Reuters: Twenty States Sue Federal Government, Seeking End To Obamacare
A coalition of 20 U.S. states sued the federal government on Monday over Obamacare, claiming the law was no longer constitutional after the repeal last year of its requirement that people have health insurance or pay a fine. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, the lawsuit said that without the individual mandate, which was eliminated as part of the Republican tax law signed by President Donald Trump in December, Obamacare was unlawful. (Beech, 2/27)

Modern Healthcare: 20 States Sue Federal Government To Abolish Obamacare
"Once the heart of the ACA — the individual mandate — is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the ACA must also fall," the states wrote in the complaint, filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas. (Teichert, 2/26)

Politico: 20 States Sue Over Obamacare Mandate — Again
The GOP tax law "eliminated the tax penalty of the ACA, without eliminating the mandate itself,” the states argue in a complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas. “What remains, then, is the individual mandate, without any accompanying exercise of Congress’s taxing power, which the Supreme Court already held that Congress has no authority to enact." The Supreme Court in 2012 upheld Obamacare’s individual mandate in one of the highest-profile court cases in years. The justices did not agree then with the Obama administration’s main argument that the mandate penalty was valid under the Commerce Clause. But the justices did say that the mandate was a constitutional tax. (Haberkorn, 2/26)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Leads New Lawsuit To Effectively Repeal Obamacare
Texas teamed up with Wisconsin on Monday to resume the fight against Obamacare by leading the charge in a 20-state lawsuit the group of largely Republican attorneys general hope will kill off the Affordable Care Act. Attorney General Ken Paxton stressed the President Trump's tax overhaul, approved in Congress late last year, renders the the health care plan's individual mandate unconstitutional because the federal government no longer imposes a tax penalty. (Zelinski, 2/26)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Among 20 States Seeking Repeal Of Affordable Care Act Mandate
The case was filed by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of their states and attorneys general in 18 other states, including Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. About 167,000 Arizonans enrolled for coverage in 2018 during last fall's enrollment period, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. (Coppola, 2/26)

In other health law news —

Modern Healthcare: Republicans Try Coverage Expansion: Idaho Showcases Red State Dilemma
As the 2018 election season kicks into high gear across the country, lawmakers in some red states find themselves at odds over how to grapple with continually rising premiums, large swaths of low-income uninsured and overall insurance market instability. Nowhere is that more evident than in Idaho. The state nabbed headlines by asking carriers to use "creativity" in designing plans for the exchanges—including going outside the essential health benefit bounds set by the Affordable Care Act. (Luthi, 2/26)

The Hill: Iowa Lawmakers Move To Allow Health Plans That Skirt ObamaCare Rules
State lawmakers in Iowa are moving to allow the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation to offer health insurance plans that don’t comply with ObamaCare protections. Two bills moving through the state legislature aim to provide Farm Bureau members with plans that cost much less than plans that are currently available on Iowa’s individual market. (Weixel, 2/26)

The Associated Press: Administration Considers Expanding Mental Health Treatment
Amid the outcry over the Florida school shootings, the Trump administration says it is "actively exploring" ways to help states expand inpatient mental health treatment using Medicaid funds. President Donald Trump again brought up the issue of mental hospitals in a meeting with governors on Monday, invoking a time when states maintained facilities for mentally ill and developmentally disabled people. "In the old days, you would put him into a mental institution," Trump said, apparently referring to alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz, whose troubling behavior prompted people close to him to plead for help from authorities, without success. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: What The Florida School Shooting Reveals About The Gaps In Our Mental Health System
After Adam Lanza burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School and gunned down 20 students and six educators, Connecticut’s Office of the Child Advocate tapped Julian Ford to help make sense of the shooting. A professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a practicing psychologist for 35 years, Ford served on an expert panel that conducted a detailed review of Lanza’s brief life to look for “any warning signs, red flags, or other lessons that could be learned.” The resulting report painted a picture of an odd, sensitive child with significant communication difficulties who became an anxious and withdrawn adolescent. ... At every turn, the report saw missed opportunities to treat Lanza’s multiple interpersonal and mental health difficulties ... and to draw him out of his profound isolation. (Healy, 2/26)

The Washington Post: What Will Congress Realistically Do On Guns After The Florida Shooting?
Congress is back this week for the first time since the Parkland, Fla., high school massacre. Sustained national media attention on the shooting, emotional confrontations between politicians and survivors and their families, as well as a public-opinion shift in favor of stricter gun laws could spur Congress to do something to tighten access to guns. But don't expect Congress to do something big. The party that tends to support looser gun laws controls both chambers, and President Trump has appeared to double down on a pro-gun position to arm some teachers. (Phillips, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Background-Checks Bill Runs Into Hurdles In Congress
Legislation designed to improve background checks for gun purchases ran into new hurdles Monday, raising doubts about lawmakers’ ability to act in the wake of the Florida school shooting. The background-checks bill, sponsored  by Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), would encourage states and federal agencies, including the military, to submit criminal-conviction records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. That step has broad bipartisan support. (Peterson and Bender, 2/26)

