First Edition: October 1, 2019

Kaiser Health News: New Round Of Medicare Readmission Penalties Hits 2,583 Hospitals
Medicare cut payments to 2,583 hospitals Tuesday, continuing the Affordable Care Act’s eight-year campaign to financially pressure hospitals into reducing the number of patients who return for a second stay within a month. The severity and broad application of the penalties, which Medicare estimates will cost hospitals $563 million over a year, follows the trend of the past few years. Of the 3,129 general hospitals evaluated in the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, 83% received a penalty, which will be deducted from each payment for a Medicare patient stay over the fiscal year that begins today. (Rau, 10/1)

Kaiser Health News: Look Up Your Hospital: Is It Being Penalized By Medicare?
Each year, Medicare punishes hospitals that have high rates of readmissions and high rates of infections and patient injuries. Check out which hospitals have been penalized. (10/1)

Kaiser Health News: Skin-Lightening Cream Put A Woman Into A Coma. It Could Happen Again.
A Sacramento woman is in a coma after using a face cream from Mexico. It is the nation’s first case of methylmercury poisoning from a cosmetic, and public health officials can do almost nothing to prevent other contaminated cosmetics from hitting the shelves. (Almendrala, 10/1)

The Washington Post: With The Affordable Care Act’s Future In Doubt, Evidence Grows That It Has Saved Lives
Poor people in Michigan with asthma and diabetes were admitted to the hospital less often after they joined Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. More than 25,000 Ohio smokers got help through the state’s Medicaid expansion that led them to quit. And around the country, patients with advanced kidney disease who went on dialysis were more likely to be alive a year later if they lived in a Medicaid-expansion state. Such findings are part of an emerging mosaic of evidence that, nearly a decade after it became one of the most polarizing health-care laws in U.S. history, the ACA is making some Americans healthier — and less likely to die. (Goldstein, 9/30)

Stat: Pelosi Drug Pricing Plan Could Wipe Out Key Funds For Low-Income Hospitals
A 60-word provision tucked into Nancy Pelosi’s signature drug pricing plan could wreak havoc on hospitals that serve the poor. The provision deals with a federal drug discount program known as 340B that lets some hospitals and clinics buy medicines at a deep discount. When they’re reimbursed for the drugs at a higher price by Medicare or other insurers, they pocket the difference to help cover charity care, counseling services, and other costs. (Florko, 9/30)

The Associated Press: Trump Officials Shuffle Funds To Cover Family Planning Gaps
Diane Foley, director of the Health and Human Services office that oversees the so-called Title X family planning program said Monday the goal is to serve about the same number of women , or more, avoiding disruptions. ... About 930 clinics serving an estimated 900,000 clients have been affected by grantees leaving the program. The money returned to the government has been divided up among organizations that remained, said Foley, among them state and local health departments. However, five states will no longer be served by the federal program. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/30)

The Associated Press: Judge Issues Mixed Ruling In Virginia Abortion Law Challenge
A federal judge on Monday upheld a Virginia law requiring women to undergo an ultrasound and wait at least 24 hours before having an abortion, as well as the state’s “physician-only law” barring nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants from performing abortions. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson came in a lawsuit that challenged four Virginia laws that opponents say restrict access to abortion in the state. Hudson overturned two state laws, including one requiring all second-trimester abortions to be performed at a licensed outpatient hospital and regulations that would have required clinics that provide first-trimester abortions to meet the same facility requirements as general and surgical hospitals. (Lavoie, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Is Key After Trump’s String Of Losses In Lower Courts
Donald Trump’s presidency has faced considerable setbacks in the courts, with judges blocking administration actions on immigration, the environment and health care. But the president’s fortunes have begun to improve with help from the Supreme Court, and a crucial set of proceedings lies ahead. This year, the country’s highest court granted interim victories to the Trump administration on several hot-button issues after the Justice Department filed emergency appeals challenging lower-court injunctions that had impeded White House plans. The decisions allowed the administration to implement its plans while litigation continues, which in some cases could run through the 2020 presidential election. (Kendall, 9/30)

