First Edition: May 30, 207
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Consumer Advocates Wary Of New Marketplace Rules For Brokers
Signing up for coverage on the health insurance marketplace should be easier for some people this fall because new federal rules will allow brokers and insurers to handle the entire enrollment process online, from soup to nuts. Some consumer advocates are concerned, though, that customers going this route won’t get the comprehensive, impartial plan information they need to make the best decision due to the financial self-interest of insurers and brokers. (Andrews, 5/30)
California Healthline:
Molina Healthcare, A Top Obamacare Insurer, Investigates Breach Of Patients’ Data
Molina Healthcare, a major insurer in Medicaid and state exchanges across the country, has shut down its online patient portal as it investigates a potential data breach that may have exposed sensitive medical information. The company said Friday that it closed the online portal for medical claims and other customer information while it examined a “security vulnerability.” It’s not clear how many patient records might have been exposed and for how long. The company has more than 4.8 million customers in 12 states and Puerto Rico. (Terhune, 5/26)
California Healthline:
California Could Become First State To Extend Medi-Cal To Undocumented Young Adults
California could become the first state to extend full Medicaid benefits to undocumented immigrants up to age 26 after two key legislative committees last week approved money for such an expansion. The Assembly and Senate budget committees both approved using some of the money from California’s recently passed tobacco tax to cover up to 80,000 unlawfully present young adults under the state’s version of Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal. (Ibarra, 5/26)
Kaiser Health News:
Target Of Medicare Insider Trading Case Boasted He Was Unstoppable ‘Beast’
In his prime, consultant David Blaszczak bragged that he made millions for his hedge-fund clients when he predicted important Medicare funding changes. “Warren Buffett can eat it,” Blaszczak wrote in one email in 2013, referencing the legendary stock trader. He boasted in that same year to a finance executive: “I am a beast that cannot be stopped.” (Jewett and Bailey, 5/30)
Kaiser Health News:
A New Zika Threat Hovers As Summer’s Mosquitoes Get Bzzzzy
Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that triggered public health alarm bells last summer, has receded from the spotlight. But, experts say, expect the virus to pose a renewed threat this year. How great of a threat? That’s where it gets tricky. (Luthra and Rodriguez, 5/30)
The Associated Press:
McConnell Faces A Challenge Passing Health Care In Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faces a challenge in resolving the clashing demands of GOP senators on a health care replacement bill. Lawmakers have mixed feelings about Medicaid funding, with decisions that could throw millions into the ranks of the uninsured, and rising premium costs for some. Many conservatives are eager to cut costs, especially on Medicaid. (Fram, 5/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Governors At Odds Over Medicaid Expansion’s Fate
As Senate Republicans turn in earnest to writing a health-care bill, hoping to craft a measure by Congress’s August recess, no question looms larger than how they will handle the Medicaid program for low-income Americans. At the center of that debate stands one powerful group: Republican governors. And they are split down the middle. (Hackman, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Health-Care Groups Weigh Involvement In GOP Overhaul Push
Health-care groups that vocally opposed the House Republicans’ health plan are now split on the best path forward in the Senate: Should they work with lawmakers to shape a measure or simply try to kill it? As House Republicans pushed through legislation toppling large portions of the Affordable Care Act, groups representing hospitals, doctors, consumers and some insurers made no secret of their displeasure. Largely shut out of the talks, they actively opposed the bill, firing off angry letters and in some cases airing ads aimed at vulnerable House Republicans. (Hackman, 5/28)
The Washington Post:
This Senate Staffer Could Change The Course Of The Health-Care Debate
Sometime in the next few weeks, four Democratic lawyers and four Republican ones will file into the ornate Lyndon Baines Johnson Room just steps from the Senate chamber at the Capitol to consider a bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. They’ll sit at a long table before someone unknown to most Americans but with singular power to influence whether Republicans can follow through on their seven-year quest to remake President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. That person is Elizabeth MacDonough — the Senate parliamentarian, who is charged with acting as Congress’s version of a referee in the contentious health-care debate. (Cunningham, 5/29)
