The Associated Press: AP-NORC Poll: Democrats Are Trusted More On Health Care
Americans are giving Democrats a clear edge on health care as the 2020 presidential race gears up, according to a new poll that also finds many Republicans backing one of their competitors' top ideas: a government insurance plan people can buy into. But support for the plan that has attracted the most attention, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All," is concentrated mostly among Democrats. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Fingerhut, 4/26)

The Hill: Americans Trust Dems More On Health Care: Poll
Americans are open to the government taking primary responsibility for providing health insurance, with 57 percent of those surveyed saying they believe the federal government is responsible for making sure all Americans have health care coverage. Forty-one percent said the opposite, according to the poll. Among those surveyed, 42 percent said they support a single-payer system like the one touted by progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); 31 percent of those polled, meanwhile, expressed opposition to such a plan while one-quarter said they were undecided. The results broke down along partisan lines, according to the AP. (Axelrod, 4/26)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Follies On Immigration, Health Care
[Trump's] not protecting health coverage for patients with pre-existing medical conditions. The Trump administration instead is pressing in court for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act — including provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions from health insurance discrimination. Trump and other Republicans say they'll have a plan to preserve those safeguards, but the White House has provided no details. (4/28)

Bloomberg: How Obamacare Lives On, Despite Trump's Best Efforts: QuickTake 
The U.S. health-care law known as Obamacare turns 10 next year but still finds itself at existential risk both politically and legally. Millions of Americans owe their health coverage to the law enacted under President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats, even as opponents have successfully trimmed its scope. It remains a target for elimination by the Republican Party and Obama’s successor, President Donald Trump, who calls it "really bad health care." (Kapur, 4/29)

CQ: Administration Appeals Ruling Against Key Flank Of Health Plan
The Department of Labor will appeal a D.C. District Court decision invalidating a Trump administration rule to expand association health plans, which don’t have to comply with all of the 2010 health care law’s regulations. The administration, which had nearly another month to declare its next steps, filed a brief motion with the court Friday. (McIntire, 4/26)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Tax Credit Cuts Will Make Obamacare Plans More Expensive For Many
But in 2020, a new rule for the ACA marketplace will reduce tax credits for 7.3 million people — a majority of those who receive them — resulting in higher premiums, analysts estimate. And 70,000 more people are expected to be pushed out of the marketplace when they are unable to afford the higher premiums, by the government’s own estimate. (Gantz, 4/29)

The New York Times: Trump Repeats A False Claim That Doctors ‘Execute’ Newborns
President Trump revived on Saturday night what is fast becoming a standard, and inaccurate, refrain about doctors “executing babies.” During a more than hourlong speech at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Trump admonished the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, for vetoing a Republican bill that could send doctors to prison for life if they fail to give medical care to children born alive after a failed abortion attempt. The comments are the latest in a long string of incendiary statements from the president on abortion. (Cameron, 4/28)

The New York Times: Kansas Constitution Protects Abortion Rights, State Supreme Court Rules
The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday blocked a law that would have banned the most commonly used procedure for second-trimester abortions, arguing that the state Constitution protected the right of women to “decide whether to continue a pregnancy.” The court sided in a 6-1 majority with the plaintiffs in the case, two physicians who performed the procedure, in a sweeping ruling that opens the door for abortion rights activists to challenge a series of other restrictions that the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature has enacted. (Tavernise and Robertson, 4/26)

Reuters: Top Kansas Court Rules State Constitution Protects Abortion Rights
The ruling would protect the right to abortion in Kansas even if the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognized a right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution. Rulings by state appeals courts on state constitutional issues are not normally subject to U.S. Supreme Court review. The state's constitution protects "the right to control one's own body, to assert bodily integrity, and to exercise self-determination," wrote the court. (4/26)

KCUR: Kansas Supreme Court: The State Constitution Protects Abortion Rights
Friday’s 87-page decision will turbo-charge efforts among conservatives in the Kansas Legislature to ban abortion in the constitution. That amendment would require support from two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate, followed by an OK from the state’s voters. House speaker Ron Ryckman said the court flouted the “moral beliefs our state was founded upon.” (Margolies and Llopis-Jepsen, 4/26)

And in other family planning news —

The Star Tribune: Trump Clinic-Funding Rule Divides Minnesota Facilities 
Opponents of the new rules say the outcome of the cases could affect access to basic health care for millions of low-income patients, including 53,000 in Minnesota. Alissa Light, board president of the state-based Reproductive Health Alliance, said the proposed changes to Title X would lead to an “astronomical reduction to basic health care,” especially in rural areas. Thirty-one providers in Minnesota, including 17 Planned Parenthood clinics, could lose funding under the rule. Three-quarters of the centers are located in greater Minnesota. (Van Oot, 4/29)

Politico: McConnell Plan To Hike Smoking Age Could Be Win For Tobacco Companies
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s push to raise the legal smoking age to 21 sounds like a victory for public health. But anti-tobacco advocates fear McConnell and the tobacco industry may use the bill to block other, more proven measures to reduce youth smoking. McConnell pledged last week to introduce legislation to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21, calling it a "top priority" when the Senate returns from recess in late April. The move quickly drew surprising enthusiasm from cigarette and vaping manufacturers, who pledged to throw their considerable weight behind his initiative. (Rayasam, Pradhan and Owermohle, 4/28)

