The Associated Press: Trump To Deny Funds To Clinics That Discuss Abortion
The Trump administration will resurrect a Reagan-era rule that would ban federally funded family planning clinics from discussing abortion with women, or sharing space with abortion providers. The Department of Health and Human Services will announce its proposal Friday, a senior White House official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to confirm the plans before the announcement. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/18)

The New York Times: Trump Administration To Tie Health Facilities’ Funding To Abortion Restrictions
The rule, which is to be announced Friday, is a top priority of social conservatives and is the latest move by President Trump to impose curbs on abortion rights, in this case by withholding money from any facility or program that promotes abortion or refers patients to a caregiver that will provide one. The policy would be a return to one instituted in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan that required abortion services to have a “physical separation” and “separate personnel” from other family planning activities. That policy is often described as a domestic gag rule because it barred caregivers at facilities that received family planning funds from providing any information to patients about an abortion or where to receive one. (Davis and Haberman, 5/17)

Bloomberg: Trump Administration To Propose New Curbs On Abortion
The White House already reinstated a ban on taxpayer funding for foreign aid organizations that provide or promote abortions and rescinded guidance issued under the Obama administration that protected Planned Parenthood from efforts at the state level to reduce or eliminate its taxpayer funding. The proposal will not fully prohibit clinics from counseling patients about abortion. But it will eliminate current requirements that programs and facilities receiving money from the approximately $260 million federal family planning program must be willing to counsel and refer patients for abortion. (Sink, 5/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Covered California Premiums Projected To Rise 11 Percent In 2019
The cost of health insurance continues to climb in California. Estimates released Thursday by Covered California, the state insurance marketplace, project that premiums in the individual market will rise 11 percent next year, while enrollment in the exchange — which is larger than any other state’s — will drop 12 percent. (Ho, 5/17)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Feds Reject Ohio's Request To Nix Obamacare Individual Mandate
The federal government has turned down Ohio's request to nix Obamacare's individual mandate, saying the Department of Insurance didn't provide necessary information in its application. (Hancock, 5/17)

The New York Times: N.I.H. Halts Enrollment In A Study Of Drinking Now Under Scrutiny
The National Institutes of Health has suspended enrollment in a huge clinical trial on the health benefits of moderate drinking while officials review whether its employees inappropriately solicited funding from the alcohol industry. Five liquor and beer companies are providing about $67 million of the $100 million cost of the 10-year study. In March, The New York Times reported that scientists and officials with the N.I.H.’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism met with alcohol industry groups on several occasions in 2013 and 2014 to discuss funding. (Rabin, 5/17)

The Washington Post: NIH Halts $100 Million Study Of Moderate Drinking That Is Funded By Alcohol Industry
Thursday morning’s announcement by NIH Director Francis Collins reflects the seriousness of allegations that surfaced in news reports in recent months, including a story in March in the New York Times that described two scientists and a federal health official pitching the idea for the study to liquor company executives at a 2014 gathering in Palm Beach, Fla. The alcohol industry agreed to fund the research via a private foundation that supports NIH. The goal of the study, which involves 7,000 individuals, is to assess whether moderate drinking — a single drink a day — has a health benefit. Some research has suggested such a benefit, but the conclusion remains controversial, and the U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that people who do not drink alcohol should not start. (Achenbach, 5/17)

Stat: NIH Halts Enrollment In Drinking Study After Concerns Over Conflicts
“For NIH, our reputation is so critical,” Collins said. “And if we are putting ourselves in a circumstance where that could be called into question, I felt like we had to look at that very seriously and come up with another strategy.” (Joseph, 5/17)

CQ HealthBeat: NIH Halts Enrollment In Controversial Alcohol Study
Collins told Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that he was concerned this study “might be the tip of a larger iceberg.” He has convened a working group to look more closely at the situation. “We will look closely to see if there are other examples of this sort because that would be very much against the principles that we stand for, which is separation of funding sources from outside with decisions about science,” he said. (McIntire, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Gov't Approves $10B Deal To Overhaul VA Medical Records
The government approved a $10 billion deal Thursday to overhaul the electronic health records of millions of veterans, part of a bid to improve wait times and expand access to doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system. The aim of the contract with Cerner Corp. is to provide veterans easy access to their health records upon leaving active-duty service and when they receive medical treatment at a VA facility or a private doctor referred under the VA's Choice private-sector program. (Yen, 5/17)

