First Edition: July 16, 2018

Kaiser Health News: In Florida, Midterm Elections Hold Faint Hope For Medicaid Expansion
Can the deep-red Florida Statehouse follow Virginia and expand Medicaid?Highly unlikely anytime soon, many state political analysts say.It’s been three years since the Florida legislature last debated — and overwhelmingly rejected —Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans — who have controlled the governor’s office and both legislative chambers for nearly all of the past two decades — have shown no interest since then in pursuing the policy that would make about 660,000 uninsured adults eligible for the government insurance program for the poor. (Galewitz, 7/16)

Kaiser Health News: Facebook Live: The Marketing Plan That Fueled An Addiction Epidemic
KHN senior correspondent Fred Schulte talks about a cache of files detailing Purdue Pharma’s early OxyContin marketing plan. These documents, which are more than 15 years old but still relevant now, offer insights into how these strategies contributed to the nation’s current opioid addiction epidemic. (7/13)

Politico: HHS Submits Updated Plan For Reuniting Migrant Children With Parents
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw scolded the Health and Human Services Department Friday, saying it was using safety concerns as "cover" to avoid meeting his July 26 deadline to reunite with their parents all 2551 children aged 5 to 17 who were detained at the border. Sabraw previously ordered HHS to return to their parents by July 10 all 102 children under 5 who were detained at the border. In response, HHS reunited all but 46, saying these children were ineligible for reunificaiton because verification wasn’t complete or because of safety concerns. (Kullgren, 7/15)

The New York Times: Judge Criticizes Trump Administration For Response To Family Reunification Order
The Health and Human Services Department outlined a new, more accelerated plan to return nearly 3,000 migrant children to their parents by a July 26 deadline. But it also said that doing so required faster vetting procedures and would probably place the children in abusive environments or with adults falsely claiming to be their parents. In a court filing that included the new plan, Chris Meekins, the deputy assistant secretary of preparedness and response, said, “While I am fully committed to complying with this court’s order, I do not believe that the placing of children into such situations is consistent with the mission of H.H.S. or my core values.” The judge, Dana M. Sabraw of Federal District Court in San Diego, was not moved. (Dickerson, 7/14)

Bloomberg: Reunited Immigrant Families Face Difficult Choice To Split Again
Escaping gruesome violence at the hands of police and gangs in Honduras, a mother and her daughter arrived in the U.S. on June 8 near McAllen, Texas, and turned themselves in to federal agents. They were then separated and held in custody 1,555 miles apart, according to court filings. The 12-year-old daughter is now among a couple thousand migrant children that the U.S. is working to reunite with parents over the next two weeks following a federal judge’s order last month. (Mehrotra, 7/14)

The Wall Street Journal: After Immigrant Families Are Reunited, Scars Of Separation Remain
In the days after Ever Reyes Mejía was reunited with his 3-year-old son last Tuesday, the young father tried to make their lives seem normal again. The two kicked around a soccer ball and played with toy cars while staying at a volunteer’s home in Detroit. Mr. Reyes Mejía wrapped his son in tight embraces, promising he would never be alone again. Father and son were separated three months ago at a Texas migrant-detention center; the boy was sent to an agency in Michigan while Mr. Reyes Mejía was sent to another Texas facility. (Campo-Flores and West, 7/15)

Los Angeles Times: 'I'm Here. I’m Here.' Father Reunited With Son Amid Tears, Relief And Fear Of What's Next
Hermelindo Che Coc learned his son was coming home and immediately began to prepare for his arrival. Nearly two months had passed since he’d seen his 6-year-old boy after they were separated at the border while traveling from Guatemala to seek asylum. On Saturday, the father mopped floors and washed bed sheets at the home in the L.A. area where he was staying. He cooked a big pot of chicken soup, his son’s favorite. (Bermudez, 7/15)

The Hill: Dems Launch Pressure Campaign Over Migrant Families
Democratic lawmakers are trying to keep up the pressure on the Trump administration over its struggles to reunite families separated at the southern border under the "zero tolerance" immigration policy. Members of the House and Senate are using every hearing and markup of health-related legislation to push for amendments aimed at holding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) accountable. (Weixel, 7/13)

Politico: State Abortion Ballots Prepare For Post-Roe World
Anti-abortion initiatives on the ballot in West Virginia and Alabama this November could lay the foundation for the states to ban or sharply limit legal abortion as change comes to the Supreme Court. Both ballot measures were in the works before President Donald Trump nominated conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace the more moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy on the high court. But they take on greater import — and will likely draw far more national attention — given the shifting ideological balance on the court. (Haberkorn and Pradhan, 7/15)

