KHN Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Friday, Oct 25 2019
Kaiser Health News Original Stories 3
Pharma Sells States On 'Netflix Model' To Wipe Out Hep C. But At What Price?
Los Angeles Vape District A Black-Market Gateway
KHN's 'What The Health?': All About Medicaid
Political Cartoon: 'More Coffee?'
Experts Weigh In As Warren Scrambles For Plan To Pay For 'Medicare For All'
Government Policy 1
1,556 More Kids Were Separated From Families Than Previously Reported, ACLU Says
Opioid Crisis 1
Smaller States Worry Sweeping $48B Opioid Settlement Won't Be Fairly Divided In Terms Of Need
Administration News 2
Trump Administration Could Walk Back Ban Of Mint, Menthol Vaping Flavors Following Pressure From E-Cig Advocates
Judge's $1.6B Ruling On Unpaid Subsidies Highlights Just How Much Trump Administration Could Have To Pony Up
Pharmaceuticals 1
Pelosi's Drug Pricing Plan Could Violate Three Parts Of Constitution, Congress' Legal Experts Warn
Veterans' Health Care 1
IG Report: Head Of Trump-Created VA Whistleblower Office Used Position Instead To Silence Some Who Came Forward
Racial Bias In Hospitals: Widely Used Algorithm Favors White Patients Over Sicker Black Patients, Study Finds
Major Retailers Yank 22-Ounce Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder To Avoid Confusion Following Recall
FTC Likely To Prevail In Demands That Health Systems Report Information On Certificates Of Public Advantage
Medicaid 1
Kansas Republican Wants To Walk Fine Bipartisan Line With Medicaid Expansion. But He Might Just Anger Everyone.
The New Normal: How Humans Are Going To Have To Adjust To A World On Fire
Several Low Scores Show Even U.S. Lacks Preparedness To Face Pandemic That Could Wipe Out Humanity, Report States
State Watch 1
State Highlights: Striking Teachers In Chicago Push For More Health Workers In Schools; California Begins Disciplining Doctors For Improper Vaccine Exemptions
Weekend Reading 1
Longer Looks: No Silver Bullet For Weight Loss; White Privilege and Longevity; Video Game Addiction; And More
Editorials And Opinions 1
Viewpoints: Paying For 'Medicare For All' Is Entirely Possible Without Burdening Middle Class And Poor; Government Interventions Have Damaged Health Care
From Kaiser Health News - Latest Stories:
Kaiser Health News Original Stories
Manufacturers of lucrative drugs say they're offering discounts off the high sticker prices ― but taxpayers footing the big bills might never know what the state is paying or if it's getting a good deal. (JoNel Aleccia and Barbara Feder Ostrov and Donna Gordon Blankinship, 1/27 )
A seedy section of downtown Los Angeles has become the go-to place for those who trade in wholesale — and sometimes counterfeit — vaping products. As more people fall ill with a mysterious lung disease linked to e-cigarette use, the manufacture and distribution of vaping products face increased scrutiny. (Heidi de Marco, 1/27 )
Medicare's sister program actually covers more people than Medicare. It's complex and sometimes confusing, but Medicaid is critical to states, health care providers and the more than 70 million people it serves. In this episode of KHN's "What the Health?" host Julie Rovner interviews Diane Rowland, formerly EVP and Executive Director of the Medicaid Program at the Kaiser Family Foundation and one of the nation's top Medicaid experts. Then Rovner, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Tami Luhby of CNN and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss some of the current debates surrounding Medicaid and its future. ( 1/27 )
Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'More Coffee?'" by Darrin Bell.
Here's today's health policy haiku:
FIND A WAY
Affordable care
So necessary to us
Please let us have it.
- Hannah Glassie
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to a KHN original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of KHN or KFF.
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Summaries Of The News:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has promised to unveil a plan on how to pay for "Medicare for All" after receiving criticism that she was being vague on the details. But experts say it is going to be a struggle to both please progressives and avoid a middle class tax increase.
The Hill: Warren Faces Tough Choices On Funding 'Medicare For All'
It's the multitrillion dollar question everyone is trying to answer, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): How do you pay for "Medicare for All," a proposal that would dramatically reshape the entire U.S. health care system? Warren, a Democratic candidate for president, says she will soon release a plan to pay for Medicare for All after facing criticism for evading questions about the proposal's potential tax implications for the middle class. (Hellmann, 10/24)
Los Angeles Times: Can Elizabeth Warren Afford To Be All In On 'Medicare For All'?
Warren is caught between two powerful forces. On the one side, progressives expect her to stick to her pledge to pursue a far-reaching plan similar to the one proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. On the other, her identity as the candidate of detailed policies means she can't easily avoid the fine print, which is full of political peril. "She's painted herself into a corner," said Gerald Friedman, a University of Massachusetts economist whose research is often cited to support Medicare for all. "She wants Medicare for all, but she didn't think through the politics." (Halper and Hook, 10/24)
The Washington Post: Economists Rush To Help Sen. Elizabeth Warren Solve Medicare-For-All Puzzle
Internal and external economic policy advisers are trying to help Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) design a way to finance a single-payer Medicare-for-all health-care system that would place every American on a government insurance program. Warren has promised more details within weeks, but her team faces a challenge in crafting a plan that would bring in large amounts of revenue while not scaring off voters with big middle-class tax increases. The proposal could cost more than $30 trillion over 10 years. Complicating matters, she has already committed all of the money she would raise from a new wealth tax, close to $3 trillion over 10 years, to several other ideas, including child care and student debt cancellation. (Stein, 10/24)
Meanwhile, in other election news —
The Associated Press: Sanders Plans To Release Health Records By End Of Year
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is planning to release his health records by the end of the year. The White House hopeful addressed his health Thursday in Iowa ahead of his first appearance in an early voting state since suffering a heart attack earlier in the month. The 78-year-old Vermont senator has repeatedly promised to release his health records at some point, but he outlined a likely timeline in an interview with The Associated Press. (Peoples, 10/24)
New Hampshire Union Leader: Buttigieg Defends His Not-Only-Public Health Care Plan
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg faced some pushback Thursday night from unionized state workers about his health care plan that would maintain private insurance. The South Bend, Ind. mayor got some positive media reviews following his attack in the last debate against Elizabeth Warren for her refusal to say her Medicare for All public insurance plan would raise taxes as primary rival Bernie Sanders has already said his would. (Landrigan, 10/24)
The Hill: O'Rourke Unveils Plan To Combat Opioid Epidemic
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) unveiled a plan Thursday to address substance use disorders and end the opioid crisis as part of his 2020 presidential campaign. The plan would, among other things, look to end the stigma of substance abuse, focus on promoting long-term recovery, target the supply chain of illegally imported fentanyl and work to improve economic stability for those recovering from substance abuse. (Axelrod, 10/24)
Politico's Pulse Check: Meet John Marty — The 'Bernie Sanders Of Minnesota'
John Marty ran for state Senate in Minnesota in the 1980s because he wanted to achieve social change. More than 30 years later, single-payer health care has become his defining mission — and Marty says that his local battle has been supercharged by Bernie Sanders and the national Medicare for All movement. POLITICO's Dan Diamond looked at the political dynamics around Medicare for All and then sat down with Sen. Marty to discuss his policy, strategy and the difficult trade-offs behind single-payer. (10/24)
The ACLU said that more than 5,400 children in total were taken from their parents and released from federal shelters sometime between July 2017 and June 2018. The majority of them were ages 12 and under.
