The New York Times: Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos C.E.O. And Silicon Valley Star, Accused Of Fraud
Holding up a few drops of blood, Elizabeth Holmes became a darling of Silicon Valley by promising that her company’s new device would give everyday Americans unlimited control over their health with a single finger prick. Ms. Holmes, a Stanford University dropout who founded her company, Theranos, at age 19, captivated investors and the public with her invention: a technology cheaply done at a local drugstore that could detect a range of illnesses, from diabetes to cancer. (Thomas and Abelson, 3/14)

Bloomberg: Blood, Fraud And Money Led To Theranos CEO's Fall From Grace
The lawsuit and settlement announced Wednesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailed how [Elizabeth] Holmes and her chief deputy lied for years about their technology, snookered the media, and used the publicity to get investors to hand more than $700 million to keep the closely held company afloat. As part of the accord, Holmes will pay a $500,000 fine, surrender 19 million shares and is barred from being an officer or director of a public company for 10 years. (Robinson and Spalding, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Holmes Surrenders Theranos, Pays $500K After 'Massive Fraud'
Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford University dropout once billed as the "next Steve Jobs," has forfeited control of Theranos, the blood-testing startup she founded, and will pay $500,000 to settle charges that she oversaw a "massive fraud. "Under an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Holmes is barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years. The SEC said Wednesday that it will pursue its case against the president of the company, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, in federal court. (Sweet, 3/14)

The Wall Street Journal: SEC Charges Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes With Fraud
The SEC began investigating Theranos after The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2015 that the lab instrument developed as the linchpin of the company’s strategy handled just a small fraction of the tests sold to consumers. Some employees also were leery about the machine’s accuracy, the Journal reported. Theranos was valued at more than $9 billion at the time and Ms. Holmes’s majority stake at more than half that. (Carreyrou, 3/14)

The Washington Post: SEC Accuses Theranos Of ‘Elaborate, Years-Long Fraud’
Over the years, Holmes, now 34, persuaded some of the most powerful men in Washington to serve on her company’s board — drafting former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger and Marine Gen. Jim Mattis as advisers. Their reputations lent credibility, connections and heft to a young company that promised to upend medicine by making blood tests cheap, fast and accessible. (Johnson, 3/14)

The Hill: SEC Charges Theranos CEO With 'Massive Fraud' 
"They deceived investors by, among other things, making false and misleading statements to the media, hosting misleading technology demonstrations, and overstating the extent of Theranos’ relationships with commercial partners and government entities, to whom they had also made misrepresentations," the SEC charged. (Weixel, 3/14)

Stat: SEC Charges Theranos And CEO Elizabeth Holmes With Fraud
The SEC’s complaint highlights in remarkable detail the lengths to which Theranos went to sell investors on a pitch that was too good to be true. For example, the company distributed binders to investors containing printouts of sunny articles from The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Fortune quoting Holmes making statements about the company’s progress that would later prove false. Also in the binder: two reports about Theranos’s pharma collaborations emblazoned with the logos of top pharma companies — which were written not by those drug makers, but by Theranos staffers. (Robbins, 3/14)

Politico: Head Of Major Insurer Lobby Stepping Down After Turbulent Term
Marilyn Tavenner is stepping down after three tumultuous years at the helm of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a K Street powerhouse that's seen its influence decline as Washington grew more hostile to Obamacare. Tavenner oversaw AHIP as Republicans took full control of the federal government, hellbent on dismantling the 2010 health care law. The industry group was forced to take on that fight with diminished resources, with three of the country’s largest insurers — UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Humana — dropping out of the organization in recent years. AHIP spent $6.5 million on lobbying last year — a nearly 40 percent decline from four years earlier. (Demko, 3/14)

The Hill: CEO Of Lobby Group For Insurers Stepping Down 
She will be replaced by Matt Eyles, the group’s chief operating officer. Her resignation will be effective June 1. Eyles said in an interview Wednesday that Tavenner was "certainly the right leader at the right time and has helped improve the association." He said she made a "personal decision to step down at this time," but that it was an "orderly transition" that was "not based on any surprises." (Weixel, 3/14)

Modern Healthcare: AHIP Names New CEO As Tavenner Announces Retirement 
The shake-up comes as AHIP struggles to hold on to some of its largest members. Insurer Humana ditched AHIP just before the start of 2018, following in the footsteps of Aetna, which exited in 2016, and UnitedHealth Group in 2015. In the wake of those big-name losses, some have questioned the strength of AHIP's political influence. Tavenner took over in 2015 from Karen Ignagni, who stepped down as AHIP's CEO after 22 years with the organization to lead New York-based plan EmblemHealth. Tavenner came to the lobbying group just six months after ending her tenure as CMS administrator. (Livingston, 3/14)

