The Hill: Iowa To Sell Health Plans That Can Disqualify People Based On Pre-Existing Conditions 
New health plans sold through Iowa’s Farm Bureau will be able to ask applicants if they have any pre-existing conditions. According to a checklist posted online by the Farm Bureau, applicants will be asked about a list of conditions related to mental health, blood pressure, reproductive system, lungs or the respiratory system, among others. (Weixel, 10/4)

Modern Healthcare: GOP Senators Scrutinize CBO's New Health Insurance Simulation Model 
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have pressed the Congressional Budget Office to release details of the forthcoming new health insurance simulation model. In pointed language, the letter led by committee Chair Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) suggested that the CBO should test its model with a do-over of the original estimate of the federal spending and health insurance coverage for the Affordable Care Act "to determine whether the agency's estimate would have been closer to the actual, observed amounts since (the ACA's) enactment." (Luthi, 10/4)

In other health law news —

Denver Post: Colorado 2019 Health Insurance Plans, Premiums Increase Modestly
A year after many Coloradans saw massive hikes in individual heath insurance premiums on the state exchange, people can expect much more modest increases to their premiums this time around — with some even seeing significant savings. The Colorado Division of Insurance released its long-awaited 2019 health insurance plans and premiums Thursday, approving 5.6-percent average increases in premiums for individual plans. That’s slightly lower than the 5.94-percent increase requested by insurance companies — and significantly lower than last year’s 32.2-percent average spike in premiums. (Tabachnik, 10/4)

Arizona Republic: Health Insurance: Bright, Oscar, Cigna Enter Arizona ACA Marketplace
Maricopa and Pima county residents will have more choices of Affordable Care Act health-insurance plans for 2019, though fewer federal dollars will be available to help people enroll in them. Open enrollment for 2019 plans starts Nov. 1 and ends Dec 15. (Innes, 10/4)

Nashville Tennessean: Does The U.S. Have ‘Free Market’ Health Care?
Americans have been debating health care for decades. As costs have continued to skyrocket for individuals, employers and the federal government, consumer frustration has also risen. The U.S. health care system is often characterized by opaque pricing, varying levels of quality and inefficiencies that make getting care confusing for patients and providers alike. (Tolbert, 10/4)

Politico: 'It Was Not Real Insurance'
Republican businessman Mike Braun says he wants all Americans to have health insurance just like his own workers — a pillar of his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in Indiana’s exceedingly tight Senate race. Braun boasts that his prowess at cutting deals with health insurers at his auto parts and shipping company means he could “walk into that Senate and probably know more about what to do than anybody that’s there.” But while he may have kept premiums stable for a decade for his roughly 900 workers, deductibles are sky-high — meaning big out-of-pocket costs for anyone who gets sick. (Ollstein, 10/5)

More elections news comes out of Florida and Nevada —

The Associated Press: Questions Of Conflict Mount Over Florida Governor’s Finances
During his nearly eight years in office, [Fla. Gov. Rick] Scott was required to file forms disclosing his investments. Now that he is running for U.S. Senate, however, his wife is also required to reveal her own investments — and they seem to mirror those in Scott’s trust. ... The documents also show that Scott’s investment portfolio has at times included holdings in companies with ties to Florida’s government, including a fund tied to the state’s largest public utility; a credit fund run by the parent company of a high-speed rail line being built in the state; a company that provides drugs to the state’s Medicaid patients and a company that donated land to a new state university. Some of the exact amounts aren’t known because they are reported in ranges, but the investments have varied in size from tens of thousands of dollars to at least $1 million. (Fineout, 10/4)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Targets Dean Heller On Kavanaugh Comments In Ad 
Planned Parenthood's political arm is targeting vulnerable GOP Sen. Dean Heller on comments he made about the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. A six-figure digital ad buy focuses on Heller reportedly saying the nomination had run into a "hiccup" following Christine Blasey Ford's allegations against Kavanaugh. (Hellmann, 10/4)

The Associated Press: Congress OKs Opioid Legislation In Show Of Bipartisanship
Setting aside the Supreme Court fight, members of Congress this week approved bipartisan legislation aimed at curbing the devastating opioid addiction across the country. But the Support for Patients and Communities Act, which President Donald Trump said he would sign into law, has political implications. It includes contributions from at least 70 lawmakers, some of whom face tough re-election campaigns in November. The measure, which the Senate passed 98-1 on Wednesday and the House approved 393-8 on Sept. 28, ensures incumbents have something positive to campaign on in the final weeks before the election. (Beam, 10/4)

