NPR: HHS Report Says Obamacare Plans Are Cheaper Than They Look
Obamacare health plans have been getting a bad rap this year. Critics say the premiums are too high, the out-of-pocket costs are out of control, and the requirements and red tape are too thick. But now the Obama administration is pushing back. A study released Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services argues that the cost-sharing isn't nearly as heavy as previous analyses have shown, because most consumers get subsidies that limit their deductibles and copayments. (Kodjak, 7/12)

Morning Consult: Obamacare Deductibles Have Decreased Thanks To Government Aid
The median deductible for an Obamacare exchange plan has decreased $50 from last year to $850, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday. The relatively modest deductibles for people who bought insurance on the exchanges is attributable to government financial assistance, a flashpoint for Republicans. (Owens, 7/12)

The Hill: Administration Defends Affordability Of ObamaCare Plans
Officials said that finding is a counterweight to anecdotal reports of people who have coverage, but struggle to afford to pay thousands of dollars in a deductible before their insurance kicks in. Pointing to high deductibles has been a leading Republican line of attack on the law. For example, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) last month said that ObamaCare enrollees are often “left with deductibles and copays so high that they can’t actually use the insurance.” The administration points out that about 60 percent of ObamaCare enrollees receive a form of financial assistance called a “cost-sharing reduction” that lowers the out of pocket costs they have to pay. (Sullivan, 7/12)

The Associated Press: Illinois Moves To Shut Down Failing Health Insurance Co-Op
An Illinois health insurance co-op with 49,000 policyholders in the state has become the latest casualty among a dwindling group of nonprofit alternative insurers set up under the Affordable Care Act. Illinois regulators took steps Tuesday to shut down Land of Lincoln Health, a 3-year-old startup that lost $90 million in 2015 and more than $17 million through May 31. (Johnson, 7/12)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Seeks To Shut Down State Obamacare Insurer
Illinois moved Tuesday to take control of Land of Lincoln Health to begin an orderly shutdown of the insurance company, meaning about 49,000 people will lose their health coverage in the coming months. The state said it will allow policyholders to buy coverage from a different insurer before their Land of Lincoln plans are terminated, but it's unclear when the policies will lapse. ... The Department of Insurance said the decision was based on the startup company's deteriorating financial condition. Land of Lincoln is required to pay $31.8 million to other insurers under a complex formula in the Affordable Care Act, which aims to keep premiums stable by balancing risks among insurers. (Sachdev, 7/12)

In other news, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell talks about the health law's next steps and a look at how Obamacare hasn't been able to fix the problems with the mental health system in the U.S. —

Politico: Q&A: Sylvia Mathews Burwell On 6 More Months Of Health Care Fixes
Last summer, when the Supreme Court ruled on a major challenge to President Barack Obama’s marquee health care law, the name on the court case wasn’t Obama’s. The case was called King v. Burwell, and front and center — as she is in all attacks on Obamacare — was Sylvia Mathews Burwell. As HHS secretary, Burwell has become the most public face of Obamacare, its chief defender and the person driving the president’s final push for a health care legacy. With only six months left in the president’s term, Obama wants to use his remaining time in office to make medicine more efficient and less expensive, and Burwell is the point person to get that done. (Haberkorn, 7/13)

Politico: Obamacare And Mental Health: An Unfinished Story
America’s mental health system is having a breakdown. Suicide rates are at a record high; drug addiction is epidemic. There aren’t enough therapists, particularly not enough who accept insurance. And too often the most vulnerable and severely ill end up on the streets, or fill our prisons and jails. The Affordable Care Act was never meant to mend every crack in the system. It did zero in on the insurance side of reform — but there’s still a lot of heartbreak. (Ehley, 7/13)

Morning Consult: Senate Democrats Show Appetite For Public Option
Senate Democrats are optimistic that, should Hillary Clinton become president, adding a public health care option to the individual insurance market would fare better the second time around than it did in 2009. The public option has resurfaced as a topic of discussion in the health care industry after Clinton reaffirmed and strengthened her support for it over the weekend. President Obama then penned an article in JAMA on Monday, citing it as a way to improve competition on exchanges. Republicans are highly unlikely to support adding a government-run plan to individual insurance. (Owens, 7/12)

Bloomberg: Hospitals Decry Public Option In Democratic Platform
Hospital groups want the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee to remove calls for a public insurance option from the final version of the party's platform. In a letter sent July 8 to the committee, the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals said creating a public option with Medicare-like payments would reduce provider payments to hospitals. (Weixel, 7/12)

The Fiscal Times: Obama Opens The Back Door To A Single-Payer Nationalized Health Plan
Among the many bones the Obama administration had to throw to supporters of the health insurance industry in order to get their support for the Affordable Care Act, abandoning the idea of a “public option” on the health insurance exchanges -- a way for consumers to buy in to a Medicare-type program -- was among the biggest. For-profit insurance companies had no interest in trying to compete with the federal government on the open market, and the opposition to the idea was bipartisan. Even powerful Democrats in Congress promised to block any health care reform bill that expanded the federal government’s role in the health insurance sector beyond Medicare and Medicaid. (Garver, 7/12)

Meanwhile, KHN takes a look at what happened with that "Medicare for all" Bernie Sanders kept talking about —

Kaiser Health News: Democrats Unite, But What Happened To 'Medicare For All'?
After a raucous debate lasting nearly a year, the Democrats are united on health care. But that unity does not include a call for a single-payer “Medicare for all” health system. ... Sanders did win a few health care concessions in the negotiations leading to the endorsement. Clinton vowed to support more funding for community health centers and access to a “public option” government insurance plan, which she has supported in the past. But on Sanders’ top health priority — his “Medicare for All” plan — there was not a word. At the Democratic Platform Committee meeting over the weekend, an amendment to add a single-payer plan to the document was defeated. (Rovner, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Zika Stalemate Hardens As Senate Republicans Reject New Democratic Proposal
Negotiations over legislation for funding to combat the Zika virus hit a new impasse Tuesday, heightening the chances that Congress will leave Washington for the summer without acting on a measure to stem the spread of the mosquito-borne illness. The stalemate hardened Tuesday when Senate Republicans rejected a new Democratic proposal aimed at finding a middle ground in the battle over Zika funding. Congress is expected to adjourn Friday for a seven-week recess through Labor Day and there was little evidence Tuesday that any bipartisan agreement would arrive before week’s end. (Peterson and Armour, 7/12)

