The New York Times: Trump Administration Blocks Idaho’s Plan To Circumvent Health Law
The Trump administration rejected on Thursday Idaho’s plan to allow the sale of stripped-down, low-cost health insurance that violates the Affordable Care Act. The 2010 statute “remains the law, and we have a duty to enforce and uphold the law,” Seema Verma, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a letter to the governor of Idaho, C. L. Otter. (Pear, 3/8)

The Associated Press: US To Idaho: 'State-Based' Health Plans Don't Pass Muster
Otter, Cameron and Lt. Gov. Brad Little announced earlier this year that they would begin allowing insurers to offer plans that don't meet all of the act's regulations, such as by charging people more based on their health history, or by not covering some health needs like maternity care. In the letter, Verma said such a move would force the federal agency to enforce the provisions of the Affordable Care Act on behalf of the state. That could include pulling regulatory authority from the Idaho Department of Insurance and fining insurance companies $100 a day for every person they insure on a noncompliant plan. (Boone, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Trump Administration Stops Idaho’s Bid To Skirt Obamacare Rules 
In her letter to Idaho authorities, Verma said that “with certain modifications, these state-based plans could be legally offered” as short-term plans. The White House has suggested to Congress that people should be able to renew short-term plans without being subject to medical underwriting, the process by which insurers can exclude or charge more for pre-existing conditions. (Tozzi, 3/8)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Warns Idaho Against Its Rebel Insurance Plans
How the administration would respond to a rebel state’s attempt to create a parallel insurance universe for individual buyers has been widely considered a significant test of HHS Secretary Alex Azar in his initial weeks on the job. The issue calls on him to balance President Trump’s — and his own — eagerness to free states and consumers from the ACA’s dictates with his avowed commitment to adhere to the law. (Goldstein, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Tells Idaho It Will Enforce Affordable Care Act If State Refuses
Idaho’s Department of Insurance said in January it would allow insurers in the state to begin offering products that left out some of the benefits mandated by the ACA for individual coverage. Insurers would be able to consider enrollees’ medical history in setting their premiums, a practice known as underwriting, which isn’t authorized under the ACA. New state-based plans also could include dollar limits on total benefit payouts, which the ACA banned. The eight-page letter from Ms. Verma to Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Insurance Commissioner Doug Cameron outlines several provisions that the Trump administration sees as falling afoul of the federal law. (Radnofsky, 3/8)

The Hill: Trump Administration Blocks GOP Governor From Skirting ObamaCare
Idaho's proposal would allow insurers to sell plans that charge people with pre-existing conditions more, which is barred by ObamaCare, and not cover all of the required health services under the health law. Idaho officials argued the move was necessary to provide cheaper plans to younger, healthier people. (Sullivan, 3/8)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Nixes Idaho's ACA Workaround But Encourages Short-Term Plans 
ACA supporters and some health insurance groups were guardedly relieved by the CMS' decision because they feared other GOP-led states would launch programs similar to Idaho's. They warned that allowing the sale of leaner plans that could charge much higher rates for older and sicker beneficiaries would create two separate risk pools, driving up premiums for people with costly medical conditions and potentially forcing insurers out of that market. (Meyer and Luthi, 3/8)

Meanwhile, KHN takes a look at what HHS officials were up to this week —

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ HHS Leaders Take To The Stump
Three of the top officials of the Department of Health and Human Services — Secretary Alex Azar, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma — were out in force this week. All made major public appearances in an effort to reset the department’s agenda. In the wake of the failed congressional effort to “repeal and replace” the federal Affordable Care Act, the administration officials said they plan to focus on lowering the costs of health care and giving states and consumers more power. (3/8)

The Washington Post: Premiums For ACA Health Insurance Plans Could Jump 90 Percent In Three Years
Insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans are likely to jump by 35 to 94 percent around the country within the next three years, according to a new report concluding that recent federal decisions will have a profound effect on prices. The nationwide analysis, issued Thursday by California’s insurance marketplace, finds wide variations state to state, with a broad swath of the South and parts of the Midwest in danger of what the report calls “catastrophic” average rate increases by 2021. (Goldstein, 3/8)