Kaiser Health News: Congress Targets Misuse Of Hospice Drugs
Hospice workers would be allowed to destroy patients’ unneeded opioids, reducing the risk that families misuse them, according to one little-noticed provision in the bipartisan opioids bill headed to President Donald Trump’s desk for his likely signature. The bill would empower hospice staff to destroy opioid medications that are expired, no longer needed by the patient because of a change in treatment or left over after the patient dies. (Bailey, 10/4)

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Some Things Old, Some Things New
Congress passed major health-related legislation in time for the fiscal year, which began Monday, including a broad bill to address the opioid epidemic and a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. This marks the first time since the 1990s that Congress has agreed to HHS spending levels before the start of the fiscal year. (10/4)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘We Don’t All Hate Each Other’: Senate’s Bipartisanship Obscured By Kavanaugh Fight
The intense partisanship engulfing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has diverted attention from a raft of recent bipartisanship in the Senate during the past few weeks, drowning out issues that could appeal to voters in the midterms. ... Also on Wednesday, the Senate advanced an opioid bill to President Trump’s desk by a vote of 98-1. That bill includes several changes to Medicare and state Medicaid programs, such as requiring Medicare to cover services provided by certified opioid treatment programs. (Jamerson, 10/4)

News on the opioid crisis comes out of Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania —

Modern Healthcare: Blue Cross Of Mass. Giving Opioid Overdose Reversal Kits To Employers
Massachusetts has been hard hit by the opioid epidemic. The state saw 1,909 opioid-related deaths last year, and another 657 deaths in the first six months of 2018. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams in April urged more Americans to keep naloxone on hand. ...Because of their propensity to suffer on-the-job injuries that lead to opioid prescriptions, construction and extraction workers comprise 24% of opioid-related deaths among the state's working population, according to an August report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Allison Gifford, a spokeswoman for Shawmut Construction, wrote in an email that the company does not have an issue with opioid abuse and has never had an overdose on site. (Bannow, 10/4)

The New York Times: An Infant Is Dead, Her Twin Is Injured, And Their Mother Is In Police Custody
Child welfare workers were asked to visit a modest home in Queens a year ago to check on a mother with five young children, because she had just given birth to fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, who had opioids in their systems. On Wednesday night, the police were called to the same single-family house to deal with a far graver situation. The 13-month-old girl was found dead and showed signs of physical trauma, and her brother, also injured, was clinging to life. (Stewart and Wolfe, 10/4)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Alert Issued After Spike In Overdose Activity The Last Week
The Hamilton County Heroin Coalition has issued an alert warning of a surge of overdoses in the area in the past week. The coroner noted that nine deaths in the last seven days were likely from overdose, and health officials said hospital emergency department visits for suspected overdose were at 11 per day. (Brookbank and DeMio, 10/4)

Philly Inquirer: Declaring A Disaster In Opioid-Plagued Kensington, Philadelphia Officials Announce A New Rescue Plan
In Kensington, the epicenter of Philadelphia's opioid crisis, one thing is clear, city officials said Wednesday: What they're doing to fix this devastated community isn't nearly enough. So on Wednesday, Mayor Kenney declared a disaster in the neighborhood and ordered up a new approach: an emergency operations center, away from City Hall, where staffers from relevant agencies will huddle together and figure out new solutions. The concept is to lower traditional bureaucratic walls in hopes of spurring innovative action, not just reaction. (Whelan, 10/3)

The Wall Street Journal: MiMedx Kept Cheaper Products Out Of Its Offerings To VA Hospitals
The MiMedx Group, a maker of amniotic-tissue products, is a major supplier to government-run hospitals and says its products help heal wounded service members and veterans. But an examination of the embattled company’s dealings with Veterans Affairs hospitals and those run by the Defense Department shows that MiMedx’s sales to these entities came at a high cost to taxpayers. According to former employees and company product lists, MiMedx limited the range of products it offered to federal buyers, forcing the government to buy more expensive products than it needed for some very common treatments. (Morgenson, 10/5)

In other veterans' health care news —

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland VA Medical Center Under Review For Cancellation Of Patients' Tests
The Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center is among several Veterans Affairs hospitals in the country that are under review for claims they are improperly canceling a large number of patients' diagnostic tests. About 300,000 canceled radiology tests at VA medical centers across the United States since 2016 has raised questions about whether some medically important tests were canceled improperly, according to USA Today. (Washington, 10/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration To Step Up Oversight Of Hospital Watchdogs
The Trump administration announced increased oversight of organizations that accredit and inspect most U.S. hospitals, following a report last year in The Wall Street Journal focusing on problem-plagued facilities that kept their accreditation status. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which grants accrediting authority, said it will change the way it measures the performance of accrediting organizations in a pilot project and will provide the public with new information about accreditors’ and hospitals’ performance. (Armour, 10/4)

