The New York Times: Seeking Cheaper Health Insurance, Idaho Bucks Affordable Care Act
In this rugged state of jagged peaks and black volcanic soils, people struggle to make a living and get good health care. Only Mississippi has lower average weekly wages, and in the last few years, about 110,000 people in Idaho, a state of only 1.7 million, have been priced out of the health insurance market by rising premiums, insurance industry estimates show. This is also a deeply conservative place, where dismantling or weakening the Affordable Care Act — the signature law of the Obama administration — has been a longstanding priority for the governor and the Republican-dominated Legislature. Now those two powerful trends are colliding. (Johnson and Pear, 3/9)

The Hill: Idaho Governor Not Backing Down From Attempt To Skirt ObamaCare 
Idaho's Gov. Butch Otter (R) is not backing down from a plan to skirt ObamaCare rules with new state health insurance plans, despite a letter from the Trump administration saying the plan appeared to violate federal law. Otter said Friday that, despite a letter warning the state about its plans this week, the Trump administration is not asking the state to back down and discussions remain open. (Sullivan, 3/9)

Kaiser Health News: No-Go For Idaho: Back To The Drawing Board On State-Based Health Plans
No, you can’t. That’s what federal officials told Idaho regulators and the state’s governor late Thursday regarding the state’s plan to allow insurers to sell health plans that fall short of the Affordable Care Act’s requirements. (Appleby, 3/9)

Meanwhile —

Des Moines Register: Iowa Proposal That Skirts Obamacare Regulations Could Spark Court Fight
The sole health-insurance carrier selling individual policies in Iowa this year says it might take the state to court if legislators let a competitor ignore Affordable Care Act rules. Medica is frustrated by a bill the Iowa Senate passed Wednesday evening, which would let Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield partner with the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation to sell a new type of health coverage. The new policies would be defined as “health benefit plans,” which would technically not be insurance and would not be regulated by the Iowa Insurance Division. Although it doesn’t name Wellmark or the Farm Bureau, the bill is written so that only they could sell such policies. (Leys, 3/9)

The Associated Press: Lots Of Talk, Little Action On Curbing Health Care Costs
It started as a bipartisan attempt to curb soaring health care premiums. But Congress' effort to stabilize the nation's insurance markets is faltering amid escalating demands by each party and erratic positions by President Donald Trump. Democrats want bigger federal subsidies for consumers under President Barack Obama's health care law while Republicans, still fighting that statute, aim to relax its coverage requirements and win abortion restrictions. (Fram, 3/12)

The Hill: Liberal Group Warns ObamaCare Funds Would Do 'More Harm Than Good' 
A liberal group is warning against funding ObamaCare payments that are at the center of a debate in Congress, marking a shift from Democrats’ earlier position on the payments. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Friday published an analysis warning against funding the payments, known as cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), which are the at the center of a bipartisan bill aimed at stabilizing the ObamaCare marketplaces. The bill could be included in a government funding measure this month. (Sullivan, 3/9)

The New York Times: Trump To Push Ahead On Gun Training For School Employees, White House Says
President Trump is planning to move ahead with his contentious proposal to provide firearms training to school employees and intends to establish a federal commission to examine other proposals, like his suggestion to raise the age to purchase some weapons, White House officials said on Sunday night. But the administration’s efforts appeared to be piecemeal and of limited scope, falling far short of the language Mr. Trump has used for weeks about the need to end the scourge of school shootings, including at a dramatic meeting with relatives of victims of the Parkland, Fla., massacre. (Haberman, 3/11)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Unveils Proposals To Reduce Gun Violence At Schools
The White House blueprint, which comes in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school, calls for “hardening our schools” by instituting security procedures comparable to those in airports, sports stadiums and government buildings. One way to do that, the White House said, is to use Justice Department grants to train school personnel to carry weapons “on a voluntary basis.” (Bender, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Trump Doesn’t Set Age For Guns, Defers On Arming Teachers
The White House unveiled a new plan to prevent school shootings that backs off President Donald Trump's support for increasing the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21. Instead, a new federal commission on school safety will examine the age issue as part of a package the White House announced Sunday in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month that left 17 dead. (Colvin, 3/12)