Politico: Senate War Escalates Over Zika
Among the changes pushed by Democrats: splitting the $1.1 billion Zika funding portion from the rest of the military and veterans funding measure; getting rid of a provision using Obamacare to offset some of the Zika cost; and striking references to the “social services block grant” — which Democrats say include offending provisions that go after Planned Parenthood. But Republicans have made it clear that the only Zika measure that can be sent to the White House before recess is the one passed by the GOP-controlled House — over Democratic objections. (Kim and Haberkorn, 7/12)

The Hill: Senators Block Dueling Zika Proposals For Second Day
McConnell fired back that "who is playing political games is in the eye of the beholder." "As a practical matter, if we were to repass the Senate bill it would not pass the House," he added. The rhetorical battle on the floor comes after McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blocked the competing Zika proposals on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon. Senators have days to try to break the stalemate until they leave town until after Labor Day. (Carney, 7/12)

The Associated Press: Inaction On Zika Funding Likely To Delay Vaccine Testing
The Obama administration on Tuesday cautioned top lawmakers that continued gridlock over legislation to combat the Zika virus could delay research and development of a vaccine to protect against Zika and tests to detect it. The warning came in a letter from White House budget chief Shaun Donovan and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and says that failure by Congress to pass anti-Zika funds before exiting Washington for its extended summer recess would "significantly impede the administration's ability to prepare for and respond" to the Zika threat this summer and beyond. (7/12)

The Fiscal Times: Congress Does It Again – Plays The Blame Game Over Funding To Prevent Zika
Congress is within days of departing for a nearly eight-week summer recess with the Senate still angrily deadlocked over a $1.1 billion spending bill to help prevent the spread of the dreaded Zika virus. The House and Senate are scheduled to adjourn by Friday so that members can attend the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and then depart for the month of August for their annual summer recess. This all comes six months after President Obama and U.S. public health officials first urged lawmakers to respond to the mounting crisis. Absent some last minute turnabout, the Senate will put off approval of Zika funding until lawmakers return to work in September, according to The Hill. (Pianin, 7/12)

Meanwhile, another Zika case is confirmed —

The Columbus Dispatch: Second Zika Virus Case Confirmed In Columbus
Columbus health officials have confirmed a second case of the Zika virus. Jose Rodriguez, spokesman for Columbus Public Health, said a woman in her 20s who traveled to St. Lucia reported having symptoms to her physician when she returned. A test was performed and it came back positive late Monday, he said. (Somerson, 7/12)

The Hill: Durbin: Senate Dems Will Back Opioid Bill
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday said Democrats would support a deal combating the opioid epidemic and send the legislation to President Obama's desk ahead of Congress's seven-week recess. Asked whether the caucus would support the House-passed measure, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat told reporters, "yes, [but] making the point that it's unfunded." (Carney, 7/12)

Morning Consult: Democrats Poised For Final Push For Opioids Funding
Democrats will support the package when it comes up for a vote Wednesday, several senators said, but they are still pushing for more funding. The bill, which is now the result of a conference report between the House and Senate, authorizes $181 million for drug abuse and treatment programs, though the money would need to be appropriated later. (McIntire, 7/12)

Politico Pro: Democrats Reluctantly Support Opioid Bill
Before they vote for the legislation, which could help the reelection efforts of several Republicans, Democrats are trying to convince voters that it is a hollow response to the huge opioid problem plaguing the country. The legislation offers policy changes without the money to make a real impact, they say. “Without resources, it’s very, very meaningless,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. (Haberkorn and Norman, 7/12)

Modern Healthcare: Fate Of Opioid Bill Hangs In The Senate
The bill's provisions include expanding access to medication-assisted treatments, strengthening state prescription drug monitoring programs, developing best practices for providers to improve prescribing of opioids, and making the overdose counteracting drug naloxone available to law enforcement agencies and first responders. (Johnson, 7/12)

Stat: Republicans Embrace The ‘Right To Try’ To Get Experimental Medicines
The “Right to Try” movement may be embedded in the Republican Party platform. Amid the run up to the Republican National Convention that begins in Cleveland next week, the party has adopted an amendment in its draft platform that endorses a controversial stance toward obtaining treatments for fatal illnesses. Known as Right to Try, the concept is designed to allow desperately sick people to gain access to experimental medicines. (Silverman, 7/12)

Stat: Experimental Drug Shows Promise For Quick Treatment Of Postpartum Depression
An experimental drug touted as a breakthrough for treating severe postpartum depression is showing some promising results in a small clinical trial. Sage Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Mass., reported on Tuesday that 7 of the 10 women who took the drug in the trial experienced significant improvement in their depression within 60 hours of the injection. That effect was maintained for 30 days. Among the 11 women who took the placebo, just one experienced remission within 60 hours. Interestingly, none of the patients who took the drug reported psychiatric side effects, such as abnormal dreams, insomnia, and anxiety — but 5 of the 11 women on the placebo reported such symptoms. (Keshavan and Garde, 7/12)

Boston Globe: VC Firm Hires Medical Officer To Boost Drug Development
Flagship Ventures has hired a former Tufts medical dean and top official at the drug giant Merck & Co. to be its chief medical officer, believed to be the first executive to hold that position at a major venture capital firm. The hiring of Dr. Michael Rosenblatt, set to be disclosed Wednesday, adds a leading biomedical figure in the Boston area and nationally to the team at Flagship, which has created and funded high-profile biotechs such as Moderna Therapeutics Inc. and Editas Medicine. Flagship’s founder and chief executive, Noubar Afeyan, said his aim is to help the venture firm’s companies make smart drug development decisions and expose its young entrepreneurs to the ideas and network of a senior executive from Big Pharma and academic medicine. (Weisman, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Juno To Resume Clinical Trial Of Anticancer Treatment
Juno Therapeutics Inc. will resume a drug trial of a potential leukemia treatment that had been placed on clinical hold last week following two patient deaths. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has removed the hold, Juno said Tuesday. The two deaths, and another in May, occurred in a Phase 2 study of Juno’s experimental treatment JCAR015 in adult patients with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. (Beckerman, 7/12)

