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The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 vote this month to block a restrictive Louisiana abortion law from taking effect provided some measure of consolation to reproductive rights advocates who feared the court’s new conservative majority would act immediately to restrict access to the procedure. But that relief is likely to be short lived. In the pipeline are at least 20 lawsuits, in various stages of judicial review, that have the potential to be decided in ways that could significantly change the rights laid out in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, and refined almost two decades later in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The 1992 decision said a state may place restrictions on abortion as long as it does not create an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to abortion. (Cha, 2/15)

As evangelical Christians, Paul and Susan Lim believe that life begins at conception. So when they decided to have a third child, in vitro fertilization was out of the question, since the process often yields extra embryos. But “adopting” the frozen embryos of another couple who had gone through I.V.F. was not. Dr. Lim called it a “rescue operation.” To him, transferring donated embryos to his wife’s uterus was akin to saving a life. “These children are being abandoned in a frozen state,” he said. “If they don’t get adopted, they’re dead.” (Lester, 2/17)

Federal health officials are not enforcing requirements for Medicaid coverage of abortion in the limited circumstances where it is legal, congressional investigators have found. At least 13 states are flouting a requirement to cover abortion-inducing pills, and one state, South Dakota, has for 25 years failed to provide the required coverage for abortion in cases of rape or incest, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said in a report made public this month. (Pear, 2/17)

Illinois Democrats have introduced two measures that would expand abortion access in the state by removing a parental notification requirement and a ban on late-term abortions. The proposed legislation was filed Wednesday, The Chicago Tribune reported. One bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Welch of Hillside would repeal the state's parental notice law, which requires minors to notify a legal guardian before having an abortion. (2/15)

Iowa's governor said Monday she decided against appealing a judge's ruling last month that struck down Iowa's "fetal heartbeat" abortion law, which would have been the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation. Gov. Kim Reynolds called it an extremely difficult decision but the right one for the state. (Pitt, 2/18)

Democratic members of Congress are asking the Trump administration to slow down efforts to overhaul the $260 million family planning program, citing issues with what they call an “unconventional and nontransparent” review process. The proposed changes to the Title X program, which were announced last May, are a top priority of conservatives who helped elect the president. They would bar clinics that provide abortion services or referrals from receiving federal family-planning funds. A wide range of critics — from medical groups to abortion rights activists — have decried the effort as an attack on Planned Parenthood, which stands to lose millions of dollars a year if the changes go into effect. (Cha, 2/15)

A Catholic mother accuses a federally funded South Carolina foster agency of not working with her because she's "not the right kind of Christian," her lawyers say. In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Aimee Maddonna and her lawyers say Miracle Hill Ministries is unconstitutionally discriminating against non-Protestants. The lawsuit challenges a waiver granted this year to the Greenville agency, which previously has come under fire for denying services to same-sex couples and non-Christian families. (Kinnard, 2/15)

As the nation’s largest annual gathering of health technology leaders wraps up Friday, many are leaving surprised, and emboldened, by the breadth of a Trump administration proposal to liberate vast stores of patient information to help deliver on the promise of better, digitally enabled care. By allowing patients to control their electronic health records — and share them with researchers and entrepreneurs as they see fit — the government is hoping to harness the increasing power of artificial intelligence and other digital tools to provide more personalized medical services at a lower cost. (Ross, 2/15)

To get healthcare's powerful players to behave as desired, HHS and its various units are increasingly turning to the same playbook: naming and shaming bad actors. Most recently, the CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued two proposed rules on Feb. 11 to spur interoperability and counter information-blocking. (King, 2/16)

After spending billions of dollars on new technology solutions, healthcare leaders must figure out ways to ensure a solid return on investment. That's not always easy, especially when some clinicians continue to resist using digital tools to their fullest potential, or when the technology itself creates barriers. Pamela Arora and Ken Lee offer real-world examples to show how technology can improve care and lower costs. Managing Editor Matthew Weinstock recently spoke with Arora, from Dallas-based Children's Health, and Centura Health's Lee about their strategies as health IT leaders. (Weinstock, 2/16)

A lift chair has made a big difference for Henry Cato, 78, of Franklin, who has neuropathy in his legs. The chair is a kind of recliner, but it includes a mechanism that pushes the chair up from its base and slowly moves the sitting person into a standing position. Henry does not have to struggle to get to his feet. He received the lift chair from the Three Rivers Area Agency on Aging. It makes things easier for both him and his wife, Queen, 72, who is his caregiver. (Thomas, 2/17)

If you’re struggling with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression, an app might help. But should you invest in a therapy app or one that only tracks symptoms? Which apps are credible, and which ones are scams — or even harmful? (Blakemore, 2/17)