Politico: Trump Says He Is 'Writing Out' Bump Stocks
President Donald Trump said Monday he is “writing out” so-called bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to mimic the firing speed of fully automatic weapons. “Bump stocks, we are writing that out. I am writing that out,” he said, addressing a group of state governors at the White House. “I don’t care if Congress does it or not, I’m writing it out myself." (Alexander, 2/26)

NPR: Trump Echoes NRA More, After Bipartisan Tone Started The Gun Discussion
Lawmakers in Washington and Tallahassee have discussed a lot of ideas to reduce school shootings, but on the hardest questions — like what to do about guns — there is just no clear consensus. There are few signs of clarity from President Trump, who has taken a leading role in the debate without providing strong direction to solve the problem. (Liasson, 2/27)

Politico: Trump Won’t Meet With AGs On Guns
President Donald Trump said he wanted to meet with state attorneys general to hear their ideas about gun laws — he brought in two anti-gun-regulation Republicans, and the White House says that’s enough. Trump won’t be meeting with a bipartisan group of AGs in Washington this week for the National Association of Attorneys General conference, as he did last year. (Dovere, 2/26)

The New York Times: What Are States Doing About Gun Violence After The Florida Shooting?
It is not just in Florida, where the mass shooting at a high school is prompting lawmakers to take up gun control legislation. The same thing is happening across the country, from Washington to Vermont. What was one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history prompted Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island to sign an executive order on Monday to establish a policy to take guns away from people who pose a danger to themselves or others. (Seelye and Bidgood, 2/26)

CNN: Florida School Shooting: Florida Lawmakers Consider Gun Measures
Florida lawmakers are mulling a series of proposals in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that triggered an outcry for accountability and reform. With the last day of the state's legislative session set for March 9, the clock is ticking for lawmakers amid pressure from young survivors of the shooting, who converged in Tallahassee Monday. Hundreds of Floridians, including Stoneman Douglas students, converged on the state Capitol Monday in an event called Rally in Tally calling for stronger gun laws. (Park and Grinberg, 2/27)

Stateline: Limits On Federal Gun Research Spur States To Step In
As deaths from mass shootings have mounted across the United States, some states are moving to collect hard data to guide their decisions about guns — even as the federal government has retreated from such research in the face of pressure from pro-gun groups. The New Jersey Legislature, for example, is weighing a measure that would create a gun-violence research center at Rutgers University. The center would be modeled on the new Firearm Violence Prevention Research Center at the University of California at Davis, which launched last summer with $5 million in state money over five years. (Ollove, 2/27)

Modern Healthcare: Tide May Be Turning To Free Up Funding To Study Gun Violence
Dr. Marian Betz, a University of Colorado emergency medicine researcher, is studying how to counsel suicidal adults and their families on the best way to store their guns and reduce easy access. The two-year, $800,000 study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, will evaluate whether such decision-support aids reduce suicide gun deaths. Such federal grants to study gun violence and how to reduce it have been rare since 1996 when a law was enacted barring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from collecting data to advocate for gun control. Betz was able to get her grant only because in 2013, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Connecticut, President Barack Obama restarted limited federal funding for such research. (Meyer, 2/26)

The Washington Post: How Laz Ojeda And First Responders May Have Saved The Life Of Parkland Student Madeleine Wilford
As Madeleine Wilford bled from multiple gunshot wounds outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the first responder struggling to keep her alive was faced with a choice. Coral Springs Fire Department Lt. Laz Ojeda could follow guidance to rush the high school student to a hospital 30 miles away, where policy dictates most child patients should go. The second option: Head for the closer, urgent-care-focused Broward Health North, about 12 miles from where a gunman had just killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day. (Horton, 2/26)

Health News Florida: Experts: Parents Can Reassure Children After Mass Shootings
At a discussion on mental health following the recent shooting in South Florida, Kristen Hoffman, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, said kids older than six will have tough questions. ... She says parents should let children lead the conversation with their questions. They can start by asking kids what they know about the incident and what questions they have. (Ochoa, 2/27)

