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From the confines of his golf club, President Donald Trump offered support for a limited strengthening of federal background checks on gun purchases Monday while staying largely mum in the last few days about the victims of the Florida school massacre and the escalating debate about controls on weapons. (Lucey and Danilova, 2/20)

Mr. Trump is open to improvements in federal background checks for prospective gun buyers, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. She said the president had also spoken on Friday to Senator John Cornyn of Texas about legislation to revamp the system that the senator helped introduce last fall. The White House stopped short of backing the bill, but the statement was a departure for a president who has focused on the mental health of gunmen and suspects, rather than the firearms used in the attacks, after other mass shootings. (Rogers, 2/19)

Republicans, who control both houses of Congress as well as the White House, have long opposed gun control legislation and last year helped pass a law -- signed by Trump -- that eased Obama-era regulations making it harder for people with mental health issues to buy guns. Trump is aware that tightening gun laws runs contrary to his party’s preferences, according to the aides, but is open to having a conversation. (Kapur and Jacobs, 2/19)

Some congressional Republicans said Sunday they could support some gun-safety bills, after coming under pressure from students who survived a mass shooting at a Florida high school last week. The lawmakers couldn’t say when, or if, GOP House and Senate leaders would put legislation on the floor, an indication of the high hurdles facing gun-related legislation. Democrats said they didn’t expect any action would be taken in Congress this year. (Harrison and Hook, 2/19)

The Florida school shooting rampage by a former student with a troubled past has put a new focus on the vexing debate over what can be done to keep firearms away from people prone to violence. In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting in Broward County that left 17 dead, President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott each called for greater gun restrictions for those with mental-health problems. (Gerhsam, 2/16)

More than 6 in 10 Americans fault Congress and President Trump for not doing enough to prevent mass shootings, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with most Americans continuing to say these incidents are more reflective of problems identifying and addressing mental health issues than inadequate gun laws. (Clement and Guskin, 2/20)

In the aftermath of the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where 20 children and six educators were killed in 2012, state lawmakers in Connecticut set out to draft some of the toughest gun measures in the country. They largely succeeded — significantly expanding an existing ban on the sale of assault weapons, prohibiting the sale of magazines with more than 10 rounds and requiring the registration of existing assault rifles and higher-capacity magazines. The state also required background checks for all firearms sales and created a registry of weapons offenders, including those accused of illegally possessing a firearm. (Foderaro and Hussey, 2/17)

The warnings around Nikolas Cruz seemed to flash like neon signs: expelled from school, fighting with classmates, a fascination with weapons and hurting animals, disturbing images and comments posted to social media, previous mental health treatment. In Florida, that wasn't enough for relatives, authorities or his schools to request a judicial order barring him from possessing guns. (Foley and Thompson, 2/18)

In the wake of massacres similar to Wednesday’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., a small number of states have passed “red flag laws” that allow the seizure of guns before people can commit acts of violence. California, Washington, Oregon, Indiana and Connecticut have statutes that can be used to temporarily take guns away from people a judge deems a threat to themselves or others. Lawmakers in 18 other states — including Florida — plus the District of Columbia have proposed similar measures. (Bernstein, 2/16)

The deadly shooting at a Florida high school has put pressure on the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws in a state that has resisted restrictions on firearms for decades, lawmakers said Monday. The legislative effort coalesced as 100 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School prepared to ride buses more than 400 miles to the state capital Tuesday to urge lawmakers to act to prevent a repeat of the massacre that killed 17 students and faculty last week. (Spencer, Anderson and Farrington, 2/18)

A heavily armed young man is accused of killing 17 people after opening fire on terrified students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. It was the third mass shooting in the past four months in the United States. Nikolas Cruz, who has been linked to a history of mental illness, is believed to have used a legally obtained AR-15 in the shooting. The attack has led to widespread conversations about links between gun violence and mental illness, and how lawmakers and interest groups are debating potential policy responses. (Qiu and Bank, 2/16)

The Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead has reopened a debate about whether a focus on mental health is the answer to gun violence. Both President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pointed to mental health reforms as a solution following the shooting. “We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools, and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” Trump said in his first public comments about the latest mass shooting in the United States. (Sullivan, 2/17)

Frustration is mounting in the medical community as the Trump administration again points to mental illness in response to yet another mass shooting. "The concept that mental illness is a precursor to violent behavior is nonsense," said Dr. Louis Kraus, forensic psychiatry chief at Chicago's Rush University Medical College. "The vast majority of gun violence is not attributable to mental illness." (Tanner, 2/19)

A mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has reopened a debate in Congress about loosening long-standing restrictions on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) research into gun violence. Democrats have frequently railed against the restrictions, which were enacted in 1996 after fierce lobbying by outside groups like the National Rifle Association. But Republicans have been able to beat back Democratic attempts to restore the flow of federal research dollars to gun violence research. (Weixel, 2/19)

A Florida social services agency conducted an in-home investigation of Nikolas Cruz after he exhibited troubling behavior nearly a year and a half before he shot and killed 17 people at his former high school in Florida, a state report shows. The agency, the Florida Department of Children and Families, had been alerted to posts on Snapchat of Mr. Cruz cutting his arms and expressing interest in buying a gun, according to the report. But after visiting and questioning Mr. Cruz at his home, the department determined he was at low risk of harming himself or others. (Burch, Robles and Mazzei, 2/17)

A Florida child-welfare agency opened an investigation in 2016 examining the care of accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz after he posted a disturbing social-media video, according to state records. The investigation found that Mr. Cruz, who was clinically depressed, was upset following a breakup with a girl and began cutting himself, according to a report by the Florida Department of Children and Families obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Cruz also spoke about wanting to buy a gun for unknown reasons, the report said. (De Avila, 2/18)

In the intense aftermath of the school shooting last week, Dr. Igor Nichiporenko pronounced a wounded teacher dead on arrival and massaged the bullet-shredded heart of a student, trying in vain to restart it. He and his colleagues also treated six other teenagers, some of whom were in the emergency room and others who were rolled off to operating theaters. Then, about an hour after the victims began pouring into Broward Health North hospital, word came that another patient was about to arrive. With distraught relatives and journalists converging on the hospital in Deerfield Beach, Fla., the medical staff now faced the challenge of treating the man accused of causing all the carnage. (Fink, 2/20)

President Donald Trump has made a grim trip to a Florida community reeling from a deadly school shooting, meeting privately with victims and cheering the heroics of first responders. But he extended few public words of consolation to those in deep mourning, nor did Trump address the debate over gun violence that has raged since a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 and injured 14 others. Two days after the shooting, Trump visited Broward Health North Hospital Friday, where he saw two victims and praised the doctors and nurses for their "incredible" job. (2/17)

It’s too soon to say the flu season has peaked, but it’s at least possible it may have plateaued. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released Friday, show the percentage of people going to a doctor for an influenza-like illness (most of which is likely flu during peak flu season) was 7.5 percent, just under the rate of 7.7 percent for the week ending Feb. 3. It marks the first week-by-week decline since the flu season began. (Branswell, 2/16)

The CDC's latest weekly report shows that the percentage of doctor visits for fever, cough and other flu symptoms was the same during the week of Feb. 4-10 as the week before — about 1 in every 13 visits. The figures are based on updated data showing the percentage of Americans seeking medical care for such symptoms to be just slightly lower than peak levels during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic. The week ending last Saturday was the first one in which that indicator — a key early flag of flu activity — did not increase. Data on hospitalization rates and deaths usually lag behind. (Sun, 2/16)

The deaths of 22 more children from flu-related causes were reported Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its weekly surveillance report. Those deaths bring the total number of children reported to have died to 84 since October, when the current flu season began. Three out of four children who died from the flu had not gotten a flu vaccine, the acting director of the CDC said in a Thursday news conference. (Scutti, 2/16)

