AP: Prostate Cancer Treatment Can Wait For Most Men, Study Finds
Researchers have found long-term evidence that actively monitoring localized prostate cancer is a safe alternative to immediate surgery or radiation. The results, released Saturday, are encouraging for men who want to avoid treatment-related sexual and incontinence problems, said Dr. Stacy Loeb, a prostate cancer specialist at NYU Langone Health who was not involved in the research. The study directly compared the three approaches — surgery to remove tumors, radiation treatment and monitoring. Most prostate cancer grows slowly, so it takes many years to look at the disease’s outcomes. (Johnson, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Prostate Cancer Study Shows Some Men Can Avoid, Delay Aggressive Treatments
More aggressive treatment helped slow progression of the disease, but did not lower the men’s overall risk of dying of the disease. The authors say this finding suggests that “more aggressive therapy can result in more harm than good” — because the side effects of those treatments can be debilitating to patients, and may not pay off in the end. (Timsit, 3/12)

In other news about cancer —

The Boston Globe: A Deadly Cancer You Probably Haven’t Heard Of Is Becoming More Common. But A Pioneering HIV Activist Is Hoping To Change That. 
Even before he was infected with HIV in 1985, Stewart Landers had become a warrior for AIDS patients at a time when the medical establishment was confounded by the mysterious disease. ... Now, 38 years after his HIV diagnosis, Landers has again been stricken with a disease that is little known, even in the medical establishment. But this time, he is taking his plight public. The 66-year-old health consultant has Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare skin cancer that is becoming more common in the US and is about five times more lethal than the better-known skin cancer, melanoma. (Lazar, 3/11)

Good Morning America: How Artificial Intelligence Is Being Used To Detect Breast Cancer
As the era of artificial intelligence, or AI, continues to expand, the groundbreaking technology is now being used as a tool to detect breast cancer. More and more breast imaging centers across the country are now using a type of AI called computer-assisted detection, or CAD, to help reduce the number of breast cancer cases that are missed by the traditional mammogram. One major study estimates that mammogram screenings miss about 1 in 8 cases of breast cancer. (3/10)

The New York Times: Cancer Can Upend Your Sex Life. Here’s How To Get Help.
Over the past decade, and particularly in the last few years, there has been a marked increase in studies on how cancer upends women’s sex lives, during treatment and after. ... And yet, some of that very same research — combined with stories from patients, advocates and doctors — suggests that the increase in scientific interest has not made much of a practical difference for women. (Pearson, 3/10)

AP: Jill Biden Promotes Cancer Research In New Orleans 
First lady Jill Biden visited a medical center in New Orleans on Friday to stress the importance of cancer research, a priority in the budget proposal President Joe Biden sent to Congress. The Democratic president’s overall budget plan has been roundly criticized by Republicans and won’t make it through Congress intact. But Biden is hoping the fight against cancer will find bipartisan support. ... “Cancer doesn’t care who you vote for,” she told state and city leaders, doctors and researchers gathered for her visit. (McGill, 3/10)

Can artificial turf cause cancer? —

The Guardian: Artificial Turf Potentially Linked To Cancer Deaths Of Six Phillies Ball Players – Report
A report on a possible link between a rare brain cancer that killed six professional US baseball players and toxic chemicals in artificial turf is raising a new round of questions over whether synthetic sports fields pose a health threat to athletes and others who use them. The six athletes, who all died from glioblastoma, played most of their careers with the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that for decades competed on artificial turf in Veterans Stadium, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. (Perkins, 3/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Six Former Phillies Died From Brain Cancer. We Tested Vet Turf And Found PFAS, Or 'Forever Chemicals'
In all, six former Phillies have reportedly been felled by glioblastoma — a particularly aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer. The rate of brain cancer among Phillies who played at the Vet between 1971 and 2003 is about three times the average rate among adult men. (Laker and Gambacorta, 3/7)

NBC News: SIDS Rose For Black Infants During Early Pandemic And The Cause Is Unknown, CDC Finds
Despite a record low infant mortality rate in 2020, a new study finds an unexpected jump in unexplained deaths in Black infants during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The rate of SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, increased by 15% in a single year, from 33.3 deaths per 100,000 babies born in 2019 to 38.2 such deaths in 2020, according to the research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics. (Edwards, 3/13)