NPR: Supreme Court Hears Fiery Arguments In Case That Could Gut Public Sector Unions
The Supreme Court heard fiery arguments Monday in a case that could remove a key revenue stream for public sector unions. A sharply divided court could be poised to overturn a 40-year-old Supreme Court decision that would further undermine an already shrinking union movement. Attorneys for Mark Janus, a child support specialist for the state of Illinois, argue that people like Janus, who choose not to join a union, shouldn't be compelled to pay partial union fees. (Totenberg, 2/26)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Leaders Worry Supreme Court Case On Union Fees Could Hurt Workplace Harmony And Quality Of Care
Joyce Robertson has been a public health nurse with the Cook County Health & Hospitals System in Chicago for 24 years. She says her labor union, National Nurses United, has repeatedly backed her up when her supervisors have retaliated against her for activism in protecting quality of care. Now she's worried about the outcome of a case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court Monday that could have enormous ramifications for healthcare organizations. Janus v. AFSCME challenges the right of public-sector unions to collect mandatory fees, known as agency fees, from employees in the bargaining unit to represent them in contract negotiations. Twenty-two states allow such mandatory collections. Fees to cover a union's political activities already are optional under a previous Supreme Court ruling. (Meyer, 2/23)

The Washington Post: White House Meets With Veterans Groups Amid Dispute At VA, Tension Over Access To Health Care
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told top veterans advocates Monday that President Trump supports Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, whose future in the administration was called into question this month amid a power struggle among political appointees, according to people who participated in the discussion. The meeting was arranged by Kelly following revelations that Shulkin, the only Obama-era holdover in Trump’s Cabinet, had become a target of conservatives hoping to install a new secretary who would be more supportive of their plan to expand health-care options beyond the VA system — a controversial program known as Choice. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 2/26)

Bloomberg: Buffett-Dimon Health Venture To Go Beyond Just Squeezing The Middlemen 
Health-care spending is taking up an increasing proportion of the U.S. economy, and a goal of the venture is to “at least” halt that, [Warren] Buffett said, adding that he hopes “we could find a way where perhaps better care could be delivered even at somewhat lesser cost.” The venture is initially being guided by three senior executives from the companies: Berkshire’s Todd Combs; Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold, a managing director at JPMorgan who previously worked at drugmaker Novartis AG; and Beth Galetti, a senior vice president for human resources at Amazon. (Tracer and Chiglinsky, 2/26)

In other news from the health industry —

CNBC: Apple Is Launching Medical Clinics To Deliver The 'World's Best Health Care Experience' To Its Employees
Apple is launching a group of health clinics called AC Wellness for its own employees and their families this spring, according to several sources familiar with the company's plans. The company quietly published a website, acwellness.com, with more details about its initiative .... This new primary care group will initially only serve Apple's employees in Santa Clara County, where its headquarters are located. At present, it includes only two clinics. (Farr, 2/27)

Reuters: Fitbit Sees Lower Revenue From New Devices In First Quarter, Shares Fall
Wearable device maker Fitbit Inc on Monday forecast current-quarter profit and revenue below Wall Street estimates and predicted lower revenue from newly launched products such as Ionic and Alta HR. Fitbit shares fell 11.2 percent to $4.92 in after-market trading after the company's fourth-quarter results also missed estimates due to an about 17 percent drop in sale of its fitness trackers in the holiday quarter. (Khan, 2/26)

The Hill: FDA Advisory Committee To Analyze Changing Flu Vaccine For Next Year 
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee will consider whether to change the flu vaccine for next year as the country faces a worse-than-expected flu season. The FDA convenes a panel annually to analyze what will make up next flu season’s vaccine. The panel examines the World Health Organization’s recommendations to help decide the composition of the next year’s shots. (Roubein, 2/26)

The Associated Press: Flu Shot Doesn't Cause Influenza Epidemic
You can't get the flu from a flu shot. And public health officials aren't blaming the vaccine for causing this season's nasty epidemic. Some "natural" health websites have misrepresented remarks of a Wisconsin county public health nurse, Anna Treague, who was trying to explain to a local newspaper why this year's influenza vaccine was not as effective as other years. (2/26)

And from the states —

Kansas City Star: Flu Peaks Nationally, But Not In Kansas, CDC Says
Don't be lulled by reports that this year's awful flu season is finally on the wane. Here in Kansas City, that's only half true. After weeks of influenza unlike anything the country had seen in almost a decade, the Centers for Disease Control said last week that flu cases may have finally peaked nationally. But while Missouri appears to be joining the rest of the country on the downslope, cases in Kansas are still stubbornly sticking at their highest levels. (Marso, 2/26)

Georgia Health News: It’s Not Over, But Rough Flu Season Finally Receding
Hospitalizations for flu in the eight-county metro Atlanta area were far lower in the week of Feb. 11 through 17 than in the previous week, down to 91 from 165. And the proportion of outpatient visits for flu-like illness in Georgia was 11.9 percent, down from 15.2 percent. (Miller, 2/26)

