Politico: How Trump’s HHS Nominee’s Drug Company ‘Gamed’ Patent
When Donald Trump’s nominee for HHS secretary was a top executive at Eli Lilly, the patent on its blockbuster Cialis was soon to expire. So Lilly tested it on kids. The drugmaker believed the erectile dysfunction drug might help a rare and deadly muscle-wasting disease that afflicts boys. The drug didn’t work — but under a law that promotes pediatric research, Lilly was able to extend the Cialis patent anyway for six months — and that’s worth a lot when a medication brings in over $2 billion a year. (Karlin-Smith, 1/8)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Finance Committee Set To Hear From HHS Nominee; Health Committee To Focus On Opioid Crisis 
More than six weeks after his nomination, HHS Secretary-designate Alex Azar will receive his official confirmation hearing with the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday morning. The Jan. 9 hearing follows his Nov. 29 courtesy hearing with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. It falls to the Finance Committee, however, to hold the actual vote to advance Azar's nomination to the Senate floor. President Donald Trump also had to renominate Azar because the original nomination expired at the end of 2017. In the flurry of end-of-year business that included passage of the GOP's tax overhaul and negotiations on a short-term spending bill, the Finance Committee punted its proceedings to the new year. (Luthi, 1/6)

Meanwhile —

Roll Call: HHS Political Appointees’ Résumés Show Ties to Price, Pence
Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services include at least 16 staffers with ties to former Secretary Tom Price and at least 12 with connections to Vice President Mike Pence or Indiana, a review of 129 résumés of appointed staffers in the department shows. Pence’s influence over the agency can be seen in the appointment of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, who worked closely with the former Indiana governor to expand Medicaid in that state, and the appointment of Verma’s deputy Brian Neale, who currently oversees Medicaid and served as Pence’s health care policy director in Indiana. A number of staffers also have ties to conservative groups close to Pence, such as the Heritage Foundation and anti-abortion organizations. (Clason, 1/8)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Overstates Progress In Veterans' Care
In bountiful tweets and self-praise, President Donald Trump plays up "tremendous progress" in improving care for veterans in his first year. His claims fall short of reality. Trump's initiatives have yet to show meaningful impact, and his campaign promises of expanding access to doctors and adding mental health specialists are unfulfilled. (Yen, 1/6)

In other news from the administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to prepare public health officials for nuclear war —

The New York Times: Nuclear War Would Be ‘Devastating,’ So The C.D.C. Wants To Get People Prepared
President Trump’s recent tweets about his big nuclear button may have been intended to deter a nuclear weapons exchange with North Korea, but the nation’s top public health agency is taking the prospect of a nuclear attack seriously. On Jan. 16, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will present a workshop titled “Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation,” for doctors, government officials, emergency responders and others whom, if they survived, would be responsible for overseeing the emergency response to a nuclear attack. (Kaplan, 1/5)

The New York Times: Trump, Defending His Mental Fitness, Says He’s A ‘Very Stable Genius’
President Trump, whose sometimes erratic behavior in office has generated an unprecedented debate about his mental health, declared on Saturday that he was perfectly sane and accused his critics of raising questions to score political points. In a series of Twitter posts that were extraordinary even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency, Mr. Trump insisted that his opponents and the news media were attacking his capacity because they had failed to prove his campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. (Baker and Haberman, 1/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Rejects Assertions In Book, Calling Self A ‘Very Stable Genius’
President Donald Trump on Saturday continued to assail a new book that features sharp criticism of his administration from close advisers, and lamented what he called the nation’s “weak” libel laws that he said allowed the book to be published. ... The author, Michael Wolff, frequented the West Wing during Mr. Trump’s first year in office and met with at least a dozen administration officials. The book says White House advisers have had concerns about Mr. Trump’s fitness for the presidency, in particular about his “lapses and repetitions.” In a Thursday Hollywood Reporter column about his book, Mr. Wolff wrote: “At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends.” (Ballhaus, 1/6)

Politico: Trump Defends Mental Health: I'm A 'Stable Genius'
Even Fox News, the president's most vocal media cheerleader, has started to acknowledge the questions about the president's state of mind, running a segment early Saturday morning titled, "Media questions Trump's mental state." Trump unleashed his Twitter rant just minutes after the Fox segment, further elevating the issue and ensuring that the topic gets more attention than ever, even as the White House tries to focus on crafting a legislative agenda. “Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....” the president tweeted at 7:19 a.m. (Restuccia and Howie, 1/6)

Politico: 25th Amendment Unlikely To Be Invoked Over Trump's Mental Health
Donald Trump’s description of himself as a “very stable genius” sparked new debate this weekend about the 25th Amendment, but invoking the provision to remove a president from office is so difficult that it’s highly unlikely to come into play over concerns about Trump’s mental health, a half-dozen lawyers with expertise on the measure said. (Gerstein, 1/7)

