State Highlights: Segregation, Earning Gaps Linger For Disabled Minnesotans; Milwaukee To Ban Conversion Therapy

The Star Tribune: Separation, Inequality Limit Minnesotans With Disabilities 
Nineteen years after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling opened the doors to integration, thousands of Minnesotans with disabilities continue to live and work in segregated settings that keep them in poverty and limit their daily autonomy. These are among the principal findings of the state’s first comprehensive survey examining the quality of life of nearly 50,000 Minnesotans with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities who spend most of their time in settings such as group homes, nursing facilities and cloistered workplaces known as sheltered workshops. (Serres, 3/27)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Conversion Therapy To Be Banned In Milwaukee
Therapy to change a child's sexual orientation or gender identity will soon be banned in the city of Milwaukee. Mayor Tom Barrett is set to sign a ban on the controversial practice, commonly known as "conversion therapy," which was overwhelmingly approved Tuesday by the Milwaukee Common Council. (Spicuzza, 3/27)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Health Care Commissioner Recommends Mental Health Hospital At Anne Arundel Medical Center
A commissioner with the Maryland Health Care Commission on Monday recommended an Anne Arundel Medical Center psychiatric hospital. The AAMC Mental Health Hospital would house 16 beds and offer in-patient and out-patient treatment for an array of mental health conditions. It would be a freestanding unit next to the Pathways alcohol and drug treatment facility on Riva Road. The project would comprise 56,236 square feet on four levels and cost about $25 million. (Ohl, 3/27)

Politico Pro: States Find There’s Little They Can Do About Big Air Ambulance Bills
Medivac miracles have long generated nightmare stories about patients who survived but were saddled with eye-popping bills — and, for many years now, state officials have been frustrated they can’t do anything to help, often facing court challenges when they tried. The need for air ambulance transport comes up only in dire situations, when consumers have no control over whether services are within their insurance network. (Rayasam, 3/27)

California Healthline: Private Man At Center Of Very Public Single-Payer Debate
Dale Fountain is an intensely private man. He won’t say where he works. One of his oldest friends can’t say for sure where he lives. His sister knows he was once married but she isn’t in the loop these days — they haven’t spoken in two years. “He keeps to himself,” said Chris Pulliam, who went to high school with Fountain in Los Angeles and now lives in Silver Spring, Md. “I’ve just got into the habit of not asking about things.” Yet the elusive 42-year-old Silicon Valley tech worker has inserted himself into the forefront of California’s hottest health care debate: whether it should adopt a statewide single-payer health care system. (Bartolone, 3/27)

Kansas City Star: Peanut Allergy Treatment Working At Children's Mercy
Some allergy clinics in Kansas City and elsewhere have already been offering peanut desensitization treatments, but the study that Children's Mercy is participating in is among the first worldwide to try it in a controlled, formal way. Children’s Mercy allergist Jay Portnoy said the trial, which is going on at research sites across the country, has been so successful that as soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a product for commercial use, the hospital will start offering it to pediatric patients who aren't in the study. (Marso, 3/28)

Tampa Bay Times: The Bottom Line: One In Three Families Can’t Afford Diapers. Why Are They So Expensive?
Across America, millions of parents find themselves caught amid these opposing forces: diapers that keep getting better but not cheaper, the gap in assistance for the poor and the every-few-hours wail of a child who needs a change. (McGrory, 3/28)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Corrections Director Grilled On Prison Health Care Firm
Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, took the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on Tuesday during a hearing to determine whether he and his department should be held in contempt of court over monitoring prison health care. The gist of his testimony, as one of his medical directors testified the day before, was that the health-management company retained by his department to manage inmate health care has been the root of the problem. (Kiefer, 3/27)

Miami Herald: Fight Club: Gov. Scott Signs Reforms To Florida Juvenile Justice System
For the first time in a decade, Florida juvenile detention and probation officers will see a bump in their salaries — an increase in the state budget that is part of a series of juvenile justice reforms passed by the Legislature this month. (Marbin Miller, 3/27)

KQED: Water Contamination Could Cost Santa Rosa An Unexpected $43 Million
Chemical contamination from the North Bay Fires could now force Santa Rosa to replace the water delivery system for the severely burned Fountaingrove neighborhood, at an unbudgeted cost of $43 million. (Peterson, 3/27)

Boston Globe: Walsh Announces $3 Million Toward New Homeless Fund
Less than three months after announcing a new initiative to combat homelessness, Mayor Martin J. Walsh said Tuesday that private businesses have already kicked in more than $3 million in donations toward the effort. That’s a third of the way toward Walsh’s goal of raising $10 million for Boston’s Way Home Fund — a city initiative he announced at his January inauguration that would subsidize rental housing to those most in need, coupled with services to help build life skills. (Valencia, 3/27)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Decision On New Orleans Marijuana Pharmacy Permit Postponed Until April 
The Louisiana Pharmacy Board postponed awarding a permit for a medical marijuana pharmacy to operate in the metro New Orleans area during its meeting Tuesday (March 27) in Baton Rouge. Instead, the board took all of the applications, including two that are seeking to open dispensaries in Metairie, under advisement until April 17. The 17-member board, which state law mandated to oversee the permit process, has said it will issue operating permits to one pharmacy in each of the state's nine designated health care regions. A 10th permit will be issued as needed. (Bacon-Blood, 3/27)

Iowa Public Radio: State Names Finalists For Medical Marijuana Distribution Licenses
Five Iowa cities could soon have medical marijuana dispensaries after the state picked its preferred distributors Tuesday. Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Waterloo, Davenport and the Des Moines suburb of Windsor Heights are each slated to get a medical marijuana dispensary, if the companies accept the licenses by 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28. (Payne, 3/27)