The Wall Street Journal: States Look At Establishing Their Own Health Insurance Mandates
At least nine states are considering their own versions of a requirement that residents must have health insurance, a move that could accelerate a divide between Democratic states trying to shore up the Affordable Care Act and Republican states intent on tearing it down. Congressional Republicans in December repealed the so-called individual mandate, a pillar of the ACA, as part of their tax overhaul. That cheered conservatives who say people shouldn’t be forced to buy insurance, but it has now energized liberals who say a mandate is needed to ensure coverage and keep premiums low. (Armour, 2/4)

The Hill: 9 States Considering Individual Mandate Rules: Report 
Nine states are considering laws that would require their residents to purchase health insurance, the The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The proposals come less than two months after Republicans, as part of a sweeping tax code overhaul, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance.  (Greenwood, 2/3)

Meanwhile —

The Associated Press: Record Number Enrolled Through NY Health Plan Marketplace
More New Yorkers than ever are signed up for health coverage under the state's health insurance marketplace. State health officials say 4.3 million New Yorkers are now enrolled through the marketplace following the end of open enrollment on Wednesday. That's an increase of 700,000 from 2017. (2/2)

The Associated Press: In Drug Crisis Hotbed, Hoping For Action On Trump's Words
President Donald Trump heads to Ohio on Monday to make Cincinnati-area stops focusing on the new tax overhaul — though some in a state with one of the nation's highest overdose rates would rather hear more about his plans for the drug crisis. In Newtown, outside Cincinnati, Police Chief Tom Synan said he found Trump's comments on opioids in his State of the Union address to be "much of the same. There are very convincing words and there's yet to be very convincing actions." (Sewell, 2/4)

The Hill: Heroin Task Force Presses Congress For More Funding To Fight Opioid Epidemic
The Bipartisan Heroin Task Force is calling on congressional leaders to funnel more federal dollars into combating the opioid epidemic, which now causes more deaths per year than car accidents. In October, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency — a move the administration recently extended for another 90 days. Advocates have expressed concern the declaration hasn’t had much of an impact, adding that more funding is needed for it to be effective. (Roubein, 2/2)

The Hill: Bipartisan Senate Group Opposes Cuts To Anti-Drug Office 
Senators are urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and appropriators in the upper chamber to block major changes to an anti-drug office the Trump administration is reportedly weighing. Last month, Politico reported that OMB was planning to propose moving two major grants at the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Under the plan, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and Drug-Free Communities programs would be moved to the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services, respectively. (Roubein, 2/2)

Politico: As Opioid Overdoses Rise, Colleges Supply Reversal Drug
Colleges are increasingly stocking up on an easy-to-use opioid overdose antidote as the number of incidents keeps rising with young adults among those most at risk. Opioids killed nearly 4,000 Americans ages 15 to 24 in 2016, nearly a third more than the year before. And while over 30 percent of college students said they knew someone who had overdosed on pain pills or heroin, even more — over 37 percent — reported not knowing what to do if they were present, a survey by the Hazelden Betty Ford Institute for Recovery Advocacy and The Christie Foundation found. (Sanchez, 2/2)

Stat: Pfizer Hits Another Problem Trying To Ship Opioid-Filled Syringes To Hospitals
For the third time in six months, Pfizer (PFE) is having difficulty manufacturing certain prefilled syringes of opioid painkillers — and the ongoing supply problems are upsetting hospitals around the country. The string of difficulties are all occurring at a specific plant that has recently encountered manufacturing issues, although the latest snag with the Carpuject and iSecure syringes is being traced to a component made by a supplier, according to a Jan. 31 letter that Pfizer sent to its customers. (Silverman, 2/2)

Denver Post: Methadone Clinics In Colorado Have Doubled In Three Years, But The State Is Still Short On Treatment Options
Denver Health’s narcotic treatment program now has 550 patients, double what it had three years ago. But the medical center estimates it could serve four times as many people, more than 3,000, if it had the staff and other resources to take everyone addicted to opioids who walked in from the streets, visited the main hospital or was booked in the Denver jail. It’s a similar story across Colorado, where access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction has expanded rapidly in the past few years but isn’t yet close to getting a grip on the need. Throughout the country, the epidemic has overwhelmed resources. (Brown, 2/4)

Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio Companies Look For Roles In Response To Opioid Crisis
Representatives of about 60 local businesses met last week to discuss the role of private business in confronting the lethal opioid epidemic. Drug-overdose deaths in Ohio rose 24 percent in 2016, when 4,329 Ohioans died. The state’s death rate was the second-highest in the country. (Perry, 2/4)

The New York Times: U.S. Pays Billions For ‘Assisted Living,’ But What Does It Get?
Federal investigators say they have found huge gaps in the regulation of assisted living facilities, a shortfall that they say has potentially jeopardized the care of hundreds of thousands of people served by the booming industry. The federal government lacks even basic information about the quality of assisted living services provided to low-income people on Medicaid, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, says in a report to be issued on Sunday. (Pear, 2/3)

