State Highlights: Dental Care Issues In Md., Mo.; Nurse Staffing Requirements Advance In Mass., D.C.

The Baltimore Sun: State Exploring Improved Dental Care For Adults
The Maryland General Assembly has commissioned the Maryland Dental Action Coalition to look at ways to expand oral health care and dental coverage for adults. The independent, nonprofit organization that aims to improve oral health in the state expects to release a study on the issue in December. The group is looking at options to expand services to adults from all walks of life, including older adults in residential and community-based, long-term care programs; those on Medicaid and people who have private plans. (McDaniels, 6/11)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: New St. Louis Dental Clinic Looks To Close Gaps In Coverage
The city of St. Louis hasn’t had a general dental school in nearly 25 years, and it shows. Too few dentists and lack of access have contributed to a measurable decline in dental health for many of the region’s residents. Organizers of a $23 million dental clinic near Lafayette Square, which opens Monday, hope to reverse that trend. (Shapiro, 6/10)

WBUR: Mass. Adopts Final ICU Nurse Staffing Rules
The 2014 nurse staffing law will apply to burn units and intensive care for newborns along with intensive care units for adults, under final regulations adopted by the Health Policy Commission on Wednesday. Passed by the Legislature in part to avoid a ballot referendum, the law required each ICU nurse be assigned only up to two patients, and only one patient if that is what is required. (Metzger, 6/10)

The Associated Press: DC Council To Consider Staffing Requirements For Nurses
The DC Council is considering a bill that registered nurses say will improve patient care by establishing new staffing requirements for nurses at hospitals. The bill would mandate minimum staffing requirements for nurses and set limits on the number of patients registered nurses can care for. (6/11)

The Associated Press: Indiana Medical Software Company Says Networks Hacked
A medical software company is notifying patients of health care providers it serves that their private information may have been exposed when its networks were hacked, it said Wednesday. Fort Wayne-based Medical Informatics Engineering said the attack on its main network and its NoMoreClipboard network began May 7 and wasn't detected until May 26. The exposed information includes names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and health records, it said. (6/10)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: State Hospitals Could Face Cuts If Tax Impasse Continues
Rep. John Ewy, a Republican from Jetmore, is now 66 and has spent most of his life in the area around Larned State Hospital, one of two public facilities for Kansans with severe mental illness. “It used to be the place to work,” Ewy said. “Now it’s the place to work if you can’t find anything else.” The hospital employs about 1,000 people when fully staffed, Ewy said, which ranks it with the cattle yards in Dodge City and Garden City among the biggest employers in southwest Kansas. (Marso, 6/10)

The Des Moines Register: Mental Health Hospitals Dwindle As Governor Mulls Their Future
State administrators have eased off their deadline for closing two mental hospitals, which were supposed to be emptied out by next Monday. But the number of patients and employees at the hospitals continues to dwindle, as Gov. Terry Branstad considers a bill that would restore services at one of the facilities. Human Services Director Charles Palmer had repeatedly said the agency aimed to have all patients at the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant mental institutions transferred elsewhere by June 15. (Leys, 6/9)

The Associated Press: House Committee Passes Bill Deregulating New Hospitals
Florida House committee on Wednesday passed a bill strongly supported by Gov. Rick Scott that would do away with what he calls the unnecessary red tape before new hospitals can be built. But the measure is unlikely to pass in the Senate. A so-called certificate of need that is currently required grants state approval before a hospital is built, replaced or takes on a specialty service such as organ transplants. The bill would remove that requirement. (Kennedy, 6/10)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Home Aid Workers, Elderly Protest Rauner's Proposed Budget Cuts
Beatrice Lumpkin, 96, was among 50 demonstrators who helped deliver “senior survival kits” to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s aides at the Thompson Center on Wednesday to protest his proposed cuts to elderly services. The box filled with kits held a day’s amount of medicine, first aid, and a note reading “don’t shortchange our seniors.” Those $400 million in cuts include having the Illinois Department on Aging raise the requirements to qualify for a program that provides them with at-home care and can help them avoid going to nursing homes. The rally was led by SEIU and the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans. (Holman, 6/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Parents, Union, Rally Against Plan To Privatize School Nursing Services
When her medically fragile son was in kindergarten, Sabrina Jones had a rotating cast of private-duty nurses at his Philadelphia public school. "It just wasn't a good experience," said Jones - too little consistency, no real connection with her son, who has a feeding tube. But when he moved to a school that had a full-time nurse, she said, things improved dramatically. (Graham, 6/10)

The Boston Globe: Hospitals Continue To Make Preventable Mistakes
Full-service hospitals in Massachusetts reported making 821 preventable errors that harmed or endangered patients last year, according to a report released Wednesday. That included 41 instances in which an unintended object was left behind after surgery, 24 operations on the wrong part of the body, and 290 serious injuries or deaths after a fall. (Freyer, 6/11)

Stateline: Linking Released Inmates To Health Care
An increasing number of states are striving to connect released prisoners like Calderon to health care programs on the outside. Frequently, that means enrolling them in Medicaid and scheduling appointments for medical services before they are released. Some state programs — in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example — provide help to all outgoing prisoners. Programs in some other states are more targeted. Those in Rhode Island and New York, for instance, focus on ex-offenders with HIV or AIDS. Elsewhere, probation and parole are being used to encourage ex-offenders to adhere to certain treatments. Utah, for example, passed a measure this year that cuts probation time for former prisoners if they get treatment for mental illness or substance abuse. (Ollove, 6/1)

The Associated Press: After Critical Probe, NYC Drops Jail Health Care Contractor
New York City on Wednesday dropped the private company that delivers health care in its jails after a year of scrutiny over high-profile deaths of mentally ill inmates and a city probe that found the company hired felons and provided questionable care. (6/10)

The Associated Press: Murder Charge Dropped Against Woman Who Induced Abortion
A Georgia prosecutor dropped a murder charge Wednesday but is pursuing a drug possession count against a 23-year-old woman accused of ending her pregnancy without a prescription, using pills she bought online. Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards dismissed a malice murder charge against 23-year-old Kenlissia Jones, who spent about three days in jail after seeking help at a hospital. The dismissal of the murder charge police had used to arrest Jones was praised by Lynn Paltrow, an attorney and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York. But she said the case still illustrates a creeping trend of prosecuting women who exercise their right to abortions. (Foody and Bynum, 6/10)

The Nashville Tennessean: Donelson Nursing Home Said To Have Endangered Residents
A Donelson nursing home has been barred from taking new patients, fined $3,000 and put under a special monitor after a series of quality care failures — some of which put residents in immediate jeopardy. Donelson Place Care and Rehabilitation Center at 2733 McCampbell Ave. failed to pass a revisit survey last month, which resulted in the June 4 punitive actions. However, the series of problems began as early as December, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The nursing home is operated by Louisville-based Signature HealthCARE. (Wilemon, 6/10)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Desperate Patients Search For Minnesota Doctors Who Will Help Them Sign Up For Medical Marijuana
[Deanna Jean] Ryther, who lives in Austin, has tried cannabis before to ease the seizures and muscle spasms she suffered after a traumatic brain injury in 2009. On July 1, patients like her will be able to buy the drug legally in Minnesota — but only if they can find a doctor or other health care practitioner willing to certify that they have one of the nine conditions that qualify them to enroll in the new state program. (Brooks, 6/10)