Politico: Establishment Looks To Crush Liberals On Medicare For All
The united front that helped Democrats save Obamacare just a year ago is falling apart over single-payer health care. Deep-pocketed hospital, insurance and other lobbies are plotting to crush progressives’ hopes of expanding the government's role in health care once they take control of the House. The private-sector interests, backed in some cases by key Obama administration and Hillary Clinton campaign alumni, are now focused on beating back another prospective health care overhaul, including plans that would allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare. (Cancryn, 12/10)

The Hill: Top Dems Press Trump Officials For Answers On Pre-Existing Conditions
Four incoming House Democratic chairmen on Friday pressed the Trump administration for answers about its decision to call for overturning ObamaCare’s pre-existing condition protections in court. “In declining to defend these provisions, the Trump Administration is seeking to invalidate these critical patient protections, and once again subject millions of Americans with preexisting conditions to the discrimination they faced before the ACA,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. (Sullivan, 12/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Democratic Attorneys General To Bolster Fight Against Trump’s Agenda
Democrats are building a new power base that will play an elevated role in a divided government in Washington: state attorneys general contesting President Trump’s agenda in the courts. Democrats defeated Republican incumbents in four states last month, giving the party a 27-23 edge among states’ top law-enforcement officials, a shift that will beef up its legal fights against the president. Democrats plan to build upon dozens of existing lawsuits fighting Mr. Trump’s attempt to undercut the Affordable Care Act, roll back environmental regulations and install hard-line immigration policies. (Thomas, 12/10)

And in other health law news —

Modern Healthcare: Trump Administration Could Leverage Waivers For State CON Law Repeals 
The Trump administration may start using approval of 1332 waivers as a means to spur states to unwind healthcare regulations, including certificate-of-need laws. Technically, the federal government can't force states to overhaul CON laws, but it has both a powerful bully pulpit and leverage to spur repeals, specifically through its final sign-off on 1332 state innovation waivers that state governments are increasingly depending on to shore up their health exchange markets. These waivers are used to funnel federal money into reinsurance pools and other measures. (Luthi, 12/10)

Kaiser Health News: Need Health Insurance? The Deadline Is Dec. 15
The annual open-enrollment period for people who buy their own insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces ends Dec. 15 in most states. Enrollment in states that use the federal healthcare.gov platform has been sluggish this year compared to last. From Nov. 1 through Dec. 1, about 3.2 million people had chosen plans for 2019. Compared with the previous year, that’s about 400,000 fewer, or a drop of just over 11 percent. The wider availability of short-term plans is one big change that has set this year’s apart from past sign-up periods. (Andrews, 12/10)

The Baltimore Sun: State Health Exchange Enrollment Up, Federal Enrollment Down In Last Week 
As the state health exchange enters the final week of this year’s open enrollment, Marylanders appear more interested in buying health insurance than many other Americans. The number of people buying private policies through the state’s online marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act is up a bit, while enrollment on the federal exchange that serves 39 states is down 11 percent. (Cohn, 12/10)

The New York Times/ProPublica: Prominent Doctors Aren’t Disclosing Their Industry Ties In Medical Journal Studies. And Journals Are Doing Little To Enforce Their Rules
One is dean of Yale’s medical school. Another is the director of a cancer center in Texas. A third is the next president of the most prominent society of cancer doctors. These leading medical figures are among dozens of doctors who have failed in recent years to report their financial relationships with pharmaceutical and health care companies when their studies are published in medical journals, according to a review by The New York Times and ProPublica and data from other recent research. (Ornstein and Thomas, 12/8)

The New York Times/ProPublica: Doctors And Disclosures
Academic journals are the way the world learns about medical breakthroughs, and companies benefit greatly when research about their products is published in them. Prestigious journals require authors to list any potential conflicts of interest. But dozens of doctors have failed to disclose significant relationships with health care and drug companies that pay them for consulting work, sitting on corporate boards and other roles. (Thomas and Ornstein, 12/8)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Halts Study That Would Use Fetal Tissue ‘To Discover A Cure For HIV’
The Trump administration has shut down at least one government-run study that uses fetal tissue implanted into mice even before federal health officials reach a decision on whether to continue such research, which is opposed by antiabortion groups. A senior scientist at a National Institutes of Health laboratory in Montana told colleagues that the Health and Human Services Department “has directed me to discontinue procuring fetal tissue” from a firm that is the only available source, according to an email he sent to a collaborator in late September. (Goldstein and Bernstein, 12/9)

Stat: HIV Research Halted After NIH Freezes Acquisition Of Fetal Tissue
The NIH confirmed the suspension on Friday to Science, which reported it affected two NIH labs, including halting an HIV research project. Spokespeople for the Department of Health and Human Services and and the NIH institutes with affected labs did not respond to STAT’s request for comment on Sunday. Researchers use fetal tissue to create mice with human-like immune systems — which is useful for biologists like Dr. Warner Greene who do HIV research. (Sheridan, 12/9)

In other news —

The New York Times: U.N. AIDS Agency Is In ‘State Of Crisis’ And Needs New Leader, Report Says
Independent experts investigating allegations of sexual abuse at the United Nations agency fighting AIDS have called for the appointment of new leadership, saying in a damning report that its executive director tolerated harassment and bullying in a toxic organizational culture. The agency, U.N.AIDS, was “in a state of crisis that threatens its vital work,” the expert panel said in its report, which was released Friday after a four-month investigation. The evidence of “a broken organizational culture is overwhelming,” it said. (Cumming-Bruce, 12/7)

