First Edition: July 30, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Inspector Paints A Rosy Picture Of Migrant Detention Centers — In Contrast To Audits
For the past year, the tiny Maryland company employed by the federal government to inspect U.S. immigration detention centers has painted a rosy picture of life in captivity. In dozens of reports filed in the past 12 months, inspectors with the 11-person Nakamoto Group described detainees who had “no substantive complaints” and facilities where the atmosphere is “calm with no obvious indicators of high stress.” (Varney, 7/30)

Kaiser Health News: In The Battle Of The Fitness Trackers, The Most Steps Might Not Win
When Sonia Anderson got her first Fitbit step tracker, her poor pooch, Bronx, had no idea of all the steps that were coming. The device — which counts every step Anderson takes and displays those steps on an app — was a Christmas gift from her daughters two years ago. At the time, Bronx, a Yorkshire terrier, was younger and could still manage the additional walks up and down the trails along the sprawling apartment complex in Alexandria, Va., where Anderson lives. Anderson was on a mission to clock 10,000 steps a day. (Horovitz, 7/30)

Kaiser Health News: Democrats Favor Building On ACA Over ‘Medicare For All’
Most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents would prefer to expand the Affordable Care Act rather than replace it with a “Medicare for All” plan, according to a new tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll, released Tuesday, also examines opinions on a generic government-run “public option” health plan that would be available to all Americans and compete with private insurance. About two-thirds of the public said they support a public option, though more than 6 in 10 Republicans oppose it. (Huetteman, 7/30)

Kaiser Health News: ‘If You Like Your Plan, You Can Keep It.’ Biden’s Invokes Obama’s Troubled Claim.
Joe Biden invoked a risky — and familiar — phrase to sell his health care plan. At an AARP event in Iowa, Biden told voters he would create a government insurance plan to compete with private ones called a public option. It would give consumers, Biden said, another choice. “If you like your employer-based plan, you can keep it,” Biden said July 15. “If you have private insurance, you can keep it.” It was a time warp moment that whipped us back to 2013. (Greenberg, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Candidates Expecting Explosive Faceoffs Sharpen Their Lines For Round 2 Of The Democratic Presidential Debates
Twenty candidates are sharpening memorable lines and crafting strategies for butting into the conversation as they prepare for a second round of Democratic presidential debates that are expected to be explosive, particularly over topics of race, inequality and criminal justice. Former vice president Joe Biden, having concluded he was not aggressive enough in the first clash in June, has practiced criticizing his rivals on health care and other issues as he prepares for Round 2. (Viser and Sullivan, 7/29)

CNBC: Business Issues To Watch In 2020 Democratic Debate In Detroit
When 20 Democratic presidential candidates descend on Detroit this week, expect sparring over whether a major U.S. industry should even exist. Health care — particularly the question of whether America should adopt a universal single-payer system or take more modest steps to expand coverage — has towered over every other economic issue early in the 2020 Democratic primary. In the weeks since the first debate in June, two top-tier candidates — former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders — have publicly litigated whether the U.S. should scrap its private insurance industry in order to cut costs. Based on the previous debate, health care isn’t the only economic or business issue likely to emerge on Tuesday and Wednesday in Detroit. (Pramuk, 7/28)

NPR: Democratic Debate Schedule And Key Questions: A Guide To Night 1, Round 2 : NPR
Warren and Sanders are vying for similar voters interested in taking the U.S. in a more boldly progressive direction on everything from income inequality and social justice to health care and student debt. And Warren has been gaining on Sanders in national polls and has even overtaken him on some state surveys. The Sanders camp has been clear that Sanders will not go after Warren, because he sees her as an ally in implementing progressive change. But they are competing for the same job, so at some point, that stance will likely have to change if Sanders continues to stagnate in the polls. (Montanaro, 7/30)

The Associated Press: Kamala Harris’ New Health Plan Draws Critics From All Sides
Kamala Harris released a health care proposal on Monday that sought to bridge the Democratic Party’s disparate factions. Instead, she drew criticism from rivals across the political spectrum. Progressives took issue with the presidential candidate for stopping short of the full-scale health care overhaul embodied by the “Medicare for All” legislation. Her more moderate rivals, meanwhile, said she was trying to have it all without taking a firm position on one of the most animating issues in the primary. The onslaught offered a preview of the Democrat-on-Democrat fighting that will likely unfold over two nights of presidential debates that begin on Tuesday. (Summers, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Harris Reaches For Middle Ground On Health Care, And Is Immediately Attacked
Harris’s rivals argued that in trying to address those concerns while continuing to say she favors Medicare-for-all, she was trying to have it both ways. Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir suggested that Harris was claiming the mantle of Medicare-for-all while advocating a far more modest policy. “So continues her gradual backdown from Medicare For All,” Shakir tweeted. “This is why you want a candidate with a lifetime of consistency and a track record on the big issues facing us.” (Janes, 7/29)

