First Edition: January 24, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Students With Addictions Immersed In The Sober Life At ‘Recovery’ High Schools
It’s the last class period of the day. The students lean back on couches and take turns describing the most important day of their lives: the day they became sober. For Marques Martinez, that date was Nov. 15, 2016. Until then, he had used OxyContin, Xanax and nearly every other drug he could get his hands on, he said. He had been suspended from school for selling drugs. “I knew what I was doing was bad,” he said. “But I didn’t think there was another way.” (Gorman, 1/24)
Kaiser Health News:
Trump Zeroes In On Surprise Medical Bills In White House Chat With Patients, Experts
David Silverstein, the founder of a Colorado-based nonprofit called Broken Healthcare who attended, said Trump struck an aggressive tone, calling for a solution with “the biggest teeth you can find.” “Reading the tea leaves, I think there’s big change coming,” Silverstein said. Surprise billing, or the practice of charging patients for care that is more expensive than anticipated or not covered by their insurance, has received a flood of attention in the past year, particularly as Kaiser Health News and other news organizations have undertaken investigations into patients’ most outrageous medical bills. (Huetteman, 1/23)
Kaiser Health News:
Listen: ‘Death Certificate Project’ Aims At Opioid Crisis, But Doctors Cry Foul
On “All Things Considered” Thursday, KQED’s April Dembosky reports on the California medical board’s Death Certificate Project, which collected almost 3,000 death certificates of people who died of opioid overdoses, then cross-referenced those with the state’s drug prescription database. The board then sent letters to more than 500 doctors throughout the state who had prescribed the drugs to the people who died. The board has filed formal charges against 25 doctors, and left hundreds more, like Dr. Ako Jacintho of San Francisco, waiting to learn their fate. (Dembosky, 1/23)
The Hill:
Trump Calls For Cracking Down On Surprise Medical Bills
President Trump on Wednesday spoke out against surprise medical bills that patients often cannot afford, highlighting an issue that has received bipartisan concern in Congress. “The health care system too often harms people with some unfair surprises ... medical bills and the like,” Trump said at a roundtable at the White House, along with patients who had received unexpectedly large bills from hospitals. (Sullivan, 1/23)
Modern Healthcare:
Trump Vows To End Balance Billing
"We're going to stop all of it, and it's very important to me," Trump said as cameras rolled during the portion of a roundtable discussion on healthcare with his top deputies and patients from around the country with stories of unexpected high medical costs. Senators from both parties are currently working on legislation to stop insurers and hospitals from leaving patients to foot the bill for high and unexpected medical bills. (Luthi, 1/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Shutdown Poses Risk To Health Care
The longest-ever U.S. government shutdown is posing new risks to the Affordable Care Act and some health services, prompting alarm from insurers, providers and congressional Democrats who say the impasse could harm consumers and undermine the stability of the individual insurance market. Ongoing staffing shortages at the Internal Revenue Service could lead to higher premiums for some consumers who need tax credits to help pay their health-insurance premiums, Democrats say. (Armour, 1/23)
Reuters:
Furloughed Federal Workers May Lose Some Health Benefits: U.S. Senators
Four U.S. senators expressed concern on Wednesday that federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown could lose their dental and vision health insurance benefits if they are unable to pay their premiums. In a letter to the government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Democratic Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin said forcing workers to pay the premiums during the shutdown would be "unacceptable." (1/23)
The Washington Post:
Federal Workers Affected By Partial Shutdown To Be Billed For Dental, Vision Coverage
The workers are not at risk of losing their health insurance benefits, which will stay in effect through the duration of the shutdown — and for as long as a year — even if they are not receiving a paycheck, with their accumulated premiums deducted from their pay once their agency reopens. However, that protection does not extend to vision and dental insurance, and starting with their second missed paycheck at the end of this week, employees will be billed directly for premiums for dental and vision coverage. If the shutdown continues for another two weeks into a third missed pay period, the company that provides long-term care insurance to federal workers also will start billing them directly. (Rein and Yoder, 1/23)
CNN:
Amid Government Shutdown, Workers Face Health Struggles
The government shutdown has hit much more than some workers' wallets -- it has affected their health. Tamela Worthen hasn't been able to afford her diabetes medication in a week, she said. Yvette Hicks said that her children haven't been able to receive their proper asthma treatment. John Kostelnik said he won't be able to find out whether he has cancer until the shutdown is over. (Howard and Bracho-Sanchez, 1/22)