The Washington Post: Rise In Infant Deaths Hit Black Families Hardest, Study Finds 
The study found that rising SIDS rates in 2020 was likely attributable to diagnostic shifting — or reclassifying the cause of death. The causes of the rise in sleep-related deaths of Black infants remain unclear but it coincided with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, which disproportionately affected the health and wealth of Black communities. ... The study’s authors, who call for further research into their findings, point out that the pandemic exacerbated overcrowded housing, food insecurity and other stressors, particularly among Black families — potentially leading to less safe sleeping practices, such as bed sharing. (Sellers, 3/13)

CNN: Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths Surged Among Black Babies In 2020
About 1 out of every 6 infant deaths were considered sudden unexpected infant deaths, or SUIDs, a broad classification of deaths that includes sudden infant death syndrome, known as SIDS, along with accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed and other unknown causes. While the SUID rate for White babies dropped to the lowest it has been since 2017, the rate for Black babies in 2020 was the highest it has been since then. Rates that were already about two times higher for Black babies in 2017 grew to nearly three times higher in 2020, the study found. (McPhillips, 3/13)

Reuters: Economists Warn Of Costs If Medicare Covers New Obesity Drugs 
The cost of expanding U.S. Medicare prescription drug coverage to pay for expensive, new obesity medications could be catastrophic, health economists warned in a report published on Saturday. (Lapid, 3/11)

Stat: New Weight Loss Drugs Could Strain Medicare, Policy Experts Warn
Even a small amount of uptake would create significant costs for Medicare, likely leading the federal insurer to raise premiums in the long run, the researchers said in a perspective piece Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The chronic medications may also have fewer benefits and more risks for older people — the population that Medicare serves, they wrote. (Chen, 3/11)

On Medicare Advantage —

Stat: How Medicare Advantage Plans Use AI To Cut Off Care For Seniors
An algorithm, not a doctor, predicted a rapid recovery for Frances Walter, an 85-year-old Wisconsin woman with a shattered left shoulder and an allergy to pain medicine. In 16.6 days, it estimated, she would be ready to leave her nursing home. On the 17th day, her Medicare Advantage insurer, Security Health Plan, followed the algorithm and cut off payment for her care, concluding she was ready to return to the apartment where she lived alone. Meanwhile, medical notes in June 2019 showed Walter’s pain was maxing out the scales and that she could not dress herself, go to the bathroom, or even push a walker without help. (Ross and Herman, 3/13)

Stat: A Medicare Advantage Business Is Strangling One Of Its First Funders
When NaviHealth began building a business around using algorithms to scrutinize the care of older patients a decade ago, one of the country’s largest chains of inpatient rehab and long-term care hospitals was among the first to invest. Select Medical cut a check of about $5 million — a rounding error for a conglomerate that generates more than $6 billion of revenue every year. Now, years after exiting its investment, Select Medical is publicly bashing the company it once backed. (Herman and Ross, 3/13)

On President Joe Biden's budget proposal —

KHN: Biden Budget Touches All The Bases
President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget proposal includes new policies and funding boosts for many of the Democratic Party’s important constituencies, including advocates for people with disabilities and reproductive rights. It also proposes ways to shore up Medicare’s dwindling Hospital Insurance Trust Fund without cutting benefits, basically daring Republicans to match him on the politically potent issue. (3/10)

NPR: What President Biden And Republicans Are Saying About Funding Medicare 
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Kaiser Health News correspondent Julie Rovner about the politics of Medicare ahead of debt ceiling talks in Washington. (3/12)

In Medicaid news —

Modern Healthcare: Health Industry Groups To Assist Medicaid Enrollees Losing Coverage
A coalition of healthcare organizations, led by the health insurance group AHIP, has come together to create a "one-stop shop" to assist millions of Americans facing disenrollment from Medicaid when states review their benefit rolls in the coming months. The Connecting to Coverage Coalition consists of 16 associations representing health insurance companies, providers and patients, including the Federation of American Hospitals, the American Health Care Association, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, AHIP announced Thursday. (Turner, 3/10)

