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The Senate on Thursday approved its $1.1 billion plan to combat the Zika virus, setting the stage for difficult negotiations with House Republicans over how much money to devote to fighting the virus and whether to cut Ebola funding to help pay for it. The 68-30 vote added the Zika measure to an unrelated spending bill and follows party-line passage of a separate $622 million House bill on Wednesday. The White House has signaled that President Barack Obama would accept the Senate compromise measure but has issued a veto threat on the House bill, saying it doesn’t provide enough money. (Taylor, 5/19)

An election-year fight over addressing the spreading Zika virus intensified in the U.S. Congress as the Senate on Thursday approved $1.1 billion in emergency money one day after the House of Representatives voted $622.1 million financed through cuts to existing programs. The two chambers would have to reach agreement on a spending level before they can send it to President Barack Obama, who in February requested $1.9 billion. The White House has called the House measure "woefully inadequate" and has threatened to veto it. (Cowan, 5/19)

The Senate added emergency Zika funding to a larger spending bill Thursday, all but guaranteeing it will go nowhere soon. The Senate voted earlier to waive budget rules and add the cost of the $1.1 billion Zika measure to the deficit. It then passed it, 89-8, along with a massive appropriations measure that includes funding for transportation programs, the VA, housing programs and military construction. (McAuliff, 5/19)

While Congress fidgets over whether and how to pay for the fight against the Zika virus, state and local health departments are scrambling and slimming down. That's because these front-line public health agencies have already seen their budgets chopped because of the debate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April cut $44 million from its fund that helps state and local governments prepare for public health emergencies. It was part of the $589 million the White House moved from other programs – mostly money allocated for domestic and international responses to the Ebola virus – to combat Zika as it awaited action on Capitol Hill. (Kodjak, 5/19)

House Republicans are circulating a revised draft of long-stalled mental health legislation. The controversial bill from Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) has been cast as the Republican response to mass shootings, but it has long been delayed. Republicans now are trying to jump-start it as time runs out in an election year. "We're pretty close, I think, to coming up with some movement in the near future, knowing that the legislative window is closing,” said House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.). Upton has been working with Murphy to smooth over some of the bill’s more controversial provisions, and to bring its costs down. (Sullivan, 5/19)

Congress has reached agreement on the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. chemical safety laws in 40 years, a rare bipartisan accord that has won the backing of both industry officials and some of the Hill’s most liberal lawmakers. The compromise, which lawmakers unveiled Thursday, will provide the industry with greater certainty while empowering the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain more information about a chemical before approving its use. And because the laws involved regulate thousands of chemicals in products as diverse as detergents, paint thinners and permanent-press clothing, the result also will have a profound effect on Americans’ everyday lives. (Eilperin and Fears, 5/19)

A bipartisan agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators would set new safety standards for asbestos and other dangerous chemicals, including tens of thousands that have gone unregulated for decades. A bill to be voted on as soon as next week would offer new protections for pregnant women, children, workers and others vulnerable to the effects of chemicals such as formaldehyde and styrene used in homes and businesses every day. (Daly, 5/19)

Two Republican Senators introduced a bill on Thursday aimed at improving the Indian Health Service, the embattled federal agency that provides healthcare to Native Americans on reservations. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who introduced the legislation with Senator John Thune of South Dakota, said in a statement that it was "an important first step" toward ensuring tribal members receive proper healthcare. (Dwyer, 5/19)

Federal regulators announced tighter guidelines Thursday for human exposure to an industrial chemical used for decades in such consumer products as non-stick pans, stain-resistant carpets and microwave popcorn bags. The cancer-causing chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA, has been found in the tap water of dozens of factory towns near industrial sites where it was manufactured. DuPont, 3M and other U.S. chemical companies voluntarily phased out the use of PFOA in recent years. (Biesecker, 5/19)

In recent months, state investigators in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire have found high levels of the chemical, known as PFOA, in drinking-water wells and groundwater near former and current chemical plants, alarming residents and raising concern about PFOA contamination in other parts of the country. The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group that assesses chemicals in consumer products and the environment, sent a letter in late April to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy urging the agency to set an enforceable drinking-water standard for the chemical and to force former manufacturers to disclose all sites in the U.S. where they used, made or dumped PFOA. (McWhirter, 5/19)

