NBC News: Millions Expected To Lose Dental Care Coverage After Medicaid Review
More than 14 million adults across the United States who receive Medicaid are at risk of losing dental health coverage now that the Covid public health emergency is over, according to data exclusively obtained by NBC News. The public health emergency ended April 1, allowing states to review Medicaid recipients’ eligibility and disenroll them from the program for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Around 15.7 million people are expected to lose health coverage as a result. The emergency declaration did not allow states to remove enrollees from the program during the pandemic, which caused programs to expand precipitously over the past three years. (McCausland, 4/14)

CNN: Medicaid: Here's What You Can Do If You Lose Coverage 
Though millions of Americans are expected to be kicked off of Medicaid in coming months, they don’t all have to be left uninsured. But it could take some work to regain health coverage. “For a lot of people, this can be a very disruptive period of time,” said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. “There is a significant time and paperwork burden being placed on families – a lot of them very low income, a lot of them medically vulnerable.” (Luhby, 4/15)

Fierce Healthcare: Medicaid Disenrollment Will Hurt Not-For-Profit Hospitals: Fitch
Not-for-profit hospitals will most likely take a hit to their revenue streams due to the Medicaid redetermination process, according to an analysis from Fitch Ratings. Gary Sokolow, a director in Fitch Ratings’ public finance healthcare group, told Fierce Healthcare that nonprofit hospitals didn’t have to worry for the past three years about taking care of patients showing up in their emergency rooms because many of those patients were either Medicaid beneficiaries or could be automatically enrolled in the program while the eligibility determinations were suspended. (Diamond, 4/14)

Washington Monthly: Expanding Medicaid Coverage To The Incarcerated And Those Recently Released
Last week, a group of House members introduced a bill to provide Medicaid coverage to people in the last 30 days of their sentence in prison or jail. The Medicaid Reentry Act would give states a powerful tool to reduce the drug overdose deaths ravaging the country.  (Humphreys, 4/17)

Health News Florida: KidCare Expansion Gets OK By The Florida House In An Unanimous Vote
The Florida House unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would expand eligibility for the KidCare subsidized health insurance program. Kidcare provides health insurance for families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. Under the program, families who do not qualify can pay $15 or $20 a month in premiums to insure children. Subsidized coverage is available to families with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $60,000 for a family of four, according to a House staff analysis. (4/14)

In Medicare news —

NPR: Supreme Court Looks At Whether Medicare And Medicaid Were Overbilled Under Fraud Law
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could undermine one of the government's most powerful tools for fighting fraud in government contracts and programs. The False Claims Act dates back to the Civil War, when it was enacted to combat rampant fraud by private contractors who were overbilling or simply not delivering goods to the troops. But the law over time was weakened by congressional amendments. Then, in 1986, Congress toughened the law, and then toughened it again. The primary Senate sponsor was — and still is — Iowa Republican Charles Grassley. ... He is alarmed by the case before the Supreme Court this week. At issue is whether hundreds of major retail pharmacies across the country knowingly overcharged Medicaid and Medicare by overstating what their usual and customary prices were. If they did, they would be liable for triple damages. (Totenberg, 4/17)

Mississippi Today: Holly Springs Hospital CEO: We Are Still A Rural ER 
After granting the Holly Springs hospital a special designation aimed at helping small, rural hospitals stay afloat, the federal government is now “reviewing” Alliance Healthcare System’s status as such, the hospital CEO says. The hang-up is the hospital’s proximity to Memphis, Tenn., about 50 miles away from Holly Springs. Mississippi Today previously reported that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services rescinded the hospital’s rural emergency hospital designation after State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said at a state board of health meeting that the federal government was “pulling” the designation mere days after awarding it to the hospital. (Bose, 4/14)

Stat: Supreme Court Temporarily Pauses New Limits On Abortion Pill
Access to the abortion pill mifepristone will remain unchanged until Wednesday, after a U.S. Supreme Court justice on Friday issued a stay on last week’s ruling from a conservative Texas judge banning the medicine. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay preserving access to mifepristone, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2000, until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday. It is likely the country’s highest court will rule more substantively on access to the medication before then, a decision that will have major ramifications for the FDA’s authority and access to the commonly used drug. (Owermohle, 4/14)

