The New York Times: Obamacare, Ruled Invalid By Federal Judge, Will Remain In Effect During Appeal
The federal judge in Texas who ruled this month that the entire Affordable Care Act was invalid issued a stay in the case on Sunday, meaning that the law will remain in effect while the ruling is appealed. The judge, Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court in Fort Worth, said that the ruling should not go into immediate effect “because many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty” during an appeal. The ruling opened the door for an appeal by California and 15 other states that support the health care law. (Mervosh, 12/30)

The Associated Press: Judge Clears The Way For Appeal Of Ruling Against Health Law
In a ruling issued Sunday, Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth wrote that he stands by his earlier conclusion that the entire law is invalidated by congressional repeal of its fines on people who remain uninsured, like a house of cards collapsing. However, because "many everyday Americans would ... face great uncertainty" if that ruling were immediately put into effect, O'Connor issued a stay to allow for appeals. (12/30)

Politico: Texas Judge Lets Obamacare Stand While Court Challenge Continues
Public health groups, Democrats and even some Republicans had warned of catastrophic cuts in health coverage if O'Connor’s Dec. 14 ruling to strike down the entire ACA had been allowed to take immediate effect. Many health policies proposed by the Trump administration, including efforts to lower drug prices and reshape hospital payment, also depend on provisions of the law. Seventeen states defending the ACA — led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — had asked O’Connor to clarify the ramifications of his ruling so they would be able to file an immediate appeal to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Diamond, 12/30)

Modern Healthcare: Obamacare To Remain In Place Pending Appeal
In the order he issued on Sunday, O'Connor expressed confidence that the appellate bench will concur with his decision that the individual mandate can't be separated from the rest of the law. "If the judicial power encompasses ignoring unambiguous enacted text—the text citizens read to know what their representatives have done—to approximate what a judge believes Congress meant to do, but did not, then policymaking lies in the hands of unelected judges and Congress may transfer politically unwinnable issues to the bench," O'Connor said. "This the Constitution does not allow. This the Supreme Court does not allow." (Luthi, 12/30)

The Hill: Judge Who Struck Down ObamaCare Says It Will Remain In Place During Appeal Process
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor ruled several weeks ago that the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate is unconstitutional. Because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, the rest of the law is also invalid, he ruled. O'Connor's ruling states that the Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the mandate to have coverage because of Congress's power to tax, but the fine for failing to comply with the mandate was removed by Congress last year. He argues that means the mandate is no longer a tax and therefore is unconstitutional. (Birnbaum, 12/30)

USA Today: Obamacare: Judge Leaves Law In Effect Pending Appeal
Many experts expect that appellate court to disagree with O'Connor's ruling that the individual mandate can't be separated from the rest of the law. If O'Connor's ruling is upheld it is expected that the case would head to the Supreme Court. (Cummings, 12/31)

Bloomberg: Judge Who Ruled Against Obamacare Halts Order Pending Appeal 
“Because many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty during the pendency of appeal, the court finds that the Dec. 14, 2018, order declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional and inseverable should be stayed,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said in a filing Sunday in federal court in Fort Worth. (Wollman and Korosec, 12/30)

The Associated Press: ACA Mandate Gone, But A Few States Still Require Coverage
The mandate directing individuals to obtain health insurance or face tax penalties ends on Tuesday for most, but not all Americans. In Massachusetts, an individual mandate that has been on the books since 2006 will continue in the absence of the federal fines that had been in effect since 2014 under the Affordable Care Act but were eliminated as part of the Republican-backed tax reform law passed in 2017. (1/1)

Modern Healthcare: 2018 Year In Review: Bookended By Obamacare, 2018 Was The Year Of Policy Change
With Congress' attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act dead by the end of 2017, any relief the law's supporters felt were likely short-lived, as 2018 was the year the Trump administration began significantly remolding a law it fundamentally opposes. Led by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, who took the reins of the $1.2 trillion department last January, the administration charted an overarching strategy to lower drug prices and reduce spending on hospital care. Moreover, by the end of 2018, the entire Affordable Care Act was back in legal peril when a federal judge in Texas struck it down and blocked immediate appeal. (Luthi, 12/26)

Nashville Tennessean: Miss The Open Enrollment Deadline? How To Get Covered In 2019
Did you miss the deadline to sign up for coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces? Open enrollment ended on Dec. 15, but even if you missed it, you still may be able to sign up for health insurance in 2019. But first — do you need to sign up for coverage? Beginning this year, the penalty associated with Obamacare’s individual mandate drops to $0. In other words, unlike previous years, there is no tax penalty for failing to carry health insurance. (Tolbert, 12/28)

The New York Times: Trump Blames Democrats Over Deaths Of Migrant Children In U.S. Custody
President Trump blamed Democrats on Saturday for the deaths of two migrant children in detention at the southwest border this month, wielding the episodes as justification to fund a border wall. The comments came in twin posts on Twitter, where the president spent much of the day denouncing Democrats as the partial government shutdown approached its eighth day over his demand for funding for the wall. (Haberman, 12/29)

The Associated Press: Trump Tries To Deflect Blame For Migrant Children's Deaths
Trump, whose administration has faced widespread criticism over the deaths, pointed on Twitter at Democrats "and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally." He also said that both children "were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol." (Merchant, Miller and Long, 12/29)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Political Spin On Migrant Deaths
President Donald Trump twisted circumstances behind the deaths of two migrant Guatemalan children to insulate his administration from any blame, contending without justification that they were in dire health before they reached the border. The children cleared initial U.S. health screenings and one of them was in the U.S. for five days before suddenly showing signs of illness. (Woodward, 12/31)

The Associated Press: House Democrats Want Evidence Preserved In Border Deaths
Top House Democrats, preparing to take control of key committees early next year, have called for the preservation of all evidence related to the two child deaths in Customs and Border Protection custody. An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died Monday at a New Mexico hospital after suffering coughing, vomiting and fever, authorities said. It was the second such death this month. (12/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Homeland Security Steps Up Medical Services For Migrants After Two Children Die
Homeland Security officials said Wednesday the agency has stepped up health checks for migrant children and tapped Coast Guard medical personnel to help improve care for sick migrants after an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died in Border Patrol custody on Christmas Eve. Since the boy’s death, which occurred nine hours after he initially was released from a New Mexico hospital, almost all children in Border Patrol custody have received a secondary medical screening, officials said. (Frosch, 12/26)

The Hill: DHS Promises Changes To Protect Health Of Migrant Children 
Nielsen also said she asked the Coast Guard Medical Corps to provide an assessment of Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) medical programs and make appropriate recommendations for improvements. The announcement comes as congressional Democrats are promising an investigation into the death of an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala, the second such death of a child in CBP custody in a little over two weeks. (Weixel, 12/26)

The Associated Press: Videos Show Staff Dragging, Shoving Immigrant Kids
Arizona authorities said Monday they sent prosecutors the results of an investigation into a now-shuttered shelter for immigrant children where videos showed staffers dragging and shoving kids. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office investigated incidents that took place on three days in September. Prosecutors will now decide whether to file charges. (Galvan, 12/31)

The Associated Press: Migrant Teen Tent City Staying Open Into 2019
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will keep open through early 2019 a tent city in Texas that now holds more than 2,000 migrant teenagers, and also will increase the number of beds at another temporary detention center for children in Florida. The Tornillo facility opened in June in an isolated corner of the Texas desert with capacity for up to 360 children. It eventually grew into a highly guarded detention camp where, on Christmas, some 2,300 largely Central American boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17 slept in more than 150 canvas tents. (Burke and Snow, 12/26)

The New York Times: Shutdown Leaves Food, Medicine And Pay In Doubt In Indian Country
For one tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the government shutdown comes with a price tag: about $100,000, every day, of federal money that does not arrive to keep health clinics staffed, food pantry shelves full and employees paid. The tribe is using its own funds to cover the shortfalls for now. But if the standoff in Washington continues much longer, that stopgap money will be depleted. Later this month, workers could be furloughed and health services could be pared back. “Everything,” said Aaron Payment, the chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe, “is on the table.” (Smith and Turkewitz, 1/1)

The Washington Post: Disruptive, Disappointing, Chaotic: Shutdown Upends Scientific Research
Kay Behrensmeyer was supposed to be preparing for a three-week expedition to look for evidence of ancient humans in Kenya. Instead, she spent Thursday packing her research permits, her fossil-collecting supplies, and maps she’d spent weeks compiling and annotating by hand into a FedEx box, which she shipped to a junior colleague on the project. Behrensmeyer, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History, wasn’t going anywhere. The federal government was shut down. (Guarino, Kaplan, Fritz and Johnson, 12/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Garbage, Human Waste Take Toll On National Parks Amid Government Shutdown
Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West’s iconic national parks, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty. (Knickmeyer and Gecker, 1/1)

The Associated Press: What Happens In A Partial Government Shutdown
A look at the impact of the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22. (12/30)

The New York Times: ‘Medicare For All’ Gains Favor With Democrats Looking Ahead To 2020
More and more Democrats, fed up with private health insurance companies, are endorsing the goal of a government-run, single-payer system like Medicare for all Americans. But they have discovered a problem. More than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries are in Medicare Advantage plans, run not by the government but by private insurers. (Pear, 12/29)

