State Highlights: Georgia Health Price Transparency Bill Breezes Through Senate; Texas Governor Explores Options For Expanding Medicaid

Georgia Health News: State Senate OKs Transparency Bill On Quality, Costs Of Care 
The Georgia Senate approved legislation Tuesday to increase transparency of health care prices for consumers. Senate Bill 303 would give insured Georgians the ability to query their insurer to learn their out-of-pocket costs before getting non-emergency services from a physician or hospital. Consumers could also get data on the medical providers’ quality of care. (Miller, 2/26)

Texas Tribune: Texas Medicaid Expansion Would Help Homeless, Advocates Say
When Susan Peake moved to Austin from Denver in 2018, she traded one kind of safety net for another. In Colorado, she’d received state-funded health insurance coverage, which she credits with saving her from financial ruin after she suffered a heart attack requiring double-bypass surgery. In Texas, though she did not qualify for free health insurance, she had a room at her sister’s house, where she hoped to save some money while she recovered. But after a disagreement with her brother-in-law, things spiraled out of control for Peake, 52. (Walters, 2/27)

The Associated Press: New Lawsuit: Mississippi Prison Has ‘Abhorrent Conditions’
The Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman is a violent, rat-infested place where inmates live in “abhorrent conditions” and their medical needs are routinely ignored, attorneys say in a new lawsuit filed on behalf of 152 prisoners. The suit was filed in federal court Tuesday, and attorneys are asking for class-action status to cover all current and future inmates at Parchman. It eventually could be merged with a similar lawsuit filed in January on behalf of 33 other Parchman inmates. (2/26)

CNN: New York Removed Questions About Mental Health From The Bar So Law Students Will No Longer Suffer In Silence 
Questions around mental health will be removed from the application to the New York bar thanks to a proposed legislation approved by the New York State Unified Court System. “Today marks a historic step forward in addressing the ongoing mental health crisis in the legal profession,” said New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) President Henry M. Greenberg. “Future generations of New York lawyers no longer need to live in fear that bravely and smartly seeking treatment for mental health issues could one day derail their careers.” (Holcombe, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: PG&E Judge Skeptical Of Most Government Wildfire Response Claims
The judge overseeing PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy opened the door to reducing government agency claims against the troubled utility to $290 million, a fraction of the billions federal authorities say they are owed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services are seeking $3.9 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively, from San Francisco-based PG&E for services provided in the aftermath of three deadly wildfires linked to the utility’s equipment. (Biswas, 2/26)

Houston Chronicle: Pediatric AIDS Chief Doctor Steps Down At Texas Children’s Hospital In Houston
Dr. Mark Kline, who founded an international pediatric HIV/AIDS program credited with saving tens of thousands of lives, has abruptly stepped down from leadership posts at that organization and two elite Houston medical institutions. Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine Wednesday jointly announced the departures, which come less than a year after the hospital nominated Kline for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, the world’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS care and treatment. Kline was president of the initiative. (Ackerman, 2/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF’s Scott Wiener Wants To Fund Financial Rewards For Meth Addicts Who Stop Using Drugs
Facing a growing methamphetamine epidemic with few known treatments, a San Francisco state legislator wants to make public funding available for programs that provide financial incentives to participants to stop using drugs. Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener introduced SB888, which would expand the substance abuse treatment options that qualify for Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for the poor, to include contingency management. These programs use vouchers or small cash prizes to motivate people to stay off drugs. (Koseff, 2/26)

