State Highlights: Truce Ordered In Calif. Fight Over Alzheimer’s Study; Doc Faces Sentencing For Unneeded Chemo

Los Angeles Times: Judge Orders Truce In USC-UC San Diego Fight Over Alzheimer's Study Data
A judge ordered a temporary truce Wednesday in the unusually public and nasty fight involving UC San Diego and USC over control of a historic, nationwide study on Alzheimer's disease. San Diego County Superior Court Judge Judith Hayes accepted USC's promise that it will not alter data and computer systems that are part of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), a $100-million nationwide project that has been based at, and managed by, UC San Diego since 1991. The university last week sued the director of the study, Paul Aisen, eight of his campus colleagues and USC, accusing them of hijacking a study that involves dozens of research institutions across the country. (Robbins, Fikes and Gordon, 7/8)

Detroit Free Press/USA Today: Patient Lost Teeth After Chemo He Didn't Need
A man with lower back pain was treated like he had blood cancer and given chemotherapy and radiation — even though tests showed he didn't have cancer, an expert testified Wednesday at the sentencing hearing for Dr. Farid Fata. The once-prominent Oakland County physician, facing prison for insurance fraud by grossly over treating hundreds of patients, quietly watched in a federal courtroom in downtown Detroit as the expert witness described the treatment of Robert Sobieray, who was told he also had metastatic bone cancer. "I'm not sure what they thought they were radiating," said Dr. David Steensma, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and cancer physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who testified for prosecutors. (Allen, 7/8)

The Associated Press: Expert Testifies Against Cancer Doctor At Sentencing Hearing
An expert who looked at the files of 100 patients of a Detroit-area cancer doctor facing prison for unnecessary treatments testified Wednesday that the records were disturbing. Dr. David Steensma of Harvard Medical School said some patients received hundreds of unnecessary chemotherapy treatments. He testified for the government at the third day of a sentencing hearing for Dr. Farid Fata, an Oakland County oncologist who was charged with widespread health care fraud. He pleaded guilty last fall to fraud, money laundering and conspiracy and could get his sentence Thursday or Friday. (7/8)

Kaiser Health News: An Explicit Contract Makes Surrogacy Viable For An Oregon Woman
During the past few years, Oregon has quietly become a prime location for women willing to carry children for those unable to get pregnant. ... But surrogacy arrangements are often informal agreements, and they can go wrong. A surrogate may face unexpected medical bills, or the intended parents may change their mind. Yet Mardi Palan is excited about becoming a surrogate, and that’s due in part to a very thorough contract she has signed governing the terms of her surrogacy. (Foden-Vencil, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Catholic Church Gets Win In Liberal California Legislature
The Catholic Church, often out of step with California's liberal Legislature, notched a prominent win at the statehouse this week after aligning with advocates for the disabled and medical groups to defeat a proposal to allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. ... Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez wrote to the Assembly Health Committee last month, warning against a state that responds to suffering by "making it easier for people to kill themselves." An archdiocese website urged volunteers to get involved. ... Using English and Spanish, the Diocese of Orange urged parishioners on its website to write members of the Legislature to oppose the bill. (Blood, 7/8)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Group Says Providers Should Be Paid For Quality
The group formed by [Rhode Island] Gov. Gina Raimondo to transform the Medicaid system recommended paying health care providers for the quality of their services in its final report, which was released Wednesday. Most Medicaid payments in Rhode Island are made based on the amount of services provided. That can incentivize providers to focus on volume rather than value. (McDermott, 7/8)

Reuters: Hospitals Lose Bid To Recover $16M In Medicare Bad Debts
The U.S. does not have to reimburse more than 70 hospitals owned by Community Health Systems Inc for about $16 million in Medicare patients' uncollectible debts, a Washington, D.C., judge has ruled, in an issue that has divided judges in the district. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled on Tuesday that the Tennessee-based Community Health Systems had not provided enough evidence that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services changed its policy on reimbursing bad debts in 2004, in violation of federal law. (Pierson, 7/8)

