Politico: AIDS Researcher Favored To Be Next CDC Chief
Robert Redfield, an HIV/AIDS expert at the University of Maryland Medical Center, is being vetted by the Trump administration to run the CDC, five individuals with knowledge of the situation tell POLITICO. Redfield emerged this week as the favored choice to replace former CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, who resigned in late January after POLITICO reported she had traded tobacco, drug and food stocks while heading the public health agency. (Diamond, 3/16)

The New York Times: AIDS Researcher Top Candidate To Lead The C.D.C.
A formal announcement about the candidate, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, could come as early as Tuesday, once the vetting has been finished, said an administration official with knowledge of the appointment, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The review process is likely to be thorough. President Trump’s first C.D.C. director, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in January after about six months amid reports that she held investments in tobacco and health care companies that posed potential conflicts of interest. (Kaplan, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Top Candidate To Lead CDC Is An HIV/AIDS Researcher
The CDC director’s job has been vacant since Jan. 31, when former Georgia public health commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald resigned after serving only half a year. She was unable to divest from “complex financial interests” in a “definitive time period,” according to a statement from the Health and Human Services Department. Fitzgerald had also purchased shares in a tobacco company shortly after becoming CDC director. HHS Secretary Alex Azar accepted her resignation two days after he was sworn in. (Sun, 3/16)

The Hill: HIV/AIDS Expert Expected As Trump’s Next Pick To Head CDC: Report
Redfield co-founded the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and served on former President George W. Bush’s advisory council on HIV/AIDS. (Sanchez, 3/17)

The Associated Press: Trump Opioid Plan Includes Death Penalty For Traffickers
President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid drug addiction nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty where appropriate under current law. That from a top administration official. It’s a fate for drug dealers that Trump, who aims to be seen as tough on crime, has been highlighting publicly in recent weeks. (Superville, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration To Seek Stiffer Penalties Against Drug Dealers, Reduce Opioid Prescribing
Administration officials said Sunday that the measures are part of a three-pronged approach to fighting the opioid epidemic, which killed tens of thousands of people in 2016. The White House said it aims to reduce the demand for opioids by slowing overprescribing, cutting off the supply of illicit drugs and helping those who are addicted. “The opioid crisis is viewed by us at the White House as a nonpartisan problem searching for a bipartisan solution,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said. (Zezima, 3/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Opioid Battle Plan Includes Seeking More Death-Penalty Prosecutions
Other elements of the strategy, the White House said, would include a fresh public-awareness campaign about drug abuse, a research-and-development partnership between the National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies into opioid prescription alternatives, tougher sentences for fentanyl traffickers, and screening of all prison inmates for opioid addiction. But it is the death penalty proposal that is likely to dominate discussion of the package. (Radnofsky, 3/18)

Politico: White House Tweaks Plan To Seek Death Penalty As Part Of Opioid Response
“The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when appropriate under current law,” said Andrew Bremberg, the White House’s director of the Domestic Policy Council. White House officials referred follow-up questions to DOJ. An earlier version of the plan, obtained by POLITICO last week, would have called for the death penalty in some cases involving drug dealers, too. (Diamond, 3/18)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Trump Opioid Plan Includes Death Penalty For Drug Dealers 'Where It's Appropriate' 
The Trump administration wants to cut opioid prescriptions by one-third within three years. Its “Safer Prescribing Plan” would offer states incentives to take part in a national database monitoring opioid prescriptions. Such a program, officials said, would highlight individuals requesting many prescriptions. (Feely, 3/18)

The Hill: Trump To Release Opioid Epidemic Plan On Monday That Includes Death Penalty 
Trump will also call on Congress to pass legislation reducing the threshold amount of drugs sold that are required to invoke mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers “who knowingly distribute certain illicit opioids that are lethal in trace amounts.” The president will also urge Congress to change a decades-old rule that greatly restricts Medicaid from fund residential treatment in certain facilities for those with an opioid addiction, a move that could cost billions of dollars. (Roubein, 3/18)

Boston Globe: In Visit To N.H., Trump To Announce Opioid Plan Including Death Penalty
Trump is making the announcement during an afternoon event at Manchester Community College, returning for the first time as president to the state that delivered him his first big primary win and set him on his improbable pathway to the presidency. He often highlighted the opioid epidemic during his campaign there, expressing shock that a state with such beautiful scenery could be ravaged by a scourge of tragic drug-related death. “More than any place, this state, I’ve never seen anything like it with what’s happening with the drugs, more so than in other places, and other places are a disaster,” Trump said in September 2016. “But we’re going to turn it around for New Hampshire.” (Viser, 3/19)

