The Associated Press: Overhaul Is Proposed For Decades-Old Medicare Fraud Rules
The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed overhauling decades-old Medicare rules originally meant to deter fraud and abuse but now seen as a roadblock to coordinating better care for patients. The rules under revision were intended to counter self-dealing and financial kickbacks among service providers such as hospitals, clinics and doctors. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/9)

Modern Healthcare: New Anti-Kickback Rules Offered To Protect New Healthcare Pay Models
"President Trump has promised American patients a healthcare system with affordable, personalized care, a system that puts you in control, provides peace of mind, and treats you like a human being, not a number. But too often, government regulations have stood in the way of delivering that kind of care," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. "Our proposed rules would be an unprecedented opportunity for providers to work together to deliver the kind of high-value, coordinated care that patients deserve." (Brady and Teichert, 10/9)

Reuters: Trump Administration To Announce Changes To Anti-Kickback Rules For Healthcare Providers
HHS will create exceptions for healthcare providers that enter into agreements with other parties if they are aimed at cutting costs and improving patient health, the officials said. Trump issued an executive order last week that sought to woo seniors by strengthening the Medicare health program. (O'Donnell, 10/9)

The Hill: Trump Officials Move To Ease Doctor Anti-Fraud Rules In Modernization Bid 
The very technical changes in the new proposed rules would create exceptions that allow for “value-based” payment arrangements, which is where doctors get paid more if their patients get better results. Officials say there would still be rules against actual fraud. Those new payment arrangements are viewed by members of both parties as an important step in modernizing the health system and saving money in the long term by taking away incentives for doctors to simply order many tests and procedures because they get paid for each one. (Sullivan, 10/9)

Bloomberg Law: Trump Moves To Ease Anti-Fraud Rules In Bid To Improve Care
Some of the ways that physicians want to coordinate care are not always illegal under the laws, but they may be effectively prohibited because of the difficulty in understanding the laws’ provisions, Eric Hargan, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a call with reporters. The penalties for both laws are steep, and attorneys say the laws currently prevent doctors from trying to find better ways to work together. A hospital could run afoul of the laws if it offers incentive payments to physicians for providing more efficient and cost-effective care, for example. (Stein, 10/9)

Axios: Health Care's Fraud And Abuse Laws Are Getting Overhauled
Between the lines: The overarching concern is everyone's definition of "value" is different. How will regulators know whether providers are acting in good faith to coordinate care, or if they are using "value-based care" as a cover to control patient referrals and enrich themselves? (Herman, 10/10)

Modern Healthcare: Cybersecurity Exception Is Part Of Anti-Kickback Enforcement Proposal
A proposed exception to enforcement of HHS' anti-kickback laws would allow hospitals to give free cybersecurity software to local providers they work with frequently, as part of an effort to facilitate more coordinated patient care. The exception is part of a long-awaited proposal HHS unveiled Wednesday, which suggests changes to Stark law kickback protections the agency said "unnecessarily limit" coordinated care. (Cohen, 10/9)

CQ: Health Industry Cheers Anti-Kickback Plan But Has Some Concerns
Health care groups quickly applauded the Trump administration’s proposed changes to two anti-corruption laws, which followed years of industry pleas for updates. The proposals, unveiled Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the Inspector General, seek to clarify and expand exceptions to the Stark physician self-referral law and anti-kickback statute in a bid to spur innovative care. The laws restrict doctors from referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to other organizations with which the doctor has a financial relationship, or from receiving compensation for Medicare and Medicaid patient referrals. (Clason, 10/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Warren Urges Women To Speak Out After Her Firing Story Is Questioned
Sen. Elizabeth Warren brushed aside questions this week surrounding her account of getting fired from a teaching job in the 1970s because she was pregnant and is instead attempting to turn the situation into a larger conversation about women in the workplace. The Massachusetts Democrat’s description of her ouster from a New Jersey public school when she was visibly pregnant in 1971 is a signature part of her speech at campaign events. Reports emerged this week that she had told the story in the past without mentioning she was dismissed, and that local records showed she was offered a job for 1971-72, the school year after her pregnancy. (Jamerson, 10/9)

The Hill: Warren Urges Women To Share Stories Of Pregnancy Discrimination In Wake Of Accusations She Lied About Losing Job
“When I was 22 and finishing my first year of teaching, I had an experience millions of women will recognize. By June I was visibly pregnant — and the principal told me the job I'd already been promised for the next year would go to someone else,” Warren tweeted Tuesday, repeating a story she’s told on the campaign trail. “This was 1971, years before Congress outlawed pregnancy discrimination — but we know it still happens in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. We can fight back by telling our stories. I tell mine on the campaign trail, and I hope to hear yours,” she added. (Klar, 10/8)

NBC News: Women Rally In Support Of Elizabeth Warren By Sharing Their Own Pregnancy Discrimination Stories
Women are sharing their stories on social media of pregnancy discrimination in support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who came under attack from conservative outlets this week over her claim that she had been fired in 1971 for being pregnant. "[I]f you don't understand what this furor over the Elizabeth Warren pregnancy firing story is about, ask pretty much any woman in your life over 35," culture writer Anne Helen Petersen wrote on Twitter, prompting some to respond with their personal experiences. (Egan, 10/9)

Boston Globe: Elizabeth Warren Shares Stories Of Other Women Who Experienced Pregnancy Discrimination
The Massachusetts senator read the story of Twitter user Cathy S., who wrote “My mother hid her pregnancy with me in 1964 for as long as she could until it was too obvious and then they fired her. It was pretty standard practice.” Warren read another from Twitter user Emilia Merchen, who said “I was fired the day after notifying of my pregnancy. And was told it was because ‘I wasn’t likeable enough.’ I got a lawyer and a settlement.” (Matheson, 10/9)

Vox: Elizabeth Warren Says She Lost Her Job When She Got Pregnant. Thousands Of Women Every Year Say The Same.
Until 1978, pregnancy discrimination was legal in America, Gedmark said. If an employer wanted to fire someone for getting pregnant in 1971, the year Warren says she was let go from her teaching job, there would have been nothing to stop it. Seven years later, workers got some protection with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which bars employers from firing or demoting people because they are pregnant. The law also says that employers must treat pregnant workers the same way they would treat others with a similar ability to work. So if the employer would grant light duty to someone with an injury preventing them from lifting heavy objects, that employer is supposed to let a pregnant worker with a similar limitation work light duty as well. (North, 10/9)

