Banking on bigger medical bills and more news from the states

Good evening. We start in Idaho, where the state’s largest insurer accuses a small hospital of misusing a process intended to promote transparency in medical billing. In Michigan, a Native American prisoner says he was mocked and harassed by staff, and in Nebraska, the attorney general is trying to force Democrats to replace a candidate who dropped out.

In Louisiana, the state is trying to save the endangered whooping cranes, while in Utah, officials warn hikers to stay away from the adorable, but dangerous, mountain goats.

In national news, domestic violence prevention advocates are pressing states to take a closer look at cases that appear on the surface to be accidents or suicides.

Idaho’s largest insurer says that a North Idaho hospital is artificially inflating medical bills using an arbitration process created by Congress as part of 2021 legislation intended to prevent patients from getting unexpected medical bills, Idaho Capital Sun reports.

Blue Cross argues that Post Falls ER & Hospital, opened in 2024 by Nutex Health, is refusing to make in-network agreements with health insurance plans and is instead relying on the arbitration system to settle bills with insurers.

In arbitration, which Blue Cross says it often loses, the hospital frequently receives payouts that are four to five times as much as the insurer typically pays other providers for the same services, the insurer recently told state officials.

In one case, the hospital charged more than $14,000 for a diagnosis code meant for treating a migraine, the insurer said.

“Post Falls ER and Hospital is not a victim of unfair reimbursement rates; rather, the numbers clearly show they are a statistical outlier using the (arbitration) process as a primary revenue strategy, not a last resort to obtain a fair and reasonable payment,” Blue Cross of Idaho’s Chief Strategy Officer Drew Hobby wrote in a May letter to the Idaho Department of Insurance.

Nutex Health Chief Operating Officer Wesley Bamburg denied the company’s strategy was to rely heavily on the arbitration process, saying the company’s hope in every market it serves “is to be in network under fair, market-based contracts.” But he said its North Idaho micro-hospital is not in network for any health insurers. 

“We have several active and productive conversations underway with multiple health plans, at various stages, and we are encouraged by the progress being made,” he said by email.

More health coverage:

A corrections officer at Newberry Correctional Facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula digitally altered a Native American prisoner’s ID to depict him wearing a feathered headdress, stereotypical Indigenous attire and facial paint, a lawsuit filed in Michigan state court in early August alleges, Michigan Advance reports.

Dylan Leenheer, who is Native American and a member of the Gun Lake Tribe, is suing the Michigan Department of Corrections, as well as three individual corrections employees involved in the incident, for violating the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. 

The lawsuit claims that Leenheer faced “racial humiliation” from two corrections officers, Jay Stevens and Robert Marsh, and a library technician, JoLynn Cebula. It further alleges that the Michigan Department of Corrections had “institutional knowledge of, and failure to prevent or remedy, a broader pattern of similar misconduct” within the unit. 

“That is very telling about the environment and about how people who are Native American, who are non-white are being treated,” Maura Battersby, a senior attorney for Flood Law, who is representing Leenheer, said in an interview. 

More courts and justice coverage:

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers gave notice to a Lancaster County district judge that he plans to be heard on a lawsuit that seeks to force the state Democratic Party to replace its former Senate candidate, Nebraska Examiner reports.

The three-page notice filed last week cites a state statute that the attorney general “shall” be heard if a state law is alleged to be unconstitutional. Earlier this month, Lancaster County District Court Judge Susan Strong declined to grant William Forbes a temporary injunction to force the Nebraska Democratic Party to replace U.S. Senate nominee Cindy Burbank after she dropped out of the race. 

Strong, in her ruling, said Forbes’ arguments would raise “serious constitutional concerns” and that he was unlikely to succeed in forcing the party to replace Burbank. 

In his lawsuit, Forbes cited a state law that reads: “If a vacancy on the ballot arises for any partisan office except President and Vice President of the United States before a general election, the vacancy shall be filled by the majority vote of the proper committee of the same political party.”

His attorneys argued that the law’s language requires a replacement. 

Nebraska Democrats said Forbes is misreading state law because the statute he cited addresses the process that must be followed if a party chooses to replace a nominee — an interpretation that Strong so far seems to agree with.

Colorado: The state is on track for a heat-related illness rate of 13.6 per 10,000 medical visits in summer 2026, surpassing the previous record of 8.9, set in 2024, and more than double 2019.

Virginia: The tech industry is trying to stem a wave of public outrage over data centers by pointing to its contribution to local government funding.

New Jersey: Families of 9/11 victims are pressing the state to finish a memorial, and repair the deteriorating existing portions, more than 20 years after it was established.

