First Edition: May 24, 2023

KFF Health News: Domestic Violence Shelters Move Out Of Hiding 
Sara Young packed a bag of essentials, gathered her kids, and fled her home to a refuge: an old, green house that blended in with the neighborhood in this southwestern Montana city. Nothing about the house identified it as a domestic violence shelter — it was hidden in plain sight. Young wasn’t allowed to give anyone the address. The secrecy made her feel safe. But her roommate, a young mom, struggled to care for her baby without her family there to help. Some residents couldn’t get to work because they didn’t have a car. Several housemates tried to sneak out at night for a break from curfews, locked windows, and alarm systems. “We were there because we needed to be kept safe,” Young said. “For me, it was comfortable. For them, it felt like being in prison.” (Houghton, 5/24)

KFF Health News: As Water Levels Drop, The Risk Of Arsenic Poisoning Rises
When John Mestas’ ancestors moved to Colorado over 100 years ago to raise sheep in the San Luis Valley, they “hit paradise,” he said. “There was so much water, they thought it would never end,” Mestas said of the agricultural region at the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Now decades of climate change-driven drought, combined with the overpumping of aquifers, are making the valley desperately dry — and appear to be intensifying the levels of heavy metals in drinking water. (Bailey, 5/24)

KFF Health News: Abortion Bans Are Driving Off Doctors And Closing Clinics, Putting Basic Health Care At Risk
The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states. Doctors are showing — through their words and actions — that they are reluctant to practice in places where making the best decision for a patient could result in huge fines or even a prison sentence. And when clinics that provide abortions close their doors, all the other services offered there also shut down, including regular exams, breast cancer screenings, and contraception. (Rovner, 5/24)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’ 
This week’s KFF Health News Minute looks at the rising number of patients pushed to take out credit cards to pay off medical debt and the lack of schools specializing in behavioral needs. (5/18)

The New York Times: South Carolina Senate Passes 6-Week Abortion Ban
The South Carolina Senate passed a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy on Tuesday, after a filibuster led by five women senators, including three Republicans, failed to block it. The bill will drastically reduce access to abortion in a state that has become an unexpected destination for women seeking the procedure as almost every other Southern state has moved toward bans. The legislation now heads to Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican who has said he will sign it. Abortion-rights advocates said they would challenge the ban in court, where it would test a State Supreme Court ruling in January that struck down a previous six-week ban and found a right to abortion in the State Constitution. (Zernike and Sasani, 5/23)

Reuters: Abortion Pill Maker Seeks To Keep Challenge To W. Va. Abortion Ban Alive
Lawyers for abortion pill maker GenBioPro Inc on Tuesday urged a West Virginia federal judge to allow them to proceed with their challenge to the state's near-total abortion ban, claiming it is invalid because it interferes with the federal government's approval of mifepristone. (Wiessner, 5/23)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood To Cut Staff At National Level In Strategy Shift 
Planned Parenthood announced a major strategy shift Tuesday that would prioritize investments in local and state affiliates and result in a significant cut to the workforce at the national level. (Fortinsky, 5/23)

Politico: Court Sets Legal Showdown On Debt Limit 14th Amendment Argument 
A judge in Boston has ordered a hearing next week on one of the key arguments that President Joe Biden has the legal authority to ignore the debt limit statute and continue to pay the federal government’s bills. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns set a May 31 hearing on a lawsuit filed by a federal workers union contending that the 14th Amendment empowers Biden and other officials to sidestep the standoff with Congress that has threatened a potential default. (Gerstein, 5/23)

The New York Times: McCarthy Faces Balancing Act On Debt Ceiling Deal 
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is attempting a difficult balancing act as he tries to extract spending concessions from President Biden in exchange for raising the debt ceiling: cobbling together a deal that can win the votes of a majority of Republicans without alienating the critical mass of Democrats he would need to push it through the House. ... The political reality is weighing on both Republicans and Democrats in the debt-limit talks, which continued Tuesday on Capitol Hill with no sign of imminent resolution. (Edmondson and Broadwater, 5/23)

ABC News: Biden To Call For End To 'Epidemic' Of Gun Violence A Year After Uvalde Shooting 
President Joe Biden plans on Wednesday to call on Republicans in Congress to act to end the "epidemic" of gun violence in the United States, the White House said. (Haslett, Travers and Shalvey, 5/24)