The Hill: Study: ObamaCare Premiums Could Increase 90 Percent Over Three Years For Some States
Beginning in 2019, premiums increases could range from 12 to 32 percent in the U.S. Cumulatively, states could see increases ranging from 35 to 90 percent from 2019 to 2021. The report, released by California's insurance marketplace, estimates that states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Texas could see cumulative increases of 90 percent by 2021. Indiana, Illinois and Iowa could see increases of 50 percent in the same time period. “The challenges to our health care system are threatening to have real consequences for millions of Americans,” said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California. (Hellmann, 3/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Health Insurance Premiums Could Soar, Analysis Projects
Across the country, people who buy health insurance on exchanges could see their premiums rise between 12 and 32 percent in 2019, according to an analysis released Thursday by Covered California, the state exchange that sells insurance to 1.2 million residents who don’t receive health coverage through their employers. (Ho, 3/8)

In other health law news —

Kaiser Health News: A Health Plan ‘Down Payment’ Is One Way States Try Retooling Individual Mandate
As President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans tirelessly try to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a number of states are scrambling to enact laws that safeguard its central provisions. The GOP tax plan approved by Congress in the last days of 2017 repealed the ACA penalty for people who fail to carry health insurance, a provision called the “individual mandate.” On Jan. 30, in Trump’s first State of the Union address, he claimed victory in killing off this part of the health law, saying Obamacare was effectively dead without it. (Bluth, 3/9)

The CT Mirror: CT Ponders An Individual Mandate - And Two Vastly Different Penalties
A legislative committee aired two bills Thursday that would establish a state individual health care mandate and push back on Congress’s recent repeal of the Obamacare penalty, but the bills would impose radically different fines for those who fail to buy insurance coverage. (Rigg, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Abortion Provisions Lead To Tensions Over Spending Bill
A push from the White House and congressional Republicans to add new antiabortion provisions into a sweeping spending bill has divided lawmakers as they work to reach a deal that will fund the government beyond mid-March. Republican lawmakers want to expand restrictions that already prevent federal funding from going to abortions, and they also want to fully cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which has long been a target of conservatives. (Peterson and Armour, 3/8)

The Hill: Key Republican: GOP Won't Add Protection For Planned Parenthood In Funding Bill 
A key Republican on the health-care spending subcommittee said the GOP is rejecting Democratic attempts to add protections for Planned Parenthood funding in the government spending bill. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Appropriations health subcommittee, said Thursday that Democrats are trying to add language grandfathering in family planning grants to Planned Parenthood, essentially preventing the Trump administration from discretion over the grants and the ability to cut off the funds. (Sullivan, 3/8)

The Hill: GOP Lawmaker Meets With Ryan To Push For Drug Pricing Bill 
Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) says he met with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday to push for the inclusion of a measure to fight high drug prices in a coming government funding bill. The bill, called the Creates Act, has support from members of both parties but has faced strong lobbying in opposition from the powerful pharmaceutical industry. (Sullivan, 3/8)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

The Hill: Ellison Replaces Conyers On Dem Single-Payer Bill 
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has replaced former Rep. John Conyers Jr. as the main sponsor of the House Democrats’ single-payer health-care bill. Ellison on Wednesday received unanimous consent from the House to assume leadership of H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, which has the support of a majority of the House Democratic Caucus. (Weixel, 3/7)

The New York Times: Trump Draws ‘Lively’ Opinions On Video Game Violence But Shrouds His Own
President Trump on Thursday began the next leg of a listening tour he promised after last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., eliciting heated opinions at the White House from critics of violent video games and from game makers who reject any connection to mass shootings, but offering no concrete views of his own. In broaching the subject after a mass school shooting, Mr. Trump was traveling a path well worn by his predecessors going back for decades. But his approach was all his own. (Rogers, 3/8)

