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Dr. Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute, will serve as acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Alex M. Azar III, secretary of health and human services, announced on Tuesday. Dr. Sharpless temporarily will fill the post being vacated by Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who stunned public health experts, lawmakers and consumer groups last week when he abruptly announced that he was resigning for personal reasons. (Kaplan, 3/12)

Dr. Sharpless, a native of Greensboro, N.C., studied math at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he also got his medical degree before completing his internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was a clinical and research fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Dr. Sharpless is the candidate favored by Dr. Gottlieb for the permanent job of FDA commissioner, according to a person familiar with the issue. Dr. Giroir has been backed by Mr. Azar, the person said. Dr. Giroir declined to comment. (Burton, 3/12)

"We have no doubt that Dr. Sharpless will continue to navigate and direct the FDA in a manner that best benefits patients, and we look forward to executing critical work with him in his new role," Ellen Sigal, founder and chair of Friends of Cancer Research, said in a statement. The search for a permanent FDA chief is still under way. (3/12)

Part of Sharpless’s appeal is that he could start at the FDA relatively quickly. It’s also possible he would be nominated as permanent commissioner later. He has never been confirmed by the Senate — which is not required for the National Cancer Institute post or acting head of the FDA. But as a presidential appointee, he has been extensively vetted and has divested himself of financial holdings that could pose conflicts of interest. Sharpless has contributed to a number of Democratic candidates, including a total of $750 to Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission records. (McGinley and Goldstein, 3/12)

Azar said in a statement that Sharpless’ "deep scientific background and expertise" will make him a strong leader for FDA. He added, "There will be no let-up in the agency’s focus, from ongoing efforts on drug approvals and combating the opioid crisis to modernizing food safety and addressing the rapid rise in youth use of e-cigarettes.” (Owermohle, 3/12)

Last Tuesday, Gottlieb said he would step in down in April after less than two years leading the FDA, a massive public health agency that regulates the food, drug, medical device and tobacco industries, among others. He was widely viewed as one of President Donald Trump’s most effective administrators, serving as a key messenger on the federal response to rising drug prices, the opioid epidemic and underage use of e-cigarettes. (Perrone, 3/12)

Sharpless also co-founded the pharmaceutical company G1 Therapeutics Inc., which is developing cancer treatments for certain lung and breast cancers. (Edney, 3/12)

Sharpless is also familiar with the biotechnology industry and the drug-development process. He has co-founded two early-stage biotech companies: G1 Therapeutics, a developer of cancer drugs that raised $108.6 million in a 2017 initial public offering, and HealthSpan Diagnostics, a developer of blood tests. “One of the things that made me appealing to the White House was that in addition to working in research and as a cancer center director, I’d had some work in the commercialization of ideas, from a basic science lab into a Phase 2 trial asset,” Sharpless told STAT in a 2018 interview, shortly after taking over NCI. (Facher, 3/12)

If President Trump allows states to convert Medicaid into a block grant with a limit on health care spending for low-income people, he will face a firestorm of opposition in Congress, House Democrats told the nation’s top health official on Tuesday. The official, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, endured more than four hours of bipartisan criticism over the president’s budget for 2020, which would substantially reduce projected spending on Medicaid, Medicare and biomedical research. (Pear, 3/12)

The head of the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday defended the Trump administration’s proposed spending reductions to Medicare, Medicaid and discretionary health programs before lawmakers who were concerned the proposals would reduce access to care and set back medical research. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told members of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee that the proposed mandatory spending changes were meant to ensure long-term stability of the programs, but acknowledged the difficulty of trimming $12 billion from the agency's $102 billion fiscal 2019 discretionary budget. (Siddons, 3/12)

The $1.5 trillion Medicaid cuts and the national work requirement in President Donald Trump's new proposed budget inject fresh uncertainty into the fate of current state efforts by Republicans to overhaul the healthcare program for poor and disabled Americans. While details in the budget document are sparse, it appears the administration wants to replace the existing state waiver process for testing changes with a new national program granting states unfettered flexibility to customize their Medicaid programs, accompanied by tight federal spending caps. That's similar to the Senate Republicans' Graham-Cassidy plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in 2017, which failed to pass. (Meyer, 3/11)

Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump of going back on his campaign promise to protect Medicare after he introduced a 2020 budget that calls for steep cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals. The budget embodies long-standing Republican ambitions "to make Medicare wither on the vine," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. (3/12)

Only about a tenth of the proposed Medicare cuts in President Trump’s budget would directly impact seniors, according to a new analysis. The analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) finds that the vast majority of the Medicare cuts in Trump’s budget, released on Monday, are to payments to hospitals and doctors, not cuts to benefits for seniors on the program. (Sullivan, 3/12)

