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The Senate's Health Committee will hold two hearings in the coming week on a bipartisan healthcare bill, with testimony from governors and state insurance officials on Wednesday and Thursday, in addition to two more hearings the following week. The goal is to pass a bill by the end of the month to stabilize the insurance markets for 2018. (Hellmann, 9/5)

The chairman of the Senate health committee is aiming to break years of stalemate and pass a bipartisan Obamacare repair bill to try to stabilize health insurance markets in the remarkably short span of just three weeks. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) envisions a narrow bill that won't fix everything but would provide some assurances for insurers selling coverage next year. (Haberkorn, 9/1)

When the U.S. Congress returns from summer vacation on Tuesday, for the first time in years gutting Obamacare will not be the main order of business on the healthcare agenda. But leftover hard feelings in the wake of the long, partisan Obamacare wars could poison other issues. (Drawbaugh and Lewis, 9/4)

Mr. Trump over the August recess repeatedly criticized Republican lawmakers over Twitter , blaming them for the failure to repeal the health-care law. His tweets underscored the party’s inability to pass major legislation, despite controlling both chambers and the White House for the first time since 2007. Both House and Senate Republicans said Mr. Trump’s attacks on his own party won’t help them quickly pass the looming high-stakes bills that already face little room for error in either chamber. (Bender and Peterson, 9/4)

The Children’s Health Insurance Program covers 8.9 million kids whose families don’t meet the income requirements to qualify for Medicaid but who might not otherwise be able to afford health insurance. The program, created in 1997, provides grants to states and is supplemented by state funding. CHIP has traditionally had bipartisan support and has helped increase the insured rate for children to 95 percent nationwide. Unlike Medicaid, CHIP is not an entitlement program and must be renewed regularly. Under the 2010 health care law, states were required to maintain eligibility requirements that were in place that year until 2019. However, federal funding for the program will be exhausted by Sept. 30. (Raman, 9/5)

The Children’s Health Insurance Program provides coverage for nearly 9 million children in low- and moderate-income families at a cost of about $15 billion a year. But funding for the program is set to expire Sept. 30, and Congress must renew it. That renewal could provide a vehicle for legislation to help stabilize the individual insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, which have grown shaky as insurers have pulled out and premiums have risen. (Stolberg, 9/5)

Senate Republicans will soon run out of time to rely on their slim majority to dismantle the Obama health law. The Senate parliamentarian has determined that rules governing the effort will expire when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, according to independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. The rules allow Republicans to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care law with just 51 votes, avoiding a filibuster. (9/1)

In a potential death knell for efforts to repeal Obamacare — at least this year — the Senate parliamentarian has ruled that Republicans face a Sept. 30 deadline to kill or overhaul the law with only 50 votes, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee said Friday. Congress is facing fights in September over boosting the federal debt limit, government funding, defense programs and the FAA, among other issues. Adding another Obamacare repeal battle to that schedule could prove too much for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has all but said he's moving on from health care. (Pradhan and Bresnahan, 9/1)

The move severely limits the amount of time Republicans have to pass a repeal of ObamaCare. Chances for repeal had already plummeted after the Senate failed to pass a bill in July, but some Republicans are still holding out hope. After Sept. 30, Republicans would need 60 votes in the Senate, meaning they would need eight Democrats to vote for a repeal bill, which will not happen. (Sullivan, 9/1)

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is ranking member on Senate Budget, announced the parliamentarian’s decision. In a news release, he called the determination “a major victory for the American people and everyone who fought against President Trump’s attempt to take away health care from up to 32 million people.” Sanders added that both parties “need to work together to expand, not cut, health care for millions of Americans who desperately need it.” (Krawzak, 9/1)

The parliamentarian’s new finding doesn’t preclude Republicans in both chambers from seeking to restore the ability to use a 51-vote majority for an Obamacare repeal in the next fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. (Litvan, 9/1)

Experts said parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough's ruling that the fiscal 2017 budget reconciliation instruction for healthcare legislation expires on Sept. 30 significantly dims prospects for such legislation this year. The House and Senate approved that instruction in January. "Having a fixed deadline of Sept. 30 would be quite tough even if there was nothing else on Congress' plate," said Sarah Binder, an expert on congressional procedure at George Washington University. "But there doesn't seem to be much of a coalition built for the Cassidy-Graham bill, and Republicans have to get into October without shutting down the government and defaulting on the debt." (Meyer, 9/1)

A number of Senate Republicans are gathering behind a bipartisan push to shore up the Affordable Care Act, reflecting a growing divide between President Donald Trump and many GOP senators. Republicans brushed off a call by Mr. Trump to continue working on a repeal of the 2010 health-care law after their bill to roll back and replace it failed by a single vote in the Senate in late July. Mr. Trump has called for letting the ACA implode on its own, and on Thursday the administration cut funding for ads and grants to encourage ACA sign-ups, a move that Democrats said would destabilize insurance markets. (Armour and Peterson, 9/1)