HuffPost: Women On Twitter Share Pregnancy Discrimination Stories For Elizabeth Warren
On Tuesday, after Warren’s tweets, people on Twitter shared their own experiences of job discrimination due to pregnancy, or those of their friends and family. Here are some of those stories (Harvey, 10/8)

CBS News: Planned Parenthood Announces Record-High Election Spend Today Ahead Of 2020
Planned Parenthood announced on Wednesday it plans to spend at least $45 million ahead of the 2020 elections, the most it has ever spent during an election cycle. The push comes as abortion rights are under assault across the Midwest and South, with state lawmakers passing abortion bans and restrictions aimed at capturing the attention of the Supreme Court. The investment intends to fund large-scale grassroots programs and canvassing, digital, television, radio and mail programs in battleground states across the country, according to a press release. (Smith, 10/9)

NPR: With Abortion Rights On The Line, Planned Parenthood Announces 2020 Push
The first priority for 2020 is to unseat President Trump. The group also will work to help Democrats take over the U.S. Senate, maintain Democratic control in the House, and promote candidates in state-level races who support abortion rights, Robinson said. The group is targeting 5 million voters nationwide, with a focus on nine key states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. (McCammon, 10/9)

CNN: Planned Parenthood Launches $45 Million Program To Elect Candidates Backing Reproductive Rights
"Who we elect will determine our access to birth control, cancer screenings, sex education, abortion access and more," said Kelley Robinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, in a statement. "That's why Planned Parenthood Votes will use every tool at our disposal to hit the pavement, flood the airwaves, and elect reproductive rights champions up and down the ballot," she added. "We know this is a fight we can win." (Kelly, 10/9)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Charges Into 2020 After Year Of Setbacks
But the past year has raised questions about whether Planned Parenthood can enter 2020 with the same firepower it brought to the 2018 midterms, when it helped elect what Democrats describe as the first ever “pro-choice” majority in the House. In 2019 alone, Planned Parenthood’s board of directors fired its president and engaged in a public dispute over the terms of her departure; its health centers lost millions of dollars in federal family planning funding under a new rule issued by the Trump administration; and it fought to keep open the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri — a Planned Parenthood affiliate. (Hellmann, 10/10)

In other Planned Parenthood news —

Belleville News-Democrat: Planned Parenthood Clinic ‘Sign Of Desperation’ For Agency, Anti-Abortion Activist Says
Between an iron fence and temporary barricades while holding signs that said “Planned Parenthood hurts women,” “Stop Abortion Now” and “Shut them down,” anti-abortion activists called on Fairview Heights to keep the future Planned Parenthood clinic from opening. The narrow stretch of public right of away next to a drainage ditch did not deter the crowd of hundreds of people who rallied Wednesday outside the new Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights that will open later this month. (Bustos, 10/9)

The New York Times: Scientists Designed A Drug For Just One Patient. Her Name Is Mila.
A new drug, created to treat just one patient, has pushed the bounds of personalized medicine and has raised unexplored regulatory and ethical questions, scientists reported on Wednesday. The drug, described in the New England Journal of Medicine, is believed to be the first “custom” treatment for a genetic disease. It is called milasen, named after the only patient who will ever take it: Mila (mee-lah) Makovec, who lives with her mother, Julia Vitarello, in Longmont, Colo. (Kolata, 10/9)

Stat: After A Bespoke Therapy Rescues A Young Girl, The FDA Considers Advance Of Individualized Treatments
Back in 2016, a 6-year-old named Mila was diagnosed with Batten disease, a progressive and incurable genetic syndrome that would brutally strip away her sight and her ability to walk, and would cause dozens of seizures each day. The condition is fatal. But her parents, Julia Vitarello and Alek Makovec, refused to lose hope. They contacted Dr. Tim Yu, a neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, who discovered the precise genetic mutation that caused her disease — and was able to devise an experimental treatment designed exclusively for Mila. His work is one of the first examples of therapies created for the benefit of a single patient — an “N of 1” study. (Keshavan, 10/9)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: The Return Of Vioxx: Can A Drug Once Deemed Deadly Be Relaunched?
Vioxx’s days as a widely used treatment for arthritis and chronic pain came to an end when studies revealed that it roughly doubled patients’ risk of heart attack and stroke, leading to an estimated 60,000 deaths. It was a public health disaster, and it led to a congressional investigation, allegations of lapses at the Food and Drug Administration, and agreement by the manufacturer, Merck, to pay a nearly $5 billion settlement. Now, Tremeau Pharmaceuticals, a private Massachusetts company, is developing a generic version of Vioxx as a treatment for severe joint pain in people with hemophilia, a side effect called hemophilic arthropathy. (Garde, 10/9)

The Hill: 2020 Democrats Embrace Aggressive Step On Drug Prices 
Democratic presidential candidates are threatening to take a drastic step that even the Obama administration rejected to lower drug prices without congressional approval. The move involves invoking an obscure section of a 1980 law to break the patent on a drug when it is priced too high. The idea, known as "march-in rights," would allow the government to "march in" and break a patent to allow a cheaper version of a drug to be made by another company. (Sullivan, 10/9)

Politico: In Parkland And Santa Fe, No Escape For School Shooting Survivors
Substance abuse and mental health problems surged following last year’s deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., while test scores tanked. ... The devastating turn in mental health, academic performance and substance abuse is revealed in a series of federal aid applications from these school districts. The documents paint the most detailed picture of what really happens to a school after a mass shooting. Once the funerals are over, the TV cameras leave and students attempt to return to normalcy, there have been dramatic turns for the worse in academic performance, behavior and mental wellness. "Personally, I hate the word closure, because I don't think there ever is closure to anything like this," said Melissa Reeves, past president of the National Association of School Psychologists and an associate professor at Winthrop University in South Carolina. (Gaudiano, 10/10)