President Trump’s 2020 budget request of an extra $291 million to fight the spread of H.I.V., experts said on Tuesday, will not be remotely sufficient to meet the goal he announced in his State of the Union address: to nearly eliminate the AIDS epidemic in the United States within 10 years. Mr. Trump’s plan focuses on 48 counties where about half of new infections occur, and seeks to cut the rate of new infections by 90 percent — from about 40,000 a year to about 4,000. (McNeil, 3/12)

The top U.S. Indian Health Service official pledged before Congress on Tuesday to fix problems that allowed a doctor who sexually abused children while working for the agency to evade punishment. The remarks by Rear Adm. Michael Weahkee came as lawmakers pressed him on the broadening fallout after a joint investigation by The Wall Street Journal and the PBS series Frontline revealed the agency had mishandled the pedophile pediatrician for decades. (Weaver and Frosch, 3/12)

Corey Foster spent her Army career caring for wounded troops, both as a flight medic in the Iraq war and at Walter Reed hospital, so she looked forward to one of the most celebrated benefits of military service — health care for life from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Then she walked through the door at a V.A. medical center in Temple, Tex. “You felt like you were a piece of meat,” said Ms. Foster, 34, who retired as a sergeant. “Standing in line at the registration desk, I was getting comments from the male patients behind me, looking me up and down. It was a major source of discomfort.” (Steinhauer, 3/12)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is launching a massive effort to personalize veterans' medication regimens in partnership with Sanford Health, a 44-hospital system based in Sioux Falls, S.D, the two announced Tuesday. The program is based on pharmacogenetics, a field of study that uses patients' genetic profiles to predict how well they will respond to different drugs. The idea is to provide physicians with this analysis, so they can tailor medication regimens to each patient—this might mean finding which drug dosage will be most effective for a patient or switching a medication prescription to limit the likelihood of him or her experiencing an adverse side effect. (Cohen, 3/12)

Former Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin has joined the board of ArmadaHealth, a Maryland health data company that offers a database for patients to find physicians. President Donald Trump fired Shulkin last year from the top post at the VA, where the former secretary also served under President Barack Obama. Prior to the VA, Shulkin was CEO of hospitals including New York City's Beth Israel and New Jersey's Morristown Medical Center. (Luthi, 3/12)

The Defense Department has approved a new policy that will largely bar transgender troops and military recruits from transitioning to another sex, and require most individuals to serve in their birth gender. The memo outlining the new policy was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, and it comes after a lengthy and complicated legal battle. (3/12)

Much of the focus by the Veterans Health Administration has been on the growing number of younger veterans who commit suicide. However, statistics show that the suicide rate for elderly veterans is higher than that of non-veterans of the same age. (Walsh, 3/11)

Eight months after its shelters for immigrant children came under public scrutiny over allegations of abuse and lax supervision, Heartland Human Care Services says it will close four shelters in suburban Chicago and add staff, training and other resources at its remaining five facilities. The decision, announced to employees in a memo Friday, comes as another agency, Maryville Academy, plans to open two additional shelters, including one as early as next month. (Sanchez, Eldeib and Cohen, 3/13)

The Defense Department is reviewing a number of military bases to find a location that can house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children as the U.S. braces for a surge of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border this spring. The Department of Health and Human Services submitted the request for space late last week, as Homeland Security leaders warned that tens of thousands of families are crossing the border each month. That flow, said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, will grow worse this spring as the weather gets better. (3/12)

The Trump administration will try to persuade a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to block California laws aimed at protecting immigrants, seeking a win in one of numerous lawsuits between the White House and the Democratic-dominated state. At issue in the hearing before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a 2018 administration lawsuit over three California laws that extended protections to people in the country illegally. (3/13)

A Democratic senator from Oregon advocating against migrant youth detention camps says he toured a Florida facility and found children are being held there for too long in a restrictive environment. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said that he talked to three boys who also confirmed reports that employees told teenagers they would not be reunited with family if they misbehaved. (3/12)

A divided federal appeals court Tuesday upheld an Ohio anti-abortion law that blocks public money for Planned Parenthood. The full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower federal court ruling. The Ohio law targeted funding that Planned Parenthood receives through the state's health department. That money is mostly from the federal government and supports education and prevention programs. (3/12)

"The affiliates are correct that the Ohio law imposes a condition on the continued receipt of state funds," Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote for the majority. "But that condition does not violate the Constitution because the affiliates do not have a due process right to perform abortions." Sutton also found no proof the ban posed an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion, a right he said belonged to women, not to Planned Parenthood. (3/12)

The case was one of several across the country addressing attempts to cut public dollars to Planned Parenthood and other providers who offer abortions in addition to a range of health care services. The 6th Circuit's ruling affects six state public health programs in Ohio, but doesn't touch Medicaid. The Supreme Court in December declined to review a case brought by other Republican-led states seeking to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations that offer abortions. More than 20 states additionally have brought legal challenges over a Trump administration rule cutting tens of millions of dollars in Title X funding from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. (Ollstein, 3/12)