Stat: FDA Lets Cancer Trial Resume After Three Patient Deaths
Juno is at work in a newfangled field of oncology in which scientists remove a patient’s own white blood cells and rewire them to home in on cancerous growths, part of the growing field of immunotherapy. The Food and Drug Administration put the study on hold last week after three young leukemia patients who had received Juno’s experimental therapy developed fatal brain swelling. Juno blamed the deaths on an unforeseen interaction between those reengineered blood cells, called CAR-Ts, and a chemotherapy drug used to prepare patients for treatment. It proposed resuming the trial without using that chemotherapy drug. (Garde, 7/12)

The Associated Press: Study Of Juno Therapeutics Leukemia Treatment Is Allowed To Resume
A study of an experimental treatment for leukemia that was halted last week after the death of two patients has been allowed to resume after a modification. The Food and Drug Administration suspended a trial by Juno Therapeutics after the company reported that two patients had died from swelling of the brain. Juno said the problem stemmed not from its treatment but from a chemotherapy drug used in pretreatment. The agency said it would allow the trial to resume without the chemotherapy drug. (7/12)

Boston Globe: Now What? How Biotechs Deal With Failure
In biotechnology, failure is more the rule than the exception. Nine out of 10 companies that begin clinical trials never bring a drug to market. And for those that make it out of the gate, clinical, regulatory, or competitive setbacks are common. Last week, Juno Therapeutics Inc., a highflier in the field of engineering the immune system’s T cells to kill cancer tumors, halted a study of its leading drug candidate after three patients died. The Seattle company’s stock fell more than 30 percent. How companies respond to setbacks — whether they are blindsided or clear-eyed, devastated or determined to recover — is telling, said Laurie Halloran, president of Halloran Consulting Group, a Boston firm that advises life sciences companies. (Weisman, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Merck Cutting Drug Research Jobs At Three East-Coast Sites
Merck & Co. said it plans to lay off research-and-development workers at three East Coast sites in a shake-up of its early-stage drug-hunting efforts that also includes a new focus on the health effects of micro-organisms that populate the human body. A Merck spokeswoman said the job cuts, and some employee transfers, would affect less than 10% of “discovery, preclinical and early development” employees in Kenilworth, N.J., Rahway, N.J., and North Wales, Pa. The company’s headquarters are in Kenilworth. (Loftus, 7/12)

Stat: Merck To Cut 360 R&D Jobs, Close One Facility, And Expand Elsewhere
As the center of gravity shifts in the life sciences, Merck is reorganizing its R&D teams by closing one facility, eliminating about 360 jobs from three sites, and transferring other employees to a pair of new facilities that are slated to open on opposite sides of the country. A spokeswoman for the drug maker, which is headquartered in New Jersey, confirmed that the planned changes affect drug discovery, preclinical, and early development work. As a result, the company is closing a facility in North Wales, Pa., which screens compounds for potential drug development. (Silverman, 7/12)

Stat: HIV Drugs Protect Against Transmission, Even In Unprotected Sex
Couples in which one partner is HIV-positive have a low risk of transmitting the disease if the infected partner is on antiretroviral drugs, a new study found, even if they are not using condoms. Scientist have been studying for decades whether HIV-positive individuals who take certain combinations of drugs, called antiretroviral therapy (ART), will infect their partners with the virus. A landmark study, which mostly enrolled heterosexual couples, found that ART taken by infected individuals reduced the risk of HIV transmission by 96 percent. (Swetlitz, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: Safe Sex Without Condoms? With Drugs Keeping HIV In Check, Infected Partners Didn't Spread Virus
Altogether, the researchers counted more than 58,000 acts of unsafe sex. And the total number of times an HIV-positive person infected his or her partner? Zero. That’s not to say the condom-less sex was totally safe. Between 17% and 18% of the men who had sex with men were diagnosed with a new sexually transmitted infection, as were 6% of the men and women in heterosexual relationships. In addition, 11 of the 888 volunteers who were HIV-negative at the start of the study became infected with the virus after they enrolled. But in all of these cases, the newly acquired virus didn’t match the one the partner had. (Kaplan, 7/12)

PBS Newshour: Why The South Is The Epicenter Of The AIDS Crisis In America
The epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in America is Atlanta and the southeast, and the hardest hit population is gay and bisexual black men. According to the CDC, half of them will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes if current trends continue. (Brangham, 7/12)

USA Today: New Tool Searches Health Prices By Doctor, Insurance
Starting Tuesday, consumers worried about high out-of-pocket health costs can search for procedure prices ranging from knee surgeries to vasectomies, based on their doctor and type of insurance so they can eliminate most of the surprise bills that show up long after their wounds have healed. Amino, a health data company that launched last fall, was already helping connect patients to doctors in their areas based on quality data. The new tool greatly expands its pricing data and covers about 550,000 physicians, 49 procedures and 129 insurance companies. (O'Donnell and Ungar, 7/12)

Stat: A ‘Scientific Deli Slicer’ That Offers Pathologists A High-Tech Look At Tumors
As diagnostics turn molecular, the standard pathologist techniques of tissue staining and mounting are looking antiquated. Bay Area upstart 3Scan hopes to change that. 3Scan is developing a computerized biopsy tool. It works by shaving tissue samples with a diamond-edged blade that’s got a camera in it — very sci-fi — and then digitizing the ultra high-res images of the biopsied tissue. Those images can be pieced back together on a computer and viewed as a 3D tissue sample. You can even zoom in for a view at a cellular level. (Keshavan, 7/12)

