The New York Times: F.D.A. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Who Fought Teenage Vaping, Resigns
Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, known for his aggressive efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries, said on Tuesday that he would resign at the end of the month. The reason he gave was family and his weariness with commuting to see his wife and three children, who have remained in their Westport, Conn. home since he took office. But his announcement caught many in Washington and the industries he regulates by surprise and raised questions about whether his push to reduce teenage vaping and lower nicotine levels and ban menthol in cigarettes will continue in an administration that generally has a hands-off approach to business. (Kaplan and Hoffman, 3/5)

Stat: FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb To Resign 
“Over the past 23 months, I’ve been privileged to work with an outstanding team at the Food and Drug Administration, and to collaborate with the professional staff on implementation of many meaningful incentives that have advanced the public health,” Gottlieb wrote. “I’m fortunate for the opportunity that the President of the United States afforded me to lead this outstanding team, at this time, in this period of wonderful scientific advances.” (Facher, Florko and Swetlitz, 3/5)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Chief Tough On E-Cigs Steps Down In Surprise Resignation
Gottlieb was well regarded by public health advocates and won bipartisan support for his efforts to curb use of flavored e-cigarettes by youths, speed approval times for cheap generic medicines to increase competition and bring down drug prices, and boost the use of cheaper versions of expensive biotech medicines called biosimilars. Unlike his predecessors, who said drug pricing was not the purview of the FDA, Gottlieb waded into the intensifying debate about the high cost of medicines for U.S. consumers and had the agency actively looking into possible solutions. (Abutaleb, 3/6)

The Washington Post: FDA Commissioner Gottlieb, Who Raised Alarms About Teen Vaping, Resigns
“It was a very hard decision,” Gottlieb said in an interview. “This is the best job I will ever have. I’m leaving because I need to spend time with my family. I get home late Friday, work on weekends and come back to Washington on Sunday. I did the job 100 percent." The resignation was not sought by the White House. A senior White House official said Gottlieb had spoken to President Trump, and that the president liked the FDA chief and did not want him to leave. (McGinley, Bernstein and Dawsey, 3/5)

The Associated Press: FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb Steps Down After Nearly 2 Years
President Donald Trump tapped Gottlieb in 2017 to “cut red tape” at the FDA. But Gottlieb bucked expectations by pushing the agency to expand its authorities in several key ways, including an unprecedented effort to make cigarettes less addictive by requiring lower nicotine levels. The 46-year-old physician and former conservative pundit advanced his agenda while managing to maintain the support of the president, Republicans and key Democrats in Congress. (Perrone, 3/5)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb To Leave Agency
A 46-year-old physician, Dr. Gottlieb joins a long list of other senior Trump administration officials who have left their roles. Dr. Gottlieb, who has been commuting to Washington from Connecticut during the workweek, has told those close to him he is resigning to reduce the strain on his wife and three young children. His exit will take effect sometime over the next month, after which he is likely to seek a post in the private sector, according to people familiar with his plans. “All of us at HHS are proud of the remarkable work Commissioner Gottlieb has done at the FDA,” Mr. Azar said. “He has been an exemplary public-health leader, aggressive advocate for American patients and passionate promoter of innovation.” (Burton and Maloney, 3/5)

Politico: ‘Something Very Rare’: FDA’s Gottlieb Aggressively Tackled Difficult Issues
FDA leaders have typically focused much of their attention on a handful of medical topics, but Gottlieb has been active and aggressive on many issues as commissioner without hewing to a strictly conservative or liberal ideology. It’s an approach that’s won him praise from many in the health sector, while garnering criticism from several of the targeted businesses like tobacco companies and the fast-growing e-cigarette industries. “He was able to do something very rare: He never got embroiled in a scandal, never got labeled with a toxic administration brush and had a great relationship with the President all at the same time,” said one former White House official. (Owermohle, Karlin-Smith and Bottemiller Evich, 3/5)

The Hill: FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb Resigns 
Members of Congress who worked with Gottlieb called him an effective leader and public servant. “In all my years of public service, I’ve never worked with a more talented, forthright, and effective agency leader than Dr. Scott Gottlieb," said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the top Republican on the House Energy & Commerce Committee. (Hellmann and Weixel, 3/5)

CQ: FDA Commissioner Departing Next Month
Gottlieb was particularly deft at maintaining relationships on Capitol Hill after a mostly partisan confirmation vote in 2017. His inner office included Republican staff alumni of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees. He recently hired Doug Andres, who last worked for former Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. The commissioner made efforts to win over Democrats, often by focusing on granting some of their parochial requests. He appeased members of New England delegations by accommodating exceptions for added sugar labeling in honey and maple syrup, and won over dairy country lawmakers by opening up a process to consider whether plant-based milks can really be called "milk.” (Clason and Siddons, 3/5)

NPR: FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb Announces He Will Resign
Gottlieb was not without his critics. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, disapproved of his recent decision to approve Dsuvia, a powerful opioid painkiller. Despite Warnings, FDA Approves Potent New Opioid Painkiller"[H]is tenure as commissioner was marked by regulatory decision making regarding medications and medical devices that tilted further in favor of industry's financial interests rather than the interests of public health," Dr. Michael Carome, Director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in a statement. (Wamsley and Wroth, 3/5)

Stat: On Twitter, Praise For Scott Gottlieb Sprinkled With Dissenting Views 
Scott Gottlieb is stepping down as leader of the FDA — and many in health and medicine quickly turned to Twitter to express their displeasure. Gottlieb, who has served as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration since May 2017, announced on Tuesday that he plans to leave his post in one month. During his tenure, the FDA broke annual records for generic drug approvals, cracked down on unproven stem cell treatments, and took new steps to curb youth e-cigarette use. (Thielking, 3/5)

Stat: Scott Gottlieb’s Sudden Resignation Will Give Biotech A Panic Attack 
Scott Gottlieb, the highly effective and well-liked commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, announced Tuesday that he would quit, leaving himself only a month to wrap up his plans like spurring the development of new drugs and regulating electronic cigarettes. That news is likely to leave biotech and pharma executives, who largely adored Gottlieb, nervous at best and frightened at worst. Likewise, health care investors. (Herper and Feuerstein, 3/5)

