First Edition: February 18, 2020 - Kaiser Health News

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.

Kaiser Health News: Ink Rx? Welcome To The Camouflaged World Of Paramedical Tattoos 
The first fingernail tattoo started off as a joke by a man who lost the tips of two fingers in a construction accident in 2018. But that shifted after Eric Catalano, an auto finance manager turned tattoo artist, finished with his needle.“The mood changed in here,” Catalano recalled as he stood in his Eternal Ink Tattoo Studio. “Everything turned from funny to wow.” (Anthony, 2/18)

Kaiser Health News: Abortion-Rights Supporters Fear Loss Of Access If Adventist Saves Hospital
For more than two years, physician assistant Dawn Hofberg fought to bring access to abortions back to California’s Mendocino Coast, a picturesque stretch of shoreline about three hours north of San Francisco and 90 minutes from the nearest facility offering abortions. Hofberg enlisted help from local health care providers and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sent letters to the Mendocino Coast Health Care District that operates the hospital in Fort Bragg and other medical services. The letters noted that the state constitution requires public hospitals to offer abortions if they offer other pregnancy-related care. (Littlefield, 2/18)

Reuters: U.S. Flies 338 Americans Home From Cruise Ship, Including 14 With Coronavirus
More than 300 Americans who had been stuck on a cruise ship affected by the coronavirus were back in the United States on Monday, flown to U.S. military bases for two more weeks of quarantine after spending the previous 14 days docked in Japan. Among those repatriated on a pair of U.S.-chartered jets were 14 people who tested positive for the fast-spreading virus, seven on each plane. The Diamond Princess cruise ship held by far the largest cluster of cases outside China, with more than 400 people infected out of some 3,700 on board. (Trotta and Rose, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus: Fourteen American Cruise Passengers With Coronavirus Among 328 Evacuated To The U.S.
The 14 U.S. passengers tested positive for the virus after disembarking from the Diamond Princess, a cruise liner carrying 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members that had been quarantined for two weeks off the Japanese port of Yokohama. But by the time their test results arrived, they were already on a fleet of buses that took 328 asymptomatic passengers from the ship to two charter planes bound for U.S. military bases in Texas and California, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the incident. It was a wrench in a coordinated effort. While the buses sat on the tarmac, health experts mulled whether to put the 14 on the flights or divert them to hospitals in Japan, the official said. (Fifield, Horton and Bhattarai, 2/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cruise Passengers Land In U.S., Including 14 Infected
The U.S. initially said no one with the virus would be allowed on the repatriation flights. But during the 40-minute bus ride from the ship to the airport, word arrived that 14 passengers in the group had tested positive based on tests conducted two days before the evacuation, U.S. officials said. Rather than turn them back, officials decided to seat the 14 in an isolated section apart from other plane passengers, according to a joint statement by the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. The statement said the infected passengers didn’t have symptoms of the viral disease and would be sent to “an appropriate location for continued isolation and care” in the U.S. (Bhattacharya, 2/17)

The New York Times: They Escaped An Infected Ship, But The Flight Home Was No Haven
The ground rules were clear. A day before 328 Americans were to be whisked away from a contaminated cruise ship in Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo told passengers that no one infected with the coronavirus would be allowed to board charter flights to the United States. But as the evacuees began filing onto two reconfigured cargo planes early Monday for departures to military bases in California or Texas, some noticed tented areas separated from the rest of the cabin. (Rich and Wong, 2/17)

NPR: 14 Americans Taken Off Cruise Ship And Flown To U.S. Test Positive For Coronavirus
A second cruise ship, the MS Westerdam, docked in Cambodia on Thursday after it was turned away by several other countries. Cruise operator Holland America said passengers and crew were screened for illness and that "there was no indication of COVID-19 on the ship." Cambodian officials allowed people onboard to disembark. (Booker and Wamsley, 2/17)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Infection Found After Cruise Ship Passengers Disperse
Amid assurances that the ship was disease free, hundreds of elated passengers disembarked. Some went sightseeing, visiting beaches and restaurants and getting massages. Others traveled on to destinations around the world. One, however, did not make it much farther than the thermal scanners at the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia. The passenger, an American, was stopped on Saturday, and later tested positive for the coronavirus. On Sunday, with passengers already headed for destinations on at least three continents, health officials were scrambling to determine how big a problem they now have — and how to stop it from getting bigger. (Paddock, Wee and Rabin, 2/16)