Bloomberg: Democratic Left Playing A Long Game To Get `Medicare For All' 
A clamor to create “Medicare for All” has exploded on the left. Democratic presidential hopefuls are racing to co-sponsor legislation, rising stars in the party are embracing it, and national polls show Americans warming to the concept. But even the idea’s most fervent backers acknowledge that the goal is far off in the distance, beyond the next year or even the 2020 election. Their aim for now is to shift the health care debate. By making single-payer health care -- a model under which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan -- the progressive position, advocates argue that gives Democrats representing conservative areas of the country political cover to support more modest proposals to expand the government’s role in health insurance. (Kapur, 12/26)

The Wall Street Journal: House Democrats Weigh Risks Of Medicare-For-All Push In 2019
A Medicare for All plan—of which there are currently eight proposals, with the boldest requiring the government to operate taxpayer-funded health care for all—is unlikely to become law, given Republicans’ enlarged majority in the Senate. But promoting such an idea, or declining to, would send a strong signal about the party’s direction heading toward the 2020 elections. Both paths carry political risks, but with voters deeply concerned about health care, it’s a discussion Democrats may not be able to avoid. “It would almost be negligent of us to not have an expanded debate now,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D., Ky.), who’s in line to chair the Budget Committee, citing a Texas judge’s recent ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. (Armour and Peterson, 12/27)

The Hill: ‘Medicare For All’ Advocates Emboldened By ObamaCare Lawsuit 
“In light of the Republican Party’s assault, a version of Medicare for all is necessary for the future," said Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy at the Center for American Progress. "There are just too many points of vulnerability in the current system.” The court decision in Texas that invalidates ObamaCare in its entirety came on the heels of sweeping Democratic victories in the midterm elections, a combination that has energized advocates of Medicare for all. (Weixel, 12/30)

California Healthline: En Route To Congress, California Democrats Hit Wall On ‘Medicare-For-All’
Each of the seven California Democrats who flipped Republican congressional seats in the midterm election campaigned for more government-funded health care — with most of them calling for a complete government takeover. So when they join the Golden State’s delegation this week, they will make it the largest state bloc to support “Medicare-for-all” in the U.S. House of Representatives. And Democrats, of course, will control the House. (Young, 1/2)

And in other news —

The Hill: Republicans Face 2020 Repeat On Health Care
Republicans are facing a repeat of the 2018 midterms if a court battle about the legality of ObamaCare drags into the 2020 campaigns. When a district judge in Texas ruled ObamaCare unconstitutional... in a case brought by Republican states, it gave Democrats another opportunity to box in GOP lawmakers on protections for people with pre-existing conditions — a line of attack that Democrats credit with helping them win back the House. (Hellmann, 12/23)

Stat: 3 Freshman Lawmakers To Watch In 2019 
There will be more than 100 new faces in the halls of Congress next year, many of whom have their own ideas for improving America’s health care and lowering the costs of prescription drugs. But the faces plastering the evening news aren’t the ones industry should be worried about. While America’s attention was captured by Democratic upstarts Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), who are pushing the slogan Medicare For All, lesser-known candidates were developing their own, often meticulously detailed plans on how to handle Obamacare and bring down prescription drug prices. (Florko, 12/27)

The New York Times: Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Season Of Turmoil
Hundreds of doctors packed an auditorium at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Oct. 1, deeply angered by revelations that the hospital’s top medical officer and other leaders had cultivated lucrative relationships with for-profit companies. One by one, they stood up to challenge the stewardship of their beloved institution, often to emotional applause. Some speakers accused their leaders of letting the quest to make more money undermine the hospital’s mission. Others bemoaned a rigid, hierarchical management that had left them feeling they had no real voice in the hospital’s direction. (Thomas and Ornstein, 12/31)

The New York Times: When Doctors Serve On Company Boards
Cancer centers are re-evaluating their relationships with health care companies, including when, if ever, doctors and researchers should serve on corporate boards. Here are some hospital executives and cancer researchers who sit on the boards of publicly traded companies, in dual roles that may raise questions about conflicts of interest. (Thomas and Ornstein, 12/31)

The New York Times: Congratulations On The Promotion. But Did Science Get A Demotion?
A number of recent news articles have brought renewed attention to financial conflicts of interest in medical science. Physicians and medical administrators had financial links to companies that went undeclared to medical journals even when they were writing on topics in which they clearly had monetary interests. Most agree such lapses damage the medical and scientific community. But our focus on financial conflicts of interest should not lead us to ignore other conflicts that may be equally or even more important. Such biases need not be explicit, like fraud. (Carroll, 12/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Psychiatric Hospitals With Safety Violations Still Get Accreditation
More than 100 psychiatric hospitals have remained fully accredited by the nation’s major hospital watchdog despite serious safety violations that include lapses linked to the death, abuse or sexual assault of patients, a database investigation by The Wall Street Journal has found. The Joint Commission, an Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., nonprofit that evaluates most of the nation’s hospitals, revoked or denied full accreditation to fewer than 1% of psychiatric hospitals it oversaw in fiscal 2014 and 2015, the latest date for which detailed federal data is available. State inspectors found about 16% of those hospitals each year, or about 140 institutions total, operated with such severe safety violations they could put federal funding at risk. (Armour, 12/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Dallas Hospital Amassed A Series Of Violations But Kept Accreditation
In March 2015, the federal government told Timberlawn Behavioral Health System that it was planning to cut off its funding because it was unsafe. The Dallas hospital had amassed 19 violations in 2014 and 2015, according to state inspection records. One patient had reported being raped by another, and an unsupervised suicidal woman hanged herself. The state had proposed a $1 million fine and revocation of the hospital’s license. (Armour, 12/26)

Stat: NIH Hospital's Pipes Harbored Bacteria That Infected Patients
Patients were infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria living in the plumbing of the National Institutes of Health’s hospital in Bethesda, Md., contributing to at least three deaths in 2016. A study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, from 2006 to 2016, at least 12 patients at the NIH Clinical Center, which provides experimental therapies and hosts research trials, were infected with Sphingomonas koreensis, an uncommon bacteria. The paper, written by NIH researchers, suggests that the infections came from contaminated water pipes, where the bacteria may have been living since as early as 2004, soon after construction of a new clinical center building. (Swetlitz, 12/26)

Bloomberg: What We Learned From A Year Of Americans ‘Risking It’ Without Insurance 
We started off following a dozen families: people who were trying to work, raise children and pay for a house or college. When we invited others to share their stories about going uninsured, an overwhelming number did — more than 5,000. Many sent us messages that could break your heart or raise your blood pressure. In Virginia, the Jordan family shared their tale of sinking into bankruptcy because of unexpected medical expenses, even though they had insurance. (Tozzi, 12/28)

The Wall Street Journal: John Stockman’s Medical Bills Topped $1 Million. What Happened?
John Stockman thought he just had a terrible stomach ache when he went to the emergency room at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Center while on vacation in Colorado Springs, Colo., last year. It was a clot that had partially blocked the flow of blood from his intestine. By nightfall the next day, Mr. Stockman, 62, was on a ventilator after emergency surgery to remove 4 feet of damaged bowel. (Armour, 12/27)

The Wall Street Journal: The Hidden System That Explains How Your Doctor Makes Referrals
Phoebe Putney Health System doesn’t want its doctors to send business to competitors. If they do, Phoebe makes sure their bosses know about it. Doctors working for the Albany, Ga.-based hospital system’s affiliated physician group get regular reports breaking down their referrals to specialists or services. One viewed by The Wall Street Journal included cardiology, colonoscopies and speech therapy, along with the share of each referred to Phoebe health-care providers. (Wilde Mathews and Evans, 12/27)

NPR: Should Crowdfunding Companies Restrict Campaigns For Dubious Medical Treatments?
For deep water divers who decompress too quickly, doctors may advise they lie inside a pressurized glass tube and inhale pure oxygen to treat painful symptoms known as "the bends." The oxygen boost is thought to reduce swelling and prevent infection. The treatment, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy or HBOT, is approved for a few other conditions, like carbon monoxide poisoning and a form of gangrene. But some clinics around the country offer it for numerous other health problems, including migraine headaches, depression, strokes, and even brain injuries. And HBOT hasn't been proven to work for most of these, according to the FDA. (Cohen, 1/2)

NPR: Medical Debt And GoFundMe: Friends And Strangers Step In Where Insurance Lags
Tammy Fox wanted to help, after a friend took ill with a rare and difficult-to-diagnose autoimmune disorder that required many trips to the Mayo Clinic. While Fox couldn't do anything medically, she knew there was a way to ease some of the burden of medical bills and costs associated with doctor visits. She turned to the website GoFundMe and set up a site for her friend. (Zdechlik, 12/27)

Kaiser Health News: Insured But Still In Debt: 5 Jobs Pulling In $100K A Year No Match For Medical Bills 
Robert and Tiffany Cano of San Tan Valley, Ariz., have a new marriage, a new house and a 10-month-old son, Brody, who is delighted by his ability to blow raspberries. They also have a stack of medical bills that threatens to undermine it all.In the months since their sturdy, brown-eyed boy was born, the Canos have acquired more than $12,000 in medical debt — so much that they need a spreadsheet to track what they owe to hospitals and doctors. (Aleccia, 12/28)

