The Washington Post: House Republicans Continue Health-Care Push, May Leave Changes To Senate
The aim has become very simple for House Republicans stumbling closer to passing a bill to revise the Affordable Care Act: just get it off their plates and over to the Senate. In the messy effort to rally their often unruly party around a measure to replace big parts of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, House leaders have been forced to leave other objectives by the wayside and focus on one simple, political goal: pass a bill they can say repeals Obamacare — even if it has no hope of survival in the Senate — to shield their members in next year’s elections. (Weigel and Winfield Cunningham, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Repeal Or Spare? Pressure Is On Moderates Over Health Care
Moderate Republicans face intense pressure on their party's latest attempt to scrap Democrat Barack Obama's health care law — from President Donald Trump, House GOP leaders, medical professionals and outside political groups. Back home, their constituents provide little clarity. In interviews, Associated Press reporters found views deeply held and deeply divided, reflective of dueling impulses to fulfill the seven-year-old GOP promise to repeal the law and to save many of its parts. (Mulvihill and Riccardi, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump Gambles On Big Health-Care Victory
The risk for Mr. Trump is that it is far from clear that Republicans can round up the 216 votes they need on health care, especially from GOP centrists, after making changes in their initial proposal to win over conservatives. The centrists are especially spooked by a provision allowing insurers in some states to charge higher premiums to patients with pre-existing medical conditions who have let their coverage lapse. Republican leaders on Monday ramped up their efforts to persuade this group, assuring centrists that the Senate would make changes to allay their concerns and insisting that few states would actually use the waivers allowing higher premiums for pre-existing conditions, according to people familiar with the matter. (Armour, Peterson and Andrews, 5/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Pre-Existing Conditions Provision In House Health Plan Divides GOP
A number of states would likely pursue waivers in the House Republican health plan enabling them to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions who let their coverage lapse, health analysts said. The waivers are the latest twist to the House GOP proposal that would topple most of the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a new plan that would bring steep Medicaid cuts and refundable tax credits to help people obtain health insurance if they don’t get it from their job. (Armour and Hackman, 5/1)

USA Today: Another 'No' Spells More Trouble For Revised GOP Obamacare Replacement Bill
In a sign of trouble for the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, a Missouri Republican lawmaker and staunch Trump supporter said Monday he would oppose a newly revised health care proposal because it weakens protections for those with pre-existing conditions. (Shesgreen, 5/1)

Politico: GOP Suffers Surprise Defection On Obamacare Repeal
President Donald Trump dialed up his campaign-trail ally Rep. Billy Long on Monday, after the Missouri Republican announced his decision to vote against the Republican plan to replace Obamacare. The goal was straightforward: Persuade Long to change his mind. It didn't work. Though Long hails from a deeply conservative district that overwhelmingly backed Trump over Hillary Clinton in November, and Long supported earlier versions of the legislation, the president's entreaties fell short, GOP insiders said. (Cheney, Bade and Dawsey, 5/1)

The Hill: In Surprise, Republican Says He's A No On Healthcare Bill
“I have always stated that one of the few good things about ObamaCare is that people with pre-existing conditions would be covered,” Long said in a statement. “The MacArthur amendment strips away any guarantee that pre-existing conditions would be covered and affordable.” (Sullivan, 5/1)

Roll Call: Even GOP Whip Team Undecided On Health Care
House Chief Deputy Whip Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina said Monday evening that Republicans are “very close” to winning the support needed to pass their health care overhaul. One place he might want to look: his own whip team. At least seven members said Monday they remain undecided. That list includes Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, David Valadao of California, Kevin Yoder of Kansas, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Erik Paulsen of Minnesota and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Some of those members, a fraction of the roughly 100-person whip team, said they would have supported the version Republicans had planned to vote on in March before leaders canceled the vote because it lacked the support to pass. (McPherson and Mershon, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Chaffetz Returning To Capitol Ahead Of Health Care Vote
Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz is returning to the Capitol, weeks earlier than expected following surgery last week in Utah. Chaffetz had said he would be away from the Capitol for up to four weeks following surgery to remove screws and pins from a foot he shattered 12 years ago. (5/1)

McClatchy: Trump's Obamacare Repeal Bill Tough For Republicans In California 
The reluctance of California Republicans who fear losing re-election over the bill is a serious problem for national GOP leaders – who are desperate for a win and can only afford to lose 23 votes from among their 238 members in the U.S. House. At least nine of California’s 14 House Republicans so far have declined to publicly endorse the latest version of the American Health Care Act, the work-in-progress designed as the GOP alternative to the Obama administration’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Cockerham and Doyle, 4/2)

WBUR: Trump Adviser: 'We're Convinced We've Got The Votes' On Health Care Overhaul 
On "CBS This Morning," President Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said he thinks that Republicans have lined up the votes to pass the GOP's health care overhaul as early as this week. Last night the House and Senate reached an agreement to keep the government funded through September. (Hobson, 5/1)