AP: US Supreme Court's Abortion Pill Order Spares Safe Havens 
Before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in Friday, access to an abortion pill was in line to become more cumbersome in California, New York and some other states that have positioned themselves as safe havens for those seeking to end their pregnancies. The order keeps in place federal rules for use of mifepristone, one of the two drugs usually used in combination in medication abortions. The legal saga isn’t over: The Supreme Court suggested it will decide the issue by Wednesday. (Mulvihill, 4/14)

NPR: Abortion Rights Advocates Rally In Support Of Abortion Pill Access
Abortion rights supporters around the country and in the nation's capital are holding rallies Saturday and Sunday against the decision by a Texas judge to reverse the FDA's approval of a key abortion drug. (Radde, 4/15)

In related news about Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk —

The Washington Post: Unpacking The Flawed Science Cited In The Texas Abortion Pill Ruling
A Texas judge’s decision to invalidate federal approval of a key abortion drug cites research based on anonymous blog posts, cherry-picks statistics that exaggerate the negative physical and psychological effects of mifepristone, and ignores hundreds of scientific studies attesting to the medication’s safety. The unprecedented ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk contradicted the recommendations of numerous medical groups when it assailed the safety of mifepristone, a two-decade-old medication used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. Another federal judge determined on the same day that the drug should remain available in a swath of states. (Weber, McGinley, Ovalle and Sellers, 4/13)

The Washington Post: The Controversial Article Matthew Kacsmaryk Did Not Disclose To The Senate
As a lawyer for a conservative legal group, Matthew Kacsmaryk in early 2017 submitted an article to a Texas law review criticizing Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions. The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.” (Kitchener, Barnes and Marimow, 4/15)

AP: Colorado Offers Safe Haven For Abortion, Transgender Care
A trio of health care bills enshrining access in Colorado to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications became law Friday as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting care. The main goal of the legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis is to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can go to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-affirming surgery without fear of prosecution. Bordering states of Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion bans, and Utah has severely restricted transgender care for minors. (Bedayn and Slevin, 4/14)

The Colorado Sun: Trump-Appointed Judge Temporarily Exempts Anti-Abortion Clinic From New Colorado Law Banning Abortion Reversal
A federal judge over the weekend temporarily exempted a Catholic anti-abortion clinic from a first-in-the-nation law enacted Friday by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis that bans medical professionals from administering abortion-reversal drugs through at least Oct. 1. The decision to issue a temporary restraining order sought by Englewood-based Bella Health and Wellness came from U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Domenico, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2017 by President Donald Trump. (Paul, 4/17)

In other abortion news from Maryland, New Mexico, Illinois, and elsewhere —

ABC News: Gov. Wes Moore Says Maryland Will Continue With Abortion Access
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore detailed his plan to protect abortion access after his announcement that his state will stockpile abortion pills in the wake of a federal court ruling. "Maryland is going to lead on this," Moore pledged Sunday in an exclusive interview on This Week. On Friday, Moore, who is roughly three months into his first term as governor, announced the state would begin stockpiling mifepristone after a judge struck down FDA approval of the abortion pill. On Wednesday, a federal judge put a temporary stay on that order, leaving a split decision for that the Supreme Court could decide on. (Vredenbregt, 4/16)

Politico: New Mexico Governor Fears A National Ban On Abortion
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Sunday she is worried the U.S. is headed toward a national ban on abortion, as state legislatures and courts move to squeeze abortion access across the country. “It’s every social issue that you disagree with, is it stem cell research, is it fertility, drugs, whatever it is, in this context, if we’re going to use the federal courts as a way to bar and ban access, we are looking at a national abortion ban and more,” Lujan Grisham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” (Garrity, 4/16)

NPR: Out-Of-Staters Are Flocking To Places Where Abortions Are Easier To Get
When Mara Pliskin started working at Planned Parenthood Illinois, she didn't expect to feel like a travel agent. Now, the abortion navigation program manager and her co-workers joke that that's half the job — booking flight, train and bus tickets for out-of-state abortion seekers, arranging hotel stays and giving them money for food and gas. "We're being as creative as possible to really just work with every individual patient to resolve all those barriers that might stand in the way between making their decision and getting to our door," she said. (Seshadri, 4/16)

