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Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, resigned under pressure on Friday after racking up at least $400,000 in travel bills for chartered flights and undermining President Trump’s promise to drain the swamp of a corrupt and entitled capital. Already in trouble with Mr. Trump for months of unsuccessful efforts to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care program, Mr. Price failed to defuse the president’s anger by offering regret and a partial reimbursement. (Baker, Thrush and Haberman, 9/29)

Price submitted a four-paragraph resignation letter in which he said he regretted “that the recent events have created a distraction” from the administration’s objectives. “Success on these issues is more important than any one person,” he continued. Not long after, HHS staff received a message from Price praising employees as “dedicated, committed” and saying it had been “a great joy” to serve with them. (Eilperin, Goldstein and Wagner, 9/29)

“He’s a good man but I’m disappointed in him,” Trump told them at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, as he prepared to board a flight to New Jersey, where he planned to spend the weekend at his golf resort. (Decker, 9/29)

The controversy over the flights and sudden departure of Dr. Price comes as the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal the ACA are at a standstill. After another effort to overturn the law failed Tuesday in the Senate, Republicans now must choose whether to work with Democrats on health care, or continue their efforts to repeal the ACA. If the administration favors regulations to change the ACA, those changes would be spearheaded by HHS. Dr. Price kept a low profile at times during the long legislative fight to undo the ACA, as such officials as Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sometimes took on a more visible role in talking to lawmakers. Some health experts have suggested Ms. Verma could succeed Dr. Price. (Armour and Hackman, 9/29)

The Health and Human Services secretary became the first member of the president's Cabinet to be pushed out in a turbulent young administration that has seen several high-ranking White House aides ousted. A former GOP congressman from the Atlanta suburbs, Price served less than eight months. (Alonso-Zaldivar and LeMire, 9/30)

The jet controversy marks the latest incident to raise ethical questions about Price during his seven-month term as Trump’s health chief. From the time he was nominated by Trump, there were questions about Price's stock trades in health-related companies that he could have had influence over as a member of Congress. The Senate confirmed Price as secretary in February by 52-47. (Williams, Clason and Siddons, 9/29)

Kaiser Health News: Tom Price Resigns As HHS Secretary Over Cost Of Private And Military Jet Travel

Price, an orthopedic surgeon and former House Budget Committee chairman, was surrounded by controversy since his nomination to the nation’s top health post in January. He made questionable stock trades in health care companies while a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and interceded on behalf of donors with federal agencies. Democrats in the Senate fought his confirmation, charging that he was too ethically challenged to serve as HHS secretary. (Rovner, 9/29)

After Price’s resignation on Friday, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney issued a memo ordering government agencies to seek approval from Chief of Staff John Kelly before most travel on government-owned or chartered planes. (Edney, 9/29)

Don Wright, HHS's acting assistant secretary for health, will serve as acting secretary effective Saturday. (Hellmann and Carter, 9/29)

Tom Price’s downfall was his penchant for pricey jets. But his demise was months in the making, as the president continued to lose trust in the HHS secretary who rarely attended Oval Office strategy meetings, had little sway or influence on Capitol Hill, and was associated in the president's mind with one of the administration's biggest defeats — the failure to repeal Obamacare. (Restuccia, Dawsey and Diamond, 9/29)

President Trump's administration saw its first departure of a Cabinet secretary on Friday with Health and Human Services (HHS) chief Tom Price resigning after uproar over his use of private planes for travel. Price's departure is just the latest in a string of high-profile exits in the at-times tumultuous first nine months of Trump's presidency. (Manchester, 9/30)

President Trump’s selection of a secretary of health and human services could be a turning point in a health care debate that has polarized Washington, as he faces a choice of working with Democrats to fix the current system or continuing his so-far failed efforts to dismantle his predecessor’s program. (Baker and Pear, 9/30)

President Donald Trump is seeking a new health secretary to take the place of Tom Price, ousted after an outcry over flying on costly private charters for official travel. The Health and Human Services chief oversees a $1 trillion department, with 80,000 employees and jurisdiction over major insurance programs, advanced medical research, drug and food safety, public health, and disease prevention. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/30)

