The New York Times: ‘Transgender’ Could Be Defined Out Of Existence Under Trump Administration
The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. A series of decisions by the Obama administration loosened the legal concept of gender in federal programs, including in education and health care, recognizing gender largely as an individual’s choice and not determined by the sex assigned at birth. The policy prompted fights over bathrooms, dormitories, single-sex programs and other arenas where gender was once seen as a simple concept. Conservatives, especially evangelical Christians, were incensed. (Green, Benner and Pear, 10/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Health Department Takes Aim At Transgender-Rights Rules
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services had sought to push through changes to Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting gender discrimination in education, according to a story Sunday in the New York Times. While Title IX doesn’t directly govern sex discrimination beyond education, other civil rights laws generally base their definition of such discrimination on Title IX. But Education Department officials have been drafting their own changes to Title IX, focused on the process for adjudicating campus sexual assault. And those officials, particularly Secretary Betsy DeVos, have resisted including a broad redefinition of gender in those changes, preferring to keep the focus limited. (Armour and Hackman, 10/21)

The New York Times: Stacey Abrams Hopes Medicaid Expansion Can Be A Winning Issue In Rural Georgia
For the upscale urban audience at a campaign town hall here, it would have been enough for Stacey Abrams to pitch Medicaid expansion as a moral issue — the health-care-as-human-right argument that appeals to progressives everywhere. Instead, Ms. Abrams, the Democrat in the tossup race for Georgia governor, stuck to the pragmatic line of reasoning she has pushed in making Medicaid expansion a top priority of her campaign: It will help save the state’s struggling rural towns without busting its budget, since the Affordable Care Act requires the federal government to pay 90 percent of the cost. (Goodnough, 10/20)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Expansion Becomes Key Issue In GOP-Leaning States
For nearly a decade, opposition to former President Barack Obama's health care law has been a winning message for Republicans. But this year, residents in several conservative states are bypassing legislatures that have refused to expand Medicaid, one of the pillars of Obama's health overhaul. Voters in three Republican-dominated states — Idaho, Nebraska and Utah — will decide in November whether to expand the health insurance program to more lower-income Americans. (Schulte and Mulvihill, 10/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicaid-Expansion Fights Pit Hospitals, Labor Against Conservative Groups, Tobacco Companies
Voters in four states will decide Nov. 6 whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, with the initiatives spurring some $20 million in political spending and testing the public’s appetite for expansions in states where the ACA remains unpopular. Top spenders in the campaigns are groups linked to the tobacco industry and the Koch brothers, which are aligned against the initiatives, and hospitals and union-back advocacy groups, which are in favor of them. (Armour, 10/20)

PBS NewsHour: Will Conservative Nebraska Vote To Expand Medicaid?
Nebraskans will vote in November on whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The state’s Republican legislature and governors have refused to expand Medicaid after states were given that option in 2012 by the Supreme Court. The ballot initiative, modeled after Maine’s 2016 ballot measure, would expand coverage for an estimated 90,000 Nebraskans. (Sreenivasan, 10/21)

Politico Pro: Medicaid Privatization Takes Center Stage In Iowa Governor’s Race
Questions about the future of Obamacare and protections for sick people are dominating congressional races all over the country, but in Iowa, the focus is decidedly more local: Did the state err when it let private insurers run its Medicaid program? It’s become a pivotal question in the tight governor’s race pitting Democrat Fred Hubbell against Gov. Kim Reynolds. (Goldberg, 10/19)

Politico: ‘Campaign Gold’: McConnell Delivers Election Gift To Manchin And Red-State Dems
Joe Manchin looked like a solid bet for reelection after he voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. But Mitch McConnell might have sealed the deal. Facing some of the toughest campaigns of their careers, the West Virginia Democrat and his moderate colleagues believe they've received an unexpected gift from the Senate GOP leader. In a triumphant post-Kavanaugh media tour last week, the Kentucky Republican waxed about his regret over the missed opportunity to repeal Obamacare and the need to reform entitlement programs to rein in the federal deficit. (Everett, 10/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Have Shot At Reclaiming Several Midwest Governorships
Candidates vying for governors’ seats across the Midwest are facing tight races in a test of the loyalty of voters who propelled Donald Trump to victory in 2016. States where governorships could flip from red to blue in the November midterms include Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa. Recent polls have shown Democrats in each state pulling even or ahead. Nationwide, 33 states have Republican governors, while 16 have Democrats. Alaska’s governor is an Independent. Thirty-six of those seats are up for grabs this year. (Maher, 10/21)