The Environmental Protection Agency has set new advisory levels for a contaminant that has been found in drinking water supplies in parts of New Hampshire. The state Department of Environmental Services said Thursday that the EPA set a lifetime drinking water health advisory level for perfluorooctanoic acid at 70 parts per trillion. (Enstrom, 5/19)

The EPA has announced a lifetime health advisory level for two chemicals that have contaminated water in Southern NH and at the former Pease Air Force Base. PFOA and PFOS are slippery, stable chemicals used since the 1940s in products like nonstick cookware. A major class action lawsuit against DuPont brought to light links between the chemicals and health affects including cancer back in 2005. (Corwin, 5/19)

Most Americans enrolled in health plans through the Affordable Care Act are happy with their coverage, despite persistent attacks on the health law by Republicans, including presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. But consumers are increasingly concerned about their monthly premiums and deductibles, reflecting rising anxiety among all Americans about their medical and insurance bills, a new national survey found. Nearly 6 in 10 working-age Americans who have a health plan through one of the marketplaces created by the law said they are satisfied with their monthly premiums, and just over half say they are satisfied with their deductibles. (Levey, 5/19)

Let’s face it: When it comes to products most of us buy, health insurance is one of the least popular. And new survey results from the Kaiser Family Foundation out Friday morning find that sentiment reaching new lows. (Gorenstein, 5/20)

Two Republican lawmakers on Thursday introduced an alternative to ObamaCare as the House develops its own healthcare plan. The bill from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) does not fully repeal ObamaCare, a notable departure from the GOP’s long-stated goal. But it would eliminate many central aspects of the Affordable Care Act, including the mandates for individuals to have coverage and for employers to provide it, as well as requirements for what an insurance plan must cover. (Sullivan, 5/19)

Nearly 13 million Americans age 50 to 64 who lack insurance or buy private health plans would be eligible to buy into an expanded Medicare program that the Democratic presidential contender has proposed, according to an analysis released Thursday. The Avalere Health consultancy, which conducted the analysis, said those currently without health insurance in that age group — about 7 million or so people — could "potentially benefit" from Clinton's proposal. But Avalere's report also said "it is not immediately evident that Medicare coverage would be a better option for all people over 50," as some of them would face higher costs if they moved into the new coverage option. (Mangan, 5/19)

But it’s unclear whether an expansion of Medicare to age 50 would bring a better deal for Americans, the Avalere report said. It could be more expensive. “Medicare does not include any out-of-pocket cap, so beneficiaries with high healthcare costs could pay more out-of-pocket with Medicare coverage compared to employer or exchange plan coverage,” the report by Avalere’s Caroline Pearson said. (Japsen, 5/20)

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) says the proposals of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders would add $19 trillion to the debt — an increase from its previous estimate. In an analysis published in April, the CRFB estimated that the Independent senator's proposals would add $2 trillion to $15 trillion to the debt, depending on the cost of Sanders's single-payer healthcare plan. Since then, two new independent analyses have found that the healthcare plan "would cost dramatically more than the campaign-provided estimates suggest," the CRFB said Thursday in its updated analysis. (Jagoda, 5/19)

The Oklahoma Legislature on Thursday passed a bill that would effectively ban abortions by subjecting doctors who perform them to felony charges and revoking their medical licenses — the first legislation of its kind. In a year in which states have tried to outlaw abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy, to ban the main surgical method used in the second trimester and to shut down abortion clinics with onerous regulations, Oklahoma’s bill is the most far-reaching. (Eckholm, 5/19)

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, an anti-abortion Republican, has until Wednesday to sign the bill into law or veto it. Spokesman Michael McNutt said she also could also allow the bill to become law "without approval" after the five-day period has elapsed. He also said she will withhold comment until her staff has time to review it. [Republican Sen. Nathan] Dahm made it clear that he hopes his bill could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade. "Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it's a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception," said Dahm, R-Broken Arrow. (5/19)

"They are being inundated with calls from women asking whether they can get the abortion care they need,” said Kelly Baden, director of state advocacy for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, whose attorneys are representing the clinics. “For Oklahoma legislators to put women in this position -- it's unfathomable and cruel." The measure was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Nathan Dahm, a software engineer and son of missionaries who has said he hopes it will help overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide. (Hennessy-Fiske, 5/19)

