First Edition: November 13, 2018

Kaiser Health News: With Hospitalization Losing Favor, Judges Order Outpatient Mental Health Treatment 
When mental illness hijacks Margaret Rodgers’ mind, she acts out.Rodgers, 35, lives with depression and bipolar disorder. When left unchecked, the conditions drive the Alabama woman to excessive spending, crying and mania. Last autumn, Rodgers felt her mind unraveling. Living in Birmingham, she was uninsured, unable to afford treatment and in the throes of a divorce. Although Rodgers traveled south to her brother’s house in Foley, Ala., for respite, she couldn’t escape thoughts of suicide, which one day led her to his gun. (Rodriguez, 11/13)

California Healthline: Covered California Pops And Locks Into Enrollment Season
What do hip-hop dancing and health insurance have in common? For one, you sure do hope that the break dancer busting backflips is covered. Beyond that, Covered California, the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange, is betting that one will bring attention to the other. (Ibarra, 11/12)

Bloomberg: Democrat Sinema Wins Republican-Held U.S. Senate Seat In Arizona 
Kyrsten Sinema became the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona in three decades, after an extended vote count delivered an upset victory and a blow to Republicans and President Donald Trump. ... Sinema is a former Green Party activist who over time became a moderate Democrat. Like many on the ballot from her party, she stressed her support for Obamacare and its popular protection for people with pre-existing health conditions. But she also distanced herself from more liberal Democrats by rejecting a push to expand Medicare to cover all Americans. (Litvan, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Ousted Minnesota Republican Faults McCain For Losing House
A recently defeated Republican congressman is blaming the Democratic House takeover on the late Republican Sen. John McCain's vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act. First-term Minnesota Rep. Jason Lewis argued in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece first published Sunday that McCain's vote against repealing the federal health care law last year "killed the reform effort." Lewis said the vote also unleashed a wave of Democratic attack ads against Republicans across the country on health care issues. (11/12)

The Washington Post: Rep. Jason Lewis Blames House GOP Defeat On John McCain
“The Republican Party lost its House majority on July 28, 2017, when Sen. John McCain ended the party’s seven-year quest to repeal ObamaCare,” Lewis writes in the op-ed. “House leadership had done an admirable job herding cats. On the second try, we passed the American Health Care Act in May. Then McCain’s inscrutable vote against the Senate’s ‘skinny repeal’ killed the reform effort.” (Sonmez, 11/12)

Bloomberg: Soaring Health-Care Costs Forced This Family to Choose Who Can Stay Insured
The Maldonados’ story is a tale of middle-class Americans juggling family finances. With the ever-present pressure of a mortgage and looming college tuition, many otherwise-financially sound families face a stark choice when health-care premiums shoot wildly higher: Take on debt or opt out of the medical system and hope for the best. The Maldonados’ story is part of Bloomberg’s year-long examination of Americans struggling to afford the rising costs of health care—and the painful financial and medical trade-offs that inevitably follow. (Kasumov, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Delaware Insurance Officials Wary Of Option To ACA Coverage
Delaware officials say a health care insurance option being expanded by the Trump administration could lead to higher premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, officials have adopted emergency regulations outlining minimum consumer protection and notification standards for short-term, limited duration insurance plans. Officials warn that such plans are exempt from ACA’s minimum coverage standards, don’t have to cover pre-existing conditions, and may carry significant out-of-pocket expenses. (Chase, 11/12)

The Hill: Dems Aim To Balance Oversight, Bipartisanship On VA Committee
House Democrats are planning to step up oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) next year with their new majority, probing topics from underperforming health centers and steps toward privatization to reports of “shadow rulers” at the VA. Democrats say that while they want to maintain the bipartisan nature of the 24-member House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, they also need to hold the Trump administration accountable if there are abuses. (Sullivan, 11/13)

The Washington Post: House Science Committee’s Likely Next Chair Wants A Return To Science
As soon as it became clear that Democrats would gain control of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) announced that she was seeking the chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Johnson, 82, plans to make the committee “a place where science is respected and recognized,” she said in a statement Tuesday night. In 2010, she became the first female and first African American ranking member of the science committee. Johnson, trained as a psychiatric nurse, has served on the committee for more than two decades. If she secures the chair, she will succeed Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), who has held the position since 2013. (Guarino, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Holding Out Slim Hope As Crews Search For More Fire Dead
More than a dozen coroner search and recovery teams looked for human remains from a Northern California wildfire that killed at least 42 -- making it the deadliest in state history -- as anxious relatives visited shelters and called police hoping to find loved ones alive. (Mendoza and Flaccus, 11/13)