The rumored short-list includes former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who would sail through Senate confirmation but would probably be considered too moderate on Obamacare, to Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardio-thoracic surgeon made famous by his talk show, which Trump has appeared on. Other current or former members of Congress who could be considered include Rep. Fred Upton and former Rep. Dave Camp. (Kenen and Haberkorn, 9/29)

The ouster of Tom Price as President Donald Trump's health secretary is yet another self-inflicted blow for Republicans wishing to put their own stamp on health care — and the latest distraction for a White House struggling to advance its agenda after months of turmoil. ... "I think health care is a dead letter through the next election," Joe Antos, a policy expert with the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute, said Saturday. (Colvin and Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/1)

The disruption from Price’s departure could have an effect on how the administration moves forward on Obamacare, including a proposal Trump has promised to allow people to shop across state lines for health insurance and whether the individual mandate for everyone to have health coverage under the law is enforced, said Kim Monk, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners in Washington. It could also affect emergency responses to hurricanes and other health-related disasters, Monk said. (Edney, 9/30)

Now, Price's successor will be able to put his or her own mark on the law that has been assailed by President Donald Trump as a disaster. Trump's nominee to oversee the nation's health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and a budget of about $1 trillion is likely to face intense scrutiny about the future of the law known as Obamacare during confirmation hearings before the Senate Finance Committee. (McIntire, 10/2)

During his short stint leading health policy for the Trump administration, Dr. Tom Price spearheaded a number of efforts to ease the regulatory burden on the industry, especially for his peers in the physician community. While few expect the administration to dial back on that commitment, Price's resignation Friday as HHS secretary could, at least momentarily, force agency heads to tap the brakes on any bold new policies. (Weinstock, 9/30)

Tom Price’s resignation as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary creates a big leadership void at the top of the department tasked with administering a health law Republicans hate. President Trump accepted the embattled secretary’s resignation Friday on the heels of Politico reports detailing how Price’s travel on military and charter jet flights had cost taxpayers more than $1 million since May. (Roubein and Hellmann, 9/29)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reacted to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price's resignation on Friday by condemning the Trump administration for selecting him "in the first place." Price became the first Trump Cabinet member to resign on Friday after a Politico investigation revealed he had spent more than $1 million in taxpayer dollars on private charter flights. (Bowden, 9/29)

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) mocked Tom Price on Friday, saying the former Health and Human Services secretary committed “the one unpardonable sin” in President Trump’s world before his resignation. “Tom Price committed the one unpardonable sin in Trump's world: Being rich, but not rich enough to own his own private jet,” Schiff tweeted. (Carter, 9/29)

“Saturday Night Live” during its season premiere mocked the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price over his use of private jets for official business.“ Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign yesterday after he was caught using almost a million dollars in taxpayer money to fly on private jets,” cast member Colin Jost said during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment. (Balluck, 10/1)

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned Friday following a series of public rebukes from President Trump and GOP lawmakers over his repeated use of charter and military aircraft, at public expense, for official travel. Price is far from the only Cabinet member to take private flights however, so his resignation isn’t likely to stem the controversy. (Weixel, 9/30)

Former HHS Secretary Tom Price was chosen by President Donald Trump because he was a doctor and a rising star on Capitol Hill who could drive the Obamacare repeal effort. But in his short tenure, Price not only misread the politics of repeal, he failed to assert himself as a power player on the No. 1 priority of his party, according to administration officials, lobbyists and state and federal officials involved in the repeal effort. (Cancryn, 9/29)

Republicans face a big problem following the collapse of their latest push to repeal the Obama health care law: Their own voters are angry and don't trust them. Right now, they don't know what to do about it. That's trouble for a party preparing to defend its House and Senate majorities in 2018 midterm elections that look riskier than most imagined months ago. (9/29)

