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A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction Thursday, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from imposing new anti-abortion restrictions on the use of federal family planning funds designed to assist 4 million low-income women. The rule, promulgated in March by the Department of Health and Human Services, would have barred programs receiving the money from saying or doing anything to advise or assist a patient about securing an abortion. Critics called it a “gag rule.” (Barbash, 4/25)

Judge Bastian wrote that the plaintiffs in the case had “submitted substantial evidence of harm” if the administration’s rule were to take effect. “Yet,” he wrote, “the government’s response in this case is dismissive, speculative and not based on any evidence presented in the record before this court.” The judge’s ruling granted an immediate preliminary injunction, preventing the imposition of the Trump administration rule, which was scheduled to take effect on May 3. (Belluck, 4/25)

U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian, an Obama appointee, issued a nationwide injunction staying the changes from taking effect while several other legal challenges proceed. Bastian heard several hours of arguments Thursday from Washington state and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association challenging the administration's Title X funding rule and arguments from the Justice Department defending the changes. (Ollstein, 4/25)

"Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women," Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement announcing the decision. Washington state was a named plaintiff in the case challenging restrictions proposed by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to its Title X program subsidizing reproductive healthcare and family planning costs for low-income women. (4/26)

Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen praised the ruling in a statement Thursday evening, saying it “will allow four million people to continue receiving life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV testing, STI treatment, and affordable birth control.” “At a time of rising maternal mortality and escalating STI infections, politicians need to stop attacking women’s health care and instead work with doctors and public health leaders to increase access to health care,” Wen said. The preliminary injunction means the Trump administration can't enforce the rules while lawsuits challenging them are moving through the courts. (Hellmann, 4/25)

As the state’s attorneys made their arguments in Yakima, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., visited a Planned Parenthood health center in Seattle’s Central District to meet with leaders of the organization and hear from women who use services funded through Title X. “This is about women making the right decisions for themselves, for their health care, so they can be capable of doing what they need to do, whether that is going to school, having a family later, getting their house in order if that is what they need to do,” Murray told the women. (Blethen, 4/25)

Alabama lawmakers next week will debate one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the nation. The House Rules Committee put the bill on the House of Representatives' debate schedule for Tuesday. The measure would make performing an abortion a felony with almost no exceptions. (Chandler, 4/25)

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s entry into the 2020 race is putting a renewed focus on the sharp divide between Democratic candidates who want to strengthen ObamaCare and those who prefer to make the leap to “Medicare for All.” For Biden, questions will center on whether he sticks exclusively with ObamaCare and his promise to improve on it or if he gives in to pressure from the left and gravitates toward Medicare for All, the progressive proposal backed by many of his opponents. (Hellmann, 4/26)

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Thursday that it will release a report on single-payer health care next week. The report from Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper, slated for release on May 1, is sure to draw close scrutiny from both sides as “Medicare for All” single-payer proposals are hotly debated among Democrats on Capitol Hill and on the presidential campaign trail. (Sullivan, 4/25)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday proposed a plan to tackle high childbirth mortality rates among black women while speaking at a forum hosted by an advocacy organization for women of color. Warren, who is running for president, proposed giving bonuses to hospitals who lower maternal mortality rates and taking money away from hospitals who do not. (Frazin, 4/25)

Kaiser Health News: Klobuchar Wants To Stop ‘Pay-For-Delay’ Deals That Keep Drug Prices High

Washington’s recent fixation with lowering drug costs has introduced Americans to once-insider terms like “pharmacy benefit managers” and “list prices.” During an April 22 CNN town hall event for Democratic candidates, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) described a drugmaker practice that sounds a lot like bribery — drawing attention to yet another secretive process that lawmakers and experts say prevents patients from obtaining affordable prescription drugs. America, meet “pay-for-delay.” (Huetteman, 4/26)

A federal judge on Thursday gave the Trump administration six months to locate thousands more children and parents who were potentially separated at the southern border under a policy intended to deter illegal immigration. Early this year, it came to light that many more children most likely had been forcibly separated from their parents even before a border-enforcement policy known as zero tolerance was officially unveiled in the spring of 2018. Under the policy, nearly all adults who entered the country illegally faced criminal prosecution, and any children accompanying them were placed in shelters or foster care. They often ended up hundreds or thousands of miles apart for weeks or longer. (Jordan, 4/25)