CQ:
Shutdown Highlights Desire For Action On Indian Health
The shutdown is putting a strain on health care services for American Indians, but lawmakers hope it can be an inflection point in addressing some of the troubled Indian Health Service’s problems. The Indian Health Service provides care for 2.2 million American Indians either through direct care at its facilities, care purchased from third-parties or funding to tribes who run their own health systems. (Siddons, 1/23)
The Washington Post:
Americans Across The Country Are Helping Feed Federal Workers As The Shutdown Enters Its Second Month
They are the workers whose jobs serve the people of the United States. But as the partial government shutdown enters its second month, with no apparent end in sight, thousands of government employees now are relying on the people of the United States to help them feed their own families. It’s like one giant government bread line — except for government workers. The outpouring of support has been widespread and creative, high-profile and grass-roots. For every relief kitchen opened by José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen — the celebrity chef and humanitarian recently said more kitchens are coming after the first one debuted last week in Washington — there are countless small markets and programs. (Carman, 1/23)
Arizona Republic:
Nurse Arrested In Sexual Assault Of Incapacitated Woman At Phoenix Facility
Phoenix police arrested a 36-year-old nurse at Hacienda HealthCare facility, alleging he sexually assaulted and impregnated an incapacitated woman at the center. The woman gave birth to a boy Dec. 29. Staff members told a 911 operator that they had not known she was pregnant. "From the minute we first became aware of the crime, we have virtually worked non stop seven days a week to resolve this case," Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said in announcing the arrest Wednesday morning. (Burkitt, Shuman and Harris, 1/23)
The New York Times:
Nurse Charged With Sexual Assault Of Woman In Vegetative State Who Gave Birth
Detectives at the Phoenix Police Department took the nurse, Nathan Sutherland, 36, in for questioning in the case on Tuesday, the police said, and collected a DNA sample from him that matched that of the child, a boy who was born on Dec. 29. Mr. Sutherland was booked on Wednesday morning at the Maricopa County Jail on one charge of sexual assault and one charge of vulnerable adult abuse, the police said. “Through a combination of good old-fashioned police work, combing through evidence, talking to people and following up on information, combined with the marvels of DNA technology, we were able to identify and develop probable cause to arrest a suspect,” Jeri L. Williams, the Police Department’s chief, said at a news conference on Wednesday. (Haag, 1/23)
The Associated Press:
Lawyer: No Proof Nurse Raped Arizona Patient Who Had Baby
The surprise birth late last month triggered reviews by state agencies, highlighted safety concerns for patients who are severely disabled or incapacitated and led to disciplinary actions and resignations of staffers and managers. It also prompted authorities to test the DNA of all the men who worked at the Hacienda HealthCare facility. (Tang, 1/23)
CNN:
How To Protect A Loved One From Sexual Assault Or Abuse In A Nursing Home
It's the stuff of nightmares: Your loved one, who you thought was being well cared for in a long-term care facility or nursing home, was physically abused, raped or even impregnated. And you had no idea it was happening. The family of a 23-year-old developmentally disabled women faced that horrific reality last February, after authorities discovered signs of sexual assault and a broken hip while she was living at a healthcare facility in Pensacola, Florida. The violent assault resulted in a pregnancy and later miscarriage, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. (LaMotte, 1/18)
The New York Times:
After Falling Under Obama, America’s Uninsured Rate Looks To Be Rising
The number of Americans without health insurance plunged after Obamacare started. Now, early evidence suggests, it’s beginning to climb again. New polling from Gallup shows that the percentage of uninsured Americans inched up throughout last year. That trend matches other data suggesting that health coverage has been eroding under the policies of the Trump administration. (Sanger-Katz, 1/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
More Americans Lack Health Insurance, New Survey Finds
The percentage of adults without health insurance climbed to 13.7% in the fourth quarter of 2018, from 12.4% a year earlier and a low of 10.9% in 2016, according to a closely followed Gallup report released Wednesday. The Gallup data is based on self-reported responses from tens of thousands of adults, and has been used in reports produced by policy makers. About seven million more Americans lacked health insurance in the fourth quarter compared with the 2016 period, according to Gallup. Women, low-income people and younger adults saw the greatest rise in the uninsured rate, the poll found. (Armour, 1/23)
The Hill:
Uninsured Rate At Highest Level Since 2014