Healthcare industry groups have always hated False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuits. These cases involve private individuals—usually knowledgeable insiders—accusing companies and individuals of defrauding federal programs in the hope of righting a wrong and collecting a share of the bounty for their work. False Claims Act lawsuits can hit companies and individuals with damages up to three times the demonstrated losses to the government. Whistleblowers can pocket 15% to 30% of that recovery. The number of healthcare cases grew to 506 in 2018 from 291 in 2008. (Meyer, 2/16)

Last year, Intermountain Healthcare lost an appeal to dismiss a whistleblower case accusing it, HCA-owned St. Mark's Hospital and a staff cardiologist of filing false Medicare claims for nearly 1,000 medically unnecessary heart operations. On Jan. 14, Intermountain petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether part of the whistleblower law violates a constitutional clause barring individuals not appointed by the president, the attorney general or the federal courts from prosecuting cases on behalf of the government. It wants to stop the case from moving to discovery. (Meyer, 2/16)

The senator expressed support for allowing the public to buy into Medicare or Medicaid, which she said could bring insurance rates down. Universal health care could be an option in the future, Klobuchar said, but now is not the time for that approach. “We have to start somewhere and I think we can do that much more immediately,” Klobuchar said. She added that officials must also address the rising costs of prescription drugs. (Faircloth, 2/18)

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown defended his push to allow Americans over 50 years old to buy into Medicare, rather than seeking universal government coverage as some progressive Democrats advocate, and said the odds of him running for president are about 50-50. ...Brown joined Democratic colleagues Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin in introducing a bill Feb. 13 that would allow Americans over 50 years old to buy into Medicare, the federal health insurance program that currently provides coverage for those 65 and older. (Waller, 2/17)

Kaiser Health News: For 2020 Dem Hopefuls, ‘Medicare-For-All’ Is A Defining Issue, However They Define It

Democrats with 2020 presidential aspirations are courting the party’s increasingly influential progressive wing and staking out ambitious policy platforms. Front and center are three words: Medicare. For. All. That simple phrase is loaded with political baggage, and often accompanied by vague promises and complex jargon. Different candidates use it to target different voter blocs, leading to sometimes divergent, even contradictory ideas. (Luthra, 2/19)

An adult migrant has died after being taken into U.S. Border Patrol custody this month in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The 45-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico died Monday morning after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver. The immigrant's death was first reported by USA Today. According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release, the immigrant was encountered by the police department in Roma, Texas, a small border community between Laredo and Mission, on Feb. 2. The person, who wasn’t identified, then requested medical attention. (Aguilar, 2/18)

The immigrant illegally crossed the border and was arrested by the Roma (Texas) Police Department on Feb. 2, requested medical attention and was taken to a local hospital, according to a statement released Monday night by Customs and Border Protection. The immigrant "was cleared" by officials at the Mission Regional Medical Center and was handed over to Border Patrol officials at the Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station, according to the CBP statement. The following day, after receiving a welfare check by CBP officials, the immigrant again requested medical attention and was taken to the McAllen Medical Center, where the immigrant was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and congestive heart failure, CBP said. The immigrant remained at the hospital before dying on Monday morning. (Gomez, 2/18)

The death came less than two months after 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin and 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo also died in the agency’s custody, in December, amid three straight months of record-breaking numbers of migrant families entering the country. Both had shown symptoms of illness after they were taken into custody along the Southwest border, and their deaths prompted widespread condemnation from members of Congress and the public. The agency soon after announced new medical checks for children, and a temporary infusion of support from other federal agencies, including the Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service. (Dickerson, 2/18)

They're the lucky ones — the hundreds of migrants who have moved out of the makeshift shelter in this town across the U.S.-Mexico border from Eagle Pass. But as Olvin Hernandez stood behind a fence that walled him off from the rest of the city, he realized he might face a different path. Hernandez, 21, is among the hundreds whose fate remained unknown Monday after more than 1,000 Central American asylum-seekers have been allowed to leave a former factory that’s been a temporary facility for the group since they arrived earlier this month. (Aguilar, 2/18)

The first stories we can correct are the ones we tell ourselves. My story, the one I have hung onto since I was a little girl, is that I got lucky. Luck made sense because luck can happen to anyone. Even me. Luck fit into the parts of my story I wasn’t ready to explain, the parts that I surrendered to half-memories. I made it to this country because of luck. I grew up a janitor but then my parents got lucky and bought the business and I ended up a journalist. My citizenship came after I was undocumented for almost a decade, when I got lucky. (Gallardo, 2/19)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid $13,000 over a three-month period for a senior official’s biweekly commute to Washington from his home in California, according to expense reports obtained by ProPublica. The official, Darin Selnick, is a senior adviser to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and has played a key role in developing the administration’s controversial new rules on referring veterans to private doctors. The proposal, announced last month, has drawn opposition from some lawmakers and veterans groups. (Arnsdorf, 2/15)