State Sen. Ervin Yen, a physician who voted against the bill, called it “insane” and said he's certain the bill would face a court challenge. "I'm Republican. I'm Catholic. I'm pro-life," Yen told USA TODAY after the vote. "But I think it is silly for us to pass bills in Oklahoma that can't go anywhere. It's a constitutional problem." Michael McConnell, a Stanford law professor and former federal judge appointed by George W. Bush, also expressed skepticism. "No constitutional argument is available to support this bill under current precedent, and it is exceedingly unlikely that a majority of the Supreme Court would vote to overrule that precedent," McConnell told USA TODAY. (Bacon, 5/19)

This new measure criminalizing performing abortions is largely symbolic — except for taxpayers, who will shoulder the burden of defending it in court. This is because it runs afoul of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion until fetal viability nationwide, as well as the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that reaffirmed the Roe ruling and also introduced a new standard for evaluating whether restrictions on abortion access constitute an “undue burden” on patients. (Lachman, 5/19)

As the ship keeps sinking, Theranos hasn’t stopped shuffling the deck chairs. The Silicon Valley company that promised to revolutionize blood testing has had so many setbacks lately that it’s getting hard to keep track. Theranos is under criminal and civil investigation. Federal regulators are considering revoking the license of its California lab and banning its chief executive from the industry for two years. Just this week, news broke that it had voided two years of test results from its signature blood-testing devices. (Robbins and Keshavans, 5/19)

As many as 40 percent of cancer cases, and half of cancer deaths, come down to things people could easily change, researchers said Thursday. While Americans often worry about whether chemicals, pollution or other factors out of their control cause cancer, the new analysis shows otherwise: People are firmly in charge of much of their own risk of cancer. The team at Harvard Medical School calculated that 20 to 40 percent of cancer cases, and half of cancer deaths, could be prevented if people quit smoking, avoided heavy drinking, kept a healthy weight, and got just a half hour a day of moderate exercise. (Fox, 5/19)

Like many children who grew up on a farm decades ago, Cheryl Quaranda, 47, wasn’t slathered with sunscreen by overly concerned parents before heading outside for the day, and sometimes sunburns were par for the course. “We never did the sunscreen thing, and I remember when I was younger, I got a really, really bad sunburn,” she says. For years, Quaranda lived with a mole right at her bra line, but at some point in 2004, it started to bleed and scab over, again and again. “I thought it was just because of where my bra was rubbing it, but then it got to where I would move my bra and it would still itch,” she says. “Then, it got to where it was hurting down on the inside.” (Deese, 5/19)

We’ve made great progress treating people who are infected with HIV, but if they get cancer they’re less likely to get the care they need, a recent study found. Researchers examined treatment for a variety of cancers, including upper gastrointestinal tract, colorectal, prostate, lung, head and neck, cervix, breast, anal and two blood cancers. With the exception of anal cancer, treatment rates differed significantly between HIV-infected people and those who weren’t infected, according to the study. (Andrews, 5/20)

A government report, blocked from publication a decade ago, presciently warned of an advancing, double-barreled health crisis of mental illness and substance abuse that has currently swamped the nation’s vast prison systems. The 2006 document, prepared by then-Surgeon General Richard Carmona, urged government and community leaders to formulate a treatment strategy for thousands of sick and addicted inmates that also would assist them after release or risk worsening public health care burdens. (Johnson, 5/19)

Genetic testing company Myriad Genetics, the defendant in a landmark Supreme Court case over gene patents, is back in the spotlight — this time, for withholding genetic data from patients. Myriad held patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes until 2013, and tested more than 1 million patients for variations in those genes that might increase a person’s risk of breast, ovarian, prostate, and other cancers. Though Myriad no longer holds the patents on those genes, it still holds patients’ data, and has been resistant to sharing it with researchers or public databases. (Samuel, 5/19)

In the futuristic movie “Gattaca,” those in the ruling class are genetically engineered to be a physically perfect version of their parents. They are as thin and tall as models, with perfect cheekbones, square jaws and thick, glossy hair. Think of stars Uma Thurman and Jude Law. When the movie came out in 1997, this idea of “designer babies” was still far-fetched. DNA analysis was still in its early stages and the world was still years away from sequencing the first human genome, much less a particular gene’s function. But in the more than 20 years that have passed, our understanding of our own DNA and how it works has exploded, and scientists have discovered a great number of genes that control our physical appearance. (Cha, 5/19)

