State Highlights: New York Inmates With Mental Illness Have Extended Stays, Suit Alleges; Colorado Governor Opens Office To Curb Health Care Costs

The New York Times: Mentally Ill Prisoners Are Held Past Release Dates, Lawsuit Claims
On paper, a 31-year-old man found to have serious mental illnesses was released from a New York state prison in September 2017 after serving 10 years behind bars for two robberies. But in reality, the man, who asked to be identified by his initials C.J., still wakes up each day inside a maximum-security prison in Stormville. Though he is technically free, he is still confined to a cell because of a Kafkaesque bureaucratic dilemma: The state requires people like him to be released to a supportive housing facility, but there is not one available. (Southall, 1/23)

Denver Post: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis Creates Office To Focus On Health Care Costs
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, following up on an initiative he revealed earlier this month, signed an executive order Wednesday that will create a state office devoted to finding ways to curb health care costs. The Office of Saving People Money on Health Care will focus on reducing costs associated with hospital stays, insurance and prescription drugs, along with finding ways to improve price transparency. (Seaman, 1/23)

The Oregonian: State May Face Lawsuits For Forcing Mentally Ill People Out Of Facilities 
The Oregon Health Authority could face two lawsuits alleging the agency hurt people with severe mental illness by forcing them out of treatment homes based on decisions by embattled contractor Kepro. Attorneys for two mentally ill people put the state on notice in recent months that they may sue. The tort filings mark the first signs of possible legal repercussions for the state as it continues to reckon with a program faulted by advocates for repeatedly putting vulnerable people in harm’s way. (Zarkhin, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Gavin Newsom Makes Aggressive, Early Moves On His Gun Control Agenda For California
Gavin Newsom won the governorship in part by touting his leadership on gun control as the architect of Proposition 63, a 2016 initiative that put him at loggerheads with the National Rifle Assn. Now, in his first weeks in office, Newsom has already moved to significantly reduce the number of Californians with firearms. Gun rights advocates are sounding almost nostalgic for his predecessor, fellow Democrat Jerry Brown, a gun owner who signed several far-reaching gun control measures, including a ban on the sale of long guns to those under age 21, but vetoed others. (McGreevy, 1/25)

Health News Florida: State Medicaid Changes Come Under Fire
Florida has put in place sweeping changes to its main health-care safety net program over the last several months, but legislators on Tuesday received an earful about ongoing problems with the $28 billion Medicaid program. Some of the changes include new five-year Medicaid contracts with managed-care plans, as well as changes in payments to behavioral analysis providers who treat children with autism. (Sexton, 1/23)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Report: Students Of Color And Students With Disabilities Twice As Likely To Face Suspension
A report from the Juvenile Reform Project, a coalition of New Hampshire advocacy organizations, says that school discipline in New Hampshire is disproportionately harsh on students of color and students with disabilities. The report, which will be released publicly the week of January 27, draws on data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. (Gibson, 1/23)

MPR: Minnesotans Share Their Stories Of Traveling For Labor And Delivery Services
Initial research suggests that new risks arise when women live far away from a hospital with a maternity unit. One study from researchers at the University of Minnesota shows that the rate of preterm births and deliveries without an obstetrics team rise in communities where OB obstetrics care has disappeared. (Richert, 1/23)

Sacramento Bee: Health Center To Serve 5,000 New Patients, Partner With UC Davis
A new partnership with UC Davis Health will allow Sacramento County to provide care for 5,000 new patients at the county’s health center, according to the county. The Sacramento County Health Center offers primary and behavioral health care for low-income residents and Medi-Cal and Medicare enrollees. (Darden, 1/23)

The CT Mirror: Nonprofits Press CT To Privatize More Social Services
Connecticut’s private, nonprofit social service agencies released an agenda Wednesday that includes further privatization of state-sponsored services. Officials with the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance also urged legislators to resolve a growing disagreement over the municipal tax status of nonprofit agencies. (Phaneuf, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Washington State Becomes Latest Hot Spot In Measles Outbreak
The U.S. is experiencing outbreaks of measles, a disease it had declared eliminated years ago, largely due to a drop in vaccination rates in some areas. An outbreak in Washington state has sickened 23 people this month, mostly children under 10. Local health officials in Clark County, near Portland, Ore., declared a public-health emergency on Friday and are urging residents to track potential symptoms and call ahead before heading to medical centers. (Abbott, 1/23)

Sacramento Bee: Poll: Californians Want Leaders To Expand Mental Health Care
Californians indicated In a survey released Thursday that they want state leaders to put a priority on ensuring that people with mental health conditions can get access to treatment, with 49 percent saying it’s extremely important and 39 percent saying it’s very important. The Kaiser Family Foundation and California Health Care Foundation designed and conducted the poll of 1,404 Californians in November and December, looking to gauge health care priorities and experiences in a state considered a leader in health-care trends. (Anderson, 1/24)

