First Edition: Aug. 21, 2023
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Tribal Health Workers Aren’t Paid Like Their Peers. See Why Nevada Changed That
Linda Noneo turned up the heat in her van to ward off the early-morning chill that persists in northern Nevada’s high desert even in late June. As the first rays of daylight broke over a Christian cross on the top of a hill near the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone colony, she drove toward her first stop to pick up fellow tribal members waiting for transportation to their medical appointments. Noneo is one of four community health representatives for the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone, which the tribe said includes about 1,160 enrolled members. The role primarily involves driving tribal members to their health appointments, whether in Fallon, a city of just under 10,000, or Reno, more than 60 miles west. Noneo said she and her colleagues have also taken patients as far away as Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake City, round trips of nearly 400 and 1,000 miles, respectively. (Rodriguez, 8/21)
KFF Health News:
The CDC Works To Overhaul Lab Operations After Covid Test Flop
In early February 2020, Kirsten St. George and her team at New York state’s public health lab received a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to diagnose people infected with the new, rapidly spreading coronavirus. But, like many labs around the country, it quickly found the test gave inaccurate results. So test samples had to be sent back to the CDC for processing, wasting time and leaving state officials “sort of blind to what the situation was with the disease,” said St. George, chief of the laboratory of viral diseases at the Wadsworth Center, one of the nation’s largest state public health labs. (Whitehead, 8/21)
Reuters:
AARP Urges Court To Uphold Drug Price Negotiation Program
AARP, the leading lobbying group for older Americans, on Friday urged a federal judge not to block a new law that for the first time gives Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies in response to a lawsuit by business groups. AARP in a filing in federal court in Dayton, Ohio, argued that granting a request by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups to block negotiations would frustrate Congress's intent to bring down drug prices, harming older Americans. (Pierson, 8/18)
The Hill:
SNAP Changes Coming Sept. 1
The changes only affect one group of SNAP recipients: able-bodied adults without dependents (or ABAWDs, as the agency calls them), ages 50 to 54. ABAWDs between the ages of 18 and 49 already need to prove they are working at least 80 hours a month, pursuing an education or in a training program to qualify for SNAP for more than three months. Now, starting on Sept. 1, able-bodied childless workers who are 50 years old will also need to meet those work requirements to receive SNAP benefits. Starting on Oct. 1, the age requirements will be expanded up to 52. Then next year, on Oct. 1, 2024, the age requirement will expand again to 54. (Elmore and Martichoux, 8/20)
The Washington Post:
Medicine Without Doctors? State Laws Are Changing Who Treats Patients.
Arlene Wright has been a nurse for more than 20 years in Fort Myers, Fla. She began working in hospitals as a teenage candy striper in Upstate New York, progressing through an associate’s degree in nursing, then a bachelor’s, then a master’s, then finally a doctorate of nursing practice in 2013.Wright has always told patients she’s a nurse practitioner, she says. She doesn’t flaunt her doctorate or try to mislead patients into thinking she has an MD. Still, when Florida lawmakers began considering a bill that would have prevented her from using her title, Wright was taken aback. (Avi-Yonah, 8/20)
USA Today:
Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners Or Doctors: What To Know
The physician shortage, a growing demand on health care and more people graduating with advanced degrees helped expand their presence at physicians offices. But what does that mean for patients? Data shows patients have similar health outcomes regardless of whether they see a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner in primary care settings, but the jury is still out in other settings, like emergency departments and specialty care. (Rodriguez, 8/20)
Health News Florida:
AHCA Fines Clinic $193,000 Over Abortion Rule - Triple The Judge's Recommendation
Health regulators Monday ordered an Orlando abortion clinic to pay a $193,000 fine for violating a law that requires women to wait 24 hours before having abortions, nearly three times the fine recommended by an administrative law judge. The state Agency for Health Care Administration issued a final order requiring the Center of Orlando for Women to pay a $1,000 fine for each of 193 violations shortly after the law took effect in April 2022. Administrative Law Judge J. Bruce Culpepper this spring issued a recommended order that said the clinic should pay a $67,550 fine — $350 for each violation. But under administrative law, the recommended order had to go to AHCA for a final decision. (Saunders, 8/18)
Alabama Reflector:
Alabama Health Department Approves Birth Center Regulations
The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) on Thursday approved a set of rules that would require birthing centers to have oversight by a physician or medical director at its State Committee of Public Health meeting in Montgomery. The rules proposed would also require birth centers to be within 30 minutes of a hospital with OB-GYN services. (Rocha, 8/18)
CIDRAP:
US COVID Markers Continue Slow Rise As UK Reports First BA.2.86 Case
