California Watch April 2, 2018 Medicaid Administration

CALIFORNIA WATCH APRIL 2, 2018

California Healthline: California takes on Health Giant over high costs California’s attorney general sued Sutter Health, accusing the hospital giant of illegally quashing competition and for years overcharging consumers and employers. The lawsuit marked a bold move by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra against the dominant health care system in Northern California as concerns mount nationally about consolidation among hospitals, insurers and other industry middlemen. (Terhune and Ibarra, 4/2)

MEDICAID

Kaiser Health News: Medicaid Minus Stigma: In Indian country, it’s part of the fabric of life On a crisp sunny day, Tyson Toledo, a precocious 5-year-old boy, hobbled into a private health clinic to have his infected foot examined. Pediatrician Gayle Harrison told his mother to continue to apply antibiotic ointment and reminded them to come back if the swelling and redness worsened. The appointment at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services’ outpatient center comes at no charge for the Toledo family, who live 30 miles away on the Navajo Nation Reservation. That’s because Tyson is covered by Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor. (Galewitz, 4/2)

ADMINISTRATION NEWS

The Associated Press: White House goes on attack over Shulkin's claim he was fired The White House is hitting back at former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin for claiming that he was fired from his job and that he was only informed about it shortly before President Donald Trump tweeted about his replacement. The Trump administration says he left his job willingly amid a bruising ethics scandal and mounting rebellion within the agency. The semantics of whether Shulkin resigned or was fired could be relevant to Trump's ability to name an acting VA secretary to temporarily fill his place. (Yen, 4/2)

Bloomberg: Ousted Veterans Affairs Head warns of Privatization push Trump announced Shulkin’s ouster Thursday in a Twitter message, in which he said he was nominating White House physician Ronny L. Jackson to head the department, which is second in size only to the Defense Department. Shulkin has warned that service members and their families could see a decrease in care if the agency goes ahead with plans to broaden its use of the private sector. (Decker and Edgerton, 4/1)

Politico: Sanders: 'We know nothing' about Trump's VA pick Sen. Bernie Sanders wouldn't commit to supporting President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, on Sunday. In an interview on CBS’ "Face the Nation," the Vermont independent noted that Jackson, Trump's personal physician, is a virtual unknown on veterans issues. He also expressed concerns the Trump administration is pushing to privatize the nearly $200 billion bureaucracy, citing the conservative agenda of the influential donors Charles and David Koch. (O'Brien, 4/1)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

NPR: IV 'Normal Saline': A Medical Habit During a recent walk around the emergency room where I work, I noted the number of patients with bags of intravenous fluids hanging above them. Almost everyone had one. Our ER in Boston isn't unique. IV fluids are among the most common medical interventions worldwide. Several kinds are available, but one called normal saline is by far the most popular. Over 200 million liters are used every year in the United States. (Dalton, 3/31)

PHARMACEUTICALS

The New York Times: Massachusetts, a Health Pioneer, turns its focus to Drug Prices. It’s in for a Fight. Massachusetts, which led the nation in expanding health insurance coverage, now wants to rein in the growth of prescription drug spending for low-income people on Medicaid, but its proposals have met an icy reaction from patients and drug companies. The state has asked the Trump administration for permission to limit the number of drugs that will be covered in its Medicaid program, seeking to exclude “drugs with limited or inadequate evidence of clinical efficacy.” (Pear, 3/31)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

Bloomberg: Opioid Abuse isn't 'Victimless.' What about the Kids? The Donald Trump administration is being widely criticized for its get-tough approach to the nation’s opioid crisis. Targeting negligent doctors and pharmacists, and focusing on reducing the illegal drug trade -- a war that includes President Trump’s call to execute convicted drug dealers -- will not do much for those suffering from addiction, the critics say. Indeed, the Trump administration’s attitude seems to be at odds with popular opinion. (Naomi Schaefer Riley, 3/30)

DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP’s Communications Department. Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content.