Modern Healthcare: Mandated Nurse-To-Patient Ratios Spark High Costs, Few Savings
Implementing mandated nurse-to-patient staffing ratios would cost Massachusetts providers an estimated $676 million to $949 million a year, net relatively minimal savings and have an insignificant impact on quality, according to a new analysis from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. Massachusetts voters will determine whether the November ballot proposal on mandating registered nurse staffing ratios will go into effect on Jan. 1. Hospitals would have to add 2,286 to 3,101 full-time registered nurses, pay them 4% to 6% more as demand increases and develop a patient acuity tool to ensure appropriate staffing levels, the commission said. (Kacik, 10/4)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Bon Secours And VCU To Collaborate On Children's Services, New Outpatient Facility
Bon Secours Richmond Health System and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU announced Wednesday a new collaborative approach to children’s health care services. Through the partnership, both systems will remain independent but will pool resources and share an outpatient medical office building for pediatric care. (Balch, 10/4)

Reuters: E-Cigarette Maker Juul Files Complaints Against 'Copycat Products'
Juul Labs, the e-cigarette maker at the heart of a U.S. crackdown on youth vaping, has filed patent infringement complaints in the United States and Europe against what it said were copycat rivals. The complaints follow the seizure this week by U.S. health regulators of more than 1,000 pages of documents from Juul Labs about its sales and marketing practices, as they investigate growing e-cigarette use among young people that threatens to create a new generation of nicotine addicts. (Geller, 10/4)

CNBC: Juul Asks Regulators To Stop Companies Selling Lookalike E-Cigarettes
This is Juul's latest attempt to control a proliferation of lookalike products that have entered the market since it launched its e-cigarette 2015. In August, Juul filed trademark lawsuits against 30 Chinese companies for selling counterfeit products on eBay. The move comes as Juul tries to convince regulators it can control the surge in teens using its products. Food and Drug Administration officials recently seized more than 1,000 pages of documents in a surprise inspection of e-cigarette maker Juul's San Francisco headquarters. The agency has also ordered Juul and four other e-cigarette manufacturers submit plans within 60 days to control youth use. (LaVito, 10/4)

Meanwhile —

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Enforcement, Regulatory Gaps Hamper Crackdowns On Youth Vaping
The FDA recently cited over 1,300 retailers across the country for selling vaping products to minors, including two in southeast Georgia. A few weeks ago, the FDA required all e-cigarette retailers to include a health warning label on vaping products that describe the addictive qualities of nicotine, similar to warnings that have been required on cigarette packs for years. (Elias, 10/4)

KCUR: Timeline: Abortion Restrictions In Missouri On A Possible Path To The U.S. Supreme Court 
A federal appeals court ruling in Missouri earlier this week significantly escalated the legal battle over abortion rights, reduced the number of clinics performing surgical abortions in the state to one – in St. Louis – and may be the decision that puts abortion rights back in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, where Brett Kavanaugh may or may not be among the sitting justices. The latest development in ongoing litigation over the state’s requirements for surgical abortions came on Sept. 10, when the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis allowed two restrictions to take effect. (Margolies, 10/4)

The Associated Press: Ruling Strikes Down Parts Of St. Louis 'Abortion Ordinance'
A federal judge has ruled that some provisions of a St. Louis ordinance banning discrimination based on reproductive health decisions violate the U.S. Constitution and Missouri law. A lawsuit questioned the city's 2017 ordinance that bars employers from hiring or firing workers based on whether they have had an abortion, been pregnant outside marriage, or used contraceptives or artificial insemination. Landlords also can't refuse tenants based on those criteria. (Salter, 10/4)

In other news on women's health —

Politico: Democrats, Rights Groups Urge State Dept. To Bring Back Reports On Women's Reproductive Rights
House Democrats and civil society organizations are urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reconsider the State Department’s exclusion of reproductive rights from its annual human rights reports. Their letters noted that since 2011 these country-specific reports have included detailed information about women’s access to contraception and abortion across the world. (Sadiq, 10/4)

