First Edition: June 16, 2023

KFF Health News: Opioid Settlement Payouts To Localities Made Public For First Time 
Thousands of local governments nationwide are receiving settlement money from companies that made, sold, or distributed opioid painkillers, like Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, and Walmart. The companies are shelling out more than $50 billion total in settlements from national lawsuits. But finding out the precise amount each city or county is receiving has been nearly impossible because the firm administering the settlement hasn’t made the information public. Until now. (Pattani, 6/16)

KFF Health News: Find Out How Much Opioid Settlement Cash Your Locality Received 
Companies that made, sold, or distributed opioid painkillers are paying out more than $50 billion in settlements over nearly two decades. So far, more than $3 billion has landed in state, county, and city coffers. KFF Health News obtained documents from BrownGreer, a court-appointed firm administering the settlements, which show exact dollar amounts — down to the cent — that local governments have been allocated so far. Curious to see how much your locality has received? Click on the documents below. (Pattani, 6/16)

KFF Health News: What One Hospital’s Slow Recovery From A Cyberattack Means For Patients
In fall 2021, staffers at Johnson Memorial Health were hoping they could finally catch their breath. They were just coming out of a weeks-long surge of covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths, fueled by the delta variant. But on Oct. 1 at 3 a.m., a Friday, the hospital CEO’s phone rang with an urgent call. “My chief of nursing said, ‘Well, it looks like we got hacked,’” said David Dunkle, CEO of the health system based in Franklin, Indiana. (Yousry, 6/16)

KFF Health News: California Schools Start Hatching Heat Plans As The Planet Warms 
As hot days become more extreme and common, California education researchers are urging that school districts be required to develop heat plans to keep students safe, just as they have policies for severe storms and active shooters. A policy brief published last month by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation offers a series of recommendations on how education and building codes can help schools become more heat-resilient in the face of global warming. State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat, introduced legislation this year requiring schools to have heat plans by 2027, and another bill would make it easier for schools to create more shaded spaces. (McMurray, 6/16)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Slow Your Disenroll 
More than a million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended. The Biden administration is asking states to slow disenrollment, but that does not mean states must listen. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court decision gives Medicaid beneficiaries the right to sue over their care, and a new deal preserves coverage of preventive services nationwide as a Texas court case continues. Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, a new unit of JPMorgan Chase, about employers’ role in insurance coverage. (6/15)

The New York Times: FDA Panel Recommends A Covid Vaccine Aimed At Only The XBB Variant
Vaccine makers should target the XBB variant of the coronavirus in a shot to be available in the fall, moving away from the existing formula that protected against the Omicron variant and an early form of the virus, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration agreed on Thursday. The 21-member panel unanimously recommended that manufacturers should aim at the most dominant variant of the coronavirus this summer. If the F.D.A. agrees, the advice would start the manufacturing of millions of shots. (Jewett, 6/15)

CIDRAP: Bivalent COVID Vaccine Protects Against Death For At Least 6 Months In Older Adults, Study Suggests 
The bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 booster provides substantial protection against death among US adults aged 65 years and older, with no significant signs of waning for up to 6 months, concludes a study published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly. (Van Beusekom, 6/15)

AP: Confidence In Science Fell In 2022 While Political Divides Persisted, Poll Shows 
Confidence in the scientific community declined among U.S. adults in 2022, a major survey shows, driven by a partisan divide in views of both science and medicine that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, 39% of U.S. adults said they had “a great deal of confidence” in the scientific community, down from 48% in 2018 and 2021. That’s according to the General Social Survey, a long-running poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago that has monitored Americans’ opinions on key topics since 1972. (Burakoff, 6/15)

Stat: White House ‘Naloxone Summit’ Omitting Prominent Advocates
The invite list for the White House’s upcoming “summit” on naloxone pricing and accessibility has some noteworthy omissions. Two of the most prominent organizations focused on providing cheaper overdose-reversal medications will be conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s event: Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a nonprofit drug manufacturer currently seeking approval for a naloxone nasal spray, and Remedy Alliance, a group that distributes cheap naloxone to harm-reduction groups across the country. (Facher, 6/15)

NPR: Sen. Tammy Baldwin Introduces Bill To Fund Abortion Care Training
Medical schools in states that have banned abortion can't teach abortion care. Sen. Tammy Baldwin wants to make funds available for students in those states to travel for the training. (Huang, 6/15)

