The Wall Street Journal: Clinics That Provide On-Site Abortions Stand To Lose Millions Under New Plan
Health centers and programs that provide on-site abortions, or refer women for the procedure, could lose millions of dollars in federal family-planning funds under a new plan advanced by the Trump administration Friday. The proposal targets grants given out under a program known as Title X. The agency would require a separation—both financial and physical—between the grants and any facility or program where abortions are performed, supported or referred as a method of family planning. (Armour, 5/18)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Proposes Cutting Planned Parenthood Funds. What Does That Mean?
The planned revival of a policy dating to Ronald Reagan’s presidency may finally present a way for President Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to “defund” Planned Parenthood. Or at least to evict it from the federal family planning program, where it provides care to more than 40 percent of that program’s 4 million patients. Congress last year failed to wipe out funding for Planned Parenthood, because the bill faced overwhelming Democratic objections and would not have received the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate. (Rovner, 5/19)

The Associated Press: Trump Thrusts Abortion Fight Into Crucial Midterm Elections  
The Trump administration acted Friday to bar taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, energizing its conservative political base ahead of crucial midterm elections while setting the stage for new legal battles. The Health and Human Services Department sent its proposal to rewrite the rules to the White House, setting in motion a regulatory process that could take months. Scant on details, an administration overview of the plan said it would echo a Reagan-era rule by banning abortion referrals by federally funded clinics and forbidding them from locating in facilities that also provide abortions. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Colvin, 5/18)

News outlets also covered state-based reaction to the change —

NPR: Health Care Providers Say Title X Change Would Restrict Access To Family Planning Services
Family planning clinics in Texas say that the Trump administration's proposed rules will further hamper their ability to provide family planning services in a state that has high teen pregnancy rates. (Lopez, 5/18)

Boston Globe: Trump Administration Seeks To Bar Family Planning Funds From Centers That Provide Abortion
The Trump administration continued to target abortion rights Friday, proposing to bar federal family-planning funds from health centers in Massachusetts and other states that either provide abortion or that refer patients to clinics that do.In Massachusetts, the Title X program that Trump wants to restrict currently provides more than $6 million to subsidize care at 93 health centers, including four Planned Parenthood branches. (Ebbert, 5/19)

KCUR: Planned Parenthood Says Abortion Rule Would Affect 10,000 Patients In Missouri
Already facing highly restrictive abortion laws in Missouri and Kansas, Planned Parenthood Great Plains now confronts the prospect of losing its federal family planning funds if a proposed Trump administration rule goes into effect. The administration unveiled a proposal Friday that would make clinics that provide abortion services or referrals ineligible to participate in Title X, which helps fund birth control, cancer screenings and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. (Margolies, 5/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: 1 Million Low-Income Californians Could Be Hurt By Trump Family Planning Rules
More than 1 million low-income Californians could see new barriers to reproductive care under a proposal that the Department of Health and Human Services sent to the White House Friday. The proposed rule would strip federal funding from family planning clinics that provide abortions or refer patients to places that do. (Thadani, 5/18)

Houston Chronicle: Trump’s Anticipated Abortion Rule Could Reduce Access In Texas 
The Trump administration’s plan to yank federal funding from clinics that provide or recommend abortions would make the controversial procedure even more more difficult to get in Texas. That’s what people on both sides of the abortion debate are saying as they await rules from President Donald Trump his staff said will to mirror a Reagan-era policy that survived a legal challenge but was never fully implemented. (Zelinski, 5/18)

Concord Monitor: State Providers Brace For Title X ‘Gag Rule’ Over Abortion Funding
Exactly when the White House makes an expected announcement to pare back funding from abortion clinics remains unclear. But some New Hampshire reproductive health providers are already sounding the alarm. On Friday, news reports swirled that the Trump administration will propose a rule to withhold “Title X” federal funding for healthcare organizations that perform abortions – as well as those who make referrals. Under the rule, clinics whose doctors provided recommendations of abortion services could lose their funding, while those that already do would be cut off unless they stopped. (DeWitt, 5/18)

In other abortion-related news —

The Star Tribune: About-Face On Abortion Fellowship Leaves U With Whiplash
Bowing to pressure from conservative students and lawmakers, the University of Minnesota has backed out of a grant-funded fellowship to expand the practice and training of reproductive health and abortion services. The fellowship, approved by one faculty member last fall, became political dynamite this spring after triggering outrage among abortion opponents and some lawmakers just as the Legislature was considering a budget request from the U and a vacancy on the Board of Regents. (Olson, 5/19)

On a separate topic -

The Hill: Adult Entertainment Industry Group Trolls Trump With Letter Explaining Difference Between HIV And HPV
The top trade association for the adult entertainment industry is trolling President Trump with an open letter explaining the difference between HIV and HPV. The letter from the Free Speech Coalition comes after recently released footage of Bill Gates revealed his claim that Trump had asked him in two previous meetings to explain the difference between the two viruses. (Thomsen, 5/19)

The Hill: Trump Official On Defensive As Critics Scoff At Drug Plan
President Trump's health chief is struggling to show that the administration is serious about taking on drug companies after its proposals for lowering prices last week left big companies relieved and even spurred an uptick in their stock prices. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar insists that the companies are misreading the administration's plan and that it will bring down drug prices. (Sullivan, 5/19)

The New York Times: Trump’s New Health And Human Services Secretary Is A Joyful Regulator
Alex Azar, President Trump’s new man running health policy, was waving a Pilot ballpoint in front of a room full of reporters. “This pen has a lot of power,” he said, smiling at his own joke. He is right. As Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr. Azar does have a lot of power to change health policy, without having to go through Congress. And in a sharp break from his predecessor — and from most Trump cabinet secretaries — he seems to be relishing the chance to write new regulations, rather than just crossing out Obama-era ones. (Sanger-Katz, 5/18)

