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As Willie Hughes walked around the weathered plots and mounds of dirt at Peaceful Valley Cemetery, he remembered family that died too young and his brother Steven, who was born with spina bifida. Steven never saw a doctor or physical therapist or used a wheelchair. He crawled around on his forearms and died of pneumonia at age 3. (Wolf, 2/19)

When a new state law went into effect this year expanding access to contraception, it left out a big swath of Marylanders — those who work for the state. The state government — and many other large employers — were exempt from the law that went into effect Jan. 1. (Cohn, 2/16)

A bill that would replace the existing health care system with a new one run by a single payer — specifically, the state government — and paid for with taxpayer money remains parked in the Assembly, with no sign of moving ahead.  ...But even if single-payer is a lost cause in the short term, advocates are playing a long game. (Rosenhall, 2/16)

AltaMed, a Southern California health system, has a storied beginning. In the 1960s, volunteer physicians and nurses served patients out of an East Los Angeles barrio clinic, where they kept a 5-gallon water jug to collect any spare money people could offer. "We've come a long way from a free clinic in the 1960s, then to a clinic of last resort, to where we are today—a provider of choice," said Cástulo de la Rocha, AltaMed's CEO. (Luthi, 2/17)

For 23 years, Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital has recognized patients in its care who've shown a commitment to changing their lifestyle after experiencing a major cardiac condition. On Thursday, five patients chosen by the hospital's cardiac fitness staff earned the title of King or Queen of Hearts for their continued lifestyle changes as part of their cardiac recovery efforts, such as years of sticking to a specific diet and exercise. (Landa, 2/16)

Minnesota officials will soon try to convince a jury that manufacturer 3M Co. should pay the state $5 billion to help clean up environmental damage that the state alleges was caused by pollutants the company dumped for decades. The long-awaited trial begins Tuesday in Minneapolis. Experts say it could have wide-reaching implications if the state succeeds, in part because 3M and other companies legally dumped the chemicals for years in and outside Minnesota. (2/20)

It was a cold, wet, windy day as rural health advocates from North Carolina walked toward Capitol Hill earlier this month. They had back-to-back meetings in the offices of six N.C. congressmen: Sens. Thom Tillis (R) and Richard Burr (R), and Reps. David Price (D), G.K. Butterfield (D), Alma Adams (D) and George Holding (R). The group was in Washington D.C. for the annual National Rural Health Association conference, where the discussion centered around the health disparities and crumbling financial landscape in rural America. Few discussions about rural health ended without mention of opioid addiction and overdoses, and the ever-improving resource of telemedicine. (Knopf, 2/20)

The LRGHealthcare board of directors voted Monday to close inpatient labor and delivery services at Lakes Region General Hospital, effective May 30, and shutter several clinics. It will also lay off 16 workers as a result of the elimination of administrative positions and program restructuring. (Feely, 2/13)

The announcement that LRGHealthcare will close its maternity ward this spring has some young mothers feeling left in the lurch. Skylor Miller of Laconia has twice given birth at Lakes Regional General Hospital, most recently on Jan. 20. “I think it is a terrible decision,” Miller said of the board of directors’ vote to close the hospital’s inpatient labor and delivery services effective May 30. (Lewis, 2/18)

People who get health insurance through their employer are going to doctors and hospitals less, but they and their employers still are spending more money on health care. The reason: Prices keep going up. (Boulton, 2/19)

More women in Ohio can join Trimpey in sampling Nurx, a telemed startup that connects patients to contraception without an in-person doctor visit. Making access to birth control as easy as tapping a cellphone app could help lower the country's rate of unplanned pregnancies. (Washington, 2/19)

Partners HealthCare, the largest private employer in Massachusetts, has told about 100 employees they are being let go and their jobs outsourced to India, where workers will perform the same tasks for a much smaller paycheck. Many of the employees have worked for Partners for several years, or even decades, and are struggling with the company’s decision. (Kowalczyk and Dayal McCluskey, 2/20)

Traffic deaths on U.S. roads fell slightly in 2017 after two straight years of big increases, but a leading safety organization that compiled the numbers says it’s no cause for celebration. The National Safety Council on Thursday estimated that 40,100 people were killed in traffic crashes last year, down just under 1 percent from the 2016 total of 40,327. The group said it’s too early to tell whether the small decline means a downward trend after a two-year spike in deaths that was blamed largely on people driving more miles as the economy improved as well as an increase in distracted driving. In Colorado, 642 people died in traffic in 2017, the highest number since 2004, when 667 were killed. (Krisher, 2/20)

Principal Traci Horton, from Burlington’s Grove Park Elementary School, used to work in a school that only had a half-time school nurse. Never again. “When I came to Grove Park, I could definitely tell the difference in what my teachers are able to do,” Horton said. “Our teachers have more of an opportunity to instruct which is what they’re supposed to be doing.” (Hoban, 2/16)

The Austin City Council on Friday morning approved a new rule requiring businesses in the city to provide paid sick leave for employees, but movement is already afoot in the Texas Legislature to kill the ordinance. ...The new rule mandated that private employers allow their workers to accrue up to 64 hours, or eight days, of paid sick leave per year. (Greene, 2/16)

The Maryland Hospital Association has hired a longtime health consultant and advisor as its newest president and CEO. Bob Atlas will start his new job March 5. He replaces Carmela Coyle, who left to head the California Hospital Association. (McDaniels, 2/19)

Kaiser Health News: Reducing Red Tape For Traveling Nurses

Lauren Bond, a traveling nurse, has held licenses in five states and Washington, D.C. She maintains a detailed spreadsheet to keep track of license fees, expiration dates and the different courses each state requires. The 27-year-old got into travel nursing because she wanted to work and live in other states before settling down. She said she wished more states accepted the multistate license, which minimizes the hassles nurses face when they want to practice across state lines. (Gorman, 2/20)

Fewer than one percent of the state’s 68,120 cannabis cultivators have been licensed, according to a new report published on Monday by the California Growers Association, the state’s largest association of cannabis businesses. Growers can’t meet the cost of complying with regulations, or are prohibited from growing due to local land-use policies, according to the report, “An Emerging Crisis: Barriers To Entry In California Cannabis.” (Krieger, 2/19)