The New York Times: Trump Administration Sharply Cuts Spending On Health Law Enrollment
The Trump administration is slashing spending on advertising and promotion for enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, a move some critics charged was a blatant attempt to sabotage the law. Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, who insisted on not being identified during a conference call with reporters, said on Thursday that the advertising budget for the open enrollment period that starts in November would be cut to $10 million, compared with $100 million spent by the Obama administration last year, a drop of 90 percent. Additionally, grants to about 100 nonprofit groups, known as navigators, that help people enroll in health plans offered by the insurance marketplaces will be cut to a total of $36 million, from about $63 million. (Goodnough and Pear, 8/31)

The Washington Post: Trump Officials Slash Advertising, Grants To Help Americans Get Affordable Care Act Insurance
The announcement late Thursday afternoon, just nine weeks before the start of the fifth annual enrollment season, is the first indication of how an administration determined to overturn the health-care law will oversee the window for new and returning consumers buying coverage for 2018. In a conference call with reporters, three federal health officials extended the White House’s pattern of denigrating the ACA and its effectiveness. They also reversed a promise that Health and Human Services staff had made two months ago to nearly 100 organizations receiving “navigator” grants that their funding would be renewed. (Goldstein, 8/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Administration Cutting Ads And Grants Aimed At Boosting Affordable Care Act Sign-Ups
The administration is also cutting grants to organizations that help consumers understand their coverage and financial-aid options under the law. HHS will give $36.8 million in grants in 2017 to such groups, known as “navigators,” a drop of about 40% from the $62.5 million awarded in the previous enrollment period. Agency officials said they are basing that funding on the navigators’ ability to reach their enrollment goals. An organization that met 30% of its sign-up goal, for example, would get 30% of the grant it had previously received. (Armour and Wilde Mathews, 8/31)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Administration Whacks Millions From Budget Used To Push Obamacare
Administration officials said that five years into the Affordable Care Act, most people know they need to sign up and what their options are, and that there is no evidence that more advertising leads to higher enrollment. Last year’s $100 million advertising budget was double that of 2015’s. (Bluth and Galewitz, 8/31)

The Hill: Trump To Slash ObamaCare Outreach Funding
“A health-care system that has caused premiums to double and left nearly half of our counties with only one coverage option is not working," said HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley. "The Trump administration is determined to serve the American people instead of trying to sell them a bad deal.” (Sullivan, 8/31)

Bloomberg: Trump Guts Budget For Obamacare Ads 
Experts who have studied the law or helped run it say otherwise, and that such drastic reductions look more like efforts to let the program wither, as Trump has threatened, two months before sign-ups open. Follow the Trump Administration’s Every Move Follow the Trump Administration’s Every Move “It seems perfectly appropriate to review outreach efforts and see if they can be done more efficiently, but these cuts are quite large,” said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research group. “There’s no doubt that cuts to outreach and advertising will result in more people uninsured.” (Tracer and Edney, 8/31)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Slashes ACA Marketplace Education And Outreach Funds
Margaret Murray, CEO of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans, said the decision to cut advertising is disappointing and will make it harder to attract younger consumers who don't prioritize health insurance. "We're concerned this will depress enrollment particularly among younger, healthier people," Murray said. "Our plans are committed to getting people in, but you need the force of the federal government." (Livingston, 8/31)

Politico: Trump Administration Slashes Obamacare Outreach
Scaling back advertising and outreach is likely to depress enrollment in the marketplaces, particularly among healthier customers who, compared to sicker patients, are less likely to seek out insurance. Healthier customers are vital to balancing out the costs of sicker customers in the insurance marketplaces. “The Trump administration is deliberately attempting to sabotage our health care system," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "When the number of people with health insurance declines and costs skyrocket, the American people will know who's to blame.” (Pradhan, 8/31)

The Hill: Dems Blast Trump For Trying To 'Sabotage' ObamaCare
Top Democrats blasted the Trump administration on Thursday for moving to slash funding for ObamaCare advertising and enrollment outreach. "The Trump administration is deliberately attempting to sabotage our health care system. When the number of people with health insurance declines and costs skyrocket, the American people will know who's to blame," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. (Delk, 8/31)

The Associated Press: Governors Urge Keeping US Health Law's Individual Mandate
A bipartisan governor duo is urging Congress to retain the federal health care law's unpopular individual mandate while seeking to stabilize individual insurance markets as lawmakers work on a long-term replacement. The recommendation is part of a compromise plan that's designed to be palatable to both parties. It was endorsed by six other governors. (Smyth and Anderson, 8/31)

The Washington Post: Bipartisan Group Of Governors Calls On Congress To Shore Up Elements Of Affordable Care Act
In a blueprint issued Thursday, the eight governors ask House and Senate leaders of both parties to take several steps to reverse the rising rates and dwindling choices facing many of the 10 million Americans who buy health plans on their own through ACA marketplaces. Specifically, the state leaders say Congress should devote money for at least two years toward “cost-sharing subsidies” that the 2010 health-care law promises to pay ACA insurers to offset deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses for lower-income customers. The House sued the Obama administration over the subsidies’ legality, and President Trump has repeatedly suggested that he might halt the payments — sending tremors through insurance companies in the marketplaces. (Goldstein, 8/31)