Meanwhile, advocates say overmedication remains a major problem in nursing homes and some people worry about how the crackdown on immigration will affect care of the elderly —

The Associated Press: New Report Details Misuse Of Antipsychotics In Nursing Homes
U.S. nursing homes have significantly reduced the use of powerful antipsychotic drugs among their elderly residents, responding to pressure from many directions. Yet advocacy groups insist that overmedication remains a major problem, and want the pressure to intensify. According to the latest data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, known as CMS, the percentage of long-term nursing home residents being given antipsychotic drugs dropped from about 24 percent in late 2011 to under 16 percent last year. Decreases were reported in all 50 states, with the biggest in Tennessee, California and Arkansas. (Crary, 2/5)

The New York Times: If Immigrants Are Pushed Out, Who Will Care For The Elderly?
In Dallas, a 93-year-old is worried about the woman who, for years, has come to her house four days a week to help with shopping, laundry, housecleaning and driving. “She’s just a wonderful person, someone I feel I can trust completely,” said the older woman. But because her helper is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, both women increasingly fear that she’ll be detained and deported. (Span, 2/2)

And in other news on aging —

Bloomberg: Why Your Future Aches And Pains Are Killing GE
General Electric Co.’s shocking news -- billions of dollars in unexpected charges and a regulatory investigation of accounting practices -- can largely be traced to one product: long-term care insurance. The size of the charge raises questions not just about GE’s accounting but also about the stability of an industry that seems perpetually plagued. ... GE stopped selling long-term care policies in 2006, after spinning off its insurance unit, Genworth Financial Inc. To make a Genworth stock offering more attractive, GE’s former chief executive officer, Jeffrey Immelt, had agreed to keep the financial risk of some policies on GE’s balance sheet. Among those retained, the long-term care policies were the main cause of the surprising $6.2 billion charge in the fourth quarter of 2017. (Chiglinsky, 2/2)

San Jose Mercury News: As Adults Get Older And Lonelier, Smart Devices Want To Help
From technology-assisted home-care services such as Honor to hardware products such as grandPad’s tablet for seniors, with a magnifying glass and simplified apps, businesses are seeking to tap into a booming population of older adults and help them tackle a critical challenge of modern aging: social isolation. More than 8 million Americans over 50 are affected by isolation, which is a “growing health epidemic,” according to Connect2Affect, an advocacy group launched by the American Association of Retired Persons to erase social isolation. (Lee, 2/4)

Kaiser Health News: Skip The Rocking Chairs For These Rock Stars Of Aging
If people can age with class, then Harlene Goodrich, 80, and Dorothy Kelly, 91, should be considered aging’s rock stars. These women — two strangers from opposite ends of the country and the poles of politics — agree on the basics on how to age well. (Horovitz, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Disrupted: American Healthcare Has Reached Its Tipping Point 
American healthcare has reached a tipping point. Look no further for proof than the insiders and outsiders who are linking up to disrupt the long-stagnant, cost-ridden industry that's eating up nearly a fifth of the nation's gross domestic product. E-commerce giant Amazon is partnering with JPMorgan Chase and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to take a bite out of employer healthcare spending. CVS Health and Aetna are combining to offer cheaper, more convenient access to care and services. Apple is working with hospitals and technology vendors to put medical records in the palms of patients' hands. And four major health systems last month stepped into pharma territory with plans to launch a not-for-profit generic-drug company. (Kacik and Livingston, 2/3)

In other industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Cutting Links Out Of The Healthcare Supply Chain
When Baylor Scott & White realized that it was paying more than its peers for certain equipment and supplies, the numbers just didn't add up. The Dallas-based system relied on data benchmarking tools to see how much it paid for products used in various service lines, such as artificial hips and knees. The organization found that it sometimes paid more than average, and as a large system—the largest not-for-profit in Texas—that should not be the case, said Tony Johnson, senior vice president and chief supply chain officer. (Kacik, 2/3)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Committee Aims To Solidify VA Choice Reforms
The Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee is slated to have a busy week tackling some critical healthcare issues. The committee plans to kick-start stalled negotiations on VA Choice reforms that petered out late last year after Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced a counter bill to legislation that the committee previously approved with bipartisan support. According to a committee aide, senators hope to hammer out a deal with the White House, where officials want something more in line with the Moran bill. President Donald Trump even spotlighted VA Choice in his State of the Union address last week, shortly after administration officials met with committee members to outline their ideas for a reform package. (Luthi, 2/3)

In other veterans health care news —

The Oregonian: VA Extends Home Health Care For Disabled Oregon Vet For 60 Days 
Facing a federal lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday that it had reached an agreement to extend in-home health care through April for a Springfield veteran with Lou Gehrig's disease who needs around-the-clock care. Michael Williamson sued the federal agency on Jan. 23 in U.S. District Court in Eugene after a VA contract company notified him that his home health care of nearly 17 years would halt on Feb. 13 because it couldn't find caregivers, according to the suit. The company, New Horizons, contracts with the VA's medical facility in Roseburg. (Bernstein, 2/2)

