First Edition: June 25, 2019

Kaiser Health News: More Seniors Contemplate 'Rational Suicide'
Ten residents slipped away from their retirement community one Sunday afternoon for a covert meeting in a grocery store cafe. They aimed to answer a taboo question: When they feel they have lived long enough, how can they carry out their own swift and peaceful death? The seniors, who live in independent apartments at a high-end senior community near Philadelphia, showed no obvious signs of depression. They’re in their 70s and 80s and say they don’t intend to end their lives soon. But they say they want the option to take “preemptive action” before their health declines in their later years, particularly due to dementia. (Bailey, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Administration Seeks More Health Care Cost Details For Consumers
Much depends on how the administration writes the rules governing what information must be provided, such as whether it will include hospital-specific prices, regional averages or other measures. While the administration calls for a “consumer-friendly” format, it’s not clear how such a massive amount of data — potentially negotiated price information from thousands of hospitals and insurers for tens of thousands of services — will be presented to consumers. “It’s well intended, but may grossly overestimate the ability of the average patient to decipher this information overload,” said Dan Ward, a vice president at Waystar, a health care payments service. (Appleby, 6/24)

Kaiser Health News: Fuzzy Math Fuels Sanders’ Claim That Cost Barriers To Health Care Kill 30,000 A Year
“Medicare for All” — or single-payer health care — is a flagship issue for Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. So when a conservative group launched an ad campaign claiming such a policy would drive up wait times for medical care, the 2020 candidate responded aggressively. His point: Some people may wait a bit for care under a new system. But under the current one, many people do not have access to affordable care and the results are sometimes dire. Still, Sanders’ precision gave us pause. (Luthra, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health’: Politics Heading Into 2020: Live From Aspen!
The cost of health care looms as a major issue going into the 2020 campaign. But even as Democratic presidential candidates debate ways to bring down prices and expand insurance to more Americans, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are trying to pass legislation to address the price of prescription drugs and put an end to “surprise” out-of-network medical bills. Chris Jennings and Lanhee Chen know about both. Jennings, president of Jennings Policy Strategies, has been a health adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. (6/24)

The New York Times: A New Trump Order May Make More Health Care Prices Public
The White House released an executive order Monday afternoon intended to require insurance companies, doctors and hospitals to give patients more information about precisely what their care will cost before they get it. President Trump announced the new policy at a signing event, flanked by doctors and patients who had been hit by unexpected medical bills. The event came a week after the official launch of his re-election campaign, and it allows the president to make a claim that he is pursuing a far-reaching health reform plan, his answer to voter concerns about the high costs of care. (Abelson and Sanger-Katz, 6/24)

The Associated Press: Trump Signs Order That Aims To Reveal Real Health Care Costs
The idea is to give patients practical information that they can use to save money. For example, if a hospital charges your insurer $3,500 for a type of echocardiogram and the same test costs $550 in a doctor's office, you might go for the lower-price procedure to save on copays. But insurers said the idea could backfire, prompting hospitals that now give deeper discounts to try to raise their own negotiated prices to match what high earners are getting. Hospitals were skeptical of the move. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Signs Executive Order Compelling Disclosure Of Prices In Health Care
While President Trump has pledged repeatedly to take on health costs, the signing of the executive order unleashes coordinated efforts from multiple agencies to pursue the goal. It calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a rule within two months that could require hospitals to publicize information on their negotiated rates with insurers for common procedures. (Armour and Wilde Mathews, 6/24)

Politico: Trump Aims At Health Cost Transparency With Executive Order
The order also calls for a roadmap for consolidating quality metrics across all federal health care programs, expanding access to health care claims data de-identified to preserve privacy and directs the Treasury Department to expand the availability of health savings accounts to pay for more health care services. The administration had hinted it would require hospitals and insurers to disclose their negotiated rates — a prospect that triggered fierce pushback from the both industries. But how specific that information will be is up in the air. Senior administration officials said the executive order will call for a proposed rule to make public information based on negotiated rates, with the level of detail to be hammered out in the rulemaking process. (Roubein, 6/24)

The Washington Post: Trump Signs Executive Order To Compel Disclosure Of Health-Care Prices
“No Americans should be blindsided by bills for medical services they never agreed to in advance,” the president said in a signing ceremony in the White House’s grand foyer. “We are fundamentally changing the nature of the health-care marketplace . . . This is a truly big action. People have no idea how big it is. Some people say bigger than health care itself.” (Goldstein, 6/24)