The Associated Press: FDA Allows Treatment Of Depression With Club Drug's Cousin
A mind-altering medication related to the club drug Special K won U.S. approval Tuesday for patients with hard-to-treat depression, the first in a series of long-overlooked substances being reconsidered for severe forms of mental illness. The nasal spray from Johnson & Johnson is a chemical cousin of ketamine, which has been used for decades as a powerful anesthetic to prepare patients for surgery. (3/5)

The New York Times: Fast-Acting Depression Drug, Newly Approved, Could Help Millions
The move heralds a shift from the Prozac era of antidepressant drugs. The newly approved treatment, called esketamine, is a nasal spray developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a branch of Johnson & Johnson, that will be marketed under the name Spravato. It contains an active portion of the ketamine molecule, whose antidepressant properties are not well understood yet. “Thank goodness we now have something with a different mechanism of action than previous antidepressants,” said Dr. Erick Turner, a former F.D.A. reviewer and an associate professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University. “But I’m skeptical of the hype, because in this world it’s like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown: Each time we get our hopes up, the football gets pulled away.” (Carey, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Esketamine: FDA Approves New Antidepressant To Treat Most Debilitating Cases
The label for the drug will carry a black box warning – the most serious safety warning issued by the FDA. It will caution users they could experience sedation and problems with attention, judgment and thinking, and that there’s potential for abuse and suicidal thoughts. People who take esketamine will have to be monitored for at least two hours after receiving a dose to guard against some of these side effects. (Johnson and McGinley, 3/5)

NPR: Ketamine-Derived Drug Spravato For Major Depression Gets FDA Approval
But esketamine presents some challenges because of its similarities to ketamine. In high doses, both drugs can cause sedation and out-of-body experiences. And ketamine, often called Special K in its illicit form, has become a popular party drug. So Johnson & Johnson is taking steps to make sure esketamine will be used only as intended, Billington said. "Spravato will not be dispensed directly to a patient to take at home," he said. "It will only be available in approved and certified treatment centers." (Hamilton, 3/5)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Approves Controversial Drug For Depression
The discovery that ketamine can help ease symptoms of depression—and within hours, rather than the weeks required for antidepressants such as Prozac or Zoloft—has shaken up the field of psychiatry. Ketamine targets a different receptor in the brain and appears to have a more direct effect than those drugs. “It really has opened up a whole new way of thinking about depression,” Gerard Sanacora, professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and director of the Yale Depression Research Program, said of ketamine. Dr. Sanacora was an investigator on some of J&J’s clinical trials of Spravato. (McKay and Loftus, 3/5)

The New York Times: How To Quit Antidepressants: Very Slowly, Doctors Say
Thousands, perhaps millions, of people who try to quit antidepressant drugs experience stinging withdrawal symptoms that last for months to years: insomnia, surges of anxiety, even so-called brain zaps, sensations of electric shock in the brain. But doctors have dismissed or downplayed such symptoms, often attributing them to the recurrence of underlying mood problems. The striking contrast between the patients’ experience and their doctors’ judgment has stirred heated debate in Britain, where last year the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists publicly denied claims of lasting withdrawal in “the vast majority of patients.” (Carey, 3/5)

Stat: FDA Approves Esketamine, First Major Depression Drug In Decades 
Not all experts are convinced there was enough data to approve esketamine yet. “The threshold has been two adequate and well-controlled trials. In this case, they only got one,” Dr. Erick Turner, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University, told STAT in an interview last month. Turner serves on the FDA advisory committee that recommended last month that the FDA approve esketamine, but didn’t take part in that meeting. (Thielking, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood, American Medical Association Sue Trump Administration Over Abortion ‘Gag Rule’
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Medical Association have filed a lawsuit to block a new federal rule that would prohibit clinics participating in a program for low-income women from referring them for abortions. The groups argued in a filing in U.S. District Court in Oregon on Tuesday that the requirement would violate patients’ rights, force doctors to withhold information and harm the 4 million patients who rely on the Title X program for their health care. (Cha, 3/5)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood, Doctors Group Sue Trump Over Family Planning Program Changes 
“Because of the administration’s overreach and interference in health care decision making, physicians will be prohibited from having open, frank conversations with their patients about all their healthcare options. This blatant violation of patients’ rights under the Code of Medical Ethics is untenable,” said AMA President Barbara McAneny. (Hellmann, 3/5)

Pioneer Press: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Challenges Trump Over Abortion Rule 
Minnesota is one of 20 states suing President Donald Trump’s administration to block a new rule that would bar Planned Parenthood and other federally funded health clinics from talking with patients about abortion. The lawsuit, filed in an Oregon U.S. District Court, alleges that a new “gag rule” imposed on recipients of federal Title X family planning funding is an overreach of power and will deprive women of “medically sound, unbiased and affordable health care.” (Magan, 3/5)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Attorney General Joins Lawsuit Against Trump Administration’s Title X Abortion Gag Rule
Pennsylvania has joined 21 states that are challenging the legality of the Trump administration’s changes to the Title X family planning program, including a rule barring funding to clinics that make abortion referrals. Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Tuesday announced the state’s participation in the national lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore. (McCullough, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Measles Outbreak: Washington Health Secretary Calls For National Campaign To Combat Anti-Vaxxers
A Senate panel warned lawmakers Tuesday about the dangers of false information about vaccines and called for a national campaign, similar to the one against smoking, to counter the public health threat posed by anti-vaccine groups. Virtually all the witnesses and members of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which held the hearing, endorsed the safety and importance of vaccines. But one senator, Rand Paul, (R-Ky.), struck a defiant note. (Sun, 3/5)

The Hill: Paul Says Forced Vaccinations Is 'Giving Up On Liberty For A False Sense Of Security' 
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday the government should not force parents to vaccinate their children. "I believe that the benefits of vaccines greatly outweigh the risks, but I still do not favor giving up on liberty for a false sense of security," Paul said during a Senate hearing focused on the rise in preventable disease outbreaks. (Hellmann, 3/5)

