First Edition: March 4, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Big Pharma Gave Money To Patient Advocacy Groups Opposing Medicare Changes
Dozens of patient advocacy groups, like the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation and the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, recently appeared in national advertisements objecting to a Trump administration proposal that could limit drugs covered by Medicare providers. But a Kaiser Health News analysis found that about half of the groups representing patients have received funding from the pharmaceutical industry. (Lupkin, Lucas and Knight, 3/4)

Kaiser Health News: Watch: Big Week For Drug Pricing Debate Featured On C-SPAN
KHN correspondent Emmarie Huetteman appeared on the C-SPAN program “Washington Journal,” where she fielded viewers’ calls about high drug prices and industry criticism. Earlier in the week, the Senate Finance Committee grilled executives from seven major drugmakers on Tuesday about drug prices. You can read KHN’s story about that hearing here. (3/1)

Kaiser Health News: Texas Lawmakers Take Aim At Surprise Medical Bills
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers announced plans to address surprise medical bills in a way that would take the “burden” off Texans. During a press conference Thursday, state Sen. Kelly Hancock, a Republican from suburban Fort Worth, announced he had filed a bill aimed at preventing medical providers from balance-billing patients, among other things. State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio, is filing a similar bill in the House. (Lopez, 3/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicare For All Loses Momentum Among Democrats
Democratic support for Medicare for All is slipping from the high levels seen around the November midterm elections as voters worry about its price tag and the toll it would take on both private and employer health coverage. The proposal seeks to provide everyone in the U.S. with access to health coverage under a federal system that would replace Medicaid, Medicare, most private insurance and employer coverage. Progressive candidates issued full-throated endorsements during campaigns for congressional and state-level elections last November. As the message resonated among voters, even some centrist candidates joined as well. (Armour and Peterson, 3/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Doctors’ PACs Favored Candidates Opposing Gun Background Checks
Political-action committees affiliated with doctors’ organizations donated more money to congressional candidates who opposed tighter gun laws than to those supporting them, according to a new study that has revived a debate over what role physicians should play in the issue. The study, released in late February on the JAMA Network Open, which is published by the American Medical Association, highlighted the political contributions during the 2016 election cycle to House and Senate lawmakers who opposed an expansion of background checks for gun sales, despite some physicians’ groups’ endorsement of the policy. (Peterson, 3/3)

The New York Times: Nursing Homes Are Closing Across Rural America, Scattering Residents
Harold Labrensz spent much of his 89-year life farming and ranching the rolling Dakota plains along the Missouri River. His family figured he would die there, too. But late last year, the nursing home in Mobridge, S.D., that cared for Mr. Labrensz announced that it was shutting down after a rocky history of corporate buyouts, unpaid bills and financial ruin. It had become one of the many nursing homes across the country that have gone out of business in recent years as beds go empty, money troubles mount and more Americans seek to age in their own homes. (Healy, 3/4)

The Associated Press: Paper: $600,000 Fine Imposed On Nursing Home After Outbreak
A newspaper reports that federal authorities have imposed a $600,000 fine on a New Jersey nursing home following a viral outbreak that killed 11 children. The North Jersey Record reports that the penalty stems from state and federal inspections at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation during last fall's outbreak. (3/2)

The New York Times: Drug Companies And Doctors Battle Over The Future Of Fecal Transplants
There’s a new war raging in health care, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake and thousands of lives in the balance. The battle, pitting drug companies against doctors and patient advocates, is being fought over the unlikeliest of substances: human excrement. The clash is over the future of fecal microbiota transplants, or F.M.T., a revolutionary treatment that has proved remarkably effective in treating Clostridioides difficile, a debilitating bacterial infection that strikes 500,000 Americans a year and kills 30,000. (Jacobs, 3/3)

Stat: Novartis Agrees To Pay $23M Following Charges It Used Charities To Pay Kickbacks To Medicare Patients
You can add Novartis (NVS) to the list of drug makers settling allegations that donations made to patient charities amounted to kickbacks paid to Medicare patients as a way to cover their out-of-pocket costs. The company reached an agreement in principle to pay $23 million in response to a probe opened three years ago by the U.S. Attorney in Boston regarding assistance provided to Medicare patients who were prescribed various medicines, including the Gleevec cancer medicine and the Gilenya multiple sclerosis treatment, according to its latest annual report. The settlement was not previously disclosed. (Silverman, 3/1)