KCUR: Health Care, Party Independence Are Major Themes In McCaskill-Hawley Senate Debate 
Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and her GOP rival, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, sparred over how they would improve health care in an hour-long debate Thursday night that featured familiar themes. ...Hawley said he’s sticking with his involvement in a federal lawsuit that would do away with the Affordable Care Act, including its provisions requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions without raising their premiums. Hawley said, however, he is committed to still protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and cited his young son’s chronic hip and joint problem as an example. (Lippmann, 10/19)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Leah Vukmir, Tammy Baldwin Clash On Health Care, Tomah In Final Debate
Republican Leah Vukmir charged that implementing a "Medicare-for-all" program backed by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin would "create chaos of epic proportions." ...At a news conference after the hourlong clash, Baldwin was asked about the line that was similar to one used by Democrats against House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville. (Glauber, 10/19)

The Hill: Pelosi, Schumer: Trump 'Desperate' To Put Focus On Immigration, Not Health Care 
Democratic congressional leaders on Saturday slammed President Trump for calling Democrats "obstructionists" on immigration reform and accused the president of attempting to "change the subject" away from a national conversation on health care. In a statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused Republicans of "making a mess" of the U.S. health-care system. (Bowden, 10/20)

Kaiser Health News: News Analysis: Politicians Hop Aboard ‘Medicare-For-All’ Train, Destination Unknown
After decades in the political wilderness, “Medicare-for-all” and single-payer health care are suddenly popular. The words appear in political advertisements and are cheered at campaign rallies — even in deep-red states. They are promoted by a growing number of high-profile Democratic candidates, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Rep. Beto O’Rourke in Texas. Republicans are concerned enough that this month President Donald Trump wrote a scathing op-ed essay that portrayed Medicare for all as a threat to older people and to American freedom. (Rosenthal and Luthra, 10/22)

Georgia Health News: Ballot Measure Would Help Housing For People With Mental Illness
At the end of the Georgia ballot this year is a referendum that, if approved, would help nonprofits provide permanent housing to homeless people with mental illness. Referendum B would allow a property tax exemption for nonprofit housing of these individuals in residences that get tax credit financing from for-profit business entities. (Miller, 10/19)

WBUR: How Nurse Assignments Are Made And Would Change With Ballot Question 1
Not all hospitals in Massachusetts use a patient acuity tool right now, but they would all be required to if Question 1 passes. At Mass General, Pignone will click another button during her shift if a patient needs to be watched constantly. (Bebinger, 10/22)

California Healthline: Spending Against Dialysis Ballot Measure In California Nears Record
With the midterm election less than three weeks away, the dialysis industry has made Proposition 8 the most expensive on the ballot this year.By the time Nov. 6 rolls around, the industry may also break the record for spending by one side on a statewide ballot measure. As of Oct. 17, dialysis companies have contributed more than $104 million to the “Vote No on 8” committee, which is encouraging voters to reject the union-backed measure to limit dialysis company profits. Industry giants DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care, which operate nearly three-quarters of the chronic dialysis clinics in California, are responsible for more than 90 percent of that total. (Rowan, 10/18)

Meanwhile, in other state election news —

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore County Executive Candidate Redmer Misses Significant Time At State Insurance Commission During Campaign
Baltimore County executive candidate Al Redmer Jr. has taken significant time off from his day job as the state’s insurance commissioner during the campaign, according to documents. The Maryland Insurance Administration released hundreds of pages of Redmer’s schedules, time cards and time-off balances to The Baltimore Sun in response to a request under the Maryland Public Information Act. The documents indicate that in some cases, Redmer, a Republican, has spent more than half of his workweeks on annual leave, away from his state job. (Wood, 10/19)

The Associated Press: Hackers Breach HealthCare.Gov System, Get Data On 75,000
A government computer system that interacts with HealthCare.gov was hacked earlier this month, compromising the sensitive personal data of some 75,000 people, officials said Friday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made the announcement late in the afternoon ahead of a weekend, a time slot agencies often use to release unfavorable developments. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/19)

The Washington Post: Consumer Data Compromised In Affordable Care Act Enrollment Portal
The breach, involving a system used by agents and brokers as part of the insurance program, exposed credit and other personal information. It throws into turmoil one aspect of the ACA’s insurance-signup process less than two weeks before the start of the annual enrollment period for coverage created by the 2010 health-care law. According to a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the online pathway for agents and brokers into the federal insurance exchange was shut down earlier this week, though officials hope to reopen it a few days before the Nov. 1 start of the six-week enrollment period. (Goldstein, 10/19)

The New York Times: Hurricane Michael Victims’ Biggest Fear: ‘People Are Going To Start Forgetting’
After two weeks of working grueling hours on hurricane response and sleeping fitfully under a tatty Auburn University fleece in his office, Rodney E. Andreasen, the emergency management director for Jackson County, Fla., decided on Friday that it was time to nudge his neighbors back to normalcy. He started by scaling back on round-the-clock staffing. Then he turned to the county’s eight multiagency “points of distribution” — known as PODs — which have been handing out free drinking water, ice, canned goods, hot meals, diapers, garbage bags, and the most coveted item of all, toilet paper. (Thrush and Blinder, 10/21)