The New York Times: Louise Slaughter, 88, 16-Term Liberal Congresswoman, Is Dead
Louise M. Slaughter, a liberal Democrat who represented an upstate New York district in Congress for more than three decades, pushing to protect health privacy and abortion rights and playing a key role in the passage of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, died on Friday in Washington. She was 88 and in the midst of her 16th term in the House. In announcing her death, at George Washington University Hospital, her chief of staff, Liam Fitzsimmons, said Ms. Slaughter had sustained an injury last week at her home in Washington. (Fried, 3/16)

Reuters: Louise Slaughter, Longtime Progressive New York Congresswoman, Dies At 88
"Congresswoman Slaughter embodied the very best of the American spirit and ideals," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. "With her passing, the Congressional community has lost a beloved leader and a cherished friend." (Mitchell and Cornwell, 3/16)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Rep. Louise Slaughter Dies
In 2007, Ms. Slaughter became the first woman to chair the Rules panel, where she helped shepherd Democratic bills through the House, including the Affordable Care Act, which was enacted in 2010. She wrote an early version of the Stock Act, which banned members from trading stocks based on nonpublic, market-moving information they learned while serving in Congress. The law was enacted in 2012. (Andrews, 3/16)

The Associated Press: Shutdown Looming, Congress And White House Seek Budget Deal
Congressional leaders and the White House are pressing to strike an accord on a $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill, though disputes remain over immigration, abortion and a massive rail project that pits President Donald Trump against his most powerful Democratic adversary. An agreement by Monday would pave the way for a House vote on Wednesday. Action is needed by midnight Friday to avert another government shutdown. (3/19)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

CQ: Dispute Over Emergency Supplies Slows Pandemic Preparedness Bill
A bipartisan pandemic-preparedness bill is proving controversial because of a dispute over who should oversee the nation’s emergency medical supplies. Some Democrats worry that a proposal to transfer authority over the emergency stockpile from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to another office within the Health and Human Services Department risks politicizing its governance and could give industry outsized influence over what is purchased. (Siddons, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Report: Abortion Is Safe But Barriers Reduce Quality Of Care
Abortions in the U.S. are very safe but getting one without facing delays and false medical information depends on where women live, says a broad examination of the nation's abortion services. Friday's report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine shows abortion increasingly is performed early in pregnancy, when it's safest. The risk of maternal death is higher from tonsillectomies, colonoscopies and childbirth, according to the independent panel, which advises the government on scientific issues. (Neergaard, 3/16)

The Washington Post: 5 Interesting Findings About U.S. Abortions From A New Report On The Current Science
“In many states, regulations have created barriers to safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable abortion services,” they write. “The regulations often prohibit qualified providers from providing services, misinform women of the risks of the procedures they are considering, overrule women’s and clinician’s medical decision-making, or require medically unnecessary services and delays in care.” (Cha, 3/16)

Los Angeles Times: The National Academies Take A Hard Look At The Safety And Quality Of Abortion Care In The U.S.
The roughly 200-page report on the safety and quality of abortion care could provide guidance to policymakers and medical practitioners looking for ways to best serve patients' needs. (Khan, 3/16)

NPR: Abortion in U.S. Is Safe, According To Report By National Academies
"I would say the main takeaway is that abortions that are provided in the United States are safe and effective," says Ned Calonge, the co-chair of the committee that wrote the study. He is an associate professor of family medicine and epidemiology at the University of Colorado and CEO of The Colorado Trust. Calonge says the researchers found that about 90 percent of all abortions happen in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. And complications for all abortions are "rare," the report says. (Kodjak, 3/16)

The Associated Press: Judge Upholds Mississippi Mandate On Doctors Who Do Abortion
A federal judge is upholding part of a Mississippi law that says doctors who perform abortions must be board-certified or board-eligible in obstetrics and gynecology. The 2012 law also says doctors doing abortions must have hospital admitting privileges. However, U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan blocked Mississippi from enforcing that portion of the law in 2012 after the state's only abortion clinic sued. (3/16)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Affiliates Ask Court To Continue Grants For Teen Pregnancy Programs 
Planned Parenthood affiliates have filed a motion in court to continue federal funding for programs receiving federal grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP). The Trump administration last year announced it would end five-year grants for 81 institutions two years early. The grants were given under the Obama administration. (Bowden, 3/17)

Politico: Obamacare Insurers Just Had Their Best Year Ever — Despite Trump
Obamacare is no longer busting the bank for insurers. After three years of financial bloodletting under the law — and despite constant repeal threats and efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle it — many of the remaining insurers made money on individual health plans for the first time last year, according to a POLITICO analysis of financial filings for 29 regional Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, often the dominant player in their markets. (Demko, 3/17)