The Hill: Kasich, Hickenlooper Release Plan To Stabilize ObamaCare Markets 
The compromise plan, which is spearheaded by Govs. John Kasich of Ohio (R) and John Hickenlooper of Colorado (D), is meant to help lawmakers find common ground to help stabilize the insurance markets. The governors acknowledged that the mandate, which requires people to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, is unpopular. “[B]ut for the time being it is perhaps the most important incentive for healthy people to enroll in coverage,” they wrote to House and Senate leaders of both parties. “Until Congress comes up with a better solution — or states request waivers to implement a workable alternative — the individual mandate is necessary to keep markets stable in the short term.” (Weixel, 8/31)

Bloomberg: Bipartisan Governors’ Group Shares Plan To Shore Up Obamacare 
“We need immediate action to ensure consumers have affordable options in the short term,” the governors said in the letter, which was sent to Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress. “Continuing uncertainty about the direction of federal policy is driving up premiums, eliminating competition, and leaving consumers with fewer choices.”(Tracer and Edney, 8/31)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Gov. Kasich, Colorado's Hickenlooper Unveil Bipartisan Plan To Stabilize Obamacare Markets
Kasich and Hickenlooper have worked together for months in hopes of stopping congressional Republicans from taking health coverage away from at least 22 million Americans, as the Congressional Budget Office says would happen under various Republican repeal or replace proposals. The governors say the proposals listed above may not be a long-term solution, but if they stabilize markets and end uncertainty, Congress will have time to come up with something fuller. (Koff, 8/31)

Denver Post: The Hickenlooper-Kasich Health Care Plan: Here’s What You Need To Know
A coalition of eight governors, led by Colorado’s John Hickenlooper and Ohio’s John Kasich, put forward 18 recommendations Thursday and demanded immediate action from Congress to stabilize and lower costs on the individual health insurance market. The bipartisan blueprint seeks to break the gridlock in Washington on the issue of health care with modest fixes, but it faced criticism from conservatives because it would preserve the Affordable Care Act and individual mandate. (Frank, 8/31)

Modern Healthcare: Governors' Market Stabilization Proposal May Clash With New GOP Repeal Bid
Two healthcare trains may be headed for a collision in Congress next month, as a bipartisan group of governors and three Senate Republicans push clashing visions of how to fix the Affordable Care Act. But it's unclear whether Republicans and Democrats will be able to agree on any bill—or whether President Donald Trump will sign one—before the Sept. 27 deadline for insurers to decide whether to offer individual-market plans in 2018. (Meyer, 8/31)

The Hill: Lawmakers To Give Bipartisanship A Try On ObamaCare 
The Senate will take a new approach to ObamaCare next week — bipartisanship. Following the stunning defeat to the GOP’s repeal bill, the Senate Health Committee will turn to passing bipartisan legislation aimed at shoring up insurance markets for 2018. The odds are against bipartisanship — particularly when it comes to ObamaCare. (Hellmann, 8/31)

The Hill: Senate Health Committee Schedules Two More ObamaCare Hearings
The Senate Health Committee has scheduled two more hearings to help in crafting a bipartisan healthcare bill. The committee will hear from health policy experts Sept. 12 and from stakeholders Sept. 14. That's in addition to two hearings previously scheduled for next week. (Hellmann, 8/31)

Nashville Tennessean: ACA Senate Hearing: Tennessee Insurance Chief Wants CSR Action Now
Julie Mix McPeak, the state's insurance commissioner, is heading to Washington next week, where she will put pressure on Congress take bipartisan action to tweak — and support — the ACA. She's one of five insurance commissioners scheduled to testify at the first of two hearings convened by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who wants Congress to draft —and move forward on — legislation to keep insurers from getting cold feet in the last weeks before committing to selling 2018 insurance. (Fletcher, 8/31)

Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt Surgeon To Testify Before Senate Committee.
A Vanderbilt University surgeon who founded a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive health care will testify next month before a Senate committee looking for ways to strengthen the individual health insurance market. Dr. Manny Sethi will appear before the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee on Sept. 14, along with other health care stakeholders representing doctors, hospitals, insurers, patients, and insurance commissioners. (Collins, 8/31)

Meanwhile —

CQ Roll Call: White House Keeps Up Push On Health Law Repeal
The Trump administration continues to pressure lawmakers on a proposal by two GOP senators to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s legacy health care law, though sources on both sides of the aisle say the effort has yet to improve the chances for success. The measure from Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina would provide block grants to states for their health insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion populations, institute per capita caps on the traditional Medicaid population, repeal the individual and employer mandates and repeal the medical device tax. (Clason, 9/1)

The New York Times: New Hazard In Storm Zone: Chemical Blasts And ‘Noxious’ Smoke
A series of explosions at a flood-damaged chemical plant outside Houston on Thursday drew sharp focus on hazards to public health and safety from the city’s vast petrochemical complex as the region begins a painstaking recovery from Hurricane Harvey. (Turkewitz, Fountain and Tabuchi, 8/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Report Shows Hazard Posed By Damaged Chemical Plant
A chemical stored at a Houston plant that caught fire early Thursday morning presents an airborne danger to more than 1 million people if released in a worst-case scenario, according to a company risk management plan filed to the federal government. (Berzon and Matthews, 8/31)