PBS NewsHour: Gun Deaths Started To Rise After More Than A Decade Of Being Stable
The rate of gun deaths in the United States has experienced an uptick that started four years ago, a new study says — the first significant increase in these fatalities in 15 years. Since 1999, the number of gun deaths held steady year after year — at 10.4 firearm fatalities per 100,000 people. But in 2015, the rate began creeping up nationwide to 11.8 deaths per 100,00 people–marking a 13.8-percent increase. (Santhanam, 10/9)

Stateline: Trump Wants States To Experiment With Medicaid — Up To A Point 
Legislators also wanted to add a work requirement — even though courts have thwarted that in other states. They wanted Utah to “lock out” beneficiaries who intentionally received services to which they weren’t entitled — and to allow state Medicaid officials to remove them without a court finding. And they wanted Utah to be able to cap enrollment if it ran into budget problems. Though Utah needed federal waivers to make those modifications, it had reason for optimism: The Trump administration has heartily endorsed the idea of giving states maximum Medicaid flexibility. (Ollove, 10/10)

Courier-Journal: Bevin Work Plan For Medicaid Goes Before Federal Appeals Panel
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments Friday in a case to decide whether Kentucky and other states can enact sweeping changes to Medicaid that include requiring some adults to prove they are working in order to keep health coverage. It's a key event in the ongoing battle over whether states can require low-income adults, mostly those added to Medicaid through an expansion under the Affordable Care Act, to report work or volunteer hours, pay premiums or meet other new rules. (Yetter, 10/9)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Army Is Treating Two Soldiers For Vaping-Related Lung Illness
The U.S. Army is treating two active-duty soldiers in its medical facilities for vaping-related lung illness, officials said days after most of the military banned e-cigarette sales at base exchanges. The Army is the first branch of the U.S. military to report cases of an ailment that has been linked to at least 24 deaths in the U.S., according to federal and state officials. (Kesling and Maloney, 10/9)

Military Times: Army Confirms Two Soldiers Being Treated For Severe Lung Injuries From Vaping
"The Army's office of the Surgeon General has recommended the suspension of the sale of e-cigarettes and vaping products at military exchanges until the completion of further testing by the [Food and Drug Administration] and the CDC," Weaver said. (10/9)

USA Today: Vaping Illness: US Army Treating 2 Soldiers For Lung Injuries
The message, directed at soldiers as well as their families, especially warned against using vaping products sold off the street or modified. It said the effects of vaping could undermine the military's mission. "In efforts to conserve the fighting strength, and strengthen Army readiness and resilience, vaping of e-cigarettes should be highly discouraged at this time," said Dr. Marc A. Williams, a toxicologist and an e-cigarette and vaping expert in APHC's Toxicology Directorate. (Stanglin and Alltucker, 10/9)

Reuters: New York City Sues Online E-Cigarette Retailers Over Age Verification
New York City has sued more nearly two dozen online e-cigarette retailers, accusing them of selling their products to underage New Yorkers, the city announced Wednesday. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday evening in Brooklyn federal court, targets 22 companies including Artison Vapor Franchise LLC, Eliquidstop.com and Vapor 4 Life Holdings Inc. All of them are located outside New York. (Pierson, 10/9)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Lawsuit Accuses Online E-Cigarette Retailers Of Selling To Minors
The city’s suit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, demands that the 22 online retailers stop selling e-cigarettes to New York City residents under the age of 21 and to cease operating without adequate age-verification systems. The 22 companies named in the lawsuit are based outside New York state. Several companies named in the lawsuit, including E-cigarette Empire LLC in Las Vegas, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. (West, 10/9)

CBS News: Vaping: CBS News Investigates The Vaping Industry's Booming Black Market
To find out how dangerous and potentially deadly THC vaping products end up on the streets, CBS News took hidden cameras to a warehouse 75 miles east of Los Angeles, where the marijuana black market feels more like a house party. The THC oil inside these cartridges is unregulated, so there's no way to know exactly what's inside or how it could impact a user's health, even though every seller claimed to have a pure product. With flavors like "strawberry bubble gum" and "dirty Sprite," people come to underground warehouses like the one in Los Angeles to buy hundreds of vapes at a time, just to resell them nationwide. (10/9)

Kaiser Health News: ‘We Vape, We Vote’: How Vaping Crackdowns Are Politicizing Vapers
Vapers across the country are swarming Twitter, the White House comment line and statehouse steps with the message “We Vape, We Vote.” They’re speaking out after a slew of attacks on their way of life. President Donald Trump announced his support for a vaping flavor ban in September. Some states temporarily banned the sales of vaping tools or flavors. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned people to stop vaping until public health experts can find the cause of more than a thousand cases of lung injuries nationwide. (Bluth and Weber, 10/10)

NPR: How Vaping Nicotine Can Affect A Teenage Brain
The link between vaping and severe lung problems is getting a lot of attention. But scientists say they're also worried about vaping's effect on teenage brains. "Unfortunately, the brain problems and challenges may be things that we see later on down the road," says Nii Addy, associate professor of psychiatry and cellular and molecular physiology at Yale School of Medicine. (Hamilton, 10/10)

NPR: She Survived The ICU. Now, She Has A Message: Quit Vaping!
Piper Johnson was all packed and ready to drive across country with her mom to start college when the 18-year-old noticed a pain in her chest. She took an Advil and hoped the pain would go away. It didn't. During the drive from her hometown of New Lenox, Ill., near Chicago, to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo., she realized something was very wrong. "I kept feeling worse and worse," Johnson says. She developed a high fever, felt extremely lethargic, and noticed a rapid heart beat. (Aubrey, 10/9)

Lexington Herald Leader: This Kentucky Runner Blames Vaping For A Collapsed Lung
When Dalton Stiltner first felt short of breath early last month, he chalked it up to anxiety. The 21-year-old senior and college athlete at the University of Pikeville has anxiety that has, in the past, progressed to the point of heart palpitations and shortness of breath, he said. These days, he’s still relatively stressed. A full-time student on the brink of adulthood, each weekday is devoted to class and running at least five miles on his university cross country team. On the weekends, when he’s not traveling to cross country meets, he works part-time making sandwiches at Jimmy Johns. (Acquisto, 10/9)

Vice: Why People Are Dying From Vaping In The U.S. And Not The U.K.
Whenever Matt Culley travels to England, he feels as if he has entered a sort of Twilight Zone. A prominent vaping advocate on YouTube in the United States, Culley went so far as to describe the scene in the United Kingdom, where he often attends conferences, as a sort of "alternate reality." (Norcia, 10/10)

