State Highlights: Ga. Gov. Outlines Plans To Boost Mental Health Services, Medicaid, Autism Coverage; Mass. Commission Reports On Wasteful Medical Procedures

Georgia Health News: Deal Speech Targets Health Services For The Vulnerable
Gov. Nathan Deal, in his annual State of the State address Wednesday, outlined several health care initiatives to boost mental health services, DFCS, Medicaid and autism coverage. Deal said his fiscal 2018 budget proposal includes, on average, a 19 percent pay raise for DFCS caseworkers to help ensure “a competitive salary,’’ so the state can recruit and retain the best people for the job. The Georgia agency, facing an increase in foster kids, continues to struggle with a high turnover rate among caseworkers who help these children, GHN reported recently. (Miller, 1/11)

Boston Globe: Mass. Health Providers Routinely Ordered Wasteful Medical Tests And Procedures, Report Finds
Massachusetts health care providers routinely order wasteful and unnecessary medical tests and procedures, driving up costs, according to a new report from the state Health Policy Commission. The findings released Wednesday offered new details about what’s called nonrecommended care. Most of the state’s large physician and hospital networks, especially Partners HealthCare, Lahey Health, and Steward Health Care System, regularly ordered unnecessary tests and procedures, the report said. (Dayal McCluskey, 1/11)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Senate Republicans Want To Shift Money From Proposed New Initiatives To State Police 
The General Assembly had not even convened when Senate Republicans sent a message to Gov. Terry McAuliffe to put money into state police salaries inside of hiring people for new public safety and mental health initiatives. Members of the Senate Finance subcommittee on public safety made clear on Wednesday morning that they were not interested in funding new positions the governor proposed for the Board of Corrections to oversee mental health in regional jails, or mental health screening at jails, or new law enforcement training, or part-time parole investigators, or more full-time workers at state liquor stores. (Martz, 1/11)

The Associated Press: Mental Health Workers Urge Governor To Spare Inmate’s Life
Dozens of mental health workers and child advocates are urging Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to spare the life of a convicted killer scheduled to be executed next week. More than 50 people sent a letter to McAuliffe this week asking him to support Ricky Gray’s request to have his sentence commuted to life in prison. Gray’s execution is scheduled for Jan. 18. Gray’s attorneys say he was raped repeatedly by his brother as a child and began using drugs to deal with the effects of that abuse. Gray claims he doesn’t remember much about slaying a family because he was high. (1/11)

Boston Globe: Naturopaths Get Their Own Licensing Board 
Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday signed into law a bill that creates a licensing board to regulate naturopaths, alternative medicine practitioners who have fought for two decades for the right to be licensed in the same way as medical professionals. The bill, pushed through on the Legislature’s final day, stirred controversy as opponents — primarily the Massachusetts Medical Society — said licensure would grant legitimacy to practices that are merely “a combination of nutritional advice, home remedies, and discredited treatments.” (Freyer, 1/11)

Chicago Sun Times: New U. Of C. Medicine Trauma Center Boss Aims To Tackle Violence
The new $39 million Level 1 adult trauma center, the first on the South Side in 25 years, is scheduled to open a year from now, then it will begin accepting adult trauma patients in spring 2018...The university launched a national search in June for a leader for the long-awaited E.R. in a violence-besieged area devoid of adult trauma care since Michael Reese Hospital closed in 1991. The ideal candidate, officials said then, would not only be a skilled physician administrator, but bring expertise on violence intervention. Chicago saw more than 780 people killed last year — its deadliest in over two decades. (Ihejirika, 1/12)

North Carolina Health News: Community Health Centers Partner With Docs, Managed Care In Reform Plan 
In a move designed to safeguard their survival, the state’s community health centers have agreed to a partnership with one of the nation’s largest for-profit managed care companies to provide and coordinate care to Medicaid patients under the state’s reform plan. A press release Tuesday from the North Carolina Medical Society, another plan partner, described how the joint venture will “establish, organize and operate a physician-led health plan to provide Medicaid managed services.” (Hoban, 1/11)

Sacramento Bee: Yolo County Reports First Flu Death; Officials Say It's Not Too Late For Flu Shot 
Yolo County reported its first flu-related death this season, prompting health officials to remind Californians there’s still time to get a flu shot. “It’s absolutely not too late,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of the infectious diseases division for the UC Davis Health System. Last week, he said, UC Davis lab technicians confirmed 32 new cases of flu, roughly double the number during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. (Buck, 1/11)