The Baltimore Sun: As Pregnancy-Related Deaths Rise In Maryland And The U.S., Local Groups Focus On Maternal Health 
An ensemble of nurses and therapists at Baltimore Healthy Start Inc. are trying to prevent moms from dying. The East Baltimore nonprofit holds “belly buddy” classes that teach meditation, needlework and scrap-booking to ease stress. Nurses make home visits to check on moms’ well-being. Transportation and daycare are provided so pregnant women can get to checkups. Several weeks after delivery, moms are offered gift cards as an incentive to come back to the doctor’s office. Complications can take moms by surprise weeks after delivery. (McDaniels, 10/4)

The New York Times: Daily Baby Aspirin May Lower Ovarian Cancer Risk
Taking low-dose aspirin is a daily routine for many people because it may lower the risk for heart attacks and strokes, and some research has tied it to a lower risk of colorectal cancer. Now a new study in JAMA Oncology suggests it may lower the risk for ovarian cancer as well. Researchers followed more than 200,000 women for more than 25 years, recording data on lifestyle, health factors and disease outcomes and updating information with periodic interviews. (Bakalar, 10/4)

CNN: Daily Low-Dose Aspirin May Lower Risk Of Ovarian Cancer
The study highlights two important caveats. Daily use of standard-dose aspirin (325 milligrams) does not reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, and heavy use of nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, may increase the risk, suggests the study, published Thursday in the medical journal JAMA Oncology. Another potential limitation: The result was found only in women who had been using low-dose aspirin for less than a year. (Scutti, 10/4)

Bloomberg: These MacArthur Fellows Are Trying To Fix American Health Care
When Amy Finkelstein received an email from the foundation, she thought it was about someone she had recommended for the award. Turns out, she had won. ...Finkelstein, 44, wants to improve health care, which makes up 18 percent of the U.S. economy, by eliminating systemic waste. The award offers the opportunity to experiment with new ideas or theories in a way that isn’t always possible with typical research grants, she said. (Pickert, 10/4)

Los Angeles Times: How Does The Brain See? MacArthur Fellow Doris Tsao Says The Answer Will Reveal How The Brain Works
That question is at the heart of Doris Tsao’s research. The Caltech visual neuroscientist uses brain imaging technology, electrical recording techniques and mathematical modeling in her search for answers. That quest got a boost Thursday as Tsao was named to the 2018 class of MacArthur fellows. (Healy, 10/4)

WBUR: A Global Health Evangelist Is Shocked To Hear He's A 'Genius'
Gonsalves is one of this year's MacArthur "geniuses." The award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation comes with a $625,000 no-strings-attached stipend. Gonsalves says he was shocked to learn that he's getting this award. (Beaubien, 10/4)

Stat: Flu Season Likely To Stretch Longer In Big Cities Than Elsewhere, Study Says
The length of the flu season may vary depending on where you live, with large cities enduring longer periods of transmission and smaller cities experiencing shorter, but more explosive, spread, a new study suggests. The study doesn’t assert that one’s risk of contracting influenza varies depending on the size of any given community. Rather, it argues that in less populous places, flu needs the right atmospheric conditions to spread effectively. (Branswell, 10/4)

The New York Times: How Special Education Is Failing T.J. And Many Children Like Him
By the time T.J. was about 2½-years-old, it was clear to his mother that he was already behind. His twin brother was speaking in full sentences. T.J. couldn’t say a word. “When you have twins,” she said, “you realize if there are some delays.” So T.J.’s mother, Kerrin, called the pediatrician and asked what she could do. (T.J. and his family members are being identified by their middle names or initials to protect his privacy.) (Harris, 10/5)

NPR: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help Survivors Of Sexual Assault Heal
The wrenching testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault years ago, raises questions about the long-term emotional and physical toll this kind of trauma takes on survivors and how our society responds to those who come forward long after the assault. Emily R. Dworkin, a senior fellow at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, studies how the social interactions of trauma survivors can affect their recovery. (Fulton, 10/4)

The New York Times: Deep In Human DNA, A Gift From The Neanderthals
People of Asian and European descent — almost anyone with origins outside of Africa — have inherited a sliver of DNA from some unusual ancestors: the Neanderthals. These genes are the result of repeated interbreeding long ago between Neanderthals and modern humans. But why are those genes still there 40,000 years after Neanderthals became extinct? (Zimmer, 10/4)

The Associated Press: HIV-Positive Mother Donates Liver To Critically Ill Child
Doctors in South Africa say they transplanted part of a liver from a mother with HIV to her critically ill but HIV-negative child, concluding that the chance to save a life outweighed the risk of virus transmission. The mother and the child recovered after the 2017 transplant, though it is not yet known whether the child has the virus that causes AIDS, according to the team from the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg. (10/4)