Politico: VA Joins Military In Fraught Multibillion-Dollar Health IT Contract
Former VA Secretary David Shulkin announced his intention to sign the single-source contract last June after consultation with Jared Kushner, but then revealed in December that he had put it on hold as the implementation of a related Pentagon contract experienced grave difficulties, including critical safety concerns at four Pacific Northwest treatment centers. Kushner and others argued the best way to assure seamless health care records was for both the VA and DoD to use the same technology. Others pointed out that since the majority of vets leave the military system after retiring, most of the data sharing would take place between the VA and private doctors and hospitals where 70 percent of veterans’ care takes place. Many of the big academic health centers that treat veterans use Cerner’s biggest competitor, Epic. (Allen, 5/17)

KCUR: VA Reaches 10-Year, $10 Billion Deal With Cerner To Upgrade Its Health Record System
“This is one of the largest IT contracts in the federal government, with a ceiling of $10 billion over 10 years,” [Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert] Wilkie said in a statement. “And with a contract of that size, you can understand why former Secretary Shulkin and I took some extra time to do our due diligence and make sure the contract does what the President wanted.” Wilkie said Congress has already appropriated $782 million for the contract. (Margolies, 5/17)

Modern Healthcare: VA And Cerner Reach Agreement On EHR 
The VA announced nearly a year ago that it would switch to Cerner from its homegrown VistA system. But disagreements about interoperability and alleged meddling by President Donald Trump's unofficial advisors kept the contract in limbo for months. (Arndt, 5/17)

In other news —

The New York Times: Veterans Go Back To Court Over Burn Pits. Do They Have A Chance?
On May 9, a federal appeals court heard oral arguments in a case about an explosive issue among U.S. veterans: the widespread use of burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the potential health consequences they suffered as a result. The case, which dates back to 2008, consolidated dozens of lawsuits by hundreds of veterans and their families seeking to recover damages from the military contractor KBR Inc., but a trial court dismissed it in July 2017. It could be at a legal dead end unless the panel of judges, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., overturns the dismissal. (Harp, 5/17)

NPR: Army Takes Steps To Protect A Shooter's Brain From The Weapon's Blast
For the first time, the U.S. military is speaking publicly about what it's doing to address potential health risks to troops who operate certain powerful shoulder-mounted weapons. These bazooka-like weapons produce forceful explosions just inches from the operator's head. Though several scientific reports over the past year have noted the possible risk, until now military officials have been reluctant to speak publicly about whether repeated exposure to these blasts might result in injury to a shooter's brain. (Hamilton, 5/17)

Politico: Trump Donates First-Quarter 2018 Salary To VA
President Donald Trump will donate his salary for the first quarter of 2018 to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the White House announced Thursday. Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said at a press briefing that the money would go toward caregiver support programs, including mental health, peer support, research, education, training and financial aid. (Okun, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Surgeon General: Most In US Think Opioid Abuse Is Not Local
The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said Thursday that opioid abuse occurs nationwide, but only a small percentage of Americans think it's an emergency in their own communities. "Most of us feel that the opioid epidemic is a problem," Adams said during a panel discussion at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "But when you look at surveys, less than half of the people in the United States feel that it rises to the level of an emergency. And less than half of that — less than a quarter of the people — feel it's an emergency in their community. Everyone thinks there's a problem somewhere else." (5/17)

Stat: FDA Admonishes Big Data Provider Over Error Concerning Opioid Prescriptions
In an unusual development, the Food and Drug Administration has sternly criticized a big provider of prescription data to the federal government after discovering an “inaccuracy” concerning the amount of fentanyl that was prescribed over the past year, as well as “data quality issues” regarding several other controlled substances. The mistakes occurred as the agency attempts to manage and develop policies for coping with the opioid crisis, a task that can be accomplished only with the help of accurate prescribing data that is dissected for usage trends. For this reason, the FDA plans to brief members of Congress for potential public health implications and convene with other federal agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Agency. (Silverman, 5/17)

