First Edition: May 21, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Trump Proposes Cutting Planned Parenthood Funds. What Does That Mean?
The planned revival of a policy dating to Ronald Reagan’s presidency may finally present a way for President Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to “defund” Planned Parenthood. Or at least to evict it from the federal family planning program, where it provides care to more than 40 percent of that program’s 4 million patients. Congress last year failed to wipe out funding for Planned Parenthood, because the bill faced overwhelming Democratic objections and would not have received the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate. (Rovner, 5/19)

The Associated Press: Trump Thrusts Abortion Fight Into Crucial Midterm Elections  
The Trump administration acted Friday to bar taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, energizing its conservative political base ahead of crucial midterm elections while setting the stage for new legal battles. The Health and Human Services Department sent its proposal to rewrite the rules to the White House, setting in motion a regulatory process that could take months. Scant on details, an administration overview of the plan said it would echo a Reagan-era rule by banning abortion referrals by federally funded clinics and forbidding them from locating in facilities that also provide abortions. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Colvin, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Clinics That Provide On-Site Abortions Stand To Lose Millions Under New Plan
Health centers and programs that provide on-site abortions, or refer women for the procedure, could lose millions of dollars in federal family-planning funds under a new plan advanced by the Trump administration Friday. The proposal targets grants given out under a program known as Title X. The agency would require a separation—both financial and physical—between the grants and any facility or program where abortions are performed, supported or referred as a method of family planning. (Armour, 5/18)

NPR: Health Care Providers Say Title X Change Would Restrict Access To Family Planning Services
Family planning clinics in Texas say that the Trump administration's proposed rules will further hamper their ability to provide family planning services in a state that has high teen pregnancy rates. (Lopez, 5/18)

Politico: Republicans Claw At Each Other Over Farm Bill Implosion
Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team were sure the group of three dozen rabble-rousers would cave. The partisan farm bill, after all, includes historic new work requirements for food stamp beneficiaries that conservatives have demanded for years. ... It is unclear if the conference would get another shot at passing Trump’s work requirements for the food stamp program, though the White House in a statement encouraged the House to try again. Leaders could decide to write a bipartisan bill instead without the food stamp cuts, which would be much easier to pass. (Bade, 5/18)

The Washington Post: They’re The Think Tank Pushing For Welfare Work Requirements. Republicans Say They’re Experts. Economists Call It ‘Junk Science.’
An obscure, Florida-based policy group with ties to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and two of the country’s most conservative Republican governors has become one of the loudest and most persuasive voices in the debate over new work requirements in the food stamp program. The Foundation for Government Accountability — headed by a former adviser to Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) — spent six years testing welfare changes in Kansas, Mississippi and other states before taking its ideas to Washington in 2017. On Friday, those ideas — and the FGA’s leveraging of state political connections and policy one-liners to become a fixture in GOP strategy discussions — were in the spotlight when the House voted on a farm bill that sought sweeping changes to work requirements for food stamp recipients. (Dewey, 5/18)

The New York Times: Trump’s New Health And Human Services Secretary Is A Joyful Regulator
Alex Azar, President Trump’s new man running health policy, was waving a Pilot ballpoint in front of a room full of reporters. “This pen has a lot of power,” he said, smiling at his own joke. He is right. As Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr. Azar does have a lot of power to change health policy, without having to go through Congress. And in a sharp break from his predecessor — and from most Trump cabinet secretaries — he seems to be relishing the chance to write new regulations, rather than just crossing out Obama-era ones. (Sanger-Katz, 5/18)

The New York Times: As An Insurer Resists Paying For ‘Avoidable’ E.R. Visits, Patients And Doctors Push Back
Anthem denied thousands of claims last year under its “avoidable E.R. program,” according to a sample of emergency room bills analyzed by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The program, which Anthem has been rolling out in a handful of states in recent years, reviews claims based on the final diagnosis of patients. Emergency room physicians say that, last year, the company did not routinely request medical records for denied patients, and therefore could not review the symptoms that brought them to the emergency room. Anthem says it is now reviewing such records before issuing denials. (Abelson, Sanger-Katz and Creswell, 5/19)

