First Edition: September 27, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Will Congress Bring Sky-High Air Ambulance Bills Down To Earth?
Air ambulance rides are literal lifesavers. But how much should they cost? In the ongoing, crowdsourced “Bill of the Month” investigation, Kaiser Health News and NPR 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, 9/27)

Kaiser Health News: Threat To The ACA Turns Up The Heat On Attorney General Races
For years, congressional Republicans have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, in a case sending shock waves through midterm election campaigns, Republican attorneys general across the country may be poised to make good on that promise. The case, Texas v. United States, reveals just how high the stakes are for health care in this year’s attorney general races, elections that rarely receive much attention but have the power to reverberate through the lives of Americans. (Huetteman, 9/27)

The New York Times: Before Kavanaugh Hearing, New Accusations And Doubts Emerge
Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh faced a whirlwind of new accusations on Wednesday that threatened to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators wavered in their support and President Trump, in a rambling and combative news conference, acknowledged that he might be persuaded by the testimony of one of the judge’s female accusers. (Fandos and Shear, 9/26)

The Washington Post: Career Prosecutor Brings Wild-Card Element To Kavanaugh Hearing
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday will take the extraordinary step of putting one of the most politically treacherous and emotionally charged congressional hearings in recent memory in the hands of an unknown career prosecutor from Arizona with little comparable experience. (Helderman, Kim, Dawsey and Farzan, 9/26)

The Wall Street Journal: New Claims Add Fuel To Showdown Over Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Committee aides also were seeking on Wednesday to speak with the judge’s latest accuser, Julie Swetnick, who alleged that Judge Kavanaugh was at a party in the early 1980s when she was gang-raped and that he tried to get women drunk at several gatherings. She wasn’t scheduled to appear at the hearing. Mr. Kavanaugh has forcefully denied all of the allegations against him, saying at one point he felt like he was in the Twilight Zone. “This is crazy town—it’s a smear campaign,” Mr. Kavanaugh told committee aides. (Ballhaus and Viswanatha, 9/26)

Los Angeles Times: Ford: 'I Thought That Brett Was Accidentally Going To Kill Me'
California professor Christine Blasey Ford plans to tell senators Thursday that she is “no one’s pawn” and that an alleged 1982 sexual assault by now-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has “been seared into my memory and ... haunted me episodically as an adult.” In her opening statement for the high-stakes hearing, released Wednesday, Ford said a drunken Kavanaugh, then 17, pinned her to a bed at a party, groping her, trying to remove her clothes and placing his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell for help. (Haberkorn and Wire, 9/26)

NPR: Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Statement About Kavanaugh Allegation
Christine Blasey Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school in the early 1980s. On Thursday the psychology professor is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read her opening statement. (9/26)

The Washington Post: Trio Of GOP Senators In Spotlight On Eve Of Second Kavanaugh Hearing
Three Senate Republicans were already at the epicenter of the firestorm around Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court: Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. But the trio, who have been lobbied heavily by outside groups, vocal constituents and their own colleagues, are now suddenly grappling with a new set of allegations brought by a third woman against Kavanaugh — accusations that are making an already tense confirmation fight even more combustible for the influential group of senators. (Kim, 9/26)

Politico: Kavanaugh's GOP Defenders On The Hot Seat At Hearing
Lindsey Graham complained that Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers are making him out to be “Bill Cosby.” Orrin Hatch blasted “phony” accusations in The New Yorker. And John Cornyn urged the Senate to get on with a confirmation vote before more “reckless” allegations are lodged against the Supreme Court nominee. All three Republicans will be on the dais Thursday when Ford appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing that will determine whether Kavanaugh lands on the high court. They've been Kavanaugh’s most aggressive defenders — and appear most at risk of appearing dismissive of Kavanaugh's initial accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. (Everett and Bresnahan, 9/26)

Los Angeles Times: Here's What Sexual Assault Experts Say You Should Keep In Mind As Christine Blasey Ford Shares Her Story
You’ll probably hear that there are many things we don’t know about sexual assault: who commits it and why, what impact it has on victims, how often it is falsely reported, and how accurately it’s remembered by those who talk about it years later. That is only half true. The people who devote their careers to investigating the subject always have unanswered questions: that’s what drives their research. But the study of sexual violence has matured in recent decades. At least 15 journals routinely publish scholarly findings on trauma and violence of all kinds, and a handful focus specifically on sexual violence. (Healy, 9/27)