Politico: Trump Administration Dials Back Shulkin Firing Rumors — For Now
President Donald Trump may be itching to fire him, but Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has the support of GOP lawmakers and veterans, and the lack of a preferred successor may keep him at the agency’s helm at least for now. Trump’s consternation with Shulkin bubbled over Monday, as he was meeting with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and planning Rex Tillerson’s ouster from the State Department. Trump didn’t offer Perry the job, nor did he ask if Perry wanted it, but the events prompted speculation that a major Cabinet shakeup was in the works. (Woellert and Allen, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Perry Says He's Not Interested In Becoming VA Secretary
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said he had no interest in becoming the next head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, flatly rejecting speculation that he would soon take over the position amid rapidly eroding White House support for embattled VA Secretary David Shulkin. Two administration officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Shulkin's position is growing more precarious and that he could be out of a job within the week, but they cautioned that nothing was finalized. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter. (Yen and Miller, 3/15)

In other veterans' health news —

The New York Times: Veterans Health Program Closes ‘Indefinitely’ After Killings
The Pathway Home program in Yountville, Calif., is shutting down “indefinitely” less than a week after three employees were taken hostage by a gunman and killed. The program, part of the Veterans Home of California, provided post-Sept. 11 veterans with academic and vocational support as they prepared to re-enter the civilian world after deployment. (Salam and Stevens, 3/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Yountville Veterans Center Where 3 Were Shot To Death Suspends Operations
The nonprofit Pathway Home, which has treated hundreds of veterans of post-9/11 wars for debilitating emotional trauma, was serving a half-dozen men at the time of last week’s shootings. They have been directed to mental and health services from federal and Napa County providers, and Pathway’s seven surviving employees have been given severance packages, said Larry Kamer, a spokesman for the center. (Alexander, 3/14)

The Hill: Exit Poll Shows Health Care A Top Issue In Pa. Special Election 
The majority of voters in Tuesday’s special election in Pennsylvania considered health care to be one of the most important issues in deciding who to vote for, according to an exit poll released Wednesday. For 52 percent of voters, health care was ranked as a top issue when deciding who to vote for, while 19 percent said it wasn’t at all important to them, according to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm. (Hellmann, 3/14)

The Hill: CBO: Bill To Shore Up ObamaCare Would Reduce Premiums By 10 Percent 
An updated bill to shore up ObamaCare's markets would reduce premiums by 10 percent next year and by 20 percent in 2020 and 2021, according to preliminary estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill could be added to a long-term spending package Congress hopes to pass next week. (Hellmann, 3/14)

Politico Pro: GOP Support For Obamacare Stabilization Grows, But Abortion Policy Still Unresolved
Congressional Republicans are growing more receptive to funding an Obamacare stabilization effort in the omnibus spending bill but remain divided over abortion restrictions. Some House Republicans who once opposed the idea of propping up Obamacare markets are coming around to the idea that they should act ahead of 2019, to avoid the risk of millions of Americans getting shocking premium increases in the fall, just before the midterm elections. (Haberkorn and Cancryn, 3/14)

And a former HHS secretary offers advice for Alex Azar —

Politico Pulse Check: Tommy Thompson's Advice To Alex Azar: 'I Told Him To Be Bold'
What’s the best advice that one HHS secretary can give to another? Tommy Thompson — who ran the department for four years under President George W. Bush — says his guidance to new leader Alex Azar has been clear: Never hesitate. “I told him to be bold,” Thompson said on POLITICO’s “Pulse Check” podcast. “Follow your gut, your heart, your mind.” (Diamond, 3/14)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Star Ratings Disproportionately Benefit Specialty Hospitals, Data Show
The CMS updated its star ratings in December with a new formula intended to improve accuracy and fairness. But a study of the most recent CMS data by consulting firm Sullivan, Cotter and Associates and Modern Healthcare show that the majority of specialty hospitals received five-star ratings—the highest rating a facility can receive—while a small number of major teaching hospitals received the same recognition. Of the 74 specialty hospitals that received a star rating in December, 45—or 61%—received a five-star rating and 16—or 22%—received a four-star rating, according to the Sullivan Cotter analysis. By comparison, of the 172 major teaching hospitals that received a star rating from the CMS, just 15—or 9%—got a five-star rating and 25—or 15%—received four stars. (Castellucci, 3/14)