The Guardian: In A Liberal US State, My Life-Saving Abortion Cost $55,000 
On 27 January, I was just under six weeks pregnant. My fertility app – one of several pinned on my phone’s home screen, I am reluctant to admit – told me that the embryo growing inside me was the size of a green pea. That morning, I felt both elated and nervous. Between Zoom calls and spurts of distracted writing, I thought about spilling the beans to my sister, but resisted. After two miscarriages, I was wary of sharing the news too early. As noon approached, I started to feel some pangs in my abdomen. At first, I didn’t overthink it: every piece of reproductive literature out there will tell you that cramps, and even light bleeding, are normal during early pregnancy. They subside. (buller, 4/16)

Mother Jones: “You Would Only Need A Week”: How The Next Republican President Could Ban Abortion Nationwide 
The fight over the meaning of a Victorian-era law could mean everything for reproductive freedom. (Pauly, 4/17)

In related news about the presidential election —

NBC News: VP Harris Is Top White House Messenger On Abortion Fight
Vice President Kamala Harris' central role in warning about threats to abortion rights has been tested anew amid a fresh fight over abortion access. It comes after years of concerns about her role in the administration as the White House seeks to keep pressure on the issue and galvanize voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The White House combats renewed Republican efforts to curb abortion through the courts with Harris as the unflinching face of a battle to protect what it sees as a cherished women’s right, according to interviews with two dozen present and past administration officials, Democratic strategists and people close to Harris. (Alcindor, Nicholas and Lee, 4/17)

The New York Times: Where The Likely 2024 Presidential Contenders Stand On Abortion
The fallout from the Supreme Court’s revocation of a constitutional right to abortion last year looks poised to be a major issue in the upcoming presidential race. So where do the likely candidates stand? (Astor, 4/14)

Reuters: Moderna/Merck Cancer Vaccine Plus Keytruda Delays Skin Cancer Return
An experimental mRNA cancer vaccine developed by Moderna Inc and Merck & Co cut the risk of death or recurrence of the most deadly skin cancer by 44% compared with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda alone, U.S. researchers reported at a medical meeting on Sunday. The findings suggest that adding a personalized cancer vaccine based on mRNA technology to Keytruda, which revs up the immune response, could prolong the time patients have without recurrence or death, said Dr. Jeffrey Weber of the NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, who presented the findings. (Steenhuysen and Erman, 4/16)

USA Today: In What Could Be A 'Big Shift' For Cancer Treatment, MRNA Vaccine Shows Promise Against Melanoma
Instead of using a vaccine to try to prevent or shrink a tumor, the new mRNA vaccines are aimed at reducing the chances of a high-risk cancer recurring. "This represents a big shift in how we're using cancer vaccines," said Dr. Robert Vonderheide, who was not involved in the study but is the program committee chair of the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting, where the study was presented. (Weintraub, 4/16)

NBC News: MRNA Cancer Vaccine For Melanoma Reduces Risk Of Relapse
The trial’s results are “very exciting,” said Dr. Thomas Marron, director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at the Tisch Cancer Institute and an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “Once the tumor is removed, we know it can come back because tiny microscopic bits have traveled elsewhere in the body and set up shop there,” Marron said. The recurrence often appears quickly, between six months and two years, he said. The beauty of the vaccine in this study is that it targets up to 34 mutations, Marron said. “That’s like taking 34 shots on goal," he said. You’re teaching the immune system to recognize 34 different things that are unique to that cancer.” (Carroll and Lewis, 4/16)

In related news —

The Washington Post: Why Melanoma Is So Deadly For Men, And Why It Doesn’t Have To Be
As his patient sat on the examining table, dermatologist Jeremy Brauer explained the pathology report, letting him know that the lesion on his chest was skin cancer and that minor surgery would be required to remove it. “I’d like to try to get this done before the weather gets nice,” the patient, himself a physician, told Brauer, “so I can get back out into the sun.”Brauer, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Health, says he was stunned. (Atkins, 4/16)

