First Edition: September 26, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Bill Of The Month: Emergency Air Ambulance Ride Leaves Injured Doctor With $56,603 Bill
It was the first — and only — time Dr. Naveed Khan, a 35-year-old radiologist, ever rode in an all-terrain vehicle. Khan took the wheel from his friend and drove circles in the sand, on a trail along the Red River in Texas. “As soon as I turned to the side where my body weight was, this two-seater vehicle … just tilted toward the side and toppled,” Khan recalled. It landed on his left arm. (Kodjak, 9/26)

Kaiser Health News: Putting Oversized Health Care Costs Upfront — On T-Shirts 
If only patients knew how expensive medical procedures are and how wildly prices vary by hospital, they could be smart shoppers and lower the cost of health care for everybody. At least that’s what policy experts and health insurers keep saying as they promote “consumer-directed” health care and cost-comparison websites.None of it has had much effect. Now, exasperated Maryland officials are presenting hospital cost information in a way they believe Americans might understand: on a T-shirt. (Hancock, 9/26)

Kaiser Health News: Medicare Eases Readmission Penalties Against Safety-Net Hospitals
On orders from Congress, Medicare is easing up on its annual readmission penalties on hundreds of hospitals serving the most low-income residents, records released last week show. Since 2012, Medicare has punished hospitals for having too many patients end up back in their care within a month. The government estimates the hospital industry will lose $566 million in the latest round of penalties that will stretch over the next 12 months. The penalties are a signature part of the Affordable Care Act’s effort to encourage better care. (Rau, 9/26)

The New York Times: Trump Unleashes On Kavanaugh Accuser As Key Republican Wavers
President Trump assailed the latest woman to accuse Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, saying on Tuesday that she “has nothing” because she was “messed up” at the time, even as a key Republican senator urged colleagues to take the accusations seriously. With pressure rising in advance of a make-or-break hearing on Thursday, Mr. Trump lashed out in a more vociferous way than he has since his nominee came under fire for allegations of sexual assault, blaming Democrats for orchestrating a “con game” and targeting one of Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers in scathing, personal terms. (Baker and Fandos, 9/25)

The Washington Post: ‘Back In The Foxhole Together’: Conservatives Rally Around Kavanaugh Amid Accusations
The powerful and well-funded conservative movement has launched into overdrive to rescue the Supreme Court nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh, decrying the sexual assault allegations against him as unfounded and warning Republicans that buckling to Democratic pressure would undermine voter enthusiasm weeks before the midterm elections. (Costa, 9/25)

Politico: Democrats In The Dark On Eve Of Historic Kavanaugh Hearing
Tens of millions of people will be watching Christine Blasey Ford when she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a potentially history-shaping hearing on Thursday. Yet Ford has had no apparent contact with the people who could help her most through the ordeal: Senate Democrats. (Schor and Bade, 9/26)

Politico: Red-State Democrats Refuse To Come Out Against Kavanaugh
Democrats have all the cover they need to vote in lockstep against Brett Kavanaugh. But a half-dozen of them have refused to go there, even after the pair of sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee. Democratic insiders are feeling more bullish than ever that the party’s 49 caucus members ultimately will oppose Kavanaugh. Yet the undeclared bloc of Democratic senators could be a problem for Democratic leaders, who want to put the weight of the nomination entirely on a handful of holdout Republicans. (Everett and Schor, 9/25)

The New York Times: They Say Sexual Assault, Kavanaugh Says It Never Happened: Sifting Truth From Memory
When Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford present their vastly different recollections to the Senate on Thursday, the quality and reliability of memory itself will be on trial. Judge Kavanaugh has emphatically denied allegations from Dr. Blasey that he tried to rape her when they were teenagers or ever committed sexual assault against anyone. Dr. Blasey and another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, have recounted their alleged incidents with both precise detail and gaping holes. (Carey and Hoffman, 9/25)

