The New York Times: On Anniversary Of House Obamacare Repeal, Democrats Look To Extract A Price
A year ago Friday, Representative Claudia Tenney of New York stood among dozens of enthusiastic colleagues in the Rose Garden to celebrate passage of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. When President Trump made his way onstage, Ms. Tenney clapped and smiled. On this not-so-happy anniversary, a Democratic “super PAC” is on the air with a television commercial reminding her constituents of a repeal vote that Republicans were once convinced would be a political winner. Ms. Tenney’s Democratic challenger, Anthony Brindisi, a state assemblyman, said health care is consistently one of the top issues in a vast district that runs from Lake Ontario through Utica and Rome to the Pennsylvania border. (Kaplan, 5/2)

The Hill: Price Walks Back Warning On ObamaCare Individual Mandate
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Wednesday walked back comments he made predicting repealing ObamaCare’s individual mandate would drive up insurance costs. In a statement, Price said his remarks at Tuesday’s World Health Care Congress were taken out of context. (Weixel, 5/2)

Politico: Tom Price Walks Back Remarks On Mandate Repeal
“Repealing the individual mandate was exactly the right thing to do. Forcing Americans to buy something they don’t want undermines individual liberty as well as free markets,” Price said in a statement through the Job Creators Network, a pro-business group for which he is a health care fellow. “The only fair and effective way to bring down healthcare costs is to allow markets to create more choices for consumers and small businesses.” (Pradhan, 5/2)

CQ: Former HHS Secretary Walks Back Criticism Of End To Mandate Fee
In a statement on Wednesday, Price said that “repealing the individual mandate was exactly the right thing to do.” He said his remarks at the conference were meant to convey “how repealing the mandate would affect certain populations in the absence of additional reforms, like the expansion of Association Health Plans and other measures that use market forces to drive down costs.” (Siddons, 5/2)

The Washington Post: Former Congressman Jeff Miller Emerges As A Leading Contender For Trump’s VA
Former congressman Jeff Miller, who chaired the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs before retiring from Congress last year, is considered a leading candidate to become President Trump’s next nominee for VA secretary, according to people familiar with the matter. The Florida Republican, who spent 16 years in Congress and now works in Washington as a lobbyist, met Wednesday with officials in the White House vetting office. Miller told people close to the White House that he expects to meet with Trump in coming days. (Wax-Thibodeaux and Wagner, 5/2)

The Associated Press: White House Meets With VA Candidates After Jackson Withdraws
White House officials are also considering acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie for a permanent role. Wilkie, a former Pentagon undersecretary for personnel and readiness, is well-regarded within the administration, including among White House chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said none of the potential candidates to lead the VA have meetings scheduled with Trump. (Thomas and Miller, 5/3)

The Washington Post: ‘Who Wants To Work There Now?’ Trump’s Ronny Jackson Fiasco May Be The Least Of VA’s Worries
Dozens of senior staff members have left the Department of Veterans Affairs since January, an exodus that predates President Trump’s firing of VA Secretary David Shulkin in March and appears to have accelerated in the chaotic weeks since. The departures — some resigned voluntarily, others say they were forced out — mark the latest sign of estrangement among VA’s career civil servants, the professional staff recruited by Shulkin, and a cadre of Trump loyalists pushing for changes within a sprawling bureaucracy for which change has never come easily. Trump’s failed nomination of Ronny L. Jackson to lead the agency has only heightened the sense of tension and disarray that took root in the months leading to Shulkin’s removal, according to 17 current and former VA officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where the turmoil has caused alarm. (Rein, 5/3)

In other news from the VA —

The Hill: VA Hospital Cancels Dozens Of Surgeries Due To Insect Infestation: Report 
A Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Los Angeles was forced to close operating rooms for 22 days between 2016 and 2018 due to a persistent infestation of insects. A local CBS News investigation found that the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center has installed at least 200 flytraps to deal with an infestation of Phorid flies in operating rooms that has plagued the building since at least November of 2016. (Bowden, 5/2)

The Associated Press: Lawsuits Target Trump Administration Family Planning Policy
Two major organizations that promote birth control filed lawsuits in federal court Wednesday seeking to block the Trump administration from shifting national family planning policy to stress abstinence and potentially limit counseling for adolescents. One of the suits was filed by Planned Parenthood , which serves 41 percent of the 4 million low-income Americans who receive subsidized services through the Title X family-planning program. The other suit was filed by the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association , which contends the policy shift would reduce access to the most effective contraceptive methods and result in more unintended pregnancies. (Crary, 5/2)