Stat: McCaskill Urges Two Government Agencies To Rethink Purchases Of Teva Medicines 
For the past 10 months, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has asked Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) to provide information about any steps the drug maker has taken to mitigate the opioid epidemic. But the company has refused to comply, prompting the lawmaker to write the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans to reconsider their dealings with Teva. In identical letters to the agencies (here and here), McCaskill wrote that Teva has been “stonewalling” her probe into the opioid crisis, which she launched last year into several drug makers and wholesalers. And she urged the agencies to “evaluate whether (the DOD and VA) should contract with an entity that has refused to respond to requests during a Senate investigation.” (Silverman, 5/17)

CQ: House Panel Advances Opioid Bills
The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday approved 32 opioid bills during its second markup on the issue, which was markedly more contentious than its previous one. Still, most bills advanced by voice votes during the almost eight-hour markup. Up for debate were 34 bills related to the opioid epidemic, specifically focusing on public health, the Food and Drug Administration, Medicare and Medicaid. The committee did not hold votes on two of the measures. (Raman, 5/17)

East Oregonian: Methadone Clinic Comes To Pendleton
A methadone clinic will open in Pendleton as soon as regulatory hurdles are cleared. The Pendleton Treatment Center will offer methadone and Suboxone — two medications used to combat addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin. The clinic won’t start receiving clients until the complicated regulatory process wraps up and staff members are hired, an undertaking that could take a couple of months or more. (Aney, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Walgreens Offers Free Hepatitis C Testing At 10 Pharmacies
The Virginia Department of Health is partnering with Walgreens to offer no-cost Hepatitis C testing at 10 pharmacies across the state. The health department announced the development Thursday.The testing offer comes as Virginia’s opioid epidemic has contributed to an increasing number of Hepatitis C cases in the state. The health department says people who share needles when they inject drugs are most at risk for acquiring the virus. (5/18)

The New York Times: ‘Just The Grossest Thing’: Women Recall Interactions With U.S.C. Doctor
Former students at the University of Southern California are coming forward by the dozens, re-examining years-old interactions with Dr. George Tyndall, the longtime gynecologist at the student health center who is now at the center of a growing scandal. What they considered inappropriate and humiliating at the time, they are now reporting to a special university hotline as signs of the doctor’s trail of abuse. (Medina, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: USC's Aggressive Recruiting Of Chinese Students Faces Challenge Amid Gynecologist Scandal
USC has relied on bright young minds from across the Pacific to propel itself from prominent Southern California commuter school to international research university. Aggressive recruitment of Chinese students has delivered high-quality students and tuition dollars to the university and given scholars from rural provinces access to top professors and the bright lights of Hollywood. But the unique bond forged in recent decades between USC and the world's most populous nation was shaken this week amid allegations of misconduct on the part of a longtime campus gynecologist. (Etehd, Pringle, Xia and Hamilton, 5/17)

In other news —

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Medicare Continues To Pay Disciplined Doctors
He [Cyril Raben] is one of at least 216 doctors who remained on Medicare payment rolls in 2015 despite surrendering a license, having one revoked, or being excluded from state-paid health care rolls in the previous five years, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation. In all, those doctors were paid $25.8 million in 2015 alone. (Fauber, 5/17)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Medicare: Doctors With Discipline Actions Paid Millions By Taxpayers
At least 216 doctors remained on Medicare rolls in 2015 despite surrendering a license, having one revoked, or being excluded from state-paid health care rolls in the previous five years, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found. In all, these doctors were paid $25.8 million by taxpayers in 2015 alone. (Wynn and Fauber, 5/17)