The Washington Post: In An Unusual Move, Judge Delays Public Notice Of Abortion-Pill Hearing
The Texas judge who could undo government approval of a key abortion drug has scheduled the first hearing in the case for Wednesday but took unusual steps to keep it from being publicized, according to people familiar with the plans. The hearing will be an opportunity for lawyers for the Justice Department, the company that makes the drug and the conservative group that is challenging it to argue their positions before U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. After they do, the judge could rule at any time, potentially upending access to medication abortions across the country. (Stein, Marimow and Kitchener, 3/12)

The New York Times: Judge In Abortion Pill Case Set Hearing But Sought To Delay Telling The Public 
Judge Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v. Wade and previously worked for a Christian conservative legal organization, told lawyers in a conference call Friday that he did not want the March 15 hearing to be “disrupted,” and that he wanted all parties involved to share their points in an orderly fashion, according to people familiar with the discussion. The judge also said that court staff had faced security issues, including death threats, and that the measure was intended to keep the court proceedings safe. (Benner and Belluck, 3/12)

Other abortion news from Texas, Maryland, Florida, and North Carolina —

The Texas Tribune: Three Texas Women Are Sued For Wrongful Death After Assisting With Abortion
A Texas man is suing three women under the wrongful death statute, alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in terminating her pregnancy, the first such case brought since the state’s near-total ban on abortion last summer. Marcus Silva is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general and architect of the state’s prohibition on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. (Klibanoff, 3/10)

AP: Maryland House OKs Abortion Rights Constitutional Amendment 
The Maryland House voted Friday to enshrine the right to abortion in the state Constitution, one of several steps lawmakers are taking this legislative session to protect abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. The House voted 99-37 for the constitutional amendment, which also is advancing in the state Senate. If the measure passes the General Assembly, voters would have a chance to approve it in November 2024. (White, 3/10)

Politico: Republicans Look To End Florida’s Abortion-Haven Legacy 
Thousands of people have traveled to Florida from as far away as Texas to end their pregnancies since the Supreme Court dismantled Roe v. Wade in June — and Republicans want to put a stop to it. Florida Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the Legislature, proposed a ban last week on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — or two weeks after someone misses their period — and with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support, passage is almost guaranteed. (Sarkissian, 3/12)

AP: Florida Abortion Ban Could Have Impact Beyond The State
With bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy in nearby Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi and a ban on terminating pregnancies in Georgia after cardiac activity can be detected — around six weeks - Florida has become a haven for people in the region seeking abortions. A ban at the gestational age of six weeks would mean fewer women traveling to Florida for abortions and more looking at going even further away, to places including North Carolina and Illinois. ... There would also be an impact for Florida residents. Nationally, only about 4% of abortions occur after the 15-week mark, but most of them happen after 6 weeks and 6 days. (Mulvihill and Izaguirre, 3/10)

CNBC: Abortion Pill: North Carolina Lawmakers Intervene To Defend Restrictions
A federal judge on Friday allowed North Carolina lawmakers to defend restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, after the state attorney general declined to do so. (Kimball, 3/10)

Also —

The Texas Tribune: Glenn Beck Buys Roe V. Wade Attorney Linda Coffee’s Archive
Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck has acquired the archives of Linda Coffee, the last living member of the legal team that argued Roe v. Wade. “Roe vs. Wade is history, and now that history is in the hands of a pro-life conservative,” Beck said on his radio show Thursday. Coffee, 80, put the archive up for auction through an independent auction house earlier this year, with a starting bid of $50,000. There were 14 bids, the auction house’s website said. Beck won with a bid of more than $600,000. (Klibanoff, 3/10)

Modern Healthcare: Silicon Valley Bank Failure Could Impact Digital Health Investments 
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's decision to take over Silicon Valley Bank on Friday is likely to leave many digital health companies scrambling to pay employees and suppliers. SVB, the nation's 16th largest bank and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, was a big bank for tech companies, startups and venture capital firms. The bank said on its website that it had $78.8 billion in healthcare deposits and investments as of December. (Turner, 3/10)

