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Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign on Wednesday introduced a proposal aimed at investing heavily in maternal and child health, adoption and in vitro fertilization, paid family leave and universal prekindergarten. The proposal, which Ms. Gillibrand called the “Family Bill of Rights,” continued her campaign’s focus on women and families. On Tuesday, she was among several Democratic candidates who joined a rally outside the Supreme Court to protest new abortion restrictions that some states had recently adopted. (Saul, 5/22)

[Sen. Kamala] Harris' bill, first introduced in 2018, would create a $25 million program to fight racial bias in maternal care. It would direct grants to medical schools, nursing schools and other training programs to improve care for black women, who are three to four times more likely than white women to die in childbirth. Her revived proposal also would allocate an additional $125 million toward identifying high-risk pregnancies and, according to her Senate office, provide mothers with the "culturally competent care and resources they need." (Summers and Weissert, 5/22)

“Black mothers across the country are facing a health crisis that is driven in part by implicit bias in our health care system," Harris said in a statement Wednesday. "We must take action to address this issue, and we must do it with the sense of urgency it deserves." The U.S. has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths among industrialized countries, and black women are three- to four-times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (Hellmann, 5/22)

To promote her new policy plan to support children and family, Democratic candidate Kirsten Gillibrand will stop in Iowa for a West Des Moines roundtable with Iowa women and lawmakers and visit Iowa Falls, which has struggled with child care options and had its hospital recently stopped delivering babies. The New York senator's policy plan focuses on children and aims to tear down obstacles that American families, particularly low-income residents, face when caring for their younger children. (Ta, 5/22)

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday considered a host of bills that included two legislative packages on mental health and improving women’s health care, mirroring a similar push in the House. The bipartisan bills received widespread support from advocacy groups, but the committee has not yet scheduled a formal markup. (Clason, 5/22)

A top Democratic official on Wednesday canceled a planned fund-raiser for an anti-abortion congressman that had prompted an outcry among progressives, raising the question of whether there is room left in the party for lawmakers who oppose abortion at a moment when numerous Republican-controlled states are trying to effectively outlaw the procedure. The decision by Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, underscored the extent to which support for abortion rights has become a central litmus test for Democrats in the aftermath of President Trump’s two appointments to the Supreme Court. (Martin, 5/22)

Lipinski is one of the last congressional Democrats to oppose abortion rights. Normally, a top Democrat appearing at one of his fundraisers would be little noticed, but abortion issues are in­cred­ibly fraught as some conservative states move to outlaw abortion in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. With that backdrop, there’s little tolerance among those who want to protect abortion rights for a politician who doesn’t. “I’m proud to have a 100 percent pro-choice voting record and I’m deeply alarmed by the rapidly escalating attacks on women’s access to reproductive care in several states,” Bustos said in a statement Wednesday night. (Itkowitz, 5/22)

Bustos stands by the policy and has given no indication that she will reverse course, which has continue to irritate the caucus's left flank, particularly lawmakers who, themselves, ousted more moderate incumbent Democrats. “It’s a smart move and I’m glad she listening to progressive voices,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has sharply criticized Bustos’ for her handling of the vendor policy. “I appreciate that Cheri has shown a willingness to listen and change. I hope she’ll take the same approach on the vendor blacklist issue. I remain committed to sitting down with her and seeking a principled compromise.” (Ferris and Barron-Lopez, 5/22)

The Supreme Court may well be headed for an election-year fight over abortion rights, but it’s not likely to be a blockbuster showdown over Roe v. Wade. Courtwatchers anticipate that the justices will agree to take one or more cases related to abortion restrictions in the coming term, drawing attention to the polarizing issue as the 2020 presidential campaign moves into a critical phase. (Gerstein, 5/22)

The new laws that prohibit abortion as early as the sixth week of pregnancy have been called “heartbeat” legislation by supporters, a reference to the flickering pulse that can be seen on ultrasound images of a developing embryo. But when the American Civil Liberties Union announced a legal challenge last week to one such law in Ohio, there was no mention of the word “heartbeat” in the news release, which referred to the law instead as “a ban on almost all abortions.” In Georgia, Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost the governor’s race last year, called the measure in her state a “forced pregnancy bill.” A sign at a protest against the law in Atlanta this week turned the idea into a slogan: “NO FORCED BIRTHS.” (Harmon, 5/22)

Abortion opponents held a rally Wednesday at the Alabama Capitol, savoring victory after the state's governor signed the nation's most stringent abortion ban into law last week. Elsewhere in the South, abortion-rights supporters occupied much of a city block in New Orleans, chanting 'My body! My choice!" Standing in front of the banner, "Pro-Life Pro-Woman," speakers said the law passed in Alabama — and fetal heartbeat laws in others states — show they are gaining momentum in the fight against abortion. (Chandler, 5/22)

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a 2020 presidential candidate, vowed Wednesday to create a White House office solely focused on expanding access to abortion and addressing barriers to reproductive health care. The White House Office of Reproductive Freedom would be charged with “coordinating and affirmatively advancing abortion rights and access to reproductive health care” across the Booker administration. (Hellmann, 5/22)

