First Edition: March 27, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Without Context Or Cushion, Do Online Medical Results Make Sense? 
As she herded her two young sons into bed one evening late last December, Laura Devitt flipped through her phone to check on the routine blood tests that had been performed as part of her annual physical. She logged onto the patient portal link on her electronic medical record, scanned the results and felt her stomach clench with fear. Devitt’s white blood cell count and several other tests were flagged as abnormal. Beyond the raw numbers, there was no explanation. (Boodman, 3/27)

Kaiser Health News: Tele-Monitoring Can Reduce Medical Appointments For Low-Risk Pregnancies
When Allison Matthews was pregnant with her first child four years ago, her obstetrics clinic scheduled frequent appointments to make sure everything was proceeding normally. “I was taking time off work and it wasn’t doing a lot for me,” said Matthews, who was considered at low risk for complications like pregnancy-related high blood pressure, also known as preeclampsia. “I kind of felt like I was almost doing it more for the clinic’s benefit than for myself.” (Andrews, 3/27)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Peanut Butter Cup’ Vape: Is This Dessert Or An E-Cigarette Flavor?
Advertising for traditional cigarettes is strictly regulated: No cowboys looking cool, no cartoons and no bright colors that play up candy-flavored cigarettes that might appeal to kids. Yet these bans don’t apply to e-cigarettes or vapes — increasingly a choice for experimentation by adolescents and young adults. These smoking products use chemical solutions with nicotine flavored with “juices” that have names like “Bubble Pop,” “Strawberry Cotton Candy” and “Peanut Butter Cup.” People inhale these as if they were smoking a traditional cigarette. (Bluth, 3/26)

Politico: Inside The Collapse Of A Bipartisan Obamacare Deal
Everybody on Capitol Hill agreed: If anyone could break the deep-rooted partisan logjam over Obamacare in Congress, it was that deal-making duo Patty and Lamar. But in the end, it was Obamacare that broke their alliance. Just seven months after Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) heralded the beginning of a new bipartisan era on health care following the collapse of Obamacare repeal efforts, their lofty ambitions ended in much the same way as every Obamacare-related negotiation over the last eight years — with claims of betrayal, warnings of political fallout and no progress toward bridging the deep divide over the nation’s health care system. When Congress put its finishing touches on a $1.3 trillion spending bill late last week, there was one glaring omission: a proposal to head off huge premium spikes just before the November midterm elections. (Cancryn and Haberkorn, 3/26)

The Associated Press: White House: No Change 'At This Time' To Shulkin's VA Job
With his job status in danger, embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin sought to lower his public profile Monday as a White House spokesman insisted that President Donald Trump still had confidence in his leadership "at this point in time." Shulkin, the lone Obama administration official in Trump's Cabinet, abruptly backed out of a media availability Monday morning that had been scheduled at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Elsmere, Delaware, as part of an annual Veterans Summit hosted by Democratic Sen. Tom Carper. Shulkin told organizers he needed to "get back on the road to Washington." (Yen, 3/26)

The Hill: Health Care Tops List Of Americans’ Worries: Poll
A majority of Americans say issues surrounding health care is a top concern for them, according to a new Gallup poll. Fifty-five percent of those polled said they worry "a great deal" about the cost and availability of health care in the U.S., while 23 percent said they worry about the issue "a fair amount."  (Manchester, 3/26)

Stat: Prices For Common Medicare Drugs Rose 12 Percent Annually, With A Caveat
The latest report to chronicle the rising cost of prescription medicines comes from a U.S. Senate committee that found prices for the 20 drugs most widely prescribed through Medicare Part D in 2015, on average, increased 12 percent each year between 2012 and 2017. Moreover, a dozen of the medicines saw price hikes of 50 percent of more during that time and six of the drugs experienced price increases of more than 100 percent. In one case, the weighted wholesale cost for one medicine — Nitrostat, which is used to prevent chest pain — rose by 477 percent. (Silverman, 3/26)