CALIFORNIA WATCH APRIL 3, 2018

Sacramento Bee: CA Governor Candidate Pushes Institutions for Homeless Republican gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen says he'd build state-run institutions and force homeless people to live in them against their will, if necessary. ...Allen, currently in the state Assembly, is pushing the idea as part of his platform in public debates, interviews and newspaper editorial board meetings. (Hart, 4/3)

Ventura County Star: Jane Rozanski Settles Camarillo Health Care District Claims for $173,000 Retired CEO Jane Rozanski has agreed to pay the Camarillo Health Care District $173,000 to settle claims the public agency brought against her in a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of duty. Neither party accepted liability. But the deal resolves issues raised in the 2016 lawsuit and subsequent arbitration, according to the settlement released Monday. The district's case centered on whether Rozanski collaborated with an attorney with whom she was romantically involved to bilk the agency. The district sought more than $425,000 in damages and fees over what it called "false, inflated and unnecessary" legal bills. (Wilson, 4/2)

Los Angeles Times: California Supreme Court Lets Stand Controversial Law Allowing DNA Collection Upon Arrest For years civil libertarians hoped to end California's practice of taking DNA from people arrested on suspicion of a felony and storing that genetic information in an offender database — regardless of whether the suspects were later acquitted or had their charges dropped. That fight for more protective rules in the government's DNA collection suffered a major setback Monday when the California Supreme Court let stand a provision of a 2004 voter initiative that said any adult arrested or charged with a felony must give up his or her DNA. (Dolan, 4/2)

HEALTH LAW

Kaiser Health News: Americans Have Mixed Feelings about the ACA’s Future — but Like Their Plans Most Americans are happy with the insurance they buy on the individual market, yet those same people think the markets are collapsing before their eyes. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, released Tuesday, found that 61 percent of people enrolled in marketplace plans are satisfied with their insurance choices and that a majority say they are not paying more this year compared with last year’s premium costs. (Bluth, 4/3)

Bloomberg: What it’s Like Living without Health Insurance in America Some can’t afford to insure their children. Others are seeking cheaper care abroad. Some older adults are counting down the years until they qualify for Medicare. While these people are among the 27 million Americans who remain uncovered despite the large expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, their stories transcend politics, reflecting tough kitchen-table decisions about health care faced by many families. (Tozzi and Ockerman, 4/3)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

ProPublica: Addiction Drug’s Side Effect: More Overdoses? At the very moment that the Trump administration has thrown its weight behind a particular medication meant to deter opioid addiction, a new paper in a public-health journal is warning that too little is known about one of the medication’s possible downsides: a heightened chance of overdose among those who stop taking it prematurely. (MacGillis, 4/3)

Los Angeles Times: Bringing Meals to People with Food Insecurity May Deliver Savings to the Healthcare System Imagine you are the tightfisted potentate of a small republic, plotting the least expensive way to care for subjects in fragile health who depend on your beneficence. You could watch while your subjects who are elderly or disabled (or both) scramble to find and pay for healthy meals. And you could open your checkbook each time one of these subjects lapses into a health crisis that calls for a trip to a hospital's ER in an ambulance. But you might just try feeding these needy subjects instead. (Healy, 4/2)

Reuters: Justice Department Seeks Role in Opioid Settlement Talks The Justice Dept. sought court permission to participate in settlement negotiations aimed at resolving lawsuits by state and local governments against opioid manufacturers and distributors. The Justice Dept. said it wanted to participate in talks overseen by a federal judge as a "friend of the court" that would provide information to help craft non-monetary remedies to combat the opioid crisis. (Raymond, 4/2)

The Associated Press: Studies Link Legal Marijuana with Fewer Opioid Prescriptions Can legalizing marijuana fight the problem of opioid addiction and fatal overdoses? Two new studies in the debate suggest it may. Pot can relieve chronic pain in adults, so advocates for liberalizing marijuana laws have proposed it as a lower-risk alternative to opioids. But some research suggests marijuana may encourage opioid use, and so might make the epidemic worse. (Ritter, 4/2)

WOMEN’S HEALTH

Bloomberg: For Black Women, Education is No Protection against Infant Mortality Stress from dealing with racism and sexism seems to be a key reason that highly educated black women are far more likely lose their babies than are equally educated white women, says Keisha Bentley- Edwards, a co-author of a new report, which is titled “Fighting at Birth: Eradicating the Black-White Infant Mortality Gap.” The stress can lead to premature delivery of low birth-weight babies. (Coy, 4/2)