The Hill: Trump Official On Defensive As Critics Scoff At Drug Plan
President Trump's health chief is struggling to show that the administration is serious about taking on drug companies after its proposals for lowering prices last week left big companies relieved and even spurred an uptick in their stock prices. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar insists that the companies are misreading the administration's plan and that it will bring down drug prices. (Sullivan, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: New Migraine Drugs Offer Hope To Sufferers
Lisa DeLeonardo set a Google alert so she would know exactly when the first in a new class of migraine drugs was approved. It happened Thursday, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Amgen and Novartis ’ application for erenumab, whose brand name is Aimovig. It’s an injectable drug touted as the first treatment designed specifically to prevent migraines, and is expected to be available to patients within a week for an annual price of $6,900. Three other similar treatments are expected to hit the market within the next year. (Reddy, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Oliver North, Incoming NRA Chief, Blames School Shootings On ‘Culture Of Violence’
Two days after a 17-year-old opened fire in his Texas high school, killing at least 10, incoming National Rifle Association president Oliver North said students “shouldn’t have to be afraid” to go to school and blamed the problem on “youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence” in which many young boys have “been on Ritalin” since early childhood. “They’ve been drugged in many cases,” he said. (Stead Sellers and Scherer, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: The Spillover Effects Of State Gun Laws
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had a hunch about gun laws: A place with strict laws surrounded by states with lenient ones would have more shootings. But the data revealed something different. Counties in states with tight gun laws weren’t affected by the loose laws of neighboring states—but counties in states with loose laws had lower rates of firearm homicide when nearby states had tight laws. “It’s a halo effect,” said Elinore J. Kaufman, lead author of the study. “If you lived in a state with lenient laws but neighboring states had stronger laws, you were a little bit protected.” (McGinty, 5/18)

Politico: California Rebukes Trump With Health Care Push For Immigrants
California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults even as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown by separating families at the border. The proposal — which would build on Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2015 decision to extend health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status — is one of the most daring examples yet of blue-state Democrats thumbing their nose at President Donald Trump as they pursue diametrically opposed policies, whether on immigration, climate change, legalized marijuana or health care. (Colliver, 5/21)

The Associated Press: Governor Northam Vetoes GOP Healthcare Bills
(Virginia Gov. Ralph) Northam said that legislation and other Republican-backed bills he vetoed would undermine efforts to expand affordable health care. He said lawmakers could help lower rising health care costs by expanding Medicaid to 400,000 low-income adults. (5/18)

Politico: Texas Democrats Look To Single-Payer In Congressional Races
Democrats hoping to wrest congressional seats away from diehard repeal-and-replace Republicans are campaigning on an unlikely issue for Texas — single-payer health care. Across the country, many Democrats are trying to minimize internal battles on health care. But Democrats in this deep red state have also watched closely races where single-payer advocates have upset centrist primary opponents. And some believe that moving left on health care will mobilize new voters in primaries —and offer a shot at winning come November. (Rayasam, 5/19)

Stat: Aetna Pressures Whistleblower Who Alleged CVS Caremark Ripped Off Medicare 
Aetna wants an employee to return or destroy documents that formed the basis of a whistleblower lawsuit she filed against CVS Caremark, alleging that the pharmacy benefit manager improperly reported generic drug prices to the federal government, according to a source familiar with the matter. At the same time, CVS Caremark is seeking to redact key portions of the lawsuit, which is currently under seal, before it is made available to the public (although you can read it here). The lawsuit, which STAT first reported last month, revolves around the complicated contracts between pharmacy benefit managers and Medicare Part D plans, as well as the pricing that must be reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Silverman, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Inc.’s Partners In Blood
Much of the attention has focused on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. But another character played a central role behind the scenes in the alleged fraud: Ms. Holmes’s boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, according to more than three dozen former Theranos employees who interacted with Mr. Balwani extensively over a number of years. Mr. Balwani, who met Ms. Holmes when she was a teenager, jointly ran the company with her for seven years as president and chief operating officer and enforced a corporate culture of secrecy and fear until his departure in the spring of 2016, the former employees say. Unlike Ms. Holmes and Theranos, who reached a settlement with the SEC to resolve the agency’s civil charges in March without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Mr. Balwani has denied separate charges the SEC filed against him in a parallel action and is fighting them in a California federal court. (Carreyrou, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: The AI Doctor Will See You Now
Kimberly Bari had her first seizure in 2010 at age 26 and since then has had hundreds. Some rendered her unconscious, others left her confused and terrified. By 2016, her surgery- and drug-resistant condition led her to try something fewer than 2,000 people in the world have attempted: implanting a computer into her brain. The NeuroPace Responsive Neurostimulation System “literally provides peace of mind I never imagined could exist,” she said. And, according to its makers, it would be impossible without a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning. (Mims, 5/20)

