• The Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment for postpartum depression, a condition that affects one in seven women. Zulresso takes effect within 48 hours, providing nearly instant relief for mothers struggling to care for their babies, but can only be delivered via a 60-hour infusion in a medical center for a cost of $34,000 per patient before discounts. (The New York Times)

• San Francisco is weighing what would be the first ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes in the United States, amid a surge in use among youth that has caught the attention of major cities and the federal government. Shamann Walton, a San Francisco supervisor, introduced legislation that would prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes without review from the FDA and ban making, selling or distributing tobacco on city property — a proposal aimed at Juul Labs Inc., which rents space in San Francisco. (The Associated Press)

• Bayer AG’s Roundup weedkiller was responsible for causing a patient’s cancer, a jury found Tuesday, in the first phase of the second case linking the weedkiller to cancer. The company, which denies its products are carcinogenic, is up against lawsuits from over 11,000 individuals in the United States, and six cases will go to trial in federal and state courts this year. (The Wall Street Journal)

U.S. to Stop Detaining Some Migrant Families at Border Under New Policy
Alicia A. Caldwell, The Wall Street Journal

The Trump administration plans to start pulling back on a controversial plank of U.S. immigration policy in a busy border region, saying Tuesday it will stop sending some migrant families who illegally cross the border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to jail.

Surprise medical bills lead to liens on homes and crippling debt
Lindsey Bomnin and Stephanie Gosk, NBC News

NBC News found collections firms putting liens on homes because of unpaid medical bills in New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma and Vermont.

Beto and Bernie Offer Competing Plans on How to Fix Health Care
Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine

There’s an ancient debate within the Democratic Party about how (and how quickly) to move the country toward universal health coverage. The enactment of the Affordable Care Act was the high point of one basic approach: incremental, involving both public and private insurance, and minimally interfering with existing arrangements.

Swalwell Touts ‘Coverage For All’ But Leaves Opening For Private Medicare
Bruce Japsen, Forbes

Congressman Eric Swalwell, preparing to find a lane in a crowded field of 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates, is moving to the right of rivals pushing a single-payer version of Medicare for All. The 38-year-old California Democrat says he’s for allowing Americans to have a choice between private healthcare coverage and government-run health benefits.

Trump officials take bold steps on Medicaid
Nathaniel Weixel, The Hill

The Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to encourage red states to make conservative changes to Medicaid without congressional input. Administration officials are pushing ahead and granting approvals to states seeking to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, even in the face of legal challenges and large-scale losses in the number of people covered.

Patients and Providers Anxiously Prepare for Medicaid Work Requirement
Jason Moon, New Hampshire Public Radio

Right now, around 50,000 people in New Hampshire get their health insurance through expanded Medicaid. As a creation of the Affordable Care Act, the program is designed to cover people who make too much money to qualify for traditional Medicaid, but not enough to afford private health insurance.

Mississippi Senate OKs ban on abortion after fetal heartbeat
Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press

Mississippi senators on Tuesday passed the final version of a bill that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant promises he will sign the bill, which will give Mississippi one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws.

National Portrait Gallery drops £1m grant from Sackler family
Nadeem Badshah and Joanna Walters, The Guardian

The National Portrait Gallery has become the first major art institution to give up a grant from the controversial Sackler family, in a move that campaigners said was a landmark victory in the battle over the ethics of arts funding.

Stocks Decline, U.S. Futures Fluctuate Before Fed: Markets Wrap
Eddie van der Walt, Bloomberg

U.S. equity-index futures drifted and European shares fell Wednesday as investors adopted a cautious stance before the Federal Reserve policy decision and awaited further news on U.S.-China trade talks, where negotiators remain at odds. Ten-year Treasury yields slipped.

Gottlieb: Insurers must be willing to adopt biosimilars
Robert King, Modern Healthcare

Insurers must be willing to take a short-term financial loss to get long-term savings from adopting biosimilars, outgoing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday. There are major commercial obstacles to getting biosimilars onto the market to replace pricey biologics, Gottlieb said at a Brookings Institution event.

Health Plans For State Employees Use Medicare’s Hammer On Hospital Bills
Julie Appleby, NPR News

States. They’re just as perplexed as the rest of us over the ever-rising cost of health care premiums. Now some states –including Montana, North Carolina and Oregon — are moving to control costs of state employee health plans.

Aspiring Doctors Seek Advanced Training In Addiction Medicine
Will Stone, NPR News

The U.S. surgeon general’s office estimates that more than 20 million people have a substance-use disorder. Meanwhile, the nation’s drug overdose crisis shows no sign of slowing.

Pfizer buys stake in French gene therapy firm Vivet
Manojna Maddipatla, Reuters

Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday it has acquired a 15 percent stake in Vivet Therapeutics, and has an exclusive option to fully acquire the privately held French company that develops gene therapies for liver disorders. Under the terms of the deal, Pfizer said it has paid about $51 million upfront and may pay up to $635.8 million in clinical and regulatory milestone payments, inclusive of the payment to exercise the option.

FDA’s Departing Gottlieb Aims to Keep Heat on E-Cigarette Makers
Anna Edney, Bloomberg

With weeks to go in his tenure atop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb squared off with two companies at the center of his efforts to halt a surge in teen vaping. Gottlieb, who plans to leave his post April 5, said at an event in Washington that he had a contentious meeting last week with executives from Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. and Juul Labs Inc

W.H.O. Panel Demands a Registry for Human Gene Editing
Pam Belluck, The New York Times

The panel, established after a Chinese experiment produced embryo-edited babies, said all human genome editing research should be listed in a registry.

AbbVie sued over Humira ‘patent thicket’
Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare

Drugmaker AbbVie is facing a putative class-action lawsuit over its array of patents shielding the blockbuster drug Humira from U.S. competition until 2023. The complaint, filed Monday in a U.S. District Court in Illinois, alleged the company has “abused the patent system.”

What to know before putting healthcare claims data in the cloud
Nathan Eddy, HealthcareITNews

Cloud technology is fast becoming a tool used to help insurers store and analyze claims data as payers move to more nimble IT architectures. Cloud-based storage of claims data will give payers the opportunity to strip away inefficiencies backed into legacy systems, where onerous manual processes can also lead to costly errors or lost information.

Ending the HIV Epidemic Requires Supporting Those Already Living With HIV
Michael Adams and Amy Flood, Morning Consult

While the challenges continue to be daunting, there are numerous signs of progress in the fight to eradicate HIV by 2030. Between 2012 and 2016, new infections in New York City decreased by 26 percent.

New Arkansas Data Contradict Claims That Most Who Lost Medicaid Found Jobs
Jennifer Wagner, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

A large majority of the more than 18,000 Arkansas Medicaid beneficiaries who lost their Medicaid coverage since the state began implementing a first-in-the-nation Medicaid work requirement in June not only haven’t found jobs, but they also probably don’t have health insurance, new state data suggest. Those who lost their Medicaid last year could have re-enrolled effective January 1, but only about 2,000 have done so.