This week could be pivotal for the fate of the popular influenza vaccine known as FluMist and its manufacturer MedImmune, a division of AstraZeneca. On Wednesday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will hear a pitch the company hopes will persuade it to restore its recommendation for use of FluMist, the only non-injectable flu vaccine licensed in the United States. (Branswell, 2/20)

Every year, 5 to 20 percent of the people in the United States will become infected with influenza virus. An average of 200,000 of these people will require hospitalization, and up to 50,000 will die. Folks over the age of 65 are especially susceptible to influenza infection because the immune system becomes weaker with age. In addition, older folks are also more susceptible to long-term disability following influenza infection, especially if they are hospitalized. We all know the symptoms of influenza infection include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, headaches and fatigue. But just what causes all the havoc? What is going on in your body as you fight the flu? (Haynes, 2/17)

It's shaping up to be one of the worst flu seasons in years.If you are one of the thousands of unlucky Americans who are sick with the flu, this one's for you. You've spent the last couple of days cooped up in your house watching bad TV, fighting the fever sweats and expelling a baffling amount of mucus. As you start to resemble a human being again, you might feel pressure to head back to work. (Sofia and Rizzo, 2/20)

Being sick with the flu, or even just a cold, impairs one of the body’s most reliable aids in recovery: sleep. Finding the right position and tools for comfort can seem impossible when battling a pounding head, stuffy nose and body aches. One expert, Aric Prather, a psychoneuroimmunologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, explains why the flu makes us lazy and how to get a restorative night’s sleep while fighting off seasonal illness. (Mitchell, 2/17)

Steve Farquhar thought he had sought care at an urgent-care clinic near his Ahwatukee home last month to get medicine for his flu. When he got the bill, he learned it was a hospital. He was billed $2,169 by the hospital and doctor after the Jan. 9 visit of less than 90 minutes and a prescription for the antiviral flu drug Tamiflu. (Alltucker, 2/16)

The flu activity could be slowing down in Orlando — at least for the past week — according to local urgent care providers and family physicians. ... Small declines have also been reported around the state, but overall, flu activity remains higher than most previous seasons in Florida and nationwide. (Miller, 2/16)

Georgia public health officials have now confirmed a total of 79 influenza-related deaths this flu season, including three children, as of Friday. That total easily surpasses the 58 deaths the state reported in 2009, the first year that all flu deaths were required to be reported to Georgia Public Health. (Miller, 2/17)

At a time when the public is concerned with drug-resistant superbugs, researchers have identified another danger of going to the hospital: contracting pneumonia. Hospital-acquired pneumonia is more pervasive and urgent than most people realize, a new study warns, and hospitals in America aren’t adequately addressing prevention. “Given the mortality, hospitals should be doing a lot more,” says Dian Baker, lead author of the study, which was published in January in the American Journal of Infection Control. (Lagnado, 2/17)

No one expected the four young women to live much longer. They had an extremely rare, aggressive and fatal form of ovarian cancer. There was no standard treatment. The women, strangers to one another living in different countries, asked their doctors to try new immunotherapy drugs that had revolutionized treatment of cancer. At first, they were told the drugs were out of the question — they would not work against ovarian cancer. (Kolata, 2/19)

In the brave new world of synthetic biology, scientists can now brew up viruses from scratch using the tools of DNA technology. The latest such feat, published last month, involves horsepox, a cousin of the feared virus that causes smallpox in people. Critics charge that making horsepox in the lab has endangered the public by basically revealing the recipe for how any lab could manufacture smallpox to use as a bioweapon. (Greenfieldboyce, 2/17)

UK and Italian scientists are getting closer to developing blood and urine tests for autism, which could lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of the condition, a new study suggests. The tests look for damage to certain proteins, shown to be higher in children with autism spectrum disorders. The team from the University of Warwick and the University of Bologna tested 38 children with autism and 31 children without, ages 5 to 12. (Mahmood, 2/19)

