The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren Opens A New Front In Disability Policy
Christine Motokane could get long-term care to help her with daily tasks like cooking. Matthew Cortland could marry his longtime partner. Christin Lucas could stop worrying that her son’s school might put him back in the isolated classrooms that made him suicidal. This is some of what is at stake in a newly prominent debate over disability policy. For months, Democratic presidential candidates have built on one another in this arena, culminating last week with a plan from Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts whose scope shocked many advocates. (Astor, 1/10)

In other election news —

Kaiser Health News: Listen: A Renewed Focus On Health Care In 2020
Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KHN, spoke at length Tuesday with Stephen Henderson on WDET’s “Detroit Today” show to analyze how health care topics are playing out in the 2020 presidential campaign and concerns among consumers over changes brought by the Affordable Care Act. (1/8)

The New York Times: After Years Of Wrangling, Kansas Leaders Reach Deal To Expand Medicaid
Kansas’ Democratic governor said on Thursday that she had reached a deal with Republicans who control the Legislature to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. If lawmakers approve the plan in the coming weeks, it would end years of wrangling over the issue in a state that has endured a series of rural hospital closures. “It’s a lot easier to get to no than it is to get to yes, but this is what governing looks like,” said Jim Denning, the Republican leader in the Kansas Senate, who negotiated the agreement with Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who took office last year after eight years of Republicans controlling state government. (Smith and Goodnough, 1/9)

The Associated Press: New Kansas Proposal Breaks Impasse On Expanding Medicaid
The plan from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning would give Kelly the straightforward expansion of state health coverage that she has advocated, covering as many as 150,000 additional people. But Denning would get a version of a program that he has proposed for driving down private health insurance premiums to make it less likely people would drop existing private plans for Medicaid. Denning had proposed financing his new program by increasing tobacco taxes, including a $1-per-pack increase in the state's cigarette tax, to $2.29. His compromise with Kelly gives the state a year to develop the premium-reduction program and drops the tax increase, which Kelly and many lawmakers thought wasn't likely to pass anyway. (1/9)

NBC News: Kansas Governor, Top Republican Reach Deal To Expand Medicaid
Kelly's plan increases Kansans' Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, works to defray costs through a surcharge on hospitals, and includes a work training and placement program that is less stringent than the work requirements that many Republicans desired. It also will create an easy escape hatch for Kansas in case the federal government chooses to no longer provide 90 percent of the funding for Medicaid expansion and also moves forward with a program to help insurance programs provide cheaper health care on the federal exchange. (McCausland, 1/9)

Vox: Kansas Medicaid Expansion Deal Reached By Democratic Governor And GOP Lawmaker
Between 130,000 and 150,000 people are expected to be covered by Medicaid expansion in Kansas, mostly adults without children or parents currently ineligible for benefits despite living in or near poverty. Roughly 9 percent of Kansans are uninsured. (Scott, 1/9)

The Hill: Kansas Leaders Announce Breakthrough Bipartisan Deal To Expand Medicaid 
On the Republican end of the deal, Denning touted that the state would also set up a “reinsurance” program, which other states have adopted to help lower premiums in the Affordable Care Act markets for those with private insurance. Democrats also support that idea. (Sullivan, 1/9)

The Wichita Eagle: Kansas Governor Kelly, Senate GOP Leader Reach Medicaid Deal
Despite past disagreements, the two had incentive to find common ground. Denning, expected to face a tough re-election campaign, had vowed to develop an expansion plan. And Kelly’s proposal had passed the House but languished in the Senate, leaving one of her signature goals unaccomplished in 2019. (Shorman, 1/9)

KCUR: Kansas Paves Medicaid Expansion Path After Governor And Top Republican Break Partisan Logjam 
If signed into law, the compromise would make Kansas the 38th state to expand Medicaid (counting the District of Columbia). It would also end a partisan standoff that began nearly a decade ago with the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act. That law — better known as Obamacare — requires the federal government to shoulder 90 percent of the cost of expansion. (McLean, 1/9)

In other Medicaid news —

Modern Healthcare: Cuomo Looks To Shift Medicaid Burden Onto New York City And Counties
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he's sick of paying New York City's medical bills. In his State of the State address, the governor signaled he hoped to sooth the state's swollen $6 billion budget deficit by making City Hall and other local governments swallow $4 billion in Medicaid costs. New York's enlarged and politically sensitive low-income insurance program accounts for the majority of the shortfall projected for the coming fiscal year. (Bredderman, 1/9)

Health News Florida: State Faces Loss Of Medicaid Funding For Hospitals
As Florida lawmakers prepare to start the 2020 legislative session, the state is being confronted with a $70.4 million loss in the coming months in the amount of Medicaid money it gets to fund hospitals, train future physicians and treat people who are mentally ill. Amy Baker, who leads the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, is including the reduction --- slated to take effect May 23 --- in budget documents prepared for lawmakers as they begin working on a fiscal 2020-2021 spending plan. (Sexton, 1/9)