The Associated Press:
Newly Insured Fret Over Gains Made Under US Health Care Law
Dawn Erin went nearly 20 years without health insurance before the Affordable Care Act, bouncing between free clinics for frequent and painful bladder infections. The liver-destroying disease hepatitis C made her ineligible for coverage until President Barack Obama's law barred insurers from denying people with a medical condition. She has since seen a specialist who helped get her bladder infections under control, and her insurance covered about $70,000 in prescription drugs to treat hepatitis C. "I don't want to go back to the old way of doing things, worrying if I'm going to have the money to get my bladder infection treated," said the 46-year-old self-employed massage therapist from Austin, Texas. (Murphy and Kennedy, 5/28)
The New York Times:
White House Acts To Roll Back Birth-Control Mandate For Religious Employers
Federal officials, following through on a pledge by President Trump, have drafted a rule to roll back a federal requirement that many religious employers provide birth control coverage in health insurance plans. The mandate for free contraceptive coverage was one of the most hotly contested Obama administration policies adopted under the Affordable Care Act, and it generated scores of lawsuits by employers that had religious objections to it. (Pear, 5/29)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts Trouble Bioterrorism Experts
President Trump has promoted his first budget proposal as placing one mission above all else — keeping America safe. But the president has drawn a narrow definition of national security, and one aspect of defense would actually receive less money: protecting the nation from deadly pathogens, man-made or natural. To help offset a 10 percent increase in military spending, much of the government would take serious hits, including agencies tasked with biosecurity. (Baumgaertner, 5/28)
The Associated Press:
Trump Budget Draws Ire, Concern From Minority Communities
Advocates for minority communities say the budget proposed by President Donald Trump will hit them hard if it's adopted. Trump's spending plan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 generally makes deep cuts in safety-net programs. Those include Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and Social Security's disability program. The White House says its budget would put the country back on track for a healthy economy. (5/29)
The Washington Post:
Trump Calls For More Spending On Health Care So It’s ‘The Best Anywhere,’ But He Just Proposed Big Cuts
President Trump on Sunday evening called for more spending on health care and said his plan to overhaul the tax code “is actually ahead of schedule” — two statements that are at odds with the budget proposal he unveiled just last week. The statements came as part of a blizzard of Twitter posts the president made after he returned from his first foreign trip. (Paletta, 5/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Court Documents Shed Light On Theranos Board’s Response To Crisis
Two former Theranos Inc. directors said they didn’t follow up on public allegations that the Silicon Valley blood-testing firm was relying on standard technology rather than its much-hyped proprietary device for most tests, according to newly released court documents. In depositions, the highly decorated former directors—former U.S. Navy Adm. Gary Roughead and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz —who were board members when concerns of employees and regulators became public—said they didn’t question Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes about the matter. (Weaver, 5/30)
The New York Times:
When ‘Political Intelligence’ Meets Insider Trading
A case involving insider trading charges based on government information dispensed by a “political intelligence” operative raises interesting questions about how some of the tricky rules for proving the offense will be applied when information is leaked from a federal agency rather than a corporation. An indictment filed in United States District Court in Manhattan accuses David B. Blaszczak of exploiting his friendship with Christopher M. Worrall, who held a senior staff position at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to learn about impending changes in Medicare reimbursement that would affect health care companies. Mr. Blaszczak then passed the information, the indictment says, to Deerfield Management, a hedge fund firm that was a client of his consulting firm. (Henning, 5/29)
Los Angeles Times:
Here’s What Happens When You Defund Planned Parenthood
It was Aubrey Reinhardt’s last year at Texas Tech University. So when things started getting serious with her boyfriend, she decided it was time to look into birth control. Reinhardt knew that abortion foes had been trying to strip Planned Parenthood of every penny it receives from government sources. But until that moment two years ago, Reinhardt recalled, she didn’t appreciate what that could mean for a person like her who just needed somewhere to go for affordable contraception — without feeling she was being judged. (Zavis, 5/30)
