Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: July 24, 2018
Kaiser Health News: Profiles For Sale: How Bits Of Captured Data Paint A Valuable Picture Of Your Health
Here’s a fun activity. Let’s look at my credit card statement from last month. Among other things, I paid for a pair of athletic leggings, four movie tickets, and two beers and a plate of nachos at a nearby restaurant. (Maybe I should not have put the latter two on my credit card — see below.) So, would you hire me? Would you offer me a high-interest loan? Can you tell if I’m sick? What if I told you my pants size or how many hours a week I watch Netflix? (Bluth, 7/24)
Kaiser Health News: Hospitals Gear Up For New Diagnosis: Human Trafficking
The woman arrived at the emergency department at Huntington Hospital on New York’s Long Island after she was hit by her boyfriend during an argument. Her situation raised concerns among the medical staff, which had recently been trained to be on the lookout for signs of sex trafficking. An undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, she worked at a local “cantina” frequented by immigrants. Her job was to get patrons drinks and to dance with them, but many workers in those jobs are expected to offer sex, too. Her boyfriend didn’t want her to work there, and that led to the fight, one doctor recalled. (Andrews, 7/24)
California Healthline: Listen: What’s Up With The Covered California Rate Increases?
Covered California’s announcement last week that 2019 premiums are going up nearly 9 percent, on average, unleashed plenty of complaints aimed at Washington, Sacramento and the health care industry as a whole. The state exchange pointed a finger at the Trump administration and congressional Republicans who removed the federal penalty for going without health coverage — a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act. Covered California said rates would have risen by 5 percent if the mandate remained in place. Without it, an estimated 260,000 Californians may drop out of the individual market next year, leaving behind a sicker and more expensive pool of policyholders. (7/23)
The New York Times: Senate Confirms Robert Wilkie As Veterans Affairs Secretary
The United States Senate on Monday overwhelmingly voted to approve President Trump’s latest pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, confirming Robert Wilkie as the next secretary 86 to 9. Mr. Wilkie, 55, will lead the second-largest department in the federal government, overseeing about 360,000 employees and the vast veterans health care system. He is taking over a department in turmoil. Veterans Affairs, which has struggled for years to provide timely and efficient care, has been without permanent leadership since the previous secretary, David J. Shulkin, was fired in March. The department is also dealing with thousands of job vacancies and staff turnover at the highest levels. (Mervosh, 7/23)
The Associated Press: Senate Confirms Robert Wilkie For Veterans Affairs Secretary
Wilkie is Trump's third pick for the job in 18 months. The longtime public official says he will "shake up complacency" at VA, which has struggled with long waits in providing medical treatment to millions of veterans. In a statement released by the White House, Trump applauded the confirmation vote and said he looked forward to Wilkie's leadership. "I have no doubt that the Department of Veterans Affairs will continue to make strides in honoring and protecting the heroic men and women who have served our nation with distinction," he said. (Rogin, 7/23)
The Washington Post: Senate Confirms Pentagon Official Robert Wilkie To Lead VA
Wilkie’s confirmation had been all but assured since his May nomination to succeed David Shulkin, a hospital executive and holdover from the Obama administration who clashed with the White House and the team of political appointees at VA. Trump had initially chosen White House physician Ronny L. Jackson for the job, but that candidacy imploded in a torrent of misconduct allegations. Wilkie, 55, now head of military personnel at the Defense Department, was welcomed on Capitol Hill as an experienced official who could address the agency’s many challenges. (Rein, 7/23)
The Wall Street Journal: Senate Confirms Robert Wilkie As Secretary Of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Wilkie has worked for decades at the Pentagon and in the defense industry, becoming known for his organizational acumen and ability to work within complex bureaucracies, according to those who know him. He takes over the VA as it is implementing a sweeping new law that changes the way the department outsources care in the private sector. The VA is also replacing its elaborate and outdated electronic health-records system. The VA still has gaps in top positions important to implement these changes, and is currently without a permanent leader of the department’s health care arm and a chief information officer. But Mr. O’Rourke said recently that the process is under way to find a head for health care and that a CIO has been identified and is currently being vetted by the White House. (Kesling, 7/23)