Republicans face a big problem following the collapse of their latest push to repeal the Obama health care law: Their own voters are angry and don't trust them. Right now, they don't know what to do about it. That's trouble for a party preparing to defend its House and Senate majorities in 2018 midterm elections that look riskier than most imagined months ago. (9/30)

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans decided against voting by the end of September on a last-ditch effort to repeal the health law, acknowledging the measure wouldn’t have passed. The announcement effectively killed the repeal effort for the immediate future, as the fast-track budget maneuver Republicans were using to gut ObamaCare can't be used this year after Sept. 30. Even without a new GOP-made health care system to run against, Democrats believe they have enough ammo to hit Republicans by pointing to the previous repeal attempts, all of which scored badly in approval polls. (Roubein, 10/1)

Despite their latest failure to scrap the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have vowed to keep trying. If they fulfill that promise, their future proposals are likely to resemble their past ones in one key respect: They will ask states to remake the health insurance marketplaces within their borders with less federal money to do it. (Ollove, 9/29)

Senate Republicans unveiled a fiscal 2018 budget resolution Friday that they intend to use to push through as much as $1.5 trillion of tax cuts in the coming months, but it won’t allow the GOP to pursue a full repeal of Obamacare. The budget proposal would still allow Republicans to pursue a much narrower attack on the Affordable Care Act, including repealing the individual mandate to purchase coverage. The resolution also would let the GOP use the fast-track process to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Wasson, 9/29)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Friday warned against a "bailout" of insurance companies, a warning shot as other Republicans work with Democrats on a bill to stabilize ObamaCare markets. “It would be a serious mistake to bail out insurance companies, rather than provide relief to the millions of Americans who are hurting under Obamacare," Cruz said in a statement. (Sullivan, 9/29)

Senate Republicans appear to have conceded defeat on repealing ObamaCare this year, as the newly released budget resolution for fiscal year 2018 focuses almost entirely on tax reform. The draft released Friday only includes legislating instructions to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, which don’t have jurisdiction over health insurance. (Weixel, 9/29)

Vice President Mike Pence has spent countless hours behind closed doors with congressional Republicans negotiating on health care and other issues, yet the GOP legislative agenda has largely stalled. But Republican lawmakers are not blaming President Donald Trump’s Capitol Hill “insider” — quite the contrary, in fact. Pence, once part of the House GOP leadership team, was billed as Trump’s get-things-done guy. So far, the vice president’s appreciable legislative accomplishments are scant. ... House and Senate Republicans across the spectrum were eager to shield the VP from criticism last week after a second Republican-crafted health care bill failed in the Senate. (Bennett, 10/2)

When Republicans unexpectedly captured the White House and retained the Senate in November, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wanted to capitalize on the GOP’s political momentum right away by quickly passing a straight ObamaCare repeal bill similar to the one that passed both chambers of Congress at the end of 2015. ... What followed was a nine-month odyssey filled with ups and downs and ultimately a failure for Trump and Republicans. (Bolton, 10/1)

Anna C. Corbin had not been involved in politics, had not even been to the Capitol before this year. But since March, she has made the two-hour drive here from her home in Hanover, Pa., 15 times so her sons, Jackson and Henry, could lobby against efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Jackson, 12, and Henry, 9, have a genetic condition known as Noonan syndrome, which causes a bleeding disorder, short stature and digestion problems. They also have a new profession — “little lobbyists.” (Pear, 9/30)

Jim Hansen and his wife considered themselves fortunate when they retired five years ago. The Denver couple, both electrical engineers, were healthy. They’d socked away an ample nest egg. And they found health insurance that, if not cheap, seemed reasonable for two people in their late 50s. Then, the math started to change. Since 2015, the couple’s annual premiums have more than tripled and may hit nearly $18,000 next year. (Levey, 9/29)

The former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under President Obama blamed President Trump on Friday for rising health-care premiums around the country. Andy Slavitt, who was acting CMS administrator from 2015 to 2017, accused Trump on Twitter of "purposely raising" health-care premiums as part of his plan to let ObamaCare "implode." (Bowden, 9/30)