Politico: Trump Administration To Aid States In Firearms Training For Teachers, School Staff
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will chair a government commission exploring steps to prevent school violence, following the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month that left 17 dead, the Trump administration said. “We are committed to working quickly because there’s no time to waste,” DeVos said on a conference call with reporters. “No student, no family, no teacher and no school should have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook or Columbine again.” (Hefling and Stratford, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Gun Background Check System Riddled With Flaws
Recent mass shootings have spurred Congress to try to improve the nation's gun background check system that has failed on numerous occasions to keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. The problem with the legislation, experts say, is that it only works if federal agencies, the military, states, courts and local law enforcement do a better job of sharing information with the background check system — and they have a poor track record in doing so. Some of the nation's most horrific mass shootings have revealed major holes in the database reporting system, including massacres at Virginia Tech in 2007 and at a Texas church last year. (Bellisle, 3/10)

The Associated Press: A Look At How Background Checks Are Conducted For Gun Buys
When someone buys a weapon from a gun dealer in the U.S., they are subjected to a background check to see if they have a criminal record, mental illness or other issues that prevent them from owning weapons. It's a process that has received attention following recent mass killings and as Congress pushes to improve the background check system. Here is an explanation about the process. (Bellisle, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Trump Uses Page From 'Smart Policymaking 101' On Health Care
A smartphone app that lets Medicare patients access their claims information. Giving consumers a share of drug company rebates for their prescriptions. Wider access to websites that reliably compare cost and quality of medical tests. The Trump administration is taking a pragmatic new tack on health care, with officials promising consumer friendly changes and savings in areas from computerized medical records to prescription drugs. New Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has been rolling out the agenda, saying it has the full backing of President Donald Trump. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/10)

CQ:  2019 Budget: Health And Human Services
The Trump administration’s proposal to increase discretionary spending at the Health and Human Services Department came as a surprise, especially since the administration’s budget for fiscal 2018 proposed a $17 billion cut to the agency’s nearly $87 billion discretionary budget. The fiscal 2019 budget originally proposed cutting HHS by a similar amount, but after a two-year spending deal was signed into law, the administration reversed course and recommended a slight discretionary spending increase for HHS, mostly to aid programs affecting opioid abuse and mental health. (Siddons, 3/12)

And in other news coming from the administration —

ProPublica: Injured Nuclear Workers Finally Had Support. The Trump Administration Has Mothballed It.
Obama created an advisory board to be composed of scientists, doctors and worker advocates. Their recommendations have led to significant changes, including the repeal of a rule that made it more difficult for workers who’d been injured in the last two decades to get compensation. President Donald Trump and his administration have taken a different approach: His Labor Department has let nearly all of the board member’s terms expire — and so far hasn’t nominated new ones. (Moss, 3/9)

The Hill: Watchdog: Social Security Acting Head Hasn't Been Authorized To Serve For Months 
The acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been prohibited by law from serving in her position for months, a government watchdog informed the White House this week. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent a letter to President Trump this week saying that Nancy Berryhill is in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which generally bars acting agency chiefs from serving in the post for more than 210 days. (Bowden, 3/10)

The Hill: HHS Secretary To Attend Inauguration Of Chile's New President 
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar will lead the U.S. delegation attending the inauguration of Chile's next president on Sunday, the White House says. Azar, who was confirmed as the Trump administration's new health chief in January, will lead a delegation to the ceremony in which conservative Sebastián Piñera will be inaugurated as president for a second time. (Delk, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Insurers Get Into Care, But Is It Good For Your Health?
In the not-too-distant future, your health insurance, your prescription drugs and some of your treatment may come from the same company. Insurers are dropping billions of dollars on acquisitions and expansions in order to get more involved in customer health. They say this push can help cut costs and improve care, in part by keeping the sickest patients healthy and out of expensive hospitals.That's a huge potential benefit for employers and other customers stressed by rising costs. But is this good for your health? (Murphy, 3/9)

Bloomberg: Cigna To Draw Antitrust Scrutiny Amid Health-Care Deal Wave 
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)

The Star Tribune: Bloomington Jobs Impact Unclear From Cigna Deal 
The planned merger between Cigna and Express Scripts will be closely watched in Bloomington, where Express Scripts employs about 1,000 people. St. Louis-based Express Scripts, which is the nation's largest pharmaceutical benefits manager (PBM), has in the Twin Cities a mix of employees and contractors working in technology, account management, human resources, clinical evaluation and other corporate functions, said Brian Henry, a company spokesman. (Snowbeck, 3/9)

And in other industry news —

The Wall Street Journal: Insurers Game Medicare System To Boost Federal Bonus Payments
The number in the corner of Upton Martin’s Medicare plan card from Humana Inc. changed twice over the past four years. He didn’t think anything of it, and his coverage didn’t seem different in any way. The changes, though, were evidence of a lucrative maneuver that has allowed Humana and other providers of Medicare Advantage plans to collect additional revenue from the federal government. (Wilde Mathews and Weaver, 3/11)