While Congress was busy bickering over repealing the health law, officials in red and blue states worked frantically to soothe anxious insurers, tamp down rate increases and insulate their markets from the ceaseless chaos in Washington. The result is an Obamacare system that’s still vulnerable, but far from the “disaster” President Donald Trump and his top health officials describe. (Cancryn, 9/5)

With interest growing among congressional Republicans and Democrats in modifying the Affordable Care Act to bolster the nation’s health insurance markets, states are emerging as potential models for bipartisan cooperation. The political battling over the 2010 healthcare law, widely known as Obamacare, may not be over, especially with President Trump continuing to undermine the law. (Levey, 9/3)

House Speaker Paul Ryan said a health-care plan floated by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana “has got merit and has legs under it.” The comments, in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, are Ryan’s most encouraging words yet for a proposal that grew out of the Senate’s failure to overhaul Obamacare. The Graham-Cassidy proposal would send federal health-care funds to the states in block grants, while repealing Obamacare’s mandates that all Americans have insurance and most employers provide it. Some governors have gotten behind the alternative, and Ryan said “various caucuses in the House” are open to it. (Edgerton, 9/1)

A deadline for insurers to file 2018 prices for health insurance sold through Affordable Care Act exchanges arrives Tuesday, but state regulators are still struggling to make decisions about pricing and coverage amid uncertainty in federal health policy. The upshot is confusion in what is typically an orderly, regimented regulatory process for reviewing insurance offerings that will go on sale to consumers on Nov. 1. (Wilde Mathews, 9/4)

U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc said on Friday that it will no longer offer Obamacare plans in 17 counties in Missouri but will remain in the bulk of the state, covering 68 counties that would not otherwise have Obamacare coverage for their residents. (Erman, 9/1)

Millions of people who buy individual health insurance policies and get no financial help from the Affordable Care Act are bracing for another year of double-digit premium increases, and their frustration is boiling over. Some are expecting premiums for 2018 to rival a mortgage payment. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/3)

The Affordable Care Act marketplace will be a mixed bag for Kansas consumers seeking health insurance for 2018. Some will pay more for coverage, some less. And some will purchase new plans for which there is no price-point comparison. In Missouri, insurers are proposing some hefty rate hikes. The Kansas Insurance Department said the “range of average rate revisions” for individual and small-group plans on and off the ACA marketplace will be from 8.8 percent lower to 29 percent higher. That means that some consumers could see premium increases of more than 29 percent, but it’s impossible to say how many, said Julie Holmes, the department’s director of health and life insurance. (Mclean and Smith, 9/1)

Utah’s state government will pay $10 million to health providers to cover debts left behind by an insurance company that was created to offer plans under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act but closed its doors in 2015. The Utah Insurance Department will pay the amount over the next six months to help diminish the debt of unpaid claims from Arches Health Plan. (9/3)

ObamaCare advocates said there is no way to fill the void left by the Trump administration’s decision to slash 90 percent of funding for enrollment outreach for the health law, potentially creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. “There’s no way outside nonprofit organizations like ours can make up for the significant resource loss that will occur by virtue of this decision,” Craig Obey, deputy executive director of Families USA, said in an email to The Hill. (Weixel, 9/4)

The decision from federal officials to slash funding to state organizations that help people enroll in health insurance took Tennessee's largest grant recipient by surprise, and left it with little information about what to expect. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday it would reduce national grant funding from 2017's $62.5 million to $36.8 million for the 2018 grant year. (Fletcher, 9/1)

Former President Obama’s former head of Medicare and Medicaid took to Twitter Friday to spread the word about the Affordable Care Act after it was announced President Trump was cutting outreach funding for the program. “Trump decided not to inform people of ACA open enrollment in order to sink it,” Andy Slavitt tweeted Friday. “That's not the only option. RT here if you will help spread.” (Carter, 9/2)

Being transparent about price enhances the patient’s healthcare experience, said Sarah Knodel, vice president of revenue cycle at Baylor, but it isn’t just a nice thing to do. Patients are more likely to pay if they understand how much they will owe out of pocket upfront, reducing the amount of uncompensated care the system must swallow, she said. “Our goal is to start to inform the patient as soon as possible about how much they’re going to owe and to set the expectation that we are going to try to collect on that estimated amount due.” That way, patients can make an informed decision about whether they want to proceed with the healthcare service. (Castellucci and Livingston)

