State Highlights: Proposal For Nursing Home Backup Power Advances In Fla.; Care Providers Apologize About Past Elder Abuse In Minn.

The Associated Press: Rules For Backup Power For Nursing Homes Go To Florida House
A proposed rule requiring Florida nursing homes to have backup power in the event of an outage advanced Tuesday in the Florida Legislature. The proposal now heads to the full House after being passed Tuesday by that chamber's Health and Human Services Committee.It would require facilities to have a generator capable of keeping facilities at 81 degrees or lower for at least four days. It also requires them to keep 72 hours of fuel on site. (2/28)

Pioneer Press: After Elder Abuse Complaints, Care Providers Offer Apologies And Solutions 
As Minnesota works to improve protections for seniors and vulnerable adults, long-term care providers offered apologies for past abuses and ideas for improving safety. “To all the seniors and families whose lives have been impacted, in any way, by abuse or maltreatment, please know we share their hurt and their grief and are truly sorry for the heartbreaking experiences they have endured,” Gayle Kvenvold, CEO of LeadingAge, told members of the Senate aging and long-term care committee Wednesday. Kvenvold’s organization represents long-term care providers. She was one of 10 leaders from the long-term care sector to address lawmakers a week after family members detailed the abuse their relatives suffered in assisted living facilities. (Magan, 2/28)

USA Today: Florida Teen First Diagnosed With Flu Instead Has Stage 4 Cancer
Doctors told a 16-year-old Florida boy he had flu symptoms, but realized weeks later the diagnosis was wrong. Hunter Brady's exhaustion and shortness of breath was actually from stage IVB Hodgkin lymphoma that the Tampa boy had been living with for months, Tampa Bay's WFTS reports. (May, 2/28)

The Associated Press: State Worked To Shape Coverage Of Legionnaires' Outbreak
Email messages show Illinois officials worked to put a positive spin on news coverage as a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak first unfolded at a state veterans' home. Chicago's WBEZ obtained emails between state and local public health officials and the state agency that oversees the Illinois Veterans' Home in Quincy, where Legionnaires' has contributed to 13 deaths since 2015. Dozens more residents have been sickened, including several this year. (2/28)

The Washington Post: Timothy Cunningham: Missing CDC Epidemiologist Passed Over For Promotion Before Disappearance
Police investigators are bewildered as they work through the “extremely unusual” circumstances surrounding the missing-person case of Timothy Cunningham, a researcher who vanished Feb. 12, shortly after hearing why he had been passed over for a promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cunningham, 35, told colleagues he was not feeling well and left work at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, not long after speaking with his supervisor about why he had not been promoted, Atlanta Police Maj. Michael O'Connor told reporters. (Horton, 3/1)

The Associated Press: Ted Kennedy Jr. Says He's Not Running For Connecticut Senate
Ted Kennedy Jr., son of the late Massachusetts senator, said Wednesday he will not seek a third term in the Connecticut Senate because he wants to focus on protecting disability rights, which he said are under "an enormous threat" at the federal level. The 56-year-old Democrat with the famous last name, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for offices from governor to U.S. senator, said he feels compelled to play a bigger role in the disability rights community. (2/28)

Modern Healthcare: Partners And Care New England Add Lifespan To Merger Talks 
Providence, R.I.-based Lifespan has joined its neighboring system Care New England in proposed merger talks with Boston's Partners HealthCare. Tuesday's announcement adds a new wrinkle to the potential three-way deal as Partners, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts, looks to expand its reach into Rhode Island. The news came about a month after Brown University and California-based hospital company Prospect Medical Holdings intervened by pitching an unsolicited proposal to acquire Care New England if the talks with Partners fall through. (Kacik, 2/28)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Has One Of The Highest Rates Of Pregnant Smokers In The Nation, Study Shows
Missouri has one of the highest rates of maternal smoking in the country, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new report reveals that one in 14 women who gave birth in the U.S. in 2016, or 7.2 percent, reported smoking during pregnancy. (Ryan and Marson, 2/27)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Atlanta Homeless Receive Flu Vaccinations From Fulton Board Of Health
Because of a spike in influenza or “flu” activity in the United States in recent weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has renewed its recommendation to get vaccinated against influenza. In response, the Fulton County Board of Health recently implemented a proactive strategy to help stop the spread of influenza among some of Fulton’s most vulnerable population – the homeless. (Miller, 2/28)