Stat: What Will Become Of The Man Who Helped Build Theranos?
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani is a virtual ghost — despite serving nearly seven years in the No. 2 position at the blood-testing startup that turned out to be too good to be true. While the black-turtleneck-clad [Elizabeh] Holmes graced magazine covers and spoke before adoring crowds, Balwani, her former boyfriend, stayed in the shadows. He has almost no internet presence, and the only verifiable photo that STAT could find of him was a grainy image from his 1988 college yearbook. Now, he’s at the center of a legal showdown that could tear open a new chapter in a scandal that has rocked the business world and captivated the public imagination. And it could set up a daytime-TV legal defense: My ex-girlfriend duped me. (Robbins, Garde and Feuerstein, 3/19)

In other health industry news —

Bloomberg: TPG Targets $11 Billion For Next Main Buyout Fund
TPG is targeting $11 billion for its eighth flagship buyout fund and launching a supplementary health-care pool at the same time, according to people familiar with the matter. The target for the health-care fund, known as a sidecar, is $2.5 billion, said the people, asking not to be identified because the details are private. That pool is likely to split the main fund’s health-care deals on a 50-50 basis, one of the people said. (Mittelman and Willmer, 3/16)

Bloomberg: J&J Reaches $2.1 Billion Deal to Sell Diabetes Device Business 
Johnson & Johnson got a $2.1 billion offer from a private-equity firm for its glucose monitor business LifeScan, the drugmaker said Friday. The company said in January of last year that it was considering options for the diabetes device business as part of a broader effort to focus on its core health-care offerings. The deal, with Platinum Equity, is expected to close by the end of the year. (Koons, 3/16)

The New York Times: Take This App and Call Me in the Morning
Health tech companies are making a big push to digitize medicine, introducing novel tools like digital pills that track when patients take their drugs and smart spoons that can automatically adjust to hand tremors.Now they want some patients to get prescription treatments from the app store as well. Later this year, doctors treating patients addicted to substances like cocaine and amphetamines will be able to prescribe Reset, an app that gives patients lessons to help them modify their behavior. The Food and Drug Administration cleared it in September as the first mobile medical app to help treat substance-use disorders. (Singer, 3/18)

In other health and technology related news —

Modern Healthcare: Chief Information Officers Roundtable: As Technology Drives Consumerism, Consumerism Drives Technology 
High-tech, high-touch companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Uber are not just knocking on healthcare's front door—they are poised to kick it down. The industry's glacial-like approach of adapting to new trends has never been more challenged. For chief information officers, that means embracing the shift to consumerism and fostering an environment where healthcare closely resembles how consumers interact with practically every other sector of the economy and their private lives. (Arndt, 3/17)

Dallas Morning News: Amazon Taps Health Information Expert With Texas Connection To Lead Health Tech Business 
Amazon has tapped a former chief of health informatics for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who went to school in Texas to serve in a role focused on health care projects. Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, will work in a business development role, according to a report from CNBC citing a source with knowledge of the hire. Kass-Hout’s online profile says he holds a master of science in biostatistics in epidemiology and a doctor of medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. (Rice, 3/16)

The New York Times: 5 Doctors Are Charged With Taking Kickbacks For Fentanyl Prescriptions
In March of 2013, Gordon Freedman, a doctor on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, fielded a request from a regional sales manager for the manufacturer of Subsys, a spray form of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl. Dr. Freedman was already a top prescriber of Subsys and also one of the company’s paid promotional speakers. Now the sales manager was telling him the company, Insys Therapeutics, would increase the amount of money it was paying him and asked that he increase the number of new patients he was prescribing Subsys. (Weiser and Thomas, 3/16)

Stat: Former Insys Employees Agree To Cooperate With The Feds In Kickback Probe
Two former Insys Therapeutics sales employees have agreed to cooperate with a federal government probe that prosecutors have described as a “nationwide conspiracy” to profit from illegally distributing an opioid medication. Jonathan Roper, a former district sales manager, and Fernando Serrano, a former sales representative, also pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to doctors in order to boost prescriptions for the Subsys painkiller, which contains fentanyl, a powerful and addictive opioid, prosecutors said Friday. In addition, the feds disclosed indictments of five New York doctors for taking kickbacks. (Silverman, 3/16)

The Associated Press: Q&A: Holding Drugmakers Accountable for the Opioid Crisis
Hundreds of communities in the U.S. are suing the makers and distributors of opioid painkillers, arguing that the companies should help pay the enormous costs of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history. Since 2000, more than 340,000 Americans have died from overdoses of opioids, which include prescription painkillers and illegal drugs like heroin. The financial toll has been estimated at $500 billion in 2015, according to the latest White House figures, which include deaths, health care, lost productivity and criminal justice costs. (Perrone, 3/18)