The Wall Street Journal: As More Military Women Seek Health Care, VA Pursues Improvements
The number of women using the U.S. veterans health system has tripled since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating pressure to improve services for a population that has often been overlooked, officials said Thursday. Top VA women’s health officials said at a House Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday that the Department of Veterans Affairs has worked to improve women’s health services in areas ranging from basic gynecological care to advanced care like mental-health treatment associated with military sexual trauma. (Kesling, 3/1)

Modern Healthcare: GAO: VA Kept Medical Staff Despite Misconduct Allegations
Veterans Affairs health centers hired and retained physicians, nurses and other clinicians despite their records of alleged misconduct. According to a government watchdog report, some of these clinicians had also lost state licenses to practice. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its 102-page report focused on clinicians who were part of the VA's medical staff as of Sept. 30, 2016. The agency took a random sampling of 57 of the 1,664 VA providers with a record in the National Practitioner Data Bank. (Luthi, 3/1)

CQ HealthBeat: Acting VA Health Leader Likely To Be Named For Permanent Role
The Trump administration plans to nominate the acting director of the Veterans Health Administration for the role permanently, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Richard Stone, who currently leads the Department of Veterans Affairs health agency in a temporary capacity, is undergoing the final vetting process before a formal nomination. Stone emerged as the top contender from a shortlist drafted by a search commission in recent weeks. (Clason, 3/1)

The Associated Press: John Mayer Launches Foundation Focused On Veterans
John Mayer is launching a foundation focused on improving the health of veterans through scientific research. The Grammy-winning singer on Friday announced The Heart and Armor Foundation, which plans to focus on veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and meeting the emerging needs of women veterans. Though he publicly announced the foundation on Friday, Mayer has been working on the organization since 2012 alongside veterans, scientists and clinicians. (Fekadu, 3/1)

The Washington Post: 29 Parents Separated From Their Children And Deported Last Year Cross U.S. Border To Request Asylum
At about 5 p.m. local time, the families were taken to the U.S. side of the border by immigration agents, where their asylum claims will be assessed. Although the Trump administration’s family separation policy has prompted congressional hearings, lawsuits and national protests, the parents have for nearly a year suffered out of the spotlight at their homes in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. They celebrated birthdays and Christmas on video calls, trying to determine whether their children were safe. (Sieff and Kinosian, 3/2)

CNN: Insurer Skips Doctors And Sends Massive Checks To Patients, Prompting Million-Dollar Lawsuit
A woman received nearly $375,000 from her insurance company over several months for treatment she received at a California rehabilitation facility. A man received more than $130,000 after he sent his fiancée's daughter for substance abuse treatment. Those allegations are part of a lawsuit winding its way through federal court that accuses Anthem and its Blue Cross entities of paying patients directly in an effort to put pressure on health care providers to join their network and to accept lower payments. (Drash, 3/1)

Bloomberg: Mysterious 138% Jump In Tiny Health Stock Stumps Trading Desks 
Traders were puzzled by a mysterious 138 percent surge Friday in NantHealth Inc., a small health-data company run by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. The stock triggered three volatility halts as it rose the most on record. There was no apparent news behind the move, according to traders and sales desks, and a NantHealth spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email request for comment. The next known catalyst for the company is fourth-quarter results expected later this month. (Lipschultz, 3/1)

The Associated Press: Johnson & Johnson Research Head Aims To Block, Cure Disease
Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest maker of health care products, wants to prevent people from getting sick — or at least stop diseases before they cause harm. Its "World Without Disease" initiative and related projects aim to prevent or cure diseases such as lung and blood cancers and juvenile diabetes. They're run by the New Brunswick, New Jersey, company's head of external innovation, Dr. William Hait, who also oversees augmenting in-house research by licensing science and technology from other companies — or buying them. (Johnson, 3/3)

The New York Times: The Opioid Dilemma: Saving Lives In The Long Run Can Take Lives In The Short Run
The unavoidable tension in attacking the opioid crisis is which time frame you’re talking about. In the short term, many policies that would limit opioid prescriptions for the purpose of saving lives would cause people to turn to heroin or fentanyl. In fact, over a 5-to-10-year period, that would increase deaths, not decrease them, according to a simulation study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study was conducted by three Stanford University researchers, Allison Pitt, Keith Humphreys and Margaret Brandeau. (Frakt, 3/4)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Made A Plan To Help People Leaving Prison Get Drug Treatment — But It Never Used It 
Fatal drug overdoses had been climbing for years when Maryland health officials decided to target a particularly vulnerable group: Those leaving prison or jail. They have high rates of addiction, but low rates of insurance for treatment. So the state sought federal permission to skip the usual paperwork to get them temporary Medicaid cards. ... Maryland health officials now say presumptive eligibility was meant only as a backup. And the backup hasn’t been needed because Medicaid applications now can be approved in as little as 24 hours — if applicants have all the proper paperwork. (Cohn, 3/4)

