State Highlights: Prime Healthcare Backs Out Of Deal To Buy Struggling Calif. Health System; N.Y. Expands Mental Health Safety Net For Released Inmates

The San Jose Mercury News: Prime Healthcare Passes On Daughters Of Charity Deal
In a move that could disrupt the South Bay's hospital landscape for months and perhaps years to come, Prime Healthcare Services on Tuesday announced it has decided to pass on its $843 million deal to buy the Daughters of Charity Health System. ... Prime, the Southern California hospital company, called the conditions placed on the sale by state Attorney General Kamala Harris "so burdensome and restrictive that it would be impossible for Prime Healthcare -- or any buyer -- to make the changes needed to operate and save these hospitals." (Seipel, 3/10)

Reuters: Prime Pulls Offer For Struggling Hospitals In California After Requirements By State
Prime Healthcare Services said on Tuesday it has withdrawn its offer to buy the Daughters of Charity Health System in California due to conditions imposed by the state, a move the struggling hospital chain said could force it into bankruptcy. The state would have required Prime to invest $150 million in improvements over the next three years and guarantee all pension obligations for about 17,000 current and retired employees, as well as requiring all hospitals to operate as acute care hospitals and offer emergency services for 10 years. (Christie, 3/10)

The Associated Press: NY Expands Mental Health Safety Net For Releases Inmates
New York is expanding its efforts to make sure inmates who receive mental health treatment in prison aren't cut off from such care when they are released. Discharge planning that included medication, enrollment in Medicaid and initial clinic appointments had only extended to the 3,500 to 4000 inmates with a serious mental illness or who were getting treatment at the time of their release. (Virtanen, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Judge Outlines Plan For California To Regain Prison Control
A federal judge on Tuesday outlined a plan for California to end nearly a decade of federal control over its prison health care system. U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco acted after a court-appointed overseer reported that conditions have substantially improved since Henderson appointed a receiver to run the medical system in 2006. (Thompson, 3/10)

The Illinois News-Gazette: Managed Care Plans In Illinois Leaves People Driving Far
Since Cathy Siegel and her family signed up for health coverage through the Illinois Medicaid program last year, they've had to take a lot of road trips to see doctors in Decatur and Peoria. Many of the doctors they need in the local area don't accept the Medicaid managed care plan, Molina Healthcare, they were placed in by the state. The Siegels are among more than 11,000 Medicaid clients in five East Central Illinois counties — Champaign, DeWitt, Ford, Piatt and Vermilion — who either signed up for or were automatically enrolled by the state in a managed care plan through Molina that isn't accepted by Carle Physician Group, Carle Foundation Hospital or Christie Clinic. (Pressey, 3/10)

The Associated Press: New Mexico Senate Passes Bill To Address Medicaid Fraud Allegations
State officials would have to follow certain procedures before cutting off government funding for health care providers suspected of Medicaid fraud or overbilling under a measure passed Tuesday by the New Mexico Senate. The measure was spurred by the state's handling of allegations of fraud and abuse involving 15 nonprofits that provided behavioral health services to needy New Mexicans. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's administration froze Medicaid payments to the providers while the attorney general's office launched an investigation. (Bryan, 3/10)

The Texas Tribune: Lawmaker: Women 'Will Die' Without Cancer Screening
A House Republican warned Tuesday that proposed changes to a women's health program — intended to gut funding for Planned Parenthood clinics — would put lives in danger. State Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston, objected to a Senate plan to alter the way money is distributed through a cancer screening program for low-income Texans. She convinced a House budget panel on Tuesday to approve a measure that takes aim at the plan, which she said could cause dozens of clinics — not just Planned Parenthood's — to close their doors. (Walters, 3/10)

The Marshall Project: Tending To Tsarnaev
On the evening of April 19, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was rushed by ambulance to Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a gun battle with the FBI. Dr. Stephen Odom was the attending trauma surgeon on call. Boston and its surrounding towns had been on lockdown all day as police hunted Tsarnaev, and it was a tense time throughout the city — not least of all at the hospital, where several marathon bombing victims were recuperating from surgeries and amputations. Tsarnaev arrived with multiple gunshot wounds, “the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left…lower face,” Odom told a judge in a hospital bedside court hearing on April 22. “This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, the lateral portion of his C1 vertebrae, with a significant soft-tissue injury, as well as injury to the pharynx, the mouth, and a small vascular injury that's been treated,” Odom explained to the judge. (Schwartzapfel, 3/11)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Mental Health Orgs Seek Grant Protection
Organizations that advocate on behalf of Kansas adults and children with mental illnesses are asking legislators to adopt a proviso that would protect their budgets for at least another year. (Ranney, 3/10)

NPR: States Aim To Restrict Medically-Induced Abortions
Of the million or so women who have abortions every year in the U.S., nearly a quarter end their pregnancy using medications. But just as states have been passing a record number of restrictions on surgical abortion, more are trying to limit this option as well. One of the country's strictest laws is in Ohio. To understand it, a little history helps. (Ludden, 3/11)

Minnesota Public Radio: Low Wages At Nursing Homes Hurting Care, Operators Say
Minnesota's nursing homes say they are caught in a problem of the state's making, and they are asking the state Legislature to help fix it. The homes say they can't pay staff competitive wages, and that's hurting care for residents. They'd like to be able to pay more, but they can't, because the fees they can charge residents are set by the state. (Greene, 3/11)

Georgia Health News: Is Tobacco Cessation Being Improperly Slighted?
State insurance officials are investigating whether health insurers are covering tobacco-cessation products as a free benefit, as required under the Affordable Care Act. (Miller, 3/10)

The Oregonian: Oregon Health Officials Failed To Collect $3 Million In Drug Rebates: Federal Auditors
A federal audit of nine months of Oregon Health Plan spending in 2010 found that the state failed to collect $3 million in drug manufacturer rebates. (Budnick, 3/10)

The Chicago Tribune: Chicago Nurse Charged With Medicare Fraud Over Home Health Requirements
A Matteson man who operates two nursing agencies has been charged with health care fraud for allegedly billing for skilled-nursing services that did not qualify for Medicare and involved patients obtained through illegal payments for referrals, federal prosecutors said. It alleges that the firms, Adonis Inc. and BestMed-Care Services Ltd., provided unnecessary nursing services to patients who were not confined to the home as required by Medicare. (3/10)