First Edition: August 22, 2019

California Healthline: Shopping Abroad For Cheaper Medication? Here’s What You Need To Know
In its effort to temper the sky-high prices Americans pay for many vital medications, the Trump administration last month unveiled a plan that would legalize the importation of selected prescription drugs from countries where they sell for far less. But the plan addresses imports only at the wholesale level; it is silent about the transactions by millions of Americans who already buy their medications outside the United States. Americans routinely skirt federal law by crossing into Canada and Mexico or tapping online pharmacies abroad to buy prescription medications at a fraction of the price they would pay at home. (Wolfson, 8/22)

Kaiser Health News: Feds Pave The Way To Expand Home Dialysis — But Patients Hit Roadblocks
Home dialysis for older adults will become more common in the years ahead, experts predict — but not without overcoming significant challenges. By 2025, the Trump administration wants 80% of people newly diagnosed with kidney failure to receive home dialysis or kidney transplants, according to an executive order issued in July. Currently, more than 85% of such patients are treated at dialysis centers. (Graham, 8/22)

Reuters: Trump Imposes Rule Allowing U.S. To Detain Migrant Families Indefinitely
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a rule that allows officials to detain migrant families indefinitely while judges consider whether to grant them asylum in the United States, abolishing a previous 20-day limit. The rule, which is certain to draw a legal challenge, would replace a 1997 court settlement that limits the amount of time U.S. immigration authorities can detain migrant children. That agreement is generally interpreted as meaning families must be released within 20 days. (Sullivan and Rosenberg, 8/21)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Moves To Terminate Court Agreement, Hold Migrant Children And Parents Longer
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services will issue a rule Friday to withdraw from the Flores Settlement Agreement, the federal consent decree that has set basic standards for the detention of migrant children and teenagers by the United States since 1997. The new rule will need the approval of a federal judge, who declined the government’s request last year to expand detentions. Homeland Security officials said the rule would eliminate a 20-day cap for detaining migrant children and create a new license regime that would make it easier for federal officials to expand family detention nationwide. (Sacchetti, 8/21)

The New York Times: Migrant Families Would Face Indefinite Detention Under New Trump Rule
For more than a year, the White House has pressed the Department of Homeland Security to find a way to eliminate the agreement, known as the Flores settlement, which limits the time children can spend in detention and establishes minimum standards for the holding facilities for families and children. Immigration hard-liners inside the administration say the move is crucial to halting the flow of migrants across the southwestern border. The administration’s goal with the new rule is deterrence, and its message to families fleeing Central American is blunt: Come here and we will lock you up. Critics say it is the latest in a series of policies by President Trump meant to close off the United States from the rest of the world. (Shear and Kanno-Youngs, 8/21)

CNN: What Is The Flores Settlement?
The (Flores) settlement also required immigration officials to give detained minors a certain quality of life, including things such as food, drinking water, medical assistance in emergencies, toilets, sinks, temperature control, supervision and as much separation from unrelated adults as possible, according to a Congressional Research Service report. During the 1980s, the former government agency Immigration and Naturalization Service was accused of mistreating immigrant children, according to the Congressional Research Service report, resulting in a series of lawsuits that ended with the Flores settlement agreement. (Stracqualursi, Sands, Elkin and Rocha, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Seeks Longer Detentions For Migrant Families
Immigration-rights advocates are expected to challenge the rules in federal court, where they have blocked the administration before. A legal challenge would likely keep the policy from taking immediate effect. (Hackman, 8/21)

NPR: Immigration Advocate Weighs In On Trump Administration's Move To End Flores Agreement
NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Wendy Young, president of the child advocacy organization KIND, about President Trump's moves to change requirements for the detention of migrant children. (8/21)

The New York Times Fact Check: Fact-Checking Trump’s Claim That He Didn’t Start Family Separations At Border
Questioned about the new policy, which is sure to be challenged in court, Mr. Trump continued his pattern of blaming “loopholes,” nonexistent laws and former presidents for his own administration’s practice of separating migrant families who cross illegally. President Barack Obama, in particular, has been wrongly cast as the instigator of the practice by Mr. Trump at least two dozen other times. Under Mr. Trump, the Justice Department announced its “zero-tolerance policy” for illegally entering the United States in April 2018, describing it as “new” and in response to an increase in unauthorized border crossings that spring. (Qiu, 8/21)

