Politico: Court Allows House Democrats To Join Obamacare's Defense
A federal appeals court is allowing House Democrats to defend Obamacare in a lawsuit threatening the future of the health care law. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today granted the House’s petition to intervene in the case challenging Obamacare's constitutionality. The court will review a federal judge's December ruling that the entire health care law is invalid after Congress eliminated the penalty for not having health insurance. (Ollstein, 2/14)

The Hill: Federal Court Agrees To Let Democrats Defend ObamaCare In Court 
The House last month asked the court if it could intervene as a defendant alongside 16 Democratic states and the District of Columbia in the lawsuit Republican states brought challenging the law. In December, a federal district court judge in Texas ruled the ACA’s individual mandate was unconstitutional and inseverable from the rest of the statute. Because the Trump administration joined the 20 GOP-led states in attacking the law, the House under Democratic control said it had a right to intervene. (Wheeler and Hellmann, 2/14)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Unlikely To Switch Sides In Obamacare Lawsuit, AG Says
If Wisconsin stays in a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, it likely will not switch sides, the state's attorney general said Thursday. Republican lawmakers have kept Wisconsin in the lawsuit despite opposition from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. (Marley, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Ex-Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper Supports Universal Health Care
John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado who is considering a run for president in 2020, said Thursday he supports universal health care and thinks the U.S. eventually should provide it. But as other Democrats already in the race endorse "Medicare-for-all," Hickenlooper told a crowd at a New Hampshire college that it was more important now to get behind the general idea rather than argue over a specific approach. (Casey, 2/14)

The Hill: Democrats Seek Cosponsors For New 'Medicare For All' Bill 
Two progressive lawmakers are circulating a letter to their Democratic colleagues asking for cosponsors for a Medicare for all bill as they prepare to introduce it. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) sent the letter, which was obtained by The Hill, on Tuesday, saying they have been working with experts for months to write an updated version of the single-payer health care legislation. Jayapal says she plans to introduce the measure later this month. (Sullivan, 2/14)

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ “Medicare-For-All” For Dummies
Republicans are still in charge of the White House and the Senate, but the “Medicare-for-all” debate is in full swing. Democrats of every stripe are pledging support for a number of variations on the theme of expanding health coverage to all Americans. This week, KHN’s “What the Health?” podcast takes a deep dive into the often-confusing Medicare-for-all debate, including its history, prospects and terminology. (2/14)

The Hill: Trump Offers Preview Of Abortion Message Ahead Of 2020
President Trump offered a preview of his message on abortion to activists and supporters in a call Thursday as he plans to make it a focus of his re-election campaign. “He clearly is ready to take this on in the coming presidential election,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. Dannenfelser briefed Trump on the issue at the White House before he participated in a nationwide conference call with activist groups and 4,500 other participants. (Hellmann, 2/14)

CQ: White House Hosts Visit From Anti-Abortion Advocates
“This president is truly pro-life,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, who attended the White House meeting, on a call with reporters. "There has been so much speculation since the primaries whether his heart was true or not. This is a deeply held and sincere conviction." Recent state actions have pushed the conversation about later-stage abortions into the national spotlight. Those actions include enactment of a New York law that would ease restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks of gestation and debate of a Virginia bill that would reduce the number of physicians needed to sign off on an abortion conducted during the third trimester of pregnancy. (Raman, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Kansas' Abortion Uncertainty Fuels Response To New York Law
Kansas abortion opponents are as eager as ever to impose new restrictions but aren't sure of their options because the state's legal climate is uncertain. So in the meantime, they're putting their energy into condemning New York's new law protecting abortion rights. The Kansas Senate adopted a resolution Thursday decrying the New York law as harmful to both "unborn children" and women, sending it to the House, where its approval also is expected. The Senate vote Thursday was 27-13 , reflecting exactly the number of sponsors for the measure, all but one of the chamber's Republicans. (2/14)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Planned Parenthood Sues Over Ohio’s D&E Abortion Ban
Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights supporters have sued over a new state law that bans an abortion method called dilation and evacuation-- the most common method of second-trimester abortions. The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Western Division, a federal court with main offices in Cincinnati. (Hancock, 2/14)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Planned Parenthood Sues To Block Ban On Common Second-Trimester Abortion Procedure
Hoping to block the law from taking effect, Planned Parenthood and Women’s Med Center of Dayton filed a lawsuit on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. The complaint alleges that Ohio's law would violate the due process rights of women seeking abortions. "The (law) would unduly burden women’s constitutional right to choose an abortion by barring D&E, the safest and most common method of abortion beginning at approximately 15 weeks of pregnancy," attorneys wrote in the federal complaint. The proposed law has no exception for rape or incest but does allow for an abortion to save a woman's life. (Balmert, 2/14)

