State Highlights: 8 Women Died After Operations At Florida Plastic Surgery Centers, Investigation Finds; Nurse Charged In Raping Of Comatose Woman In Arizona Facility

USA Today/Naples Daily News: Miami Doctor’s Plastic Surgery Empire Becomes Florida’s Deadliest Clinics
Just after dawn, the women arrive. They come in taxis and rental cars, to a strip mall clinic tucked between a barber shop and a discount shoe store. They fly in from across the country for deals they can’t get back home – thousands of dollars off cosmetic surgeries, available, if they like, on payment plans. Inside, the lobby looks like any other surgery center: polished white floors, sleek, modern furniture, a large flat screen flashing images of beautiful bodies. (Sallah and Perez, 1/31)

The Associated Press: Nurse Indicted On Charges Of Raping Incapacitated Woman
A nurse suspected of raping an incapacitated woman who later gave birth at a long-term care facility in Phoenix has been indicted on charges of sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult. The document filed Tuesday mirrors charges that prosecutors filed last week against 36-year-old Nathan Dorceus Sutherland. Sutherland is expected to enter a plea to the charges at an arraignment hearing next Tuesday.His attorney, David Gregan, didn’t immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment. (1/30)

Arizona Republic: Benchmark Human Services Takes Over Hacienda HealthCare Where Patient Was Raped
For-profit Benchmark Human Services of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was selected by Hacienda HealthCare after two state agencies ordered the facility to hire an independent manager. Benchmark officials said Wednesday they will begin immediately assessing operations. (Innes and Anglen, 1/30)

The Associated Press: Patients In Northwest Measles Outbreak Traveled To Hawaii
A measles outbreak in the Pacific Northwest became more worrisome Wednesday with word that people infected with the extremely contagious viral illness traveled to Hawaii and central Oregon after being exposed. The revelation prompted public health officials in Oregon’s Deschutes County and in Hawaii to issue alerts, although no cases were confirmed in either location. (1/30)

The Oregonian: Bend Measles Case Officially Linked To Vancouver-Area Outbreak
A suspected measles case in Bend has been confirmed, tied to the Clark County outbreak. That case helped bump the total number of people with measles up to 38 on Wednesday. The number of suspected cases also continues to grow with 13 people who have the symptoms of measles awaiting the result of blood work. The new cases are children, as the vast majority of all the people infected since Jan. 1 are. (Harbarger, 1/30)

The Associated Press: ICE Force-Feeding Detainees On Hunger Strike
Federal immigration officials are force-feeding six immigrants through plastic nasal tubes during a hunger strike that’s gone on for a month inside a Texas detention facility, The Associated Press has learned. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says 11 detainees at the El Paso Processing Center have been refusing food, some for more than 30 days. Detainees who reached the AP, along with a relative and an attorney representing hunger strikers, said nearly 30 detainees from India and Cuba have been refusing to eat, and some are now so weak they cannot stand up or talk. (1/30)

Los Angeles Times: A Bill Would End A $5 Co-Pay That Has Some California Inmates Choosing Between Buying Soap Or Seeing A Doctor
Thousands of California inmates like Watson struggle to cover their healthcare costs in prison every year, and Assemblyman Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley) says the state should ease some of the burden. He has introduced a bill that would prevent the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from charging a co-pay for self-initiated medical and dental visits that has some inmates choosing between buying soap or visiting the doctor. (Ulloa, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Grill Top Utilities Regulator Over Wildfire Prevention
Under intense questioning from state lawmakers, California’s top utilities regulator said the state is ill-equipped to deal with a new reality of destructive and deadly wildfires brought on by climate change. “I don’t think we are prepared for, in any way here in the state of California, for the enormity that we’re seeing,” said Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. “We need more. We need more thinking. We need more ideas.” Picker made the comments in testimony Wednesday during the agency’s annual oversight hearing in the state Assembly. (Luna, 1/30)

The Oregonian: Oregon Lawmaker Seeks $2 Million For Mental Health Centers
State Rep. Cedric Hayden, R-Roseburg, introduced legislation Wednesday that would establish three small around-the-clock support centers for Oregonians experiencing mental health crises. Opening such facilities would help “close one of the gaps in our mental health system where the choices right now seem to be either expensive hospitalizations or people in need of treatment languishing in our justice system with no care,” said Hayden, a dentist who is vice chairman of the House Committee on Health Care. (Friedman, 1/30)

California Healthline: Nonprofit Dental Insurer Under Scrutiny For ‘Flagrant’ Spending 
Dental insurance giant Delta Dental of California is facing mounting criticism for paying its CEO exorbitantly, flying board members and their companions to Barbados for a meeting, and spending a small fraction of its revenue on charitable work — all while receiving significant state and federal tax breaks because of its nonprofit status. Now, the company — which has 36.5 million enrollees in 15 states and the District of Columbia — is hoping to pay $155 million to acquire a 49.5 percent stake in for-profit medical and dental insurer Moda Health. (Barry-Jester, 1/30)