The Washington Post: How Alcohol Causes Blackouts And Blocks Memories
The allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh have a common element of binge drinking, and highlight the powerful effects alcohol can have on adolescents and their still-developing brains. Alcohol not only changes behavior — sometimes with disastrous consequences — it can also interfere with memory formation, creating gaps that experts refer to as blackouts. “In the moment, the person can be functioning normally, with no sign there’s going to be memory impairment. But because those memories never get consolidated and stored, it’s like they never occurred, so you can’t recall them later on,” said Kate Carey, a clinical psychologist at Brown University School of Public Health. “Which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” (Johnson and Achenbach, 9/26)

The New York Times: In Rare Bipartisan Accord, House And Senate Reach Compromise On Opioid Bill
The House and Senate have reached agreement on a big package of measures to address the opioid epidemic. The legislation, backed by leaders of both parties, is a rare bipartisan achievement that lawmakers are eager to have in hand when they go home to campaign for the midterm elections. The 653-page bill contains a mix of law enforcement and public health measures, including one that aims to block deadly fentanyl from being imported through the mail and one that will allow more nurses to prescribe medication for opioid addiction. Another provision could make it easier for Medicaid recipients to get inpatient care for substance abuse over the next five years. (Goodnough, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Congress Sends Bill To Trump To Avert Government Shutdown
Congress has approved a bill keeping the government open through Dec. 7, as lawmakers move to avert a government shutdown looming next week. The $854 billion bill also funds the military and a host of civilian agencies for the next year. The House approved the bill, 361-61, on Wednesday, a week after the Senate approved it, 93-7. (Daly, 9/26)

Reuters: Trump To Back U.S. Spending Bill, Avert Government Shutdown
The massive package includes some $675 billion to fund the Department of Defense for the full year ending on Sept. 30, 2019, as well as about $180 billion for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Departments. (Zengerle, 9/26)

The Wall Street Journal: House Passes Spending Bill To Avert Shutdown
The bill also raises spending for the National Institutes of Health to $39 billion, a $2 billion increase, and provides a 1.6% bump in the maximum Pell grant award for college students with financial need. (Duehren, 9/26)

The Washington Post: Trump Pledges ‘We’ll Keep The Government Open’ Days Ahead Of Shutdown Deadline
President Trump pledged Wednesday that he would not allow the government to partially shut down next week, backing down from his demand that Congress appropriate billions of dollars for new construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Keeping the government open after Sunday would require Trump to sign a bipartisan spending bill from Congress, something he had resisted committing to for weeks. (Werner and Paletta, 9/26)

The Hill: Dems Want To Hold Officials’ Feet To The Fire On ObamaCare 
Democrats say they will grill top Trump administration officials over what they say has been its efforts to “sabotage” ObamaCare, if they take back the House majority this fall and win committee chairmanships with subpoena power. While Democrats are unlikely to see significant health-care legislation enacted while President Trump is in the White House, they say they’ll work to advance several bills designed to “undo” the damage caused by the administration and build up the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (Hellmann, 9/27)

The New York Times: Dozens Of Doctors Who Screen Immigrants Have Record Of ‘Egregious Infractions,’ Report Says
The doctors tapped by the federal government to medically screen immigrants seeking green cards include dozens with a history of “egregious infractions,” according to a report from a federal watchdog agency. The report looked at more than 5,500 doctors across the country used by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as of June 2017 to examine those seeking green cards. More than 130 had some background of wrongdoing, including one who sexually exploited female patients and another who tried to have a dissatisfied patient killed, the report said. (Zaveri, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Arizona City Ends Contract For Immigrant Detention Center
A small Arizona city has ended its role in an unusual contract that allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to run a family detention center in Texas, where lawyers say a child became sick and died after her release. The city of Eloy already had an agreement with ICE and the private detention company CoreCivic for a detention facility when it entered the contract in 2014 involving the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. (9/26)

The Associated Press: As Federal Medicaid Funding Declines, States Mull Costs
Maine’s Republican governor has said federal regulators want to know how Maine would pay for Medicaid expansion. But it’s unclear just how that issue will play out in Maine, the first state to pass Medicaid expansion under Republican President Trump’s administration. States must file routine paperwork to get federal Medicaid expansion funding under former Democratic President Obama’s signature health care law. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it works to ensure states pay for their share of an expansion with “proper” financing. (Villeneuve, 9/26)

The Washington Post: Federal Employee Health-Care Premiums To Rise 1.5 Percent On Average For 2019
The enrollee share of premiums in the health-care program for federal employees and retirees will increase by 1.5 percent on average in 2019, although there will be decreases in some plans, including in the two Blue Cross and Blue Shield options that account for nearly two-thirds of enrollees, the government announced Wednesday. Further, Blue Cross and several other plans will offer a new third option in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the largest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the nation, the Office of Personnel Management said. (Yoder, 9/26)

