Los Angeles Times: Trump's Supreme Court Pick Signals Skepticism Over GOP's Latest Bid To Repeal Obamacare
If Republicans are hoping Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will help them knock down Obamacare in the courts, they might be in for a disappointment. Kavanaugh has signaled in private meetings with Senate Democrats that he is skeptical of some of the legal claims being asserted in the latest GOP-led effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act. (Haberkorn, 8/29)

In other health law news —

The Hill: CDC: Uninsured Rates Hold Steady After One Year Of Trump
The uninsured rate in the first three months of 2018 held steady compared to the same time frame last year, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the first three months of 2018, 8.8 percent of people of all ages were uninsured, or 28.3 million people, according to the report. (Hellmann, 8/29)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Will Get $85 Million In Health Care Funding From White House 
Minnesota won a partial victory in a dispute over health care funding with the Trump administration, which agreed to restore $85 million in funds withheld from the state’s MinnesotaCare program. Federal officials last year abruptly pulled millions of dollars in federal support for the program as part of a series of executive branch actions designed to dismantle parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (Howatt, 8/30)

Georgia Health News: Pre-Existing Conditions: Prevalence And Insurance Protections
The Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, released this week, found that 23 percent of non-elderly adults in the Atlanta/Sandy Springs/Roswell area have a pre-existing medical condition, but in the Augusta/Richmond County area, the rate is 31 percent. The study, based on CDC data, found wide variability when mapping rates of pre-existing conditions across 130 areas in the United States. (Miller, 8/29)

The Hill: Dem Introduces Measure To Overturn Trump Expansion Of Non-ObamaCare Plans 
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on Wednesday introduced a measure to overturn a Trump administration rule expanding access to non-ObamaCare insurance plans. The move is a step in Senate Democrats’ plan to force a vote on the measure as they seek to argue Republicans are attacking protections for people with pre-existing conditions, a key argument Democrats want to make in the midterm election campaign. (Sullivan, 8/29)

Modern Healthcare: Democrats To Force Vote On Overturning Short-Term Plan Rule
Baldwin has spoken with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia about potential support for the petition and plans to talk to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as well, according to her staff. Senate Democrats said earlier this month they would try to force an upper chamber vote on the short-term plan rule that allows people to renew limited coverage for up to three years. "The Trump administration is rewriting the rules on guaranteed healthcare protections that millions of Americans depend on," Baldwin said. "They are moving forward on an expansion of junk insurance plans that can deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and don't have to cover essential services like prescription drugs, emergency room visits and maternity care." (Luthi, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Even A Small Amount Of Medical Debt Can Trigger Headaches
It doesn't take a huge unpaid medical bill to make a collection agency come calling ... and calling. Researchers found in a study of credit reports that more than 2 percent of adults had medical bills under $200 sent to a collection agency. Over half of the annual medical collections were for less than $600, according to the study, which examined 2016 credit reports for more than 4 million unidentified people. (Murphy, 8/29)

Meanwhile, a look at what happened to the patient who got a bill for more than $100,000 after a heart attack —

Kaiser Health News: Watch: What Happened To That $109,000 Heart Attack
Kaiser Health News editor-in-chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discusses the latest Bill of the Month installment on “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday.  The story of a high school teacher who faced an outrageous hospital bill is part of an ongoing crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR. (8/29)

Read The Original KHN Story: A Jolt To The Jugular! You’re Insured But Still Owe $109K For Your Heart Attack

The Washington Post: ‘We Did A Fantastic Job In Puerto Rico’: Trump Defends Response Despite Spike In Deaths After Hurricane Maria
President Trump on Wednesday defended his administration's response to a devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico last year, despite a study released this week that said there was a spike in deaths on the island in the six months that followed. “I think we did a fantastic job,” Trump said, responding to a question from a reporter at the White House. He called the emergency on the island “by far the most difficult” of the areas of the United States and its territories ravaged by hurricanes. (Nakamura, 8/29)

CNN: Trump Touts Puerto Rico Response As 'Fantastic' Despite Nearly 3,000 Dead
It was an optimistic accounting of his administration's handling of the natural disaster, which left much of the US territory without power for weeks and resulted in thousands of deaths. The island's governor formally raised the death toll from 64 to 2,975 on Tuesday following a study conducted by researchers at George Washington University. (Liptak and Diamond, 8/29)

