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The bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are launching an investigation into what role private equity firms may play in the problem of patients getting stuck with massive “surprise” medical bills. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Greg Walden (Ore.), the panel’s chairman and top Republican, respectively, sent letters on Monday to three private equity firms that own physician staffing companies. (Sullivan, 9/16)

"Evidence indicates that these physician-staffing firms charge significantly higher in-network rates than their counterparts, thereby driving reimbursement upwards as they enter into staffing arrangements with hospitals," Pallone and Walden wrote to the CEOs. "We are concerned about the increasing role that private equity firms appear to be playing in physician staffing in our nation's hospitals, and the potential impact these firms are having on our rising healthcare costs." (Luthi, 9/16)

There's legislation in Congress to curb surprise medical billing. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Emmarie Huetteman of Kaiser Health News. (9/15)

The good news is that it doesn't look like a bitterly polarized Washington will stumble into another government shutdown. But as Democrats controlling the House unveil a stopgap, government-wide spending bill to keep the lights on and pay the troops, there's scant evidence that power sharing in the Capitol will produce further legislative accomplishments anytime soon. (Taylor, 9/17)

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) on Monday raised concerns over allegations of wrongdoing and retaliation against employees working to protect whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In a letter sent to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, the incoming House Freedom Caucus chairman said he was approached by two high-profile employees in the agency's Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection (OAWP) alleging they have been the victims of retaliatory acts. (Brufke, 9/16)

Access to affordable housing remains one of the biggest challenges to ending homelessness among veterans in Tampa Bay, experts said Monday at a congressional hearing.But members of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Veterans’ Affairs also heard encouraging news. (Najarro, 9/16)

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has embarked on a multibillion-dollar plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the nation’s deadly opioid crisis by transforming itself in bankruptcy court into a sort of hybrid between a business and a charity. Whether the company can pull it off remains to be seen, especially with about half the states opposed to the deal. (Mulvihill and Leblanc, 9/16)

Supporters of Purdue's plan to restructure under terms of a settlement the company values at more than $10 billion include 24 states and five U.S. territories, as well as lead lawyers for more than 2,000 cities, counties and other plaintiffs suing the company and, in some cases, its controlling Sackler family. On the other side are two dozen states that remain opposed or uncommitted to the proposed settlement, setting the stage for contentious legal battles over who bears responsibility for a public health crisis that has claimed the lives of nearly 400,000 people between 1999 and 2017, according to the latest U.S. data. (Spector, 9/16)

Attorneys general in Pennsylvania and New York are among those who say they will push forward with their lawsuits. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday the filing "is another attempt by the Sacklers to run away from responsibility and avoid paying for the opioid epidemic they engineered." New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday, "In no uncertain terms, any deal that cheats Americans out of billions of dollars, allows the Sacklers to evade responsibility, and lets this family continue peddling their drugs to the world is a bad one, which is why New York remains opposed to it." (Simon and Schuman, 9/17)

Will the Purdue bankruptcy also shield the Sacklers from litigation? That’s the mega-billion-dollar question. The answer is not clear. Purdue will ask for a halt to lawsuits against so-called related parties — an obvious reference to individual Sacklers who have been sued in a growing number of cases because of their past roles with Purdue. (Hoffman, 9/16)

Hours after seeking bankruptcy protection for the company Sunday night, Purdue’s lawyers said they would ask a judge to issue an injunction that would halt legal hostilities from attorneys general who won’t sign on to a settlement the drugmaker has offered. The company’s owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, are entitled to a shield from litigation, Purdue said it would argue. Government claims against the Sacklers, as well as Purdue’s directors and officers, are “inextricably intertwined” to litigation with the company directly, it said. (Brickley and Randazzo, 9/16)

As opioid-related deaths have soared, thousands of lawsuits have been filed seeking damages from drugmakers and distributors. The following is a summary of where and how the opioid litigation is playing out across the United States. (Pierson, 9/16)

Lawyers for cities and counties suing drug companies over the opioid epidemic on Monday objected to a bid by pharmaceutical distributors and pharmacies to disqualify the federal judge overseeing the cases, saying it had no basis and came too late. The plaintiffs' lawyers moved swiftly to fight the request companies including AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp had made on Saturday for U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, Ohio, to step aside from the litigation. (Raymond, 9/16)