Kaiser Health News: Refund On The Way To Latest ‘Bill Of The Month’ Patient
Sarah Witter had to pay for a second surgery to repair her broken leg after a metal plate installed during the first surgery broke. On Friday, she got a more welcome break — a $6,358.26 refund from the hospital and her insurer. Witter’s experience was the subject of December’s KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature. She and her insurer, Aetna, had racked up $99,159 in bills from a Rutland, Vt., hospital and various medical providers after she fractured her leg in a skiing accident last February. (Rau, 12/21)

Modern Healthcare: 2018 Year In Review: Healthcare Sees Unconventional Partnerships Rise 
Healthcare's 2018 began with a resounding sentiment that set the tone for the rest of the year: “We're tired of the current healthcare system, so rather than wait for someone to change it, we'll do it ourselves.” Intermountain Healthcare, Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health kicked off 2018 by pledging to create a generic-drug company. The providers spoke on behalf of nearly every health system that faces daily shortages of critical drugs and the challenge of working around an unexpected price hike. (Kacik, 12/26)

Modern Healthcare: 2018 Year In Review: Health Insurance Business Defined By Flexibility 
If 2017 was a year of regulatory unknowns, 2018 was when health insurers and other industry stakeholders started getting answers. The Trump administration offered insurers and states extra tools to sidestep the Affordable Care Act in lieu of a full repeal of the healthcare law. And in an environment of rising costs and new competition, insurers sought courtships that further blurred the lines between payers and providers. Still, a Dec. 14 ruling by a federal judge in Texas declaring the ACA unconstitutional thrust the health insurance industry back into an environment of uncertainty that threatens the future stability of the individual market. (Livingston, 12/26)

Marketplace: GE Has A Long-Term Care Insurance Problem
Caring for the elderly is getting more and more expensive at a time when Americans are living longer than ever. For General Electric, that means that premiums on its 300,000 long-term care insurance policies aren’t even close to covering the cost of coverage. Marketplace senior economics contributor Chris Farrell spoke with host Kimberly Adams about the rising costs of long-term care. (Adams, 1/1)

Bloomberg: J&J's Risk From Tainted-Talc Lawsuits Only Gets Bigger In 2019
Johnson & Johnson paid a steep price this year for claims that its celebrated baby powder was contaminated with asbestos. Problem is, 2019 could be even worse. A jury ordered the company in July to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women who blamed the talc-based product for causing their ovarian cancer. The prospect of similar judgments helped erase $45 billion in J&J’s market value, with the shares headed for their biggest annual loss in a decade. (Feeley and Fisk, 12/21)

The New York Times: In Rehab, ‘Two Warring Factions’: Abstinence Vs. Medication
Just past a cemetery along a country road, an addiction treatment center called JourneyPure at the River draws hundreds of patients a month who are addicted to opioids and other drugs. They divide their days between therapy sessions, songwriting, communing with horses and climbing through a treetop ropes course. After dinner, they’re driven into town in white vans for 12-step meetings. (Goodnough, 12/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Fentanyl’s New Foe: A Quick Test Strip That Can Prevent Overdoses
There is a new tool to help battle the opioid epidemic that works like a pregnancy test to detect fentanyl, the potent substance behind the escalating number of deaths roiling communities around the country. The test strip, originally designed for the medical profession to test urine, can also be used off-label by heroin and cocaine users who fear their drugs have been adulterated with the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The strips are dipped in water containing a minute amount of a drug and generally provide a result within a minute—with one line indicating positive for fentanyl, and two lines negative. (Campo-Flores, 12/31)

The Hill: Opioid Deaths In Children, Teens On The Rise: Study
Opioid-related deaths among teens and young children have nearly tripled since 1999, according to a study published Friday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found that 8,986 children and adolescents under the age of 20 died from opioid-related causes between 1999 and 2016 in what the researchers referred to as an "epidemic" of abuse. (Bowden, 12/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Deaths Level Off—And Even Decline—In Some Opioid Hotspots
New Hampshire is close to posting its first decline in drug deaths in six years, echoing trends in some other states as the national overdose-fatality rate appears to be leveling off. The state medical examiner’s office earlier this month projected there would be 437 drug deaths this year, a 10% decline from 2017, when the fatality rate plateaued. Before that, New Hampshire’s numbers had climbed steadily since 2013. (Kamp, 12/31)

The Washington Post: Time Is Running Out For Federally Funded Mental-Health Clinics
An experimental mental-health and addiction treatment program that has shown early success in combating the opioid crisis is at risk of losing its federal funding. An estimated 9,000 patients could lose access to medication-assisted treatment, and 3,000 clinic jobs could be lost if the funding is not renewed, according to the National Council for Behavioral Health. Some states may feel the impact as early as January, because clinics must give staff 60 to 90 days’ termination notice. (Marcus, 12/27)

Reuters: Drug Use During Pregnancy Not Child Abuse: Pennsylvania Top Court
A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Friday that mothers who use illegal drugs during their pregnancies are not committing child abuse against their newly-born children. Reversing a lower court ruling, the 5-2 decision came amid a nationwide opioid crisis, including abuse by pregnant women that can result in preterm labor, stillbirth and withdrawal symptoms for new babies. (12/28)

Kansas City Star: Insys Trial Looms With Implications For Kansas Lawsuits
Top executives of Insys Therapeutics, including billionaire founder John Kapoor, are facing charges that they bribed doctors to get them to prescribe their powerful fentanyl spray, Subsys. ... But the Kansas suits have largely been in a holding pattern as the parties await the results of the criminal trial in Boston, scheduled to begin Jan. 28. (Marso, 1/2)

The Hill: FDA Chief Calls For Meeting With CEOs Of E-Cigarette Companies Amid Crackdown 
The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday called for a meeting with executives from top e-cigarette companies to discuss their commitments to help stop a rise in teen vaping. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb suggested that some executives have backed down from their commitments. He said he will be sending letters asking the CEOs of vaping companies to meet to “discuss commitments they made last month, and why some are changing course.” (Weixel, 12/27)

USA Today: Quit Vaping: E-Cigarettes Spur Nicotine Withdrawal, Depression, Anxiety
Andrea "Nick' Tattanelli quit vaping in August. "Oh man," the 39-year-old Kansas City man says. "It was hell." The mortgage banker was depressed for three days. He felt a void in his life. "it’s delicious. It’s too attractive," he says. "You don't make something you can vape in a watermelon flavor and think people aren't going to do it all the time." (O'Donnell, 12/27)

The Associated Press: Poll: Americans Support Gene-Editing Embryos To Prevent Diseases
Most Americans say it would be OK to use gene-editing technology to create babies protected against a variety of diseases — but a new poll shows they’d draw the line at changing DNA so children are born smarter, faster or taller. A month after startling claims of the births of the world’s first gene-edited babies in China, the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds people are torn between the medical promise of a technology powerful enough to alter human heredity and concerns over whether it will be used ethically. (Neergaard, 12/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Gene-Editing Experiment Loses Track Of Patients, Alarming Technology’s Inventors
Chinese scientists have raced ahead in experimenting with gene-editing on humans in the last few years, using a powerful new tool called Crispr-Cas9 to edit the DNA of dozens of cancer patients. Information gathered by The Wall Street Journal shows one such trial has lost touch with patients whose DNA was altered, alarming some Western scientists who say subjects should be monitored for many years. (Rana and Fan, 12/28)

Stat: What Will 2019 Bring For Science And Medicine? We Asked Experts 
It has been a tumultuous year for science and medicine, and also for the business and politics of both. And with CRISPR babies still in the headlines, Donald Trump still in the White House, and the Dow down again, 2019 is shaping up to be just as turbulent. We asked a whole host of experts — scientists, CEOs, policymakers, and professors — to weigh in on what themes they expect to see emerge in the next 12 months. (12/31)

Los Angeles Times: Nine Science Stories To Watch In 2019
From the edge of Earth to the frontier of the solar system, there’s plenty of science awaiting us in 2019. Some projects have been years in the making. Others were pushed to the forefront by the demands of a fast-changing world. Either way, they promise to change our view of the world — and inspire new questions no one previously thought to ask. (Netburn, Healy and Rosen, 12/28)

PBS NewsHour: Forget The Crash Diet. These 6 New Year’s Resolutions Are Better For Your Health
The new year is officially here and with it, millions of resolutions. Forty-four percent of Americans say they will take on a resolution this year, many with health conscious goals in mind. But some resolutions are better for your overall health than others. (Griffin, 1/1)

The Associated Press: Low Carb? Low Fat? What The Latest Dieting Studies Tell Us
Bacon and black coffee for breakfast, or oatmeal and bananas? If you're planning to try to lose weight in 2019, you're sure to find a fierce debate online and among friends and family about how best to do it. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and new fads emerge every year. (1/1)

The Wall Street Journal: The Dry January Effect
Bottoms down: It’s Dry January. For Heather Molnar that means holding the gin in her gin and tonic for the rest of the month and substituting that end-of-day glass of wine with kombucha. “I like to put it in a wine glass or something fancy,” says Ms. Molnar, a 46-year-old content strategist who lives in Morris Plains, N.J. (Reddy, 1/1)