Reuters: U.S. Unveils Plan To Control Some Toxins In Drinking Water, Sets No Limits
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it plans to control a group of toxic chemicals found in Americans' drinking water but stopped short of setting limits until later this year. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Thursday said the agency planned short- and long-term steps to help states exposed to a class of common chemicals called PFAS, used in Teflon and firefighting foam. (Valcovici, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Critics Say EPA Action Plan On Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Falls Short
The manmade chemicals have long been used in consumer products, including water-repellent fabrics, nonstick cookware and grease-resistant paper products, as well as in firefighting foams. Long-term exposures have been associated with health problems that include thyroid disease, weakened immunity, infertility risks and certain cancers. Because PFAS do not break down in the environment, they have become known as “forever chemicals.” (Dennis, 2/14)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Will Study Limits On Cancer-Linked Chemicals. Critics Say The Plan Delays Action.
Environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers criticized the plan, saying it in effect delayed desperately needed regulation on a clear public health threat from chemicals that are commonly used in cookware, pizza boxes, stain repellents and fire retardants. E.P.A. officials described their proposal as the “first-ever nationwide action plan” to address the health effects of human-made chemicals known as poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs. There currently no federal regulations on the production or monitoring of that class of about 5,000 chemicals, which are manufactured and used in a wide variety of industries and products. Studies have shown that they can linger in the human body for years, causing harmful health impacts. (Davenport, 2/14)

Stat: Draft Spending Deal Includes Largest Boost For FDA In Five Years 
A government funding deal released late Wednesday includes $269 million in new funding for the Food and Drug Administration, which would represent the largest increase the agency has seen in at least five years. With that new funding, the FDA would receive $3.08 billion in government funding for fiscal year 2019. Coupled with roughly $2.5 billion in fees from drug, device, and other regulated companies, FDA’s total budget would be $5.67 billion. (Swetlitz and Florko, 2/14)

In other news from the agency —

Stat: Lawmakers Question FDA On Contaminants In Blood Pressure Drugs 
As recalls mount for blood pressure drugs with potential cancer risks, a congressional committee wants the Food and Drug Administration to explain steps taken to contain the issue and, more broadly, to ensure that overseas manufacturers are not jeopardizing the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain. In a letter to the agency, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce expressed specific concerns about the ability to oversee foreign suppliers in the wake of an ongoing probe into a class of medicines known as angiotensin II receptor blockers, notably, valsartan. (Silverman, 2/14)

Reuters: Trump Puts On A Few Pounds, Enters Obese Range: Medical Report
U.S. President Donald Trump has gained weight over the past year and is now in the obese range, although he remains in "very good health overall," according to results of an annual presidential physical examination conducted last week. Trump, known for his love of hamburgers and well-done steaks and an aversion to the gym, was warned by his doctor last year that he needed to change his diet and start to exercise. (2/14)

The New York Times: At 243 Pounds, Trump Tips The Scale Into Obesity
Dr. Conley, a Navy commander and the director of the White House medical unit, reported Mr. Trump’s weight without comment in a memorandum describing some results of the physical that was released by the White House. After a team of 11 specialists examined the president for four hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Dr. Conley said the president was in “very good health” and was expected to remain so “for the remainder of his presidency and beyond,” but did not release any other details. (Karni and Altman, 2/14)

Bloomberg: Trump's Overall Health Good But Weight Qualifies Him As Obese
Conley said Trump’s level of “bad” LDL cholesterol was 122, which is considered “near optimal/above optimal” by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. His total cholesterol was 196, which is considered “desirable,” the agency says. (Wayne, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Doctor Says He Is In Good Health, Despite Gaining Weight
Mariell Jessup, chief science and medical officer of the American Heart Association, said the data released by Trump’s physician show a “lucky” older man with relatively low risk for cardiovascular disease. Jessup plugged the data released by Trump’s physician into the American Heart Association’s risk calculator and found that Trump has a 17 percent chance of developing cardiovascular disease in the next decade. (Olorunnipa and Johnson, 2/14)

Politico: Trump Technically Obese, Despite Doctor's Clean Bill Of Health
Some Trump critics wondered why it took so long, but it often takes days to receive medical test results. The White House nonetheless released the memo on a busy day, shortly after news broke that the president planned to sign a government funding deal and issue a national emergency to ensure the construction of his border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Restuccia, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Has Gained Weight Since Last Year, White House Physician Says
The report by Dr. Conley was less comprehensive than the three-page memo Dr. Jackson issued last year, which in addition to the president’s vital statistics described each of the exams Dr. Jackson had performed and detailed Mr. Trump’s lab results. Dr. Jackson also held a briefing with reporters, in which he said he had administered an extensive cognitive assessment at the president’s request. The assessment yielded a perfect score, Dr. Jackson said. Dr. Conley’s memo said he administered a neurological exam but didn’t say if he administered a cognitive assessment. Dr. Conley didn’t have a briefing with reporters. (Ballhaus, 2/14)

The Associated Press: ICE Halts Force-Feeding Of Immigrant Detainees
The U.S. government has suddenly stopped force-feeding a group of men on a hunger strike inside an El Paso immigration detention center, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday. The dramatic reversal comes as public pressure was mounting on ICE to halt the practice, which involves feeding detainees through nasal tubes against their will. Last week, the United Nations human rights office said the force-feeding of Indian hunger strikers at the facility could violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture. (2/14)