Reuters: Hospital Director Dies In China's Wuhan, Epicenter Of Coronavirus Outbreak
The head of a leading hospital in China's central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease on Tuesday, state television said, becoming the second prominent Chinese doctor to have succumbed to the pathogen. Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, died at 10:30 a.m., it said. Earlier this month, millions in China mourned the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was previously reprimanded for issuing an early warning about the coronavirus. (2/18)

The New York Times: Rate Of New Fatalities Drops In China
China’s National Health Commission on Monday reported 2,048 new cases of coronavirus infections and 105 new deaths over the previous 24 hours. The number of new deaths dropped from the previous day, when 142 deaths were reported, though the increase in the number of new infections remained steady. The vast majority of cases and deaths have occurred in Hubei Province, where the outbreak began, though the commission’s latest announcement also reported three deaths in neighboring Henan Province and two in Guangdong, the province next to Hong Kong. (2/16)

The Washington Post: China Cases Will Plateau, Expert Predicts, As Diamond Princess Evacuation Continues 
Officials have been sounding a more upbeat note in recent days about the prospects for containing the virus. But a renowned Chinese pulmonologist who predicted a peak this month has since clarified his remarks to say that the peak may be followed by a plateau, rather than an outright fall in cases. Here is what we know so far. (Fifield, 2/18)

The Associated Press: Chinese Health Report Says 80% Of Virus Cases Have Been Mild
Health officials in China have published the first details on nearly 45,000 cases of the novel coronavirus disease that originated there, saying more than 80% have been mild and new ones seem to be falling since early this month, although it’s far too soon to tell whether the outbreak has peaked. Monday’s report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention gives the World Health Organization a “clearer picture of the outbreak, how it’s developing and where it’s headed,” WHO’s director-general said at a news conference. (Marchione, 2/16)

The Associated Press: New Virus Cases Fall; WHO Says China Bought The World Time
China reported 143 virus deaths and a dip in new cases Saturday while the head of the World Health Organization praised the country's efforts to contain the new disease, saying they have "bought the world time" and that other nations must make the most of it. France, meanwhile, reported Europe's first death from the new virus, a Chinese tourist from Hubei province, where the disease emerged in December. The United States was preparing to fly home American passengers quarantined aboard a cruise ship in Japan. (Wang, 2/14)

Stat: The Responders: Who Is Leading The Charge In The Coronavirus Outbreak
As concerns mount over the coronavirus that first emerged in China, public health officials there and around the globe have launched a massive response. The nature of that response has varied. In China, officials are trying to contain the virus. In countries that have seen local transmission, including Germany and Singapore, the goal has been to stamp out flare-ups. And in much of the world that hasn’t yet seen much spread of the virus yet, public health officials are readying a strategy in case they do. (Joseph and Branswell, 2/17)

Stat: Disease Modelers Gaze Into Their Computers To See The Future Of Covid-19, And It Isn’t Good
At least 550,000 cases. Maybe 4.4 million. Or something in between. Like weather forecasters, researchers who use mathematical equations to project how bad a disease outbreak might become are used to uncertainties and incomplete data, and Covid-19, the disease caused by the new-to-humans coronavirus that began circulating in Wuhan, China, late last year, has those everywhere you look. That can make the mathematical models of outbreaks, with their wide range of forecasts, seem like guesswork gussied up with differential equations; the eightfold difference in projected Covid-19 cases in Wuhan, calculated by a team from the U.S. and Canada, isn’t unusual for the early weeks of an outbreak of a never-before-seen illness. (Begley, 2/14)

The New York Times: France Confirms First Death In Europe From Coronavirus
A Chinese tourist has died in France of the coronavirus, the French health minister said on Saturday, becoming the outbreak’s first fatality in Europe and outside Asia. France’s health minister, Agnès Buzyn, said the tourist, who was 80 years old and from the Chinese province of Hubei, the center of the outbreak, died at the Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris on Friday after weeks of hospitalization. His daughter, who also has the virus, is receiving treatment and is expected to be discharged soon, Ms. Buzyn said. (Peltier, 2/15)

CNN: "Credible Risk" of Coronavirus Pandemic, Says French Health Minister
French health minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday there is a “credible risk” the novel coronavirus outbreak could turn into a pandemic. "This is a working assumption and a credible risk and France is ready to deal with all possible outcomes,” Veran told French radio network, France Inter. “We have a very strong health system,” Veran added. (Vandoome, 2/18)

