NPR: Senators Set To Grill PBMs About Drug Costs
Consumers, lawmakers and industry players all seem to agree that prescription drugs prices are too high. What they can't always agree on is whom to blame. On Tuesday, though, fingers are expected to point toward pharmacy benefit managers, the industry's mysterious middlemen. The Senate Finance Committee will hear from executives from the biggest pharmacy benefit managers, led by CVS Caremark and Cigna's Express Scripts. (Kodjak, 4/8)

Kaiser Health News: Consumers Rejected Drug Plan That Mirrors Trump Administration Proposal
Unraveling how much of a prescription drug price gets swallowed by “middlemen” is at the forefront of Tuesday’s drug price hearing in the Senate. One thing bound to come up: rebates. Both major political parties have shown interest in remedying high drug prices, and drugmakers have bemoaned how rebates to middlemen keep them from reaping every dollar associated with those price tags. (Lupkin, 4/9)

Bloomberg: Drug Middlemen Face State Probes Over ‘Complex’ Pricing System 
Several states are probing pharmacy-benefit managers’ business practices in government-sponsored health programs, adding to the scrutiny the middlemen face in Washington for their role in the cost of drugs. At least three state attorneys general are investigating PBMs, in addition to other state probes looking into how the companies contract with Medicaid and other programs. CVS Health Corp., Cigna Corp.’s Express Scripts unit and UnitedHealth Group Inc., which dominate the PBM market, are scheduled to appear before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington Tuesday to discuss their role as the nation grapples with soaring drug prices. (Langreth, 4/9)

And in other pharmaceutical news —

Modern Healthcare: Change Drug Rebate Rule To Keep Drugmakers Honest, Hospitals Urge
Insurers and hospitals want the CMS to amend its proposed rule eliminating the safe harbor for Medicare Part D and Medicaid managed-care drug rebates to include new requirements for drugmakers. In comments on the proposed rule, several companies and groups expressed concern that the change eliminating the safe harbor for rebates and replacing it with a safe harbor for point-of-sale discounts won't force drugmakers to lower prices. In addition they said implementing the changes in January 2020 would be too soon. (King, 4/8)

The Hill: Sanders To Roll Out Updated 'Medicare For All' Proposal Wednesday
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will roll out an updated version of his "Medicare for all" plan Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Sanders, who is again seeking the Democratic nomination for president, will unveil the bill alongside Senate co-sponsors, some of whom are also candidates for president. Sanders last introduced the bill in 2017, with support from presidential candidates Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). (Hellmann, 4/8)

MPR: What Does 'Medicare For All' Mean To Potential 2020 Voters?
Health care was the top issue in the 2016 election and is likely to be again in next year's campaign for president. According to a recent Des Moines Register poll, more than 8 in 10 likely Democratic Iowa caucus-goers support "Medicare for All." But what does Medicare for All mean to potential voters? (Zdechlik, 4/8)

The Hill: Dems Target Juul Over Altria Ties, Advertising Tactics
Senate Democrats are pressing e-cigarette manufacturer Juul for information about its advertising practices and recent partnership with Altria, amid what government officials have called an “epidemic” of youth vaping. Eleven Democrats, led by Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), sent a letter Monday accusing the company of being more interested in “padding its profit margin than protecting our nation’s children.” (Weixel, 4/8)

CNN: Senators' Scathing Letter To Juul Demands Answers About Tactics Targeting Youth, Ties To Big Tobacco
They are requesting data, plans and other information from Juul related to its popularity among youth and its relationship with tobacco giant Altria, which invested nearly $13 billion in the company late last year. The Altria deal signaled that Juul is "more interested in padding its profit margins than protecting our nation's children," says the letter, signed by Democrats including Dick Durbin of Illinois, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. (Nedelman, 4/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Senate Opens Investigation Into Juul’s Marketing Practices To Minors
California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are not among the signatories of the letter. But Feinstein is working with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on legislation to stop the online sale of e-cigarettes to minors. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district includes Juul, directed questions to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is taking the lead in the House against youth vaping. Pallone has said he plans to release legislation to restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. (Ho, 4/8)