The Hill: Harris To Mark Anniversary Of Abortion Ruling With North Carolina Speech 
Vice President Harris will mark one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with a trip to North Carolina to rally abortion advocates as the state prepares to enact its own ban on the procedure. Harris will travel to Charlotte, a White House official said, to deliver what is being billed as a “major speech” focused on the Biden administration’s efforts to protect abortion access and Republican efforts to push “extreme legislation” that would severely curtail access. (Samuels, 6/15)

The Hill: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Says He Would Support 15-Week Federal Abortion Ban 
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, the newest Republican to enter the 2024 presidential race, said he would support a 15-week federal abortion ban with rare exceptions, but stopped short of backing a six-week abortion ban. “Look, I think that the country is not there yet,” Suarez said in an interview with The Associated Press, when asked about a six-week federal abortion ban. (Fortinsky, 6/15)

AP: Rural Utah Abortion Clinic Closes Amid Staff Shortages, Plans To Reopen In August
There’s now one fewer place to access abortion in Utah after Planned Parenthood closed its only clinic outside the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah said on Thursday that the Logan clinic has long been staffed with one provider, who left to take another position in March. The northern Utah city of 52,000 is home to Utah State University and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Idaho, where abortions have been banned except for in cases of rape or incest since last year. (Metz, 6/15)

The 19th: More Americans — Especially Women — Are Supporting Abortion Rights After Dobbs
Almost a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 40 percent of women said they believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances, according to new polling from Gallup. The findings of the poll show how Roe’s fall shifted public opinion on abortion, leaving more Americans in favor of access to the procedure and critical of banning it. In 2019, Gallup found that 25 percent of Americans believed abortion should be available under any circumstances. Now, 34 percent of Americans, about 1 in 3, believe abortion should be legal at any point. That increase appears driven almost entirely by women. (Luthra, 6/15)

Roll Call: Mississippi Community Workers Battle Maternal Mortality Crisis
When Lauren Jones was pregnant with her first child, doctors overlooked a leak in her amniotic sac because her description of the symptoms didn’t strike them as cause for alarm. The symptoms didn’t improve. So when Jones went back a second time, she took no chances — she lied and told them she was spotting. The doctors quickly determined she needed an emergency cesarean section. (Clason, 6/15)

Reuters: Felix Demands Better Maternity Care For Black Women Following Bowie's Death
Maternity care for Black women needs to be radically improved so that other pregnant women do not end up dying like 2016 Olympic relay champion Tori Bowie, track and field's most decorated woman Allyson Felix said on Thursday. Former 100 metres world champion Bowie, who won gold in the 4x100 metres relay at the Rio Games along with Felix, died aged 32 while she was approximately eight months pregnant and experiencing labour, according to an autopsy report obtained by U.S. media. (6/15)

ABC News: Supreme Court Upholds Law Giving Native American Families Priority In Adoption 
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a major challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, upholding a landmark law long hailed by tribes for giving priority to Native American families in the adoption of Native children. The state of Texas and a group of non-Native foster parents had challenged the preferences as an infringement on state authority in child welfare policy and unlawful discrimination on the basis of race. (Dwyer, 6/15)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Supply Chain Shortages To Worsen: Premier Survey
Nearly half of 233 hospital and health system employees surveyed had to cancel or reschedule procedures at least quarterly in 2022 due to product shortages, according to a poll conducted from late March to  mid-April by Premier, a consulting and group purchasing organization. Health systems have been managing shortages for hundreds of products, ranging from intra-aortic balloon pumps to chemotherapy drugs. (Kacik, 6/15)

Axios: Hospital Revenues Appear To Be Rising
Hospital revenues appear to be on the upswing as more patients receive care — which is welcome news for the hospital industry and not-so-great for insurers. Hospitals have been warning for months that their financial stability is threatened by inflation, labor costs and other factors in the wake of the pandemic, which could ultimately threaten patient care. (Owens, 6/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Becerra Unveils New Program For Health Care Workers At Oakland Event
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Mayor Sheng Thao appeared together in Oakland on Thursday to announce a program intended to boost the diversity of the nation’s health care workers. In brief remarks at Samuel Merritt University, Becerra said HHS’ new Health Workforce Initiative would ensure that medical students from underserved communities have the resources they need to succeed — and that those communities would benefit from their talent. (Castro-Root, 6/15)

