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Major tech companies committed Monday to removing technological barriers that have hindered patient and provider access to health-care data online. At a Trump administration event focused on developing more health-care apps, companies including Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc. unit Google and Microsoft Corp. said they would “share the common quest to unlock the potential in health care data, to deliver better outcomes at lower costs.” (McKinnon, 8/13)

Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle, along with the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), all pledged their support to improving healthcare data interoperability. The pledges came during Monday's Blue Button 2.0 Developer Conference. "Today’s announcements represent a watershed moment toward fostering more innovation in America’s healthcare systems," White House senior advisor Matt Lira said in a statement to The Hill. (Breland, 8/13)

In eye care, artificial intelligence systems have shown they can match the accuracy of doctors in diagnosing specific diseases. But a new system designed by Google DeepMind and British doctors goes a crucial step further: It can show users how it reached its conclusions. A study published Monday in Nature Medicine reports that the DeepMind system can identify dozens of diseases and point out the portions of optical coherence tomography scans that it relies upon to make its diagnoses. That’s a crucial factor in validating the safety and efficacy of AI technologies being developed for use in diagnosing or recommending treatments for a broad range of diseases, from cancer to neurological and vision problems. (Ross, 8/13)

DeepMind and its partners in the research, London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, said they plan prospective clinical trials of the technology in 2019. If those trials are successful, DeepMind said it would seek to create a regulator-approved product that Moorfields could roll out across the U.K. It said the product would be free for an initial five-year period. The software would be the first time a DeepMind AI algorithm using machine learning has ended up in a healthcare product. (Kahn, 8/13)

UnitedHealthcare's New York subsidiaries lost a court battle against a state program meant to level the playing field among health insurers competing for business in the small group market. A U.S. District Court judge on Saturday denied UnitedHealthcare's attempt to halt New York's risk-adjustment program, finding it "does not impede the federal program, but instead is complementary to" and "furthers the purposes of" the federal risk-adjustment program. (Livingston, 8/13)

Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration will convene a new work group on Monday to consider options to stabilize soaring premiums in Virginia’s health insurance market. The Virginia Market Stability Group will consider a wide range of options to lower insurance premiums expected to average more than $833 a month next year, making coverage unaffordable to people who don’t qualify for federal subsidies for premiums or out-of-pocket expenses in the marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act. (Martz, 8/12)

Kaiser Health News: Feds Urge States To Encourage Cheaper Plans Off The Exchanges

For those who make too much money to qualify for health insurance subsidies on the individual market, there may be no Goldilocks moment when shopping for a plan. No choice is just right. A policy with an affordable premium may come with a deductible that’s too high. If the copayments for physician visits are reasonable, the plan may not include their preferred doctors. (Andrews, 8/14)

The Trump administration is promoting short-term health care plans as a cheaper alternative to Obamacare, but some state regulators are pushing back against the expanded use of the plans, which starting in October will be able to provide coverage for up to three years, according to new federal regulations released earlier this month. Some state officials worry that the plans, which typically provide a limited set of benefits and refuse to cover pre-existing conditions, will leave patients in the lurch – and stuck with enormous bills – when they need medical care. (Rainey, 8/13)

About 1 in 6 hospital stays for patients enrolled in large employer health plans results in out-of-network bills, which tend to be costly and not fully covered by insurance, according to an analysis released Monday. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study of medical bills from large employer plans found that 18 percent of inpatient admissions result in out-of-network claims. (Hellmann, 8/13)

Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Monday that he no longer intended to solicit proxies to vote against the $52 billion Cigna-Express Scripts deal, a turn around from his position last week when he urged the health insurer's shareholders to vote against it. Icahn's comments come after proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis & Co and Institutional Shareholder Services Inc (ISS), as well as hedge fund Glenview Capital Management, extended their support for the deal. (8/13)

Cigna has said Mr. Icahn doesn’t understand the dynamics of health care and appeared to be betting against the deal for a profit. It called his opposition “misguided and shortsighted” in a statement last week. Mr. Icahn said in his statement that he informed the Securities and Exchange Commission he will no longer solicit proxies to vote against the transaction. (Lombardo, 8/13)

“In light of the ISS and Glass Lewis recommendations in favor of the Cigna/Express Scripts transaction and the significant stockholder overlap between the companies, we have informed the SEC we no longer intend to solicit proxies to vote against the transaction,” Icahn said Monday in a statement. (Deveau, 8/13)

To help readers narrow their search for hospitals that best match their needs, U.S. News ranks hospital performance in 16 areas of complex specialty care and also rates hospitals in nine bellwether procedures and conditions such as heart bypass, hip and knee replacement, heart failure and lung cancer surgery. (Comarow and Harder, 8/14)

