The New York Times: California Counties Sue To Block Trump’s New Green Card Test
San Francisco and Santa Clara County in California filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the Trump administration from implementing a new rule that would deny permanent residency to legal immigrants if they are judged likely to use government benefit programs. President Trump issued the regulation, called the public charge rule, on Monday. Starting in October, the federal government plans to base decisions about permanent legal status on a wealth test: Poor immigrants would be denied if they are deemed likely to use programs like food stamps or subsidized housing, while wealthier immigrants designated as less likely to require public assistance would be approved. (Zaveri and Padilla, 8/13)

The Washington Post: Calif. Jurisdictions Sue To Block Policy That Denies Poor Immigrants Access To Path To Citizenship
Two Northern California governments filed a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s new effort to deny green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps or other public aid, or might in the future, calling the new rule “irrational” and “vague.” Officials with Santa Clara County and San Francisco said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the “public charge” rule “coerces” legal immigrants into dropping out of public health, food and housing programs, which could lead local governments to carry the burden of millions of dollars in public assistance. The jurisdictions asked a judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to block the policy immediately. (Sacchetti, 8/13)

The Associated Press: California Counties Sue Over Public Benefit Immigration Rule
In a filing, the counties of Santa Clara and San Francisco argued that the rules will worsen the health and well-being of their residents, increase public health risks and financially harm the counties. The rules, the counties argued, would result in a “chilling effect” in which migrants forgo or disenroll from federal public assistance programs to reduce the risk of being denied a green card. This practice would mean that the cost of services would shift from federal to state governments, the counties argued. (Maldonado, 8/13)

Reuters: San Francisco Sues Trump Administration Over Rule To Limit Legal Immigration
“The final rule will worsen the health and well-being of the counties’ residents, increase risks to the public health, undermine the counties’ health and safety-net systems, and inflict significant financial harm,” the suit said. San Francisco is both a city and a county. Santa Clara County includes the city of San Jose and various other parts of Silicon Valley. (Trotta, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: San Francisco, Santa Clara County File Suit To Block Rule On Green Cards
The plaintiffs say in their 23-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, that the rule changing the definition of who might become a “public charge” under federal immigration law is “not only harmful; it is also unlawful.” The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request to comment. (Caldwell, 8/13)

The Hill: California Counties File First Lawsuit Over Trump 'Public Charge' Rule 
San Francisco and Santa Clara County successfully sued the administration over a rule that would have taken federal funding from “sanctuary cities” that refuse to enforce federal immigration laws. The Trump administration released the final version of the "public charge" rule on Monday. It is set to go into effect Oct. 15. The two California counties are pushing for the implementation date to be postponed. (Rodrigo, 8/13)

Meanwhile, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' comments draw attention —

NPR: Cuccinelli Twists Statue Of Liberty Poem To Defend New Immigration Rule
"Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge," Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Tuesday, twisting Emma Lazarus' famous words on a bronze plaque at the Statue of Liberty. Cuccinelli was speaking to NPR's Morning Edition about a new regulation he announced Monday that targets legal immigration. The rule denies green cards and visas to immigrants if they use — or are deemed likely to need — federal, state and local government benefits including food stamps, housing vouchers and Medicaid. The change stands to impact hundreds of thousands of immigrants who come to the United States legally every year. (Ingber and Martin, 8/13)

And news outlets examine how the rule could potentially impact Ohio and New Mexico —

The Associated Press: New Mexico Says Public Benefit Immigrant Rule May Hurt Kids
New Mexico’s human services secretary fears that children may be deprived of food assistance and other vital services under the Trump administration’s new rule to deny green cards to migrants who use Medicaid, food stamps and other forms of public assistance. (8/14)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Trump’s New 'Public Charge’ Policy Could Affect More Than 50,000 Immigrants In Ohio
A new immigration policy that President Trump said will ensure that immigrants to the United States are financially self-sufficient could affect more than 50,000 non-citizens who receive public benefits in Ohio. The policy announced Monday would bar non-citizens from entering the United States if they’re deemed likely to become “public charges” who use taxpayer funded benefits like food stamps, SSI, some forms of subsidized housing and most forms of Medicaid. (Eaton, 8/13)

The Washington Post: Agency Did Not Conduct Required Oversight Of Program For Those With Disabilities
Health and Human Services officials have failed to conduct required visits of independent living programs for thousands of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found. The Administration for Community Living, created within HHS in 2012, administers two independent living programs, which aim to help people with disabilities find housing services, job opportunities and other resources. By law, ACL must carry out compliance reviews of at least 15 percent of the programs that receive federal funding and in at least one-third of the states that receive the funding. The inspector general found ACL has not conducted such visits since it assumed oversight of the programs five years ago. (Abutaleb, 8/14)

