First Edition: June 21, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Surgeons’ Opioid-Prescribing Habits Hard To Kick
As opioid addiction and deadly overdoses escalated into an epidemic across the U.S., thousands of surgeons continued to hand out far more pills than needed for postoperative pain relief, according to a KHN-Johns Hopkins analysis of Medicare data. Many doctors wrote prescriptions for dozens of opioid tablets after surgeries — even for operations that cause most patients relatively little pain, according to the analysis, done in collaboration with researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. It examined almost 350,000 prescriptions written for patients operated on by nearly 20,000 surgeons from 2011 to 2016 — the latest year for which data are available. (Appleby and Lucas, 6/21)

Kaiser Health News: Opioid Operators: How Surgeons Ply Patients With Painkillers
Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Our team looked at surgeons whose Medicare patients filled a prescription for opioids within a week of having one of seven common surgical procedures. (Lucas, 6/20)

Kaiser Health News: Curing Cancer: Easy Politics, Difficult Science
President Donald Trump made a new promise if voters grant him a second term: “We will come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases, including cancer.” Trump’s statement was part of his 2020 campaign kickoff in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday. It echoed remarks by former vice president and Democratic candidate Joe Biden on the stump last week in Iowa: “I promise you, if I’m elected president, you’re going to see the single most important thing that changes America: We’re going to cure cancer.” (Luthra, 6/20)

Kaiser Health News: Legal Weed’s A Growing Danger To Dogs, So Keep Your Canine Out Of Your Cannabis
It all started on a Tuesday night, when I came home from work to an unmistakable absence. My brown-and-white pitbull mix, Maizey, wasn’t at the top of the stairs to greet me. Instead, she was in her bed, shaky and confused. When I tried to get her up, she stumbled, nearly falling over while standing still. Walking to the vet, she leaped like a puppy chasing imaginary balls.Later, at the 24-hour veterinary clinic in San Francisco’s Mission District, the staff ran tests and determined Maizey was in no immediate danger. (Klivans, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump To Issue Executive Order On Health-Care Price Transparency
President Trump plans to issue an executive order Monday to compel the disclosure of prices in health care, according to people familiar with the matter. The order will direct federal agencies to initiate regulations and guidance that could require insurers, doctors, hospitals and others in the industry to provide information about the negotiated and often discounted cost of care, sources said. Consumers and employers will benefit because pulling back the secrecy around the prices will allow them to shop for lower cost care and benefits, advocates say. (Armour, 6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Your Employee Health Plan Could Soon Look Like Your 401(k)
A landmark change will soon give more American workers control over their health-care coverage, but be warned: There are pitfalls. Beginning Jan. 1, 2020, companies can provide employees with tax-free dollars to purchase an individual policy rather than offer them a traditional group-health plan. The Trump administration laid out the final rules for the so-called Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or HRAs, just this month. (Saunders, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration’s Abortion ‘Gag Rule’ Can Take Effect, Court Rules
A panel of federal appeals court judges ruled on Thursday that a Trump administration family planning “gag rule” that could cut as much as $60 million in Title X funds from Planned Parenthood could go into effect immediately. The decision is a major setback for the women’s health-care provider and for 21 state attorneys general who filed lawsuits shortly after the policy was published in March, arguing it would undermine the patient-provider relationship and endanger the health of millions of women. (Cha, 6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Court Allows New Rules Blocking Family-Planning Funds For Abortion Providers
The court order, from the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, hands a victory to the White House and social conservatives, and deals a blow in particular to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which has been the largest family-planning care provider under a federal program known as Title X. The Ninth Circuit generally is considered the nation’s most liberal appeals court, but the administration drew a favorable conservative panel for the case; all three judges who participated were appointed by Republican presidents. (Kendall, 6/20)

Politico: Appeals Court Says Trump Family Planning Restrictions Can Take Effect
A panel of three judges, all appointed by previous Republican presidents, said the administration will likely prevail in the legal battle over the Title X family planning program since the Supreme Court held up similar Reagan-era rules almost 30 years ago, though they were reversed by the Clinton administration before taking effect. "Absent a stay, HHS will be forced to allow taxpayer dollars to be spent in a manner that it has concluded violates the law, as well as the Government’s important policy interest in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not go to fund or subsidize abortions," the judges wrote in a 3-0 opinion. (Ollstein, 6/20)

The Hill: Appeals Court Allows Trump Abortion Referral Ban To Take Effect
Title X grants fund clinics offering contraceptive services to low-income women and men across the country. It’s not clear when the changes will take effect. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not respond to a request for comment. “We are pleased that the Ninth Circuit has cleared the way for this important executive branch action to take effect while our appeals are pending," Department of Justice spokeswoman Kelly Laco said in a statement.  (Hellmann, 6/20)

