State Highlights: SNAP Recipients Get Rewards For Good Food Choices In Mass., Other States; Millions of Mental Health Funds Go Unused In Calif.

Stateline: Rewards Program Encourages SNAP Recipients To Make Healthy Choices
Cities and states are trying new ways to entice food stamp recipients to eat their fruits and vegetables. One approach that’s gaining popularity: offering rebates to low-income families when they buy fresh produce. A program in Massachusetts was so popular that it ran out of rebate money and had to be suspended. By rewarding food stamp recipients for making healthy choices, advocates hope to encourage low-income people to eat more fruits and vegetables. (Wiltz, 2/28)

Sacramento Bee: Counties Slow To Spend Millionaires' Money On Mental Health
California counties are sitting on money from a special tax on millionaires that should be spent on mental health programs, but the state isn’t moving fast enough to reclaim the funds, according to a state audit released on Tuesday. California State Auditor Elaine Howle found that county mental health programs had stashed $231 million from the tax that should have been returned to the state by the end of the 2015-16 budget year. (Ashton, 2/28)

Modern Healthcare: Last Of The Molinas: Former CFO Resigns From Insurer's Board
Molina Healthcare's former CFO John Molina, the last Molina family member still linked to the health insurer, has resigned from the board. John Molina stepped down from the board more than two months after his brother, former CEO Mario Molina, cut ties with the company. The Long Beach, Calif.-based insurer said John Molina, who has served on the board since 1994, will pursue other endeavors. He is a founding partner of Pacific6, a California-based investment and development partnership. (Livingston, 2/26)

Chicago Tribune: Chicago-Area Health Officials Hope 'Worst Is Behind Us' For Hard-Hitting Flu Season 
Hospitalizations and outpatient visits for influenza continue to decrease statewide, indicating that the powerful flu season could be nearing its end. While health officials hope the worst period is over, they still advise those who are not vaccinated to do so quickly. The most recent statewide data show intensive care unit admissions and outpatient visits for influenza have decreased, according to an Illinois Department of Public Health report. That marks two consecutive weeks of a decrease in both categories, which are among several markers officials use to track influenza, according to the report. (Thayer, 2/27)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia Flu Keeps Rolling: Grady To Keep ER Trailer, Deaths Near 100
In the week ending Feb. 17, Georgia reported 19 new flu-related deaths, for a seasonal total nearing 100. And this week, Grady Memorial Hospital decided it will be keeping its “mobile emergency unit,” a specialized tractor-trailer in its parking lot housing 14 hospital beds, for one more month, a hospital spokeswoman said. (Hart, 2/27)

Boston Globe: Partners HealthCare Adds Lifespan To Rhode Island Expansion Plans
Three might not be a crowd for Partners HealthCare. The Boston-based health care giant, which has been in talks to acquire Care New England Health System of Providence, has opened up the discussions to include Lifespan, the operator of Rhode Island Hospital and several other medical facilities in that state. (McCluskey, 2/27)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Systems Asset Write-Down Leads To $2 Billion Q4 Net Loss 
Community Health Systems' financial position took a nosedive at the end of 2017, a result of a number of factors including significantly decreased revenue and volume. Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS reported a $2 billion net loss in the fourth quarter of last year—about $18 per share—significantly wider than the $220 million net loss the company reported in the fourth quarter of 2016. The company in a news release pinned the poor results on a revaluation of goodwill and assets held for sale, and in part to increased contractual allowances and in bad debt provision. (Bannow, 2/27)

The Associated Press: US Judge Blocks Weed-Killer Warning Label In California
A U.S. judge blocked California from requiring that the popular weed-killer Roundup carry a label stating that it is known to cause cancer, saying the warning is misleading because almost all regulators have concluded there is no evidence that the product's main ingredient is a carcinogen. U.S. District Judge William Shubb in Sacramento issued a preliminary injunction on Monday in a lawsuit challenging the state's decision last year to list glyphosate as a chemical known to cause cancer. (2/27)

San Jose Mercury News: Apple To Open Boutique Health Care Network For Its Workers
Local denizens of the Spaceship and other Apple offices will be getting boutique medical care starting this spring, according to Apple. The Cupertino tech giant plans to launch a network of “AC Wellness” medical clinics for its employees and their families, according to the AC Wellness website, which describes the network as “an independent medical practice dedicated to delivering compassionate, effective healthcare” to Apple workers and their dependents. (Baron, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Drug Rehab ‘Mogul’ Convicted Of Sexually Assaulting 7 Female Patients At Treatment Centers
Christopher Bathum built an empire in California’s lucrative addiction treatment industry despite the fact that he held no license in drug counseling and no college degree. The self-described “Rehab Mogul” founded what was once known as Community Recovery Los Angeles, a chain of about 20 facilities in Southern California and Colorado for patients battling alcoholism and drug addiction. At some of Bathum’s luxurious sober-living houses, patients had access to private chefs, a pool, yoga, excursions and a wide array of therapy options. (Schmidt, 2/27)

