The Associated Press: Program Meant To Curb Repeat Hospital Stays Fails Big Test
Researchers thought they had a way to keep hard-to-treat patients from constantly returning to the hospital and racking up big medical bills. Health workers visited homes, went along to doctor appointments, made sure medicines were available and tackled social problems including homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. Readmissions seemed to drop. The program looked so promising that the federal government and the MacArthur Foundation gave big bucks to expand it beyond Camden, New Jersey, where it started. But a more robust study released Wednesday revealed it was a stunning failure on its main goal: Readmission rates did decline, but by the same amount as for a comparison group of similar patients not in the costly program. (1/8)

The New York Times: These Patients Are Hard To Treat
But a new study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the Camden program did not result in fewer hospital readmissions in the six months after a patient left the hospital. While the program appeared to lower readmissions by nearly 40 percent, the same kind of patients who received regular care saw a nearly identical decline in hospital stays. (Abelson, 1/8)

The New York Times: Deflating Results Of Major Study Point To Better Ways To Cut Health Care Waste
To try to avoid a repeat hospitalization, the program provided an unusually large amount of care to very sick patients after they left the hospital, including from registered nurses, social workers, licensed practical nurses, community health workers and health coaches. In the three months after a hospital stay, an average patient in the program received 7.6 home visits and 8.8 phone calls from staff. In addition, program staff went along on patients’ visits to physicians, which averaged 2.5 per person. (Frakt, 1/8)

Kaiser Health News: Reduce Health Costs By Nurturing The Sickest? A Much-Touted Idea Disappoints
The results are a blow to Dr. Jeffrey Brenner and the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, the organization he founded nearly 20 years ago. “It’s my life’s work. So, of course, you’re upset and sad,” said Brenner, who now does similar work with health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare. The model of care, pioneered in part by Brenner and profiled in a widely read 2011 article in The New Yorker, has inspired dozens of similar projects across the country and attracted millions in philanthropic funding. (Gorenstein and Walker, 1/8)

In other health care costs news, the price of having a baby and surprise medical bills —

CBS News: Cost Of Having A Baby Hits $4,500 Out Of Pocket With Employer-Provided Insurance
The cost of giving birth in America has skyrocketed in recent years — even for women with employer health insurance. A major study looking at women with employer-provided health insurance found that the average new mom spent $4,500 out-of-pocket to give birth in 2015, the most recent year data are available. That's a 50% increase from 2007, when the typical new mom paid out just over $3,000 of her own money. It's also more than three times the rate of inflation over that time period. (Ivanova, 1/8)

The Hill: Hoyer: Democratic Chairmen Trying To Bridge Divide On Surprise Medical Bills
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that two Democratic committee chairmen are trying to work out their differences over a measure that would protect patients from surprise medical bills. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has been pushing for months to pass legislation protecting patients from getting massive bills when they go to the emergency room and one of their doctors happens to be outside their insurance network. (Sullivan, 1/8)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Watch Your Back — And Your Wallet
In 2008, Cathryn Jakobson Ramin was an investigative journalist whose back was killing her.She was considering surgery but, after learning more about her options and the failure rate of surgery, instead spent six years researching what she now calls the “back pain industry.” She found that the most commonly prescribed treatments, including surgery, frequently do not work — and often leave people a lot worse off. (Weissmann, 1/9)

The New York Times: New York State Investigates Christian Health Cost Sharing Affiliate
New York State officials are investigating a business representing a major Christian group offering an alternative to health insurance, joining several states scrutinizing these cost-sharing programs that provide limited coverage. On Wednesday, New York state insurance regulators issued a subpoena to Aliera, which markets the Christian ministry run by Trinity Healthshare, according to people who have seen the subpoena. More than one million Americans have joined such groups, attracted by prices that are far lower than the cost of traditional insurance policies that must meet strict requirements established by the Affordable Care Act, like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions. (Abelson, 1/8)

Bloomberg: Health-Care Ministry Aliera Subpoenaed By New York Regulator 
New York’s Department of Financial Services sent a subpoena to Aliera Companies Inc., which operates Trinity HealthShare, a nonprofit health-care sharing ministry. The health-sharing groups have grown in popularity amid the rising cost of health insurance, though often offer fewer protections and can come with significant limits. As many as 1 million people are in health-care sharing ministries, by some estimates, though reliable numbers are hard to find. (Tozzi and Court, 1/8)

Past KHN coverage: ‘Sham’ Sharing Ministries Test Faith Of Patients And Insurance Regulators

In other news on the health law —

The Associated Press: 'Obamacare' Mandate: Hot For Lawyers, Ho-Hum To Consumers
The repeal of an unpopular fine for people without health insurance has had little impact on “Obamacare” sign-ups or premiums, a gap between the real world and legal arguments from conservatives again challenging the Affordable Care Act. The 10-year-old law has proved more resilient than its creators or detractors imagined, even as the Supreme Court considers whether to take up the latest effort to roll it back. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/8)

Politico Pro: Maine Unveils Plan To Merge Health Insurance Markets
Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills today announced a series of health insurance reforms that include merging the state’s individual and small group markets. Maine would be the first state to use an Obamacare innovation waiver to extend its reinsurance program to small businesses in the merged market. The goal would be to use the larger risk pool coupled with reinsurance to lower premiums for the firms. (Goldberg, 1/8)