The Associated Press: 'I Don't Feel Real': Mental Stress Mounting After Michael
Amy Cross has a hard time explaining the stress of living in a city that was splintered by Hurricane Michael. She's fearful after hearing gunshots at night, and she's confused because she no longer recognizes the place where she's spent her entire 45 years. "I just know I don't feel real, and home doesn't feel like home at all," Cross said. (Reeves, 10/21)

The Associated Press: Florida Panhandle Medical Care On Life Support After Michael
Already sick with strep throat and asthma, Aleeah Racette got sicker when she cleaned out a soggy, moldy home after Hurricane Michael, so she sought help at the hospital where she began life. She was stunned by what she saw there. The exterior wall of Bay Medical Sacred Heart in Panama City is missing from part of the building, and huge vent tubes attached to fans blow air into upper floors through holes where windows used to be. (Farrington and Reeves, 10/19)

The Associated Press: AP Analysis: 'Obamacare' Shapes Opioid Grant Spending
An Associated Press analysis of the first wave of emergency money targeting the U.S. opioid crisis finds that states are taking very different approaches to spending it. To a large extent, the differences depend on whether states participated in one of the most divisive issues in recent American politics: the health overhaul known as "Obamacare." (Johnson and Forster, 10/22)

The Associated Press: Coming Clean: Public Embrace For Celeb Addicts Offers Hope
Beneath sparkling chandeliers hanging in the famed Rainbow Room, as a gala crowd dotted with rock stars sat around white-clothed dinner tables, Ringo Starr stood at a podium and described what it felt like to be 30 years sober. With wife Barbara Bach Starkey — herself a recovering alcoholic — at his side, the former Beatle described what it took for him to get help and called for more resources and acceptance for the treatment movement that saved their lives. (Italie, 10/20)

Los Angeles Times: Fentanyl Smuggled From China Is Killing Thousands Of Americans
The Zheng drug trafficking organization was hardly clandestine. The Shanghai-based network sold synthetic narcotics, including deadly fentanyl, on websites posted in 35 languages, from Arabic and English to Icelandic and Uzbek. The Chinese syndicate bragged that its laboratory could “synthesize nearly any” drug and that it churned out 16 tons of illicit chemicals a month. The group was so adept at smuggling, and so brazen in its marketing, that it offered a money-back guarantee to buyers if its goods were seized by U.S. or other customs agents. (Wilber, 10/19)

Politico Pro: Abuse-Resistant Opioids Fail To Make Gains Amid Crisis
The FDA has encouraged making painkillers crush resistant, harder to dissolve and generally more difficult to tamper with. But those efforts are meeting resistance from insurers and physicians, who question whether drugmakers will use an abuse-resistant designation to roll out more expensive products that still can be overused. (Owermohle, 10/19)

Marketplace: How Big Data Can Identify Doctors Who Overprescribe Opioids And Avoid Potential Costs
The opioid crisis has put a spotlight on physician prescribing practices, especially since studies show a quarter of chronic pain patients misuse opioids. One startup in Nashville has become a sort of watchdog for health insurers who spend far more when a patient is abusing opioids. (Farmer, 10/19)

Boston Globe: Baker Gets Praise For Handling Opioid Crisis, But Challenges Remain
Charlie Baker made it clear, as soon as he won election in 2014, that tackling the opioid crisis would be a top priority. He did not delay. A month after taking office as governor, Baker established a working group that by June 2015 came out with 65 recommendations to address opioid addiction. (Freyer, 10/22)

The New York Times: Miscarrying At Work: The Physical Toll Of Pregnancy Discrimination
If you are a Verizon customer on the East Coast, odds are good that your cellphone or tablet arrived by way of a beige, windowless warehouse near Tennessee’s border with Mississippi. ... Three other women in the warehouse also had miscarriages in 2014, when it was owned by a contractor called New Breed Logistics. Later that year, a larger company, XPO Logistics, bought New Breed and the warehouse. The problems continued. Another woman miscarried there this summer. Then, in August, Ceeadria Walker did, too. The women had all asked for light duty. Three said they brought in doctors’ notes recommending less taxing workloads and shorter shifts. They said supervisors disregarded the letters.(Silver-Greenberg and Kitroeff, 10/21)

The Washington Post: As U.S. Fertility Rates Collapse, Finger-Pointing And Blame Follow
As 2017 drew to a close, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) urged Americans to have more children. To keep the country great, he said, we’re “going to need more people.” “I did my part,” the father of three declared. Ryan’s remarks drew some eye rolls at the time, but as new data about the country’s collapsing fertility rates has emerged, concern has deepened over what’s causing the changes, whether it constitutes a crisis that will fundamentally change the demographic trajectory of the country — and what should be done about it. (Cha, 10/19)