Bloomberg: Trump Medical Exam Comes As Critics Question Fitness For Office 
President Donald Trump gets his first physical since taking office on Friday, but Americans may not find out much about the health of the 71-year-old chief executive with a taste for McDonald’s and an aversion to exercise beyond golf. Trump, like all Americans, has the right under federal law to keep health information from public disclosure. The White House has pledged, though, that physician Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson will issue a public report on the exam, scheduled for Jan. 12 at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. (Pettypiece, 1/8)

The Associated Press: On Health Care, Democrats Are Shifting To Offense
Democrats are shifting to offense on health care, emboldened by successes in defending the Affordable Care Act. They say their ultimate goal is a government guarantee of affordable coverage for all. With Republicans unable to agree on a vision for health care, Democrats are debating ideas that range from single-payer, government-run care for all, to new insurance options anchored in popular programs like Medicare or Medicaid. There's also widespread support for authorizing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, an idea once advocated by candidate Donald Trump, which has languished since he was elected president. (Alonso-Zaldivar. 1/8)

The New York Times: Medical Research? Congress Cheers. Medical Care? Congress Brawls.
They cannot agree on subsidies for low-income people under the Affordable Care Act or even how to extend funding for the broadly popular Children’s Health Insurance Program — two issues requiring urgent attention as Congress returns to work. But a more exotic corner of the medical world has drawn rapturous agreement among Republicans and Democrats: the development of new treatments and cures through taxpayer-funded biomedical research. (Pear, 1/6)

The Washington Post: This Year Is Shaping Up To Be A Clash Of Republican Idealists Vs. Realists
President Trump huddled with congressional Republican leaders this weekend at Camp David, hoping to plot out the year ahead to give the GOP momentum as it heads into the winds of midterm elections. For some, that means swinging for the fences with another attempt to fully replace the Affordable Care Act or a dramatic rewrite of entitlement laws. But any sober analysis will lead the group to conclude that, once Congress cleans up important must-pass items over the next eight weeks, it should be a relatively quiet legislative year. (Kane, 1/6)

The Hill: Koch-Backed Groups Launch 'Right To Try' Campaign 
Koch-brothers backed groups are launching a campaign urging Congress to pass legislation allowing terminally ill patients request access to experimental drugs the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved. Nearly 40 states have this law, known as “Right to Try,” already on their books. But Freedom Partners, in partnership with Americans for Prosperity, say federal legislation is needed to assuage patient fears that the federal government will override state laws. (Roubein, 1/8)

CQ: 2018 Legislative Preview: Health Care
Health care dominated policy discussions on Capitol Hill in 2017, and the issue is unlikely to fade away this year. Congressional Republicans haven’t formally outlined their agenda, but health care issues could remain at the forefront, even during an election year when major legislation doesn’t typically move. President Donald Trump has said rolling back the requirement for most Americans to have health insurance coverage effectively dooms the law, although the majority of it remains in place. (McIntire, 1/8)

Kaiser Health News: Running On Empty: CHIP Funding Could Run Out Jan. 19 For Some States
Some states are facing a mid-January loss of funding for their Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) despite spending approved by Congress in late December that was expected to keep the program running for three months, federal health officials said Friday. The $2.85 billion was supposed to fund states’ CHIP programs through March 31. But some states will start running out of money after Jan. 19, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS did not say which states are likely to be affected first. (Galewitz, 1/5)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Will Have $248 Million To Keep Kids Covered Under CHIP Through March 
Although Congress has not yet agreed on a long-term solution to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Texas will have enough money to keep kids covered through March. When Congress passed a short-term spending bill in December to keep the government open until Jan. 19, nearly $3 billion was appropriated to keep state CHIP programs running. Texas will receive $248 million from that funding, state Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman Carrie Williams said Friday. (Wang, 1/7)

Texas Tribune: Texas Has Enough Federal Funds To Keep CHIP Running Through The End Of March
Texas now has enough federal money to keep alive its health insurance program for more than 450,000 uninsured kids and pregnant women through the end of March, a state official said on Friday. That's true even though the Children's Health Insurance Program technically expired on Sept. 30 after Congress failed to renew funding. Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the state Health and Human Services Commission, said Texas can keep the program afloat thanks to $248 million in funding allocated through a short-term spending bill passed by Congress last month. (Evans, 1/5)

The Hill: Idaho Governor Signs Order Seeking To Roll Back ObamaCare Rules 
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) on Friday signed an executive order aimed at loosening ObamaCare rules in the state, saying states need to take action on their own regarding the health-care law. Otter signed the order directing the state’s insurance department to allow insurers to sell health plans that do not meet ObamaCare requirements. (Sullivan, 1/5)