Los Angeles Times: Harvey Pounded The Nation's Chemical Epicenter. What's In The Foul-Smelling Floodwater Left Behind?
The pounding rains of Hurricane Harvey washed over the conduits, cooling towers, ethylene crackers and other esoteric equipment of the nation’s largest complex of chemical plants and petroleum refineries, leaving behind small lakes of brown, foul-smelling water whose contents are a mystery. (Vartabedian, 8/31)

PBS NewsHour: Destruction In Chemical Hub Houston Raise Post-Hurricane Health Concerns
Two chemical explosions at a chemical plant in Houston adds to the list of hazards brought about by Hurricane Harvey. Science producer Nsikan Akpan explains the cause of these explosions and the concerns it raises and Miles O’Brien speaks with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about the health implications of these chemical exposures. (Akpan and O'Brien, 8/31)

The New York Times: Short Answers To Hard Questions About Health Threats From Hurricane Harvey
The devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston has brought a host of health questions from residents of the area and concerned relatives and friends. Here are some answers to common questions showing up in Google searches and on Facebook. (Kaplan and McNeil, 8/31)

The Associated Press: New Orleans' Katrina Challenges May Hold Lessons For Houston
As the murky flood waters of Hurricane Katrina were slowly pumped out of New Orleans in 2005, the challenges the city faced were only beginning to come into focus. Housing, health and public safety, what and where to rebuild — all were questions faced by local, state and federal authorities who, it soon became obvious, had not been prepared to deal with the aftermath of levee failures that led to catastrophic flooding. (McGill and McConnaughey, 9/1)

The Washington Post: Hurricane Harvey's Wrath: Texas City Loses Drinking Water, Chemicals Ignite At Plant As New Dangers Appear In Storm's Wake
The water was leaving, at last. But, across Southeast Texas on Thursday, new dangers kept appearing in Hurricane Harvey’s wake.In Crosby, northeast of Houston, loud “pops” were heard coming from a crippled chemical plant, where safety systems were flooded and authorities said an explosion could be imminent. In Beaumont, 118,000 people were without drinking water after floods disabled the city’s system. For most of them, there was no easy way out of a town that now felt like more of an island: The city was surrounded by swollen rivers and bayous, cutting off most roads. (Frankel, Hauslohner and Fahrenthold, 8/31)

NPR: After Harvey, Houston Cancer Hospital Begins Recovery
As rains pounded Houston on Sunday, Dr. Karen Lu took to Twitter and conveyed both alarm and reassurance: "Roads around @MDAndersonNews impassable. Our on-site ride out team is caring for patients and we are all safe." Lu is a professor of gynecologic oncology and interim chief medical officer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, a top cancer hospital and research center. Earlier that morning, the hospital had sent a high-water vehicle — a box truck — to Lu's neighborhood, and she walked eight blocks through flooded streets to meet it. (Hsu, 8/31)

Stat: The Cancer Doctor Who Braved Harvey To Reach His Patient
Timing was everything for this cancer patient. Scientists had already harvested billions of cells in a cutting-edge lab for months. The doctors had performed a handful of rounds of chemotherapy to weaken the tumor. Now came the most crucial part: infusing those cultivated cells back into the patient. If the experimental treatment worked, Dr. Adi Diab felt the patient might have a shot at beating late-stage melanoma. (Blau, 8/31)

Stat: In Shelter For Harvey Evacuees, Telemedicine Plans To Help Doctors Keep Up
Getting thousands of Houston-area families to shelters has been a massive humanitarian effort. But the aid doesn’t end there: Many of the displaced have chronic medical conditions like asthma or injuries from recent days that need medical attention. Providers of telemedicine are hoping technology can help step into the breach. At Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, which has begun to take residents displaced by flooding in Houston, emergency-room doctors at Children’s Health, a pediatric hospital based in Dallas, are seeing young patients remotely. (Samuel, 8/31)

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ Hurricane Harvey And Health Costs
Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times discuss the potential health impact of Hurricane Harvey on the Texas Gulf Coast, and what impact the relief effort in Washington could have on an already jampacked September agenda. Also this week: an interview with Elisabeth Rosenthal about why medical care costs so much. (8/31)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Fueling Opioid Epidemic? New Theory Is Challenged
An intriguing new theory is gaining traction among conservative foes of the Obama-era health law: Its Medicaid expansion to low-income adults may be fueling the opioid epidemic. If true, that would represent a shocking outcome for the Affordable Care Act. But there's no evidence to suggest that's happening, say university researchers who study the drug problem and are puzzled by such claims. Some even say Medicaid may be helping mitigate the consequences of the epidemic. (Johnson and Alonso-Zaldivar, 8/31)