Politico: McCarthy’s Pitch To Shrink Food Aid Drawing Skepticism From Fellow Republicans 
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s new debt limit negotiating proposal set to be unveiled Monday morning will include broad moves to restrict food assistance for millions of low-income Americans. His GOP colleagues in the Senate aren’t optimistic any of those measures will survive. McCarthy’s initial list calls for expanding the age bracket for people who must meet work requirements in order to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Food Assistance Program or SNAP, while closing what Republicans say are “loopholes” in existing restrictions, according to two people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. (Hill, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Iowa To Spend Millions Kicking Families Off Food Stamps. More States May Follow
Iowa’s food bank operators say any new restrictions on food stamps are likely to fuel a surge in demand. But they are not sure whether they can absorb it because they are still reeling from a decision last year to scale back SNAP benefits. (Swenson, 4/16)

SNAP news from Mississippi, New York, and Connecticut —

DeSoto County News: Mississippi Approved For D-SNAP Food Benefits For Tornado-Affected Communities  
Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) officials announced today that the agency will begin Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) operations in the following counties affected by the March 24-25 tornado: Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe, Montgomery, Panola, and Sharkey.  D-SNAP provides eligible households who do not currently receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits with help buying groceries due to lost income or damages following a disaster. (Bakken, 4/13)

WGRZ: SNAP recipients to get $2 for every $2 spent at participating farmers’ markets
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday that a new initiative is being launched that will double the buying power for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program at farmers' markets across New York State. According to the news release, the FreshConnect Fresh2You program will provide New Yorkers with a dollar-for-dollar match, that will give families in need the ability to purchase more healthy food, including produce, dairy, and meats. (Adams, 4/12)

NBC Connecticut: Food Pantries See Increased Need After Extra SNAP Benefits End 
After extra COVID SNAP benefits ended in February, it did not take long for food pantries in Connecticut to see more people in need of help. “It puts a lot of pressure on us, in a sense, because we know the need is so great. It motivates us," said Dina Sears-Graves, president and CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut. “We want to make sure that our people have food. No one should go hungry." (McGirl, 4/14)

On missing and stolen SNAP benefits —

11alive.Com: Missing SNAP Benefits Reported For Metro Atlanta Families 
Families across metro Atlanta are reporting they are going without food because of an issue with their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. (White, 4/14)

Click2Houston.com: ‘It’s Not Fair’: Several Families Say Their SNAP Benefits Are Being Electronically Stolen From Cards
More victims are speaking out claiming their SNAP benefits were electronically stolen, leaving them struggling to provide for their families. “It’s not fair to single parents who depend on those food stamps. It’s not fair,” one mother said. The Texas Health and Human Services, which regulates SNAP, says it has received 34 reports of benefit cards being skimmed so far this year compared to 108 reports in 2022.“It’s happening too much. They tell you it’s nothing they can do and it’s not fair,” another mother said. (Turner, 4/14)

The Baltimore Banner: Inside The Digital Black Market For SNAP Benefits
In the deepest corners of the internet, cybercriminals are trafficking welfare benefits on illicit marketplaces — stealing from the country’s most vulnerable. Thieves are targeting food assistance and other benefits programs fed by billions in additional federal funding with minimal security measures in place. They’re purchasing stolen benefits information online, printing the data onto cloned debit cards and cashing out, The Baltimore Banner found after analyzing dozens of online markets, obtaining state social welfare records and speaking to cyber security experts. (Smith, Thieme and Wintrode, 4/14)

Stat: Biden's HHS Will Hold On To Some Covid Emergency Powers 
Even though the Biden administration is ending its highest-profile Covid-19 emergency declaration next month, it’s still going to hold on to some pandemic-era powers. The Department of Health and Human Services gave governors a heads-up on Friday that it is planning to keep pharmacists’ ability to administer Covid-19 and flu vaccines past the end of the public health emergency. (Cohrs, 4/14)

