State Highlights: Mass. Senate OKs Bill To Curb Health Care Costs; San Diego Hospitals Move Into Medical Tourism Market

Boston Globe: Mass. Senate Approves Sweeping Health Care Bill
Massachusetts senators approved a sweeping bill at midnight Thursday that seeks to control the rising costs of medical care and prescription drugs, including a controversial plan that would fine hospitals if spending rises too fast. The legislation also would require pharmaceutical companies to submit to more scrutiny from state officials. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/9)

Los Angeles Times: San Diego's Big Hospitals Plan A Push Into Medical Tourism
Planning a visit to San Diego? Hit the beaches. Check. Spend a day at the zoo or a theme park. Check. Sample craft beer. Check. Book a stay at a local hospital for cutting-edge cardiac or cancer treatment? For decades, San Diego has traded on its reputation for year-round sun, a captivating coastline and family-friendly attractions to woo tourists. But enticing visitors with the promise of lifesaving treatments by acclaimed physicians and hospitals has never been offered up as a selling point. Until now. (Weisberg, 11/9)

Stat: Explore: How Many Young Doctors Does Your State Retain After Residency?
Desperate to persuade young doctors to settle in rural areas — or just keep them from leaving the state — medical schools, hospitals, and state legislators are getting creative. They’re forgiving tens of thousands of dollars in loans, setting up mentorships, and recruiting med school grads with local ties in an effort to hold on to providers. ...But on this crucial metric, some states are faring far worse than others. California, with an abundance of space and jobs for doctors, retains 70 percent of residents and fellows trained in-state — compared to just 28 percent in tiny New Hampshire, where full-time physician jobs are few and leaving the state may only mean moving a short distance. (Robbins and Bronshtein, 11/9)

Oregonian: Website Helps Patients Battling With Health Plans
A website launched this week in Oregon to help consumers in disputes with health plans. The site, MyPatientRights.org, is directed at consumers who are denied coverage, experience delays or are unhappy with decisions by their health insurer. It lists patient rights, such as to see their personal health records and to keep those private. It lists some of the issues patients might face, such as co-insurance costs, high deductibles and adverse tiering, which involves a company putting all medications for a specific condition into the highest cost bracket. (Terry, 11/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Seeks Injunction To Halt Trump Rollback Of Birth Control Mandate
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday filed a legal motion asking a judge to halt the implementation of federal rule changes, announced by the Trump administration last month, that give employers more leeway to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. Becerra, along with the attorneys general of Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia, filed a request for a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. (Ho, 11/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Outcome Health’s Investors Receive Subpoenas From Justice Department
Investors in Outcome Health on Thursday said in a court filing that they were receiving subpoenas from the Justice Department as part of a fraud investigation into the prominent Chicago advertising startup. The filing, submitted to the New York State Supreme Court in New York County, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other investors, which are suing Outcome for allegedly defrauding them, were receiving the subpoenas on Thursday. The investors also said “additional inquiries” were expected from the Securities and Exchange Commission, without elaborating. (Winkler, 11/9)

Chicago Tribune: Outcome Health Investors Receive DOJ Subpoenas As Chicago-Area Hospitals Back Away
The Justice Department is subpoenaing investors in Chicago-based Outcome Health in the wake of a lawsuit accusing the prominent health information and advertising startup of committing fraud to secure nearly $500 million in funding. The orders from federal investigators, revealed in court documents filed by investors Thursday, come as hospitals and health care advertisers back away from the fast-growing company, which places interactive screens and tablets in doctors’ offices. The court filing indicates investors also anticipate inquiries from the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Schencker and Marotti, 11/9)

The Associated Press: Feds Backing Out Of Lawsuit Against Nursing Chain
The federal government is moving to dismiss a lawsuit it brought two years ago against a national nursing-care provider after a judge tossed out the government’s key witness over issues of credibility. The Justice Department joined in on a whistleblower lawsuit against Toledo, Ohio-based HCR ManorCare, which operates more than 250 skilled nursing facilities nationwide. Authorities say the chain fraudulently overbilled Medicare for millions of dollars. (Barakat, 11/9)