The Hill: Trump Administration Shortens Funding Period For Grants To Planned Parenthood, Other Groups
The Trump administration on Wednesday shortened the funding period for grants awarded to organizations providing family planning services. The Title X grants will fund groups that offer birth control, STD testing and other family planning services through March 2019. Previous funding lasted for three-year periods. (Hellmann, 8/29)

Politico Pro: HHS Awards Title X Grants, Shortens Funding Cycle
The Title X program has been the focus of an intensifying political and legal battle, with the Trump administration seeking to steer money away from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers and toward faith-based programs. Earlier this month, HHS announced it would award Title X grants to 96 organizations, including to the 13 Planned Parenthood affiliates that applied. But it gave no indication at the time that the funding cycle would be different; nor did it give an overall dollar amount. (Roubein and Ehley, 8/29)

In other news —

The Associated Press: Satanic Temple's Missouri Abortion Law Challenge Dismissed
A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by The Satanic Temple against Missouri abortion laws, but there still are two pending lawsuits that could revive the complaints. Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuit, which dealt with Missouri's "informed consent" counseling that is required 72 hours before abortions are performed. (Ballentine, 8/29)

The Associated Press: California Closer To Making Colleges Offer Abortion Drugs
A measure that would make California the first state to require all public universities to offer abortion medication at their campus health centers cleared a hurdle Wednesday. None of the 34 University of California or California State University campuses currently offer abortion services. The California Assembly approved the measure, which returns to the Senate for a final sign-off. (8/29)

Modern Healthcare: Could Patient Input Improve Hospital Ratings' Accuracy?
A long-standing argument against hospital rating sites like Hospital Compare and U.S. News & World Report is that healthcare is too complex to assign a single rating that accurately represents the overall quality of care at a hospital. One way to get at that issue could be allowing consumers to modify the information used by the sites to determine ratings, according to researchers at RAND Corp. in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece published Wednesday. But healthcare consumer experts have questioned whether that change would solve the fundamental issues with ratings sites, such as flawed quality measures and consumer health literacy. (Castellucci, 8/29)

In other news —

Modern Healthcare: Not-For-Profit Hospitals' Cost-Cutting Isn't Keeping Up With Revenue Decline 
Not-for-profit hospitals have begun to rein in expenses, but it's not happening as fast as revenue growth is dropping, setting the sector on a tenuous precipice, according to a new report. The median annual expense growth rate fell from 7.1% in 2016 to 5.7% in 2017 but annual revenue growth declined faster, from 6.1% to 4.6%, despite increased merger and acquisition activity, according to Moody's Investors Service. (Kacik, 8/29)

Stat: The Senate Will Soon Vote On An Opioids Package, But A New Law Is Still Far Off 
The Senate is likely to pass a comprehensive bill to address the opioid crisis in the coming weeks. The House did so in June. But the finish line on that long-discussed priority remains a long way off. Lawmakers have left untouched many of the bill’s most contentious issues, like debates over patient privacy and expensive changes to Medicaid payments for addiction treatment. There’s no sign yet they’ll iron out those issues before the Senate votes. (Facher, 8/30)

The Washington Post: FDA Pushes For Development Of Non-Opioid Pain Medications
The Food and Drug Administration is planning new steps to encourage the development of nonaddictive alternatives to opioid pain medications, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an interview. As part of the effort, the agency plans to withdraw its existing 2014 guidance to the drug industry on pain medicines. That document is overly broad, Gottlieb said, and is sometimes a barrier to new products and innovations. The current guidelines call for a large number of studies to get FDA approval for general use for chronic pain, he added. (McGinley, 8/29)

Bloomberg: Narcan Owner Sees Schools As Growth Area For Overdose Spray 
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. Chief Executive Officer Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi said he sees an untapped market in U.S. high schools and colleges for Narcan, the opioid-overdose nasal spray his company will market after its acquisition of Adapt Pharma Inc. Narcan is available in 1,144 high schools across 31 states and 309 colleges and universities in 35 states, Abdun-Nabi said Wednesday in an interview. That’s a small percentage of the nation’s more than 24,000 public high schools and over 4,000 colleges and universities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. (Hopkins, 8/29)

