The Associated Press: Shutdown Puts Strain On Hundreds Of Native American Tribes
Fallout from the federal government shutdown is hurting Native Americans as dwindling funds hamper access to health care and other services. The pain is especially deep in tribal communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment, where one person often supports an extended family. The effects were being felt far and wide. (Fonseca, 1/12)

WBUR: On The Navajo Nation, 5,000 Workers Dependent On A Federal Paycheck
With the partial federal government shutdown dragging on, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye says Congress should exempt tribes from feeling the effects. Historically, treaties with the U.S. government have guaranteed the Navajo and many other tribes federal financial assistance for health, education and economic development. So the shutdown is having an outsized impact. (Morales, 1/12)

Politico: Billions In Food Stamp Payments To Come Early Because Of Shutdown
After raising alarm that the food-stamp program could run out of funding for February, the Trump administration announced this week that it had come up with a way to bankroll more than $4.8 billion in benefits next month — with just one catch: Benefits for the nearly 39 million people enrolled in the program must be paid out by Jan. 20, weeks earlier than usual. (Bottemiller Evich, 1/11)

Boston Globe: Food Banks To Discuss How To Respond To Federal Government Shutdown
The Department of Agriculture said in a Jan. 8 statement that food service programs, including its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, were fully funded for this month and for February. But as the shutdown, which began Dec. 22, drags on, local officials are concerned that if funding is not restored, people who rely on SNAP will increasingly turn to food banks, which get food from the federal agency. (Hilliard, 1/14)

And in other news from the longest shutdown in U.S. history —

NPR: Child Care: 1 More Way Some Federal Workers Struggle During Shutdown
At 10 o'clock in the morning, Austin Lanham should be working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center routing satellite communication. But with the partial federal government shutdown, he's not working, deadlines are slipping, he's not getting paid and the preschool his two sons go to is shut down because it's on NASA's property. "Now I'm just a full-time stay at home dad," he says. That's the case with many federal child care centers in the Washington D.C. region and with some around the country. (Madden, 1/14)

CQ: Health Law Appeal Paused As Shutdown Affects Federal Courts
The partial government shutdown halted a major challenge to the 2010 health care law among other civil litigation on Friday, as Justice Department lawyers sought the same in a challenge from three Senate Democrats to the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a two-page order granting the Trump administration’s request to halt the 2010 health care law case “in light of lapse of appropriations.” (Ruger, 1/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Shutdown Breaks Record For Longest In Modern History
The partial government shutdown became the longest in modern U.S. history on Sunday as the impasse over funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border stretched into its 23rd day. (Peterson, Bender and Ballhaus, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Americans Blame Trump And GOP Much More Than Democrats For Shutdown, Post-ABC Poll Finds
By a wide margin, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than congressional Democrats for the now record-breaking government shutdown, and most reject the president’s assertion that there is an illegal-immigration crisis on the southern border, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. (Clement and Balz, 1/13)

The Associated Press: Judge Blocks Trump Birth Control Coverage Rules In 13 States
A U.S. judge in California on Sunday blocked Trump administration rules, which would allow more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control, from taking effect in 13 states and Washington, D.C. Judge Haywood Gilliam granted a request for a preliminary injunction by California, 12 other states and Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs sought to prevent the rules from taking effect as scheduled on Monday while a lawsuit against them moved forward. (Thanawala, 1/13)

The New York Times: Judge Blocks Trump’s Attempt To Roll Back Birth Control Mandate
The plaintiffs, he wrote, had done enough to bolster their claim that the religious exemption and the moral exemption sought by the Trump administration were “not in accordance with” the Affordable Care Act. After Judge Gilliam blocked the initial rules, the Trump administration appealed. Last month the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court’s ruling but limited the injunction’s scope. With that ruling in mind, Judge Gilliam made clear that the preliminary injunction he granted on Sunday bars enforcement in only the states that sued. (Stevens, 1/14)

Politico: Judge Freezes Trump Administration Contraception Rule
The new rules mark the Trump administration's second attempt to narrow the Obamacare-related requirement that employers must provide FDA-approved contraception in the employee health plan at no cost. The first attempt was halted in 2017 after courts found the administration tried to make the change without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in. Houses of worship and closely-held private companies with religious objections are currently exempted from the birth control coverage mandate; the Trump administration is seeking to make the exemptions much broader. (Ollstein and Colliver, 1/13)

NPR: Judge Blocks Trump Birth Control Policy In 13 States And D.C
"The law couldn't be clearer — employers have no business interfering in women's healthcare decisions," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement applauding the ruling. "Today's court ruling stops another attempt by the Trump Administration to trample on women's access to basic reproductive care." (Schwartz, 1/14)