The Tennessean: Uber, Tech Company Team Up To Get Patients To Appointments
A Nashville health care technology company is teaming with Uber to offer patients the chance to schedule a ride to the doctor's office as a way to reduce the number of no-show appointments. The partnership, called Ride to Health, will ask patients if they need a ride once they confirm the appointment. If they respond yes, the company will send a link to the Uber app, said Sam Johnson, CEO of Relatient, a cloud-based software developer that works with physician offices and hospitals. (Fletcher, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Silicon Valley Looks For Lessons In Theranos
Silicon Valley’s best-known venture investors have emerged largely unscathed from the rapid descent of Theranos Inc., but the decline offers a cautionary tale for a community that bets big on visionary founders touting revolutionary technology. ... Silicon Valley investors say Palo Alto, Calif.-based Theranos—which was valued at $9 billion in a 2014 funding round—offers lessons about the importance of oversight and due diligence in the venture-capital business, which bets sometimes on nothing more than an idea. (Winkler, 7/13)

Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal: Advocates Call For Federal Action On Kansas Medicaid Backlog
Advocates for people with disabilities are pressing the federal government to force Kansas to move quickly to clear its backlog of unprocessed Medicaid applications as they seek records from the state agency in charge. In a letter, the Disability Rights Center urges the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to require Kansas to document that it is notifying applicants of their right to a hearing if their application isn’t processed within 45 days. The group also asks the federal government to require the state to demonstrate it has a realistic plan, based on accurate data, to eliminate the backlog. (Shorman, 7/12)

Kansas Health Institute: In Kansas’ Richest County, Medicaid Expansion’s Absence Still Felt
The [Alliance fora Healthy Kansas] estimates that Medicaid expansion would extend health coverage to about 150,000 low-income Kansans...The alliance estimates that almost 40,000 Johnson County residents are uninsured and more than 25 percent of them would gain coverage through Medicaid expansion. Expanding eligibility for Medicaid also would bring about $44 million a year into the county’s health care economy, creating an estimated 282 jobs. (Marso, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: A 'Slow Catastrophe' Unfolds As The Golden Age Of Antibiotics Comes To An End
In a steady march, disease-causing microbes have evolved ways to evade the bulwark of medications used to treat bacterial infections. For a variety of those illnesses, only colistin continued to work every time. Now this last line of defense had been breached as well. A second U.S. case of E. coli with the mcr-1 resistance gene was reported this week in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. (Healy, 7/11)

Los Angeles Times: Teixobactin And The Hope It Represents For Fighting Antibiotic Resistance
And then there’s teixobactin, a still-experimental drug that may herald a new era of antibiotic discovery. A team of researchers at Northeastern University’s Antimicrobial Discovery Center reported last year in the journal Nature that they had discovered a compound in soil unlike any found before. Teixobactin was highly effective in killing such common bacterial troublemakers as Clostridium difficile, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus, wrote a team led by Kim Lewis, the center’s director. A Nature editorial dubbed it “an irresistible newcomer.” (Healy, 7/11)

Los Angeles Times: Can The Government Encourage The Development Of New Antibiotics?
It's been nearly 30 years since scientists have found a new class of antibiotics. But U.S. lawmakers tried to give the drug industry a boost in 2012. That year, they passed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. It included provisions — collectively known as Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now, or GAIN — aimed at streamlining the government approval process for new antibiotics. It also boosted financial paybacks to drug companies that develop them. The law has spurred the introduction of several new medicines. But none so far represents a new class of antibiotic or treats a drug-resistant strain for which effective medicine does not already exist. (Healy, 7/11)

Los Angeles Times: How Quickly Antibiotic Resistance Can Spread
How quickly can antibiotic resistance spread? Consider the case of a Swedish man who traveled to India in 2009. While in New Delhi, the man became infected by a strain of Klebsiella bacteria bearing a gene that made it impervious to the antibiotic carbapenem. Microbiologists quickly found the gene in bacterial samples from Mumbai as well. In the span of just two years, it also turned up in Croatia, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and China. (Healy, 7/11)

Los Angeles Times: Why Antibiotic Use On Farms Helps Fuel Antibiotic-Resistant Diseases
Farm animals are a key player in the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Around the world, livestock producers feed antibiotics to cattle, pigs, chickens and other animals in a bid to prevent diseases and boost their growth. In the United States, for instance, some 30 million pounds of antibiotics are used on the farm. That’s 80% of all the antibiotics used in the U.S. each year, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Experts believe this practice has hastened the emergence of antibiotic-resistant diseases. (Healy, 7/11)

Stat: A Politician Dismissed Treatment As The Answer To Opioids. Now He See Addiction As A Disease
Frank Guinta was the kind of mayor who once walked into a seedy nightclub here wearing a bulletproof vest to show he was tough on crime. When he ran for Congress a third time and won his second term in 2014, he flatly dismissed treatment as the answer to the opioid epidemic in the Granite State. Instead, he wanted to get rid of the drug dealers. ... The Republican congressman now believes drug addiction is a disease, a lesson learned in the midst of a crisis that claimed more than 400 lives last year alone in New Hampshire. (Scott, 7/13)

In other news, the type of surgery can make a difference in if a patient becomes addicted to painkillers, the surgeon general continues his travels speaking out against the epidemic and a federal judge is cracking down on crooked doctors —

KQED: Study: Opiate Addiction More Likely After Certain Surgeries
The chance that you’ll get hooked on painkillers after surgery is low — only about five in a thousand people do, according to a new Stanford study. But researchers found that the type of surgery can make a difference. “The surgeries that were at high risk were knee replacements, breast surgeries, hip replacements and open gallbladder surgeries.” says Dr. Eric Sun, anesthesiologist and lead author on the study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. He says these procedures, which can involve particularly painful post-operative recovery, were about twice as likely to lead to chronic opioid use. (McCLurg, 7/12)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: U.S. Surgeon General Says Ohio Needs More Treatment Facilities For Opioid Addicts
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Tuesday that more treatment facilities must be opened to help opioid addicts overcome a disease that is killing scores of Ohioans every month. Murthy said plans for medication-assisted treatment centers are often met with resistance from local residents concerned about bringing addicts into their communities. But he said drugs such as buprenorphine and Vivitrol are effective tools in fighting addition. (Ross, 7/12)