Stat: Lawmakers On Senate Health Committee Traded In Tobacco Stocks
Two high-ranking lawmakers on the Senate committee that crafts legislation about health and oversees public health agencies disclosed that they or their families traded in tobacco company stock while they were on the committee, STAT has learned. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) reported purchasing at least $15,000 worth of stock in Philip Morris International. Senator Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) husband, meanwhile, owned an account whose manager bought and sold about $1,000 worth of stock in Reynolds American while Murray was the top Democrat on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (Swetlitz, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Abortion Is A Focus Of Early Action In Legislative Sessions
Republicans who control a majority of the nation’s statehouses are considering a wide range of abortion legislation that could test the government’s legal ability to restrict a woman’s right to terminate pregnancy. The Mississippi House passed a bill Friday that would make the state the only one to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In Missouri, lawmakers heard testimony earlier in the week on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. (Foley, 2/3)

The Associated Press: State Legislative Action So Far This Year On Abortion Policy
Abortion policy has been a hot topic in state legislative sessions that began or resumed last month. A look at some of the actions. (2/3)

The Associated Press: Mississippi Pushes Abortion Ban At 15 Weeks, Earliest In US
Mississippi lawmakers pushed ahead Friday with a bill to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which would be the earliest ban nationwide and create a possible court challenge. Mississippi already bans most abortions after 20 weeks. It's tied with North Carolina for the nation's earliest ban. (Amy, 2/2)

Politico: California Billboards Aim To Discredit 'Abortion Reversal'
A campaign to challenge so-called crisis pregnancy clinics that promote “abortion reversal” will appear Monday on billboards throughout the San Francisco Bay Area — not your typical place for battles over reproductive rights. Abortion controversies more often emanate from states like Texas. But liberal California has found itself on the front lines recently. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month in a free-speech challenge from anti-abortion groups to a state law requiring providers to post information about state-funded abortion services. And California's state nursing board invited controversy recently, reversing itself and allowing continuing education credits on the unproven reversal process. (Colliver, 2/4)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: Capital Beat: When It Comes To Contraceptives, Battle Lines Aren’t So Clear
Last year, the Legislature approved the creation of a commission to study an idea to empower pharmacists with the ability to prescribe oral contraceptives without a doctor’s visit. The group, representing obstetricians, nurse practitioners and health care officials, unanimously voted in favor of the idea. A bill was proposed, drafted and sent to the House Health and Human Services committee. The effort had momentum. But it stalled late last month, when the committee recommended it be killed, 13-8. But it was committee Democrats, led by Rep. Mindi Messmer, D-Rye, that led the charge. (DeWitt, 2/4)

Meanwhile, HHS is being sued —

The Hill: Groups Sue HHS For Docs On Blocking Abortions By Undocumented Teens
Watchdog groups are suing the Department of Health and Human Services for information related to the agency's blocking of undocumented minors from obtaining abortions. Campaign for Accountability and Equity Forward, represented by American Oversight, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday, arguing that HHS failed to comply with an information request in a timely manner. (Hellmann, 2/2)

CQ: Watchdog Groups Prepare Lawsuits Against HHS Over Abortion
The lawsuits by Equity Forward and Campaign for Accountability come on the heels of a recent report that ORR Director Scott Lloyd allegedly discussed having an undocumented pregnant minor in the agency's care undergo an abortion “reversal” — an experimental procedure not sanctioned by the medical community. “HHS regularly tries to shield its most controversial actions from view, but the law allows Americans to learn what our government is doing in our name,” said American Oversight executive director Austin Evers. (Raman, 2/2)

The New York Times: Flu Patients Arrive In Droves, And A Hospital Rolls Out The ‘Surge Tent’
By mid-January, the flu season at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest here in Allentown was bad enough to justify dragging out the “surge tent.” The Band Aid-colored structure in the parking lot — an inflatable military-style hospital ward a bit like a bouncy castle — is outfitted with cots, oxygen tanks and heart monitors. Sandwiched between the ambulance helipad and the E.R. doors, the tent is mostly used as a holding area for walk-in patients who need monitoring. The extra space lowers the risk of infections in the main waiting room when the coughing and sneezing is at its worst. (McNeil, 2/2)

The Washington Post: This Flu Season's Hospitalizations Are Highest In Nearly A Decade
This year's flu season has now sent more people to the hospital with the illness than in nearly a decade, federal health officials said Friday. Nationwide, during the fourth week of January, 16 more children died of the virus. So far this season, influenza has caused the deaths of at least 53 children, rivaling the death toll of the especially severe 2014-2015 flu season. Eighty percent of the children had not had a flu shot. (Sun, 2/2)