The Hill: Judge Blocks Trump Contraception Rule In 13 States 
Gilliam on Friday said a "substantial number" of women would lose birth control coverage under the Trump administration rules. “It is a good day when a court stops this administration from sanctioning discrimination under the guise of religion or morality," deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union Louise Melling said in a statement. "The Trump administration’s rules authorized employers and universities to strip women of birth control coverage — a benefit guaranteed to them by law, and meant to advance their health and equality. We applaud the order to enjoin the enforcement of these discriminatory rules.” (Birnbaum, 1/13)

Bloomberg: Judge Blocks Trump Plan To Undo Obamacare Contraceptive Rule
There is still a chance that a nationwide injunction could be issued in a separate case by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and his New Jersey counterpart, Gurbir Grewal. A ruling in that case is expected any time. (Larson, 1/13)

The Associated Press: Democrats Roll Out Big Health Care Proposals In The States
Riding the momentum from November's elections, Democratic leaders in the states are wasting no time delivering on their biggest campaign promise — to expand access to health care and make it more affordable. The first full week of state legislative sessions and swearings-in for governors saw a flurry of proposals. (Ho and Mulvihill, 1/12)

The Hill: Blue States Buck Trump To Expand Health Coverage 
Democratic governors are experimenting with new ways to expand health care, testing out progressive ideas that could go national if their party wins the Senate or White House in 2020. The policies run counter to the Trump administration's ideas and are only now possible after a Democratic wave in the House helped secure the future of ObamaCare. (Weixel, 1/13)

CQ: States Prep Bold Health Care Moves As Washington Stalls
A number of governors and state legislators are taking action to expand health care coverage and improve affordability as a newly splintered Washington stalls amid partisan disputes. The gridlock between Democrats and the Trump administration that partially shuttered government operations casts doubt on whether Congress could strike a deal on an issue as politically rancorous as health care. States are picking up the slack, with new governors signing executive orders and proposing plans to drastically increase coverage or confront rising prescription drug prices. (Clason and McIntire, 1/14)

The New York Times: California Adds Its Clout To States Battling High Drug Prices
Gavin Newsom dived into the highly charged debate over prescription drug prices in his first week as California’s governor, vowing action on a topic that has enraged the public but has proved resistant to easy fixes. His idea: Find strength in numbers. Within hours of taking office on Monday, Mr. Newsom signed an executive order proposing a plan that would allow California to directly negotiate with drug manufacturers. (Thomas, 1/11)

The Associated Press: Huge Migrant Teen Detention Camp In Texas Shutting Down
The nonprofit running what once was the largest U.S. detention camp housing migrant teenagers said the last children left the facility Friday. The tent city in Tornillo, Texas, is shutting down, and all tents and equipment will be removed from the site by the end of January, said Krista Piferrer, spokeswoman of BCFS Health and Human Services. (1/11)

Reuters: Texas Tent City That Holds Migrant Teens To Close
"As of this weekend, the last group of unaccompanied alien children will have been transferred or discharged" and the shelter was on a "path toward closure," said Lynn Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Johnson said the majority of the children were released to sponsors, usually family members, in the United States, while some were transferred to other shelters. (Chavez, 1/11)

The Wall Street Journal: A Texas Tent City For Migrant Children Is Closed
The tent city was set up in June amid a spike in arrests of unaccompanied immigrant children caught crossing the border illegally and at the height of the Trump administration’s short-lived policy of separating families and children caught at the border. (Caldwell, 1/11)

Texas Tribune: Tornillo Tent City For Youth Migrants Is Now Empty, Texas Congressman Says
The hasty closure comes after Texas-based contractor BCFS Health and Human Services and the federal government originally signed a 30-day contract to operate the facility in June. That contract was extended multiple times, despite BCFS officials arguing that the center was not a long-term solution. The organization's president, Kevin Dinnin, told Vice News on Friday that he sent the federal government a letter in December saying the facility wouldn't accept any more children. The government began taking steps to close Tornillo soon after, Vice reported. (Watkins, 1/11)

In other news —

The Washington Post: A Congressman Rails Against Undocumented Immigrants As His Estranged Siblings Care For Them And Other Patients In Need
Three months had passed since Grace Gosar and five of her siblings decided they had to do something to stop their brother, a hard-line conservative and staunch defender of President Trump, from winning reelection to Congress. Their solution back then had been startling: Film a campaign ad for their brother’s opponent. (Jaffe, 1/12)

Miami Herald: A TPS Trial In A New York Federal Court Has Concluded
A federal trial in New York challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for thousands of Haitians, concluded Thursday with internal government emails showing that the administration was so determined to end the program that it ignored its own government’s research flagging health and safety concerns. A decision in the case isn’t expected until after March 1, the deadline given by Eastern District of New York federal judge William Kuntz to lawyers to file post-trial submissions. (Charles, 1/11)

