First Edition: January 9, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Her Sister’s Keeper: Caring For A Sibling With Mental Illness
When sisters Jean and Ruby were growing up in Harlem, they invented a game of make-believe called “Eartha.” The little girls would put on their prettiest dresses and shiniest shoes and sit down to tea as grown-up ladies. They discussed details of their hoped-for husbands and children, and all the exciting things they would do together. But 45 years later, the sisters’ lives are nothing like they imagined. Ruby Wilson, 54, has paranoid schizophrenia and lives in an assisted living facility in North Carolina. Her sister Jean Moore, 57, is her legal guardian. (Gold, 1/9)
Kaiser Health News:
Despite Prod By ACA, Tax-Exempt Hospitals Slow To Expand Community Benefits
The federal health law’s efforts to get nonprofit hospitals to provide more community-wide benefits in exchange for their lucrative tax status has gotten off to a slow start, new research suggests. And some experts predict that a recent repeal of a key provision of the law could further strain the effort. The increased emphasis on community-wide benefits was mandated by the Affordable Care Act. The health law required hospitals that meet federal tax standards to be nonprofits to perform a community health needs assessment (CHNA) every three years, followed by implementing a strategy to deal with issues confronting the community, such as preventing violence or lowering the rates of diabetes. (Connor, 1/8)
California Healthline:
Defending Against This Season’s Deadly Flu: 5 Things To Know Now
Aja C. Holmes planned to go to work last week, but her flu symptoms — a cough, fever and severe body aches that worsened overnight — had other ideas. “It felt like somebody took a bat and beat my body up and down,” said Holmes, 39, who works as a residential life director at California State University-Sacramento. “I couldn’t get out of bed.” The nation is having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad flu season. (Ostrov, 1/8)
The Washington Post:
Senate Finance Committee To Evaluate Alex Azar To Be The Next HHS Secretary
Alex Azar, the White House’s choice to become the second health and human services secretary in less than a year, will appear for his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, giving Democrats a chance to probe his drug industry ties but not halt his path toward joining the president’s Cabinet. The 10 a.m. hearing before the Senate Finance Committee will give Azar’s Democratic critics a forum to contend that his role in helping to approve rising pharmaceutical prices while a top executive of Eli Lilly means he is ill-suited to carry out President Trump’s stated goal of making medicines more affordable. (Goldstein and Eilperin, 1/8)
Politico:
HHS Nominee's Mission Is To Finish The Job On Obamacare
President Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary is on the verge of taking control of the department with a clear mandate: Take down Obamacare from the inside. With Republicans stalled on repeal, the GOP is looking to Alex Azar to put a conservative stamp on the health care system through shrewd rulemaking and the use of expansive regulatory powers — and all without the help of a Congress that’s failed to scrap the 2010 health care law. (Cancryn, 1/9)
The Hill:
House Dems Sound Alarm About Trump Health Nominee
A group of House Democrats want the Senate Finance Committee to question President Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary about high drug prices at his former employer, Eli Lilly. In a letter to Finance Committee leaders, led by Texas Reps. Beto O'Rourke and Lloyd Doggett, the Democrats said Alex Azar should also be pressed on his commitment to uphold the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare. (Weixel, 1/8)
The Hill:
Pro-ACA Group Urges 'No' Vote On Trump Health Nominee
A leading pro-ObamaCare group is urging senators to vote "no" on President Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary nominee, saying he will continue a campaign of “sabotage” against the health law. The group, Protect Our Care, unveiled a digital ad that urges lawmakers to oppose the nominee, Alex Azar. (Sullivan, 1/8)
The Associated Press:
Budget Office Cuts Cost Estimate Of Children's Insurance
Congress' official budget analysts have eased one stumbling block to lawmakers' fight over renewing a program that provides health insurance for nearly 9 million low-income children. The Congressional Budget Office says a Senate bill adding five years of financing to the program would cost $800 million. Previously, the analysts estimated it would cost $8.2 billion. That means lawmakers should find it much easier to agree to a way to pay for extending the program. (Fram, 1/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
Republicans Scale Down Agenda For Safety-Net Programs, Health Law
