First Edition: December 16, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Promising Greater Safety, A Tiny Widget Creates Chaos For Tube Feeders
Rachel Glenn loves to puree food and put it in her 4-year-old’s feeding tube. The Arkansas mom said her thick concoctions of fruit, vegetables, meat and grains provide the concentrated nutrition he needs. When he was on formula, Asher, who can’t swallow due to a brainstem condition, vomited several times a day. Since his mom started making his meals in a blender, when he was about 15 months old, that has stopped and Asher has more energy. Plus: “He gets his two cups of greens a day and he doesn’t argue about it.” (Jaklevic, 12/16)
Kaiser Health News:
What Would Happen If The ACA Went Away?
Any day now, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans could rule the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. At least it seemed that two of the three appeals court judges were leaning that way during oral arguments in the case, State of Texas v. USA, in July. Trump administration health officials have said they will continue to enforce the health law pending a final ruling from the Supreme Court. But that is not a guarantee that President Donald Trump won’t change his mind. That’s what he did in 2017 in canceling some payments to health insurers. (Rovner, 12/16)
Kaiser Health News:
Analysis: In Medical Billing, Fraudulent Charges Weirdly Pass As Legal
Much of what we accept as legal in medical billing would be regarded as fraud in any other sector. I have been circling around this conclusion for the past five years, as I’ve listened to patients’ stories while covering health care as a journalist and author. Now, after a summer of firsthand experience — my husband was in a bike crash in July — it’s time to call out this fact head-on. (Rosenthal, 12/16)
The Hill:
ObamaCare Shows Resilience Despite Trump Attacks
ObamaCare is showing signs of stability as its seventh open enrollment period draws to a close despite actions taken by the Trump administration to undermine the health care law. While signups for ObamaCare plans are down slightly from last year, experts say enrollment appears to be relatively stable, partly due to lower premiums and more insurer participation. (Hellmann, 12/15)
The Hill:
Two ObamaCare Taxes Likely To Be Repealed In Year-End Funding Deal
A year-end government funding package is likely to include repeal of ObamaCare’s Cadillac Tax and medical device tax, according to sources familiar with the talks. The move would mark a final blow to two taxes that were originally passed in the Affordable Care Act to help fund the law’s coverage expansion, but that have been repeatedly delayed and criticized by lawmakers in both parties. (Sullivan, 12/15)
The Hill:
Advocates Call For ObamaCare Open Enrollment Extension After Website Glitches
Democratic lawmakers and health care advocates are calling on the Trump administration to extend the deadline for ObamaCare open enrollment after reports of widespread glitches with the healthcare.gov website. For the 38 states that use healthcare.gov, Sunday is the last day to sign up for ObamaCare plans for coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2020. According to advocacy groups, technical problems with the website have been preventing people from signing up. (Weixel, 12/15)
The Associated Press:
Iowa Democrats Worry 'Medicare For All' Hurts Key Industry
Kim Motl doesn’t work in the health insurance industry. But her friends and neighbors do. So when she saw Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Motl pressed the Democratic presidential candidate about her “Medicare for All” plan, which would replace private insurance with a government-run system. “What about the little guys that work in the insurance business, that support our communities? The secretary that works for them, but maybe supports their family, what happens to them?” the 64-year-old housing advocate asked the senator. (Jaffe, 12/14)
NPR:
Clarifying The Vocabulary That's Surrounding The Medicare For All Debate
Democratic presidential candidates are debating Medicare For All, but that term isn't a good descriptor of the plans being put forth. Clarifying this health care vocabulary helps the debate. (Simmons-Duffin, 12/11)
The Hill:
Yang Unveils Plan To Address Care For Children And Adults With Disabilities
White House hopeful Andrew Yang on Saturday unveiled a plan to address health care for children and adults with disabilities. Yang, an entrepreneur whose son is autistic, said his plan would expand care for those who have disabilities and ensure that plans cover preventative care for those who need it. (Axelrod, 12/14)
