First Edition: January 14, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Meth’s Resurgence Spotlights Lack Of Meds To Combat The Addiction
In 2016, news reports warned the public of an opioid epidemic gripping the nation. But Madeline Vaughn, then a lead clinical intake coordinator at the Houston-based addiction treatment organization Council on Recovery, sensed something different was going on with the patients she checked in from the street. (Heredia Rodriguez, 1/14)
Kaiser Health News:
Listen: Do Consumers Benefit When Hospitals Post Sticker Prices Online?
Julie Appleby, a Kaiser Health News senior correspondent, appeared last week on WBUR’s “Here & Now” with Jeremy Hobson and on Science Friday to discuss the new requirement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that hospitals post their list prices online. But, according to KHN’s coverage, the information popping up on hospital websites “may initially serve to confuse more than illuminate.” (1/14)
The Associated Press:
Shutdown Puts Strain On Hundreds Of Native American Tribes
Fallout from the federal government shutdown is hurting Native Americans as dwindling funds hamper access to health care and other services. The pain is especially deep in tribal communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment, where one person often supports an extended family. The effects were being felt far and wide. (Fonseca, 1/12)
Politico:
Billions In Food Stamp Payments To Come Early Because Of Shutdown
After raising alarm that the food-stamp program could run out of funding for February, the Trump administration announced this week that it had come up with a way to bankroll more than $4.8 billion in benefits next month — with just one catch: Benefits for the nearly 39 million people enrolled in the program must be paid out by Jan. 20, weeks earlier than usual. (Bottemiller Evich, 1/11)
NPR:
Child Care: 1 More Way Some Federal Workers Struggle During Shutdown
At 10 o'clock in the morning, Austin Lanham should be working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center routing satellite communication. But with the partial federal government shutdown, he's not working, deadlines are slipping, he's not getting paid and the preschool his two sons go to is shut down because it's on NASA's property. "Now I'm just a full-time stay at home dad," he says. That's the case with many federal child care centers in the Washington D.C. region and with some around the country. (Madden, 1/14)
CQ:
Health Law Appeal Paused As Shutdown Affects Federal Courts
The partial government shutdown halted a major challenge to the 2010 health care law among other civil litigation on Friday, as Justice Department lawyers sought the same in a challenge from three Senate Democrats to the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a two-page order granting the Trump administration’s request to halt the 2010 health care law case “in light of lapse of appropriations.” (Ruger, 1/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
Shutdown Breaks Record For Longest In Modern History
The partial government shutdown became the longest in modern U.S. history on Sunday as the impasse over funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border stretched into its 23rd day. (Peterson, Bender and Ballhaus, 1/13)
The Washington Post:
Americans Blame Trump And GOP Much More Than Democrats For Shutdown, Post-ABC Poll Finds
By a wide margin, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than congressional Democrats for the now record-breaking government shutdown, and most reject the president’s assertion that there is an illegal-immigration crisis on the southern border, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. (Clement and Balz, 1/13)
The Associated Press:
Judge Blocks Trump Birth Control Coverage Rules In 13 States
A U.S. judge in California on Sunday blocked Trump administration rules, which would allow more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control, from taking effect in 13 states and Washington, D.C. Judge Haywood Gilliam granted a request for a preliminary injunction by California, 12 other states and Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs sought to prevent the rules from taking effect as scheduled on Monday while a lawsuit against them moved forward. (Thanawala, 1/13)
The New York Times:
Judge Blocks Trump’s Attempt To Roll Back Birth Control Mandate
The plaintiffs, he wrote, had done enough to bolster their claim that the religious exemption and the moral exemption sought by the Trump administration were “not in accordance with” the Affordable Care Act. After Judge Gilliam blocked the initial rules, the Trump administration appealed. Last month the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court’s ruling but limited the injunction’s scope. With that ruling in mind, Judge Gilliam made clear that the preliminary injunction he granted on Sunday bars enforcement in only the states that sued. (Stevens, 1/14)
Politico:
Judge Freezes Trump Administration Contraception Rule
The new rules mark the Trump administration's second attempt to narrow the Obamacare-related requirement that employers must provide FDA-approved contraception in the employee health plan at no cost. The first attempt was halted in 2017 after courts found the administration tried to make the change without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in. Houses of worship and closely-held private companies with religious objections are currently exempted from the birth control coverage mandate; the Trump administration is seeking to make the exemptions much broader. (Ollstein and Colliver, 1/13)
NPR:
Judge Blocks Trump Birth Control Policy In 13 States And D.C
"The law couldn't be clearer — employers have no business interfering in women's healthcare decisions," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement applauding the ruling. "Today's court ruling stops another attempt by the Trump Administration to trample on women's access to basic reproductive care." (Schwartz, 1/14)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Administration Plans Effort To Let States Remodel Medicaid
