First Edition: October 24, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
States Explore Paths To Pay Their Share For Medicaid Expansion — Using Political GPS
Last year, nearly 60 percent of Maine residents voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program — an option provided by the Affordable Care Act that would extend health insurance to tens of thousands of the state’s low-income people. But the state’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, a longtime opponent of Medicaid expansion, has refused to implement the policy because he doesn’t want to raise taxes to pay the state’s share of the cost. (Luthra, 10/24)
California Healthline:
Dialysis Giant DaVita Defends Itself In Court And At The Polls
It’s been a year of playing defense for DaVita Inc., one of the country’s largest dialysis providers. A federal jury in Colorado this summer awarded $383.5 million to the families of three of its dialysis patients in wrongful death lawsuits. Then this month, the Denver-based company announced it would pay $270 million to settle a whistleblower’s allegation that one of its subsidiaries cheated the government on Medicare payments. (Young, 10/23)
Politico:
U.S. 'Turning The Tide' On The Opioid Crisis, Health Secretary Says
The U.S. is beginning to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, pointing to new federal data showing a slight dip in overdose deaths last year. Preliminary CDC data released last week shows drug overdose deaths, which spiked in 2017, dropped 2.8 percent toward the end of last year and the beginning of 2018. Azar credited federal, state and local efforts, one day before President Donald Trump will sign overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation to address the opioid crisis. (Ehley, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
US Health Chief Says Overdose Deaths Beginning To Level Off
"We are so far from the end of the epidemic, but we are perhaps, at the end of the beginning," Azar said at a health care event sponsored by the Milken Institute think tank. Confronting the opioid epidemic has been the rare issue uniting Republicans and Democrats in a politically divided nation. A bill providing major funding for treatment was passed under former President Barack Obama. More money followed earlier this year under President Donald Trump. And on Wednesday Trump is expected to sign bipartisan legislation passed this month that increases access to treatment, among other steps. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Johnson, 10/23)
The Washington Post:
Feds Will Aid Infants And Mothers Affected By The Opioid Epidemic
The Trump administration is stepping up aid for infants and mothers caught in the opioid epidemic, promising to help states cope with some of the worst collateral damage of the drug crisis, according to prepared remarks scheduled for delivery Tuesday by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar. (Bernstein, 10/23)
The Hill:
Drug Overdose Deaths Have Hit 'Plateau' Health Chief Says
Trump will sign a sweeping, bipartisan comprehensive opioid bill on Wednesday, which Azar said will provide a wide variety of tools to help combat the epidemic. The bill creates new programs, and expands and reauthorizes existing programs across almost every federal agency, which are aimed at addressing all aspects of the opioid epidemic, like prevention, treatment and recovery. (Weixel, 10/23)
Politico:
Meth And Cocaine Complicate Trump's War On Drugs
President Donald Trump will tout his response to the opioid crisis when he signs a sweeping bipartisan bill this week, but other drug-related deaths are on the rise and little is being done to address the broader scourge of addiction. Fatalities from misuse of methamphetamine, cocaine and benzodiazapines have surged while Washington’s latest efforts to fight drug addiction funnel new money and resources almost exclusively to localities ravaged by the opioid crisis or pay for treatments and overdose-reversal drugs that don't work for stimulants. (Ehley, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
Family Behind Drug Company Sued Over Toll Of Opioids
The family that owns a drug company is now being sued over the toll of opioid painkillers in one New York county — and it’s likely to be sued by hundreds more. Well over 1,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments blame drug companies for a crisis of addiction and overdoses across the country. Only a few of them have named members of the Sackler family, which owns and controls Purdue Pharma, as defendants. (Mulvihill, 10/23)
The Hill:
White House Report Warns Of The ‘Costs Of Socialism‘ Ahead Of Midterms
The White House on Tuesday issued a report warning of the dangers of socialism two weeks ahead of pivotal midterm elections. The report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers fits with a larger campaign strategy from Republicans trying to portray Democrats as extremists for ideas gaining traction in their party, including Medicare for All, the health proposal that would provide government-run health insurance to cover everyone. (Sullivan, 10/23)
Stat:
McCaskill, On The Campaign Trail, Brands Herself As Pharma's Sworn Enemy
Claire McCaskill is betting her political future on a simple hope: that Missouri voters care enough about drug pricing to give her another term in Washington. It is a bold strategy for a Democrat in an increasingly red state, facing an uphill battle to keep her Senate seat. Yet McCaskill is investing heavily in the approach, devoting fully half of a 15-minute stump speech here last week to the perceived evils of pharmaceutical manufacturers. (Facher, 10/24)
Politico:
Voters In 3 States To Decide Abortion Curbs As Supreme Court Shifts Right
Abortion foes buoyed by the Supreme Court's new conservative majority are rallying last-minute support for ballot initiatives in three states that would ban or significantly limit access to the procedure. Measures in West Virginia and Alabama would amend those state constitutions to expressly declare that abortion rights are not protected, allowing conservative state legislatures to ban the procedure should the high court strike down Roe vs. Wade. West Virginia’s measure also seeks to cut off public funding for abortions, while Alabama’s would grant full “personhood” rights to fetuses. (Ollstein, 10/23)