Idaho Statesman: Why Idaho Believes It Can Let Insurers Lift Some Obamacare Requirements
Such a move would be aimed at middle-class uninsured Idahoans, including the self-employed. Otter and other officials believe the market also could include people in Idaho’s insurance gap, who can’t afford insurance but don’t qualify for Obamacare subsidies or Medicaid. Those plans would be sold off of Idaho’s health insurance exchange, at least at first. They are intended to encourage “the young and healthy” to rejoin insurance pools, to then benefit everyone’s overall rates, said Dean Cameron, director of the state Department of Insurance. (Dutton and Poppino, 1/5)

Bloomberg: America’s Home Nurse Shortage Is Stranding Kids In Hospitals
The U.S. health-care system has failed them in spectacular fashion even as it has put their parents under severe emotional and financial strain. All for the lack of home-care nurses. ...Lost amid the Trump administration’s drive to dismantle the Affordable Care Act—and the uncertain future of the government Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—is the ongoing plight of children stuck in hospital beds long beyond what’s medically necessary. Unlike the elderly, for whom a certain level of health care is guaranteed under Medicare, children in the U.S. have no overarching protections. While children with medically complex problems from the poorest families receive some coverage for home nursing through federally funded Medicaid, other lower-income and middle-income families can wait years to get their child approved for such coverage. Most private insurance doesn’t cover nursing care at all. (Chen 1/8)

In other news on health care professionals —

Indianapolis Star: Millennials Entering Nursing At Twice Baby Boomer Rate, Stopping Shortage
Facing a potential shortage due to baby boomers retiring, nursing has welcomed an unexpected surge of millennials entering the field. bThose millennials are nearly twice as likely to be nurses as their grandparents’ generation, the baby boomers, a recent Health Affairs study found. (Rudavsky, 1/5)

The Star Tribune: Trump Policy Shift Endangers Minnesota's Crackdown On Elder Abuse 
The Trump administration is taking steps to roll back federal penalties on nursing homes violating health and safety rules, a policy shift that’s alarming state officials and advocates for the elderly who say it could undercut Minnesota’s emerging moves to crack down on violence and criminal abuse in senior homes. In recent months, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has directed its regional offices to ratchet back some Obama-era enforcement practices that the nursing home industry has found most onerous. The new directives are likely to reduce both the number and severity of monetary penalties, even for violations that lead to serious injury or death. (Serres, 1/7)

In other nursing home news —

Kaiser Health News: Care Suffers As More Nursing Homes Feed Money Into Corporate Webs
In what has become an increasingly common business arrangement, owners of nursing homes outsource a wide variety of goods and services to companies in which they have a financial interest or that they control. Nearly three-quarters of nursing homes in the United States — more than 11,000 — have such business dealings, known as related party transactions, according to an analysis of nursing home financial records by Kaiser Health News. ... But these arrangements offer another advantage: Owners can establish highly favorable contracts in which their nursing homes pay more than they might in a competitive market. Owners then siphon off higher profits, which are not recorded on the nursing home’s accounts. (Rau, 12/31)

Stat: ‘The Problem Child Of Seasonal Flu’: Beware This Winter’s Virus
People in public health hate H3N2 flu seasons, like the one gripping most of North America right now. So do folks who work in hospitals and in the care facilities that look after the elderly. To put it flatly, H3N2 is the problem child of seasonal flu. It causes more deaths than the other influenza A virus, H1N1, as well as flu B viruses. It’s a quirky virus that seems, at every turn, to misbehave and make life miserable for the people who contract it, the scientists trying to keep an eye on it, and the drug companies struggling to produce an effective vaccine against it. (Branswell, 1/8)

Los Angeles Times: Severe Flu Brings Medicine Shortages, Packed ERs And A Rising Death Toll In California
So many people have fallen sick with influenza in California that pharmacies have run out of flu medicines, emergency rooms are packed, and the death toll is rising higher than in previous years. Health officials said Friday that 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in California since October, compared with three at the same time last year. Nationwide and in California, flu activity spiked sharply in late December and continues to grow. (Karlamangla, 1/6)