Kaiser Health News: Managing Your Mental Health While Managing A Newsroom’s Social Media
Like many people in society today, we know we spend too much time online — but as social media managers it is our job to be there. Social media managers, a position that was unheard of a decade ago, experience tremendous stress. Social media can be a toxic place — especially for those of us who work in that space. Angry users on social seem to forget that a human being is behind the brand’s account they are screaming at or the story they are criticizing. (Giles, 10/5)

California Healthline: Dirty Air And Disasters Sending Kids To The ER For Asthma
Children in some California counties visited emergency rooms for asthma at nearly twice the statewide rate, according to the latest data — a phenomenon that experts blame largely on dangerous air pollution. While children in some of these counties struggle with consistent, long-term exposure to bad air, experts also point to the effects of environmental disasters, such as wildfires and the spread of toxic dust from a dying lake. (Rowan, 10/4)

The Associated Press: Scientists: US Military Program Could Be Seen As Bioweapon
A research arm of the U.S. military is exploring the possibility of deploying insects to make plants more resilient by altering their genes. Some experts say the work may be seen as a potential biological weapon. (Choi and Borenstein, 10/4)

The Washington Post: The Pentagon Is Studying An Insect Army To Defend Crops. Critics Fear A Bioweapon.
The program, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has a warm and fuzzy name: “Insect Allies.” But some critics find the whole thing creepy. A team of skeptical scientists and legal scholars published an article in the journal Science on Thursday arguing that the Insect Allies program opens a “Pandora’s box" and involves technology that “may be widely perceived as an effort to develop biological agents for hostile purposes and their means of delivery.” A website created by the critics puts their objection more bluntly: “The DARPA program is easily weaponized.” (Achenbach, 10/4)

Stateline: How To Boost Vaccine Rates For Low-Income Families 
A new five-state project funded by the federal government aims to improve vaccination rates among low-income children and pregnant women, using statewide registries intended to track the immunization histories of all residents. The hope is that new ways of collecting and analyzing data identified during the project eventually will spread to all states. The $880,000, three-year U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention effort in Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, Montana and New Mexico faces numerous obstacles, including privacy and technological issues. (Ollove, 10/5)

The Associated Press: Dialysis Clinic Arrives In Puerto Rico A Year After Maria
A mobile dialysis unit long sought by patients suffering kidney failure on the tiny Puerto Rican island of Vieques has arrived more than a year after Hurricane Maria. Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Thursday that the $3 million unit bought by the U.S. government will be set up at a shelter serving as a makeshift emergency clinic. (10/4)

The CT Mirror: CVS, Aetna Urge Connecticut Regulators To Approve Proposed Acquisition
The Connecticut Insurance Department now has 30 days to decide whether to approve CVS Health Corp.’s acquisition of Hartford-based Aetna Inc. – a merger the companies say will drive down health care costs and opponents portray as anti-competitive and harmful to patients. (Rigg, 10/4)

Columbus Dispatch: OhioHealth To Drop Anthem Medicare Plan From Its Network
OhioHealth is dropping an Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicare plan from its network on Jan. 1, affecting about 11,000 patients. The decision means those patients will no longer be covered for non-emergency services provided by OhioHealth hospitals, doctors and other OhioHealth operations. Emergency services still will be covered. (Williams, 10/4)

KQED: Lawsuit: Systemic Racism Tainted S.F. Drug Stings That Targeted Only Black Suspects
Racism drove a series of undercover drug stings in San Francisco four years ago, resulting in indictments for more than three dozen black suspects, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Northern California chapter. The sprawling complaint filed on behalf of six people arrested in the joint federal/SFPD operations in 2013 and 2014 cites official reports, academic research and news articles going back over a decade that document severe racial disparities in the city's arrest rates, as well as multiple high-profile scandals. (Emslie, 10/4)

The Associated Press: Utah Vet Confessed To Sending Ricin Envelopes, Officials Say
A Utah Navy veteran confessed to sending four envelopes containing the substance from which ricin is derived to President Donald Trump and members of his administration, authorities said in court documents. (10/4)

The Associated Press: Mormon Church Backs Deal To Allow Medical Marijuana In Utah
The Mormon church joined lawmakers, the governor and advocates to back a deal Thursday that would legalize medical marijuana in conservative Utah after months of fierce debate. The compromise comes as people prepare to vote in November on an insurgent medical marijuana ballot initiative that held its ground despite opposition from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Whitehurst, 10/4)

