was fired after he criticized Gov. Kim Reynolds for the state's Medicaid “mess” in what he said was a satirical a Facebook post, records obtained by the Des Moines Register this week show. Thomas “Scott” McIntyre's 18-year career with the Iowa Hospital Association ended after his response in March to a coworker’s post that he said also was critical of Reynolds' handling of Medicaid. (Clayworth, 10/23)

WBUR: A College Specializes In Medicine And Health — And Finds Itself Revived
Many liberal arts colleges in a demographic and financial trap have sought escape by seeking applicants elsewhere — traveling the country, accepting more international students or adjusting their programming or their pitch. But Regis College, based in Weston, has thrived over the past 15 years, in part by becoming more than a college. (Larkin, 10/24)

The Washington Post: Premarital Exam Demand In Utah Worries Sexual Health Experts
Jennifer Gunter said she nearly fell off her chair when she saw the headline on the University of Utah’s medical center website. Getting ready for your wedding night with a premarital exam. Gunter, an OB/GYN and the author of “The Vagina Bible,” says she had never heard of a premarital exam. And, she said, some of the medical advice it seemed to offer was concerning. (Iati, 10/23)

Arizona Republic: Banner Health CEO Peter Fine Tops List Of Highest Paid Health Executive
A debate over hiking the salary of Phoenix-based Valleywise Health CEO Steve Purves raises the question of what a nonprofit Arizona health system leader is paid these days. Generally, it's a lot. Leading the earnings for executives leading nonprofit health systems in Arizona is Peter Fine, the CEO of Phoenix-based Banner Health. Fine's most recent salary data available, listed on Schedule J of the company's IRS Form 990, shows he earned a total of $25.5 million in gross pay in 2017. That's a significant leap from his prior year earnings of $8.7 million.The increase was driven by a one-time executive retirement plan payment of $17 million, Banner officials said. (Innes, 10/23)

Health News Florida: A Drug Treatment For Humans Is Working To Detox Red Tide-Affected Turtles
Toxic blooms of red tide are the scourge of Southwest Florida’s sea turtles, who often find themselves stranded onshore or killed after ingesting too many of their deadly brevitoxins. But researchers and wildlife veterinarians around the state are finding that what treats toxicity in humans – namely, a treatment used for drug overdoses – also works on the four-legged flippers. (Fox, 10/23)