CT Mirror: State Watchdog: Schools Keeping Too Many Students Home Without Medical OK
An investigation by a state watchdog agency has found that “high numbers” of children have left public school for medical or mental health reasons – though only two-thirds of the absences had been authorized by the student’s health care provider, as required by state regulations. (Thomas, 11/9)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Partners With Meharry Medical College To Train Students
HCA will train Meharry Medical College students at HCA's TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center, the organizations announced Thursday. HCA, the nation's largest hospital system with 177 hospitals, signed a memorandum of agreement that expands upon the relationship between the two Nashville institutions. It will give HCA access to medical students and allow it to leverage Meharry's global reputation for educating future primary-care doctors. (Kacik, 11/9)

The Tennessean: Meharry To Train Students At HCA Hospital Under 'Historic' Agreement
A "historic" agreement between Meharry Medical College and HCA Healthcare will transform how the college trains its students and push its reach further into Davidson County. Under the agreement, Meharry students in their their third and fourth years will train at TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center, a hospital in HCA's TriStar Health subsidiary. (Fletcher, 11/9)

The Tennessean: Nashville General To End Inpatient Care, Mayor Megan Barry Announces
Mayor Megan Barry on Thursday announced plans to end inpatient care at Nashville General Hospital, the city’s only safety net hospital. Barry said her administration would submit to the Metro Council a “substantial request” for funds to stabilize the facility until the end of the fiscal year. Thereafter, Barry said, she would focus her efforts on transforming the facility into an ambulatory surgical care center, which would provide only outpatient services. (Wadhwani, 11/9)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Government Bails On Fraud Case Against ManorCare
The U.S. Department of Justice has scored hundreds of millions in settlements from nursing homes for allegations of fraudulent billing for therapy, but those efforts faltered Thursday in a whistle-blower case against HCR ManorCare Inc., one of the largest companies in the industry. Government lawyers, after being ordered this week to pay ManorCare’s attorneys the cost of a single filing in a dustup over a government witness, notified U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that they were in agreement with ManorCare to dismiss the case. (Brubaker, 11/9)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Genesis HealthCare CEO Calls Restructuring 'A Huge Step'
Genesis HealthCare chief executive George V. Hager Jr. told investors Thursday that the nursing home company’s latest financial restructuring “a huge, huge step for us bridging to the recovery and moving to the next cycle of this industry.” Under the deal announced Wednesday, Genesis’s largest landlords Welltower Inc. and Sabra Health Care REIT Inc., will sell certain properties leased to Genesis. Genesis is then expected lease them from the new owners at lower rents. That rent reduction is expected to be $54 million annually starting in January. (Brubaker, 11/9)

Houston Chronicle: Harvey-Damaged East Houston Regional Medical Center Will Close
East Houston Regional Medical Center, swamped by 6 feet of water during Hurricane Harvey in August, is closing for good in what is being called the biggest medical casualty of the storm. The 131-bed hospital, an institution in the region after 40-plus years in operation, was recently determined to not be salvageable after the storm roared ashore and devastated the area with historic flooding. (Deam and Ackerman, 11/10)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Woman Found Guilty In $3.2 Million Medicare Kickback Scheme
A New Orleans woman was found guilty Thursday (Nov. 9) of participating in a roughly $3.2 million Medicare fraud and kickback scheme that involved fraudulent billing for power wheelchairs and other medical equipment, according to federal officials. A federal jury convicted Sandra Parkman, who is in her 60s, of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, two counts of healthcare fraud and five counts of accepting kickbacks. (McKnight, 11/9)

California Healthline: Teaching Teens The Perils Of Pot As Marketplace Grows
After Yarly Raygoza attended the drug prevention program at the Boys & Girls Club here last year, she used what she learned to talk a few friends out of using marijuana. The 14-year-old took the class again this year but worries that counseling her friends will become more difficult. (Gorman, 11/10)