"I am going to issue an order to do this in six months, subject to good cause," said U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw at a hearing in San Diego. "It is important for all government actors to have a time frame and I intend to stand on it." The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a class action lawsuit on behalf of parents separated from their children, pressed Sabraw to give the government a firm deadline. (Hals, 4/25)

Since then, the Trump administration has explicitly allowed Iranian researchers like [Soheil] Saeedi to enter the country with their families to work or study. But many say their papers are held up for so long that they’re forced to put jobs and marriages on hold, leaving them suspended in uncertainty. What seemed like a routine visa renewal for Saeedi’s wife, Khatereh Shabanian, has turned into an ordeal lasting the better part of a year — a scenario that immigration lawyers are all too familiar with. Their inboxes are filled with similar stories, and they say that the delays in background checks are only increasing. (Boodman, 4/26)

An estimated 861,000 fewer children were covered by Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program in 2018 compared with the year before, according to an analysis by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families drawing on new CMS data. Total Medicaid and CHIP enrollment totaled 72.4 million in January 2019, down about 2.2 million from January 2018, according to the CMS data. CMS Administrator Seema Verma tweeted that her agency's preliminary analysis suggests the improving U.S. economy is a factor in the enrollment declines in Medicaid and CHIP. (Meyer, 4/25)

After speculation over whether the state Senate would agree to fund a Medicaid waiver program to provide medical treatment for disabled children, the upper chamber has announced its plan: Pay for part of it, while using additional funds to reduce the state's professional privilege tax. ...The House has committed in this year's budget to fully funding the $27 million Katie Beckett waiver program, which covers medical treatment for children with disabilities and severe illnesses whose families wouldn't otherwise qualify for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program. (Allison and Ebert, 4/26)

More than 200 university students and employees in Los Angeles were given quarantine orders on Wednesday and Thursday, just days after a measles outbreak was declared in Los Angeles County. U.C.L.A. and California State University, Los Angeles, have been working with county health officials to identify and contact students and employees who may have been exposed to measles this month. Those at risk of having contracted measles were given health officer orders — legal orders issued by county officials — to stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible. (Fortin, 4/25)

The five people diagnosed with measles so far in L.A. County this year include a UCLA student and a Cal State L.A. student. Concerned about the quick spread of disease on busy college campuses, health officials have ordered that students and staff exposed to measles who cannot show they have been vaccinated be quarantined until further notice. The announcement comes on the same day California health officials said 38 people had been infected with measles so far this year in the state, an increase of 15 from the previous week. Measles has been spiking nationwide this year, with 695 cases in 22 states reported so far, the most in the U.S. since 2000. (Karlamangla, 4/25)

"One person with a confirmed measles case can expose thousands of people to measles," the county's public health department director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said at a news conference Thursday. Los Angeles County public health officials issued quarantines of 24 to 48 hours until proof of immunity is established, officials said. Some people may need to be quarantined for up to a week. (4/26)

The orders come amid a surge of measles outbreaks across the country — a reported 695 cases overall spanning 22 states — the highest number in a single year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. In a statement late Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the United States is seeing “a resurgence of measles, a disease that had once been effectively eliminated from our country. . . . Measles is not a harmless childhood illness, but a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening disease.” (Brice-Saddler, 4/25)

UCLA is “awaiting medical records from 119 students and eight faculty members to determine whether they are immune to the measles,” and will quarantine those individuals. (Rodrigo, 4/25)

Measles cases spiked last week in California, with 15 new reports that brought the total number of cases for the year so far to 38 — nearly twice as many as the entire previous year — the state public health department announced Thursday. (Allday, 4/25)

Nearly 170 million children worldwide, including more than 2.5 million in the United States and half a million in Britain, missed out on the first dose of the measles vaccine during the past eight years, opening the door to global outbreaks of the disease, a Unicef report said on Thursday. “The ground for the global measles outbreaks we are witnessing today was laid years ago,” Henrietta Fore, the executive director of Unicef, the United Nations agency for children, said in a statement. “The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children,” she added. (Magra, 4/25)

Researchers affiliated with the Ragon Institute, a joint venture with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are now testing a potential HIV vaccine in South Africa. Since 2009, the center has expanded its goals to include developing vaccines for tuberculosis and influenza. The $200 million gift is among the first large donations in Mass. General’s $3 billion fund-raising campaign, which began more than a year ago and is believed to be the largest fund-raising effort by a single hospital in the United States. (Kowalczyk, 4/25)

