Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Tri-State Outbreak Was Caused After Kentucky Doctor Let Wife Handle Vaccines; Tennessee Senator Faces Medicare Fraud Claims
The Associated Press: State: Doctor's Wife Mishandled Vaccines, Caused Outbreak
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure says a Mount Sterling doctor allowed his unlicensed wife to mishandle vaccines, causing an infection outbreak in patients across Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the board on Friday placed Dr. Paul E. McLaughlin on five years' probation. He also was ordered to pay $5,000 for delegating to someone without a medical license and contributing to a public health crisis. (7/22)
The Associated Press: Federal Lawsuit: $25M Fraud At Tennessee Senator's Clinic
A Tennessee senator and other officials at a now-shuttered pain clinic company are facing a federal lawsuit that claims they defrauded Medicare and Medicaid of more than $25 million. The complaint filed Monday in Nashville by federal and state authorities alleges that Comprehensive Pain Specialists, Republican state Sen. Steve Dickerson and others submitted claims for a variety of unnecessary procedures and falsified documents. (7/22)
The Associated Press: Democrats Seek Hearings Over Firing Of Iowa Agency Head
Democratic leaders in the Iowa Legislature called Monday for government oversight hearings on Gov. Kim Reynolds' refusal to discuss her reasons for asking the director of the Iowa Department of Human Services to resign. Senate and House Government Oversight Committee Democrats are calling for hearings on Jerry Foxhoven's sudden departure last month, and want him to explain what happened. (7/22)
The Associated Press: Fiancee Sues Over Principal's Death In Bone Marrow Procedure
A hospital failed to adequately monitor and treat a New Jersey high school principal as his oxygen level plummeted during a bone-marrow donation procedure in February, sending him into a coma and leading to his death several weeks later, a lawsuit filed Monday by his fiancee alleges. Westfield High School Principal Derrick Nelson died in April after lapsing into a coma during the procedure at Hackensack University Medical Center, which Sheronda Braker named in her suit. (7/22)
The Washington Post: After A Deadly Shooting, A Different Kind Of Recovery Takes Shape At One Of The Nation’s Oldest Methadone Clinics
For Regina Brown, hope for a clean life is pink and comes at the bottom of a little plastic cup. Each weekday, Brown rises early to stop at the Man Alive Lane Treatment Center before work. She takes a number and waits her turn before approaching a staffer sitting behind a plexiglass window. A small dose of methadone is passed through a hatch, and she gulps down the bitter liquid. Before she can leave, Brown must open her mouth to say “thank you” to the clinic worker — a practice to ensure patients won’t spit out the medication later to sell on the street. (Bui and Demkovich, 7/22)
The Star Tribune: Minnesota DHS Official Says She Was Punished For Speaking Out
A compliance officer at the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) said she was the victim of retaliation after she raised alarms about the legality of contracts at the social services agency. Faye K. Bernstein, a lead contract specialist at DHS, said she was verbally reprimanded and sidelined from her duties after she pointed out “serious non-compliance issues” with a group of contracts approved by leaders in the agency’s behavioral health division, which awards millions of dollars each year in contracts for mental health and substance use treatment and services. (Serres and Howatt, 7/23)
The CT Mirror: In Quest To Repeal Vaccine Exemption, Legislators Seek Powerful Ally
Lawmakers intent on wiping out Connecticut’s religious exemption to vaccines are courting a powerful ally they hope will help sell their case next year. But so far, the state’s new health commissioner is taking extraordinary pains to remain outside the political fray. (Carlesso, 7/23)
Seattle Times: Eastside Voters To Again Decide Whether To Approve Revised EvergreenHealth Bond Measure
Less than 1,000 votes kept EvergreenHealth from passing a $345 million bond that the public hospital district said was needed to pay for needed upgrades. In the aftermath of April’s election, officials at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland learned that Eastside voters, not surprisingly, were concerned about seeing their taxes increase. So they tried to figure out a way for the tax rate to remain the same without decreasing the amount of the bond measure. The result is a revised 20-year, $345 million bond measure on the Aug. 6 election ballot that would fund a new critical-care unit, an undated maternity center and work to retrofit the original hospital building. (Cornwell, 7/22)
The Oregonian: Disability Rights OR Says Negligence By Prison Nurses, Medical Staff Caused Inmate’s Death