The Associated Press: Tally Of Children Split At Border Tops 5,400 In New Count
U.S. immigration authorities separated more than 1,500 children from their parents at the Mexico border early in the Trump administration, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday, bringing the total number of children separated since July 2017 to more than 5,400. The ACLU said the administration told its attorneys that 1,556 children were separated from July 1, 2017, to June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents. (Spagat, 10/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Number Of Family Separations At U.S. Border Higher Than Previously Known
The watchdog report found that the government hadn't properly accounted for the number of children separated from their parents before the same court ordered them to stop the practice in the summer of 2018. Government investigators also found that federal agencies didn't have a system to identify children who had been taken from adults throughout the implementation of the "zero tolerance" policy. The government initially resisted calls to locate the additional children cited by the watchdog report, and told the court it would take two years to pull together a list. The court instead gave the government six months. (Hackman, 10/24)
The Washington Post: ACLU Says 1,500 More Migrant Children Were Taken From Parents By The Trump Administration
The ACLU said the Justice Department disclosed the final tally — which is in addition to the more than 2,700 children known to have been separated last year — hours before a federal court deadline to identify all children separated since mid-2017, the year President Trump took office. U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw in San Diego gave the Trump administration six months in April to disclose the names to the ACLU, which is trying to track down all the families and learn whether they have been reunited. (Sacchetti, 10/24)
CBS News: Family Separation: 1,556 More Migrant Families Were Separated Under Trump Than Previously Known
Although some detained migrant families were separated under previous administrations — mostly when officials determined the parents posed a danger to their children — the Trump administration utilized different tools, including the policy of "zero tolerance" that led to the criminal prosecutions of border-crossing parents, to systematically separate thousands of families in the span of months. (Montoya-Galvez, 10/24)
In other news on the immigration crisis —
The Guardian: She Raised Her Niece Like A Daughter. Then The US Government Separated Them At The Border
The six-year-old girl on the other end of the line tells Alexa she fears they will never be together again. In another 15-minute phone call, she questions if Alexa still loves her. She asks Alexa to pick her up from the family she's staying with in New York. Alexa hears the girl say the words in Spanish: "You are my mom, I want to be with you." Alexa wishes she could go get her. But Alexa's locked up 2,400 miles away, at an immigration detention center in Arizona. (Fernandez and Joffe-Block, 10/25)
US News: Trump Administration's Immigration Policies Violate Civil Rights, Government Agency Says
The Trump administration's immigration policies appear to violate the due process and civil rights of migrants and have created an unnecessary crisis at the southern border, a government agency said in a scathing report released Thursday. The report, written by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, raises grave concerns about the Trump administration's asylum policies, detention practices and previously widespread use of family separation. It echoes and references a number of issues raised in other government watchdog reports and media accounts. (Hansen, 10/24)
NPR: U.S. Travel Ban Disrupts The World's Largest Brain Science Meeting
When Sepiedeh Keshavarzi was getting her medical degree in Tehran, she often read research papers by prominent scientists in the U.S. "It was my dream at some point when I was much younger to do research in the States," she says. Not anymore. (Hamilton, 10/24)
States have been trying to hammer out a settlement with drug companies, but with so many voices in the conversation, it's been tricky to find compromises that satisfy everyone's concerns. "Any global opioid settlement that doesn't reflect the unique and unprecedented damage imposed on West Virginia through the opioid epidemic should be DOA," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey tweeted. In other news on the opioid epidemic: hospitals take a page from the cities and states; overdose deaths go beyond fentanyl; and how doctors are avoiding pain patients.
Reuters: Several States Wary Of $48 Billion Opioid Settlement Proposal
Several U.S. states that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic are pushing back on a proposed $48 billion settlement framework that would resolve thousands of lawsuits against five drug companies accused of fueling the addiction crisis. The proposal would bring an end to all opioid litigation against AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp, drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc, and Johnson & Johnson. (Hals and Raymond, 10/24)
The Washington Post: Governor: Ohio Making Plans To Divide Future Opioid Dollars
Some 100 lawyers and government officials from across Ohio have made a "positive start" on deciding how millions of dollars that communities might receive through national opioid litigation settlements should be spent, said Gov. Mike DeWine. DeWine said a meeting he convened Wednesday involving the state attorney general, lawyers for cities and counties and various state and local officials may serve as a national model. "Everyone had the same goal, which is really to be united and have a united front as we move forward in future negotiations," the governor told The Associated Press in a phone interview. (Smyth, 10/24)
NPR: Citing Billions In Charity Care For Addiction, Some Hospitals Sue Drug Makers
While thousands of cities and counties have banded together to sue opioid makers and distributors in a federal court, another group of plaintiffs has started to sue on their own: hospitals. Hundreds of hospitals have joined up in a handful of lawsuits in state courts, seeing the state-based suits as their best hope for winning meaningful settlement money. (Farmer, 10/24)
NPR: What Are The Real Costs Of The Opioid Epidemic?
There's a reckoning underway in the courts about the damage wrought by the opioid crisis and who should pay for it. Thousands of cities and counties are suing drug makers and distributors in federal court. One tentative dollar amount floated earlier this week to settle with four of the companies: $48 billion. It sounds like a lot of money, but it doesn't come close to accounting for the full cost of the epidemic, according to recent estimates — let alone what it might cost to fix it. (Simmons-Duffin, 10/24)
The Associated Press: Meth Is Most Common Drug In Overdose Deaths In Chunk Of US
Fentanyl is driving drug overdose deaths in the U.S. overall, but in nearly half of the country, it's a different story. Meth is the bigger killer, a new government report shows. Nationwide, most deaths still involve opioid drugs like fentanyl and heroin. But in 2017, the stimulant meth was the drug most frequently involved in deaths in four regions that include 19 states west of the Mississippi. (Stobbe, 10/25)
Politico Pro: Fentanyl-Related Deaths Most Common In The East
Patterns of overdose deaths vary substantially by region, according to a new CDC analysis, with fentanyl — the biggest killer nationally — involved in most drug fatalities in the eastern half of the United States and methamphetamine highest in the West and Southwest. The report looked at the drugs most commonly involved in fatal overdoses nationwide and their prevalence in deaths for each of HSS' 10 regions in 2017. Drug-related deaths peaked at 72,000 that year. (Ehley, 10/25)
Cincinnati Enquirer: Opioid Crisis: Doctors Avoid Chronic Pain Patients, Need More Education
If you've been prescribed pain pills and think doctors are avoiding you as a new patient, you just might be right. A large percentage of primary-care doctors (81%) say they're hesitant to accept new patients who've been prescribed pain meds, a newly released survey shows. Even more (83%) say the opioid crisis makes it harder to treat pain patients. (DeMio, 10/24)
Administration News
HHS had vowed to ban all vaping products except tobacco flavor, but that decision sparked political backlash for the administration. Meanwhile, the number of vaping-related illnesses continues to climb, but at a slower rate. Officials warned that could be because of reporting delays rather than progress being made in the outbreak, though.