The Associated Press: Caregivers For 3600 Migrant Teens Lack Complete Abuse Checks
Nearly every adult working with children in the U.S. — from nannies to teachers to coaches — has undergone state screenings to ensure they have no proven history of abusing or neglecting kids. One exception: thousands of workers at two federal detention facilities holding 3,600 migrant teens in the government’s care, The Associated Press has learned. The staff isn’t being screened for child abuse and neglect at a Miami-based emergency detention center because Florida law bans any outside employer from reviewing information in its child welfare system. Until recently at another facility holding migrant teens in Tornillo, Texas, staff hadn’t even undergone FBI fingerprint checks, let alone child welfare screenings, a government report found. (Mendoza and Burke, 12/7)

In other news —

Texas Tribune: Migrant Families May Face Prolonged Detention In Texas. This Mom Lived It.
Advocates have alleged that the facilities lack adequate education, medical care and mental health services. Earlier this year, a toddler from Guatemala named Mariee Juarez died after developing an infection and respiratory symptoms inside Dilley. Adelina Pruneda, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that family residential centers “operate in an open environment” that includes medical care, play rooms, social workers, educational services and access to lawyers. (Armus, 12/10)

WBUR: Whistleblowers Warn Of Harmful Conditions For Children In Migrant Detention Centers
Physicians Scott Allen and Pamela McPherson discuss the abuses they witnessed in government detention centers when they inspected the facilities for the Department of Homeland Security. (Martin, 12/8)

The Associated Press: ‘I Killed My Best Friend’: Opioids’ Fatal Grip On Mayor, Pal
Brandon Wentz agonized over his resignation letter. The 24-year-old mayor of Mount Carbon had just moved with his family to a nearby town, requiring him to give up the office. He felt like he was letting his constituents down. “You could just see the stress and sadness in him,” recalled his mother, Janel Firestone. Wentz finally sent a brief missive to the town secretary. Then he met up with a close friend, Ryan Fessler. They hung out in Wentz’s room for a while, and Fessler left. Wentz was dead by morning. The cause: an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. (Rubinkam, 12/9)

The New York Times: Six Michigan Doctors Charged In $464 Million Insurance And Opioid Scheme
Six Michigan doctors have been charged with insurance fraud and unnecessarily prescribing opioids to patients in a $464 million scheme, according to court documents filed this week by federal prosecutors. The 56-count indictment, filed on Tuesday and made public on Thursday, named Dr. Rajendra Bothra, 77, of Bloomfield Hills, who owned and operated the Pain Center USA in Warren and Eastpointe, Mich., and the Interventional Pain Center in Warren. The other five doctors were employed by the clinics, which catered to patients with joint and spinal injuries. (Holson, 12/7)

NPR: To Treat Addiction In Rural America, Start With Hiring Specialists
Lindsay Bunker woke up from a nightmare. The 32-year-old lives with her sixth-month-old daughter on the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. She's struggled with addiction for over 10 years, mostly to heroin. Then came the nightmare: She dreamt two men were attacking her baby while she could think only about drugs. (Sable-Smith, 12/9)

Boston Globe: Emergency Rooms Once Had Little To Offer Addicted People. That’s Starting To Change.
What Martin did in the ensuing years would help move Mass. General to the vanguard of a new approach to addiction: Instead of sending addicted people on their way, the hospital can start treatment right in the emergency department. And now a new state law is requiring all hospitals to do the same, a mandate that calls on hospitals to meet the challenge of a crisis claiming four or five lives each day in Massachusetts. (Freyer, 12/10)

Courier Journal: HIV, Opioid Crisis: Explore Courier Journal's Austin Rising
For 4 years, we've chronicled the heartbreaking, drug-fueled HIV epidemic in the small town of Austin, Indiana. Come along as the town lifts itself out of despair to create a new feeling of hope. (Boliaux and Strupp, 12/7)

San Jose Mercury News: Suspected Fatal Overdoses At San Quentin Prompt Call For Life-Saving Drug Availability
A pair of suspected fatal overdoses on San Quentin State Prison’s death row this week is adding urgency to an effort to allow California prison guards and even inmates to carry a drug that can save the lives of those who overdose on opioids. Attorneys made the request earlier this year to state corrections officials and the federal receiver who controls prison medical care under a long-running lawsuit, Steven Fama of the nonprofit Prison Law Office said Thursday. (Thompson, 12/7)

KQED: San Quentin Deaths Come Amid Increase In Drug Overdoses At Prison
The recent deaths of two inmates on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison took place as Marin County health paramedics received a "spike" in calls from the prison related to opioid overdoses, according to the county's top health official.Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer, said in the past six months the county's emergency medical services responded to 155 ambulance calls at San Quentin. (Goldberg and Shuler, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospital Beds Get Digital Upgrade
A major manufacturer of hospital beds is seeking to transform the ubiquitous furniture into a source of medical data, the latest sign of hospitals’ digital transformation. Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. HRC -3.12% said its newest hospital-bed model will include sensors to monitor patients’ heart and respiratory rates. The sensors will check a patient’s vital signs 100 times a minute and alert nurses when signs suggest the patient’s condition may worsen, said Hill-Rom Chief Executive John Groetelaars. (Evans, 12/9)

In other health IT news —

New Hampshire Union Leader: AI Can Predict Mental Health Issues From Your Instagram Posts. But Should It? 
The program is currently running worldwide, looking for patterns in every Facebook user’s posts. It is perhaps the largest and most active example of a burgeoning new use of artificial intelligence, but several more advanced tools are in development. From companies using Twitter posts and Fitbit data to recognize suicidal inclination to a group of Dartmouth College researchers who developed a program to scan Instagram posts and identify users at a high risk of alcoholism, social media-trawling AIs are quickly becoming tools for detecting elusive behavioral health problems. (Feathers, 12/9)