The Associated Press: School Shooting Calls Released; Gun Bill On Governor’s Desk
In a newly released recording from the day of a deadly Florida school shooting, the parents of a 17-year-old girl tell a 911 dispatcher their daughter is texting from a classroom where the door’s glass was shot out. Later, the student texts that police have arrived. After getting the rest of the message, the mother raises her voice, “Three shot in her room. Oh my God. Oh my God.” As a gun-control bill sits on the governor’s desk, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office released 12 minutes of radio transmissions from its deputies and a neighboring police agency highlighting the chaos during the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That material also included 10 of the 81 recordings of frantic calls by students and parents to a 911 center. (Farrington and Fineout, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Cigna Deal Shows Being A Health Insurer Isn’t Enough Anymore
Cigna Corp.’s $54 billion deal for Express Scripts Holding Co. is the latest sign that health care’s biggest players believe they can no longer go it alone, and they must branch into other businesses to forge integrated products aimed at curbing costs. The acquisition sets up the combined company, which would bring together Cigna’s insurance assets with Express Scripts’ pharmacy-benefit management, to better compete with peers such as UnitedHealth Group Inc. and CVS Health Corp. that already moved toward vertical combination, analysts said. (Wilde Mathews and Walker, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Cigna’s $54 Billion Buy Seen As ‘Best Case’ For Drug Middleman 
Cigna Corp.’s $54-billion purchase of Express Scripts Holding Co. is being called the “best case scenario” for the pharmacy-benefits manager’s beleaguered investors. The deal is “clearly a positive turn of events” for Express Scripts, Evercore ISI’s Ross Muken wrote. The company’s role as a middleman hired by insurers and employers to negotiate discounts from drugmakers has been under fire from everyone from the head of the Food and Drug Administration to short-sellers. Other analysts noted uncertainties on how the interconnected agreements between insurers and benefits managers would play out once the deal is completed. (Flanagan, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Cigna’s Cure Risks Dangerous Side Effects
Major deals in the health-care supply chain may be better news for sellers than for buyers. Health-insurance giant Cigna announced Thursday morning that it plans to buy the pharmacy-benefit manager Express Scripts Holding for about $54 billion in cash and stock. Cigna shares dove sharply Thursday morning, and for good reason. (Grant, 3/8)

The Star Tribune: $52B Deal For Drug Benefits Giant Would Make Cigna More Like UnitedHealth 
Cigna’s $52 billion bid to buy Express Scripts, rolled out Thursday, is another example of the nation’s largest carriers angling to match UnitedHealth Group’s model of combining insurance with the management of pharmacy benefits. On one level, the deal could pull business from Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth, since Connecticut-based Cigna currently hires United’s OptumRx division as its pharmaceutical benefits manager (PBM). (Snowbeck, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Cigna To Draw Antitrust Scrutiny Amid Wave Of Health-Care Deals 
Cigna Corp.’s proposed deal for Express Scripts Holding Co. faces a drawn-out merger review as the Trump administration’s antitrust enforcers weigh the competitive effects of a wave of consolidation sweeping the health-care industry. The tie-up of the insurer and pharmacy benefit manager comes on the heels of CVS Health Corp.’s agreement to buy insurer Aetna Inc. In both combinations, the companies say they’ll become more efficient firms and help lower health-care costs. Whether customers are actually poised to benefit is the key question for antitrust enforcers. (McLaughlin, 3/9)

Bloomberg: Urge To Merge Turns Vertical In Health-Care Industry: Q&A 
Big mergers in U.S. health care have rotated on their axis, with the nation’s biggest insurers and the companies that preside over customers’ access to high-priced drugs eyeing one another after deals to combine insurers were struck down. Cigna Corp. has agreed to acquire drug benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co. in a deal valued at $67 billion, including $54 billion in cash and stock. That follows an offer by CVS Health Corp. -- a company created by the merger of a drugstore chain with a pharmacy benefit manager -- to buy insurer Aetna Inc. (Lauerman, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: After Addiction Comes Families’ Second Blow: The Crushing Cost Of Rehab
Michelle and Darin Vandecar have spent nearly all their time and energy in recent years trying to help their drug-addicted sons stay clean. They’ve spent nearly all their money, too. The Salt Lake City-area couple amassed $120,000 of credit-card debt, took out a home-equity loan and cleaned out part of their 401(k) to pay for multiple rounds of addiction treatment for their three sons, aged 18, 20 and 23. Their insurance covered some of the costs, but because their out-of-pocket expenses were so steep, they sold motorcycles and other belongings to raise cash. (Whalen, 3/8)

In other news on the crisis —

The Wall Street Journal: Opioid Crisis Gets Washington’s Attention
President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders are pressing ahead with an array of opioid-related efforts in coming weeks, teeing up bills and spending measures, while Democrats are calling the GOP actions belated and insufficient. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of governors testified before the Senate Health Committee on opioid addiction in their states. The White House also met with a number of governors last week and held a recent opioid summit to highlight steps it has taken. (Armour, 3/8)