The New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Have A Problem: Each Other
Diane Chojnowski and Denyce Rusch were among the Iowans who braved light snowfall and temperatures in the teens to see Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday afternoon, a few hours before Senator Elizabeth Warren was also due in this liberal pillar of eastern Iowa. But after Ms. Chojnowski and Ms. Rusch praised Ms. Sanders, they turned to a predicament far more bothersome than the winter weather: choosing between the two progressive candidates. (Martin, 12/16)
Politico:
Democrats Box In Republicans On Drug Pricing
After months of wrangling, House Democrats finally passed a massive bill aimed at lowering drug prices. And Senate Republicans are flummoxed at how to respond. The GOP is in a jam that makes action appear somewhere between unlikely and impossible. But if Republicans fail to act, it could easily become a major political liability for the party given the salience of high drug prices in public polling and President Donald Trump’s desire for sweeping reforms. (Everett and Owermohle, 12/16)
The Hill:
Democrats Get The Health Care Fight They Want With Prescription Drug Bill
Democrats looking for a health care fight in 2020 have found a key marker with the House drug pricing bill. The House on Thursday passed the legislation on a largely party-line vote of 230-192. The measure, which would allow the government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, has already been declared “dead on arrival” in the Republican-controlled Senate. (Weixel, 12/14)
The New York Times:
To Prevent Deadly Infections, F.D.A. Approves The First Disposable ‘Scope’
Following a series of deadly outbreaks in hospitals around the country, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first fully disposable version of the medical device implicated in the infections. Reusable versions of the device — a long, snakelike tube with a fiber-optic camera at one end, called a duodenoscope — are inserted in one patient after another to diagnose and treat diseases of the pancreas and bile duct, like tumors and gallstones. (Rabin, 12/13)
The Associated Press:
Report: Whistleblower Says ICE Denied Healthcare To Migrants
At the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, a man who was bleeding through his skin continued to receive aspirin even though he had extremely thin blood. The man was eventually taken to a hospital in critical condition and not expected to survive, according to a report summarizing the complaint that was delivered to ICE leadership in March. In Arizona, a detainee at the Eloy Federal Contract Facility had “worsening psychosis-related symptoms, but the psychiatrist failed to treat him,” the report says. (12/13)
The New York Times:
Military Families Say Base Housing Is Plagued By Mold And Neglect
Sandy Gerber was excited when she and her husband, Scott Gerber, an Army colonel, moved into a stately house near the parade field at Fort Meade, Md. — their first on-base home since they were newlyweds in the mid-1990s. “When you come in the Army, you think, ‘Oh wow, I hope someday I can live there,’” Mrs. Gerber said. “But for us, the problems started literally the day we walked in the door.” A broken water line in the kitchen had flooded the house. Pulling up damaged linoleum flooring revealed rotting wood underneath. On rainy days, water streamed into every room. “And the smell of mold was overwhelming,” Mrs. Gerber said. (Ismay, 12/13)
The Associated Press:
Purdue Pharma’s Foreign Affiliate Now Selling Overdose Cure
The gleaming white booth towered over the medical conference in Italy in October, advertising a new brand of antidote for opioid overdoses. “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life,” the slogan on its walls said. Some conference attendees were stunned when they saw the company logo: Mundipharma, the international affiliate of Purdue Pharma — the maker of the blockbuster opioid, OxyContin, widely blamed for unleashing the American overdose epidemic. (Galofaro and Gelineau, 12/15)
The New York Times:
The Hidden Drug Epidemic Among Older People
While news reports focus on an epidemic of opioid abuse among young adults, another totally legal and usually hidden drug epidemic is occurring at the other end of the age spectrum: the fistfuls of remedies — both prescription and over-the-counter — taken by older adults. According to the American Association of Consultant Pharmacists, people aged 65 to 69 take an average of 15 prescriptions a year, and those aged 80 to 84 take 18 prescriptions a year. (Brody, 12/16)
ProPublica/Boston Globe:
The Law Says She Should Have Been Protected From Birth. Instead, She Was Left In The Care Of Her Drug-Addicted Mother, Who Killed Her.
