The Washington Post: ‘It Feels Like We Are Still Hostages’: Federal Contractors Who Lost Health Insurance During Shutdown Remain In Limbo
Janice Morgan, a federal contractor out of work because of the government shutdown, spent part of January fearing that she might finally lose her husband, Milton, to his battle with multiple sclerosis. He was in intensive care. An infection had sent his heart rate and blood pressure soaring. And when she tried nine days ago to fill his prescription for a $7,600-a-month medication, another blow came: Her insurance coverage had been canceled. Morgan called her boss, the president of Unispec Enterprises, a contracting firm that provides personnel to government agencies. He told her that the shutdown had left him unable to pay the company’s premiums. Soon, all 75 of Unispec’s technical writers, data analysts and economists — most of whom have their coverage through the firm — would learn of the lapse in an email. (Davis and Satija, 1/27)

The New York Times: ‘Our Country Is Being Run By Children’: Shutdown’s End Brings Relief And Frustration
Some cried with relief. Their 35-day nightmare of missing bill payments, working without paychecks, asking strangers for money and visiting food pantries was finally ending. But many of the federal workers who have been furloughed or working for free since December were leery of the three-week deal reached on Friday to reopen the government. New worries gnawed: How long before they got paid? Would federal contractors see even a dime of back pay? (Healy, Taylor and Bernard, 1/25)

The Washington Post: FDA Identifies Contamination Source In Blood Pressure Medicines Used By Millions
Federal regulators say they’ve identified the source of the cancer-causing impurities that have tainted millions of bottles of commonly used generic blood pressure and heart failure medications recalled by drugmakers over the last seven months. The carcinogens are a chemical byproduct of the process used to synthesize the active ingredient in the drugs, which include valsartan, losartan and irbesartan. People who take those drugs may have been exposed to trace amounts of impurities for at least four years, after a switch in how companies manufactured the active ingredient, according to the Food and Drug Administration. (Johnson, 1/25)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Says Up To Two Million People Exposed To Likely Carcinogens In Blood-Pressure Drugs
Half or more of the patients taking the common hypertension medicines are in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration officials said. The drugs are certain lots of some manufacturers’ products, including generic drugs going by the names valsartan, irbesartan and losartan. Not all generic products are affected, nor are the brand-name versions of the medicines, called Diovan, Avapro and Cozaar. The FDA’s website contains details about which lots and companies are affected. The number of generic-drug versions that contain the class of chemicals, called nitrosamines, has been increasing since the issue first surfaced last summer. (Burton, 1/25)

The Hill: Trump Donates $100,000 From Salary To Alcoholism Research
The president's older brother, Fred Trump Jr., died of alcoholism-related complications in 1981, a death that the president has frequently cited as a reason why he does not drink and has not engaged in recreational drug use. Trump pledged in 2016 to donate his $400,000 presidential salary if he won the White House, and has since donated the paycheck in installments to various government agencies. (Bowden, 1/26)

The Associated Press: Trump Donates $100,000 From Salary To Alcoholism Research
President Donald Trump has donated his salary from the third-quarter of 2018 to the federal agency that researches alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. The White House says Trump donated $100,000 to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcoholism is a personal issue for the president. His older brother, Fred Jr., died in 1981 after struggling with alcoholism, and the president has said he learned from his brother's experience. (1/25)

Boston Globe: Opioid Company Executives Set To Go On Trial In Boston Monday
John N. Kapoor, a onetime billionaire and founder of Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics, is scheduled to go on trial in US District Court in Boston along with four former company executives on charges that they acted more like mobsters than pharmaceutical executives when they sold a brand of fentanyl, a powerful and addictive opioid. In a trial expected to last up to three months, federal prosecutors will try to convince a jury that the five defendants paid bribes and kickbacks to physicians in a nationwide racketeering conspiracy. The payments allegedly induced doctors to prescribe Subsys, an under-the-tongue fentanyl spray approved to treat severe cancer-related pain, for patients who hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer. (Saltzman and Cramer, 1/28)

Bloomberg: Fraud Trial May Make Ex-Insys CEO Kapoor Face Of Opioid Crisis 
The first prosecution of a pharmaceutical company chief executive tied to opioid overdoses begins this week, when Insys Therapeutics Inc.’s John Kapoor goes on trial. The fallout may jolt an industry facing steep penalties for its own role in the crisis. Kapoor, 75, is accused of masterminding illegal marketing tactics that contributed to an epidemic of addiction and death. A onetime billionaire who rose from modest means in India, he’s on trial for using speakers’ fees, dinners and cash to lure doctors into prescribing a highly addictive opioid painkiller meant solely for cancer patients. (Feeley, Griffin and Lawrence, 1/27)