California Healthline: At Some California Hospitals, Fewer Than Half Of Workers Get The Flu Shot
How well are doctors, nurses and other workers at your local hospital vaccinated against the flu? That depends on the hospital. According to data from the California Department of Public Health, flu vaccination rates among health care staffers at the state’s acute care hospitals range from a low of 37 percent to 100 percent. (Wiener, 2/27)

CNN: Inside The Secret Lives Of Functioning Heroin Addicts
They're not slumped over in alleyways with used needles by their sides. Their dignity, at least from outside appearances, remains intact. They haven't lost everything while chasing an insatiable high. They are functioning heroin addicts -- people who hold down jobs, pay the bills and fool their families. For some, addiction is genetic; they're wired this way. For others, chronic pain and lack of legal opioids landed them here. Or experimentation got them hooked and changed everything. (Ravitz, 2/27)

Reuters: Ohio Accuses Drug Distributors Of Helping Fuel Opioid Epidemic
Ohio on Monday accused four major pharmaceutical distributors of ignoring their responsibilities to ensure that opioids were not being diverted for improper uses, contributing to a drug abuse epidemic in the state. The lawsuit by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine was filed in a state court against McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Miami-Luken Inc and marked the second he has pursued over corporations' roles in the opioid crisis. (Raymond, 2/26)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Sues Opioid Distributors, Says Negligence Flooded State With Powerful Painkillers
The lawsuit filed in Madison County Common Pleas Court claims drug distributors ignored a responsibility to provide effective controls against opioid diversion. The distributors knew the number of painkillers being brought into Ohio far exceeded the number needed for legitimate medical purposes -- an indication some of the drugs were being used improperly, the lawsuit says. (Madden, 2/26)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Judge Overseeing Opioid Lawsuits Pushes DEA To Release Drug Data For Settlement Talks
The federal judge overseeing hundreds of lawsuits local governments filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors is pushing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to release government-collected painkiller data to both sides engaging in settlement talks. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, during a hearing Monday, ordered the DEA to inform him by March 5 if it will consent to releasing some data from the Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, or ARCOS. He also wants to know how long it would take to release the data. (Heisig, 2/26)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Opioid Addiction Treatment Targeted In Ohio Capital Budget Bill
Facilities offering addiction treatment programs are among nearly $20 million in Cuyahoga County projects included in the $2.62 billion state capital budget bill introduced Monday. The capital budget funds improvements to roads, schools and public buildings, but community projects tend to hog the spotlight despite comprising a small portion of the budget. (Borchardt, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: NYC: Opioid Crisis Has Cost City $500 Million
Mayor Bill de Blasio offered few specifics when he said New York City litigation would seek about $500 million from opioid manufacturers and distributors to recover costs associated with abuse of the drugs. The breakdown of that half billion offers a window into how the opioid epidemic has taxed the city, with most of it borne by its financially strapped public-health system. (Ramey, 2/26)

Reuters: Doctor Tied To Insys Opioid Kickback Probe Gets Prison Term
A Michigan doctor linked to a federal investigation into allegations that Insys Therapeutics Inc paid kickbacks to medical practitioners to prescribe its flagship opioid product was sentenced on Monday to 32 months in prison. Gavin Awerbuch, 59, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow in Detroit after admitting that he wrote prescriptions for Insys' fentanyl-based cancer pain medication Subsys for non-legitimate uses and committed health care fraud. (Friess, 2/26)

Des Moines Register: Opioid Crisis In Iowa: Legislation In House Tackles Problem
The Iowa House passed bipartisan legislation Monday night aimed at battling a crisis in opioid addiction that lawmakers said will help save lives and reduce personal devastation and family tragedies that are striking many communities. House File  2377 would place limits on opioid prescriptions, implement Good Samaritan laws for those who report overdoses and require physicians to file every prescription electronically to avoid circumstances when paper prescriptions are subject to forgeries (Petroski, 2/26)

Richmond Times Dispatch: NGA Picks Virginia To Take Part In Kentucky Learning Lab On Opioid Epidemic
The National Governors Association selected Virginia to participate in a learning lab in Kentucky to better understand how that state is addressing rising rates of infectious diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV caused by the opioid epidemic. ... There were more than 10,000 cases of chronic hepatitis C in Virginia in 2017, which is often a precursor of rising rates of HIV. (Staff, 2/26)

Arizona Republic: State House Bill Proposes Minimum 5-Year Sentence For First-Time Opioid Sellers
In a move reminiscent of "tough-on-crime" drug policy from decades ago, a bill in the Arizona House of Representatives calls for mandatory 5-year-minimum prison sentences for first-time heroin and fentanyl sellers. (Pohl, 2/26)