Los Angeles Times: The FDA Tried To Ban Flavors Years Before The Vaping Outbreak. Top Obama Officials Nixed The Plan
Now, as a mysterious vaping-related lung disease has doctors and parents urging the nation’s 3.6 million young users to quit, many are finding that they physically can’t — they’re hooked. It’s exactly the kind of youth addiction crisis the Food and Drug Administration had warned of four years ago, when it tried to ban flavored fluids for e-cigarettes. If the FDA ban had gone through, the kid-friendly vaping liquids would have been pushed off store shelves. Instead, over the course of 46 days, a deluge of more than 100 tobacco industry lobbyists and small business advocates met with White House officials as they weighed whether to include the ban as part of a new tobacco control rule. (Baumgaertner, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Juul Stops Funding San Francisco Vaping Measure
Juul Labs Inc. announced Monday that it will stop supporting a ballot measure to overturn an anti-vaping law in San Francisco, effectively killing the campaign. The nation’s largest maker of e-cigarettes said it will end its support for Proposition C after donating nearly $19 million. It was virtually the only financial backer of the measure. “Based on that news, we have made the decision not to continue on with the campaign,” Yes on C said in a statement. However, the proposition will still appear on the November ballot. (10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Vape-Shop Owners Sue Massachusetts Over Ban
The owners of six Massachusetts vape shops are suing the state over a new temporary ban on vaping-product sales, escalating the tension between retail businesses and public officials trying to address a nationwide public-health problem. (Kamp, 9/30)

The New York Times: Police Crack Down On Vaping, Surfacing Stockpiles Of Illicit Cartridges
As health officials grapple with a public health crisis they are struggling to understand, police departments are in the midst of a swift crackdown on vaping products containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. In the Phoenix area, the authorities recently raided three homes over eight days, seizing hundreds of THC cartridges at each. In Wisconsin, detectives arrested two young brothers accused of running a large-scale THC cartridge assembly operation inside a condo. And in Nebraska, sheriff’s deputies found a stash of cartridges in a car parked at a truck stop. (Bosman and Smith, 10/1)

AL.com and ProPublica: An Inmate Needed Emergency Medical Help. The Jail’s Response: See If She Has Insurance.
When the administrator of the Washington County Jail in southwest Alabama answered the phone on the evening of June 20, 2016, he learned of a health emergency playing out in the jail he oversaw. ... The nearest hospital is only 1 ½ miles away, but Weaver remained in the jail as Busby directed staff to first figure out who would pay for her medical care. “See if she had insurance, if she had Medicaid,” he told the dispatcher, who was referred to only as Kelly on the call. A recording of the conversation was provided to AL.com and ProPublica by Henry Brewster, a lawyer for Weaver’s family in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile in February 2018. If Weaver was covered by Medicaid or private health insurance, then her medical bills would not be the county’s responsibility if the sheriff’s office released her from its custody. (Sheets, 10/1)

The New York Times: Zantac Pulled From Shelves By Walgreens, Rite Aid And CVS Over Carcinogen Fears
The pharmacy chains Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS have moved to stop selling the heartburn medicine Zantac and its generic versions after the Food and Drug Administration warned this month that it had detected low levels of a cancer-causing chemical in samples of the drug. A Walgreens spokesman said in a statement on Monday that the company had pulled the drug from its shelves “while the FDA continues its review of the products.” A Rite Aid spokesman said the company was “in the process of removing Zantac and generic versions sold under the Rite Aid name from its shelves.” (Garcia, 9/30)

The Washington Post: CVS Pulls Zantac And Its Generic, Ranitidine, Over Cancer Risk
The decision by the pharmacy giants adds to a flurry of worldwide concern about the drug. Major manufacturers of the generic form, ranitidine, have announced recalls, and other countries have requested that companies halt distribution of the drug or issued recalls. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been investigating the possible risk to patients, as well. (Johnson and Bellware, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Novel Plan Aims To Settle Opioid Suits
Endo International PLC, Johnson & Johnson and other drugmakers that face sprawling litigation over the opioid crisis are exploring an unusual way to settle the cases: by participating in Purdue Pharma LP’s bankruptcy, according to internal documents and a person familiar with the matter. The move, if successful, could bring an end to—or at least dramatically shrink—one of the largest and most complex pieces of litigation the U.S. has ever seen. (Randazzo and Fitzgerald, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Opioid Maker Mallinckrodt Changes Management Severance To Lump-Sum Payments
Mallinckrodt PLC recently changed its severance-package policy to allow for departing executives of the drug company to receive lump-sum payouts instead of installment payments, and ensuring the policy endures should it change ownership structure, such as liquidating or reorganizing, filings show. The drugmaker, whose stock is down some 90% this year, previously hired restructuring experts as it faces several challenges, including trying to resolve thousands of lawsuits over its alleged role in helping start the nation’s opioid crisis. (Hopkins, 9/30)

