First Edition: April 21, 2023

KFF Health News: The Biden Administration Vowed To Be A Leading Voice On Opioid Settlements But Has Gone Quiet
Early in President Joe Biden’s tenure, his administration promised to play a key role in ensuring opioid settlement funds went toward tackling the nation’s addiction crisis. During the 2020 campaign, Biden had laid out a plan to appoint an “opioid crisis accountability coordinator” to support states in their lawsuits against companies accused of sparking the overdose epidemic. The following year, the White House convened a meeting about the soon-to-be finalized settlements, noted that the money could support drug policy priorities, and helped create a model law that states could adopt in anticipation of receiving funds. (Pattani, 4/21)

KFF Health News: Tension Builds In Transgender Policy Debate In Montana
On April 13, Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr was sitting in the basement of Montana’s Capitol building reflecting on her time as one of the state’s first two openly transgender legislators. She wondered whether she needed to display more anger over anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, or whether she should focus on promoting more of what she called “transgender joy.” “The thing that keeps me up at night is, am I doing a good job for my community?” Zephyr said. (Larson, 4/21)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Will They Or Won’t They (Block The Abortion Pill)? 
Supreme Court justices could act at any moment on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Beyond reproductive health, their ruling could carry significant implications for states’ rights and FDA independence and integrity. For now, though, observers are unsure what the court will do — or what exactly prompted justices to again delay their decision this week. (4/20)

AP: Supreme Court Set To Decide On Access To Abortion Pill
The Supreme Court is facing a self-imposed Friday night deadline to decide whether women’s access to a widely used abortion pill will stay unchanged or be restricted while a legal challenge to its Food and Drug Administration approval goes on. The justices are weighing arguments that allowing restrictions contained in lower-court rulings to take effect would severely disrupt the availability of the drug, mifepristone, which is used in the most common abortion method in the United States. (Sherman, 4/21)

AP: Oregon Secures 3-Year Supply Of Abortion-Inducing Medication 
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said Thursday she has directed the state to obtain a supply of the most commonly used abortion medication in the U.S. amid fears that a court ruling could restrict access to it. The Democratic governor said regardless of the court’s decision about mifepristone’s availability, patients in Oregon will have access to it for years. (4/21)

NBC News: European Group That Mails Abortion Pills To Americans Says Requests Have Surged
A group in Europe that prescribes abortion pills to people in the U.S. online said it has seen a surge in requests since a federal judge in Texas issued a decision imperiling future access to mifepristone. "We have seen an enormous ... increase in requests since the ruling in Texas," said Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician who runs the service called Aid Access. "People are extremely anxious." (Da Silva, 4/20)

AP: Wyoming Abortion Clinic Opens Despite Arson, Legal Obstacles
Wyoming’s first full-service abortion clinic in years defiantly opened Thursday nearly one year after an arson attack ravaged it and despite looming laws that could shut it down with some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the U.S. The clinic in a small stucco building on a busy street in Wyoming’s second-biggest city of Casper is less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Interstate 25, where the occasional anti-abortion billboard stands against the open, sparsely populated landscape. (Gruver, /20)

The Hill: Pence: ‘I Fully Support Efforts To Take The Abortion Pill Off The Market’ 
Former Vice President Mike Pence says he “fully” supports efforts to take mifepristone, one of two drugs used for medication abortions, off the market. “The reality is that 20 years ago, the [Food and Drug Administration] exceeded its authority in approving the abortion pill,” Pence said Wednesday in an interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles during a visit to the Nixon Presidential Library. “And at the end of the day, I fully support efforts to take the abortion pill off the market.” (Shapero, 4/20)

The Hill: Leading Anti-Abortion Group Calls Trump’s Position Unacceptable
A leading anti-abortion group on Thursday called it “morally indefensible” of former President Trump to say the issue should be decided at the state level and warned it would not support a GOP presidential candidate who did not back at least a 15-week abortion ban. SBA Pro-Life America, an influential conservative organization, pushed back after the Trump campaign told The Washington Post that the former president “believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level.” (Samuels, 4/20)

