The New York Times: F.D.A. Imposes Rules For E-Cigarettes In A Landmark Move
After years of debate about the health risks of electronic cigarettes, the federal government on Thursday made it final: They need to be regulated and kept out of the hands of children. The Food and Drug Administration issued sweeping new rules that for the first time extend federal regulatory authority to e-cigarettes, banning their sale to anyone under 18 and requiring that adults under the age of 26 show a photo identification to buy them. The long-awaited regulations, 499 pages of them, shifted the terms of the public debate over e-cigarettes, putting the federal government’s heft behind a more restrictive approach to the devices. (Tavernise, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA To Regulate E-Cigarettes, Ban Sales To Minors
In an action e-cigarette makers had been dreading, the Food and Drug Administration said it was assuming regulatory authority over e-cigarettes. Though the product-approval process will be phased in during three years, that will be little solace to the fledgling but fast-growing $3.5 billion industry that has, until Aug. 8 when the rules take effect, largely been unregulated and dominated by small manufacturers and vape shops. (Mickle, 5/5)

The Associated Press: FDA Will Require E-Cigarettes And Contents To Be Reviewed
"Millions of kids are being introduced to nicotine every year, a new generation hooked on a highly addictive chemical," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. "We cannot let the enormous progress we've made toward a tobacco-free generation be undermined by products that impact our health and economy in this way." (5/5)

The Washington Post: The Federal Government Is About To Begin Regulating The Booming E-Cigarette Market
The number of young people using e-cigarettes now exceeds the number who smoke traditional cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 5.3 percent of middle school students reported in 2015 that they had used e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days. For high schoolers, the figure has risen to 16 percent. In 2015, 3 million middle- and high-school students reported using e-cigarettes, according to the FDA and the CDC. (McGinley and Dennis, 5/5)

NPR: FDA Acts To Regulate E-Cigarettes And Cigars For The First Time
The popularity of "vaping" has grown in recent years. The FDA says about 16 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes in 2015. Some have welcomed the devices as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, whose dangers are well-known, and as an aid to help smokers quit. (Kodjak, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: FDA To Begin Regulating Electronic Cigarettes
Opponents said the FDA's product-review rules could harm the e-cigarette industry. Although the FDA contends that the cost of its approval process is less than $1 million per item, other estimates place the cost above $1 million. Either way, critics said the price would be too onerous for many of the small businesses that manufacture e-cigarettes, the vaping liquids and other related items. "This gigantic price tag is affordable to Big Tobacco companies but small- and medium-sized businesses will be crushed," said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Assn. (Peltz and White, 5/5)

Marketplace: How The New E-Cigarette Regulations Will Impact Small Businesses
The implications for the growing electronic cigarette, or "vape," industry could be big. Industry insiders claim the new rules could force many shops, which often also manufacture e-cigarette products, and manufacturers to go out of business. In addition to requiring approval of products, the FDA's new mandates also prohibit sales to minors. At one 'vape' shop in New York City, the Henley Vaporium, owner Peter Denholtz said he was concerned about the new rules. "They're 499 pages." he said. "It's going to take a while before we really understand what they mean." (Safo and Sharpe, 5/5)

The Associated Press: White House Calls FDA E-Cigarettes Move A 'Common Sense' Proposal
The White House called the Food and Drug Administration move on Thursday to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and cigars to anyone under age 18 and impose other regulations a "common sense proposal" that helps the public health and safety of Americans. (Mason, 5/5)

Reuters: FDA Says Eying Future Regulation On E-Cigarette Flavors
U.S. health officials ... said they will look at potential future regulations on flavors used in the products as more data becomes available. Mitch Zeller, head of the Food and Drug Administration's center for tobacco products, said the agency would review data on how many addicted smokers and tobacco users have actually been able to quit using e-cigarettes with flavors before making decisions on any flavor regulations. (Gershberg and Berkrot, 5/5)

Kaiser Health News: FAQ: How The FDA’s New Tobacco Rule Affects Consumers
Here are some questions and answers about how the Food and Drug Administration’s new rule will affect consumers. (Galewitz, 5/6)

Meanwhile, KQED examines how the new California tobacco laws play off the regulations —

