State Highlights: Nursing Home Regulations, Ratings In Mass., Texas; Mass. Home Care Workers Press For Higher Wages

Boston Globe: Massachusetts Health Regulators Lag On Nursing Home Scrutiny
Massachusetts health regulators acknowledged Wednesday they still have no timetable for intensifying scrutiny of nursing home sales and closings, even though the Legislature mandated stricter reviews 10 months ago. The admission came as a member of a board that sets state health policy urged regulators to move more swiftly, especially with the increased pace of for-profit companies buying up family-owned nursing homes. (Lazar, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: A Top-Rated Nursing Home Is Hard To Find In Texas, 10 Other States
The problem for Sealy’s family and residents of many parts of the country is they have few, if any, higher-rated options if they want their loved ones close by. Texas has the highest percentage of one-and two-star homes in the country: 51 percent of its nursing homes are rated "below average," or "much below average," on Nursing Home Compare, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) Louisiana is close behind at 49 percent, with Oklahoma, Georgia and West Virginia tying for third at 46 percent. States with at least 40 percent of homes ranked at the bottom two rungs include North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. (Appleby, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Mass. Home Care Workers Press For $15/Hour Wage
Hundreds of homecare workers delivered hand-signed letters to Gov. Charlie Baker's office Wednesday pressing for what they called a $15 an hour "living wage." The workers rallied outside the Statehouse before handing the letters to Baker staff members in front of his third floor office. (Salsberg, 5/13)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia Schools May Reduce Union Nurses With Private Ones
The Philadelphia School District is considering outsourcing its health services, officials said Wednesday - a move that might mean privatizing jobs held by unionized school nurses. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the district, rocked by years of brutal budgets, has to find a way to expand medical services and was exploring bringing in private providers to do so. (Graham, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Mega Hospital Alliance Called Off
Merger talks between Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center broke down this week, scrapping a deal that would have been the biggest alliance of two city hospitals in nearly two decades. Although they did not specify why the deal fell apart, the hospitals were apparently unable to overcome differences in culture, mission, and strategies for the future, analysts said. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/13)

Minneapolis Star Tribune: As Private Budget Talks Continue At Capitol, Rank-And-File Members Fret
Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders clammed up Wednesday about their still-unresolved negotiations on the two-year state budget, an information void that was increasingly filled by rising political tension among rank-and-file lawmakers who are not part of the private talks. ... Among the top-line issues under discussion at the governor’s residence are the House GOP’s desire to cut taxes by about $2 billion and eliminate the MinnesotaCare health insurance program for the working poor in favor of enrolling those individuals in MNsure. Dayton and Senate Democrats are seeking a big boost in school funding, and a gas tax increase to fund transportation projects. (Condon, 5/14)

Minnesota Public Radio: Health Care Dominates Budget Talks
Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders are meeting in private again today trying to reach an agreement on a two-year state budget. Before the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said the negotiations have focused on spending for health and human services programs. In particular, Bakk said negotiators are talking about a House Republican plan to eliminate MinnesotaCare, a state subsidized health insurance program for the working poor. (Scheck, 5/13)

The Associated Press: Minnesota Firm Wants Laid-off Wisconsin Health Workers
A Minnesota home care company plans to hire hundreds of employees who will lose their jobs when a Wisconsin long-term care nonprofit ceases operations this month at 11 locations, including Stevens Point, Adams, Neillsville and Marinette. Aderonke and Michael Mordi, president and vice president International Quality Homecare Corp., have announced they will hire at least 500 GeminiCares workers. The couple also said their company will expand into Wisconsin to maintain home care and other services with the GeminiCares workers' clients, the La Crosse Tribune reported. (5/13)

Boston Globe: For Hackers, People Are An IT System’s Weak Link
As big businesses spend millions of dollars to plug holes in their technology and block cyber criminals from databases of private consumer information, hackers are increasingly targeting a different weakness: employees. They are sending official-looking e-mails to large health systems, banks, retailers, and vendors to try to trick employees into giving up passwords or other credentials. ... That is how data from about 3,300 patients was breached last year at Partners HealthCare. (Dayal McCluskey and Fernandes, 5/13)

The Charlotte Observer: SC Man Will Get Sight-Saving Surgery As Liberal Donors Chip In
The Fort Mill, S.C., Republican who went public Tuesday with his plea for help paying for sight-saving surgery had raised almost $12,000 by Wednesday evening – most of it from self-described liberals and Affordable Care Act supporters saying they hope he’s learned a lesson. That’s enough to ensure he can get the treatment he needs, said Dr. Andrew Antoszyk, an eye surgeon with Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Associates. After reading Luis Lang’s story in the Observer on Wednesday, Antoszyk said he’d work with Lang and with Novant Health to give him the care at reduced cost. (Helms, 5/13)

