The New York Times: Infection Raises Specter Of Superbugs Resistant To All Antibiotics
American military researchers have identified the first patient in the United States to be infected with bacteria that are resistant to an antibiotic that was the last resort against drug-resistant germs. The patient is well now, but the case raises the specter of superbugs that could cause untreatable infections, because the bacteria can easily transmit their resistance to other germs that are already resistant to additional antibiotics. The resistance can spread because it arises from loose genetic material that bacteria typically share with one another. (Tavernise and Grady, 5/26)

The Washington Post: The Superbug That Doctors Have Been Dreading Just Reached The U.S.
For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotic of last resort, an alarming development that the top U.S. public health official says could signal "the end of the road" for antibiotics. The antibiotic-resistant strain was found last month in the urine of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman. Defense Department researchers determined that she carried a strain of E. coli resistant to the antibiotic colistin, according to a study published Thursday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. The authors wrote that the discovery "heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria." (Sun and Dennis, 5/26)

PBS NewsHour: New ‘Superbug’ Becomes First Drug-Proof Bacteria To Hit U.S.
A 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman has been found carrying a strain of E. coli that is resistant to last-resort antibiotics, which researchers say marks the first appearance of a drug-proof bacteria on U.S. soil. Scientists in Pennsylvania are working with the Centers for Disease Control to find a way to fight the superbug. (5/26)

NPR: Germ Resistant To Antibiotic Of Last Resort Appears In U.S.
Now that this resistance gene has shown up in the U.S., it could spread to other germs, creating infections that doctors will have no way to treat. That's already happened in other parts of the world, including China. (Neel, 5/26)

STAT: Superbug Resistant To Last-Resort Antibiotics Found In U.S.
A new superbug that is resistant to the antibiotic of last resort has been spotted in the United States. Twice. US researchers reported Thursday that the mcr-1 gene has been found in E. coli bacteria retrieved from a woman from Pennsylvania. Separately, the US Department of Agriculture reported that the gene had been found in a sample of intestine from a pig. It did not provide further details, though a source told STAT the pig was raised in Texas. (Branswell, 5/26)

NBC News: 'Nightmare Bacteria' Superbug Found For First Time In U.S
Scientist fear an E. coli bacteria with the mcr-1 gene could pass it to another superbug with other mutations-- creating a truly super-superbug that resists all known antibiotics. If such a superbug spread, it would take the world back to a time when there were no antibiotics, says Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Fox, 5/26)

Reuters: U.S. Sees First Case Of Bacteria Resistant To All Antibiotics
Experts have warned since the 1990s that especially bad superbugs could be on the horizon, but few drugmakers have attempted to develop drugs against them. Frieden said the need for new antibiotics is one of the more urgent health problems, as bugs become more and more resistant to current treatments. "The more we look at drug resistance, the more concerned we are," Frieden added. "The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients. It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently." (Pierson and Berkrot, 5/26)

The Associated Press: FDA Approves First Drug-Oozing Implant To Control Addiction
Federal health officials on Thursday approved an innovative new option for Americans struggling with addiction to heroin and painkillers: a drug-oozing implant that curbs craving and withdrawal symptoms for six months at a time. The first-of-a-kind device, Probuphine, arrives as communities across the U.S. grapple with a wave of addiction tied to opioids, highly-addictive drugs that include legal pain medications like OxyContin and illegal narcotics like heroin. Roughly 2.5 million Americans suffer from addiction disorders related to the drugs, according to federal estimates. (Perrone, 5/26)

The Washington Post: FDA Approves New Way To Treat Opioid Addiction – Under The Skin
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first implantable drug to deliver long-lasting medication to people addicted to opioids such as OxyContin and heroin. "Opioid abuse and addiction have taken a devastating toll on American families," FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a news release. "Today's approval provides the first-ever implantable option to support patients' efforts to maintain treatment as part of their overall recovery program." The implant, which has four matchstick-size rods that are inserted under the skin of the upper arm, administers the anti-addiction drug buprenorphine in a continuous dose for six months. That medication is available now only as a daily pill or a thin film that dissolves under the tongue. The implant, called Probuphine, is intended for people who are already stable on low doses of the drug. (McGinley, 5/26)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Approves First-Ever Implant To Treat Opioid Addiction
The first-ever implant to fight addiction to opioids, a class of drugs that includes prescription painkillers and heroin, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. (Grover, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Approves New Arm Implant To Treat Opioid Dependence
Behshad Sheldon, chief executive of the implant’s marketer, Braeburn Pharmaceuticals, said Probuphine would cost less than $6,000 for a six-month supply. She declined to be more specific. Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc. co-developed the device with Braeburn, and will receive royalties on sales. Buprenorphine is already available in tablet form, or as films that dissolve in the mouth, but addicts sometimes run out of doses, or skip them and use illegal narcotics instead. Some also sell their buprenorphine to other addicts. The implant makes this behavior impossible, and so has won support from some addiction experts. (Whalen, 5/26)

STAT: FDA Approves Implant To Treat Opioid Addiction
There’s a new tool available to help combat the opioid crisis. The Food and Drug Administration has approved an implant that continuously dispenses the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine for six months, the agency announced on Thursday. (Robbins, 5/26)

See previous KHN coverage about the pros and cons of the implant: FDA Considering Pricey Implant As Treatment For Opioid Addiction.

