State Highlights: Newly Elected Va. Lawmaker To Push For Easier Access To Transgender Care; Calif. Hospitals Face IV Bag Shortage After Hurricane

The Washington Post: Danica Roem To Push For Transgender Health Care Along With Focus On Traffic
Del.-elect Danica Roem, the transgender woman who is perhaps the best known of the flood of Democrats who won seats this week in the Virginia state house, said Friday that she wants to make it easier for people to get health insurance coverage for treatment related to gender transitions. Roem (Prince William), who plans to focus mostly on easing traffic congestion in her district, said she also wants to work with the Democratic caucus in the House of Delegates to develop a bill that would require insurance companies to cover the costs of hormone medication, surgery and other treatments. (Olivo, 11/10)

San Jose Mercury News: Shortage Of Life-Saving IV Bags Challenges Bay Area Hospitals
It’s usually one of the first items you’ll see after you enter a hospital room: a small, clear plastic bag filled with a saline or sugar-water solution, hanging above a loved one’s bed. But a serious shortage of the bags used to inject drugs intravenously is now alarming many Bay Area hospitals after Hurricane Maria in September slammed into Puerto Rico and shut down production at three plants owned by Baxter International, which makes a large percentage of the IV bags used in the United States. (Seipel, 11/10)

Arizona Republic: Arizona's Foster Care Boards Don't Look Like Their Communities. Here's Why That Matters
In an attempt to ensure fair treatment for kids taken from their parents, Arizona lawmakers decades ago mandated that Foster Care Review Boards — which help decide the fates of children in foster care — mirror the races, ethnicities and income levels of the communities they serve. They don't. (Polletta, 11/12)

Miami Herald: Want To See Emergency Plan For Your Mom’s Nursing Home? Good Luck.
To protect the elderly and disabled residents of Florida’s 683 nursing homes from the ravages of an Irma-like storm or other disaster, state law requires that administrators submit detailed emergency plans to regulators every year. ...Two counties, Broward and Palm Beach, refused to release emergency plans when the Miami Herald filed public records requests, citing a state law designed to protect public spaces from terrorists. (Marbin Miller and Ostroff, 11/11)

The Associated Press: ‘There Was A Breakdown’: Inmate’s Suicide Leads To $7M Deal
The family of a mentally ill woman who killed herself inside a Pennsylvania detention center in 2015 will receive $7 million after a lawsuit against the private company running the prison was settled, according to a lawyer handling the case. The recent settlement capped a case that began with a descent into depression and paranoia in Janene Wallace’s late twenties and eventually resulted in imprisonment, a nearly three-month stint in solitary confinement and finally, a death by hanging, family attorney David Inscho said. (Izaguirre, 11/11)

The Tennessean: Barry's Nashville General Proposal Raises Questions About Where Care Is Given And How It's Funded
Mayor Megan Barry's proposal to close the inpatient services at Nashville General Hospital reignited the debate over the future of the city's safety net hospital. Barry revealed her plan the same day Meharry Medical College unveiled a landmark agreement with HCA Healthcare to train students at TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center. Barry wants to make Nashville General an ambulatory surgery center and outpatient clinic, while creating a fund to pay for indigent care at Nashville's other hospitals for the city's poorest residents. (Fletcher, 11/10)

Dallas Morning News: Keller Family Sues Texas Emergency Room Chain For Over $1 Million After Preschooler’s Death
The lawsuit claims the facility, among other things, failed to properly evaluate Olivia’s condition and improperly discharged her instead of immediately transferring her to a hospital. An autopsy report from the Tarrant County medical examiner, done on Aug. 8, the day after the incident, found Olivia’s primary cause of death was bacterial meningitis, a brain infection that can turn deadly in a matter of hours. (Rice, 11/11)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation Wins Arbitrator Decision Against Prospect Medical
An arbitrator ruled that Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., a private-equity backed California company that acquired Crozer-Keystone Health System Inc. in a deal valued at $300 million, still owes Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation $23.7 million. The foundation, based in Media and established to use the proceeds from the sale to improve the health and quality of life of Delaware County residents, and the for-profit Prospect were in a dispute over how much money Prospect had to pay at closing to settle working-capital accounts. (Brubaker, 11/10)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Nuisance Laws Penalize Residents For 911 Calls
Designed to give cities a legal route to manage what they consider problem properties or residents, the nuisance laws disproportionately affect renters, people of color, survivors of domestic violence and those experiencing mental health crises, a new study by Cleveland State University students and researchers finds. (Christ, 11/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Widow Caresses Husband’s Transplanted Face
Sixteen months after transplant surgery gave Sandness the face that had belonged to Calen “Rudy” Ross, he met the woman who had agreed to donate her high school sweetheart’s visage to a man who lived nearly a decade without one. The two came together last month in a meeting arranged by the Mayo Clinic, the same place where Sandness underwent a 56-hour surgery that was the clinic’s first such transplant. (Potter, 11/11)

Columbus Dispatch: Sober-Housing Provider Lacks Licenses, Columbus Says
The William Brady Charitable Organization has worked for years to grow its housing program, eventually operating 11 homes that have served more than 3,000 people whose addiction, mental illness or other chronic problems make it all but impossible for them to rent on their own. ...Columbus code inspectors discovered the lapses after a former resident complained about conditions at one of the Brady houses, which also were cited for not having rooming house licenses. (Price and Ferenchik, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Disneyland Shuts Down 2 Cooling Towers After Legionnaires' Disease Sickens Park Visitors
Disneyland has shut down two bacteria-contaminated cooling towers after Orange County health officials discovered several cases of Legionnaires’ disease in people who had visited the Anaheim theme park, authorities said. Twelve cases of the bacteria-caused illness were discovered about three weeks ago among people who had spent time in Anaheim and included nine people who had visited Disneyland in September before developing the illness, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. (Barboza, 11/11)