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After several people in Orange County fell sick with Legionnaires’ disease in recent weeks, officials said two cooling towers at Disneyland had been linked to the outbreak. Those towers were shut down, and officials say they no longer pose a risk to park visitors. But a key question remains unanswered: How did four people who had not visited Disneyland become infected? (Karlamangla, 11/16)

The Texas Legislature's budget for the next two years includes $20 million more in funding for a controversial program that seeks to discourage women from getting abortions in the state. Alternatives to Abortion uses contracted providers to offer services such as financial counseling and support groups for new parents, as well as children's items such as car seats and infant formula. (Choi, 11/16)

Consumer advocates said Thursday the impact of a prolonged contract dispute between the insurer Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield and Hartford HealthCare, has been exacerbated by the rapid consolidation of hospitals, physician groups and clinics in Connecticut. (Pazniokas, 11/16)

Four people have been indicted on multiple counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and aggravated identity theft related to fraudulent claims filed with Medicaid programs in Georgia, Florida and Louisiana. U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak, in a news release Thursday, announced indictments against 42-year-old Matthew Harrell, of Atlanta; 42-year-old Nikki Richardson, of Fairburn, Georgia; 42-year-old Tomeka Howard, of Decatur, Georgia; and 42-year-old Andrea Barrett, of Virginia Beach, Virginia. (11/16)

A student group at Brandeis University wants to install a vending machine on the school’s Waltham campus that would dispense health care products like Plan B, the emergency contraceptive used to prevent pregnancy after having unprotected sex. (Annear, 11/16)

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey named Kevin P. Conlin to succeed Robert A. Marino as chief executive of New Jersey’s largest health insurer effective Jan. 1, the Newark company said Thursday. Marino has been Horizon’s president and CEO since March 2011 and chairman since March 2012. He is retiring on Dec. 31. (Brubaker, 11/16)

A Miramar doctor has been sentenced in federal court for his part in a $5.5 million healthcare fraud case. ... As medical director of Chatman’s Reflections Treatment Center, Mendez should have been responsible for patient diagnosis and care. Instead, Chatman “dictated the type and frequency of different types of lab testing that would be performed based upon the kickbacks and bribes that he was receiving from different clinical laboratories,” he admitted in court documents. (Neal, 11/16)

A Santa Clara County adult under age 65 is the first flu-related death reported in the county this flu season, public health officials announced Thursday. The victim, who died earlier this month, had not received this year’s flu vaccine and suffered from other medical conditions that placed the person at greater risk of severe complications from the flu, Santa Clara County health officials said. (Seipel, 11/16)

The cost of long-term care such as nursing homes or at-home care continued to rise both nationally and in Virginia from 2016 to 2017, one recent survey showed. The national, median cost of long-term care services increased an average of 4.5 percent from 2016 to 2017, with the national median, annual cost for a private room in a nursing home reaching $97,455, according to research conducted by Henrico County-based insurance company Genworth Financial Inc. (Reid Blackwell, 11/16)

Johns Hopkins University scientists will get a $65 million infusion of funding from a Wall Street investment firm that they hope will help bring more drugs and other medical treatments to market. The investment from New York-based Deerfield Management Co. comes as government funding for scientific research continues to decline and drug companies remain cautious about which studies they choose to invest in. Many funders want proof of a drug’s potential before they invest. (McDaniels and Cohn, 11/16)

A man who acknowledges killing a woman nearly 40 years ago said he needed to plot and carry out his escape from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital to prove that he could behave properly out in the community. Randall Saito told San Francisco television station KGO-TV in an interview that the Hawaii State Hospital wouldn't give him a chance. He says every time he applied for release, officials made him "sound like a bad guy." (11/17)

Summa Health System's recent struggles could be stabilizing, despite a downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. ... The largest employer in Summit County, Summa Health has had diminishing revenues and waning consumer confidence over the past year, triggered by a variety of factors. (Conn, 11/16)

A Denver-based mobile health care company has landed in Richmond through a partnership with Bon Secours Richmond Health System. Officially launched Tuesday in Richmond, DispatchHealth sends a medical team, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants, to a patient’s home once summoned through an app, website or phone call. (O'Connor, 11/16)

Dental visits and satisfying jobs help make the Twin Cities one of the happiest metro areas in the country. But poor body-mass-index scores and high smoking rates prevent it from topping the list, according to National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner, a native of St. Paul. (Chavey, 11/16)

A former Iowa psychiatrist who served prison time for padding his bills to health-insurers has surrendered his medical license. Richard L. Hauser, 68, practiced psychiatry in Grinnell, Iowa City and Pella, state and federal records show. He surrendered his license last week to settle administrative charges of unethical conduct, which were brought by the Iowa Board of Medicine. (Leys, 11/16)