The Washington Post: After Texas Mall Tragedy, One Survivor Begins Living With Bullet Wounds
Irvin Walker II, 46, doesn’t recall seeing the shooter approach his car as he looked for a space in the crowded outlet mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen. The next thing he remembers, though, were blasts from a gun. Shards of glass and a hail of bullets rained through his car window. The bullets hit him in the shoulder and chest, sending so many fragments into his body, face, neck, arm and one dangerously close to his heart that doctors say they can’t safely remove all of them. Still, he is alive. (Nevins, 5/23)

Reuters: Hollywood Needs To Depict Safer Gun Use In Film And TV - Study
Hollywood should portray safer use of guns in television and film at a time of rampant gun violence in the United States, USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center for Hollywood, Health and Society said in a report released on Tuesday. (Washington, 5/23)

The New York Times: Is Your Child’s Relationship To Social Media Unhealthy? Here’s How To Tell
Every parent who has watched their child robotically scroll through social media feeds bathed in blue light has wondered about the effects it may be having on their mental health. And in the past two weeks, both the United States surgeon general and the American Psychological Association have issued warnings about the risks of social media to young people. So what are parents supposed to do? “Families need to take this seriously,” said Dr. Gary Small, the chair of psychiatry at the Hackensack University Medical Center. (Pearson, 5/23)

The New York Times: A History Of U.S. Surgeon General Warnings: Smoking, TV, Safer Sex And More 
A warning issued by the United States surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, on Tuesday provided guidance about an issue that has been front of mind for American parents for years: the negative effects of social media on the mental health of young people. These types of public health advisories are infrequent, but sometimes become turning points in American life. (Tumin, 5/23)

CIDRAP: Youth—Especially Girls—Had More Psychiatric Diagnoses In First 2 Years Of COVID
Among about 1.7 million US youths, both girls and boys experienced increases in some common mental illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but girls were particularly affected, with more than a doubling of eating disorders among adolescent girls, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 5/23)

Bloomberg: Covid Kills One Every 4 Minutes As Vaccine Rates Fall, Despite End Of Emergency
After more than three years, the global Covid emergency is officially over. Yet it’s still killing at least one person every four minutes and questions on how to deal with the virus remain unanswered, putting vulnerable people and under-vaccinated countries at risk. (Fay Cortez, 5/23)

Boston Globe: Long Covid Could Transform Research On Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Veronica Dane had always been active, from playing soccer as a kid to working a demanding job as a critical care nurse. Until, one day, she just couldn’t do it anymore. She started eliminating activities and duties, whittling away the things that had once brought joy and a steady income but were now, instead, bringing unbearable physical pain. Even at home, she had to wear noise-canceling headphones to muffle the sound of her kids playing downstairs. (Gokee, 5/23)

Military.com: VA Can't Account For $187 Million In Emergency COVID-19 Funding
The Department of Veterans Affairs can’t account for at least $187 million in supplementary COVID-19 funding spread across more than 10,000 transactions related to the pandemic, according to a House oversight committee. Congress and the VA are at odds over the department's handling of nearly $37 billion in additional funding it received to address the COVID-19 pandemic, with House Veterans Affairs Committee leaders on both sides of the aisle critical of its failure to account for every dime. (Kime, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Baby-Formula Makers Face FTC Investigation For Collusion 
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether baby-formula makers colluded on bids for lucrative state contracts. The agency, in documents posted to its website, said it is looking into whether Abbott Laboratories and other formula manufacturers have “engaged in collusion or coordination with any other market participant regarding the bidding” for state contracts. The FTC is also investigating whether company coordination affected sales more broadly, outside of the Women, Infants and Children formula-supply program, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya wrote. (Whyte, Newman and Peterson, 5/24)

USA Today: Heart Transplant Achieves Record-Breaking 2,506-Mile Trip
Dr. Joseph Rubelowsky felt as if he had just robbed a bank. Still in his scrubs, he boarded the Falcon 900 jet, sat down and glanced over at the white cooling contraption that held the day’s loot. Strapped to the aircraft floor, it looked like a normal carry-on suitcase. But what the cooler carried was far from normal – and more precious than money or gold. It was a human heart. (Rodriguez, 5/23)

NBC News: U.S. Progress In HIV Fight Continues To Trail Many Other Rich Nations
In a new HIV surveillance report published Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that new HIV transmissions declined by 12% nationally between 2017 and 2021, from 36,500 to 32,100 cases. (Ryan, 5/23)

CIDRAP: Study: HPV Does Not Often Transmit To Babies During Pregnancy 
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States, but there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate if the virus can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy. A study in JAMA Pediatrics offers new data showing that, although common in pregnancy, HPV infrequently transmits to newborns and does not persist into infancy. And another new study highlights why some parents avoid the vaccine for their children. (soucheray, 5/23)