The Associated Press: 80,000 People Died Of Flu Last Winter In US
An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter — the disease's highest death toll in at least four decades. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an interview Tuesday night with The Associated Press. Flu experts knew it was a very bad season, but at least one found the size of the estimate surprising. (9/26)

The Hill: CDC: 80K People In U.S. Died From Flu Last Winter 
The number of deaths last winter is higher than any flu season going back to 1976-1977, before which there is not easily available data, according to the AP. Last winter's flu was particularly active. “For the past three weeks, the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu all at the same time,” Dan Jernigan, a top CDC flu official, said in January. (Sullivan, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Louisiana's 'Admitting Privileges' Abortion Law Upheld
A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that a Louisiana law requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals does not violate women's constitutional abortion rights. The 2-1 ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals notes a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down an admitting privileges law in Texas — a case known as Whole Woman's Health. But, the majority said, Louisiana's law does not impose the same "substantial burden" on women as the Texas law. The ruling reversed a Baton Rouge-based federal judge's ruling in the case and ordered the lawsuit by opponents of the law dismissed. (McGill, 9/26)

Reuters: U.S. Court Upholds Louisiana Restriction On Abortion Clinics
"There is no evidence that any of the clinics will close as a result of the Act," the appeals court said in its ruling. The Texas law, whose language is similar to the Louisiana law, led to the closure of the majority of the state's abortion clinics and the number of women forced to drive over 150 miles to seek abortions increased by 350 percent, the appeals court said. (Herskovitz, 9/27)

Stat: New Policy Would Force Pharma To Disclose Payments To Nurses, Too 
Drug companies and medical device manufacturers would have to disclose payments and gifts made to nurse practitioners and physician assistants beginning in 2020 as part of a new law Congress is likely to finalize within days, significantly expanding a sunshine law that previously only applied to doctors. The new rules would also apply to clinical nurse specialists, nurse-anesthetists, and nurse-midwives. (Facher, 9/27)

Reuters: Merck's Frazier To Remain CEO Of The U.S. Drugmaker Beyond 2019
Merck & Co Inc Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Frazier will remain in the role beyond 2019, the drugmaker said on Wednesday, after it scrapped a policy requiring its CEOs to retire at the age of 65. Frazier, who will turn 65 in December 2019, took the helm of the U.S. pharmaceutical company in 2011. On his watch, the company's stock price has doubled and its cancer immunotherapy Keytruda has raked in blockbuster sales, becoming one of the leading products in a new generation of oncology treatments. (Mathias and Erman, 9/26)

The Wall Street Journal: More Young Veterans Committing Suicide, VA Data Show
The rate of suicide among young military veterans has increased substantially despite efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to curb the problem, though overall veteran suicides declined slightly, according to new data to be released Wednesday. The VA’s National Suicide Data Report paints a troubling picture for vets ages 18 to 34, for some troops who served in the National Guard or reserves, as well as female veterans. (Kesling, 9/26)

The New York Times: Male, Female Or ‘X’: The Push For A Third Choice On Official Forms
Charlie Arrowood does not identify as male or female. So in January, when a new New York City law takes effect, they plan to modify the sex recorded on their birth certificate to one that fits: “X,” a gender-neutral option. Mx. Arrowood, who is transgender, changed both their name and sex on the certificate last year. But putting “male” instead of “female” on the document did not feel quite right either. (Newman, 9/27)

Bloomberg: Your Scented Products May Be Hiding A Dangerous Secret 
Some benzyl chloride with your vanilla-scented lotion? Consumers may be surprised that their favorite scented products could contain some less-entrancing ingredients, according to a new report. A study released Wednesday by Breast Cancer Prevention Partners found a host of unlisted chemicals in commonly used products, with most coming from the scents used to boost their allure. Many bear celebrity labels or are sold to vulnerable populations, it said. (Coleman-Lochner, 9/26)

The New York Times: Kids’ Brainpower Tied To Exercise, Sleep And Limited Screen Time
Researchers tied three behaviors to higher scores on tests of mental ability in children: at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, nine to 11 hours of sleep a night, and no more than two hours a day of recreational screen time. The new study, in Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, included 4,524 children ages 8 to 11 who were assessed with six standard tests that measure language skills, memory, planning ability, and speed at completing mental tasks. (Bakalar, 9/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Young Cancer Patients In Poor Countries Get A Boost
When Pascale Yola Gassant went to work as a pediatrician at a children’s hospital in Haiti in 2003, she saw patients with cancer—but could offer no specialists, drugs or radiation therapy to tackle their disease. Distraught, Dr. Gassant says she warned her manager at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince: “These children were left on their own and they would die without care and without treatment.” (Lagnado, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Countries Pledge Billions To Fight Tuberculosis Worldwide
The World Health Organization says governments have agreed to contribute $13 billion a year by 2022 to prevent and treat tuberculosis, a communicable disease that claimed at least 1.3 million lives last year. The agency said Wednesday that countries at a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly committed an additional $2 billion annually for research into TB. (9/26)

