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The major battleground-state Democrats running to flip the Senate want nothing to do with "Medicare for All." In states like Arizona, Iowa and North Carolina, challengers Mark Kelly, Theresa Greenfield and Cal Cunningham are staying tightly focused on the health care message House Democrats used in 2018: expanding Medicaid, protecting Obamacare and slamming Republican repeal efforts. Incumbents like Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) are aligned similarly, backing proposals like a public health insurance option but declining to embrace a single national insurance plan. (Ollstein and Arkin, 8/25)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 White House hopeful, on Sunday dismissed criticism that he is backtracking on his "Medicare For All" plan. "We have not changed one word," Sanders said of the plan on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked about "2020 rivals" attacking him for tweaking its impact on union workers. (Klar, 8/25)

The uninsured rate is rising for the first time since ObamaCare passed, two recent studies show, alarming advocates who fear the problem could get worse. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in July show there were 2.1 million more uninsured people between 2016 and 2018. And a study from the Urban Institute this month, using Census Bureau data, found 700,000 more uninsured people just between 2016 and 2017. (Sullivan, 8/25)

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are vowing to put in place a controversial approach to stopping drug overdoses if elected. Both Democratic presidential candidates endorsed supervised injection sites this week, a stance that conflicts with the federal government's objection to allowing so-called "safe" locations that let drug users inject heroin and other drugs. (Hellmann, 8/25)

During a campaign speech Friday, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said the problem of declining life expectancy should be a top issue for politicians — but it doesn’t seem to be. “This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis, and yet it’s being treated with silence and neglect in Washington,” said Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind. Buttigieg is campaigning in New Hampshire this weekend, talking about “diseases of despair” like addiction, and talking up the mental health plan his campaign unveiled Friday. (Albertson-Grove, 8/23)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it had identified 193 potential cases of severe lung illness tied to vaping in 22 states as of Aug. 22, including one adult in Illinois who died after being hospitalized. The CDC has been investigating a "cluster" of lung illnesses that it believes may be linked to e-cigarette use, although it has not yet been able to establish whether they were in fact caused by vaping. (8/24)

"This tragic death in Illinois reinforces the serious risks associated with e-cigarette products. Vaping exposes users to many different substances for which we have little information about related harms – including flavorings, nicotine, cannabinoids, and solvents," Dr. Robert R. Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement Friday. (Hauck, 8/23)

Many patients, including some in Illinois, have acknowledged vaping of tetrahydrocannabinol, or (T.H.C.), the high-inducing chemical in marijuana, according to statements from federal and state health agencies. But officials don’t know whether the ailments have been caused by marijuana-type products, e-cigarettes, or some type of street concoction that was vaped, or whether a contaminant or defective device may have been involved. (Richtel and Kaplan, 8/23)

The illnesses have been reported since late June, but the total count has risen quickly in the past week. That may be partly because cases that weren't initially being linked to vaping have begun to be grouped that way. Among the newest reports are two in Connecticut, four in Iowa and six in Ohio. Health officials are asking doctors and hospitals to tell state health officials about any possible vaping-related lung disease cases they encounter. (Babwin and Stobbe, 8/23)

The CDC also has not identified a specific product or manufacturer and said it is still early in its investigations. "Even though cases appear similar, it's not clear if they have a common cause," said Ileana Arias, acting deputy director for noninfectious diseases for the CDC. (Hellmann, 8/23)

While some of the cases appear similar, officials said they don’t know whether the illnesses are associated with the e-cigarette devices themselves, or with specific ingredients or contaminants inhaled through them. Health officials have said patients have described vaping a variety of substances, including nicotine, marijuana-based products and do-it-yourself “home brews.” (Sun, 8/23)

“The severity of illness people are experiencing is alarming and we must get the word out that using e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous,” Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said in a statement. Doctors are searching for answers and turning to some previous cases for help. At the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, specialists have treated seven patients over the past couple of weeks who developed pulmonary illnesses after vaping, “and we think there may be a couple more,” said Alison Morris, division chief of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine. (McKay and Ansari, 8/23)

The patient appears to have a viral infection -- with a fever, headache, muscle pain and an upset stomach -- that quickly progresses into what appears to be pneumonia. But testing turns up no signs of an infection. Instead, the condition continues to progress, with increasing inflammation in the lungs to the point that they stop functioning properly. Several patients have been treated in the intensive care unit and even needed a ventilator to help them breathe. (Edney and Cortez, 8/23)