Politico: Rand Paul Condemns Mandatory Vaccines Amid Measles Outbreak
Paul's comments were quickly rebuked by his Republican colleague and a fellow doctor, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who said he knew patients who needed liver transplants because they avoided vaccinations. He and other witnesses pointed out that communities become vulnerable to preventable infections when not enough people have been vaccinated, a concept known as herd immunity. "If you're such a believer in liberty that you should not be vaccinated, there should be consequences if you infect others," Cassidy said. (Ehley, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Teen Tells Senate Why He Defied His Mom To Get Vaccinated
An Ohio teen defied his mother's anti-vaccine beliefs and started getting his shots when he turned 18 — and told Congress on Tuesday that it's crucial to counter fraudulent claims on social media that scare parents. Ethan Lindenberger of Norwalk, Ohio, said his mother's "love, affection and care is apparent," but that she was steeped in online conspiracies that make him and his siblings vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases like the ongoing measles outbreaks. (3/5)

The Washington Post: Ethan Lindenberger: Facebook’s Anti-Vax Problem Intensified In Congressional Testimony
Most importantly, Lindenberger said, was the impact Facebook’s anti-vax communities had on his family. “I feel like if my mom didn’t interact with that information, and she wasn’t swayed by those arguments and stories, it could’ve potentially changed everything,” he said. “My entire family could’ve been vaccinated.” Lindenberger said that he believed his older siblings, who predate Facebook, had been vaccinated. He said his younger siblings have not. (Brice-Saddler, 3/5)

The New York Times: What Really Makes A Difference In Vaccination Rates?
Social media companies face increasing scrutiny for amplifying fringe anti-vaccine sentiment amid measles outbreaks in several states like Washington. In response, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest recently made headlines by announcing initiatives to reduce vaccine misinformation on their platforms. But the focus on anti-vaccine content on social media can obscure the most important factor in whether children get vaccinated: the rules in their home states, which are being revisited in legislative debates across the country that have received far less attention. (Nyhan, 3/6)

In other news —

The Oregonian: Clark County Identifies Another Place People Might Have Been Exposed To Measles 
Clark County Public Health has added a new location to places people might have been exposed to measles. There are 75 people between Washington and Oregon who have measles and two people in Clark County are suspected of having measles but not confirmed. PeaceHealth, a hospital system based in Vancouver, has shown up on the list before, but health officials have added a new instance when someone infected with measles might have passed it to others. (Harbarger, 3/5)

Los Angeles Times: When Measles Struck, Investigators Wanted Answers. Instead, Some Parents Lied
As a measles outbreak spread in Northern California last spring, public health workers called the family of a young boy who they feared had been exposed to the disease. The boy’s mother, however, said her 7-year-old already had his shots, so they need not worry. A month later, health investigators found out she had lied. The boy, who had since caught measles, spread it to his brother and uncle, said Dr. George Han, deputy health officer in Santa Clara County. (Karlamangla, 3/5)

PBS NewsHour: Measles Outbreak Sparks Fears, Renews Tensions Over Mandatory Vaccination
Over 200 cases of measles have been confirmed in the U.S. in the past few months. About half of them occurred in the Pacific Northwest, leading Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to declare an emergency and the state legislature to propose further restricting, or even eliminating, inoculation exemptions. Nonetheless, opposition to mandatory vaccines remains fierce. (Wise, 3/5)

The Hill: Dem Campaign Chief: Medicare For All Price Tag 'a Little Scary' 
The House Democrats’ new campaign chief on Tuesday poured cold water on the progressive Medicare for All plan, dismissing it as just “one idea” out there and warning that its estimated $33 trillion price tag was “a little scary.” “The ‘Green New Deal’ is an idea. ‘Medicare for all’ is an idea. But there are many others that are out there,” Rep. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said in an interview with The Hill. (Wong and Lillis, 3/6)

Meanwhile —

The Hill: Turning The Tables On Health Care 
Ever since ObamaCare passed in 2010, Republicans have sought to weaponize it against Democrats, and Brad Woodhouse has been ready to turn the tables. Woodhouse, a veteran Democratic operative, works as executive director of Protect Our Care, where he helped to bring health care to the forefront of the 2018 midterm elections. (Weixel, 3/5)

The New York Times: Border At ‘Breaking Point’ As More Than 76,000 Migrants Cross In A Month
The number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has once again broken records, with unauthorized entries nearly doubling what they were a year ago, suggesting that the Trump administration’s aggressive policies have not discouraged new migration to the United States. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, an 11-year high and a strong sign that stepped-up prosecutions, new controls on asylum and harsher detention policies have not reversed what remains a powerful lure for thousands of families fleeing violence and poverty. (Dickerson, 3/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Record Immigration Surge At The Border
“This situation is not sustainable,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said while releasing the numbers Tuesday. “The system is well beyond capacity and remains at the breaking point.” On Tuesday afternoon, the White House highlighted the new numbers, saying they “reflect an ever-worsening crisis on our southern border.” Mr. McAleenan said his agency was taking steps to establish a center near El Paso, Texas, specifically to process families and children, and in particular, to conduct medical assessments. (Caldwell and Radnofsky, 3/5)

The New York Times: More Migrants Are Crossing The Border This Year. What’s Changed?
President Trump has tried to halt the arrival of undocumented migrants by beefing up border security, limiting who qualifies for asylum and, for a while, separating migrant children from their parents at the border. However, figures released on Tuesday suggest that those measures are failing to deter tens of thousands of migrants from journeying over land to the United States. Indeed, after shriveling to the smallest total in five decades, the number of migrants intercepted at the southern border — the best indicator of how many undocumented people are entering the United States — is soaring again. (Jordan, 3/5)

And in related news —

The Associated Press: Company Behind Florida Migrant Children Camp Drops IPO Plans
The corporation behind a Florida detention camp for migrant children abandoned its plans to go public Tuesday as controversy grows around policies that lock up children crossing the Mexico border. The chairman of Caliburn International Corp., Thomas J. Campbell, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it no longer wishes to conduct a public offering. (Gomez Licon, 3/5)

The New York Times: A Mother And Daughter Both Have H.I.V. The U.S. Lets In Only One.
Even after more than six months, Kirad wasn’t used to sharing a bed with her mother. She was now 17, and ever since they arrived in New York after fleeing Honduras, they were stuck in the same room. They were staying in a tiny bungalow in Far Rockaway, Queens, that belonged to Kirad’s aunt. The only common space was a kitchen just big enough to squeeze in a love seat and a small table. Every surface was covered with pots and pans, cereal boxes and bags of food. “We fight sometimes over the TV,” Kirad said, “because my mom wants to watch something and I want to watch something different so I go to my aunt’s room.” (Fertig, 3/6)

