State Highlights: Texas Vaccination Bill Concerns Doctors; Major Reforms Sought In Iowa After Deaths Of Teens In Foster Care

The Associated Press: Doctors Worry As Texas Lawmakers OK Vaccine Restrictions
Texas moved closer Friday to restricting emergency immunizations given to children removed from troubled homes, worrying doctors and handing a political victory for vaccination opponents in a state where the number of families forgoing shots is soaring. (5/19)

Texas Tribune: Senate Passes Religious Protections For Child Welfare Agencies 
Texas senators voted 21-10 on Sunday to give child welfare providers protection from legal retaliation if they assert their “sincerely held religious beliefs” while caring for abused and neglected children in foster or Child Protective Services custody. House Bill 3859 would allow faith-based organizations to place a child in a religion-based school; deny referrals for abortion-related contraceptives, drugs or devices; and refuse to contract with other organizations that don't share their religious beliefs. (Evans, 5/21)

Des Moines Register: 'Heartbroken' Iowa Agency Asks Experts How To Prevent Child Deaths
Two of the girls died after becoming extremely malnourished. The third ran away, fearing for her life. Advocates for home-schooling parents will tell you that such cases are rare, and statistics back them up. Just one of the 20 Iowa children who died in preventable deaths last year was home-schooled: 16-year-old Natalie, Reader's Watchdog found. But revelations about the suffering of the three teens — and other cases nationally — have prompted Iowa legislators and advocates for children to call for major state reforms. Some want to bolster screening of potential foster and adoptive parents, as well as home-schoolers, to provide a better safety net. (Rood, 5/20)

Sacramento Bee: CA Nursing Board Quits Education Audit 
A California licensing board curtailed a massive audit of nursing credentials that it launched late last year, choosing not to finish a project that threatened to overwhelm the small department. The Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians reviewed just 15 percent of the education records it demanded from more than 52,000 nurses and mental health workers last November before it elected to end the audit. (Ashton, 5/19)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia Ranks Best In Country For Early Elective Delivery Rates 
As of the end of 2016, Virginia had the lowest rate of early elective deliveries in the country, according to federal government data. The state’s rate was 1.3 percent, compared with the nationwide rate of 2 percent. An early elective delivery is an induction or cesarean section delivery between 37 and 39 weeks that is not medically necessary. (O'Connor, 5/20)

KCUR: Kansas City Health Organizations Launch Collaborative Health Science District 
Some of Kansas City’s largest health organizations announced on Friday the launch of a collaboration centered on Hospital Hill. The “UMKC Health Sciences District” includes the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Truman Medical Centers, Children’s Mercy Hospital and the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, among other partners. At an event that included the signing of the collaborative agreement, institution and civic leaders highlighted the value of having so many health providers, educational institutions and local city health organization within a few blocks of each other working together. (Smith, 5/19)

The Star Tribune: Harmless Measles? Minn. Officials Want Parents To Know It's A Deadly Virus 
State health officials are underscoring the point as they reach out to parents who are skeptical of the measles vaccine. Some have accepted the discredited theory that the vaccine causes autism — and they reason that autism is serious while measles is not. In fact, measles’ impact on children, even after they recover, can last for years. (Howatt and Mahamud, 5/20)

WABE: New Program Teaches Ga. Educators Youth Suicide Warning Signs 
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Fatality Review Program teamed up with state education and health officials to create a new training program for school personnel. The program focuses on teaching educators warning signs in students and figuring out way to get the issue of suicide out in the open at their schools. (Hawkins, 5/19)

Health News Florida: 'Explosion' Of Salt Marsh Mosquitoes Swarms Collier County 
High winds contributed to spreading the pestilential bugs 30 to 40 miles inland. The Collier County Mosquito Control District received reports of clouds of the pests a dozen miles off shore. The salt marsh mosquito species doesn't transmit the Zika virus, but can pose a threat to pets as a vector of dog heartworm. (Smith, 5/21)

Sacramento Bee: California Democrats Shout Down Tom Perez
State Democrats’ three-day convention had a raucous start Friday, as liberal activists booed and heckled Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez after marching from the state Capitol to promote a universal heath care program. The leader of the nurses’ union that opposed Perez’s recent election had just warned California Democrats that they would put up primary election challengers against lawmakers if they don’t support a bill to create public-funded, universal healthcare. (Cadelago and Hart, 5/19)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Chesterfield-Based Care Advantage Acquires Stay At Home Personal Care Service Offices
Care Advantage, a Chesterfield County-based provider of home health care services in Virginia, announced Friday that it has acquired Stay at Home Personal Care, a subsidiary of Charlottesville-based Commonwealth Senior Living. Stay at Home operates three locations, one each in Norfolk, Hampton and Christiansburg, providing in-home, nonskilled personal-care services. (Hazard, 5/19)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: The Gender Pay Gap Is Alive And Well In Cleveland Healthcare 
Cleveland has the 18th greatest gender wage gap in the country. Here, female physicians are paid 27 percent - or $92,320 - less than their male counterparts, according to a recent study by Doximity, a social network for physicians. Female physicians in Cleveland earn an average annual wage of $246,210, while men make $338,530. (Christ, 5/19)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee's Infant Mortality Numbers Improve But The Racial Disparity Is Still Wide
The call to arms was first sounded in 2004, when the Wisconsin Medical Journal reported that Wisconsin’s black infant mortality rate had collapsed from the third best in the nation to the second worst. Most of those babies — 77% — died in Milwaukee...The new FIMR shows that by 2016, the African-American rate had dropped to 13.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, which places Milwaukee on par with Detroit, Dallas and Minneapolis. (Stephenson, 5/20)

Tampa Bay Times: Entrepreneurs Aren't Waiting For Lawmakers To Plan The Future Of Medical Cannabis 
The revolution started last year in Florida, when voters passed Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment designed to expand medical marijuana legalization beyond the limited use allowed under the Compassionate Use Act. But before departing Tallahassee earlier this month, the Florida Legislature failed to pass rules regulating marijuana's medical use. Negotiations over regulations that are needed to implement the amendment stalled because of disagreements on the number of dispensaries each marijuana grower would be allowed to open. (Solomon, 5/19)