He had already been talking to the grieving family for hours when he got the call from his bosses at the New England Organ Bank. The patient who had just died, they said, looked like a good candidate to donate more than just his kidneys and lungs. Would the family be willing to donate his penis? Even under normal circumstances, Daniel Miller-Dempsey’s job can sound impossible. When a patient is declared brain-dead, but is still on life support, he asks the family about removing their loved one’s organs and putting them into other people. The patient’s lungs are still breathing, the heart still pumping, the skin still pulsing with blood. “You have to have a family get to a point where they understand that [their loved one] has died, even though they look the same as they did the day before,” he said. (Boodman, 5/20)

The recipient of the nation's first penis transplant says he is looking forward to walking out of the hospital a "complete" man. "There is no doubt in my mind that everything is going to work. And I mean everything," 64-year-old Thomas Manning said Wednesday with a grin as he continued to recover at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. "You can interpret that any way you wish." (5/19)

The voices that continue to be the loudest about Medicaid expansion are the same that have been left out of the current proposal in Utah. State officials are taking note of them, but they're also looking to refine the proposal that will be sent to the federal government July 1. (Leonard, 5/19)

Texas officials want to sell women on Medicaid on the use of long-term contraception that can help them avoid unwanted pregnancies, especially those struggling with significant health problems that are more likely to lead to premature or low birth-weight babies. (Zelinski, 5/20)

To the average user, everything about e-cigarettes and vaping devices -- the look, the smell, the taste, the satisfaction -- feels as good or better than the traditional match-lit version. But to cash-craving states, there's one important thing missing: taxes. U.S. cigarette smoking rates are falling, and the number of Americans who vape is on the rise. (Edney, 5/19)

How many businesses will shut down as a result of the FDA's new regulations on electronic cigarettes? U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration whether the agency considered that question when it devised rules requiring FDA review of e-cigarettes and other products derived from tobacco. (Rutledge, 5/19)

Katie Corkern couldn't stop smiling Thursday, confident that relief for her son's uncontrollable seizures may finally be near. Corkern, her son Connor and the rest of her family stood near Gov. John Bel Edwards as he signed a bill to kick-start and expand Louisiana's medical marijuana program, which has been slow to begin because of regulatory hurdles. (Deslatte, 5/19)

The Rhode Island Senate has passed a bill that would approve the use of marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. The legislation passed by a 36-0 vote on Thursday. Sen. Stephen Archambault, a Smithfield Democrat, introduced the bill that would make PTSD another one of the debilitating medical conditions that qualify an adult patient to use medical marijuana. (5/19)

For many years, Katie, who asked that her last name not be used, only got marginal relief from loading up on high-dose ibuprofen over the course of her seven-day cycle. Recently, she's found what she considers to be a more natural and much more effective remedy: cannabis-infused tinctures and balms designed to relieve menstrual pain and discomfort. The products come from a new company, Whoopi and Maya, co-owned by "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg and well-known Bay Area medical cannabis producer Maya Elisabeth. (Ross, 5/19)

In January, Dr. Maura McLaughlin started a new type of primary care practice in central Virginia. Instead of getting payments from insurance companies for each appointment, her patients pay her directly, and get unlimited visits for a fixed monthly fee. McLaughlin has joined a tiny but growing movement of doctors nationally — there are only a handful in Virginia — who have begun to provide subscription-like service to patients, a model known as direct primary care. (Suderman, 5/19)

New Hampshire will spend $100,000 to hire a law firm to investigate whether drug makers have marketed opioids in a deceptive fashion. New Hampshire's Executive Council voted unanimously to allow the Attorney General's office to hire the Washington law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Sellers & Toll. (Rogers, 5/19)

The state has disciplined hospitals for offenses ranging from unclean medical equipment to fungus and mold over the past few years, according to inspection reports collected by the Connecticut Health Investigative Team. The reports — posted in C-HIT’s Data Mine section — show a mix of citations for poor physical conditions and inadequate patient care. C-HIT’s database, based on Department of Public Health records from 2013 through late 2015, includes citations from 2015 issued to six hospitals, including Yale-New Haven Hospital, which was cited for failing to administer medications safely. (Chedekel and Cuda, 5/19)

