First Edition: Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024

KFF Health News: The FDA Calls Them ‘Recalls,’ Yet The Targeted Medical Devices Often Remain In Use
In 2016, medical device giant Abbott issued a recall for its MitraClip cardiac device — “a Class I recall, the most serious type,” the FDA said. “Use of this device may cause serious injuries or death,” an FDA notice about the recall said. But neither the manufacturer nor the FDA actually recalled the device or suspended its use. They allowed doctors to continue implanting the clips in leaky heart valves in what has become a common procedure. (Hilzenrath, 8/15)

KFF Health News: Most Black Hospitals Across The South Closed Long Ago. Their Impact Endures
In the center of this historically Black city, once deemed “the jewel of the Delta” by President Theodore Roosevelt, dreams to revitalize an abandoned hospital building have all but dried up. An art deco sign still marks the main entrance, but the front doors are locked, and the parking lot is empty. These days, a convenience store across North Edwards Avenue is far busier than the old Taborian Hospital, which first shut down more than 40 years ago. (Sausser, 8/15)

KFF Health News: New Lines Of Attack Form Against The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act is back under attack. Not as in the repeal-and-replace debates of yore, but in a fresher take from Republican lawmakers who say key parts of the ACA cost taxpayers too much and provide incentive for fraud. Several House Republican leaders have called on two watchdog agencies to investigate, while Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) fired off more than half a dozen questions in a recent letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Appleby, 8/15)

USA Today: Medicare Negotiated Discounts On 10 Widely Used Prescribed Drugs
Older Americans on Medicare who take 10 widely-prescribed drugs such as Xarelto or Eliquis will get a break on the medications' list prices beginning in 2026. The Biden administration on Thursday announced Medicare negotiated discounts with pharmaceutical companies on 10 drugs prescribed to treat blood clots, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. The drugs include Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, and the insulins Fiasp and NovoLog. (Alltucker, 8/15)

Stat: Arthritis Patients, Squeezed By Medicare, Turn To Cheaper IV Drugs 
As many as 40,000 chronically ill seniors are choosing to endure uncomfortable, time-consuming intravenous infusions because Medicare doesn’t sufficiently cover far more convenient, and less distressing, at-home treatments with the arthritis drug Humira. (Howlett and Tamayo, 8/15)

CNN: Kamala Harris’ Complicated History With Medicare For All Becomes A Trump Campaign Attack Line 
 Kamala Harris may be done with Medicare for All, but Medicare for All – with a new nudge from former President Donald Trump – isn’t done with her. The Trump campaign on Wednesday attacked Harris over her past support for a move to the single-payer, government-run health care system long championed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Medicare for All gained broad support among progressive Democrats, especially those with eyes on the White House, before and during the early stages of the party’s 2020 presidential primary. (Krieg and Luhby, 8/14)

AP: Montana Supreme Court Rules Minors Don't Need Parental Permission For Abortion 
Montana’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that minors don’t need their parents’ permission to get an abortion in the state – agreeing with a lower court ruling that found the parental consent law violates the privacy clause in the state constitution. “We conclude that minors, like adults, have a fundamental right to privacy, which includes procreative autonomy and making medical decisions affecting his or her bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider free from governmental interest,” Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote in the unanimous opinion. (Hanson, 8/14)

AP: Fetus Can Be Referred To As ‘Unborn Human Being’ In Arizona Abortion Measure Voter Pamphlet
An informational pamphlet for Arizona voters, who will decide in the fall whether to guarantee a constitutional right to an abortion, can refer to an embryo or fetus as an “unborn human being,” the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday. The Arizona Supreme Court justices sided with Republican lawmakers, who drafted the language sent to all voters in the state, over proponents of the ballot measure on abortion rights. (Govindarao, 8/14)

Politico: New York Dems’ New Strategy: Prove Every GOP Lawmaker Is A Hypocrite On Abortion
Democrats in New York, following significant losses two years ago, are deploying a now-familiar playbook in half a dozen battleground House races: Accuse Republicans of opposing abortion rights, an approach that has worked in tough races across the country. The party is reviving those anti-abortion attacks in New York and say, this time, they have proof of their claims: the incumbents’ voting records. They are painting first-term GOP representatives as hypocrites in a bevy of blistering attacks. (Ngo, 8/14)

