First Edition: June 14, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Air Ambulance Costs Fly Around Fixes For Surprise Medical Bills
In April 2018, 9-year-old Christian Bolling was hiking with his parents and sister in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, near their home in Roanoke. While climbing some boulders, he lost his footing and fell down a rocky 20-foot drop, fracturing both bones in his lower left leg, his wrist, both sides of his nose and his skull. A rescue squad carried him out of the woods, and a helicopter flew him to a pediatric hospital trauma unit in Roanoke. (Bluth, 6/14)

California Healthline: A Proposal To Make It Harder For Kids To Skip Vaccines Gives Powerful Voices Pause
As California lawmakers attempt to tighten the rules on childhood vaccinations, they’re getting pushback from unexpected quarters: high-profile officials who support vaccines. In the past few weeks, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the members of the Medical Board of California have questioned a bill that would give the California Department of Public Health authority to decide whether a child can skip routine vaccinations. (Barry-Jester, 6/14)

Kaiser Health News: Readers And Tweeters: No Rush To Judge Patients Who Leave The ER Without OK
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. (6/14)

The Hill: Trump Officials Issue New Rule Aimed At Expanding Health Choices For Small Businesses
The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a rule aimed at expanding health insurance options for small businesses and others, the latest action stemming from President Trump’s health care executive order in 2017. The White House framed the move as part of its efforts to expand health care choices for people now that efforts to repeal ObamaCare have come up short. (Sullivan, 6/13)

The Associated Press: White House Expands Health Accounts Aimed At Small Firms
The tax-free individual accounts are called "health reimbursement arrangements," or HRAs, and starting next year employees will be able to use them to buy their own individual health insurance plans. Employers that offer regular workplace coverage can also set up another type of HRA account — limited to $1,800 a year — that will allow workers to get additional benefits such as dental and vision care. This second type of account can also be used to purchase lower-cost, short-term insurance that comes with limited benefits and doesn't have to cover pre-existing medical conditions. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/13)

Modern Healthcare: Employers Can Fund Workers' Individual Plans Under New Trump Rule
Employers will be able to hand their workers a chunk of tax-sheltered health reimbursement money and send them off to buy an individual health plan under a controversial rule issued by the Trump administration Thursday. The final rule, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2020, will prompt an estimated 800,000 large and small employers to fund individual coverage through health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) for about 10 million workers, nearly 800,000 of whom would be newly insured. (Meyer, 6/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Expands Pre-Tax Accounts For Health Insurance
Conservatives and employers have been pressing for the change, which the Trump administration said will increase consumer choice. The administration said the rule is expected to expand coverage by 2029 to an estimated 800,000 who were previously uninsured. According to the rule, some people could lose insurance if employers drop coverage or the influx of new consumers causes premiums on the individual market to rise. The rule is also expected to lead to a $51.2 billion drop in federal tax revenue between 2020 and 2029. (Armour, 6/13)

The New York Times: Joe Biden Said He Did Not View Abortion ‘As A Choice And A Right’ In 2006
In a newly unearthed video from 2006, Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he supported Roe v. Wade but did not view abortion as “a choice and a right” — remarks that raise further questions about how he views abortion rights as he runs for the Democratic presidential nomination and faces pressure over his position on the issue. “I do not view abortion as a choice and a right. I think it’s always a tragedy,” Mr. Biden said in a videotaped interview with Texas Monthly, resurfaced on Thursday by CNN. “I think it should be rare and safe,” he added. “I think we should be focusing on how to limit the number of abortions.” (Saul, 6/13)

The Hill: Jayapal Opens Up About Her Own Abortion In NY Times Op-Ed
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) opened up about her own abortion in a column for The New York Times. In the Thursday op-ed, Jayapal describes her first pregnancy and how her child Janak was born weighing 1 pound, 14 ounces and faced complications due to undeveloped organs. (Budryk, 6/13)

The Associated Press: Maine Making Public, Private Insurers Cover Abortions
A bill requiring public and private insurance companies to cover abortion is now law in Maine with Democratic Gov. Janet Mills' signature Thursday. The new law will take effect in 90 days and requires all insurers that cover prenatal care to include coverage of abortion. The proposal faced pushback from Republicans and a handful of Democrats who argued against taxpayer-funded abortions. (6/13)