Reuters: First Stop For Migrant Kids: For-Profit Detention Center
For a growing number of migrant children, this is their first home in America: a sprawling campus dotted with beige buildings, massive white tents and metal trailers, next door to a U.S. Air Force base. The federal government is holding nearly 1,600 migrant children here, at what it calls a “temporary influx” shelter. It has added 250 beds in the last two months and could soon house 2,350 children who crossed the nation’s southern border on their own. (Torbati and Cooke, 2/14)

Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Rural Hospitals Are Dying. Welcome To Life In Ducktown
For 62 years, Copper Basin Medical Center, an independently owned hospital with about 25 beds, served Ducktown, Copperhill and the other old mining communities of Polk County, which is home to 17,000 people in Tennessee’s southeastern corner. But mounting debt pushed Copper Basin to close its doors for the final time 16 months ago, becoming one of the growing number of casualties in an ongoing struggle to maintain rural hospitals throughout the state and the nation as a whole. As health care has become more expensive and health insurance lags, many rural hospitals have been unable to pay their bills, forcing them to shrink or close, creating health care deserts in poor, far-flung towns where residents are often the most vulnerable. (Kelman, 2/14)

KCUR: A Rural Kansas Hospital Owned By A Kansas City-Based Company Closes Abruptly 
Oswego Community Hospital, a 12-bed critical access hospital in southeast Kansas, abruptly closed down on Thursday, citing insufficient revenue to cover its operating expenses. The hospital’s board released a statement saying the hospital had “weathered low patient volumes; high number of uninsured patients; low reimbursement rates; difficulty in getting payment from private insurance providers; low Medicaid and Medicare rates; and the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.” (Margolies, 2/14)

Kansas City Star: Oswego Hospital Closes After EmpowerHMS Sells To IHealthcare
The hospital board said the 12-bed facility in southeast Kansas closed due to struggles no different than those at other rural hospitals around the country. “We have weathered low patient volumes, high numbers of uninsured patients, low reimbursement rates, difficulty in getting payment from private insurance providers, low Medicaid and Medicare rates, and the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid,” the statement read. “The trickle of low revenue stream we have generated has not been enough to cover payroll, let alone to meet all of the other costly expenses needed to operate and maintain a hospital.” (Marso, 2/14)

In other hospital news —

The Washington Post: Safety At St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital Questioned After Brutal Attack On Nurse
A patient’s brutal attack on a nurse at a D.C. government psychiatric hospital has renewed calls for increased security at the facility, with staff and union representatives saying hospital managers have been slow to respond to repeated requests for safer working conditions. The Jan. 13 incident at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington — disclosed this week at a routine oversight hearing by the D.C. Council’s Health Committee — left a 71-year-old nurse with a badly beaten face and two fractured ribs after a male patient escaped from his restraints and clubbed her repeatedly with a telephone. (Jamison, 2/14)

Modern Healthcare: Quality Of Care Isn't Better At Physician-Employed Hospitals, Study Shows 
Hospitals that employ physicians don't perform any better than other hospitals on certain quality measures, according to a new study. The study, recently in the journal Medical Care Research and Review, also found that hospitals in concentrated markets reported lower patient satisfaction scores. ...To get the results, the study assessed the performance of 4,438 hospitals on 29 quality measures reported on Hospital Compare from 2008 to 2015. The authors found hospitals with employed physicians performed better on just eight of the 29 quality measures and there was no difference in readmission rates between physician-employed hospitals and other hospitals. (Castellucci, 2/13)

Boston Globe: Former CEO Said He Became “Fall Guy” For Insys
Insys Therapeutics, which had profited wildly from the sale of a powerful fentanyl spray known as Subsys, was by then being investigated by federal prosecutors for its marketing practices. Former employees were filing whistle-blower complaints in courthouses nationwide. (Cramer, 2/14)

Bloomberg: Opioid Rap Video Adding To John Kapoor's Woes At Insys Trial
Just over two weeks into the racketeering trial of Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor, a Boston jury has a new item to consider in a catalog of dubious tactics the company is accused of using to push sales of its opioid drug. Prosecutors played a five-minute in-house rap video extolling the virtues of persuading doctors to prescribe higher doses of the Insys’s liquid opioid, Subsys, and featuring the company’s vice president of marketing Alec Burlakoff in a giant prescription bottle. (Lawrence, 2/13)

In other news on the opioid epidemic —

Kaiser Health News: Discharged, Dismissed: ERs Often Miss Chance To Set Overdose Survivors On ‘Better Path’
The last time heroin landed Marissa Angerer in a Midland, Texas, emergency room — naked and unconscious — was May 2016. But that wasn’t her first drug-related interaction with the health system. Doctors had treated her a number of times before, either for alcohol poisoning or for ailments related to heavy drug use. Though her immediate, acute health issues were addressed in each episode, doctors and nurses never dealt with her underlying illness: addiction. Angerer, now 36 and in recovery, had been battling substance use disorder since she started drinking alcohol at age 16. She moved onto prescription pain medication after she broke her ankle and then eventually to street opiates like heroin and fentanyl. (Bluth, 2/15)