Michael Thomas Barton, an inmate who suffered from mental illness and contracted the flu, died in custody because prison nurses and doctors failed to give him appropriate medical care, an advocacy group alleges in a new report released Monday. Barton begged to stay in the infirmary of the Oregon State Penitentiary, but medical staff disregarded his pleas as well as the pleas of other inmates and prison employees to get him help, Disability Rights Oregon claims. (Bernstein, 7/22)
Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Residents With Mental Health Issues Could Be Homeless After Nonprofit Group Sells Housing Complex
[Don Thompson's] lifeline was being able to live independently at Friendship Palms, a government-subsidized apartment complex for people battling mental health issues. As well as cheap housing — Thompson pays about $280 per month — residents receive in-home mental health services. ...Project Return, the nonprofit that owns the complex, learned in February that it lost a federal grant that helped pay for the housing. Officials waited until June 6 to notify tenants of plans to sell the complex and that they must move out by the end of July. (O'Donnell and Kumar, 7/22)
Houston Chronicle: Family Of Inmate Who Died At Harris County Jail Concerned He Was Exposed To Mumps Outbreak
The family of an inmate who died last month amid a mumps outbreak at the Harris County Jail believe he may have been exposed to the contagion at the facility. At a news conference outside the jail Monday, the prisoner’s wife, children and a granddaughter said they believed the jail had been negligent in protecting Ronald Washington after he was exposed to mumps. Randall Kallinen, a lawyer for the family, said mumps is “highly treatable” and said the family wants the Texas Rangers to investigate. (Banks, 7/22)
Kaiser Health News: Missouri Firm With Silicon Valley Ties Faces Medicare Billing Scrutiny
In many ways, Essence Group Holdings Corp. is a homegrown health care success story. Founded locally, it has grown into a broader company backed by a major Silicon Valley investor. Essence now boasts Medicare Advantage plans for seniors with some 60,000 members in Missouri and across the Mississippi River in Illinois. It ranks among the city’s top 35 privately held companies, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. And market research firm PitchBook Data values the company at over $1.64 billion. (Weber and Schulte, 7/23)
New Hampshire Union Leader: Sununu Wants Developmental Disability Wait List Off Budget Firing Line
Gov. Chris Sununu is asking a legislative budget oversight group to take off the state budget firing line a popular program that provides services to adults with developmental disabilities. The two-term Newfields Republican is likely to get his wish from Democrats that dominate the Legislative Fiscal Committee but its leaders don’t agree with Sununu’s description of this dilemma as an “unintended consequence.” Sununu wrote the chairman of the Legislative Fiscal Committee Monday lobbing for support of an emergency spending item totaling $15.9 million for the so-called DD Wait List program. (Landrigan, 7/22)
North Carolina Health News: Eastern NC Mental Health Unit Slated For Closure
An Eastern North Carolina hospital is planning to shut down its inpatient mental health unit next month. The impending closure of Vidant Beaufort Hospital’s 19-bed unit is the first time in recent memory that a mental health ward receiving state funds through a so-called “three-way contract” is closing, an N.C. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said in an email. (Engel-Smith, 7/22)
KCUR: Pond Scum Is Ruining More Than Your Kansas Lake Trip
Toxic blue-green algal blooms have been causing major problems on Kansas’ lakes since about 2010. Because the pond scum can make people sick, the lakes became out of bounds for swimmers and the like. Yet now the phenomenon is costing Kansans money. It’s infiltrating city water systems, triggering slightly more expensive treatments to keep drinking water safe. (Grimmett, 7/22)
The Washington Post: ‘Warehousing At Its Worst’: Rights Groups Say W.Va. School System Gives Inferior Education To Special-Needs Students
Disability rights groups are accusing West Virginia’s largest school system of providing an inferior education for students with disabilities and segregating them, according to complaints lodged with state officials. The rights groups filed complaints with the West Virginia Department of Education on behalf of three students in June, accusing Kanawha County Schools of failing to provide the students academic and behavioral supports related to their disabilities. (Truong, 7/22)
Los Angeles Times: L.A. Says It Got 21,631 Homeless People Into Housing. Is That Really True?
In the pervasive gloom that has surrounded the results of L.A. County’s annual homeless count, officials have repeatedly pointed to one bit of bright news: A record number of people got off the streets and into housing last year. The 21,631 people who were housed last year using millions of new tax dollars was 23% higher than in 2017 and double the number housed in 2014. Still, the population living on the streets, in vehicles and in shelters climbed 12% in the past year, putting the number of homeless people at nearly 59,000 countywide. (Smith, 7/20)