COVID hospitalizations and death rose last week, along with other indicators and the proportion of newer Omicron variants such as EG.5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest data updates. Also, scientists in the United Kingdom have identified the country's first case involving BA.2.86, an Omicron variant under close watch due to its many mutations and the possibility that it may already be circulating in multiple world regions. (Schnirring, 8/18)
Axios:
COVID Hospitalizations Spike In Tennessee
COVID-19 hospitalization rates across Tennessee rose 48% between June and July amid signs of a late summer wave sweeping the country. The average COVID-19 hospitalization rate nationwide rose about 17% between June and July, per the latest available Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. (Fitzpatrick, Beheraj and Rau, 8/18)
CNN:
Covid-19 Linked With Higher Risk Of High Blood Pressure, Study Finds
When it comes to developing high blood pressure, Covid-19 might play an outsized role, a new study says. The report, published Monday in the medical journal Hypertension, found that more than 1 in 5 patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 – and over 1 in 10 who were not – had been diagnosed with high blood pressure six months later. Compared with people who had influenza, another upper respiratory virus, those hospitalized with Covid-19 were over twice as likely to develop hypertension. (Viswanathan, 8/21)
CIDRAP:
COVID-19 Tied To Dangerous Blood Clots In Cancer Patients
The risk of developing venous thromboembolisms—potentially serious blood clots in the veins—is elevated among cancer patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and taking anticancer drugs, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Oncology. (Wappes, 8/18)
The New York Times:
How Nursing Homes Failed To Protect Residents From Covid
The first terrifying wave of Covid-19 caused 60,000 deaths among residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities within five months. As the pandemic wore on, medical guidelines called for promptly administering newly approved antiviral treatments to infected patients at high risk of severe illness, hospitalization or death. Why, then, did fewer than one in five nursing home residents with Covid receive antiviral treatment from May 2021 through December 2022? (Span, 8/19)
Reuters:
The Doctors, Dentists And Anthropologists Striving To Identify Maui's Victims
Inside a temporary morgue near the Maui County coroner's office, a team of specialists – including forensic pathologists, X-ray technicians, fingerprint experts and forensic dentists – labor 12 hours a day to identify the charred remains of the victims of this month's cataclysmic wildfire. They are members of the federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team program, or DMORT, deployed when a mass fatality incident overwhelms local authorities. (Ax, 8/20)
NPR:
Maui Wildfires Have A Huge Mental Health Toll
Survivors are still dealing with physical challenges like where they'll be living in the coming weeks and months. But size of the emotional and psychological toll here is coming into sharper focus as the need for mental health support is growing. Mental health administrator Oliver calls it "the worst mental health disaster in our state's modern history." (Westervelt, 8/21)
The Washington Post:
Maui Fire Survivors Face Trauma And Cognitive Woes Dubbed ‘Fire Brain’
The harmful effects of wildfire exposure don’t disappear once the flames are extinguished, experts said. There is growing research that suggests breathing in the tiny particles from wildfire smoke can produce cognitive deficits, which may appear in as little as six to 12 months or even years later. Surviving a near-death experience also raises the risk of post-traumatic stress, with such symptoms as depression, sleep disorders, anxiety and survivor’s guilt, researchers said. (Cimons and Bellware, 8/20)
Reuters:
Maui Children Face Grief, Destruction As Schools Start Up After Wildfire
Before wildfire ravaged the Hawaiian community of Lahaina last week, high school teacher Mike Landes was always the guy arguing that academics come first - before worries about the social and emotional development of the students. But as parents, teachers and students begin trickling back to school after wildfires ravaged the community in the western part of Hawaii's island of Maui, mental health, he now insists, must take priority. (Bernstein, 8/19)
The Washington Post:
More Obituaries Acknowledge Suicide As Openness On Mental Health Grows
When Deborah and Warren Blum’s 16-year-old died by suicide in November 2021, they went into shock. For two days, the grief-stricken Los Angeles couple didn’t sleep. But when it came time to write a death notice, Deborah Blum was clearheaded: In a heartfelt tribute to her smart, funny, popular child, who had recently come out as nonbinary, she was open and specific about the mental health struggles that led to Esther Iris’s death. (Waldman, 8/20)
The Washington Post:
Study: Kids Who’ve Been Assaulted More Likely To Develop Mental Illness
Children and adolescents who have been physically assaulted are nearly twice as likely as their peers to develop mental illness after the assault — and the risk is even higher in the first year after an incident, research suggests. The analysis, published in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, looked at the medical records of 27,435 children in Ontario, Canada, including 5,487 kids who had been at an emergency room or hospital after a physical assault between 2006 and 2014 before age 14. (Blakemore 8/19)
AP:
Stem Cells From One Eye Show Promise In Healing Injuries In The Other