The New York Times: Which Republicans Will Vote No? What 4 News Organizations Are Reporting
House Republican leaders are working intensively to gather votes for the American Health Care Act, a sweeping bill that would overhaul the health care system, effectively repealing and replacing Obamacare. An earlier attempt at passage in March failed, but the bill has been amended, and it may come to the House floor this week. (Katz, Quealy and Sanger-Katz, 5/1)

The Hill: Dem Group Targets House GOP’s Revised Health Bill 
Democratic super PAC American Bridge’s nonprofit arm launched an ad campaign Tuesday targeting 17 House Republicans over the House GOP’s latest push to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Bridge Project’s digital ad, provided first to The Hill, argues that millions of people could lose coverage under the GOP proposal and say it will drive up costs for families, seniors and those living in rural areas. The minute-long spot also notes that the bill would make major cuts to Medicaid spending. (Hagen, 5/2)

The Associated Press: Lobbying By Hospitals, Doctors, Slows GOP Health Care Drive
"Obamacare" is showing surprising staying power, thanks in large part to doctors, hospitals and other health industry players opposing the alternatives that Republicans have proposed. The stories and perspectives they bring to the debate are grounded in the local community and the impact on finances and well-being. But also their professional associations are deep-pocketed campaign donors and major lobbying powers on Capitol Hill. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/1)

Politico: The Strange, Vegas-Style Marriage Of Paul Ryan And The Freedom Caucus
There were rumblings just before the election that the Freedom Caucus might try to take out Speaker Paul Ryan. Now the group of rebel conservatives is locking arms with him — at least momentarily. The fragile alliance has been sparked by their shared interest in finally tanking Obamacare, an eagerness to build momentum for the president’s agenda and a belief among hard-liners and leadership that each side has moved cautiously toward the other on health care. (Bade, 5/2)

The Hill: Abortion Roils GOP ObamaCare Debate 
Tax credits under the House GOP’s ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill meant to help people afford insurance could be largely unusable in some blue states because of a showdown over abortion rules. The issue has largely flown under the radar, but it could have serious implications, potentially keeping people in California and New York from accessing assistance that helps them afford coverage under the bill. (Sullivan, 5/1)

The Hill: Poll: Majority Of Voters In 13 GOP Districts Oppose Defunding Planned Parenthood
The majority of voters in 13 Republican-held districts oppose defunding Planned Parenthood and the GOP's ObamaCare repeal bill, a new poll released first to The Hill shows. The Public Policy Polling survey shows 59 percent of voters in 13 districts won by Hillary Clinton oppose defunding Planned Parenthood, compared to the 35 percent who support it. (Hellmann, 5/2)

In other news on abortion —

The New York Times: Legal Fight Could Make Kentucky Only State With No Abortion Clinic
As states across the nation enact increasingly aggressive restrictions on abortion, perhaps nowhere has the political climate shifted as much as here in Kentucky, where the E.M.W. Women’s Surgical Center, a squat tan brick building on Market Street, is the state’s sole abortion clinic. (Stolberg, 5/2)

The New York Times: Pushing For Vote On Health Care Bill, Trump Seems Unclear On Its Details
After two false starts on President Trump’s promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump administration officials ratcheted up pressure on the House on Monday to vote on a revised version of the Republican repeal bill this week, even as support may actually be eroding. The president complicated his pitch with a jumble of statements that indicated he did not fully understand the content of the measure he was pushing. (Pear, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Pushing For Victories, Trump Shows Disconnect With House GOP
In interviews and Tweets, Trump has been notably off-topic and off-message about the state of affairs in Congress. His recent description of the health care bill suggested he was unfamiliar with how the bill addresses coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Congressional leaders and White House aides have struggled to agree on the level of optimism and timing for a vote. (Thomas and Werner, 5/1)

Bloomberg: Trump Wants Health-Care Bill To Protect Pre-Existing Conditions 
President Donald Trump said Monday the Republican health-care bill being negotiated in Congress ultimately will protect Americans with pre-existing conditions as well as Obamacare does. “I want it to be good for sick people. It’s not in its final form right now," he said during an Oval Office interview Monday with Bloomberg News. "It will be every bit as good on pre-existing conditions as Obamacare." (Talev, Jacobs and Epstein, 5/1)

CQ Roll Call: White House Mixes Signals On Health Care Votes
The White House delivered conflicting messages on Monday about whether there are enough votes among House Republicans to pass President Donald Trump’s long-promised overhaul of the 2010 health care law. Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters White House officials and GOP leaders are “closer and closer” to securing the votes needed to pass a measure (HR 1628) that would reconfigure the Obama administration’s signature domestic policy achievement. White House officials still "feel very good" about intraparty talks about getting the House GOP votes needed this week to pass a partial repeal and replace measure. There has been little evidence of major movement toward passage of the House GOP measure in recent days.  (Bennett, 5/1)