The New York Times: Moderate Drinking May Benefit Heart Failure Patients
Patients with heart failure may live longer if they have a few alcoholic drinks a week, a new study suggests. Studies on the effect of alcohol on the risk of heart failure have had mixed results, with some suggesting an increased risk with more than about seven drinks a week. But this is the first study to look at drinking after a heart failure diagnosis. (Bakalar, 12/28)

The New York Times: HDL Cholesterol: Too Much Of A Good Thing?
I used to be thrilled that my blood level of HDL cholesterol, the so-called good cholesterol, was high, the likely result of my devotion to daily physical activity. After all, HDL, for high-density lipoprotein, acts like an arterial cleanser, removing cholesterol from blood vessels and preparing it for removal outside the body. An ample supply of HDL cholesterol in blood serum has long been linked to protection against coronary heart disease and stroke, so what could be bad? (Brody, 12/24)

The New York Times: Heart Attack May Be Early Sign Of Cancer
A heart attack or stroke may be an early sign of cancer. Researchers studied records of 374,331 Medicare beneficiaries, mean age 76, who were given cancer diagnoses from 2005 to 2013. They matched them with an equal number of controls without cancer. Then they retrospectively tracked heart attacks and strokes in the two groups in the year before the cancer diagnosis. (Bakalar, 12/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Mount Sinai Sees Appetite For Dietitian-Designed Meal Services
For people suffering from serious digestive diseases, a simple meal can sometimes have debilitating physical effects. To help these patients, Mount Sinai Health System is boosting an investment in a food company that aims to make eating easier. The investment by Mount Sinai’s venture fund, the third in two years, is for Epicured, a two-year-old New York-based company that provides fully prepared, dietitian-designed fresh meals for about 1,000 customers. (West, 12/27)

The New York Times: Stand More, Lounge Less? Don’t Do It To Lose Weight
For those of us who have resolved to stand more and sit less in the coming year, a new study might temper some of our expectations of the benefits. It finds that people burn more calories when they stand than when sitting or lying down, but the increase is smaller than many of us might hope. For those of us who overindulged and slacked off on our exercise regimens over the holidays, it also means that being upright is unlikely to help us lose weight. (Reynolds, 1/2)

NPR: Is Cold Weather Exercise Healthier?
When Scott Carney first saw the photo of a nearly naked man sitting comfortably on a glacier in the frigid cold, he was skeptical. The man — Wim Hof — is a Dutch athlete who claims to control his body temperature in extreme cold through sheer force of will. Exercising in the cold, Hof argues, makes people healthier. (Chisholm, 1/1)

Los Angeles Times: Here’s Your 2019 Fitness Inspiration: She’s 95 And Is Doing The Splits
Phyllis Sues has never exactly rushed into things. She launched a business at 50 and became a trapeze enthusiast at 75. At 85, she took her first yoga lesson, got into tango dancing shortly after, and jumped out of a plane at 90. (Daswani, 12/28)

The New York Times: In Screening For Suicide Risk, Facebook Takes On Tricky Public Health Role
A police officer on the late shift in an Ohio town recently received an unusual call from Facebook. Earlier that day, a local woman wrote a Facebook post saying she was walking home and intended to kill herself when she got there, according to a police report on the case. Facebook called to warn the Police Department about the suicide threat. (Singer, 12/31)

NPR: Practice And Planning Needed To Evacuate Elderly In A Storm
The benefits of retiring in South Carolina's low country are clear to Joyce East. Her home, sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and downtown Charleston, overlooks 120 acres of lush marshland. Palm trees and Spanish moss dot the property. But the drawbacks of retiring only a few meters above sea level have also become apparent to the 91-one-year-old retiree. Since 2016, her home within Charleston's Bishop Gadsden Retirement Community has weathered one snow storm, one ice storm and three hurricanes. She has had to evacuate twice in two years. (Ellis, 12/28)

Stat: How VR May Help Transform The Postpartum Experience For New Mothers
The virtual reality scene was a neat trick — but it’s also at the heart of a technology [Pinar] Yanardag hopes could one day transform the postpartum experience. The first step is what she calls “Virtual Letdown,” an immersive VR app that could let a user pump breast milk both more enjoyably and more effectively. The project aims to address a common problem for new mothers: It’s easiest for the body to release milk, a process controlled by the hormone oxytocin, when a woman is relaxed. But relaxing can be difficult when you’re hooked up to a noisy suction device in a locked office or a bathroom. (Preston, 12/31)

NPR: Death's Dress Rehearsal: Virtual Reality Explores Dying In A Hospice
You wait in the sterile purgatory of your oncologist's office, between your spouse and your daughter, for the doctor to give you the verdict on your latest scans. "I'm afraid it's not good news," she says quietly, hands clasped. Your lung cancer has grown despite your recent chemotherapy. Surgery, chemo and other treatments, she tells you, will likely only make you sicker. (Burge, 12/27)

Detroit Free Press: Flu Season Is Here: Learn About 2018-19 Symptoms, Shot
After last year's whopper of a flu season — when flu-associated deaths rose to an estimated 79,000 Americans, of which 185 were children — health officials are carefully watching to see what happens this year. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is reporting an uptick in flu activity, and urges anyone older than 6 months to get vaccinated. This comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that the 2018-19 flu season is officially underway and confirmed the death of the first Michigan child to the flu this season. (Shamus, 12/29)

The Hill: Government Deploys Military, Medical Research Arms In Response To Diplomats' 'Targeted Health Attacks' 
The State Department has called in assistance from medical experts in federal agencies and across the U.S. to investigate a series of mysterious incidents involving diplomats who fell ill after reporting hearing strange sounds while stationed overseas. NBC News reported Friday that the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to respond to reports of diplomats reporting strange symptoms after deployments in Cuba and China now involve at least seven federal agencies and experts from four states, as the government seeks to unravel the mystery behind the attacks. (Bowden, 12/28)

The Washington Post: Wearing Contact Lens When You Sleep Or Nap Raises Risk Of Serious Eye Infections
Many contact lens wearers have a dirty little secret: They sometimes sleep or nap in their lenses. But this bad habit could raise their risk of serious eye infections and even lead to vision loss, emergency room doctors are warning. (Rettner, 12/22)

Politico: Legal Weed Is Everywhere — Unless You’re A Scientist
Americans can legally buy high quality marijuana in most states, but when scientists want to study pot in a lab, they’re basically stuck with schwag. A little-known research facility at the University of Mississippi is the only place in the country that is authorized to grow and test marijuana for medical research purposes. But this effort is stymied by a slow process for certifying scientists, a lack of funding and according to pot experts, an inferior product compared to what the booming cannabis sector has rolled out in recent years. (Owermohle, 12/25)

Stat: American Possibly Exposed To Ebola In DRC Flown To U.S. Hospital 
An American health worker who has been caring for patients infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was flown back to the United States after having what is described as “a possible exposure” to an Ebola patient. The person was flown by charter flight to Omaha and admitted for observation to Nebraska Medical Center. The center has a special containment unit in which it can care for people with dangerous infectious diseases. (Branswell, 12/29)

The New York Times: Hearing Loss Threatens Mind, Life And Limb
The earsplitting sound of ambulance sirens in New York City is surely hastening the day when I and many others repeatedly subjected to such noise will be forced to get hearing aids. I just hope this doesn’t happen before 2021 or so when these devices become available over-the-counter and are far less expensive and perhaps more effective than they are now. (Brody, 12/31)

Kaiser Health News: Up To A Third Of Knee Replacements Pack Pain And Regret
Danette Lake thought surgery would relieve the pain in her knees. The arthritis pain began as a dull ache in her early 40s, brought on largely by the pressure of unwanted weight. Lake managed to lose 200 pounds through dieting and exercise, but the pain in her knees persisted. (Szabo, 12/25)

The Wall Street Journal: The Science Behind Making Your Child Smarter
What parents wouldn’t want to give their children the ability to get good grades and excel at work? Those benefits are linked in research to a high IQ. Dozens of recent studies shed new light on the extent to which parents can—and cannot—help their children score higher on that popular and widely used measure of intelligence. (Shellenbarger, 12/24)

NPR: How To Quell A Kid's Fear Of Doctors And Shots
Like many kids, Lisa Sparrell's daughter never liked getting shots at the doctor's office. "At first she'd cry some, but was quickly placated with rewards like a lollipop or a sticker," says Sparrell, who lives in Honolulu. But last year, Sparrell's 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a heart defect. In preparation for surgery, the little girl's trips to the doctor sharply increased –and so did her anxiety. (Fraga, 12/29)

Stat: A New Treatment May Help People Who Are 'Allergic' To The Sun
Jennifer Beck had learned to cope with her disability. She’d park close to buildings to limit her sun exposure. She’d avoid bright patches of sunlight, even indoors. She’d wear long sleeves on hot summer days. “Yes, I know it’s hot,” she would respond to people who thought it was funny to comment. (Weintraub, 1/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Rush To Offer New Stroke Treatment
Jacques Hayes, a Detroit-area construction worker, recently fell in his apartment. A visitor heard the thud in the next room, then saw Mr. Hayes struggle to walk and talk, falling a second time. So the friend called 911. Mr. Hayes was fortunate to be taken to Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital, which is among a quickly growing number of U.S. hospitals offering a revolutionary stroke procedure known as a thrombectomy, in which a blood clot is quickly removed before a patient suffers lasting damage or death. (Burton, 12/26)