The Star Tribune: Demand For Campus Child Care In Minnesota Spurs Outcry From Parents
The University of St. Thomas is closing its campus child-care center to make space for a new student wellness facility — a decision that comes after intense soul-searching at the University of Minnesota over the future of its Child Development Center. A group of parents and others are rallying to ward off the slated June 2019 closure of the St. Thomas center, which they say comes amid a shortage of high-quality child-care options in the Twin Cities. (Koumpilova, 10/4)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: DeKalb Ambulance Service May Be Replaced
The situation has drawn attention to a broader issue: holding emergency medical transportation services accountable. Critics say Georgia has a flawed system in which regional councils oversee ambulance providers but can struggle to hold them to their commitments even when there are chronic public safety concerns. (Berard, 10/4)

The Associated Press: Arizona Company Recalls Beef That's Sickened 57 People In US
An Arizona company voluntarily recalled more than 6.5 million pounds (2.9 kilograms) of beef that could be contaminated with salmonella, federal officials announced Thursday. An investigation found the products, including ground beef and beef patties likely came from JBS Tolleson Inc., a meat packing plant west of Phoenix. The raw beef was packed between July 26 and Sept. 7 and shipped to retailers nationwide, including Walmart, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. (10/4)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Included In Ground Beef Recall; 57 People Sick Nationwide So Far 
More than 6.5 million pounds of raw beef have been recalled nationally because of salmonella contamination concerns, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday (Oct. 4). Some of the meat was sold in Louisiana. So far, 57 people in 16 states have gotten sick from the meat. Health officials believe raw ground beef was the probable source of the sickness. Arizona-based JBS Tolleson said it sold various raw beef items, including ground beef, that may be contaminated with salmonella. (Wells, 10/4)

Health News Florida: Judge Blocks Medical Marijuana License Process
In what could be another delay for Florida’s burgeoning medical-marijuana industry, a Tallahassee judge agreed Wednesday to block state health officials from moving forward with the application process for highly sought-after medical marijuana licenses. Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson’s verbal order during a hearing came nearly two months after he found that a state law, passed during a special legislative session last year, runs afoul of a constitutional amendment broadly legalizing medical marijuana. (Kam, 10/4)

Boston Globe: First Retail Pot Shops In Massachusetts Approved By Commission
Two years after Massachusetts voters approved legalizing marijuana, the wait for retail pot stores to open is almost over. In a historic vote on Thursday, the Cannabis Control Commission issued four final recreational marijuana licenses to two companies. (Adams, 10/4)

State House News Service: The State's First Recreational Marijuana Shops Are OK'd For Leicester And Northampton
Legal marijuana sales are "weeks away" in Massachusetts, the chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission said Thursday after regulators approved final business licenses for shops in Leicester and Northampton. The CCC on Thursday afternoon granted final business licenses for Cultivate Holdings LLC to grow between 5,001 and 10,000 square feet of marijuana, to manufacture marijuana products and to sell non-medical marijuana at 1764 Main St. in Leicester and for New England Treatment Access LLC to sell non-medical marijuana at 118 Conz St. in Northampton. (Young, 10/4)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Association Of Sexual Harassment And Sexual Assault With Midlife Women’s Mental And Physical Health
Among 304 nonsmoking midlife women recruited from the community to undergo assessment and complete questionnaires for this prospective cohort study, those with a history of workplace sexual harassment had significantly higher odds of hypertension and clinically poor sleep than women without this history, after adjusting for covariates. Women with a history of sexual assault had significantly higher odds of clinically significant depressive symptoms, anxiety, and poor sleep than women without this history, after adjusting for covariates. (Thurston et al, 10/3)

Commonwealth Fund: The Affordable Care Act’s Impact On Small Business
Small-business owners have seen significant gains in health care coverage for themselves and their employees thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Though efforts to repeal the law failed in 2017, the current administration continues to take steps that undermine the law’s progress. In recent months, new rules have been announced that allow more groups to establish association health plans and extend the length of short-term health insurance plans. These changes are likely to impact the stability of the marketplaces and coverage rates for the small-business community. (David Chase and John Arensmeyer, 10/1)

Pediatrics: Language Experience In The Second Year Of Life And Language Outcomes In Late Childhood
These data support the hypothesis that early talk and interaction, particularly during the relatively narrow developmental window of 18 to 24 months of age, can be used to predict school-age language and cognitive outcomes. With these findings, we underscore the need for effective early intervention programs that support parents in creating an optimal early language learning environment in the home. (Gilkerson, 10/1)