The Hill: Trump Issues Executive Order To Bring Transparency To Health Care Prices 
Azar said the rules would drive down prices because it would empower patients to shop around for the best costs. The administration says that is difficult to do in the current health care system because hospitals and providers often do not provide quotes for services. “Everyday American patients are being taken advantage of by a system that hides critical information from them that they need to make decisions for them and their families,” Azar said. (Hellmann, 6/24)

NPR: Trump Administration Pushes To Make Health Care Pricing More Transparent
Some consumer advocates welcomed the move. "Today patients don't have access to prices or choices or even ability to see quality," said Cynthia Fisher, founder of a group called Patient Rights Advocate. "I think the exciting part of this executive order is the President and administration are really moving to put the patient in the driver's seat and be empowered for the first time with knowledge and information." (Keith and Simmons-Duffin, 6/24)

The New York Times: Why Transparency On Medical Prices Could Actually Make Them Go Higher
It makes intuitive sense — publish prices negotiated within the health care industry, and consumers will benefit. That’s the argument behind the executive order issued Monday by President Donald Trump that is intended to give patients more information about what health care will cost before they get it. But the peculiarities of the United States health care system, with its longstanding secrecy around negotiated health care prices, mean there is very little research on the possible effects of the particular thing the Trump administration wants to do. (Sanger-Katz, 6/24)

PBS NewsHour: Trump Pushes For New Transparency With Health Care Prices — But Will It Lower Them?
On Monday, President Trump issued executive orders requiring greater transparency around medical costs. But will they help? Nick Schifrin talks to Elisabeth Rosenthal of Kaiser Health News. (6/24)

The New York Times: Supreme Court To Hear Insurers’ Suit On Obamacare
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether the federal government was entitled to break a promise to shield insurance companies from some of the risks they took in participating in the exchanges established by President Barack Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act. In their brief seeking Supreme Court review, two insurance companies said they had been the victims of “a bait-and-switch of staggering dimensions in which the government has paid insurers $12 billion less than what was promised.” (Liptak, 6/24)

The Associated Press: Supreme Court To Review Insurers' Obamacare Claims For $12B
The justices say Monday that they will hear appeals in the fall from insurers who argue that they are entitled to the money under a provision of the "Obamacare" health law that promised insurers a financial cushion for losses they might incur by selling coverage to people in the marketplaces created by the health care law. (6/24)

Reuters: Supreme Court To Hear Insurers' Bid For $12 Billion In Obamacare Money
Under the risk corridor program, insurers that paid out significantly less in claims on policies sold through the exchanges than they took in from premiums provided some of their gains to the government. Insurers that paid out more were entitled to government compensation for part of their losses. (Raymond, 6/24)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court To Consider Whether Federal Government Owes Billions To Health-Care Insurers
But insurers say the government never fully funded the program, and owes them $12 billion.“That $12 billion error alone cries out for this court’s review,” said a brief filed by Moda Health Plan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. “But the consequences of the divided decision extend much further. By giving judicial approval to the government’s egregious disregard for its unambiguous statutory and contractual commitments, the decision provides a roadmap for the government to promise boldly, renege obscurely, and avoid both financial and political accountability for depriving private parties of billions in reliance interests.” (Barnes, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Takes Case On ACA Risk-Sharing Payments
Some smaller insurers, including health cooperatives set up under the ACA, went out of business when they were faced with high-cost customers and didn’t receive the risk corridor payments. A federal appeals court last year sided with the government in a 2-to-1 decision. The majority said Congress validly suspended the payments. A dissenting judge said the appropriations changes didn’t cancel the government’s obligations to pay the money. (Kendall and Armour, 6/24)

Politico: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Obamacare Cases With Billions Of Dollars At Stake
This marks the fifth Obamacare-related case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear in almost a decade since the law's passage, and it may soon hear another — a constitutional challenge brought by Republican-led states and supported by the Trump administration. (Demko, 6/24)

The Associated Press: Government Moves Migrant Kids After AP Exposes Bad Treatment
The U.S. government has removed most of the children from a remote Border Patrol station in Texas following reports that more than 300 children were detained there, caring for each other with inadequate food, water and sanitation. Just 30 children remained at the facility near El Paso Monday, said Rep. Veronica Escobar after her office was briefed on the situation by an official with Customs and Border Protection. (Mendoza and Burke, 6/24)