Washingtonians buying insurance through the state’s health-insurance exchange will see the largest premium increases next year since the exchange was created in 2013. The Washington Health Benefit Exchange board this week approved rate increases averaging 24 percent. The rates, first approved by the state’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner, will impact about 180,000 customers. (Blethen, 9/29)

Oklahoma officials are blaming the Trump administration for rising health-care premiums in the state after the administration missed a deadline to approve a key waiver for the state under ObamaCare. In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price, Oklahoma's health commissioner rips the administration for missing a final deadline for a State Innovation Waiver, which would be used to lower premiums around the state. (Bowden, 9/29)

In Richmond and Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties, there will be only one option on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace next year, through the national insurer Cigna. Its premiums are set to increase by an average of 50 percent, or an extra $400 on an $800 plan, for example. (O'Connor, 9/30)

Kaiser Health News: Latest Snag In ACA Sign-Ups: Those Who Guide Consumers Are Hitting Roadblocks

While health care uncertainty roils Washington, the rest of the country is coasting toward Obamacare season. Open enrollment is just about a month away. But the current landscape is marked by funding cuts and other White House efforts to pull back on Affordable Care Act outreach, which has led some people to brace for what they foresee as the toughest season yet. (Luthra, 10/2)

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Monday morning to Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young for their discoveries of circadian rhythms. The scientists “were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings,” said Thomas Perlmann, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, who announced the prize in Stockholm. “Their discoveries explain how plants, animals, and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions.” (Begley, 10/2)

Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young have won the 2017 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work on molecular mechanisms that control circadian systems. Hall was born in New York, Rosbash in Oklahoma City, and they both worked at Brandeis. Michael Young was born in Miami and worked at Rockefeller University. In announcing the winner in Stockholm on Monday, the prize committee said they elucidated how a live form's "inner clock" can fluctuate to optimize our behavior and physiology. (Cha, 10/2)

The incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis is increasing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At any given time, there are an estimated 110 million sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Chlamydia is the most common S.T.D., and the number of cases rose 4.7 percent from 2015 to 2016. The increases occurred nationwide; rates were highest in the South and lowest in the Northeast. (Bakalar, 9/29)

The highest number ever of some sexually transmitted diseases were reported in the United States in 2016, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That included more than 2 million new cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, according to a recent CDC report. STDs are rapidly growing among women, infants and gay and bisexual men. (Washington, 9/29)

Nationwide cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis surpassed the 2 million mark in 2016, hitting an all-time high and prompting federal health officials to call on state and local health departments to refocus efforts in the fight against the epidemic. (Viviano, 9/29)

The Massachusetts attorney general’s office is investigating a far-reaching insurance scheme that recruited drug users and sent them to treatment centers in other states to exploit their benefit payments, according to people contacted by the office and others familiar with the matter. Jillian Fennimore, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey, confirmed the office is conducting a criminal investigation of addiction treatment scams, which have proliferated amid the national opioid addiction crisis. She would not provide details of the probe, including whether particular entities or individuals were being targeted. (Armstrong and Allen, 9/29)

Medical device and drug companies in the state offer a panoply of therapeutic options using precise gadgetry, chemicals, electricity, radio-frequency energy and cryogenics to counteract intense pain, whether short-term or chronic. ... But manufacturers argue that their nonopioid therapies deserve fresh consideration in light of the realization that mass-produced opioid drugs carry more risks and less long-term effectiveness than the medical community was initially led to believe. (Carlson, 9/30)

If Ohio's jails already were already chock-full of people in need of substance abuse and mental health help, the state's opioid epidemic has them bursting at the seams. (Dissell, 10/1)

The president, a swaggering populist from New York, was worried that a national crisis of opiate addiction was weakening America and diminishing its greatness. So in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt appointed a handsome Ohio doctor with a handlebar mustache, Hamilton Wright, to be the nation’s first Opium Commissioner.Americans, Wright warned, “have become the greatest drug fiends in the world.” (Miroff, 9/29)