The suits on behalf of service members come after 3M settled a federal lawsuit in July for $9.1 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly supplied the U.S. military with defective earplugs. The suit was brought under the False Claims Act after a whistle-blower complaint. ... Hearing impairments, including constant ringing from tinnitus, can be debilitating and permanent and had been the No. 1 service-connected disability reported among veterans since 2005, the Government Accountability Office reported in 2011. Tinnitus and hearing loss remain top health conditions at Veterans Affairs medical centers, costing the department billions in benefit claims, according to the complaint. (Cohn, 2/15)

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Air Force to temporarily stop discharging service members who are HIV-positive, ruling that it's working under a policy that is "irrational" and "outdated." U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, issued her decision as a lawsuit moves forward against the U.S. Military. (2/15)

Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, introduced legislation Thursday calling for a broad assessment of the U.S. Indian Health Service, following an investigation of the agency by The Wall Street Journal and the PBS series Frontline. The bill calls for a sweeping evaluation of the agency’s performance, including its long-term vacancies, how it allocates money to its more than two dozen hospitals and the competency of the agency’s leadership. The Journal/Frontline investigation revealed the Indian Health Service mishandled allegations of sexual assault by a pediatrician it employed for decades and routinely hired physicians with troubled backgrounds to fill slots at its remote hospitals on Native American reservations. (Weaver and Frosch, 2/15)

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which provides funding and grants for a variety of programs that tackle domestic abuse, lapsed at the end of Friday after Congress failed to pass an extension before leaving for its one-week recess. Lawmakers squabbled over whether a clean extension of the landmark legislation, which was first signed into law in 1994, should be wrapped into a massive must-pass government funding deal that was signed by President Trump on Friday. (Brufke, 2/16)

More than a century before Facebook, anti-vaccination campaigners had another method for spreading their message -- an eye-catching march through town with tiny children's coffins emblazoned with the words: "Another victim of vaccination." The year was 1885, and smallpox vaccinations were compulsory in the UK -- reportedly inciting 100,000 people to demonstrate in the city of Leicester, England, one sunny March day. Fast-forward to 2019 and the anti-vaccination campaign is a global, multi-faced beast -- spurred by safety concerns, religious and political beliefs, preferences for homeopathic approaches and widespread misinformation. (McKenzie and Fox, 2/18)

The one-day immunization clinic at David Douglas High School in Portland, Ore., was hectic on Saturday, with a wait of 45 minutes to over an hour just to see a nurse. But Cameron Wagner said that after balking this long at getting her 4-year-old son vaccinated, out of concerns about potential side effects, a few more minutes would not matter. “I’ve talked to more doctors and have weighed the options, and decided to come in and get a shot,” said Ms. Wagner, 46, a massage therapist. (Johnson, 2/16)

A measles outbreak that has stricken at least 225 people in New York state since October began with a traveler who visited Israel during the Jewish high holidays and returned to a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County. A similar pattern unfolded three months later and nearly 3,000 miles away when a person who visited Eastern Europe returned to a community with strong ties to a local church group in Vancouver, Washington. More than 50 people fell ill there. (2/15)

Officials in Clark County, Washington, publish a list every day of where people infected with measles have been. Among them: busy spots like Concourse D at Oregon's Portland International Airport on January 7 and the sold-out Portland Trail Blazers' home game four days later. There's also a Costco, a Trader Joe's, numerous schools, day-care centers and churches, a swimming pool and even a trampoline park. "It is exquisitely contagious," said Dr. Alan Melnick, director of the county health department. "You can be in a room where somebody with measles had left two hours earlier and still get the disease." (Watt, 2/13)

A Washington state House committee on Friday passed a bill to ban the personal or philosophical exemption for the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) for school-age children amid an outbreak of the virus. The bill passed through the state's Health Care and Wellness Committee, despite opposition from critics who say parents should have a right to choose whether to vaccinate their children, The Seattle Times reported. (Gstalter, 2/16)

House Bill 1638 moved through the Health Care and Wellness Committee on a primarily party-line vote despite vocal opposition from critics who say the injections can cause harm that outweighs the benefits associated with avoiding certain preventable diseases. All nine Democrats voted in favor, while the bill’s prime sponsor — Rep. Paul Harris of Vancouver, Clark County — was the only Republican on the committee to support it. Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, the top Republican on the committee, argued that while he thinks every child should be vaccinated, parents should also retain the right to choose. (Goldstein-Street, 2/15)

