The New York Times: Donald Trump, Abortion Foe, Eyes ‘Punishment’ For Women, Then Recants
Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that women who seek abortions should be subject to “some form of punishment” if the procedure is banned in the United States, further elevating Republican concerns that his explosive remarks about women could doom the party in the fall. The comment, which Mr. Trump later recanted, attracted instant, bipartisan criticism — the latest in a series of high-profile episodes that have shined a light on Mr. Trump’s feeble approval ratings among women nationally. (Flegenheimer and Haberman, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Under Fire On Abortion, Trump Fights To Court Women
Donald Trump is fighting to convince a skeptical Republican Party he can improve his standing among women, even as he takes back an explosive comment about abortion and attacks the credibility of a female reporter police say was illegally grabbed by the GOP front-runner's campaign manager. It took Trump's campaign just hours to backtrack on Wednesday after he said that should abortion become illegal, women who undergo the procedure should face "some sort of punishment." The plan sparked an immediate backlash from both sides of the debate, prompting Trump to release two statements clarifying his position. His second statement said only those who perform abortions would be "held legally responsible, not the woman." "The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb," Trump said. (3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump’s Abortion Comments Spark Furor From Both Sides
Mr. Trump also said the men who impregnate women who get abortions shouldn’t be punished: “Is he responsible under the law for these abortions? Or is he not responsible for an abortion decision?” Mr. Matthews asked about what Mr. Trump believed such a law should cover. “Different feelings. Different people. I would say no,” Mr. Trump replied. His comments were part of a MSNBC program scheduled for broadcast later Wednesday. (Ballhaus and Reinhard, 3/30)

Reuters: Trump Sounds Off On Abortion; Criticism Comes From All Sides
Trump has won support from Republican voters for selling himself as a Washington outsider. But the New York real estate tycoon, who once supported abortion access, has come under pressure from conservatives to prove he is truly one of them. At the same time, he has drawn criticism for comments that offended women and minority groups. "Of course, women shouldn't be punished," rival Republican candidate John Kasich said on Wednesday, saying he opposed abortion except in specific cases such as rape. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the third candidate for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, said Trump had not thought through the issue. "What's far too often neglected is that being pro-life is not simply about the unborn child, it's also about the mother," he said in a statement. (Stephenson, 3/30)

USA Today: Trump Abortion Comments Spark Outrage On Both Sides
“Mr. Trump’s comment today is completely out of touch with the pro-life movement and even more with women who have chosen such a sad thing as abortion,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion. This is against the very nature of what we are about. We invite a woman who has gone down this route to consider paths to healing, not punishment.'' Ken Blackwell, senior fellow at the Family Research Council, said Trump's comments underscored the candidate's "lack of any in-depth of involvement with the pro-life movement.'' (Hafner and Johnson, 3/30)

The Washington Post: Trump: If Abortions Are Banned, Women Who Seek Them Should Face ‘Punishment’
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who is poised to become the first female presidential nominee of a major party, responded immediately via social media. “Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Horrific and telling,” Clinton wrote on Twitter. Women’s groups were quick to weigh in as well, including Planned Parenthood Action and Emily’s List, both of which called Trump "dangerous" and blasted his comments. (DelReal, 3/30)

Politico: Trump Reverses Statement That Women Should Be Punished For Illegal Abortions
The anti-abortion movement in recent decades has tried to avoid the perception that it is “punishing” women for having abortions. Instead, it has focused on penalties for the physicians who provide them, such as imposing medical or legal restrictions on their practice. In some rare situations, women have faced charges associated with abortions they have attempted on their own. (McCaskill and Haberkorn, 3/30)

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Donald Trump’s Claim He Evolved Into ‘Pro-Life’ Views, Like Ronald Reagan
Ahead of the April 5 Wisconsin primary, Trump is facing more questions about his policy views on gender and women’s issues — particularly, his views on abortion. Trump often compares his self-described evolution from being a Democrat to Republican to Ronald Reagan, who was once a Democrat before becoming the Republican icon. And now, he suggests that his evolution from supporting abortion rights to vocally opposing it is like Reagan’s, who once passed a law in favor of women’s access to abortion. Reagan did sign a law in 1967 that liberalized abortions — six years before the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade. But this was long before abortion was a national social policy matter, before there were such terms like “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” (Lee, 3/31)

The Hill: Kasich: GOP Vow To Repeal ObamaCare ‘A Stupid Promise’
Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) says the GOP erred by pledging it would repeal ObamaCare during the 2014 midterm elections. “You’ve been supporting conservative candidates, [and] in 2014 they told you that they were going to repeal ObamaCare,” he said on “The Jay Weber Show,” as first reported by BuzzFeed. “Do you realize that that’s just a big joke?” the GOP presidential candidate asked. "It got all these conservatives stirred up and angry because they didn’t keep their word. I mean, what a stupid promise. The base of the party is furious because you didn’t repeal ObamaCare. How are you going to repeal ObamaCare when Obama’s president?” Kasich also argued that his political experience renders him capable of achieving real results on issues such as healthcare reform. (Hensch, 3/30)

BuzzFeed: Kasich: GOP Vow In 2014 To Repeal Obamacare Was A “Stupid Promise”
Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid under Obamacare in Ohio, which he has mainly defended on moral grounds, has earned him criticism from conservatives. The Ohio Gov. was arguing to Wisconsin radio host Jay Weber that he was the Republican presidential candidate best positioned to win the general election when he made the comments. (Massie, 3/30)

The New York Times: New F.D.A. Guidelines Ease Access To Abortion Pill
The Food and Drug Administration has relaxed the guidelines for taking a pill that induces abortion, reviving one of the most contentious issues of the abortion debate. The change allows women to use the drug further into pregnancy and with fewer visits to the doctor. The announcement on Wednesday came unexpectedly in the final stretch of the Obama administration and amid an election campaign in which both parties covet the women’s vote. Some abortion opponents charged that the new regimen was politically motivated. The F.D.A. said its actions were based strictly on medical science. (Tavernise, 3/30)