Reuters: Trump Administration Sued Over Family-Planning Program Shift
Planned Parenthood, whose health centers serve more than 40 percent of patients receiving care subsidized by Title X, in its lawsuit contended that the changes violate the law that created the program and were "arbitrary and capricious." "Planned Parenthood is going to court to stop the Trump-Pence administration from trying to impose its ideology on people," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. (Raymond, 5/2)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Sues Trump Officials Over Changes To Family Planning Program
Dr. Gillian Dean, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood, said the administration is “trying to push people toward abstinence or pressure women into marriage — instead of helping them get quality health care.” Ruth Harlow, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed its own lawsuit Wednesday, added that the administration is “trying to sneak through major change in Title X in the fine print of a grant announcement.” (Sullivan, 5/2)

CQ: Advocacy Groups Sue Administration Over Family Planning Changes
The Title X program, which has been around since the 1970s, historically enjoyed strong bipartisan support. But more recently, Title X funding has become a sharply partisan issue. Title X helps low-income families procure contraceptives and does not provide abortions. However, contraception and abortion have been intertwined in the debate over women’s health. (Raman, 5/2)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Planned Parenthood Sues Federal Government Over Family-Planning Change
About 85 groups, including the parent organization of Wisconsin Right to Life, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services this week encouraging it to “disentangle” the Title X program from organizations such as Planned Parenthood that perform abortions. (Boulton, 5/2)

The New York Times: Iowa Lawmakers Pass Abortion Bill With Roe V. Wade In Sights
Six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy is the point at which doctors typically can detect the flicker of a fetal heartbeat on an ultrasound. It’s also the point after which Iowa lawmakers now intend to outlaw abortions. The Iowa Legislature approved what would be the nation’s strictest abortion law in an early-morning vote on Wednesday. The move intended to pose an aggressive challenge to Roe v. Wade and reignite conservative energy before the midterm elections in November. (Bosman and Smith, 5/2)

The Washington Post: Iowa's 'Heartbeat' Bill Bans Abortion After Six Weeks
The “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortions as early as six weeks — around the time women generally feel early signs of pregnancy and before many even realize they are pregnant — was passed Tuesday by the Iowa House, 51-46. The state Senate passed the bill 29-17 early Wednesday, sending it to Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who has said abortion is “equivalent to murder.” State Rep. Shannon Lundgren (R), while speaking on the House floor Tuesday, called the bill “a courageous step” that sends the message that Iowa “will defend its most vulnerable, those without a voice — our unborn children.” (Phillips, 5/2)

The Washington Post: Iowa Lawmakers Send 6-Week Abortion Ban To Governor
Erin Davison-Rippey, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said in a statement Iowa Republicans “do not care how much taxpayer money will be spent on a lawsuit ... or how many families may choose to go elsewhere because Iowa is no longer a state where they are safe to live and work.” (Rodriguez and Stewart, 5/2)

The Hill: Iowa Lawmakers Pass Strictest Abortion Law In The US 
The passage of the bill comes as the Trump administration has taken a hard-line stance on abortion, spurring a slew of abortion laws across the nation. Nineteen states adopted a total of 63 restrictions to the procedure in 2017, which is the highest number of state laws on the issue since 2013, according to the Guttmacher Institute. (Manchester, 5/2)

The Associated Press: Trump Medical Record ‘Raid’ Raises Patient Privacy Questions
A doctor’s claim that three men took President Donald Trump’s medical records without a form authorizing their release in what he said felt like a “raid” has raised questions about whether this kind of action is legal. Here are some questions and answers about what happened and the laws surrounding medical records and patients’ rights to obtain them. (Johnson, 5/2)

Meanwhile —

The Hill: Longtime Obama Doctor Says Trump's Ex-Doctor Should Be Investigated 
A former physician to President Obama said President Trump’s ex-doctor, Harold Bornstein, “disgraced himself” by signing a “fraudulent” medical letter reportedly dictated to him by Trump. Dr. David Scheiner, who treated Obama for more than two decades, called Bornstein's conduct “extraordinarily unethical" and floated the idea of an investigation in an interview with MSNBC News. (Folley, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: New Front On Opioid Litigation: Suits Over Rising Premiums
The opioid epidemic has unfairly increased health insurance costs across the board, not just for those suffering from addiction, plaintiffs allege in five proposed class-action lawsuits filed Wednesday. The suits, brought on behalf of people and businesses who have paid for health insurance in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York since 1996, represent a new front in litigation seeking to hold corporations accountable for the opioid crisis. (Randazzo, 5/2)