The Associated Press: Missouri Faces Deadline To Decide On Abortion Clinic License
The battle over Missouri's only abortion clinic is back in court Friday, the deadline a judge imposed for the state to decide whether to renew the clinic's license. Missouri's health department allowed the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic's abortion license to lapse effective June 1. Rulings by St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer allowed the clinic to temporarily remain open. (6/21)

The Associated Press: St. Louis Abortion Clinic To Defy State Over Pelvic Exam
Missouri's only abortion clinic, already facing the threat of losing its license, says it will defy the state by refusing to perform a required pelvic examination days before an abortion. Calling the exam requirement "disrespectful and dehumanizing," a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman confirmed that as of Thursday the St. Louis clinic no longer performs it during a consultation at least 72 hours before an abortion. Doctors do perform a pelvic exam at the time of the procedure. (6/20)

The Associated Press: Republicans Urge Wisconsin Governor To Sign Abortion Bills
Wisconsin Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents on Thursday called on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to sign four abortion bills he has promised to veto, holding a rally just a few feet outside of his Capitol office. Abortion-rights advocates dressed as characters from the dystopian novel and TV series "The Handmaid's Tale" mingled with abortion opponents on a balcony overlooking the rally, with each side holding opposing signs. Republican lawmakers turned the typically private, procedural step of signing the bills that passed the Legislature into a public ceremony to increase attention on the measures. (6/20)

The Associated Press: Migrant Children Describe Neglect At Texas Border Facility
A 2-year-old boy locked in detention wants to be held all the time. A few girls, ages 10 to 15, say they've been doing their best to feed and soothe the clingy toddler who was handed to them by a guard days ago. Lawyers warn that kids are taking care of kids, and there's inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the Border Patrol station. The bleak portrait emerged Thursday after a legal team interviewed 60 children at the facility near El Paso that has become the latest place where attorneys say young migrants are describing neglect and mistreatment at the hands of the U.S. government. (Attanasio, Burke and Mendoz, 6/20)

ProPublica: Years Ago, The Border Patrol’s Discipline System Was Denounced As 'Broken.' It’s Still Not Fixed.
Perhaps the most far-reaching idea was to reclassify the more than 40,000 Border Patrol agents and customs officers as “national security employees,” just as all FBI agents and employees at a number of other Homeland Security agencies currently are. Taking away their status as civil servants, the thinking went, would make it easier to fire corrupt and abusive employees.It was, to be sure, an extreme measure. But the panel, a subcommittee of a larger Homeland Security advisory council, had been created late in President Barack Obama’s second term because U.S. Customs and Border Protection seemed in crisis, and the panel subsequently determined that the agency was plagued by a system that allowed bad actors to stay on the payroll for years after they’d engaged in egregious, even criminal, misconduct. (Thompson, 6/20)

Stat: Pharma CEOs Didn’t Show Up For A Scolding. So Progressives Shadowboxed
“Is Heather Bresch here?” The mock roll call from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) was orchestrated largely in jest. In front of him stood six empty shares and an empty table, topped by six nameplates without faces to match. Bresch, the CEO of the generic drug maker Mylan, was not there. Nor were the other five pharmaceutical industry executives who progressive lawmakers had “invited” to testify, and whose names Pocan called out to be met by silence and snickers from a room of left-leaning drug pricing advocates. (Facher, 6/20)

Stat: After A Pharma Lobbying Blitz, Congress Softens Legislation On Drug Patents
Pharmaceutical companies appear to have succeeded in watering down legislation that would have made it harder for them to protect their medicines by accumulating patents — the latest win for the industry in Congress. The legislation was aimed at patent “thickets,” in which drug makers obtain a large number of patents to extend their pricing monopoly on any given medicine. The legislation is still in flux. (Florko, 6/21)

Reuters: Merck CEO Sees Legal Challenge If U.S. Adopts Drug Pricing Based On Other Countries
Merck & Co Chief Executive Ken Frazier said on Thursday a rule to base the price the U.S. government pays for some prescription drugs in it Medicare program on lower prices in other countries would face legal challenges if adopted. U.S. President Donald Trump said last year that one way his administration would seek to lower drug costs to consumers could be through an international pricing index (IPI) that would determine what Medicare pays for certain medicines based on the prices set in a handful of other countries. A proposed version of the rule is expected in August. (6/20)

