State Highlights: Minn. Nurses Settlement Could Give Hospitals More Labor-Relations Muscle; Legal Fees Grow In Kansas Planned Parenthood Case

Minnesota Public Radio: Allina Nurses Settlement Could Embolden Hospitals 
The recently concluded Allina Health nursing strike could be the start of a change in hospital labor relations nationwide. Allina took a hard line saying there would be no deal unless the nurses accepted give-backs on health benefits. The nurses' 37-day walkout ended only after the rank and file reluctantly agreed to give up their generous union-only health insurance and transition to Allina's still generous, but less-expensive corporate health plans. (Benson, 10/24)

Kansas Health Institute: Legal Fees Mount In Case Challenging Kansas Effort To Defund Planned Parenthood
The state of Kansas incurred nearly $300,000 in legal fees in just three months to defend a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood challenging the state’s decision to boot the organization from the Medicaid program. Invoices obtained by KCUR show that outside law firms representing the state billed it $282,477 in legal fees and $2,725 in expenses between May 29 and Aug. 31. The invoices were provided by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in response to a Kansas Open Records Act request. KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier is the defendant in the lawsuit, which seeks to overturn her decision in May to block Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. (Margolies, 10/24)

Stateline: As Rural America Ages, Volunteers Give A Hand
Across Maine, volunteers are stepping up to help rural seniors like [Dianna] Haller who want to remain in their homes as they age. Some work with local governments or nonprofits. Others have simply gotten together to offer a hand. Many of them are seniors themselves. And what they are doing can be emulated by the rest of the nation, as the number of people 65 and over is projected to explode from 48 million to 77 million between now and 2035. Maine’s rural population is older than that of most other states. Demographers project that a third of the state’s population will be 65 and over by 2032. And the challenges confronting Maine as it deals with an aging population are turning up elsewhere. Rural America is aging faster than its urban counterparts, as fewer children are born and younger, working-age adults are moving away. (Bergal, 10/25)

Boston Globe: At Dana-Farber, A Robot Roams The Halls To Deliver Meds 
Dana-Farber executives have high hopes for “Lucy,” one of the newest technologies in use at Boston’s best-known cancer center. Lucy is being developed to deliver prescription drugs directly to patients while they sit in infusion rooms receiving chemotherapy — a treatment that can take many hours. If the system works, it will save patients the time and trouble of having to stand in line to pick up their prescriptions at a pharmacy after an already long and draining day of treatment. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/24)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Ga. Doctor Sentenced To Prison After $1M Billing Fraud
An Atlanta-based physician was sentenced Monday to federal prison for filing more than $1 million in false claims for services he did not perform, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Robert E. Windsor, 55, of Cumming, claimed for more than three years between January 2010 and July 2013 that he had monitored the neurological health of patients during surgery when he actually had an unqualified medical assistant do the work, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Bob Page said in a news release Monday. (Eldridge, 10/24)

Orlando Sentinel/Tampa Bay Tribune: UCF Trustees Take Another Step Toward New Teaching Hospital 
UCF could get the green light from the state as early as January to build a teaching hospital through its joint venture with the hospital chain HCA, university officials said during a trustee meeting on Monday. That's if the UCF-HCA Certificate of Need application for a 100-bed hospital in Lake Nona adjacent to the medical school is not contested by other hospitals or doesn't face letters of concern by competitors. In those cases, the process can drag on for several months or years before the application is approved or denied. (Miller, 10/24)

New Hampshire Union Leader: School District Employees Considered For Transgender Benefits Coverage
City school administrators are looking at the possibility of offering transgender-inclusive health-care benefits to school district employees. The discussions come on the heels of a vote last week by city aldermen to offer benefits — such as sex-change surgery — to municipal employees and their families covered under city health insurance plans starting July 1. The aldermen were acting on a request from city Human Resources Director Jane Gile asking aldermen to approve requesting health insurance provider Anthem “remove all transgender exclusions or limitations of coverage for all health services related to gender transition from the templates of the city’s medical benefit plan,” opening the door for Manchester to offer the health benefits to municipal employees. (Feely, 10/24)

Columbus Dispatch: Program Helps Teens, Parents Deal With Asperger's
Making those kinds of connections is what makes Teen Aspirations, a program started in 2002 by the OSU Department of Neurology and the Nisonger Center, so special, parents say... The goal of the eight-week program, which is held several times a year, is simple: Help teens with a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder learn how to go after their “aspirations” in school, at work and in life. This includes developing self-awareness so they can see how their strengths will help overcome any challenges that come up, learning to experience positive social interactions and relationships, and realizing the importance of being successful at school or at work, now and into the future. (Pyle, 10/25)

Miami Herald: Zika Virus: Pregnant Woman In Miami Has Contracted Zika But Baby Is Fine, Doctors Say
As of Monday, the Florida Department of Health reported seven new travel-related Zika cases in the state — three in Miami-Dade, two in Broward and two involving pregnant women, bringing the statewide total of infected people to 1,058. Of those, 113 pregnant women have tested positive for Zika statewide, the health department said Monday. In June, [Yessica] Flores learned she was seven weeks pregnant. (Flor, 10/24)

Sacramento Bee: Virtual Dementia Tour Offers A Glimpse Into The World Of Those With Alzheimer's
Most of us will never truly know what it’s like inside the mind of someone afflicted with dementia or Alzheimer’s. But there are ways to get a glimpse. On a recent afternoon at Atria El Camino Gardens, a senior living and memory care facility in Carmichael, staffers and family members took a “virtual dementia tour” to experience what those brain impairments can feel like. (Buck, 10/24)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Families: Mental Illness Led To Murder-Suicide 
Mental illness has arisen as a factor in the 2014 murder-suicide that left a vivacious Manchester woman dead at the hands of a former roommate in the Lincoln condo they once shared. A brother of killer Douglas Marsden said the family had been receiving disturbing telephone calls and text messages from the 48-year-old in the weeks before the murder-suicide. They tell a story of a man in the midst of a crisis. (Hayward, 10/24)