The New York Times: Trump Signals Even Fiercer Immigration Agenda, With A Possible Return Of Family Separations
President Trump’s purge of the nation’s top homeland security officials is a sign that he is preparing to unleash an even fiercer assault on immigration, including a possible return of his controversial decision last summer to separate migrant children from their parents, current and former administration officials said Monday. Mr. Trump shook up the ranks of his top immigration officials after spending months demanding that they take tougher action to stop the surge in migrant families at the border and seething about what he considers their overly legalistic refusals to do what he has said was necessary. (Shear, Kanno-Youngs and Haberman, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Seeks Tighter Grip On Immigration Policy
Mr. Trump has also told aides he wants to reinstate his family-separation policy, which provoked a political outcry when it was implemented last spring, in order to deter would-be migrants. An administration official said Mr. Trump recently told Stephen Miller, one of his most hard-line advisers: “You’re in charge” of the administration’s immigration policy. Immigration policy was a central plank of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, and the Republican president has indicated he plans to run on the issue again as he seeks re-election next year. (Ballhaus and Salama, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Trump Removes Secret Service Director As Purge Of DHS Leadership Widens
President Trump continued to dismantle the leadership of the nation’s top domestic security agency Monday, as the White House announced the imminent removal of U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph D. “Tex” Alles, the latest in a series of head-spinning departures from the Department of Homeland Security. A day after Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to step aside following a White House meeting with Trump, senior DHS officials remained in a fog about the fate of their agency’s leaders, expecting more firings as part of a widening purge. (Miroff, Olorunnipa, Dawsey and Leonnig, 4/8)

Politico: Trump’s DHS Purge Floors Republicans
President Donald Trump’s congressional allies are alarmed by his purge at the Department of Homeland Security — urging him not to fire more top officials and warning him how hard it will be to solve twin crises at the border and the federal agencies overseeing immigration policy. (Everett, Bresnahan and Zanona, 4/8)

The Hill: HHS Considering Moving Migrant Children To New Shelters In Dallas, Atlanta: Report
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reportedly considering moving migrant children to new shelters in cities including Dallas and Atlanta in response to overcrowded shelters that are currently housing migrants. The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that HHS is looking at vacant properties in several cities in Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston. The agency is also looking at Phoenix and Atlanta, the newspaper reported. (Burke, 4/8)

NPR: How HHS Secretary Alex Azar Reconciles Medicaid Cuts With Stopping The Spread Of HIV
In his State of the Union address this year, President Trump announced an initiative "to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years." The man who pitched the president on this idea is Alex Azar, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. "We have the data that tells us where we have to focus, we have the tools, we have the leadership — this is an historic opportunity," Azar told NPR's Ari Shapiro Monday. "I told the president about this, and he immediately grabbed onto this and saw the potential to alleviate suffering for hundreds of thousands of individuals in this country and is deeply passionate about making that happen." (Shapiro and Simmons-Duffin, 4/8)

In other news from the administration —

The Washington Post: NIH Director Apologizes For 'Mishandled’ Security That Blocked Iranian Scientists
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has apologized to two Iranian graduate students blocked from campus after they were asked to disclose their citizenship, amid growing opposition to the new security protocols enforced with scant explanation or notice. In an email Friday to the “NIH Family,” Collins said he is “deeply troubled” that a Georgetown University graduate student was interrupted during a presentation that was part of an application for a postdoctoral job and escorted from the campus in Bethesda, Md. He said he has “extended a personal apology" to that person. (Sun and Bernstein, 4/5)

Politico: DOJ Asks For Speedy Hearing In Case That Could Kill Obamacare
The Trump administration wants oral arguments in the appeal of a lower court ruling invalidating Obamacare to take place the week of July 8. The Justice Department filed a motion to expedite oral arguments in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday. It indicated that its proposed timeline is unopposed by the other parties in the case. Sixteen largely Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia have appealed the December ruling, which has been put on hold while the case proceeds. (Demko, 4/8)

The Washington Post: CDC Finds 78 New Measles Cases As Outbreak Sprints Toward Record And Experts Blame Anti-Vaxxers
For the second week in a row, U.S. health officials added dozens of new reports to the year’s list of confirmed measles cases, bringing the total to 465 — already the highest number in the past five years. It’s another significant milepost on the road to what will probably become a record outbreak after vaccines led to the disease’s “elimination” in the United States. The number of people sickened by the highly contagious, occasionally deadly disease climbed by 78 during the first week of April, as four more states reported their first cases of 2019. Now, measles has been found in more than a third of U.S. states — up and down both coasts, and across the plains, the Midwest and the South — with most of the illnesses occurring in children. (Thebault, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Spread Of Measles Accelerates, With U.S. Cases Rising To 465 So Far This Year
Most of the cases involve children, the agency said. And though the cases span 19 states, many are tied to an outbreak among Orthodox Jews in New York City. The twin developments suggest the measles virus, which authorities declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, has surged as a result of exposures overseas and then been transmitted among populations that have shunned vaccinations. Health authorities are now trying both to halt the virus’s spread and correct misperceptions about vaccinations. (McKay, West and Abbott, 4/8)

The Associated Press: US Measles Tally Hits 465, With Most Illnesses In Kids
Outbreaks have hit several states, including California, Michigan and New Jersey. New York City accounted for about two-thirds of the U.S. cases reported last week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the numbers Monday. Roughly 80% of the cases are age 19 or younger. The CDC recommends that all children get two doses of measles vaccine. It says the vaccine is 97% effective. (Stobbe, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Measles Q&A: Disease Is Serious, But Preventable
Measles symptoms appear roughly seven to 14 days after a person is infected and initially include a high fever, cough, runny nose and conjunctivitis. Tiny white spots, called Koplik spots, typically appear inside the person’s mouth two or three days later, followed by a rash of flat, red spots that most people typically associate with measles. The person’s fever sometimes spikes, and conditions including ear infections, diarrhea and more severe and potentially long-term complications can also emerge. (Abbott, 4/8)