Stat: Europe Launches A Sweeping Effort To Study Drug Safety In Pregnancy
Drug companies, politicians, hospitals, doctors, and patients all agree that there isn’t nearly enough information about whether a given medicine is safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women to use or whether it will work. A sweeping new effort in Europe aims to change that by bringing all of those groups together to address a public health issue they say demands urgent attention. (Thielking, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Congress Targets China’s Biotech Ambitions
Pentagon funding helped San Francisco startup Twist Bioscience Corp. get off the ground. Then the maker of synthetic DNA got a partner in China, where it now plans to expand manufacturing and set up a subsidiary with the money from its recent initial public offering. In effect, the Defense Department’s nearly $5 million in funding for Twist served as a small boost to China’s rising biotech industry, which will benefit from the firm’s presence and the manufacturing jobs it creates. (O'Keefe, 6/20)

The Hill: Democrat, Trump Nominee Have Fiery Exchange Over Abortion Rights For Rape Victims
President Trump's nominee to be the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva sparred with the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday over whether rape victims should be allowed to have abortions. "Should victims of sexual violence be able to terminate the pregnancy where legal?," the committee's ranking member, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), asked nominee Andrew Bremberg, currently the director of the Domestic Policy Council for the White House. (Siegel, 6/20)

The Washington Post: Luis Alvarez, 9/11 Responder Who Fought For Victim Fund With Jon Stewart, Moves To Hospice
In what he indicated was his final interview, Luis Alvarez’s message was simple: It’s time for the government to make things right. The retired New York Police Department detective and Ground Zero responder implored members of Congress last week to reauthorize funding for people injured or sickened as a result of the 9/11 attacks. His heart-wrenching testimony drew national attention, one day before what would have been his 69th chemotherapy session to treat Stage 4 cancer. He was diagnosed 16 years after he rushed to Ground Zero after the twin towers collapsed. (Brice-Saddler, 6/20)

The Washington Post: In Oklahoma, Opioid Case Windfall Starts Winners Squabbling
When Oklahoma settled a landmark lawsuit against drugmaker Purdue Pharma in March, the state and some of its cities looked on with irritation as nearly $200 million went to a new addiction treatment and research center at Oklahoma State University. The state, which Attorney General Mike Hunter was elected to represent, got nothing in the $270 million deal. Oklahoma’s more than 670 cities and counties, which have absorbed most of the emergency and health-care costs of the opioid epidemic, received just $12.5 million to divvy up. Neither had any say in the agreement, which gave about $60 million to private attorneys hired to work on the case. (Bernstein, 6/20)

Stat: FDA, Accused Of Being Too Lax In Approval Of Opioids, Outlines New Criteria
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday outlined the agency’s plans for weighing submissions for new opioid approvals, following criticism that the agency has been too lax in giving the green light to powerful new painkillers and calls for it to halt the approval of new opioids. In a draft guidance, the agency said that it planned to start comparing the safety and effectiveness of opioid medications up for approval against those of painkillers — both opioids and other types — already on the market. (Joseph, 6/20)

The Associated Press: US Appeals Court Says Judge Went Too Far On Drug Data Order
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a judge went too far in blocking release of federal data about how prescription opioids were distributed. A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel on Thursday vacated an order by Cleveland-based U.S. District Judge Dan Polster to keep the Drug Enforcement Administration database and other case information sealed from the public. The panel wrote that Polster should follow proper legal standards in deciding what information could be withheld and why it would be harmful to release it. (6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: WHO Removes Opioid Guidelines After Report Claims Drug-Industry Influence
The World Health Organization has withdrawn two prescription guidelines for opioid painkillers after U.S. lawmakers alleged the guidance was influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. The WHO, which provides public-health policy guidance for world-wide use, said Wednesday it was discontinuing the guidelines “in light of new scientific evidence.” The move will also “address any issues of conflicts of interest of the experts that have been raised,” the organization said in a statement. (Calfas, 6/20)

The Associated Press: California Assembly Committee Backs Vaccine Exemption Law
A California Assembly committee backed new rules for vaccination exemptions on Thursday following a raucous, hours-long hearing in the midst of a national measles outbreak and renewed scrutiny of immunization policies. The 9-2 vote showed support among lawmakers for a modified version of legislation that has spurred heated debate. But the vote also showed division within the Assembly’s Democratic majority. (Oxford and Thompson, 6/20)

