State highlights: Calif. bill to expand nurse role in health care dies; Ohio senior housing developer turns eye to primary care; examining Miss. trauma care costs

A selection of health policy stories from California, Ohio, Mississippi and Washington.

Los Angeles Times: State Bill To Boost Use Of Nurse Practitioners Goes Nowhere
An effort to ease a shortage of primary-care doctors in some California communities by letting nurse practitioners operate more independently has flat-lined in the Legislature after a fierce lobbying battle. A bill by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) would have allowed nurse practitioners, who have more training than registered nurses, to practice without the direct supervision of a physician (Mason, 9/1).

Columbus Dispatch: Nonprofit Senior-Housing Developer Turns Focus To Health Care
An Upper Arlington company that is the nation's largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing for senior citizens is poised to continue its model of offering medical care and other services to people where they live. National Church Residences, or NCR, provides health care at dozens of its Ohio locations. Along with continuing-care retirement campuses, assisted-living centers, nursing homes, home health care and hospice, the company also has on-site primary-care services at a number of residences and offers health care at adult day-care centers (Viviano, 9/3).

The Associated Press: Analysis: PEER Proposes Review Of Trauma Care Cost
Two incidents that occurred within months of each other prompted Mississippi public health leaders and lawmakers to invest in a trauma care system. On Nov. 5, 1995, Gov. Kirk Fordice was severely injured when his sport utility vehicle ran off Interstate 55 north of Grenada and flipped over. He was transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, the state's only Level I trauma center (Elliot, 9/1).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Washington Ranks 2nd In Nation In Uninsured Growth
With about 16 percent of its residents uninsured, Washington state falls solidly in middle of the pack, with Texas having the highest percentage of residents without health insurance: more than 25 percent. Massachusetts, where a state health-insurance mandate has been in place for years, has the smallest percentage of uninsured residents at just under 5 percent (Ostrom, 9/3).