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Two former Food and Drug Administration lawyers have a creative possibility for how the agency could continue to do some of its work if the shutdown drags on: argue that reviewing certain drugs is essential to protecting people’s lives. Parts of the federal government, including the FDA, have already been shut down for five weeks, and there’s no sign yet that President Trump and congressional leaders are nearing a deal to reopen it. (Swetlitz, 1/25)

The Food and Drug Administration’s drug and medical device divisions were supposed to be spared from the brunt of the shutdown’s impact given their reliance on industry-paid fees instead of a government appropriation. But as the shutdown drags on into a second month, the FDA says those divisions are also running out of money — and work to do — and at some point will have to furlough employees that the agency has struggled to recruit and retain in recent years. One concerned industry group wants Congress to consider a short-term solution if it can’t pass any spending bills. (Siddons, 1/24)

President Trump suggested Thursday that grocery stores and banks will give a break to the 800,000 federal workers who are without pay due to the partial government shutdown. Trump was responding to a question about comments Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made hours earlier. Ross had prompted a wave of criticism after he claimed not to understand why furloughed workers were visiting food banks and suggested they take out a loan to cover their lost wages. (Sonmez, 1/24)

Concern is mounting across the country over whether the government shutdown might have an effect on school lunches. The US Department of Agriculture's child nutrition programs -- which provide low-cost or free school meals to children in need -- are fully funded through the end of March, according to a tweet from USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday. (Howard, 1/24)

There's been a blizzard this week in Utah, and still, State Forester Brian Cottam is preoccupied with forest fires. Usually, he and his team would be making plans with the federal government to help prevent fires. Even once the snow lets up, though, he's not sure when he'll get back to work with his federal colleagues. Fire prevention is a collaborative effort with local, state and federal agencies and private landowners -- and it's being held up because of the federal government shutdown. (Christensen, 1/24)

Chuck Schumer emerged from Mitch McConnell’s office after a 30-minute meeting on Thursday afternoon bearing a wide grin. “We’re talking,” the Senate minority leader said as he walked back to his office. After five weeks of mostly radio silence, with Washington reeling from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the two party leaders are finally in a room together. (Everett, 1/25)

An Indiana school superintendent who allegedly used her own insurance to help a sick student faces multiple charges including insurance fraud. Casey Smitherman — superintendent of Elwood Community Schools in Elwood, Indiana — was booked on charges of insurance fraud, identity deception and official misconduct on Wednesday and later released on bail, according to court records. Smitherman says the charges come after she recently went to the home of a student who had missed school and saw he had symptoms of strep throat. After the student was refused treatment at a clinic, she took him to another one, this time saying he was her son. (Shannon, 1/24)

The incident occurred on Jan. 9, police said. Smitherman noticed that a 15-year-old student she had helped before — buying clothes for him and helping clean his house, she told police according to an affidavit — had not shown up at school. She did not want to call the state’s Department of Child Services because she was concerned the child would be placed in a foster home, the affidavit said. She took the child, who had a sore throat, to a medical facility and checked him in by using her son’s insurance, for an evaluation under her son’s name. She then drove him to a pharmacy where she had an antibiotics prescription filled for the child, again under her son’s name, court records said, and dropped him back at his house. (Rosenberg and Wootson, 1/24)

“After one clinic refused to give the boy necessary treatment, I took him to a different clinic and told them he was my son. I knew he did not have insurance, and I wanted to do all I could to help him get well,” she said, according to the court documents. “I know this action was wrong. In the moment, my only concern was for this child’s health.” Smitherman has been charged with official misconduct, insurance fraud, insurance application fraud and identity deception, according to Fox59. Prosecutors have reportedly agreed to let her enter a diversion program and avoid a criminal conviction. (Anapol, 1/24)

A health care industry group on Thursday launched a digital ad campaign against "Medicare for all," as health care companies ramp up their efforts to fight the idea gaining ground on the left. “Whether it’s called Medicare for all, single-payer or a public option, a one-size-fits-all health care system will mean all Americans have less choice and control over their doctors, treatments and coverage,” states the two-and-a-half minute video, which will run as a digital ad on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Sullivan, 1/24)

