Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Parents' Bitter Disagreement Over Care For Transgender Child Spotlighted In Texas Case Involving 7-Year-Old; Nonprofit Group In Minnesota Aims To Help Cancer Patients Manage Costs Of Care
The New York Times: Texas Father Says 7-Year-Old Isn’t Transgender, Igniting A Politicized Outcry
A bitter custody battle in Dallas that centers on the gender identity of a 7-year-old child provoked an outcry among conservatives this month. The child’s mother, Anne Georgulas, had honored what she said was the child’s preference to live as a girl and sought to compel the father, Jeffrey Younger, to do the same, according to court documents. But Mr. Younger insisted that the child is a boy and said that Ms. Georgulas was manipulating the child’s identity. (Zraick, 10/28)
The Star Tribune: Pilot By Minn. Nonprofit Helps Patients Manage Cost Of Cancer Care
A Twin Cities nonprofit is hoping that financial management can address one of the sad realities of modern cancer care — that the latest treatments are savings lives, but leaving survivors without money to live. Eligible cancer patients will be paired with certified financial planners and navigators as part of a two-year test project by Angel Foundation, a Mendota Heights-based charity that already supports cancer patients with costs of food and other basic needs, and with counseling and resources to continue to be effective parents amid treatment. (Olson, 10/28)
KCUR: Patient Who Sued KU Hospital Over Cancer Misdiagnosis Settled For Millions, Records Show
A patient who sued the University of Kansas Hospital for fraud and negligence, alleging she was misdiagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the hospital covered it up, quietly settled her case last year on confidential terms. Although the settlement was sealed, KCUR has learned that the Kansas agency that provides excess insurance coverage for medical providers –insurance over and above the providers’ primary coverage – agreed to pay out $1.8 million on behalf of the hospital and the doctor who made the misdiagnosis. (Margolies, 10/28)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Embattled HIV Housing Program To Lose 60% Of Its Federal Funding
A national shift in how the federal Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program funds local rental assistance and other programs will slash Atlanta’s budget from $23 million to as low as $9 million in about two years, according to estimates. This 60% drop will be the second steepest in the nation and comes as the metro experiences one of the nation’s highest rates of new AIDS/HIV diagnoses, according to public health experts. (Mariano, 10/28)
The Advocate: Leading Health Care Of Louisiana To Build $4.5 Million Lafayette Office
Leading Health Care of Louisiana, a home health care company that employs more than 2,000 people statewide, is building a 20,000-square-foot office at 206 La Rue France, officials announced. The $4.5 million project is projected to be complete by summer 2020. Ken Smalling, the company's chief strategy officer, said in the announcement that the move was due to the growth from taking on new Medicaid Waiver Services clients and clients with long-term care insurance or with the VA's Homemaker and Home Health Aide programs. (Boudreux, 10/28)
Cincinnati Enquirer: TriHealth: Seelbach Calls For Boycott After Nurse's Anti-LGBTQ Post
A Cincinnati City council member is calling for a boycott of a local hospital network after a nurse posted disparaging remarks about transgender and gay people on her personal Facebook page. Councilman Chris Seelbach is calling for a boycott of TriHealth in the wake of the two graphic, expletive-laden social media posts from a Bethesda Butler Hospital nurse in which she denies transgender identity exists and uses a gay slur. (Coolidge and Saker, 10/28)
Miami Herald: Lawsuit To Halt Solitary Confinement In Florida Gets Boost
Across the country, a growing consensus of medical and mental health professionals have equated placing prisoners in solitary confinement to torture. In Florida, a group of civil rights groups suing to end the practice have measured rates of confinement in state prisons at twice the national average, including hundreds of people who have been in isolation for six to 20 years. (Conarck, 10/28)
The Associated Press: Police: Nebraska Mom Ended Son's Cancer Treatment And Fled
Authorities are urgently searching for a 4-year-old Nebraska boy and his mother, who has been charged with child abuse for allegedly ending her son's treatment for cancer and fleeing the state. A social worker reported that Prince Rehan missed several appointments at an Omaha hospital for treatment of Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare but treatable form of cancer that forms in the soft tissue, according to Lincoln police investigator Luis Herrera. (10/28)