Republicans are scaling back their ambitions to overhaul safety-net programs and dismantle the Affordable Care Act following President Donald Trump’s weekend retreat with GOP leaders, due to concerns they can’t muster enough support ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Instead, Republican lawmakers are likely to embrace a slimmed-down agenda focused on the basics, including funding the government, raising the government debt limit and striking a deal on immigration, according to GOP lawmakers and aides. (Peterson and Armour, 1/9)
Reuters:
Factbox: What Republicans Mean When They Talk About U.S. Welfare Reform
President Donald Trump had indicated he would like to rein in spending on U.S. social welfare programs to follow up on his 2017 victory in overhauling the U.S. tax code. Some Republicans, including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, welcomed the effort. Others, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, indicated they are hesitant to tackle this politically volatile issue in a congressional election year. (Becker, 1/8)
Reuters:
Centene Says Over 1.4 Million Sign Up For Obamacare Plans
U.S. health insurer Centene Corp said on Monday more than 1.4 million people had paid for its insurance plans via the federal Obamacare marketplace as of Jan. 7. "The growth in the exchange has been so dramatic ... We had planned on incremental growth, but not that much," Centene Chief Executive Michael Neidorff said, adding "We've had people working all weekend, playing catchup." (Mathias, 1/8)
The Hill:
Profit Outlook Brightens For ObamaCare Insurers
The ObamaCare doomsday scenario that many Republicans and Democrats predicted for 2018 is unlikely to come to pass, with insurers having adapted to the uncertainty that marked President Trump’s first year in office. Insurers who decided to stick with ObamaCare after a tumultuous 2017 are likely to have a relatively profitable year, analysts and experts predict, for reasons including higher-than-expected enrollment. (Hellmann, 1/9)
The Associated Press:
Maryland Officials To Announce Plan To Protect ACA
Maryland lawmakers are scheduled to outline a plan on how to protect and improve the federal Affordable Care Act in Maryland. Lawmakers will announce the plan Tuesday in Annapolis. State Sens. Brian Feldman and Jim Rosapepe are scheduled to attend, as well as Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk. (1/9)
Stat:
In States That Didn't Expand Medicaid, Hospital Closures Have Spiked
In recent years Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has created a financial fault line in American health care. Hospitals in states that enacted the expansion got a wave of newly insured patients, while those in states that rejected it were left with large numbers of uninsured individuals. A new study released Monday reports a crucial consequence of that divide: Nonexpansion states have suffered a significant increase in hospital closures. States that expanded benefits, on the other hand, saw their rate of closures decline. (Ross,1/8)
NPR:
Hospitals In States With Medicaid Expansion Are Surviving
Hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid were about 6 times less likely to close than hospitals in non-expansion states, according to a study by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The study was published Monday in the January edition of the journal Health Affairs. Colorado was one of 32 states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That cut the state's uninsured rate in half. The biggest group that got coverage was childless adults. (Daley, 1/8)
The New York Times:
Already ‘Moderately Severe,’ Flu Season In U.S. Could Get Worse
This winter’s flu season is turning into a “moderately severe” one that might get worse because of an imperfect vaccine and steady cold weather, flu experts and public health officials said this week. The flu is now widespread across the country and the peak of transmission probably occurred during the Christmas-New Year’s holiday week, just as many people were crowded into planes, buses and cars or in large family gatherings, said Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, director of the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (McNeil, 1/8)
The Washington Post:
The White House Struggles To Silence Talk Of Trump’s Mental Fitness
The White House is struggling to contain the national discussion about President Trump’s mental acuity and fitness for the job, which has overshadowed the administration’s agenda for the past week. Trump publicly waded into the debate spawned by a new book, “Fire and Fury” — Michael Wolff’s inside account of the presidency — over the weekend by claiming on Twitter that he is “like, really smart” and “a very stable genius.” In doing so, the president underscored his administration’s response strategy — by being forceful and combative — while also undermining it by gleefully entering a debate his aides have tried to avoid. (Rucker and Parker, 1/8)
Stat:
How To Determine Trump's Mental Fitness? Reliable Cognitive Tests Exist