Politico: Rivals Unload On Kamala Harris’ Health Plan From Left And Right
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign charged Harris with flip-flopping on her support for Sanders’ Medicare for All bill while still proposing a plan that would "unravel the hard-won Affordable Care Act that the Trump Administration is trying to undo right now.” “This new, have-it-every-which-way approach pushes the extremely challenging implementation of the Medicare for All part of this plan ten years into the future, meaning it would not occur on the watch of even a two-term administration,” said Kate Bedingfield, a Biden deputy campaign manager. “The result? A Bernie Sanders-lite Medicare for All and a refusal to be straight with the American middle class, who would have a large tax increase forced on them with this plan.” (Cadelago, Otterbein and Diamond, 7/29)

The Hill: Biden Campaign Slams Harris On 'Have-It-Every-Which-Way' Health Plan
Harris’s plan seeks to find the path between the total elimination of private insurance under the Sanders version of Medicare for All, and Biden’s public option plan, which would strengthen the Affordable Care Act and keep employer-sponsored insurance in place. Harris has gone back and forth on whether she would eliminate private insurance. Her new plan would seek to expand coverage while preserving a role for private insurance companies. (Weixel, 7/29)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Fact Check On Medicare-For-All Taxes
Harris signaled in mid-July that she was distancing herself from complete support of Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan — even though she was a co-sponsor of his bill — when she objected to what she called a “middle-class tax hike” embedded in the bill. On July 29, she unveiled her own plan in a post on Medium — a hybrid version that extends the phase-in to a new system from four to 10 years and allows a role for insurance companies (which Sanders’s plan would bar) to participate. For the purposes of this fact check, she also would carve out a big exemption for paying payroll taxes to fund the system. In her Medium post, Harris attacked a proposal by Sanders to levy a 4 percent tax on income above $29,000, saying it “hits the middle class too hard.” But Sanders insists that the middle class will save money on his proposal. So what’s going on here? (Kessler, 7/30)

Politico: The 2020 Dem Who May Actually Know How To Fix Health Care
Jay Inslee is running for president as the climate change candidate. But the two-term Washington governor can credibly claim to have accomplished more than most of his peers on health care, a key issue in the 2020 campaign. He created both the nation’s first public option and universal long-term care benefit — albeit a limited one — has run a successful Obamacare market, and expanded reproductive rights. His administration has also pushed forward a new plan for controlling drug costs, expanded Medicaid coverage to transgender patients and added programs for school children aimed at preventing chronic diseases later in life. (Goldberg, 7/28)

The New York Times: How A Medicare Buy-In Or Public Option Could Threaten Obamacare
It seems a simple enough proposition: Give people the choice to buy into Medicare, the popular federal insurance program for those over 65. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is one of the Democratic presidential contenders who favor this kind of buy-in, often called the public option. They view it as a more gradual, politically pragmatic alternative to the Medicare-for-all proposal championed by Senator Bernie Sanders, which would abolish private health insurance altogether. (Abelson, 7/29)

The Associated Press: Hurry Up And Wait: Docs Say Insurers Increasingly Interfere
After Kim Lauerman was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, doctors wanted to give her a drug that helps prevent infections and fever during chemotherapy. Her insurer said no. Anthem Blue Cross told Lauerman the drug wasn’t necessary. She eventually got it after an infection landed her in the hospital, but that led to another problem: She ended up missing several chemo sessions. “The insurance has been great until I got to a point that I really needed something for survival,” Lauerman said. (Murphy, 7/29)

The New York Times: Hospitals Would Have To Reveal Discounted Prices They Give Insurers, Under Trump Rule
The Trump administration on Monday said it would begin forcing hospitals to publicly disclose the discounted prices they negotiate with insurance companies, a requirement intended to help patients shop for better deals on a range of medical services, from hip replacements to CT scans. The plan, issued as a proposed federal rule, would take effect in January, but would likely be challenged in court by an industry that has long held such rates secret. (Abelson and Goodnough, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Proposes First Rule On Health-Care Cost Transparency
Health insurers and providers have fiercely opposed having to publicly reveal their negotiated prices, which they say would stifle competition. Yet the Trump administration has argued that forcing hospitals to post their prices will allow consumers to make more informed choices about where to get care and in turn help lower their health-care costs. Trump has said he is eager to make health care a central plank of his 2020 reelection bid, as voters consistently cite high costs as one of their top concerns. Trump’s June executive order laid out priorities for the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies in crafting rules to address secrecy in health-care prices. (Abutaleb, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals May Be Forced To Disclose Discount Rates Negotiated With Insurers
Industry groups have argued the requirement goes beyond the executive branch’s statutory authority and could backfire by causing prices to rise if hospitals see their competitors are getting higher insurer payments. The White House has lost in court before: A rule requiring drug makers to post list prices in television ads was blocked in June by a federal judge who said the administration overstepped its regulatory authority. Some Republicans praised the administration’s focus. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) said the proposal complements provisions in legislation he sponsored with Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) to lower health costs. “We will carefully review how the proposed rule and our legislation interact,” he said. (Armour, 7/29)