The Associated Press: FDA: Women Can Take Abortion Pill Later; Pare Clinic Visits
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the manufacturer of the drug Mifeprex in a letter on Tuesday that the drug is safe and effective for terminating a pregnancy in accordance with the new label. Also known as mifepristone or the abortion pill, the drug manufactured by Danco Laboratories is used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to end a pregnancy. While abortion providers in most states already are using the protocol outlined in the new label, laws in effect in Ohio, North Dakota and Texas prohibited "off-label" uses of the drug and mandated abortion providers adhere to the older protocol approved in 2000. (3/30)

USA Today: FDA Expands Abortion-Pill Access In States Seeking Limits
The new rules allow women to use the medication for 70 days after the start of their most recent menstrual period, up from 49 days under the previous guidelines. The agency also lowered the dosage of the medication, called mifepristone, from 600 milligrams to 200 milligrams, and made it easier for women to get a prescription for the pill. (Gomez, 3/30)

The Washington Post: The FDA Just Made The Abortion Pill Easier To Get
In practice, the situation will not change for most of those seeking abortions, as doctors for years have been diverging from the old FDA protocol on the basis of new research — a common practice known as prescribing a drug “off-label.” But a handful of states have laws requiring abortion providers to adhere at least in part to the FDA-approved label, leading some providers to all but abandon the use of the abortion pill. (Somashekhar and McGinley, 3/30)

Politico: New Abortion Protocol Could Thwart Anti-Abortion Laws
Health care providers have used the protocol approved Wednesday for years because scientific evidence showed it to be safe and effective. But in at least three states — Texas, Ohio and North Dakota — anti-abortion laws required health care providers to use only FDA-approved processes. In those states, medication abortions could be nearly impossible to obtain because of the added expense and doctor visits required. Typically, providers in the three states recommended more invasive surgical abortions, even when a woman was not far along into a pregnancy. Three other states — Arizona, Arkansas and Oklahoma — had passed similarly strict laws that were enjoined by the courts prior to the FDA announcement. (Haberkorn, 3/30)

The Texas Tribune: FDA Revises Rules For Drug-Induced Abortions
Doctors in many states already followed common, evidence-based protocols that strayed from the FDA’s previous label for the drug, but Texas doctors were prohibited from doing so by state law. Among the provisions of the 2013 abortion law known as House Bill 2, Texas doctors were required to follow the FDA’s protocol for drug-induced abortions rather than evidence-based protocols. Texas abortion providers challenged that requirement in court, but a federal appeals court sided with the state and deemed it constitutional. The rule revisions are a win for abortion rights advocates, bringing Texas practices in line with dozens of other states. (Ura, 3/30)

The Columbus Dispatch: FDA Ruling On Abortion Drug Label To Affect Ohio Rules
Abortion rights advocates in Ohio celebrated a rare victory Wednesday when the federal Food and Drug Administration relaxed requirements for a medication that induces abortion, expanding access to the procedure. (Siegel, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: New FDA Guidelines Ease Access To Abortion Drug
A quarter of abortions are drug-induced, according to an estimate by George Washington University’s Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health. The method involves taking pills under an abortion provider’s supervision and is less invasive than surgery. As its use has grown, abortion-rights supporters and opponents have more closely focused public policy on the method. ... In the past, the FDA recommendations included a 49-day window for a woman to access the initial dose of mifepristone after her last menstrual period, followed by a dose of misoprostol, another abortion-inducing drug. (Radnofsky and Burton, 3/30)

Modern Healthcare: States, Plans Get No Flexibility Under Final Mental Health Parity Rule
The CMS has finalized a rule that provides states and plans no flexibility in meeting requirements to provide Medicaid enrollees and children the same level of benefits for mental health or substance-abuse treatment that they provide for medical and surgical care. The final rule released Tuesday applies provisions of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 to managed-care plans contracting with Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. It would ensure that beneficiaries have access to mental health and substance abuse benefits regardless of whether services are provided through the managed-care organization or another service delivery system. (Dickson, 3/29)

Bloomberg: CMS Releases Final Medicaid Mental Health Parity Rule
Millions of beneficiaries who receive services through Medicaid managed care organizations, Medicaid alternative benefit plans or CHIP must be provided access to the same mental health and substance use disorder benefits and protections of private plans under a final rule released March 29 by the CMS. Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health services in the U.S. and is increasingly playing a larger role in the reimbursement of substance use disorder services. (Weixel, 3/30)

And the president announces a new task force —

Kaiser Health News: President’s Task Force Aims To Help End Discrimination In Mental Health Coverage
Tucked in remarks the president made Tuesday on the opioid epidemic was his announcement of a new task force on mental health parity — aimed at ensuring that people with mental illnesses and substance abuse problems don’t face discrimination in the health care system. Despite a landmark 2008 law intended to do just that, enforcement has been paltry, and advocates say discrimination has continued. (Gold, 3/31)

The New York Times: House Panel Issues Subpoenas In Fetal Tissue Research Inquiry
A special House committee empaneled to investigate fetal tissue research issued subpoenas on Wednesday to eight medical organizations as part of an investigation that has led to charges of intimidation. “The Select Investigative Panel is working in a thoughtful and thorough manner to find the facts about what exactly is going on at these abortion businesses and procurement organizations,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who leads the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. “Unfortunately, some of these organizations have so redacted documents — even after being subpoenaed — that it is impossible for us to get the complete picture of what is actually going on.” (Harris, 3/30)