The New York Times: In Washington, Juul Vows To Curb Youth Vaping. Its Lobbying In States Runs Counter To That Pledge.
For months, Juul Labs has had a clear, unwavering message for officials in Washington: The e-cigarette giant is committed to doing all it can to keep its hugely popular vaping products away from teenagers. But here in Columbia, the South Carolina capital, and in statehouses and city halls across the country, a vast, new army of Juul lobbyists is aggressively pushing measures that undermine that pledge. (Kaplan, 4/28)

The New York Times: Guantanamo Bay As Nursing Home: Military Envisions Hospice Care As Terrorism Suspects Age
Nobody has a dementia diagnosis yet, but the first hip and knee replacements are on the horizon. So are wheelchair ramps, sleep apnea breathing masks, grab bars on cell walls and, perhaps, dialysis. Hospice care is on the agenda. More than 17 years after choosing the American military base in Cuba as “the least worst place” to incarcerate prisoners from the battlefield in Afghanistan, after years of impassioned debates over the rights of the detainees and whether the prison could close, the Pentagon is now planning for terrorism suspects still held in the facility to grow old and die at Guantánamo Bay. (Rosenberg, 4/27)

Meanwhile, in other news —

ProPublica: Sailors Report Enduring Concerns About Navy Readiness And Leadership
One officer in the 2nd Fleet lamented that there was still not consistent training to enable men and women to master the wide variety of steering systems in place on the fleet’s ships. A sailor on a 7th Fleet aircraft carrier worried that the widespread problem of sleep deprivation was leading to profound mental health issues, with some sailors being placed on suicide watch. (Tsutsumi, 4/29)

Reuters: Trump Tells Americans: Go Get Your Measles Vaccination
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged Americans to protect themselves with the measles vaccination as the number of cases of the once-eradicated disease in the United States hit the highest levels since 2000. The growing outbreak in pockets across the country has triggered multiple public health efforts seeking to limit exposure to measles, including quarantines at two California universities. (Heavey and Mason, 4/26)

Stat: Trump, Once A Vaccine Skeptic, Changes His Tune Amid Measles Outbreaks
As measles outbreaks rage in a number of states across the country, President Trump urged families to vaccinate their children on Friday. “They have to get the shots. The vaccinations are so important,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House. “This is really going around now. They have to get their shots. ”The endorsement of vaccination from a previously vaccine-questioning president comes as a bit of a surprise. Before winning the presidency, Trump several times alleged there was a link between the number of vaccines children get in early infancy and the development of autism. (Branswell, 4/26)

The New York Times: More Than 700 At 2 California Universities Under Quarantine Amid Measles Outbreak
More than 700 students and staff members at two California universities were under quarantine on Friday — an increase of about 400 from the day before — as officials continued steps to curb the potential spread of measles after an outbreak was declared in Los Angeles County. The two universities — the University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles — have been working with county health officials to identify and contact students and employees who may have been exposed to measles this month. (Mele, 4/26)

The Washington Post: UCLA, Cal State LA Measles Quarantine Issued For Hundreds Of Students And Staff
The University of California at Los Angeles also warned students and staff of potential exposure, saying Thursday that a student infected with measles attended classes at two campus buildings on April 2, 4 and 9. He did not enter any other buildings while on campus, but the school determined that more than 500 students and staff may have been exposed or come into contact with the sick student. The school said that one student was still quarantined on campus on Friday, with “fewer than 50 students and faculty members” asked to stay at their off-campus residences because they have not yet confirmed their immunizations. (Brice-Saddler, 4/26)

Sacramento Bee: How Many Children Are Unvaccinated In Sacramento Schools?
A rise in measles cases has California lawmakers considering a bill that would constrain doctors from granting medical exemptions for vaccines to children without approval from a state department. The bill’s supporters want to limit pockets around California where vaccination rates in schools have dropped below 95 percent, a threshold that can compromise so-called “herd immunity.” (Finch II and Wiley, 4/26)

Sacramento Bee: Measles: Here’s The Latest On The Status Of The CA Outbreak
Nearly 700 students and staff at UCLA and Cal State LA remain in quarantine Saturday after the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warned they may have been exposed to measles. The quarantine comes amidst the largest nationwide measles outbreak since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. President Donald Trump told White House reporters Friday that Americans “have to get their shots” and that vaccinations are “so important.” (Jasper, 4/27)

The New York Times: Religious Objections To The Measles Vaccine? Get The Shots, Faith Leaders Say
The measles outbreak in the United States is now the largest since the disease was declared eliminated here 19 years ago. The return of this scourge has been driven by one factor in particular: misinformation, spread by vaccine critics, that scares parents into not immunizing their children. Along with rumors that vaccines cause autism or that the trace amounts of mercury and aluminum in them are dangerous — falsehoods that were long ago debunked — have come innuendos aimed at deeply religious parents. (McNeil, 4/26)

Reuters: U.S. Measles Outbreak Raises Questions About Immunity In Adults
Adults in the United States who were vaccinated against measles decades ago may need a new dose depending on when they received the shot and their exposure risk, according to public health experts battling the nation’s largest outbreak since the virus was deemed eliminated in 2000. Up to 10 percent of the 695 confirmed measles cases in the current outbreak occurred in people who received one or two doses of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Steenhuysen, 4/28)

NPR: As Measles Cases Climb, Doctors Say Some Adults Need A Booster Shot
Measles is on the rise again, all around the globe. Though the number of people affected in the U.S. is still relatively low compared with the countries hardest hit, there are a record number of U.S. measles cases — the highest since the disease was eliminated in the U.S. back in 2000. Measles has been documented in more than a third of states, with large outbreaks in New York and Washington. (Aubrey, 4/29)