Planned Parenthood said the funding ban would have also covered programs for mothers’ and infants’ health, HIV counseling and testing and sex education. “This is a devastating blow for people across Ohio. This law is an attack on health care access for the most at-risk communities in our state, including people of color, women, and the LGBTQ community," said Iris E. Harvey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. (Weixel, 3/12)

The decision is a blow to Planned Parenthood, which has 26 locations in Ohio. Locations in Bedford Heights, Columbus and Cincinnati provide abortions, while the others provide health services for men, women and children. The state is now free to enact the law. (Heisig, 3/12)

“Today’s ruling is a direct attack on health-care access for Ohio’s most at-risk communities,” said Iris E. Harvey, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. She said it was “shameful that politicians” like Gov. Mike DeWine and Kasich “insist on blocking people from accessing essential reproductive health care and education in our state.” (Torry, 3/12)

Abortion rights leaders in Congress will ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to hold a vote on a bill that would allow abortion coverage to receive federal funding. The bill would repeal a long-standing ban on abortion coverage in federal health programs like Medicaid.  (Hellmann, 3/12)

Johnson & Johnson was at the center of the burgeoning opioid-addiction crisis in America, operating like a drug kingpin by selling its version of the powerful painkiller as well as the active ingredient, according to newly unsealed court filings. J&J, through subsidiaries based in Tasmania, grew opium poppies used in its Nucynta medication and sold to other drugmakers for use in their opioid-based products, court filings in Oklahoma show. The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company also wrongfully targeted children and the elderly in its marketing, the state contends. (Feeley, 3/12)

America's big drugmakers and pharmacy chains are scrambling to respond to hundreds of lawsuits tied to the deadly opioid epidemic. Billions of dollars are at stake if the companies are found liable for fueling the crisis. Even before judgments are rendered, companies like Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and CVS are already suffering damage to their reputations as evidence in civil suits reveals more about their internal workings. "The narrative is clearly shifting on this story," said David Armstrong, a senior reporter with ProPublica, who has covered the drug industry for years. "People want some sort of reckoning, some sort of accounting." (Mann, 3/13)

Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, has become the leading cause of overdose deaths in America. It’s 50 times more powerful than heroin and up to 100 times more powerful than morphine. (3/13)

Work began Friday to convert an old hospital building in West Baltimore into a facility that will provide a place for people using drugs or alcohol to sober up and perhaps get a jump-start on their way to treatment. The crisis stabilization center will be the first of its kind in the city and one of only a few nationally. It aims to divert some of the 16,000 people who go to hospital emergency rooms in Baltimore every year because of drugs and alcohol even when they do not need acute medical care. (Cohn, 3/12)

A Delaware doctor is accused of prescribing opioids in exchange for sexual favors to a female patient who was undergoing treatment for long-term drug addiction. The News Journal of Wilmington reports Deputy Attorney General Zoe Plerhoples said during an administrative hearing Monday that Nihar B. Gala’s behavior at several walk-in medical centers in 2017 endangered the patient. The state has asked for an administrative hearing officer to recommend the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline revoke Gala’s medical license. (3/13)

A unique experiment in Rhode Island will provide care for opioid addiction in an unexpected place — the local pharmacy. Under the proposal, some 125 patients will receive much more than their medication when they fill their doctor’s prescriptions for anti-addiction treatments at six pharmacies. (Freyer, 3/12)

The chef/co-owner of Mulvaney’s B&L has recruited people for mental health treatment classes, installed a support program in his own restaurant and is helping create a formal resource and advocacy network for restaurant workers. When combined with the work he and his wife/co-owner Bobbin have done to support and develop the farm-to-fork movement, it was enough for the couple to be named the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s Sacramentans of the Year in January. (Egel, 3/13)

Commercial healthcare prices in metro areas are rising while usage is falling, according to a new analysis. Prices increased 13% as utilization dropped 17% from 2012 to 2016, a new iteration of the Health Care Cost Institute's analysis of more than 1.8 billion commercial claims revealed. Metro areas with higher prices tended to have lower use, and vice versa, HCCI researchers found. (Kacik, 3/12)

Humana launched a new bundled-payment model for Medicare Advantage members who undergo spinal fusion surgery, the insurer announced Tuesday. The model, which includes four independent physician practices participants, is the third bundled-payment model for the Louisville, Ky.-based insurer. Physicians enrolled in the model will receive bonuses based on their costs and quality performance on the two most common types of spinal fusion surgery: lumbar and cervical. (Castellucci, 3/12)

The parent company of Illinois’ largest health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, made a profit of $4.1 billion last year – more than three times as much as it did the year before, according to recent financial statements. Much of that increase was driven by $1.7 billion the company got back from the federal government last year because of changes made under the new tax law. Blue Cross’ parent company, Health Care Service Corporation, operates health insurance plans in five states, including Illinois, and is based in Chicago. (Schencker, 3/12)