In other news on the epidemic —

The New York Times: Palliative Care Film Challenges Stereotypes About Opioids
“Hippocratic,” a documentary about the life of Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, India’s leading advocate of palliative care, is now touring the United States — a country where attitudes toward pain relief have changed because of the overdose epidemic. Dr. Rajagopal’s chief message — and that of the film — is that the essence of care for the dying is simple compassion. His inspiration came from Mahatma Gandhi, said Dr. Rajagopal, who in 2014 won a global award from Human Rights Watch for his activism. (McNeil, 3/16)

Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Company Battling Opioid Addictions Raises $8 Million
180 Health Partners, a Nashville-based behavioral health company battling the opioid epidemic, has raised $8 million to fund its expansion and help mothers and newborns in more states. 180 Health Partners, led by CEO Justin Lanning, provides access to medical and behavioral health care to pregnant mothers struggling with opioid use and helps them give birth to healthy babies.  (McGee, 3/18)

Columbus Dispatch: Program Aims To Help Opioid-Addicted Parents Keep Kids
The START project (Sobriety, Treatment and Reducing Trauma) is primarily funded by $3.5 million in federal grant money passed through Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office. The goal is to keep children of drug-addicted parents at home and out of foster care, provided their parents undergo the treatment, counseling and other hard work required to get and stay clean. (Lane, 3/18)

The New York Times: Federal Agency Courted Alcohol Industry To Fund Study On Benefits Of Moderate Drinking
It was going to be a study that could change the American diet, a huge clinical trial that might well deliver all the medical evidence needed to recommend a daily alcoholic drink as part of a healthy lifestyle. That was how two prominent scientists and a senior federal health official pitched the project during a presentation at the luxurious Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2014. And the audience members who were being asked to help pay for the $100 million study seemed receptive: They were all liquor company executives. (Rabin, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Colorectal Cancer Month Draws Attention To Deadly And Silent Disease
Pop quiz: What’s the third most common cancer?If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. The answer is colorectal cancer, a type of cancer that can be silent. Yet it’s the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. March is Colorectal Cancer Month, so it’s a good time to brush up on your knowledge about symptoms and screenings. (Blakemore, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: Erasing Stephen Hawking's Disability Erases An Important Part Of Who He Was
In the days since Stephen Hawking's death, obituaries have described him as being "confined" or "chained" to a wheelchair, as someone who "overcame" his disability and succeeded in spite of it. None of those things are true. Stephen Hawking had a disability, and Stephen Hawking used a wheelchair. His work was possible because of those things, not in spite of them. (Roy, 3/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Sulston’s Work On Lowly Worm Led To Major Role In Mapping Human Genome
The nematode worm known as C. elegans is only a millimeter long and leads what appears to be a fairly dull existence. It eats bacteria, wriggles around and reaches adulthood in three days. “It consists basically of two tubes, one inside the other,” the English biologist John Sulston wrote in a memoir. Although some colleagues thought he was wasting time, Dr. Sulston for years spent up to eight hours a day peering through microscopes at these worms. His findings on the genetics of worms won him a Nobel Prize for physiology in 2002. (Hagerty, 3/16)

NPR: Marijuana's Secondhand Smoke Poses Risks To Heart And Lungs
The inspiration arrived in a haze at a Paul McCartney concert a few years ago in San Francisco. "People in front of me started lighting up and then other people started lighting up," says Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "And for a few naive split seconds I was thinking to myself, 'Hey, they can't smoke in AT&T Park! I'm sure that's not allowed.' And then I realized that it was all marijuana." (Ortega-Welch, 3/19)

Kaiser Health News: Docs Worry There’s ‘Nowhere To Send’ New And Expectant Moms With Depression
Lawmakers in California will begin debate next month on a bill that would require doctors to screen new moms for mental health problems — once while they’re pregnant and again after they give birth. But many obstetricians and pediatricians bristle at the idea, saying they are afraid to screen new moms for depression and anxiety. “What are you going to do with those people who screen positive?” said Dr. Laura Sirott, an OB-GYN who practices in Pasadena. “Some providers have nowhere to send them.” (Dembosky, 3,19)

The New York Times: The Struggle To Build A Massive ‘Biobank’ Of Patient Data
This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever envisioned. The goal is to find one million people in the United States, from all walks of life and all racial and ethnic groups, who are willing to have their genomes sequenced, and to provide their medical records and regular blood samples. (Kolata, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Alexander Disease Afflicts Their Little Boy, And A Family Fights Back
Laura and Josh Ledbetter know they have only have a few years left, at the most, until their 5-year-old son, Grayson, dies. A year ago, Grayson was diagnosed with Alexander disease, an extremely rare type of leukodystrophy that destroys the white matter that protects the nerve fibers in the brain, resulting in debilitating mental and physical delays, and in most cases, death by age 10. It’s a disease so rare that only about 500 cases have been reported since 1949. (Moss, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Can A 1-Year-Old Reason Like A Scientist? Yes, New Research Concludes.
In intriguing research, a team of scientists may have discovered the earliest age at which a person can reason logically: 12 months .For decades, psychologists have considered language a necessary and essential indicator of inferential thinking — the complex ability to “read between the lines,” to reason one’s way to a correct interpretation of an event when the evidence is not obvious. As recently as 2014, experiments by prominent developmental psychologists suggested such thinking began between 3 and 5 years of age. (Nutt, 3/17)

