Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: States May Require Schools To Add Mental Health Education To Curriculum; Iowa To Allow Patients To Sue Surgeons Over Inexperience
Stateline: Many Recommend Teaching Mental Health In Schools. Now Two States Will Require It.
Amid sharply rising rates of teen suicide and adolescent mental illness, two states have enacted laws that for the first time require public schools to include mental health education in their basic curriculum. Most states require health education in all public schools, and state laws have been enacted in many states to require health teachers to include lessons on tobacco, drugs and alcohol, cancer detection and safe sex. Two states are going further: New York’s new law adds mental health instruction to the list in kindergarten through 12th grade; Virginia requires it in ninth and 10th grades. (Vestal, 6/15)
Des Moines Register: Supreme Court: Patient May Sue Surgeon For Not Disclosing Inexperience
Alan Andersen wishes he'd known beforehand that the surgeon who performed a complex heart operation on him had never done the procedure before. The Iowa Supreme Court decided Friday that Andersen has a fair point. The court ruled he may sue surgeon Sohit Khanna and Khanna's former employer, the Iowa Heart Center, over the lack of disclosure. Khanna had no experience or training in the specific surgery, the Iowa Supreme Court wrote. The 2004 operation at Des Moines’ Mercy Medical Center involved replacing a flawed section of artery right next to the heart. (Leys, 6/15)
Concord Monitor: N.H. To Become First State To Use Health Insurance Claims To Rate Networks
Years of information about payments for health insurance claims in New Hampshire that is being used to help patients do comparison price shopping will soon help the state judge health networks and may even help those networks improve, especially for behavioral health. “It may be that there is a non-traditional provider or a lower cost provider that is performing a service,” said Jennifer Patterson, Director of Health Policy for the Insurance Department. An upcoming change in rules, she said, should help the state ensure that insurance providers know about or make use of alternatives such as nurse practitioners, social workers or even telemedicine. (Brooks, 6/15)
Columbus Dispatch: Thousands Could Be Impacted By Proposed Family Planning Cuts, Columbus Officials Say
More than 10,000 Columbus-area women could lose their access to affordable reproductive health care under a Trump administration proposal to block federal family-planning funds from going to any clinic with a connection to abortion services or referrals. That’s according to a new analysis from Columbus City Auditor Megan Kilgore and Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown, who say health-care availability creates ripples — for good or for ill — that reach deeply into local and state economies. (Price, 6/15)
Texas Tribune: After Santa Fe Shooting, Will Texas Pass A “Red Flag” Law To Remove Guns From People Who Are Deemed Dangerous?
As mass shootings continue, more and more states have adopted “red flag” laws that allow law enforcement, and sometimes family members or other parties, to ask a court to order the seizure or surrender of guns from people who are deemed dangerous by a judge. After Texas’ second high-profile mass shooting in six months — a Santa Fe High School student has been charged with last month’s slaying of 10 students and teachers at the school — lawmakers are discussing whether this notably pro-gun state needs its own red flag measure. (McCullough, 6/18)
Bloomberg: The Dark Side Of The Orgasmic Meditation Company
OneTaste is a sexuality-focused wellness education company based in the Bay Area. It’s best known for classes on “orgasmic meditation,” a trademarked procedure that typically involves a man using a gloved, lubricated fingertip to stroke a woman’s clitoris for 15 minutes. For Michal, like those at her wedding, OneTaste was much more than a series of workshops. It was a company that had, in less than a year, gained sway over every aspect of her life. ...But many who’ve become involved in the upper echelons describe an organization that they found ran on predatory sales and pushed members to ignore their financial, emotional, and physical boundaries in ways that left them feeling traumatized. (Huet, 6/18)
The Washington Post: Puerto Rico Struggles With Jump In Asthma Cases Post-Maria
Shortly after he turned 2, Yadriel Hernandez started struggling to breathe. His doctor prescribed an inhaler and an allergy pill for asthma, and his symptoms were mostly under control. Then Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, strewing mold-producing wreckage across the island and forcing many to use fume-spewing generators for power. The boy, now 8, started having twice-monthly attacks and needing nearly four times the amount of medicine he used to take. (Coto, 6/18)
Columbus Dispatch: Emergency Rooms Often The Only Dialysis Option For Undocumented Immigrants
Undocumented immigrants such as Juan, who don’t have a Social Security number and can’t afford private insurance, are often turned away for dialysis unless they are near death, and even then they often have to go through emergency departments. (King, 6/16)
The Star Tribune: Health Care Sector, Led By UnitedHealth Group, Has Outsized Presence On Top 50 List
UnitedHealth Group maintained its status as Minnesota’s largest public company in 2017 as the Minnetonka-based health care giant for the first time surpassed the $200 billion mark in annual revenue. The company’s UnitedHealthcare business remained the largest private health insurer in the country, with particularly strong growth in its already large business providing coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Optum division for health care services grew, too, including an acquisition announced in January 2017 that’s making UnitedHealth Group one of the nation’s largest operators of surgery centers. (Snowbeck, 6/16)
Columbus Dispatch: Direct-Care Agency Bumps Pay To Attract New Workers, Reduce Turnover