The New York Times: V.A. Seeks To Redirect Billions Of Dollars Into Private Care
The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation. Under proposed guidelines, it would be easier for veterans to receive care in privately run hospitals and have the government pay for it. Veterans would also be allowed access to a system of proposed walk-in clinics, which would serve as a bridge between V.A. emergency rooms and private providers, and would require co-pays for treatment. (Steinhauer and Philipps, 1/12)

The New York Times: Hospitals Must Now Post Prices. But It May Take A Brain Surgeon To Decipher Them.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, responding to a new Trump administration order to begin posting all hospital prices, listed a charge of $42,569 for a cardiology procedure described as “HC PTC CLOS PAT DUCT ART.” Baptist Health in Miami helpfully told consumers that an “Embolza Protect 5.5” would cost them $9,818 while a “Visceral selective angio rad” runs a mere $5,538. On Jan. 1, hospitals began complying with a Trump administration order to post list prices for all their services, theoretically offering consumers transparency and choice and forcing health care providers into price competition. (Pear, 1/13)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: Do Consumers Benefit When Hospitals Post Sticker Prices Online? 
Julie Appleby, a Kaiser Health News senior correspondent, appeared last week on WBUR’s “Here & Now” with Jeremy Hobson and on Science Friday to discuss the new requirement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that hospitals post their list prices online. But, according to KHN’s coverage, the information popping up on hospital websites “may initially serve to confuse more than illuminate.” (1/14)

Modern Healthcare: Children's Hospitals Brace For Fewer Donors Under Tax Reform 
Children's hospitals could be unintended victims of changes handed down by the Trump administration's sweeping tax reform law. That's because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in December 2017, could disincentivize charitable giving by convincing millions of tax filers to go from itemizing their deductions to taking the standard deduction, thus eliminating the tax bonus for charitable donations. (Bannow, 1/12)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Push Physicians To Go In-Network To Prevent Surprise Bills 
MemorialCare executive John Cascell believes physicians are privileged to be chosen to work in the system's hospitals and clinics. They're high-quality facilities that are well-respected in California's Orange and Los Angeles counties.That's why he stands behind the Fountain Valley, Calif.-based health system's long-standing policy of requiring in-hospital physician groups to contract with the same insurance carriers as MemorialCare. The provision became part of the system's contracts several years ago in response to patient complaints about receiving surprise bills. (Bannow, 1/12)

The Hill: Booker Tries To Shake Doubts About Pharmaceutical Ties Ahead Of 2020 
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is trying to overcome doubts that he is too close to the pharmaceutical industry ahead of an expected presidential campaign. The progressive criticism of Booker reached a crescendo in early 2017 when he voted against a budget amendment calling for importing drugs from abroad. (Sullivan, 1/13)

The New York Times: The 2020 Field Is Growing. Some Waistlines Are Shrinking.
Senator Cory Booker’s visit to a house party in New Hampshire last month had many hallmarks of a campaign visit. He mingled with guests. He posed for photos. He gave a speech. He stood for more photos. But he did not touch a sprawling table of homemade desserts. (Goldmacher, 1/14)

The New York Times: $3.4 Million Medicaid Fraud Inquiry Hovers Over Nursing Home Where Comatose Woman Was Raped And Had Baby
State investigators in Arizona are examining $3.4 million in possible Medicaid fraud at the parent company of a Phoenix nursing center where a woman in a vegetative state was raped and gave birth to a boy in December, according to court records. The inquiry into the company, Hacienda HealthCare, began in 2016, when investigators at the health agency that manages the state’s Medicaid program started asking questions about Hacienda’s organizational and accounting structure. Investigators wanted to know whether Hacienda executives improperly shifted overhead expenses in the company to a subsidiary at the same location that then overcharged the state’s Medicaid program. (Haag, 1/11)

Arizona Republic: Hacienda HealthCare Investigated By State In 2016; Legal Battle Continues
The Phoenix facility where a comatose patient was raped and gave birth faced a criminal investigation two years ago over allegations it billed the state more than $4 million in bogus charges. Regulators with Arizona's social-welfare agency wanted to remove developmentally disabled patients from Hacienda HealthCare in 2016 and terminate contracts that allowed the facility to provide services for the state. (Anglen and Innes, 1/12)

Arizona Republic: Rick Romley To Lead Internal Investigation Of Hacienda HealthCare
Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley will conduct a "no-holds-barred" internal investigation of the Phoenix facility where a comatose patient was raped and gave birth last month. Hacienda HealthCare officials confirmed Sunday they hired Romley to lead an examination of patient safety, beginning with how the woman was raped and impregnated without the staff's knowledge. (Anglen, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Hacienda HealthCare Birth: 911 Call Reveals Nurse's Surprise — ‘We Had No Idea’
The unnamed nurse screamed into the phone at the 911 dispatcher: “The baby’s turning blue! Baby’s turning blue!” She urged the paramedics to come faster: “We’re not prepared for this.” In most cases, a patient going into labor at a health-care facility in a room full of nurses would be a stressful but manageable situation. (Wootson, 1/12)