Columbus Dispatch: Report: Racial Disparity In Homelessness Not Just Result Of Poverty
Black people are dramatically overrepresented in both the national and local homeless populations, and the inequity is too vast to chalk up to poverty alone. That’s the key finding in a report released last week that examines the relationship between race and homelessness in the United States. (Price, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Swallowing Hurt, Her Digestion Was Bad, And Doctors Didn't Know Why
Jill Sherrill stepped on the scale at her gym and blanched. Her weight had slipped, again. In the previous 10 months, Sherrill, who is 5-foot-5, had lost 22 pounds without trying. Her friends had urged her to consult her doctor about worsening digestive problems, but for a variety of reasons Sherrill had opted to treat herself. But on that day in August 2015, the reading — 112 pounds — “scared me to death. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I’m dying,’ ” she recalled. (Boodman, 3/17)

WBUR: More Than A Job: Home Care For A Mom With Alzheimer's Disease
As the elderly population in the United States grows, an increasing number of people require extra help in their daily lives. Because of this, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts employment for home health aides will grow 40% between 2016 and 2026. ...Luckily, there are federally and state-funded programs across the country that allow elderly individuals like [Celina] Raddatz's mother to use Medicaid funds to hire their own personal caregivers - including family members. (Monahan, 3/18)

The New York Times: Astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly Are Still Identical Twins, Despite What You May Have Read
After a flurry of similar news coverage was widely shared this week, NASA put out a statement on Thursday to set things straight: Mark Kelly and Scott Kelly are just as much twins as they were before Scott went to space. “Scott’s DNA did not fundamentally change,” the space agency said. “What researchers did observe are changes in gene expression, which is how your body reacts to your environment. This likely is within the range for humans under stress, such as mountain climbing or SCUBA diving.” (Victor, 3/16)

New Hampshire Union Leader: VA Health Care Report Discussed A Clinic That Doesn't Exist 
A market-based report that assessed the health care needs of New Hampshire and Vermont veterans listed a community clinic that did not exist. The report chronicles all the Veterans Affairs sites in the two states and included a community-based outpatient clinic in St. Johnsbury, Vt., that the report said served nearly 7,000 veterans in 2017. This community does not now or ever has had such a clinic, according to U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H. She questioned a top Department of Veterans Affairs official about the glaring mistake during a subcommittee hearing Thursday. (Landrigran, 3/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: In A First, Veterans Affairs Centers Use Genetic Testing To Treat Depression
For the first time since he began practicing medicine in 1992, [Kewchang] Lee is asking a small number of his patients to take a cheek swab for a genetic test analyzing their ability to metabolize commonly prescribed antidepressants. ...It is the first study in the VA health system to examine whether doctors gaining knowledge of their patients’ genomic composition can help shape more precise treatment plans for depression. (Ho, 3/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Health Care Delivery Experiment Saves Medicare More Than Half A Billion Dollars In Hospitals 
Hospitals in Maryland have saved millions of dollars in health care costs by eschewing the tradition fee-for-service model for one that emphasizes overall health, a report released by state regulators shows. Three years into a unique five-year agreement with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that began in 2014, the hospitals saved $586 million for the federal health care programs, above a major goal of the program. (Cohn, 3/16)

Kaiser Health News: Maryland's Global Budget System For Hospital Payments Saves Millions In Health Care Costs
Saturdays at Mercy Medical Center used to be perversely lucrative. The dialysis clinic across the street was closed on weekends. That meant the downtown Baltimore hospital would see patients with failing kidneys who should have gone to the dialysis center. So Mercy admitted them, collecting as much as $30,000 for treatment that typically costs hundreds of dollars.“That’s how the system worked,” said Mercy CEO Thomas Mullen. Instead of finding less expensive alternatives, he said, “our financial people were saying, ‘We need to admit them.’” (Hancock, 3/19)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Citing More Philly-Area Nursing Homes For Lack Of Nursing Care
After receiving criticism as being lax, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has increased the number of citations given for inadequate staffing in Philadelphia-area nursing homes over the last two years. The agency cited facilities 12 times last year for violations of staffing rules, up from six in 2016 and no more than two in any of the previous eight years. (Brubaker, 3/16)