The Associated Press: West Virginia Records 872 Overdoses Last Year
West Virginia's death toll from drug overdoses has improved slightly, with 872 deaths last year. The state hit a grim record in 2016 of 887 fatal overdoses, or 52 per 100,000 residents, the highest drug-related death toll in the nation. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta said he's cautiously optimistic about progress, including their study that identified risk factors for fatalities to help frame their response. That has drawn interest from other states, he said. (3/9)

In other news on the epidemic —

NPR: Opioid Questions Answered
Millions of Americans use opioids to relieve pain. But many also struggle with addiction. This week, a report in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, found that nonopioid painkillers — like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — were as effective as opioids at treating chronic back, hip and knee pain, and with fewer side effects. (Shapiro and Wilhelm, 3/9)

Bloomberg: Ivy League Doctor Gets 4 Years In Prison For Insys Opioid Kickbacks 
A Rhode Island doctor who took kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics Inc. officials for prescribing the company’s highly addictive liquid version of the opioid painkiller Fentanyl was sentenced to more than four years in prison. Jerrold Rosenberg, who lost his medical license and was ousted from his post as a Brown University professor, pleaded guilty to taking more than $188,000 in kickbacks disguised as speaker fees and creating false patient records to dupe insurers into covering Insys’s Subsys pain medication. (Lawrence and Feeley, 3/9)

Wyoming Public Radio: Campaign Hopes To Debunk Myths Kids Have About Opioid Abuse
In Wyoming, recreational use of opioid medications is most common among young adults, according to research at the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center. That’s why an addiction advocacy group is rolling out a new campaign to educate Wyoming’s youth about misinformation they might be getting about these drugs. (Edwards, 3/9)

Denver Post: Police Found Fraud, Sex Crimes In A Colorado Sober-Living Home Empire. The State Doesn’t Regulate The Industry. 
[Chris] Bathum’s business, which operated at least 19 sober-living facilities in Colorado and California, and others like it represent yet another troubling development in the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic. All the addiction is fueling a surge in treatment facilities, with as many as 14,000 currently operating in the nation, generating $35 billion in profits annually, according to federal estimates. Critics contend the money is drawing in the unscrupulous like Bathum, who had been convicted in federal court in 2002 of felony wire fraud allegations. (Osher, 3/11)

Modern Healthcare: Without The 'Angelina Jolie Effect,' Genetic Testing For Prostate Cancer Languishes 
Thanks to actress Angelina Jolie's public announcement about her breast cancer treatment five years ago, there is broad public awareness about the value of gene testing to identify breast cancer risk associated with mutations in the BRCA genes. Since then, demand for BRCA genetic testing among women has increased. Now researchers are finding growing evidence of strong links between prostate cancer in men and mutations in the BRCA 1, BRCA 2 and other genes. A groundbreaking study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2016 found mutations in those DNA-repair genes in 11.8% of men with metastatic prostate cancer, compared with 2.7% of men without a known cancer diagnosis. (Meyer, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Dentists Keep Dying Of This Lung Disease. The CDC Can’t Figure Out Why.
Seven of the patients were dead, and two more were dying of a rare chronic, progressive lung disease that can be treated but not cured. It’s estimated that about 200,000 people in the United States have Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis at any one time. But the common denominator of a small group of patients at a Virginia clinic over a 15-year period is worrying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Eight were dentists; a ninth was a dental technician. (Wootson, 3/10)

Stat: How An Inconspicuous Slaughterhouse Keeps The World’s Premature Babies Alive
It’s a substance that most meat processing plants hardly think about: Just another fluid in the fluid-filled business of turning an animal into a side of beef. But Taylor would panic if he saw any spill on the slaughterhouse floor — those lost drops could have saved babies’ lives. This small firm had carefully courted slaughterhouses so that its workers could be allowed inside to suck this off-white foam out of cow lungs. Then, they purified the hell out of it, and shipped vials of it across Canada, and to India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ecuador, and Iran, where it was shot into the lungs of struggling premature infants. (Boodman, 3/12)

The Associated Press: Study: Cholesterol Drug Lowers Risk Of Death, Heart Attack
A newer cholesterol drug, used with older statin medicines, modestly lowered heart risks and deaths in a big study of heart attack survivors that might persuade insurers to cover the pricey treatment more often. Results on the drug, Praluent, were announced Saturday at an American College of Cardiology conference in Florida. It's the first time a cholesterol-lowering drug has reduced deaths since statins such as Lipitor and Crestor came out decades ago. (3/10)