Bloomberg: Hospitals Overflow As Flu Epidemic Spreads Unabated 
The number of Americans hit by an already record-setting flu season continues to rise as hospitalization rates hit new highs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Hospitals are more crowded than in the 2014-2015 flu season, which marked the previous record when 710,000 Americans needed medical care to beat the illness, said Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s acting director. The agency also reported the deaths of an additional 16 children over the past week, bringing the total number of pediatric deaths attributed to the flu to 53 so far this season. Half of them had no additional health complications that would have placed them at elevated risk, Schuchat said. (Cortez, 2/2)

The Baltimore Sun: Amid Worst Flu Season In Years, Maryland Hospitals Seek To Limit Visits To Emergency Rooms
More than 3,000 people visited Maryland emergency rooms in the past week with influenza-like illnesses amid what state and federal health officials are calling the worst flu season in years. The flu is so bad that many local hospitals are asking most sick people to avoid the emergency room and limiting visitors to prevent its spread. (Cohn, 2/2)

NPR: Children Have Been Hit Hard By The Current Flu Season
The current flu season is still getting worse, federal health officials said Friday. And it continues to take a toll on children.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an additional 16 flu deaths among children, bringing the nationwide total this season for youngsters to 53. About half of those children apparently had been healthy and had no special vulnerability to this viral disease, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, acting director of the CDC. And the risk is not going away. (Harris, 2/2)

Houston Chronicle: Flu Season: "It's Still Not Getting Any Better Out There"
Bad news for those thinking the flu season was due to taper off by now: It's still intensifying – nationally and in Texas. Texas' department of health reported Friday that the latest numbers reflect the highest rate of hospital and doctor visits for flu-related reasons so far this season and for any of the last four. Nearly 14.5 percent of such visits were for symptoms of the flu the last week of January, up from the season's previous high of 14.06 percent the third week of December and the last few years' previous high of 14.17 percent in 2014-2015. (Ackerman, 2/2)

NPR: Researchers Examine How The Flu Virus Spreads By Studying Students
On a blustery winter day, Dr. Don Milton and his undergraduate research assistants, Louie Gold and Amara Fox, are recruiting students for his new study on how the flu — and other viruses — spread. As incentives, they have vouchers for the school convenience store and free hot chocolate. (Simmons-Duffin, 2/2)

Reuters: Florida Nurse's Choice Words To Avoid Flu: 'Wash Your Stinking Hands'
A Florida nurse has offered some frank advice for people whose lax hygiene is contributing to a deadly flu outbreak, including "wash your stinking hands!" In the six-minute video entitled "After Work Thoughts", which has been watched more than 6 million times since it was posted on Facebook last weekend, Katherine Lockler unloaded her frustrations after long shifts in the emergency room. (Dobuzinskis, 2/2)

The Hill: The 2018 Flu Epidemic: What You Need To Know 
This year’s flu season is one of the worst on recent record, and federal officials warn it’s not getting better anytime soon. There have been 53 children who have died of the flu this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the children who died, about half had no underlying medical conditions. (Weixel, 2/5)

Boston Globe: Flu Activity Continues To Increase In Massachusetts
Flu activity continues to increase in Massachusetts, leading public health officials to renew their recommendation that people get a flu shot as soon as possible to help lessen the impact of the illness and protect oneself against a second strain of the virus. (Ellement, 2/2)

Georgia Health News: Georgia’s Flu Death Toll Now At 51; Season’s Peak Is Still Ahead
Georgia now has 51 confirmed flu-related deaths, up from 37 on Wednesday and 25 just a week ago.The state Department of Public Health also reported Friday that there were 120 hospitalizations due to influenza infection in the eight-county metro Atlanta region during the week of Jan. 21 through Jan. 27. (Miller, 2/2)

The CT Mirror: After Claiming 52 Lives In CT, Flu Season Has Yet To Peak, CDC Says
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said the peak of the flu season, which has killed 52 people in Connecticut, is still to come. ...The CDC said there were an additional 16 flu deaths among children last week, bringing the nationwide total this season for youngsters to 53. (Radelat, 2/2)

The Associated Press: Not Just Boy And Girl; More Teens Identify As Transgender
Far more U.S. teens than previously thought are transgender or identify themselves using other nontraditional gender terms, with many rejecting the idea that girl and boy are the only options, new research suggests. The study looked at students in ninth and 11th grade and estimated that nearly 3 percent are transgender or gender nonconforming, meaning they don't always self-identify as the sex they were assigned at birth. That includes kids who refer to themselves using neutral pronouns like "them" instead of "he" or "she." (2/5)

In other news —

The Washington Post: Ryan Anderson’s Book On Transgender People Is Creating An Uproar
Ryan T. Anderson’s new book isn’t even out yet, but it has already hit Amazon bestseller lists. In “When Harry Became Sally,” Anderson, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, makes what some feel is an inflammatory case against transgender people. He argues that American society’s growing acceptance of transgenderism has more to do with ideology than science. (Cha, 2/2)