Politico: Dawdling Congress Tests Trump's Patience
The congressional GOP’s protracted efforts to repeal Obamacare could exact a heavy toll on the rest of Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. If repeal in the House is successful, action on some of the president's top legislative priorities is expected to be pushed back to late this year or even next year, when lawmakers will be up for reelection and more reluctant to cast tough votes. The delay also threatens to sap whatever Republican momentum remains from the election, in the midst of what’s often the most prolific stretch of a new presidency. (Everett and Kim, 5/2)

Politico: 5 Trump Health Care Promises That Won't Become Reality
Donald Trump broke the first campaign promise he made about Obamacare when he couldn’t scrap the law on the day he took office. He’ll get another chance to make good on the pledge this week, if the House takes up a revised repeal-replace plan. But the version of the legislation he’s endorsing undermines other key promises candidate and President-elect Trump made about the cost and quality of health care in America — not to mention the way he said he’d bring about change. (Diamond, 5/1)

USA Today: Donald Trump Takes Aim At Michelle Obama Efforts On Child Nutrition, Girls' Education
The Trump administration is looking to whittle away at the legacy of former first lady Michelle Obama, undercutting two key efforts associated with her: child nutrition and girls’ education worldwide. On Monday, Sonny Perdue, President Trump’s new Agriculture secretary, announced he would loosen restrictions on federally funded school lunch programs — current rules require schools to serve more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables to millions of children while limiting salt and fat. The push is part of Mrs. Obama’s well-known initiative to help children eat more healthy meals. (Toppo, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Hey Kids, Salt Stays And Grains Go In School Meals
Schools won’t have to cut more salt from meals just yet and some will be able to serve kids fewer whole grains, under changes to federal nutrition standards announced Monday. The move by President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Department partially rolls back rules championed by former first lady Michelle Obama as part of her healthy eating initiative. Separately, the Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it would delay — for one year — Obama administration rules that will require calorie labels on menus and prepared food displays. The rule was scheduled to go into effect later this week. (Jalonick, 5/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Unwinds Some School Lunch Standards
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the decision comes after years of feedback from schools and food-service experts, who have faced challenges meeting meal regulations; and from students, some of whom have complained that the meals aren’t appetizing. The department said the change “begins the process of restoring local control” over those food areas to give schools and states options in ensuring food choices are both healthy and appealing to students. (Hobbs, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: New USDA Secretary Announces Rollback Of Obama-Era Nutrition Standards For School Lunches
The Obama administration placed standards on school lunch nutrition in 2010 when it passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. During that time, Michelle Obama was seen by many as a leading advocate in the fight against childhood obesity. She started the Let’s Move! campaign, which sought to encourage children to take part in more physical activity and help provide healthier food options in schools in under-served communities. The percentage of U.S. children with obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s, causing long-term physical and emotional distress for children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Etehad, 5/1)

Politico: Trump Eats Away At Michelle Obama's School Lunch Legacy
The changes Perdue is seeking are not nearly as dramatic as the full opt-out that Republicans have sought — a push that sparked a bitter, public fight with Obama in 2014 — but Perdue promised to look at some regulatory fixes. He said USDA would delay implementation of future sodium-reduction targets. And flavored milk with a fat content of one percent, now restricted from the program, will be allowed back into cafeterias — a switch that dairy producers lobbied heavily to see made. (Bottemiller Evich, 5/1)

NPR: Michelle Obama's School Lunch Rules Rolled Back By White House
The fight over school lunches has lasted years. Even after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 took effect, Michelle Obama continued to have to defend its importance, as NPR's Tamara Keith reported in 2014. In 2016 the Senate settled on a compromise that would keep most of the new standards in place, including requiring to schools to serve more fruits and vegetables along with the planned reductions in sodium and increase in whole grains. (Taylor, 5/1)

In other news —

USA Today: Overweight Kids Are Costing America Billions
The best way to set your kid up for financial success can be a nest egg, a grandparent's inheritance or a healthy 529 plan. Or, it could be as simple as keeping them in shape. A Johns Hopkins University study found overweight people, over the course of a lifetime, spend an average of about $30,000 more than healthy people on medical conditions associated with obesity, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, heart attacks, heart failure and certain types of cancers. (Rossman, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Five Big Wins: Congress Boosts Medical Science Funding In Key Areas
Congress unveiled a bipartisan budget late Sunday that contains a number of welcome surprises for researchers who had been panicking since March, when President Trump proposed deep funding cuts for science and health. Under the deal, the National Institutes of Health will get a $2 billion boost in fiscal year 2017, as it did the previous year. ... Here are some of the big research winners. (Cha, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Science Funding Spared Under Congressional Budget Deal, But More Battles Ahead
The lights will stay on in the federal government, and also in the countless laboratories and universities that depend on federal funding for scientific and medical research. That's one upshot of the bipartisan budget deal congressional negotiators reached late Sunday. The bill, clocking in at more than 1,600 pages, is likely to pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Trump this week. It covers funding through September. (Achenbach, Guarino, Kaplan and Fears, 5/1)

