State Highlights: Ga. Nursing Home Staff Facing Murder Charges Linked To Veteran’s Death; Tenn. Wants $250M For Uncompensated Hospital Funds

The Washington Post: WWII Veteran's Death: Nursing Home Workers Face Charges, Including Murder
The World War II vet threw one of his legs over the edge of his hospital bed, gasped for air and called out desperately to an empty room: “Help me, help me, help me.” Minutes later, 89-year-old James Dempsey, who had pressed a call button in his room, cried out again: “Help me. Help me. Help.” It was early on a February morning in 2014 — and Dempsey was dying, all alone. (Bever and Selk, 2/22)

Modern Healthcare: Tennessee Seeks $250 Million In Uncompensated-Care Funds 
Tennessee has asked the Trump administration for more money to help its hospitals offset their uncompensated-care costs. Starting July 1, the state will receive $163 million annually through 2022 to help alleviate uncompensated-care costs faced by hospitals. But state officials say that's not enough to cover these expenses and have asked for $252 million annually via a waiver request. The Obama administration called for the uncompensated-care funding cuts because it said Medicaid expansion was a better way to reduce how many patients sought care at hospitals without the means to pay for treatment. It cut the state's available uncompensated-care funding by nearly $90 million each year, going into effect this July. (Dickson, 2/21)

Boston Globe: After Health-Insurance Controversy, Most Public Workers To Avoid Large Premium Increases
Massachusetts public employees and retirees received an unusual bit of good news from state officials Thursday: their health insurance premiums are not rising significantly — and costs for many will actually decrease. The rates approved by the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission apply to hundreds of thousands of state and local employees, retirees, and their families, including teachers, transportation workers, social workers, and those in all branches of state government. (Dayal McCluskey, 2/22)

Reuters: Puerto Rico Governor Announces Independent Probe Into Maria Death Toll
Puerto Rico's governor said on Thursday he has tapped researchers at the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., to lead an independent probe into his administration's controversial tally of deaths caused by Hurricane Maria. Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a statement it was "of great interest to the state to identify how many lives were lost" in Maria, announcing an investigation led by Carlos Santos-Burgoa, director of the Global Health Policy Program at GWU's Milken Institute School of Public Health. (Brown, 2/22)

Georgia Health News: Senate Panel OKs ‘Surprise’ Medical Billing Legislation
The effort to reduce “surprise’’ medical bills in Georgia took another key step Thursday with legislation passing a Senate health committee. ...The General Assembly has considered several proposals on surprise billing over the past three years, but legislative approval has proved elusive. (Miller, 2/22)

The Associated Press: Budget Cuts Could Close Kentucky's Poison Control Center
Kentucky could become the only state in the country without access to a poison control center, including the national hotline used by police, hospitals and parents more than 136 times a day for guidance on exposure to opioids and other harmful substances. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin's proposed two-year spending plan eliminates $729,000 in state funds for the Kentucky Poison Control Center, or 43 percent of its $1.7 million budget. Most of the other funding comes from Norton Healthcare, the Louisville-based not-for-profit hospital system that has operated the center for decades. (2/22)

State House News Service: Latest GIC Plan For Premiums 'Kind Of Unheard Of'
About half the more than 430,000 people covered by Group Insurance Commission plans will see a decrease in their premiums in fiscal 2019 and on average there will be no increase in premiums, GIC Executive Director Roberta Herman said Thursday. (Metzer, 2/23)

The Star Tribune: Health Insurers In Minnesota Spend More On Overhead 
Administrative costs picked up again for health insurers in Minnesota during 2016, with the total tab for overhead increasing by about 7 percent to $1.81 billion, according to a new report. It was the highest annual tally during the past decade, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. The report doesn’t explain what’s driving changes from year to year, nor does it draw conclusions on whether administrative spending is too high, said Stefan Gildemeister, the state’s health economist, in a Thursday interview. (Snowbeck, 2/22)

The Associated Press: Some Patients Are Being Notified Of Potential Privacy Issue
The University of Virginia Health System says it’s notifying more than 1,880 patients that an unauthorized third party may have been able to view some of their private medical information. A University of Virginia Health System news release says they learned in December that the third party may have been able to view patient information from early May 3, 2015, through most of 2016. (2/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: California AG Launches Environmental Justice Unit Focused On Poorer Communities
Frustrated by declining federal regulation of the environment and health disparities between poorer and wealthier communities, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday appointed a team of lawyers to fight pollution. The four attorneys assigned to the new Bureau of Environmental Justice will focus on low-income Californians and people of color who suffer a “disproportionate share of environmental pollution and public health hazards,” according to Becerra’s office. (Fimrite, 2/22)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Mercy Health's Merger Could Shake Cincinnati's Medical Scene
In a merger that could shake Greater Cincinnati’s health landscape, Mercy Health, Ohio’s largest health care system, is joining forces with another major Catholic hospital network based in Maryland. Few details have been hammered out, such as a name, the leadership and the fate of Mercy's gleaming new Bond Hill headquarters. (Saker, 2/22)

San Jose Mercury News: Zuckerberg Plans Stanford Award To Fight Alzheimer's Disease
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be funding five-year and three-year grants to scientists, including one that will support early-career investigators willing to pursue bold, innovative ideas to fight the diseases, Stanford Medicine announced Tuesday. (Lee, 2/22)

The Oregonian: OHSU Earns Top Distinction For Children's Trauma Care, Surgery 
Oregon Health & Sciences University announced Thursday it has become a designated level 1 center for pediatric trauma and children's surgery.OHSU's Doernbecher Children's Hospital becomes one of just five children's hospitals nationwide to earn both distinctions from the American College of Surgeons, a national medical association based in Chicago.  (Kavanaugh, 2/22)

Denver Post: 1 Child Hospitalized, 9 Other People Sick From Salmonella In Weld County
The Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment is investigating an outbreak of salmonella illness at Aims Community College that health officials are now calling a large outbreak, as they anticipate more people falling ill. Some of the illnesses have been linked to two events at the college, one on Feb. 9 and one on Feb. 13, according to a news release from the health department. The events were catered by Burrito Delight, a Fort Lupton restaurant that has been shut down during the investigation. (Hoffman, 2/22)

Miami Herald: Miami Mental-Health Worker Gets Five Years Prison For Medicare Fraud
A former drug addict who reformed his life, Sam Konell became a fixture at Miami’s criminal courthouse for decades, lobbying judges to get treatment for mentally ill defendants – and to keep them out of jail. ...This time, he was convicted of illegally steering state-court defendants to a corrupt clinic, which in turned fraudulently billed Medicare the government for over $63 million. (Ovalle, 2/23)

The Cannifornian: Booming California Cannabis Delivery Businesses Running Afoul Of Law
Nearly two months after California legalized cannabis sales, the black market for marijuana continues to flourish as communities and law enforcement struggle to crack down on door-to-door couriers delivering cheaper, unregulated weed. Only 25 percent of the cannabis consumed in the state is purchased from government-approved brick-and-mortar retailers, according to a report released this week by the Cannabis Growers Association. (Krieger, 2/22)