Bloomberg: Opioid Makers Sued For Premium Hikes In First-Of-Kind Cases 
The suits open another front in the burgeoning litigation against drugmakers including Purdue Pharma Inc. and the Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit of Johnson & Johnson and distributors such as McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. The suits, which seek unspecified damages, seek to represent people who bought health insurance policies in those states since 1996. "All of the defendants in this action share responsibility for creating, sustaining and prolonging the opioid epidemic" in pursuit of corporate revenue, lead plaintiff Edward Grace alleges in a complaint filed Wednesday in Boston. (Harris and Hurtado, 5/2)

CQ: Experts Weigh Merits Of House And Senate Opioid Legislation
Addiction experts agree that tackling the opioid epidemic will require a multi-pronged approach. But as Congress advances dozens of proposals that would help combat the issue, identifying which bills are likely to create the biggest dent in the problem gets a little murkier. Last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee as well as the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee both marked up legislation intended to address the opioid epidemic. The House subcommittee approved 56 opioid bills and one unrelated bill. The Senate HELP committee’s sole bill (S 2680) comprises more than 40 different proposals. (Raman, 5/2)

And in other news on the crisis —

Minnesota Public Radio: 'What Do We Do Now?' Many Struggle To Find Alternatives In Shift Away From Opioids
As the opioid epidemic continues to claim tens of thousands of lives each year, prescribers are adopting new guidelines to restrict the use of opioids for chronic pain. And there are worries that there aren't enough pain rehabilitation programs to treat all these additional patients with treatment that can be both costly and time-consuming. (Collins, 5/3)

Health News Florida: Delays In Issuing Licenses For New Methadone Clinics Hurting Rural Communities
The state’s invalidated process for licensing new methadone clinics is delaying help for opioid addicts in rural communities. Many in those communities have to drive an hour or more to reach methadone clinics in more urban areas, said John Essenburg, vice president of medication assistance at Operation PAR, which runs several clinics in west Florida from Lee to Hernando counties. (Ochoa, 5/2)

Columbus Dispatch: Health-Insurance Customers Latest To Sue Cardinal Health, Others Over Opioid Crisis
Proposed class-action lawsuits filed Wednesday in five states allege that Cardinal, distributors McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, and several drugmakers are partially to blame for increased health-insurance premiums over the past two decades related to the opioid crisis. (Matzer Rose, 5/2)

Columbus Dispatch: State To Enforce 'Safety Checkpoints' On Prescription Opioid Use
Gov. John Kasich and leaders of state health-care profession licensing boards Wednesday announced a series of “common-sense” thresholds of opioid use that will trigger increased monitoring to ensure patients are receiving appropriate, non-dangerous doses. ...Daily dosages of prescription opioid use, depending on the level, will require prescribers to re-evaluate underlying conditions causing pain, look for signs of prescription misuse and consult pain-care specialists. (Ludlow, 5/2)

WBUR: Latinos Are Hit Especially Hard By The Opioid Crisis In Mass. But Why?
Near-real-time data on the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts, produced by the Baker administration, shows the overdose death rate for Latinos has doubled in three years, growing at twice the rate of any other racial group. These numbers suggest the opioid crisis is hitting Latinos especially hard in Massachusetts. State officials say they don't know why. (Bebinger, 5/3)

Bloomberg: CVS ‘Moving Forward’ With Aetna Deal, Profit Tops Estimates 
CVS Health Corp. said it’s making “good progress” on getting regulatory approval for its $68 billion deal to buy health insurer Aetna Inc. -- one of two megamergers in the health-care industry that are under antitrust scrutiny. In the meantime, the drug retail giant has suspended its share buyback plan. The company, one of the U.S.’s leading providers of drug-benefits for employers and health plans, also signaled that some employers may be waiting to see how the sector will be reshaped before making major decisions on contracts that typically last three years. (Langreth, 5/2)

In other health industry news —

Reuters: Nokia Close To A Deal To Sell Its Digital Health Venture
Nokia said it plans to sell its small digital health business, including activity trackers and smartwatches, to a co-founder of the venture. Digital health was one of the areas Nokia had been counting on for future growth opportunities amid a tough market for its mainstay telecom network equipment business. But the business failed to meet growth expectations, an internal memo showed in February after Nokia started a strategic review of it. (Rosendahl, 5/2)