The Associated Press: Questions Complicate Efforts To Contain New Virus From China
Reports one day suggest the respiratory outbreak in China might be slowing, the next brings word of thousands more cases. Even the experts have whiplash in trying to determine if the epidemic is getting worse, or if a backlog of the sick is finally getting counted. Continuing questions about the new virus are complicating health authorities' efforts to curtail its spread around the world. And the United States is taking the first steps to check that cases masquerading as the flu won't be missed, another safeguard on top of travel restrictions and quarantines. (Neergaard, 2/15)

The New York Times: How To Stop A Disease From Crossing Borders
In nearly 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rear Adm. Nancy Knight, director of the agency’s global health protection division, has led the development, coordination and implementation of public health policies and programs in countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Before joining the C.D.C., Dr. Knight was a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho and trained as a family physician. (Mzezewa, 2/17)

The Wall Street Journal: How Many People Might One Person With Coronavirus Infect?
When an infection erupts the way coronavirus has exploded in Wuhan, China, and elsewhere in the world, public-health experts try to gauge the potential for an epidemic—or, worse, a pandemic—by calculating the pathogen’s basic reproduction number. The figure, generally written as R0 and pronounced “R naught,” is an estimate of how many healthy people one contagious person will infect. Because viruses spread exponentially, a few cases can quickly blow up to an overwhelming number. An R0 of two suggests a single infection will, on average, become two, then four, then eight. (McGinty, 2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Gilead’s Coronavirus Drug Trial Slowed By Lack Of Eligible Recruits
Clinical trials being conducted in Wuhan to test Gilead Sciences Inc.’s antiviral drug, a promising remedy for the new coronavirus, are going more slowly than hoped for as the drugmaker struggles to recruit qualified patients, underscoring the challenges in quickly developing drugs during outbreaks. The trials, aimed at testing more than 700 patients infected with the Wuhan coronavirus, have succeeded in recruiting fewer than 200 people after 10 days. (2/18)

Politico: Europe Braces For Coronavirus-Induced Drug Shortages
At this moment, the novel coronavirus outbreak isn’t causing problems for Europe’s medicines supply. But that’s almost certain to change, industry experts warn — and at the worst possible time. Two weeks after the COVID-2019 spread was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization, it shows no signs of abating. As of February 13, the WHO said there were almost 47,000 lab-confirmed cases of the virus, most of them in China, which has quarantined tens of millions to contain the spread. (Wheaton and Paun, 2/14)

The New York Times: Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory Of Coronavirus Origins
The rumor appeared shortly after the new coronavirus struck China and spread almost as quickly: that the outbreak now afflicting people around the world had been manufactured by the Chinese government. The conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists. But it has gained an audience with the help of well-connected critics of the Chinese government such as Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist. And on Sunday, it got its biggest public boost yet. (Stevenson, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Tom Cotton Repeats Debunked Conspiracy Theory About Coronavirus
Cotton referenced a laboratory in the city, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” He said the lab was near a market some scientists initially thought was a starting point for the virus’s spread. “We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton said. “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.” (Firozi, 2/17)

The New York Times: ‘Are You Sick?’ For Asian-Americans, A Sneeze Brings Suspicion
Most Americans have gone about their lives, confident that they have little to fear from an epidemic that has mostly been felt abroad. But for small pockets of people — those who come from China, or travel there frequently, and health workers who are charged with battling the virus — life has been upended. Hundreds of Americans who were in China are now marooned in anxious quarantine on military bases. And many Asian-Americans in the United States have felt an unnerving public scrutiny, noticing that a simple cough or sneeze can send people around them scattering. (Bosman, Stockman and Fuller, 2/16)

The Associated Press: Home Quarantine For Travelers Buys Time As New Virus Spreads
On his return from China last week, Dr. Ian Lipkin quarantined himself in his basement. His wife now puts his food on the stairs. He’s run out of things to watch on Netflix. At odd hours, he walks in New York's Central Park, keeping 10 feet away from others. Lipkin is among hundreds of people in the U.S. and thousands around the world who, although not sick, live in semi-voluntary quarantine at home. With attention focused on quarantined cruise ships and evacuees housed on U.S. military bases, those in their own homes have largely escaped notice. (2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cabin Fever: Working From Home Tests Employees’ Endurance
As David Chang tried to talk on the phone with a colleague, his daughter banged away at the study-room door, and then, exasperated, slipped a note under it: She wanted to come in and do her homework. “Love you Avery. Love you Aidan. I’m on a call,” the real-estate executive wrote back. His reply returned with the 6-year-old’s response scribbled on the back: “Why didn’t you read my note?” (Yoon, 2/17)