NPR: Exercise To Renew A Middle-Aged Heart
Eventually it happens to everyone. As we age, even if we're healthy, the heart becomes less flexible, more stiff and just isn't as efficient in processing oxygen as it used to be. In most people the first signs show up in the 50s or early 60s. And among people who don't exercise, the underlying changes can start even sooner. "The heart gets smaller — stiffer," says Dr. Ben Levine, a sports cardiologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, in Dallas. (Neighmond, 3/12)

The Washington Post: MRI Fear And Claustrophobia Mean Finding Ways To Cope
The thought of an MRI scanner, a coffinlike, hard-plastic tube with a ceiling just inches above the patient’s eyes, has long filled Patrice Mitchell with dread. The 64-year-old freelance editor and former journalist from Rochester, N.Y., has never been afraid of small spaces such as elevators. But she gets intensely claustrophobic when pulling anything — a sweater, for example — over her face and it gets caught. “If it gets stuck momentarily,” she says, “I immediately start to feel quite panicky and feel like I may have trouble breathing.” (Pianin, 3/11)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Infant Heart Surgery Is Just The Start Of Lifelong Issues. Doctors Are Developing New Ways To Cope
Mac was born with a cluster of heart abnormalities called tetralogy of Fallot, the same condition that was diagnosed last year in the infant son of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel. ...Physicians are increasingly coming up with strategies to help delay or even avoid surgery, such as the valve implant that Mac received. But some patients — especially older ones — never got the message that they need to keep careful tabs on their heart health, said Paula Miller, senior education manager at the Philadelphia-based Adult Congenital Heart Association. (Avril, 3/9)

Boston Globe: Nearly Half Of Patriots On First 3 Super Bowl-Winning Teams Report Brain Injuries
Some 42 of about 100 Patriots who were members of New England’s first three Super Bowl title teams have alleged in a landmark class-action concussion suit against the NFL and the helmet maker Riddell that they have experienced symptoms of brain injuries caused by the repetitive head impacts they absorbed in games and practices. (Hohler, 3/10)

NPR: Drone Delivery For Medical Supplies, Lab Samples And Blood
One shred of solace that surfaced as hurricanes and tropical storms pummeled Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico last fall was the opportunity to see drones realize some of their life-saving potential. During those disasters unmanned aircraft surveyed wrecked roads, bridges and rail lines. They spotted oil and gas leaks. They inspected damaged cell towers that had left thousands unable to call for help. "Drones became a literal lifeline," former Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told the agency's drone advisory committee in November. (Landhuis, 3/10)

Kaiser Health News: New Technologies Help Seniors Age In Place — And Not Feel Alone
Nancy Delano, 80, of Denver has no plans to slow down anytime soon. She still drives to movies, plays and dinners out with friends. A retired elder care nurse who lives alone, she also knows that “when you reach a certain age, emergencies can happen fast.” So, when her son, Tom Rogers, talked to her about installing a remote monitoring system, she didn’t hesitate. With motion sensors placed throughout the house, Rogers can see if his mom is moving around, if she’s sleeping (or not), if she forgot to lock the door and, based on a sophisticated algorithm that detects behavioral patterns, whether her activity level or eating habits have changed significantly, for instance. (Redford, 3/12)

NPR: Vanishing Bone: Plastic Was Weakness Of Hip Implants
It all began with a single X-ray. It was 1974, and surgeons had been doing total hip replacements for a dozen years. "Total hip replacement is an absolutely magnificent operation," says Dr. William H. Harris, "and we were able to do remarkable things to restore mobility and relief of pain and the joy of life to countless individuals." (Goldberg, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Surfing As A PTSD Therapy Being Studied By Navy
In song and prose, surfing has long been celebrated as a way to soothe the mind and invigorate the body. But scientific evidence has been limited. Now the Navy has embarked on a $1 million research project to determine whether surfing has therapeutic value, especially for military personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or sleep problems. Researchers say surfing offers great promise as therapy. It is a challenging exercise in an outdoor environment; people surf individually or in groups; military surfers who are reluctant to attend traditional group therapy open up about their common experiences when talking to other surfers on the beach. (Perry, 3/10)

In other news —

Miami Herald: Miami VA Investigation Finds Discrepancies In Veteran HIV Tests — Some Were Positive
At least eight military veterans who were tested for HIV at the Miami VA Medical Center received a different result when they were screened for a second time by an outside lab — a discrepancy discovered only after an employee at the Miami facility complained to outside agencies and the White House that local managers were ignoring his concerns, according to an independent federal investigator. (Chang, 2/28)