Georgia has joined other states in investigating possible cases of severe respiratory illness that may be linked to vaping. Vaping is the use of e-cigarette devices, which mimic cigarettes but produce inhalable vapors instead of smoke. The devices are marketed as alternatives to smoking, but health experts say they cause problems of their own. The CDC said it’s aware of about 190 cases of severe lung disease in 22 states that could be caused by vaping. (Miller, 8/23)

Within days, Alexander Mitchell had gone from being a 20-year-old hiking enthusiast to being kept alive by two machines forcing air into and out of his lungs and oxygenating his blood outside of his body. “He went from being sick to being on death’s door in literally two days,” recalled his father, Daniel Mitchell, as he struggled to grasp the unthinkable. “The doctor said he was dying. In all honesty, I was preparing to plan a funeral for my child. I wept and wept for this boy.” (Sun, 8/24)

When your doctor gives you health advice, and your insurer pays for the recommended treatment, you probably presume it’s based on solid evidence. But a great deal of clinical practice that’s covered by private insurers and public programs isn’t. The British Medical Journal sifted through the evidence for thousands of medical treatments to assess which are beneficial and which aren’t. According to the analysis, there is evidence of some benefit for just over 40 percent of them. Only 3 percent are ineffective or harmful; a further 6 percent are unlikely to be helpful. But a whopping 50 percent are of unknown effectiveness. We haven’t done the studies. (Frakt, 8/26)

Annemarie Cuccia saw the black mold spread through rooms in her dormitory — five on her floor in a span of about two weeks last September. Soon she spotted some mold in her own room as well, growing on walls and furniture. Ms. Cuccia, now a sophomore at Georgetown University, and her roommate told a maintenance worker about the mold, and workers came to clean it off a few days later. But her problems did not end there. “About a month later, I started getting really, really terrible pains in my ears,” said Ms. Cuccia, 19. She had an ear infection, caused by black mold spores. (Jun, 8/25)

Jo Ann Jenkins is the CEO of AARP, the world's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization. AARP is focused on helping people "improve their quality of life" as they age; it has more than 38 million members. Jenkins joined AARP in 2010 and became CEO in 2014. Previously she was chief operating officer at the Library of Congress, one of her many roles in public service. She is the author of "Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age," a book about changing society's views on aging. She is the first woman to be named CEO of AARP on a permanent basis. (8/25)

If you want your preschooler to grow up with a healthy attitude toward artificial intelligence, here’s a tip: Don’t call that cute talking robot “he” or “she.” Call the robot “it.” Today’s small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up with robots as peers. Those winsome talking devices spawned by a booming education-tech industry can speed children’s learning, but they also can be confusing to them, research shows. Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers. (Shellenbarger, 8/26)

When an infectious disease threatens to become a pandemic, it is up to John Hackett to keep the world’s blood supply safe. He is known as the “chief virus hunter” within Abbott Laboratories , where Dr. Hackett is in charge of a global team that plays a prominent public-health role whenever an outbreak occurs. Dr. Hackett’s job is to consult Abbott’s vault of more than 60,000 viral strains of HIV and hepatitis to determine whether a diagnostic test to detect the particular virus exists, brainstorm a plan for developing one in the event of a new viral strain, and collaborate with government agencies to coordinate a public health response. Today his tests are used to screen more than 60% of the world’s blood supply. (Higgins, 8/24)

Dale Knuth, now 58, says that in childhood her weight was a source of anguish — largely because of how her family treated her. "I had a brother who tormented me constantly," she says. "If I came home from school and was hungry and ate an apple, I'd be called a cow, or a pig or whatever." Her parents, she says, did nothing to stop her brother "except to say, 'Yeah, you're getting fat.' " She had no physical outlet for her frustration — she wanted to play softball, but her mother wouldn't allow it. (Neilson, 8/25)

On Sept. 15, 2017, Olivia stepped into a full-body scanner at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. When she stepped out, a female Transportation Security Administration officer approached. On the scanner’s screen was an outline of a human body with the groin highlighted. The officer told Olivia that because of something the scanner had detected, a pat-down would be necessary. As a transgender woman, Olivia, 36, had faced additional TSA scrutiny before. On those occasions, a manual search at the checkpoint had been enough to assure TSA officers that there wasn’t a weapon or explosive hidden in her undergarments. (Waldron and Medina, 8/26)

Steroid inhalers commonly used to prevent asthma attacks may not work any better than a placebo for many people with mild asthma, according to recent research. Synthetic corticosteroids mimic the steroid hormone cortisol, reducing inflammation in the airways. But the drug targets a type of inflammation that may be found in far fewer patients than previously thought, research in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine finds. (Dembosky, 8/26)