Los Angeles Times: Kavanaugh Vs. Kavanaugh: Supreme Court Nominee Has Offered Conflicting Accounts Of His Teenage Drinking
The toughest challenge facing Judge Brett Kavanaugh when he appears at a Senate hearing Thursday about allegations of a decades-old sexual assault may be reconciling the two starkly different depictions circulating about his high school and college years. Unfortunately for Kavanaugh, both versions — one of a hard-partying, heavy-drinking frat boy and the other of a church-going athlete known from age 14 for respecting women’s dignity — come from Kavanaugh’s own words. (Savage, 9/25)

Politico: Senate Panel Schedules Kavanaugh Vote For Friday
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court on Friday morning, less than 24 hours after Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford appear before the panel to discuss Ford's allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than 30 years ago. (Schor, Bresnahan and Everett, 9/25)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Launches Review Of Government-Funded Fetal Tissue Research
The Trump administration has launched a review of all federally funded research that uses fetal tissue and has canceled one contract for such material, stepping into a decades-old controversy that has been a sidelight to the ideological war over abortion. Federal health officials dispatched a letter Monday ending a contract with a California-based nonprofit group targeted by social conservatives in Congress and a coalition of antiabortion and faith-based groups. In July, the Food and Drug Administration had agreed to pay the organization, Advanced Bioscience Resources, nearly $16,000 for fetal tissue that was to be implanted into mice for research into immune responses to drugs. (Goldstein, Cha and McGinley, 9/25)

Stat: Trump Administration Launches Review Of Scientific Research Involving Fetal Tissue
The announcement follows the release of a letter sent earlier this month by 45 anti-abortion leaders to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, expressing outrage about the Food and Drug Administration’s contract and urging him to end government funding for fetal tissue research. In 2017, the National Institutes of Health spent roughly $98 million on the research. “The use of fetal tissue is important or even necessary for some kinds of work,” said Alta Charo, a bioethics professor from the University of Wisconsin who has defended fetal tissue research before Congress. Charo noted that research using fetal tissue led to the development of key vaccines and is now crucial to research on understanding how exposure to Zika virus during pregnancy causes birth defects. (Thielking, 9/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Cancels Research Contract For Fetal Tissue
The action rekindles a longstanding and emotional debate over the use of fetal tissue in research. Conservative evangelical voters, who are among the GOP’s strongest supporters, strongly oppose the use of such tissue when it comes from abortions. Research groups, however, say the use of fetal tissue is vital to medical advances because it has qualities that adult tissue doesn’t have.The debate over abortion, they add, should be kept separate from the question of whether such tissue should be used. (Armour and Burton, 9/25)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Places The Head Of Its Office Of Children’s Health On Leave
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday placed the head of its Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave, in an unusual move that several observers said appeared to reflect an effort to minimize the role of the office. Dr. Ruth Etzel, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who has been a leader in children’s environmental health for 30 years, joined the E.P.A. in 2015, after having served as a senior officer for environmental health research at the World Health Organization. (Davenport and Rabin, 9/26)

NPR: FAA Budget Bill Could Bring Changes To Air Ambulance Business
Air ambulance rides can be lifesavers. But how much should they cost? In the ongoing, crowdsourced "Bill of the Month" investigation, NPR and Kaiser Health News have received more than a dozen bills from people around the country on the hook for medevac helicopter rides that ranged from $28,000 to $97,000.What gives? Why should a lifesaving flight come with a life-altering bill? (Fortier, 9/26)

The Hill: GOP Ad Uses Shark To Hit Dem On 'Government Takeover' Of Health Care 
Across the country, Republicans have been attacking Democrats for supporting "Medicare for All," arguing it is too costly and disruptive. Republicans have been trying to counter an onslaught of Democratic attacks over ObamaCare repeal and undermining protections for pre-existing conditions. (Sullivan, 9/25)

The Hill: GOP Senate Candidate Says He Supports Pre-Existing Conditions While Backing Lawsuit To End Them
Missouri GOP Senate candidate Josh Hawley says in a new ad that he supports forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, even as he takes part in a lawsuit that would overturn those protections in ObamaCare. Hawley, Missouri's attorney general, who is running against vulnerable incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), said in the ad released Monday that his oldest son has a rare chronic disease — a pre-existing condition, he notes. (Hellmann, 9/25)