Meanwhile, one newspaper is doing a deep dive into how drug prices are set —

Columbus Dispatch: Powerful, Secretive Middlemen Affect Drug Prices
For an independent pharmacist, those close relationships [with customers] are vital to staying in business. But what the pharmacist can’t share with customers is the rationale behind the prices they pay for their prescription drugs. He can’t explain how, under the drug-pricing system he’s effectively forced to use, he winds up charging some customers the maximum allowed by a pharmacy benefit manager to make up for the losses he takes on other prescriptions with lower reimbursements set by the same pharmacy benefit manager. That system, and what his customers are charged, is largely created and controlled by pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. (Sullivan, 5/19)

Bloomberg: Trump Surprises Wilkie By Naming Him VA Secretary Nominee
President Donald Trump surprised Robert Wilkie Friday by announcing he would nominate the acting secretary of Veterans Affairs to lead the agency. “I’ll be informing him in a little while -- he doesn’t know this yet -- that we’re going to be putting his name up for nomination to be secretary of the Veterans administration.” Trump said at a White House event on prison reform. Turning toward Wilkie, who was in the audience, the president added, “I’m sorry that I ruined the surprise.” (Epstein, 5/18)

CNN: Robert Wilkie Nominated As Veterans Affairs Secretary
Wilkie is currently the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness but has been serving as the VA's acting secretary since the President fired VA Secretary David Shulkin in late March. ... Wilkie's nomination capped a tumultuous seven weeks since the President fired VA Secretary David Shulkin and nominated White House physician Ronny Jackson to replace him, only to watch Jackson's nomination flame out amid allegations of improper behavior during his time at the helm of the White House medical unit. (Diamond, Summers and Malloy, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Trump Announces He Will Nominate Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie To Become Department’s Permanent Leader
VA has long struggled with how to give a growing number of Vietnam-era veterans and those returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan access to timely health care. Wilkie will likely face questions from senators about how far he would go to shift medical appointments to the private sector at taxpayer expense — an issue that led Trump to fire David Shulkin from the Cabinet post in March. (Rein and Sonne, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump To Nominate Robert Wilkie As Head Of Veterans Affairs
Should Mr. Wilkie move more aggressively to privatize VA health-care services, though, he would risk a backlash from Democrats who fear that the Trump administration is poised to transfer department services to the private sector. In his nomination hearing, Mr. Wilkie is likely to face questions from senators about his views on privatizing more VA care. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, released a statement Friday saying Mr. Wilkie “must commit to oppose privatization and earn veterans’ support to win Senate approval.” (Nicholas and Ballhaus, 5/18)

Politico: Trump Taps Wilkie As Next Veterans Affairs Secretary
As a former adviser to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and longtime Republican hand, Wilkie’s path to taking the VA’s permanent helm will likely be smoother than the turbulent bid of Ronny Jackson, the president’s former personal physician. Jackson withdrew from consideration to lead the VA last month amid scandal over his workplace behavior.(Lima and Schor, 5/18)

USA Today: Trump Picks Robert Wilkie As The Next Secretary Of Veterans Affairs
When he became acting secretary, the VA put out a statement hailing his leadership in uniting everyone at the agency around shared goals after a tumultuous few months, when Shulkin had been feuding with a group of top political appointees. "Under Acting Secretary Wilkie’s leadership, senior VA officials are now on the same page, speaking with one voice to Veterans, employees and outside stakeholders, such as Congress and veterans service organizations, and are focused on a number of key priorities in the short term," VA press secretary Curt Cashour said. (Slack and Jackson, 5/18)

The New York Times: Trump Says He Will Nominate Acting Secretary To Lead V.A.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Wilkie, 55, would take over the second-largest department in the federal government, overseeing a 360,000-person work force and the vast veterans health care system. In his current role as under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, Mr. Wilkie oversees the health and welfare of all military personnel. Mr. Wilkie, the son of a highly decorated artillery officer who was wounded three times in Vietnam, grew up on Army bases and joked that he was born in khaki diapers. (Sullivan and Philipps, 5/18)

Politico: Republicans Claw At Each Other Over Farm Bill Implosion
Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team were sure the group of three dozen rabble-rousers would cave. The partisan farm bill, after all, includes historic new work requirements for food stamp beneficiaries that conservatives have demanded for years. ... It is unclear if the conference would get another shot at passing Trump’s work requirements for the food stamp program, though the White House in a statement encouraged the House to try again. Leaders could decide to write a bipartisan bill instead without the food stamp cuts, which would be much easier to pass. (Bade, 5/18)

The Washington Post: They’re The Think Tank Pushing For Welfare Work Requirements. Republicans Say They’re Experts. Economists Call It ‘Junk Science.’
An obscure, Florida-based policy group with ties to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and two of the country’s most conservative Republican governors has become one of the loudest and most persuasive voices in the debate over new work requirements in the food stamp program. The Foundation for Government Accountability — headed by a former adviser to Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) — spent six years testing welfare changes in Kansas, Mississippi and other states before taking its ideas to Washington in 2017. On Friday, those ideas — and the FGA’s leveraging of state political connections and policy one-liners to become a fixture in GOP strategy discussions — were in the spotlight when the House voted on a farm bill that sought sweeping changes to work requirements for food stamp recipients. (Dewey, 5/18)

Politico: California Rebukes Trump With Health Care Push For Immigrants
California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults even as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown by separating families at the border. The proposal — which would build on Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2015 decision to extend health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status — is one of the most daring examples yet of blue-state Democrats thumbing their nose at President Donald Trump as they pursue diametrically opposed policies, whether on immigration, climate change, legalized marijuana or health care. (Colliver, 5/21)

Modern Healthcare: What Do U.S. Immigration Policies Mean For The Healthcare Workforce? 
At Providence St. Joseph Health, eight staffers have been forced to take a leave of absence because they lost their ability to work in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. And nearly 300 of the system's 110,000 employees are either nationals or dual-nationals from the seven countries targeted in President Donald Trump's travel ban. ... Trump's various executive orders to implement the travel ban have been blocked in court several times, but the administration still believes it will prevail in banning travel from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deciding the fate of challenges to the executive order and is expected to rule in the coming weeks. Observers expect the high court's ruling to fall along party lines and ultimately uphold the travel ban. (Johnson, 5/19)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Program To Stabilize Obamacare Hits Snag Over Dispute About Payments To Insurers 
As a federal deadline looms, a state effort to stabilize Obamacare by creating a fund to help insurers cover the most expensive claims may have hit a snag. The two insurers who sell plans in the state under Obamacare, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States, disagree about whether the state plan favors CareFirst. (McDaniels, 5/18)

