Editors’ Top Five Week of February 26, 2018

Scientists Explore Ties Between Alzheimer’s and Brain’s Ancient Immune System
Beer has fueled a lot of bad ideas. But on a Friday afternoon in 2007, it helped two Alzheimer’s researchers come up with a really a good one. (Jon Hamilton/NPR Health Shots)

Couple Makes Millions Off Medicaid Managed Care as Oversight Lags
The arrangement at this midsize California health plan raises broader questions about government oversight as states award billions of dollars in public money to private plans to cover patients on Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor. (Chad Terhune/Kaiser Health News)

Overdose Deaths Fall in 14 States
New provisional data released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that drug overdose deaths declined in 14 states during the 12-month period that ended July 2017, a potentially hopeful sign that policies aimed at curbing the death toll may be working. (Christine Vestal/Pew Stateline)

The U.S. Healthcare System Needs More Skills for Paying Bills, Study Shows
Healthcare in the United States is really expensive, and one of the reasons is that managing healthcare bills is really, really expensive. Just how expensive? At one large academic medical center, the cost of collecting payments for a single primary-care doctor is upward of $99,000 a year. (Karen Kaplan/Los Angeles Times)

$2,169 Hospital Bill for 90-Minute Visit to Get Tamiflu Stuns Arizona Man
Because freestanding emergency rooms provide 24/7 staffing and a higher level of medical care than is offered at urgent-care clinics, hospital patients are billed at different rates than urgent-care patients, hospital officials said. (Ken Alltucker/Arizona Central)