The Washington Post: Jorge Zamora-Quezada Gave Unnecessary Chemo Injections To His Patients In $240 Million Fraud Scheme, Authorities Say
The business of chemotherapy treatment for arthritis has been good to Jorge Zamora-Quezada. The Texas doctor took to the air on his six-seat Eclipse 500 business jet, bought with some of the $50 million he was paid since 2000 administering a host of treatments to countless patients. And on land, Zamora-Quezada, 61, roared between various homes and properties in South Texas in his blue 2017 Maserati Granturismo Coupe. (Horton, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Doctor Accused Of Keeping Human Fat In Closet Back At Work
The North Carolina doctor accused of reusing syringes and storing human fat in plastic bags can practice medicine again, even though her license was suspended. The Winston-Salem Journal reports a Wake County judge granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday against the N.C. Medical Board, saying it violated due process by summarily suspending Dr. Anne Litton White’s license ahead of a June 21 board hearing where she can defend her medical actions. (5/17)

Stat: Patients Are Taking Home Recordings Of Doctor Visits. Who Else Could Listen?
Doctors across the U.S. have begun doing what once seemed unthinkable in a litigious health care environment: recording their medical conversations with patients and encouraging them to review the audio at home. The rationale for the practice is as simple as the smartphone technology that enables it: having a recording improves patients’ understanding and recall of their doctor visits and helps them adhere to treatment regimens. (Ross, 5/18)

Los Angeles Times: To Prevent Recurrent Strokes, Should Aspirin Have A Wingman? Maybe Not
When it comes to preventing the formation of potentially deadly blood clots in people at elevated risk for them, there are no easy answers. That's the upshot of a clinical trial involving patients who suffered a stroke that resolved quickly and caused no lasting damage. For these patients, adding the anti-platelet drug Plavix to usual aspirin therapy drove down some serious risks, but increased the chances of bleeding events. A second study found that an anticoagulant drug known as Xarelto performed no better than aspirin alone in heading off strokes and heart attacks after a small stroke, and also drove up subjects' risk of bleeding. (Healy, 5/17)

The New York Times: ‘Will You Be My Emergency Contact?’ Takes On A Whole New Meaning
Will you be my emergency contact? When you’re dating, the question is a sign that you’ve made it to the this-is-really-serious category. When you’re friends, it’s a sign that you’re truly beloved or truly responsible. And if you’re related, it may mean that you will now be entered into a medical study together so scientists can figure out if sinus infections or anxiety run in your family. (Murphy, 5/17)

The New York Times: Netflix Counts The Reasons Teens Should Watch ‘13 Reasons Why’
In the second episode of the new season of Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why,” the high school student Courtney Crimsen publicly reveals that she is a lesbian. Wanting to be understanding, caring parents as the news ripples through town, her two fathers hold a family movie night. They flip through a stack of DVDs — all about lesbian relationships. “Movies and shows are a wonderful way to open up a dialogue,” one of the dads says to the other, as Courtney sighs, annoyed. (Rosman, 5/17)

USA Today: '13 Reasons Why' Should Do More To Stop Teen Suicides, Doctors Say
Some critics of the series, which showed a suicide and sexual assault in graphic detail, blame the first season for glamorizing suicide. The proportion of visits involving suicidal thoughts — known as "ideation" — jumped by more than 40% last April and May compared to the weeks before the release of the series' first season on March 31, 2017, according to a study of millions of doctors’ visits by 14- to 20-year-olds. (O'Donnell, 5/18)

The New York Times: Inducing Labor At Full Term May Be Best Bet
Whether to induce labor for babies at or beyond full term is a difficult decision. Waiting to give birth after 41 weeks’ gestation may slightly increase the risk that the baby will die before or shortly after birth. But there are also risks in inducing labor, including lowering the baby’s heart rate and an increased likelihood of infection for both mother and baby. (Bakalar, 5/17)

The New York Times: Acupuncture Does Not Improve Pregnancy Rates
Acupuncture is sometimes recommended as a complementary treatment for women undergoing in vitro fertilization. But a randomized clinical trial has found that the procedure does not improve pregnancy rates. The Australian study, published in JAMA, included 824 women planning to undergo I.V.F. Half received acupuncture and half sham acupuncture a week before follicle stimulation and then again before and after transfer of the embryo. The acupuncture treatment technique was based on traditional Chinese medicine, and the sham acupuncture used a non-inserted needle placed away from the true acupuncture points. (Bakalar, 5/17)