Politico: Texas Democrats Look To Single-Payer In Congressional Races
Democrats hoping to wrest congressional seats away from diehard repeal-and-replace Republicans are campaigning on an unlikely issue for Texas — single-payer health care. Across the country, many Democrats are trying to minimize internal battles on health care. But Democrats in this deep red state have also watched closely races where single-payer advocates have upset centrist primary opponents. And some believe that moving left on health care will mobilize new voters in primaries —and offer a shot at winning come November. (Rayasam, 5/19)

The New York Times: As An Insurer Resists Paying For ‘Avoidable’ E.R. Visits, Patients And Doctors Push Back
Anthem denied thousands of claims last year under its “avoidable E.R. program,” according to a sample of emergency room bills analyzed by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The program, which Anthem has been rolling out in a handful of states in recent years, reviews claims based on the final diagnosis of patients. Emergency room physicians say that, last year, the company did not routinely request medical records for denied patients, and therefore could not review the symptoms that brought them to the emergency room. Anthem says it is now reviewing such records before issuing denials. (Abelson, Sanger-Katz and Creswell, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Inc.’s Partners In Blood
Much of the attention has focused on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. But another character played a central role behind the scenes in the alleged fraud: Ms. Holmes’s boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, according to more than three dozen former Theranos employees who interacted with Mr. Balwani extensively over a number of years. Mr. Balwani, who met Ms. Holmes when she was a teenager, jointly ran the company with her for seven years as president and chief operating officer and enforced a corporate culture of secrecy and fear until his departure in the spring of 2016, the former employees say. Unlike Ms. Holmes and Theranos, who reached a settlement with the SEC to resolve the agency’s civil charges in March without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Mr. Balwani has denied separate charges the SEC filed against him in a parallel action and is fighting them in a California federal court. (Carreyrou, 5/18)

Stat: ALS Patients Losing Time As They Wait For Insurers To Cover Pricey New Drug
Like an untold number of ALS patients, [Sarah] Benoit faces a conundrum. She can’t afford the $145,000 price of the drug without insurance, but her insurance provider has repeatedly denied access to the drug, even though it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last fall for all ALS patients. And as time goes by, Benoit knows that she is losing a chance to delay the inevitable. ... Certainly, there is nothing new about a high-priced medicine or insurers acting as impenetrable gatekeepers. In this case, the manufacturer of Radicava, MT Phrama, maintains that years of research expense must be recovered. And for their part, various insurers argue that coverage decisions, while nuanced, reflect legitimate criteria. (Silverman, 5/21)

Stat: Aetna Pressures Whistleblower Who Alleged CVS Caremark Ripped Off Medicare 
Aetna wants an employee to return or destroy documents that formed the basis of a whistleblower lawsuit she filed against CVS Caremark, alleging that the pharmacy benefit manager improperly reported generic drug prices to the federal government, according to a source familiar with the matter. At the same time, CVS Caremark is seeking to redact key portions of the lawsuit, which is currently under seal, before it is made available to the public (although you can read it here). The lawsuit, which STAT first reported last month, revolves around the complicated contracts between pharmacy benefit managers and Medicare Part D plans, as well as the pricing that must be reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Silverman, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: How Cigna And Express Scripts Decided To Merge Amid Anthem Drama 
Fresh from a break up with rival and former merger partner Anthem in May 2017, health insurer Cigna Corp. wasted no time searching for a rebound. It ended up pursuing the nation's No. 1 pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, which was at the time concerned with its future as a stand-alone PBM after losing Anthem as its biggest client. Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna and Express Scripts filed a preliminary registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday detailing the terms of their merger agreement, announced in early March. (Livingston, 5/17)

The Wall Street Journal: The AI Doctor Will See You Now
Kimberly Bari had her first seizure in 2010 at age 26 and since then has had hundreds. Some rendered her unconscious, others left her confused and terrified. By 2016, her surgery- and drug-resistant condition led her to try something fewer than 2,000 people in the world have attempted: implanting a computer into her brain. The NeuroPace Responsive Neurostimulation System “literally provides peace of mind I never imagined could exist,” she said. And, according to its makers, it would be impossible without a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning. (Mims, 5/20)

The Washington Post: With The Help Of Virtual Therapists, People With Eating Disorders Tackle Anxiety In Grocery Stores
Individuals with anorexia, binge eating disorder and bulimia often feel anxious and overwhelmed when surrounded by food. This anxiety can make grocery shopping and cooking a challenge. A new form of telemedicine in which people can video-chat with a nutritional counselor while at the supermarket aims to help. (Fraga, 5/20)

In related news -

Modern Healthcare: CEO Power Panel: Health Systems Find Consumerism Drives Innovation 
The word "patient" is rapidly fading from the healthcare lexicon. Nowadays, healthcare executives sound like those from any other industry, talking about "consumers" or even "customers." With consumer-friendly companies like Apple and Amazon nipping at the heels of traditional healthcare organizations, not to mention the rise in out-of-pocket expenses, the consumer is inching toward center stage in healthcare. Leaders are responding with efforts to create more seamless and convenient healthcare experiences. They're starting to notice that consumerism matters. That's reflected in how they're using technology, innovative thinking and hiring. (Arndt, 5/19)

Reveal: Drug Users Got Exploited. Disabled Patients Got Hurt. One Woman Benefited From It All
Amid a nationwide opioid epidemic, treatment remains out of grasp for most people struggling with addiction. ...To pay for their stay, participants must work full-time jobs and surrender their pay. An ongoing investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found that many programs exploit this arrangement, providing few actual services while turning participants into indentured servants. (Harris and Walter, 5/21)

Modern Healthcare: As Families Struggle To Get Behavioral Health Coverage, Enforcement Of Parity Laws Lags 
In the midst of a national epidemic of drug addiction and overdose deaths, many families report similar battles with insurers in getting coverage for needed mental healthcare and/or addiction treatment. This includes situations when patients at high risk of relapse were discharged from residential care over clinicians' objections because their insurer stopped paying, or when patients in acute withdrawal had to wait for their insurer to approve payment for medication-assisted treatment. Some patients reportedly have died due to delays in getting needed coverage and care. Insurers blame access problems on the national shortage of behavioral health professionals and a lack of reliable quality measures for behavioral health facilities. (Meyer, 5/19)