The Hill: Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic To Remain Open Despite State Law Aimed At Closing It
A Planned Parenthood clinic in Austin, Texas, is set to remain open until 2039 despite a new state law that prevents local governments from doing business with the organization. A bill signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbot last week bars cities from certain transactions with abortion providers, including leases and sales, going into effect Sept. 1. (Frazin, 6/13)

The Hill: House Democrats Vote To Overturn Trump Ban On Fetal Tissue Research
House Democrats on Thursday voted to block the Trump administration’s recent ban on using federal funds to conduct medical research that relies on material collected from elective abortions. An amendment from Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) to a broader health care spending package passed 225-193, largely along party lines. (Weixel, 6/13)

Stat: House Votes To Overturn Trump Administration Ban On Fetal Tissue Research
Democrats prevailed in a 225-193 vote divided roughly on party lines, slipping the amendment from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) into a broader 2020 spending package. But the maneuver is largely symbolic. With the Senate controlled by Republicans and the White House steadfast in its opposition to the controversial research practice, President Trump is unlikely to sign into law a spending bill that overturns his administration’s own directive. The White House announced on June 5 it would no longer allow government scientists to use fetal tissue for biomedical research. (Facher and Thielking, 6/13)

The Hill: Democrats Roll Out Proposal Requiring Insurance To Cover OTC Birth Control
House and Senate Democrats rolled out a proposal Thursday that would require insurance companies to cover over-the-counter birth control at no cost to patients. The measure, introduced by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would ensure birth control that is available to women without a prescription is covered by insurance companies. (Hellmann, 6/13)

The Associated Press: New York Set To Cut Religious Exemption To Vaccine Mandates
New York is set to eliminate a religious exemption to vaccine requirements in the face of its worst measles outbreak in decades. The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly voted Thursday to repeal the exemption, which allows parents of children to cite their religious beliefs to opt a child out of the vaccines required for school enrollment. (Klepper, 6/13)

The New York Times: Measles Outbreak: N.Y. Bans Religious Exemptions For Vaccinations
The Legislature’s approval added New York to a small handful of states that do not allow exemptions on religious grounds, including California, West Virginia, Mississippi and Arizona. The issue is particularly germane in New York, where many measles cases have originated in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and in Rockland County, where so-called vaccine symposiums have featured speakers that encouraged people to shun vaccines. (McKinley, 6/13)

The Hill: New York State Senate Set To Advance Bills To End Religious Exemptions For Vaccines
“The only way to stop the outbreak of measles — a dangerous and sometimes fatal disease — is to make sure as many children as possible are vaccinated,” said Dr. Linda P. Fried, dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “The New York Senate’s passage of critical legislation to eliminate non-medical exemptions from childhood vaccination requirements is a vital step towards protecting all New Yorkers — including vulnerable children — from this grave public health emergency.” (Axelrod, 6/13)

The Washington Post: New York, Epicenter Of Measles Outbreak, Bans Religious Exemptions For Vaccines
All states have laws requiring various vaccines for students and all allow for medical exemptions. Many also grant parents the right to exempt their children from the vaccines for religious reasons, and a smaller number for philosophical reasons. But the tide of public opinion has been changing as measles cases this year have already surged to the highest levels since 1992. (Rosenberg, 6/13)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Ends Religious Exemptions For School Vaccinations
The New York bill nearly died on Thursday during a vote in the Assembly’s health committee. The committee initially voted 13-13, but Assemblyman Nader Sayegh, a Democrat from Yonkers, switched his vote to be in favor of the bill, allowing it to advance to the floor. He voted against it in the chamber-wide vote. The Assembly passed the bill on a 77-53 vote and the Senate approved it 36-26. During the floor debate on Thursday, both Democratic and Republican Assembly members expressed concern over the scope of the bill, citing potential violations of constitutional religious-freedom protections. (Blint-Welsh, 6/13)