In other news —

Modern Healthcare: House Committee Probes CMS, Joint Commission Over Accreditation Process 
Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have launched an investigation into the hospital accreditation process following a Wall Street Journal report last year that found the Joint Commission accredited hospitals with major safety issues. The committee sent letters to the CMS and four accreditation organizations including the Joint Commission requesting they provide detailed information about how they accredit hospitals and other facilities. The committee wrote in the letters that it is "concerned about the adequacy of CMS' oversight" of accreditation organizations and the rigor of their survey processes. (Castellucci, 3/13)

The Washington Post: Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Pacific Fertility For Loss Of Up To Thousands Of Embryos And Eggs
A woman whose frozen eggs were stored at the Pacific Fertility Center has filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco, accusing the company of gross negligence in its maintenance, inspection and monitoring of a storage freezer that malfunctioned in early March. Pacific Fertility is one of two centers that separately reported problems in liquid-nitrogen tanks where thousands of eggs and embryos were kept. Officials at both facilities have acknowledged that some — or potentially all — of the tissue may have been damaged. (Cha, 3/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Woman Sues Fertility Center After Frozen Eggs Destroyed
A San Francisco woman has filed a lawsuit against Pacific Fertility Center, alleging the San Francisco clinic’s mishandling of a storage tank containing frozen embryos and eggs resulted in the loss of her eggs. The suit seeks $5 million in damages and was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. (Ho, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Investigations Begin Into Ohio Fertility Clinic Malfunction
A fertility clinic where thousands of frozen embryos and eggs may have been destroyed in a storage tank failure is being investigated by two accreditation organizations and Ohio's health department. It's not clear yet what caused the malfunction on March 4 at the clinic run by University Hospitals in suburban Cleveland. It's also a mystery why liquid nitrogen levels for a storage tank at a San Francisco fertility clinic fell dramatically on the same day. There is no known connection between the two episodes. (3/14)

The Washington Post: FAQ: Are My Frozen Embryos Safe? Everything You Need To Know About The Freezer Malfunctions.
In what many reproductive health experts have called a stunning coincidence, two fertility centers in different parts of the country experienced malfunctions in their freezing tanks on the same weekend in early March. Thousands of eggs and embryos were probably lost. Would-be parents are suing. Here's what we know about what happened at the University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center's Fertility Center in Cleveland and the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco, how the country's regulatory process works with reproductive health services and how investigations could unfold. (Cha, 3/14)

The Washington Post: Thousands Of Students Walk Out Of School In Nationwide Gun Violence Protest
Tens of thousands of students across the country walked out of their classrooms Wednesday and onto athletic fields and city streets as part of a massive ­national protest on gun violence spurred by a Florida high school shooting a month ago that left 17 dead. The walkouts, which came 10 days before a march on Washington that could draw hundreds of thousands of students to the nation’s capital, are unprecedented in recent American history, not seen in size or scope since student protests of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. (Heim, Lang and Svrluga, 3/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Students Protest Gun Violence In National School Walkout
Far from big cities, in rural states with high levels of gun-ownership, students protested. Anna Strong Garcia, a 17-year-old senior at Billings Senior High School, said, “We don’t expect Montana to be the leader in gun-control laws, but we don’t want to be left behind.” More than 3,000 registered demonstrations took place in all 50 states, according to organizers with Women’s March Youth Empower, which helped coordinate the “#Enough” school walkouts. It put the initial tally at nearly 1 million and said it was still counting. About 56 million students attend pre-K through 12th grade in public and private schools, according to federal data. (Campo-Flores, 3/14)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Students Join Nationwide Walkouts And Actions To Remember Parkland Victims, Push Gun Control
At Hamilton High School, the protest began with a young man and a bullhorn. Ari Elkins, a senior, stood on the front lawn of his Palms school and in a voice both firm and loud, cried out: "No more silence! End gun violence!" Seconds later, hundreds of his fellow students came pouring out the building's double doors. (Jennings, Kohli, Blume and Bermudez, 3/14)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Student Walkout Protest: Thousands Honor Florida Victims
Student walkouts across the nation were billed as a mass protest against the National Rifle Association and a call for stricter gun control measures in response to the February shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead. (Lillis, Lambert, Chabria and Kobin, 3/14)