The adults in her life began failing Jasmine Irwin before she ever left the hospital. Born severely underweight — just 4 pounds, 3 ounces — to a mother with a history of dealing and abusing methamphetamine, Jasmine might have been exposed to drugs in the womb, doctors believed, which should have jump-started intensive efforts to keep her safe. But hospital records show staff never followed up, failing to conduct drug tests on the baby or her mother, Tami Mann, before letting Mann take Jasmine home to the family’s trailer in this small town north of the state capital. (Palmer and Huseman, 12/13)
ProPublica/Boston Globe:
The Price Of America’s Inability To Track Child Deaths From Abuse And Neglect? Sometimes, More Lives.
Experts have long suspected that the United States badly undercounts the number of children who die from abuse and neglect. The voluntary reporting system relied on for decades may be off by at least 200%, they say, missing thousands of fatalities. In 2012, Congress moved to make information about the deaths more accessible to the public by requiring states to release detailed reports on child fatalities and near-fatalities. But when The Boston Globe and ProPublica set out to collect these reports, it turned into a frustrating, three-year slog through child welfare offices from Maine to Hawaii. (Huseman, Palmer and Schroering, 12/13)
ProPublica/Boston Globe:
Nobody Knows How Many Kids Die From Maltreatment And Abuse In The U.S.
In 2016, ProPublica and The Boston Globe requested records for every child who died from child abuse between 2011 and 2015. We got around 7,000 records in response, a number that’s already slightly higher and much more detailed than the information available to the public from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System — the main source of this data since the 1980s — over the same period. But experts agree that it’s still a substantial undercount and that child fatalities may be three times higher. (Fung and Huseman, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Research Fuels Debate Over E-Cigarettes As Smoking-Cessation Device
Researchers and public-health experts are locked in a debate about whether e-cigarettes should serve as a harm-reduction tool for smokers, as a new generation of young people becomes addicted to nicotine and roughly half a million people in the U.S. die each year of smoking-related causes. New regulations and reports keep fueling the debate, including an editorial in a prestigious academic journal last week that said the prohibitionist vaping bans threaten public health. (Abbott, 12/16)
USA Today:
Legal Vapes Bought In Stores Made People Sick. But The CDC Doesn't Ask Where They Were Sold
After new reports of lung illnesses linked to legal THC vapes, cannabis advocates and opponents can agree on one thing: Government officials should give consumers more information about where the dangerous products were purchased. The warnings about vaping, prompted by the national lung injury outbreak the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday has sickened 2,409 and left 52 dead, began with no distinction between nicotine and marijuana-based THC. (O'Donnell, 12/13)
USA Today:
Weed And Psychosis: Does High THC Lead To Suicide, Schizophrenia?