The Cleveland Clinic for the third straight year took the second place spot on the U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals rankings, bolstered by top rankings in both urology and cardiology. For the 24th consecutive year, U.S. News ranked the Clinic the No. 1 hospital for cardiology and heart surgery. (Christ, 8/14)

Johns Hopkins Hospital ranked third for the second year in a row in U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings of American hospitals. The Baltimore hospital again fell short of securing the first place spot it held for 22 years, according to the assessment released Tuesday. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota held on to the top spot for the third year in a row, while Cleveland Clinic ranked No. 2. (McDaniels, 8/14)

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is ranked nationally in six adult and one pediatric specialties for the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals 2018-19 list, timed for release today. By comparison, the system was ranked in six specialties for 2017-18 and five for 2016-17. A hospital has to be among the top 50 in the country to achieve a national ranking. (Craver, 8/14)

Michigan Medicine continues to earn a reputation as one of the nation's finest health systems, according to the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings released Tuesday, Aug. 14. Michigan Medicine, which includes all of the hospitals within the University of Michigan's health system, was ranked No. 5, ascending from No. 6 in 2017-18. Prior to that, Michigan Medicine made a significant jump from being the No. 18 health system in the country. It also holds the distinction as the highest rated hospital in the state.  (8/14)

It’s lucky No. 7 for Northwestern Memorial Hospital: For the seventh year in a row, the Chicago hospital has been named the best in the state by U.S. News & World Report. Northwestern was also the only Illinois hospital to crack the top 20 in the country, settling into the No. 13 spot for the second year in a row, according to the rankings, which were released at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday. (Schencker, 8/13)

The University of Colorado Hospital is no longer among the top 20 hospitals in the nation, according to the latest ranking by U.S. News & World Report. The University of Colorado Hospital has fallen off the list after becoming the first Colorado hospital to be listed on U.S. News’ “Best Hospitals Honor Roll” two years ago. The facility ranked as the 20th best hospital in 2016 before moving to the 15th slot in 2017. (Seaman, 8/13)

In a nod to the sad reality that shootings at the nation’s schools are far too prevalent, the United States government will award a $1.8 million grant to create a program to teach high school students proper bleeding-control techniques. The goal of the program, called School-Age Trauma Training, is “to enhance a bystander’s ability to take decisive, lifesaving action to assist victims with traumatic injuries,” according to the Department of Homeland Security, which posted notice of the grant online last month. (Gomez, 8/13)

Leonard Pozner says he spends hours every day trying to erase online conspiracy theories that the death of his 6-year-old son Noah at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax. He has taken Alex Jones of Infowars, by far the most visible Sandy Hook denier, to court. He has put pressure on major tech companies to take action against the conspiracy theorists who flourish on their platforms. (Maheshwari and Herrman, 8/13)

In an editorial in the latest New England Journal of Medicine, Texas Medical Center trauma surgeon Dr. Ken Mattox and three other experts argue that practical and ethical concerns in certain vulnerable locations in hospitals and other large medical buildings suggests a better strategy: "secure, preserve, fight." ... The authors created the strategy after reviewing data on past hospital shootings between 2000 and 2011. (Ackerman, 8/13)

Scientists have created a powerful new tool to calculate a person’s inherited risks for heart disease, breast cancer and three other serious conditions. By surveying changes in DNA at 6.6 million places in the human genome, investigators at the Broad Institute and Harvard University were able to identify many more people at risk than do the usual genetic tests, which take into account very few genes. (Kolata, 8/13)

"What I foresee is in five years, each person will know this risk number, this 'polygenic risk score,' similar to the way each person knows his or her cholesterol," said Dr. Sekar Kathiresan who led the research team from the Broad Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. (Neergaard, 8/13)

Six middle- and high-school students sat around a table on a Monday afternoon, watching a psychologist write three letters on a whiteboard: O-C-D. “What does O.C.D. stand for?” the psychologist, Avital Falk, asked the group. “Obsessive-compulsive disorder,” answered a timid 12-year-old boy wearing a blue blazer and red tie. “What makes it a disorder?” Dr. Falk asked.“Because it’s messing up our lives,” said Sydney, a chatty 14-year-old with long red hair. (Petersen, 8/13)

Teen vaping is at the tipping point before possible epidemic levels, federal officials and public health advocates agree, but they're feuding over how fast and far to go to rein in the booming electronic cigarette industry. Some of the health groups that sued the Food and Drug Administration for delaying regulation of vape products by four years charged last week that the agency let several new devices similar to the youth-favored Juul hit the market without approval. (O'Donnell, Alltucker and Chu, 8/13)