State House News Service: Insurer To Encourage Prescription Drugs To Help With Opioid Addiction
A multi-pronged initiative that Neighborhood Health Plan is announcing Friday aims to reduce the number of opioid overdose deaths by increasing access to treatment. In hopes of addressing a clinician shortage, the insurer plans to begin offering financial incentives to encourage more providers to offer medication-assisted treatment involving Suboxone and other buprenorphine products designed to treat cravings and withdrawal systems associated with opioid dependency. (Lannan, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: New Migraine Drugs Offer Hope To Sufferers
Lisa DeLeonardo set a Google alert so she would know exactly when the first in a new class of migraine drugs was approved. It happened Thursday, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Amgen and Novartis ’ application for erenumab, whose brand name is Aimovig. It’s an injectable drug touted as the first treatment designed specifically to prevent migraines, and is expected to be available to patients within a week for an annual price of $6,900. Three other similar treatments are expected to hit the market within the next year. (Reddy, 5/18)

The New York Times: Me And My Numb Thumb: A Tale Of Tech, Texts And Tendons
It took me a few months to accept that I had given myself tendinosis in my phone thumb. It is a depressingly modern condition in which the tendons around the thumb inflame as a result of repetitive strain — in my case because I had, for hours a day over years of a life, tapped that right-hand digit onto the glass of my smartphone. (Bowles, 5/19)

NPR: How Dangerous Is It When A Mother Sleeps With Her Baby?
Here in the U.S., this is a growing trend among families. More moms are choosing to share a bed with their infants. Since 1993, the practice in the U.S. has grown from about 6 percent of parents to 24 percent in 2015. But the practice goes against medical advice in the U.S. The American Academy of Pediatrics is opposed to bed-sharing: It "should be avoided at all times" with a "[full-]term normal-weight infant younger than 4 months," the AAP writes in its 2016 recommendations for pediatricians. The organization says the practice puts babies at risk for sleep-related deaths, including sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation and accidental strangulation. About 3,700 babies die each year in the U.S. from sleep-related causes. (Doucleff, 5/21)

The New York Times: What Barbershops Can Teach About Delivering Health Care
Heart disease is the most common killer of men in the United States, and high blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease. ... A recent study shows that the means of communication may be as important as the message itself, maybe even more so. Also, it suggests that health care need not take place in a doctor’s office — or be provided by a physician — to be effective. It might, as in this study, take place in a barbershop, an institution that has long played a significant social, economic and cultural role in African-American life. (Carroll, 5/21)

The New York Times: A Guide To Gynecological Exams: What Should — And Shouldn’t — Happen
The recent cases of Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, the physician for the U.S. women's gymnastics team, and Dr. George Tyndall, the gynecologist at the University of Southern California student health center, involve allegations that they inappropriately touched young female patients, often while doing a pelvic exam. Here’s what women should know about gynecological exams, including what to expect and what is out of bounds. (Belluck and Medina, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Surgery Can Cause Cognitive Losses In Some Seniors
Two years ago, Daniel Cole’s 85-year-old father had heart bypass surgery. He hasn’t been quite the same since. “He forgets things and will ask you the same thing several times,” said Cole, a professor of clinical anesthesiology at UCLA and a past president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. ... His father probably has post­operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) — a little-known condition that affects a substantial number of older adults after surgery, Cole said. (Graham, 5/19)

The New York Times: How To Age Well And Stay In Your Home
What will it take to age well in place, in the surroundings we’ve long cherished that bring us physical, social and emotional comfort? What adaptations are needed to assure our safety and comfort and relieve our children’s legitimate concerns for our welfare? Of course, aging in place is not for everyone. Some seniors may prefer to leave the dwelling long shared with a now-gone partner. Some may want the security of knowing that physical and medical assistance is but a bell-ring away. Others may simply be fed up with having to care for a home. (Brody, 5/21)

USA Today: '13 Reasons Why' Should Do More To Stop Teen Suicides, Doctors Say
Medical experts say Netflix and creators of the second season of 13 Reasons Why — streaming Friday — aren't doing enough to curb the increase in teen suicides and may be encouraging copycat cases. Data show the teen suicide rate rose by more than 70% between 2006 and 2016 with black teen suicides increasing far faster. The renewed criticism comes despite the series' new embrace of suicide prevention, which includes a collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). (O'Donnell, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Suicidal? Be Prepared To Wait For Care.
Psychiatric boarding — when patients in need of psychiatric treatment wait for prolonged periods in emergency departments due to shortages in mental-health resources, particularly inpatient beds — has become a catastrophe for the U.S. health-care system. In a 2016 survey, roughly three-quarters of emergency physicians reported that psychiatric patients had been waiting for beds during their last shift. Studies suggest that psychiatric patients wait for hospital beds far longer than other patients in emergency departments, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. (Morris, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Watching But Not Treating Cancer Can Be Hard. Sometimes It’s The Right Approach.
However, there is a good argument to be made for taking the watch-and-wait approach (sometimes called “active surveillance”) over treatments that too often have terrible side effects. A study published in JAMA last week found that 72 percent of men younger than 65 with prostate cancer chose surveillance over surgery or radiation; a decade prior, the numbers were reversed: Only 27 percent chose monitoring. As the study numbers suggest, many physicians are counseling men with low-risk prostate cancer to choose active surveillance over surgery and radiation; not only is this approach less invasive, it can help men avoid the incontinence and impotence often associated with more aggressive treatment — and do so without impacting survival rates. (Petrow, 5/20)