The New York Times: Hundreds Of Migrant Children Are Moved Out Of An Overcrowded Border Station
Though the station had held a relatively small population of migrants, compared to the tens of thousands who have been crossing the border each month, the lawyers’ accounts offered a rare view into a system that has largely been hidden from public view. Other examples of facilities with poor conditions have trickled out in recent months through reports published by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, as well as from other lawyers who have occasionally been allowed in. Access to the facilities has been largely restricted, however, even as federal authorities have declared that the number of migrants on the border has escalated beyond their ability to safely handle. (Dickerson, 6/24)

Reuters: U.S. Relocates Hundreds Of Migrant Children From Overcrowded Border Station
Just 30 children remained at the facility near El Paso on Monday, according to Elizabeth Lopez-Sandoval, spokeswoman for Representative Veronica Escobar. Children not sent to the HHS shelters were being moved to a tent facility designed for family detention, Lopez-Sandoval said. U.S. law requires children who cross the border without a parent or legal guardian to stay in border patrol's short-term holding facilities for no longer than 72 hours and to be moved to HHS shelters as quickly as possible. (Cooke and Chavez, 6/24)

The Associated Press: 4 Border Deaths In Texas Could Be A Preview Of The Summer
Two babies, a toddler and a woman were found dead near the U.S.-Mexican border, overcome by the sweltering heat in a glimpse of what could lie ahead this summer as record numbers of migrant families try to get into the United States. Authorities believe the four may have been dead for days before the bodies were discovered on Sunday in the Rio Grande Valley. No details were released on the victims' relationship. (Warren and Attanasio, 6/24)

The New York Times: Emergency Aid For Migrants Badly Divides Democrats
Congress is trying to rush $4.5 billion in emergency humanitarian aid to the southwestern border while placing new restrictions on President Trump’s immigration crackdown, spurred on by disturbing images of suffering migrant families and of children living in squalor in overcrowded detention facilities. But with a House vote on the package planned for Tuesday, some Democrats are revolting over the measure, fearing that the aid will be used to carry out Mr. Trump’s aggressive tactics, including deportation raids that he has promised will begin within two weeks. (Davis, 6/24)

The Washington Post: Liberals Angry With Trump Administration Treatment Of Migrant Children Force House Leaders To Amend Border Bill
Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) emerged Monday from a nearly two-hour meeting involving members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — two groups that had expressed concerns about delivering additional funding to the Trump administration — and said a vote would proceed on Tuesday. ... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the meeting after news of poor conditions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection centers and President Trump’s threat of mass deportations cast doubt on whether Congress would be able to pass a border funding package before lawmakers leave Washington on Thursday for a week-long recess. (DeBonis and Bade, 6/24)

The New York Times: Sara Gideon To Challenge Susan Collins For Maine Senate Seat
Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, said on Monday that she would challenge Senator Susan Collins, making her the most formidable opponent yet for a United States Senate seat that Democrats have identified as a target in the 2020 election. Ms. Gideon, a Democrat, said that her decision was spurred partly by the vote that Ms. Collins, a Republican expected to seek her fifth term, cast in support for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. (Saul, 6/24)

The Associated Press: A Top Maine Democrat Announces Bid To Unseat Sen. Collins 
Rep. Sara Gideon, of Freeport, who has been the speaker for the past two terms, has already made access to abortion a central focus of her campaign. Collins, first elected in 1996, is expected to run for another term but has yet to formally announce her candidacy. (Villeneuve, 6/24)

The Associated Press: O'Rourke Proposes New 'War Tax' To Fund Veteran Health Care
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke is pledging to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and help create a federal health care fund to cover the costs of caring for those who serve in future wars by taxing those who don't. The former Texas congressman unveiled his proposal Monday before attending a veterans' roundtable in Tampa, Florida, ahead of the first Democratic presidential debate in Miami on Wednesday. (6/24)

The Associated Press: Missouri Judge Allows Abortions To Continue, For Now
A Missouri judge on Monday ruled that the state's lone abortion clinic can continue performing abortions through Friday but kicked the clinic's lawsuit out of court. St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer extended a preliminary injunction he previously issued in order to give a Planned Parenthood affiliate in St. Louis time to take a licensing fight before an administrative panel. (6/24)

Reuters: Judge Allows Missouri's Only Abortion Clinic To Stay Open For At Least Five More Days
Stelzer ruled Planned Parenthood, the national women's healthcare and abortion provider, had failed to exhaust its remedies before administrative officials and that, as a result, the case should not be heard in state court. The clinic will have to shut its doors if the commission does not act before the end of business on Friday, Planned Parenthood said in a statement. "The terrifying reality is that access is hanging on by a thread with a narrowing timeline," Dr. Colleen McNicholas, a physician at the clinic, said in a statement provided by Planned Parenthood. (6/24)