The New York Times: Slowed By The Coronavirus, China Inc. Struggles To Reopen
Airbus is slowly restarting its assembly line in China. General Motors began limited production on Saturday. Toyota followed on Monday morning. Fitfully and painfully — and with some worried prodding from Beijing — China is trying to reopen for business. The world’s second-largest economy practically shut down three weeks ago as a viral outbreak sickened tens of thousands of people, unexpectedly lengthening a Chinese holiday. The freeze set off warnings that the global economy could be in jeopardy if the world’s pre-eminent manufacturing powerhouse stayed shut for long. (Bradsher, 2/17)

The New York Times: The Next Hurdle For Bernie Sanders: Nevada’s Top Union Dislikes ‘Medicare For All’
Senator Bernie Sanders is a longtime supporter of “Medicare for all.” “I wrote the damn bill,” he said on a debate stage last summer, and his support for universal health care has helped propel him to the front of the 2020 Democratic field. But in Nevada, where the race heads next, his signature policy is a liability with the largest labor union in the state. And the union has enthusiastic allies in Mr. Sanders’s opponents. On Friday morning, moments after Senator Amy Klobuchar finished a tour of the health care facility run by the culinary workers’ union, she began to lace into Mr. Sanders and his focus on the proposal, which would effectively eliminate union members’ current health care system. (Medina and Martin, 2/16)

The Associated Press: Biden In Vegas Takes On Sanders' Gun Votes In Fiery Speech
Joe Biden, standing on a Las Vegas stage roughly 1,000 feet from the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, took on White House rival Bernie Sanders for his past vote to exempt gun manufacturers from liability for shootings. The former vice president devoted the majority of his Saturday night speech at a Democratic gala on the Las Vegas Strip to deliver a fiery charge against the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers, vowing to hold gun makers accountable if elected president. (Price and Peoples, 2/15)

The New York Times: Biden Calls On Sanders To Show Accountability For ‘Outrageous’ Online Threats By Followers
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took aim at Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Saturday, calling on him to condemn the “vicious, malicious, misogynistic” rhetoric of some Sanders supporters and to do more to stamp it out. The remarks came at a key time for both campaigns, as Mr. Biden tries to regain his footing after weak showings in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary — in which Mr. Sanders surged toward the front of the Democratic pack — and a week before next Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. (Kaplan, Ruiz and Gabriel, 2/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Storm Nevada Ahead Of High-Stakes Caucuses
Mr. Buttigieg, a 38-year-old military veteran, has sought to present himself as a candidate who could bring together the disparate factions within the party and present a striking alternative to President Trump. He has tussled with Mr. Sanders on a central issue of the campaign: Medicare for All, in which the party’s left wants to move everyone from private insurance to government-provided health coverage, while centrists call for a more gradual shift. “A campaign message that says that you’ve either got to be for the revolution or you must be for the status quo, most of us don’t know where we fit in that picture,” Mr. Buttigieg said in Reno on Monday. “I’m here to draw a bigger picture, one where all of us can belong.” (Thomas, 2/17)

The New York Times: Democrats Plan To Highlight Health Care And Jobs Over Investigating Trump
House Democrats, recovering from their failed push to remove President Trump from office, are making a sharp pivot to talking about health care and economic issues, turning away from their investigations of the president as they focus on preserving their majority. Top Democrats say that oversight of the president will continue, and they plan in particular to press Attorney General William P. Barr over what they say are Mr. Trump’s efforts to compromise the independence of the Justice Department. But for now, at least, they have shelved the idea of subpoenaing Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, who was a central figure in the president’s impeachment trial. (Stolberg, 2/16)

The New York Times: The Health System We’d Have If Economists Ran Things
Imagine if American health policy were established by the consensus of health economists. What would the system look like? A survey of nearly 200 Ph.D. health economists working in the United States provides some clues. The survey, presented at the American Society of Health Economists conference in Washington last summer, was conducted by the health economists John Cawley of Cornell University, Michael Morrisey of Texas A&M and Kosali Simon of Indiana University. (Frakt, 2/17)