Jason Kander was a rising political star, in the homestretch of a race for mayor of Kansas City that he was widely expected to win. And he was moments away from upending it all. His campaign manager, Abe Rakov, stopped him and asked, “Are you sure this is the thing you want everyone in the world to remember about you forever?” Mr. Kander said yes. So his manager pressed Send. (Philipps, 8/25)

A little Shakespeare came to mind during a recent shift in the Boston emergency room where I work. "Good Mercutio, let's retire," Romeo's cousin Benvolio says. "The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, and, if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl." It was hot in Boston, too, and people were brawling. The steamy summer months always seem to bring more than their fair share of violence. (Dalton, 8/24)

It happens every once in a while: A child being raised vegan develops serious health problems, setting off an emotional debate over whether such diets are suitable for the very young. Experts say it is possible to raise healthy infants and children on a totally plant-based diet. Planning helps, as babies are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition and are unable to choose the foods they eat. (Fortin, 8/24)

Ed Goldman, a retired bookbinder who says he’s “pushing 80,” does not let his age or enlarged prostate curtail his physical activities and desire to travel. He walks the streets of his beloved New York for about two miles a day, five or more days a week, and knows every possible bathroom stop along his usual routes. When arriving in foreign territory, he immediately checks out the location of lavatories to avoid an embarrassing accident. “The urgency, when it hits, can be pretty scary,” he told me. (Brody, 8/26)

Kaiser Health News: Coming Out About Mental Health On Social Media

Susanna Harris was sitting in her lab class for her graduate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she received an email that told her she had failed what she describes as “the most important exam in grad school,” the doctoral qualifying exam. She took the rest of the day off, went home and baked cookies. Harris continued with her regular schedule: lab, work, home, repeat. Everything seemed fine until she realized she was having a hard time focusing due to lack of sleep. (Lofton, 8/26)

Ken Weckstein doesn’t even fit his own profile of what a top athlete looks like. He’s a 66-year-old who puts in long hours as a lawyer. But he’s found an unusual sport to scratch his competitive itch: harness racing, the sport where a horse pulls a two-wheeled cart occupied by a driver. Mr. Weckstein, a partner with Brown Rudnick, has spent nearly three decades riding in harness races at Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, Md., and Ocean Downs in Berlin, Md. He splits his time between the Washington, D.C., area and Ocean City, Md., and competes from February through mid-December, racing three to four times a week, sometimes up to three races a night. (Murphy, 8/25)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has completed a three-week course of radiation therapy for cancer, the high court said in a statement Friday. The treatment, for a tumor on her pancreas, began Aug. 5 and was administered on an outpatient basis. No further treatment is needed, according to the court, and Ginsburg “tolerated the treatment well.” (Higgins and Pramuk, 8/23)

While the court said Ginsburg's tumor "was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body," and no further treatment was needed, pancreatic cancer remains a serious diagnosis for the 86-year-old liberal icon. Pancreatic cancer was the third-leading cause of death from cancer in the United States in 2018, after lung and colorectal cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute. This year, an estimated 56,770 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed and an estimated 45,750 deaths from pancreatic cancer will occur across the nation, according to the American Cancer Society. (Landau, 8/24)

In Cleveland, a Planned Parenthood mobile clinic that tests for sexually transmitted diseases has cut its staff to part-time and may shut down. In Minneapolis, women and girls accustomed to free checkups are now billed as much as $200 per visit on a sliding fee scale. And in Vienna, W.Va., Planned Parenthood employees are marking boxes of birth control pills with “Do not use” signs because they were paid for with federal grants the organization can no longer accept. Planned Parenthood’s decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program this week, rather than comply with what it calls a “gag rule” imposed by the Trump administration on abortion referrals, is creating turmoil in many low-income communities across the United States. (Cha and Regan, 8/24)

A year ago, the federal government announced a record high number of newly diagnosed sexually transmitted diseases in the country, marking the fourth straight year of sharp and steady increases and a comeback of the infectious bogeyman of past generations. Syphilis was back, gonorrhea had returned with a vengeance, and the nation was “sliding backward,” a federal official warned. (Ebbert, 8/23)

Critics of a new Missouri ban on abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy are asking a judge to block the law from taking effect this week. Attorneys for Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union head to court Monday to ask U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs to put the law on hold while their legal challenge against it plays out in court. They face a tight deadline: The law is set to take effect Wednesday. Planned Parenthood and ACLU lawyers in a court filing wrote that unless Sachs blocks the law, it will severely limit access to abortion and prevent the “vast majority of patients from obtaining the constitutionally protected medical care they seek.” (Ballentine and Stafford, 8/26)

