State Highlights: Mass. Nursing Home Chain’s Problems; Highmark Seeks More Money To Fight UPMC In Pittsburgh

The Boston Globe: Woes Follow Nursing Home Chain’s Arrival
At Braemoor Health Center in Brockton, [Mass.], which had a blemish-free state review before Synergy took over, health inspectors have been summoned three times in the past year. They found lax infection control, among other concerns, and the nursing home was ordered to make improvements. Synergy’s expansion in Massachusetts has been rapid — the chain has purchased 10 nursing homes since December 2012 — and with the expansion have come complaints. State inspection reports of Synergy’s nursing homes routinely show striking increases in problems since the company arrived. In one home, a patient’s pressure sores were neglected for weeks. In another, racks of dishes and utensils floated in dirty water just before they were used to serve food. And in a third, there were not enough nurses. (Lazar, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Highmark Urges Pennsylvania To OK $175M For Hospital Network
Highmark executives and allies dominated a hearing before the state's top insurance regulator Monday, seeking a green light for the insurer to transfer $175 million into its western Pennsylvania hospital network to help it compete against rival University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. At the four-hour session, state lawmakers, local elected leaders and a health care workers' union were among those urging acting Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller to approve the plan to tap Highmark's $5.5 billion insurance reserve and use the money for grants to the eight-hospital Allegheny Health Network. (Jackson, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Poor D.C. Babies Are More Than 10 Times As Likely To Die As Rich Ones
Infants are more than 10 times as likely to die in the District’s poorest ward than they are in its richest, the international advocacy group Save the Children said Monday. The findings, released Monday night as part of the group’s annual State of the World’s Mothers report, underscore how vast income inequality in the capital of the world’s richest country continues to yield startling disparities in health and survival at the neighborhood level. (Hauslohner, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Indiana Set To Start Program To Reduce Infant Deaths
A new state grant program aimed at trying to reduce Indiana's infant mortality rate is set to start this summer. Gov. Mike Pence on Monday signed a bill creating the program. (5/5)

NJ Spotlight: State Seeks To Speed Up Ride, Shorten Waiting Time For Medicaid Transportation
The state government is planning to improve transportation for Medicaid recipients, which a number of providers and advocates have identified as obstacles preventing some patients receiving the care they need. State officials plan to require that every van have a geographic tracker that will enable dispatchers to tell patients how far away their ride is when waiting for transport to a healthcare appointment. This requirement will be included in a request for proposals (RFP) expected in the next 10 days for a company to serve as a transportation broker, hiring and dispatching local van providers. (Kitchenman, 5/4)

The Washington Times: D.C. Council Plans To Clarify Reproductive Health Care Law
A D.C. law banning businesses from discriminating against workers based on their opinions or use of birth control or abortion took effect over the weekend, despite attempts by congressional Republicans to block the measure. Even with the law’s enactment, the D.C. Council plans to move forward with a clarification to emphasize that the law does not require employers to provide insurance coverage for reproductive health care options for which they have moral or religious objections. (Noble, 5/4)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: KanCare Anecdotes Abound, But Clear Data Harder To Find
More than two years into the implementation of KanCare — the state’s transfer of Medicaid administration to three private insurance companies — anecdotes about quality of care abound. Some consumer advocates say going beyond the individual stories to get a more comprehensive look at the program has been a challenge, and it’s hard to determine whether KanCare is making consumers healthier. (Marso, 5/4)

Connecticut Mirror: CT Officials See Targeting Trauma As Key To Improving Health
Studies suggest that the risks of health problems are particularly pronounced among those with four or more different types of adverse childhood experiences — known as ACEs. In recent years, scientists have been uncovering ways that significant stress early in life can lead to disease. And policymakers in Connecticut are now trying to target that stress more directly, hoping that preventing exposure to trauma or identifying and treating it early can lead to better health, education and social outcomes. (Levin Becker, 5/4)

The Des Moines Register: HIV Infections Dropped 19% In Iowa Last Year
The number of Iowans becoming infected with the AIDS virus dropped 19 percent last year, and experts are hoping the progress continues. Ninety-nine Iowans last year received new diagnoses of being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That was down from 122 in 2013, and it was the lowest number since 2003. (Leys, 4/4)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Advocates Make Last Push For Tobacco Tax
Advocates of raising the state’s tobacco tax made one last push Monday during a rally at the Statehouse, with a prominent physician saying cancer will overwhelm the state’s health care system if the tax isn’t raised. Legislators will look this week at options for raising $400 million to $500 million to close a budget gap and end the 2015 session. (Marso, 5/4)

CQ Healthbeat: DOJ Asked For Stance On Colorado Marijuana Law
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s marijuana legalization, even as the administration struggles to find a balance between strict federal laws and growing public acceptance of the drug. Right now, the justices are considering only whether Oklahoma and Nebraska should be allowed to file a lawsuit at the high court challenging the constitutionality of Colorado’s law, which has allowed sales of recreational marijuana since January 2014. (Ruger, 5/4)

The Baltimore Sun: Veterans Program Pairs Job Services With Mental Health Treatment
After Wallace Clayton served in the Army Special Forces in the mid-1970s, he says, he bounced from job to job for more than a decade. He worked in electronics assembly and repair, landscaping and home renovation — and never understood why he was having so much difficulty getting his life together. Clayton was one of 675 military veterans referred last year to a Veterans Affairs program in Maryland with a dual focus: helping veterans diagnosed with mental health disorders continue treatment while getting them trained for and placed in jobs. (Mirabella, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Supreme Court Rejects Inmate's Appeal For Sex-Change Surgery
A nearly two-decade legal fight by a convicted murderer in Massachusetts to get taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery ended in failure Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her final appeal. The justices did not comment in letting stand a lower-court ruling denying the surgery to Michelle Kosilek. (Pratt, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Cleanup Of Superfund Town Would Leave Some Asbestos Behind
A long-delayed cleanup proposal for a Montana community where thousands have been sickened by asbestos exposure would leave the dangerous material inside some houses rather than remove it, as government officials seek to wind down an effort that has lasted more than 15 years and cost $540 million. Details on the final cleanup plan for Libby, Montana, and the neighboring town of Troy were to be released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. Asbestos would be left behind knowingly only where it does not pose a risk of exposure to people, such as underground or sealed behind the walls of a house, EPA project manager Rebecca Thomas said. Yet some residents worry the material eventually could escape and re-contaminate their community. (Brown, 5/5)

Earlier KHN coverage: Health Law Expands Medicare To Montana Asbestos Patients (Galewitz, 6/18/2011)