The Hill: Report Shows Skyrocketing Costs For 20 Brand-Name Drugs 
Twelve of those drugs saw their prices increase by more than 50 percent in the five-year period. Six of the 20 had prices increases of over 100 percent. In one case, the cost for a single drug increased by 477 percent over a five-year period. In addition, the report found that while prescriptions for top brand-name drugs dropped by 48 million, revenue increased by $8.5 billion over the last five years. “This report demonstrates that the pricing decisions made by these drug companies are outrageous,” McCaskill said in a statement. (Weixel, 3/26)

The Associated Press: Novartis Sells Joint Venture Stake To GSK For $13 Billion
Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis is selling its stake in a consumer health care joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline to the British company for $13 billion. The joint venture was formed in 2015 and Novartis holds a 36.5-percent stake. Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said in a statement Tuesday that it "is progressing well," but "the time is right for Novartis to divest a non-core asset at an attractive price." (3/27)

The Wall Street Journal: GSK Buys Novartis’s Stake In Health-Care Unit For $13 Billion
The deal is the first significant strategic move for both companies’ young and newly installed chief executives, as they reposition their respective firms amid a series of other reviews and deal making across the industry. GSK Chief Executive Emma Walmsley, 48 years old, has moved to shake up the company’s drug-research efforts, reshuffling or letting go hundreds of executives and scientists since taking over about a year ago. That is part of an industry wide effort at several big pharmaceutical firms to refocus attention and resources on the high-risk, but high-reward business of discovering and bringing to market new drugs. (Allen, 3/27)

The Washington Post: CVS-Aetna Wants To Be In Your Neighborhood Because Zip Codes Powerfully Shape People’s Health
Aetna chief executive Mark Bertolini heads one of the biggest health insurers in the country and is on the cusp of a $69 billion megadeal to merge his company with pharmacy giant CVS. He says the future of health care is going to depend, mostly, on the time people spend outside the grasp of the traditional medical system. Health-policy experts increasingly talk about the effect of Zip codes on health — an acknowledgment of a growing body of research showing that where and how people live can have a bigger influence on their health than interactions with the medical system or even genetics. That means health insurance has to evolve, Bertolini said in an interview — away from acting only as a payment system for procedures and drugs when people are ill and toward interventions to help people stay healthy in their everyday lives. (Johnson, 3/26)

Bloomberg: As Flu Subsides, So Does Interest In Hospital Stocks
Investors may be rotating out of hospital stocks after a flu-fueled rally and moving back into insurers. Facilities were the lone underperformers among health-care stocks on Monday, with a Bloomberg gauge of hospitals shares falling as much as 2.2 percent intraday. Health insurers, on the other hand, rose as much as 2.7 percent along with a rebound in the broader market. CDC data shows that this year’s flu season peaked in early February and influenza activity continues to decline. (Darie, 3/26)

The Hill: Senate Dems Request Health Panel Hearing On School Shootings 
Senate Democrats want the chamber's health committee to hold a hearing on the causes and remedies of mass shootings, including school shootings. Nine Democrats, as well as Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), sent a letter last week to Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top members on the panel, requesting they schedule a hearing in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., shooting, in which 17 people were killed.  (Carney, 3/26)

The Hill: Doctors Rip Santorum For Saying Students Should Learn CPR Instead Of Protesting Gun Violence
Doctors and health-care professionals are criticizing former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) after he suggested Sunday that student activists should learn CPR instead of protesting for gun control. The day after thousands of students across the country took to the streets to protest gun violence during the March for Our Lives, Santorum made remarks about CPR while appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Gstalter, 3/26)

The Associated Press: New Jersey Lawmakers Advance Bills To Tighten Gun Laws
New Jersey's Democrat-led Assembly on Monday passed a half-dozen bills aimed at strengthening the state's already-strict gun laws, including a measure to permit the seizure of weapons upon a court order. The legislation comes just days after tens of thousands of students marched across the country to call for tightening gun laws and the same day as Second Amendment advocates in Trenton rallied against the legislation. (Catalini, 3/26)