The messages, many deeply personal, focus on the regional boundaries that divide life from death for patients with liver disease. “My partner passed away waiting for a liver transplant in Chicago,” one commenter wrote in support of a proposal to change the nation’s system of allocating livers. “Any move that can make access to transplant more equitable is a move in the right direction.” (Ross, 10/2)

Cancer researcher Jim Allison stands at the edge of a small stage, fiddling with his harmonica, his unruly gray hair hanging almost to his shoulders. Soon, surrounded by eight other cancer experts who also happen to be musicians, he’ll be growling out the classic “Big Boss Man” before a boisterous crowd at the House of Blues. It’s a fitting number, says Patrick Hwu, who plays keyboards for the band and is Allison’s colleague at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “When it comes to immunotherapy, he is the big boss man.” (McGinley, 9/29)

Anne McBrearty Giotta doesn’t remember much of what happened on that August morning in 2013. One moment she was cursing her older son, Michael, who was supposed to have picked her up for a long-planned beach weekend, but was late and not answering his phone. The next moment, the police were at her door in River Vale, N.J., saying that Michael, 51, had been found dead in his home of an apparent heart infection. (Span, 9/29)

A Michigan woman said she will “most likely” go to jail this week if she refuses a court order to vaccinate her 9-year-old son. And Rebecca Bredow, it seems, is willing to take that risk. “I can’t give in against my own religious belief,” she told The Washington Post on Saturday. “This is about choice. This is about having my choices as a mother to be able to make medical choices for my child.” (Phillips, 9/30)

It seems obvious that there would be more injuries, and more serious ones, among high school and college athletes in football or soccer or lacrosse than, say, in running or tennis. But, how many more, and at what economic cost? Those figures turned out to be hard to come by, researchers at Yale discovered, but, using the best data available, they calculated that if contact sports could be made noncontact — like flag football, for example — there would be 49,600 fewer injuries among male college athletes per year and 601,900 fewer among male high school athletes. (Kolata, 9/29)

College involved "many anxiety attacks and many trips home" for Daniel Share-Strom, an autistic 27-year-old motivational speaker in Bradford, Ontario. It wasn't just the challenge of organizing his assignments and fighting the disability office for the extra time he needed for tests. It was also managing all the aspects of daily life that most people not on the autism spectrum take for granted. "Relationships are so much harder to understand or initiate when by default you don't really know what certain facial expressions mean or what certain actions mean," Share-Strom says. (Haelle, 10/1)

Health organizations are emphasizing that ME/CFS is not a psychological disorder and that standard forms of exercise do not help. Instead, they're acknowledging that exercise can make the disease much worse unless doctors and patients are very careful. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention has already revised its patient guidelines on ME/CFS and is currently revising the ones for physicians. (Doucleff, 10/2)

Just before 8 on a Thursday morning, orthopedic surgeons Dennis Cardone and Joe Bosco sit in a tiny, dimly lit studio in a far corner of the NYU Langone Medical Center lobby, a thoroughfare to New York University’s school of medicine and hospital on Manhattan’s East Side. The hosts of “Sports Medicine” on SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio channel have been on-air since 6 a.m., helping listeners and bantering like old friends. (Vander Schaaff, 10/1)

In 2007, a few days after participating in a two-day sailing race, Cathy Helowicz began feeling dizzy. It was as if the floor and walls were moving. A decade later, “it’s never gone away,” she says. “Sometimes I wake up at 4 a.m. and feel like I’m in a washing machine. ”Helowicz, 57, a former government computer scientist who lives in Jupiter, Fla., suffers from mal de débarquement syndrome (MdDS), a puzzling neurological disorder that leaves patients feeling as if they are rocking, swaying or bobbing when they are actually still. (Cimons, 9/30)