In more news on measles and vaccinations —

The Washington Post: Missouri Bill Would Bar Discrimination For Not Vaccinating
A panel of Missouri lawmakers on Monday considered enacting a ban on discrimination against unvaccinated children, an effort that comes as other states look to increase immunization amid disease outbreaks. Parents testified to lawmakers that their unimmunized children were turned away from daycares and doctors. Republican Rep. Lynn Morris, a pharmacist from southwest Missouri, said parents are being pressured to vaccinate their children. (Ballentine, 4/8)

CNN: Judge Puts On Hold A NY County Ban On Unvaccinated Minors From Public Places Amid Measles Outbreak
A ban on unvaccinated children in public places in Rockland County, New York, was put on hold by a state judge on Friday. The controversial ban went into effect late last month in an effort to contain an outbreak of measles that began in October. Nearly 170 cases have been confirmed in the county. Judge Rolf Thorsen scheduled a hearing for April 19 and said the county is temporarily blocked from enforcing the ban. (Sanchez and Almasy, 4/5)

The Hill: Measles Cases Spike To 465 Nationwide In Past Week 
The number of measles cases in the country spiked by nearly 100 in the past week, reaching a high of 465, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Monday. This is the second greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since measles was eliminated in 2000, the agency said. The worst year for measles since then was 2014, when there were 667 cases. (Weixel, 4/8)

Tampa Bay Times: Anti-Vaxxers Blamed As Record 25,000 Florida Students Claim Religious Objection To Vaccines
In Florida, children have to be vaccinated to attend public or private schools. There are two exceptions: parents can get a doctor to say a vaccine would be medically dangerous, or they can opt out of vaccines on religious grounds. That religious exemption has been granted with greater and greater frequency in the past decade, according to state data reviewed by the Tampa Bay Times. Between 2011 and 2018, religious exemptions shot up each year from about 6,500 students to almost 25,000 — an increase of about 375 percent over those years. (Wilson, 4/8)

The New York Times: To Improve Memory, Tune It Like An Orchestra
Anyone above a certain age who has drawn a blank on the name of a favorite uncle, a friend’s phone number or the location of a house key understands how fragile memory is. Its speed and accuracy begin to slip in one’s 20s and keep slipping. This is particularly true for working memory, the mental sketch pad that holds numbers, names and other facts temporarily in mind, allowing decisions to be made throughout the day. On Monday, scientists reported that brief sessions of specialized brain stimulation could reverse this steady decline in working memory, at least temporarily. The stimulation targeted key regions in the brain and synchronized neural circuits in those areas, effectively tuning them to one another, as an orchestra conductor might tune the wind section to the strings. (Carey, 4/8)

NPR: Scientists Test Whether Brain Stimulation Could Help Sharpen Aging Memory
Aging brains struggle especially with working memory. Called the workbench of the mind, working memory allows us to store useful bits of information for a few seconds and use that information across different brain areas to help solve problems, plan or make decisions. (Lambert, 4/8)

Stat: Zapping Brain With Electricity Boosts Working Memory, Study Finds
By stimulating the brain in precise regions with alternating current (AC), “we can bring back the superior working memory function you had when you were much younger,” psychology researcher Robert Reinhart of Boston University told reporters. “The negative age-related changes [in working memory] are not unchangeable.” For alternating current, delivered by electrodes embedded in a skull cap, to become a treatment for working memory deficits, however, it would have to overcome a long list of hurdles, starting with proof that it’s safe. But whether or not the findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, result in any practical applications, they provide some of the strongest evidence yet of why older adults aren’t as good at remembering a just-heard phone number or an address in a just-seen text: Brain circuits become functionally disconnected and fall out of synchrony. (Begley, 4/8)

In other news on aging —

The New York Times: The Diagnosis Is Alzheimer’s. But That’s Probably Not The Only Problem.
Allan Gallup, a retired lawyer and businessman, grew increasingly forgetful in his last few years. Eventually, he could no longer remember how to use a computer or the television. Although he needed a catheter, he kept forgetting and pulling it out. It was Alzheimer’s disease, the doctors said. So after Mr. Gallup died in 2017 at age 87, his brain was sent to Washington University in St. Louis to be examined as part of a national study of the disease. (Kolata, 4/8)

The Washington Post: More Seniors ‘Aging In Place’ Mean Fewer Homes On The Market To Buy
Looking for someone to blame for the years of low inventory that have pushed housing prices higher and made it harder for millennials to become homeowners? While builders share some of the responsibility, recent research by Freddie Mac finds that people between the ages of 67 and 85 who stay in their homes longer and “age in place” also play a role. Fewer Americans ages 67 to 85 are leaving their homes than their predecessors. Homeownership rates dropped 3.6 percent among people born between 1931 and 1941 when they reached 67 compared to 11.6 percent among those born before 1930 when they reached that age. (Lerner, 4/9)

Be sure to check out KHN's extensive coverage on aging here. 