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Keeps Block Of Trump Immigration Rule In Place
A federal appeals court in New York on Wednesday rejected a motion from the Trump administration that would have allowed it to implement a policy connecting the use of public benefits with whether immigrants could become permanent residents. The ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration's motion to lift a temporary national injunction that had been issued by a New York district court in October after lawsuits had been filed against the new policy. (Hajela, 1/8)

Reuters: U.S. Court Blocks Trump From Enforcing 'Public Charge' Immigration Rule
The "public charge" rule unveiled last year would make it harder for immigrants who are poor or need government help to secure residency and stay in the country. Critics have said the rule would keep out disproportionately large numbers of people from Latin American, African and Asian countries. (Rosenberg and Stempel, 1/8)

NBC News: Federal Appeals Court Upholds Bar On Trump's Public Charge Rule
Critics of the rule say it would disproportionately impact lower income immigrants and immigrants of color. "Today, the court rejected the Trump administration's claims that it cannot wait to implement its dangerous and discriminatory public charge policy change," a litigation team in the case brought by Make the Road New York, The Legal Aid Society and the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. (Silva, 1/8)

CBS News: Court Ruling Blocks Enforcement Of Trump's 'Public Charge' Immigration Rule
"Today's ruling enables millions of families to continue their journey of legal immigration. As an immigrant who came over for the pursuit of the American Dream, it's encouraging to see that our borders will not be open to only those who are wealthy," said Xiao Wang, co-founder of Boundless, a company that helps people navigate the country's legal immigration system. The Legal Aid Society, one of the groups spearheading the New York challenge to the regulation, praised the Manhattan-based appellate court for rejecting "the Trump administration's claims that it cannot wait to implement its dangerous and discriminatory public charge policy change." (Montoya-Galvez, 1/8)

The Hill: Appeals Court Refuses To Lift Injunction On Immigrant 'Public Charge' Rule
Two similar injunctions were lifted last month by the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit and the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit. Despite those decisions, however, the injunction from New York, which falls under the 2nd Circuit, continues to apply across the country. The Trump administration’s controversial approach to the public charge rule, announced in August, is one of a series of administration measures aimed at curbing legal immigration. (Kruzel, 1/8)

The Associated Press: Walgreens Begins 2020 Much As It Ended 2019, On A Sour Note
Walgreens is kicking off its year much as it ended its last, with a big earnings plunge. First-quarter net income tumbled about 25% as the drugstore chain filled fewer prescriptions than expected and continued to work through a cost-cutting program geared to produce billions in future savings. (Murphy, 1/8)

Reuters: Walgreens Misses Profit Estimates On Pharmacy Weakness, Shares Fall 7%
The company sought to reassure investors, saying it would meet its adjusted full-year profit forecast of roughly flat growth, betting on cost cuts and a harsh flu season. But shares fell nearly 7% to $55, dragging down those of CVS 2%, as investors worried that the pressure on reimbursement rates from insurers was likely to hurt profits further. (Mishra and Roy, 1/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Walgreens Profit Squeezed By Weak Prescription Volumes
Walgreens, which also owns the Boots drugstore chain in Europe, is getting squeezed in U.S. negotiations with pharmacy-benefit managers, which serve insurers and other clients by choosing which medicines to cover and pushing for lower prices from drugmakers and sellers. Prices that pharmacies pay for generic drugs have been falling, but insurers’ reimbursement rates are declining more. At the same time, competition from Amazon.com Inc. and other retailers has hurt the company’s retail business. (Terlep and Prang, 1/8)

Stat: Grassley: Trump Should Do More To Bolster Drug Pricing Bill
A top Republican lawmaker on Wednesday hinted that the Senate stagnation of a bipartisan drug pricing bill has a high-profile culprit: President Trump. The comments mark the second time in as many months that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has suggested Republican Party leadership must act more forcefully on the issue of drug pricing. (Facher, 1/8)

Stat: The Ghosts Of JPMs Past: How 20 Years Of Deals Have Shaped Health Care
Biotech is celebrating a platinum anniversary next week: 20 years since J.P. Morgan took over the industry’s biggest conference, an annual ritual of brokered mergers, broken promises, and breakthrough science. The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is more than a venue for deals. It’s a place where fierce arguments break out, where industry memes get made, and where biotech examines its warts and wrinkles. (Herper, Garde, Robbins and Feuerstein, 1/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Less Is More For Big Pharma In 2020
Drug-price inflation, a source of profit and headaches alike for the pharmaceutical industry, is slowing down. That might be better news for investors than it seems. As has become customary, drug manufacturers raised the sticker price on many medicines as the calendar turned to 2020. Analysts at Morgan Stanley found 2,167 price increases in the first week of January, up 17% from the same period a year earlier. (Grant, 1/8)

The Associated Press: Cancer Group Finds Biggest One-Year Drop In U.S. Death Rate
Researchers on Wednesday reported the largest-ever one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they credited to advances in lung-tumor treatments. The overall cancer death rate has been falling about 1.5% a year since 1991. It fell 2.2% from 2016 to 2017, according to the new American Cancer Society report. That’s the largest drop ever seen in national cancer statistics going back to 1930, said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author. (1/8)