The New York Times: It’s Not Just You: Many People Confront Health Insurance Obstacles On Care And Bills
A majority of Americans with health insurance said they had encountered obstacles to coverage, including denied medical care, higher bills and a dearth of doctors in their plans, according to a new survey from KFF, a nonprofit health research group. As a result, some people delayed or skipped treatment. Those who were most likely to need medical care — people who described themselves as in fair or poor health — reported more trouble; three-fourths of those receiving mental health treatment experienced problems. (Abelson, 6/15)

Reuters: Hip, Knee Replacements Back On Track, Boosting Device Makers 
Older adults are catching up on missed hip and knee replacements and other non-urgent surgeries, a shift that will benefit medical device makers this year, Wall Street analysts said after insurer UnitedHealth warned of higher costs due to a spike in some procedures. While heart-related surgeries have returned to pre-pandemic numbers after delays due to lockdowns and hospital staffing shortages, orthopedic surgeries had initially lagged as older Americans chose to postpone them. (Mishra and Leo, 6/15)

Stat: Getting Rid Of Racial Bias In Clinical Calculators Proves Challenging
Racial bias is everywhere in medicine, including the calculators doctors commonly use to predict a patient’s risk of disease and inform their treatment. A growing movement is encouraging medical specialties and hospitals to reconsider the use of race in those tools. But a new study shows that removing bias isn’t as simple as taking race out of the equation. (Palmer, 6/16)

The New York Times: How A Toilet Plunger Improved CPR
In 1988, a 65-year-old man’s heart stopped at home. His wife and son didn’t know CPR, so in desperation they grabbed a toilet plunger to get his heart going until an ambulance showed up. Later, after the man recovered at San Francisco General Hospital, his son gave the doctors there some advice: Put toilet plungers next to all of the beds in the coronary unit. The hospital didn’t do that, but the idea got the doctors thinking about better ways to do CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the conventional method for chest compressions after cardiac arrest. (Silberner, 6/15)

Stat: Why It Won’t Be So Easy For Medicine To Displace BMI 
The policy that the American Medical Association adopted this week to de-emphasize the use of BMI is part of a growing movement away from the single, weight-based metric and toward a broader way of assessing health risk through multiple factors. Yet it will take more than the giant physician group to displace the use of the body mass index throughout medicine. Reliance on the metric is ubiquitous in the ways health care is delivered and paid for — from surgeries to fertility treatment, from drug approvals to insurance reimbursement. (Chen, 6/16)

Modern Healthcare: Wegovy, Ozempic Demand Leaves Calibrate, Ro, Noom Scrambling
Telehealth companies, health insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers are playing the blame game amid a shortage of popular weight loss drugs. Wegovy manufacturer Novo Nordisk said in May shortages of certain doses of the weight loss drug are expected to persist through September. The shortage of such medications known as glucagon-like peptide agnostics, or GLP-1s, also includes Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Trulicity, according to a Food and Drug Administration database. (Turner, 6/15)

AP: Teens With Severe Obesity Are Turning To Surgery And New Weight Loss Drugs, Despite Controversy
John Simon III was a hungry baby, a “chunky” toddler and a chubby little boy, his mother said. But by age 14, his weight had soared to 430 pounds and was a life-threatening medical condition. Nine months after weight-loss surgery that removed a portion of his stomach, John has lost about 150 pounds, boosting his health — and his hopes for the future. “It was like a whole new start,” said John, who will start high school in California this fall. (Aleccia, 6/16)

CBS News: Taking Stimulants Like Adderall Without ADHD Decreases Productivity, Study Finds
Taking stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin without having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, the condition for which they are commonly prescribed, can result in decreased productivity, according to a new study. The medications have been widely used by people who don't actually have an ADHD diagnosis but believe they might boost focus or productivity. (Moniuszko, 6/15)

ABC News: Patients With HIV In US Saw Rise Of Rare, Deadly Bacterial Illness Last Year: CDC
Patients with HIV in the United States saw an increase in rare, deadly meningococcal infections last year, new preliminary data shows. Nearly 10% of all meningococcal disease cases in 2022 were among people with HIV, according to a report published Thursday afternoon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Kekatos, 6/15)

The New York Times: New York To Get More Smoke From Canada Wildfires 
Bill Goodman, a Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, explained in an interview on Thursday that the smog would not be as dense as it was last week, when New York’s skyline nearly disappeared in a thick, orange haze. This time, he said, the smoke “will be experienced as hazy skies,” and “the smoke at the surface should be negligible.” (Diaz, 6/15)