Billionaire libertarian activist David Koch died Friday, removing a major funding figure from the healthcare political scene. But the passing of the 79-year-old co-founder of the right-wing advocacy group Americans for Prosperity likely will have little impact on continuing efforts by that group and his brother Charles Koch on healthcare issues. (Meyer, 8/23)

It was the Obama administration that spurred the Kochs to dramatically escalate their strategic and financial involvement in politics. The new Democratic president was trying to pass both a major expansion of government health care spending and a cap-and-trade bill designed to rein in carbon emissions and combat climate change. Charles Koch called Obama’s agenda “the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes,” saying Democrats’ policies “threaten to erode our economic freedom.” Amidst a recession, there was already a backlash against Obama in the form of the Tea Party — a backlash the Kochs helped stoke and tried to shape around their preferred issue positions (anti-Obamacare, anti-cap-and-trade, anti-regulation, anti-taxing the rich). “The Kochs didn’t like the social issues, so they tried to make it a small-government thing and put ‘values’ on the back burner,” social conservative activist Tony Perkins says in Tim Alberta’s new book American Carnage. (Prokop, 8/23)

Of all the billionaires, hedge fund managers and chief executives who have showered politicians in New York with money in the last five years, no one has given more often than David C. Rich. Since 2014, Mr. Rich has doled out more than 200 contributions totaling over $900,000. Last year alone, he gave away nearly a quarter of a million dollars across dozens of campaigns, according to an analysis by The New York Times, and has donated at least 39 times so far this year. (Goodman, 8/26)

The contrast between the two Trump rallies was striking: At one event here in the first primary state in 2016, President Trump railed against the pharmaceutical industry for more than two full minutes — an eternity for one topic in a campaign speech. Forcefully vowing to reject their donations and pledging to empower Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices to save both voters and the federal government billions, Trump declared: “We’re going to save so much money and those drug companies are going to hate me so much.” (Florko, 8/23)

Deb and Shawn Jenssen were used to frustration. Their kids had been turned away from studies. Doctors had questioned if they could really be showing signs of a disease even as it made it harder for them to walk. All of it helped explain why that brief moment in an Orlando hotel conference room caught their attention — why it felt like hope. (Joseph, 8/26)

It’s been just over a month since Amgen and Novartis ended two studies of an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment early, the latest in a long string of failures in Alzheimer’s drug development. There is still no effective treatment for the disease. But as the population ages, the already significant need for an Alzheimer’s treatment is only growing more urgent, said Dr. David Reese, executive vice president of research and development at Amgen. (Thielking, 8/23)

Pediatricians and public health officials are worried vaccination rates among children of immigrants will fall as new and stricter rules come into effect this autumn related to the public services available to people seeking to immigrate to the United States. In fact, a number said they have seen a decline in immigrant families using preventive health care services for their children since the Trump administration published its proposed “public charge” update last fall — even when the children are U.S. citizens and are not subject to the rule. (Branswell, 8/26)

Experts are warning that the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule linking immigrants’ legal status to their use of public benefits will have far reaching impacts on health care coverage as well as the country's safety net. ...Health and immigration experts and activists said the final rule will have a chilling effect even on people who aren’t directly affected and could discourage permanent residents and even U.S. citizens from renewing or applying for benefits they are entitled to. (Weixel, 8/24)

The CMS on Friday told states on Friday they can count the assets and income of the sponsors of legal immigrants when they're determining whether the immigrants qualify for Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance coverage. If states don't like the methodologies suggested by the CMS, they can come up with an alternative but will need agency approval. (Luthi, 8/23)

More than a year after he drew criticism for comparing family detention to a “summer camp,” the nation’s top immigration enforcer stood in a clean hallway in America’s largest family detention complex and gestured around himself. “Take a look,” said Matthew Albence, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director. (Sacchetti, 8/25)

An Oklahoma judge is expected to rule Monday in the first state case to go to trial accusing an opioid drugmaker of being responsible for the devastating consequences arising from addiction to the powerful painkillers. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman is scheduled to deliver his judgment in open court at 3 p.m. The case is at the forefront of a wave of similar lawsuits by states, cities, counties and Indian tribes against drug companies over the wreckage caused by the national opioid crisis. (Murphy, 8/26)

