First Edition: February 20, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Reducing Red Tape For Traveling Nurses
Lauren Bond, a traveling nurse, has held licenses in five states and Washington, D.C. She maintains a detailed spreadsheet to keep track of license fees, expiration dates and the different courses each state requires. The 27-year-old got into travel nursing because she wanted to work and live in other states before settling down. She said she wished more states accepted the multistate license, which minimizes the hassles nurses face when they want to practice across state lines. (Gorman, 2/20)
Kaiser Health News:
Anthem Calls On Eye Surgeons To Monitor Anesthesia During Cataract Surgery
If you need cataract surgery, your eye surgeon may have to do double duty as your anesthetist under a new policy by health insurer Anthem. In a clinical guideline released this month, the company said it’s not medically necessary to have an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist on hand to administer and monitor sedation in most cases. Some ophthalmologists and anesthesiologists say the policy jeopardizes patient safety, and they are calling on Anthem to rescind it. (Andrews, 2/20)
California Healthline:
Couple Makes Millions Off Medicaid Managed Care As Oversight Lags
Norma Diaz and her husband, Joseph Garcia, have dedicated their careers to running a nonprofit health insurer that covers some of California’s neediest residents. For three decades, they have worked for a Medicaid managed-care plan, Community Health Group, serving nearly 300,000 poor and disabled patients in San Diego County under a state contract funded entirely by taxpayers. They’ve earned above-average ratings for patient care. And in the process, they’ve made millions of dollars. (Terhune, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Florida School Shooting Renews Debate Over Gun Access And Mental Health
The Florida school shooting rampage by a former student with a troubled past has put a new focus on the vexing debate over what can be done to keep firearms away from people prone to violence. In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting in Broward County that left 17 dead, President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott each called for greater gun restrictions for those with mental-health problems. (Gerhsam, 2/16)
The New York Times:
Checking Facts And Falsehoods About Gun Violence And Mental Illness After Parkland Shooting
A heavily armed young man is accused of killing 17 people after opening fire on terrified students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. It was the third mass shooting in the past four months in the United States. Nikolas Cruz, who has been linked to a history of mental illness, is believed to have used a legally obtained AR-15 in the shooting. The attack has led to widespread conversations about links between gun violence and mental illness, and how lawmakers and interest groups are debating potential policy responses. (Qiu and Bank, 2/16)
The Hill:
Florida Shooting Reopens CDC Gun Research Debate
A mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has reopened a debate in Congress about loosening long-standing restrictions on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) research into gun violence. Democrats have frequently railed against the restrictions, which were enacted in 1996 after fierce lobbying by outside groups like the National Rifle Association. But Republicans have been able to beat back Democratic attempts to restore the flow of federal research dollars to gun violence research. (Weixel, 2/19)
The Hill:
Dems Say GOP Focus On Mental Health Is Redirection From Gun Control
The Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead has reopened a debate about whether a focus on mental health is the answer to gun violence. Both President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pointed to mental health reforms as a solution following the shooting. “We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools, and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” Trump said in his first public comments about the latest mass shooting in the United States. (Sullivan, 2/17)
The Associated Press:
Trump Focus On Mental Health After School Shooting Denounced
Frustration is mounting in the medical community as the Trump administration again points to mental illness in response to yet another mass shooting. "The concept that mental illness is a precursor to violent behavior is nonsense," said Dr. Louis Kraus, forensic psychiatry chief at Chicago's Rush University Medical College. "The vast majority of gun violence is not attributable to mental illness." (Tanner, 2/19)
The Associated Press:
Trump Offers Support For Background Checks On Gun Buys
