USA Today: Republicans Avoid Town Halls After Health Care Votes
Reps. Leonard Lance of New Jersey and Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania appear to be the only swing-district Republicans who voted for their party’s bill to replace Obamacare who will directly face constituents over the April recess, according to a USA TODAY analysis of scheduled town halls compiled by Townhallproject.com. Fourteen Republicans from competitive congressional districts sit on the three congressional committees that voted last month for their party’s controversial health care plan before GOP leaders pulled the bill from the House floor because it lacked support to pass. (Przybyla, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Conservative Group's Health Care Ads Target GOP Moderates
The conservative Club for Growth is launching TV spots pressuring moderate Republican lawmakers to support the party's languishing health care overhaul drive, officials of the group said Monday in the latest salvo in the GOP civil war that derailed the House measure. The ads press moderates to back a revised version of the measure that the Trump administration offered last week in talks with conservative legislators. (Fram, 4/10)

The Hill: House GOP Targets Dems Over ObamaCare During Recess
The House GOP's campaign arm is targeting five vulnerable Democrats over ObamaCare while they're in their home districts for the two-week spring recess. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is launching a series of digital billboards, which were first shown to The Hill, highlighting each Democrats' support for ObamaCare and urging constituents to contact their representatives. (Hagen, 4/10)

And in other news —

Kaiser Health News: GOP Bills To Replace Obamacare Do Not Tinker With Lawmakers’ Coverage
Under the Affordable Care Act, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate and their office staffs who want employer coverage generally have to buy it on the health insurance exchange. Before the law passed in 2010, they were eligible to be covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, or FEHB. (People working for congressional committees who are not on a member’s office staff may still be covered under FEHB.) (Andrews, 4/11)

The Washington Post: This Is How Obamacare Might Actually Explode
Even if Republicans can't find a way to repeal Obamacare, they may still have a way to deliver on President Trump's promise that the law will “explode” — all via the power of uncertainty. The administration and Congress could keep insurers guessing over whether it will continue federal payments that lower deductibles and copays for millions of Americans next year. Without that certainty, insurers facing deadlines may decide not to sell plans on the marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act — or be forced to raise their premiums significantly. (Johnson, 4/11)

The New York Times: Trump Administration To Pay Health Law Subsidies Disputed By House
The Trump administration says it is willing to continue paying subsidies to health insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act even though House Republicans say the payments are illegal because Congress never authorized them. The statement sends a small but potentially significant signal to insurers, encouraging them to stay in the market. (Pear, 4/10)

Meanwhile, a new study looks at the law's impact on low-income, childless adults —

Stateline: Uninsured Rate For Poor, Childless Adults Declines
As the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress explore ways of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, a new study shows how beneficial the law has been to poor adults who don’t have children. The study by the Urban Institute found that between 2013 and 2015, the rate of poor, childless adults without health insurance fell by 47.1 percent. (Ollove, 4/10)

The New York Times: Patients Prescribed Shelter And Medication Are Wary Of Trump Cuts
For eight months, Jamal Brown’s body shook, so violently that he lost consciousness and ended up in the hospital more than 30 times. Though only in his 30s, his face drooped, his arms and legs often felt numb, and he was overcome with the anxiety of being a homeless drug addict trying to get clean in Camden, N.J. Then, last July, as he lay in a hospital bed after his third stroke, a representative of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers came to his bedside and suggested a different kind of treatment for his illnesses: a federal housing voucher. (Alcindor, 4/10)

Morning Consult: Lawmakers Propose Emergency Response Fund For Pandemics
Citing warnings from senior Obama administration officials, lawmakers from both parties are calling on Congress to establish a dedicated funding source to combat infectious disease outbreaks, according to a letter released Monday. The fund, which 21 lawmakers requested in a letter to senior House appropriators, would appropriate $300 million to help the Trump administration “contain and eradicate future infectious disease epidemics.” (Reid, 4/10)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

Boston Globe: Bipartisan Bill Would Make Hearing Aids Cheaper And More Accessible, But Some Doctors Object 
Now new technology and a rare bipartisan push from lawmakers who are trying to reduce regulations for the sale of hearing aids are raising hopes that more people with mild to moderate hearing loss will be able to buy hearing devices a lot more cheaply and without seeing a doctor. It’s a modest-sounding goal, but supporters believe the measure on Capitol Hill could lower prices, spur innovation, and ultimately get hearing aids into the ears of far more people. (McGrane, 4/11)