Under a hot August sun, around 120 supporters, volunteers and well-wishers sweated several Saturdays ago through the ribbon-cutting of a unique North Carolina high school, the Emerald School of Excellence in Charlotte. Housed on the second floor of an auxiliary building of Memorial United Methodist Church, the year-round recovery high school opened its doors to students with substance use disorders on Aug. 26. (Duong, 9/17)

Michigan locks up more doctors and pharmacists for peddling pain pills than any other state except New York, the Department of Justice says. A Free Press investigation focused on this trend and found that metro Detroit doctors in particular are among the leading culprits fueling the opioid crisis, with more than 100 area physicians facing criminal charges over the last decade for running painkiller schemes. (Baldas, 9/16)

In the 15 years since she lost her son to a single OxyContin pill, Barbara Van Rooyan has had but one up-close look at the people representing the company that made it.It was in a small courthouse in Abingdon, Va., where Van Rooyan and other relatives of OxyContin victims gathered for a sentencing hearing in 2007. Three executives of Purdue Pharma had pleaded guilty to federal charges related to their misbranding and marketing of the powerful opioid. The company had pleaded guilty as well. (Kreidler, 9/16)

An intensive, structured treatment unit for inmates struggling with addiction, as well as concurrent mental health issues, is now open to as many as 80 men at the North State Street prison in Concord. The New Hampshire Department of Corrections announced last week the final phase of the unit’s expansion, which made these therapeutic living communities available in all three of the state’s prison facilities in Concord and Berlin. (Dandrea, 9/16)

President Donald Trump will not consider the House-passed universal background checks bill as part of his proposed gun package, according to a source familiar with the conversation on guns. Trump’s position on the House-passed bill is not exactly a surprise. The White House issued a veto threat against the bill in February. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have called on Trump repeatedly to bring up the House-passed universal background checks bill. (Levine, 9/16)

All the Democratic presidential hopefuls have expressed support for stricter gun control measures, but two of them are in a back-and-forth on how to handle Republican anxieties. Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg have disagreed in public statements over a comment O'Rourke made at last week's debate. (Santucci, 9/16)

A Republican running for the Virginia House of Delegates is calling for stricter gun control, a message at odds with GOP leadership and virtually every Republican officeholder in the state. In a TV ad that begins airing Tuesday, Mary Margaret Kastelberg calls for more background checks, limits on magazine size and a “red flag” law that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. “Nobody needs a 100-round magazine,” said the first-time candidate who is running for a suburban Richmond seat. (Vozzella, 9/16)

After the bullets tragically flew in Dayton, the missives poured in from across Ohio to Gov. Mike DeWine. From Bowling Green: “It has become obvious to all that ‘thoughts and prayers’ are not helping. ” North Ridgeville: “I worry about my grandchildren in school.” Columbus: “Stand up. How many more people have to die?” (Rowland, 9/16)

California will spend $20 million on a public awareness campaign about the dangers of vaping nicotine and cannabis products and step up efforts to halt the sale of illicit products amid a rise in vaping-related illnesses. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the actions Monday as part of an executive order. (Ronayne, 9/16)

An executive order the Democratic governor signed also directs state agencies to devise plans to remove illegal and counterfeit vaping products from sale and recommendations for health warnings that retailers and advertisers of vaping products would be required to post. Newsom also signed legislation tightening age verification requirements for the sale of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. (Gorman, 9/16)

Mr. Newsom indicated he would have liked to go further in his actions against vaping products during remarks in Sacramento on Monday. But he said it did not appear he could instate an outright ban on e-cigarette products without legislative action. “The fact is, they should be banned,” he said. “I would like to see that bill on my desk and I would like to sign a bill to eliminate the legal use of flavored e-cigarettes.” (Del Real, 9/16)

Mr. Newsom’s actions came shortly after New York state officials said they were planning emergency regulations to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to stem a rise in teenage vaping. The move by New York followed a ban in Michigan and an announcement last week by the Trump administration that it intended to pull vaping products off the market except for those formulated to taste like tobacco. (Lazo, 9/16)