California Healthline: Children’s Hospitals Look To Voters For Financial Aid
California’s children’s hospitals say they’re struggling to keep up with advances in medical care and a growing demand for their services, and they’re asking taxpayers to help – again. The California Children’s Hospital Association wants voters to pass a $1.5 billion bond measure to upgrade infrastructure and equipment at the state’s 13 children’s hospitals. It would be the third state bond for children’s hospitals in the past 14 years. In 2004, voters approved one for $750 million, and in 2008, they re-upped for $980 million. (Ibarra, 5/21)

The Washington Post: Suicidal? Be Prepared To Wait For Care.
Psychiatric boarding — when patients in need of psychiatric treatment wait for prolonged periods in emergency departments due to shortages in mental-health resources, particularly inpatient beds — has become a catastrophe for the U.S. health-care system. In a 2016 survey, roughly three-quarters of emergency physicians reported that psychiatric patients had been waiting for beds during their last shift. Studies suggest that psychiatric patients wait for hospital beds far longer than other patients in emergency departments, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. (Morris, 5/19)

USA Today: '13 Reasons Why' Should Do More To Stop Teen Suicides, Doctors Say
Medical experts say Netflix and creators of the second season of 13 Reasons Why — streaming Friday — aren't doing enough to curb the increase in teen suicides and may be encouraging copycat cases. Data show the teen suicide rate rose by more than 70% between 2006 and 2016 with black teen suicides increasing far faster. The renewed criticism comes despite the series' new embrace of suicide prevention, which includes a collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). (O'Donnell, 5/19)

The Washington Post: With The Help Of Virtual Therapists, People With Eating Disorders Tackle Anxiety In Grocery Stores
Individuals with anorexia, binge eating disorder and bulimia often feel anxious and overwhelmed when surrounded by food. This anxiety can make grocery shopping and cooking a challenge. A new form of telemedicine in which people can video-chat with a nutritional counselor while at the supermarket aims to help. (Fraga, 5/20)

The Washington Post: Surgery Can Cause Cognitive Losses In Some Seniors
Two years ago, Daniel Cole’s 85-year-old father had heart bypass surgery. He hasn’t been quite the same since. “He forgets things and will ask you the same thing several times,” said Cole, a professor of clinical anesthesiology at UCLA and a past president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. ... His father probably has post­operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) — a little-known condition that affects a substantial number of older adults after surgery, Cole said. (Graham, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Watching But Not Treating Cancer Can Be Hard. Sometimes It’s The Right Approach.
However, there is a good argument to be made for taking the watch-and-wait approach (sometimes called “active surveillance”) over treatments that too often have terrible side effects. A study published in JAMA last week found that 72 percent of men younger than 65 with prostate cancer chose surveillance over surgery or radiation; a decade prior, the numbers were reversed: Only 27 percent chose monitoring. As the study numbers suggest, many physicians are counseling men with low-risk prostate cancer to choose active surveillance over surgery and radiation; not only is this approach less invasive, it can help men avoid the incontinence and impotence often associated with more aggressive treatment — and do so without impacting survival rates. (Petrow, 5/20)

