First Edition: July 23, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Can A Community Hospital Stay True To Its Mission After Sale To Large Corporation?
Mission Health, the largest hospital system in western North Carolina, provided $100 million in free charity care last year. This year, it has partnered with 17 civic organizations to deliver substance abuse care to low-income people. Based in bucolic Asheville, the six-hospital system also screens residents for food insecurity; provides free dental care to children in rural areas via the “ToothBus” mobile clinic; helps the homeless find permanent housing, and encourages its 12,000 employees to volunteer at schools, churches and nonprofit groups. (Findlay, 7/23)

California Healthline: Time For That Colonoscopy? Probe Your Doc First On How The Scopes Are Cleaned
After a colonoscopy two years ago, Patti Damare felt so delirious and weak that she couldn’t stand on her own. That was on a Friday, and she chalked up her symptoms to lingering effects of anesthesia. On Saturday, the San Marcos, Calif., woman wondered if she had contracted a killer flu or urinary tract infection.The next day, she couldn’t get out of bed. (Bazar, 7/23)

The New York Times: Sniffles? Cancer? Under Medicare Plan, Payments For Office Visits Would Be Same For Both
The Trump administration is proposing huge changes in the way Medicare pays doctors for the most common of all medical services, the office visit, offering physicians basically the same amount, regardless of a patient’s condition or the complexity of the services provided. Administration officials said the proposal would radically reduce paperwork burdens, freeing doctors to spend more time with patients. The government would pay one rate for new patients and another, lower rate for visits with established patients. (Pear, 7/22)

The New York Times: Got Medicare Advantage? Prepare For New Perks — And New Questions. 
Did you fall in the bathroom and fracture your hip? Medicare, if you have it, will pay thousands of dollars for surgery to repair the injury and thousands more for your resulting hospital stay and rehab in a nursing home. But Medicare wouldn’t have paid $200 to have grab bars installed in your bathroom, or covered the cost of a $22-an-hour aide to assist you in the shower — measures that might have helped you avoid the accident. (Span, 7/20)

The Associated Press: Judge, Calm In Court, Takes Hard Line On Splitting Families
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw appeared conflicted in early May on whether to stop families from being separated at the border. He challenged the Trump administration to explain how families were getting a fair hearing guaranteed by the Constitution, but also expressed reluctance to get too deeply involved with immigration enforcement. "There are so many (enforcement) decisions that have to be made, and each one is individual," he said in his calm, almost monotone voice. "How can the court issue such a blanket, overarching order telling the attorney general, either release or detain (families) together?" (Spagat, 7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Watchdog, Enforcer, Coach: The Unusual Role Of Judge Dana Sabraw
It’s a busy time for U.S. District Judge Dana Makoto Sabraw. On Friday in San Diego, he presided over jury deliberations in a criminal case against a man trying to prove he isn’t an illegal alien from Mexico but a California-born American citizen. And on Monday, Judge Sabraw is overseeing jury selection in an Apple Inc. patent dispute. Those matters come on top of what is by far the biggest case of his career: the legal effort to reunite thousands of migrant parents and their children. (Gershman, 7/23)

Politico: Pence’s Anti-Abortion Law Could Upend Roe V. Wade
An anti-abortion law Vice President Mike Pence signed as governor of Indiana could become the case that lets the Supreme Court reshape abortion rights as soon as next year. The Indiana law — which prohibited abortion because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus, such as Down syndrome — was blocked by lower courts and is one of three significant anti-abortion state statutes that are sitting one level below the Supreme Court. If Indiana appeals this fall, and the justices accept the case, it could be the opening for a broader ruling on Roe v. Wade that could redefine abortion rights nationwide. (Haberkorn, 7/23)

Politico: Wavering Rand Sets Off Supreme Court Spectacle
Rand Paul is one of a handful of senators who'll determine whether Brett Kavanaugh lands on the Supreme Court — and the Kentucky Republican has every intention of maximizing his leverage. Paul is again inviting fellow senators to play the will-he-or-won’t-he guessing game when it comes to his decision — expressing grave concerns about Kavanaugh’s approach to personal privacy while insisting his vote could go either way, depending on what the judge says in the coming weeks and months. (Everett, 7/23)

The Associated Press: Senate Set To Confirm Wilkie For Veterans Affairs Secretary
After months of tumult, Pentagon official Robert Wilkie is expected to become secretary of Veterans Affairs when the Senate votes Monday to confirm him, taking on the task of fulfilling President Donald Trump's promises to fire bad VA employees and steer more patients to the private sector. Wilkie is Trump's third pick for the job in 18 months. The long-time public official says he will "shake up complacency" at VA, which has struggled with long waits in providing medical treatment to millions of veterans. (Yen, 7/23)

