Modern Healthcare: ACA Insurers Must Include Mental Health Providers In Plans: CMS
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will require insurers on the Affordable Care Act exchanges to include substance abuse and mental health providers in their plans, among other things. The final rule, announced Monday, softens CMS' proposed limits to the number of plan options exchange insurers can offer, and abandons agency proposals to standardize how carriers promote their drug formularies and differentiate between similar plans in a given market. It also decreases the fees insurers must pay to market their products on federal and state-based exchanges. (Tepper and Turner, 4/17)

In other news about mental health care —

AP: Why Are Teen Girls In Crisis? It's Not Just Social Media 
Anxiety over academics. Post-lockdown malaise. Social media angst. Study after study says American youth are in crisis, facing unprecedented mental health challenges that are burdening teen girls in particular. Among the most glaring data: A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed almost 60% of U.S. girls reported persistent sadness and hopelessness. Rates are up in boys, too, but about half as many are affected. Adults offer theories about what is going on, but what do teens themselves say? Is social media the root of their woes? Are their male peers somehow immune, or part of the problem? (Tanner and Wang, 4/17)

USA Today: How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health? It's Complicated
Whether or not social media affects mental health, and to what degree, has long been up for debate. While some contend that social media connects the world, others argue that it feeds a culture of FOMO (fear of missing out) and an endless desire for affirmations. Experts have raised concerns about how social media use activates the reward circuits in the brain, which can cause addiction. These platforms have even been associated with anxiety and depression. Children and adolescents, especially those with a history of trauma, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of social media. (Nothaft, 4/18)

AP: Taraji P. Henson Partners With HBCUs On Mental Wellness
Alabama State University is partnering on a new project to make free mental health resources more widely available to students at historically Black colleges and universities. The “She Care Wellness Pods” will give students access to therapy sessions, workshops, yoga and quiet spaces. Actress Taraji P. Henson’s Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation is partnering with the Kate Spade Foundation to place the pods on HBCU campuses. Alabama State is the first to participate in the program. (4/17)

NorthJersey.com: Can 'Magic' Mushrooms Treat Mental Health Issues? Yes, But Experts Say Use With Caution
When Snehal Bhatt left New Jersey for New Mexico in 2009, he was reluctant to tell people about his research goals. Now a faculty member at Rutgers' Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of New Mexico, Bhatt went west to participate in a clinical trial involving psilocybin, the psychedelic compound produced by so-called "magic" mushrooms. "Ten years ago, this type of research was stigmatized," he said. "In the last five years, that has changed." (Zimmer, 4/17)

CNN: As Gun Violence Reaches Record Levels In The US, An Underlying Trauma May Be Building Up
As more communities reel from deadly mass shootings – including Dadeville, Alabama, where four people were killed and 28 injured at a Sweet 16 birthday party over the weekend – there’s evidence that the trauma of gun violence in the United States is taking a collective toll on the nation’s mental health. Research published this year suggests that the negative effects that mass shootings can have on mental health may extend beyond the survivors and community directly affected to a much broader population. (McPhillips, 4/17)

Politico: Washington Used To Abhor Talking About Mental Health. No More
For six weeks, while Sen. John Fetterman received treatment for clinical depression at Walter Reed Medical Center, handwritten cards poured into his Washington office. His staff fielded phone calls from constituents passing along well wishes. Others called simply to thank him for being upfront about his condition. When one of Fetterman’s senior aides checked into a hotel in Pittsburgh recently, a middle-aged woman saw their Senate ID and asked for whom they worked. When the aide told her, the woman responded: “He’s so brave.” (Ward, 4/17)

The New York Times: McCarthy Proposes One-Year Debt Ceiling Increase Tied To Spending Cuts 
Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday proposed a one-year debt ceiling increase paired with a set of spending cuts and policy changes, backing down substantially from earlier demands but making clear that Republicans would not raise the borrowing limit to avert a catastrophic debt default without conditions. ... The bill Mr. McCarthy says he is planning to put forward would freeze spending at last fiscal year’s levels, rescind tens of billions of dollars in unspent pandemic relief funds, enact stricter work requirements on food stamp and Medicaid recipients, expand domestic mining and fossil fuel production, and roll back federal regulations Republicans view as overly burdensome. (Edmondson and Tankersley, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Kevin McCarthy Says House GOP Plans To Vote On Debt Limit, Spending Cuts 
Mr. McCarthy also said the House Republican plan would require the federal government to rescind money approved for responding to the Covid-19 pandemic that hasn’t been spent. And he said that able-bodied Americans without children or other dependents should have to work to receive government benefits. While House Republicans broadly support work requirements for programs such as Medicaid, which offers health insurance to low-income Americans, and food stamps, other cuts are expected to face opposition from more moderate Republicans. House Republican leaders held a call on Sunday with members to emphasize the importance of sticking together in the fiscal talks. (Duehren, 4/17)