Modern Healthcare: Overhaul Medicare Advantage Prior Authorizations: Hospitals
Hospitals and health systems are demanding that the CMS set national rules for how insurers manage prior authorization and payment for pre-approved claims in Medicare Advantage. In response to the Trump administration's request for information on its Patients over Paperwork initiative to cut Medicare red tape, hospitals complained that prior authorization is a complicated system where payment isn't guaranteed even if they follow all the steps insurers lay out for them. (Luthi, 8/13)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Administration Hits Brakes On Law To Curb Unneeded Medicare CT Scans, MRIs
Five years after Congress passed a law to reduce unnecessary MRIs, CT scans and other expensive diagnostic imaging tests that could harm patients and waste money, federal officials have yet to implement it. The law requires that doctors consult clinical guidelines set by the medical industry before Medicare will pay for many common exams for enrollees. Health care providers who go way beyond clinical guidelines in ordering these scans (the 5% who order the most tests that are inappropriate) will, under the law, be required after that to get prior approval from Medicare for their diagnostic imaging. But after physicians argued the provision would interfere with their practices, the Trump administration delayed putting the 2014 law in place until January 2020, two years later than originally planned. (Galewitz, 8/14)

POLITICO Pro: FDA To Take Stock Of Menu Labeling Implementation
The FDA is planning to assess how well industry has been complying with menu labeling requirements that kicked in more than a year ago after many years of delay. In an update released today, the agency reiterated that it's committed to "working flexibly with establishments to help them achieve compliance" — which has been a goal since the regulation took effect in May 2018 — and outlined new steps it's planning in the coming months. (Bottemiller Evich, 8/13)

In other news from the FDA -

The New York Times: Drinking Bleach Won’t Cure Cancer Or Anything Else, F.D.A. Says
The Food and Drug Administration was dragged into the online world of medical misinformation this week, telling consumers not to drink bleach solutions that are being marketed as cures for autism, cancer, H.I.V./AIDS and other medical conditions. It was the latest example of how health authorities must sometimes pit science against the viral power of the internet, which regularly serves as a platform for inaccurate medical advice and unproven claims of breakthroughs. (Hoffman, 8/13)

CQ: Large Employers Question 'Medicare For All' Plans, Survey Shows
Most large employers say a "Medicare for All" system would lower the number of uninsured people in the United States, but they are concerned it could increase health care costs and taxes while stifling innovation and quality, a new survey shows. The concerns come as health industry groups seek to block momentum for plans from Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers to expand Medicare through a single-payer program or to allow people under age 65 to enroll in the program. (McIntire, 8/13)

California Healthline: Going Down Fighting: Dying Activist Champions ‘Medicare For All’
When Santa Barbara lawyer-turned-activist Ady Barkan settled in to watch the second round of the Democratic presidential primary debates late last month, he had no idea his story would be part of the heated discussion. Barkan, 35, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, watched from his wheelchair as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren described how he and his family had to raise money online to help pay for roughly $9,000 a month in health care costs not covered by his private health insurance. (Almendrala, 8/14)

The New York Times: Why Doesn’t America Have Universal Health Care? One Word: Race
One hundred and fifty years after the freed people of the South first petitioned the government for basic medical care, the United States remains the only high-income country in the world where such care is not guaranteed to every citizen. In the United States, racial health disparities have proved as foundational as democracy itself. “There has never been any period in American history where the health of blacks was equal to that of whites,” Evelynn Hammonds, a historian of science at Harvard University, says. “Disparity is built into the system.” Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have helped shrink those disparities. But no federal health policy yet has eradicated them. (Interlandi, 8/14)

Presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is talking about abortion limits -

The Associated Press: Gillibrand To Visit St. Louis To Decry State Abortion Limits
Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand is planning to hold a reproductive rights town hall in St. Louis, home of Missouri’s last remaining abortion clinic. A new state law bans most abortions at the eighth week of pregnancy. But the restrictions have yet to take effect and have been challenged in federal court. The New York senator has made defending women’s rights the bedrock of her presidential bid. (8/13)

The Washington Post: Abortion Support Remains Steady Despite Growing Partisan Divide, Survey Finds
At a time when antiabortion measures are sweeping the United States, one of the largest-ever surveys on abortion attitudes finds support for legal abortion has held steady. No more than a quarter of residents in any state supports a total ban despite the increasing political divide on the issue. The Public Religion Research Institute survey released Tuesday involves an extraordinarily large sample of 40,292 interviews measuring abortion attitudes throughout 2018, allowing it to produce nuanced results for individual states and for very small demographic groups. It found that Americans remain generally supportive of abortion rights, with 54 percent saying it should be legal in all or most cases and 40 percent saying it should be illegal. These numbers are nearly the same as a similar 2014 survey when 55 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal. (Cha and Clement, 8/13)

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers continue to wrestle with another topic that presidential candidates talk about: drug pricing -