Stat: Unpacking The Bold — And The Bluster — In Trump’s Plan To Bring Down Drug Prices 
Top health officials are exploring the idea of importing drugs from other countries, despite broad and long-standing opposition from drug makers. There’s a new pitch to lower the prices Medicare pays for new drugs, at least for the first few months they’re on the market. The Food and Drug Administration might soon allow some prescription drugs to be sold over the counter. The same agency also released a polished plan to speed biosimilar drugs to market and promote competition. And the administration got closer, too, to releasing a new plan to change the way pharmacy benefit managers get paid. (Mershon and Swetlitz, 7/23)

The Hill: Trump Battle Over Drug Prices Heats Up 
The Trump administration is taking credit for a series of announcements by drug companies to freeze drug prices for the remainder of 2018, arguing it is proof that the president’s tough talk is leading to results. Amid a pressure campaign led by President Trump himself, five drug companies have said they will not increase prices this year, while one announced decreases for some medicines. (Hellmann, 7/22)

The New York Times: Bayer Will Stop Selling The Troubled Essure Birth Control Implants
Bayer announced on Friday that it would discontinue sales of its Essure birth control implant by the end of the year, bowing to a lengthy campaign by health advocates and thousands of women to get the device off the market. The implant has had a troubled history. It has been the subject of an estimated 16,000 lawsuits or claims filed by women who reported severe injuries, including perforation of the uterus and the fallopian tubes. Several deaths, including of a few infants, have also been attributed to the device or to complications from it. (Kaplan, 7/20)

Stat: "Father Of Gene Therapy" Faces Harsh Reality: A Tarnished Legacy And An Ankle Monitor
This is what it has come to for a world-renowned scientist who was convicted of sexually molesting a colleague’s young daughter. [Dr. W. French] Anderson has been hailed as the father of gene therapy and was honored at George H.W. Bush’s White House. In 1991, the New York Times ran a laudatory story headlined “Dr. Anderson’s Gene Machine.” He started the first gene therapy company and sold it to a major drug maker in 1995 for $325 million, was a Time “hero of medicine” in 1997 and scientific consultant to the 1997 film “Gattaca,” and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1998 (with singer Reba McEntire). ...But in July 2006, Anderson was convicted of three counts of lewd acts on a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse, including fondling her genitals. (Begley, 7/23)

Stat: In Lawsuit, Human Longevity Alleges That Craig Venter Stole Trade Secrets
The genomics pioneer Craig Venter is being accused of stealing trade secrets by Human Longevity, the San Diego genomics company he founded and recently departed. Human Longevity on Friday filed a suit in civil court against the J. Craig Venter Institute, Venter’s nonprofit research organization that employs more than 200 scientists and staff at facilities near San Diego and Washington, D.C. Venter, the 71-year-old celebrity scientist who at the turn of the millennium raced the U.S. government to sequence the human genome, is not named as a defendant. (Robbins, 7/22)

Stat: What You Need To Know Ahead Of Biogen’s Big Alzheimer’s Reveal 
Partners Biogen and Eisai shook up the drug industry this month with the surprising revelation that an in-development drug for Alzheimer’s disease showed unprecedented promise in a clinical trial. And that’s about all they said. On Wednesday, the companies will divulge the details on the drug, called BAN2401. Here’s your guide to how experts are approaching what could be the biggest Alzheimer’s news in years. (Garde, 7/23)

The Associated Press: Bayer To Stop Sales Of Birth Control Device Tied To Injuries
The German company had billed the device as the only non-surgery sterilization method for women. As complaints mounted and demand slipped, it stopped Essure sales in Canada, Europe, South America, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed multiple restrictions on the device following patient reports of pain, bleeding, allergic reactions and cases where the implant punctured the uterus or shifted out of place. (Perrone and Tanner, 7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Bayer To Stop Selling Essure In U.S.
In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tightened restrictions on the sale and distribution of the birth-control implant, requiring both patients and health-care providers to sign an acceptance-of-risk form. That move followed an FDA decision in 2016 requiring Bayer to add a prominent warning to call attention to serious risks associated with the device, after studies linked it to pain and other health issues among women. In April the FDA said since adding the warnings, Essure sales have declined about 70% in the U.S. (Mohan, 7/20)

The New York Times: It’s Not Just The Tampon Tax: Why Periods Are Political
The average woman has her period for 2,535 days of her life. That’s nearly seven years’ time of making sure you have a pad or tampon, finding a makeshift solution if you don’t, and managing pain and discomfort. And lately, women — and transgender and nonbinary people who menstruate — are talking about it in public more than ever before. There are new products and services on the market, from menstrual cups to period underwear to medicinal cannabis and “period coaches.” Globally, advocates are pushing for recognition of a woman’s right to manage her period with dignity. And in the United States, activists are bringing the concept of “menstrual equity” into the public debate. (Zraick, 7/22)