Bloomberg: Prudential Plans To Boost Life Insurance Prices For Vapers 
Prudential Financial Inc. says the health scare around vaping is changing its calculus. Prudential, one of the largest U.S. life insurers, plans to tweak its policy for customers who vape, saying that they’ll be classified as smokers instead of non-smokers when applying for individual coverage. Smokers tend to be charged higher life insurance rates than people who don’t smoke, the company said in an emailed statement Wednesday. (Chiglinsky, 10/9)

The Associated Press: California Bans Pesticide Linked To Brain Damage In Children
A widely used agricultural pesticide that California environmental officials have said has been linked to brain damage in children will be banned after next year under an agreement reached with the manufacturer, state officials announced Wednesday. Under the deal, all California sales of chlorpyrifos will end on Feb. 6, 2020, and farmers will have until the end of 2020 to exhaust their supplies. (10/9)

Los Angeles Times: Chemical Companies Agree To End Fight Over Pesticide Ban
“For years, environmental justice advocates have fought to get the harmful pesticide chlorpyrifos out of our communities,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “Thanks to their tenacity and the work of countless others, this will now occur faster than originally envisioned. This is a big win for children, workers and public health in California.” California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld said the agreement “avoids a protracted legal process while providing a clear timeline for California farmers as we look toward developing alternative pest management practices.” (Mohan, 10/9)

NPR: California Bans The Pesticide Chlorpyrifos
Chlorpyrifos is used primarily on crops such as alfalfa, almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes and walnuts. California environmental regulators have targeted the pesticide for years. They have designated chlorpyrifos as "a toxic air contaminant" that poses health threats when inhaled or exposed to the skin of bystanders. The agreement includes a ban on aerial spraying. (Gonzales, 10/9)

Stat: Racial Disparity In NIH Funding Partly Driven By Research Topic
Ever since a landmark 2011 study supported the long-held notion that African American scientists were significantly less likely than white researchers to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health, researchers have sought to better understand what’s behind the gap. A new paper builds on that previous work to find that research topic choice is partially driving the disparity, accounting for 20% of the funding gulf. (Chakradhar, 10/10)

The New York Times: Is This The Shape Of Things To Come?
To Laura Salter, a fashion and lifestyle blogger, it seemed that no amount of diet and exercise would shrink her love handles or inner thighs. She thought that what she called the “obvious bulges” in her clothing were affecting her self-confidence and thus her work, but liposuction wasn’t an option. She has three children and no time for recovery. So in February 2018, Ms. Salter, 42, decided to have her fat frozen off, paying $2,400 — yes, a blogger who paid — for a roughly two-hour cryolipolysis, or fat freezing, session. (Rubin, 10/9)

The Star Tribune: Sleep Positions Tied To Majority Of Unexpected Infant Deaths In Minnesota, Study Finds 
The sudden and mysterious deaths of 40 to 50 infants in Minnesota each year might be categorized as “unexplained” in official records, but state health research has found a very explainable reason why they occurred: unsafe sleep environments. The state Department of Health announced Wednesday that 82% of the sudden unexplained infant deaths reported in the state in 2016 and 2017 were related to sleeping (74 out of 90 total deaths). Most involved babies who were placed to sleep on surfaces other than cribs, or with loose bedding or fluffy blankets or toys that present suffocation hazards. (Olson, 10/9)

NPR: Can CRISPR Help Patients With Sickle Cell Disease?
Victoria Gray slides open a closet door, pulls out a suitcase and starts packing piles of clothes. "My goodness," says Gray. "Did I really bring all this?" Gray, who has sickle cell disease, is the first patient with a genetic disorder who doctors in the United States have tried to treat using the powerful gene-editing technique CRISPR. (Stein, 10/10)

Stat: Illumina Confronts The Innovator’s Dilemma 
DNA sequencing powerhouse Illumina announced a partnership with diagnostics giant Qiagen this week that is exactly the kind of shrewd tactical move that has long cemented the firm’s dominance in the market for machines that read genetic code. Investors, however, seem to feel that, in this case, past performance is no guarantee of future results. The 15-year partnership gives Qiagen the right to develop diagnostic test kits using Illumina’s MySeq and NextSeq DNA sequencers — in other words, to create tests that are used to help pick the right drugs for cancer patients, and, eventually, in other diseases. (Herper, 10/9)

The Wall Street Journal: The $64,000 Question: Why Didn’t Restaurant Allow A Service Dog?
A Manhattan restaurant owner has been ordered to pay $64,000 in fines and damages after his employees were accused of refusing to seat a customer with a service dog. A New York City administrative judge levied the penalty in a ruling last month in which he said the restaurant violated the city’s human rights law. The ruling followed a trial in the spring after the city’s Commission on Human Rights brought a complaint against Besim Kukaj, a restaurateur who owns multiple eateries in Manhattan. (Honan, 10/9)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Launches Childhood Trauma Research With $2.75 Million
Kaiser Permanente on Wednesday said it will invest $2.75 million to research how to help prevent and mitigate the health effects of adverse childhood experiences. The funding will go toward an initiative to identify clinical and community-based interventions that can be used to address childhood trauma. Studies have indicated those adverse events can lead to riskier health behaviors and a higher likelihood of developing chronic conditions in adulthood. (Johnson, 10/9)

WBUR: How Psychedelic Substances Can Help Treat Anxiety, Depression And Other Mental Illnesses
Johns Hopkins University has launched a center for psychedelic research with $17 million in donations solely from private donors, the first of its kind in the U.S. The establishment of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Medicine signals “a new era of research in therapeutics and the mind,” according to the center’s director, Roland Griffiths. (Hobson and McMahon, 10/9)

Stat: In Rats, Treatment For Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Comes From Bright Light
Scientists hunting for new ways to treat carbon monoxide poisoning are trying a new tactic: hitting blood with bright lights to break the stranglehold of the toxin. But outside experts say the approach — one of several potential treatments currently being studied — only underscores how complicated it is to stop carbon monoxide from wreaking havoc on the body or to reverse the damage it has already done. (Thielking, 10/9)

