State Highlights: Georgia Pediatricians Form Physician-Led Network; Man With Legionnaires’ Files Suit Against Hotel Named As Source Of Outbreak

Georgia Health News: Pediatricians, Facing New Realities, Form Network
More than 1,100 Georgia pediatricians have joined a new physician-led network that aims to improve quality of care and eventually contract for payments from insurers. The sign-ups so far represent roughly one-third of the total number of pediatricians practicing in the state. (Miller, 8/24)

The Associated Press: Man Sues Hotel Named As Source Of Legionnaires’ Outbreak
A man who came down with Legionnaires’ disease and spent several days in a hospital has filed a civil lawsuit against the hotel identified by authorities as the source of the deadly outbreak. Leslie Noble’s lawsuit against the Opera House Hotel says its “negligence, carelessness and recklessness” caused him physical pain and mental anguish. The lawsuit by Noble, a 54-year-old security guard, was filed last week and seeks unspecified damages. (8/24)

North Carolina Health News: Today's Rural Hospital Faces Myriad Concerns
The citizens of Yadkin County aren’t alone in their uncertainty about the future of health care in their community, though with the closure of Yadkin Valley Community Hospital they have more urgent decisions to be made than most. But Yadkin County is only one of of many rural communities across the nation grappling with the question of how to keep their hospitals afloat against a rising current of challenges. Hospitals are cornerstones. Beyond meeting a community’s medical needs, “A hospital is an economic-development tool,” said Yadkin County Manager Lisa Hughes. (Sisk, 8/24)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: State Changing 'Health Homes' Notification Process
Following complaints by legislators and case managers, state officials say they are changing how they notify people on Medicaid that they’ve been placed in a “health home” program to coordinate their care. Mike Randol, director of health care finance for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, acknowledged complaints from case managers who say they provide months of services to Kansans with mental illness only to find those services aren’t eligible for reimbursement because those clients have been placed in health homes. (Marso, 8/24)

NPR: Katrina Shut Down Charity Hospital But Led To More Primary Care
Five years ago, New Orleans attorney Ermence Parent was struggling to find out what was wrong with her leg. She was 58 years old, and her right leg hurt so much that she needed a cane. That was not only painful, but frustrating for a woman who routinely exercised and enjoyed it. Parent sought advice from several doctors and a chiropractor, but got no diagnosis. (Neighmond, 8/24)

The Kansas Health Institute: Community Health Centers See Continued Demand For Services
Health centers that serve Kansans who lack insurance or struggle to pay for primary health care are seeing no lack of demand for their services. Rebecca Lewis once was among those Kansans. In 2011, the McPherson woman found herself working three part-time jobs and trying to complete a college degree. As a single mom with three young boys — then ages 8, 5 and 2 — it was hard to make ends meet. (Thompson, 8/24)

The Associated Press: Right-To-Die Group Fined $30K In Minnesota Woman’s Suicide
A national right-to-die group convicted of assisting in the 2007 suicide of a Minnesota woman was ordered Monday to pay a $30,000 fine — the maximum sentence allowed under state law. Final Exit Network Inc. was convicted in May of assisting in the suicide of Doreen Dunn, a 57-year-old Apple Valley woman who took her life after a decade of suffering from chronic pain. In addition to the fine, the group was also ordered to pay nearly $3,000 to Dunn’s family to cover funeral expenses. (Forliti, 8/24)

Kaiser Health News: A Racial Gap In Attitudes Toward Hospice Care
Twice already Narseary and Vernal Harris have watched a son die. The first time — Paul, at age 26 — was agonizing and frenzied, his body tethered to a machine meant to keep him alive as his incurable sickle cell disease progressed. When the same illness ravaged Solomon, at age 33, the Harrises reluctantly turned to hospice in the hope that his last days might somehow be less harrowing than his brother’s. (Varney, 8/25)

Los Angeles Times: New Breed Of Paramedics Treats Patients Before Emergencies Occur
Paramedic Jacob Modglin parks on a palm-lined street in Oxnard and jumps out of his ambulance. He is prepared for any kind of emergency. But his patient is standing in the driveway of a one-story house, holding a thermos, and smiling. It's time for his 8 p.m. appointment. Modglin is part of a new cadre of "community paramedics" working in a dozen pilot programs across California. Their jobs are to treat patients before they get sick enough to need emergency care. (Karlamangla, 8/25)

Kaiser Health News: States Looking For More Effective Ways To Encourage Vaccinations
When kids start school this fall, it’s a sure bet that some won’t have had their recommended vaccines because their parents have claimed exemptions from school requirements for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. Following the much publicized outbreak of measles that started in Disneyland in California in December, these exemptions have drawn increased scrutiny. (Andrews, 8/25)

The Des Moines Register: GOP Lawmakers Request Investigation Into Iowa Abortion Providers
More than 40 Republican legislators are requesting that Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller investigate how medical providers in the state handle the donation or sale of fetal tissue obtained in abortions. The lawmakers sent a letter to Miller, a Democrat, dated Monday and containing 10 detailed questions on how "abortion providers (or any affiliates, subsidiaries or associates thereof)" dispose of aborted fetus remains, and whether any of those remains are donated or sold for medical research. (Noble, 8/24)

The Chicago Tribune: Rauner Dumps Treatment From Anti-Heroin Measure, Citing Cost
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday sought to rewrite a wide-ranging measure aimed at curbing heroin use, eliminating a requirement that the state's Medicaid health care program for the poor pay for medication and therapy programs to treat addiction. The Republican governor said the state can't afford the extra cost while "facing unprecedented fiscal difficulties." Supporters of the original legislation argued the governor's change creates an unfair system in which those who can afford insurance get help for their addiction while low-income patients end up in an emergency room or a courtroom. (Garcia and Geiger, 8/24)

The Boston Globe: Colleges Across Region Team Up To Cut Health Care Costs
Employees at Worcester Polytechnic Institute saw something in their paystubs this year that they had not seen in many years: smaller deductions for health insurance. The decline was the result of an initiative that has brought WPI together with 10 other Massachusetts colleges and universities to form their own health insurance company, covering a combined 8,900 employees and their families. The initiative, called Educators Health LLC — or EdHealth — allows the schools to bypass commercial insurers by pooling their risk and money, and paying claims from that pool. (Dayal McCluskey, 8/25)