News about the measles has prompted questions about whether you or your children are at risk of contracting the virus. For answers, we turned to Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of the Bureau of Infectious Diseases and Laboratory Sciences at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. (Kempe, 4/25)

Three new cases of measles have been reported in metro Atlanta, state health officials said Thursday. ...Measles cases in the United States have surpassed the highest number on record since the disease was declared eliminated nationwide in 2000. Overall, there have been 695 measles cases across 22 states this year. (Miller, 4/26)

Senate Bill 329 from state Sen. Kel Seliger would allow parents to access more detailed information for each school. It would include information such as the exemption rates broken down by vaccine type, the number of students who have "conscientious exemptions" — vaccine exemptions for personal or religious beliefs — and the number of students who have medical exemptions signed by doctors. (Byrne and Cheng, 4/26)

Gilbert Sanchez froze his sperm in January, shortly before his 25th birthday. He was healthy and at low-risk for fertility issues. But he wanted to be proactive — just as thousands of young women have been by putting their eggs on ice. Sanchez was headed to graduate school in the fall, and it might be years before he would have a steady job and the wherewithal for a family. He and his girlfriend worried about all the things that could go wrong — disease, war, natural aging — before they might be ready. (Cha, 4/25)

As recent illnesses tied to raw turkey, ground beef, cut melon and romaine lettuce suggest, U.S. food poisoning cases don't appear to be going away anytime soon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday that the frequency of several types of food poisoning infections climbed last year, but that the increases could be the result of new diagnostic tools that help identify more cases. (4/25)

Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, according to a new survey. And that’s just the start of it. Last year, Americans reported feeling stress, anger and worry at the highest levels in a decade, according to the survey, part of an annual Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people around the world, released on Thursday. “What really stood out for the U.S. is the increase in the negative experiences,” said Julie Ray, Gallup’s managing editor for world news. “This was kind of a surprise to us when we saw the numbers head in this direction.” (Chokshi, 4/25)

The for-profit hospital chain Cancer Treatment Centers of America may not have the perceived starpower or reputation of some other institutions that treat cancer patients — but it wields a big influence on how many Americans with cancer get their care. Tasked with shaping that influence is the chain’s new CEO, Dr. Pat Basu, who’s served in the Obama administration and worked for the giant health care company UnitedHealth Group and telemedicine provider Doctor on Demand. (Robbins, 4/26)

Environmental factors are more important than genetics in determining who gets cavities, a new study reports. Australian researchers recruited 250 twin pairs when their mothers were still pregnant. They collected health and demographic data on them at 24 and 36 months’ gestational age, at birth, and at age 18 months. When they were 6 years old, the 172 twin pairs still in the study underwent dental examinations. (Bakalar, 4/26)

How do psychedelic drugs work? And can psychedelic experiences teach you something? People often say that these experiences are important, revelatory, life-changing. But how exactly does adding a chemical to your brain affect your mind? The renaissance of scientific psychedelic research may help to answer these questions. A new study in the journal Nature by Gul Dolen at Johns Hopkins University and her colleagues explored how MDMA works in mice. (Gopnik, 4/25)

It is a widely discredited practice aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. In most of the country the therapy is still legal for minors. But advocacy groups are trying to change that by pushing legislation in state houses across the country to ban licensed mental health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on minors. (Fadel, 4/26)

In a big room full of moms-to-be, pregnant women check each other's blood pressure and weight, a nurse-midwife measures their growing bellies, and they all join a seated circle for two hours of candid talk about what to expect when you're expecting. A young woman's revelation about her strange cravings for glue and fabric softener gets some chuckles, followed by the nurse's explanation that odd signs like that can signal iron deficiency. (4/25)

After pressure from the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency significantly weakened a proposed standard for cleaning up groundwater pollution caused by toxic chemicals that contaminate drinking water consumed by millions of Americans and that have been commonly used at military bases. Standards released by the agency on Thursday eliminated entirely a section that would have addressed how it would respond to what it has described as “immediate threats posed by hazardous waste sites.” Those short-term responses, known as removal actions, can include excavating contaminated soil or building a security fence around a toxic area. (Lipton and Turkewitz, 4/25)

There are thousands of PFAS chemicals, many of them little-understood byproducts. Though the chemicals were distributed, purposefully and inadvertently, by 3M, DuPont and other chemical companies for generations, virtually nothing is known about most of them. But PFOS and PFOA — the compounds most frequently cited by regulators because they have received more scrutiny — have been linked to cancer; conditions affecting the liver, thyroid and pancreas; ulcerative colitis; hormone and immune system interference; high cholesterol; pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, and negative effects on growth, learning and behavior in infants and children. (Matheny, 4/25)