Reuters: Kentucky Sues Drug Distributor AmerisourceBergen Over Opioid Epidemic
Kentucky's attorney general on Thursday sued AmerisourceBergen Corp, accusing the drug distributor of contributing to opioid abuse in the state by filling suspiciously large or frequent pharmacy orders of prescription painkillers. The lawsuit by Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear was his fourth to date seeking to hold a corporation responsible for its role in the national opioid epidemic. Two prior cases targeted AmerisourceBergen's main drug distribution competitors. (Raymond, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Police Have A New Tool In Their Arsenal: Mental-Health Professionals
Police departments nationwide have started teaming up officers with therapists in situations involving the mentally ill, largely in the hope of avoiding the type of incident that recently landed a New York Police Department sergeant on trial for murder. The move to create what some departments call “co-response teams” of officers and clinicians has been adopted or expanded in recent years in Salt Lake City, Houston, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Officials in these cities say clinicians can bring meaningful insight to delicate situations, and can help prevent mentally ill people from harming themselves or others. (Kanno-Youngs, 3/9)

The New York Times: How One Child’s Sickle Cell Mutation Helped Protect The World From Malaria
Thousands of years ago, a special child was born in the Sahara. At the time, this was not a desert; it was a green belt of savannas, woodlands, lakes and rivers. Bands of hunter-gatherers thrived there, catching fish and spearing hippos. A genetic mutation had altered the child’s hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that ferries oxygen through the body. It was not harmful; there are two copies of every gene, and the child’s other hemoglobin gene was normal. The child survived, had a family and passed down the mutation to future generations. (Zimmer, 3/8)

Stat: Flu Vaccine Grown Without Eggs Provided Measurably Better Protection This Season, FDA Says 
The sole influenza vaccine made in cell culture in the United States may have worked about 20 percent better this flu season than the standard vaccines made in eggs, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Thursday. Gottlieb revealed that figure in a hearing of the congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations, called to explore this year’s severe flu season and why flu vaccines did not appear to protect especially well. (Branswell, 3/9)

CNN: CDC Identifies A Mystery Cluster Of Deaths Among Dentists
A cluster of cases of a progressive lung disease occurred among dentists and other dental workers treated at one Virginia care center, according to Thursday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of nine patients, referred to as a cluster, seven died during the reported 16-year period. The disease, called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is a chronic, progressive lung disease with a poor prognosis. The cause is unknown. (Scutti, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Do Cellphones Really Cause Brain Cancer? We Have Answers.
Does talking on a cellphone increase your risk of getting a brain tumor? Many health experts say it’s unlikely, and if it is possible, the increase is probably small. Yet there has been just enough research over the years to keep the debate alive. Last month, the U.S. government released results from the largest government study to date on the question. And the findings, from the National Toxicology Program, were…. a mixed bag. (Knutson, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Approval Of 23andMe Kit Is Latest Example Of Agency’s Course Reversal
Federal health officials this week allowed a genetic testing firm to sell kits to consumers to test whether they carry gene mutations that put them at higher risk for breast and ovarian cancer. The action, part of a broader regulatory shift, is the first time the Food and Drug Administration has allowed a company—in this case 23andMe Inc.—to market such a cancer-risk test directly to the public. (Burton, 3/9)

Stat: Getting Clinical Trials Up And Running Is Taking Longer Than Ever
As drug makers struggle to get medicines out the door, executives involved in the process say that it’s taking more time than ever to get mid-stage and late-stage clinical trials up and running. The average amount of time from identifying useful study sites to launching a Phase 2 or Phase 3 trial now takes 31.4 weeks, or nearly eight months, which is one month longer than a decade ago, according to a survey conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. (Silverman, 3/8)

NPR: Recent Breakthroughs In Cancer Research: The RAS Gene Has Eluded For Decades
Michael Robertson was on his summer vacation a few years ago and had just proposed to the woman who would become his wife when he decided he needed to see a doctor. "I'd been having symptoms for a few months but it was during an intense work period, drinking too much coffee, not getting enough sleep, so I kind of chalked it up to that," Robertson says. Unfortunately, the doctor had a more dire diagnosis: stage 4 rectal cancer. Robertson was only 35 at the time — unusually young for this diagnosis. (Harris, 3/9)

Stat: For Diabetics, A High-Fiber Diet Feeds Gut Microbes, Lowering Blood Sugar
The main rationale has been that fiber is made up of undigestible bulk that prevents people from eating unhealthy food — and helps keep the digestive tract regular. But new research suggests that dietary fibers actually play a critical role in feeding the trillions of microbes that reside in our bodies, known collectively as the microbiome. And that specifically for people with type 2 diabetes, a high-fiber diet along with a favorable gut microbiome can keep patients’ blood sugar and body weight under control. (Keshavan, 3/8)