The Wall Street Journal: Record 71% Of Voters Oppose Overturning Roe V. Wade
As the Senate nears debate on a new Supreme Court nominee who could give the panel a conservative edge, a majority of voters say they are increasingly opposed to undermining a woman’s right to have an abortion and are becoming more likely to say they support abortion-rights candidates, a new poll shows.According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Mr. Trump’s latest pick for the High Court, Brett Kavanaugh, enters confirmation proceedings with support from 32% of voters, compared with 26% opposed. Another 41% said they don’t have enough information yet. (Bender, 7/23)
The New York Times: A Supreme Court Vote Is Just One Of Heidi Heitkamp’s Headaches
Before Senator Heidi Heitkamp spoke to constituents in this tiny rural town, population 175, Mary Ann Dunbar confessed that she had reservations about Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court. But Ms. Dunbar, a 67-year-old social worker, was not about to press her Democratic senator to take a stand against the judge, as she fretted that a vote against a Trump nominee could jeopardize Ms. Heitkamp’s already difficult bid for a second Senate term in a state where the president is popular. It wouldn’t be worth it. (Kaplan, 7/23)
The Associated Press: Administration Reports Nearly 1,200 Family Reunifications
Nearly 1,200 children 5 and older have been reunited with their families after being separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, leaving hundreds to go before this week's court-imposed deadline, according to a Justice Department court filing on Monday that raised the possibility that many parents have been deported. (Spagat, 7/23)
The Hill: Liberal Group Launches Ads Targeting Azar Over Child Separations
A reproductive rights group is launching an ad campaign targeting Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar for his role in enforcing the Trump administration’s policy of family separations at the country’s southern border. Equity Forward said it spent more than $1 million on a television ad in the Washington, D.C., metro area, encouraging people to call Congress and tell lawmakers to hold Azar and the administration accountable for the separation policy. (Weixel, 7/23)
Politico: 'That Was Not The Deal': McCarthy, Ryan Renege On Immigration Vow
House GOP leaders are reneging on a vow to hold an immigration vote before the August recess, a move that puts House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a particularly awkward spot as he seeks to become the next speaker. In June, McCarthy (R-Calif.) personally promised several rank-and-file members a vote on a new guest-worker program for farmers, an offer backed by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The assurance was critical at the time: It persuaded Reps. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) not to sign on to an effort — which Republican leaders were desperately trying to stop — to force a vote on legislation creating a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, the immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The so-called discharge petition ultimately fell two signatures short. (Bade, 7/24)
Politico: Americans Skeptical Of Trump’s Drug Plan — If They’ve Even Heard Of It
President Donald Trump was hoping for a big win with voters when he rolled out a massive blueprint to lower drug prices in May. But two months later, most Americans haven’t even heard about it, a new poll shows. And few of the Americans who are aware of his plan believe it will lower drug prices. (Karlin-Smith and Ehley, 7/23)
The Hill: Poll: Majority Think Trump's Drug Plan Won't Lower Prices They Pay
Just 27 percent of adults said they had heard or read about Trump’s drug pricing plan, though, the poll finds. Key elements of the plan received favorable ratings in the poll, such as requiring TV ads for drugs to disclose the drug's price, which 63 percent of adults said they favor. The administration last week tried to step up its efforts on the drug pricing plan in the face of media coverage that has questioned how much of a difference it will actually make. (Sullivan, 7/23)
The Associated Press: AIDS Drugs Show More Promise For Preventing New Infections
New research shows more promise for using AIDS treatment drugs as a prevention tool, to help keep uninfected people from catching HIV during sex with a partner who has the virus. There were no infections among gay men who used a two-drug combo pill either daily or just before and after sex with someone with HIV, one study found. In a second study, no uninfected men caught the virus if they had sex only with a partner whose HIV was well suppressed by medicines. (Marchione, 7/24)
Stat: A Smart Pill Could Improve Adherence To PrEP, The HIV Prevention Drug, Study Finds