In April, Nancy Niemi entered Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, N.C., with cardiac problems. She stayed four nights, at one point receiving a coronary stent. Then she went home, but felt faint and took several falls. Five days later, her primary care doctor sent her back to the hospital. This time, her stay lasted 39 days while physicians tried various medications to regulate her blood pressure. [Her son] soon learned one of the brutal truths of Medicare policy: Patients can be hospitalized for days, can undergo exams and tests, can receive drugs — without ever officially being admitted to the hospital.(Span, 9/1)

Jyn Dao is scared. His bottom surgery — needed to realign the female genitalia he was born with to his male identity — is scheduled. But it’s not happening until January. And like many trans men and women, he’s afraid President Trump will soon revoke protections in federal law that ensure his surgery is affordable. ...The Obama administration made clear that this provision required states to cover transgender care through their Medicaid programs. Now, however, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has told a federal court that he’s reworking the rule and won’t enforce it in the meantime. (McFarling, 9/5)

A Holocaust survivor waded waist-deep in flood water. Dozens of people were trapped in a 14-story residence for seniors. A disabled man sat alone at home, without the aide who usually helps him, watching the water rise and unsure if anyone would come. Harvey was terrifying for millions of people along the Gulf Coast. But it was particularly difficult for the region’s seniors and disabled, many of whom struggled to escape as the water rose. Now, some wait in shelters for chemotherapy, dialysis, pain medication, a pillow. Rescue teams are still evacuating people from their homes. (Turkewitz and Medina, 9/1)

Policymakers and health care providers can celebrate one quiet success in the wake of the Houston storm: the computers are still running. The preservation of patient health records represents a partial vindication for the HITECH Act, the 2009 EHR stimulus package that was conceived, in part, as a way to ameliorate natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina by replacing waterlogged paper with modern technology. (Tahir, 9/1)

St. Joseph Medical Center is downtown Houston's only hospital, located just down the street from the convention center where thousands of evacuees have been staying since Harvey hit. As of Friday, some doctors and nurses have been on the clock for almost a full week. (Lindley, 9/2)

At least 11,000 Houston residents sought shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center this week after torrential rains forced them out of their homes. For Dr. Sophia Banu, the convention center became her office. The Baylor College of Medicine professor is an attending physician at Ben Taub Hospital and for the past three days, Banu and a team of as many as 10 mental health professionals have been on call to help provide psychiatric services to evacuees. A total of four to five professionals have been at the center to cover two, eight-hour shifts a day, seeing an average of two to three people an hour, depending on their condition. (Johnson, 8/31)

Iashia Nelson cradled her 4-year-old son, shielding him from the pounding rain as she and close to 30 others huddled together on a rooftop, praying they would be rescued. In the eight hours they waited, without any food or water, Nelson, 36, said she witnessed at least four people die. (Itkowitz, 9/2)

Facing tremendous need after Hurricane Harvey, Texas has made it easier for out-of-state health care providers to come and help. The Texas Medical Board says health care workers who are licensed and in good standing in other states and who are coming to work at a hospital can practice in Texas while the governor's disaster declaration is in place. Hospitals must provide details for each provider. Physicians who are not affiliated with a hospital can apply for an expedited permit. (Hsu and Hersher, 9/1)

Even as floodwaters have started receding in some places, experts warn that residents in Harvey-affected areas could still be exposed to numerous health threats, ranging from water contamination to psychological distress. (Afiune, 9/1)

Federal law requires companies to inventory certain hazardous chemicals on site and submit them to state and local officials in a Tier II report. For decades, the state made these reports available upon request to homeowners, the media or anyone else who wanted to know where dangerous chemicals were stored. But in 2014, [then-Texas Attorney General Greg] Abbott ruled that state agencies could withhold such information, setting a precedent that has continued under current Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Platoff and Malewitz, 9/1)

Nearly three dozen Arizona healthcare workers will head to Houston Monday to help the nation's foremost cancer center get back on its feet after Hurricane Harvey. Flooding from Hurricane Harvey had shut down parts of MD Anderson Cancer Center and halted some outpatient and other services. (Zuniga, 9/3)

Drug overdoses killed roughly 64,000 people in the United States last year, according to the first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths to cover all of 2016. It’s a staggering rise of more than 22 percent over the 52,404 drug deaths recorded the previous year — and even higher than The New York Times’s estimate in June, which was based on earlier preliminary data. (Katz, 9/2)

President Trump on Friday nominated Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy as the nation’s “drug czar,” months after he had officially withdrawn from consideration. Marino, an attorney who has served in the House of Representatives since 2011, has a lengthy track record of supporting enforcement-side drug policy as well as improved drug treatment. (Facher, 9/2)