Iowa Public Radio: State Auditor Calls Medicaid Data On Home Health Care 'Unusable'
The State Auditor’s office says it cannot determine whether home health care claims are being paid properly under Iowa’s privatized Medicaid system because data provided by the Department of Human Services is inaccurate and inconsistent. State Auditor Rob Sand said his office requested information about home health services provided from April 2016, when the state initiated its privatized Medicaid system, though the end of 2018. (Gerlock, 1/9)

Politico: Trump Makes Misleading Brag About Lower Cancer Deaths
President Donald Trump appeared to claim credit today for a record drop in cancer death rates that occurred the year he took office. Scientists say lower smoking rates, earlier detection and better drugs are responsible for a steady decline in cancer deaths since 1991. The president, who unsuccessfully advocated cutting $4.5 billion from the NIH budget last year, tweeted that U.S. cancer death rates are the lowest in recorded history, adding there is “a lot of good news coming out of this Administration.” (Owermohle, 1/9)

CNN: Trump Takes Credit For Decline In Cancer Deaths. The American Cancer Society Says He's Wrong
Gary M. Reedy, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, told CNN that the 2017 findings are not connected to the actions of the Trump administration. "The mortality trends reflected in our current report, including the largest drop in overall cancer mortality ever recorded from 2016 to 2017, reflect prevention, early detection, and treatment advances that occurred in prior years," Reedy said in a written statement on Thursday. (Howard and Dale, 1/9)

USA Today: Trump Appears To Take Credit For Lower Cancer Death Rates
Trump has advocated and proposed cutting billions of dollars in funding to NIH in the past, a move that would have impacted the National Cancer Institute if Congress had approved it. However, Trump eventually signed a budget passed by Congress that instead gave NIH a $2.6 billion increase and ignored the proposed cuts by the administration. Former vice president and 2020 Democratic contender Joe Biden hit back at Trump's tweet Thursday night, saying that "We're lucky that the cancer rate is down, but we're luckier that Congress stopped you." Trump has advocated and proposed cutting billions of dollars in funding to NIH in the past, a move that would have impacted the National Cancer Institute if Congress had approved it. (Behrmann, 1/9)

In other news —

Modern Healthcare: Insurance Status Linked To Racial Disparities In Breast Cancer Treatment
Lacking health insurance coverage may be a leading driver for racial disparities in breast cancer detection and mortality rates, according to a new study. The study, published Thursday in JAMA Oncology, marks one of the first examinations of how insurance has contributed to later diagnosis of breast cancer among women in ethnic minorities and resulted in poorer disease outcomes. (Johnson, 1/9)

Politico Pro: Judges Seem Wary Of Lifting Freeze On Trump Insurance Mandate For Immigrants
A three-judge panel on Thursday questioned the Trump administration's claim the United States would face irreparable harm if a broad requirement for legal immigrants to buy health insurance as a condition of entry remains frozen. A federal judge in Oregon blocked the mandate from taking effect nationwide in November, saying it could affect about 60 percent of all immigrant visa applicants. (Luthi, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Federal Court In SF Considers Two Trump Restrictions On Immigration Rules
Judge Marsha Berzon noted that legal immigrants were eligible for government-funded health care under federal laws. “Why isn’t that (administration policy) a direct contradiction with Congress?” she asked. And under the Affordable Care Act, she said, migrants would have better coverage than under the minimal private insurance policies that Trump would allow them to buy. (Egelko, 1/9)

The Oregonian: Federal Appeals Court Urged To Block Injunction Against Trump’s Visa Restrictions For Immigrants Without Health Insurance
The plaintiffs don’t accept that the Hawaii v. Trump Supreme Court ruling made the president’s power limitless, said Naomi Igra, one of their attorneys. While the government cites figures that immigrants are three times more likely to be uninsured than U.S. citizens and that the United States shoulders $35 billion in annual uncompensated health care costs, it hasn’t quantified how much of the $35 billion is tied to uninsured immigrants, plaintiffs’ lawyer Esther Sung argued. (Bernstein, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom: California Should Sell Its Own Generic Prescription Drugs
California would become the first state to sell its own brand of generic prescription drugs in an effort to drive down rising healthcare costs under a proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to unveil in his new state budget Friday. A broad overview of the ambitious but still conceptual plan provided by Newsom’s office says the state could contract with one or more generic drugmakers to manufacture certain prescriptions under the state’s own label. (Gutierrez, 1/9)

Stat: California Plans To Sell Its Own Generic Drugs To Lower Costs 
Details were not disclosed, although the proposal is expected to be part of a budget proposal to be unveiled on Friday. In a statement, Newsom explained the move by saying “a trip to the doctor’s office, pharmacy or hospital shouldn’t cost a month’s pay. The cost of healthcare is just too damn high, and California is fighting back.” The plan was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.(Silverman, 1/9)

The Associated Press: California Could Be 1st State To Sell Own Prescription Drugs 
His proposal also would create a single market for drug pricing in California, with companies having to bid to sell their medicine at a uniform price. One expert said that piece would have the bigger impact. “Other countries control or negotiate the price of drugs, and if there is one state that could do it, it's California, which is the size of a country,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation. “A drug company could walk away from Rhode Island. It's much harder to walk away from California." (Beam, 1/9)