From the confines of his golf club, President Donald Trump offered support for a limited strengthening of federal background checks on gun purchases Monday while staying largely mum in the last few days about the victims of the Florida school massacre and the escalating debate about controls on weapons. (Lucey and Danilova, 2/20)
The New York Times:
Trump Adds Cautious Support To Changes To Background Checks For Gun Buyers
Mr. Trump is open to improvements in federal background checks for prospective gun buyers, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. She said the president had also spoken on Friday to Senator John Cornyn of Texas about legislation to revamp the system that the senator helped introduce last fall. The White House stopped short of backing the bill, but the statement was a departure for a president who has focused on the mental health of gunmen and suspects, rather than the firearms used in the attacks, after other mass shootings. (Rogers, 2/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
After Florida School Shooting, GOP Lawmakers Under Pressure To Back Gun Control
Some congressional Republicans said Sunday they could support some gun-safety bills, after coming under pressure from students who survived a mass shooting at a Florida high school last week. The lawmakers couldn’t say when, or if, GOP House and Senate leaders would put legislation on the floor, an indication of the high hurdles facing gun-related legislation. Democrats said they didn’t expect any action would be taken in Congress this year. (Harrison and Hook, 2/19)
The Washington Post:
Most Americans Say Trump, Congress Not Doing Enough To Stop Mass Shootings, Post-ABC Poll Finds
More than 6 in 10 Americans fault Congress and President Trump for not doing enough to prevent mass shootings, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with most Americans continuing to say these incidents are more reflective of problems identifying and addressing mental health issues than inadequate gun laws. (Clement and Guskin, 2/20)
The New York Times:
In Wake Of Florida Massacre, Gun Control Advocates Look To Connecticut
In the aftermath of the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where 20 children and six educators were killed in 2012, state lawmakers in Connecticut set out to draft some of the toughest gun measures in the country. They largely succeeded — significantly expanding an existing ban on the sale of assault weapons, prohibiting the sale of magazines with more than 10 rounds and requiring the registration of existing assault rifles and higher-capacity magazines. The state also required background checks for all firearms sales and created a registry of weapons offenders, including those accused of illegally possessing a firearm. (Foderaro and Hussey, 2/17)
The Associated Press:
Few States Let Courts Take Guns From People Deemed A Threat
The warnings around Nikolas Cruz seemed to flash like neon signs: expelled from school, fighting with classmates, a fascination with weapons and hurting animals, disturbing images and comments posted to social media, previous mental health treatment. In Florida, that wasn't enough for relatives, authorities or his schools to request a judicial order barring him from possessing guns. (Foley and Thompson, 2/18)
The Washington Post:
Five States Allow Guns To Be Seized Before Someone Can Commit Violence
In the wake of massacres similar to Wednesday’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., a small number of states have passed “red flag laws” that allow the seizure of guns before people can commit acts of violence. California, Washington, Oregon, Indiana and Connecticut have statutes that can be used to temporarily take guns away from people a judge deems a threat to themselves or others. Lawmakers in 18 other states — including Florida — plus the District of Columbia have proposed similar measures. (Bernstein, 2/16)
The Associated Press:
School Shooting Puts Pressure On Florida Lawmakers To Act
The deadly shooting at a Florida high school has put pressure on the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws in a state that has resisted restrictions on firearms for decades, lawmakers said Monday. The legislative effort coalesced as 100 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School prepared to ride buses more than 400 miles to the state capital Tuesday to urge lawmakers to act to prevent a repeat of the massacre that killed 17 students and faculty last week. (Spencer, Anderson and Farrington, 2/18)
The New York Times:
Florida Agency Investigated Nikolas Cruz After Violent Social Media Posts