Detroit Free Press: Judge Fed Up With Crooked Doctors In Metro Detroit, Locks One More Up
U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, who sentenced Dr. Oscar Linares to 57 months in prison for running a multimillion-dollar pill mill operation that fed drug addicts, not only lambasted the physician for his actions. She vented about all the criminal activity she's seen in recent years within the health care profession. (Baldas, 7/12)

NPR: Parents Can Help Reduce Pain And Anxiety From Vaccinations
Now that the nasal spray FluMist is no longer considered an effective vaccine against influenza, parents will have to resort to the old, unpopular standby for their kids: a shot. It's not unusual for a child to have as many as 20 vaccinations by age 5 — all typically administered by injection. The pain of those shots can sometimes be a barrier to getting kids vaccinated, but several studies have shown that the pokes don't have to be so painful or petrifying, and parents can actually play a big role in soothing the sting. (Dalrymple, 7/12)

Kaiser Health News: Vaccines Are Not Just For Kids
The word “immunization” has long evoked images of nervous children wincing as they get injections to protect them from measles, mumps and other diseases. Now California’s doctors are turning their attention to adults, who haven’t been as diligent about getting their own shots. The California Medical Association Foundation, the charitable arm of the Sacramento-based physicians’ organization, published a vaccine schedule last year to inform doctors and patients about recommended vaccines for adults. (Gorman, 7/13)

The Washington Post: The CDC And WHO Are Teaming Up To End The ‘Contagious Disease’ Of Child Violence
The world can be a dark place for many children: the "lost boys" from Sudan, refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria, child sex workers in Brazil, baby girls abandoned in China, kids pulled into gang drug wars in the United States. Such suffering by children is more common than most people might think and represents what some believe to be one of our biggest public-health crises of all time. A study published in January in the journal Pediatrics puts that violence into stark perspective by estimating that as many as half of the world's 2 billion children experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence in the previous year. (Cha, 7/12)

In other children's health news —

WABE: Programs Try To Tackle Georgia’s Summertime Child Hunger Gap
The summer meal program rolled out by the co-op [Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry] is one of hundreds trying to fill a growing need around the state. Nearly 60 percent of Georgia's public school children are eligible for free or reduced lunches, but once summer rolls around, fewer than 15 percent of them have access to those meals. (Sweeney, 7/12)

Georgia Health News: Schools Become The Front Lines In The Battle Against Bullying
Bullying can take many forms, and there are varying degrees of it. Sometimes it consists of one person taunting and insulting another when they interact. Sometimes it takes the form of repeated physical abuse. And nowadays there’s cyberbullying. Through online connections and social media, a person can be targeted and constantly tormented by an individual or group, often anonymously. One form of bullying found largely at schools is hazing — mistreatment of students being initiated into fraternities, sororities, sports teams and other school organizations. Such abuse runs the gamut from verbal humiliation to physical degradation to outright violence. (Kanne, 7/12)

The Texas Tribune: New Child Welfare Chief Asks Lawmakers For Cooperation
The new leader of the state's beleaguered child welfare system had a clear message for Texas lawmakers Tuesday: Time has run out for business as usual. “I was hired, bottom line, because our governor was sick and tired about reading about infants and toddlers who were severely injured or killed while or after they were involved with Child Protective Services,” said Hank Whitman, who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to head the Department of Family and Protective Services in April. (Smith, 7/12)

California Healthline: California Suicide Hotlines Get Good Grades But Could Improve, Study Says
Some of California’s suicide hotlines provide a “valuable and trusted service” to callers in distress, but they could be doing an even better job, according to a new study released Tuesday. Researchers at the Rand Corporation, a Santa Monica-based think tank, found that hotline staff had good rapport with callers and were able to ease their distress in some cases. But the hotlines could better integrate their services with existing health care providers and add new ways to connect with the public, such as online chats, the study said. (Ibarra, 7/12)

East Bay Times: CDC Releases Early Report On Youth Suicides In Santa Clara County
Youth suicide has increased in Santa Clara County since 2003, is higher among males and is often preceded by a crisis or mental health problem, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The so-called "Epi-Aid" investigation was requested by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department in response to a pair of suicide clusters in Palo Alto. Four youths died by suicide in 2014 and 2015, and six did in 2009 and 2010, mostly on the Caltrain tracks. (Green, 7/13)

The New York Times: Immigration Detention Center In Arizona Failed To Contain Measles Outbreak
Health officials in Arizona are pressing federal officials for better cooperation after an outbreak of measles at an immigration detention center was prolonged because some employees were slow to be vaccinated. The outbreak started in late May in the detention center in Eloy, Ariz., and has grown to 22 cases, currently the largest episode in the country of the disease, which was once eradicated in the United States. The cases include nine employees of the facility, which is overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency. (Preston, 7/12)

The CT Mirror: Sweeping Plan Put Forward To Control Rising Health Care Costs
After spending six months studying new ways to control ever-growing health care costs, a state-hired consulting firm presented a plan to Connecticut's Health Care Cabinet Tuesday that calls for the largest reorganization and consolidation of health-related state agencies in two decades. The proposal urges the creation of a new super-agency of sorts – the Connecticut Health Authority – that would absorb the responsibilities of more than a half-dozen existing state agencies. It also would create a quasi-independent oversight agency – the Office of Health Reform – with broad powers to track and limit health care cost increases in the state. (Constable, 7/13)

The Associated Press: New York Sues Jail Medical Provider, Claims Inadequate Care
The state’s attorney general claims in a lawsuit that a medical provider has failed to provide proper services to inmates in a suburban New York City jail, where 12 have died in the past five years, including four since March. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the allegations Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against Armor Correctional Health Medical Services, which is being paid $11 million annually to care for inmates at the Nassau County Correctional Center on Long Island. (Eltman, 7/12)

The Associated Press: Court Sides With Utah's Planned Parenthood In Defunding Case
The Utah governor's order to block funding to Planned Parenthood was probably a political move designed to punish the group, a federal appeals court wrote in an ruling that ordered the state to keep the money flowing. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver decided Tuesday there's a good chance the governor's order violated the group's constitutional rights. (7/13)

