First Edition: September 5, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Rudy Giuliani’s Consulting Firm Had Hand In Halting Florida’s Opioid Investigation
Six months after hiring former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s consulting firm, Purdue Pharma settled a Florida state investigation that had threatened to expose early illegal marketing of its blockbuster drug OxyContin, company and state records show. The November 2002 deal was a coup for the drugmaker, which at the time faced growing criticism about overdose deaths and addiction linked to the painkiller. Purdue agreed to pay the state $2 million to help fund a computer database to track narcotics prescriptions and up to $150,000 to sponsor five one-day conferences to educate law enforcement about drug abuse. (Schulte, 9/5)

Kaiser Health News: Surprise Medical Bills Are What Americans Fear Most In Paying For Health Care
Unexpected medical bills top the list of health care costs Americans are afraid they will not be able to afford, with 4 in 10 people saying they had received a surprisingly large invoice within the past year, according to a new poll. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 67 percent of people worry about unexpected medical bills, more than they dread insurance deductibles, prescription drug costs or the basic staples of life: rent, food and gas. (Rau, 9/5)

California Healthline: Lawmakers Push To Protect Patients And Counter Trump
California lawmakers this year played offense and defense on health care, adopting bills to give patients more access to care and medications, while defending Californians against Trump administration attacks on the Affordable Care Act. As they raced toward their Friday deadline to pass bills, legislators voted to make the abortion pill available to students on public college campuses, and to stop hospitals from discharging homeless patients onto the streets. (Young, 9/4)

The New York Times: Democrats Open Contentious Hearings With Attack On ‘Partisan’ Kavanaugh
Senate Democrats tore into President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee on Tuesday, painting Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as a narrow-minded partisan as the opening day of his confirmation hearings verged on pandemonium. Dozens of screaming protesters were hauled out of the hearing room in handcuffs. The verbal brawl began moments after the hearings began. Democrats, furious at being denied access to records related to Judge Kavanaugh, immediately interrupted the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, demanding time to consider tens of thousands of pages of documents released late Monday — the night before the hearing. (Stolberg and Liptak, 9/4)

The Washington Post: Partisan Fury Bursts Into The Open As Kavanaugh Hearings Begin
But GOP senators mostly calmly defended Kavanaugh from what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called the Shakespearean nature of the hearing — “sound and fury, signifying nothing” — confident that there were no defections from the solid Republican support Kavanaugh needs to be confirmed as the Supreme Court’s 114th justice. The 53-year-old judge, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sat impassively for nearly seven hours of senators’ statements before speaking for less than 20 minutes. Senators plan to begin questioning him Wednesday morning. (Barnes, Kim, Marimow and Wagner, 9/4)

Politico: Schumer, Democrats Wrestled Over Staging Mass Kavanaugh Walkout
Given the brutal odds they face in beating a nominee they can’t stop unilaterally, Democrats went as far as they could go without splintering. Even Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) admitted the display had caught on, remarking that “either you run the committee, or it runs you” and telling Democrats that “you guys have been very successful today in running the committee.” (Everett and Schor, 9/4)

Los Angeles Times: Kavanaugh's Supreme Court Hearing Gets Off To A Combative Start As Democrats Protest The Process
Republicans rushed to Kavanaugh’s defense and accused Democrats of playing politics with the nomination. "If you want to pick judges for your way of thinking, then you better win an election,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Democrats. (Savage, Haberkorn and Wire, 9/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Hearing Has Testy Start
Judge Kavanaugh, who spoke at day’s end, made no reference to the seven hours of partisan debate. He touted his judicial impartiality at a session in which Democrats painted him as a servant of social conservatives and business interests. “I don’t decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge,” he said. “If confirmed to the court, I would be part of a team of nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States.” (Bravin and Tau, 9/4)

Los Angeles Times: 10 Things To Watch For In The Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing Wednesday
Democrats have at least two days — and 50 minutes each — to ask Kavanaugh about abortion, gun rights, presidential power, healthcare or whatever else they choose. Republicans will have the same time to draw out Kavanaugh’s credentials and strengths. Here’s a look at what we’ll be watching for Wednesday. (Wire and Haberkorn, 9/4)