NPR: How 'Brady Bunch' Measles Episode Is Fueling Campaigns Against Vaccines
As the number of measles cases nationwide rises to levels not seen since before the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, some people who oppose vaccines cite an odd cultural reference as evidence that the concern about measles is overblown: a 1969 episode of The Brady Bunch. Some former Brady Bunch cast members aren't happy about it. (Hogan, 4/28)

The Hill: Colorado Governor Says He Won't Sign Bill That Aims To Increase Vaccination Rates Without Key Changes 
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said this week that he won’t sign a bill that aims to increase childhood vaccination rates by decreasing non-medical vaccine exemptions without seeing some changes to the legislation. The Colorado House bill would require parents who wish to have their children exempted from mandatory vaccines for non-medical reasons submit a form in-person to the state or local heath department, Colorado Public Radio (CPR) reported Friday. Forms are currently submitted directly to a school. (Gstalter, 4/27)

Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislators Call For More Vaccine Transparency Amid National Measles Outbreaks
Senate Bill 329 from state Sen. Kel Seliger would allow parents to access more detailed information for each school. It would include information such as the exemption rates broken down by vaccine type, the number of students who have “conscientious exemptions” — vaccine exemptions for personal or religious beliefs — and the number of students who have medical exemptions signed by doctors. The Amarillo Republican said the bill isn’t meant to impact the decisions of individual families and whether they should vaccinate their children. (Byrne and Cheng, 4/27)

The Oregonian: Controversial Bill To Require Thousands More Oregon Kids To Get Vaccinated Gets 2nd OK 
Thirteen members of the Oregon Legislature voted in committee Friday to end non-medical exemptions from Oregon’s vaccination laws, making it likely that thousands of parents will have to get their children vaccinated or withdraw them from school or day care by August 1, 2020. The measure, House Bill 3063A, passed the Joint Committee on Ways & Means 13-7. It was also approved 7-4 in the House Health Care committee in March and now heads to the House for a likely floor vote next week. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said this week she will sign the bill if it reaches her desk. (Hammond, 4/26)

The Hill: Crowdfunding Site Indiegogo To Ban Anti-Vaccine Fundraisers 
The crowdfunding website Indiegogo is banning anti-vaccine fundraisers and other health fundraisers that aren't backed by science, the company said Friday, according to BuzzFeed News. A spokesperson for the company added that the ban has not yet been implemented and did not a provide a timeline for implementation, BuzzFeed News reported.  (Burke, 4/28)

The New York Times: Why Your Doctor’s White Coat Can Be A Threat To Your Health
A recent study of patients at 10 academic hospitals in the United States found that just over half care about what their doctors wear, most of them preferring the traditional white coat. Some doctors prefer the white coat, too, viewing it as a defining symbol of the profession. What many might not realize, though, is that health care workers’ attire — including that seemingly “clean” white coat that many prefer — can harbor dangerous bacteria and pathogens. (Frakt, 4/29)

NPR: 3D Mammography Creates More Precise Images To Detect Breast Cancer
When women get a mammogram they may be offered one of two types. The older type of mammogram takes a single straightforward X-ray image of the breast. The newer 3D takes pictures from many angles. Now, more evidence shows that 3D mammography offers a more thorough picture of breast tissue and is more accurate. When Mary Hu, an administrator in communications with Yale School of Medicine, went to get a mammogram two years ago, she didn't even know she was getting 3D mammography, also called digital breast tomosynthesis. But she's glad that's what she got. (Neighmond, 4/28)

The Washington Post: A Surprising Number Of Children Are Accidentally Poisoned. Simple Steps Can Prevent That.
It only took a few seconds. During a family trip, a woman took out an Ambien and put the prescription sleep aid on her bathroom counter. Then, she turned to grab a bottle of water. In an instant, her toddler grandson grabbed the pill and ate it. “She was standing right there, not even moving away, just reaching with her hands,” says Maneesha Agarwal, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, who treated the child in the ER. “It was that fast.” (Sohn, 4/28)

NPR: To Feel Better Now, Act With Compassion For Someone Else
For most of his career, Dr. Stephen Trzeciak was not a big believer in the "touchy-feely" side of medicine. As a specialist in intensive care and chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, N.J., Trzeciak felt most at home in the hard sciences. Then his new boss, Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli, came to him with a problem: Recent studies had shown an epidemic of burnout among health care providers. As co-president of Cooper, Mazzarelli was in charge of a major medical system and needed to find ways to improve patient care. (Ritchie, 4/26)

The Wall Street Journal: The FDA Says It’s Safe, So Feel Free To Say ‘Yes’ To MSG
When restaurants across America put signs in their windows vowing never to use your company’s flagship product, you might have a problem. That realization has dawned on Ajinomoto Co. AJINY 1.99% of Tokyo, founded more than a century ago to make the seasoning monosodium glutamate, or MSG. The company is in the middle of a $10 million, three-year campaign to persuade Americans that MSG is safe--and maybe even good for you, if it helps you eat less salt. (Davis, 4/27)

The New York Times: Ageism: A ‘Prevalent And Insidious’ Health Threat
It happened about a year ago. I stepped off the subway and spotted an ad on the station wall for a food delivery service. It read: “When you want a whole cake to yourself because you’re turning 30, which is basically 50, which is basically dead.” After a bunch of us squawked about the ad on social media, the company apologized for what it called attempted humor and what I’d call ageism. Maybe you recall another media campaign last fall intended to encourage young people’s participation in the midterm elections. In pursuit of this laudable goal, marketers invoked every negative stereotype of old people — selfish, addled, unconcerned about the future — to scare their juniors into voting. (Span, 4/26)