Texas Tribune: Spring Break Dampens Texas Participation In Student Walkouts Protesting Gun Violence
Students around the nation walked out of their classrooms at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes, symbolically honoring the 17 lives that were lost in last month's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. While organizers expected Texas students to join in, most schools were on spring break, so there were no classes to walk out of. (Greene, 3/14)

Arizona Republic: Students Hold Sit-In At Gov. Doug Ducey's Office, Protest Gun Violence
About 45 students in white T-shirts marched into the lobby of Gov. Doug Ducey's office Wednesday, demanded to speak to him about gun violence in schools and chanted when the governor did not make an appearance. They stayed for nearly two hours and past the time the building closed. (Randazzo and Nicla, 3/14)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: 'This Is Just The Start': Thousands Of Richmond-Area Students Walk Out Of School To Protest Gun Violence
[Catherine] Qian was one of hundreds of students across the Richmond region who walked out of their classes at 10 a.m. Wednesday, a month after the mass shooting at the Florida high school, to call on lawmakers to take action against the gun violence that continues to claim so many lives in the U.S. (Mattingly, 3/14)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Concord High School Students Share 17 Minutes Of Silence For Parkland Victims
Students across the country are marking one month since the Parkland, Florida, school shooting left 17 dead. Today, more than a thousand Concord High students stood outside at 10 a.m., the morning after a snowstorm hit the northeast. It was still snowing lightly as students held 17 minutes of silence to commemorate the 17 killed in Parkland and read the names of those lost. (Garrova, 3/14)

Boston Globe: Here’s One Of The Best Things Schools Can Do To Prevent Mass Shootings
Debate is fierce over whether other measures — such as stricter gun laws, school building security systems, or armed teachers and guards — can make a difference when it comes to preventing school shootings. But a broad consensus of researchers, government agencies, and advocacy groups agree that well-run threat assessment teams have proven to be an effective step. (Rocheleau, 3/14)

Wyoming Public Radio: Uinta #1 Approves Guns In Schools
Uinta County School District #1 voted late Tuesday evening to put guns in the hands of teachers and staff. The district is the first in Wyoming to act on legislation passed last year to let local school districts decide whether to permit concealed carry in schools. (Watson, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Gun Control Bills Winding Through Delaware Legislature
Several gun control bills advanced through the Delaware legislature on Wednesday as lawmakers take aim at restricting weapon sales and ensuring those deemed potentially dangerous for mental health reasons do not have access to firearms. With little discussion, a Senate committee released a bill defining bump stocks, trigger cranks and similar devices as “destructive weapons” whose sale or possession is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. (Chase, 3/14)

Stat: Hospitals Confront A New Opioid Crisis: An Alarming Shortage Of Pain Meds
The incident command system kicked in at Brigham and Women’s Hospital about a week ago. A large team of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses began assembling every morning to confront an emerging crisis with the potential to severely undermine care for patients. The challenge was different than it was during the Boston Marathon bombing, another event that triggered the command response. This one wasn’t rushing toward caregivers as fast. But it was similarly daunting and logistically demanding: Amid a nationwide crisis caused by too-easy access to medical painkillers, hospitals are now struggling to find enough of that same class of drugs to keep their patients’ pain controlled. (Ross, 3/15)

The Hill: House Panel To Examine 25 Opioid Bills Next Week
The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to consider 25 bills aimed at combating the opioid crisis during a two-day legislative hearing next week. The panel is working to hammer out a series of bipartisan bills with the goal of getting legislation to the House floor by Memorial Day. (Roubein, 3/14)

CQ: House Bill Would Build On CDC Opioid Overdose Recommendations
Medical providers say new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations urging emergency departments to connect opioid overdose patients with medication-assisted treatment ignores the possibility that this may not be the best place to begin the treatment. The CDC, in a report that showed a 30 percent increase in opioid overdoses that resulted in emergency room visits between July 2016 and September 2017, proposed linking patients with treatment and services in the community, and perhaps starting medication-assisted treatment in the emergency department. But providers say that starting such treatment in emergency departments is not ideal if they can’t connect patients with a longer-term provider in their community. (McIntire, 3/14)

NPR: Suicide And Opioid Overdose: Why Discerning Intention Matters
Mady Ohlman was 22 on the evening some years ago when she stood in a friend's bathroom looking down at the sink. "I had set up a bunch of needles filled with heroin because I wanted to just do them back-to-back-to-back," Ohlman recalls. She doesn't remember how many she injected before collapsing, or how long she lay drugged-out on the floor. "But I remember being pissed because I could still get up, you know?" (Bebinger, 3/15)

