First Edition: July 27, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
A Transgender Woman’s ‘Bait-And-Switch’ $92,000 Surgery Bill
Wren Vetens thought she’d done everything possible to prepare for her surgery. She chose a doctoral program in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a school that not only embraced transgender students like her, but also granted insurance coverage for her gender confirmation surgery when she enrolled in 2016. When uncertainty over the fate of an Obama-era anti-discrimination rule allowed the state to discontinue such coverage, Vetens and her mother, Dr. Kimberly Moreland, an OB-GYN, shopped for another plan. (Huetteman, 7/26)
Kaiser Health News:
A Transgender Woman’s Quest For Surgery Caught In Political Crosswinds
With the country on course to enshrine the rights of transgender Americans, Wren Vetens introduced herself as a woman for the first time in January 2016, at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. After being raised as a boy and grappling with her gender identity for years, it felt liberating to be referred to as “she.” Vetens, who is now 24, began taking hormones to develop female characteristics that spring, as the Obama administration unveiled a landmark rule barring most health care providers from discriminating based on gender identity, under peril of losing federal funding. (Huetteman, 7/26)
Kaiser Health News:
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Congress And Health Care. Again.
Almost exactly a year after the GOP-led Senate killed a bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, the Republican House this week passed bills that would tinker around the edges of the health law. While none of the bills is expected to pass the Senate, House Republicans hope their action can help blunt Democratic attacks over health care in the midterm elections this fall. Meanwhile, officials in Washington continue to react to recent court decisions regarding work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries and payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act. (7/26)
The New York Times:
Trump Officials Scoff At ‘Medicare For All’ Drive
The Trump administration is hitting back against advocates of “Medicare for all” even as the proposal gains momentum among left-leaning Democrats in this election year. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, said on Thursday that the administration had a vision for “reforming the American health care system” that would shrink, not expand, the federal role. In a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Mr. Azar said that Medicare could barely afford to keep its current commitments. “Medicare is running out of other people’s money, and those other people happen to be our children,” he said. (Pear, 7/26)
The Hill:
Trump Administration To Push Forward On Medicaid Work Requirements After Court Loss
The Trump administration on Thursday said it would continue approving Medicaid work requirement requests from states, despite a district court ruling last month that blocked such requirements in Kentucky. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the ruling was a "blow" to the administration's efforts to encourage work among "able-bodied" adults in the Medicaid program, but said he is "undeterred" and proceeding forward." (Hellmann, 7/26)
The Washington Post:
Hundreds Of Migrant Children Remain In Custody, Though Most Separated Families Are Reunited At Court Deadline
But 711 children remain in government shelters because their parents have criminal records, their cases remain under review or the parents are no longer in the United States, officials said. The latter group includes 431 parents. Chris Meekins, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services, which has led the reunification effort, told reporters that “hundreds of staff have worked 24/7” to meet the court’s 30-day deadline. Administration officials said they would work with the court to figure out how to return the remaining children, including those whose parents have been deported. (Miroff and Schmidt, 7/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
Government Rushes To Meet Family-Reunification Deadline
Several immigrant advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Kids in Need of Defense, said they remained concerned the government’s reunification efforts weren’t going far enough. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer handling the group’s lawsuit that prompted the reunifications, said his organization was still waiting for information about which parents and children had been brought back together and where they were. “The Trump administration is trying to sweep them under the rug by unilaterally picking and choosing who is eligible for reunification,” Mr. Gelernt said. “We will continue to hold the government accountable and get these families back together.” (Caldwell and Campo-Flores, 7/26)
The New York Times:
Federal Authorities Say They Have Met Deadline To Reunite Migrant Families
The federal government reported Thursday that it would meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite the last “eligible” migrant families separated at the Southwest border, but hundreds of children remained in federal custody as a result of a contentious immigration policy that has drawn international condemnation. (Dickerson, Correal and Ferman, 7/26)
The Associated Press:
US Government: Over 1,800 Migrant Kids Reunited By Deadline
Shy children were given a meal and a plane or bus ticket to locations around the U.S. as non-profit groups tried to smooth the way for kids reunited with their parents as a deadline loomed following their separations at the U.S. Mexico border. The Trump administration said Thursday that more than 1,800 children 5 years and older had been reunited with parents or sponsors hours before the deadline. That included 1,442 children who were returned to parents who were in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, and another 378 who were released under a variety of other circumstances. (Spagat, Long and Snow, 7/27)
Reuters:
Reunited Family's Next Challenge: Fighting For U.S. Asylum
Maria Marroquin Perdomo fretted as she waited with her 11-year-old son, Abisai, in the New Orleans International Airport. A day earlier, the mother and son had been reunited in Texas after being separated by U.S. immigration officials for more than a month, an ordeal that followed a harrowing journey from Honduras. Now they awaited another reunion: With the father Abisai had not seen in person since he was an infant. (Thevenot and Elliott, 7/26)
The New York Times:
Chaos Marks Effort To Reunite Separated Families, New York Officials Say
The children first came to New York in the dark and some left that way, too. Others, after much confusion, did not leave at all. As the federal government raced to meet a deadline on Thursday to reunite parents and children separated at the Southwest border, New York officials and lawyers for the children described the efforts as chaotic and contradictory, leaving many families still divided. (Robbins, 7/26)
The Associated Press:
AP-NORC Poll: Latinos Health Care Communication Woes
Nearly 6 in 10 Hispanic adults have had a difficult time communicating with a health care provider because of a language or cultural barrier, and when they do they often turn to outside sources for help, according to a new study conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (Swanson and Contreras, 7/27)
USA Today:
Hospitals Know How To Protect Mothers. They Just Aren’t Doing It.