The Associated Press: Was That A Bed Bug On My Couch? This App Has The Answer
Just the thought of a bed bug infestation is enough to make you start scratching and tossing out furniture. A new app created by a researcher at Ohio State University has the answers and information on what to do next. The app funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set up as one-stop information source for everything bed bugs. There are guides for identifying and getting rid of them along with tips for travelers. (Seewer, 12/30)

NPR: Is A Backpack As Good As A Parachute When Jumping Out Of A Plane?
Research published in a major medical journal concludes that a parachute is no more effective than an empty backpack at protecting you from harm if you have to jump from an aircraft. But before you leap to any rash conclusions, you had better hear the whole story. The gold standard for medical research is a study that randomly assigns volunteers to try an intervention or to go without one and be part of a control group. (Harris, 12/22)

NPR: Cute Aggression: Adorableness Overload Can Lead To Violent Urges
The holiday season is all about cute. You've got those ads with adorable children and those movies about baby animals with big eyes. But when people encounter too much cuteness, the result can be something scientists call "cute aggression." (Hamilton, 12/31)

The Associated Press: Kansas Judge Rules Telemedicine Abortions Can Continue
A judge ruled Monday that Kansas cannot stop telemedicine abortions, thwarting the latest attempt by state lawmakers to prevent doctors from providing pregnancy-ending pills to women they see by remote video conferences. District Judge Franklin Theis ruled that a law barring telemedicine abortions and set to take effect in January has no legal force. During an earlier hearing, Theis derided the law as an "air ball" because of how lawmakers wrote it. (12/31)

Kansas City Star: Kansas Judge Rules Telemedicine Abortions Can Continue
That law was challenged in a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Trust Women Wichita, which operates a clinic that performs abortions and provides other health care services. ...The center argues that banning telemedicine abortions violates the state constitution by placing an undue burden on women seeking abortions and singling out abortion for special treatment when state policies intend to encourage telemedicine. Kansas has no clinics that provide abortions outside Wichita and the Kansas City area. (Hanna, 1/1)

The Associated Press: Heartbeat Abortion Bill Veto Survives Day Of Ohio Overrides
Statehouse Republicans in Ohio came up a single vote shy Thursday of reversing a same-party governor's veto and imposing one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. The outcome marked a victory for outgoing Republican Gov. John Kasich, a prospective 2020 presidential contender who has vetoed the so-called heartbeat bill twice in as many years. Kasich argued in a veto message last week that the law would be declared unconstitutional, but only after saddling the state with a costly court battle. (12/27)

The New York Times: Long-Acting Contraceptives Gaining Acceptance Among U.S. Women
Almost two-thirds of women of childbearing age in the United States use contraceptives, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost all American women turn to contraception at some point in their lives. But at any given time, many may not be using it for various reasons: because they are pregnant or trying to be, for example, or are not sexually active. (Bakalar, 12/21)

The Washington Post: Washington Bans Anyone Under 21 From Buying Assault Rifles
Washington on Tuesday joined a handful of other states that ban anyone under 21 from buying a semi-automatic assault rifle after voters passed a sweeping firearms measure in November that has drawn a court challenge from gun-rights advocates. The ballot initiative seeks to curb gun violence by toughening background checks for people buying assault rifles, increasing the age limit to buy those firearms and requiring the safe storage of all guns. Only the age-limit portion of the measure goes into effect on Jan. 1; the rest becomes law on July 1. (Bellisle, 1/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Cigarette Sales Ban At Pharmacies To Start In New Year
New Yorkers won’t be able to pick up a pack of cigarettes with their prescriptions in 2019. Starting Jan. 1, pharmacies and businesses that contain pharmacies, such as supermarkets and big-box stores, will be banned from selling cigarettes or other tobacco products in New York City. The change will affect about 500 pharmacies currently selling tobacco products and reduce the total number of retailers licensed to sell tobacco by about 6.4%, according to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (West and King, 12/29)

Chicago Tribune: Do You Have Dense Breast Tissue? New Illinois Law Will Require Doctors To Tell You After Mammograms. 
About half of all women have dense breast tissue — which can hide cancer on mammograms and is associated with a higher risk of the disease — but many Illinois women with the trait might not know it. That, however, is about to change. Starting in January, a new state law will require doctors to tell patients, after mammograms, if they have dense breast tissue and warn women of the implications. For years, mammogram reports have contained information on breast density, but often in language that patients might not understand, and not all patients had access to the official reports. (Schencker, 12/28)

The Washington Post: New Health Insurance Laws In Maryland Taking Effect
New laws in Maryland will require insurers to provide benefits for patients with certain health conditions, including high blood sugar levels that pose a risk for diabetes as well as a particular kind of chronic swelling. One law taking effect Tuesday expands coverage for equipment, supplies and self-management training to apply to elevated or impaired glucose levels caused by prediabetes. (Witte, 12/31)

Denver Post: Colorado Lawmakers Want Public Health Insurance Option
Two Democratic state lawmakers want to give Coloradans, especially those in rural areas who face some of the highest health care costs in the country, an insurance option not available anywhere else in the nation. State Rep. Dylan Roberts and Sen. Kerry Donovan, who represent mountain communities along Interstate 70, plan to introduce a pair of bills on the first day of the 2019 legislative session that would direct the state to create a public health insurance option. (Garcia and Seaman, 12/28)

Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom’s First Hires Suggest Big Health Care Plans
Gavin Newsom might not be able to accomplish his ambitious campaign goal of bringing government-funded universal health care to California, but his first hires suggest he’s planning something big. Incoming chief of staff Ann O’Leary helped develop the Children’s Health Insurance Program when she worked in the Bill Clinton White House. (Bollag, 1/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Tobacco Law’s Impact On Hookah Bars Is Cloudy — Even Though They’re Legal
Pride of the Mediterranean switched to a nicotine-free smoking medium long before Tuesday, when San Francisco will begin enforcing the ban on flavored nicotine products that voters passed in June 2018.The ban, aimed at cutting off teenagers from the lure of candy-flavored e-cigarettes, has inadvertently swept up San Francisco’s hookah bars, most of which are alcohol-free spaces where adults can socialize. (Kauffman, 1/1)

Los Angeles Times: Gov.-Elect Gavin Newsom Will Propose Almost $2 Billion For Early Childhood Programs
Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost California’s enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsom’s plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he submits to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elect’s transition team said Tuesday. (Myers, 1/2)

The Hill: More Than 3,000 Patients In New Jersey Possibly Exposed To HIV, Hepatitis 
Thousands of patients at a New Jersey ambulatory surgery center were possibly exposed to infections such as HIV and hepatitis, according to the state's Department of Health. NBC News reports that the HealthPlus Surgery Center in Saddle Brook, N.J., was shut down by the state's health agency after staffers were found to not be practicing proper infection control procedures. (Bowden, 12/26)

Reuters: New Jersey Clinic Sued After HIV Infection Warning
A former patient has filed the first lawsuit against a New Jersey surgery center that may have exposed nearly 3,800 patients to HIV and hepatitis due to poor sterilization and medication practices. The HealthPlus Surgery Center in Saddle Brook recently told the patients that a state probe of its facilities found "lapses in infection control" and "the injection of medications" could have exposed them to the diseases. (12/29)

Modern Healthcare: OhioHealth's Plan To Provide High-Touch Primary Care For Seniors
OhioHealth leaders needed a dramatically different approach to care for lower-income seniors with little access to quality primary-care providers. Too many patients with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart failure were coming into their system's emergency departments and hospitals. The not-for-profit system's leaders wanted a more proactive primary-care model that focused on keeping these patients healthier, even if that initially cut into hospital revenue. The idea was to use multidisciplinary primary-care teams that spent a lot of time with high-risk patients. (Meyer, 1/1)

The Washington Post: Shortage Of Home Nurses In Va. And Md. Due To Low Pay Is Forcing Family Members To Step In
Laurie Baturin, a substitute teacher in Hagerstown, Md., stays up two nights a week, watching to make sure her son stays stable till morning. Alex, 16, a quadriplegic with severe cerebral palsy, has been receiving home nursing care since he was 3. He has a feeding tube and needs to be catheterized every four hours and constantly monitored for seizures. He is qualified through Medicaid to receive nursing care seven nights a week and on school days. (Bahrampour, 12/28)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Most Louisiana Nursing Homes Face Penalties Under New Medicare Rules
The majority of Louisiana nursing homes will face financial penalties under a new Medicare program that aims to improve quality of care and lower the number of elderly patients repeatedly readmitted to hospitals. The program, which kicked off Oct. 1, will penalize about 85 percent of Louisiana’s 277 skilled nursing facilities by as much as 2 percent of their individual Medicare reimbursement rate per patient, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of Medicare data. The review found the same rate of nursing facilities in Mississippi and Arkansas will also be penalized. (Clark, 12/26)

Arizona Republic: Maricopa County Finishes Off Record-Breaking Year Of Police Shootings
Police shootings were a regular occurrence in Maricopa County in 2018, the last one occurring late Monday afternoon. There were 82 shootings involving law enforcement in Arizona's most populous county — nearly double the 44 shootings in 2017. Phoenix police were responsible for more than half. (Burkitt, 1/1)