Arizona Republic: Here's What We Still Need To Know About Hacienda HealthCare Sex Assault
A 29-year-old woman described as being "not alert" and needing a "maximum level of care" gave birth Dec. 29 to a boy at the Phoenix health-care facility Hacienda de los Angeles. Police were called, and the woman and her baby were taken to a hospital, where they were recuperating. Her family lawyer said the baby will be well cared for. Phoenix police were conducting a sexual-assault investigation, and multiple state agencies were involved.Here is what we know, plus some key unanswered questions. (Innes, 1/11)

The Associated Press: Lab Revokes Honors For Controversial DNA Scientist Watson
James Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning DNA scientist who lost his job in 2007 for expressing racist views, was stripped of several honorary titles Friday by the New York lab he once headed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory said it was reacting to Watson's remarks in a television documentary aired earlier this month. (Ritter, 1/11)

The New York Times: Lab Severs Ties With James Watson, Citing ‘Unsubstantiated And Reckless’ Remarks
Dr. Watson, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, had apologized after making similar comments to a British newspaper in 2007. At the time, he was forced to retire from his job as chancellor at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, but he has retained his office there, as well as the titles of chancellor emeritus, Oliver R. Grace professor emeritus and honorary trustee. The graduate school of biological sciences at the research center is named for Dr. Watson, and the laboratory held a 90th birthday party for him last spring. (Harmon, 1/11)

Stat: Lab Strips James Watson Of Final Roles After Continuing Racist Remarks 
The director of the documentary, which aired last week as part of the PBS “American Masters” series, asked Watson if he had changed his mind about his previous statements and writings on race and intelligence, which boil down to the claim that Africans and people of African descent have lower intelligence than other groups because of genetics. Watson declined that lifeline. (Begley, 1/11)

In other news —

The New York Times: Memorial Sloan Kettering Curbs Executives’ Ties To Industry After Conflict-Of-Interest Scandals
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s leading research institutions, announced on Friday that it would bar its top executives from serving on corporate boards of drug and health care companies that, in some cases, had paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Hospital officials also told the center’s staff that the executive board had made permanent a series of reforms designed to limit the ways in which its top executives and leading researchers could profit from work developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering, a nonprofit with a broad social mission that admits about 23,500 cancer patients each year. (Thomas and Ornstein, 1/11)

WBUR: What You Should Know About Using Naloxone
Should everyone carry naloxone? How long does it take it to work? Can you mess it up? Do people wake up agitated or even violent? And perhaps most importantly, how do you even know if someone is overdosing and needs it? (Wasser, 1/11)

Cincinnati Enquirer: St. Elizabeth Overdoses Plummet As Northern Kentucky Fights Epidemic
St. Elizabeth hospitals projected in a newly released report that its emergency-department staffs treated just more than 1,000 overdose cases in 2018. That compares to a little more than 2,000 overdose turnarounds a year before. (DeMio, 1/13)

Kaiser Health News: Meth’s Resurgence Spotlights Lack Of Meds To Combat The Addiction
In 2016, news reports warned the public of an opioid epidemic gripping the nation. But Madeline Vaughn, then a lead clinical intake coordinator at the Houston-based addiction treatment organization Council on Recovery, sensed something different was going on with the patients she checked in from the street. (Heredia Rodriguez, 1/14)

The New York Times: The Flu Is Widespread In The U.S., And It’s Not Too Late To Get Vaccinated
The flu season is going strong. About six million to seven million people in the United States have come down with the illness so far, with half of them sick enough to have seen doctors, according to estimates released on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 69,000 to 84,000 ended up in the hospital during the period from Oct. 1, 2018 through Jan. 5. (Grady, 1/11)

The Washington Post: The Flu Has Sickened About 7 Million In The U.S. So Far, CDC Estimates
“We decided that this year, we would try to release these preliminary numbers of illnesses each week so that we could give people a better picture,” said Alicia Fry, who heads the CDC’s epidemiology and prevention branch in the influenza division. The CDC releases a report each week on seasonal influenza in the United States, along with detailed graphs and charts. But until Friday, the reports did not provide data on how many people have gotten sick, gone to the doctor, been hospitalized or died. The agency released that information at the end of each season after analyzing the data. (Sun, 1/11)

The Associated Press: US Flu Season Poised To Be Milder Than Last Year's Harsh One
It's early, but the current flu season is shaping up to be gentler than last winter's unusually brutal one, U.S. health officials said. In most parts of the country, most illnesses right now are being caused by a flu strain that leads to fewer hospitalizations and deaths as the kind of flu that dominated a year ago, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines also work better against it, said the CDC's Dr. Alicia Fry. (1/11)