In other cancer news —

The Star Tribune: As More Cancer Patients Survive, Workplace Protections Fall Short 
As cancer survival rates improve with advances in detection and treatment, advocates say workplace laws have not kept pace with the needs of patients and the demands of medical care. Surgery can leave patients with short-term disabilities, while chemotherapy and radiation can produce side effects such as “chemo-brain,” a difficulty with concentration. ...It’s unclear how many cancer patients lose employment because they’re not ready to return to work. But studies show that just 40 percent are back at work within six months. After a year, it’s still just 62 percent. Researchers have also found that loss of income due to illness is a major contributor to bankruptcy — and that cancer patients are more likely to declare bankruptcy. (Howatt, 5/20)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: High-Risk Smokers Aren’t Getting Tested For Lung Cancer, Study Suggest
Researchers from the American College of Radiology’s Lung Cancer Screening Registry recently conducted a study to determine how many high-risk smokers get free annual lung cancer screenings. ...After analyzing the results, they found that 7.6 million Americans met the criteria for testing in 2016. However, only 141,260 tests were performed− that’s just under 2 percent. (Parker, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Oliver North, Incoming NRA Chief, Blames School Shootings On ‘Culture Of Violence’
Two days after a 17-year-old opened fire in his Texas high school, killing at least 10, incoming National Rifle Association president Oliver North said students “shouldn’t have to be afraid” to go to school and blamed the problem on “youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence” in which many young boys have “been on Ritalin” since early childhood. “They’ve been drugged in many cases,” he said. (Stead Sellers and Scherer, 5/20)

Houston Chronicle: With Santa Fe High School Victims In Hospital, Officials Ask For Blood Donations 
As the surviving gunshot victims from Santa Fe High School continue to be monitored in area hospitals Friday afternoon, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is asking for donations from the public to help with their recovery. The blood center said they're in need of blood platelets and O-negative blood donations. (Jordan, 5/18)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: St. Louis Children's Hospital: Where Treating Gunshot Wounds Is Part Of Taking Care Of Kids 
The gunshot injuries seen at Children’s range from skin grazes to life-and-death scenarios related to violence, accidents and, occasionally, self-harm. A study of gun injuries among patients 16 and younger showed nearly a third were from accidents. The average age of victims has dropped precipitously in recent years. The ongoing quandary is how to reduce the numbers instead of just hoping something changes. Families have access to mentors through a Victims of Violence program that soon will be implemented at other local trauma centers. Children’s and Washington University School of Medicine are involved in a gun violence initiative conducted by the university. (Durando, 5/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Sutter Health Tight-Lipped About Cause Of Major Computer Crash
Sutter Health, whose computer network system crashed Monday night and remained down until Wednesday morning — forcing hospitals across Northern California to cancel surgeries and delay appointments — is sharing few details about the cause of the problem. (Ho, 5/18)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Patients, Nurses Concerned After Computer Failure
The companywide information system failure at Sutter Health last week is raising concerns among some nurses and at least one patient about how the health-care giant functioned amid the crisis. (Anderson, 5/20)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Supreme Court To Weigh Tax Exemption For Not-For-Profit Hospitals 
The state’s highest court will weigh the constitutionality of a law that lets not-for-profit hospitals skip paying property taxes — a question with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Current law says that not-for-profit hospitals in Illinois don’t have to pay property taxes as long as the value of their charitable services is at least equal to what they would otherwise pay in taxes. About three-fourths of the state’s more than 200 hospitals are not-for-profit. (Schencker, 5/18)

California Healthline: Children’s Hospitals Look To Voters For Financial Aid
California’s children’s hospitals say they’re struggling to keep up with advances in medical care and a growing demand for their services, and they’re asking taxpayers to help – again. The California Children’s Hospital Association wants voters to pass a $1.5 billion bond measure to upgrade infrastructure and equipment at the state’s 13 children’s hospitals. It would be the third state bond for children’s hospitals in the past 14 years. In 2004, voters approved one for $750 million, and in 2008, they re-upped for $980 million. (Ibarra, 5/21)

Seattle Times: Western State Patient Releases Can Be Delayed Years For Lack Of Outside Beds 
It took more than half a year for Brian’s daughter to get a bed at Western State Hospital after she put a bread knife into an electrical outlet at his Tacoma apartment. A court ruled she needed involuntary psychiatric treatment at the 857-bed facility in Lakewood, but because the waitlist can stretch to more than 100 patients, his daughter instead bounced around Pierce County inpatient treatment centers that provide less-intensive care. (Orenstein, 5/19)

Dallas Morning News: Frisco Hospice Exec Admits Overdosing Patients 'to Hasten Their Deaths' And Make More Money 
The former executive of a Frisco hospice admitted Thursday to overdosing patients to "hasten their deaths" so the company could make more money, court records show. Melanie Murphey, 36, admitted serving as the "go-between" for Novus Health Services owner Bradley Harris, doctors and nurses in an alleged $60 million scheme. Murphey, Novus' director of operations, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and is expected to testify against 15 others in the case, including Harris and his wife, Amy. The other defendants have pleaded not guilty. (Emily, 5/19)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Lawmakers Let Medical Marijuana Die In Last Days Of Session
The legislature’s chances to make Missouri the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana died in a conference committee two days before the end of session, leaving the issue up to voters to decide in November. (Weinberg, 5/18)

KCUR: Missouri Voters, Not Lawmakers, Will Decide The Future Of Medical Cannabis 
A measure that would have narrowly legalized medical marijuana died in the final week of Missouri’s legislative session, meaning the issue will be left entirely up to voters in November. Only terminally ill patients and people with epilepsy could have obtained smokeless medical cannabis under a measure added to a healthcare bill by GOP Rep. Jim Neely from Cameron. It was a more strict version of a medical marijuana than the House passed earlier this month, in which qualifying conditions included cancer and chronic illnesses such as Crohn's, Alzheimer's and post-traumatic stress disorder. (Rodriguez, 5/18)

Detroit Free Press: Anti-Marijuana Group Changes Mind, Wants Michigan To Legalize Weed
One of the groups formed to fight the legalization of marijuana for recreational use has now decided it's for the measure — but only if the Michigan legislature takes it up and amends the proposal. The Committee to Keep Pot out of Neighborhoods and Schools — a political action committee formed to fight a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana — is now urging the Legislature to take up the initiative, amend it and pass a full legalization of pot for adult recreational use. The committee hopes that if the Legislature acts, recreational use will be regulated as stringently as the medical marijuana industry. (Gray, 5/20)