WBUR: School Shocks Students With Disabilities. The FDA Is Moving To Ban The Practice
Luigi Disisto is a 47-year-old man who has autism and lives at a private special education center based in suburban Boston best known for being the only school in the country that shocks its students with disabilities to control their behavior. Disisto wears a backpack equipped with a battery and wires that are attached to his body to deliver a two-second shock if he misbehaves. The controversial practice at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has pitted family members, who swear it has been the only way to control their loved ones, against critics who call it torture. (McKim, 1/23)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Advocate Aurora Health To Buy Remaining Stake In Marinette Hospital
Advocate Aurora Health has signed an agreement to buy the 51 percent of Bay Area Medical Center in Marinette that it does not own. The agreement calls for Advocate Aurora Health to contribute $25 million to a new foundation that would focus on supporting health and wellness programs in the Marinette area and at the hospital. (Boulton, 1/23)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Ochsner And Lambeth House Partner Using Telehealth To Care For Dementia Patients
The staff at Lambeth House, a retirement community in New Orleans, recognized that this was a problem for the 16 residents who live in their memory unit called Mercer’s Way. The residents in this unit have moderate to progressed forms of dementia, a term used to describe the progressive and steady decline of mental function. The most common form of which is Alzheimer’s disease, which affects about 5.7 million U.S. adults. Patients with moderate dementia often exhibit poor judgment, use of inappropriate language, a tendency to wander as well as problems with personal hygiene. Those with severe dementia will experience extensive memory loss, limited or no mobility, trouble swallowing, as well as difficulty recognizing family members and caregivers. (Clark, 1/23)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Parole Board Is Secretive And ‘Frighteningly Unfair,’ Former Member Shirley Smith Says
A former state senator who recently left the Ohio Parole Board is now speaking out against it, painting it as a “secret society” whose members make decisions on inmates’ futures using inconsistent, biased or racist reasoning, often after missing hearings or being distracted by food or other work. Cleveland Democrat Shirley Smith, in an op-ed submitted to Ohio media outlets and in a follow-up interview with cleveland.com, called for an independent investigation of the nine-member board, claiming she “witnessed strongly biased opinions regarding cases, unprofessional behavior, unethical decisions, and a frighteningly unfair practice of tribal morality.” (Pelzer, 1/23)

Arizona Republic: Arizona To Get $2.4 Million In Case Involving Hip-Replacement Marketing
Arizona will receive a $2.4 million share from a settlement in a case involving false marketing claims about hip replacements, the state Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday. The deal is part of a larger $120 million settlement involving 45 other states and DePuy orthopedics, whose parent company is Johnson & Johnson, according to the Attorney General’s Office. (Smith, 1/23)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Winter Storm, Flu Season Drastically Decrease Blood Supply Available In Northeast Ohio, Nation
The American Red Cross and Vitalant blood bank are urging people to give blood. Winter storms this past weekend and cold and flu season rendering people unable to give are causing a drastic dip in local supplies. Snowstorm Harper prevented people from getting out to give blood, forcing Vitalant in Northeast Ohio to cancel blood drives, resulting in 55 lost blood units, they said. (Pledger, 1/24)

The Associated Press: Hospital: ‘Poor Decisions’ By Staff Giving Outsize Pain Meds
An Ohio doctor’s orders for potentially fatal doses of pain medicine given to at least 27 hospital patients were carried out by employees who “made poor decisions” and ignored existing safeguards, a top administrator told staff in an internal video. The Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System said it fired the intensive care doctor, reported its findings to authorities and has put six pharmacists and 14 nurses on paid leave pending further review. (1/23)

The Associated Press: Doctor Reprimanded For Removing Wrong Man’s Kidney
A Massachusetts doctor who removed a kidney from the wrong patient has received a reprimand from the state. The Telegram & Gazette reports Tuesday that the state Board of Registration in Medicine issued its reprimand to Dr. Ankur Parikh last month after he admitted to the error. The board says in 2016 the urologist removed a healthy kidney from 65-year-old Albert Hubbard Jr. after mistakenly reading the CT scan of another man with the same name. (1/23)

KQED: DOJ Cracks Down On Stockton’s ‘School-To-Prison Pipeline’ After Discrimination Findings
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced on Tuesday an agreement with the Stockton Unified School District (SUSD) aimed at ending systemwide discrimination against minority and disabled students after an investigation found schools frequently referred students to the district’s police department for issues that could have been handled by administrators or teachers. The investigation found those practices had a disparate impact on African-American and Latino students and students with disabilities. (Hall, 1/23)

Denver Post: Colorado Bill Allowing Medical Marijuana Use For Autism Advances
A bill that would allow Coloradans with autism to use medical marijuana cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday. The bill — sponsored by state Reps. Edie Hooton, a Boulder Democrat, and Kim Ransom, a Littleton Republican — would add autism spectrum disorder to the list of conditions that qualify a patient to receive a medical marijuana card with a doctor’s recommendation.Neither bill sponsor has a child with autism, but both invoked parenthood when introducing the bill. (Garcia, 1/23)

State House News Service: Baker Wants Law Applying OUI Statutes To Marijuana
As the number of stores selling marijuana in Massachusetts grows, Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday announced he’ll ask lawmakers to adopt the recommendations of a special commission that studied ways to deal with operating under the influence. (Young, 1/23)