State Highlights: N.Y. Legislators To Toughen Oversight Of Nurses; Twin Cities Brace For Allina Nurses’ Strike

ProPublica: New York Lawmakers Race To Toughen Oversight Of Nurses And Other Professionals
Spurred by concerns about problem nurses, New York lawmakers are racing to pass legislation to toughen oversight of more than 50 types of licensed professionals in the state. (Huseman and Adams, 6/15)

Minnesota Public Radio: If Allina Nurses Strike: What You Need To Know
On average, Allina says nurses will pay $5,620 for premiums and out-of-pocket costs this year in their current union plans. That's $600 more than employees in the corporate plan. Plans like Allina's, that shift more financial risk to workers in the form of deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses, dominate today's health insurance marketplace and are now viewed as the norm, rather than the exception they were just a decade ago. (Benson, 6/16)

San Antonio Press Express: Health Care Foundation Calls For Wade’s Resignation
Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut released a petition today with over 600 signatures that calls on Gov. Dannel Malloy to ask the state’s insurance commissioner, Katharine Wade, to resign. Wade has come under fire for her handling of two health insurance mega-mergers, Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna. The $54 billion Cigna deal in particular raised eyebrows, as Wade was previously a Cigna vice president and her husband is now an associate chief counsel for the company. (Cuda, 6/15)

California Healthline: Report From Key Agency Raises Concerns About Proposal To Cut Drug Prices
Researchers at one of the nation’s largest public sector health care purchasers weighed in this week with serious concerns about the feasibility of a ballot initiative that seeks to limit how much state programs pay for prescription drugs. In an analysis presented Tuesday, the California Public Retirement System’s staff lauded the goal of controlling prescription drug prices, but it warned of possible resistance — or even retaliation — by pharmaceutical companies. (Craft, 6/15)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland's New Health Director, Merle Gordon, Faces A Daunting Task
Qualifications and allegiances aside, [Merle] Gordon, 46, faces a daunting task in the months ahead as she takes over responsibility for a department with two chief positions vacant and a floundering lead poison prevention program that city officials say is in a state of emergency. Gordon replaces interim health director Natoya Walker Minor, who also serves as the city's chief of public affairs. Walker Minor stepped in to fill the void left by the abrupt resignation of former health director Toinette Parrilla in November of last year. (Zeltner, 6/15)

San Jose Mercury News: California Legislature Passes State Budget Repealing Welfare Rule
Capping a month of remarkably productive talks between Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders, lawmakers on Wednesday adopted a new state budget that repeals a harsh welfare rule advocates for needy families had fought against for years. ... For the last two decades, the "maximum family grant" has blocked mothers who give birth while enrolled in the state-funded CalWorks program from receiving any extra financial support for their newborns. Critics said the rule stemmed from the false, stigmatizing idea that poor women on welfare were getting pregnant to reap more cash aid. (Calefati, 6/15)

Columbus Dispatch: Autistic ‘Lost Boys’ Return To Whitehall After Residential Treatment
Some parents relinquish custody to the child-protection system when they find that the expensive residential treatment their sons and daughters require isn’t adequately covered by Medicaid or private insurance. ...The department [Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities] is moving fast on a pilot project to bring various state departments — Disabilities, Medicaid, Job and Family Services, Mental Health and Addiction, the Family and Children First Council — together under a collaborative model to aid kids who have disabilities and complex, aggressive behaviors, [Teresa] Kobelt said. (Price, 6/16)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio IT Upgrade Cost Millions More, Has Taken Years Longer Than Planned
The state of Ohio in 2012 planned to update its massive worker's compensation billing and claims systems, paying a contractor $52.7 million and expecting a new system online by December 2013. Four years later, the state has paid out $59 million to the IT company -- which has been criticized for failing to deliver on past government projects -- and the system has not yet gone live. (Borchardt, 6/15)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento’s West Nile Virus Arrives Early In Mosquitoes, Dead Birds
West Nile virus is showing up earlier and faster this summer in Sacramento, with the count of infected mosquitoes and dead birds exceeding that recorded in mid-June last year. That’s according to the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District, which announced Wednesday that 47 dead birds and 30 mosquito samples have tested positive for West Nile, mostly in Arden Arcade, North Highlands and other neighborhoods north of the American River. (Buck, 6/15)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Medical Provider Sentenced To 10 Years Over X-Ray Scheme
The owner of a Owings Mills diagnostic company that allowed unqualified employees to review x-rays, resulting in two patients' deaths, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison and two years supervised release. (Gantz, 6/15)