Boston Globe: Employer Group Balks At Fees To Prop Up MassHealth
A prominent Massachusetts business group is calling for an immediate end to new fees that cost employers across the state $300 million last year, noting that Beacon Hill failed to follow through on its part of a bargain to tame the rising costs of the state Medicaid program. Governor Charlie Baker proposed the fees and legislators approved them in 2017, requiring employers, over two years, to contribute more toward the costs of the state program that provides health coverage for poor and low-income residents. (Dayal McCluskey, 1/2)

The Oregonian: Class-Action Suit Alleges Legacy Health Failed To Pay Nursing Staff For Hours Worked 
Legacy Health hasn’t paid its nursing staff for all hours worked, including overtime, improperly deducted money from their wages and denied them meal and rest breaks as required by law, according to a new class-action suit filed in federal court. Legacy’s hospitals have failed to compensate non-exempt employees for work during meal breaks and for work performed while “off-the-clock,’’ the suit alleges. (Bernstein, 12/27)

Los Angeles Times: Utility May Have Violated Probation For Its Role In Deadly California Wildfires, Federal Prosecutors Say
Federal prosecutors said Pacific Gas & Electric Co. may have violated the terms of its probation in a 2010 criminal case for its role in igniting deadly wildfires that ravaged Northern California’s wine country last year. In a court filing Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office said state investigators found evidence that the utility violated state law in 11 fires — including the Atlas fire that killed six people — that broke out in October 2017. (Tchekmedyian, 1/1)

NPR: Nuclear Testing's Lasting Legacy For Oklahomans From The Marshall Islands
The prairie town of Enid, Okla. — population 50,122 — is best known as the state's "wheat capital." Enid is also home to a community of around 2,000 people who were born in the Marshall Islands. Most are low-income and struggling to get health care. After World War II and until the 1980s, their homeland in the Central Pacific was a U.S.-administered territory, and for a part of that time, Americans used some islands in the region as a bombing range for testing nuclear weapons. Partly because of that history, a treaty now allows Marshallese to live and work in the U.S, as "indefinite legal residents." (Craig and Westerman, 12/25)

The Oregonian: Zoom Care Names New CEO Days After Acquisition By PeaceHealth
Days after PeaceHealth announced it would buy Portland health clinic startup Zoom Care, the company has a new CEO. Bill Frerichs will move from senior vice-president of retail health to CEO at the start of the new year. Dave Sanders, the charismatic co-founder of Zoom Care, will step down. A spokesman for Zoom said that Sanders will have no other role with the company after that point. Frerichs has been a vice president with Zoom since 2016. Before that, he was vice president of store operations at Target. (Harbarger, 12/21)

The New York Times: ‘A Pumping Conspiracy’: Why Workers Smuggled Breast Pumps Into Prison
At 3 a.m. on a frigid night in January 2017, Susan Van Son, a nurse at the Deerfield Correctional Center in southeastern Virginia, left the prison’s medical department and walked through a series of eight locked doors. At a security checkpoint, she made sure that the normal guards — the ones known for breezily waving employees through the metal detectors — were on duty. Then, risking her livelihood, she headed to the prison’s parking lot. (Kitroeff, 12/31)

Dallas Morning News: Arlington Mental Hospital Closes Amid Criminal Case Alleging It Held Patients Against Their Will 
An Arlington mental health hospital indicted on charges of holding patients illegally will shut down and is no longer taking patients, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported. Sundance Behavioral Healthcare System had been indicted on 20 counts of violating state mental health codes, most of them involving holding patients against their will. Attorneys representing Sundance, officially SAS Healthcare Inc., had maintained that the case was an instance of "unprecedented overreach" that would have major consequences. They argued that detention of the mentally ill was sometimes necessary for their own and others' protection. (Ramirez, 12/21)

Dallas Morning News: Medical Researchers Fear Wider Spread Of Paralysis Linked To Mysterious Polio-Like Virus
Medical researchers fear that more children will develop paralysis from a mysterious polio-like illness that has struck every two years since 2014. The condition, known as acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, is rare and has reached its peak for 2018. It will likely continue to fade as winter approaches. But many believe it will be back. ...Texas has reported 27 cases in 2018, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, including five in Tarrant County, three in Collin County and two in Dallas. (Kuchment, 12/21)

Nashville Tennessean: TennCare Payment Freeze Means Tennessee Rural Health Clinics Struggle
Extra TennCare payments promised to Servolution — and about 20 other rural health clinics that have opened within the past 15 months — have been frozen while the state works out new payment rules. ... National and state health care organizations, including the Tennessee Hospital Association, have asked the state to immediately end its moratorium on payments. In letters and in person at a November meeting, they told TennCare officials many clinics are in imminent danger of closing — compounding an already acute crisis in rural Tennessee where many hospitals have shut down. (Wadhwani, 12/27)

Dallas Morning News: Groceries And Therapy, Too? New Mental Health Clinic Opens In A Walmart Store In Carrollton 
Milk, paper towels, T-shirts — and therapy? Dallas area residents can now drop by a Walmart store in Carrollton to meet with a mental health professional. The new concept — started by Boston-based Beacon Health Options — aims to make mental health care more convenient and approachable by opening clinics in high-traffic locations like retailers. The company rented a space in the store and began offering therapy there in November. (Repko, 12/30)

The Washington Post: U.S. Health-Care Worker With Possible Exposure To Ebola Evacuated To Nebraska
An American health worker who was possibly exposed to Ebola while treating patients in Congo was evacuated to the United States on Saturday and placed in a secure area at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, hospital officials said. The person has no symptoms of the deadly hemorrhagic fever and is not contagious, but will be monitored closely for up to two weeks, hospital officials said. (Sun, 12/29)

The Star Tribune: Heavy Drinking, Lack Of Vaccinations Hurt State's Health Ranking 
Minnesota’s longstanding reputation as one of the healthiest states has taken a hit in recent years, and now the state has fallen to seventh place in a widely watched national ranking — its lowest spot in the survey’s 29 years. Although many strengths keep Minnesota in the top 10, America’s Health Rankings cited excessive drinking, a low childhood immunization rate and increases in obesity and infant mortality as troubling indicators. (Howatt, 12/30)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Eighth Cuyahoga County Jail Inmate Dies
A Cuyahoga County jail inmate died Sunday night at a hospital after hanging himself in his cell, marking the eighth death of a jail inmate in 2018. Brenden Kiekisz, 27, died at the hospital at about 10 p.m. Sunday, according to his brother, Brett Kiekisz. He had been on life-support for three days after being found Thursday night hanging in his cell. (Astolfi, 1/1)

The Hill: Ohio Doctor Fired By Hospital After Saying She Would Give Jews 'the Wrong Meds'
A hospital in Cleveland reportedly fired a resident after it was discovered she had been sharing anti-Semitic comments on social media. Cleveland.com reported on Sunday that the Cleveland Clinic confirmed that Lara Kollab is no longer working with the organization after having only worked as a supervised resident with the clinic from July to September last year. (Folley, 1/1)

Ventura County Star: $43 Million Cleared For Ventura County Reserves, Special Projects
Ventura County has notched the biggest year-end balance in five years in a general fund budget that pays for key services, finishing with $43 million at the end of the last fiscal year in June. ...About $10 million of the $43 million balance materialized because state payments for mental health care delivered years ago finally arrived. The county Behavioral Health Department was owed the money for counseling of schoolchildren whose learning is inhibited by attention, emotional and other disorders. (Wilson, 1/1)

Seattle Times: You’re Homeless, But You Have To Leave The Hospital. Where Do You Go? 
As homelessness continues to rise in Washington, patients like [Edward] Thomas present a worsening problem for public hospitals. Hospitals are required by federal law to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay, but many chronically homeless people have overlapping medical and mental struggles that make them ethically difficult to discharge. The problem is serious enough that Washington State Hospital Association convened a work group from area hospitals: They found that in Western Washington during summer 2018, there were 200 homeless patients who spent an average of 82 days in the hospital after they no longer needed acute inpatient care. (Greenstone, 12/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia's Officer-Involved Shootings Were More Deadly In 2018
Georgia law enforcement officers were involved in 53 fatal shootings in 2018, a large jump from recent years, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The number, which included four cases where officers died after being shot, was up 77 percent from 2017, when 30 officer-involved shootings involved deaths. It’s unclear what made shootings so much more deadly in 2018, but drug abuse and mental illness are two factors authorities have cited behind some of the deaths. (Sharpe, 1/1)

Tampa Bay Times: The Tampa Bay Area Is Home To One Of The Nation's Largest Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Populations. Advocates Wonder Why It Isn't More Accessible.
There are hundreds of thousands of people who are deaf or hard of hearing who live in the Tampa Bay area, and Littlewood, is one of them. For this community, the ability to communicate with 911 in real time could one day mean the difference between life or death. (Wilson, 1/2)

Pioneer Press: Changing How We Die: Hospice Care Surges In Minnesota 
Hospice patients have tripled since 2000, and today they account for more than half of all deaths in Minnesota. They are part of a revolution in the way people die, according to Cordt Kassner, CEO of the consulting company Hospice Analytics in Colorado Springs, Colo. ...Minnesota’s hospice population spiked to 19,253 in 2016, the latest year for which statistics are available. This includes people getting care in their homes, as well as those living in hospice centers. (Shaw, 12/31)