In other spending news —

CQ Roll Call: Labor-HHS-Education: Bill Boosts HHS, Year-Round Pell Grants
The Health and Human Services Department would receive $2.8 billion more in fiscal 2017 than in the previous budget year, led by a $2 billion boost for the National Institutes of Health, under the draft spending bill released early Monday. Despite the increases for HHS, the overall Labor-HHS-Education portion of the bill includes $161 billion in discretionary funding, a reduction of $934 million from the fiscal year 2016 enacted level, according to the House Appropriations Committee. The higher NIH funding reflects one point of strong bipartisan agreement in the bill. The increase would bring the agency's total to $34 billion for the 2017 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. (Young and Wilkins, 5/1)

Columbus Dispatch: Coal Miners Getting Health-Care Coverage Under Federal Spending Bill
Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman say a new federal spending bill will guarantee permanent health-care benefits for 22,000 retired coal miners and their dependents who were on the verge of losing their coverage by the end of the week. Although lawmakers still have to approve a solution to salvage the coal miners’ threatened pensions, the announcement Monday effectively means they will have the health benefits for life. (Torry, 5/1)

The New York Times: One Day, A Machine Will Smell Whether You’re Sick
Blindfolded, would you know the smell of your mom, a lover or a co-worker? Not the smells of their colognes or perfumes, not of the laundry detergents they use — the smells of them? Each of us has a unique “odorprint” made up of thousands of organic compounds. These molecules offer a whiff of who we are, revealing age, genetics, lifestyle, hometown — even metabolic processes that underlie our health. (Murphy, 5/1)

Stat: How Is Artificial Intelligence Like A Self-Driving Car? Doctors Eye The Future
Questions and uncertainty abounded. How well does artificial intelligence work, compared to fallible human doctors? What is the Food and Drug Administration going to say? And how do artificially intelligent systems make decisions, anyway? Dr. Maurice Zissen, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, turned that last question on its head by making an analogy to self-driving cars. As long as the car gets you to the right place safely — and potentially more safely than a human driver — does the rider need to understand why the car chose to make a left turn at precisely the moment it did? (Swetlitz, 5/1)

Modern Healthcare: Vanderbilt Is A Case Study For The Dreaded EHR Conversion
The trauma of going live with a new electronic health record system is written all over Vanderbilt University Medical Center's preparation plans. Vanderbilt is already reducing patient appointments at its more than 120 clinics and outpatient sites during the week of Nov. 2, when physicians and staff will start working in the new Epic Systems Corp. system, said Dr. Kevin Johnson, Vanderbilt's EHR project leader. The Nashville-based academic health system also intends to beef up staffing in its emergency rooms that week, Johnson said, as patients who can't secure clinic and outpatient appointments will likely show up at the ER for care. (Barkholz, 5/1)

The New York Times: Clues To Zika Damage Might Lie In Cases Of Twins
On the bed next to her brother, Ana Vitória da Silva Araújo acted like the 1-year-old she was. She smiled and babbled. She played with a stuffed whale. She plucked the pacifier from her brother’s mouth and the burp cloth from his shoulder. Her brother, João Lucas, seemed unaware of her, his eyes closed, his mouth making sucking motions. It was typical behavior for a newborn. But João Lucas is the exact same age as Ana Vitória — they are twins. (Belluck and Franco, 5/1)

NPR: NIH Launches Study Of Illness Known As 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome'
In July 2012, a science reporter for The Washington Post, Brian Vastag, was in Wisconsin visiting his family when a high fever hit. He became instantly bedridden with flu-like symptoms that never went away. "It didn't feel like anything I'd ever had before. ... The things that distinguished it were the dizziness and the feeling of unreality in the head," Vastag says. Now, nearly five years later, the 45-year-old can no longer concentrate or read even a few sentences without becoming exhausted. A short walk to the mailbox means lying down for the rest of the day. In September, he'll qualify for Medicare due to his disability. (Tucker, 5/1)

NPR: People Do Not Change Their Eating Habits Easily, Studies Find
A new study suggests that skipping meals is difficult. Obviously, right? The study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine did not set out to investigate the hardships of abstaining from food. The main question was: Is alternate-day fasting more effective for weight loss and weight maintenance compared with daily calorie restriction? (Hersher, 5/1)

NPR: Kids And Teens Challenge Either/Or Genders
Max, age 13, is agender — neither male nor female. When referring to Max, you don't use "he" or "she;" you use "they." Once strictly a pronoun of the plural variety, "they" is now doing double duty as singular, too — referring to individuals, like Max, who do not see gender as an either/or option. ... If the whole he/she pronoun thing feels awkward to you, Max is sympathetic — and patient. (Brooks, 5/2)