The Trump administration is readying guidance that could let states remodel their Medicaid programs to more closely resemble block grant proposals favored by Republicans during their failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, according to people familiar with the discussions. (Armour, 1/11)
Politico:
Trump Wants To Bypass Congress On Medicaid Plan
The Trump administration is quietly devising a plan bypassing Congress to give block grants to states for Medicaid, achieving a longstanding conservative dream of reining in spending on the health care safety net for the poor. Three administration sources say the Trump administration is drawing up guidelines on what could be a major overhaul of Medicaid in some states. Instead of the traditional open-ended entitlement, states would get spending limits, along with more flexibility to run the low-income health program that serves nearly 75 million Americans, from poor children, to disabled people, to impoverished seniors in nursing homes. (Pradhan and Diamond, 1/11)
The Associated Press:
Democrats Roll Out Big Health Care Proposals In The States
Riding the momentum from November's elections, Democratic leaders in the states are wasting no time delivering on their biggest campaign promise — to expand access to health care and make it more affordable. The first full week of state legislative sessions and swearings-in for governors saw a flurry of proposals. (Ho and Mulvihill, 1/12)
The Hill:
Blue States Buck Trump To Expand Health Coverage
Democratic governors are experimenting with new ways to expand health care, testing out progressive ideas that could go national if their party wins the Senate or White House in 2020. The policies run counter to the Trump administration's ideas and are only now possible after a Democratic wave in the House helped secure the future of ObamaCare. (Weixel, 1/13)
The New York Times:
Hospitals Must Now Post Prices. But It May Take A Brain Surgeon To Decipher Them.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, responding to a new Trump administration order to begin posting all hospital prices, listed a charge of $42,569 for a cardiology procedure described as “HC PTC CLOS PAT DUCT ART.” Baptist Health in Miami helpfully told consumers that an “Embolza Protect 5.5” would cost them $9,818 while a “Visceral selective angio rad” runs a mere $5,538. On Jan. 1, hospitals began complying with a Trump administration order to post list prices for all their services, theoretically offering consumers transparency and choice and forcing health care providers into price competition. (Pear, 1/13)
Modern Healthcare:
Children's Hospitals Brace For Fewer Donors Under Tax Reform
Children's hospitals could be unintended victims of changes handed down by the Trump administration's sweeping tax reform law. That's because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in December 2017, could disincentivize charitable giving by convincing millions of tax filers to go from itemizing their deductions to taking the standard deduction, thus eliminating the tax bonus for charitable donations. (Bannow, 1/12)
The New York Times:
V.A. Seeks To Redirect Billions Of Dollars Into Private Care
The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation. Under proposed guidelines, it would be easier for veterans to receive care in privately run hospitals and have the government pay for it. Veterans would also be allowed access to a system of proposed walk-in clinics, which would serve as a bridge between V.A. emergency rooms and private providers, and would require co-pays for treatment. (Steinhauer and Philipps, 1/12)
The Associated Press:
Huge Migrant Teen Detention Camp In Texas Shutting Down
The nonprofit running what once was the largest U.S. detention camp housing migrant teenagers said the last children left the facility Friday. The tent city in Tornillo, Texas, is shutting down, and all tents and equipment will be removed from the site by the end of January, said Krista Piferrer, spokeswoman of BCFS Health and Human Services. (1/11)
Reuters:
Texas Tent City That Holds Migrant Teens To Close
"As of this weekend, the last group of unaccompanied alien children will have been transferred or discharged" and the shelter was on a "path toward closure," said Lynn Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Johnson said the majority of the children were released to sponsors, usually family members, in the United States, while some were transferred to other shelters. (Chavez, 1/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
A Texas Tent City For Migrant Children Is Closed
The tent city was set up in June amid a spike in arrests of unaccompanied immigrant children caught crossing the border illegally and at the height of the Trump administration’s short-lived policy of separating families and children caught at the border. (Caldwell, 1/11)
The Washington Post:
A Congressman Rails Against Undocumented Immigrants As His Estranged Siblings Care For Them And Other Patients In Need
Three months had passed since Grace Gosar and five of her siblings decided they had to do something to stop their brother, a hard-line conservative and staunch defender of President Trump, from winning reelection to Congress. Their solution back then had been startling: Film a campaign ad for their brother’s opponent. (Jaffe, 1/12)
The Hill:
Booker Tries To Shake Doubts About Pharmaceutical Ties Ahead Of 2020
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is trying to overcome doubts that he is too close to the pharmaceutical industry ahead of an expected presidential campaign. The progressive criticism of Booker reached a crescendo in early 2017 when he voted against a budget amendment calling for importing drugs from abroad. (Sullivan, 1/13)
The New York Times:
The 2020 Field Is Growing. Some Waistlines Are Shrinking.