Modern Healthcare: Ascension Forges First-Ever Global Supply Chain Company To Reduce Costs
Ascension is partnering with a large Australia-based international hospital company to form what appears to be the first-ever global supply chain firm. A major goal of the joint venture between Ascension and Sydney-based Ramsay Health Care, announced Tuesday, is to reduce costs at Ascension's 151 U.S. hospitals and hundreds of other not-for-profit facilities to the levels in lower-cost countries. (Meyer, 5/1)

The New York Times: E. Coli Outbreak Turns Deadly With A Fatal Case In California
An E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce has turned deadly, with one person dying in California, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. It was the first reported death in the outbreak, which began in March and has spread to 25 states. The California Department of Public Health confirmed the death but would not provide more details, citing patient privacy laws. (Astor, 5/2)

The Associated Press: 1st Death Reported In Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak
Health officials have tied the E. coli outbreak to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona, which provides most of the romaine sold in the U.S. during the winter. The growing season in Yuma ended about a month ago, said the University of Arizona's Russell Engel, the director of Yuma County's cooperative extension service. But even if no one is eating tainted lettuce now, case counts may still rise because there's a lag in reporting. The first illnesses occurred in March, and the most recent began on April 21, the CDC said. (5/2)

The Washington Post: First Death Reported From E. Coli-Contaminated Romaine Lettuce As Outbreak Spreads
This strain of E. coli produces a toxin that causes vomiting and diarrhea and potentially other severe symptoms, including in some cases kidney failure. Of the people sickened, 52 have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure. The bacteria normally live in the intestines of animals, including cows and pigs, and in the 1990s, most E. coli illnesses were associated with contaminated hamburger. Reforms in the livestock industry have sharply reduced the number of outbreaks involving meat, but that has been offset by a surge in E. coli contamination of leafy greens. (Achenbach, 5/2)

The Hill: First Death Reported In E. Coli Outbreak Linked To Romaine Lettuce 
The Food and Drug Administration has identified one farm as a source of part of the outbreak. Most of the illnesses aren’t related to that farm, and the agency is investigating dozens of other fields as potential other sources. (Roubein, 5/2)

Stat: In Monkeys, Researchers Find Possible Clue To Diagnosing Autism
Researchers have been left empty-handed so far in their quest to uncover some measurable biological signal that could be used to diagnose autism spectrum disorder, leaving clinicians to identify the condition just based on a child’s behavior. But on Wednesday, scientists reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine that a hormone that regulates blood pressure could be one of those signposts. (Joseph, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: CDC Eyes Review Of Gynecological Cancer Screens
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to review whether gynecologists should conduct more cancer screening before common procedures such as hysterectomies, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans. The consequences of not knowing range from providing less-effective treatment to accidentally spreading malignancies. (Levitz and McKay, 5/2)

Stat: Francis Collins On Gene Editing And What He'd Change About Science
The 68-year-old physician-geneticist has led the National Institutes of Health for nine years, with zero plans of slowing. The organization is on the verge of launching a massive endeavor — the “All of Us” effort to sequence the genomes of 1 million Americans from all walks of life. STAT sat down for a chat with the ever-avuncular Collins at this week’s Milken Institute Conference in Los Angeles — a Davos-like confab stacked with Wall Street glitterati, Hollywood change agents, industry titans, and academics. (Keshavan, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Schumer To CDC: Unlock Funds To Combat Tick-Borne Diseases
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says New York communities girding for a jump in tick-borne diseases as the weather warms up need federal funding to combat the problem now rather than later. The Senate minority leader, appearing Wednesday on Long Island and in Rockland County, is urging the Centers for Disease Control to unlock millions in additional funding included in the recently passed federal budget. (5/2)

Marketplace: Some Health Care Firms Focus On Empathy To Keep People Healthier
During the past decade, some health care businesses have begun to experiment with new ways to keep people healthier and out of the hospital by improving the relationships between medical professionals and patients. This push for more empathetic care springs from a change in how health care providers get paid. (Gorenstein, 5/2)

The New York Times: Saunas May Reduce Stroke Risk
Taking saunas may reduce the risk for stroke. Researchers studied 1,628 men and women aged 53 to 74, free of stroke at the start. They had data on body mass index, alcohol consumption, smoking, blood pressure, blood lipid levels, and other health and behavioral characteristics that affect cardiovascular health. (Bakalar, 5/2)

