State highlights: Ark. AG asks state Supreme Court to uphold J&J fine; N.Y. abortion measure to get separate vote

A selection of health policy stories from Arkansas, New York, Massachusetts and California.

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Ark. AG Asks State's High Court To Uphold $1.2B Fine Against Johnson & Johnson, Subsidiary
Arkansas' attorney general filed a brief Tuesday backed by his counterparts in 35 other states asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to uphold a $1.2 billion fine levied against Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary over the marketing of the antipsychotics drug Risperdal (6/18).

The Wall Street Journal: Abortion Measure May Get A Vote In New York State Senate
Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed late Tuesday night to split the governor's Women's Equality Act into 10 separate bills to be voted on individually, setting the stage for a showdown over the proposal's most controversial provision, a measure to amend the state's abortion laws. The tactic represented an 11th-hour attempt to force an up or down vote on the abortion-rights plank, an issue that legislative observers and even Mr. Cuomo himself had said was dying in the closing days of Capitol's lawmaking session (Orden, 6/18).

The Associated Press/Wall Street Journal: N.Y. Agency To Pay $1 million Over Unqualified Aides
Federal and New York state authorities have announced a $1 million settlement with a Brooklyn agency that used untrained health aides to care for elderly and disabled clients. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch announced the settlement with Parkshore Home Health Care on Tuesday (6/18).

WBUR: Radio Boston: Sec. Polanowicz On The Health Of Our State (Audio)
We're joined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for Massachusetts, John Polanowicz, to discuss everything from controlling the state's health care costs to implementing the usage of medical marijuana (6/18).

California Healthline: Floor Vote Coming For 'De-Linking' Plan
A legislative committee yesterday had a lot of questions about a proposal to expand the role of the Department of Finance in the state's Coordinated Care Initiative and to de-link some provisions in it. CCI is the plan to combine funding and coordinate services for 1.1 million Californians dually eligible for Medicare and Medi-Cal. [Monday's] hearing came one working day after the budget language for the plan was officially released on Friday (Gorn, 6/18).