NPR: Tattoo You: Immune System Cells Help Keep Ink In Its Place
Last Saturday, while I was visiting Fatty's Tattoos and Piercings, a college-aged woman in a hoodie walked in and asked for a tattoo, her first, right on the spot."I want a red-tailed hawk feather," she told the artist on duty at the Washington, D.C., tattoo parlor. He peppered her with questions: How big? What style? She alternated between a blank stare and a furrowed brow: "I ... have a photo on my phone of the feather that I like, I could show you that?" (Wilhelm, 3/8)

Stateline: Aid-In-Dying Gains Momentum As Erstwhile Opponents Change Their Minds
New Jersey is one of at least 25 states considering aid-in-dying bills this year according to the Denver-based advocacy group Compassion and Choices, and advocates think momentum is on their side. Support for aid-in-dying is increasing — a recent Gallup poll found two-thirds in favor, up from half four years earlier. Major medical groups have dropped or softened their opposition. And increasing life spans, while generally a positive development, mean that more Americans are watching their parents die drawn-out, agonizing deaths. (Ollove, 3/8)

Politico: California's Nurses Union Loses Longtime Leader, But Not Agenda
Don’t expect the retirement of the head of California’s politically powerful nurses union after 32 years to distract the labor organization from its long-standing focus on single-payer health care — or its efforts to push the state Democratic Party further to the left. RoseAnn DeMoro, who stepped down over the weekend, has long been grooming her second-in-command, Bonnie Castillo, to take the helm. The union’s supporters — as well as some detractors — say DeMoro has embedded her colorful antics and firebrand, rabble-rousing style in the DNA of the California Nurses Association. (Colliver, 3/8)

The Associated Press: 5 Infants Injured In Hospital Newborn Unit; Nurse Suspended
Five infants suffered serious injuries including a fractured skull, rib and arm in the newborn unit of a Wisconsin hospital and the nurse who cared for them has been suspended, a federal agency said in a report after it inspected the hospital. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison didn't respond to the suspected abuse until early last month, when staff noticed two babies with bruises. An internal investigation revealed two similar cases last year and one from January. The identity of the suspended nurse has not been released. (3/8)

Tampa Bay Times: Long-Running Drama Over Hospital Trauma Centers Ends With New Legislation
A bill that cleared the Senate on Tuesday would overhaul regulations overseeing the state's trauma system, which treats serious injuries like severe burns and gunshot wounds, by setting new standards for what can be designated as a trauma center while grandfathering in some that have been subject to lawsuits. The rare compromise between for-profit hospital chains like HCA and "safety net" hospitals like Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, brokered by lawmakers, calms a series of feuds over where trauma centers can be built and who should operate them. (Koh, 3/8)

Miami Herald: Florida Ends Long Feud Over Hospital Trauma Centers
A bill that cleared the Senate on Tuesday would overhaul regulations overseeing the state’s trauma system, which treats serious injuries like severe burns and gunshot wounds, by setting new standards for what can be designated as a trauma center while grandfathering in some that have been subject to lawsuits. (Koh, 3/8)

The Hill: Mississippi Lawmakers Pass Nation's Most Restrictive Abortion Law 
Mississippi lawmakers have passed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a measure the governor is expected to sign. The Mississippi House on Thursday approved the measure in a 75-34 vote, according to The Associated Press. The bill, which if signed into law would be the nation's most restrictive abortion law, changes the state’s current law prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy to 15 weeks. (Roubein, 3/8)

Minnesota Public Radio: Childbirth Risks Rise When Rural Hospitals End Delivery Services
University of Minnesota researchers report the risks to mothers and newborns rise in remote rural counties that have lost hospital labor and delivery services. The study said 179 rural U.S. counties lost hospital based obstetric service between 2004 and 2014. (Moylan, 3/8)

Tampa Bay Times: At Florida Home For The Disabled, Scathing Report Comes On Heels Of Bizarre Death
The investigation by Disability Rights Florida shed more light on the happenings in the complex, which for years has had state administrators scrambling to shut it down amid numerous abuse reports, and settlement agreements between the state and Carlton Palms. ...In the report released Monday, the advocacy group, which combed through 28 allegations of abuse or neglect that happened in the first nine months of 2016, says surveillance footage shows a resident being slapped by a staffer and residents being strapped into makeshift restraint chairs inappropriately. (Madan, 3/8)

