State news: Conn. taps former Mass. official for health exchange

News outlets report on health developments in California, Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon.

The New York Times: Hospital Systems' Merger Talks Collapse As New Suitor, Mount Sinai, Steps In
Merger talks between two of New York City's biggest hospital systems -; NYU Langone Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners -; broke down abruptly on Thursday after Continuum got a competing offer, officials said. The offer came from Mount Sinai Medical Center (Hartocollis, 6/21).

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Clinics Get $7 Million Just Before Healthcare Ruling
On the eve of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could overturn President Obama's signature healthcare law, federal officials announced Thursday that nearly $7 million made available by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is being given to a dozen community clinics in Los Angeles County (Lin, 6/22).

KHI News Service:  Task Force Recommends Building State's First Dental School
Building the first dental school in Kansas would be among the top things that could be done to help deal with the state's dental workforce shortage, members of an oral health task force told the Kansas Board of Regents today.  But since that isn't expected any time soon, the task force recommended that more seats at dental schools in surrounding states be secured for Kansas students who agree to practice in rural and other underserved areas of the state after they graduate.  The projected cost of a new dental school would be $58 million to build and $19.5 million to operate annually, according to the task force (Cauthon, 6/21).

CT Mirror:  Veteran Health Reform Leader Chosen To Head Connecticut Health Exchange
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy tapped the administrator who helped implement the nation's first health care reform law in Massachusetts to lead Connecticut's effort to establish a health care exchange.  Kevin J. Counihan, who also was president of a private health care exchange in California, was presented by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman at Thursday morning's meeting of the Connecticut exchange's board of directors (Phaneuf, 6/21).

The Lund Report:  Insurance Exchange's Small Employer Program Takes Shape
The program and technological infrastructure allowing small employers to purchase health insurance through Oregon's exchange is beginning to take shape. ... A survey released on June, commissioned by the Small Business Majority and Kaiser Permanente, found enormous interest in Oregon's exchange among small businesses. According to the survey, the number of small employers that would offer health insurance once the exchange gets underway would jump from 26 percent to 42 percent (Waldroupe, 6/19).

Boston Globe: Mass. Launches Review Of Insurers' Executive Pay
The state Division of Insurance has launched an unprecedented examination of executive compensation at Massachusetts insurers after disclosures that Liberty Mutual Holding Co. paid its top executive roughly $50 million a year. The agency sent letters to roughly 100 Massachusetts insurers requesting details on how they set executive pay, including minutes from company meetings. It asked companies to report the pay for every board member, officer, or employee earning more than $100,000 a year in 2010 and 2011 (Wallack, 6/22).

California Healthline: Paramedics Could Lighten L.A. County's EMS Load
A new health care model being test-driven in other states could result in Los Angeles County's 18,000 emergency medical services personnel taking on additional duties if the model is adopted here. Some call it "community paramedicine" and others describe it simply as better utilization of "physician extenders," but many agree it could improve medical care and coordination while reducing costs (Stephens, 6/21).