HEALTH IT

NPR: Grindr Admits it Shared HIV Status of Users In a point-by-point response on its Tumblr page, Grindr said: "It's important to remember that Grindr is a public forum. We give users the option to post information about themselves including HIV status and last test date, and we make it clear in our privacy policy that if you choose to include this information in your profile, the information will also become public." (Neuman, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Humana, Optum, Others Team Up for Blockchain-Enabled Data- Sharing Five healthcare giants are diving into blockchain, looking into how to use the technology to improve data quality and lower administrative costs. Humana, Multiplan, UnitedHealth Group's Optum, UnitedHealthcare and Quest Diagnostics are embarking on a pilot program to apply blockchain to healthcare provider demographic data. By using the encrypted system of data exchange that relies on a distributed ledger, they aim to make this data both more accurate and administratively friendly. (Arndt, 4/2)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

Los Angeles Times: Don't Let Trump and Pruitt Make America Smoggy Again The world is increasingly speeding toward a future of clean, zero-emissions cars. ...But here in the United States, President Trump and his anti-environmental protection sidekick, Scott Pruitt, are determined to head recklessly in the opposite direction. It's up to California and other environmentally responsible states to stop them. ...Pruitt has used his tenure at the EPA to systematically attack responsible, science- and health-based regulations. (4/3)

CALIFORNIA WATCH APRIL 4, 2018

Politico: California’s Path to Universal Health Care Pits Pragmatists against Single-Payer Holdouts It’s the pragmatists versus the idealists in California’s latest quest for universal health care. Increasing numbers of lawmakers and advocates are pushing for policy goals that realistically can be accomplished this year. But there’s an unrelenting camp clinging to single-payer-or-bust. (Colliver, 4/3)

Ventura County Star: Gold Coast Health Plan: Save Your Vision: Tips to Better Eye Care Eye damage can be a workplace problem, but it’s not always the result of what you may think. The average U.S. worker spends seven hours a day on the computer either in the office or working from home, according to the American Optometric Association in its 2015 “American Eye-Q” survey. Some 58 percent of adults surveyed have experienced digital eye strain or vision problems as a direct result. So, what should we do, considering almost every workplace demands at least some familiarity with operating a computer, and students are taking tests and submitting papers on the computer? (Nelson, 4/2)

ADMINISTRATION NEWS

USA Today: FDA Orders Kratom Distributor to do Recall over Salmonella Federal drug regulators issued their first-ever mandatory recall Tuesday to a company selling several products containing the herbal supplement kratom and contaminated with Salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it issued the order because Triangle Pharmanaturals of Las Vegas refused to cooperate. (O'Donnell, 4/3)

HEALTH LAW

The New York Times: The Final Obamacare Tally is in. About 400,000 Fewer People Signed Up This Year. The Trump administration said on Tuesday that 11.8 million people had signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for 2018 — roughly 400,000 fewer than last year. The drop was relatively small, given that Mr. Trump had sharply cut federal outreach efforts and the open enrollment period was half as long as in past years. Virtually the entire decrease came in the 39 states that use the marketplace run by the federal government, HealthCare.gov. (Goodnough, 4/3)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

Kaiser Health News: Older Americans are Hooked on Vitamins Despite Scarce Evidence They Work When she was a young physician, Dr. Martha Gulati noticed that many of her mentors were prescribing vitamin E and folic acid to patients. Preliminary studies in the early 1990s had linked both supplements to a lower risk of heart disease. She urged her father to pop the pills as well: “Dad, you should be on these vitamins, because every cardiologist is taking them or putting their patients on [them],” recalled Gulati, now chief of cardiology for the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. (Szabo, 4/4)

The New York Times: All the Amenities Airlines are Offering for Healthier Flights Wellness isn’t a concept that seems synonymous with the ever-growing hassles of flying, but that could finally be changing. Some airlines are embracing the idea of healthier flying, offering calorie-conscious menus and new exercise videos. According to Beth McGroarty, research director for The Global Wellness Institute, a nonprofit organization for the wellness industry, even as seats shrink and flights get more crowded, many carriers want air travel to be more bearable (and even enjoyable). They believe wellness is the way to do that. “It’s part of the larger wellness movement happening in the travel industry,” she said. (Vora, 4/4)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Nightmare Bacteria’ Stalk U.S. Hospitals Although the CDC has warned of the danger of antibiotic-resistant bacteria for years, the new report helps illustrate the scope of the problem. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said she was surprised by the extent of the spread. (Szabo, 4/3)