The New York Times: Culture Of Secrecy Shields Hospitals With Outbreaks Of Drug-Resistant Infections
In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out an urgent public alert about a deadly bacteria, resistant to virtually every known antibiotic, that sickened more than a dozen Americans who had elective surgery at Grand View Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. But when similar outbreaks take place at hospitals on American soil, the C.D.C. makes no such public announcement. That is because under its agreement with states, the C.D.C. is barred from publicly identifying hospitals that are battling to contain the spread of dangerous pathogens. (Jacobs and Richtel, 4/8)

The New York Times: You’re Covered In Fungi. How Does That Affect Your Health?
The connections among different parts of the human body are full of surprises, but here’s one you might not have considered: Could a thing that causes dandruff on your head also be contributing to your digestive problems? That’s one mystery that scientists are trying to unravel with research into the fungi that live in your gut. While the bacteria that colonize our intestines have been a scientific focus for more than a decade, the fungal critters there are starting to get more attention. (Rogers, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Roundup, The World’s Best-Selling Weedkiller, Faces A Legal Reckoning
For years, scientists at Monsanto Co. worked closely with outside researchers on studies that concluded its Roundup weedkiller was safe. That collaboration is now one of the biggest liabilities for the world’s most widely used herbicide and its new owner, Bayer AG, which faces mounting lawsuits alleging a cancer link to Roundup. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are putting Monsanto’s ties to the scientific community at the center of a series of high-stakes suits against Bayer. Since the German company acquired Monsanto last June, two juries in California have sided with plaintiffs who have lymphoma and blamed the herbicide for their disease. Bayer’s shares have fallen roughly 35% since the first verdict. (Bunge and Bender, 4/8)

The New York Times: Choose Foods, Not Supplements
Taking dietary supplements will not extend life, researchers report, and taken in large quantities may even be harmful. In a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, scientists gathered dietary information in repeated in-person interviews with almost 31,000 men and women 20 and older. They also collected data on supplements used over the previous 30 days, including type, dosage and frequency of use. Slightly more than half the participants took supplements, and about a third took multivitamins. (Bakalar, 4/8)

CNN: Rose Marie Bentley Lived For 99 Years With Organs In All The Wrong Places And Never Knew It
On an early spring day in 2018, the faint smell of formaldehyde floating in the air, 26-year-old medical student Warren Nielsen and four of his classmates prepped a cadaver in the chilly dissection lab at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Similar groups of five gathered around bodies on the other 15 tables in the anatomy class, all eager to explore the mysteries of the human body they had seen only in textbooks. The cadaver assigned to Nielsen's team was a 99-year-old woman who had died of natural causes. (LaMotte, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Opioids Advocate Now Working With Plaintiffs In Lawsuits
A doctor who spent decades advocating for broader use of powerful prescription painkillers is now working with the state and local governments that are suing drug companies over the opioid crisis. Dr. Russell Portenoy, a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, is helping the plaintiffs in exchange for having claims against him dropped. His cooperation was made public late last week in a court filing from a special court master who is helping manage more than 1,500 lawsuits against the drug industry that are consolidated under a federal judge in Cleveland. (Mulvihill, 4/8)

Bloomberg: Opioid Evangelist Switches Sides In Case Alleging Pharma Abuse 
Dr. Russell Portenoy, a medical-school professor who studied pain for more than 30 years, has agreed to testify against the industry in trials of lawsuits brought by local governments seeking billions in social costs associated with addiction, according to unsealed court filings. In a sworn statement, he said drug makers were too aggressive in promoting opioids for all kinds of ailments. “The opioid manufacturers should have tempered their positive messaging about opioids with a greater focus on risk, particularly as early signals of opioid risk emerged,” Portenoy said in his court declaration. Drug makers also “should have responded as evidence of increasing adverse affects mounted” to increased awareness and “reduce inappropriate or risky prescribing,” he said. (Feeley, 4/8)

Stateline: As Drug Crises Surge, Babies Enter Foster Care At Higher Rate 
Babies and toddlers are entering the foster care system at a higher rate, a trend that some child welfare experts fear is correlated to the opioid and methamphetamine epidemics wreaking havoc across the country. And that is further straining the nation’s already overburdened child welfare system. From 2009 to 2017, the rate of very young children entering foster care grew incrementally, exceeding the rates of older children, which remained steady, according to data compiled by Child Trends, a Maryland-based research organization that focuses on child welfare issues. In fiscal year 2017, children age 3 and under entered foster care at a rate of 6.6 in 1,000, more than twice the 2.8 rate of children ages 4 to 17. (Wiltz, 4/9)