Chicago Tribune: Planned Mental Health Hospital 'Long Overdue' 
A new facility planned in New Lenox could help provide mental health services to area residents, as well as help alleviate pressure on Will County programs dealing with mental health and drug addiction issues. Silver Cross Hospital plans to partner with a national firm to build a $22 million behavioral health hospital to help address the need for such services in Will County. (Fabre, 1/11)

San Jose Mercury News: $500 Million Game-Changer: UCSF Given Historic Gift
UC San Francisco announced Wednesday that it has received a stunning $500 million donation — the single largest gift in University of California history and one of the most generous gifts ever given to an American university. The gift, which comes at a time of dwindling financial support from the state, was pledged by the family foundation of the late Helen Diller, a San Francisco native and longtime champion of UCSF whose husband, Sanford, founded the Prometheus Real Estate Group, a San Mateo-based commercial real estate firm. (Krieger, 1/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Transformative’ Donation To UCSF: $500 Million 
The Helen Diller Foundation is pledging $500 million to UCSF — the biggest gift in campus history and among the largest to any public university in the United States — to recruit faculty and students and fund “high-risk, high-reward” research. The gift, to be announced Thursday, comes on top of a series of hefty donations to the school over the past decade, including a previous $35 million contribution to support cancer research from Diller, a philanthropist who died in 2015 at her home in Woodside, and two $100 million gifts from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne Benioff, for the UCSF children’s hospital. (Allday, 1/11)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Official: Food Stamp Drug Tests Would Violate Federal Law
Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to drug test some food stamp recipients violates federal law and cannot proceed without an act of Congress, a top appointee in the Obama administration says. Wisconsin's Republican governor has called on President-elect Donald Trump to act immediately on taking office to allow the Walker administration to start testing able-bodied recipients of Wisconsin's Food Share program. (Stein, 1/11)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Limited Medical Marijuana Bill Hits Senate As Others Push Cultivation
A bill offering a small expansion to Georgia’s medical marijuana law will be introduced Thursday in the state Senate, the same day the law’s architect expects to file much broader legislation attempting to legalize growing and distributing the drug in-state for medicinal purposes. Senate Bill 16 represents an olive branch of sorts from the chamber’s conservative majority, which last year blocked attempts by the House to expand the 2015 law. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle acknowledged last week that it was coming, saying he thought Senate Republicans may be ready to compromise. (Torres, 1/11)

Kaiser Health News: Mobile Team Offers Comfort Care To Homeless At Life’s End
Since January 2014, the pilot project run by Seattle/King County Health Care for Homeless Network and UW Medicine’s Harboview Medical Center has served more than 100 seriously ill men and women in the Seattle area, tracking them down at shelters and drop-in clinics, in tents under bridges and parked cars. This KHN story also ran in USA Today. It can be republished for free (details). “It’s really necessary that people be taken care of where they are,” said Dr. Daniel Lam, director of inpatient and outpatient palliative care services."(Aleccia, 1/12)

Health News Florida: Bilingual Clinic Provides Care To Tampa's Diverse Community 
Spanish speakers in the Tampa area have a new health care provider that they can understand. Located on West Hillsborough Avenue, CliniSanitas calls itself Tampa's first multicultural medical center. The clinic’s staff is 100 percent bilingual and though it provides urgent care, the clinic really aims to be your family doctor. (Ochoa, 1/11)

Tampa Bay Times: Gov. Scott To Name Justin Senior To Lead Health Care Agency
Gov. Rick Scott will name Justin Senior the secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, his office confirmed Wednesday. Senior, 45, has been serving in the job as interim secretary since October, when the previous secretary, Liz Dudek, left the agency. He earns $142,000 a year. As secretary, Senior will oversee one of the state’s largest budgets and the department that runs Florida’s Medicaid program. He’ll face confirmation from the state Senate, but the Republican-controlled chamber almost never rejects appointees of the Republican governor. (Auslen and Bousquet, 1/11)

Orlando Sentinel: Orlando Startup Wants To Better Your ER Experience 
Quick'rCare is an online platform that allows consumers to find the nearest emergency rooms and urgent care centers, compare their wait times, and reserve their spot online before heading to the facility. To make this possible, the one-year-old startup sells its software to various providers, including health systems, so that their emergency room and urgent care center data show up on Quick'rCare website when consumers plug in their zip code.The service is free for consumers. (Miller, 1/11)