WOUB Public Media: Decision On Ohio Abortion Ban Constitutionality Later This Month
A Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge was scheduled to put out a decision today on whether the state’s six-week abortion ban law could move forward. But that’s been delayed until Aug. 29. ... Last November, voters approved a reproductive rights amendment which the ACLU of Ohio and others maintain would make the six-week ban unconstitutional. But attorneys for Republican Attorney General Dave Yost have argued parts of the law should remain in force. Ohio legislators have not removed any abortion limits in state law, saying parts of them do not violate the new amendment. Ohio’s Republican legislative leaders who dominate the General Assembly have said courts should decide the fate of existing state abortion laws. (Ingles, 8/13)

Politico: A Florida Referendum Is Putting Trump In A Bind On Abortion
Donald Trump still doesn’t have an answer on how he’ll vote on an abortion measure in his home state. And it’s about to become a lot harder for him to avoid it. Four months ago, Trump announced he favored leaving the issue of abortion to the states. Now, state-level referendums on the lightning-rod issue are making ballots across the country — including, on Monday, in the battleground state of Arizona, and on Tuesday in Missouri. (Allison and Sarkissian, 8/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Patients Who Appear Unconscious Know What’s Going On 
As many 100,000 Americans with severe brain injuries are unresponsive, showing few or no signs that they are aware of themselves or their surroundings. But one in four people with this kind of injury can perform cognitive tasks on command, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The responses were detected with brain scans that show the patients are conscious but have no motor control. The findings could influence decisions about whether to continue life support or how caregivers interact with patients who appear unconscious but might be aware of what’s happening around them. (McGinty, 8/14)

The New York Times: A.L.S. Stole His Voice. A.I. Retrieved It. 
In an experiment that surpassed expectations, implants in a patient’s brain were able to recognize words he tried to speak, and A.I. helped produce sounds that came close to matching his true voice. (Mueller, 8/14)

Stat: Lessons From ALS Patient Using Brain-Computer Interface At Home
Brain-computer interfaces are still years, and several FDA approvals, away from being available on the market. Even though industry leaders tout their eventual use for the general public, the first users of these technologies have been and will continue to be people with disabilities. (Broderick, 8/14)

ABC News: More People Are Dying From Dementia, According To New Study
Deaths from dementia have tripled in just 21 years, according to a new study published in The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. In 1999, about 150,000 Americans died from dementia, according to the study. By 2020, that number had tripled to over 450,000. (Shaik, 8/14)

CNN: Alzheimer’s Risk Rose Up To 42% With Untreated High Blood Pressure, Study Finds 
Some 46% of the 1.28 billion adults around the world with high blood pressure don’t know they have it, according to the World Health Organization. Yet living with uncontrolled hypertension may dramatically raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease for people ages 60 and older, according to a new metanalysis. (LaMotte, 8/14)

The Washington Post: Humans Undergo Midlife Molecule Changes In 40s And 60s, Stanford Study Says 
For many, middle age is associated with midlife crises and internal tumult. According to new research, it is also when the human body undergoes two dramatic bouts of rapid physical transformation on a molecular level. In a new study, scientists at Stanford University tracked age-related changes in over 135,000 types of molecules and microbes, sampled from over 100 adults. They discovered that shifts in their abundance — either increasing or decreasing in number — did not occur gradually over time, but clustered around two ages. (Sands, 8/14)

AP: Classes Across The Country Help Seniors Interact With A World Altered By AI
Older adults find themselves in a unique moment with technology. Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for seniors, from the ability to curb loneliness to making it easier for them to get to medical appointments. But it also has drawbacks that are uniquely threatening to this older group of Americans: A series of studies have found that senior citizens are more susceptible to both scams perpetrated using artificial intelligence and believing the types of misinformation that are being supercharged by the technology. Experts are particularly concerned about the role deepfakes and other AI-produced misinformation could play in politics. (Merica, 8/13)

CIDRAP: Shingles May Pose A 20% Higher Risk For Long-Term Confusion, Memory Loss
An observational study today in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy suggesting that a single episode of shingles is tied to a 20% higher risk of long-term confusion and memory loss further supports receiving the vaccine against the disease. (Van Beusekom, 8/14)