NPR: Why Are Some Women At Risk Of Premature Birth?
In 1998, 25 weeks into her pregnancy, Sara Arey's cervix dilated and her amniotic sac started to descend into the birth canal. She was rushed to a hospital an hour and a half away from her home near Hickory, N.C., where she stayed for more than a week before her baby was born via emergency C-section. The baby, a girl, died 12 hours later in the hospital. Arey had already had two prior miscarriages and one preterm birth in 1994. Had she been able to take a test for her risk of preterm birth, she says that she would have. She would have liked to have known her risk as early as possible, she says. (Watson, 7/22)

The New York Times: Transgender Woman Says CVS Pharmacist Refused To Fill Hormone Prescription
A transgender woman in Arizona said this week that a CVS Health pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for hormone therapy, prompting the drugstore company to apologize, say the conduct violated its policy and note that the pharmacist was no longer employed there. Hilde Hall, who lives in Fountain Hills, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, said in a statement posted Thursday on the American Civil Liberties Union’s website that she went to the pharmacy in April after receiving her first prescriptions for hormone therapy. Ms. Hall, 25, said a CVS pharmacist refused to fill one of the prescriptions, did not provide a reason and then declined to return her doctor’s prescription note. (Jacobs, 7/20)

The Associated Press: CVS Apologizes To Transgender Woman For Prescription Denial
The company apologized on social media Friday saying the pharmacist is no longer an employee. CVS says it has a history of supporting LGBTQ rights, helping to develop a guide for pharmacy care for gay, lesbian and transgender customers. The apology comes after Hilde Hall shared her experience on the American Civil Liberties Union’s website. (7/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Settles Investor Suit As Funds Run Low
Theranos Inc., running on financial fumes, settled a suit filed by investors who had alleged they were defrauded by the blood-testing firm. The pact ends a civil case brought by Robert Colman, a former Silicon Valley investment banker, and other plaintiffs who made indirect investments in Theranos, court records filed Friday show. They alleged that Theranos made false and misleading statements about its technology. The company previously reached costly settlements with a major investor and its former retail partner Walgreens Co., and settled civil fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission in March without admitting or denying wrongdoing. (Weaver, 7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: America Is Running Out Of Family Caregivers, Just When It Needs Them Most
Clesta Dickson, 86 years old, never married. The retired teacher lives on her own in a tidy apartment on the second floor of Pleasantview Towers, a subsidized apartment building for older adults and people with disabilities in Vienna, W.Va. When her own parents became frail, she bought a house for the three of them. They died years ago. She has a brother, but he is 82. Without children of her own, she wonders what will happen to her. “I think about it all the time,” she says. She made her funeral arrangements, after noticing how many people she knew died and never had a memorial service or obituary. (Ansberry, 7/20)

NPR: How To Talk To Your Doctor About Your Pain
If you're in the hospital or a doctor's office with a painful problem, you'll likely be asked to rate your pain on a scale of 0 to 10 – with 0 meaning no pain at all and 10 indicating the worst pain you can imagine. But many doctors and nurses say this rating system isn't working and they're trying a new approach. The numeric pain scale may just be too simplistic, says Dr. John Markman, Director of the Translational Pain Research Program at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. It can lead doctors to "treat by numbers," he says and as a result, patients may not be getting the most effective treatment for their pain. (Neighmond, 7/23)

The Washington Post: Cancer Researchers Study Elephants, Who Rarely Get The Disease
Elephants have 100 times as many cells as humans. But they seldom get cancer. This is surprising, because cancer is a result of cell division gone wrong, and the more cells an organism has, the higher the chances that some will mutate into tumors. Also, because elephants live so long — between 60 and 70 years — their cells have more opportunities to mutate. The counterintuitive observation that cancer risk does not always correlate with a species’ size or longevity is known as Peto’s Paradox, named after British epidemiologist Richard Peto, who first noted the phenomenon in 1977. It turns out that cancer does not strike all species equally: Some animals have evolved powerful strategies to keep the disease at bay, while others are particularly vulnerable. (Kohn, 7/21)

NPR: Early-Stage Alzheimer's Tests Require Patients And Families To Face Fears
Jose Belardo of Lansing, Kansas, spent most of his career in the U.S. Public Health Service. He worked on the frontlines of disasters in places like Haiti, Colombia, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. At home with his three kids and wife, Elaine, he'd always been unfailingly reliable, so when he forgot their wedding anniversary two years in a row, they both started to worry. "We recognized something wasn't right and pretty much attributed it to being overworked and tired," Elaine says. (Smith, 7/22)

