State Highlights: NYC Outlines Plans To Train 18,000 City Workers To Help Homeless; Jury Finds Baltimore Paint Firm Liable For Child’s Lead Exposure In Study

The New York Times: New York To Use 18,000 City Workers To Identify And Help Homeless
New York City will direct more than 18,000 of its municipal workers to use 311 to give social service workers real-time information to help them steer the almost 4,000 people who live on the streets into shelters. The effort, known as Outreach NYC, is the latest attempt from Mayor Bill de Blasio to tackle perhaps the most intractable problem his administration has faced: street homelessness. The problem was highlighted in October when a homeless man, Randy Santos, allegedly bludgeoned four other homeless men to death in Chinatown. (Mays, 11/14)

The Baltimore Sun: Court Orders Kennedy Krieger To Pay Woman Harmed In 1990s-Era Lead Paint Study 
A lead paint study that has dogged the Kennedy Krieger Institute since the 1990s when it was conducted has resulted in the first judgment against the renowned East Baltimore children’s treatment center. Ashley Partlow was almost 5 in 1994 and too old to be enrolled. She lived with her sister, who was a participant in the study, which aimed to test whether less expensive remedies could prevent harm to children from lead paint widely used in homes before it was banned in 1978. (Cohn, 11/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Hotline Helping Seniors Get Uber, Lyft Rides Challenged By California Regulators
All Justin Boogaard wanted was to help his grandmother order an Uber ride. Like many older adults, she doesn’t have a smartphone.That led to Boogaard’s creation four years ago of San Francisco startup GoGoGrandparent, which provides a toll-free number that people nationwide and in Canada can call to request Uber and Lyft rides. ...But then California regulators issued GoGo a $10,000 fine in February, saying it needed to apply for a permit as a for-hire transportation company, just like Uber and Lyft. (Said, 11/14)

Boston Globe: As Gig Economy Expands Into Temporary Staffing, Worker Protections Retreat
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has reached what her office is hailing as a landmark settlement with a Boston gig economy company: As of Jan. 1, health care workers who use the digital platform Stynt to find shifts will become employees instead of independent contractors — an agreement Healey believes could serve as a model as gig opportunities expand in a more professional direction.But it could also stifle some of this flexibility — and potentially drive employers out of business, gig economy advocates say. (Johnston , 11/14)

The Star Tribune: HealthPartners Cutting 75 Jobs On Diminished Medicare Revenue 
HealthPartners is eliminating about 75 jobs as the Bloomington-based health insurer and hospital operator adjusts to diminished revenue with the elimination this year of Medicare Cost health plans across much of Minnesota. Federal law called for Medicare Cost plans to be phased out starting in 2019 in counties where there is significant competition from insurers that sell Medicare Advantage health insurance plans. HealthPartners was one of three carriers in the state that sold Medicare Cost plans statewide, but it now offers the coverage in just a minority of counties. (Snowbeck, 11/14)

Kansas City Star: KC Council Votes To Ban Conversion Therapy For LGBTQ Youth
Kansas City on Thursday became the second city in Missouri to ban controversial conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth. Columbia passed a similar ban last month. (Kite, 11/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Man Posed As Handicapped To Obtain Home Health Care For Sexual Purposes, Police Say
A New Orleans man who told investigators he enjoyed being treated as an infant pretended to have mental and physical disabilities in order to obtain a babysitter who unwittingly changed his diaper on several occasions over the course of more than a year, Louisiana State Police said. Rutledge Deas IV, 29, told investigators that he had suffered severe childhood trauma and being cared for like a baby brought him “back to a time and place where he was at peace,” according to court records. (Vargas and Sledge, 11/14)

NH Times Union: Seacoast Hospitals Plan Effort To Gain Public Support For Partnership With Mass. General
Exeter Health Resources, the parent company of Exeter Hospital, and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover are planning a campaign aimed at winning public support for their proposed partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital after the state Attorney General’s office recently opposed the deal. The hospitals announced the public engagement effort Thursday in a joint statement touting what they insist is an affiliation that will benefit the communities they serve. (Schreiber, 11/14)

Health News Florida: What’s In A Name? Health Panel Seeks Clarity On Health Care Providers
The House Health Quality Subcommittee approved a bill (HB 309) that would make clear non-physicians are not allowed to identify themselves as physicians, surgeons, medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, cardiologists, dermatologists, endocrinologists and many other doctor monikers. The bill was filed to blunt a unanimous decision by the Florida Board of Nursing to allow John McDonough, an advanced practice registered nurse, to identify himself as a “nurse anesthesiologist” without facing repercussions. (Sexton, 11/14)