WBUR: Flouting Guidelines, Most Colorado Dispensaries Recommend Cannabis For Pregnancy Nausea, Study Finds
Researchers put in calls with this query to 400 cannabis dispensaries in Colorado, which voted to legalize marijuana in 2012 and is now closely watched by other states on the same path. The study turned up some striking results: Nearly 70 percent of the dispensaries recommended some sort of cannabis to cope with morning sickness in early pregnancy. (Goldberg, 5/18)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Governor Vetoes Insurance Legislation, Terming It Counterproductive
Gov. Ralph Northam has vetoed four bills he contends would undermine Virginia’s health insurance marketplace and raise premiums — the same problems that Republican senators say the proposals would address for people who can no longer afford health insurance. ... In vetoing the Senate health insurance bills on Friday, Northam said the state should seek a more comprehensive solution to problems that have caused premiums to soar for individuals and small businesses purchasing coverage in the commercial marketplace. (Martz, 5/18)

The Associated Press: Governor Northam Vetoes GOP Healthcare Bills
(Virginia Gov. Ralph) Northam said that legislation and other Republican-backed bills he vetoed would undermine efforts to expand affordable health care. He said lawmakers could help lower rising health care costs by expanding Medicaid to 400,000 low-income adults. (5/18)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Privatized Medicaid Savings Changes Again Without Explanation
The question of exactly how much Iowa is saving by privatizing its Medicaid system became more muddied this week, as state officials repeatedly changed their estimates. The Iowa Department of Human Services provided no details of how it came up with a new estimate of $140.9 million in state savings, which it released Thursday afternoon. A one-page letter containing that estimate described it as a "projected annual range." On Friday, a department spokesman said the figure wasn't an annual estimate, it was actually a "cumulative" amount since April 2016. Then, late Friday afternoon, the same spokesman said the $140.9 million estimate was for the current fiscal year. (Leys, 5/18)

The New York Times: Technique Used To Find Golden State Killer Leads To A Suspect In 1987 Murders
In 1987, Jay Cook, 20, and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, a couple from Canada, were brutally killed while they were vacationing in Washington State. On Friday, the Snohomish County sheriff’s office announced that it had a suspect in custody in the rape of Ms. Van Cuylenborg and the murders. William Earl Talbott II, 55, of Seatac, Wash., was arrested on Thursday. An important break came once again as a result of DNA sleuthing techniques similar to the ones used last month to crack the Golden State killer case. (Murphy, 5/18)

Minnesota Public Radio: State Officials Outline Progress In Investigating Reports Of Elder Abuse
Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm said Friday that the backlog of more than 3,000 reports and open cases of elder abuse has been reduced to 122 cases. The update came after a series of stories in the Star Tribune reported that 97 percent of reports of abuse and neglect in senior homes in 2016 were never investigated by the state health department's Office of Health Facility Complaints. (Richert, 5/18)

Pioneer Press: MN Officials: Progress Made Trimming Elder Abuse Investigations Backlog 
Minnesota is making more progress on its efforts to more quickly investigate claims of abuse by vulnerable adults. Jan Malcolm, state health commissioner, released an update Friday that the number of open abuse investigations has dropped from 826 to 122 thanks for an ongoing partnership between the departments of health and human services. (Magan, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: The Spillover Effects Of State Gun Laws
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had a hunch about gun laws: A place with strict laws surrounded by states with lenient ones would have more shootings. But the data revealed something different. Counties in states with tight gun laws weren’t affected by the loose laws of neighboring states—but counties in states with loose laws had lower rates of firearm homicide when nearby states had tight laws. “It’s a halo effect,” said Elinore J. Kaufman, lead author of the study. “If you lived in a state with lenient laws but neighboring states had stronger laws, you were a little bit protected.” (McGinty, 5/18)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Deaths In Georgia Jails: Inmate Deaths Linked To Mental Illness
Gaps in the criminal justice and mental health systems have turned local jails into warehouses for the mentally ill, often with fatal consequences. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Channel 2 Action News and the Georgia News Lab conducted one of the most comprehensive reviews of jail deaths ever undertaken in Georgia, reviewing the deaths of more than 500 inmates and detainees in the state’s local jails in the past decade. (Schrade, Peebles and Georgia News Lab, 5/18)

San Jose Mercury News: Stanford Ousts Suicidal Students From School, Homes: Lawsuit
Stanford University students who attempt or consider suicide have been banned from campus, ousted from university housing, and ordered to pay hundreds of dollars for getting kicked out, according to a new lawsuit filed by three students and a mental health group. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Jose, alleges that the university’s policies deter troubled students from seeking help from campus counseling and other Stanford services. (Baron, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Donald Trump Knows Terrifyingly Little About Women’s Health
President Trump has shown himself to be deeply interested in women’s bodies: As a radio show guest, he graded them, part by part. As a presidential candidate, he attributed tough questions from them to their wayward bleeding. And now, as president, he’s restricting their access to health care. A rule Trump is expected to outline Tuesday will strip sexual health funding from clinics that perform or refer for abortions, which if Texas’s experiment is any guide, will vastly reduce women’s access to effective forms of contraception in the name of preventing abortion. (Irin Carmon, 5/20)

The New York Times: Pandering, And Endangering Women
Appealing to the religious right, Donald Trump is set to make good on his campaign promise to defund Planned Parenthood. In the process, he will put at risk women’s access not only to abortion but to birth control, Pap tests, sexually transmitted infection screenings and other health services. (5/19)

The Washington Post: Trump's Abortion Move Is A Gift To Pro-Life Evangelicals — And Hurts Low-Income Women 
No group has been more loyal, politically, to President Trump than pro-life evangelical Christians, and he is being loyal to them. The latest example: the news Friday that his administration plans a partial reinstatement of Reagan administration regulations that restrict the use of federal family planning dollars by organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, that provide abortion, as well as less controversial forms of reproductive and other health care. At issue is $286 million in federal spending under the Title X program, which funds clinics for low-income women seeking contraception, prenatal care, disease screenings and the like. (5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: More Competition For Pharma
President Trump last week laid out a plan to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, and the press sniped that he sold out to the pharmaceutical industry. So irony alert: One of the Administration’s first actions is to call out drug companies that appear to be trying to evade competition. On Thursday Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced that the agency would publish a list of companies that have “potentially” tried to forestall competition from generic alternatives. More competition from generics is essential for lower costs for patients, and with multiple competitors the price can drop to 85% less than the brand name. (5/18)