The Associated Press:
Suspected Drug Thefts Persist At VA Centers
Federal authorities are investigating dozens of new cases of possible opioid and other drug theft by employees at Veterans Affairs hospitals, a sign the problem isn’t going away as more prescriptions disappear. Data obtained by The Associated Press show 36 criminal investigations opened by the VA inspector general’s office from Oct. 1 through May 19. It brings the total number of open criminal cases to 108 involving theft or unauthorized drug use. Most of those probes typically lead to criminal charges. (Yen, 5/29)
The Associated Press:
A Sampling Of VA Drug-Theft Prosecutions
Government data obtained by The Associated Press show more cases of opioid drug theft or missing prescriptions at Veterans Affairs health facilities despite new prevention efforts. The VA inspector general’s office opened 36 new criminal investigations into possible drug theft from Oct. 1 to May 19. Doctors, nurses or pharmacy staff in the VA’s network of more than 160 medical centers and 1,000 clinics are suspected of siphoning away controlled substances for their own use or street sale — sometimes to the harm of patients. (5/29)
The Associated Press:
In Opioid Crisis, A New Risk For Police: Accidental Overdose
As Cpl. Kevin Phillips pulled up to investigate a suspected opioid overdose, paramedics were already at the Maryland home giving a man a life-saving dose of the overdose reversal drug Narcan. Drugs were easy to find: a package of heroin on the railing leading to a basement; another batch on a shelf above a nightstand. The deputy already had put on gloves and grabbed evidence baggies, his usual routine for canvassing a house. He swept the first package from the railing into a bag and sealed it; then a torn Crayola crayon box went from the nightstand into a bag of its own. Inside that basement nightstand: even more bags, but nothing that looked like drugs. (Linderman, 5/27)
NPR:
Montana Lacks Addiction Resources, Grassroots Efforts Step In
There's a narrative about the methamphetamine epidemic in Montana that says the state tackled it in the 2000s, yet now it's back with a vengeance because of super labs and drug cartels in Mexico. But here on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, it never really went away. "Getting high in your car in front of the store; that ain't a big deal," says Miranda Kirk. (Saks, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Municipalities Grapple With Whether Nursing Homes Should Be Taxpayer-Funded
The 11,000 year-round residents of this summer colony off Cape Cod are confronting an emotional question: whether the island is a place where they can grow old. Nantucket, a ritzy vacation destination whose permanent community is of more modest means, has one nursing home: Our Island Home, a 45-bed facility that is owned and run by the town and with a history that goes back to 1822. It sits on prime town-owned real-estate where its residents can watch boats on Nantucket Harbor. But it runs an annual deficit of about $3 million, needs major repairs and is pressuring the town’s coffers at a time when Nantucket needs other infrastructure to accommodate growth. (Levitz, 5/28)
NPR:
States Attempt To Rein In Nursing Home Evictions
People complain about nursing homes a lot: the food's no good or there's not enough staff, and so on. It's a long list. But the top complaint, according to the federal government, is eviction from a nursing home. Technically, it's known as involuntary discharge, and in 2015 it brought in more than 9,000 complaints. Now, a couple of states are looking for ways to hold nursing homes accountable for unnecessary evictions. (Jaffe, 5/26)
The Washington Post:
The Scary Story About How Lead Gets Into Drinking Water
The water crisis in Flint, Mich., officially began on April 25, 2014. That’s the date the city’s water supply was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River. What was supposed to be a cost-saving measure soon turned into a nightmare for residents. But Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards can trace the story back a decade earlier, and to a different city: Washington. (Hallett, 5/28)
The New York Times:
A Right To Bingo, But Not Clean Water, In New York’s Constitution
The Bill of Rights in the New York State Constitution protects a number of essential liberties. Freedom of worship? Check. The right to assemble? Check. Freedom to divorce? That, too. The right to play bingo and gamble on horses? You bet. But environmental activists and some lawmakers say that one liberty that is conspicuously absent from the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is the right to a clean environment. Citing recent instances of contaminated water supplies and what they call an assault on the environment by the Trump administration, they are now determined to change that. (Foderaro, 5/26)
The New York Times:
Gay And Transgender Patients To Doctors: We’ll Tell. Just Ask.