The Associated Press: Families Hoping For Justice From Prescription Bribes Trial
Drug company executives weren't satisfied with sales for their powerful painkiller, so they devised a plan, prosecutors say: Offer cash to doctors in exchange for prescriptions. Soon, the highly addictive fentanyl spray was flourishing, and executives were raking in millions. Now, the company's wealthy founder is heading to trial in a case that's putting a spotlight on the federal government's efforts to go after those it says are responsible for fueling the deadly drug crisis. (Richer, 1/25)

Stat: Judge To Rule Next Week On Disclosing Claims About Purdue Pharma 
A Massachusetts judge said Friday she would rule by early next week on a request from media organizations, including STAT and the Boston Globe, to make public redacted portions of a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office against Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin and other opioid painkillers. The Connecticut company’s aggressive and misleading marketing of OxyContin has been blamed by addiction experts for helping spawn the opioid addiction crisis. Outside the Boston courthouse Friday, families of people who became addicted to opioids after taking Purdue’s medications rallied, with some calling for criminal charges against the company. (Joseph, 1/25)

The Associated Press: Ohio Doc's License Suspended Amid Review Of Hospital Deaths
Ohio's medical board on Friday suspended the license of a doctor accused of ordering excessive and possibly fatal pain medicine for dozens of hospital patients without their families' knowledge. William Husel invoked his right against self-incrimination when he met with board representatives this week and was questioned, including when he was asked whether he purposefully ordered excessive doses to end patients' lives, according to the board's notification letter. (1/25)

The Associated Press: Timeline Shows Investigation Of Alleged Pain Meds Overdosing
Investigations are underway into allegations that a doctor working for an Ohio hospital system ordered inappropriately high doses of pain medication to dozens of patients, leading to the deaths of at least 28 people at two hospitals. A review of events so far based on information provided by Mount Carmel Hospital System, details in lawsuits and accounts from patients' family members. (Welsh-Huggins, 1/26)

Sacramento Bee: Nurse Accused Of Selling 20,000 Opioid Pills Online
Federal agents have arrested a Rancho Cordova nurse in what they describe as a scheme to run an online pharmacy that sold more than 20,000 opioid prescription pills to customers nationwide using dark web internet accounts. Carrie Alaine Markis, 46, was arrested Thursday on charges of conspiracy and distribution of fentanyl and was being held without bail in the Sacramento County Main Jail. (Stanton, 1/25)

The Associated Press: Moms Of The Dead From Drugs: 'Where Is The Outrage For Us?'
The moms meet in a parking lot overlooking the little white funeral home and watch the mourners drifting toward the chapel doors — a familiar scene, beginning again. Cheryl Juaire taps nervously on her steering wheel. "Are we ready?" she asks the two other mothers leaning into the window of her SUV. (Galofaro, 1/28)

The Associated Press: After The Overdose: A Family's Journey Into Grief And Guilt
There is nothing left to do, no more frantic phone calls to make, no begging or fighting that can fix this because the worst thing that could happen already has, so Doug Biggers settles into his recliner and braces for his daughter's voice to echo through his head. "Keep going, Daddy," she's saying. It's been months since they knelt over his 20-year-old son on the bedroom floor. But in these quiet moments, her words haunt him. "Don't give up," she'd said as he thrust down on his son's chest — his skin already blue, his hands already clenched. (1/28)

The Associated Press: Q&A: Feds Tackle Opioid Epidemic, But Is It Helping?
President Donald Trump has declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency and urged prosecutors to seek the death penalty against drug dealers. Congress has provided targeted grants for treatment, recovery and prevention and made numerous policy changes to help people struggling with addiction get access to services. From the National Institutes of Health to Veterans Affairs and the Agriculture Department, government agencies are deploying their own specialized skills. Still, the addiction crisis will not easily release its grip on the nation, even as progress is made providing resources and improving coordination. (1/28)

NPR: Big Hike In Benzodiazepine Prescriptions Traced To Primary Care Providers
The percentage of outpatient medical visits that led to a benzodiazepine prescription doubled from 2003 to 2015, according to a study published Friday. And about half those prescriptions came from primary care physicians. This class of drugs includes the commonly used medications Valium, Ativan and Xanax. While benzodiazepines are mostly prescribed for anxiety, insomnia and seizures, the study found that the biggest rise in prescriptions during this time period was for back pain and other types of chronic pain. The findings appear online in JAMA Network Open. (Chatterjee, 1/25)

The New York Times: Balancing The Risks And Benefits Of Opioids For Children
In a new survey of more than 1,000 parents by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, more than half were worried about opioid addiction, but almost two-thirds thought that opioids were the most effective pain medications for a child to take after a fracture or an operation. Experts in pediatric pain want parents to understand that there are effective alternative pain management strategies for many situations, and they should review them carefully with their children’s doctors. (Klass, 1/28)