POLITICO Pro: Lawmakers Reopen Generic Pricing Probe After States' Lawsuit Reveals Coordinated Efforts
Lawmakers are reopening an investigation into generic drugmakers' pricing strategies after a multistate lawsuit exposed three companies' discussions on coordinating responses to an earlier congressional effort.House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) late Tuesday night demanded that generic drugmakers Teva, Mylan and Heritage explain messages suggesting they coordinated to blunt a 2014 probe by the lawmakers into lockstep pricing. (Owermohle, 8/14)

Modern Healthcare: Fewer Employers Offering High-Deductible Plans As Only Option
Fewer large, self-insured employers will offer a high-deductible health plan as the only employee insurance option next year, opting instead to give employees more choice when it comes to health coverage. For the second straight year, the percentage of large companies offering only a high-deductible health plan with an attached savings account is projected to decrease to a quarter of employers in 2020, down from 30% in 2019 and 39% in 2018, according to the National Business Group on Health's annual survey of employers' healthcare strategies and plan designs. (Livingston, 8/13)

Kaiser Health News: As States Strive To Stabilize Insurance Marketplaces, Insurers Return
California’s ACA exchange is not the only one benefiting from the renewed interest of insurance companies. Other states are expected to see more insurers enter or re-enter their marketplaces next year. That’s a critical signal, experts said, that the state-based marketplaces, which cover about 11 million people nationally, are becoming more robust and less risky for insurers — despite ongoing political and legal battles over the ACA. “It’s taken longer than expected, due in part to the political rancor, but things seem poised to go well for next year,” said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The ACA market is becoming a better place for insurers and consumers.” (Findlay, 8/14)

USA Today: How Doctors Really Feel About Data From Your Apple Watch, Fitbit
It's clear that consumers love wearables and the information they provide – but do physicians? Doctors have mixed views on how patients gather and present information from gadgets with quasi-medical aspirations. Most say its a plus that patients can collect and curate more health-related data than ever before. However, bringing printed out pages of calories burned or counted steps to your next check-up isn't exactly advised. (Brown, 8/14)

Modern Healthcare: 1 In 7 Internal Medicine Residents Are Bullied
Approximately 1 in 7 internal medicine physicians reported being bullied during their residency training, according to a new study. The study, published Tuesday in JAMA, analyzed survey results from more than 21,000 internal medical trainees who took the 2016 Internal Medicine In-Training Examination and found 14% of respondents reported experiencing bullying during their residency. (Johnson, 8/13)

Houston Chronicle: Doctors Unaware Of Where Their Patients Live Impacts Care
Family physicians have little idea where their patients actually live, according to a new study, and that’s a major shortcoming given recent evidence showing the health impact of a person’s environment. The study, published online Monday in the Annals of Family Medicine, is being touted by the University of Houston College of Medicine, whose planned medical school will emphasize more community-oriented delivery of health care. One of its doctors was an investigator on the study. (Ackerman, 8/13)

The New York Times: How False Beliefs In Physical Racial Difference Still Live In Medicine Today
Today Cartwright’s 1851 paper reads like satire, Hamilton’s supposedly scientific experiments appear simply sadistic and, last year, a statue commemorating Sims in New York’s Central Park was removed after prolonged protest that included women wearing blood-splattered gowns in memory of Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy and the other enslaved women he brutalized. And yet, more than 150 years after the end of slavery, fallacies of black immunity to pain and weakened lung function continue to show up in modern-day medical education and philosophy. ... Recent data also shows that present-day doctors fail to sufficiently treat the pain of black adults and children for many medical issues. A 2013 review of studies examining racial disparities in pain management published in The American Medical Association Journal of Ethics found that black and Hispanic people — from children with appendicitis to elders in hospice care — received inadequate pain management compared with white counterparts. (Villarosa, 8/14)

The Washington Post: U.S. Health Panel Recommends Doctors Screen All Adults For Illicit Drug Use
The recommendation is the first time the panel has concluded there is enough evidence to support screening all adults. In 2008, it declined to do so. The guidance is important because the Affordable Care Act requires that services recommended by the task force be covered free or with very small co-payments. The proposed recommendations are open for public comment until Sept. 9, after which the task force will consider them for final approval. (Bernstein, 8/13)

The New York Times: Screen All Adult Patients For Drug Abuse, National Panel Urges
A national panel of health experts recommended on Tuesday that doctors screen all adult patients for illicit drug use, including improper use of prescription medications. But the group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, stopped short of endorsing such screening for teenagers, a position that puts them at odds with major adolescent health groups. The panel, which is appointed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services but operates independently, said that its proposed guidelines are intended to combat alarmingly high rates of substance abuse in the United States. It cited a 2017 federal survey that found 1 in 10 Americans ages 18 and older said they were using illicit drugs or not using medications in ways that doctors intended. (Hoffman, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Task Force Advises Doctors To Ask Adults About Illicit Drug Use
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—an independent panel of medical experts whose recommendations can be pivotal for insurance plans under existing federal law—released a draft recommendation that doctors ask their patients about illicit drug use, including opioid painkillers, so they can be directed to treatment. The panel also wants doctors to inquire about drug use on patient questionnaires in doctors’ offices. (Burton, 8/13)