Gallup says ObamaCare's premium increases in recent years could contribute to a higher uninsured rate. The administration's funding cuts to ObamaCare's marketing and outreach budget could also have effected uninsured rates, Gallup said. Other factors include a shorter enrollment period and confusion caused by the GOP's efforts to repeal and replace the law in 2017, the survey states. (Hellmann, 1/23)
Stat:
Trump Plan To Put Drug Prices In Ads Might Work, But Not If Pharma Gets Its Way
A Trump administration proposal to require drug makers to advertise prices in television ads could dissuade consumers from considering pricey medicines, according to a new study. But this reaction was mitigated when ads mentioned some patients may be able to receive the treatment for nothing, which is language that drug makers are pushing to include in the White House scheme. The researchers showed five different ads to 580 people about a fictitious diabetes drug. One ad did not mention price, another indicated the drug cost $50 a month, and still another cited $15,500 a month. Two other ads also mentioned each price, respectively, but added a line that “eligible patients” may be able to get the drug for as little as $0 a month, according to the study in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Silverman, 1/23)
Stat:
Some PhRMA Criticisms Of Trump’s Foreign Drug Pricing Plan Ring Hollow
The pharmaceutical industry’s Washington lobbying group is fighting full force to scuttle a Trump administration policy proposal that would tie the price of drugs in the U.S. to their costs abroad — and making a handful of specious arguments along the way, health policy experts told STAT. PhRMA has launched a multipronged attack against the proposal, arguing that it would, in effect, make health care in America more closely resemble systems in Europe. Patients wouldn’t be able to get as many new drugs and might suffer as a result, they say. (Swetlitz, 1/24)
Stat:
Concerned About Gawande’s New Venture, Optum Sues Over Trade Secrets
One of the nation’s largest health insurers has filed a federal lawsuit to protect its trade secrets from the health care venture launched by Amazon, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Berkshire Hathaway, making it clear it sees the upstart company as posing a major threat to its business on a national scale. The lawsuit, filed by Optum Inc. in Massachusetts District Court in Boston on Jan. 16, seeks a court order to block one of its former executives, David Smith, from sharing confidential corporate information he allegedly accessed just before he was hired by the new health care company last month. (Sheridan and Ross, 1/23)
NPR:
Juul Labs Lobbies Lawmakers
The presence of Juul e-cigarettes in high schools across the country is increasing — and so is Juul Labs' lobbying presence in the nation's capital. The company, which bills its product as "a satisfying alternative to cigarettes," spent $750,000 on lobbying during the last three months of 2018, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with Congress on Tuesday. (McMinn, 1/23)
The New York Times:
How To Stop Rogue Gene-Editing Of Human Embryos?
A year ago, Dr. Matthew Porteus, a genetics researcher at Stanford, received an out-of-the-blue email from a young Chinese scientist, asking to meet. A few weeks later, the scientist, He Jiankui, arrived in his office and dropped a bombshell. He said he had approval from a Chinese ethics board to create pregnancies using human embryos that he had genetically edited, a type of experiment that had never been carried out before and is illegal in many countries. “I spent probably 40 minutes or so telling him in no uncertain terms how wrong that was, how reckless,” Dr. Porteus said in a recent interview. (Belluck, 1/23)
Stat:
Flu Science Points To Another Culprit When Vaccines Fail — Us
A growing body of evidence suggests that sometimes our immune systems simply don’t follow the instructions a vaccine tries to give them — that is, make antibodies to fight a particular H3N2 or H1N1 virus. The reason? We all have flu baggage that shapes the way our immune systems respond to both infections and vaccines. ...The idea is that the first flu viruses your immune system encounters make indelible marks on it. A person born in 1970 whose first influenza A infection was caused by an H3N2 virus will always mount a better immune response to H3N2 viruses — or that component of the vaccine — than she will to an H1N1 virus or vaccine. (Branswell, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
U.S. Medical Tourists In Tijuana Contract Rare, Antibiotic-Resistant Infection
Tamika Capone thought she was making a smart call by traveling to Mexico for bariatric surgery. Her doctor had urged her to have the procedure to reduce her out-of-control weight and blood pressure. But her husband’s health insurance would not cover the $17,500 bill. After a friend got the surgery in Tijuana for $4,000, Capone decided to do the same. Nearly four months later, the Arkansas woman is one of at least a dozen U.S. residents who returned from surgeries in Tijuana with a rare and potentially deadly strain of bacteria resistant to virtually all antibiotics, say federal health officials. Some in the group recovered, but Capone, 40, remains seriously ill despite being treated with a barrage of drugs. (Sun, 1/23)
The New York Times:
Spinal Fractures Can Be Terribly Painful. A Common Treatment Isn’t Helping.