Los Angeles Times: Why Australia's Famed Gun Control Laws Probably Wouldn't Reduce Shooting Deaths In America
On a spring day in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, a lone gunman shot an elderly couple at the inn they owned, 22 diners lunching at a nearby tourist spot, two tour bus drivers and several of their passengers, four occupants of a BMW, and two customers at a gas station. By the time the bullets stopped flying on April 28, 1996, 35 people were dead and another 23 were wounded. It was the worst mass shooting Australia had ever seen. In a matter of months, Australia rolled out the National Firearms Agreement, which banned the possession of automatic and semiautomatic firearms in all but “exceptional circumstances.” (Kaplan, 9/26)

The Associated Press: California Tightens Rules For Concealed Weapons, Bump Stocks
Californians will have to undergo at least eight hours of training, including live-fire exercises, before carrying a concealed weapon, under one of several firearms bills acted on by Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill helps standardize the state's current patchwork requirements for obtaining concealed weapons permits. It was among dozens of bills that the Democratic governor announced signing or vetoing Wednesday. (9/26)

The Associated Press: McDonald's Says Most Burgers Now Preservative-Free
Following years of reformulating at McDonald's, most of the burgers it serves in the U.S. are now preservative-free. As of Wednesday, the world's largest burger chain says classics like the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder with Cheese are preservative-free, with reformulated buns and sauces. Pickles on the sandwiches still contain artificial preservatives, but customers can request sandwiches without pickles. (9/26)

The Associated Press: 11 People Charged In Drug Treatment Fraud Involving Pellets
Eleven people including doctors have been charged in Southern California in an alleged insurance-fraud scheme involving an implant surgery that purportedly helps drug addicts and alcoholics, Orange County's top prosecutor said Wednesday. "Orange County's become what's known as the 'Rehab Riviera' due to the proliferation of insurance fraud and the attractiveness of our communities," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in announcing the case. (9/26)

The Washington Post: A Telemarketer Made About 21 Million Robocalls In 3 Months. The FCC Just Fined It $82 Million.
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday imposed an $82 million fine against a telemarketer who made more than 21 million unsolicited calls to consumers to try to sell health insurance and generate leads. Over a three-month period beginning in late 2016, Philip Roesel and his companies made more than 200,000 calls every day, the FCC said, using a technique known as spoofing in which a person’s caller ID displays a number that is different from the one the caller is using. (Shaban, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Legionnaire’s Disease Confirmed At Senior Living Community
Health department officials in the nation’s capital say a case of Legionnaire’s disease has been confirmed at a senior living community in Washington. News outlets report the health department has advised the Ingleside at Rock Creek retirement community to implement full water restrictions until filters can be installed on sinks and showers. A letter from the community’s executive director, Frank Beech, says residents are being provided bottled water and supplies in the meantime. (9/26)

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Hears Johns Hopkins Black Lung Lawsuit
A federal appeals court heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the families of coal miners who were denied benefits for black lung disease after a Johns Hopkins doctor insisted their X-rays did not show the disease. A federal judge in Maryland dismissed the lawsuit in 2017, finding that Dr. Paul Wheeler had immunity as an expert witness for coal companies under Maryland and federal law. (Lavoie, 9/26)

The Associated Press: In Minneapolis, Leaders Grapple With Sudden Homeless Camp
When a disturbed woman pulled a knife on Denise Deer earlier this month, she quickly herded her children into their tent. A nearby man stepped in and the woman was arrested, and within minutes, 8-year-old Shilo and 4-year-old Koda were back outside sitting on a sidewalk, playing with a train set and gobbling treats delivered by volunteers. (9/27)

The Washington Post: ‘This Is A Home’: First Of Seven New Homeless Family Shelters Opens In D.C.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Wednesday celebrated the completion of the first of seven new shelters for homeless families, marking a major step in her ambitious and sometimes contentious plan to replace the rundown megashelter at the former D.C. General Hospital with a network of smaller lodgings scattered across the city. (Nirappil, 9/26)

The Associated Press: Virginia Picks First 5 Medical Cannabis Dispensaries
Virginia regulators have picked five companies to open the state’s first medical cannabis dispensaries. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that after more than five hours of private discussion Tuesday, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy gave initial approval to five of the 51 applicants. Each of the state’s five health service areas will feature a dispensary. (9/26)