The Hill:
House Race In Texas Becomes Ground Zero In Health-Care Fight
Rep. Pete Sessions’s (R) north Dallas district has become ground zero for the fight over health care and pre-existing conditions, the dominant issue in many contests across the country that could help determine the next House majority. Sessions, 63, has been in Congress for 22 years, but has seen the 32nd District become increasingly diverse and more competitive. He won reelection in 2016 without a Democratic challenger even as Hillary Clinton won the district over President Trump by nearly 2 points. (Hagen, 10/24)
The Hill:
Rick Scott Defends Health Care Record In New Ad: 'For Me, It’s Personal'
Florida GOP Senate candidate Rick Scott is out with a new ad touting his support for providing protections for people with pre-existing conditions as Democrats target his record on health care. Scott, who currently serves as the governor of Florida and is seeking to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) next month, says in the ad released Tuesday that he supports "forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions." (Hellmann, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Two Weeks Before Midterms, Transgender People Feel Like ‘Pawns’
When the news broke on Sunday morning, many transgender people, world-weary, saw it as grimly predictable: With two weeks to go until the midterm elections, the Trump administration was considering a new move that would undermine federal civil rights protections for the transgender community. This time, they thought, it was the nuclear option. Under the terms of a proposal reported by The New York Times on Sunday, the administration would adopt a narrow definition of gender as an unchangeable biological condition — either male or female — that is determined by genitalia at birth. Such a move would not only roll back protections for transgender people: It could also legally negate their very existence. (Stack, 10/23)
Stat:
CDC Director Warns Against Potential ‘Stigma’ Of Trump Transgender Proposal
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday suggested a Trump administration proposal that would define someone’s sex at birth risked heightening stigma around transgender people. The director, Robert Redfield, did not directly criticize the proposal. But when asked whether any such effort might hamper efforts to treat HIV, especially among transgender women, he replied: “We need to understand that stigmatizing illness, stigmatizing individuals is not in the interest of public health.” (Swetlitz, 10/23)
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Proposal To Define Gender As Strictly Biological Worries Parents Of Transgender Children
Since Jamie Harper’s son began middle school in Loudoun County, the teenager has only been known as a boy. His friends don’t know that he was actually born a girl — and his family has had to fight to keep it that way. In the sixth grade, his birth name showed up on his computer during a keyboarding class. The school ultimately agreed to change his name in the system, but required his parents to obtain a court order to do so. The teenager still isn’t allowed to change in the boy’s locker room. He doesn’t like using the staff bathroom as required by the school, so he resorts to waiting until he gets home. “It’s always like, what’s coming next?” Harper said. “Every day we’re worrying about the safety of our kid, every single day.” (Schmidt, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Sandra Day O’Connor, First Female Supreme Court Justice, Says She Has Dementia
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a justice on the United States Supreme Court and a critical swing vote for much of her tenure, revealed on Tuesday that she had dementia and had decided to withdraw from public life as the disease advanced. In a letter addressed to “friends and fellow Americans,” Justice O’Connor, 88, wrote that she was told she had early-stage dementia “some time ago” and that doctors believed it was most likely Alzheimer’s disease. (Haag, 10/23)
Politico:
Sandra Day O'Connor Diagnosed With Dementia
"As this condition has progressed, I am no longer able to participate in public life," she wrote. "Since many people have asked about my current status and activities, I want to be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts." The letter comes a day after the Associated Press reported that O'Connor had stepped back from public life. (Morin, 10/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Sandra Day O'Connor, First Female Supreme Court Justice, Withdraws From Public Life After Dementia Diagnosis
For much of her 24-year career on the court, she was its most influential justice, the one who decided the biggest cases. Overall, she had a moderate-conservative record, but she cast key votes to preserve abortion rights and to permit affirmative action admissions policies at universities. In 2000, she joined the 5-4 decision in the Bush vs. Gore case that halted the ballot recount in Florida and made George W. Bush president. But in the years afterward, she seemed to move somewhat to the left. She cast the key vote to uphold the McCain-Feingold Act and its limits on political campaign spending in 2003 and she argued for maintaining the separation of church and state. (Savage, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
Desperate & Duped? GoFundMe Means Big Bucks For Dubious Care
People seeking dubious, potentially harmful treatment for cancer and other ailments raised nearly $7 million over two years from crowdfunding sites, a study found. Echoing recent research on campaigns for stem cell therapies, the findings raise more questions about an increasingly popular way to help pay for costly, and sometimes unproven, medical care. (Tanner, 10/23)
Stat:
Crowdfunding Raises Millions For Unproven And Potentially Harmful Treatments