Jim Knox, director of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in California, said he was disappointed that Newsom’s executive action didn’t go further by imposing an immediate ban, but he was encouraged by the governor’s vow to seek one. “These proposals are helpful. It’s encouraging that the governor has recognized this as public health crisis and understands the need to do something about it,” Knox said. “We know what’s driving this crisis. It’s flavored tobacco. We have to get flavored tobacco off store shelves.” (Willon, 9/16)

Several California cities are swiftly moving beyond flavored vape bans to outlaw e-cigarette sales entirely, following in the footsteps of Juul’s hometown of San Francisco. It’s a sign that the Trump administration’s crackdown on the fast-growing vaping industry could be just the start of its problems. (Colliver, 9/17)

An adult older than 40 from Tulare County has died from complications related to using an electronic cigarette, health officials confirmed Monday evening. “With sadness, we report that there has been a death of a Tulare County resident suspected to be related to severe pulmonary injury associated with vaping,” Dr. Karen Haught, Tulare County public health officer, said in a statement. (Cosgrove, 9/16)

The man in the latest case was sick for several weeks after he suffered a "severe pulmonary injury associated with vaping," Karen Haught, the Tulare County public health officer, said in a press release. "The Tulare County Public Health Branch would like to warn all residents that any use of ecigarettes poses a possible risk to the health of the lungs and can potentially cause severe lung injury that may even lead to death," Haught said in the press release. "Long-term effects of vaping on health are unknown. Anyone considering vaping should be aware of the serious potential risk associated with vaping." (Johnston and Silverman, 9/7)

A short walk from police headquarters in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a cluster of bustling shops are openly selling packaging and hardware that can be used to produce counterfeit marijuana vapes that have infected California's cannabis market. Bootleggers eager to profit off unsuspecting consumers are mimicking popular, legal vape brands, pairing replica packaging churned out in Chinese factories with untested, possibly dangerous cannabis oil produced in the state's vast underground market. (Blood, 9/17)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday it has activated its emergency operations center to coordinate the investigation into hundreds of cases of severe lung illnesses linked to e-cigarette use. The CDC's Emergency Operations Center offers a central command post where teams of trained disease experts track public health emergencies, share information and coordinate the responses. (9/16)

Vape shops in New York are scrambling to respond to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to prohibit the sale of flavored vaping products — a ban poised to take effect Tuesday. Cuomo, a Democrat, proposed the ban on Sunday . The emergency regulation will take effect immediately if approved as expected Tuesday by the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council. Retailers will be given two weeks to remove merchandise from their shelves. (Klepper and Peltz, 9/18)

Maryland’s largest jurisdiction will introduce legislation Tuesday to restrict access to e-cigarettes for young adults and teenagers, joining a wave of jurisdictions trying to address underage vaping. The bills include a zoning amendment that would prohibit vaping shops within a half-mile of any middle or high school, and a ban on manufacturers distributing e-cigarettes to retail stores in those areas. (Tan, 9/16)

Describing for the first time how they helped uncover that vaping may be behind hundreds of serious lung injuries and as many as six deaths across the country, Meyer and a team of doctors at Children’s say it was a hospital-wide effort — and specialized training in working with teens — that led to the discovery. The doctor said it didn’t make sense for a previously healthy teen to quickly develop this kind of illness. (Rutledge and Spicuzza, 9/16)

More than a dozen individuals — mostly young people — have been hospitalized in Dallas County hospitals with severe respiratory problems that health officials believe are part of the nationwide outbreak linked to vaping. Patients across the country have experienced chest pain, nausea and fevers. And vaping has been blamed for six deaths nationwide. (Garcia, 9/16)

The first sexual experience for 1 in 16 U.S. women was forced or coerced intercourse in their early teens, encounters that for some may have had lasting health repercussions, a study suggests. The experiences amount to rape, the authors say, although they relied on a national survey that didn’t use the word in asking women about forced sex. (Tanner, 9/16)

Almost 7% of women surveyed said their first sexual intercourse experience was involuntary. It occurred when they were 15 years old, on average, and the man was often several years older. Almost half of the women who said intercourse was involuntary said they were held down, and slightly more than half of them said they were verbally pressured to have sex against their will. (Tanner, 9/16)

