State Highlights: Missouri Appeals Court Finds Embryos Are Marital Property; Chicago To Require Special License For Pharma Drug Reps
Outlets report on health news from Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia and Kansas.
The Associated Press:
Missouri Appeals Court: Frozen Embryos Property, Not People
A divorced man and woman must mutually consent to using embryos that were frozen and stored while married, a Missouri appellate court has ruled in declaring the embryos marital property, not humans with constitutional rights. The Missouri Court of Appeals’ 2-1 ruling Tuesday upheld a St. Louis County judge’s 2015 finding that Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen and Justin Gadberry maintain joint custody of the embryos, which have been frozen since 2007. The couple separated in 2010 and divorced last year; dissolution proceedings were drawn out by their dispute over the embryos. (Suhr, 11/16)
Chicago Tribune:
Chicago To Require Pharmaceutical Rep Licenses Despite Industry Objections
The Chicago City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Wednesday, over industry objections, requiring pharmaceutical sales representatives to carry a special license. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said the ordinance is aimed at curbing opioid abuse by preventing "aggressive and deceptive marketing" by pharmaceutical representatives. But a coalition of pharmaceutical companies and other groups have said the ordinance will be an unnecessary burden on an important part of Chicago's economy. (Schencker, 11/16)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Infant Mortality Rate Jumps In Ohio, Cuyahoga County, Racial Gap Continues To Widen
The infant mortality rate in Ohio increased in 2015, despite millions of dollars of state, federal and philanthropic funding being poured into programs to address the problem. The state's 2015 infant mortality rate, calculated as the number of deaths of a live-born baby before age one per 1,000 live births, is 7.2. That's about 21 percent higher than the most recently reported national rate and up from 6.8 the year before. (Zeltner, 11/16)
North Carolina Health News:
More N.C. Kids Die Before Reaching 17
Another measurement of child well-being in North Carolina slipped in 2015. The rate of child deaths, encompassing mortality for all children from birth to age 17, ticked upwards to 58.3 per 100,000 children, up from an all-time low in 2013. Several of the negative trends pushing up North Carolina’s child death rate are the state’s stubbornly high infant mortality rate, which has ticked up in the past few years, and the rates of homicide and suicide among teenaged boys...Suicides and homicides of children have hovered between 1.5 to 2 children per 100,000 for the past decade. But the big driver of child death in North Carolina is infant mortality. Two-thirds of the child deaths in 2015 were in children under the age of one, said Michelle Hughes who heads the advocacy group NC Child. (Hoban, 11/16)
Chicago Tribune:
Advocate, NorthShore Will Keep Fighting For Merger Despite Court Decision
Hospital systems Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem will continue fighting for their merger, they said Wednesday, despite a recent federal appeals court decision against them. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided late last month with the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Illinois, which are seeking a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop a merger between the two systems. The FTC has argued that a union between the two systems would harm competition, leading to higher prices. (Schencker, 11/16)
Denver Post:
Thornton To Select Developer Of 88-Acre Health Care District In Partnership With North Suburban Medical Center
Thornton planners are working on a large-scale development project that will convert a concentration of crowded medical practices in the city’s oldest region into a revitalized health care district that they say will be a massive economic player. For the last three years, Thornton has worked closely with officials at the North Suburban Medical Center at 9191 Grant St. to identify the best ways to craft the 88-acre area directly east of Interstate 25 and Thornton Parkway into a health care district that combines new development and the expansion and renovation of older medical spaces. (Mitchell, 11/16)
Tampa Bay Times:
Chicago Firm Is Buying Tampa Health Care Programming Company AccentHealth
Chicago-based health information provider ContextMedia announced Wednesday it was buying AccentHealth, which has dual headquarters in Tampa and New York.Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed. (Harrington, 11/17)
Pioneer Press:
Minnesota Mom Sues For Parental Rights As Son Undergoes Sex-Change Procedure – Twin Cities
A northern Minnesota mother says she wants the federal courts to restore her parental rights so she can help her son, who is undergoing a sex-change procedure. “Not only was I robbed of the opportunity to help my son make good decisions, but I also feel he was robbed of a key advocate in his life, his mother,” a teary-eyed Anmarie Calgaro told reporters Wednesday in announcing she is suing St. Louis County, two health-care providers and the St. Louis County School District....The suit claims Minnesota law violates the U.S. Constitution by denying parental rights. Calgaro, of Iron Junction, said that Park Nicollet Health Services, Fairview Health Services and the St. Louis County School District will not let her see her son’s records. She said that state Medical Assistance funds are helping him live in his own apartment and paying for medicine, including hormone drugs to help him with the sex change and powerful narcotics. (Davis, 11/16)
Georgia Health News:
As Smoke Spreads, Respiratory Problems Rise
More areas of Georgia are reporting increases in respiratory illnesses as the smoke from wildfires spreads over a wide swath of the state. State health officials reported Wednesday that the areas of Rome and LaGrange had joined metro Atlanta, Dalton, Gainesville and Jasper as seeing a rise in hospital emergency room visits for asthma. (Miller, 11/16)
Tampa Bay Times:
County Approves Rescue Plan For Belmont Heights Families Stuck With Toxic Drywall
For close to nine years, four families who bought government subsidized homes in Tampa endured a financial disaster, their dream homes blighted by Chinese drywall...Hillsborough County commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved a joint plan with the city of Tampa and the Tampa Housing Authority to rehabilitate four homes in Belmont Heights. (O'Donnell, 11/16)
Kansas Health Institute:
DCF Counsel Says Foster Care System May Create Financial ‘Clash’ For Contractors – Kansas Health Institute
State officials acknowledged during a legislative hearing Wednesday at the Statehouse that the organizations overseeing and placing children in foster homes may have financial conflicts of interest. Kasey Rogg, deputy general counsel for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, told a legislative committee that the current system of bundled payments encourages the state’s private contractors to spend less on services for children in foster care. Placement agencies also have incentives to put foster children in homes that might not be appropriate, he said. ... Kansas privatized its foster care and adoption systems in 1997 after a class-action lawsuit alleged that DCF’s predecessor, the Kansas Department for Social and Rehabilitation Services, failed to adequately care for children in its custody. Some legislators have questioned the decision in the past year after several high-profile child deaths in foster care. (Wingerter, 11/16)
Columbus Dispatch:
Renovated YWCA Building Offers Safe Space For Formerly Homeless Women
Bays is one of about four dozen women who are moving from a local hotel into the building this week after a renovation that began in June 2015.The women's residency program is host to women with mental illnesses who have suffered from chronic homelessness, and often addiction. The number of women affected by homelessness and mental illness is growing, and so, too, has the residency program; expanding to accommodate 91 women, instead of the 60 it housed before the renovation. (King, 11/16)
California Healthline:
Could Legalizing Pot Diminish California’s Gains Against Smoking?
California’s decision to legalize marijuana was touted as a victory for those who had argued that the state needed a system to decriminalize, regulate and tax it. But the new law, approved by voters on Nov. 8, also could be a boon to the tobacco industry at a time when cigarette smoking is down and cigarette companies are looking for ways to expand their market, according to researchers in Los Angeles County and around the state. (Gorman, 11/17)
Miami Herald:
Medical Marijuana Looks Like Cash Crop To Miami’s Entrepreneurs
Real estate speculators stake out territories for what’s to come, infrastructure builders and lawyers queue up for business, investors jostle to get in on the ground floor, and tech startups seek ways to make a new industry run more efficiently. This could be any nascent industry, but in this case it’s marijuana. (Dahlberg, 11/17)