And in other news about the opioid epidemic —

New Orleans Times-Picayune: CVS To Sell Heroin Overdose Antidote Without Prescription
The opioid antidote naloxone will soon be available without a prescription at CVS pharmacies across Louisiana, the company announced Wednesday (May 25). The move will dramatically increase access to the life-saving medication at a time when heroin and opioid overdoses in the United States are reaching all-time highs. (Lipinski, 5/25)

Denver Post: CU, VA Researchers Explore Barriers To Reducing Opioid Use For Pain
Strong support from family members and health care providers looms key to helping patients trying to scale back or stop their use of potentially dangerous opioid painkillers, according to a new Colorado study. The project, done by a team of researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Eastern Colorado Health Care System, sought to examine patient views on tapering back chronic opioid therapy amid evidence of increased risks and questionable long-term benefits from using prescription opioids for pain management. (Simpson, 5/26)

Detroit Free Press: Overwhelming Support For Bills To Prevent Overdoses
It doesn't happen very often that the Legislature passes bills that will save lives, said state Rep. Al Pscholka. But on Thursday, the House did just that, passing a pair of bills on 107-1 votes that would expand the state's Good Samaritan laws to help reduce the growing epidemic of drug overdose deaths. (Gray, 5/26)

The Hill: CDC Director: 'We're Losing Time With Zika'
The nation’s top disease official warned Thursday that he is running out of time to prevent a Zika outbreak — the same day Congress left town without approving more funds to fight the virus. “We have a narrow window of opportunity to scale up effective Zika prevention measures, and that window of opportunity is closing,” Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said during a speech at the National Press Club. (Ferris, 5/26)

Huffington Post: CDC Head Tom Frieden Delivers Emotional Plea For Zika Funding
Dr. Tom Frieden has dealt with a number of epidemics during his seven-year tenure as director of the Centers for Disease Control. But the rapidly spreading Zika virus, the terrifying birth defects it causes and Congress’ inexplicable foot-dragging on funding anti-Zika efforts has him feeling downright desperate. “Imagine that you’re standing by and you see someone drowning, and you have the ability to stop them from drowning, but you can’t,” Frieden told a packed room of reporters and potential donors at the National Press Club on Thursday. “Now multiply that by 1,000 or 100,000. That’s what it feels like to know how to change the course of an epidemic and not be able to do it.” (Bassett, 5/26)

Modern Healthcare: CDC Director Has Had To Borrow To Fund Zika Battle
Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday recounted some of the more startling experiences he's had as the agency fights the Zika virus, including seeing the tests results that confirmed the virus causes microcephaly, watching mosquitoes that spread it apparently unfazed by a popular insecticide and being told his request for emergency funding would take at least three months. (Muchmore, 5/27)

The Associated Press: CDC Urges Speed On Zika As House Moves To Negotiate Funding
The U.S. must act more quickly to protect pregnant women from birth defect-causing Zika, a top health official said Thursday even as the House left town for its Memorial Day recess with no visible progress toward a congressional compromise on emergency funding to battle the virus."In a public health emergency, speed is critical. A day, a week, a month can make all of the difference," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the National Press Club. (5/26)

CNN: Democrats Blast GOP For Leaving DC Without Passing Zika Funds
Democrats on Thursday blasted Republicans for departing Washington for the Memorial Day recess -- the traditional start of summer -- without approving funds to respond to the mosquito-borne Zika virus and other pressing needs. (Barrett, 5/26)

The Associated Press: House-Senate Talks Begin On Obama’s Zika Funding Request.
The GOP-controlled House has moved to officially begin talks on legislation to fund the fight against the Zika virus, but lawmakers immediately left town for the Memorial Day recess with no visible progress toward a compromise. The chamber adopted a procedural motion to begin a House-Senate conference panel on a Senate measure that combines $1.1 billion to fight Zika with broader spending bills for transportation, housing and veterans. (Taylor, 5/26)

Meanwhile, Frieden says there's no public health reason to cancel the Olympics —

Reuters: U.S. Health Official Says Zika Not A Reason To Cancel Olympics
The widespread Zika virus outbreak in Brazil does not pose enough of a threat to warrant canceling or putting off the Olympic Games set to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August, a leading U.S. health official said on Thursday. (Berkrot, 5/26)