WBUR: Celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio: 'We Can End Hunger In This Country'
Hunger in America can often seem invisible, but recent studies have shown that it is a problem that affects millions of people, many of them children. An estimated 13.1 million kids live in homes with insufficient food, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Dalrymple, 5/1)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Parents Of 'Micro Preemies' Wowed By Philly Artificial Womb Study
Scientists [at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia] gained international headlines last week for inventing an artificial womb, keeping extremely premature lambs alive inside a fluid-filled bag for up to a month until they could survive on their own. Physicians say it will be three to five years before they are ready to try such an approach on human babies. When they do, the effort will be aimed at critically premature infants just like Patrick: those born before 26 weeks. The goal is to cocoon them for just a few weeks, getting them to an age when most children survive and the risks of complications — brain bleeds, lung problems, grave infections, to name a few — are sharply reduced, said team leader Alan W. Flake, a fetal surgeon at Children’s. (Avril, 5/1)

Boston Globe: Attorney General Makes Grants To Prevent Drug Abuse 
Attorney General Maura Healey is distributing $700,000 to school districts and community organizations across the state to provide programs intended to prevent substance abuse among youth. ... The schools will develop an antidrug curriculum for fifth-graders and provide additional training for staff. (Freyer, 5/1)

Health News Florida: Critics Call On Gov. To Order State Of Emergency For Overdose Crisis 
Calls are mounting for Gov. Rick Scott to declare of public health emergency in the wake of an estimated 4,000 deaths in Florida last year due to heroin and opioid overdoses. Other states struggling with the problem - including Maryland, Alaska, and Virginia - have chosen to declare an emergency, enabling the release of additional funds for law enforcement and treatment. (Jordan, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Virginia Looks To Provide Drug Treatment To More Inmates
Officials say Virginia is joining in an effort to expand access to opioid addition treatment for prisoners. The Virginia Department of Corrections says Virginia is one of eight states picked by the National Governors Association for the “learning lab.” Officials say the states will learn about initiatives in place in Massachusetts and create plans for how to get more offenders in opioid addiction treatment. (5/2)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: In Virginia's Opioid Epidemic, This Drug Is The Top Killer 
Fentanyl became the deadliest drug in the state last year, surging past heroin and prescription painkillers. Evidence that the painkiller epidemic gave rise to a new wave of heroin use has continued to grow, with illegal opioid deaths outnumbering prescription opioid deaths since 2013. (Demeria, 5/1)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin 'Cocaine Mom' Law Aimed At Protecting Fetuses
A federal judge in Madison has declared Wisconsin's so-called cocaine mom statute — meant to provide protection for developing fetuses — unconstitutional in a civil rights lawsuit by a woman who was jailed 18 days while pregnant for refusing to live at a treatment center. (Vielmetti, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin Law On Pregnant Drug Abusers
A federal judge has struck down a Wisconsin law that allowed the state to detain pregnant women suspected of drug or alcohol abuse, saying the 1998 law meant to protect developing fetuses was unconstitutionally vague. (5/1)

Health News Florida: Val Demings Proposes Federal Grant Funding For Police Mental Health 
U.S. Representative Val Demings is proposing a bill that would make grant money available to help police departments treat first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder. The legislation would make existing grant money available to police departments to do peer-to-peer counseling, to study crisis hotlines and the effectiveness of annual mental health exams. (Aboraya, 5/1)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Drugs, Mental Illness Play Outsized Role In N.H. Police Shootings 
When police in New Hampshire use deadly force, it’s most likely on someone who is armed, intoxicated and often severely mentally ill. That’s according to an NHPR review of police shootings in the state over nearly two decades. (Rodolico, 5/1)

Stat: Facing A Financial Squeeze, Hospitals Nationwide Are Cutting Jobs
Hospitals nationwide are cutting jobs amid a whirlwind of financial pressures — and sharp fears about the direction Republicans will steer health care policy. Just in the past month, hospitals in 10 states, from Kentucky to Minnesota to New Mexico, have made public plans for staff reductions. In the largest such announcement, a prominent Boston hospital — Brigham and Women’s, which is affiliated with Harvard — last week said it will offer voluntary buyouts to 1,600 workers and may lay off staff later in the year. (Ross, 4/30)

Modern Healthcare: Tenet And CHS Resume Divestitures, Operating Losses
Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Community Health Systems each said they will sell more hospitals as their operating losses piled up in the first quarter. Dallas-based Tenet said Monday it had agreed to sell its three hospitals in Houston to HCA Holdings for about $725 million. The health system said in January that it intended to focus its capital and management resources on ambulatory care and hub markets where it has first- and second-place market share or a strong, profitable niche. The divestiture comes on the heels of a first-quarter operating loss of $52 million. (Barkholz, 5/1)