Modern Healthcare: Mental Health Coverage Case Lost By UnitedHealth Unit For Denying Claims
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that United Behavioral Health breached its fiduciary duty to patients by using unreasonable and overly restrictive guidelines to make coverage decisions for tens of thousands of mental health and substance abuse patients. The decision, if upheld on appeal, could have wide ramifications of what insurers must cover in the fast-growing behavioral healthcare sector.The case stems from two consolidated class-action lawsuits filed in 2014 against UnitedHealth Group's United Behavioral Health, the nation's largest behavioral health insurer. (Meyer, 3/5)

The New York Times: Mental Health Treatment Denied To Customers By Giant Insurer’s Policies, Judge Rules
U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero found that United Behavioral Health, the insurer’s unit that administers treatments for mental illness and addiction in private health plans, had violated its fiduciary duty under federal law. In his 106-page decision, Judge Spero described the company’s guidelines as “unreasonable and an abuse of discretion” and having been “infected” by financial incentives meant to restrict access to care. “There is an excessive emphasis on addressing acute symptoms and stabilizing crises while ignoring the effective treatment of members’ underlying conditions,” he said. He dismissed much of the testimony by UnitedHealth’s experts as “evasive — and even deceptive.” (Abelson, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Aims To Stem Vet Suicide With Outreach, Local Grants
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at stemming a persistently high number of veteran suicides, urging expanded outreach by awarding grants to community programs. The order creates a Cabinet-level task force that will seek to develop a national roadmap for suicide prevention, bringing in state and local organizations to raise awareness among the high-risk group. It directs the task force led by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to finalize a plan in 12 months. (Yen, 3/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Orders Creation Of Task Force Addressing Veteran Suicide
The task force will be designed to coordinate federal and state resources and will incorporate private and not-for-profit institutions to provide technical assistance and grants aimed at prevention efforts. “Veteran suicide is a tragedy of staggering proportions,” Mr. Trump said at a White House event Tuesday where he signed the executive order. Citing statistics on the number of veterans who commit suicides, the president asked: “Who would believe that’s possible?” The task force will likely require a new budget appropriation, according to an administration official. (Kesling, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: Veteran Suicide Task Force Created By White House
"The intention is not to have it government as usual," the official said, describing the effort as an umbrella effect of bringing private hospitals, academic medical centers, faith-based groups, tribal health centers and veterans service organizations together to work on an overarching strategy. He added that the closest analogy for the program is likely the VA's partnership with the Housing and Urban Development Department to help homeless veterans. The administration is also likely to tap into the program, known as HUD-VASH, since it brings in VA case managers to connect homeless veterans with health, mental health and substance abuse treatment as well as housing vouchers. More than 85,000 veterans had active HUD-VASH vouchers at the end of fiscal 2018. (Luthi, 3/5)

In other veterans' health care news —

Pioneer Press: MN Veterans Would Get A Shortcut To Medical Marijuana, Under This Bill
Veterans who want to enroll in Minnesota’s medical cannabis program could skip a pricey first step under a new House bill. Under current law, those who want to enter the program must first find a doctor who will certify their qualifying condition. This can cost a few hundred dollars. The federal VA health system does not let its doctors certify veterans for medical cannabis. Veterans must seek out another doctor and pay out of pocket. (Faircloth, 3/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Industry Debates Hospital Accreditation Rules
Companies and organizations tied to health-care accreditation have offered differing views on whether the Trump administration should establish new rules or guidance to curb potential conflicts of interest in the industry, ahead of a possible action later this year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, has received more than 120 comments over several months on actions it may take to rein in financial arrangements in the accreditation market. The comments come as the Trump administration has been weighing whether to continue approving accreditation groups that also have consulting arms, after articles in The Wall Street Journal raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest and patient safety. (Armour, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Makes Changes To Nursing Home Star Ratings
The CMS will update the star ratings on Nursing Home Compare in April with several changes including new ratings for health inspection performance and stricter criteria for staffing level ratings. The changes to the ratings, which will likely go live in mid-April, are part of an ongoing effort by the CMS "to improve the accuracy and value of the information found on the site," the agency said Tuesday in a release. The CMS has made modified the ratings several times over the years, including most recently replacing the collection of staffing data from a self-reported process to the Payroll-Based Journal system, which is said to be more accurate because it requires nursing homes to submit their payroll information every quarter. (Castellucci, 3/5)

ProPublica: Nursing Home Deficiency Reports
Use this tool to compare nursing homes in a state based on the deficiencies cited by regulators and the penalties imposed in the past three years. You can also search over 60,000 nursing home inspection reports to look for trends or patterns. Here's our guide to making the most of this tool. Groeger and Ornstein, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Insurers Criticize Data Used To Set Payments
While Medicare Advantage insurers are excited about getting more flexibility to tailor supplemental benefits for chronically ill patients in 2020, they aren't happy with the CMS' plan to increase the use of "encounter data" to calculate their payments. In the more than 200 comments on the 2020 Medicare Advantage and Part D Advance Notice and call letter, insurers were generally supportive of CMS' plan to expand the supplemental benefits that plans may offer their chronically ill patients to include things like nonmedical transportation and home-delivered meals or produce, as called for by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. (Livingston, 3/5)

Georgia Health News: One-Quarter Of Georgia Hospitals Penalized Over Patient Safety Problems
One in four Georgia hospitals will be paid less by Medicare due to high rates of infections and patient injuries. The 27 percent figure of eligible Georgia hospitals facing penalties is slightly above the national average, which is 25 percent. (Miller, 3/5)