Bloomberg: The Artful Dodge That Saved Kavanaugh From Supreme Court Doom
In 2011, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was selected at random to rule on whether President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, was constitutional. It was a career-defining moment for the aspiring Supreme Court justice, who was 46 at the time. The case promised to be a political bomb splitting two powerful forces. On one side was the Republican Party, which made Kavanaugh a judge and wanted to see the law invalidated under a limited vision of federal authority to regulate interstate commerce. On the other were millions of Americans poised to gain access to health insurance -- in some cases for the first time ever -- backed by scholars who said axing the law would be a grave error of judicial activism and taint the courts. Kavanaugh ducked the issue. (Kapur, 7/16)

The Associated Press: As Supreme Court Battle Roils DC, Suburban Voters Shrug
It stands to shift the direction of the nation's highest court for decades, but President Donald Trump's move to fill a Supreme Court vacancy has barely cracked the consciousness of some voters in the nation's top political battlegrounds. Even among this year's most prized voting bloc — educated suburban women — there's no evidence that a groundswell of opposition to a conservative transformation of the judicial branch, which could lead to the erosion or reversal of Roe v. Wade, will significantly alter the trajectory of the midterms, particularly in the House. (Beaumont and Peoples, 7/14)

The Associated Press: HHS Watchdog Slams Former Secretary Tom Price On Costly Travel
The government wasted at least $341,000 on travel by ousted Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, including booking charter flights without considering cheaper scheduled airlines, an agency watchdog said Friday. The HHS inspector general’s long-awaited report chastised the department for flouting federal travel rules, which require officials to book trips in the most cost-efficient way for taxpayers. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/13)

The Hill: Price ‘Improperly Used Federal Funds’ In 20 Out Of 21 Trips: IG
The HHS Inspector General report finds that Price violated federal regulations in taking the trips and “improperly used federal funds.” Of 21 trips reviewed by the IG, the report finds that 20 did not comply with federal regulations. For example, HHS did not compare the cost of flying on commercial airlines before using private aircraft, the report finds. (Sullivan, 7/13)

The New York Times: Ex-Health Secretary Tom Price Wasted $341,000 On Improper Travel, Inquiry Finds
The total cost of the 21 trips was $1.2 million, the report said. The most expensive trips were an eight-day visit to Asia on military aircraft, which cost $432,400; a weeklong visit to Africa and Europe on military planes, which cost $234,400; and a charter flight from Seattle to Washington, D.C., which cost $121,500. Mr. Price took chartered aircraft to many cities in the United States when lower-cost commercial flights were available, Mr. Levinson said. He found that Mr. Price had spent $14,955 on a round-trip charter flight between Washington and Philadelphia. (Pear, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: HHS Watchdog Pushes To Recoup $341,000 Wasted By Ex-Secretary Price On Travel
Justifications for using charter flights were sometimes flimsy, the report concluded. In one case, Mr. Price’s office cited the possibility of a meeting at the White House on the morning of a scheduled trip to Nashville. Two days before the event, it was clear the meeting wouldn’t take place. The office chartered the flight anyway, at a cost of $17,760, the report said. For other trips, Dr. Price’s staff cited schedule constraints that could have been adjusted to enable him to fly commercial, the inspector general concluded. (Armour and Radnofsky, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Former HHS Secretary Tom Price’s Air Travel Wasted $341,000 In Government Funds, Watchdog Says
A spokesman for Price released a statement Friday noting that the former secretary was not interviewed by the inspector general’s office and highlighted Hargan’s remark that none of the travel was “unauthorized.” “Media coverage inaccurately states the report takes issue with Dr. Price’s actions,” the statement said. “In fact, the report addresses overall functions of Department staff charged with administering travel.” Price is among numerous current or former members of President Trump’s administration who have been the focus of complaints and investigations centered on their use of government funds and other behaviors in office. (Berman and Goldstein, 7/13)