Houston Chronicle: West Houston Hospital To Shutter, Lay Off Staff 
Kindred Hospital Town and Country in West Houston notified the Texas Workforce Commission on Friday that it would eliminate all 133 staff positions beginning June 27. In a statement issued Monday, Kindred said it then plans to close the hospital. It also said it has stopped accepting new patients. The company, the nation's largest long-term acute care provider, in 2016 closed Houston locations on Holcombe Blvd. and in Baytown. In 2014 it closed hospitals in Channelview and north Houston. (Baddour, 5/1)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Nearly Half Of Region's Hospitals Report Operating Losses
Nearly half of the region’s hospitals operated at a loss for the last six months of 2016, a new survey has found, with small and rural hospitals hit hardest. In all, 28 of 59 responding hospitals, or 48 percent, said losses from providing patient care outpaced revenue from treating patients. Meanwhile, 17 of 23 hospitals, or 74 percent, with 100 or fewer beds recorded losses .... A.J. Harper, president of the Healthcare Council of Western Pennsylvania, which conducted the survey, said in a release Monday, “There are many reasons” for the falling operating margins, most notably the 71 percent of admitted patients covered by government programs. Reimbursements from programs such as Medicare and Medicaid do not cover hospitals’ costs for providing care, he said. (Twedt, 5/2)

The Washington Post: D.C.’s Troubled United Medical Center May Need A Taxpayer Bailout — Again
United Medical Center, the troubled Southeast Washington hospital that has struggled for decades to provide medical care to some of the city’s poorest residents, has hit a stretch of financial turbulence that puts it at risk of needing a taxpayer bailout — again. (Jamison, 5/1)

The Baltimore Sun: Anne Arundel Health System, LifeBridge Health Among Evergreen Health's Buyers
LifeBridge Health, Anne Arundel Health System and a group of private investors are moving forward with plans to acquire Baltimore health insurer Evergreen Health. In a bid to stay in business, the nonprofit health insurance firm announced plans in October to be acquired and convert to a for-profit insurance company. Until today, Evergreen's buyers remained anonymous. Financial terms have not been disclosed. (Gantz, 5/1)

Orlando Sentinel: Florida Blue Payment Glitch: What You Need To Know 
An unknown number of other Florida Blue members like Longberry were charged multiple times Monday for what was supposed to be their May premiums... They company said it is working to resolve the issue, but the overdrafts have caused serious headaches for consumers, some of whom have had their accounts frozen by their banks on the first day of the month, when they usually pay their major bills. (Miller, 5/1)

Modern Healthcare: Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove To Step Down 
Dr. Toby Cosgrove, the longtime CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, announced on Monday he will be stepping down by the end of this year. A succession process for his replacement has now begun and Cosgrove will stay on at the clinic in an advisory role, according to a news release. The clinic also said his successor will be a practicing physician, keeping up with the system's long history as a physician-led institution. "It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of an extraordinary and forward-thinking organization that puts patients at the center of everything we do," Cosgrove said in statement. (Castellucci, 5/1)

Minnesota Public Radio: Public Health Workers Push Back Against Anti-Vaccine Claims At Somali Community Meeting 
[Asia] Dahir was among 90 people — many of them also Somali-American — who came to a Lake Street ballroom in Minneapolis Sunday night for a meeting organized by five anti-vaccine groups. Their message: autism is the real epidemic, not measles. (Sepic, 5/1)

Reuters: U.S. Top Court Rejects 'Gay Conversion' Therapy Ban Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact California's ban on "gay conversion" therapy aimed at turning youths under age 18 away from homosexuality, rejecting a Christian minister's challenge to the law asserting it violates religious rights. The justices, turning away a challenge to the 2012 law for the second time in three years, let stand a lower court's ruling that it was constitutional and neither impinged upon free exercise of religion nor impacted the activities of clergy members. (Chung, 5/1)

Denver Post: Five Colorado School Districts Receive Grants For Mental Health Services
Five Colorado school districts will receive $1.5 million in grant funds from Kaiser Permanente to improve behavioral health in their schools. The grants, part of Kaiser’s “Thriving Schools” program, will go to the Boulder Valley School District, the Cherry Creek School District, the Summit School District, the Thompson School District and the Fountain-Fort Carson School District. In a news release, Kaiser said the grants will go toward improving “social and emotional wellness and mental health” in the districts. They will officially be awarded in August. (Ingold, 5/1)

Minnesota Public Radio: Edina Poised To Become First Minn. City To Make Tobacco Buying Age 21 
Edina Mayor Jim Hovland thinks his city is starting a movement in Minnesota. The Twin Cities suburb is poised to become the first city in the state to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. (Gunderson, 5/2)

Houston Chronicle: Duke Realty Selling Medical Office Portfolio To Healthcare Trust Of America 
Duke Realty Corp., owner of three medical office buildings in Katy, announced a deal to sell its 6.6 million-square-foot medical office building portfolio to Healthcare Trust of America for $2.8 billion.The Katy buildings are on Houston Methodist's Christus St. Catherine Hospital campus. Healthcare Trust of America already owns 12 properties spanning 874,000 square feet in Houston, its fifth-biggest market. (Feser, 5/1)