Bloomberg: Trump Considers Retreat From Ban Of Mint, Menthol Vaping Flavors
The Trump administration is considering backing away from a pledge to ban popular mint and menthol vaping products -- part of an effort to stem use among kids and curb a growing health crisis -- as e-cigarette advocates press to preserve some flavors for adults. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said last month that the administration would soon ban all flavors of vaping products except tobacco-flavor. But the administration is reconsidering on mint and menthol, two people familiar with discussions said. They asked not to be identified because no decision has been made. (Wingrove, Porter and Cortez, 10/25)
The Associated Press: Vaping-Related Illnesses In US Still Rising, But More Slowly
Fewer reports of vaping illnesses are coming in, but U.S. health officials say they are not sure what to make of it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 125 additional cases were reported in the last week, bringing the total to 1,604 in this year's outbreak. That includes 34 deaths, one more than last week. The outbreak is still happening, but the count of new cases has dropped for three straight weeks. A CDC spokeswoman said reporting delays could be one explanation. (Stobbe, 10/24)
Reuters: U.S. Vaping-Related Deaths Rise To 34, Cases Of Illness To 1,604
The deaths have occurred in 24 states, as of Oct. 22, among people whose ages ranged from 17 to 75 years. Investigators have not linked the cases to any specific product or compound, but have pointed to vaping oils containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, as being especially risky. (10/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Vaping-Related Illnesses Rise To 1,604, CDC Says
"People five months ago were talking about these fake cartridges that were being sold," said Yulin Hswen, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School who collected and analyzed the data. "In the comments five months ago, they were saying these oils are bad." The number of cases grew by 125 this week, a smaller increase than the week before. (Abbott, 10/24)
NBC News: Doctors Show How Vaping THC Damages Lungs, As Illnesses Rise Nationwide
Meanwhile, state health departments tell NBC News they've either confirmed or are investigating more than 2,100 cases. Alaska remains the only state without any reported cases. Two more vaping-related deaths were confirmed Thursday, one in Tennessee and another in Washington, DC. That brings the total number of deaths so far to 36. Other deaths are under investigation. As the search for a definitive cause continues, a small study published last week in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology provided a closer look at the damage to lung tissue caused by vaping THC. (Edwards, 10/24)
The Washington Post: D.C. Reports First Vaping-Related Death
D.C. health officials on Thursday reported the city's first death associated with vaping. In a statement, the D.C. health department confirmed the fatality, saying more than 1,600 cases of lung injury related to e-cigarettes or vaping have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control from all states but Alaska. The victim was not identified by D.C. authorities. (Moyer, 10/24)
The Hill: District Of Columbia Reports First Death From Vaping Disease
The CDC says it doesn't know the cause of the illnesses, and no brand or substance has been linked to all cases. THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, has been present in most of the samples tested by the Food and Drug Administration to date, and most patients report a history of using THC-containing products, the CDC said. (Weixel, 10/24)
Meanwhile, in other vaping news —
NPR: Vaping Devices Now Being Collected On National Prescription Drug Take Back Day
In the wake of vaping-related deaths and illnesses, the Drug Enforcement Administration is expanding "National Prescription Drug Take Back Day," and this year allowing people to drop off electronic vaping devices and cartridges. The annual event lets people anonymously dispose of expired, unused, and unwanted prescription medications at collection sites across the U.S. (Treisman, 10/25)
CNN: FDA Takes Action Against Popular Vaping Brand
The US Food and Drug Administration is going after vaping company Eonsmoke LLC with a warning letter seeking to remove roughly 100 flavored vaping products from the market, saying the company "has ignored the law by marketing dozens of unauthorized e-cigarette products," according to a statement by Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless. (Nedelman, 10/24)
Kaiser Health News: Los Angeles Vape District A Black-Market Gateway
A five-block section of downtown Los Angeles that used to be part of the city's Toy District has become ground zero for the nation's counterfeit cannabis trade. While a few remaining stores sell fidget spinners and stuffed animals, the majority are hawking vape cartridges, e-juice flavors, vaporizers and other wholesale smoking and vaping supplies — including knockoffs that originated in China. (De Marco, 10/25)
Boston Globe: Baker's Vape Ban Dealt Another Legal Setback
Governor Charlie Baker's ban on vapes has been dealt another legal setback, after a state appeals court judge late Wednesday upheld an earlier ruling that will force the governor to either allow nicotine vape sales to resume Monday or begin the process of implementing the ban as a formal emergency regulation. On Monday, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Douglas H. Wilkins had ruled that a coalition of nicotine vape companies was likely to prevail in its lawsuit challenging the four-month ban, which Baker implemented last month in response to an outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses. (Adams, 10/24)
The insurers' lawsuit against the federal government revolves around cost-sharing reduction subsidies that were intended to lower healthcare costs for certain people who bought coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. While the judge's decision is likely to be appealed, it could foretell an expensive outcome for the administration.
Modern Healthcare: Feds Owe Health Insurers $1.6 Billion In Unpaid Subsidies
A federal judge this week ordered the federal government to pay about 100 health insurance plans a total $1.6 billion in unpaid subsidies. While the government will likely appeal the case, the judgment illustrates the sheer magnitude of the funds the Trump administration could be forced to pay up. The insurers are part of a class action brought by Wisconsin-based Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, which challenged the federal government's failure to pay cost-sharing reduction subsidies that were intended to lower healthcare costs for certain people who bought coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. (Livingston, 10/24)
Modern Healthcare: CMS Delays New Primary-Care Pay Model, Calls For Providers To Join
The CMS on Thursday postponed the start of a new alternative payment model, but encouraged Medicare providers to apply and move toward value-based care. Both Primary Care First model options and the Kidney Care Choices model are voluntary payment models that aim to reform healthcare delivery by paying Medicare providers for the value of the care they provide and giving them incentives to manage chronic illness better. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation hopes that these programs will reward providers for boosting quality, improving patient satisfaction and cutting healthcare spending. (Brady, 10/24)
And the potential constitutional issues with the bill can't be fixed with a few tweaks — they relate to the central crux of the bill, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Meanwhile, a watchdog report flags safety and reliability concerns over drug imports from China. And in other pharmaceutical news: patents legislation, the roller coaster of Biogen's Alzheimer's drug, and an investigation into carcinogens.