Two Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers on both U.S. coasts will invest jointly in high-cost management technology and share insights into improving health care in a long-term agreement that will leave the companies as separate entities. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and Portland, Oregon-based Cambia Health Solutions said Tuesday that they will share top executives but will keep separate their assets and insurance policies. Cambia's new board will be mixed. (3/12)

Cambia Health Solutions, operator of the Regence BlueCross health insurance operation in Oregon and three other states, is affiliating with a slightly larger health plan in North Carolina. Cambia and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina will combine their boards of directors and certain management and administration functions but will remain separate not-for-profits. No money changed hands. The new entity will be called Cambia Health Solutions. (Manning, 3/12)

Dr. Patrick Conway will become CEO of Portland, Ore.-based company Cambia Health Solutions in addition to maintaining his current role as CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the companies announced Tuesday. The move is part of a so-called strategic affiliation between the two not-for-profit companies, in which they will share management, administrative, operational and other corporate services under a long-term services management agreement under the Cambia name. (Livingston, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News: New Health Plans Expose The Insured To More Risk

One health plan from a well-known insurer promises lower premiums but warns that consumers may need to file their own claims and negotiate over charges from hospitals and doctors. Another does away with annual deductibles but requires policyholders to pay extra if they need certain surgeries and procedures. Both are among the latest efforts in a seemingly endless quest by employers, consumers and insurers for the holy grail: less expensive coverage. (Appleby, 3/13)

The child would be born to a father who was dead before his sperm fused with an egg. That egg — and the womb in which the child was carried — would belong to women who might not be a part of the child’s life. And it would all happen because of the determination of the child’s grandparents, enabled by the fateful signature of a judge. In the case in question, a New York judge earlier this month ordered a medical center to save the sperm of Peter Zhu, a 21-year-old cadet at West Point Military Academy who died after a ski accident. His parents sought an emergency court order on March 1, the day his organs were going to be removed for donation, and just a few days after the accident, when their “entire world collapsed,” as they wrote in a petition to the court. (Joseph, 3/13)

Rebecca Alexander’s worst experience dining while large happened just after she nailed a promotion at a nonprofit organization. She took her staff, and her new boss, to lunch at a promising downtown restaurant in Portland, Ore., where she lives. As the hostess led the group to a booth, Ms. Alexander, a 31-year-old who wears a size 30, knew in an instant there was no way she was going to squeeze into it. (Severson, 3/12)

Warnings about the cancer-spreading risks associated with power morcellators and the subsequent decline in the devices’ use haven’t triggered a sustained rise in open surgery for hysterectomy patients as some critics feared, a new study has found. Surgeons once widely used power morcellators to slice tissue for removal through small incisions, often during hysterectomies for women with benign growths called fibroids. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned in April 2014 that the tools can inadvertently spread uterine cancer that can’t be reliably detected before surgery. (Kamp, 3/12)

More than three decades ago, lawmakers in Washington state set the age of consent for mental health care at 13 to make it possible for teenagers to seek treatment without needing to involve their parents. That law also lets anyone over age 13 refuse mental health care — and keep all the details about their treatment private. ...Parents have pushed for change for years, arguing that the measure has hamstrung their ability to help their teenagers who urgently need mental health care, but aren’t willing or ready to go to treatment on their own. Now, Washington lawmakers are poised to give parents more rights — while still trying to strike a delicate balance that gives teens authority over their own mental health care. (Thielking, 3/13)

Bribing SAT proctors. Fabricating students’ athletic credentials. Paying off college officials. The actions that some wealthy parents were charged with Tuesday — to secure their children a spot at elite colleges — are illegal and scandalous. But they’re part of a broader pattern, albeit on the extreme end of the continuum: parents’ willingness to do anything it takes to help their grown children succeed. As college has become more competitive and young adults’ economic prospects less assured, parents have begun spending much more time and money on their children — including well after they turn 18. (Quealy and Miller, 3/13)

A study published Tuesday, from researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and colleagues in several other countries, used minute amounts of blood drawn in the first week of life to better understand what happens to the immune system in the hours and days after birth. The primary finding — that there are discernible and consistent patterns of change that occur — point to exciting possibilities, researchers believe. (Branswell, 3/12)

Frenotomies are being done by dentists, pediatricians, otolaryngologists (ear-nose-throat doctors) and other specialists. Some say more procedures are needed to spare women and babies from unnecessary frustration and discomfort. Others say too many surgeries are already being done because of the view that it can’t hurt and might help. (McCullough, 3/13)

Exercise can lower blood pressure and reduce visceral body fat at least as effectively as many common prescription drugs, according to two important new reviews of relevant research about the effects of exercise on maladies. Together, the new studies support the idea that exercise can be considered medicine, and potent medicine at that. But they also raise questions about whether we know enough yet about the types and amounts of exercise that might best treat different health problems and whether we really want to start thinking of our workouts as remedies. (Reynolds, 3/13)