The Washington Post: Fertility Clinic Informs Hundreds Of Patients Their Eggs May Have Been Damaged
A long-established San Francisco fertility clinic experienced a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank holding thousands of frozen eggs and embryos for future use, jeopardizing tissue hundreds of women had stored in hopes of having children. The March 4 incident at Pacific Fertility Clinic, acknowledged Sunday by the facility’s president, followed a similar malfunction the same weekend at an unrelated clinic in Cleveland, the University Hospitals Fertility Center. (Goldstein, 3/11)

NPR: Angola Prison Inmates Sue In Class-Action Suit For What They Call Substandard Medical Care
In 2005, Francis Brauner was a quarter of the way through a 20-year prison sentence at Dixon Correctional Institute in Louisiana, when he had an accident. Brauner was imprisoned for a rape conviction, which he maintains was wrongful and part of a setup by a corrupt judge. His sentence involved hard labor, and one day he was out in the fields, cutting the grass and he bent over to pick something up from the ground. He felt a sharp pain in his back. (Aronczyk and Quandt, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Officials Tight-Lipped In Attack On California Veterans Home
Authorities in Northern California have so far been tight-lipped about why a former Army rifleman may have killed three women after a daylong siege at a veterans home in Napa County wine country. Albert Wong, 36, slipped into a going-away party for two employees of The Pathway Home on the campus of the Yountville veterans home campus about 50 miles north of San Francisco on Friday, then let some people leave, but kept the three women. (3/12)

PBS NewsHour: Mississippi Could Soon Be The Only State To Ban Abortion After 15 Weeks
Mississippi could soon ban abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, the earliest of any state nationwide. Critics say the new law, which Gov. Phil Bryant is expected to sign, could set up a Supreme Court showdown over the 40-year-old landmark Roe v. Wade case that gave women in the United States the legal right to have abortions. (Santhanam, 3/9)

KCUR: New Boss Promising Kansas Child Protection Agency Will Change For The Better 
The new head of Kansas’ troubled child welfare agency got a unanimous vote of confidence from a legislative committee Friday. Even the agency's staunchest critics think Gina Meier-Hummel will sail through a confirmation vote from the full Senate to head the Department for Children and Families. (Mclean, 3/9)

Pioneer Press: Minneapolis City Council Passes Measure Promoting Fast-Track End To AIDS 
Minneapolis became the first city in Minnesota to sign a declaration aiming to end the HIV epidemic. Mayor Jacob Frey and Minneapolis City Council members signed the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities Ending AIDS on Friday. The initiative was launched in 2014 on World AIDS Day in Paris in an effort to educate people living with HIV, as well as decrease stigma and discrimination. (Schmidt, 3/9)

Arizona Republic: State Imposes Limits On Arizona State Hospital Human-Rights Committee
The Arizona Department of Health Services has reined in an Arizona State Hospital volunteer committee after a legal review concluded the committee violated its authority. The state health department's legal review found that human rights committee members "blurred the lines" between committee work and personal advocacy, ADHS Director Cara Christ said in a Feb. 13 letter to committee members. (Alltucker, 3/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Laura’s Law Is Helping Many — But Still Only Making A Dent In SF
Remember Laura’s Law, the program to compel treatment of mentally ill people that the Board of Supervisors bickered about for four years? It finally passed in 2014 and took effect in November 2015. ...Those who received care through Laura’s Law were less likely to wind up in the psychiatric emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital than they were before treatment, less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to be jailed. (Knight, 3/9)

Denver Post: Glenwood Springs’ Valley View Hospital Opts In To Colorado’s Aid-In-Dying Act
Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs will now participate in Colorado’s End-of-Life Options Act, after taking a year to seek some clarity in the state’s rule-making process that governs how the law is to be implemented. Valley View and other area hospitals, including Grand River Health in Rifle and Aspen Valley Hospital, took a wait-and-see approach after the law, which gives terminally ill patients the right to pursue life-ending options, was passed by voters in November 2016. (Stroud, 3/9)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Medicine: Exclusive U-M Medical Plan Buys You 'Better' Care
Michigan Medicine — the health system owned by the University of Michigan — is drawing fire from its own staff over a plan to offer personalized service, reduced waiting times and preferential access to physicians for a hefty yearly fee. The plan, part of the growing nationwide movement known as concierge care, is drawing protests from U-M doctors who are concerned it strays from the institution's public mission. The program is currently enrolling patients. (Jesse, 3/9)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Anthem's New ER Policy Has Area Patients, Medical Professionals Worried About Emergencies
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield's new policy on emergency room visits shifts the responsibility of diagnosing medical emergencies to the patient, those in Ohio medical associations say, leaving patients afraid to visit the ER and not have it covered. The new policy, which went into effect Jan. 1 in Ohio, allows the insurer to decline claims in Ohio for emergency room visits it considers non-emergency. (Christ, 3/11)