PFAS is Michigan's most widespread, serious contamination problem since the PBB crisis of the 1970s. Thousands of Michigan residents' water supplies have been impacted, and the full scope of the contamination from these so-called "forever chemicals" is not yet known. Soil and surface waters are also contaminated in many places, and people's exposures may have come from consumer products in years past. Michigan has tested more than 1,700 public drinking water supplies statewide for PFAS compounds — every public water system (even down to a mobile home park with 25 users), every tribal water system, every school and day care/Headstart with its own well. Regulators also have tested residential wells in known areas of PFAS contamination. (Matheny, 4/25)

About two-thirds of Americans believe drug companies are to blame for the opioid crisis, although nearly as many hold drug users themselves responsible, a new poll finds. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed many people also fault doctors who prescribed opioid pain pills and government officials who haven't done enough to expand addiction treatment and arrest drug dealers. (4/25)

Arkansas' attorney general on Thursday sued three drug distributors for their alleged role in the opioid crisis, claiming the companies failed to monitor and report suspicious shipments of opioids into the state. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed the lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court against Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation and AmerisourceBergen. The lawsuit claims the companies' conduct has cost consumers and the state millions of dollars in payments for opioid orders that were illegal, misrepresented, unfair or harmful to consumers. (4/25)

A Republican senator wants to clamp down on drug companies that use multiple patents to extend their monopolies, colloquially known as "patent thickets. "Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) plans to introduce a bill soon that would give the Federal Trade Commission authority to sue drugmakers that game the patent system or "product hop" by making minor formula adjustments to prevent generic substitutions. (Luthi, 4/25)

You can add Amgen (AMGN) and Astellas Pharma (ALPMY) to the growing list of drug makers that have finalized agreements with federal authorities over accusations that donations paid to charities actually were kickbacks to Medicare patients as a way to cover their out-of-pocket costs. A federal law known as the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits pharmaceutical companies from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, any remuneration — which includes money or anything else of value — to induce Medicare or other federal programs to purchase their drugs. (Silverman, 4/25)

Amgen Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc.’s U.S. unit have agreed to pay a total of $125 million to resolve kickback allegations that they violated federal law by using charities to pay for Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket costs for the companies’ own drugs, federal prosecutors said. The two separate settlements are part of a long-running Justice Department investigation into the financial support drug companies provide to charities that help patients pay for prescription drugs. (Chin, 4/25)

In policy debates, patient charities are much more effective advocates than pharma companies, whose reputations have suffered amid soaring drug prices, said Matthew McCoy, a professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. “When drug companies give money to patient groups, it’s not out of pure altruism,” he said. “They’re hoping to get something in return.” (Elgin, 4/26)

Sanofi upheld a long-awaited return to growth on Friday with higher profits and revenues for the first quarter, once again led by a stellar sales increase at its rare diseases Genzyme unit. The French drugmaker, which also posted a strong performance at its vaccines division and a new slide in diabetes confirmed its full-year outlook. Pressure on pricing for high cholesterol treatment Praluent was expected to continue this year in the United States, chief financial officer Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon, told reporters. (4/26)

Recent laws in several states that protect drugmakers’ contributions toward patients’ prescription copays are highlighting an escalating battle in the larger war on drug pricing. In the past month, Arizona, Virginia and West Virginia became the first states to enact laws restricting insurance companies from excluding most drug manufacturer coupons or other financial assistance from a patient’s cost-sharing responsibilities. Similar bills are pending in a host of other states, including Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina. (Clason, 4/26)

California regularly portrays itself as a national trendsetter on political issues, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is claiming that title on prescription drugs. Newsom has a plan to take on the drug industry, and at an April 17 news conference in Southern California, he declared that two other governors already want to join his effort.“California is leading the nation in holding drug companies accountable and fighting prescription drug prices,” Newsom said via a press release that day, marking his 100th full day in office. (Young, 4/26)

U.S. health-care stocks have shown that potential policy changes from the 2020 election are already on the minds of investors. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has a few ideas about how to navigate such a tricky environment. Investors who had been putting concerns about policy risk on the back burner, thinking election season was too far in the future to matter yet, all of a sudden had to focus on it again as of last week. (Ossinger, 4/25)