The Washington Post: Kids Drink Way Too Much Fruit Juice, Pediatrician Group Says, And Parents Should Choose Fruit Instead
How much fruit juice should kids drink? Not very much. That’s the essence of the juice policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). School-age children (7 to 18 years old) should limit consumption to eight ounces a day. Preschoolers (ages 4 to 6) can have four to six ounces a day, while toddlers (ages 1 to 3) should have no more than four ounces a day, and babies should not drink any juice at all. Given that most Americans need to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables in their diets and that good diet habits can be established during childhood, why is juice so worrisome? (Adams, 7/21)

The New York Times: Chemicals In Food May Harm Children, Pediatricians’ Group Says
A major pediatricians’ group is urging families to limit the use of plastic food containers, cut down on processed meat during pregnancy and consume more whole fruits and vegetables rather than processed food. Such measures would lower children’s exposures to chemicals in food and food packaging that are tied to health problems such as obesity, the group says. (Rabin, 7/23)

The Washington Post: Dietary Supplement Facts Available On NIH Website
How much potassium do you need? Is it worth shelling out for the botanical supplement du jour? What’s abetalipoproteinemia? When it comes to dietary supplements, there are often more questions than answers. Although many Americans report using them, their benefits can be questionable. And there are so many on the market that it can be hard to figure out which to buy and how to use them. The website of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements addresses such issues. (Blakemore, 7/21)

The Washington Post: What You Can Do About Jetlag--And Gutlag.
Jet lag can put the brakes on the most exciting vacations. Almost everyone who has ever flown across time zones knows what it feels like. The experience ranks somewhere between eating day-old cooked oatmeal and nursing a hangover. These food and drink metaphors aren’t just a coincidence. Jet lag, it turns out, affects more than our sleep; it affects our internal organs as well. Given what is known about the importance of intestinal bacteria (called the microbiome) and their connection to immune function and well-being, it’s clear that any discussion of jet lag, and how to deal with it, needs to consider “gut lag” as well. (Wellbery, 7/21)

NPR: Urban Green Spaces And Gardens Linked To Improved Mood
Growing up in Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Heights neighborhood, Rebecca Lemos-Otero says her first experience with nature came in her late teens when her mother started a community garden. "I was really surprised and quickly fell in love," she recalls. The garden was peaceful, and a "respite" from the neighborhood, which had high crime rates, abandoned lots and buildings, she says. (Chatterjee, 7/20)

The New York Times: More Than 100 Former Ohio State Students Allege Sexual Misconduct
More than 100 former Ohio State University students have come forward with allegations that a team doctor and professor at the school committed some form of sexual misconduct with them, university officials announced Friday, as the university begins to grapple with the sheer scope of a scandal that continues to grow. It is the latest in a series of sex abuse scandals that have rattled prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, where more than 50 women have accused a former campus gynecologist of misconduct; Pennsylvania State University, where child sex abuse sent one football coach, Jerry Sandusky, to prison and felled a legend, Joe Paterno; and Michigan State University, which is still contending with the fallout from the predations of a team doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar. (Edmondson, 7/20)

The New York Times: A 3-Year-Old Died At A Texas Day Care. Here Are Ways To Keep Your Child Safe.
Last week in Houston, a 3-year-old boy died after day care employees left him in a van for more than three and a half hours in 113-degree heat, a heartbreaking loss that could have been prevented, officials said. The death of the child, Raymond Pryer Jr., after a field trip on Thursday stunned Texans, raising questions about the day care’s safety procedures and prompting the police to warn the public about the dangers of hot cars. (Caron, 7/22)

The New York Times: Anti-Abortion Protesters At Queens Clinic Did Not Harass Patients, Judge Rules
On Saturdays since 2012, protesters have gathered outside the Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens, starting at 7 a.m. to urge women arriving at the clinic not to have an abortion. For the next three hours, according to a lawsuit filed in June 2017 by Eric T. Schneiderman, the former New York attorney general, protesters violated federal, state and city laws guaranteeing access to reproductive health care by crowding women as they entered the clinic and ignoring their requests to be left alone. (Mays, 7/22)

The Associated Press: Colorado VA Hospital Plagued By Delays, High Costs To Open
It's more than $1 billion over budget and five years behind schedule, but an elaborate new veterans hospital is finally ready to open in suburban Denver with the promise of state-of-the-art medical care. The $1.7 billion Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center made it through nearly a decade of management blunders, legal battles, federal investigations and congressional hearings. (7/20)

Los Angeles Times: As L.A. Struggles To Reduce Traffic Deaths, Speed Limits Keep Going Up
Sheila Brown was shocked to learn, in the spring of 2009, that the Los Angeles City Council was planning to raise the speed limit on Zelzah Avenue, a few blocks from her home in Granada Hills. A few weeks before, a 60-year-old woman had been struck and killed in a crosswalk on Zelzah, Brown told the City Council in an impassioned letter. She said the frequent sounds of screeching tires as drivers narrowly avoided collisions were proof that allowing higher speeds would put residents and students in danger. (Nelson, 7/22)