California Healthline: Blacks, Latinos, Women Found Less Likely To Get The Mental Health Care They Need
Black Californians are more likely to experience mental health problems than other ethnic groups, and they are less likely to get the care they need, according to a study released Tuesday. The study, by Santa Monica-based Rand Corp., shows a connection between untreated mental health problems and multiple absences from work, which can take an economic toll on individuals and families in the form of lost pay and even lost jobs. That dynamic disproportionately affects communities of color. (Abram, 5/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Long Efforts To Stop Hot-Car Deaths
Heatstroke is the leading cause of non-crash vehicular deaths for children under 15 years old, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Most cases involve a parent or caretaker who unintentionally leaves the child in the car. The number of deaths—an annual average of 37—has remained consistent over the years, despite efforts from child-safety advocacy groups, hospital education programs, product developers and a steady stream of media coverage. The efforts face the same challenge: Many people don’t believe this could ever happen to them. (Byron, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: A Mother Whose Lapse Led To Child’s Death Seeks To Prevent Further Hot-Car Casualties
Karen Osorio was alarmed when her husband called at the end of the day to say their 15-month-old daughter wasn’t at the day-care center when he went to pick her up. Then she considered a horrifying possibility. She sprinted to the parking lot of her office at Procter & Gamble Co. ​“That’s when I saw her, she was in the car,” says Ms. Osorio, a senior scientist at P&G. While she had been working in the office all day, her daughter, Sofia, had remained buckled in her car seat, having never been dropped off at the day-care center. “My baby just died, my baby just died,” Ms. Osorio told a 911 dispatcher between gasps. “I left her in the car, she’s dead.” (Byron, 5/2)

The Associated Press: NY Lawmakers To Hold Hearing On Physician-Assisted Suicide
State lawmakers in New York are taking a closer look at a legislative proposal to give terminally ill people the right to seek life-ending medication from their physician. The Assembly's Health Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the measure Thursday in Manhattan. It comes after a hearing last month in Albany. (5/3)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Ruling On $11,000 ER Bill May Have Long-Lasting Effects, Experts Say 
The health care industry is closely watching a recent decision by the Texas Supreme Court that some say could have broader implications on how hospitals and health insurers negotiate their rates. The court sided with an uninsured woman who was billed $11,037 after an emergency room visit. The justices said that in order to prove her bill was “reasonable” compared with what an insured patient would be billed, the medical center would need to share in court details about the discounted rates it had with health insurers, data that’s generally seen as proprietary and confidential. (rICE, 5/2)

WSBTV: Is It Really An Emergency? New ER Policy Costing Georgians Thousands
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia put a new emergency room policy in place in the summer of 2017. Under it, Blue Cross will not pay for ER visits it finds inappropriate. ...Piedmont Healthcare told us it has documentation of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, a subsidiary of Anthem, denying ER claims for about 75 people treated in its ERs. (Huddleston, 5/2)

The Star Tribune: Amid Regulator Concern, Smaller Regions Hospital Plan Suggested 
A plan to expand the bed count at Regions Hospital by 20 percent likely overstates the future demand for hospital care in the east metro, according to state regulators, and could pressure nearby competitors to drop services like inpatient mental health care that generate less revenue. The concerns prompted the Minnesota Department of Health to conclude in a preliminary analysis that a 100-bed expansion plan at Regions is not in the public interest, according to a report released Wednesday. (Snowbeck, 5/2)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Transgender Rights Bill Heads To Governor Sununu
The state senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would create legal protections for transgender people in New Hampshire. The bill would add gender identity to the state’s existing anti-discrimination laws. (Moon, 5/2)

Houston Chronicle: Four Houston Hospitals Land On List Of Nation's Best 
Four Houston hospitals are among the nation's best, according to a major healthcare clinic magazine. Becker's Hospital Review recently released its list of the 100 greatest hospitals in America." The hospitals included on this list have been recognized nationally for excellence in clinical care, patient outcomes, and staff and physician satisfaction," the magazine wrote. In order to compile the list, researchers selected hospitals that were recognized by awards and other rankings, like U.S. News & World Report's 2017-18 rankings or quality ratings by the U.S. Department of Health. (Ramierz, 5/2)

Boston Globe: Here Are The 19 Mass. Quasi-Public Agencies That Have Failed To Report Spending Records
At least 19 agencies in Massachusetts appear to have flouted state law by failing to publish millions of dollars in payroll and spending data on a state transparency website as required by a 2010 law that mandated such public disclosures. All of the missing data belonged to so-called quasigovernment agencies, which are established by the state. (Rocheleau, 5/2)