KCUR: Doctors Stand By Meds For Treating Kids With ADHD But Many Experts Say That’s The Wrong Approach 
When children are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, stimulant medications like Ritalin are usually the first line of treatment. Doctors recently issued new guidelines that mostly uphold the role of those medications, but many experts argue that other effective behavioral treatment methods are being ignored. ...They advise that anyone 6 or older should start taking medication and get behavioral therapy as soon as they are diagnosed. Children 5 and younger are advised to start with behavioral treatment first. (Smith, 10/9)

WBUR: Changing Your Diet Can Help Tamp Down Depression, Boost Mood
A randomized controlled trial published in the journal PLOS ONE finds that symptoms of depression dropped significantly among a group of young adults after they followed a Mediterranean-style pattern of eating for three weeks. Participants saw their depression "score" fall from the "moderate" range down to the "normal" range, and they reported lower levels of anxiety and stress too. (Aubrey and Chatterjee, 10/9)

CNN: Humans Have A 'Salamander-Like' Ability To Regrow Cartilage, Study Finds
Humans may not be able to regrow amputated limbs like salamanders can -- but we do have a "salamander-like" ability to regrow damaged cartilage, a new study has found. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that "cartilage in human joints can repair itself through a process similar to that used by creatures such as salamanders and zebrafish to regenerate limbs," according to the press release by Duke Health, which helped lead the research. (Yeung, 10/10)

Kaiser Health News: Drumbeat Builds For A Peace Corps Of Caregivers
Imagine a government program that would mobilize volunteers to help older adults across the nation age in place. One is on the way. The Administration for Community Living, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is taking steps to establish a National Volunteer Care Corps. If it’s successful, healthy retirees and young adults would take seniors to doctor appointments, shop for groceries, shovel snowy sidewalks, make a bed or mop the floor, or simply visit a few times a week. (Graham, 10/10)

Stat: ‘Sesame Street’ Launches Initiative To Help Explain Parental Addiction To Kids
Parents and kids who are fans of “Sesame Street” will now see a new storyline for one the show’s muppets: one of parental addiction. Videos launched Wednesday feature the muppet Karli, whose mother is struggling with addiction, and show how she copes with the situation with support from Elmo and other friends. (Chakradhar, 10/10)

The Associated Press: Opioid Makers' Latest Legal Woe: West Virginia Handyman
A small home-improvement company in West Virginia is taking on the nation's opioid giants in a lawsuit blaming the drugmakers for a rise in insurance costs. The handymen at Al Marino Inc. filed the federal class-action suit last week in U.S. District Court against Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and a host of other companies. The case claims the drug businesses created a public health crisis that increased the need for expensive medical treatments, leading to skyrocketing health insurance costs in West Virginia. It seeks unspecified damages. (10/9)

Bloomberg: Purdue’s Sacklers Get Closer To An Opioid Trial In Massachusetts 
Purdue Pharma LP’s billionaire owners, the Sackler family, are a step closer to a trial in Massachusetts over their role in the opioid epidemic, after a judge said the state had made credible allegations of misconduct in marketing of the company’s addictive painkiller, OxyContin. A judge in Boston on Tuesday denied the family’s request to toss out the state’s first-of-its-kind lawsuit. The ruling is significant because it means the Sacklers will have to defend their actions in court unless Purdue is able to shield its owners from pending cases through its bankruptcy process, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said. (Larson, 10/9)

The Baltimore Sun: Last Drug Treatment Center For Maryland Youths Closes, Narrowing Options Statewide 
The last public residential drug treatment program for Maryland youths has closed, ending access to a variety of long-term treatment that has been used less frequently in recent years. People of all ages with substance use disorders are now more often steered to clinic-based programs near home. And while many treatment experts support the move, shuttering the Catoctin Summit Adolescent Program has raised concerns. (Cohn, 10/9)

The Associated Press: Alaska Doctor, Nurse Charged With Vast Opioid Distribution
An Alaska doctor and nurse practitioner face federal charges of illegally distributing millions of opioid doses to patients that resulted in addiction, overdoses and deaths, officials said. The Alaska U.S. attorney announced Wednesday that 48-year-old Jessica Joyce Spayd and 74-year-old Lavern Davidhizar were arrested and charge separately with providing opioids to patients who did not medically require them. (10/9)

Georgia Health News: Readmission Penalties For Medicare Patients Hitting Dozens Of Georgia Hospitals
A Medicare initiative aimed at reducing readmissions of discharged patients is penalizing 88 percent of Georgia hospitals evaluated in the program. That’s a slightly higher percentage than the national average of 83 percent of hospitals penalized in the readmission program. (Miller, 10/9)

The CT Mirror: 26 Hospitals Penalized By Medicare For High Readmission Rates
Most Connecticut hospitals will lose a percentage of their Medicare reimbursement payments over the next year as penalties for having high rates of readmitted patients, according to new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Statewide, 26 of the 29 hospitals evaluated – 90 percent – will have their reimbursements reduced, by varying amounts, in the 2020 fiscal year that began Oct. 1, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of data from CMS. (Rosner, 10/9)

The Associated Press: 9 Montana Hospitals To See Reduced Medicare Payments
Medicare is reducing payments to nine Montana hospitals under a program that penalizes costly readmissions within a month of treatment for heart and lung diseases as well as knee and hip replacement surgery. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program evaluated 14 Montana hospitals and will reduce Medicare payments by a small percentage for nine of them for a year, starting Oct. 1. (10/7)

WUSF: Five Florida Hospitals Face Maximum Medicare Readmission Rate Penalty
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will penalize 2,583 hospitals for having too many Medicare patients readmitted within 30 days, according to federal data analyzed by Kaiser Health News. Five Florida hospitals will get the maximum penalty of a 3% cut to reimbursement rates. The minimum is 0.01%. (Miller, 10/7)

Pittsburgh Business Times: Pittsburgh Region Hospitals Getting Medicare Penalties For 2020
A number of hospitals in western Pennsylvania will receive a reduction in Medicare reimbursement payments due to higher-than-average readmission rates. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as of Oct. 1 is reducing Medicare payments to 127 hospitals in Pennsylvania for the rate of patients that are back in the hospital within a month of discharge, according to CMS data analyzed by Kaiser Health News. Just about every hospital in Pennsylvania received some kind of percentage off their Medicare reimbursements, ranging from 0.01 percent to 3 percent. (Gough, 10/7)

KHN Tool: Look Up Your Hospital: Is It Being Penalized By Medicare?