The Hill: Kids Online Safety Bill Hits GOP Roadblock In House, After Easily Clearing Senate
A bill intended to boost privacy and safety for children online that had broad bipartisan support in the Senate is stalling in the House amid resistance from leadership, putting a spotlight on Republican divisions on tech policy. Supporters of the legislation are outwardly optimistic about advancing it before the end of the year, hoping momentum from the Senate passage will prove the House resistance to be a speed bump rather than a brick wall. (Brooks, 8/14)

Roll Call: Surgeon General Hones Dual Focus On Mental Health, Gun Violence 
The nation’s top doctor said the United States is “falling short” in protecting the public health of children and adolescents from the impact of social media and firearm violence — and both are areas where he wants Congress to take additional action. (Raman, 8/14)

The New York Times: Trial In Texas School Shooting Asks: Could The Gunman’s Parents Have Stopped It? 
The case, against the parents of a gunman who killed 10 people in Santa Fe, Texas, in 2018, is among the first in which school shooting victims are trying to hold parents liable in civil court. (Goodman and McGee, 8/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Africa Mpox Outbreak A Global Health Emergency, WHO Declares 
The rapid spread of Mpox in Africa constitutes an international health emergency, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, marking the second time in two years that the virus has triggered such a declaration by the United Nations agency. “The potential for further spread in Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general. “It’s clear that a coordinated response is essential to save lives.” (Bariyo, 8/14)

CIDRAP: Vaccines For Children Program Marks 30 Years Of Kids' Immunization Success, Yet Gaps Remain 
Thirty years since its inception, the US Vaccines for Children (VFC) program has tracked several successes but still has areas for improvement, according to a Vital Signs report published yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 1994, the VFC has provided childhood vaccines at no cost to eligible children, including American Indian or Alaska Native children, those insured by Medicaid or Indian Health Service (IHS), the uninsured, and kids who had received at least one vaccination at an IHS-operated center, Tribal health center, or urban Indian health care facility. (Soucheray, 8/14)

Modern Healthcare: Price Transparency Prompts Aetna Lawsuits Over Health Plan Costs
Employers plagued by escalating healthcare spending are suing the health insurance companies that manage their benefits in a trend that could disrupt the group health plan market. A recent spate of policies has given employers greater insights into how insurers acting as third-party administrators manage their self-funded health plans. Several large businesses are using this information to support lawsuits alleging CVS Health subsidiary Aetna is not fulfilling its fiduciary responsibility under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, also known as ERISA, to control health benefit costs. (Berryman, 8/14)

Crain's Chicago Business: Allstate Selling Benefits Business For $2B
Allstate will sell its employer voluntary benefits business to StanCorp Financial Group (The Standard) for $2 billion, the company said in a press release last night. The Northbrook-based insurance giant said the sale was the first in a strategic plan to find other companies to take on the business of its health and benefits holdings. (Asplund, 8/14)

Modern Healthcare: Elevance Health Forms Mosaic Health With Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
Elevance Health closed its deal with private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice to form a primary care company, and named the venture Mosaic Health. Mosaic Health will provide primary care services from Millennium Physician Group and digital health services from Apree Health, two businesses of Clayton, Dubilier. (DeSilva, 8/14)

Modern Healthcare: Clean Energy Investments May Pay Off For AdventHealth, OhioHealth
As the Creek Fire scorched central California in September 2020, first responders warned administrators at Valley Children’s Healthcare they might be forced to shut off power lines and electrical equipment to stop the fire from spreading. ... But the close call — and financial incentives from federal tax credits — helped Ratan Milevoj, assistant chief strategy officer at Valley Children’s in Madera, convince the board of trustees to invest in renewable energy. (Kacik, 8/14)

Health News Florida: Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Appeals The $208 Million Award In 'Maya' Trial
Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital is taking steps to appeal paying $208 million in damages to a family after a jury ruled it falsely imprisoned a 10-year-old girl, which contributed to her mother's suicide. The award was granted to the family of Maya Kowalski, and her case was profiled in a June 2023 Netflix documentary, “Take Care of Maya.” (Schreiner, 8/14)