The CT Mirror: To Avert A Strike, House Boosts Money For Care Of The Disabled
The House Wednesday passed a bill aimed at raising wages and heading off a strike scheduled for Monday by about 2,500 union members who take care of the disabled. These employees are represented by SEIU 1199 New England and work for private agencies in group homes and day programs that receive state Medicaid funding. (Rigg, 5/2)

Modern Healthcare: Trinity Health Moving To A Single Epic Platform
Trinity Health will put all its facilities on a single Epic Systems Corp. electronic health record and revenue-cycle management platform from a mix of Epic and Cerner programs, the system announced Wednesday. The health system plans to migrate its 94 hospitals and 109 continuing-care facilities to a single version of Epic over four years, according to Mike Slubowski, president and chief operating officer at Trinity. Slubowski declined to provide information about the estimated cost of the switch. (Arndt, 5/2)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Partnership Launches Center For Health & Nature 
Former First Lady Laura Bush’s conservation organization is creating a Center for Health & Nature at Houston Methodist Hospital, a first-of-its-kind attempt to investigate the potential therapeutic benefits of the outdoors. The center, a partnership of Texan By Nature, Methodist and the Texas A&M University System, will conduct research, convene symposiums and feature a “healing garden” for patients and caregivers. It was announced at a news conference at Methodist Wednesday. (Ackerman, 5/2)

Minnesota Public Radio: Mayo: Sediment Caused Discolored Water In Hospital Taps
Mayo released a statement Wednesday evening that, according to a preliminary analysis, the sediment had come from filtering material from the well at Saint Marys and that the water supply has been deemed safe, adding that "Initial tests have not found issues with bacterial contamination or heavy metals." (Richert, 5/2)

KCUR: What The Different Paths Into Nursing Careers Say About Inequality In High School Education 
Traditionally, a lot of nurses got their start as certified nursing assistants. It’s an entry-level job: CNAs provide basic, hands on care, such as taking vital signs or helping patients bathe. They worked at hospitals or long-term care facilities under the supervision of licensed nurses while studying for boards. Most vocational nursing programs at the high school level prepared students to sit the CNA exam, but that’s no longer the case at Summit Technology Academy, Lee’s Summit’s career and tech ed center. (Moxley, 5/3)

The Star Tribune: Obesity Disparity Between Minnesota's Richest And Poorest Is Growing 
Money appears to be a strong separator between the lean and the obese in Minnesota, which has one of the nation’s widest economic gaps when it comes to excess weight gain. Minnesota ranked 42nd among states for its disparity, because the obesity rate of 28 percent for all adults in the state in 2016 bloated to 38 percent among those in the lowest income bracket, according to a state report card released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a Washington, D.C., health policy research foundation. (Olson, 5/3)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Need A Job? Program Wants To Help With Milwaukee's Chronic Trauma
They are the last questions anyone would expect when applying for an entry-level temp job. Were you ever attacked with a gun or knife? ... They are also at the heart of a pioneering program meant to address one of the single-most crippling impediments to employment in one of the nation’s most impoverished cities: traumatic stress on such an epidemic scale that it undermines the workforce. (Schmid, 5/2)

Georgia Health News: Flu Season Has Left A Trail Of Deaths, And Perhaps A Few Lessons
The worst is over, Georgia public health officials say. But the important legacy, they say, is that this season may serve as an alert to the general public on how unpredictable and deadly the flu can be. (Miller, 5/2)

Des Moines Register: Hy-Vee Part-Time Workers Will Be Getting Health Insurance
Hy-Vee Inc. is now offering  health insurance and other benefits to 58,000 part-time workers in an effort to attract and retain employees. ...The company began offering benefits to workers 19 and older who work 20 or more hours a week in January. Eligible employees who work for Hy-Vee or its subsidiary Midwest Heritage bank can choose from among 11 options including: health, dental; short-term disability; vision; group life; accident; critical illness; hospital indemnity; individual life and disability; auto, homeowners and renters; and pet insurance. (Johnson, 5/2)

Sacramento Bee: Senate Bill Would Expand Marijuana Delivery To All Of California
With limited time to craft rules before the law took effect at the start of the year, many towns approved outright bans of all marijuana businesses. The patchwork of local laws have created vast "pot deserts" that will remain until cities and counties opt to reconsider rules. (Luna, 5/2)