The Washington Post: Missouri’s Last Abortion Clinic Is Running Out Of Time After Judge’s Latest Ruling
Planned Parenthood’s physicians said they will continue performing abortions as long as they’re allowed, and they accused the state of carrying out an antiabortion political agenda. “The terrifying reality is that access is hanging on by a thread with a narrowing timeline,” Colleen McNicholas, an OB/GYN at the clinic, said in a statement. “The truth is, if the Administrative Hearing Commission does not act by Friday, abortion access in the state of Missouri will be gone. This creates uncertainty for the patients we serve.” (Thebault, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Missouri’s Last Abortion Clinic Can Operate As Fight Moves To State Panel
Doctors and representatives at the Planned Parenthood clinic have characterized the state’s actions as an effort to deplete abortion clinics in the state. State officials have said their focus is on maintaining health and safety standards. “Access is always incredibly important to us,” Dr. Williams said on Friday. “But, just understand, in the regulatory environment, our North Star is always the individual who’s getting patient care.” (Calfas, 6/24)

Stat: Planned Parenthood’s President On Roe V. Wade, Title X, And 2020
It’s been a busy time for Dr. Leana Wen, the new president of Planned Parenthood and the first physician at the helm of the organization in 50 years. Since she took office seven months ago, more than 300 proposals to restrict abortion access were introduced in states across the U.S. Many states have passed laws to that prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Missouri almost became the first state to not have a single abortion provider, until a judge stepped in to allow the lone clinic to stay open. (Chakradhar, 6/25)

The Associated Press: North Carolina Appeals Decision Striking Down Abortion Ban
State officials are appealing a federal judge’s decision that struck down North Carolina’s ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy except in a medical emergency. A lawyer for North Carolina’s Department of Justice filed the notice of appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, hours before the appeal window was to have expired. (6/24)

The Associated Press: Oklahoma Judge Signs State's $85M Settlement With Drugmaker
A judge in Oklahoma signed off on the state's $85 million settlement with Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceuticals on Monday following a squabble between the attorney general, Legislature and governor over how the deal was structured. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman signed the agreement calling for the funds to be used to help abate the state's opioid crisis. (6/24)

The Washington Post: Oklahoma Leaders Reach Deal On Settlement Money To Curb Drug Crisis
After receiving the assurances before a brief court hearing Monday, Oklahoma state judge Thad Balkman approved the $85 million settlement between the state and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Private attorneys hired by the state to work on the case will receive 15 percent of the total, plus reimbursement for their expenses. “The resources and terms of the agreement will help abate the ongoing crisis the state is facing,” state Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement released after the hearing. (Bernstein, 6/24)

USA Today: Pain Patients Left In Anguish By Doctors Who Fear Opioid Addiction
New York resident Mickey Saxbury worked on a General Motors assembly line for 25 years before sharp, throbbing back pain from an on-the-job injury forced him to retire. A back operation failed. A device to block his pain gradually became ineffective. The only thing that’s consistently worked, he says, is pain medication. But a judge overseeing his New York State Workers Compensation Board disability case ordered that his opioids be sharply reduced. (Alltucker and O'Donnell, 6/24)

Politico: Democrats Demand Answers From USDA On Lack Of Climate Science Promotion
Several Democrats criticized Monday the Trump administration after POLITICO reported the Agriculture Department has largely stopped promoting its own climate science. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who's also running for president, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue expressing "deep concern and alarm" over the report. The Minnesota Democrat asked the department to explain its justification for not publicizing certain studies and to immediately release "any [Agricultural Research Service] study related to climate science that was ignored, downplayed, or its findings held back." (Evich, 6/24)

The Associated Press: McConnell To Meet 9/11 Responders To Discuss Victims' Fund
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is meeting this week with Sept. 11 first responders following withering criticism from comedian Jon Stewart that Congress had failed to ensure that a victims' compensation fund never runs out of money. A group of first responders will meet Tuesday with McConnell at the Capitol, said John Feal, a ground zero recovery worker and longtime activist on behalf of first responders. (6/24)

