51��Ƶ

Congress promised in 1969 to eliminate black lung disease. But thousands of miners — including Jimmy Woolum — continued to die from it. Today, though the industry knows how to prevent black lung, there’s a resurgence of the disease among miners in Central Appalachia. (Ward Jr., 4/27)

Ron Briggs used to call himself a “good cash cow for the medical industry.” That’s because every few weeks, an ambulance would rush across the rugged, cowboy town of Dillon, Montana, sirens blaring, to revive him from a diabetic coma. The nation has a limited supply of healthcare dollars to spend on drugs and services, which is why the government and health plans require scientific evidence of patient benefit. This is especially important for the 30.3 million people in the U.S. with diabetes, whose medical costs in 2012 totaled $245 billion. He and his wife, Julie, a strong and mothering woman where Ron is concerned, gets choked up when they talk about those days, some four years ago. Those days before they found their “miracle” for treating his disease — the same miracle that would be at the heart of a criminal indictment, embroil them in a lawsuit and lead to their financial ruin. (Clark, 4/26)

But, in health care, knowing the sticker price doesn’t always help in understanding what you’ll actually pay. All sorts of factors can intervene — such as where you live and how far you are willing to drive for care or whether you have insurance and whether your insurer contracts for special prices at only certain hospitals. And the flat price doesn’t tell you anything about the track record of a hospital in performing the procedure. (Ingold, 4/26)

[Daniel] Tesfaye’s case, one of the hundreds examined by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as part of its latest investigation of doctors and sex abuse, shows how the secrecy and influence that permeate the system can provide cover even for a physician graphically caught in the act. A decade before he treated Miller, Tesfaye had been admonished by the medical board in North Carolina, where he was then practicing, for inappropriate behavior with female patients. (Robbins, 4/26)

Since at least 2013, when a severely disabled Broward County girl died in slow agony from an untreated illness, the Carlton Palms Educational Center has been under an administrative microscope as state regulators sought vainly to shut it down. ...Many of the incidents are documented in a disturbing administrative complaint that seeks to revoke Carlton Palms’ license, citing a years-long culture of abuse and neglect that was “either fostered, condoned or negligently overlooked” by administrators. (Marbin Miller and Madan, 4/26)

In March, the worker’s union, SEIU 1199 New England, held a rally at the State Capitol to announce that some 2,500 workers from nine organizations intended to strike on April 18, seeking increased state funding and higher wages. These employees work for private agencies in group homes and day programs that receive state funding, with the majority of that coming from the state Department of Developmental Services. (Rigg, 4/26)

Companies in the business of growing human organs would be exempt from paying two New Hampshire taxes for the next ten years under a bill passed on Thursday by the New Hampshire House. Supporters of the bill argue that tax breaks will help kick start a nascent industry and ensure that New Hampshire becomes the ‘Silicon Valley of regenerative medicine.’ (Bookman, 4/27)

Mass. General officials said Thursday that they will form a clinical affiliation with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, or EMHS. The organization operates nine hospitals and is based in Brewer, Maine, nearly 250 miles from the Mass. General campus in Boston. (Dayal McCluskey, 4/26)

In hundreds of mailboxes each year, letters from state health authorities arrive at the homes of children with serious emotional disorders like hyperactivity and persistent depression. ...In every survey from 2006 to 2016, fewer than half of responding parents said their children saw positive results from services, placing Wisconsin in recent years near the bottom of the Midwest and nation in surveys that states complete for federal mental health grants. (Kyle and Linnane, 4/26)

Cases of hepatitis A have skyrocketed in Ohio and the Department of Health is encouraging at-risk individuals to get vaccinated. There have been 47 cases of hepatitis A so far in 2018, compared to five cases during the same timeframe in 2017, the Department of Health said in a statement on Thursday. (Brookbank, 4/26)

An explosion and asphalt fire at a Wisconsin oil refinery on Thursday sent huge plumes of smoke into the air that pollution experts said almost certainly contained large amounts of toxins, posing a serious health risk to those living downwind. Asphalt is a petroleum product that when burned emits chemicals in gaseous form and small particles that can linger long after the smoke dissipates, said Wilma Subra, a chemist with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network who has examined past refinery accidents. (Brown, 4/27)

St. Joseph Medical Center is among seven new sites where people may have been exposed to measles during an outbreak that has sickened 10 Missourians so far. ...The patient with measles went through the main lobby of the medical center and used elevators to get to the pediatric practice, but Beeler said the inpatient tower has a separate entrance and elevators. (Marso, 4/26)

A walk-in clinic is opening in Nolensville next week. Vanderbilt Health and Williamson Medical Center are opening their fifth walk-in clinic in Williamson County on April 30 at 940 Oldham Drive. Clinicians can treat common illnesses including coughs, ear and eye infections, flu, colds, sinus infections and stomach viruses. (Sauber, 4/26)

A big merger with HealthEast, the St. Paul-based network of hospitals and clinics, weighed on the financial performance last year for Fairview Health Services, contributing to a 25 percent decline in operating income. The effect was not a surprise given the relative profitability of the two health systems and should give way to better financial performance in the future, said Dan Fromm, the Fairview chief financial officer, in an interview Thursday. (Snowbeck, 4/26)

A proposed constitutional amendment known as Marsy’s Law failed in the New Hampshire House of Representatives on Thursday, despite a well-organized and well-financed effort by supporters. The amendment would have created a list of constitutional rights designed to give crime victims a greater say in the court system. (Moon, 4/26)

Wright Davis is among a growing legion of independent contractors and temp workers with few if any employment protections, and one of at least two such workers killed on the job in Massachusetts last year, according to a report released Thursday by the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, known as MassCOSH. Overall, 74 people in the state lost their lives because of work-related accidents and illnesses in 2017 — an 11-year high, reflecting a nationwide rise in worker deaths — and contractor and temp fatalities are expected to grow as companies rely more heavily on them. (Johnston, 4/26)

Millions of low-income Californians eligible for food stamps are not receiving the benefit, earning the state one of the lowest rankings in the nation for its participation in the program. Just three states — all much more conservative than the Golden State — have lower rates of participation, according to the latest available federal data. The poor performance stands in sharp contrast to California’s leadership on enrollment in Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, which also serves people living in low-income households. (Gorman and Rowan, 4/26)