The New York Times: Cancer Risk From Cellphone Radiation Is Small, Studies Show
Do cellphones cause cancer? Despite years of research, there is still no clear answer. But two government studies released on Friday, one in rats and one in mice, suggest that if there is any risk, it is small, health officials said. Safety questions about cellphones have drawn intense interest and debate for years as the devices have become integral to most people’s lives. Even a minute risk could harm millions of people. (Grady, 2/2)

The Washington Post: Cellphone Radiation Study Finds Mixed Effects In Rodents, Without Clear Implications For Human Health
John Bucher, a senior scientist involved in the 10-year study, was cautious in his interpretation of the results in a conference call with journalists Friday. Given the inconsistent pattern of the findings, the fact that the subjects were rats and mice rather than people and the high level of radiation used, he said, he could not extrapolate from the data the potential health effects on humans. “At this point we don’t feel that we understand enough about the results to place a huge degree of confidence in the findings,” he said. (Cha, 2/2)

Los Angeles Times: Radiation From Cellphones Is Not Hazardous To Your Health, Government Scientists Say
"The reports don't go much further than what we had reported earlier, and I have not changed the way I use a cellphone," NTP senior scientist John Bucher said in a briefing. Dr. Otis Brawley, the chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, said that the new evidence should not alarm wireless phone users. "The evidence for an association between cellphones and cancer is weak, and so far, we have not seen a higher cancer risk in people," Brawley said in a statement. (Kaplan, 2/2)

Stat: High Doses Of Cellphone Radiation Linked To Some Cancers In Rats
As part of the research, the rodents were divided into different study arms that were exposed to different levels of radiation. The lowest level of radiation they were exposed to was about the maximum level cellphones are permitted to emit, and the rodents were exposed to nine hours of radiofrequency radiation every day for two years, which Bucher made clear was much more than a regular cellphone user is going to be exposed to. “It’s a situation that allows us to express a potential biological event if one is going to occur,” Bucher said. “The message is that typical cellphone use is not going to be directly related to the kind of exposures we use in these studies.” (Joseph, 2/2)

The New York Times: Early Facebook And Google Employees Form Coalition To Fight What They Built
A group of Silicon Valley technologists who were early employees at Facebook and Google, alarmed over the ill effects of social networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the companies they helped build. The cohort is creating a union of concerned experts called the Center for Humane Technology. Along with the nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media, it also plans an anti-tech addiction lobbying effort and an ad campaign at 55,000 public schools in the United States. (Bowles, 2/4)

WBUR: Is Amyloid, The Leading Hypothesis For Treating Alzheimer’s, Played Out? Not So Fast
In an editorial last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, Alzheimer’s researcher M. Paul Murphy of the University of Kentucky declared the impending death of this so-called amyloid hypothesis. ... But others in the field disagree that the amyloid hypothesis has been fully played out. There is still room for optimism, they said this week, that getting rid of amyloid can be the right treatment -- if given to the right patients at the right time. (Weintraub, 2/2)

NPR: Migraine Relief May Be On The Way With New Therapies In Development
Humans have suffered from migraines for millennia. Yet, despite decades of research, there isn't a drug on the market today that prevents them by targeting the underlying cause. All of that could change in a few months when the FDA is expected to announce its decision about new therapies that have the potential to turn migraine treatment on its head. (Gravitz, 2/3)

The Washington Post: A Large Analysis Shows Coffee Is Mostly Good For You, Though Maybe Not If You're Pregnant
“It’s impossible that we still struggle to decide if coffee is healthy or unhealthy,” says Giuseppe Grosso, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Catania in Italy: Good for hypertension one week. Bad for hypertension the next. To address this vexing situation, Grosso and his colleagues collected all studies on the health effects of coffee, systematically reviewed the evidence, then offered up their bottom line in the Annual Review of Nutrition. (Powell, 2/4)

Bloomberg: How Much Would You Pay To Cure Your Kid’s Learning Disability? 
[Robert] Melillo is the founder and guru behind the steadily expanding chain Brain Balance Achievement Centers, which allows him to share his ideas far beyond his Manhattan office. Through the centers, peppered across the country, he promises to help children who have recognized conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, as well as harder-to-pin-down varieties of academic and social struggles, with a series of exercises he’s developed. A 12-week program of 36 hourlong sessions costs between $5,544 and $6,444, depending on the center, or from $154 to $179 per session. (Lawrence, 2/5)

NPR: Diet Rich In Greens Linked To Less Age-Related Memory Loss
To age well, we must eat well — there's been a lot of evidence that heart-healthy diets help protect the brain. The latest good news: A study recently published in Neurology finds that healthy seniors who had daily helpings of leafy green vegetables — such as spinach, kale and collard greens — had a slower rate of cognitive decline, compared to those who tended to eat little or no greens. (Aubrey, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Which Dietary Supplements Work, And Which Don't. Some Research-Based Answers
Plenty of dietary supplements claim to help you get in shape or lose weight, but do they really work? Several new resources from the National Institutes of Health summarize what is known about the safety and effectiveness of popular supplement ingredients. For example, NIH has put together a fact sheet on ingredients in exercise supplements, which manufacturers often claim can improve users’ strength or endurance, or help them achieve their performance goals faster. (Rettner, 2/3)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Herbal Remedies Mixed With Medications Cause Major Complications
If you're currently taking medications for depression, HIV, heart disease, cancer or epilepsy, you should avoid combining herbal remedies with your treatment, a new scientific review suggests. The research, published last month in the "British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology", warns of major complications when common herbal supplements are taken in conjunction with cancer treatments, antidepressants, statins and other medications. (Lemon, 2/2)