A Star Tribune analysis shows that options exercised plus newly vested stock awards pumped up 2018 compensation to $65.6 million last year for Stephen Hemsley, the executive chairman at UnitedHealth Group. In September 2017, Hemsley shifted from his previous job as chief executive to the executive chairman position at Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth, which is Minnesota’s largest company and runs UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer. (Snowbeck, 4/25)

Newly-formed CommonSpirit Health is gearing up to make a big splash in bond markets, preparing to restructure or refinance billions in debt. In the more than two years Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health worked to cement their merger to form the new Chicago-based health system, both systems avoided public debt markets. This week, CommonSpirit announced that it may restructure or refinance its roughly $13.7 billion in outstanding debt as it moves to merge into a single credit group. (Bannow, 4/25)

Kaiser Health News: Patients Caught In Middle Of Fight Between Health Care Behemoths

Cancer survivors Evalyn Bodick, 74, and Barbara Marsic, 63, are caught in the crossfire of one of the fiercest health care fights in the country. They fear they are about to lose access to the doctors they say have kept them alive. The reason: the latest skirmish in a nearly decade-old battle between two large health systems in Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Both are nonprofit and both sell health insurance as well as provide care. Only a handful of companies nationwide do both. (Findlay, 4/25)

Newly-formed CommonSpirit Health is gearing up to make a big splash in bond markets, preparing to restructure or refinance billions in debt.In the more than two years Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health worked to cement their merger to form the new Chicago-based health system, both systems avoided public debt markets. This week, CommonSpirit announced that it may restructure or refinance its roughly $13.7 billion in outstanding debt as it moves to merge into a single credit group. (Bannow, 4/25)

CVS Health is venturing into dental care with plans to offer a relatively new teeth-straightening service. The drugstore chain said Thursday that it will add SmileDirectClub locations to hundreds of its stores, where customers can get started on getting their teeth straightened without an in-person visit with a dentist or orthodontist. That lack of an office visit has drawn criticism from orthodontists. (4/25)

What began with questions about bulk sales of an obscure children’s book series erupted on Thursday into a full-blown political scandal in Baltimore, where federal agents raided City Hall and two houses belonging to Mayor Catherine Pugh, the author of the books. Critics of the mayor renewed calls for her to resign. Local news stations aired images of agents from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service carrying out box after box of documents and other items seized from at least six locations, including Mayor Pugh’s second-floor office in City Hall and her two homes in northwestern Baltimore. The coordinated raids sought financial records related to the children’s books. (Williams, 4/25)

The strongest voice calling for Mayor Catherine Pugh's immediate resignation is Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who didn't mince words after the early Thursday raids: "Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust. She is clearly not fit to lead." Many Democrats, including those on Baltimore's demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, demanded that the first-term mayor put the interests of citizens above her own self-preservation after weeks of mounting scandal. (4/26)

Agents also went to the downtown law office of Ms. Pugh’s personal lawyer, Steven Silverman, and served a limited subpoena for original financial records belonging to Ms. Pugh that the firm had kept in a sequestered area, according to Mr. Silverman. He said in a statement that the firm complied with the subpoena. (Calvert and Viswanatha, 4/25)

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh (D) is in poor health and is not "lucid" enough to make a decision on whether or not to resign amid a scandal over her business dealings, her attorneys said Thursday. Pugh's attorney Steve Silverman made the comment following FBI raids on her homes and offices. (Bowden, 4/25)

The University of Southern California is losing national accreditation for a medical training program dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education notified USC and Los Angeles County this week that their joint-run fellowship in cardiovascular disease will be stripped of accreditation next year. The decision is final and would effectively shut down the program, which had 15 slots for a three-year curriculum. (4/26)

The panel did not publicly state the reasons for the action. But it comes a year after revelations that a medical resident had accused a fellow in the program of sexual assault and alleged officials didn’t take her case seriously. The ACGME also took the rare step of imposing immediate probation on Los Angeles County and USC, which together sponsor more than 60 programs with hundreds of medical residents and fellows, including the troubled cardiovascular disease fellowship. (Hamilton, 4/25)

Wildfire surrounded Darrel Wilken and the three hospital patients in his car. But instead of evacuating Paradise, they were stuck in traffic along with thousands of others. Cars burned in front of them. Trees, homes and buildings exploded into flames as the gusting firestorm destroyed nearly everything around them. (4/25)

