The Washington Post: "Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has concluded that the state can impose stricter oversight over clinics that perform abortions, a move immediately decried by abortion-rights organizations and others as an attempt to circumvent the General Assembly, which has repeatedly rejected similar measures. Cuccinelli's legal opinion empowers the Board of Health, if it chooses, to require the clinics to meet hospital-type standards. Abortion-rights advocates say that could force some clinics to close because they would be unable to afford to meet the new requirements" (Kumar, 8/24).
The Associated Press: "Certified nursing assistant Brenda Chaney was on duty in an Indiana nursing home one day when she discovered a patient lying on the floor, unable to stand. But Chaney couldn't help the woman up. She had to search for a white aide because the woman had left instructions that she did not want any black caregivers. And the nursing home insisted it was legally bound to honor the request. The episode, which led to a recent federal court ruling that Chaney's civil rights had been violated, has brought to light a little known consequence of the patients' rights movement that swept the nation's health care system over the last two decades. Elderly patients, who won more legal control over their quality of life in nursing homes, sometimes want to dictate the race of those who care for them." Some facilities enforce those preferences (Wilson, 8/23).
Indianapolis Star: "When state health inspectors and police investigated a rape reported at a Marion nursing home in June 2008, what they discovered suggested such an assault could have been prevented. The accused resident was a sex offender on parole. … [But] the attorney general's office decided not to file an official complaint that would trigger a review by the Indiana State Board of Health Facility Administrators. Without that complaint, the board -- the body that licenses and disciplines nursing home administrators -- never even had the opportunity to review the case. In Indiana, that has become the norm. Over the past five years, the Health Department has passed along about 300 inspection reports to the attorney general in accordance with a federal law that says health inspectors must report major problems to licensing officials." Out of those reports, though, the Indianapolis Star found that the attorney general "brought the board a grand total of six complaints" (Gillers and Evans, 8/24).
Los Angeles Times: "The number of Californians who lost jobs and health insurance probably increased in every county last year, according to a study released Monday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The new analysis found that 37 counties -- including Imperial, Kern and Shasta -- had uninsured rates above the statewide average of 24.3%. … The report backs up the findings of a previous study the center released in March that showed nearly one in four Californians lack health insurance. According to the latest estimates, the state's uninsured population has reached 24.3%, or about 8.4 million, up from 6.4 million in 2007" (Hennessy-Fiske, 8/23).