Parents may be tempted to give teens an occasional taste of alcohol to teach responsible drinking habits, but a new study from Australia suggests this may have the opposite effect. Compared with adolescents who don’t get beer or wine from Mom and Dad, teens who do are more likely to access alcohol from other sources, the study found. And when parents supply the drinks, teens are more than twice as likely to binge-drink or show symptoms of alcohol use disorder as youth who don’t have easy access to alcohol. (Rapaport, 2/19)

Drive a few minutes from the seawall here, where the Gulf of Mexico crashes into this island city, and follow some meandering streets through a subdivision of graceful, low-slung homes. Look for the one with the Mardi Gras doll hanging beside the front door. There you will find a scientific mind of the first order. (Branswell, 2/20)

Each year, about 31,000 men and women in the U.S. are diagnosed with a cancer caused by an infection from the human papillomavirus, or HPV. It's the most common sexually transmitted virus and infection in the U.S. In women, HPV infection can lead to cervical cancer, which leads to about 4,000 deaths per year. In men, it can cause penile cancer. HPV also causes some cases of oral cancer, cancer of the anus and genital warts. (Aubrey, 2/19)

After Virginia Harrod was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2014, she had a double mastectomy. Surgeons also removed 16 lymph nodes from under her armpit and the area around her breast, to see how far the cancer had spread and to determine what further treatment might be needed. Then she underwent radiation therapy. As it turned out, the removal of those lymph nodes, along with the radiation, put Harrod at risk for another disorder — lymphedema, a painful and debilitating swelling of the soft tissue of the arms or legs, and/or an increased vulnerability to infection. (Neighmond, 2/19)

Among adults 55 and younger, women may be more likely than men to experience lesser-known acute heart attack symptoms in addition to chest pain, a new study has found. And more than half of the doctors seeing women who seek care for those symptoms, prior to being hospitalized, might not even realize that the symptoms are heart-related, the study suggests. (Howard, 2/19)

“What are you doing ?” Laura Hsiung’s friends asked as she slowly loped across a Maryland handball court, her ankle off-kilter so that she was walking on the outside of her left foot. Hsiung recalls wondering the same thing. One minute she was walking normally, and then all of a sudden, she wasn’t.“I couldn’t figure it out,” Hsiung said. “I hadn’t rolled my ankle. But my left foot just would not function normally.” (Boodman, 2/19)

Beer has fueled a lot of bad ideas. But on a Friday afternoon in 2007, it helped two Alzheimer's researchers come up with a really a good one. Neuroscientists Robert Moir and Rudolph Tanzi were sipping Coronas in separate offices during "attitude adjustment hour" at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard's largest teaching hospital. And, by chance, each scientist found himself wondering about an apparent link between Alzheimer's disease and the immune system. (Hamilton, 2/18)

In an effort to ease drug development for Alzheimer’s disease, the Food and Drug Administration is endorsing a new approach that would rely on biomarkers to approve medicines before patients show any signs of the illness, instead of demonstrating a drug alleviates symptoms. (Silverman, 2/16)

Gwen Hurd got the letter just before her shift at the outlet mall. Her health insurance company informed her that coverage for her family of three, purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, would cost almost 60 percent more this year — $1,200 a month. She and her husband, a contractor, found a less expensive plan, but at $928 a month, it meant giving up date nights and saving for their future. Worse, the new policy required them to spend more than $6,000 per person before it covered much of anything. (Goodnough, 2/19)

Republicans and Democrats finally found something they can agree on about Obamacare: killing unpopular policies that were supposed to pay for the law or reduce health costs. The recent congressional spending deals repealed or delayed several Obamacare taxes, as well as a Medicare cost-cutting board. Removing those powerful levers, which terrified health providers and unions, is not a good omen for efforts to control health spending, which is expected to surge in the next few years. (Haberkorn, 2/19)

Responding to the federal repeal of the individual mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance, Maryland lawmakers are considering legislation that would impose the requirement at the state level. “We need to find some way to stabilize the individual insurance market. The premium increases we are facing are really high if we don’t,” said Sen. Brian J. Feldman, a Montgomery County Democrat and sponsor of the bill. (McDaniels, 2/20)