The Washington Post: Teenagers Getting Opioids Wisdom Teeth Work May Be At Addiction Risk
A few days before extracting my teenager’s wisdom teeth, an oral surgeon wrote him a prescription for painkillers. My son filled it but never felt a need for anything stronger than ibuprofen. Three years later, I found an unopened bottle of Percocet — an opioid — in the back of a bathroom cabinet. I had no idea a dentist had prescribed my then 19-year-old the highly addictive pills. Likewise, until recently, dentists seemed to have had no idea they may have been helping to feed an epidemic that resulted in a record 70,237 U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2017. (Cohen, 3/3)

The Washington Post: D.C. Opioid Crisis: Overdose Initiatives Still In Planning Stages, Officials Say
More than two months after D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) released a far-reaching plan to cut opioid overdose deaths in half by late 2020, key programs described in the plan have not been launched, according to city officials and service providers. The anti-opioid initiatives include a dramatic expansion of the availability of the overdose antidote naloxone and new treatment programs for overdose survivors in hospital emergency rooms. They were laid out by the mayor in response to one of the nation’s most severe increases in fatal overdoses over the past several years, most caused by heroin laced with the synthetic opioid fentanyl. (Jamison, 3/3)

The Washington Post: Ethan Lindenberger Got Vaccinated Against His Parents Wishes. Now, He’ll Testify To Congress.
Ethan Lindenberger began by questioning his parents’ anti-vaccine stances and eventually got himself inoculated, a rebellion that caught the attention of the national media and Congress. The 18-year-old from Ohio announced Saturday on YouTube that he had been invited to speak before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at a hearing Tuesday devoted to examining outbreaks of preventable diseases. He will appear alongside experts such as John Wiesman, Washington state’s secretary of health, and Saad B. Omer, a professor at Emory University in Georgia, according to the committee’s website. (Epstein, 3/3)

The Hill: Teen Who Got Vaccinated Against Parents' Wishes Testifying Before Congress
Lindenberger said in the video that his testimony would address "preventable diseases, spreading and outbreaks of preventable diseases, as well as addressing misinformation that causes these outbreaks." "I'll be testifying along the likes of people such as [John] Wiesman, who is the secretary of Health for Washington [state]," Lindenberger says in the video. (Bowden, 3/2)

CNN: Vaccination Deniers Gaining 'Traction' On Social Media, Health Chief Warns
Anti-vaccination "fake news" being spread on social media is fueling a rise in measles cases and a decline in vaccination uptake, the head of England's National Health Service (NHS) has warned. Simon Stevens said "vaccination deniers" are gaining traction through their use of social media platforms including Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube. (Picheta, 3/2)

Politico: State Lawmakers Pushing For Laxer Vaccine Rules Despite Measles Outbreaks
Measles is spreading from New York to Texas to Washington state in the worst outbreak in years, but some state lawmakers want to take the vaccination debate in the opposite direction: Loosening rules covering whether kids get inoculated. In Oregon, state lawmakers will consider a so-called transparency bill favored by the "vaccine hesitant." New York is simultaneously considering eliminating and expanding exemptions that allow parents to opt out. One bill in Texas would prohibit the state from even tracking exemptions. (Colliver, 3/3)

The Associated Press: Measles Outbreak In Pacific Northwest About Half Of US Cases
The focus on measles in the Pacific Northwest intensified Friday as public health officials in Oregon announced a new case of the highly contagious disease unrelated to an ongoing outbreak in Washington state that's sickened 68 people so far. An unvaccinated Illinois resident who spent time overseas visited Portland International Airport and various locations in Salem, Oregon last week while contagious with measles, the Oregon Health Authority said. Potential exposure locations include a Red Robin restaurant and a trampoline fun park in Salem, officials said. (Flaccus, 3/1)

