First Edition: Aug. 1, 2024

KFF Health News: Montana Designs New Hurdles For Abortion Clinics Ahead Of Vote To Protect Access
Montana is proposing wide-ranging rules for licensing abortion clinics under a disputed state law, raising a new potential obstacle for patients even as a constitutional amendment to protect access appears headed for the November ballot. The proposed rules, released July 26 by the state Department of Public Health and Human Services, would set requirements for facilities that perform abortions for or provide medication abortion to at least five patients a year, excluding hospitals and outpatient surgical centers. (Volz, 8/1)

KFF Health News: GOP Charge That Harris Backed Taxpayer-Funded Care For All Immigrants Overlooks Details
Attacking Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration, Republicans and allies of former Donald President Trump’s are saying the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate supported using taxpayer dollars to provide free health coverage to immigrants who are in the country without legal permission. Senate and House candidates, an American political action committee supporting Trump, and the Republican National Committee have made similar assertions in recent days. (Armour, 8/1)

KFF Health News: Bird Flu Cases Are Going Undetected, New Study Suggests. It's A Problem For All Of Us
A new study lends weight to fears that more livestock workers have gotten the bird flu than has been reported. “I am very confident there are more people being infected than we know about,” said Gregory Gray, the infectious disease researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch who led the study, posted online Wednesday and under review to be published in a leading infectious disease journal. “Largely, that’s because our surveillance has been so poor.” (Maxmen, 7/31)

Stat: Cancer Moonshot's Future May Hinge On Election, Advocates Say 
In President Biden’s address to the nation after dropping out of the election race, he said he would “keep fighting for my Cancer Moonshot.” He will, at least, for his remaining six months in office. Biden’s impending exit from the political stage leaves uncertainty hanging over the future of this signature health initiative, which Biden began first as vice president under Barack Obama and later renewed as president. (Chen, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Gen X And Millennials At Higher Cancer Risk Than Older Generations
Generation X and millennials are at an increased risk of developing certain cancers compared with older generations, a shift that is probably due to generational changes in diet, lifestyle and environmental exposures, a large new study suggests. In a new study published Wednesday in the Lancet Public Health journal, researchers from the American Cancer Society reported that cancer rates for 17 of the 34 most common cancers are increasing in progressively younger generations. (Bever, 7/31)

CBS News: Double Mastectomy Shows No Survival Benefit For Most Breast Cancer Patients, Study Says
Many women diagnosed with breast cancer have to weigh their options, including whether to have a double mastectomy, where both breasts are removed, in an attempt to improve long-term survival. But a new study published in JAMA Oncology followed more than 650,000 women with breast cancer in one breast for up to 20 years and found that women who underwent double mastectomy were less likely to develop cancer in the other breast, but didn't live any longer, on average, than women who didn't undergo double mastectomy. (Marshall, 7/31)

CBS News: Small-Town Patients Face Big Hurdles As Rural Hospitals Cut Cancer Care 
Chemotherapy deserts are expanding across the United States as hospitals winnow services to save money, creating financial and logistical hurdles for rural patience seeking cancer treatment. (Huff, 8/1)

Stat: Kamala Harris Potential VP Picks On Health Care 
With less than 100 days until the presidential election, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is expected to name her pick for vice president as early as this week. The pool of potential VP picks share some traits: They are largely white men from battleground or conservative-leaning states who can boast working across the aisle and bridging gaps with moderate voters. (Owermohle, 8/1)

The New York Times: Trump Questions Harris’s Racial Identity, Saying She Only ‘Became a Black Person’ Recently
Former President Donald J. Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s identity as a Black woman on Wednesday in front of an audience of Black journalists, suggesting his opponent for the presidency had adopted her racial profile as a way to gain a political advantage. “She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person,” he said of Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian American, whose father is Black and who has always identified as a Black woman. (Weisman, King and Kanno-Youngs, 7/31)

