State Highlights: Penn. Officials Hail Court Decision In Feud Between Two Health Care Giants; Health Care Companies Pay $6.5M In Tenn. Whistleblower Case

The Associated Press: State Wins Court Order In UPMC-Highmark Fight Over Medicare
Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Kathleen Kane hailed a court decision Friday that they had sought in a bid to protect Medicare Advantage enrollees caught in the middle of a feud between two western Pennsylvania health care giants. The ruling by Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini orders the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's health system to maintain in-network rates until 2019 for people insured by Medicare Advantage plans sold through insurer Highmark Inc. (6/1)

Nashville Tennessean: Health Care Companies Pay $6.5M In Whistleblower Case
A group of home health care companies known as Friendship paid $6.5 million in a settlement resolving claims they improperly billed TennCare and other assistance programs, officials said Monday. A nurse, Kay Flippo, previously worked at one of the companies and filed the claims under the federal False Claims Act. As a whistleblower, she is eligible for an as-yet-undetermined amount of the settlement money. (Barchenger, 6/1)

The Press Enterprise: Health Care: Big Money For Medical Records System
Riverside County officials want to spend as much as $53.1 million over the next three years on a new electronic records system for the county hospital, a move they say will improve patient care through better coordination with other Inland medical centers. The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, June 2, will be asked to approve a preliminary budget and an agreement with Loma Linda University Health to share Loma Linda’s Epic medical records system. Epic, which has corporate headquarters in Wisconsin, provides records software for hospitals nationwide. (Horseman, 6/1)

Nashville Tennessean: Lawmakers Pay $5.1M In Premiums, Get $13.6M In Care
While current and former lawmakers paid a combined $5.1 million in health insurance premiums from 2010 to 2014, the state paid $13.6 million on health care claims for those lawmakers and their eligible dependents over that same time period, according to new records obtained by The Tennessean. On average, that's roughly $51,400 in health care claims for every applicable lawmaker during that time span. That doesn't mean health care claim payments are distributed equally among lawmakers and doesn't account for the number of eligible dependents who may have received care. (Boucher, 6/1)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Adult-Care Law Limiting Employment Candidates
West Philadelphia's Tyrone Peake, two national trends have converged. The first: As baby boomers both arrange care for their elderly parents and grow older themselves, they are likely to need home health-care aides. Thus, domiciliary-care homes and long-term-care nursing facilities will need qualified workers. In Pennsylvania alone, it is projected that between 2012 and 2022, the direct-care workforce will need to grow by 33 percent. The second: Nearly one in three adults in the United States, about 70 million people, have arrest or conviction records, according to an April report by the New York-based National Employment Law Project. Yet in Pennsylvania alone, 200,000 people with clean records after 10-year-old felony convictions are prohibited from working full time in nursing or group homes, known as "covered facilities" under existing law. (Arvedlund, 6/1)

The Connecticut Mirror: Former CT Insurance Official Dowling To Lead Illinois Agency
Anne Melissa Dowling, a former top official in Connecticut’s insurance department, has been picked to lead the Illinois Department of Insurance. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner announced the appointment Friday. Dowling said she hadn’t sought the position, but got a call from Rauner’s office about the job. (Levin Becker, 6/1)

The New York Times: Medical Marijuana Feeds Familiar Hopes Of Renewal Around New York State
Don Crawford comes from a long line of Orange County farmers. Though he no longer tends dairy cows, he still cuts hay for the thriving equestrian industry, and cringes at the creep of the suburbs. So when a stranger came to town and announced plans to grow marijuana on the fallow land next to his, Mr. Crawford was thrilled. (Hartocollis, 6/1)

The Associated Press: Registration Begins Monday For Minn. Medical Marijuana
Registration begins Monday for those looking to become medical marijuana patients in Minnesota. Though the medicine won't be legally available via state-sanctioned dispensaries until July, the state is now accepting applications from patients. (Hill, 6/1)