The future doctors of America cut class. Not to gossip in the bathroom or flirt behind the bleachers. They skip to learn — at twice the speed. Some medical students follow along with class remotely, watching sped-up recordings of their professors at home, in their pajamas. Others rarely tune in. At one school, attendance is so bad that a Nobel laureate recently lectured to mostly empty seats. (Farber, 8/14)

We’ve all heard the advice about avoiding Lyme disease. If you walk through wooded or grassy areas where it’s prevalent, you should use insect repellent. Cover exposed skin. Check yourself thoroughly once you return home, and take a shower. If you see a tick, pluck it off your skin with tweezers. Look out for a bull’s eye-shaped rash and flulike symptoms in the summer. About 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each year, making it the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the United States. That number has tripled over the last 20 years. And experts estimate that the actual number of cases — not just those that happen to be reported to the agency — is more like 300,000 per year. (Zraick, 8/14)

New research has shown that a common childhood vaccination given to pregnant women does not put their children at any increased risk of autism. A Kaiser Permanente study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics found no association between the prenatal Tdap (for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough) vaccine and autism spectrum disorder when looking at tens of thousands of children in the hospital system. It is the latest in a long line of studies showing that there is no link between vaccines and autism. Despite the abundant scientific evidence, a persistent conspiracy theory has misled some parents into fearing vaccines. (Bever, 8/13)

Teens are no more sexually promiscuous in states that have passed legislation promoting the HPV vaccine than those living in states that have not, according to a newly published study. The study, released in the journal Pediatrics, compared the District of Columbia and 23 U.S. states that passed legislation to promote the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) with states with no such policies. (Santhanam, 8/13)

Lauren Woeher wonders if her 16-month-old daughter has been harmed by tap water contaminated with toxic industrial compounds used in products like nonstick cookware, carpets, firefighting foam and fast-food wrappers. Henry Betz, at 76, rattles around his house alone at night, thinking about the water his family unknowingly drank for years that was tainted by the same contaminants, and the pancreatic cancers that killed wife Betty Jean and two others in his household. (Knickmeyer, 8/13)

Women struggling with symptoms like vaginal dryness and pain during sex, may be drawn to treatments, marketed as "vaginal rejuvenation," that claim to fix such issues. Providers who offer the treatments, often dermatologists or plastic surgeons' offices, often claim they can not only cure discomfort, but also tighten the vagina and give it a more "youthful appearance." Recently the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to health care providers and their patients, effectively saying, please don't try to "rejuvenate" vaginas. (Watson, 8/13)

What is about money that makes people do bad things? It seems a fair question when the news is dominated by misdeeds of the rich and powerful. The Paul Manafort trial, now entering its third week, has revealed details of his alleged crimes: defrauding banks out of tens of millions of dollars, evading taxes by stashing huge sums in offshore accounts and using riches earned through unregistered work for foreign governments to buy $15,000 ostrich and python jackets. (Wan, 8/13)

Kaiser Health News: ‘No One Is Ever Really Ready’: Aid-In-Dying Patient Chooses His Last Day

In the end, it wasn’t easy for Aaron McQ to decide when to die. The 50-year-old Seattle man — a former world traveler, triathlete and cyclist — learned he had leukemia five years ago, followed by an even grimmer diagnosis in 2016: a rare form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. An interior and urban designer who legally changed his given name, McQ had been in pain and physical decline for years. Then the disease threatened to shut down his ability to swallow and breathe. (Aleccia, 8/14)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: The Latest On Workplace Wellness Programs

Kaiser Health News senior correspondent Julie Appleby joins a discussion on Cleveland’s WCLV about current thinking on workplace wellness programs. In Ohio, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine is pushing a Cleveland Clinic-inspired wellness plan for Ohio’s Medicaid population. Appleby outlines how these wellness plans have historically functioned, their pros, cons and the recent regulatory developments around them. (8/14)

Retired N.F.L. players struggling with debilitating injuries years after they leave the field have a not-so-facetious way of describing the league’s approach to doling out their health benefits: “Delay, deny and hope you die.” Enter Paul Scott. (Belson, 8/14)

Nearly 40 minutes after a 911 call was placed, Jordan McNair arrived at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park with a body temperature of 106 degrees, according to a hospital medical report. Once admitted, the 19-year-old Maryland football player was covered with ice and cold water, a cooling method known as cold-water immersion. It took 12 minutes for his body to cool to 102 degrees, which one medical expert called “a much, much safer temperature.” (Dougherty, 8/13)