Kansas City Star: KC Has Three Five-Star Hospitals
The Kansas City area now has three five-star hospitals, according to Medicare. ...But some say the government rating system is still unfairly penalizing hospitals with low-income patients. (Marso, 3/10)

San Jose Mercury News: Stuck In Limbo, DACA Recipients Consumed By Fear And Anxiety
As the latest deadlines to salvage the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program passed with no action this month — and U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions announced the Trump Administration is suing California over its sanctuary laws — the chronic sense of foreboding among immigrants across the Bay Area is taking its emotional toll. ... Mental health experts and advocates say the fears and uncertainties plaguing undocumented immigrants and their families are causing “toxic stress” that can have long-term health effects, including problems sleeping and eating, headaches, vomiting, depression and anxiety. (Sanchez, 3/9)

Denver Post: 37 People In Six Colorado Counties Sickened By Salmonella Since Mid-February After Eating Burrito Delight
Weld County public health investigators believe an outbreak of salmonella linked to food made by Burrito Delight has peaked with 37 confirmed cases. There have been no new cases reported in the last five days. The foodborne illness was first reported in mid-February, when 17 people who ate food catered by Burrito Delight at two events on the Aims Community College campus in Greeley got sick. Thirteen people became sick after eating at Burrito Delight in Fort Lupton and another seven became ill after eating food they carried out from the restaurant. (3/9)

The Washington Post: Nursing Assistants Accused Of Sex With Patients From Psychiatric And Substance Abuse Center
Two nursing assistants have been accused of engaging in sexual relations with two patients from a psychiatric and substance abuse treatment center in Iowa. The Fayette County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that the certified nursing assistants, who were identified by authorities as Paige Lynn Johanningmeier and Megan Marie Penney, developed a relationship with two patients at the Prairie View Management facility in Fayette, a small town about 70 miles north of Cedar Rapids. (Bever, 3/9)

Boston Globe: Judge Dismisses Bermuda’s Bribery Lawsuit Against Lahey Clinic
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Bermuda government, which accused Lahey Hospital and Medical Center of paying bribes to gain health care business on the island. ...Bermuda, despite having a small population of about 65,000, is an attractive market for American hospitals, partly because it’s close by — just about a two-hour flight from Boston.he British territory from 2006 to 2010. (Kowalczyk, 3/9)

Detroit Free Press: Henry Ford Health Partners With SPLT, Lyft On Patient Appointments
Improving health-care outcomes can sometimes simply mean getting patients to their appointments. Last month, Henry Ford Health System launched a pilot project with Detroit-based startup SPLT and the ride-hailing company Lyft in hopes of doing just that. The health system has partnered with the two services in an effort to get patients in the hospital's dialysis access center to their appointments. The health system uses the SPLT scheduling platform to coordinate trips to the hospital on Grand Boulevard in Detroit. (Lawrence, 3/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Deaths Of Homeless People Go Uncounted In Oakland — And Most Places
Like many local governments, Alameda County does not collect data on how many homeless people die each year or their causes of death. Even if it did, neither the state nor federal government tracks such data — or requires that it be collected. (Veklerov, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Another Harsh Truth About Opioids: They’re Not A Better Way To Manage Pain
Opioid overdoses, both fatal and nonfatal, increased 30 percent from July 2016 through September 2017 in 52 areas in 45 states, according to the latest review of emergency-room admissions data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published Tuesday. On the same day, the Journal of the American Medical Association released the results of a year-long study from Minneapolis-area Veterans Affairs clinics showing that opioids were no more effective against common forms of back and joint pain than acetaminophen. These new findings underscore a tragic irony of the deadly epidemic: Though it has by now morphed into a problem of both licit substances, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, and illicit ones, such as heroin, the opioid epidemic’s roots lie in a wave of permissive prescribing of opioids that turns out, in hindsight, to have been unjustifiable even as good pain-management practice. (3/9)

The New York Times: The Benefits Of Opioids
About 100 million Americans — or nearly one out of every three — suffers from chronic pain. For a good number of them, the pain is severe. Some haven’t found any way to reduce the pain, and it dominates their lives. Others have found successful strategies, including exercise, stretching, physical therapy, meditation and medicine. Of those who use medicine, a significant number rely on opioids. By now, you may think of opioids as nothing other than a problem. And they are indeed a problem, responsible for many of the 64,000 fatal drug overdoses in the United States in 2016. But opioids aren’t only a problem. (David Leonhardt, 3/9)