Saying its front-line workers have been overburdened and underpaid, a local agency that provides support services for people with disabilities is raising its starting pay rate by nearly 28 percent, to $13 an hour. ...In a special report in April, The Dispatch wrote about how that workforce crisis is affecting thousands of people with disabilities and their families as wages rarely exceed $11 to $12 an hour. Turnover rates approach 50 percent. (Price, 6/15)
KQED: California Is Expanding Care Options For Boomers With Dementia — But Still Falling Short Of The Need
For low-income seniors who can’t afford care at home and don’t want or need the full medical services of a nursing facility, the state’s few options aren’t enough to meet demand. A middle-ground choice — assisted living — requires special permission under government rules and is available to fewer than 4,000 Californians, although state health officials and lawmakers are both proposing increases. (Gorn, 6/15)
Boston Globe: Report Finds High Skin Cancer Rates In Mass., Particularly On Cape Cod
One out of every 20 people in Massachusetts has been diagnosed with a type of skin cancer, one of the highest rates in the country, a recent report found. The rates are even higher on Cape Cod, where the Barnstable-Yarmouth area placed in the top five metropolitan areas for skin cancer. (Capelouto, 6/16)
Health News Florida: Floridians Worried About Zika, But They Didn't Necessarily Protect Themselves
Most Floridians knew about the Zika virus and how it spread—but that wasn't enough to get them to protect themselves, according to a new study in the journal Risk Analysis.As the Zika virus emerged in the United States two summers ago, researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed more than 12,000 Americans. (Mack, 6/15)
Boston Globe: Health Center Workers Rally Against Layoffs
Dozens of fired workers and their supporters demonstrated outside the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury Friday morning to protest what they say is retaliation for trying to organize a union. ...Chief executive Frederica Williams said the cuts were due to two grants being denied, accounting for a loss of $680,000 in expected funds, and were unrelated to unionization. (Johnston, 6/15)
State House News Service: Union Says Health Care Workers In Roxbury Fired Amid Organizing Attempt
As many as 20 employees of Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury were fired Thursday, according to a major state health care workers union that characterized the downsizing as retribution for their support of efforts to unionize professionals at the health center. 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East Executive Vice President Tim Foley said the dismissals come just days before a vote is scheduled to be held to determine whether professionals at the health center, including doctors, nurses and counselors, will unionize. (Murphy, 6/15)
The Associated Press: California ER Doctor Seen On Video Mocking Patient Suspended
A Northern California emergency room doctor has been suspended after cursing and mocking a man who said he had an anxiety attack. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Dr. Beth Keegstra, a contract doctor with El Camino Hospital in Los Gatos, was suspended after she was recorded on June 11 questioning whether 20-year-old Samuel Bardwell was sick or just looking for drugs. (6/17)
Boston Globe: In Reversal, Whittier Health Center In Roxbury Won’t Lay Off Workers
In an abrupt reversal, 20 workers laid off last week from the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury will get to keep their jobs, after the nonprofit found a “pathway forward” toward financial stability with the help of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, officials said Sunday. In a statement, Frederica Williams, the center’s chief executive, said the organization will still have to review its programs and staffing “to ensure we are properly sized to deliver the best care possible to our community today and into the future.” (Hilliard and Guerra, 6/18)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland Orders Frustrated Residents To Leave Lead Hazard Homes The City Helped Them Clean Up
The city, after years of reluctance to post state-mandated warnings and vacate homes with lingering lead hazards that poisoned children, now has ordered occupants to leave dozens of homes it helped to remediate with federal money. (Dissell, 6/17)
Dallas Morning News: Watch: Mother Donates Kidney To Daughter Live On Facebook At Dallas Hospital
A mother-daughter bond. An hours-long surgery. A robot performing a kidney transplant. Live on Facebook. Methodist Dallas Medical Center's Facebook page has drawn thousands of viewers to a series of live videos of a mother-daughter kidney transplant surgery. Maribel Gutierrez is donating a kidney to her 20-year-old daughter, Jessica, who was born with kidney-related complications, the hospital said. (Gross, 6/16)
Chicago Sun Times: Officials Warn Of Potential Measles Exposure At Loop Restaurant
Public health officials are warning people who recently dined at a restaurant in the Loop that they may have been exposed to measles after another customer contracted the highly contagious virus. Customers who dined at Honeygrow, 70 E. Lake St., between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday may have been exposed to the virus, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. Honeygrow has cooperated with the CDPH’s investigation and there is no ongoing risk at the restaurant. (Schuba, 6/17)
Capital Public Radio: A Black Man Died While In Sacramento Police Custody. Now, The Family Is Asking Why He Didn’t Receive Medical Care.
The family of a black man who died in Sacramento police custody is questioning whether officers should have sought medical care before transporting him to jail. Police department video released on Wednesday show Brandon Smith breathing heavily and complaining of “having a heart attack” as officers heft him into the back of a patrol wagon. (Caiola, 6/14)