NPR: Kavanaugh Hearings Day 2: Senators' Questions To Take Center Stage
Kavanaugh is also likely to be questioned about his thoughts on presidential power and immunity. Although he worked on the Starr report, he later wrote that a sitting president should not have to face the distraction of civil or criminal investigations — a position that worries Democrats in light of the ongoing Department of Justice probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the Trump campaign. "We have to confront an uncomfortable but important question about whether President Trump may have selected you, Judge Kavanaugh, with an eye towards protecting himself," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. (Horsley, 9/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Roe V. Wade Likely To Play Starring Role At Kavanaugh Hearings
Abortion is expected to figure prominently at the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Since Republican President Trump announced his pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, Democrats and abortion-rights activists have expressed alarm about the fate of Roe v. Wade, the 45-year-old ruling that first established abortion as a fundamental right under the Constitution. As a guide, here are some questions and answers about the abortion legal landscape, how it could change, and what to expect at the hearings. (Gershman, 9/4)

NPR: Kavanaugh Hearings, Day 1: Protesters Focus On Roe; Attempted Handshake Goes Viral
There were frequent disruptions by demonstrators inside the hearing room, often interrupting the Democrats' interruptions. Many expressed concerns over the fate of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. At one point, a protester could be heard shouting "more women are going to be subject to back-alley abortions." And outside the hearing room a group of women dressed in bonnets and red robes from The Handmaid's Tale stood silently. U.S. Capitol Police say they arrested a total of 70 demonstrators Tuesday. (Naylor, 9/4)

Los Angeles Times: For Many Women Across The U.S., It’s Already A Post-Roe Reality
If the Senate confirms Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, the high court will have a consistently conservative majority. As a result, Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, would be vulnerable. The most dramatic possibility would be that it is overturned outright. That would return the decision to the states about whether to ban or limit abortion. Though Trump campaigned on a promise to appoint judges who would overturn Roe vs. Wade, a more likely scenario is that a conservative Supreme Court would approve restrictions that eliminate certain protections for abortion rights without making the practice illegal. To understand what could happen, it’s crucial to look at the reality of abortion across the country today. (Shalby and Krishnakumar, 9/4)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Targets Kavanaugh In New Ads Launched On First Day Of Confirmation Hearing
The TV ads will air in Washington, D.C., and Alaska, home of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), a key vote in the confirmation process. The ads in D.C. will air through this week on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. Ads in Alaska will air on TV and radio. The ads highlight the "risk" Kavanaugh's nomination poses to abortion access in the U.S. and urges senators to vote against his confirmation. (Hellmann, 9/4)

The Associated Press: Potential 2020 Democrats Seize On Kavanaugh Senate Hearings
Spoiling for a fight, a trio of Democratic senators weighing 2020 presidential campaigns seized upon the opening moments of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings Tuesday in a show of force aimed at countering President Donald Trump. One by one, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, demanded that Republicans delay Kavanaugh’s hearing after a last-minute release of more than 40,000 pages of documents and the withholding of more than 100,000 others. (Thomas, 9/4)

The Washington Post: A Supreme Scrum: It’s Slam-Bam In First Round Of Kavanaugh Hearings
There was also about an hour of straight-out campaign speeches, given that there are at least four future and former presidential candidates on the committee. This led to the curious moment in which Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), proud son of Newark, channeled the concerns of those who toil the land, telling Kavanaugh that “farm country is being threatened by the consolidation of huge corporations” and recalling the farmer who told the senator about the soaring suicide rate in the American heartland. (Fisher, 9/4)

Politico: Kavanaugh Hearing Gives 2020 Dem Hopefuls A Chance To Break Out
The Republican National Committee deployed a rapid-response effort spotlighting Harris and Booker’s status as White House contenders, accusing them of capitalizing on the moment to boost their own profiles. Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday night tweeted “All about 2020 presidential politics” with a link to an Associated Press story highlighting the roles of Booker, Harris and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) in the hearings. Booker already had riled Republicans for suggesting that backers of President Donald Trump’s nominee are “complicit in the evil” his ideology represents, July comments that Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) referenced anew on Tuesday. (Schor, 9/4)