The New York Times: Cancer Death Rate In U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop
“Every year that we see a decline in cancer mortality rate, it’s very good news,” said Rebecca Siegel, director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the organization’s report, which was published online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Experts attributed the decline to the reduced smoking rates and to advances in lung cancer treatment. New therapies for melanoma of the skin have also helped extend life for many people with metastatic disease, or cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. (Sheikh, 1/8)

NPR: Cancer Death Rate Falls As Lung Cancer Picture Improves
"This is unambiguously good news," says Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, senior investigator with the Center for Surgery and Public Health, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He was not involved in the analysis. What's behind the decline? In part, smoking rates have fallen steadily, which means the biggest risk factor for lung cancer has fallen appreciably. New cancer treatments are also playing a role, Siegel says. (Harris, 1/8)

CNN: US Cancer Death Rate Sees Largest-Ever Single-Year Drop, Report Says
An analysis of the data showed that, since its peak of about 215 cancer deaths for every 100,000 people in 1991, the cancer death rate in the United States has continued to fall. The report found an overall drop of 29% as of 2017, which translates into an estimated 2.9 million fewer cancer deaths than what would have occurred if death rates had remained at their peak, according to the report. (Howard, 1/8)

CBS News: Cancer Death Rate Sees Largest-Ever Single-Year Drop In U.S.
The decline in mortality from melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, was also dramatic, according to the report. The progress comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved new therapies for metastatic disease, or cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Notably, death from melanoma decreased in people aged 65 years and older, a group where melanoma rates were increasing prior to 2013. (McNamara, 1/8)

NBC News: Cancer Death Rates Are Falling. Advances In Lung Cancer Treatment Are Playing A Major Role.
Another of the biggest advances, experts said, has been the development of immunotherapies such as Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab. It uses the body's immune system to fight tumors, and it is approved for lung cancer and melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. (Edwards, 1/8)

Houston Chronicle: Cancer Death Rate Declines Sharply, Partly Thanks To Immunotherapy
Both Davies and Dr. John Heymach, chair of MD Anderson’s lung cancer department, attributed the improvement to “smart drugs” that more precisely target tumors in addition to treatment that releases a brake on the immune system that naturally keeps the body’s defenses from attacking cancer. MD Anderson scientist Jim Allison’s identification of the brake led to a new class of immunotherapy drugs, most approved in the last decade, which have cured many patients of cancers that have historically meant death sentences. (Ackerman, 1/8)

The Hill: Cancer Death Rate Has Biggest One-Year Drop Ever, Report Finds 
In contrast, progress slowed in preventing death from colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, the report found, all of which can be significantly curtailed with early detection. “The exciting gains in reducing mortality for melanoma and lung cancer are tempered by slowing progress for colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers, which are amenable to early detection,” said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author of the report. (Sullivan, 1/8)

The Star Tribune: Record Drop In U.S. Cancer Death Rate May Reflect A Series Of Treatment Breakthroughs 
Progress has been incremental, said Dr. Douglas Yee, director of the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center. A new treatment for breast cancer, for example, might work for only the 3% of patients with certain genetic mutations. New guidelines have refined standard chemotherapies so they work better, and new technology has focused radiation beams so they more tightly target tumors rather than healthy tissue. (Olson, 1/8)

In other oncology news —

Politico Pro: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Says She Is Cancer-Free
Ruth Bader Ginsburg remains clear of cancer, the Supreme Court justice told CNN this week. “I’m cancer free. That’s good,” she told the outlet in an interview published on Wednesday. Ginsburg disclosed her most recent cancer diagnosis last summer, completing a three-week course of radiation therapy to treat a malignant tumor on her pancreas. (Oprysko, 1/8)

Georgia Health News: South Fulton Neighborhood Has High Risk From Ethylene Oxide, State Study Shows
A neighborhood west of Atlanta faces cancer risks that exceed what the government considers acceptable for airborne toxins, a study by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) shows. The neighborhood, Westchase at Sandtown, in southern Fulton County, sits about a half-mile southeast of Sterilization Services of Georgia, which uses ethylene oxide gas to sterilize medical products. (Goodman and Miller, 1/8)

The New York Times: China Identifies New Virus Causing Pneumonia-Like Illness
Chinese researchers say they have identified a new virus behind an illness that has infected dozens of people across Asia, setting off fears in a region that was struck by a deadly epidemic 17 years ago. There is no evidence that the new virus is readily spread by humans, which would make it particularly dangerous, and it has not been tied to any deaths. But health officials in China and elsewhere are watching it carefully to ensure that the outbreak does not develop into something more severe. (Wee and McNeil, 1/8)

The Washington Post: China Identifies New Strain Of Coronavirus As Source Of Pneumonia Outbreak
A Chinese preliminary assessment panel isolated the coronavirus — named because of its crown-like appearance under a microscope — from samples taken from a single patient’s lung fluid, blood and throat swabs, the panel’s leader, Xu Jianguo, told the official Xinhua News Agency in an interview. “The expert group believes that the pathogen of the unexplained cases of viral pneumonia has been preliminarily identified as a new type of coronavirus,” Xu said. “The virus was isolated from samples and showed a typical coronavirus appearance under an electron microscope.” (Shih and Sun, 1/9)