USA Today: 10 People Died Of Overdoses In 26 Hours In This Ohio County
At least 10 people died from drug overdoses in just 26 hours in Ohio's most populous county, according to the county coroner. Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz, who issues periodic alerts on overdose deaths, called this an "unusually high number" of deaths in a statement on Facebook Sunday. Ortiz urged those who use drugs to test substances for fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid often sold as a street drug. (Yancey-Bragg, 9/30)

The Associated Press: Smoking Ban At VA Facilities Has Some Veterans Fuming
Serving up drinks at the American Legion post in Concord, Jeff Holland gets a little testy when the talk turns to smoking. A Marine veteran who enjoys lighting up, the 44-year-old Holland fought unsuccessfully against a ban at the post that went into effect earlier this month. And starting Tuesday, he will be prohibited from smoking when he visits the nearby Manchester VA Medical Center in New Hampshire. It is part of a nationwide smoking ban outside all VA medical facilities that applies to visitors, patients and employees. (Casey, 10/1)

The Associated Press: Michigan Governor Signs Budget With $1B In Line-Item Vetoes
[Michigan Gov. Gretchen] Whitmer also faulted GOP legislators for spending less than what she proposed in three departments: Corrections, Technology, Management and Budget, and Health and Human Services. The funding levels would likely force up to 250 layoffs and cease electronic tracking of released sex offenders and other inmates, according to her office. The budgets also would weaken cybersecurity and public safety communications, and not fund the implementation of Republican-backed work requirements for people enrolled in the state's Medicaid expansion program, Whitmer said. (Eggert, 9/30)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Birthrate Decrease Affecting Economy And Population
A decreased birthrate in Hawaii has larger population and economic implications for the state now and in the future, officials said. ... Hawaii’s current birthrate is 10% lower than in 2008. The economic effects include reports by at least two Oahu hospitals of decreases in work shifts for maternity ward nurses and a reduction in new nurse hiring. (10/1)

The New York Times: Rep. Chris Collins Resigns Before Expected Guilty Plea In Insider Trading Case
Representative Chris Collins, a fourth-term Republican from Western New York who narrowly won re-election last year despite fighting federal securities fraud charges, resigned on Monday in advance of an expected guilty plea. Mr. Collins, 69, the first sitting member of Congress to endorse President Trump in 2016, had been accused of using private information about a drug company in which he was invested to help his son and others avoid financial losses. (Weiser and Wang, 9/30)

Politico: Republican Rep. Chris Collins Resigns Ahead Of Expected Guilty Plea
Collins was the largest investor and a member of the board of directors for Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech company. He was charged with passing inside information on the company to his son and Zarsky, father of Cameron Collins' fiancee. Using that information, Cameron Collins and Zarsky were able to avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses after a drug trial failed, authorities say. At that time, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with Lauren Zarsky, Cameron Collins' fiancee, and her mother, Dorothy Zarsky, over allegations of insider trading. The pair neither admitted nor denied, but they agreed to give up "ill-gotten gains" and pay fines, the SEC said. (Bresnahan, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Rep. Chris Collins, Charged In Insider-Trading Case, Resigns
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly what charges Mr. Collins would plead guilty to Tuesday. In September, the representative from western New York pleaded not guilty to a revised set of insider-trading charges, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Prosecutors accused him of passing a confidential tip to his son, Cameron Collins, so he could sell shares in the biotechnology company before the public disclosure of a failed drug trial. (Ramey, 9/30)

The Associated Press: How Risky Is Eating Red Meat? New Papers Provoke Controversy
Their conclusions were swiftly attacked by a group of prominent U.S. scientists who took the unusual step of trying to stop publication until their criticisms were addressed. The new work does not say red meat and processed meats like hot dogs and bacon are healthy or that people should eat more of them. The reviews of past studies generally support the ties to cancer, heart disease and other bad health outcomes. But the authors say the evidence is weak, and that there’s not much certainty meat is really the culprit, since other diet and lifestyle factors could be at play. (Choi, 9/30)

The New York Times: Eat Less Red Meat, Scientists Said. Now Some Believe That Was Bad Advice. 
Public health officials for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of concerns that these foods are linked to heart disease, cancer and other ills. But on Monday, in a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice, a bedrock of almost all dietary guidelines, is not backed by good scientific evidence. (Kolata, 9/30)