The Associated Press: Bill To Look At Health Effects Of Contaminants In Water
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is planning to introduce a bill to improve efforts to identify the public health effects of emerging contaminants found in drinking water. Shaheen, a Democrat, is working on the bill with Republican Sen. Rob Portman, of Ohio. They note the potentially harmful and unregulated materials such as PFCs and cyanotoxins are being detected in their states and elsewhere. (4/10)

Modern Healthcare: The Transformation Imperative
One year of healthcare spending can buy 15 iPhones. Or, it can buy over 3,000 gallons of milk. Or, if you want to look at it in relative terms, U.S. healthcare spending, which in 2015 hit nearly $10,000 for every person in the country, was 29% higher than the next most expensive country, Luxembourg. (Arndt and Barkholz, 4/11)

In other news on health costs —

The Baltimore Sun: Preserving Fertility Can Be Expensive For Cancer Patients
Lauren Malloy and her husband, Fitzhugh, had just decided to start a family last year when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Already devastated by the diagnosis, she then learned that chemotherapy could make her infertile. Malloy, 31, had options, however. She could "preserve" her fertility either by freezing her eggs, or by freezing embryos made with her eggs and her husband's sperm. Or she could take the chance that she still would be able to conceive a baby on her own. (McDaniels, 4/10)

The Hill: FDA, Industry Fear Wave Of Medical-Device Hacks
Regulators and medical-device-makers are bracing for an expected barrage of hacking attacks even as legal and technical uncertainties leave them in uncharted territory. Tens of millions of electronic health records have been compromised in recent years, a number that is growing and, some say, underreported. (Harper, 4/10)

The New York Times: Tackling Weight Loss And Diabetes With Video Chats
About a year and a half ago, Robin Collier and her husband, Wayne, were like millions of other Americans: overweight and living with Type 2 diabetes. Despite multiple diets, the couple could not seem to lose much weight. Then Ms. Collier’s doctor told her she was going to need daily insulin shots to control her diabetes. That was the motivation she needed. “I made up my mind right then and there,” said Ms. Collier, 62, an administrator at an accounting firm in Lafayette, Ind. “I said to myself, ‘I’m not going on insulin. I’m too young to have this disease.’” (O'Connor, 4/11)

Los Angeles Times: Your Fitness Tracker Can Count Your Steps, But It's Not That Good At Monitoring Your Heart Rate
Using that nifty fitness monitor to keep track of your heart rate while you exercise? If you exercise while remaining still, it may work pretty well. If you move while exercising, not so much. A study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine put four wearable fitness trackers to the test — both against one another and against the kind of electrocardiography monitor you’d probably encounter while taking a stress test in an doctor’s office. (Healy, 4/10)

CNN: Fitness Trackers' Heart Rate Monitoring Accurate Enough For Most, Study Says
When tested alongside electrocardiograph (ECG) technology, devices from Fitbit and Mio performed reasonably well at measuring resting and active heart rates, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "It's very exciting because we've had so much advance in technology during such a short period," lead researcher Lisa Cadmus-Bertram said. "These trackers are such an enormous improvement over what we used to have." (Jimison, 4/11)

The Washington Post: The Federal Panel That Opposed Prostate Cancer Screening Just Changed Its Mind
An influential federal task force has dropped its controversial opposition to routine screening for prostate cancer and now says that men between the ages of 55 and 69 should discuss the test’s potential benefits and harms with their doctors and make decisions based on their own “values and preferences.” “The decision about whether to be screened for prostate cancer should be an individual one,” the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said in a draft recommendation issued Tuesday. (McGinley, 4/11)

CQ HealthBeat: Task Force Mulls Change In Prostate Cancer Screening Warning
The task force has proposed issuing a “C” grade for prostate cancer screening in men ages 55 to 69 who show no signs of the disease, while maintaining its current “D” grade for this screening in men age 70 and older. A “D” grade is the panel’s toughest mark, meant to discourage routine use of a test. A “C” grade indicates that people should weigh the potential risks and benefits of a test with their doctors, while “A” and “B” grades represent the task force’s endorsements. (Young, 4/11)