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ ‘Medicare-For-All’? More? Some?
Democrats have officially launched their debate over “Medicare-for-all,” with lots of ideas on how to expand health insurance coverage (and lower costs) for Americans. Chances of any bill becoming law in the next two years are extremely slim, with Republicans still in control of the Senate and White House. But the debate is important in the run-up to the 2020 presidential primaries for Democrats. (1/24)

The Trump administration's paper trail of Obamacare criticism could spell trouble for newly expanded association health plans. U.S. District Judge John Bates on Thursday repeatedly challenged the Justice Department's assertion that the Trump administration's final rule on association health plans, or AHPs, didn't aim to reshape the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The judge appeared to take the Trump administration's intent very seriously as he pondered whether the Department of Labor overstepped its authority in expanding AHPs — the argument at the heart of Democratic state attorneys general's lawsuit to overturn the final rule. (Luthi, 1/24)

In other health law news —

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) on Thursday told newly sworn-in Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) that he does not have the authority to withdraw the state from a lawsuit filed by 20 states seeking to overturn ObamaCare. The state signed on to the lawsuit under the previous Republican-led administration.  (Hellmann, 1/24)

Before last month, David W. Smith was a midlevel executive at the sprawling health services company Optum. He’d never met the company’s CEO, according to a sworn affidavit, or cracked into a senior leadership team that includes about 200 people. He was basically a strategy consultant. But on Dec. 11, he became an existential threat. He took a job working for a nascent competitor, the health venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co and helmed by Dr. Atul Gawande. (Ross and Sheridan, 1/25)

UnitedHealth Group-owned Optum has sued to block a former executive from working at Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase's new healthcare cost-saving venture and potentially sharing trade secrets, in a sign of industry anxiety about the project's disruptive potential. Last week, Optum filed a non-compete and trade secrets lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against David Smith, who started working this month as the yet-unnamed joint venture's director of strategy and research. Optum claims that Smith, who worked as vice president of product, was privy to and misappropriated trade secrets that will help the new venture compete against it, violating non-disclosure and non-compete covenants in his contract. (Meyer, 1/24)

In other health industry news —

A group of health insurers including CVS Health Corp's Aetna, have teamed up with IBM Corp to create a blockchain network aimed at cutting costs in the healthcare industry. The companies intend to use blockchain technology, which allows the sharing of databases across a network of computers, for processing claims and payments and to maintain directories, they said in a joint statement. (1/24)

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has always been interested in the psychology of fraud and self-deception. So when HBO CEO Richard Plepler and Graydon Carter proposed that he look into the blood-testing startup Theranos and its charismatic young leader Elizabeth Holmes, saying yes was a "no-brainer." The film, "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley," premiered Thursday on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival. (Bahr, 1/25)

The protesters are already positioned when she pulls up in her rental car. One lurches at women approaching the clinic, rosary beads dangling from her outstretched palm. Another hands patients tiny fetus dolls that match their skin color. The doctor tries to ignore them. There are demonstrators at every abortion clinic and they’re all the same, she thinks: a nuisance. In Northern California, where she lives, a man yells, “Don’t take the blood money,” as she arrives at work. At least here, in Dallas, the protesters mostly stay on the sidewalk. The doctor slips inside the mirrored glass doors of the clinic — one of the busiest abortion facilities in the United States. (Karlamangla, 1/24)

In other news, Planned Parenthood is working to reach out to young people —

Planned Parenthood has developed a chatbot that can answer questions about sexual health, part of a larger communications effort by the health-services group to bring sex education to the young masses. The artificial-intelligence-powered tool, created by a design shop that sought guidance from high-school students, comes as the organization defends its role in a country divided on approaches to sex education for teens and issues related to women’s health, such as abortion and government funding for certain health services. (Bruell, 1/24)

Gum disease may lead to the development of Alzheimer's, according to a new study. A team of scientists led by the pharmaceutical company Cortexyme found "strong evidence" of a link between Alzheimer's and Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in gum disease, University of Louisville researcher Jan Potempa said. (Burke, 1/24)

Nearly 2 percent of high school students in the United States identify as transgender, according to data published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... Amit Paley, chief executive and executive director of the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, called the report’s findings “groundbreaking.” (Strauss, 1/24)