Stat: SVB, Biotech’s Bank Of Choice, Just Failed. It May Have Ripple Effects
Silicon Valley Bank, which does business with roughly half of the nation’s tech and biotech companies, failed on Friday. Now, as federal regulators step in to clean up SVB’s mess, biotech startups are left wondering: What happens to their money, and who’s going to finance the industry? (Feuerstein, Garde and DeAngelis, 3/10)

Crunchbase: Silicon Valley Bank Bet Big On Biotech. And Now It’s Gone.
Silicon Valley Bank, the prominent startup and venture capital bank that was abruptly taken over by regulators Friday, had made big bets on the biotech space in recent years, and its sudden downfall leaves life sciences companies particularly vulnerable. The main concern is whether or not early-stage biotech companies that banked with SVB will be able to access their cash. With no cash flow, nascent pharmaceutical startups rely on their cash reserves to fund drug development. (Vedantam, 3/10)

Reuters: U.S. House Unanimously Backs COVID Origins Information Declassification 
The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on Friday to require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify information on the origins of COVID-19, increasing pressure on President Joe Biden's administration to allow its release. The vote was 419 to 0 in favor. Since the Senate on March 1 passed the bill - by unanimous consent - it now goes to the White House for Biden to sign into law or veto. (Zengerle, 3/10)

AP: House Votes To Declassify Info About Origins Of COVID-19 
“I haven’t made that decision yet,” Biden said late Friday when asked whether he would sign the bill. ... If signed into law, the measure would require within 90 days the declassification of “any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease.” That includes information about research and other activities at the lab and whether any researchers grew ill. (Mascaro, 3/10)

Reuters: Finding COVID-19's Origins Is A Moral Imperative - WHO's Tedros 
Discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World Health Organization said, in the clearest indication yet that the U.N. body remains committed to finding how the virus arose. (3/12)

AP: Pandemic 3 Years Later: Has The COVID-19 Virus Won? 
Saturday marked three years since the World Health Organization first called the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and the United Nation’s health organization says it’s not yet ready to say the emergency has ended. ... With information sources drying up, it has become harder to keep tabs on the pandemic. Johns Hopkins University on Friday shut down its trusted tracker, which it started soon after the virus emerged in China and spread worldwide. (Johnson, 3/10)

The Washington Post: America Shut Down In Response To Covid. Would We Ever Do It Again?
The shutdown was profoundly strange and has had lasting effects on our national psyche. But memories fade, circumstances change, opinions shift. Three years later, the decision by local, state and federal government officials to limit spread of the virus continues to spark rancorous battles in the pandemic-fueled arenas of the culture war. So what will the country do the next time a deadly virus comes knocking on the door? (Achenbach, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Covid Experts Today: Eating Out, Masking Less, Even Booking Cruises
Just like us, they disinfected groceries, left their mail outside for 24 hours, canceled family gatherings, stopped eating out. But today, for the medical experts at the forefront of dealing with the coronavirus that causes covid-19, everyday life has become more normal. All have been vaccinated and boosted, and many have had covid too, a combination that seems to provide more durable protection. While the pandemic isn’t gone, their risk calculations these days look different. ... The Washington Post has interviewed a group of medical experts several times over the past three years to see how the pandemic was affecting their personal lives. Here’s what they have to say today. (Cimons, 3/12)

NBC News: What People With ‘Super Immunity’ Can Teach Us About Covid And Other Viruses
Three years into the pandemic, a select group of people have achieved something some once thought impossible: They have never tested positive for Covid. Scientists around the world are searching for the genetic reasons these people have dodged Covid — despite repeated exposure to the virus. ere they born with a form of super immunity? What's behind their Houdini-like success at escaping infection? (Edwards, 3/11)

On the covid vaccine rollout —

San Francisco Chronicle: Why No One Is Telling You When To Get The Next COVID Booster Shot
People who received the bivalent COVID-19 booster when it first became available more than six months ago may wonder whether it’s time to roll up their sleeves again. The mantra of public health officials throughout the pandemic has been for individuals to maintain their immunity levels by staying up to date on vaccinations. But no one seems to know what happens next. (Vaziri, 3/12)