The New York Times: A New Lawsuit Threatens Obamacare. Here’s What’s At Stake And What To Expect In Oral Arguments
The Affordable Care Act has survived numerous court battles and repeal efforts, but a new case is threatening the law’s future once again. A federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, will hear arguments Wednesday on whether to grant a preliminary injunction that would suspend the health law until the case is decided. He has also indicated that he might go straight to ruling on the merits of the case. It focuses on whether the law’s requirement that most Americans have health insurance is unconstitutional, but has much broader implications. (Goodnough and Hoffman, 9/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Law’s Constitutionality Is Focus Of GOP Lawsuit
The Trump Justice Department is asking the court to invalidate certain planks of the ACA, rather than tossing out the entire law. Among those provisions is a prohibition on insurers denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. About 130 million non-elderly people in the U.S. have pre-existing conditions, and before the ACA, insurers could deny coverage to people for conditions including high cholesterol, cancer, and asthma. Democrats say a return to that arrangement would leave many patients without resources, while Republicans contend that over-regulating insurers makes coverage more expensive for many people. (Armour, 9/5)

Politico: Red States Take Obamacare Back To Court, Picking Up Where Congress Left Off
Attorneys general from mostly conservative states will try to pick up where the GOP-led Congress left off, seeking a permanent injunction halting enforcement of the law. They argue that because Congress gutted the individual mandate — zeroing out the penalty for not having coverage starting next year — the rest of the law needs to go as well. Numerous legal experts have deemed the argument a stretch, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions has thrown the Trump administration’s weight behind key parts of the assault — with Sessions notably opposing the law’s popular protection for people with pre-existing conditions. (Demko, 9/5)

The Hill: Patient Groups Say GOP Bill On Pre-Existing Conditions Is Insufficient
More than 25 patient groups on Tuesday released a statement saying a recent GOP bill aimed at protecting people with pre-existing conditions is insufficient. The legislation, introduced by 10 GOP senators last month, aims to clarify that Republicans want to maintain ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions in case a GOP-backed lawsuit against the 2010 health law succeeds. (Sullivan, 9/4)

The Hill: Poll: Majority Want To Keep ObamaCare Protections For Preexisting Conditions 
A majority in a new poll want ObamaCare’s protections for pre-existing conditions to remain the law. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest tracking poll, 72 percent of those surveyed said it is “very important” to them that insurance companies remain prohibited from charging sick people more. (Weixel, 9/5)

The Hill: Heller Hits Back At Opponent In New Ad, Trying To Blunt Health Care Attacks 
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) is hitting back on criticisms his opponent, Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), has made on his health-care record, trying to blunt a major line of attack against him ahead of November's midterms. Heller launched a new ad on Tuesday that seeks to counter an ad from Rosen last month that called him "Senator Spineless" and featured an inflatable figure waving in the wind. (Sullivan, 9/4)

The New York Times: A Rural Town Banded Together To Open A Hospital. Its Foe? A Larger Hospital.
Not long after Beau Braden moved to southwest Florida to open a medical clinic, injured strangers started showing up at his house. A boy who had split open his head at the pool. People with gashes and broken bones. There was nowhere else to go after hours, they told him, so Dr. Braden stitched them up on his dining room table. They were 40 miles inland from the coral-white condos and beach villas of Naples, but Dr. Braden said that this rural stretch of Collier County, with tomato farms and fast-growing exurbs, had fewer hospital beds per person than Afghanistan. (Healy, 9/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Blood-Testing Firm Theranos To Dissolve
Theranos Inc., the blood-testing company accused of perpetrating Silicon Valley’s biggest fraud, will soon cease to exist. In the wake of a high-profile scandal, the company will formally dissolve, according to an email to shareholders. Theranos will seek to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash in coming months, the email said. The move comes after federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and the blood-testing company’s former No. 2 executive, alleging that they defrauded investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and defrauded doctors and patients. (Carreyrou, 9/5)