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is on track to wrest $916 million of savings from his streamlining push, allowing him to finance building, health and other programs while holding spending at about $92.5 billion in the coming year. Those savings exceed the $750 million goal he set in February. Rather than cut spending, unused funds will be shifted to finance $150 million “in additional critical needs identified since February,” the mayor said as he presented his final spending plan for fiscal 2020. The proposal will likely be modified before it’s approved by the City Council over the next two months. (Goldman, 4/25)

California state officials have initiated a chlorine water treatment to clear out deadly bacteria that are the source of Legionnaires’ disease from several facilities in the Central Valley. The measure is part of a larger investigation into the source of two confirmed cases of the disease at a Stockton facility, one of which resulted in the death of an inmate in March. The treatment, which began Wednesday morning, came after environmental testing showed Legionella bacteria were present at the California Health Care Facility and the Northern California Youth Correctional Center, the state corrections department said in a news release. The process aims to disinfect water systems in about 115 buildings. (Diaz, 4/25)

California's attempt to ease inmates back into the community is coming at a price: more prisoners, some with violent convictions, walking away before their time is up. Fifty of the state's more than 126,000 prisoners absconded last year, almost half of them from a program that allows male inmates to serve the final year of their sentences in community centers to get help with substance abuse, mental and other health issues, jobs, education, housing, family reunification and social support. (4/26)

After paying billions of dollars to settle lawsuits about the dangers of cigarettes, the tobacco industry is engaged in another public-relations battle, one that is swirling in the Florida Capitol, other state houses throughout the country and in Congress. The issue, known as “Tobacco 21,” focuses on raising the smoking age from 18 to 21, a concept that’s supported by the American Heart Association as well as a company many people blame for a teen vaping epidemic. (Kam, 4/24)

The state’s largest healthcare workers’ union has suspended indefinitely a planned May 1 strike at 20 nursing homes to allow negotiations to continue, a union spokesman confirmed Thursday. And sources said Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration has proposed additional state funding for nursing homes, though it’s unclear whether it would be sufficient to fund the raises sought by New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 SEIU. (Phaneuf, 4/25)

Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday signed House Bill 186, unlocking future growth for Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Georgia and ending a decade-long battle between CTCA and the state’s nonprofit hospitals. CTCA, a private health care business, won. What it means for Georgia patients is clear: more opportunity to receive treatment at CTCA’s campus in Newnan. (Hart, 4/25)

Nurses and other hospital staff would get regular rest and meal breaks and other guarantees in their schedules under a bill that received final approval in both chambers of the Legislature on Wednesday. The issue became a sensation in the past week when an Eastern Washington lawmaker suggested nurses in small hospitals with relatively few patients don’t need mandated breaks, because their schedules are such that they probably spend part of their shift playing cards. (Camden, 4/25)

The federal government has delayed changing the way donor livers are distributed, a proposal that hospitals in Kansas and Missouri said would have led to longer waits — and more deaths — for Midwesterners who need a transplant. The change was supposed to go into effect at the end of this month but will be put off for at least two weeks as a federal judge in Atlanta weighs a lawsuit brought by more than a dozen transplant centers that believe they stand to lose from the new policy. (Marso, 4/25)

Fanning was among thousands of people touched by catastrophic storms in Eastern North Carolina — Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018. A group including students from the UNC-Chapel Hill nursing school spent a week in March helping out in eastern counties. They spent part of a day working where Fanning was having lunch, one of the projects of Wilmington’s Anchor church. ...It’s taken an evolving mix of public, private and nonprofit efforts to make a dent in the widespread health and human problems aggravated by the storms. Tamatha Arms, an associate professor of nursing at UNC-W, said at the lunch that families she’s encountered continue to suffer financial stress as well as a long list of physical and mental issues. (Goldsmith, 4/26)

While the total number of workplace deaths in Massachusetts declined slightly between 2017 and 2018, the number of on-the-job deaths stemming from violence almost doubled in the same period, according to a report issued Thursday. The findings from the latest annual report by worker advocacy group Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health and union organization Massachusetts AFL-CIO indicate that despite progress in recent years to increase workplace safety, more needs to be done. (Reyes, 4/25)

Kaiser Health News: Hospitals Chafe Under Medicare’s New Payment Rule For Off-Campus Clinics

Eric Lewis’ plans for expansion have derailed. As chief executive officer of Olympic Medical Center, he oversees efforts to provide care to roughly 75,000 people in Clallam County, in the isolated, rural northwestern corner of Washington state. Last year, Lewis planned to build a primary care clinic in Sequim, a town about 17 miles from the medical center’s main campus in Port Angeles. (Heredia Rodriguez, 4/26)