The Washington Post: A Study Says Full Speed Ahead On Processed And Red Meat Consumption. Nutrition Scientists Say Not So Fast.
Analyzing the data from five studies that encompassed 54,000 people, the researchers did not find a significant association between meat consumption and the risk of heart disease, diabetes or cancer. They also found a vegetarian diet provided few, if any, health benefits. Given the enthusiasm among meat eaters for steaks and burgers, the impacts would have to be much greater to suggest curtailing red and processed meat, said Bradley Johnston, associate professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie University and the lead researcher on the study. Johnston acknowledged the study’s recommendations are contrary to almost all other guidelines that exist. (Reiley, 9/30)

NPR: No Need To Cut Back On Red Meat? Controversial New 'Guidelines' Lead To Outrage
Recommendations from the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, as well as the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, all call for limiting red meats and processed meats. "I am outraged and bewildered," says nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford University. "This is perplexing, given the ... clear evidence for harm associated with high red meat intake," says Frank Hu, the chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (Aubrey, 9/30)

The New York Times: That Perplexing Red Meat Controversy: 5 Things To Know
Dietary guidelines from groups as diverse as the Department of Agriculture to the World Health Organization urge all of us to eat less red meat — much less. But the authors of four new studies, published on Wednesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, report there is no compelling evidence that reducing consumption of red or processed meats will be beneficial to an individual. A furious backlash is already unfolding. Here are five takeaways from the debate. (Kolata, 9/30)

The Associated Press: Las Vegas Massacre Anniversary Sparks Debate On Gun Control
In the two years since the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the federal government and states have tightened some gun regulations. But advocates say they’re frustrated that more hasn’t been done since 58 people died at a concert on the Las Vegas Strip, and that mass shootings keep happening nationwide. “People are genuinely afraid of going places,” Nevada Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui said. (Ritter and Price, 10/1)

The New York Times: Foods High In Vitamin A May Help Ward Off Skin Cancer
Getting a lot of vitamin A in your diet is tied to a lower risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer, a review of studies has found. Squamous cell carcinoma, a slow-growing cancer usually found on sun-exposed areas, is easy to treat if found early, although in rare cases it can spread to other tissues. (Bakalar, 10/1)

The New York Times: Asthma 3-In-1 Therapy May Improve Lung Function, Study Shows
Many people with asthma use inhalers to control the chronic inflammation in their lungs. But for those with more severe forms of the disease, the standard inhaled medication may not be enough to keep the wheezing, chest tightness and attacks at bay. Now, a new combination-therapy — using three drugs in a single inhaler — may provide some relief, according to doctors presenting the results of two clinical trials on Monday at the annual conference of the European Respiratory Society in Madrid and published in The Lancet. (Sheikh, 9/30)

The Washington Post: The Big Number: 3 Or More Hours A Day Of Social Media Use Hurts Youths’ Mental Health
Might time spent on social media — YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like — affect young people’s mental health? Yes, says a report by Johns Hopkins and other researchers, published in JAMA Psychiatry. For instance, they found that 12- to 15-year-olds who typically spent three or more hours a day on social media were about twice as likely to experience depression, anxiety, loneliness, aggression or antisocial behavior as were adolescents who did not use social media. As the youths’ social media time increased, so did their risk, making them four times more likely than nonusers to have these problems if they spent more than six hours a day on social media. (Searing, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: A New Death Shakes A Campus Rattled By Student Suicides
On a quiet Sunday afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania, a dozen students sat in a circle, turned to one another, and asked: “Are you thinking of killing yourself?” ... With 14 student suicides in the past six years, this Ivy League university has been asking hard questions and has bolstered its mental-health resources. But the recent death by suicide of a high-profile mental-health administrator—Gregory Eells, executive director of Penn’s Counseling and Psychological Services program that provides therapy sessions for students—highlighted the complexity of the school’s continuing battle against suicide. (Calfas, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: The Rare Good Samaritans Who Donated Organs Twice
It’s hard enough for most people to imagine what it takes for a living donor to give an organ to a friend, family member or stranger. What about those who have done that good deed twice? Only 47 people in the U.S. have donated more than one organ to two different people over the past 25 years, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the nonprofit that runs the nation’s transplant system. (Another 17 people have donated two different organs to the same recipient on different dates.) Of those who donated to two different people, 43 out of 47 donated a kidney and part of their liver. (Reddy, 9/30)