The Associated Press: House Panel In Fetal Tissue Probe Issues More Subpoenas
The panel headed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that targets of the subpoenas include StemExpress, a company that provides fetal tissue to researchers; Ganogen Inc., a biotechnology firm and the BioMedical Research Institute of America, which helps set standards for the work. The committee said "individuals with relationships to the University of New Mexico," which conducts fetal tissue research, were also subpoenaed. Some subpoenas' targets were hidden in documents the panel provided. "There should be no resistance to letting all the facts come out," Blackburn said in a statement justifying her committee's action. (3/30)

The New York Times: The 1095 Tax Form For Health Care Coverage: What You Need To Know
Millions of Americans who have health coverage through a big employer are receiving a new, unfamiliar tax form in the mail this year, thanks to the Affordable Care Act: the 1095-C. Most tax filers do not need to do much with it, except file it away with their tax records. But because it is new, the form is causing a bit of confusion, said Victor Saliterman, vice president and general manager for health care reform at the benefits and payroll administrator ADP. This is the first time in decades that a major new employee tax form has been widely distributed, Mr. Saliterman said, and many workers do not know what to do with it when it arrives. (Carrns, 3/30)

Earlier KHN coverage: Delay Of New Health Law Forms May Confuse Some Taxpayers (Andrews, 2/16)

Morning Consult: Many Of The Current Uninsured Won’t Gain Coverage, Study Suggests
Barring any major policy changes, most of the remaining non-elderly uninsured people in the U.S. likely won’t gain coverage, a new study released today suggests. The study, from the Urban Institute and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says that while some higher-income people who are uninsured will surely gain coverage as the penalties for not having insurance increase, the possibility for increased coverage is actually lower among those who have higher incomes than those who are eligible for financial assistance to cover insurance. (McIntire, 3/30)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: New Medicare Payment Model For Joint Replacement Surgery Set
Medicare’s bundled payment system arrives in Pittsburgh on Friday, the latest milepost in the still unfolding 6-year-old federal Affordable Care Act. The payment model is not particularly new: In a nutshell, it takes the Medicare reimbursements for different services — from hospital admission to post-discharge home health and physical therapy — and bundles them into one payment. The difference this time is that, as part of a five-year testing period, the payment model is mandatory for 67 metropolitan areas nationwide, including Allegheny and its six surrounding counties. (Twedt, 3/31)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Senate To Vote On Whether To Continue Medicaid Expansion
After more than a year of debates and discussion, lawmakers could take their final vote Thursday on whether to continue the state’s Medicaid expansion program for another two years. ... Currently 48,000 New Hampshire residents are insured through the state’s Medicaid expansion program. But the program, authorized through the federal Affordable Care Act, is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. The proposed program reauthorization is similar to the current one, with two key differences. For one, the state’s hospitals and insurance companies will be picking up the program cost that the federal government will no longer be covering starting next year. Second, the proposal requires participants to work or volunteer for 30 hours a week. (Sutherland, 3/31)

Concord Monitor: State Senate Will Take Up Medicaid Expansion Bill
Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan hasn’t said whether she will sign this specific proposal, but she says reauthorizing the health care program is a top priority and key to fighting the state’s opioid crisis, which claimed more than 400 lives last year. The bill will use voluntary payments from hospitals and insurance carriers to help cover the state’s share of program costs, estimated at roughly $50 million over the next two years. The federal government pays 100 percent of program costs now, but will start reducing its investment next year. (Morris, 3/30)

Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer: Calls For Medicaid Expansion, Limits On Paperwork, In Health Insurance Overhaul
Speakers at the first formal public hearing on the state’s planned Medicaid overhaul said they wanted the government insurance expanded to cover more people, worried that increased paperwork would drive away doctors, and asked why the state was changing a system at all. The state Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to ask the federal government to approve major changes in Medicaid that will have most of its beneficiaries sign up for health plans run by insurance companies, hospitals or other providers. Medicaid privatization was a priority for legislators last year. (Bonner, 3/30)

Reuters: Decline In Financial Settlements With U.S. Big Pharma: Report
The amount of money big U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers have paid to settle charges for violating federal health care laws has declined sharply in recent years, prompting a non-profit watchdog group to call for an increase in enforcement efforts. In a new analysis that chronicles 25 years worth of pharmaceutical industry settlements and court judgments, the group, known as Public Citizen, found that just $2.4 billion in federal financial penalties were recovered from 2014 to 2015 - a figure that is less than one third of the $8.7 billion recovered from 2012 to 2013. (Lynch, 3/31)

STAT: Drug Makers Paid Fewer Fines For Bad Behavior In Recent Years
After a decade in which drug makers regularly paid huge fines for various fraudulent practices, there was a noticeable drop over the past two years, according to a new analysis by Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group. (Silverman, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: FTC Seeks More Information On Pfizer-Allergan Merger
Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC on Wednesday said federal regulators are seeking more information on their pending merger deal, a so-called inversion that would create the world’s biggest drugmaker and move one of the top names in corporate America to a foreign country. The request from the Federal Trade Commission was “fully anticipated as part of the regulatory process,” the companies said. They still expect the deal to close in the second of this year. (Steele, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Valeant Asks Its Lenders For Some Slack
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. said Wednesday it was seeking more room from lenders to stave off a potential default. But stock investors were unnerved, as Valeant inched back from earlier assurances about its ability to hit financial targets required by its lenders. The Canadian drug company, struggling in recent months with questions over its accounting and business practices, said it had begun seeking a deal with lenders to give it more time to file its delayed 10-K annual report. Valeant also said it was seeking “additional cushion” from lenders on some terms of its debt. (Rapoport and McNish, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmaker Led By Ex-CEOs Of Pfizer, Celgene Buys Three Painkillers
Pain treatment maker Centrexion Therapeutics, founded by former chief executives at Pfizer Inc. and Celgen Corp., agreed to acquire three new painkilling candidates from Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH in a bid to expand its proprietary pipeline. Financial terms weren’t disclosed in the deal for nonopioid and nonsurgical chronic pain treatments. (Steele, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Hospital Cyberattack Highlights Health Care Vulnerabilities
A cyberattack that paralyzed the hospital chain MedStar this week is serving as a fresh reminder of vulnerabilities that exist in systems that protect sensitive patient information. That attack came a month after a Los Angeles hospital paid hackers $17,000 to regain control of its computer system and more than a year after intruders broke into a database containing the records of nearly 80 million people maintained by the health insurer Anthem. (Murphy, 3/30)