Los Angeles Times: All U.S. Adults Should Be Screened For Illicit Drug Use, Expert Panel Says
Questions about drug use should not only cover the possibility that a patient is taking illegal street drugs like cocaine or heroin, the task force said. They should also explore whether a patient might be sneaking pills from a family member’s pain medication or getting a boost from stimulants prescribed for a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. (Healy, 8/13)

Stat: For First Time, U.S. Panel Recommends Screening Adults For Illicit Drug Use
As new ways to identify and treat people who use opioids and other drugs emerge, an independent panel of experts is recommending that health care providers screen their adult patients for illicit drug use. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has determined, for the first time, that there is enough evidence to state with “moderate certainty” that screening adults for illicit substance use is overall beneficial. (Flaherty, 8/13)

Boston Globe: Boston Council Revisits Safe Injection Sites Amid Tensions Over South End Sweep
A week after tensions over open drug use and disorderly conduct boiled over in a South End neighborhood, city councilors revisited the potential for safe injections sites in Boston, even as many municipal and state officials remain skeptical of the idea. Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George, chair of the council’s committee on homelessness, mental health, and recovery, said she plans to tour an injection site in Toronto in two weeks while researching the type of recovery services that city offers. (Valencia, 8/13)

WBUR: Somerville Mayor Plans To Open A Supervised Consumption Site Next Year
Despite opposition from federal prosecutors, the mayor of Somerville is pledging to open a clinic next year where doctors and nurses would monitor illegal drug use and could reverse an overdose. Joseph Curtatone says a supervised consumption site (SCS) in his city will save lives during the opioid crisis. (Oakes and Bebinger, 8/14)

MPR: As Stigma Lessens, Prescriptions Of Anti-Overdose Meds Surge
The opioid epidemic has claimed thousands of lives across Minnesota over the last two decades, but there are some signs the situation may be improving. The number of prescriptions for a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses rose dramatically last year. Some see the increased availability of the drug naloxone as a sign that prescribers are changing their practices, and that stigma around the anti-overdose medicine may be lessening. (Collins, 8/13)

Boston Globe: Meth Has Finally Taken Hold In Massachusetts
Methamphetamine, an illegal drug that has long plagued the West and Midwest, has finally taken hold in Massachusetts, posing a daunting new challenge to a state still grappling with the opioid crisis. Meth caught the public eye last week when it was blamed for aggressive behavior by street drug users in the South End. (Freyer, 8/13)

Miami Herald: Fort Lauderdale RN’s License Restricted After Drugs Disappear
Missing opioids, such as fentanyl, led to a Fort Lauderdale registered nurse being adjudged unsafe to practice nursing. Before Michelle Bungo got hit with an emergency restriction order (ERO) by the Florida Department of Health Aug. 5, the ERO says, she was fired by Holy Cross Hospital for violating its controlled substances handling policy. (Neal, 8/13)

NPR: Air Pollution May Be As Harmful To Your Lungs As Smoking Cigarettes, Study Finds
Emphysema is considered a smoker's disease. But it turns out, exposure to air pollution may lead to the same changes in the lung that give rise to emphysema. A new study published Tuesday in JAMA finds that long-term exposure to slightly elevated levels of air pollution can be linked to accelerated development of lung damage, even among people who have never smoked. (Janney, 8/13)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Hot Weather Lingers In New Orleans As Experts Warn Of Health Impacts 
New Orleans and most of Louisiana sweated through another day of oppressive heat Tuesday, with the city continuing to deal with excessively high temperatures that kept residents indoors and health care workers on alert. ...Hot weather in August in New Orleans is nothing new, but conditions in recent days have risen from uncomfortable to dangerous, particularly for the people most vulnerable to excessive heat, such as children, the elderly and those with certain chronic medical conditions. (Woodruff, 8/13)

KCUR: Climate Change Could Make Missouri A Mosquito Paradise, But Health Experts Warn We Aren’t Ready 
This year’s catastrophic flooding has created hard times for many people in Midwest, but it’s created a nirvana for mosquitoes. Kansas City and the surrounding region could potentially become a hotbed for mosquito-borne viruses like West Nile virus in the coming years due to increasing temperatures and more frequent flooding, which are predicted by climate experts. (Smith, 8/14)

Arizona Republic: Cleanup Of Cancer-Causing Toxins In Phoenix Has Been Delayed For Years
The water beneath a large swath of Phoenix isn’t fit to drink.A plume of toxic chemicals has tainted the groundwater for decades, and it's now at the center of a bitter fight over how the aquifer should be cleaned up and what should happen to the water in the future. At issue are questions about why the cleanup has proceeded slowly, which government agency should lead the effort, and whether the polluted water, which isn't flowing to household faucets, is releasing chemicals into the air at levels that may pose health risks for people in the area. (James and Nicla, 8/13)

