First Edition: May 3, 2024

KFF Health News: Oh, Dear! Baby Gear! Why Are The Manuals So Unclear? 
Since becoming a father a few months ago, I’ve been nursing a grudge against something tiny, seemingly inconsequential, and often discarded: instructional manuals. Parenthood requires a lot of gadgetry to maintain a kid’s health and welfare. Those gadgets require puzzling over booklets, decoding inscrutable pictographs, and wondering whether warnings can be safely ignored or are actually disclosing a hazard. (Tahir, 5/3)

KFF Health News: Bird Flu Is Bad For Poultry And Dairy Cows. It’s Not A Dire Threat For Most Of Us — Yet
Headlines are flying after the Department of Agriculture confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected dairy cows around the country. Tests have detected the virus among cattle in nine states, mainly in Texas and New Mexico, and most recently in Colorado, said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a May 1 event held by the Council on Foreign Relations. (Maxmen, 5/3)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'What The Health?': Abortion Access Changing Again In Florida And Arizona
A six-week abortion ban took effect in Florida this week. ... Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachana Pradhan of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too. (5/2)

KFF Health News: California Floats Extending Health Insurance Subsidies To All Adult Immigrants
Marisol Pantoja Toribio found a lump in her breast in early January. Uninsured and living in California without legal status and without her family, the usually happy-go-lucky 43-year-old quickly realized how limited her options were. “I said, ‘What am I going to do?’” she said in Spanish, quickly getting emotional. She immediately worried she might have cancer. “I went back and forth — I have [cancer], I don’t have it, I have it, I don’t have it.” And if she was sick, she added, she wouldn’t be able to work or pay her rent. (Aguilera, 5/3)

The New York Times: Immigrants With DACA Protections Will Be Eligible For Obamacare 
Thousands of undocumented immigrants will be able to obtain health care through the Affordable Care Act under a new federal rule, U.S. officials said this week. The new eligibility comes for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which since 2012 has protected undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as young people from deportation. The program also provides recipients with work permits. More than 500,000 immigrants have DACA protections but have been ineligible for benefits such as federal health insurance programs. (Aleaziz, 5/3)

AP: Arizona Governor's Signing Of Abortion Law Repeal Follows Political Fight By Women Lawmakers 
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’ signing of the repeal of a Civil War-era ban on nearly all abortions was a stirring occasion for the women working to ensure that the 19th century law remains in the past. Current and former state lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates crowded into the 9th floor rotunda outside Hobbs’ office Thursday afternoon, hugging and taking selfies to capture the moment. Some wept. “It’s a historic moment, and it’s a place and time where thrilling moments all come together,” Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton said during the signing ceremony. “It’s a time where we are doing away with what is in the past that doesn’t fit the present.” (Snow and Lee, 5/3)

News Service of Florida: Florida AHCA Issues Abortion Rules On Treating Emergency Medical Conditions
With a law now in effect preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Florida health care regulators on Thursday released rules related to treating emergency medical conditions that pose dangers to the lives of pregnant women or unborn children. The state Agency for Health Care Administration published two rules that apply to hospitals and abortion clinics. The rules came a day after the six-week law took effect that significantly restrict abortion access in the state. (Saunders, 5/2)

The Boston Globe: How Republicans Are Navigating Abortion In Their Effort To Take Back The Senate
Senator Steve Daines of Montana knows to expect questions about abortion and acknowledges it’s important for Republican candidates to get their messaging right.But the content of those messages will depend on where they are running. “We’re advising our candidates first of all to take a position on abortion that best matches the state they represent,” Daines, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters at a breakfast Thursday. (Villa de Petrzelka, 5/2)

NPR: Pregnant Women In Some States Can't Get Divorced
Missouri law requires women seeking divorce to disclose whether they're pregnant — and state judges won't finalize divorces during a pregnancy. Established in the 1970s, the rule was intended to make sure men were financially accountable for the children they fathered. Advocates in Missouri are now pushing to change this law, arguing that it's being weaponized against victims of domestic violence and contributes to the contraction of women's reproductive freedoms in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape. (Riddle, 5/3)