Baker estimates that the salaries of the roughly one million doctors in the U.S. account for about eight percent of total healthcare spending. He estimates that allowing an increased supply of doctors to lower their salaries to competitive levels would save Americans $100 billion a year — or roughly $300 per person. (Rosalsky, 3/12)

The producers of Pillsbury Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, used by many home bakers, have voluntarily recalled 12,245 cases sold to retailers, after a random inspection revealed traces of salmonella in one bag. The cases, each of which contains about eight five-pound bags, were mostly sold to the Publix supermarket chain and to Winn-Dixie markets, both of which have branches throughout the Southeast. The cases have best if used by dates of either April 19, 2020, or April 20, 2020. (Hoffman, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News: How To Zero In On Your Final, Forever Home While Skirting Disaster

When Martha Powers and Larry Gomberg heard the news about Hurricane Florence bringing horrific winds and catastrophic flooding to Wilmington, N.C., they grimaced. Then, they felt relieved.“What if we had decided to build our retirement home there?” they said to each other in September, when the storm was making headlines. “What if our brand-new home had flooded?” (Lloyd, 3/13)

When the medical journal The Lancet asked Matthieu Zellweger to photograph any psychiatric condition that intrigued him, he thought of a close friend who has been living with bipolar disorder. He knew how his friend lamented that it was an “invisible handicap” that you couldn’t just snap out of, as some well-meaning but frustrated people would suggest. But Mr. Zellweger also recognized something in his friend that led him to propose a photo essay on bipolar disorder. (Zellweger, 3/13)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 228 cases of measles in 12 states so far this year. The CDC has identified six outbreaks, which it defines as three or mores cases, in New York, Washington, Texas, Illinois and California. The cases are linked to unvaccinated American travelers bringing measles back into the U.S. from other countries where large measles outbreaks are occurring, such as Israel and Ukraine, the CDC says. (Hellmann, 3/12)

A second Oregon measles outbreak has started after an infected person from Illinois visited the Salem area. Marion County public health officials confirmed Tuesday that one person has been diagnosed with measles. Another person is suspected of having measles, but officials are waiting on lab tests to confirm. (Harbarger, 3/12)

More than 100 people at OHSU Hospital worked to help an unvaccinated Oregon boy survive when he contracted life-threatening tetanus on the family farm. Not one of them had ever seen a child with the bacterial disease before. An OHSU doctor offered more details this week about how the medical team dealt with the case that drew national attention after federal health officials revealed the boy spent 57 days in the hospital at a cost of nearly $1 million and whose parents declined to vaccinate him after the ordeal. (Harbarger, 3/12)

Kansas legislators have a plan to make sure organ donations aren’t shipped off to the coasts: Allow residents to specify that their organs must go to Kansans. Senate Bill 194, which lawmakers discussed in a hearing Tuesday, is intended to ward off new national policies to redistribute organs from areas where donations are more plentiful — such as the Midwest — to areas suffering shortages — such as larger cities. (Marso, 3/13)

Several bills progressing in the Maryland General Assembly would provide support for living organ or tissue donors, and educate high school students about becoming a donor. Sponsored by Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, D-Baltimore City and County, Senate Bill 954 could require county boards of education to begin teaching students about organ donation in public schools starting in the 2020-2021 school year. (Youngmann, 3/12)

The Arizona law, set to take effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends, extends the current maximum time for having a short-term plan under state law from one year to three years. Backers stress that the short-term plans have long existed in Arizona. (Innes, 3/12)

Squeezed by Medicare cuts and a growing number of uninsured patients, rural hospital districts in Texas are worried that the Legislature’s property tax reform package could rock small health care providers or force them to scale back services. Some hospital executives see the legislation — which aims to slow the rate of property tax revenue growth — as potentially the latest in a series of government-inflicted blows that has left many of the state’s rural providers insolvent or with precarious balance sheets. (Najmabadi, 3/13)

Michelle Aldana gave birth to her first child chained to a hospital bed. Then serving time at the Utah state prison on a drug charge, she says she labored through the difficult 2001 birth for nearly 30 hours, her ankles bleeding as the shackles on both her legs and one arm dug in. "I felt like a farm animal," she says. (3/13)

Ohio has no laws against restraining female inmates during their final weeks of pregnancy or even during delivery. That means officials at Ohio's prisons, juvenile detention facilities and local jails must decide whether to use restraints – and their decisions are not always the same. (Balmert, 3/12)

Lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday evening that would ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy. Senate Bill 23 cleared the Ohio Senate Health, Human Services and Medicaid Committee. The committee’s chair, Sen. David Burke, said the goal is to have it on the Senate floor Wednesday. If it passes the Senate, it would head to the Ohio House. (Hancock, 3/12)

A measure that would allow workers to receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year to care for a sick family member is being weighed by the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee. Two similar bills have already cleared the committee; one is headed to the House and the other to the Senate. (Carlesso and Pazniokas, 3/12)