Stat: FDA Is Urged To Withdraw 'Ultra' High-Dose Opioids Over Risks
In the latest bid to combat the opioid crisis, several groups representing public health officials, physicians, and safety advocates are urging the Food and Drug Administration to remove “ultra” high-dose opioids from the market, arguing that the risks outweigh the benefits. In making their case, the groups point to research showing that a person who takes high dosages has a risk of developing an opioid use disorder that is 122 times greater than someone who has not been prescribed opioids, while a person taking a relatively low dose is 15 times as likely to develop a disorder. (Silverman, 8/31)

The Hill: No Action On Opioid Emergency Three Weeks After Trump Declaration 
President Trump on Aug. 10 said the nation’s opioid epidemic was officially a national emergency. More than three weeks later, Trump is dealing with a natural disaster. Hurricane Harvey has displaced tens of thousands, leading Trump to declare federal emergencies in Texas and Louisiana. The decisions have freed up funding to help people who have lost their homes to rising waters. In contrast, nothing has happened yet since Trump’s declaration on opioids. (Weixel and Roubein, 8/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Arizona Accuses Insys Of Fraudulently Marketing Fentanyl Painkiller
Insys Therapeutics Inc.’s legal woes worsened Thursday when the state of Arizona filed a lawsuit claiming the company improperly marketed a powerful opioid painkiller. Arizona’s attorney general, Mark Brnovich, alleged in the suit that Insys engaged in a fraudulent marketing scheme to boost sales of Subsys, a prescription mouth-spray formulation of fentanyl. (Randazzo, 8/31)

The CT Mirror: Opioid Crisis Deepens As Malloy Again Signs Legislation To Curb It
For the third year in a row, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has put forward and signed legislation aimed at curbing the growing opioid epidemic in Connecticut. ... The bill Malloy signed is not as wide-reaching as changes enacted last year, but it increases oversight of prescriptions for painkillers and requires certain individual and group health insurers to cover medically necessary, inpatient detoxification treatment. (Constable, 8/31)

WBUR: Reports Of Rehab Scams Raise Concerns About Addiction Treatment Quality
South Florida is known as one of the addiction recovery capitals of the country, with thousands of treatment centers and sober houses. ... Florida officials have set up task forces to try to clean up the industry and in the past 10 months they've arrested dozens of program operators on charges related to improper treatment. (Becker, 9/1)

Stat: Proove, Which Sold Iffy DNA Tests, Is Selling Assets Amid Criminal Probe
Proove Biosciences, a formerly high-flying genetic testing firm whose science and business practices have been challenged by experts and former employees, has been placed into court-ordered receivership for “restructuring and asset sale,” according to the company’s founder and former CEO. Proove’s founder, Brian Meshkin, said in an interview on Thursday that he no longer works at Proove, which rang up $28 million in revenue last year. Meshkin blamed the company’s fall on investigative articles published by STAT last December and February. Those articles quoted experts who expressed deep doubts about the company’s scientific claims that it could predict a patient’s likelihood of becoming addicted to opioids. (Piller, 8/31)

Stat: Immunotherapy Is Postponing Hard Conversations, Sometimes Until Too Late
Anew generation of immune-boosting therapies has been hailed as nothing short of revolutionary, shrinking tumors and extending lives. When late-stage cancer patients run out of other options, some doctors are increasingly nudging them to give immunotherapy a try. But that advice is now coming with unintended consequences. Doctors who counsel immunotherapy, experts say, are postponing conversations about palliative care and end-of-life wishes with their patients — sometimes, until it’s too late. (Tedeschi, 9/1)

The New York Times: Hormone Treatment For Prostate Cancer Tied To Heart Risks
A common treatment for prostate cancer may increase the risk for heart disease. A study in the British Journal of Cancer identified 7,637 men in California who had new diagnoses of localized prostate cancer from 1998 to 2008 and followed them through 2010. (Bakalar, 8/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Help For New Moms And Their Babies Could Be At Risk
Tamara Garel makes her rounds in the Bronx most weekdays dragging a portable scale, paper rulers to measure babies and leaflets of advice for their first-time moms. The 32-year-old mother of two is part of a small cadre of registered nurses working to improve the outcomes for babies born to women in poverty by checking on them every week or two, from the early days of pregnancy until the children are 2 years old. (Brody, 8/31)

NPR: Fatherhood After 40? It's Becoming A Lot More Common
If you've put off starting a family, you're not alone. In the U.S., the average age a woman gives birth to her first child has been rising. And, a study published Thursday in Human Reproduction shows dads are getting older, too. In 1972, the average age of fathers of newborns in the U.S. was 27. Now, it's closer to 31 years old (30.9 years to be specific), the study finds. (Aubrey, 8/31)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Bizarre Medical Diagnoses That Sent Americans For Help Last Year
Doctors must list every condition they treat using one or more of the multi-digit codes on the medical diagnosis classification list developed by the World Health Organization. Amino, a San Francisco-based company that analyzes health care data, took a deeper dive into nine billion insurance claims to come up with some surprising and offbeat observations. In 2016, it found 17,200 patients were treated after they walked into a wall; 25,500 people were injured after they wandered into furniture, and 400 sought medical care after strolling into a lamppost. No mention was made of how these injuries came about or if, as we strongly suspect, cellphone use was involved. (Schaefer, 9/1)