Los Angeles Times: No, It's Not Too Late To Get A Flu Shot
Is it too late to get a flu shot? We know you've been busy making plans for the holidays, scrambling to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list, spending time in airports and on road trips to see family and friends. But the holiday season is over and it's time to get back to reality. The flu season is most certainly upon us. And you need to deal with it. (Kaplan, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: In This Deadly Flu Season, Here Are Tips On How To Protect Yourself
California is in the midst of a dangerous flu season. Health officials said Friday that 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in California since October, compared with three during the same time period last year. Nationwide, flu activity spiked sharply in late December and continues to grow. Here is some key information, including tips to stay healthy, from national, state and local health agencies. (1/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Wrestle With Shortage Of IV Bags, Linked To Hurricane
The U.S. is facing a nationwide shortage of intravenous bags just as flu cases accelerate, forcing many hospitals to use more time-consuming ways to administer drugs and to weigh a halt on elective procedures and clinical trials. Some hospital officials said they have only a day or two of supplies and worry whether they would be able to handle an influx of patients as the influenza virus ramps up. Forty-six states are seeing widespread flu activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, putting this year on par with 2014-15, which was the most severe flu season in recent years. (Armour and Burton, 1/7)

Chicago Sun Times: Surge In Flu Patients Spurs Chicago Fire Department To Add Five Ambulances
The Chicago Fire Department on Friday put five more “surge” ambulances on the street — despite the heavy overtime cost— to combat a flu outbreak nearing “pandemic” proportions that has flooded hospital emergency rooms, forcing some to go on “bypass.” Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said the spike in flu cases in Chicago and other major cities was triggered, in part, by a flu vaccine that is “only 10 percent effective.” (Spielman and Esposito, 1/5)

USA Today: Apple Urged To Do More To Combat iPhone Addiction Among Kids
Apple should do more to curb growing smartphone addiction among children, two major investors in the iPhone maker said Monday. In an open letter to the technology giant, New York-based Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, highlighted increasing concern about the effects of gadgets and social media on youngsters. (Hjelmgaard, 1/8)

The Wall Street Journal: iPhones And Children Are A Toxic Pair, Say Two Big Apple Investors
“Apple can play a defining role in signaling to the industry that paying special attention to the health and development of the next generation is both good business and the right thing to do,” the shareholders wrote in the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “There is a developing consensus around the world including Silicon Valley that the potential long-term consequences of new technologies need to be factored in at the outset, and no company can outsource that responsibility.” (Benoit, 1/7)

The New York Times: You’re Over 75, And You’re Healthy. Why Are You Taking A Statin?
Should a 76-year-old who doesn’t have heart disease, but does have certain risk factors for developing it, take a statin to ward off heart attacks or strokes? You’d think we’d have a solid answer to this question. These widely prescribed medications lower cholesterol to reduce cardiovascular disease, the nation’s most common killer, and get much of the credit for the nation’s plummeting rates of heart attacks and strokes. (Span, 1/5)

The Washington Post: New High Blood Pressure Guidelines Can Be Confusing Even For Doctors
When headlines about new blood pressure guidelines pinged across my phone recently, I remembered a man my inpatient team had admitted to the hospital not long ago. He had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the toilet and passed out, hitting his head on the floor. The first people to find him described him twitching, so he initially got a battery of tests to determine whether he was having seizures. All were negative. But when he got out of bed and stood up, his blood pressure dropped from 137/63 to 98/50 — a sign of a condition called orthostatic hypotension. (Marcus, 1/7)

The Washington Post: Some Pretty Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Help With High Blood Pressure
If you’re worried about high blood pressure, there are some things you can do beyond taking appropriate medication. The American Heart Association (AHA) points to somenot-so-difficult lifestyle changes to delay or lower high pressure and reduce the risk of illnesses associated with it, such as heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. (1/7)

The Washington Post: Families And Friends Of Addicts Are Stocking Up On Narcan, A Drug That Can Stop An Overdose In Its Tracks
Beth Schmidt always begins her opioid-awareness sessions by introducing her boy. At one such event, she motions toward his photos — the solemn baseball-team picture, his sweet, clean-cut middle school portrait, the cheek-to-cheek selfie of mother and son — as she tells a hushed audience of about a dozen how Sean fought and lost his battle with opioid addiction. “He actually overdosed right here in Mount Airy at the Twin Arch Shopping Center,” she says, “in a parked car.” It was December 2013, two days after his 23rd birthday. (Fleming, 1/7)

The Washington Post: Narcan Stops Overdoses And In Most States Is Available At Drug Stores Without Prescritptions
Forty-six states permit naloxone to be purchased without an individual prescription. Laws in the remaining states vary, with some permitting naloxone to be prescribed only for use on a patient of the prescriber, while others permit it to be prescribed for use on other people, such as friends and family members of the patient. In the District of Columbia, Narcan is available at retail pharmacies only via prescription. At least three community health organizations — HIPS, Family Medical and Counseling Service and Bread for the City — disburse it free without a prescription to clients and family members. (Fleming, 1/7)