Do conservative women have abortions? The answer is, obviously, yes. But it's not often we hear from them. Nearly one in four women in the United States will have an abortion by age 45 — and they don't all share the same values and political views. Cultural stigma can make it difficult for any woman to talk about her abortion, but the particular pressures facing conservative women mean that stigma often equals silence.  (Dastagir, 5/22)

A Kansas clinic stopped providing telemedicine abortions months ago and returned to court Wednesday after concluding that the legal climate remains uncertain despite a judge's order late last year saying the state couldn't stop the procedures. The clinic in Wichita operated by the Trust Women Foundation also faces a complaint over its past telemedicine abortions filed with the state's medical board by officials from the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life. The state has enacted three laws in eight years to require physicians to be physically present when giving women pregnancy-ending medications. (5/22)

A Kansas Supreme Court opinion recognizing women have the right to an abortion under the state constitution is now being cited in court in an effort to block restrictions on abortion. Abortion opponents fear it’s the first of many times the sweeping decision will be used against a host of anti-abortion laws in Kansas. (Shorman, 5/22)

Hundreds of abortion rights advocates gathered in New Orleans Wednesday afternoon (May 22) to protest bills being advanced by Louisiana lawmakers that place further restrictions on abortion access. People crowded the corner in front of the Hancock Whitney Center and poured out onto the street, some holding signs with phrases like “Pro-woman, pro-choice,” and “Hands off my means of reproduction.” (Clark, 5/22)

The Arizona Legislature is considering spending $7.5 million over the next three years on a pilot program that seeks to prevent abortion and would provide a potential funding stream for crisis pregnancy centers. House Bill 2759, introduced in the waning days of the legislative session amid budget talks, would direct the money to the state’s Department of Health Services over the next three years for a “family health pilot program.” (Leingang, 5/22)

U.S. authorities say a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died last year after being detained by border authorities in a previously unreported case. The death marks the sixth known case in the last year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that she died on Sept. 29 at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital of fever and respiratory distress. (5/22)

A Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday blamed the Trump administration's border policies for the deaths of migrant children, an accusation the acting head of the Homeland Security Department called "appalling." The brouhaha came at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the budget for the sprawling law enforcement department, which has seen major upheaval over the past two months following a White House-orchestrated shake-up. Kevin McAleenan, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was named to lead the department temporarily following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. (Long, 5/22)

Border Patrol officials temporarily stopped processing apprehended migrants at the agency’s largest detention center, in the South Texas city of McAllen, after nearly three dozen detainees there became ill with the flu. The halt was ordered late Tuesday, a day after the death of a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy who was sick with the flu and had been in custody at the center. The McAllen facility resumed full operations Wednesday afternoon. (Fernandez and Kanno-Youngs, 5/22)

The processing center is a converted warehouse that holds hundreds of parents and children in large, fenced-in pens that gained international attention last year when it held children separated from their parents. The government closed the facility after the flu outbreak, sent in cleaning crews to disinfect the building and plans to reopen it soon. The 32 sick children and adults have been quarantined at a smaller processing center, according to a U.S. Border Patrol official who spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity because there is an ongoing investigation. Their ages were unknown. (Long and Spagat, 5/22)

Los Angeles lawyer Peter Schey has long been a trailblazing courtroom defender of immigrant youth. He helped argue the Supreme Court case that ensured the right of children without legal status to attend public schools. He also helped secure the Flores settlement — a landmark 1997 agreement to safeguard migrant children held by the government, which gave his legal foundation the right to inspect those shelters. That case also inspired him to run his own shelter for homeless migrant youths. (Carcamo, 5/22)

It wasn’t even May before thermometers hit 100 degrees in this Mexican border city. Tania was washing clothes for her two daughters when she started to feel queasy and weak. She lay down in a bed at the stifling migrant shelter where she’d taken refuge with her fiance and children. But the throbbing pain and nausea wouldn’t go away, and she fainted. She was taken to a Mexican Red Cross hospital, one of the few places where asylum-seekers like her, waiting at the U.S. border to plead their case, can go in an emergency. (Barry-Jester, 5/22)

Experts from Congress’s nonpartisan budget office testified Wednesday that a single-payer health care system would result in “many more” people with health insurance but would also be “potentially disruptive” and increase government control. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) experts made the remarks at the second hearing on a single-payer, “Medicare for All” system that House Democrats have held this year, this time at the House Budget Committee. (Sullivan, 5/22)

But ultimately a House Budget Committee hearing painted only a vague picture of what the hospital world would look like if the entire healthcare system were overhauled. Some projections from Congressional Budget Office officials were promising for hospitals that struggle now. For example, rural hospitals that treat a high share of uninsured, Medicaid and Medicare patients could get a boost, according to CBO's Jessica Banthin. (Luthi, 5/22)

Kaiser Health News: House Hagglers Zero In On Single-Payer And It All Comes Down To Two Little Words

Would single-payer severely weaken the economy, or drive doctors out of business? Would it result in better, more affordable care for all Americans, or even save lives? And, consistently, they were thwarted by two deceptively simple words. “It depends.” Deployed in various forms by three of Washington’s top number crunchers, that caveat underscored a point the same office made three weeks ago: “single-payer,” or “Medicare for All,” could play out in countless ways. And before policymakers can prognosticate about what such a shift would do, they need to answer some more basic questions. (Luthra, 5/22)

