State Highlights: Wis. Lawmakers Pass 20-Week Abortion Ban; Cook County Seeks Docs For Mentally Ill Inmates

Tribune Wire Reports: Wisconsin Legislators Send 20-Week Abortion Ban Bill To Walker
Wisconsin Republicans moved within a step Thursday of banning non-emergency abortions at or beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy after the state Assembly approved the prohibition and sent the measure on to Gov. Scott Walker for his signature. The chamber approved the bill 61-34 after two hours of debate. The Republican-controlled Senate passed the measure in June. Walker, who is expected to announce a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Monday, has promised to sign the proposal but hasn't said when. His signature would make Wisconsin the 15th state to pass a ban on abortion at 20 weeks or after. (7/9)

The New York Times: History Of Abuse Seen In Many Girls In Juvenile System
As many as 80 percent of the girls in some states’ juvenile justice systems have a history of sexual or physical abuse, according to a report released Thursday. The report, a rare examination of their plight, recommends that girls who have been sexually trafficked no longer be arrested on prostitution charges. The study, “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story,” found that sexual abuse was among the primary predictors of girls’ involvement with juvenile justice systems, but that the systems were ill-equipped to identify or treat the problem. (Williams, 7/9)

The Chicago Tribune: Cook County Jail Trying To Attract Psychiatrist For Mentally Ill Inmates
With a shortage of mental health professionals on staff at Cook County Jail, county health officials are trying to attract psychiatrists by increasing pay and pushing legislation that would allow a significant part of their hefty student loans to be forgiven. The mental health staffing shortage has been a persistent problem at Cermak Health Services, which provides all health care for inmates at the massive jail complex on Chicago's West Side, county officials said at a hearing this week in federal court over continuing litigation involving the jail. (Trotter, 7/9)

The Denver Post: Supermax Accused Of Violating Rules For Treating Mentally Ill
Officials at the nation's highest-security prison are ignoring their own newly created policies regarding mentally ill prisoners as they fail to treat those who carve holes in their bodies with chicken bones and smear feces on themselves, a new filing in a federal lawsuit says. According to an amended complaint filed recently in U.S. District Court in Denver, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons also is misdiagnosing mentally ill inmates to sidestep treatment obligations at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum prison, or Supermax, in Florence. (Mitchell, 7/9)

Reuters: Walgreen To Pay $22.4 Million In N.Y. Medicaid Improper Billing Case
Walgreen Co has reached a $22.4 million settlement with the New York attorney general resolving claims that a unit improperly billed the government for reimbursement for a pediatric drug. The settlement, disclosed in court papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, resolves claims first asserted in 2009 by a whistleblower in a lawsuit against Trinity Homecare LLC, a pharmacy primarily owned by Walgreen. (Raymond, 7/9)

Kaiser Health News: Maryland Revamps Its In Vitro Coverage Mandate To Accommodate Same-Sex Couples
Maryland same-sex couples who wanted to take advantage of a state law that requires insurers to cover pricey in vitro fertilization treatments used to face insurmountable obstacles. The law generally mandated that couples demonstrate a history of infertility of at least two years’ duration, and insurers often interpreted that to mean having intercourse during that time without conceiving. What’s more, by law, coverage would be permitted only for infertility treatments that used the husband’s sperm. This month, however, those restrictions were eliminated for married same-sex couples under a new law. (Andrews, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Maryland Right-To-Die Doctor’s License Revocation Stands
A sympathetic judge on Thursday let a founder of the Final Exit Network explain his role in six Maryland suicides but refused to reinstate his medical license, saying the law left him no choice. “It may well be that soon the world will catch up with this and Maryland will catch up to you,” Baltimore City Circuit Judge Marcus Shar told Dr. Lawrence Egbert of Baltimore. A state right-to-die bill is on hold until at least next year, leaving Shar to rule only on whether the state Board of Physicians acted reasonably in revoking the anesthesiologist’s license last December for unprofessional conduct. (Dishneau, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Ex-Doc In Vegas Hepatitis C Spread Sentenced In Federal Case
A federal judge had scathing words for a once-prominent Las Vegas doctor he sentenced to almost six years and ordered to repay $2.2 million to insurance firms and the government in a fraud case arising from the largest medical office hepatitis C outbreak in Nevada history. "It's mind-boggling. This kind of fraud and these kinds of dollars, incurred on the backs of 40,000 to 60,000 people," U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks in Reno told Dipak Kantilal Desai. ... State and federal prosecutors, meanwhile, ... blamed Desai for the deaths of two patients who contracted hepatitis C during outpatient procedures at his Endoscopy Clinic of Southern Nevada in 2007. Health investigators linked at least nine and as many as 114 cases of the incurable liver disease to Desai clinics. (Ritter, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Judge Hears From Patients Who Praise Rogue Cancer Doctor
Three people praised the care of a Detroit-area cancer doctor Thursday as a judge moved closer to sending him to prison for a scheme to collect millions of dollars through needless treatments. Lawyers for Dr. Farid Fata summoned their own witnesses after three days of unflattering testimony from experts and many patients who unwittingly went through grueling but unnecessary treatments. Some didn't have cancer. (White, 7/9)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Expert Hails Medicare Proposal To Reimburse End-of-Life Counseling
This week’s announcement that the federal government is proposing Medicare reimbursements for doctors who discuss end-of-life plans with their patients was one Christian Sinclair has been waiting for. Sinclair is a palliative care physician at the University of Kansas Medical Center who long has recognized the value of getting patients actively involved in planning the treatment they want when facing death before they get to that point. (Marso, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Illinois Medical Society Has Guide To End-of-Life Planning
The Illinois State Medical Society is reminding doctors and patients about a free resource to help with end-of-life planning discussions. Medicare announced Wednesday it plans to pay doctors to counsel patients about how they can make their wishes known about the care they want at the end of life. There is a 60-day comment period before the new regulation becomes final. (7/10)