�鶹Ů��

President Barack Obama took on the problems of a lack of access to health care and high cost, but he and Democrats paid a political price. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to undo much of what Obama put in place, and pledged to make the system better. Although Trump is lacking in specifics, he seems to want to make costs his priority. States, insurers, businesses, and individuals would get more leeway to sort out access. Health care keenly reflects the country's deep political divide. A look at some lessons Trump might learn from Obama's rough ride. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/27)

As a candidate, Donald Trump vaguely promised to fix health care by repealing Obamacare and "getting rid of the lines." But as president-elect, his health policy is getting more robust — and there's a straight line to the Heritage Foundation. "Our view … it's about giving people choices. It's about having the markets work well, the structure and the incentives," Heritage health policy analyst Ed Haislmaier said on POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast this week. "It's not about products." (Diamond, 11/23)

Health-care stocks jumped just after Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, yet few in the pharmaceutical industry surveyed by Jefferies Group LLC are celebrating now. Almost 80 percent of participants who answered questions about the sector’s outlook at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference in London last week said that they believe Trump’s positions on health care will be negative, or at best, neutral. Pricing reform was the primary concern. Nearly nine in 10 people, meanwhile, said they expect an increase in health-care deals next year, driven by biotech transactions. At the top of this year’s list of deals was Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s $40.5 billion purchase of Allergan Plc’s generics unit. (Patton, 11/23)

After firing up crowds with boisterous and sometimes divisive campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump has appeared to moderate some stances since he won the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8. ... During the campaign, Trump said he would repeal President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. He called Obamacare a "disaster" and said he would replace it with a plan that would give states more control over the Medicaid health plan for the poor and allow insurers to sell plans nationally. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Nov. 11, Trump said he was considering keeping parts of the law, including provisions letting parents keep adult children up to age 26 on insurance policies and barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. "Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced," Trump told the Journal. (Kerry, 11/25)

A 30-year-old cancer survivor in a small West Virginia town worries how she would pay for treatment if a tumor returned. A Chicago doctor wonders whether her hospital would cut back on care for ill or premature infants. In Northern Virginia, the head of a small nonprofit clinic lies awake at night fearing a surge of uninsured patients she couldn’t afford to take in. Two weeks after the unexpected election of Donald Trump, the incoming administration and the Republicans who control Congress have defined few specifics for how they will carry out their promise to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Yet the shift in Washington’s political geometry already is stoking anxiety among many of the 11 million people who have gained private insurance under the law, as well as among those who help care for them. (Goldstein, 11/23)

Florida helped hand Mr. Trump the presidency when he narrowly won the state, but it has also provided more customers for the federal health insurance marketplace than any other state. This makes Florida a window to the complex and delicate task Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans face in deciding whether to scrap the entire law, which has brought coverage to more than 20 million people, and what to replace it with. ... Jay Wolfson, a professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida, said that while many Floridians would be happy to see the law disappear, and the state’s Republican leaders have never shied away from attacking it, failing to come up with a substantive replacement could be politically risky. (Goodnaugh, 11/25)

This month's election results could have big implications for those who now have insurance because of the Affordable Care Act — either through the exchanges or Medicaid expansion. President-elect Trump and Republicans in Congress have made it clear they want to scrap the law, but it's unclear what may replace it. That gap between repeal and replacement has left many unsure of what will happen with their medical care. We have these reports from around the country from people who could be affected by changes. (11/26)

The uncertainty over the health law’s future also means uncertainty for many Connecticut residents who have relied on it. To some, like Jalbert, it means waiting anxiously to see what will happen to benefits they had come to count on, or planned to use. Others are hopeful that there could be fixes to what they see as the shortcomings of Obamacare, particularly when it comes to affordability. (Levin Becker, 11/28)

Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer fought her own Republican party in the state Legislature for months to push through a Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. That was three years ago. Now, as an early Donald Trump supporter who has his ear, Brewer hopes one of the pillars of President Barack Obama’s health care law can be saved as Trump pushes to dump much of the overhaul. (Christie, 11/27)

President-elect Donald Trump has proposed converting the federal-state [Medicaid] program into block grants to the states in an effort to give them more latitude over how the program is run. This would jibe with many leading Republicans in Congress, who for years have wanted a Medicaid overhaul that hands more control over to the states. But such a move is likely to expose divisions among Republicans over how significantly to peel back coverage protections for the more than 12 million people who gained Medicaid in the 31 states, as well as Washington, D.C., that expanded the program. (Armour, 11/24)