KQED: How Tobacco Actions By California And FDA Reinforce Each Other
Last night, California’s governor signed into law a package of sweeping tobacco regulations. This morning, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) handed down its own landmark regulations on e-cigarettes. (Aliferis, 5/5)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: 2,000 Doctors Say Bernie Sanders Has The Right Approach To Health Care
More than 2,000 physicians announced their support Thursday for a single-payer national health care system, unveiling a proposal drafted by doctors that appears to resonate with Bernie Sanders' call for "Medicare for All." In an editorial and paper published in the American Journal of Public Health on Thursday, the doctors call out the "persistent shortcomings of the current health care system." They warn about the risks of continuing along the path laid out by the Affordable Care Act: "down this road, millions of Americans remain uninsured, underinsurance grows, costs rise, and inefficiency and the search for profits are abetted." (Johnson, 5/5)

The Hill: More Than 2,000 Doctors Join Call For Single-Payer Healthcare
The doctors backing the plan, like Sanders, say that ObamaCare has not gone far enough because millions remain uninsured. “Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act six years ago, 30 million Americans remain uninsured, an even greater number are underinsured, financial barriers to care like co-pays and deductibles are rising, bureaucracy is growing, provider networks are narrowing, and medical costs are continuing to climb,” said Dr. Adam Gaffney, who co-chaired the working group that created the proposal. (Sullivan, 5/5)

Kaiser Health News: In Prince’s Age Group, Risk Of Opioid Overdose Climbs
Evidence is mounting that opioid pain medication may have played a role in the death of pop legend Prince. While the medical examiner hasn’t yet released the results of the autopsy and toxicology tests in this case, opioid overdose in middle age is all too common. ... Experts say there are a number of scenarios that increase risk of overdose, which is often accidental, for people over 55. Imagine you are in that age group and you injured your shoulder a while back. It just hasn’t gotten better, so you take prescription painkillers — an opioid like OxyContin — to help with the pain. Let’s say you’ve been taking it for a couple of years. Your body has built up a tolerance to the drug, and now, you need to change it up to get the same amount of relief. When it comes to the potential for overdose, said Boston Medical Center epidemiologist Traci Green, this is one of the most dangerous crossroads. (Espeland Gourlay, 5/6)

The Associated Press: Questions Arise About California Doctor's Response To Prince
Was a California doctor acting legally when he sent his son to Prince's home with a drug often used to treat people addicted to opiates such as prescription painkillers? Dr. Howard Kornfeld may have been trying to help, but he was not licensed to practice medicine in Minnesota and was not registered to care for patients there via telemedicine, as the state requires. His son, Andrew Kornfeld, who has been described as a pre-med student, was not a licensed prescriber. (5/5)

Minnesota Public Radio: Explained: How Medication-Assisted Treatment Works For Opioid Addiction
The investigation into what may have caused Prince's death last month has focused on the role prescription painkillers may have played. The office for the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday offered Carver County investigators their expertise in investigating prescription drug diversion. And an attorney for a California doctor, Dr. Howard Kornfeld, has come forward to say that he was trying to help the musician with drug addiction when he died. (Collins, 5/5)

The Concord Monitor: Senate Says No To Needle Exchange
The state Senate voted Thursday not to legalize needle exchanges in New Hampshire, and instead opted to study the issue over the summer and take action next year. “There are a lot of unanswered questions here,” said Sen. Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican. “There is no one size fits all solution.” (Morris, 5/5)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Senate: Needle Exchange Proposal Needs More Work
New Hampshire Senators have voted to create a study commission to look at needle exchange programs rather than legalizing them. The proposal now heads back to the House, which if left unchanged, will then head to the Governor. (Sutherland, 5/5)

The Concord Monitor: Concord Okays Addiction Recovery Center
An addiction recovery center will open in Concord. The city’s zoning board unanimously granted Hope for New Hampshire Recovery permission to operate at 85 S. State St. In response to concerns from neighbors, the board also set restricted operating hours between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. By way of introduction before the board Wednesday night, Cheryl Coletti-Lawson, chairwoman at Hope for New Hampshire Recovery, told a piece of her own story. She herself is in long-term recovery. (Doyle, 5/5)

St. Louis Public Radio: City Of St. Louis Could Green Light Regional Prescription Drug Database
The city of St. Louis is one step closer to joining St. Louis County in creating a regional prescription drug database doctors can check to see if their patients have already been prescribed narcotics recently. (Phillips, 5/5)