Stat: Nonpartisan Congressional Report Suggests Pelosi's Drug Pricing Bill Could Be Found Unconstitutional
House Democrats' signature drug pricing legislation could run afoul of not one, not two, but three separate parts of the U.S. Constitution, Congress' own legal experts write in a new report. The Oct. 21 Congressional Research Service report obtained by STAT states that H.R. 3, which would allow the government to negotiate over drug prices and levy huge fines on companies who refuse, might run afoul of the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, as well as Congress' taxing power under the Constitution. (Florko, 10/25)
Politico Pro: Draft Report Warns Congress About Pharma Imports From China
A draft government watchdog report raises alarm about the safety and reliability of pharmaceutical imports from China and urges Congress and the administration to take action to protect the public. The recommendations include requiring drug companies to list the country of origin for active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, on product labels and making importers liable for any sickness or deaths caused by the APIs or finished pharmaceutical products. (Palmer, 10/25)
Politico Pro: 'Patent Thicket' Bill Caught In Tug-Of-War Over Drug Pricing Reforms
A bipartisan Senate effort to crack down on drug companies that game the patent system to shut out cheaper competitors has become a bargaining chip in the roiling debate over pharmaceutical prices. The bill, S. 1416 (116), by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to sue drug companies if they use tactics like obtaining duplicative patents or push patients onto similar new therapies just as old products are running off patent, in order to delay cheaper copies of the medication from reaching the market. (Luthi and Owermohle, 10/24)
Stat: An Alzheimer's Patient On The 'Roller Coaster' Of Biogen's Clinical Trial
Biogen's decision to revisit a once-failed treatment for Alzheimer's disease came as a shock to scientists, doctors, and investors alike. For Debby Rosenkrantz, the surprise came with a bit of hope. Rosenkrantz, 66, was a volunteer in one of Biogen's studies on the treatment aducanumab, the studies it terminated in March after concluding the drug had no hope of working. (Garde and Feuerstein, 10/25)
Reuters: FDA Investigating Whether Zantac Causes Carcinogens To Form In Users
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether the popular heartburn drug Zantac causes carcinogens to form in the bodies of users, in an effort to fully understand the risks posed by the already recalled drug, the agency's spokesman said on Thursday. The issue of whether ranitidine, commonly known as Zantac, causes levels of the probable carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) to rise in users' bodies has been raised previously by Valisure, an online pharmacy that originally flagged the potential contamination of ranitidine to the FDA. (Erman, 10/24)
Veterans' Health Care
The Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection was supposed to help eliminate wrongdoing in the VA. Instead Peter O'Rourke and his successor, Kirk Nicholas, ended investigations into allies of senior officials, failed to consistently report to Congress and refused to honor whistleblowers' demands for anonymity, a new report finds.
Politico: Top Trump Aide Suppressed VA Whistleblowers, Department Investigator Finds
A political operator who led an office created by President Donald Trump to expose wrongdoing at the Department of Veterans Affairs used his position to quash whistleblowers and retaliate against foes, according to an inspector general report released Thursday. The accusations involve Peter O'Rourke, who Trump appointed in 2017 to lead the new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, and his successor, Kirk Nicholas. (Allen, 10/24)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Report: VA Office Failed To Protect Whistleblowers
The report comes as the VA district that includes Georgia replaced top leadership last month and the main regional hospital in Decatur for military veterans undergoes an investigation of medical practices amid widespread problems. Regional VA employees lodged close to 300 complaints with the inspector general in the last two years, ranging from retaliation against employees by superiors to abuse of authority. (Quinn, 10/24)
Health systems use the algorithm -- from Optum -- for 100 million people across the country to find patients with diabetes, heart disease and other chronic ailments. "What the algorithm is doing is letting healthier white patients cut in line ahead of sicker black patients," said Dr. Ziad Obermeyer, the study's lead author.
The Washington Post: Scientists Detected Racial Bias In A Product Sold By Optum, But The Problem Likely Extends To Algorithms Used By Major Health Systems And Insurers
A widely used algorithm that predicts which patients will benefit from extra medical care dramatically underestimates the health needs of the sickest black patients, amplifying long-standing racial disparities in medicine, researchers have found. The problem was caught in an algorithm sold by a leading health services company, called Optum, to guide care decision-making for millions of people. (Johnson, 10/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Researchers Find Racial Bias In Hospital Algorithm
Hospitals use the algorithm—from Optum, UnitedHealth Group Inc. health-services arm—to find patients with diabetes, heart disease and other chronic ailments who could benefit from having health-care workers monitor their overall health, manage their prescriptions and juggle doctor visits, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science. Yet the algorithm gave healthier white patients the same ranking as black patients who had one more chronic illness as well as poorer laboratory results and vital signs. (Evans and Wilde Mathews, 10/24)
Los Angeles Times: How Computer Algorithms Help Spread Racial Bias In U.S. Healthcare
"We shouldn't be blaming the algorithm," said study leader Dr. Ziad Obermeyer, a machine learning and health researcher at UC Berkeley. "We should be blaming ourselves, because the algorithm is just learning from the data we give it." An algorithm is a set of instructions that describe how to perform a certain task. A recipe for brownies is an algorithm. So is the list of turns to make to drive to your friend's party. (Khan, 10/24)
Stat: Widely Used Algorithm In Hospitals Is Racially Biased, Study Finds
The study's authors then retrained a new algorithm using patients' biological data, rather than the insurance claims data that the original program used, and found an 84% reduction in bias. Previously, the algorithm was failing to account for a collective nearly 50,000 chronic conditions experienced by black patients. After rejiggering the algorithm, that number dropped to fewer than 8,000. The reduction in bias emphasized what many in the health technology field believe: Algorithms may only be as good as the data behind them. (Chakradhar, 10/24)
J&J, which is facing thousands of lawsuits over a variety of products, said last week it was recalling around 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the United States after U.S. health regulators found trace amounts of asbestos in samples taken from a bottle purchased online. Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid are taking steps to remove all 22-ounce bottles from their stores as well.
Reuters: Walmart, CVS And Rite Aid Pull 22-Ounce J&J Baby Powder Off Shelves
Three major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, are removing all 22-ounce bottles of Johnson & Johnson's baby powder from their stores, following the healthcare conglomerate's recall last week of some bottles due to possible asbestos contamination. CVS Health Corp said on Thursday it would remove the bottles from its online store as well, out of caution and to prevent customer confusion. The pharmacy chain said all other sizes of the talc would remain on its shelves. (10/24)
The Wall Street Journal: CVS To Halt Sales Of Some J&J Talcum Powder After Recall
Last week, J&J recalled about 33,000 bottles of Johnson's Baby Powder because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found a small amount of asbestos in a single bottle, a discovery that fueled existing concerns about the safety of the famous product. Asbestos can cause disease including a rare cancer called mesothelioma. A J&J spokesman said Thursday CVS informed the company it is temporarily removing the 22 oz. bottles of Johnson's Baby Powder in response to the recall. Other Johnson's Baby Powder products will remain in CVS stores, the J&J spokesman said. (Loftus, 10/24)
Bloomberg: CVS Pulling All 22-Oz J&J Baby Powder From Shelves Amid Recall
J&J has been in the cross-hairs recently over claims it knew for 40 years that its iconic baby powder was tainted with asbestos and hid it from consumers. Asbestos is often found intertwined with talc when mined. The company faces more than 15,000 lawsuits over its handling of its talc-based powders, as well as regulatory and criminal probes. (Feeley, 10/24)
In other health industry news —
The Associated Press: FTC Sues To Block Promoters Of Bogus Diabetes 'Cure'
Federal regulators are suing to block pamphlet and newsletter publishers from marketing a purported cure for diabetes and advertising claims that consumers can collect $1 trillion in "Congressional Checks" or "Republican Checks." In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Maryland, the Federal Trade Commission says publishers of "The Doctor's Guide to Reversing Diabetes in 28 Days" are falsely promising a cure for the disease without dietary changes or exercise. (Kunzelman, 10/24)
Reuters: Diaper Rush: Conquering A $9 Billion Market No One Wants To Talk About
The time may not be far off when more adults need diapers than babies as the population grows older, potentially a huge opportunity for manufacturers of incontinence products - if they can lift the stigma that has long constrained sales. The market for adult diapers, disposable underwear and absorbent pads is growing fast, up 9% last year to $9 billion, having doubled in the last decade, according to Euromonitor. (Naidu and Ando, 10/22)
Section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which the FTC cited in its information demands, gives the agency broad investigative authority to demand information from companies for use in research, legal experts point out. Other health system and hospital news comes out of Florida, Illinois, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin.
Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Unlikely To Skirt FTC's COPA Information Demands
The health systems on the receiving end of the Federal Trade Commission's demands for information on certificates of public advantage this week aren't going to have much luck if they attempt to contest the orders, legal experts say. The federal regulatory agency is requesting a considerable amount of information from two health systems and five health insurers to inform its study into COPAs' effects on price, quality, access and healthcare innovation. One of those systems, Ballad Health, seemed to indicate it might challenge the demand, citing the state immunity afforded under its COPA, a maneuver that allows states to approve mergers that may otherwise have been blocked in federal antitrust action. (Bannow, 10/24)
Modern Healthcare: Jackson Health System Pays $2.1 Million HIPAA Fine
A Florida health system has paid $2.1 million to HHS' Office for Civil Rights in one of the biggest HIPAA fines this year. The OCR imposed the fine on Jackson Health System, an academic health system based in Miami, after an investigation revealed three separate HIPAA violations since 2013. Jackson Health System waived its right to a hearing and did not contest the OCR's findings. It has already paid the civil money penalty in full, according to the OCR. (Cohen, 10/24)
Modern Healthcare: Board Member, Executive Leave Health Care Service Corp.
The shake-up at the nation's sixth-largest health insurer has hit the Chicago-based company's board of directors. M. Ray Perryman stepped down from the Health Care Service Corp. board less than three months after CEO Paula Steiner's departure, which reportedly resulted from a disagreement with directors over growth strategy. (Goldberg, 10/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Lenox Hill Hospital's Development Plan Opposed By Manhattan Neighbors
A $2 billion hospital redevelopment plan by Lenox Hill Hospital was dealt a blow Wednesday night as an Upper East Side neighborhood advisory body voted overwhelmingly against a proposed rezoning of the site. The development plan by the hospital, part of Northwell Health, would dramatically upgrade the hospital but also create two large towers in a tony residential area. The site occupies a city block stretching from Park to Lexington avenues, and from 76th to 77th streets. (West, 10/24)
The Oregonian: Trillium Files Antitrust Suit Against OHSU, Providence, Legacy Claiming It Is Being Blocked From Portland Market
Trillium Community Health Plan today filed a federal antitrust suit against the three largest hospital systems in Portland claiming they have colluded to "boycott" Trillium making it difficult to impossible for the insurance company to do business here. Trillium filed the suit in U.S. District Court against Legacy Health, Providence Health and Services Oregon and OHSU Health System. Without the "Big Three," as Trillium calls them, it won't be able to crack the metro-area Medicaid market. (Manning, 10/24)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ambulance Diversion: Hospital Closure Policies More Likely Affect Sicker, Poorer Patients
Other studies have connected ambulance diversion with a higher mortality rate for African American patients than whites; revealed delayed cardiac care for all patients; and found that when safety-net hospitals turn away ambulances, nearby for-profit ones close as a pre-emptive measure that exacerbates the delay in care. Such research is key, experts say, to show the disparities created when hospitals close to ambulances. (Diedrich and Crowe, 10/25)
Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning has a proposal that he hopes appeals to Republicans and Democrats. The blueprint toward expansion contains ideas to draw lawmakers from both sides of the aisle but it also includes things that could be dealbreakers for either party. Medicaid news comes out of Oklahoma, Tennessee and Minnesota, as well.
KCUR: By Appealing To Both Sides, A Kansas Medicaid Expansion Plan Risks Opposition From All Directions
A top Republican in the Kansas Senate said he's designed a Medicaid expansion plan that aims to walk a fine line — one that can win over conservatives without losing support from moderate Republicans and Democrats. But the proposal also risks satisfying neither faction. Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning outlined a proposal this week that would grow the Medicaid health care plan to cover an added 150,000 or so low-income Kansans. (Koranda, 10/24)
The Hill: Advocates Submit Signatures To Get Medicaid Expansion On Oklahoma Ballot In 2020
Supporters of Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma said they submitted more than enough signatures on Thursday to get the measure on the ballot in 2020. The "Yes on 802" campaign said it submitted more than 313,000 signatures, far more than the roughly 178,000 it needed, to qualify to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot in Oklahoma next year. (Sullivan, 10/24)
Nashville Tennessean: TennCare Weighing Comments On Medicaid Block Grant Proposal
TennCare officials say they're sorting through roughly 1,700 public comments on the state's proposal to block grant a portion of its Medicaid funding. In a legislative hearing on Thursday, lawmakers heard input from several industry stakeholders, some of whom expressed concerns with the proposal, while also affirming some perceived benefits of the plan. (Allison, 10/24)
MPR: Missing Paperwork Bumps 1,600 Minnesotans From Medicaid Coverage
More than 1,600 Minnesotans have lost Medicaid coverage after they failed to turn in a form required by a new federal rule. The form is designed to help states make sure that certain people — including the elderly and people with disabilities — meet the income requirements of the Medicaid program. (Roth, 10/24)
Kaiser Health News: KHN's 'What The Health?': All About Medicaid
Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for people with low incomes, serves more than 70 million people, covers 1 in every 5 births in the U.S. and foots more than half the nation's bill for long-term care. Yet Medicaid isn't one program, it's 56 separate programs (one for each state plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territories). Understanding Medicaid isn't easy, but with plans to overhaul the health system back in the news, it's critical. (10/24)
As California continues to burn for the third record year in a row, some experts warn that we need to reconcile the fact that fires aren't going away. "I think the perception is that we're supposed to control them. But in a lot of cases we cannot," said John Abatzoglou, an associate professor at the University of Idaho. "And that may allow us to think a little bit differently about how we live with fire. We call it wildfire for reason — it's not domesticated fire."
