Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: San Francisco's Plans To Sign Up Homeless For Better Health Care Monitoring On Fast Pace; Ninth Child Dies In New Jersey From Adenovirus Outbreak
San Francisco Chronicle: SF Way Ahead Of Goal In Registering Homeless In New Tracking System
By the end of this month, San Francisco officials had hoped to have at least 2,000 homeless people enrolled in the city’s new system to monitor and document their interactions with city aid agencies, with the goal of improving the care they receive. On Friday, with six days to go before the end of October, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said it had already reached its goal — and then some. (Fracassa, 10/26)
USA Today Network: Adenovirus Outbreak: 9th Child Dies At New Jersey Health-Care Center
A ninth child has died of respiratory illness at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in the Haskell section of Wanaque, New Jersey, the state’s Department of Health announced Sunday morning. The latest victim was someone who had a confirmed case of adenovirus and fell ill before Oct. 22. There have been 25 pediatric cases associated with the outbreak. A staff member also was ill but has recovered, according to the health department. (Sobko, 10/28)
Chicago Tribune: Homeless People In The Library? Chicago, Suburban Libraries Turn To Social Workers For Help
Public libraries have long been a refuge, not just for readers, but also for people with nowhere else to go during the day — people who sometimes sleep in chairs, use the bathroom sinks to wash themselves or inject themselves with drugs in bathroom stalls. Sometimes they have been kicked out. At best they’ve been left alone. But now a growing number of libraries in Illinois and across the nation are facing the issue head-on, hiring social workers to help connect people with housing, health care and food. The Chicago Public Library has a social worker who splits time between two of its Uptown branches, paid for by local hospital system Amita Health. (Schencker, 10/27)
USA Today Network: Cesar Sayoc: Early Signs Of Mental Health Problems For Mail Bomber Suspect
Even as a young man, Cesar Sayoc showed signs that he struggled with mental health problems, but his family could not persuade him to seek help. Sayoc, now facing federal charges in connection with mailing bomb-like devices across the country to top Democrats and media personalities, would get angry when his relatives asked him to seek help, said Ronald Lowy, a Miami lawyer who has represented Sayoc and the family for years. (Marino and Mills, 10/28)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Mental Health Care Centers Making ‘Tough Decisions’ On Changes To Medicaid Payments
As part of a multi-year effort to modernize behavioral health in Ohio’s Medicaid system, the Kasich administration in January expanded the way services could be coded, adding more than 100 new codes to the system. ...But providers, like the center, say the transition is full of processing and reimbursement delays and is putting a financial strain on a field already overwhelmed by the opioid epidemic. (Christ, 10/26)
Reveal: The Storm After The Storm
Doctors in Puerto Rico are outraged at the government’s unexpected decision to declare the Zika crisis over in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Plus, communities in Houston and North Carolina struggle to put their homes and lives back together. (Murphy, Satija and Walters, 10/27)
Sacramento Bee: With STD Rates Skyrocketing In Sacramento, County Funds Treatment At Community Colleges
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors recently approved a $25,000 grant to pay for a nurse to work twice a week at the health centers at Cosumnes River College and Sacramento City College to offer free screenings and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV.The contract will start Nov. 1 and run through June of next year, said Sacramento County spokeswoman Brenda Bongiorno. (Yoon-Hendricks, 10/28)
Detroit Free Press: Fetal Remains Reflect Detroit's High Infant Mortality Rate
As investigators search for answers as to why dozens of fetuses were hidden inside cardboard boxes at two Detroit funeral homes, Detroit’s high infant mortality rate could yield clues. The infant death rate recorded for the city of Detroit is about 12.7 per 1,000 live births in 2016, according to the most recent data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). That's more than double the national rate of 5.9 per 1,000 live births and one of the highest in the state of Michigan after Saginaw, Muskegon and Flint. (Siacon, 10/22)
Los Angeles Times: Here’s What Happened After California Got Rid Of Personal Belief Exemptions For Childhood Vaccines
Health authorities in California have more power to insist that a dog is vaccinated against rabies than to ensure that a child enrolled in public school is vaccinated against measles. That’s just one of the frustrations faced by health officials in the first year after California did away with “personal belief exemptions” that allowed parents to send their kids to school unvaccinated, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. In the 2014-15 school year, when parents could still opt out of vaccinations for any reason they chose, only 90.4% of kindergartners in California public schools were fully immunized. That’s below the 94% threshold needed to establish community immunity for measles, according to experts. (Kaplan, 10/29)
Kansas City Star: Data Breach: Personal Info, SSNs For 10K Missourians Exposed
The Missouri health department is mailing letters to about 10,000 people whose personal information — including in some cases Social Security numbers — may have been exposed in a security breach. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said in a statement that an information technology contractor improperly stored the information in an electronic file that was not password-protected. (Marso, 10/26)
Wyoming Public Radio: The Coroner's Story: Autopsy Reveals Details About Matthew Shepard's Hate Crime
After Matthew Shepard's murder, his autopsy was filed away and never released to the public. Julie Heggie was the coroner at the time and said, she decided, along with law enforcement and the county attorney's office, that was the best thing to protect the report from mass distribution. (Edwards, 10/26)
The Associated Press: Pot Group Predicts $1B In Nevada Tax Revenue Over 7 Years
A report for a marijuana trade group says pot production, processing and sales could reap more than $1 billion in tax revenue for Nevada over seven years. ... The analysis by Las Vegas-based RCG Economics didn't look at public safety, health, human services, schools or criminal justice costs associated with legalization. (10/26)
The Associated Press: Recreational Pot Measure Has High Interest In North Dakota
Backers of legalizing marijuana in North Dakota have high hopes that voters will approve the drug's use for anyone old enough to drink alcohol. But they could be in for a bummer because opponents have spent far more money against the proposal. Critics say it would mean big problems for law enforcement and society. It comes as North Dakota still is setting up a medical marijuana system that voters approved by a wide margin two years ago. (MacPherson, 10/28)
