State Highlights: McCaskill Requests Federal Probe Of ‘Potentially Fraudulent’ Billing At Missouri Hospital; Texas Law Tests DNR Wishes

KCUR: McCaskill Calls For Federal Investigation Of Billing Practices At Missouri Hospital 
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is calling for a federal investigation of billing practices at Putnam County Memorial Hospital, which was the subject of a highly critical state audit last year. McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, is asking the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate whether the company that took over the 15-bed hospital in Unionville defrauded taxpayers by using the hospital as a pass-through vehicle for out-of-state laboratory services. The company, Hospital Partners, is one of many businesses controlled by Florida resident Jorge Perez, who says it's his mission to save endangered rural hospitals. (Margolies, 5/24)

Politico Pro: New Texas Law Challenges Doctors On End Of Life Wishes
The bill, TX SB11 (17R), passed during a politically charged special legislative session last summer, introduces confusion into DNR, or do not resuscitate, systems that hospitals have long had in place, providers and legal experts say. They argue the new law could hamper physicians’ ability to carry out a patient’s existing DNR order whenever a family member contests it. (Rayasam, 5/24)

Denver Post: Anthem Won't Pay For Many Patients To Get CTs Or MRIs At Colorado Hospitals Anymore
If you need to get a CT or an MRI scan, Anthem — the health insurer that covers nearly one out of every five Coloradans with private insurance — most likely won’t pay for you to get it in a hospital anymore. That’s the result of a new policy Anthem implemented in the state last fall that it says cracks down on the higher prices hospitals charge for procedures that are known in the industry under the broad category of “imaging.” Under the policy, Anthem directs most patients to free-standing imaging facilities, where it says the out-of-pocket cost to patients can be $1,000 less than at a hospital. (Ingold, 5/24)

The Baltimore Sun: Health Officials Confirm Measles Case In Maryland
Montgomery County health officials have confirmed a case of measles and are alerting those who have not been vaccinated about possible exposure. Health officials from Montgomery County, the Maryland Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Health are investigating the case. Officials say an individual contracted measles outside of the country, developed symptoms here and is currently under medical care. Measles is a highly contagious virus that is spread through the air when someone coughs or sneezes. (Rentz, 5/24)

The Associated Press: Official: Review Finds 4,900 Untested Rape Kits In Missouri
There are close to 4,900 untested rape kits in Missouri, and that number likely is low because some agencies couldn't say exactly how many kits they have, according to a review by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Josh Hawley, who launched an audit of the state's rape kit backlog in November 2017, announced the findings Thursday in what he said was the first such review. (5/24)

The Washington Post: D.C. Government Data Breach Exposed Nurses’ Social Security Numbers
The D.C. Department of Health has warned hundreds of nurses that their personal information was inadvertently exposed in the online licensing portal and is offering them one year of credit-monitoring services. A nurse navigating the nursing board’s online portal somehow ended up on a nonpublic portion of a database that included the Social Security numbers, names and addresses of nurses, said Department of Health spokesman Tom Lalley. Seven nurses had their information exposed. City officials couldn’t identify them, so they sent warning letters last week to all 600 people who were then registered in the system. (Nirappil, 5/24)

Boston Globe: More Pressure On Athenahealth To Sell To Hedge Fund
Investors are ratcheting up the pressure on Watertown-based athenahealth to consider a sale, arguing that the publicly traded health care information technology company might operate more efficiently under private ownership. Elliott Management Corp., the New York hedge fund that has offered to buy athenahealth for nearly $7 billion, wrote to the company’s board of directors Thursday that other shareholders share its frustration with how the company has performed. (Rosen, 5/24)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Lawmakers Gave Just $1 To Sobriety Checkpoints
Sadly, despite their proven success rate in helping prevent crashes and reduce drunk driving fatalities by 20 percent, the legislature voted to reduce state funding for sobriety checkpoints to just $1. We urge the lawmakers next session to restore funding for these services, which allow law enforcement to choose the best method for protecting Missourians. (Meghan Carter, 5/24)

The Star Tribune: Duluth's Essentia Health Announces State's Biggest Medical Construction Project 
An $800 million project announced Thursday would replace Duluth’s biggest hospital while also making renovations to related facilities across its downtown campus over the next four years. Duluth-based Essentia Health said it will build a new St. Mary’s Medical Center plus a clinic building and an outpatient surgery center as part of a plan called “Vision Northland,” which hospital officials say is the largest private development in Duluth’s history. (Snowbeck, 5/24)