KQED: California Wants To Create Its Own Generic Drug Label
He also wants to expand on current law to allow Medi-Cal, the state’s health coverage for low-income Californians, to consider international drug prices, not just domestic prices, when negotiating rebates with drugmakers. (Dembosky, 1/9)

The Wall Street Journal: California Looks To Launch Its Own Prescription-Drug Label
Rising generic-drug prices and shortages of some products have driven many states to seek greater control, especially as congressional efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable have stalled. More than three dozen states enacted laws to address prescription-drug pricing in 2019, up from 28 the year before and just 14 in 2017, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. “States are now leading the way in tackling healthcare costs,” Ronny Gal, a pharmaceutical analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said. Mai-Duc and Hopkins, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: Q&A: What You Need To Know About Gov. Newsom's Drug Plan For California
In recent years, some generic drugs have experienced huge price increases, sometimes into the thousands of percent. For example, the price of a month’s supply of clomipramine, a common antidepressant, recently jumped from $16 to $348. Newsom’s plan would probably address those increases by introducing competition in drug markets where there are only a few manufacturers. But in general, it is uncommon drugs that have only a few manufacturers, said Joyce, who heads the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. More widely prescribed medicines, such as those that treat high cholesterol and high blood pressure, have multiple producers and already competitive pricing, he said. (Karlamangla, 1/9)

CalMatters: Gov. Gavin Newsom To Propose That California Manufacture Its Own Generic Drugs
In the U.K., Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has proposed creating a publicly owned company to make generic drugs the country’s National Health Service needs but can’t afford. Corbyn’s proposal, however, is only likely to advance if his party returns to power. Nor is it clear how substantial a dent a state-manufactured generic program would make in health care costs in California. Generic drugs make up 90% of all prescriptions but account for a fraction of drug spending because they’re so much cheaper than brand-name prescriptions. (Lin, 1/9)

Bloomberg: California Plan Would Upend Drug Prices, Though Obstacles Abound
The most populous U.S. state, California has a history of using its economic muscle to try to influence national policy on everything from auto emissions to health care. The drug-pricing proposals, which in some cases appear to require new law, are likely to be opposed by a pharmaceutical industry that has formidable economic and legal wherewithal of its own. (Armstrong, 1/9)

The Hill: California Plans To Launch Own Prescription Drug Label 
The federal government has limited authority to negotiate with drug manufacturers — Medicare is prohibited from negotiating, but other government programs like Medicaid and Veterans Affairs are allowed to do so. State governments do not have those restrictions. (Weixel, 1/9)

Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom Wants CA To Have Its Own Generic Drug Label
Mary Ellen Grant, spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Plans, which represents insurers, said the association is waiting to see more detail. “California’s health plans share the Governor’s concern about the high cost of prescription drugs,” Grant wrote in a statement. “The governor’s proposal to create a state generic drug label could serve as another tool in the toolkit the state can use to make health care more affordable which would be good news for all Californians. We look forward to learning more.” (Bollag, 1/9)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: Bristol-Myers And Sanofi Accuse Hawaii Of Violating Free Speech Rights
In an unusual move, two of the world’s biggest drug makers — Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Sanofi (SNY) — filed a lawsuit accusing the Hawaii attorney general of violating their free speech rights by insisting they include certain cautionary statements about the Plavix blood thinner in product labeling. At issue is language about the effectiveness of the medication in East Asian and Pacific Islanders, who constitute roughly half of Hawaii’s population. A lawsuit filed by the state in 2014 alleged the drug makers, which once jointly marketed the drug, failed to include data that indicated Plavix would not work for people in those groups. (Silverman, 1/9)

Bloomberg: These Big Drug Flops Show How Healthcare Economics Have Changed
For years, drug companies have enjoyed the freedom to charge high prices for their latest products. But when Sanofi and Amgen Inc. each marketed a powerful new cholesterol-lowering medicine, something surprising happened: High prices hurt sales. Sanofi’s experience has been especially painful. The French company spent more than five years developing Praluent with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. before its launch in 2015. But Praluent never caught on. Now Sanofi is cutting its losses, getting out of the U.S. market for the drug, and halting its heart disease research altogether in favor of more lucrative medicines for cancer and other diseases. (Griffin, 1/9)

Stat: Regeneron Drug Reduces Bone Growth For Patients With Ultra-Rare Skeletal Disease 
Patients with the ultra-rare disease FOP grow bone where it doesn’t belong, creating a life-threatening second skeleton. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals believes it can offer hope: A new treatment reduced new bone growth by 90% in a clinical trial, the company said, a result that could lead to Food and Drug Administration approval. But convincing the FDA will be a matter of explaining a complicated study of a first-of-its-kind drug, targeting a disease that affects only about 800 people and has no approved treatments. (Garde, 1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Recouping Cost-Sharing Payments Concerns Judges
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday voiced concern that insurers could profit from recouping cost-sharing reduction payments mandated by the Affordable Care Act that the Trump administration stopped paying in October 2017. During oral arguments, the U.S. Justice Department argued that insurers received increased subsidies when they raised premiums, which more than compensated their losses from the CSR payments. (Cohrs, 1/9)