Bloomberg: Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan Health Venture Picks Operating Chief
Jack Stoddard, a longtime health-care executive, has been named as chief operating officer of the new health venture being launched by Amazon.com Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Stoddard started Tuesday, according to a statement from the still-nameless health venture. He’ll work with Atul Gawande, the Harvard surgeon and writer who was named in June to run the initiative. (Tracer, 9/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Sanofi Pays $25 Million To Settle Bribery Charges
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi agreed to pay $25.2 million to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that its subsidiaries made bribery payments to win business. The alleged schemes spanned multiple countries and involved bribes to government procurement officials and health-care providers to receive tenders and increase prescriptions of the company’s products, the SEC said. The alleged payments violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribes of foreign officials for business purposes, the SEC said. (Rubenfield, 9/4)

Stat: Agios Pharma Names A New CEO, One With Commercial Chops In Biotech 
Jacqualyn “Jackie” Fouse was one of the top executives at Celgene, beloved by Wall Street and credited with helping to oversee a period of strong revenue growth and stock performance for the biotech company. Then, last year, she “retired,” after reportedly being passed over for the top job. Now Fouse has a shot to run her own show. On Tuesday, Cambridge-based Agios Pharmaceuticals said it had hired Fouse, already a board member, as its chief executive, effective Feb. 1. Current Agios CEO David Schenkein is retiring up to become the biotech’s executive chairman. (Feuerstein, 9/4)

Reuters: Gene Therapy Breakthrough Wins World's Largest Vision Award
Seven scientists in the United States and Britain who have come up with a revolutionary gene therapy cure for a rare genetic form of childhood blindness won a 1 million euro ($1.15 million)prize on Tuesday, Portugal's Champalimaud Foundation said. Established in 2006, the annual award for work related to vision is one of the world's largest science prizes, more than the latest 9 million Swedish crown Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. (Khalip, 9/4)

The Washington Post: Cities Defiant After Justice Department’s Threat On ‘Supervised Injection Sites’
Cities seeking to open sites where illegal drug users are monitored to prevent overdoses responded defiantly Tuesday to a Justice Department threat to take “swift and aggressive action” against that approach to the nationwide opioid epidemic. Plans for those “supervised injection sites” — under consideration in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle and elsewhere — collided with a stern Justice Department warning issued last week, threatening to create a standoff between federal and local authorities like the confrontation over “sanctuary cities.” (Bernstein and Zezima, 9/4)

Stat: California Closer To A Take-Back Law For Medicines And Needles 
California appears poised to become the first state in the nation to adopt a take-back law that addresses prescription drugs and needles, a contentious issue that is slowly spreading across the country as local governments grapple with budget constraints caused by unwanted or unused medicines and the opioid crisis. And as in other states, manufacturers would have to underwrite the costs.In a vote last week, the California senate unanimously endorsed a bill that would require companies to finance the cost of collecting and disposing of medicines and sharps, as needles are sometimes called. The measure was sent to California Gov. Jerry Brown, who has until Sept. 30 to sign the bill. A spokesperson declined to say whether Brown will do so. (Silverman, 9/4)

The Associated Press: Massacre Commission To Discuss Campus Police, Mental Illness
The Florida commission investigating February's high school massacre will discuss the role of campus police officers and changes to the state's mental health laws. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission is scheduled to make recommendations Wednesday on how many school resource officers each campus should have based on enrollment and what the officers' duties should be. (9/5)

Los Angeles Times: Stunned By A Surge In Mass Shootings, California Lawmakers Send Nine Gun-Control Bills To The Governor
Nearly 30 years after California became the first state to ban the sale of assault weapons and embarked on a path toward the strictest firearm laws in the nation, legislators have sent Gov. Jerry Brown nine new gun-control bills in response to a surge in mass shootings. The action by the Legislature was applauded more than 3,000 miles away in Parkland, Fla., where a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 students and employees at a high school in February. Among the legislation waiting approval by Brown are proposals to lift the age for buying rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, and to prohibit the purchase of more than one long gun a month. (McGreevy, 9/5)

The Associated Press: New Advice On Kids' Concussions Calls For Better Tracking
New children's concussion guidelines from the U.S. government recommend against routine X-rays and blood tests for diagnosis and reassure parents that most kids' symptoms clear up within one to three months. Signs of potentially more serious injuries that may warrant CT imaging scans include vomiting, unconsciousness and severe, worsening headaches, according to the guidelines released Tuesday. (Tanner, 9/4)