The Hill: Trump Administration Would Force Hospitals To Disclose Secret Prices 
Hospitals that fail to disclose that information could be fined, but the fines would be limited to only $300 a day. Hospitals are already required to publicly post their list prices for services, but in a call with reporters, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said the proposal would expand that requirement to include gross charges before discounts as well as the insurer-specific negotiated charges for all items and services. (Weixel, 7/29)

US News & World Report: U.S. News Releases 30th Annual 2019-20 Best Hospitals Rankings
U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings, today released the 2019-20 Best Hospitals rankings. The new and revised 30th edition provides a multifaceted assessment on nearly every hospital nationwide that is designed to assist patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to seek care. This year, U.S. News updated the methodology in its 12 data-driven specialty rankings. (7/30)

US News & World Report: Hospital Rankings And Ratings
The U.S. News Best Hospitals analysis reviews hospitals' performance in adult and pediatric clinical specialties, procedures and conditions. Scores are based on several factors, including survival, patient safety, nurse staffing and more. Hospitals are ranked nationally in specialties from cancer to urology and rated in common procedures and conditions, such as heart bypass surgery, hip and knee replacement and COPD. Hospitals are also ranked regionally within states and major metro areas. The Best Hospitals Honor Roll recognizes 21 hospitals with outstanding performance across multiple areas of care. The Best Children's Hospital Honor Roll recognizes 10 hospitals with superior pediatric care. (7/30)

The Associated Press: Judge Blocks New Hampshire Medicaid Work Requirements
A federal judge on Monday blocked Medicaid work requirements in New Hampshire, ruling for a third time that the Trump administration hasn't adequately addressed the potential loss of health coverage for low-income residents. The ruling by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington comes four months after he blocked similar work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky. (7/29)

The Washington Post: Federal Judge Strikes Down New Hampshire’s Medicaid Work Requirements
The ruling marks the third state for which U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg has held that federal health officials were “arbitrary and capricious” when they approved the state plans, failing to consider the requirements’ effects on low-income residents who rely on Medicaid for health coverage. Boasberg, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, blocked New Hampshire’s plan four months after he ruled that Arkansas needed to stop the work requirements it had begun the previous June. At the same time, the judge struck down similar requirements in Kentucky for a second time. (Goldstein, 7/29)

The Associated Press: US Rejection Disappoints States Eyeing Utah Medicaid Plan
The Trump administration's rejection of Utah's plan to partially expand Medicaid could send other states back to the drawing board on covering more low-income people under President Barack Obama's signature health care law. The decision is disappointing for leaders in conservative-leaning states who considered Utah's plan a compromise approach, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, on Monday. (7/29)

The Hill: Medicaid Expansion Backers Push Ballot Measures To Sidestep GOP 
Medicaid expansion advocates are eyeing 2020 wins in red states by taking the issue straight to voters, a strategy that yielded success last year in other Republican-led states. Proponents are petitioning Florida, Missouri and Oklahoma to include ballot measures asking residents if they want to broaden out the federal health care program to cover more low-income adults, many of whom are uninsured. (Hellmann, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Signs Bill Shoring Up 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund
President Trump signed legislation on Monday that funds medical claims from victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for the rest of their lives. The legislation, signed during a ceremony at the White House’s Rose Garden, appropriates funds for all current and future approved claims made through the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund until 2090, at an estimated cost of $10.2 billion over the next 10 years. (Restuccia, 7/29)

Politico: Trump Signs 9/11 Compensation Bill, Prompting Fund To Reverse Cuts
Thousands of people have been diagnosed with cancers linked to the toxins in the air near the World Trade Center site, and thousands more have respiratory and other related illnesses. A fund set up to aid sick survivors and the families of those who have died had started to run dry and began cutting payments earlier this year. But shortly after the bill was signed into law Monday, the fund reversed the decision and announced that it now has "sufficient to pay all pending and projected claims without the need for any continued reductions in awards." (Durkin, 7/29)