Senator Cory Booker’s visit to a house party in New Hampshire last month had many hallmarks of a campaign visit. He mingled with guests. He posed for photos. He gave a speech. He stood for more photos. But he did not touch a sprawling table of homemade desserts. (Goldmacher, 1/14)
Stat:
Trump Falsely Claims ‘Drug Prices Declined In 2018’
President Trump asserted late Friday that drug prices declined for the first time in nearly 50 years, implying in a tweet that his administration’s efforts to speed generic drugs to market were responsible for that historic feat. But in the context of America’s prescription drug market, the statement is both a non sequitur and demonstrably false. A recent analysis of brand-name drugs by the Associated Press found 96 price increases for every price cut in the first seven months of 2018. (Ross, 1/12)
The New York Times:
California Adds Its Clout To States Battling High Drug Prices
Gavin Newsom dived into the highly charged debate over prescription drug prices in his first week as California’s governor, vowing action on a topic that has enraged the public but has proved resistant to easy fixes. His idea: Find strength in numbers. Within hours of taking office on Monday, Mr. Newsom signed an executive order proposing a plan that would allow California to directly negotiate with drug manufacturers. (Thomas, 1/11)
The New York Times:
$3.4 Million Medicaid Fraud Inquiry Hovers Over Nursing Home Where Comatose Woman Was Raped And Had Baby
State investigators in Arizona are examining $3.4 million in possible Medicaid fraud at the parent company of a Phoenix nursing center where a woman in a vegetative state was raped and gave birth to a boy in December, according to court records. The inquiry into the company, Hacienda HealthCare, began in 2016, when investigators at the health agency that manages the state’s Medicaid program started asking questions about Hacienda’s organizational and accounting structure. Investigators wanted to know whether Hacienda executives improperly shifted overhead expenses in the company to a subsidiary at the same location that then overcharged the state’s Medicaid program. (Haag, 1/11)
The Associated Press:
Center Where Comatose Woman Had Baby Faced Criminal Probe
The Arizona Republic reported Hacienda HealthCare faced a 2016 criminal investigation for allegedly billing the state more than $4 million for bogus 2014 charges for wages, transportation, housekeeping, maintenance and supplies. The criminal case was dropped in 2017 and no charges were filed, the Republic said, but a court battle is continuing in an effort to force Hacienda to turn over financial records. (1/13)
The Washington Post:
Hacienda HealthCare Birth: 911 Call Reveals Nurse's Surprise — ‘We Had No Idea’
The unnamed nurse screamed into the phone at the 911 dispatcher: “The baby’s turning blue! Baby’s turning blue!” She urged the paramedics to come faster: “We’re not prepared for this.” In most cases, a patient going into labor at a health-care facility in a room full of nurses would be a stressful but manageable situation. (Wootson, 1/12)
The New York Times:
Memorial Sloan Kettering Curbs Executives’ Ties To Industry After Conflict-Of-Interest Scandals
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s leading research institutions, announced on Friday that it would bar its top executives from serving on corporate boards of drug and health care companies that, in some cases, had paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Hospital officials also told the center’s staff that the executive board had made permanent a series of reforms designed to limit the ways in which its top executives and leading researchers could profit from work developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering, a nonprofit with a broad social mission that admits about 23,500 cancer patients each year. (Thomas and Ornstein, 1/11)
The Associated Press:
Lab Revokes Honors For Controversial DNA Scientist Watson
James Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning DNA scientist who lost his job in 2007 for expressing racist views, was stripped of several honorary titles Friday by the New York lab he once headed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory said it was reacting to Watson's remarks in a television documentary aired earlier this month. (Ritter, 1/11)
The New York Times:
Lab Severs Ties With James Watson, Citing ‘Unsubstantiated And Reckless’ Remarks
Dr. Watson, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, had apologized after making similar comments to a British newspaper in 2007. At the time, he was forced to retire from his job as chancellor at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, but he has retained his office there, as well as the titles of chancellor emeritus, Oliver R. Grace professor emeritus and honorary trustee. The graduate school of biological sciences at the research center is named for Dr. Watson, and the laboratory held a 90th birthday party for him last spring. (Harmon, 1/11)
The New York Times:
The Flu Is Widespread In The U.S., And It’s Not Too Late To Get Vaccinated