Chicago Tribune: Democrats Running For Roskam's Seat Put A Big Focus On Health Care 
Most of the leading Democrats in the crowded field running to take on veteran Republican lawmaker Peter Roskam of Wheaton have made personal health crises central to their campaigns, seizing his longtime opposition to the Affordable Care Act in what they see as a rare shot at flipping a suburban district that has long favored the GOP. (Skiba, 3/16)

Los Angeles Times: Faced With Complaints Of Filth And Blight, L.A. Cracks Down On Overnight RV Parking. Now, The Homeless Are Scrambling
For a while, Vincent Neill and his family parked their weathered RVs on a stretch of roadway in Canoga Park, where the kids had friends down the street. But then business owners began to complain, he said. So Neill, his wife and their seven children relocated their caravan of vehicles to a Chatsworth manufacturing zone. (Reyes, 3/15)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore's Medical Students Celebrate Years Of Hard Work At Match Day 
This year 37,103 students vied for 33,167 medical residencies nationally, the most ever offered, according to the National Resident Matching Program. Students across the country all received their much anticipated letters at noon. They are entering medicine as the country faces a looming shortage of doctors. The United State will be short 40,800 to 104,900 physicians by 2030, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Specialty care will face the largest gaps. (McDaniels, 3/15)

Dallas Morning News: Blue Cross, Texas Health Contract Negotiations Leave Patients Anxious Yet Again 
When Michelle Cook received a call from her primary care physician’s office Wednesday urging her to move an annual physical up two weeks earlier than scheduled, she was taken by surprise. She was told that if she didn’t have her preventive care visit completed before the end of March — before the April 6 date she had originally planned — she might not be able to get it done at all, at least, not at that physician’s office. Or she might have to pay the full cost, out-of-pocket. (Rice, 3/16)

The Oregonian: Domestic Violence Survivor, Single Mom, Wins $40,000 In Dental Implants 
She was one of 12 siblings growing up in Portland, and dental care wasn't a priority. As a kid, she had several molars pulled rather than repaired. In her 20s, an abusive ex punched her in the mouth, she said, knocking out several front teeth. [Connie] Lorenzo has worn dentures ever since – until this month, when she received free dental implants, valued at more than $40,000, through the Second Chance program at Beacon Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons. (Swindler, 3/17)

Kansas City Star: Measles Exposure Risk At These Nine Kansas Sites
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday that at least seven people in Johnson County and Miami County have contracted measles and released a list of nine public places where others might have been exposed. (Marso, 3/16)

The Star Tribune: Syringe Reuse Incident In St. Paul Rare But Concerning 
An unnerving case of a St. Paul nurse practitioner reusing syringes and exposing 161 patients to infection risk shows that unsafe injection practices still occur in U.S. health care. But the reasons remain a mystery. In an era when contact lenses and mobile phones are disposable, researchers said they aren’t sure why any health care providers deviate from long-standing practice and reuse syringes. But they do know the consequence: More than 150,000 people have been tested in the United States since 2001 for exposure to viruses such as HIV and hepatitis C due to unsafe injections by health care providers. (Olson, 3/17)

Miami Herald: Some Alka-Seltzer Plus Products Recalled Due To Labeling Error
Alka-Seltzer Plus packages sold after Feb. 9, 2018, at retailers including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart are a part of the Bayer company’s voluntary recall. ... The affected Alka-Seltzer Plus packages can be identified by checking the Bayer logo located on the lower left corner of the carton’s front. (Cohen, 3/16)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Nonprofit Aids Families With Hygiene Items, Not Food
From its 20,000-square-feet underground storage facility off of 31st Street, Giving the Basics distributes hygiene products all over the city via 315 agencies, schools and police departments. Soon, thanks to a nearly $1 million donation from Peter and Veronica Mallouk, Giving the Basics will open a second 24,000-square-feet location on the Kansas side. (Frese, 3/19)

Denver Post: Westminster Hospice CovenantCare Closing, Laying Off 67 Employees
The Colorado CovenantCare at Home facility in Westminster will shut down May 17 and lay off at least 67 employees, the company said.In a statement, shared by spokesman Randy Eilts, the company said competition was to blame. ...CovenantCare at Home is part of Covenant Retirement, “one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit retirement housing organizations” with 16 locations nationwide, according to the company. It also has a retirement facility at 9153 Yarrow St. in Westminster. That retirement community will not be impacted, nor will the agencies operating in St. Charles, Ill. and Turlock, Calif. (Chuang, 3/16)

Orlando Sentinel: New Report Offers Snapshot Of Health Of Hispanic Residents In Orange County
For the first time, the Florida Department of Health in Orange County has issued an assessment of the Hispanic population, showing several areas of need and highlighting health disparities in the community. (Miller, 3/16)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento, CA May Open Bathrooms For Homeless Downtown
With the population of people living on the street at a record high, Sacramento City Hall is focusing on sheltering the homeless. But advocates for months have consistently pushed for action on another front: providing places for people to relieve themselves. (Lillis and Hubert, 3/19)