Five children and one adult have been newly diagnosed with measles in Clark County, public health officials said Saturday, breaking a lull in new cases that saw just one new diagnosis in a week. The total between Washington and Oregon is now at 64, with 59 in Clark County, one in King County, and four in Multnomah County. Five of the six new patients were unvaccinated, according to Clark County Public Health, and one had received just the first of two recommended doses. (Zarkhin, 2/17)

In little more than a week, nearly 10 more people have been diagnosed with measles, breaking a weeklong lull in new cases. Clark County Public Health identified a child who was unvaccinated and has measles Monday afternoon after a morning update said there were no new cases. This brings the total number of cases to 67 -- 62 in Clark County, four in Oregon and one in the Seattle area. (Hamburger, 2/18)

The Louisiana Department of Health urged healthcare providers around the state to be on the lookout for measles cases as other parts of the United States continue to report new cases. Louisiana has not reported any measles cases so far this year. Two confirmed cases were reported in New Orleans last year. Those cases involved travelers who contracted the illness while traveling abroad. Both adult patients were not vaccinated with the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella). (Clark, 2/15)

Despite decades of trying, there are still no vaccines against viruses that kill tens of millions of people and cause untold suffering every year: HIV, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and the cancer-causing Epstein-Barr virus. There are many reasons why, including how hard it is to identify the exact piece of an antigen that will trigger production of an effective antibody. And even when vaccines exist, they fail when B cells don’t rearrange their DNA segments in a way necessary to manufacture the needed antibodies. (Begley, 2/19)

Women make up nearly two-thirds of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S., in part because they live longer than men. Now, researchers are exploring whether hormonal changes related to menopause affect the development of the disease. “The truth is that Alzheimer’s is not a disease of old age, it’s a disease of middle age,” says Lisa Mosconi, director of the Weill Cornell Women’s Brain Initiative in New York City, a research program aimed at reducing Alzheimer’s risk. “In reality, the brain changes start in mid-life.” (Reddy, 2/18)

On a sunny day in Bellevue, Wash., in June 2011, I had just completed a workout class when I experienced a bizarre sensation of intense, full-body muscle fatigue. I broke into a bone-chilling sweat. My upper left arm throbbed, a deep ache next to the bone. I was heaving for air at a rapid clip. I grew nauseated. A fist was pressing through my chest to my spine. I was 56 years old, an exercise enthusiast, a nonsmoker and a retired cardiac-care nurse. And yet I had no idea that I was having a heart attack. It felt nothing like I’d imagined. It turns out that it’s hard to recognize a heart attack as it happens. (Oliveira, 2/18)

Danielle Teuscher decided to give DNA tests as presents last Christmas to her father, close friends and 5-year-old daughter, joining the growing number of people taking advantage of low-cost, accessible genetic testing. But the 23andMe test produced an unexpected result. Ms. Teuscher, 30, a nanny in Portland, Ore., said she unintentionally discovered the identity of the sperm donor she had used to conceive her young child. The mother of the donor was identified on her daughter’s test results as her grandmother. Excited and curious, Ms. Teuscher decided to reach out. (Mroz, 2/16)

Brittney Crystal was just over 25 weeks pregnant when her water broke. It was her second pregnancy — the first had been rough, and the baby came early. To try to avoid a second premature birth, Dr. Joy-Sarah Vink, an obstetrician and co-director of the Preterm Birth Prevention Center at Columbia University Medical Center, arranged for Crystal to be transported by ambulance from her local Connecticut hospital to New York City, where Vink could direct her care. (Kodjak, 2/18)

On a cold, bright Sunday afternoon during New York Fashion Week, nearly six hundred people packed into an old building in Manhattan's Lower East Side for an unusual lingerie show. The audience shouted exuberantly when the first model stepped onto the runway. Jaleh Panahi, of Kingston, New York, is a 73-year old practicing physician, mother and grandmother who's had metastatic breast cancer for eight years. (Schattner, 2/17)

John Everdell had lived most of his life with kidney disease. As a young man awaiting a transplant, he had briefly undergone dialysis. That’s how he knew, when the prospect of kidney failure loomed again in his late 60s, that he would refuse dialysis this round. “He was a very independent man, with an idea of how he was going to live his life,” said Trix Oakley, his partner of 22 years. (Span, 2/15)

The American Psychological Association joined a growing list of health organizations calling for a ban to spanking because it can cause short- and long-term harm to children. The association has long warned physical discipline can be harmful to kids' mental health. It made its position official Feb. 15 with a policy change. (Haller, 2/18)