Phil Durst recalled clawing at his face after a chemical from a commercial dishwashing machine squirted into his eyes, causing “the most indescribable pain I’ve ever felt — ever, ever, ever.” His left eye bore the brunt of the 2017 work accident, which stole his vision, left him unable to tolerate light and triggered four to five cluster headaches a day. Then he underwent an experimental procedure that aims to treat severe injuries in one eye with stem cells from the other. “I went from completely blind with debilitating headaches and pondering if I could go another day — like really thinking I can’t do this anymore” to seeing well enough to drive and emerging from dark places literally and figuratively, he said, choking up. (Ungar, 8/18)
NBC News:
Using Stem Cells, Doctors Restore Vision To People Blinded In One Eye
In a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Ula Jurkunas and colleagues have demonstrated that the procedure — known as cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell, or CALEC, transplantation — is safe. In a Phase 1 or “proof of concept” trial, four patients who all had chemical burns in one eye underwent CALEC transplants. (Tamkins, Klingbaum and Dahlgren, 8/18)
AP:
Cyberattack Keeps Hospitals' Computers Offline For Weeks
Key computer systems at hospitals and clinics in several states have yet to come back online more than two weeks after a cyberattack that forced some emergency room shutdowns and ambulance diversions. Progress is being made “to recover critical systems and restore their integrity,” Prospect Medical Holdings said in a Friday statement. But the company, which runs 16 hospitals and dozens of other medical facilities in California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas, could not say when operations might return to normal. (Eaton-Robb, 8/18)
Los Angeles Times:
Nurses Start 10-Day Strike At Garfield Medical Center
Nurses launched a 10-day strike Friday at Garfield Medical Center in Monterey Park, accusing hospital management of failing to address short staffing that they said could jeopardize patients, broken and substandard equipment, and inadequate safeguards to protect nurses from violent attacks. (Alpert Reyes, 8/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Mayo Clinic Continues Expansion As Patient Volumes Improve
Mayo Clinic is the latest nonprofit health system seeing the benefits of improved patient volumes. The Rochester, Minnesota-based system saw a 10.4% year-over-year jump in patient service revenue, to $3.54 billion in the second quarter, and a 10% increase to $6.96 billion in the first half of the year, according to financial results released Thursday. (Hudson, 8/18)
Axios:
Legacy Health-OHSU Merger Shakes Up Health Care In Oregon
Two of Portland's largest health care systems, Legacy Health and Oregon Health & Science University, announced plans to merge, raising questions about the future of health care services in Portland. While many details of the merger remain unknown, it requires regulatory approval under Oregon's year-old oversight program of health care industry mergers. Until then, it's unclear how patients and providers will be impacted. (Gebel and Harris, 8/18)
Axios:
Rural Hospitals Feel Squeeze From Medicare Advantage
Already struggling rural hospitals see an increasing financial threat from the steady growth in Medicare Advantage enrollment. Lacking the bargaining powers of their larger peers who depend on commercial payers to turn a profit, some rural hospitals are losing money on private coverage like Medicare Advantage. The Medicare alternative's popularity with seniors is cutting into a typically better funding source for rural hospitals — traditional Medicare — as hundreds of rural hospitals face down financial calamity. (Dreher, 8/21)
Axios:
Medical Debt Is Squeezing The Middle Class, Report Says
Middle-class Americans are the most likely to be saddled with medical debt, with nearly 1 in 4 — or roughly 17 million people — having unpaid medical bills, according to a report shared first with Axios from center-left think tank Third Way. Middle-income Americans, who earn $50,000-$100,000 a year, are more likely than those with lower incomes to seek care but don't qualify for Medicaid or charity care to help pay for it. (Reed, 8/21)
CBS News:
Life In A Rural "Ambulance Desert" Means Sometimes Help Isn't On The Way
That single ambulance station in Carrollton serves all of Pickens County, dispatching one and sometimes two ambulances to serve just under 20,000 residents spread across 900 square miles. The farthest reaches of the county line are 25 to 30 miles away on two-lane country roads. In rural areas where hospitals have shuttered, like Pickens County, the nearest surviving facilities are long drives away, ambulance coverage is sparse, and residents in the throes of medical emergencies often find their situations even more precarious. (8/21)
Stat:
As Obesity Drug Market Grows, Telehealth Companies Court Payers
To much of the public, the promise of telehealth is all about convenience — get the prescription you need quickly, and get it delivered right to your door. But as digital health companies build out their weight loss businesses, capitalizing on the popularity of drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, they’re courting a very different audience: payers and employers who have a vested interest in preventing quick scripts. (Palmer, 8/21)
Fox News:
Heart Drug Combining 3 Medications In One Is Added To World Health Organization’s List Of Essential Medicines
A heart drug that combines three medications in one pill — otherwise known as a polypill — has been included in the List of Essential Medicines from the World Health Organization (WHO). The unique polypill is designed for those who have had a prior heart attack or other heart-related event, with the goal of preventing a repeat occurrence. It took 15 years of intense study and several versions to create it. (McGorry, 8/18)
AP:
Georgia Medicaid Program With Work Requirement Off To Slow Start Even As Thousands Lose Coverage