Stat: Up To 7 Million Have Had Flu This Season, CDC Says 
But the general public may not grasp the significance of the fact that in the last week of December, for instance, 4.1 percent of doctors office visits were for influenza-like symptoms. This week’s report — estimating that between 2.9 million and 3.5 million people have been to a doctor so far this season because they have the flu — makes more sense, officials believe. “It’s easier for people to understand,” Fry said. (Branswell, 1/11)

Ventura County Star: Why Vaccines And Medicines For 23,000 People May Not Have Worked
The odyssey that led to the Ventura County Health Care Agency’s jarring December announcement that as many as 23,000 flu shots, vaccinations and treatments may have been neutralized because drugs were too cold started with the discovery that many of the medicines were warm to the touch. In October 2017, county pharmacy leaders worried that many vaccines and other medicines were being disposed of because they were warming to room temperatures during their delivery from Ventura County Medical Center to a network of agency-affiliated clinics sprawled across the county. (Kisken, 1/11)

The Washington Post: Blood Donation Made Easier With App
It happens every two seconds: a person needs donated blood or platelets to survive a surgery, cancer treatment, a traumatic injury. But blood stocks aren’t always high enough, especially during the winter when the holidays and nasty weather make some donations drop off. And each year, only 3 percent of eligible donors actually give blood to the American Red Cross, the organization responsible for a 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply. (Blakemore, 1/12)

NPR: Get Fit — Faster: This 22-Minute Workout Has You Covered
Hard to fit exercise into your day? Then, maybe this workout is for you. It covers everything you need — from cardio to strength-training to stretching. "You can get a fantastic work out in 22 minutes," says Tim Church. He's a physician and researcher who's spent his career studying exercise. (Aubrey, 1/13)

ProPublica: Nation’s Largest Mental Health Organization Urges Supported Housing Reforms
The National Alliance on Mental Illness has asked U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to make “adjustments and modifications” to an ambitious plan to move mentally ill New Yorkers from troubled group homes into their own apartments, in a letter citing an investigation by ProPublica and Frontline. (Sapien, 1/14)

Stat: Science With Borders: A Debate Over National Rights Could Inhibit Research
There is something that is weighing heavily on the minds of some infectious diseases scientists these days. It’s not the challenging Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though that is deeply concerning. It’s not a new flu virus or slashed research budgets or laboratory safety violations. It’s an international treaty. More specifically, it’s an agreement within a treaty that could, depending on how negotiations play out, make it extraordinarily difficult to conduct disease surveillance or forge research collaborations around the world. (Branswell, 1/14)

Miami Herald: CDC: US Patients’ Mexican Surgeries Led To Deadly Infection
Nearly a dozen Americans who went to Tijuana recently for surgeries from cheaper Mexican hospitals came back with something else: deadly, drug-resistant infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns Americans to avoid a specific Mexican hospital and to take precautions so they don’t get infected by the antibiotic-resistant form of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. (Gilmour, 1/11)

The Washington Post: Why It’s Important For Experts To Admit They’re Wrong
Can you recognize — and admit — when you’re wrong? If not, you’re not alone, science reporter Brian Resnick writes in Vox. In “Intellectual humility: The importance of knowing you might be wrong,” he examines the roadblocks that keep people from admitting and learning from their mistakes. What’s more, he considers how humility can help science move forward, even when researchers’ results are disproved or deemed impossible to replicate. (Blakemore, 1/13)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How A 'Shared Despair' Affects Mental Health Of Georgia Tech Students.
Campuses across the country are grappling with a rise in suicides and depression. Today, suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. (Traffic accidents is first.) (Downey, 1/13)

Columbus Dispatch: Poor More Likely To Die From Cancer Than Rich Despite Overall Decline
While the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics 2019 report shows that the overall cancer death rate in the U.S. dropped 27 percent from 1991 to 2016, it also shows that disparities based on social and economic factors are increasing. During the five years ending in 2016, the cancer death rate was 20 percent higher in the nation’s poorest counties compared with its most affluent ones. (Viviano, 1/14)

The Washington Post: Americans Took More Than 26 Trillion Steps Last Year, According To Fitbit.
Health experts have been saying for years that the path to a healthy self starts with being physically active. Apparently, people have been listening. Americans wearing a fitness tracker, specifically a Fitbit device, took more than 26 trillion steps last year — actually, precisely 26,857,655,603,500 steps. They accomplished this over 118.9 billion minutes; they also slept 12.4 billion hours. Fitbit says its U.S. clients averaged 7,994 steps a day, ranking 33rd worldwide (Hong Kong residents topped the list, averaging 10,493 steps a day). (Searing, 1/12)

WBUR: Deaf And Unemployed: 1,000+ Applications But Still No Full-Time Job
Fewer than 40 percent of those with a hearing disability work full time, according to the Yang-Tan Institute at Cornell University's analysis of 2016 American Community Survey data. Despite improvements in technology and accommodations that are making it easier for deaf people to work and communicate, deaf job hunters say employers still don't believe they can do the work. (Morris, 1/12)