The New York Times: Jessica Biel Weighs In On Vaccine Fight, Drawing Fierce Pushback
The public conversation over vaccines in America has been clouded by confusion, debunked scientific studies and unfounded claims over toxins and vaccine injury. But one image that spread widely on Thursday told a clear story: the actress Jessica Biel, sitting next to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has publicly questioned the safety of vaccines, on a trip this week to lobby the California Legislature against a bill that would toughen immunization requirements in the state. (Bosman and Levin, 6/13)

The Hill: Mailchimp Cracks Down On Anti-Vaccination Content
Mailchimp is blocking anti-vaccination content from its platform, calling the spread of misinformation a "serious threat to public health." The marketing service said in a statement Thursday it shut down a number of accounts for anti-vaccination content that violate its terms of use. "Spreading misinformation about the safety and efficacy of vaccines poses a serious threat to public health and causes real-world harm. We cannot allow these individuals and groups to use our Marketing Platform to spread harmful messages and expand their audiences," a Mailchimp spokesman said. (Klar, 6/13)

The New York Times: Here Is What Jessica Biel Opposes In California’s Vaccine Bill
California requires every child who attends a public or private school to be immunized against a number of diseases, including measles. California is one of four states that do not allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their children because of religious or personal beliefs (Maine, Mississippi and West Virginia are the others). But it does allow medical exemptions: A doctor can excuse a child from receiving some or all of the required vaccinations if there is a medical reason to do so. (Hassan, 6/13)

The Washington Post: Jessica Biel Lobbied With Anti-Vaxxer Robert Kennedy But Says She Supports Vaccines
Biel, who is known for her role on the series “7th Heaven,” wrote on Instagram that she supports children getting vaccinations but is concerned that the bill’s medical exemption requirements are too strict. She said she worries about people such as her friends, whose child has a medical condition that requires exemption from vaccinations. (Iati, 6/13)

CNN: Jessica Biel Says She's Not Against Vaccinations
SB 276, which is currently under review, is a California state bill that seeks to limit medical exemptions from vaccinations. The bill has been opposed by anti-vaccine advocates, as it effectively makes it harder for parents in the state to find a way around the strict rules that require children to receive vaccines before being enrolled in public or private elementary and secondary schools. "My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family's ability to care for their child in this state," Biel's post continued. (Gonzalez, 6/13)

Los Angeles Times: Jessica Biel, Facing Criticism, Explains Why She Opposes California Vaccine Bill
Vaccination proponents have lambasted Biel for appearing with foes of childhood immunizations, and some of the heat is coming from fellow celebrities. Comedian Jen Kirkman harshly criticized Biel in a tweet Thursday morning that has since been removed. “People are dying due to anti-vaxxers and your ignorance will contribute to that death toll,” she wrote. The bill has passed the state Senate but now faces a more organized opposition effort, which includes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known critic of vaccinations. Biel quietly appeared with Kennedy at the Capitol on Tuesday, one week after Kennedy had lauded Gov. Gavin Newsom for critical remarks about the legislation. Newsom has stated he is not opposing the bill, but his remarks appear to have emboldened its critics. (Grad, 6/13)

Stat: Sanders And Cummings, Citing ‘Polite F-U Letters,’ Urge Feds To Step Up Probes Of Generic Makers
As dozens of states pursue numerous generic drug makers for price-fixing, a pair of prominent lawmakers have complained to the Justice Department about a “lack of enforcement” and asked the agency to accelerate its own investigation into the companies. In a letter sent to the feds on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) also asked the Justice Department to probe whether 14 generic drug makers obstructed their own 2014 investigation into “suspicious” price increases for several generic medicines. (Silverman, 6/13)

CNN: Lawmakers Urge DOJ To Launch A Criminal Probe Of Generic Drug Makers
"We urge the Department of Justice to investigate whether generic drug companies and executives violated criminal antitrust laws and ask that the Department of Justice pursue enforcement if warranted," the lawmakers said. The news comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed last month by a coalition of 44 states, alleging that 20 major drug manufacturers conspired to artificially inflate and manipulate the prices of more than 100 generic drugs, with the companies making billions in the process. (Drash, 6/13)

