State Highlights: Fla. Rep. Paves Way For Coverage of HIV Drug; Rulings Strike Blow To 2 Ohio Abortion Clinics

The Associated Press: Publix Reverses, Will Cover HIV Prevention Drug For Workers
The Southeast's largest supermarket chain announced Tuesday that it is changing its employee prescription plan to cover a drug that helps prevent HIV infections, remedying an omission that doctors and gay rights groups said was highly unusual. Publix announced its change in a Twitter reply to Florida state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando-area Democrat who had met with company officials Monday to discuss their refusal to cover Truvada for PrEP. The 6-year-old drug is more than 95 percent effective in preventing the contraction of human immunodeficiency virus, which can cause AIDS. It is usually prescribed to HIV-negative gay men and other people at higher risk of infection. (Spencer, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Justices Issue Legal Blows To 2 Ohio Abortion Clinics
A pair of abortion clinics claiming hardships related to Ohio's escalating restrictions on the procedure lost separate fights in the state's high court on Tuesday. The Ohio Supreme Court agreed with the state's decision to close the last abortion clinic in Toledo and end litigation initiated by a clinic in Cleveland challenging the constitutionality of abortion-related restrictions by the state. (2/6)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Lawmakers Lose Cheap Health Insurance But Avoid Large Increases
Iowa lawmakers’ cheap insurance premiums are gone, but most have avoided full-scale increases that would have cost them up to $184 more each month, a Des Moines Register review shows. The lawmakers escaped the steeper premium increases because the state is offering fewer health plan options to state employees. The state health plans were narrowed after lawmakers last year limited the powers of union employees to negotiate, including on issues involving their health care. (Clayworth, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Flu Kills Child In Maryland, Health Officials Say
The flu has killed a child in Maryland for the first time this season, health officials said Tuesday. In a news release, the Maryland Department of Health confirmed the first influenza-related pediatric death of the 2017-2018 season. Flu-related deaths must be reported to the department, the release said. The death comes during a particularly challenging flu season nationwide, with the disease causing the deaths of dozens of children. (Moyer, 2/6)

Sacramento Bee: More Than 40 Flu Absences Hit Sacramento Elementary School, Causing Closure
St. Mary School in East Sacramento closed Tuesday after 40 kids came into the office with fever or other flu symptoms, according to Diocese of Sacramento officials. Monday, 11 faculty and staff members were also absent because they weren’t feeling well, said Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the Diocese of Sacramento. (Sullivan, 2/6)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Wife Of N.H. Education Commissioner Urges Lawmakers To Kill Bill Banning Gay Conversion Therapy
The wife of state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut is urging lawmakers to oppose a bill that would ban gay conversion therapy for minors. On Monday Kathy Edelblut sent an email to all state reps urging them to oppose the ban on gay conversion therapy. (Moon, 2/6)

Denver Post: At A Southeast Colorado Nursing Home, Federal Investigators Found Troubling Instances Of Violence — By The Residents 
At a nursing home in the southeast Colorado town of Rocky Ford, residents grabbed, kicked, bit and punched at staff members, who suffered cuts and bruises, according to a newly released federal investigation. As a result, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration this week issued a citation and slapped the nursing home, Pioneer Health Care Center, with a more than $9,000 fine for violating safety standards by failing to protect its workers better. (Ingold, 2/6)

The Associated Press: $500K Will Help Mental Health Agency Fund Telemedicine
New York state is getting a $500,000 federal grant to fund telemedicine projects. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand say the money granted to the state Office of Mental Health will help buy video conference equipment, tablets, and software. The two Democrats said the equipment will be used by clinics, schools, doctors' offices, nursing homes, and prison facilities to provide and expand mental health care. (2/7)

The Associated Press: House Panel Rejects Suicide Prevention Resolution
A resolution urging Virginia schools to increase their suicide prevention efforts has failed as Republicans on a House Rules subcommittee defeated the proposal in a 3-4 vote.HJ 138, introduced by Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, would have asked all school boards to offer every employee resources or training on how to identify students at risk of committing suicide. Roem told the subcommittee she had two reasons for making the resolution a request instead of a requirement. “One, we don’t have to (have) concern for it being an unfunded mandate” - a state-imposed cost that Republicans frequently oppose on principle. (Barbieri, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Maryland Could Bar Kids’ Tackle Football On Public Fields
A bill proposed to the Maryland General Assembly would bar children from participating in tackle football and other contact sports on publicly funded fields until high school. Sen. William C. Smith Jr., D-Montgomery County, who filed the bill, tells the Baltimore Sun it’s not meant to undermine football. He says it’s meant to show the state doesn’t want to enable an activity that’s developmentally detrimental. (2/7)

Boston Globe: Ipswich Police Join Jail Diversion Program
Ipswich police will partner with five other North Shore departments to share a clinician who will respond to mental health and substance abuse calls, officials said Tuesday. The position is funded by a $90,000 grant awarded to the Beverly Police Department by the state Department of Public Health, Ipswich police said in a press release. (Sennott, 2/7)

The Baltimore Sun: Sheppard Pratt To Reopen Residential Treatment Facility For Adolescents 
Sheppard Pratt Health System plans to expand services to more young people by acquiring the beds from Good Shepherd, a Baltimore County residential treatment facility for adolescents that was shuttered last year after two state agencies stopped sending children there, officials said Tuesday. Services will be moved from Good Shepherd’s Halethorpe location to new space in Baltimore County that has not yet been identified, according to Sheppard Pratt, the state’s largest private provider of behavioral health services, which has a memorandum of understanding with the Sisters of Good Shepherd to purchase their 115 beds. (Cohn, 2/6)

Miami Herald: Florida Health Department Closes Miami Daycare Meningitis Case
For more than a month, the Florida Department of Health says it has been unable to obtain confirmation from Belize on the cause of death for a 2-year-old boy who attended a Miami daycare center, where one other child died of meningitis in December. Mara Gambineri, a spokeswoman for the health department, said the agency closed the investigation into the YWCA Carol Glassman Donaldson Childcare Center on Jan. 31. (Chang, 2/6)

Kaiser Health News: Nurse Calls Cops After New Mom Seeks Help For Depression. Right Call?
Four months after having her second baby, Jessica Porten started feeling really irritable. Little things would annoy her, like her glider chair.“It had started to squeak,” she said. “And so when I’m sitting there rocking the baby and it’s squeaking, I would just get so angry at that stupid chair. ”She read online that this could be a symptom of postpartum depression — a condition that affects up to 1 in 7 women during or after pregnancy, according to the American Psychological Association. In California, where Porten lives, those rates are even higher, spurring state lawmakers to introduce a package of bills to improve mental health screening and treatment for new moms. (Dembosky, 2/7)

Texas Tribune: Abbott Announces Sweeping Plan To Combat Sexual Misconduct, Human Trafficking
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced a sweeping proposal aimed at better protecting people from human trafficking as well as tackling sexual misconduct allegations at the Texas Capitol and throughout state government. Abbott's "Preventing Crime, Protecting Texans, Punishing Criminals" plan includes allocating $22 million to the Department of Public Safety for the creation of regional squads to investigate human trafficking cases and for training local law enforcement. (Greene, 2/6)