First Edition: April 25, 2024

KFF Health News: Mandatory Reporting Laws Meant To Protect Children Get Another Look
More than 60 years ago, policymakers in Colorado embraced the idea that early intervention could prevent child abuse and save lives. The state’s requirement that certain professionals tell officials when they suspect a child has been abused or neglected was among the first mandatory reporting laws in the nation. (Jones, 4/25)

KFF Health News: Genetics Studies Have A Diversity Problem That Researchers Struggle To Fix
When he recently walked into the dental clinic at the Medical University of South Carolina donning a bright-blue pullover with “In Our DNA SC” embroidered prominently on the front, Lee Moultrie said, two Black women stopped him to ask questions. “It’s a walking billboard,” said Moultrie, a health care advocate who serves on the community advisory board for In Our DNA SC, a study underway at the university that aims to enroll 100,000 South Carolinians ... in genetics research. (Sausser, 4/25)

Politico: Supreme Court Wrestles With The Fallout Of Dobbs In Arguments On Emergency Abortions 
The Supreme Court heard nearly two hours of heated arguments Wednesday on the tension between Idaho’s near-total abortion ban and a federal law requiring hospitals to offer any treatment — including an abortion — needed to stabilize patients in an emergency. A few conservative justices at times joined the court’s liberal wing Wednesday in asking tough questions that picked apart Idaho’s argument that its hospitals should not be bound to provide abortions under the federal law at issue, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. But it was far from clear whether those conservatives — most notably Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett — were prepared to vote with the three liberals against Idaho. (Ollstein and Gerstein, 4/24)

The Hill: Female Supreme Court Justices Push Back Most Strongly On Idaho Abortion Ban 
The four female justices, including conservative Amy Coney Barrett, pushed back the hardest against Idaho’s assertion that its law, which prohibits doctors from performing an abortion except when a woman’s life is in danger, supersedes the federal emergency care statute known as EMTALA, or the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. (Weixel, 4/24)

The Washington Post: Arizona House Votes To Repeal Civil War-Era Abortion Ban 
The Arizona House voted Wednesday to repeal a Civil War-era ban on nearly all abortions that is set to take effect as early as June 8. The measure now heads to the state Senate, which could grant final passage next week. ... Three Republicans in the House — Reps. Matt Gress, Tim Dunn and Justin Wilmeth — crossed party lines Wednesday to vote with all of the chamber’s Democrats. After the vote, the speaker removed Gress from a coveted assignment to the House Appropriations Committee. (Kitchener and Sanchez, 4/24)

Los Angeles Times: Bill Allows Arizona Abortion Providers To Practice In California
Arizona abortion providers could practice in California under a new law designed to provide care to women who cross the state line as they face newly restrictive prohibitions at home. The bill introduced Wednesday aims to expedite temporary authorization for those Arizona doctors to practice in both states. ... The bill would also protect the privacy of medical professionals who practice in California. (Mays and Sosa, 4/24)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri House Votes To Defund Planned Parenthood
The Republican-controlled House on Wednesday approved legislation barring state Medicaid dollars for Planned Parenthood, sending the bill to Gov. Mike Parson for his signature. (Suntrup, 4/24)

AP: US Births Fell Last Year, Marking An End To The Late Pandemic Rebound, Experts Say
U.S. births fell last year, resuming a long national slide. A little under 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, according to provisional statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 76,000 fewer than the year before and the lowest one-year tally since 1979.U.S. births were slipping for more than a decade before COVID-19 hit, then dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020. They ticked up for two straight years after that, an increase experts attributed, in part, to pregnancies that couples had put off amid the pandemic’s early days. (Stobbe, 4/25)

CBS News: Pitt Study Sees "Dramatic Increase" In Tubal Ligation Rate In Young People After Roe V. Wade Overturned
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the issue of reproductive rights has been center stage across the country. While it might be a hot-button political issue, it's also very personal, and many women and men are taking the step of permanent contraception. The demonstrations, debates, and court rulings since Roe v. Wade was overturned have had personal impacts on people in their prime reproductive years. (Shumway, 4/24)

The Wall Street Journal: McKinsey Under Criminal Investigation Over Opioid-Related Consulting 
The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into consulting firm McKinsey related to its past role in advising some of the nation’s largest opioid manufacturers on how to boost sales. Federal prosecutors are also probing whether McKinsey or any of its employees may have obstructed justice in relation to records of its consulting services for opioid producers, according to people familiar with the investigation, which has been ongoing for several years.  (Gladstone, 4/24)