Some 50% of women surveyed said the perpetrator was larger or older. More than 46% of the women were held down. In 56% of the instances, men used verbal pressure. Men used a physical threats more than 26% of the time and caused physical harm in more than 25% of the instances. Some 22% of the women were drugged. Survivors faced long-term consequences, such as increased rates of HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis and menstrual problems. More than 30% said they had an unwanted first pregnancy, while 24% said they had ever had an abortion in their lifetime -- higher percentages than among women whose first sexual intercourse was voluntary. (Christensen, 9/16)

"It's quite alarming, and that's just the tip of the iceberg because this study is only including women aged 18 to 44," says Dr. Laura Hawks, the main author of the new study and a research fellow at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a health care provider in Cambridge, Mass. "You can imagine that if we asked this of women of all ages, the absolutely number would be many millions higher." (Chatterjee, 9/16)

A patient’s exposure to sexual violence “needs to be top of mind for medical professionals, particularly those serving teenagers and young adults, said said Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. “Any physical exam can be traumatizing for someone who has encountered physical or sexual violence in the past.” Nearly half of all victims of sexual violence who call RAINN’s national hotline are under age 18, Berkowitz said. Younger people are at greater risk and while there is no guaranteed prevention he said there are steps children and young adults can take to lower risk. (Santhanam, 9/16)

The findings did not surprise those who work in the field of rape prevention, who commended researchers for shedding light on the prevalence and impact of sexual trauma. “This study quantifies what we see . . . every day, including the ways that sexual harassment, abuse, and assault are inextricably linked with health problems,” said Gina Scaramella, executive director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. “Rape and sexual assault are much more common than generally recognized, and the effects on long-term health can be significant.” (Ebbert, 9/16)

When the Indian government bowed to powerful food companies last year and postponed its decision to put red warning labels on unhealthy packaged food, officials also sought to placate critics of the delay by creating an expert panel to review the proposed labeling system, which would have gone far beyond what other countries have done in the battle to combat soaring obesity rates. But the man chosen to head the three-person committee, Dr. Boindala Sesikeran, a veteran nutritionist and former adviser to Nestle, only further enraged health advocates. (Jacobs, 9/16)

The nation's worst measles epidemic in 27 years could be in its final stages as a week went by with no new reported cases. "To get to zero is tremendously encouraging," said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University expert on vaccination policy. The current epidemic emerged about a year ago and took off earlier this year, with most of the cases reported in Orthodox Jewish communities in and around New York City. (9/16)

Thinking of sending your "thoughts and prayers" to those affected by tragedy or a natural disaster? Well, not everyone wants them. While Christians value these gestures from religious people, some atheists and agnostics would pay money to avoid them, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Kim, 9/16)

Nearly two-thirds of children in developing countries live in villages, cities or regions where deaths under 5 years of age aren’t declining rapidly enough to meet United Nations goals, according to a new report released Tuesday. The findings come from “Goalkeepers,” an annual report card published by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the progress countries are making to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals—targets for 2030 agreed on by U.N. member countries. (McKay, Rust, Ruiz and Ulick, 9/17)

The first clue Aracelly Bibl had that something was wrong with her 18-year-old son in February was when his girlfriend called at 8:23 p.m. and said he had a mysterious red rash all over his chest, a fever and flulike muscle aches. “Take him to the ER,” Bibl told her. The next call came from the ­emergency-room nurse at 10 p.m. asking Bibl to come to the hospital immediately. Doctors suspected her son, Joseph Clouse, had meningitis B, a deadly bacterial infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, and had started treating him with IV antibiotics. (Richards, 9/16)

Although doctors often tell pregnant women it’s safest to sleep on their left side, a new study suggests sleeping in other positions may not be a problem. Researchers examined data on outcomes for 8,709 pregnant women who completed at least one sleep questionnaire before they reached 30 weeks’ gestation. Overall, 1,903 women, or 22 percent, experienced serious complications like dangerously high blood pressure, stillbirth or a newborn small for its gestational age. (Rapaport, 9/17)

