State Highlights: Quality Care For Immigrant Kids Lags In Fla.; Ill. House To Consider Bill To Change Health Providers’ ‘Right Of Conscience’ Law

Tampa Bay Times: Access To Better Health Care In Florida Lags For Immigrant Children
Ana Maria Campos had been in the United States for less than a year when she was diagnosed with leukemia. Campos, then 18, had just moved from Guanajuato, Mexico, to Dade City with her mother and nine siblings to join their father. With six months of chemotherapy ahead, her mother fought to find health insurance options. The Florida KidCare program, which provides subsidized health coverage for lower-income children under 19 for little to no cost, seemed like the best option. Even though Campos was a legal U.S. resident, she couldn't qualify. (Schmidt, 7/14)

The Chicago Tribune: Key Legal Changes Lets Patients Make Sound Medical Changes
When you visit a doctor you expect to get quality medical advice, regardless of the physician's religious beliefs. But an Illinois law allows doctors and hospitals to withhold information from patients based on a "right of conscience," potentially endangering lives and, at the very least, limiting patients' medical options. Senate Bill 1564 amends the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act — the broadest such law in the nation according to the American Civil Liberties Union — making it clear that doctors, nurses and hospitals have an obligation to make patients aware of all their medical options so they can make an informed decision about what's best for them whatever the religious beliefs that others may hold. (Kadner, 7/14)

The Tribune News Service: Florida Governor Creates Special Savings Plan For Disabled
Despite cutting millions of dollars to aid the state's disabled community, Gov. Rick Scott signed a new law Monday that allows individuals with disabilities to boost their savings from $2,000 to $100,000 without jeopardizing their state and federal benefits. The law will go into effect by July 1, 2016. The more celebrated news, however, was that 2,000 people previously on a wait list for a Medicaid waiver from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities will be able to receive care at home instead of being institutionalized. Under the state budget that went effect July 1, $40 million will go toward providing services for these 2,000; 20,000 people are on the wait list. (Luna, 7/14)

Kaiser Health News: California, Oregon To Allow Hormonal Contraceptives Without A Doctor’s Prescription
California and Oregon will be the first states in the nation to allow women to get birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives directly from their pharmacists – without a doctor’s prescription. As California officials were busy finalizing regulations on a state law passed in 2013, Oregon’s governor Kate Brown signed a similar bill into law last week. (Feder Ostrov, 7/15)

The Texas Tribune: Scientology Group Urged Veto Of Mental Health Bill
After a Church of Scientology-backed group helped organize a campaign against it, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed legislation that would have given Texas doctors more power to detain mentally ill and potentially dangerous patients, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune. The governor's early June veto of Senate Bill 359 caught many of the measure’s proponents off-guard. The legislation had sailed through the House and Senate with little debate and only a handful of negative votes — and during committee hearings in both chambers, a range of mental health advocates, medical groups and law enforcement officials showed up to testify in its favor. (Smith, 7/14)

The Seattle Times: Lee Hood's Arivale Raises $36M To Personalize Your Health Care
The U.S. health-care system does not spend enough money on preventing diseases. That’s what Lee Hood and Clayton Lewis think, and why they launched a Seattle startup, Arivale, to promote health. Arivale is announcing Tuesday that it has raised $36 million in a series B financing round from Arch Venture Partners, Polaris Partners and Maveron. Lewis and Hood, a renowned biologist, launched Arivale out of research from Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology, which Hood co-founded in 2000. Arivale looks at participants’ genetics and baseline health, then pairs them with a coach to make diet, exercise and general wellness plans to avoid disease and conditions. (Lerman, 7/14)

The Des Moines Register: Branstad Sued Over Mental Hospital Closures
The state’s largest public employees union and 20 Democratic legislators are suing Gov. Terry Branstad over his closure of two state mental hospitals. The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees said Monday that it filed suit in Polk County District Court against Branstad and Department of Human Services Director Charles Palmer. The suit seeks to force Branstad to reopen the state mental hospitals at Mount Pleasant and Clarinda, which the administration closed last month. The suit cites a section of Iowa Code spelling out that the state shall have mental hospitals at those two locations and at Cherokee and Independence. (Leys, 7/14)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Birth Centers Part Of Study On Cutting Premature Births Among Poor
At the Birth and Wellness Center in O'Fallon, Mo., women deliver babies in a low-tech, homelike setting with midwives. Yet it and other birth centers nationwide are being studied as an "innovative" approach to reducing preterm births among the poor. Only 0.4 percent of all births take place in birth centers, yet those centers boast impressive health outcomes at a cost far less than hospital births, according to data compiled from over 15,000 birth center deliveries released three years ago. (Munz, 7/14)