The Associated Press: Hundreds Likely To Weigh In On California Vaccine Measure
Hundreds of people were expected to weigh in Thursday on changes to California legislation that would give public health officials oversight of doctors who grant a high number of vaccination exemptions. The hearing of the Assembly Health Committee is likely to draw those opposed to vaccines as well as white-coated medical professionals and students voicing support for the measure. Critics shouted “we will not comply” inside the Senate last month as lawmakers voted on the legislation. (Thompson, 6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Bill To Limit Vaccine Exemptions In California Draws Protests
[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] rallied opponents of the new California bill on the Capitol steps ahead of the hearing Thursday. He called the proposal a “momentous bill that is going to affect the lives of millions of people in this state and particularly the most vulnerable children in this state.” At the rally, children gathered on top of a large piece of paper and wrote messages in colored pens addressed to Mr. Newsom, calling on him to veto the legislation. Rebecca Goddard, who traveled from the Orange County city of Mission Viejo to attend the rally in Sacramento, said her 12-year-old son suffers impaired cognitive development that she attributed to vaccinations. (Lazo and Millman, 6/20)

The New York Times: Would You Return This Lost Wallet?
It’s obvious: Someone finding a lost wallet is less likely to return it if money is inside, right? That’s what top economists, as well as regular people, usually predict, given what most of us assume about human nature. But according to a clever new study involving thousands of people in 40 countries, what most of us assume about human nature is wrong. The three-year study, possibly the largest real-world test of whether people behave honestly when given incentives not to, found they are actually more likely to return lost wallets containing money. And the more money, the better the chances people will return it. (Belluck, 6/20)

The Associated Press: Lost Wallet? More Cash Means You're Likelier To Get It Back
"The evidence suggests that people tend to care about the welfare of others, and they have an aversion to seeing themselves as a thief," said Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan, one author who reported the results Thursday in the journal Science. Another author, Christian Zuend of the University of Zurich, said "it suddenly feels like stealing" when there's money in the wallet. "And it feels even more like stealing when the money in the wallet increases," he added. That idea was supported by the results of polls the researchers did in the U.S., the U.K. and Poland, he told reporters. (6/20)

Los Angeles Times: Experiment With ‘Lost’ Wallets Reveals That People Are Surprisingly Honest
The findings could help shape policies that encourage conscientious behavior in a range of situations, researchers said. The Internal Revenue Service could design its forms in a way that discourages people from cheating on their taxes, for example, while insurance companies could change the way they collect information about a car accident so that lying becomes less appealing. (DeMarco, 6/20)

NPR: Russian Biologist Seeks To Edit Genes Of Human Embryos With CRISPR
A Russian scientist says he wants to create more genetically modified babies, flouting international objections that such a step would be premature, unethical and irresponsible. Denis Rebrikov, a molecular biologist who heads a gene-editing lab at the Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology in Moscow, claims he has developed a safe — and therefore acceptable — way to create gene-edited babies. (Stein, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Gun Makers Adjust Rifles To Skirt Bans
California first banned the sale of guns it calls assault weapons, including AR-15 style rifles, in 1989, then updated the restrictions in 1999 and again in 2016. An accused shooter used just such a gun last month to attack a synagogue outside San Diego, killing one and injuring three. He bought it earlier this year in California where, despite the state ban, it is legal, according to law-enforcement officials. The AR-15 style rifle that John Earnest, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, is accused by police of using was one of many models the firearms industry has come up with to skirt the regulations put in place by the seven states that outlaw semiautomatic weapons with certain features, which they refer to as assault weapons. (Elinson and McWhirter, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Robotic Duck Helps Kids With Cancer Explain What They Are Feeling
It was hard enough that Savi Abdallah-Sinha was only a 2-year-old when he began undergoing chemotherapy treatment to rid his body of leukemia. What made his situation even more difficult, his parents say, was knowing that the little boy was so young he lacked the words to communicate the many varieties of acute pain he was experiencing. Each time a new drug was introduced or a round of treatment completed, the boy’s inner world remained largely mysterious to the adults caring for him. (Holley, 6/20)

NPR: Health Trainers Help Patients Stay Well In Rural Communities Far From A Doctor
Gary and Celeste Havener live 40 miles outside of Laramie in southeast Wyoming. They spend a lot of their time growing vegetables and riding horses across the prairie. A few weeks ago, Celeste fell off her horse. "[I] had a very ungraceful dismount and tweaked my knee pretty good," Celeste says. Afterwards, she lay on the ground for a while, trying to figure out how hurt she was. But she was also wondering if a visit to the closest doctor in Laramie was worth it. (Mullen, 6/20)