NPR: Grassroots Battles Continue Over Missouri Planned Parenthood Site
When Angela Huntington arrived at work on a Wednesday morning in early October, she had to do something she dreaded: turn patients away. Huntington is the manager at the Columbia Health Center in Columbia, Mo., a Planned Parenthood site that recently had to halt its abortion services in the midst of a highly publicized legal fight in the state. (Gordon, 10/19)

WBUR: Report: Women Everywhere Don't Know Enough About Ovarian Cancer
A new study of women with ovarian cancer shows that ignorance about the condition is common among patients in all 44 countries surveyed. And that ignorance has a cost. The disease is more treatable, even potentially curable, in its early stages. (Silberner, 10/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Agent Orange Concerns Joined By Worry Over Modern-Era ‘Burn Pits’
Members of Congress and veterans advocates are mounting a push to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to increase aid to former service members with health problems blamed on toxic exposures, a move the VA secretary has publicly fought since taking over the department. Secretary Robert Wilkie opposes legislative proposals to expand benefits to thousands of Vietnam War veterans who served at sea and claim exposure to Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant. The VA also opposes new benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan troops exposed to burn pits until the issue can be studied in depth. (Kesling and Armour, 10/21)

In other veterans' health care news —

Boston Globe: Left In Cold By VA Medical Center, Homeless Veteran Finds Kindness In Strangers
[Norman] Franks, 58, is angry at how the VA handled his case, arguing that he never should have been turned away that May night when the temperature fell into the 40s, or to have lived at a campground for so long. When he arrived at the hospital that May evening, Franks said, he was told by a VA social worker that he might be able to sleep undisturbed in the TV lounge. (MacQuarrie, 10/22)

Stat: Head Of IBM Watson Health Leaving Post After Company Stumbles, Growing Criticism
After a rocky three years as head of IBM’s health division, Deborah DiSanzo is leaving her role. A company spokesman told STAT that DiSanzo will no longer lead IBM Watson Health, the Cambridge-based division that has pitched the company’s famed artificial intelligence capabilities as solutions for a myriad of health challenges, like treating cancer and analyzing medical images. Even as it has heavily advertised the potential of Watson Health, IBM has not met lofty expectations in some areas. Its flagship cancer software, which used artificial intelligence to recommend courses of treatment, has been ridiculed by some doctors inside and outside of the company.  (Swetlitz and Ross, 10/19)

In other health industry news —

Stat: Former J&J Employee Says She Was Fired For Blowing Whistle On Eye Group 
A former Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) employee claims she was fired after complaining about purportedly unlawful activities — including kickbacks — that occurred at an educational institute the health care giant runs for eye-care professionals, according to a lawsuit filed in a Florida state court. Colleen Jones, who worked for J&J for the past 25 years and most recently had been director of the Vision Care Institute, alleged the practices encompassed giving free contact lenses to company executives, including the head of the vision business, and other employees on a “grab-and-go” basis without a complete eye exam or a follow up. And sometimes, freebies involved monthly or annual supplies. (Silverman, 10/19)

Modern Healthcare: Primary-Care Companies Cut Costs Through Preventive Models 
For most Americans, it's not easy to schedule an appointment to see a primary-care physician or speak to one by phone. When patients can get in for a visit with a doctor, they're lucky to get 15 minutes of their time. That's not the case at a JenCare primary-care center in Chicago's South Side Ashburn neighborhood. Executives for JenCare and its parent, ChenMed, urge doctors and staff to get their senior patients in often and spend as much time as they need with them. Patients there average more than three hours of face time a year with their primary-care doctor. (Meyer, 10/20)

ProPublica/Houston Chronicle: St. Luke’s In Houston Replaces Heart Transplant Surgical Director After Program Loses Medicare Funding
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center announced Friday that it has hired two new cardiac surgeons to lead its embattled heart transplant program as it works to regain Medicare certification. The surgeons, Dr. Kenneth Liao and Dr. Alexis Shafii, will together take over leadership posts previously held by Dr. Jeffrey Morgan, the heart program’s surgical director since 2016. ... Additionally, St. Luke’s announced it has hired Deborah Maurer, a longtime transplant program administrator in Chicago and Arizona, to serve as vice president of transplantation, a newly created position overseeing clinical and administrative operations for all organ transplant programs. (Hixenbaugh and Ornstein, 10/19)

The Associated Press: Heart Transplant Program Changes Chief After Patient Deaths
The hospital says Morgan will remain on its medical staff, but it's not saying if he will continue performing transplants. "The addition of two expert surgeons and an experienced executive who specializes in transplant program administration demonstrates Baylor St. Luke's continued and growing commitment to heart and lung transplants," said St. Luke's President Gay Nord in a statement Friday. (10/19)

The New York Times: A National Goal: Prevent A Million Heart Attacks And Strokes By 2022
Attention all Americans: Too many are at risk of succumbing before your time to the nation’s leading killer, cardiovascular disease. Translation: heart attacks and strokes. After a decades-long drop, the cardiovascular death rate has all but stalled and, frighteningly, has even reversed in a young group of people — adults aged 35 to 64, among whom deaths from heart disease are now rising. (Brody, 10/22)

