Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Staff At NYC Hospital For Criminally Insane Voices Alarm About Relocation Plans; Advocates Wary Of Rising Rates Of Uninsured Young Children In Missouri
The New York Times: Why Hospital Workers Fear Moving 50 Criminally Insane Patients
Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center in New York City has long been a place of mystery, with little known about what goes on behind the razor-wire fences. As a result, the state-run facility for the dangerously mentally ill — located on Wards Island in Manhattan — has gone all but unnoticed for decades, despite having held some of the city’s most notorious criminals, including serial killers and cannibals like Daniel Rakowitz, the so-called Butcher of Tompkins Square Park. (Correal, 12/13)
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Concern Grows As Rate Of Uninsured Missouri Children Keeps Climbing
Child advocates are concerned about a new nationwide report that places babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Missouri at the top of an alarming health care trend. Over the past two years, Missouri saw the biggest increase in the country in the rate of uninsured young children, according to a new analysis by Georgetown University. After reaching its lowest rate this decade in 2016, the percentage of uninsured children younger than 6 rose from 3.6% to 5.3% between 2016 and 2018, the report by the university’s Center for Children and Families showed. (Munz, 12/12)
Boston Globe: Partners HealthCare Is Launching A $100 Million Digital Health Initiative
Boston-based Partners HealthCare is spending at least $100 million on a broad new digital health initiative designed to improve the patient experience and make care more efficient, part of a growing movement to infuse 21st-century technology into health care. Partners officials said the five-year initiative will allow patients to book appointments online, communicate with providers through video and text, and access doctors’ notes. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/12)
The Associated Press: Judges Nixes Lawsuit About Toxic Mold At Mississippi Airbase
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a military family who says they were sickened by toxic mold at an air force base in Mississippi. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr.'s ruling dismissed one of 14 lawsuits filed against Hunt Southern Group and Hunt MH Property Management, the owner and property manager of housing at the Keesler Air Force in Biloxi, The Sun Herald reports. (12/12)
Modern Healthcare: HealthPartners Sheds More Than 400 Jobs Across Three Rounds Of Cuts
Minnesota's HealthPartners has announced plans to cut about 445 jobs in various parts of the organization as the health plan and health system responds to declining Medicare reimbursement and other issues. The Bloomington, Minn.-based organization on Thursday confirmed it will close a home care division, a move that will eliminate 70 jobs. That's on top of the not-for-profit organization's announcement in November that it will close its retail pharmacies in early 2020, taking with them another 300 positions. (Bannow, 12/12)
ProPublica and Chicago Tribune: A 7-Year-Old Complained About A Scary Office At School. This Is The Video His Parents Saw — A Month Later.
This week, ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune co-published an investigation about Gages Lake School, a therapeutic day school in Lake County for students in kindergarten through fifth grade with emotional and behavioral disabilities. It is our latest story in “The Quiet Rooms,” an investigation into the way schools across Illinois have used — and often misused — seclusion. Over the 15-month period reporters examined, Gages Lake used seclusion more than almost any other Illinois school included in the analysis. We also published a video, based on surveillance footage from Gages Lake, of a 7-year-old boy, Staley Sandy-Ester, who was routinely put in the school’s seclusion rooms last spring. (Cohen and Smith Richards, 12/13)
Modern Healthcare: Florida Provider To Pay $85K Fine For Not Sharing Timely Patient Records
A Florida provider has agreed to pay HHS' Office for Civil Rights $85,000 million for allegedly neglecting to share a patient's medical records with their preferred third party, even after the agency assisted, the OCR said Thursday. The incident marks the second settlement the OCR has reached as part of its "Right of Access Initiative," an effort the agency launched earlier this year to ensure patients have access to their medical records as mandated under HIPAA. (Cohen, 12/12)
Georgia Health News: Hospital Transparency Rules Approved; State Gives Update On Waiver, Grady Flooding Crisis
Despite objections from hospital groups, Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration has stuck to its tough financial transparency rules for nonprofit hospitals. The board of the Department of Community Health, meeting in Atlanta on Thursday, gave final approval to new financial requirements that hospitals must follow, including disclosing top salaries, property holdings and business ventures. (Miller, 12/12)