The Orlando Sentinel: Orange, Osceola Top In State For Fentanyl, Heroin Deaths
Fentanyl, a prescription opioid that has heroin-like effects, killed more people in Orange and Osceola counties than any other region in Florida during the first half of 2015, according to a state report. (Miller, 5/5)

And, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats call for more funding to address the epidemic, in an echo of their request from earlier in the year —

The Hill: House Dems Call For $600 Million To Fight Opioid Abuse
A group of 53 House Democrats is calling on Republicans to approve $600 million in new funding to fight opioid abuse as part of a package of bills coming to the floor. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) led the letter to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) saying that emergency funding is needed in addition to a range of bills aimed at fighting opioid abuse that are expected to be voted on next week. (Sullivan, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Cayman Islands To Deploy Genetically Modified Mosquitoes
British biotech company Oxitec and the Cayman Islands government announced plans Thursday to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the fight against a species that spreads Zika and other diseases. Deployment of the mosquitoes against the Aedes aegypti species in the Cayman Islands is a major advance for Oxitec, which has promoted the method heavily as an environmentally safe way to combat the vectors of mosquito-borne illnesses while confronting public concerns about the technology. (Kay and Fox, 5/5)

Elsewhere, in Washington, D.C., health officials host community meetings to inform residents about the virus —

The Washington Post: D.C. Department Of Health Plans To Distribute Zika Virus Prevention Kits
There’s a donut-shaped disk filled with bacteria that’s toxic to mosquito larvae. Then there’s bug spray and condoms. After three people who traveled to the District were diagnosed with the Zika virus, officials plan to hand out kits filled with these special items to educate and stop the spread of the disease. The D.C. Department of Health will host community outreach sessions in all eight wards on Saturday (May 14) and July 16 about the virus, which can spread via mosquitoes or through sexual contact. Officials said during the sessions, residents will receive Zika prevention kits, learn about the proper use of insecticides and how to reduce mosquito breeding sites in the community. (St. Martin, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Report: 1 In 6 Hospital Beds In U.S. Is In A Catholic Institution, Restricting Reproductive Care
One in every 6 hospital beds in the country is in a Catholic hospital system, according to a report released Thursday that suggests the consolidation of health-care systems puts more patients than ever in hospitals where the medical procedures available to them may be dictated by faith. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops advises that Catholic hospitals should not perform abortions or sterilizations and should not promote contraception to patients. Although hospitals vary in how closely they follow the Catholic directives, the American Civil Liberties Union and MergerWatch, which drafted the new report together, expressed concern that patients in many areas of the country find it difficult to access certain forms of care. (Somashekhar and Zauzmer, 5/5)

In other women's health news, Florida's Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the state's 24-hour waiting period law, and New Hampshire's lawmakers kill a bill to remove the buffer zone around abortion clinics —

The Tampa Bay Times: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear 24-Hour Abortion Waiting Period Case
The Florida Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case challenging a state law that requires women to see a doctor and wait 24 hours before having an abortion. Five of seven justices agreed to consider overturning a lower court's decision that the law should be enforced while a pending lawsuit over the constitutionality of the law moves forward. (Auslen, 5/5)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H.'S 25-Foot Buffer Zone Around Abortion Clinics Will Stay
New Hampshire’s 25-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics will remain after the Senate killed a bill to repeal it in a tie vote. Last legislative session the Senate also deadlocked over the issue. And just last month a U.S. District Court judge denied a request to challenge the law. (Sutherland, 5/5)

The Sacramento Bee: A Better Way To Die? California’s End-Of-Life Law Launches June 9
Elizabeth Wallner vividly remembers the moment when she knew there had to be a better way to die. Diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, Wallner was in the midst of brutal chemotherapy that made her violently sick to her stomach. As she was retching into the toilet, her son, then 16, sat on the bathroom floor, helpless to ease her pain. When her time comes, Wallner, a 52-year-old education consultant who also cares for her aging parents, wants to spare her family any more agonizing memories and instead take a lethal prescription, prescribed by her doctor. Starting June 9, that option will be available for the first time in California. (Buck, 5/5)

Related from California Healthline: 'Ask Emily' Column: Aid-In-Dying Is Not So Easy

Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: Bentley: Special Session On BP, Medicaid, Prisons Possible
Gov. Robert Bentley expressed disappointment Thursday in the death of his $800 million prison construction proposal and floated the possibility of bringing it back in a special session. ... The loss of the bill is one of many issues that could come up in a special session. Legislation sponsored by House Ways and Means General Fund chair Steve Clouse, R-Ozark that would have split the state’s share of the BP settlement over the 2010 oil between paying state debt and funding coastal road projects – giving Medicaid $70 of the $85 million it says it needs – fell apart Tuesday in a dispute over allocation of other road money to the state. (Lyman, 5/5)

AL.com: Bentley Doesn't Rule Out Special Session; Says 'Rest' Needed First
Gov. Robert Bentley said this morning he would forge ahead with trying to fix Alabama's prisons and with reforms to state's Medicaid program. ... Bentley did not rule out calling a special session to address the two issues, but indicated he would wait a while if he did. "Everybody's got to rest a little bit right now," Bentley said. (Cason, 5/5)

California Healthline: State Makes Changes To Managed Care Program For Elderly, Disabled
California, in a departure from previous policy, will not automatically enroll low-income elderly and disabled residents in managed care health plans during the next round of a three-year pilot project, state officials announced Thursday. The state made the change in response to widespread concern that people were being enrolled in plans without their knowledge and without a clear understanding of what managed care meant for them. Future enrollment will be voluntary, officials said. (Gorman, 5/5)

NJ Spotlight: Advocates For Addicts, Mentally Ill Still Worried About New Medicaid Rates
State officials responsible for the Medicaid program assured lawmakers on Tuesday that they have been working closely with the independent agencies that coordinate community mental-health and substance-abuse programs to ensure New Jersey’s transition to a new payment model rolls out smoothly over the coming 14 months. (5/5)

Salt Lake Tribune: Sim Gill Finds ‘Nothing Worth Celebrating’ Over Utah Medicaid Funding
Salt Lake County's behavioral health officials outlined to the state this week how the county would spend its share of money from the partial Medicaid expansion approved last session by the Legislature and Gov. Gary Herbert. What that plan won't contain is county District Attorney Sim Gill's scathing criticism of the meager support extended by state lawmakers to deal with mental-health and substance-abuse problems confronting the community. The county's portion of state funding, he told the County Council before it approved the plan, "won't even come close to the need. This is a failure of public policy. We need to be doing full Medicaid expansion to meet our needs." (Gorrell, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Indian Health Service Looks To Expand Telehealth Care
The Indian Health Service is looking to expand telehealth care across the Great Plains in the wake of federal inspections that uncovered serious quality-of care deficiencies at some of its facilities. The IHS on Thursday issued a request for proposals from providers to offer remote care at its seven hospitals and other facilities in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Patients would receive emergency medical services and could set appointments with specialists in behavioral health, cardiology and other areas. (Lammers, 5/5)

News Service Of Florida: Hospital, Insurer Clash Over Payment Information
In a battle between a major Jacksonville hospital and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with questions about how much information the hospital should be required to disclose about its charges for care. (Saunders, 5/5)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Monadnock Region To Lose Inpatient Psychiatric Unit
An inpatient psychiatric unit in the Monadnock region will close because of staffing issues.The move at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene takes effect July 1. Hospital officials say a nationwide shortage of psychiatrists has limited their ability to treat patients - while the unit is licensed to treat 12 adult and six adolescent patients, staffing issues have meant they've only had an average of three to four adults a day. (Carlson, 5/5)

The Oregonian: Doernbecher Children's Hospital Grapples With Rise In Central Line Infections
Doernbecher Children's Hospital is experiencing a surprising and perplexing increase in patient infections caused by central lines that are inserted to deliver drugs, fluids or nutrients. (Terry, 5/5)

Health News Florida: New Clinic To Reduce Unnecessary Visits To Florida Hospital
In an effort to expand services and reduce unnecessary hospital visits, Tampa Family Health Centers opened its first facility connected to a hospital. The facility is located at Florida Hospital Tampa on Fletcher Avenue but is operated and managed by Tampa Family Health Centers. (Miller, 5/5)

The Sacramento Bee: California Republican Lawmakers Want More For Dental Care Program
Republican legislative leaders want Gov. Jerry Brown to include $200 million in additional money for low-income dental services in the revised budget proposal he releases next week, saying the increase would help improve a program criticized as a “vicious circle of dysfunction” in a recent report. (Miller, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Feds: NYC To Pay $4.3M To Settle FDNY Medicare Billing Case
Prosecutors say New York City will pay $4.3 million to settle claims that its fire department improperly received reimbursement from Medicare for ambulance calls that didn't meet the federal requirement for medical necessity. The settlement was announced Thursday by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. (5/5)