A Florida social services agency conducted an in-home investigation of Nikolas Cruz after he exhibited troubling behavior nearly a year and a half before he shot and killed 17 people at his former high school in Florida, a state report shows. The agency, the Florida Department of Children and Families, had been alerted to posts on Snapchat of Mr. Cruz cutting his arms and expressing interest in buying a gun, according to the report. But after visiting and questioning Mr. Cruz at his home, the department determined he was at low risk of harming himself or others. (Burch, Robles and Mazzei, 2/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Florida’s Child Social-Services Agency Investigated Accused School Shooter In 2016
A Florida child-welfare agency opened an investigation in 2016 examining the care of accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz after he posted a disturbing social-media video, according to state records. The investigation found that Mr. Cruz, who was clinically depressed, was upset following a breakup with a girl and began cutting himself, according to a report by the Florida Department of Children and Families obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Cruz also spoke about wanting to buy a gun for unknown reasons, the report said. (De Avila, 2/18)
The New York Times:
Treating The Victims, And The Teenager Accused Of Gunning Them Down
In the intense aftermath of the school shooting last week, Dr. Igor Nichiporenko pronounced a wounded teacher dead on arrival and massaged the bullet-shredded heart of a student, trying in vain to restart it. He and his colleagues also treated six other teenagers, some of whom were in the emergency room and others who were rolled off to operating theaters. Then, about an hour after the victims began pouring into Broward Health North hospital, word came that another patient was about to arrive. With distraught relatives and journalists converging on the hospital in Deerfield Beach, Fla., the medical staff now faced the challenge of treating the man accused of causing all the carnage. (Fink, 2/20)
The Associated Press:
Trump Focuses On First Responders After Florida Shooting
President Donald Trump has made a grim trip to a Florida community reeling from a deadly school shooting, meeting privately with victims and cheering the heroics of first responders. But he extended few public words of consolation to those in deep mourning, nor did Trump address the debate over gun violence that has raged since a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 and injured 14 others. Two days after the shooting, Trump visited Broward Health North Hospital Friday, where he saw two victims and praised the doctors and nurses for their "incredible" job. (2/17)
The New York Times:
As Some Got Free Health Care, Gwen Got Squeezed: An Obamacare Dilemma
Gwen Hurd got the letter just before her shift at the outlet mall. Her health insurance company informed her that coverage for her family of three, purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, would cost almost 60 percent more this year — $1,200 a month. She and her husband, a contractor, found a less expensive plan, but at $928 a month, it meant giving up date nights and saving for their future. Worse, the new policy required them to spend more than $6,000 per person before it covered much of anything. (Goodnough, 2/19)
Politico:
Spending Deals Signal End Of Unpopular Obamacare Cost Checks
Republicans and Democrats finally found something they can agree on about Obamacare: killing unpopular policies that were supposed to pay for the law or reduce health costs. The recent congressional spending deals repealed or delayed several Obamacare taxes, as well as a Medicare cost-cutting board. Removing those powerful levers, which terrified health providers and unions, is not a good omen for efforts to control health spending, which is expected to surge in the next few years. (Haberkorn, 2/19)
Politico:
Trump Administration Dismantles LGBT-Friendly Policies
The nation's health department is taking steps to dismantle LGBT health initiatives, as political appointees have halted or rolled back regulations intended to protect LGBT workers and patients, removed LGBT-friendly language from documents and reassigned the senior adviser dedicated to LGBT health. The sharp reversal from Obama-era policies carries implications for a population that's been historically vulnerable to discrimination in health care settings, say LGBT health advocates. A Health Affairs study last year found that many LGBT individuals have less access to care than heterosexuals; in a Harvard-Robert Wood Johnson-NPR survey one in six LGBT individuals reported experiencing discrimination from doctors or at a clinic. (Diamond, 2/19)
The Associated Press:
Trump Appeals California Judge's Curb On Birth Control Rules
The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing a California judge's decision to temporarily block new Trump administration rules allowing more employers to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women. Lawyers filed the notice of appeal to the 9th District Court of Appeals on Friday, nearly two months after Oakland-based U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam blocked the changes to President Barack Obama's health care law. (2/16)