The Washington Post: The Heart Skips A Beat With Palpitations But It May Not Be Serious
You might feel them as skipped heartbeats or unusually forceful beats. One friend describes her heart palpitations as a soft fluttering that starts in her chest, moves to her neck and sometimes makes her cough. Another says her heart feels as if it’s flipping over in her chest. Mine come in a “pause-thump” pattern that occasionally make me lightheaded. “Heart palpitations” is a catchall term used to describe anything unusual that people feel in the rhythms of their hearts. And pretty much everyone has them at some point, said Gregory Marcus, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of California at San Francisco. (Sohn, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Autism Connection To Ultrasound Seems Unlikely, Study Says
Ultrasounds during pregnancy can be lots of fun, offering peeks at the baby-to-be. But ultrasounds aren’t just a way to get Facebook fodder. They are medical procedures that involve sound waves, technology that could, in theory, affect a growing fetus. With that concern in mind, some researchers have wondered if the rising rates of autism diagnoses could have anything to do with the increasing number of ultrasound scans that women receive during pregnancy. (Sanders, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Statins Can Lower Cholesterol But Not Everyone May Need Them
High cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease, affects nearly 1 in 5 American women who are at least 40 years old. Although heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in women, there is little agreement on what to do about managing cholesterol. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 17.7 percent of women ages 40 to 59 had high cholesterol, as did 17. 2 percent of those 60 and older. That’s a higher percentage than men in the middle-age cohort (16.5 percent) and dramatically higher than men in the older cohort (6.9 percent). (Adams, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Failing To Tell Patients That Nothing Will Help May Only Make Them Suffer More
Why is it so hard to tell chronically ill patients that further treatment is futile — that it might erode their quality of life without making a difference in their life expectancy? Surgeons do it indirectly when they declare a patient “inoperable,” a determination of futility that people generally accept, maybe because the harm of ineffective surgery is so obvious that it can’t be avoided. (Harrington, 2/26)

San Jose Mercury News: Is Alcohol Better For You Than Exercise?
Want to live longer? Bottoms up. Raise your glass for a recent study that suggested that people who imbibe may well live longer than those who abstain. Indeed, as Time reported, the health benefits of sipping seemed higher than those of exercising. But before you quit the gym and settle in with a nice pinot noir, let’s look at the details. (D'Souza, 2/26)

San Jose Mercury News: Standing Desks May Be Hazardous To Your Health
You might want to sit down before you hear the latest research on standing desks. We all know that sitting at a desk for too long can lead to long-term health problems, which has led to many workers switching to standing desks to lose weight, reduce back pain and generally stay more alert. Sitting is the new smoking, right? (D'Souza, 2/26)

Stat: Scientists Reconstruct The Genome Of A Moa, A Bird Extinct For 700 Years
Scientists at Harvard University have assembled the first nearly complete genome of the little bush moa, a flightless bird that went extinct soon after Polynesians settled New Zealand in the late 13th century. The achievement moves the field of extinct genomes closer to the goal of “de-extinction” — bringing vanished species back to life by slipping the genome into the egg of a living species, “Jurassic Park”-like. “De-extinction probability increases with every improvement in ancient DNA analysis,” said Stewart Brand, co-founder of the nonprofit conservation group Revive and Restore, which aims to resurrect vanished species including the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth, whose genomes have already been mostly pieced together. (Begley, 2/27)

The Associated Press: Teacher Says She Got Fired Because Son’s Cancer Cost $1M
A teacher who says she was fired from a Massachusetts elementary school because of the high cost of her son’s cancer treatment has filed a discrimination complaint. Jacquelyn Silvani tells the Eagle-Tribune that her son’s treatment cost Andover Public Schools about $1 million before she lost her job at West Elementary School in 2016. Her son was 3 at the time.Silvani says she was told that federal funding for the position had been cut, but her complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination says the district later hired someone else. (2/26)

Dallas Morning News: That Freestanding Emergency Room Is Probably Not In-Network, No Matter What The Website Says | Health Care | Dallas News
A Texas law aimed at protecting patients from shocking medical bills after visits to free-standing emergency rooms may not be reducing consumer confusion as intended. The law, which went into effect in September, requires the ERs to say on their websites and at their facilities whether they are in-network or out-of-network for insurance carriers. (Rice, 2/26)

Kansas City Star: Medicare Rankings Show Best, Worst Nursing Homes In Kansas, Missouri
Fred Rich did not check Medicare’s ratings for nursing homes before he picked one in Overland Park last month after breaking his back. The 71-year-old from Kansas City now says that doing so might have saved him a lot of frustration. "The absence of staff, particularly well-trained staff, competent staff, makes it a very difficult place to live,” he said. (Ryan and Marso, 2/26)

