Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: ER Bills; Opioid Fortunes; And The Golden State Killer
Vox: Patients Face Expensive ER Bills Even When They Don’t Receive Treatment
On October 19, 2016, Jessica Pell fainted and hit her head on a nearby table, cutting her ear. She went to the emergency room at Hoboken University Medical Center, where she was given an ice pack. She received no other treatment. She never received any diagnosis. But a bill arrived in the mail for $5,751. (Sarah Kliff, 5/1)
The New York Times Magazine: The Opioid That Made A Fortune For Its Maker — And For Its Prescribers
Selling drugs is a relationship business. It’s best to do it in person. That is why, on a summer evening in 2012, Alec Burlakoff was out for dinner with Steven Chun, the owner of Sarasota Pain Associates. (Evan Hughes, 5/2)
Mother Jones: Doctors Receive Opioid Training. Big Pharma Funds It. What Could Go Wrong?
Mary Williams, a 42-year-old receptionist and mother of three, has a complicated medical record: She’s obese and diabetic, has a history of alcoholism, and smokes a pack a day. Substance abuse problems run in the family. She takes short-acting opioids every few hours for her lower back pain and neuropathy, but she’s still uncomfortable, so she goes back to the clinic. Should the doctor keep prescribing opioids? (Julia Lurie, 4/27)
Wired: A Dying Scientist's Rogue Vaccine Trial
IN A PHOTO from 2009, Bill Halford, who was then 40 years old, looks like a schoolboy who hasn’t quite grown into his big ears. He wears an ill-fitting red shirt tucked into belted khakis; his jawline is square and his eyes are full of wonder. The picture was taken at Southern Illinois University, where he was a respected professor. (Amanda Schaffer, 5/1)
The Daily Beast: The Golden State Killer Case Proves Your Genome Might Already Be Hacked
When you send off a cheek swab to one of the private genome companies, you may sacrifice not just your own privacy but that of your family and your ancestors.In a time of widespread anxiety over the misuse of social media, Americans should also be concerned over who has access to their genetic information. (Norman Paradis, 5/1)
Politico Magazine: The Baby Boom In Congress
Young mothers, weekend or otherwise, in Congress are like a good night’s sleep for new parents: highly unusual and yet more and more common with the passage of time. Only 10 women in history have given birth while serving in Congress: one in the 1970s, three in the 1990s, and six in the past 11 years. (Jennifer Haberkorn, 5/1)
The New York Times: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring
New Port Richey, perched on a knuckle of Gulf Coast 35 miles northwest of Tampa, is a typically Floridian enclave of strip malls, subdivisions and brackish waterways. During the 1920s, it enjoyed a brief period of glamour when professional golfers and silent-film actors bought land, built handsome homes and socialized with visiting stars from Broadway and vaudeville at the Hacienda Hotel. But the town owed much of its success to the first of Florida’s many real estate bubbles, and the fantasy ended around 1925, dashing forever New Port Richey boosters’ hopes of its becoming a kind of Hollywood East. (Chris Pomorski, 5/2)
Jezebel: Barbara Ehrenreich Isn't Afraid To Die
Barbara Ehrenreich is “old enough to die,” she writes in her new book, Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, The Certainty of Dying, and Our Illusion of Control. With that realization, Ehrenreich abandons what she describes as “medicalized death,” the endless preventive tests, diets, and rituals designed to prevent aging, or to at least make one age well. (Stassa Edwards, 5/1)