The New York Times: Dozens Of Nursing Homes With HUD-Backed Mortgages Have ‘Serious Deficiencies’
Dozens of the worst-run nursing homes in the United States have mortgages guaranteed by a federal agency that mostly stopped inspecting such homes several years ago. Seventy-four nursing homes with mortgages insured against default by the agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are among 478 homes identified this month by two United States senators as having “serious deficiencies.” (Goldstein and Gebeloff, 6/24)

Stat: How An Alzheimer’s ‘Cabal’ Thwarted Progress Toward A Cure 
The brain, Alzheimer’s researchers patiently explain, is hard — harder than the heart, harder even than cancer. While that may be true, it is increasingly apparent that there is another, more disturbing reason for the tragic lack of progress: The most influential researchers have long believed so dogmatically in one theory of Alzheimer’s that they systematically thwarted alternative approaches. Several scientists described those who controlled the Alzheimer’s agenda as “a cabal.” (Begley, 6/25)

Stat: Drug Makers May Commit To Follow-Up Studies, But Few Are New
As a condition of regulatory approval, drug makers are often required to conduct follow-up studies, but sometimes they also voluntarily agree to run still other trials that can yield important information about the safety, effectiveness, and optimal use of new medicines. However, an analysis finds that few such commitments involved new studies and only half were published in peer-review journals. Specifically, of 110 drugs and biologics that were approved between 2009 and 2012, more than half — or 55.5% — had at least one post-marketing commitment. But only a minority of those post-marketing commitments involved new clinical trials — 33 of 331, or just 10% — as opposed to ongoing studies, according to the analysis that was published in BMC Medicine. (Silverman, 6/24)

Stat: Bristol’s Merger Headaches May Be Contagious
If any pharma CEO is still intoxicated by the idea of a megamerger, the rough Monday Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) is having could be an antidote. The company announced that in order to assuage the Federal Trade Commission’s concerns about its $74 billion purchase of rival Celgene (CELG), it will seek to sell Celgene’s blockbuster psoriasis treatment Otezla. (Herper, 6/24)

ProPublica: Aggression Detectors: The Unproven, Invasive Surveillance Technology Schools Are Using To Monitor Students
Ariella Russcol specializes in drama at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, New York, and the senior’s performance on this April afternoon didn’t disappoint. While the library is normally the quietest room in the school, her ear-piercing screams sounded more like a horror movie than study hall. But they weren’t enough to set off a small microphone in the ceiling that was supposed to detect aggression. A few days later, at the Staples Pathways Academy in Westport, Connecticut, junior Sami D’Anna inadvertently triggered the same device with a less spooky sound — a coughing fit from a lingering chest cold. As she hacked and rasped, a message popped up on its web interface: “StressedVoice detected.” “There we go,” D’Anna said with amusement, looking at the screen. “There’s my coughs.” (Gillum and Kao, 6/25)

The Wall Street Journal: New Noninvasive Genetic Tests For IVF Embryos Are In Development
Scientists at academic medical centers and fertility companies are developing more accurate and less invasive ways to test whether embryos made through in vitro fertilization procedures might have genetic abnormalities. The new tests could help the growing numbers of people pursuing IVF to make sure any embryo used is free from the genetic defects that can lead to miscarriage or even devastating inherited diseases, without risking damage to the embryo itself. (Hernandez, 6/24)

The New York Times: Arsenic In Bottled Water Prompts A Product Removal: How Much Is Safe?
Keurig Dr Pepper said it was withdrawing its Peñafiel brand unflavored mineral spring water products after reports that they contained high levels of arsenic. The announcement, which was made on Friday, came three days after the Center for Environmental Health notified the company that tests showed the amount of arsenic in the water exceeded the level requiring a health warning under California’s consumer protection law, and two months after Consumer Reports found the amount exceeded the level set by the federal government. (Rueb, 6/24)

NPR: Elite Runners' Gut Microbe Makes Mice More Athletic — Could It Help The Rest Of Us?
A new study out Monday in the journal Nature Medicine identified a group of bacteria that are more common in athletes, especially after exercise, and may play a role in enhancing athletic performance. The researchers isolated this bacterial strain from elite runners, put it into the colons of lab mice and found that these human-derived bacteria boosted the mouse's performance on a treadmill exertion test by 13%. (Lambert, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: For Two Men With Autism, 1,000 Miles Apart, Gaming Was A Portal To Friendship
Chris Lopes and Caleb Stephens didn’t have many friends for years. Growing up 1,000 miles apart, the two had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when they were younger and always found social interactions uncomfortable. The exception, for both, had been their brothers. But they both lost their brothers, and the only real friendships they’d had. Like many people with autism, they turned to gaming and meeting people online. (Jargon, 6/25)