Kaiser Health News: Two Crises In One: As Drug Use Rises, So Does Syphilis
Public health officials grappling with record-high syphilis rates around the nation have pinpointed what appears to be a major risk factor: drug use. “Two major public health issues are colliding,” said Dr. Sarah Kidd, a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead author of a new report issued Thursday on the link between drugs and syphilis. The report shows a large intersection between drug use and syphilis among women and heterosexual men. In those groups, reported use of methamphetamine, heroin and other injection drugs more than doubled from 2013 to 2017. (Gorman, 2/14)

The New York Times: The Instant, Custom, Connected Future Of Medical Devices
When Jeff Dachis suddenly and unexpectedly learned he had Type 1 diabetes at the age of 46 in September 2013, he was stunned. After all, he ran marathons, followed a healthy diet and never had an inkling of any medical troubles during previous annual physicals. “I went to the doctor, got about six minutes with a nurse practitioner, an insulin pen, a prescription and a pat on the back, and I was out the door,” Mr. Dachis said. “I was terrified. I had no idea what this condition was about or how to address it.” Feeling confused and scared, he decided to leverage his expertise in digital marketing, technology and big data analytics to create a company, One Drop, that helps diabetics understand and manage their disease. (Morrissey, 2/14)

The New York Times: They’ve Taken America’s Temperature — And It’s Running High
Americans are suffering through a very bad cold season — but not a terrible flu season, which would be far more threatening, according to the makers of a smart thermometer that accurately tracked last year’s highly lethal flu season. Nearly 1 million American households use Kinsa Health’s internet-connected thermometers and they submit about 40,000 readings a day. This week, about 10 percent more Americans have fevers than did even at the peak of last year, the company said. (McNeil, 2/14)

Kaiser Health News: Glimpsing The Future At Gargantuan Health Tech Showcase
Imagine going to the doctor and finding out before you leave the exam room how much your prescribed drug will cost, avoiding sticker shock at the pharmacy. Or what if you could wear a tiny device at the top of your back that would gently nudge you to sit up straight whenever you slump. How about not having to sign by hand a raft of hospital registration papers — instead, doing it all online — and using a laptop computer during your stay for health education purposes? (Galewitz, 2/15)

The Associated Press: UN: Experts To Develop Oversight Standards For Gene Editing
The World Health Organization is convening an expert meeting next month to develop global standards for the governance and oversight of human gene editing, months after a Chinese researcher rocked the scientific community with his announcement that he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies. In a statement Thursday, the U.N. health agency announced it had chosen an expert panel to examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges linked to gene editing. (2/14)

NPR: WHO Forms Human Gene-Editing Committee To Establish Guidelines
The 18-member committee "will examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges associated with human genome editing," according to the WHO announcement. "The aim will be to advise and make recommendations on appropriate governance mechanisms for human genome editing," the WHO says. The committee's formation was prompted by the disclosure last year by Chinese scientist He Jiankui that he had created the world's first gene-edited babies, twin girls. That sparked international outrage. Scientists, bioethicists and advocates condemned the experiment as unethical and irresponsible. (Stein, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Flu Vaccine Doing A Relatively Good Job This Season
The flu vaccine is doing a relatively good job this season, protecting about half the people who got it, U.S. health officials said Thursday. Preliminary figures suggest the vaccine is 47 percent effective in preventing flu illness severe enough to send someone to the doctor's office. Health officials are generally pleased if a flu vaccine works in 40 to 60 percent of people. (2/14)

Stat: Flu Shots This Winter Providing Moderate Levels Of Protection, Data Show
That means, in rough terms, that for every 10 flu infections in people who were not vaccinated, four or five would have been averted if they’d taken a flu shot. The findings were published in the CDC’s online journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Branswell, 2/14)

The Washington Post: This Year’s Flu Vaccine Is Doing Well, But Deaths Are Still High
Unlike last winter, when flu killed and hospitalized more people in the United States than any seasonal influenza in decades, this season’s flu is considered significantly less harsh, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccine also works better overall than last year and is even more effective — about 61 percent — in children, who are among the groups most vulnerable to flu-related complications. But the vaccine has not provided any measurable protection for older adults, with only an 8 percent reduction in the need for medical attention for flu, according to preliminary estimates. (Sun, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: This Common Flu Virus Is A Growing Threat
Still, H1N1 isn’t benign. The CDC estimates that as many as 186,000 people were hospitalized with the flu from the beginning of October to Feb. 2, and as many as 15,900 died. The flu kills between 12,000 and 56,000 people in the U.S. a year, according to the CDC.Most of the people hospitalized this year had H1N1 flu, the CDC said. “The number of deaths we’re seeing is a little bit surprising,” said CDC epidemiologist Brendan Flannery. “It’s a reminder that flu can be severe.” (McKay and Umlauf, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Darla Shine Tweets False Claims That Childhood Diseases 'Keep You Healthy & Fight Cancer'
Darla Shine, the wife of White House communications director Bill Shine, appears to be tweeting about childhood diseases, claiming that illnesses such as measles, mumps and chickenpox “keep you healthy & fight cancer.” Health experts warn that the claim is not true and adds to misinformation that could cause harm. Darla Shine, who has been known to tweet out stories with anti-vaccination claims, wrote Wednesday on Twitter that “The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids." (Bever, 2/14)

