State Highlights: Conn. Panel Endorses Strategies To Control Health Care Costs; Fla. Gov. Urges Feds To Expedite Zika Emergency Funding

The CT Mirror: Panel Endorses Strategies To Curb Health Costs, Redesign Care System 
A state panel voted Tuesday to recommend several strategies to control health care costs and reshape the way care is delivered. They included creating a state office to oversee health reform efforts and adopting a controversial payment model under which health care providers could lose money if they don’t hit quality and cost targets when caring for Medicaid patients and state employees. The Health Care Cabinet also appeared poised to recommend setting a target for health care cost growth in the state, although members did not yet vote on it. (Levin Becker, 11/2)

Morning Consult: Florida Governor Calls On Administration To Speed Up Zika Money Disbursement
Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday called on the Obama administration to expedite federal funding for the Zika virus to the state. ... Congress approved $1.1 billion in federal funding for the virus in September after months of negotiations. The Department of Health and Human Services has defended the speed at which the money is being distributed, saying that the administration must take the appropriate steps now that the money has been allocated. The Centers for Disease Control says it has provided nearly $16.5 million in Zika-specific funding to the state, and more than $29 million in Public Health Emergency Program funding that can go toward responding to the virus. (McIntire, 11/1)

Tampa Bay Times: Justices Consider 24-Hour Waiting Period For Abortions
Justices heard arguments Tuesday morning over whether to keep in place an injunction that has blocked the waiting period from being enforced for most of the past year and a half. A Tallahassee circuit judge agreed to block the law while a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Gainesville abortion clinic moves forward. The Supreme Court won't yet rule on whether the law is constitutional, but because a lawsuit over constitutionality could take years, the justices' ruling could determine, for years to come, if the 24-hour waiting period goes into effect. (Auslen, 11/1)

California Healthline: Maverick AIDS Activist To Porn Police? The Man Behind California’s Proposition 60
The man behind Proposition 60 — and all those billboards — is Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and a long-time maverick in gay activist circles. The nonprofit runs pharmacies and provides HIV care in 13 states and 37 countries, and gave away 38.5 million condoms last year. It’s putting $4.5 million from its pharmacy sales into backing the Proposition 60 condom mandate. (It also put $14.7 million behind Proposition 61, Weinstein’s initiative aimed at lowering drug prices.) Weinstein said he’s steadfastly promoting condoms when other groups seem to have forgotten them. (Dembosky, 11/2)

The Washington Post: Seattle Cancer Center Bets Big On Experimental T-Cell Immunotherapy
Suzanne McCarroll, a television news reporter in Denver, had been in remission from non-Hodgkin lymphoma for almost eight years when the cancer returned in May 2015. She had a stem-cell transplant, but the disease came back again in January. What, she wondered, should she do now? After talking to her doctor and her brother, a neurobiologist at Harvard, McCarroll enrolled in an early-stage clinical trial using immunotherapy at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Researcher Center in Seattle. (McGinley, 11/1)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Public Officials Demand Action On Philly's Lead-Paint Scourge
Nearly a dozen state and local lawmakers Monday called for more money and staff to combat the "crisis" of childhood lead-poisoning in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state. Several Philadelphia council members also said the city must enforce existing laws to crack down on landlords whose properties injure families with unsafe levels of lead contamination. (Laker, 10/31)

The Washington Post: Inova Lures U-Va. To Northern Virginia With $112 Million Research Center
Inova Health System is nearing a $112 million deal with the University of Virginia School of Medicine to bolster its effort to become a national leader in genomics and cancer research. Leaders from both organizations plan to announce an agreement Wednesday to form a research partnership and bring a regional campus of the university’s medical school to Inova’s planned Center for Personalized Health in Merrifield. (O'Connell, 11/2)

Kansas Health Institute: Kids Count Report Shows Infant Death Rates Vary Among Kansas Counties 
Babies in midsize Kansas counties were more likely to die before their first birthdays than those in counties with larger or smaller populations, according to the 2016 Kids Count report. The annual report, produced by Kansas Action for Children, compares counties on a variety of measures related to children’s health, financial well-being and educational prospects. In some cases, the most recent data was from 2015, while in others it was from 2014. Statewide, infant mortality fell from 6.2 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2011 to 5.9 deaths in 2015. Some areas continued to struggle with persistently high rates, however. (Wingerter, 11/1)