In some cases, that can be a boon for patients who otherwise might not be able to afford needed medical care. But the new study highlights how the crowdfunding economy allows clinics to promote, and profit from, unproven therapies that could pose risks to patients — and offer false hope. “People can be desperate in these situations [and] can be taken advantage of,” [Dr. Ford] Vox said. And while that’s long been the case, the practice is “on full display on these crowdfunding campaigns,” he noted. (Thielking, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Got A Fever? There’s An Ad For That
Most of what we do — the websites we visit, the places we go, the TV shows we watch, the products we buy — has become fair game for advertisers. Now, thanks to internet-connected devices in the home like smart thermometers, ads we see may be determined by something even more personal: our health. This flu season, Clorox paid to license information from Kinsa, a tech start-up that sells internet-connected thermometers that are a far cry from the kind once made with mercury and glass. The thermometers sync up with a smartphone app that allows consumers to track their fevers and symptoms, making it especially attractive to parents of young children. (Maheshwari, 10/23)
Stat:
U.S. Regulators Offer A Helping Hand To New Nonprofit Drug Company
Regulators had something of an atypical message for the new nonprofit drug company backed by a host of the nation’s top hospitals: “What can we do to help?” One of the executives behind the new drug maker, Civica Rx, told STAT he’d set up a Capitol Hill briefing after he fielded calls from roughly two dozen senators, all wanting to hear from the company about its plans. A meeting with the Food and Drug Administration also went far more smoothly than some industry tussles with their regulator. (Florko, 10/23)
Stat:
Lower Doses Of Some Cancer Pills Could Save A Lot Of Money
What would you say if a cancer patient could be given a lower dose of a pricey treatment that was not only equally effective, but could also save a bundle of money? That’s the proposition being advanced by some leading oncologists, who are promoting what they call value-based prescribing, which involves giving patients fewer or less frequent doses. The notion is being increasingly talked up as concerns mount over the rising cost of medicines and, consequently, the so-called financial toxicity that more patients are said to be experiencing. (Silverman, 10/23)
The Hill:
E-Cigarette Maker Juul Boosts Lobbying More Than 400 Percent Amid Scrutiny
E-cigarette company Juul Labs has increased its spending on lobbying by more than 400 percent in the past three months as it faces regulatory threats from the Trump administration and Congress. Juul spent about $1.2 million on lobbying in the third quarter of 2018, which runs from July through the end of September, according to newly released disclosure reports. (Hellmann, 10/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Heated Tobacco Product Touted As Safer Alternative To Cigarettes Is No Less Dangerous Than Smoking, Studies Find
In 30 countries around the world, consumers can slide a roll of dried tobacco into a sleek device, heat it to 350 degrees and inhale. The result is a hit of nicotine that feels like it’s coming from a traditional cigarette without producing any smoke. Tobacco giant Philip Morris International wants to sell this device in the United States and is seeking regulatory approval on the grounds that the IQOS system is less dangerous than old-fashioned smoking. But an independent review of company data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration shows that IQOS resulted in no less harm than cigarettes on 23 of 24 measures. It may even cause some health problems that cigarettes do not, including liver disease. (Healy, 10/23)
Stat:
People With Mental Illness Share What They Want Scientists To Study
Patients are usually the subject of scientific studies, not the designers. But a new effort is trying to bring patients’ priorities to the forefront in research on mental health. For months, the Milken Institute and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance have been collecting the perspectives of patients with depression or bipolar disorder. The first-of-its-kind survey poses a question patients don’t often get asked: What questions about your health and experience with depression or bipolar disorder would you most like research to help you answer? (Thielking, 10/24)
The Washington Post:
Timing Matters When Implanting IUDs In New Mothers, Researchers Say
New mothers who want intrauterine devices (IUDs) for long-acting contraception after giving birth should know that the risk of the implant being expelled is tied to how soon after delivery it is inserted, researchers say. The best option is either to place the IUD immediately after delivery, when there is only a 10 percent risk of the uterus expelling the device, or to wait at least four weeks afterward, when the risk drops to 4 percent, an analysis of existing research found. (Rapaport, 10/23)
Stat:
CDC Director Says He Pushed To Keep U.S. Experts In Ebola Zone But Was Overruled
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that he argued that American experts should stay in the outbreak zone of the latest Ebola epidemic but was overridden by others in the Trump administration because of security concerns. “Those decisions are security decisions that really are outside the realm of my public health expertise,” said the director, Robert Redfield, who said he made a case to the Department of Health and Human Services about why public health experts should remain in the outbreak area but that, at the end of the day, his argument didn’t win out. (Swetlitz, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Aspirin May Be A Good Option To Prevent Blood Clots After Knee Surgery
Surgeons often prescribe expensive anticoagulant drugs after knee surgery to prevent blood clots, but a new study has found that plain aspirin can work just as well. Blood clots are not common after knee surgery, but the consequences can be serious and even fatal. There are a number of prescription blood thinners, including the oldest, warfarin (Coumadin), and several new ones with varying mechanisms of action. (Bakalar, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Even A 10-Minute Walk May Be Good For The Brain