In the screen-lit bustle of modern life, sleep is expendable. There are television shows to binge-watch, work emails to answer, homework to finish, social media posts to scroll through. We’ll catch up on shut-eye later, so the thinking goes — right after we click down one last digital rabbit hole. Brain research, which has pushed back hard against this nonchalant attitude, is now expanding rapidly, reaching beyond the laboratory and delving into exactly how sleep works in disease and in normal cognitive functions such as memory. The growing consensus is that casual disregard for sleep is wrongheaded — even downright dangerous. (Johnson, 1/24)

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is keeping the Doomsday Clock set at two minutes to midnight — a metaphor for the end of the world — calling the threats against humankind “a new abnormal.” The scientists announced Thursday that the clock is stuck at 11:58, citing nuclear weapons and climate change as two existential risks that leave the world dangerously close to an apocalypse. (Bever and Ohlheiser, 1/24)

CVS Pharmacy unveiled an initiative in U.S. stores on Thursday, labeling photos of models in its beauty aisles to make it clear whether the images had been digitally altered. The U.S. No 2 drugstore chain, part of CVS Health Corp, is the first major American company to adopt such a policy in the face of rising concerns about doctored images setting unrealistic ideals of beauty, especially for young women. (1/24)

As the United States has debated the issue of paid parental leave, a few employers have stood out by providing very generous terms. One has been the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which in 2015 began offering parents one year of fully paid leave to spend with their babies. It turns out it was too long to be sustainable. Last week, the foundation told employees it was cutting paid parental leave by half, to six months, because yearlong leaves were impairing the work of the foundation. It will add a $20,000 stipend for new parents to spend on child care costs and family needs when they return to work. (Miller, 1/25)

The year 2018 is likely to have been the fourth warmest year on record, a scientific group pronounced Thursday -- and joins three other extra-hot years since 2015 that suggest a leap upward in warmth that the Earth may never return from in our lifetimes. The warmest year on record for the Earth’s land and oceans was 2016 -- by a long shot, thanks to a very strong El Nino event. That’s followed by 2017, 2015, and now 2018, said Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist with Berkeley Earth, which released the findings. (Mooney, 1/24)

HIV-infected men who smoke marijuana for long periods of time are more likely to be diagnosed with lung disease, according to a study published Thursday by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The study tracked 2,704 men — half of whom were HIV positive; the other half were not — between 1996 and 2014 to determine whether their long-term use of marijuana had an effect on pulmonary disease diagnoses. (Gans, 1/24)

While cases of black lung disease among miners were on the rise last year, coal companies and industry groups lobbied lawmakers against extending a tax program that provides a lifeline for sufferers and their families. Mandatory disclosures show the coal lobby spent some of its influence money on discussions with lawmakers regarding the Black Lung Excise Tax and the trust fund that helps pay for the health and living benefits of sick coal workers whose employers have gone bankrupt, and their beneficiaries. (Nawaguna, 1/25)

The notion that fake news exists in its own universe turns out to be doubly true: One universe is the realm outside truth. The other is its own seedy pocket of social media. In a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, political scientists surveyed the inhabitants of this Internet pocket around the time of the last presidential election, from Aug. 1 to Dec. 6, 2016. They found that people who shared fake news were more likely to be older and more conservative. (Guarino, 1/24)

Prince William, who has long spoken publicly about his emotional struggles, has taken his campaign for mental health awareness to Davos, Switzerland, urging global leaders to help break the stigma. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, who is second in line to the British throne, spoke candidly on Wednesday about the difficulty he faced in trying to get celebrities to sign on to his cause, revealing — without naming names — that not one had initially offered to join the mental health campaign that he has run since 2016 with his wife and his brother. (Karasz, 1/24)

Kaiser Health News: Postpartum Psychosis Is Real, Rare And Dangerous
Even after all she had been through — the helicopters circling her house, the snipers on the roof and the car ride to jail — Lisa Abramson still wanted to have a second child. That’s because right after her daughter was born in 2014 — before all that trouble began — everything felt amazing. Abramson was smitten, just as she had imagined she would be. She would look into her baby’s round, alert eyes and feel adrenaline rush through her. She had so much energy. (Dembosky, 1/25)