Houston Chronicle: New President Calls For More Patient-Centered MD Anderson
Dr. Peter Pisters, MD Anderson Cancer Center’s new president, has unveiled a vision that would make the elite Houston hospital more accessible to patients and more humane about end-of-life care. In his first major address since taking over the top job in December, Pisters said Tuesday he wants to create a more patient-centered MD Anderson, one that features same- or next-day appointments and better anticipates the desires of those who want to die in hospice or at home rather than in the hospital. (Ackerman, 5/24)

Boston Globe: Steward Health Care Exerted Undue Pressure To Restrict Referrals Outside Chain, Suit Says
A whistle-blower lawsuit filed against Steward Health Care exposes a part of medicine largely hidden from patients: the behind-the-scenes pressure health care companies put on doctors to keep patient referrals in-house. Dr. Stephen Zappala, a longtime Massachusetts urologist, said company representatives exerted immense personal and financial pressure on him and other physicians to refer patients only to Steward hospitals and specialists, putting profits first. (Kowalczyk, 5/24)

Kansas City Star: Human Trafficking Suit: Judge Orders KCK Cult To Pay $8 Million
A woman who spent 10 years toiling without pay for a Kansas City, Kan., religious group has won an $8 million judgment against the group and its leader. U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree issued a 57-page ruling Wednesday, finding that Kendra Ross was the victim of human trafficking at the hands of Royall Jenkins and his group, which calls itself The Value Creators. (Rizzo, 5/24)

San Antonio Press-Express: Major Donation Means Less Wait Times For Critically Ill Children
When a child almost drowns, suffers a serious asthma attack or experiences any sort of catastrophic health emergency, whether they survive can often depend on a handful of seconds. The margin just got better for critically ill or injured babies and children here and across South Texas, thanks to local philanthropist Harvey E. Najim, who donated $1.4 million toward the purchase of two ambulances for the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. (Stoeltje, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Hot-Car Death: Nashville Police Say 1-Year-Old Katera Barker Died In Vehicle
The tragedy unraveled on a gravel driveway at a home in Tennessee, where a family’s dark blue pickup truck sat, eerily, with a rear door still ajar and an empty car seat lying beside it on the ground. Authorities said it was there, in East Nashville, that a father said he forgot his 1-year-old daughter in a hot car Wednesday and, sometime later that evening, the mother discovered the child. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said on Twitter that the child was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. (Bever, 5/24)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: University Medical Center Ramps Up Efforts To Protect Funding From Potential Cuts 
Doctors at University Medical Center and hospital officials gathered Thursday morning (May 24) to talk about the need to retain state funding to keep the hospital running past July 1. "It's critically important that we understand UMC is not just a resource to New Orleans or Orleans Parish. It's a resource that spreads across the entire state into Mississippi out to Lake Charles," said Dr. Peter DeBlieux, the Chief Medical Officer at UMC, and one of several doctors present Thursday at the launch of a campaign called #UMCisVITAL, which aims to ramp up community involvement in helping stave off cuts to funding UMC. (Clark, 4/24)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Court Orders Cleveland To Post Signs Warning Of Lead Hazards In Homes
The city must placard with warning signs homes it currently knows have lead hazards that have not been fixed, an appeals court ruled late Wednesday. The Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals, however, said it could not issue general orders to force the city to follow state provisions that outline steps to respond to lead hazards. (Dissell, 5/24)

Health News Florida: School Districts Developing Plans To Expand Mental Health Care For Students
In response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida lawmakers are providing $69 million to enhance mental health care at public schools. The money will be divided among districts based on the number of students they have. (Ochoa, 5/24)

Georgia Health News: Physician Assistants Growing In Numbers And Importance
A physician assistant is a health care professional who has the training to perform many of the duties that doctors routinely handle. ...New national statistics on the PA workforce, published this week by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, show there are more than 3,500 practicing in Georgia. (Miller, 5/24)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Advocate Aurora Plans $250 Million Hospital Near Foxconn Plant
Advocate Aurora Health announced plans Thursday to build a $250 million hospital and medical office building in Mount Pleasant, positioning the health system to benefit from the projected growth from Foxconn Technology Group’s planned plant. The health system — created by the merger of Advocate Health Care Network and Aurora Health Care in April — has said that it initially would focus on expanding in growing areas of northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin. (Boulton, 5/24)