The Associated Press: Jump In Wildfires Means Smoke's Health Impact Will Spread
Climate change in the Western U.S. means more intense and frequent wildfires churning out waves of smoke that scientists say will sweep across the continent to affect tens of millions of people and cause a spike in premature deaths. That emerging reality is prompting people in cities and rural areas alike to gird themselves for another summer of sooty skies along the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountains — the regions widely expected to suffer most from blazes tied to dryer, warmer conditions. (Brown, 6/25)

The New York Times: A Boy Who Had Spinal Surgery In The Womb Stands On His Own Two Feet
Charley Royer, 17 months old, has such a swift, strong kick that putting a pair of pants on him can turn into a wrestling match. His mother doesn’t mind. Far from it. “Things that might annoy other parents, I’m so thankful for,” Lexi Royer said. This child, who crawls around the house chasing a Yorkie named Bruce and proudly hauls himself upright against the couch, wasn’t expected to do any of this. (Grady, 6/24)

The Washington Post: CBD Products Are Illegal And Everywhere -- And Could Force FDA Action
In 2017, no one knew what CBD oil was. In 2018, folks stumbled saying “cannabidiol” (that’s CBD oil) out loud. In 2019, it’s everywhere, and everyone wants in on it. In flavors like “cucumber mint refresh” and “watermelon renew,” a new line of CBD-infused waters and teas is hitting major grocery stores in California and Colorado on Monday, each 16-ounce bottle containing 20 milligrams, or trace amounts, of “active hemp extract.” (Reiley, 6/24)

Reuters: U.S. Records 33 New Measles Cases, Mostly In New York State
Thirty-three new measles cases were recorded in the United States last week, most of them in New York, federal health officials said on Monday, bringing the number of confirmed cases this year to 1,077 in the worst U.S. outbreak of the virus since 1992. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease rose 3% in the week ended June 20 from the prior week. (6/24)

The Associated Press: California Legislature OKs Health Insurance Mandate
The California Legislature voted Monday to tax people who refuse to buy health insurance, bringing back a key part of former President Barack Obama's health care law in the country's most populous state after it was eliminated by Republicans in Congress. The tax now heads to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who proposed a similar plan in January — an indication he will likely approve it. (6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City’s Deputy Mayor For Health And Human Services To Step Down
Herminia Palacio, the New York City deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, announced Monday that she will leave her post next month to take a position at a leading research and policy think tank focused on sexual and reproductive rights. Dr. Palacio, 57 years old, is set to become the chief executive and president of the New York-based Guttmacher Institute. In an interview Monday, she said that the opportunity to lead a major public policy organization are “not summoned on demand.” (West, 6/24)

Los Angeles Times: City Of Hope To Invest $1 Billion In New Irvine Cancer Hospital
City of Hope will invest $1 billion in a new hospital and research center on the site of a former air base in Irvine that will enhance the way cancer care is delivered in the region. The large-scale facility will primarily serve Orange County, where nearly 20% of cancer patients leave the area for advanced care, City of Hope said. Many of them travel as long as two hours to City of Hope’s headquarters in Duarte, a city east of Pasadena. (Vicent and Cutchin, 6/25)

The Associated Press: Jury Awards More Than $3M In Michigan Bogus Epilepsy Case
A jury on Monday awarded more than $3 million to a woman who was misdiagnosed with epilepsy, one of hundreds of people to accuse a Detroit-area doctor of misreading tests to enrich himself and his employer. Dr. Yasser Awaad was accused of running an "EEG mill," a reference to a test that measures brain waves. He diagnosed epilepsy in Mariah Martinez when she was 9 years old. But another doctor four years later in 2007 said her tests were normal. (6/24)

The Associated Press: Kansas To Allow Trans Residents To Change Birth Certificates
Kansas will allow transgender people to change their birth certificates so the documents reflect their gender identities under a legal settlement that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's young administration and LGBTQ-rights advocates announced Monday. The agreement ends a federal lawsuit filed in October by four transgender individuals and the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project against officials at the state Department for Health and Environment, which issues birth certificates. (Hanna, 6/24)

Boston Globe: Hemp Farmers Looking For Answers After Mass. Says They Can’t Sell CBD Products
It doesn’t take more than a few steps down Newbury Street to find a CBD store. The substance is so common that it’s easier to find in the Boston area than any kind of retail marijuana store. Much easier. (Gans, 6/24)