AP: More Doctors Can Prescribe A Leading Addiction Treatment. Why Aren't More People Getting Help? 
It’s easier than ever for doctors to prescribe a key medicine for opioid addiction since the U.S. government lifted an obstacle last year. But despite the looser restrictions and the ongoing overdose crisis, a new study finds little change in the number of people taking the medication. Researchers analyzed prescriptions filled by U.S. pharmacies for the treatment drug buprenorphine. The number of prescribers rose last year after doctors no longer needed to get a special waiver to prescribe the drug, while the number of patients filling prescriptions barely budged. (Johnson, 4/24)

CNN: Surgeons Perform First Combined Heart Pump And Pig Kidney Transplant 
The first transplant surgery to combine a mechanical heart pump as well as a gene-edited pig kidney has been completed at NYU Langone Health, the system said Wednesday. (Dillinger, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: Vertical Integration In Healthcare Under Fire From Republicans 
The call to rein in giant healthcare corporations isn't just coming from the left. Conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill are growing increasingly vocal with their own demands to crack down on consolidation and vertical integration in the industry, spurred on most recently by the Change Healthcare ransomware attack. (McAuliff, 4/24)

Military.com: Toxic Exposure Screenings: Vets Report Spotty Follow-Up On Questionnaire Meant To Boost Health Care And Benefits 
Confusing. Lackluster. Generic. A little bit of a letdown. Those are some of the ways veterans are describing toxic exposure screenings they've gotten at Department of Veterans Affairs health centers, screenings that were designed as a tool to get more vets help after medical evidence accumulated that service had made many sick. Rolled out with great fanfare in November 2022, toxic exposure screenings for all VA patients were mandated by the PACT Act, the sweeping law passed in August of that year that expanded benefits and health care for millions of veterans exposed to environmental hazards during their military service. (Kheel, 4/24)

The Washington Post: Fauci Agrees To Testify In Congress On Covid Origins, Pandemic Policies
Anthony S. Fauci has agreed to testify in front of the House panel investigating the nation’s coronavirus response, the first time the prominent infectious-disease expert will publicly face Congress since leaving government nearly 1½ years ago. Fauci, who helped steer the Trump and Biden administrations’ efforts to fight the virus, is scheduled to testify June 3 in front of the House Oversight select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, with lawmakers expected to press him on the still-unknown origins of the pandemic, the government’s vaccine mandates and other issues that remain politically divisive, more than four years after the outbreak began. (Diamond, 4/24)

CIDRAP: Data: Optimal Initiation Of Paxlovid In Hospitalized COVID Patients Is 3 To 5 Days
Taking the SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drug nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) 3 to 5 days after COVID-19 symptom onset—not earlier or later—may result in the greatest reduction in viral loads, viral transmission, and viral rebound in hospitalized patients, a University of Hong Kong–led study finds. (Van Beusekom, 4/24)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves Antibiotic for Increasingly Hard-to-Treat Urinary Tract Infections
It is the first time in two decades that the F.D.A. has approved a new antibiotic for U.T.I.s, which annually affect 30 million Americans. U.T.I.s are responsible for the single-greatest use of antibiotics outside a hospital setting. (Jacobs, 4/24)

AARP: Antipsychotics Pose New Risks for People With Dementia
The use of antipsychotic medications for people with dementia has gone up in recent years, even amid warnings. A new study suggests that these drugs — developed for conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, but sometimes prescribed for dementia — pose more risks to people with dementia than previously known. In people ages 50 and older with dementia, taking antipsychotics more than doubled the risk of pneumonia, the most common cause of death in people with dementia. And along with the known threat of stroke, the drugs increased the risk of acute kidney injury, blood clots, bone fracture, heart attack and heart failure. (Szabo, 4/24)

Roll Call: Decades Of Dallying Led To Current Delay On Menthol Ban 
The Biden administration’s delay in finalizing a ban on menthol cigarettes is the result of decades of resistance, delays and industry lobbying, according to former officials and public health advocates. (Clason, 4/24)

CNBC: Walgreens Launches Cell, Gene Therapies In Service Expansion
Walgreens on Thursday said it will start to work directly with drugmakers to bring cell and gene therapies to U.S. patients as part of a broader expansion of its specialty pharmacy services. (Constantino, 4/25)

