State Highlights: Philadelphia Hospitals Prep For Overseas Patients In Town For Papal Visit; Baltimore To Receive $20M Federal Grant To Combat HIV

The Associated Press: Philadelphia Hospitals Prep For Overseas Visitors, Diseases
As people from around the world head to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families and the papal visit, doctors are preparing to treat illnesses that they may not recognize or that normally would be treated at other facilities. "Some diseases that are common in other parts of the world aren't regularly seen in the U.S. Our providers know about them but haven't seen them," said Mark Ross, regional manager of emergency preparedness for the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania. "We've made sure our providers know what they look like." (Pompilio, 9/23)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Gets More Than $20M From CDC To Battle HIV
The Baltimore Health Department will announce Thursday it has received more than $20 million in federal funding for a new HIV strategy that will target gay men and transgender people and push a drug that can prevent people from contracting the disease. Under the initiative to be developed with two grants from the Centers for Disease Control, city officials will partner directly with 11 community and provider groups in the largest collaboration in recent history to combat HIV, health officials said. (McDaniels, 9/23)

The New York Times: Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s Legacy Firmly Linked To Ferguson
But when it comes to Ferguson, Mr. Nixon will need to build legislative majorities to address some of his commission’s most ambitious proposals. Among them, he expressed particular interest in expanding Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, a policy generally opposed by Republicans. (Smith, 9/23)

Sacramento Bee: Push To Nix California Vaccine Law Enters Crucial Stretch
Signed into law this June after a ferocious political fight, Senate Bill 277 requires that children – unless they have a medical exemption – receive all their shots before enrolling in public or private school. Opponents who could not halt it in the Legislature hope voters will rally to their cause by overturning the law at the ballot box. ... They believe the same fervor that sent thousands of angry parents to the state Capitol will sustain their ballot campaign and put the issue before the people. (White, 9/23)

CNN: Pittsburgh Hospital Suspends Organ Transplants After Mold Infections, Deaths
A Pittsburgh hospital has temporarily stopped organ transplants after three transplant patients contracted a fungal infection and died. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center voluntarily suspended transplants at UMC Presbyterian "until we have completed our investigation and are satisfied that we've done all we can do to address the situation," UPMC Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Dr. Steven D. Shapiro said. (Yan and Brumfield, 9/22)

ProPublica: Take A Valium, Lose Your Kid, Go To Jail
In Alabama, anti-drug fervor and abortion politics have turned a meth-lab law into the country's harshest weapon against pregnant women. (Martin, 9/23)

The News Service Of Florida: Report: Foster Kids Still Being Medicated Without Proper Consent
Despite an outcry in 2009 over a 7-year-old's apparent suicide, a draft report from the research arm of Florida's child-protection system shows that foster children are still being put on psychotropic medications without caregivers following proper procedures. As of July, 11 percent of the children in state foster care --- 2,434 of 21,899 children --- had active prescriptions for at least one psychotropic drug, according to the Florida Institute on Child Welfare at Florida State University. (Menzel, 9/23)

The News Service Of Florida: Judge Rules Against State In Dispute Over Children's Medical Program
An administrative law judge Tuesday ruled against the Florida Department of Health in a challenge involving the eligibility of children for a state program that provides specialized medical care. Judge Darren Schwartz ordered the department to "immediately cease" using a new eligibility-screening tool to decide whether children continue to qualify for the Children's Medical Services Network, since the screening tool was not adopted through formal rule-making procedures. (Menzel, 9/23)

The Associated Press: Cleveland Police To Get Enhanced Training On Mental Health
Cleveland officers will receive enhanced training on how to deal with people during mental health crises, a requirement in the city’s agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to reform its trouble police department, officials announced Wednesday. (Gillispie, 9/23)

Northeast Ohio Media Group: Cleveland Inks Deal To Improve Police Response To Mental Health Crises
More than nine months after a federal investigation found Cleveland police too often use cruel and unnecessary force against people suffering from mental illness, the city has inked a deal to improve the way officers respond to mental health crises. Mayor Frank Jackson announced Wednesday a memorandum of understanding with the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County that aims to improve how police care for people with mental illness. (Blackwell, 9/23)

Dallas Morning News/NBC5: Texas Taxpayers Pay To Spin Vets In Chair
The gyrating chair, cocooned inside a gleaming oval capsule, looks like an astronaut’s training device. Patients spin upside down and sideways after they buckle in. ... Aging Dallas Cowboys like Tony Dorsett and Randy White, their brains and bodies battered, said it made them feel better. A retired general said it improved his vision. And a Texas governor with presidential aspirations wanted to use it to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries in war heroes. So the state of Texas said yes, sure, and poured 2 million taxpayer dollars into a study to see whether a spinning chair — described as an “Off Vertical Axis Rotational Device” — could help. Experts say there was no medical reason to think that spinning traumatized combat veterans upside down could help them — and every reason to think it wouldn’t. (Ambrose and Gordon, 9/23)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Horizon's Plan For Insurance Network Stirs Concerns
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey stirred things up this month when it announced the formation of Omnia Health Alliance with just six of the state's 20 health-care systems. It also included a large physicians group, but the only South Jersey system in Omnia is the relatively small Inspira. That left health executives scratching their heads over how Horizon, New Jersey's largest health insurer, made its picks. (Brubaker, 9/24)

NPR: Obesity Maps Put Racial Differences On Stark Display
Click on the CDC's obesity prevalence maps and you'll see something even more startling — the disparity among different ethnic groups. It's not new that the obesity epidemic is hitting African-Americans the hardest, followed by Hispanics, but the maps highlight this worrying trend. For African-Americans for example, there are 33 states with an obesity rate of at least 35 percent, whereas for white Americans only 1 state reports that rate. Nine states estimate the Hispanic obesity rate at 35 percent or higher. (Greenhalgh, 9/23)

Wyoming Public Radio: When Deciding To Live Means Avoiding Guns
When you're managing a mental health issue, home's not always a safe place. I recently talked with a 23-year-old in Oakland, Calif., who says he's worried about an upcoming visit to his aunt's home on the East Coast. He's afraid of what he might do to himself there. "I know that in my aunt's house there are three guns in the basement," says the young man, who asked that NPR not use his name. (Meagley, 9/24)

The Associated Press: South Texas Ambulance Company Owner Pleads Guilty To Fraud
The owner of a South Texas ambulance company faces up to 12 years in prison for scamming the government into paying for trips that were never made. Victor Lee Gonzalez of Mission pleaded guilty Tuesday in McAllen to health care fraud and aggravated identity theft. (9/23)

Boston Globe: IBM Granted $2.5M In Tax Breaks For Locating Digital Health Venture
Kendall Square is one of the hottest office markets in the country, with technology and biotech giants jockeying to land outposts and bring jobs there. Yet the Baker administration on Wednesday granted $2.5 million in tax breaks over three years to IBM Corp. to encourage the company to bring its new digital health venture, known as IBM Watson Health, to Cambridge’s high-tech hotbed. In return, IBM has promised to create at least 500 new jobs. (Chesto, 9/23)