Scott Walker's plan to hold down Obamacare premiums is poised to pass the Senate and Assembly this week — a potential victory for the Wisconsin governor in passing his re-election agenda. The so-called "reinsurance" bill charts Walker's arc from fierce opposition to the Affordable Care Act — particularly in the lead-up to the 2016 Republican presidential primary — to a partial acceptance of it. (Stein, 2/19)

Ohio will soon ask the federal government to waive an Obamacare requirement that nearly everyone in the state get health insurance coverage. It will also ask permission to make some Medicaid recipients work 20 hours a week, go to school or take on similar activities. (Koff, 2/16)

Connecticut officials have joined a pushback against a Trump administration plan to allow unrelated employers to band together so they can provide their employees affordable — but perhaps limited — health care, while others in the state are celebrating the move.The plan, proposed by President Donald Trump in October, is being implemented by  Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who is in the process of issuing a rule that would allow employers to join together to form an association health plan, or AHP, if they share a common industry or geographic area. (Radelat, 2/19)

In hopes of controlling MassHealth costs, Governor Charlie Baker in his fiscal 2019 budget proposal included new tools to manage growth in the program’s pharmacy spending and a transition of 140,000 non-disabled adults with incomes between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty line off of MassHealth and onto comparable plans at the Massachusetts Health Connector. (Lannan, 2/20)

The nation's health department is taking steps to dismantle LGBT health initiatives, as political appointees have halted or rolled back regulations intended to protect LGBT workers and patients, removed LGBT-friendly language from documents and reassigned the senior adviser dedicated to LGBT health. The sharp reversal from Obama-era policies carries implications for a population that's been historically vulnerable to discrimination in health care settings, say LGBT health advocates. A Health Affairs study last year found that many LGBT individuals have less access to care than heterosexuals; in a Harvard-Robert Wood Johnson-NPR survey one in six LGBT individuals reported experiencing discrimination from doctors or at a clinic. (Diamond, 2/19)

Charmaine Yoest, the top communications official at the Department of Health and Human Services, is leaving HHS for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, three sources with knowledge of the move told STAT. She is the latest administration official to leave for the drug policy office, which has seen significant staff turnover throughout the year and especially following the withdrawal of Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) from the confirmation process to lead the agency. (Facher, 2/16)

Unlike some Trump appointees, who took the reins of agencies with track records of opposing the very mission of the organization, Shulkin is a technocratic Obama holdover. He not only participated in the past administration, but defends the VA’s much-maligned health care system. ... But others in the administration want a much more drastic change: They seek to privatize vets’ health care. (Arnsdorf, 2/16)

The Trump administration's ambitious new military buildup is at risk of being hobbled before it even starts — by a dwindling pool of young Americans who are fit to serve. Nearly three-quarters of Americans age 17 to 24 are ineligible for the military due to obesity, other health problems, criminal backgrounds or lack of education, according to government data. That's a harsh reality check for the Pentagon’s plan to recruit tens of thousands of new soldiers, sailors, pilots and cyber specialists over the next five years. (Bender, 2/19)

House Republicans will begin a series of legislative hearings next week as the first step in an effort to pass bipartisan bills tackling the opioid crisis. The plan from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which will hold the first hearing on Feb. 28, will likely require additional funding from Congress, lawmakers said. Bills to be considered will focus on law enforcement, public health and prevention, and insurance coverage issues. (Armour and Peterson, 2/20)

Acupuncture is increasingly being embraced by patients and doctors, sometimes as an alternative to the powerful painkillers behind the nation's opioid crisis. Although it has been long derided as pseudoscience and still questioned by many medical experts, a small but growing number of Medicaid programs in states hit hard by opioid overdoses have started providing it for low-income patients. (2/20)