Stat: Walgreens Shareholders Want To Know How The Retailer Manages Opioid Risks
Reflecting growing concern over the opioid crisis, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) shareholders voted in favor of a proposal calling for the company to issue a regular report on how it manages the risk of distributing these addictive prescription painkillers, according to preliminary results. The proposal requires the pharmacy chain to prepare a report by June 30 detailing any changes the company has made to corporate governance since 2012 concerning opioid sales. The report should include specific board oversight of programs pertaining to opioids and whether and how executive compensation has been changed to reflect incentives. (Silverman, 1/25)

Columbus Dispatch: Overdose Deaths Falling Throughout Ohio, But Not In Franklin County
The Buckeye State’s drop of 21.4 percent was the biggest in the nation in a new provisional count of fatal overdoses from July 2017 through June 2018 released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...And records for all of 2018 from several large counties contacted by The Dispatch show decreases approaching 50 percent — although Franklin County does not appear to be sharing that downward trend. (Candisky and Rowland, 1/27)

Tampa Bay Times: Needle Exchange In Florida Gains New Support To Go Statewide
Bills have been filed in Tallahassee for the upcoming legislative session to expand the simple exchange program that advocates say has combated the spread of HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis through dirty needles and saved lives. The program signed up its 1,000th participant in January and has reported at least 1,075 overdose reversals, according to a letter sent to the Department of Health. (Koh, 1/27)

Modern Healthcare: Savings, Disruption Threat Pushing Providers Into Home Dialysis 
In an era when just about every medical treatment that can be done at home is moving in that direction, only about 12% of patients receiving kidney dialysis do so at home, despite it being cheaper and research showing it's just as safe. There are a host of reasons why. Most people cite physicians' lack of training on home dialysis and their resulting reluctance to suggest it. Sometimes patients themselves are too sick or overwhelmed to take on that task. (Bannow, 1/26)

Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Balance Core Operations With New Ventures 
Healthcare providers—and all businesses for that matter—constantly debate whether to make short-term investments to maintain their core business or to put profits toward alternative revenue sources that hold potential long-term returns. Those questions are even more pressing as health systems' expenses climb and revenue falls. They're also grappling with the reality of the hospital's diminishing role as care—and revenue—shift to the ambulatory space. Investment income is keeping hospitals viable while operating margins wane, but spinning off new ventures can also be a potential buffer. (Kacik, 1/26)

Kaiser Health News: In Search Of Financial Donors, Hospitals Screen Patients For Wealth, Deep Pockets
Nonprofit hospitals across the United States are seeking donations from the people who rely on them most: their patients. Many hospitals conduct nightly wealth screenings — using software that culls public data such as property records, contributions to political campaigns and other charities — to gauge which patients are most likely to be the source of large donations.Those who seem promising targets for fundraising may receive a visit from a hospital executive in their rooms, as well as extra amenities like a bathrobe or a nicer waiting area for their families. (Galewitz, 1/28)

CNN: Courts Say Anti-Abortion 'Heartbeat Bills' Are Unconstitutional. So Why Do They Keep Coming?
Time and again, when it's introduced in a state legislature, the bill is touted as the most restrictive in the nation. It's often referred to as a "heartbeat bill" and seeks to ban abortions at the time when a fetus' heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy -- before many women even know that they are pregnant. But just as often as they are introduced, these bills get stymied. They are held up in committees, rejected in legislative votes, vetoed by governors and struck down in courts. Not one state has managed to put a heartbeat bill into lasting practice. (Ravitz, 1/26)

CNN: New York Abortion Measure: State Moves To Protect Access To Abortion Even If Roe V. Wade Is Overturned
On the 46th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, New York state passed a law to protect women's access to abortion if the historic case is overturned. "Today we are taking a giant step forward in the hard-fought battle to ensure a woman's right to make her own decisions about her own personal health, including the ability to access an abortion. With the signing of this bill, we are sending a clear message that whatever happens in Washington, women in New York will always have the fundamental right to control their own body," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo after signing New York's Reproductive Health Act on Tuesday night. (Marco, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: After Abortion Vote, Progressive Activists Remind Lawmakers They Are Watching
The same activists who pushed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into office and helped oust members of the state Senate’s former Independent Democratic Conference have a message for lawmakers: We’re still watching. Leaders of groups like No IDC NY and other progressive community organizations, many energized by the election of Donald Trump, immediately reacted last week when State Sen. Joe Addabbo broke ranks with his Democratic colleagues and voted against the Reproductive Health Act. (Vielkind, 1/27)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana’s Remaining Abortion Clinics Face Closure Under New Law 
A Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges in nearby hospitals was to go into effect Monday (Jan. 28) after a federal appeals court decided this week against reconsidering a decision that upheld the law. On Friday, the 5th Circuit also quickly denied a motion seeking a delay in the effective date. That motion, however, triggered a seven-day delay under court rules. The law is now set to take effect on Feb. 4. (Clark, 1/25)