Reuters: US House Speaker McCarthy Pitches Budget Cuts For Debt Limit Vote
Democrats reacted with swift opposition to McCarthy's framework. "Today House Republicans have made their priorities crystal clear: keep Wall Street happy and take away health care and food assistance from working Americans," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden in a statement. (Cowan and Jackson, 4/17)

Reuters: Republican States Could Be Hit Hardest By McCarthy's Proposed Spending Cuts 
The spending-cut proposals unveiled by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday could fall hardest on people in Republican-leaning states, a Reuters analysis of federal spending data found. (Sullivan, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid Emerged As Chinese Lab Faced Biosafety Issues, Senate Republican Study Finds
A Chinese laboratory conducting advanced coronavirus research faced a series of biosafety problems in November 2019 that drew the attention of top Beijing officials and coincided with the Covid pandemic’s emergence, according to a new report being released by Senate Republicans on the pandemic’s origins. The report, released Monday by a Republican member of the Senate Health Committee, a final version of which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, charts a confluence of unexplained events in that month and concludes the pandemic more likely began from a lab accident than naturally, via an animal infecting humans. (Strobel and Gordon, 4/17)

Axios: Senate COVID Origins Report Details Lab Leak Theory
The coronavirus pandemic appeared to originate from a laboratory accident, based on biosafety issues in the epicenter in Wuhan, China, and factors observed in the nature and early spread of the virus, according to a 302-page Senate report obtained by Axios. The detailed summary of an investigation by the Republican leadership of the Senate health committee doesn't concretely settle the question of how the pandemic began but evaluates the two leading theories, transfer from wild animals or an accident at a Chinese government lab, and concludes the latter is stronger. (Owens, 4/17)

Bloomberg: Covid Origins Report From Ex-Republican Staff Pushes Lab Leak Theory
As US lawmakers continue to seek answers about how the Covid-19 pandemic first began, former Republican staffers are releasing details from their own investigations, putting pressure on the Biden administration to declassify sensitive intelligence. (Griffin and Muller, 4/17)

More on the spread of covid —

San Francisco Chronicle: New COVID Variant XBB.1.16 Hits US, Causing Previously Rare Symptom
A new COVID-19 subvariant “threatens to shatter” hopes to stave off a new coronavirus surge in the U.S. before next winter, and some experts worry it could be linked to the rise of a previously rare pandemic symptom. XBB.1.16, which reached reportable levels in the U.S. last week, could be behind an uptick of conjunctivitis, especially in children, reports from India suggest, alongside the more common symptoms of fever, cough and fatigue. (Vaziri, 4/17)

Axios: What To Know About The XBB. 1.16 "Arcturus" COVID Subvariant
A new COVID-19 subvariant, XBB. 1.16, has been spreading around the world and gaining more recent traction in the U.S. The spread of the new subvariant, known as Arcturus, comes as much of the world eases out of the pandemic. The World Health Organization said it first detected samples of Arcturus in January, before designating it as a new variant under monitoring (VUM) on March 22. (Saric, 4/17)

NPR: COVID During Pregnancy Can Affect Brain Development In Baby Boys, Study Says
Boys born to mothers who got COVID-19 while pregnant appear nearly twice as likely as other boys to be diagnosed with subtle delays in brain development. That's the conclusion of a study of more than 18,000 children born at eight hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. Nearly 900 of the children were born to mothers who had COVID during their pregnancy. (Hamilton, 4/18)

CIDRAP: COVID Vaccines Saved At Least 1 Million Lives In Europe, Experts Estimate 
COVID-19 vaccination directly saved at least 1,004,927 lives across Europe from December 2020 to March 2023, according to new research presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting this week in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Soucheray, 4/17)

