State roundup: AP probes Va. hospital's actions in woman's death; Supreme Court won't hear Neb. abortion case; Kancare preps assessment for in-home Medicaid needs

A selection of health policy stories from Nebraska, Missouri, Virginia, California, Kansas and Minnesota.

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Investigation Of Woman's Care At Va. Hospital Mired In Bureaucracy, Confusing Reports
An Associated Press examination of her care highlights the dizzying array of federal, state and private agencies charged with regulating hospital care, and the differing standards they use when investigating the most serious cases of possible neglect. In addition, an investigation report filed by Virginia regulators appears to have been altered to delete parts of the report that substantiated most of the family's complaints. That prompted a former top federal regulator to say the case warrants further investigation (10/1).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Challenge In Nebraska Abortion Case
The Supreme Court won't reconsider a decision stopping a Nebraska anti-abortion group from fighting for an abortion law that requires health screenings for women seeking abortions (10/1).

Politico Pro: Missouri Employer To Appeal Contraception Ruling
A Missouri company plans to file an appeal Monday after a district court judge dismissed its lawsuit against the Obama administration's contraception requirement, according to a lawyer for the company. On Friday, District Judge Carol E. Jackson found that requiring employers to cover contraception imposes no substantial burden on religious exercise for plaintiffs Frank O'Brien and O'Brien Industrial Holdings LLC, which mines and distributes refractory and ceramic materials (Smith, 10/1).

Kansas Health Institute News: AAAs To Take On Assessments Of In-Home Medicaid Needs
Officials at the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services today signed a contract with the Southwest Kansas Area Agency on Aging, putting the organization in charge of determining which Medicaid-funded services are needed to keep the state's low-income frail elderly, physically disabled or brain-injured out of nursing homes. Southwest Kansas AAA Executive Director Dave Deist said the agency intends to subcontract for the same services with the other 10 AAAs throughout the state (Ranney, 10/1).

California Healthline: Access, Capacity Concerns For CBAS
California's Community Based Adult Services program officially launches today, the culmination of a long and contentious effort to first eliminate and then replace the Adult Day Health Care program. There were roughly 36,000 recipients of ADHC services when the governor first proposed eliminating it as a Medi-Cal benefit in January 2011. ... According to Department of Health Care Services officials, about 80 percent of former ADHC beneficiaries now can receive CBAS benefits (Gorn, 10/1).

Minnesota Post: Feds Give $21 Million For Phase 2 Of Minnesota Veterans Home Upgrade
The Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington will spend $21 million to help build a 100-bed skilled-nursing facility at the Minnesota Veterans Home. Work on the project -- which is Phase 2 of a major update of the Veterans Home in Minneapolis -- will start in the spring. The first phase of the project, a new skilled-nursing facility and an adult day center, was completed in August. A third phase will add even more modern care facilities (Kimball, 10/1).