And in the states —

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia Moves Toward E-Prescribing Mandate For Opioids By 2020
A legislatively mandated work group of medical industry stakeholders agreed Wednesday on a set of recommended changes to the 2017 state law requiring the transition to e-prescribing of all opioids by July 2020. The law — part of an effort to lessen the abuse of the drugs — is intended to reduce errors, theft and forgery of prescriptions, and to help prescribers track what medications a patient has received as the state grapples with a public health crisis. (Balch, 8/29)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Can Medical Marijuana Fight Ohio's Opioid Epidemic?
[Leanne] Barbee and other advocates of Ohio’s coming medical-marijuana program say they hope to enlist the drug not just to help individuals avoid opioids for pain treatment but to break the addiction epidemic’s hold on the Buckeye State. (Saker and Schultz, 8/29)

The New York Times: Posters Suggesting That Women Can Drink While Pregnant Stir Backlash
On posters distributed to medical facilities across Australia, large type over an image of a pregnant woman read: “It’s safest not to drink while pregnant.” Good so far. It was the next line, in smaller type, that alarmed medical professionals: “It’s not known if alcohol is safe to drink when you are pregnant.” Public health groups responded with resounding protests — drinking alcohol while pregnant is very definitively known to be unsafe, they said. (Victor, 8/29)

The Washington Post: Alcohol While Pregnant: DrinkWise Group Criticized Over Poster
Simon Strahan, DrinkWise’s chief executive, said the organization fixed the language after receiving a complaint from the Australian Medical Association. “DrinkWise is committed to communicating the importance of women abstaining from alcohol while pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breast-feeding,” he told the Sidney Morning Herald. Public health organizations around the world, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia, and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, have all said that no amount of alcohol, whether it be wine, liquor or beer, is safe for pregnant women. Drinking can cause miscarriage, stillbirth and lifelong disabilities, according to the CDC. (Phillips, 8/29)

Meanwhile —

The Associated Press: Mom's Use Of Opioids In Pregnancy May Stunt Kids' Learning
Learning disabilities and other special education needs are common in children born with opioid-related symptoms from their mother's drug use while pregnant, according to the first big U.S. study to examine potential long-term problems in these infants. About 1 in 7 affected children required special classroom services for problems including developmental delays and speech or language difficulties, compared with about 1 in 10 children not exposed to opioids before birth, the study found. (Tanner, 8/30)

The New York Times: These Companies Really, Really, Really Want To Freeze Your Eggs
Jennifer Lannon lay, her feet propped in stirrups, on an examining table at Extend Fertility, an egg-freezing clinic in Midtown Manhattan. A screen at her right displayed the results of her ultrasound, the image closely monitored by Ms. Lannon and her doctor, Joshua Klein. How many eggs could she expect to see? she asked. She would likely end up with some 20, Dr. Klein told her. He was making no promises. “But to the extent you can ensure fertility later,” he said, “you are in very good shape.” She ought to be. (La Ferla, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Know What To Say When Postpartum Depression Hits A Loved One
Gwyneth Paltrow, Chrissy Teigen, Adele: The charge to destigmatize postpartum depression has never before had so many high-profile sufferers willing to share their stories. Add Serena Williams to the list. The 23-time Grand Slam champion playing in the U.S. Open took to Instagram to share her story after a loss in San Jose, California, last month. She said she has been struggling with feelings of inadequacy as a mother since the birth last September of her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. (Italie, 8/30)

NPR: Parents Of Twins Run Higher Risk Of Depression Than Other New Parents
In 2014, when Crystal Duffy found out she was pregnant with twins, she felt shocked and overjoyed. "Twins run in our family," says the Houston resident, who was 33 at the time, and already the mom of a 2-year-old. "But we still weren't prepared for the news." Duffy had hoped for a joyful twin pregnancy. But during her second trimester, she began having complications. (Fraga, 8/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Starbucks’ Frappuccino Gets A Sugar Makeover
Starbucks Corp. is putting its decadent Frappuccino on a diet, looking to reduce the drink’s high sugar levels, which have scared away increasingly health-conscious consumers and hurt sales. ... it has been tough for Starbucks to lower the calories and keep the sweet taste that consumers expect. “It was incredibly challenging to mimic what was taken out,” said Jason Davis, senior manager of beverage innovation at Starbucks. To achieve a similar texture and taste, the company tested more than 20 types of cream, 70 different vanilla flavorings and created a new bottle to make sure the proper amounts of flavor are dispensed. (Jargon, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Is Getting ‘Hangry’ Actually A Thing?
It’s 4 p.m., and for no discernible reason, any little thing can make your blood boil. Are you hangry? The portmanteau of hungry and angry has become so common in colloquial speech, it made news when U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim tweeted about the condition when she skipped part of her breakfast. The Oxford English Dictionary gave it an official definition this year. (Mitchell, 8/29)