The Pew Charitable Trusts: Enhanced Patient Matching Is Critical To Achieving Full Promise Of Digital Health Records
The way patients receive medical care has drastically changed over the past decade as most hospitals and doctors’ offices have transitioned from paper charts to electronic health records (EHRs) that help clinicians order medications, document treatment decisions, and review laboratory results. These digital records can introduce numerous efficiencies and give patients and medical professionals more complete information on which to base decisions. (10/2)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: More Employers Are Paying For Telemedicine, But Enrollee Take-Up Has Been Relatively Low
Telemedicine – the delivery of health services by providers at remote locations, such as through video conferencing or remote monitoring – has been seen as a way to possibly improve access to care while also lowering costs. In our 2018 Employer Health Benefit Survey, we find that the share of large employers offering health plans that cover telemedicine has increased significantly from 2015 – 2018. In this corresponding brief, we use employer claims data to measure the uptake of these services by employees and their family members. (10/3)

Pediatrics: Transition Planning Among US Youth With And Without Special Health Care Needs
Researchers have shown that most youth with special health care needs (YSHCN) are not receiving guidance on planning for health care transition. This study examines current transition planning among US youth with and without special health care needs (SHCN). (Lebrun-Harris, 10/1)

Los Angeles Times: Breast Cancer Is Political. Tie That Up In Your Pink Ribbon
After my double mastectomy two years ago, I had to read two terrifying things: my pathology report and my hospital bill. The pathology report made me sink to the floor with despair; it noted multiple large tumors that had invaded my skin, and 15 underarm lymph nodes bursting with rapidly dividing cancer cells. I would require months of aggressive treatment. (Sascha Cohen, 10/1)

San Jose Mercury News: Why I'm Training To Be A Doctor Who Performs Abortions
In my small class of just 100 students at Stanford School of Medicine, many of my peers dream of becoming neurosurgeons. The ability to save lives from the most devastating of diseases drives them to enter the most competitive and demanding of fields. I, too, want to save lives from the devastating circumstances that unfairly befall all of us. But it is not neurosurgery that interests me. Instead, I dream of becoming something else entirely: a gynecologist providing the full spectrum of reproductive services – including abortion. (Isabel Beshar, 10/3)

The Washington Post: When Smoking Was A Feminist Act 
Over 100 years ago, a woman was detained by a police officer for smoking a cigarette. After being stopped by an officer on a bicycle on Fifth Avenue in New York City, Mrs. William P. Orr blew smoke in his face and flicked cigarette ash toward him. Her rationale: “Yes, I was smoking a cigarette and I don’t see that I was doing any harm. I have done it in many other places… I think the policeman overstepped his authority.” This incident marked the start of a century-long battle over women’s health, identity and behavior by raising the questions of who could and should smoke. (Connie Hassett-Walker, 10/3)

USA Today: Insurers Discriminate Against Mental Illness Though Parity Is The Law
You see, no one expects to develop a mental illness or substance use disorder. And no one plans for the fact that one of these conditions — which, by law, are supposed to be covered by insurance to the same extent as physical conditions — could leave their family financially crippled due to lack of insurance coverage, requiring savings accounts to be drained, college funds to be depleted, second mortgages to be taken out, and retirement plans to be sapped, all after paying into an insurance plan diligently for years. This happens to other people, right? (Patrick J. Kennedy, 10/3)

The Hill: US Insurance Regulation Is Unconstitutional
Insurance regulation in the United States differs markedly from other types of financial services regulation. While banks and securities firms must comply with extensive federal regulations, insurers are regulated primarily by the states. In practice, however, the most important and powerful entity in insurance regulation is not a state at all. In fact, it isn't even a government entity. It is, instead, a private, nonprofit corporation known as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). (Daniel Schwarcz and R.J. Lehmann, 10/2)

Los Angeles Times: Pragmatic And Focused On Consumers, Steve Poizner Is The Right Choice For Insurance Commissioner
Lots of state elected officials run for higher office, and most of them lose. Steve Poizner is one example; he served one term as the state insurance commissioner before running for governor in 2010, getting trounced by Meg Whitman in the Republican primary. But now Poizner is back, looking for another shot — not at the governor’s office, but at his old job, insurance commissioner. And in a twist, Poizner has severed his ties with the GOP and is running as an independent. Poizner says his motive isn’t to create a new party in the gaps between the Republican and Democratic machines; it’s to show would-be public servants who are turned off by the political climate in this state that there is a nonpartisan path to office. (10/3)

Stat: Precision Medicine Needs A Business Mindset In Order To Flourish 
Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, has the potential to transform how we treat — or even cure — cancer and a host of other diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. The precision approach to patient care takes into account an individual’s genes, environments, and lifestyle to deliver the right treatment at the right time. Once seen as a futuristic approach, creating personalized, FDA-approved therapies is now a reality. (Richard G. Hamermesh and Kathy E. Giusti, 10/4)