State leaders are positioning themselves to have a key voice in a potential rewrite of ObamaCare next year. With the election of Donald Trump, Republican leaders in Congress have promised a dramatic overhaul of President Obama’s signature policy. The National Governors Association (NGA), a proudly bipartisan group representing every state, is now eyeing a more public — and more aggressive — role alongside GOP leaders as they attempt to gut the massive federal program. (Ferris, 11/26)

Chris Cunningham was so thrilled with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, she readily accepted his invitation to an event celebrating its first anniversary in January. Gaining Medicaid ended her eight years without health coverage and paid for her treatment of a thyroid problem, her lung disease and prescription drugs to help both. She stopped working in 2008 to care for her disabled husband. (Galewitz, 11/28)

Nearly 71,000 low-income Franklin County residents could lose their tax-funded health insurance if President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans make good on promises to repeal and replace the federal Affordable Care Act. The residents are among the 692,532 Ohioans who gained coverage under Republican Gov. John Kasich’s 2014 expansion of Medicaid. How the Medicaid expansion, a key piece of Obamacare, might change is creating uncertainty and angst. (Candisky, 11/28)

Donald J. Trump once declared that campaigning for “substantial” changes to Medicare would be a political death wish. But with Election Day behind them, emboldened House Republicans say they will move forward on a years-old effort to shift Medicare away from its open-ended commitment to pay for medical services and toward a fixed government contribution for each beneficiary. (Pear, 11/24)

President-elect Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan agree that repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with some other health insurance system is a top priority. But they disagree on whether overhauling Medicare should be part of that plan. Medicare is the government-run health system for people aged 65 and older and the disabled. Trump said little about Medicare during his campaign, other than to promise that he wouldn't cut it. Ryan, on the other hand, has Medicare in his sights. (Kodjak, 11/26)

Cancer patients with only Medicare coverage face steep out-of-pocket costs, spending on average almost a quarter of their household incomes on treatment, according to a study published Wednesday. The study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that Medicare beneficiaries without additional health coverage paid an average of $8,115 a year, or 23.7 percent of their incomes, on out-of-pocket costs after a cancer diagnosis. Some paid up to 63 percent of their incomes. Hospitalizations were the major factor for their high expenses, the researchers said. (McGinley, 11/23)

To avoid liver damage, Roberta Solar, a 71-year-old cancer patient, has to take a medicine called ursodiol, perhaps for the rest of her life. Next year her annual out-of-pocket costs for the drug will jump from $93 to $1,878 – a rise of almost 2,000%, according to information that she and her husband recently received from the insurer that covers their medicines under Medicare. The drug is just one of dozens of medications whose skyrocketing prices are increasingly hitting older Americans on fixed incomes. And that has renewed calls that the law be changed to allow Medicare, the government system that covers older Americans, to use its size and power to negotiate better drug prices. (Petersen, 11/23)

U.S. Senate and House negotiators are in final stages of talks toward legislation that would boost funding for the National Institutes of Health, provide states with $1 billion for opioid-addiction treatment and improve access to mental-health treatment. The bill, which is likely to become completed in the next few days, will also have potentially significant impact on the regulation of medical devices and drugs. The House is scheduled to vote on some version of the legislation as early as Wednesday. ... People familiar with the talks, however, said that over the weekend there are major provisions to be hammered out, especially regarding Food and Drug Administration regulation of drugs and devices. One of those people said on Saturday that there was still the possibility that this emerging deal would fall apart. (Burton, 11/26)

The House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a long-stalled package of biomedical innovation bills along with a vote on whether to add state funding to fight opioid misuse. A reworked 21st Century Cures Act was released over the holiday weekend by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).  The Cures Act as now proposed includes funding for President Barack Obama's precision medicine initiative, the cancer "moonshot" effort and Alzheimer's research. The act creates innovation accounts for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration that would be replenished annually. (Muchmore, 11/27)

House and Senate leaders announced late Friday night that they had finally hammered out a deal on landmark legislation designed to speed federal approval of new drugs and devices and boost funding of medical research. But what Republican lawmakers call the “final” version of the 21st Century Cures Act is actually still in negotiation with Senate Democrats, a Senate health committee senior aide told STAT on Sunday. Despite the potential for challenges in the Senate, the House will push ahead and vote Wednesday on the $6.3 billion legislation. (Kaplan, 11/26)

Lawmakers have reached a deal to consider a medical innovation bill and a mental health reform measure on the House floor next week. The bills will be combined into a single package and tucked into the shell of a suspender measure that already passed both chambers, enabling lawmakers to expedite consideration of the legislation. The compromise comes after bill sponsors have been pushing for well over a year to get both measures over the finish line in Congress. (Zanona and Sullivan, 11/25)