Howard County’s latest initiative to fight rising opioid deaths and overdoses is a partnership between Grassroots Crisis Intervention and the county health department that will provide daily walk-in drug abuse screenings and treatment referrals. The partnership, funded by a one-year, $125,000 state grant and announced Wednesday, will allow Grassroots to hire a full-time and part-time licensed graduate social worker to conduct the screenings in Columbia from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. beginning Feb. 19. Grassroots Executive Director Ayesha Holmes said other counselors at the center will also be able to assist in screenings if needed. (Magill, 2/16)

The Kansas medical board has fined an Overland Park doctor $2,500 and put his license on probation after an investigation revealed improper and potentially dangerous opioid prescribing. (Marso, 2/16)

The Arizona Senate health committee on Friday advanced a patient-brokering bill that would prohibit rehab homes from paying fees or kickbacks to recruit patients. House and Senate health committees this week also advanced bills that would tighten oversight of the largely unregulated sober-home industry. (Alltucker, 2/18)

The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing a California judge's decision to temporarily block new Trump administration rules allowing more employers to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women. Lawyers filed the notice of appeal to the 9th District Court of Appeals on Friday, nearly two months after Oakland-based U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam blocked the changes to President Barack Obama's health care law. (2/16)

The department has said it is “defending the religious liberty of all Americans.” But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose suit challenging the administration’s order was joined by the states of Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia, said the Justice Department is out of line. “A woman, not her boss and certainly not a politician, should decide what’s best for her own health care,” he said. (Egelko, 2/16)

As Willie Hughes walked around the weathered plots and mounds of dirt at Peaceful Valley Cemetery, he remembered family that died too young and his brother Steven, who was born with spina bifida. Steven never saw a doctor or physical therapist or used a wheelchair. He crawled around on his forearms and died of pneumonia at age 3. (Wolf, 2/19)

When a new state law went into effect this year expanding access to contraception, it left out a big swath of Marylanders — those who work for the state. The state government — and many other large employers — were exempt from the law that went into effect Jan. 1. (Cohn, 2/16)

A bill that would replace the existing health care system with a new one run by a single payer — specifically, the state government — and paid for with taxpayer money remains parked in the Assembly, with no sign of moving ahead.  ...But even if single-payer is a lost cause in the short term, advocates are playing a long game. (Rosenhall, 2/16)

AltaMed, a Southern California health system, has a storied beginning. In the 1960s, volunteer physicians and nurses served patients out of an East Los Angeles barrio clinic, where they kept a 5-gallon water jug to collect any spare money people could offer. "We've come a long way from a free clinic in the 1960s, then to a clinic of last resort, to where we are today—a provider of choice," said Cástulo de la Rocha, AltaMed's CEO. (Luthi, 2/17)

For 23 years, Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital has recognized patients in its care who've shown a commitment to changing their lifestyle after experiencing a major cardiac condition. On Thursday, five patients chosen by the hospital's cardiac fitness staff earned the title of King or Queen of Hearts for their continued lifestyle changes as part of their cardiac recovery efforts, such as years of sticking to a specific diet and exercise. (Landa, 2/16)

Minnesota officials will soon try to convince a jury that manufacturer 3M Co. should pay the state $5 billion to help clean up environmental damage that the state alleges was caused by pollutants the company dumped for decades. The long-awaited trial begins Tuesday in Minneapolis. Experts say it could have wide-reaching implications if the state succeeds, in part because 3M and other companies legally dumped the chemicals for years in and outside Minnesota. (2/20)

It was a cold, wet, windy day as rural health advocates from North Carolina walked toward Capitol Hill earlier this month. They had back-to-back meetings in the offices of six N.C. congressmen: Sens. Thom Tillis (R) and Richard Burr (R), and Reps. David Price (D), G.K. Butterfield (D), Alma Adams (D) and George Holding (R). The group was in Washington D.C. for the annual National Rural Health Association conference, where the discussion centered around the health disparities and crumbling financial landscape in rural America. Few discussions about rural health ended without mention of opioid addiction and overdoses, and the ever-improving resource of telemedicine. (Knopf, 2/20)