Seattle Times: The Hutch Closes In On A Cancer Cure 
The little coolers are ubiquitous at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which four decades ago pioneered a groundbreaking treatment for blood cancers — the bone-marrow transplant, now an older science that still saves lives, but not without harrowing side effects.What has changed in cancer research since then? Almost everything. But the research growing from those transplants is blossoming today into what could be, at last, actual cures for common cancers that have long stood as irrevocable death sentences for millions of people. (Judd, 5/17)

The New York Times: Hail Caesar Salad! Romaine Is Safe To Eat Again
Attention Caesar salad fans: You may now safely rekindle your romance with romaine. Federal health officials have concluded that the tainted lettuce that sickened 172 people across 32 states, and killed one, is no longer available for sale. Both the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that the danger had passed. (Hoffman, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Health Officials: Stay Out Of The Pool If You Have Diarrhea
Health officials say hotel pools and hot tubs are a major source of the stomach bugs people get from swimming. And they're reminding people with diarrhea to stay out of pools, hot tubs and water playgrounds. U.S. public health officials report on safe swimming every year. Thursday's version from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focused on outbreaks in 2000 through 2014 that were tied to swimming or bathing in treated recreational water spots. (Stobbe, 5/17)

KQED: Does CBD Help Kids With Autism? New Clinical Trial Aims To Find Out
A new clinical trial will attempt to determine how certain chemical compounds in marijuana might help children with autism. The compound in question is cannabidiol, more commonly known as CBD. (Wiley, 5/17)

KQED: In The Land Of Legal Weed, Drug Education Moves From ‘Don’t’ To ‘Delay’ 
Public schools in California are required by law to provide anti-drug abuse education, although experts say the quality of the instruction varies widely from district to district, and there’s little enforcement. ... Today, drug abuse education is an advanced pedagogy, drawing on decades of rigorous effectiveness research and the newest teaching techniques. (Feibel, 5/16)

ProPublica: At St. Luke’s In Houston, Patients Suffer As A Renowned Heart Transplant Program Loses Its Luster
The anonymous letter reached Judy Kveton in March 2017. Nearly two months earlier, her husband’s failed heart transplant at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center had led to a week of follow-up surgeries, a pair of devastating strokes and then, his death. The donor heart that doctors had implanted in David Kveton was “just not acting right,” Judy remembers the surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Morgan, telling her hours before she decided to remove her husband from life support. (Ornstein and Hixenbaugh, 5/16)

The Associated Press: Report Faults Response To San Diego's Hepatitis A Outbreak
A grand jury report following the worst outbreak of Hepatitis A in the United States in 20 years faulted the response of San Diego city and county officials on Thursday and recommended improving communications to prepare for future health emergencies. The outbreak killed 20 and sickened 577 people between November 2016 and October 2017. (5/17)

Dallas Morning News: Richardson Man Dies In U.S. Marshals' Custody, Hours After Conviction In Multimillion-Dollar Fraud Case
A 50-year-old Richardson man died this week in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, hours after a federal jury convicted him of taking part in an elaborate, multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that involved selling bogus MRI equipment to a North Texas hospital. Suresh Mitta, who also went by Suresh Reddy and Mitta Suresh, had been found guilty Tuesday in Missouri of a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a case that victimized Dallas Medical Center, a Farmers Branch community hospital. (Robinson-Jacobs, 5/17)

The Star Tribune: Future Looks Bright For Startup Insurer Bright Health 
The growth story continues at Minneapolis-based Bright Health, as the startup health insurer saw enrollment double during the first quarter and is showing signs of a possible expansion into three more states. Launched in 2016, Bright Health last year started selling health insurance policies that comply with the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) to individual buyers in Colorado. (Snowbeck, 5/17)

Tampa Bay Times: All Children’s Hospital Now Under Federal Review
The federal government has opened an investigation of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, days after a state agency cited the hospital for not reporting two serious medical errors. The federal review, by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, could be more wide-reaching than the state’s, which focused on the hospital’s procedures for minimizing risk and handling mistakes. (McGrory and Bedi, 5/17)