New Hampshire Union Leader: 'Internet Of Things' Is Transforming Health Care, Geneia President Says 
The Internet of Things is transforming the way patients are monitored by health care professionals from the convenience of their homes, the president of Geneia says. As the population continues to grow and age, there won’t be enough doctors to treat people with traditional face-to-face methods at all times, so remote monitoring programs will provide trained caregivers with the tools they need to make sure people still get the attention they deserve, said Heather Lavoie, who talked about her two grandmothers, Anita and Harriet. (Haas, 12/8)

The New York Times: Hospital-Acquired Infections Are Declining
The risk of getting a hospital-acquired infection is decreasing. In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers surveyed almost 200 hospitals caring for about 12,000 patients across the country in 2011 and again in 2015, reviewing medical records to find cases of health care-associated infection. They found that in 2015, hospital-acquired infections had declined to 3.2 percent of patients, from 4 percent in 2011. They calculate that a patient’s risk of getting infected during a hospital stay was 16 percent lower in 2015 than in 2011. (Bakalar, 12/10)

Modern Healthcare: Despite Gridlock, Divided Government May Help Hospitals
The Democrats' 40-seat majority sweep of the U.S. House of Representatives brightened hospital prospects for looming money battles with the Trump administration, Congress and Big Pharma. But by a roughly 60%-to-40% margin, healthcare executives think the expected political gridlock will hinder needed progress in a way that hurts their organizations, according to Modern Healthcare's most recent Power Panel, a survey of 75 healthcare CEOs. A majority see gridlock as a sign of escalating polarization rather than a means to achieve bipartisanship, and less than 20% saw the federal midterm elections leading to a split government as a positive. (Luthi, 12/8)

ProPublica: Federal Judge Puts Independent Review Of Troubled Psychiatric Hospital on Hold
A federal judge Friday suspended an independent inquiry at a troubled Chicago psychiatric hospital that is set to lose its federal funding. After pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and state lawmakers, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had agreed to the review of Aurora Chicago Lakeshore Hospital after multiple allegations of abuse and neglect of children treated at the facility in the city’s Uptown community. (Eldeib, 12/7)

Tampa Bay Times: No Hospital, Just an Emergency 'Department'. They're Popping Up All Over.
Nearly every hospital chain is opening free-standing emergency rooms — commonly referred to as emergency departments, or EDs — to connect the dots between their major hospitals while cutting wait times and medical costs for consumers. They’re popping up everywhere in Tampa Bay. (Griffin, 12/10)

Tampa Bay Times: State, Federal Officials Missed Warnings At All Children’s Heart Unit
At least four times this year, government regulators were alerted to serious problems in the heart surgery program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. In April, the hospital’s CEO publicly acknowledged that the program had “challenges” that led to more children dying. (McGrory and Bedi, 12/7)

Boston Globe: Partners HealthCare Plans New Outpatient Clinics
Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest network of doctors and hospitals, plans to expand its reach across Eastern Massachusetts by opening several new outpatient clinics over the next five years. Partners officials did not reveal how many new locations they plan to open, but they said the company would target busy suburban areas near major highway interchanges for the new clinics. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/7)

Houston Chronicle: Despite Law To Force Clarity, Confusion Over Free-Standing ERs Persists 
Fifteen months after Texas enacted a law to bring transparency to the state’s for-profit free-standing emergency rooms, many of the facilities continue to send mixed messages about insurance coverage that could expose unsuspecting patients to surprise medical bills. A Houston Chronicle review of websites representing the 52 free-standing emergency rooms in the Houston area shows a pattern in which many of the facilities prominently advertise that they “accept” all major private insurance. Some even list the insurers’ names and logos. (Deam, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: #ThisIsOurLane: Doctors Tell The NRA Why They Are Experts On The Effects Of Gun Violence
It was the kind of imperious broadside that would strike fear into the hearts of most politicians. In a contemptuous tweet, the National Rifle Assn. admonished a medical group for speaking out about gun injuries and dismissed their concern by saying that physicians should mind their own business. “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,” the NRA tweeted on Nov. 7. In drafting a policy statement that “reflects every anti-gunner’s public policy wish list,” the American College of Physicians “seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves,” the NRA complained. (Healy, 12/7)

CQ: No One Pulls Trigger On CDC Gun Studies
The omnibus spending law (P.L. 115-141) Congress passed in May opened the door to more government research into the causes of gun violence. Now, the director of emergency general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore is calling on Congress to ensure new research begins. The Dickey Amendment named after former Arkansas GOP Rep. Jay Dickey has for more than two decades prohibited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting research “used to advocate or promote gun control.” (Willis, 12/10)

The Hill: Unannounced Active Shooter Drill Sparks Chaos, Stampedes At Florida High School 
Students and parents are outraged after an unannounced active-shooter drill resulted in chaos at a Florida high school. Video and images from inside Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs have gone viral after the incident. On Thursday morning, officials announced a “code red" over the school's intercom, saying that it was not a drill, according to BuzzFeed News. (Anapol, 12/9)

The Associated Press: Newtown Shooter Described 'Scorn For Humanity'
Documents from the investigation into the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut are shedding light on the gunman's anger, scorn for other people, and deep social isolation in the years leading up to the shooting. The documents that a court ordered Connecticut State Police to release include several writings by Adam Lanza, who gunned down 20 children and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012. He fatally shot his mother before driving to the school and ultimately killed himself. (12/9)

The New York Times: Can We Really Inherit Trauma?
In mid-October, researchers in California published a study of Civil War prisoners that came to a remarkable conclusion. Male children of abused war prisoners were about 10 percent more likely to die than their peers were in any given year after middle age, the study reported. The findings, the authors concluded, supported an “epigenetic explanation.” The idea is that trauma can leave a chemical mark on a person’s genes, which then is passed down to subsequent generations. The mark doesn’t directly damage the gene; there’s no mutation. Instead it alters the mechanism by which the gene is converted into functioning proteins, or expressed. The alteration isn’t genetic. It’s epigenetic. (Carey, 12/10)