Reuters: Trump Says He Will Push To Close Background Check Loopholes For Gun Buys
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his administration would seek to close background check loopholes for gun purchases after Democrats accused him of reversing course on gun control measures. Trump spoke with the leader of the National Rifle Association lobbying group, Wayne LaPierre, on Tuesday, a White House official said. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said he did not tell LaPierre, whose group strongly opposes increased gun restrictions, that he would avoid pursuing measures on background checks. (8/21)

The Associated Press: Trump: Again Open To Strengthening Gun Background Checks
Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House for Kentucky, the president said he considers gun violence a public health issue and is considering ways to make background checks more strict. But he also said, “You’re on that slope and all of a sudden nobody has any legal protection,” adding, “Our Second Amendment will remain strong.” Told the “slippery slope” argument is a National Rifle Association talking point, Trump said, “It’s a Trump talking point.” (Colvin and Kellman, 8/21)

Politico: Trump To Release Gun Control Proposals, Including Background Check Updates
The White House did not give a timetable for the proposals — which will likely include other legislation and executive actions addressing domestic terrorism, violent video games and mental health treatment — but suggested that the package would be timed to Congress's return in early September. The president received a formal briefing on Tuesday from his staff about the possible options, according to a White House official. (Kumar and Oprysko, 8/21)

The New York Times: Trump’s Waffling On Gun Control Confuses Legislative Picture
After the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Senator Mitch McConnell had a message for his Kentucky constituents as his 2014 re-election fight loomed. “I want you to know that I will be doing everything in my power as Senate Republican leader, fighting tooth and nail, to protect your Second Amendment rights,” Mr. McConnell, a staunch opponent of limits on gun ownership, said in an automated call. He then helped quash expanded background check legislation backed by President Barack Obama and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers. Responding to this month’s mass shootings in El Paso, Tex., and Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McConnell, his re-election fight again just ahead, was more measured. (Hulse, 8/21)

The New York Times: Parkland Shooting Survivors Release Ambitious Gun Control Plan
March for Our Lives, a group led by student survivors of last year’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., unveiled an ambitious gun control platform on Wednesday that would ban assault-style weapons, raise the minimum age for buying firearms, create a national gun registry and require gun owners to pay for new licenses each year. The plan would go well beyond gun control measures like “red flag” laws and expanded background checks, which have been openly discussed after 31 people were killed in recent mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso. (Hassan, 8/21)

The Washington Post: National Gun-Control Group Launches Campaign Against Suburban Republicans In Virginia
The national gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety is beginning a digital advertising blitz in suburban swing districts in Virginia’s pivotal fall election, targeting Republican lawmakers in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. The Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund has launched $135,000 worth of online ads to kick off a promised $2.5 million in spending this year in Virginia, which the group views as a proving ground for the gun-control issue ahead of next year’s presidential election. (Schneider, 8/21)

Reuters: Trump Administration To Appeal Ruling Blocking Price Disclosure For Drug Ads
The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling that struck down its plan to compel pharmaceutical companies to disclose wholesale prices of their drugs in televisions advertisements. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, as it prepares to challenge the July federal court ruling. (8/21)

The Hill: Trump Administration Appeals Drug Price Disclosure Ruling 
The appeal, announced in a court filing, gives President Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) another chance to resurrect what was one of the administration’s key attempts at lowering prescription drug prices. Under the rule, which was announced by HHS Secretary Alex Azar in May, drug manufacturers would have to state the list price of a 30-day supply of any drug that is covered through Medicare and Medicaid and costs at least $35 a month. (Weixel, 8/21)

Stat: Appealing Court Ruling, Trump Administration Renews Fight To Require Drug Prices In TV Ads
The new court filing is the latest flare-up in an ongoing spat between the Trump administration and the pharmaceutical industry over the policy, and over drug prices more generally. Drug makers have argued the new rules would not provide consumers with useful information — since most consumers don’t actually pay the sticker price for their drugs — and the Trump administration has argued drug makers don’t want to advertise their prices because they’re ashamed. (Florko, 8/21)

The Associated Press: Trump Signs Student Debt Forgiveness For Disabled Veterans
Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal student loan debt owed by tens of thousands of disabled military veterans will be erased under a directive President Donald Trump signed Wednesday. Trump ordered the Education Department to "eliminate every penny of federal student loan debt" owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled. (Superville, 8/21)

