Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Single-Payer Could Cost Maryland $24B A Year; Red-Flag, Waiting Period Gun Bills Signed Into Law By Illinois Governor
The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Analysts: Single-Payer Health Care Could Cost State $24 Billion A Year
State-sponsored health insurance for all Marylanders such as the single-payer plan proposed by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous could cost $24 billion a year, forcing lawmakers to significantly raise taxes, according to a nonpartisan analysis. Such a cost would increase the state’s $44 billion operating budget by more than half. (Broadwater, 7/17)
The Associated Press: Maryland Exchange To Hold Reinsurance Hearings
Maryland’s health care exchange has announced hearings for public comment on regulations to create a reinsurance program for the individual health insurance market. The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has scheduled four hearings. One of them is scheduled for July 26. The other three are set for next month. The state’s reinsurance program will aim to keep consumer costs down and bring greater certainty to Maryland’s individual insurance market. (7/17)
The Associated Press: Illinois Governor Signs 2 Bills To Tighten Gun Restrictions
Gov. Bruce Rauner signed laws Monday authorizing judges to take weapons away from people facing problems that make them dangerous to themselves or others and to extend the waiting period for delivery of newly purchased guns, but pledged to veto a third piece of legislation that would require state licensing of firearms dealers. (7/16)
The Associated Press: Michigan Spends Almost $25M On Flint Water Crisis Attorneys
New accounting figures show Michigan has spent nearly $25 million on attorneys handling cases involving the Flint lead-tainted water crisis. Data from Michigan agencies and the Governor's Office show attorney spending has reached more than $24.8 million for the 2014 crisis that began after Flint switched its drinking water source to the Flint River without adding corrosion-control chemicals. (7/16)
The New York Times: In New Jersey, Legal Marijuana Is So Close You Can Smell It. But It Could Be Awhile.
Tucked inside a nondescript commercial warehouse here sits a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation. A custom filtration system feeds a proprietary cocktail of nutrients into a hydroponic, two-level farming system. Two pallets of crops are harvested every day, and the 15,000 square feet will eventually yield two tons of marijuana per year. And it’s all legal. (Corasaniti, 7/16)
The New York Times: CVS Fires 2 For Calling Police On Black Woman Over Coupon
CVS Health fired two employees at a Chicago area store on Monday, just days after a black woman posted a video that she said showed one of them — a white man — calling the police after she tried to use a coupon they believed to be fraudulent. The drugstore company also said it had apologized to the woman, Camilla Hudson. (7/16)
Boston Globe: Beth Israel-Lahey Merger Raises A Medicaid Issue
The hospitals included in the proposed merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health have much in common, including a stated commitment to high-quality care and their desire to grow. Something else they share: a relatively low portion of their patients are poor or low-income. (Dayal McCluskey, 7/16)
The Associated Press: Day Care Owner Gets Probation For Trying To Kill Child
A Minneapolis day care owner was sentenced to 10 years of probation for trying to kill a toddler in her home by hanging him from a noose. Forty-three-year-old Nataliia Karia was sentenced Monday after earlier pleading guilty to attempted murder and third-degree assault. She also pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular operation for hitting a pedestrian, a bicyclist and another driver as she fled from her home in a minivan in November 2016. (7/16)
The Oregonian: OHSU Forces Hospital Department Head To Give Up Position, But Can Stay As Professor
The chair of the Oregon Health & Science University's Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine was forced to give up his position last week. Jeffrey Kirsch, who will remain a professor, started with OHSU in 2002. Sharon Anderson, the executive vice president of OHSU and dean of the School of Medicine, said in a statement to staff that she was grateful for Kirsch's leadership. (Harbarger, 7/16)
The Associated Press: San Francisco To Consider Tax On Companies To Help Homeless
San Francisco voters will decide in November whether to tax large businesses to pay for homeless and housing services, an issue that set off a battle in another West Coast city struggling with income inequality. The city elections department verified Monday that supporters had collected enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot. It would raise about $300 million a year — doubling what San Francisco spends on homelessness — for more shelter beds and housing for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so. (7/16)
NH Times Union: CMC Physicians Pioneer Less Invasive Thoracic Surgery
Historically, thoracic surgery — surgery on the lungs or other parts of the respiratory system — is a major operation with a long and uncomfortable recovery, not to mention a sizable scar. Traditional thoracic surgery requires cutting into the chest wall and moving ribs to gain access to the chest cavity. But these days, Catholic Medical Center’s cardiothoracic surgeons are taking a far less invasive approach. (7/16)
MPR: 'Emergency': Minnesota Slow To Act As Sickle Cell Cases Climb
Two decades later, there's a comprehensive sickle cell clinic in place for children in Minnesota. Blaylark and others, however, warn that adult cases are climbing to crisis levels now as more West Africans and African-Americans move here and Minnesota has few care options for them. (Sapong, 7/17)
The CT Mirror: Boughton Sketches Path To CT Income Tax Repeal
Republican gubernatorial contender Mark Boughton upped the ante Monday in his plan to phase out the state income tax, pledging more than $380 million in taxpayer relief in his first two-year budget. The Danbury mayor outlined the tax cut as part of a 10-point revitalization plan that also includes other tax reductions, reorganizing the governing board for public colleges and universities, and scrapping a planned widening of Interstate 95. (Phaneuf, 7/16)
North Carolina Health News: Durham Tech, UNC Launch Anesthesia Technology Program
Heart surgery is complicated, and every person in the operating room plays an indispensable role in its success. One evolving role is the anesthesia technologist, who, alongside doctors and nurses, prepares and maintains technological equipment for surgery, ready to tackle any challenge to make sure the procedure runs smoothly. “Even on TV, you’ve seen what an OR looks like,” said Gail Walker, an anesthesia technician and manager of anesthesia support at UNC Health Care. “The anesthesiologist takes care of patients, but they use machinery to do it with. If there’s ever a glitch or a problem, they can’t divert their attention from that patient.” (Mackinson, 7/17)
Denver Post: Colorado Neurological Institute Closes Vollbracht NeuroHealth & Wellness Center, Lays Off Staff
The Colorado Neurological Institute has closed its Vollbracht NeuroHealth & Wellness Center in Englewood and laid off 12 to 15 employees, said Betsy Mathies, president of the nonprofit’s board of directors. She said the center closed after “the loss of some funding we had counted on for many years prior.” Mathies added that nonprofits are “struggling for the same dollars” and that there were “a multitude of situations that all came together at once.” (Seaman, 7/16)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Device From Cleveland Startup Helps People Taking Blood Thinners
Case Western Reserve University innovators have created a blood testing device, about the size of a cellphone, that could improve health care and decrease costs for millions of Americans who take blood thinners. This proposed device, called the ClotChip, can evaluate blood coagulation with a finger-prick blood sample from people with heart arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat), pulmonary embolism (blockage in a pulmonary artery in the lungs), or who recently had surgery. (Washington, 7/16)
North Carolina Health News: Focus On Postoperative Decline Could Help NC Patients, Hospitals
Conversation after an older person’s surgery sometimes goes like this: “Grandpa has just not been the same since his operation — he often forgets words and can’t complete simple tasks.” Doctors have long believed that cognitive decline often follows surgery — more than half of people who have open-heart surgery go through it — but its precise nature remains under study. Duke neuropsychologist Jeffrey Browndyke is part of an international group that has been working toward a standard definition for postoperative cognitive disorder, or POCD, both to improve treatment and to merit its inclusion in the influential DSM-5, the manual that helps behavioral health practitioners make accurate diagnoses. (Goldsmith, 7/16)