The Washington Post: Possible ‘Ransomware’ Attack Still Crippling Some MedStar Hospitals’ Computers
Hospitals throughout MedStar Health’s network continued to face problems with their online systems Wednesday, two days after a cyberattack crippled the health-care giant’s email and patient records databases. “Our electronic medical records system is working,” spokeswoman Ann Nickels said. “Individual work stations may not be working.” MedStar also issued a statement Wednesday saying that “the three main clinical information systems supporting patient care are moving to full restoration, and enhanced functionality continues to be added to other systems.” (Cox, 3/30)

Modern Healthcare: Details Of Anthem's Massive Cyberattack Remain In The Dark A Year Later
It's been more than a year since health insurer Anthem disclosed what was by far the largest data breach in healthcare history, yet almost nothing new is known about the causes, costs and ramifications. The cyberattack—in which hackers stole the names, birthdays, Social Security numbers, home addresses and other personal information of 78.8 million current and former members and employees—gave Anthem's reputation a black eye early on. The company and the industry at large scrambled to do damage control. Consumers questioned whether Anthem and other healthcare organizations could manage the volumes of data they had. But the breach essentially has been treated as a footnote since then. (Herman, 3/30)

Kaiser Health News: A Crisis With Little Data: States Begin To Count Drug-Dependent Babies
How do fix a problem if you don't know its size? Many states — including some that have been hardest hit by the opioid crisis — don't know how many of their youngest residents each year are born physically dependent on those drugs. ... To make good decisions, health officials need basic information: Which infants are affected? How many, where, and why? (Allen, 3/31)

St. Louis Public Radio: At The Center Of Opioid Epidemic, The Need For Better Multidisciplinary Treatment For Chronic Pain
Raymond Tait, Ph.D., is the vice president for research at Saint Louis University and recently served on a federal committee that was one of five groups to help draft the National Institute of Health’s National Pain Strategy. On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, Tait joined host Don Marsh to discuss the new strategy for treating chronic pain to ensure patients get the most appropriate treatment to manage pain and avoid opioid addiction. (Moffitt, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Hopkins Begins Nation’s First HIV-Positive Organ Transplants
Surgeons in Baltimore for the first time have transplanted organs between an HIV-positive donor and HIV-positive recipients, a long-awaited new option for patients with the AIDS virus whose kidneys or livers also are failing. Johns Hopkins University announced Wednesday that both recipients are recovering well after one received a kidney and the other a liver from a deceased donor — organs that ordinarily would have been thrown away because of the HIV infection. (Neergaard, 3/30)

NPR: New Source Of Transplant Organs For Patients With HIV: Others With HIV
When a Connecticut woman who was HIV-positive died earlier this month, her family decided to donate her organs to others who needed them. Doctors in Maryland announced Wednesday that they performed two landmark, successful surgeries with her kidney and liver — transplanting the organs to HIV-positive patients. This is a big deal, because there continues to be an overall shortage of organs available for transplant, and people living with HIV have an increased risk of kidney and liver failure. (Bichell, 3/31)

STAT: FDA Allows New Test To Screen Blood Donations For Zika Virus
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday endorsed the first test to screen blood donations for the Zika virus. The screening test still has investigational status, meaning it does not have final approval. But FDA spokeswoman Tara Goodin said the agency has vetted the product and is confident it will work. (Kaplan, 3/30)

The Associated Press: FDA OKs Experimental Blood Test For Zika Screens
Federal health officials are granting use of an experimental test to screen blood donations for Zika virus, an emergency step designed to protect local blood supplies from the mosquito-borne virus. The action means U.S. territories with active Zika infections, primarily Puerto Rico, will be able to resume collecting and screening their own blood. (Perrone, 3/30)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Clears Use Of Experimental Test For Screening Blood For Zika
Experts noted that it took almost a year to develop a test to screen blood donations for West Nile virus, and some applauded the rapid progress described Wednesday. “It is amazingly fast,” said Dr. Darrell J. Triulzi, the director of the division of transfusion medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. “This is a testament to the speed at which industry was able to respond to a need.” (Saint Louis, 3/30)

In other Zika news —

The Associated Press: CDC Expands Range Of Zika Mosquitoes Into Parts Of Northeast
Federal health officials say the mosquitoes that can transmit the Zika virus may live in a broader swath of the U.S. than previously thought — but that doesn't mean they'll cause disease here. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday posted new maps of the estimated range of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and a related cousin, on its website. Instead of just being in the southern part of the country, the new maps say the range may extend into parts of the Midwest and as far north as parts of New York and Connecticut. (3/30)

NBC News: Zika Virus Causes Unforeseen Brain Damage To Fetus
The Zika virus can cause extensive brain damage to a fetus, despite normal ultrasound results early in pregnancy, a provocative new study reveals. Researchers conducted ultrasounds of a fetus of a Zika-infected mother at 13, 16, and 17 weeks. Initial results showed no telltale signs of birth defects, such as deformed head size that would indicate microcephaly — a common indicator that a fetus is infected with the virus. However, later ultrasounds revealed other brain abnormalities, specifically affecting the part of the brain dealing with decision making and the senses, such as vision, hearing, touch and taste, according to the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday. (Jarrett, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Medical Community Is Fighting A New Germ: Celebrities
When celebrity and science collide, harmful side effects may occur. The latest case happened last weekend when the Tribeca Film Festival pulled a documentary from its program by a discredited former doctor whose research into the connection between vaccines and autism has been debunked. After festival co-founder Robert De Niro initially defended the film's inclusion, Tribeca -- facing an uproar from doctors and experts -- pulled it. ... The episode is only the latest instance of the medical community being forced to combat the influence of a celebrity promoting questionable science. It has particularly bedeviled questions over vaccinations, beginning with the anti-vaccination advocacy of TV personality Jenny McCarthy. (Coyle, 3/30)