Arizona Republic: Ducey Signs Bill Allowing 'Dental Therapists' To Practice In Arizona
'Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law Wednesday that creates a new class of dental care provider in a move intended to increase access in underserved areas of the state, including tribal lands. Ducey signed House Bill 2235, which licenses dental therapists to work in certain circumstances under a collaborative agreement or the direct supervision of a dentist. (Mo, 5/17)

Texas Tribune: Will Texas Have To Push Back The Expiration Dates On Its Lethal Injection Drugs?
When Texas officials put one man to death and announced the upcoming executions of two more men Wednesday, a prison spokesman said the department was in possession of enough lethal injection drugs to carry out the remaining eight executions scheduled through October. ...Unless the state were to push back the expiration dates of its current supply or track down more of the hard-to-find drugs, at least three of the condemned men would be set to die after available drugs expire. (McCullough, 5/17)

New Hampshire Public Radio: ‘One-Pot’ Labs On The Rise In N.H. As Meth Cases Double Annually
Drug enforcement officers are seeing a rise in small-scale methamphetamine production. So-called 'one-pot' meth labs may produce less than larger operations, but they still carry the danger of fire and explosion. (Garrova, 5/17)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Dozens Of New Doctors Can Recommend Weed For Their Patients In Ohio
The State Medical Board of Ohio this month awarded certificates to recommend medical marijuana to 53 physicians across the state, including nine from Cincinnati. Previously, five Cincinnati-area doctors were among 36 physicians across the state who were awarded certificates to recommend in April. (Tucker, 5/17)

The BMJ: Healing An Ailing Pharmaceutical System: Prescription For Reform For United States And Canada
To improve access and population health, we propose universal, first dollar coverage (full insurance with no cost sharing) of all medically necessary drugs, echoing Archie Cochrane’s famous invocation that “all effective treatments must be free.” Each nation should establish a national formulary of covered drugs, which should include all medications shown to improve the length or quality of life—or the safest, most effective, and least expensive option when equivalent agents are available. (Gaffney, 5/17)

Pediatrics: Sexual Orientation and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents
Sexual minority adolescents reported higher depressive symptoms than heterosexual adolescents from late adolescence into young adulthood. Collectively, low family satisfaction, cyberbullying victimization, and unmet medical needs accounted for >45% of differences by sexual orientation. (Luk, Gilman, Haynie and Simons-Morton, 5/1)

Annals of Internal Medicine: A Novel Strategy for Increasing Access to Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus Infection for Medicaid Beneficiaries
An estimated 2.7 to 3.9 million persons in the United States were living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 2015. ... In response, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee of experts to develop a national strategy for eliminating HCV infection as a public health problem. The report concluded that these new treatments could avert nearly 30 000 deaths and reduce incidence of this condition by 90% by 2030. (Sood, Ung, Shankar and Strom, 5/17)

NEJM: Addressing Generic-Drug Market Failures — The Case for Establishing a Nonprofit Manufacturer
We believe that market-based solutions are an important alternative approach to stimulating competition in generic-drug markets. One such solution is to establish a nonprofit generic-drug manufacturer with the explicit mission of producing affordable versions of essential drugs and ensuring a stable supply of such products. A consortium of hospitals and health plans, including Intermountain Healthcare, Trinity Health, SSM Health, and Ascension, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs and philanthropists, is following this approach and developing a nonprofit generic-drug manufacturer code-named Project Rx. (Liljenquist and Anderson, 5/17)