NPR: How Palliative Care Can Help Seriously Ill Patients Live And Die Well
"He will not die on your watch." That's what the family of a patient told Sunita Puri when she was a resident in internal medicine. They were chilling words for the young doctor as she took over the care of a very sick man on the overnight shift. To Puri, the patient, who had widespread metastatic liver cancer, appeared to be dying. She tried to talk with the family about forgoing heroic measures, to let him have peace in his last hours. But they were adamant. (Wroth, 4/25)

The Wall Street Journal: The New Strategies For Raising A Boy
It’s a challenging time to parent a boy. Moms and dads worry about everything from hypermasculine cultural stereotypes to how to talk about sex in the #MeToo era. A new book, “How to Raise a Boy: The Power of Connection to Build Good Men,” suggests there’s good reason for concern. Author Michael C. Reichert cites research showing that boys seek help from health care or school staff at rates nearly twice those of girls; they lag behind girls in social and behavioral skills; and they are the primary recipients of disciplinary sanctions and medication prescriptions. (Bernstein, 4/29)

The New York Times: Lego Is Making Braille Bricks. They May Give Blind Literacy A Needed Lift.
When Carlton Cook Walker’s young daughter developed health problems that led to near-total blindness, she knew she wanted her to learn Braille. But the family’s school, in rural central Pennsylvania, was resistant. A teacher pointed out that the girl, then in preschool, could still read print — as long as it was in 72-point type and held inches from her face. “I said, ‘What about when she is in high school? How will she read Dickens like this?’” recalled Ms. Cook Walker, whose daughter, Anna, is now 18. “The teacher’s response was chilling: ‘Oh, she’ll just use audio.’” (Mervosh, 4/27)

The Washington Post: If Allergies And Air At Home Bother You, Here's What To Do
When spring arrives, it’s a joy to open your windows and feel the fresh air. All too soon it will be summer and we’ll shut ourselves in again. This ritual raises a question: Which is healthier — outdoor air or indoor air? They’re related, of course. The air inside our homes originates from outside and can carry pollen or pollutants, such as those produced by combustion engines. Indoor sources might add to the mix with tobacco smoke, cooking, mold spores, dust and pet dander. (Adams, 4/27)

The Wall Street Journal: NIH Blocks Two Doctors From Speaking Out To Investigators
The National Institutes of Health, the U.S. government’s premier health research agency, is refusing to allow two of its doctors to respond to government investigators looking into the quality of a continuing clinical trial of new blood-infection treatments on thousands of patients, according to NIH documents and multiple interviews. The resulting tensions within the NIH have pitted the office of the agency’s director, Francis Collins, against an internal NIH committee of 24 scientists, who are raising questions over the freedom researchers are afforded to critique the work of colleagues. (Burton, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Did You Take Your Medicine? Abilify MyCite Could Help Doctors Track Patients' Medication -- Or Frighten Them.
When the Food and Drug Administration approved in late 2017 a schizophrenia pill that sends a signal to a patient’s doctor when ingested, it was seen not only as a major step forward for the disease but as a new frontier of Internet-connected medicine. Patients who have schizophrenia often stop taking their medicine, triggering psychotic episodes that can have severe consequences. So the pill, a 16-year-old medication combined with a tiny microchip, would help doctors intervene before a patient went dangerously off course. (Rowland, 4/28)

In other health and technology news —

The New York Times: Chasing Growth, A Women’s Health Start-Up Cut Corners
When Matt Cronin worked in customer service at Nurx, a San Francisco start-up that sells prescription drugs online, one of his jobs was to manage the office’s inventory of birth control pills. The pills were kept in the pockets of a shoe organizer hanging inside a closet, Mr. Cronin said. They had been shipped to Nurx customers from its partner pharmacies, but ended up at the office when they bounced back in the mail. His supervisors regularly assigned him to mail those same medications to different Nurx customers who had not received their pills, he said. (Riski, Singer and Thomas, 4/26)

The New York Times: Virtual Reality As Therapy For Pain
I was packing up at the end of a family vacation in Florida when my back went into an excruciating spasm unrelieved by a fistful of pain medication. As my twin sons, then 8 years old, wheeled me through the airport, one of them suggested, “Mom, if you think about something else, it won’t hurt so much.” At the time, I failed to appreciate the wisdom of his advice. Now, four decades later, a sophisticated distraction technique is being used to help patients of all ages cope with pain, both acute and chronic. (Brody, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Cancer-Drug Giant Roche Loses Edge As Rivals Grow
Many pharmaceutical companies expect cancer treatments to drive growth in the coming years. One notable exception: the world’s largest cancer-drug maker. Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG has enjoyed almost two decades as an unrivaled force in oncology. Now, with more companies piling into the space and its top-selling drugs losing sales to lower-cost copies, that is about to change. (Roland, 4/28)

Stat: Eisai To Open A Dementia-Focused Incubator In Cambridge, Mass. 
The Japanese pharma company Eisai is  doubling down on its efforts to find new dementia drugs — and opening a new dementia-focused startup incubator. The company is creating the incubator as part of its plan to move its Massachusetts-based research staff from Andover, Mass., to Cambridge, Mass., on May 20. As in Andover, the staff at the Cambridge facility will focus on finding new drugs targeting inflammation in the brain; some studies have shown a link between inflammation and dementia. (Sheridan, 4/26)