Stat: Taking A Ride On The NIH Budget Rollercoaster
The possible ups and downs of the National Institutes of Health budget over the past few months have been enough to cause whiplash among NIH watchers. The passage last December of the 21st Century Cures Act had researchers celebrating a several-billion-dollar addition to the NIH budget. A few months later, after President Trump proposed decreasing the NIH budget by $1.2 billion — which came on the heels of a proposal to cut it by $5.8 billion for fiscal year 2018 — many researchers began worrying about the future of their work. You could almost hear the sigh of relief among scientists after Congress included a $2 billion increase in funding under a bipartisan spending deal reached late Sunday night. That deal, though, does not address funding for 2018. (Harlan M. Krumholz and Gregg Gonsalves, 5/1)

The New York Times: Populism, Politics And Measles
One of the tragedies of these post-truth times is that the lies, conspiracy theories and illusions spread by social media and populist politicians can be downright dangerous. The denial of human responsibility for climate change is one obvious example; another is opposition to vaccination. A serious outbreak of measles in Italy and in some other European countries could well be the result of a drop-off in vaccinations caused by utterly misguided and discredited claims about their dangers. (5/2)

The Health Care Blog: The Doctor Will Connect With You Now
One of my advisors has a great perspective on healthcare delivery from the large system perspective. He served as the chief of staff to our last CEO. Recently, he posed an incisive question to me.: “Joe, when are we going to take all of these digital health concepts from the 30,000 foot level and get them into that 10 minute window that the doctor has with the patient?” It is not hyperbole to say that this put the last 20+ years of my career in a whole different perspective. (Joseph Kvedar, 5/1)

The New York Times: For Bad Backs, It May Be Time To Rethink Biases About Chiropractors
About two of every three people will probably experience significant low back pain at some point. A physician like me might suggest any number of potential treatments and therapies. But one I never considered was a referral for spinal manipulation. It appears I may have been mistaken. For initial treatment of lower back pain, it may be time for me (and other physicians) to rethink our biases. (Aaron E. Carroll, 5/1)

Boston Globe: Trump’s Early And Devastating Impact On Latino Community
Our access to health care has been under threat as well. The Trump administration’s spectacular failure to garner congressional support for a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act is likely only a temporary reprieve from this administration’s determination to kick 24 million Americans off of health insurance. Once again, this policy would have a disproportionate impact on Latinos. Thanks to that law, 4.2 million Latinos gained health coverage, cutting our uninsured rate nearly in half, from 30.7 percent to 16.2 percent. Even without repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration has been able to make administrative changes to chip away at access to health services and signed a law that would let states take away women’s reproductive health services and cancer screenings. (Hector Sanchez Barba, 5/1)

Chicago Tribune: Where Teenagers Are Hiding Their Drugs, According To The DEA
Dooes your teen spend a lot of time with his graphing calculator? That could be a sign of a drug problem, according to the DEA. On April 20, the Drug Enforcement Administration tweeted out a link with a simple imperative: Find out where kids hide drugs. The link takes you to a page entitled "Hiding Places" at getsmartaboutdrugs.gov, "a DEA resource for parents, educators and caregivers." (Christopher Ingraham, 5/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Pre-Existing Confusion
Insurance coverage for pre-existing health conditions can be confusing, as President Trump and a journalist showed in a television interview over the weekend. Allow us to explain how the GOP reform would work in practice and why pre-existing conditions have been exaggerated as a political problem. Mr. Trump told CBS ’s John Dickerson that “I watch some of the news reports, which are so unfair, and they say we don’t cover pre-existing conditions, we cover it beautifully.” Mr. Dickerson seemed surprised: “Okay. Well, that’s a development, sir. So you’re saying it’s going to be pre-existing to everybody?” Mr. Trump said the House bill had “evolved” but as usual didn’t explain how. (5/1)

The Washington Post: Does The President Know What’s In The Republican Health-Care Bill? And Does It Matter?
In the flurry of interviews before President Trump's 100th day in office, one of the remarks that stood out most for me did not come from Trump himself. It was a quick paraphrase in the middle of the Washington Examiner's recap of a Trump interviews on health care. After writing about Trump's criticism of the Affordable Care Act, reporter Sarah Westwood described how Trump talked about the American Health Care Act, which Republicans are trying to resurrect for a vote this week. “He extolled the legislation's virtues,” Westwood wrote. (David Weigel, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Nifty Plan To Spend More And Hurt Poor People More — At The Same Time!
Who says President Trump isn’t a policy genius? He’s figured out a clever way to spend more government money just to stick it to poor people. His innovation has to do with the intricate interplay of Affordable Care Act subsidies. (Catherine Rampell, 5/1)

Morning Consult: How CSRs Could Upend Health Care
Despite affecting as many 7 million people, cost-sharing reduction subsidies are often-ignored components of the Affordable Care Act. While premium tax credits get most of the headlines, CSRs are what stand between millions of Americans and their health care — not to mention the decisions by insurance providers whether to participate in the 2018 marketplace. The possibility of eliminating CSRs is a real threat to President Barack Obama’s healthcare legacy. (Ipsita Smolinski, 5/2)