Kaiser Health News: Obesity Stigma And Yo-Yo Dieting, Not BMI, Are Behind Chronic Health Conditions, Dietitian Claims

In a recent New York Times opinion column, dietitian Christy Harrison, an “intuitive eating coach” and author, responded to a fellow clinician who had questioned some of her thoughts on the link between being overweight and developing other medical conditions. Harrison noted that although most health professionals have been taught that higher body mass index (BMI) causes poor health outcomes, she wrote, “unfortunately, that just isn’t true.” (Appleby, 9/17)

As beachgoers soaked up the sun on a balmy August day in Ocean City, Md., single-engine planes circled above trailing banners hawking seafood deals, happy hour specials, and in one case, a plea: “CUT DRUG PRICES NOW,” the sprawling streamer begged in block letters. Some 450 miles away in Charlotte, N.C., an ominous TV ad proclaimed: “The big drug companies have been price gouging us for years.” A similar message boomed during commercial breaks in Phoenix, Louisville, Ky., and Bangor, Maine, too. (Florko, 9/17)

Nonprofits seeking to advance medical research have long operated from a standard playbook, soliciting grant proposals from academic scientists and then funding the most promising ones. But, increasingly, medical philanthropies are going the way of venture capitalist firms by making equity investments in therapeutics companies. The latest example? The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which announced Tuesday that it wants to raise a $50 million fund to start investing in companies working on treatments for spinal-cord injuries. (Robbins, 9/17)

Sen. Chuck Grassley has two words for the Republicans stalling his effort to pass a bipartisan drug pricing bill: Nancy Pelosi. The Finance Committee chairman is ramping up the pressure on his own party over prescription drug pricing, invoking the specter of the House speaker to warn of dire political consequences if the GOP fails to seize control of the health care issue atop voters’ minds heading into 2020. (Cancryn, 9/16)

An organization advocating for low-wage immigrants has filed a legal challenge to a Trump administration rule that may deny green cards to immigrants who use public services. Georgetown Law school's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and CASA filed a legal challenge in U.S. federal court Monday. Lawyers say changes to the so-called "public charge" rule violate due process under the U.S. Constitution. (9/16)

Like most Democrats, Sen. Elizabeth Warren supports an expansion of immigration with a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented — but she differs from some of her opponents on the details. ... The senator was asked if undocumented immigrants should get health care. "Remember what I have in mind for immigration. And that is that we are going to bring people into the system, create a pathway to citizenship, and that means we want health care for everybody," she said. (King, 9/16)

An Oklahoma judge is refusing to halt a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure following a ruling that abortion rights proponents have decried as a “rogue” decision that could threaten women’s reproductive rights. Oklahoma County District Court Judge Cindy Truong on Monday denied a motion for a temporary injunction that would keep the law from taking effect while the case continues. (9/16)

Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today asked Google to make sure its maps are pointing abortion seekers to actual abortion providers rather than crisis pregnancy centers that urge women not to get abortions. Their letter came in response to a report from Vice, which found that Google Maps directed searchers to non-helpful locations in states with stricter abortion laws. (Tahir, 9/16)

Austin is about to become the first city in the U.S. to fund groups that help women who seek abortions pay for related logistical costs, such as a babysitter, a hotel room or transportation. The move is an effort to push back against a new Texas law that went into effect Sept. 1. The state law bans local governments from giving money to groups that provide abortions — even if that money doesn't pay for the actual procedure. (Lopez, 9/17)

Indiana's attorney general said Monday that he will work with his Illinois counterpart to investigate what he called the "grisly discovery" of more than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains at the Illinois home of a late doctor who performed abortions in Indiana. Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill said he and Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul have "agreed to work together" as Hill's office coordinates an investigation of the remains found at the home of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, who died Sept. 3. (9/16)

Medical images and health data belonging to millions of Americans, including X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, are sitting unprotected on the internet and available to anyone with basic computer expertise. The records cover more than 5 million patients in the U.S. and millions more around the world. In some cases, a snoop could use free software programs — or just a typical web browser — to view the images and private data, an investigation by ProPublica and the German broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk found. (Gillum, Kao and Larson, 9/17)