Politico: Lost On Abortion Politics, Republicans Struggle For A Solution
The GOP is so divided over abortion politics that even top Mitch McConnell allies — who could succeed him as Senate leader — have opposing ideas on how to approach it. Minority Whip John Thune sees a 15-week national abortion ban as something Republicans can defend amidst Democratic attacks. Another possible GOP leader, John Cornyn of Texas, doesn’t see a need for Congress to weigh in on abortion policy in a post-Roe world. And GOP No. 3 John Barrasso said simply that “states ought to make the decision.” (Everett, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Experts Slam Plan To Sell Overdose Antidote Narcan At About $50 A Kit
But advocates have long worried that the price of Narcan — a 4-milligram spray version of the liquid drug naloxone that comes two to a kit — might be a barrier for those who need it the most. “It’s still too expensive for pretty much everyone I’ve ever provided it to — mainly teens and people experiencing homelessness,” said Chelsea Shover, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA. “That price point is probably fine for many businesses or organizations who want or have to have a Narcan kit or two publicly available.” (Ovalle, 4/20)

NBC News: Over-The-Counter Narcan To Cost Less Than $50 For A Two-Pack, Company Says
When Narcan finally becomes available over the counter later this year, the price may put the lifesaving antidote out of reach for many people, experts say. Emergent BioSolutions said Thursday that it plans to price the opioid overdose reversal medication at less than $50 for two doses. (Lovelace Jr., 4/20)

Stat: Key Senators Pivot On Bipartisan Insulin Cost Proposal 
Amid a scramble to assemble a health care policy package in the Senate, a pair of key senators have significantly changed a proposal to cap insulin costs. The new legislation by Senate Diabetes Caucus co-chairs Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) would cap insured patients’ insulin costs at $35 per month for at least one insulin of each type and dosage form, and require pharmacy benefit managers to pass through rebates they collect from insulin manufacturers to the insurance plans that employ them. (Cohrs, 4/21)

Reuters: Factbox: What's In Republican McCarthy's Debt-Limit Spending Cut Package? 
Childless adults up to 56 who get health insurance through Medicaid, which covers low-income people, would have to work at least 80 hours a month or participate in job training or community service. Likewise, childless adults up to 56 years old who receive food assistance through the SNAP program would lose benefits after three months if they could not prove they were working at least 20 hours a week or participating in a job training program. Those work requirements currently apply to those up to 50 years old. (4/20)

Modern Healthcare: States Fighting Scammers As Medicaid Redeterminations Resume
Fraudsters are seizing on the Medicaid redeterminations process to trick one of the most vulnerable populations into paying to keep their health benefits. States paused the process of removing ineligible people from their Medicaid rolls in exchange for increased federal funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading Medicaid enrollment to swell to a record 97 million beneficiaries, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Congress authorized states to begin removing people from Medicaid in April and gave states 14 months to complete the process. (Tepper, 4/20)

Politico: House Republicans Pass Bill Restricting Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports 
House Republicans approved their measure to restrict transgender students from playing on women’s sports teams on a 219-203 vote Thursday morning. ... The bill has no chance of becoming law as it is likely to stall in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and President Joe Biden has already announced that he would veto the bill if it were to reach his desk. (Quilantan, 4/20)

AP: North Dakota Lawmakers Fail To Override Veto Of Controversial Personal Pronouns Bill
Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators. House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto, days after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it. (Ahmed, 4/20)

Reuters: Tennessee Is Sued Over Ban On Healthcare For Transgender Youth
Advocacy groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to strike down a new Tennessee law that bans doctors from providing gender-affirming medical treatment such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery to transgender minors. The American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ group Lambda Legal in a lawsuit filed in Nashville, Tennessee federal court say the law, which takes effect July 1, unlawfully discriminates against transgender people based on their sex. (Wiessner, 4/20)

The Hill: 1 In 3 US Households Utilized Biden Administration’s Free At-Home COVID Tests: CDC
Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. households used free at-home COVID-19 tests provided by the Biden administration, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday. The report found that 32.1 percent of households surveyed between April and May 2022 had used the government test kits. Just under 60 percent of households ordered the tests and about 94 percent were aware of the program, according to the CDC. (Shapero, 4/20)

The New York Times: British Man Died Of Rare Blood Syndrome Linked To AstraZeneca’s Vaccine 
A 32-year-old psychologist in Britain developed blood clots and died 10 days after he took his first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, a report released by a London coroner on Wednesday found, in a highly rare case of a fatal reaction to the vaccine. The inquest, which was requested by Charlotte Wright, the widow of Dr. Stephen Wright, found that he died on Jan. 26, 2021, as a result of “unintended consequences of vaccination.” Ms. Wright is suing AstraZeneca. (Levenson, 4/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Outbreak Hits Large Bay Area Hospital, Prompting New Mask Rule
Physicians and staff at one of the Bay Area's largest hospitals are required to mask up again following a sizable COVID-19 outbreak. Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center has reinstated a temporary mask mandate after more than a dozen hospital workers and patients at the medical center tested positive for the coronavirus this week, officials confirmed. (Vaziri, 4/20)