On long covid —

CIDRAP: Experimental Metabolic Drug Cuts Fatigue In Long-COVID Patients 
The investigational metabolic modulator AXA1125 was associated with significantly less physical and cognitive fatigue compared with a placebo in long-COVID patients, according to a small randomized, controlled phase 2 pilot study trial led by researchers from the University of Oxford and AXA1125 maker Axcella Therapeutics, which also funded the study. (Van Beusekom, 4/17)

KFF Health News: As Pandemic Emergencies End, People Battling Long Covid Feel ‘Swept Under The Rug’ 
Lost careers. Broken marriages. Dismissed and disbelieved by family and friends. These are some of the emotional and financial struggles long covid patients face years after their infection. Physically, they are debilitated and in pain: unable to walk up the stairs, focus on a project, or hold down a job. Facing the end of the federal public health emergency in May, many people experiencing lingering effects of the virus say they feel angry and abandoned by policymakers eager to move on. “Patients are losing hope,” said Shelby Hedgecock, a self-described long covid survivor from Knoxville, Tennessee, who now advocates for patients like herself. “We feel swept under the rug.” (Fortier, 4/18)

Also —

USA Today: How US Births During COVID Differed In Red, Blue States
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the biggest one-year drop in U.S. births in nearly 50 years. But a new study shows not every state was equally affected. Researchers found some states experienced steep decreases in fertility while other saw little change, according to the report published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Human Reproductions. (Rodriguez, 4/17)

Politico: Abortion Pill Manufacturer To Pay $765K To U.S. To Settle Suit Over Incorrect Labeling 
Just days before the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to preserve access to a key abortion medication, the Justice Department issued a routine, but little-noticed announcement that the manufacturer of the drug — Danco Laboratories — had settled claims it violated customs laws. ... Under the settlement dated March 31 and released last week, Danco agreed to pay $765,000 to the U.S. to resolve allegations that, from 2011 to 2019, the company failed to both properly label imports of the drug as originating in China and pay customs duties on imports lacking those labels. (Haberkorn and Gerstein, 4/17)

Abortion news from Nevada, West Virginia, Texas, Washington, and Tennessee —

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Senate Approves Abortion Protections In Constitution
An amendment to the Nevada Constitution guaranteeing abortion rights in the state is one step closer to coming before voters after the state Senate voted to advance a joint resolution Monday. Senators voted 13-8 on party lines to send Senate Joint Resolution 7 to the Assembly, but not before a contentious floor debate. (Avery, 4/17)

AP: Lawsuit Seeking To Revoke West Virginia Abortion Ban Dropped
An abortion provider on Monday dropped a two-month-old federal lawsuit seeking to overturn West Virginia’s near-total ban. The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia said in a court filing that its primary physician determined he will be unable to resume providing abortion care in the state “due to intervening professional obligations.” Another physician who provided abortion care at West Virginia’s only abortion clinic prior to the passage of a law last year is no longer available, the filing said. (Raby, 4/17)

The Texas Tribune: Abortion Pill Lawsuit Could Delay Out-Of-State Care For Texans
For more than a year, abortion clinics in New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado have been flooded with Texans seeking care that’s largely outlawed in the Lone Star State. Now, those clinics are bracing for another consequence of Texas’ anti-abortion animus as an Amarillo court ruling threatens access to medication abortion nationwide. (Klibanoff, 4/18)

Axios: Abortions Rise In Washington State As Idaho Cracks Down 
The estimated number of monthly abortions in Washington rose by about 10% last year after some states, including neighboring Idaho, began cracking down on the procedure, new data shows. (Santos and Harris, 4/17)

Stat: In One Town, Abortion Debate Seemed To Override Everything Else
Zoe Poplin first smelled something in 2020, around 2 a.m., as she got home from a late shift at the hospital. It was mild at first. Then it got stronger, thicker, pouring into people’s homes. The pastor at a nearby Presbyterian church wondered if an animal had died in the ductwork. Some speculated the fumes were industrial. Others reported gas leaks — but again and again, the fire department would come out and set them straight. Oh, no, they’d say. That’s just the landfill. (Boodman, 4/18)

Also —

The Guardian: ‘A Gamechanger’: This Simple Device Could Help Fight The War On Abortion Rights In The US 
There’s a reason people fly to see [Joan] Fleischman. She provides abortions through manual uterine aspiration – using a small, hand-held device to remove pregnancy tissue. The device is gentle enough that the tissue often comes out almost completely intact. It is also a quick and discreet procedure where a patient might be in and out of the door in less than an hour. Fleischman is co-founder of the MYA Network, a network of primary care clinics and clinicians in 16 states. They believe the tool could be radical in the hands of more primary care clinicians – clinicians they are amping up to train. (Noor, 4/18)

