State Highlights: Many States Grapple With Finding Homes-Not Group Homes-For Foster Teens; Ohio House Passes $11M Bill Aimed At Reducing Infant Mortality

Stateline: Finding Foster Families For Teens Is A Challenge In Many States
Levi Zwick-Tapley first entered foster care when he was 3, after police found him rummaging through the trash at a campground in Iowa. He was adopted — briefly — when he was 10. But then his adoptive mother, struggling with issues of her own, gave him up for good. So Zwick-Tapley spent his teen years bouncing from group home to group home, ricocheting between Iowa and Colorado. After he aged out of foster care, he worked in a group home because he wanted to help kids like him. (Wiltz, 6/20)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio House Approves Spending $11 Million To Reduce Infant Mortality, Preterm Births
With an eye on decreasing the state’s high infant mortality rate, the Ohio House passed a bipartisan bill Thursday that would expand smoking cessation, dental visits and health and lead education. House Bill 11, sponsored by Northeast Ohio Reps. Gayle Manning, a Republican from North Ridgeville, and Stephanie Howse, a Cleveland Democrat, passed unanimously. It now heads to the Senate. (Hancock, 6/20)

The Oregonian: As Mental Health Crisis Continues, Lawyers Appeal Judge’s Indecisive Contempt Ruling
Attorneys are contesting a federal judge’s decision not to hold Oregon in contempt of court over its treatment of mentally ill defendants, saying the judge’s decision to wait three months before issuing a final opinion was wrongheaded and leaves people jailed in violation of their rights. (Friedman, 6/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: PrEP Fights HIV But Many Gay, Black Men In Milwaukee Aren't On It.
PrEP can stop HIV from establishing itself in the body if the medicines are used as prescribed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If taken daily, the treatment is more than 90% effective at preventing the spread of HIV from sexual contact. Combined with condom usage, the odds are even better. (Causey, 6/20)

The Associated Press: Phoenix Facility Where Woman Was Raped Losing Medicaid Funds
U.S. officials have told the long-term care facility where an incapacitated woman was raped and gave birth last year that it will lose Medicaid funding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told Hacienda HealthCare this week that its participation in the program will end July 3. It says in a letter that Hacienda corrected some practices but remains out of compliance in other areas. (6/20)

Arizona Republic: Hacienda HealthCare To Lose Its Medicaid Contract
Less than a week after a report that maggots were discovered near the surgical incision of a patient, the federal government says it will terminate Hacienda HealthCare's Medicaid contract. Hacienda HealthCare officials say they are working with government oversight officials to determine the best path forward. (Innes, 6/20)

Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Psychiatrist Not Liable In Woman's Suicide, Supreme Court Rules
Williamson County psychiatrist Jerry Wilson knew his ex-girlfriend, Christina Cotten, had attempted suicide in his home months before – and didn't disclose it to her doctor. He knew she was taking medication for anxiety and depression and that a custody battle for her child was making her mental state worse. Still, despite his expertise in psychiatry and knowing the risk of having guns around people with mental health issues, he showed her the gun he kept in his home, just weeks before Cotten killed herself with it. (Sauber, 6/20)

Health News Florida: UF To Study Kratom Effects, Safety
In the United States, kratom – marketed as a dietary or herbal supplement – is consumed in a powdered form in capsules or tea. It has grown in popularity as users swear by its effect on chronic pain, fatigue, and more. But regulators have expressed concerns about the safety of the drug since it was introduced to the U.S. in the 1990s. (Miller, 6/20)

The Associated Press: Connecticut Man Charged With Assisting Wife’s Suicide
A Westbrook man helped his cancer-stricken wife to die by suicide and now faces manslaughter charges, state police said. Kevin Conners, 65, told investigators that he held a revolver to the head of his wife, Lori, 62, who pulled the trigger on Sept. 6, according to the arrest warrant. Conners turned himself in at a state police barracks Thursday and posted $50,000 bail, authorities said. He is scheduled to make a court appearance Friday. A phone message was left at a number listed for his home address. (6/20)

The Baltimore Sun: Ambulance Company That Won Big Baltimore Contract To Pay $1.25 Million To Settle Medicaid Fraud Case
An ambulance company the city of Baltimore hired last year, despite objections that it was the subject of a federal investigation, has agreed to pay $1.25 million to resolve allegations it defrauded Medicare thousands of times, federal authorities said Thursday. Hart to Heart was first accused in 2013 by a former employee of billing for unnecessary ambulance rides. The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought by the employee and joined by the federal government. It doesn’t require Hart to Heart to admit liability. (Duncan, 6/20)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County Shelter Found Homes For 300 Women During First 12 Months Under YWCA Management
Cuyahoga County’s only publicly funded shelter for single women found homes for 300 women during its first 12 months under the management of the YWCA, an increase of more than 230 percent, shelter officials said.In a meeting with cleveland.com, the YWCA administrators also reported that they recently hired a staffer that will focus solely on helping the women adjust to life in their homes and avoid returning to the shelter. (Astolfi, 6/20)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Settles ‘Inhumane’ Jail Conditions Lawsuit
Sacramento County has settled a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by inmates who alleged “inhumane” conditions at county jails, agreeing to make millions of dollars’ worth of changes to jail staffing, facilities, mental health services and custodial practices. The lawsuit, filed last July by Prison Law Office and Disability Rights California, alleged the county’s two jails confined inmates in “dangerous, inhumane and degrading conditions” and subjected inmates “to harsh, prolonged, and undue isolation.” (Yoon-Hendricks, 6/20)

ProPublica: Their Father Speaks Spanish. Their Foster Parents Raised Them To Speak Slovak.
When his son was born in 2014, Jorge Matias held the infant in the hospital and sang him the lullabies he had learned as a child in Guatemala. He teased the boy’s mother that he would raise their son to speak Spanish, and one day the two of them would talk in secret around her. But the boy was born with heroin in his system and, when it cleared from his body, Illinois child welfare officials placed him in a foster home. To get his son back, Matias had to complete a long list of requirements, including ending his relationship with the boy’s mother, a heroin addict.Matias visited the boy at his caseworker’s office, changed diapers and learned to prepare a bottle. He documented his son’s growth with photos and videos on his cellphone. (Sanchez and Eldeib, 6/20)

Miami Herald: Where Can Growing Number Of Elderly Sex Offenders Live In FL?
Albertson is among a growing number of elderly sex offenders in Florida. People on Florida’s list of 73,000 registered offenders who are 65 and older jumped 2 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to the state’s legislative auditors, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Florida’s registry has about 10,200 elderly offenders.The problem is sparking a national crisis of social and justice policy: How and where do we allow the most-reviled class of citizens to survive their silver years — especially those with serious age-related medical problems — after they have served their prison terms, while striving to protect children who may be living nearby? (Kornfield, 6/20)

Miami Herald: Florida Man, An RN, Admits Stealing Drugs From Employers
A former director of nursing at a St. Petersburg senior living facility admitted that all the drugs he used to satisfy his addiction were stolen from employers. That’s according to the Florida Department of Health’s Emergency Restriction Order (ERO) on 43-year-old Marc Green’s registered nurse license. (Neal, 6/20)