Stat: ‘We Owe Much To The Sackler Family’: How Gifts To A Top Medical School Advanced The Interests Of Purdue Pharma
In 2009, a Tufts University School of Medicine professor named Dr. Daniel Carr took stock of the accomplishments of the pain program he had helped start a decade earlier. Alumni of the master’s program included physicians, nurses, dentists, and pharmacists, he said in a post on the center’s blog. Faculty at the Pain Research, Education, and Policy program had advised policymakers and were at work on a book about pain treatment in a changing health care landscape. He also thanked the program’s donors, including the billionaire dynasty that made it possible. (Joseph, 4/9)

Orange County Register: First-Of-Its-Kind Addiction Treatment Registry To Launch Soon In Orange County 
In an attempt to wrap its arms around abuses in the addiction-treatment industry, Orange County became the first in California to require all providers to come clean by disclosing their affiliates — sober living homes, blood- and urine-testing labs, pharmacies and the like — in a public registry. County supervisors approved the move in contentious meetings in October, and the system has been in development ever since. The online registry is now in testing and is slated to launch by summer, say officials with the county Health Care Agency. (Sforza, 4/8)

Stat: Cardinal Health Fined For Failing To Secure Controlled Substances
Concerned about the diversion of opioids, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy has fined Cardinal Health (CAH), one of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers in the U.S., $5,000 for failing to secure shipments of controlled substances. A board spokesman explained that the small penalty reflected limits of $2,500 per violation, but that the board took the infraction seriously. “We want all controlled substances secured and not subject to diversion,” he told us. “And want to make sure that Cardinal Health has policies and procedures in place to prevent that problem. (Silverman, 4/8)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Workplace Violence Needs Federal Attention: Sen. Blunt
A Republican senator is pressing federal agencies to get together on a regulatory plan for how hospital employees can deal with violent outbursts and confrontations inside hospitals. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who chairs the Senate health appropriations subcommittee, told an audience at the American Hospital Association's annual meeting on Monday that he discussed a now-overdue interagency report on the issue with HHS Secretary Alex Azar. (Luthi, 4/8)

NPR: Facing Escalating Workplace Violence, Hospital Employees Have Had Enough
Across the U.S., many doctors, nurses and other health care workers have remained silent about what is being called an epidemic of violence against them. The violent outbursts come from patients and patients' families. And for years, it's been considered part of the job. When you visit the Cleveland Clinic emergency department these days — whether as a patient, family member or friend — a large sign directs you toward a metal detector. (Harris-Taylor, 4/8)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Law Banning Abortion After A Detectable Fetal Heartbeat Is Set For Consideration By Louisiana Legislature 
Louisiana could soon follow in the footsteps of several other states that have signed controversial legislation banning abortion as soon as the fetal heartbeat is detectable. The measure is considered to be one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the United States, banning the procedure at the six-week marker when the fetus’ heartbeat is detectable. (Clark, 4/8)

Columbus Dispatch: More Testimony Barred On 'Heartbeat Bill' Despite Changes
Gearing up for an anticipated vote Tuesday, the Ohio House Health Committee apparently will not accept additional testimony on the controversial “heartbeat bill” despite introducing a substitute bill at last week’s hearing. At the third hearing on Senate Bill 23 last week, over a dozen changes were made to the bill, including adding a $10,000 fine for physicians performing an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected and funneling the money into a state adoption and foster care fund. (Prosser, 4/8)

In other news on abortion —

The New York Times: With ‘Unplanned,’ Abortion Opponents Turn Toward Hollywood
It was a rare packed house for a weeknight in the suburbs, and when the movie was over, the sold-out crowd of about 100 last Wednesday spilled haltingly into the light. A few — a gaggle of nuns in their habits, at least one collared priest — wore their dispositions on their sleeves. Others communicated in muted gestures, dabbed at tears, or lingered for long stretches in the popcorn-strewn vestibule at the AMC multiplex here, as if still processing the deliberately provocative movie they had just seen. (Ugwu, 4/8)

Reuters: Baltimore City Council Urges Mayor To Resign Amid Probe Into $500,000 Book Payment
The Baltimore City Council on Monday called on Mayor Catherine Pugh to resign as the state probes a deal in which a hospital chain where she served as director paid her $500,000 for copies of her self-published children's book "Healthy Holly." Pugh, a 69-year-old Democrat first elected in 2016, last week said she would take an indefinite leave of absence for health reasons after the Baltimore Sun revealed the deal with the University of Maryland Medical System. (4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Baltimore City Council Calls For Mayor Catherine Pugh To Resign
Fourteen of the council’s 15 members, all Democrats, wrote Monday that it wasn’t in the best interest of the city for her to continue to serve and urged her to resign immediately. Their call for Ms. Pugh to leave office was echoed Monday evening by several members of the state House of Delegates who represent Baltimore. “Baltimore will continue to have a cloud over its head while the investigations into the mayor’s business dealings go on,” Councilman Brandon Scott said. “The city deserves a mayor who can focus on reducing crime, improving schools and restoring trust in government.” (4/8)