The Wall Street Journal: New Virus Discovered By Chinese Scientists Investigating Pneumonia Outbreak
There are many known coronaviruses—some can cause ailments like common colds in humans, while others don’t affect humans at all. Some—such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS-coronavirus, identified in 2003—have led to deadly outbreaks, lending urgency to efforts to contain the current situation. The number of reported cases of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, was 59 on Sunday, rising from 27 on Dec. 31, according to Wuhan’s Municipal Health Commission, with seven people in critical condition. No deaths have been reported. (Khan, 1/8)

The Associated Press: AP Explains: The Pathogen Behind China's Pneumonia Outbreak
Since late last year, people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan have been infected with a viral pneumonia whose cause was unknown. The outbreak raised the specter of another SARS epidemic, which killed hundreds in 2002 and 2003. A preliminary investigation has now identified the respiratory disease as a new type of coronavirus, Chinese state media reported Thursday, citing scientists handling the investigation. (1/9)

NPR: For Suicide Prevention, Try Raising The Minimum Wage, Research Suggests
A new study suggests that raising the minimum wage might lower the suicide rate — especially when unemployment is high — and that doing so might have saved tens of thousands of people from dying by suicide in the last quarter century. The minimum federal minimum wage is $7.25, though many states have set it higher. Between 1990 and 2015, raising the minimum wage by $1 in each state might have saved more than 27,000 lives, according to a report published this week in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. An increase of $2 in each state's minimum wage could have prevented more than 57,000 suicides. (Dangor, 1/8)

The New York Times: The Flu Season May Yet Turn Ugly, C.D.C. Warns
The United States may be headed into a bad flu season, according to figures recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of the last week of December, “widespread” flu activity was reported by health departments in 46 states. More ominously, a second measure — the percentage of patients with flu symptoms visiting medical clinics — shot up almost to the peak reached at the height of the 2017-18 flu season, which was the most severe in a decade. (McNeil, 1/8)

North Carolina Health News: Flu Season Hits Hard In North Carolina 
Health officials in North Carolina and beyond are watching hospital admissions and doctor visit reports closely to see if the 2019-2020 season could indeed turn out to be a blockbuster one for influenza, as many worry. This year’s activity has so far eclipsed what was experienced at this point in previous years, with the CDC estimating 6.4 million cases of the flu, 55,000 hospitalizations and at least 2,900 deaths so far. That count includes 27 children, the highest number of pediatric deaths seen since the CDC started keeping records 17 years ago, according to CNN. (Ovaska and Goldsmith, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Patients Push Limits For Clues To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Researchers hooked Zach Ault to medical monitors as he slowly climbed onto a gym bike. An invisible disease is sidelining this once avid athlete and he knew the simple exercise would wipe him out -- but Ault was pedaling for science. Chronic fatigue syndrome is one of medicine’s most vexing mysteries. Now doctors at the National Institutes of Health are using volunteers like Ault for a unique study that pushes their limits in search of what’s stealing all their energy. (1/8)

PBS NewsHour: How A Growing Trove Of Genetic Data Is Informing Medical Breakthroughs
Individualized medicine, in which treatments are customized based on a patient’s unique DNA, is a rising field. Along with an ever-expanding genetic database, it offers tantalizing promise for solving some of medicine's most daunting challenges. But individualized medicine also carries with it questions and risks -- both moral and medical. (O'Brien, 1/8)

Miami Herald: More Prescription-Strength Zantac Recalled On NDMA Concerns
After a quiet December, recalls of ranitidine — brand name: Zantac — resumed Tuesday with Appco Pharma pulling all quantities and lots of 150mg and 300mg ranitidine hydrochloride capsules. The problem, according to the company-written, FDA-posted recall notice, is NDMA-related, as has been the case with previous recalls. Recalled capsules might have more N-nitrosodimethylamine, classified as a probable human carcinogen, than FDA acceptable intake levels. (Neal, 1/8)

CNN: Avoid These Five Risk Factors And Live Longer, Study Says
How would you like to add seven to 10 healthy, disease-free years to your life as you age? Try eliminating these five bad health habits: smoking, not exercising, being overweight, drinking too much alcohol and eating an unhealthy diet. (LaMotte, 1/8)

The Associated Press: Electric Scooter Injuries Surge Along With Their Popularity
Electric scooter injuries have surged along with their popularity in the United States, nearly tripling over four years, researchers said in a study published Wednesday. Nearly 40,000 broken bones, head injuries, cuts and bruises resulting from scooter accidents were treated in U.S. emergency rooms from 2014 through 2018, the research showed. (1/8)

Stat: Faced With Fears Of OxyContin Misuse, Sales Reps Touted Its Safety 
A year and a half after the opioid painkiller OxyContin went on the market, a Purdue Pharma sales representative documented a physician’s concern about the burgeoning drug that would come up again and again. “Dr worried re addiction w/ Oxy,” the sales rep wrote in a memo summarizing a visit with a Kentucky physician on Aug. 12, 1997. The representative had a ready message to deflect such concerns: “Oxy is long-acting, has fewer peaks than other oxycodone combos, less addictive value.” (Joseph and Chakradhar, 1/9)

