State Highlights: More States Join Idaho In Serving Up Roadkill Cuisine, Improving Road Safety; Health Care Costs Hit Pennsylvanians Hard, Survey Finds

Stateline: Why Eating Roadkill Makes Roads Safer For People And Animals 
Between 1 million and 2 million large animals are hit by vehicles every year in the United States in accidents that kill 200 people and cost nearly $8.4 billion in damages, according to estimates from the Federal Highway Administration. Instead of wasting roadkill or mocking it as hillbilly cuisine, Idaho is tracking the carnage and allowing residents to salvage the carcasses to reduce the number of vehicle-animal collisions and feed hungry people. (Vasilogambros, 3/6)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Health Costs Are Crushing Pennsylvanians; A New Survey Shows How Much
According to the survey, struggling to afford health care took many forms, including being uninsured because of high premium costs, delaying or forgoing care due to cost, and struggling to pay medical bills.The survey also showed a concerning trend: Pennsylvanians are coping by making decisions that don’t align with their doctors’ recommendations and may jeopardize their health, such as delaying care (29 percent), avoiding getting care altogether (21 percent), skipping a test or treatment (24 percent), failing to fill a prescription (19 percent), or cutting pills in half or skipping doses (17 percent). (Kraus, 3/6)

Miami Herald: FL House Speaker Oliva: Healthcare Cost Is ‘Five-Alarm Fire’
Warning healthcare spending is a “five-alarm fire,” House Speaker José Oliva opened his first legislative session Tuesday by urging lawmakers to support a slate of priority bills that would substantially deregulate the healthcare market in a bid to curb the state’s costs. The Miami Lakes Republican, in a brief speech, outlined his wish list of legislative priorities: among them repealing state limitations on building new healthcare facilities, allowing prescription drugs to be imported from abroad and expanding telehealth options for patients. (Koh, 3/5)

Nashville Tennessean: TennCare Block Grant Proposal Advances Past House Committee
For the second time in as many weeks, a GOP-led bill to change how the state could use federal money for health-care coverage received approval in a key House committee. Despite repeated attempts by Democrats to amend the proposal, the House Insurance Committee approved a bill that would require Gov. Bill Lee's administration to meet with federal officials to formally request a block grant for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program. (Ebert, 3/5)

Nashville Tennessean: Meharry Proposes A Bold Plan For Treating Nashville's Poorest Patients
Meharry Medical College and a group of Nashville leaders on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan to transform health care for the city’s poorest residents with a new network that would coordinate and fund treatment for uninsured patients. As proposed, the plan would spread responsibility for uninsured patients among more of the city’s private hospitals, lessening the burden on Nashville General, which shoulders an outsized share of patients who cannot afford to pay their bills. About 15 percent of Nashville – or 100,000 residents – are uninsured or underinsured, according to the proposal. (Kelman, 3/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Senate Approves Bill Aimed At 'Surprise Billing'
The Georgia Senate on Tuesday passed Senate Bill 56, a measure that aims to stop the practice of “surprise billing.” This type of surprise billing involves a properly insured patient going to an emergency room but later receiving an uncovered bill for some service within the hospital; that service turns out to be an independent contractor without his or her own agreement with the insurance company. (Hart, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Opens Medical Marijuana Registration To Visitors
Hawaii is allowing visitors who are qualified to receive medical marijuana elsewhere in the U.S. to register and buy it from dispensaries in the state. The state Department of Health announced Tuesday that it is also rolling out an online registration system for medical marijuana, allowing qualified patients to quickly obtain an electronic registration card. (3/6)

The CT Mirror: Legislation Would Require Insurers To Submit Annual Reports On Parity
Lawmakers are now trying to hold insurance providers accountable for complying with state and federal parity laws by requiring them to submit annual reports detailing their coverage of mental health and substance abuse services. The bill, which is being considered by the legislature’s insurance and real estate committee, also mandates that insurers cover drugs prescribed for substance abuse treatment, and that they cover treatment regardless of whether it is court ordered. (Carlesso, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: Rural Global Budget Demo Underway At Pennsylvania Hospitals
Seeing lots of patients with heart and respiratory disease, Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital has hired a health coach to work with patients on tobacco cessation. It just added a care manager in the emergency department to help people avoid having to come to the ED. The 25-bed critical-access hospital in rural central Pennsylvania has shifted its clinical dietitian from heading food services to training patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions how to eat better. (Meyer, 3/5)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: U.S. Marshals In Cleveland Gave A Decade’s Worth Of Glowing Reviews At ‘Inhumane’ Cuyahoga County Jail Where Eight Inmates Died
The U.S. Marshals Service in Cleveland gave glowing reviews to the Cuyahoga County Jail over the past 10 years. The decade worth of annual reports, obtained by cleveland.com through a public records request with the county, is a stark contrast to the Nov. 21 U.S. Marshals report conducted by Washington D.C.-based marshals and Cleveland FBI agents that described “inhumane” conditions in the jail where eight inmates have died since June. (Ferrise, 3/6)

California Healthline: California Looks To Lead Nation In Unraveling Childhood Trauma
Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our understanding of how the traumatic experiences that affect so many American children can trigger serious physical and mental illness. (Barry-Jester, 3/5)

Detroit Free Press: HAP Customers' Personal Information Affected By Data Breach
More than 120,000 Health Alliance Plan clients' personal and protected medical information may have been compromised in a security breach, a company spokeswoman told the Free Press on Tuesday.  Letters notifying customers of the breach were sent last week by Wolverine Solutions Group, a Detroit-based company HAP hired to manage its mailing services. The letters said the security problem occurred on or around Sept. 23, when Wolverine Solutions Group "experienced a ransomware incident — a malicious software that attacked and locked up our servers and workstations." (Shamus, 3/5)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Children's Mental Health Bill Draws Praise And Concerns
Advocates for Iowa children on Wednesday praised a new bill to set up a children’s mental health system, but they said they hope legislators add details and money to the effort. Peggy Huppert, Iowa executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that the bill does not include deadlines to accomplish its goals, including new services for children with mental illness. (Leys, 3/5)