Stat: Novartis, Michael Cohen Contacts More Extensive Than Disclosed Earlier
The relationship between President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and Novartis was more extensive than the drug maker previously disclosed, and the company issued misleading statements about the relationship, according to a report issued by Senate Democrats on Friday. Dozens of emails and other documents revealed that the agreement between Cohen and Novartis was longer and more detailed than had been previously stated. Moreover, Novartis explicitly sought to hire Cohen to gain access to “key policymakers” and provided him with ideas for lowering drug costs, which later appeared in the Trump administration blueprint that was developed to address the issue. (Silverman, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Novartis Played Down Ties To Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen, Report Says
The report also reveals Mr. Cohen’s advocacy for another pharmaceutical company, one the report says has ties to an investment firm associated with Viktor Vekselberg, a wealthy Russian businessman now under U.S. sanctions. The $1.2 million consulting deal with Novartis came to light in May. Then the Switzerland-based drug company said it hired Mr. Cohen for insight into how “the Trump administration might approach U.S. health-care policy matters,” but that executives realized from their first meeting with him in March 2017 that he wouldn’t be helpful and stopped engaging with him. (Palazzolo and Rothfeld, 7/13)

Stat: Novartis Needed A Consultant. The CEO's Friend Called Trump's Lawyer
Shortly after the 2016 election, Novartis chief executive Joe Jimenez was looking for a consultant to help understand how the Trump administration would approach health policy. So, when a friend suggested Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Jimenez took the call, and personally suggested following up, according to a letter Novartis sent to senators in June and publicly released Friday. (Swetlitz, 7/13)

The Hill: Ex-Novartis CEO Sent Drug Pricing Proposal To Cohen
In an email dated June 5, 2017, ex-Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez sent Cohen an email with a document attached called "drug pricing initiatives." "Based on our conversation last week, I am forwarding you some ideas to lower drug costs in the US," Jimenez wrote. Cohen responded a few hours later: "Received and I will forward to you their suggestions." (Hellmann, 7/13)

Stat: Menendez Sets Up Phony Health News Website To Attack Bob Hugin
It has headlines and bylines, an original story 834 words long, and links to 10 articles from other outlets concerning health policy and drug pricing in New Jersey. But readers expecting journalism from the upstart HealthNewsNJ.com may be in for a surprise: It’s fake news. In reality, it’s a campaign site run by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who is facing a re-election challenge from Bob Hugin, the former CEO of the pharmaceutical company Celgene. (Facher, 7/13)

The New York Times: Drug To Treat Smallpox Approved By F.D.A., A Move Against Bioterrorism
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first drug intended to treat smallpox — a move that could halt a lethal pandemic if the virus were to be released as a terrorist bioweapon or through a laboratory accident. The antiviral pill, tecovirimat, also known as Tpoxx, has never been tested in humans with smallpox because the disease was declared eradicated in 1980, three years after the last known case. (McNeil, 7/13)

The Associated Press: FDA OKs 1st Drug To Treat Smallpox, In Case Of Terror Attack
Smallpox, which is highly contagious, was eradicated worldwide by 1980 after a huge vaccination campaign. But people born since then haven't been vaccinated, and small samples of the smallpox virus were saved for research purposes, leaving the possibility it could be used as a biological weapon. (Johnson, 7/13)

The New York Times: McDonald’s Removes Salads Linked To Intestinal Parasite Outbreak In Midwest
McDonald’s pulled salads from 3,000 restaurants in the Midwest after health experts announced that more than 100 people had been infected by an intestinal parasite in recent weeks. Public health officials in Illinois and Iowa have reported a surge in cases of cyclosporiasis, with at least 15 infections in Iowa and 90 others in Illinois. Everyone who became ill in Iowa and about a quarter of those who became sick in Illinois said they had eaten McDonald’s salads in the days before symptoms appeared, according to the states’ health departments. (Haag, 7/13)

The Washington Post: McDonald's Salads Pulled Amid Multi-State Cyclospora Outbreak
Officials with the fast-food restaurant chain said in a statement Friday that the salads have been removed from “impacted restaurants,” mainly in the Midwest, “out of an abundance of caution” until it can find a new supplier. The announcement comes after public health authorities in Illinois and Iowa warned that a number of recent cyclospora infections in those states appear to be linked to the salads. (Bever, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: McDonald’s Pulls Salads From 3,000 Restaurants Amid Cyclospora Illnesses
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said late Friday that 61 people in seven states, including Iowa and Illinois, have become ill from cyclosporiasis linked to McDonald’s salads, with two hospitalizations. There have been no deaths. The Food and Drug Administration said it is working with McDonald’s to identify the common ingredients in the salads eaten by those who became sick and to trace those ingredients through the supply chain. (Jargon and Newman, 7/13)

The Washington Post: What You Need To Know About Food Contamination And Recalls
Eggs, Honey Smacks, pre-cut melon: The food products recalled during the past few weeks could make shoppers queasy with worry about whether what they’ve just picked up from the grocery store is riddled with pathogens. This year, salmonella has been the headliner, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting eight food-related outbreaks since January. (Remember raw sprouts, frozen shredded coconut and chicken salad?) The CDC has reported 70 cases in seven states of salmonella infections tied to pre-cut melons, with 34 hospitalizations. (Shropshire, 7/15)