Stat: How A Mishap At A Photocopier Derailed Clinical Trials And A Development Deal
Sometimes, small mistakes become big problems. Just ask Ferring Pharmaceuticals. Several years ago, an employee inadvertently switched dosage labels that were printed on a photocopier, triggering a series of events that undermined a pair of late-stage clinical trials and ultimately scrapped a development deal, according to a lawsuit filed by Elobix, its erstwhile partner. (Silverman, 6/13)

The Associated Press: US Considers More Options For Detaining Transgender Migrants
Behind a thick metal door and down a sterile hallway at a privately-run detention center in rural New Mexico, voices echo from the confines of a small outdoor recreation yard. It's a three-on-three volleyball match. The players, all clad in different colored jumpsuits, are transgender women awaiting the outcome of their cases while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Montoya Bryan, 6/13)

The Associated Press: New Campaign Seeks To Put Medicaid Expansion Up For A Vote
A statewide coalition has launched a campaign to put the question of whether to expand Medicaid coverage to thousands of uninsured Oklahoma residents before voters. A group of medical professionals, patients, business leaders, nonprofits and health care advocates launched the Oklahomans Decide Healthcare campaign on Wednesday, The Oklahoman reported. "We're normal, everyday Oklahomans that care about this issue and we're growing every day," said spokeswoman Amber England. (6/13)

The New York Times: Flint Water Prosecutors Drop Criminal Charges, With Plans To Keep Investigating
Fifteen state and local officials, including emergency managers who ran the city and a member of the governor’s cabinet, had been accused by state prosecutors of crimes as serious as involuntary manslaughter. Seven had already taken plea deals. Eight more, including most of the highest-ranking officials, were awaiting trial. On Thursday, more than three years after the first charges were filed, the Michigan attorney general’s office, which earlier this year passed from Republican to Democratic hands, abruptly dropped the eight remaining cases. Prosecutors left open the possibility of recharging some of those same people, and perhaps others, too. (Smith, 6/13)

The Associated Press: Charges Dropped For 8 People In The Flint Water Scandal
Seven people pleaded no contest earlier to misdemeanors in deals that will leave them without a criminal record. Charges were dropped against the other eight Thursday when prosecutors announced they were restarting the investigation. (6/13)

The New York Times: Dark Web Drug Sellers Dodge Police Crackdowns
Authorities in the United States and Europe recently staged a wide-ranging crackdown on online drug markets, taking down Wall Street Market and Valhalla, two of the largest drug markets on the so-called dark web. Yet the desire to score drugs from the comfort of home and to make money from selling those drugs appears for many to be stronger than the fear of getting arrested. Despite enforcement actions over the last six years that led to the shutdown of about half a dozen sites — including the most recent two — there are still close to 30 illegal online markets, according to DarknetLive, a news and information site for the dark web. (Popper, 6/11)

Stat: FDA Warns Of One Patient Death From A Fecal Transplant
The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that at least one person has died after a fecal microbiome transplant transmitted drug-resistant bacteria. The FDA said one other person was also sick from the transplant; both people had weaker-than-normal immune systems and received stool from the same donor. The stool was not tested for a type of bacteria that produces an enzyme called beta-lactamase. (Sheridan, 6/13)

The New York Times: Fecal Transplant Is Linked To A Patient’s Death, The F.D.A. Warns
As a result, the agency is halting a number of clinical trials until the researchers conducting them can demonstrate that they have procedures in place to screen donated stool for dangerous organisms, said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. In an interview, he did not specify how many trials would be suspended, but said it was “not just a few.” Fecal transplants have come into increasing use to treat severe intestinal disorders, particularly an infection caused by a bacterium called Clostridium difficile, which can be deadly and tends to occur in hospitalized patients who have been heavily treated with antibiotics. (Grady, 6/13)

Stat: Researchers Recruit 20,000 People For Facebook-Based Genomics Project
One of the biggest challenges that researchers have traditionally faced is getting enough people to participate in studies. And patient recruitment also takes up a big portion of research funding. But one group’s model may have found a solution to that problem — by using social media and the promise of giving people their results as a recruitment tool. In a study published Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers behind the Genes for Good project share what they’ve learned since launching it in 2015. (Chakradhar, 6/13)