Roll Call: Appeals Court Hears Arguments Over Health Care Cost-Sharing Subsidies
President Donald Trump halted the subsidies in 2017, prompting health care plans on the insurance exchanges across the country to increase their premium rates the following year. But Congress never appropriated specific funds for the subsidies, which the federal government argued ended the obligation of the Department of Health and Human Services to pay the plans. (Clason, 1/9)

The Advocate: Obamacare Signups Fall To Record Low In Louisiana For Second Straight Year
The number of people who signed up for health coverage through Louisiana’s individual exchange fell to its lowest point on record for the second straight year in 2020, amid a double-digit rate hike and a Republican-backed lawsuit seeking to throw out the law. Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s individual market--commonly known as “Obamacare” – fell to 87,748 this year, from 92,948 last year. Nationwide, enrollment was relatively steady, dipping slightly to about 8.3 million in the 38 states that, like Louisiana, use the federal HealthCare.gov website. (Karlin, 1/9)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Healthcare.Gov Enrollments Remain Stable In N.H. With 44,000 Signing Up
44,412 New Hampshire residents signed up for or switched their health insurance plans on healthcare.gov during the Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period. The number is just slightly down from last year's total of 44,581. (Moon, 1/9)

And in other news from the health industry —

Modern Healthcare: Justice Department Recovered $2.6 Billion From Healthcare Fraud Cases In 2019
The U.S. Justice Department recovered more than $2.6 billion in 2019 from lawsuits involving healthcare fraud and false claims, federal data released Thursday show. The department's recoveries from healthcare fraud cases have inched higher in recent years from roughly $2.5 billion in 2018 and $2.1 billion in 2017. The fiscal year ending Sept. 30 was the 10th straight year that settlements and judgments from healthcare companies for alleged fraud exceeded $2 billion, the Justice Department said. (Livingston, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Health Care Group Pays $2.17M After Releasing Patients' Info
A health care group based in Virginia has agreed to a settlement of almost $2.2 million after hundreds of patients' health information was wrongfully released. Sentara's settlement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was one of the largest the agency sought to collect in 2019, The Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday. (1/9)

The New York Times: Vaping Kills A 15-Year-Old In Texas
Cases of lung illness and deaths from vaping have tapered off since peaking in September, health officials said on Thursday, but the outbreak also reached a grim new milestone: The youngest death, of a 15-year-old, was reported by Dallas County Health and Human Services. The teenager had “a chronic underlying medical condition,” Texas officials said in a statement on Dec. 31, but they did not identify the condition, the patient’s gender or what products the patient had been vaping. (Grady, 1/9)

CNN: Texas 15-Year-Old's Death Is Youngest Vaping Lung Injury Fatality In The United States
Dallas County health officials reported on New Year's Eve that a Dallas County teenager with a "chronic underlying medical condition" had become the county's first death linked to the lung injury outbreak. On Thursday, Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed to CNN that the person was 15. (Nedelman, 1/9)

The New York Times: Vaping Illness Tracker: 2,602 Cases And 57 Deaths
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state agencies have reported 2,602 lung injury cases that required hospitalization and 57 deaths linked to vaping. (Corum, 1/9)

NPR: San Diego Schools Sue Juul Labs Over Youth Vaping Epidemic
San Diego's public school schools have filed suit against Juul Labs, Inc., the largest U.S. producer of e-cigarettes, accusing the company of deliberately marketing its vaping products to young people, effectively rolling back years of progress made by anti-smoking campaigns. (Neuman, 1/9)

WCNC: Viral Instagram Post Shows The Impacts Of Vaping
CT scan images posted online by a Maryland teenager are getting a ton of traction after it shares her apparent scary experience with vaping. Vaping is an epidemic that's been gripping the nation, thousands of people have gotten sick and nearly 40 have died, all from vaping. Doctors are trying to find ways to treat this brand-new illness. (Leshner, 1/9)

NPR: U-Haul's Nicotine-Free Hiring Rule Reflects A Trend That Troubles Workers' Advocates
When U-Haul recently announced it will no longer hire people who use nicotine in any form in the 21 states where such hiring policies are legal, the Phoenix-based moving company joined a cadre of companies with nicotine-free hiring policies. U-Haul's announcement is receiving outsize attention because nicotine-free hiring policies are more common at high-profile hospitals such as Cleveland Clinic that are especially protective of their healthy image. (Farmer, 1/9)

Politico Pro: Menthol Ban Gains Momentum Among Black Lawmakers
A ban on menthol tobacco is gaining steam in Congress, overcoming years of concern that barring the products could have harmful unintended consequences for African American communities. House leaders say they are likely to bring up the ban later this year as part of a push for further tobacco regulation after the president disappointed many Democrats and public health experts by rolling out a ban that was limited to certain flavored vapes. (Owermohle, 1/9)

The New York Times: Second U.S. Baby To Be Born From A Dead Donor’s Uterus Is Delivered
When Jennifer Gobrecht was 17, doctors told her that she would never carry her own child. But on Thursday, researchers at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia announced that Ms. Gobrecht had delivered a son by cesarean section in November, the second baby in the United States to be born using a transplanted uterus from a deceased donor. “We were beyond lucky,” Ms. Gobrecht said. (Rueb, 1/9)