Federal prosecutors have charged a San Diego couple with stealing trade secrets from an American children’s hospital, only then to allegedly use the information to market their Chinese biotechnology company. Yu Zhou, 49, and his wife, Li Chen, 46, worked for Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, until just under two years ago, prosecutors said Monday. The couple worked at the hospital in separate research labs for a decade, and founded a biotech company in China in 2015 that relied on many of the same technological and scientific advances. (Facher, 9/16)

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said on Monday that the state should join a handful of others that require minors to receive vaccinations for preventable diseases, eliminating most exceptions to vaccination. “The more children who receive their vaccinations, the safer it is for everyone, especially those who may be at risk to catch serious diseases,” Mr. Lamont said in a statement. But if a parent decides not to vaccinate “then alternate decisions must be made about where to educate your children,” he said. (West, 9/16)

Renée Coleman-Mitchell, the commissioner of public health, unequivocally urged legislators Monday to repeal Connecticut’s religious exemption from required vaccinations for children entering school, a move some legislative leaders called overdue but welcome as they press ahead with an effort to erase the provision. Coleman-Mitchell previously said it wasn’t her job to weigh in on pending legislation, but she reversed herself and pledged to testify in support of the measure when it’s introduced during the session that begins in February. (Carlesso, 9/16)

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday defended his request for last-minute changes to SB 276, a bill that gives the state more oversight of vaccine medical exemptions for school kids. After initially asking for and receiving earlier amendments, Newsom said he would sign the measure. But in the final weeks of the legislative session, he said he wanted more changes to the bill. (Orr, 9/16)

Urban hospital markets are getting more top-heavy, drawing concern from economists and researchers who warn that less competition can inflate healthcare costs. Nearly three-quarters of 112 metropolitan areas across 43 states had "highly concentrated" hospital markets in 2016, according to a new report by the Health Care Cost Institute. The share of highly concentrated markets, as defined by the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, increased to 72% in 2016, up from 67% in 2012. (Kacik, 9/17)

Weekend fights at six Oklahoma prisons that left one inmate dead and more than a dozen others injured were apparently coordinated and the result of race-based gang tension inside the facilities, the head of a prison workers association said Monday. The first fight erupted Saturday at the Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center in Vinita, in the northeast of the state. (Murphy, 9/16)

Former CVS (CVS) chief executive Thomas M. Ryan and his wife are giving $35 million to the University of Rhode Island to bolster a neuroscience institute, scholarships, and URI basketball — the largest private donation in the state university’s history. Ryan told the Boston Globe that his father, George Ryan, died of Alzheimer’s disease eight years ago, and his mother, Anne Ryan, “died taking care of him.” (Fitzpatrick, 9/16)

Unions representing more than 80,000 Kaiser Permanente workers said their members will participate in a weeklong strike starting Oct. 14 to protest the company’s labor practices. The healthcare giant’s workers will strike in California and five other states as well as the District of Columbia, the unions said. The strike will affect employees with jobs as optometrists, a variety of technicians, clinical laboratory scientists, housekeepers and hundreds of other positions — largely those who are not doctors, registered nurses or mental health workers. (Hussain, 9/16)

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions announced late Monday their roughly 80,000 workers will walk off their jobs as part of a seven-day strike beginning Oct. 14 in California, five other states and the District of Columbia. (Anderson, 9/16)

A new policy designed to eliminate unused beds in nursing homes has put Gov. Ned Lamont at odds with a key part of his base, Connecticut’s largest healthcare workers’ union. SEIU Healthcare 1199NE announced Monday a new online ad campaign to press the Democratic governor to reverse the policy, which it says has put nine nursing homes — with large vacancy rates — at risk of closing. (Phaneuf, 9/16)

For Jonathan Bush, there is life after athenahealth. The outspoken former chief executive of the Watertown company has landed a new gig as executive chairman of the Boston startup Firefly Health, which aims to provide primary care for patients through an app as well as clinic and employer visits. (Chesto, 9/16)

Zandra Bartell transferred here in June after the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, ceased production. “It was either come here or be without a job,” said Bartell, 49. On Monday, she found herself, along with thousands of other local United Auto Workers members, seeking a better deal from the company. (Merrilees, 9/16)