The U.S. State Department ordered more than half its diplomats in Cuba to leave the island and warned Americans against traveling to the Caribbean nation after a series of health “attacks” on its officials injured 21 people. U.S. and Cuban investigators still haven’t determined the source of the attacks, which left some staff with injuries from hearing loss and cognitive issues to difficulty sleeping, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement Friday. While no private U.S. citizens are known to have been attacked, the incidents continued as recently as late August, according to two State Department officials who spoke to reporters condition of anonymity. (Faries, 9/29)

For most people, buying a "fragrance-free" or "hypoallergenic" moisturizer that turns out to be neither, might be frustrating, but not harmful. But for people with sensitive skin or conditions like eczema or psoriasis it can be a big problem. "I will start to itch and I have to get it off my body right away," says 62-year-old Kathryn Walter, who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Neighmond, 10/2)

Purple is Catt Gallinger’s favorite color.Pictures of the Canadian model often showed her sporting purple hair or purple lipstick, or the purple tinge of her numerous tattoos peeking out from beneath a tank top. So when the already heavily inked Ottawa resident had the opportunity to “tattoo” her eyeball — a procedure called sclera staining, in which ink is injected into the white part of the eye — she chose the color purple. (Wang, 9/30)

Hepatitis A outbreaks underway among gay men in many different cities show that it is not just homeless people and drug users who face significant risk from the disease, the physician said. ...Given that recent epidemiological evidence shows that gay men are at a higher risk of hepatitis A infection than the general population, it would not be an unreasonable approach to double down on education and vaccination efforts in this demographic group, [Dr. Robert] Schooley said. (Sisson, 9/29)

With health officials declaring a hepatitis A outbreak in Los Angeles County last week, the cities of Burbank and Glendale have been working on protecting their homeless populations from the virus. Both cities have started reaching out to the homeless in order to get them screened and vaccinated against hepatitis A. The L.A. County Department of Public Health has said homeless people are most at risk for the infection. (Nguyen, 9/29)

Under Charles Smith, the longtime ally of Gov. Greg Abbott picked to lead the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, Texas’ government health care infrastructure is hemorrhaging veteran employees and facing criticism for its response to the humanitarian crisis caused by Hurricane Harvey. (Walters, 10/2)

Knowing certain risk factors could help health care providers prevent pregnancy-related deaths in Texas, whose maternity mortality rate is the highest in the developed world. The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force discussed identifying risk factors for maternal deaths Friday at the Department of State Health Services. It was the first time the task force met since lawmakers extended the group's existence during the special legislative session in July. (Wang, 9/29)

Hartford HealthCare and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield failed to renew their contract this weekend, meaning that many Connecticut residents will face higher out-of-pocket costs for the health network’s services. (Rigg, 10/1)

Georgia nursing home patients who may be at imminent risk of serious injury or death have not been able to rely on the state to immediately investigate, according to a new report by a federal watchdog agency. (Edwards, 9/29)

Now the debate over dental therapy is playing out in Massachusetts, where — as in other states — the proposal has sparked controversy among dentists, who worry that lower-paid workers with fewer qualifications will be given too much responsibility to care for patients. Many dentists also are concerned about their futures: If clinics can save money by employing dental therapists to provide most care, where will that leave dentists? (Dayal McCluskey, 9/30)

More than 600 health care volunteers representing 30 organizations offered free medical care throughout the day, helping those with limited access to health care. Pharmacists, vision specialists, dentists, doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, chaplains and other hospital staff dedicated their day to free lab work, radiology exams, teeth extractions, mammograms and vision screenings. “This is really about making sure everyone has access to medical care they need,” said Chief Nursing Officer Amy Wilson. “This is about bringing the care to the community who needs it and making it easy and accessible for them in one convenient location.” (McGee, 9/30)

Brandywine Hospital, Chestnut Hill Hospital, Jennersville Regional Hospital, Phoenixville Hospital, and Pottstown Memorial Medical Center are now out-of-network for Independence Blue Cross after Reading Health System, the new owner of the facilities, rejected Independence’s last offer of a deal before Reading completed its purchase Friday, Independence said Sunday. The disruption for the 120,000 Independence members who use those hospitals is the most significant fallout yet from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s push into Southeastern Pennsylvania. UPMC has a joint venture with Reading Health to sell health insurance in Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties. (Brubaker, 10/1)