The Washington Post: Groups Sue To Block FTC’s New Rule Barring Noncompete Agreements
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups on Wednesday sued the Federal Trade Commission over a new rule that would make most noncompete agreements illegal, setting up a potential showdown over the scope of the agency’s authority. (Mark, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: Optum Layoffs Target NaviHealth Employees, Document Shows
UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Care Solutions’ naviHealth division has laid off 114 people, or 15.2% of employees in certain job classifications who work in Tennessee and remote locations. The company attributed the layoffs to “a reduction in force or restructuring” and said the positions are being eliminated, according to a document sent to employees last week and obtained by Modern Healthcare. (Berryman, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: UPMC Layoffs Hit 1,000 Employees, Citing Market Challenges
UPMC is laying off about 1,000 employees, or slightly more than 1% of its workforce. The layoffs are effective immediately, a spokesperson said Wednesday. The cuts mostly affect non-clinical, non-member-facing and administrative employees, Paul Wood, chief communications officer at UPMC, said in a statement. (Hudson, 4/24)

The Boston Globe: Steward Bankruptcy, Management Change Possible, State Officials Say
Massachusetts officials are bracing for a potential bankruptcy filing by Steward Health Care as the cash-strapped hospital system nears a deadline to repay a consortium of lenders. Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh said Wednesday that she is going “to bankruptcy school” with outside experts to prepare for what could be a major turn in the long-running struggle of the for-profit chain — one that could lead to new ownership and leadership for its eight hospitals in Massachusetts. (Weisman, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: Anthem Blue Cross Faces Lawsuit Over Discharge Delay Allegations
The California Hospital Association is suing Anthem Blue Cross of California, alleging the insurer does not follow state laws related to patient discharge requirements. The suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges the payer delays patient discharges and refuses to transfer patients from hospitals to post-acute care facilities or services such as skilled nursing, behavioral health, long-term care, rehabilitation facilities or home health services. (DeSilva, 4/24)

Stat: Generative AI For Clinical Notes Has Limitations, New Studies Show
After stratospheric levels of hype, early evidence may be bringing generative artificial intelligence down to Earth. A series of recent research papers by academic hospitals has revealed significant limitations of large language models (LLMs) in medical settings, undercutting common industry talking points that they will save time and money, and soon liberate clinicians from the drudgery of documentation. (Ross, 4/25)

The Wall Street Journal: At Moderna, OpenAI’s GPTs Are Changing Almost Everything 
Moderna is expected to announce a partnership Wednesday with artificial-intelligence heavyweight OpenAI, a deal that aims to automate nearly every business process at the biotechnology company and boost the ChatGPT maker’s reach into the enterprise. As part of the transaction, some 3,000 Moderna employees will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise, built on OpenAI’s most advanced language model, GPT-4, by the end of this week. Further integration of AI into more of its processes could help Moderna outpace its plan to roll out 15 new products within the next five years, the Cambridge, Mass., company said. (Bousquette, 4/24)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Bill Would Ban Step Therapy
Kim Albin has lost count of the number of times she’s had to battle health insurance companies over medications. Albin, who has been living with multiple sclerosis for nearly 30 years, said health insurers have told her time and again that they won’t cover medications her doctors have prescribed until she first tries alternate, often cheaper, ones. (Schencker, 4/25)

CBS News: New York Announces $33 Million For Mental Health Services. Here's How It Will Be Used
New York is making a major state-wide investment in mental health services. As part of her 2025 budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced more than $33 million will go towards expanding services for New Yorkers struggling with mental illness and involved in the criminal justice system. CBS New York spoke to mental health experts and those who have benefited from programs that will receive funding. (Maldonado, 4/24)

Stat: U.K. Hospital Tries To Bypass Drugmakers, Develop Its Own Gene Therapy
Claire Booth, a gene therapy researcher in London, had hoped that a biotech company would take her team’s work on an experimental medication for an ultra-rare children’s disease and get it to market. It didn’t happen. Now, in an unusual step, the hospital where she works is trying to get the medicine approved on its own. (Joseph, 4/25)

Stat: Colombia Issues Compulsory License For HIV Medication
After months of deliberation, the Colombian government has issued a compulsory license for an HIV medicine, the first time the country has taken such a step, one that also marks a significant move in the increasingly global battle over access to medicines. (Silverman, 4/24)