State Highlights: Safety Panel Tries To Pinpoint, Rectify Flaws That Allowed For Parkland Mass Shooting; Top Hospital Executives Resign From Fla. Hospital Following Report On Mortality Rates

The Associated Press: Florida Massacre Commission Considers School Safety Plans
There were plenty of missteps in communication, security and school policy before and during the Florida high school massacre that allowed the gunman to kill 17 people. Now, the state commission investigating the shooting will consider a long list of recommendations addressing these problems statewide. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission will consider proposals Wednesday and Thursday, including whether to arm trained, volunteer teachers; making it harder for outsiders to enter Florida’s nearly 4,000 public schools; mandating armed security on all campuses with explicit orders to confront shooters; improving communication systems on campus; and imposing more statewide uniformity in how troubled students are identified, helped and, if necessary, dealt with by police. (Spencer, 12/12)

Tampa Bay Times: Top All Children’s Executives Resign Following Times Report On Heart Surgeries
The CEO of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and two other hospital administrators have resigned following a Tampa Bay Times investigation that found dramatic increases in the hospital’s mortality rates for heart surgeries, Johns Hopkins announced Tuesday. In a statement, the health system said All Children’s CEO Dr. Jonathan Ellen, Vice President Jackie Crain and deputy director of the hospital’s Heart Institute Dr. Jeffrey Jacobs had resigned. (McGrory and Bedi, 12/11)

Houston Chronicle: Patient Confusion Is Business Model For Free-Standing Emergency Rooms 
Free-standing ERs dot the suburbs, where census data tells physician-entrepreneurs that most residents have private insurance or Medicare. Operators also like to locate where people have a lot of money and little patience for waiting.These for-profit ERs, which have no affiliations with hospitals, take advantage of the typical consumer’s ignorance of the difference between an urgent care clinic, a free-standing ER and a hospital ER. (Tomlinson, 12/11)

Boston Globe: Aetna Settles With State Over ‘Ghost Networks’
Health insurer Aetna has agreed to vastly improve information for consumers, after an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general found that its provider directories are inaccurate and deceptive. The office filed a settlement agreement in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday, closing its investigation into the company. (Kowalczyk, 12/11)

Boston Globe: Business Groups Aim To Curb Emergency Room Use, And Save Money, Too
On Tuesday, a coalition of business groups representing thousands of employers kicked off an ambitious new effort to reduce these potentially avoidable emergency room visits, and in the process lower health care costs by up to $100 million. Companies in the coalition will pepper their employees with fliers, memos, and meetings about alternatives to emergency rooms, such as walk-in clinics and telehealth services. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/12)

Georgia Health News: Health Care Taking Bigger Share Of Workers’ Income, Report Finds
Average premium contributions by employees are 7 percent of median income nationally. But Georgia is among 11 states where these contributions for single and family plans amounted to 8 percent of median income or more, said the report from the Commonwealth Fund, released Friday. (Miller, 12/11)

Columbus Dispatch: 'Heartbeat' Bill Might Wait, But GOP Brings Out Another Abortion Bill
An Ohio Senate committee has again delayed a vote on the anti-abortion “Heartbeat” Bill, as the chairman said Tuesday that he’s waiting for amendments he hasn’t yet seen. Some Republicans question why the bill is being voted on at this time, considering it faces a veto from Gov. John Kasich. (Siegel, 12/11)

The Associated Press: New Survey Finds 14 Percent Of Virginians Are Smokers
A new state survey shows that about 14 percent of Virginians consider themselves regular smokers. A report by the Virginia Department of Health found that Southwest Virginia had the highest rate of smoking, with smokers making up more than 18 percent of the region’s population. Smokers only make up less than 8 percent of the population of Northern Virginia. (12/12)

The Associated Press: Study: Virginia Poorly Supervises Its Foster Care Programs
A legislative study says Virginia does a poor job of supervising local foster care systems and intervening when they don’t deliver adequate services to children in their care. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Monday that the study says Virginia’s 120 local foster care programs aren’t good at recruiting foster parents, reuniting families or finding children permanent homes. It says this has led to an increased reliance on costly and often unnecessary institutional care such as group homes. (12/11)

California Healthline: Blue Shield’s Trims To Out-Of-State Coverage Give Some Californians The Blues
Denise Roberts is still coping with complications from a life-threatening bout of Valley Fever three years ago that claimed part of a lung. Roberts, who lives in Doyle, Calif., a tiny rural community near the Nevada border, typically drives to Reno for the care she needs. Specialists in her own state, she said, are too far away. But starting Jan. 1, Roberts’ insurer, Blue Shield of California, likely won’t cover the out-of-state care Roberts has come to rely on. (Feder Ostrov, 12/11)

Miami Herald: Patient Sues Nova Southeastern Over Use Of Dirty Equipment
A South Florida woman whose young daughter was an orthodontics patient at a Nova Southeastern University clinic in Davie filed a lawsuit against the school this week for potentially exposing the girl to infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis, from dirty equipment used by dentists at the facility. (Chang, 12/11)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Activists Speak Out Against Conditions At Cuyahoga County Jail At Council Meeting
Dozens of activists protesting conditions in the Cuyahoga County Jail demonstrated Tuesday outside county headquarters before attending a Cuyahoga County Council meeting. Twenty-six people addressed council members directly, many of whom railed against the treatment of inmates in the jail, referenced the deaths of seven inmates between June 10 and Oct. 2, and cited findings from a U.S. Marshals Service report that identified “inhumane” conditions at the jail. (Astolfi, 12/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Water Needs: A Balancing Act Sought By Feinstein, Brown
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is joining forces with House Republicans to try to extend a controversial law that provides more water for Central Valley farms, but with a sweetener for the environment: Help with protecting California’s rivers and fish. The proposed extension of the WIIN Act, or Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, would keep millions of federal dollars flowing for new dams and reservoirs across the West. (Alexander, 12/11)

Nashville Tennessean: Aspire Health Says Hacked Emails Never Opened; Ends Hunt For Hacker
A large Nashville-based healthcare company that was hacked earlier this year said Tuesday an internal investigation has revealed the stolen emails were intercepted before they were ever opened by the cyberattacker. Aspire Health, which offers in-home treatment in 25 states, has also abandoned its legal hunt for the unknown hacker that targeted them. (Kelman, 12/11)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Medical Marijuana Farming And Sales Proposed In Georgia
Georgia lawmakers are recommending that the state government pass laws next year to allow hemp farming and cannabis oil distribution. The proposals from two Republican-led committees would help provide medical marijuana to Georgia’s 6,000 registered patients and give farmers another crop to support themselves. (Niesse, 12/11)

The Associated Press: Elderly Man Evicted Over Medical Marijuana Hits Another Snag
A 78-year-old New York man who was evicted from federally subsidized housing because he uses medical marijuana for pain said Tuesday that the conflicting state and federal pot laws that left him homeless are now threatening his medical care. “The federal government has stepped in again and squashed it,” said John Flickner, who uses a wheelchair and has a doctor’s prescription for the drug. (Thompson, 12/11)