West Virginia Reaches Opioid Settlement With Kroger For $68 Million

AP: West Virginia Settles With Kroger, Opioid Money Now Tops $1B
West Virginia has settled with Kroger for $68 million over its role in distributing highly addictive prescription painkillers into the U.S. state that has lost more lives to opioid overdoses per capita than any other. That brings West Virginia’s total opioid litigation dollars up to more than $1 billion, more than any other state per capita, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said at a press conference at the state Capitol in Charleston. (Willingham, 5/4)

Reuters: Kroger To Pay $68 Million To Settle West Virginia Opioid Claims
The deal, announced Thursday by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, comes a month before the grocery store had been set to go to trial against the state. All other companies sued by the state over opioids had already settled. "This is an important day for West Virginia," Morrisey said. "This is a day of healing." (Pierson, 5/4)

In other health care news from across the country —

The Texas Tribune: Texas House Advances Bill Requiring HIV Tests During STI Screenings
A bill requiring health care providers to offer HIV tests as part of routine sexually transmitted infection screenings has been preliminarily approved by the Texas House on Thursday. House Bill 3377 is authored by freshman state Rep. Venton Jones, a Dallas Democrat who is the first Black, gay and openly HIV-positive lawmaker to serve at the Capitol. The House voted 104-39 to swiftly pass the bill, which had garnered widespread bipartisan support long before it came to the chamber floor. (Nguyen, 5/4)

The Texas Tribune and The New York Times: Trans Texans Criticize Capitol Arrests After Protest Over Gender Care Bill
Adri Pérez joined hundreds of people at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday to protest Senate Bill 14, which would ban transgender kids from receiving puberty blockers and hormone treatment, only to leave in handcuffs. In the days since state police arrested two people and banned another from the Capitol, trans Texans and their allies have lambasted House Speaker Dade Phelan’s order to clear the public from the chamber gallery and state police’s use of force. (Tompkins and Nguyen, 5/4)

CNN: Ron DeSantis: Bills That Will Alter The Lives Of Transgender People In Florida Await Governor's Signature
Florida lawmakers have sent to the desk of GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis a slate of bills that will alter the lives of transgender people in Florida – including their access to health care and everyday amenities. DeSantis, who is nearing a likely campaign for president in the coming weeks, is expected to sign them. (Contorno, 5/4)

Axios: Florida Lawmakers Send Gender-Affirming Care Ban Bill To DeSantis
The Florida legislature on Thursday passed a bill that bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth and adds restrictions for adults seeking care, sending it to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The Florida Board of Medicine already barred health providers from offering this type of care to trans minors. If enacted, this bill would codify those restrictions into state law, and would also add criminal penalties for physicians who provide gender-affirming treatments. (Habeshian and Gonzalez, 5/4)

AP: California Lawmakers OK Emergency Loans To Failing Hospitals
Alarmed by the closure of a rural hospital earlier this year, California lawmakers on Thursday voted to loan $150 million to struggling medical centers in the hope of preventing a cascade of similar failures across the state. The only hospital in Madera County closed in December, leaving the community of nearly 160,000 people with no medical center within a 30-minute drive. The closure was a startling reminder of the plight of many community hospitals in mostly rural areas of the country that have struggled to stay open during the coronavirus pandemic. (Beam, 5/4)

Politico: Health Care Measures In New York Budget: What To Know
The newly approved state budget commits over $22 billion to shore up New York’s pandemic-battered health care system, offset long-stagnant Medicaid reimbursement rates and bolster funding for mental health services. The $229 billion budget for the fiscal year that started April 1 included a smorgasbord of new health policies that expand what insurance is required to cover, improve privacy protection for people seeking abortions and add oversight of temporary health staffing agencies operating within New York. (Kaufman, 5/4)

AP: Judge Extends Suspension Of Missouri AG's Transgender Rule
A judge has extended her order barring the enforcement of a unique rule pushed by Missouri’s Republican attorney general that would require adults and children to undergo more than a year of therapy and fulfill other requirements before they could receive gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery. (Salter, 5/4)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mid-America Transplant Deploys A Fleet Of SUVs To Transport Lifesaving Organs In The St. Louis Area
Drivers will see a new type of emergency vehicle on the area streets: a fleet of six SUVs transporting lifesaving organs to and from local hospitals. The Mid-America Transplant vehicles, which are equipped with lights and sirens, will carry specially trained staff and equipment needed to transport organ recovery teams, organs and tissues, officials said. The hope is to increase the safety and efficiency of transferring organs from donors to awaiting recipients. (Munz, 5/4)

Reuters: Camp Lejeune Lawsuits Slam North Carolina Federal Court 
More than 900 lawsuits against the U.S. government have flowed into a federal court in North Carolina since a law enacted in August enabled veterans and their families to bring claims for exposure to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. (Novak Jones, 5/4)

NBC News: Biden Admin Says Alabama Heath Officials Didn’t Address Sewage System Failures Disproportionately Affecting Black Residents
After an investigation into failing sewage systems in Lowndes County, Alabama, the U.S. departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have concluded that the Alabama Department of Public Health and the county Health Department engaged in a “consistent pattern of inaction and/or neglect” and despite their awareness of problems “failed to take meaningful actions to remedy” the conditions, which disproportionately affected Black residents of the rural community, according to the administration's findings, which were obtained by NBC News. (Alcindor, 5/4)

Also —

KFF Health News: Montana Passes Significant Health Policy Changes In Controversial Session
Republican leaders’ banishment of a transgender lawmaker from floor debates in the recently ended Montana legislative session seized the nation’s attention. It also overshadowed significant health policy changes and historic levels of health care spending. (Larson, 5/5)

KFF Health News: Lead Contamination Surfaces In Affluent Atlanta Neighborhood
Elizabeth Burns had just come inside from gardening in 2021 when she caught a TV news report about a rocklike material contaminating a nearby community’s soil with lead. She was stunned. Her own backyard had many such chunks. (Miller, 5/5)