Gregory Greiten was 17 years old when the priests organized the game. It was 1982 and he was on a retreat with his classmates from St. Lawrence, a Roman Catholic seminary for teenage boys training to become priests. Leaders asked each boy to rank which he would rather be: burned over 90 percent of his body, paraplegic or gay. Each chose to be scorched or paralyzed. Not one uttered the word “gay.” They called the game the Game of Life. The lesson stuck. Seven years later, he climbed up into his seminary dorm window and dangled one leg over the edge. “I really am gay,” Father Greiten, now a priest near Milwaukee, remembered telling himself for the first time. “It was like a death sentence.” (Dias, 2/17)

While CBD is generally believed to be safe, scant research has been conducted on its medical and health benefits because cannabis has long been prohibited at the federal level. The only clinically proven remedy is a treatment for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy. All other claims are anecdotal. Now regulators are starting to pay closer attention. Earlier this month, New York health officials ordered bakeries and restaurants to stop adding cannabidiol, the formal name for CBD, to beverages and food. In December the Food and Drug Administration made clear that it’s illegal to market CBD products as dietary supplements. (Giammona and Owram, 2/17)

The usual suspects have done a fine job of turning the CRISPR patent landscape into a minefield for companies trying to figure out what intellectual property they need to make their hoped-for therapies, but an unusual suspect is about to mix things up even more. The MilliporeSigma subsidiary of Germany-based pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA will soon receive a patent on an invention that increases CRISPR’s efficiency and decreases its off-target effects, according to documents posted this month by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Both attributes could be extremely useful to would-be developers of treatments based on the genome-editing tool. (Begley, 2/19)

If you spent time in the museum collectibles building at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon over the past two decades, you may have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation. Three five-gallon containers brimming with uranium ore were stored in the building, next to a taxidermy exhibit where tours sometimes stopped for presentations. Here's what you should know. (Wagner, 2/18)

When in the grips of oratorical passion, President Obama liked to paraphrase the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the “long arc of history” bending toward justice. But when it comes to the oratory of American politicians, history’s long arc is bending away from such lofty rhetorical flourishes. New research finds that the punch-and-jab style of President Trump’s public speech — pugnaciously declarative, larded with personal pronouns, and light on the kinds of phrases that soften a claim or elevate an idea — appears to be just where presidential discourse is headed. (Healy, 2/15)

Amid the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever, the hunt for a lifesaving treatment is on. A clinical trial of patients taking place in Congo is gathering evidence on experimental therapies, to provide a proven option when the deadly virus inevitably emerges again. The first multidrug clinical trial of Ebola therapies, which began enrolling patients in November, will compare the effectiveness of three antibody treatments and one antiviral drug. One therapy tested briefly during the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, the largest ever, has already shown promise. (Cunningham, 2/17)

About 100,000 people across the country are waiting for a kidney, according to the Living Kidney Donor Network. Coloradans on that list sometimes have to wait longer for a transplant. While average wait times fluctuate from place to place, most people spend four years waiting, according to the UNOS Kidney Learning Center, an online resource for kidney donations. In Colorado, that average stretches to five to seven years, depending on blood type, said Vidya Bhandaram , a kidney transplant doctor at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center. (Barnett, 2/17)

States are seeking innovative approaches to tackle rising opioid problems, and many will do that with new leaders who may be unfamiliar with the issue. This year, 20 states have new governors, and informing the officials on best practices and new policies related to the epidemic will be a priority for the bipartisan National Governors Association. Expanding data-sharing and analysis continues to be a goal for many states. New Jersey has implemented a model to share data between health care professionals and law enforcement. This could help aid in developing better strategies and access to medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, which eases withdrawal symptoms and psychological cravings. (Raman, 2/19)

Using medical marijuana to help cure opioid addiction may seem counterintuitive. But a growing number of physicians and patient advocates say marijuana should be added to the list of traditional treatment options, pointing to studies that show it helps reduce opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. A bill being considered by lawmakers in Maryland would make it the fourth state to explicitly legalize the use of marijuana to treat opioid-abuse disorder, following Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. (Chason, 2/15)

Members of the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation met Friday in St. Petersburg to give a heads-up on what their priorities will be during the upcoming session. Mental health counseling, criminal justice reform and substance abuse should be on the agenda. State Sen. Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg said as a recovering addict, he understands the destruction an addiction can leave in its wake. (2/18)

When she had a heart attack last spring, Ann Galdos rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors worked quickly to open up her blocked coronary artery. But when she settled in that night to begin her recovery, there was no rest to be found: The other patient in her shared hospital room was coughing, gagging, and moaning for hours. Galdos paced the hallways to find some peace. (McCluskey, 2/16)

