State Highlights: Where Hope For The Best Fails: Nearly 60% Of Women Experience Violence In Alaska; Enforced Staffing Ratios Would Cost $3B Yearly, New York Hospital Group Claims

USA Today: Deadliest State: For Women In Alaska, Rape And Murder Are Too Common
She wore her hair down to cover bruises on her neck and collarbone. She’d go days without speaking to her family, explaining later that her husband didn’t want her communicating with them. In turn, her family grew suspicious, then fearful. Was Linda safe, they wondered? They knew the state's grim reputation: Alaska often ranks as the deadliest state for women. A staggering 59% of adult women in Alaska have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both. Linda Skeek's family knew, too, that as violence escalates in the home, victims are less and less likely to make it out unscathed. But they kept hoping: She’d be OK, right? (Schnell, 6/25)

Modern Healthcare: Mandated Staffing Ratios Would Cost $3B A Year: N.Y. Hospital Association
Legislation that would mandate nurse staffing ratios for all hospitals and nursing homes in the state would cost providers $3 billion a year, according to the Greater New York Hospital Association. Lorraine Ryan, senior vice president for legal, regulatory and professional affairs for the association, stated the figure in testimony before the City Council hospitals committee Monday afternoon. Ryan's testimony on behalf of the association was in strong opposition to forced nurse staffing ratios. (Henderson, 6/25)

The Star Tribune: Mayo Spending $223 Million On Florida Cancer Center 
Mayo Clinic plans to build a $233 million facility for cancer patients at its Florida hospital that includes “proton beam” radiation, an advanced treatment that Mayo currently provides at medical centers in Rochester and Phoenix after making big infrastructure investments earlier this decade. The 140,000-square-foot facility being planned for Jacksonville is scheduled for completion in 2023. (Snowbeck, 6/25)

The Associated Press: Prisoner Survey: Filth, Neglect In Solitary Confinement
More than 700 Louisiana state prison inmates who responded to a questionnaire said they'd been placed in solitary confinement, in some cases for years, with many complaining of poor food and health care, small and filthy rooms and overall conditions that drove some to self-harm and suicide attempts, criminal justice advocates said Tuesday. State officials pushed back Tuesday evening with a statement disputing some of the inmates' claims — saying inmates are let out of their cells during the day and are provided with medical care. (6/25)

North Carolina Health News: Report Updates Estimates On Potential Medicaid Expansion Benefit
About 634,000 people could benefit if North Carolina expanded the Medicaid program to cover more people, according to an updated report released today on the effects of the policy. The report, commissioned by two state foundations and completed by economists from George Washington University, says that Medicaid expansion would inject about $11.7 billion in federal funding into the state between 2020 and 2022, produce about 37,200 jobs and boost North Carolina’s Gross State Product by $2.9 billion in 2022. (Hoban, 6/26)

Boston Globe: Partners Names Dr. Anne Klibanski As Its New CEO
Partners HealthCare on Tuesday promoted Dr. Anne Klibanski to become its permanent chief executive, making her the first woman to hold the job at the state’s largest hospital network as it rethinks its companywide strategy. Klibanski had been leading the company as interim CEO since February, after Dr. David Torchiana abruptly announced his departure. The Partners board had planned to conduct a national search for a permanent leader. But that search now seems to be over before it truly began. (Dayal McCluskey, 6/25)

Boston Globe: Five Things To Know About Dr. Anne Klibanski, Partners’ New CEO
Partners is Massachusetts’ largest hospital network and the largest private employer in the state and Klibanski faces a complex balancing act to weigh the goals of Partners’ corporate office, hospitals, doctors, and patients. (Bailey-Wells, 6/26)

North Carolina Health News: New General Assembly Budget Includes Many Health Care Features, But No Medicaid Expansion
After several weeks of negotiations between the North Carolina Senate and the House of Representatives, the two chambers came together Tuesday to present a compromise budget they’ll be sending to Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature. But it’s likely Cooper will be vetoing it. For months, the governor has signaled that he would veto any state spending plan which does not contain provisions to expand the Medicaid program to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income workers who would become eligible under expansion. (Hoban, 6/25)