A federal judge dismissed UPMC's lawsuit to block the Pennsylvania attorney general's efforts to force UPMC to keep its provider network open to Highmark Health and other health plans. U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled Wednesday that UPMC can't sue over Attorney General Josh Shapiro's statements about UPMC's provider network, since they have not led to action and his proposed rule is still under review in state court. (Meyer, 4/25)

It’s like “Sleeping Beauty” with a dose of nightmare fuel: A flat-bodied, six-legged insect moves toward you as you slumber, bound for the blood that surges around your eyes and lips. It crawls on your face. And the poop it leaves behind can be deadly. The triatomine bug, also known as the notorious kissing bug, has been an obscure threat in the United States, with the highest density in Latin America and some Western states. (Horton, 4/25)

Hackensack Meridian Health appointed Theresa Brodrick as its chief nurse executive, the Edison, N.J.-based health system announced Thursday. Brodrick will oversee non-physician clinical affiliation partnerships, nursing education and research, patient safety and clinical quality of nursing, nursing-driven patient experience and Magnet certification. (Kacik, 4/25)

A team of scientists is trying to get a better grasp of Connecticut’s tick population. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station are for the first time actively collecting ticks statewide to test for organisms that cause human diseases, including Lyme disease. The new program, which started this month, is targeting 40 locations across Connecticut, mainly in state parks, forests and land trusts. Nearly 60% of the state is forested, making it a prime habitat for ticks. (Scott, 4/25)

Lawmakers in the Senate cleared the way Thursday for a blooming hemp industry in Connecticut, authorizing a pilot program for the production and sale of the crop. Proponents said they wanted to move quickly so farmers could begin planting seeds in June – the start of the growing season. They held up the proposal as a catalyst that could revive ailing sectors of the state’s farming industry. (Carlesso, 4/25)

Well past seven one evening in 1988, after the nurses and the office manager had gone home, as he prepared to see the last of his patients and return some phone calls, Dr. Lou Ortenzio stopped by the cupboard where the drug samples were kept. (Sam Quinones, 4/23)

Around 2 a.m., about 17 hours after she crossed the border, Rose couldn’t wait any longer. The baby was coming and a cell full of people was not where she wanted to have her child. (Ema O'Connor, 4/22)

Since the turn of the 20th century, mandatory vaccination has been one of America’s greatest weapons in not only battling outbreaks and eradicating certain diseases, but also preventing them. Though not without significant pushback from anti-vaxxers, who have been in the U.S. just as long. (Linda Poon, 4/24)

Free apps marketed to people with depression or who want to quit smoking are hemorrhaging user data to third parties like Facebook and Google — but often don’t admit it in their privacy policies, new research says. The study is the latest to highlight the potential risks of entrusting sensitive health information to our phones. (Rachel Becker, 4/20)

Lourdes Juarez has lived in North Carolina since 2000, working part-time to help children with disabilities improve their motor skills. Originally from Mexico, she is now a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. with plans to apply for citizenship. (Olga Khazan, 4/25)

As measles cases continue to proliferate, so too does litigation over public health officials’ efforts to stem the contagion. Although the outcome of this litigation is uncertain, one point is already apparent: Although public health officials wield extraordinary legal powers, they need new tools to fight 21st-century outbreaks. (Wendy E. Parmet, 4/25)

The United States is experiencing an alarming measles outbreak, with 626 cases in 22 states as of mid-April. The majority have been among residents of New York state, where the situation is so grave that it has prompted two separate public health emergency declarations this month in an attempt to curtail the spread of this highly infectious disease.Thirty years ago, our country battled an outbreak of measles that sickened more than 55,000 people and caused over 11,000 hospitalizations. The 1989–91 epidemic ultimately killed up to 166 people, many of whom were young children. While that crisis and the latest one were both hastened by a lack of timely immunization of young children, the reasons for nonvaccination were quite different. (Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, 4/24)

In May 2016, I’d been feeling sick for a few days. My doctor diagnosed strep and sent me home with antibiotics. But this wasn’t like any strep I’d ever had before. My sore throat and fever kept getting worse, and I developed a rash on one of my arms. Then, one morning, I collapsed onto the floor of my apartment. The emergency room doctors took blood and ruled out strep. Maybe it was scarlet fever? Then someone thought to ask: Were you vaccinated against measles? In my haze, I realized that I wasn’t sure. I texted my mother the question. She responded with a thumbs-down emoji. Why?, she asked. I was in the hospital. (Josh Nerius, 4/25)