Tampa Bay Times: State And Federal Inspectors Visit All Children’s After Reports On Heart Surgery Deaths
State and federal inspectors descended on Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital this week, following sharp calls for an investigation into problems in the hospital’s heart surgery unit, the Tampa Bay Times has learned. The scope of the inspection is unclear. But hospital regulators had been criticized in recent weeks for their lax response to early signs of an increase in mortality at the hospital’s Heart Institute. (McGrory and Bedi, 1/11)

Boston Globe: Urgent Care Centers Proliferate In Mass., But Fewer Low-Income Patients Have Access
Most firms operating urgent care centers report that only a small percent of their business comes from patients on Medicaid, known here as MassHealth. And it remains unclear what effect these centers have on the overall health care marketplace. Do they help contain spending by diverting patients from emergency rooms? Or do they add to costs by encouraging new visits? (Kowalczyk and Dayal McCluskey, 1/13)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana To Spend $500K To Keep Suicide Prevention Hotline Running 
In a first for Louisiana, the state has agreed to spend more than a half-million dollars over the next three years bolstering New Orleans-based nonprofit Via Link’s efforts to answer local calls to the heavily used National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The contract with the state’s Office of Behavioral Health was finalized in October, a month after NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune first reported Via Link was close to shutting down the crisis line, which for the last 12 years had been funded almost exclusively by private donations as it took on a growing number of calls from Louisiana area codes. (Bullington, 1/11)

The Hill: American Being Monitored For Ebola Released From Hospital 
An American physician who was potentially exposed to Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was released from the hospital Saturday. The doctor arrived to the U.S. on Dec. 29 and had been at a secure area at the University of Nebraska until Saturday. (Romero, 1/12)

Texas Tribune: Health Care Issues To Expect This Texas Legislative Session
Texas is leading the charge in a federal lawsuit seeking to end the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” arguing the law is no longer constitutional after Congress ended the individual mandate. The state also has the highest uninsured rate among adults in the country and the largest number of children without health insurance. But amid uncertainty about the federal health law, state legislators will tackle a variety of issues during the session, from abortion to mental health to opioids to funding for Medicaid. (Evans, 1/14)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Coalition To Propose Lead-Safe Ballot Initiative, Citing Inaction By Public Officials
A coalition of community groups fed up with waiting for public officials to take action says it is gearing up to propose a ballot initiative in Cleveland to “protect tenants from lead poisoning.” The coalition, called CLASH -- Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing – includes Cleveland Lead Safe Network (CLSN), which assembled the coalition, Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus(CCPC), Black Lives Matter of Cuyahoga County, Organize! Ohio and the Cleveland Democratic Socialists of America. (Dissell and Zeltner, 1/11)

The Associated Press: Tennessee Scientists Weighed Response To Anti-Vax Politician
What should a state health department do when its newly elected congressman gets a rush of social media attention for challenging the science behind vaccines? Department of Health officials in Tennessee struggled on the best way to respond after Republican Rep. Mark Green told a town hall meeting last month, without citing evidence, that vaccines cause autism. Green also claimed that the federal government was hiding information about the negative side effects of vaccines. (1/11)

KCUR: Hospital In Hillsboro, Kansas, Averts Shutoff Of Lights After Paying Delinquent Utility Bill 
An eleventh-hour payment of $16,644 for delinquent utility bills averted a threatened cutoff of electricity at tiny Hillsboro Community Hospital in central Kansas. The city, 50 miles north of Wichita and home to about 3,000 people, said in a brief news release that it gave notice to the hospital on Jan. 8 that it would shut off utilities effective at noon Friday. It received the payment in the morning. (Margolies, 1/11)

The Wall Street Journal: CEO Of PG&E Steps Down Amid California Wildfire Crisis
PG&E Corp. said Sunday that Chief Executive Geisha Williams was stepping down as the company grapples with the growing political and financial fallout of its role in helping spark California wildfires. (Blunt and Gold, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: PG&E Chief Executive Geisha Williams Leaves As Utility Readies For Possible Bankruptcy
"While we are making progress as a company in safety and other areas, the board recognizes the tremendous challenges PG&E continues to face,” said board Chairman Richard C. Kelly, in the statement. “We believe John is the right interim leader for the company while we work to identify a new CEO. Our search is focused on extensive operational and safety expertise, and the board is committed to further change at PG&E.” (1/13)

Texas Tribune: Texas' Rainy Day Fund Might Go To School Security, Harvey Recovery
At a public hearing, House and Senate leaders listed myriad needs they could pay for out of the savings account, including leftover costs from Hurricane Harvey, a bill coming due for retired teachers’ pensions and unspecified public school safety improvements. That savings account, known formally as the Economic Stabilization Fund and colloquially as the rainy day fund, is projected to reach an unprecedented $15 billion in the coming budget cycle if left untouched. (Walters, 1/11)