Stat: What You Need To Know About Prostate Cancer Screening
What was emphatic before is wishy-washy now. The last time the US Preventive Services Task Force weighed in on prostate cancer screening via blood tests, in 2012, it issued unambiguous advice to physicians: discourage men of all ages from getting tested for levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). That’s still the advice for men older than 70 or younger than 55. But for those aged 55 to 69, the task force, a panel of independent experts who advise the federal government, is punting. (Begley, 4/11)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Proven Treatment Is Out There For Heroin Addicts. But Good Luck Getting It In Missouri.
Dante Bonzano had a reputation for being one of the best concrete finishers and bricklayers around. He often worked knee-to-knee with his father, who trained him from a young age to be a devout Jehovah’s Witness and work 12-hour days. The proud father used to say everything the boy touched turned to gold. But that didn’t turn out to be true. By the time he was a grown man, Bonzano was often in reach of a can of Bud or a syringe. His life passed in and out of Missouri’s prison system. (Bogan, 4/10)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: 'Good Samaritan' And Drug Database Proposals Move Forward As Missouri Grapples With Opioid Crisis
Longtime advocates for measures that address an opioid crisis plaguing both the nation and the Show-Me state are cautiously optimistic that they’ll become law this year. A fervent opponent to a prescription drug-monitoring database, Sen. Rob Schaaf announced last week that he would no longer resist a proposal that would establish one in Missouri. Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, has stifled similar bills for the past five years, citing privacy concerns. (Bott and Huguelet, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Workers Comp Programs Fight Addiction Among Injured Workers
Meet a victim of the nation’s opioid addiction scourge: the American worker. A number of U.S. states are taking steps through their workers compensation systems to stem the overprescribing of the powerful painkillers to workers injured on the job, while helping those who became hooked to avoid potentially deadly consequences. (Salsberg, 4/10)

The Baltimore Sun: Package Of Bills To Fight Heroin Crisis Passes
The General Assembly passed a suite of bills designed to tackle Maryland's worsening heroin crisis, putting finishing touches Monday on measures to improve drug awareness education and help addicts get into treatment. Fighting heroin addiction has broad bipartisan support and the legislature was deluged with policy ideas, weighing more than two-dozen bills. Work groups of lawmakers whittled down the ideas and moved forward quickly with a package of legislation in the final weeks of the session. (Duncan, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Oregon Lawmakers Try To Stem Opioid Epidemic
Seeking to stem the opioid epidemic in Oregon and prevent overdose deaths, the House of Representatives unanimously approved a proposed law on Monday that would provide safe-use recommendations to those who prescribe such pain-killing drugs. (4/10)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: Opioid Epidemic Adds To Child Neglect Cases
Every 19 hours on average, a baby was born exposed to drugs last year, according to state data. As the opioid crisis continues to ravage New Hampshire, the Division for Children, Youth and Families has seen a surge in the number of babies born exposed to substances and the number of child maltreatment reports related to addiction. (Morris, 4/10)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 50 Times Stronger Than Heroin, Fentanyl Now 'The Real Killer'
From the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office to community health centers, an unabated opioid crisis continues to overwhelm the county’s public health infrastructure, several drug experts said Monday. Much of the problem over the last year is tied to the narcotic fentanyl, which can be more than 50 times as powerful as heroin, and has flooded into the community. (Fauber, 4/10)

Pioneer Press: Report: Opiate-Related Overdose Deaths Rise Dramatically In Ramsey, Hennepin Counties
Opiate-related overdose deaths rose dramatically in Ramsey and Hennepin counties from 2015 to 2016, a report on metro-area drug-abuse trends has disclosed. In Ramsey County, 62 accidental opiate-related deaths occurred last year, compared to 47 in 2015, a 32 percent increase, according to “Drug Abuse Trends in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Area” by Carol Falkowski, a leading expert on such trends. (Ojeda-Zapata, 4/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Dr. Oz At Philly's Heroin Encampments: 'I Just Walked Into Hell'
America’s best-known physician, Mehmet Oz, came to Philadelphia’s rail-side heroin encampments Monday for the kind of medical education seen by few doctors, let alone his daytime television audience. “I just walked into hell,” said Oz, wearing jeans and hiking boots, as he picked his way along big piles of discarded syringes along the Conrail tracks in West Kensington. (Wood, 4/10)