And in news out of the states —

The Associated Press: Native American Overdose Deaths Surge Since Opioid Epidemic
Overdose deaths in Native American communities have skyrocketed in the time the opioid epidemic has swept the U.S. and federal officials are looking for solutions. Native Americans and Alaska Natives saw a fivefold increase in overdose deaths between 1999 and 2015, Dr. Michael Toedt told the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday. (3/14)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Opioid Babies At Risk For Delays, Cincinnati Children's Study Shows
A new study from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center shows that newborns who require treatment for opioid withdrawal are at higher risk than others for delayed language, cognitive and motor skills. Cincinnati Children's this week released the study of 87 children who have been treated at its long-term Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Clinic. (DeMio, 3/13)

Reuters: South Dakota Sues Opioid Makers As Litigation Swells
South Dakota on Wednesday sued three major drugmakers, accusing them of deceptively marketing prescription opioids and contributing to a nationwide epidemic. Marty Jackley, the state's attorney general, announced civil claims against Purdue Pharma LP, a unit of Endo International Plc and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit. (Stempel, 3/14)

The Associated Press: NY AG Seeks Sales, Marketing Records Of Opioid Distributors
The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has served subpoenas on two opioid distributors as part of a multi-state investigation into their marketing and sales practices. The subpoenas seek company records and internal communications relating to suspicious drug orders or cases in which opioids may have been improperly diverted by customers. (3/15)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Sues Drug-Makers, Distributors Over Opioid Crisis
Milwaukee County sued several pharmaceutical drug-makers and distributors Wednesday in federal district court in Milwaukee for creating a public nuisance and violating federal racketeering laws while contributing to a local opioid epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths. (Behm, 3/14)

Kansas City Star: 'Dead In Bed:' Hospital Monitoring Can Stop Opioid Overdoses
Patients on painkillers, often recovering from surgery, quietly suffer respiratory failure while asleep. Frank Overdyk, an anesthesiologist from South Carolina and national patient safety expert, said an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Americans die that way every year. (Marso, 3/15)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Chamber Rolls Out 'opioid Toolkit' To Help Businesses Fight Epidemic
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday rolled out what it calls an “opioid toolkit” that consists of online courses, videos and other material that employers can use to learn more about the crisis and what steps they can take to address them. ...Half of Ohio businesses say they have been hurt by substance misuse, whether it is employees missing work, a drop in productivity or not being able to find workers to fill openings. (Williams, 3/14)

The Washington Post: Lawmakers In Both D.C. And Congress Want To Understand Why The Nation's Capital Has A Maternal Mortality Rate That Is Twice The National Average.
D.C. mothers are twice as likely to die because of pregnancy than the average American woman. The city’s maternal mortality rate — among the nation’s highest — has captured the attention of local leaders and those in Congress, who say avoidable deaths of mothers are unacceptable in the nation’s capital. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) plans to sign legislation passed last week by the D.C. Council to form a commission to investigate deaths related to childbirth and recommend ways to address the root causes. (Nirappil, 3/14)

The Washington Post: Traffic Deaths Continue To Soar Despite Cities’ Pledges To Get Them To ‘Zero’
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser stood in the heart of Union Station on Feb. 20, 2015, and promised to lead the nation’s capital into an era free of traffic fatalities. “We are taking our first step toward realizing a ‘Vision Zero’ where no lives are lost on our streets or at our intersections,” said a newly elected Bowser, setting a goal of zero road deaths by 2024. Instead, the number of traffic fatalities has steadily increased since then, frustrating city officials and advocates, and seemingly putting the goal further from reach. (Lazo, 3/14)

The Hill: Study: Americans Getting More Exercise But Increasingly Obese
A new federal report shows that more Americans are obese despite an overall increase in the rate of regular exercise. The National Center for Health Statistics found that 31.4 percent of Americans over the age of 20 were obese in 2017. That's up from just 19.4 percent who were obese in the 1997 version of the study. (Wilson, 3/15)