The Hill: Your Right To Choose Restored By Health Mandate Repeal
On Dec. 22, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law. This legislation simplified and reduced taxes for job creating corporations and millions of Americans. In addition, one of its key provisions removed the individual mandate penalty of the euphemistically-labeled “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA). ... Many Democrats, health industry interests and policy makers, including, according to a report in yesterday’s issue of USA today, former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price, have criticized repeal of the individual mandate. This hostility is misplaced. (Roger D. Klein, 5/2)

The Hill: Trump Has Quietly Saved Millions From ObamaCare's Individual Mandate
Thanks to a little-known change made in April by the Trump administration to the exemptions provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of Americans will have the opportunity to escape having to pay the ObamaCare penalty imposed on those who are not enrolled in a “qualifying” health insurance plan. (Justin Haskins, 5/2)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Medical Deceptions Should Be A Scandal
“Trump disseminated false medical records to fool the public about his health.” That is a headline you have never seen, though you should have. If you’ve gotten tired of hearing how something President Trump did would have been a major or even career-ending scandal for any other candidate, I sympathize. But that fatigue is exactly the problem, because from the beginning of his run for president, Trump has been treated not just by different rules but by rules that indulge his most dangerous tendencies. (Paul Waldman, 5/2)

USA Today: Work Requirements Won't Help The Impoverished Find Work
For almost 140 years, The Salvation Army has been lifting up Americans in need — the hungry, the homeless, those struggling with addiction, people in every zip code who are challenged by poverty. We have seen firsthand the transformative power of dignified, stable work. Work is increasingly becoming a requirement for many forms of government assistance, from Medicaid to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, among others. Both the Trump administration and Congress are creating new provisions for work requirements across a broad range of means-tested public assistance programs. Also, a new executive order calls for the consolidation or elimination of federal workforce development programs. (David Hudson, 4/2)

The Hill: People Need Fair Insurance Coverage In A Medical Emergency
Two patients come to my emergency department with identical symptoms. One turns out to have a potentially life-threatening problem and will need immediate surgery. The other has a minor medical condition and will be able to go home. As the patient, you don’t know if you’ll be the one with the life-threatening problem. And it’s not your job to know. It’s my job as an emergency physician. Both patients were prudent to seek emergency care. However, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is trying to make it your job to diagnose yourself by warning you not to go to the emergency room unless you know that it’s a medical emergency. (Paul Kivela, 5/2)

Detroit Free Press: Hospital Chiefs: Lack Of Transit Is A Public Health Issue
Strong public transit is fundamental to building and maintaining healthy communities in Southeast Michigan. Connecting our communities and removing the barriers that keep patients from accessing regular health care is critical to our region’s future. The evidence is clear. Lack of access to a working regional transit system can have life and death consequences for residents of our community. It is a public health issue and an issue that we have the ability to solve. (John Fox, Jene Meyer, Dr. Anthony J. Tedeschi and Wright L. Lassiter III, 5/2)

FierceHealthcare: Industry Voices—Home Care Workers Are Key For Aging Loved Ones. Let's Treat Them That Way
Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a rule that, for the first time, allows Medicare Advantage plans to offer home care as a supplemental benefit. This long-awaited decision recognizes the value that professional caregivers have in keeping older adults healthy and will enable many more Americans to access services that can help them stay healthy at home. But given that our 65-and-older population will double to 80 million in the next 30 years, this rule has to be the beginning of larger structural changes to serve this generation. (Seth Sternberg, 5/2)

Stat: How Much Would You Pay For The Miracle Of Gene Therapy?
Every day I wake up thinking about how to get gene therapy to the children who will benefit from this breakthrough treatment. Right after that I start thinking about how we will pay for it. I am not a doctor or a researcher or an employee of a biotech company. I’m just a mom who, through a set of unfortunate circumstances, had a front-row seat to one of the biggest medical breakthroughs in a generation: FDA approval of the first gene therapy to treat an inherited disease. This milestone was rightfully the cause for celebration by the scientists and doctors and patients who have worked for decades to develop treatments for hundreds of disorders caused by a mutation in a single gene. (Maria Kefalas, 5/3)