The Hill: Romney Opposes Utah's Medicaid Expansion Ballot Measure 
Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney (R) said he supports the state’s efforts to partially expand Medicaid, but does not think a full expansion will be viable. In an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Romney praised the state’s partial approach, which would use federal money to expand coverage to people earning up to 100 percent of the poverty level. It would also institute a work requirement. (Weixel, 9/25)

The New York Times/ProPublica: Cancer Center Switches Focus On Fund-Raising As Problems Mount
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has abruptly changed the focus of an annual fund-raising campaign amid a widening crisis that has already led to the resignation of its chief medical officer and a sweeping re-examination of its policies. The campaign, initially titled “Harnessing Big Data,” was to have focused on the cancer center’s research into the use of artificial intelligence in cancer treatment, according to a brochure on Memorial Sloan Kettering’s website. (Thomas and Ornstein, 9/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Good News From Rite Aid? It Is Possible
Rite Aid, weighed down by too much debt, has a clear opportunity to fix itself. In doing so, the drug chain can reshape the pharmacy-benefits-manager business. The past two years have been difficult for Rite Aid. The pharmacy company pulled out of a planned merger with grocery chain Albertson’s in August, after significant shareholder opposition to the deal’s terms. Regulators had already nixed a sale of the company to rival Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2017, though Rite Aid was able to sell a large share of its stores to Walgreens. (Grant, 9/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Novartis To Cut 2,000 Jobs Amid Revamp
Novartis AG plans to cut more than 2,000 jobs as part of a global restructuring, the latest move by its new chief executive to refocus the pharmaceutical giant on higher-value drugs. The Swiss company said Tuesday that most of the cuts would fall in its home market, where it plans to eliminate a net 1,000 production jobs—after taking into account the creation of 450 positions—and 700 positions in business services. (Mancini, 9/25)

Stat: Congenital Syphilis Cases Surge To 20-Year High As Officials Re-Up Calls For Testing
Cases of congenital syphilis reached a 20-year high last year after they more than doubled from 362 in 2013 to 918 in 2017, leading health authorities to emphasize the importance of testing all pregnant women. Congenital syphilis cases occur when a mother passes the bacteria to her baby during pregnancy or delivery and can cause a host of complications, including stillbirth, premature birth, and the death of the newborn. Babies who are born with syphilis can have neurological problems and may go blind or deaf within the first few years of their lives. (Joseph, 9/25)

The Associated Press: Newborn Syphilis Cases In US Reach Highest Level In 20 Years
The last time the number was that high or higher was in the 1990s. In adults, cases of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases also are rising. Health officials say possible reasons include a wave of illegal drug use. They say women should be tested during pregnancy so they can be treated with antibiotics. (Sotbbe, 9/25)

Stat: The End Of HIV Transmission In The U.S.: A Once-Thinkable Goal Is Up For Discussion
A mere decade ago, 45,000 Americans a year were contracting HIV. Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started collecting data on HIV-related deaths just over 30 years ago, more than half a million of those people have died from AIDS. And yet, today, the struggle against HIV may be undergoing a sea change.U.S. health officials and HIV experts are beginning to talk about a future in which transmission in the United States could be halted. And that future, they say, could come not within a generation, but in the span of just a few years. (Branswell, 9/26)

US News & World Report: The Burden Of Race On Community Health In America
A decade and a half ago, a landmark study explored how racial and ethnic minorities face disparities in health care quality, even after accounting for socioeconomic differences. Such trends have persisted for decades, with deadly effects: Another study using 2002 data found there were 229 excess deaths daily that could be avoided by closing the mortality gap between blacks and whites. That's like a Boeing 767 with all black passengers crashing every day, as David Williams of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health points out. (McPhillips, 9/25)