Last month, a White House panel declared the nation’s epidemic of opioid abuse and deaths “a national public health emergency,” a designation usually assigned to natural disasters. A disaster is indeed what it is, with 142 Americans dying daily from drug overdoses, a fourfold increase since 1999, more than the number of people killed by gun homicides and vehicular crashes combined. A 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 3.8 million Americans use opioids for nonmedical reasons every month. (Brody, 9/4)

Private-equity firms are piling into a new business opportunity: the opioid addiction crisis. Drawn by soaring demand, expanded insurance coverage and the chance to consolidate a highly fragmented market, firms plowed $2.9 billion into treatment facilities last year, up from $11.4 million in 2011, according to research firm PitchBook Data Inc. The number of private-equity deals rose to 45 from 25. (Whalen and Cooper, 9/2)

Today’s war on drugs isn’t fought by first ladies or celebrity advocates. Armed with MRI machines, electromagnetic pulses and experimental drugs, scientists are on the battle’s front lines. In the cover story of September’s National Geographic, Fran Smith explores the different fronts of a war being fought in laboratories and universities all over the world. Armed with the tools of science and with the help of people who struggle with addictions to substances and self-destructive behavior, researchers are working to unravel the mysteries of the addicted brain. (Blakemore, 9/2)

Mexican traffickers are supplying the New York City area with methamphetamine, attempting to create new clients in what historically has been a weak market for the drug. “The Mexican cartels have been sending loads up to New York and telling traffickers, ‘See if you can get customers,’ ” said James Hunt, special agent-in-charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York division. “They want to create an addict population.” (Ramey, 9/4)

The use of Vivitrol is the latest trend in opioid treatment. In the first quarter of 2017, Vivitrol sales totaled $58 million, a 33 percent increase over the previous year, according to a June report by ProPublica. Several state prisons, including those in Illinois, Wyoming and Wisconsin, started administering the drug to inmates last year. Even more drug courts and local jails are using it: ProPublica tallied up more than 450 public Vivitrol initiatives in 39 states. (O'Donoghue, 9/1)

The cost of providing medical care for inmates at the Baltimore County jail in Towson is rising more than 50 percent — several million dollars a year — due primarily to an increase in inmates and detainees with opioid addiction, mental illness or chronic diseases. The County Council is set to vote Tuesday on a contract for a private company, PrimeCare Medical, to manage medical, dental and behavioral health treatment for the jail’s roughly 1,200 inmates. (Wood, 9/5)

Teens who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse face many temptations after complete treatment. A new private high school opening soon in suburban St. Louis will offer them an educational environment free of some of those potential triggers. (Delaney, 9/4)

In at least three cases, patients with Regence BlueShield of Idaho plans were denied Radnovich’s choice of a Butrans patch — a long-acting version of the opioid buprenorphine that is “Schedule III,” with a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Instead of the patch, Regence was willing to pay for a fentanyl patch or morphine tablets. (Dutton, 9/4)

For men who are weighing the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening, a new study strengthens the evidence that testing can reduce deaths from this cancer, something two earlier large landmark clinical trials appeared to reach different conclusions about. (Rabin, 9/4)

An analysis of two influential studies of prostate cancer screening concludes that the much-debated test “significantly” reduces deaths from the disease, suggesting that current recommendations against routine PSA screening might be steering men away from a lifesaving procedure. The analysis, published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine, drew wildly different reactions, as is often the case with research on PSA screenings. Some experts in cancer screening and statistics said its novel approach was “on shaky ground” and used a “completely unverifiable” methodology that they had “never seen before,” but others praised its “intriguing and innovative approach.” There was one area of agreement, however: “I imagine it’s going to generate some buzz,” said biostatistician Ted Karrison of the University of Chicago. (Begley, 9/4)

His belly swollen, his energy flagging, 45-year-old Jorge Perez Remache waits in his Queens apartment for word that his turn has come to receive a lifesaving liver transplant. Though he has suffered from cirrhosis for 10 years, the chance of that happening is virtually zero. A thousand miles south in tiny Morven, Ga., Katryna Grisson — equally sick, just three years older and, like Perez Remache, on Medicaid — awaits the same miracle. (Bernstein, 9/1)

The arrival of a new school year and cooler temperatures also means the arrival of flu vaccines in doctors' offices, pharmacies, clinics, work places, and school campuses. With flu season on its way, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued updated recommendations Monday for the flu vaccine — but without the needle-free option so many parents were hoping for. (Haelle, 9/4)

For such a simple compound, salt is complicated. Sodium is a key element in table salt, and it's also essential for life. It helps regulate our blood volume. It shuttles nutrients into our bodies and brains. It allows our muscles to contract and our nerves to pulse with electricity. Yet for decades, we've been told to avoid it. (Stetka, 9/3)