Boston Globe: In Mass. And Beyond, An Effort To Bolster Access To Abortion
Reproductive rights advocates in Massachusetts and across the country are launching aggressive campaigns for the new year to bolster access to abortion services in left-leaning states, in anticipation of further restrictions in conservative ones. The effort is part of a nationwide strategy by groups, including Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and NARAL Pro-Choice, to create safe havens for women seeking abortion services at a time when a newly conservative Supreme Court could overturn the 46-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal. (Ebbert, 1/28)

The New York Times: Don’t Kiss Your Pet Hedgehogs, C.D.C. Warns
Hedgehog owners should refrain from kissing their small, spiky friends, health officials said on Friday. Since October, 11 people across eight states have been infected with a particular strain of salmonella, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, and all but one of those infected said they had contact with a hedgehog. “Don’t kiss or snuggle hedgehogs because this can spread salmonella germs to your face and mouth and make you sick,” the agency warned. (Jacobs, 1/27)

The Washington Post: ‘Don’t Kiss Or Snuggle Hedgehogs’ Because Of Salmonella Risk, CDC Warns
If you do touch a hedgehog or clean its supplies, wash your hands immediately afterward. And don’t clean your hedgehog’s cage or toys in the same place you prepare human food. This may be a tall order for a new crop of hedgehog owners eager to cuddle with their new pets. Just last week, hedgehogs were legalized as household pets in Fairfax County. ...They are legal in most of the United States — but remain banned in California, Georgia, Hawaii, New York City, Pennsylvania and the nation’s capital, according to the Hedgehog Welfare Society. (Wang, 1/26)

Reuters: The Digital Drug: Internet Addiction Spawns U.S. Treatment Programs
When Danny Reagan was 13, he began exhibiting signs of what doctors usually associate with drug addiction. He became agitated, secretive and withdrew from friends. He had quit baseball and Boy Scouts, and he stopped doing homework and showering. But he was not using drugs. He was hooked on YouTube and video games, to the point where he could do nothing else. As doctors would confirm, he was addicted to his electronics. (1/27)

The New York Times: These Patients Had Sickle-Cell Disease. Experimental Therapies Might Have Cured Them.
Scientists have long known what causes sickle-cell disease and its devastating effects: a single mutation in one errant gene. But for decades, there has been only modest progress against an inherited condition that mainly afflicts people of African descent. With advances in gene therapy, that is quickly changing — so much so that scientists have begun to talk of a cure. (Kolata, 1/27)

Politico: What A Medical School On A Rwandan Hilltop Can Teach The United States
Three hours along a bumpy dirt road from the capital of Rwanda, a new medical school is emerging from the unlikeliest of places — a small hilltop in the poor farming village of Butaro. The school’s name reveals its ambitious mission: The University of Global Health Equity. It aims to transform both medical education and medical care for the rural poor in central Africa and to serve as a model for more equitable health care around the globe. The new university is setting out to achieve this from the poorest part of Rwanda, a nation still recovering and rebuilding from genocide and civil war a quarter-century ago. (Karlin-Smith, 1/27)

The Associated Press: Companies Navigate Dementia Conversations With Older Workers
Faced with an aging American workforce, companies are increasingly navigating delicate conversations with employees grappling with cognitive declines, experts say. Workers experiencing early stages of dementia may struggle with tasks they had completed without difficulty. Historically punctual employees may forget about scheduled meetings. And those who have traveled to the same office day after day, sometimes for years on end, may begin to lose their way during their morning commutes. (Soergel, 1/28)

The Washington Post: How To Avoid Getting A Cold This Winter
“Don’t go outside with wet hair, you’ll catch a cold!” “Take vitamin C to ward off the sniffles.” “Stay inside during cold season.” Chances are, you’ve heard these words of advice before, probably from your parents when you were little. Indeed, a survey published last week, shows that many parents have tried these strategies to keep their kids from getting sick — even though little evidence exists that they work. (Rettner, 1/26)

The Washington Post: Child's Cold Could Be Often Overlooked Infection RSV
Our holiday season was a symphony of sneezes. It’s inevitable, we joked, as family members from as far away as Illinois and Italy joined our celebrations in suburban Philadelphia. We added packages of colorful tissues to last-minute shopping lists, drank ginger tea with lemon and recalled wryly how much worse it was a few years back when three generations in close quarters shared a stomach bug. (Sellers, 1/26)

Georgia Health News: Predicting Pandemics: It’s Not Easy, But Researchers Are Trying
Scientists, frustrated with insufficient prediction models, are more frequently turning to Twitter posts and Google searches to monitor in real time how viruses like seasonal influenza and other communicable diseases may spread. But it’s complicated. As experts look at everything from local health reports to search engine statistics and complex algorithms, there remains only cautious optimism about progress. (Dhapte, 1/25)