Health News Florida: DeSantis Offers ‘Bold’ Plan To Address Water Woes
Gov. Ron DeSantis, appearing in areas hit hard by outbreaks of toxic algae and red tide, signed an executive order Thursday expanding state efforts to improve Florida’s troubled waters. And while he took shots from environmentalists on the campaign trail last year when arguing that climate change is not a problem for state government to alleviate, DeSantis said Thursday his approach will rely on “sound science.” (Turner, 1/11)

Tampa Bay Times: The New Smoking Ban Frontier: Removing Butts From Beaches
Now that indoor smoking bans have largely succeeded, anti-tobacco forces are turning their attention to outdoor spots such as beaches and parks. But their argument is no longer focused on the health effects of second-hand smoke. Instead, measures like SB 218 by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, are about eliminating litter — getting butts off beaches. (Pittman, 1/11)

The Star Tribune: Twin Cities Employers Dabble With Tighter Health Care Networks 
Bloomington-based HealthPartners has carved out space within two existing clinics solely for subscribers who pick “SmartCare,” a new employee health plan with a relatively limited network of doctors and hospitals. Starting this month, four employers in the Twin Cities are offering the new program, which steers workers to the newly created Maplewood and St. Paul clinics plus an existing medical office in St. Louis Park for primary care. (Snowbeck, 1/12)

Ventura County Star: Thousand Oaks Man Offers Thanks For Blood That Saved His Life
Without the blood and platelets, Tyler Bacon would have died. It’s neither complicated nor nuanced. It’s as real as the acute myeloid leukemia diagnosed in Bacon’s blood more than two years ago. If donors hadn’t bared their arms, hadn’t made the long trek to the UCLA Blood & Platelet Center, the onetime pro basketball player from Thousand Oaks wouldn’t have a shot at his goal of dunking a basketball at age 40. ...Every year, leaders of the UCLA blood center track down otherwise confidential information and, with the permission of the participants, reunite donors with the person who benefited from their blood and platelets. (Kisken, 1/11)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Hospital Construction In The Richmond Area: A Half Billion Dollars Worth Of Projects In Progress Or In The Pipeline
VCU Health System’s $350 million outpatient medical building under construction is the biggest of those projects, but even with that, the health system has more in the pipeline. A master planning document in draft stages shows new inpatient facilities on the health’s system’s downtown Richmond campus. (Smith, 1/11)

Tampa Bay Times: A Deadly Toll: Hillsborough Leads The State As Number Of Child Drownings Spikes
Every year, Florida's treasure of coastlines, rivers, natural springs and backyard swimming pools prove lethal to children. Nowhere was that more true than in Hillsborough County last year, where the number of drownings spiked to 11, the highest in the state and more than the previous two years combined. (O'Donnell, 1/14)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Recalls Marijuana Products For Mold, Bacteria
Michigan regulators are recalling marijuana products sold at dispensaries in Detroit and Kalamazoo after failing lab tests for mold and bacteria. The products were sold at the Green Mile on Eight Mile Road in Detroit and Compassionate Care by Design in Kalamazoo. Additionally, regulators announced late Friday the recall of marijuana sold in Lansing because of chemical and bacterial contamination.  (Walker and Zaniewski, 1/11)

Boston Globe: What’s In A Name: Marijuana Companies Hope To Break Through The Haze
As more cannabis businesses emerge in Massachusetts, they face one of the most important tasks of starting up: choosing a name. From 2014 through November, most marijuana firms in the state were medical dispensaries that, in picking their appellations, sought to avoid stoner stereotypes and evoke professionalism and health, leading to such names as Alternative Therapies Group, New England Treatment Access, and Theory Wellness. (Martin, 1/14)

The Washington Post: This Is Why The Federal Government Has A Hard Time Regulating Prescription Opioids
This past week, President Trump argued on national television that to end the opioid epidemic, Congress needed to fund the building of a wall at the United States’ southern border. What he didn’t discuss was the fact that most opioid abuse and addiction begins with legal medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin. And regulating those prescriptions is complicated. (Herschel Nachlis, 1/13)

The New York Times: Another Family Separation
Lindsey Jarratt’s son, Brayden, was a year old when the Child Protective Services of Dinwiddie, Va., took him to live with strangers. There are things about the months surrounding that moment that Ms. Jarratt can’t remember — heroin has a way of erasing time. But this much is still etched in her mind: how he screamed and sobbed, the way his baby fists clutched at the nape of her shirt, the feel of his tiny body pressed so desperately against hers that the two had to be pried apart. (Jeneen Interlandi, 1/13)