Stat: The NIH Poured $1 Billion Into Long Covid Research, With Little To Show For It
The federal government has burned through more than $1 billion to study long Covid, an effort to help the millions of Americans who experience brain fog, fatigue, and other symptoms after recovering from a coronavirus infection. There’s basically nothing to show for it. (Cohrs and Ladyzhets, 4/20)

Reuters: WHO Launches MRNA Vaccine Hub In Cape Town 
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday officially launched its mRNA vaccine technology hub in Cape Town, a facility established during the COVID-19 pandemic to help poorer countries struggling to gain access to life-saving medication. (Roelf, 4/20)

AP: Racial Gap In US Stroke Deaths Widened During Pandemic 
The longstanding racial gap in U.S. stroke death rates widened dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, government researchers said Thursday. Stroke death rates increased for both Black and white adults in 2020 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. But the difference between the two groups grew about 22%, compared with the five years before the pandemic. (Stobbe, 4/20)

Military.Com: Defense Department Sticking With TriWest To Run Tricare West Region
The Department of Defense has upheld its $65.1 billion decision to award the next generation contract to manage Tricare's West Region to TriWest, a ruling that will affect more than a million patients in the DoD health system. The company that currently has the contract for that segment of the Tricare system and lost out to TriWest, Health Net Federal Services, had filed a protest to stop the deal. (Kime, 4/20)

Los Angeles Times: Beverly Hospital In Montebello Files For Bankruptcy
Beverly Hospital filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, a step that hospital officials said was needed to avoid the closure of the Montebello facility. Hospital officials said their goal is to find a buyer to keep the hospital open and maintain crucial services for residents in Montebello and nearby communities, including El Monte, Whittier and East Los Angeles. They laid the blame for their financial plight on surging costs that they said had outpaced government reimbursements to care for low-income patients. (Alpert Reyes, 4/20)

Stat: HCA, Louisiana Hospital System Sue FTC Over Review Of Hospital Deal
HCA Healthcare and LCMC Health each sued the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice on Wednesday, saying antitrust enforcers at the federal agencies are illegally trying to halt their recently closed hospital deal — and threatening the hospital systems with millions of dollars in penalties. (Herman, 4/20)

Reuters: Hospital Operators' Outlook In Focus On Medicaid Concerns 
U.S. hospital operators are expected to report strong revenue for the first quarter, while investors will also focus on results for cues on the impact to future earnings following an end to COVID-related insurance protection. Beginning April 1, states were allowed to begin the process of re-determining if people qualify for Medicaid, the government-backed health insurance plans for low-income people, which was previously not allowed during the pandemic. (Mandowara, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Va. Nonprofit Sues For Irvo Otieno Hospital Records In Death Probe 
A nonprofit designated by law in Virginia to advocate for the mentally ill has launched an investigation into the death of Irvo Otieno at the hands of law enforcement officers and other state workers last month — but the inquiry is being stonewalled by the private hospital where police first took him, the nonprofit alleged in a lawsuit filed in federal court this week. Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, was in handcuffs and leg restraints when Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and workers at Virginia’s Central State Hospital piled on him for 11 minutes, leading to his death by suffocation on March 6, according to surveillance video and the medical examiner. (Rizzo, 4/20)

Modern Healthcare: HHS, CMS Unveil Hospice, Home Health Ownership Database
The Health and Human Services Department is taking another step to increase transparency in healthcare, this time by making it easier to determine the ownership of Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies. (Berryman, 4/20)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Healthcare Adds AI Voice Dictation From Nuance Competitor Augmedix
Hospital giant HCA Healthcare is deploying artificial intelligence-enabled medical dictation software in a partnership with healthcare tech company Augmedix, the two organizations said Thursday. The Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare will add dictation software for its acute care clinicians. The AI solution will convert clinician-patient conversations into medical notes that physicians and nurses can review before they’re transferred in real time to the electronic health record system. (Tepper, 4/20)

The Washington Post: U.S. News Delays Law And Med School Rankings Amid Data Questions 
U.S. News & World Report, already under scrutiny for the way it ranks some college programs, is delaying the release of its influential annual list of top law schools and medical schools as it answers “an unprecedented number of inquiries” from schools about the data. The news outlet did not give a new publication date, but said the lists would not be released until work to address the questions has been completed. “We take our role as a journalism enterprise very seriously and are working as quickly as possible to produce the best information available for students,” the company said in a statement. (Svrluga, 4/20)