Up to half of cancer patients of reproductive age do not receive adequate information about the impact of treatment on their fertility, decreasing their options for family planning and support, a new study suggests. “When we look at studies of regret after cancer treatment, one area that is always mentioned is reproductive regrets. Women come back and say they never got the chance to discuss their fertility and now it is gone,” Donald Dizon, clinical co-director of gynecologic oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, said. (Weinstock, 9/1)

By all rights, Fletcher Hall should not be happy. At 76, the retired trade association manager has endured three heart attacks and eight heart bypass operations. He’s had four stents and a balloon inserted in his heart. He has diabetes, glaucoma, osteoarthritis in both knees and diabetic neuropathy in both legs. He can’t drive. He can’t travel much. He can’t see very well. And his heart condition severely limits his ability to exercise. On a good day, he can walk about 10 yards before needing to rest. (Horovitz, 9/5)

He’s the protester holding a homemade sign declaring that vaccines save lives. He’s often wearing a T-shirt with the name of the polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, stylized like the logo of a rock band. You might even spot him filming a lighthearted video updating his online followers on his quest to chase down the Vaxxed bus tour, which grew out of a controversial anti-vaccination documentary with the same name. Craig Egan estimates he’s put 7,000 miles on his Toyota Prius subcompact this summer following the bus tour everywhere from the Pacific Northwest to Missouri. And no, he does not mind being called a troll. In fact, he embraces it. He even plans his T-shirts to be as annoying as possible. (Robbins, 8/5)

In an awful way, it all made perfect sense, Gail T. Wells remembers thinking as neurologist Thy Nguyen matter-of-factly explained that she was ordering tests to check for an underlying cancer. Cancer would explain the worsening symptoms — abdominal pain, incessant cough, weight loss and crushing fatigue — that had plagued Wells, to the puzzlement of her doctors. (Boodman, 9/2)

Count the number of hours you sit each day. Be honest. "If you commute an hour in the morning and hour after work — that's two hours, and if you sit at an eight-hour-a-day desk job that's 10," says epidemiologist Loretta DiPietro of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. (Neighmond, 9/4)

In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and across the country, a slew of salons are permanently turning out the (ultraviolet) lights, burned by public health efforts to discourage indoor tanning and warn of its skin cancer hazards. In case you haven’t kept track: In 2009, a World Health Organization research group declared UV-light-emitting tanning bed use to be a risk factor for all forms of skin cancer, including deadly melanomas. The next year, U.S. salons were hit with the 10 percent federal “tanning tax” as part of the Affordable Care Act. Then the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on marketing that claimed indoor tanning had health benefits. (McCullough, 9/1)

In a case that's gone viral, a Salt Lake City nurse endured a police detective's rough treatment, handcuffing, and arrest to uphold her hospital's policy of not allowing police to draw blood from a patient without an arrest, a search warrant, or the patient's consent. The incident is likely to spur hospital administrators to evaluate their policies surrounding police access to patients, said Jennifer Mensik, a nursing instructor at Arizona State University and vice president of continuing education for OnCourse Learning. (Meyer, 9/4)

The University of Utah Hospital, where a nurse was manhandled and arrested by police as she protected the legal rights of a patient, has imposed new restrictions on law enforcement, including barring officers from patient-care areas and from direct contact with nurses. (Barbash and Hawkins, 9/5)

Alex Wubbels, the Utah nurse who was arrested for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient in July, recounted to ABC News how she still is "not safe" since returning to work and believes the cop who arrested her was on a "warpath." The police body cam footage from the July 26 incident instantly sparked a national outcry when it was released last week. (Nestel, 9/4)

The consulting firm Veritas of Washington had been in business just over a year when it won a lucrative contract to salvage D.C.’s only public hospital. Key members of its management team had led a New York hospital that filed for bankruptcy. The District of Columbia would become its sole client. After the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) — who received more than $35,000 in political donations from the firm’s founders, family and affiliated companies, campaign-finance records show — authorized a no-bid contract for consultants to stanch financial losses at United Medical Center, Veritas began work for a fee of $300,000 per month. (Jamison, 9/2)

Death is routine at hospitals, and so is the process that follows: Doctors and nurses call the dead’s relatives, collect their belongings and store their remains. At United Medical Center, the long-troubled public hospital in Southeast Washington, 70-year-old Bradford Brown’s death was handled differently. His family members said they were not told his life had ended until they tried to visit him a week after the fact and found an empty bed. (Jamison, 9/1)

The University of Maryland Medical System closed a deal Friday to take ownership of a Prince George’s County hospital system so plagued with financial and image problems that two-thirds of county residents went elsewhere for care. The university medical system announced that it has completed an agreement to take over Dimensions Healthcare — which includes two hospitals, an ambulatory care center and two health and wellness centers. Under the agreement, a new entity was created called University of Maryland Capital Region Health. (McDaniels, 9/1)