The Wall Street Journal: New Jersey Assembly Approves Gun-Control Measures
One bill would require law-enforcement officials to seize weapons from someone considered a threat by a mental-health professional and another piece of legislation would establish a so-called “red-flag law” that would allow family members or others to ask a court to temporarily bar people deemed a risk from possessing or purchasing guns. “This isn’t about punitive. This is about being protective,” said New Jersey Assemblyman John McKeon, a Democrat, during the vote’s proceedings. (de Avila, 3/26)

The Hill: GOP Chairman Introduces Draft Bills To Curb Opioid Use
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) released discussion drafts Monday of legislation aimed at curbing the overprescribing of opioids and stopping a powerful synthetic opioid from coming into the country illegally. The draft bills are aimed at bolstering the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) capacity to respond to the opioid crisis. They come as the Senate Health Committee is working to begin marking up legislation this spring to combat the opioid crisis, which is killing more people per year than vehicle crashes. (Roubein, 3/26)

Stat: Why Houston Wants Nothing To Do With The Massive National Opioid Lawsuit
Harris County is one of at least two dozen counties, cities, and towns pursuing cases in state court apart from the national litigation. They are drawn to the local judges and juries in their home courts, experts say, and fear getting lost in the crowd of plaintiffs in the national case, particularly if claims brought by states are eventually going to be considered in a global settlement. But there are risks, too, including a loss of influence in negotiating that potential settlement and a lack of resources to wage a legal battle against deep-pocketed defendants. (Joseph, 3/27)

The Associated Press: Dentist Group Puts Teeth In Push To Curb Opioid Painkillers
The American Dental Association wants dentists to drastically cut back on prescribing opioid painkillers. The association announced a new policy Monday that "essentially says eliminate opioids from your arsenal if at all possible," said Dr. Joseph Crowley, the group's president. The Chicago-based group represents around 161,000 dentists. (Tanner, 3/26)

The New York Times: They Push. They Protest. And Many Activists, Privately, Suffer As A Result.
She lay curled in bed for days, paralyzed by the stresses of a life that she felt had chosen her as much as she had chosen it. About three years earlier, the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., had spurred Ashley Yates into activism. She would evolve from street protester in her hometown of St. Louis to Black Lives Matter organizer in Oakland. But Ms. Yates would also feel the pressures of a job that seemed unrelenting: responding repeatedly to the deaths of black residents in communities across America, struggling to win policy reforms that would benefit black people and rallying others to support her causes. (Eligon, 3/26)

The New York Times: Grindr, Popular Gay Sex App, To Offer H.I.V. Test Reminders
In an effort to shrink the global AIDS epidemic, the world’s largest gay dating app is changing its software this week to urge millions of users to get frequent H.I.V. tests. Grindr, which claims to have 3.3 million daily users from every country in the world, will send men who opt into the service a reminder every three to six months, and simultaneously point them to the nearest testing site. It will also let clinics, gay community centers and other testing sites advertise for free. (McNeil, 3/26)

The New York Times: For Many Strokes, There’s An Effective Treatment. Why Aren’t Some Doctors Offering It?
It was one of those findings that would change medicine, Dr. Christopher Lewandowski thought. For years, doctors had tried — and failed — to find a treatment that would preserve the brains of stroke patients. The task was beginning to seem hopeless: Once a clot blocked a blood vessel supplying the brain, its cells quickly began to die. Patients and their families could only pray that the damage would not be too extensive. (Kolata, 3/26)

The Washington Post: Testing For Hepatitis C Lags With Baby Boomers Despite High Infection Rate
Testing for hepatitis C, a major cause of liver cancer, is lagging behind among the group of Americans with the highest rate of infection: baby boomers. A study published Tuesday showed that only about 13 percent of baby boomers were tested in 2015, up just slightly from 12 percent in 2013. U.S. public health authorities recommend all people in that demographic — those born between 1945 and 1965 — be screened for hepatitis C. (McGinley, 3/27)