Stat:
HHS Communications Head To Depart For Job At White House Drug Office
Charmaine Yoest, the top communications official at the Department of Health and Human Services, is leaving HHS for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, three sources with knowledge of the move told STAT. She is the latest administration official to leave for the drug policy office, which has seen significant staff turnover throughout the year and especially following the withdrawal of Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) from the confirmation process to lead the agency. (Facher, 2/16)
The Hill:
State House Republicans In Virginia Back Medicaid Expansion
The Republican-controlled House of Delegates in Virginia has thrown its support behind Medicaid expansion after years of resisting it. The lawmakers recommended an expansion of the health program for the poor through their draft state budget. The proposal would expand eligibility for Medicaid to Virginia residents who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, impacting about 300,000 people. (Hellman, 2/19)
Politico:
Fat, Unhealthy Americans Threaten Trump’s Defense Surge
The Trump administration's ambitious new military buildup is at risk of being hobbled before it even starts — by a dwindling pool of young Americans who are fit to serve. Nearly three-quarters of Americans age 17 to 24 are ineligible for the military due to obesity, other health problems, criminal backgrounds or lack of education, according to government data. That's a harsh reality check for the Pentagon’s plan to recruit tens of thousands of new soldiers, sailors, pilots and cyber specialists over the next five years. (Bender, 2/19)
The Associated Press:
Virginia House Embraces Medicaid Expansion In Budget
Republicans had blocked Medicaid expansion for years, saying its long-term costs were unsustainable. The change of heart comes after several new Democratic House lawmakers won election last year after campaigning specifically on expanding Medicaid. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has made expansion a top priority. But the GOP-controlled Senate has indicated it still opposes expansion, setting up a potential stalemate in the final weeks of the 2018 legislative session. (Suderman, 2/18)
The Washington Post:
Virginia’s House Republicans Finally Put Their Weight Behind Medicaid Expansion
The House plan, approved early Sunday by the Appropriations Committee on a 20-to-2 vote, would impose requirements that Medicaid recipients seek work training and contribute to their coverage through private insurers as a condition of receiving health coverage through the program aimed at aiding low-income individuals. House Speaker M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights) praised the effort as a compromise worked out with the help of the Democratic governor, Ralph Northam. “There’s no question that the political dynamics have changed,” Cox said. (Schneider and Vozzella, 2/18)
Stat:
This Year's Awful Flu Season May Have Just Hit A Plateau
It’s too soon to say the flu season has peaked, but it’s at least possible it may have plateaued. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released Friday, show the percentage of people going to a doctor for an influenza-like illness (most of which is likely flu during peak flu season) was 7.5 percent, just under the rate of 7.7 percent for the week ending Feb. 3. It marks the first week-by-week decline since the flu season began. (Branswell, 2/16)
The Washington Post:
Children's Deaths From Flu Rise Sharply Amid Signs That Season May Be Hitting Plateau
The CDC's latest weekly report shows that the percentage of doctor visits for fever, cough and other flu symptoms was the same during the week of Feb. 4-10 as the week before — about 1 in every 13 visits. The figures are based on updated data showing the percentage of Americans seeking medical care for such symptoms to be just slightly lower than peak levels during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic. The week ending last Saturday was the first one in which that indicator — a key early flag of flu activity — did not increase. Data on hospitalization rates and deaths usually lag behind. (Sun, 2/16)
CNN:
Flu Now Blamed For 84 Child Deaths, CDC Says
The deaths of 22 more children from flu-related causes were reported Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its weekly surveillance report. Those deaths bring the total number of children reported to have died to 84 since October, when the current flu season began. Three out of four children who died from the flu had not gotten a flu vaccine, the acting director of the CDC said in a Thursday news conference. (Scutti, 2/16)
Stat:
Can The Popular Vaccine FluMist Make A Comeback In The U.S.?