NPR: Newark's Drinking Water Problem: Lead And Unreliable Filters
Last fall, Newark gave out more than 40,000 water filters, even going door to door to reach families with lead service lines. The toxin is believed to have leached into drinking water through the old pipes between water treatment plants and people's homes. Free filters and cartridges would remove 99% of lead, the city of Newark said. But recent test results introduced an element of doubt about that claim. ... Samples showed the filtered drinking water had lead levels exceeding 15 parts per billion, which is the federal and state standard, EPA regional administrator Peter Lopez said. (Ingber, 8/13)

CQ: Appeals Court Upholds Safety Net Hospital Payment Rule
A federal appeals court reinstated a 2017 Medicaid rule meant to change how federal payments to safety net hospitals are calculated .... Tuesday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit may not be the final word on the payment policy, as lawsuits in several jurisdictions challenged the rule and parallel appeals are pending before the 5th and 8th circuits. ... Some hospitals could lose millions of dollars because of how the rule changes calculations for federal uncompensated care payments. Eva Johnson, a senior adviser at the health law and policy firm Eyman Associates, said some children's hospitals in particular could be at risk of losing all of the federal payments they receive to offset uncompensated costs. (Siddons, 8/13)

Modern Healthcare: CHS' $891 Million Securities Fraud Lawsuit Gets Class
A federal judge granted class-action status to shareholders suing Community Health Systems over the hospital chain's leaders failing to disclose an alleged fraud scandal that hurt its stock price and downplaying the scandal's impact. The U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee certified the class in the $891 million securities fraud lawsuit to include anyone who bought stock in Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS between July 27, 2006, and April 8, 2011, excluding company executives, officers and directors and their immediately family members and legal representatives, among others. (Bannow, 8/13)

Los Angeles Times: $13 Million Awarded To Sexual Abuse Victims At Ventura Hospital
In a case experts say rarely goes to trial, a jury this week awarded more than $13 million to three women who were sexually assaulted while patients at a private psychiatric hospital in Ventura County. Three years ago, Juan Valencia, a mental health worker at Aurora Vista del Mar Hospital in Ventura, pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving female patients in 2013. He was sentenced to more than six years in jail. (Karlamangla, 8/13)

The Associated Press: Kentucky Nursing Home To Pay $2.2M In Negligence Lawsuit
A jury has ordered a Kentucky nursing home to pay more than $2.2 million in damages for acting negligently and failing to properly care for a 92-year-old patient with dementia. ... The nursing home was sued in 2017 over the death of Mary Opal Moore, who lived at the center from December 2014 to March 2015. The lawsuit says Moore wasn’t properly treated during her time at the facility and was kicked out over switching to Medicaid. She died weeks after leaving the facility. (8/13)

The Baltimore Sun: Big Retail, Office Development Begins Adjacent To New University Of Maryland Hospital In Prince George’s
When developers of a large complex of offices, shops, restaurants and apartments in the Washington suburbs open its first phase in 2021, they will be banking on a special draw: the University of Maryland Medical System’s newest hospital. The University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center is slated to open at about the same time on an adjacent site in Largo in Prince George’s County. It will replace the long-struggling Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, about nine miles away, on 25 acres of land acquired in a three-way deal with the developer and county. (Cohn, 8/14)

Kansas City Star: Kansas Tells Aetna It Needs A Better KanCare Improvement Plan
A Kansas Medicaid contractor facing allegations that it’s not living up to the terms of its $1 billion a year contract insists it’s doing better. The state says the company still isn’t doing well enough. (Shorman, 8/13)

KCUR: Kansas Medicaid Insurer Aetna On Even Thinner Ice With State Officials 
Aetna provides health insurance to around 100,000 Kansans under KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid system. It’s one of three companies with contracts to do so, and replaced one of the previous insurers in January. ... Complaints against Aetna include that the company doesn’t reimburse correctly or on time. Providers say they sometimes don’t get paid because Aetna demands advance permission for certain basic procedures. They also complain that the company hasn’t put together a complete directory of physicians and specialists that it covers. (Llopis-Jepsen, 8/13)

The Associated Press: Kansas Says Aetna Still Not Living Up To Contract Terms
The Kansas health department says insurance company Aetna is still not living up to the terms of its $1 billion contract with the state’s Medicaid program. The Wichita Eagle reports that the state has rejected a corrective action plan Aetna submitted in response to a non-compliance letter Kansas sent it last month. (8/13)

The Associated Press: Louisiana Health Leaders Defend Medicaid Contract Decisions
Louisiana health department leaders Tuesday defended new Medicaid managed care contracts and tried to reassure lawmakers that health plan changes won’t disrupt patient access to services, even as legal disputes threaten to create further complications. More than a half-million Medicaid recipients will have to transfer to new health plans under the contract changes. (DeSlatte, 8/13)