The New York Times: Appeals Court Rejects Trump Medicaid Work Requirements In Arkansas
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling striking down work rules for Medicaid recipients in Arkansas, casting more doubt over broader Trump administration efforts to require poor people to work, volunteer or train for a job as a condition of getting government health coverage. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that approval of the Arkansas work requirement by the health and human services secretary, Alex M. Azar, was “arbitrary and capricious” because it did not address how the program would promote the objective of Medicaid as defined under federal law: providing health coverage to the poor. (Goodnough, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Deals Blow To Trump's Medicaid Work Rules
The court found that it is “indisputably correct that the principal objective of Medicaid is providing health care coverage” and that work requirements for “able-bodied” people lack specific legal authorization. Moreover, the court ruled that administration officials failed to thoroughly examine the risk that some Medicaid recipients would lose coverage in approving Arkansas' experiment with work requirements. The state later reported more than 18,000 people dropped from the rolls, but it wasn't clear how many obtained other coverage. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Bleed, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Appeals Court Unanimously Strikes Down Medicaid Work Requirements
The ruling marks the first time that an appellate court has weighed in on what has been one of the Trump administration’s signature attempts to push health policy in a more conservative direction. The D.C. Circuit is considered the nation’s top appeals court below the U.S. Supreme Court, and the 19-page opinion was written by a jurist appointed by Ronald Reagan, David Sentelle. The panel’s other judges are Cornelia Pillard, an appointee of Barack Obama, and Harry Edwards, appointed by Jimmy Carter. (Goldstein, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration’s Approval Of Work Requirements For Medicaid
The decision could have far-reaching implications for Medicaid, a health program for the poor and disabled. Other states have shown mounting interest in adopting work requirements. Ten of them, including Kentucky, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Arizona and Michigan, have received approval to adopt work requirements, according to George Washington University’s Milken Institute of Public Health. Michigan is the only state now implementing work requirements, and a lawsuit was filed last year challenging federal approval for the mandate. (Armour and Kendall, 2/14)

NPR: U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Blocking States' Medicaid Work Requirements
Trump administration officials have promoted work requirements, arguing that working can cause people to live healthier lives. The D.C. Circuit is regarded as the top appeals court below the Supreme Court. HHS' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Medicaid, hasn't said whether it will appeal the latest ruling to the Supreme Court. (Wamsley, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicaid Standoff: Trump Plan To Tighten Oversight Of States Draws Objections
Many governors, insurers and hospitals are denouncing a Trump administration plan to tighten oversight over how states pay for their share of Medicaid, saying it would deprive them of billions of dollars in funding, jeopardize health coverage and strain state budgets. The proposal would impose new reporting requirements and restrictions on financial practices used by states to pay for Medicaid. The Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation, as the proposal is known, also would apply to extra payments states give to some doctors and providers. (Armour, 2/15)

The New York Times: Brain Injuries Are Common In Battle. The Military Has No Reliable Test For Them.
U.S. troops at Ayn al Asad Air Base in western Iraq hunkered down in concrete bunkers last month as Iranian missile strikes rocked the runway, destroying guard towers, hangars and buildings used to fly drones. When the dust settled, President Trump and military officials declared that no one had been killed or wounded during the attack. That would soon change. A week after the blast, Defense Department officials acknowledged that 11 service members had tested positive for traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and had been evacuated to Kuwait and Germany for more screening. (Philipps and Gibbons-Neff, 2/15)

The New York Times: Payout From A National Opioids Settlement Won’t Be As Big As Hoped
As talks escalate to settle thousands of opioid-related lawsuits nationwide, a harsh reality is emerging: The money the pharmaceutical industry will pay to compensate ravaged communities will likely be far less than once envisioned. Lawyers on all sides have been stepping up efforts to reach a national agreement before the start of a New York trial next month. But even plaintiff lawyers now believe the payout from dozens of opioid makers, distributors and retailers is likely to be less than half of what the four Big Tobacco companies agreed to pay more than 20 years ago in a landmark settlement with states over costs associated with millions of smoking-related deaths. (Hoffman, 2/17)