The Washington Post: Many Doctors Are Wary Of Medical Marijuana. And Jeff Sessions Hasn’t Helped.
Gene Ransom’s day was ruined within minutes of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s announcement that he was giving federal prosecutors more freedom to go after marijuana transactions in states that have legalized medical cannabis. “Our phones just blew up,” said Ransom, the chief executive of the Maryland State Medical Society. “We must have had 400 physicians calling to ask us what this was going to mean.” (Hendrix, 2/2)

Tampa Bay Times: Sleep Proves Elusive For Many Women, But Why?
Of course, both men and women can have trouble sleeping, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says women are more likely to have problems than men. And a 2013 Duke University study found that poor sleep may be more harmful to women both physically and psychologically. (Frankie and Folstad, 2/2)

Georgia Health News: Bionic Hand: From A Galaxy Far, Far Away To Georgia Tech Lab
The director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology has developed an ultrasonic sensor that allows amputees to individually move the fingers of their prosthetic hands. It’s a movement that even the most state-of-the-art, commercially available prosthetic devices do not offer. (Ridderbusch, 2/2)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Mental-Health Proposal Would Offer New Options To People In Crisis.
Iowa leaders are poised to propose an ambitious plan to strengthen mental-health services throughout the state. The plan includes six new “access centers,” which would offer short-term help for Iowans who are having mental crises but who are not ill enough to need a bed in crowded psychiatric hospital units. (Leys, 2/2)

The CT Mirror: Community Health Centers, Facing Fund Cutoff, Get Short Reprieve
Despite congressional inaction, the federal agency that oversees community health centers has sent money to some centers in Connecticut and committed this week to send funding to more, giving them a temporary reprieve from potential layoffs and cuts to services. Like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), despite bipartisan support, Congress missed its Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize money for the Community Health Center Fund, which represents the largest chunk of federal grant money going to the centers. (Rigg, 2/2)

The Washington Post: Regulators Who Targeted Anti-Vaccine Doctor May Pay Millions For Humiliating Him
Mark Geier built a medical practice in Rockville and a national reputation for propagating the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. The Maryland Board of Physicians suspended his license seven years ago because he was treating autistic children with a drug considered dangerous for young people and not known to alleviate symptoms of the disorder. But the regulators who stripped Geier’s credentials are now in the hot seat, ordered to each personally pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages by a judge who says the board abused its power in an attempt to humiliate the doctor and his family. (Nirappil, 2/3)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Child-Welfare Agency Aims To Keep More Kids At Home
For longtime watchers of Arizona's child-welfare efforts, it’s easy to see this policy as just the latest swing of the pendulum that's moved over the years between seemingly opposite strategies: Remove kids from potentially abusive or neglectful situations to keep them safe, or keep them at home and work with families to improve their situation and avoid foster care. Both approaches pose risks to children. In a troubled home, a child could suffer neglect, or worse. (Pitzi, 2/4)

The Star Tribune: New Commissioner Brings 'Instant Credibility' To Minn. Health Department 
An opioid epidemic that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Minnesotans. A giant backlog of uninvestigated maltreatment complaints at senior care homes. Deep health disparities by race and income. Stubbornly low vaccination rates among Somali children. And an unexplained rise in suicides among older adults. These are just a handful of the daunting public health challenges facing Jan Malcolm, named Minnesota’s new health commissioner last week by Gov. Mark Dayton. A seasoned administrator and nationally recognized expert on health policy, Malcolm will oversee a department with 1,500 employees and an annual budget of more than $600 million. (Serres, 2/3)

WBUR: In The U.S. Virgin Islands, Health Care Remains In A Critical State
Health care in the U.S. Virgin Islands remains in a critical state, five months after Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria pummeled the region. ...The only hospital on St. Thomas, the Schneider Regional Medical Center, serves some 55,000 residents between the islands of St. Thomas and St. John. Schneider's facilities suffered major structural damage, forcing a decrease in its range of services, mass transfers of its patients, staff departures and significant losses in revenue. (Allen, 2/4)