North Carolina Health News: Attorney General Josh Stein To HCA: ‘I Want Answers’ 
N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein has told HCA Healthcare that he’s heard enough… “The delivery of health care is truly a life-or-death issue,” Stein said in a statement issued late Tuesday as his office made public a letter addressed to Greg Lowe, president of the North Carolina division of HCA Healthcare. “This is why my office took so seriously our responsibility to protect Western North Carolinians as we negotiated with HCA over its purchase of Mission. I am deeply concerned about what I’ve been hearing about HCA – and I want answers.” (Cotiaux, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: Fight Over Homelessness Turns Divisive In L.A. Supervisor Race
With some 19,000 homeless residents living in Los Angeles County’s 2nd Supervisorial District, the candidates running to replace Mark Ridley-Thomas on the Board of Supervisors are united in their pledge to ease housing costs and bring people indoors. At debates, they pitch expanded emergency street services, building prefabricated housing, and policies to stop speculative developers from snatching up homes and driving up housing prices. (Smith, 2/26)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia Supervised Injection Site Splits Mayor Jim Kenney, City Council
From a democratic socialist state representative to a federal prosecutor appointed by President Donald Trump, Philadelphia officials on Wednesday roundly criticized a plan supported by Mayor Jim Kenney to open the nation’s first supervised injection site in South Philadelphia next week. City Council President Darrell L. Clarke went so far as to say he opposes the opening of any injection site in Philadelphia, a position he had not previously taken. (McCrystal and Collins Walsh, 2/26)

WBUR: Philadelphia Nonprofit Opening Nation’s First Supervised Injection Site Next Week
After a two-year battle, the Philadelphia nonprofit Safehouse says next week it will open the first space in the U.S. where people struggling with addiction can use opioids and other illegal drugs under the supervision of trained staff. The Wednesday announcement comes one day after a U.S. district judge issued a final ruling declaring the facility does not violate federal drug laws. This solidified an October decision, which was the first time a federal court has weighed in on the legality of a supervised injection facility, or what advocates call an overdose prevention site. (Allyn and Winberg, 2/26)

North Carolina Health News: Flu Cases Subside In NC, But Children Still At Risk 
While public health officials issue warnings about a newly emerged strain of coronavirus reaching the United States, the country is still battling with another deadly respiratory virus — influenza. This year’s flu season has hit children particularly hard, with the emergence early on of the influenza B strain that tends to affect children at higher rates than adults, said Zack Moore, state epidemiologist for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. “When we tend to have a season like this, those tend to hit children and young adults harder,” he said. (Ovaska, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: A Hospital Grows In Brooklyn: NYU Langone Plans $650 Million Expansion
It has taken three years and more than $350 million for NYU Langone Health to break even with its satellite hospital in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Now, the health system is ready to expand there, with a new, $650 million patient-room tower. Over the past decade and more, New York’s larger, elite health systems moved into Brooklyn, Westchester and elsewhere to expand their footprints and attract new patients. Many took on debt, the aging buildings and boilers of the safety-net hospitals some of them absorbed and patients who rely heavily on Medicare and Medicaid. (West, 2/26)

Dallas Morning News: When A Dallas Construction Worker Gets Injured On The Job, Who Picks Up The Bill?
Construction workers often don’t know who hired their direct employer, complicating matters when injuries occur, said Workers Defense Project staff attorney Sean Goldhammer. Still, his group believes First Texas Homes should extend workers’ compensation coverage to Marco and everyone else on its worksites. (DiFurio, 2/26)

Boston Globe: FBI Investigating State’s Licensing Of Massage Therapists With Fake Credentials
The FBI has launched an investigation into how applicants with phony or questionable credentials were able to get Massachusetts massage therapist licenses, according to two people briefed on the probe, bringing upheaval to a board that is supposed to help prevent sex trafficking. Investigators are looking into why employees of the state Board of Registration of Massage Therapy approved the applications of candidates who reported getting their training at Axiom Healthcare Academy in New Jersey, after the school closed in 2014, according to the two people. (Estes, 2/26)

California Healthline: Your School Assignment For The Day: Spelling And Specs
Daisy Leon struggles to sit still and read the letters on the eye chart. Her responses tumble out in a quiet, confused garble. “You know your letters?” asks optometrist Jolly Mamauag-Camat. “Umm, ya,” says Daisy, almost inaudibly. The 6-year-old kindergartner had her eyes examined for the first time on a recent Thursday morning. Although she hadn’t complained about headaches or blurry vision, her grandmother noticed she’d been inching closer to watch television. (De Marco, 2/26)