The Washington Post: Fascia Encases Tissues And Organs And May Have Widespread Effects
Americans, who spend about $8 billion a year in massage and chiropractic treatments to relieve pain, may have no idea that they’re all probably experiencing the same thing — a manipulation of their fascia, a three-tiered layer of tissue that encases tissues and organs. Although some people who are kneaded, stretched, or cracked may have a vague notion that fascia exists, they probably don’t know much about their fascia — or understand why it even matters. Some in the scientific and medical communities think the same way. (Damiani and Spiker, 1/26)

NPR: Giving A Name To Your Anger May Help You Tame It
Over the past three years, I've had one major goal in my personal life: To stop being so angry. Anger has been my emotional currency. I grew up in an angry home. Door slamming and phone throwing were basic means of communication. I brought these skills to my 20-year marriage. "Why are you yelling?" my husband would say. "I'm not," I'd retort. Oh wait. On second thought: "You're right. I am yelling." (Doucleff, 1/28)

WBUR: New Study Provides 1st In-Depth Look At Severity Of Electric Scooter Accidents
Researchers at UCLA have found that 1 in 3 people in the Santa Monica, California, area involved in an electric scooter accident were hurt so severely, they needed to be transported to an emergency room by ambulance. ...The study found less than 5 percent of the patients wore helmets while riding, signaling a low rider adherence to the safety protocols — such as wearing a helmet — that e-scooter companies recommend. (Mullins, 1/25)

Los Angeles Times: School Homicides Have Become More Common And More Deadly, CDC Data Show
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms what too many students across the country already know: The incidence of mass homicides on school campuses has risen steeply in recent years, as has their toll. Between 1994 and 2018, there were 38 school rampages that resulted in multiple fatalities. Five of those occurred during the 2017-2018 academic year, which ended in June, and three others were in the 2016-2017 school year, according to a study in Friday’s edition of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Healy, 1/25)

In related news —

CNN: Handguns Are More Popular In US Homes, With Deadly Consequences For Children, Study Says
Fewer Americans are likely to own a gun now than 40 years ago, but those who do are more likely to own handguns over rifles or shotguns. As the proportion of those with handguns has increased, so has the number of children under the age of 5 who are dying from firearm injuries, according to a new study. (Bracho-Sanchez, 1/28)

The Washington Post: The Odd, Often Unhealthy, Weight-Loss Methods Of The Past Included Smoking Cigarettes And Eating Tapeworms.
Welcome to diet season, that time of year when people are looking for a reset after the overconsumption of the holidays. There is a smorgasbord of choices for those who are looking to lose weight or stave off a winter doldrums gain, and a few of them actually do work. Some of the trendiest weight-loss schemes, from intermittent fasting to Tom Brady’s alkaline diet, might seem a bit odd or excessive — until you consider some of the crazy or even dangerous things (tapeworms anyone?) we’ve done in the past to lose weight. (Bruno, 1/27)

The New York Times: For Real Weight Control, Try Portion Control
Unlike the myriad diet fads that have yet to stem the ever-increasing girth of American men and women, what Dr. Young describes is not a diet but a practical approach to food and eating that can be adapted to almost any way of life, even if most meals are eaten out or taken out. It is not prescriptive or even proscriptive. It does not cut out any category of food, like carbohydrates or fats, nor does it deprive people of their favorite foods, including sweet treats. (Brody, 1/28)

The Washington Post: Whole Foods Spinach Recall: Possible Salmonella Linked To Satur Farms.
The grocery chain Whole Foods on Wednesday announced a voluntary recall of numerous prepared food items containing baby spinach because of possible salmonella contamination. Whole Foods said in a notice the potentially contaminated products were sold in eight states and contain baby spinach and mesclun from Satur Farms — a Cutchogue, N.Y., supplier that initiated the recall. (Brice-Saddler, 1/25)

The Associated Press: Measles Outbreak Grows In Northwest US, 31 Cases Reported
The number of confirmed measles cases near Portland grew to 31 on Friday — an outbreak boosted by lower-than-normal vaccination rates in what has been called an anti-vaccination U.S. "hot spot." Public health officials in southwest Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, said people may have been exposed to the dangerous disease at more than three dozen locations, including Portland International Airport, a Portland Trail Blazers game, an Amazon Locker location and stores such as Costco and Ikea. (1/25)

The Hill: Measles Outbreak Grows In Pacific Northwest Anti-Vaccination 'Hot Spot'
Twenty-one of the cases were in children under 10 years old. Officials reported that there are eight cases of measles in teenagers and one who is an adult. (Rodrigo, 1/26)

Seattle Times: Inslee Declares State Of Emergency Over Washington Measles Outbreak 
With an outbreak of measles centered in Clark County, Gov. Jay Inslee Friday announced a state of emergency, calling the situation an “extreme public-health risk that may quickly spread to other counties.” As of Friday afternoon, there were 30 confirmed cases in Clark County, and a single known case in King County after a man in his 50s contracted measles and was hospitalized after a recent trip to Vancouver, according to the state Department of Health (DOH). Clark County Public Health reports an additional nine suspected measles cases. (Goldstein-Street, 1/25)