NPR: To Kill Mosquitoes That Spread Zika, Strike Before They Fly
In the marshy woods of Secaucus, N.J., a mosquito can make a happy home. With water and shade under a canopy of maple trees, you could barely ask for more to start your own bloodsucking family. For Gary Cardini, though, this is a battleground. "You want to get them in the water before they're flying," explains Cardini, who supervises the field team for Hudson County Mosquito Control. "In the water, they're captive. You know where they are." (Lo Wang, 5/25)

Health News Florida: Central Florida Lab Testing For Zika
A central Florida lab can now test mosquitoes for the Zika virus. County workers at Mosquito Control departments across the state can now send mosquitoes to the Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee. Once there, the insects are tested for Zika and its viral cousins, Dengue and chickungunya. (Aboraya, 5/26)

Miami Herald: Four New Zika Cases In Florida, Including Two In Miami-Dade
Florida health officials confirmed four new Zika infections on Wednesday, including two cases in Miami-Dade and one each in St. Johns and Seminole counties, raising the statewide total to 154 people who have contracted the virus this year, including 36 pregnant women. In Miami-Dade, where most of Florida’s Zika cases have been reported, 46 people have been infected with the virus, said the state health department, but the disease has not been transmitted locally by mosquito bites. (Chang, 5/25)

The Associated Press: Florida Has Only Half Of Mosquito Traps Due To Backlog
Florida has less than half of the special traps that will be part of the frontline for detecting the Zika virus in mosquitoes because of a backlog at the manufacturer, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Thursday. (5/26)

Minnesota Public Radio: Officials Monitoring Two Minnesota Women Who Contracted Zika Virus While Pregnant
State health officials are monitoring two Minnesota women who contracted the Zika virus while pregnant. In one case, a woman traveled to El Salvador and then got sick. The other was a sexually transmitted infection from her husband who had been in Haiti. (Benson, 5/26)

The Associated Press: Report: Police Departments Need Mental Health Programs
A U.S. Justice Department report prompted by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre urges police chiefs around the country to put mental health programs in place in to help officers cope with on-the-job trauma, including the aftermath of mass shootings. The report, offered as a best practices guide, was prepared with help from officials including retired Newtown police chief Michael Kehoe, who led the response to the 2012 school shooting and worried over the following weeks that some of his officers might kill themselves. (Collins, 5/26)

Morning Consult: Ohio Insurance Department Announces Co-Op Will Close
Ohio’s co-op will become the thirteenth of the 23 co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act to fold. The Ohio Department of Insurance requested to liquidate the state’s health insurance co-op, InHealth Mutual, the state announced Thursday. Nearly 22,000 Ohio residents will have 60 days to replace their InHealth policy with another company’s on the federal exchange. (McIntire, 5/26)

The Columbus Dispatch: State Takes Over InHealth Mutual Insurance Cooperative
The state has taken over a struggling health-insurance cooperative based in Westerville that was set up to be a lower-cost option for Ohioans who shop the federally-run health insurance marketplace. (Williams, 5/26)

The Hill: Ohio ObamaCare Co-Op Shutting Down Due To Finances
The closure represents a significant disruption for the enrollees. The Obama administration and state regulators had worked to shut down any financially shaky co-ops before 2016 enrollment began on Nov. 1, in an attempt to avoid such failure in the middle of the coverage year. But that is now happening in Ohio. ... ObamaCare set up the nonprofit co-op health insurers as a way to increase competition in the insurance market. Many of the co-ops have gone out of business. Just 10 of the original 23 will now remain. (Sullivan, 5/26)

Bloomberg: Health Startup Led By Ex-United Manager Goes Where Rivals Quit
UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc., two of the largest U.S. health insurers, are quitting the Obamacare market in Colorado next year. Bright Health, a startup that hasn’t yet signed up its first customer, sees opportunity. The new health insurer, led by former UnitedHealth executive Bob Sheehy, picked Colorado as its initial state market. (Tracer, 5/26)

Politico: Massachusetts ACA Hospital Pay Bump May End
The Obamacare "boondoggle" may be over for Massachusetts. All Massachusetts hospitals were supposed to get a funding boost out of Obamacare — a state-specific provision derided by Republicans since 2010 as a goodie called the “Bay State Boondoggle.” (Haberkorn, 5/26)

Kaiser Health News: Va. Insurer’s Decision To Drop Bronze Plans Prompts Concerns
News that a CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield subsidiary will stop selling bronze level plans on the Virginia marketplace next year prompted some speculation that it could signal a developing movement by insurers to drop that level of coverage altogether. The reality may be more complicated and interesting, some experts said, based on an analysis of plan data. (Andrews, 5/27)

The Hill: Senators Hope For Deal Soon On Mental Health Bill
Senators say they are optimistic that a bipartisan mental health reform bill can reach the Senate floor and pass soon, though they are still working out differences over guns and finances. Multiple senators said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has told them that he is willing to put the bill from Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on the floor but that a consensus has to be built ahead of time so that consideration does not take up too much valuable floor time. (Sullivan, 5/26)