More on the spread of covid —

The Washington Post: Covid Is Still A Leading Cause Of Death As The Virus Recedes
Federal health officials say that covid remains one of the leading causes of death in the United States, tied to about 250 deaths daily, on average, mostly among the old and immunocompromised. Few Americans are treating it as a leading killer, however — in part because they are not hearing about those numbers, don’t trust them or don’t see them as relevant to their own lives. (Diamond, 4/16)

CIDRAP: XBB.1.16 Picks Up Speed In US As WHO Experts Weigh COVID Vaccine Composition 
The Omicron XBB.1.16 SARS-CoV-2 subvariant fueling India's surge is gaining traction in the United States, but so far the nation isn't seeing increases in cases, deaths, or hospitalizations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest updates. (Schnirring, 4/14)

CIDRAP: Studies Show Real-World Usefulness Of Bivalent COVID Boosters
Authors writing this week in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet Infectious Diseases shared new evidence on the durability and efficacy of bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 boosters. The vaccines offer strong protection against hospitalization and death during the post-Omicron era, but protection wanes relatively quickly. (Soucheray, 4/14)

CIDRAP: In-Person School Reopenings Tied To Modest Rise In Community COVID Spread
A study of US counties suggests that communities with schools that switched from remote to in-person instruction in fall 2020 had slightly higher COVID-19 case rates 4 to 8 weeks later than those that remained virtual. The research was published today in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 4/14)

On bird flu —

The New York Times: Bird Flu Sample From Chilean Man Showed Some Signs Of Adaptation To Mammals 
A sample of avian influenza isolated from a Chilean man who fell ill last month contains two genetic mutations that are signs of adaptation to mammals, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. In experimental animal studies, the mutations, both of which are in what is known as the PB2 gene, have previously been shown to help the virus replicate better in mammalian cells. The risk to the public remains low, health officials said, and no additional human cases have been linked to the Chilean man, who remains hospitalized. (Anthes, 4/14)

Fierce Healthcare: 800,000 Nurses Say They Plan To Leave The Profession By 2027
Nearly 100,000 registered nurses were estimated to have left the field during the COVID-19 pandemic and almost 800,000 intend to follow them out by 2027, according to a survey analysis released Thursday by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). (Muoio, 4/14)

In other health care industry news —

Axios: Electronic Health Records Rule Sets Up "Bridge To Nowhere," Insurers Say
A Biden administration effort stemming from the 21st Century Cures Act to make health data sharing more transparent is facing pushback from health insurers. The rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology aims to get providers and payers to share patient health information in a more seamless way. (Dreher, 4/14)

Stat: UnitedHealth Says Medical Costs Aren’t Soaring. Reality Is Murkier
Executives at UnitedHealth Group hinted Friday that hospitalizations are not rising and that people are not racing to see their doctors. However, UnitedHealth’s own data, plus other outside estimates, indicate those medical costs are not exactly slowing down either. (Herman, 4/14)

Fierce Healthcare: Humana Puts $40M Toward Affordable Housing
Humana will invest $40 million in expanding affordable housing options, the company said Thursday. The new funding will bring Humana's total investment in affordable housing to $90 million, according to the announcement. The investments aim to address shortages of low-cost housing units in the communities that Humana serves. (Minemyer, 4/14)

Also —

Becker's Hospital Review: 15 Specialties, 4 Liver Transplants And 1 Life Saved: Inside A Rare Surgery At Children's Hospital Colorado
Every April, the healthcare industry recognizes National Donate Life Month, celebrating the field of organ transplantation and raising awareness about the need for more donors. This year's awareness month holds more meaning than ever for Children's Hospital Colorado, where a multidisciplinary team of experts from 15 different specialties and departments recently performed an exceedingly complex surgery to save one transplant patient's life. The 18-year-old patient, who lives in Montana, first underwent a liver transplant at the Aurora-based hospital about 10 years ago. (Bean, 4/14)

Stat: Free Uber Rides Helped Patients Keep Prenatal Appointments
For patients of the Community of Hope and Mary’s Center clinics in Washington, D.C., getting to their medical appointments can be a challenge — many live far from public transit or lack cars. If they’re pregnant, the fallout can be especially harmful if they miss prenatal doctor visits, risking the baby’s and mother’s health. That’s why ride-sharing company Uber, which has for years been searching for a viable way into the $4 trillion health care market, swooped in to offer hundreds of pregnant patients in D.C. free rides to appointments in 2021 and 2022. (Ravindranath, 4/17)