The New York Times: Breast-Feeding Or Formula? For Americans, It’s Complicated
For as long as there have been babies, there have been debates over how to feed them. Wet nursing, which began as early as 2000 B.C., was once a widely accepted option for mothers who could not or did not want to breast-feed, but it faced criticism during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The profession eventually declined with the introduction of the infant feeding bottle in the 19th century. (Caron, 7/14)

NPR: Mining Electronic Medical Records To Enhance Use Of Approved Drugs
When you go to your doctor's office, sometimes it seems the caregivers spend more time gathering data about you than treating you as a patient. Electronic medical records are everywhere – annoying to doctors and intrusive to patients. But now researchers are looking to see if they can plow through the vast amount of data that's gathered in those records, along with insurance billing information, to tease out the bits that could be useful in refining treatments and identifying new uses for drugs. (Harris, 7/15)

NPR: Summer Heat Waves Can Slow Our Thinking
Can't cool off this summer? Heat waves can slow us down in ways we may not realize. New research suggests heat stress can muddle our thinking, making simple math a little harder to do. "There's evidence that our brains are susceptible to temperature abnormalities," says Joe Allen, co-director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University. And as the climate changes, temperatures spike and heat waves are more frequent. (Aubrey, 7/16)

Stat: Sonic Hedgehog, Beethoven: An Oral History Of How Genes Got Their Names
Scientists are systematic and meticulous when it comes to naming genes.They use computer programs to identify new ones and follow standardized guidelines to give them names like TP53, APOE, BRCA1. That, however, has not always been the case. During the late 1970s to 1990s, the heyday for newly identified genes, scientists selected names based on emotion and free association. The results were public displays of scientific wit, whimsy, and irreverence. (Chen, 7/16)

NPR: Keeping Blood Pressure Down Can Help Lower Dementia Risk
Every day, Dr. Walter Koroshetz, 65, takes a pill as part of his effort to help keep his brain healthy and sharp. The pill is his blood pressure medication. And Koroshetz, who directs the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, says controlling high blood pressure helps him reduce his risk of dementia. He also keeps his blood pressure down by exercising, and paying attention to his weight and diet. "I'm a believer," he says. (Hamilton, 7/16)

The New York Times: When To Get Your Bone Density Tested
Newly updated guidelines can help women decide when to have their bone density tested to determine their risk of fracture and perhaps get treatment that can lessen it. But the new guidelines may further discourage already reluctant men from doing the same. The guidelines, issued by the United States Preventive Services Task Force, suggest that all women 65 and older undergo bone density screening, a brief, noninvasive, safe and inexpensive test covered by Medicare. It is called a DEXA scan. For women past menopause who are younger than 65, the guidelines say a scan may be appropriate depending on their risk factors for osteoporosis. (Brody, 7/16)

Stat: If You're Neuroscientist Brenda Milner, This Is How You Turn 100
On Sunday, neuroscientist Brenda Milner turns 100, and she plans to celebrate in two ways: the World Cup finals, followed by a party. “I tipped France from the beginning of the tournament to win, but I must say that Croatia has really impressed me,” she told STAT recently. (Sheridan, 7/16)

NPR: Drug Users Watch Each Other's Backs At Vancouver's Supervised Injection Sites
People who use injection drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia, can do so, if they choose, under the watchful eyes of someone trained to help them if they overdose. This is the idea behind supervised injection sites, and it's an approach that over a dozen U.S. cities or states are considering to prevent drug overdose deaths and the spread of disease. (Spitzer, 7/13)

NPR: Colorado's Meth Use Complicates Recovery From Opioid Addiction
Huddled at a computer screen at the Denver Recovery Group, counselor Melissa McConnell looks at the latest urinalysis results for her client, Sara Florence. Last fall, it lit up like a Christmas tree. Now it's all clean. Florence says she stopped using heroin five months ago; she stopped using methamphetamine not long after that."Shooting it, smoking it, snorting it," Florence says. "It's horrible, just made me feel like crap, you know. But I'd still did it. Just makes no sense, you know. It's just really addicting." (Daley, 7/14)

The Associated Press: 7,000 People Fail To Meet Arkansas Medicaid Work Requirement
More than 7,000 people on Arkansas' Medicaid expansion didn't meet a requirement that they report at least 80 hours of work in June and face the threat of losing their coverage if they fail to comply sometime before the end of this year, state officials said Friday. Arkansas' requirement took effect last month. Participants in the program lose coverage if they don't meet the work requirement for three months in a calendar year. (DeMillo, 7/13)