Dallas Morning News: Dallas Woman Sentenced To 2 Years For Her Role In Opiod Pill Mill Operation
A Dallas woman has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for her role in an opioid prescription drug scheme in North Texas. Candis O’Shaea Lewis, 30, pleaded guilty to her role in the illegal operation between 2013 to 2015, U.S. attorney John R. Parker said Monday. She pleaded guilty last year to one count of unlawful use of a communication device. (Bruijn, 4/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Thyroid Cancer Rates Raise New Concerns
Two new studies show that the high incidence of thyroid cancer may be more dangerous than previously thought. A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) last month raises new questions about why thyroid cancer cases are on the rise. Data from a separate study points to flame retardants as a possible culprit. The research could cause a shift of doctors’ and researchers’ long-held beliefs that the fast-growing rate of thyroid cancer cases is solely due to unnecessary diagnoses involving small tumors that don’t lead to death. (Reddy, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Physician Recommendations About Breast Cancer Screening Vary, Survey Finds
Primary-care physicians and gynecologists continue recommending breast cancer screening for younger and older women despite changes to breast cancer screening guidelines, a study published Monday found. Trust in different guidelines and a physician's specialization affect their screening recommendations, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. (Naqvi, 4/10)

The New York Times: Why Are So Many People Popping Vitamin D?
There was no reason for the patients to receive vitamin D tests. They did not have osteoporosis; their bones were not cracking from a lack of the vitamin. They did not have diseases that interfere with vitamin D absorption. Yet in a recent sample of 800,000 patients in Maine, nearly one in five had had at least one test for blood levels of the vitamin over a three-year period. (Kolata, 4/10)

NPR: Brain Area May Reveal When We Dream
Most of us have about five dreams each night, though we're not likely to remember any of them. But a team of researchers has found a pattern of brain activity that seems to reveal not only when the brain is generating a dream but something about the content of that dream. "When subjects were having [dream] experiences during sleep, there was a region in the back of the brain that tended to be very active, as if this region was a little bit more awake," says Francesca Siclari, a researcher at the Center for Research and Investigation in Sleep at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland. (Hamilton, 4/10)

Reuters: Progress Uneven As Global Child Death Rates Fall
Deaths among children and adolescents became less common between 1990 and 2015, but not all countries benefited equally from the improvements, according to a new analysis. Countries with low social and economic statuses shoulder a much larger child and adolescent mortality burden than do countries with better income, education and fertility levels, researchers found. (Seaman, 4/10)

Stat: Stem Cell Technique Morphs Brain Cells To Cure Parkinson's In Mice
Mice that walk straight and fluidly don’t usually make scientists exult, but these did: The lab rodents all had a mouse version of Parkinson’s disease and only weeks before had barely been able to lurch and shuffle around their cages. Using a trick from stem-cell science, researchers managed to restore the kind of brain cells whose death causes Parkinson’s. (Begley, 4/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Two Recent Deaths Reveal The Dark Side Of Speed Eating
Watching a bunch of people wolfing down as much food as they can as fast as they can may seem funny — until it’s not. Travis Malouff, 42, died April 2 after attempting to down a half-pound glazed doughnut in 80 seconds at the Voodoo Doughnuts shop in Denver, Colo. That same day, college student and sorority member Caitlin Nelson, 20, died after having choked three days before during a charity pancake eating contest at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. Nelson, a resident of Clark, N.J., had lost her father, a Port Authority police officer, to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Giordano, 4/10)

Stat: 5 Weird Things Medical Researchers Collect For Science
Biomedical scientists collect weird stuff. In their hunt for potent new drugs, they often turn to nature, collecting vials of pollen extract and vats of peanut skins and even colonies of vaginal bacteria. Do they find treasures amid the dross? Sometimes. Here, five of the more interesting collections we’ve come across. (Keshavan, 4/11)

Stat: What To Look For When Picking Where To Give Birth? Not What You May Think
When expectant parents tour prospective hospitals and birthing centers, they may be focusing on the wrong things: a comfortable sitting room for family or special perks. But the design of those facilities, often overlooked by prospective parents, could be what really affects the birth experience, and even increase a woman’s likelihood of having a caesarean section, according to recently published research. (Tedeschi, 4/11)

The Associated Press: House Budget Puts Hold On Governor's Plan For Medicaid
A $40.3 billion state budget unveiled Monday by [Massachusetts] House leaders puts on hold Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's plan for an assessment on employers who don't offer health insurance benefits to their workers. The spending plan for the July 1 fiscal year approved by the House Ways and Means Committee would increase total spending by 3.8 percent over the current year but is $180 million below Baker's earlier $40.5 billion budget proposal. ... The governor had said he proposed the employer assessment to help counter a surge in costs for MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, which consumes more than 40 percent of all state spending. Officials have noted a sharp rise in people who have full-time jobs yet chose to go on Medicaid either because their employers don't offer insurance or because the coverage offered is less generous than MassHealth. (Salsberg, 4/10)