KFF Health News: People With Down Syndrome Are Living Longer, But The Health System Still Treats Many As Kids 
It took Samantha Lesmeister’s family four months to find a medical professional who could see that she was struggling with something more than her Down syndrome. The young woman, known as Sammee, had become unusually sad and lethargic after falling in the shower and hitting her head. She lost her limited ability to speak, stopped laughing, and no longer wanted to leave the house. General-practice doctors and a neurologist said such mental deterioration was typical for a person with Down syndrome entering adulthood, recalled her mother, Marilyn Lesmeister. They said nothing could be done. The family didn’t buy it. (Leys, 4/17)

Stat: In Areas With More Black Doctors, Black People Live Longer
Black people in counties with more Black primary care physicians live longer, according to a new national analysis that provides the strongest evidence yet that increasing the diversity of the medical workforce may be key to ending deeply entrenched racial health disparities. (McFarling, 4/14)

The New York Times: Black Pregnant Women Are Tested More Frequently For Drug Use, Study Suggests 
Hospitals are more likely to give drug tests to Black women delivering babies than white women, regardless of the mother’s history of substance use, suggests a new study of a health system in Pennsylvania. And such excessive testing was unwarranted, the study found: Black women were less likely than white women to test positive for drugs. (Rabin, 4/14)

North Carolina Health News: Black Maternal Health Conference Seeks Solutions
Everyone here knew the data: Black women are three times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than white women. And they knew the cause: hard-to-solve social and structural problems in health care. Their goal: Get to the source of the problem to help save the lives of Black mothers and their babies. As the United States marked Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17) this year, North Carolina advocates and health care professionals from across the state met in Colfax to discuss solutions. (Fernandez, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Why Black Men Face So Many Health Hurdles 
Social epidemiologist Roland Thorpe Jr. is on a double mission: to improve the health and extend the life expectancy of Black men, and to do the same for himself since both of his grandfathers died prematurely from heart disease. An expert in minority aging and men’s health, Thorpe is the principal investigator of the Black Men’s Health Project — a partnership of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and Michigan State University — created to call attention to the health crisis of Black men. (Petrow, 4/15)

The Washington Post: Genetic Prostate Cancer Risks Identified For Men Of African Descent
When it comes to prostate cancer, Black men face a grimmer picture than their White counterparts. They’re more likely to get and die of the disease. They also face longer delays between diagnosis and treatment. What’s behind the disparities? A recent study covering tens of thousands of men of African descent offers one answer — increased genetic risk, including some risk factors found only in men of African ancestry. (Blakemore, 4/16)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis County Hopes AI Will Reduce Wait Times For 911
The St. Louis County Police Department has tapped artificial intelligence technology to reduce 911 wait times for county residents. Dispatchers handle about 2,000 calls a day, split roughly 50/50 between 911 and nonemergency issues like how to get a copy of a police report. Priority always goes to 911 calls, Battles said, but once dispatchers get on a nonemergency call, they cannot switch if an emergency call comes in. (Lippmann, 4/17)

In updates on LGBTQ+ health care —

AP: Hospital Sues Missouri's Top Prosecutor Over Trans Care Data 
A Kansas City hospital is suing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey over what it calls his “burdensome” requests for records on gender-affirming care. In a lawsuit filed Friday in Jackson County, attorneys for Children’s Mercy Hospital asked a judge to deny Bailey’s 54 investigative demands for records and testimony despite the hospital facing no allegations of wrongdoing, The Kansas City Star reported. (4/15)