The Hill: CMS Tweaks Opioid Proposal after Backlash The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a sweeping final Medicare rule that included altering a draft proposal aimed at curbing the opioid epidemic that had proven controversial. The agency had received pushback on a proposal that would have meant a prescription for high doses of opioids (90 milligrams of morphine per day or more) automatically wouldn’t be filled and the patient would need special permission from their private insurance company in order to receive the medication. (Roubein, 4/3)

Los Angeles Times: A Sudden Loss of Wealth May Be Hazardous to Your Health Your financial health may have more bearing on your physical health than you realize. American adults who experienced a sudden and substantial loss of wealth were 50% more likely to die in a 20-year period than were others in their age group whose financial picture remained relatively stable, or improved. (Kaplan, 4/3)

HEALTH IT

The Associated Press: Gay Dating App Grindr to Stop Sharing HIV Status Grindr says it’s important to remember it is a public forum and users have the option to post information about their HIV status and date when last tested. It says its users should carefully consider what information they list in their profiles. (4/3)

PHARMACEUTICALS

The Hill: Senators Launch Probe into Why Price of Cancer Drug Increased 1400 Percent Three U.S. senators are asking why a 40-year-old cancer drug has increased in price by 1,400 percent since 2013. The drug in question, lomustine, was introduced in 1976 to treat brain tumors and Hodgkin lymphoma. Lomustine, which has no generic competition, cost $50 for a capsule with the highest dose in 2013. Now a capsule with the same dose costs $768. (Hellmann, 4/2)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

San Francisco Chronicle: Single-Payer Plan is Within Reach of California There is great desire and public support for health care coverage for every person in California. In our study, “Financing Universal Coverage In California: A Berkeley Forum Roadmap,” we identify three changes in the California health care system that can generate enough reductions in health spending to finance universal health coverage in the next few years. (Richard Scheffler, 4/3)

CALIFORNIA WATCH APRIL 5, 2018

KPBS: Access to Care for Denti-Cal Patients Remains Challenging In a hearing before the Little Hoover Commission in late March, state health officials said the number of dentists who treat Denti-Cal patients has declined by eight percent over the last five years. That's no surprise, given the challenges California's low-income dental program has faced. (Goldberg, 4/5)

Ventura County Star: Parts of Ventura County Still Ache from Flu Wave The worst flu season in recent history isn’t history yet. Some but not all doctors in Ventura County say they’re still dealing with flu more than three months after the first illnesses in a season that has contributed to at least 49 local deaths. The county death tally is more than three times higher than the 15 deaths in the 2009-2010 flu season, the previous high mark for the past decade. (Kisken, 4/4)

Modern Healthcare: Dialysis Industry on Alert as Calif. Union Pushes for Reimbursement Cap A fight between dialysis clinics and a major hospital workers' union has healthcare industry investors and stakeholders jittery as the union gets ready to push a ballot initiative to cap private insurance reimbursements for dialysis. The SEIU–United Healthcare Workers West, one of the country's largest hospital workers' unions, has gathered more than 600,000 voter signatures for a statewide ballot measure to cut off dialysis clinics' commercial insurance reimbursement at 115% of care costs. (Luthi, 4/4)

CAPITOL HILL WATCH

The Hill: Senate Health Committee Releases Draft of Bipartisan Opioid Bill Senate Health Committee leaders released Wednesday a bipartisan discussion draft of a bill aimed at combating the opioid epidemic. The panel will hold a hearing next week on the draft aimed at stemming the crisis killing thousands of people each year. It includes measures attempting to make it easier to prescribe smaller packs of opioids for limited durations, spur the development of nonaddictive painkillers and bolster the detection of illegal drugs at the border. (Roubein, 4/4)