Denver Post: Pueblo Hospital Downsizes, Cuts 34 Percent Of Staff, Or 272 Jobs, In Restructuring
Pueblo hospital St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center said Thursday it must restructure its business in order to stay viable. Part of the changes include laying off 272, or 34 percent, of its 800 workers, according to a notice filed with the state’s Labor Department. In a press conference Thursday, hospital officials said the company will close its medical and surgical floor though such services will be available on a smaller scale. The medical telemetry and intensive care unit also will be trimmed. (Chuang, 3/8)

Georgia Health News: Is Education Making A Difference On Infant Sleep Deaths?
A recently published study set out to test whether better education might help increase parents’ knowledge of safe sleep, change their behavior and reduce risk. Using a statewide survey sent to all Georgia parents of recently discharged infants over a three-month period in 2016, 90 percent of respondents knew proper sleep positions, and 85 percent knew the recommended location, according to the University of Georgia study. (Hensley, 3/8)

Modern Healthcare: Investors Watching For Rebound With R1 RCM's Friday Earnings Release
Chicago-based revenue-cycle management company R1 RCM has talked a big game in recent months, issuing news release after news release about its latest endeavors. But investors, and especially its biggest customer, Ascension, will pay close attention to the company's next earnings release, scheduled for March 9, to learn whether R1 RCM is truly recovering from its public downfall in 2012. Outside of small contracts, R1 RCM has not publicly announced major revenue-cycle clients it didn't already have ties with since its 2011 partnership with Intermountain Healthcare. (Bannow, 3/8)

Arizona Republic: STDs Such As Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis Surging Locally In Arizona
Cases of sexually-transmitted diseases in metro Phoenix continued to spike in 2017, mirroring a nationwide trend that has prompted public health officials to encourage prevention and more frequent testing. The total number of Maricopa County cases soared 14 percent in 2017, continuing a years-long trend. (Alltucker, 3/8)

Dallas Morning News: A North Texas Hospital Sees Spike In Twin, Triplet Deliveries— But Is It A Trend? | Health Care | Dallas News
Texas Health Fort Worth hospital has delivered seven sets of triplets already in 2018--the same amount it delivered total last year-- including the Hill's girls Lena and Gemma, and son Gregory III. And so far 23 sets of twins have been born this year at the facility, which is double the amount from the same two-month period ending in February 2017. (Rice, 3/8)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Froedtert, Medical College Symptom Checker Uses Artificial Intelligence
A new digital health tool that uses artificial intelligence is now another option to check symptoms for Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin health network. The tool, Buoy, is available at froedtert.com, the company announced in a news release Thursday. (Hauer, 3/8)

Boston Globe: Abiomed To Pay $3.1 Million To Settle Kickback Allegations
A Danvers medical device company has agreed to pay $3.1 million to the federal government to settle allegations that sales representatives violated an anti-kickback statute to get doctors and nurses to use the firm’s heart pumps on Medicare patients. The alleged kickbacks by Abiomed Inc. consisted of lavish meals, with plenty of alcohol, at some of the country’s swankiest restaurants, including Menton in Boston, Spago in Beverly Hills, Nobu in Los Angeles, and Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan, according to federal prosecutors. (Saltzman, 3/8)

San Jose Mercury News: Stanford Students Protest Apple Over Smartphone Addiction
Stanford students concerned about smartphone addiction decided to take advantage of their proximity to the world’s largest smartphone company to send it a message. Four Stanford students — Sanjay Kannan, Evan Sabri Eyuboglu, Divyahans Gupta, and Cameron Ramos — who formed a group called “Stanford Students Against Addictive Devices” (SSAAD) protested outside Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino and at the Apple Store in Palo Alto last week, holding picket signs and handing leaflets to Apple employees walking out after work. (Lee, 3/7)

Capital Public Radio: Are Most Sacramento Public Restrooms Closed At Night? The City And Homelessness Advocates Disagree.
The Sacramento Regional Coalition To End Homelessness says it recently visited about three dozen city parks at night — and found none of the restrooms were open. Executive director Bob Erlenbush says his group checked out a total of 38 city parks. "Seven never had bathrooms. Seven are closed — they're locked — which leaves 24 bathrooms that are open to the public, including people experiencing homelessness,” he said. But he added that “none of them are [open] 24-seven; they're just from sunrise to sunset,” and he claimed that the closed restrooms are in the areas with the highest populations of homeless. (Moffitt, 3/6)