There’s a considerable amount of momentum for Medicare for All, both among policymakers and in the country at large,” Budget Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., told reporters after the panel's hearing with Congressional Budget Office officials on the effects of implementing a single-payer health system. “But as we saw today, and that was the purpose for the hearing, there are a lot of different ways to do Medicare for All.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the author of a single-payer bill (HR 1384), said she expects to add more co-sponsors soon and noted that 200 economists sent a letter backing the proposal this week, while a coalition of businesses briefed lawmakers Tuesday on the case for the measure. (McIntire, 5/22)

Two senators want to stop hospitals from steering patients into costlier treatments through their insurance plans, as congressional lawmakers continue on their push to end industry gaming of the healthcare system. A bill introduced late Tuesday by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) would ban health systems from using their insurer contracts to keep people from opting for less expensive treatment from a competitor. Currently, dominant hospitals can leverage their market power with insurance companies to insert so-called "gag clauses" in their contracts. (Luthi, 5/22)

Kaiser Health News: Are Surprises Ahead For Legislation To Curb Surprise Medical Bills?

Surprise medical bills — those unexpected and often pricey bills patients face when they get care from a doctor or hospital that isn’t in their insurance network — are the health care problem du jour in Washington, with congressional lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and the White House calling for action. These policymakers agree on the need to take patients out of the middle of the fight over charges, but crafting a legislative solution will not be easy. (Bluth, 5/22)

Early next year, shoppers visiting a Boston area mall to browse the racks at Express or grab lunch at Red Robin could pop in for an oncology visit just down the way. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute plans to lease about 34,000 square feet of space at Patriot Place, a shopping and entertainment center in Foxborough, Mass., where it will offer both cancer treatment and hematology services. (Bannow, 5/22)

An immigrant couple with two children recently asked Veronica Hernandez to write a letter for them canceling the family's Medicaid coverage because they feared that receiving public benefits would jeopardize the husband's legal status. Other patients at Mary's Center, a community health center in Washington, D.C., who are political asylum seekers are refusing to apply for public health insurance or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program out of similar fears, said Hernandez, the center's program coordinator for bilingual health access. (Meyer, 5/22)

The Louisiana Department of Health has sent out a second round of letters to 17,000 Medicaid recipients warning the people they will be booted off the health insurance program unless they prove they qualify. And the agency is urging people to respond, after kicking more than 30,000 people off the program at the end of March, the vast majority because they did not reply to the first round of letters. (Karlin, 5/22)

A new study says Medicaid expansion has helped reduce states’ numbers of uninsured women of childbearing age – and cut their infant and maternal mortality rates. States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act saw a 50 percent greater reduction in infant mortality than non-expansion states, according to the report from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, released Wednesday. (Miller, 5/22)

In a dungeon-like jail in the center of this depressed farming town, 18 women in orange-and-white-striped prison uniforms are crammed into a two-story cellblock. Many of them are withdrawing from fentanyl. ... The inmates here are at least alive — unlike so many drug users in this part of central Ohio, 40 miles southwest of Columbus. Fayette County has the seventh-highest number of fentanyl overdose deaths per capita in the nation, according to internal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post. While the Trump administration has made the opioid epidemic a priority, people in communities across the country continue to die in record numbers from fentanyl, and health officials are struggling to provide treatment for tens of thousands more, like the men and women warehoused inside this jail. (Horwitz, Higham, Rich and Hanssen, 5/22)

In April, as he prepared to announce his presidential candidacy, Joe Biden went on an apology tour that noticeably stopped short of issuing any apologies. He called Anita Hill and, in the words of a campaign statement, shared “his regret for what she endured” at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which Biden chaired some 28 years ago. He recorded a video expressing regret for not being more “mindful” of the personal-space boundaries of women after several allegations of unwanted and nonconsensual touching. He then went on “The View” and argued that in neither of these instances did his actions warrant an apology. He did, however, half-apologize for one thing: His role in creating one of the most insidious aspects of the War on Drugs, even while minimizing his role in it. (Siegel, 5/23)

A new congressional report claims that the World Health Organization’s guidelines on treating pain were directly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, including a set of directions for prescribing powerful painkillers that appear to have been taken from opioid giant Purdue Pharma. The investigation, from the offices of Reps. Katherine M. Clark (D-Mass.) and Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), points to evidence that pharmaceutical companies and those who profited from the increased prescribing of opioids aimed to push the WHO into endorsing use of the drugs across the globe. The WHO provides health guidance worldwide. (Zezima, 5/22)

The members of Congress say a 2011 manual and 2012 guidelines on opioids were influenced by people with financial connections to Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the powerful opioid painkiller OxyContin. “We have come to believe that Purdue has leveraged its financial ties to successfully impact the content of the WHO’s guidelines,” Reps. Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, say in a letter to the health arm of the United Nations. “As a result, the WHO is, in effect, promoting the chronic use of opioids.” (Mulvihill, 5/22)

Moreover, the guidelines contradict research concerning the extent to which opioid addiction occurs, according to the report. Consequently, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Rep. Hal Rogers (R.-Ky.) argued that the “problem the WHO seems to be addressing is not how to limit the use of these highly addictive drugs, but rather how to eliminate barriers to their use.” (Silverman, 5/22)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is moving to roll back protections for homeless transgender people by enabling HUD-funded providers of shelters to consider a person’s sex or gender identification in determining whether they can be admitted. The proposal, included in the department’s spring rule list out Wednesday, contradicts a pledge that HUD Secretary Ben Carson made to lawmakers just yesterday. (O'Donnell, 5/22)

