State Highlights: Tennessee Is Spending Billions On Health Care, So Why Are Its Outcomes So Poor?; Hazardous Waste Packed Floor To Ceiling At Atlanta VA Medical Center

Nashville Tennessean: Tennesseans' Health Is Below Average And It's Costing Billions, Nonprofit Says
In the five years since the Governor's Foundation for Health and Wellness was created to help encourage Tennesseans to lead healthier lives, not much has changed. As Tennessee enjoys historically low unemployment rates, the nonprofit has focused on how poor health and preventable disease among the state's workforce is affecting its economy. (Sauber, 10/2)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlanta VA Fined $13,600 After Hazardous Waste Storage Violations
The Atlanta VA Medical Center suffered another setback after inspectors discovered more than one ton of hazardous waste packed floor to ceiling in unsafe conditions, recently-released records show. A portable building was stuffed so full of the hazardous waste that there was no room for inspectors to enter, much less firefighters or emergency equipment, an inspection report said. (Mariano, 10/2)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Wrote 1,016 New Laws This Year. Here's Some Of What Did And Didn't Make It
California’s Legislature revved into high gear when it came to writing laws in 2018, sending the most bills to the governor’s desk in more than a decade. In all, Gov. Jerry Brown weighed in on 1,217 pieces of legislation passed by the state Senate and Assembly. He signed 1,016 into law, and most will take effect on Jan. 1. (Myers, 10/2)

KCUR: Doctor Who Complained About Staffing At Overland Park ER Gets $29 Million Jury Award 
A Jackson County jury has awarded nearly $29 million to a physician who claimed he was wrongfully terminated by the emergency room staffing companies that employed him. Raymond Brovont argued that he'd been fired after he raised concerns that a single physician was used at night to cover both the regular and pediatric ERs of Overland Park Regional Medical Center. The staffing decision was made by his employers, subsidiaries of the ER staffing company EmCare. (Margolies, 10/3)

Georgia Health News: Kaiser Again Rated Top Health Plan In Georgia
Kaiser Permanente has again been rated the top commercial health plan in Georgia by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. It’s the 14th straight year for Kaiser to lead the NCQA commercial plan ratings. (Miller, 10/2)

Boston Globe: Water At VA Boston In West Roxbury Tests Positive For Legionnaires’
Water at a VA Boston Healthcare System hospital in West Roxbury tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease, officials announced Tuesday, more than a week after a patient was diagnosed with the disease. Low levels of Legionnaires’ were found at three locations in the facility. All fixtures at the hospital were removed for further testing, and the source of the disease was eliminated, the VA said in a statement. (Cote, 10/3)

The Associated Press: New Rulings On Medical Marijuana Use Go Against Employers
Health care worker Katelin Noffsinger told a potential employer that she took medical marijuana to deal with the effects of a car accident, but when a drug test came back positive, the nursing home rescinded her job offer anyway. A federal judge last month ruled that the nursing home, which had cited federal laws against pot use, violated an anti-discrimination provision of the Connecticut's medical marijuana law. (10/2)

Pioneer Press: Fraud Scheme Lands Two Chiropractors In Prison For Years 
Two Twin Cities chiropractors will spend years in prison for separate multi-million dollar insurance fraud schemes. The Minnesota Commerce Department announced Tuesday that Adam John Burke, 34, of Minneapolis, received a 90-month prison term and Preston Ellard Forthun, 40, of Bloomington, was sentenced to 60 months. Both men were found guilty last year in separate federal trials — Burke of multiple counts of mail fraud and conspiracy and Forthun of multiple counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy. The state commerce Fraud Bureau, the FBI, Minneapolis and St. Paul police, the state patrol and Homeland Security all worked on the investigation. (Magan, 10/2)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County Jail Inmate Dies, Marking Sixth Inmate Death In Four Months
A Cuyahoga County Jail inmate died while incarcerated in the jail marking the sixth inmate death in the county jails since late June. Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan confirmed the inmate died and that he was taken to MetroHealth, but said she had no other details surrounding the death. (Ferrise, 10/2)

Health News Florida: State Seeks To Stamp Out Marijuana License Case
The Florida Department of Health is asking an appeals court to block a lower-court judge from moving forward with a lawsuit in which a Martin County nursery argues it should receive a potentially lucrative medical-marijuana license. The department went to the 1st District Court of Appeal last week in the dispute, which stems from nursery Edward Miller & Son Inc. being denied a marijuana license --- at least in part because the firm missed an application deadline by 27 minutes. (Saunders, 10/2)

Boston Globe: Cannabis Control Commission To Vote On Final Retail Pot Licenses
State officials will vote either Thursday or next Tuesday on whether to issue final licenses to a marijuana store in Northampton run by New England Treatment Access (NETA) and to a marijuana cultivation, processing, and retail complex in Leicester owned by Cultivate Holdings, according to a meeting agenda published by the commission Tuesday. Both NETA and Cultivate Holdings already operate as medical marijuana dispensaries regulated by the Department of Public Health, or DPH. (Adams, 10/2)