The House plans to vote Wednesday on a $6.3 billion bill aimed at speeding federal approval of drugs and medical devices and boosting biomedical research. The legislation, a priority for congressional leaders in the lame-duck session, seeks to streamline how federal regulators assess the safety of new treatments and let them reach markets more quickly. It provides new money for the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration, including funding for the White House's cancer moonshot and precision medicine initiatives. (11/26)

The 21st Century Cures Act now being refined by the lame-duck Congress is one of the most-lobbied health care bills in recent history, with nearly three lobbyists working for its passage or defeat for every member on Capitol Hill. More than 1,455 lobbyists representing 400 companies, universities and other organizations pushed for or against a House version of a Cures bill this congressional cycle, according to federal disclosure forms compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. (Lupkin, 11/28)

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday he is considering a subpoena or another method of compelling testimony from the pharmaceutical company Mylan, the Justice Department and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. All three parties have refused to attend a committee hearing next week. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement that he is postponing the Nov. 30 hearing on a possible settlement between Mylan and the Justice Department over Mylan's life-saving EpiPen. Grassley said that because of the parties' refusal to participate, "we must now consider compelling their participation." (Jalonick, 11/23)

Mylan has come under fire for raising the price of a pair of EpiPens to $600 from $100 in 2008 and listing it with Medicaid as a generic product even though it is listed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a branded product. Companies pay smaller rebates to Medicaid for generics. (Bartz, 11/24)

An antitrust trial seeking to block Anthem’s $54 billion acquisition of Cigna kicked off in Washington last week before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. If the Anthem-Cigna deal is approved, it would create the largest health insurance company in the country. This is the first of two blockbuster antitrust cases taking place in the coming weeks, with Aetna’s proposed $37 billion takeover of Humana headed to court on Dec. 5. The first two weeks of the Anthem-Cigna trial will focus on the health insurance market for large employers with operations in multiple states. Here’s a rundown of what we learned — and what’s still to come — when the trial resumes Monday morning. (Demko, 11/27)

After a spinal stroke in 2007 robbed Rick Batty of his ability to use his arms and legs, the then 54-year-old agricultural salesman wasn't sure he'd ever walk again. Then he found ReWalk, a battery-powered exoskeleton that uses small motors at the knees and hips to help paraplegics stand up and walk. Activated by the forward tilt of a user's upper body, ReWalk allows users to move their paralyzed legs in a step-like motion. About half the 260 devices currently in use are located in therapy centers, where the sessions are covered by many insurers as normal rehabilitation or gait training. But to own a ReWalk for use at home and around town, there's less financial support. Only a handful of insurers cover the take-home version of the device, for which Marlborough, Mass.-based ReWalk charges $77,500. (Rubenfire, 11/26)

State data show that the price of maternity care and other medical services can vary by many thousands of dollars from one hospital to another, and that price differences are not tied to quality. A commission has been assembled to study the issue. But some employers are seeking to exploit the price discrepancies, offering cash and other incentives, such as free diapers, to encourage workers to choose lower-cost health care services and providers. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/28)

In 1946, President Harry S Truman helped orchestrate an agreement between the United States government and the United Mine Workers of America, guaranteeing health and retirement benefits to unionized miners and ending a nationwide strike. ... Starting Jan. 1, funds for the health care coverage of 22,000 nationwide UMWA members covered under its 1993 Benefit Plan will begin to run dry unless Congress passes legislation known as the Miners Protection Act. About 16,000 of those members would immediately lose their medical benefits and another 6,000 would lose theirs over the course of 2017. Pension funds would dwindle, as well, at risk of becoming insolvent in about five years without a new infusion of cash. (Gray, 11/27)

In the two weeks since the election, Planned Parenthood Federation of America has seen a huge increase in volunteers and donations – over 200,000 donations in a single week. But this surge in support hasn't reached many other reproductive health organizations. And many of these centers are already struggling to meet a spike in demand for long-acting contraception after the election of Donald Trump. (Ross, 11/23)

The phone has been ringing off the hook at Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, with women rushing to make appointments to get long-acting birth control. In the two weeks since Donald Trump won the presidency, the number of appointments at the organization's 12 clinics has jumped by 81 percent, according to spokeswoman Tiffany Harms. The most popular requests: intrauterine devices, or IUDs, small plastic devices that are inserted into the uterus and left in place, and hormonal implants. Planned Parenthood officials say it's a similar situation across the country, with many women braced for the worst. They fear that Trump will try to follow through on his promises to outlaw abortion and scrap the Affordable Care Act, which helps many poor women by providing birth control with no co-pays. (Hotakainen, 11/26)