Stat: For Minority Students, The Pipeline To An M.D. Is Leaky
The population of physicians in the U.S. should look like the population as a whole. But it doesn’t. African-Americans and Hispanics now make up about 31 percent of the U.S. population, but comprise just 15 percent of this year’s first-year medical students. That number would be higher if we could figure out how to keep potential medical students from falling through the leaks in the pipeline from grammar school to medical school and beyond. The leaks are everywhere. Lack of family support: drip. Low-functioning schools: drip. Little guidance or support from teachers: drip. No role models or mentors: drip. (Paula MaGee, 1/14)

The Hill: How A Pro-Vaccine Doctor Reopened Debate About Link To Autism
A world-renowned pro-vaccine medical expert is the newest voice adding to the body of evidence suggesting that vaccines can cause autism in certain susceptible children.Pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman originally served as the expert medical witness for the government, which defends vaccines in federal vaccine court. He had testified that vaccines do not cause autism in specific patients. Dr. Zimmerman now has signed a bombshell sworn affidavit. He says that, during a group of 5,000 vaccine-autism cases being heard in court on June 15, 2007, he took aside the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers he worked for defending vaccines and told them he’d discovered “exceptions in which vaccinations could cause autism.” (Sharyl Atkisson, 1/13)

The Washington Post: How ‘Traditional Masculinity’ Hurts The Men Who Believe In It Most
My grandfather is traditionally masculine in most senses of the word: He was a soldier, then a bait-shop owner, then a garbage collector; he rose before dawn most days of his life and I never heard him complain about it. He raised six good kids, he tells funny one-liners, he’s an expert fisherman. He once refused over-the-counter pain meds even while at death’s door. I’ve been thinking about him lately, for reasons I’ll get to in a bit. (Monica Hesse, 1/13)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Will Never Stop Fighting To Protect Patients’ Lives
There are few better ways to start the New Year than by welcoming a historic number of women, including a historic number of women of color, to the 116th United States Congress. More than ever, this House looks like the America it’s meant to serve — diverse and overwhelmingly supportive of access to reproductive health care. (Leana Wed, 1/13)

The Washington Post: How Different Cultures Shape Children’s Personalities In Different Ways
As early as the fifth century B.C., the Greek historian Thucydides contrasted the self-control and stoicism of Spartans with the more indulgent and freethinking citizens of Athens. Today, unique behaviors and characteristics seem ingrained in certain cultures. Italians wildly gesticulate when they talk. Dutch children are notably easygoing and less fussy. Russians rarely smile in public. (Samuel Putnam and Masha A. Gartstein, 1/12)

The Hill: An Easy, Free Way To Lower Health-Care Costs For Millions Of Americans
In October, the Trump administration proposed a new rule that would expand the ways employers can use health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to provide their employees with high-quality, low-cost health coverage. The United States Department of the Treasury estimates that once the new rules go into effect, 800,000 employers will take advantage of HRAs, which could affect coverage for more than 10 million employees. (Lee Gross, 1/13)

Chicago Sun Times: Illinois Prisoner Health Care: End The Foot-Dragging On Improvement
Illinois prison inmates, regardless of why they’re doing time, should not have to worry that substandard medical care will turn out to be a slow-motion death penalty. Fortunately, a federal judge on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a consent decree that will bring in a court-appointed expert to oversee an overhaul of health care in state prisons. (1/12)

USA Today: An Incapacitated Woman Gets Pregnant And No One Notices?
There is one piece of good news in the stunner of a story of a woman who gave birth last month despite spending the last decade incapacitated at a Phoenix long-term care facility. A healthy baby boy is now in the arms of his family, members of the San Carlos Apache tribe."The family obviously is outraged, traumatized and in shock by the abuse and neglect of their daughter at Hacienda Healthcare … ," the family's attorney, John Micheals, said in a statement. "The family would like me to convey that the baby boy has been born into a loving family and will be well cared for." (Laurie Roberts, 1/13)

Kansas City Star: Kansas Legislature’s Agenda: Schools, Foster Care, Medicaid
Medicaid expansion: Kansas should extend Medicaid health insurance coverage as allowed under the Affordable Care Act. Expanding Medicaid would help working Kansans and their children, improve mental health treatment and boost struggling rural hospitals. It’s possible Medicaid expansion can be accomplished without a significant impact on the state’s budget. And some Republicans seem willing to listen to expansion ideas, as long as the money is directed to rural areas. That’s encouraging. (1/13)

Dallas Morning News: Offshoring Over 1,000 Health Care Jobs? That’s Coming Soon At Dallas-Based Tenet
Tenet Healthcare, one of the country’s largest for-profit hospital systems, has a new plan to accelerate its turnaround: Send a bunch of jobs out of the country. At an investor conference last week and during an interview in Dallas, officials said the company is looking “aggressively” at offshoring jobs. And the action won’t be limited to Conifer, its revenue billing operation in Frisco, which would seem a prime target. (Mitchell Schnurman, 1/13)