Politico: Trump Eases Student Loan Forgiveness For Disabled Veterans
Trump said he was “taking executive action to ensure that our wounded warriors are not saddled with mountains of student debt,” vowing to “eliminate every penny of federal student loan debt owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled.” “The debt of these disabled veterans will be entirely erased,” Trump said during remarks at a veterans convention in Louisville, Ky. “It will be gone.” The move will wipe out “hundreds of millions” in student loan debt owed by more than 25,000 disabled veterans, Trump said. The average amount forgiven would be about $30,000, he said. (Stratford, 8/21)

USA Today: Trump Signs Order To Eliminate Student Loan Debt For Disabled Vets
About half of the roughly 50,000 disabled veterans who are qualified to have their federal student loan debt forgiven have received the benefit because of an application process that has proven burdensome, the administration said. The memo directs the government to develop an "expedited" process, which the Department of Education said would mean loans are forgiven unless veterans opt out. (Behrmann and Kenning, 8/21)

The Washington Post: Sen. Bernie Sanders Changes How Medicare-For-All Plan Treats Union Contracts In Face Of Opposition By Organized Labor
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced a key change to his Medicare-for-all insurance plan Wednesday, a move meant to assuage fears on the part of organized labor, whose support is being heatedly sought by all of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. Labor representatives have expressed concerns to candidates publicly and to campaign staffs privately that a single-payer system could negatively affect their benefits, which in many cases offer better coverage than private plans. (Janes, Weigel and Bailey, 8/21)

The Hill: Insurance Lobby Chief Says Biden, Sanders Health Plans 'Similarly Bad' 
The head of the nation’s health insurance lobby on Wednesday said he does not see much difference between “Medicare for All,” which is being championed by progressive Democratic presidential candidates, and the public option pushed by former Vice President Joe Biden.  Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said Biden’s public option would still have too much government involvement in the health care system. (Weixel, 8/21)

The New York Times: Opioid Treatment Is Used Vastly More In States That Expanded Medicaid
States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen a much bigger increase in prescriptions for a medication that treats opioid addiction than states that chose not to expand the program, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research group, adds to the evidence that the 2010 health care law is playing a significant role in addressing the opioid epidemic. (Goodnough, 8/21)

The Associated Press: Duo To Push Opioid Settlement Toward Hospitals
West Virginia University President Gordon Gee and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich are creating a nonprofit that will fight to steer cash from any national opioid settlement to hospitals, rather than to local and state governments already sparring for control of the dollars. Gee and Kasich say Citizens for Effective Opioid Treatment, a 501(c)4 organization to be announced Thursday, will educate policymakers and the public about the negative impact the opioid epidemic has had on health care infrastructure and advance health-related research solutions to the crisis. (Carr Smyth, 8/22)

The New York Times: Vaping Sicknesses Rising: 153 Cases Reported In 16 States
Sixteen states have now reported 153 cases of serious, vaping-related respiratory illnesses in the past two months, and many of the patients are teenagers or young adults. In a statement on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that all of the cases occurred in people who acknowledged vaping either nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC, the high-inducing chemical in marijuana. (Kaplan, 8/21)

NPR: Addiction Clinics Market Unproven Infusion Treatments To Desperate Patients
Jason was hallucinating. He was withdrawing from drugs at an addiction treatment center near Indianapolis, and he had hardly slept for several days. "He was reaching for things, and he was talking to Bill Gates and he was talking to somebody else I'm just certain he hasn't met," his mother, Cheryl, says. She remembers finding Jason lying on the floor of the treatment center in late 2016. "I would just bring him blankets because they didn't have beds or anything." (Harper, 8/22)

The Associated Press: Reported Illness Among Vapers Reaches 150 Possible Cases
Officials on Wednesday said the Food and Drug Administration has joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and states investigating reports from the last two months. All the illnesses were in teens or adults who had used an electronic cigarette or some other kind of vaping device. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury, with the lungs apparently reacting to a caustic substance. So far infectious diseases have been ruled out. (8/21)

Reuters: E-Cigarette Firms Probed Over Health Concerns By U.S. House Panel
Four dominant e-cigarette manufacturers face a probe into the health impacts of their products, as the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee asked on Wednesday about the firms' research and marketing practices. The committee sent letters to Juul Labs Inc, 35% owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, Fontem Ventures, Japan Tobacco Inc, and Reynolds American Inc, a unit of British American Tobacco Plc. (8/21)