KQED: San Diego’s Methamphetamine Problem Strains Criminal Justice System
In 2010, customs agents seized roughly 2,500 kilos of meth at the San Ysidro border crossing. In 2014, they confiscated more than double that amount — 5,800 kilos. One hit of meth is about a quarter of a gram — 5,800 kilos equals 5.8 million hits. That’s how much was confiscated. Nobody knows how much is actually getting in. What’s worse is the methamphetamine that’s coming across from Mexico is stronger than ever, and the price on the street is lower than ever. That leads to more meth use and more meth-related problems. (Goldberg, 7/12)

The Dallas Morning News: Dallas County Approves Aerial Pesticide Spraying After First Case Of West Nile Diagnosed
Dallas County commissioners on Tuesday authorized aerial pesticide spraying to kill mosquitoes and combat West Nile virus. A 3-0 vote at a specially called meeting of the Commissioners Court means the county's Department of Health and Human Services can begin spraying from planes, though officials said they will get consent from the cities within the county first. (Schmidt, 7/12)

The Associated Press: HIV-Positive Surgery Tech Pleads Guilty In Painkiller Theft
A surgery technician pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking fentanyl — an opiate more powerful than morphine — from a suburban Denver hospital — a crime that raised concerns that hundreds of patients might have been exposed to HIV. Rocky Allen, a former Navy medic who authorities say is HIV positive and got hooked on painkillers while serving in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to federal charges of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deception. (Slevin, 7/12)

The Denver Post: Former Surgical Tech Carrying HIV Pleads Guilty To Federal Drug Theft Charges
The prison sentence Rocky Allen faces for stealing a syringe filled with a powerful painkiller could hinge on whether he introduced dirty needles into circulation at the hospital where he worked as a surgical technologist, a federal judge said Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Moore asked the probation department to investigate whether Allen had previously used the saline syringe that he swapped out with a fentanyl syringe he stole from the hospital where he worked. (Osher, 7/12)

KQED: Berkeley City Council Resolution Would Oppose Alta Bates Hospital Closure
Three members of the Berkeley City Council are backing a resolution to oppose the planned closure of the Alta Bates Medical Center emergency room and inpatient hospital. The full council will vote on the issue at its meeting Tuesday night. Sutter Health, which owns Alta Bates, said last fall that it would close the acute care hospital and emergency department sometime before 2030. That’s when tough California seismic standards kick in. Sutter said it would consolidate emergency and inpatient services at its Oakland Summit Medical Center and make Alta Bates an outpatient hub. (Aliferis, 7/12)

Boston Globe: Brockton Nursing Home Ordered To Stop Accepting Patients
State regulators have declared that residents at a troubled Brockton nursing home are in “immediate jeopardy” after finding that workers failed to respond appropriately when one resident suffered a heart attack and another desperately needed oxygen. A state health department spokesman Tuesday declined to say whether the two patients survived. But he noted the state imposes immediate jeopardy status when a nursing home’s actions are likely to result in “serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident.” The state health department on July 1 ordered the nursing home, Braemoor Health Center, to stop accepting new patients, threatened to remove it from government programs that cover most residents’ bills, and recommended fines as high as $10,000 a day until safety is restored. (Lazar, 7/13)

Politico: The One That Got Away: Obamacare And The Drug Industry
President Barack Obama’s landmark health care bill shook up the health care system. One key player escaped the upheaval largely unscathed: Big Pharma. Scrounging up all the money to pay for Obamacare’s massive coverage expansion brought deep pay cuts to hospitals and health plans. And for those industries, it fundamentally changed the rules of the game. ... The pharmaceutical industry, on the other hand, hasn’t much changed — except its prices are higher and there’s nothing in the health law that allows the government to push back. Prescription drugs are now the fastest growing category of medical costs. Pharma companies are charging $84,000 for a new hepatitis C cure, more than $14,000 for new cholesterol treatments. Novel cancer therapies routinely run six figures. (Karlin-Smith and Norman, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Maker Of $84,000 Drug Avoided $10 Billion In U.S. Taxes, Report Says
Over the last few years, Gilead Sciences has grown into one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, fueled by the sales of expensive specialty treatments for hepatitis C. The company’s revenue has tripled since 2012, to $32.6 billion last year. According to a report to be released Wednesday, Gilead has also developed another specialty: Avoiding billions in taxes. (Merle and Johnson, 7/13)

Marketplace: New Class Of Generics Could Save Consumers, Insurers Billions. FDA Is Moving Carefully.
Europe is home to a growing class of generic drugs, called "biosimilars," that can treat conditions like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. While folks on that side of the Atlantic have about 20 of these new generics on the market so far, the Food and Drug Administration has just approved two in the U.S. Later this week, the agency is slated to hold meetings on two other biosimilar applications. (Gorenstein, 7/13)

Stat: Q&A: Why The World Health Organization Plans A Fair Pricing Model For Drugs
Over the next year, the World Health Organization wants to develop a fair pricing model for pharmaceuticals. Toward that end, the agency plans to convene governments, patient groups, and drug makers to fashion the notion into something realistic. The trick is to find the right balance between access to affordable medicines and enticing companies to develop new and improved medicines, while also ensuring lower-cost generics remain available. We spoke with Suzanne Hill, the secretary to the WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines, about how the agency hopes to get this done. This is an edited version of our conversation. (Silverman, 7/7)

The Associated Press: Lower-Cost Biotech Drug Gets Thumbs Up From FDA Panel
The second-biggest selling drug in the world could get some cheaper competition in the U.S., after a federal panel endorsed an alternative version of the pricey medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. A panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers voted unanimously in favor of Amgen’s version of AbbVie’s Humira, a biotech drug that raked in nearly $15 billion last year, according to IMS Health. While not binding, the recommendation likely paves the way for FDA approval of the knockoff drug. (Perrone, 7/12)