Early one morning in March, Madison McIntosh showed up on his day off at the Scottsdale, Arizona, driving range and restaurant where he worked. The 24-year-old sat in his car until the place opened, then wandered around all day, alternating between gibberish and talk of suicide as co-workers tried to keep him away from customers. When he was still there 12 hours later, the manager contacted McIntosh’s father in Las Vegas, who called police and rallied other family members states away to converge at the young man’s side. (Hughes, Innes and O'Donnell, 12/15)
The Associated Press:
US Approves Fish Oil-Based Drug For Cutting Heart Risks
U.S. regulators on Friday approved expanded use of a fish oil-based drug for preventing serious heart complications in high-risk patients already taking cholesterol-lowering pills. Vascepa was approved years ago for people with sky-high triglycerides, a type of fat in blood. The Food and Drug Administration allowed its use in a far bigger group of adults with high, but less extreme, triglyceride levels who have multiple risk factors such as heart disease and diabetes. (Johnson, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
FDA Approves Fish-Oil-Derived Drug For Use Preventing Heart Attacks, Strokes
The drug, Vascepa from Amarin Corp. PLC, now becomes a new tool for reducing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths in millions of heart-disease or diabetes patients with elevated triglycerides while opening up a multibillion-dollar commercial opportunity for its maker. The expanded label could mean Vascepa sales surpass $3 billion, analysts say. Last year’s sales approached $230 million. Vascepa was approved in the U.S. in 2012 to treat adults with severe hypertriglyceridemia, or very high levels of triglycerides, which are fats that circulate in the blood. Since then, Amarin has been exploring whether the drug’s effect goes further by reducing the risk of heart disease. (Hopkins, 12/13)
The New York Times:
Frail Older Patients Struggle After Even Minor Operations
The patient, a man in his 70s, had abdominal pain serious enough to send him to a VA Pittsburgh Healthcare hospital. Doctors there found the culprit: a gallstone had inflamed his pancreas. Dr. Daniel Hall, a surgeon who met with the patient, explained that pancreatitis can be fairly mild, as in this case, or severe enough to cause death. Recovery usually requires five to seven days, some of them in a hospital, during which the stone passes or a doctor uses a flexible scope to remove the blockage. (Span, 12/13)
The New York Times:
A Research Nonprofit Shutters TB Vaccine Effort And Lays Off Scientists
The future of a tuberculosis vaccine and research into other neglected diseases is in limbo after a Seattle institute abruptly laid off about one-third of its researchers, citing a financial crisis. The sudden staff cutbacks late last month at the Infectious Disease Research Institute have baffled many of the scientists — who were also working on a vaccine for leprosy and research into tropical diseases. (Thomas, 12/13)
NPR:
Is Social Anxiety Keeping You From Parties? Here's How To Cope
"If I say the word 'circus,' it means I'm ready to leave the party." That's what Angie Ebba, 39, of Portland, Ore., tells close friends when she's at a holiday soiree. It might sound strange, but coming up with a code word is one way Ebba tames her social anxiety. "If I need to leave, having a word I can slip into conversation is a discreet way to let my friends know," Ebba explains. (Fraga, 12/14)
The Washington Post:
Feeling Tired Is Normal, But There Are Times When It Is A Sign Of Trouble
Tired? Join the club. Feeling tired or fatigued is a common experience. Yet health-care providers often dismiss complaints about tiredness — both because the symptom is universal and because it can be challenging to evaluate medically, says Michael Grandner, director of the University of Arizona’s Sleep & Health Research Program in Tucson. (Sohn, 12/15)
The New York Times:
How 2 Drifters Brought Anti-Semitic Terror To Jersey City
The first body was found stuffed inside the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car. It was a brutal crime, a 34-year-old livery driver beaten in the head and his body hidden in a sedan on a residential street in Bayonne, N.J. But the discovery offered no hint of what was to come. A bulletin with details about the man’s death circulated among local law enforcement. It mentioned a moving van. (Knoll, 12/15)
NPR:
Could Migraine Pain Relief Be Found In The Color Green?
Ann Jones tried everything short of surgery for her chronic migraines, which have plagued her since she was a child. "They've actually gotten worse in my old age," says Jones, who is 70 years old and lives in Tucson, Ariz. Jones would have as many as two dozen migraines a month. (Stone, 12/15)
The Washington Post:
Bob Harper Says ‘The Biggest Loser’ Is Shifting To Focus On ‘Getting Healthy’
“The Biggest Loser” had a big problem. Since the reality show debuted on NBC in 2004, it had been slammed as a fat-shaming mockery that also harmed the health and long-term weight-management efforts of its contestants. After dropping pounds at an incredible rate on the show, many participants gained back much of the weight in the years that followed. Enter the reboot, which the program plans to roll out for its 18th season in January: Instead of talking about “getting skinny,” host Bob Harper told People Magazine that the show will focus on “getting healthy.” (Iati, 12/13)
The Washington Post:
WHO Measles Statistics: These Five Countries Have The Most Cases, But The U.S. Is Struggling With The Disease, Too.