A plan to move Agriculture Department researchers out of Washington has thrown two small but influential science agencies into upheaval. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have quit in unusually large numbers since August, when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced he would relocate the offices. ERS leadership has been conducting final site visits this week of candidate locations, and an “announcement Friday is very likely,” said Peter Winch, an organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents ERS workers. (Guarino, 5/22)

The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration has returned to New Enterprise Associates to focus on health-care investing. Scott Gottlieb, who stepped down as FDA commissioner in March, will hold the title of special partner for the health-care investment team at NEA, where he previously worked as venture partner from 2007 to 2017. (Mack, 5/22)

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said Wednesday there need to be "serious discussions" on how to pay for new and extremely pricey drug innovations but slammed the idea of giving Medicare negotiating power. Verma told reporters that Medicare and Medicaid's payment systems were not expected to deal with high costs for new and curative innovations. (King, 5/22)

A half-price version of Eli Lilly's popular Humalog insulin is now available, following the company's promise in March to offer diabetics a more affordable option amid fierce criticism of soaring insulin prices. Lilly, one of the three top insulin makers, said Wednesday that it has begun selling its own generic version of Humalog U-100 under the chemical name insulin lispro. (Johnson, 5/22)

Reeling from an unexpected move by regulators, Catalyst Pharmaceuticals (CPRX) is threatening to hit back. Until recently, the drug maker had been riding high. Last December, the Food and Drug Administration approved its medicine for treating adults with a rare neuromuscular disorder called LEMS, which meant Catalyst has seven years of marketing exclusivity. And despite controversy over its $375,000 price tag, the company appeared to have silenced some critics with assistance programs that kept patient out-of-pocket costs low. Meanwhile, its soaring stock price pleased investors. (Silverman, 5/23)

Before any company can begin a clinical trial, the Food and Drug Administration has to know how they’re going to make their “drug.” For some microbiome companies, that’s not really a problem; to put it delicately, the active ingredient for their drug comes from the guts of willing volunteers. All that’s left to do is process it. But as more attention and hope is placed on bacteria specifically selected or designed to be therapeutic, the companies testing them may hit a roadblock that could cost them millions or slow their progress.The problem? Manufacturing bacteria for drugs is really hard. (Sheridan, 5/23)

Startups selling sexual-wellness drugs and treatments for baldness have upended the way medicine is sold over the internet, but their customers are paying heavily marked-up prices. Hims Inc. and Roman Health Medical LLC, two of the most popular of those startups, sell erection and hair-loss drugs. They’re following the pharmaceutical version of a common retail startup strategy: take a pedestrian product category—sheets and mattresses, furniture or, in this case, generic drugs—and attempt to turn it into internet riches with fashionable packaging, social media-driven marketing and plenty of venture capital. (Brown, De Vynck and Langreth, 5/22)

Senate Finance chairman Chuck Grassley said he's confident that bipartisan drug pricing legislation won't be derailed by President Donald Trump's declaration this morning that he won't work with Democratic lawmakers until they end investigations into his administration. (Ollstein, 5/22)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's forthcoming drug pricing plan is expected to focus on negotiating the cost of at least 25 drugs a year, according to new details she released at a private meeting this afternoon, a senior Democratic aide confirmed to POLITICO. The long-awaited plan could still face pushback from progressive Democrats, who have been rallying behind a more aggressive bill that targets all drugs in Medicare Part D. (Karlin-Smith and Cancryn, 5/22)

Amazon.com Inc. is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotions. The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. It’s a collaboration between Lab126, the hardware development group behind Amazon’s Fire phone and Echo smart speaker, and the Alexa voice software team. (Day, 5/23)

Patient care coordination tends to be easier for accountable care organizations whose participants are using a single electronic health record system, HHS' Office of Inspector General said Wednesday. The need for reliable data-sharing has placed a burden on ACOs to either invest in the same version of an EHR system or rely on non-electronic means, such as phone calls and faxes, to communicate patient information, according to the OIG report. Installing a new EHR can cost provider organizations millions of dollars after taking into account expenses related to purchasing the new system, training personnel and transferring data. (Cohen, 5/22)

The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee on Wednesday voted to remove price-transparency requirements from the proposed interoperability rule. In its second meeting this month hashing out recommendations on how the federal government should address concerns related to information blocking and patient privacy, HITAC cautioned that tying price transparency to the information-blocking proposals would have an "unintended consequence of slowing down the finalization of the current ONC rule." Instead, it recommended ONC create a separate price-transparency task force within HITAC to produce recommendations for future rulemaking. (Cohen, 5/22)

Behind the scenes of Google’s effort to build an AI system to screen patients for lung cancer is a long and tangled tale. A study the tech giant published Monday reported positive findings: The system outperformed radiologists in analyzing CT scans, significantly reducing false positives and finding more actual cancers (though more research is needed to show whether it would help patients live longer). But lest you think the AI revolution is now upon us — along with infallible lung cancer screening — consider the difficulty of wrangling the data needed to conduct the study. (Ross, 5/22)

