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Thousands of Nevadans who got their health insurance through Friday Health Plans of Nevada have until midnight on Aug. 31 to find a new policy...This comes after a Nevada court ordered the liquidation of the company by Sept. 1. Several states, including Nevada, placed the insurance company under receivership, a court proceeding similar to a bankruptcy...There will be a special enrollment period for existing Friday Health Plan of Nevada members to enroll in a new health insurance policy through Nevada’s Silver State Health Insurance Exchange...The special enrollment period began July 25 and ends Oct. 31. The last day to enroll without a coverage gap is Aug. 31...READ MORE

When Teva proposed its sweeping $4.25 billion opioid settlement to resolve thousands of claims across the country, all U.S. states except for Nevada and New Mexico jumped on board. Now, the company has worked out a separate $193 million deal with one of the holdouts...Under the deal, the generics giant will make annual payments to Nevada on a sliding scale starting next July and lasting through July 2043. The payouts will start at $7 million and rise to $9 million through 2037, then increase to $27 million in 2042...The cash will be divvied between Nevada and members of the One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries, a group formed to distribute opioid-related funds to local governments...READ MORE

KRNV-TV reported...that in response to a public records request, the board said it has 455 pending cases, including three on hold since 2016 because police also are investigating...Medical Board Executive Director Ed Cousineau told KRNV-TV that staffing issues can make it difficult to complete investigations in a timely manner...But Reno attorney Julie Throop said delays of seven years can make it too late for attorneys to use board findings in court...KRNV-TV said records showed 301 pending complaints filed against doctors last year and 140 unresolved since 2019. It found eight outstanding complaints from 2018 and three from 2017...READ MORE

Four felony drug charges were announced Friday against Mark Lawson after he resigned Monday as Sparks fire chief...The charges include possession of a controlled substance and sale of a controlled substance...A co-defendant listed in the case is Lance Forrester. As recently as 2020, Forrester was employed as a correctional officer with the state, according to Transparent Nevada...Arraignment is set for Jan. 31 in Sparks Justice Court...The charges seemed to take the city of Sparks by surprise. Lawson’s hiring was approved by the Sparks City Council on Nov. 28 with pay of $200,000 plus benefits...READ MORE

Nevada Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper filed for regulatory supervision of Friday Health Plans of Nevada, which has over 2,800 individuals in the state, after the company announced last week that it will “wind down…business operations.”...“Unfortunately, Friday has been unable to scale our financial infrastructure to match the pace of our growth and secure the additional capital required to run our business,” the company said in a statement on its website last week. “While we are deeply disappointed, we agree with the decision of our State regulators that it is necessary to wind down Friday’s business operations over time in accordance with the regulations in the states where we are operating.”...READ MORE

When Nevada legalized recreational cannabis, people expected the normal array of problems as Las Vegas tourists over-indulged...Legalized cannabis, however, has come with its own set of unique problems. First and foremost casino operators including the Las Vegas Strip's biggest operators...Since they're regulated by federal law, casino operators can't house dispensaries or Las Vegas's newly-approved cannabis lounges. That means that people not only have to leave their Strip or downtown resort in order to buy marijuana, but they also have to leave to legally smoke it...that quirk in the law keeps tourists from smoking and driving. That could change later this year when new rules allow dispensaries like Planet 13 to add consumption lounges to their locations...READ MORE

A union report that blasts “systemic low staffing” at HCA hospitals nationwide says that staffing levels at HCA’s Nevada hospitals is 34% lower than the national average...That’s putting patients in danger, the union said...Nationwide, HCA hospitals are staffed 30% below the national average, the report said. The report is based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data released in 2021...Now, nurses are calling on HCA to raise staffing levels, improve pay and prioritize higher-quality patient care...READ MORE

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After receiving more than $320 million so far from settlements with opioid companies, the state has created a process to divide it across all Nevada counties...the attorney general’s office debriefed members of the Assembly Committee on Revenue on the One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries...“We included all counties — whether or not they were litigating or non-litigating — so that they all are receiving something because frankly, this opioid epidemic does not care about county lines or city lines,” said Chief Deputy Attorney General Mark Krueger...One of the more recent settlements was $32 million the state received through opioid litigation with Walmart...READ MORE

The former Sparks fire chief accused of illegal possession and distribution of steroids says he never gave his resignation and wants to be reinstated...Mark Lawson’s lawyers said in a letter sent to Sparks officials this week he should be returned to his role and placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of his criminal case...They said Lawson maintains his innocence and threatened to file a civil lawsuit alleging he was “condemned, terminated and tried in the public” before criminal charges had been filed. But he is confident the criminal complaint will be dismissed...READ MORE