The New York Times: A Forecast For A Warming World: Learn To Live With Fire
Facing down 600 wildfires in the past three days alone, emergency workers rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people in Southern California on Thursday as a state utility said one of its major transmission lines broke near the source of the out-of-control Kincade blaze in Northern California. The Kincade fire, the largest this week, tore through steep canyons in the wine country of northern Sonoma County, racing across 16,000 acres within hours of igniting. (Fuller and Pierre-Louis, 10/24)
Wired: Kincade Fire: The Age Of Flames Is Consuming California
Welcome to what fire historian Steve Pyne calls the Pyrocene, a unique time in history when human use of fire, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, and the attendant climate change combine to create hell on Earth. "We are creating a fire age that will be equivalent to the Ice Age," he says. The reckoning is here, and California—a highly flammable state packed with people—is getting it worse than just about anybody in the world. (Simon, 10/24)
The Washington Post: Pacific Gas And Electric Power Line Broke Before Kincade Fire Ignited In Sonoma County
A fast-moving wildfire, spurred by powerful winds, burned through Northern California on Thursday and forced thousands of people to evacuate parts of Sonoma County — the rural wine country 75 miles north of San Francisco that is still recovering from a deadly 2017 blaze. Pacific Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility, told state regulators Thursday that a jumper on one of its transmission towers broke close to where officials say the Kincade Fire started, near Geyserville. (Thebault, Bellware and Freedman, 10/25)
Sacramento Bee: Power Outages Show Rural CA Health Safety Net Is Vulnerable
The widespread PG&E power shutdowns are depriving California's rural and indigent residents of critical care from community health clinics that they have come to count on not only for primary care but also for many types of emergency care, leaders in the industry told The Bee. (Anderson, 10/24)
Los Angeles Times: Fires Explode Across California, From Wine Country Vineyards To Southern California Subdivisions
Fueled by violent winds from the northeast, fires erupted on dry hills across California, tearing through oaks and vineyards in Sonoma County and burning homes hundreds of miles away in subdivisions near Santa Clarita. The extreme weather conditions will continue into this weekend, heightening both the fire threat and the likelihood of more widespread power outages as utilities try to prevent electrical lines from sparking more blazes. (Willon, Luna, Fry and Reyes-Velarde, 10/24)
Los Angeles Times: California Wildfires Map
The most recent fire is the Mines fire, which started today. It is 0% contained and has burned 35 acres so far. (10/24)
Factors driving down America's score include the risks of social unrest and terrorism, as well as low-public confidence in government. The report grades the efforts of 195 countries. Public health news is on the declining number of children in foster care, ''auto-brewery syndrome,'' portable MRI, autism screenings, suicidal police officers, dementia, pros and cons of non-monogamy, and high fives for eating yogurt and fiber.
The Washington Post: Countries' Preparedness For A Pandemic Ranked In New Report
After an Ebola epidemic devastated West Africa in 2014, many countries took steps to boost their preparedness. But even as the risk of such outbreaks increases, no country — the United States included — is fully prepared to respond to a deliberate or accidental threat with the potential to wipe out humanity, according to a report assessing the efforts of 195 countries. The report, released Thursday, is the first comprehensive assessment of global health capabilities, giving countries an overall score based on several measures. (Sun, 10/24)
The New York Times: Scientists Were Hunting For The Next Ebola. Now The U.S. Has Cut Off Their Funding.
In a move that worries many public health experts, the federal government is quietly shutting down a surveillance program for dangerous animal viruses that someday may infect humans. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that a new animal disease that can also infect humans is discovered every four months. Ending the program, experts fear, will leave the world more vulnerable to lethal pathogens like Ebola and MERS that emerge from unexpected places, such as bat-filled trees, gorilla carcasses and camel barns. (McNeil, 10/25)
The Associated Press: Fewer US Children In Foster Care; First Drop Since 2012
The number of children in the U.S. foster care system has dropped for the first time since 2012, stemming a surge that was linked to substance abuse by parents, according to new federal data released on Thursday. The annual report from the Department of Health and Human Services counted 437,283 children in foster care as of Sept. 30, 2018, down from about 441,000 a year earlier. (10/24)
The Washington Post: Man With 'Auto-Brewery Syndrome' Acted Drunk Because His Stomach Made Alcohol
Police and doctors didn't believe the 46-year-old man when he swore that he hadn't had alcohol before he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. His blood alcohol level was 0.2, more than twice the legal limit for operating a car. He refused a breathalyzer test, was hospitalized and later released. But the facts remained in contention. Then researchers discovered the unusual truth: Fungi in the man's digestive system were turning carbohydrates into alcohol — a rarely diagnosed condition known as "auto-brewery syndrome." (Iati, 10/24)
Stat: A Serial Entrepreneur Wants His Portable MRI To Transform Medicine
In a nondescript building in this seaside town sits a prototype that could change the way that doctors use magnetic resonance imaging. Usually an MRI machine requires a giant, powerful magnet and must be encased in its own copper-shielded room. It is why the behemoths cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. But this device, from a startup called Hyperfine, is about the size of a luggage cart. It could be wheeled from one bed to another. (Herper, 10/25)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Autism Community, Long Marginalized, Becoming Agent Of Social Change
The Next Step clinic will screen kids as young as 2 for signs they were born with autism. That would mean they came into the world as part of a neurological minority — an estimated one in 59 whose behavior often doesn't conform to the social norms of the neurological majority. Few populations have been as misdiagnosed. (Schmid, 10/24)
The Associated Press: Police Face Dilemma Over When To Take Suicidal Officer's Gun
A law enforcement think tank wants police departments dealing with a suicide crisis in their ranks to rethink how they make one of their toughest decisions: when to take guns away from troubled officers. The recommendation to review gun-removal policies is contained in a new report by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum released in anticipation of a gathering of police chiefs this weekend in Chicago. (Hays, 10/24)
Boston Globe: Understanding Dementia From The Inside Out
Trying to perform a simple task with multiple radio noises in your ears, blurred vision, painful spikes in your shoes, and blinding strobe lights would be a similar experience to having dementia. It's hard to imagine, which is why HouseWorks, a Newton-based provider of home and hospital care for seniors, is using virtual reality to give those who care for dementia patients a better sense of what it's like to have the disease. (Goddard, 10/24)
CBS News: Polyamorous Relationships Not Just "One Big Orgy": Fighting Stigma Of Consensual Non-Monogamy
"One big orgy." That's the stereotype about the lifestyle of consensual non-monogamy — an arrangement where committed partners openly agree to have sexual relationships with other people. But people who have practiced non-monogamy for years say it's not all wild sex — or even all that wild. It takes a lot of work, and it carries a lot of stigma. There can be serious consequences for the family life and even careers of those involved. "Many people are trying to create families in different kinds of ways. And a lot of people see that as dangerous," Diana Adams, a Brooklyn-based lawyer who represents polyamorous families, says in the CBSN Originals documentary, "Non-monogamy." (Kegu and Silverstein, 10/24)
The New York Times: Fiber And Yogurt Tied To Lower Lung Cancer Risk
Eating yogurt and fiber may lower the risk for lung cancer. Fiber is the main source of prebiotics, the nondigestible foods that promote the growth of probiotics, and yogurt is a probiotic food. Scientists suspect that a healthy microbiome may explain the link. The study, in JAMA Oncology, pooled data from 10 studies of diet and lung cancer incidence involving more than 1.4 million adults. Over an average follow-up of eight years, they found 18,882 cases of lung cancer. (Bakalar, 10/24)
Media outlets report on news from Illinois, California, Idaho, Iowa, Alaska, Ohio, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Florida and Texas.