In other reproductive health news —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Planned Parenthood Racism Discrimination Lawsuit By NJ Nurse Practitioner Is One Of Many
A patient’s urine test landed on Michelle Fisher’s desk with a warm, wet splash. Fisher, a Black nurse practitioner, remembers looking up from her lunch to see the white manager of Planned Parenthood’s Bellmawr clinic in South Jersey. (Gantz, 4/18)

The 19th: Texas Couple Fights For Newborn's Return From Child Protective Services
A custody case currently unfolding in Texas has separated a newborn from her parents and highlighted two systemic realities in the United States: the policing of Black families by child welfare systems and the disregard of midwifery expertise by many doctors. (Norwood, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Medical Device Supply Chain Problems Plague Hospitals
Scripps Health has about eight times more medical devices and supplies on backorder than the integrated nonprofit health system had in 2019. San Diego, California-based Scripps has been managing shortages in ligatures and oxygenators that stop bleeding, catheters used in heart surgery and urology and custom procedure trays and surgical packs, among other things. (Kacik, 4/17)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Clover Health Layoffs: 10% Of Staff Cut Amid Restructuring
Clover Health is restructuring its operations and cutting jobs in a bid to turn a profit. The insurtech said Monday it will outsource its "core plan operations" to UST Health Proof, a technology company that provides administrative services for carriers. Clover said the decision led to 10% of its staff being laid off. The company reported employing 656 people at the end of last year. (Tepper, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Health Picks Former Humana CFO As Aetna President
CVS Health has named Brian Kane head of its Aetna health insurance division, the company announced Monday. Kane will assume the roles of executive vice president at CVS Health and president of Aetna Sept. 1. He replaces Dan Finke, who is stepping down for health reasons. Finke will support the company during the transition. (Tepper, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: HIMSS 2023: Epic, Microsoft Bring OpenAI's GPT-4 To EHRs
Epic Systems is working with Microsoft to integrate generative AI technology into its electronic health record software for the first time, the companies said Monday. The announcement was made in conjunction with the first day of the HIMSS conference, which is being held in Chicago this week. (Turner, 4/17)

Fox News: ChatGPT Answered 25 Breast Cancer Screening Questions, But It's 'Not Ready For The Real World' — Here's Why
ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI, could potentially rival Google one day as an online health resource, many people say — but how reliable are its responses right now? Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) were eager to find out. (Rudy, 4/17)

Stat: Study Faults Large U.S. Funders Of Clinical Research On Transparency
Amid ongoing concern over clinical trial transparency, a new analysis finds that only 37% of the 14 largest public and philanthropic organizations that fund clinical research in the U.S. have implemented the best disclosure practices recommended by the World Health Organization. (Silverman, 4/17)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Reuters: US Supreme Court Rebuffs Novartis Bid To Revive MS Drug Gilenya Patent 
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp's bid to revive a key patent on its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya that was invalidated amid a legal dispute with China's HEC Pharm Co Ltd. (Brittain, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Amid ADHD Med Shortage, Parents Fear Sending Unmedicated Kids To School
Annie Artiga Garner feels a pit in her stomach every time a teacher approaches at school pickup for her twin 9-year-old boys, both in fourth grade and both diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Like a lot of kids with ADHD (62 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) the twins take medication to help control the symptoms of the neurodevelopmental disorder. The medications target some of the symptoms of ADHD, including lack of attention, hyperactivity, impulsive behavior and executive dysfunction. (Spinner, 4/17)

CIDRAP: Genomic Study Links Antibiotic Resistance To Diet, Geography, Demographics 
A large genomic study of the gut microbiome suggests that antibiotic use is not the only factor contributing to the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the population. The authors of the study, which was presented at this week's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, say the findings indicate that other medications, along with geography, demographics, and diet, also play a role. (Dall, 4/17)

Stat: Once A Distant Dream, Gene Therapy For Duchenne Nears Reality
Brent and Sabina Furbee could see something was wrong with their son, Emerson, even if the doctors didn’t. They were the kind of signs easily dismissed: falling at music class, struggling to climb a ladder at the playground. A physical therapist near their home in rural Tennessee said the 3-year-old had flat feet and prescribed ankle braces. “I wish I was kidding,” said Brent. (Mast and Feuerstein, 4/17)