We are encouraged to see that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are getting serious about raising the minimum age to 21 years old to purchase tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. This will build on the momentum of several state and territorial legislatures that are working towards banning the sale and use of cigarettes to people under 21. (Michael Fraser and Marcus Plescia, 4/25)

In September 2015, an employee of Rochester Drug Cooperative (RDC), one of the largest pharmaceutical distributors in the country, was preparing to review a report on the opioid drugs her company had sold to one of its pharmacy customers. Given the buzz in the office, she was steeling herself, as she put it in an email, to see “what evil lies within,” referring to evidence that her company’s highly addictive products were falling into the wrong hands. Despite the report, the company allegedly did nothing to stop that illicit flow of drugs.

Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016, the medical and health policy communities have largely embraced its recommendations. ...Efforts to implement prescribing recommendations to reduce opioid-related harms are laudable. Unfortunately, some policies and practices purportedly derived from the guideline have in fact been inconsistent with, and often go beyond, its recommendations. (Deborah Dowell, Tamara Haegerich and Roger Chou, 4/24)

Whenever I am outside Flint, Mich., I am often asked some version of this question: “Is the water safe to drink yet?” I’ve often longed for a 30-second response — something that could quickly, clearly and fully tackle the question. But I don’t have one easy answer. There’s a list of answers. So, as we pass the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the crisis, let me respond with that list. (Mona Hanna-Attisha, 4/25)

In 2016 the Colorado health department announced the presence of cancer-causing chemicals in drinking water in Fountain, Colo., just outside Colorado Springs. Tests by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that nearby military bases had been leaching toxic chemicals, including substances known as PFASs, into drinking water for decades, potentially contributing to higher-than-normal rates of cancer. The Department of Defense has since admitted their responsibility for at least 55 drinking-water site contaminations worldwide, and the EPA has announced new plans to set drinking-water limits for PFASs by the end of the year. (Jason A. Heppler, 4/26)

I knew something was wrong when my husband, an avid tennis player, started taking afternoon naps. Scans showed a shadow on his lung that turned out to be stage 3 lung cancer. A few days after a terrific surgeon removed part of my husband’s lung, the hospital discharged him. That evening at home, my husband began gasping. My blood ran cold when he told me that he thought he was suffocating. We were lucky that my husband’s doctor would make a house call. Few families would have access to that type of personal care — and throughout my husband’s health struggles, I recognized how lucky we were to have the resources we did. But in most instances, a patient like my husband would be in an ambulance, headed back to the hospital for readmission. As I learned on that frightening night and on many other occasions, our health care system repeatedly fails family caregivers. (Ellen Lutch Bender, 4/25)

Diet-related diseases produce crushing health and economic burdens. The estimated US costs of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity-related cancers, and other obesity-related conditions are approximately $1.72 trillion per year, or 9.3% of the gross domestic product. This burden creates tremendous stress on government budgets, private businesses, and families. Marginalized groups often suffer most, with significant disparities in both diet and health leading to illness, suboptimal school and work performance, increased health costs, and lower productivity and wages. ( Dariush Mozaffarian, Jerold Mande and Renata Micha, 4/22)

The VA MISSION Act dedicates $50 million per year to a new Department of Veterans Affairs innovation center and would allow it to prioritize pilots that counterbalance underlying incentives, test episode-based payment approaches, and address veteran-specific needs. (Ashok Reddy, Stephan D. Fihn and Joshua M. Liao, 4/25)

Florida’s unhealthy obsession with guns is about to get worse. The Republican-led Senate voted on Tuesday to allow teachers in the classroom to be armed, an irrational reaction to last year’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. This is a dangerous approach that most teachers and school boards across the state do not support, and it would make children less safe in the classroom. Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is among those against it. “Teachers are not hired to carry guns,” he told the Miami Herald. He’s right. (4/24)

Overdose prevention sites are lauded by people who use drugs as vital ways to save lives — something of urgent importance in Philadelphia. But overdose prevention sites have come under fire as perpetuating racism. These opponents advocate against the opening of a site in Philadelphia because black and brown people who used crack were funneled to prisons under the repressive policies of the war on drugs, whereas predominantly white opiate users are being offered a public-health intervention that would save lives and link users to treatment. (Aisha Mohammed and Amna Shaikh, 4/25)