Tampa Bay Times: Hillsborough Takes First Steps Toward Needle Exchange Pilot Program
With the county commission now on board, Hillsborough is on track to become one of the first counties in Florida to take advantage of a new state law allowing local governments to offer free, clean syringes in exchange for used ones. The commission gave its first nod of approval Wednesday to a proposed pilot needle exchange program that would not only provide free hypodermic needles to the community, but also offer on-site medical treatment, mental health counseling and access to the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. (Dawson, 1/8)

Boston Globe: Federal Database Of Addiction Treatment Providers Outdated, Study Finds
There’s a rallying cry heard often in the battle against opioid addiction: People with opioid dependence need immediate access to treatment, particularly the medications that stop cravings and prevent overdoses. But a study published this week in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice found that one avenue to addiction treatment — a federal database of clinicians who prescribe buprenorphine, a key antiaddiction medication — is rife with inaccuracies and unlikely to connect patients with care. (Freyer, 1/8)

Boston Globe: State Moves To Prevent Surge In HIV Infections Among Homeless Drug Users
State officials on Wednesday alerted Boston-area health care providers about a growing risk of HIV infections, asking for enhanced vigilance after seven new cases were identified recently among homeless people who inject drugs. Those cases, most diagnosed in December, are among 25 HIV infections in an outbreak first recognized a year ago, stirring concerns about a deadly consequence of the opioid epidemic. The 25 individuals are people who inject drugs, have recently experienced homelessness, and have sought medical care in Boston. (Freyer, 1/8)

WBUR: The Case For Sending Drug Users Home With PICC Lines
Finishing IV antibiotic treatment at home has become standard protocol for patients like Jackson with a serious bacterial infection. Except that Jackson, who is 69, was addicted to heroin for 40 years. Sending someone with a history of injection drug use home with an open line into a major vein is just not done in the U.S., except at a handful of hospitals. Brigham and Women’s is now one of them. (Bebinger, 1/9)

Reuters: Twitter To Experiment With Limiting Replies In Effort To Combat Online Abuse
Twitter said on Wednesday it will test new features early this year that would allow users to control who can reply to their tweets, as it looks to limit abuse and harassment on the platform. Social media firms are under pressure to address harassment on their sites, which often occurs in unsolicited replies targeting women and minorities, and Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey has promised since 2018 to increase the "health" of public conversation. (1/9)

TechCrunch: Farewell, Don’t @ Me. Twitter Will Test A Way To Let You Limit Replies To Your Tweets
“We thought, well, what if we could actually put more control into the author’s hands before the fact? Give them really a way to control the conversation space, as they’re actually composing a tweet? So there’s a new project that we’re working on,” said [Suzanne Xie, head of conversations for the platform]. “The reason we’re doing this is, if we think about what conversation means on Twitter. Right now, public conversation on Twitter is you tweet something everyone in the world will see and everyone can reply, or you can have a very private conversation in a DM. So there’s an entire spectrum of conversations that we don’t see on Twitter yet.” (Lunden and Perez, 1/8)

WIRED: Twitter Wants To Let Users Limit Who Replies. Here’s Why
[Kayvon Beykpour, VP of product at the company] acknowledged the trade-offs, as well as those inherent in every product decision Twitter makes. But it’s at least worth trying, he says, to evolve Twitter as a platform. “The philosophical approach we took here is, when you start a conversation, as the author of a tweet you should have a little more control over the replies to that tweet,” Beykpour said. Misinformation can still be called out with a quote-tweet, which doesn’t reach the same audience but at least offers some corrective path. (Barrett, 1/8)

BBC News: Twitter To Test 'Block All Replies' Function
Social media companies are facing intense scrutiny over how they are dealing with harassment - which has led to firms and governments introducing measures to tackle the issue. (1/9)

In other health technology news —

Bloomberg: Startup Gambles On Treating Mental Health Online 
A new San Francisco startup wants to make accessing mental-health care almost as simple as ordering a ride to the airport on your phone. Cerebral, which launched Wednesday, offers an online alternative for people who have been left without good treatment options for mental-health issues. The company is following the example of Silicon Valley-funded upstarts like Hims Inc., Roman Health Medical LLC and Nurx Inc. that have widened access to baldness treatments, contraceptives and erectile-dysfunction drugs through discreet online interaction with doctors. (Brown, 1/8)

Stat: Amy Abernethy On How The FDA Is Grappling With Digital Health Regulation
The Food and Drug Administration announced this week it will hold a public meeting in late March to talk with digital health companies and other stakeholders about everything from privacy and data sharing to the standards of evidence needed to bring a new technology to the market. The meeting is the latest in a string of steps the agency has taken as it grapples with how to regulate digital health products and tools that use artificial intelligence to help doctors decide how to treat patients. (Thielking, 1/8)

Modern Healthcare: Verity Proposes Closing Los Angeles Hospital After Deal Falls Through
Embattled Verity Health is asking a judge to let it close its Los Angeles hospital after a deal to buy the company out of bankruptcy fell through. El Segundo, Calif.-based Verity said in a court filing this week that it needs to close St. Vincent Medical Center and its dialysis clinic on an emergency basis within 30 days to avoid continued economic losses, which it says amounted to $65 million in fiscal 2019—more than $175,000 per day. (Bannow, 1/8)

