State Highlights: Mass.’s Quincy Hospital To Close; N.M. Human Services Secretary Resigns

Boston Globe: Quincy Medical Center To Close
Steward Health Care System said Thursday that it would close Quincy Medical Center and displace nearly 700 workers after the long-struggling hospital finally succumbed to the intense competition for patients south of Boston. The shutdown, scheduled to be completed by the end the year, marks the biggest hospital closing in the state in at least a decade and the first failure for Steward, the for-profit company that promised to reinvent community health care when it entered the Massachusetts market four years ago. (McCluskey and Weisman, 11/6)

WBUR: Quincy Medical Center Closing At Year’s End
After years of struggling to balance the books, Quincy Medical Center will close. Steward Health Care says it is losing nearly $20 million a year at the hospital. It just doesn’t have enough patients: On any given night there are about forty, while 80 percent of the beds are empty. (Bebinger, 11/6)

The Associated Press: Boston-area Acute-care Hospital Closing To Make Way For Urgent Care
Financially troubled Quincy Medical Center is closing at the end of the year, leaving the city south of Boston without its own acute-care hospital. Parent company Steward Health Care announced the move Thursday, saying the hospital isn't sustainable with current patient flow. Steward said it plans to open an urgent care facility and a 24-hour emergency department, and maintain other outpatient services in Quincy, which has a population of 90,000. Several other hospitals operate in communities nearby. (11/6)

The Associated Press: N.M. Human Services Secretary Resigns
Human Services Secretary Sidonie Squier is leaving her Cabinet-level job in Gov. Susana Martinez's administration after coming under fire for more than a year for her management of an agency that administers the state's largest health care program. The Human Services Department administers a $6 billion budget to operate Medicaid, food stamps and other welfare assistance programs. Squier, a former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services director, has faced criticism for halting Medicaid payments last year to more than a dozen mental health providers because of allegations of fraud, mismanagement and overbillings. (Massey, 11/6)

The Baltimore Sun: Md. Board Backs Continual Monitoring Of Charges Against Doctors
Maryland doctors would be fingerprinted and continually monitored for criminal charges under draft legislation the state Board of Physicians plans to propose next year. The policy would require them to apply for a background check when first seeking a medical license, or for currently practicing doctors, when they next renew their licenses. Background checks would occur once for each doctor. The board plans to use an FBI program that allows indefinite monitoring that would alert regulators to any new criminal activity. (Dance, 11/6)

The Associated Press: Ex-DHHS Employee Sentenced in SC Data Breach
A former employee at South Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services has been sentenced to three years probation in connection with a breach of data from the agency. Attorney General Alan Wilson says 39-year-old Christopher Lykes Jr. of Swansea was also ordered Wednesday to serve 300 hours of community service. He had faced a possible 25-year prison sentence. Authorities say the agency project manager compiled more than 228,000 Medicaid patients' personal information on a spreadsheet and sent it to his private email. (11/6)

Health News Colorado: Primary Care Providers Beg University Hospital: ‘Open Your Doors’
Just beyond the gleaming new towers at the Anschutz Medical Campus, low-income patients with cancer and other complex medical problems often cannot find a specialist to care for them. A group of primary care providers and patient advocates who work in Aurora now are begging leaders at the University of Colorado Hospital to increase access to specialists. (Kerwin McKinnon, 11/6)

The Associated Press: New Hampshire Health Center Gets $242K To Grow
The Lamprey Health Care center in Newmarket is getting a $242,000 grant through the Affordable Care Act to create or expand its mental health and substance abuse treatment programs. The grant is part of $51 million in grants announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The money is going to 210 health centers to expand services to 440,000 people around the country. At Lamprey, the grant means the number of people in New Hampshire with access to mental health or substance abuse treatment will increase by just over 200. (11/7)

The Associated Press: Study: Alabama Has Low Rate Of Uninsured Kids
A new national study says Alabama has the lowest rate in the South for children without health care coverage. A study by the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University says 4.3 percent of Alabama's children didn't have health coverage in 2013. Other Southern states ranged from slightly more than 5 percent to 11 percent. The national average was 7.1 percent. Alabama ranked 10th best among the states. The study found that Alabama had nearly 11,000 fewer uninsured children in 2013 than in 2011. (11/7)

Salem, Ore., Statesman Journal: OHA: 77,000 Lose Medicaid, Many Being Reinstated
Tens of thousands of Oregon Health Plan enrollees had their coverage terminated on Nov. 1, after their renewal window closed, but Oregon Health Authority officials say some are being reinstated. Spokeswoman Patty Wentz said in an email that 77,000 people out of 355,000 members of Oregon's version of Medicaid lost coverage Nov. 1. While people drop off for a variety of reasons, many have not responded to their renewal notices, she said. (Yoo, 11/6)

Boston Globe: Charlie Baker Vows To Tackle State’s Opiate Problem
Governor-elect Charlie Baker plans to address the state’s opiate addiction crisis early in his term, saying in an interview Thursday that he wants to forge a coalition of labor leaders, elected Democrats, and health care officials to curtail the usage of prescription painkillers. (O'Sullivan and Phillips, 11/6)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: How The Soda Industry Met Its Match In One Of America’s Most Liberal Cities
On Tuesday, voters in Berkeley, Calif. passed the country's first soda tax with a whopping 75 percent of the vote, a big defeat for the beverage industry, which had poured millions of dollars into blocking the tax. In a campaign year when control of the Senate was at stake and states across the country were voting on marijuana legalization, the beverage industry's attention was focused on Berkeley. (Ferdman, 11/6)

Contra Costa Times: Success Of Berkeley Soda Tax Builds Hope For National Movement
Soda-tax advocates were plotting future strategy Wednesday while opponents exercised damage control the day after the resounding passage of the nation's first municipal tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. The 1 cent-per-ounce tax on the distribution of most sweetened beverages needed only a simple majority to pass, and it won by a 3-1 margin. (Lochner, 11/6)