The Wall Street Journal: A New Theory On Sudden Infant Deaths Divides Doctors
Doctors researching unexpected infant deaths have discovered a baffling trend: The rate of those deaths among newborns has remained unchanged even as the numbers in older infants have dropped over 20 years. The finding on sudden and unexpected infant deaths (SUID) is surprising, says Joel Bass, chair of the pediatrics department at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass., and first author of the study.“That’s more than one newborn baby dying of SUID a day,” says Dr. Bass, whose team’s research appeared in the Journal of Pediatrics in February. “A normal newborn is not supposed to die.” (Reddy, 3/26)

The Washington Post: Brain Abnormalities Found In 4- And 5-Year-Olds With ADHD, Researchers Say
In the first comprehensive imaging study of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in preschoolers, researchers have found evidence that structural changes in the brain are already recognizable at the age of 4. “One of our big questions was thinking about an early-onset disorder and linking it to early-onset brain anomalies,” said Lisa Jacobson, one of the researchers involved in the study, which appeared Monday in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. The results “tell us that this is not just a behavioral disorder. It is a neurological disorder.” (Nutt, 3/26)

The Washington Post: Losing Weight By Restricting Eating Times Seems To Work, At Least In Mice
This is a story about the importance of good timing. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. This excess weight contributes to a variety of health problems. Despite enormous effort over decades, the problem has proved extremely difficult to solve. Biologist Satchin Panda thinks we’re missing a key variable: Instead of focusing so much on what we eat, he says, we should pay more attention to when we eat. (Kohn, 3/26)

Los Angeles Times: By Going Vegan, America Could Feed An Additional 390 Million People, Study Suggests
More than 41 million Americans find themselves at risk of going hungry at some point during the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.But it doesn't have to be this way. New research suggests the country could feed all 327 million Americans — plus roughly 390 million more — by focusing on plants. If U.S. farmers took all the land currently devoted to raising cattle, pigs and chickens and used it to grow plants instead, they could sustain more than twice as many people as they do now, according to a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Kaplan, 3/26)

The Associated Press: Florida Gov. Scott Signs Bills Mandating Backup Power
Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation Monday requiring backup power sources in Florida nursing homes and assisted living facilities, months after the deaths of several residents from a sweltering nursing home that lost power in a hurricane. The legislation require the facilities to have a generator capable of keeping nursing homes and assisted living facilities at 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) or lower for at least four days. (3/26)

The Associated Press: Cisco Systems Gives $50M To Combat California Homelessness
Internet gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. announced Monday that it will donate $50 million over five years to address the growing problem of homelessness in California's Santa Clara County and is encouraging other Silicon Valley companies to make similar efforts. In a blog post, Chief Executive Chuck Robbins said people in the San Francisco Bay Area know homelessness has reached a crisis level, costing the county where many tech companies are based $520 million per year. (3/26)

The Associated Press: Company Sells Calif. Town It Planned To Make Marijuana Mecca
Could plans to turn an old California ghost town into a marijuana mecca be going up in smoke? Cannabis technology company American Green, which bought Nipton for $5 million last year, has sold it to another company for $7.7 million, acknowledging it struggled to raise the money needed to remake the old desert mining town into a pot paradise. (3/26)

The Washington Post: In The Murky World Of D.C. Marijuana Law, Pop-Up Markets Thrive
At the XO Lounge in downtown Washington one January night, people who paid a $10 cover charge were greeted with samples of caramel popcorn, brownies and crisped-rice treats — all infused with marijuana. Customers could browse three floors with tables featuring all manner of cannabis: edible candies, smokable flowers, wax, oils and more. All were available only after a suitable “donation” was given for a sticker, or a football card, for which the cannabis was billed as simply an added “gift.” The top floor featured a ­full-service bar, and music thumped throughout as a steady flow of customers entered the restaurant and nightclub. (Chappell and Jackman, 3/26)