CNN: Uterus Transplant: Second Baby In US Born From Womb Of Dead Donor
Now, Jennifer is the mother of the second baby in the United States to ever have been born from the transplanted uterus of a deceased donor. Gobrecht, 33, successfully gave birth via cesarean section to Benjamin Thomas Gobrecht in November as part of an ongoing trial to study uterine transplantation as a treatment option for women facing infertility, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia announced on Thursday. (Howard, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Philadelphia Area Woman With Transplanted Uterus Gives Birth To ‘Miracle’ Baby
There have been about 70 uterus transplants performed worldwide; a Macungie woman donated her uterus last year as part of a clinical trial at Baylor University Medical Center. Penn Medicine said its trial is one of the few to accept donations from both living and deceased donors, an approach it said that could pay dividends in the form of an expanded pool of donor organs. Most transplant programs accept only from living donors, according to Penn. (Rubinkam, 1/9)

CNN: A Genetic Study Of 200,000 Veterans With Anxiety Points Toward Potential New Avenues For Treatment
A massive genetic study in nearly 200,000 veterans with anxiety is providing new insights into how and why people may be pre-disposed to anxiety issues. The genome-wide association study was the "largest ever study" looking into genes that could be associated with anxiety, according to Daniel Levey, a postdoctorate associate at the Yale School of Medicine and one of the authors of the study. (Prior, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Workplace Suicides Have Risen To Record High, With More People Killing Themselves At Work Than Ever Before
America’s climbing suicide rate has become a problem for businesses, too. Buried in a report last month by the Bureau of Labor of Statistics on occupational fatalities was this tragic fact: More people are killing themselves in the workplace than ever before. The number of such suicides for 2018 was 304 — an 11 percent increase from the year before and the highest number since the bureau began tracking the data 26 years ago. (Wan, 1/9)

The New York Times: When The Cobra Bites, You’ll Be Glad Someone Sequenced Its Genome
Scientists have sequenced the genome of one of the deadliest snakes in the world, the Indian cobra, and have taken a big step toward developing new and better treatments for their bites. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that thousands of people are bitten by snakes in the United States every year, few die from snake venom. But worldwide, snakebites lead to more than 400,000 amputations and 100,000 deaths a year. (Bakalar, 1/9)

NPR: Too Many Teen Girls Are Given Pap Tests And Pelvic Exams, Research Finds
An estimated 1.4 million adolescent girls and young women in the U.S. might have received an unnecessary pelvic exam between 2011 and 2017, according to a new study. And an estimated 1.6 million might have received an unnecessary Pap test. The authors of the study, which was published this week in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, say the overuse of these procedures — which can cause false-positives and anxiety — led to an estimated $123 million annually in needless expenses in 2014 alone. (Vaughn, 1/9)

The New York Times: Body Temperature 2.0: Do We Need To Rethink What’s Normal?
We seem to be getting cooler. Since 1851, when the standard was set at 37 degrees centigrade, or 98.6 Fahrenheit, the average human body temperature has steadily declined. Researchers studied three databases: 23,710 readings obtained between 1862 and 1930 in veterans of the Civil War; 15,301 records in a national health survey from 1971 to 1975; and 150,280 entries in a Stanford University database from 2007 to 2017. The analysis is in eLife. (Bakalar, 1/9)

Reuters: Feces-Smeared Fakes: Scientists Use Rubber Hands In OCD Therapy
A new type of therapy using feces and fake rubber hands may be able to help patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) overcome their fears of touching contaminated surfaces, according to new research. "OCD can be an extremely debilitating condition for many people, but the treatments are not always straightforward," said Baland Jalal, a Cambridge University neuroscientist who was part of a team assessing if rubber hands could be a potential new type of exposure therapy. (1/9)

CNN: Lose Fat In Your Tongue To Improve Sleep Apnea, Study Says
Have you ever asked yourself: Do I have a fat tongue? It's not a idle query. If you are one of the one billion people globally who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, having a fat tongue could be a key reason you snore, choke, gasp or stop breathing periodically during the night, ruining your sleep and potentially your health. (LaMotte, 1/10)

Bloomberg: Hospitals Closing Across U.S. Leave Patients With No Options 
A quiet crisis is unfolding for U.S. hospitals, with bankruptcies and closures threatening to leave some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens without care. As a gauge of distress in the health-care sector has soared, at least 30 hospitals entered bankruptcy in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They range from Hahnemann University Hospital in downtown Philadelphia to De Queen Medical Center in rural Sevier County, Arkansas and Americore Health LLC, a company built on preserving rural hospitals. (Coleman-Lochner and Hill, 1/9)

Kaiser Health News: High-Deductible Plans Jeopardize Financial Health Of Patients And Rural Hospitals
Kristie Flowers had been sick with the flu for four or five days in July before the 52-year-old registered nurse from Genoa, Colo., acknowledged she needed to go to the ER. At Lincoln Community Hospital, about 10 miles from her home on the Eastern Plains of Colorado, doctors quickly diagnosed her with pneumonia and sepsis. Her right lung had completely filled with fluid, and Flowers needed much more intensive care than the 15-bed hospital could provide. (Hawryluk, 1/10)