Reuters: Number Of Social Workers A Key Sticking Point In Chicago Teachers Strike
As the Chicago teachers strike enters a sixth school day on Thursday, negotiations are hung up in part on the question of how many social workers the third-largest U.S. school system can afford for its 300,000 students. Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration has proposed doubling the current number of school social workers from about 400 over the next five years, while the Chicago Teachers Union wants the number tripled. (10/24)
The New York Times: It's More Than Pay: Striking Teachers Demand Counselors And Nurses
In Chicago, it has become clear that teacher pay is not the primary sticking point in the negotiations; after all, the city has already agreed to a raise. The Chicago Teachers Union is asking that the district enshrine in its contract a promise to hire more counselors, health workers and librarians, and to free them from tasks outside of their core duties. Those professionals are also members of the union. (Goldstein, 10/24)
Los Angeles Times: Three Doctors Face Medical Discipline For Vaccine Exemptions, And More Could Be On The Way
A San Diego doctor is among three California physicians accused by the Medical Board of California of granting inappropriate childhood vaccination exemptions, but many more doctors across the state may be in for similar scrutiny. Earlier this week, the board released a formal charge of negligence against Dr. Tara Zandvliet for writing a vaccination exemption for a local girl based on inadequate documentation of an adverse medical history that would make inoculation too risky. (Sisson, 10/24)
The Associated Press: Idaho Makes It Harder To Change Gender On Birth Certificates
Idaho officials have made it more difficult for young transgender people to change the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a U.S. court ruling that appears to ban such obstacles. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare released comments from the public Wednesday on a temporary rule requiring people younger than 18 to get approval from medical or mental health professionals before requesting the change. (10/24)
Des Moines Register: Iowa Office Seeks To Outsource Some Of Its Investigations Into Nursing Home Complaints
An Iowa office that investigates complaints of abuse and neglect at long-term care facilities like nursing homes is exploring whether to outsource some of its work. The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman will solicit proposals for third-party work from a public entity or nonprofit beginning Thursday. Cynthia "Cindy" Pederson, the state's long-term care ombudsman and the head of the office, confirmed the plans to the Des Moines Register in a phone interview. She disagreed with the description of "outsourcing." (Rodriguez, 10/24)
Anchorage Daily New: After The Last Cop Killed Himself, All The Criminals Have To Do Is Hide
Russian Mission hasn't had a permanent, certified police officer since. Fourteen years after his death, a generation of children in the Alaska Native village, including Askoak's grandchildren, is growing up in a town left to fend for itself. In a region with the highest rate of homicide and accidental death in Alaska, where half of women experience sexual assault or domestic violence, offenders here have learned they can simply hide from visiting state troopers to avoid arrest. (Hopkins, 10/24)
Chicago Tribune: 'Every Day I Go Outside, I Feel Like I'm Going To Get Killed': How Chicagoans Exposed To Violence End Up Isolated, Lonely And With Chronic Health Problems
In a study that looks at social isolation, loneliness and violence exposure in urban adults, data shows that the more violence people experienced in their own community, the lonelier they were likely to be. The greatest loneliness was found among people who were exposed to community violence and who screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Couple that information with the fact that loneliness is a growing health concern in the nation, and it would appear that violence that leads to loneliness can also lead to higher mortality, [Dr. Elizabeth] Tung said. (Rockett, 10/24)
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Pharmacists Would Get Breaks, More Time To Get Prescriptions Right Under Patient Safety Plan Spurred By Tribune Investigation
Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration is pushing changes in state regulations to require pharmacists take breaks to relieve pressure from heavy workloads, ensure pharmacies give them time to review patient drug histories and cut down on the extra duties that distract them from safely dispensing drugs. The proposed changes, which could be considered as soon as the legislature's fall session that starts Monday, arose from a task force formed in response to a Chicago Tribune investigation that found 52% of 255 Chicago-area pharmacies had failed to warn about combinations of drugs that could cause harm or death. (Long, 10/25)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: HUD Awards $10 Million To Akron, Summit County To Combat Lead Poisoning In Homes
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday announced a $5.6 million grant to Summit County and a $4.6 million grant to the city of Akron to address homes with lead hazards and other health concerns. The announcement coincides with National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, and comes a day after HUD announced a $9.7 million grant for the city of Cleveland and $5.6 million for Cuyahoga County. (Goist, 10/24)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Federal Warning Flags Abuse At 3 Louisiana Nursing-Home Facilities
The federal government has marked three of Louisiana's 276 nursing homes with a new, online warning to indicate the facility has been cited for abuse. The icon, a red circle with a hand in it that appears next to some facilities on a federal website consumers can use to compare nursing homes, flags instances of abuse, neglect or exploitation that led to harm in the past year or that could have potentially led to harm in the past two years. (Woodruff, 10/24)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Teen Girls Trafficked By Woman They Met At Milwaukee Academy
Two teenage girls were sexually trafficked by a woman they met at a behavioral and mental health facility in Milwaukee, according to a criminal complaint. The two girls first met Kendra Bey at Milwaukee Academy, where she was employed as a youth worker from July 2015 through October 2015. Milwaukee Academy is a residential treatment facility for girls who have psychiatric issues or who have been victims of abuse, including sex trafficking. (Rumage, 10/24)
The Advocate: Ex-OLOL Foundation Head John Paul Funes Apologizes For 'Awful, Senseless' Crimes, Repays Nearly $800K
The former head of the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation apologized Thursday for his "awful and senseless" crimes and "extremely poor judgment" before a judge ordered him to spend 33 months in federal prison for embezzling nearly $800,000 from the nonprofit fundraising arm for Our Lake of the Lake Regional Medical Center and its affiliated hospitals. U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, who back in June accepted John Paul Funes' guilty pleas to wire fraud and money laundering, noted Thursday in a courtroom packed with Funes' family, friends and supporters that the 49-year-old Funes paid more than $796,000 in restitution. (Gyan, 10/24)
Miami Herald: U.S. Dept Of Health And Human Services Fines Jackson Health
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has fined Jackson Health System $2.15 million over three patient health information breaches, including missing boxes of paper records, an employee leaking information about an NFL player to an ESPN reporter, and another employee stealing and selling other records. Jackson Health waived its right to a hearing, paid the penalty and did not contest the findings of the investigation, which was conducted by the agency's Office of Civil Rights. (Conark, 10/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Homeless Become More Visible In Austin, Sparking Political Clash
In 10 years of off-and-on homelessness, Rebecca Wallace has lived in the shadows of Texas' capital city. Once, while living behind a shopping mall, she said a beating by a group of men put her in intensive care for weeks. Now, Ms. Wallace sleeps on an inflatable mattress under a freeway in the city's busy tourist district, along with a growing number of other homeless people. (Findell, 10/24)
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
The New York Times: Why Isn't There A Diet That Works For Everyone?