Sacramento Bee: Becerra Settles Aetna Lawsuit Over HIV Status Exposure
Attorney General Xavier Becerra has settled a lawsuit against healthcare provider Aetna, which was in hot water after sending out letters to almost 2,000 Californians that revealed their HIV status through a window on the envelope, according to Becerra’s office. The $935,000 settlement was announced Wednesday, and court documents detail the 2017 breach of patient confidentiality that led to the lawsuit and a multimillion-dollar class action settlement. (Darden, 1/30)

San Jose Mercury News: Fake Walgreens Pharmacist Handled Over 700,000 Prescriptions, State Says
For more than a decade, Walgreens stores in Fremont, Milpitas and San Jose allowed Kim Thien Le to perform pharmacist duties — including reviewing patient drug use — for 745,355 prescriptions dispensed from a total of 395 Walgreens pharmacies, according to a California State Board of Pharmacy investigation. If the allegations prove true, each store faces a range of penalties from receiving a formal reprimand to having its pharmacy license revoked, said Bob Dávila, a spokesman with the pharmacy board. (Geha, 1/30)

The Baltimore Sun: University Of Maryland School Of Nursing Offers Dual Admission With 12th Community College 
Students pursuing an associate degree in nursing from Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury can now enroll simultaneously in the University of Maryland School of Nursing’s bachelor of science degree program under a dual admission agreement, the schools announced Wednesday. The Eastern Shore community college becomes the 12th such college to join with Maryland in training future nurses, who are in short supply particularly in rural areas of the state and country. (Cohn, 1/30)

Houston Chronicle: Medistar Planning 48-Story Tower In Med Center
Construction is scheduled to start in the third quarter on a 48-story mixed-use tower slated for Main Street in the Texas Medical Center. Houston-based Medistar plans to develop the building in two phases, the first including 476,500 square feet of medical and life science office space with 35,000-square-foot floorplates atop a 1,700-car parking garage. A retail component will be included as well. (Sarnoff, 1/30)

San Jose Mercury News: Bay Area Homeless Count: Volunteers Take Stock Of Crisis
The signs were everywhere: a pile of clothing next to a brimming shopping cart, a cluster of tents tucked beneath an overpass, a parked car with fabric covering every window like curtains. In the pre-dawn darkness Wednesday, hundreds of volunteers deployed throughout the Bay Area, hunting for those clues, and hoping to shed light on what each one represents: a person who spent the night outside. (Kendall, Sciacca and Vo, 1/30)

11alive: Super Bowl Sex Trafficking Sting: 33 Arrested In Metro Atlanta
With Super Bowl LIII just days away, federal officials have been keeping a fixed eye on concerns of sex trafficking in the metro Atlanta area. On Wednesday, authorities with Homeland Security said that 33 people have been arrested for sex trafficking during the last four days of active investigation in the Atlanta area. Four people have been recovered to date. (Padgett, 1/30)

Sacramento Bee: CA Housing Crisis Bill Aims To Help Homeless College Students
California’s housing crisis has left hundreds of thousands of community college students either homeless or facing the threat of being homeless. A new California State Assembly bill offers a potential remedy — letting students sleep in their vehicles in campus parking lots and structures. (Sheeler, 1/31)

Denver Post: Colorado Sex Education Bill Advances After Hours-Long Debate Stretching To Midnight
After more than 10 hours of debate and the testimony (both written and spoken) of more than 300 people, Democrats on a Colorado House committee approved a controversial bill addressing sexual education in public schools shortly before midnight Wednesday. If it passes, the bill would amend a 2013 law by removing a waiver for public charter schools that lets them pick other sex ed criteria, fund a grant program for schools that lack the resources to teach human sexuality and expand upon the LGBT relationship portion of the curriculum requirements. (Staver, 1/30)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Greater Cincinnati Hospitals Confront Medical Marijuana
With sales of medical marijuana having just started Jan. 16, Ohio’s hospitals are figuring out how to handle patients who want to use the drug and doctors who want to recommend it to treat illness. Mostly, the answer is: No. The Christ Hospital Health Network, however, is taking a pioneering stand, saying it will allow hospitalized patients to use certain forms of medical marijuana. (Saker, 1/30)

Health News Florida: DeSantis Weighs Marijuana Regulations
Gov. Ron DeSantis still wants to eliminate Florida’s ban on smoking medical marijuana, but he’s walked back his opposition to a state system that resulted in what the new governor this month called a cannabis “cartel.” Speaking to reporters following Tuesday’s state Cabinet meeting, DeSantis reiterated his insistence that the Legislature do away with the smoking prohibition, saying it “ran afoul” of a 2016 voter-approved constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. (Kam, 1/30)