But medical experts said Monday that [Jordan] McNair’s health could have hinged on Maryland’s adherence to medical guidelines for treating heatstroke, including cold-water immersion — a practice which doctors said likely saved Class’ life after he was stricken during a Towson University football practice in 2013. ...When McNair was taken from the workout in College Park to nearby Washington Adventist Hospital, Ruff told The Baltimore Sun on Monday, medical records indicate his body temperature was 106 degrees, a sign of heatstroke. (Shaffer and Klingaman, 8/13)

The health care provider discontinued its services for Ron and 15 other New Hampshire veterans who are housebound or cannot venture outside without assistance. The reason? The VA had failed to pay nearly $60,000 in bills dating to late last year, according to Janet and Rich Sullivan, the providers and co-owners of Right at Home. (MacQuarrie, 8/14)

Missouri Democrats created a firestorm of controversy in June when their leaders added an amendment to the party’s platform aimed at welcoming candidates who oppose abortion rights. On Saturday, the party’s central committee reversed course and voted unanimously to remove the anti-abortion language. (Hancock, 8/13)

Ohio needs to do more to control tobacco use, especially among teenagers and young adults, to reduce its incidence of cancer, the American Cancer Society reported Thursday. In its 16th annual state-by-state review on public policy, the society’s Cancer Action Network reported the Buckeye State's biggest step forward to confronting cancer has been Ohio's Medicaid expansion. (Saker, 8/13)

According to personal finance website WalletHub’s 2018 best and worst states to have a baby report, for which analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across four key dimensions — cost, health care, baby-friendliness and family-friendliness — Georgia is nowhere near the top of the list. Based on metrics such as average annual cost of early child care, health insurance premium cost, infant mortality rate, parental-leave policies and several more, the best state to have a baby is Vermont. (Pirani, 8/13)

A total of 949 people in Arizona died of an opioid-caused overdose in 2017, the Arizona Department of Health Services said in a report released this month. That's 20.1 percent higher than 2016's finalized tally of 800 deaths and more than twice as many deaths as 2012's total of 454. (Pohl, 8/13)

The growing tent city has alarmed county health officials and American Indian leaders, who say the lack of hygiene facilities and frequent reuse of needles have made the area ripe for infections and disease outbreaks. The camp has several known cases of a drug-resistant infection known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which can lead to sepsis, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and death. There are also reports of hepatitis C, sexually transmitted illnesses, and scabies. The area surrounding the encampment is rife with hundreds of used needles, garbage and human waste, despite stepped-up efforts by campers to keep the area clean. There is just one portable toilet, and many campers bathe in the open near their tents by pouring jugs of water over their bodies. (Serres, 8/13)

In the latest in an ever growing pile of legal challenges, the principals behind a questionable lab billing scheme at 10 small rural hospitals in Missouri, Kansas, and three other states have been sued by a Mission Hills couple for fraud and conspiracy. The couple, James and Phyllis Shaffer, allege the defendants fraudulently took majority control of a company, HMC Hospitals, that owns the hospitals and used them as “instrumentalities in the operation of an illegal billing scheme.” (Margolies, 8/14)

An unvaccinated child has contracted the contagious measles virus in Pinellas County, according to the Florida Department of Health, which said Monday it is investigating the case. It was unclear how the child contracted the virus, according to the health department. (Griffin, 8/13)

Iowa 2nd District Congressman Dave Loebsack warned state fairgoers Monday that if Republicans retain control of the U.S. House, there will be a renewed attempt at entitlement reform directed at the nation’s senior citizens. Loebsack was first elected in a Democratic wave in 2006 after President George W. Bush’s plan to privatize social security failed to advance. (Russell, 8/13)

California cities on Monday objected to a state proposal that would allow marijuana delivery to homes in areas where storefront pot sales have been banned locally. The changes, which are being considered by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control, “will undermine a city’s ability to effectively regulate cannabis at the local level,” Charles Harvey, a legislative representative for the League of California Cities, said in a letter to the bureau. (McGreevy, 8/14)

The owner of a Boston home health care agency was sentenced on Friday to two to three years in state prison for stealing millions of dollars from MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program. Elena Kurbatzky, 45, who owned Harmony Home Health Care LLC, was found to have billed MassHealth for in-home services to 38 patients, though most of the services were not provided or authorized, prosecutors said. (Capelouto, 8/13)

A new UNH study looked at how well college personnel understand sexual assault and rape reporting regulations. Researchers called Title IX offices, which oversee gender equality issues, and campus police at more than one hundred and fifty colleges around the country. (Allee, 8/13)