The NFL is encouraged by progress made in reducing concussions while stressing there is much more work to be done. On Thursday, the league said the number of concussions dropped 29 percent in 2018 from the previous season, according to preliminary data. It added that there were 135 documented concussions, down from 190. By including preseason games and practices, concussions fell from a high of 281 to 214, a 23.8 percent decrease. That was the lowest total since the 2014 season (206 reported concussions). (Wilner, 1/24)

For the first time, the type of deadly Ebola virus responsible for recent epidemics has been found in a bat in West Africa, Liberian health officials announced on Thursday. Bats carrying the disease had already been found in Central Africa, and scientists have long suspected that bats were a natural host of Ebola and a source of some human infections in other areas as well. But until now they had not found any bats in West Africa that harbored the epidemic species, known as Zaire ebolavirus. (Grady, 1/24)

A team of scientists working with the government of Liberia presented their findings in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. The discovery represents a major step forward in understanding where human Ebola cases come from, one of the biggest unanswered questions surrounding these outbreaks, said Jonathan Epstein, a scientist with EcoHealth Alliance, a global nonprofit that is part of the research team. No human cases of Ebola are linked to this discovery, scientists said. Liberia has reported no new human cases since the end of the 2014-2016 epidemic that devastated West Africa, killing more than 11,000 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. (Sun, 1/24)

New York City has agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle a lawsuit on behalf of the estate of Kalief Browder, the young Bronx man whose detention on Rikers Island became a symbol of the breakdown in criminal justice in New York and fueled the drive to ban solitary confinement for youths in the city’s jails. Mr. Browder, who was 16 years old when he was arrested in 2010 and accused of stealing a backpack, was detained on Rikers Island for three years — about two of which were spent in solitary confinement — without being tried or convicted of a crime. In 2015, at age 22, he hanged himself at his parents’ home in the Bronx. (Weiser, 1/24)

Nearly two of Browder's three years in jail were spent in solitary confinement. Upon his release in 2015, plagued by what he said was the mental anguish and trauma from his time in jail he hanged himself in his mother's home. "Kalief Browder's story helped inspire numerous reforms to the justice system to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again, including an end to punitive segregation for young people on Rikers Island," Nichaolas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city law department told NPR in an emailed statement. (Romo, 1/25)

In other mental health news —

The family of a 12-year-old girl who committed suicide last year at a troubled D.C. charter school sued the school Thursday, saying it did not do enough to prevent her death after she told staff she was contemplating killing herself. On Jan. 23, 2018, Stormiyah Denson-Jackson, a 12-year-old student at SEED Public Charter School in Southeast, committed suicide in her dormitory, according to the lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court. (Moyer, 1/24)

The Ute Mountain Ute and Cortez communities in the Four Corners region are grieving this week after two middle school students died by suicide over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, the latest in a growing crisis that has Colorado leaders desperately searching for solutions. Jeit Redrock Height, 15, and Andrew William Cuch Jr., 14, both were lifelong residents of Towaoc, a town of fewer than 1,100 people on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, said ReeAnna Mills, a spokeswoman for the tribal administration. (Tabachnik, 1/24)

A doctor who ordered excessive and possibly fatal doses of pain medicine for dozens of hospital patients kept working for four weeks after concern was raised last fall, an Ohio health care system acknowledged Thursday. Three patients died during those weeks after getting excessive doses ordered by Dr. William Husel, the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System said in a statement. The health system noted that it "should have begun a more expedited process to investigate and consider immediate removal" of the since-fired intensive care doctor after a report about him was received Oct. 25. (Franko, 1/24)

Minnesota legislators are reviving a proposal to raise millions of dollars to battle the opioid crisis by increasing fees on the companies that produce and distribute highly addictive prescription drugs. The plan would infuse $20 million into a range of services, including addiction research, treatment and recovery programs and county-level social services for children who are neglected or abused by parents struggling with substance abuse. The increased funding would be paid for by a bump in annual fees on opioid manufacturers and distributors. (Van Oot, 1/24)

Minnesota lawmakers say they will introduce bipartisan legislation that would dedicate $20 million a year to address the opioid overdose epidemic in the state. At least part of the money would be raised by increasing licensing fees on drug companies that manufacture or sell prescription opioid painkillers. (Collins, 1/24)