San Jose Mercury News: Sutter Health Will Close Alta Bates Hospital, But Not Yet
In an ongoing debate over the future of emergency services at the campus, legislators, city officials and health care professionals will continue their public campaign against the closure while the hospital’s parent organization Sutter Health insists it will keep the campus open for at least a decade. Nurses and local leaders will gather for a community forum Saturday on the Ed Roberts campus, calling on Sutter Health to keep Alta Bates open as a full hospital with inpatient and emergency car. (Sciacca, 2/2)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Children's Hospital Plans A More Family-Centric Facility As Renovations Progress 
Two months after taking the helm at Children's Hospital of New Orleans, John Nickens IV met with families who were spending time at the facility while their children received treatment over the holidays. One family stood out in particular. Their child had been at the hospital for a month and they described having to move from place to place while their child was in treatment. It's a circumstance that many families have faced, especially when they're coming from out of town for medical help for their children. But it's a challenge that hospital administrators are working to address as Children's Hospital undergoes a $300 million multi-phase renovation. (Clark, 2/2)

KQED: Ballot Measure Campaign Takes Aim At Stanford Health Care
The union representing thousands of Bay Area health care workers is launching a signature-gathering campaign this week in four Bay Area cities with the goal of qualifying ballot initiatives that would force Stanford Health Care facilities to lower costs or invest more money in care. The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West has filed ballot measures for the November election in Palo Alto, Pleasanton, Redwood City and Livermore, all home to Stanford Health Care facilities. (Marzorati, 2/5)

The Associated Press: New Jersey Could Be First State To Ban Menthol Cigarettes
New Jersey could soon become the first state to outlaw the sale of menthol cigarettes. Legislation banning the cigarettes was approved Monday by the state Assembly's Health and Senior Services Committee and now heads to the Appropriations Committee for further consideration. Similar legislation has not yet been introduced in the state Senate. (2/4)

The Washington Post: How Hawaii’s Lepers Were Once Exiled To An Isolated Settlement
Molokai’s Kalaupapa peninsula seems like a peaceful haven. But it is home to a painful legacy — that of thousands of people with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, who were once banished there to live and die in exile. “A Source of Light, Constant and Never-Fading,” an exhibition at the University of Hawaii — West Oahu, tells their stories. (Blakemore, 2/4)

Sacramento Bee: MIND Institute Uses Skype To Teach Parents To Be Speech Therapists For Their Children
[Kristen] Lundstrom and her son are participating in a study that is “training parents so they can essentially function like the speech language clinicians for their own kids,” said Dr. Leonard Abbeduto, principal researcher in the study and executive director of the MIND Institute. ...And while they’re reading, speech language clinicians at the MIND Institute coach Lundstrom via Skype in ways to draw Tyson out, such as how to ask questions that will prompt him to expand his answers and use new vocabulary words. (Sullivan, 2/5)

San Jose Mercury News: Effort Begins On Palo Alto Patient Care Ballot Initiative
Two elected officials are trying to garner support for a Palo Alto ballot initiative that aims to control the costs of patient care. The initiative, which would be placed on the November ballot if it collects enough signatures, would limit Stanford Hospital and other Palo Alto medical facilities “from charging patients more than 15 percent above the cost of care, plus quality improvement costs,” according to a statement issued Friday by Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which is backing the initiative. (Kelly, 2/2)

California Healthline: California To Drug Users: We’ll Pay For You To Test Your Dope
Michael Marquesen first noticed about a year ago that fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid, had hit the streets of Los Angeles. People suddenly started overdosing after they shot up a new white powder that dealers promised would give them a powerful high. “In Hollywood, they’re like ‘Everybody’s dropping … everybody’s overdosing!’” said Marquesen, director of the Los Angeles Community Health Project, which provides support services for people dealing with drug addiction. (Bartolone, 2/2)

The Washington Post: Making Medicaid A Pathway Out Of Poverty
Americans are among the most generous people in the world. While this nation was founded on the pursuit of a shared dream, the moral pledge of the American people has been to never leave behind our most vulnerable fellow citizens. When we created Medicaid in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, we formalized that commitment and wove a fabric of care that has provided health services for seniors in need, pregnant mothers, low-income children and parents, and people with disabilities. Johnson affirmed the nation’s safety net, saying, “Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.” (Seema Verma, 2/4)

The New York Times: Who’s Able-Bodied, Anyway?
The “able-bodied” are now everywhere among government programs for the poor, Republican officials point out. They’re on food stamps. They’re collecting welfare. They’re living in subsidized housing. And their numbers have swelled on Medicaid, a program that critics say was never designed to serve them. These so-called able-bodied are defined in many ways by what they are not: not disabled, not elderly, not children, not pregnant, not blind. They are effectively everyone left, and they have become the focus of resurgent conservative proposals to overhaul government aid, such as one announced last month by the Trump administration that would allow states to test work requirements for Medicaid. (Emily Badger and Margot Sanger-Katz, 2/3)