Bloomberg: E-Cigarette Study Says They Lead To More Smokers Than They Stop
Electronic cigarettes have long been touted not only as a safer alternative to cigarettes but as a potential avenue by which existing smokers might quit. The industry, now worth $11.4 billion, hasn’t been hurt by this one-two pitch of safety and good public policy. New research shows, however, that e-cigarettes are hurting a lot more than they help. Researchers at Dartmouth College’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center said vaping has led more people to start a real smoking habit, rather than avoid tobacco or quit in favor of e-cigarettes, according to a study published Wednesday. (Wolf, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Judge Blocks Ohio Ban On Abortions Due To Down Syndrome
A state law that prohibits doctors from performing abortions based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome was placed on hold by a federal judge on Wednesday. Judge Timothy Black said the law's opponents are "highly likely" to succeed in arguing the law is unconstitutional because "federal law is crystal clear" that a state can't limit a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy before viability. His ruling means the law won't take effect next week, as scheduled, while the litigation proceeds. (3/14)

Columbus Dispatch: Court Blocks Ohio's Down Syndrome Abortion Ban
“Federal law is crystal clear,” Judge Timothy S. Black of the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio wrote in a 22-page order granting a preliminary injunction against the state. “A state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability ... here, Ohio’s new law wrongfully does just that: it violates the right to privacy of every woman in Ohio and is unconstitutional on its face.” (Candisky, 3/14)

Iowa Public Radio: House Republicans Revive Legislation To Ban Abortions After Fetal Heartbeat Detected
Iowa House Republicans are reviving a proposed ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, by adding it as an amendment to another bill that would ban the sale and use of fetal tissue in Iowa. At a subcommittee meeting convened Wednesday to consider the fetal tissue bill, conversation turned mostly to the amendment. (Sostaric, 3/14)

Stat: In Rural Texas, Dying At Home Comes With Long Waits, Nursing Shortages
Hospice providers in the more remote western and southern parts of the state shared stories with STAT of nursing shortages, scheduling gymnastics, run-ins with wildlife, and the wear and tear of long days in cars for the men and women who treat people at home. Distance sometimes forces hard conversations: At the moment they and their caregivers need help most, a nurse may not quickly be at their side. (Satyanarayana, 3/15)

The Associated Press: NC County Illegally Removed Kids From Homes
When Brian Hogan got a call that his wife had suffered a massive heart attack, he knew he had to get to the hospital fast. So Hogan asked his neighbor to take care of his 10-year-old daughter, then headed 60 miles east to the intensive care unit in Asheville, North Carolina. What happened next would eventually expose a practice by a child welfare agency that illegally removed potentially hundreds of children from their homes in this poverty-stricken mountain community (Weiss and Holbrook, 3/14)

Georgia Health News: Legislation To Help Cancer Hospital Draws Vocal Opposition
Senate Bill 31 started out as a relatively simple proposal related to a Georgia health agency board. ... But late Wednesday afternoon, a substitute version of that Senate legislation called for something entirely different: an easing of state restrictions on Cancer Treatment Centers of America. (Miller, 3/14)

The Star Tribune: MNsure CEO Allison O'Toole Departing For New Job 
Allison O’Toole is stepping down as chief executive at the state’s MNsure health insurance exchange to work at a nonprofit created by Andy Slavitt, the former UnitedHealth Group executive who held a key health care job in the Obama administration. O’Toole announced her decision at the start of a Wednesday meeting in St. Paul where the MNsure board named Nate Clark, the current chief operating officer, as acting CEO. (Snowbeck, 3/14)

Arizona Republic: Foster-Home Agencies In Arizona Resist Lifetime Licenses
A bill that would have created a perpetual license for foster homes has failed after winning unanimous approval from the state Senate. Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, dropped his efforts to create forever license in the face of opposition from the private agencies that license Arizona foster homes. (Pitzi, 3/14)

The CT Mirror: Lawmakers Push For Hearing, 'Transparency' On Prison Health Care
Three Republican lawmakers Wednesday called for a public hearing and “full transparency” to assess allegations of poor health care in state prisons. ... [Len] Fasano, of North Haven, called for the release of a report that could offer insight into specific problems in the prison system. (Kara, 3/14)

New Hampshire Union Leader: NH Senate OKs $5.5m For Child Protection, Mental Health 
With the specter of recent child fatalities hanging over them, state senators on Wednesday unanimously approved three bills allocating more than $5.5 million toward strengthening New Hampshire’s struggling child protective system. In a show of unanimity rarely seen at the State House, the Senate endorsed all three measures in a series of 24-0 votes, to better enable the Division of Children, Youth and Families to prevent child abuse. (Solomon, 3/14)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Systems' Stock Price Falls 11% In Two Days After Rumors Of Hiring Debt Adviser
Community Health Systems' stock price dropped about 11% over two days, ending at $4.43 at the close Wednesday, a fall that may have been prompted by a report that the hospital chain hired a prominent firm to help it restructure its debt. The website Reorg Research reported midday Tuesday that CHS hired the financial advisory firm Lazard to help it format a plan to address its nearly $4.8 billion in long-term debt maturing in 2019 and 2020. The report also said a law firm was in talks with some CHS lenders on the same subject. The Franklin, Tenn.-based system's total long-term debt stands at nearly $14 billion, and if restructured under bankruptcy law, could hurt owners of the company's equity. (Bannow, 3/14)