The Washington Post: Republicans Want Big Government, Too. They Just Want It To Help Fewer People. 
Leave it to Congress to take food away from 2 million poor people and somehow save no money in the process. The House farm bill, scheduled for a vote Friday, contains a major overhaul to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as food stamps). In many ways, the legislation — which, in a break with tradition, was written entirely by Republicans — contains objectives shared by people on both sides of the aisle. These include helping low-income people find more stable work and encouraging noncustodial parents to contribute financially to their kids’ upbringing. However noble such goals are, though, the actual consequence of the bill would be a gigantic, expensive new government bureaucracy — one that eats up nearly all the “savings” from kicking people off food stamps, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. (Catherine Rampell, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: Tougher Work Rules For Food Stamps Won’t Help Poor People — Or Save Much Money
Unemployment is at a record low. The U.S. economy has logged nine straight years of slow-but-steady growth. Yet somehow, 40 million Americans need help from the government just to put food on the table. Although that figure is down from its post-recession peak of 47.6 million in 2013, it's still far above where it was in 2007, when only 26 million Americans were enrolled in food stamps (formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Congressional Republicans are right to believe that there's something terribly out of whack here. How can so many Americans have jobs yet so many still qualify for food stamps? But their solution — adding tougher work requirements to the program — rests on a faulty premise that people are gaming the system, rather than the reality that so many of the jobs added since the recession are low-wage. (5/18)

WBUR: Med Students To Congress: Help Us Be The Generation To Solve The Opioid Crisis
Heart attacks and opioid overdoses are both acute exacerbations of chronic medical illnesses and are seen daily in emergency departments across the nation. While every medical student graduates with the preparation needed to treat heart disease, fewer than 6 percent of physicians in the U.S. are trained and certified to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication that has been scientifically proven to halve the overdose death risk for patients with opioid addiction. (Helen Jack, Siver Sundaram and Melanie Fritz, 5/17)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Be Prepared, Get Naloxone,' The Surgeon General Says. It's Not Easy.
It was a scheduling mishap that led Kourtnaye Sturgeon to help save someone’s life. About four months ago, Sturgeon drove to downtown Indianapolis for a meeting. She was a week early. “I wasn’t supposed to be there,” she said. Heading back to the office, she saw people gathered around a car that had veered to the side of the road. Sturgeon pulled over to see if she could help. A man told her there was nothing she could do, Sturgeon said. Two men had overdosed on opioids and appeared to be dead. “I kind of recall saying, ‘No man, I’ve got Narcan,’” she said, referring to the brand-name version of the overdose antidote Naloxone. “Which sounds so silly, but I’m pretty sure that’s what came out.” Sturgeon had the drug with her because she works for Overdose Lifeline, a non-profit devoted to distributing naloxone. She sprayed a dose of the drug up the driver’s nose, and waited for it to take effect. About a minute later, she said, the paramedics showed up. (Jake Harper, 5/17)

The Hill: Health Insurance Premium Increases Are Not Trump’s Fault
Health insurers are beginning to announce their 2019 premium increases for the dwindling number of Americans who participate in ObamaCare exchanges and it isn’t a pretty picture.Most increases in Virginia and Maryland appear to be in the 20 percent to 35 percent range, through CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. The insurer also is seeking a 91 percent increase for its PPO plans in Maryland and a 64 percent increase in Virginia for 4,500 members, who participate in the exchange. The left is claiming the premium hikes are President Donald Trump’s fault. But under ObamaCare the individual health insurance market began to collapse long before Trump became a factor. (Merrill Matthews, 5/17)

Boston Globe: Trying To Navigate The Cold, Confusing Health Insurance Maze
If you are young and on medication, and the approval of your peers is your life nutrient, then an unsightly side-effect — in this case, drooling — is unacceptable. Fortunately, there is a common and generic treatment; according to GoodRX, it costs $23 a month. I phoned it into the patient’s pharmacy. A day later, the pharmacy called: Insurance had rejected the claim. I called the insurance line and spoke to a pleasant representative. She explained that my patient would need to try three other medications for peptic ulcer disease first. The patient didn’t have peptic ulcer disease; she had schizophrenia. Salivation was a side-effect of the only drug that had helped her. I filled out a Prior Authorization form with details. (Elissa Ely, 5/17)  

Los Angeles Times: Vulnerable Young Women. A Gynecologist Accused Of Violating Them. Where Was USC?
You take off your clothes, and put on a thin cotton gown. You sit on a padded table covered with a crisp white piece of paper that crackles every time you move. Your bare feet dangle. You stare at the walls and wait. And wait. Then the doctor walks in. If the doctor is a man, he comes in with a female chaperone. The doctor tells you to lie back, put your legs in the metal stirrups on either side of the table and scoot down. Toward him. (Robin Abcarian, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: Why Are So Many Misconduct Complaints Falling On Deaf Ears At USC?
For the second time in less than a year, the University of Southern California is drawing scrutiny not just for the alleged misconduct of one of its doctors, but also for the way campus leaders handled the situation. Any organization the size of USC is bound to have problematic employees. The issue is how the organization responds: Is it bad luck? Bad supervision? Or a bad organizational culture? (5/17)

