State Highlights: Minn. Nurses Reject Allina’s Latest Contract Offer; Okla. High Court Strikes Down Restrictive Abortion Law

The Associated Press: Minnesota Nurses, Allina Health Ready To Negotiate Again
The union that represents thousands of nurses who are on strike in Minnesota said Tuesday it is ready to return to the bargaining table after rejecting Allina Health’s latest contract offer. Minnesota Nurses Association spokesman Rick Fuentes said no date has been set to resume negotiations, but that he anticipates it will be soon. (10/4)

Reuters: Oklahoma Supreme Court Strikes Down Restrictive Abortion Law
Oklahoma's highest court on Tuesday struck down a law imposing restrictions on abortion providers, including a requirement that they take samples of fetal tissue from patients younger than 14 and preserve them for state investigators. (Ax, 10/4)

The Washington Post: Assisted Suicide Legislation Faces Key Vote In D.C. Council
Legislation that would allow doctors to help terminally ill District residents end their lives will face a crucial Wednesday vote before the D.C. Council. Advocates for physician-assisted suicide are hopeful that the nation’s capital will be the next jurisdiction where patients facing agonizing deaths will have the option to legally end their lives, and the first since California’s governor signed similar legislation exactly one year ago. (Nirappil, 10/4)

The New York Times: Flint Hit With Bacterial Illness As Residents Shun City Water
Residents of Flint, Mich., affected by the contaminated-water crisis have added a new complication to their lives: an outbreak of shigellosis, a bacterial illness that is easily transmitted when people do not wash their hands. Health department officials in Genesee County, where Flint is the largest city, said there has been an increase in the gastrointestinal illness, which can lead to severe diarrhea, fever, nausea, vomiting, cramps and stools containing blood and mucus, according to a statement issued last month. (Hauser, 10/4)

Boston Globe: Uneven Prices Pose A Problem, Mass. Hospital Industry Admits 
The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, the industry’s main trade group, didn’t address whether uneven pricing power pushes medical costs higher. But after examining the issue for months, it has issued a report that says “unwarranted variation among providers should be addressed.” For the first time, the association acknowledged that “market clout” — size and reputation — allows some hospitals to command higher prices, and said it was open to considering short-term limits on price increases for certain hospitals. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/5)

The Washington Post: Prince George’s Hospital Project Clears Major Hurdle, Step Closer To State Approval
Maryland Health Care Commissioner Robert E. Moffit has recommended approval of the proposed Prince George’s County Regional Medical Center, clearing one of the last major hurdles in what has been a long and sometimes frustrating regulatory process for the project’s supporters. Moffit issued his decision Friday in a letter stating that the project planners, Dimensions Health Care System and the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), had complied with all state criteria. (Hernandez, 10/4)

The Baltimore Sun: University Of Maryland Medical School Research Finds Health Disparities Hurt Early Childhood Development 
Nearly 43 percent of children living in low to middle income communities around the world will not reach their potential because of conditions that affect their development such as poverty, exposure to violence, and lack of access to nutritional food, according to new research by the University of Maryland School of Medicine...The health disparities faced by some children can disrupt early brain development and lead to lifelong academic and behavioral problems and heart disease and other chronic health conditions, the study found. (McDaniels, 10/4)

Dallas Morning News: App-Based Home Health Provider Honor Opens Pilot Locations In D-FW 
An app-based home health provider called Honor entered the Texas market Tuesday with the official opening of its first pilot sites, located inside two Wal-Mart Supercenters in Dallas-Fort Worth. Honor uses app-based technology to link patients in need of non-medical home health services to local providers. The startup aims to reduce the administrative cost of providing home health care and allow for more competitive pay among providers. The founders have described the service as the Uber of home health. The company launched in the San Francisco Bay area and in Los Angeles in early 2015 and announced plans to expand to D-FW earlier this year. (Rice, 10/4)