The Orlando Sentinel: Florida Gets $1.6 Million From Olympus Settlement
Florida will get more than $1.6 million as part of a large multistate settlement involving Olympus America. The device-maker is paying $306 million to several states and the federal government to settle allegations that it paid illegal kickbacks to health care providers, according a statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi's Office. Olympus allegedly used improper financial incentives, including free and no-charge loans, to encourage doctors and hospitals to buy its endoscopes and surgical equipment, "unlawfully increasing sales and to gain market shares," according to Bondi's office. (Miller, 5/5)

Health News Florida: New Florida Law Allows More Vets To Receive Treatment
A new Florida law allows more military vets to qualify for a diversion program meant to keep offenders out of prison. One Jacksonville army veteran said this program saved his life. (Elder, 5/5)

Georgia Health News: 6 Georgia Health Centers Get New Federal Funds
Federal health officials this week announced $6 million in funding to six community health centers in Georgia for facility renovation and expansion. (Miller, 5/5)

Health News Florida: Florida Health Centers Get $10.7M To Expand, Upgrade
Twelve health centers in Florida will get more than $10 million from the federal government to renovate, expand and increase capacity to serve underserved patients, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this week. (Ochoa, 5/5)

The Orlando Sentinel: Orange County EMS Tests New Way To Detect Sepsis
Orange County paramedics and hospitals are among the first in the nation to create and use an alert system for sepsis, a condition that can lead to organ failure or death. Sepsis is mostly identified in the hospital with blood tests, but local researchers are showing that paramedics can use a simple breath measurement to identify potential cases of sepsis in the field and prepare the hospitals for arrival of the patients. (Miller, 5/5)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Jail Doctor Agrees To Stop Treating Inmates Pending Investigation
The physician at Manchester's Valley Street Jail has agreed not to practice medicine at any correctional facility while the Board of Medicine investigates allegations that inmates received substandard care. The board issued an emergency order April 28 that temporarily suspended the license of Matthew Masewic, who has been physician at the Hillsborough County jail since 2009. In agreeing to the terms of the order, Masewic has not admitted to any misconduct. (Corwin, 5/5)

The Associated Press: NY Prison Guard Pleads Guilty In Hearing Aid Scam
A New York prison guard has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges that he participated in a $1.6 million scheme to sell state workers earbuds and earplugs while billing the state insurance system for hearing aids. State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott announced Auburn Correctional Officer Joshua Powers' plea on Thursday. Authorities say the owner of a Syracuse-area hearing aids store paid Powers $72,000 to refer hundreds of state workers to his practice, where he sold them earbuds and earplugs. The devices were billed to the state at $3,000 per device. (5/5)

Annals of Internal Medicine: Financing U.S. Graduate Medical Education: A Policy Position Paper Of The Alliance For Academic Internal Medicine And The American College Of Physicians
In this position paper, the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians ... make a series of recommendations to reform the current funding system to better align [graduate medical education] GME with the needs of the nation's health care workforce. These recommendations include using Medicare GME funds to meet policy goals and to ensure an adequate supply of physicians, a proper specialty mix, and appropriate training sites; spreading the costs of financing GME across the health care system; evaluating the true cost of training a resident and establishing a single per-resident amount; increasing transparency and innovation; and ensuring that primary care residents receive training in well-functioning ambulatory settings that are financially supported for their training roles. (Butkus et al. 5/3)

Urban Institute: How Are Moms Faring Under The Affordable Care Act? Evidence Through 2014
The number of uninsured mothers fell from 7.5 million in 2013 to 5.9 million in 2014, as the uninsurance rate for mothers reached its lowest point since 1997. The largest declines in uninsurance were found among low- and moderate-income mothers who were targeted by the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and the introduction of subsidized Marketplace coverage, respectively. ... Despite these gains in coverage, nearly one in six mothers remained uninsured in 2014, and these mothers were disproportionately young, low-income, Hispanic, noncitizens, less educated, not married, and living in the South. (Karpman et al., 5/5)