JAMA: Oblivion
A decade ago, I used to go on walks. Drunken walks. In those days, gin was my companion, my confidante, my comfort. I would go to a pond near my home, then across the street to a cemetery. There is a place in the cemetery called the “City of Angels.” The baby plots. I would go there often, even though my infant son does not have a grave there, or anywhere for that matter. I would clean up the grave sites and put the toys and flowers and other mementos back to where they belonged after being blown around by the wind. The graveyard was my place to cry and feel my sadness over my son, my challenging career, and the stranglehold alcohol had on me. ...My sadness was so severe that it did not follow the hands on a clock. My problem with alcohol is frighteningly common. (Elizabeth B. Fortescue, 5/2)

USA Today: Ban Assault Weapons And Buy Them Back To Preserve The Right To Live
Gary Jackson never stood a chance. Gary was 28 and working as a security guard at a taco truck in Oakland, Calif., in 2009 when he saw Dreshawn Lee carrying a sawed-off shotgun and reported it to police. Three months later, Lee took his revenge by shooting and killing Jackson with an AK-47-style semiautomatic assault rifle. I was the prosecutor who persuaded a jury to convict Lee and persuaded a judge to put him away for 65 years to life. But Gary’s autopsy report still haunts me. (Eric Swalwell, 5/3)

Sacramento Bee: Health Price Regulations Are Misguided
A case in point is Assembly Bill 3087, which would regulate the prices that hospitals, physicians and prescription drug makers charge commercial insurers. In turn, insurers would be told how much they could charge policyholders. ...But imposing uniform payment rates is dangerous and misguided. (Erin Trish and Dana Goldman, 5/2)

The Wichita Eagle: Legislature missing chance to extend help to Kansans
I often hear the term “able-bodied adult” when talking about KanCare expansion. I was one of those “able-bodieds,” except my body isn’t always so able. I am living with multiple sclerosis. ... Kansas needs KanCare expansion. Expansion would allow chronically ill people who have complex health care needs to continue to work, attend college and contribute to society. (Marcillene Dover, 5/3)

Boston Globe: Middlesex County Stitches Together A Network Of Care
Researchers, police officers, and doctors have long understood the challenge of so-called frequent utilizers — mentally ill or addicted people who cycle in and out of emergency rooms and jailhouses at enormous cost, with little sign of improvement. But while the most extreme cases are easy to identify, there are plenty that go unnoticed. The problem is that individuals’ interactions with the system can be spread out over so many agencies — the police department, the community health center, the homeless shelter.There are records here and records there. But you’d have to look at them in combination — two ambulance calls for overdoses, a police call for an attempted suicide in one town and a second call, in a neighboring town, when she was the victim of an assault — to get the full picture. That’s the idea behind a promising new pilot program bringing together law enforcement, corrections officials, and health care providers in three jurisdictions: Long Beach, Calif., Johnson County, Iowa, and Middlesex County, a sprawling region that includes urban centers like Cambridge and Lowell and smaller towns like Concord and Groton. (5/3)

Seattle Times: Instead Of A Jobs Tax, Credit Business For Helping The Homeless
Homelessness is one of the largest problems facing our community. Despite spending more than $190 million in King County last year on this issue, the Seattle City Council recently decided it must raise an additional $75 million from Seattle businesses through a new tax on jobs. The council proposes no ways to measure the success of this additional spending. The council has made it clear that the new tax will be passed next month regardless of the input they received. If the City Council insists on passing this misguided tax on jobs in order to throw more money at a significant problem without a plan, we propose a compromise: Let businesses deduct donations directly to charities serving the homeless or building low-income housing from their proposed jobs-tax burden, rather than have the money be processed through government bureaucracy with the inevitable waste that entails. (Jasmine Donovan, Howard S. Wright III and Rachel Marshall, 5/2)

Houston Chronicle: Paxton’s Pre-Obamacare Dream Would Be A Nightmare For Texas 
In response to the maternal mortality crisis Texas is facing, medical providers have offered that one solution would be expanding the availability of health insurance. Instead, Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a federal lawsuit with elected officials across 20 states to render the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. Rather than seeking to improve health care accessibility for Texans, Paxton will make it even more precarious. (Wendell Potter, 5/3)

San Jose Mercury News: Why State Should Fund Disabled Housing Program
As director of Santa Clara County’s Social Services Agency, I’ve seen first-hand the commitment of our social workers in Adult Protective Services (APS) to intervene and protect seniors and adults with disabilities from abuse and neglect. However, when the California Elder and Dependent Adult Civil Protection act was passed in 1982, the county and state could not have envisioned the current shortage of affordable housing coupled with the increasing aging population, or the impacts it would have on these vulnerable populations. (Robert Menicocci, 5/2)