Axios: Trump Remarks On Harris' Race Echo His Birtherism About Obama
Donald Trump's audacious lie about Vice President Kamala Harris' race confirmed what many had long suspected: running against a Black woman could summon the former president's worst impulses. Trump's political rise began with a yearslong crusade to delegitimize the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama. Much has changed since 2011, but Trump has never strayed far from the conspiratorial and racist roots of the birther movement. (Basu, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Jury Convicts Man Of Illegally Accessing Justice Ginsburg’s Health Records
A 34-year-old man was convicted Wednesday of illegally accessing the private medical data of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2019 but acquitted of posting the information to an online message board where conspiracists falsely claimed Democratic politicians were covering up her death. Trent J. Russell testified in his own defense near the end of a two-day trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., repeatedly asserting that he never viewed or posted the justice’s confidential medical information, which showed details of her cancer treatments at George Washington University Hospital. (Rizzo, 7/31)

Military.com: With Medical Readiness At Stake, Pentagon Embarks On Plan To Fix The Military Health System 
The Defense Department is taking a four-pronged approach to improve military hospitals and clinics following a drop in patient load that has caused providers' skills to deteriorate. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez said Tuesday that, with roughly 60% of Defense Department medical care now provided through the civilian Tricare network, the DoD is working to attract staff and bring back patients. (Kime, 7/31)

The Hill: Effort To Patch VA Budget Shortfall Sees Conservative Resistance
Senate conservatives are showing early resistance to expediting legislation to address a roughly $3 billion budget shortfall for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), as officials warn millions of veterans’ benefits are at risk in the coming weeks. Some senators had been hopeful of passing the bipartisan bill this week amid growing concern over the shortfall. However, the effort is getting pushback from some conservatives, as Republicans have raised scrutiny over the issue. (Folley, 7/31)

Military.com: Tricare Patients Would See Lower Mental Health Care Costs Under Bill Introduced In Congress 
Out-of-pocket costs for mental health care appointments for patients in the military health care system would be capped under a bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday. Under the Stop Copay Overpay Act, Tricare users' out-of-pocket fees for outpatient behavioral and mental health visits would not be allowed to cost more than those for primary care visits. The limitation could cut patients' costs by an average of 48%, according to a news release from the office of Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., one of the bill's sponsors. (Kheel, 7/31)

MIlitary.com: Military Jobs With High Deployment Pace, Blast Exposure Correlated With Higher Suicide Rates, Data Shows 
Members of the military's combat specialties experienced higher suicide rates than other troops -- and the broader American public -- in the waning years of the War on Terror, according to numbers delivered by the Pentagon to Congress this month. The worst-hit jobs included career fields with high operational tempo and occupational exposure to explosions. Between 2011 and 2021, the enlisted job groupings with the highest suicide rates were armored and amphibious vehicle crew members, infantry, combat engineers, explosive ordnance disposal and divers, combat operations control troops, and artillerymen assigned to both guns and rocket units, according to the data. All of those specialties saw suicide rates at least 50% higher than the general population during that period. (Winkie, 7/31)

Modern Healthcare: Older Americans Act Reauthorization Passes Senate Committee
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee took the next step Wednesday in reauthorizing the expiring Older Americans Act, sending the $15 billion measure to the full Senate. The bill would increase funding for investigating abuse and poor services at long-term care facilities and includes enhanced measures for caregivers, alongside money for items such as senior centers and the Meals On Wheels program. (McAuliff, 7/31)

PoliticoPro: Q&A: US House Candidate Maxine Dexter
Congress is likely to get a new doctor next year. Maxine Dexter, a pulmonologist at Kaiser Permanente and Oregon state representative, won a crowded primary to replace Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-Ore.) Portland-area seat after he decided not to seek reelection. Dexter bested progressive Susheela Jayapal, the sister of Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), in a heavily Democratic district. (Leonard, 8/1)