Kaiser Family Foundation: What To Look For In 2017 ACA Marketplace Premium Changes
Insurers are gaining experience under the ACA and are in a better position than in previous years to project the health and claims of their enrollees. Some have realized that their enrollees are less healthy on average than they had anticipated, and for these insurers, relatively large premium increases are likely. ... Other factors influencing premium changes for all insurers for 2017 include increasing prices and service use, the end of the federal reinsurance program (which reduced premiums in previous years), and the one-year waiver of the federal health insurance tax. ... Given the highly competitive nature of the Marketplaces in much of the county, as well as the uncertainty insurance companies faced in the early years of ACA implementation, it’s not surprising that premium increases may be higher in 2017. (Claxton and Levitt, 5/5)

National Bureau of Economic Research: Impacts Of The Affordable Care Act On Health Insurance Coverage In Medicaid Expansion And Non-Expansion States
This paper estimates the causal effects of the ACA on health insurance coverage using data from the American Community Survey. ... Our preferred specification suggests that, at the average pre-treatment uninsured rate, the full ACA increased the proportion of residents with insurance by 5.9 percentage points compared to 3.0 percentage points in states that did not expand Medicaid. Private insurance expansions from the ACA were due to increases in both employer-provided and non-group coverage. The coverage gains from the full ACA were largest for those with incomes below the Medicaid eligibility threshold, non-whites, young adults, and unmarried individuals. We find some evidence that the Medicaid expansion partially crowded out private coverage among low-income individuals. (Courtemanche, 4/25)

Public Citizen: Infant Formula Marketing In Public Hospitals: An Outdated And Unethical Practice
The results of our analysis of the largest public hospitals in the United States are consistent with our previous research on top-ranked hospitals in the United States. The vast majority of public hospitals are also following best practices in public health by supporting breastfeeding and ending the distribution of company-sponsored formula discharge bags and other promotional materials. ... Of the 62 hospitals from which we received responses, 95 percent (59 out of 62) are completely free of all forms of infant-formula marketing. (Strader and Kehres, 4/26)

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

Reuters: Return Visits To The ER More Likely For Patients With Limited English
Patients in the emergency room who don't speak English well are slightly more likely to return within days, suggesting their care the first time was not as good as it could have been, researchers say. In a study in one New York hospital, about 4 percent of English speakers made an unplanned return to the ER within three days, compared to 5 percent of people with limited English. (Doyle, 4/29)

The Tampa Bay Times: Dental Care In The ER Is Costing Us Millions — And Not Helping Patients
Dental problems are driving a growing number of Floridians to the emergency room — and costing taxpayers millions of dollars, according to a new study published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry. The study found the number of dental-related visits to Florida emergency departments surged from 104,642 in 2005 to 163,900 in 2014, an increase of about 57 percent. (McGrory, 5/5)

Reuters: Mental Health Risks Aren't Equal Among All Gay, Bisexual Men
While gay and bisexual men are at higher risk for mental health issues than their straight counterparts, the risk is particularly high for young gay and bisexual men, a new study has found. On the other hand, high levels of education, income and living with a man were among the factors that seemed to protect gay and bisexual men of all ages against depression, anxiety and other mental health problems. (Seaman, 4/29)

Reuters: Flu Strikes Fewer Infants When Pregnant Women Get Vaccinated
Infants have a much lower risk of getting influenza when their mothers are vaccinated against the virus during pregnancy, a U.S. study confirms. Doctors recommend flu vaccinations for pregnant women because the virus is linked to complications like preterm births, and because it helps protect babies from catching the flu before they’re able to get vaccinated at six months of age. (Rapaport, 5/3)