The Hill: White House Communications Director’s Wife Criticizes Vaccines: 'Bring Back Our #ChildHoodDiseases'
“The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids,” Darla Shine wrote on Twitter. “I had the #Measles #Mumps #ChickenPox as a child and so did every kid I knew - Sadly my kids had #MMR so they will never have the life long natural immunity I have. Come breathe on me!” (Gstalter, 2/14)

Bloomberg: Facebook Says It May Remove Anti-Vaccine Recommendations 
Facebook Inc., under pressure to reduce harmful, misleading and fake content, said it is exploring removing anti-vaccine information from software systems that recommend other things to read on its social network. Information discouraging people from getting vaccines for their children, which has gone viral on Facebook, especially in its Groups product, may have contributed to an increase in outbreaks of measles. The crisis drew attention on Thursday from Representative Adam Schiff, who sent a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Google boss Sundar Pichai, asking them to address the problem. (Frier, 2/14)

The Oregonian: Only One New Measles Case In Vancouver-Area Outbreak Over A Week -- But Still Not At The End
There has been only one person newly diagnosed with measles in a week. Clark County Public Health announced Thursday that they have no updates to the count of people with measles. The official count between Oregon and Washington is 58, with the vast majority centered in the Vancouver area. Four people in Oregon and one man in the Seattle area make up the rest. (Harbarger, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Cancer Death Racial Gap Narrows, But Still Higher For Blacks
For a long time, blacks have died of cancer at higher rates than other Americans. But a new report says the gap is narrowing. Nearly 30 years ago, black men had a 47 higher cancer death rate than white men. Now it's 19 percent higher. Black women had a 19 percent greater cancer death rate. Now it's 13 percent greater. (2/14)

The Washington Post: Black-White Cancer Disparities Narrow Sharply Amid Progress Against Common Malignancies
African Americans still have the highest death rate and the lowest survival rate of any racial or ethnic group for most cancers. But the report noted the overall cancer death rate has been dropping faster in blacks than in whites because of bigger declines for three of the four most common cancers — lung, prostate and colorectal. The result: The “excess risk” of cancer death in blacks, compared with whites, fell from 47 percent in 1990 to 19 percent in 2016 for men and from 19 percent to 13 percent for women, according to the study. (McGinley, 2/14)

NPR: Racial Disparities In Cancer Deaths Is Narrowing Between Blacks And Whites
"In 2019, approximately 202,260 new cases of cancer and 73,030 cancer deaths are expected to occur among blacks in the United States," the analysis by ACS investigators notes. But their report also shows that the gap between blacks and whites has closed considerably over the past few decades when it comes to lung, prostate and colorectal cancers. In fact, during the period from 2006 to 2015, overall death rates from cancer declined 2.6 percent per year among black men, compared to 1.6 percent per year among white men. Among women, for that same time period, death rates from cancer declined 1.5 percent per year among blacks compared to 1.3 percent per year among whites. (Neighmond, 2/14)

USA Today: Life After Cancer: Survivors Living Longer, Need More Help
When Susan Leigh finished treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma back in 1972, she says, “no one knew what was going to happen.” Certainly, no one knew that the Arizona woman would develop three more cancers and heart damage, all likely linked to the aggressive radiation and chemotherapy treatments that helped save her life. Those treatments were new at the time. When Leigh finished them, apparently cancer-free, she was a pioneer. (Painter, 2/14)

In other news from the oncology field —

The Washington Post: Breast Surgeons Say All Breast Cancer Patients Should Be Offered Genetic Testing
The nation’s breast surgeons are advising that all patients diagnosed with breast cancer be offered genetic testing to check for inherited mutations, fueling an intense debate about how such tests should be used to prevent and treat disease. The American Society of Breast Surgeons, which sent its recommendations Thursday to its 3,400 members, said it developed the recommendation because current guidelines are too restrictive. (McGinley, 2/14)

The New York Times: Do You Want To Be Pregnant? It’s Not Always A Yes Or No Answer
For decades, researchers and physicians tended to think about pregnancies as either planned or unplanned. But new data reveals that for a significant group of women, their feelings don’t neatly fit into one category or another. As many as one-fifth of women who become pregnant aren’t sure whether they want a baby. This fact may reshape how doctors and policymakers think about family planning. For women who are unsure, it doesn’t seem enough for physicians to counsel them on pregnancy prevention or prenatal care. “In the past we thought of it as binary, you want to be pregnant or not, so you need contraception or a prenatal vitamin,” said Maria Isabel Rodriguez, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Oregon Health and Science University whose research focuses on family planning and contraceptive policy. “But it’s more of a continuum.” (Sanger-Katz and Miller, 2/15)