And —

Bloomberg: Nestle Wants Your DNA To Sell You Supplements 
Nestle SA, the world’s largest food company, has joined the trend for personalized nutrition with a blend of artificial intelligence, DNA testing and the modern obsession with Instagramming food. The program, begun in aging Japan, could provide the Swiss company with a wealth of data about customers’ wellness and diet as it pivots toward consumers who are seeking to improve their health and longevity. (Du, Gretler and Takahashi, 8/29)

The New York Times: Detroit Schools Turn Off Drinking Water, Citing Elevated Lead And Copper
When public school students in Detroit return to their classrooms next week for the first day of the school year, the water fountains will be dry. Since 2016, water testing in the district has found elevated levels of lead or copper in dozens of schools. And while it is unclear how many of the district’s 106 schools currently have water quality issues, the drinking water will be turned off in all of them, Superintendent Nikolai P. Vitti said on Wednesday. (Fortin, 8/30)

Detroit Free Press: Detroit Schools Shutting Off Water Fountains, Other Drinking Water
"Although we have no evidence that there are elevated levels of copper or lead in our other schools where we are awaiting test results, out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our students and employees, I am turning off all drinking water in our schools until a deeper and broader analysis can be conducted to determine the long-term solutions for all schools," Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said in a statement Wednesday. The move came even as officials from the city and the Great Lakes Water Authority sought to assure residents that water provided by the authority is safe to drink — pointing to the district's infrastructure as the problem. (Higgins, 8/29)

The New York Times: One Dead, 17 Sickened From Salmonella Linked To Kosher Chicken
A person in New York has died and 17 people from four states were sickened from a salmonella outbreak linked to chicken from the largest kosher poultry producer in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The C.D.C., which investigated the outbreak, said eight people were hospitalized, and cases of the illness were reported in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The outbreak started in September 2017 and the last case was reported in June 2018. (Pager, 8/29)

The Washington Post: Salmonella-Tainted Chicken Kills One In New York, Sickens 17, CDC Says
Authorities are not warning people at this time to stay away from any particular chicken, CDC spokeswoman Brittany Behm said, and Empire Kosher said in a statement that none of its products are being recalled. But health officials also are not sure whether they have accounted for everyone who was sickened in that period. (Horton, 8/29)

Los Angeles Times: FDA To California: Cancer Warning Labels For Coffee Would Be 'Misleading'
There are still parts of the Trump administration that value science, and coffee drinkers in California can be thankful that the Food and Drug Administration is one of them. On Wednesday, the FDA sent a letter to Sacramento urging the state to put science ahead of the requirements of a controversial ballot initiative and end its war on coffee. (Kaplan, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Staff At Psychiatric Hospital Fear For Safety
A patient with a history of violence has been charged with the weekend assault of a nurse at a Washington state psychiatric hospital that recently lost accreditation and federal funding due to safety violations. He is accused of punching the nurse, knocking her to the floor and repeatedly stomping on her head. (Bellisle, 8/29)

The Baltimore Sun: Johns Hopkins Hospital Unit Trains To Respond To Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Bioterrorism
Two medics wearing head-to-toe protective gear carefully wheeled the man on a gurney out of an elevator at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The public health researcher recently returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo and had symptoms of Ebola — a cough, muscle pain and high fever. Dressed in a dark t-shirt and shorts, the man lay encased in a plastic, bubble-like pod. Doctors isolated him to prevent the spread of the highly infectious disease, transporting him from the emergency room to the hospital’s biocontainment unit for quarantine until tests could be completed. (McDaniels, 8/29)