NPR: Possible Heart Benefits Of Taking Estrogen Get Another Look
In the 1980s and '90s, many doctors told women going through menopause that they should take female hormones — estrogen and progestin — to alleviate symptoms like hot flashes and sleep problems. The hormone therapy was thought to have other benefits, too, like preventing broken bones, colon cancer and heart attacks. But in 2002, a bombshell hit. The Women's Health Initiative, a long-term health study with thousands of participants, showed that not only did the hormone therapy not ease those serious health problems but likely did some harm — putting women at a higher risk of heart disease, stroke and breast cancer. (Bichell, 3/30)

NPR: Study: Prolonged Antibiotic Treatment Gave No Relief For Lasting Lyme Symptoms
For some people with Lyme disease, the illness seems to take a lasting toll. Years after a standard two-week course of antibiotics against Borrellia burgdorferi or closely related organisms that cause the disease, these patients remain exhausted and foggy-headed. They suffer from chronic aches and pains and poor sleep. In the last decade and a half, medical societies and some patient groups have fought over how to treat these people and also over the reasons why they don't get better. (Chen, 3/30)

KQED: Study: Mandatory Waiting Period Stopped Few Abortions
Most women seeking an abortion were not deterred by a Utah law requiring a 72-hour waiting period before having the procedure, according to a recent study by the University of California, San Francisco. (Fine, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Raises Concerns With Alaska Abortion Bill
Planned Parenthood is calling a bill that would restrict late-term abortions in Alaska legally and medically questionable. The bill, from Republican Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, would ban abortions in cases where doctors deem the fetus to be viable outside the womb. It includes exceptions if the pregnancy resulted from sexual assault or incest or is medically necessary. But in those cases, it calls on the doctor to take steps that give the fetus the best chance to survive after being removed if those actions do not present "a serious risk to the life or physical health" of the woman. (Bohrer, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Ohio Readies Waiver To Require Cost-Sharing In Medicaid
Republican Gov. John Kasich’s administration said Wednesday it’s moving forward with plans to require more than 1 million Ohioans on Medicaid to pay a new monthly cost for their health coverage or potentially lose it. House Republicans added the provision to the state budget last year. The new charge would require federal approval. If successful, officials plan to begin requiring Medicaid recipients to pay into a health-savings account to support the cost of their coverage beginning in 2018. (Sanner, 3/30)

Politico New York: Heastie: Budget Talks Clear Medicaid Hurdle
Budget talks have cleared the Medicaid hurdle, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Wednesday night, but a final resolution on a new spending plan remains out of grasp on the eve of the March 31 deadline. Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent the early evening meeting individually with Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan in the Capitol before the governor decamped from his second floor office around 7:30. Talks among staff are continuing. ... According to Time Warner Cable News, Republicans who control the State Senate were already preparing to hold session on Friday — after the current budget expires at midnight Thursday. Heastie said “hopefully” the members of his chamber would be able to finish voting on Thursday, even if debate stretches past the technical midnight deadline. (Vielkind, 3/30)

The New York Times: Cuomo Offers Tax Cut In Effort To Strike A Budget Deal
Offering a billion-dollar tax cut and assurances that New York City would not be stuck with a $250 million Medicaid bill, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo inched closer on Wednesday to presenting an on-time budget with one major issue seemingly standing in his way — an increase in the minimum wage. ... Mr. Heastie said that from the Assembly’s perspective, one budgetary hurdle — Mr. Cuomo’s proposal to find $250 million in Medicaid savings, largely from New York City — had nearly been cleared. Under pressure from the Assembly, the governor clarified this week that the money would come from savings to be worked out between the city and the state, rather than from the city’s budget. (McKinley and Yee, 3/30)

Des Moines Register: Democrats Attempt Last-Minute Medicaid Oversight Bill
House Democrats attempted to pass a last-ditch effort to create oversight of the state’s Medicaid program, which is shifting to private management beginning Friday. Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, offered an amendment to a bill that would have provided for “vigorous government oversight” of the three managed care organizations that have contracted with the state. ... The amendment failed. (Pfannenstiel, 3/30)

The Associated Press: OptumHealth Accused Of Medicaid Fraud In 3 Lawsuits
A health care company that tried to root out fraud in New Mexico's Medicaid program now faces three lawsuits claiming that it was committing Medicaid fraud itself. Lawsuits filed against OptumHealth Inc. say the company mishandled Medicaid payments to mental health providers. In one lawsuit, a former OptumHealth employee claims she was fired for reporting concerns about possible Medicaid fraud. (3/30)

The Dallas Morning News: Health Insurers Fear Texas Trial Lawyers Are Seeking Billions, But Attorneys Say That's Hype
Texas health insurers and hospitals clashed Wednesday over whether the insurance companies face a dire threat from computer-assisted, mischief-making trial lawyers. The issue is whether plaintiffs’ lawyers, assisted by data mining companies, are about to collect billions from insurers for dragging their feet on reimbursement claims. (Garrett, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Ricketts Signs Bill Allowing Direct Primary Care In Nebraska
Medical patients in Nebraska will have the option to pay doctors directly for consultations and physicals rather than through insurance under a bill signed by Gov. Pete Ricketts. The law approved Wednesday allows medical practitioners to offer direct primary care agreements. (3/30)