For every dollar state agencies are proposing to cut to meet Gov. Brian Kemp’s order to slow spending, they’re requesting nearly two more to pay for programs, from education and health care to law clerks and fighting gangs. That’s because not all agencies are equal when it comes to cutting, or adding spending. (Salzer, 9/16)

A defense attorney says a former Wisconsin nurse is prepared to plead guilty to hurting infants in a Madison hospital's intensive care unit. Forty-three-year-old Christopher Kaphaem faces 19 felony child abuse counts involving nine infants. WKOW-TV reports Kaphaem's attorney, Jonas Bednarek, notified the court of the plea in a letter Monday. (9/16)

As San Francisco reels from a recent string of traffic fatalities, new city data points to another vexing trend: a surge in the number of pedestrians gravely injured by cars. Fifty-five pedestrians were critically hurt in crashes last year, according to the Department of Public Health. (Swan, 9/16)

When Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell laid out a proposal that would bar people from sleeping on streets and sidewalks near schools, parks and other targeted facilities, local activists lined up at a City Hall hearing to denounce the idea and showed up at O’Farrell’s home in Glassell Park to protest. Now they have taken to the streets again — this time with pens and maps. (Reyes, 9/16)

Prices for CalPERS’ most popular health insurance plans are going up more in Sacramento County than in most of the state, partly as a result of a change the retirement fund’s board made to how it groups insurance markets last year. Employees of schools and local agencies who are enrolled in CalPERS’ most popular plan, a Kaiser Permanente HMO, face a 12 percent premium increase in the Sacramento area, according to published rates. (Venteicher, 9/16)

Arizona is one of eight states that had "statistically significant" increases in the number of people without health insurance between 2017 and 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau says. In Arizona, 750,000 people didn't have any health insurance last year. That's about 1 in 10 people or 10.6% of the population. The number of Arizonans without coverage jumped by 55,000 people over 2017, after several years of drops in the rate of uninsured. (Innes, 9/16)

Flanked by police chiefs in Claremont City Hall, Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway said the state has finally given law enforcement the legal resources to end the scourge of “bath salt” use in the county. “It’s the most disruptive drug in the county,” Hathaway said. Hathaway and the police chiefs from Claremont, Newport, Sunapee, Grantham, Plainfield and several other communities announced a change in the drug schedule in New Hampshire that now makes the most common variant of “bath salts” illegal. (Fisher, 9/16)

Initial testing of the air near a medical supply sterilizing facility in Smyrna found little to no ethylene oxide in the large majority of samples taken earlier this month. The September tests occurred days after Sterigenics shut down the plant, which uses ethylene oxide (also known as EtO), a cancer-causing chemical. (Goodman and Miller, 9/16)

Fewer Massachusetts high school students used marijuana over the decade before the state’s first cannabis stores opened last year, according to a new report.In 2017, about 24 percent of the state’s public high school students said they used cannabis in the previous month, down from 28 percent in 2011. Meanwhile, the share of the students reporting heavy cannabis use — at least 20 times per month — also dropped, from 9 percent to 5.6 percent. (Martin, 9/16)

During my first days as a supervising resident physician at a large urban hospital, two questions were constantly on my mind, the key drivers of any medical decisions that I would make: How can we stop this from happening again? How can we prevent this suffering from getting worse? These questions, and the principles that guided my approach to them, were largely those I established during my undergraduate education and my four years at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine — an understanding not only of physiology and diagnosis, but also about the importance of social justice in treating illness. (Pooja Yerramilli, 9/16)

Crowdfunding campaigns have become the go-to funding option for more and more people who find themselves stretched by the costs of a medical crisis, whether that consists of uninsured health-care service or medical equipment, or related costs like making up for missed earnings. But not everyone is equally able to access this source of funding: The ability to raise money online depends heavily on how wealthy a person’s friends and other connections are. For those who aren’t well off, it’s often hard to raise even a fraction of what’s needed. What we need are ways to spread the crowdfunding money around more evenly. (Samuel, 9/15)