KFF Health News: Social Media Is Fueling Enthusiasm For New Weight Loss Drugs. Are Regulators Watching? 
Suzette Zuena is her own best advertisement for weight loss. Zuena, the “founder/visionary” of LH Spa & Rejuvenation in Livingston and Madison, New Jersey, has dropped 30 pounds. Her husband has lost 42 pounds. “We go out a lot,” Zuena said of the pair’s social routine. “People saw us basically shrinking.” They would ask how the couple did it. Her response: Point people to her spa and a relatively new type of medication — GLP-1 agonists, a class of drug that’s become a weight loss phenomenon. (Tahir and Norman, 4/18)

Also —

Reuters: Spanish Hospital Pioneers New Lung Transplant Approach
A Spanish hospital has carried out a lung transplant using a pioneering technique with a robot and a new access route that no longer requires cutting through bone, experts said on Monday. (4/17)

Stat: What Do Clinical Trial Delays Mean? More Than You Think
Frank David was just starting an independent research program on cell signaling in cancer and kidney development at a lab in Boston when he realized he’d rather be doing something else. “I figured out I was more interested in how science turned into medicine than I was in actually making and discovering new science,” he recalled. The problem was, he wasn’t sure what to do instead. (Goode, 4/17)

Stat: Why Do Some Blood Stem Cells Go Rogue? Study Finds A Key 
Long before leukemia forms, patients often have a population of blood or hematopoietic stem cells, all copies of one another that seem perfectly healthy except for harboring key mutations often also found in malignant cells. Hematologists call this CHIP — clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential — because these cells progress into cancer in about 1% of patients each year. (Chen, 4/17)

In obituaries —

The Washington Post: Theodor Diener, Scientist Who Discovered The Tiny Viroid, Dies At 102 
Theodor O. Diener, a Swiss-born scientist whose investigation more than half a century ago of shriveled, stunted potatoes yielded the discovery of the tiniest known agent of infectious disease, a particle one-eightieth the size of a virus that he named the viroid, died March 28 at his home in Beltsville, Md. He was 102. His son Michael Diener confirmed his death but did not cite a cause. Dr. Diener immigrated to the United States in 1949 and spent three decades as a plant pathologist at the Agricultural Research Service, the chief internal research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ... The condition had a name — potato spindle tuber disease — but its cause proved vexingly elusive. (Langer, 4/13)

The Washington Post: Overdose Deaths Of Older Americans Quadrupled In Past 20 Years
Overdose fatalities among older Americans climbed in recent years, with 6,702 U.S. residents 65 and older succumbing in 2021, according to research published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers reported that the rate of fatal overdoses for the age group quadrupled — rising from 3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2002 to 12 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021. Data indicates that 83 percent were accidental, 13 percent were intentional (suicide), 4 percent were undetermined and 0.07 percent (five deaths) were homicides. (Searing, 4/17)

In other health and wellness news —

CNN: Refined Carbs And Meat Driving Global Rise In Type 2 Diabetes, Study Says
Gobbling up too many refined wheat and rice products, along with eating too few whole grains, is fueling the growth of new cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide, according to a new study that models data through 2018. (LaMotte, 4/17)

CNN: Most US Adults And A Third Of Children Use Dietary Supplements, Survey Finds
Most American adults and more than a third of children use dietary supplements, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and those numbers have remained steady or been on the rise. (Christensen, 4/18)

The Washington Post: A Crisis In Men’s Health Is Getting Worse
In the United States, life expectancy in 2021 was 79.1 years for women and 73.2 years for men. That 5.9-year difference is the largest gap in a quarter-century. (The data aren’t parsed to include differences among nonbinary and trans people.)“Men are advantaged in every aspect of our society, yet we have worse health outcomes for most of the things that will kill you,” said Derek Griffith, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Men’s Health Equity in the Racial Justice Institute. “We tend not to prioritize men’s health, but it needs unique attention, and it has implications for the rest of the family. It means other members of the family, including women and children, also suffer.” (Parker-Pope and Gilbert, 4/17)