The Baltimore Sun: Sinai Hospital Names New President To Replace Official Stepping Aside To Lead New Company 
LifeBridge Health announced Wednesday that Dr. Jonathan Ringo, the president of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, will step down in the summer after a little more than three years leading the Northwest Baltimore hospital to start up a new telemedicine company. The Baltimore-based hospital group said Daniel Blum will join LifeBridge in April to succeed Ringo as both president of Sinai and Grace Medical Center, the former Bon Secours Hospital in West Baltimore acquired last year by LifeBridge. Like Ringo, Blum comes from Northwell Health, where he is president of Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, New York. (Dinsmore, 1/8)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Former CEO Bob Lynch To Permanently Lead Tulane Medical Center A Second Time 
Dr. Bob Lynch, the interim CEO at Tulane Medical Center who previously ran the hospital system for six years, has been tapped to permanently take the helm yet again, Tulane Health System officials announced Wednesday. Lynch will oversee the system jointly owned by Tulane University and Hospital Corporation of America, a for-profit operator of almost 200 hospitals and 119 surgery centers around the country. (Woodruff, 1/8)

Seattle Times: Seattle Children’s Faces Widening Array Of Lawsuits Over Fatal Mold Infections 
On Wednesday, attorneys pursuing a class-action lawsuit against Children’s on behalf of the families of patients who have been sickened from the mold sought to add Beth Hutt to the case. The lawsuit, filed in December in King County Superior Court on behalf of four children or their estates, seeks class-action status for patients who were sickened by Aspergillus at Children’s between 2005 and 2017. A fifth patient was added to the complaint before Beth Hutt. (Blethen, 1/8)

Houston Chronicle: Can UnitedHealthcare Patients Use ER At Houston Methodist? Yes, But There’s A Catch. 
Houston Methodist, its contract ended with the United Healthcare, has launched an advertising campaign telling patients covered by the insurer that they can still use the hospital system’s facilities and doctors with “out of network” benefits. But consumer advocates say the advice, while accurate, leaves out a key point: UnitedHealthcare patients can expect to pay more because they are no longer getting medical services within the United Healthcare network. (Wu, 1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser, Major Union Form Not-For-Profit For Workforce Development
Kaiser Permanente and a union representing 57,000 of its employees jointly announced on Wednesday a new organization focused on growing the number of certified healthcare workers in California. The not-for-profit group, called Futuro Health, has received $130 million from Kaiser to increase those qualified for skilled healthcare jobs such as medical coders, medical assistants and care coordinators, which face shortages. (Castellucci, 1/8)

Modern Healthcare: CHS To Pay $53M To Settle Securities Fraud Lawsuit
Community Health Systems agreed to pay $53 million to settle allegations that shareholders lost $891 million because executives overstated the investor-owned hospital chain's financial health. Shareholders initially sued CHS, CEO Wayne Smith and former Chief Financial Officer Larry Cash in 2011, claiming that CHS billed Medicare for unnecessary inpatient stays, which sunk share prices. Smith and Cash sold their CHS shares before the value dropped, netting each more than $7 million, according to the securities fraud lawsuit. (Kacik, 1/8)

The New York Times: Gangs, Riots, Killings: ‘Undeniable Crisis’ In Mississippi Prisons
Betty Turner dreaded what her son would face in the state penitentiary in Parchman, the Mississippi Delta prison that has, over the course of more than a century, earned a dark and near-mythic reputation for cruelty and institutional racism. Her fears were realized when he described meals of just a slice of bologna with a packet of mustard, sightings of rats and mold, and nights spent on a mat on a cold, damp floor. (Rojas and Fausset, 1/9)

The Hill: Florida Senate Attempts To End Medicaid Expansion Effort 
Florida’s GOP-controlled state Senate is trying to kill an effort to place Medicaid expansion on the ballot. The Senate is asking the state’s Supreme Court to dismiss a review of the potential ballot question because the advocacy group pushing for the measure did not collect enough signatures. (Weixel, 1/8)

The Hill: Nebraska Bill Seeking To Ban Abortions Introduced First Day Of State Session 
A bill seeking to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure was introduced by a Republican Nebraska state senator Wednesday when lawmakers convened for the first day of this year’s legislative session. The bill introduced by Sen. Suzanne Geist would ban dilation and evacuation abortions, which supporters of the bill call “dismemberment abortion.” It is co-sponsored by 20 other state senators. (Klar, 1/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Consumer Website Broken For More Than A Month
For the past month, consumers and advocates have not had online access to critical inspection reports on Georgia assisted living communities, personal care homes, nursing homes, hospitals and other health care facilities because the state’s website has been offline. Initially, the Georgia Department of Community Health’s “Map2Care” website was projected to be unavailable for only four days in early December, according to a message posted on the site when it first went down. The message said an “upgraded system will re-launch” on Dec. 9. (Teegardin and Schrade, 1/8)

Kansas City Star: Kelly To Consolidate DCF, Other Agencies Into New Department
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced a sweeping reorganization Wednesday of the state departments that administer foster care, mental health hospitals and services for troubled juveniles — consolidating them all into a single, massive agency. One objective of the proposed Kansas Department of Human Services would be to provide stronger support to troubled families, allowing children to remain safely at home when possible. (Shorman and Bauer, 1/8)