Arizona Republic: Out-Of-State Medical Marijuana Cardholders Can Use Pot In Arizona
A three-judge panel upheld that a physician recommendation for cannabis under California's Compassionate Use Act is equivalent to cards issued under Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act. ... The question centered on a 2016 case in which state police pulled over Stanley Kemmish Jr., who had a California medical marijuana card. Kemmish was indicted on one count of possession of narcotic drugs, and one count each of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia. (Wingett Sanchez, 3/16)

The Washington Post: The Silenced Majority Of Women Who Would Abort A Fetus With Down Syndrome
Cathy McMorris Rodgers serves as chair of the House Republican Conference, which puts her in charge of the congressional GOP’s messaging. McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) is also the proud mother of a 10-year-old who has Down syndrome, which makes it unsurprising that she directed an unhappy message my way after a column about state legislation to prohibit abortions for fetuses with Down syndrome. “I struggled to put into words how offensive it is,” McMorris Rodgers tweeted about the column, in which I wrote that I would have terminated a pregnancy had prenatal testing shown Down syndrome. (Ruth Marcus, 3/16)

The New York Times: How To Talk About Abortion
When moral philosophers and others take up an issue that is at the center of public debate, we tend to frame it as a matter of individual ethics. Is it morally permissible to eat meat? To offer money for sex? To have an abortion? Yet, such questions often fail to focus on the issues that are important and relevant for public policy and, as a result, can derail productive public debate. (Laurie Shrage, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court And California Pregnancy Crisis Centers: The Right To Remain Silent
Governments routinely behave badly, but sometimes their mean-spiritedness comes to the Supreme Court’s attention. On Tuesday, it will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of measures that California’s government has taken to compel pro-life entities to speak against their own mission. (George Will, 3/17)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: No One Religion Speaks For Morality Of Reproductive Rights
There is more than one way to speak morally about reproductive rights. I certainly respect those who believe abortion is wrong. As a rabbi, however, I do not respect how Ohio leaders pretend that the only moral position is one which subverts women's reproductive freedom. The latest proposal, Ohio Senate Bill 145, seeks to ban the most common medical procedure of abortion. Like many restrictive policies, it forces Ohio women into a situation to accept inferior, ill-advised options from their physicians. (Robert A. Nosanchuk, 3/18)

USA Today: I'm A Catholic Obstetrician Who Had An Abortion. This Is Life, Not Politics.
My job is to take care of women. As an obstetrician-gynecologist working in Botswana, I see women through the highs and lows of their reproductive lives. Until last year, I personally had only experienced the highs. In 2015, I gave birth to a perfect baby at the right time in my life given my values and goals. A few years later, when I was ready, I got pregnant with my second child. Last August, I went for my 20-week ultrasound, expecting to find out if number two was a boy or a girl. Instead, I looked to the monitor and found a fetus struggling to survive in my womb. I’m used to being on the other side of that ultrasound probe, so I knew what was next. I would have said the same thing: “The baby can’t survive. And you can get very sick.” (Rebecca Luckett, 3/19)

Lexington Herald Tribune: Kentucky Lawmakers Use Sympathy For People With Disabilities To Restrict Right To Abortion But Don't Want To Hear How Their Actions Are Hurting People With Disabilities
I witnessed a sleight-of-hand at the Kentucky Capitol on March 8. Under the pretense of concern for the “human rights” and “ethical and humane treatment” of fetuses with Down syndrome, Republican lawmakers headed down the path of determining that some reasons for seeking a legal abortion are legitimate, while other reasons are not. In brief, House Bill 455 would prohibit an abortion if there is any test result, prenatal diagnosis or other reason to believe the fetus has Down syndrome. As the parent of an adult with developmental disabilities, and as a long-time advocate for people with developmental disabilities, I am offended at this pretense. Either these lawmakers are ignorant of the complexity and challenges of parenting a child with special needs, or they are willfully deceptive. Why else would they propose this bill, at the same time that these same legislators are supporting cuts to so many of the public benefits that people with Down syndrome and other disabilities rely on for their survival? (Joan Kofodimos, 3/14)

The Washington Post: The Best Strategy On Opioids Isn’t An Enforcement Sledgehammer
Having talked a good game for months about the nation’s opioid crisis, the Trump administration seems finally on the brink of unveiling a plan that might lend muscle to its repeated promises to tackle an epidemic that killed more than 40,000 Americans in 2016. If, however, the president indulges his instinct to attack the problem mainly with an enforcement sledgehammer — for instance by pressing for the death penalty for drug dealers — he is likely to grab headlines but do little to reverse what has become a national calamity. (3/18)