Los Angeles Times: To Keep Your Blood Pressure In Check, Don’t Forget To Brush And Floss
Struggling to bring your high blood pressure under control, even with the help of medications? Open your mouth and say “aha!” if you see tooth decay or gums that are sore, bleeding or receding. You may have found the culprit. Researchers reported Monday that in adults whose hypertension was being treated with medications, systolic blood pressure — which measures pressure in the vessels when the heart beats — got higher as the health of their teeth and gums declined. (Healy, 10/22)

The New York Times: Fast Food: It’s What’s For Dinner. And Lunch. And Breakfast.
More than a third of adults in the United States patronize fast-food restaurants and pizza parlors on any given day. And the higher their income, the more likely they are to do so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released data on fast food consumption gathered from 2013 to 2016 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or Nhanes, a program that continuously monitors the health and nutritional status of Americans. (Bakalar, 10/22)

The Associated Press: National Health Initiative Takes Aim At Sugar-Packed Foods
New York City has announced a national effort to reduce sugar in packaged foods by 20 percent. The city's health department said Friday the endeavor is being undertaken by the National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative, a partnership of about 100 health departments and related groups. (10/19)

The Wall Street Journal: NYC Health Department To Lead National Charge To Cut Sugar Intake
The sugar initiative has set a target to cut the sugar in packaged foods—including desserts, ice cream, candies, yogurt, cereals and condiments—by 20%. The target for soda, sports and fruit drinks and sweetened milk is 40%. After a public comment period, the program will commence in 2019. The average American eats 17 teaspoons of sugar daily, about five more than they should when based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Some 68% of packaged foods have added sugars which “get snuck into our diet in ways that we would never really anticipate,” said Oxiris Barbot, the acting commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (West, 10/19)

NPR: To Boost Mental Health, Try Team Sports Or Group Exercise
Ryan "China" McCarney has played sports his entire life, but sometimes he has to force himself to show up on the field to play pick-up soccer with his friends. "I'm dreading and I'm anticipating the worst. But I do it anyway. And then, it's a euphoric sensation when you're done with it because you end up having a great time," says McCarney. McCarney was just 22 when he had his first panic attack. As a college and professional baseball player, he says getting help was stigmatized. (Woodruff, 10/22)

NPR: Fixing Your Hearing And Vision Loss Can Keep Your Memory Sharper
By age 40, about one in 10 adults will experience some hearing loss. It happens so slowly and gradually, says audiologist Dina Rollins, "you don't realize what you're missing." And even as it worsens, many people are in denial. By the time someone is convinced they have a hearing problem, age-related memory loss may have already set in. But, here's the good news: Restoring hearing with hearing aids can help slow down cognitive decline. (Aubrey, 10/22)

Dallas Morning News: Cases Of Polio-Like Illness May Have Peaked, Says UT Southwestern Doctor
Every two years since 2014, small clusters of children across the U.S. have developed sudden paralysis, and experts still don’t know why. Since August, Children’s Medical Center Dallas has admitted eight patients ages 18 months to 13 years with symptoms ranging from poor muscle tone in an arm to total paralysis. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 62 cases in 22 states. In 2014, the year the outbreaks started, the CDC tracked 120 cases of the condition, called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. In 2016, there were 149 cases. CDC experts believe the 2018 numbers will be similar to previous years. In 2014 and 2016, cases peaked in September. (Kuchment, 10/20)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: Finding Hope: Giving Students A Voice In Suicide Prevention 
In Exeter, the district implemented a similar program, training student youth leaders like Siegfried to go into health classes during a week-long section on mental health and teach suicide prevention. The district now uses Signs of Suicide (SOS) training into its middle school, paid for by the Connor’s Climb Foundation. Connor’s Climb was founded by Tara Ball, whose 14-year-old son, Connor, died by suicide while he was a student at Exeter High School in 2011. (Willingham, 10/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Older HIV Patients Struggle With Loneliness And Depression — And Lack Of Services
Older people with HIV are frequently lonely and depressed, many of them face serious housing and financial hardships, and they have high rates of physical ailments — such as chronic pain, heart disease, diabetes and fatigue — that can diminish their quality of life. All of that’s been known for several years. But services to meet their needs still fall short, say people with HIV and the groups that support them, and simply quantifying their mental and physical health problems has been a challenge. (Allday, 10/20)

Kaiser Health News: Primary Care Doctors ‘Not Doing Enough’ To Curb STDs
Julie Lopez, 21, has been tested regularly for sexually transmitted diseases since she was a teenager. But when Lopez first asked her primary care doctor about screening, he reacted with surprise, she said. “He said people don’t usually ask. But I did,” said Lopez, a college student in Pasadena, Calif. “It’s really important.” (Gorman, 10/22)

