State news round-up: Insurance coverage, infection reporting, immigrant health

News outlets report on a range of state health stories including infections in New Hampshire, children's insurance in Michigan, increased insurance coverage in North Carolina, immigrant health in Texas and long-term financial planning on Florida.

The Concord Monitor reports on an infection reporting program in New Hampshire: "Three years after the state Legislature passed a law requiring hospitals to report the number of infections patients acquire during medical care, a federal grant will give the state the funding needed to get the program off the ground. The state was awarded nearly $760,000 from the federal stimulus program and will use the money to hire staff to manage the reporting program and audit the numbers submitted by hospitals" (Sanger-Katz, 9/15). 

The Detroit News on children's health insurance in Michigan: "Michigan's budget crisis is expected to prevent (an) expansion of children's health insurance coverage because the state can't afford to match an extra $100 million in federal funds. Michigan has to come up with a 26 percent match, or about $33 million, for its MIChild program to get federal funds from the recently renewed Children's Health Insurance Program, state health officials say" (Kozlowski, 9/15).

The News & Observer reports on a grant to expand health coverage in North Carolina: "The state is getting a $17 million federal grant to provide government health insurance to low-income working parents. Adults who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid will be able to enroll in a health insurance plan with limited benefits. The grant, which will cover a year of planning and four years of care, is enough to pay for a test program for about 1,500 families" (Bonner, 9/15).

The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports on immigrant health in Texas: "Illegal and legal immigrants in Texas received taxpayer-subsidized healthcare services and thousands of prescriptions for nonemergency conditions in violation of the law, according to a federal watchdog agency. At fault, an audit says, is the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which provided lax oversight in restricting immigrants to emergency services, such as childbirth, for which the state can seek federal reimbursement" (Barbee, 9/14).

This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Reports - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Reports here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.