The New York Times: After A Measles Scare, Seattle Cracks Down On Vaccine Compliance
After a measles outbreak sickened dozens of unvaccinated children in southwestern Washington State last year, school health administrators around the state went into crisis mode, intent on confronting the relatively low vaccination rates in the region. First, they got an assist from the State Legislature, which passed a law in May tightening exemption rules for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Then school districts — including Seattle’s — sent letters asking thousands of families who did not have compliant vaccine records to get them in order. (Baker, 1/8)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lawmakers Release $10M Plan To Address Water Contamination In Wisconsin
State lawmakers introduced a $10 million plan Wednesday to reduce bacteria, nitrates, poisonous lead and long-lasting chemicals in Wisconsin's groundwater. The package of 13 bills released by Democratic and Republican Assembly lawmakers pays for additional staff at the state and county level to improve state laws and regulations and expand land conservation efforts. The bills also would provide owners of wells with more money to reconstruct them to make water safer. (Beck, 1/8)

Reuters: California Governor Deploys Trailers, Tents, Funds In Homelessness 'Emergency'
Responding to a growing crisis on the streets of California's cities, Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday sought to create a $750 million fund to help house the homeless and directed the state to immediately start setting up tents and trailers. Newsom said the money, if approved in the 2020-21 budget, would be distributed to major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as smaller communities to pay rent for homeless people and create more temporary housing. (1/9)

The Associated Press: Atlanta Hawks' Young Cancels $1M In Medical Debt For Locals
The holiday season is over but Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young still had some charity gift giving in mind: wiping out medical debt for hundreds of the city's residents. The 21-year-old star donated $10,000 to a medical debt erasure agency which relieved over $1 million in debt for those residents, news outlets reported. (1/8)

The Hill: Massachusetts Reports Fourth Vaping-Related Death 
Health officials in Massachusetts on Wednesday reported the state’s fourth death from a vaping-related illness. According to state officials, the patient was a man in his 70s who reported vaping THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The case is among the 36 confirmed cases of vaping-associated lung injury that the state health department has reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since Sept. 11, 2019. (Weixel, 1/8)

Health News Florida: Florida Attorney General, Lawmakers Levy Criticism Against Recreational Pot Plan
Attorney General Ashley Moody and the state House and Senate want the Florida Supreme Court to reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational marijuana use, arguing the measure wouldn’t fully inform voters that pot remains illegal under federal law. Lawyers for Moody, the House and the Senate filed briefs late Monday contending that the proposal’s wording would be misleading if it goes on the ballot. (Saunders, 1/8)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Distinct Populations Of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Based On Age
In most recent studies, authors combine all cases of sudden infant death syndrome, other deaths from ill-defined or unknown causes, and accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed as a single population to analyze sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). Our aim with this study is to determine if there are statistically different subcategories of SUID that are based on the age of death of an infant. (Lavista et al, 1/1)

Health Affairs: National Health Care Spending In 2018: Growth Driven By Accelerations In Medicare And Private Insurance Spending
US health care spending increased 4.6 percent to reach $3.6 trillion in 2018, a faster growth rate than the rate of 4.2 percent in 2017 but the same rate as in 2016. The share of the economy devoted to health care spending declined to 17.7 percent in 2018, compared to 17.9 percent in 2017. The 0.4-percentage-point acceleration in overall growth in 2018 was driven by faster growth in both private health insurance and Medicare, which were influenced by the reinstatement of the health insurance tax. For personal health care spending (which accounted for 84 percent of national health care spending), growth in 2018 remained unchanged from 2017 at 4.1 percent. The total number of uninsured people increased by 1.0 million for the second year in a row, to reach 30.7 million in 2018. (Hartman et al, 12/5)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Prevalence Of Potentially Unnecessary Bimanual Pelvic Examinations And Papanicolaou Tests Among Adolescent Girls And Young Women Aged 15-20 Years In The United States
In this population-based, cross-sectional study using data from 2011 to 2017, an estimated 2.6 million women aged 15 to 20 years in the United States (22.9%) received a bimanual pelvic examination in the past year, and 54.4% of these examinations were potentially unnecessary. An estimated 2.2 million young women (19.2%) received a Papanicolaou test in the past year, and 71.9% of these tests were potentially unnecessary. (Qin et al, 1/6)

CNN: Losing One Night's Sleep May Increase Risk Factor For Alzheimer's, Study Says
A preliminary study found the loss of one night's sleep in healthy young men increased the levels of tau protein in their blood compared to getting a complete night of uninterrupted sleep. Studies have shown that higher levels of tau protein in the blood is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. (LaMotte, 1/9)

Commonwealth Fund: International Survey Of Primary Care Physicians In 11 Countries
A strong primary care system can help prevent illness, manage patient care across multiple providers, and reduce health care costs. Essential to such a system is effective communication. To address patients’ needs, primary care physicians often must communicate and exchange information with specialists, hospitals and other care settings, social service providers — and, of course, the patients themselves. (Doty et al, 12/10)