The Oklahoman: State Medicaid Leader: 'We Will Be Putting People’s Lives At Stake' When Services Are Eliminated
Low-income Oklahomans will have limited access to a range of health care services if the state Medicaid agency moves forward with a slew of cuts to the publicly funded health care program. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which oversees Oklahoma's Medicaid program, announced Monday that, as the agency prepares for whatever money the Legislature provides, the authority will consider provider rate cuts of up to 25 percent to balance the agency's budget. (Cosgrove, 4/10)

Raleigh News & Observer: NC Medicaid Expansion Will Have A Rough Ride In The Legislature
The proposal from four Republican legislators to extend government health insurance coverage to poor adults will have a hard time getting through the legislature. House Speaker Tim Moore said Monday that he remains opposed to Medicaid expansion. “The best thing to do for the working poor is to continue to grow the economy,” Moore said. (Bonner, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Nevada Advocates Try Again To Ban Surprise Medical Bills
Alarmingly expensive medical bills came under fire at the Nevada Legislature on Monday, six years after Gov. Brian Sandoval shot down a proposal that similarly attempted to ban surprise out-of-network costs. Union representatives, patient advocates and Democratic leaders are hoping the policy's recent enactment in California, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere will push the governor to reconsider. (Noon, 4/10)

KCUR (Kansas City, Mo., Public Radio): New Lottery Machines Could Offer Chance At Funding For Kansas Mental Health Facilities
Additional funding for some mental health facilities in Kansas may depend, at least in part, on the number of lottery tickets sold from new machines. The Kansas House and Senate have approved versions of House Bill 2313, which would direct proceeds from newly legalized lottery ticket vending machines to crisis stabilization centers and mental health clubhouses. The bill must go to a conference committee, which will work out differences between the House and Senate versions, before it can proceed to Gov. Sam Brownback. (Wingerter, 4/10)

Texas Tribune: "David's Law" Would Criminalize Cyberbullying, Require School Policies 
After months of cyberbullying, the 16-year-old Alamo Heights High School student [David Molak] took his own life in January 2016. His parents created David’s Legacy, a foundation aimed at raising awareness about cyberbullying and suicide. And now the San Antonio family is working with a state senator on a bill to make cyberbullying a crime in Texas when it leads to injury or suicide and the victim is a minor. ... [Texas state Sen. José Menéndez's] bill classifies cyberbullying as a misdemeanor, allows courts to issue subpoenas to unmask people who anonymously harass minors online and requires public schools to report and intervene in any suspected cyberbullying cases. (Wang, 4/11)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Infant Deaths Hit Historic Low For Hamilton County In 2016
The number of baby deaths in Hamilton County hit a historic low in 2016, even though the county still ranks among the worst in the nation in infant mortality, according to a new report by a group working to stem the problem. (Saker, 4/11)

Sacramento Bee: California Nurses Association: 'We Have To Push Our Governor' On Single-Payer Health Care
Cathy Kennedy of the California Nurses Association says the group will continue to argue for single-payer health care, regardless of who is governor. (Hart, 4/10)

San Jose Mercury News: Why In-Home Care For California's Needy Could Strain County Budgets
A looming end to a state cost-control experiment would force counties to shoulder a much bigger share of IHSS expenses — $623 million to start and almost $2 billion over six years. It’s an enormous bill for a federally mandated entitlement that’s expected to get more expensive and popular. (Horseman, 4/10)

Arizona Republic: 45% In Mental-Health Crisis Said Phoenix Police Made Matters Worse
Nearly half of mentally ill individuals who said they had contact with Phoenix police said the officers actually made the situation worse, according to a city survey. The survey, conducted by the Phoenix Mayor’s Commission on Disability Issues, questioned 244 individuals with mental-health issues found in Phoenix mental health clinics, residential programs and those who were homeless. (Cassidy, 4/10)