Politico Pro: POLITICO Pro Q&A: Mark Rosenberg, Former Head Of Research On Gun Violence At CDC
Mark Rosenberg, founding director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention center that does research on violence, warns that failing to embrace the original intent of the so-called Dickey Amendment would only intensify partisan strife on the hot-button issue of gun control, setting back the small progress made this year to restart research on how to reduce shooting deaths. (Scholtes, 10/19)

Reuters: USC Agrees To $215 Million Settlement In California Gynecologist Case
The University of Southern California has reached a $215 million proposed settlement with former patients of a gynecologist at the school who was accused of sexual abuse, the president of the university said in a letter on Friday seen by Reuters. The settlement centers on the conduct of George Tyndall, who practiced at USC until he was suspended in 2016 after a complaint from a health worker accusing him of making sexually inappropriate comments to patients. (10/19)

The Wall Street Journal: University Of Southern California To Pay $215 Million In Gynecologist Sex-Abuse Case
The money will be available to thousands of women who were treated by Mr. Tyndall during his nearly 30-year tenure at the private Los Angeles university, including both those who do and don’t claim he abused them. The settlement, reached in a class action in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and subject to court approval, will offer larger payouts to women who allege they suffered the worst abuse. (Randazzo and Korn, 10/19)

Bloomberg: USC To Pay $215 Million To Settle With Victims Of Gynecologist 
"We hope that we can help our community move collectively toward reconciliation," Interim USC President Wanda Austin said in the university’s statement. "I regret that any student ever felt uncomfortable, unsafe, or mistreated in any way as a result of the actions of a university employee." (Pettersson, 10/19)

Boston Globe: For Many, A Struggle To Find Affordable Mental Health Care
Massachusetts has more mental health care providers per capita than any other state, more psychiatrists than anywhere but Washington, D.C., more child psychiatrists than all but D.C. and Rhode Island. Yet poor and middle-class patients describe an often-frustrating and painful struggle to find a provider who will see them, at a price they can afford. (Kowalczyk, 10/20)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Comment Period For Controversial Medicaid Work Requirements Ends Saturday
A key detail in Virginia’s plan to expand Medicaid — work and community service requirements — is one step closer to becoming law as the state’s public comment period for the conditions concludes Saturday. Enrollment for the estimated 400,000 people newly eligible for Medicaid, including adults in households with up to $16,754 in annual income for individuals or $28,677 for a family of three, begins Nov. 1. (Balch, 10/19)

Stateline: Tough New DUI Law Brings Controversy
On Dec. 30, Utah will become the first state to make it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of .05 or higher, rather than the .08 standard that every other state and the District of Columbia use. That means Utah will have the strictest DUI law in the nation. (Bergal, 10/19)

Texas Tribune: Federal Officials Tell Texas To Go Beyond Plan For Special Education Overhaul
In a letter Friday, officials from the U.S. Department of Education dissected Texas' proposed plan for overhauling special education for kids with disabilities — in many cases urging state officials to do even more than they had originally planned. Earlier this year, a thorough investigation found Texas had failed to provide students with disabilities with a proper education, violating federal special education law, and demanded it undertake a long list of corrective actions to shape up. (Swaby, 10/19)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Report: Ohioans More Likely To Have Health Insurance
Cincinnati residents and other Ohioans are more likely to have health insurance than other parts of the country, according to a study from WalletHub. The study was based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates. (Pugh, 10/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Colleges Try To Stop Spread Of Hand, Foot And Mouth Disease
College students and university doctors are fighting to keep an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease at bay as it spreads across campuses along the East Coast. At Dartmouth College, students are wearing yellow surgical masks to avoid passing the bug to classmates. At Johns Hopkins, where more than 100 cases have been reported, they have planted lawn signs and posted fliers to warn students about an outbreak, and at Lehigh University and Princeton, an email blast went out warning students to wash their hands and avoid sharing eating utensils and water bottles. (Belkin, 10/19)

Austin American-Statesman: Black Children In Travis County 8 Times More Likely To Be Removed By CPS Than White Children
African-American children in Travis County were nearly eight times more likely to be removed from a home by Child Protective Services than white children during the year ending Aug. 31, according to new state data. Black children in Travis County also were 4.6 times more likely to be reported to CPS as victims of possible abuse and neglect than their white peers and 5.1 times more likely to be investigated by CPS. (Chang, 10/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: LA Is Handing Out Flea Collars To Stem Typhus Among Homeless
The typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County is traced to disease-ridden fleas in areas with concentrated homeless populations, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors actually approved a plan Tuesday for mobile health teams to distribute flea collars in the Skid Row area. Dogs often have flea collars, too. (McCuaig, 10/21)