The Oregonian: Vancouver-Area Measles: Low Vaccination Rates Made Outbreak ‘Inevitable’ 
Alan Melnick is frustrated and open to new ideas. The Clark County health officer and his staff are on the fourth week of a public health crisis that Washington hasn’t seen before and he suspects that the measles outbreak that has already claimed 23 people at that point will only grow larger for the foreseeable future. But what has him so frustrated he is seeking input is that the rapid-fire spread of the sometimes-fatal disease is preventable. But for years the vaccination rates in Clark County have remained well below the threshold to stop a highly contagious disease like measles from ravaging a community. (Harbarger, 1/26)

In other news —

The Hill: Vaccine Skeptics Appointed To New Minnesota Council On Autism 
Two vaccine skeptics have been appointed to a new Minnesota state council on autism, alarming public health advocates who worry they will promote the hoax linking vaccines to autism. The MN Autism Council, formed last year by Republican state Sen. Jim Abeler, was aimed at advising the Minnesota Legislature on autism and public policy. But the makeup of the council is raising concerns, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Thursday. (Gstalter, 1/25)

Politico: Newsom Makes Health Care The Centerpiece Of California’s Resistance To Trump
For California under Gov. Gavin Newsom, the resistance to President Donald Trump is about health care. Much as his predecessor Jerry Brown made climate change the state’s big challenge to Trump, Newsom has embarked on a health agenda that includes extending care to undocumented adults and direct government negotiation of drug prices. (Colliver, 1/27)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: As N.H. Hospitals Combine Forces, Some Wonder If More State Oversight Is Needed
New Hampshire hospitals continue to join forces at a dizzying pace with two huge transactions announced last week, adding fire to a long-running debate about whether more oversight of sweeping health care changes is needed. ...As if to emphasize the matter, the first hearing on the bill was held Thursday at almost exactly the same time that the parent organizations of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Catholic Medical Center hospitals announced their plans to join operations. (Brooks, 1/26)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: DFCS Vows Policy Change After Children Are Found Buried
The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services is changing how it responds to some reports of abuse following the deaths of two children in South Georgia who had extensive histories with the agency. DFCS said it is accepting “shared responsibility” with others and trying to improve after declining to act on warning signs that Elwyn “JR” Crocker Jr. and his younger sister Mary Crocker could be in danger. (Sharpe, 1/25)

Arizona Republic: Ducey Calls For Removal Of Hacienda Board, Slams Ex-CEO Bill Timmons
Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday called for the removal of Hacienda HealthCare's board of directors, saying he had no confidence in the leadership at an institution where an incapacitated woman was raped and went into labor before staff members knew she was pregnant. Ducey's comments came the day after an Arizona Republic investigation detailed how Hacienda's former CEO kept his job despite years of sexual harassment and bullying complaints. (Anglen, 1/25)

The Baltimore Sun: Johns Hopkins University Buys Newseum Building To Consolidate D.C. Presence 
Johns Hopkins University is acquiring the building that houses the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where it plans to consolidate its presence in the nation’s capital, provide more opportunities for students and better inform policymakers, officials announced Friday. Hopkins is buying the building at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW for $372.5 million under an agreement with the Freedom Forum, which owns the Newseum. The university aims to broaden the practical impacts of its research and position itself to influence national and international decision-making from its new home. (Meehan, 1/25)

Arizona Republic: MANA House Is A Place Where Homeless Veterans Can Find Help
Online at the library, Rex found the MANA House in Phoenix, a transitional living program for homeless veterans, staffed mostly by veterans. The men live like they did in the barracks, four men to each tidy room, assigned to squadrons. An adviser helps them find work and housing and apply for services and health care, difficult systems to navigate and harder if you are homeless. (Bland, 1/25)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New Program Ensures Vets Can Get VA Care In Emergencies
Staff at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center's emergency room were aware of the baffling trend: Veterans suffering heart attacks and strokes would drive themselves to the ER.Why not just call 911 and come by ambulance? The veterans worried that ambulance crews would take them to another hospital. (Jones, 1/25)

Kansas City Star: Centers Health Care Struggles With KC-Area Nursing Homes
State inspections continue to turn up problems at the Overland Park Center. Both facilities were formerly known as Serenity Rehabilitation and Nursing, when they were owned by Serenity Care Group. The facilities still rank poorly in the Nursing Home Compare ratings, updated in December by the federal agency that runs Medicare. (Marso, 1/27)