The New York Times: Strategies For Long-Distance Caregiving
A few months ago, my biggest sources of anxiety were politics, my finances, and whether I’d make my next work deadline. Then one afternoon my mother called to tell me she had leukemia. Suddenly, my fear went beyond the kind that’s inevitable when you have aging parents, to a more urgent worry about her current state of health and well-being. (Yuko, 9/4)

The New York Times: The Best Sport For A Longer Life? Try Tennis
Playing tennis and other sports that are social might add years to your life, according to a new epidemiological study of Danish men and women. The study found that adults who reported frequently participating in tennis or other racket and team sports lived longer than people who were sedentary. But they also lived longer than people who took part in reliably healthy but often solitary activities such as jogging, swimming and cycling. (Reynolds, 9/5)

Reuters: A Quarter Of Adults Are Too Inactive, Putting Health At Risk
More than a quarter of the world's adults - or 1.4 billion people - take too little exercise, putting them at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and cancers, according to a World Health Organization-led study. In 2016, around one in three women and one in four men worldwide were not reaching the recommended levels of physical activity to stay healthy – at least 150 minutes of moderate, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week. (Kelland, 9/4)

The Associated Press: Fraternity Group Votes To Ban Hard Alcohol At Houses, Events
Most U.S. and Canadian fraternities have one year to ban vodka, tequila and other hard alcohol under a rule adopted during the recent annual meeting of their trade association, the group announced Tuesday. In "a near-unanimous vote" on Aug. 27, the 66 international and national men's fraternities of the North-American Interfraternity Conference adopted the rule prohibiting hard alcohol with more than 15 percent alcohol by volume from fraternity chapters and events unless served by licensed third-party vendors, the group said. The member fraternities have until Sept. 1, 2019, to implement the rule across their more than 6,100 chapters on 800 campuses. (9/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Cases Linked To Kellogg’s Cereal Recall On Salmonella Concerns Rises
About 30 more people have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak that forced Kellogg Co. (K) to recall more than 11 million boxes of Honey Smacks cereal, health officials said Tuesday. That brings the total to 130 people believed to have been infected in 36 states since March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. (Armental, 9/5)

The Associated Press: Water Coolers Replace School Drinking Fountains In Detroit
Thousands of Detroit public schools students were told Tuesday to drink from district-supplied water coolers or bottled water on the first day of classes, after the drinking fountains were shut off because of contaminants in some water fixtures. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said last week that elevated levels of lead or copper were found in fixtures at 34 schools. Test results are pending for other schools. (9/4)

The Associated Press: ACLU Seeks Info On Inmate Health As Guards Have Fallen Ill
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said Tuesday that the state prison system should reinstate inmate mail and visitation privileges that have been suspended because about 50 guards and other employees have fallen sick in recent weeks. Pennsylvania ACLU Executive Director Reggie Shuford called the lockdown in place over the past week "gravely serious," arguing that state officials should provide more information to the public. (9/4)

NPR: Is A Prestigious Medical Honor Society Perpetuating Racism?
Senior medical student Giselle Lynch has plenty of accomplishments to list when she applies for a coveted spot in an ophthalmology residency program this fall. But one box she won't be able to check when she submits her application? One of the highest academic awards medical students can receive, election to the honor society Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA). (Gordon, 9/5)

Los Angeles Times: California Legislator Shelves Bill To Ban Paid 'Gay Conversion Therapy' For Adults
The author of a high-profile measure to curb paid “conversion therapy,” which purports to change a person’s sexual orientation, said he is shelving his bill Friday in hopes of finding consensus with religious communities that vigorously opposed the proposal. The bill by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), which would have designated paid “conversion therapy” services as a fraudulent business practice under the state’s consumer protection law, easily cleared prior legislative hurdles thanks to large Democratic majorities in both chambers, as well as a handful of Republican votes. (Mason, 8/31)

The Associated Press: Last Resident Leaves Institution For Disabled In Virginia
Another of Virginia’s institutions established decades ago for housing developmentally and intellectually disabled people has closed under an agreement with the federal government to move the residents into community settings. The last resident moved out of the Southwestern Virginia Training Center in Carroll County on Aug. 21, said Maria Reppas, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. The closure marks another milestone in complying with a deal reached with the Department of Justice in 2012. (Rankin, 9/4)