Stateline: Conservatives Push To Declare Fetuses As People, With Far-Reaching Consequences
When Missourians head to the polls in November, they may get to vote on whether to overturn their state’s near-total abortion ban and legalize abortions up to the point of fetal viability. But one lawmaker says the results of that vote may not matter if his colleagues approve his bill declaring that fetuses are people. Missouri state Rep. Brian Seitz, a Republican, plans to reintroduce a bill in January that would grant “unborn children” the same rights as newborns, building on a similar Missouri law that has been on the books since the 1980s. (Claire Vollers, 7/31)

The New York Times: Why Are So Many Americans Choosing To Not Have Children? 
Last year, Ashley St. Clair, a Fox News commentator, described childless Americans this way: “They just want to pursue pleasure and drinking all night and going to Beyoncé concerts. It’s this pursuit of self-pleasure in replace of fulfillment and having a family.” Researchers who study trends in reproductive health see a more nuanced picture. The decision to forgo having children is most likely not a sign that Americans are becoming more hedonistic, they say. For one thing, fertility rates are declining throughout the developed world. (Rosenbluth, 7/31)

NBC News: After Private Equity Takes Over Hospitals, They Are Less Able To Care For Patients, Say Top Medical Researchers
After private-equity firms acquire hospitals, the facilities’ assets and resources diminish significantly, leaving the facilities less equipped to care for patients, according to a new study by physician researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York’s Hunter College. Published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the research highlights a pattern of asset stripping at health care facilities purchased by private-equity firms, its researchers said, and is the first study to analyze the activity nationwide. (Morgenson, 7/31)  

USA Today: Nearly Half Of Insured Americans Get Surprise Expenses In Medical Bills, Survey Finds.
Nearly half of Americans with health insurance said they received a recent medical bill or a charge that "should have been free or covered by their insurance," according to a survey released Thursday. The survey, from the Commonwealth Fund in New York City, found 45% of working-age consumers last year were erroneously billed, however, fewer than half of those patients challenged their health insurance company or a medical provider about the unexpected charges. (Alltucker, 8/1)

WHYY: Most U.S. Adults Don’t Know They Can Fight Insurance Denials, New Study Finds
Despite laws in states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware that aim to ensure people have access to affordable health care services, research shows that patients still receive unexpected medical bills and face insurance denials — and few of them choose to take action. A new national survey report released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund shows that fewer than half of people who experienced insurance denials and billing issues actually fought the decisions. (Leonard, 8/1)

Healthcare Dive: North Carolina To Offer Enhanced Medicaid Funds To Hospitals That Help Eliminate Medical Debt 
North Carolina will offer enhanced Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals that forgive medical debt and adopt policies designed to prevent further debt from accruing, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in a press release Monday. North Carolina is one of at least 17 states, cities and counties that have passed policies attempting to erase debt or block future medical debt from increasing, according to a recent analysis from center-left think tank the Third Way. (Vogel, 7/31)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Homes To Receive 4.2% Medicare Pay Bump In 2025
Medicare rates for skilled nursing facilities will increase 4.2% in fiscal 2025 under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published Wednesday. That's higher than the 4.1% reimbursement increase CMS proposed in March. Payments for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 are based on a 3% increase in the skilled nursing facility market basket minus a 0.5 percentage point productivity adjustment and plus a 1.7 percentage point boost to correct previous forecasts. (Eastabrook, 7/31)

Healthcare Dive: Humana Expects To Lose ‘Few Hundred Thousand’ Medicare Advantage Members Next Year 
Medicare Advantage giant Humana expects to lose a “few hundred thousand” members in its marquee business next year, after seriously shrinking its benefits and exiting markets for 2025 in a bid to boost profits, the insurer disclosed Wednesday. It’s the first time Humana has estimated membership losses from culling its plans, and squares with past guesses from market watchers. (Pifer, 7/31)

Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare Optimistic Following CMS Reimbursement Proposals
GE HealthCare cut its year-end revenue growth estimates, citing headwinds in the Chinese market — but executives pointed to potential U.S. regulatory changes as reasons for optimism. Proposed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reimbursement updates could help GE HealthCare's business lines, especially regarding products often used for cancer, cardiovascular problems and neurological disorders, said President and CEO Peter Arduini on the company's second-quarter earnings call Wednesday. (Perna, 7/31)

Healthcare Dive: Google Cuts Ties With Amazon’s One Medical 
Google will not renew its contract with Amazon’s primary care subsidiary One Medical, ending a longstanding agreement that gave Google employees access to discounted medical care, the companies confirmed to Healthcare Dive. The contract loss is a major blow for the provider. Google was One Medical’s largest customer, accounting for 10% of its revenue in 2020. That figure dipped slightly in 2021, after which One Medical stopped disclosing its finances publicly. (Pifer, 7/30)

Reuters: Massachusetts Warns Of Health 'Crisis' Amid Steward Hospital Sale Delay 
Massachusetts could face a "public health crisis" if bankrupt Steward Health Care cannot quickly complete a sale of six hospitals, an attorney for the state said Wednesday. Steward has binding purchase agreements in place for all six properties, but the sale has been delayed by a dispute between Steward and its landlords, Medical Properties Trust (MPT) and Macquarie Asset Management, a lawyer representing the office of attorney general and other state agencies said at a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing in Houston, Texas. (Knauth, 7/31)

Chicago Tribune: CVS Doubling Down On Health Care, Opening New Clinics In Chicago
CVS Health is doubling down on offering primary care, with plans to open 25 Oak Street Health clinics in its stores, including three in the Chicago area — a move that comes as competitors Walgreens and Walmart pull back on the idea. (Schencker, 7/31)

Wyoming Public Radio: A New Partnership Aims To Funnel Indigenous Peoples Into The Medical Field
Indigenous peoples around the country have a new opportunity to enter the medical field for free. It’s a way to funnel tribal members into careers while filling healthcare gaps. Health Tech Academy, a company that offers online medical training and fills staffing shortages, is partnering with the Jackson, Wyoming-based nonprofit Native American Jump Start, which helps “jumpstart” tribal members’ college and employment careers. (Merzbach, 7/31)

Stat: Malaria Vaccines: Decades-Long Race Finally Reaches Starting Line
Malaria is one of our most ancient foes — and one of the wiliest. Caused by parasites that certain mosquitoes spread through their bites, malaria overwhelms us, establishing an infection before we can put up a fight. It can go on to destroy red blood cells, batter organs, and even damage the brain. (Joseph, 8/1)

Bloomberg: Demand For Menstrual Cups Surges After Toxins Found In Tampons
More consumers appear to be ditching tampons for menstrual cups and discs.The growing shift follows a study earlier this month that showed concerning levels of lead and other toxic metals in tampons. According to The Flex Co., a maker of menstrual discs and cups, the study led to the sell-out of its period products in hundreds of Target Corp. stores across the US. (Patton, 7/31)

Bloomberg: Copycat Weight-Loss Shots' Safety Report To Be Released By Hims
Hims & Hers Health Inc., a telehealth company that offers prescriptions for knockoff weight-loss drugs, will provide quality reports about the shots starting next month, the company said in a press release Wednesday. Shortages of Novo Nordisk A/S’s and Eli Lilly & Co.’s blockbuster brand-name weight-loss drugs have given rise to what could be a $1-billion-a-year market of alternatives made by compounding pharmacies, which are allowed to produce the drugs but receive less government oversight. (Swetlitz, 7/31)