Stat: Ethical, Scientific Issues Plagued Paper From 'CRISPR Babies' Team 
“CRISPR babies” scientist He Jiankui tried to publish a paper describing additional experiments that made heritable changes in the DNA of human embryos, much like those that led to the birth of the world’s first genome-edited humans. But the paper was rejected by an international journal after outside scientists raised concerns about both its ethics and its scientific validity, STAT has learned. The rejected paper did not report starting a pregnancy with the edited embryos. It is nevertheless one of a tiny handful of experiments editing normal human embryos: a Chinese lab did it in 2017, a U.S. lab followed a few months later, and another Chinese lab did it this summer. And it would make He’s one of only two labs in the world known to have edited human embryos to alter genes for more than one disease. (Begley, 12/10)

The Hill: Ahead Of Holidays, CDC Issues Warning Against Eating Raw Cookie Dough
Ahead of the holiday season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging consumers not to eat raw cookie dough, cake mix or bread. "When you prepare homemade cookie dough, cake mixes, or even bread, you may be tempted to taste a bite before it is fully cooked," the CDC wrote in a message on its website. (Burke, 12/9)

The New York Times: The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything.
Some 252 million years ago, Earth almost died. In the oceans, 96 percent of all species became extinct. It’s harder to determine how many terrestrial species vanished, but the loss was comparable. This mass extinction, at the end of the Permian Period, was the worst in the planet’s history, and it happened over a few thousand years at most — the blink of a geological eye. (Zimmer, 12/7)

The New York Times: The Genes That Make Parrots Into The Humans Of The Bird World
A macaw named Poncho starred in movies like “102 Dalmatians,” “Dr. Doolittle” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” before retiring in England. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Alex, an African grey parrot who lived to 31, knew colors, shapes and numbers, and communicated using basic expressions. He could do what toddlers only do after a certain stage of development — know when something is hidden from view. And they’re just two of the many parrots in the world who have surprised us with their intelligence, skills and longevity. (Klein, 12/7)

Stat: NIH Apologizes For Turning Away Portrait Of Person With Rare Disease
The director of the National Institutes of Health apologized Saturday after a curator at the institute’s hospital objected to hanging one portrait in a scheduled exhibition depicting people with rare diseases, leading the organizers to cancel the show. Dr. Francis Collins called the founder and CEO of the group coordinating the exhibit, Patricia Weltin, on Saturday to apologize. The apology came after an outcry on social media and the publication of a critical opinion piece on STAT by the mother of a child with a rare disease. (Sheridan, 12/9)

WBUR: More Salt, Fewer Whole Grains: USDA Eases School Lunch Nutrition Rules
The rule will give administrators more leeway in serving up white breads, biscuits, tortillas and white pastas by requiring that only half of the grains served in school meals each week be whole-grain rich. Currently schools are only allowed to serve whole grain-rich breads and pastas unless they get a waiver. (Aubrey, 12/07)

Bloomberg: Screen Time Changes Structure Of Kids' Brains, `60 Minutes' Says 
Smartphones, tablets and video games are physically changing the brains of adolescents, early results from an ongoing $300 million study funded by the National Institute of Health have shown, according to a report by “60 Minutes.” Scientists will follow more than 11,000 nine- to 10-year-olds for a decade to see how childhood experiences impact the brain and affect emotional development and mental health. The first bits of data suggest that the onslaught of tech screens has been transformative for young people -- and maybe not for the better. (Lee, 12/9)

Kaiser Health News: Even When Not In Rome, Eat A Mediterranean Diet To Cut Heart Disease Risk
Once again, your mother was right. You really do need to eat your vegetables. And while you are at it, put down the bacon and pick up the olive oil, because new research supports the contention that switching to a Mediterranean diet could significantly decrease the risk of heart disease. According to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open, people who followed this type of diet had 25 percent less risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the course of 12 years. (Bluth, 12/7)

KQED: Doctor Detectives Take On Rare Diseases
Individual rare diseases are very uncommon, but taken together into a single category, they afflict one in 20 people. All across the country, teams of medical sleuths are cracking these mystery cases and providing hope for families including some right here in the Bay Area. (McClurg, 12/9)

Tampa Bay Times: Aspirin Could Be A Weapon Against Ovarian Cancer, Moffitt Researcher Says
Now four new studies out of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa suggest that regular use of the common pain reliever could also be a weapon against ovarian cancer. The studies, published this year in four medical journals, analyzed data collected from several other large studies. (Griffin, 12/7)

PBS NewsHour: Why Managing Chronic Health Conditions Begins At Home
The recognition that health care extends beyond the walls of hospitals and doctor’s offices is growing. In Greensboro, North Carolina, advocacy groups, sociologists and medical practitioners are taking a creative approach to uncovering the root causes of disease, with a particular focus on poor housing conditions that can lead to chronic illness. (Yang, 12/7)

The New York Times: Seeking Clues To Longevity In Lonesome George’s Genes
When Lonesome George, the only survivor of the Pinta Island tortoises of the Galápagos, died in 2012, the news landed with a blow. Rationally, people had time to prepare for the reality that George would one day fade away, and with him, an entire lineage. He had lived for a century or more, a common life expectancy for giant tortoises, and all attempts to mate him during his last few decades were unsuccessful. (Yin, 12/8)

The Washington Post: Right Bronchial Tree Cast: Man Coughs Up Clot In Shape Of His Lung Passage
The patient had come in with heart failure, and physicians at the University of California at San Francisco had an aggressive plan to help. Doctors there inserted a heart pump through his leg artery to flood his organs with blood. But there is a downside to the strategy — clots can form through its use. So doctors gave the unidentified man anticoagulants to thin his blood. But his airways began to seep. (Horton, 12/8)