It is a truth universally acknowledged — or at least, much discussed on social media — that a woman who works in an office is in want of a sweater. Office air conditioning is often set at a temperature that women find chilly; the resulting water-cooler debate has been called the “battle of the thermostat.” One study even suggested that because women have slower metabolic rates, the formula used to set temperatures in workplaces, which was developed decades ago based on the comfort of men, may overestimate women’s body heat production by 35 percent. (Greenwood, 5/22)

Wearing a black shirt with “Fight for your happiness” on the front and “Sick not weak” on the back, Daniel Carcillo eats an apple as his wife makes a cappuccino nearby and their oldest daughter scampers around the kitchen. This is the family he always wanted, just not the life he expected. Carcillo is hurting inside and out after seven documented concussions in the National Hockey League and what he believes could be literally hundreds of traumatic brain injuries. (Whyno, 5/23)

When Mary Gregory filled out the registration form to compete in a local weightlifting event, she checked the box that read “female” without hesitation. “I mean, that’s my gender,” she said. “I didn’t even think about it. That’s who I am.” If there were any questions, Gregory didn’t notice, and on April 27, after months of training, she strode onto the platform at the Best Western hotel just east of Charlottesville and wowed the spectators and fellow powerlifters in attendance. That night she posted a picture on Instagram of herself holding a trophy, telling her 120 followers about the records she set for her age and weight class in the 100% Raw Powerlifting Federation, which organized the day’s competition. (Maese, 5/19)

With Memorial Day around the corner, sunscreens on the market today may be providing inferior sun protection or contain potentially harmful chemicals, an environmental advocacy organization says. In a review of more than 1,300 products with SPF in them, the Environmental Working Group found that about two-thirds did not meet its standard for protection or chemical safety. (Miller, 5/22)

The fast-paced, high-pressure environment and often low wages can take its toll on workers' mental health. His peer-to-peer counseling and support program, “I Got Your Back,” is now starting to spread. (Yang, 5/22)

Does anything you do as a parent matter? This is a question that surely most parents have asked themselves, as they push through some of the harder parts of raising children — sleepless nights, tantrums, vomiting illnesses, harassing children to finish their homework. Given how much work parenting can be, most of us probably want to believe that, yes, it does matter. The evidence, however, is not always as clear. (Oster, 5/23)

Kathy Wales will perform the same tasks as her fellow nurses when she starts work, but she took a different path to wearing scrubs. The 15-year Air Force veteran stopped working in 2009 when her two young sons were diagnosed with a rare disease. She lost both in the years that followed — one to the illness, the other to suicide. Their deaths inspired her to build a new career that begins next month at a Virginia hospital, a path that involves working through grief, helping patients with their mental health and honoring the lives of her children. (Moyer, 5/22)

California lawmakers moved ahead Wednesday with tougher rules that limit parents from choosing whether to vaccinate their schoolchildren as a handful of opponents shouted "We will not comply" inside the Senate. Senators sent the measure to the Assembly as the nation struggles to stem the highest number of measles cases in decades and as state efforts to strengthen vaccine requirements draw emotional opposition. (Thompson, 5/22)

The bill comes amid the worst measles outbreak in more than 20 years, with more than 750 people diagnosed with the disease this year nationwide. Of those, 44 cases have been in California. California has some of the strictest laws in the country requiring childhood immunizations in order to attend public or private schools. Since a 2015 law, the state has allowed for exemptions from required shots only if a doctor says there is a medical reason to skip some or all of them. Previously, parents could opt their children out of vaccinations by citing a personal or religious belief, as most states allow. (Gutierrez, 5/22)

“SB 276 assures students who truly need medical exemptions will receive them and that the schools they attend maintain community immunity to keep them safe,” Pan, D-Sacramento, said in a written statement. “Through passage of SB 276, we are taking a preventive approach to keep schools safe for all students by applying a model successfully used in West Virginia, which has not experienced measles in a decade.” (Wiley, 5/22)

The measles outbreak has now spread to half the country, as Maine became the 25th state to report a confirmed case of the disease. According to the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the case was confirmed in a school-age child in Somerset County on Monday. It's the first confirmed measles case in the state since 2017. (Weixel, 5/22)

Texas moved a big step closer to arming more teachers and school personnel as a way to help prevent future campus shootings, under a bill sent to Gov. Greg Abbott. The measure approved Wednesday night by the state Senate changes the 6-year-old school marshal program that had limited the number of armed marshals, and instead opens campuses to as many as local school districts feel they need. (Vertuno, 5/22)

House Democrats pushed back Wednesday against legislative efforts to expand the ability to carry firearms in Ohio, proposing instead a trio of “common sense” gun safety bills that, based on history, likely will struggle to gain support among majority Republicans. Bills rolled out by Democrats would require safe firearm storage from minors; a legal avenue to temporarily remove guns from someone deemed dangerous; and expanded background checks for gun purchases. (Siegel, 5/22)

Noted psychiatrist and former Verily leader Dr. Tom Insel is going to be the “mental health czar” for the state of California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday. Insel, the former National Institute of Mental Health director, will also continue his work with Mindstrong, a startup that is working on a mental health app, a company spokesperson confirmed. Insel joined the company in 2017 after leaving Verily, Google’s life sciences arm. (Sheridan, 5/22)