The charitable organization that owns a 20 percent stake in Bayfront Health is pushing for the City of St. Petersburg's approval to separate from the downtown hospital. Officials for the group, the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, say the hospital's owner, Nashville-based Community Health Systems, has offered to pay the foundation $26.5 million for its share of ownership. (Griffin, 9/1)

(Bri, I don't see anything in the story that supports the headline, so I'd change the headline) As Larry Greer neared the end of a week-long stay at the Washington Hospital Center, he grew anxious. Greer, 57, had suffered a severe leg burn in a hot bath at home in May. Greer has diabetic neuropathy, which reduces feeling in his legs, and he didn’t realize how hot the water was. He received a skin graft at the hospital, where daily doses of oxycodone helped ease the pain. (Kritz, 9/4)

This year Seattle, Philadelphia and Cook County, Illinois, slapped extra excise taxes on soda and other sweetened beverages in what they touted as an effort to reduce obesity, save public health dollars and raise revenue. But the devilish details in the levies are causing many shoppers and food sellers to scratch their heads. While they are known as “soda taxes,” in some places they also cover sugarless diet sodas, iced coffee and some bottled water. (Povich, 8/31)

Its survival on the line, Kentucky's last abortion clinic is bracing for a pivotal legal showdown with health regulators and the state's anti-abortion governor that could determine whether Kentucky becomes the first state in the nation without an abortion clinic. (9/4)

Wyoming will participate in a national initiative designed to improve how schools respond to the social and emotional needs of K-12 students. The state is one of nine awarded this opportunity, and Teton County will be the first district to participate. (Watson, 9/1)

Over the past decade, the DNA laboratory in the office of New York City’s chief medical examiner emerged as a pioneer in analyzing the most complicated evidence from crime scenes. It developed two techniques, which went beyond standard practice at the F.B.I. and other public labs, for making identifications from DNA samples that were tiny or that contained a mix of more than one person’s genetic material. (Kirchner, 9/4)

When neighbors learned a health clinic run by an Islamic nonprofit organization was coming to Northeast Philadelphia this fall, they had questions. Will the clinic be open to anyone, or only Muslims? (Answer: Anyone.) Will doctors impose their religious beliefs on patients? (No.) Is this a front for extremism? (No.) “We just so happen to be Muslim, but that shouldn’t deter people,” said Ammar Shahid, a doctor who works with ICNA Relief, the nonprofit opening the clinic in the Holmesburg neighborhood. Free blood-pressure screenings, dental work, and counseling for people who can’t afford basic health care will be offered. (Boren, 9/5)

Major breaches of medical privacy happened more often in Missouri than in any other state its size over the last two years. ... The lapses potentially exposed sensitive medical information, left patients at risk for identity theft and could lead to hefty fines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights. (Marso, 9/1)

An Ohio law requiring HIV-infected individuals to tell sexual partners of their status before having sex or risk criminal charges is unconstitutionally based on outmoded stigmas against the gay community and doesn’t take into consideration current survival rates for people with HIV, say lawyers challenging the law in a case before the state Supreme Court. (Welsh-Huggins, 9/4)

San Diego County declared a local health emergency Friday night, adding a new level of urgency to a hepatitis A outbreak that has hit hardest among the homeless population, killing 15 people and hospitalizing hundreds. The declaration by Dr. Wilma Wooten, the region’s public health officer, bolsters the county Health and Human Services Agency’s ability to request assistance from the state and provides legal protections for a slate of actions that began unfolding across the city earlier in the day. (Sisson, 9/2)

The public health declaration bolsters the county Health and Human Services Agency's ability to request state assistance to fund new sanitation measures. Areas with high concentrations of homeless people will receive dozens of portable hand-washing stations. (Johnston, 9/3)

Fruit sold by a Lancaster street vendor who was infected with hepatitis A might have exposed consumers to the virus, which can cause serious liver disease, Los Angeles County public health officials said Monday in a statement. The possibly contaminated produce was sold at a stand at West Avenue L and 20th Street West in mid-August, officials said. (Christensen, 9/4)

A large Carmichael nursing home that was targeted for years by government regulators for poor quality care has decided to voluntarily close after state inspectors determined that a female resident was sexually abused multiple times by another resident at the facility. (Lundstrom, 9/2)

With record heat beating down on the Bay Area this holiday weekend, advocates who work with homeless people are redoubling efforts to spread word about places that offer some escape from the heat. (Small, 9/2)

A new analysis backs up what many state officials suspected all along: Training doctors at the new medical school at Washington State University probably will cost taxpayers more than training those students at the top-ranked University of Washington School of Medicine. That news isn’t shocking to state lawmakers, who greenlighted the new medical school at WSU’s Spokane campus two years ago. (Santos, 9/3)