Do doctors need to know their patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity? A growing number of federal agencies has been pushing health care providers to ask. Federally funded community health centers, which treat millions of patients, have begun to collect the data. Electronic health software must be able to store it. And blueprints for national health goals recommend collecting the information from all patients. (Hoffman, 5/29)
The Washington Post:
‘This Is Not The End’: Using Immunotherapy And A Genetic Glitch To Give Cancer Patients Hope
The oncologist was blunt: Stefanie Joho’s colon cancer was raging out of control and there was nothing more she could do. Flanked by her parents and sister, the 23-year-old felt something wet on her shoulder. She looked up to see her father weeping. “I felt dead inside, utterly demoralized, ready to be done,” Joho remembers. (McGinley, 5/28)
The New York Times:
Scientists Link A Gene Mutation To Rheumatic Heart Disease
Whether a painful strep throat turns into a fatal case of heart disease depends not just on prompt antibiotic treatment but also on the patient’s genetic makeup, according to a new study led by Oxford University scientists. The discovery could help the long fight to find a vaccine against Group A streptococcus bacteria, which cause strep throat, scarlet fever and rheumatic heart disease. (McNeil, 5/29)
NPR:
Adult ADHD Cannot Be Diagnosed With A Simple Screening Test, Doctors Warn
Diagnosing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be difficult. The symptoms of the disorder, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM, have changed multiple times. Even if you know what to look for, many of the symptoms are pretty general, including things like trouble focusing and a tendency to interrupt people. Discerning the difference between people who have a problem and those who are just distracted requires real expertise. (Hersher, 5/29)
NPR:
Speedier Information Transmission In Young Brains Boosts Self-Control
Impulsive children become thoughtful adults only after years of improvements to the brain's information highways, a team reports in Current Biology. A study of nearly 900 young people ages 8 to 22 found that the ability to control impulses, stay on task and make good decisions increased steadily over that span as the brain remodeled its information pathways to become more efficient. (Hamilton, 5/26)
The Washington Post:
Learning To Read And Write Alters Brain Wiring Within Months, Even For Adults
Let’s hear it for the written word. Learning to read can have profound effects on the wiring of the adult brain, even in regions that aren’t usually associated with reading and writing. That’s what researchers found when they taught a group of illiterate adults in rural India to read and write. Michael Skeide and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, wanted to study how culture changes the brain, so they focused on reading and writing. These cultural inventions have appeared only recently in our evolutionary history, so we haven’t had a chance to evolve specific genes for such skills. (Ananthaswamy, 5/28)
NPR:
In The Age Of Digital Medicine, The Humble Reflex Hammer Hangs On
Receiving a diagnosis in 2017 — at least one made at a medical center outfitted with the latest clinical gadgetry — might include a scan that divides your body into a bread loaf of high-resolution digital slices. Your DNA might be fed through a gene sequencer that spits out your mortal code in a matter of hours. Even your smartphone might soon be used to uncover health problems. Yet nearly 130 years since its inception — after decades of science has mapped out our neuronal pathways — a simple knob of rubber with a metal handle remains one of medicine's most essential tools. I'm referring to the cheap, portable, easy-to-use reflex hammer. (Stetka, 5/28)
The New York Times:
An Effect Of Climate Change You Could Really Lose Sleep Over
Global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases is having clear effects in the physical world: more heat waves, heavier rainstorms and higher sea levels, to cite a few. In recent years, though, social scientists have been wrestling with a murkier question: What will climate change mean for human welfare? (Gillis, 5/26)
The New York Times:
Car Accidents Remain A Top Child Killer, And Belts A Reliable Savior
The most common cause of death in children under the age of 15 is unintentional injury, and the most common cause of unintentional injury is car accidents. Between 2010 and 2014, 2,885 children died in motor vehicle accidents nationwide — an average of 11 children a week. That number excludes pedestrians, those who died in motorcycle or bicycle accidents, and those who died riding in an unenclosed cargo area or trailer. (Bakalar, 5/29)
The Washington Post:
Bullies Use A Small But Powerful Weapon To Torment Allergic Kids: Peanuts
They thought it would be funny: During lunch, the boys threw peanuts at a fellow student with severe food allergies. The Los Angeles area fifth-grader was so sensitive to nuts that exposure might send him to the emergency room. He said: “No, stop. That could kill me.” When he turned away to talk to a friend, one of the boys stashed peanuts in the container that held his lunch. Seeing the nasty trick, the allergic boy’s friends quickly grabbed the container and threw it away, possibly saving their friend from a terrible incident. (Levingston, 5/28)
The Associated Press:
Kansas Legislators To Reopen Debate Over Guns At Hospitals
Kansas legislators are facing a midsummer deadline to approve costly security upgrades for state hospitals and mental institutions in order to keep in place a four-year-old ban on concealed weapons inside the facilities. While the conservative state frequently embraces pro-gun policies, this debate is unique. Even Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP lawmakers who are strong supporters of concealed carry don’t want the exemption for hospitals to disappear, fearing the prospect of guns around mental patients or in areas with specialized equipment. (Hanna, 5/27)