This week could be pivotal for the fate of the popular influenza vaccine known as FluMist and its manufacturer MedImmune, a division of AstraZeneca. On Wednesday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will hear a pitch the company hopes will persuade it to restore its recommendation for use of FluMist, the only non-injectable flu vaccine licensed in the United States. (Branswell, 2/20)
The Washington Post:
Here's Why The Flu Makes You Feel So Bad
Every year, 5 to 20 percent of the people in the United States will become infected with influenza virus. An average of 200,000 of these people will require hospitalization, and up to 50,000 will die. Folks over the age of 65 are especially susceptible to influenza infection because the immune system becomes weaker with age. In addition, older folks are also more susceptible to long-term disability following influenza infection, especially if they are hospitalized. We all know the symptoms of influenza infection include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, headaches and fatigue. But just what causes all the havoc? What is going on in your body as you fight the flu? (Haynes, 2/17)
NPR:
Flu Still Contagious After Symptoms Abate
It's shaping up to be one of the worst flu seasons in years.If you are one of the thousands of unlucky Americans who are sick with the flu, this one's for you. You've spent the last couple of days cooped up in your house watching bad TV, fighting the fever sweats and expelling a baffling amount of mucus. As you start to resemble a human being again, you might feel pressure to head back to work. (Sofia and Rizzo, 2/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
What’s The Best Way To Make Sure You Get Sleep When You Have The Flu?
Being sick with the flu, or even just a cold, impairs one of the body’s most reliable aids in recovery: sleep. Finding the right position and tools for comfort can seem impossible when battling a pounding head, stuffy nose and body aches. One expert, Aric Prather, a psychoneuroimmunologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, explains why the flu makes us lazy and how to get a restorative night’s sleep while fighting off seasonal illness. (Mitchell, 2/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
House Republicans Plan Legislative Hearings As First Step To Fight Opioid Crisis
House Republicans will begin a series of legislative hearings next week as the first step in an effort to pass bipartisan bills tackling the opioid crisis. The plan from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which will hold the first hearing on Feb. 28, will likely require additional funding from Congress, lawmakers said. Bills to be considered will focus on law enforcement, public health and prevention, and insurance coverage issues. (Armour and Peterson, 2/20)
The Associated Press:
Stuck In An Opioids Crisis, Officials Turn To Acupuncture
Acupuncture is increasingly being embraced by patients and doctors, sometimes as an alternative to the powerful painkillers behind the nation's opioid crisis. Although it has been long derided as pseudoscience and still questioned by many medical experts, a small but growing number of Medicaid programs in states hit hard by opioid overdoses have started providing it for low-income patients. (2/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
In Hospitals, Pneumonia Is A Lethal Enemy
At a time when the public is concerned with drug-resistant superbugs, researchers have identified another danger of going to the hospital: contracting pneumonia. Hospital-acquired pneumonia is more pervasive and urgent than most people realize, a new study warns, and hospitals in America aren’t adequately addressing prevention. “Given the mortality, hospitals should be doing a lot more,” says Dian Baker, lead author of the study, which was published in January in the American Journal of Infection Control. (Lagnado, 2/17)
The New York Times:
Doctors Said Immunotherapy Would Not Cure Her Cancer. They Were Wrong.
No one expected the four young women to live much longer. They had an extremely rare, aggressive and fatal form of ovarian cancer. There was no standard treatment. The women, strangers to one another living in different countries, asked their doctors to try new immunotherapy drugs that had revolutionized treatment of cancer. At first, they were told the drugs were out of the question — they would not work against ovarian cancer. (Kolata, 2/19)
NPR:
Brain's Ancient Immune System May Play A Role In Alzheimer's
Beer has fueled a lot of bad ideas. But on a Friday afternoon in 2007, it helped two Alzheimer's researchers come up with a really a good one. Neuroscientists Robert Moir and Rudolph Tanzi were sipping Coronas in separate offices during "attitude adjustment hour" at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard's largest teaching hospital. And, by chance, each scientist found himself wondering about an apparent link between Alzheimer's disease and the immune system. (Hamilton, 2/18)
Stat:
FDA Is Offering A New Approach For Developing Alzheimer's Drugs. What Could That Mean?