Kansas City Star: Best And Worst Nursing Homes In KC Area: Medicare List
These are the nursing homes within 25 miles of Kansas City that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave the lowest rating, one star, and highest rating, five stars. The agency updated its Nursing Home Compare website in December. (Marso, 1/27)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Flu Activity Continues To Dip In Georgia But Remains High
The Georgia Department of Public Health said 3.9 percent of patient visits to doctors were for the flu during the week ending Jan. 19. That’s down from 4 percent of visits the week before, according to the most recent report released on Friday. While the steady decline during the past few weeks is encouraging, healthcare experts say flu activity is unpredictable, and the season could tick back up in the coming weeks. (Oliviero, 1/25)

The CT Mirror: New State Data: HIV Diagnoses Up In 2017
The number of people diagnosed with HIV increased in Connecticut from 2016 to 2017, according to new data released by state health officials Friday, but over the long term, new cases of the disease have been on the decline. There were 281 new HIV cases in 2017, up from 266 the year before. It was one of only four year-over-year increases in HIV diagnoses in a decade and a half of state data. (Kara, 1/25)

Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's New Mental Illness Crisis Treatment Center To Open
Tennessee caregivers, law enforcement officers and state officials have come to agree — when it comes to mental illness, incarceration is not always the best option. The city is taking active steps to help redirect those suffering mental health disorders away from the criminal justice system to community-based treatment and supports. This week, officials will celebrate one of those solutions with the grand opening of the new Crisis Treatment Center operated by Mental Health Cooperative in MetroCenter. (Bliss, 1/28)

Chicago Tribune: Turn Your Head, Cough, Submit Your DNA: Your Next Physical May Include Genetic Testing. 
Starting in April, NorthShore University HealthSystem will offer extensive genetic testing to 10,000 primary care patients to determine whether they’re at higher risk of developing conditions such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer and heart disease. The tests could also help steer patients toward the most effective pain and depression medications based on their genetics. (Schencker, 1/25)

The Star Tribune: Future Doctors Learning To Put Down Charts, Share Personal Stories 
The thinking is that when providers reveal their own vulnerabilities, be it around mental health struggles, weight issues or just their own uncertainty about treatments, doctor-patient walls as immutable as marble tumble down and patient outcomes improve. This is likely why the approach is gaining national momentum. ... Still, putting the patient in the driver’s seat of his or her wellness plan can be a tough sell for practitioners eager to, and trained to, take charge, diagnose and heal. The industrialization of medicine in the mid 20th century shifted care from such partnerships to a more hierarchical and paternalistic model. (Rosenblum, 1/25)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Program Cutting Homeless Costs, Officials Say
Marcelous Bell, holding his newborn girl in the crook of his arm and with a roof over his head to call his own, is a new man. By his account, at 18, while he was still a senior in high school in Sacramento, his mother kicked him out of his house after a chaotic upbringing. He was always “different” from his family, he said, but once he was finally “exiled,” and his mother was arrested and sent to jail, Bell was lost – “Where do I go from here?” he wondered. (Yoon-Hendricks, 1/25)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County Council Leaders Pledge $3.5 Million To Hire More Corrections Officers, End Lockdowns At County Jail
Cuyahoga County Council has committed to spend about $3.5 million to hire enough corrections officers and jail supervisors to end the practice of locking inmates in their cells for hours at a time, Council President Dan Brady told cleveland.com on Friday. The money would come from the county’s general fund reserve of about $104 million and would pay for 60 additional corrections officers and the supervisors needed to manage them, Brady said. (Astolfi, 1/25)

Concord Monitor: Governor’s Commission On Alcohol And Drugs Against N.H. Pot Legalization
A panel of state officials and opioid treatment specialists have recommended against legalizing marijuana in the state of New Hampshire, arguing that the long term health effects aren’t yet known and it could worsen the state’s addiction crisis. In an unopposed voice vote Friday, the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs took the unusual step to oppose House Bill 481, which would legalize and tax the drug in the state for those over 21 and provide a framework to regulate sales. (DeWitt, 1/25)

Kansas City Star: Medical Marijuana’s Secondary Economic Benefits In Missouri
Missourians approved medical marijuana with 65 percent of the vote in November. And while there may be some disagreement about the wisdom of that vote and whether cannabis in its raw form should be considered medicine, there’s no argument over the business opportunity. (Marso, 1/27)

Stat: Dispatch From Davos: Hospitals Of The Future 
My overarching thought after the World Economic Forum is this: I can’t wait for a future Davos when we talk less about self-driving cars, and more about self-healing humans. That future is close. If we can combine ideas from consumer industries about engaging with people and applying the technology that gives each of us control of our own health data, we can disrupt legacy health care delivery in profound ways. Panelist Shobana Kamineni of Apollo Hospitals in India said it best. “In India, we cannot build enough hospitals. The mobile phone is the disruptive technology, and that is where the hospital will move.” That disruptive vision can be made to work across income levels. It is easier to move health care to a phone than it is to move hospitals to remote communities. In fact, I believe we must get care to where patients are instead of getting patients to where care is located. That is a revolution that is starting now. (Stephen K. Klasko, 1/26)