Look Up Your Hospital:  Is It Being Penalized By Medicare? Use KHN's New Search

The Baltimore Sun: Federal Opioid Task Force Visits Johns Hopkins To Learn About Stemming Epidemic 
Some may have disappointed themselves by failing at treatment before, but they can’t stop craving heroin that they suspect is laced with the far more powerful, and often deadly, fentanyl. No one may have provided them with the overdose treatment naloxone. These are some of the interlocking issues related to the nation’s opioid epidemic that a group of freshmen congressmen, led by Maryland Democratic Rep. David Trone, sought to understand as they toured the Johns Hopkins University’s research and treatment facilities on Tuesday. (Cohn, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Doc Denies Ordering Outsize Painkiller To End Patient's Life
A critical-care doctor accused of ordering excessive painkiller doses for dozens of Ohio hospital patients who died is denying he negligently or intentionally prescribed drugs to end a woman's life. The response is part of a court filing seeking dismissal of a lawsuit against Dr. William Husel (HYOO'-suhl) over the September death of 64-year-old Bonnie Austin. Among others defenses, his lawyer argues Husel is immune to the suit under state law. (3/5)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Hamilton County To Test Steering Addicted From Jail, Into 'Life' Plan
This summer, Hamilton County will test a program to cut its jail population by letting police officers not pursue charges against some people with addiction and others who commit low-level crimes. But the program won't stop there, leading those not charged to develop relationships with police and others to develop skills that could help them succeed in life. (DeMio, 3/5)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Syringe Exchange Programs Double In Three Nearly Years, Report Finds
For years, Circle Health Services (formerly The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland) ran the only recognized syringe exchange program in the state. Today, there are 16 programs across Ohio, more than double the number almost three years ago, according to a new report by The Center for Community Solutions, a Cleveland-based think tank. (Christ, 3/5)

Meanwhile, the first lady takes aim at the media —

The Associated Press: First Lady Prods Media To Cover Opioids As Much As 'Gossip'
First lady Melania Trump prodded the news media on Tuesday to spend as much time highlighting the opioid epidemic at it devotes to "idle gossip or trivial stories." Mrs. Trump said she wished the media would talk about the epidemic more "and educate more children, also adults, parents, about the opioid crisis that we have in United States." She spoke during a town hall-style discussion in Las Vegas about the epidemic that claimed nearly 48,000 American lives in 2017. "They do it already, but I think not enough." (3/5)

The New York Times: Here’s How Strokes Happen When You’re As Young As Luke Perry
Luke Perry’s death, following a massive stroke, is both a tragedy and a bit of a mystery. The actor was just 52 years old, and the vast majority of strokes occur in much older people. Mr. Perry’s family has not offered details about the medical findings, but deaths from stroke in younger age groups are rare. About seven in one million Americans under age 50 die annually from strokes caused by a blocked blood vessel, and nine per million die from a brain hemorrhage, the two main types of strokes. (Kolata, 3/5)

The New York Times: An H.I.V. Cure: Answers To 4 Key Questions
At a scientific conference in Seattle on Tuesday, researchers reckoned with a day that many thought might never arrive. A patient appears to have been cured of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, for only the second time since the epidemic began. A sort of electric hope hangs in the air, said Dr. Steve Deeks, an AIDS specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is attending the gathering: “The whole approach to a cure is shifting more from aspiration to something that people are realizing could be feasible.” It is a hope that must be tempered with realism: H.I.V. is a wily adversary, and scientists and patients living with the virus are all too well acquainted with past failures in the fight against the epidemic. (Mandavilli, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Advice On Salt, Hidden In An Array Of Foods, Gets Specific
It can be hidden in bread, pizza, soup and other packaged foods and restaurant meals. Now, advice to watch out for salt is coming with a more specific reason. A report released Tuesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine ties the recommended limit on sodium to a reduced risk of chronic disease. The report, which is expected to serve as a guide for policymakers, says the updated guidance is meant to also convey that cutting back on salt can reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, even if people are still above the recommended limit of 2,300 mg a day for most adults. (3/5)

PBS NewsHour: Why The Number Of Americans With Alzheimer’s Could More Than Double By 2050
Barring breakthroughs in treatment, the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease is projected to more than double by 2050, rising to 13.8 million Americans age 65 or older from 5.8 million today. That’s according to a new report from the Alzheimer’s Association released Tuesday. (Santhanam, 3/5)

The New York Times: Another Obstacle For Women In Science: Men Get More Federal Grant Money
For ambitious young scientists trying to start their own research labs, winning a prestigious grant from the National Institutes of Health can be career making. But when it comes to the size of those awards, men are often rewarded with bigger grants than women, according to a study published Tuesday in JAMA, which found that men who were the principal investigators on research projects received $41,000 more than women. (Jacobs, 3/5)

Kaiser Health News: Patients Experiment With Prescription Drugs To Fight Aging
Dr. Alan Green’s patients travel from around the country to his tiny practice in Queens, N.Y., lured by the prospect of longer lives. Over the past two years, more than 200 patients have flocked to see Green after learning that two drugs he prescribes could possibly stave off aging. One 95-year-old was so intent on keeping her appointment that she asked her son to drive her from Maryland after a snowstorm had closed the schools. (Taylor, 3/6)

The Associated Press: FDA Warns Of Asbestos In Claire's Makeup; Company Disputes
U.S. regulators on Tuesday warned people not to use certain Claire's makeup products after samples tested positive for asbestos, but the retailer disputed the findings. The Food and Drug Administration said it issued the warning because it said Claire's refused to comply with its request for a recall, and that the agency doesn't have the power to force one. (3/5)

The New York Times: How Breast Size Affects How Women Exercise
Breast size can affect how women exercise and whether they decide to work out at all, according to a large-scale new study of the exercise habits of women of all ages. The study suggests that physical concerns, including breast size and bra fit, should be openly and frankly discussed during considerations of what keeps people from being active. Nobody doubts at this point that exercise can improve our health, happiness and longevity. But a hefty percentage of adults across the globe rarely if ever move. (Reynolds, 3/6)

Stateline: Why Eating Roadkill Makes Roads Safer For People And Animals 
Between 1 million and 2 million large animals are hit by vehicles every year in the United States in accidents that kill 200 people and cost nearly $8.4 billion in damages, according to estimates from the Federal Highway Administration. Instead of wasting roadkill or mocking it as hillbilly cuisine, Idaho is tracking the carnage and allowing residents to salvage the carcasses to reduce the number of vehicle-animal collisions and feed hungry people. (Vasilogambros, 3/6)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Health Costs Are Crushing Pennsylvanians; A New Survey Shows How Much
According to the survey, struggling to afford health care took many forms, including being uninsured because of high premium costs, delaying or forgoing care due to cost, and struggling to pay medical bills.The survey also showed a concerning trend: Pennsylvanians are coping by making decisions that don’t align with their doctors’ recommendations and may jeopardize their health, such as delaying care (29 percent), avoiding getting care altogether (21 percent), skipping a test or treatment (24 percent), failing to fill a prescription (19 percent), or cutting pills in half or skipping doses (17 percent). (Kraus, 3/6)