Stat: Can Anyone Shake The EpiPen Monopoly? Here's One Company That's Trying
The price of EpiPens, used to treat severe allergic reactions, has soared, more than quintupling since 2004. One reason: There’s just not much competition. Several rivals to the EpiPen, which is manufactured by Mylan, have emerged in recent years, only to fall by the wayside. Sanofi’s Auvi-Q was recalled late last year. The FDA is asking Adamis, a small San Diego biotech developing its own pre-filled auto-injector, for more patient data. Another auto-injector, the Adrenaclick, isn’t considered on par with the EpiPen, and is prescribed far less frequently. (Keshavan, 7/7)

Kaiser Health News: Sounds Like A Good Idea? Regulating Drug Prices
This is the second in a series of videos about health care promises from presidential candidates that “sound like a good idea.” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News explores why proposals to regulate drug prices may not be such a good idea after all. (Rovner, Ying and Nguyen, 7/11)

Stat: How Global Warming Could Help Martin Shkreli's Old Company Stay Out Of Bankruptcy
After years of work on monoclonal antibodies, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals announced last fall it was winding down operations. A white knight came in the unlikely form of Martin Shkreli, who took over the company with a $3.2 million investment and stepped up as its CEO — until he was arrested on securities fraud charges. The company looked again on the verge of insolvency. It’s managed to right its course a bit, however, announcing last week that it has emerged from bankruptcy and raised new funding. STAT chatted with new CEO Dr. Cameron Durrant, who joined KaloBios in March (with a salary of $50,000 per month). (Keshavan, 7/5)

Stat: Drug Maker Loses Battle Over Canada’s Right To Impose A Price Cap
A closely watched skirmish over the cost of prescription drugs has ended in defeat for a company that sought to challenge the right of a Canadian agency to impose a price cap on a pricey medicine. In a June 23 ruling, Canada’s Federal Court dismissed a constitutional challenge that Alexion Pharmaceuticals filed against the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, which early last year sought to keep a lid on the cost of the company’s Soliris medication. (Silverman, 7/8)

Los Angeles Times: We're All Paying A High Price For Drug Company Profiteering
The drug companies are ripping us off, pill by pill, shot by shot. Instead of working to earn reasonable returns by relieving our suffering and saving lives, they now focus on profits above all. Their main targets are insurance companies. But when insurance companies take a hit, they bump up premiums to employers or the government. So we all pay — in taxes, reduced take-home pay, copayments and deductibles. (Daniel J. Stone, 7/6)

Forbes: The GOP Needs To Tackle The High Price Of Prescription Drugs
Last month, House Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled the GOP’s comprehensive plan for health reform. It included 30-odd pages of constructive proposals for replacing Obamacare, reforming entitlements, and promoting innovation. But the plan was also notable for what it didn’t contain: a clear plan to tackle the high and rising price of branded prescription drugs. Like objects in the rear-view mirror, drug prices are a bigger problem than they seem. (Avik Roy, 7/12)

Bloomberg: Drug Prices: Costs And Outrage Rise In The U.S.
Americans spend more on prescription drugs — average costs are about $1,000 per person per year — than anyone else in the world. It’s true that they take a lot of pills. But what really sets the U.S. apart from most other countries is high prices. Cancer drugs in the U.S. routinely cost $10,000 a month. Even prices for old drugs are spiking, as companies buy up medicines that face no competition and boost charges. While private insurers and government programs pick up the biggest share of the bill, high drug costs are ultimately passed down to the public through premiums and taxes. (Robert Langreth, 7/11)

Bloomberg: With Biosimilars, Big Pharma Fights Itself
Fighting yourself is a losing battle. A long-cherished hope of some companies that make expensive biologic medications -- complex drugs made with living cells -- is that they were relatively safe from competition because biologics are tougher to copy and replace than traditional drugs. That's looking a bit less true every day. In a delightfully incestuous turn, big companies aren't just fighting so-called biosimilar versions of these drugs anymore -- they're making them. (Max Nisen, 7/12)

Stat: Pfizer Wins Big In Opioid Deal With Chicago. But What Does The City Get?
In an unusual development, Pfizer signed a pact with the city of Chicago and agreed not to engage in the sort of marketing that helped fuel the epidemic in the first place. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel boasted of a “landmark agreement” and a “big step” toward blunting the risks of these prescription painkillers, which were blamed for more than 14,000 deaths two years ago, according to federal health officials. To be sure, any time a drug maker agrees to restrict or enhance its marketing in ways that benefit public safety is noteworthy, especially given the eye-popping fines that so many of these companies have paid over the past decade to settle charges of illegal marketing. But this particular deal is unlikely to make much, if any, difference. In fact, for the moment, the only certain winner in this arrangement is Pfizer. And it’s a big win. (Ed Silverman, 7/12)

MedPage: Dear Medicare: Don't Put Vulnerable Patients At Risk
It is safe to say there is broad agreement -- among policymakers, healthcare providers, and patients alike -- that steps must be taken to make prescription drugs and treatments more affordable. Opinion varies, however, on exactly what direction to take to accomplish this goal. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recommended a path that we fear many physicians and their patients simply can't navigate because it is paved by false assumptions that endanger vulnerable Medicare patients. In an effort to lower drug spending, CMS has devised a plan to incentivize physicians to prescribe less expensive drugs under the Medicare Part B program. But the unfortunate reality -- one that CMS has yet to acknowledge -- is that there are no "cheap" yet clinically equivalent alternatives for some of the most advanced and expensive drugs available today. (Joan M. Von Feldt and Michael Seiden, 7/12)

Health Affairs: A Fair Plan For Fairer Drug Prices
As the biological basis of more diseases are fully revealed, and the drugs targeting medical problems become more focused and effective, more patients are finding themselves on costlier specialty medicines. At the same time, consumers find themselves paying a growing portion of their drug bills out of pocket as the structure of insurance changes. These two developments have combined to result in significant consumer hardship. In response to these trends, there has been political pressure to enact policies giving federal and state governments authority to set drug prices or limit price increases. However, these policies could have the unintended consequence of reducing the incentive to develop more effective drugs. (Scott Gottlieb and Kavita Patel, 7/11)