Chicago Tribune: More Women Seem To Be Crossing State Lines To Have Abortions In Illinois
More women appear to be traveling from out of state to have an abortion in Illinois even as the total number of terminated pregnancies statewide decreased, according to the most recent figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health. [Alison] Dreith is among the 4,543 women who crossed the state border to terminate a pregnancy in 2016, an increase from the 3,210 abortions provided to out-of-state women reported in the previous year, based on a state report released in December. Overall, abortions in Illinois dropped from 39,856 in 2015 to 38,382 in 2016.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Anthem: New ER Rule Extends Beyond The Self-Insured
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield on Monday disputed the way the Ohio Department of Insurance has publicly characterized the insurer's new practice of denying some emergency-room claims. Anthem spokesman Jeff Blunt said the department inaccurately reported that the practice only applied to policyholders whose employers were self-insured, according to Capitol Letter, cleveland.com's daily Statehouse tip sheet. (Hancock, 2/26)

The Oregonian: Democrats' Plan To Ask Oregon Voters To Approve Constitutional Right To Health Care Is Dead
Supporters of the drive to enshrine health care as a universal right in Oregon’s Constitution acknowledged on Monday that it is dead, at least for this legislative session. Senate Democrats said they lacked the votes to advance the plan by a crucial Tuesday deadline to move it out of committee. ... Democrats in the Oregon House already passed House Joint Resolution 203 to send the health care proposal to the ballot earlier this month. They did so without securing a single Republican vote. (Borrud, 2/26)

LA Daily News: LA County Offers To Pay Off Student Debt For New Doctors — If They Work In Its Jails
On the outside, Richard Brent was a thief and a user. He stole and used meth and heroin, acted tough and aggressive, all of which got him a 90-day sentence to Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail. But for Dr. Lauren Wolchok, his physician on the inside, Brent is neither criminal nor inmate. For her, he is a person in need of medical care like anyone else. (Abram, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times: Santa Ana River Homeless Camp Cleared After More Than 700 People Relocated
The gates were locked and the Santa Ana River trail was quiet Monday night after a massive push, spanning six days, to relocate more than 700 people to motels and shelters across Orange County. "This was a landmark process with so many different groups combining forces," said Brooke Weitzman, an attorney who sued Orange County on behalf of seven homeless people, alleging that officials' goal to empty the tent city last month violated her clients' civil rights. (Do, 2/26)

Denver Post: Acne Drug Accutane May Be Blamed In Teen's Murder Trial
Attorneys for a Colorado boy accused of a fatal stabbing hinted in court that Accutane — an acne-treatment drug that some have linked to erratic behavior — may be cited by the defense in explaining the teen’s alleged actions. Aiden von Grabow, 15, is charged with first-degree murder and 10 other counts in the stabbing death of Makayla Grote, 20, in Longmont, Colo., on Nov. 18, 2017. (Byars, 2/26)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Mother Of Missing CDC Researcher Says Family Is Expecting His Return
Two weeks later, the search to find him continues. “We will be here indefinitely until Tim returns. And we’re expecting him to return, that’s our prayer,” Cunningham’s mother, Tia-Juana Cunningham, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “There are a lot of people praying for him nationally, and that’s how we maintain our spirit and faith.” (Stevens, 2/26)

Kaiser Health News: Following The Fire: Montana Scientists Seize Chance To Scrutinize Smoke Exposure
Jean Loesch and her family live in Seeley Lake, Mont., which saw the longest and most intense smoke from Montana’s wildfires last summer. Loesch has 10 children, adopted or in her foster care, and they are learning what it’s like to have lingering respiratory problems. The smoke from the fires was so thick outside, Loesch said, the family couldn’t see the trees across the street, so they stayed inside. It was still really hard to breathe. (Saks, 2/27)

The Star Tribune: Proposed Children's Mental Health Facility In Forest Lake Draws Support At Hearing 
In a sign of mounting frustration with Minnesota’s mental health care system, more than 100 people packed a Forest Lake City Council hearing Monday night to support a controversial psychiatric residential treatment center for children and adolescents. “We desperately need mental health facilities in this state and around the region,” said Marisa Gotsch, whose adult brother never received adequate treatment as a child for his mental illness and is now committed to a state mental hospital. (Serres, 2/26)

The Associated Press: Indiana Close To Becoming 2nd State To Ban Eyeball Tattoos
Indiana could become the second state to effectively ban the unusual practice of tattooing eyeballs, after a committee on Monday unanimously backed a proposal whose sponsor calls it “the grossest bill of the session. ”Republican Sen. John Ruckelshaus of Indianapolis says he is not aware of any health-related issues that have arisen in Indiana from the process, in which ink is injected into the eye to make the whites change color. (Chuang, 2/26)

