Recovery advocates, police officers, and families affected by the opioid epidemic are voicing their concerns this morning to HHS Secretary Tom Price. Price is visiting Chattanooga, Tenn., this morning as part of a listening tour to hear concerns and complaints about the federal response to the crisis. The tour has been a bit of a bumpy ride — Price has gotten an earful about proposed cuts to Medicaid and to addiction treatment and prevention funding. He also stirred up a controversy during a May session in West Virginia, where he said that medication-assisted treatment for addiction is just “substituting one opioid for another.” Addiction medicine experts spoke out sharply against that stance and pointed to scientific evidence that supports the approach.

jumping through the hoop of the blood-brain barrier. (F. Shimizu et al., Science Translational Medicine)

Scientists have discovered how an autoimmune disorder causes the blood-brain barrier to break down — and say it could point toward potential new tactics to get therapeutics directly into the brain. They started out by studying patients with neuromyelitis optica, a condition in which the immune system wages a war against the central nervous system. They created antibodies in the lab using cerebral spinal fluid from patients with the condition. They found that some of those antibodies made the blood-brain barrier leaky — opening it up to allow bigger molecules in — by targeting a specific protein in the barrier. And by dosing mice with those antibodies, scientists were able to get large molecules across the animals' blood-brain barrier.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran — a key GOP figure in the fight over the health care bill — is holding a town hall to hear from voters this morning. Moran announced his opposition to the Republican bill only after leaders postponed a vote on the bill until after the July 4 recess. “The Senate healthcare bill missed the mark for Kansans and therefore did not have my support,” Moran said on Twitter last week. Voters who oppose the bill are pouncing on his indecision and will likely turn up at the town hall today. Moran is one of just a handful of GOP senators who plan to hold town halls with voters during the break.

volunteer Lois Martin, 82, writes a message to migrants on a water jug. (ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN FOR STAT)

The volunteers at the No More Deaths (No Más Muertes) campsite clinic work to provide care in an expanse of desert that undocumented migrants try to cross on foot to avoid being caught by the U.S. Border Patrol. It’s a place where even minor illnesses and injuries can become life-threatening. Retirees, church volunteers, and new college graduates dole out bandages, clean water, and Tylenol at the clinic. But for the volunteers, providing even basic services in the desert is a legal balancing act. In recent years, border patrol agents have largely stayed out of the campsite clinic. That tenuous agreement might now be falling apart. STAT’s Eric Boodman reports from the Arizona clinic — read here.

Scientists concerned about unproven stem cell therapies are out with a new warning about the advertising practices of for-profit clinics promoting the treatments. Small, early-stage stem cell studies have shown promise in treating some conditions, including multiple sclerosis. But there are hundreds of rogue "stem cell" clinics across the globe that charge $5,000 to $20,000 for treatments that might not contain the stem cells being tested in research and, in some cases, don't contain stem cells at all. Now, medical experts writing in Science Translational Medicine say they’d like to see regulators crack down on how stem cell therapies are advertised and have countries create international standards for the manufacturing and testing of cell-based treatments. 

The working of our own bodies are often mysterious even to us — that is, if the results of our new Boddities quiz are any indication. The average score was 6 out of 10. Think you can do better? Try your hand at it here. 

There’s been a dramatic rise in the use of hospice care — nearly half of all Medicare enrollees who died in 2014 had received end-of-life care, up from just 23 percent of patients in 2000. A new study of 300,000 caregivers whose loved ones received hospice care finds that black and Hispanic patients are more likely than white patients to receive care from low-quality hospices. Interestingly, though, caregivers for black and Hispanic patients reported being more satisfied with the care than caregivers of white patients treated by the same hospice. The researchers aren’t sure what’s driving that disparity, but say their findings point to the need to make sure patients and caregivers are armed with info on the quality of hospice services available to them.

Another new study out in Health Affairs found that just one in three people in the U.S. has an advance directive on their health care wishes. More here.