Past KHN coverage: Coping With Loss Of Hospital, Rural Town Realizes: We Don’t Need A Hospital

In other hospital news —

Houston Chronicle: Shriners Children’s To Close In Houston, Consolidate In Galveston 
Shriners Hospital for Children in the Texas Medical Center is planning to close in 2021, officials said Thursday, part of an effort to consolidate all its area care at the charity system’s Galveston facility. The closure, which will end Shriners’ 100-year presence in Houston, will mean all four specialty care departments — acute burns, orthopedic conditions, spinal injuries and cleft lip and palate abnormalities — will be provided in Galveston. Currently, the burn unit is in Galveston and the other three are in Houston. (Ackerman, 1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Astria Health To Close Its Yakima, Wash., Hospital
Astria Health will close its medical center in Yakima, Wash., as the company restructures through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington approved the closure of the 214-bed facility that includes a Level I cardiac and Level II stroke center on Wednesday. Astria Regional Medical Center employs about 500 workers across 14 affiliated clinics. (Kacik, 1/9)

Stat: At CES, Health Gadgets Gave Me A Detailed Accounting Of My Flaws
After a few hours in the CES exhibit hall, I’m armed with a laundry list of my flaws and products that claim to fix them — but not necessarily make me any healthier. That tension underscores one of the biggest challenges facing digital health technologies these days: Which products can actually improve outcomes, and which are just flooding users with data? There are, of course, countless cutting-edge technologies on display that have the potential to make a big impact on people’s health and wellness. There are fall detection sensors for seniors, brain stimulators to curb tremors, and devices that use artificial intelligence to improve hearing aids. (Thielking, 1/10)

In other health and technology news —

The Washington Post: Video Games For Doctors Are A Growing Medtech Trend That Helps Save Lives
Justin Barad never would have guessed that he’d help operate on a gorilla during his residency at the UCLA Medical Center, where he was training to be an orthopedic surgeon. Yet in August 2014, The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens needed specialists to help Jabari, a 400-pound gorilla who was limping and unable to put weight on his leg. The surgery was successful — but it was a challenging endeavor for a team that didn’t normally operate on animals. (Favis, 1/9)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Lawyers For Babies Born After Opioid Exposure Want Cleveland Judge To Approve Class Action Against Drug Companies
Attorneys representing the caretakers of babies born with opioids in their system asked a federal judge in Cleveland to grant them class-action status against drug companies they believe should pay for some of the long-term care of the children. The attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Dan Polster Tuesday to bundle together claims made by guardians of the children against drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies. (Heisig, 1/9)

New Hampshire Public Radio: State Reconsiders Strategy For Youth Addiction Treatment Center
A group of providers and staff with the Department of Health and Human Services are re-examining the state’s model for how to treat young people with substance use disorders and mental health challenges, following the closure last month of the state’s sole addiction treatment center for youth. That facility, run by the organization Granite Pathways in a rented wing of the Sununu Youth Services Center, provided in-patient treatment to people ages 12-18 with substance use disorder. (Gibson, 1/10)

The Associated Press: Judge Won't Compel Health System To Fund Doctor's Defense
A federal judge declined for now to compel a Michigan-based health system to advance legal costs for a doctor's defense against murder charges in the deaths of 25 Ohio hospital patients. U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh in Michigan concluded Wednesday it's in the public interest to deny the preliminary injunction sought by William Husel. (Franko, 1/9)

North Carolina Health News: Nurse Family Partnership Programs Guide First-Timers Through Transition To Motherhood 
When Denise Ward first moved to Charlotte in the summer of 2017, she was pregnant, jobless and homeless. She found a landing spot at the Florence Crittenden residential program for homeless pregnant women. Soon after, Ward joined the Nurse Family Partnership program offered by the community health nonprofit Care Ring. From that point, until her son turns two this month, a nurse from the program meets with her at least monthly to guide her through physical and mental changes of pregnancy, infancy and toddlerhood, support her toward independence, and educate her on parenthood. (Duong, 1/10)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Flu Deaths Double To 16 So Far This Season 
Sixteen people have died of influenza so far this season in Minnesota, a number that puts the state about on track with the mortality rate this time last year and far lower than during the 2017-18 season, the Minnesota Department of Health said Thursday. According to the department's weekly influenza report, as of last week 16 people have died of flu so far this season. That's double the total of eight deaths that had been reported by the previous week. (1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic To Create Patient Genetic Data Library
The Mayo Clinic has launched a project to create a genomic sequencing library that will include data on 100,000 of its patients, marking the latest effort by providers to integrate genetic testing into routine care delivery. The health system said Thursday it hopes to collect genetic data from 100,000 Mayo adult patients over the next five years. (Johnson, 1/9)

WBUR: Can Emergency Rooms Hold Psychiatric Patients Longer Than 3 Days? The Mass. High Court Will Decide
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court waded into the debate over psychiatric patients in hospital emergency rooms Thursday. The central question in this case is how long hospital emergency rooms can hold someone who is civilly committed to psychiatric treatment. (Becker, 1/10)