The Washington Post: Leaping From Specialists To ERs Fails To Solve This Young Boy’s Odd Ailments
Ever since he was a toddler, Michael had been beset by an array of medical problems that doctors couldn’t explain. Severe leg pain came first. That was followed a few years later by recurrent, sometimes severe, stomachaches. Later, the little boy developed a wracking cough, followed by trouble breathing. In fifth grade, after he fell and smacked his tailbone, he was in so much pain he wound up in a wheelchair. (Boodman, 10/20)

Sacramento Bee: What This Week’s Strike At UCD Hospital Means For Patients, Traffic In Sacramento
Deadlocked in labor contract negotiations with the University of California, thousands of low-wage workers represented by AFSCME Local 3299 will be setting up picket lines Tuesday through Thursday outside Sacramento’s UC Davis Medical Center and at four other academic hospitals around the state. Here’s what UC Davis patients and motorists around its facilities should know. (Anderson, 10/22)

Texas Tribune: Texas Supreme Court Reverses Course, Will Hear Case Over Whether State Can Keep Execution Drug Supplier Secret
Brought forward in 2014 by three Texas death penalty lawyers, the suit sought the name of a pharmacy that provided compounded pentobarbital, the sole drug currently used in Texas executions. The suit was filed after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, then the attorney general, said the state could withhold identifying information of drug suppliers because the pharmacies faced “real harm.” (McCullough, 10/19)

KQED: 'This Heat Is Killing Me'
Two heat waves last year killed at least 14 people in the Bay Area, and the past five summers have been the hottest on record in California. It’s a warming world, and heat can pose a serious threat, even in the normally temperate Bay Area. (Levi, 10/21)

The Washington Post: Perry Funeral Home, Detroit: Dozens More Infant Corpses Found After Cantrell Funeral Home Raid
Detroit Police Chief James Craig announced a “wide probe” into Michigan funeral homes Friday, after hidden caches of baby corpses were allegedly discovered at two unrelated businesses inside a week. “This is deeply disturbing,” Craig said at a news conference, hours after police raided Perry Funeral Home and allegedly seized 63 fetus or infant bodies, more than half of which were packed together in unrefrigerated boxes. “We want to understand the reasons: Is it financial gain? If so, how? Who knew or who else is involved in this?” (Selk, 10/21)

The Washington Post: Proposed Medicare Change For Patients Visit Reimbursements Is Bad For Patients, Doctors Say.
For those of you who are 65 or older and covered by Medicare, medical care may soon change for the worse, as many doctors see it. Every year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) presents proposed adjustments to the fee schedule expected to take effect Jan. 1. A recent plan that CMS is considering lays out the most significant changes in over two decades in how much the agency reimburses doctors for office visits. (Orly Avitzur and Ralph L. Sacco, 10/20)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Predictably, Republicans Hint That Tax-Plan Deficit Justifies Entitlement Cuts
So it begins. As congressional Republicans ushered in last year’s big tax cuts, saying they would pay for themselves with economic growth, analysts predicted they would instead spike the deficit, giving Republicans an excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Now that the deficit has in fact spiked, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is testing the waters for entitlement cuts. (10/21)

The Washington Post: The Hidden Costs Of The GOP’s Deficit Two-Step
A truly gifted con artist is someone who pulls off the same scam again and again and keeps getting away with it. Say what you will about Republicans and conservatives: Their audacity when it comes to deficits and tax cuts is something to behold, and they have been running the same play since the passage of the Reagan tax cuts in 1981. (E.J. Dionne, 10/21)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump Didn't Sabotage Obamacare
Accusing President Trump of "sabotaging" Obamacare may be therapeutic for its supporters. A quick look at the evidence shows that the law has proven more than capable of imploding on its own. (Sally Pipes, 10/19)

The Star Tribune: Blocking VA Documents Release Protects 'shadow Rulers' — Not Vets
U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie doesn’t want any sunlight on his agency’s “shadow rulers.” By blowing off a recent congressional document request, Wilkie is blocking the public from determining whether a secretive trio of outsiders is calling the shots at the VA. (10/19)

The Hill: Publicized Drug Prices Will Be Meaningless To The Average Consumer
Many Americans would likely agree that prescription drug prices are too high. Unfortunately, the Department of Health and Human Services’ recent proposed rule requiring pharmaceutical companies to include drugs’ list prices in advertising is one of those strange cases that may lead to greater information and transparency without much real value to the health-care consumer. As several news outlets have documented, the list price to be shown in advertisements, according to the proposed rule, would not match the price that most patients would have to pay. That is due to differing prescription drug insurance plans and negotiated arrangements between drug companies and some pharmacy benefit managers.The publicized prices will be meaningless to the average consumer.  (Todd Ruppar, 10/22)        

USA Today: Trump Health Agenda: Transparent Drug Prices, Lower Insurance Costs
When it comes to health care, price transparency, competition and choice are free market forces that are being restored under the Trump administration. They should help bring prices down and drive quality up. (Marc Siegel, 10/22)