As measles sweeps through Samoa, overwhelming health officials and killing at least 70 people so far, public health experts again find themselves doing battle with a vaccine-preventable disease. In a recent update, the World Health Organization called measles a “staggering global challenge” and called for increased vaccination to stem measles worldwide. According to the latest figures released by the agency, almost half of last year’s measles cases came from five countries: Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine. (Blakemore, 12/14)
The New York Times:
In France, Dying At Home Can Mean A Long Wait For A Doctor
Her mother’s death had been expected. Terminally ill with breast cancer, she lay in a medical bed in her living room, visited daily by a nurse. But when Sandra Lambryczak’s 80-year-old mother died earlier this year, in the predawn hours of a Saturday morning, the daughter suddenly discovered a growing problem in France’s medical system: By law, the body couldn’t be moved until the death was certified by a medical doctor, but a shortage of personnel can sometimes force families to keep their deceased loved ones at home for hours or even days. (Onishi, 12/16)
The Washington Post:
DIY Diabetes Tech Gains Popularity With Patients And Parents Fed Up With Clunky Mainstream Medical Devices
One night, 18-month-old Hazel Lumpkin woke up with her diaper completely soaked with urine. Her parents, Matt and Melody Lumpkin of Pasadena, Calif., rediapered her in a larger size, hoping that would fix the issue. But Hazel continued to saturate diaper after diaper. As a childhood fan of “The Baby-Sitters Club” — a book series featuring a young girl with Type 1 diabetes — Melody recalled the connection between frequent urination and diabetes in children. (Kim, 12/14)
The Washington Post:
Virtual Reality, Robots, Interactive Apps, Other New Tech Help People With Dementia And Their Caretakers
Doris Moss has always loved dancing. Now in her 80s and suffering from a form of dementia, it has become more important than ever, as hearing a good beat will spur her to get up and move around. And so her daughter, Angela Pearson, who lives with her mother in Ellenwood, Ga., and is her primary caretaker, has turned to a new technology for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia: a touch-screen application known as SimpleC Companion, that can be set to play some of Moss’s favorite music — along with recorded reminders to drink water and take medication — at various points of the day when Pearson is away from the house. (Kalter, 12/15)
The Washington Post:
Data Catch-22: How Tech Gadgets For Exercise Sometimes Do More Harm Than Good
When Bri Cawsey began running in 2008, she quickly got hooked on the sport and wanted to get faster. So she did what many runners do and bought a GPS watch that would give her real-time feedback on her pace, mileage and other metrics. First, she enjoyed the data readout. Before long, she connected her watch to an app that helped her track calories, as well. Then she added a second watch, more sophisticated than the first, and began comparing the data from the two for better accuracy. By about 2012, Cawsey found she couldn’t do anything without a tracking watch on her wrist. (Loudin, 12/14)
The Washington Post:
New Prosthetic Can Help People Who Have Lost A Limb Feel Again, And May Reduce Phantom Pain
Phantom pain was all that Keven Walgamott had left of the limb he lost in an accident over a decade ago — until he tried on the LUKE Arm for the first time in 2017, and told researchers that he could “feel” again. The arm is a motorized and sensorized prosthetic that has been in development for over 15 years by a team at the University of Utah. Researchers around the world have been developing prosthetics that closely mimic the part of the human body they would replace. (Dhar, 12/14)
The Washington Post:
New Jersey Bill To Restrict Vaccine Exemptions Faces Hundreds Of Anti-Vaccine Protesters
Hundreds of anti-vaccine activists arrived at the New Jersey legislature Thursday to protest a bill that would dramatically restrict exceptions for inoculations. Protesters, composed of parents and religious leaders, demonstrated outside the capitol in Trenton and flooded its halls, bearing signs with slogans such as “When there is forced medicine, there is no liberty,” and “We deserve an education." (Epstein, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Jersey Hospital System Hit By Cyberattack