Miami Herald: FL House Speaker Oliva: Healthcare Cost Is ‘Five-Alarm Fire’
Warning healthcare spending is a “five-alarm fire,” House Speaker José Oliva opened his first legislative session Tuesday by urging lawmakers to support a slate of priority bills that would substantially deregulate the healthcare market in a bid to curb the state’s costs. The Miami Lakes Republican, in a brief speech, outlined his wish list of legislative priorities: among them repealing state limitations on building new healthcare facilities, allowing prescription drugs to be imported from abroad and expanding telehealth options for patients. (Koh, 3/5)

Nashville Tennessean: TennCare Block Grant Proposal Advances Past House Committee
For the second time in as many weeks, a GOP-led bill to change how the state could use federal money for health-care coverage received approval in a key House committee. Despite repeated attempts by Democrats to amend the proposal, the House Insurance Committee approved a bill that would require Gov. Bill Lee's administration to meet with federal officials to formally request a block grant for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program. (Ebert, 3/5)

Nashville Tennessean: Meharry Proposes A Bold Plan For Treating Nashville's Poorest Patients
Meharry Medical College and a group of Nashville leaders on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan to transform health care for the city’s poorest residents with a new network that would coordinate and fund treatment for uninsured patients. As proposed, the plan would spread responsibility for uninsured patients among more of the city’s private hospitals, lessening the burden on Nashville General, which shoulders an outsized share of patients who cannot afford to pay their bills. About 15 percent of Nashville – or 100,000 residents – are uninsured or underinsured, according to the proposal. (Kelman, 3/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Senate Approves Bill Aimed At 'Surprise Billing'
The Georgia Senate on Tuesday passed Senate Bill 56, a measure that aims to stop the practice of “surprise billing.” This type of surprise billing involves a properly insured patient going to an emergency room but later receiving an uncovered bill for some service within the hospital; that service turns out to be an independent contractor without his or her own agreement with the insurance company. (Hart, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Opens Medical Marijuana Registration To Visitors
Hawaii is allowing visitors who are qualified to receive medical marijuana elsewhere in the U.S. to register and buy it from dispensaries in the state. The state Department of Health announced Tuesday that it is also rolling out an online registration system for medical marijuana, allowing qualified patients to quickly obtain an electronic registration card. (3/6)

The CT Mirror: Legislation Would Require Insurers To Submit Annual Reports On Parity
Lawmakers are now trying to hold insurance providers accountable for complying with state and federal parity laws by requiring them to submit annual reports detailing their coverage of mental health and substance abuse services. The bill, which is being considered by the legislature’s insurance and real estate committee, also mandates that insurers cover drugs prescribed for substance abuse treatment, and that they cover treatment regardless of whether it is court ordered. (Carlesso, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: Rural Global Budget Demo Underway At Pennsylvania Hospitals
Seeing lots of patients with heart and respiratory disease, Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital has hired a health coach to work with patients on tobacco cessation. It just added a care manager in the emergency department to help people avoid having to come to the ED. The 25-bed critical-access hospital in rural central Pennsylvania has shifted its clinical dietitian from heading food services to training patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions how to eat better. (Meyer, 3/5)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: U.S. Marshals In Cleveland Gave A Decade’s Worth Of Glowing Reviews At ‘Inhumane’ Cuyahoga County Jail Where Eight Inmates Died
The U.S. Marshals Service in Cleveland gave glowing reviews to the Cuyahoga County Jail over the past 10 years. The decade worth of annual reports, obtained by cleveland.com through a public records request with the county, is a stark contrast to the Nov. 21 U.S. Marshals report conducted by Washington D.C.-based marshals and Cleveland FBI agents that described “inhumane” conditions in the jail where eight inmates have died since June. (Ferrise, 3/6)

California Healthline: California Looks To Lead Nation In Unraveling Childhood Trauma
Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our understanding of how the traumatic experiences that affect so many American children can trigger serious physical and mental illness. (Barry-Jester, 3/5)

Detroit Free Press: HAP Customers' Personal Information Affected By Data Breach
More than 120,000 Health Alliance Plan clients' personal and protected medical information may have been compromised in a security breach, a company spokeswoman told the Free Press on Tuesday.  Letters notifying customers of the breach were sent last week by Wolverine Solutions Group, a Detroit-based company HAP hired to manage its mailing services. The letters said the security problem occurred on or around Sept. 23, when Wolverine Solutions Group "experienced a ransomware incident — a malicious software that attacked and locked up our servers and workstations." (Shamus, 3/5)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Children's Mental Health Bill Draws Praise And Concerns
Advocates for Iowa children on Wednesday praised a new bill to set up a children’s mental health system, but they said they hope legislators add details and money to the effort. Peggy Huppert, Iowa executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that the bill does not include deadlines to accomplish its goals, including new services for children with mental illness. (Leys, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: Why Prescription Drug List Prices Matter
Questioning drug company CEOs last week, Sens. Charles Grassley and Ron Wyden hammered away at the importance of high list prices for prescription drugs, while the CEOs testifying before the Senate Finance Committee mostly tried to change the subject. But Grassley (R-Iowa) and Wyden (D-Ore.) were right that list prices matter a lot. Medicare Part D drug plan enrollees and a growing number of commercially insured patients pay a percentage of the list price for drugs under their health plans’ coinsurance designs. That amount can be formidable, particularly for costly brand name and specialty products. (Meyer, 3/2)

Stat: What Financial Ties? Most Americans Were Unaware Of Database Showing Pharma Payments To Docs
Two years after the U.S. government launched a database of drug company payments to physicians, the effort raised awareness that the data is publicly available, but did not increase the extent to which Americans know whether their own doctors received a payment, according to a new study in BMJ Open. Just 13 percent of those queried knew payment information was publicly available and only 3 percent knew whether their doctor received payments. When also considering a recent study showing just 1.5 percent of Americans accessed the data, the researchers suggested the OpenPayments database “has fallen well short of its aspiration to better inform patients of their physicians’ industry relationships.” (Silverman, 3/4)

The Associated Press: Companies, States Interested In Louisiana Hepatitis C Plan
Three drug companies are interested in Louisiana's plan to use a Netflix-style subscription model to buy access to hepatitis C drugs for Medicaid patients and prisoners, a treatment concept being watched by other states, the state health department announced Friday. Health Secretary Rebekah Gee wants Louisiana to pay a fee to a drug manufacturer for unlimited access to its hepatitis C medication. The state will treat as many people as it can during the access period, rather than pay a per-patient treatment price. (DeSlatte, 3/1)