The New York Times: Trump Cannot Define Away My Existence
On Sunday, news broke that the Trump administration seeks to narrowly define gender as an immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth. About 1.4 million Americans who identify as transgender would find that identity eradicated by the federal government. I admit that I’m reluctant to react to this latest cruelty, which is obviously just one more cynical move clearly designed to stir the pot ahead of the election. Trans people are the latest conservative whipping girl, like African-Americans in the 1950s, or gay people in the 1990s and 2000s. Nothing is more dependable now than the passion the heartless display when trans people’s humanity is offered up for mockery. (Jennifer Finney Boylan, 10/22)

The New York Times: Doctors Should Tell Their Patients To Vote
In the winter of 1847-48, a typhus epidemic raged through Upper Silesia. The Prussian king dispatched a young Dr. Rudolf Virchow to investigate the outbreak. Dr. Virchow would later achieve scientific sainthood for disposing of Hippocrates’ idea that humors caused disease, solidifying the idea that cells were the basis of biology and coining terms like leukemia, spina bifida, thrombosis and embolism. But in 1848, he was a 26-year-old lecturer in pathology at the Charité hospital in Berlin — a disposable junior faculty member who could be banished to the hinterlands. (Ofri, 10/20)

The New York Times: Advice From Health Care’s Power Users
If the health care system seems confusing to you, you are not alone. In a large recent survey of the most seriously ill people in America, we learned that they, too, find it difficult to navigate. But they have developed a few strategies for getting through. Here are some tips and pitfalls about how to be sick from a group with lived experience. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/20)

Stat: Wider Use Of Psychiatric Drugs Could Boost The Global Burden Of Mental Illness
To reduce the rising burden of mental disorders around the world, the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development has declared a need to increase psychiatric services globally, which should include an effort to “reduce the cost and improve the supply of effective psychotropic drugs for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders.” While reducing the burden of mental disorders is certainly a laudable goal, we believe that implementing this plan will increase the global burden of mental disorders rather than decrease it. (Robert Nikkel and Robert Whitaker, 10/22)

The Hill: World Osteoporosis Day: 10 Million Americans Unnecessarily Suffer From The Pain
While we once had prompt diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, we now have elderly patients suffering from more common bone fractures and, in many instances, death from their complications. It is time to reverse this frightening trend. Women’s health across the country has been jeopardized by Medicare’s shortsighted policy on bone health. (Claire Gill, 10/20)

The Washington Post: Dealing With Anxiety Is Normal Part Of Grieving.
A few years ago, I began seeing a surge in anxious clients to my private practice as a grief therapist. They were reporting panic attacks and debilitating anxiety following the death of a loved one. Some of them had experienced anxiety before the loss, but the majority of them had never had anxiety before. Granted, anxiety is on the uptick in our society. Xanax prescriptions are on the rise, more college students than ever are reporting anxious symptoms, and a proliferation of books and apps are hitting the shelves to address this prevalent symptom. (Claire Bidwell Smith, 10/21)

The New York Times: The Problem With Probiotics
Even before the microbiome craze — the hope that the bacteria in your gut holds the key to good health — people were ingesting cultures of living micro-organisms to treat a host of conditions. These probiotics have become so popular that they’re being marketed in foods, capsules and even beauty products. Probiotics have the potential to improve health, including by displacing potentially harmful bugs. The trouble is that the proven benefits involve a very small number of conditions, and probiotics are regulated less tightly than drugs. They don’t need to be proved effective to be marketed, and the quality control can be lax. (Aaron E. Carroll, 10/22)

Austin American-Statesman: How Texas Can Lead On Mental Health Parity And Treatment Access
In reality, few individuals who have a mental health need obtain care—just one in 10 individuals who need substance use treatment accessed it at a specialty facility in 2016. And, the state’s health care system—like the rest of the country—is fragmented, with mental health seen as a separate and distinct element from physical care. (Benjamin Miller, 10/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Vote 'Yes' On Prop. 11 To Ensure Ambulances Come Quickly
For the past 50 years, private emergency medical technicians and paramedics have been paid to be reachable during their work breaks in case there is a nearby emergency. ...But trial attorneys are trying to end this long-standing practice and require private, but not public, EMTs and paramedics to be completely unreachable during work breaks, putting patient care at risk. (Adan Dougherty, 10/20)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio's Fight Against Drug Abuse Is Saving Lives - If Issue 1 Passes, More Ohioans Will Die
Should Issue 1 pass, we lose the progress we've made. And, worst of all, we leave thousands of addicted Ohioans without the incentive to get treatment, stay sober and to live.If Issue 1 passes, Ohioans will die needlessly. (Maureen O'Connor, 10/21)

San Antonio Press-Express: State Should Expand Meds Available For Opioid Addiction
As a specialist in addiction psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, I have devoted my professional life to studying addiction, including opioid addiction, and developing medical treatments that help patients fight it. Texas can do far more to combat this scourge that has afflicted so many families and communities here and across the country. (Thomas Kosten, 10/21)