Hamilton County Public Health noted in an overdose alert that its overdose surveillance indicated a spike beginning on Wednesday. Hospital emergency departments around the county saw 10 suspected overdoses from 6 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, the alert states. (DeMio, 1/24)

Reviews of the use of the sedative ketamine by Hennepin Healthcare employees on agitated people being detained by Minneapolis police concluded that those medicated were not endangered by the practice. Hennepin Healthcare released the reviews Thursday. (Cox, 1/25)

Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, has introduced a bill that would require needle exchanges to swap one-used for one-sterile syringe. The proposal doesn't sit well with public health authorities facing an increase of HIV cases. (DeMio, 1/25)

Santa Clara County officials on Thursday publicly rebuked Attorney General Xavier Becerra for trying to block their purchase of two bankrupt local hospitals. At a press conference, county CEO Jeff Smith accused the attorney general of caring more about maintaining “power and control” over regulations than south county residents’ access to public hospitals. (Vo, 1/24)

Seahorn’s lawsuit comes at a time when the five-year-old hospital is facing scrutiny by state regulators. The Health and Human Services Commission fined the hospital $180,000 earlier this month after officials say it failed to monitor patients appropriately, which allowed two patients to have sex. (Ball, 1/24)

Two of New Hampshire’s largest hospitals, including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, will become part of one health system if a merger announced Thursday goes through. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health intends to combine forces with GraniteOne Health, the health care system that includes the Manchester-based Catholic Medical Center, according to a letter of intent the two have signed. The proposal would give Lebanon-based Dartmouth a far stronger presence in New Hampshire’s southern tier, where it already operates clinics and has sought to merge before. (Doyle-Burr, 1/24)

The LSU Board of Supervisors has scheduled a vote for Friday (Jan. 25) to move forward with a proposal to redevelop the vacant Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans. The proposal includes an $11.8 million upfront lease payment from developer 1532 Tulane Partners Inc. The vote is largely procedural. With the board’s approval, the developer will be able to move forward with the due diligence process to confirm the building’s investment value. That process and negotiations over the overall cost and terms of the lease are expected to be completed in a “matter of a few months,” according to documentation attached to the board’s Friday agenda. (Litten, 1/24)

One of Dallas-Fort Worth's biggest hospital systems is laying off about 720 employees. Arlington-based Texas Health Resources announced the layoffs late Thursday, which it said amount to 3 percent of its 24,000 employees. ...Texas Health, one of the nation's largest faith-based nonprofit health systems, operates 29 hospitals, five short-stay facilities, two behavioral health hospitals, two rehabilitation hospitals and one transitional care hospital in 16 North Texas counties. It also plans to open two new hospitals in the next two years. (O'Donnell, 1/24)

The health system formerly known as Shawnee Mission Health is expanding its presence in Johnson County, saying it will break ground in the fall on an 85-bed hospital in south Overland Park, Kansas. AdventHealth, as it rebranded itself earlier this month, also plans to open an outpatient health facility later this year at the corner of College Boulevard and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park and a medical office building in Merriam, Kansas. (Margolies, 1/24)

The federal government’s new rule requiring hospitals to post prices for their services is intended to allow patients to shop around and compare prices, a step toward price transparency that California has mandated since 2005. California Healthline examined the price lists — known in hospital lingo as “chargemasters” — of four large acute care hospitals in Oakland, Calif., and another four in Los Angeles, using the documents California hospitals have been reporting annually to the California Department of Public Health — the same information the federal government is now requiring all hospitals to post on their websites. (Rowan, 1/24)

Sen. Sherrod Brown is co-sponsoring a bill introduced last week that would require the Pentagon to examine U.S. soldiers who may have been exposed to toxic smoke generated by open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill, which failed to win congressional approval last year, attracted renewed interest last week when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from U.S. soldiers who claimed the smoke from burning tires and medical waste made them sick. (Torry and Gordon, 1/23)

The annual Los Angeles homeless count has come to be defined by legions of volunteers who hit the pavement to help quantify this crisis. But they’re not alone. A small group of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies join up with outreach workers looking for homeless people in places that are hard to access or might pose a danger to volunteers. (Oreskes, 1/24)