Sacramento Bee: Camp Fire Becomes California’s Most Deadly Blaze With 42 Fatalities So Far
The death toll from the Camp Fire reached 42 Monday, making the Northern California blaze the deadliest fire in state history. The number of fatalities far outstrips the 1933 Griffith Park Fire that killed 29 people in Los Angeles. With hundreds still reported missing in Butte County, the total is expected to grow. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said 13 more victims were found Monday, 10 in the Paradise area and three in Concow. Honea said eight of the victims were found inside homes, the others outside. (Sabalow, Yoon-Hendricks, Stanton and Sullivan, 11/12)

San Jose Mercury News: Camp Fire Death Toll Climbs To 42 With Many Still Missing
The devastating number of people who have perished is almost certain to rise as rescue and recovery workers sift through the ruins and ashes of houses. An untold number of people remain missing, and it could be days or weeks before their loved ones have answers. More than 7,000 homes, businesses and other structures have burned to the ground or been damaged beyond repair, leaving people shell-shocked and wondering how they will pick up the pieces. (Deruy and Bouscher, 11/12)

The New York Times: California Fire Death Toll Now At 44 With Discovery Of 13 More Bodies
Allyn Pierce was trapped by a wall of fire as he tried to flee the flames coming closer and closer to his truck. Chris Gonzalez counted the ever-narrowing escape routes from his home as the highlands around him erupted into flames. Rebecca Hackett was engulfed by a red-orange hellscape as she sped toward safety in her car. “I was like, ‘I think I’m done,’” said Mr. Pierce, a registered nurse who was trapped in traffic in Paradise, Calif., where most of the community was burned. “I just kept thinking, ‘I’m going to die in melting plastic.’” (Del Real and Nicas, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Another Day Of Grim Discoveries As Death Toll Rises To 42 In Camp Fire
[Butte County Sheriff Kory] Honea said anthropologists from Cal State Chico and the University of Nevada, Reno with expertise in identifying human remains were helping in the grim search effort into mass casualties. In addition, Honea has requested 150 additional search and recovery workers, two military mobile morgues and a rapid DNA identification system. “I understand the toll that it takes on people not knowing what became of their loved ones,” the sheriff said. “My sincere hope is I don’t have to come each night and report a higher and higher number.” (Serna, Mason, Smith, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Caught In The Inferno: How The Camp Fire Overwhelmed Paradise
It took only days for the blaze to become the most destructive in California history. (11/12)

The Associated Press: Scientists: Wind, Drought Worsen Fires, Not Bad Management
Both nature and humans share blame for California's devastating wildfires, but forest management did not play a major role, despite President Donald Trump's claims, fire scientists say. Nature provides the dangerous winds that have whipped the fires, and human-caused climate change over the long haul is killing and drying the shrubs and trees that provide the fuel, experts say. (Borenstein, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Ventura Shooting: Mass Shootings Are Increasingly Common. Grieving One While Escaping From Wildfires Is Not.
Volunteer chaplains hovered outside the crime scene Saturday afternoon when the trio of friends settled beneath the caution tape and started assembling. They had white computer paper, permanent markers, black electrical tape and 12 U.S. flags — one for each victim of the mass shooting inside Borderline Bar and Grill last week. (Mettler, 11/12)

Politico: Trump's California Rants Belie Feds' Quick Disaster Response
President Donald Trump has repeatedly used his bully pulpit to threaten California’s federal funding, but the government — and his own party in Congress — don’t seem to be listening. After Trump’s latest threat over the weekend to withdraw funding, some feared the president may punish the Democratic-led state during one of its deadliest environmental disasters in modern history. But if recent history and the response from lawmakers are any guide, there is little reason to believe federal payments for disaster relief will be cut off. (Schreckinger and Cadelago, 11/12)

The Hill: VA Under Pressure To Deliver Trump Reforms 
A law overhauling how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) allows patients to seek outside care is falling behind in implementation despite President Trump’s boasts about the reforms. Trump has long touted the law, which makes it easier for veterans to access private or community health-care programs, as essential to improving the beleaguered agency. (Kheel and Hellmann, 11/13)

