State Highlights: Judge Finds Iowa Gov. Branstad Can Be Sued For Closure Of Mental Hospital; Fla.’s Adventist Health System Agrees To Whistle-Blower Settlement

The Des Moines Register: Judge: Branstad Can Be Sued For Mental Hospital Closure
Democratic legislators and the leader of the state workers’ union have the right to sue Gov. Terry Branstad over his closure of two state mental hospitals, a judge has ruled. Branstad ordered in January that the state mental hospitals at Clarinda and Mount Pleasant be closed by mid-summer. He contends the facilities were outdated and inefficient, but critics say he put patients at risk by moving too quickly to shutter the hospitals before adequate alternatives were in place. (Leys, 9/21)

Reuters: Adventist Health System To Pay $118M To Settle Fraud Claims
Florida-based healthcare system Adventist Health System has agreed to pay $118.7 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that accused it of paying kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referrals, attorneys for the plaintiffs announced on Monday. The agreement comes in a lawsuit filed by three former employees of Adventist's Park Ridge Health hospital in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 2012. It also resolves claims in a separate 2013 lawsuit containing similar accusations. (Pierson, 9/21)

Georgia Health News: Report Criticizes State's Overdue Patient Transfers
Georgia continues to show a lack of progress in moving people with developmental disabilities out of state-run hospitals, an independent monitor says. The report by independent reviewer Elizabeth Jones, filed in federal court, said just four individuals with developmental disabilities have moved to community settings in the past year. “This is especially troubling because 266 individuals are still confined to state hospitals,” Jones said in her report, dated Sept. 17. (Miller, 9/21)

The San Jose Mercury News: Prime Healthcare Sues California Attorney General Harris Over Failed Hospital Bid
Still smarting over its failed $843 million bid to buy the Daughters of Charity Health System, a Southern California hospital company on Monday sued California Attorney General Kamala Harris, alleging she abused her constitutional powers by imposing unprecedented conditions on the sale and placing the interests of a labor union over the health care needs of communities across the state. (Seipel, 9/21)

Heartland Health Monitor: Nurses At Two Area KC Hospitals Reach Tentative Pact With HCA
Registered nurses at 17 HCA-owned hospitals in five states, including two in the Kansas City area, have tentatively approved a new collective bargaining pact covering wages, staffing, scheduling and workplace safety. Nurses at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., have ratified the agreement and nurses at Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park are scheduled to vote on it later Monday. (Margolies and Smith, 9/21)

Kaiser Health News: From Pills To Pins: Oregon Is Changing How It Deals With Back Pain
Oregon wants more patients to take this approach. Denise Taray, coordinator of the Oregon Pain Management Commission, says Medicaid’s traditional way of dealing with back pain involved advising bed rest and prescribing painkillers. "The only thing that might have been covered in the past was narcotics," Taray says. "But treatments such as acupuncture, chiropractor, massage therapy, physical therapy and rehab would never have been covered.” (Foden-Vencil, 9/22)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: As School Nurse Duties Grow, Number Stagnate
The Kansas Legislature’s in-house auditors released an efficiency study of Topeka’s Auburn-Washburn USD 437 in July, part of a series of school district audits commissioned by lawmakers looking to cut public education costs for kindergarten through 12th grade. One of the auditors’ findings was that the district could save about $68,000 in salary and benefits and the state could save an additional $9,000 in pension contributions if Auburn-Washburn replaced four of its 10 school nurses with “health aides.” (Marso, 9/21)

Modern Healthcare: 1.5M Patient Records Exposed On Cloud-Based Backup Service
Patient records on insurance claims were accessed on a cloud-based backup service, according to the software provider. The breach exposed records of public agencies in California, Kansas and Utah. The data included police injury reports, drug tests, detailed doctor visit notes and Social Security numbers. A statement from Systema Software indicated that, “a single individual gained unapproved access into our data storage system.” (Conn, 9/21)

North Carolina Health News: Gambling Wagers Pay Community-Health Dividends For Eastern Band Of Cherokee
Enter the front foyer of the Cherokee Indian Hospital, look to your right, and there you’ll see a large placard that reads, “Ni-hi tsa-tse-li,” which translates to, “This belongs to you.” It was mounted in 2002, when the Cherokee tribe took over administration of the hospital from the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service. But that placard may soon be moving, because in a couple of months members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will begin receiving care in a new, $80 million, 155,000-square-foot hospital right next door. (Sisk, 9/21)

The Boston Globe: State Identifies Nursing Homes Cited For Misleading Alzheimer's Ads
State regulators Monday released the names of 51 Massachusetts nursing homes recently cited for advertising dementia care services when they don’t actually offer such care, or have not submitted paperwork to verify they are in compliance. The list includes nursing homes from across the state, and some that are generally well-regarded for their dementia care services. (Lazar, 9/22)

Reuters: Pittsburgh Hospital Looks For Mold Source After Three Deaths
A Pittsburgh hospital is working to find and eradicate the source of a rare mold that may have contributed to the deaths of three transplant patients and left a fourth person in "guarded condition," a hospital spokeswoman said on Monday. Concern over mold at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian flared in early September when mold was discovered in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit, forcing the hospital to move 18 patients. (Daley, 9/21)

The Chicago Tribune: Hospital Owner To Plead Guilty To Perjury
The onetime owner of the defunct Edgewater Medical Center plans to plead guilty to a criminal perjury charge stemming from the hospital's 2002 collapse amid a massive fraud scheme, federal prosecutors revealed in court Monday. Peter Rogan, who was returned to Chicago three months ago after spending years fighting extradition from Canada, has reached the deal with prosecutors in exchange for a sentence of at least one year in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said. He faces up to 21 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Edgewater Medical Center closed in December 2001 after charges alleged a massive health care fraud involving the payment of kickbacks for patient referrals and medically unnecessary hospital admissions, tests and services. Several doctors and employees were convicted in a scheme that prosecutors said cost Medicare and Medicaid tens of millions of dollars. (Meisner, 9/21)