ADMINISTRATION NEWS

The Associated Press: Surgeon General Urges Americans to Carry Overdose Antidote The nation's chief doctor wants more Americans to start carrying the overdose antidote naloxone in an effort to combat the nation's opioid crisis. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams is expected to speak on the new public health advisory at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta. (Rico, 4/5)

The Hill: FDA Commissioner Urges Social Media Sites, Internet Providers to Curb Illegal Opioid Sales “I’m concerned that social media companies, internet service providers (ISP) firms that host websites, and others in the internet ecosystem haven’t been proactive enough in rooting out these illegal offers to distribute opioids from their respective platforms,” Gottlieb will say Wednesday evening at the annual National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, according to his prepared remarks. (Roubein, 4/4)

Politico: ‘No Medically Valid Reason’ to Exclude Transgender Troops, AMA Chides Mattis The letter from CEO James Madara, first obtained by POLITICO, also slams the suggestion that the cost of providing medical care to transgender troops should be a reason to keep them out of the military. “The financial cost is negligible and a rounding error in the defense budget,” Madara writes. “It should not be used as a reason to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country. We should be honoring their service.” (Klimas, 4/4)

MARKETPLACE

Bloomberg: J&J Jury Set to Weigh Banker's Claims Baby Powder Caused Cancer Jurors are set to weigh an investment banker’s claims that using Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder for more than 30 years caused him to develop a deadly cancer linked to asbestos. A New Jersey jury will begin deciding Wednesday whether Stephen Lanzo III can legitimately blame J&J’s iconic product for his mesothelioma, an often-fatal cancer tied to asbestos exposure. (Feeley, 4/4)

The Associated Press: CVS Health Eyes Kidney Patients for Next Expansion into Care CVS Health is now planning to treat kidney failure patients, as the national drugstore chain continues to branch deeper into monitoring and providing care. The company said Wednesday it will offer home dialysis for patients through its Coram business, and it is working with another unspecified company to develop a new device for that. (4/4)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

San Francisco Chronicle: Growing Voice against Gun Violence: Trauma Surgeons Less than two hours after Tuesday’s shooting rampage at YouTube’s San Bruno campus left three people wounded and the shooter dead, Dr. Andre Campbell walked out of the emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital, looking weary and ill-tempered. The shooting victims, a man and two women, had arrived at his hospital, the closest trauma center, within an hour of the attack. (Allday, 4/4)

The Washington Post: People Can’t Be Educated into Vaccinations, but Behavioral Nudges Help, Study Finds Vaccines were one of the great inventions of modern history. They helped stop America’s polio epidemic in the 1950s, when it was paralyzing thousands and killing at least 3,000 a year. They have prevented the deaths of millions worldwide from diseases such as diphtheria, smallpox, measles and tetanus. And yet many people are reluctant to get their shots or vaccinate their children. (Wan, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Getting Kids to a Good Weight by 13 May Help Avoid Diabetes There may be a critical window for overweight kids to get to a healthy level. Those who shed their extra pounds by age 13 had the same risk of developing diabetes in adulthood as others who had never weighed too much, a large study of Danish men found. Diabetes can develop when the body can’t properly use insulin to turn food into energy. Being overweight at any age raises the chances of the most common form, Type 2. But it’s not known whether or how much that risk is reduced if people lose weight, and when. (Marchione, 4/4)

Stat: Monkey Study Suggests Zika Infection in Infancy Could Cause Brain Damage A new study in primates raises the possibility that children infected with the Zika virus during infancy could be at risk of experiencing brain damage. Zika is known to destroy developing brain tissue when it infects a fetus in the womb. Scientists know less — next to nothing, essentially — about how the virus might affect the brain of an infant infected after birth. (Branswell, 4/4)

The New York Times: Bananas vs. Sports Drinks? Bananas Win in Study A banana might reasonably replace sports drinks for those of us who rely on carbohydrates to fuel exercise and speed recovery, according to a new study comparing the cellular effects of carbohydrates consumed during sports. It found that a banana, with its all-natural package, provides comparable or greater anti-inflammatory and other benefits for athletes than sports drinks. But there may be a downside, and it involves bloating. (Reynolds, 4/4)