The Washington Post: This Teacher Was Worried Children Weren’t Getting Bedtime Stories. So She Began Reading Them — On Facebook.
Long after leaving the classroom and returning home, second-grade teacher Keisha Yearby of Chesapeake, Va., switches on a laptop in her spare bedroom to deliver to children a nighttime ritual she cherished as a little girl: a bedtime story. On Tuesdays, the B.M. Williams Primary schoolteacher logs on for a new episode of “Ms. Yearby’s Reading Adventures,” broadcast on Facebook Live, where viewers — often schoolchildren connecting through a parent’s account — can interact with her in real time by posting comments. (Balingit, 1/7)

The CT Mirror: Council Gets Input From Incarcerated People About Discrimination
According to a national study, those with criminal records face more than 550 barriers codified in state statute that make their lives harder after they’re released from prison. Thursday’s forum was a part of the council’s research into those forms of discrimination. Members asked those offering testimony to identify themselves by only their first names to ensure anonymity. (Lyons, 1/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Inspection Reports On Healthcare Facilities Now Back Online
A month after a glitch took the state’s healthcare facility website offline, the Georgia Department of Community Health on Thursday restored online access while launching a new version of the website with crucial licensing and inspection information for thousands of facilities. The new website is a retooled version of Georgia “Map2Care,” which has been hard to find and cumbersome to use. (Teegardin and Schrade, 1/9)

Politico Pro: New Jersey Senate Amends Anti-Vaccination Bill To Gain O’Scanlon Support; Vote Set For Monday
A last-minute deal Thursday between Democratic leaders and a moderate Republican lawmaker revived legislation that would eliminate the religious exemption for mandatory childhood vaccinations. As hundreds of religious freedom and anti-vaccination protesters rallied in the cold outside the Statehouse, Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) announced his conditional support for the vaccination bill — so long as it’s amended to allow unvaccinated children to attend private day cares and schools. (Sutton, 1/9)

Boston Globe: Northeastern Student Diagnosed With Measles
A Northeastern University student who lives in Boston was diagnosed with measles on Wednesday, and health officials are warning that the individual was in several much-frequented spots in the city earlier this month where other people may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus. According to the Boston Public Health Commission, exposures at Northeastern occurred from Jan. 3 through Jan. 6. (McDonald, 1/9)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Fired Budget Director Warned Budish Of 'Critical’ Nursing, Crowding Issues In The Cuyahoga County Jail Month Before First Inmate Died, Email Shows
The now-terminated county budget director warned Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and two of his aides about “critical” nursing issues at the Cuyahoga County Jail more than a month before the first of eight inmates died in 2018, an email attached to a Thursday court filing shows. The April 18, 2018 email from Maggie Keenan to Budish, then-Chief of Staff Earl Leiken and Fiscal Officer Dennis Kennedy includes bullet-points that outlined what Keenan said amounted to a “critical situation in the County Jail regarding nurses." (Shaffer, 1/9)

Texas Tribune: UT-Austin Acknowledges 17 Cases Of Sexual Misconduct By Employees
Seventeen employees at the University of Texas at Austin, including three faculty members and one research fellow, were found to have violated the flagship's sexual misconduct policies between November 2017 and December 2019, according to a university document released Thursday. One faculty member, a professor in the department of integrative biology, Johann Hofmann, “allegedly tried to start a consensual relationship” with a graduate student and “made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature” to the student, who contacted administrators in December 2017, the document shows. (Najmbadi, 1/9)

Miami Herald: Domestic Violence Nonprofit Is Target Of Bill To Change FL Law
Two state lawmakers filed bills this week to remove a required partnership with Florida’s largest domestic violence nonprofit from state law amid questions about the organization’s executive compensation and compliance with an audit conducted by the state’s social services agency. The bills — sponsored by Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, D-Miami — would strip the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence of its contract long guaranteed in state statute. (Koh, 1/9)

WBUR: With Mass. Flu Season In Full Swing, Emergency Department Reports Crowding
High flu season has most definitely hit here in Massachusetts and nationally. The lines on the graphs showing flu-related doctor's visits are rising steeply, and the states on the national map are heating up to orange and red, meaning flu activity is high. (Goldberg, 1/9)

St. Louis Public Radio: 'I Got Used To It': Children Surrounded By Gun Violence Carry Its Impact Deep Inside
These students at Ashland Elementary School in north St. Louis — whose names St. Louis Public Radio is not using to protect their privacy discussing such a sensitive subject — have grown numb to the high rate of gun violence, their teachers say. The school is surrounded by more gun violence than nearly any other city school, according to St. Louis Metropolitan Police data. (Delaney, 1/10)

Miami Herald: Medical Debt Collectors Are Workers Comp Claimants
There are hundreds more like Maestre, according to South Florida consumer protection attorneys who frequently sue the debt collectors. But legal challenges so far haven’t slowed the medical debt companies down, the lawyers said, because the penalties they face under federal law aren’t high enough to interfere with their business strategy. (Conarck, 1/10)

Boston Globe: R.I.’s Congressional Delegation Divided Over Legalizing Marijuana At Federal Level
From covering pivotal hearings and key votes to fund-raisers and political maneuvering, the Globe wants to keep a close eye on what Rhode Island’s congressional delegation is doing here and in Washington. We’re launching a weekly feature that will hold our leaders accountable and highlight the work of Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives James Langevin and David Cicilline. (McGowan, 1/10)