Stat: ALS Patients Losing Time As They Wait For Insurers To Cover Pricey New Drug
Like an untold number of ALS patients, [Sarah] Benoit faces a conundrum. She can’t afford the $145,000 price of the drug without insurance, but her insurance provider has repeatedly denied access to the drug, even though it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last fall for all ALS patients. And as time goes by, Benoit knows that she is losing a chance to delay the inevitable. ... Certainly, there is nothing new about a high-priced medicine or insurers acting as impenetrable gatekeepers. In this case, the manufacturer of Radicava, MT Phrama, maintains that years of research expense must be recovered. And for their part, various insurers argue that coverage decisions, while nuanced, reflect legitimate criteria. (Silverman, 5/21)

The New York Times: What Barbershops Can Teach About Delivering Health Care
Heart disease is the most common killer of men in the United States, and high blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease. ... A recent study shows that the means of communication may be as important as the message itself, maybe even more so. Also, it suggests that health care need not take place in a doctor’s office — or be provided by a physician — to be effective. It might, as in this study, take place in a barbershop, an institution that has long played a significant social, economic and cultural role in African-American life. (Carroll, 5/21)

The New York Times: A Guide To Gynecological Exams: What Should — And Shouldn’t — Happen
The recent cases of Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, the physician for the U.S. women's gymnastics team, and Dr. George Tyndall, the gynecologist at the University of Southern California student health center, involve allegations that they inappropriately touched young female patients, often while doing a pelvic exam. Here’s what women should know about gynecological exams, including what to expect and what is out of bounds. (Belluck and Medina, 5/18)

The New York Times: How To Age Well And Stay In Your Home
What will it take to age well in place, in the surroundings we’ve long cherished that bring us physical, social and emotional comfort? What adaptations are needed to assure our safety and comfort and relieve our children’s legitimate concerns for our welfare? Of course, aging in place is not for everyone. Some seniors may prefer to leave the dwelling long shared with a now-gone partner. Some may want the security of knowing that physical and medical assistance is but a bell-ring away. Others may simply be fed up with having to care for a home. (Brody, 5/21)

Detroit Free Press: Anti-Marijuana Group Changes Mind, Wants Michigan To Legalize Weed
One of the groups formed to fight the legalization of marijuana for recreational use has now decided it's for the measure — but only if the Michigan legislature takes it up and amends the proposal. The Committee to Keep Pot out of Neighborhoods and Schools — a political action committee formed to fight a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana — is now urging the Legislature to take up the initiative, amend it and pass a full legalization of pot for adult recreational use. The committee hopes that if the Legislature acts, recreational use will be regulated as stringently as the medical marijuana industry. (Gray, 5/20)

NPR: How Dangerous Is It When A Mother Sleeps With Her Baby?
Here in the U.S., this is a growing trend among families. More moms are choosing to share a bed with their infants. Since 1993, the practice in the U.S. has grown from about 6 percent of parents to 24 percent in 2015. But the practice goes against medical advice in the U.S. The American Academy of Pediatrics is opposed to bed-sharing: It "should be avoided at all times" with a "[full-]term normal-weight infant younger than 4 months," the AAP writes in its 2016 recommendations for pediatricians. The organization says the practice puts babies at risk for sleep-related deaths, including sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation and accidental strangulation. About 3,700 babies die each year in the U.S. from sleep-related causes. (Doucleff, 5/21)

The New York Times: Me And My Numb Thumb: A Tale Of Tech, Texts And Tendons
It took me a few months to accept that I had given myself tendinosis in my phone thumb. It is a depressingly modern condition in which the tendons around the thumb inflame as a result of repetitive strain — in my case because I had, for hours a day over years of a life, tapped that right-hand digit onto the glass of my smartphone. (Bowles, 5/19)

The New York Times: Technique Used To Find Golden State Killer Leads To A Suspect In 1987 Murders
In 1987, Jay Cook, 20, and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, a couple from Canada, were brutally killed while they were vacationing in Washington State. On Friday, the Snohomish County sheriff’s office announced that it had a suspect in custody in the rape of Ms. Van Cuylenborg and the murders. William Earl Talbott II, 55, of Seatac, Wash., was arrested on Thursday. An important break came once again as a result of DNA sleuthing techniques similar to the ones used last month to crack the Golden State killer case. (Murphy, 5/18)