Nashville Tennessean: BlueCross Inks Deal With Anesthesia Group To Avoid Surprise Bills
An eleventh-hour deal between Tennessee’s largest health insurance company and the biggest anesthesiologist group in the state will end a corporate tug of war that nearly led to patients facing surprise bills that could cost thousands. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Anesthesia Medical Group confirmed Wednesday they inked an agreement that will prevent BlueCross from booting AMG from its insurance network. The physicians group was set to leave the network if a compromise wasn’t reached by the start of September. (Kelman, 8/29)

Sacramento Bee: More Than $40 Million Raised For Fight Over California Dialysis Profits And Patients
Dialysis clinics and unions have reported collecting more than $40 million for a fight over Proposition 8, a statewide ballot measure that would limit profits for dialysis companies. The proposition cap dialysis clinic profits at 15 percent and would require the clinics who have higher profit margins to pay rebates to insurance companies or face fines. The clinics would also need to annually report financial information such as costs, revenue and patient charges to the state. (Chen, 8/30)

Reuters: California University Doctor Accused Of Sex Abuse Sees License Suspended
A former University of Southern California (USC) gynecologist, accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of students, has agreed to a suspension of his medical license, officials said on Wednesday. Dr. George Tyndall reached an agreement this week with the Medical Board of California temporarily prohibiting him from practicing medicine until it makes a final decision on the status of his license, board spokeswoman Susan Wolbarst said. (8/29)

Boston Globe: A New Role For Paramedics: Treating Patients At Home
Michaud is among a small number of paramedics in Massachusetts working in pilot programs that allow them to treat patients with urgent medical needs at home, a practice that soon will be more common through money included in the recently approved state budget. ...The goal is to avoid unnecessary and costly hospital visits while treating patients where they are most comfortable. (Dayal McCluskey, 8/29)

Kaiser Health News: Californians Living Longer With Cancer — Some Longer Than Others 
As he grew older, Dale Kunitomi paid closer attention to his health — and to his doctor’s advice. When he noticed rectal bleeding in 2010, he went to see his physician, who ordered a colonoscopy.The diagnosis: colon cancer. (Gorman, 8/30)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Vote To Raise The Age For Buying Long Guns From 18 To 21
Alarmed by a string of mass shootings by young people, California lawmakers on Wednesday sent the governor a bill that would raise the minimum age for buying long guns in the state from 18 to 21. Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) said his bill would address concerns raised by incidents including the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which a 19-year-old is accused of using an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to kill 17 students and school employees. (McGreevy, 8/30)

KQED: Amid Traumatizing Work, Firefighters Open Up — To Each Other
People tend to think of firefighters as calm under pressure, stoic about the risks they take and private about the devastation they witness. Many firefighters prefer to maintain that image. But as fire seasons intensify, more firefighters are realizing it’s better to open up -- at least to each other. (Hutson, 8/29)

Reuters: Florida Finds Atypical Mad Cow Case, No Human Threat Seen
A 6-year-old beef cow in Florida tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday. The animal tested positive for atypical H-type BSE on Aug. 26 at the Colorado State University's veterinary diagnostic laboratory, as part of routine surveillance of cattle that are found to be unfit for slaughter, the agency said. (Huffstutter, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Ex-Medical Examiner Gets 8 Years In Opioids-For-Sex Case
A highly regarded former Georgia medical examiner has been sentenced to serve eight years in prison for trading opioid prescriptions for sex in what former colleagues say is a sad and shocking turn for a man they knew as an ethical and dedicated public servant. A forensic pathologist and former medical examiner, Joseph Burton, 73, handled cases from seven metro Atlanta counties, including some of the region's most high-profile murders. (8/29)

Health News Florida: Pre-Birth Spina Bifida Surgery Now In Florida
A surgery performed to correct for spina bifida before a baby is even born is being offered for the first time in Florida. Surgeons at Winnie Palmer Hospital say by repositioning a child’s spine and closing an opening in their back, they’re able to avoid mobility and digestive problems. (Prieur, 8/30)

The CT Mirror: STDs Reach Record Levels In CT, Early Data Show
Connecticut experienced record-high cases last year of sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea, which health officials fear may be becoming more resistant to antibiotic treatment. The state’s spike in gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia cases coincides with “steep and sustained” increases seen nationwide from 2013 through 2017, in an analysis released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Kara and Rigg, 8/30)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Doctor Who Promotes Chelation Therapy Accused Of Medicare Fraud
A Ringgold doctor falsely diagnosed patients as suffering from heavy metal poisoning and then billed Medicare for their treatment, federal prosecutors allege in a Medicare fraud lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. district court in Atlanta. Dr. Charles C. Adams perpetrated the scheme in Georgia for seven years, the government alleges, submitting some 4,500 claims and collecting about $1.5 million for what the lawsuit calls medically unnecessary chelation therapy. (Norder, 8/29)