Every year, thousands of women suffer life-altering injuries or die during childbirth because hospitals and medical workers skip safety practices known to head off disaster, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Doctors and nurses should be weighing bloody pads to track blood loss so they recognize the danger sooner. They should be giving medication within an hour of spotting dangerously high blood pressure to fend off strokes. These are not complicated procedures requiring expensive technology. They are among basic tasks that experts have recommended for years because they can save mothers’ lives. (Young, 7/26)
Reuters:
Amgen Profit Beats Street View, Will Not Raise Prices Again In 2018
Amgen Inc on Thursday reported a better-than-expected second quarter profit and raised its full-year earnings forecast, and its chief executive pledged not to raise drug prices again this year. Amgen joined several drugmakers that have vowed to limit or delay price increases under intensifying pressure from the Trump administration to cut health care costs for U.S. consumers. (Erman and Respaut, 7/26)
NPR:
Medicare's 'Flat Fee' Payment Proposal Draws Ire Of Some Doctors And Patients
The Trump administration announced a plan Friday that would affect about 40 percent of the payments physicians receive from Medicare. Not everybody's pleased. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services calls its proposed plan a historic effort to reduce paperwork and improve patient care. But some doctors and advocates for patients fear it could be a disaster. (Bebinger, 7/27)
The New York Times:
Clean, Sober And $41,000 Deep In Out-Of-Pocket Addiction Recovery Costs
Tess Henry’s family paid $12,000 for 30 days of rehab from opioid addiction. She had done two more cycles of treatment without achieving sobriety. So her family agreed to pay $20,000 for 28 days of more rehab. But they never got the chance. A few days after assuring her mother that she planned to fly to Virginia to resume treatment, Ms. Henry was murdered. (Moore, 7/26)
The Washington Post:
Fentanyl-Related Deaths Continue ‘Staggering’ Rise In Maryland
The number of fentanyl-related deaths in Maryland reached an all-time high in 2017 and is on track to continue increasing in 2018, officials said, part of a nationwide overdose epidemic being driven by the powerful synthetic drug. Maryland fatalities caused by fentanyl jumped 42 percent from 2016 to 2017 — from 1,119 to 1,594 — even as deaths related to heroin use declined, according to data released by the Maryland Department of Health on Thursday. (Chason, 7/26)
Stateline:
‘My Soul And My Role Aligned’ — How Hospice Workers Deal With Death
As more Americans opt for hospice care, keeping hospice workers dedicated, replenished and content is a growing concern. The number of hospice patients grew 167 percent between 2000 and 2016, to more than 1.4 million, according to a March 2018 report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which provides Congress with analyses regarding Medicare. Nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries who died in 2015 had received hospice services. (Ollove, 7/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Precision Medicine Offers A Glimmer Of Hope For Alzheimer's Disease
The decades-long search for effective ways to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease is littered with failures, leaving 5.7 million Americans already stricken with this form of dementia without a lifeline. The rest of us are left to hope we won’t be among the 1 in 10 over 65 who gets the devastating diagnosis. But precision medicine — an approach that is changing the treatment of cancer and spawning targeted therapies for a wide range of diseases — may open new avenues for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. And new ways to test experimental treatments promise to more quickly identify treatments that work, and perhaps the patients in whom they will work best. (Healy, 7/26)
The Associated Press:
Wisconsin Ordered To Pay For Gender Reassignment Surgeries
"The likelihood of ongoing, irreparable harm facing these two individual plaintiffs outweighs any marginal impacts on the defendants' stated concerns regarding public health or limiting costs," Conley said in the 39-page order. Flack could get his surgery in two or three weeks, said Attorney Rock Pledl. He said Makenzie may have to wait a few months because of her status on the paperwork process with an HMO. (7/26)
Politico:
Texas Anti-Abortion Group Tacks To The Right, Dividing State Republicans
Texas Right to Life’s attempts to move the state Legislature further to the right are faltering this election season. And that may be just fine with some conservative and rival anti-abortion groups. The group's political action committee spent $2 million backing 17 challengers to incumbent state House and Senate lawmakers. Only three won their March primaries. Meanwhile, the group's attacks on lawmakers with strong anti-abortion records and free spending are stirring questions about whether it's more beholden to deep-pocketed donors and their agendas than to its core mission. (Rayasam, 7/26)
The Washington Post:
Providence Hospital In Northeast D.C. Will End Acute-Care Services
A hospital in Northeast Washington that serves many low-income residents announced Wednesday it will end acute-care services by the end of the year. Providence Hospital, a 283-bed facility in Ward 5’s Michigan Park neighborhood, said it will shift its focus to other services, including primary and urgent care, home care, community-based behavioral health care and senior care. Hospital officials issued a statement about the changes but declined to comment further Thursday. (Moyer, 7/26)
The Washington Post:
Hookworms Burrowed Into A Teenager’s Skin, Causing A Painful Condition
Kelli Mulhollen Dumas said she thought the small, red bumps on her son's skin were bites from chiggers or mosquitoes. Her son, Michael, had just returned from Florida, and she knew he had spent a lot of time outdoors. But within days, she said, the 17-year-old had several more spots — then “his whole backside” was covered. Ultimately, Dumas said, areas on her son's feet, legs and buttocks were covered in a red, itchy rash — the telltale sign of certain type of hookworm, a parasite that can infect both animals and humans. (Bever, 7/26)