When President Trump has his physical exam on Friday, there is little chance he will repeat the same story within a span of 10 minutes or fail to recognize old friends, as the explosive new book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff asserts he has done in the past. But the mental deterioration that causes such memory lapses would be detectable on standard cognitive tests. The White House told reporters on Monday that psychiatric tests would not be conducted as part of the president’s physical, but did not explicitly rule out cognitive assessments. (Begley, 1/9)
Politico:
Is Trump Mentally Fit? Don't Count On His Physical To Tell You
If President Donald Trump were any other 71-year-old — covered by Medicare and having his annual wellness visit — he'd be checked on his cognitive functions and possible safety risks. But when the president goes for his physical exam Friday, the White House said his mental fitness won't be tested. And there's no guarantee that the public would find out the results of cognitive tests if Trump were to take them. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said such tests are not part of the president’s planned physical. "He's sharp as a tack. He's a workhorse, and he demands his staff be the same way," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. (Diamond and Cancryn, 1/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Banning Seven Words At The CDC Would Have At Least Seven Serious Consequences For Public Health
"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words," George Orwell writes in the fifth chapter of his dystopian novel, "1984." Four public health experts from Emory University in Atlanta, just a stone's throw from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, beg to differ. In an editorial published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, they said it would be "damning, immoral and unacceptable" for CDC officials to act on reported admonitions from the Trump administration to avoid the use of seven words and phrases in the agency's official budget documents. (Healy, 1/8)
The Washington Post:
Court To Weigh If One Parent Has The Right To Use Frozen Embryos If The Other Objects
During three emotional days of divorce talks, Drake and Mandy Rooks managed to agree on how to divide up almost every aspect of their old lives down to the last piece of furniture. Only one thing remained: the frozen embryos. There were six of them, created from his sperm and her eggs, and they had been left over from when the couple had gone through in vitro fertilization some years earlier. The couple had had three children using the technology, and Drake was done. He didn’t want any more children in general, and certainly not with Mandy. She felt differently. (Cha, 1/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Why The United States Is 'The Most Dangerous Of Wealthy Nations For A Child To Be Born Into'
It's no surprise that the United States ranks absolutely last in child mortality among the world's wealthiest countries — that's been true for years. A new study examines how this sad situation came to be. According to data from the World Health Organization and the global Human Mortality Database, the problems go all the way back to the 1960s. It was during that decade that the U.S. infant mortality rate (for babies less than a year old) and the U.S. childhood mortality rate (for those between the ages of 1 and 19) began to exceed the combined rates for the other 19 richest nations. (Kaplan, 1/8)
The New York Times:
Brain Surgery In 3-D: Coming Soon To The Operating Theater
One blue surgical drape at a time, the patient disappeared, until all that showed was a triangle of her shaved scalp. “Ten seconds of quiet in the room, please,” said Dr. David J. Langer, the chairman of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, part of Northwell Health. Silence fell, until he said, “O.K., I’ll take the scissors.” His patient, Anita Roy, 66, had impaired blood flow to the left side of her brain, and Dr. Langer was about to perform bypass surgery on slender, delicate arteries to restore the circulation and prevent a stroke. (Grady, 1/8)
NPR:
Experimental Capsule Samples Gases As It Passes Through The Gut
To study the human gut and the microbes that live within it, scientists have a couple of options. They can grab a small piece of tissue from the gastrointestinal tract or collect a sample of fecal matter. Neither way is ideal, says Jack Gilbert, a microbiologist and director of the Microbiome Center at the University of Chicago. "By studying [the sample], you're changing it, just by observing it, because you have to cut it out and analyze it," he says. (Chen, 1/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
Apple Defends Its Smartphone Practices For Children After Investor Critique
Apple Inc. defended its record of providing parental controls and other protections for children who use its iPhones and other devices, after a pair of prominent investors called on the tech giant to take more steps to curb the ill effects of smartphones. In a statement late Monday, Apple said that its mobile software includes extensive parental controls governing different types of content and applications, noting that it started offering some of them as early as 2008. (Mickle, 1/8)
USA Today:
Dry January: What Are The Benefits? And Is It Worth It?