Boston Globe: Skeptical Of LED Lights, Marijuana Growers Decry Lighting Efficiency Rule
On its face, the idea hardly seems objectionable: With the state obliged to reduce greenhouse gases by 2020, regulators should act now to address the large amounts of electricity consumed by major indoor pot-growing operations where energy-hungry high-pressure sodium lamps can burn 24 hours a day. But a new regulation set by the Cannabis Control Commission to do just that — by limiting the amount of electricity that can be used for lighting to an average of 36 watts per square foot of cultivation space — has the industry howling in protest as it prepares for the debut of recreational sales this summer. (Adams, 3/8)

JAMA Internal Medicine: State Firearm Laws And Interstate Firearm Deaths From Homicide And Suicide In The United States: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Data By County
In this cross-sectional study, strong firearm laws in a state were associated with lower firearm suicide rates and lower overall suicide rates in the state regardless of the strength of the laws in other states. Strong firearm laws in a state were associated with lower rates of firearm homicide. Counties in states with weak laws had lower rates of firearm homicide only when surrounding states had strong laws. (Kaufman, Morrison and Branas, 3/5)

The Commonwealth Fund: Competition & Premium Costs In Five One-Insurer States
In 2010, the individual insurance market was already concentrated in the five study states, with Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) plans covering the majority of enrollees. By 2015, with the marketplaces in full swing, more issuers were competing in the five states. But by 2016, co-ops were facing bankruptcy and left the marketplaces in these states; and in 2017, citing large financial losses, national issuers UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, and Humana also exited, leaving only a single BCBS plan in each state. Three of the five states experienced substantially higher annual premium increases than the national average. Policy options with bipartisan support, such as resuming cost-sharing reduction payments and reestablishing reinsurance and risk corridors, could help attract new or returning issuers to marketplaces in these states. (Gabel et al, 3/6)

Pediatrics: National And State Trends In Sudden Unexpected Infant Death: 1990–2015
Sharp declines in sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) in the 1990s and a diagnostic shift from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) to unknown cause and accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (ASSB) in 1999–2001 have been documented. We examined trends in SUID and SIDS, unknown cause, and ASSB from 1990 to 2015 and compared state-specific SUID rates to identify significant trends that may be used to inform SUID prevention efforts. (Lambert, Parks and Shapiro-Mendoza, 3/1)

Pediatrics: Prevalence Of Obesity And Severe Obesity In US Children, 1999–2016
White and Asian American children have significantly lower rates of obesity than African American children, Hispanic children, or children of other races. We report a positive linear trend for all definitions of overweight and obesity among children 2–19 years old, most prominently among adolescents. Children aged 2 to 5 years showed a sharp increase in obesity prevalence from 2015 to 2016 compared with the previous cycle. (Skinner et al, 3/1)

JAMA Cardiology: Association Of Body Mass Index With Lifetime Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease And Compression Of Morbidity
In this population-based study, overweight and obesity were associated with significantly increased risk for CVD. Obesity was associated with shorter longevity and a greater proportion of life lived with CVD; overweight was associated with similar longevity as normal weight but at the expense of a greater proportion of life lived with CVD. (Khan, Ning and Wlkins, 2/28)

New England Journal of Medicine: Where There’s Wildfire, There’s Smoke
With the undeniable march of climate change, the danger of catastrophic wildfires is increasing around the globe, with such fires occurring in Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the United States, over the past decade. Large forest fires in the western United States have been nearly five times as frequent on an annual basis as they were 50 years ago. ...When catastrophic wildfires either come near or hit populated urban areas, as has recently occurred in both northern and southern California, large numbers of people are exposed to relatively high levels of smoke (see images). Wildfire smoke contains carbon dioxide, water vapor, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, complex hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, trace minerals, and several thousand other compounds. (John Balmes, 3/8)

The New York Times: The Trump Administration’s Backward Attitude Toward Birth Control
Women’s progress in America has been inextricably tied to the availability of birth control. Landmark Supreme Court decisions in 1965 and 1972 recognizing a constitutional right to contraception made it more likely that women went to college, entered the work force and found economic stability. That’s all because they were better able to choose when, or whether, to have children. (3/8)