In other news on the crisis —

The Associated Press: Fatal Overdoses Prompt County To Issue Public Health Alert
Authorities in one Maryland county have issued a public health alert after four people died from drug overdoses. The Carroll County Times reported that the health officials in the county seat of Westminster sent out the alert Friday. It warned that heroin, cocaine and counterfeit pain and anxiety pills may be laced with fentanyl. The synthetic opioid can be deadly, even in small doses. Carroll County is northwest of Baltimore. (1/7)

Kaiser Health News: An Opioid Remedy That Works: Treat Pain And Addiction At The Same Time
Seven years ago, Robert Kerley, who makes his living as a truck driver, was loading drywall when a gust of wind knocked him off the trailer. Kerley fell 14 feet and hurt his back. For pain, a series of doctors prescribed him a variety of opioids: Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin. In less than a year, the 45-year-old from Federal Heights, Colo., said he was hooked. “I spent most of my time high, laying on the couch, not doing nothing, falling asleep everywhere,” he said. (Daley, 1/8)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: Finding A Balance: With Hospitals Prescribing Fewer Opioids, Chronic Pain Patients Are Left In A World Of Hurt
Meanwhile, policies are changing too. Several years ago, Dartmouth-Hitchcock implemented a new system that mandated patient-physician contracts that dictate conditions before prescriptions are issued. In December, new research by Dr. Richard Barth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s chief of surgery, is being applied to optimize (and limit) the number of opioids prescribed after surgeries. ...And in 2016, the New Hampshire Board of Medicine passed significant changes to its opioid prescribing rules to put stricter limits on physicians generally. For chronic pain patients, the rules included a mandatory contract system, new caps on prescriptions and mandatory urine tests. (DeWitt, 1/6)

Columbus Dispatch: Colleges Pursue Ways To Take On Opioid Epidemic
Last year, OU’s health sciences college launched Athens HOPE, a task force to fight the opioid epidemic through prevention and education. The group brings together local health and hospital officials, recovery-services personnel, leaders of local governments, law enforcement agencies and the Athens school district, and other community stakeholders to educate people about opioids, strengthen the community to support those in recovery, and coordinate local services and resources. (Smola, 1/7)

Stat: CRISPR Hits A Snag: Our Immune Systems May Attack The Treatment
A new paper points to a previously unknown hurdle for scientists racing to develop therapies using the revolutionary genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9: the human immune system. In a study posted Friday on the preprint site bioRxiv, researchers reported that many people have existing immune proteins and cells primed to target the Cas9 proteins included in CRISPR complexes. That means those patients might be immune to CRISPR-based therapies or vulnerable to dangerous side effects — the latter being especially concerning as CRISPR treatments move closer to clinical trials. (Joseph, 1/8)

NPR: Alcohol A Problem? This Tool Helps Assess Risk And Find Help
The thinking about problem drinking and alcoholism has changed. It's no longer considered a black-and-white, you have it or you don't condition. "We now know that there's a full spectrum in alcohol use disorder," says George Koob, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohohlism, part of the National Institutes of Health. You can have a mild, moderate or severe problem. And there's not a one-sized fits all approach to getting help. (Aubrey, 1/8)

NPR: Stomach Reduction Surgery Benefits Severely Obese Teens
After three years, teens with severe obesity who underwent stomach reduction surgery to lose weight also significantly improved their heart health. A study published Monday in Pediatrics shows that blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation and insulin levels all improved, particularly among those who lost the most weight. "The potential impact of such risk reduction translates into a reduced likelihood of developing significant heart disease later in life, including atherosclerosis, heart failure and stroke," says study author Marc Michalsky, surgical director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in an email. (Haelle, 1/8)

USA Today: Autistic Boy's Drowning Is Now A Lesson For First Responders
Shalom Lawson, an 8-year-old Louisville boy who loved hugging people he just met, wandered from a relative's home last summer and drowned. He had autism, a disorder that causes many children to walk off. "Elopers,"as they are called, are especially drawn to water and are unaware of the risks. "Water makes them feel calm, but water is very, very dangerous," said Shalom's mother, Magdalene Lawson, who came to America from West Africa with her husband, Charles. (Warren, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Why Do People Talk, And Even Curse, In Their Sleep?
Worried you might say something you regret when talking in your sleep? Your concerns may be justified: According to a recent study from France, your midnight mumblings may be more negative and insulting than what you say while awake. In the study, researchers found that sleep talkers said the word “no” four times as often in their sleep as when awake. And the f-word popped up during sleep talking more than 800 times more frequently than while awake. (Edison, 1/7)