The Courier-Journal: Bevin Medicaid Waiver Saves Money At Expense Of Sick People In Kentucky
In the year-and-a-half since Gov. Matt Bevin first presented his proposed Medicaid waiver, and especially since the Trump administration approved it a few weeks ago, I have been hearing from many that eligible people who are able to work, but don’t, should lose their Medicaid coverage. Some folks even quote St. Paul: “Those who don’t work should not eat.” Those words do not reflect Christ, however, who said, “Bring me the hungry and I will feed them.” Christ also healed the sick, and that is exactly what Medicaid does. If we truly want stronger citizens, good health is the foundation we must absolutely have. What the waiver ignores is that most Medicaid recipients already live in a working household. Of the 24 million nondisabled adults who received Medicaid in 2015, 59 percent were working themselves, and 88 percent lived at home with at least one worker. (Rep. Tom Burch, 2/3)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Expanding Medicaid Helps Virginians And Virginia's Budget
By expanding Medicaid, we bring home billions in federal funds to close this coverage gap — funds that are now going to other states. So far, Virginia has forfeited more than $10 billion in federal funding. (Jennifer McClellan, 2/3)

The New York Times: How Trump Can Keep His Vows On Opioids And Infrastructure
President Trump has correctly identified two big challenges that Americans want him to tackle this year — the opioid epidemic and the country’s dilapidated and overstretched infrastructure. Mr. Trump promised to address these vexing issues last year, too, but made almost no progress. ... One recommendation was for the government to increase access to substance abuse treatment. The administration could do so by demanding that health insurance companies cover such care. (2/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Giving Patients One More Shot
American medicine is producing new treatments for everything from cancer to blindness, and one question is whether government drug approvals can keep pace. One response is to allow some patients access to drugs still in the pipeline, and a “right to try” bill in Congress is an important moment for personal freedom, with a word or two about the finer details. ...Right to try is not a miracle drug. But at minimum it would move the decision over treatment and risk closer to the patient facing a tough diagnosis or death. (2/4)

Bloomberg: 'Right To Try' Law Won't Lead To Miracle Cures
During his State of the Union address, Trump’s brief foray into medical issues sounded almost reasonable. People do want lower drug prices, as he promised. And who could argue when he said he would help people with incurable diseases? But there’s a problem with the channel he endorsed – the so-called right-to-try law that passed last year in the Senate. Experts who’ve been pushing to improve terminally ill patients’ access to experimental drugs say this law isn’t based on any realistic assessment of the problem. The law aims to limit the powers of FDA, but FDA is doing much more good than harm in advancing medical science and promoting the interests of patients. (Faye Flam, 2/2)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: No Money, No Follow-Through On Trump's Opioid 'emergency'
On the short list of things President Donald Trump did right in his first year in office, the appointment of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis is near the top. Unfortunately, appointing commissions is easy. Following through with serious, sustained actions is hard. Trump has skipped the hard part. (2/3)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Three Powerful Businessmen Take On Health Care Costs. Good.
UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation’s largest private health insurer, totaled 2017 earnings of more than $200 billion and a gross profit margin of 23.77 percent. Not quite a month later, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO who once said, “Your margin is my opportunity,” announced Tuesday he and two powerful partners were forming their own health care company, one that would be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” This could be the biggest development in American health care since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Or the dense and dysfunctional jungle that is the American health care system could prove impenetrable to even Bezos and his partners, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank. (2/4)

Columbus Dispatch: Death Penalty Unjust For Opioid Addict
As a professor and scholar of how our society deals with drug use, I was struck by recent news of Ohio’s plan to kill Raymond Tibbetts on Feb. 13. This decision is fundamentally unjust in view of Tibbetts’ history of untreated addiction. It is also wholly inconsistent with our current effort to address substance use as a health issue. (Leo Beletsky, 2/)

Chicago Tribune: Raise The Tobacco-Buying Age To 21
Few 20-somethings or older adults take up cigarette smoking. They understand that the health risks are inevitable and often lethal. Put another way: If people don’t get hooked on cigarettes at a young age, they generally don’t start to smoke. How to steer young people away from an addiction that will wreck their health? One way is for Illinois lawmakers to raise to 21 from 18 the legal age to buy tobacco products. That would limit access to cigarettes, and not only for 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds. That’s because younger adolescents who smoke need someone to buy, or give them, cigarettes. (2/2)

Los Angeles Times: Banning Tackle Football For Kids? There's Nothing 'Nanny State' About It If The Science Is Sound
As the sports-loving part of the population looks forward to the National Football League's annual Super Bowl on Sunday, legislatures in New York and Illinois are zeroing in on a different aspect of the nation's most popular sport: brain injuries among young players. Lawmakers in both states have introduced measures that would ban tackle football for children under age 12. Making kids wait longer to don pads and helmets is not a bad idea, nor would it be a bad choice to extend such limits to other sports, such as hockey, lacrosse and boxing, where children as young as 8 strap on gloves and protective gear and punch each other in the head. (2/2)

San Jose Mercury News: Forget Diets. Dieting--Learn About Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are silent diseases that develop over time and are often overlooked until a person is seriously ill or hospitalized. A frightening number of people die of eating disorders every year, yet their death is attributed to cardiac arrest, starvation or suicide. (Janice Bremis, 2/1)