The Associated Press: Hearing-Impaired Teen Inspires Virginia Sign Language Bill
Virginia high school students would be able to count American Sign Language as a foreign language credit beginning this fall under a bill that won approval from the General Assembly this week.House Bill 84, introduced by Del. Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, unanimously passed the Senate on Monday. Now it will go to Gov. Ralph Northam to be signed into law. Teenager Emma Chupp, who was selected to work as a Senate page — or legislator’s helper — this General Assembly session, suggested the idea for the bill. Chupp said she is enrolled in a high school Spanish class but finds the language challenging to learn because she is hard of hearing. (Spraggs, 2/28)

San Jose Mercury News: California Has The Worst Quality Of Life, New Study Says
California dreamin’? Flying in the face of traditional wisdom that we live on the best coast comes a stinging new U.S. News & World Report study that says we have the worst quality of life in the nation. The coveted Best States ranking is part of an annual study that scores all 50 states on eight categories — health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability and the most important of all for most of us, quality of life. (D'Souza, 2/28)

Los Angeles Times: Pedestrian Deaths In L.A. Rise Sharply But Officials Remain Committed To Traffic Safety Program
Pedestrian deaths rose sharply in Los Angeles in 2017, but the disappointing figures do not mean the city should change course on an ambitious program to eliminate traffic fatalities, transportation officials said Wednesday. During the second full year of the Vision Zero initiative, aimed at eliminating traffic deaths on city streets by 2025, the number of pedestrians killed on city streets rose 17% over the previous year, and 82% since 2015. (Nelson, 2/28)

Cleavland Plain Dealer: Local Doctors Struggle To Find A Healthy Balance As Patient Numbers Grow
With medical advances, people are living longer and a large portion of the population, the Baby Boomer generation, is aging. Meanwhile, patient numbers are on the rise because hundreds of thousands in the state gained insurance coverage under Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion. (Christ, 3/1)

Arizona Republic: Maricopa County Health District Will Buy, Renovate Maryvale Hospital.
The shuttered Maryvale Hospital in west Phoenix will be revived as an emergency department and behavioral health hospital under a $60.1 million deal approved Wednesday by the Maricopa Integrated Health System’s district board. MIHS agreed to purchase the hospital, located at 51st and Campbell avenues, from Tenet Healthcare for nearly $7.6 million and will spend $52.5 million to renovate and equip the aging building. (Alltucker, 2/28)

Milwuakee Journal Sentinel: OSHA Inspectors Forced To Wait Two Hours Before Getting Into A Chemical Barrel Plant
Federal environmental inspectors were initially barred from entering a chain of chemical barrel refurbishing plants twice last year, being stopped even after they had a court order to enter immediately. Officials got the court-issued warrant because they were concerned they were not seeing true operations, as required under federal law. (Diedrich, 2/28)

Austin Statesman: Westlake Class Provides Students An Inside Look At Hospital Operations
The Health Science: Clinical class at Westlake High School isn’t your average class. ... One of the main purposes of the course is to give students an opportunity to figure out their career interests before entering college. t Seton Hospital, students may observe the nursery, x-ray department, ICU, and heart procedures and transplants, while at Westlake Hospital, students see multiple surgeries, and are allowed inside the E.R. (O'Bryon, 2/28)

Los Angeles Times: Two Weight-Loss Surgeons Falsified Records, Defrauded Patients, Insurers Out Of $250 Million, Prosecutors Allege
For years, it was hard to miss the billboards and radio jingles for a weight-loss surgery center that promised, "Let your new life begin, call 1-800-GET-THIN. "But on Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged that the Lap-Band surgery operation was at the center of a massive fraud scheme that forced patients to undergo unnecessary tests, falsified medical tests to justify surgeries and cheated insurers and patients out of $250 million. (Winton, 2/28)

The Star Tribune: Minn. Patients Say Medical Pot Helps With Chronic Pain 
A large share of Minnesotans using medical marijuana for chronic pain say they’re experiencing less discomfort and have reduced their reliance on potentially addictive opioid drugs. In the state’s first report card on cannabis and chronic pain, more than 60 percent of patients responding to a state survey said they benefited greatly from using pot in inhaled or pill forms, and 43 percent of their doctors concurred. (Olson, 3/1)