State Highlights: Talks To Craft New Health Plan Tax Stall In Calif. Legislature; Chicago Mayor Finishes Phaseout Of City’s Retiree Health Benefit Subsidy

Los Angeles Times: Negotiations To Tax Health Plans Falter On The Legislature's Final Day
An effort to craft a new tax on health plans to stave off a looming plunge in federal funding for Medi-Cal has stalled, the Brown administration said Friday. The health plans tax was at the top of the agenda for a special session on healthcare that was convened by Gov. Jerry Brown. California currently imposes a tax on plans that accept Medi-Cal patients, and the revenue goes into the state’s general fund to help pay for Medi-Cal and other services. (Mason, 9/11)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel Completes Three-Year Phaseout Of Retiree Health Care Subsidy
On Friday, the mayor lowered the boom on retirees — by completing a three-year phaseout of the city’s 55 percent subsidy for retiree health care and assuming that a lawsuit that seeks to reinstate the subsidy of $108.7 million a year falls flat. (Spielman, 9/11)

The Associated Press: Actors, Mentally Ill Aid NYC Police Training Meant To Calm
A woman called Emily, tears streaming down her face, stood on a ledge threatening to jump. For 15 minutes, a police sergeant used the common thread that connects them — they're both mothers — to gradually talk her out of killing herself. The scene, played out earlier this month at the New York Police Department's training facility, was an act, part of a training program meant to help patrol officers in the nation's largest department better handle the growing number of interactions they have with people in emotional or mental distress. (9/13)

Lubbuck (Texas) Avalanche-Journal: West Texas Leaders Concerned Medicaid Cuts Could Effect Thousands Of Children, Others; Hearing Set
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission will likely hear an earful when it holds a public hearing later this week. Agency officials meet Friday morning “to receive comment on proposed Medicaid payment rates for physical, occupational and speech therapy provided by comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities/outpatient rehabilitation facilities, home health agencies and independent therapists,” the public notice reads. The agency finds itself in a tough position because a growing number of state legislators, including some influential Republicans such as Reps. Four Price and John Smithee, fear a plan to cut Medicaid rates — which the GOP-dominated Legislature approved two years ago — may do more harm than good. (Rangel, 9/14)

The New York Times: Panel Studying Racial Divide In Missouri Presents A Blunt Picture Of Inequity
A commission appointed by Missouri’s governor after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer is calling for sweeping changes across the St. Louis region on matters of policing, the courts, education, health care, housing and more. In a 198-page report to be made public in Ferguson, Mo., on Monday afternoon, the commission lays out goals that are ambitious, wide ranging and, in many cases, politically delicate. Among 47 top priorities, the group calls for increasing the minimum wage, expanding eligibility for Medicaid and consolidating the patchwork of 60 police forces and 81 municipal courts that cover St. Louis and its suburbs. (Davey, 9/14)

The Des Moines Register: Care Firm In MHI Controversy Paid Medicaid-Billing Settlement
State officials say a recent Medicaid-overpayment settlement by an Iowa nursing home chain has no bearing on a controversy over whether patients from a state mental hospital should have been transferred to the company’s facilities. Signature Care Centers runs six nursing homes, including facilities in Perry and Primghar that accepted patients from the Clarinda Mental Health Institute before it closed. Two of the six elderly patients sent to those nursing homes died shortly after their transfers. The Johnston-based company recently agreed to repay $415,044 to the state and federal governments, according to federal prosecutors. The payments relate to what investigators in 2012 termed “credible allegations of fraud” in bills the company submitted to Medicaid. (Leys, 9/12)

The Des Moines Register: Clarinda Patients Mistreated After Transfer, Report Says
A Perry nursing home mishandled the treatment of three patients transferred there from a state mental hospital, including one who died and another who suffered a broken leg, state inspectors have concluded. The Perry Health Care Center faces up to $13,500 in fines for its mistreatment of the three former state hospital patients, as well as a fourth resident, according to records obtained by The Des Moines Register. The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals report doesn’t name the patients or specify that they'd recently been transferred from the Iowa Mental Health Institute at Clarinda, which closed in June. (Leys, 9/12)

The Des Moines Register: Ex-Clarinda Patient: "I'm Running Out Of Places To Go"
Colleen Scassellatti wants Iowans to know what has happened to her since she was transferred from the Clarinda state Mental Health Institute to the Perry Health Care Center. “I’m not happy here, but I’m running out of places to go,” she said from her nursing home bed. Scassellatti agreed to a reporter'a visit recently because she thinks it’s important for the public to understand the situation. (Leys, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Senate Committee Approves Cigarette Tax
An Alabama Senate committee on Friday approved a cigarette tax and other revenue bills as legislators try to broker an agreement to minimize cuts to state services when the fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Legislators have 19 days to get a general fund budget in place or risk a shutdown of state government services. The first week of a special session on the budget brought progress, but not a solution, on how to handle a $200 million fiscal shortfall. (Chandler, 9/11)

NPR: Live-In Laboratory May Help Older Adults Live Independently Longer
Instead of having to go to the doctors, how about a physical, every day, without having to do anything at all? We visit a live-in laboratory in Fort Worth, Texas, designed for senior citizens. (Silverman, 9/14)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Insurers' Website Provides Price Comparisons For Medical Procedures
The average cost of a medical procedure or test — or even a basic office visit — can be one of the most elusive bits of information in health care. Now, drawing on data from tens of millions of insurance claims, a website backed by several major health insurers is making the information easily available to consumers in Milwaukee and other cities throughout the country. (Boulton, 9/12)