The Associated Press: North Carolina Schools Add E-Cigs To 'No Smoking' Signs
North Carolina public schools have added a picture of an electronic cigarette to their "no smoking" signs. News outlets report all public schools in the state are required to have a sign posted stating they're a tobacco-free zone, but this year a symbol has been added to also ban e-cigarette use, also called vaping. (8/21)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Sees Swift Fallout From Quitting Program
Planned Parenthood clinics in several states are charging new fees, tapping into financial reserves, intensifying fundraising and warning of more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of its decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program in a dispute with the Trump administration over abortion. The fallout is especially intense in Utah, where Planned Parenthood has been the only provider participating in the nearly 50-year-old Title X program, and will now lose about $2 million yearly in federal funds that helped serve 39,000 mostly low-income, uninsured people. (Whitehurst and Crary, 8/22)

The Associated Press: Tennessee Abortion Waiting Period Lawsuit Headed For Trial
Opponents to a Tennessee law requiring women to wait 48 hours before getting an abortion argue that such restrictions help perpetuate negative stereotypes about gender. The argument is part of a lengthy lawsuit challenging the legality of the waiting period rule, which Tennessee's GOP-controlled Statehouse passed in 2015. (Kruesi, 8/21)

Stat: Gilead Contests Government Patents On A Controversial HIV Prevention Pill
In an unexpected move, Gilead Sciences (GILD) is challenging patents held by the federal government for using the Truvada pill to prevent HIV, a drug that has sparked controversy due to its cost and the extent to which taxpayer dollars funded crucial research. The drug maker said it asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to examine the patents, which AIDS activists have argued would entitle the government to collect royalties from Gilead and use the funds to combat the virus. However, a Gilead official said the company refused to agree to a license in talks with the Department of Health and Human Services over the past three years. (SIlverman, 8/21)

Stat: The Cost Of Diabetes Drugs Is Causing More Americans To Skip Their Meds
In response to the rising cost of medicines, a growing number of people with diabetes are spurning prescriptions and asking their physicians for lower-cost options, according to newly released government data. To wit, among adults who were prescribed a diabetes medication in the past 12 months, 13.2% skipped dosages, took fewer dosages, or delayed filling a prescription in order to save money. And 24.4% asked their doctor for a lower-cost alternative. (Silverman, 8/21)

Stat: 5 Burning Questions About Which AI For Drug Development Startups Will Thrive
About two years ago, Simon Smith started counting the startups trying to bring artificial intelligence to drug development. Smith, an AI startup executive himself, found about 30 of them. Now? His tally is up to 148. Smith’s list is incomplete — some companies are still in stealth mode, and others are hard to classify because they straddle the line between AI and traditional biotech — but its rapid growth is a clear sign of an industry on the rise. (Robbins, 8/22)

The New York Times: Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Own.
Growing up in Nacogdoches, Tex., Eve Wiley learned at age 16 that she had been conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm. Her mother, Margo Williams, now 65, had sought help from Dr. Kim McMorries, telling him that her husband was infertile. She asked the doctor to locate a sperm donor. He told Mrs. Williams that he had found one through a sperm bank in California. Mrs. Williams gave birth to a daughter, Eve. Now 32, Ms. Wiley is a stay-at-home mother in Dallas. In 2017 and 2018, like tens of millions of Americans, she took consumer DNA tests. (Mroz, 8/21)

Stat: Lyme Disease Vaccine, Antibody Face An Uncertain Market 
As the threat of Lyme disease grows and fears surrounding it spread faster than the ticks that carry the infection, researchers are developing two vaccine or vaccine-like approaches to prevent this increasingly problematic disease. But don’t expect to get one soon. They are at least three to five years away from clinical use, according to their developers. That may seem like a long time to wait, especially since there are several Lyme disease vaccines available for dogs. But it’s taken researchers almost two decades to get this close — for the second time. (Flaherty, 8/22)

NPR: Editing The DNA In Human Sperm With CRISPR Is Goal Of New York Lab
First it was human embryos. Now scientists are trying to develop another way to modify human DNA that can be passed on to future generations, NPR has learned. Reproductive biologists at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City are attempting to use the powerful gene-editing technique called CRISPR to alter genes in human sperm. NPR got exclusive access to watch the controversial experiments underway. (Stein, 8/22)