The Washington Post: Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh Says She’ll Be Back, As City Council Demands Resignation
Pugh was heavily criticized after the Baltimore Sun reported that she was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for her “Healthy Holly” book series, in most cases by businesses and organizations that work with the government and on whose boards she was sitting. The series follows an African American girl named Holly and is meant to encourage healthy living. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has requested an investigation by the state prosecutor, and Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) has said Pugh should leave office. (Hedgpeth, 4/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Two Veterans Kill Themselves At VA Medical Centers In Georgia
Two veterans killed themselves at separate Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Georgia over the weekend, refocusing attention on what the VA has called its “highest clinical priority.” The first death happened Friday in a parking garage at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, according to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office. The second occurred Saturday outside the main entrance to the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur on Clairmont Road. (Redmon, 4/8)

In case you missed it: Veterans Are Killing Themselves In VA Parking Lots As A Desperate Protest Against A System That They Believed Failed Them

Modern Healthcare: Texas Blues Insurer To Open Primary-Care Clinics
Taking a cue from other insurers that are attempting to gain more control over where their members seek care, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas on Monday announced plans to open 10 primary-care medical centers in Dallas and Houston next year. The clinics, which the Health Care Service Corp.-owned Blues insurer will open in partnership with medical center operator Sanitas USA, will provide a range of services beyond primary care, including urgent care, lab and diagnostic imaging, care coordination, and wellness and disease management programs. Sanitas also operates U.S. clinics with other Blues insurers, including Florida Blue and Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey. (Livingston, 4/8)

Dallas Morning News: Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Texas Tries New Way To Trim Health Costs: Opening Its Own Medical Centers
With the new clinics, Blue Cross — which has over 5 million members in Texas — aims to expand health care access, cut costs and boost outcomes. It's part of the insurer's effort to flip the reimbursement model to reward providers for keeping patients healthy rather than paying service fees for each lab test, doctor's appointment or X-ray. "It really lets doctors go back to being doctors, caring about patients holistically and caring about patient outcomes — not just worrying about their balance sheet," said Dr. Paul Hain, president of the insurer's North Texas market.  (Repko, 4/8)

Boston Globe: Baker Signs Bill Banning Gay Conversion Therapy For Minors
Governor Charlie Baker Monday signed into law a proposal banning gay conversion therapy for minors, making Massachusetts the latest state to outlaw the practice. The proposal bars health care providers from attempting to change “the sexual orientation and gender identity” of any patient younger than 18. (McDonald and Stout, 4/9)

St. Louis Public Radio: Transgender Youth Don’t See Space For Themselves; Court Ruling May Change That
A Missouri Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year is giving advocates hope that stronger protections for transgender youth in school will soon follow. A transgender student sued the Blue Springs School R-IV District for access to the bathroom and other facilities that aligned with the student’s gender identity. The state’s top court ruled in late February in favor of the student. (Delaney, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Facility Probed Over Handling Of Mentally Disabled Residents
The Louisiana Department of Health says a Lake Charles school for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities failed to protect its residents from sexual assault and physical abuse. The American Press reports the agency says those failures show Robinswood isn’t complying with federal and state requirements for nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid programs. In October, a direct care aid at the school was accused of sexually assaulting a student in 2017. He was fired months later and charged with first-degree rape. Three other school workers were later charged accessory-after-the-fact to first-degree rape. (4/9)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Expansion Fight Delaying Work On Next Kansas Budget
A legislative fight over expanding Medicaid in Kansas is delaying approval of the state’s next annual budget as expansion supporters try to keep Republican opponents from blocking it for another year. Some top GOP lawmakers are conceding that an expansion plan could pass because expansion is a priority for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and has bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Legislature. However, opponents hope for time this summer and fall to develop a smaller program than Kelly wants with restrictions she opposes, such as a work requirement for participants. (Hanna, 4/8)

The Baltimore Sun: Al Redmer Jr. Confirmed For Another Term Heading The Maryland Insurance Administration 
Al Redmer Jr. was confirmed Monday by the Maryland Senate for another term as the state’s insurance commissioner, an independent state agency that regulates the state’s $28.5 billion insurance industry. Before being tapped by Gov. Larry Hogan for the post, Redmer served in the General Assembly representing Baltimore County and was House minority leader. He also managed Redmer Insurance Group LLC, and owned Redmer Financial Group. (Cohn, 4/8)