With the booze-filled December behind us, many Americans will try to make up for their eggnogs, wines and other holiday spirits with Dry January, a 31-day break from all alcohol. The practice gained popularity after a British nonprofit promoted it in 2013, becoming a government-backed public health campaign the next year aimed at improving health, trimming waistlines and fattening wallets. But will putting down the bottles for a month make up for the recent weeks' revelry? Yes and no, according to a smattering of data and experts on the subject. It might depend on your goal. (Hafner, 1/8)
Stat:
Intellia And Editas Play Down CRISPR Findings, As Shares Fall On New Paper
Top executives for genome-editing companies on Monday pushed back against a new unpublished paper that raised concerns about preexisting immune responses to CRISPR-based therapies, insisting the issues outlined in the study were either already being addressed or were not relevant to the medicines being developed. The paper, which was posted Friday on the preprint site bioRxiv, sent shares of Intellia Therapeutics and Editas Medicine down sharply Monday morning. Shares of CRISPR Therapeutics also declined. (Joseph, 1/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
Walk-In Doctor Visits At Work? Welcome To The Office Health Center
On Wednesday mornings, Stephen Fealy, an orthopedic surgeon in New York, heads downtown to see his patients. But instead of going to his office, Dr. Fealy sees patients in theirs—at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He examines a couple of dozen Goldman employees, from managing directors to junior analysts and administrative assistants. Dr. Fealy, a sports-medicine specialist with the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, works alongside several other physicians at the Goldman Sachs clinic on the 10th floor of the firm’s headquarters, near Wall Street. (Lagnado, 1/8)
USA Today:
Burn Injuries May Have Found Hairy Solution
Hairy skin may not seem like a desirable thing — until you don't have it. Burn and blast victims who require skin reconstruction often do not develop hair follicles or sweat glands on their new skin, which can have a physiological as well as cosmetic impact. Sweat glands aid with thermoregulation and hair can help mediate the sense of touch. So researchers have long sought a way to develop better replacement skin that would allow its wearer to sweat and sport hair, just like those who have not undergone such procedures. (Rudavsky, 1/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Romaine Lettuce Is A Bad Choice Right Now, Health Agencies Warn
If you've somehow missed the huge warnings so far, we beg of you: Do not eat romaine lettuce. There's no official government recall in the United States - yet. But with two dead and many more sickened in the United States and Canada, major health organizations are advising you avoid the stuff. This all began in December, when the Canadian Government warned consumers to avoid romaine due to potential contamination with E. coli. (van Hare, 1/8)
The New York Times:
A Heart Risk Factor Even Doctors Know Little About
To millions of Americans, Bob Harper was the picture of health, a celebrity fitness trainer who whipped people into shape each week on the hit TV show “The Biggest Loser.” But last February, Mr. Harper, 52, suffered a massive heart attack at a New York City gym and went into cardiac arrest. He was saved by a bystander who administered CPR and a team of paramedics who rushed him to a hospital, where he spent two days in a coma. (O'Connor, 1/9)
The Washington Post:
Feds Approve Extension Of Maryland’s ‘All Payer’ Hospital Model
Federal health officials have authorized Maryland to continue its unique “all payer” health-care model for hospitals through 2019, while the state seeks approval to apply a similar plan to outpatient service providers such as doctors, skilled nurses and rehabilitation centers. Officials say expanding the program, which regulates how much hospitals can charge in exchange for having the federal government cover a larger share of Medicare costs than it does in other states, is one of the strongest steps Maryland can take to fulfill a federal requirement to lower its annual Medicare costs by $330 million. (Hicks, 1/8)