A state audit released in April found that most placard applications lacked proper descriptions of the recipients’ disabilities. It also found that tens of thousands are held by people who are dead or over 100 years old. (Cabanatuan, 9/3)

California health officials said Friday that three people have died of West Nile virus this summer, marking the first deaths in what could be a particularly dangerous season for the disease. The three people lived in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Kern counties, according to state health officials. L.A. County health officials said the local patient who died was from the San Fernando Valley area and was hospitalized in early August. (Karlamangla, 9/1)

Three Southern California residents are the first confirmed deaths of 2017 from West Nile virus, state public health officials said Friday. ... As of Friday, the state has reported 87 human cases of West Nile virus from 13 California counties this year. (Seipel, 9/1)

Georgia health officials on Friday confirmed the third West Nile virus death in Georgia this year and cautioned those looking to catch some sun this Labor Day weekend. (Habersham, 9/1)

Nonprofit and for-profit businesses such as Delaware County-based Creative Foundations, with sites now in five counties, are gradually providing more and more of the government-funded services and programs available to Ohio adults with disabilities. (Price, 9/2)

The most recent figures available from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District — a map based on 2010 data — show that air pollution runs along the city’s highways, and Interstate 80 cuts straight through SoMa, South Park, South Beach and the city’s new high-rise neighborhood, Rincon Hill. (Swan, 9/4)

School nurse Rhonda Valdez is on the front lines of student health at Wheat Ridge High School, treating myriad concerns — flu outbreaks, diabetes, severe allergies, body image issues, football-related concussions. The job is rewarding and keeps her busy, but the longtime registered nurse and 18-year veteran of Jefferson County Schools is taking on a new role this fall. Valdez is among a vanguard of state-certified school nurses, social workers and counselors hired this year to try to keep marijuana out of the hands of youths. (Whaley, 9/4)

Marijuana legalization opponents will outnumber supporters four to one on the new commission that will spearhead [Massachusetts'] efforts to get a legal marijuana industry up and running by next summer and then regulate the newly legal market. (Young, 9/1)

One of the more evidence-free claims on the left is that the Affordable Care Act worked brilliantly before Republicans tried to dismantle it. Witness the claim this week that the Trump Administration is trying to tank the law’s exchanges, which are struggling from lack of consumer choice and affordability, not from a lack of government marketing. ... All told, the navigators last year enrolled about 81,000 people, less than 1% of the total. In fairness to the navigators, it would be tough to sell any product that millions of people are paying fines to avoid buying. (9/1)

Obamacare is still not collapsing. But the health system could be on much firmer footing. Over the next several weeks, Congress ought to put aside the past seven acrimonious years and make that happen. ... President Trump has threatened to cut off subsidy payments the federal government promised insurance companies. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold hearings this week and may soon craft a bill that would guarantee these payments are made, relieving skittish insurers. In return for approving permanent funding, Republicans would demand that states are offered more flexibility in experimenting with health insurance rules. ... Democrats should be able to agree to offer states some more leeway. (9/2)

President Trump talks incessantly about how the Affordable Care Act has failed. He has threatened to make it “implode.” Now he has taken a major step toward making his own predictions and threats come true. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it is cutting the advertising budget for the upcoming open enrollment period for individual insurance policies by a stunning 90%, to $10 million from last year’s $100 million. The HHS also is cutting funds for nonprofit groups that employ “navigators,” those who help people in the individual market understand their options and sign up, by roughly 40%, to $36.8 million from $62.5 million. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/1)

On health care, Democrats have two advantages over Republicans. One is a shared purpose: universal coverage achieved through aggressive government intervention. The other is their willingness to achieve that goal incrementally. Obamacare did not achieve universal coverage. The percentage of uninsured Americans has fallen from 14.6% in 2008 to 11.3%. But Obamacare moved the country closer to the goal, which brought more strident left-wingers on board. Republicans do not share such clarity. There is broad agreement only on the political goal: repealing Obamacare. There is no agreement on the principles, never mind the details, that would guide replacement. (Andrew Cline, 9/5)

I consider myself lucky. Fewer than 5% of cancer patients will get into potentially beneficial clinical trials this year, and I am one of them. Since 2003, under Democratic and Republican administrations, the National Institutes of Health budget has been cut by 15.5%, after inflation. This has left far too little NIH money for basic research and prevention, including for oncology trials. Drug companies now underwrite about 71% of the thousands of cancer trials that are conducted in the U.S. each year. This sets back basic cancer research in several ways. (Frank Lalli, 9/5)