The Associated Press: Contested Utah Law Could Impact Contact Lens Industry
A law banning price-fixing for contact lenses that took effect this week in Utah is a setback for the nation's largest manufacturers that could have ripple effects across the country amid an increasingly bitter fight with discount retailers. The new law appears to clear the way for the largest online discount seller, Utah-based 1-800 Contacts, to disregard minimum prices set by the lens makers and sell at a discount across state lines, said Steve DelBianco, executive director of the Internet sellers trade group NetChoice. (5/13)

USA Today: Indiana Community's HIV Outbreak A Warning To Rural America
This small, close-knit community is a picture of rural America, with stubble-filled cornfields and a Main Street lined by churches, shops and sidewalks. It's also the unlikely epicenter of the largest outbreak of HIV, the AIDS virus, in Indiana's history -- and a warning to the rest of the nation. Public health experts say rural places everywhere contain the raw ingredients that led to Austin's tragedy. Many struggle with poverty, addiction and doctor shortages, and they lag behind urban areas in HIV-related funding, services and awareness. And the same lack of anonymity that gives rural towns their charm foments a strong stigma that discourages testing and treatment. (Ungar and Kenning, 5/13)

The Associated Press: Indiana Drafts County-level HIV, Hep C Rate Profiles
State health officials are creating profiles of HIV and hepatitis C rates for all 92 Indiana counties to help local officials detect outbreaks of either disease and determine if they can seek help under a new needle-exchange law, a top state disease expert said Wednesday. State epidemiologist Pam Pontones told members of the State Department of Health's executive board that the state agency hopes to quickly complete work on those profiles, which will also include intravenous drug use rates for each county. (Callahan, 5/13)

The Associated Press: Indiana Senate Approves Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana
State senators voted Tuesday for a second time to send legislation to legalize medical marijuana to the House of Representatives, where the GOP majority has held hearings but otherwise given no certain signs of support. (Levy, 5/13)

Maine News: Corizon Health Fails To Improve Overall Performance
Private-sector health care provider Corizon Health Inc., which has a $126 million three-year contract for providing health care services in New York City's jails, has failed to improve its overall performance in the previous year, a review conducted by the city's health department revealed. A recent evaluation obtained by The Associated Press revealed that the overall performance of the private health care provider for New York City's jails failed to improve in previous year. Corizon Health Inc, which had a three- year of contract worth $126 million, expired on December 31. (Campbell, 5/13)

California Healthline: Assembly Committee Squashes Soda Tax
A proposed 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages failed on Monday in the Assembly Committee on Health. AB 1357, by Assembly member Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), would have established the Children and Family Health Promotion Program, raising $3 billion a year in soda taxes to spend on the prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity. (Gorn, 5/13)

Columbus Dispatch: Social Security, Medicare And Medicaid Celebrated In Athens
About 1 in 3 Athens County residents receives at least one benefit from among the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs. That is significant, local officials said. So, why not throw a public birthday party outside the county courthouse to celebrate the programs on their anniversary year? About 100 people turned out to sign giant birthday cards and eat slices of cake marking the 80th anniversary of Social Security and the 50th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid government health-insurance programs. (Lane, 5/14)

CBS News: Berkeley, California, To Require Cellphone Health Warnings
The city council of Berkeley, California, voted Tuesday night to pass a cellphone "right to know" law requiring health warnings with the purchase of a cellphone. ... When it goes into effect this summer it will be first safety ordinance of its kind in the country. Cellphone retailers will be required to include a city-prepared notice along with the purchase of a cellphone, informing consumers of the minimum separation distance a cellphone should be held from the body. (5/13)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: E-Cig Business Surveys Customers On Why They Vape
While the public health community continues to debate the pros and cons of electronic cigarettes, one Richmond-area e-cig company has surveyed its customers to shed light on why they use the devices. Avail Vapor LLC, a fast-growing Chesterfield County-based retailer of e-cigs, said it conducted a two-week survey that drew 8,500 responses, about half of them its own customers. James Xu, the co-founder and co-owner of Avail, said the survey results shed light on some of the key questions about e-cigs in the ongoing public health debate, such as whether the devices are a “gateway” to using conventional tobacco products, and whether e-cig users — known as “vapers” — typically use them exclusively or in combination with conventional tobacco products. (Reid Blackwell, 5/13)

California Healthline: Schools in California, Other States Ranked on Global Health Efforts
A new report ranks research schools in California and other states based on their efforts to improve global health, particularly among low-income populations, U-T San Diego reports. (5/13)

The Associated Press: Prosecution: Minnesota Group Helped Minnesota Woman Kill Herself
A jury is deliberating in the trial of a national right-to-die group accused of assisting the suicide of a Minnesota woman. The jury of seven men and five women heard closing arguments Wednesday in the trial for Final Exit Network Inc. (Forliti, 5/13)