The Associated Press: New Illinois Law Allows Medical Marijuana Pain Prescriptions
Doctors in Illinois can now prescribe marijuana as a painkiller thanks to a new law intended to counter a growing opioid abuse epidemic. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the bill into law Tuesday allowing physicians to temporarily prescribe cannabis for pain relief, effective immediately. (8/29)

Kaiser Health News: The Pluses And Minuses Of Allowing Medical Marijuana At School 
Every school day at noon, Karina Garcia drives to her son’s South San Francisco high school to give him a dose of cannabis oil to prevent potentially life-threatening seizures. But she can’t do it on campus. She has to take Jojo, a 19-year-old with severe epilepsy, off school grounds to squirt the drug into his mouth, then bring him back for his special education classes. (Young, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Wisconsin ObamaCare Howlers
Part of the fun of running for office appears to be taking creative liberties with your opponent’s record, so get ready for a fiction-filled autumn. An early ObamaCare misdirection out of Wisconsin is one that Republicans nationwide will have to anticipate. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tony Evers is running an ad blaming Governor Scott Walker for high health-care premiums in the Badger State. Mr. Walker’s supposed sin: Not taking the Affordable Care Act’s bribe to expand Medicaid to able-bodied adults up to 138% of the poverty line. “Minnesota’s governor took the funds,” the ad says, and “Wisconsin families now pay nearly 50% more than Minnesotans for the same health care.” (8/29)

New England Journal of Medicine: Mitigating The Risks Of Medicaid Work Requirements
In January 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a letter to state Medicaid directors “to assist states in their efforts to improve Medicaid enrollee health and well-being through incentivizing work and community engagement.” As of June 2018, four states — Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, and New Hampshire — had received CMS approval for Section 1115 waivers to implement and evaluate work requirements for nonelderly adults enrolled in Medicaid. Work requirements are moving forward in Arkansas, Indiana, and New Hampshire. However, a federal district court blocked Kentucky’s implementation of such requirements, determining that the secretary of Health and Human Services had not adequately considered how the waiver would affect the state’s ability to provide coverage to Medicaid enrollees. Six other states have proposed new Medicaid work requirements in pending waiver applications to CMS, and Virginia recently approved Medicaid expansion with plans to implement work requirements through a Section 1115 waiver. (John Z. Ayanian, Renuka Tipirneni and Susan D. Goold, 8/29)

Columbus Dispatch: Medicaid Expansion Has Improved Ohioans' Health
The recent report on Ohio’s Medicaid expansion shows that the program is working as intended and is cost-effective, pointing the way for the General Assembly and next governor to support its continuation. The expansion’s positive health and economic outcomes resulting from increased access to care — all of which are documented in the report — are welcome news to Ohio’s philanthropic community, which focuses on the same goals of improved health status and economic security for all residents of Ohio. (Claudia Herrold, 8/30)

The Star Tribune: Minnesotans, Don't Fall For The Ruse On Democrats' Health Care Intentions
With health care on the top of many voters’ minds this election season, it’s important that people are fully informed on where both parties stand on this important issue. Apparently, to my surprise, the Star Tribune Editorial Board wants us to pay no mind to the radical single-payer government takeover that many Democrats on the state and federal level are actively campaigning on, and the billions in tax increases it would take to pay for it. (Greg Davids, 8/28)

Houston Chronicle: Mass Shootings: It’s Not Guns. It’s Not Mental Health. It’s Both. 
Not even mass shootings stay in the headlines very long with all the topsy-turvy news coming out of the White House every day. Unfortunately, the public seems to lose interest even faster when it’s reported that a shooter may have been mentally ill. Maybe that’s in part due to gun control advocates’ tendency to lower their volume when a mass gunman’s history of mental illness becomes known. That doesn’t invalidate their argument, but the gun lobby uses it as ammunition to steer the conversation from the need to further restrict the availability of guns that can kill or maim dozens of people in minutes. Instead of lowering their voices, gun control proponents should add them to the chorus of those similarly calling on politicians to close gaps in the mental health system that can lead to tragedies like Sunday’s mass shooting of 12 people at a video games tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. (8/29)