From the moment he took office, President Trump has used all aspects of his executive power to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. He has issued executive orders, directed agencies to come up with new rules and used the public platform of the presidency in a blatant attempt to undermine the law. Indeed, he has repeatedly bragged about doing so, making statements like, “Essentially, we are getting rid of Obamacare.” But Mr. Trump isn’t a king; he doesn’t have the power to dispense with laws he dislikes. He swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That includes the requirement, set forth in Article II, that the president “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” (Nicholas Bagley and Abbe R. Gluck, 8/14)

Last month, the Trump administration reopened its effort to allow Kentucky to require low-income citizens to work in exchange for health-care coverage — part of its larger goal of imposing work requirements nationwide for all kinds of benefits, including assistance buying food. The Kentucky effort has run afoul of at least one federal judge, who wrote that the administration “never adequately considered whether Kentucky HEALTH would in fact help the state furnish medical assistance to its citizens, a central objective of Medicaid.” (Sanford Schram, Richard Fording and Joe Soss, 8/13)

President Donald J. Trump has a comprehensive plan to end this national crisis by bolstering treatment, educating the public about addiction, and revamping our law enforcement efforts against drug traffickers who propagate this catastrophe. He has negotiated and signed bipartisan legislation to spend $4 billion this year to address opioid abuse. He has launched a national awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid abuse. And he has set the ambitious goal of reducing opioid prescription rates in America by one-third in three years. Law enforcement plays a key role in his plan — and for good reason. By putting traffickers and crooked doctors and pharmacists behind bars — going after the distributors, not the users suffering from addiction — we prevent the criminals from committing more crimes and spreading addiction. That saves lives. (U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, 8/14)

After decades of medical research, why is chemotherapy still a mainstay for cancer patients? Why do many Alzheimer’s patients still slide inexorably into helplessness? How did developing a new drug become a multibillion-dollar venture that can take a decade or more? Government deserves a share of the blame. Regulators, including at the Food and Drug Administration, have shackled every aspect of drug development under the guise of doing no harm. But how exactly does it “harm” patients facing certain death to provide them with an experimental treatment? Congress took a small step in the right direction this May by passing a Right to Try law, which theoretically grants terminal patients the right to access investigational drugs that haven’t shown clinical efficacy. But Right to Try legislation gives only crumbs to these patients. (Paul J. Marangos, 8/13)

Both parties and President Donald Trump generally agreed on the need to ban bump stocks. Against the carnage in Las Vegas, it looked like a no-brainer. Whatever the Second Amendment was meant to do — and that remains a worthwhile debate — precious few believe it was meant to protect a hunk of plastic. Congressional Republicans, paralyzed as always on guns, couldn’t get themselves to act decisively. At the NRA’s urging, they turned it over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which now is poised to ban bump stocks by rule. That’s not the same as passing a law. A rule can be undone, and it doesn’t make the unified statement from our elected leaders that the moment called for. (8/13)

I had just finished an eye examination for one of my patients and swiveled around to the computer. It was clear that he needed cataract surgery; he was nearly blind despite his Coke-bottle glasses. But even before I logged in to the scheduling system, I knew what I was going to find: He wouldn’t be able to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist for more than three months. Everyone’s schedule was full. Moments like these are far too common in medicine. An aging population with numerous health needs and a declining physician workforce have combined to create a physician shortage — the Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortfall of up to 100,000 doctors by 2030. (Akhilesh Pathipati, 8/13)

As a neurosurgeon who focuses mainly on spine surgery, I sometimes use medical devices like pedicle screws and intervertebral cages to treat spinal instability. Watching the Netflix documentary “The Bleeding Edge” made me wonder what the misuse of medical technology means for patients and for doctors. According to the video’s teaser, “This eye-opening look at the fast-growing medical device industry reveals how the rush to innovate can lead to devastating consequences for patients.” In a nutshell, “The Bleeding Edge” warns of the potential dangers posed by the cozy relationship between industry, doctors, and regulators. It’s a relationship that’s hard to avoid. (Erich Anderer, 8/14)

The Ohio Department of Health has released 2017 HIV data for the state, which shows a tremendous decrease in new infections in Cuyahoga County. The county saw 158 new infections in 2017, a 19 percent decrease from 196 new infections in 2016. This positive development continues a more modest downward trend since 2013. Our good news comes at a time when state HIV and Hepatitis C rates are increasing, at least partially driven by the opiate epidemic. In 2017, HIV infections associated with injection drug use (IDU) were up for the third straight year in Ohio, and now represent 12 percent of new HIV infections diagnosed each year --compared to 5 percent of new infections just a few years ago. New Hepatitis C infections in Ohio have more than doubled since 2015. (Melissa Federman, 8/12)