Bloomberg: Lawmakers Question U.S. Position On Antibiotic Use In Livestock
A delegation of U.S. government officials is poised to begin meetings in South Korea next week to hash out international guidelines for countering the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals. But the draft is already causing an uproar because it appears to be weaker than current U.S. policy, which allows such drugs to prevent or treat diseases in livestock but not for growth promotion. On Friday, four U.S. senators and one House member, all of them Democrats, raised concerns about the draft in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, whose employees are participating in the negotiations. (Martin, 12/7)

The Washington Post: Elder Abuse Happens More Than You Think. How To Spot The Signs.
Scams. Shady caregivers. Poor care. Elder mistreatment has many faces — from financial exploitation to physical and emotional abuse. About 10 percent of those 60 and older are reportedly affected by it in the United States. The chances of being abused rise for people who are in poor physical health, have experienced previous traumatic events or have dementia. Can you spot the signs of elder abuse? (Blakemore, 12/9)

The Washington Post: Emergency Care For Elderly Can Be Dangerous
In 2005, when physician Kevin Biese was a medical resident in Boston, a 92-year-old woman with a urinary tract infection arrived by ambulance at a hospital emergency room. Her behavior — confusion and lethargy — suggested she also was suffering from hypoactive delirium, a cognitive disorder. She was alone, without family or friends. The doctors decided to admit her, but a bed wasn’t yet available. So she had to wait. “She spent 24 hours on a cot in the hallway,” Biese recalls. “She came in during the day on a Thursday and was still there Friday morning. I got mad.” (Cimons, 12/8)

The Wall Street Journal: At Senior Centers, Holiday Cheer Is Targeted To Particular Age Issues
On a recent afternoon, Olga Calderon stretched her arms and practiced breathing exercises with a strand of sparkly holiday garland twirled around her fingers. The 73-year-old was at Sunnyside Community Services in Queens with about a dozen other older New Yorkers to take part in a regular group session that, during the holidays, is attuned to the unique pressures that some older people feel during this season: loneliness over loved ones who have died, worries about money and travel, and fears of icy sidewalks. (West, 12/9)

The Washington Post: Speaking Two Languages May Help The Aging Brain
Even when you’re fluent in two languages, it can be a challenge to switch back and forth smoothly between them. It’s common to mangle a split verb in Spanish, use the wrong preposition in English or lose sight of the connection between the beginning and end of a long German sentence. So, does mastering a second language hone our multitasking skills or merely muddle us up? (Skibba, 12/8)

NPR: Seniors Who Exercise Regularly May Have Younger Hearts, Muscles
We know we need to exercise for our health, but a lifelong exercise habit may also help us feel younger and stay stronger well into our senior years. In fact, people in their 70s who have been exercising regularly for decades seem to have put a brake on the aging process, maintaining the heart, lung, and muscle fitness of healthy people at least 30 years younger. (Neighmond, 12/10)

The Washington Post: Geriatricians Treat The Elderly But It's Not Easy To Know When You Need One
Once, turning 65 typically meant retirement, Medicare and the inevitable onset of physical decline. It also often signaled the need to search for a geriatrician, a doctor who specializes in caring for the complex medical problems of the elderly. But many of today’s older Americans are healthy, vigorous and mentally sound, with no urgent need to change doctors. They aren’t afflicted with age-related diseases or functional impairments. This raises interesting questions about when — and whether — those 65 and older need to make that switch. (Cimons, 12/8)

The Washington Post: Many Alzheimer's Patients Experience Strong Mood Swings Late In The Day. Scientists Aren't Sure Why.
Linda is one of millions worldwide who experience a clinical phenomenon called sundowning, typically seen in people suffering from dementia or cognitive impairment. Also known as sundown syndrome, sundowning refers to the emergence or worsening of neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation, aggression and disorientation in the late afternoon or early evening. Like some sort of spell has been cast, their behavior can switch from normal to highly erratic come nightfall. (Kim, 12/8)

The Washington Post: Alzheimer’s Leaves Marine With New Mission: Saving His Daughter
Andres Martin was on the couch in his Maryland home, surrounded by his family, when he started talking about how people view Alzheimer’s. They think of 70-year-olds and 80-year-olds, he said. They think of people who have already lived full lives. People who have already had children and maybe grandchildren. “That is not what it is,” Martin said. “This,” he said, gesturing toward his toddler daughter, who moments earlier had been blowing kisses, “is Alzheimer’s right here.” (Vargas, 12/8)

Chicago Tribune: Longtime Hospice Nurse Hopes To Fill Void In Care For Caregivers With Palos Facility
There are many scenarios that thrust people into the role of a non-professional caregiver, and as the Baby Boomer generation ages, it’s a role that’s becoming more common. But who’s out there to help the helpers? It’s a question a local nurse hopes to answer with the opening of the Caregiver Resource Center in Palos Health hospital in Palos Heights. ...[Kathy Beary] said the facility provides resources specifically for the people who find themselves in the position of providing care for a family member or loved one who is sick and in need of care. The adults who find themselves giving care are often overwhelmed, full of questions, and in need of emotional support themselves, she said. (Dargis, 12/7)

The Hill: 4,000 Mental Health Professionals To Go On Strike In California
Four thousand Kaiser Permanente mental health professionals will begin a five-day strike Monday demanding the HMO address their concerns about what they called understaffing problems. The workers claimed that shortages of clinicians has limited patients' access to appropriate treatment, according to a statement from National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). (Rodrigo, 12/7)