AP: US Agencies Debunk Florida Surgeon General's Vaccine Claims
U.S. health agencies have sent a letter to Florida’s surgeon general, warning him that his claims about COVID-19 vaccine risks are harmful to the public. The letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sent Friday to Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. It was a response to a letter Ladapo had written the agencies last month, expressing concerns about what he described as adverse effects from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. (3/11)

AP: Mississippi Man Gets 2 Years For Threats To CDC Officials 
A Mississippi man allegedly upset about the COVID-19 vaccination program has been sentenced to two years in prison for threatening federal health officials, federal prosecutors said. Robert Wiser Bates, 39, of Ridgeland, placed phone calls to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in July 2021 and left threatening voicemails for the agency’s director, Rochelle Walensky, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca. (3/10)

Reuters: Moderna Loses Bid To Shift Liability In COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Case
Despite the backing of the U.S. government, Moderna Inc on Friday failed to persuade a federal judge it should not have to face a patent lawsuit over its COVID-19 vaccine and that the United States should have been sued instead. U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg ruled for the second time that Moderna had not yet shown that the government was the proper target of a lawsuit by Arbutus Biopharma Corp (ABUS.O) and Genevant Sciences GmbH. (Brittain, 3/10)

On long covid —

NBC News: What's Your Current Risk Of Getting Long Covid? Estimates Hover Around 5%-10%
It's a question few people know how to answer, even after three pandemic years and more than 100 million Covid cases in the U.S.: When someone gets infected today, what is their risk of developing long Covid? "Even the medical community is unclear on all of this. The data is just emerging so rapidly and the estimates are varied," said Dr. Rainu Kaushal, chair of the department of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. (Bendix, 3/10)

NBC News: For Some Long Covid Patients, Acupuncture And Other Eastern Remedies Bring Relief That Western Medicines Have Not
Frustrated by a lack of results from Western medicine, some long Covid patients have turned to Eastern alternatives. Many say acupuncture, in particular, has provided relief. Lauren Nichols, a Massachusetts resident who got Covid in March 2020, estimated that over two years she had tried around 30 different pharmaceuticals to ease her migraines, brain fog, fatigue, seizures, diarrhea and other lasting symptoms. Eventually her physical limitations — and a lack of answers — became so overwhelming that she developed suicidal thoughts. (Bendix, 3/11)

More on the spread of covid —

ABC News: The Winter COVID Wave That Wasn't: Why The US Didn't See A Surge
During the first winter wave, weekly cases peaked at 1,714,256 the week of Jan. 13, 2021, as did weekly deaths at 23,378, according to CDC data. Subsequently, during the second winter wave -- due to the omicron variant -- weekly infections reached their high point of 5,630,736 the week of Jan. 19, 2022, and weekly deaths saw a high of 17,373 the week of Feb. 2, 2022, the data shows. By comparison, according to the CDC, the highest number of weekly cases seen during the most recent winter wave was 472,601 the week of Dec. 7, 2023 -- the first time the peak has not surpassed 1 million. (Kekatos, 3/13)

CIDRAP: Kids' COVID Symptoms—Not Rates Of Severe Disease—Evolved With Variants 
Fever and cough were more common among Canadian children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants than the original, wild-type virus and the Alpha variant, but rates of hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission stayed the same over time, finds a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. ... Upper respiratory tract symptoms were most common with Delta. (Van Beusekom, 3/10)

CBS News: Pfizer Migraine Nasal Spray Zavzpret Wins FDA Approval 
Pfizer said Friday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved a new nasal spray to treat migraines. Zavzpret, a branded formulation of the generic drug zavegepant, is the "first and only" calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist nasal spray for treating migraines with or without an aura, or sensory disturbances such as flashes of light that can accompany a migraine, the drugmaker said. Zavzpret began working to treat migraine symptoms in as little as 30 minutes and provided some relief for up to 48 hours after the last administered dose, Pfizer said, citing a March study published in The Lancet. (Napolitano, 3/11)