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital officials say they are now in compliance after the Vermont Division of Licensing and Protection found that the facility violated federal regulations. Following an unannounced visit on March 24, DLP officials determined that the hospital failed to "provide sufficient interventions to assure each patient's rights are protected." (5/20)

Little more than names and incident numbers appear on a Long Island medical examiner's list of nine developmentally disabled people who died in state care since 2013, but this much is known for sure: All the deaths came under a cloud of abuse or neglect allegations, and none resulted in criminal charges. The one-page list titled "Abuse and Neglect with Death Involved" surfaced as part of a Freedom of Information request by an advocate who called it only the latest example of how New York's oversight agency for the disabled in state care, the Justice Center, is not doing enough to pursue suspicious cases. (5/19)

Dr. Celeste Philip, who has been acting surgeon general since March, was on Wednesday appointed to the permanent job running the Florida Department of Health. Gov. Rick Scott first named Philip as the temporary replacement for Dr. John Armstrong, who the Senate refused to confirm for the job. (Auslen, 5/18)

It’s been more than 18 months since California’s governor signed a law allowing pharmacists to distribute birth control without a prescription. Now, legally, women can simply walk into their local pharmacy and pick up contraceptive pills, the patch or the ring — much like getting a flu shot or buying over-the-counter medication. But good luck finding a pharmacy that will actually do it. (O'Mara, 5/19)

The state plans to streamline its mental health and substance abuse programs for children. A number of states, including Maine and Massachusetts, have turned to a so-called "system of care" model for young people with mental health issues in recent years. (Carlson, 5/18)

State officials and others are backing a plan to boost the number of dentists in Michigan and encourage their collaboration with other health care providers to give residents better access to dental care. The 2020 Michigan State Oral Health plan was unveiled Wednesday. Supporters say poor oral health is linked to an increased risk for cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, and can be especially serious for pregnant women and their children. (5/19)

Three city residents have confirmed cases of mumps, the Milwaukee Health Department announced Thursday. Mumps is a contagious respiratory illness that can be transmitted by coughing, sneezing or by coming in contact with contaminated food, beverage and utensils. (Stephenson, 5/19)

The Medical College of Wisconsin has moved to lessen one of the state's most severe physician shortages: the lack of psychiatrists in northern Wisconsin. The medical school announced last week that it had received initial accreditation for residency programs in northeastern and north-central Wisconsin for seven psychiatrists. (Boulton, 5/19)

Corizon Correctional Healthcare, which provides medical services to some 7,000 New Mexico prison inmates, notified employees this week that the company won’t get another four-year contract from the state Corrections Department. Instead, state officials selected St. Louis-based Centurion LLC to provide medical care to prisoners, The New Mexican has learned. (Horwath, 5/19)

Nemours Children's Health System and an internationally recognized orthopedic institute will be the official medical providers of the United States Tennis Association's campus in Lake Nona, they announced on Thursday. Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, located in Gulf Breeze, and Nemours will provide the USTA with a team physician, sports nutritionists and athletic trainers year-round. (Miller, 5/19)

Estimates of annual health spending for a comprehensive set of medical conditions are presented for the entire US population and with totals benchmarked to the National Health Expenditure Accounts. ... In 1996 the most costly medical condition, by far, was heart conditions, at $105 billion, with mental disorders a distant second at $79 billion. They had equal spending in 2004 ($131 billion each; data not shown), and by 2013 spending on mental disorders had moved far ahead—reaching $201 billion versus $147 billion spent on heart conditions. [Spending for mental disorders at a] 5.6 percent average annual growth rate was about average for all personal health spending. Instead, what stands out is the 2 percent growth in spending on heart conditions over this period, which was more than 2 percentage points slower than GDP growth. (Roehrig, 5/18)