KCUR: Federal Government Sues Lenexa Chiropractic Clinic For Medicare Fraud 
A Lenexa chiropractic clinic and its two owner-operators are being sued by the federal government for defrauding Medicare. The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, names Kansas City Health & Wellness Clinic, Ryan Schell and Tyler Schell. It seeks triple damages under the federal False Claims Act. The lawsuit alleges the Schells, who are brothers, billed Medicare for peripheral neuropathy treatments that are not covered by the program and for treatments they did not provide at all.  (Margolies, 12/24)

Concord Monitor: Concord Girl’s Wrongful Death Suit Settled
A wrongful death lawsuit involving 13-year-old Molly Banzhoff has been settled. Hillsborough County Superior Court records show Concord Hospital settled with the girl’s family in mid-October. She died of complications from an undetected brain tumor in the spring of 2016. The settlement is sealed. Concord Hospital spokesperson Jennifer Dearborn said in an email that the settlement includes a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement that prohibits both sides from talking about the settlement. (Andrews, 12/29)

Denver Post: Colorado Supply Of Shingles Vaccine Low Amid National Shortage
Coloradans needing the shingles vaccine are having difficulty getting the two-dose shot as a national shortage has left health providers in the state in short supply. The vaccine, called Shingrix, is in such high demand that the company behind it has placed order limits on it and health systems are facing shipping delays — both of which are expected to continue in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Seaman, 12/28)

The Hill: 2020 Dems Go On Offense Over Drug Prices 
Potential 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are rolling out a slew of plans to lower prescription drug prices, highlighting the importance the issue will hold in the coming campaigns. Just in the past two weeks, Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have unveiled new drug pricing plans. Democrats see lowering drug prices as a way to harness populist anger at pharmaceutical companies and reclaim an issue that President Trump has put in the spotlight. (Sullivan, 12/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Raise Prices On Hundreds Of Medicines
Pharmaceutical companies are ringing in the new year by raising the price of hundreds of drugs, with Allergan PLC setting the pace with increases of nearly 10% on more than two dozen products, according to a new analysis.Many companies’ increases are relatively modest this year, amid growing public and political pressure on the industry over prices. Yet a few are particularly high, including on some generics, the cheaper alternative to branded accounting for nine out of 10 prescriptions filled in the U.S. Overall, price increases, including recently restored price increases from Pfizer Inc., continue to exceed inflation. (Hopkins, 1/1)

Morning Consult: As Drug Prices Soar, Policymakers Eye Dose Of Government Intervention
A Republican-led White House and Senate, a Democratic House majority and the American public usually have their eyes on different health-related priorities — but heading into 2019, all sights are set squarely on the rising cost of prescription drugs. While pharmaceutical companies turn staggering profits, Americans often face higher prices for their medications compared to patients abroad. The cost of prescription drugs has become a critical issue for voters, driving people to the polls during the midterm elections and unveiling a rare opportunity for bipartisanship. (Murad, 12/20)

Stat: 3 State Legislative Battles To Watch In 2019
Drug pricing is on the agenda here in 2019. But with Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats controlling the House — and neither party fully on board with the White House’s work on drug pricing — the next two years are unlikely to be an era of wholesale change for the country’s health care system or how prescription medicines are priced. Congress could find some low-hanging fruit to address, to be sure, and the Trump administration could continue with a series of proposals to lower patient costs and government spending on drugs. (Facher, 12/28)

Stat: The Inside Story Of PhRMA's Biggest Lobbying Loss In Years
The drug industry’s storied lobbying group isn’t accustomed to bad news — and with its small army of well connected advocates, it’s even less familiar with surprises. For PhRMA, the news last winter was both. On Feb. 7, the group’s board — made up of dozens of the CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi — was gathered for a meeting to welcome its new chairman. Suddenly, the gathered crew had something far more threatening to discuss: Congress had just laid out a plan to force drugmakers to pay far more into Medicare — a policy change none of pharma’s lobbyists had seen coming. (Florko, 1/2)

Axios: Why The Spotlight On Generic Drug Prices Is Getting Brighter
Generic drugs are America's solution to high branded drug prices, but recent events have raised the question of whether the generics market is working the way it's supposed to. (Owens, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Two Big Pharma Stocks Were Dow's Best, But 2019 Looks Shakier
In a year where U.S. stock-market indexes rallied to records and then reeled back amid concerns over an international trade war, pharmaceutical giants Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc. were kings of the Dow. The drugmakers rose along with the rest of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in a summer rally, then outlasted the market’s autumn decline. Through Friday, the pair were the top performers in the 30-stock Dow. On the broader S&P 500 Index, another big drug company, Eli Lilly & Co., was among the 20 largest gainers. (Lipschultz, 12/31)

Stat: Crash And Burn: Why Three Biotechs Failed In 2018
There is an appointed time for everything — including in biotech. There is a time to start a company, a time to wind it down, a time to go public, and a time to delist the stock. For every hopeful biotech toiling for decades before finally realizing a profit, there are countless others that run out of money or bet on a product that never delivers. (Sheridan, 12/24)

Stat: Two High-Priced Drugs For Spinal Muscular Atrophy Called Not Cost Effective
A pair of new medicines designed to treat spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and often fatal genetic disease affecting muscle strength and movement, may be beneficial but appear to be priced too high to be considered cost effective, according to a preliminary analysis. One drug, which is called Spinraza, costs $750,000 during the first year of treatment and $375,000 thereafter. (Silverman, 12/20)

Bloomberg: China To Expand New Drug-Buying Plan To More Cities, Medicines
China is pushing ahead with a campaign to slash generic drug prices that has wiped out $46 billion in value from pharmaceutical companies since it was launched earlier this month. The government will expand a central procurement program to more regions and more drugs, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said at a meeting of the National People’s Congress standing committee, according to China Business News. The initiative was first launched Dec. 6 with 11 major cities and 31 drugs. (12/28)

Stat: Canada Ends Probe Of Drug Makers Accused Of Thwarting Generic Rivals
Following a two-year probe, Canadian authorities have decided there was insufficient evidence that three large drug makers tried to thwart generic rivals by blocking access to samples of their medicine, an issue that has caused controversy in the U.S., as well. Generic drug makers are required to run tests proving their low-cost alternatives act similarly as the brand-name medicines, but samples are needed to prove their case. (Silverman, 12/21)

Bloomberg: Pharma’s 2019 Outlook, From Drug Prices To Fish-Oil Frenzy
For the biopharma industry, 2018 was a year marked by generally robust profits and a handful of superlatives. These include Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s $62 billion bid for Shire Plc — the biggest announced drug deal in more than a decade — as well as a record number of approvals of new and generic medicines by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the most aggressive drug-pricing proposal to ever emerge from a Republican administration. No promises on another megadeal in 2019, but I can guarantee that drug pricing will still be a thing. (Max Nisen, 2/27)

Stat: Delivering New Gene Therapy To Patients Almost As Hard As Making It
After a career spent in pharmaceutical commercial strategy and operations, I thought I had a handle on what was required to launch a new therapy. But I’ve learned many lessons — and faced a few curveballs — in the 12 months since the FDA approved Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec), a one-time gene therapy for the treatment of patients with vision loss due to inherited retinal dystrophy caused by confirmed biallelic RPE65 mutations and who have sufficient viable retinal cells. (Ron Philip, 12/19)

Bloomberg: China's Drug Market Is No Longer A Free Lunch
There may be such a thing as a free lunch in China's pharmaceutical industry. It turns out it's not an unlimited buffet, though. For years, the country's largest drugmakers have happily sold low-cost generic medicines yielding gross margins of 80 percent to 90 percent without giving much thought to consumer protection or innovation. It’s not uncommon for pharma companies to spend one-third of their revenue on sales and marketing, while shelling out peanuts on research and development of new drugs. (Shuli Ren, 1/1)

The Hill: Pharmacy Benefit Managers Can Still Game The System Despite Senate Attempt To Close Medicaid Loophole 
On Dec. 4, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced new legislation to ensure that drug companies play by the rules of the Medicaid program. The bill is aimed at preventing drug companies from overcharging Medicaid, a practice that has been consistently costing taxpayers billions of dollars. While the legislation is an excellent indicator of future bipartisan cooperation on the issue of prescription drug affordability, much more needs to be done. (Robert Levin, 12/27)

Stat: Here's A Cheat Sheet For What To Watch In Biotech In 2019
It’s that time of year again. I’m speaking, of course, of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Starting Monday, management teams from hundreds of biotech and pharma companies will file into the Westin St. Francis Hotel on the western side of San Francisco’s Union Square. Over four days, these executives will stride up to podiums in conference rooms large and small to pitch their company’s investment story to crowds of Wall Street investors sitting in uncomfortably close quarters. (Adam Feuerstein, 1/2)

The New York Times: Will The Supreme Court Save Obamacare Again?
The last time Chief Justice John Roberts took it upon himself to write the opinion fending off a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, he seemed to signal that he was done entertaining existential threats to the law.“In a democracy, the power to make the law rests with those chosen by the people,” he wrote in King v. Burwell in 2015. “Our role is more confined — to say what the law is. That is easier in some cases than in others. But in every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done.” (12/28)