Modern Healthcare: Nondiscrimination Rule For Patients With Disabilities Finalized
When the rule takes effect July 1, healthcare organizations will be required to modify facilities and medical equipment to cater to patients' physical and sensory needs. Facilities will have to update features such as elevators and ramps to ensure they are functional and meet federal standards. Medical equipment such as examination tables, scales and mammogram machines will need modifications to accommodate patients using wheelchairs or will need to be replaced. In addition, healthcare organizations must ensure websites, mobile apps and virtual care programs are user-friendly for people with disabilities and remove disability status as a factor in clinical support tools. (Hartnett, 5/2)

Stat: New Medicaid Rule Could Lower Wait Times For Home-Based Care
Caregivers for older adults and people with disabilities could see a bump in their wages in the coming years, thanks to a forthcoming rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Broderick, 5/3)

Stateline: Many States Are Eager To Extend Medicaid To People Soon To Be Released From Prison
A new policy that allows states to provide Medicaid health care coverage to incarcerated people at least a month prior to their release has drawn bipartisan interest and a slew of state applications. Federal policy has long prohibited Medicaid spending on people who are incarcerated in jails or prisons, except for hospitalization. As a result, when people are released, they typically don’t have health insurance and many struggle to find health care providers and get needed treatment. (Hassanein, 5/2)

Military.com: Veterans Health Information Feared To Be Stolen In Cyberattack That Shut Down Pharmacies 
A top lawmaker is demanding answers on whether veterans' private health information was stolen in a cyberattack earlier this year after the company that was hacked acknowledged that a "substantial proportion of people in America" may have had sensitive information taken. In a letter to UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty that was publicly released Thursday, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., demanded the company be more cooperative with the Department of Veterans Affairs and immediately tell the VA whether any veterans' information was stolen in the attack on subsidiary Change Healthcare, or CHC. (Kheel, 5/2)

Stat: Congress Unlikely To Permanently Extend Telehealth Flexibilities For Now
Members of Congress appear poised to advance another short-term extension of pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities instead of permanently addressing the issue, seven sources familiar with the talks said. (Aguilar and Zhang, 5/2)

Modern Healthcare: How Marijuana Reclassification Could Spur Clinical Research
The federal government is poised to remove marijuana from the most dangerous class of drugs, which could open up more clinical treatments and research opportunities. The Justice Department is recommending reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug, down from a Schedule I drug. Its proposal, which would need to be cleared by the White House Office of Management and Budget, could allow researchers to investigate marijuana’s clinical applications more broadly. (Kacik, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: TD Bank Probe Tied To Laundering Of Illicit Fentanyl Profits 
A Justice Department investigation into TD Bank’s internal controls focuses on how Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers used the Canadian lender to launder money from U.S. fentanyl sales. The investigation was launched after agents uncovered an operation in New York and New Jersey that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from illicit narcotics through TD and other banks, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter. In that case and at least one other, prosecutors also allege the criminals bribed TD employees. (Tokar, Baer and Monga, 5/2)

Stat: H5N1 Bird Flu Virus Started Spreading In Cows In Texas In December 
As agricultural authorities and epidemiologists try to get their arms around the scope of the latest confounding chapter in the decades-long story of the H5N1 avian influenza virus — its jump into U.S. herds of dairy cattle — they’re turning to the genetic breadcrumbs the virus leaves behind in the animals’ nose, lungs, and, primarily, milk. (Molteni, 5/2)

NPR: Scientists Worry The U.S. May Be Missing Bird Flu Cases In Farm Workers 
Officially, there is only one documented case of bird flu spilling over from cows into humans during the current U.S. outbreak. But epidemiologist Gregory Gray suspects the true number is higher, based on what he heard from veterinarians, farm owners and the workers themselves as the virus hit their herds in his state. "We know that some of the workers sought medical care for influenza-like illness and conjunctivitis at the same time the H5N1 was ravaging the dairy farms," says Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. (Stone, 5/2)

Stat: Why H5N1 Bird Flu Is Keeping The CDC's Top Flu Scientist Awake
Vivien Dugan isn’t getting much sleep these days. The director of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dugan is leading the team of CDC scientists that is working with partners — in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and state and local health departments — to respond to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle. (Branswell, 5/3)