The Connecticut Mirror: Murphy Presses For Action On Mental Health Bill Despite Obstacles
Sen. Chris Murphy and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have bipartisan support for a bill that would reform the nation’s mental health system and are pressing for Senate action on the legislation. (Radelat, 5/26)

The Hill: Biden Claims ‘Total Bipartisan Support’ For Cancer Funding
Vice President Biden on Thursday hinted that key GOP leaders are willing to support his billion-dollar request for cancer research funding this year. Biden declared Thursday “there’s total bipartisan support” on Capitol Hill for his ambitious moonshot campaign to accelerate cures for cancer. (Ferris, 5/26)

ProPublica: Congressman To Red Cross: ‘How Do You Get Lost Going To A Disaster Area?’
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the congressional committee that oversees the Red Cross, sent a three-page letter to the charity’s CEO on Monday demanding that she explain why the Red Cross struggled to respond to record flooding in Mississippi this spring. Thompson pressed Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern for details on the impact of its staffing cuts and how it plans to coordinate better with state emergency managers. (Smith, 5/26)

Kaiser Health News: Blue Shield ‘Lifts The Veil’ On Executive Pay
In its first detailed disclosure on executive pay, nonprofit Blue Shield of California said Chief Executive Paul Markovich made $3.5 million last year – a 40 percent increase since he took the top job in 2013. The San Francisco-based health insurer has faced criticism for years from consumer advocates about its lack of transparency on executive compensation, and the issue attracted even more scrutiny after a state audit raised questions about the insurer’s big pay increases and large financial reserves. Following that audit, in 2014, California revoked Blue Shield’s state tax exemption, which it had held since its founding in 1939. (Terhune, 5/26)

The Dallas Morning News: Texas Health Resources Expands Its Growing Patient Base With Aetna Partnership
Texas Health Resources continued its string of recent moves aimed at streamlining patient experiences and bulking up its presence in the region Thursday, when the Arlington-based health care provider announced a partnership with insurance giant Aetna. The two giants are joining to form a new, for-profit company that will offer health insurance plans to employers and customers in 14 North Texas counties starting in coming months, providing access to Texas Health’s network of doctors and hospitals. (Cowan, 5/26)

CNN: The Abortion Ruling No One Knew About: Georgia's 20-Week Ban
For nearly seven months, it has been illegal for physicians in Georgia to provide abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy -- but almost no one knew it. Now, everyone is on the same page and lawyers for three obstetricians are appealing a ruling upholding the law. (Grinberg, 5/27)

Thomson Reuters Foundation: U.S. Women Get Creative In Fighting Abortion Stigma
For Amelia Bonow, having an abortion left her relieved that she was not forced to become a mother but, still, she kept her story mostly to herself. Amid a nationwide wave of political vitriol about abortion and the realization that she and her friends had long kept their abortions secret, however, she reached a tipping point and broke her Omerta-like silence. "Hi guys! Like a year ago I had an abortion," she posted on Facebook last fall. Once a friend shared the post on Twitter, the deshaming campaign #ShoutYourAbortion was unleashed. (Malo, 5/26)

Huffington Post: Combat Dreams Haunting Veterans Could Be A New Disorder
A 39-year-old man with no significant medical history sleepwalks, sleep-talks, and snores loudly. He kicks and punches the air during the night — and sometimes hits at his wife, one time bruising her face. What’s the diagnosis? Wait, one more thing: all this started after he returned from a 12-month deployment during the Iraq War in 2007. Now, what’s the diagnosis? It’s not any sleep disorder that’s currently in the books, according to one military sleep doctor. Col. Vincent Mysliwiec, a sleep-medicine specialist for the U.S. Army, thinks that cases like the one described comprise a new syndrome, which he calls Trauma-Associated Sleep Disorder, or TSD. (Varagur, 5/26)

AL.com: Hubbard Case: Alabama Medicaid Officials Opposed Language Benefitting Speaker's Client
Alabama Medicaid officials testified today that they strongly opposed language added to the state budget in 2013 that would have uniquely benefited a company that was paying House Speaker Mike Hubbard's Auburn Network under a consulting contract. Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar, Clinical Services Director Kelli Littlejohn Newman and former state Health Officer Don Williamson took the stand as witnesses called by the prosecution in Hubbard's ethics trial. ... The speaker has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. (Cason, 5/26)

The Associated Press: Consultant: No Direct Order To Use Party Chairman's Firm
Other testimony on Thursday focused on language in a 2013 budget bill that could have benefited one of Hubbard's consulting clients. The Alabama Medicaid Agency in 2013 was studying the possibility of one day hiring a pharmacy benefit manager to provide prescription drugs for Medicaid patients. Medicaid officials testified Thursday that they were caught off guard when the House added a budget amendment setting requirements for any manager that might be hired. The group that qualified under the amendment, the Alabama-based American Pharmacy Cooperative, Inc., had a $5,000-per month consulting contract with Hubbard. (Chandler, 5/26)