Texas would soon start relying on Uber, Lyft and other ridesharing services to shuttle Medicaid patients to and from the doctor, if a new House bill becomes law. The state is one of several eyeing rideshare as a way to save money and ensure Medicaid patients make it to their health care appointments. Each year an estimated 3.6 million people delay or forgo care due to lack of transportation, studies have found, leaving providers with cancellations and patients with potentially more costly medical issues in the future. (Morris, 3/12)

Gov. Brian Kemp sounded receptive to a measure moving through the Georgia Legislature that would allow medical marijuana oil to be grown, manufactured and sold to registered patients. The Republican told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was impressed by the “strong vote” earlier this month in the House for the measure, which would allow 60 dispensaries to serve the state’s rising number of medical marijuana patients. House Bill 324 was approved by a 123-40 vote. (Bluestein, 3/12)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday will impose an indefinite moratorium on carrying out the death penalty, arguing that the cost, finality and racial imbalance among death-row inmates make the punishment immoral and a public policy “failure,” according to planned remarks released by his office. Newsom will suspend the practice through an executive order that will give a reprieve from execution — though not release — to California’s 737 death row inmates, about a quarter of the nation’s population awaiting capital punishment. The order will also annul California’s lethal injection protocol and close the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison, where the state’s most notorious criminals have been put to death. (Wilson and Berman, 3/12)

The order will prevent the state from putting prisoners to death by granting temporary reprieves to all 737 condemned inmates on California’s death row, the largest in the nation. It will immediately close the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison and scuttle the state’s ongoing efforts to devise a constitutional method for lethal injection. No inmate will be released and no sentence or conviction will be altered, the order says. (Willon, 3/12)

California has the largest number of condemned prisoners in the nation, representing one out of every four Death Row inmates in the United States. “I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people,’’ Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement released late Tuesday. “In short, the death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian.” (Marinucci, 3/12)

Instead, the debate is over how much state money to invest in metal detectors, alarm systems and surveillance cameras versus school counselors and mental health assessments. So far, physical security measures are garnering the lion’s share of dollars in legislative spending proposals. But mental health advocates say they’re confident that the state will make the first substantial investment in school mental health services in decades. (Vestal, 3/13)

Languishing evidence in over 100,000 sexual assault cases around the country has been sent for DNA testing with money from a New York prosecutor and federal authorities, spurring over 1,000 arrests and hundreds of convictions in three years, officials say. It’s estimated that another 155,000 or more sex assault evidence kits still await testing, and thousands of results have yet to be linked to suspects. Many who have been identified can’t be prosecuted because of legal time limits and other factors. (Peltz, 3/12)

Despite opposition from AARP Florida and others, members of the Senate Health Policy Committee approved a bill that would eliminate a mandate that nursing homes provide each patient an average daily minimum of 3.6 hours of direct patient care, 2.5 hours of which must be provided by a certified nursing assistant. Instead, the measure (SB 1088) would require nursing facilities to provide each resident one hour of direct nursing care per day and 3.9 hours of what is called “direct care staffing.” (Sexton, 3/12)

The attorney general of Washington, D.C., has dropped a lawsuit against an area hospital and its owner that was meant to prevent the hospital from ending most services. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a judge dismissed the case against Providence Hospital and Ascension Health last week after D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine filed a motion to dismiss it. Racine’s motion said his office was satisfied with plans submitted by the hospital. (3/13)

The air above this city is raising alarms once again. People who live in Allegheny County, which surrounds Pittsburgh, have lodged more than 2,300 air-quality complaints this year. For most of January, county officials urged residents in 22 municipalities in the Mon Valley nearby to limit outdoor activities out of concern for high levels of sulfur dioxide, and U.S. Steel has begun offering free health screenings. (Maher, 3/12)

Medtronic's Covidien business has agreed to pay $20 million to resolve kickback allegations, becoming the company's third announced federal legal resolution in three months. Medtronic, with operational headquarters in Fridley, agreed in the most recent case to settle claims that Covidien officials provided doctors with free and discounted services until late 2014 to illegally induce sales of its ClosureFast device that were later billed to Medicare and Medicaid programs. (Carlson, 3/12)

For about seven months, doctors at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have been treating patients with CAR-T therapy, a cutting-edge medical procedure that uses a person’s own cells to fight against their cancer. It’s a last-ditch effort that can cure patients who have run out of any other options, but it’s pricey — the medicines themselves cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the extended hospital stay can bring the total bill much higher. (Swetlitz, 3/12)

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) management last Friday called a meeting with Wall Street analysts in what one described as a “semi-urgent fashion” in hopes of convincing investors that its $74 billion bid for Celgene (CELG) really is a good deal. But even after the session, Tim Anderson of Wolfe Research signaled that the odds the transaction will close are “not as high as some are thinking.” The move came a week after two funds opposed the proposal, arguing Bristol stockholders are being asked to accept too much risk, because the transaction is priced “well below” asset value, and “could be more difficult to achieve than depicted” by Bristol management. (Silverman, 3/11)