Arizona: A conservative law firm is asking the state Supreme Court to strike down ballot language from the Democratic attorney general on a GOP-backed elections measure.

Oregon: Fishermen will begin testing ropeless crabbing technology next spring in an effort to save whales from often-fatal entanglements.

West Virginia: A weekend of heavy rain brought widespread flooding just weeks after similar storms led to a disaster declaration that remains in effect.

Nebraska: Democrats and Republicans are clashing over reported fraud on ballot petitions for three conservative-backed measures to shake up local elections in Lincoln.

South Carolina: Legislators left the Capitol for the year without action on bills to strengthen DUI laws and restrict sales of THC-infused products.

Washington: A powerful labor union and the governor’s office are at odds in contract negotiations for caregivers; the state wants a wage freeze and workers want higher pay.

Kansas: A leading anti-abortion group is calling on lawmakers to hold a special session to place on the ballot an amendment to the state constitution to declare life begins at conception.

Alaska: After a series of catastrophic years, salmon on the Yukon River are making a surprising rebound, a relief to Native villages that rely on them.

New Mexico: The state Environment Department is proposing beefed up rules for monitoring methane leaks in order to help reduce both air pollution and natural gas waste.

The calls of whooping cranes from an isolated corner of the New Orleans west bank cut through the humid August air like fire alarms, echoing back and forth in cacophonous, punctuated bursts of conversation. (Photo by Elise Plunk/Louisiana Illuminator)

Richard Dunn, assistant curator for the Freeport-McMoran Audubon Species Survival Center, walked the greenery-lined path between fenced enclosures to point out mated pairs of critically endangered cranes. Through the brush and amid the resounding noise, elegantly feathered parents stood next to soft, downy chicks, raising their young in a bid against extinction. 

“Parents teach them everything,” Dunn said. “They’re teaching them where to find food, catching stuff, walking them and teaching them how to fly.”

The chicks won’t stay in captivity. After they reach a year old, they’ll be released in Vermilion Parish into the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area along the coast. 

Louisiana is home to one of the few whooping crane reintroduction programs in the country. A poster child for the federal Endangered Species Act and largely representative of human efforts to bring back plants and animals from the very edge of erasure, whooping cranes are some of the rarest birds in North America.

Read more from Louisiana Illuminator.

Families who believe local officials prematurely ruled their loved ones’ deaths suicides or accidents — rather than investigating whether domestic violence played a role — are pushing lawmakers in a growing number of states to require additional scrutiny, Stateline reports.

Advocates call the deaths “hidden homicides” — killings they say may be staged to look like suicides, overdoses or accidents and then overlooked by investigators. Some advocates argue that requiring additional investigative steps could prevent potential evidence from being lost before a case is closed.

This year, lawmakers in at least five states — Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Oregon — have considered legislation aimed at identifying homicides or unexplained deaths involving domestic violence that might otherwise be misclassified. All of the bills have stalled in legislative committees amid concerns over financial and administrative constraints, including requirements for law enforcement training. 

California in 2024 became the first state to enact a law addressing the issue when lawmakers approved Joanna’s Law, or Senate Bill 989, which took effect last year. The law requires police officers, in certain cases, to interview family members before determining the manner and cause of death and allows families to request a complete autopsy when specific indicators of domestic homicide are present.

More from Stateline:

The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved by voice vote its lineup of six early primaries for the 2028 election cycle, kicking off with South Carolina and Nevada, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reported over the weekend.

DNC Chair Ken Martin told the meeting that the early lineup reflects the diversity of the party’s electorate. 

“Our 2028 nominee, whoever they are, will have to earn the support across the full breadth of America — every region, every demographic, every generation, every economic station in life,” he said. “No shortcuts. No coronation. You want to lead this party? You go earn it.”

Coming face to face with a mountain goat in a meadow of wildflowers may sound like a dream, but wildlife managers are reminding Utahns to keep their distance to avoid a nightmare scenario, Utah News Dispatch reports.

After giving birth late in May, nanny mountain goats team up to form nursery herds in the summer, grazing in alpine meadows and nursing their kids. They tend to be territorial during this time, especially when they’re with their young, and may charge at humans and dogs, said Rusty Robinson with Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. 

Unlike many other species of big game, female goats have horns, too, so it can be difficult to tell them apart from the males, said Robinson, the division’s coordinator for once-in-a-lifetime species (for which hunting permits are restricted to just one time ever per hunter).

The division is urging hikers who spot a mountain goat to keep a distance of at least 150 feet, even if it means heading back down the trail. 

“If you get too close, they can come at you with those sharp horns, and it can be dangerous,” Robinson said.