The Washington Post: The ‘Moral Hazard’ Of Naloxone In The Opioid Crisis
As opioid usage has worsened in the United States, more and more jurisdictions have acted to increase access to naloxone. Not only first responders but also friends, family and even librarians have started to administer it. These state laws were passed at different times, giving researchers Jennifer Doleac and Anita Mukherjee a sort of a natural experiment: They could look at what happened to overdoses in areas that liberalized naloxone access and compare the trends there to places that hadn’t changed their laws. Their results are grim, to say the least: “We find that broadening Naloxone access led to more opioid-related emergency room visits and more opioid-related theft, with no reduction in opioid-related mortality.” (Megan McArdle, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: Locked-Down Schools With Metal Detectors May Harm Students More Than Help Them
After recent school shootings, especially the appalling attack at a Florida high school that killed and injured so many students and staff, it's only natural and right for local authorities throughout the nation to consider how they might best protect the children and teenagers in their charge. ...Do these terrifying events call for metal detectors at the entrances to every school, or for all campuses to be securely fenced so that only students and teachers can enter? Fortunately, Los Angeles city and educational leaders aren't jumping up to demand immediate, draconian measures, though they're also wisely acknowledging that new safety protocols may be needed. No one can pretend any longer that such tragedies only happen somewhere else. (3/8)

USA Today: Without Facts, We'll Never Agree On How To Reduce Gun Violence And Deaths
Federal restrictions on research are a major reason for the weak base of scientific evidence to support claims about gun policy. A recent study by David Stark and Nigam Shah in the Journal of the American Medical Association compiled the 30 leading causes of death in the U.S. and compared them on the basis of how much federal research funding each receives. Gun violence received far less funding than nearly all other causes of death. Gun violence research received only 1.6% of the funding received by studies on other causes of death with similar mortality rates. (Andrew Morral, 3/8)

New England Journal of Medicine: Physician-Assisted Suicide And Psychiatric Illness
In exceptional cases, suicide might be considered a rational choice of a competent person, even in the presence of psychiatric illness. But unless a truly rigorous prospective review system is in place for such cases, countries should not legalize the practice. (Joris Vandenberghe, 3/8)

New England Journal of Medicine: Physician-Assisted Death For Psychiatric Patients — Misguided Public Policy
Physicians in the Netherlands and Belgium have helped a small but growing number of patients with mental illness but no terminal condition to end their lives. In some U.S. states, attempts to extend physician-assisted death to psychiatric patients appear inevitable. (Franklin G. Miller and Paul S. Appelbaum, 3/5)

Sacramento Bee: HPV Vaccine: Who Should Get It?
The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. The HPV vaccine, when administered to boys and girls, can prevent transmission of the virus and reduce the risk of related cancers. (Emily Zentner, 3/8)

USA Today: Video Games Aren't All Violence: They're Good For Our Children
President Trump insists that there’s a firm link between video game violence and recent school shootings. But over 45 years after Pong first popularized interactive entertainment, this theory has yet to be definitively proven. Moreover, with entire generations of healthy, well-adjusted kids having grown up alongside interactive entertainment, one must also wonder. Why are we still asking if video games are safe for children — and why must we continually revisit the debate? (Scott Steinberg, 3/8)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: In Iron County, The Rural Health Care Catastrophe Comes Home
These are desperate times for the nation’s rural hospitals, squeezed by rising costs, a shortage of doctors and a limited patient population made up of people who often are older, sicker, poorer and less likely to be insured than those in urban areas. Rural hospitals are having trouble keeping their doors open. Some 1,825 of the nation’s 4,840 community hospitals are in rural areas. Since 2010, 82 of them have closed, three of them in Missouri. The National Rural Health Association says 700 more could close within the next 10 years. A handful of rural hospitals have sought bankruptcy protection. It’s even tougher in states like Missouri that opted not to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act. (3/8)

Lexington Herald Leader: Kentucky Lawmakers Should Outlaw Child Marriage, End A Haven For Abuse
The new law would outlaw marriage for anyone 16 or younger and allow 17-year-olds to marry with approval of parents and a district judge who would consider any history of violence, crime or sexual offenses and also the minor’s maturity and self-sufficiency. Such reviews should ensure that no one is coerced into a marriage, by parents or prospective spouse. (3/8)

Charlotte Observer: With Atrium-UNC Breakdown, Let's Look At How Consolidation In Health Care Hurts Patients
Last week saw an announcement that a proposed merger between UNC Healthcare System and Carolinas Healthcare System (now Atrium) seems unlikely to proceed. So while we should take some comfort that we did not experience even further consolidation of the health care market in the state, we need to learn from this experience. (Kevin A. Schulman, 3/8)