Boston-based Steward Health Care System said Friday that it has completed the purchase of 18 hospitals outside of Massachusetts, in a $2 billion deal the company said will make it the largest private for-profit hospital operator in the country. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/29)

Another former Tenet Healthcare executive has been criminally charged in a federal healthcare fraud case that now accuses two former CEOs of Atlanta area hospitals of paying kickbacks and bribes in exchange for patient referrals. (Teegardin, 9/29)

Another former Tenet Healthcare executive has been indicted on criminal charges over a scheme that the U.S. Justice Department says defrauded state Medicaid programs of at least $400 million. The indictment relates to a whistleblower case against Tenet that dates back nearly a decade, for which the Dallas-based hospital chain agreed to pay a $514 million settlement last year. (Rice, 9/29)

Two sentinel chickens tested positive for the West Nile Virus in Pinellas County this week. Pinellas County Mosquito Control confirmed the birds were located in the Sawgrass Lake and Lake Maggiore areas of St. Petersburg, and tested positive for the virus on Thursday. (Griffin, 9/29)

Former Baltimore Sun financial columnist and Ellicott City resident Jay Hancock will give viewers a glimpse next week of how much he knows after more than three decades in journalism. The journalist, now a senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, will compete on TV game show “Jeopardy” Oct. 4, the show has confirmed. (Britto, 9/29)

The Republican leadership seems to have thrown in the towel on repealing the Affordable Care Act, at least for now. That’s one piece of good news. Here’s another: Two senators of different parties have resumed negotiations that offer a more productive path, one that could preserve the best of Obamacare while offering adjustments that both parties can accept. (10/2)

In grade school, a teacher made kids who got in trouble go to the blackboard and write multiple times: "I will not .... " It was my introduction to chalk. Here's a repeat reference to a lesson taught two decades ago by a Republican pollster, the late Bob Teeter: The party that owns health care is a loser. Today, it's a peril both political parties face. (Albert R. Hunt, 10/1)

The decision by Senate Republicans leaders to set aside the Graham-Cassidy plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has renewed talk of finding a bipartisan way forward on health care. But disagreement about what a bipartisan negotiation would be about is still an obstacle to getting a negotiation underway. (James C. Capretta, 9/28)

Health-care reform will have to come from both parties or it will not be accepted by America. It will have to be a compromise that comes from both parties or it will not pass the Kimmel test, the nonsensical but powerful showbiz bar such a bill must now clear. That means it will be more liberal than the Republicans want, and more expensive. ... Now the Republicans turn to tax reform. Again they move from a weakened position. (Peggy Noonan, 9/28)

When Obamacare became law, many people didn’t know how it worked. Eight years later that’s still the case. As of February, one-third of Americans were unaware that it was the same thing as the Affordable Care Act. The effect was most pronounced among people under 30—which does not bode well for young people knowing how, when, and where to sign up for health care under the law. (James S. Hamblin, 9/28)

A thistle to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for going out of its way to prevent Americans from securing health insurance. Though Congress has fortunately not repealed Obamacare, the Trump administration is actively working to discourage Americans from buying private coverage in exchanges created by the law. The agency is slashing spending on advertising and promotion for the upcoming “open enrollment” period when Americans can purchase individual plans for 2018. It has cut grants to about 100 nonprofit groups, known as navigators, that help many people in low-income areas sign up. It even shortened the enrollment window from three months to six weeks. (10/1)

Is health care a right? The United States remains the only developed country in the world unable to come to agreement on an answer. Earlier this year, I was visiting Athens, Ohio, the town in the Appalachian foothills where I grew up. The battle over whether to repeal, replace, or repair the Affordable Care Act raged then, as it continues to rage now. So I began asking people whether they thought that health care was a right. The responses were always interesting. (Atul Gawande, 10/2)