Stat: FDA Approves First Treatment For Rett Syndrome
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first treatment for Rett syndrome, a genetic disease mostly affecting girls that causes severe neurologic impairments, robbing them of the ability to communicate or control muscle movement. (Feuerstein, 3/11)

NPR: Statin Alternative Lowers Cholesterol And Heart Attack Risk Without Muscle Pain 
When the FDA approved bempedoic acid, marketed under the brand name Nexletol, back in 2020, it was clear that the drug helped lower LDL — "bad" cholesterol. The drug was intended for people who can't tolerate statin medications due to muscle pain, which is a side effect reported by up to 29% of people who take statins. What was unknown until now, is whether bempedoic acid also reduced the risk of cardiovascular events. Now, the results of a randomized, controlled trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine point to significant benefit. The study included about 14,000 people, all of whom were statin intolerant. (Aubrey, 3/13)

Also —

CIDRAP: When Medical Visits Are Shorter, Patients More Likely To Get Unneeded Antibiotics
A study of US medical record data found that shorter primary care visits were linked to a higher likelihood of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for respiratory infections. The findings, published today in JAMA Health Forum, are part of a larger study investigating whether clinicians make less-appropriate prescribing decisions in shorter visits. In addition to a higher likelihood of inappropriate antibiotics, the researchers also found that shorter visits were associated with a higher likelihood of inappropriate co-prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines for pain, which can increase the risk of overdose. (Dall, 3/10)

The New York Times: How An Opioid Settlement Hinders Patients’ Access To ADHD Medication And Other Drugs 
Nearly a year after a sweeping opioid settlement imposed new requirements on the companies that provide medications to pharmacies, patients across the United States are having difficulty obtaining drugs to treat many conditions, including anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and addiction. The $21 billion settlement, which was brokered between the three largest American pharmaceutical distributors and the attorneys general of 46 states, was designed in part to correct practices that had flooded the country with prescription painkillers, contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis. Distributors are placing stricter limits on drug supplies to individual pharmacies and heavily scrutinizing their dispensing activity. (Jewett and Gabler, 3/13)

Stat: Biogen Executive Samantha Budd Haeberlein Leaves Company
Samantha Budd Haeberlein, the Biogen senior executive who supervised the development and controversial approval of the Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm, has left the company, STAT has learned. (Feuerstein and Garde, 3/12)

North Carolina Health News: Erendira Needs A Kidney
Erendira’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 12. Her mom worked as a cleaner, including at a dialysis center. There, Erendira would sometimes come and help her mom mop. But the facility always made her feel uneasy — something about the rows of hulking machines that sucked the blood out of a body, cleaned it and put it back in.  “I would always tell my mom, ‘Oh, that would be the scariest thing. I would never want to be on dialysis,’” she remembered. (Donnelly-DeRoven, 3/13)

TechCrunch: Telehealth Startup Cerebral Shared Millions Of Patients’ Data With Advertisers 
Cerebral has revealed it shared the private health information, including mental health assessments, of more than 3.1 million patients in the United States with advertisers and social media giants like Facebook, Google and TikTok. The telehealth startup, which exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic after rolling lockdowns and a surge in online-only virtual health services, disclosed the security lapse in a filing with the federal government that it shared patients’ personal and health information who used the app to search for therapy or other mental health care services. (Whittaker, 3/10)

More about mental health care —

Reuters: UnitedHealth Beneficiaries Seek To Revive Case Over Mental Health Coverage 
UnitedHealth Group Inc beneficiaries are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling limiting the insurer's obligation to cover mental health treatment, which they said had "disastrous consequences" for mental health and addiction patients. ... A three-judge panel last year overturned the beneficiaries' trial victory. (Pierson, 3/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Clinical Depression Is Common And Treatment Can Help. It Helped These Four People From Philadelphia.
When U.S. Sen. John Fetterman checked into a hospital for clinical depression last month, critics questioned whether he would be able to serve his six-year term. Mental illness is often portrayed as an inescapable condition. But for most people, depression and other mental health disorders don’t last forever, said David Mandell, the director of the Penn Center for Mental Health. ... The Inquirer spoke to four Philadelphians about their experience with depression, what treatments worked for them, and how they continue to take care of their mental health. (Gutman and Ruderman, 3/13)

