State Highlights: Work Requirements, Health Care Key Issues In Ky. House Race; Abortion Clinic Widens Lawsuit Against Mississippi

Reuters: In Key Kentucky House Race, Healthcare Anxieties Loom Large
Andy Barr, a Republican lawmaker representing central Kentucky, won his last three elections promising to repeal and replace Obamacare. This year, his Democratic challengers for Congress in Kentucky's sixth district are betting that message will ring hollow. Their hopes lie with voters like Joyell Anderson, who went for President Donald Trump in 2016 and said she generally votes Republican. This year, she is not sure who to support for Congress, but she knows what her top priority is: healthcare. (4/9)

Reuters: Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic Expands Lawsuit On Restrictions
Mississippi's last remaining abortion provider expanded a federal challenge on Monday to laws that ban abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy and block access to the procedure in myriad ways, it said. The ban on abortions after 15 weeks, signed into law last month by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, put the strictest time limit on legal abortions in the United States. (Woodall, 4/9)

The Star Tribune: Families Of Abuse Victims Intensify Push For Elder Care Reforms In Minn. 
Frustrated by what they see as legislative foot-dragging, family members of abuse victims are intensifying their push for new laws to protect tens of thousands of vulnerable adults who live in senior care facilities across the state. A grass roots coalition of abuse victims and their relatives, Elder Voice Family Advocates, descended on the State Capitol early Monday and distributed 1,850 summaries of maltreatment reports — including descriptions of beatings, sexual assaults and thefts — to legislators ahead of key hearings this week. The reports represent just a small fraction of the more than 20,000 allegations of maltreatment received by the Minnesota Department of Health each year from individuals and facilities across the state. (Serres, 4/9)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Measles Case Confirmed In New Orleans, Health Officials Say 
State health officials are investigating a confirmed case of measles in New Orleans. Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that can spread quickly among people who have not been vaccinated. In extreme cases, it can lead to hospitalization and even death. The person who tested positive for measles is currently hospitalized in New Orleans, according a Department of Health press release. Officials are trying to identify and notify people that the patient may have come in contact with to prevent the spread of the virus. (Clark, 4/9)

Minnesota Public Radio: Flu Season Hit Minnesota Hard, And It's Not Over Yet
The flu has hit Minnesotans hard this year, with more than 6,000 flu-related hospitalizations, more than any other year since the state government started tracking such cases 10 years ago. A health department official says the season is not yet over. (Gunderson, 4/9)

KCUR: Jackson County Jail's Health Care Provider Leaving Contract A Year Early 
The Nashville-based company that provides health and dental care for the 1,000 inmates at the Jackson County Detention Center has told the county it is pulling out of its three-year contract early. The county's $3.2 million yearly contract with Correct Care Solutions (CCS) was supposed to run through June 2019. But according to a joint statement, the company told Jackson County last month that it was using an option in the contract to end the relationship early. No details were given in the joint statement. (Zeff, 4/9)

Texas Tribune: Report: Texas' Maternal Deaths Were Dramatically Lower In 2012 Under New Methodology
The number of Texas women who died from pregnancy complications in 2012 is being cut by more than half through a new state method for counting and confirming maternal deaths — which made Texas the subject of national news coverage over its high death rate. Several of the state’s top health experts released a report in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology on Monday showing that by using the new method, the number of women who died dropped from 147 to 56. (Evans, 4/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee City Lead Manager Suspended For Mismanagement
The head of Milwaukee's troubled program to prevent lead poisoning among Milwaukee children "failed in her ability to manage" those efforts, a newly released suspension notice says. Lisa Lien, the home environmental health manager, was suspended for 10 days in December after city officials found she was "ineffective," "insubordinate" and "incompetent or inefficient" in her work for the Milwaukee Health Department. (Spicuzza and Bice, 4/9)

Minnesota Public Radio: How Culturally Centered Care Could Help Mothers And Babies
Many social scientists and medical researchers agree that the disparities in maternal mortality is due to racism, not race. And there's a growing consensus that racial discrimination experienced by black mothers during their lifetime makes them less likely to carry their babies to full term. (Combs and Yang, 4/9)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Center For Cancer Care Faces Suit For Medicare Fraud
An Arizona medical company that serves thousands of cancer patients is battling a federal lawsuit alleging that it ripped off Medicare and other government programs with millions of dollars in fraudulent charges. The whistleblower complaint moving through U.S. District Court says principals at Arizona Center for Cancer Care improperly collected nearly $8 million from U.S. health care agencies since 2011. (Wagner, 4/9)

Texas Tribune: Three Fired At Texas Health Commission After Another Contracting Error
A health commission spokeswoman said three employees had been fired after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday penned a sharply worded letter to Executive Commissioner Charles Smith bemoaning his “failure to ensure the integrity” of the state’s procurement process. At issue was an award granted to a health insurance company to administer the Children’s Health Insurance Program in rural parts of the state. (Walters, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Salmonella In Chicken Salad Kills 1, Sickens 265 In 8 States
Chicken salad made by an Iowa food processing company and distributed by Fareway Stores in the Midwest sickened 265 people in eight states and caused one death in Iowa from salmonella contamination, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The outbreak which sickened people from Jan. 8 through March 20, appears to have ended, the CDC said in an update posted on Friday. Ill people ranged in age from less than 1 year to 89 years. Sixty-seven percent were female. (4/9)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Unveils New Budget, Emphasizing Homeless Services And Other Safety-Net Programs
Los Angeles County officials released a proposed $30.8-billion budget for the next fiscal year Monday, emphasizing the need to combat and prevent homelessness and to provide crucial safety-net services. "Of all of the issues confronting the county none is more urgent and complex than homelessness," Sachi Hamai, the county's chief executive, said at a news conference. (Agrawal, 4/9)