The Washington Post: Have Republicans Lost The Argument Over The Medicaid Expansion?
In all, 37 states have now expanded Medicaid — many of them red — while 14 have not. It’s true that a handful of the biggest states — such as Texas, Florida and North Carolina — still have not expanded Medicaid, and that’s a big obstacle to progress. But in North Carolina, Democratic governor Roy Cooper — whose efforts to expand Medicaid have been tied up by Republican legislators — and Democrats are vowing to make the issue central in the 2020 statewide and legislative elections. If that produces more victories, that could portend another big breakthrough. (Greg Sargent, 1/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Where You Want To Get Cancer
Cheer up, folks. For all the political grousing about health-care costs, the good news out this week is that cancer survival rates have improved enormously over the last three decades. The chances of beating most types of cancer are increasing, and that’s especially true if you live in the United States. The American Cancer Society reported this week that the cancer mortality rate in the U.S. has plunged nearly 30% since its peak in 1991, with the biggest annual decline occurring in 2017. Fewer Americans are smoking, which has reduced the incidence of lung cancer in particular. (1/9)

MPR: Over 65? Smoked Even A Little In Your Lifetime? You Might Want To Get Screened For This
If you’re male, between the ages of 65 and 75, and have smoked as few as five packs of cigarettes in your lifetime, a federal task force is now recommending you get screened for a condition that is often fatal. Abdominal aortic aneurysms occur when the aorta ruptures. It can be catastrophic, but catching the weakened artery before it ruptures and repairing the damage is relatively easy. (Tom Crann and Jon Hallberg, 1/8)

Bloomberg: Roe V. Wade Abortion Right Threatened By New Republican Strategy
More than 200 members of Congress, almost all of them Republicans, have signed a brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics. In case that wasn’t provocative enough, the senators and representatives suggested that the justices might also consider overturning the court’s two most important decisions on abortion: Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). While the argument they make may not prevail this year, it is a strong one that could eventually prove decisive. The legislators are going after Roe where it’s apparently strongest: They are attacking its force as a precedent. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 1/9)

Stat: The Buprenorphine Practitioner Locator Doesn't Work Like It Should
Recovering from opioid addiction isn’t easy. The pull of the drug is strong. Asking for help to kick an addiction can be difficult for many people, in part because of the stigma associated with addiction. One of the most effective means of beating an opioid addiction is to use a prescription medication, buprenorphine, which binds to the same receptor as opioids and reduces the craving for them. But finding a clinician who prescribes buprenorphine can be a challenge. Some people ask their primary care physician for a reference. Others ask friends or acquaintances who they’d recommend. Many others, though, consult the Buprenorphine Practitioner Locator, a database curated by the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that lists clinicians who can prescribe buprenorphine. (Lila Flavin and J. Wesley Boyd, 1/9)

The Washington Post: For Gen X Women, Middle Age Is Exhausting. Here’s Why.
More than a decade ago, I was on the phone with a demographer. The call got rescheduled more than once, thanks to me. I was working freelance, but I was also a parent to two small children and, well, I don’t even remember what went wrong. Was it a playground fight? A child home sick? A medical emergency with my parents? When we finally managed to connect, she told me, “You know what the problem with your generation is? You are expected to do more than twice as much as your parents and grandparents, with less than half the support.” (Helaine Olen, 1/9)

The Hill: Should Access To Life-Saving Medicines Be Determined By Economic Evaluations? 
Trikafta was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2019 for patients 12 and older. It is the fourth iteration of a class of medications called CFTR modulators, and it is appropriate for treating up to 90 percent of people with cystic fibrosis based on their genetic profiles. While Trikafta is not a cure for cystic fibrosis, it has proven to be a life-changing medication for countless people in the United States. We must preserve our access to Trikafta. A disturbing trend is washing over the United States, though. Insurers are using economic analyses based on a discriminatory cost-effectiveness metric called Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALY) as negotiating leverage to limit access to life-changing medications. (Gunnar Esiason, 1/9)

Stat: Welcome To The Bioengineering Culture Clash
Bioengineering, once viewed primarily as an academic discipline, is growing up. Our ability to engineer biology is on the verge of changing the landscape of health and health care. Tools and treatments that are engineered, not discovered — CAR-T therapies for cancer, CRISPR for gene editing, stem cell therapies, and more — are now making their way not just into new startups but into established industry. Just look at the first-generation CAR-T companies that have been acquired by major biopharma companies, like Bristol-Myers Squibb/Celgene acquiring Juno or Gilead acquiring Kite. (Vijay Pande, 1/10)

The Washington Post: In D.C., Getting Rid Of Tents And Benches Used By Homeless Won't Make Homelessness Go Away
The man sleeping on a sidewalk mattress, next to his jar of urine and beneath a glimmering art installation of light created to brighten a city underpass, is not going away. “We’ll come right back,” he vowed, after peeking out from under his blanket fort on a section of M Street. “I’ve been here my whole life, and I’m not going away.” (Petula Dvorak, 1/9)