It is the first state trial attempting to hold a pharmaceutical company accountable for one of the worst epidemics in history. The state has asked for nearly $17.2 billion to fix the epidemic over a 30-year plan. If Balkman sides entirely with the state, the verdict would be the biggest monetary award handed down in a bench trial in American history. (Drash and Howard, 8/26)

The first judgment is expected Monday in a lawsuit from a state government seeking to hold a drug company accountable for a U.S. opioid crisis that has ripped apart lives and communities. More trials and legal settlements are likely to follow the ruling in Oklahoma as the nation looks for answers and solutions to a massive societal and legal problem. Following are questions and answers about the opioid crisis. (Mulvihill, 8/25)

The manufacturers and distributors of opioid prescription painkillers have supplied billions of pills throughout the U.S. An investigative series by The Washington Post looks at the opioid epidemic through the DEA's newly public database that tracks every pain pill sold to pharmacies across the country. Steven Rich, The Post's data editor, joins Hari Sreenivasan with more. (8/25)

When federal investigators got a tip in 2015 that a health center in Houston was distributing millions of doses of opioid painkillers, they tried a new approach: look at the numbers. State and federal prescription and medical billing data showed a pattern of overprescription, giving authorities enough ammunition to send an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. She found a crowded waiting room and armed security guards. After a 91-second appointment with the sole doctor, the agent paid $270 at the cash-only clinic and walked out with 100 10mg pills of the powerful opioid hydrocodone. (Tau and Viswanatha, 8/26)

In July 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration met with Mallinckrodt, informing the pharmaceutical company that the agency viewed it “as the kingpin within the prescription drug cartel.” Now, more details and questions about Mallinckrodt’s role in the opioid crisis are emerging, including whether it effectively guarded against products leaving legal distribution channels as required by law. Much attention over the sprawling opioid litigation against the pharmaceutical industry has targeted Purdue Pharma LP and its prescription pain pill OxyContin, which has sold more than $35 billion since launching in 1996. (Hopkins and Walker, 8/25)

The pathway to opioid abuse for women often starts with a prescription from the doctor's office. One reason is that women are more likely than men to seek help for pain. Pain researchers say not only do women suffer more painful conditions, they actually perceive pain more intensely than men do. "The burden of pain is substantially greater for women than men," says researcher and psychologist Roger Fillingim, "and that led pain researchers like myself to wonder if the pain perception system is different in women than in men." (Neighmond, 8/26)

A rarity among local law enforcement agencies, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employs a staff of round-the-clock mental health and threat assessment experts who continuously seek intelligence from the community on people they believe could pose a threat of violence. When a tip comes in, the team assesses the risk and intervenes if warranted. In the wake of back-to-back shootings in Ohio and Texas this month, red flag gun laws have emerged as a potentially bipartisan method of curbing the nation’s escalating number of mass murders. But the infrastructure that Palm Beach County has in place may be necessary to make the laws work. (Vestal, 8/26)

Sen. Chris Murphy on Friday said any attempt by Congress to approve a bill expanding FBI background checks of gun purchasers has a “less than 50-50” chance of success. During a press conference in Hartford, Murphy said he spoke with White House legislative staff several times, most recently on Thursday evening, about support for new gun laws in the wake of mass shootings earlier this month in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. (Radelat, 8/23)

She came to Jamaica from the United States about four years ago, sneaking in illegally, stowed away to avoid detection. Within a few short years, she became one of the nation’s most-wanted assassins. She preyed on the parish of Clarendon, carrying out nine confirmed kills, including a double homicide outside a bar, the killing of a father at a wake and the murder of a single mother of three. Her violence was indiscriminate: She shot and nearly killed a 14-year-old girl getting ready for church. (Ahmed, 8/25)

A gun show might not be the first place you would expect to talk about suicide prevention — especially in a place like rural northeast Utah, where firearms are deeply embedded in the local culture. But one Friday at the Vernal Gun & Knife Show, four women stood behind a folding table for the Northeastern Counseling Center with exactly that in mind.Amid a maze of tables displaying brightly varnished rifle stocks, shotguns and the occasional AR-15 assault-style rifle, they waited, ready to talk with show attendees. (Neumann, 8/26)

The chairman of a state school safety commission says the panel will take a close look at contracts public schools have in place to train school “guardians.” The spotlight on the contracts comes after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission learned that Palm Beach County school officials hired a private company to train armed school guardians for charter schools in the county. (8/23)

