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Thousands of mothers in Wisconsin will now have access to postpartum Medicaid coverage after Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill extending the program from 60 days to one year. The effort has been years in the making, with Evers including it in all four of his proposed budgets since he took office in 2019. In a press release after he signed the bill, Evers said he’s proud to have gotten it “across the finish line.” (Peek, 3/18)

Nine gubernatorial candidates attended a forum Wednesday in Augusta hosted by the Maine Primary Care Association. The candidates — four Democrats, four independents and one Republican — all agreed that Maine’s next governor must tackle an increasingly costly and complex health care crisis. Several have already released health plans, though on Wednesday they differed on how and where to focus spending. (Kail, 3/18)

Delawareans with private insurance pay some of the highest prices in the nation for hospital services. Research also shows the state’s hospitals generally have higher profits than the national average. New legislation sponsored by Senate Majority leader Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, aims to invest more in primary care and reduce hospital spending. But the powerful health care lobby fiercely opposes the bill. (Mueller, 3/17)

In a bid for transparency in pharmaceutical marketing, a bill introduced in the Maryland legislature would require drugmakers to disclose that they sell or are developing a medicine to combat an illness in disease awareness advertisements. (Silverman, 3/18)

$10 million in federal funding is now available for critical access hospitals in North Dakota, as part of the first year of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). The funding opportunity is meant to support the retention of health care professionals in North Dakota’s 37 critical access hospitals and their clinics, thus making rural healthcare more sustainable throughout the state. (Segal, 3/18)

Rhode Island health officials are warning the public after a spike in non-fatal drug overdoses last week surpassed a statewide threshold for the first time since 2023. Officials noted that fentanyl continues to be detected in stimulants such as cocaine and crack cocaine, as well as counterfeit pills — putting people who use stimulants at heightened risk of opioid overdose, particularly those with lower opioid tolerance. (Belmore, 3/18)

Hallucinogenic chocolate bars were removed from six Denver-area gas stations. The PolkaDot-branded chocolate bars were marketed as “mushroom blends” and said to include lion’s mane, reishi, turkey tail and cordyceps — all non-hallucinogenic varieties. But laboratory tests showed otherwise. The bars contained psychoactive drugs: psilocybin and psilocin, the principal psychedelics found in Psilocybe mushrooms, as well as other chemical relatives called synthetic tryptamines. (Kroll, 3/17)

We analyzed data from more than 2,600 households reporting the use of medical devices, drawn from a nationally representative federal survey of nearly 18,500 American homes. Using statistical modeling, we identified four distinct groups, each facing a very different situation when the power goes out. (Dean and Asmussen, 3/18)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Oz Says California’s Not Fighting Health Care Fraud, But Data Shows It’s Part Of A Larger Battle

For weeks, Mehmet Oz has been waging a public feud with California leaders over health care fraud, accusing the blue state of failing to adequately combat such abuse. Oz, who heads the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, alleged that there was approximately $3.5 billion of fraud in the hospice and home health care industry in Los Angeles County alone. “This administration under President [Donald] Trump is not going to tolerate taxpayer dollars being stolen because people aren’t paying attention anymore. We’re focused on this,” Oz said. (Thompson, 3/19)

Friends arranged the ceremony over the weekend, making sure Bill Kerwin, a local coach and school district staffer, enjoyed seeing the major life milestone happen. (Wang, 3/17)