WOMEN’S HEALTH

California Healthline: ‘Scary’ Lung Disease Now Afflicts More Women than Men in U.S. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), linked to long-term smoking, has traditionally been considered a men’s disease. But data show it is now more prevalent among women — in large part because they embraced smoking much later than men did. (Gorman, 4/5)

PHARMACEUTICALS

The Hill: China Tariffs Could Raise Prices for Prescription Drugs in US, Groups Warn Advocates and drugmakers worry that the tariffs would make generic products more expensive as the nation continues to struggle with already high drug prices. "We are concerned that the proposed tariffs may lead to increased costs of manufacturing for generics and biosimilars and thus higher prescription drug prices for patients in the U.S.," said a statement from the Association for Accessible Medicines, an organization that represents prescription drug manufacturers. (Hellmann, 4/4)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

Los Angeles Times: California's Right-to-Die Law is Working When legislators in Sacramento passed a reasonable and conservative assisted-suicide law in 2015, California was only the fifth U.S state to allow terminally ill people to obtain a lethal prescription. Giving dying people who have six months or less to live an alternative to terrible pain and suffering was the compassionate and correct thing to do, so it's no surprise that Colorado and Washington, D.C., have passed similar right-to-die laws since then, and that more than two dozen states — from Hawaii to Maine — are now considering doing the same. California can't take credit for this trend. Oregon passed the first such law more than 20 years ago, establishing a successful model that California and other states have followed, setting strict rules to safeguard against abuse. (4/5)

CALIFORNIA WATCH APRIL 6, 2018

California Healthline: Dialysis Patients Sign Up for November Ballot Fight Frustrated by dialysis centers they call dirty and understaffed, patients and health care workers rallied across California Thursday before delivering more than 600,000 signatures to election offices in support of a ballot initiative intended to improve patient care. (Ibarra, 4/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Millions Sought to Stem Arrests at California Foster Care Shelters A California lawmaker is calling for $22.7 million in state funding to help prevent unwarranted arrests of abused and neglected children in the state’s residential foster-care facilities — a disturbing practice exposed in a Chronicle investigation last year. The three-year budget proposal, to be introduced next week by Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson (Los Angeles County), comes as arrests continue across the state at county children’s shelters, despite pledges of reform. (de Sá, Dizikes and Palomino, 4/5)

KPCC: In The Eugenics Era, Mexican American Women Were Prime Targets of Sterilization in California Franco was one of about 20,000 people sterilized in California institutions between the early 1920s and the 1950s. Once a patient was given to the state, administrators had the final word on sterilizations. It was a power granted to them by eugenics laws passed in the 1910s. (Cross, 4/5)

MEDICAID

The Hill: GOP Panel Proposes Lifting Medicaid Limits on Opioid Care Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled a proposal to lift limits on Medicaid paying for opioid treatment. The proposal could be one of the more significant and costly steps that Congress takes to fight the epidemic, but there are concerns about how to pay for it. (Sullivan, 4/5)

ADMINISTRATION NEWS

The New York Times: Under Trump, an Office Meant to Help Refugees Enters the Abortion Wars Scott Lloyd’s unadorned job title betrays little hint of the power he has over the pregnant teenagers in his custody. As director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, he oversees the assistance program for the tens of thousands of refugees who still seek shelter in the U.S., even with the Trump administration’s crackdown. But as the government official who is also responsible for the care of young, undocumented immigrants who enter the U.S. without their parents, he spends much of his time trying to stop those who want an abortion. (Peters, 4/5)

The Hill: Two HHS Officials Leave Family Planning Office Amid Changes Two employees at HHS are no longer with the agency following a tumultuous rollout of a federal family planning program. Cathy Deeds and Mary Vigil, who were both senior advisers at the Office of Population Affairs (OPA), are no longer employed by HHS, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday. (Hellmann, 4/5)

HEALTH LAW

Bloomberg: Democrats Aim to Turn Obamacare Into Asset from Burden in 2018 Andy Kim decided to run against House Republican Tom MacArthur last year as he watched TV coverage of GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare while waiting in a hospital room for news on his unborn son. Kim was sparked by MacArthur’s amendment that would have let insurers charge more for patients with pre- existing conditions and his central role in helping the repeal pass the House. An ultrasound had just shown that Kim’s son was dramatically underweight, and he wondered "if my baby boy is going to have a problem for the rest of his life." (John, 4/6)

PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

Stat: Harvard Doctor Pursues a Long-Ignored Treatment for Strokes, Heart Attacks He’s a professor at Harvard Medical School, but in many ways, Dr. Victor Gurewich is an outsider. ... So it’s perhaps not surprising that, more than 20 years after figuring out a combination therapy that he believes is a safer, more effective way to treat heart attacks and strokes, he’s had little success getting anyone to listen. (Weintraub, 4/6)

The Hill: CVS to Offer Discount to the Uninsured for Anti-Overdose Drug CVS Health will offer a discount on the anti-overdose drug Narcan to uninsured customers, the company announced Thursday. CVS will apply a manufacturer’s coupon for Narcan nasal spray for patients without insurance. It will reduce the cost to $94.99, which the company said is the lowest price available for people without insurance. (Weixel, 4/5)

Los Angeles Times: Surprise! Scientists Find Signs of New Brain Cells in Adults as Old as 79 Do we continue to add new neurons to our brain circuitry throughout our lives? Or does our neuron count remain fixed once we reach adulthood? The scientific debate rages on. In a report published Thursday in Cell Stem Cell, scientists from Columbia University present new evidence that our brains continue to make hundreds of new neurons a day, even after we reach our 70s, in a process known as neurogenesis. (Netburn, 4/5)

Los Angeles Times: In L.A. Today, Fitness Can Mean IV Drips, Vitamin Shots and a Daily Freeze at -292 Degrees When Amber Dodson needs a break from her rigorous workout regimen, she steps nearly naked into a high-tech machine that looks like a giant energy drink can. Only her head is visible as the temperature in the chamber plummets to minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit for three minutes, liquid nitrogen vapor billowing down the sides. "I tend to get extremely inflamed and I don't like taking days off," said Dodson, 36, who pays $299 a month for up to 30 sessions at Coast Cryo in Marina del Rey. "It's been a lifesaver because I can't deal with sore muscles and bad sleep." (White, 4/5)

WOMEN’S HEALTH

The Washington Post: Amid New Talk of Criminalizing Abortion, Research Shows the Dangers of Making it Illegal for Women The idea of criminalizing abortions is not new, but a push has emerged recently among some antiabortion advocates for enacting strict penalties against women who have the procedure, and not just doctors and clinics that provide abortions. Research over the past decade, however, casts significant doubt on whether criminalizing abortion would reduce abortion rates. And data from countries where abortion is outlawed suggests it could have serious consequences on women’s health and safety. (Wan, 4/5)

PHARMACEUTICALS

Bloomberg: When These New Pharma Bros Show Up, Drug Prices Tend to Go Monumentally Higher For at least the past three years, Todd Smith and Benjamin Bove have crisscrossed the U.S., offering a sure-fire fix for struggling pharmaceutical companies. And wherever they go, the price of prescription drugs tend to skyrocket. ...The Chicago-based duo has played important roles at no fewer than four companies that have raised prices on life-saving and other drugs by as much as 4,116 percent. (Hopkins and Martin, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Patient Advocacy Groups Take in Millions from Drugmakers. Is There a Payback? Pharmaceutical companies gave at least $116 million to patient advocacy groups in a single year, reveals a new database logging 12,000 donations from large publicly traded drugmakers to such organizations. Even as these patient groups grow in number and political influence, their funding and their relationships to drugmakers are little understood. Unlike payments to doctors and lobbying expenses, companies do not have to report payments to the groups. (Kopp, Lupkin and Lucas, 4/6)

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS

The Hill: We Can Take Care of Children by Taking Care of Their Teeth This March, the New York City Board of Health put a proposal up for public review that would require preschool teachers and daycare staff to assist children with brushing their teeth with fluoride toothpaste. “Tooth decay is the most common disease in childhood,” Deputy Health Commissioner George Askew said. “And it is preventable.” He noted that 42 percent of NY City school kids suffer from tooth decay by the third grade. It’s an unprecedented move for the city, but it’s necessary and N.Y. is not alone; other municipalities are doing this, and it’s time for a national program. (Jonathan Fielding, 4/5)