If you follow Tennessee health care news in the slightest, you've probably heard some politician or bureaucrat talk about a "block grant." In response to a law passed earlier this year, Gov. Bill Lee's administration is currently preparing a proposal to overhaul TennCare by converting its federal funding into a block grant. If successful, Tennessee would likely be the first state to try this transformation. The block grant proposal is complex, nuanced and – at least for the moment –hypothetical. The administration has not yet released details about its proposal. No other state has done this and the details remain largely unknown. (Kelman, 8/25)

The number of people enrolled in Medicaid expansion in Louisiana dipped again in August by about 4,300 people, continuing a months-long slide in enrollment as the state sends out the latest batch of wage verification letters that are part of a stricter enrollment system. Since a peak of 505,503 enrollees in April, the number of people getting health care through the government-financed insurance program has fallen by nearly 55,200 people, or 11 percent, something the Louisiana Department of Health attributes to annual renewals and continued wage checks. (Karlin, 8/23)

Aetna is bringing in new leadership to run its Medicaid operations in Kansas after chronic complaints from hospitals and others put it at risk of losing its contract. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment confirmed Friday that Aetna Better Health of Kansas CEO Keith Wisdom is no longer in that role. But the insurer declined to answer questions about whether it had replaced Wisdom. (Llopis-Jepsen, 8/23)

Kaiser Health News: Why Red Wyoming Seeks The Regulatory Approach To Air Ambulance Costs

Wyoming, the reddest of Republican states and a bastion of free enterprise, thinks it may have found a way to end crippling air ambulance bills that can top $100,000 per flight. The state’s unexpected solution? Undercut the free market by using Medicaid to treat air ambulances like a public utility. The issue has come to a head in Wyoming, where rugged terrain and long distances between hospitals forces reliance on these ambulance flights. Costs for such emergency transports have been soaring, with some patients facing massive unexpected bills as the free-flying air ambulance industry expands with cash from profit-seeking private-equity investors. (Hawryluk, 8/26)

A New Zealand teenager who visited Disneyland and other Southern California tourist spots last week brought along more than just her luggage. She brought measles. Public health officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties issued a warning Friday that people may have been exposed to the disease if they were at Disneyland or the Disney California Adventure Park on Aug. 12. (8/24)

The teen was on a trip from New Zealand and flew into Los Angeles International Airport. She visited Disneyland and California Adventure, among other attractions from Aug. 11 to Aug. 15. She also reportedly traveled to Universal Studios, Madame Tussauds and the Santa Monica Pier during the trip, the officials said. Public health officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties said Friday they are attempting to find anyone who might have been exposed to the virus and has started showing symptoms. (Krakow, 8/24)

Considered one of the most contagious diseases in the world, measles spreads through coughing and sneezing but can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the room. “Measles is a highly contagious and potentially severe disease that causes fever, rash, cough and red, watery eyes,” Orange County health officer Dr. Nichole Quick said in a statement. “It spreads very easily by air and by direct contact with an infected person.” (Karlamangla, 8/23)

The symptoms range from ordinary to grim: fever over 101 degrees, cough, runny nose, red watery eyes and, then, the clincher — a rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. With thousands of people potentially exposed to measles earlier this month at Disneyland, Los Angeles International Airport and several other locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties, health officials are urging those who may be vulnerable to watch for those symptoms of the potentially deadly disease. (Smith, 8/24)

Public health officials say a teenager competing in the World Hip Hop Championship in Phoenix has measles and may have exposed others at the dance competition. The Maricopa County Public Health Department said Friday the teen was infectious with measles from Aug. 9 to Aug. 11 at the Arizona Grand Resort, where the competition was held. (8/23)

The police in Hollywood, Fla., plan to charge four employees of a nursing home in the deaths of a dozen residents who succumbed to heat exposure there in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in 2017, lawyers for three of the employees said on Saturday. Among those charged will be Jorge Carballo, the administrator of the nursing home, as well as a charge nurse and two other nurses, the lawyers said. (Bogel-Burroughs and Hard, 8/24)

In the year after receiving test results showing alarming levels of lead in this city’s drinking water, Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark made a number of unexpected decisions. He mailed a brochure to all city residents assuring them that “the quality of water meets all federal and state standards.” He declared the water safe and then condemned, in capital letters on the city’s website, “outrageously false statements” to the contrary. (Corasaniti, Kilgannon and Schwartz, 8/24)

A couple says a suburban Philadelphia hospital misplaced the remains of their miscarried baby. Tiffany Griffin and Chad Greaves filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming Bryn Mawr Hospital mistakenly gave a funeral home Griffin's placenta to cremate instead of the baby's remains. Seventeen days later, the remains were found, having been misplaced like "a set of keys or item of clothing," the lawsuit alleges. (8/23)