Kaiser Health News: St. Kitts Launches Probe Of Herpes Vaccine Tests On U.S. Patients
The government of St. Kitts and Nevis has launched an investigation into the clinical trial for a herpes vaccine by an American company because it said its officials were not notified about the experiments. The vaccine research has sparked controversy because the lead investigator, a professor with Southern Illinois University, and the U.S. company he co-founded did not rely on traditional U.S. safety oversight while testing the vaccine last year on mostly American participants on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. (Taylor, 8/31)

KQED: As Human Gene-Editing Advances, Doudna Says Ethical Discussions Can’t Wait
If you want to have a role in shaping the near and coming future of biotechnology, the time is now. ... This was the primary takeaway from Jennifer Doudna’s recent public remarks at CRISPRcon, a two day event at UC Berkeley, intended to get nonspecialists talking about the promise and potential peril of the fast-moving biotech landscape. (Venton, 8/31)

The Washington Post: Protecting Unauthorized Immigrant Mothers From Deportation Improves Children’s Mental Health, Study Shows
When U.S.-born kids whose parents are undocumented immigrants know their moms won’t be deported, they are dramatically less worried and stressed.That is the chief conclusion of a study published by the journal Science on Thursday, as the Trump administration deliberates whether to eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that is shielding nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation. (Siegel, 8/31)

Marketplace: School Districts Address Lunch Shaming
The practice is common enough that it’s got a name — lunch shaming — when parents have unpaid bills but the kids pay the price. This school year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is requiring all districts to have policies in place, making it clear to parents how schools will respond in those situations. (Scott, 9/1)

Kaiser Health News: Some Thyroid Cancer Patients Can Safely Delay Surgery
Most people diagnosed with cancer want to start treatment as soon as possible, for fear that delaying care will allow their tumor to grow out of control. So Terry DeBonis’ approach to treating her thyroid cancer might seem surprising. Although she was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, she still hasn’t begun treatment. (Szabo, 8/31)

The New York Times: Texas Abortion Restriction Is Temporarily Blocked
A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Texas law that would restrict the most common type of second-trimester abortion. In a 17-page ruling on Thursday, Judge Lee Yeakel of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas found that opponents of the law had shown “a substantial likelihood of success on the merits,” and granted a two-week restraining order while the case proceeds. The restriction had been scheduled to take effect on Friday. (Astor, 8/31)

Houston Chronicle: Judge Halts Texas Second-Term Abortion Ban 
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, halting implementation of the law meant to go into effect Sept. 1 that would have taken the procedure off the table for abortion providers throughout the state. The state will work to protect its right to protect "the basic human rights and dignity of the unborn," Republican Attorney General ken Paxton's office said in a statement. (Zelinski, 8/31)

Texas Tribune: Judge Temporarily Halts Texas Ban On Common Second-Trimester Abortion Procedure
Yeakel’s decision follows a Tuesday morning hearing during which attorneys for the state and reproductive rights groups sparred for an hour and a half about whether the order should be granted. With it in place, Texas doctors and health care providers can continue using the dilation and evacuation procedure – deemed the safest by medical professionals for second-trimester abortions — until a more permanent decision is made by the court. (Najmabadi, 8/31)

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Asked To Review Planned Parenthood Defunding
Three Planned Parenthood patients are asking an appeals court for a review after a panel of federal judges ruled that Arkansas can block Medicaid funding to the organization. The three Planned Parenthood Great Plains patients asked the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday to reconsider the three-judge panel's decision. The panel on Aug. 16 vacated a federal judge's preliminary injunction that prevented Arkansas from suspending Medicaid payments for services rendered to patients in the state. (8/31)

Arkansas Online: 3 Clinicgoers Appeal Ruling On Medicaid
On Aug. 16, a divided three-judge panel of the federal appeals court vacated a 2015 injunction that kept the state from cutting off Medicaid funds for the three women and a 2016 expansion of the injunction that covered all Medicaid patients in Arkansas. (Satter, 9/1)

KARK (Little Rock, Ark.): Planned Parenthood Fighting Back After Blocked Medicaid Payments Ruling
The divided panel split with other federal courts in making its decision. Other courts had determined states are restricted from cutting off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood as a “qualified medical provider.” (Lampe, 8/31)

The Desert Sun: Health Care Access For Riverside County Communities Depends On Transportation, Many Other Factors
Health care for people in low-income communities is a challenge exacerbated by a lack of reliable transportation. In rural areas like Blythe and the unincorporated communities in the eastern Coachella Valley, residents will delay care because they lack an affordable, reliable means of travel. While Blythe residents struggle to cross the many miles to care, North Shore, Oasis and Thermal residents may be less than five miles from providers but still struggle to reach needed medical services. Public transportation agencies, community clinics and community organizers are seeking to bridge the gaps, but advocates and officials say it’s a complex issue to address. (Gagliano, 8/30)