WBUR: Deal Would Take Controversial Hospital Pricing Question Off Ballot
It was to be a game of high stakes politics with hundreds of millions of health care dollars on the line. But on Wednesday the players negotiated a truce — with help from unified leaders on Beacon Hill — to prevent a November ballot question on hospital prices. (Bebinger, 5/26)

The Boston Globe: Beth Israel Deaconess In Boston Names Healy President
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said Thursday that its flagship Boston teaching hospital will get its own president, a move designed to give the health system’s chief executive more time to focus on strategy. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/26)

Denver Post: UCHealth To Open $315 Million Hospital In Highlands Ranch
UCHealth is adding to its expanding network of medical facilities, this time with a $315 million hospital in Highlands Ranch. Aurora-based UCHealth on Thursday announced plans to build a hospital and medical campus near Lucent Boulevard and C-470. The six-story Highlands Ranch Hospital will be built on part of Shea Properties’ planned 100-acre Central Park mixed-use development. (Wallace, 5/26)

Miami Herald: Patients Flocking To Jackson South Trauma Center, Hospital CEO Says
Since opening a trauma center at Jackson South Community Hospital in Palmetto Bay on May 4, doctors and nurses at the county taxpayer-owned medical facility have treated 60 patients in about three weeks — exceeding the expectations of administrators, who said that the volume of cases is cutting into the competition’s business. (Chang, 5/26)

Houston Chronicle: Ex-Harris Health Chief Named No. 2 Exec At Dallas Public Hospital
David Lopez, deposed as head of the Harris Health System two years ago, has been made second-in-command at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the Dallas public hospital. (Ackerman, 5/27)

Health News Florida: Supreme Court Ready To Hear Medical Malpractice, Other Major Cases
Justices are poised to hear arguments on a series of high-profile issues, including gambling, the death penalty, guns and medical malpractice, according to a schedule released Wednesday. (Saunders, 5/26)

The Des Moines Register: Addiction Treatment Agency Sues Wellmark, Claims Fraud
An addiction-treatment program is suing Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield, saying the health-insurer withheld millions of dollars in payments in an illegal effort to put the agency out of business. St. Gregory Retreat Centers treat people for drug and alcohol addictions at facilities in Adair and Bayard and in a wing of the Polk County Jail. (Leys, 5/26)

The Associated Press: New York Makes It Easier To Sign Up To Be An Organ Donor
A new law in New York state aims to make it easier to sign up to be an organ or tissue donor. The measure, signed into law on Wednesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will ask anyone signing up for coverage through the state's health insurance exchange if they'd like to register as a donor. Currently, only one in four eligible New Yorkers is registered. That's the second lowest participation rate in the nation. (5/26)

California Healthline: Impact Of ‘Millionaire Tax’ To Fund Mental Health Care Still Hard To Gauge
An 11-year-old statewide effort to expand mental health services with a tax on high incomes is helping many people, but there’s not enough hard data to measure the overall impact of the billions of dollars raised so far, members of an independent state watchdog agency said Thursday. More work is needed to overcome problems of communication, reporting and oversight in order to assemble a clear picture of how the money’s spent. That, anyway, was the consensus reached at Thursday’s hearing before the Little Hoover Commission, most of whose members are appointed by the governor and the legislature. (Ibarra, 5/27)

Concord Monitor: N.H. Is Last State In The Country To Create A Registry Of People’s Immunizations
New Hampshire has joined the rest of the country by authorizing an immunization registry, a record of vaccinations that health officials say is valuable to combating outbreaks of contagious diseases. Marcella Bobinsky, acting director of public health, pointed to a 2013 outbreak in Vermont of whopping cough, or pertussis, as an example. (Brooks, 5/27)

The Arizona Republic: Officials: Two Cases Of Measles Confirmed In Arizona
Two cases of the measles have been confirmed in Arizona and other people may have been exposed, state and county health officials said Thursday. One patient is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee at the Eloy Detention Center and the other is an employee of the facility in Pinal County, Arizona Department of Health Services officials said. (Alltucker and Greene, 5/26)

St. Louis Public Radio: One Missouri Cigarette Tax Hike Proposal Hurt By Lack Of Teachers' Union Support And Judge's Ruling
One of two ballot initiatives that would increase Missouri’s cigarette tax may be in trouble. A Cole County judge has said the fiscal note on a 60-cent-a-pack proposal overestimates the revenue that would be raised. He has directed the auditor to review the projection, and that would invalidate the petitions turned in by Raise Your Hand for Kids. The organization has said it will appeal. (Daily, 5/26)

Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Ranks 43rd For Senior Health, Challenges Loom
Tennessee senior citizens are more likely than the national average to get a flu shot and less likely to drink too much alcohol or get moved into a nursing home before necessary. But they’re more likely to smoke, go hungry or experience depression. And if current trends continue, tomorrow’s seniors could face even more challenges. (Nelson, 5/26)