Lawyers for an incapacitated woman who was raped and later gave birth at a Phoenix long-term care facility have filed a $45 million notice of claim against the state, saying she may have been impregnated before. The claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit, also alleges the woman was raped repeatedly before giving birth last December. (5/22)

The 56-page notice of claim, filed on behalf of the 30-year-old rape victim and her parents, says the state of Arizona did an "abysmal job" monitoring Hacienda HealthCare. The woman has severe intellectual disabilities, is nonverbal, does not make eye contact and has no functional use of her arms or legs, her medical records say. The notice says the family would settle their claims for $45 million. (Innes, 5/22)

Rep. Donna White (R-Clayton) spoke bluntly when asked this week about the prospects for the bill she co-sponsored to create a Task Force on Aging centered on increasingly tough issues for caregivers. The enabling legislation, House Bill 915, received a favorable report on April 30 from the House Committee on Homelessness, Foster Care and Dependency but stalled in the powerful Rules Committee before failing to meet a legislative deadline earlier this month. (Goldsmith, 5/23)

The University of Maryland Medical System and affiliated hospitals have paid at least $127 million since 2012 to a construction company led by an executive who has been a board member at the health network’s affiliated medical school and flagship hospital, according to records reviewed by The Baltimore Sun. The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. has ranked as the medical system’s top-paid independent contractor in three of the past eight years — primarily for construction projects it managed at the University of Maryland Medical Center and the university’s medical school, according to tax forms that include newly released documents for last year. Whiting-Turner CEO Timothy J. Regan is vice chairman of the medical center’s board. (Donovan, 5/23)

A long-awaited state audit of Los Angeles County’s troubled Department of Children and Family Services has uncovered shortcomings that often place vulnerable children in harm’s way. The audit found that the department’s social workers didn’t initiate or complete investigations of neglect accurately or quickly enough, used “inaccurate” assessments to determine child risk and didn’t always conduct criminal background checks of those living in homes where children were placed. (Fry and Stiles, 5/22)

A Pennsylvania-based health care management company plans to lay off about 150 employees from its Tampa office as a result of a federal contract being delayed. Keystone Peer Review Organization, which goes by Kepro, earlier this month announced one round of about 20 layoffs from its offices at 5201 W Kennedy Blvd. The company went on to outline a plan to eliminate another 150 jobs on June 7 in a notice to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. (Danielson, 5/22)

A hospital strike now in its third week is putting a spotlight on staffing shortages at the same time Ohio lawmakers are debating legislation that would allow nurses to refuse mandatory overtime. Many of the nurses among the 2,200 workers on strike at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo say they are tired of repeatedly being on-call or forced to work beyond their regular shifts because of understaffing. (Seewer, 5/22)

The growth story continues at HealthPartners as the Bloomington-based health insurer and operator of hospitals and clinics hit the $7 billion mark in annual revenue last year and added its seventh hospital. For 2018, net income at HealthPartners declined compared with the previous year due to a plummeting stock market in the fourth quarter that torpedoed investment returns. (Snowbeck, 5/22)

The family of an 18-year-old University of Maryland freshman who died of adenovirus in the fall has filed a notice of claim against the college, setting the stage for a possible lawsuit. Ian Paregol said the death of his daughter, Olivia Shea Paregol, could have been prevented had the university disclosed that the virus was spreading through the College Park campus. (Abelson, 5/22)

Florida has one of the highest uninsured rates for women of child-bearing age and continues to lag behind states that have expanded Medicaid, according to a new report. The Georgetown University Center of Children and Families released a study Wednesday that showed the uninsured rate for women ages 18 to 44 in Florida is 19 percent, compared to the average of 9 percent in states that have opted for expansion of Medicaid, a federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for people with limited income and resources. (Griffin, 5/22)

The coalition typically provides students fluoride treatments and dental sealants once a year, funded by Medicaid and grant money. The nonprofit’s focus has always been cavity prevention, Orzechowski said. Research suggests that fluoride treatments and dental sealants reduce students’ risk for cavities by two-thirds. But this school year, they are part of a new program pioneered by Dr. Richard Niederman at New York University College of Dentistry that may make them able to provide prevention that is just as effective – at a fraction of the cost and the time. (Willingham, 5/22)

The Georgia Poison Center gets a lot of urgent phone calls every day. Two of these calls, on average, involve a category of products that many people might not consider dangerous. The products are known as “essential oils’’ – highly concentrated extracts from plants – and the victims of such poisoning are usually children. (5/22)

A former Cuyahoga County Jail medical supervisor’s whistleblower lawsuit filed late Tuesday against Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish offers the clearest account of what happened at the jail in the days and months before a string of inmate deaths. It also raises a previously undisclosed allegation that jail officials covered up the violent beating of an inmate at the hands of a corrections officer. (Ferrise, 5/22)

Mercy Health's financial agreements with FC Cincinnati have taken center stage in an ongoing labor dispute between the Bond Hill-based hospital chain and its unionized workers in Toledo. Officials from the United Auto Workers and Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center resumed negotiations Monday after negotiations broke down a few days earlier. (Tucker, 5/22)