The Texas Tribune: Hundreds Protest At Texas Capitol Against Anti-LGBTQ Bills
Chants of “Protect trans kids” echoed across the Capitol as hundreds of LGBTQ Texans and their supporters gathered Saturday afternoon to express anger and fear over a slate of rapidly moving bills targeting queer people. The mid-April heat matched the anger many felt toward Republican lawmakers who seek to ban transgender students from playing college sports, queer youth from accessing transition-related health care and other efforts to restrict LGBTQ rights. (Melhado, 4/15)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Hundreds Rally In St. Louis For Transgender Rights, Against Missouri Restrictions
Hundreds gathered in downtown St. Louis over the weekend to protest a wave of legislation to curtail rights for transgender people, including new emergency rules in Missouri putting restrictions on gender-related care such as hormone therapies and surgeries. “Transition saved my life, and it saved the lives of a lot of trans people,” said Zora Williams, 41, of St. Louis, at a protest Sunday near the Old Courthouse that drew more than 200 people. “People deserve a right to this care.” (Gray and Benchaabane, 4/16)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

NPR: Residents Near Indiana Warehouse Fire May Have Asbestos On Their Property, EPA Says
Federal officials are telling people near the site of an Indiana warehouse fire that broke out last week not to touch any debris they find on their property since it may contain asbestos, a known carcinogen. "It is essential not to remove or disturb any debris believed to be from the fire as these materials may contain asbestos, a substance that releases microscopic fibers when disturbed," the Environmental Protection Agency said in a fact sheet for local residents posted on Sunday. (Hernandez, 4/16)

The Hill: New City Earns Title Of Nation’s Top City For Weed: Report 
Denver lost its place as the nation’s marijuana mecca, according to an analysis from Clever Real Estate. The new king of kush is Portland, Oregon. Oregon was two years behind Colorado in legalizing recreational cannabis. Washington and Colorado legalized it in 2012, while Alaska and Oregon legalized it in 2014. (Summers and Martichoux, 4/16)

KFF Health News: Journalists Track Opioid Settlement Cash And Fees For Telehealth Visits 
KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed the transparency — or lack thereof — and distribution of $50 billion in settlement funds from opioid manufacturers on WNHN’s “Attitude With Arnie Arnesen” on April 11. (4/15)

USA Today: Will AI Replace Doctors? How New Tech Could Harm Healthcare
Artificial intelligence can be a useful scientific tool, but it also could threaten a doctor’s essential role. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 4/17)

Bloomberg: How Artificial Intelligence Like ChatGPT Is Influencing Medical Diagnoses
AI may not care whether humans live or die, but tools like ChatGPT will still affect life-and-death decisions — once they become a standard tool in the hands of doctors. (Faye Flam, 4/15)

The New York Times: How Gay Men Saved Us From Monkeypox 
It was July of 2022, just last summer, and an outbreak of mpox — formerly known as monkeypox — was in full swing. From a handful of cases in a few cities in early May, the outbreak surged to more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries and territories just two months later. It was terrifying. (Ina Park and Dan Savage, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Chinese Lab Leak Mystery Remains Amid Reports Of Biosafety Problems 
More than three years into the coronavirus pandemic, the question has yet to be answered: How and why did it begin? (4/15)

Modern Healthcare: More Due Diligence Needed Before That Next Hospital Purchase
The immediate effects of a hospital closing: The hulking facility sits empty with little chance of being repurposed and workers lose their jobs. Patients, who frequently have transportation challenges, have one fewer place to receive care. There are other repercussions too, as reporters Kara Hartnett and Alex Kacik detail in their story this week, “What happens when a safety-net hospital closes?” (Mary Ellen Podmolik, 4/17)

The Star Tribune: We Must Retain Nurses To Protect Patient Care In Minnesota Hospitals
While other states may face nursing shortages, Minnesota is fortunate to have a surplus of registered nurses, with thousands more graduating every year. Last year the number of RNs rose by 4,000 to 122,000. But hospital CEOs created crisis conditions for patients and workers in our hospitals that are driving those nurses away faster than hospitals can hire them. (Mary C. Turner and Chris Rubesch, 4/16)

Miami Herald: Pass Florida Law On Medical Titles, Who Is A Doctor Or Nurse 
FGCU Professor Robert Bland was identified in writing and in a photograph as, “Dr.” without clearly labeling his degree as that of a non-physician, and the report quoted Bland as saying that, “nurse anesthesiology is basically the same as medical anesthesiology.” (Rebekah Bernard and Mitchell Zeitler, 4/14)