Axios: Osteopaths Seek More Slots On Federal Research Panels
Osteopathic physicians have similar jobs and training to M.D.s. But they say they're lagging far behind when it comes to representation on federal panels that make key recommendations on medical research funding and policy. The disparity could keep federal dollars from programs that teach one-quarter of America's future physicians and perpetuate negative perceptions that hurt newly minted D.O.s' chances of getting into certain residencies. (Goldman, 8/15)

The Wall Street Journal: The Fight Against DEI Programs Shifts To Medical Care 
Black men and women are at least two times as likely as white Americans to die from strokes. Hospitals around the country have long sought to bring those numbers down. Now, the Cleveland Clinic, a prestigious hospital system, is being accused of illegally discriminating on the basis of race for operating a program to prevent and treat strokes and other conditions among minority patients. (Francis and Evans, 8/14)

Bloomberg: Eli Lilly Demands Doctors Stop Selling Copycat Obesity Drugs Like Zepbound
Eli Lilly & Co. sent a wave of letters to US health care providers in recent days demanding they stop promoting copycat weight-loss drugs as supply of the company’s brand-name medicines improves. The cease-and-desist letters went to telehealth companies, wellness centers and medical spas, a Lilly spokesperson said. Several brick-and-mortar clinics also received letters, according to interviews and records reviewed by Bloomberg News. (Swetlitz and Muller, 8/14)

Stat: Eli Lilly’s Billions: Can The Company Keep Inventing Drugs At This Pace?
On Tuesday, Eli Lilly unveiled a towering 346,000-square-foot laboratory in Boston’s Seaport District, a building that will house 500 of the company’s scientists — 300 of whom are still to be hired — who will focus on medicines that work by exploiting the basic mechanisms of human genetics. Another 200 people will be part of companies Lilly will incubate. It’s a sizeable and conspicuous bet. It’s also the latest attempt to deal with one of the biggest challenges in drug development: What should a company do when it wins big? (Herper, 8/14)

Bloomberg: Avon Urged To Slow Bankruptcy While Cancer Victims Get Organized
Beauty brand Avon Products Inc. should slow down its bankruptcy case so that people who allegedly got cancer from the company’s products have time to study any potential payout plan, a lawyer said in court Wednesday. Victims deserve a special committee to represent them in the Chapter 11 case, said Todd Phillips, a lawyer for people who claim Avon’s talc products are responsible for their health problems. (Church and Ma, 8/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco's Fatal Overdoses Drop Again
In a hopeful sign that San Francisco’s devastating overdose crisis may be turning a corner, the city saw the number of fatal overdoses fall for the second consecutive month — to 39 in July. That’s the lowest single-month figure since the city began releasing monthly figures in January 2020. July’s numbers follow a decline seen in June, when 49 people died of overdoses — the lowest monthly number in nearly two years. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” Dr. Grant Colfax, city and county of San Francisco director of health, said at a news conference Wednesday. (Ho, 8/14)

AP: Hidden Report Reveals How Workers Got Sick While Cleaning Up Ohio Derailment Site 
The creeks around East Palestine, Ohio, were so badly contaminated by last year’s disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became sick during the cleanup. Workers who reported headaches and nausea — while shooting compressed air into the creek bed, which releases chemicals from the sediment and water — were sent back to their hotels to rest, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press about their illnesses. The findings were not released to the public last spring, despite residents’ concerns about the potential health effects of exposure to the long list of chemicals that spilled and burned after the disaster. (Funk, 8/14)

Enlace Latino NC: The Fight To Ease A Health Crisis Among North Carolina's Farmworkers
Lilian Melgar Martínez started her day at 5 a.m. to harvest tobacco and sweet potatoes in the fields of Duplin County in North Carolina. As temperatures sweltered and the work days stretched into night, sometimes she would faint. The demanding schedule was gradually taking a toll on her health as the relentless pressure from supervisors only intensified. Melgar Martínez has lived in the state for about 20 years, most of which has been as an agricultural worker. Along with her husband and their children, the family has worked in the fields for years. Despite their critical role in an agriculture industry that generates over $70 billion annually in North Carolina, they have faced persistent barriers to essential healthcare services, including annual exams, vaccinations, and screenings for chronic conditions. (Cotto, 8/14)