For years, Iowa's divided Legislature shielded the state from a wave of Republican-backed laws that restricted abortion access around the country. But a new GOP majority will take control in January, meaning nearly a dozen abortion-related bills could soon be on the table, and Democrats will be unable to block them by vote for the first time in a decade. (Rodriguez, 11/23)

The number and rate of abortions tallied by federal authorities have fallen to their lowest level in decades, according to new data released Wednesday. The latest report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incorporating data from 47 states, said the abortion rate for 2013 was 12.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. That's half the rate recorded in 1980. The last time the CDC recorded a lower rate was 1971, two years before a Supreme Court ruling extending abortion rights nationwide. (Crary, 11/23)

The man who seven years ago ambushed and fatally shot one of the few U.S. doctors performing late-term abortions was given a more lenient sentence Wednesday of at least 25 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole. At a surprise resentencing hearing, prosecutors withdrew their request that Scott Roeder serve at least 50 years before parole eligibility. Roeder also was sentenced to an additional two years for aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers as he fled. (Hegeman, 11/24)

180 Health, based in Brentwood, will start working in January with some of the companies that administer TennCare to identify women who are at risk for having babies with [neonatal abstinence syndrome], and getting them connected with either detox or tapering and other community resources.180 Health’s goal is to reduce the number of babies born dependent, and help the women stay clean after giving birth so they and their family can have healthier lives. The company will work with obstetricians under TennCare to identify addicted women and assist them with getting into detox or tapering programs to get them off opioids before the baby is born. (Fletcher, 11/26)

An Ohio State University recovery advocate and others want to fill a gap in central Ohio by forming a high school that would be open only to adolescents who are working to overcome drug and alcohol addictions. Such “recovery high schools” provide young people with a space that sets them up to succeed both academically and in their pursuit of a clean lifestyle, said Sarah Nerad, who is among those spearheading the effort. (Viviano, 11/28)

For more than a decade, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other beverage companies have fought mightily against efforts to tax sugary sodas, defeating more than three dozen such proposals around the country. But this month, voters in San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, Calif., as well as Boulder, Colo., stunned the industry by approving ballot measures in favor of soda taxes. Cook County, Ill., followed a few days later, bringing a soft-drink tax to Chicago and surrounding areas. They are joining Berkeley, Calif., which passed a tax two years ago, and Philadelphia, which passed one in June, bringing to seven the number of American communities with soda taxes. With that public momentum, a soda tax may be coming to a city near you. (O'Connor and Sanger-Katz, 11/26)

As Americans gather around Thanksgiving tables, chances are that the healthier parts of their menus — the tossed salads, broccoli casseroles or steaming bowls of roasted brussels sprouts — were grown here in the Salinas Valley. ... Yet one place the valley’s bounty of antioxidants does not often appear is on the tables of the migrant workers who harvest it. Public health officials here describe a crisis of poverty and malnutrition among the tens of thousands of farmworkers and their families who tend to the fields of lettuce, broccoli, celery, cauliflower and spinach, among many other crops, in an area called the salad bowl of the nation. (Fuller, 11/23)

Of all the mosquito species that populate the planet, few have proved themselves more resilient or more deadly to humans than the Aedes aegypti. The epidemics fueled by this tiny mosquito stretch across hundreds of years and include millions of victims. Yellow fever, dengue fever, chikungunya. And now Zika, which has spread to more than 50 countries and can cause an array of severe birth defects. ... Writing Thursday in the journal Science, Yale University’s Jeffrey R. Powell, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, detailed how this species now breeds year-round in locations where it once didn’t exist — including in the District and California. (Dennis, 11/24)

After decades of shadowboxing with the human immunodeficiency virus, researchers were encouraged four years ago when a test of a vaccine on 16,000 people in Thailand turned up a previously unknown vulnerability in the resilient pathogen. The vaccine was only 31 percent effective and wore off over time, so it could not be approved for use in a general population. But the study’s results allowed scientists to exploit the chink in HIV’s armor, reformulate the drug and bring it back for another clinical trial. (Brown and Bernstein, 11/25)

Flyer is part of a burgeoning field called “comparative oncology.” It focuses on finding new ways to treat cancer in pets, mostly dogs, in an effort to develop innovative treatments for people and animals. The growing interest in dogs reflects researchers’ frustration with the standard approach to developing cancer treatments: testing them in lab animals, especially mice. Mice don’t normally get cancer — it must be induced — and the immune systems in many strains of lab mice have been altered. That makes them especially poor models for immunotherapy, a rapidly growing field of medicine that directs patients’ own immune systems to fight their cancer. (McGinley, 11/26)