The Associated Press: Trump Administration Tightens Opioid Prescriptions For Feds
The government’s employee health plan will tighten its rules for covering prescription opioid painkillers starting this fall, the Trump administration said Monday. The announcement by a senior administration official was part of a White House drug policy briefing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under the media coverage rules established for the event. The Federal Employee Health Benefits Program is the world’s largest job-based health plan, covering an estimated 9 million people, including workers, retirees and family members. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/29)

The Associated Press: Big Question In Opioid Suits: How To Divide Any Settlement
The roughly 2,000 state and local governments suing the drug industry over the deadly opioid crisis have yet to see any verdicts or reach any big national settlements but are already tussling with each other over how to divide any money they collect. The reason: Some of them want to avoid what happened 20 years ago, when states agreed to a giant settlement with the tobacco industry and used most of the cash on projects that had little to do with smoking’s toll. (Mulvihill, 7/29)

NPR: Seizures Of Meth, Cocaine And Prescription Stimulants Surging All Around U.S.
Methamphetamine, an illegal drug that sends the body into overdrive, is surging through the United States. Federal drug data provided exclusively to NPR show seizures of meth by authorities have spiked, rising 142% between 2017 and 2018. "Seizures indicate increasing trafficking in these drugs," says John Eadie, public health coordinator for the federal government's National Emerging Threats Initiative, part of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. "So if seizures have more than doubled, it probably means more than double trafficking in methamphetamines. And with that go additional deaths." (Bebinger, 7/29)

Los Angeles Times: Three Drugmakers Settle With California Over Deals To Keep Generic Medications Off The Market
Two pharmaceutical companies will pay the state of California a total of nearly $70 million to settle allegations that they violated antitrust laws by making agreements to delay generic drugs from entering the market, according to the California attorney general’s office. A third company will be subject to an injunction as part of the settlement. (Masunaga, 7/29)

The Associated Press: Pfizer, Mylan Strengthen Ties, Create New Company
Pfizer, the country’s largest drugmaker, is creating a hybrid new drug company by combining its off-patent branded drug business with the generic pharmaceutical company Mylan. Pfizer’s Upjohn, which sells one-time blockbusters like Viagra and Lipitor that have lost patent protection, will be spun off and then it will combine with Mylan, a $10 billion company. The complex deal, expected to close in the middle of next year, will create a company with estimated 2020 revenue in excess of $19 billion, with sales in more than 165 countries. The name for the new company has yet to be determined. (Johnson, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Mylan Deal Furthers Pfizer CEO’s Bet On Patent-Protected Drugs
A deal to merge Pfizer Inc. ’s off-patent drugs business with generic drugmaker Mylan NV caps new Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla’s remodeling of one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. In his nearly eight months at the helm, Mr. Bourla has moved quickly to remake Pfizer into a company focused on patent-protected prescription medicines with the potential for significant sales growth, from a more diversified but slower-growing player. (Hopkins, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Suicide Survivors Are 'Coming Out' And Telling Their Stories To Combat A National Crisis
For many years, Gregg Loomis hid the attempts from others. He worried about the effect on his insurance business. He had seen people’s view of him change once they found out. He had lost friends that way. So two days before his trip to Capitol Hill, Loomis sat in his office in a New York City suburb, agonizing over what he might say. How do you explain to total strangers the most painful, private moments of your life — the moments you tried to end it. A suicide prevention group had sent notes to him and other volunteers to prepare for the trip. (Wan, 7/29)

Los Angeles Times: For Nurses At Risk Of Suicide, Program Lets Them Seek Help When They Need It The Most
Nurses die by suicide at a significantly higher rate than the general population, according to a recently released study from a team of researchers at UC San Diego. Examining nationwide data on violent deaths from 2014, the only year for which occupation information is included, the team found that suicide rates were nearly 58% higher for female nurses and 41% higher for male nurses. (Sisson, 7/29)

The New York Times: Would You Want A Computer To Judge Your Risk Of H.I.V. Infection?
A few years ago, researchers at Harvard and Kaiser Permanente Northern California had an inspired idea: Perhaps they could use the wealth of personal data in electronic health records to identify patients at high risk of getting infected with H.I.V. Doctors could use an algorithm to pinpoint these patients and then steer them to a daily pill to prevent infection, a strategy known as PrEP. (Kolata, 7/30)