The Oregonian: Portland VA To Temporarily Stop Removing Vets From Caregiver Program
Under pressure from Oregon's congressional leaders, the Portland VA said Monday that it has temporarily stopped removing people from a program that pays spouses of disabled veterans to be caregivers. Daniel Herrigstad, a Portland VA spokesman, said the suspension affected one veteran whose eligibility was being actively reviewed. The halt will remain in place "until we receive further guidance" from the caregiver program's national director and regional officials, he said. (Davis, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Jury Returns $454M Fraud Verdict In Hospital Gown Lawsuit
Kimberly-Clark and its spinoff medical technology firm Halyard Health have been hit with $454 million in compensatory and punitive damages, after a federal jury found the companies misled California buyers about the impermeability of their MicroCool surgical gowns. Jurors in Los Angeles returned the verdict Friday in a class-action lawsuit brought by more than 400 hospitals and health centers in California. (4/10)

San Jose Mercury News: Epilepsy Breakthrough: Silicon Valley Firm's Implant Helps Stop Brain Seizures
Experts say the causes of epilepsy are generally unknown, though some cases may be genetic, while others can be brought on by head trauma, stroke or central nervous system infection... But the so-called responsive neurostimulation system, or RNS for short, developed by Mountain View-based NeuroPace, treats adults with epilepsy who don’t respond to medication or for whom surgery is too risky. (Seipel, 4/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Funds From Tech Guru Parker Speed Penn Study Of Skin Cancer
When skin cancer has spread to other organs, even the most promising class of drugs fails in half of all patients. But in a new University of Pennsylvania study, authors report they can pinpoint why the drugs fail with a simple blood test, and they can do it just six weeks after starting the therapy – allowing for rapid deployment of a second kind of treatment. (Avril, 4/10)

The Oregonian: Gag Order Keeps Oregon From Telling Public About Cancer-Causing Pollutant
Oregon officials think they've found high levels of a cancer-causing chemical in the air near a Lebanon battery parts maker, but a judge won't let them say a word about it. Linn County Circuit Court Judge Thomas A. McHill on Friday agreed to Entek International's request for what appears to be an unprecedented gag order against state environmental and health regulators. Entek would be "irreparably harmed" if the regulators told the public about the preliminary finding, McHill wrote. (Davis, 4/10)

RealClear Policy: Do Not Resuscitate The American Health Care Act
Republicans get credit for trying to resuscitate the American Health Care Act (AHCA). What was flat-lined two weeks ago, now has a pulse. A good thing, right? Wrong. What I've learned from 13 seasons of watching “Grey’s Anatomy” — and a few additional seasons on the sidelines in Washington — is that it’s important to act fast when the patient is crashing, while taking a care to make sure your treatment won’t kill the patient. Unfortunately, this new bill just isn’t the right prescription. (Kerrie Rushton, 4/11)

Stat: Patient Safety: A Public Health Crisis For A Nation Of Patients
The United States is a nation of patients. More than 300 million Americans — 95 percent of us — encounter the nation’s health care system at least once in the space of five years. It’s essential that every health care encounter is safe and free from harm. Sadly, that isn’t the case. Our daughter, Meredith, died not from the cancer she had been so bravely fighting but from a health care-associated infection that should have been preventable and for which there was no effective antibiotic. Meredith isn’t an exception. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that nearly three-quarters of a million Americans develop health care-associated infections each year, 75,000 of whom die during that hospitalization. (Stephen E. Littlejohn, 4/10)

RealClear Health: Health Data Sharing Is Increasing, But Confidence In Privacy Security Lags
More patient health data is being shared for approved purposes, with almost 57 percent of organizations possessing such data reporting sharing and over 55 percent increasing the amount shared. However, these same organizations lack confidence in their ability to protect privacy, increasing reputational and other risks if patient identities are exposed. These are three findings from the second year of a survey, released recently, of organizations that collect and store health data. (Sam Wehbe, 4/11)

The Des Moines Register: Wellmark, Aetna Exits Call For Public Option
Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield announced last week it will quit selling individual health insurance in Iowa. People who purchased policies the last few years will also lose them. A few days later Aetna announced its withdrawal from the individual market here, too. This is a devastating development. (4/10)

Stat: Tom Price: Remember Your Roots As A Grady Physician
As Grady physicians, the biggest barrier we face is not diagnosing disease but the lack of resources — our patients’ and our own — to deliver first-line health care. Just last week, my elderly patient Audrey experienced her first seizure, possibly resulting from critical blockages in the carotid arteries supplying blood to her brain. Just one day after coming off the ventilator that had been breathing for her, she checked herself out of the hospital against my medical advice before we could further investigate her arteries. She did this because she was so terrified of the medical bill she was accruing in the intensive care unit. (Allyson Herbst, 4/10)