Patients and their advocates are getting an ever-larger voice in how medical research is carried out. They participate in the design of experiments and have a greater say in what outcomes they care about most — and it's not always simply living longer. Sharon Terry has lived through a couple of decades during which patients went from being complete outsiders to participants. She worries now that they risk being co-opted by the medical research juggernaut. (Harris, 11/28)

Hispanics are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with diabetes, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data. But for November, National Diabetes Month, the National Eye Health Education Program and the National Institutes of Health have come together to shed light on a lesser known issue: the prevalence of diabetic eye disease among Hispanics and what diabetics can do to prevent the loss of their vision. (Benavides, 11/26)

The best-known type of dialysis requires patients to visit a specialized center for treatment. But two forms of at-home dialysis are gaining popularity. Peritoneal dialysis uses the stomach membrane as a filter to remove fluids and wastes; home hemodialysis is essentially the same as the procedure used in clinics, but the equipment is more compact. (Beeson, 11/27)

Flu is more serious, causing sore throat, congestion, cough, headaches, body aches, fatigue and often chills and high fever. In 2014, it killed more than 4,600 Americans. So just what should you do to prevent the crud? And, if it hits, what are the best ways to manage symptoms? (Viviano, 11/27)

States are increasingly turning to private firms to provide managed long-term supports and services (MLTSS). Their goal is to rein in costs and increase budget predictability. Officials say it enables delivery of more coordinated care and prevents sending people to expensive nursing home settings. But some advocates are claiming that they are seeing care suffer under the model. Researchers who study the issue say the concern may be driven more by a fear of change than any actual shortcomings in care. (Dickson, 11/26)

With the threat of a tight year for next year’s state budget, legislators will consider a plan to streamline payments for nursing homes that accept Medicaid. But some nursing home operators say the new payment system will leave them at a loss. One state lawmaker believes the plan, known as the Nursing Home Prospective Payment System, will help the Legislature better predict how much money should be set aside for the state’s Medicaid program. (Sarkissian, 11/26)

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley says Medicaid's shift to managed care will be pushed back from July to October amid uncertainty about funding and what changes the Trump administration might bring to Medicaid. The governor, a licensed doctor, said he is committed to moving forward with the switch to managed care, but said there are a few unknowns, including funding for next fiscal year and if the Trump administration will give states block grants allowing more flexibility to write the rules for their programs. (11/25)

The Federal Trade Commission and a cadre of prominent health economists are urging Tennessee officials to reject a potential merger between Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System. The move comes a little more than a month after the FTC made its own plea to Virginia regulators. Mountain States and Wellmont, both headquartered in Tennessee, have been trying to combine their competing hospital systems for the past 18 months. The two not-for-profits own 19 hospitals in Virginia and Tennessee. A merged system would have about $2 billion of revenue. Mountain States and Wellmont have submitted applications for a certificate of public advantage (COPA) in Tennessee and Virginia, which would essentially allow them to skirt federal antitrust scrutiny in favor of state oversight. (Dickson, 11/26)

Most cancer patients going through treatment struggle with pain, fevers and nausea, sometimes severe enough to send them to the emergency room. But the chaos of the emergency room and related stress are "an assault on your well-being," said Richard Dean, who took his wife many times while she was battling ovarian cancer six years ago. He told Johns Hopkins Hospital officials they needed an urgent care center especially for cancer patients...Hopkins listened and, using some patient data crunching from Dean, who teaches engineering at Morgan State University, launched a cancer urgent care center in 2014 in space adjacent to where chemotherapy is delivered. The Hopkins center is open 12 hours a day during the week and plans to open on Saturdays starting in March. (Cohn, 11/25)

Five years ago, if a cancer patient at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, N.J., had a complex case, the attending oncologist would review the medical literature and call colleagues to solicit input on the best course of treatment. Now physicians can present challenging cases to a tumor board made up of experts in that particular form of cancer who come from Cooper and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, one of the nation's top-ranked academic oncology centers. The two institutions formed the partnership in 2013. “It's a very easy dialogue because we have this relationship,” said Dr. Generosa Grana, director of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper. Cooper is among the growing number of hospital systems that are joining forces with renowned National Cancer Institute-designated centers such as MD Anderson based in Houston or Dana-Farber in Boston. (Whitman, 11/26)

Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, and UMass Memorial were among 17 hospitals inspected last December by the FDA. Regulators were concerned about infections possibly linked to contaminated instruments called duodenoscopes, used to examine the small intestine, and about the spread of uterine cancer when a surgical device called a power morcellator, which cuts up tissue, is used. Last month, the agency disclosed the inspection reports, showing that 15 of the 17 medical centers were either late in reporting cases in which patients were harmed by various devices or failed to report at all. (Kowalczyk, 11/27)