In 2015, immigrant advocates applauded a bold decision by Fresno County leaders to set aside $5.6 million to pay for specialty medical care for thousands of poor and undocumented residents without health insurance, expecting that the money would be spent within three years. But four years later, the controversial program that was dubbed a “social experiment” by one opponent has spent less than $1 million of the earmarked money, with far fewer residents than anticipated completing the application process. (Amaro, 5/22)

A dozen high school students from Umatilla and Morrow counties were among the 37 chosen from across the state to participate in the 27th annual MedQuest Health Career Exploration Camp. In addition, two local residents — who are currently working or studying for careers in the health care field — have been selected to serve as camp counselors. ...During the camp, students will engage in a variety of unique medical experiences, including job shadows, panel discussions with local health care providers, tours of medical facilities and more. Many past campers have gone on to pursue careers as doctors, nurses, dentists, physical therapists and other health care professions. (Malgesini, 5/22)

Contra Costa County's homeless population increased by a whopping 43% over the last two years. That's according to the preliminary results of a January Point-in-Time homeless count, a federally mandated biennial tally conducted during a single night. (Green, 5/22)

Caltrans employees violated multiple policies leading up to the death of a woman who was crushed by the bucket of a front loader while sleeping at a Modesto homeless encampment last summer, according to a report by the California Highway Patrol. The 324-page report obtained by The Bee says the employees failed to post 72-hour notices to vacate the encampment along Highway 99 south of Kansas Avenue, and that the driver of the front loader went to the site alone and began working without waiting for the CHP to first clear the site of occupants. (Tracy, 5/22)

The Tomball Police Department is investigating how boxes of medical records and personnel files ended up in dumpster. Brandon Patin, a spokesperson for the department, said boxes of records and files from Today’s Vision were found in a dumpster on Tuesday night. ...A whistleblower alerted KPRC about the dumped records, which can be considered a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. According to the federal law, health providers who violate patient privacy by not safeguarding medical information may be subject to fines and punishments. (Cruz, 5/22)

In the years since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, public debate over the cost and quality of insurance has focused primarily on health plans sold through the marketplaces established by the law. There has been less attention on the 158 million Americans who have employer-based coverage. Faced with rising premiums, U.S. employers are sharing more of their costs with their workers, particularly through higher deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. Recent research indicates that employer plan premium contributions and out-of-pocket costs, like those for prescription drugs, are eating up an increasing portion of household budgets. (Hayes, Collins and Radley, 5/23)

People who have experienced abuse as a child or violence with an intimate partner might have higher odds of being abused again, but this has been insufficiently investigated regarding elder abuse. More conclusive evidence might be critical to assessment and prevention strategies. (Dong and Wang, 5/20)

his brief provides an overview of the status of the health care systems and Medicaid programs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) about one and a half years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the islands in September 2017. The hurricanes exacerbated the territories’ existing economic and health care challenges by accelerating outmigration of residents and health care providers and destroying homes, schools, health care facilities, and other infrastructure. (Rudowitz, Hall and Lyons, 5/21)

Community health workers (CHWs) are trusted laypeople who help their communities achieve health and well-being. For generations, they’ve worked in church basements, shelters, and food pantries to address a variety of health and social needs. In recent years, this workforce has captured the attention of health care organizations looking to hit value-based payment targets that are heavily influenced by the social determinants of health. As a result, they increasingly are transitioning from their grassroots, community-based origins to become integrated members of health care teams. (Garfield and Kangovi, 5/10)

One of the most troubling arguments I routinely hear is that the pro-life movement only pays lip service to caring for women, but they really just care about the unborn. Pro-choicers claim to be the ones caring for all life, and the term “choice” is painted as the compassionate option. Those engaging in the abortion debate have tried to make this into a binary choice — either you care for the woman or you care for the unborn child in her womb. Apparently you can’t do both. But we can and must care for the woman holistically, which includes protecting the little life inside of her. (Chelsea Patterson Sobolik, 5/22)

A few weekends ago, like many Americans, we thought about the mothers in our lives. We reflected on the milestones and the sacrifices. And with some measure of guilt, we thought about how it can be so easy to take our mothers for granted. Perhaps this is why experts are just beginning to notice that motherhood in the United States has become riskier and costlier today than it was a generation ago. American women today are 50 percent more likely to die in childbirth than their mothers — risks that are three to four times higher for black women than white women. (Drs. Leana Wen and Neel Shah, 5/22)

I’ve always known that expressing myself could hurt my career. I’ve tried not to show emotion, to anticipate what people expect from me and to do it. I don’t like to let people down. But you can’t change anything with silence. Last week, two of my former Nike teammates, the Olympian runners Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher, heroically broke their nondisclosure agreements with the company to share their pregnancy stories in a New York Times investigation. (Allyson Felix, 5/22)

HB 182 is primarily focused on eliminating insurance coverage for abortion and any treatment or device that might remotely cause an abortion, including treatment for an ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is one that implants outside of the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube. Ectopic pregnancies can be life-threatening because, as they grow, they may cause the tube to rupture, which can lead to catastrophic internal bleeding. (Dr. Daniel Grossman, 5/21)