San Jose Mercury News: Kaiser Mental Health Workers Planning 5-Day Strike Monday
As a result, mental health care appointments during the week may be canceled, but the union’s president says the strike is in the long-term best interest of patients, who currently have to wait a month or more for follow-up mental health appointments due to low staffing levels. “They’ve canceled appointments for these five days, but there’s a critical situation every day of the year,” Sal Rosselli, the union’s president, said Sunday. Rosselli said Kaiser needs to hire hundreds more clinicians to address what he called an “access crisis” for patients. (Geha, 12/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser Mental Health Workers To Strike For 5 Days
Kaiser says the union’s main concern is increasing its workers’ wages, which it says are already the highest in the state. Sal Rosselli, the union president, said negotiators are seeking pay increases as well as benefits packages equal to those given to other medical professionals. Staffing for mental health care has been a lingering and contentious issue at Kaiser. In 2015, Kaiser agreed to pay a $4 million fine levied in 2013 by state regulators over inadequate access to its mental health services. (Cabanatuan, 12/9)

The New York Times: The Wildfire May Be Over, But Those It Burned ‘Live That Nightmare Every Day'
Bill Blevins had pulled himself out of homelessness and addiction with a job as an alarm systems repairman, dexterous work with tiny electrical components that he enjoyed. But last week he was forced to confront a new hurdle: His left pinkie finger was amputated. It was his third surgery since his hands were ravaged by the wildfire that devastated the town of Paradise, Calif., last month. And now he’s not sure if he will be able to work again. (Nir, 12/8)

ProPublica: Judge Calls For Examination Of Quality Controls In New York Supported Housing System
At a court hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis questioned New York state officials and disability advocates about people with mental illness dying or coming to harm after moving from adult group homes into “supported housing” apartments, problems raised in a ProPublica and Frontline investigation published that day with The New York Times. (Sapien, 12/7)

Reuters: Michigan Medical Officer Ordered To Trial Over Flint Water Deaths
A Michigan judge on Friday ordered the state's chief medical officer to stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter in connection to the contamination of the city of Flint's water supply, a crisis that resulted in 12 deaths. Eden Wells, a physician who serves as the state medical executive, faces the manslaughter charge for her alleged failure to stop an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease while the city was taking its water from the Flint River. The charge carries a possible prison sentence of 15 years. (12/7)

Los Angeles Times: More Than 20 Women Accused A Prominent Pasadena Obstetrician Of Mistreating Them. He Denied Claims And Was Able To Continue Practicing
A Times investigation identified more than 20 women who claim [Dr. Patrick] Sutton mistreated them during his medical care. Their allegations date to 1989, his first year at Huntington, and include unwanted sexual advances, medical incompetence, the maiming of women’s genitals and the preventable death of an infant. Sutton denied each allegation in an interview with The Times. Top Huntington administrators were warned repeatedly about Sutton over the decades, according to interviews with current and former administrators and other hospital employees. One obstetrician at the hospital told The Times she complained to Huntington’s chief medical officer and its compliance department on several occasions about what she saw as his poor clinical judgment and misogynistic remarks. (Ryan and Hamilton, 12/9)

Concord Monitor: State Mental Health Plan Praised At Hearing Amid Concerns About Funding 
[Peter] Dowling was one of 200 people who testified last week at a public hearing for the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed 10-year mental health plan. Just a young man, he stood in front of the crowd with his mother and spoke about his experience with psychosis and depression. He said he’s been hospitalized four times in four years. ...DHHS’s $24 million, 10-year plan calls for enhanced mental health programs in schools, more integration with primary care and behavioral health services, support between transitions in care and an infusion of peer supports. (Willingham, 12/9)

The Associated Press: Jury Deliberations To Resume Latest Meningitis Outbreak Case
Jury deliberations are continuing in the case of six former employees of the Massachusetts facility responsible for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 76 people and sickened hundreds. Jurors in the latest case stemming from the outbreak linked to the now-closed New England Compounding Center are scheduled to return to federal court on Monday after failing to reach a verdict Friday. (12/9)

The Baltimore Sun: GBMC Forms Center To Hunt For Treatments, Cure For A Rare Genetic Disease 
Greater Baltimore Medical Center has established the country’s first center for treatment of Alstrom Syndrome, an extremely rare genetic disease that does devastating harm to every system in the body, the Towson hospital announced Friday. The Maine-based nonprofit support group Alstrom Syndrome International donated an undisclosed amount of funding for the effort, which will mean more people will have access to the specialized care offered by GBMC. It also will mean more research that could translate into treatments for the syndrome and other related ailments such as diabetes and heart disease. (Cohn, 12/7)

The Associated Press: Baltimore Officials Consider New Laws To Curb Smoking
Elected officials in Baltimore are considering new laws to cut down on smoking and vaping. The Baltimore Sun reports the city council has introduced a package of anti-smoking legislation. One of the measures would ban the sale of flavored vaping liquids. (12/8)

Kansas City Star: JoCo Shelter Opens For Homeless Adults, But More Help Needed
The emergency shelter, called Project 1020, is unusual in that it’s run entirely by a small group of volunteers trying to respond to an unmet need in the most prosperous county in Kansas. For the past three winters, shelter co-founders Barb McEver and Dean Askeland and other dedicated helpers have provided a cold-weather refuge for homeless Johnson County adults. (Horsley, 12/10)

New Hampshire Public Radio: State, Military Seek To Study How Chemical Use At Pease Drove Disease Rates
Veterans and families who lived and worked at the former Pease Air Force Base want the government to begin collecting data about their disease rates and possible ties to chemical exposures on the installation. At a forum in an aircraft hangar Friday, dozens of people stood at a microphone and told an Air National Guard colonel about their health problems and their experiences at the base. (Ropeik, 12/9)