Boston Children’s Hospital is teaming up with General Electric Co. to produce software that will help doctors more accurately interpret brain scans of young patients. Under a deal set to be announced Monday, Children’s and Boston-based GE’s health care division will develop the system over the next 18 months, then market it to hospitals around the world. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/28)

Cherry Hill was still called Delaware Township when plans for a "complete modern general hospital" at Chapel Avenue and Cooper Landing Road were announced in the late 1950s. Long since acquired and expanded by Kennedy Health, the community hospital that opened in 1961 is being transformed by a $250 million construction project and a pending merger with Philadelphia's Jefferson Health. "There will be a total rebranding of this campus," says Joseph W. Devine, president and CEO of Kennedy Health. (Riordan, 11/27)

Working with Republican Gov. John Kasich, majority GOP lawmakers say they are responding to antitrust concerns raised by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2014 while seeking to reduce bureaucracy and overhead. Companion legislation in the House and Senate would reduce the number of medical-licensure boards from 16 to eight — and cut the number of board members by 88 — by redistributing the oversight of 545,000 professionals. (Ludlow, 11/25)

Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that he does not intend to shutter more state mental hospitals or other state institutions next year....The Republican governor sparked controversy in 2015, when he ordered the closures of two of the state’s four mental hospitals. Branstad contended private mental-health agencies could provide more efficient, effective care, but critics said those agencies were not prepared to take on the complicated cases the state institutions in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant had handled. (Leys, 11/21)

Despite the vast need — and the potential payoff in reduced recidivism — mental health and substance abuse treatment for many Massachusetts inmates is chronically undermined by clinician shortages, shrinking access to medication, and the widespread use of segregation as discipline ... And when their incarcerations end, many mentally ill and drug-addicted prisoners are sent back into the world without basic tools they need to succeed, such as ready access to medication, addiction counseling, or adequate support and oversight. Such omissions can be critical: The Harvard-led Boston Reentry Study found in 2014 that inmates with a mix of mental illness and addiction are significantly less likely than others to find stable housing, work income, and family support in the critical initial period after leaving prison, leaving them insecure, isolated, and at risk of falling into “diminished mental health, drug use and relapse.” (Russell, Cramer, Spotlight team, 11/25)

A 24-year-old Lake County man was able to receive help for mental health issues rather than jail due to a number of agencies working together across state lines, officials said. Lake County sheriff deputies had a history of responding to the man's home, more than 20 times in the past few years largely for issues of domestic disturbance and suicidal threats, according to Sgt. Christopher Covelli...The man had previously been in mental health court, he said, which is where a judge and prosecutors recognize that a defendant may have mental health issues. In a recent call to the man's home, the man attempted to disarm a sheriff's deputy, Covelli said. (Gallagher, 11/23)

Traces of lead were found in the water of South Washington County schools, district officials reported this week. The lead was discovered in 95 of the district’s 1,737 sources of water, including sinks and drinking fountains. The outlets for the lead-bearing water have been shut off or replaced, according to Damien Nelson, district safety and security manager. Officials sent letters to parents of the school district’s children, listing the lead content in water sources in individual schools and what has been done to eliminate any health threats. (Shaw, 11/25)

After a change in Georgia law, Gainesville police have taken possession of more sexual assault examination kits performed at Northeast Georgia Medical Center, even those involving cases almost an hour outside of the city’s jurisdiction... After Senate Bill 304 became effective July 1, law enforcement was required to take possession of sexual assault examination kits “no later than 96 hours of being notified.” With the Medical Center drawing patients from across the region, local law enforcement has taken possession of the evidence from the hospital regardless of the assault’s origin. (Watson, 11/27)

In the last few years, more than 570 stem cell clinics have popped up nationwide, advertising treatment for a range of maladies, from autism and Alzheimer’s to neuropathy and Parkinson’s disease, according to a recent UC Davis study. About 113 of those are operating in California.But do they really work? According to most stem cell experts and the federal government, there’s no way to know yet. (Buck, 11/26)

A parade of pint-sized patients made their way to a dental clinic set up on the stage in the cafeteria of St. Anthony School 5th St. campus last week. The makeshift dental clinic — staffed by two hygienists and two assistants employed by Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s — is providing basic preventive dental care to about 250 first- and second-graders at the school over a three-week period. The students are among the roughly 10,000 children who will receive preventive care this year through Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Smart Smiles program. (Boulton, 11/27)

The St. Louis Office of Developmental Disabilities Resources, also known as DDR, is in the midst of a deep financial crisis. The tax-funded agency burned through $17 million in reserves in just four years, sometimes mixing up those reserve dollars with regular operating funds and spending both at unsustainable levels. The end result is a financial mess that is causing DDR to start cutting funding to its partner agencies. Ironically, it was lobbying for more funding by some of those partner agencies that led the DDR to distribute the millions in reserves. (Addo, 11/26)