Arizona Republic: Trump's Prescription Drug Prices Mandate Misses The Point
President Donald Trump announced plans to lower drug prices and his administration immediately sought – through U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar – to require drug companies to share price information directly with patients. But while a move toward more sunlight in drug pricing is significant, patients are still being left in the dark when it comes to “off-label” prescriptions. (Christina Sandefur and Naomi Lopez Bauman, 5/19)

The New York Times: Don’t Put That In My Heart Until You’re Sure It Really Works 
Atrial fibrillation, a condition affecting three million to six million Americans, is caused by irregular contractions of the heart and results in an increased risk of stroke and death. Over the past two decades, cardiologists have increasingly treated it with a procedure called catheter ablation, in which small plastic catheters are used to create scars in the damaged heart tissue to prevent the aberrant electrical signals from spreading. Many have touted catheter ablation, which can cost well above $20,000, as a “cure” for atrial fibrillation. (Haider Warraich, 5/20)

Chicago Tribune: School Shooters Are A Symptom Of A Culture That Is Ill 
If you want gun control, I’ll offer some now: The mentally ill should be nowhere near guns. I support the Second Amendment, making me an almost extinct creature in the world of journalism. But I don’t care if the NRA likes that idea or not. (John Kass, 5/18)

The New York Times: Please, Let’s Never Get Used To This
There was a time when the news that 10 people had been gunned down at their school would have been a terrific shock. You’d have talked about it with everyone at work, with your family at dinner. All through the weekend.But now it’s beginning to feel way too normal. On Friday it was in Santa Fe, Tex. Just three months after we lost 14 kids in Florida. “It’s been happening everywhere. I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too,” one of the Santa Fe students told a reporter. (Gail Collins, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Sports’ Newest Battlefront: Mental Health
This isn’t a typical sports story, but I think it’s an important one. Over the past few months, a handful of high-profile athletes have come forward to talk about their personal issues with mental health. The Olympic legend Michael Phelps opened up on his struggles with depression, as did the NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors. Another basketball All-Star, Kevin Love, currently in the playoffs with the Cleveland Cavaliers, went public about his battles with anxiety—including a panic attack he suffered during a game this season. (Jason Gay, 5/20)

Boston Globe: In Rural America, Digital Divide Slows A Vital Path For Telemedicine
Kentucky's Allen County has 20,000 residents. Its school system serves about 3,100 students — but it has no pediatrician. The nearest one is 28 miles away. For years, when a child in the county seat of Scottsville became sick in school, parents and teachers didn’t have any good options. But that’s now changed because of high-speed Internet access. Thanks to a digital connection between Allen County and Vanderbilt University’s Children’s Hospital in Tennessee, students in Scottsville simply walk to the school nurse’s office to see a top-notch pediatrician. Doctors can see their faraway patients on a screen, and parents can check in using an app. Everyone wins: Kids are healthier, parents don’t have to take time off work, teachers can focus on teaching, doctors can extend their expertise, and Scottsville is a stronger community. This story illustrates that telemedicine — the delivery of health care services using communications technology — can be a critical tool for making Americans healthier. (Newton N. Minow and Ajit Pai, 5/21)

The Wall Street Journal: The Case To Bring Back The Asylum
In the U.S. today, jails and prisons have become our mental asylums. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that some 365,000 American adults with serious mental illness are behind bars and an additional 770,000 are on probation or parole. A 2017 Justice Department study estimates that some 37% of all prison inmates suffer some mental illness and that 26.4% of jail inmates suffer from a psychosis. They are behind bars because, too often, they have nowhere to go. Two generations of policy have led to the mass closing of state mental hospitals. The extent of the resulting problems—for the seriously mentally ill in general, not just those in jails or prisons—is so widespread that a case is building to bring back the asylum, especially for those who pose a risk to others or themselves. But proponents aren’t advocating for a return of the inhumane places of the past. What’s needed is a new generation of flexible and varied institutions. (Howard Husock and Carolyn D. Gorman, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: Anchors Away On Tackling The Social Determinants Of Health
Social scientists know a lot about the root causes of so much of the ill-health in our society, yet healthcare systems have rarely acted on that knowledge. That's finally starting to change. Next week, a 2-year-old network of major healthcare systems dedicated to combating the social problems contributing to ill health in their own backyards will go public. They've chosen to highlight a San Francisco Bay Area food production center that will be up and running by the end of this year. (Merrill Goozner, 5/19)

Houston Chronicle: Get Tested For Hepatitis C 
The good news is that Hepatitis C can be cured in almost all people. Effective medications can treat Hepatitis C. ...However, the true picture is not so simple. Even if an effective treatment exists, many times we do not know who has the disease because there are missed opportunities for testing and diagnosis. A great example is Hepatitis C, a silent potential killer. Hepatitis C is a serious infection of the liver and a leading cause of liver cancer. More people are dying from liver cancer every year. Worse, many of these people had Hepatitis C and did not know it in time because they were not tested for it. Hepatitis C is more common than you might think. Nearly 4 million people in the United States are infected. In Texas alone, there are around 400,000 people with this serious infection. (Sharwin Khot and Monisha Arya, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: Stop Fighting The Koreatown Homeless Shelter
When L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled his plan to fund shelters for homeless people in every City Council district, Council President Herb Wesson was the first council member to announce that he had found a site on his turf: a parking lot in Koreatown. It's city-owned (so no private property owner to pay or haggle with), big enough to house at least 65 people, and not bumping up against any residential housing. When it comes to housing homeless people, that's as close to a dream site as you can get. (5/19)