In an effort to ease drug development for Alzheimer’s disease, the Food and Drug Administration is endorsing a new approach that would rely on biomarkers to approve medicines before patients show any signs of the illness, instead of demonstrating a drug alleviates symptoms. (Silverman, 2/16)
NPR:
Synthetic Horsepox Research Raises Questions Of Ethics And Safety
In the brave new world of synthetic biology, scientists can now brew up viruses from scratch using the tools of DNA technology. The latest such feat, published last month, involves horsepox, a cousin of the feared virus that causes smallpox in people. Critics charge that making horsepox in the lab has endangered the public by basically revealing the recipe for how any lab could manufacture smallpox to use as a bioweapon. (Greenfieldboyce, 2/17)
The Washington Post:
Giving Teens Occasional Drinks To Teach Responsible Drinking May Backfire
Parents may be tempted to give teens an occasional taste of alcohol to teach responsible drinking habits, but a new study from Australia suggests this may have the opposite effect. Compared with adolescents who don’t get beer or wine from Mom and Dad, teens who do are more likely to access alcohol from other sources, the study found. And when parents supply the drinks, teens are more than twice as likely to binge-drink or show symptoms of alcohol use disorder as youth who don’t have easy access to alcohol. (Rapaport, 2/19)
NPR:
To Prevent Cancer, Teens Should Get HPV Vaccine Before They're Sexually Active
Each year, about 31,000 men and women in the U.S. are diagnosed with a cancer caused by an infection from the human papillomavirus, or HPV. It's the most common sexually transmitted virus and infection in the U.S. In women, HPV infection can lead to cervical cancer, which leads to about 4,000 deaths per year. In men, it can cause penile cancer. HPV also causes some cases of oral cancer, cancer of the anus and genital warts. (Aubrey, 2/19)
NPR:
How Some Breast Cancer Survivors Escape Lymphedema
After Virginia Harrod was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2014, she had a double mastectomy. Surgeons also removed 16 lymph nodes from under her armpit and the area around her breast, to see how far the cancer had spread and to determine what further treatment might be needed. Then she underwent radiation therapy. As it turned out, the removal of those lymph nodes, along with the radiation, put Harrod at risk for another disorder — lymphedema, a painful and debilitating swelling of the soft tissue of the arms or legs, and/or an increased vulnerability to infection. (Neighmond, 2/19)
The Washington Post:
Strange Gait Troubled This Woman But The Reason Was Hard To Find
“What are you doing ?” Laura Hsiung’s friends asked as she slowly loped across a Maryland handball court, her ankle off-kilter so that she was walking on the outside of her left foot. Hsiung recalls wondering the same thing. One minute she was walking normally, and then all of a sudden, she wasn’t.“I couldn’t figure it out,” Hsiung said. “I hadn’t rolled my ankle. But my left foot just would not function normally.” (Boodman, 2/19)
The Washington Post:
In Idaho, Medical-Care Exemptions For Faith Healing Come Under Fire
As Willie Hughes walked around the weathered plots and mounds of dirt at Peaceful Valley Cemetery, he remembered family that died too young and his brother Steven, who was born with spina bifida. Steven never saw a doctor or physical therapist or used a wheelchair. He crawled around on his forearms and died of pneumonia at age 3. (Wolf, 2/19)
The Associated Press:
Minnesota's $5 Billion Case Over 3M Chemicals Heads To Trial
Minnesota officials will soon try to convince a jury that manufacturer 3M Co. should pay the state $5 billion to help clean up environmental damage that the state alleges was caused by pollutants the company dumped for decades. The long-awaited trial begins Tuesday in Minneapolis. Experts say it could have wide-reaching implications if the state succeeds, in part because 3M and other companies legally dumped the chemicals for years in and outside Minnesota. (2/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Dignity Health Glendale Crowns A ‘Royal Court’ Of Heart Patients
For 23 years, Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital has recognized patients in its care who've shown a commitment to changing their lifestyle after experiencing a major cardiac condition. On Thursday, five patients chosen by the hospital's cardiac fitness staff earned the title of King or Queen of Hearts for their continued lifestyle changes as part of their cardiac recovery efforts, such as years of sticking to a specific diet and exercise. (Landa, 2/16)