The Boston Globe: New Pain Management App SOMA Is Looking To Understand Your Pain
A new mobile app developed by researchers at Brown University’s brain science institute is looking to find what happens in the brain during the transition from acute to chronic pain. The SOMA app, developed by psychiatry and human behavior professor Dr. Frederike Petzschner, is designed to directly support individuals with chronic pain and it gathers data that could help researchers predict how someone’s pain becomes chronic. The app is free and available on the App Store and Google Play Store. (Gagosz, 4/17)

Also —

CBS News: 13-Year-Old Ohio Boy Dies After Attempting The TikTok "Benadryl Challenge," His Parents Say
The parents of a 13-year-old boy who died doing the TikTok "Benadryl Challenge" are warning other parents about the dangerous social media trend. Jacob Stevens died after nearly a week on a ventilator after consuming 12 to 14 pills of the over-the-counter antihistamine in an attempt to induce hallucinations, his family told ABC6.com. (Martinez, 4/17)

NBC News: A Person Has Died In Fungal Outbreak At A Michigan Paper Mill That Infected Nearly 100 Workers
A person has died of a fungal infection after an outbreak at a Michigan paper mill that is likely to have infected nearly 100 people, public health officials announced. A contractor who worked at the Escanaba Billerud Paper Mill died of blastomycosis "recently," Public Health Delta & Menominee Counties said Friday. The health department began investigating an outbreak at the mill last month after sick employees, ailing from pneumonialike symptoms, tested positive for a fungal infection called blastomycosis. (Madhani, 4/17)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

Reuters: Juul, Altria Settle With Minnesota Over Teen Vaping Addiction
E-cigarette company Juul Labs Inc and its former largest investor, Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, on Monday settled claims by the state of Minnesota that accused them of fueling teen vaping addiction. The settlement was announced by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and by Juul as a trial in the case, which had kicked off in late March, was nearing its end. (Pierson, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Announces $250-Million Expansion Of Homelessness Program
In her first State of the City speech, Mayor Karen Bass announced a dramatic expansion of her signature program to move homeless people indoors, while also pledging to create “a new L.A.” (Wick, Zahniser and Smith, 4/17)

AP: Indiana Public Health Expansion Clears Key Legislative Vote 
Indiana lawmakers gave a key sign of support Monday for the governor’s proposal that would broadly expand the state’s support for county-level public health programs toward improving the state’s poor national rankings in areas such as smoking, obesity and life expectancy. (Davies, 4/17)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado’s Inaugural Behavioral Health Chief Gone After A Year
The inaugural chief of Colorado’s new Behavioral Health Administration has lasted little more than a year in the position. Dr. Morgan Medlock, a public health expert who had previously been chief medical officer for the Washington, D.C., Department of Behavioral Health, was in charge of Colorado’s new administration for about 15 months. (Brown, 4/17)

Also —

The New York Times: Tracking The Chemicals In The East Palestine, Ohio, Train Derailment And Fire 
While tiny East Palestine has drawn considerable attention for the inferno and its potential health consequences, communities nationwide are regularly grappling with the health and safety implications of the surge in chemical manufacturing and transportation. (Tabuchi, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Anti-Trans Bills Have Doubled Since 2022. Our Map Shows Where States Stand
On Thursday, members of the Montana legislature held a contentious hours-long hearing on a bill to define sex in state law as male or female. In Nebraska, legislators resumed debate on, then voted to advance a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, following a weeks-long filibuster by the bill’s opponents. Two days earlier, the Missouri House approved restrictions on trans girls’ participation in sports and on gender-affirming care for minors. The same day, North Dakota’s governor signed into law a measure to ban trans girls from joining female sports teams in grades K-12 and in college. The near-daily flurry of simultaneous hearings and votes is the result of a tsunami of anti-trans bills that have been making their way through dozens of states legislatures since January. (Kirkpatrick and Branigin, 4/17)

North Carolina Health News: 2023 Is A Record Year For Anti-Trans Legislation Across The Country, And It’s Only April 
Orange County mother Katie Jenifer, like all parents, has always wanted her two children to be happy and healthy. She said it hasn’t been easy, especially of late, given the large number of bills targeting transgender people that lawmakers have recently introduced in North Carolina and beyond. (Crumpler, 4/18)

FiveThirtyEight: Red State Voters Support Anti-Trans Laws. Their Lawmakers Are Delivering. 
Utah is one of at least 14 states that have passed new laws this year aimed at placing restrictions on transgender individuals — typically trans kids, specifically — as well as their parents and health care providers, including sports bans, bans against gender-affirming care and laws requiring students to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender they were assigned at birth. Trans issues have clearly taken center stage at many statehouses, but do voters support these bills? And does the GOP risk a backlash for pushing these laws through? (Radcliffe and Rogers, 4/18)