The New York Times: How Much Nature Is Enough? 120 Minutes A Week, Doctors Say
It’s a medical fact: Spending time outdoors, especially in green spaces, is good for you. A wealth of research indicates that escaping to a neighborhood park, hiking through the woods, or spending a weekend by the lake can lower a person’s stress levels, decrease blood pressure and reduce the risk asthma, allergies, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, while boosting mental health and increasing life expectancy. Doctors around the world have begun prescribing time in nature as a way of improving their patients’ health. (Sheikh, 6/13)

The New York Times: That Sleep Tracker Could Make Your Insomnia Worse
Are you sabotaging your sleep in your quest to improve it? Many new tools are becoming available to monitor your sleep or help you achieve better sleep: wearable watches and bands; "nearable" devices that you can place on your bed or nightstand; and apps that work by monitoring biometric data, noise and movement. They can remind you to start winding down, or generate a report on your night’s slumber. (Zraick and Mervosh, 6/13)

NPR: How Doctors And Researchers With Disabilities Are Changing Medicine
Bonnielin Swenor has devoted her life to studying visual impairment in older adults. But for a long time, she didn't often discuss the motivation fueling her work — that she herself has low vision. Swenor, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, has myopic macular degeneration, a condition that leaves her with extremely limited vision. (Neilson, 6/13)

The Washington Post: Neurofibromatosis: Paraguayan Patient Enrique Galvan Undergoes Surgery In California For Rare Skin Condition
When Enrique Galvan was growing up in Paraguay, other children called him a monster. He had been diagnosed as a toddler with a rare genetic disorder called neurofibromatosis, causing benign tumors to form on his nerve tissue and create what appeared to be pieces of extra skin drooping from his head, neck and face. It wasn’t until he was old enough to go to school that he started to notice — and other children did, too. (Bever, 6/13)

The New York Times: Depo-Provera, An Injectable Contraceptive, Does Not Raise H.I.V. Risk
For decades, many African women in need of birth control they could use in secret have relied on intramuscular hormone injections that prevent pregnancy for three months. But in recent years, women have been terrified — and family planning officials frustrated — as studies suggested that women using injectables were far more likely to get infected with H.I.V. (McNeil, 6/13)

The Associated Press: '5B' Documentary Tells Story Of Pioneering AIDS Caretakers
The impact of San Francisco General Hospital's ward 5B — the first hospital division dedicated to treating people with AIDS — has far outlasted its existence. The ward, which opened in 1989, is the focus of a new documentary, "5B," which has nurses, patients, and supporters recount the fight for non-discriminatory health care for those diagnosed with AIDS until 5B transitioned to treating a broader spectrum of patients in the late 1990s. (6/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Reusing Syringes, Drips Infected Hundreds Of Pakistani Children With HIV
Unsafe, but common, practices such as reusing drips and syringes caused hundreds of Pakistani children to be infected with HIV, according to a World Health Organization team investigating a sudden outbreak in a poor southeastern town. The WHO’s preliminary findings, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and presented to Pakistani health officials Friday, offer a window into how more than 650 children tested positive for HIV in one town over six weeks of government tests, while nearly all their parents tested negative. (Rana, 6/14)

The Associated Press: After Mass Shooting, Virginia Gov To Host Gun Control Talks
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is announcing a series of public talks his administration will host in the run up to a July 9 special session on gun laws. Northam’s office said Thursday that Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran and Secretary of Health and Human Resources Daniel Carey are hosting the roundtable discussions around the state. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine will join some of the events. (6/14)

The Washington Post: UMMS Report: Lawmakers Condemn Self-Dealing
Maryland lawmakers called Thursday for accountability regarding management failures at the University of Maryland Medical System and questioned why four board members who relinquished their duties after a self-dealing scandal was exposed in March were invited this week to rejoin the board. An outside review released Wednesday largely blamed former chief executive Robert A. Chrencik for hiring companies linked to board members to provide services to the system, ranging from computer software to ambulance transport to thousands of children’s books written and published by then-Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D). (Chason, 6/13)