The Hill: Without Federal Leadership, States Must Safeguard ACA Markets
Although the Trump administration and its allies failed to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last year, they took a number of smaller steps that added up to a big problem: The ACA is now weaker. Unfortunately, the administration is still seeking to undermine the health-care law, moving forward with proposals that would expand association health plans (AHPs) and short-term insurance plans, both of which have the potential to limit the ability of state insurance commissioners to regulate health plans and cause premiums to rise. While some claim these proposals would be a boon for small business, small business advocates and health-care experts know we must maintain safeguards that promote affordable health-care coverage and stabilized health insurance markets. (Mike Kreidler and John Arensmeyer, 5/20) 

The Hill: Medicare For All Means Rationing For Everyone
The battle cry of the left today when it comes to healthcare is “Medicare For All." This idea arose with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during his 2016 campaign for president. Sanders knew that the term “nationalized medicine” would be seen as pejorative by a majority of Americans, so he renamed the concept. Nationalized healthcare became “Medicare for All.” ...To assert that Medicare For All — or to use its more honest label, nationalization — would actually produce a better, more effective healthcare system for Americans is a hard sell when one looks at the facts. (Judd Gregg, 5/21)

San Antonio Press-Express: Stripping Funds From Children’s Health Program Bad Budget Move
Congress needs to maintain the commitment it made to children in low-income households earlier this year when it extended the Children’s Health Insurance Program’s funding for 10 years. President Donald Trump is seeking to use a rarely used budgetary maneuver to strip $15 billion of spending that had already been approved for the federal budget. (5/18)

Columbus Dispatch: Silver Tsunami Raises Demand For Home Health Care 
Every day, 10,000 baby boomers nationwide turn 65. At this rate, 1 in every 5 U.S. residents will be retirement age by 2030 (according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 National Population Projections). Baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964, now account for 22.9 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau. Ohio is no exception. Between 2010 and 2030, while Ohio’s population is estimated to increase by only 2 percent, the state’s population of people over the age 65 is expected to surge a whopping 66 percent. More senior citizens now see home-care services as a great option to help them maintain their independence and age in place. Multiple nationwide studies show that an increasing number of seniors prefer to remain in their own homes with the addition of in-home support. (Tom DiMarco, 5/21)

San Antonio Press-Express: Address Foster Teen Pregnancy Now, Not Later
Now, a recent report by the Austin based nonprofit Texans Care for Children, reveals that girls in the Texas foster care system are nearly five times as likely to get pregnant than other peers their own age. Yes, foster teens come from the same risk groups that contribute to Texas’ teen birth numbers, but the point is that foster children are essentially responsibilities of the state. (5/19)

Orlando Sentinel: 21 Floridians A Day Die From Drugs While Legislators Cut Treatment
Across Florida, 33 mental health and substance abuse facilities that treat inmates are either closing or will be handling only work-release operations after June 30 because Department of Corrections officials must cut nearly $30 million in substance abuse and mental health programs. ...DOC warned state legislators in February that it would need more money to provide constitutionally required primary health care for 96,000 inmates and to meet orders from three Florida courts to provide another $100 million in services as the result of deliberate and chronic underfunding of prison health care over years. (Lauren Ritchie, 5/18)

Detroit Free Press: Proposed Medicaid Work Requirements Leave Some Disabled Out
Kim Hoxworth is disabled. Thanks to Medicaid, she's getting treatment. But she has yet to obtain the Social Security Administration's declaration that she's officially disabled, entitled to payments from the social safety net she has paid into since she started working at 14. And because it can take up to two years to obtain that status, if a bill proposed by Lansing Republicans and passed last month by the state Senate becomes law, Kim and people like her could be cut off from medical care for years. There is a lot wrong with SB 897, which would require Medicaid recipients to work 30 hours a week to continue receiving health benefits. Because of the way the legislation grants poverty exemptions, it would disproportionately harm impoverished people of color. (Nancy Kaffer, 5/19)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Here's Why Medicaid For All Is The Right Choice For Ohio
In 2013, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a column entitled "I Have Seen the Future, and It Is Medicaid." That's because when he compared the growth in healthcare expenditures among Medicare, private insurance and Medicaid, he found that Medicaid's cost growth was the lowest. He commented, "We have ample evidence that we do know how to control health costs -- and Medicaid does it far better than private insurance, and better than Medicare, too." (John Corlett, 5/20)

Stat: The Looming Shortage Of Injectable Opioids Could Harm Cancer Patients
Most doctors and health policy experts these days are focused on the overabundance of pills fueling the opioid crisis gripping the United States. Cancer doctors like me lie awake at night worrying about the looming shortage of injectable opioids that we need to treat our in-pain and dying patients. (Tara Soumerai, 5/21)

The New York Times: Treat Addiction Like Cancer
Two years ago, I spent a week in Houston helping my stepbrother while he underwent treatment for Stage 4 lymphoma at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. I sat with him while a nurse cleaned his chemo port and made records of her work, to keep his medical team updated. I accompanied him for the blood tests that determined his readiness for the next treatment. I stayed by his bed as his stem cells were harvested for a transplant, one of the cutting-edge, evidence-based therapies that ultimately saved his life. Around the same time, I was helping my 22-year-old daughter, who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. The contrast between the two experiences was stark. While my stepbrother received a doctor’s diagnosis, underwent a clearly defined treatment protocol and had his expenses covered by insurance, there was no road map for my daughter. (Laura Hilgers, 5/19)

The New York Times: America’s 150-Year Opioid Epidemic
After the death of her father, a prominent hotel owner in Seattle, Ella Henderson started taking morphine to ease her grief. She was 33 years old, educated and intelligent, and she frequented the upper reaches of Seattle society. But her “thirst for morphine” soon “dragged her down to the verge of debauchery,” according to a newspaper article in 1877 titled “A Beautiful Opium Eater.” After years of addiction, she died of an overdose. In researching opium addiction in late-19th-century America, I’ve come across countless stories like Henderson’s. What is striking is how, aside from some Victorian-era moralizing, they feel so familiar to a 21st-century reader: Henderson developed an addiction at a vulnerable point in her life, found doctors who enabled it and then self-destructed. She was just one of thousands of Americans who lost their lives to addiction between the 1870s and the 1920s. The late-19th-century opiate epidemic was nearly identical to the one now spreading across the United States. (Clinton Lawson, 5/19)