Boston Globe: EMTs Are Said To Have Feared For Their Lives Before Police Killed Boston Man 
Emergency medical technicians feared for their lives during an altercation with a mentally ill man who was shot by police Sunday morning, according to community leaders and others who attended a meeting on Monday with law enforcement officials. Police Commissioner William B. Evans and EMS Chief James Hooley met with roughly a dozen clergy, civic leaders, and lawmakers to discuss the shooting of Terrence Coleman in the doorway of his South End apartment. Police said Coleman had a knife, but his family and a neighbor dispute that account. (Ransom, 11/2

Denver Post: Prime Health’s High-Tech Challenge Awards $150K To Digital Startups 
A non-invasive bladder monitor, software to combat lung cancer and an app that identifies high-risk sexual behavior in adolescents are three technologies being developed right here in the Denver area. The three companies took the top awards at the recent Prime Health Challenge $150,000 competition that started with 30 contestants. Littleton’s dBMEDx won the $75,000 top prize for its BBS Revolution, a device that scans a person’s bladder to determine volume — and nix the invasive catheter. Denver’s Matrix Analytics, awarded $50,000 for its second-place finish, collects data to optimize care of patients with lung cancer. (Chuang, 11/1)

Chicago Tribune: New Cook County Clinic Aims To Keep Mentally Ill Out Of Jail
The Community Triage Center, which opened in recent weeks, is meant to keep more people with mental illnesses and substance abuse problems out of jail and the hospital. The idea is that people with those issues can visit the walk-in center for assessments, support and referrals. Police also can bring people to the center if they believe they'd be better served there than in the hospital or behind bars. The center, modeled after similar programs in Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Antonio, Texas, is believed to be the first of its kind in Chicago. (Schencker, 11/1)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota's Student Survey Finds Sharp Drop In Teen Smoking, Drinking, Sex 
Smoking among Minnesota teenagers has dropped to an all-time low, and other risky behaviors such as sexual activity and marijuana use are continuing a steady long-term decline. At the same time, the number of teens reporting emotional or mental health problems has risen sharply, and teen use of tobacco and alcohol show persistent gaps along lines of race and income. But overall, the latest Minnesota Student Survey, released Tuesday by the Department of Health, paints an encouraging picture of the state’s adolescents, public health officials said. (Howatt, 11/1)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sheboygan Employers Eye Vincent Seniors
Businesses in Sheboygan County, where staffing shortages are so intense they bus workers in from Milwaukee, now have a new pool of potential recruits: seniors at Milwaukee's Vincent High School. Milwaukee Public Schools and the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corp. on Tuesday announced a collaboration aimed at exposing interested Vincent seniors to the industries and employment opportunities two counties to the north. The program is modeled after a similar initiative known as the Joseph Project, in which a Milwaukee church transports local men — primarily African-American men who have subsisted on temporary jobs — to Sheboygan for more stable positions in factories there. (Johnson, 11/1)

Orlando Sentinel: Sanford Burnham Scientists Worry About Their Future 
As the state pushes to reclaim half of the $150 million it invested to lure Sanford Burnham to Orlando, one of the research institute's most prized assets — its intellectual talent pool — remains in flux. The faculty's uncertain future casts a shadow on the Lake Nona Medical City — the cluster of universities, hospitals and research facilities that's reaching the critical mass that stakeholders have been touting and hoping for. (Miller and Shanklin, 11/1)

Sacramento Bee: The Sacramento City Council Will Weight The High Costs And Benefits Of An Experimental "Pit Stop" Toilet Program For Homeless People
About 90 people a day use a staffed, portable restroom set up in June near Sacramento’s largest homeless services center. The idea is to reduce outdoor human waste while giving homeless people a bit more dignity. But the restroom has cost the city about $1,000 a day, nearly 75 percent higher than the initial estimated cost for the project, according to a city staff report. (Reese and Chabria, 11/1)