The Associated Press: Oklahoma Medicaid Approved For Drug Pricing Experiment
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved Oklahoma's Medicaid program for a first-in-the-nation drug pricing experiment that supporters say could save taxpayer dollars and provide patients with the most effective medications for their ailments. Under the "value-based purchasing" program approved in late June, the state and a pharmaceutical company would agree to a set payment if its medication works as advertised, but only a fraction of that if the drug is not as effective as promised. (Miller and Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/13)

The Washington Post: The Trump Administration Has A New Argument For Dismantling The Social Safety Net: It Worked.
Republicans for years have proclaimed the federal government’s decades-old War on Poverty a failure. “Americans are no better off today than they were before the War on Poverty began in 1964,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) wrote in his 2016 plan to dramatically scale back the federal safety net. Now the Trump administration is pitching a new message on anti-poverty programs, saying efforts that Republicans had long condemned as ineffective have already worked. (Stein and Jan, 7/14)

The New York Times: ‘Totally Preventable’: How A Sick Woman Lost Electricity, And Her Life
Linda Daniels had fallen behind on her electricity bills, her meter run up by medical equipment going around the clock and increasingly hot weather. But on July 3, her family said, they pulled together $500 to pay down her debts, believing it would maintain her service. Two days later, her electricity was shut off. It was a sweltering day and temperatures in Newark soared into the 90s. Ms. Daniels’s house was stifling, the air so stuffy that her daughter said it was difficult to breathe. Even more serious: Ms. Daniels relied on an oxygen machine, and it required electricity. (Rojas, 7/13)

The New York Times: Cuomo Moves Closer To Marijuana Legalization In New York
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took a step closer to voicing full-throated support for legal marijuana on Friday, embracing elements of a state Health Department report that favored legalization. Mr. Cuomo, addressing reporters after an unrelated speech in Brooklyn, said New York would no longer have the option of trying to simply prevent the flow of the drug into the state now that its neighbors in Massachusetts and New Jersey are moving forward with plans to legalize the drug. (Goodman, 7/13)

The Associated Press: Nurses At Vermont Hospital Back At Work After 2-Day Strike
Nurses at Vermont’s largest hospital are back on the job after a two-day strike.The strike of 1,800 nurses from the University of Vermont Medical Center ended at 7 a.m. Saturday after 48 hours. Hospital administrators brought in outside nurses during the strike and say most hospital operations were unaffected by it. The union is seeking about a 22 percent pay increase over three years. The Medical Center offered about a 14 percent pay increase over three years. (7/14)

The Associated Press: CVS Apologizes After Managers Call Cops On Black Customer
CVS Health is apologizing after a black customer says white store managers in Chicago accused her of trying to use a phony coupon. Camilla Hudson posted cellphone video of one of the managers appearing nervous. Morry Matson's left hand shakes as he calls police around 11:30 p.m. Friday. The 53-year-old Hudson says another manager directly challenged her when she tried to use a manufacturer's coupon for a free product. She tells The Associated Press that he was "hostile." (7/15)

Los Angeles Times: Workers Claim Injuries All Over Their Bodies For Big Payouts — But Continue Their Active Lives
After nearly two decades on the force, former LAPD Officer Jonathan Hall ended his career the way many veteran officers do these days, claiming job-related injuries across most of his body. With the help of a boutique Van Nuys law firm that specializes in workers’ compensation cases for cops and firefighters, Hall filed claims saying he’d injured his knees, hips, heart (high blood pressure), back, right shoulder — even his right middle finger. (Dolan, Menezes and Garcia-Roberts, 7/15)

The Associated Press: Pennsylvania Reveals Cyber Intrusion In Birth, Death Records
Pennsylvania officials disclosed on Friday that they recently had to shut down the state's online system for requesting birth and death records for about a week after someone with apparent inside knowledge made unauthorized changes. State officials told The Associated Press the changes were "cosmetic modifications" but the intrusion triggered an extensive cyber investigation. (7/13)

The Associated Press: Thousands Expected At Free Health Clinic In Virginia
Thousands of people are expected to attend a free health clinic later this week in Southwest Virginia. The Remote Area Medical and Health Wagon will stage the event at the Wise County Fairgrounds from July 20 through July 22. This is 19th year the event will be held at the fairgrounds. Patients will receive provide dental, medical and vision care. (7/16)