Massachusetts General Hospital announced on Thursday that approximately 10,000 people had their private information revealed in a data breach at its neurology department. MGH learned on June 24, 2019 that an unauthorized third party had access to two computer applications used by researchers in their neurology department between June 10 and June 16, 2016. The data are related to neurology research conducted by MGH and may include first and last names, date of birth, diagnosis and medical history, among other information. (Brody, 8/23)

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and Minnesota Oncology have entered a five-year value-based arrangement to pay for cancer care based on patient outcomes rather than the number of services performed. St. Paul, Minn.-based Blue Cross said the risk arrangement will allow Minnesota Oncology to better coordinate patient care and manage members at the right time and place. It also eliminates the need for Minnesota Oncology to seek prior authorization for cancer care that follows national evidence-based guidelines. (Livingston, 8/23)

Marie’s outbursts terrified her new parents. The 6-year-old threw furniture. She howled obscenities and gave them the finger. She hurled things at them while they drove. Moe and Hollis Leary had adopted Marie’s sister Noelle, now 12, as a baby years earlier. With enough love, they thought, they could help Marie, too. But her rage was overwhelming, and within weeks the Learys sought an emergency psychiatric evaluation. That was when, in a stark hospital room, the waif of a girl in a pink flamingo T-shirt and shorts calmly confided her dark plans to a nurse. She would wait until nighttime. Then she would creep into the Learys’ bedroom with a gun and shoot them while they were sleeping. (Lazar, 8/24)

Bridget Morlan called the number on her first-ever dental insurance card and held her breath. After more than 30 years of dealing with broken teeth, gum infections and toothaches that landed her in the emergency room dozens of times, the Baltimore woman hoped the new coverage would make everything better. “I’m wishing for a miracle,” said Morlan, 53, whose teeth were damaged years ago by an abusive boyfriend and subsequent lack of care. (Kim, 8/24)

A rare and serious infection caused by the same bacteria that causes gonorrhea is spreading in Michigan, and state health officials are urging residents to abstain from sex or use condoms to prevent the spread of disseminated gonococcal infection, or DGI. Six cases are under investigation in Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Calhoun counties, the state Department of Health and Human Services said Friday, in people ranging in age from 20-55. Five of the six cases have been confirmed. (Shamus, 8/23)

Health officials showered accolades on the state health department’s newest psychiatric facility at an outdoor ribbon-cutting ceremony in Morganton on Wednesday. Officials touted the new Broughton Hospital’s roughly 477,000 square-feet structure’s sunny hallways, onsite pharmacy and dental clinic and bathrooms that offer patients a modicum of privacy. The red-brick structure’s debut came roughly five years late, as multiple construction delays derailed the $130 million project. At the building’s dedication this week, Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, acknowledged these hurdles while stressing that many of them happened before she assumed office in 2017. (Engel-Smith, 8/23)

Daniella Mohazab didn’t know what to expect from her first pelvic exam in 2016. The University of Southern California sophomore, then 19, was startled when her doctor examined her vagina for several minutes without gloves, but assumed it was standard procedure. It wasn’t until two years later, when she read about Dr. George Tyndall’s alleged sexual abuse against USC students, that she realized she may have been sexually violated by him as well. (Almendrala, 8/23)

The University of Michigan is in talks with St. Joseph Mercy Health System to partner on a new hospital in Livingston County, the Free Press has learned. As part of the deal, Michigan Medicine would be a co-owner and minority partner in a plan to bring a new Catholic hospital to the Brighton/Howell area, according to internal emails obtained by the Free Press. The hospital would be governed by Trinity Health, a national Catholic health system that owns 92 hospitals in 22 states, including the St. Joseph Mercy System. (Shamus, 8/23)

Many Texas educators and advocates are frustrated in the week after the state released letter grades rating their school districts and campuses, as they work to decipher the potential impacts for their schools. Though many school superintendents agree the grades are inaccurate measures of school performance, they still feel pressure to get high marks or else risk receiving harsh state penalties, including the forced closure of a low-performing school. A lot of buzz surrounds the fate of Houston ISD, the state's largest district, which might see its elected school board replaced with a state-appointed board of managers because of one high school that has failed to meet academic standards for seven years. (Swaby and Cai, 8/21)

Last week, just ahead of back-to-school season, New York State health officials issued emergency regulations limiting medical exemptions from vaccination requirements for kids attending schools or day care centers. What do celebrities think about this development? Hopefully, the public won’t find out — because it doesn’t matter. (Carolyn Kylstra, 8/23)