Stat: FBI Heard Allegations Of Improper Billing, Physician Relationships At UBiome
The FBI has heard allegations about practices at UBiome, a startup which sells tests for the microbiome, involving improperly changing billing codes that are used in how its tests get reimbursed by insurers, a person familiar with the matter told STAT. The FBI has also been told allegations that physicians who order UBiome’s tests for customers via a telemedicine service have been compensated in a way that may run afoul of law dictating how physicians may make referrals and get paid, that person said. (Robbins, 4/26)

Bloomberg: Opioid Court Case: Still No Verdict 
It’s been almost three weeks since a Boston jury began deliberating in the racketeering trial of Insys Therapeutics Inc. executives over the promotion of their opioid drug, with nary a peep from the panel. In that time a defense lawyer has grown almost a full beard, one of the defendants says she’s out of money and can’t afford to stay near the courthouse anymore, and observers are left speculating about what’s going on in the jury room high above Boston Harbor. (Lawrence, 4/28)

The Boston Globe: Construction Industry To Workers Battling Addiction: ‘We Want To Help’
As soaring numbers of construction workers battle addiction, building trades leaders in Boston are launching a conference this week intended to do just that: show contractors and union members how they can help those who are hooked on drugs and alcohol. (Hilliard, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Hospital's Replacement Opens Amid Scandal Over Doc, Dosages
An Ohio health system is opening a new hospital in suburban Columbus as it deals with a scandal involving a doctor accused of ordering excessive painkiller doses for dozens of patients who died. The 210-bed Mount Carmel Grove City hospital opens Sunday. Mount Carmel Health System is moving inpatient services and hundreds of employees to the $361 million facility from Mount Carmel West, the flagship hospital it's closing in the lower-income Franklinton neighborhood. (4/27)

NH Times Union: Beyond The Stigma: New Program Helps Nurses Struggling With Addiction 
For the past 17 years, nursing has been ranked the most honest and ethical profession in an annual Gallup survey. But what happens when a nurse loses that trust because of substance abuse? In New Hampshire, a new program encourages nurses to self-report if they are impaired by alcohol or drug abuse. When they do, they’ll be referred to treatment, and their recovery will be monitored even after they return to duty. Proponents say it’s a way to protect patient safety, help nurses struggling with addiction and retain talented professionals in the face of a critical nursing shortage. (Wickham, 4/27)

Sacramento Bee: UC Davis Professor Close To Human Trials Of Nonaddictive Pain Drug
UC Davis Professor Bruce Hammock has spent a 50-year career studying insects. He probably wouldn’t be the Ph.D. considered most likely to shake up the multibillion-dollar prescription painkiller market. Nonetheless, he has developed a medication for chronic pain that he said has proved both effective and non-addictive in animal trials. (Anderson, 4/29)

Modern Healthcare: Operating Margins Stabilize, But Not-For-Profit Hospitals Still Vulnerable
Not-for-profit and public hospitals' revenue growth has edged ahead of expense inflation for the first time since 2015, according to a new report. Median annual revenue growth rose to 5.1% while expense growth dropped to 5% in 2018, new preliminary data on 150 hospitals from Moody's Investors Service show. Although hospitals were able to meaningfully reduce their expense growth rate from 7.1% in 2016 to 5.7% in 2017, that didn't keep up with revenue growth's decline from 6.1% to 4.6%. (Kacik, 4/26)

Modern Healthcare: CMS To Use Mandatory Models ‘Very Judiciously,' Official Says
The CMS will only use mandatory payment models when the agency feels it can't get enough participation or have adverse selection for voluntary models, a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation official said on Friday. The remarks from deputy director Amy Bossano during the National Association of ACOs spring conference in Baltimore comes a day after CMS Administrator Seema Verma hinted that some upcoming models will be mandatory. (King, 4/26)

Modern Healthcare: HHS To Cap HIPAA Fines Based On 'Culpability'
HHS updated the maximum it will penalize providers, health plans and their business associates in the wake of HIPAA violations, in some cases dropping the upper limit by more than $1 million. The new system sets annual limits for these fines based on the organization's "level of culpability" associated with the HIPAA violation, according to the department's notice of enforcement discretion released late Friday. That means organizations that have taken measures to meet HIPAA's requirements will face a much smaller maximum penalty than those who are found neglectful. (Cohen, 4/26)

Modern Healthcare: Physician Practices Increasingly Turn To Private Equity For Capital
Private-equity firms are accelerating their investments into physician practices, and expanding their portfolios into new specialty areas, such as orthopedics, urology and gastroenterology. As physician groups look to expand to serve additional patients, recruit more physicians or demand higher payment, they need funding to fuel that growth. Private equity is competing with hospital systems and large physician organizations, such as UnitedHealth Group's OptumCare, for a share of ownership. (LaMantia, 4/26)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Shareholders Ax Supermajority Voting Rule
HCA Healthcare's shareholders officially axed the hospital chain's supermajority voting requirement at its annual meeting Friday. For-profit HCA's board now only needs 'yes' votes from a majority of the owners of the company's outstanding shares—previously 75%—to change the company's bylaws or provisions of its articles of incorporation, including its purpose, board size and shareholders' rights. (Bannow, 4/26)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Republicans OK Banning Medicaid Money For Transgender Surgery
Republican lawmakers at the Iowa Capitol have passed legislation that would prohibit using public insurance dollars, including Medicaid, to pay for transgender surgery. The Republican-controlled House voted for the proposal Saturday afternoon, one day after the GOP-majority Senate advanced it. No Democrat voted for the plan, which now requires approval from Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds to become law. The restrictions would go into effect immediately if enacted. (Leys and Rodriguez, 4/26)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Grady Clinic Could Be Model For Georgia Medicaid Waiver
Clark entered a program that Grady invented in 2017 to lower its emergency room costs by diverting some of its most frequent ER visitors into a specialized clinic. Grady leaders believe their program could be replicated across the state, and possibly across the country, to cover more patients at a lower cost. ...As Gov. Brian Kemp explores options for a limited expansion of Medicaid in Georgia, Grady’s program could provide one way to bring more federal health care dollars into the state to cover more people in a cost-efficient way. (Hart, 4/26)