Concord Monitor: Telemedicine Now Covered By N.H. Medicaid For Primary Care Visits, Substance Use Disorder
The technology continues to improve. But for years, telemedicine has been out of reach for many – costly, sparse and often not covered by insurance. That may change soon, with a new law to expand telemedicine for low-income Granite Staters. Following the signing of a bill this week by Gov. Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s Medicaid program will soon cover the use of the technology for primary care visits, substance-use treatment and more. (DeWitt, 8/13)

The Associated Press: Opponents Warn A Tennessee Abortion Ban Will Cost Taxpayers
Tennessee lawmakers were warned Tuesday that, should the GOP-controlled Legislature choose to pass one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, taxpayers will likely be forced to pick up cost of the losing battle. Abortion rights groups threatened to sue the state during the two-day hearing revolving around proposed legislation seeking to ban abortion once a pregnancy is detected. However, Republican lawmakers bristled at similar sentiments from the GOP-friendly Tennessee Right to Life. (Kruesi, 8/13)

The Star Tribune: State Senators Demand Answers After Weeks Of Problems At DHS 
Minnesota state senators leveled a blistering critique of the state Department of Human Services during a wide-ranging hearing Tuesday. The sprawling $17.5 billion social service agency has been beset in recent months with a leadership shuffle, a whistleblower action over contract compliance and an acknowledgment that the agency overpaid two Indian bands approximately $25 million for substance-abuse treatment in recent years. (Coolican, 8/13)

Pioneer Press: DHS Retaliation, Overpayment Issues Aired At MN Senate Hearing
A compliance officer from the Minnesota Department of Human Services told a panel of state senators Tuesday that she could be fired for speaking to them about issues within the sprawling agency. The acting commissioner of DHS did not rule out the possibility that taxpayers could foot the bill for some $25.3 million the agency overpaid to two Native American tribes. And the ousted medical director of the state Medicaid program said DHS leaders displayed “unconscionable arrogance” when making decisions that could impact scores of Minnesotans. (Faircloth, 8/13)

Columbus Dispatch: Legislator Says He Introduced Bill To Keep Kratom Legal In Ohio To Spur Discussion
An Ohio legislator submitted a bill Tuesday to legalize kratom, a controversial supplement held up by proponents and users as a treatment for opioid withdrawal. The Ohio Board of Pharmacy is considering listing kratom as a Schedule I Controlled Substance in Ohio, putting it in the same category as drugs such as heroin, which would in effect ban it. If approved, Rep. Gary Scherer’s proposed Kratom Consumer Protection Act would keep the supplement legal under state law. (Cooley, 8/13)

USA Today: NYPD Officer Kills Himself Amid Rash Of Police Suicides
A New York Police Department officer killed himself Tuesday in Yonkers, the eighth NYPD officer to die by suicide this year. ... "The NYPD suffered another tragedy today with the loss of another officer to suicide," the department said in a Tweet. "To those who may be facing struggles – Help is always available, you are not alone." (Spillane, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: NYPD Officer Kills Himself In Eighth Department Suicide This Year
NYPD officials have said that in a typical year four or five officers die by suicide and called the spike in 2019 a mental health crisis. ... The NYPD said that 2019 is on track to see the highest number of officer suicides in a year in more than a decade. Four of the six deaths in 2019 occurred in June, a cluster that prompted police officials to rethink mental health protocols and ask departments in other cities for advice on how they are working to prevent officer suicides. (Chapman, 8/13)

The New York Times: 8th N.Y. Police Officer Dies By Suicide, Further Unsettling The Force
The officer, Johnny Rios, worked in the 50th Precinct and had been temporarily assigned to a detail at Yankee Stadium. He had been with the department for seven years and had no blemishes on his record, the police said. Gerard Rios, 60, an older brother, said that his younger brother had been melancholic in the last few months after losing his father, Evaristo Rios, 80, in April and after the recent suicide of a fellow officer, Kevin Preiss. (Sandoval, 8/13)

Pioneer Press: MN Health Officials See Vaping Link To Severe Lung Injuries
Four cases of severe lung injury in Minnesota that may be related to vaping have state health officials concerned that what’s been billed by some as a relatively harmless substitution for smoking has hidden dangers, especially among young people. ...In the Twin Cities, Children’s Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics has reported four cases in which the teenage patients, who used e-cigarettes, were hospitalized for weeks, some in intensive care, all with respiratory issues. (Weniger, 8/13)

Boston Globe: It’s Code Red For EEE In Nine Communities South Of Boston
There will be no more evening concerts on the lawn at Middleborough Town Hall this summer – forget about hearing the Vegas Valentinos — and all outdoor activities, including youth football, have been canceled in Carver from dusk to dawn. Similar restrictions are in place throughout Southeastern Massachusetts until the first frost eliminates the danger of contracting the dangerous mosquito-borne disease Eastern equine encephalitis in what state officials are calling a “really bad year” for the disease. (Seltz, 8/13)