Scientific American: Vitamin D Supplements Probably Won't Prevent Mental Illness After All 
In February scientists reported that vitamin D was associated with a reduced risk of suicide attempts among U.S. veterans. The study compared more than 600,000 veterans who took various doses of vitamin D with an equal number of those who did not ingest the supplements. Taking vitamin D, they concluded, was linked with a 45 to 48 percent overall reduction in the risk of visiting a hospital for a suicide attempt or intentional self-harm. (Wickelgren, 3/13)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: St. Christopher’s Hospital Wants To Combine Primary And Mental Health Care For Struggling Youth
A recent government report concluded that the nation’s teens — especially teen girls — are in a mental health crisis. ... St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia is one of the institutions attempting to better address teen mental health. Brigid Garvin, clinical director of psychology at the hospital, recently spoke with us about the hospital’s new mental health initiative and what caregivers can do to help. (Bauers, 3/13)

In other health care industry developments —

KHN: Feds Move To Rein In Prior Authorization, A System That Harms And Frustrates Patients
When Paula Chestnut needed hip replacement surgery last year, a pre-operative X-ray found irregularities in her chest. As a smoker for 40 years, Chestnut was at high risk for lung cancer. A specialist in Los Angeles recommended the 67-year-old undergo an MRI, a high-resolution image that could help spot the disease. But her MRI appointment kept getting canceled, Chestnut’s son, Jaron Roux, told KHN. (Sausser, 3/13)

AP: Medical Helicopter Service Suspended After N. Carolina Crash 
An emergency helicopter transport service announced Friday that it suspended operations, a day after one of its helicopters crashed in western North Carolina, leaving three of the four people aboard hospitalized. “Safety is of the upmost concern to our program, and as such we have suspended all LIFE FORCE operations until our crews feel ready to return to service,” LIFE FORCE Air Medical, which is operated by Erlanger Health System, said in a statement posted on Facebook. (3/10)

KHN: 'An Arm and a Leg': Wrestling With A Giant: How To Dispute A Hospital Bill 
When Sandeep Swami received a $1,339 bill for a quick and uneventful emergency room visit for his 11-year-old daughter, he pushed back. The charge was a “facility fee” for the hospital, though the treatment entailed only a six- to seven-minute consultation with a doctor. Because Swami had a high-deductible health plan and had not yet met his deductible for the year, he was on the hook for the entire amount. (3/13)

Also —

The Philadelphia Inquirer: On Match Day, Medical Students Learn Where They’ll Start Work As Doctors. Four At Jefferson Offer An Inside Look At The Process.
A champagne toast is in store Friday for 275 aspiring physicians at Thomas Jefferson University’s medical school. A few miles north, their counterparts at Temple University will join in a boisterous 10-second countdown before ripping open their envelopes. At the University of Pennsylvania, rituals include pinning tiny flags on a giant U.S. map. March 17 is Match Day, when thousands of medical students nationwide learn where they will work as residents after graduation, and in what specialty, completing their training as physicians. (Avril, 3/12)

AP: West Virginia GOP Legislature Passes Transgender Care Ban
A bill that would ban evidence-based health care for transgender minors in West Virginia, the state estimated to have more transgender youth per capita than any other in the nation, is headed to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice. The Republican governor has not taken a public stance on the measure and it’s unclear whether he will sign it into law. A spokesperson said he was unavailable for comment Saturday. (Willingham, 3/12)

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

WFSU: Florida Lawmakers Want To Set The Age Limit For Kratom Use At 21
Florida lawmakers are moving forward with a bipartisan plan to regulate the use of kratom, an herbal supplement that causes opioid- and stimulant-like effects. “We don’t want anybody to spike it or to cut it," said state Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota). "We want an unadulterated, pure form going to the consumer at the end of the day.” (Crowder, 3/12)