The New York Times: Appendicitis? Antibiotics May Be All You Need
Antibiotics may be a good option for many cases of appendicitis. Several randomized trials have shown that treating appendicitis with antibiotics rather than surgery may be safe and effective, but the long-term effects of avoiding an appendectomy have been unclear. (Bakalar, 9/25)

The New York Times: Shingles Vaccine Shortages Result From High Demand
Shingrix, the vaccine approved last year to prevent shingles, has proved so popular that its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, has not been able to produce it quickly enough to keep up with the demand. The vaccine is recommended for most people over 50. But many are having trouble getting it. The company says there are no manufacturing problems — it just didn’t expect so many consumers to want the vaccine. (Grady, 9/25)

The New York Times: Are We Wired To Sit?
Are we born to be physically lazy? A sophisticated if disconcerting new neurological study suggests that we probably are. It finds that even when people know that exercise is desirable and plan to work out, certain electrical signals within their brains may be nudging them toward being sedentary. The study’s authors hope, though, that learning how our minds may undermine our exercise intentions could give us renewed motivation to move. (Reynolds, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Governments To Discuss Tackling Tuberculosis At UN Summit
Governments from around the world will gather Wednesday to discuss the persistent scourge of tuberculosis, which last year claimed more lives than any other communicable disease. About 1.3 million people worldwide died of TB in 2017. A further 300,000 people with both HIV and TB died in last year, according to World Health Organization figures released this month. (Jordans, 9/25)

The Associated Press: What's Yogurt? Industry Wants Greater Liberty To Use Term
If low-fat yogurt is blended with fatty ingredients like coconut or chocolate, is it still low-fat? Is it even yogurt? The U.S. government has rules about what can be called "yogurt," and the dairy industry says it's not clear what the answers are. Now it's hopeful it will finally get to use the term with greater liberty, with the Trump administration in the process of updating the yogurt definition. (Choi, 9/25)

Reuters: Investors At Smith & Wesson Parent Support Call For Gun Safety Report
Investors at American Outdoor Brands Corp approved a call for the gun maker to produce a safety report, officials said during its annual meeting on Tuesday, marking a second win for religious activist shareholders focused on firearms makers after a series of mass shootings in the United States. The resolution, approved over the company's objections, asks its board to report by February on its efforts to monitor gun violence, to research and produce safer guns, and for an assessment of reputational and financial risks. (Kerber, 9/25)

The Associated Press: Maryland Official Criticizes Gun Laws In Warehouse Shooting
A Maryland law enforcement official is criticizing gun laws in the wake of a shooting at a warehouse last week in which four people were killed and three people wounded. The Baltimore Sun reports Harford County Sheriff's Maj. William Davis told Aberdeen's mayor and city council members Monday 26-year-old Snochia Moseley had been diagnosed with acute schizophrenia, but answered "no" to whether she had been diagnosed with a mental illness when filling out paperwork to purchase a handgun. (9/25)

The Washington Post: Bowser Backs Bill Penalizing Dealers Of Synthetic Drugs As Overdoses Spike In D.C.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is proposing emergency legislation to crack down on drug dealers amid a spike in synthetic marijuana overdoses while a permanent version of the bill makes its way through the D.C. Council. D.C. fire department medics treated or transported more than 1,600 people for symptoms consistent with synthetic drug overdoses between July 14 and Sunday, according to city officials. (Nirappil, 9/25)

The New York Times: For Gavin Newsom, A Stealth Run For California Governor
He may seem hesitant to say it, but Gavin Newsom wants your vote for governor of California. Really. Mr. Newsom took the stage to cheers in the hot afternoon sun in Orange County the other day. For 20 minutes, he talked about the Democratic candidates for Congress and the California Legislature. He talked about President Trump. He talked about poverty, homelessness, immigration and global warming. (Nagourney and Arango, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Board Tasked With Developing Cancer Research Center To Meet
A Virginia state board tasked with developing plans for a cancer research and treatment center is set to convene for the first time. The Henrietta Lacks Commission is named for Henrietta Lacks, a Virginia woman whose cells were taken without her consent and widely used in groundbreaking research. It will meet Wednesday in South Boston. (9/26)