The Hill: Opioid Crisis Poses Challenge For Vets 
Advocates are working to ensure that veterans are not overlooked as Congress and the Trump administration push to address the opioid epidemic. They say two sweeping opioid bills passed in recent years is a good start, but that the programs they cover need dedicated funding to ensure success. (Weixel, 11/13)

Reuters: Veritas Capital, Elliott To Buy Athenahealth For $5.7 Billion
Private equity firm Veritas Capital and hedge fund Elliott Management are buying Athenahealth Inc for about $5.7 billion, the U.S. healthcare software maker said on Monday. The all-cash deal values Athenahealth at $135 per share, representing a premium of 12.2 percent to the stock's closing price on Friday. (11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Athenahealth To Sell Itself For $5.47 Billion
Elliott Management, which acquired a nearly 9% stake in Athenahealth in 2017, offered to buy the rest of the company and take it private in May. The firm’s offer was to buy the rest of the company for $160 a share, which valued the company at $6.5 billion. The company had announced in June that its board was going to start looking at strategic alternatives for the firm. At that time, co-founder Jonathan Bush stepped down as president and chief executive amid takeover pressure from Elliott. Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric Co., was also named executive chairman of Athenahealth. (Prang, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Athenahealth Fetches $5.7 Billion Cash Buyout Offer
Athenahealth, based in Watertown, Massachusetts, makes medical record, revenue cycle and care coordination products and delivers most of it through the cloud. On Friday, it reported third-quarter earnings that topped analyst expectations, but its revenue fell short of the average forecast on Wall Street. The latest athenahelath bid offers "a decent valuation for what has increasingly appeared to be a struggling business," Leerink analyst David Larsen said in a research note. (11/12)

Stat: Five Things We Learned From Moderna’s Pre-IPO Information Dump
Moderna Therapeutics’ long-awaited IPO filing means two things: The company is one step closer to going public, and the world finally gets a look under the hood at the famously secretive firm. On that second point, we now get to gawk at executive pay figures, marvel at just how many bankers are involved, and speculate on what a (very brief) Food and Drug Administration clinical hold might mean for the future. Here’s what we learned from Moderna’s IPO filing. (Garde, 11/12)

Stat: Driver, A Startup Seeking To Connect Patients With Clinical Trials, Shuts Down
Driver, an ambitious startup marketing an app to match cancer patients with clinical trials, has shut down after running out of money just weeks following its high-profile launch. The company let go of all of its approximately 85 employees on Oct. 16, Driver’s co-founders confirmed to STAT. About 60 percent of those employees worked at Driver’s headquarters in San Francisco; the rest were based in Shanghai, New York, and Boise, Idaho. (Robbins, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Considers Making Food Labels Disclose Sesame To Help Allergy Sufferers
Sophie Schmults has never had Chinese food or hummus. She is careful with what hamburger buns she eats. And she is wary of any food that says it contains “spices” or “natural flavorings.” The 13-year-old, diagnosed with a sesame allergy when she was a baby, says a measure being considered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to add sesame to the list of allergens that packaged-food labels must disclose would dramatically change her life. (Reddy, 11/12)

The Associated Press: New Exercise Guidelines: Move More, Sit Less, Start Younger
Move more, sit less and get kids active as young as age 3, say new federal guidelines that stress that any amount and any type of exercise helps health. The advice is the first update since the government's physical activity guidelines came out a decade ago. Since then, the list of benefits of exercise has grown, and there's more evidence to back things that were of unknown value before, such as short, high-intense workouts and taking the stairs instead of an elevator. (Marchione, 11/12)

The Washington Post: New Government Guidelines Say You Can Get Your Exercise In Small Doses
The guidance from a committee appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services does away with the official government position that physical activity should occur in sessions of at least 10 minutes. The earlier position was contained in the government’s first physical activity guidelines, issued in 2008. The document released Monday at the American Heart Association’s 2018 Scientific Sessions is the first update since then. It was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Current evidence shows that the total volume of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is related to many health benefits; bouts of a prescribed duration are not essential,” the committee of health experts wrote. (Bernstein, 11/12)