Chicago Sun Times: U Of Chicago Medicine, Ingalls Health System Merger Finalized
University of Chicago Medicine and Ingalls Health System announced Tuesday they have officially merged after 10 months of planning and negotiation. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the merger last month; the merger also was reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission. Ingalls’ Board of Directors voted Sept. 22 to approve the terms of the merger agreement. A week later, the University of Chicago Medical Center’s board also OK’d the merger. (Olsen, 10/4)

Georgia Health News: Grant Helps Pediatric Research Take New Directions 
A collaboration between Georgia Tech and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, though, aims to develop new therapies for pediatrics. And a new $5 million grant from the Imlay Foundation will support that work. The grant will fund research at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center. It will bring physicians’ ideas for a new device or technique to the table for Tech’s engineers to develop, Ron Frieson, president of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation, told GHN in an interview Monday. (Miller, 10/4)

Dallas Morning News: Four Women In Dallas Have Received Uterine Transplants In Groundbreaking Surgical Trial 
Four women who were born without uteruses have undergone a novel, yet controversial surgery in Dallas to receive a reproductive organ transplanted from a live donor. Baylor University Medical Center began conducting the uterine transplants in mid-September after two years of preparation. The medical center is now among only handful globally to test the surgeries, which took about five hours each. The aim is to ultimately give women who suffer from infertility the hope of delivering their own babies, whether via natural birth or cesarean section. (Rice, 10/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Moxe Health Raises $5.5 Million
Moxe Health, a Madison software company, has raised $5.5 million from an investor group led by Safeguard Scientifics. The start-up company, founded in 2012, has developed software that makes it easier to transfer clinical and claims data for use in analytics, such as identifying patients at a high risk of being hospitalized. Moxe, which employs about 10 people, also helps health systems make use of that information. (Boulton, 10/4)

Denver Post: First Cohort Of Colorado Students With Down Syndrome Starts College This Fall 
College freshman Mia Barone’s fingers are flying in the campus library, her eyes closed as she signs the words on her study list — tomorrow, free, champion, flirting...Barone is among the first cohort of college students in Colorado with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, a result of the state’s delayed response to the 2008 federal Higher Education Opportunity Act that said people with intellectual disabilities have the right to attend college. Colorado was among the last four states to comply when the legislature and Gov. John Hickenlooper this year approved $75,000 per year for four years for each of three schools — UCCS, University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and Arapahoe Community College in Littleton. (Brown, 10/4)

Kansas Health Institute: Working Group Suggests Changes To Kansas Revenue-Estimate Process 
A working group appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback unveiled Tuesday a host of recommendations for changing the way Kansas officials estimate the amount of tax revenue the state will receive each year. The recommendations include overhauling the group that makes the estimates and making a controversial change to the way monthly tax revenue is reported. The governor’s office and the Legislature use the tax revenue estimates as a guide to the amount the can spend for all services, including education, health care and transportation. (Marso, 10/4)

New Hampshire Times Union: Lawmaker Named In State House Pot Probe Wants Medical Marijuana Law Expanded 
One of the state representatives caught up in the attorney general’s investigation of pot sales at the State House says he plans to file legislation to expand the state’s medical marijuana law. Republican state Rep. Joe Lachance of Manchester told investigators he used the marijuana to treat a spinal injury, gastrointestinal illness and PTSD he incurred in military service. Lachance was one of the most active legislators in the two-year push for medical marijuana in New Hampshire, and is now an approved patient with a state-issued registry card. (Solomon, 10/4)

St. Louis Public Radio: Salmonella Traced To Family-Run Egg Company In Bonne Terre 
The Good Earth Egg Company in Bonne Terre, Missouri has been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the likely source of the infections, although investigations are ongoing. The company has recalled all of its shell eggs with sell-by dates before Oct. 8, 2016. The cases are genetically similar to an outbreak in 2015 that was traced to the same distributor. (Bouscaren, 10/4)