Stat: It's Time To Measure Addiction Recovery Rates, Not Just Addiction Rates
Lost among the headlines of opioid addiction and overdose deaths are the many quiet stories of recovery. An estimated 22 million Americans — that includes the three of us — are in recovery from opioid and other addictions. We say “estimated” because states and the federal government don’t track recovery like they track addiction rates or overdoses. (Robert D. Ashford, Olivia Pennelle and Brent Canode, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: How Air In The Pacific Northwest Became Dirtier Than Beijing’s 
Crops are growing slower because of hazy skies, the Seattle Seahawks moved practice to an indoor facility, and people are showing up at hospitals and medical clinics with complaints of wheezing, shortness of breath and other ailments. Long-planned surgeries have been canceled because patients are too ill from the smoke. (Jim Carlton and Nour Malas, 8/28)

New England Journal of Medicine: The Supreme Court’s Crisis Pregnancy Center Case — Implications For Health Law
States frequently compel health professionals and commercial entities to disclose information relevant to patient or consumer decision making. For many years, such laws were presumed to be constitutional, despite the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. But after the Supreme Court’s decision in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra (NIFLA) in late June 2018, the status of such laws is an open question. (Wendy E. Parmet, Micah L. Berman and Jason A. Smith, 8/29)

WBUR: The Beauty Of 'Small Data' In Medicine, From Measuring Kids To Tumor Mutations
Small data is not in style these days, and I'm a big data practitioner myself, working at the intersection of data, computing and medicine as chair of Harvard Medical School's Department of Biomedical Informatics. So much the more reason, I think, to remember how much can be done with careful, meticulous consideration of data coming from a single patient. (Isaac Kohane, 8/29)

The Wall Street Journal: The Transgender Language War
If you want to control people’s thoughts, begin by commandeering their words. Taking this Orwellian lesson to heart, Virginia’s Fairfax County public school system recently stripped the phrase “biological gender” from its family life curriculum, replacing it with “sex assigned at birth.” Without permitting parents to opt out, public schools across the country are teaching children that “gender” is neither binary nor biological. It’s closer to a mental state: a question of how girllike or boylike you feel. Students will fall anywhere along a gender spectrum, according to these educators. (Abigail Shrier, 8/29)

New England Journal of Medicine: Personalized Hospital Ratings — Transparency For The Internet Age
As currently constructed, the weighting systems that underlie overall hospital performance ratings are expressions of the values, preferences, and tastes of their creators. Why not ask patients what’s important to them instead? (Juliet Rumball-Smith, Jill Gurvey, and Mark W. Friedberg, 8/30)

New England Journal of Medicine: Life Lessons From Paul In The Face Of Death
My brother Paul, a rabbi, died recently, just shy of 3 years after the diagnosis of widely metastatic colon cancer. The story of his diagnosis and treatment is all too familiar. An apparently healthy 64-year-old man has a sudden onset of lower abdominal pain. Imaging reveals an obstructing lesion. Surgery leads to the diagnosis of colon cancer, stage IV at diagnosis, with hepatic, peritoneal, and pulmonary spread. ...A rabbi is a teacher, and Paul taught us, his family and associates, three lessons during the time granted to him by medical science. (Jeffrey M. Drazen, 8/29)

San Antonio Press Express: High Eviction Rate Reflects On Community Shortcomings
Some San Antonio residents are finding it more difficult to maintain a roof over their heads as the affordable housing market shrinks, rents go up and safety nets disappear. ...San Antonio has a low cost of living, but many of its apartment dwellers are nonetheless what the federal government calls “cost burdened,” which means they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. (8/28)

Sacramento Bee: California Communities Are Thirsty For Justice
Our leaders should do what’s right and support Senate Bills 844 and 845 to finance the proposed Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund. The bills are modest in scope and cost, but will save lives. They will raise a small, dedicated amount of funding through new fees on agriculture and voluntary charges on water bills to help low-income communities afford ongoing operations and maintenance costs for water treatment. (Dolores Huerta and Tom Steyer, 8/28)