The recent death of an Israeli flight attendant from measles should serve as a tragic reminder of something too many people in the U.S. and elsewhere have forgotten: This is a dangerous disease, and those driving its resurgence with anti-vaccination movements around the world are playing with fire. (8/25)

Many factors stand behind the recent El Paso shootings, in which 22 people were killed, including racism, personal demons, and the easy availability of guns. But something more — a conspiracist mindset — makes this brew uniquely toxic. And conspiracism is what made a massacre seem, to the alleged perpetrator’s eyes, an act of collective self-preservation. The shootings and his manifesto were a call to arms. Familiar conspiratorial tropes are always with us — there are always new variations on a secret plot by a despised group whose covert goal is to deny America as a Christian nation, or depreciate America as a white nation, or cede sovereignty to the “new world order.” (Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, 8/26)

Our baser nature clearly is not changed by passing more laws. The promises of security through more government restrictions will only serve to erode our freedoms while providing little protection. Rather, the solution to the gun violence plaguing our nation will be found in a willingness to recognize, as did the Founders, that as a people we are dependent upon and accountable to an omniscient God.  It is only from such an understanding that morality and public virtue become commonplace, which is essential for freedom.As Americans, we must carefully consider the path we take in addressing this present and growing crisis. New gun laws never achieve what a commitment to the Golden Rule can accomplish. America will be safer if all of us do unto others as we want them to do unto us. (Tony Perkins, 8/25)

The Trump administration just won a victory over Planned Parenthood. Thousands of women will pay the price. Planned Parenthood announced this month that it was leaving the federal government’s Title X program, which pays for family planning services for low-income Americans. As many as 1.6 million women and girls who currently rely on Planned Parenthood for things such as birth control pills and health screenings could be affected. The Trump administration argues there will be alternatives available to this vulnerable population. In some areas, that is not clear. Planned Parenthood is the only Title X provider in Utah. The organization serves about 90 percent of Minnesota’s Title X patients. Without Title X funding, clinics will have to charge co-pays, draw on financial reserves or shut down. (8/24)

In recent months, the announcement that Hahnemann University Hospital would be closing in September has cast a pall of uncertainty over the future of hundreds of residents who suddenly did not know how or whether they would complete their training. Instead of helping residents find new hospitals that would best support their education, Hahnemann executives, in dealing with Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, simply auctioned its 550 residency slots to the highest bidders, a consortium of regional hospitals, for a sum of $55 million.The hospital’s recent “sale” of medical residents and their residency slots showcases how some teaching hospitals have subordinated their training mission in favor of the pursuit of profits. (Kim-Lien Nguyen, 8/26)

Complaining about government — its failures, its corruption and, in the worst cases, its capacity to oppress — is both an American pastime and a right to be treasured. But a wholesome desire to preserve ourselves from foolish or tyrannical rule often devolves into disdaining government altogether. The underlying assumption (I exaggerate only a little) is that everything government undertakes is doomed to be less effective, less beautiful, less innovative and less useful than the work of the private sector. (E.J. Dionne, 8/25)

Clinical trials in the United States have been plagued for years by two well-known problems: They don’t recruit enough people and they fail to reflect the diversity of our nation.The good news is that solving the diversity problem can resolve both issues. Two birds, one stone. (Bobby Clark and Ronnie Tepp, 8/23)

For the parents of those with intellectual disabilities, the worry never stops. Their adult children — many of whom are in group homes or day programs — remain ever-vulnerable to abuse and neglect at the hands of their caregivers. Massachusetts, through the independent Disabled Persons Protection Commission (DCCP), maintains a hotline to report such abuse or neglect as well as State Police investigators on its team to follow up. But in many instances, even when the commission substantiates allegations of abuse, the abuser simply moves on to the next facility. (8/26)

This month on CNN, Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert engaged in a candid conversation about the long-term effects of childhood grief. Mr. Cooper was 10 years old when his father died from a heart attack. Mr. Colbert also was 10 when his father died in a plane crash that also took two of his brothers’ lives. Their early losses, both men agreed, shaped their priorities, their worldviews and the adults they ultimately became. “I was personally shattered,” Mr. Colbert recalled. “And then you kind of re-form yourself in this quiet, grieving world that was created in the house.” (Hope Edelman, 8/25)

Missouri’s draconian new law to restrict women from exercising their constitutionally protected abortion rights is a step closer to taking effect Wednesday. It will add the state to a small but growing list of jurisdictions in which women’s right to control their own bodies will be newly threatened as tribute to ideological extremism. (8/25)