Boston Globe: Mass. Regulators Inch Closer To Approving Marijuana Delivery, Cafes
Marijuana delivery services — and maybe even cannabis cafes — are inching closer to reality in Massachusetts. The Cannabis Control Commission on Tuesday voted to approve draft regulations that would allow both business types in the state, though with significant restrictions. The agency is expected to sign off on modest tweaks to the rules at a meeting Thursday before kicking off a formal public comment period. Final revisions and votes to implement the policies will probably occur in September. (Adams, 6/25)

Georgia Health News: Duncan Urges Culture Of Transparency In Health Care
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan told journalists Tuesday that he wants to see transparency on quality of medical care as much as on medical prices. Duncan said there’s a vacuum of information on medical outcomes that he would like to see filled. (6/25)

Boston Globe: The Condition Of Providence’s Schools Had A Review Team In Tears
Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green has been on the job for less than two months, but she already has a startling response to a litmus test question about Providence schools: Would you send your children to any of them? “No. Not one” of the schools, she said bluntly during an interview Tuesday morning. A scathing new report, issued hours later by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, demonstrated why even the state’s top education official would avoid Providence schools. (McGowan, 6/25)

Modern Healthcare: City Of Hope More Than Doubles Investment In Calif. Cancer Campus
City of Hope drastically increased its investment to build a new cancer campus in Orange County, Calif., in terms of both size and cost, the cancer research and treatment center said Tuesday. The $1 billion campus will mark City of Hope's first expansion into Orange County. Despite being known as a fairly prosperous region, Orange County suffers from a dearth of specialty cancer care, said Annette Walker, president of City of Hope, Orange County. (Cohen, 6/25)

Sacramento Bee: 8 Top Paid County Employees In CA Worked For San Joaquin General
It pays to be a doctor. It really pays to be a neurosurgeon. It really, really pays to be a neurosurgeon at San Joaquin General Hospital. The eight highest-paid county employees in California last year were all physicians or physician managers for San Joaquin County, with three of them making more than $1 million in 2018, according to wage data released Tuesday by the state Controller’s Office. (McGough, 6/25)

Iowa Public Radio: Illinois' Governor Signs Law Legalizing Recreational Use Of Marijuana
Illinois has become the 11th state in the country to legalize the recreational use and purchase of marijuana. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who was elected last year, signed the bill into law on Tuesday, fulfilling a key campaign promise. The state joins 10 others and the District of Columbia in allowing recreational use. The legislation takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020. (Neuman, 6/26)

Houston Chronicle: MD Anderson Patient Died After Getting Contaminated Blood 
The event that triggered increased government oversight of MD Anderson Cancer Center was the death of a 23-year-old leukemia patient who received a contaminated blood product, according to a new report. The report, issued Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, notes the patient, a woman, died two days after receiving a transfusion tainted with a bacterial infection commonly acquired in hospitals but rarely found in blood transfusions. She had had serious complications prior to the transfusion, the report noted. (Ackerman, 6/25)

Miami Herald: 4 Florida Nursing Assistants Suspended For Drug Convictions
Holding drugs ranging from just half a Xanax to enough marijuana to be charged with being a dealer has gotten several Florida certified nursing assistants suspended this month. Certified nursing assistants on probation for drug charges comprise all of the Emergency Suspension Orders (ESO) that the Florida Department of Health have dropped on licenses this month. Usually, each month’s list of ESOs includes several licensed medical professionals who have defaulted on student loans. (Neal, 6/23)

Detroit Free Press: Wayne State Medical School Advisers Urge To Renew Henry Ford Talks
Wayne State University's Board of Governors needs to stop squabbling, band together and restart talks to make Henry Ford Health System the primary partner for the medical school instead of the Detroit Medical Center, a pointed letter from an advisory group says. If Wayne State's governing board can't get its act together, there could be huge problems ahead for the medical school, the medical school's Board of Visitors said in a June 19 letter, obtained by the Detroit Free Press. (Jesse, 6/26)

Arizona Republic: Grand Canyon University Student Claims School Misled Her About Degree
A Grand Canyon University student claims she was misled by a university recruiter who told the student that bad grades from college classes she took while in high school wouldn't affect her career path. But now, those grades have altered her future, the student says. Brooke Chytil moved from Washington state to attend GCU in 2018 with hopes of becoming a nurse. (Leingang, 6/25)