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed paperwork creating a new state health plan for low-income residents to much fanfare at the state Capitol three years ago. But public health experts and advocates say since it launched on July 1, state officials appear to be doing little to promote or enroll people in the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement. (Thanawala, 8/19)
Health News Florida:
More Than Half Of Medicaid Recipients Terminated May Still Qualify, State Data Shows
As Florida continues its Medicaid redetermination process, state data shows more than half of those removed from Medicaid, were terminated for so-called “procedural,” reasons, like not responding to mail, outdated contact information or computer glitches. New data shows that when people reach out to the Department of Children & Families, help is hard to find despite DCF's plans and efforts to contact recipients. (Pedersen, 8/18)
CBS News:
Salmonella Outbreak Across 11 States Linked To Small Turtles
An 11-state salmonella outbreak has been linked to small turtles, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday. At least 26 illnesses have been reported, with nine hospitalizations, the health organization said. The outbreak spans the country. Tennessee, with six cases, has been hit hardest. There are also cases in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania and New York. (Chasan, 8/20)
NBC News:
Gun Deaths Among U.S. Children Rose Again In 2021, CDC Data Shows
Gun-related deaths among children in the U.S. reached a distressing peak in 2021, claiming 4,752 young lives and surpassing the record total seen during the first year of the pandemic, a new analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The alarming statistic clearly indicated that America’s gun violence epidemic has gotten worse, experts say. More than 80% of the gun deaths were among males 19 and younger. Black male children were more likely to die from homicide. White males 19 and younger were more likely to kill themselves with guns. (Lovelace Jr., 8/21)
CNN:
Ban Spanking In All Schools, Pediatrician Group Urges. Do This Instead
Spanking or striking children in school, or corporal punishment, should be “abolished in all states by law,” according to an updated policy statement by the Council on School Health and released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The use of corporal punishment has dropped over the years, but it is “either expressly allowed or not expressly prohibited in 23 states,” US Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona said in March before Colorado banned the practice. “Furthermore, researchers have determined that the use of corporal punishment in schools is likely underreported.” (LaMotte, 8/21)
NBC News:
Hot Classrooms Are Impairing Student Learning And Health Amid Record-Hot Year, Teachers Say
Research has shown that hot classrooms can impair student learning. In one study published in 2020, researchers found that "students who experience hotter temperatures during the school year before their exams exhibit reduced learning" and that students scored lower with each additional day of temperatures around 80 degrees or above. The study also found that heat "has substantially larger impacts on the achievement of students in lower-income school districts," especially Black and Latino students. (Silva, 8/19)
USA Today:
Postpartum Depression Affects Dads, Too. It Can Put Child At Risk.
As a new postpartum pill for women gains national attention, health experts say it’s also important to highlight men’s mental health needs after having a baby, with researching showing 1 in 10 fathers experience postpartum depression and anxiety. A new study also suggests addressing paternal mental health is vital for baby's health after finding children born to dads with depression are at increased risk of developing depression themselves. (Rodriguez, 8/19)
The New York Times:
The Next Frontier For Corporate Benefits: Menopause
In her late 40s, Celia Chen began experiencing unexplained symptoms like anxiety, a spike in blood sugar, acne and chronic pain in her shoulder — all of which she attributed to her high-pressure job as a marketing executive at a start-up, which involved red eye flights and long hours. After switching to a new gynecologist, at 48, she learned that these changes were related to her transition to menopause, known as perimenopause. And that the stress of the job was only making them worse. Ms. Chen says her doctor told her, “‘your body is screaming for you to stop.’” (Gupta, 8/19)
The Washington Post:
At Age 114, Here’s Her Advice: ‘Speak Your Mind And Don’t Hold Your Tongue’
Not many 94-year-olds still have their mothers around, but Dorothy Williams does — and the two women live together in Houston. Her mother, Elizabeth Francis, just turned 114. “I guess I would have to say the Lord has blessed me in my young age,” joked Francis, whose birthday was July 25. (Free, 8/18)
AP:
Neonatal Nurse Lucy Letby Found Guilty Of Killing 7 Babies In British Hospital
A neonatal nurse in a British hospital was found guilty Friday of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others during a yearlong campaign of deception that saw her prey on the vulnerabilities of sick newborns and their anxious parents. Following 22 days of deliberation, the jury at Manchester Crown Court convicted 33-year-old Lucy Letby of killing the babies, including two triplet boys, in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016. She will be sentenced on Monday. ... The British government launched an independent inquiry soon after the verdicts that will look into the wider circumstances around what happened at the hospital, including the handling of concerns raised by staff. (Pylas and Melley, 8/18)