Kansas City Star: Volunteers Defy KC Health Department, Feed Homeless People
On Nov. 4, city health inspectors shut down several such picnics around the area, including one at Ilus Davis Park. Inspectors, saying they were concerned about public safety, confiscated the food and drowned it all in bleach. The Health Department has since issued a statement saying it “has reviewed its food disposal practices during inspections. In the future, inspectors will no longer use bleach in these types of situations.” (Williams, 12/8)

Georgia Health News: Fourth Georgia Case Of Mysterious Illness Confirmed
A fourth case of a rare polio-like illness has been confirmed in Georgia, with two more cases considered probable, public health officials say. The Georgia Department of Public Health did not give any identifying information about the fourth patient with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), but the person is presumed to be a child. (Miller, 12/9)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: At Area High Schools, Educators Try To Catch Up With Vaping Craze
Allyssa Thompson sees the growing number of New Hampshire teenagers inhaling e-cigarettes, the incorrect perceptions of parents and the way schools have struggled to get a handle on the issue. Now, she’s trying to reinforce to students, parents and educators the same messages that made smoking unpopular among young people: it’s costly, it’s addictive and it can hurt you later in life. (Stoico, 12/9)

KQED: Richmond Looks To Get Out Of Managing Its Low-Income Housing
Richmond will search for outside public and private partners to manage its low-income housing properties and Section 8 voucher programs, the City Council decided this week. Faced with major financial and operational challenges and ongoing federal budget cuts, the Richmond Housing Authority has long struggled to meet the basic needs of its tenants, many of whom are elderly and physically impaired. (Veltman, 12/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Supervisors Push Ousting Private Companies From Jail Medical Services
The track record of a private company providing inmate medical services at the Milwaukee County Jail and House of Correction — lack of staff, poor care and falsifying records — prompted one group of supervisors this week to recommend hiring county employees to do the job. Now, Armor Correctional Health Services is facing even more problems — a pending criminal charge of abuse of prisoners, a felony, related to the treatment of Terrill Thomas, who died of dehydration while in custody in April 2016. (Behm, 12/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Urban Garden Produces Free Vegetables, Safe Place For Boys
It is June 16, the kickoff of the fifth year of the “We Got This” program, which Ellis, 58, runs on a shoestring budget. The program is aimed at boys, ages 12 to 17. They arrive each Saturday to work in the garden, pick up trash in the neighborhood. At the end, they collect a $20 bill for their efforts.Along the way, they receive support and guidance from adult mentors. (Causey, 12/7)

Miami Herald: Wish Book: How To Help Girl’s Health Issues Have Created Financial Hardship For Her Family
It was determined that Isabella had Turner Syndrome, a condition in which which one of the X chromosomes is completely or partially missing. It is estimated that Turner’s occurs in about one in every 2,000 girls. The result: Nicole resigned from her job in order to give constant care to Isabella and the resulting loss in household income left the family in dire financial straits. (Spencer, 12/7)

Boston Globe: Homeless Women Offered Medical Care — Plus A Haircut, Facial, And Even A Movie
The quiet waiting room at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program is transformed into a buzz of activity every Saturday, offering women, most of whom are homeless, free medical care and welcoming them to a day of fun — with haircuts, facials, arts and crafts, and board games. (Takahama, 12/8)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Medical Marijuana Expanding To Add Alzheimer's 
Alzheimer’s disease will become eligible for treatment with medical marijuana in Minnesota next year, making it the 14th health condition approved since the state’s cannabis program began in 2015. The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it was adding the degenerative neurological disorder to the program, despite limited evidence on the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis. Some studies have found that marijuana inhibits the formation of tau proteins that accelerate dementia and memory loss related to the disease. (Olson, 12/8)

The Associated Press: Maryland’s Medical Marijuana Sales Hit $96 Million
Maryland’s medical marijuana industry brought in $96.3 million during its first year of operation. The Baltimore Sun reports that between 250 and 350 people a day are applying to be certified by the state to buy medical marijuana. There were nearly 52,000 patients who bought 730,000 individual products from dozens of licensed stores across Maryland since sales became legal last December. (12/9)

USA Today: China's Deadliest Export: Fentanyl Killing Nearly 80 Americans A Day
Forget tariffs. Forget all the computers, toys and textiles that the Chinese export to America. China’s most consequential export here is fentanyl, the illicit drug killing people in this country at the rate of nearly 80 a day.Fentanyl use in the USA has surged, pushing its death toll last year to 28,466  — nine times higher than in 2013 and a rise so steep that it has helped drive down the nation's life expectancy.  And where is this illicit fentanyl originating? About 80 percent of the pure fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities last fiscal year arrived from China, often through the mail. (12/9)

USA Today: China And America Should Avoid Blaming Each Other On Fentanyl
(Beijing) Global Times: “The crackdown against smuggling and drug use is a long-term global challenge, and there needs to be strengthened coordination and joint responses from various countries, rather than one-sided accusations. China and the U.S. have already had a lot of fruitful cooperation in the fight against drugs. In order to maintain this momentum, the two sides should avoid blaming each other in the process of dealing with fentanyl abuse. It is an exaggeration for the United States to claim that the fentanyl in the U.S. mainly comes from China. Moreover, such claims will only have a negative impact on the active cooperation between the two countries.” (Li Haidong, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: The White House Can Help Foster Kids
The opioid crisis has caused a spike in the need for adoption and foster care. More than 20 years ago, the crack epidemic brought on a similar crisis. The foster-care rolls surpassed half a million, and kids were spending years in the system. In 1996 President Clinton issued a directive to the Department of Health and Human Services to find ways of escaping the foster-care “trap” that put children in “limbo” without permanent homes. (Naomi Schaefer Riley, 12/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: CEO Who Was A Foster Child Says We Must Do More To Help Foster Kids.
With a growing number of children entering foster care, we have an education crisis emerging for this special population of students who are not learning because of the emotional trauma they endured growing up in dysfunctional families. That means as so many foster kids fail to get a high school education, many will repeat the cycle of having children in foster care. (Maureen Downey, 12/9)