In the United States and other Western countries, diet and nutrition researchers face an urgent imperative: Figure out how to solve the crisis of obesity. About 40 percent of the adults and 19 percent of the children and adolescents in the United States have obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More and more of them face the increased risks of suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular disease and countless other negative health effects. This situation looks like a single problem from a population standpoint — one that simple guidelines for balancing calorie consumption and expenditure should be able to solve. Instead, a seeming infinitude of variables influence what each of us eats and how the body responds. (Tingley, 10/24)
The Atlantic: What Elijah Cummings's Death Reveals About White Privilege
I had a 30-minute ride to the train station. I nestled into my seat, opened my phone, and saw that Representative Elijah Cummings had passed away. I gasped and covered my mouth. The driver peeked at me in his rear-view mirror. He saw me shaking my head and whispering what many Americans whispered last Thursday: He was only 68. My mind turned to my father, whom I had just left at a hotel in Princeton, New Jersey. Dread burned in my chest. (Kendi, 10/24)
The New York Times: Can You Really Be Addicted To Video Games?
Charlie Bracke can't remember a time when he wasn't into video games. When he was 5, he loved playing Wolfenstein 3D, a crude, cartoonish computer game in which a player tries to escape a Nazi prison by navigating virtual labyrinths while mowing down enemies. In his teenage years, he became obsessed with more sophisticated shooters and a new generation of online games that allowed thousands of players to inhabit sprawling fantasy worlds. Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls — he would spend as much as 12 hours a day in these imaginary realms, building cities and fortifications, fighting in epic battles and hunting for treasure. (Jabr, 10/22)
Wired: Big's Backyard Ultra And The Rise Of Women Endurance Stars
On Monday evening, Maggie Guterl and Will Hayward set out for the 60th time on a 4-mile loop through the hickory-covered hills of central Tennessee. It was dark and rainy on day three of the Big's Backyard Ultra, a running race of fiendish design. There's no set distance, and no set total time, just endless laps around the 4-mile course, which participants must complete once an hour. To win, you basically just have to be the last competitor still moving your legs. For hours Guterl and Hayward had been the only two runners left. They could theoretically have gone on forever. (Scoles, 10/24)
Politico: The Great American Cannabis Experiment
The Green Lady Dispensary on Nantucket island sells cannabis products, but that's not all it does. The shop also grows and processes its own marijuana flower, cooks or bakes all the weed-infused candy and other edibles sold on the shelves, and tests everything for safety and chemical content. In fact, everything the Green Lady sells is made completely in-house – something very uncommon for a dispensary. Being single-origin might be a business model for other dispensaries in Massachusetts, but that's not why Green Lady owner Nicole Campbell does everything herself. She has no choice. (Fertig, 10/14)
Editorials And Opinions
Editorial writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
Los Angeles Times: Paying For 'Medicare For All'? No Problem
Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have struggled to explain how they would pay for "Medicare for all." This is puzzling. A single-payer approach like Medicare for all can reduce overall health spending. Other wealthy countries that have universal coverage spend far less on healthcare than the United States as a share of their gross domestic product. A lack of money is not the problem. That's why it should not be difficult to devise a way to pay for Medicare for all to benefit the vast majority of us, particularly low- and middle-income earners. (Stephen Marks, 10/24)
The Hill: Doctors Have A Problem With Warren's Costly Health-Care Plan
Now medical times have changed and not necessarily for the better. While it is true that advances in the fields of genetics, robotics, immunology and cardiology have brought my patients more exciting life saving options than ever before, at the same time, government interventions have made the process of health-care delivery more cumbersome, bureaucratic and inefficient. (Marc Siegel, 10/24)
Philadelphia Inquirer: There's No Such Thing As Universal Healthcare
Every four years presidential candidates list the things they'll give Americans in exchange for their votes, and every four years Americans seem to forget there's no such thing as a free lunch. Front and center this time around is Medicare for All. As with lunches, there is no such thing as free, or in this case universal, medical care. There is simply medical care, and it is expensive. The government can hide who pays for it. It can hide the fact that some people don't have access to it. It can even force some to pay for others. But there is nothing it can do to make it universal. (Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan, 10/24)
US News: Business Roundtable Should Demand Health Care Price Transparency
This month Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon asking him how he plans to implement the Business Roundtable's new "stakeholder" mission. The BRT, which Dimon chairs, recently announced it is extending the focus of corporations from shareholders to employees, customers, suppliers and communities. Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, asked that Dimon endorse her Accountable Capitalism Act, which places a slew of new corporate governance regulations on businesses. (Cynthia Fisher, 10/22)
Stat: Tuberculosis Treatment Improves With Text-Based Behavioral Nudges
Nancy had been coughing for months. When she started experiencing chest pain, this bubbly mother of three and very proud grandmother went to see a doctor at her local clinic in Thika, about 20 miles northeast of Nairobi. He delivered a crushing diagnosis: She had contracted a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. That was in June 2016. (Erez Yoeli, Jon Rathauser and David Rand, 10/25)
Stat: Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance Requires New Diagnostic Tools
A century ago, a severe bacterial infection was often a death sentence. With the advent of penicillin and the antibiotics that followed, such infections became eminently manageable, even routine. Today, though, with the rise of antimicrobial resistance, we are perilously close to returning to where we were 100 years ago. (Eric Stern, 10/24)
The CT Mirror: Abstinence, Death And How To Change The Opioid Epidemic
So, as we face a central question of our opioid epidemic, how do we turn back this tide of death? Answers stare back at us. We have to step away from abstinence-only approaches, such as arbitrary "three-strikes and you're out" policies and detox protocols that don't include the use of proven medications. (Charles Atkins, 10/25)
The New York Times: Should Family Members See Patients Die In The I.C.U.?
On one recent intensive care unit shift, I admitted a man whose heart had stopped earlier that day. By the time I met him, it seemed clear that he wasn't going to live. So when he went into cardiac arrest for what I suspected would be the last time, I headed out of the unit to find his wife. The nurses had told her to wait in the family room and though we hadn't met, I instantly knew who she was. Leaning against a wall, eyes bleary and absent. I introduced myself and explained that my team had started CPR again. I was worried that it wouldn't bring him back. (Daniela J. Lamas, 10/25)
Sacramento Bee: Newsom Should Have Signed Hospital Closure Notification Bill
The California Nurses Association backed Newsom based on promises to govern in a way that would protect our patients and communities. As nurses, we are constantly monitoring our patients' condition, and reassessing the best course of action. When we measure Newsom's AB 1014 veto against his empty promises, we will continue to hold him accountable. (Zenei Cortez, 10/23)
The CT Mirror: Connecticut Legislators: Respect And Protect Our Health
Respect that the well-being of our minds and our bodies are cultivated by the families who raise us, the homes in which we live, the work at which we labor and the people with whom we surround ourselves. Each and every one of us experience an "environmental impact" no less dramatic than the stress being waged upon our planet. It is high time that people and their welfare receive the same level of attention and concern. (H. Andrew Selinger, 10/24)
Nashville Tennessean: Bill Lee Needs To Talk To Tennesseans About Medicaid Block Grant Plan
Gov. Bill Lee muddled his administration's pitch for a TennCare block grant funding model earlier this month when he, although in his mild-mannered way, appeared to berate critics of the plan. The block grant model would mark the first time that any state has received federal funding for Medicaid in a lump sum, which is the same model for many other federal programs, including the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. (Alex Hubbard, 10/24)
Recent Morning Briefings
Today, January 27