NPR: New Federal Exercise Guidelines Emphasize Moving More Throughout The Day
"The new guidelines demonstrate that, based on the best science, everyone can dramatically improve their health just by moving — anytime, anywhere, and by any means that gets you active," Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a release. (Aubrey, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Uncle Sam Wants You To Sit Less And Move More. Here’s How You Can Meet The New Exercise Guidelines
On the inducement side, getting regular physical activity has now been linked to lower rates of eight different kinds of cancer, including those of the lung, kidneys and stomach. In 2008, when the first “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans” were released, government scientists could assert only that adequate levels of physical activity helped reduce the risk for breast and colon cancer. And that’s on top of its ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes, decrease arthritis pain, improve brain health and academic performance, and generally lift your spirits. (Healy, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: A Reckoning With The Dark Side Of The Restaurant Industry
When television personality and former chef Anthony Bourdain killed himself in June, Charles Ford, the general manager of a high-end restaurant in Chicago, took the news as a personal call to action: He would no longer be silent about his three suicide attempts. “I don’t want to hide it anymore,” says Mr. Ford, 31, who says he slashed his wrists on three occasions between late 2015 and spring 2016. Workers with suicidal impulses and other emotional crises often hide their pain in his profession, Mr. Ford says. “We need to do everything we can to turn this around, and the first step is saying it out loud.” (McLaughlin and Osipova, 11/12)

Stat: Could Fecal Transplants Help Treat Colitis Associated With Checkpoint Inhibitors?
Use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer is growing rapidly — and with it, so is a common side effect: colitis. A small new study suggests fecal transplants might help, but experts caution the potential treatment needs to be studied much more. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are a class of immunotherapy drugs that unleash the immune system to attack cancer cells. For some some patients on the drugs, colitis — inflammation in the colon that can cause bleeding, pain, diarrhea, and dehydration — can become so severe that some patients have to pause their cancer treatment while clinicians try to get the inflammation in check. (Thielking, 11/12)

The New York Times: In N.H.L. Concussion Settlement, Owners Win The Fight
A settlement announced Monday between the N.H.L. and several hundred retired hockey players who accused the league of hiding the dangers of repeated head hits did little to quell the emotional intensity surrounding the issue. The deal, which must be approved by the 318 former players who joined the lawsuit, includes free neuropsychological tests, up to $75,000 for medical treatment, a potential cash payment of about $20,000 a player, and the establishment of a Common Good Fund to help other players in need. (Belson, 11/12)

NPR: Good And Risky Microbes Surround Us. 'You're Never Home Alone,' Ecologist Explains
You may be shocked by what's living in your home — the bacteria, the fungi, viruses, parasites and insects. Probably many more organisms than you imagined. "Every surface; every bit of air; every bit of water in your home is alive," says Rob Dunn, a professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "The average house has thousands of species." (Gross, 11/12)

The Associated Press: More Women In Poor Countries Use Contraception, Says Report
More women and girls in poor countries are using modern contraception, signifying progress in efforts to involve women in family planning, according to a report released Monday. The number of women and girls using contraceptives in 69 of the world's poorest countries surpassed 317 million in 2018, representing 46 million more users than in 2012, said the report by Family Planning 2020, a U.N.-backed global advocacy group working to promote rights-based family planning. (11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Bronx Science High School To Close Some Bathrooms To Combat Vape Use Among Students
In an attempt to stop students from vaping in bathrooms, the prestigious Bronx High School of Science will shut some of them down, starting Tuesday. Many schools across the country are struggling to reverse a surge in teenagers using e-cigarettes, which experts say can potentially lead to nicotine addiction. Bronx Science officials said in an email to parents Friday that patrolling bathrooms didn’t curb the problem of students hiding in them to vape, especially in the far corners of the building. As of Tuesday, six bathrooms in “low traffic areas’’ will be closed, and the ones left open will be subject to random checks by staff. (Brody, 11/12)

The New York Times: New Public Spaces Are Supposed To Be For All. The Reality Is More Complicated.
Office workers sip coffee beside men sleeping in chairs pulled together. Tourists park their shopping bags where people shoot up heroin, or drink until they pass out. Panhandlers go table to table seeking handouts. Piles of trash, used needles and worse (human feces) have drawn complaints. This is a scene from the heart of Manhattan, where a painstaking effort to ban cars and carve a public plaza out of one of New York City’s most famous streets — with birch trees, cafe-style tables and original artwork — have collided with stark socioeconomic realities. (Hu, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Feds: Priest Lied About Cancer In Scam To Raise Money
Federal investigators said they have probable cause to believe a Mississippi priest fraudulently received donations by falsely telling people he had cancer and that his diocese knew that and concealed it. The allegations came in an affidavit written by a Department of Homeland Security special agent that was attached to an application for a search warrant that targeted the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson. The application was dated Nov. 6 and unsealed Friday. (11/12)