Companies and philanthropists in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, said they plan to raise $500 million for affordable housing, weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on the private sector to do more to address the region’s critical shortage of homes. The investment fund, which has raised $260 million so far, aims to help build at least 8,000 homes in five Bay Area counties within the next 10 years, according to its leaders. It also will work to preserve homes at risk of being redeveloped into more expensive properties. (Malas, 1/24)

The formation of the fund comes after years of criticism that fast-growing tech companies like Google and Facebook have exacerbated the Bay Area’s jobs-housing imbalance by luring thousands of residents to the region with high-paying jobs while doing nothing to help create new places for the workers to live. (Dineen, 1/24)

Washington County residents of any income level can get vaccines in February before the state deadline for children to attend school. All school-age children in Oregon must have proof they have been immunized by Feb. 20 or they won’t be able to attend school. Parents can get exemptions based on specific criteria, such as medical reasons. (Harbarger, 1/24)

Two more children, at least one of whom was unvaccinated, have been diagnosed with measles, according to a Thursday update from Clark County Public Health. While there were no new confirmed cases Wednesday, the number of suspected cases kept rising, bringing people waiting for confirmation on whether they have measles up to 12 now. (Harbarger, 1/24)

The Minnesota Department of Health is investigating a tuberculosis outbreak among eight people associated with Minnesota State University, Mankato. State health officials are asking clinics to look out for tuberculosis symptoms in college-aged individuals who have spent time at the university since August 2016. (Sawyer, 1/25)

A University of Arizona professor who is transgender has filed a class-action lawsuit against the state over access to health care that his doctors have deemed medically necessary to treat his gender dysphoria. Russell Toomey, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, is an associate professor of family studies and human development at UA and receives health-insurance coverage from the state. (Leingang, 1/24)

The 2017 fire that destroyed thousands of homes in Santa Rosa, Calif., and killed 22 people was caused by private power lines, not ones owned by utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a long-awaited state investigation released Thursday concluded. The finding by Cal Fire marks a bit of good news for the struggling utility as it prepares to file for bankruptcy due to huge potential liabilities related to last year’s Camp fire, which destroyed more than 90% of the town of Paradise and killed at least 86 people. (Serna and Luna, 1/24)

The Massachusetts Department of Correction, under pressure from a federal lawsuit, said it has for the first time moved a transgender inmate from a men’s prison to a women’s prison. The prisoner’s lawyer, Jennifer L. Levi, said she believes the transfer also marks the first time a transgender prisoner in the United States has been moved to a prison that corresponds to her gender identity. (Levenson, 1/25)

Aaron gets regular check-ups from the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta medical staff in the Care Mobile van, provided by the Ronald McDonald House in partnership with the Atlanta pediatric system. The 40-foot-long van, which targets children with asthma, also visits other Atlanta public schools. (Miller, 1/24)

A Nashville-area pain clinic company that is accused of pressuring patients into unnecessary injections to maximize profits is on the verge of closure as a result of an ongoing federal investigation, according to a company attorney. PainMD, which has about 4,500 patients and 85 employees, could soon be forced to make drastic cuts, including layoffs and shuttering some clinics, said attorney Jay Bowen. The company has 10 clinics in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina. (Kelman, 1/24)

Imperial County does not meet federal air quality standards, and state officials are working on plans to begin to decrease pollution. Only two other places in California have the same distinction: the San Joaquin Valley and the South Coast Air Basin, which includes most of Los Angeles County (Aguilera, 1/24)

Students entering the University of Florida from high school who smoke will have to wait until they become juniors or seniors before they can legally buy tobacco near the campus. That’s because Alachua County, home to the Gainesville campus, has become the first county in Florida to raise the minimum age for tobacco sales from 18 to 21, News4Jax reported. (Cohen, 1/24)

On Wednesday evening, Marchbanks decided shut down the school district after a flu outbreak precipitously caused attendance levels to drop. Pre-K and kindergarten classes were hit the hardest with attendance levels dipping to 68 percent while first grade reported 78 percent attendance. (Mulder, 1/24)

The Emergency Suspension Orders that the Florida Department of Health dropped on medical professional licenses so far in 2019 fall into two categories: student loan defaults and drug violators. (Neal, 1/24)