WBUR: Why Men In Mississippi Are Still Dying Of AIDS, Despite Existing Treatments
President Trump has pledged to eliminate HIV in America by 2030. But in the South, rates of HIV/AIDS among black gay and bisexual men remain stubbornly high. (Shapiro, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Researchers Find Clues That Depression May Speed Brain Aging
Memory and thinking skills naturally slow with age but now scientists are peeking inside living brains to tell if depression might worsen that decline — and finding some worrisome clues. Depression has long been linked to certain cognitive problems, and depression late in life even may be a risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's. Yet how depression might harm cognition isn't clear. (2/14)

The New York Times: Searching Tardigrades For Lifesaving Secrets
There are many instances in medicine when it would be helpful to stop, or greatly slow down, time. Doing so could spare a limb from amputation, prevent paralysis after a stroke or save your life following a heart attack. Across the tree of life, there are many organisms that can essentially cheat time by decelerating their biology. Chief among them is the tardigrade, a creature no bigger than a speck of sand that can survive severe temperatures and pressures, outer space and all sorts of apocalyptic scenarios by entering a dormant state called anhydrobiosis. (Yin, 2/15)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Exercise Performance Is A Good Predictor Of Longevity, Cleveland Clinic Study Shows
Here’s another reason to dust off that New Year’s resolution to exercise more. A person’s physiological age, based on exercise performance, may be a better predictor of longevity than their actual age. That’s the finding from a recent Cleveland Clinic study that developed a tool to calculate a person’s physiological age based on performance during a stress test. (Washington, 2/14)

The CT Mirror: Group Pushes Health Insurance For Undocumented Residents
A Connecticut immigrant advocacy group on Thursday unveiled a measure that would allow residents without legal status to purchase private health insurance, a bill they say would be the first of its kind. ...Organizers for the youth-led statewide organization were joined by lawmakers and other local advocates at a press conference to outline the bill. (Silber, 2/14)

Modern Healthcare: Blue Shield Of Calif. 'Drastically' Underpaid For ER Services, Jury Says 
A federal jury decided Tuesday that insurer Blue Shield of California underpaid a California hospital system for emergency medical services provided to Blue Shield's members. The jury in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco determined that Blue Shield must pay out-of-network NorthBay Healthcare Group 67% of its billed charges since the end of 2016. King & Spalding, the law firm representing NorthBay, estimated that it would recover more than $16 million, but the exact amount has not yet been decided. (Livingston, 2/14)

The CT Mirror: A New Push For A Public Option In Connecticut
The ambitious co-chairs of the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee, Rep. Sean Scanlon of Guilford and Sen. Matt Lesser of Middletown, have been quietly working for months on how to nudge Connecticut into the ranks of blue states exploring a public option for health coverage. The first public glimpse of their work came Wednesday at an informational hearing featuring state and national advocates of returning the state to the forefront of health care reform, an issue at a stalemate in Washington since the election of a president committed to the repeal of Obamacare. (Pazniokas, 2/14)

The New York Times: Transgender Man Awarded $120,000 In Discrimination Case At Iowa Prison
In 2015, Jesse Vroegh, a registered nurse working in an Iowa prison, asked his employers at the state Department of Corrections to allow him to use the men’s restrooms and locker rooms at work because he was transitioning from female to male. But the department denied his requests, citing its concerns about the “rights of the male officers” and saying that transgender issues were “too controversial,” according to a lawsuit. (Hauser, 2/14)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Official Out After Family Planning, Cancer Screening Woes
A top Milwaukee Health Department staffer who oversaw the city's problem-plagued family planning and cancer screening programs has been ousted from the agency. [Tasha] Jenkins, who made about $94,000 per year, was responsible for Milwaukee's family planning and cancer screening programs, both of which struggled last year to provide key services to city residents. (Spicuzza, 2/14)

Chicago Tribune: Some Illinois Home Health Care Workers Get Just Eight Hours Of Training. Is That Enough?
By any measure, home health care is a booming industry that includes a range of workers, such as nurses, certified nursing assistants, aides who provide small amounts of medical care and workers who help with daily tasks of living. In Illinois, the number of home care workers – those providing only minimal medical care or no medical care at home — more than doubled, from 37,420 in 2005 to 81,160 in 2015, according to PHI. It’s the training of those nonmedical workers, who help with bathing, eating and dressing, that has drawn some concern. Illinois requires nonmedical workers employed by agencies to get eight hours of training a year. (Schencker, 2/14)

New Hampshire Public Radio: In Sununu's Budget Address, Health Spending Is Front And Center
One of the most expensive pieces of Sununu’s proposed budget is a $40 million investment to address two long-standing issues with the way the state handles mental health care. The first issue is a practice known as emergency room boarding. (Moon, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Youth Programs Left Wanting By California Marijuana Law
When California voters legalized marijuana, they were promised that part of the tax revenue from pot sales and cultivation would be devoted to programs to teach youth how to avoid substance abuse. But more than a year after the start of sales, there's no money for those programs and questions are looming about how they might operate in the future. (2/14)