More on transgender health from Missouri and Montana —

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Patients Scramble To Secure Gender-Affirming Care In Missouri Before April 27 Restrictions
Planned Parenthood held a pop-up clinic at its Central West End location on Monday for people seeking gender-affirming care, 10 days before new rules that would make Missouri the first state to greatly restrict care for transgender adults go into effect. Doors opened at 8 a.m. Two hours later, the more than two dozen time slots were filled for the day, and another dozen people made appointments for later this week. (Munz, 4/17)

Kansas City Star: GOP-Controlled Missouri House Approves Transgender Sports Ban
The GOP-controlled Missouri House on Monday approved a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The bill, filed by state Rep. Jamie Burger, a Benton Republican, would prohibit transgender girls grade six and up from competing in women’s sports in public and charter schools. It would also ban transgender women from competing in public and private college sports. (Bayless, 4/17)

AP: Montana Governor Supports Transgender Minor Health Care Ban 
Montana’s Republican governor indicated Monday he would sign a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, but he suggested changes to make it clear that public funds could not be used to pay for surgery or hormone treatments for youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria. “I share your profound commitment to protect Montana children from invasive medical treatments that can permanently alter their healthy, developing bodies,” Gov. Greg Gianforte wrote in a letter to the legislative leaders offering his amendments. (Hanson, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Let's Cancel Toxic Diet Culture — If Not For Us, For Our Kids 
American diet culture teaches us at an early age that fat is bad and thin is good. Fat is ugly and thin is pretty. Fat is unhealthy and thin is healthy. Fat is irresponsible and thin is virtuous. This cultural bias is so pervasive and insidious that it turns almost everyone into either victim or collaborator. Or, if you’re like me, into both. (Kate Cohen, 4/17)

Stat: Digital Mental Health Companies Need To Focus On Evidence 
Over the past five years, digital mental health has risen from a niche topic to a global health priority. Patients, researchers, regulators, and investors alike are thrilled by the potential of ubiquitous mobile technology like smartphones to help diagnose problems, monitor health, and even deliver evidence-based therapies. Two companies that came to embody this potential were Mindstrong for smartphone monitoring of mental health and Pear Therapeutics for FDA-approved apps and digital interventions. (John Torous, 4/18)

Modern Healthcare: Patient Outcomes Must Be Prioritized As COVID-19 Pandemic Nears End 
As COVID kept patients away from the care they needed, preventive care and diagnostic screenings fell off dramatically. Between 2019 and 2021, about 1 million fewer people were screened for breast cancer, 4.4 million for cervical cancer and about 700,000 for prostate cancer. And adverse patient safety events—which were declining before the onset of the pandemic—began to rise again. (Dr. Tom Sequist, 4/17)

Stat: Closing Rural Labor And Delivery Services Hurts Babies 
A hospital in Idaho recently announced it will shutter its labor and delivery services due to doctors’ unwillingness to practice medicine in the face of the state’s restrictive and punitive laws surrounding reproductive health care. This comes on the heels of a hospital in rural Washington state closing its labor and delivery services due to concerns over the cost of these services. (Rachel Fleishman, 4/18)

Chicago Tribune: Stress Is A Silent Killer For Pregnant Black Women 
As a Black woman older than 40 and as a health disparities researcher, I knew that I met several of the risk factors for maternal morbidity and mortality. Instead of going home and calling the 800 number to speak to a nurse on call as the receptionist suggested, I called a friend, colleague and OB-GYN professor who insisted that I go to the emergency room immediately. (Inger Burnett-Zeigler, 4/17)

USA Today: I Suffered A Traumatic Injury. Here's How I'm Retraining My Brain
Our brains have 86 billion neurons. Messages that tell us how to be, what to do, who we are. Did you know that the annual incidence of traumatic brain injury is greater than that of multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, HIV/AIDS and breast cancer combined? (Joseph Poduslo, 4/16)

The New York Times: My Transplanted Heart And I Will Die Soon 
Today, I will explain to my healthy transplanted heart why, in what may be a matter of days or weeks at best, she — well, we — will die. (Amy Silverstein, 4/18)