Meanwhile, in other news on hospitals and health systems —

The Associated Press: California Hospital Chain Going To Court Over High Prices
One of California's largest hospital systems is facing a trial over accusations that it has used its market dominance to snuff out competition and overcharge patients for medical bills. Opening arguments begin Thursday in the antitrust case against Sutter Health, which operates 24 hospitals with 5,500 doctors across Northern California. It was first brought by employers and unions amid growing frustration over the rising cost of health care in 2014; California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, filed a similar suit last year following a six-year DOJ investigation. (Gecker, 10/10)

The Associated Press: Virginia County Without Any Hospital May Get 1 Next Year
A health care system official says work is under way to reopen a southwest Virginia county’s only hospital. The Roanoke Times reports Ballad Health Chief Administrative Officer Marvin Eichorn said earlier this week that the Lee County hospital will reopen next fall. Eichorn says renovations are continuing to bring the building in Pennington Gap up to code. He also says paperwork will be filed soon to gain billing approval. (10/10)

Columbus Dispatch: Senate Passes Bill To Allow Patients To Learn Hospital Costs In Advance 
Ohioans would be able to learn the bottom-line cost of their scheduled hospital care — and their out-of-pocket share of the bill — in advance under a bill passed unanimously by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday. Senate Bill 97, sponsored by Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, would require hospitals to provide a “reasonable, good faith” cost estimate, or price range, of scheduled services at the advance request of patients beginning July 1, 2021. (Ludlow, 10/9)

Kaiser Health News: VCU Health Will Halt Patient Lawsuits, Boost Aid In Wake Of KHN Investigation
VCU Health, the major Richmond medical system that includes the state’s largest teaching hospital, said it will no longer file lawsuits against its patients, ending a practice that has affected tens of thousands of people over the years. VCU’s in-house physician group filed more than 56,000 lawsuits against patients for $81 million over the seven years ending in 2018, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of district court data. (Hancock and Lucas, 10/9)

The Associated Press: DC Psychiatric Hospital To Go Another Week Without Water
Officials say a public psychiatric hospital in the nation’s capital may go another week without drinking water. The district’s deputy mayor for health and human services, Wayne Turnage, tells The Washington Post that St. Elizabeths Hospital’s water service may not be restored until late next week. Repairs were expected to finish this Friday. (10/9)

Modern Healthcare: Fairview Partnership Officially Launches M Health Fairview Brand
Fairview Health Services has officially become M Health Fairview, the academic health system announced Wednesday. Minneapolis-based M Health Fairview is a joint clinical agreement between Fairview, the University of Minnesota and University of Minnesota Physicians announced in September 2018 that took effect Jan. 1. Wednesday's announcement marks more than a rebranding, but the acceleration of efforts to reorganize how care is delivered systemwide. (Bannow, 10/9)

The New York Times: PG&E Outage Darkens Northern California Amid Wildfire Threat
The lights went off in stages in Northern California on Wednesday, from the forests near the Oregon border, down the spine of the Sierra Nevada and finally through the dense hillside communities across the Bay from San Francisco. Hundreds of thousands of households lost power when California’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, shut down a vast web of electrical lines as a precaution against wildfires. Not knowing how long the outage would last, residents hurried to gas stations and supermarkets, stocking up on essentials as if a hurricane were bearing down. (Fuller, 10/9)

The Washington Post: Northern California Faces Massive Power Outage As PG&E Hedges Wildfire Risk
Before dawn, Pacific Gas & Electric flipped the electricity switch off across 20 counties, most of them north of San Francisco, an intentional and highly disruptive hedge against wildfire risk. As California experiences intensifying weather extremes and confronts the sharpening consequences of a changing climate, the power company responsible for starting the deadliest wildfire in state history has undertaken the most extensive planned power outage ever employed. (Wilson, 10/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Power Outage In California Affects Millions As PG&E Tries To Avoid Wildfire
Ronald Johnigan said he and his wife awoke in the predawn hours Wednesday when the machines they use for severe sleep apnea shut down. He spent the day searching for a hotel with power to stay in that night because the couple can’t sleep without working medical equipment, he said. Despite assurances from the power company, Mr. Johnigan was skeptical that the outage was necessary. During the firestorms two years ago that destroyed thousands of homes in the area, he still had access to power when he came back home. “This is their decision,” he said. “They arbitrarily decided to do this, and it sucks, it actually sucks.” (Lazo and Carlton, 10/10)

Los Angeles Times: Californians Fume Over PG&E Power Outage: 'A Humongous Inconvenience'
The power shut-offs have generated backlash, with some residents saying they create a whole new set of dangers as they try to watch for news about fires. There is also concern about those with health issues who rely on electrically powered medical equipment to stay alive. Critics worry that communications and evacuations will be hampered if the power is out, especially if traffic signals don’t work and cellphone service is affected. “I think this is a tacit admission that they recognize their liability for huge wildfires we’ve had and that their grid has a lot of deficiencies,” James Moore, an attorney from Auburn in Placer County, said of the widespread outages. (Fry, McGreevy, Luna, LaGanga and Cosgrove, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times: LAPD Will Clear Homeless Camps In Fire Danger Zones As Santa Ana Winds Hit
With Santa Ana winds bringing red-flag fire danger to Southern California, the Los Angeles Police Department plans to remove some homeless people from camps in high-risk areas. LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said the removals will take place Wednesday night and Thursday. Officials did not release specific locations. The city earlier this year passed an ordinance that makes it easier to clear homeless camps during fire danger periods. (Winton, 10/9)

The Associated Press: A Year After Michael, Florida Community Still In Crisis
A year after Hurricane Michael , the Florida county hardest hit by the Category 5 storm is still in crisis: Thousands in Bay County are homeless, medical care and housing are at a premium, domestic violence has become a problem and severely diminished mental health services are overwhelmed with backlogs. (10/9)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Flies Once Again Lead To Closure Of Manchester VA Operating Room
One of the operating rooms at the Manchester VA Medical Center has been closed again due to the presence of flies. A spokesperson for the Manchester VA says the operating room was closed as soon as staff discovered the issue. The other two operating rooms remain open. (Biello, 10/9)