Reuters: Court Voids Baltimore Law Requiring 'No Abortion' Clinic Disclaimers
A federal appeals court on Friday declared unconstitutional a Baltimore law requiring pregnancy clinics that do not offer or refer women for abortions to post signs disclosing that fact in their waiting rooms. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the law violated the First Amendment free speech rights of the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, a Christian nonprofit that provides prenatal services and counsels women on abortion alternatives. (Stempel, 1/5)

The Hill: Court Strikes Down Baltimore Abortion Disclosure Law
A federal appeals court on Friday found unconstitutional a Baltimore City law requiring that pro-life pregnancy clinics post a sign in their waiting rooms disclosing that they don’t offer or refer women for abortions. In a 3-0 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, a Christian nonprofit, which argued the law violated its First Amendment right to free speech. (Wheeler, 1/5)

The Associated Press: University Launches Investigation Into Fetal Tissue Transfer
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is investigating the transfer of fetal tissue by a faculty member to a private medical research company in Michigan. Health Sciences Center spokeswoman Alex Sanchez confirmed the internal investigation Friday after it was first reported by the Albuquerque Journal. She said the inquiry began in the fall but she declined to provide any details. (1/5)

Georgia Health News: ‘Net Neutrality’ Furor Extends To Telemedicine And Rural Health Care
The federal decision to end “net neutrality’’ rules has sparked concerns about potential damage to rural health care. The central question: Will repeal of the rules harm the burgeoning telemedicine movement in Georgia and other states? (Miller, 1/6)

The New York Times: City’s New Public Hospitals Chief Will Focus On Primary Care
The incoming president of NYC Health & Hospitals wants to turn the nation’s largest public health care network into an agency that focuses less on hospitalized care and more on primary care, similar to initiatives carried out nationwide. The new president, Dr. Mitchell H. Katz, who begins his job on Monday, also said he would expand the use of eConsult, an electronic health management system to streamline care and reduce wait times for specialty appointments, evaluate staff allocation and consider decreasing administrative services such as “unnecessary consultant expenses” to increase savings and revenue. (Ransom, 1/7)

Des Moines Register: Medical Errors Have Happened To Many Iowans, Poll Shows
Nearly one in five Iowans say they’ve had personal experience with medical errors, such as surgical mistakes, wrong diagnoses or incorrect medications, a new poll shows. In more than half of those cases, medical staff members did not inform the patients. The poll, organized by the Heartland Health Research Institute, found that 19 percent of Iowa adults have experienced a medical error in their own care or in the care of someone close to them in the past five years. Among those who said they’d experienced such an error, 60 percent said they were not informed about it by medical staff members. (Leys, 1/8)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Still Lags Nation In Health Rankings
Ohio’s high number of drug deaths, increasing smoking rate and high level of air pollution are among challenges noted in a new report that ranks the state 39th in overall health. The state also falls far short in preventable hospitalizations and public-health funding, which at $53 per person is $30 less than the national average. (Viviano, 1/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Should Taxpayers Or Hospitals Pay For Psychiatric Emergency Care?
About 8,000 times this year — roughly 22 times a day — people in the Milwaukee area will suffer psychiatric episodes so severe they’ll end up in the emergency department at the Mental Health Complex in Wauwatosa. Yet three years from now, that emergency department probably will no longer exist. (Boulton, 1/6)

The New York Times: Man Who Posed As A Doctor At 18 Is Going To Prison At 20
He wore a white lab coat and a stethoscope, but as several would-be patients in South Florida learned in 2015 and 2016, Malachi A. Love-Robinson was no doctor. Mr. Love-Robinson, who was 18 when he was accused of practicing medicine without a license, pleaded guilty to several charges on Thursday, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The charges included grand theft from a person over 65 — prosecutors said he stole money and checks from an 86-year-old woman he was seeing as a patient. (Victor, 1/5)

Denver Post: How A Summit County Family Turned A Mother’s Suicide Into A Rallying Call For Better Mental Health Service
The response from community made the Casey family realize they never really had been alone. Others confessed to struggling with the same issues. When the family started looking into mental health issues and suicide, the Caseys discovered that Summit County’s suicide rate was three times the national average in a state that has one of the highest suicide rates in the country and that mental health lockups in the county jail had skyrocketed in recent years. (Phillips, 1/7)

Tampa Bay Times: Experts: Florida Likely Not A Target In Jeff Sessions' Move To Restrict Marijuana
Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled Thursday that the U.S. government could no longer be counted on to look the other way in states that have legalized marijuana to various degrees even as the substance remains illegal under federal law. But the 64,000 Floridians who are registered to receive medical marijuana need not to worry about getting in trouble from federal enforcement, advocates and state lawmakers say. (Griffin, 1/5)