AP: Maryland House OKs Recreational Marijuana Framework Bill 
The Maryland House voted Friday for a measure that would create a legal framework and tax structure to enable recreational marijuana to be sold in stores as soon as July 1. ... Although Maryland voters approved a constitutional amendment in November to legalize recreational marijuana, lawmakers left details about implementation to be decided this session. (White, 3/10)

AP: Oregon Closer To Magic Mushroom Therapy, But Has Setback
Oregon was taking a major step Friday in its pioneering of legalized psilocybin therapy with the graduation of the first students trained in accompanying patients tripping on psychedelic mushrooms, although a company’s bankruptcy has left another group on the same path adrift. The graduation ceremony for 35 students was being held Friday evening by InnerTrek, a Portland firm, at a woodsy retreat center. About 70 more will graduate on Saturday and Sunday in ceremonies in which they will pledge to do no harm. (Selsky and Corder, 3/10)

KHN: Colorado Bill Would Encourage, But Not Require, CPR Training In High Schools
A bill advancing in the Colorado legislature would encourage schools to begin teaching students lifesaving skills before graduation, but critics contend it’s little more than a “feel-good” measure devoid of vital requirements and funding. Colorado is one of 10 states where laws don’t mandate CPR training for high school students, according to the American Heart Association. In February, the Colorado House passed a bipartisan bill to add training for CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator, or AED, to the Colorado Department of Education’s comprehensive health education high school curriculum. (Santoro, 3/13)

The New York Times: The World Needs To Prepare For The Next Pandemic
Late last year, I participated in an exercise meant to play out what might happen if the world was presented with a new disease spreading quickly, with no warning. (Tom Inglesby, 3/12)

The New York Times: Faith Healing Should Not Be Mainstream Treatment For Addiction 
In December, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York unexpectedly vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have required judges to inform drug court participants of their right to choose nonreligious rehabilitation. (Maia Szalavitz, 3/11)

USA Today: Teens Are Struggling With Mental Health. Why Aren't We Helping Them?
Student mental health was already at a low before lockdown; the pandemic exacerbated the issue and strained the relationship between student and counselor. Counselors say anxiety rates are up, and with a big developmental chunk missing from most student’s lives, social-emotional skills are suffering, too. This hits especially hard for teenage girls and LGBTQ students, studies say. (Nia Batra, 3/12)

Scientific American: Changing Clocks To Daylight Saving Time Is Bad For Your Health 
About one-third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. And nearly two-thirds would like to eliminate them completely, compared to 21% who aren’t sure and 16% who would like to keep moving their clocks back and forth. (Beth Ann Malow, 3/11)

Dallas Morning News: Virtual Primary Care Can Result In Better Doctor-Patient Relationships
Twenty days. That’s how long patients in major metropolitan areas waited on average last year for an appointment with their primary care physician, according to a survey by AMN Healthcare, a firm that provides workforce solutions in the health care industry. (Geoff Rutledge, 3/13)

Bloomberg: One Covid Lesson: Masks Work, But Mask Mandates Don’t 
So masks don’t work after all? That’s the conclusion many conservatives took from a comprehensive analysis of the use of masks to prevent the spread of respiratory infections such as Covid-19 — and it’s led, naturally enough, to a lot of football-spiking and I-told-you-so’s. (Matthew Yglesias, 3/12)

Kansas City Star: Medicare Must Help Rural Alzheimer’s Patients Same As Urban
The scourge of Alzheimer’s disease is dire, and especially so for rural Americans, who live farther from the metropolitan areas where research centers are concentrated. Medicare just announced it will continue to restrict coverage for cutting-edge treatments to these urban centers. If it doesn’t address the geographic inequity of care, millions of Americans living in our rural heartland will miss out on this new hope. (Betsy Huber, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Need Help For Stress And Anxiety? Maybe You Shouldn’t Talk To A Therapist 
What if I told you that talking to a professional about one’s psychological woes might not be the answer to every problem? Or that there might be times when therapy actually does more harm than good? To be clear, I am a fan of therapy, and as a practicing psychiatrist for almost 20 years, I have witnessed many patients improve in treatment. However, the therapy-is-the-answer model is problematic for several reasons. (Samantha Boardman, 3/10)