With a daily pill, people who face an elevated risk of exposure to HIV can dramatically lower their chances of contracting the virus. But that protection is only effective if people adhere to a strict regimen with their prescription. Many do not. A solution, researchers say, may come in the form of a digital pill — one equipped with a sensor about the size of a grain of salt. (Chen, 7/24)
The New York Times: For Scientists Racing To Cure Alzheimer’s, The Math Is Getting Ugly
The task facing Eli Lilly, the giant pharmaceutical company, sounds simple enough: Find 375 people with early Alzheimer’s disease for a bold new clinical trial aiming to slow or stop memory loss. There are 5.4 million Alzheimer’s patients in the United States. You’d think it would be easy to find that many participants for a trial like this one. But it’s not. And the problem has enormous implications for treatment of a disease that terrifies older Americans and has strained families in numbers too great to count. (Kolata, 7/23)
Los Angeles Times: How Pregnancy And Childbirth May Protect Some Women From Developing Dementia
Women make up some 60% of Alzheimer’s disease patients in the United States, and over her lifetime, a woman is almost twice as likely than a man to develop the memory-robbing condition. New research offers tantalizing clues as to why that might be, suggesting that either hormonal influences or pregnancy-related changes in the immune system – or both -- may nudge a woman’s risk for dementia in one direction or the other. (Healy, 7/23)
NPR: Estrogen Might Have A Role In Alzheimer's Prevention After All, Scientists Say
Women are less likely to develop dementia later in life if they begin to menstruate earlier, go through menopause later, and have more than one child, researchers reported Monday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Chicago. And recent studies offer hints that hormone replacement therapy, which fell out of favor more than a decade ago, might offer a way to protect a woman's brain if it is given at the right time, the researchers said. The findings could help explain why women make up nearly two-thirds of people in the U.S. with Alzheimer's, says Maria Carrillo, the association's chief scientific officer. (Hamilton, 7/23)
Stat: Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Began After Surgery. Were They Transmitted By Leeches?
When doctors saw blood pooling in the new graft, threatening to kill this one, too, they had the perfect treatment. Down in a hospital lab was a tank rippling with leeches. They fished some out and placed them on the man’s face. Things got better for Christmas. For New Year’s, they got worse. The wound had started oozing pus, which smelled like a sewer and baffled the physicians. Leech guts, like ours, are crawling with bacteria, so the team had pumped the patient full of ciprofloxacin before allowing his blood to be sucked. That should have stopped any infections before they started. Then lab tests confirmed their suspicions: These bugs, called Aeromonas, were cipro-resistant. (Boodman, 7/24)
The Associated Press: Health Care Industry Branches Into Fresh Meals, Rides To Gym
That hot lunch delivered to your door? Your health insurer might pick up the tab. The cleaning crew that fixed up your apartment while you recovered from a stroke? The hospital staff helped set that up. Health care is shifting in a fundamental way for millions of Americans. Some insurers are paying for rides to fitness centers and checking in with customers to help ward off loneliness. Hospital networks are hiring more workers to visit people at home and learn about their lives, not just their illnesses. (7/23)
Stat: Employees With Depression Miss Fewer Days When Bosses Support Them, Study Finds
A new study makes the case that a supportive manager might help employees with depression miss fewer days on the job. The research, published Monday in BMJ Open, found that workplaces where managers support and help employees with depression have lower rates of missed days on the job due to depression. That support can come in the form of a formal policy, a referral system for care, or transitional support to help employees take time off work for mental health reasons and then return to their roles. (Thielking, 7/24)
The New York Times: Alternative Cancer Treatments May Be Bad For Your Health
Herbs, acupuncture and other so-called complementary treatments for cancer may not be completely innocuous. A new study has found that many cancer patients treat these nostrums not as a supplement to conventional treatment, but as an alternative. This, the researchers say, can be dangerous. (Bakalar, 7/23)
The New York Times: When We Eat, Or Don’t Eat, May Be Critical For Health
Nutrition scientists have long debated the best diet for optimal health. But now some experts believe that it’s not just what we eat that’s critical for good health, but when we eat it. A growing body of research suggests that our bodies function optimally when we align our eating patterns with our circadian rhythms, the innate 24-hour cycles that tell our bodies when to wake up, when to eat and when to fall asleep. Studies show that chronically disrupting this rhythm — by eating late meals or nibbling on midnight snacks, for example — could be a recipe for weight gain and metabolic trouble. (O'Connor, 7/24)
