State Highlights: D.C. Home Health Workers Push For Higher Pay; Del. To Delay Increasing Health Coverage Costs For State Workers
A selection of health policy stories from D.C., Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, Kansas and North Carolina.
The Washington Post:
D.C. Home Health-Care Workers Organize To Seek $15 An Hour
D.C.’s at least 6,000 home health-care workers work for about 26 health-care agencies. They were organized by Service Employees International Union 1199, the regional chapter of a national labor union that put on Wednesday’s event, though few of the workers are members of the union. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and the Rev. Graylan Hagler, a longtime activist and pastor of Plymouth United Congregational Church, where the event took place, also spoke at the event. (Stein, 3/19)
The Associated Press:
Delaware State Employees Win Reprieve On Health Care Costs
Bowing to pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Jack Markell’s administration has agreed to delay proposed health care cost increases for state government workers and retirees. A state panel was set to vote Friday on proposals for new or higher deductibles, and higher copays for drugs, lab tests, outpatient surgeries and hospital stays, aimed at addressing an estimated $60 million deficit in Delaware’s state health insurance plan. (3/19)
Modern Healthcare:
Sacred Heart Execs Convicted Of Bribery Scheme
A federal jury found the former owner of a now-shuttered Chicago hospital and two former top administrators guilty on Thursday of taking part in a scheme to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to doctors in exchange for referring patients on Medicare and Medicaid to the struggling facility. (Schencker, 3/19)
The Associated Press:
Iowa DHS Leader Defends Changes To Medicaid
The head of the Iowa Department of Human Services on Thursday defended the decision to close two state mental health facilities and switch the state's Medicaid program to private management, saying the changes will save money and offer people better care. DHS Director Charles Palmer told the Senate Human Resources Committee that the department was facing budget shortfalls when he recommended closing the facilities in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. (Rodriguez, 3/20)
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Judge Says Transgender Man Has Plausible Case He Was Mistreated At Hospital
Jakob Rumble was in severe pain when he came to the emergency room of Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina with his mother. What happened next provoked a federal lawsuit by the West St. Paul resident and a decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson that is being hailed by national transgender and gay rights organizations. Nelson ruled this week that Rumble, who identifies himself as a transgender man, has built a “plausible” case that he was a victim of discrimination and mistreatment by an emergency room doctor on the basis of gender identity. She denied a motion by the doctor’s employer and Fairview to dismiss the case. (Furst, 3/20)
The Associated Press:
NY Senate Panel Backs Oxygen Therapy For Wounds
The New York Senate Health Committee has advanced legislation to ensure Medicaid coverage for topical oxygen therapy for chronic wounds, which the state health department has tried to curtail. Supporters say it's used by about 400 patients now, and they've obtained a temporary court order prohibiting the department from discontinuing coverage. (3/19)
NJ.com:
A Fork In The Road: Medicaid Patients Say Transportation System Fails The Neediest
Irene Carrasquillo, bent over from arthritis, stepped a few feet from her seat at Friendship Baptist Church in Trenton. With great difficulty, the Camden woman shuffled to a chair facing the audience gathered to talk about the transportation system many of New Jersey's Medicaid patients depend on to get to doctor's appointments, dialysis and chemotherapy. ... Missed or late transportation calls sometimes have threatened Carrasquillo from losing vital medical care, she said. "When we miss the doctor's appointment," she said, "it gets us stressed out." Carrasquillo was among more than 60 people at the program Tuesday. She and others spoke not just about the transportation system, but how it has to change. (Darragh, 3/20)
Georgia Health News:
Medical Cannabis Bill Scores Key Victory
Georgia’s medical marijuana proposal took what its chief sponsor called “a giant leap’’ forward Thursday by passing a Senate committee after a long, emotional hearing. (Miller, 3/20)
The Baltimore Sun:
State's Highest Court Rejects Hospital's Final Appeal In Birth Injury Case
With MedStar Harbor Hospital's last appeal to Maryland's highest court rejected, the family of a severely disabled Glen Burnie boy will get $20.6 million plus interest to provide for his care for the rest of his life. The original verdict in Baltimore Circuit Court in 2012 was one of a pair of high-profile cases that prompted some hospitals and activists to pursue creation of a birth injury fund during the current legislative session to provide care to injured newborns without litigation and the high payouts that can come from court cases. (Cohn, 3/19)
The Kansas Health Institute News Service:
Committee Endorses Mental Health Drug Compromise
State officials say they’ve reached an agreement with mental health providers for regulating Medicaid patients’ access to antipsychotic medications. (Ranney, 3/19)
North Carolina Health News:
New Bill Seeks To Eliminate Vaccination Exemptions
A bipartisan group of senators wants to tighten the rules around granting exemptions from vaccination. (Hoban, 3/20)
The Des Moines Register:
Stand Up For Mental Health Services, Joan Becker Urges
Iowa families affected by mental illness need to speak up to keep the state from cutting precious services, Joan Becker said at a Statehouse rally Thursday. Becker has campaigned statewide and nationally for improved mental health care since shortly after her mentally ill son, Mark, fatally shot Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas in 2009. She maintains that her son did not receive the treatment he needed for schizophrenia and other troubles before his delusions led him to kill his former coach and longtime family friend. He is now serving a life prison sentence. (Leys, 3/19)