Reuters: Bird Flu Outbreak In Dairy Cows Fails To Deter US Raw Milk Sellers 
U.S. sellers of raw milk appear undeterred by federal health warnings for consumers to avoid drinking unpasteurized milk in light of a bird flu outbreak that has affected dairy herds in nine states and sickened at least one dairy farm worker. Thirty of the 50 U.S. states permit the sale of raw milk, which accounts for less than 1% percent of U.S. milk sales. A nationwide survey of pasteurized milk - heated to kill pathogens - found avian flu virus particles in about 20% of samples tested. (Baertlein, Steenhuysen and Polansek, 5/2)

CBS News: 1 Dead In Long Beach Tuberculosis Outbreak, 9 Hospitalized
One person died as a result of a tuberculosis outbreak among residents of a single-room occupancy hotel in Long Beach, health officials announced Thursday. Nine other people have been hospitalized. As of April 29, a total of 14 cases have been associated with the outbreak. Investigators have also identified 170 other people who may have been exposed. These potential patients are in the process of being screened, with additional exposures expected to increase. (Radin, 5/2)

USA Today: Michigan County Confirms Bat With Rabies, More Transmissions To Come
A bat with rabies has been found in a small Michigan county, prompting local health authorities to remind residents about the dangers of the creatures and animal bites in general. As if the start of spring couldn’t get any more batty. Washtenaw County, which has a population of over 300,000, had been “enjoying a longer stretch” with no rabies-positive animals until Monday, the day they confirmed there was a bat with rabies in their midst. The last time a bat with rabies seen in the region was in 2022. (Encinas and DeLetter, 5/2)

The Boston Globe: Moderna COVID Vaccine Sales Plummet 91 Percent
Plunging sales of Moderna’s breakthrough COVID-19 vaccine have touched off a Wall Street debate about the future of a biotech company once seen as the brightest star in the Massachusetts drug-making firmament. Sales of Moderna’s messenger RNA vaccine fell 91 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, a dramatic illustration of waning demand for protection from the virus that caused a global pandemic. The Cambridge company’s earnings report, posted Thursday, continued a downward trend for sales of the biotech’s vaccine, Spikevax. (Saltzman and Weisman, 5/2)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna Medicare Advantage Sale Advances As Company Raises Outlook
Cigna Group has taken a big step forward to exit the Medicare Advantage business, a strategy that may pay off given industry headwinds. The Justice Department has completed its review of Cigna’s Medicare Advantage sale to Health Care Service Corp., a move that would allow the company to direct more attention toward its Evernorth Health Services segment, Cigna CEO David Cordani said on its first-quarter earnings call Thursday. (Kacik, 5/2)

Modern Healthcare: Why Walmart, Walgreens Struggle To Make Healthcare Profitable
Walmart's healthcare strategy took an abrupt turn Tuesday, as the company announced plans to shutter all clinics and stop virtual care services. Industry watchers say Walmart's decision to close all 51 centers isn’t surprising, given the steep challenges retailers face to profitably deliver healthcare services. (Hudson, 5/2)

Crain's Chicago Business: Medline To Buy Ecolab’s Surgical Product Unit For $950M 
Medline Industries, the Northfield-based medical products manufacturer and distributor, has agreed to acquire the surgical equipment segment of Ecolab for nearly $1 billion. The deal, announced this week, will give Medline innovative sterile drape products for surgeons, patients and operating room equipment as well as a fluid temperature management system. (Davis, 5/2)

Chicago Tribune: After Two Strikes, Howard Brown Health Workers Ratify Contract
After a year and a half of negotiations and two strikes, a union representing 360 workers at Howard Brown has approved its first contract with the health care provider. The workers are represented by the Illinois Nurses Association but are non-nurses, including administrative staff, therapists, physician assistants and workers in the organization’s Brown Elephant thrift stores. It was ratified with 98% of members who participated voting in favor of it. (Schencker, 5/2)

CNN: Pennsylvania Nurse Sentenced To Life In Prison After Admitting She Intentionally Gave Patients Excessive Insulin Doses, Prosecutors Say 
 A Pennsylvania nurse accused of killing three patients at skilled nursing facilities around the state and attempting to kill 19 other individuals in her care pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison, according to a news release from Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry. (Balarajan, Sykes and Alvarado, 5/2)