Chicago Tribune: Hospitals Are Soft Targets: Nurses And Staff Need More Training To Deal With Violence
One year ago, Tywon Salters, a convicted robber and car thief who’d been on parole, was in the Kane County Jail on new charges that would have likely sent him back to prison. Salters, of Chicago, ate a piece of his jail sandal and was taken to nearby Delnor Hospital for treatment. He was there five days. On the fifth day, he overpowered a Kane County sheriff’s deputy and took the deputy’s gun. He took two nurses hostage and tortured them. He raped one of the nurses for hours before he was shot to death by police. (John Kass, 5/17)

Des Moines Register: Iowa's Abortion Ban Destroys Lives To Save Them
In the days since Gov. Reynolds signed SF 359 into law, attempting to make abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy illegal in Iowa, I’ve had many women express sympathy for me, assuming my future employment is at the front of my mind. I assure you, it’s not. Every time a woman has expressed her concern for me, I find my mind turning to Luke 23:28-30: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me but for yourselves and your children ... For if men do these things while the trees are green, what will happen when it is dry?” The tribulation Planned Parenthood may experience as a result of SF 359 is not my immediate concern. My concern is for the women Planned Parenthood cares for and for the children of Iowa who will have their futures changed by this despicable attempt to control women’s bodies at the most fundamental level. (Katie Spicka, 5/17)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Save PEP Connections Via Closer Look At Ohio's Reliance On Medicaid Managed Care
Short-sighted thinking by Ohio officials imperils a wildly successful mental-health program for kids (Greater Cleveland's PEP Connections) and could mean Ohio is missing out on Medicaid prescription coverage savings. At the root of both issues appears to be the $100 million or more in extra annual taxes Ohio can get by using Medicaid managed care programs. (5/18)

The Detroit News: Our Public Health Is At Risk
I thought the smell in my neighborhood in southwest Detroit was normal. It wasn’t. After years of working on the right to breathe clean air, we are now being faced with the biggest setback in oversight over polluting industry. The state and the Republican-led Legislature is proposing to give Gov. Rick Snyder the power to appoint a panel to rewrite the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality rules, and another to veto permit decisions made by MDEQ.Get this. The appointees who can veto permit decisions will be engineers, not public health officials. They are not qualified to protect public health, safety and welfare. Such a move would be catastrophic for our public health. Like our MDEQ director, the board members likely would come from the very industries environmental permits are supposed to regulate. (Rashida Tlaib, 5/17)

JAMA: The Shortage Of Normal Saline In The Wake Of Hurricane Maria
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. In the wake of this devastating storm, more than 1000 people died and tens of thousands were displaced from their homes. In early 2018, one-third of Puerto Rico remained without electricity. Before the hurricane crippled infrastructure and created a humanitarian crisis, 33% of Puerto Rico’s gross domestic product came from its pharmaceutical sector, with approximately 50 firms producing medications and 40 making medical devices. The multifaceted response by both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and hospital systems to the ongoing national shortage of normal saline makes clear how a storm hitting 1000 miles off Florida’s coast can affect public health across the United States. (Chana A. Sacks, Aaron S. Kesselheim and Michael Fralick, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Why The Seattle ‘Head Tax’ Is Relevant To The Nation
Let’s talk about this “head tax” on large businesses — those with gross revenue above $20 million — that the Seattle City Council unanimously passed this week to help deal with the city’s worsening homelessness problem. ...But the reason I want to talk about it comes from the question raised by two tax analysts — Steve Rosenthal and Richard Auxier (R&A) — in this commentary on the idea: “How are fiscally constrained cities supposed to find revenue as their populations and services grow?” (Jared Bernstein, 5/16)