AP: Medicaid Plans To Audit The Prices Of Costliest Drugs
The Biden administration said Tuesday it is planning to conduct a yearly audit to verify the prices drug makers charge on a handful of the costliest prescriptions covered by Medicaid. Under the proposal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would require as many as 10 drug makers every year to furnish the government with proprietary and non-proprietary information as evidence to support the price it charges states, which administer Medicaid. Drugs that cost Medicaid the most money — some as much as $2 million per treatment — will be selected for the survey. (Seitz, 5/23)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Price Transparency Proposal Targets PBMs
Under an upcoming proposed rule, PBMs that contract with Medicaid would have to reveal the prices they pay for medicines, a provision that seeks to curb spread pricing, a practice in which PBMs charge insurance companies, employers or government programs more for medicines than it actually pays. If finalized, this would be the first time that PBMs are required to disclose actual drug prices under federal law. The regulation also would make specialty drugs administered in hospitals eligible for rebates. (Turner, 5/23)

Modern Healthcare: How Retail Became Healthcare’s Biggest Disruptor
Mega-retailers are stepping in to improve the way healthcare is delivered, disrupting a status-quo industry that has been slow to change. Retailers ranging from drugstore chains to discount superstores are looking to take market share from traditional hospitals and health systems by stressing a more customer-centric focus. In many markets, the plan is working as consumers turn toward new care models. (Hudson, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Your Company Doesn’t Want You To Take Ozempic For Weight Loss. Here’s Why. 
Many Americans seeking out drugs like Ozempic to shed pounds are hitting a barrier: Their employers’ health plans won’t pay for them.  The issue is an emerging fault line in U.S. workplaces, driven by the social-media and celebrity buzz around Ozempic and its sister drug, Wegovy. Prescriptions for the treatments have soared so much that the drugs’ maker has often struggled to keep pace with demand. Yet companies, already facing rising healthcare costs, are wary of footing the bill for medicines that list for $900 or more a month. (Mathews and Smith, 5/22)

AP: Governor's New Stance Revives New Hampshire Marijuana Effort
Gov. Chris Sununu’s recent shift to support marijuana legalization has inspired a last-minute push for new legislation. Though several bipartisan bills in support of legalizing recreational marijuana have cleared the House in recent years, Sununu opposed them and they ultimately failed in the Senate. But after the latest defeat earlier this month, Sununu announced that he would back legalization if lawmakers took a different approach. (Ramer, 5/23)

Axios: New Orleans Aims To Wipe Out $130M In Medical Debt Through New Program 
New Orleans is partnering with a nonprofit organization to wipe out millions in medical debt for eligible residents. Americans owe debt collectors more medical debt than any other kind, Axios' Tina Reed reports. Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy and can have detrimental impacts on patients' health — with its burden resulting in emotional and even physical harm. (Wells, 5/23)

The New York Times: Phoenix Blackout In Heat Wave Would Overwhelm Hospitals, Study Warns 
If a multiday blackout in Phoenix coincided with a heat wave, nearly half the population would require emergency department care for heat stroke or other heat-related illnesses, a new study suggests. (Levenson, 5/23)

The Hill: ‘Am I Gay?’-Related Google Searches Soar 1,300 Percent In 19 Years: Analysis 
Google searches related to personal sexual orientation and gender identity have skyrocketed since 2004, according to new research.  The Cultural Currents Institute released an analysis that explored Google searches from 2004 to this month that included searches for questions such as “am I gay”, “am I lesbian”, “am I trans” and “how to come out”, as well as searches for “nonbinary.” The new analysis found that searches for these phrases jumped by more than 1,300 percent during that period. (Sforza, 5/23)

CBS News: CDC Investigates Six-State Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Papa Murphy's Cookie Dough
A six-state salmonella outbreak has been linked to Papa Murphy's cookie dough, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday. At least 18 illnesses have been reported, with two hospitalizations, the CDC said. Six of the cases are in Washington state, with four each in Oregon and Idaho. The sickened patients ranged in age from 14 to 68. No deaths have been linked to eating the cookie dough. (Chasan, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Rick Hoyt, Famed Boston Marathon Wheelchair Racer With Father, Dies At 61 
Over nearly four decades, Mr. Hoyt and his father, Dick Hoyt, became celebrated fixtures of the Boston Marathon — with a bronze statue of the duo known Team Hoyt dedicated in 2013 near the marathon’s starting point where they first set off in 1980. ... A family statement said Mr. Hoyt died of respiratory complications. His father died of heart-related problems in 2021. (Murphy, 4/23)