The Des Moines Register: Health Insurers Deserve Blame For Higher Drug Costs
Blaming pharmaceutical companies for high drug prices is a bipartisan affair. If lawmakers like Sen. Chuck Grassley want to hold the responsible culprits accountable, they need to look at all sectors of the health care industry, including the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act should curb an insurer’s profit maximization strategy, which hurts patients. But that hasn’t happened. (Seth Ginsberg, 6/7)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare’s Next Act
Bernie Sanders formalized the Democratic Party’s left turn on Tuesday, finally endorsing Hillary Clinton and praising her for embracing so many of his ideas. “We have begun a political revolution to transform America, and that revolution continues,” the Vermont socialist said—and the latest evidence for his boast is the revival of ObamaCare’s “public option.” This liberal ambition—a new health-care entitlement akin to Medicare for all middle-class Americans under age 65—couldn’t pass a Democratic Congress in 2010. Mrs. Clinton revived the public option over the weekend, and now President Obama is also lending his support, in an op-ed that appears under his byline in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. (7/12)

Bloomberg: The Public Option: It's Baaaaaaaack!
The Democratic National Committee has included the public option and Medicare buy-in as part of its 2016 party platform. This is obviously a sop to the Sanders wing of the party, which never got over its anger about the final shape of Obamacare. And while in general, I think that their demands are pipe dreams, it seems there is a reasonable chance that if Hillary Clinton is elected to the presidency, those people will finally see the dream of the public option made flesh. (Megan McArdle, 7/12)

The Washington Post: The Most Progressive Democratic Platform Ever
Last weekend, as the nation reeled from the violence in Minneapolis, New Orleans and Dallas, the Democratic Platform Committee met in Orlando to debate the party’s pledges for the future. Once again, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his delegates, despite some setbacks, made progress in trying to transform the party’s agenda. ... On health care, the platform committee rejected Sanders’s call for Medicare for all, but it did back a public option in Obamacare and for allowing those 55 and over to buy into Medicare. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, 7/12)

Forbes: Obama Administration Issues Misleading Report On ObamaCare Plan Deductibles
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an analysis of Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange plan deductibles. Because the analysis presents data in a misleading way, it draws inaccurate conclusions about the current status of the ACA. (Brian Blase, 7/12)

San Antonio Express-News: Proposed Medicare Drug Cuts Bad For Texas
Today, the drug industry employs more than 36,000 Texas workers. However, the jobs supported by our state’s drug business are in jeopardy. Federal officials have proposed major changes to Medicare that ultimately would stifle drug innovation. If enacted, these “reforms” will drive away investment in local drug research and the jobs that go with it. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed cutting reimbursements provided by Medicare Part B, which covers drug treatments like chemotherapy that have to be administered under medical supervision. (Tony Bennett, 7/13)

Los Angeles Times: Now On Starbucks' Menu: Less Health Coverage
Starbucks announced Monday that it will give its U.S. workers a raise that will boost compensation by 5% to 15%. That’s very cool. The coffee giant also said it will offer employees more affordable health insurance that will cut costs by being less comprehensive. That’s not so cool. (David Lazarus, 7/12)

The New York Times: Designing An Active, Healthier City
Despite a firm reputation for being walkers, New Yorkers have an obesity epidemic on their hands. Lee Altman, a former employee of New York City’s Department of Design and Construction, explains it this way: “We did a very good job at designing physical activity out of our daily lives.” ... This is not just a New York phenomenon. Mass urbanization has caused populations the world over to reduce the amount of time they spend moving their bodies. But the root of the problem runs deep in a city’s infrastructure. (Meera Senthilingam, 7/12)

Houston Chronicle: Abortion Deception
Call us cockeyed cynics, but we couldn't help noticing state officials chose the Thursday right before the Fourth of July weekend to release some long-awaited data indicating how many women have recently been denied access to abortions in Texas. (7/12)

Bloomberg: Let Veterans Get Civilian Medical Care
I disagree with pretty much everything Donald Trump has ever said. But in calling for veterans to have more options on their doctors and hospitals, he’s got a point. (Peter R. Orszag, 7/12)

Health Affairs: CMS Provides New Clarity For Family Planning Under Medicaid
Family planning services and supplies have been a part of the Medicaid program since it was first established half a century ago. And over the past several decades, Medicaid has become the dominant public funding source for family planning in the United States, accounting for three-quarters of that funding at last count. ... This spring, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) turned an unprecedented amount of attention to these issues, recognizing Medicaid’s importance in enabling low-income women to access the family planning care they need. Sweeping new regulations governing the involvement of private-sector managed care plans in the Medicaid program and three additional pieces of guidance to state officials focusing exclusively on family planning together form the most comprehensive set of rules, principles, and recommendations for states that CMS has offered on the subject. (Adam Sonfield, 7/12)

Health Affairs: The 2016 Medicare Trustees Report: Is Medicare Doomed?
Medicare has been successful in achieving its basic mission — providing access to care and stable coverage to aged and disabled Americans. But, as the country’s largest purchaser of health services, it can do more to improve quality, promote coordinated care, and control costs — both within the program and throughout the health system. Medicare can be an important testing ground for cost and quality innovations that can improve Medicare itself and provide examples for the private sector as well. Policies have been put in place that encourage this, including expanding the power of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to put payment reform pilot programs on a fast track and to work with private payers and providers to establish multi-payer initiatives. (Stuart Guterman, 7/12)

The Texas Tribune: Donna Lake Community Must Unite To End Toxic Fish Crisis
For decades, Rio Grande Valley residents have been ingesting cancer-causing chemicals from fish living in the Donna Reservoir and Canal System. While government officials have known about the hazards since 1993, and have now begun a renewed investigation into the source of contamination, they have been slow to take action on commonsense measures that could quickly and drastically reduce the community’s exposure to these toxins. Instead, the Superfund site commonly known as Donna Lake — which provides drinking and irrigation water for the Donna area — remains a popular spot for local residents to go fishing. (Josue Ramirez and Brooke Lyssy, 7/12)