The LRGHealthcare board of directors voted Monday to close inpatient labor and delivery services at Lakes Region General Hospital, effective May 30, and shutter several clinics. It will also lay off 16 workers as a result of the elimination of administrative positions and program restructuring. (Feely, 2/13)

The announcement that LRGHealthcare will close its maternity ward this spring has some young mothers feeling left in the lurch. Skylor Miller of Laconia has twice given birth at Lakes Regional General Hospital, most recently on Jan. 20. “I think it is a terrible decision,” Miller said of the board of directors’ vote to close the hospital’s inpatient labor and delivery services effective May 30. (Lewis, 2/18)

People who get health insurance through their employer are going to doctors and hospitals less, but they and their employers still are spending more money on health care. The reason: Prices keep going up. (Boulton, 2/19)

More women in Ohio can join Trimpey in sampling Nurx, a telemed startup that connects patients to contraception without an in-person doctor visit. Making access to birth control as easy as tapping a cellphone app could help lower the country's rate of unplanned pregnancies. (Washington, 2/19)

Partners HealthCare, the largest private employer in Massachusetts, has told about 100 employees they are being let go and their jobs outsourced to India, where workers will perform the same tasks for a much smaller paycheck. Many of the employees have worked for Partners for several years, or even decades, and are struggling with the company’s decision. (Kowalczyk and Dayal McCluskey, 2/20)

Traffic deaths on U.S. roads fell slightly in 2017 after two straight years of big increases, but a leading safety organization that compiled the numbers says it’s no cause for celebration. The National Safety Council on Thursday estimated that 40,100 people were killed in traffic crashes last year, down just under 1 percent from the 2016 total of 40,327. The group said it’s too early to tell whether the small decline means a downward trend after a two-year spike in deaths that was blamed largely on people driving more miles as the economy improved as well as an increase in distracted driving. In Colorado, 642 people died in traffic in 2017, the highest number since 2004, when 667 were killed. (Krisher, 2/20)

Principal Traci Horton, from Burlington’s Grove Park Elementary School, used to work in a school that only had a half-time school nurse. Never again. “When I came to Grove Park, I could definitely tell the difference in what my teachers are able to do,” Horton said. “Our teachers have more of an opportunity to instruct which is what they’re supposed to be doing.” (Hoban, 2/16)

The Austin City Council on Friday morning approved a new rule requiring businesses in the city to provide paid sick leave for employees, but movement is already afoot in the Texas Legislature to kill the ordinance. ...The new rule mandated that private employers allow their workers to accrue up to 64 hours, or eight days, of paid sick leave per year. (Greene, 2/16)

The Maryland Hospital Association has hired a longtime health consultant and advisor as its newest president and CEO. Bob Atlas will start his new job March 5. He replaces Carmela Coyle, who left to head the California Hospital Association. (McDaniels, 2/19)

Kaiser Health News: Reducing Red Tape For Traveling Nurses

Lauren Bond, a traveling nurse, has held licenses in five states and Washington, D.C. She maintains a detailed spreadsheet to keep track of license fees, expiration dates and the different courses each state requires. The 27-year-old got into travel nursing because she wanted to work and live in other states before settling down. She said she wished more states accepted the multistate license, which minimizes the hassles nurses face when they want to practice across state lines. (Gorman, 2/20)

Fewer than one percent of the state’s 68,120 cannabis cultivators have been licensed, according to a new report published on Monday by the California Growers Association, the state’s largest association of cannabis businesses. Growers can’t meet the cost of complying with regulations, or are prohibited from growing due to local land-use policies, according to the report, “An Emerging Crisis: Barriers To Entry In California Cannabis.” (Krieger, 2/19)

No matter the headlines about tax cuts, immigration controversies, or foreign threats, the top priority for Americans remains health care. People can’t get care when they need it and most struggle to afford health care costs, both insurance premiums and out-of-pocket copayments. The latest so-called crisis in health care is about work requirements for Medicaid recipients. Supporters say these obligations are good for the health of enrollees. Detractors claim that work requirements violate the spirit and intent of Medicaid law. Both sides avoid the real issue. As a physician I cannot ignore the real problem, which is this question: are Americans entitled or are they free? They can’t be both. Work requirements in Medicaid are not about money or health as much as they are about entitlements, personal responsibility, and the meaning of freedom. (Deane Waldman, 2/18)