The New York Times: Can We Please Stop Fighting About ‘Medicare For All’?
With strong support among the Democratic Party’s base, “Medicare for all” has emerged as a test of progressive bona fides in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.It has also emerged as something of a political morass into which the candidates keep stumbling. Most recently, the businessman Andrew Yang faced scrutiny over his position on the idea of creating a government-run health insurance system that essentially would eliminate private coverage. (Michelle Cottle, 1/8)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: If Killing Obamacare Is A Good Idea, Why Does The GOP Want To Wait Until After The Election? 
Republicans want to have it both ways regarding the Affordable Care Act: They want the courts to kill Obamacare — but not until after the 2020 general election so they can avoid voters’ wrath as the reality sets in that millions of Americans have been thrown off their health care coverage. That’s why a new push by a coalition of Democratic-led states to get the Supreme Court to settle the question before the election is so important. If the GOP is right about the wisdom of eliminating the ACA, let their politicians defend the effects of that stance in campaigning before November. But maneuvering to evade it as a campaign issue is the coward’s way out. (1/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Delivers A Vital Christmas Gift
My 5-year-old daughter has cystic fibrosis and may eventually need a lung transplant. Just before Christmas, the Trump administration gave an early gift to the roughly 113,000 Americans currently awaiting transplanted organs. It proposed two new rules that will make transplants easier. The first proposal, from the Health Resources and Services Administration, would reduce costs for living kidney donors. The National Organ Transplant Act bans commerce in organs, and regulations even restrict the payment of expenses. (Mary Vought, 1/8)

The New York Times: Without A Vaccine, These Are Your Odds
Vaccines prevent diseases, and being unvaccinated carries a risk. Last year, the World Health Organization ranked vaccine hesitancy, a “reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines,” among the top 10 health threats worldwide, alongside Ebola, H.I.V. and drug-resistant infections. To state it bluntly, being unvaccinated can result in illness or death. Vaccines, in contrast, are extremely unlikely to lead to side effects, even minor ones like fainting. (Peter J. Hotez, 1/9)

Stat: What To Do When A Working Mind Lives In A Body That Can't Respond?
Imagine for a minute — or even for a few seconds — that your working mind is trapped in a body that can’t respond to a doctor’s voice or a spouse’s touch. You are, in essence, a prisoner within your own brain. I think that could be torture. Others don’t. What I’m referring to here is the plight of a subset of people diagnosed with a condition known as persistent vegetative state who are actually trapped in this way. (Jacob M. Appel, 1/9)

The Washington Post: 2019 Saw A Major Setback In Fighting Polio
LAST YEAR was dispiriting for those struggling to eradicate polio, especially in Pakistan. The goal of eradication seemed at least possible when there were only eight cases in 2017, and 12 cases in 2018. Now, the latest data show there have been 128 cases of polio in Pakistan in the past year. Moreover, the global campaign to eradicate polio, which began in 1988, is facing a whole new set of uncertainties. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the three remaining countries where polio is endemic, and Nigeria had been free of wild poliovirus for three years. (1/8)

Columbus Dispatch: Prospects For Long-Term Health In The US Continue To Decline
For a state and nation already on notice that our long-term health is deteriorating, news at the beginning of this week sounded disturbing wakeup calls. The health of millennials is worse than the Generation Xers that they follow; and a 40% increase in uninsured rates for the youngest Ohioans — infants to preschoolers — could have long-term consequences not only for their health but also their brain development and overall well-being. Combined, these developments raise serious questions about the likelihood that trends toward decreased life expectancy can soon be reversed. (1/9)

The Florida Times: Florida Drops In Health
Florida and Maine wouldn’t appear to have much in common, but both lead the nation in the slipping health of their residents. Maine slipped five spots in an annual ranking from 16 to 21 while Florida slipped four spots from 29 to 33. The ranking is produced by the United Health Foundation. It includes a number of factors. Florida’s slippage was due to worsening rates of diabetes, obesity and a low rate of mental health providers. Obesity is out of control in Florida with rates affecting nearly 1 in 3 adults. As a result, diabetes has increased, too, affecting 1 in 10 adults. There is one major contrast between Maine and Florida, however. Maine does a much better job of providing mental health services to its residents with a ladder of more efficient and effective services. (1/9)

Kansas City Star: Kansas Is Failing Mental Health Patients In State Hospitals. Lawmakers Must Act
Better pay and working conditions for mental health workers must be a priority issue for Kansas lawmakers in the 2020 session, which begins next week. There are two primary mental health hospitals in Kansas, one in Larned and the other in Osawatomie. In late 2019, the federal government told the state it found deficiencies at an acute care unit in Osawatomie, and ordered it to develop a plan to rectify the problems. The state has submitted a plan, but faces loss of federal Medicare payments in March if the government remains unsatisfied. Even if those immediate challenges are addressed, the 60-bed Adair unit is “not a therapeutic environment,” according to Gov. Laura Kelly. (1/7)

Miami Herald: After PR Quake, Trump Declares State Of Emergency. Now, Release Fund For Hurricane Maria Recovery
Puerto Rico is now dealing with the aftermath of a powerful 5.8 earthquake and equally powerful aftershocks. Casualties are low, and electrical power is slowly returning. But the quakes are just the latest natural disasters to cripple the U.S. commonwealth. Puerto Rico still is healing from the hit it took two years ago from Hurricane Maria. Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced has declared a state of emergency. President Trump has done the same. That’s the very least the Trump administration should do. It would be unconscionable for it to repeat its appalling response to Hurricane Maria’s destruction in 2017, when Trump practically mocked islanders’ pain and suffering, and recovery efforts became a political football between island leadership and Trump. (1/8)