Chicago Tribune: Judgment Calls: Who Really Needs A Painkiller?
Patients in pain present a daily conundrum for physicians like me. Each one is set against the backdrop of epidemic opioid misuse in our country. Overdose deaths have tripled in the past decade, and addiction has grown into a full-fledged societal calamity fanned by overindulgent prescription pens. Now doctors are pulled in opposite directions by an individual’s pain and a society’s crisis. Do we prescribe opioids or not? (Jonathan Resiman, 3/10)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Fentanyl Adds A Deadly Twist To The Opioid Epidemic
For the sake of almost 24,000 families devastated by a fentanyl overdose each year, parents, teachers, pop culture icons, political and religious leaders, and health care professionals must take an active role to dissuade young Americans from taking illegal drugs in the first place. But in order for the message to get out there, and to prevent more senseless tragedies like the one the Manning family experienced, the media must recognize that fentanyl has become the new face of America’s opioid epidemic. (Newt Gingrich and Lee Habeeb, 3/10)

Bloomberg: America's Next Big Drug Problem: Benzodiazepines
Imagine it were possible to return to the time before opioid use soared in the U.S. -- to the early 1990s, before so many doctors came to overprescribe Oxycontin, Vicodin and the like for every imaginable kind of pain; before millions became addicted; before prescription opioid users switched to heroin and deadly street fentanyl. Back then, the crisis might have been nipped in the bud. Today, the U.S. may stand at another such moment. Its next huge drug problem seems likely to be benzodiazepines. Better known as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, they are tranquilizers used to treat anxiety and insomnia -- maladies at least as universal and hard to measure and cure as pain. In this century, the number of adults filling benzodiazepine prescriptions has increased nearly 70 percent, and the quantities taken have tripled. (3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Cures Welcome At FDA
Few conditions are as wrenching as the destruction of memory known as Alzheimer’s, and few diseases have so eluded drug companies and researchers looking for a cure. So it’s welcome news that the Food and Drug Administration is inviting more innovation, and more broadly revamping the agency’s review process. FDA recently updated its scientific thinking on early Alzheimer’s, along with other neurological conditions, and this matters because such draft guidance informs industry and academic efforts. One reality of Alzheimer’s is that the disease may “progress invisibly for years,” as Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in the announcement, and by the time clinical symptoms arrive a patient may have lost significant function. (3/11)

Axios: Red-State Changes Could Strengthen ACA, Medicaid
By making their Affordable Care Act marketplaces and Medicaid programs more conservative, the leaders of several red states may actually strengthen the ACA and Medicaid by creating a stronger Republican constituency for both programs. The bottom line: As they make a series of changes — through waivers and other means — to swing the programs to the right, those state leaders are building a broader political base for the programs in red states. That could make ACA repeal and Medicaid cuts an even tougher sell in the future than it is now. (Drew Altman, 3/12)

Columbus Dispatch: Proposed Work Rules Affect Medicaid
If Gov. John Kasich is to be judged on the values he says he tried to follow during his two terms, attention must be paid to the Medicaid work requirements his administration seeks to impose as his tenure winds down. For good or bad, Kasich will be remembered for bucking his Republican colleagues and the usual legislative process to expand Medicaid, the federal/state program of health care for the poor and disabled. Now advocates for Ohio’s neediest citizens say Kasich’s legacy of extending help to those less fortunate is threatened by proposed new rules requiring Medicaid recipients to either work or meet exemptions to continue their health-care access. (3/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Health Insurance Premiums Will Soar In California, Nation, Thanks To Congress
Without action in Washington, premiums will continue to rise year after year. Covered California’s analysis predicts premium hikes of 35 percent by 2021 in 15 states, including California. Seventeen states will see 90 percent premium spikes by 2021. (3/10)

WBUR: Why The Trump Administration Is Hazardous To Your Health
In the U.S., our politics have largely failed us when it comes to creating the conditions that allow us to be healthy. This failure began in the 1980s, when we started to disinvest in the policies and institutions that foster health. (Sandro Galea, 3/12)