[Researchers surveyed] clinicians practicing at Atrius Health, the largest ambulatory care provider in Massachusetts. We analyzed 584 responses (72% response rate). ... After adjusting for covariates, almost all physicians agreed that doctors need to limit unnecessary tests (96.8%), have a responsibility to control costs (92.2%), and should be aware of and adhere to clinical guidelines (97.9%). Approximately one-third felt it unfair to ask physicians to be both cost-conscious and concerned with welfare (33.0%), thought there is too much emphasis on costs (30.7%), try not to think about costs (33.9%), and thought that doctors are too busy to worry about costs (27.8%); these proportions did not differ across specialties. Less than half of respondents (36.9%) reported having a firm understanding of the costs of tests and procedures to the healthcare system. (Colla et al., 5/17)

[Researchers sought to] determine the association between enrollment in patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) and the receipt of preventive services among adolescents and young adults [by using a] retrospective cohort study including patients ... at the Hennepin County Medical Center, Minnesota. ... Overall, 21 704 patients [aged 10 to 24] were included. ... Adjusted odds ratios ... comparing the receipt of preventive services of patients enrolled in PCMHs to youth who did not receive these services were as follows: (1) preventive visits 1.10 ...; (2) influenza 0.89 ..., meningococcal 1.53 ..., and human papillomavirus vaccinations 1.53 ...; (3) screening for sexually transmitted infections 1.69 ...; (4) prescription of any type of contraception 2.18 ... and long-acting reversible contraceptives 2.66 ...; and (5) cervical cancer screening 1.14. (Garcia-Huidobro et al., 5/16)

Health coaching is effective for chronic disease self-management in the primary care safety-net setting, but little is known about the persistence of its benefits. We conducted an observational study evaluating the maintenance of improved cardiovascular risk factors following a health coaching intervention. ... Results support the conclusion that most improved clinical outcomes persisted 1 year after the completion of the health coaching intervention. (Sharma et al., 5/16)

Patients who undergo common surgical procedures at small, rural (critical access) hospitals have similar 30-day mortality rates, lower serious complication rates, and lower Medicare expenditures compared with those who undergo the procedures at non-critical access hospitals, a new study shows. (Brown, 5/18)

A study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that two-thirds of female biomedical researchers reported having personally experienced “gender bias in professional advancement.” And one-third reported experiencing sexual harassment, overwhelmingly in the form of sexist remarks and coercive behavior. (Samuel, 5/17)

Higher levels of leisure-time activity may boost protection against a wide range of cancers, according to a new analysis of research from the U.S. and Europe. Based on data from 12 previous studies involving a total 1.44 million people, researchers found that with few exceptions, high versus low amounts of moderate to vigorous activity meant lowered risk for 13 out of 26 types of cancer. (Hand, 5/17)

When women have advanced breast cancer, the amount of comfort-oriented care they receive at the end of life may depend on the color of their skin, a small U.S. study suggests. ... Black women were 49 percent less likely to receive certain medications for symptom relief than white patients, and they were also 14 percent less likely to get hospice care aimed at improving quality of life in their final days, the study found. (Rapaport, 5/12)

A new set of charts shows how brain connections can change as children grow, and indicates that people with attention problems have altered patterns of brain connections. ... Pediatricians routinely rely on normative growth charts — showing how height, weight and head circumference change with age — to identify children with developmental delay. The new work creates charts for the maturation of connections in the brain. In the study, published in April in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers relied on brain scans from 519 people between 8 and 22 years old, including 25 with ADHD. (Zeliadt, 5/18)

Doctors often ask their patients about risky behaviors like smoking, drinking or riding in cars without seat belts. But they may be too reticent when it comes to one potential threat to their patients’ health: firearms. A doctor should certainly ask a patient about gun access if he or she expresses suicidal or violent intent, write Garen J. Wintemute, Marian E. Betz and Megan L. Ranney in a recent paper in Annals of Internal Medicine. But firearm screening may also be appropriate for patients with certain risk factors for gun violence, like alcohol abuse or a history of violent acts, and for children and older people with cognitive impairments. (Anna North, 5/19)

In a nation with more than 30,000 annual deaths from gunfire, and more than 70,000 injuries, promoting the safe storage and handling of guns is an obvious task for public health professionals. At least, it should be. (5/19)

On June 21, 2016, the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, which challenges a Florida law regulating physicians’ speech related to patients’ gun ownership. A decision by the court on the merits will most likely have broad implications both for states’ ability to regulate physicians’ speech and physicians’ efforts to protect patients from firearm-related injuries, which in 2014 in the United States, included more than 33,000 deaths, most of which (21,334) were suicides. (Wendy E. Parmet, Jason A. Smith and Matthew J. Miller, 5/18)