The Washington Post: A Guatemalan Family Was Separated In 2017. They're Still Apart.
She tries to avoid the word. What she says is that her mom is in Guatemala. Or that her mom has been deported and will try to come back soon. But when her teacher, or her social worker, or her best friend Ashley asks, Adelaida sounds it out — one of the first words she learned in English. “They separated us.” Adelaida Reynoso and her mother, María, were among the first migrant families broken up by the Trump administration, on July 31, 2017, long before the government acknowledged it was separating parents and children at the border. (Sieff, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Power Companies Don't Want The Trump Administration To Reverse The Mercury Rule
For more than three years, the Trump administration has prided itself on working with industry to unshackle companies from burdensome environmental regulations. But as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to finalize the latest in a long line of rollbacks, the nation’s power sector has sent a different message: Thanks, but no thanks. (Eilperin and Dennis, 2/17)

Reuters: Nonprofit Hospitals With Healthiest Finances Offer Little Charity Care
Among nonprofit hospitals, those with the highest net incomes tend to devote the smallest proportion of their earnings to providing free care to uninsured patients and low-income people who struggle to pay their bills, a U.S. study suggests. Overall in 2017, the study found, nonprofit hospitals nationwide generated $47.9 billion in net income, provided $9.7 billion in charity care to uninsured patients and spent another $4.5 billion in charity care for people with insurance who couldn't afford their bills. (Rapaport, 2/17)

Reuters: Patients Often Puzzled By Medical Test Reports
Even the most educated, take-charge individuals may have a hard time deciphering the test results they can access after a doctor visit, two new studies suggest. "The benefits of improving patient access to their own medical information are fairly clear: patient empowerment and engagement in their own health care, and an improved trust and sense of partnership with their healthcare provider," Dr. Daniel Miller, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health by email. (2/14)

The Associated Press: Feds: Florida Doctor Stole $26M To Fund Political Ambition
A Florida vascular surgeon bilked the government and health insurers of more than $26 million to possibly finance his political ambitions in his native country of Ghana, federal authorities said. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury unsealed a 58-count indictment alleging that Dr. Moses deGraft-Johnson falsely billed insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, for work he did not actually perform. (2/14)

The New York Times: Florida Doctor Bilked $26 Million From Health Insurers, Officials Say
Dr. deGraft-Johnson, who owned and operated the Heart and Vascular Institute of North Florida in Tallahassee, a doctor’s office and outpatient catheterization lab, used his privileges at a hospital to poach patients “for purposes of subsequently billing health care benefit programs for interventional vascular procedures” that were never done, court records said. From September 2015 to this month, Dr. deGraft-Johnson submitted scores of fraudulent claims to health insurers, including Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, court papers said. (Diaz, 2/15)

The New York Times: She Didn’t Want A Pelvic Exam. She Received One Anyway.
Janine, a nurse in Arizona, checked into the hospital for stomach surgery in 2017. Before the procedure, she told her physician that she did not want medical students to be directly involved. But after the operation, Janine said, as the anesthesia wore off, a resident came by to inform her that she had gotten her period; the resident had noticed while conducting a pelvic exam. “What pelvic exam?” Janine, 33, asked. Distressed, she tried to piece together what had happened while she was unconscious. Why had her sexual organs been inspected during an abdominal operation, by a medical student? Later, she said, her physician explained that the operating team had seen she was due for a Pap smear. (Goldberg, 2/17)

Reuters: Young Cancer Survivors Have Higher Risk Of Severe Health Problems Later
People who survive cancer during childhood and early adulthood are more likely to experience severe, life-threatening health problems and die prematurely, a recent study suggests. Researchers followed almost 12,000 young cancer survivors and roughly 5,000 of their healthy siblings for around two decades, until many of them were in their 40s. Even though all of the cancer survivors were tumor free for at least five years at the start of the study, they were still roughly six times more likely to die during follow-up than their siblings. (2/17)

NPR: From Juul To Puff Bar: Disposable Vape Pens Are 'Extremely Popular' With Teens
Efforts to stem the tide of teen vaping seem to be a step behind the market. By the time Juul pulled most of its flavored pods from the market in October of 2019, many teens had already moved on to an array of newer, disposable vape products. "Juul is almost old school ... It's no longer the teen favorite," says Meredith Berkman, co-founder of the advocacy group PAVE, Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes. (Aubrey, 2/17)

The Wall Street Journal: New Help For Dementia Patients, Delivered Via Games And Puzzles
Bertha Golding and Jackie Lauritzen huddled over an adult coloring book. Ms. Golding, 74, picked up a green pencil. Ms. Lauritzen, 68, chose a blue one. As the gospel song “I’ll Fly Away” played in the background, the two women colored and chatted. “Who’s your favorite country star?” asked Ms. Lauritzen. “Johnny Cash,” Ms. Golding replied.During pauses in the conversation, they sang quietly together to the music: “I’ll fly away, oh glory. I’ll fly away.” (Petersen, 2/17)