Texas Tribune: View Secret Texas Legislative Budget Board Reports On Health, Efficiency
State-funded mental health services are only reaching 19 percent of eligible Texans. A shortage of funding for newborn screenings has contributed to delays for 75 percent of infants’ initial test results. And dozens of high-value contracts between state agencies and private consulting firms may not be legally binding because of paperwork errors. These are among the findings in a series of reports that a key legislative agency, overseen by Texas House and Senate leaders, withheld from the public. (Walters, 4/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Testing All Students For Dyslexia Could Lead To Overdiagnosis.
Senate Bill 48, which awaits the governor’s signature, would eventually require dyslexia screening for every student starting in kindergarten. It also would create teacher training programs to deal with the disorder estimated to affect 10 percent to 20 percent of the population. While Bacallao agrees dyslexia is a real brain disorder, she fears Georgia will now see overdiagnosis as a result of required universal screenings. (Downey, 4/8)

Des Moines Register: New LGBTQ Clinic Opening At Methodist Medical Center In Des Moines
A new LGBTQ clinic is opening at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines that will specialize in providing primary care services for LGBTQ patients in central Iowa, according to a news release from UnityPoint Health. Health care providers in the clinic will be knowledgeable about LGBTQ health care and special services people in the community may need. Staff have undergone Safe Zone Training through One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, to better understand and treat patients, according to UnityPoint. (Ta, 4/8)

California Healthline: Big Soda Pours Big Bucks Into California’s Capitol
Dinners at an expensive restaurant in Maui — with ocean views. Tickets to professional sports games. A free screening of “Black Panther” at a Sacramento IMAX theater. And a $250,000 donation to a group that funds the governor’s travel. That’s just a sampling of the $11.8 million that soft drink companies and their lobbyists spent at the state and local levels in the past two years in California to block proposals such as taxing sugary beverages and slapping health warnings on their drinks, a California Healthline analysis found. “They exercise extraordinary influence in this building,” state Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) said of the industry. “We don’t underestimate the power of the opposition.” (Young, 4/8)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Jail Ordered To Release Woman For Medical Treatments
A judge on Monday ordered a woman released from the Milwaukee County Jail by 6 p.m. after hearing that she has been denied the medical treatment releases he ordered at her sentencing nearly a month ago. ...In the morning, Borowski had ordered someone from the jail's command staff to appear at a 1:30 p.m. hearing to explain why Korin Jesse-Hudy, 34, wasn't given Huber privileges or electronic home detention to allow needed treatment for surgical follow-up care and management of her diabetes. (Vielmetti, 4/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: With Black Babies, Moms At High Risk In SF, Project Pairs Them With Caregivers
Contributions from the San Francisco Foundation’s Community Health Innovation Fund and the San Francisco Health Plan — $465,000 and $500,000, respectively — will allow SisterWeb to take referrals from doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Medical Center for women who are 10 to 28 weeks pregnant and identify as black or Pacific Islander. A special emphasis is being placed on these women because they have the city’s most dire birth outcomes. (McBride, 4/8)

The CT Mirror: New DCF Commissioner Emphasizes Importance Of Safe Sleep For Babies
Faith Vos Winkel, the state’s Assistant Child Advocate, said Connecticut loses “on average a classroom size of children just to safe sleep issues” every year. She said that from 2013 to 2018, the state lost 123 infants to sleep-related deaths, noting that number does not include children who die of other causes. (Megan, 4/8)

Sacramento Bee: UCD Health, Adventist Open Cancer Care Center In Chico
UC Davis Health and Adventist Health will cut the ribbon on a joint cancer care center in Chico at 4 p.m. Tuesday, providing an alternate treatment home for patients displaced by the Camp Fire and subsequent closure of Adventist Health Feather River Cancer Center in Paradise. ...Since the fire erupted in November, about 120 cancer patients have been getting their chemotherapy treatments at Adventist Health Rideout Cancer Center in Marysville, 46 miles away from the Paradise facility. (Anderson, 4/9)

Ventura County Star: Entrepreneurs Pitch Their Ideas At Startups Ventura County
Camarillo resident Matt Reynolds wants to redefine the concept of at-home healthcare, and his idea resonated with some of Ventura County’s veteran business experts. Reynolds, 36, was one of 10 local entrepreneurs who participated in Startups Ventura County over the weekend. The three-day annual event, which the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce began running four years ago, is intended to help Ventura County’s entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners get their ideas up and running. Reynolds, who co-founded Care Exchange, won the event’s $10,000 first place prize. Care Exchange would be a digital homecare marketplace that would allow care seekers to find professional caregivers for themselves or their loved ones. Though Reynolds only began actively working on the business while going through his MBA program in 2014, his interest in personalized healthcare stemmed from caring for a childhood friend who suffered from muscular dystrophy. (Hersko 4/8)