Texas Tribune: Child Therapists Fear New Texas Policy Will Deepen Funding Cuts
The new rules standardize the state's reimbursement rate for all "acute therapy" — an effort, Texas' Health and Human Services Commission says, to level the playing field and eliminate incentives for one type of therapy over another. Starting Sept. 1, therapists won't be reimbursed on a per-patient basis; they'll be reimbursed based on 15-minute increments of care. (Arriaga, 9/1)

Boston Globe: Most Mass. Hospitals Turned Profit In 2016
Most of the state’s hospitals remained profitable last year, according to an analysis released Thursday by the state’s health care data agency. Even in the face of continued pressure to control costs, the majority of them — and their parent companies — reported higher revenues than expenses in 2016 — though the margins were slimmer than in 2015. (Dayal McCluskey, 8/31)

The Baltimore Sun: Upper Chesapeake Health Officials Provide More Details About Hospital Changes 
The theme was “right care, right time and right setting,” as University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health officials worked to convince a still-skeptical community Wednesday that sweeping changes proposed to the regional health care system will be beneficial to the area. Lyle Sheldon, president and CEO of UCH, along with various department heads and those supporting the Vision 2020 project, made that case during a public information forum at Level Fire Hall. (Anderson, 8/31)

California Healthline: For Millions Of Insured Californians, State Health Laws Don’t Apply
True or false? If you’re a Californian with private health insurance, you have the right to an appointment within a certain number of hours or days, depending on the severity of your condition. Your health plan’s provider directory is legally required to be updated and accurate. A new state law protects you against nasty surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers, so long as you seek care at an in-network facility. All true — but not if you’re among nearly 6 million Californians in a category of job-based health coverage known as self-funded insurance. (Bazar, 9/1)

Orlando Sentinel: The Center Opens Renovated, Larger Hub For Orlando's LGBT Community
The Center was established nearly four decades ago to provide support for people with HIV and AIDS. Its services have grown since, but its role as a pillar of support and as a gathering place for the LGBT community has remained essential. (Miller, 8/31)

St. Louis Public Radio: These 4 Chose To Carry A Gun. The Decision Still Impacts Their Lives Years Later
Gun violence is the result of a series of choices, some of them spur-of-the-moment, others made after much consideration. ... Four people in the St. Louis area shared their stories of their gun convictions and what they’re doing to rebuilding their lives. (Lippmann, 9/1)

Georgia Health News: Zika Virus: The Risk Is Down, But It’s No Time To Be Complacent
Cases of Zika infection have dropped significantly in Georgia and across the United States, public health officials say. Despite the decrease, the Atlanta-based CDC emphasizes that Zika continues to be a public health threat. (Vinal and Miller, 8/31)

Fresno Bee: Valley Children's In Madera Fined For Patient Death
The California Department of Public Health has fined Valley Children’s Hospital $71,962.50 in the death of a patient two years ago. The state says a delay in communicating the results of a chest X-ray and scan resulted in a delay in medical treatment and surgery, resulting in the potentially avoidable death of the young man who died from a bleeding aneurysm. No information about the patient’s age or hometown was immediately available, but the state identified him as male and Valley Children’s identified him as a “young adult.” Valley Children’s treats patients up to 21 years of age. He died on Nov. 6, 2015. (Anderson, 8/31)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Three San Diego Hospitals Fined For Patient Harm Incidents 
Three San Diego hospitals are among 10 across the state penalized Thursday for mistakes that severely injured, or killed, patients. The California Department of Public Health levied a total of $618,002 in penalties against the facilities, including $233,650 in financial pain for Sharp Coronado Hospital, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns and Vibra Hospital of San Diego, for errors which included an attempted suicide, a sponge left inside a patient and a fall-related death. (Sisson, 8/31)

Minnesota Public Radio: This Tiny Device Could Change How Cops Deal With Mental Diseases And Disorders
When police arrive on the scene of a disturbance or disorderly conduct call, it's often a mystery regarding who or what exactly they're dealing with.VariAware, a Twin Cities application developer, wants to change that. The startup is teaming up with St. Paul police to pilot a technology that alerts police and family members when police get within 30 feet of a person with autism, mental illness or other unseen disabilities. (Nelson, 9/1)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Sanford Burnham Prebys Looks To The Future 
With the retirement of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute’s CEO on Sept. 30 , Kristiina Vuori, M.D. is reprising a familiar role. For the second time in five years, the physician-researcher takes over on an interim basis until a replacement can be found for Perry Nisen, M.D., the outgoing CEO. And no, Vuori, the biomedical institute’s president says she is not considering taking the job permanently. Her commitment and focus remains on science, including her own work in studying cancer. (Fikes, 8/31)

The Star Tribune: Medtronic Reports Upbeat Early Results From Blood Pressure Trial
Minnesota-run Medtronic is aiming to sell devices for a medical therapy called “renal denervation,” in which a doctor uses a thin, spiral-shaped electrode to permanently burn away nerves in the renal artery that can trigger high blood pressure. The device system was originally designed by the California startup Ardian, which Medtronic acquired in 2011, but the therapy failed a key clinical trial three years later. (Carlson, 8/31)