Reuters: Lower Odds Of Lung Cancer Surgery For Blacks In Segregated Neighborhoods
African American lung cancer patients who live in segregated, low-income neighborhoods are less likely than their peers in more affluent communities to get surgery that can add years to their lives, a U.S. study suggests. Compared to black patients living in the least segregated areas, residents of the most segregated communities were at least 60 percent less likely to receive surgery for non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form. (Rapaport, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: The FDA’s Vaporous Thinking About E-Cigs
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday finally released its regulations on electronic cigarettes. The rules, intended to sharply restrict the use of e-cigarettes—which deliver nicotine via a propylene glycol and/or glycerin-based smokeless aerosol—were immediately lauded by many health groups. But these new FDA regulations will actually protect tobacco-cigarette sales at the expense of the public’s health. They will also destroy thousands of small businesses and effectively hand the e-cigarette market over to a small number of large companies, including the tobacco companies. (Michael B. Siegel, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Why The FDA’s New E-Cigarette Regulations Are A Gift To Big Tobacco (And Could Actually Harm Public Health)
Today the Food and Drug Administration finalized regulations asserting regulatory authority over e-cigarettes and various tobacco products, such as cigars. According to the agency, this rule will help protect public health. Insofar as the rule subjects actual tobacco products to the same regulations as cigarettes, this might be so. But the part of the rule that “deems” e-cigarettes to be tobacco products and subjects them to extensive regulatory requirements is more likely to harm public health than to help it. Big Tobacco, meanwhile, is likely to be pleased with the new regulations. (Jonathan H. Adler, 5/5)

USA Today: FDA Takes E-Cigs Out Of 'Wild West': Our View
E-cigarettes could turn out to be either a savior that helps addicted smokers quit or a lure that hooks a whole new generation on nicotine. While science tries to decode those conflicting signals, the federal government took the responsible step Thursday to regulate electronic cigarettes in a way that tries to head off the worst outcome while still allowing potential benefits of vaping to emerge. (5/5)

USA Today: FDA Went Way Too Far On E-Cigarettes: Opposing View
The FDA wasn’t wrong to regulate e-cigarettes. It was wrong to effectively ban, by its own estimate, up to 98.5% of the e-cigarettes on the market today. E-cigarettes, Public Health England says, are about 95% less harmful than smoking, are not a gateway to smoking, and could help smokers quit. (Jeff Stier, 5/5)

Bloomberg: Ban E-Cigarette Ads Everywhere
It may come as a disappointment to Europeans who enjoy watching the Marlboro man ride on the open plain (update: He now appears to be a woman, and uses a helicopter), but it’s terrific news for Europe’s health: Within a few weeks, ads for electronic cigarettes will go dark on European TV, radio and websites, and will disappear from most print publications. (5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: What If The Next President Cuts Off Obamacare Subsidies For Insurers?
Humana’s announcement Wednesday that it is considering raising premiums and changing or eliminating plans makes it only the latest insurer to say it might scale back involvement on the Affordable Care Act exchanges next year. Here’s the $9 billion question those insurers that remain on the ACA marketplaces ought to consider: What happens if Donald Trump is elected–and cuts off their access to Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies? (Chris Jacobs, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Would A President Trump Stick To His Promise Not To Cut Medicare?
No one honestly knows what presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will say about healthcare policy—or anything else—during the general election campaign, and no one can confidently predict what health policies he would pursue as president. It's likely that Trump himself doesn't know, given his frequent reversals on issues such as taxes, abortion, and the minimum wage. (Harris Meyer, 5/5)

Huffington Post: More Red States Embrace Obamacare, As Long As You Don’t Call It That
Presidential candidates and other national politicians throw around a lot of rhetoric about health care reform, but the real action is happening in conservative state legislatures across the country. Red state governors and lawmakers are deciding what health care for low-income people and those with disabilities delivered through Medicaid, the joint federal-state health benefit program, will look like in the post-Obamacare era. (Jeffrey Young, 5/4)

The Charlotte Observer: Obamacare Is Flawed, But There Is A Solution
Why, in the age of the Affordable Care Act, would a large, respected group of physicians develop A Physicians’ Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform? On Thursday, this document was released by a panel at the National Press Club and published online in the American Journal of Public Health. (Jessica Saxe, 5/5)

U.S. News & World Report: The New Health Care Rationing
The Affordable Care Act recently passed its sixth birthday, and while voting for it contributed to my 2010 loss, I could not be prouder to see it increase access to care and patient choice while lowering overall costs. Before the health care law, insurance company bureaucrats, rather than doctors and patients, made too many health care decisions. Thanks to the law, insurance coverage restrictions based on preexisting conditions have gone the way of the dodo bird. Yet, when it comes to prescription drugs, the health insurance industry has evolved a new way of rationing health care. Advancements in specialty drugs have the potential to significantly improve the lives of patients suffering from serious, chronic and life-threatening conditions – from cancer to heart disease to rheumatoid arthritis. But, because these new pharmaceuticals often come from the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology, utilizing complex formulas made from living organisms, they are bound to be more expensive. So, many insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, protective of their bottom line, are finding ways to restrict coverage despite the drugs' effectiveness. (Dan Maffei, 5/5)