Ten minutes of mild, almost languorous exercise can immediately alter how certain parts of the brain communicate and coordinate with one another and improve memory function, according to an encouraging new neurological study. The findings suggest that exercise does not need to be prolonged or intense to benefit the brain and that the effects can begin far more quickly than many of us might expect. We already know that exercise can change our brains and minds. The evidence is extensive and growing. (Reynolds, 10/24)
The Washington Post:
A Quarter Of College Students Could Develop PTSD Because Of The 2016 Election, A New Study Suggests
Are college students “snowflakes” — triggered, traumatized and all together too delicate for the real world? Or are they apathetic — so unconcerned that they can’t be bothered to purchase stamps to send in their absentee ballots? The two characterizations of young Americans are in conflict, observed Melissa Hagan, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. (Stanley-Becker, 10/24)
The New York Times:
Boy Talk: Breaking Masculine Stereotypes
“In here, we get to say stuff we wouldn’t normally say in front of other people. And we don’t judge each other,” said a seventh grader with dark curls. “Boys should have a safe space to talk about things that matter to us,” said another seventh grader with a hint of a Canadian accent. The two were veterans of a weekly lunch time boys’ group at the Sheridan School, a K-8 private school in Northwest Washington, D.C., explaining the group’s purpose to new members. (Reiner, 10/24)
The Associated Press:
Experts Caution Study On Plastics In Humans Is Premature
Scientists in Austria say they've detected tiny bits of plastic in people's stool for the first time, but experts caution the study is too small and premature to draw any credible conclusion. Presenting their findings at a congress in Vienna on Tuesday, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria said their pilot study detected nine types of so-called microplastic in all samples taken from eight volunteers living in Europe, Russia and Japan. (Jordans, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Can Eating Organic Food Lower Your Cancer Risk?
People who buy organic food are usually convinced it’s better for their health, and they’re willing to pay dearly for it. But until now, evidence of the benefits of eating organic has been lacking. Now a new French study that followed 70,000 adults, most of them women, for five years has reported that the most frequent consumers of organic food had 25 percent fewer cancers over all than those who never ate organic. Those who ate the most organic fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat and other foods had a particularly steep drop in the incidence of lymphomas, and a significant reduction in postmenopausal breast cancers. (Rabin, 10/23)
The New York Times:
Adenovirus Outbreak Leaves 6 Children Dead At N.J. Pediatric Center
The New Jersey Department of Health was working on Tuesday to contain a severe viral outbreak at a pediatric center that has left six children dead and 12 others infected. The state has barred the facility, the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, from accepting new patients until the outbreak is contained. Children at the Wanaque Center, in northern New Jersey, are pediatric long-term care residents, with some reliant on ventilators and tracheal tubes. (Corasaniti, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
6 Children Dead, 12 Sick In Viral Outbreak At Rehab Center
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an email that it is providing technical assistance to the state. In the past 10 years, cases of severe illness and death from the type of infection found at the facility have been reported in the United States, said CDC spokeswoman Kate Fowlie in an email, though it’s unclear how many deaths there have been. The strain afflicting the children is usually associated with acute respiratory illness, according to the CDC, which on its website instructs health workers to report unusual clusters to state or local health departments. (Catalini, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
Monsanto Weed Killer Ruling Is 1st Step In Long Legal Battle
With its stock dropping and more lawsuits expected, Monsanto vowed Tuesday to press on with a nationwide legal defense of its best-selling weed killer Roundup after a San Francisco judge upheld a verdict alleging it causes cancer. Legal experts said the decision will have little value in courtrooms across the country where similar cases are pending, but it will likely lead to more lawsuits. Similar lawsuits doubled from 4,000 to 8,000 after a San Francisco jury awarded groundskeeper DeWayne Johnson $389 million in August. (Elias, 10/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Behind Bayer’s Tough Defense Of Roundup
Bayer AG’s $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto Co. this year made the German drug and chemicals company the world’s biggest supplier of crop seeds and pesticides—and brought it thousands of lawsuits alleging Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide causes cancer. But Bayer has a history of fighting big-ticket litigation and has seen much worse. So officials are projecting calm, even after a judge Monday rejected Bayer’s request to reverse an August jury verdict against the company in the first Roundup case to go to trial. (Randazzo, Bunge and Bender, 10/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
After A School Shooting, A Town Frays
At a September school-board meeting in this rural town, a group of families stood before a lectern to recite the names of loved ones killed in a school shooting last May. When Scot Rice, whose wife Flo was shot five times that day, began reading the names of those injured, board president J.R. “Rusty” Norman interrupted to tell him his allotted time was up. “There’s dead bodies between me and you,” Mr. Rice shot back, as two police officers approached him. (Frosch and Hobbs, 10/24)
NPR:
Why Are Suicide Rates Higher In The Mountain West?