Attacks on hospitals and health systems, who have been digitizing their operations and record-keeping, have proven to be hugely disruptive, in some cases leaving small physician groups unable to recover. Victims have been forced to cancel some elective procedures, shut down computer networks to prevent further spread of the virus and temporarily revert to using paper records. (Evans, 12/13)
The Associated Press:
Mississippi 15-Week Abortion Ban Is Blocked By Appeals Court
A federal appeals court declared Friday that Mississippi's ban on abortion at 15 weeks is unconstitutional, dealing a blow to those seeking to overturn the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled correctly when he blocked the Mississippi law from taking effect in 2018. (Wagster Pettus, 12/13)
The Washington Post:
California Stem Cell Company, Liveyon, Halts Sales Of Product After Getting FDA Warning
A California stem cell company on Friday announced the immediate suspension of sales of umbilical cord blood-derived products, a week after federal regulators said the treatments were unapproved drugs and posed safety risks. In a letter to clients, Liveyon LLC Chief Executive Officer John Kosolcharoen said the company has halted distribution of its products, Pure and Pure Pro, to “focus its efforts” on getting the nod from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a clinical trial and eventually apply for approval of the products. (McGinley, 12/13)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Oakland Councilwoman Wants To Put Homeless On Cruise Ship, But Port Not On Board
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan wants to bring a cruise ship to the city’s port to house up to 1,000 homeless people, an idea officials at the Port of Oakland called “untenable.” At Tuesday’s council meeting, Kaplan told council members she has been contacted by cruise ship companies about providing a ship for emergency housing. Homelessness has spiked in Oakland in the past two years with an increase in the number of unsheltered people from 1,902 to 3,210. (Ravani, 12/11)
The Associated Press:
Inmate's Suicide Shows Need For Reforms, Advocates Say
The final two months of Cachin Anderson’s life in New York’s prison system were filled with warnings he was a man in crisis. He climbed on a sink and dove headfirst at the floor, saying he “wanted to end it and go home.” He urinated on guards. He hurled a can at one corrections officer and punched another in the face, knocking him out. (12/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Facing A ‘Food Desert,’ Oklahoma City Wants Dollar Stores To Sell Fresh Food
In the nine square miles that cover the 73111 ZIP Code in northeast Oklahoma City, there isn’t a single grocery store. The last one closed over the summer. There are, however, four dollar stores in the area, where 32% of the 11,000 residents live below the poverty level—roughly three times the national average. “That ZIP Code is one of the unhealthiest in our city,” said Oklahoma City Councilwoman Nikki Nice. “Changing that starts with access to food.” (Ansari, 12/15)
The Associated Press:
Audit: Medical System Board Was 'Deeply Compromised'
The University of Maryland Medical System paid $500,000 to buy the self-published books of Baltimore's now disgraced ex-mayor, but there's no evidence any system executives ever read them or that a process was in place to determine their fair market value, an audit released Friday said. The audit comes amid a scandal that rocked the medical system this year and after former Mayor Catherine Pugh, a former board member of the system, pleaded guilty to federal charges related to her “Healthy Holly" books. (12/13)
The Associated Press:
Large Hospital System Says It Was Hit By Ransomware Attack
New Jersey’s largest hospital system said Friday that a ransomware attack last week disrupted its computer network and that it paid a ransom to stop it. Hackensack Meridian Health did not say in its statement how much it paid to regain control over its systems but said it holds insurance coverage for such emergencies. (12/13)
CNN:
Video Shows North Carolina School Resource Officer Slamming And Dragging 11-Year-Old Boy
Surveillance video of a school resource officer slamming and dragging an 11-year-old boy is sparking outrage in Vance County, North Carolina. The video shows the Vance County Middle School resource officer grabbing and slamming the child to the ground, then picking him up and doing it again before yanking the child up and continuing to walk down the hall. The school alerted the Sheriff's Office minutes after the incident on Thursday. (Vera and Chen, 12/16)