RealClear Health: Obamacare Repeal Can’t Ignore Price Controls
The failure of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the planned replacement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was the first major legislative defeat for President Trump. Critics dubbed the AHCA “Obamacare Lite” for its many market-limiting provisions that would have discouraged improvements in health care while leaving healthy Americans with higher costs—and most everyone with fewer options. Now Republicans in Congress are considering the MacArthur-Meadows amendment to allow states to apply for opt-out waivers for some Obamacare rules, including mandated benefits and required community rating. (Tracy Miller, 5/2)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump Dismantling Policies Of The Progressive Era: The New Deal And The Great Society
Even though a budget measure must be passed before the end of the month to avert a federal government shutdown, Congress is seeking to revive its efforts to end Obamacare, despite the opposition of much of the country. It’s easy to get agitated about any one of these issues. Yet an even larger problem looms, and it deserves our full attention. (Allan Winkler, 5/1)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Trump Has It Backward On House Health Care Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives could vote on its latest version of the American Health Care Act as early as Wednesday. Before that happens, someone should tell President Donald Trump that the bill doesn’t do what he thinks it does. In an interview on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Trump had key details of the bill completely wrong. Asked by host John Dickerson how the bill would help his supporters, Trump said: “Pre-existing conditions are in the bill … I mandated it. I said, ‘Has to be.’” (5/1)

Arizona Republic: Will Congress Exempt Itself From Trumpcare?
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than half of the members of Congress are millionaires. More than a few of them are millionaires many, many times over. They have no worries about health care or anything else. (EJ Montini, 5/1)

KevinMD: Facility Fees Are Ruining Quality Care
The Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion resulted in unanticipated negative consequences for many patients and physicians in rural, underserved or medically isolated communities across America. Consolidation of health care entities was financially incentivized by the ACA, and slowly my beloved corner of the Pacific Northwest is becoming a medical wasteland.. (Niran S. Al-Agba, 5/1)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Balancing The Budget On Backs Of Those Living With Mental Illnesses
The Missouri House Budget Committee recently voted to pass HB 986 to try to reduce pharmacy costs in MO HealthNet (Medicaid) by restricting access to antipsychotic medications. Although we support the wise use of taxpayer dollars, the bill that now goes to the House floor contains a provision that would be harmful for individuals living with serious mental illness. The increase in direct, indirect and societal costs from this bill would outweigh any significant savings that Missouri would realize. (Darwyn E. Walker and Mark Utterback, 5/2)

The Kansas City Star: Which Poor Missourians Will Have To Pay For Lawmakers’ Mistakes?
We have a question for Missouri lawmakers struggling with which bits of gristle and fat have to be cut out of the state’s $27 billion budget by Friday. The options now on the table have you debating whether to a) cut support for in-home and nursing home care for the elderly and disabled or b) cut tax credits for elderly, poor renters. All we want to know is: Whaaaa? How did these get to be the choices? (5/1)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois' Medical Debt Spiral Injures People, Economy
Right now, Illinois owes a whopping $2.5 billion in medical bills to the state's hospitals and managed care providers that help fund locally based clinics, mental health groups and home care providers, according to the state comptroller's office. In addition, Illinois is liable for a projected $4.6 billion in group medical insurance claims for state workers, retirees and their dependents, state data show. As if that weren't enough, Illinois is adding every day to an estimated $11 billion-plus in unpaid bills of all sorts — courtesy of our elected leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, who have failed to pass a budget for over two years running. (Robert Reed, 5/2)

The Columbus Dispatch: Ouch! Mosquito, Zika Fears Return
When it comes to killing humans, no animal even comes close to the ones that could be hatching right now in central Ohio yards, perhaps lurking in a birdbath, pet water bowl or a child’s wading pool. Spring means mosquitoes in central Ohio. These little bloodsuckers aren’t merely itchy, they’re deadly, spreading diseases such as Zika, West Nile and Chikungunya viruses, as well as dengue and malaria in parts of the world. (5/2)

Bloomberg: How Slow Pace Of Justice Is Harmful: Texas Edition 
What if the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark abortion rights ruling -- and nothing changed? Case in point: Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the decision from last June that established a new and improved constitutional rule for when a law unduly burdens a woman’s right to choose. Legally, the ruling struck down a Texas law that forced abortion clinics to close unless they qualified as ambulatory care centers. But now, almost a year later, only two of the clinics closed by the law have reopened. Roughly two dozen others closed during the three years the law was in effect, and many or most of those are unlikely to be revived. (Noah Feldman, 5/1)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri’s Asbestos Victims Deserve Better From Lawmakers
The fact that I’m still here more than a decade later is thanks in part to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, which connected me with a great doctor in New York. I’ve had five major surgeries and rounds of heated chemotherapy. I’ve traveled to New York dozens of times for terror-inducing scans to monitor my disease. It’s stable now, but it inevitably will return. I’ll be fighting this cancer for the rest of my life. I just didn’t expect I’d have to fight the Missouri Legislature, too. (Julie Gundlach, 5/2)