Scientists warned osteoporosis patients on Thursday to avoid two common procedures used to shore up painful fractures in crumbling spines. The treatments, which involve injecting bone cement into broken vertebrae, relieve pain no better than a placebo does, according to an expert task force convened by the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. (Kolata, 1/24)
The New York Times:
Her Daughter, Born With A Dangerous Infection, Needs Close Care
For Luisa Estefany Jimenez, silence is elusive, sleep even more so. At all hours, her eldest daughter, Jasleen, 9, emits screams and moans that echo through their apartment, threatening to wake the neighbors. The clangs and bangs of thrown objects don’t help. Ms. Jimenez said caring for Jasleen, who is deaf and has trouble communicating, has made her feel perpetually unsettled. She has two other daughters, as well, and is candid about feeling overwhelmed. (Otis, 1/23)
The New York Times:
Fried Foods Tied To Heart Disease In Women
Eating fried foods may increase the risk of heart disease and death in women over 50. Researchers used health and dietary data on 106,966 postmenopausal women enrolled in a large health study between 1993 and 1998, and followed their health through the beginning of 2017. (Bakalar, 1/23)
CNN:
These Are The Hidden Pitfalls Of Popular Diets You Just Resolved To Follow
If you've resolved to eat healthier at one point or another, you may have been enticed by popular nutrition trends, like organic or gluten-free eating, or even vegetarianism. Although these seemingly healthy eating styles may be tempting to try, if you're not careful with what or how much you eat, you could end up sabotaging your efforts and gaining weight. "People get caught up on going gluten-free, organic, low-sugar or whatever but then totally disregard portions, which can lead to significant weight gain over time," said Lisa Young, a registered dietitian nutritionist and author of "Finally Full, Finally Slim: 30 Days to Permanent Weight Loss One Portion at a Time." (Drayer, 1/23)
The New York Times:
Even Modest Blood Pressure Elevation In Young Adults May Take A Toll On The Brain
Elevated blood pressure in people under 40 is associated with reduced brain volume, a new study has found. The effect was apparent even in people with blood pressure readings in the range generally considered normal. The analysis, published in Neurology, included 423 adults between 19 and 40 who had their blood pressure measured and underwent M.R.I. examinations of the brain. Researchers divided the blood pressure findings into categories increasing in four steps from under 120/80 to greater than 140/90. (Bakalar, 1/23)
CNN:
Climate Change Will Affect How Many Boys Are Born Worldwide, Scientists Say
Global warming will have a variety of effects on our planet, yet it may also directly impact our human biology, research suggests. Specifically, climate change could alter the proportion of male and female newborns, with more boys born in places where temperatures rise and fewer boys born in places with other environmental changes, such as drought or wildfire caused by global warming. (Scutti, 1/23)
NPR:
Health Effects Of Pregnancy Can Last A Lifetime
Melody Lynch-Kimery had a fairly routine pregnancy. But when she got to the hospital for delivery, she says, things quickly turned frightening. After an emergency cesarean section, Lynch-Kimery hemorrhaged; she heard later she'd lost about half the blood in her body. "I just kept thinking 'I'm not going to die. I'm not going to die. I'm not going to let you let me die,'" she says. (Bavis, 1/24)
The New York Times:
Mentally Ill Prisoners Are Held Past Release Dates, Lawsuit Claims
On paper, a 31-year-old man found to have serious mental illnesses was released from a New York state prison in September 2017 after serving 10 years behind bars for two robberies. But in reality, the man, who asked to be identified by his initials C.J., still wakes up each day inside a maximum-security prison in Stormville. Though he is technically free, he is still confined to a cell because of a Kafkaesque bureaucratic dilemma: The state requires people like him to be released to a supportive housing facility, but there is not one available. (Southall, 1/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Gavin Newsom Makes Aggressive, Early Moves On His Gun Control Agenda For California
Gavin Newsom won the governorship in part by touting his leadership on gun control as the architect of Proposition 63, a 2016 initiative that put him at loggerheads with the National Rifle Assn. Now, in his first weeks in office, Newsom has already moved to significantly reduce the number of Californians with firearms. Gun rights advocates are sounding almost nostalgic for his predecessor, fellow Democrat Jerry Brown, a gun owner who signed several far-reaching gun control measures, including a ban on the sale of long guns to those under age 21, but vetoed others. (McGreevy, 1/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
Washington State Becomes Latest Hot Spot In Measles Outbreak
The U.S. is experiencing outbreaks of measles, a disease it had declared eliminated years ago, largely due to a drop in vaccination rates in some areas. An outbreak in Washington state has sickened 23 people this month, mostly children under 10. Local health officials in Clark County, near Portland, Ore., declared a public-health emergency on Friday and are urging residents to track potential symptoms and call ahead before heading to medical centers. (Abbott, 1/23)
The Associated Press:
Hospital: 'Poor Decisions' By Staff Giving Outsize Pain Meds
An Ohio doctor's orders for potentially fatal doses of pain medicine given to at least 27 hospital patients were carried out by employees who "made poor decisions" and ignored existing safeguards, a top administrator told staff in an internal video. The Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System said it fired the intensive care doctor, reported its findings to authorities and has put six pharmacists and 14 nurses on paid leave pending further review. (1/23)
The Associated Press:
Doctor Reprimanded For Removing Wrong Man’s Kidney
A Massachusetts doctor who removed a kidney from the wrong patient has received a reprimand from the state. The Telegram & Gazette reports Tuesday that the state Board of Registration in Medicine issued its reprimand to Dr. Ankur Parikh last month after he admitted to the error. The board says in 2016 the urologist removed a healthy kidney from 65-year-old Albert Hubbard Jr. after mistakenly reading the CT scan of another man with the same name. (1/23)