The Hill: Amazon Reportedly Pulls Anti-Vaccine Documentaries 
Amazon has reportedly pulled documentaries about the anti-vaccination movement from its streaming service shortly after Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed the tech company to stop allowing the “harmful” content. Anti-vaccine movies entitled "We Don't Vaccinate!" "Shoot 'Em Up: The Truth About Vaccines," and "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe," were previously available for Amazon Prime subscribers, CNN Business reported. Those titles were listed as "currently unavailable" on Saturday morning. (Gstalter, 3/2)

The New York Times: Studies Of Deadly Flu Virus, Once Banned, Are Set To Resume
Research that could make flu viruses more dangerous, and that the government suspended in 2014 because of safety concerns, has been approved to begin again, federal officials have confirmed. The government did not publicly announce its decisions in recent months to allow two labs to resume their projects. The new go-ahead was first reported in the journal Science. The lack of information about the decision and how it was made have provoked outrage from some scientists, who oppose the research because they say it could create mutant viruses that might cause deadly pandemics if they were unleashed by lab accidents or terrorism. The research sparked worldwide fears when it was first revealed in 2011. (Grady, 3/1)

The New York Times: Supplements Won’t Prevent Dementia. But These Steps Might.
Donna Kaye Hill realized that her 80-year-old mother was faltering cognitively when her phone suddenly stopped working. When Ms. Hill called the phone company, “they told me she hadn’t paid her bill in three months.” Finding other alarming evidence of memory gaps, she took her mother, Katie, to a memory clinic. A geriatrician there diagnosed dementia and recommended two prescription drugs and a dietary supplement, a form of vitamin E. (Span, 3/1)

The Washington Post: Black Women And HIV: Oral History Reveals Their Pain, Disenfranchisement And Endurance
Some 7,500 women were diagnosed with HIV in 2016 and the majority of them — 61 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — were black. HIV is just one of the health challenges, including breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease, that affects black women more often than women of other races. Thurka Sangaramoorthy, an HIV researcher and anthropologist, uses oral histories to learn more about the lives of black women living with HIV. In the past five years, the associate professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland has conducted ethnographic and oral history interviews with 45 women. (Blakemore, 3/2)

Stat: Voice-Recognition System Aims To Automate Data Entry By Doctors 
Hands down, the one task doctors complain about most is filling out the electronic health record during and after patient visits. It is disruptive and time-consuming, and patients don’t like being talked to over the doctor’s shoulder. Now, amid an intensifying race to develop voice technologies for health care, a Boston-based company is preparing to release one of the first products designed to fully automate this process, by embedding artificially intelligent software into exam rooms. (Ross, 3/4)

NPR: Eating Disorders Like Bulimia And Binge-Eating Affect People Of All Races
Karla Mosley wants you to know that people with eating disorders look like her too. "I'm a woman of color and I certainly didn't know that people like me had eating disorders," she says. "I thought it was a white, rich, female, adolescent disorder." Only one of those identifiers fits Mosley who's black and binged and purged for years. But Mosley, an actor and a regular on the day time soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, is sharing her story of battling bulimia and getting her health back. (Meraji, 3/3)

The New York Times: Bigger, Saltier, Heavier: Fast Food Since 1986 In 3 Simple Charts
Fast food chains have tried for years to woo health-conscious diners by mixing lighter fare like salads and yogurt with the usual burgers, fried chicken and shakes. But as menus swelled over the past three decades with grilled chicken wraps (McDonald’s) and “fresco” burritos (Taco Bell), many options grew in size and the calories and sodium in them surged, according to new study from researchers at Boston University and Tufts. (Hsu, 3/3/)

Stat: CDC Director Planning To Travel To DRC As Country Battles Ebola Outbreak
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is expected to travel next week to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a rare trip to the country by a U.S. official as it battles what is now the second largest Ebola outbreak on record. Redfield will make the trip with the director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to a WHO statement. (Branswell, 3/1)

The Washington Post: The Danish Word 'Pyt' As An Antidote To Anxiety And Stress
Danes are some of the happiest people in the world, and they also happen to have a lot of cool words for ways to be happy. You may have heard about “hygge,” which has been the subject of countless books, articles and commercials. Often mistranslated to mean “cozy,” it really describes the process of creating intimacy. (Helweg-Larsen, 3/2)