Health News Florida: Update: Pulse Responder Alison Clarke Avoids Firing While Awaiting PTSD Pension Decision
Officer Alison Clark, a Pulse first responder who is trying to get a disability pension for post-traumatic stress disorder, has avoided being fired from the Orlando Police Department – for now. WMFE reported last week that Clarke was scheduled to be fired on Friday. In addition to being a Pulse first responder, she was also on scene when Lt. Debra Clayton was shot to death. (Aboraya, 11/14)

NH Times Union: Concord Hospital Doctors Reprimanded, Fined After Teen Treated For Migraine Dies Of Tumor 
Three Concord Hospital physicians have been sanctioned for professional misconduct involving the treatment of a teenage girl who showed up at the hospital emergency room and later died of an undiagnosed brain tumor, the New Hampshire Board of Medicine announced Thursday. The physicians treated the unnamed patient for what they believed was a migraine headache and eventually admitted her to the hospital, but they did not order an emergency CT scan, which would have discovered the tumor, according to the settlement agreements the three reached with the board. (Hayward, 11/14)

Los Angeles Times: Poll: Homelessness Is L.A.'s Biggest Problem
As people living in tents, RVs and makeshift shelters become a fact of life in neighborhoods far and wide, homelessness is now an all-consuming issue in Los Angeles County, with 95% of voters calling it a serious or very serious problem, according to a new poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Business Council Institute. (Oreskes, Smith and Lauter, 11/14)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Settles Kickback Lawsuit For $30 Million
Sutter Health has agreed to pay more than $30 million to the federal government after an executive at the Sacramento-based health care giant accused Sutter of paying out millions of dollars in kickbacks to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, one of the lawyers in the case said Thursday. (Stanton and Anderson, 11/14)

The CT Mirror: First Two Flu-Related Deaths Of The Season Reported In Connecticut
Two Connecticut residents over the age of 65 died of flu-related complications last week, the first deaths of the season, health officials reported Thursday. One person lived in Litchfield County and the other was from Fairfield County. (Carlesso, 11/14)

Health News Florida: Pharmacists Could Get Power To Treat Flu, Strep
In an attempt to increase access to health care, a House panel on Wednesday approved a proposal that would authorize pharmacists to test patients for --- and treat --- the flu and strep throat. ....But physicians who oppose the bill warned that increased access to care doesn’t mean patients will receive top-notch care. (Sexton, 11/14)

Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's Overflow Shelter Needs To Take Trauma Seriously
It’s only the beginning of winter and outreach workers like us are already exhausted. It’s not the never-ending days or late nights that are wearing on us, however. What’s wearing on us is always having to fight for what should be basic human rights in our city—rights like dignified housing and shelter for all. (Lindsey Krinks, 11/14)

Kaiser Health News: Nursing Home Safety Violations Put Residents At Risk, Report Finds
As huge swaths of California burned last fall, federal health officials descended on 20 California nursing homes to determine whether they were prepared to protect their vulnerable residents from fires, earthquakes and other disasters. The results of their surprise inspections, which took place from September to December of 2018, were disturbing: Inspectors found hundreds of potentially life-threatening violations of safety and emergency requirements, including blocked emergency exit doors, unsafe use of power strips and extension cords, and inadequate fuel for emergency generators, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. (Ostrov, 11/14)

The Associated Press: Feds: South Dakota Doc Made Millions On Unneeded Surgeries
A South Dakota neurosurgeon made millions of dollars by performing unnecessary and dangerous surgeries, including one that left a patient partially paralyzed, federal prosecutors contend in a lawsuit against the doctor. Dr. Wilson Asfora enriched himself by using medical devices he invented during surgeries and receiving kickbacks from companies whose devices he used without disclosing the arrangements, the Department of Justice alleges in the lawsuit filed Wednesday. (11/14)

The Associated Press: Doctor Of Incapacitated Woman Who Gave Birth Cedes License
The longtime doctor of an incapacitated woman who was raped and later gave birth at a Phoenix care facility is surrendering his medical license, according to state medical board records. Dr. Phillip Gear agreed to a consent order to voluntarily give up his license and not contest the matter in court. (11/14)

Arizona Republic: Hacienda Healthcare's Dr. Phillip Gear Surrenders Medical License
The board voted in September to suspend Gear's license and scheduled an administrative hearing for Nov. 4. Board documents say Gear decided to retire from medicine and not contest the actions of the board. He agreed to sign an order for a surrender of his license. "I decided to retire rather than to go through several rounds of legal proceedings, in view of my own age," Gear, 67, said in a statement to The Arizona Republic through his lawyers. (Innes, 11/14)

Health News Florida: Red Tide And Human Health: Researchers Study 'Chronic Exposure'
Toxic red tide algae is starting to bloom along Florida’s west coast again. State wildlife officials say elevated levels have been detected recently from Pinellas to Collier counties, and people in Sarasota County have also been experiencing respiratory irritations. Now, new research is looking into longterm health effects of the toxins, including neurological issues. (Meszaros, 11/14)