The Washington Post: Industry Has Too Much Influence In Medicine. It’s Time To End That.
José Baselga, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s chief medical officer, resigned a few weeks ago following his failure to disclose his financial connections with pharmaceutical and device companies. An exposé a week later revealed that the hospital itself may have a conflict of interest in its relations with a new start-up company. These episodes reveal how common alliances with industry are in academic medicine and how they can distort clinical decision-making. But disclosures alone cannot cure the most fundamental disorder created by these relationships. Medical-industrial bonds distort medical care itself. Such bonds have created many useful products, including diagnostic X-ray. But they have defined the choice of interventions used by entire specialties, devaluing more scientifically informed measures of clinical effectiveness and patient harm. (Barbara Bridgman Perkins, 10/4)

Stat: More Research On ‘Dying Healthy’ Will Also Help Us Live Healthier
Helping people live longer has been a central goal of medicine for decades. The quest to extend life raises an interesting question: Should we keep investing in research aimed at adding even more years to the already impressive gains in the average life expectancy that occurred during the 20th century? We can only go so far. There’s likely an unalterable biological limit to the human life span, somewhere around 115 years (though there are, of course, occasional outliers). Virtually all humans die before reaching that age, most of them before they turn 90. (George J. Annas and Sandro Galea, 10/3)

The Washington Post: Doctors Are Surprisingly Bad At Reading Lab Results. It’s Putting Us All At Risk.
The man was 66 when he came to the hospital with a serious skin infection. He had a fever and low blood pressure, as well as a headache. His doctors gave him a brain scan just to be safe. They found a very small bulge in one of his cranial arteries, which probably had nothing to do with his headache or the infection. Nevertheless, doctors ordered an angiogram to get images of brain blood vessels. This test, in which doctors insert a plastic tube into a patient’s arteries and inject dye, found no evidence of any blood vessel problems. But the dye injection caused multiple strokes, leading to permanent issues with the man’s speech and memory. (Daniel Morgan, 10/5)

Sacramento Bee: CA Election: Prop. 4 Is An Unnecessary Windfall For Hospitals
I know from personal experience the importance of children’s hospitals. Six decades ago, I had heart surgery at the best one in Illinois. It saved me from an early death. Yet I’m voting “no” on Proposition 4, the Nov. 6 measure to authorize $1.5 billion in bonds to support construction at the 11 officially designated children’s hospitals ion California – eight non-profit private hospitals and five University of California medical centers. (Elizabeth Wall Ralston, 10/3)

The Hill: Ricin Attacks Will Continue
The news that three envelopes intended for President Trump, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson triggered alarms in Washington yesterday. The envelopes — apparently sent by a former Navy sailor  — contained the toxic substance ricin, understandably causing concern. This is especially true as this is the 17-year anniversary of the anthrax attacks, which also exploited the postal system to cause harm. Though extreme concern is justified, it is important to remember that ricin — despite its lethality — is more of an assassin’s weapon than a weapon of mass destruction. (Dr. Amesh Adalja, 10/3)

Bloomberg: 2018 Chemistry Nobel: Evolution Beats Design
In the early 1990s, while creationists started touting “intelligent design theory” under the premise that evolution alone couldn’t produce the complexity of living things, a few chemists were moving in the opposite direction. They realized that designers, no matter how intelligent, were limited in producing new molecules, and thus proposed that harnessing the power of evolution might unleash vast innovation. Wonder which group was headed in the right direction? Hint: Their work led to the 2018 Nobel Prize for chemistry. (Faye Flam, 10/4)

Los Angeles Times: Mentally Ill Homeless People Won't Get Well On The Sidewalks. They Need Housing. Yes On Prop 2
Of the roughly 134,000 homeless people on the streets of California, about a third are seriously mentally ill. Their illnesses cannot be successfully treated on sidewalks. They must get housing first. That’s why the state of California wisely enacted Assembly Bill 1816 two years ago to raise $2 billion to build or preserve permanent supportive housing for homeless people suffering from mental illness. (10/2)

The New York Times: Are You A Visual Or An Auditory Learner? It Doesn’t Matter
You must read this article to understand it, but many people feel reading is not how they learn best. They would rather listen to an explanation or view a diagram. Researchers have formalized those intuitions into theories of learning styles. These theories are influential enough that many states (including New York) require future teachers to know them and to know how they might be used in the classroom. But there’s no good scientific evidence that learning styles actually exist. (Daniel T. Willingham, 10/4)