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra is asking a federal district judge in Los Angeles to place a hold on the sale of two struggling hospitals to Santa Clara County, a request the county says could scuttle the purchase. Becerra’s action is the latest skirmish in a years-long effort by the state to maintain oversight of six financially beleaguered not-for-profit hospitals. The hospitals, located in both Northern and Southern California, are now in bankruptcy. (Dolan, 2/18)

Partners HealthCare announced Monday it has named a physician and top executive as its interim chief executive, a move meant to provide continuity as the hospital network enters a period of transition. Dr. Anne Klibanski, 68, will be the first woman to lead Partners, the state’s largest network of doctors and hospitals and the parent of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals. She is currently the chief academic officer, overseeing Partners’ research and teaching programs, and heads the neuroendocrine unit at Mass. General. (McCluskey, 2/18)

The Hennepin County and North Memorial medical systems are entering merger talks that could combine two urban trauma centers and a fast-growing outer-ring suburban hospital into a larger competitor for an increasingly challenging health care market. The parties are drafting a letter of intent to negotiate a combination, which could range from a partnership between Hennepin Healthcare and North Memorial to a full merger into one organization, according to documents prepared for a closed meeting of the Hennepin County Board on Thursday. (Olson and Chanen, 2/18)

The new owner of Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park plans to close the 230-bed hospital by July, a dramatic shift in plans that’s causing outrage among local leaders who say the hospital is vital to serving a largely minority community. The about-face by Pipeline Health comes just weeks after the for-profit company bought Westlake, Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park for $70 million, with plans to have part-owner and prominent Chicagoan Dr. Eric Whitaker help turn around the hospitals. (Schencker, 2/17)

A medical group that provides anesthesia services to Kansas City metro hospitals has notified 3,472 patients that some of their personal information may have been compromised after surgery schedules were stolen from an employee’s car. A medical group that provides anesthesia services to Kansas City metro hospitals has notified 3,472 patients that some of their personal information may have been compromised after surgery schedules were stolen from an employee’s car. Anesthesia Associates of Kansas City posted a notice on its website that the surgery schedules may have included some patients’ names, dates of birth, types and dates of surgery, and the name of the patients’ surgeons. (Margolies, 2/18)

New England Baptist Hospital, a renowned hilltop institution where Boston Celtics and amateur athletes alike go for repairs of balky knees and shoulders, sits amid two of Boston’s neediest neighborhoods. Yet just a tiny fraction of its patients are poor. State regulators say the Baptist, which specializes in orthopedic surgery, can no longer remain an outlier. (Kowalczyk, 2/18)

Kaiser Permanente, the California-based health system that is preparing to open one of the few American medical schools not connected to a university, was set to announce Tuesday that it would waive tuition for every student in its first five graduating classes. Kaiser Permanente, which has its own hospitals, clinics, doctors and insurance plan, is following the New York University School of Medicine, which announced last year that it would eliminate tuition for all current and future students. Like N.Y.U., Kaiser’s main goal is to keep students from forgoing lower-paying specialties like family medicine because of crushing debt, or foreclosing the option of medical school altogether because of the cost. (Goodnough, 2/19)

The compensation fund for victims of 9/11 is running out of money and will cut future payments by 50 to 70 percent, officials announced Friday. September 11th Victim Compensation Fund special master Rupa Bhattacharyya said she was "painfully aware of the inequity of the situation" but stressed that awarding some funds for every valid claim would be preferable to sending some legitimate claimants away empty-handed. "I could not abide a plan that would at the end of the day leave some claimants uncompensated," Bhattacharyya said. (2/15)

The Ohio Department of Health says reports that wrongly imply a newly declared outbreak of hepatitis A are circulating around the state, apparently prompted by a recent case involving a restaurant worker. A statewide outbreak of hepatitis A was declared last summer. Department spokesman J.C. Benton said Monday that outbreak is ongoing, but no further outbreak has been announced and there's no new cause for concern. (2/18)

Gov. Ned Lamont’s first budget will include a series of new “sin tax” proposals, including levies on sugary drinks, electronic cigarettes and plastic bags, and deposits on alcoholic beverages. Lamont, who must submit his first two-year budget proposal to the General Assembly on Wednesday, also will recommend raising the age, from 18 to 21, to purchase both cigarettes and e-cigarettes. (Phaneuf, 2/17)

The state senate yesterday unanimously passed two bills aimed at boosting mental health services and protecting vulnerable children. The votes came on the same day Governor Chris Sununu was outlining his budget which looks to tackle some of the same issues. One bill, passed Thursday, would add 77 positions to the Department for Children, Youth, and Families over the next two years. That's 15 more positions than Sununu called for in his speech. (Moon, 2/15)