New Hampshire Union Leader: EEE Found In Mosquito Test Batch In Pelham
Eastern Equine Encephalitis has been found in a mosquito test batch in Pelham, and the town has plans to spray parks, fields and schools. No people in New Hampshire have gotten the virus this year, but the state Department of Health and Human Services said it is possible. A man in southeastern Massachusetts has been infected with the virus, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced Saturday. (8/13)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: VA Labor Contract Would Harm Workers, Protesters Say
Holding signs and banners that read "Don't Privatize the VA," "Union Busting is Disgusting" and "VA Employees Deserve Dignity, Fairness, Respect," a small group stood on a sidewalk near Milwaukee's VA Medical Center Tuesday afternoon to protest employee contract negotiations. ... In early May, the Department of Veterans Affairs proposed a new collective bargaining agreement with more than 250,000 federal employees that would sharply limit the number of hours VA employees can perform union work while on the clock. The VA contends its proposal would also empower supervisors, streamline hiring and job classifications and make sure the contract doesn't interfere with the MISSION Act, which funnels tax dollars to private health care facilities for veteran care. (Jones, 8/13)

The CT Mirror: Correction Department To Begin Testing, Treating Inmates For Hepatitis C
The [Connecticut] Department of Correction says it will begin testing and treating inmates for the Hepatitis C virus this fall. The department’s announcement was issued in an Aug. 7 memorandum from Commissioner Rollin Cook, who began his tenure in December. (Phaneuf and Lyons, 8/13)

MPR: What You Need To Know About Hepatitis A Amid Outbreak In Minnesota
Last week, the Minnesota Department of Health declared an outbreak of hepatitis A in the state. Health officials across nine counties have reported nearly two dozen cases of the liver infection since May. (John and Hallberg, 8/13)

Stat: Alzheimer’s Advocates Are Swarming Politicians At The Iowa State Fair
The Iowa State Fair is a rite of passage for presidential candidates — they eat weird fried food, kiss babies, and answer question after question about their vision for America. But this year the candidates got a different sort of question, over and over again: What’s your plan for fighting Alzheimer’s? Volunteers with the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, the advocacy arm of the Alzheimer’s Association, swarmed the state fair this weekend and posed that question to nearly every Democratic presidential candidate at the fair. (Florko, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Councilwoman Wants Patient Advocate Office
A bill set to be introduced Wednesday in the New York City Council seeks to create a new office to receive and report on complaints against health-care facilities and providers. Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, chairwoman of the council’s Committee on Hospitals, is seeking to create an office of the patient advocate housed within the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The office would help people regarding medical services and coverage, including concerns or inquiries relating to providers, facilities and health insurance. (West, 8/13)

The New York Times: ‘Juul-Alikes’ Are Filling Shelves With Sweet, Teen-Friendly Nicotine Flavors
After Juul Labs, under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, stopped selling most of its hugely popular flavored nicotine pods in stores last fall, upstart competitors swooped in to grab the shelf space. Trumpeting their own fruity and candy-flavored pods as compatible with Juul devices, they have seen their sales soar. The proliferation of “Juul-alikes” is not only complicating Juul’s efforts to clean up its tarnished image, but also shows just how entrenched the youth vaping problem has become and that voluntary measures are unlikely to solve it. (Kaplan, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: The ‘Public-Charge’ Ploy
President Trump in his better moments has said he wants, and the U.S. needs, more legal immigrants. But that’s hard to square with the way his Administration is now trying to curtail legal immigration under the pretext of preventing America from becoming a welfare magnet. The Department of Homeland Security on Monday finalized a rule that ostensibly seeks to enforce and clarify the Immigration and Nationality Act. That law bars immigrants from gaining admission, renewing visas or obtaining green cards if they are “likely at any time to become a public charge.” (8/13)

The Washington Post: How President Trump’s New Immigration Rule Could Erode The Social Safety Net
What is different about this most recent interpretation of a very old immigration law however, is not just that it enacts a wealth test on potential migrants, but that it does so by placing benefits and support services widely considered critical to public health and human dignity on the line. In closely tying the mere potential for public dependence to moral failure, the Trump administration attacks not only immigrants, but the very legitimacy of the social safety net. (Salonee Bhaman, 8/14)

The CT Mirror: Make Healthcare Accessible, Not A Hurdle For Immigrants
Barriers to accessing health insurance will increase uninsured rates and worsen health outcomes for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and 22 million noncitizens residing in the United States. While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded coverage to millions of Americans, it left intact the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PROWRA), which excluded undocumented immigrants from government-funded insurance including Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)). The cost of uninsurance, in both economic and health terms, is immeasurable. (Grace Jin and Howard Forman, 8/14)