The New York Times: DNA Microscope Sees ‘Through The Eyes Of The Cell’
Peering inside cells has been an integral part of biology ever since the 17th century, when cells were discovered under a microscope. But even with advances in light and electron microscopy, researchers who want to understand where various molecules are inside a cell — and thus how cells like neurons, immune cells and tumors differ from one another — can glean only so much. Now, scientists have come up with a new way to capture what’s going on in there. (Sheikh, 6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: It’s Okay To Feel Ambivalent About Your Children
Unlike many of his friends, Paul, a divorced 43-year-old publisher in Brooklyn, wasn’t nervous about having children. But now that he has them—two daughters, ages 13 and 3—he regularly finds himself fantasizing about how great life would be without them. (Parents’ names have been changed throughout to protect privacy.) He feels terrible, he says, but he misses the freedom that he once had. He struggles with what he calls “the constant clutching and neediness and lack of ability to concentrate on anything else.” In the case of his older daughter, he finds himself unable to stop comparing her to other children that he feels he likes better, which amplifies his feelings of disconnection and guilt. (Drexler, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: Men Are Expected To Be ‘Strong Silent Types’ — And It’s Breaking Them, Says Henry Rollins
In "The Man They Wanted Me To Be," Jared Yates Sexton explores the culture of toxic masculinity in America. To this day, toxic masculinity permeates offices, factories, highways, bars, locker rooms and pretty much anywhere else American men have taken it upon themselves to be strong, silent and seemingly impervious to the day-to-day brutalities they have invented and inured themselves to. This myth of the seemingly inalienable right to dominance and control perpetrated by men, especially by white males, has myriad catastrophic downsides. (Rollins, 6/20)

The New York Times: About The Idea That You’re Growing Horns From Looking Down At Your Phone … 
You may be hunched over your phone right now, worrying about reports that young people are growing horns on their skulls from spending too much time hunched over smartphones. O. K., cellphones are making us rude and inattentive, but medical experts don’t totally buy the idea that technology is also warping our skeletons. The area of concern is the back of the skull where it meets the neck, a place that already has a slight, normal bump that’s easy to feel. Two Australian researchers say they have found enlargements, or bone spurs in that region, anywhere from a third of an inch to more than an inch long. (Grady, 6/20)

The New York Times: When My Mother Forgot Me
On the day my mother forgot I existed, I sat across from her in a small cafe in the Berkshires, watching her sip her cappuccino and delicately tear off a piece of the croissant we were sharing. As she looked up and met my eyes agreeably and impersonally, I worked to get my bearings in this new world. Ten minutes earlier, when we were driving here, she had told me she couldn’t remember how we’d met. This was two years after my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. (Neuman, 6/21)

Stat: The 23 Best Health And Science Books To Read This Summer
The first day of summer has arrived, and so has STAT’s annual book list of great reads in health, science, and medicine. Read on for recommendations from CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna and CDC Director Robert Redfield. Plus, STAT readers from Boston to Ireland to Australia share their picks, in addition to our staff. Enjoy! (Mupo, 6/21)

The Associated Press: Phoenix Facility Where Woman Was Raped Losing Medicaid Funds
U.S. officials have told the long-term care facility where an incapacitated woman was raped and gave birth last year that it will lose Medicaid funding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told Hacienda HealthCare this week that its participation in the program will end July 3. It says in a letter that Hacienda corrected some practices but remains out of compliance in other areas. (6/20)

The Associated Press: Connecticut Man Charged With Assisting Wife’s Suicide
A Westbrook man helped his cancer-stricken wife to die by suicide and now faces manslaughter charges, state police said. Kevin Conners, 65, told investigators that he held a revolver to the head of his wife, Lori, 62, who pulled the trigger on Sept. 6, according to the arrest warrant. Conners turned himself in at a state police barracks Thursday and posted $50,000 bail, authorities said. He is scheduled to make a court appearance Friday. A phone message was left at a number listed for his home address. (6/20)

ProPublica: Their Father Speaks Spanish. Their Foster Parents Raised Them To Speak Slovak.
When his son was born in 2014, Jorge Matias held the infant in the hospital and sang him the lullabies he had learned as a child in Guatemala. He teased the boy’s mother that he would raise their son to speak Spanish, and one day the two of them would talk in secret around her. But the boy was born with heroin in his system and, when it cleared from his body, Illinois child welfare officials placed him in a foster home. To get his son back, Matias had to complete a long list of requirements, including ending his relationship with the boy’s mother, a heroin addict.Matias visited the boy at his caseworker’s office, changed diapers and learned to prepare a bottle. He documented his son’s growth with photos and videos on his cellphone. (Sanchez and Eldeib, 6/20)