The Associated Press: Wisconsin Republicans Seek Compromise On Medicaid Expansion
Wisconsin Republicans open to a possible compromise with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Medicaid expansion are looking at ways to accept the federal funding while not appearing to cave in on the issue, even as GOP leaders remain steadfastly opposed. Evers is also publicly refusing to bend from his full expansion proposal, despite its near-certain demise in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Chatter about finding a compromise is giving a thin thread of hope to those who have pushed for years to take the money and use it for a host of health-care initiatives. (Bauer, 4/29)

Arkansas Online: Suit Targets Medicaid Payment Delays; Class-Action Status Sought For Providers Of Health Care To 40,000 Arkansans
A Benton attorney is seeking class-action status in a lawsuit over delayed payments to health care providers -- delays that resulted from the shift to managed care on March 1 for about 40,000 Medicaid recipients with significant mental illness or developmental disabilities. In the lawsuit, Luther Sutter has asked Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen to order the state to freeze further payments to the managed-care companies until providers are paid what they are owed. (Davis, 4/28)

Meanwhile —

CQ: Funding Crisis Looms For Promising Mental Health Clinics
The promise of higher federal Medicaid payments is giving eight states the chance to show that one-stop mental health clinics with 24-hour crisis care could offer patients a better option than the de facto safety net of police departments and emergency rooms.  But the two-year experiment is drawing to a close now, leaving the program with an uncertain future if Congress doesn’t extend it. (Siddons, 4/29)

The Associated Press: Chief Of Maryland Medical System Resigns Amid Scandal
The president and CEO of a major medical system in Maryland resigned Friday following revelations of numerous questionable financial arrangements involving board members, including Baltimore's embattled mayor. Robert Chrencik had led the University of Maryland Medical System since 2008 before being sent on a leave of absence in late March. He departed on the requested leave amid embarrassing allegations of "self-dealing" involving members of the $4 billion hospital system's volunteer board. (4/26)

The Washington Post: California Seeks Lessons From Florida For Fire Evacuations
With Hurricane Michael strengthening as it took aim at Florida’s Panhandle, Mark Bowen and his employees watched the live footage through tears. They weren’t looking at increasingly dire storm forecasts last October. They were watching cameras trained on rural Bay County’s three main evacuation routes leading away from sugar-white beaches. Traffic was flowing smoothly when there should have been gridlock. (Kay and Elias, 4/27)

The Wall Street Journal: PG&E’s Radical Plan To Prevent Wildfires: Shut Down The Power Grid
PG&E Corp. can’t prevent its power lines from sparking the kinds of wildfires that have killed scores of Californians. So instead, it plans to pull the plug on a giant swath of the state’s population. No U.S. utility has ever blacked out so many people on purpose. PG&E says it could knock out power to as much as an eighth of the state’s population for as long as five days when dangerously high winds arise. Communities likely to get shut off worry PG&E will put people in danger, especially the sick and elderly, and cause financial losses with slim hope of compensation. (Gold and Blunt, 4/27)

NH Times Union: NH Hospitals Keeping Close Eye On 'Superfungus'
Hospital officials in New Hampshire are monitoring a drug-resistant species of fungus that has made national headlines recently. Candida auris causes infections that can lead to death, particularly in hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems. More than one in three patients with invasive C. auris infections that affect the blood, heart, or brain die. (Haas, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Catholic Group Sues Over Michigan Policy On Adoption
A Roman Catholic social services agency that declines to place children with same-sex couples has filed a lawsuit to stop Michigan from penalizing the group if it sticks to its policy on foster care and adoption. Catholic Charities West Michigan in Grand Rapids filed the lawsuit Thursday. The group says Michigan law allows it to practice its religion by turning down same-sex couples. But the group says services will be threatened by a recent change at the Department of Health and Human Services. (4/26)

Kaiser Health News: Will Ties To A Catholic Hospital System Tie Doctors’ Hands?
As Catholic health care systems across the country expand, the University of California’s flagship San Francisco hospital has become the latest arena for an emotional debate: Should the famously progressive medical center increase its treatment space by joining forces with a Catholic-run system that restricts care according to religious doctrine? At issue is a proposal that UCSF Medical Center affiliate with Dignity Health, a massive Catholic health care system that, like other Catholic chains, is bound by ethical and religious directives from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (Gold, 4/29)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: How Many Worker Deaths Have There Been In The Last Year? No Agency Has The Answer.
PhilaPOSH gets data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but the federal agency covers only private-sector employees, leaving out public-sector workers, independent contractors, and anyone else engaged in a more informal work arrangement. That’s especially concerning in a time when an estimated one in five jobs in the United States is held by a worker under contract. (Feliciano Reyes, 4/26)

WBUR: A Workable Alternative To Nursing Homes In Vermont — Adult Family Care
As baby boomers age and the workforce shrinks, there may not be enough people or money to care for all our elders, especially those with medical needs. In many ways, that reality has already arrived in Vermont. A small but growing number of Vermont families are easing the burden by opening their homes to elderly strangers who need a lot of care. (Corwin, 4/27)