NBC News: Colon Cancer Screening May Be Safe Every 15 Years For Some, Research Suggests
New research suggests patients with an average risk of colon cancer may only need to undergo a colonoscopy screening every 15 years instead of the recommended 10. Swedish researchers found that waiting an extra five years after a first negative colonoscopy carried about the same risk of later having a colorectal diagnosis or dying from the disease as getting screened every 10 years. Extending screening time could reduce “unnecessary invasive examinations,” according to the study published Thursday in JAMA Oncology. (Sullivan, 5/2)

The Atlantic: You Can Test Your Blood For 50 Kinds Of Cancer 
It takes a certain amount of confidence to call your biotech company Grail. According to its website, the Menlo Park–based firm got its name because its “co-founders believed a simple blood test could be the ‘holy GRAIL’ of cancer detection.” Now the company claims that its “first-of-its-kind” screening tool, called Galleri, “redefines what’s possible.” At the cost of a needle stick and $949, the company can check your blood for more than 50 forms of cancer all at once. (Mazer, 5/2)

Stat: Gilead HIV Drug Case To Be Heard By California Court 
In a boost for Gilead Sciences, the California Supreme Court agreed to review a contentious legal theory that thousands of HIV patients have used in a closely watched case to argue drugmakers can be held negligent for failing to develop a medicine. (Silverman, 5/2)

Stat: Amgen Goes All In On Injectable Obesity Treatment MariTide
Amgen said Thursday that it will no longer develop an early-stage obesity pill, and will instead focus on a more advanced injectable candidate that’s seen as a potential competitor to Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. (Chen, 5/2)

Stat: More Tobacco Lobbyists Active In Statehouses 
Around the country, statehouses from Harrisburg, Penn. to Tallahassee, Fla., are being flooded with tobacco industry lobbyists, according to a new report from the anti-smoking advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health. (Florko, 5/3)

AP: Georgia Governor Signs Law Adding Regulations For Production And Sale Of Herbal Supplement Kratom 
Georgia’s governor on Thursday signed a bill putting new regulations on the production and sale of products containing kratom, a plant-based supplement. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, prohibits the sale of kratom to anyone under 21 and says it must be kept behind a counter or in a display area that is only accessible to store employees. It also limits the concentration of kratom’s main chemical components in products sold in Georgia, imposes new labeling requirements and adds penalties for violations. (Brumback, 5/2)

The Hill: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Orders State To Ignore New Title IX Rules 
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) ordered the state on Thursday to defy new changes to Title IX that add protections for transgender students. Sanders, the onetime press secretary to former President Trump, is the latest in a growing coalition of Republican governors to explicitly reject the Biden administration’s update to the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funding. (Migdon, 5/2)

The 19th: Where Does The Supreme Court Stand On Transgender Health Care Bans?
The Supreme Court has yet to take up a case that answers the question of whether statewide bans on gender-affirming care are unconstitutional. That question, which would have far-reaching implications for trans youth and their families across the country, is at the center of a different legal battle in Tennessee the high court may choose to hear this year. Attorneys working for LGBTQ+ rights have asked the Supreme Court to determine whether the state’s trans care ban violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses. (Rummler, 5/2)

Reuters: U.S. Appeals Court Weighs Tennessee Ban On Changing Sex In Birth Certificates 
A lawyer for a group of transgender women on Thursday urged a U.S. appeals court to revive claims that Tennessee's decades-old policy of not allowing people born in the state to amend their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity violates the U.S. Constitution. A three-judge 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Nashville heard arguments in the four plaintiffs' appeal of a judge's ruling that said birth certificates are merely historical records that do not implicate the women's constitutional rights. (Wiessner, 5/2)

Fox News: Cat Owners Could Be At Higher Risk Of Schizophrenia, Study Suggests, But More Research Is Needed
Research published in Schizophrenia Bulletin found that people who are exposed to cats may have more than double the chances of developing schizophrenia and other similar mental disorders later in life. Australian researchers from the University of Queensland conducted a systematic review of 17 studies performed in 11 countries between Jan. 1, 1980, and May 30, 2023. (Rudy, 5/2)