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Pharmacy deserts for the poorest and disabled Ohioans could grow unless a dispute over new state Medicaid contracts gets settled soon, industry advocates say. "The public is going to start losing independent pharmacies, they’re going to be losing chain pharmacies if this does not get resolved," said Ernie Boyd, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association. In some rural Ohio counties, a pharmacist is the only health professional regularly available. “If they lose them, I can guarantee you that the health of that county will continue to spiral downward,” Boyd said. (Rowland, 5/31)

A child died from influenza in what is the first death to date in Maine during the 2021-22 season, the Maine Center for Disease and Prevention reported on Tuesday. The last influenza-associated death in a Maine child happened in February 2020, according to Robert Long, spokesperson for the Maine CDC. An influenza-associated death is when a person has symptoms with a positive flu test, but dies before recovering, he said. The Maine CDC did not specify the child’s age, but said that they had tested positive for influenza A. (Lausier, 5/31)

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation Tuesday that ties funding increases for Illinois nursing homes to staffing levels and quality of care. To qualify for bonus reimbursements, nursing homes will have to meet at least 70% of federal staffing level guidelines, and payments will also be based on the home’s quality star rating from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The law, which Illinois lawmakers passed without opposition in April, is intended to keep nursing home operators from “playing both sides” by billing Medicaid extra for high-need residents without funding adequate staffing to provide the necessary level of care for those residents, Pritzker said. (5/31)

Advocates for under-served communities of color hosted the first Banco de Mujeres in Tampa this past weekend. The event, which has had success in Kissimmee, provided free hygiene products. About 200 families came through the tents outside of the Tampa Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church when services ended Saturday afternoon. Chispa Florida, an environmental justice organization, distributed eco-friendly and non-toxic menstrual products, along with diapers for babies and adults, and sanitizing wipes. (Meszaros, 5/31)

When one calls the Columbus County Health Department, there’s an automated message narrated by Health Director Kimberly Smith. The message presents options such as calling 911 for an emergency or entering the four-digit extension for a specific staff member. Right in the middle of the typical menu options, Smith issues a blunt and sobering truth. “The national County Health Rankings report ranks Columbus County as one of the unhealthiest counties in North Carolina for the eighth year in a row.” (Crumpler, 6/1)

KHN: ‘Desperate Situation’: States Are Housing High-Needs Foster Kids In Offices And Hotels 

Isela Perez entered the custody of Georgia’s child welfare system at age 10. It happened after her father was deported and her mother left her and her brother alone in their home for two weeks, she said. Perez estimates she moved more than 20 times among group homes, mental health facilities, and foster families. “A lot of foster parents didn’t know how to deal with my anger issues or my depression,” said Perez, now 18 and in an independent living program in Dahlonega, Georgia. (Whitehead, 6/1)

KHN: Montana Hires A Medicaid Director With A Managed-Care Past

Montana, one of only about a dozen states with a fully government-run Medicaid program, has hired a new Medicaid director who oversaw managed-care programs in Iowa and Kansas and championed the idea of having outside companies do the work. Mike Randol took over May 31 as head of Montana’s Medicaid program, which serves 280,000 people who live in low-income households or have disabilities in a state of 1.1 million people. The program has a roughly $2.3 billion annual budget, with the federal government picking up about 80% of the total. (Houghton and Leys, 6/1)

More and more Alaskans need help with food as prices spike at the gas pump and on grocery shelves, while pandemic relief dollars dry up, local providers say. “Most of our partners are saying they’re seeing the need really ramp up in the last one to two months,” said Cara Durr, chief of advocacy and public policy at the Food Bank of Alaska, which distributes food to some 150 agencies statewide. Agencies are now seeing demand approach what it reached in the early months of the pandemic, when providers saw a roughly 75% increase — which at the time reflected record-breaking levels of need, Durr said. (Krakow, 5/31)

In Towaoc, capital of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, there are about 347 households and no place within 15 miles to shop for fresh, healthy food. That’s a significant barrier to improving health in a community where rates of obesity and diabetes are nearly three times higher than the rest of Colorado. An ambitious plan to raise $12 million to build a grocery store could improve health and potentially resolve the persistent food desert in the southwest Colorado town. (Flowers, 5/31)

KHN: Taco Bowls And Chicken Curry: Medi-Cal Delivers Ready Meals In Grand Health Care Experiment

Every Friday, Frances De Los Santos waits for a shipment of healthy, prepared meals to land on her front porch at the edge of the Mojave Desert. From the box, the 80-year-old retired property manager with stage 4 chronic kidney disease unpacks frozen food trays that she can heat in the microwave. Her favorite is sweet-and-sour chicken. In the three months since she began eating the customized meals, De Los Santos has learned to manage her diabetes by maintaining a healthy blood sugar level. (de Marco and Hart, 6/1)