Kansas City Star: Dialysis Clinics In Kansas Get Third Party Accreditation Option
Dialysis patients in Kansas won’t have to wait as long for new clinics to open in the future, after Congress passed a law allowing the clinics to hire private-sector inspectors. But some health care experts are concerned about what that might mean for patient safety. The provision was included in the budget bill President Donald Trump recently signed. It was promoted by U.S. Rep Lynn Jenkins, a Topeka Republican, and other lawmakers in places where state agencies have fallen behind on the inspections. (Marso, 2/23)

The Baltimore Sun: Chase Brexton Workers Approve First Union Contract, Say Relations With Management Have Improved 
Chase Brexton employees voted overwhelmingly Monday to approve their first contract under a union formed nearly 18 months ago amid a rancorous dispute with management over long work hours and other issues. Employees said they thought the contract, which includes pay raises and a new scheduling system that allows them to spend more time with patients, addressed many of the grievances they had regarding working conditions. They also said a new CEO and other senior leadership have improved the relationship between management and rank-and-file employees, including doctors, psychologists and nurses. (McDaniels, 2/26)

WBUR: Massachusetts To Move Most Shattuck Hospital Care To South End
The Baker administration plans to purchase the former university hospital on Boston Medical Center's (BMC) campus and transfer patients currently treated at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital on the edge of Franklin Park there in 2021. The main reason: Moving the 260 patient beds will cost about half as much as renovating Shattuck would. (Bebinger, 2/26)

WBUR: Agreeing To Staggered Rollout Of Laws, State Votes To Delay Marijuana Home Delivery, Cafes
The Cannabis Control Commission acquiesced Monday to criticism from Gov. Charlie Baker's administration, the Legislature and others, and agreed to delay the launch of home delivery and social consumption until at least this fall, a move that addressed two of the most commonly-condemned parts of the agency's draft industry regulations. (Young, 2/26)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Lead Tests In School Systems Trigger Action From Officials
The amount of lead from the water fountain in the girls’ locker room was nearly three times what the state considers acceptable. That water fountain at Salem Middle School in Chesterfield County has since been replaced, and was rarely used to begin with, Salem Principal LaShante Knight wrote in a letter to parents. ... Other school systems in the Richmond area also are taking a closer look at lead levels in their drinking water after a state law enacted last year required them to create and implement a testing plan. (Remmers and O'Connor, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times: The Stupidity Of Trumpcare: Government Will Spend $33 Billion More To Cover 8.9 Million Fewer Americans, As Premiums Soar
Those fiscal geniuses in the White House and Republican-controlled Congress have managed to do the impossible: Their sabotage of the Affordable Care Act will lead to 6.4 million fewer Americans with health insurance, while the federal bill for coverage rises by some $33 billion per year. Also, by the way, premiums in the individual market will rise by an average of more than 18%. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/26)

The Washington Post: These ‘Buffalo’ Health Plans Are A Load Of Bull
Last year , much of the country watched with growing fury as Republicans tried to undo President Barack Obama’s signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Americans stormed town halls. They jammed congressional phone lines. Some got hauled off to jail for acts of civil disobedience. Bill after bill attempting to dismantle Obamacare imploded. By October, it looked like Republicans had given up at last. How wrong that was. In the months since the last Obamacare vote in the Senate, the Trump administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill have engaged in a sneakier, backdoor repeal. (Catherine Rampell, 2/26)

Bloomberg: Warren Buffett's Health Venture Goals Are Easier Set Than Met
The health-care industry may hope a joint venture on its turf by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (ABC from now on) might be happy just rolling out an app and driving better deals with third-party vendors. But that's wishful thinking, according to Warren Buffett. The Berkshire CEO said in an interview Monday that ABC is looking for "something much bigger than that." (Max Nisen, 2/26)

USA Today: Self-Insured Employers Can Solve Our 'Too Much Medical Care' Crisis
I have full confidence that the collective power of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan to negotiate bulk pricing and cut out pharmacy benefit managers will lower the price point of medications, but the real question is: Do people even need these medications?  (Dr. Marty Makary, 2/26)