Kaiser Health News: San Francisco Hopes To Improve Care For People With Mental Illness Living On Streets
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has promised to tackle her city’s homelessness crisis, a vexing situation involving drug abuse and mental illness that is compounded by the city’s high housing costs. Breed has asked Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, most recently the medical director for psychiatric emergency services at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, to help solve the problem. In March, she appointed him to the newly created position of director of mental health reform. His main role is to help the city improve its mental health and addiction treatment for people experiencing homelessness. (Krans, 12/13)
The Oregonian: Fatal Portland Police Shooting Highlights Failures Of Mental Health System, Chief Says
Prior to being shot and killed by Portland officers on Sunday, Koben Henriksen had several recent encounters with local police, all of which ended without police force and with Henriksen in a medical facility. On Thursday, four days after Henriksen’s death, Portland police released information describing prior encounters with the Portland man, noting that his death highlights failures in Portland’s mental health system. (Ramakrishnan, 12/12)
South Bend Tribune and ProPublica: A New Study Prompted By Our Reporting Confirms Elkhart, Indiana, Police Department Lacks Accountability
An outside study of the police department in Elkhart, Indiana, ordered after a series of reports last year by the South Bend Tribune and ProPublica, has found that a lack of accountability has tarnished the force’s reputation, with officers viewed in the community as “cowboys” who engage in “rough treatment of civilians.” The study, made public Thursday, provided a long list of recommendations to make officer discipline more consistent, promotions less political, citizen complaints easier to file and the department’s workings more transparent. (Sheckler and Armstrong, 12/12)
New Hampshire Union Leader: Judge Dismisses Littleton Hospital's Suit Over Walk-In Clinic
Citing lack of jurisdiction, a judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Littleton Regional Healthcare that sought to undo the approval by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services of a license for ConvenientMD Urgent Care, which operates a competing walk-in clinic. In his order, dated Dec. 10, Judge Lawrence MacLeod also denied Littleton Regional Healthcare’s request for an injunction to prevent DHHS from giving ConvenientMD Urgent Care a license for its facility at 551 Meadow St. in Littleton, which is about three miles from the hospital. (Koziol, 12/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser Mental Health Workers To Begin Five-Day Strike Across California Monday
Kaiser Permanente’s mental health workers plan to begin a five-day strike across California Monday, a week after the Oakland health care nonprofit announced a new CEO. Around 4,000 unionized therapists, psychologists, social workers and other employees will form picket lines starting at 6 a.m. Monday outside Kaiser locations in the state. The action had been postponed for a month following the death of CEO Bernard Tyson. (Narayan, 12/12)
Houston Chronicle: Kevin Leago, Houston Firefighter Who Fought City For Benefits, Succumbs To Cancer
Kevin Leago, the trailblazing Houston firefighter with cancer who fought City Hall to provide workers compensation benefits for his illness — and won — died Thursday. He was 40. Leago’s victory in court over city lawyers who argued his illness was unrelated to on-the-job carcinogen exposure set a precedent for dozens of current and retired Houston firefighters stricken with cancer, Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton said. (Despart, 12/12)
MPR: Environmental, Nuclear Worries Force Prairie Island Tribe To Seek New Lands
Prairie Island last year bought 1,200 acres near Pine Island, Minn., about 35 miles south on U.S. Highway 52. The tribe wants Congress to put the land into trust, adding it to the reservation. In return, the tribe would give up rights to sue the government over flooding caused by the lock-and-dam system. While it’s a logical step for a tribe that continues to grow and prosper, the relocation plan has reopened old wounds over the displacement of Native American people and white encroachment on Native lands. (Richert, 12/13)
Texas Tribune: A Houston Police Death And The Debate Over Who Should Have Guns In Texas
Here in Texas, there’s talk of “red flag” laws that would allow judges to temporarily seize the guns of people deemed dangerous to themselves or others. Expanding required background checks to include person-to-person sales between strangers. (Ramsey, 12/13)
PBS NewsHour: Ambitious Louisville Study Seeks To Understand Impact Of Trees On Our Health
Trees can add beauty and serenity to a neighborhood -- but can they also improve the health of its residents? In Kentucky, the University of Louisville — with help from the National Institutes of Health and The Nature Conservancy — aims to find out. Called Green Heart Louisville, the initiative involves a large-scale scientific study of how greenspaces affect public health. (Yang, 12/12)
