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Health authorities in the United States said this week that they were investigating an unusual spike in cases of a rare condition that causes limb paralysis and severe muscle weakness in children.Since mid-September, six cases of the condition, acute flaccid myelitis, in children under 10 years old have been reported to the Minnesota Department of Health, the agency said. Another two possible cases are pending confirmation, officials said. (Hauser, 10/10)

State public health officials Wednesday imposed new conditions on the planned merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health aimed at requiring the hospitals to contain costs and maintain access to low-income patients. Officials said the conditions were necessary after the state Health Policy Commission reported in September that the transaction could raise spending significantly — at least $128.4 million to $170.8 million per year — by allowing the merging hospitals to charge more for their services. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/10)

The merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health would create the state's second health care giant, almost on a par with Partners HealthCare. The council gave the merger a green light but included conditions aimed at keeping costs down and protecting health care access for lower-income patients. (Goldberg, 10/10)

One person has died of Legionnaires’ disease in a cluster of 16 cases in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, New York City health officials confirmed on Wednesday. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a phone call with reporters on Wednesday that seven people remain hospitalized due to the outbreak, seven have been discharged from the hospital and one person was seen on an outpatient basis. Health officials have said that the ages of those stricken range from 40 to over 80 years old. (West, 10/10)

Ohio’s 91 domestic-violence deaths over the past year provide case for believing survivors, group says. Though statewide figures decreased slightly from the prior year, Franklin County’s numbers climbed to 16, up from 11 in 2016-17. (Price, 10/10)

Kansas City and St. Louis have some of the worst-rated nursing homes in the country, while Topeka, Overland Park and Wichita have some of the best. That’s according to rankings published by FamilyAssets, a New York-based company that offers assessments and planning for people seeking home health care services. The rankings are based on hundreds of thousands of customer reviews across the web, according to FamilyAssets. The company looked at the prevalence of “bad” reviews (1 or 2 stars) and “good” ones (4 or 5 stars) and ignored average ones. (Margolies, 10/10)

The on-again, off-again access for Sacramento Medi-Cal patients to UC Davis Medical Center and its affiliated clinics is open once more for some patients, in light of a new agreement between UC Davis Health and the insurer Health Net. The health system and the insurer struck a deal that will allow as many as 5,000 people enrolled in Health Net’s Medi-Cal plan in Sacramento County to receive primary care and other medical services through UC Davis Health, according to an announcement by the university. The deal comes about three years after UC Davis and Health Net canceled a previous primary care contract covering Medi-Cal enrollees. (Waters, 10/10)

Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the largest insurer in the state, says skyrocketing hospital prices are the main reason it has recorded losses of $65 million in the last three years, forcing a top-to-bottom review of operations that will herald a more confrontational approach with hospitals. Ron Vance, Kaiser’s new president of its Colorado operations, did not rule out filing antitrust lawsuits against those Colorado hospitals he contends have “refused to enter into reasonable contracts” with Kaiser. (Osher, 10/10)

Federal agents seized items from the Hmong Village in St. Paul on Wednesday as part of an investigation into medications sold at the market. The market, near Lake Phalen on the city's east side, features individual vendors selling everything from dresses to food. (Yuen, 10/10)

City Council could approve legislation Monday (Oct. 15) raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco, "e-cigs" and other nicotine "vape" products from 18 to 21. If passed, it would not take effect until January 2019. (Jewell, 10/10)

The Food and Drug Administration has declared e-cigarette use by young people an "epidemic" and Tempe high school student Brach Drew agrees. ... Drew and fellow members of his school's anti-vape committee recently helped create a new Tempe Union High School District campaign called "Vanish the Vape," which emphasizes that the use of e-cigarettes results in school suspension in addition to health consequences. (Innes, 10/10)

A Louisiana-based home health and hospice company says it’s buying a nationwide hospice company based in New Jersey, and will become the nation’s third-largest hospice provider. Amedisys, Inc. of Baton Rouge said Wednesday that it is buying Compassionate Care Hospice of Parsippany, New Jersey, for $340 million. (10/10)

Three women filed a federal lawsuit against Huntington Memorial Hospital and one of its longest-serving obstetricians Wednesday, alleging that the physician subjected them to unwanted sexual remarks during exams in the 1990s. The suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles comes a week after The Times reported that Dr. Patrick Sutton had been accused of sexual misconduct by five other patients. Sutton, 64, settled four of those accusations without admitting any sexual wrongdoing, and he has said through a lawyer that he plans to contest the fifth pending complaint. (Ryan and Hamilton, 10/10)

As soon as next year, a 40-foot-long, half-million-dollar vehicle customized with examination rooms and a reception area could be parking itself in city neighborhoods that otherwise are devoid of mental health professionals, social workers and child psychologists. The proposal emerged Wednesday at a monthly meeting of clinics, nonprofits, universities, therapists and social welfare agencies, which collectively want to tackle the epidemic of psychological trauma that ravages Milwaukee and cities like it. (Schmid, 10/10)

Outreach workers went tent to tent early Wednesday with offers of homeless services as the city launched a crackdown on encampments around a new shelter in downtown Los Angeles’ El Pueblo historic district. The city plans five-day-a-week cleanups and increased police presence in “special enforcement zones” around a network of 15 shelters it hopes to build by the middle of next year. (Holland, 10/10)

Concerned about the side effects of prescription medication, entrepreneur Angela Ardolino took a holistic approach to treating her nasty case of rheumatoid arthritis. She tried using CDB oil. When it worked for her, she reasoned that it would have similar benefits for her senior schnauzer, Odie, who also suffered from arthritis - but couldn’t find any natural products for pets in the United States. So she set out to make her own. (Baldwin, 10/10)