Modern Healthcare: Court Blocks CHS' Former Fort Wayne Exec From Sharing Confidential Information 
A Tennessee court has ruled that a former CEO of CHS subsidiary Lutheran Health Network disclosed the Fort Wayne, Ind., hospital system's confidential information, but he can still work with competitor IU Health to create a new primary-care practice in the area. Judge Joseph Woodruff of the Circuit Court of Williamson County, Tenn., said Lutheran Health Network will likely prevail in their suit accusing former CEO Brian Bauer of sharing information with third parties, and he cannot create a competing healthcare network with anyone who received that information. But that doesn't include IU Health. Bauer admitted he shared confidential and proprietary information with a venture capital firm and others. (Livingston, 2/27)

Georgia Health News: Grady Keeping Mobile ER Open For Another Month
Grady Memorial Hospital has extended the lease on its mobile ER through March. The Atlanta hospital opened the mobile unit in late January to handle its increasing emergency department patient volume. Flu-related hospitalizations in Georgia have soared through the first weeks of 2018. But the latest state Public Health and CDC figures show a downward trend, indicating that the flu season may have passed its peak. (Miller, 2/27)

Chicago Tribune: One Mother Tried Sounding The Alarm On 'Deplorable' Conditions At Dixmoor Mental Health Facility
The mother of one of the residents evacuated last week from what police described as a bedbug-ridden mental health facility in Dixmoor said Tuesday she tried to raise the alarm with village officials months ago about issues at the center. Dixmoor police on the evening of Feb. 22 removed 35 men and women from the facility, known as The Mothers House, who were living in what the village’s police chief called “deplorable” conditions. (Nolan, 2/27)

Santa Fe New Mexican and ProPublica: Federal Watchdog Identifies New Workplace Safety Problems At Los Alamos Lab
Los Alamos National Laboratory has failed to keep track of a toxic metal used in nuclear weapons production, potentially exposing workers to serious health consequences, a federal watchdog has found. The New Mexico lab’s failure to adequately track beryllium — small amounts of which can cause lung disease and cancer — violates federal regulations put in place to prevent worker overexposure, according to a report last week from the Department of Energy’s inspector general. (Moss, 2/26)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Lead In Water From Fountain At Chesterfield Middle School Was Nearly Three Times What State Considers Unacceptable
The amount of lead from the water fountain in the girls’ locker room was nearly three times what the state considers acceptable. That water fountain at Salem Middle School in Chesterfield County has since been replaced, and was rarely used to begin with, Salem Principal LaShante Knight wrote in a letter to parents. It was also the highest of Chesterfield’s 137 “water outputs” that tested above the state threshold and were used for drinking. Of the 137 outputs flagged for the amount of lead in the water, nine were drinking sources. (Remmers and O'Connor, 2/26)

The Washington Post: 11 People Sickened After Hazmat Incident At Fort Myer In Arlington
Eleven people, including some Marines, “started to feel ill” after an envelope containing an unknown substance was opened Tuesday at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, authorities said. At around 5:55 p.m., the Arlington Fire Department tweeted that 11 people were sickened after a letter was opened in an administrative building at Fort Myer. (Moyer, 2/27)

KQED: Investigators Fail To Find Cause Of Smoky Metal Yard Fire In Richmond
The cause of a major fire at a metal recycling facility in Richmond that sent high levels of toxic smoke into the air last month may never be known. Investigators have spent weeks interviewing employees of the Sims Metal Management site and sifting through large amounts of burned debris, but in the end they could not find conclusive evidence of what exactly sparked the Jan. 30 blaze, according to Inspector Eric Govan of the Richmond Fire Department. (Goldberg, 2/27)

The Mercury News: Pregnancy Scam Murder Trial Starts For California Man Accused Of Ripping Baby From Mother's Arms
Trial began Monday for a man accused of shooting three people and suffocating a newborn girl he’d ripped from her mother’s arms during a bizarre plot to kidnap infants in Long Beach and El Segundo. Prosecutors allege Anthony McCall, 32, was the muscle in an elaborate but ultimately failed scheme to steal two babies and pass them off as another woman’s children. (Dobruck, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: Newport-Based App Offers Patients A Faster Way To See Medical Specialists
A Newport Beach entrepreneur has created a mobile app that expands the idea of concierge doctors to include specialists. Concierge Key Health, which launched this month in Orange County, Phoenix and New York City, connects patients who pay $3,000 for an individual annual membership or $5,000 for an annual family plan to expedited appointments with doctors in fields such as cardiology, dermatology, pediatrics, reproductive health, ophthalmology and dentistry. (Davis, 2/27)