Iowa Public Radio: The Rate Of Obesity Among Iowans Dips Slightly In 2016
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting the obesity rate in Iowa for 2016 is at 32 percent. That’s down a tick from 32.1 the previous year. (Dillard, 8/31)

San Jose Mercury News: California: Bill To Ease Permits For Cell Phone Towers Could Affect Health
A bill co-authored by a Bay Area assemblyman that would block the ability of cities and counties to control the installation of microwave radiation antennas is doing more than alarming many local officials. It’s also frightening grass-roots activists and scientists, who argue that if Senate Bill 649 becomes law, a projected 50,000 new cellular antennas will be installed on public buildings and utility poles in California neighborhoods, creating a risk to public health because of the possible dangers of radiation and electromagnetic frequencies emitted by cell towers. (Seipel, 8/31)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Public Opinion About The Future Of The Affordable Care Act
Our analysis of 27 national opinion polls by 12 survey organizations provides background on four critical issues relevant to the previous House and recent Senate health care decisions: the public favorability of the current law, the public values underlying the debate about the future, support for various health policy changes in the proposed Republican legislation, and support for the overall Republican proposals debated in the House and Senate. ... On most specific policy issues in the debate, Republicans and Democrats disagreed, but there is one major exception. The two parties’ adherents agree that the number of people covered by Medicaid should not be reduced in any replacement bill. Finally, the most important change over time was not the increase in public approval of the ACA, but rather the increase in overall support for universal coverage. (Blendon and Benson, 8/31)

JAMA: Medication-Assisted Treatment And Opioid Use Before And After Overdose In Pennsylvania Medicaid
For every fatal opioid overdose, there are approximately 30 nonfatal overdoses. Nonfatal overdoses that receive medical attention represent intervention opportunities for clinicians to mitigate risk by reducing opioid prescribing or advocating addiction treatment. Studies evaluating commercially insured patients suggest these potential interventions are underutilized. ... However, little is known about how opioid prescribing and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) changes from before to after overdose among Medicaid enrollees, who have a 3-times higher risk of opioid overdose. We used data from a large Medicaid program to compare (1) prescription opioid use, (2) duration of opioid use, and (3) rates of MAT (buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone) among enrollees before and after an overdose event. ... Despite receiving medical attention for an overdose, these patients in Pennsylvania Medicaid continued to have persistently high prescription opioid use. (Frazier et al., 8/22)

The Kaiser Family Foundation: Coverage And Care Pathways For People With HIV: A New Baseline
This new baseline provides a snapshot of access to care for people with HIV today and serves as marker for gauging changes going forward. It reflects coverage gains associated with the ACA’s expansions as well as access through traditional insurance pathways and the Ryan White program. As the debate over the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues, we sought to develop a baseline of current health insurance coverage and access specific to people with HIV, a population that saw significant gains in insurance coverage under the healthcare law. (Dawson and Kates, 8/29)

Annals of Internal Medicine: Accuracy of Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Varies by Neighborhood Socioeconomic Position: A Retrospective Cohort Study
First, [researchers sought] to evaluate the spatial relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and major atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)–related events; second, to evaluate the relative extent to which neighborhood disadvantage and physiologic risk account for neighborhood-level variation in ASCVD event rates. ... [They undertook an] observational cohort analysis of geocoded longitudinal electronic health records [using 109 793 patients from the Cleveland Clinic Health System]. ... Neighborhood disadvantage may be a powerful regulator of ASCVD event risk. In addition to supplemental risk models and clinical screening criteria, population-based solutions are needed to ameliorate the deleterious effects of neighborhood disadvantage on health outcomes. (Dalton et al., 8/29)

USA Today: Medicare For All Is The Only Health Care Proposal That Meets Trump's Standards
As a physician and longtime advocate for Medicare for all, I’m ready for an honest, bipartisan dialogue about the shortcomings of the ACA. However, in the last few weeks, I’ve read proposals to “fix” the ACA by funneling even more money to private insurers, or to lower premiums by stripping out patient protections. I’ve seen plans to let patients buy into Medicaid or Medicare, or to establish a public option to compete with private plans. But unlike a comprehensive single-payer program, these “band-aid” proposals are merely tweaks disguised as solutions. (Carol Paris, 9/1)

The Charlotte Observer: To Fix Health Care, Move Most Expensive Illnesses To Medicare
Political ideology may be masking an obvious, pragmatic solution in the raging national debate to reform health care. Instead of continuing to argue, let’s work together to fix the system by shifting the most expensive illnesses to Medicare. That will lower the risks to health insurers who then can cut premiums by as much as 40 percent. This idea can be the ultimate fix that makes health care affordable for most Americans. (J. Edward Bell, 8/31)

The Washington Post: ‘Single Payer’ Is Becoming Democratic Party Consensus. Here’s The Danger To Avoid.
At a town hall meeting in Oakland yesterday, Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) — one of many Democrats who are considering running for president in 2020 — announced that she will be co-sponsoring a “Medicare for all” single-payer health-care bill that Bernie Sanders is introducing next month. While this isn’t a complete surprise, it’s an evolution for Harris, who up until now seemed to be edging in that direction but hadn’t come out emphatically for single payer. This tells us something important about where the Democratic Party is right now and where it’s going in the next few years. (Paul Waldman, 8/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Hopeful News Of The Week
Amid so much bad news out of Texas, our vote for hopeful story of the week goes to Gilead Sciences ’ bid to buy Kite Pharma Inc. for about $11 billion. That’s a big bet on a new type of cancer therapy based on genetically modifying a kind of immune cell known as T-cells. ... The treatment shows remarkable results in many patients, and the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. (8/31)