With another football season getting underway, parents of players anywhere from college down to the peewee leagues are undoubtedly uneasy about the latest reports linking the sport to brain damage. Researchers reported in July that the degenerative brain disease known as CTE was diagnosed in 99% of 111 deceased NFL players whose brains were donated for research. This latest Boston University study — while strengthening the link between pro football and the devastating disease — raised as many questions as it answered. (9/4)

Football is tough. It takes strength — the physical strength to compete and the mental strength to master your fear of violence and failure. But the game gives back as much as it takes. It teaches tenacity, teamwork, respect and appreciation for a strenuous and healthy life. ... I think it’s smart to keep adjusting the game as we learn more. We haven’t lost anything by protecting defenseless players or benching players who fail a sideline concussion test. ... There are undeniable risks in playing football. But the benefits of football in transforming energetic youth into productive citizens cannot be overlooked. (Dick Butkus, 9/4)

Autumn, which is bearing down upon us like a menacing linebacker, is, as John Keats said, a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Actually, Keats, a romantic, did not mention that last part. He died before the birth of the subject of a waning American romance, football. This sport will never die, but it will never again be, as it was until recently, the subject of uncomplicated national enthusiasm. CTE is a degenerative brain disease confirmable only after death, and often caused by repeated blows to the head that knock the brain against the skull. The cumulative impacts of hundreds of supposedly minor blows can have the cumulative effect of many concussions. (George F. Will, 9/2)

As alarms over the opioid crisis sound ever louder, a larger and more expensive substance problem in the U.S. is quietly growing much worse. One in eight Americans abuses alcohol, a new study finds, a 50 percent increase since the start of the century. (9/1)

Early news reports from southeast Texas suggest healthcare facilities weathered Hurricane Harvey far better than their counterparts in New Orleans in 2005 or New York and New Jersey in 2012 when they were hit by hurricanes. More than a decade of rising awareness about the need for emergency preparedness, which began in southeast Texas after Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, appears to have paid off. ... But this is no time for congratulatory backslapping. This was Houston's third "500-year flood" in three years. Last summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded eight such 500-year events in the previous 15 months. (Merrill Goozner, 9/2)

A thistle to a continuing lack of transparency by the American Red Cross as it responds to another disaster. The organization — which is a congressionally chartered instrumentality of the U.S. government — has a history of failing to accurately account for its spending or respond to requests for information. The Red Cross’ vice president of disaster operations, Brad Kieserman, could not tell National Public Radio last week what portion of its donations go to Hurricane Harvey disaster relief. ... In a statement provided to the Register, the American Red Cross said it segregates donations for Harvey so it goes to the communities affected. ... Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia., called on the Red Cross to spend donations given for Hurricane Harvey relief wisely and transparently. The senator has co-sponsored the American Red Cross Transparency Act to give the Government Accountability Office access to Red Cross records. (9/4)

[Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gregory] Keosian places sexual identity on the same plane where imputations about race and homosexuality have been for years — as not inherently defamatory. The ruling is potentially important for several reasons. As Keosian observes, it’s the first such ruling in California, which makes it seem like a harbinger of legal rulings to come nationwide. It also chips away at what may be the last legally acceptable standard of prejudice under the law, which is that directed at transgender persons and those exploring their gender identity. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/1)

As a longtime entrepreneur in this sector, I am concerned that Senate Bill 17 will harm our ability to afford the costly and time-consuming process of bringing these therapies to market. ... Legislation that forces us to share corporate information with our competitors is harmful to small companies like ours. (William Newell, 9/4)

The women and men who fix your teeth now make more money per capita than doctors. ... Now dentists are resolutely — some would say fanatically — opposing efforts to let dental hygienists and dental therapists deliver prophylactic care to children, the elderly, and to poor and underserved regions in America. (Alex Beam, 9/5)

A surgical staple remover looks a bit like a handheld hole punch. Not the alligator-mouth contraption used for paper staples. I know this because my father recently had a radical prostatectomy to treat early-stage prostate cancer. Less than 36 hours after his surgery, he was sent home with instructions on how to remove his Foley catheter, and a shrink-wrapped metal contraption to remove his own surgical staples. ... It turns out my father is on the leading edge of a growing trend for routine surgical patients with no complications and no other complex medical problems: Get out and stay out. (Alicair Peltonen, 9/1)

Northern Kentucky has the third highest number of individuals infected with HIV in the state, with about 30-35 new cases each year. ... We don’t know yet: The number of Northern Kentucky residents that are infected with HIV, as seven of 10 Kentuckians have never been tested for HIV. At the Northern Kentucky Health Department, where I serve as medical director, we are working with local health care providers to increase routine screening for HIV. According to guidelines from the CDC, all Northern Kentucky adults should get an HIV test once per lifetime, and those with risk factors, which can include substance abuse or sexual activity, should be screened yearly. (Gerry Tolbert, 9/3)