Seattle Times: Legislature Should Limit Vaccine Exemptions 
The ongoing outbreak of measles in Clark County should prompt state legislators to finally correct Washington’s loose policy surrounding mandatory vaccinations. Washington is one of only 18 states that lets parents opt out of having their child vaccinated because of personal, moral or other beliefs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The high rate of people taking advantage of this philosophical exemption in certain areas is detrimental to the health of their communities. (1/27)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: States' Policies Should Be Countering The Anti-Vax Movement, Not Coddling It
A well-known anti-vaccination enclave near Portland, Ore., is now facing a measles epidemic, an outcome that was as predictable as the sunset. It’s the result of high numbers of families in the area taking advantage of available exemptions to school vaccination requirements based on philosophical objections. The “philosophy” is generally one of buying into dire but thoroughly discredited myths about vaccines. Trends in some states toward further loosening school vaccination requirements are going in exactly the wrong direction. When is America going to stop appeasing the scientifically bogus, increasingly dangerous anti-vaccination movement? (1/28)

Charlotte Observer: A Stark, Troubling Gap In Infant Mortality Rates Between Blacks And Whites
Racial disparities in infant mortality persist around the nation. But the gap nationally is closer to two-to-one, not five-to-one. “That’s a crisis. That’s unacceptable. Everyone in government should be really upset about that,” Sarah Verbiest, director of the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC School of Social Work, told the Observer editorial board. (1/24)

Stat: Is Scientists' Response To CRISPR Babies About Ethics Or Self-Governance?
It’s been two months since Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the world with the announcement that his lab had created the first genetically edited babies. Since then, much of the public furor surrounding the news has died down, even as He has been fired by the Southern University of Science and Technology. There is one important takeaway from the controversy that seems to have gone overlooked in the CRISPR ethics discussion: defining the ethics of editing human life should not be left to scientists alone. (Nina Frahm and Tess Doezema, 1/28)

The Hill: Trump Administration's Medicare Part D Proposal Risks Patient Protections
This week, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its new Medicare Part D (the prescription drug program for seniors) model based on the Trump administration’s plan to lower costs for Medicare Part D. While the administration claims this is part of an effort to lower skyrocketing out-of-pocket drug prices, this latest proposal would actually put insurance companies in the driver’s seat and limit choices for seniors. (Margarida Jorge, 1/25)

The Washington Post: The Opioid Epidemic Is No Time For Risky Pharmaceutical Marketing
The pharmaceutical industry’s direct marketing to physicans, through free samples, meals, consulting and paid speaking engagements, has long been controversial. Government regulations emphasize disclosure of doctor-industry relationships; the industry has its own voluntary code of conduct. At its best, drug company marketing can enhance the medical community’s knowledge of new therapies. At other times, it can result in overpromotion of risky products. (1/27)

The New York Times: The Unsung Role Of The Pharmacist In Patient Health
We know many people end up with a risky pileup of prescribed medications. Many efforts have been made, with varied success, to correct this problem. Yet we’ve usually focused on physician behavior, when there’s another powerful lever: pharmacists. About 30 percent of older adults in the United States and Canada filled a prescription in the last few years for one of many medications that the American Geriatrics Society recommends they avoid. Such drugs can lead to more harm — like cognitive impairment or falls — than good, and often safer options are available. (Aaron E. Carroll, 1/28)

Lexington Herald Leader: Kentucky Can Do More To Prevent Suicides
Earlier this month, the Winburn Middle School community of students, families, teachers and administrators faced the unimaginable: a suicide death of a 12-year-old girl. It is a heartbreaking circumstance shared by thousands of parents, families and schools across the United States this past year. Nationally, 517 children 10-14 years of age died by suicide. A letter sent out to families by interim principal Mike Hale sensitively characterized their predicament: “On behalf of the staff of Winburn Middle School, I hope that each of you have an opportunity to enjoy time with family over the three-day weekend. The events of this week are a reminder that such time is precious.” (Melinda Moore and Julie Cerel, 1/25)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland Anti-Lead-Poisoning Coalition Is A Laudable Step Forward But It Needs A Clear Plan Of Action
Bottom line: The lead poisoning of Cleveland children has become a citywide emergency that requires tough, focused and urgent measures aimed at making the city's housing safer for families. The bad news is that the new coalition hasn't yet finalized what those measures will be. (1/27)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Kentucky Law Hurts Ambulance Competition And Emergency Care
In Kentucky, six counties, each with more than 50,000 residents, have just one ambulance service. In a medical emergency, time is of the essence — but a lack of ambulance providers threatens to prevent the residents of these counties from getting timely emergency care. Welcome to the world of “certificate of need” laws, where lawmakers have put profit ahead of people. Such laws, while seeming innocuous on the surface, are better described as a “competitor’s veto” because they require entrepreneurs to get permission from their potential competitors before starting up. (Mollie Williams, 1/25)