Police arrested Ryan Williams for sleeping in a park bathroom in Roanoke where an empty beer was found in the trash. Bryan Manning was picked up in the same city for smelling like alcohol and later for being at a Walmart where alcohol was sold. Richard Deckerhoff and Richard Eugene Walls were arrested near Richmond for being near beer cans. In the past decade, each man has been prosecuted in Virginia at least 11 times under a state law that makes it a crime for people designated in court as “habitual” drunks to consume or have alcohol. (Marimow, 2/18)

A Senate Democrat filed a proposal Thursday that would lead to a requirement in the Florida Building Code that baby-changing tables be included in many buildings that are newly constructed or undergo “substantial” renovations. Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, filed the proposal (SB 1082) for consideration during the legislative session that starts March 5. (2/15)

An ongoing legal battle over which managed-care plan should be picked by the state to provide care to low-income AIDS and HIV patients in South Florida has triggered a new round of litigation that pits two competitors. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation this week asked a circuit judge to order competitor Simply Healthcare to stop communicating with the foundation’s Medicare patients. (Sexton, 2/18)

For transgender, nonbinary and gender diverse individuals, gender identity carries with it a host of medical, social and emotional issues that aren’t always fully addressed by the healthcare system. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s new Gender Health Center aims to provide services for these populations under one roof at the downtown San Jose facility. Dr. Jackie Newton, MD, co-founder of the center, said these services need to be multi-disciplinary, so center staff is taking a collaborative approach to patient care. (Gelhaus, 2/17)

Seven months after a mail carrier’s heat-related death in Woodland Hills, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas introduced a bill Friday that if enacted would require all U.S. Postal Service delivery vehicles to be equipped with air conditioning within three years. U.S. Postal Service carrier Peggy Frank, 63, was found dead in her non-air-conditioned mail truck on July 6, a day that temperatures soared to 117 degrees. The North Hills resident died of hyperthermia, an abnormally high body temperature caused by a failure of the body to deal with heat coming from the environment. (Gazzar, 2/16)

A candle flickered Monday afternoon at the center of a snow trodden circle on Euclid Avenue where mourners gathered to recognize the life of Marsha Carroll, a woman experiencing homelessness who was killed earlier this month. Carroll, 57, was allegedly beaten to death on Feb. 6 outside the Rainbow Place Apartments on East 79th Street in Midtown, according to a police report. (Christ, 2/18)

On a recent Christmas, Sister Ann Weltz received a letter from a mother who years ago dropped her 2-year-old daughter at the Bay Area Crisis Nursery for one night’s care. The woman had been jobless and homeless and planned to spend the night of respite working with social workers on a plan to place her daughter up for adoption to give her a better life. But Sister Ann talked her out of it. And about 15 years later, the woman wrote to share her news: she was starting law school — and her little girl was heading to college. (Gafni, 2/16)

The family of a mentally ill Anaheim man who died in police custody last year has accused the arresting officers of choking him and failing to render medical aid after the violent clash, according to a federal lawsuit. Justin Perkins, 38, was beaten with batons and choked by two Anaheim officers at an apartment complex around 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, the lawsuit alleges. Perkins collapsed after the altercation, and the suit accuses the officers — identified as Shao Wang and Kenny Lee — of failing to get him medical aid for nearly 45 minutes. (Queally, 2/18)

Maricopa County's eviction epidemic grew through another year.  Nothing has been able to slow the system's relentless churn. Not newfound attention in the county's Justice Courts. Not a state-funded eviction prevention program, which has been delayed for months. Even early discussions in the state Legislature, which is debating at least two bills that could tip the scales for tenants and landlords, have failed to contain the crisis.  (Woods, 2/18)

Proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana estimate Connecticut could make roughly $160 million a year by taxing sales of the drug. But the state’s potential take has a chance to be much higher — possibly double or more — if  Connecticut can outrace some of its neighbors into the marijuana marketplace. (Phaneuf, 2/19)

People are talking about me again, loudly, unkindly. Even the president of the United States has had his say about families like mine. I have told this story so many times, but I will tell it again as many times as it takes. I help run a support group for families who have ended pregnancy after poor prenatal or maternal diagnoses. If you’re wondering, “Who are these women who get abortions in the third trimester?” We are. I am. Parents who love our babies with our entire hearts. Desperate acts like an abortion in the 36th week of pregnancy are brought about only by the most desperate circumstances and are only available to those who can come up with a lot of money quickly. (Kate Carson, 2/19)

Radical legislation in New York and Virginia has brought late-term abortion into the spotlight. Advocates justify the practice on the ground that, as one put it, “terminations after 24 weeks are for severe fetal anomalies.” (Jaime Herrera Beutler, 2/18)