The Washington Post: More Evidence That Abortion Bans Are Widely Unpopular
A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds a majority of Americans (54 percent) think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 25 percent think it should be illegal in most cases, and only 15 percent think it should be illegal in all cases. “Although a few states such as Alabama and Missouri have recently passed laws that — should they survive court challenges — would make abortion illegal with virtually no exceptions, there is no state in which more than one-quarter of residents say abortion should be illegal in all cases,” the polls finds. “States with the largest proportion of residents who say abortion should be illegal in all cases include: Louisiana (23%), Mississippi (22%), Arkansas (21%), Nebraska (21%), Tennessee (21%), Kentucky (20%), and North Dakota (20%). In all other states, including Alabama (16%) and Missouri (19%), fewer than one in five think abortion should be illegal in all cases.” (Jennifer Rubin, 8/13)

The Washington Post: For Many Women In Texas, Seeking An Abortion Has Become An Insurmountable Hurdle
God help women who get pregnant in Texas and regret it. That’s especially true for women who live in the state’s vast geography west of Interstate 35, where abortion is no longer available, with the sole exception of a clinic in the distant border city of El Paso. Women in Texas contend with state political leaders who treat legal abortion more like a sin and a crime. The Texas legislature convenes only once every two years, but that usually means things are going to get worse for women seeking reproductive services. Politics and religion, more than science or medicine, have driven most of the new restrictions on abortion here since 2011. (Robert Rivard, 8/13)

Nashville Tennessean: 'Heartbeat Bill' Would Have Unintended, Unconstitutional Consequences
Now the Senate is considering a bill that’s will have the effect of not only eliminating abortion, but also making a Tennessean’s choice of contraception a criminal act. If it passes this committee, it will go the Senate, where it will pass along partisan lines unless Tennesseans speak up. This is a watershed moment for the constitutional right to privacy of the citizens of this state. If they are criminalizing abortion and contraception now, what’s next? Eliminating all birth control, hysterectomies and vasectomies? It’s not too late to say something to your senator, the Judiciary Committee or the governor.  (J. Scott “Skip” Rudsenske , 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Violent Young Men, Here And Abroad 
America’s young male killers, who glory in indiscriminate slaughter, are a Western eruption of a larger phenomenon. What’s often called “stateless terrorism,” or deadly extremism by individuals and groups, could as accurately be described as a male crackup. This convulsion has been most acute in the Muslim Middle East, where modern authoritarianism has bulldozed the past, freeing young men from once-powerful social constraints and exposing them to a radical religious rebellion. America—the relentless engine of innovation and change—now also faces an outbreak of disconnected young men murdering exuberantly. (Reuel Marc Gerecht, 8/13)

The Hill: An Effective Public Service Announcement Can Prevent Vet Suicides 
Most adults in the United States clearly remember the solitary tear that rolled down the face of Iron Eyes Cody, the Native American featured in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement (PSA) throughout the 1970s and '80s that encouraged us not to litter. More importantly, however, as a result of this PSA, they remember that they stopped littering. Despite the fact that, every 11 minutes someone dies by suicide, and the fact that many of those individuals are veterans, few people have the same recollection of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s “Be There for Veterans” PSA, which has aired on-and-off since 2017. (Rory Riley-Topping and Andrew Vernon, 8/13)

Stat: Dementia Friendly Projects And Communities Are Sorely Needed
For baby boomers and their parents, there’s no biomedical solution in sight for preventing or curing dementia. That means we need to help people face the prospect of living with dementia and support families affected by it through dementia-friendly policies aligned with their needs.Where should we start? One place is at the movies. (Nancy Berlinger, 8/14)

The Hill: Private Sector Versus Medicare? It's Basically The Same Thing
Here’s a yes or no question that most Americans, including those running for president get wrong: Is Medicare run by the government? Before I started working at Medicare after a decade in health care, I would have said so. But after several years at the agency, I came to realize that the better one-word answer is actually no — Medicare in truth is run by private industry.  Sure, the relatively tiny number of employees at the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) play a key oversight role, but they don’t in any real sense deliver Medicare to the American people. The principal job of CMS’s 6,200 employees is to manage contracts with hundreds of private companies, both small and large, that together provide Medicare to us all. (Ted Doolittle, 8/13)

WBUR: Moving Away From 'White People Only' DNA Tests: African Project Seeks Thousands For Mental Health Genetics
Much research has found that such family resemblance is influenced by genes more than by any other risk factor, and genes are emerging as important clues for new treatments. But research on the genetic basis of mental illness has so far largely excluded anyone who is not of European heritage. That means that this Kenyan family, and other people of African descent, might not benefit from the new biological insights into mental illness. (Anne Stevenson and Lukoye Atwoli, 8/13)

Austin American-Statesman: Texas Needs Smarter Approach To HPV Vaccinations
Only 40% of Texas teens are up to date on the HPV vaccination, trailing the national average by 9 percentage points, the Texas Tribune reported this week. Texas has the fifth-highest rate of cervical cancer cases in the country. State officials chalked up 431 deaths and $41 million in hospital care last year to the disease — terrible costs that could be reduced if more people were vaccinated. (8/13)