The Hill: House Dems To Begin Considering Drug Pricing Legislation Next Week
House Democrats will begin considering legislation to lower drug prices at a hearing next week, moving forward on one of their top priorities, according to people familiar with the plan. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a legislative hearing on March 13 to consider bills to lower drug prices, the sources said. (Sullivan, 3/5)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Patients Are Paying The Price Of Drug Roulette 
Nearly a half million Minnesotans have diabetes, and hundreds of them go through this ordeal every year, sometimes more than once, when insurers update their drug formularies. But the problem extends far beyond diabetes, with thousands of Minnesotans battling chronic conditions such as depression, asthma and high blood pressure forced to switch medications. The changes can mean higher costs for new drugs and more co-payments for office visits to get new prescriptions and lab tests. They also can lead to medical complications as patients transition from one drug to another, doctors say. (Howatt, 3/2)

Stat: Bristol-Myers’ Merger May Depend On Wall Street’s Loudest Whisperers
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), racing to convince shareholders to back its planned $74 billion acquisition of Celgene (CELG), could have its plans derailed by a pair of hugely influential financial advisers. ISS and Glass Lewis, two global firms that make recommendations to institutional investors, are yet to weigh in on the potential merger. Together they claim a roughly 97 percent share of market for shareholder advice, and their verdict on the deal could spoil the largest pharmaceutical acquisition in history. (Garde, 3/1)

The Washington Post: Maryland Wants To Establish An Independent Commission To Review Skyrocketing Prescription Drug Prices
Stahis Panagides walked into his local pharmacy recently to pick up medicine his doctor had prescribed for his Parkinson’s disease. But when he saw the price tag, the 81-year-old from Bethesda, Md., left the pill bottle on the counter. “I am glad we have some of the best medicine in the world,” Panagides said. “But if the price is so high and we can’t afford it, what’s the use?” The problem is familiar to families across the country that are watching their medical expenses eat up more of their household budgets. (Hernandez, 3/5)

Stat: Opposition To Bristol's Celgene Deal Grows: What The Wags Say 
Will Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) succeed in acquiring Celgene (CELG)? The proposed $74 billion deal is under pressure now that two investments firms are opposing the acquisition. On Wednesday, Wellington Management, the largest Bristol shareholder with 8 percent of its stock, argued the deal asks Bristol stockholders to accept too much risk, is priced “well below” asset value, and “could be more difficult to achieve than depicted” by Bristol management. (Silverman, 2/28)

Boston Globe: Pressure Grows On Mass. Legislators To Rein In High Drug Prices
Consumer advocates on Tuesday pushed for legislation that would allow Massachusetts to set limits on the prices of certain expensive drugs, ramping up pressure on Beacon Hill to take action to tackle rising drug costs. The bill, supported by Health Care For All and the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, or MassPIRG, would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more information about their costs, including marketing expenses, so that state officials can determine if their drug prices are fair and reasonable. (McCluskey, 3/5)

Kaiser Health News: Cities And Counties Unlikely To Heed FDA Warning On Importing Foreign Drugs
Cities and local governments in several states said they will continue to use a Canadian company to offer employees prescription drugs at a highly reduced price, even though federal officials raised safety concerns about the practice last week. The municipalities use CanaRx, which connects their employees with brick-and-mortar pharmacies in Canada, Great Britain and Australia to fill prescriptions. (Galewitz, 3/6)

Stat: Business Booms For Clinical Research Organizations Like Charles River Labs
Clinical research organizations, which help run clinical trials for major pharmaceutical and biotech companies, have seen an uptick in business as smaller biotech firms — which don’t always have the same financial resources as bigger companies — do more and more drug development. CROs give them a way to do basic science without all the costs associated of directly hiring a full team, according to Jim Foster, the chief executive officer of one of the industry’s largest CROs, Charles River Laboratories (Sheridan, 2/28)

CBS Local: Auditor General Says Rebate Pricing Scheme Actually Raised Prescription Drug Prices For Consumers
Visiting the Hometown Pharmacy in New Castle, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale lambasted a system that he says drives up prescription drug costs for consumers and threatens the existence of independent pharmacies. According to DePasquale, the system is singling out rebates that pharmaceutical companies offer the middleman – the pharmacy benefit managers and insurance providers. (Delano, 2/28)

ProPublica: Prescriber Checkup
Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program serves more than 42 million people and pays for more than one of every four prescriptions written nationwide. Use this tool to find and compare doctors and other providers in Part D in 2016. (Jones, Groeger and Ornstein, 3/5)

The New York Times: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows
Why don’t streaming services like Hulu or Netflix go bankrupt? After all, most businesses couldn’t survive if customers paid a flat subscription fee each month for all they could eat or all the gasoline they could use. Yet you can pay Netflix $8.99 and watch one movie or all 342 episodes (so far) of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Netflix doesn’t care. Netflix and Hulu can do this because they sell products with a very low marginal cost. Movies and TV shows are expensive to make. But once that’s done, each new stream costs Netflix little or nothing. Another product works in a similar way: medicine. (Tina Rosenberg, 3/5)

The New York Times: Big Pharma’s Hunt For New Drugs Is Pushing Up Cost Of Deals
Acquisitions of American biotech companies are surging, and so are the prices that buyers are willing to pay.Just two months into the year, the value of deals for biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the United States has reached $146 billion, according to Dealogic. That is more than what was announced in all of 2018, 2017 or 2016, and it accounts for 40 percent of all takeover announcements in the United States so far. (Stephen Grocer, 2/28)

Bloomberg: To Lower Drug Prices, Trump HHS Rightly Targets PBM Rebates
The Trump administration’s latest idea to lower prescription drug prices is to eliminate the rebates that drug companies pay to the pharmacy benefit managers that stand between the manufacturers and their final customers. This is easily the most radical change to the American drug-pricing system that the White House has proposed. (3/1)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘Ten Drugs’ Review: Better Living Through Chemistry
In an age of technological wonders, few can equal the life-altering and life-saving drugs that have poured forth from laboratories and research teams in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Anti-psychotic drugs have emptied mental hospitals. Antibiotics have added years to average life expectancy. Birth control pills have transformed sex lives—and mores. Seeming miracles can feel almost routine: Jimmy Carter, after being diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in 2015, took a recently approved drug called pembrolizumab, which redirected his immune system and played a decisive role in ridding him of cancer. (John Steele Gordon, 3/5)