Kaiser Health News: Generic Humalog Insulin: A New Option, 'Not A Panacea'

When Erin Gilmer filled her insulin prescription at a Denver-area Walgreens in January, she paid $8.50. U.S. taxpayers paid another $280.51. She thinks the price of insulin is too high. "It eats at me to know that taxpayer money is being wasted," says Gilmer, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes while a sophomore at the University of Colorado in 2002. The diagnosis meant that for the rest of her life she'd require daily insulin shots to stay alive. But the price of that insulin is skyrocketing. (Sable-Smith, 3/10)

Six million Americans rely on insulin to survive. Many can no longer afford it. What happens when big pharma, big profits and strong patent laws lead to dying patients? (Chakrabarti, 3/6)

A key House Republican on Tuesday indicated he will not support bills to lower drug prices that will be considered on Wednesday, arguing that Democrats did not include him in the process. Drug pricing is one of the top areas where lawmakers from both parties think they could work together in a bipartisan way this year. But the comments from Rep. Michael Burgess (Texas), the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, indicate that a hearing on the bills on Wednesday will still have some partisan divisions. (Sullivan, 3/12)

A key measure of underlying U.S. inflation unexpectedly eased in February amid falling prices for autos and prescription drugs, giving the Federal Reserve more room to stick to its plan for being patient on raising interest rates. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core consumer price index rose 0.1 percent from the prior month and 2.1 percent from a year earlier, according to a Labor Department report Tuesday. Those figures trailed the median estimates of economists. The broader CPI rose 0.2 percent from January, the first increase in four months, though the 1.5 percent annual gain missed projections and was the smallest rise since 2016. (Kearns, 3/12)

Net spending for retail prescription drug coverage increased from $250.7 billion in 2012 to $341 billion in 2016, according to a new study. Pew Charitable Trusts followed the flow of dollars through the pharmaceutical supply chain, finding that patients are paying more for drugs through their premium dollars, pharmacy benefit managers have passed a growing share of manufacturer rebates to health plans and net pharmacy revenue has more than doubled. (Kacik, 3/8)

A bill building off Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call to import prescription drugs from Canada cleared its first committee stop Tuesday, amid ongoing concerns from some lawmakers about how a potential program would be structured and how much it might save Floridians and the state. The House Health Quality subcommittee voted 12-2 to advance HB 19, which would direct the state Agency for Health Care Administration, via a vendor, to establish a list of drugs and Canadian suppliers that might yield savings for the state. (Koh, 3/12)

As controversy swirls over the use of pharmaceutical coupons, Pfizer (PFE) has agreed to pay $975,000 to settle charges of misleading people who wound up spending much more than expected when they used coupons supplied by the drug maker. This marked the second time in recent months that Pfizer took such a step. Last October, the company reached a $700,000 settlement with New York State over similar allegations. (Silverman, 3/11)

A coalition of Minnesota employers has developed what it calls a “playbook” for tackling drug-price increases, a guide to working with vendors that highlights how health plan expenses have been inflated by the tangled supply chain for pharmaceuticals. The local group’s effort comes as the Trump administration has proposed lowering consumer prices for medicines by changing the system of rebates between drug companies and pharmaceutical benefit manufacturers (PBMs), which manage drug benefits within employer health plans. (Snowbeck, 3/8)

Researchers at Harvard University who want to take drug discoveries from the lab to the market may soon get an infusion of cash. The university plans to announce a partnership Wednesday with Deerfield Management, a health care hedge fund firm that has pledged $100 million to invest in promising potential drugs. (Saltzman, 3/13)

Maine lawmakers are introducing new legislation to lower prescription drug prices. (Merrill, 3/12)

Last month, the Italian government asked the World Health Assembly to adopt a resolution to require drug makers to disclose their R&D and production costs, as well as prices charged for medicines and vaccines. Italian health minister Giulia Grillo wrote to the World Health Organization that “international action is required to improve transparency” in order to widen access to pharmaceuticals. (Silverman, 3/12)

If people in this polarized nation can agree on one thing, it is that prescription drug prices are too high, and that the federal government should do something about it. But it seems unlikely that Congress or the administration will do enough this year to satisfy an enraged public. In the end, if Washington doesn’t overcome industry resistance to reform — in particular, letting the government negotiate the price of drugs purchased by Medicare — whatever actions it takes will be seen as too little, too late by American voters in 2020. (Shelley Lyford, 3/12)

To make medicines more affordable, President Trump insists that “foreign freeloading” must end. He complains that other wealthy countries often pay less for the same drugs while the U.S. is unfairly forced to shoulder higher costs of underwriting pharma R&D. So the administration is pushing a plan to cap what Medicare pays for certain medicines based on prices charged elsewhere. The idea is for Medicare to narrow that gap — and eventually lower costs by 30 percent. (Ed Silverman, 3/7)