The flu season is going strong. About six million to seven million people in the United States have come down with the illness so far, with half of them sick enough to have seen doctors, according to estimates released on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 69,000 to 84,000 ended up in the hospital during the period from Oct. 1, 2018 through Jan. 5. (Grady, 1/11)
The Washington Post:
The Flu Has Sickened About 7 Million In The U.S. So Far, CDC Estimates
“We decided that this year, we would try to release these preliminary numbers of illnesses each week so that we could give people a better picture,” said Alicia Fry, who heads the CDC’s epidemiology and prevention branch in the influenza division. The CDC releases a report each week on seasonal influenza in the United States, along with detailed graphs and charts. But until Friday, the reports did not provide data on how many people have gotten sick, gone to the doctor, been hospitalized or died. The agency released that information at the end of each season after analyzing the data. (Sun, 1/11)
The Associated Press:
US Flu Season Poised To Be Milder Than Last Year's Harsh One
It's early, but the current flu season is shaping up to be gentler than last winter's unusually brutal one, U.S. health officials said. In most parts of the country, most illnesses right now are being caused by a flu strain that leads to fewer hospitalizations and deaths as the kind of flu that dominated a year ago, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines also work better against it, said the CDC's Dr. Alicia Fry. (1/11)
The Washington Post:
Blood Donation Made Easier With App
It happens every two seconds: a person needs donated blood or platelets to survive a surgery, cancer treatment, a traumatic injury. But blood stocks aren’t always high enough, especially during the winter when the holidays and nasty weather make some donations drop off. And each year, only 3 percent of eligible donors actually give blood to the American Red Cross, the organization responsible for a 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply. (Blakemore, 1/12)
NPR:
Get Fit — Faster: This 22-Minute Workout Has You Covered
Hard to fit exercise into your day? Then, maybe this workout is for you. It covers everything you need — from cardio to strength-training to stretching. "You can get a fantastic work out in 22 minutes," says Tim Church. He's a physician and researcher who's spent his career studying exercise. (Aubrey, 1/13)
The Washington Post:
Why It’s Important For Experts To Admit They’re Wrong
Can you recognize — and admit — when you’re wrong? If not, you’re not alone, science reporter Brian Resnick writes in Vox. In “Intellectual humility: The importance of knowing you might be wrong,” he examines the roadblocks that keep people from admitting and learning from their mistakes. What’s more, he considers how humility can help science move forward, even when researchers’ results are disproved or deemed impossible to replicate. (Blakemore, 1/13)
The Washington Post:
Americans Took More Than 26 Trillion Steps Last Year, According To Fitbit.
Health experts have been saying for years that the path to a healthy self starts with being physically active. Apparently, people have been listening. Americans wearing a fitness tracker, specifically a Fitbit device, took more than 26 trillion steps last year — actually, precisely 26,857,655,603,500 steps. They accomplished this over 118.9 billion minutes; they also slept 12.4 billion hours. Fitbit says its U.S. clients averaged 7,994 steps a day, ranking 33rd worldwide (Hong Kong residents topped the list, averaging 10,493 steps a day). (Searing, 1/12)
The Associated Press:
Tennessee Scientists Weighed Response To Anti-Vax Politician
What should a state health department do when its newly elected congressman gets a rush of social media attention for challenging the science behind vaccines? Department of Health officials in Tennessee struggled on the best way to respond after Republican Rep. Mark Green told a town hall meeting last month, without citing evidence, that vaccines cause autism. Green also claimed that the federal government was hiding information about the negative side effects of vaccines. (1/11)
The Hill:
American Being Monitored For Ebola Released From Hospital
An American physician who was potentially exposed to Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was released from the hospital Saturday. The doctor arrived to the U.S. on Dec. 29 and had been at a secure area at the University of Nebraska until Saturday. (Romero, 1/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
CEO Of PG&E Steps Down Amid California Wildfire Crisis
PG&E Corp. said Sunday that Chief Executive Geisha Williams was stepping down as the company grapples with the growing political and financial fallout of its role in helping spark California wildfires. (Blunt and Gold, 1/13)
Los Angeles Times:
PG&E Chief Executive Geisha Williams Leaves As Utility Readies For Possible Bankruptcy
"While we are making progress as a company in safety and other areas, the board recognizes the tremendous challenges PG&E continues to face,” said board Chairman Richard C. Kelly, in the statement. “We believe John is the right interim leader for the company while we work to identify a new CEO. Our search is focused on extensive operational and safety expertise, and the board is committed to further change at PG&E.” (1/13)