Wyoming Public Radio: Tribal Leaders Seek Help With Recruitment, Retention Of Indian Health Service Workers
Members of the Eastern Shoshone Business Council are back from Washington D.C., where they met with Indian Health Service (IHS) officials about healthcare staffing on the Wind River Reservation. Councilwoman Karen Snyder said she and Councilman Leslie Shakespeare made the cross-country trip to IHS's federal headquarters because the program's regional office is plagued with many of the same issues as Wind River's local clinics. (Maher, 10/10)

North Carolina Health News: ‘One Stop Shop’ Aids Rural Residents With HIV 
That idea of addressing social conditions — income, transportation and education, among others — to improve health is not new. These so-called social determinants of health make up 60 percent of the risk for premature death, with health care and genetics accounting for the other 40 percent, according to an influential 2007 New England Journal of Medicine study.  Conversations about social determinants came to the fore in recent years even as North Carolina announced it will transform how it pays for Medicaid, moving from a fee-for-service model to pay based on health outcomes. (Engel-Smith, 10/10)

Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Health Care Modernization Task Force Members Announced
The governor's office has announced appointments to the newly-created Health Care Modernization Task Force, a group that is being tasked with brainstorming strategies to improving healthcare policy in Tennessee. Gov. Bill Lee announced his plan to assemble the task force during his first State of the State address in early March. It wasn't until this week when membership to the 25-member task force was made public. (Allison, 10/9)

Health News Florida: Advocates: DACA Cancellation Could Impact 7,200 Florida Children
Immigration advocates say 7,200 Florida children could be harmed if their parents lose Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – or DACA - benefits that allow them to stay in the country. The United States Supreme Court will consider oral arguments Nov. 12 in a case brought by the Trump Administration that would take away those benefits. The Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics recently joined nearly three dozen organizations and leaders in asking the U.S. Supreme Court, through an amicus brief, to keep the benefits in place. (Miller, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times: Amid Safety Concerns In Civic Center Area, LAPD Beefs Up Patrols
As the homelessness crisis grows in downtown Los Angeles, government employees have told authorities they don’t feel safe entering and leaving buildings and retail shops in the Civic Center area, officials said. Now, the Los Angeles Police Department has shifted assignments for some officers each morning and late afternoon for several hours to the 20-square-block area to ease concerns about the increased homeless population near office buildings and the L.A. Mall. (Puente and Smith, 10/9)

Boston Globe: Resident Is Diagnosed With Boston’s First Case Of Measles Since 2013
The Boston Public Health Commission issued a measles warning Wednesday after a person was diagnosed with the respiratory virus, the first case confirmed in a city resident since 2013, officials said. In a statement, the commission said the case was diagnosed on Oct. 6, and identified five public places the person visited during the period when they were most contagious. (Anderson, 10/9)

WBUR: Boston Resident Tests Positive For Measles
A Boston resident has tested positive for measles. It's the first reported case in the city since 2013 and the third this year in Massachusetts, according to the Boston Public Health Commission. The resident tested positive on Oct. 6, according to a Wednesday afternoon statement by the commission. (Salese, 10/9)

Des Moines Register: New Report Shows More Than 50,000 Youth In Iowa Have Obesity
More than 50,000 children in Iowa ages 10 to 17 are obese, a new report from a national health philanthropy organization says. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Thursday published a childhood obesity report based on data from 2017 and 2018. It shows that 16.4% of Iowa children in the age group have obesity. Iowa has the 14th-highest obesity rate in the age group in the nation, according to the report, titled "State of Childhood Obesity: Helping All Children Grow up Healthy." (Rodriguez, 10/10)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: STDs Are On The Rise Across US And Louisiana Remains Near Top Of The List 
New cases of three of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise across the U.S., federal health officials said, and despite some improvements, Louisiana remains among the states with the highest rates of infection. An annual report released this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the number of people diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are on the rise in the U.S. for the fifth year in a row. Louisiana ranks second for new cases of chlamydia, fifth for gonorrhea and seventh for early-stage syphilis, the report said. (Woodruff, 10/9)

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Bay May Be Facing A Tough Flu Season
One area hospital has seen a sharp increase this month in children coming in with flu-like symptoms. Health officials are urging people to get a flu shot. (Griffin, 10/9)

Pediatrics: Food Insecurity And Child Health
Food insecurity is an important public health problem facing children in the United States. Although a number of previous studies suggest that food insecurity has negative impacts on health, these studies have not dealt thoroughly with issues of selection bias. We use propensity scoring techniques to approximate the causal effects of food insecurity on children’s health and health care use outcomes. (Thomas et al, 10/1)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Pre-Existing Condition Prevalence For Individuals And Families
The impending decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Texas v. Azar case raises the prospect that insurers will once again be able to return to using people’s health status in determining their eligibility and premiums for health insurance, at least for coverage obtained from the non-group, or individual insurance, market.  In the case, the plaintiff states’ Attorneys General and the Trump Administration are arguing that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutionally structured and should be invalidated in its entirety.  This would include overturning provisions that guarantee that people with pre-existing health conditions cannot be denied coverage or charged higher premiums due to their health status. (Claxton et al, 10/4)

The New York Times: Statins May Affect Your Bone Health
Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may have an added benefit, or risk, depending on the dose. New research suggests that a low dose of statins may protect against osteoporosis, but that high doses may increase the risk for the bone-damaging condition. Austrian researchers searched a database of patients hospitalized over two years and found 353,502 who used statins. Of these, 11,701 had a diagnosis of osteoporosis. (Bakalar, 10/8)

The New York Times: Hypertension In Pregnancy May Portend Cardiovascular Ills In Mothers
High blood pressure during pregnancy increases a mother’s risk for future cardiovascular disease and death, a new study has found. Hypertension in pregnancy, or pre-eclampsia, affects between 3 percent and 10 percent of pregnant women in the United States. Left untreated, it can lead to life-threatening complications in both mothers and infants. (Bakalar, 10/7)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Effect On Treatment Adherence Of Distributing Essential Medicines At No Charge: The CLEAN Meds Randomized Clinical Trial
this randomized clinical trial of 786 primary care patients, free distribution of essential medicines vs usual access resulted in greater adherence to treatment with medicines (absolute risk difference, 11.6%). Control of type 1 and 2 diabetes was not significantly improved by free distribution of essential medicines (hemoglobin A1c, −0.38%), systolic blood pressure was reduced (−7.2 mm Hg), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were not affected (−2.3 mg/dL). (Persaud et al, 10/7)

