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A federal judge issued an order Friday stopping an Indiana ban on puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors from taking effect as scheduled July 1. (Davies, 6/16)

Wisconsinites who are transgender would be barred from utilizing Medicaid health care coverage to pay for puberty-blocking drugs or surgeries under a provision Republican lawmakers voted to include in the next two-year state budget plan. GOP lawmakers on the state Legislature's budget-writing committee voted to include the measure early Friday as part of a $3 billion spending plan for health care but it's unclear whether the provision will withstand legal scrutiny. (Beck, 6/16)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Medical Exiles: Families Flee States Amid Crackdown On Transgender Care

Hal Dempsey wanted to “escape Missouri.” Arlo Dennis is “fleeing Florida.” The Tillison family “can’t stay in Texas.” They are part of a new migration of Americans who are uprooting their lives in response to a raft of legislation across the country restricting health care for transgender people. (Sable-Smith, Chang, Rodriguez and West, 6/20)

The U.S. is becoming an outlier among many Western nations in the way its national medical institutions treat children suffering from distress over gender identity. For years, the American healthcare industry has staunchly defended medical interventions for transgender minors, including puberty blockers, which suppress the physical changes of adolescence as a treatment for those distressed over their gender. The European medical community, by contrast, is expressing doubts about that approach. (Sapsford and Armour, 6/19)

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed off on creating a pilot program to provide Medicaid managed-care services to people with developmental disabilities. The pilot was included in a broader health care bill (SB 2510) that DeSantis signed Thursday with the state budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year. (6/19)

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed 11 bills, including a measure that allows certified nursing assistants in nursing homes to become trained as “qualified medication aides.” The aides could then administer “routine” medications to residents, freeing up registered nurses to provide other needed care. The aides could also perform tasks such as checking blood glucose levels. (Mayer, 6/19)

Health officials around the country are reporting cases and positive samples of the West Nile virus. In Iowa, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that the first case of West Nile virus infection was reported this year in an older adult — age 61-80 years — from Plymouth County. The case was confirmed through a test at the State Hygienic Lab. (Musto, 6/17)

Even as summer temperatures soar and states wrangle with protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat, Texas last week enacted a law that axes city rules mandating water and shade breaks for construction workers. In state after state, lawmakers and regulators have in recent years declined to require companies to offer their outdoor laborers rest breaks with shade and water. In some cases, legislation failed to gain traction. In others, state regulators decided against action or have taken years to write and release rules. (Barrett, 6/20)

Staffing shortages caused some of the DeKalb County Jail’s inmate health care operations to “cease” last month before Sheriff Melody Maddox replaced its medical providers with a $16.9 million contract, records show. (Redmon, 6/19)