The Kansas City Star: Kansas Task Force Targets 'Grossly Substandard' Nursing Home Care
Kansas is one of 10 states where the U.S. Justice Department is launching an Elder Justice Task Force to combat “grossly substandard care” of residents in nursing homes. The task forces combine federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies with state and local agencies. They are part of the Justice Department’s Elder Justice Initiative. (Davis, 3/30)

Georgia Health News: Closing Of Troubled Nursing Home Shakes Small Community To Its Core
The nursing home had closed and all its beds were empty, yet its parking lot was jammed with cars one afternoon last week. Former employees of Abbeville Healthcare and Rehab were arriving one last time — to pick up their final paychecks. They were also bringing food and beverages to hold a farewell party in the facility’s cafeteria. (Miller and Fite, 3/30)

The Associated Press: FBI: Hospice Nurses Told To Overdose Patients To Speed Death
An FBI affidavit alleges the owner of a Dallas-area hospice ordered nurses to increase drug dosages for patients to speed their deaths and maximize profits. A copy of an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by KXAS-TV alleges Brad Harris ordered higher dosages for at least four patients at Novus Health Services in Frisco. It’s unclear whether any deaths resulted from overdoses. Harris has not been charged and the FBI on Wednesday declined to say whether an investigation is ongoing. (3/30)

Cronkite News: Report: Hundreds Of Arizona Prison Inmates Attempted Suicide In 2015
Nearly 500 convicts in Arizona’s prison system attempted suicide in 2015, despite efforts to push for better mental health treatment and a legal settlement ordering the Department of Corrections to improve psychiatric services. Two inmates, one from the Florence prison and another from the Tucson facility, recently died in the span of three weeks, making a total of four deaths so far since November. (Lieberman, 3/30)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: 1 More Death Tied To Elizabethkingia Outbreak
One more death has been linked to the outbreak of Elizabethkingia bacteria this week and two more people with infections have been reported to the state Department of Health Services. That brings the number of deaths to 18, as state and federal health officials struggle to identify a source of the bloodstream infections that began showing up in Wisconsin in November. (Gabler, 3/30)

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming's Board Of Medicine Given Low Marks For Keeping Patients Informed
A national magazine has given Wyoming’s Board of Medicine low marks for failing to provide easy access to the disciplinary records of doctors in the state. (Beck, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Tomblin Signs Bill Giving Nurse Practitioners More Freedom To Practice
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill this week giving the more than 1,700 nurse practitioners in West Virginia the ability to diagnose and treat patients without physician oversight. Nurse practitioners in West Virginia are required to work under the guidance of a physician. But in the past, advanced practice nurses couldn’t always find physicians to sign off on their work, sometimes leaving patients without care. House Bill 4334 attempts to address that problem. (3/30)

The Associated Press: Auditor OKs Plan To Privatize Some Mental Health Services
State Auditor Suzanne Bump has approved a proposal from the state Department of Mental Health to privatize emergency mental health services in the department's southeastern region. Bump said Wednesday the change could save $7 million over one year. (3/30)

The Associated Press: Judge Bars Companies From Leaving Hospital Service Contract
A judge has barred two companies from ending their dialysis services agreement with Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff. Renal Treatment Center and DaVita Healthcare Partners have a five-year contract with the hospital. The two have told the hospital that the agreement provisions had made it financially untenable, so they intended to withdraw from the contract Wednesday unless it was modified. (3/30)

The Casper Star Tribune: Wyoming Attorney General Settles Claims Against Cancer Charities
The Wyoming attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission have settled claims against two nationwide cancer charities that spent the majority of donations on personal matters, he attorney general announced Wednesday. A permanent injunction has dissolved the Cancer Fund of America Inc. and Cancer Support Services Inc. The leader of the organizations, James Reynolds Sr., is banned from profiting from charity fundraising and nonprofit work and from serving as a charity’s director again. (Schrock, 3/30)

The Santa Fe New Mexican: Worries Linger Over Pesticide To Be Used In Gila Trout Reintroduction
The New Mexico Game and Fish Department wants to use a pesticide that some scientists say could pose health risks for humans and other species to help re-establish the native Gila trout population in waterways in the Gila National Forest. The trout were wiped out by a massive 2012 wildfire. But recent studies have directly linked rotenone exposure to an individual’s likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease, and some scientists say the pesticide’s threat to humans and the environment should be studied further. (Moss, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Bill Would Allow Gun Seizure After Hospitalization
Hawaii gun owners are speaking out against a bill they say would allow police to take their guns without due process. State lawmakers moved forward Wednesday with a bill to force gun owners to immediately surrender firearms after undergoing an emergency hospitalization for mental health issues. The proposed law would require police to give gun owners written notice to immediately surrender all firearms. But if gun owners fail to do so, the chief of police could seize all firearms and ammunition. (Riker, 3/30)

The New Yorker: The Roll-Up Racket
Few falls in business history have been as sudden and as steep as that of Michael Pearson, the C.E.O. of the drugmaker Valeant. Not long ago, he was heading a company whose stock price had risen more than four thousand per cent during his tenure. A former McKinsey consultant, he had developed a strategy based on acquisitions, cost-cutting, and price hikes. (James Surowiecki, 3/28)

Vox: How The Anti-Vaccine Movement Infiltrated Robert De Niro’s Film Festival
Over the weekend, science collided hard with celebrity culture when public health advocates successfully intervened in a film festival selection. At the center of the imbroglio was actor Robert De Niro, who last week revealed that he had greenlit the screening of an anti-vaccine film at the Tribeca Film Festival, which he co-founded. (Julia Belluz, 3/28)