Urban Institute: Segregated From The Start 
Children’s first learning experiences set the tone for the rest of their lives, in school and beyond. That’s why early childhood education (ECE)—which enrolls nearly half of infants and toddlers and three-quarters of preschoolers—has become a focus for public investment designed to promote educational equity and give children a strong start. But little attention has been paid to the racial and ethnic composition of early childhood programs, even though the roots of racial and ethnic bias form during children’s earliest years. In addition to experiences in the home and in the community, early childhood education is a key place for addressing—or exacerbating—issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. (10/1)

The New York Times: Our Collective Responsibility For Mass Shootings
We have reached a point in America at which mass shootings happen so often that the country sometimes only has a few days — sometimes only a few hours — to catch its breath in between. When the shooter is white and male, as mass shooters so often are, the narrative of the “lone wolf” quickly becomes dominant. Anti-gun control ideologues, from the National Rifle Association to Republican lawmakers, assure us that the shooter was a monstrous singularity, just one bad guy who happened to have a gun. But it takes a village to unleash a mass shooting. It is never solely the result of one person’s evil intentions. Many mass shootings could never have taken place without the fuel of racist and misogynist propaganda, or the help of unscrupulous purveyors of the weapons of war, or the failure of public venues to implement effective security measures. (Mary Anne Franks, 10/9)

The Hill: Bans On Public Coverage For Abortion Are Unjustified By Science And Outright Harmful
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to take up its first abortion case since Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation and consider a Louisiana law designed to shut down abortion clinics in the state, it’s important to remember that low-income people in Louisiana and across the country already struggle to afford legal abortion care. (Katie Woodruff, 10/9)

The New York Times: A Supreme Court Abortion Case That Tests The Court Itself
Under the rules that normally govern the American judicial system, the Louisiana abortion law at the center of a case the Supreme Court added to its docket last week is flagrantly unconstitutional. My goal in this column is to make visible not only the stakes in the case but also Louisiana’s strategy for saving its law, the first of a wave of anti-abortion measures to reach a Supreme Court transformed by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the addition of two justices appointed by President Donald Trump. (Linda Greenhouse, 10/10)

The Hill: 2019 Flu Season Will Be Deadlier — Here's Why
A patient came to me with muscle aches, fever, severe fatigue and nasal congestion. I recognized the classic symptoms right away and tested her for flu, though it was still early September and I wasn’t expecting to see flu yet. I sent an electronic prescription for an anti-viral drug to her pharmacy and told her to start taking it. The flu test came back positive and she was bed-ridden for a week, and then slowly recovered. This year promises to be a particularly bad flu season. We look to Australia to predict what will happen here, since their winter — flu season — is our summer. Australia was hit particularly hard this year; with more than 300,000 confirmed cases and a severe form of Influenza A H3N2 predominating.(Marc Siegel, 10/9)

The Washington Post: Elizabeth Warren Tweeted About Pregnancy Discrimination. Now Women Are Tweeting Their Own Stories.
Here’s your reminder: No matter how you feel about Elizabeth Warren as a candidate, pregnancy discrimination is a thing. “When I was 22 and finishing my first year of teaching, I had an experience millions of women will recognize,” the senator said Tuesday on Twitter. “By June I was visibly pregnant — and the principal told me the job I’d already been promised for the next year would go to someone else. ”It’s an oft-repeated story by the Democratic candidate, but critics raised questions about her account. And then came the voices questioning the idea of pregnancy discrimination at all. (Amy Joyce, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times: Elizabeth Warren's Pregnancy Discrimination Story Isn't Exactly Hard To Believe
Did Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts lie when she said she was fired from her first teaching job at Riverdale Elementary School in New Jersey for being pregnant?If so, was it during an interview 12 years ago when she was a Harvard law professor and skipped over the details of her departure, making it seem as if it were her own choice? Or is she fibbing now when on the campaign trail she tells the story of how her principal said he hired someone else for Warren’s job after she became “visibly pregnant”? I don’t know, but it’s not a stretch to believe her story of pregnancy discrimination. (Mariel Garza, 10/9)

Arizona Daily Star: Socially-Conscious Health Care Innovations Benefit Rural Arizona Communities
Consider the social barriers to care that impact many patients in Southern Arizona, including geographic location and socioeconomic status. People living in rural areas often face unique challenges when it comes to accessing basic health-care services, as do low-income families who may lack transportation, seniors and others. These barriers to care increase the likelihood that illnesses go untreated and minor conditions worsen into chronic diseases — leading to poor health outcomes for the patient and increased costs for society. (Will Humble, 10/10)

Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom Should Sign Bill To Lower CA Youth Suicide Rate
There is a mental health crisis in our schools, and California’s leaders are doing something about it. Last month, the state Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill 428, which expands access to trainings that will help teachers and school staff recognize and act on the mental health needs of their students. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs, 1 in 3 high schoolers reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row. Each child’s suffering manifests in unique ways. In my daughter Alliy’s case, she revealed her depression in a school journal. Sadly, her silent struggle culminated in her suicide at the age of 15. (Jennifer Bayless, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times: Don’t Just Blame PG&E For The Northern California Blackouts. It’s Everyone’s Fault 
Millions of Californians lost power Wednesday in the first large-scale exercise of one of the state’s new wildfire-fighting tools: allowing utilities to shut down power lines proactively so they can’t spark fires.Most of the people affected by the blackouts are in Northern California, where strong Diablo winds have been forecast, raising the threat of wildfires from downed or malfunctioning Pacific Gas & Electric lines. (10/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Messy Response To PG&E Outages Show There Has To Be A Better Way For California
No one wants a repeat of the deadly wildfires that devastated California during the past several years.But the scrambling, shambolic response to the mass PG&E outages that began in the Bay Area on Wednesday morning suggests that there has to be a better way to protect the public. (10/9)