Seattle Times: Closure Of High-Tech Medical Firm Arivale Stuns Patients: ‘I Feel As If One Of My Arms Was Cut Off’
Co-founded in 2014 by genomics pioneer Leroy Hood, [genetics-focused health-care startup] Arivale was touted as the latest thing in what Hood called “scientific wellness”: using genetic and other high-tech diagnostics to help patients boost their health and minimize their risk of future disease by making data-driven, personalized adjustments to diets and other lifestyle factors. (Roberts, 4/26)

Kansas City Star: Brain Fungus Death Sign Of Bigger Problems In Kansas Prisons
The Star’s analysis of Corizon’s performance documents from July 2015 through December 2018 — hundreds of pages of raw data obtained through open records requests — found that almost a third of the time the company fell short of contract requirements for treating inmates who said they were sick. (Marso, 4/28)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Foster-Care Suit Will Proceed As Class-Action Litigation
A lawsuit that argues Arizona's child-welfare system has failed children in foster care will proceed as a class-action matter, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday. The decision has major implications for the thousands of children currently in the custody of the state Department of Child Safety, as well as future foster children. (Pitzl, 4/26)

Seattle Times: Net Neutrality Crucial For Modern Health Care, Cantwell And DelBene Argue 
Two members of Washington’s congressional delegation, along with a Democratic commissioner from the Federal Communications Commission, visited Harborview Medical Center on Friday to demonstrate why having unfettered internet access is as important to doctors as the utilities that make a hospital function. Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Suzan DelBene, both Democrats with backgrounds in the tech industry, were there to advocate for net neutrality — a set of regulations that requires internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all websites equally rather than creating fast lanes for those that can afford to pay for them. (Blethen, 4/27)

Arizona Republic: Court: Judges Can Require Treatment For Transgender Kids In Arizona
Arizona judges can require parents to provide counseling, therapy and other expert help to children who may be transgender, even if one parent doesn't support treatment, the state's highest court ruled Thursday. But the courts can only intervene when a child would be "at risk for physical danger or significantly impaired emotionally" without access to those services — a higher standard than the "best interest" test often used in family-court cases. (Polletta, 4/26)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Jail To Build New Medical Ward In $89M Expansion
Sacramento County’s jail is set for a major expansion, as its Elk Grove facility adds an $89.3 million medical and mental health ward to accommodate the increase in inmates diverted from state prisons to county jails in recent years. On Tuesday, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors authorized the county to start receiving bids for the seven-building, 86,000-square-foot project next to the existing Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center. (Yoon-Hendricks, 4/26)

Kaiser Health News: Hurricane Maria’s Legacy: Thousands Of Puerto Rican Students Show PTSD Symptoms
Food shortages, damaged homes, fear of death, loved ones leaving. The cumulative stresses of Hurricane Maria contributed to thousands of schoolchildren developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in Puerto Rico, according to a study published Friday. The study in JAMA Network Open found that 7.2% of the students reported “clinically significant” symptoms of PTSD. More girls tended to show signs of PTSD than boys. Researchers surveyed 96,108 public school students five to nine months after the 2017 hurricane. The cohort included youth in third through 12th grades across different regions of the island. (Heredia Rodriguez, 4/26)

The Associated Press: Company Seeks $1.2 Million Grant For New Medical Facility
A privately run health care company is seeking more than $1 million in state taxpayer money to redevelop a former hospital campus in southern Delaware. The state Council on Development Finance meets Monday to consider a request by Nationwide Healthcare Services for a Strategic Fund grant of about $1.2 million. The grant would be used to build a new “wellness village,” including a 150-bed skilled nursing center, on the site of the old Milford Memorial hospital. (4/29)

The New York Times: Universal Health Care Might Cost You Less Than You Think
As the national debate about health care kicks off ahead of the 2020 presidential election, we’re going to be hearing a lot about the costs of increasingly popular progressive proposals to provide universal health care, like Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All plan. One common refrain on the right and the center-left alike: Since the rich can’t foot the bill alone, are middle- and working-class supporters of a more socialized health care system really ready to pay as much for it as people do in some of the high-tax nations that have one? The problem is, we already do, and we often pay more. (Matt Bruenig, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare Is Popular Because It Failed 
ObamaCare is finally popular with the American people according to a variety of polls, and it’s instructive to understand why. The doing is Donald Trump’s and the Republicans’, and not in a way that made ObamaCare a sensible program. Thanks to their effective repeal of the individual mandate, nobody is forced any longer to buy ObamaCare or pay a tax penalty. ObamaCare’s user cohort now consists almost entirely of willing “buyers” who receive their coverage entirely or largely at taxpayer expense. It also consists of certain users who take advantage of the coverage for pre-existing conditions and stop paying once their condition has been treated. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., 4/26)

The Hill: Direct Care Plans Could Alleviate Problem Of High Deductible Plans — If Congress Would Fix The Law
Often, the most effective way to make a point is to tell a story. And that’s what NPR does in its new report on high-deductible health policies (HDHPs) that are keeping too many Americans out of their doctors’ offices. Susan, who carries a gene that makes her predisposed to breast cancer, has one of those policies. The deductible of $6,000 meant that when she got her first MRI and a mammogram to screen for breast cancer, she paid $3,800 out of her own pocket. It cost so much in 2017 that she was forced to delay her screening in 2018. (David Balat, 4/27)