Sacramento Bee/ProPublica: There Has Been An Explosion Of Homicides In California’s County Jails. Here’s Why.
Deadly violence has surged in county jails across California since the state began sending thousands of inmates to local lockups instead of prisons, the result of a dramatic criminal justice transformation that left many sheriffs ill-equipped to handle a new and dangerous population. Since 2011, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to overhaul its overcrowded prisons, inmate-on-inmate homicides have risen 46% in county jails statewide compared with the seven years before, a McClatchy and ProPublica analysis of California Department of Justice data and autopsy records shows. (Pohl and Gabrielson, 6/13)

The Washington Post: 911 Upgrade Could Cost Californians Despite Budget Surplus
A $214.8 billion budget approved Thursday by California lawmakers would upgrade the state’s aging 911 system following the most devastating wildfire season in state history and help middle class families pay their monthly health insurance premiums. To fund those changes, however, lawmakers want to impose a new monthly fee on phone bills and tax people who refuse to buy private health insurance, even though the state has a projected $21.5 billion surplus, the largest in at least 20 years. (Beam, 6/13)

The New York Times: Shuffled Among Homeless Shelters, And Not Told Why
Patrice Joseph believed she was singled out when she complained about cigarette smoke and plumbing problems at the homeless shelter where she and her teenage son and daughter lived in Jamaica, Queens. Within days last month, the family was moved to a shelter in the Bronx. Ms. Joseph, who had two jobs, said she lost a position at a Queens pharmaceutical manufacturing company because she was often late for work or absent. (Stewart, 6/13)

The Washington Post: Smithsonian Is Trying To Help Disabled People Get Jobs — One Young Intern At A Time
As a child, Mionna Smith’s dream was to work with animals when she grew up. Today, the 19-year-old from Fort Stanton in southeast Washington has an administrative role at the Smithsonian Institution’s office of finance and accounting, sorting mail, restocking supply caddies and scanning invoices — no furry creatures in sight. “I didn’t want to be in an office job,” she said. And yet, when she found out in April that the Smithsonian was offering her a role as an office automation clerk, she was so happy she doubled over with joy at her desk. Her mother, thrilled, cried when Mionna shared the news with her. (Smith, 6/13)

The Associated Press: Columbine Survivor, Addiction Speaker Died Of Drug Overdose
A Colorado coroner has determined a Columbine massacre survivor and addiction recovery advocate died of a drug overdose. The Denver Post reports the Routt County Coroner’s Office says an autopsy determined the death last month of 37-year-old Austin Eubanks resulted from a heroin overdose. Officials say Eubanks was found by his father May 18 in his Steamboat Springs home. (6/13)

The Associated Press: Utility Will Remove Coal Ash From Pits Near Tennessee River
The nation’s largest public utility on Thursday agreed to dig up and remove about 12 million cubic yards (9.2 million cubic meters) of coal ash from unlined pits at a Tennessee coal-burning power plant. Prompted by two environmental groups, the state sued the Tennessee Valley Authority in 2015 over pollution from coal ash dumps at the Gallatin Fossil Plant. According to court filings, pollutants leach from the ash into the groundwater and then enter the Cumberland River, a source of drinking water for Nashville. (Loller, 6/13)

The Associated Press: Outbreak Of Legionnaire's Blamed On Hot Water System
An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at a newly opened hospital outside Columbus has been traced to its hot water system. The health department said at least 16 patients admitted to the 210-bed Mount Carmel Grove City hospital after its opening April 28 have been diagnosed with Legionnaires'. The disease is a severe form of pneumonia that's caused by inhaling tiny water droplets containing the legionella bacteria. One of the patients, a 75-year-old woman, died. (6/13)

The Associated Press: USC Gynecologist Class-Action Lawsuit Gets Initial Approval
A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a class-action settlement of claims against the University of Southern California stemming from sexual abuse allegations against a gynecologist who worked at a student health center for decades. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson gave the initial approval Wednesday and set a hearing on final approval for Jan. 6, 2020. (6/13)

Los Angeles Times: Judge Signs Off On USC’s $215-Million Settlement With Patients Of Ex-Gynecologist
Under the terms of the settlement, the approximately 17,000 women treated during the physician’s three-decade career would each be eligible to receive between $2,500 and $250,000. The amount would depend on the severity of the misconduct alleged and the women’s willingness to confidentially detail those experiences in written statements or interviews. (Hamilton and Ryan, 6/13)