The Boston Globe: Fluoride Feed In Greater Boston Drinking Water Has Resumed After Construction, Officials Say
The fluoride feed in drinking water in the Greater Boston area has resumed after a three-month pause for construction, officials said Tuesday. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority said water fluoridation restarted on Monday. “Fluoridated water will be arriving at customer’s homes throughout the next week or so depending on the distance from the water treatment plant and local pipe network configuration,” officials said. (Armanini, 6/14)

The New York Times: Florida Schools Question Content On Gender And Sexuality In A.P. Psychology 
Advanced Placement Psychology is the subject of the latest skirmish in the monthslong battle between the state of Florida and the College Board. The board said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon that several Florida school districts had raised concerns about the course, noting that its content may violate new state laws limiting how issues of gender and sexuality are taught. (Goldstein, 6/15)

The Hill: College Board Says It Won’t Alter AP Courses To Comply With Florida’s Laws 
The College Board released a letter Thursday putting its foot down on further demands from Florida to change any of its Advanced Placement (AP) classes, the latest development in the ongoing feud between the company and the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).“[College Board] will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level topics,” the company told the Florida Department of Education Office of Articulation. (Lonas, 6/15)

CIDRAP: Arizona Announces Recall Of Marijuana Products Because Of Aspergillus, Salmonella 
Several Arizona marijuana establishments have voluntarily recalled certain products over potential contamination with Aspergillus and Salmonella. Arizona is one of 23 states that has legalized marijuana for recreational use. ... Three samples that were positive for Salmonella—Cap's Frozen Lemon, Twisted Lemonz, and Ghost Train Haze—involved live resin concentrate. The one that yielded Aspergillus was plant trim, a product called Cherry Punch. (Schnirring, 6/15)

NBC News: Colorado Surgeon Guilty Of Manslaughter In Teen Patient's Death After Breast Augmentation
A Colorado surgeon was convicted Wednesday of manslaughter in the death of a teenage patient who went into a coma during breast augmentation surgery and died a year later. Emmalyn Nguyen, who was 18 when she underwent the procedure Aug. 1, 2019, at Colorado Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery in Greenfield Village, near Denver, fell into a coma and went into cardiac arrest after she received anesthesia, officials said. (Planas 6/15)

Fox News: Drinking Alcohol Weekly Could Be Connected To 61 Different Diseases, Study Finds
Alcohol use has been linked to 61 different diseases, most of which had not been identified as having drinking-related outcomes by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a new study. Beyond the more widely known conditions — such as liver cirrhosis, stroke and gastric cancers — a new study identified links to diseases including gout, cataracts, ulcers and some fractures, according to a press release announcing the findings. (Rudy, 6/15)

CNN: Night Owls May Die Younger, But More Than Sleep Is To Blame
People who prefer to go to bed and get up later — a sleep chronotype known as being a night owl — may die early from bad habits they develop when they stay up late, according to a new study. (LaMotte, 6/16)

CNN: Fathers’ Role In Breastfeeding And Infant Sleep Is Key, Study Finds 
Fathers matter. A new study — a rare effort that focuses solely on the father’s involvement in an infant’s life — shows a striking link between the support that dads offer and better infant outcomes. The research sought to answer several questions about paternal participation in breastfeeding and the use of safe sleep practices for babies. The results showed that fathers play a crucial role in both — and it highlights the need for bolstered parental leave policies in the United States, according to the study, which published Friday in the journal Pediatrics. (Wattles, 6/16)

CIDRAP: Quick Takes: Imported Oyster Norovirus Alert, Poultry Avian Flu Vaccine Deliberations, Listeria And Leafy Greens
The US Food and Drug Administration yesterday warned consumers and retailers in Hawaii, Georgia, and Minnesota about certain frozen raw oysters imported from South Korea that may be contaminated with norovirus. Hawaiian health officials reported five illnesses in restaurant customers who ate the oysters, and norovirus GII has been detected in two product samples. Minnesota also reported five illnesses, likewise involving people who ate oysters at restaurants. The affected products were also distributed in Georgia. (Schnirring, 6/15)

The Hill: You Have To Work More Than 100 Hours A Week To Afford A Two-Bedroom Rental On Minimum Wage: Report 
Full-time workers nationwide need to earn more than $23 hourly to afford a modest one-bedroom rental, according to a new report. ... The report also found there are no states where minimum wage workers putting in 40 hours weekly can afford a modest two-bedroom rental. A worker earning minimum wage must work an average of 104 hours per week to earn enough to pay for it. (Barnes, 6/15)