Stat: Ultomiris: Can Drug Innovation Be Too Expensive? 
When it comes to new drugs, how much are we willing to pay for innovation? That question, touched on by Craig Garthwaite and Benedic Ippolito in their First Opinion on drug prices, deserves a deeper look. A new biologic drug, Ultomiris, made by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is a prime example of innovation that may be too expensive. (Alexander Urry, 3/1)

The Wall Street Journal: The Side Effects Of Million-Dollar Drugs
It’s only a matter of time until the first million-dollar drug arrives in a deeply dysfunctional health-care system. With the new drugs come painful questions: Who is stuck with the bill, do they have the cash to pay it and how can they avoid the obligation?The age of gene therapy promises a wave of life-changing and life-saving medicines. Some have been approved, like Luxturna from Spark Therapeutics, which treats a hereditary disease that causes blindness and affects roughly 2,000 patients in the U.S. Roche agreed to buy the company this week for more than double its previous market value, in large part for some promising treatments for hemophilia. (Charley Grant, 3/1)

The Detroit News: Gutting Patents Will Stall Medicine Progress
Congress could soon vote on legislation that would gut America's intellectual property laws.The bill isn't just bad news for big pharmaceutical companies that hold lucrative patents. It's terrible news for patients -- medical research spending would dry up without strong patent protections. Americans could lose out on cures for cancer, heart disease, and other deadly chronic conditions. (Wayne Winegarden, 2/28)

Columbus Dispatch: Lowering Drug Prices Will Require Bold Action
Concerns over the cost of medication are brought up on such a frequent basis with physicians across the nation that it has become a prominent topic in the media. Voters are becoming more engaged on the issue, but rather than providing meaningful reform, some politicians are providing inadequate solutions while trumpeting change. (Ean Bett, 3/6)

Stat: Deaths Of Despair Can Be Prevented With A Comprehensive Strategy 
Overall, more than 150,000 Americans — the most ever — died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicide in 2017. That’s more than twice as many as in 1999, according to a new analysis released on Tuesday by our organizations, Well Being Trust and Trust for America’s Health. To truly tackle complex, deeply rooted societal problems like these, we need to transform fragmented and disjointed community systems. Deaths from substance misuse and suicide are symptoms of broader problems. If we treat only the symptoms, more and more people will be at risk and die needlessly. (Benjamin F. Miller and John Auerbach, 3/5)

Bloomberg: FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb's Exit Is Big Loss For Trump And Beyond 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is resigning and will leave the agency in a month, according to news reports that surfaced on Tuesday afternoon. And just like that, the Trump administration is set to lose one of its most competent officials. Gottlieb, a physician and former deputy at the agency, decided to step down in part so he wouldn’t have to keep making the long commute to and from Connecticut, where he lives with his family, the reports said. His exit doesn’t appear to be coming under any cloud — in fact, not only will he leave with his reputation intact, he’ll do so having earned greater esteem. The Trump administration has arguably kept many officials around for too long. Gottlieb is one they should have convinced to stay. (Max Nisen, 3/5)

Los Angeles Times: Trump’s Changes To Title X Put The Health Of Low-Income Women In Danger 
The Trump administration has a message for American women: Your health doesn’t count. The Department of Health and Human Services recently finalized a set of onerous restrictions on clinics that participate in the federal Title X program, which funds free and low-cost family planning services. (Jack Lienke, 3/6)

Los Angeles Times: Bad Press About Genetic Engineering Could Scare Off Those Who Would Benefit Most
When the reports came out last year that a Chinese scientist had altered the genome of human twins in utero, scientists and ethicists around the world were rightly horrified. The experiment was denounced as wildly unsafe, medically unnecessary and a clear moral violation. Tinkering with the DNA of embryonic cells (some of which will develop into reproductive cells capable of passing the mutation on to future generations) is roundly condemned, and the idea of designing babies to order raises a host of ethical dilemmas. But the bigger tragedy will be if the glaring lack of judgement shown by one overly ambitious (and improperly mentored) scientist taints all research into the gene-altering method used in the experiments, which is relatively simple and hugely promising. (Usha Lee McFarling, 3/6)

Stat: Lack Of Diversity Hinders Genetic Studies. We Can Change That
As a geneticist, I feel fortunate to live in the post-genomic era. The sequencing of the human genome has made it possible to make advances in understanding human genetics at an unprecedented pace. Genetic research is changing our understanding of early human migration and offering tantalizing insights into human biology. I have high hopes that we will be able to use these insights to better prevent, treat, and potentially cure diseases.And yet, genetic research also engenders frustration. My hope for the future doesn’t currently apply equally to everyone because the vast amount of research that has given us these insights has been done mainly among people of European ancestry. (Joyce Tung, 3/6)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: The 'Law-And-Order' Party Should Explain Why It's Against Disarming Criminals.
The U.S. House last week passed that rarest of things: a gun control measure that most Americans agree with. Universal background checks are among the most popular ideas out there. Polls show overall support around 90 percent, with similarly astronomical support even among gun owners. And no wonder: Is there any more common-sense idea than keeping guns from people whose documented mental or criminal histories indicate they shouldn’t have them? Yet most congressional Republicans stand with the National Rifle Association against any such imperative. (3/6)

Bloomberg: HIV Cure Would Be Just One Weapon In Arsenal For Prevention
The only two people lucky enough to be cured of HIV infection were unlucky enough to find themselves with cancer and HIV at the same time. What saved them both were stem cell transplants from bone marrow donors — last-ditch attempts to save them from the cancers. But in the process, doctors used donors who had a genetic mutation rendering them, and their bone marrow cells, resistant to the virus. The right reaction to the news of the second cure is, as several researchers have told me, nuanced. It is a big deal to AIDS researchers, who for years have been quietly seeking to go beyond managing the disease, and instead shooting for a complete cure. This second case shows what might be possible with a lot more work. (Faye Flam, 3/5)

The New York Times: Luke Perry Had A Stroke And Died. I Had One And Lived.
It was my brother who saved my life.“ Get to a hospital now,” he insisted over the long-distance line. “You’re having a stroke.” (Kara Swisher, 3/4)