Before the August recess, Congress seemed poised to pass legislation addressing surprise medical billing. However, as a result of intense lobbying, Congress may not deal with the problem at all — and if they do, they are unlikely to use the best approach.Surprise medical bills usually involve out-of-network emergency or ancillary physicians such as radiologists, anesthesiologists, pathologists, assistant or consulting surgeons and hospitalists. (George A. Nation III, 9/16)

The Democratic presidential candidates’ debates on health-care policy have been pretty incoherent. I don’t blame the candidates; it’s virtually impossible to explain these ideas in one-minute bursts, with moderators pushing them to fight with one another. The best most listeners can come away with, I suspect, is that some of them (Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala D. Harris) want to implement a version of reform that’s a lot bigger than some of the others (former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar).So let me try to clarify the issues under debate and suggest a way forward that ties these two camps together. There’s an important complement: They share the same goal, they both pose a steep challenge to the status quo, and it will take both arguments to achieve their goals. (Jared Bernstein, 9/17)

All of us have a responsibility to our service members. We have a responsibility to their families and friends. And we have a responsibility to the American public. No one serving on active duty, the Reserves, National Guard and as veterans should feel trapped and isolated in any given situation leading to suicide being their only remedy. Day-after-day we are informed of active duty service members and Veterans taking their own lives. Although we suspect mental health disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury are only a couple reasons linked to suicide. Moreover,  our government continues to withhold information that fails to provide transparent and accurate data so we can better determine root causes. (Andrew Vernon and Jennifer Norris, 9/16)

In its quest to “defund” Planned Parenthood and end access to clinical abortion care, the federal government under the Trump-Pence administration is poised to recreate a public health disaster that has blighted the already heavily damaged reproductive health care safety net in Texas, where lawmakers recently replaced seasoned medical providers with Bible-thumping grifters. In 2016, an organization of crisis pregnancy centers applied for a Texas family planning grant. (Andrea Grimes, 9/16)

Imagine sending a text message to a friend. As your fingers tap the keypad, words and the occasional emoji appear on the screen. Perhaps you write, “I feel blessed to have such good friends :)” Every character conveys your intended meaning and emotion.But other information is hiding among your words, and companies eavesdropping on your conversations are eager to collect it. Every day, they use artificial intelligence to extract hidden meaning from your messages, such as whether you are depressed or diabetic. (Mason Marks, 9/17)

After recent mass shootings, including one in a Walmart in El Paso, Walmart’s chief executive, Doug McMillon, announced that his company would stop selling ammunition for military-style assault rifles, remove handguns from stores in Alaska — the only Walmarts still carrying them — and ask armed people in open-carry states to stay out of its stores. “It’s clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable,” Mr. McMillon said in a statement. (9/16)

We can eliminate battlefield weapons from our streets without infringing on so much as a comma of the Second Amendment. In fact, we already ban most military weapons from civilian use. I can’t legally purchase a hand grenade, or a land mine, or an F-15 fighter jet. That the AR-15 is a gun makes no difference. The Second Amendment doesn’t even contain the word, gun. If the F-15 can can be reserved for military use, so can the AR-15.Ignoring this simple fact out of political expedience or cowardice shows a disturbing degree of mental instability. Such a person should neither be trusted with a gun, nor a vote in Congress or the Statehouse. (Mike Larsen, 9/16)

Almost anyone with a child in day care or preschool has received the call. They say your child has a minor ailment like pink eye and must go to the doctor. Otherwise, they say, the child won’t be able to return to school or day care. Sometimes, they even say your child can’t come back until they’re on antibiotics. The best evidence, however, says there should be less treatment for pink eye and other minor illnesses, not more. Day care centers usually ignore this evidence — and parents often pay the price. (Aaron E. Carroll, 9/16)

Last week, Michigan became the first state in the nation to ban flavored nicotine vaping products, following numerous findings from health officials that high numbers of youth vaping constitute a public health emergency, and several mysterious deaths of individuals using these products. While I commend Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for taking a stand on making our children and all Michigan residents safer from potentially dangerous products, we have a plague far greater than vaping that has been drastically affecting children and families across our state: suicide.In Michigan, the heartbreaking numbers speak for themselves. (Daniel J. Kelly, 9/16)