Even before any proposed cuts take effect, Medicaid is already lean in one key area: Many state programs lack coverage for dental care. That can be bad news not only for people’s overall well-being, but also for their ability to find and keep a job. Not being able to see a dentist is related to a range of health problems. Periodontal disease (gum infection) is associated with an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. (Austin Frakt, 2/19)

As we mourn the 17 people murdered in last week’s Parkland, Fla., massacre, let’s take time to celebrate the heroic—and successful—effort to save the 16 wounded survivors. The emergency medical response to catastrophic shootings is very different than when I worked in an emergency room a quarter-century ago. Lessons learned on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq are now saving civilian lives back home. (Marc Siegel, 2/19)

It often doesn't take long after a mass shooting for people to conclude that mental illness contributed to the horrific violence. In one of his first tweets after a shooting at a Florida high school killed 17 people, President Trump did essentially that. “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!” (Eugene Scott, 2/16)

The United States has long been plagued by drug addiction, but our current epidemic of opioid abuse, with its growing toll of overdose deaths, is starkly different. It is partially driven by soaring rates of opioid prescribing, rather than by illegal street drugs. Deaths from prescription opioids have climbed in parallel with opioid prescribing in the U.S., which quadrupled from 1999 to 2010.Retail pharmacies dispensed 215 million opioid prescriptions in 2016 — enough to provide a bottle of narcotics to two-thirds of all Americans. This epidemic calls for federal action to limit the quantity of opioids prescribed. This starts with acknowledging that the medical establishment helped create the crisis in the first place by over-prescribing opioids to treat chronic non-cancer pain. (Richard S. Larson, 2/18)

Who knew that President Trump and some in his Cabinet were closet Socialists. How else to explain their plan to slash a partnership between government and private industry that provides food for the poorest Americans and partially replace it with a program fresh from Cold War Bulgaria. Since the 1960s, low-income Americans have received benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), popularly known as food stamps, and used them to buy food at about 260,000 retailers from Wal-Mart to corner groceries to farmers' markets. Now, the Trump administration has a bright idea: Eliminate much of the freedom to shop in private markets, add a dose of bureaucracy, and instead give the 42 million poor Americans using the program all the convenience of a Depression-era soup line. (2/19)

The proposal will provide nutritious food for people in need and reduce costs to taxpayers at a time when the national debt exceeds $20.5 trillion. America’s Harvest Boxes will be just what they sound like: containers of 100% American-grown products to encourage nutritious diets. Using the Department of Agriculture’s massive purchasing power, it will save about $129 billion over 10 years, and still provide the same food value recipients get now through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). (Brandon Lipps, 2/19)

Norwalk resident Shawn Alvarado started packing on the pounds as a teenager, gradually becoming one of millions of Americans whose sedentary lifestyle made him a statistic in the country's obesity epidemic. By the age of 24, Alvarado weighed 300 pounds. By the age of 31, he weighed 400 pounds.Today he tips the scale at almost 500 pounds. (David Lazarus, 2/16)

This year, for the fifth session in a row, Virginia’s governor is advocating we adopt Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion scheme. Senate Republicans, however, are focusing our efforts on solutions that will lower the cost of insurance and health care for Virginia’s families, while ensuring those with the greatest need receive quality care. (Ryan McDougle, 2/17)

How do you like your cup of cancer in the morning? I take mine with fake sugar and skim milk. Lame, I know. But there's no accounting for taste in carcinogens. Or, in this case, coffee. You've probably seen the bemused headlines: "Coffee in California may soon come with a spoonful of cancer warnings." There's wacky California, doing its liberalism-through-regulation schtick again. (Alexander Nazaryan, 2/18)