The Washington Post: Some Police Departments Have Psychiatrists To Help Them Deal With People Suffering From Mental Illness
Police departments have become a de facto arm of the American mental-health system. Research suggests that about 2 million people with serious mental illness are booked into jails in the United States each year. A 2016 review of studies estimated that 1 in 4 people with mental illness has a history of police arrest. The Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that studies topics related to mental health, has calculated that the odds of being killed during a police encounter are 16 times as high for individuals with untreated serious mental illness as they are for people in the broader population. (Morris, 7/23)
The New York Times: For The First Time, A Female Ebola Survivor Infects Others
For the first time, scientists have found evidence that a woman can harbor the Ebola virus for more than a year and then infect others. The discovery involved transmission within a Liberian family in the closing days of the West African epidemic that lasted from December 2014 to mid-2016. More than 28,600 people were infected and 11,325 died. (McNeil, 7/23)
The Washington Post: Ebola In Survivor’s Family Shows Deadly Virus’s Lasting Effects
The study, in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, is the first indication of transmission from a female Ebola survivor, highlighting the continued risk for a resurgence of cases and the potential for large-scale outbreaks long after there is no longer active disease spread. The epidemic in West Africa sickened more than 28,000 people, including more than 11,000 who died across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. A few cases have been reported of sexual transmission from the semen of male survivors; there has also been one report suggesting that the virus spread through a survivor’s breast milk. (Sun, 7/23)
The New York Times: Ritz Cracker Products Recalled After Potential Salmonella Risk Identified
The snack food company Mondelez International recalled some of its Ritz cracker products on Saturday after a whey powder supplier identified a potential salmonella risk. As of Monday afternoon, there had been no reports of illnesses connected to the products, a Mondelez spokeswoman said. The recall was limited to the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a news release on Saturday. It was “being conducted with the knowledge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” the release said. (Victor, 7/23)
The New York Times: ‘I Didn’t Know How To Stop Him’: Ohio State Abuse Scandal Widens
Investigators working on behalf of Ohio State University are digging through decades of records to piece together what might have happened decades ago, when Dr. Richard H. Strauss was a team doctor and, according to recent accounts, engaged in some form of sexual misconduct with more than 100 former students. That misconduct occurred from 1979 to 1997, those former students have said. But Ohio State’s sex abuse crisis and its apparent failure to provide abused athletes with an adequate support system may have extended to more-recent years. (Macur, 7/24)
The Associated Press: More Sue USC Over Handling Of Sex Harassment Allegations
More than 50 former and current students of the University of Southern California said Monday in a new lawsuit that the school mishandled complaints that a longtime gynecologist engaged in inappropriate behavior during pelvic exams. The number of people suing USC and Dr. George Tyndall now tops a hundred, following the new court filing by the firm D. Miller and Associates. California’s state Department of Education said last month it was investigating USC’s response to allegations that Tyndall groped female students during campus office visits and improperly photographed and made comments about the women’s bodies. (7/23)
The Washington Post: Jealous Campaign Disputes Claims In Hogan Attack Ad On Single-Payer Health Care
An attack ad by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) paints the health-care plan proposed by his Democratic opponent, Ben Jealous, as irresponsible and unaffordable. But the dramatic number it relies on — $24 billion — was gleaned from state analysts who based their work on a study suggesting such plans could save money overall. The ad says Jealous’s “risky plan for health care will cost at least $24 billion a year. Every year.” (Thompson, 7/23)
The Associated Press: Transgender Student Seeks Injunction In Bathrooms Lawsuit
A federal judge is weighing whether to grant a preliminary injunction to allow a transgender student to use male bathrooms in a southwestern Indiana school district. U.S. District Judge William Lawrence heard the injunction request Friday in Evansville. The request was made by the 17-year-old student who is suing Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. over student bathroom availability, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. (7/23)