Chicago Tribune: Nursing Homes For Boomers Gain Traction Over Opposition In Chicago Area
The stigma attached to nursing homes most often is that they're a place you go to die. The last thing baby boomers, who came of age in the '60s and '70s and practically invented youth culture, will ever admit is that they are getting old. A nursing home in Arlington Heights hopes to win them over. It features spacious private rooms with flat-screen TVs, wider beds and Wi-Fi. The dining areas look more like cafes than cafeterias. It takes design cues from hotels to replace the institutional feel of older nursing homes. (Sachdev, 5/26)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Push To Increase Access To IUD, Implants Is Working In Northeast Ohio
A statewide effort to increase access to more effective, long-acting birth control options such as intrauterine devices, or IUDs, and implants is starting to bear fruit in the Cleveland area, a coalition of public and private health leaders reported Tuesday. (Zeltner, 5/26)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Breastfeeding Support Group Creates A Community
Breastfeeding is the natural way to feed a baby, but it doesn’t come naturally to all women. Support from other new mothers is proven to boost breastfeeding success. The I AM: Breastfeeding support group was launched last year to help underserved women meet their breastfeeding goals. The group also offers home and hospital visits, phone advice and lactation counselors on call. (Bernhard, 5/27)

The National Bureau of Economic Research: The Impact Of Health Insurance On Preventive Care And Health Behaviors: Evidence From The 2014 ACA Medicaid Expansions
One goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to increase preventive care and improve health behaviors by expanding access to health insurance. ... Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and a difference-in-differences model that compares states that did and did not expand Medicaid, we examine the impact of the expansions on preventive care (e.g. dental visits, immunizations, mammograms, cancer screenings) and risky health behaviors (e.g. smoking, heavy drinking, lack of exercise, obesity). We find evidence consistent with increased use of certain forms of preventive care such as dental visits and cancer screenings but little evidence of changes in health behaviors and in particular ... no evidence that risky health behaviors increased in response to health insurance coverage. (Simon, Soni and Cawley, 5/22)

Journal of Clinical Oncology: Discussions Of Life Expectancy And Changes In Illness Understanding In Patients With Advanced Cancer
Recent and past oncology provider-patient discussions about prognosis/life expectancy were examined for their association with changes in illness understanding by patients. Patients (N = 178) with advanced cancers ... whom oncologists expected to die within 6 months were interviewed before and after a visit in which cancer restaging scan results were discussed. ... Before the restaging scan visit, nine (5%) of 178 patients had completely accurate illness understanding (ie, correctly answered each of the four illness understanding questions). ... 68 (38%) [patients] reported that they never had discussions of prognosis/life expectancy with their oncologists. ... Patients with advanced cancer who report recent discussions of prognosis/life expectancy with their oncologists come to have a better understanding of the terminal nature of their illnesses. (Epstein et al., 5/23)

Health Affairs: Uninsurance Rates And The Affordable Care Act
The purpose of this brief is to consider how uninsurance rates are changing under the ACA. ... While reducing the number of uninsured people is just one measure of the ACA's effect, it is arguably the most important metric. Several government surveys can be used to study the number uninsured in the US population, including the Current Population Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, the American Community Survey, and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The various surveys have different survey designs, field periods, health insurance coverage questions, reference periods, and survey modes, making the uninsurance estimates slightly different among each of the sources. (Goodell, 5/23)

American Journal of Accountable Care: Health Plan–Provider Accountable Care Partnerships: How Have They Evolved?
[Researchers sought to] understand the expansion of health plan–provider accountable care organization (ACO) partnerships and the evolution of the characteristics of these partnerships. ... Our survey showed health plan expansion of ACO implementation with increased use of shared risk and widespread provision of analytic reports and other types of technical assistance to providers. The cohort of 8 health plans reported improvements in quality of care since 2011 while evolving their program components, such as use of more readily measureable provider eligibility criteria, ongoing emphasis on health plan–provided technical assistance, and greater collaboration between health plans and their provider partners, to continually re-evaluate quality and utilization measures. (Higgins, 5/14)

The Kaiser Family Foundation: Workplace Wellness Programs Characteristics And Requirements
The majority of large employers that offer health benefits today also offer at least some wellness programs in an effort to promote employee health and productivity and reduce health related costs. ... Final regulations recently issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would change standards applicable to certain workplace wellness programs that use incentives to encourage workers and their spouses to provide personal health information. These new rules are intended to be more consistent with other standards implementing requirements in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that apply to certain workplace wellness programs. Both rules seek to balance employer interest in incentivizing workers to participate in wellness programs against requirements that prohibit discrimination based on health status, disability, and genetic information. (Pollitz and Rae, 5/19)

Here is a selection of news coverage of other recent research:

CBS News: Extremely Premature Babies May Face Lifelong Challenges
Premature babies born with extremely low birth weights are more likely to face lifelong challenges, including health problems and social and economic difficulties, new research suggests. The study, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, found that while in general, these premature babies grow up to be productive members of society, they are more likely to be unemployed, earn less money, have lower self-esteem, and report more chronic health issues. (Welch, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Cellphone-Cancer Link Found In Government Study
A major U.S. government study on rats has found a link between cellphones and cancer, an explosive finding in the long-running debate about whether mobile phones cause health effects. The multiyear, peer-reviewed study, by the National Toxicology Program, found “low incidences” of two types of tumors in male rats that were exposed to the type of radio frequencies that are commonly emitted by cellphones. The tumors were gliomas, which are in the glial cells of the brain, and schwannomas of the heart. (Knutson, 5/27)

STAT: Most Americans Would Avoid Clinical Trials Due To Worries Over Safety And Costs
Most Americans would not enroll in clinical trials over concerns they would experience side effects, encounter higher costs, or receive a placebo instead of an actual medicine, according to a new survey. Specifically, 35 percent say they would avoid participating in a study and, overall, just 40 percent have a positive view of clinical trials, according to the survey released on Monday and conducted by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a leading hospital based in New York that also conducts hundreds of clinical trials. (Silverman, 5/25)

Medscape: SPRINT: Low Blood Pressure Target Good For Older Patients
The treatment of hypertensive patients 75 years and older to a systolic blood pressure target of 120 mm Hg reduces the overall risk for mortality by one-third, according to new data from SPRINT. "It's a game-changer," said researcher Mark Supiano, MD, from the School of Medicine at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. ... The study results were presented by Dr Supiano and one of his colleagues, first author Jeff Williamson, MD, from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, here at the American Geriatrics Society 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting, and published online simultaneously in JAMA. (Harrison, 5/20)

STAT: Suicide Risk Spikes For Soldiers At Specific Moments In Their Careers
In an attempt to help stem a rise in suicide attempts in the US Army, a new study has pinpointed when soldiers are most likely to try to kill themselves — before, during, and after their deployments. For those who had not yet deployed, suicide attempts peaked in the second month of service, according to the paper, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. Deployed soldiers faced the highest risk in the sixth month of their deployment, and soldiers who had returned home after a deployment were most likely to attempt suicide in the fifth month. (Joseph, 5/25)

The New York Times: Walkable Neighborhoods Cut Obesity And Diabetes Rates
Neighborhoods designed for walking may decrease the rates of being overweight or obese and having diabetes by more than 10 percent, a new study concludes. Canadian researchers studied more than three million people in 8,777 neighborhoods in urbanized areas of Ontario, ranking them for “walkability” on a 100-point scale that measures population density, numbers of facilities within walking distance of residences and how well connected their webs of streets are. (Bakalar, 5/24)

USA Today: Health Insurers Find Back Door To Limit Choice
Lost in the noise of political posturing over health care, there’s one widely accepted principle: the importance of the doctor-patient relationship in medical decision-making. Yet we’ve all heard stories where insurance companies won’t fully cover a drug that both the doctor and patient believe is the right medical choice. Why not? It’s pretty simple: the insurance companies don’t want to pay. As cutting edge drugs come to market, insurance companies are scrambling to find ways to justify not paying for them. (Stier, 5/26)

Bloomberg View: The VA Is Smart To Give Nurses More Power
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hasn’t exactly been a model of efficient health care in recent years. But its new proposal to expand the role of nurses is a good idea that should be widely copied. The VA wants to let its most highly educated nurses -- so-called advanced-practice registered nurses, who have master’s degrees or higher in medicine -- treat patients without a doctor’s supervision. That would authorize nurse practitioners, anesthetists, specialists and midwives to do the jobs they’re trained for: diagnosing problems, interpreting test results and prescribing treatments. (5/26)

Miami Herald: Medicare, Cover Seniors’ Stem-Cell Transplants
In the mid-1980s, Congress established a national marrow registry to help individuals with blood cancers — like leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma and lymphoma — and other diseases find a matching bone marrow or umbilical-cord blood donor to help cure their disease. (Krishna Komanduri, 5/26)

The New York Times: Obama’s Pointless Cancer ‘Moonshot’
Oslo — EVER since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, American politicians have promised “moonshots” — huge programs, stocked with technology and experts, to solve presumably intractable problems. A common target is cancer: Earlier this year President Obama announced the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative, a $1 billion program led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Jarle Breivik, 5/27)