Health News Florida: Florida Getting Closer To Allowing Edible Medical Marijuana
The Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services has finalized its rules for how medical marijuana growers can get licensed to make and sell edibles. Holly Bell is the director of the cannabis program for the agriculture department. She said the big concern is safety from food poisoning and allergen contagion. (Aboraya, 4/8)

The CT Mirror: Judiciary Committee Green Lights Marijuana Legislation
A bill that would legalize recreational marijuana and erase the criminal records of people who have committed low-level drug offenses – the second piece in a package of cannabis-related legislation – cleared a key committee Monday over the objections of lawmakers who fear the change will make it easier for children to get the drug. Although the measure would ban the sale of marijuana to people younger than 21, several members of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee argued that legalizing it would make it more enticing and available to children. (Carlesso and Phaneuf, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Measles Isn’t The Problem. People Are.
Set aside for a moment the public-health danger posed by the return of measles, and focus on people, because that is where the problem lies. Declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, measles is having outbreaks in six locations; this year already marks the second-highest case count in two decades. That’s because some people made a decision not to get vaccinated or not to vaccinate their children. It was a negligent decision, and in many cases also an inexcusably ignorant one, that endangered neighbors and strangers alike in quotidian public spaces — schools, stores and airports. (4/7)

The Hill: Title X Hurts Community-Based Health Centers
The United States has supported the delivery of high quality, evidence-based family planning counseling to low income Americans for nearly a half century. It has done this with broad, bi-partisan support from Congress and from presidents of both political parties. This family planning program, widely known as Title X, has been a phenomenal success. Since the late 1970’s, when the program was launched, the initiative has helped prevent over one million unintended pregnancies annually. (Robert M. Hayes, 4/8)

Georgia Health News: New Federal Regulations Will Seriously Undermine Family Planning Services
Final regulations published in March by the federal government profoundly conflict with the foundational principles that have guided Title X for decades, and they will have serious negative consequences in Georgia as well as in other places. The recently announced changes will limit access to critical health care services, threaten the health and well-being of Georgians who rely on safety-net providers for their health care, and exacerbate the state’s already extraordinarily high rates of unintended pregnancy, maternal mortality, infant mortality, preterm birth, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases. (Sarah Blake and Andrea Swartzendruber, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Research Says Septuagenarians Struggle With New Tasks. That’s Bad News For Several 2020 Candidates.
For people in their mid-70s such as myself, the 2020 presidential campaign is an oddly personal experience. Among the front-runners for the Democratic and Republican nominations are two men our age (Joe Biden, 76, and Bernie Sanders, 77) and another just a few years behind us: Donald Trump, 72, the oldest man ever elected president. If Trump had lost in 2016, Hillary Clinton, at 69, would have been the second-oldest person ever elected. (Robert G. Kaiser, 4/9)

The Hill: Strong 'Medicare For All' Legislation Is Like Bargaining A Strong Union Contract 
A recent Washington Post article highlighted how National Nurses United and other progressive groups influenced and shaped Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-Wash.) new Medicare for All act into the strongest possible legislation. The Medicare for All Act of 2019 not only includes primary care, but also dental, vision and long- term care, at no cost to patients when they need to get treatment. While working people having a legislator’s ear was presented as a somewhat unique scenario, union workers and other everyday people should shape the policy that impacts their lives. Without working people at the table, policy becomes less about addressing what’s good for public health and safety, and more about appeasing corporate apologists who constantly champion “being realistic” over being safe, moral, or just. (Bonnie Castillo, 4/8)

Stat: Health Aides' Low Wages Threaten Home Health Care, A Necessity For Millions
To say that home health aides’ work is demanding is an understatement. They help elderly and disabled individuals get out of bed, bathe, dress, use the bathroom, eat their meals, and take their medications. They act on behalf of family members who don’t have the time or resources to take their loved ones to the grocery store or a doctor’s appointment. Home health aides serve as the first line of defense by recognizing symptoms and behavioral changes and taking action to prevent costly and potentially dangerous hospitalizations. They make it possible for 14 million Americans to stay in their homes and out of expensive and impersonal institutional settings like hospitals and nursing homes. Along the way they often become trusted members of the family. Performing this necessary and in-demand work takes a physical and emotional toll, yet these individuals do it with compassion day in and day out. So why do we treat home health aides as low-wage, low-value workers? (David Totaro, 4/9)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio In Great Need Of Universal Health Care
For decades, those of us who have studied the complex state of our health care financing system have arrived at the conclusion that the simplicity of a universal, single payer, publicly funded system of financing care would be the best method to address our inefficient, expensive and, for many, inaccessible system. Media attention has skyrocketed in 2019 since U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and over 100 co-sponsors introduced HB 1384 in February, which would create an expanded and improved version of Medicare for all. What is not known and needs more attention is that there are currently sixteen states in the U.S. that have been working for many years on getting just such a system in an individual state. Ohio is one of those states! (Dee Chavez, 4/8)