NBC News: Weight Loss Drugs Like Wegovy May Trigger Eating Disorders In Some Patients, Doctors Warn
Over the past six months, psychologist Tom Hildebrandt has seen an increase in patients with eating disorders who are taking popular weight loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound. “They start using this drug and next thing you know, they’ve developed what looks very much like anorexia nervosa,” said Hildebrandt, who leads Mount Sinai’s Center of Excellence in Eating and Weight Disorders in New York City. (Szabo, Kopf and Syal, 7/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why It’s Hard To Find A COVID Vaccine Right Now In The Bay Area
The Bay Area is in the midst of a summer COVID wave that has seen test positivity rates climb to a 30-month high and hospitalizations at their highest rate since the winter coronavirus surge waned in March. But some people trying to get a protective shot are having trouble finding them, as supplies of the existing version dwindle ahead of the fall update. Walgreens is one of at least two major health care providers in the Bay Area that no longer offers the 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine at all its locations. (Wilson and Ho, 7/31)

The Boston Globe: In Mass., Clinicians Travel To Bring Health Care To Farmworkers
At the end of the workday, a line of farm workers here make their way down a well-trodden road to a bus that serves as a mobile health clinic. Inside, they get their blood pressure taken, talk about whatever ailments they may have, and in some cases, get prescribed medications. It is a typical doctor’s visit. Except the Wellness on Wheels bus is surrounded by tobacco fields, the tall green leaves stark against the open blue sky. (Jimenez, 7/31)

Minnesota Public Radio: The Aliveness Project To Get Nearly $2 Million Fund Transfer From Rainbow Health To Close HIV Care Gap
It’s been nearly two weeks since Twin Cities-based Rainbow Health suddenly announced it was shutting down due to financial problems. The closure of the LGBTQ+ and HIV health clinic opens a huge gap in services like housing programs, benefits counseling, legal services and case management. Many of those services operated with funding from state and local governments, which are now looking for different organizations to run them. The Aliveness Project, another HIV services organization in the Twin Cities, is taking on state contracts to offer financial assistance. (Wurzer, Timar-Wilcox, Haecherl and Elder, 7/31)

The Hill: South Carolina Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty By Firing Squad, Other Methods, Legal
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that death by firing squad and other forms of execution commonly held to be cruel and unusual are legal in the state if the inmate requests the method of execution. The ruling comes after the state passed a law in 2021 allowing executions by firing squad and electrocution in addition to lethal injection, in response to a shortage of lethal injection drugs and a rise in mishaps during executions. (Robertson, 7/31)

The Wall Street Journal: For Decades, Mississippi Locked Up The Mentally Ill. It’s Trying Something Different. 
A federal judge in 2019 ordered Mississippi to effectively stop cycling people in and out of psychiatric institutions and instead offer more community services. While some states, including California, are moving to make it easier to order mentally ill people into confinement, Mississippi is now trying to keep them out. It has been slow going. (Frosch and Evans, 7/31)

The Washington Post: Maryland's Prince George’s County Opens First 24/7 Mental Health Care Center 
The Dyer Care Center, named for inventor Leonard Dyer, is a first-of-its kind behavioral health crisis stabilization center in Maryland that has been in the works for four years. Funded by a $23 million grant from the Health Services Cost Review Commission, the center located in Clinton, Md., will be open to patients within the next 30 days. Once at the Dyer Care Center, patients can spend 23 hours there receiving specialized behavioral care that meets their immediate needs. (Uber and Mettler, 7/31)

Stat: Report Identifies Two Treatable Factors That Can Lower Risk Of Dementia
Untreated vision loss and high LDL cholesterol have been added as two new potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia in a report released Wednesday by the Lancet Commission. (Rajeev, 7/31)

CNN: Replacing Red Meat Cuts Dementia Risk By 20%, Study Says
Dementia risk rose by 14% when people ate about 1 ounce of processed red meat a day — the equivalent of slightly less than two 3-ounce servings a week — compared with people who only ate about three servings a month, a preliminary new study found. (LaMotte, 7/31)

CNN: Australia Launches Peanut Allergy Immunotherapy Program For Babies In World First
Babies who have a peanut allergy are now being offered potentially life-changing treatment at hospitals across Australia in a world-first program aimed at building tolerance to them. (Kolirin, 7/31)