Huffington Post: Trump On Immigrants And Health Care Costs: Just Plain Wrong
Throughout the primary season, leading Republican presidential candidates vied over who could bash immigrants the hardest. And they were promising more than border walls. Donald Trump is the most extreme immigrant-blamer; according to his website, “Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually. If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments.” As with many of Trump’s claims, this one is wrong. But unlike some of his other falsehoods, the media has left this one unchallenged. Trump’s $11 billion figure comes from an obviously biased study that’s based on outlandish assumptions. (Leah Zallman and Steffie Woolhandler, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Money Can’t Cure What Ails Veterans Affairs
"Total VA funding has grown by nearly 86 percent from 2009,” says the headline of a document put out by the Department of Veterans Affairs this year in support of the agency’s fiscal year 2017 budget request for $182.3 billion. Politicians and government officials argue that increases in VA funding demonstrate a willingness to support veterans and their legitimate needs. Many of the increases are justified because of the higher costs of providing health care and the growing numbers of veterans receiving compensation and pension benefits. Yet our concern should not be about the amount of money the VA spends. We should focus instead on the impact that money has on the lives of veterans. (Anthony Principi, 5/26)

Huffington Post: The Medical Community Must Come To The Defense Of Purvi Patel
When you come to the hospital for medical help, you don’t expect to leave in handcuffs. But that’s exactly what happened to Purvi Patel when she came to an Indiana emergency room seeking assistance in July 2013. Ms. Patel arrived at the emergency room with bleeding following a recent pregnancy, a situation many women may experience. She stated she had been pregnant, and had already disposed of the fetal remains. Ms. Patel’s medical providers contacted law enforcement officers. She was then arrested on the charge of “neglect of a dependent.” A month later, prosecution added the charge of feticide as well. (Pooja Mehta, 5/26)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Push For Paid Family And Medical Leave In Missouri
Inherent in American culture is a prevalent competitive nature — the desire as citizens, and as a country, to be the best at everything. So when the United States sits alongside Oman and Papua New Guinea as one of the few countries in the world that do not offer paid maternity leave, it should raise concern. Countries such as the United Kingdom offer 40 weeks of paid maternity leave; and even Iran, widely criticized for its poor stance on human rights, provides 12 weeks’ paid leave. Despite this huge disparity in the treatment of American working families compared with nearly every other country in the world, the road to providing new parents in the United States the benefit of staying home after the addition of a child has remained stalled, until now. An increasing number of companies are seeing that the implementation of paid family leave benefits not only new parents and their children, but also the economy as a whole. (Allison Simmonds and Katherine Landfried, 5/27)

The Columbus Dispatch: Nationwide Children's Bolsters Cancer Fight
Nationwide Children’s Hospital has managed to land two top cancer researchers, a further indicator of its status as one of the nation’s leading pediatric centers. Richard Wilson and Elaine Mardis, director and co-director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, should arrive in September. Their recruitment was aided by a new $10 million gift from the Nationwide Foundation to advance the hospital’s research. (5/27)

The Oregonian: The Biased Call For A Cover Oregon Investigation
If anyone doubted that partisan politics gone wild douses even the faintest hope of fairness, not to mention competence in government, go no further than Wednesday's release of a congressional document calling for a top-level probe into the collapse of Cover Oregon. Few can doubt the insurance exchange disaster ranks as one of Oregon's worst moments: More than $300 million was spent on something that is, now, nothing. And blame for it apparently goes everywhere — from vendor Oracle to the governor's office to frenzied state bureaucrats acting above their pay grade. (5/26)

Modern Healthcare: The IT Holy Grail Remains Out Of Policymakers' Hands
In the last full year of the Obama administration, federal policymakers remain so focused on interoperability that sessions on the topic will dominate an annual gathering hosted by the nation's top information technology office. More than a quarter of the nearly 40 sessions at next week's seventh annual Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT conference will deal with interoperability. (Joseph Conn, 5/26)

The Dallas Morning News: Use Of Common Anti-Anxiety Medication Could Snowball Into An Epidemic
When patients come not with a list of symptoms, but a shopping list for pills, one may assume something is not right. Some of my patients lash out at me because of not getting BZDs, while a few get admitted to the inpatient psychiatry unit for a detox, ironically, with another BZD. Some get sober, while others find their way back to the unit. (Pravesh Sharma, 5/26)

The Columbus Dispatch: Vital Message Might Save Lives
It’s not possible to overstate just how courageous and important it was for University of Cincinnati president Santa Ono to reveal his past struggles at a fundraiser on Saturday aimed at helping teens who suffer from mental illness. Ono told a crowd of about 200 people that he had suffered with depression. At 14, he locked himself in his bedroom and tried to overdose on cold medicine and beer. In his late 20s, he again tried to commit suicide. (5/27)

The New York Times' Taking Note: A Welcome End to New York’s ‘Tampon Tax’
Opponents of the “tampon tax” just scored a win in New York. Thanks to a bill passed by the State Legislature on Wednesday, tampons and other menstrual hygiene products will soon be exempt from the state’s 4 percent sales tax, as well as local taxes. Supporters of the bill pointed out that tampons and pads are just as necessary as condoms and medical supplies like bandages, which were already tax exempt. “Women have been paying this sexist tax on their bodies for far too long,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, the bill’s sponsor, in a statement. (Anna North, 5/26)