Tampa Bay Times: The Legislature's Free-Market Fantasy For Hospitals
Access to quality health care is not just at risk in Washington. It also is at stake in Tallahassee, where Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran relentlessly pursues a free-market fantasy that threatens the future of hospitals such as Tampa General, Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg and the BayCare network. This is a risky strategy that would undermine the financial viability of the venerable institutions Tampa Bay residents have long relied upon for top-flight care, and it fails to recognize that hospitals cannot be treated like fast-food franchises competing for customers on opposite street corners. (4/10)

Tampa Bay Times: Reject Fees For Florida Medicaid Patients
Hospitals aren't the only targets in Tallahassee when it comes to Medicaid. House Republicans want poor people on Medicaid to meet new work requirements and pay fees or get cut off. It is a callous attempt to control costs on the backs of the poorest Floridians by rationing access to health care that should be a fundamental right. (4/10)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Planned Parenthood Has A Choice, But It's One It Will Never Make
These alternatives to Planned Parenthood are far more geographically accessible for the majority of women in Wisconsin. Why do we need to fund the geographically limited Planned Parenthood clinics when we have all of these other options available for women? (Julaine K. Appling, /10)

The Des Moines Register: Doctors Protest Branstad Speech At Medical Society Event
What was once unbelievable is now believable and that's unbelievable. It is no coincidence with the recent change of administration in our country that the reading of George Orwell's "1984" has become so popular. With the government espousing protection of the environment while gutting the EPA and expanding military spending while basic needs like education and health care get short shrift, one can appreciate the repeated slogan: "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." (Dr. David Drake, 4/10)

Fortune: Why ‘Precision Medicine’ Isn’t Precise Enough
Every time I talk with Lloyd Minor, the Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine, I come away with a sharper, fresher, more illuminated perspective on one topic or another. And such was the effect of our conversation on Thursday. This time, Dean Minor made a good case that the goal of “precision medicine” — the meme célèbre in healthcare circles today — is the wrong one. The right goal is “precision health.” (Clifton Leaf, 4/10)

The Kansas City Star: Why Do Kansas Lawmakers Think Guns In Hospitals Are A Good Idea?
Nearly 20 years ago, the Kansas Legislature had the foresight to take steps that would save what was then known as the University of Kansas Hospital from impending ruin. By allowing it to split from state control, they gave the now sprawling health care system a competitive edge. It has flourished ever since. ... Today, the same political body’s lack of vision is threatening to undermine the massive institutional improvements that lawmakers’ predecessors made possible. Talk about coming full circle. The state’s senators and representatives have failed to exempt the University of Kansas Health System from a law that will allow concealed weapons to be carried in the state’s public buildings starting in July. (4/10)

The New York Times: How Many Pills Are Too Many?
The point of prescription drugs is to help us get or feel well. Yet so many Americans take multiple medications that doctors are being encouraged to pause before prescribing and think about “deprescribing” as well. The idea of dropping unnecessary medications started cropping up in the medical literature a decade ago. In recent years, evidence has mounted about the dangers of taking multiple, perhaps unnecessary, medications. (Austin Frakt, 4/10)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Drug Addiction Is A Disease, Not A Personal Failing
Cincinnati needs a stronger and more comprehensive response if we are ever going to get our arms around our decades-long struggle with drug abuse and the toll it takes on social services, health care, law enforcement, and criminal justice systems. The opiate epidemic dominates our headlines and is now recognized as the public health crisis that it is. (Tamie Sullivan, 4/10)

The Baltimore Sun: Is Md. Ready For 'Heroin Assisted Therapy'?
The idea of giving heroin addicts heroin to keep them from crime and other dangers has never been popular with American politicians. Yet several Western European countries routinely provide pharmaceutical-grade heroin to high-risk users in medically-supervised facilities with minimal problems; the patients in these programs are much less likely to use street heroin when compared with patients in methadone programs. Given the tripling in heroin-related deaths in the last five years, it is time to give this innovation prompt consideration. (Bryce Pardo and Peter Reuter, 4/10)

San Jose Mercury News: How California Should Spend Tobacco Tax Revenues
While Californians wait for President Trump and Republicans in Congress to decide what, if anything, to do about the future of health care in the United States, a battle is brewing in California: How the money generated by the state’s $2-a-pack increase in the tobacco tax will be spent. (4/10)