The New York Times: Back To The Health Policy Drawing Board
The Affordable Care Act needs help. After scores of failed repeal attempts, Congress enacted legislation late last year that eliminated one of the law’s central features, the mandate requiring people to buy insurance. Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act is widely known, isn’t in imminent danger of collapse, but the mandate’s repeal poses a serious long-term threat. (Robert H. Frank, 3/16)

Los Angeles Times: Medical Tourists, Undocumented Immigrants And Ballooning Costs: California's Path To Single Payer Is Rocky
After state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) pulled the plug last year on a fast-moving but half-baked Senate bill to guarantee premium-free health insurance to all Californians, the nurses union that sponsored the legislation called it a "cowardly act" and threatened to push for a recall election. The wisdom of Rendon's action became even more apparent last week, however, when UC San Francisco released an Assembly-commissioned report on the path to universal health coverage in California. Based on a series of hearings by a select committee appointed by Rendon, the report shows how many obstacles stand in the way — and how many issues the Senate had left unresolved. (3/17)

The New York Times: Medicare Doesn’t Equal Dental Care. That Can Be A Big Problem.
Many people view Medicare as the gold standard of United States health coverage, and any attempt to cut it incurs the wrath of older Americans, a politically powerful group. But there are substantial coverage gaps in traditional Medicare. One of them is care for your teeth. Almost one in five adults of Medicare eligibility age (65 years old and older) have untreated cavities. The same proportion have lost all their teeth. Half of Medicare beneficiaries have some periodontal disease, or infection of structures around teeth, including the gums. (Austin Frakt, 3/19)

Georgia Health News: Legislators Should Not Let Hospitals Reach Into Georgians’ Wallets
When President Barack Obama and Congress rammed through the Affordable Care Act eight years ago this month, it was adopted on the premise of bringing down health insurance costs for all Americans. But in reality, this plan, also known as “Obamacare,” transferred much of the skyrocketing cost of health care from providers and insurers to patients. (Geoff Duncan, 3/17)

Columbus Dispatch: Medicaid Drug Prices Shouldn't Be Secret
CVS, the giant pharmacy company, is accused by independent retail pharmacists of exploiting its role as the largest middleman between Ohio’s Medicaid program and the pharmacies that supply drugs to Medicaid patients. Almost 90 percent of Ohio Medicaid patients are served by one of five private managed-care companies that contract with the state. (3/16)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: I'm One Of 4% Of Physicians Nationwide To Provide Office-Based Opioid Treatment
I’m a family physician, and on Thursdays, my team spends time providing care for individuals struggling with opioid use disorder (OUD) through the provision of buprenorphine, a form of medication-assisted treatment (MAT). This makes me unique. According to recent statistics, just 4 percent of physicians nationwide — and 5.7 percent of primary care physicians — possess the waiver required to deliver office-based opioid treatment (OBOT). (David T. O'Gurek, 3/16)

Boston Globe: Lawmakers Should Heed Baker On Fentanyl, Designer-Drug Fixes
The battle against the opioid epidemic demands urgency. That, alas, isn’t usually the animating impulse when it comes to the Massachusetts Legislature, where lawmaking debate and discussions can easily devolve into dithering and discord — and 11th-hour brinkmanship. That’s why lawmakers need to interrupt their oh-so-deliberative effort for a comprehensive rewrite of the state’s criminal justice laws and move with all deliberate speed on Governor Baker’s call for enhanced tools to battle both fentanyl and designer drugs. (3/18)

The Hill: We Should Expand Access To Opioid Use Disorder Treatments In Correctional Facilities
Last Friday, the Public Health Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly held a public hearing regarding Senate Bill 172: An Act Concerning Access to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Correctional Facilities. There was strong testimony supporting the bill. The public health committee has yet to vote on it. (Bachaar Arnaout, 3/18)

USA Today: Female Doctors Have Problems Men Can't Fathom. Are We Welcome At Work?
As a female physician, I lose sleep over situations that male colleagues cannot imagine. One of my patients refuses to see me unless I wear a skirt. He offered to buy me new shoes on a day I wore flats. When I cropped my hair, he insisted I grow it back. My staff advised me to fire him, but I haven’t. It’s not that I’m soft. I took an oath to help others. My patient has limited means, but a serious disease. Better to tolerate his behavior. (Ashvini K. Reddy, 3/16)

San Jose Mercury News: How Two School Districts Address Student Hunger
Universal breakfast programs allow every student on that campus, no matter their income, to have the opportunity to start their day with a healthy meal. In particular, serving breakfast after the bell — after the school day begins — means students don’t need to arrive early or worry they won’t get breakfast because they’re running late that day. (Kyla Johnson-Trammel and Vincent Matthews, 3/17)