Stat: Beware Anthem's Sneak Attack On Emergency Care Coverage
Most people buy insurance to protect financially against potentially catastrophic events and emergencies. But if you have health insurance through Anthem, a health insurance company that covers an astounding 1 in 8 Americans, watch out: You may be on your own in an emergency. Anthem has introduced a restriction on emergency care coverage, effectively denying most if not all coverage if they decide after your ED visit that you didn’t have an emergency condition. (Shih-Chuan (Andrew) Chou and Jeremiah D. Schuur, 3/9)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Trump Administration Plays Down Science In Shift On Family-Planning Funding
The Trump administration’s answer to questions surrounding family planning and safe sex is to give preference for $260 million in grants to groups stressing abstinence and “fertility awareness.” Instead of urging at-risk members of the public to use condoms and other forms of protection, the administration favors far-less safe and effective measures such as the rhythm method. A president who is currently fighting to keep secret the details of his 2006 sexual liaison with a porn star probably is the last person to serve as a national role model on this issue. But even this administration can do better to raise public awareness on the importance of family planning. (3/11)

The Hill: Mississippi Abortion Ban Make Perfect Sense If You Care About Human Lives
New pro-life legislation has the NARAL Pro-Choice America up in arms. A new bill making its way through the Mississippi legislature would limit abortions to no later than 15 weeks, making it one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States. Currently, abortion laws in 20 states have restrictions that prohibit “partial-birth” abortions, but the passage of this bill would signify significant progress for the pro-life movement, which has been pushing for stronger pro-life policies nationwide. (Jen Kerns, 3/11)

The Washington Post: I Would’ve Aborted A Fetus With Down Syndome. Women Need That Right. 
There is a new push in antiabortion circles to pass state laws aimed at barring women from terminating their pregnancies after the fetus has been determined to have Down syndrome. These laws are unconstitutional, unenforceable — and wrong. ...North Dakota, Ohio, Indiana and Louisiana passed legislation to prohibit doctors from performing abortions if the sole reason is because of a diagnosis of Down syndrome; Utah’s legislature is debating such a bill. These laws are flatly inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, reaffirmed in 1992, that “it is a constitutional liberty of the woman to have some freedom to terminate her pregnancy.” (Ruth Marcus, 3/9)

The New York Times: Do Antidepressants Work?
More people in the United States are on antidepressants, as a percentage of the population, than any other country in the world. And yet the drugs’ efficacy has been hotly debated. Some believe that the short-term benefits are much more modest than widely thought, and that harms may outweigh benefits in the long run. Others believe that they work, and that they can be life-changing.Settling this debate has been much harder than you might think. (Aaron E. Carroll, 3/12)

Bloomberg: Florida's New Gun Rules Are A Turning Point
For evidence that the tide is turning on responsible gun regulation, Florida is now Exhibit A.The state’s politicians have long produced some of the most irresponsible gun proposals in the U.S., encouraging concealed carry of firearms and enacting “Stand Your Ground” laws that shielded reckless shooters from responsibility. This week, they took a new and promising direction. (3/9)

Stat: Martin Shkreli Has Been Sentenced. Pharma Is Trying To Get Away Scot-Free
In raising prices, [Martin] Shkreli was doing what lots of other biotech and pharma CEOs did, and still do to various degrees. Legally. This is the inconvenient truth that some in the biopharma industry are still running away from, three years after Shkreli sparked a nationwide conversation — some might call it a shaming — about the pricing and affordability of prescription drugs. (Adam Feuerstein, 3/9)

Georgia Health News: Save Lives By Enforcing Fair Compensation For Mental Health Services
Mental health and substance use disorders affect society in ways that go beyond the direct cost of care. Without effective treatment, people with these health conditions may find it difficult to find or maintain a job, may be less able to pursue education and training opportunities, may require more social support services, and are more likely to have their housing stability threatened. (Roland Behm, 3/10)

Lexington Herald Tribune: Remove Unneeded Limits On Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
More than one million Kentuckians, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, reside in a Health Care Professional Shortage Area, where the number of health-care providers relative to the population is far below the federal standard.  One in every four Kentuckians resides in one of 87 HPSAs, and lacks access to the most fundamental health care services — services that highly qualified, nationally board-certified Advanced Practice Registered Nurses could better provide, if not for an antiquated law. (Wendy Fletcher, 3/7)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Women Veterans Deserve Our Support
Studies show that female veterans can face greater challenges than their male counterparts when re-entering civilian life. They often experience gaps in medical care and see higher rates of unemployment. (Alaina Foster, 3/10)

Charlotte Observer: Don’t Blame Workers For Psych Center Woes
Aren’t we asking a bit too much of these hourly, entry-level employees? Any meaningful reform of the broken mental health system has to include improving conditions for these workers. Psych facilities will be safe for our kids only if the workers are qualified, well-trained and fairly compensated. (Keri Williams, 3/10)