Modern Healthcare: Why Patients Still Need EMTALA
In September 2012, a man arrived in the emergency department at Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, S.C., after being shot in the leg during a robbery. A few months later, in February 2013, another man came to the same St. Francis ED after being shot in the abdomen at a club. In both cases, the hospital ... transferred the patients to another hospital. This past December, Bon Secours St. Francis agreed to pay a $100,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) by improperly transferring the two gunshot victims .... Spurred by the federal investigation, the hospital's administrators, physicians and staff launched an initiative to improve the ED's trauma processes and internal communication. ... All of that happened because of a law signed 30 years ago by President Ronald Reagan. (Meyer, 3/26)

Vox: Florida Is The Latest State To Defund Planned Parenthood Even Though It's Probably Illegal
Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a sweeping anti-abortion bill into law on Friday, more or less daring advocates to take the state to court over it, and it looks certain they will. The law defunds Planned Parenthood in a way that may be illegal, and includes other provisions that are being challenged at the Supreme Court because they close abortion clinics for no medical reason. (Emily Crockett, 3/28)

Pacific Standard: The Lifelong Health Toll Of Schoolyard Racism
Disparities between the health of whites vs. that of minorities in the United States are wide and pervasive, and have been for decades. Some of the largest and most persistent health gaps are between whites and blacks. Black Americans experience significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease, HIV, certain cancers, diabetes, asthma, and infant and maternal mortality than white Americans do. On average, white Americans live three years longer than black Americans; in high-poverty communities, life expectancy gaps can be as wide as 40 years. (Olivia Campbell, 3/29)

The Atlantic: The Impossibility Of Managing A Chronic Disease While Homeless
On my commute into work one night this past January, I could tell that something unusual was happening: Several police cars with full lights and sirens raced past me, as did a pair of ambulances. I followed their wails through downtown Seattle to King County’s public hospital, where I work the night shift as the physician responsible for treating patients with general medical issues. The hospital serves many members of Seattle’s homeless population; on any given night, at least half of my patients stay in migrating “tent cities,” crisis shelters, empty vehicles, abandoned buildings, or directly on the streets. (Maralyssa Ban, 3/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Abortion Gaffe
Some months ago we wrote that Republicans who nominate Donald Trump for President would be diving off a cliff without knowing what’s at the bottom, and Wednesday was the latest illustration. The first-time candidate showed how little he understands about the politics of abortion by suggesting that “there has to be some kind of punishment” if abortion were made illegal. (3/30)

Los Angeles Times: One Way For Trump To Lose Even More Women Voters: Say They Should Be Punished For Illegal Abortions
Within minutes of MSNBC broadcasting a clip of Donald Trump, Republican Party presidential front-runner, declaring that not only should abortion be illegal, but women who sought one illegally should be punished, a firestorm of criticism rained down on him. Not just from abortion-rights supporters and the Democratic candidates for president but from Republican candidate John Kasich and the antiabortion group March for Life, which put out a statement on its website saying, “No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion.” (Carla Hall, 3/31)

The New York Times: Trump And Abortion
Just when you thought Donald Trump couldn’t say anything more shocking, he suggested that women who get abortions should be punished. On MSNBC, he said abortion must be banned and then “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who manage to get abortions. He declined to say what the punishment should be, dodging a question about whether it should be “10 years” in prison or something milder. But his comment raised the possibility of following the lead of countries like El Salvador, where women can be dragged off from a hospital to prison for getting an abortion. Indeed, rights groups say that women were wrongly imprisoned in El Salvador simply for having miscarriages. (Nicholas Kristof, 3/30)

The New York Times: Donald Trump’s Incoherent Abortion Stance
Of all the Republican candidates this election season, Donald Trump has been the most equivocal about reproductive rights. He says he’s “staunchly pro-life,” but also acknowledges that “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood” — even as he pledges to take away the organization’s federal funding. At an MSNBC town hall taping on Wednesday, though, Mr. Trump passed from equivocation into incoherence. Chris Matthews, the host, asked Mr. Trump, “How do you ban abortion? How do you actually do it?” The candidate’s response: “Well, you go back to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places, but you have to ban it.” (Anna North, 3/30)

Bloomberg: Can The Supreme Court Demand A Compromise? It Just Did
It’s happening: The Supreme Court is getting desperate. With a 4-4 tie looming over whether religious organizations have to file a form with the government requesting an exemption from the mandatory contraceptive care provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the justices took an extreme step. They issued an order that basically told the federal government and the religious entities to reach a compromise -- and described what the compromise would look like. (Noah Feldman, 3/30)

The New York Times: A Supreme Court Hijacking
There was lots of talk about hijacking the other day at the Supreme Court — not in a criminal case, but in the argument on how far the government must go to shield nonprofit religious organizations from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to include birth control in employer health care plans. If the government has its way, it will “hijack our health plans and provide the coverage against our will,” Paul D. Clement, arguing for one group of religious nonprofits, warned the eight justices. His co-counsel, Noel Francisco, representing a second group of religious plaintiffs, added: “They’re seizing control of our plans, the plans that we are required to provide under threat of penalty.” (Linda Greenhouse, 3/30)

Forbes: After The ACA, How Much Do Health Insurance Mergers Matter?
Two major health insurance mergers – Anthem with Cigna, and Aetna with Humana – are winding their way through the regulatory process. As with all large mergers, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division or the Federal Trade Commission will weigh in with an opinion as to whether the merger will substantially impact consumer prices. As with most mergers in highly regulated industries, various other regulatory agencies and state governments will step in as well. (Robert Book, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: New Obamacare Surprise: New Customers Look Just Like Average Americans
Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which is the largest player in the individual exchange market under the Affordable Care Act, has taken a close look at its enrolled population since the exchanges opened for business on Jan. 1, 2014. For some reason the Blues seem to be surprised at this finding: Members who enrolled in 2014 and 2015 "have higher rates of certain diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, coronary artery disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C than individuals who already had BCBS individual coverage....received significantly more medical services in their first year of coverage, on average..., (and) used more medical services across all sites of care—including inpatient hospital admissions, outpatient visits, medical professional services, prescriptions filled and emergency room visits." (Michael Hiltzik, 3/30)

