Insurance refunds in Arizona; Mass. House passes dementia care standards

Arizona Republic: Health-Insurance Refunds On The Way For Arizonans
Arizona consumers and businesses can expect to collect more than $36 million in refunds this summer from health-insurance companies under new provisions of the nation's health care law, according to two reports. The reports show consumers who have purchased individual health-insurance plans will get $24.4 million in refund checks or credits to future premiums. Insurers also will refund $9.3 million to employers with small-group plans of fewer than 50 people and an additional $2.9 million to companies with larger plans of more than 50 people, according to reports by Consumers Union and Kaiser Family Foundation (Alltucker, 5/24).

Arizona Republic: Judge: MCSO Jail Conditions Better
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has sufficiently corrected jail deficiencies like overcrowding and poor sanitation to emerge in part from under a 35-year-old federal civil-rights lawsuit. … But attorneys representing a class of not-yet-sentenced inmates in the decades-old lawsuit say the county's health care system in the jails and the Sheriff's Office still have plenty of work to do to bring their facilities and programs into compliance with constitutional standards (Hensley, 5/24).

Boston Globe: House Passes Dementia Care Standards For State Nursing Homes
A loophole in Massachusetts law that allows nursing homes to advertise specialized Alzheimer's and dementia care units, even though their workers may have no training in caring for such residents, is one step closer to being closed. A proposal that would establish minimum standards for such units was approved by the state House of Representatives on Wednesday and is headed for the Senate (Lazar, 5/24).

Houston Chronicle: Clinics Serve Families
A new pediatric health care clinic recently opened in the Bear Creek area is meeting a growing need for medical care among children and teenagers of families who have limited or no insurance. The Pediatric and Adolescent Health Center-Bear Creek is one of several community clinics being established throughout the greater Houston area by the Harris County Hospital District. … The Bear Creek and Cypress areas are rapidly growing to include more families who have no insurance as well as limited access to necessary health care, said Christina Mintner, administrative director of Pediatrics for Ambulatory Care Services with the Harris County Hospital District (Piña, 5/24).

California Healthline/KQED's State of Health blog: Meet The New Costs, Same As The Old Costs
After more than a year of battling over eliminating and then restructuring adult day health care coverage for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, California's budget for delivering that care is similar to what it was before all the haggling started. The Community-Based Adult Services program grew out of a lawsuit challenging the state's proposal and replaces the Adult Day Health Care program. CBAS will provide services to 80 percent of previous ADHC beneficiaries and is funded at a similar level to the original program (Gorn, 5/24).