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval Tuesday evening of Johnson & Johnson’s depression drug Spravato, a nasal spray that is a close cousin to the anaesthetic and party drug ketamine, is a big deal for patients. The depression medicines available now aren’t always effective and can take weeks to have an impact even when they are. Spravato is the first fast-acting medicine of its kind and works in an entirely different way than current options. The new drug could help people with severe depression and those who don’t respond to conventional treatment. It’s not a silver bullet: The spray has produced mixed data and has significant side effects and abuse potential, which has led to FDA restrictions on its use. Even so, it addresses a large unmet need and has life-changing potential. (Max Nisen, 3/6)

A week ago the Star Tribune featured an illuminating report concerning what the headline pointedly called “drug roulette.” The story lamented that many Minnesotans “pay the price” in various ways for dizzying shifts in the availability and cost of prescription drugs, especially insulin for diabetes. (D.J. Tice, 3/8)

What’s the smallest increment of medical innovation that is worth its cost to society? That question underpins some of the controversy surrounding drug pricing. Is it innovative to turn a twice-daily pill into a once-daily pill or an intravenously administered drug into a simpler injection, or to combine two generic drugs into a single pill? Each of these represents a patent-protected upgrade that was launched at typical branded-drug prices. (Peter Kolchinsky, 3/7)

Four million babies will be born in the U.S. this year, each one a bundle of infinite potential. They’re the next generation of doctors, scientists, artists, parents, educators and leaders. Science tells us that their early life experiences, from how they are nurtured and the food they eat, to the quality of early learning opportunities and health care they receive, will lay the foundation for lifelong health and well-being. In fact, our brains develop faster in this time than at any later point in our lives. New data from ZERO TO THREE and Child Trends, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also tells us that where you’re born matters and can make a big difference in your chance for a strong start in life. (Myra Jones-Taylor, 3/12)

David Oliver wins gift cards for staying away from drugs. At St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia — which treats more overdoses than any other hospital in Canada — a program rewards users of cocaine and other stimulants with prizes when they don’t use. It’s a new approach to help substance abusers, and it’s also being tried in Veterans Affairs hospitals across the United States. “I was sober for 19 years from cocaine and 14 from alcohol,” said Mr. Oliver, who is 58. But then, he said, he started using cocaine again in 2013 after feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of two jobs, a marriage, and raising two boys. (Sahil Gupta, 3/12)

“What traditions do you want to follow for your baby?” asked the midwife leading our prenatal education group. As we went around the circle of parents-to-be, most couples discussed holiday traditions, camping trips, and weekend routines. When it was my turn to share, I thought about the pseudoscience that had been espoused in this group — the alleged benefits of eating the placenta, theories about the harmful effects of vaccines, and the like. “I want a facts-based, scientific household,” I said. “For example, is breastfeeding better than formula? To me the only thing that matters is the clear scientific consensus that breastfed infants grow up to be, on average, advantaged in some way — maybe healthier or smarter.” (David Johnson, 3/13)

While many people were paying attention to drug pricing, a proposal to update the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) flew largely under the radar. But if this proposal — or others like it — were to be implemented, they would reach farther than any proposal to lower drug prices to create better, more personalized health care at lower cost. (David Friend, 3/13)

Five years ago, a Brazilian woman in labor was detained by police officers and forced to deliver by C-section. The woman, Adelir de Goes, had already had two cesarean sections — an all-too-common procedure in my country — and was hoping to deliver her third child vaginally. But her baby was in breech presentation. Doctors felt that a vaginal birth would put the baby in danger. (Vanessa Barbara, 3/11)

For decades, national surveys have shown that older adults prefer to age in place, in familiar surroundings. These surveys underscore the fact that, “There’s just no place like home.” This is not just a tagline for United HomeCare, it’s an integral part of our corporate DNA and mission.As Florida’s population ages, we must strengthen safety net programs for home- and community-based care. These programs include the state-funded Community Care for the Elderly (CCE) and Home Care for the Elderly (HCE). Both are essential for helping older adults who do not qualify for Medicaid to continue living independently at home for as long as possible, preventing institutional care. (Carlos L. Martinez, 3/12)

Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to reveal his first two-year budget proposal later this week, possibly fleshing out funding sources for many of the priorities he outlined in his State of the State message last week. What DeWine should not do is harm the Local Government Fund -- previously raided by former Gov. John Kasich. Kasich’s cuts hurt localities and contravened a longstanding revenue-sharing paradigm in Ohio. If anything, DeWine should look for ways to restore most of those cuts. (3/13)

Abortion is a divisive moral and political issue that generates ceaseless heated debate, as it should. However, it also entices those who feel passionately about it, one way or the other, to use politics to shut down the other side. (Dan Walters, 3/11)