On a recent lunch break from his construction job, [Hector] Flores sat at the end of the table, bottles of medication lined up in front of him. On this day, the room also was serving as a health clinic of sorts, a place for Flores to see how he is faring in an effort to control his diabetes...Flores is one of the clinic’s patients in a home-visit program targeting those with diabetes or at risk for the disease. About one-third of Casa de Salud’s clients are in that category, clinic president Jorge Riopedre said. Prior to the program, which has now served 50 patients over 18 months, Casa held diabetes education and nutrition classes at the clinic in midtown. (Moore, 11/28)

A new wrongful death suit filed against a Hampton nursing facility offers a more detailed account of an elderly woman’s declining health after getting a hair perm that her family’s lawyer claims led to her death. The suit filed earlier this month in Rockingham County Superior Court outlines the alleged injuries suffered by 89-year-old Betty Pettigrew of Portsmouth in the months before she died in 2015...The suit names as defendants 22 Tuck Road Operations, which operates Oceanside Center and Oceanside Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center; Generations Haircare LLC, which is located in the Oceanside building; and Linda Seguin of Hampton, who is believed to be an employee of Generations Haircare. (Schreiber, 11/24)

With Iowa’s limited medical cannabis laws set to expire in July, state legislators and medical marijuana advocates say they see an opportunity to rewrite a more comprehensive set of rules when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, said he plans to propose a bill that would allow for the production and distribution of medical cannabis oil in Iowa — something many other Republicans previously have opposed. (Pfannenstiel, 11/27)

A strong majority of Florida’s voters came together behind a constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana. Now Florida’s lawmakers have to come together to roll out the changes. Florida’s legislative efforts in the realm of medical marijuana have been a slow motion train wreck. (Evans, 11/27)

Republicans in Washington face a tough question after unexpectedly winning the presidency and controlling the Senate in the 2016 elections. They have regained single-party governance for the first time in a decade, with GOP hands on all the electoral levers of federal government. Donald Trump will have an opportunity to nominate a successor to the late Antonin Scalia, restoring the nominally conservative balance to the Supreme Court. The question is this: What now? One answer, ironically, comes from Nancy Pelosi. (Edward Morrissey, 11/25)

President-elect Donald Trump has already stepped back from his campaign pledge to entirely repeal Obamacare, saying he’ll keep a couple of the law’s popular insurance protections. Soon enough, certain governors in his own party can be expected to argue that it would also be smart to retain the law’s most successful component: the expansion of Medicaid. Trump should take that advice. Thirty-one states -- 11 led by Republicans -- have accepted Obamacare funding to extend Medicaid to anyone earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty line (about $16,400 for an individual). As a result, at least 10 million Americans have insurance who would lose it without the expansion. (11/23)

A new study by Jonathan Gruber, one of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) chief economic architects, suggests that roughly two-thirds of new Medicaid enrollees in 2014 were eligible for the program under previous state eligibility criteria—meaning that they were not made eligible by the ACA. If accurate, then a much smaller share of new Medicaid enrollees were made eligible for the program by the ACA than Washington experts commonly believe. (Brian Blase, 11/27)

Half slave and half free. The last time the United States split into two countries, it didn’t work out at all well. If that sounds like a hyperbolic reaction to the yawning red state, blue state divide, so be it. It’s prompted by the picture that President-elect Donald J. Trump painted the other day of what would happen if he achieved his goal of appointing enough Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. The question of abortion “would go back to the states,” Mr. Trump told Lesley Stahl of CBS News during a conversation on “60 Minutes.” ... And so they would, traveling a new underground railroad from red to blue. (Linda Greenhouse, 11/24)

Health care remains an issue of debate across our country. However, when it comes to rural health care, the issue is complicated further by geography and a lack of providers, resulting in a loss of competition and ultimately costly burdens being placed on patients. There are a number of medical issues that affect our rural communities at a greater rate than our urban counterparts. For example, diabetes incidence is about 17 percent higher in rural areas than urban ones, according to Texas A&M University researchers, which in turn leads to a greater rate of related complications. (Jack Alexander, 11/23)

Republicans’ first order of business is abolishing the Affordable Care Act. But [Sen. Chuck] Schumer thinks the health law is safe from President Trump. “ObamaCare, he won’t be able to do it,” the senator said on Fox News last week. The GOP simply doesn’t have the votes to kill the program, he added. Mr. Schumer wants to revive the health-care law with fixes and more funding. But persuading fellow Democrats to defend the legislation won’t be easy. ObamaCare has been a curse on Mr. Schumer’s party since it was enacted. (Fred Barnes, 11/27)