Nobody should be surprised when the present House of Representatives, dominated by penurious reactionaries, produces a stingy response to a danger that calls for compassionate largess. But for sheer fecklessness it’s hard to top the House’s response this week to the Zika virus. The salient feature is that in providing money to fight one health menace, it steals from other funds meant to fight an even more dangerous threat — the Ebola virus. (5/19)

In 2009, for the first time in decades, Democrats occupied the White House and held majorities in both houses of Congress. Still, they wanted to secure broad, bipartisan support for health reform legislation. Among their compromises was the creation of insurance exchanges where Americans could purchase private insurance, frequently with help from taxpayers. (5/19)

Maybe the revolution got started just a little too late. For decades, Bernie Sanders has been advocating for national health insurance. During his improbable ascent to national prominence over the past year, his desire to provide every American with publicly funded insurance has defined his Democratic presidential primary contest with Hillary Clinton. Although he campaigned on other issues as well — Wall Street, free college and the war in Iraq — his most ambitious goal has been replacing today's patchwork health-insurance system with one run by the government. (Max Ehrenfreund, 5/19)

No one really expects this year’s presidential campaign to be decided on issues. But in fact, we are heading toward a new record for vacuousness. To see how far we’ve drifted from any connection with the real world, consider just one issue: health-care reform. (Michael Tanner, 5/18)

Failing to respond to difficult questions seems to have been a kind of corporate policy at Theranos -- and for a long time it seemed to pay off. Even when company executives did talk to journalists, they could be “exasperatingly opaque,” my friend Roger Parloff wrote in a December mea culpa about the laudatory Fortune cover story he wrote on Holmes and Theranos in 2014. If nothing else, he wrote, he wished he had included more of Holmes’s answers-that-weren’t-really answers in his original article. (Justin Fox, 5/19)

The Food and Drug Administration has decided it is going to update its definition of what constitutes “healthy” food. Under the current definition — set in the 1990s when fat was a four-letter word — companies can’t market avocados, walnuts, or salmon as healthy because they contain more than three grams of fat per serving. It doesn’t matter that the fat consists mainly of nourishing monounsaturated fatty acids. Sugary breakfast cereals and Pop-Tarts do squeak into the healthy category, however. (Roxanne Sukol, 5/19)

The drug industry blames the Food and Drug Administration for driving up the research and development costs of new drugs, stifling innovation, and interfering with the sainted mandate to bring cures to suffering medical patients. The nation's public research agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health, complain they're starved for money. Put those together, and you get the elements of what drug industry watchdog Ed Silverman calls a "grand bargain": Congress will step up funding for the NIH in return for a loosening of regulatory standards at the FDA. Silverman thinks this is an offer the American public should refuse. He's right. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/19)

If you have ever been admitted to a teaching hospital, you’ve probably encountered a medical student in your midst. You might wonder: Is this student actually here to help me, or am I a guinea pig here to help them learn? While the presence of budding doctors may make some patients uneasy, these students often grapple with their own anxieties about the transition out of the classroom and into the hospital room. (Andi Shahu, 5/19)

As an emergency-room nurse in southwest Wisconsin, I sometimes received patients who had been sexually assaulted — and I was expected to help conduct an exam to collect and preserve DNA evidence, though I didn’t have the appropriate training. I would try to make sense out of the rape kit: a cardboard box packed with numerous envelopes holding a mess of long-handled swabs and slides. Instructions were printed on both sides of a sheet in type so small I could barely read it. Often, the doctor on call was as uncertain about what to do as I was and had only 10 or 15 minutes before needing to return to other emergency department duties. I felt inadequate to meet my patients’ needs. And I was always worried: “What if I mess something up in the rape kit and ruin her court case?” (Terri Slapak-Fugate, 5/19)

Death doesn't scare me because we're spiritual beings. It's just that I'm quite fond of my life and don't want it to end. My biggest fear is losing my ability to care for myself during my last days or weeks with colon cancer. It is good that I have the support of my husband, children and family to soon have the legal option to complete the official paperwork required to obtain aid-in-dying medication. I recently spoke to my oncologist, who is also fully supportive of my end-of-life decision. (Kristy Allan, 5/19)