Iowa State Daily: Iowa Mental Health Care Review Pending
No set criteria exist yet to gauge whether or not a redesign of how Iowa delivers mental health treatment, which included the controversial closing of two mental health institutes June 30, will be as beneficial to Iowans as hoped, Gov. Terry Branstad said in an IowaWatch interview. Branstad said he will continue to review a four-year plan for re-designing how Iowa provides mental health care. The redesign plan, implemented in 2012, is to bring mental health care services from being delivered at the county level to being delivered in a regional level containing multiple counties. Fifteen mental health regions exist in Iowa. Mental health care advocates in Iowa have not embraced the changes, and Branstad is well aware of that. (Tendall, 7/8)

The Associated Press: New York Implementing Plan To End AIDS Epidemic By 2020
New York state is putting its plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2020 into action. ... The state's strategy includes stepped up HIV testing and treatment and a focus on the use of pre-exposure drugs that can help high-risk individuals avoid infection. (7/8)

NBC News: Needed: $5 Million To Fund Successful Birth Control Program
A program that helped cut abortions by 42 percent among teens and cut teen births by 40 percent is scrambling for cash after a big grant ran out and the state legislature refused to fund it. The Colorado Family Planning Initiative provided free or subsidized birth control to needy, high-risk women. The program posted a plea for funding last week, and hopes to keep going by cobbling together money from the state, the federal government, and private contributors, said Dr. Larry Wolk, Colorado's chief medical officer. (Fox, 7/8)

The Associated Press: California Lawmaker Drops Bill To Regulate E-Cigarettes
A California lawmaker was forced to forsake his own tobacco bill Wednesday after a legislative panel gutted its key provision calling for electronic cigarettes to be regulated as a tobacco product. The developments stalled the bill in the committee and threatened its chances of becoming law. (Horowitz, 7/8)

San Jose Mercury News: Stanford Opens South Bay Cancer Center Designed With Patients' Feedback
When its doors open next week, Stanford Cancer Center South Bay will be more than just a medical facility that is closer to local residents than Palo Alto: It will also feature some of the comforts of home. The 70,000-square-foot building at Highway 85 and Bascom Avenue could begin taking cancer patients for treatment and exams as soon as July 13. The vision for the center took off when Stanford announced in 2013 that it would occupy the vacant new building and asked patients and their advocates what they'd like to see offered. (Ballester, 7/8)

The North Coast Journal: The Shut Out: Why Humboldt County's Skilled Nursing Facilities Stopped Accepting Patients
Queenie [Spenceley] has been turned away from every skilled nursing facility in Humboldt County [in California]. It's not because she's ineligible: The facilities accept MediCal, MediCare and private payment. It's not because they're full .... It's not because she's too sick: Skilled nursing facilities are intended to serve patients with medical problems such as Queenie's. And it's not for lack of trying. Her husband, with the help of caseworkers, has repeatedly petitioned all six facilities to find a place for his wife. ... Spenceley's experience is not an anomaly. According to a statement from St. Joseph's Hospital, the organization that owns five of the six local skilled nursing facilities recently informed the hospital that the facilities would no longer accept its patients. (A sixth facility, Jerold Phelps in Garberville, has only eight beds and a long waiting list.) The company also severed its contract with the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), leaving the program with nowhere in-county to place clients with needs too great to remain at home. (Stansberry, 7/8)

The Associated Press: Maryland Right-To-Die Doc Seeks License Reinstatement
A Baltimore right-to-die advocate is asking a judge to reinstate his Maryland medical license. Dr. Lawrence Egbert’s hearing is set for Thursday in Baltimore. The state medical board revoked Egbert’s license in December, contending he assisted in the suicides of six people who died from inhaling helium. (7/8)

The Associated Press: NBA, GE Healthcare Fund Research To Benefit Player Health
Seeking further ways to prevent injuries, the NBA is joining with GE Healthcare to promote research that could benefit players' health. With Commissioner Adam Silver saying that players' well-being is the league's "highest priority," the league says Wednesday the partnership aims to "reduce injuries, lengthen careers and improve post-career health for NBA players." (7/8)