Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Massachusetts Is Flush With Mental Health Providers, But Many People Still Struggle To Find Help; Public Comment Period For Va. Work Requirements To Conclude Saturday
Boston Globe: For Many, A Struggle To Find Affordable Mental Health Care
Massachusetts has more mental health care providers per capita than any other state, more psychiatrists than anywhere but Washington, D.C., more child psychiatrists than all but D.C. and Rhode Island. Yet poor and middle-class patients describe an often-frustrating and painful struggle to find a provider who will see them, at a price they can afford. (Kowalczyk, 10/20)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Comment Period For Controversial Medicaid Work Requirements Ends Saturday
A key detail in Virginia’s plan to expand Medicaid — work and community service requirements — is one step closer to becoming law as the state’s public comment period for the conditions concludes Saturday. Enrollment for the estimated 400,000 people newly eligible for Medicaid, including adults in households with up to $16,754 in annual income for individuals or $28,677 for a family of three, begins Nov. 1. (Balch, 10/19)
Stateline: Tough New DUI Law Brings Controversy
On Dec. 30, Utah will become the first state to make it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of .05 or higher, rather than the .08 standard that every other state and the District of Columbia use. That means Utah will have the strictest DUI law in the nation. (Bergal, 10/19)
Texas Tribune: Federal Officials Tell Texas To Go Beyond Plan For Special Education Overhaul
In a letter Friday, officials from the U.S. Department of Education dissected Texas' proposed plan for overhauling special education for kids with disabilities — in many cases urging state officials to do even more than they had originally planned. Earlier this year, a thorough investigation found Texas had failed to provide students with disabilities with a proper education, violating federal special education law, and demanded it undertake a long list of corrective actions to shape up. (Swaby, 10/19)
Cincinnati Enquirer: Report: Ohioans More Likely To Have Health Insurance
Cincinnati residents and other Ohioans are more likely to have health insurance than other parts of the country, according to a study from WalletHub. The study was based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates. (Pugh, 10/19)
The Wall Street Journal: Colleges Try To Stop Spread Of Hand, Foot And Mouth Disease
College students and university doctors are fighting to keep an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease at bay as it spreads across campuses along the East Coast. At Dartmouth College, students are wearing yellow surgical masks to avoid passing the bug to classmates. At Johns Hopkins, where more than 100 cases have been reported, they have planted lawn signs and posted fliers to warn students about an outbreak, and at Lehigh University and Princeton, an email blast went out warning students to wash their hands and avoid sharing eating utensils and water bottles. (Belkin, 10/19)
Austin American-Statesman: Black Children In Travis County 8 Times More Likely To Be Removed By CPS Than White Children
African-American children in Travis County were nearly eight times more likely to be removed from a home by Child Protective Services than white children during the year ending Aug. 31, according to new state data. Black children in Travis County also were 4.6 times more likely to be reported to CPS as victims of possible abuse and neglect than their white peers and 5.1 times more likely to be investigated by CPS. (Chang, 10/20)
San Francisco Chronicle: LA Is Handing Out Flea Collars To Stem Typhus Among Homeless
The typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County is traced to disease-ridden fleas in areas with concentrated homeless populations, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors actually approved a plan Tuesday for mobile health teams to distribute flea collars in the Skid Row area. Dogs often have flea collars, too. (McCuaig, 10/21)
The Washington Post: Leaping From Specialists To ERs Fails To Solve This Young Boy’s Odd Ailments
Ever since he was a toddler, Michael had been beset by an array of medical problems that doctors couldn’t explain. Severe leg pain came first. That was followed a few years later by recurrent, sometimes severe, stomachaches. Later, the little boy developed a wracking cough, followed by trouble breathing. In fifth grade, after he fell and smacked his tailbone, he was in so much pain he wound up in a wheelchair. (Boodman, 10/20)
Sacramento Bee: What This Week’s Strike At UCD Hospital Means For Patients, Traffic In Sacramento
Deadlocked in labor contract negotiations with the University of California, thousands of low-wage workers represented by AFSCME Local 3299 will be setting up picket lines Tuesday through Thursday outside Sacramento’s UC Davis Medical Center and at four other academic hospitals around the state. Here’s what UC Davis patients and motorists around its facilities should know. (Anderson, 10/22)
Texas Tribune: Texas Supreme Court Reverses Course, Will Hear Case Over Whether State Can Keep Execution Drug Supplier Secret
Brought forward in 2014 by three Texas death penalty lawyers, the suit sought the name of a pharmacy that provided compounded pentobarbital, the sole drug currently used in Texas executions. The suit was filed after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, then the attorney general, said the state could withhold identifying information of drug suppliers because the pharmacies faced “real harm.” (McCullough, 10/19)
KQED: 'This Heat Is Killing Me'
Two heat waves last year killed at least 14 people in the Bay Area, and the past five summers have been the hottest on record in California. It’s a warming world, and heat can pose a serious threat, even in the normally temperate Bay Area. (Levi, 10/21)
The Washington Post: Perry Funeral Home, Detroit: Dozens More Infant Corpses Found After Cantrell Funeral Home Raid
Detroit Police Chief James Craig announced a “wide probe” into Michigan funeral homes Friday, after hidden caches of baby corpses were allegedly discovered at two unrelated businesses inside a week. “This is deeply disturbing,” Craig said at a news conference, hours after police raided Perry Funeral Home and allegedly seized 63 fetus or infant bodies, more than half of which were packed together in unrefrigerated boxes. “We want to understand the reasons: Is it financial gain? If so, how? Who knew or who else is involved in this?” (Selk, 10/21)