It is anyone’s guess whether Democrats will unite around the goal of creating a single-payer health care system or even take a less ambitious approach — introducing a public health insurance option. Adding public insurance as an option in the complex American health care system has been treated as a consolation prize for those who really favor single-payer health care, but the lighter approach might pack much more punch than you might think. What’s more, the best way to see that is by looking at the Indian labor market and the Mexican grocery market. (Seema Jayachandran, 9/29)

In the days since Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, conditions on the island continue to deteriorate and become a humanitarian and public health catastrophe that could rival the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The fact that the power grid failed creates many obvious problems and some that are not so evident. When the sewer system stops working, wastewater—aka human feces and urine—and seaborne bacteria contaminate the water supply. (Tomás R. Guilarte, 10/2)

Opioid addiction has developed such a powerful grip on Americans that some scientists have blamed it for lowering our life expectancy. Drug overdoses, nearly two-thirds of them from prescription opioids, heroin and synthetic opioids, killed some 64,000 Americans last year, over 20 percent more than in 2015. That is also more than double the number in 2005, and nearly quadruple the number in 2000, when accidental falls killed more Americans than opioid overdoses. (9/30)

Julie Eldred admitted stealing jewelry last year to support her opioid habit. A condition of her probation was that she refrain from using drugs. When she tested positive for fentanyl 11 days later, the judge ordered her to prison until an inpatient treatment bed was available. Ms. Eldred, 29, now claims the order to remain drug-free was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment, because her drug use was a symptom of her addiction. In other words, she couldn’t help herself. On Monday the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear her case. A ruling in her favor could make it much harder to administer justice and get addicts the help they need. (Stephen J. Morse and Sally Satel, 10/1)

As a therapeutic foster parent for the past 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of being part of the lives of 19 children. Due to no fault of their own, these children have been abused, abandoned, left behind, and worst of all, unloved. Their young brains have had the crap beaten out of them. I’ve also had a front row seat to the mental health system in North Carolina. In the past year, we’ve had two children with severe trauma-related mental conditions, and we’ve fought like hell to get these kids help. In each case we’ve witnessed what can only be described as a tragic comedy. (Billy Maddalon, 10/1)

Health department research estimates that 40 percent of Kansas City’s deaths each year can be attributed to six social factors the health department has been monitoring, overlaying the data on ZIP code maps: high school graduation rates, racial segregation, low social support, individual poverty, income inequality and community poverty. If we want to see more Kansas Citians live well into their 80s, we shouldn’t focus only on the usual suspects, including chronic health issues like diabetes and heart disease. (10/1)

My path to the Egress from my brain cancer may be a bit shorter than I’d hoped even a few weeks ago. But I figure I can still complain about the way some human research makes me feel like a rat in a cage. I’ve known a lot about the value of research in medicine. Even back when I was a college student, I knew more than a few people who used critters to test possibilities. I don’t have a moral objection to research on rats. But people as the target? I can still handle a “yikes.” (Jeffrey Weiss, 10/1)

There’s only so far you can go toward preventing cancer with a healthy lifestyle. Bone tumors in fossils show that people have been getting cancer since prehistoric times -- before smoking, before modern diets, even before the dawn of our species. And the race to cure cancer with drugs is up against another barrier: Many cancers can’t be diagnosed until they’ve had years to grow and spread through the body. (Faye Flam, 9/29)

For more than 30 years, we had a pact in this state. Abortion would be legal and safe, but tax dollars would not fund it, except in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life or health of the mother. That was the bright line imposed and respected since the state of Illinois adopted the framework of the 1976 Hyde Amendment, restricting federal funding of abortion. (Kristen McQueary, 9/29)

Starbucks, Whole Foods and about 80 other places in California that sell coffee may soon be forced to put warning labels on grande lattes and coffee bean packages to alert consumers that the product within contains acrylamide, a chemical that may be carcinogenic. (9/30)