The Hill: Let’s Try Cures, Not Criminalization, For The Opioid Epidemic
With each prison sentence, America normalizes the ways incarceration functions as an abyss — a socioeconomic black hole — that swallows public funding, the dignity of substance-dependent individuals, and the moral authority of the nation. The thick overcast of failure in the war on drugs reveals the inability to incarcerate our way out of the opioid crisis. We can elect to spend public money on health care that creates new possibilities for Americans, or incarceration that forecloses futures for people burdened by a curable illness. (Willie D. Francois, 12/9)

Stat: Policymakers Must Help Enforce Mental Health Parity Laws
During the midterm election, voters sent several clear messages. Two in the health sphere were that they want equitable, affordable, and comprehensive health care coverage; and they want solutions to address the opioid epidemic. The newly constituted Congress has a tool with vast — and sadly untapped — potential to address both issues: the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, also known as the Parity Act. (Patrice A. Harris and Ellen Weber, 12/10)

Arizona Republic: Opioid Epidemic Is Improving In Arizona Because Government Stepped In
After all, it’s the job of business to be self-interested, make money and satisfy the stockholders. Nothing wrong with that. It’s free enterprise and it delivers goods and services we all use. But it’s the job of government to make sure the best interests of business don’t hurt the people. The opioid crisis is a life-and-death example of why that matters. (Linda Valdez, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Hacking Health Care: How Tech Will Drive Down Costs
Human beings are safer today than at any time in history. We live more than twice as long as we did in 1900 thanks, in large part, to advances in technology. But our increased lifespan comes at a price. The U.S. spends $3.5 trillion each year on health care, and the federal government shoulders more than 28% of that cost. The Census Bureau projects that 20.6% of Americans will be over the age of 65 by 2030, compared to 15.24% in 2016. The U.S. is facing a retirement wave that will strain our health-care system. As head of CTA for three decades, I’ve watched the medical community use new technology to make advances in everything from diet science to disease detection. Much of this technology has not been widely tested, and some of it raises difficult questions about privacy and cybersecurity. But AI, sensors and even digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa could help keep costs down and improve care. Here’s how. (Gary Shapiro, 12/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Gunshot Trauma Affects More Than The Victims. Caregivers Suffer Lasting Damage, Too.
As a nurse who spent years working with trauma patients and the physicians who treated them, I witnessed the effects of gun violence up close: colostomies, brain injuries, shattered bones and paralysis, to name a few. Years after a bullet had damaged their spinal cords, some paraplegic and quadriplegic patients still regularly cycled through the hospital with bedsores and infections. (Laurie Barkin, 12/9)

The Hill: 10 Ways To Detect Health-Care Lies 
In the past several months, we have observed blatant signs of deceptive, misleading, unsubstantiated and foolish statements in the health-care industry. These include fraudulently marketed products from Theranos and IBM Watson and a recent statement by the CEO of One Medical that his firm aims to take out 10 percent of U.S. health-care spending — something no one has ever done (not even the federal government). (Lawton R. Burns and Mark V. Pauly, 12/9)

The Hill: Transplanted Uterus: Complications On Fertility Shaming Are Born
A woman in Brazil who received a transplanted uterus in 2016 gave birth to a baby girl using the first ever deceased uterine donor. Although 11 other deliveries have occurred in the world using live donors, this is the first of its kind to utilize the uterus of a woman who was deceased.The process of transplanting a uterus for these women and utilizing a deceased donor's uterus offers new options for women like the 32-year-old recipient who had the rare congenital disorder of Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, or uterine absence. This disorder affects one in 5,000 women. (Sameena Rahman, 12/7)

USA Today: 'Screen Time' Causing, Exacerbating Childhood Psychiatric Disorders
Working in the world of child and adolescent psychiatry as an advanced practice nurse, I frequently hear about symptoms of irritability, anger, isolation and poor sleep from my patients. These symptoms are common to many childhood psychiatric disorders. These disruptive symptoms baffle parents, teachers and clinicians alike, and can lead to incorrect diagnoses for these children with dysregulated moods.I have been a steadfast believer in the importance of good diet, exercise and adequate sleep as being elementary steps one can take to improve moods. I now also consider the fourth tenet for youth mood regulation to be limited electronic screen exposure. (Annette Rothman, 12/8)

Stat: What's Holding Pharma Back From The Next Antibiotic Breakthrough? 
In the five years since the alarm sounded about so-called superbugs, the world has continued to grapple with the staggering health and economic impacts of antibiotic resistance and mounting resistance to antibiotics of last resort.In the U.S. alone, antibiotic resistance adds $20 billion to $35 billion in direct health care costs each year, along with 8 million extra days in the hospital. In the European Union, multidrug-resistant infections kill more than 30,000 people every year. While scientists work to uncover new ways to combat antibiotic-resistant microbes — which harbor a dizzying array of tools to evade antibiotics — the question of how to best develop and commercialize novel antibiotics while at the same time creating a return for investors remains just as puzzling as the most recalcitrant bacteria. (Peter Bak, 12/10)

Des Moines Register: Privatized Medicaid Is Here To Stay; Independent Review Is Now Needed
The election of Gov. Kim Reynolds means privatized Medicaid is here to stay. She has refused to return control of the health insurance program for 600,000 people to the state, and it’s unlikely she will do so in the future. That reality should prompt all Iowans, including privatization critics and the governor’s administration, to shift our focus to a common goal: Making sure Iowa's privatized Medicaid works as intended for patients, providers and taxpayers. That will ultimately require diligent oversight and a commitment by this administration to transparency. (12/6)