I find it disconcerting that HB 7070 advocates are really stating that women are incapable of scrolling to the bottom of a homepage on a PRC website (where the location information is, might I add) and reading a disclaimer. In fact, I’ve visited a shoreline Connecticut PRC website, and it takes one scroll of my computer mouse to find out that I cannot get an abortion or an abortion referral at this center. (Katie Geeze, 5/23)

Even though universal health coverage is the norm in every other developed country on Earth, the idea has long been dismissed as too ambitious for America. But today, a growing Medicare for All movement has propelled the idea into the mainstream; it is now supported by most Democratic presidential candidates, and it enjoyed its first hearing in Congress just two weeks ago. As an ER doctor who supports Medicare for All, I was asked to testify at this historic hearing. While policy experts and economists were present to discuss how we would construct and finance such an ambitious undertaking, I decided to focus on human stories. After all, the specifics of any policy only matter as far as they affect the lives of actual Americans. (Dr. Farzon A. Nahvi, 5/21)

Measles outbreaks continue, adding to the historically high 880 cases confirmed as of May 17. But measles may have had their proverbial “15 minutes of fame.” Understandable, perhaps, given the news firehose we are drinking from these days. But lamentable, especially since the anti-vaxxers continue to push their dangerous nonsense, with the help of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., no less. Make no mistake: Measles is a dangerous, even deadly, disease, for both children and adults. (Eric R. Terzuolo, 5/22)

"I don’t want your kind taking care of me!” To an outsider, it might have resembled a standoff from an old Western. But it was taking place in a most modern hospital: the patient, an older white man hunched over with a snarl distorting his face; the physician, a young woman with a patterned hijab wrapped around her head. (Uchenna Ikediobi, 5/23)

The invention of the hypodermic needle and synthesis of heroin in the 19th century forever changed the opiate landscape. The arrival of cheap, accessible and mass-produced synthetic opioids might do the same. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are driving drug overdose deaths in the United States and it is unlikely this will end soon. But unlike prescription pain relievers, the vast majority of synthetic opioid overdoses involve illicit imports from China and Mexico. (Bryce Pardo and Beau Kilmer, 5/22)

“I’m doing the best I can.” That has become my mantra lately. I didn’t make it up. I learned it in group therapy. ... For the past several weeks, I’ve been one of many correspondents working on a series of reports airing across all of our NBC News platforms about children and the alarming rise in mental health issues. We’re calling it “Kids Under Pressure.” But what I don’t say out loud very often is that I am not just an outside observer. In my own life, as the parent of two teenagers, some of the very things I’m reporting on are a daily struggle. I know I’m not alone. (Kate Snow, 5/22)

I’ve always been very careful about my personal information (some might say paranoid). I ad-block, I cookie-block, and I use a password manager and a ton of disposable email addresses. I don’t use fitness-tracking wearables. I even cover my laptop camera. I don’t like the idea of being profiled or running the chance that a data breach might leave me exposed. If you asked me whether I wanted my data collected, analyzed and shared, I would of course have said no. But then I had a funny experience last year. I make a living by analyzing large data sets, and I was looking into creating an artificial-intelligence app that would tell people whether their symptoms were severe enough to warrant a trip to the doctor or even the emergency room. (Luke Miner, 5/22)

Google “child abuse” on any given day and you will find reports from across the nation. This year, there were reports of Baptist church leaders abusing children, some as young as 3 and the Pope’s acknowledgment of nuns being abused by church leaders. In both cases, investigations found the majority of the crimes had been long standing and some even continued for decades, but little is said about support for the victims. This silence is dangerous; without access to health care, belief from loved ones and support from the community, it can lead to serious mental health consequences. (Ashely Garling, 5/22)

The U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years should have 60 minutes or more daily of moderate to vigorous physical activity, including muscle- and bone-strengthening activities three days/week. In addition to its substantial physical and mental health benefits, physical activity improves learning and behavior.  (Drs. Michael Rosenbaum and William H. Dietz, 5/22)

Police officers should be able to use deadly force only when necessary to prevent death or serious injury to themselves or to others. That standard seems so logical and so based in common sense that it may come as a surprise that it’s not already the law. It ought to be, and a bill currently before California lawmakers would make it so. Assembly Bill 392 is a measured piece of legislation to improve police practices and enhance accountability. It deserves to pass. (5/22)

I wrote my first novel at a time when I felt powerless. I was 27 in 2016, and there was a public reckoning happening with women’s bodies, but also a reckoning I was grappling with personally. I had felt so powerless in my body for such a long time that by then there was a comfort to be found in passivity, in going through the motions. I was dimly aware that there was another, stronger me somewhere, but I could barely see or remember her. I felt skinless, afraid. Writing a book laid bare my own reckoning, made me feel worse for a time. But it also opened me to the experience of bridging the gap between powerlessness and power. (Sophie Mackintosh, 5/22)

Just before turning 3, Gavyn Bailey received a kidney transplant. Thereafter, he began to require anti-rejection medications, which create additional health concerns, including thickening of the heart muscle, necrosis of the hip, gastrointestinal issues and bacterial infections. The pain and challenges associated with his chronic condition propelled the now 21-year-old into a deep depression. To cope, Gavyn self-medicated and exhibited other forms of self-injurious behavior.Gavyn's case shows why it's imperative that physical and mental health be integrated. (Kimberly Chavalas Cripe and Christopher DeRosa, 5/21)