The Hill: Applause For The CDC Opioid Guideline Authors
For several years, we have been a nation focused on prescription opioid reduction. In recognition of data showing steep increases in overdose rates and the need to advise prescribing clinicians, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. This week, the CDC published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" a key clarification of the 2016 opioid prescribing guideline. The clarification acknowledges that misapplications of the guideline and efforts to de-prescribe opioids and reduce addiction and other health risks for some Americans has backfired for many and exposed them to newer and possibly graver health risks. (Beth Darnall, 4/26)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Fighting The Opioid Epidemic With Care And Data
Tapering an addictive drug takes time and there are a host of interacting factors to consider, yet as the statistics prove, the intense focus produced a real difference. This effort is not the federal government deciding what is best for patients. Rather, the federal government is acting as a responsible employer by caring about its workforce and ensuring that employees are getting the treatment and support needed for what can be a challenging recovery. (Alexander Acosta, 4/26)

Stat: Fairness In Liver Transplants Can Be A Constitutional Issue
Liver failure is a terrible way to die: a painful belly full of fluid, vomiting blood, mental confusion, and repeated hospitalizations. The only cure is liver transplantation but, as is the case for all types of transplants, there aren’t nearly enough donor livers to go around. This shortage raises two important questions: Who should receive a transplant? And what rights do transplant candidates have? Choosing who gets a transplant is among the most charged and challenging tasks of modern medicine. (Elliot Tapper and Michael Volk, 4/29)

The Hill: Nurses Aren't Sitting Around Playing Cards, They're Working To Fix Global Health 
Washington State Republican Sen. Maureen Walsh’s recent comment  that nurses “working at hospitals in rural regions probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day” is offensive to nurses regardless of nursing role or practice setting. (Colleen Chierici and Janice Phillips, 4/28)

The New York Times: How To Make Doctors Think About Death 
My patient, an octogenarian with pneumonia and acute leukemia, was too frail to tolerate the standard treatment for his cancer, and trying to cure his pneumonia with intravenous antibiotics, when the leukemia had already compromised his immune system, would only have weakened him further. It made sense to switch him to “comfort measures”: to focus on alleviating his suffering rather than curing him. It would also make sense to have general treatment guidelines for situations like this, guidelines to indicate when comfort, not cure, is most appropriate. But no such guidelines exist. (Theresa Brown, 4/27)

The Washington Post: ‘I Want Out Of This Body’: I Can’t Move, Talk Or Breathe On My Own. But I’m Still In There Thinking, Remembering My Old Life.
What is it like to be locked into your body, to be alive but not living? I’m dying — fast. My lungs are at 20 percent of vital capacity and it’s a matter of time before the nerves supplying my breathing muscles degenerate. I have a rapid form of ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Two years ago, I was running around with my kids, hiking with my wife. All that is over. My body no longer moves. I cannot talk — my only voice is the one in my head, telling me over and over that I am going to die. Soon. I can’t even breathe for myself anymore — I am tethered to a ventilator that breathes for me. (Rahul Desikan, 4/28)

The New York Times: The Empty Promise Of Suicide Prevention
If suicide is preventable, why are so many people dying from it? Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, and suicide rates just keep rising. A few years ago, I treated a patient, a flight attendant, whose brother had brought her in to the psychiatric crisis unit after noticing her unusual behavior at a wedding. After the ceremony, she quietly handed out gifts and heartfelt letters to her family members. When her brother took her home, he noticed many of her furnishings and paintings were missing. In her bathroom he found three unopened bottles of prescription sleep medication. (Amy Barnhorst, 4/26)

Los Angeles Times: We Went Back One Last Time After The Camp Fire. We'll Never Call It Home Again
In mid-April I found myself once more driving a U-Haul pickup truck from my former home on the Paradise ridge to our new digs in Sacramento. Like so many sites overwhelmed by the Camp fire in November, our place in Magalia is a pile of rubble. My wife and I went back one last time, before the bulldozer came, to see what we might gather that we'd overlooked on other visits during which we had grieved and paid respects to the little house we lived in for nearly two decades. (Jaime O'Neill, 4/29)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ga.’s Proposed Abortion Ban Puts Women, Doctors At Great Risk
The extremist groups and politicians behind HB 481 have made no secret of the fact that their core objective is to ban all abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. They are wielding political power and financial clout to prop up support for their unpopular agenda and reassert control over women’s bodies. This amounts to a direct attack on Roe v. Wade, as state after state enacts an ever-increasing number of restrictions on a woman’s right to have access to safe and legal abortion. (Allison Stouffer Kopp and Toni Van Pelt, 4/27)

Los Angeles Times: Palisades High Students Chronicle ‘An Epidemic Level’ Of Young People Dying From Gun Violence
They were killed by acquaintances, by enemies, by accident. Some were riding their bikes, some were running for cover, some didn’t see the bullets coming. In a single year, nearly 1,200 Americans 18 and younger were victims of gun violence. The carnage has become so numbingly commonplace that most victims perish without much notice, and our collective silence is broken only by the next hail of gunfire. (Steve Lopez, 4/27)

Los Angeles Times: USC’s Doctor Scandal Awoke A Horrific Memory. Now Nicole Haynes Fights For The Truth
Nicole Haynes, a USC champion heptathlete, remembers the one time in her Trojans track career when everything slowed down. She had signed into the Engemann Student Health Center because she was suffering severe stomach pains along with vomiting and diarrhea. She was ushered to an examining table, where her legs were immediately placed in stirrups. (Bill Plaschke, 4/27)