National Review: The Medicare ‘Savings’ In The New Budget Deal
Previously, [Medicare Part D] insurers had some incentive to drive drug costs down and keep patients out of the doughnut hole: The insurer still had to pick up a big chunk of the drug costs once the patient fell into the gap. That’s a big reason why Part D insurers have aggressively encouraged the use of generic drugs .... That’s why, under the current incentive structure, only one in four Part D patients hits the doughnut hole. This new budget provision [in the tax law passed in December] eliminates that incentive. Insurers will now bear just a tiny fraction of the doughnut-hole expenses — so they’ll have little reason to keep costs under control. In fact, they may even have a reason to drive costs up: The sooner patients hit that catastrophic-care threshold, the sooner the government steps in and takes over virtually the entire bill. (Kenneth E. Thorpe, 2/23)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Drug Firms Lead The Way On Pocketing Tax Cuts 
Anew survey of U.S. companies from analysts at Morgan Stanley estimates that 43 percent of the savings from the Republican tax cut bill will be paid to investors in the form of higher dividends and stock buybacks. Leading the way are large pharmaceutical companies, which Axios.com reported last week are spending a combined $50 billion on stock-buyback programs. Only 13 percent of corporate America’s tax-cut savings will be passed on to employees, the Morgan Stanley analysts reported. Much of that will go to executives, whose compensation is often tied to stock prices, and they’ll benefit as well when share buybacks cause stock prices to jump. (2/26)

Columbus Dispatch: Time To Rein In US Drug Prices
Compared with the rest of the world, the U.S. market for prescription drugs is rigged against consumers and in favor of the pharmaceutical industry.Unlike other advanced nations, the United States refuses to use its purchasing power to negotiate better prices. When Congress, in 2003, passed the Medicare Part D bill to help senior citizens buy prescriptions, it prohibited the government from negotiating cheaper prices for those drugs. The federal government also sets strict limits on when and how Americans can buy drugs from other developed countries. As a result, prescription-drug prices are artificially higher here. (2/27)

Los Angeles Times: The Homeless In L.A. Are Not Who You Think They Are
Many people think of homelessness as a problem of substance abusers and mentally ill people, of chronic skid row street-dwellers pushing shopping carts. But increasingly, the crisis in Los Angeles today is about a less visible (but more numerous) group of “economically homeless” people. These are people who have been driven onto the streets or into shelters by hard times, bad luck and California’s irresponsible failure to address its own housing needs. (2/26)

Bloomberg: After Parkland, U.S. Witnesses A Sea Change In Gun Politics
The politics of guns in America seems to be changing for the better. The difference is not the latest gun massacre, which killed 17 students and teachers on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The difference is the public reaction inspired by the survivors of the shooting. Teenagers demanding reasonable action to protect lives have galvanized a nation. (2/26)

The Wichita Eagle: Gun Violence Protests Will Make America Better
As important as these protests will be to the gun debate, they are crucial for an altogether different reason: These protests mark the emergence of a new generation into the arena of civil discourse. ...For the young students who protest, it will be an opportunity to build not only knowledge, but confidence as well – the confidence that comes with having a voice, and with standing up for what you believe is right, no matter who is yelling back from the other side. (Blake Shuart, 2/26)

Charlotte Observer: Don't Stigmatize Troubled Teens On The Way To Reducing Gun Violence 
Most troubled kids don’t shoot up schools, even those who post ugly messages on social media. The mentally ill are more likely to hurt themselves than others. Further stigmatizing wayward youngsters will lead to more false positives for law enforcement to investigate. It’s akin to looking for a needle in a haystack by first adding more hay. We must try to prevent as many shootings as we can. That starts by not making the task more difficult than it already is. (2/26)

Press Herald: In Opioid Fight, Stigma Remains A Huge Barrier
It’s become a grim and frustrating annual tradition, a call-and-response exercise that says a lot about the opioid epidemic. Each year around this time, we report that Maine yet again set a record for fatal drug overdoses in the previous year, and each time we hear from readers who say the dead had it coming. And it’s not just those who have the privilege of staying uninformed on addiction, or the luck to be untouched by its devastation. Too many people with the ability to shape and implement policy remain committed to this misguided view of substance abuse. (2/26)

Stat: NIH Needs To Raise The Bar For Funding Alternative Medicine Research
Suppose you needed to have a CT scan for a sudden, severe headache and partial loss of vision and your doctor asked a nutritionist to read it, rather than a radiologist. Would you trust the diagnosis? Evaluation by a different — and what most would consider a lesser — standard is essentially how a significant amount of research funding is approved by one component of the National Institutes of Health. (Henry I. Miller, 2/26)

The Hill: Sugary Drinks Are Causing Chronic Illnesses — We Need Policy Changes To Combat Them
When we think of the major killers of Americans, we naturally gravitate towards drugs and violence as the major culprits. These are often graphic deaths that occur abruptly. Too often we neglect chronic diseases, which silently claim far more lives. Heart disease is the leading killer in the United States, followed closely by other related illnesses such as stroke. As a physician, I am used to treating conditions that contribute to heart disease and stroke in adults — high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. Now, I am seeing children sickened by the same diseases. (Dr. Leana S. Wen, 2/26)