NPR: Poll: Nearly 1 In 5 Americans Says Pain Often Interferes With Daily Life
At some point nearly everyone has to deal with pain. How do Americans experience and cope with pain that makes everyday life harder? We asked in the latest NPR-IBM Watson Health Poll. First, we wanted to know how often pain interferes with people's ability to work, go to school or engage in other activities. Overall, 18% of Americans say that's often a problem for them. Almost a quarter – 24% — say it's sometimes the case. (Hensley, 8/21)

NPR: Why Cells In Mouse Brains Fall Short As Models For Human Drug Development
In mice, scientists have used a variety of drugs to treat brain disorders including murine versions of Alzheimer's disease, depression and schizophrenia. But in people, these same treatments usually fail. And now researchers are beginning to understand why. A detailed comparison of the cell types in mouse and human brain tissue found subtle but important differences that could affect the response to many drugs, a team reports Wednesday in the journal Nature. (Hamilton, 8/21)

The New York Times: Overcoming Fear Of Flying In The Bumpy Skies
Lately, at airport gates and security lines, I’m increasingly hearing other frequent fliers share stories of spilled coffee and sudden drops on planes. Threaded through nearly every conversation are questions about whether there has been an upswing in air turbulence, and whether climate change is to blame. Turbulence was never a concern for Ashwin Fernandes, who takes more than 200 flights per year as regional director to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia for Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, until a bad flight in 2013 left him spooked. (Stearns Bercaw, 8/22)

The Washington Post: Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson Announces Groundbreaking Use-Of-Force Policy
On Wednesday, the [Camden, New Jersey Police] department released its new policy, codifying what has been department practice for years. Experts are calling the document — drafted with members of New York University Law School’s Policing Project and vetted by both the New Jersey ACLU and the Fraternal Order of Police — the “most progressive” use-of-force policy to date.Since 2015, under Thomson’s stewardship, the Camden Police Department has adopted use-of-force training and procedures that promote de-escalation and make clear that force is a last resort. (Paul, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Has Been Releasing Burial Records Of Fetal Remains—And Names Of Women Linked To Them
For nearly a decade, New York City has made public the names of thousands of women who had either miscarriages, stillbirths or possibly abortions between 1981 and 2017, raising alarms among medical privacy experts. The information is included in burial records for Hart Island, one of the largest public cemeteries in the country and a potter’s field for unclaimed bodies and deceased low-income city residents. The city has been handing over the records since 2009 to an advocacy group, the Hart Island Project, which has compiled the information into a searchable online database meant to allow relatives to locate the remains of a loved one buried on the island. (Riski, 8/21)

Los Angeles Times: Anti-Vaccine Activist Assaults California Vaccine Law Author, Police Say
An anti-vaccine activist was cited on suspicion of assault by the Sacramento Police Department on Wednesday after he livestreamed a physical confrontation with state Sen. Richard Pan, author of legislation to restrict vaccine exemptions. Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento, was pushed from behind by Kenneth Austin Bennett, who challenged the senator in the 2018 primary but did not qualify for the general election. Bennett filed a recall petition against Pan this year alleging the senator was committing treason by authoring bills to tighten vaccination requirements in the state. (Gutierrez, 8/21)

The Washington Post: This Novel D.C. Academy Trains People With Disabilities To Provide Paid Support For Others Living With Disabilities.
For Antonio Myers, life with autism has always felt like sitting in a movie theater. Everyone is watching the same film, said Myers, a 25-year-old D.C. resident on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. But he’s the only one wearing 3-D glasses. “I am able to see more, behind the scenes, which enables me to understand more of what’s in front of me,” Myers said. “It makes me able to see people as human before anything else” — which makes him “very good at compassionate grieving or just bearing with people.” (Natanson, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: PG&E Power Line That Sparked Camp Fire Was Inspected Weeks Earlier
PG&E Corp. conducted an unusual inspection of the power line that sparked the deadliest wildfire in California history just weeks before it failed, a step the utility has said it normally takes only when it suspects a potential safety problem. The disclosure that workers climbed portions of the Caribou-Palermo line last fall, which PG&E noted in a recent court filing, suggests the company had concerns about the condition of its lines before the Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. (Gold, 8/22)

Los Angeles Times: To Prevent Wildfires, L.A. Wants To Make It Easier To Clear Homeless Encampments
With wildfire season underway, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday announced a plan to make it easier for authorities to clear homeless encampments in severe fire zones. The proposed ordinance, which will go before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee next week, would change the way the Los Angeles Police Department informs people that they must leave remote areas where the risk of a fire is most extreme. (Oreskes, 8/21)