NPR: A Positive Mindset Can Help Patients Handle Side Effects Of Treatments
Anxiety about side effects can keep people from starting or sticking to drug regimens or medical procedures. A group of researchers at Stanford University wanted to find out whether a simple mindset shift could help patients tolerate an uncomfortable treatment. They learned that when physicians make the effort to reframe potentially unpleasant symptoms in a positive light, it helped patients to stay calm and persevere. The researchers studied this approach with a group of families who, in a desperate search for relief from food allergies, signed their children up for a study testing the investigational treatment known as oral immunotherapy. (Landhuis, 3/1)

The New York Times: One Twin Committed The Crime — But Which One? A New DNA Test Can Finger The Culprit
One night in November 1999, a 26-year-old woman was raped in a parking lot in Grand Rapids, Mich. Police officers managed to get the perpetrator’s DNA from a semen sample, but it matched no one in their databases. Detectives found no fingerprints at the scene and located no witnesses. The woman, who had been attacked from behind, could not offer a description. It looked like the rapist would never be found. Five years later, there was a break in the case. A man serving time for another sexual offense submitted a DNA sample with his parole application. The sample matched DNA from the rape scene. (Zimmer, 3/1)

The Associated Press: Underground Fire At Arkansas Dump Raises Health Concerns
More than seven months after residents first noticed a fire at an illegal dumping site in northwest Arkansas, it's still smoldering, sending noxious smoke throughout the town and seeping into homes, with costs to extinguish the fire estimated at tens of millions of dollars. Chris Nelson, 40, lives with his wife and 4-year-old son in a house that's a little more than 1000 feet (305 meters) from the shuttered dumping site. He said his family has experienced a persistent cough since the blaze started, his wife has been diagnosed with bronchitis and his son has been on multiple rounds of antibiotics. (Grabenstein, 3/3)

The Washington Post: Report Finds Widespread Contamination At Nation’s Coal Ash Sites
The vast majority of ponds and landfills holding coal waste at 250 power plants across the country have leaked toxic chemicals into nearby groundwater, according to an analysis of public monitoring data released Monday by environmental groups. The report, published jointly by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, found that 91 percent of the nation’s coal-fired power plants reported elevated levels of contaminants such as arsenic, lithium, chromium and other pollutants in nearby groundwater. (Mufson and Dennis, 3/4)

The Hill: Maryland State Committees Advance Medical Assisted-Suicide Bill 
Two committees in the Maryland House of Delegates voted to advance a bill on Friday that would allow the terminally ill to end their lives with prescription drugs. The House Health and Government Operations Committee and the House Judiciary Committee approved the End of Life Options Act, sending the measure for a full chamber vote next week, The Baltimore Sun reported. (Gstalter, 3/2)

The Associated Press: Many 'Still Hurting' Nearly 5 Months After Hurricane Michael
Paulina "Bela" Sebastiao would give almost anything to be able to do a load of laundry without having to drive miles from her Mexico Beach home. Anthony Campbell would appreciate having a gas station closer than an hour away from his house in Parker. And Patrick Muth just hopes it doesn't rain when it's time to go to work: His "office" in Panama City consists of a desk surrounded by rubble under an open sky. Life is still a struggle in the county hardest hit by Hurricane Michael, which carved a wide swath of destruction through the Florida Panhandle when it roared ashore on Oct. 10 with winds of 155 mph (250 kph). (3/2)

The Washington Post: A Caregiver Raped Two Intellectually Disabled Women, Police Say. Both Gave Birth To Children.
The mission of the center in Fairfax County is to “employ and support” people with disabilities, but a prosecutor said a worker sexually assaulted a 29-year-old woman with Down syndrome in its offices. Police began an investigation in October 2017 after a doctor made a disturbing discovery: The woman was five months pregnant, authorities said. She later gave birth. The pattern played out again nearly a year later. Police say another client at the MVLE Community Center, a 33-year-old woman with intellectual disabilities, was raped. The case was reported to police in August 2018 after her doctor discovered she was pregnant. She also gave birth. (Jouvenal, 3/2)

The Washington Post: District Will No Longer Guarantee Ambulance Rides For Nonserious Patients
Under a change taking effect Friday, D.C. residents who call 911 no longer will be guaranteed an ambulance ride to hospitals if responding medics and a nurse determine their ailments are minor, D.C. Fire and EMS Department officials said. Instead, after an assessment by firefighter and EMT crews, patients who are not in serious straits will be put on a phone call with a nurse, who will help them to find care at a clinic or a primary care facility. The medics will remain on scene and talk to the nurse after an agreement on care has been made. (Williams, 3/1)