State Highlights: Task Force Lays Flint Blame At Mich. Agency’s Feet; Critics Say ‘All Eyes’ Will Be On Conn.’s Merger Review

NPR: Independent Investigators: State Officials Mostly To Blame For Flint Water Crisis
"The Flint water crisis is a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice." That's how an independent task force opened its final report on the lead-tainted water crisis in Flint. It concluded that primary responsibility for the crisis in Flint, Mich., lies with a state environmental agency called the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality — though it said others are also to blame. (Kennedy, 3/23)

The Connecticut Mirror: Critics Urge More Transparency In Anthem-Cigna Merger Review
Saying that “all eyes will be on Connecticut,” critics of two pending mergers of major health insurers have asked the state’s insurance commissioner to take steps they say would increase transparency in the review of Anthem’s proposed acquisition of Cigna. (Levin Becker, 3/23)

North Carolina Health News: Legislators, Advocates Discuss Stemming The Flow Of Mentally Ill To Prison
North Carolina has about 36,900 people incarcerated in state prisons and, according to numbers from the state Department of Public Safety, at least 14 percent, or about 5,100, of those people have a severe mental illness. Compared to the number of psychiatric beds available in the state, about 2,700, it’s clear that North Carolina’s prison system houses more patients with mental health problems than the health care system, said David Guice, who manages adult corrections and juvenile justice for DPS. (Hoban, 3/23)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: House Passes Bill Narrowing AG Abuse Investigations
The Kansas House on Wednesday passed a bill narrowing the scope of abuse claims the Attorney General’s Office investigates, with some revisions by a committee. Senate Bill 408 would move responsibility for investigating some cases involving children away from the Attorney General’s Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Unit. Attorney General Derek Schmidt testified during a February hearing in favor of the bill, which he said would allow the unit to focus on abuse cases involving seniors and adults with disabilities. (Hart, 3/23)

The Providence Journal: R.I. Disability Law Center Opens Probe Into Abuse, Neglect Of Disabled
Exercising its federal authority to investigate suspected abuse or neglect of developmentally disabled people, the Rhode Island Disability Law Center has opened its own examination of the February death of a 70-year-resident of a state-run group home, College Park Apartments on Mt. Pleasant Avenue. The death is already under investigation by Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit and the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH), which operates the home, scheduled to close by Friday after its 14 remaining residents have been transferred to other facilities. And on Wednesday, the state police confirmed they, too, are investigating. (Miller, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Alabama 'Personhood' Proposal Would Effectively Ban Abortion
A proposed Alabama constitutional amendment would legally define a fetus as a person from the moment of fertilization, effectively banning abortion in the state. The House Health Committee on Wednesday debated but did not vote on the amendment. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ed Henry, R-Decatur, is similar to ballot measures voted down in Mississippi, Colorado and North Dakota in recent years. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2012 ruled a similar amendment unconstitutional. (3/23)

The Oregonian: Head Of Portland VA Medical Center Has Stepped Down
The director of Veterans Affairs in Portland has stepped down. Joanne Krumberger was named director of the VA Portland Health Care System in May 2014. On Friday, she was gone. (Terry, 3/23)

Georgia Health News: Kaiser Again Ranks Tops In Member Satisfaction
Kaiser Permanente of Georgia had the highest patient satisfaction rating in its region for the seventh consecutive year, as compiled by J.D. Power. Kaiser, which serves nearly 300,000 members in metro Atlanta and Athens, earned 765 of a possible 1,000 points in the survey of the South Atlantic region, which includes South Carolina and North Carolina. (Miller, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Indiana Court: IBM Breached Contract, Still Due $50M
IBM Corp. breached its state contract in the company's failed attempt to privatize Indiana's welfare services but is still entitled to nearly $50 million in state fees, the state Supreme Court said Tuesday in a ruling that also opens the door for Indiana to seek up to $175 million in damages. The high court's ruling in the long-running case upholds a February 2014 state Court of Appeals ruling and reverses a trial court judge's finding that Indiana had failed to prove IBM breached the $1.3 billion state contract it won in 2006. Under that contract, an IBM-led team of vendors had worked to process applications for food stamps, Medicaid and other public safety-net benefits through the call centers, the Internet and fax machines that residents could use to apply for those benefits. (Callahan, 3/22)