The Washington Post: How Visions, Dreams And End-Of-Life Experiences Help People Prepare For Death
Mary was dying. As her children gathered at her bedside, she began to cradle a nonexistent baby. She cooed and cuddled it in her arms, showing a happiness that was at odds with her physical suffering. Her children turned to the doctor, concerned that their mother was hallucinating. But he encouraged them to let her act out a scene that only made sense to her. Later, they learned that Mary had delivered a stillborn baby years before she had her other children. What had seemed like a bizarre hallucination actually seemed to help address a trauma she had held inside for years. She died peacefully soon after. (Blakemore, 2/15)

The Washington Post: Dying At Home Takes Some Planning. 
Roger Kellison had Parkinson’s disease that was quickly progressing. He was a private man who eventually moved into his daughter’s house when he was unable to take care of himself. “He had not come to our house to live,” Daniel Wallace, his son-in-law, told me. “He had come to our house to die. The last thing he wanted to do was die at a hospital.” (Warraich, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Genetic Researchers Work To Overcome Suspicion Among Indigenous Groups
In 2003, the Havasupai Indians of Arizona issued a banishment order against Arizona State University, forbidding researchers from setting foot on their reservation in response to prior unauthorized DNA research done on tribal members’ blood samples. In 2002, the Navajo Nation banned DNA studies out of fear of how their samples might be used by scientists. But many genome scientists believe that health care can be improved with the use of genetic information and are concerned that if indigenous communities do not participate, they will be left behind. (Bhanoo, 2/15)

The Washington Post: Radioactive Products Were Popular In The Early 20th Century And Still Set Off Geiger Counters
Not long ago, curator Natalie Luvera began to worry about the strangest item in the National Atomic Testing Museum's collection of artifacts — a tiny 1920s device designed to restore lost manhood by irradiating the manliest of human body parts. Was the gold-plated “scrotal radiendocrinator” still dangerous after nearly a century? Luvera tested it with a Geiger counter, got a worrisome reading and called in a radioactivity response team to double-check. “They came down and said, ‘Nope, you shouldn’t have that here.’ ” (Dotinga, 2/15)

The Washington Post: How To Keep Feet Strong And Injury-Free, Which Is Important To Your Whole Body.
Take a look around any gym and you’ll see people working to strengthen their biceps, hamstrings, shoulders, abs — pretty much anything but their feet. That, experts say, is a big mistake. “Feet are the foundation of our strength. And like with any body part, when you don’t use it, you lose it,” says Jay Dicharry, author of several books about running biomechanics and director of the REP Lab in Bend, Ore. Years of neglect can prevent the 28 bones, 30 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments in feet from doing their job, which is essentially to provide support, balance and mobility. (Loudin, 2/16)

The New York Times: Video Game Makers Want To Get Players Off The Couch
Tiffany Ruiz had tried various gyms, apps, workout routines and diets, all in an effort to get fit and lose some weight. “None of them worked because none of them kept my interest,” she said. Now, Ms. Ruiz is working out at least four times a week, thanks to a video game. In her bedroom, she sprints, squats, stretches and performs other exercises like knee lifts and shoulder presses, all while battling a musclebound dragon and its toadies in Ring Fit Adventure, a new game from Nintendo, the Japanese consumer tech giant. (McConnon, 2/17)

The New York Times: Some Assisted-Living Residents Don’t Get Promised Care, Suit Charges
The letter went out to about 1,900 Californians a few weeks ago from law firms bringing a class-action suit against one of the country’s largest assisted-living chains. If the recipients, or their family members, had lived in a community operated by Sunrise Senior Living in recent years, “we would like to speak with you regarding your residency and experience,” the letter said. (Span, 2/14)

The Washington Post: After 35 Years, A Lawsuit Over ‘Inhumane’ Juvenile Detention In D.C. Has Led To Major Reforms
In 1985, when the District was still warehousing juvenile offenders in a pair of decrepit, vermin-infested detention centers — each rife with violence and lacking any meaningful health care or rehabilitation programs — a group of lawyers filed a 42-page complaint in D.C. Superior Court, demanding reforms. “The plaintiffs live under conditions that are inhumane and that inflict needless suffering,” the attorneys wrote. (Duggan, 2/17)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

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