Houston Chronicle: Some Harvey Evacuees Went Days Without Crucial Medications 
In the chaotic early aftershocks of Hurricane Harvey, dozens of seriously mentally ill evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center were left under-treated or without proper medication for days because doctors did not have the right kind of psychiatric drugs. The only medicine immediately available for any mental health patient, including those with severe schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was Prozac or Zoloft, according to firsthand medical accounts not previously made public. Those drugs typically are used to treat depression, anxiety, panic or obsessive-compulsive disorder. (Deam, 1/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Bodybuilding Supplement Contained Illegal Drug, Georgia Firm Warned
A Roswell company illegally sold an unapproved new drug, marketing it as a dietary supplement that could be used as a “physique enhancing agent,” federal regulators say. That product, recalled last year, can cause life-threatening reactions including liver toxicity, and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. (Norder, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Congress’s Failure To Re-Up CHIP Funding Shows Its Striking Ineptitude
Disagreement in Congress is not necessarily a sign of dysfunction. But when both parties broadly agree that something should happen yet serially fail to follow through, the nation’s leaders look particularly inept. The example of the moment is the ongoing saga of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a popular service that covers 9 million young Americans — and that is rapidly running out of cash, alarming families that rely on the federal aid to keep their children healthy. (1/7)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: If GOP Leaders Really Care About Kids, Now's The Time To Prove It
Save for a party that champions a “pro-life” agenda, the GOP routinely turns its back on children once they leave the womb. The question isn’t just about abortion rights; it’s about making sure that all children have access to a quality life, growing up safe, healthy and well-educated.On Sept. 30, the Republican-controlled House and Senate allowed funding to expire for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, which provided coverage for 8.9 million kids across the country whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. Regardless of how anyone judges adults for their employment and financial-management choices, no child should be made to suffer just to make a political point. (1/8)

Health Affairs: Is Obamacare Harming Quality?
While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) promises “quality health insurance coverage for all Americans,” a potential tradeoff exists between the law’s dual goals of promoting quality and preventing insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to patients with preexisting conditions. This issue, which gets lost amid the partisan wrangling over Obamacare, could determine the fate of the law. (Michael Cannon, 1/4)

The Washington Post: The Trump Administration’s Hidden Attacks On The Affordable Care Act
Most observers of health policy news would be excused for being more than a bit confused about the current state of the Affordable Care Act. The Republican effort to repeal and replace the ACA last year stalled, suggesting that the law was here to stay. Then, seemingly out of the blue, the ACA’s individual mandate penalty was repealed as part of the tax bill, prompting President Trump to declare that “we have essentially repealed Obamacare, and we’ll come up with something that will be much better.” (Larry Levitt, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s ObamaCare Lifeboat
The Trump Administration is on a mission to rescue health-care markets and consumers from ObamaCare’s shrinking choices and higher prices. Witness the Labor Department’s proposal to allow small businesses to band together to provide insurance on equal footing with corporations and unions. (1/7)

The (Eugene, Ore.) Register-Guard: State Financing For Medicaid: Yes
Complexity is the biggest problem with Measure 101, the only proposal on the Jan. 23 ballot. Oregonians — unsure of who’s paying how much for what, aware of the state’s spotty record in managing its Medicaid program and wary of anything labeled as a tax — may be tempted to think they can play it safe by voting no on Measure 101. A no vote, however, is the riskiest option: A defeat would jeopardize enormous sums of federal money and threaten thousands of people with the loss of their health insurance. A yes vote avoids those risks. ... Opponents of both the hospital assessment increase and the insurance premium tax gathered signatures to refer those parts of the Legislature’s Medicaid finance plan to the ballot. A public vote on such a referendum would ordinarily be held in November, but lawmakers moved the election date to January so that they could deal with the consequences of a possible defeat in the session that begins next month. (1/7)

JAMA: The Importance Of Relative Prices In Health Care Spending
At least since the publication of the important article “It’s the Prices, Stupid,” it has been known that the substantial gap in health care spending between the United States and other developed countries is largely because of differences in prices, not use of health care services. Moreover, even at higher price (and spending) levels, most health care outcomes in the United States are not superior to those of peer nations. These facts have motivated calls by some to regulate health care prices in the United States. In doing so, caution is warranted. ... there is reason to be concerned about relative prices of health care goods and services. That is, at any absolute price level, the price of health care service A relative to the price of service B has important implications. (Austin B. Frakt and Michael E. Chernew, 1/4)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Social Services And Elder Care: We Can’t Afford Not To Pay For Them
The Kentucky General Assembly faces tough choices as it builds our commonwealth’s budget. Social services, which are already stretched thin, should not be on the chopping block. We have a moral imperative to care for the frail, sick and less fortunate in our society. However, some might argue that caregiving should be the domain of the private sector, not the public one. In our experience at ElderServe, it takes a village — of both sectors. We are grateful for the incredible support from individual donors and corporate supporters. Grants also help, but with increasing needs, competition is stiff. Recently, a foundation told us that they received $7 million in funding requests, but had only $1.5 million to give. (Julie Guenthner, 1/6)