KCUR: CEO Of Safety Net Clinic In Lawrence Is Suspended Pending Financial Review 
The CEO of a safety net clinic in Lawrence, Kansas, has been suspended pending completion of a review of the organization's finances. In a release Wednesday evening, the board of Heartland Community Health Center said it had suspended Jon Stewart and appointed the clinic’s chief operating officer as interim CEO. Melanie Coen, a spokeswoman for Heartland, said the board discovered what she described as commingling of personal and corporate funds and discrepancies in the way that money had been allocated. (Margolies, 3/14)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Philips Healthcare Laying Off At Least 65 Ohio Employees, It Says In Letter To State
Philips Healthcare, which moved its nuclear medicine headquarters to Northeast Ohio from Silicon Valley and qualified for millions in state money seven years ago, has told the state it is permanently laying off at least 65 employees. The company told the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services the layoffs are due to a business reorganization. (Hancock, 3/14)

Sacramento Bee: Jerry Brown Wants Fees To Pay For Clean Drinking Water
As part of his final budget proposal, Gov. Jerry Brown wants new fees on water to provide clean and affordable drinking water to the approximately 1 million Californians who are exposed to contaminated water in their homes and communities each year. The fund would pay for short- and long-term improvements to water infrastructure and help clean up contaminated drinking water systems that affect primarily rural, low-income regions. (Kobin, 3/14)

San Jose Mercury News: San Jose Officer Cleared In Fatal Shooting Of Mentally Ill Man With Knife
A San Jose police officer was deemed legally justified when he shot and killed a violently mentally ill man who charged at him with a knife during a frantic encounter in front of the man’s home last year, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. (Salonga, 3/14)

Marin Independent Journal: Bay Area Mussel Eater Gets Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning
A person who was collecting mussels over the weekend at Dillon Beach has been hospitalized for shellfish poisoning, according to the Marin County Public Health Department. The health department confirmed Tuesday a case of paralytic shellfish poison, a naturally occurring toxin found in bivalves such as mussels, clams and oysters. (Prado, 3/14)

The Wall Street Journal: A Cancer Scare Defeat In California
Cancer is a scary disease, but Californians have been determined to scare themselves more than most with warnings about the supposedly cancer-causing material in everything from shoes to cat litter. Now a federal judge says these mandatory fright signs may violate the First Amendment when not backed by accurate science. (3/14)

USA Today: How Dangerous Doctors Escape Despite National Data Bank
While practicing medicine in Illinois, Jay Riseman was called an “imminent danger to the public” by a state medical board attorney and was placed on indefinite probation in 2002. The doctor also racked up a dozen malpractice suits, including one involving the death of a 2-month-old infant a day after he prescribed a heavy dose of a laxative, twice the allowance for adults. (3/14)

USA Today: Medical Boards: Data On Doctors Should Be Free
The mission of the nation’s 70 state medical boards is to protect the public from the unprofessional or incompetent practice of medicine. To fulfill that mission, they rely on hospitals, insurers, peers and the public — and tools such as the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) and the Federation of State Medical Boards’ Physician Data Center — to provide them with relevant information to investigate professional misconduct. The national data bank is a valuable tool, but it is far from the only resource the boards utilize and not without its limitations. (Humayun Chaudhry, 3/14)

Bloomberg: The Blood Unicorn Theranos Was Just A Fairy Tale
It seems like Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes really wanted to build devices that would actually do these things, and thought she could, and tried to. But it didn't work, and Theranos ran out of time: It talked Walgreens into offering Theranos tests at its stores, but "it became clear to Holmes that the miniLab would not be ready" in time for the Walgreens rollout. So she went with Plan B. (Matt Levin, 3/14)

