State Highlights: Former USC Gynecologist’s House Raided; Six States Warned About Potential Hep A Outbreak

Los Angeles Times: LAPD Raids Home Of Ex-USC Gynecologist Accused Of Sexually Mistreating Patients
Police detectives on Thursday served search warrants at the Los Angeles home of a former USC gynecologist and a storage facility as they investigate allegations that he sexually mistreated patients. Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Billy Hayes said sex-crimes detectives talked to George Tyndall and seized evidence during the search but did not provide further details. The LAPD has been in contact with 135 women about Tyndall, who served as the campus’ gynecologist for nearly 30 years. More than 400 women have called a university hotline since a Times investigation detailed how USC allowed Tyndall to continue practicing at a student health clinic on campus despite a record of complaints that spanned more than two decades. (Winton, 6/14)

The Hill: CDC Investigates Hepatitis A Outbreak In Six States 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning public health officials in six states about an outbreak of Hepatitis A among drug users and the homeless. From January 2017 to April of this year, the CDC has received more than 2,500 reports of infections from California, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Utah and West Virginia.  (Hellmann, 6/14)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare, Social Services To Take Up 38% Of State, Local Budgets By 2025 
The share of state and local government budgets dedicated to healthcare is expected balloon by 2025 as healthcare inflation continues its upward trajectory, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings. Fitch analysts forecast that ongoing inflation will drive the proportion of budgets dedicated to healthcare and social services to 38.3% in 2025, a bump from 30.7% in 2015. As a result, other priorities like education, transportation and public safety are expected to shrink under the weight of healthcare, social services and other areas less likely to be cut. (Bannow, 6/14)

Des Moines Register: Mental Health Commitments May Quicken In Iowa, But Rights At Stake
Under current Iowa law, mental health commitment orders may be imposed only if a person poses an immediate threat to themselves or others. The law was used to involuntarily commit Iowans more than 5,200 times last year. Legislators added a new option in the 2018 legislative session that allows judges and magistrates to order treatment for people who in the past have become dangerously ill because they failed to comply with doctors’ recommendations. (Leys, 6/14)

The Associated Press: Michigan Enacts Toughest Lead Rules In US After Flint Crisis
Michigan on Thursday began enforcing the nation’s strictest rules for lead in drinking water, a plan that eventually will result in replacing all 500,000 lead service pipes statewide in the wake of the contamination of Flint’s supply. The lead and copper rules will drop the “action level” for lead from 15 parts per billion, the federal limit, to 12 in 2025. Underground lead service lines connecting water mains to houses and other buildings will be replaced by 2040, unless a utility can show regulators it will take longer under a broader plan to repair and replace its water infrastructure. (6/14)

Boston Globe: Memo Hints At Tension Between Some Mass. General Doctors, Partners
An unusually candid memo from a longtime physician at Massachusetts General Hospital highlights the tension between some doctors at the hospital and its parent company, Partners HealthCare. Dr. Walter J. O’Donnell, who recently resigned from an executive committee at Mass. General because of frustration over the relationship with Partners, accused the company of failing to consult with doctors on key corporate decisions. (Dayal McCluskey, 6/14)

New Hampshire Public Radio: In New Hampshire, An Unlikely Team Tries To Reduce Gun Suicides
Over the past 10 years, an unlikely team of gun owners and public health experts in that state has come together to work on a prevention campaign. The Gun Shop Project educates gun sellers about the signs of suicide and encourages them not to make a sale if they think someone is struggling. (Choolijan, 6/14)

The Associated Press: Report: Minneapolis Cops Urged EMS To Sedate Subjects
A city report shows Minneapolis police officers have repeatedly requested that Hennepin County medical responders sedate people with ketamine, a powerful tranquilizer known as a "date rape drug." The draft report obtained by the Star Tribune says that in multiple instances, the ketamine caused heart or breathing failure and suspects had to be revived or intubated. (6/14)

St. Louis Public Radio: After School Nurse Sent Report, Was City’s Response To Breathing Illnesses Enough?
A school nurse told St. Louis health officials in February about students under the nurse’s care hospitalized by asthma attacks and teachers forced to stay home with respiratory illnesses, but neither the school district nor the health department warned those afflicted about a possible connection in their ailments. It was not until a St. Louis Public Radio investigation published last month that some parents and staff of the Gateway school complex said they first learned the respiratory illnesses may have been caused by dirt and dust kicked up by nearby demolition work funded and overseen by the city. (Delaney, 6/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: LSU Health Announces Partnership To Develop And Market Biomedical Products 
LSU Health New Orleans announced Thursday (June 14) it will collaborate with a Nashville-based company called Cumberland Emerging Technologies Inc. to develop and commercialize new biomedical products. According to their website, Cumberland Emerging Technologies works to identify promising biomedical technologies being developed by researchers, universities and entrepreneurs seeking a corporate partner to help them develop and commercialize those products. (Clark, 6/14)

The Baltimore Sun: Retiring CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell Discusses The Future Of Health Care And Insurance 
Chet Burrell came on as CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield as the health insurance company’s reputation suffered after previous leadership had attempted to turn it into a for-profit business. During his nearly 11 years at the helm of the state’s largest insurer, Burrell has rebuilt trust in the company, significantly modernized its operations and ushered it through adoption of the Affordable Care Act. (McDaniels, 6/15)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Froedtert, Children's Hospital, Others To Buy Land Rented From County
Froedtert Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin Blood Research Institute have tentatively agreed to buy the land they now lease — in some cases for as little as $1 a year — at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa from Milwaukee County. The initial agreement — in the works for more than five years — would free Milwaukee County from obligations and potentially costly liabilities while generating $800,000 to $1.6 million a year in payments until 2073. (Boulton, 6/14)

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ California Here We Come
Health care is a big political issue, but no place more than in California. In San Francisco last week, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure upholding a ban on flavored tobacco products — over the vehement objections of the tobacco industry. And the state’s activist attorney general, Xavier Becerra, is leading a group of Democratic officials from more than a dozen states defending the Affordable Care Act in a case filed in Texas. That is important given that the Trump administration’s Justice Department decided not to defend the law in full from charges that changes made by Congress in last year’s tax law invalidates the health law. (6/14)

Kansas City Star: Blue Valley Hospital To Lose Medicare Certification Friday
Blue Valley Hospital offered employee discounts on weight-loss surgery and asked workers to falsify records to try to pump up its inpatient numbers enough to continue getting Medicare money, according to inspectors. (Marso, 6/14)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Medical Marijuana Is Turning 5, So How's The Program Doing?
New Hampshire's medical marijuana law turns 5 next month, and the Therapeutic Cannabis Advisory Council will be issuing a five-year status report on how the program has operated. State Sen. John Reagan, a Deerfield Republican who sponsored the medical marijuana bill, says it's received positive feedback so far. (Tuohy, 6/14)

Reveal: Administrator At Rogue NC Rehab Accused Of Sexually Harassing Clients
At least seven women have accused Phillip Warren, a substance abuse counselor and operations director at Recovery Connections Community, of sexual harassment and misconduct. He made lewd comments, inappropriately touched them and tried to force himself on at least one of them, according to state records and interviews with several of the women and former program participants. (Harris and Walter, 6/14)

San Jose Mercury News: How VTA's Human Trafficking Awareness Training Inspired A State Assembly Bill
A state assembly bill would make a human trafficking awareness training modeled after the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority’s procedure mandatory for public transportation workers across the state. Inspired by the VTA training started in 2015, the bill aims to equip public transit workers with the skills to identify and report signs of human trafficking in and around transit systems. (Lam, 6/14)