Sacramento Bee: CA Legislators Should Get Facts Before Passing SB 17
A one-size-fits-all approach to prescription costs will have the unintended complication of unsettling a generic drug market that works for Californians. SB 17 would place large regulatory burdens on generic manufacturers who produce hundreds of drugs. (Chester Davis Jr., 8/31)

The Washington Post: We’ve Spent A Century Fighting The War On Drugs. It Helped Create An Opioid Crisis.
Afghanistan isn’t the only one of America’s longest wars headed for a surge. A century into the war on drugs, the United States is awash in narcotics — a problem the president intends to solve with a wall, and Attorney General Jeff Session intends to solve without mercy. Just this week, Sessions urged a zero-tolerance approach to the drug war, contending that “We must not capitulate, intellectually or morally, to drug use.” (Matthew R. Pembleton, 8/31)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Freedom House Offers Tailored Addiction Treatment
Today, Amy Kalber is a leader. She’s an active mother who is the glue who keeps her large family together. She is working on her master’s degree in social work. She works as a case manager for a nonprofit. Amy sets an example for how to balance work and home and still give back to her community. Not long ago, virtually nobody – including Amy – would have believed this future was possible. (Jennifer Hancock, 8/31)

The New England Journal Of Medicine: Interprofessional Education — A Foundation For A New Approach To Health Care
“This might have been the most important thing I did in medical school,” the fourth-year student said. “It felt like we had an impact.” The student was reflecting on a program during his final semester of medical school in which he collaborated with a team of students from nursing, pharmacy, social work, and anthropology. The team worked with three patients who were identified by their primary care physician as having uncontrolled health problems. The students sought to identify underlying barriers to improving the patients’ health by visiting them in their homes and accompanying them to health care visits. Then they leveraged the expertise of each of their disciplines to develop solutions to overcome those barriers. (Alan Dow and George Thibault, 8/31)

Stat: Medical Education Needs To Adapt To Students' Learning Styles
The curriculum overhaul at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine plans to completely replace lectures with so-called active learning approaches that let students learn material in a more hands-on way, as in simulation labs and group case studies. At the new Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, students are required to train and practice in the field as certified emergency medical technicians rather than sit through lectures during their first eight weeks. Other programs give students more time for hands-on electives in later years by concentrating academic courses in early semesters. Still others supplement the traditional four-year system with classes targeting newer technologies and databases. (Kendall Sarson, 8/31)

The New England Journal Of Medicine: Abandonment
After the funeral, she calls me to obtain a letter for work. I have one chance to ask the question that has been pricking my conscience, though I can’t bring myself to use the nurse’s terminology. “Some people feel abandoned in hospice. Do you think your mother ever felt that?” “Abandoned? Oh god, no!” My heart soars with relief. I told you so, I quietly and gleefully retort to the nurse. I could have told you that the peripheral involvement of an oncologist is no match for the comforts and consolations of hospice, that advocacy can stretch only so far, that abandonment by the oncologist is a myth, that patients get over the fact that their oncologist can’t be everywhere. From here it’s short work to convince myself that perhaps my job can end when patients enter hospice, that things will work out even without my exertions. “But doctor, you know why, don’t you?” the daughter continues, with renewed emphasis. I hold my breath for the denunciation. You passed off her care, I expect her to say, but we got better doctors in the end. But no. Instead, I hear, “We felt safe because we knew you had our back. Mum knew you’d take care of her no matter what. You were always going to be her oncologist.” (Ranjana Srivastava, 8/31)

KevinMD: Anti-Vaccination Beliefs Don’t Follow The Usual Conservative And Liberal Lines
When health officials learned that the 2015 measles outbreak was caused by clusters of unvaccinated children, Americans once more wanted to understand why some parents do not vaccinate their children. In our highly polarized culture, media commentators and even academics began to connect opposition to vaccination to either the left or right of politics. So a question arises: Who is more likely to be opposed to vaccination, liberals or conservatives? As a sociologist who studies infectious disease, I took a look at this. The answer seems to depend on what question you ask. (Charles McCoy, 8/31)

The New York Times: Make Pot Legal For Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury
The explosion that wounded me during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan in 2010 left me with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. In 2012 I was medically retired from the Marine Corps because of debilitating migraines, vertigo and crippling depression. After a nine-year career, I sought care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. At first, I didn’t object to the pills that arrived by mail: antidepressants, sedatives, amphetamines and mood stabilizers. Stuff to wake me up. Stuff to put me down. Stuff to keep me calm. Stuff to rile me up. Stuff to numb me from the effects of my wars as an infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stuff to numb me from the world all around. (Thomas James Brennan, 9/1)