At the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado rivers, the town of Grand Junction, Colo., sits in a bowl of a valley ringed by tall mountains, desert mesas and red rock cliffs. For local residents like Victoria Mendoza, sometimes the setting makes her and others feel isolated. "I know we can't really fix this because it's nature," says Mendoza. "I feel like people in our valley feel like there's only life inside of Grand Junction." (Siegler, 10/23)
Reuters:
USC, Gynecologist Face More Claims Despite Class-Action Settlement
Fourteen more women accusing a former University of Southern California gynecologist of sexual misconduct sued the physician and the university on Tuesday, as their lawyer decried a proposed class-action settlement with the school as "grossly inadequate." Women's rights attorney Gloria Allred said the tentative $215 million deal reached last week to settle claims brought in federal court against Dr. George Tyndall and USC by his former patients would let the university off too easy, without the school fully accounting for its role in the scandal. (10/23)
The Associated Press:
Sentencing Resumes For Texas Woman Accused Of Starving Son
Friends and family members are urging leniency for a Texas woman convicted of attempted murder for withholding food and nutrients from her son. Danita Tutt was convicted last week but a jury acquitted her of two counts of injury to a child, which was related to allegations from prosecutors that Tutt had lied to doctors to subject the boy, now 13, to unneeded surgeries. (10/23)
The Washington Post:
Traffic Deaths In D.C. Are On The Rise. Here’s What Mayor Bowser Proposes.
An increase in traffic fatalities in the District is prompting Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and police to consider several new enforcement strategies, including restricting right turns on red and limiting left turns at some intersections to make roads safer. “We are very concerned about people dying on the streets of Washington D.C., because of traffic collisions and we are especially concerned about those incidents where we think they are entirely preventable,” Bowser (D) said in an interview Monday. “We want to look at everything that the government can control — how we invest in improving intersections, how we help educate our public and how we enforce the rules of the road.” (Lazo, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
Texas Requires Large Schools To Report Player Concussions
Texas officials are requiring that the state's largest schools report concussions suffered by high school athletes in a move seen as the nation's biggest effort to track brain injuries among young athletes. The University Interscholastic League, Texas' governing body for public high school sports, on Monday ordered the schools to submit individual concussion reports. Texas has more high school athletes than any other state with about 825,000. (10/23)
The Associated Press:
Hand, Foot And Mouth Disease Outbreak Hits Johns Hopkins
More than 100 people have been sickened by hand, foot and mouth disease at one of Johns Hopkins University’s four Baltimore campuses. News outlets report that the Maryland Department of Health has classified it as an outbreak. University spokesman Dennis O’Shea tells The Baltimore Sun that officials have been broadcasting information about the outbreak at the Homewood campus. The university says 129 cases have been reported since early September. (10/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Judge Reverses Order That Barred Reporting On Search Warrant In Case Of Newport Beach Surgeon
An Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday reversed an order barring journalists from reporting on a search warrant filed in the case against a Newport Beach surgeon facing felony charges of drugging and raping seven women dating to 2009. Grant Robicheaux, 38, once dubbed Orange County’s most eligible bachelor, and his girlfriend, Cerissa Riley, 31, are accused of rape by drugs, kidnapping, oral copulation by anesthesia, assault with intent to commit sexual offenses and other crimes. They have denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex. (Fry, Winton and Sclafani, 10/23)