Health Affairs: Twenty-First Century Medicaid: The Final Managed Care Rule
The modern contours of a 21st century regulatory framework finally came into full view on April 25 with the release of a 1,425-page final rule that will guide the delivery of health care for tens of millions of children and adults. All insurance regulation is important given the population health and welfare considerations at stake in modern health care financing structures. But nothing quite rivals Medicaid managed care in terms of the complexity involved in delivering and paying for health care for the poorest populations, who face particularly high health risks. As such, the importance of the Medicaid managed care rule for coverage, access, quality, efficiency, and value hardly can be overstated. (Sara Rosenbaum, 5/5)

The Washington Post: The FDA Sets A New Course To Save Lives From Opioid Addiction
More details about Prince’s final days are emerging to the effect that the legendary pop star may have been addicted to prescription opioid painkillers at the time of his death in April. Officials have not yet confirmed that such medications caused Prince’s death; the drugs may have had nothing to do with it. If, however, Prince was killed by an overdose, there would, sadly, be nothing unusual about it. Death from prescription opioids is an everyday occurrence in the United States; as a matter of fact, in 2014 it occurred about 52 times per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (5/5)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 'Check The Box' Mentality Is Obstacle To Rural Health Care
Missouri’s public policy of “banning the box” as a way to remove obstacles for ex-offenders as they attempt to re-enter society has fallen on deaf ears at the Missouri Board of Healing Arts. In a March 28 order denying reinstatement of Dr. Rajitha Johnson’s medical license, the board isolated their denial on her past white-collar guilty pleas from 2002 and 2009. The board ignored almost everything else in her multivolume, 4-inch-thick license application and filed documentary record. It closed its eyes to the detailed evidence of her background, education, medical career, work history, and social, religious and volunteer work, both before and after her convictions. This attested to her medical skills and compassion, her rehabilitation, her value to the community and her good moral character. (Mike Dandino, 5/6)

The Miami Herald: Alzheimer’s Disease Is No Laughing Matter
Over the past few years, I’ve met nearly a dozen metro Atlantans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia in older adults. In all that time, I have yet to meet even one or a loved one who found the debilitating disease funny. So like so many others, I was shocked when I read last week that Will Ferrell even considered accepting a role in a comedy project about Ronald Reagan’s second term in the mid-1980s, when he is thought to have begun showing symptoms of the disease that in 2004 killed him. (Gracie Bonds Staples, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Will Hospitals Reject California's Assisted Suicide Law?
Medical leaders at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena voted behind closed doors this week for the facility's hundreds of doctors and affiliated personnel to opt out of California's assisted suicide law, which goes into effect June 9. If the proposed amendment to the hospital's medical rules is approved by the board of directors this month, Huntington will become one of the largest non-religious medical institutions statewide to turn its back on a law that Gov. Jerry Brown called "a comfort" to anyone "dying in prolonged and excruciating pain." (David Lazarus, 5/6)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: When Talcum Powder Can Make You Rich, It's Time To Reassess Our Litigation Mania
I read a piece earlier this week in The Plain Dealer which gives new meaning to the expression "keep your powder dry." A jury in a Missouri state court ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay a defendant $55 million dollars because the jury was convinced that the company's talcum powder caused her ovarian cancer. Earlier this year, another Missouri jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million under similar circumstances. (Michael Kirsch, 5/6)

The Kansas City Star: Gov. Sam Brownback’s Shameful Attack On Planned Parenthood
As usual, the sun rose in the East this week. And, par for the course, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration again tried to unfairly punish Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The governor carried out his threat to cut off Medicaid reimbursements to the group, which immediately and properly filed a lawsuit challenging that pitiful decision. (5/5)

Lexington Herald Leader: Kentucky Needs A Better-Educated Nursing Workforce
It is clear that nursing will long remain a high demand career choice. The Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to rank nursing as one of the top two job growth areas. The registered nurse workforce is expected to grow from 2.71 million in 2012 to 3.24 million in 2022, cited by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The public seems well versed in this high-demand workforce need as evidenced by our large pool of undergraduate students declaring nursing as an intended college major. (Marcia J. Hern and Velinda J. Block, 5/5)