Austin American-Statesman: Watchdog Agency Struggles With Sexual Harassment, Racism Complaints
The state agency charged with ferreting out misconduct at the Health and Human Services Commission has been dealing with misconduct within its own ranks. There were 12 civil rights complaint investigations at the Office of Inspector General in 2018 compared to one in 2017 and two in 2016. A high-ranking manager resigned in October after sexually harassing a female employee. A male employee was fired the next month after being accused of being hostile to the same female employee. (Ball, 2/14)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Nursing Home Closure Will Displace About 105 Residents, 160 Lose Jobs
Wellspring of Milwaukee, a nursing home and rehabilitation center in Milwaukee, is closing and has begun the process of transferring its roughly 105 residents to other nursing homes. The closing, which has been approved by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, is tentatively set for April 12, according to a notice filed with the state Department of Workforce Development. (Boulton, 2/14)

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Senate Rejects Attempt To Abolish The Death Penalty
An effort to abolish the death penalty in Wyoming has failed. The Senate voted 18 to12 to defeat a bill that would have changed Wyoming’s maximum punishment to life without parole. (Beck, 2/14)

CALmatters: Frustrated With The Slow Response Of Government, Californians Are Serving Their Homeless Neighbors Themselves
Sidewalk shantytowns are as iconic as palm trees in California these days. Though state and local governments are finally spending big on the homelessness, they’re not moving fast enough. That’s the case argued by a new generation of homeless advocates in California, despite billions of dollars earmarked to address homelessness by state and local governments. (Tinoco, 2/13)

MPR: New Corrections Commissioner: Should "Really Mentally Ill People Be In A Prison?"
[Martin] Horn said [Paul] Schnell is part of a trend in the field: More and more leaders are coming from backgrounds other than corrections — backgrounds like social work and law. But just because those leaders recognize the need to manage mental health issues doesn't make it easy to figure out what to do about them. (Roth, 2/15)

Georgia Health News: Clash Over CON Bill Turns Testy Under Gold Dome
The newly formed House committee on health care access heard from a stream of opponents and supporters of the overhaul of the current certificate of need (CON) apparatus. CON governs the construction and expansion of health care facilities and services. A provider currently must obtain a “certificate of need” to proceed with such a project. (Miller, 2/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Nonprofit Gets Funding To Expand In-School Vision Screenings 
Over the last decade, the Health and Education Alliance of Louisiana, also known as HEAL, has supported schools in New Orleans by providing vision and hearing screenings as well as mental health counseling and expertise in preventative health care for students in need. The program hopes to expand its reach in August. The bulk of HEAL’s work involves screenings to help schools identify students who may be struggling academically because they need a hearing aid or glasses. Up to this point, most of that work has been done in New Orleans and Tangipahoa Parish. (Nobles, 2/14)

The Associated Press: 100 Days After Paradise Burned, The Stories Of The Victims
On that frantic morning, TK Huff was calm. The 71-year-old amputee sat in his wheelchair, pointing a garden hose at what quickly became the deadliest wildfire in California history. Nobody knew at the time, early on Nov. 8, how bad it would be. When his family called at 7:15 a.m., Huff said he would leave. But he never made it out. All around, fires were breaking out, and men and women — most of them elderly, many of them disabled — were doomed: Flames soon overtook 74-year-old Richard Brown’s beloved log cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills. On the edge of neighboring Paradise, a blaze prompted the Feather Canyon Retirement Community to evacuate its residents — all except 88-year-old Julian Binstock, overlooked in the chaos. (Gecker and Har, 2/15)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Officials Hope New Mental Health App Will Appeal To Youth
State health officials launched a new mobile app Thursday that offers free and confidential access to people suffering from mental illness, substance abuse and other issues. The My GCAL app, which works on Apple and Android phones, caters to younger Georgians who are more comfortable sending texts than picking up the phone. (Bluestein, 2/14)

The Oregonian: Douglas County Agrees To Cleaner Jail Cells, Better Medical Care, Access To Showers For Inmates 
Douglas County has agreed to adopt new policies to improve medical care of jail inmates, ensure cells are kept clean and prisoners have access to showers, clean clothes and feminine hygiene products, according to a court settlement. The county also agreed in the settlement to cover $25,000 in attorney costs for the plaintiff, Terri Carlisle, a Roseburg woman who had sued the county and its contracted jail medical provider, alleging mistreatment during her sixth-month stay in jail in 2015 on a conviction for driving under the influence of intoxicants. (Bernstein, 2/14)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Proposed In Georgia
Legislation filed Thursday would allow medical marijuana oil to be sold to patients in Georgia. The proposal calls for medical marijuana dispensaries to serve the state’s rising number of registered patients — more than 8,400 so far. The drug would be legally grown, manufactured, tested, tracked and distributed for the first time if House Bill 324 passes. (Niesse, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Will Republicans Start Winning On Health Care? 
Prices of health care products and services have been rising very slowly in the Trump era. Meanwhile the President’s opponents are embracing increasingly radical plans for the sector. The issue that enabled Democrats to take the House in 2018 may present a challenge for the party in 2020. (James Freeman, 2/14)