For too long, conservative thinking on women's health has selectively overlooked the influence women have on both economic opportunity and social stability. Conservatism is rooted in ideals of individual rights, liberty and the protection of human dignity. But partisanship has caused too many conservatives to look past the moral and even economic reasons to care for the health of women. (Natalie Gonnella-Platts, 2/18)

Americans have heard many stories and seen considerable documentation of the brain, spinal and other wartime injuries suffered by America’s military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. Less-known is that the U.S. government callously interferes with these wounded veterans’ chance to have children. A 27-year-old law blocks the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from providing some reproductive health services – such as in vitro fertilization – to veterans even though those same services are available to active-duty military. Congress repeatedly has refused to overturn that law, adding to thousands of veterans’ financial and emotional stress. (2/18)

It’s been nearly 10 years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act — one of the most sweeping health care overhauls in the nation’s history. The law has brought the number of uninsured people in America to an all-time low, secured protections for people with pre-existing conditions and advanced the notion that health care is a human right. But the system was never perfect, and its fractures and stress points have become too great to ignore. (2/16)

On the very day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency that is nothing but a lie, a horrifically real national emergency played out in Aurora. Just hours after Trump declared a national emergency on Friday so as to defy the will of Congress and spend billions of dollars on a wall along the southern border, a shooter in Aurora killed five people and injured five police officers. ...But now we have another mass shooting. Not along the border, but in Aurora. The dishonesty of our national conversation — the manufactured fear of immigrants when the real and present danger is our own violent society and the stupidity of our gun laws — could not be in starker relief. (2/18)

We found her in a ditch a few steps away from the rusted border fence on the east side of Nogales, Ariz., an inch-and-a-half laceration on her swollen forehead. She came from Guerrero, one of the most violent states in Mexico, and could not remember how she landed on the rugged surface after her grip on the top of the barrier failed and she fell. (Ieva Jusionyte, 2/17)

On the darkest day of 2018, the winter solstice, we at the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh tweeted, with despair, a report in the Guardian that measles cases in Europe reached the highest number in 20 years. Why was this a cause for concern? Europe is far away from the United States, and as some people apparently believe measles is a benign, childhood disease that causes a bit of a rash, a dribbling nose and a few spots, right? What was all the fuss about? (Paul Duprex, 2/16)

Although labels have graced food packaging for decades, it’s not entirely clear if they influence consumer choices or food industry practices. To examine their impact, we pooled the findings of 60 studies that included 111 interventions that tested foods with and without labels. There were 2 million observations of people or their purchases across 11 countries. (Dariush Mozaffarian and Siyi Shangguan, 2/19)

We have a liver selection meeting every Wednesday to consider which patients will get transplants. Each patient is listed by name, age, weight, diagnosis and MELD score — a number, based entirely on lab values, that predicts how bad their liver is and correlates with how likely they are to die waiting for a transplant. A score of 15 is where we start to consider transplantation, and 40 means a 90 percent chance of dying within three months. Scanning the list, I noticed with discomfort that the patients at the top, with a MELD of 35 or more, had mostly the same diagnoses: alcoholic liver disease; nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, a consequence of obesity leading to fatty liver; and an occasional hepatitis C, a virus that was once the most common indication for liver transplant but now is being cured. (Joshua Mezrich, 2/18)

Data from clinical trials have long been locked away, some in this principal investigator’s computer bank, some in that pharmaceutical company’s cloud. For years we have been talking about opening up those vaults and freeing these data. The key has finally turned: Data sharing is becoming the new reality. (Rebecca Li, 2/19)

Over the past two years, Americans have sent elected officials one message that could not be clearer: we want more health care, not less. That message rung out in the halls of Congress and in town halls across the country in the outpouring of opposition to bills that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act. It echoed in elections across the country in November, where Democrats made Republicans own up to their attempts to gut health care for millions and rode that message to 40 new seats and a takeover of the House of Representatives. Nowhere was the message clearer than in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah —three dark-red states where voters approved ballot measures in November to expand Medicaid, even though their elected state officials had repeatedly chosen not to.  (Jonathan Schleifer, 2/17)

How much are you paying for health care? You may say too much, you may even cite the cost of a recent procedure you’ve had, but do you know what the actual cost of care is? More importantly, do you know if it’s fair? Many North Carolina families are one major medical bill away from bankruptcy, yet we don’t know what we’re paying for. (Robert Broome, 2/18)

One in four high school students, and one in seven middle school students, now uses some kind of tobacco product, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this month. These numbers represent a dramatic increase over just the last year, an increase driven almost entirely by a nationwide surge in youth vaping or, as many of them call it, “juuling.”If we do not stem this burgeoning tide, we will be dealing with the health and economic consequences of an entirely new generation of Kentuckians who are addicted to nicotine. (Ben Chandler, 2/15)