Miami Herald: Parkland student activists must remain committed
Are the students who walked out of class Wednesday morning serious about doing something about mass shootings, particularly advocating for restrictions on gun ownership where they face a formidable foe in the National Rifle Association? If so, it will take a lot more than an extended recess, it will take commitment, it will require a great deal of homework, and it will mean sacrifice and doggedness. As we’ve noted before, the outspoken student leaders from Parkland seem to have that fire and urgency. ...The grownups have surely failed to do much about the problem. (3/14)

The Washington Post: Students Walking Out Of School Taught The Nation A Lesson
And in Newtown, Conn., where 26 people — most of them children just 6 and 7 years old — were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, students, parents and teachers gathered in a parking lot to recite the names of gun violence victims. These were but a few of the poignant scenes Wednesday as tens of thousands of students, many joined by parents and teaching staff, participated in an extraordinary nationwide demonstration for safer schools and stronger gun control. “Unprecedented in recent American history” was how Post reporters Joe Heim, Marissa J. Lang and Susan Svrluga described Wednesday’s protests. (3/14)

WBUR: New Depression Screening For Teens Could Reduce The Stigma Of Mental Illness
To address mental health concerns early and often can help them become matter-of-fact rather than a matter of shame. The more we can accept and not hide, the more likely we are — as individuals and as a country — to live healthier and happier lives, not depression-free for those of us touched by it, but more compassionately and graciously. (Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser, 3/15)

The New York Times: Many Drugs And Many Doctors Lead To Many Mistakes
I am a home hospice nurse, and when I get new patients after they have been discharged from the hospital, the list of drugs included in their paperwork is always wrong. Some mistakes are minor: The list includes a relatively harmless drug the patient no longer needs or it leaves off a minor dose adjustment. But other mistakes are more serious — the list may include an important prescription the patient never knew to fill or may have the patient on two medications that can be dangerous when taken together. (Theresa Brown, 3/14)

WBUR: Family Caregivers, Whose Care Is Valued At $500B, Are Finally Gaining More Formal Notice
This nation includes over 40 million people — most of them family members — who provide care to loved ones that is valued at half a trillion dollars each year, nearly on par with what the federal government spends on Medicare or Medicaid. The informal, non-professional care we give accounts for as much as 80 percent of the total value of "long-term services and supports" for older adults, a category that includes assistance with routine daily activities. (Tom Riley, 3/14)

Sacramento Bee: Republicans Are Asking For Single Payer Health Care
Republicans in Congress have worked hard to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. In so doing, they are creating an opening for the kind of health care system they will detest. (Tom Epstein, 3/14)

Bloomberg: The Stephen Hawking I Knew
Most of us spend most of our lives without any sense of the imminence of our mortality. This wasn't true for Stephen Hawking. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 21 and given months to live. ...Once, when we were alone, Stephen spoke to me about his condition. He said that, actually, it was an advantage! (Nathan Myhrvold, 3/14)

The New York Times: Stephen Hawking, Force Of Nature
The scientific community rightly makes much of one of his miracles, a discovery he made in 1974 of something now known as Hawking radiation: the phenomenon in which black holes — so named because nothing can escape them — actually allow radiation to get out. In popular culture Stephen (Hawking) was another kind of miracle: a floating brain, a disembodied intellect that fit snugly into the stereotype of the genius scientist. ...But to me Stephen was also the everyday miracle of an ordinary embodied human — albeit one who had to battle in heroic ways within the confines of his particular shell. (Leonard Mlodinow, 3/14)

The Washington Post: The Real Down Syndrome Problem: Accepting Genocide
In Iceland upward of 85 percent of pregnant women opt for the prenatal testing, which has produced a Down syndrome elimination rate approaching 100 percent. ...An Iceland geneticist says “we have basically eradicated” Down syndrome people, but regrets what he considers “heavy-handed genetic counseling” that is influencing “decisions that are not medical, in a way.” One Icelandic counselor “counsels” mothers as follows: “This is your life. You have the right to choose how your life will look like.” She says, “We don’t look at abortion as a murder. We look at it as a thing that we ended.” (George F. Will, 3/14)

Sacramento Bee: Don’t Play Politics With Dying Californians Who Are Using New Medical Aid-In-Dying Law
Among the needless mandates are two provisions that are not even in Oregon’s 20-year old Death with Dignity Act, the model for California’s new law. SB 1336 would require patients to justify why they want to use the law verbally and in writing, and would also mandate doctors identify their specialty. SB 1336 is a thinly veiled attempt by opponents of medical aid in dying to make it impossible for patients to use the law and to gather data that they believe will help them to overturn the law entirely. (Kim Callinan, 3/14)