Miami Herald: After Parkand, There Were 1,100 Young Gun Deaths In Its Shadow
But a year after the Parkland shooting, U.S. gun-related deaths of children and teens continues, as the Miami Herald/McClatchy/Trace investigation shows. To bring home the enormity of the 1,100 young deaths in 365 days, the report says: “That’s a Parkland every five days, enough victims to fill three ultra-wide Boeing 777s.” (2/14)

Los Angeles Times: As Long As Handguns Are Easily Available, We'll Have Gun Violence
So far, the primary gun-control legislation advancing in Congress is HR 8, which would extend mandatory background checks to almost all gun acquisitions. The bill would require that all gun sales and transfers, including gifts, be processed by registered gun stores, and it would effectively prohibit handgun ownership by those under 21 — the cohort with the highest suicide rate. These are good steps, but are they enough? There is nothing in my background that would prevent me from buying a gun. And though it’s a long time since I was under 21, my cohort has a pretty high suicide rate, too. (Charles Fleming, 2/15)

The Washington Post: I Understand The Vaccine Doubts. Here’s Why My Children Will Get Them Anyway.
Ten states are battling the spread of measles, the contagious and sometimes lethal childhood disease once bested by vaccines. Washington state, in particular, has declared a state of emergency in response to the rising number of measles cases concentrated in Clark County, where childhood vaccination rates lag behind regional averages. Public-health officials have made special entreaties to residents to get themselves and their children vaccinated as the outbreak has spread. But vaccinating after an outbreak has begun is suboptimal, to say the least; ideally, widespread vaccination should prevent flare-ups of disease from gaining traction in the first place. (Elizabeth Bruenig, 2/14)

Stat: Americans Have The Right To Know Their Health Care, Hospital Costs
Americans are prolific shoppers, constantly on the lookout for the best price for top-quality products and services. If you are searching for a new television, it’s easy to find prices and statistics transparently and prominently displayed at just about every store. Yet when it comes to maintaining our health, very few of us ever know price or quality before receiving a health care service. This is true whether it’s a simple visit to the doctor, a cancer screening, or a knee replacement. (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Seema Verma, 2/15)

The Hill: Military Women Need Better Reproductive Care At No Cost
At a recent military conference, an Air Force pilot said that she and her husband, also an Air Force pilot, paid $20,000 to have a family. They call their twins their deployment babies because they used the money they saved from a deployment to pay for in vitro fertilization treatments. This was just one of many similar stories that emerged during a research effort conducted by the Service Women’s Action Network into the reproductive needs of service women and women veterans. Our findings show that military women from all eras have high rates of infertility, yet they receive very little support from the military or the Veterans Health Administration. (Ellen Haring, 2/14)

The New York Times: A Portrait Of Intimate Violence
In a photograph taken in the early 1960s, I’m sitting on the side porch of our rambling Victorian off Hope Street in Providence, with my parents and three sisters and brother. We’d just come home from Sunday school at the First Unitarian Church. We girls are wearing skirts and crisp white blouses, stockings held in place by garters. (Pantyhose, which will shortly arrive on the scene, will seem liberating.) My father and brother have crew cuts and narrow ties; they wear drip-dry polyester shirts — perhaps in genuine Dacron polyester, more likely, some off-brand: with five kids in the family, we pinched pennies. We are smiling, clean, white, well fed, well dressed, cheerful, bright. (Anne Finger, 2/13)

Bloomberg: Health-Care Stocks Defy Market Volatility
Rising demand for health-related products and services, regardless of the economy’s cycle, military conflicts and political firestorms, helps explain why health-care investors can ignore Trump’s daily tweets and his tariffs on trade with Canada, China, Mexico and the EU. They can be confident that aging populations in the U.S. and other countries will keep their money secure. Sixteen percent of the U.S. population was 65 or older in 2018, up from 12.7 percent a decade ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Across the globe, 9.1 percent of the population was 65 or older last year and is projected by the Census to climb to 10.2 percent by 2024, an increase of 2.6 percent since 2009. (Matthew Winkler, 2/15)

Arizona Republic: Hacienda HealthCare Fiasco Could Kill Ducey's #CutTheRedTape Crusade
These aren’t minor incidents that state government can shove under the rug. These are major mistakes with grave consequences that illustrate how bad things can go when those running government go all-out with lax regulations. (Elvia Diaz, 2/14)

Idaho Statesman: Medicaid Expansion In Idaho: Lawmakers Must Uphold The Voters’ Wishes
The people of Idaho have spoken on access to health care through Medicaid expansion.And they will not rest on this issue until they are sure the Legislature respects the will of the voters.On Monday, Feb. 4, Reclaim Idaho brought volunteers from all over the state to the Capitol in Boise to meet with more than 40 lawmakers. Their message was simple: implement Medicaid expansion the way nearly two-thirds of Idahoans voted for it. (Rep. Muffy Davis, 2/14)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Medicaid Eligibility Crackdown Pushes Out Genuinely Needy Missouri Families
Missouri Medicaid rolls have been dropping dramatically lately, a phenomenon that state officials say is due to an improving economy. That would be a nice thing to believe, but advocates for the poor say something else is at work: Many of those leaving the system are being expelled by a state eligibility crackdown that’s ensnaring eligible families. (2/14)