Modern Healthcare: Express Scripts To Increase Pay For Independent Rural Pharmacies
Express Scripts will increase reimbursement for independent rural pharmacies, whose ranks have continued to dwindle over the past decade. Express Scripts, the pharmacy benefit manager of insurer Cigna, plans to pay rural pharmacies that aren’t affiliated with a drug wholesaler more, as well as increase outcome-based reimbursement, such as metrics related to drug adherence. (Kacik, 4/20)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Ban On Assault Weapons Fails
A bill that would have banned the sale or transfer of so-called assault weapons in Colorado narrowly failed in a Democratic-majority state House committee early Thursday, even after the sponsor of the measure proposed a much narrower prohibition on devices that make semi-automatic weapons fire at a rate similar to automatic firearms. (Wenzler and Paul, 4/20)

AP: Wisconsin GOP Lawmakers Working On Medical Pot Legalization
After years of opposition to any form of marijuana legalization in Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are now working privately to build support for a medical cannabis program that could win bipartisan backing and be enacted into law later this year, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told The Associated Press on Thursday. (Bauer, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Youngkin Names Southwest Virginia OB/GYN As Health Commissioner
Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday named a longtime obstetrician and gynecologist from Southwest Virginia as the state’s next health commissioner, signaling the public health agency will prioritize caring for women and children and tackling the opioid crisis as the state exits the coronavirus pandemic. (Portnoy, 4/20)

The 19th: Texas Newborn Taken From Parents Is Returned By Child Protective Services
A Dallas-area newborn [was] returned to her parents on Thursday, 23 days after she was taken by Child Protective Services in a case that drew national media attention and sparked conversations about the disproportionate impact of the child welfare system on Black families and the long history of medical bias against Black midwives. CPS took Mila Jackson from her home on March 28 after her parents chose to work with their licensed midwife to treat a common infant condition rather than following a directive from their pediatrician to take her to the hospital. (Norwood, 4/20)

Roll Call: Ageism, Stigma Hinders Response To Senior Alcohol Use Disorder 
Older adults are increasingly drinking excessively and dying of alcohol-related deaths, and the problem has been compounded by ageism, stigma, a lack of interest from policymakers and health care providers and few age-appropriate treatment options, experts say. (Hellmann, 4/20)

USA Today: Soda, Lemonade Linked To Premature Death In People With Diabetes
Americans may want to think twice about reaching for that cool glass of lemonade this summer after a study published this week found sugary drinks may be linked to an increased risk of heart disease and death in certain people. (Rodriguez, 4/21)

The Washington Post: Weed Doesn't Have An Impact On Creativity, New Study Shows 
New research suggests that cannabis may not be a gateway drug to creativity after all. “Almost everyone thinks that cannabis makes them more creative. And it seems like that assumption is not supported by the data,” said Christopher Barnes, professor of organizational behavior at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business and an author of the study. (Sima, 4/20)

The Washington Post: EPA Proposes To Ban Most Uses Of Methylene Chloride, A Toxic Solvent
The Biden administration is proposing a widespread ban on a toxic chemical used in paint strippers that has been linked to dozens of accidental deaths, the first of several long-awaited moves planned for this year to bolster the country’s chemical-safety rules. The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday its plan would ban methylene chloride for all consumer use and most industrial and commercial uses. EPA officials say that would go much further than past efforts, though it falls short of a total ban some health groups have called for in the past. (Puko, 4/20)

Fox News: Love That ‘New Car Smell’? Study Says There Are Cancer-Causing Chemicals To Consider
There's just nothing like that "new car smell," many people believe. There is a health angle to consider, though. A recent study by the Beijing Institute of Technology and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, found that the cabin of a new vehicle contained 20 common "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs), which could potentially contain cancer-causing agents. (Rudy, 4/20)

USA Today: Why Does Hair Turn Gray? Research Points To Stem Cells Getting Stuck
What's new about this research, the NYU team said, is that as hair ages, sheds and grows back, melanocyte stem cells get stuck in a part of the hair follicle called the hair follicle bulge. Once stuck inside the hair follicle bulge, the stem cells can't age or move, preventing them from getting that signal to mature and create pigment. "We think that may be an additional mechanism to cause hair graying in life," said lead researcher Qi Sun. (Martin, 4/20)