Bloomberg: Congress Will Be Different In 2018: Opioid Epidemic, ACA Reforms
Last year, congressional Republicans had the leverage to ram through a huge tax cut, repeal the requirement to buy health-insurance coverage, and put a conservative jurist on the Supreme Court. This year the tables have turned. Democrats, though still in the minority, have more leverage on spending and responses to the opioid epidemic, and maybe also on immigration and infrastructure and revisions to the Affordable Care Act. (Albert Hunt, 1/7)

USA Today: Postal Service: We're Fighting Opioid Crisis
The U.S. Postal Service is deeply concerned about America’s opioid crisis and has been working aggressively with law enforcement and key trading partners to stem the flow of illegal drugs entering the United States. In collaboration with federal agencies and state and local law enforcement, improved investigative techniques have increased our ability to interdict opioids such as fentanyl. From fiscal year 2016 through 2017, the Postal Inspection Service has achieved a 375% increase in international parcel seizures and an 880% increase in domestic parcel seizures related to opioids. (Guy Cottrell, 1/7)

USA Today: Focus On Fentanyl Shipments
With people across the country dying at the rate of 53 a day from overdoses of fentanyl and similar compounds — now the leading killers in the opioid epidemic — efforts to stop this scourge ought to come from every corner of the federal government. But even as President Trump has declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency, some agencies have failed to act as if it is one. (1/7)

The Des Moines Register: Opioid Crisis Is Not A Partisan Problem
A generation ago, doctors prescribed opioids as a last resort for pain, with great respect for the addictive nature of these powerful drugs. But over the past 20 years, opioid drug manufacturers, led by Purdue Pharma, have engaged in an aggressive marketing campaign that redefined the way doctors treat both acute and chronic pain. (Iowa Attorney General Tom MIller, 1/5)

RealClear Science: Why Vaping Isn't A 'Gateway' To Smoking
As Imre Lakatos so eloquently stated in 1973, “Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime.” Indeed, blind commitment to a bad theory in the public policy realm will have long lasting impacts, negatively affecting the pursuit of improved public health. That is why it baffles me when otherwise smart researchers remain committed to bad theories. Indeed, the theory that e-cigarette use will lead to cigarette smoking is a bad theory. (Carrie Wade, 1/6)

Bloomberg: Science: No Cure For Common Cold?
We've found thousands of distant planets, but not a cure for the common cold. What gives? It’s a paradox of science: How is it that researchers keep achieving the impossible while leaving seemingly simple tasks incomplete? As astronomer Martin Rees put it in a recent essay in The Atlantic, scientists can detect two black holes colliding a billion light years away, and yet they’ve learned very little about how to treat the common cold common cold. (Faye Flam, 1/8)

The New York Times: Diabetes Shouldn’t Bankrupt You
If there was one thing that doomed the Republican proposals to remake health care last year, it was the great uncertainty about how they would cover patients with chronic illness and pre-existing conditions. Throngs of people with a wide range of ailments staged dramatic protests in and around the halls of Congress during the debate. Night after night, Jimmy Kimmel, whose infant son was born with a serious congenital heart defect, took up the cause on his talk show. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 1/6)

Los Angeles Times: Orrin Hatch Is Leaving The Senate, But His Deadliest Law Will Live On
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) last made a public splash during the debate over the GOP's tax cut bill in December, when he threw a conniption over the suggestion that the bill would favor the wealthy (who will reap about 80% of its benefits by 2027). Hatch subsequently announced his retirement from the Senate as of the end of this term, writing finis to his 40 years of service. In that time, he has shown himself to be a master of the down-is-up, wrong-is-right method of obfuscating his favors to rich patrons. That was especially the case with his sedulous defense for 20 years of his deadliest legislative achievement. We're talking about the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, or DSHEA (pronounced "D-shay"). Hatch introduced DSHEA in collaboration with then-Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), but there was no doubt that it was chiefly his baby. The act all but eliminated government regulation of the dietary and herbal supplements industry. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/5)

Stat: Medical Schools Shouldn't Divorce Education From Politics
Many medical schools don’t encourage political thought in their students, far less nurture it. That’s a shame because it squanders an opportunity to equip future thought leaders to deal with serious concerns facing the U.S. population, many of which have their tentacles in politics. ... Politics is the way that civilized societies are supposed to decide how limited resources should be distributed. It makes sense, then, to say that health care is a political issue. (Faiz Kidwai, 1/5)