With all the negative discourse this election cycle, it’s great to hear some good news for a change. I am celebrating the fact the United States has achieved a historic milestone as 95 percent of children have health care coverage. ... A recent poll found that most people think the uninsured rate for children is increasing despite the fact that it has been decreasing. In fact, the child uninsured rate has been improving for at least a decade and the Affordable Care Act helped bring it down even further. (Michele Johnson, 11/25)

Arizona’s look at how 768 children died last year is an alarm bell. The Arizona Child Fatality Review’s newly released numbers for 2015 show a continuing increase in child suicides and deaths from maltreatment  — an increase that represents a challenge to all those in the state who say the lives of children matter. These deaths are preventable. (11/27)

By most metrics, [Wisconsin] is the nation’s most competitive insurance market, and it therefore comes as no surprise that it boasts among the lowest uninsurance rates, ranks in the top quartile in the Commonwealth Fund’s Scorecard on Health System Performance, and has outperformed most of the nation on health care costs and health outcomes. In short, Wisconsin is proving what economists and common sense have long known: A competitive market brings prices down, spurs innovation, and demands attention to quality and customer service. However, it is not enough merely to have choice available in the marketplace. The fruits of a competitive marketplace rely on making those choices available to individual workers and families. (Barak Richman, 11/26)

By the second quarter of 2017, the number of Wisconsin residents employed in the health care industry is projected to grow 3.25% to 401,414. That total is likely to continue to climb, considering that 10,000 U.S. baby boomers will turn age 65 every day between now and 2030 and will need more medical attention as they age, according to the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies. The sprawling industry extends across multiple sub-sectors, including not just hospitals and doctors but also nursing homes, clinics, dentists, labs, outpatient centers, home health services, mental health centers, fertility clinics and substance abuse centers. (Steve Jagler, 11/26)

Drug-discovery failures are sometimes as important as the successes, and one such notable disappointment arrived on Wednesday. Eli Lilly & Co. reported another defeat for an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment, once thought to be a potential breakthrough against the disease. In a closely watched clinical trial, Lilly’s antibody called solanezumab did not slow cognitive decline in patients with dementia compared to a placebo. ... Alzheimer’s lacks a cure or even a treatment to delay its advance, and the underlying causes and mechanisms of the disease are still elusive. That uncertainty makes research like Lilly’s extraordinarily risky. (11/25)

Attitudes are changing for the better. When substance abuse was perceived — wrongly, we should say — as a problem related to inner cities, the focus fell not on treatment but on punishment. Black lives did not matter. But as the incidence of abuse and deaths attributed to opioids spread to suburbs and small towns, society as a whole took notice of something it had ignored before. (11/26)

Addiction is a disease of the brain, every bit as much as diabetes and other maladies are diseases of the body, the report confirms. And it is treatable, with new therapies coming online. Nonetheless, only 1 in 10 alcohol and substance abusers receive specialized treatment. Imagine that rate of treatment for, say, those with diabetes or cancer. There would be no public tolerance for it. Substance abuse — including for alcohol — is closely linked with mental illness. Yet Mental Health America ranks Texas 46th in the nation in access to mental health treatment. (11/26)

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that young adolescents are now more likely to die from suicide than from a car crash. The revelation is a warning about the pervasive influence of social media in the lives of young people, whose smallest actions and decisions can be broadcast to an unforgiving and unlimited audience. Suicide among young people remains rare, but the fact it is on the rise is reason for alarm. (11/25)

We need to end the stigma associated with HIV, and reduce transmissions and AIDS-related deaths. Cities across Texas should replicate San Francisco’s Getting to Zero initiative in which a multisector consortium organizes events and leverages existing resources to achieve zero HIV transmission, zero HIV-related deaths and zero HIV stigma. Imagine if Texas cities started an Ending Stigma Committee, charged with eliminating discrimination and prejudice against individuals living with the disease and those communities disproportionately impacted by the disease. This is the work each Texas community must do. (Michele A. Rountree and Bart Whittington, 11/26)

I’ve studied all the body’s fluids and used each in diagnosing disease, and urine stands out in the wealth of information it grants about a patient’s condition. Conceived in the kidneys — a pair of bean-shaped organs tucked away in the abdomen’s rear — urine runs down the ureters and is conveniently stored in the bladder, from which it is gathered in plastic cups for testing. Urine analysis is performed frequently enough by physicians to have earned the shorthand “urinalysis” — no other bodily fluid can claim to be on a nickname-basis with the medical profession. (Jonathan Reisman, 11/23)