State Highlights: Md. Medicaid To Provide Gender Transition Services; Ill. To Refund Retiree Health Care Money

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland To Expand Medicaid Coverage For Transgender Patients
Health officials in Maryland are moving for the first time to provide transition-related health care coverage to low-income transgender residents who receive Medicaid in the state. The action mirrors a similar move the state took this summer, amid negotiations with advocacy organizations, to provide state employees access to gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other transition-related care under their state-provided health insurance plans. (Rector, 11/21)

The Associated Press: State To Refund Retiree Health Care Money
The state will refund money to about 75,000 state retirees who've been paying a portion of their pensions for health insurance over the last year and a half after a court hearing in Sangamon County. Judge Steven Nardulli on Friday scheduled a Dec. 18 hearing to establish how to distribute more than $60 million to the retirees. Attorneys estimate the money will be returned by spring. Retirees began paying a percentage of their annuity under a 2012 law. (11/21)

The Des Moines Register: Wellmark Offers Health Incentives In New Plans
Iowa’s largest health-insurer will soon offer gift cards and fitness bracelets to members who participate in wellness efforts under a new set of insurance plans. Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield is teaming with the UnityPoint Health system and Hy-Vee pharmacies to provide the “Blue Rewards” plans. Members will face smaller co-pays and deductibles if they obtain care at UnityPoint clinics and hospitals and if they have prescriptions filled at Hy-Vees than if they go to other providers. (Leys, 11/21)

Los Angeles Times: Medical And Tech Researchers See Smartphones As Health's Next Frontier
The West Hollywood club scene was just picking up as Charles Lea and other UCLA grad students fanned out along Santa Monica Boulevard. Their goal that evening: Find young black men, gay and bisexual, willing to participate in a study on how smartphone apps can help improve overall health and combat diseases such as AIDS and diabetes. ... The effort reflects both the potential and the challenges facing investors, medical experts and government officials who want to harness the reach and power of mobile phones to revolutionize healthcare. (Brown, 11/22)

WBUR: Baker Taps Marylou Sudders To Lead Health And Human Services Department
Gov.-elect Charlie Baker is choosing someone he worked with in the Weld administration to lead the largest agency in the state — the Department of Health and Human Services. Baker said Friday he tapped Marylou Sudders for the post in part because of her collaborative spirit. Several groups are praising his choice, citing Sudders’ work as the former state mental health commissioner and former head of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (Becker, Bebinger and Jolicoeur, 11/21)

Modern Healthcare: Growing Community-Based Doctors
Medical white-coat ceremonies don't usually get much media attention. But when the Billings (Mont.) Clinic held its white-coat ceremony this past July to welcome its inaugural class of 12 internal medicine residents, “our mayor was there, our board was there, all the papers, radio and TV stations were there,” said Dr. Roger Bush, the program's director. “That doesn't happen in Boston.” The ceremony was an important occasion for Billings, an integrated health system that includes a 240-physician group practice, a 285-bed hospital, a network of rural clinics and a nursing home. For the residents' first year, they'll spend most of their time close to the mother ship in Billings. But second- and third-year residents will spend more time at rural affiliates including a satellite clinic in Miles City, a farming community about 150 miles east. (Robeznieks, 11/22)

BrowardBulldog.org: FBI Probes Claim Of $130M Health Care Scam
Since being founded 64 years ago as a convalescent home for elderly Jewish people and war veterans, Plaza Health Network has nurtured a reputation for providing top-notch services to senior citizens of all denominations who can no longer take care of themselves. But a little-noticed whistleblower’s lawsuit filed in Miami federal court by an ex-Plaza executive alleges the non-profit company scammed the federal government for $130 million. (Alvarado, 11/21)

The Oregonian: E-Cigarettes Poison Children, Need More Regulation, Washington Health Officials Say
State health officials say too many children in Washington are being poisoned by contact with the liquid nicotine used in electronic cigarettes. Now, the state's poison center wants the Legislature to adopt standards for making liquid nicotine packages child-resistant, as well as subject to consistent labeling rules. (House, 11/23)

Reuters: Landmark Open Meeting On Agent Orange Held At Oregon VA Hospital
Vietnam War veterans on Saturday called for more research into the health effects of U.S. service members' exposure to Agent Orange, in a first of its kind open meeting at a VA hospital in Portland, Oregon, on the lingering effects of the chemicals. ... About 130 veterans attended the meeting at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland. It was the first time the VA allowed the nonprofit Vietnam Veterans of America to hold an Agent Orange town hall at one of its hospitals, said Mokie Porter, spokeswoman for the group. (Sherwood, 11/22)

The Pioneer Press: Mother Of Low-IQ Sex Offender Worries About Loss Of Therapy Program
Although never charged with a crime, Clark Potter forced himself on his girlfriend at a group home for the mentally disabled some 20 years ago, his mother said. He later sexually assaulted a staff member's young child. As a result, he spent a year in a state psychiatric facility, followed by 20 years in group therapy. For three hours a day, up to five days per week, he has met with therapists and other low-IQ sex offenders at ABC Mental Health Therapy on Payne Avenue in St. Paul. That door is now closed. After losing a Ramsey County contract, the nonprofit officially called it quits Friday, capping nine years of running the "Onward" group therapy program in St. Paul. Metropolitan Community Mental Health Center ran Onward from 1970 to 2005 before it went out of business. (Melo, 11/23)

The Laramie Boomerang: Wyoming Small City Hospital Pushing To Recruit More Physicans
Officials at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie are pushing to recruit more physicians but say it's a tough thing to do in a small city in Wyoming. Hospital CEO Doug Faus says recruiting physicians to Laramie is tougher than getting them to consider bigger cities such as Fort Collins, Colorado. He says Ivinson has to make better offers to physicians than are made elsewhere. (Steere, 11/22)