Boston Globe: Democrats Can Fix The Affordable Care Act
Federal District Judge Reed O’Connor’s determination last Friday overturning the entire Affordable Care Act won’t actually affect much — unless it is upheld at the Supreme Court, probably not until 2020 — but it ought to spark a substantive legislative response from House Democrats. President Trump was quick to gloat and to invite Democrats to negotiate a replacement. (Jon Kingsdale, 12/20)

The New York Times: Did This Health Care Policy Do Harm?
No patient leaves the hospital hoping to return soon. But a decade ago, one in five Medicare patients who were hospitalized for common conditions ended up back in the hospital within 30 days. Because roughly half of those cases were thought to be preventable, reducing hospital readmissions was seen by policymakers as a rare opportunity to improve the quality of care while reducing costs. (Rishi K. Wadhera, Karen E. Joynt Maddox and Robert W. Yeh, 12/21)

The New York Times: Kamala Harris: Everyone Gets Sick. And We Deserve Better. 
In 2008, our mother asked my sister, Maya, and me to meet her for lunch. When we arrived, our mother didn’t seem like herself. We wondered what was going on. Then she took a deep breath and reached out to us both across the table.“I’ve been diagnosed with colon cancer,” she told us.I know that many can relate to the emotions I felt in that moment. Even just reflecting back on it now fills me with dread. It was one of the worst days of my life. (Sen. Kamala Harris, 12/29)

The New York Times: Misconceptions About Health Costs When You’re Older
Some significant expenses decline as we age: Most mortgages are eventually paid off, and ideally children grow up and become self-supporting. But health care is one area in which costs are almost certain to rise. After all, one of the original justifications for Medicare — which kicks in at age 65 — is that older people have much higher health care needs and expenses. (Austin Frakt, 12/24)

Los Angeles Times: Congress Should Ensure That Aid To Black Lung Sufferers Is There When They Need It
Although the future of American electricity production will center on renewable sources, such as solar and wind, coal still fuels the plants generating about 30% of the power that lights and cools our homes, runs factory machinery and keeps computers like the ones used to produce this editorial working. This coal-fired energy pathway begins, often, under the Appalachian Mountains, where generations of miners have hewed the black rock from subterranean seams. It’s dangerous work, and not just because of rockfalls, explosions and methane leaks. The coal and silica dust kicked up in the process of cutting through coal and stone kills lung tissue in miners who breathe it in. And even as the nation’s reliance on coal has been necessarily declining — it is the worst of the fuel sources for releasing greenhouse gases — the rate of “black lung” diagnoses has increased. (12/27)

The Wall Street Journal: A Second Opinion Becomes A Guilty Verdict
A renowned cardiologist, Richard Paulus spent 21 years treating thousands of patients in eastern Kentucky. King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland even put his name on the front of its heart center. But in 2015 Dr. Paulus was indicted by federal prosecutors, accused of putting stents into the coronary arteries of people the government said didn’t need them. Concerned about the quantity of coronary-stent procedures performed at King’s Daughters, federal prosecutors hired a pair of doctors to review Dr. Paulus’s old cases. In some patients, Dr. Paulus had reported arterial blockages of 60% while the government’s doctors said that the patients’ angiograms—essentially chest X-rays—showed blockage of 30% or less. The government took this as proof that Dr. Paulus had misdiagnosed patients as part of a scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance companies. (Kyle Clark and Andrew George, 12/27)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Good Policy Can Help To Cure Ohio’s Health Ills
Ohio needs a broad-based public health agenda. We can start by requiring legislators to contemplate the health impact of the policies they propose prior to adopting them. Only then will we fully understand the true costs of cutting taxes and the far-reaching benefits of state investments in public programs that promote economic stability and healthy communities. (Amanda Woodrum, 12/30)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Rural Health Care Is In Trouble 
In many rural communities across Texas, the health care delivery systems are on life-support or nonexistent, leaving too many Texans vulnerable with limited or no access to care. In a state as resourceful as Texas, this is unacceptable.Of the 254 counties in Texas, 170 are rural, with nearly 20 percent of the state's population, or more than 3 million people, still residing in what can be considered "rural" areas. (Dan McCoy, 12/31)

Los Angeles Times: Want To Reduce Opioid Use? Nudge The Doctors Who Prescribe Them 
An Orange County doctor was arrested by federal authorities in December on suspicion of illegally prescribing narcotics, “flooding Southern California with huge quantities of opioids,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham is accused of distributing drugs to five people who died of overdoses and a sixth who has been charged in a DUI crash that killed a Costa Mesa fire captain. In addition, the gunman who killed 12 people in Thousand Oaks in November had pills that Pham had prescribed for someone else.Although the allegations against Pham paint a stark picture of extreme negligence and violation of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, most of us doctors have the best of intentions when prescribing medications, including narcotics. However, even when our motivations are pure, the reality is that we still vastly overprescribe opioids. In Los Angeles County, doctors in 2017 wrote 4,266,149 opioid prescriptions. That includes me. (Atul Nakhasi, 1/1)

USA Today: Opioid Fight Shows Glimmers Of Progress
With drug overdoses now America’s leading accidental killer, cities and states have been struggling to find some way — any way — to curb the loss of life. A handful have found flickers of hope. The common thread? A willingness to try unconventional solutions and the fortitude to handle the political heat that often follows. (12/26)

The Hill: Drug Policy Solutions For The New Year
Over the last several years, many journal articles and opinion pieces have been written outlining the steps policymakers should take in the face of increasing rates of overdose deaths and decreasing life expectancy. Having worked on the opioid epidemic first in the Obama administration and now at Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute, I believe there are five basic issues that must underlie any response aimed at curbing overdose death rates. (Regina Labelle, 1/1)

Bloomberg: A Worrying Rise In Gun Suicides In America
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights the growing problem of firearm suicides in the U.S. Since 2008, the rate of gun suicides has risen 22 percent and is driving the increase in gun-related deaths. (Suicides make up almost two-thirds of all gun-related deaths.) Among children and teens in particular, the gun-suicide rate is up more than 76 percent. Although only a small percentage of suicide attempts are made with a firearm, more than half of all suicide deaths are carried out with one. The primary victims are older white men. (12/27)

The Hill: Veteran Suicide Prevention: Journalists And Commentators Have A Role To Play
Last week my Twitter feed filled with separate but intimately intertwined stories: coverage of the GAO report on VA’s failure to spend millions of dollars earmarked for suicide prevention outreach and reports of a veteran who died by suicide at a VA medical center. The first frustrated me deeply, not only as a taxpayer but also as someone both personally and professionally invested in this issue for years. The second left me gravely concerned. (Kayla Williams, 12/30)

Stat: A Dearth Of Physician Innovators Can Derail New Biomedical Startups
The input and direction that practicing physicians can add to biomedical startups is invaluable. Beyond clarifying how a new technology or product might affect the current health care system, their experience in the clinic and with the health care system provides key insights into company strategy, direction, and growth. Physicians often have the answers to essential questions such as: What are the logistical challenges of how health care is delivered? What are the financial incentives for providers? Who “controls” access to patients — and their lab samples — for clinical studies and for patient care? How do we align the interests of providers and patients, so these innovations make sense for both? (Vijay Pande and James L. Madara, 1/2)

The New York Times: The Cost Of Complacency About Roe
It would be easy to assume that unjust abortion restrictions that endanger women’s lives are a problem only in deep red states. But laws that restrict the rights of women exist in even the bluest bastions of the country. They don’t get much attention, and many people might not know they’re even on the books. Until the moment when the law steps between patient and doctor.Erika Christensen and her husband were at her obstetrician’s office on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a few blocks from Central Park, when they were given news that broke their hearts. (1/1)

The New York Times: The Mothers Society Condemns
The statutes granting personhood rights to fetuses are never more pernicious than when they criminalize acts of God. Stomach pains woke Keysheonna Reed late one night last December. She climbed into the bathtub, hoping she would not wake any of the other nine people living in her small home in eastern Arkansas. Within minutes, she’d delivered twins, a boy and a girl. Both babies were born dead, the medical examiner would later determine. Their mother — 24 and already the mother of three — panicked. She found an old purple suitcase, put the bodies inside and got into her car. She “began to pray and just drove,” she said, according to a court affidavit, eventually leaving the suitcase on the side of County Road 602. (12/28)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Raise The Minimum Legal Age For Tobacco To 21
It has been estimated that more than 90 percent of adult smokers develop the habit as a result of lighting up their first cigarette around the age of 18. If the national minimum legal age was raised from 18 to 21, the overall health of the nation would be improved by lowering the incidence of tobacco product use among young adults. (Jenna Lashley, 12/31)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Legalizing Marijuana Won’t Benefit People Of Color
Legalizing marijuana will likely mean the same thing in Pennsylvania it has meant in other states. That is, people of color will get to legally smoke marijuana, but the bulk of the estimated $581 million in annual state marijuana revenue would go to white organizations instead of the black and brown entrepreneurs who made marijuana a multibillion-dollar enterprise. (Solomon Jones, 1/1)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Patients Should Talk With Their Doctor About Medical Marijuana
In November, Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment that will allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients with serious and debilitating illnesses. The initiative was overwhelmingly embraced by Missourians, receiving the most votes of any issue or candidate on the Missouri ballot. And while we are still several months away from Missouri patients being able to officially enroll in the program, now is the time to start discussing this topic with your doctor. (David Yablonsky, 1/1)