NPR: Some Juul 'Vape Juice' Found To Contain Ingredients That Might Inflame Airways
Scientists don't know much yet about the long-term effects of "vape juice," the liquid used in e-cigarettes and vaporizers. But researchers analyzing the liquid and the vapor produced when it's heated say some kinds of e-liquids are reacting to form irritating chemicals called acetals while they're sitting on shelves. More than 3 million young people, as well as some adults, use e-cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of them could be inhaling these compounds regularly. And that could be irritating or even damaging to their lungs, Yale and Duke university researchers suggest. (Neilson, 7/30)

The New York Times: Why A Woman’s Sex Life Declines After Menopause (Hint: Sometimes It’s Her Partner)
For many women, sex after menopause is not as satisfying as it used to be. But is menopause entirely to blame? New research suggests that the hormonal changes that come with menopause are only part of the reason a woman’s sex life declines with age. It’s true that many women experience symptoms after menopause, including vaginal dryness, painful intercourse and loss of desire — all of which can affect the frequency and pleasure of sex. (Parker-Pope, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: A New Genetic Explanation For Anorexia
Some of the genetic factors linked to anorexia nervosa are also associated with metabolism, suggesting that there may be a biological explanation for why patients with the eating disorder lose weight so rapidly and struggle to keep weight on. The new discovery was part of the largest genome-wide association study of the disease ever done. The study, published July 15 in the journal Nature Genetics, found eight genetic regions linked to anorexia. (Reddy, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Rare Eye Infection, Vision Loss Result From Wearing Contacts While Showering
A woman’s habit of keeping her contact lenses in while swimming and showering had serious consequences: She developed a rare eye infection that left her legally blind in one eye, according to a new report of the case. The 41-year-old woman, who lives in the United Kingdom, went to the eye doctor after experiencing blurry vision, eye pain and sensitivity to light in her left eye for two months, according to the report, which was published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Rettner, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Your Gym Is Teeming With Invisible Members: Germs. Here’s How To Avoid Them.
After swimming one day at the Chelsea Recreation Center in New York, Allison Goldstein noticed that the walls in the shower were starting to buckle inward. “It looked like a giant air bubble was pushing out of the wall,” the Jersey City resident said. “Over time, the section where the wall met the ceiling started to peel back, and lo and behold, there was some delicious-looking brown and black sludge back there.” (Douglas, 7/29)

Politico: Florida Attorney General Moves To Block Proposed Ban On Semiautomatic Rifles
Florida's Republican attorney general is trying to scuttle a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban the type of rifle used in last year's Parkland school shooting, a move that comes as the state's gun control debate intensifies heading into 2020. Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to block the ballot initiative, which is being pushed by Miami-based Ban Assault Weapons Now, a group that wants to ban most semiautomatic rifles. The group has gathered more than 99,000 certified signatures so far, enough to trigger an automatic legal review of the amendment by the state's highest court. (Fineout, 7/29)

Los Angeles Times: Gilroy Garlic Festival Shooting: What We Know About The Military-Style Gun
The gunman in the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting used a military-style semiautomatic rifle that is illegal to own in California, although authorities have not yet publicly identified the specific type of weapon, according to officials Monday. Authorities initially said the weapon used was the WASR-10, a Romanian-built weapon that looks like an AK-47 and is considered an assault rifle under California law and therefore banned. (Winton and McGreevy, 7/29)

ProPublica: After Failing Mentally Ill New Yorkers, Adult Homes Get Second Chance
Five years ago, New York City’s long-troubled adult home industry appeared to be facing a slow, painful death — a fate it had earned after four scandal-ridden decades of housing mentally ill residents for profit. The homes were once envisioned as an alternative to the state’s notoriously inhumane psychiatric hospitals. But in 2002, The New York Times exposed how they had become flophouses, rife with neglect, exploitation and despair. Residents threw themselves from rooftops and died of heatstroke in rooms that lacked air conditioning. (Sapien, 7/30)

Reuters: Puerto Ricans Worry Political Turmoil Could Further Delay Federal Aid
The nonprofit All Hands and Hearts arrived here in January 2018, to fix roofs in the rural town where Hurricane Maria made its first, most damaging landfall. "We kept an open-door policy," partnership manager Nicole Franks said at the group's makeshift compound in an old schoolhouse. "We said: 'If you need help, come put your name on our list.'" (7/29)

The New York Times: Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak Is Linked To Sheraton In Atlanta
An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Atlanta has been linked to a Sheraton hotel downtown, and officials said dozens of people had likely been infected. The Georgia Department of Public Health said Monday that in addition to 11 confirmed cases of people who contracted the disease, 55 more cases were “probable.” There have been no reported deaths but some people have been hospitalized, a spokeswoman said. (Fortin, 7/29)