Touted as a wonder drug capable of easing anxiety, reducing inflammation, and preventing seizures, cannabidiol, or CBD, has been growing rapidly in popularity. Following approval of the 2018 federal farm bill, the American hemp CBD market alone is projected to reach $20 billion by 2020. (Tapp, 1/25)

The announcements this week by California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg that they are seeking their party’s nomination for president in the 2020 election brings the number of Democratic candidates — so far — to nine. But as far as health care is concerned, it’s already 2021 for them. How is that possible? Because presidential candidates are formulating their health care positions right now and, if elected, those positions will heavily influence any health care reform the future president makes in 2021. (David Blumenthal, 1/25)

It’s a good thing Canadians are so polite; they spend an unbelievable amount of time waiting in line. In 2018, the typical Canadian patient faced a median wait of almost 20 weeks for treatment from a specialist after referral from a general practitioner, according to a new report from the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute. ...Voters ought to ask themselves a different set of questions than (U.S. Sen. Bernie) Sanders and (U.S. Rep. Alexandria) Ocasio-Cortez offer. How could nations as wealthy as Canada and the United Kingdom subject their populations to such abysmal medical care? And how can we prevent such a system from taking root here? ( Sally C. Pipes, 1/24)

Images of mothers running with their children — some of whom do not even have shoes on their feet — away from the militarized border lingered in our collective memory as agents fired tear gas at teenagers and toddlers earlier this month. ...A recent review of case studies and epidemiological studies confirmed that tear gas agents can cause lung, skin, eye, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal injuries and issues, including choking and vomiting of blood. (Akemi Piatt, 1/24)

Having a baby at a UT Health Tyler hospital in Tyler, Texas, will cost a family $19,147.11, according to that facility’s newly posted price transparency guide. That’s a vaginal delivery with no complicating diagnosis. For a caesarian section, the price goes up to $31,644.38.Of course, that’s not what people pay. It’s just what the hospital has posted, in order to comply with a new law that went into effect Jan. 1. As the hospital notes on its website, “billing for medical services is a complex issue and the charges listed in our hospital chargemaster do not provide a complete picture of what you may actually pay.” (David Balat, 1/24)

As an internist who treats hundreds of recalcitrant smokers a year, I was desperate for useful quitting techniques. I finally found a successful approach. In most cases a nicotine patch during the day, combined with e-cigarettes when the urge for tobacco hits, works best. Vaping is less dangerous than cigarette smoking, but it isn’t harmless, and the long-term health effects aren’t yet known. The American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research and American Heart Association have all expressed concerns about e-cigarettes. (Marc Siegel, 1/24)

While health inequities are pervasive, they’re not inevitable. A health care system made by and for people who look like me – a middle-aged, college-educated white guy – must change to better meet the needs of everyone. ...The first step is to acknowledge the truth. While nearly everyone goes into health care to help others, the system isn’t immune to the racial bias, injustice and inequality that strains other social, economic and political aspects of American life. (Patrick Allen, 1/21)

Gov. Jared Polis took bold action Wednesday to pursue lower prices and better access to health care, signing an executive order that creates the “Office of Saving People Money on Health Care. ”It’s an anti-mission creep name, never letting anyone forget the charter. The Gazette’s editorial board has long maintained hope Polis would use his substantial entrepreneurial skills to solve big problems. (1/25)

The attorney general and state health officials unveiled the Dose of Reality website this week to provide information about opioid abuse, including locations where people can turn in unused medications so the pills don’t fall into the wrong hands. Such online information is helpful, but it’s not enough. If lawmakers want to make gains against addiction, they need to put more money toward treating and preventing drug abuse. (1/24)

We’ve said before that there’s no need to rush to legalize recreational marijuana, and it bears repeating now. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has promised to move swiftly on legalization. This Editorial Board remains skeptical.  We’re not necessarily opposed to legalization. But we want to see more definitive answers to pressing questions about the impact on public health, public safety and more before we’re convinced that any potential benefits outweigh the risks. (1/24)

Water issues are notoriously difficult for California governors. Just look at former Gov. Jerry Brown’s floundering tunnels proposal for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Yet two factors suggest that Gov. Gavin Newsom must make water a priority. First, California needs more climate-resistant water supplies. Climate change is making California’s weather more extreme. For the past decade, most years have brought drought or the risk of catastrophic floods. (George Miller, 1/23)