The New York Times' Upshot: The Unsung Success Of A Diabetes Prevention Program
More than 86 million people, including 22 million people 65 or older, have pre-diabetes, which increases their risk of heart disease, strokes or diabetes. As we’ve watched that number grow, it has somehow felt that despite billions of dollars of research and intervention, there’s little we can do. That feeling shifted last week when Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, announced that Medicare was planning to pay for lifestyle interventions focusing on diet and physical activity to prevent Type 2 diabetes. It’s an example of small-scale research efforts into health services that have worked and that have expanded to reach more people. (Aaron E. Carroll, 3/30)

Modern Healthcare: The Well-Sung Diabetes Prevention Program
The CMS on Tuesday agreed to pay for the Diabetes Prevention Program. Writing for the Upshot blog at the New York Times website today, Dr. Aaron Carroll makes this curious statement: “Articles appear every day on “major breakthroughs,” which later never pan out, while this one, full of successes, rarely made the news.” The headline proclaimed it “an unsung success.” Unused, maybe. Unsung? Hardly. (Merrill Goozner, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: The Accidental Deadly Drug Prescription
My patient was a college student brought into the emergency room after a minor car accident. Although CT scans showed no spinal fractures, he had severe neck pain and spasms. Instinctively, I prescribed Percocet for pain and Valium for muscle spasms. But I didn’t know then what I know now: These two drugs, when taken together, could interact and cost him his life. (Leana S. Wen, 3/30)

JAMA: Building A Better Health Care System: The Work Ahead
Here are 4 health care proposals that have been made by politicians running for office. How many do you agree with? 1. “[Health care reform] should expand competition in the marketplace, it should empower consumers and patients to make healthcare decisions in consultation with their doctors and it should disempower the government from getting in between doctors and their patients.” 2. “[We need to transform] our health care system to reward value and quality.” 3. “[Congress must] require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure.” 4. “We must ensure … that the money we put into health coverage goes to the delivery of health care, not to paper-pushing, astronomical profits and lining CEOs’ pockets.” (David Cutler, 3/30)

Boston Globe: Let Medicare Test Ways To Save Money
If the agency that runs Medicare can’t even test out ways of holding down spending on prescription drugs, the entire US health care system will be worse off for it. Unfortunately, interest groups within the health care industry are trying to keep the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from launching a common-sense experiment on lowering costs. (3/31)

The Arizona Republic: Doug Ducey, Senate Need To Act On KidsCare
Arizona has a real problem with uninsured kids. But we also have a time-tested solution that now has no cost to the state budget: KidsCare. Arizona created KidsCare health coverage for children in working families in 1998 with bipartisan support and the leadership of Gov. Jane Hull. For years, KidsCare succeeded in giving hundreds of thousands of families the chance for medication, doctor visits and therapies with premiums they could afford. (Regina Cobb, 3/30)

Lincoln Journal Star: Another Loss For Pragmatism
The Legislature’s emphatic rejection of the latest attempt to tap into federal Medicaid funding for low-income residents is a strong indication that Nebraskans will be in a state of denial for quite some time. Senators voted 28-20 to bracket the bill after only 90 minutes of debate. Ideology won. Pragmatism lost. (3/31)

Akron Beacon Journal: How The Medicaid Expansion Helps In Addressing The Heroin Problem
John Kasich has received some campaign knocks for his decision to expand Medicaid. To his credit, the governor has not backed away. The numbers are compelling, with roughly 600,000 newly eligible Ohioans enrolling in the public health-care program. Emergency room traffic has declined as visits to primary care doctors have increased. Those with little means struggle less to pay for necessities such as food and housing. There is another benefit of much significance. The Medicaid expansion has aided efforts to address the heroin problem touching so many Ohio communities. (3/30)

The San Jose Mercury News: From The Tampon Tax To Donald Trump, Menstruation Talk Goes Mainstream
It has long been a nightmare moment for me, and probably a lot of women who still get their, uh, monthly visitors: I'm out in public rifling through my purse. I drop it, it falls open, and out flies my stash of tampons. (Martha Ross, 3/30)

Orlando Sentinel: Lawmakers Fall Short On Health Care
Hundreds of thousands of Floridians each year struggle with mental-health problems and substance abuse. Their hardship extends to their families and even to the state's economy, which loses billions of dollars a year in productivity. State lawmakers took some significant steps during their regular session this year to improve mental-health and substance-abuse care. But once again, they squandered the opportunity that would have made the biggest positive difference. (3/31)

Lexington Herald Leader: Doctors Must Help Prevent Opioid Abuse
The most consistent and profound message emerging from the drug summit this week in Atlanta is that drug addiction is a disease. And we’re failing at treating that disease. The Centers for Disease Control, in a recent statement, noted, “in the past decade, while the death rates for the top leading causes of death such as heart disease and cancer have decreased substantially, the death rate associated with opioid pain medication has increased markedly.” (3/30)

Seattle Times: Suicide Awareness And Prevention Create Safer Homes
We lose two people between the ages of 14 and 24 to suicide in Washington state every week. That’s a tragedy, and every parent’s worst nightmare. Washington has a higher suicide rate than the national average, with more than 1,100 people taking their own lives in 2014. (Tina Orwall, 3/29)

STAT: The Great Mosquito Debate: Keep Them
The outbreak of Zika in Latin America has renewed the often-heard call to “get rid of mosquitoes.” That’s a naïve and foolish idea. It would also be hard — if not impossible — to do. (Andrew P. Dobson, 3/30)