Modern Healthcare: Congress Passes Stopgap Funding Bill That Delays DSH Cuts
Congress delayed looming cuts to hospitals, extended community health center funding and addressed a slew of other healthcare priorities in a temporary spending bill that passed Thursday. The measure prevents a partial government shutdown that would have started Friday. Once President Joe Biden signs the legislation, Congress will face a pair of deadlines to fund the government and reauthorize various programs with action on some issues needed by March 1 and others by March 8. (McAuliff, 1/18)

AP: Congress Passes Short-Term Spending Bill That Averts A Government Shutdown
In Thursday afternoon’s vote, 107 House Republicans voted to keep federal agencies funded and 106 voted against the measure. To almost lose the majority of his conference underscores the challenges facing the new speaker and signals the difficulty he will have in striking a deal that will not alienate many of his GOP colleagues. They are clamoring for deeper non-defense spending cuts and myriad conservative policy mandates. Meanwhile, 207 Democrats voted for the resolution and only two voted against. (Jalonick and Freking, 1/18)

More health care news from the federal government —

Bloomberg: US Health Department Cyber Attack Led To Millions In Grant Money Being Stolen
Hackers stole millions of dollars in grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services last year in a series of attacks, according to two people familiar with the matter. Between late March and mid-November, the hackers gained access to an HHS system that processes civilian grant payments and withdrew about $7.5 million intended to be awarded to five accounts, said the people, who asked not to be named as the details aren’t public. (Griffin, 1/18)

Axios: Lloyd Austin Called To Testify In Congress On Hospitalization
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was requested to testify before Congress about not immediately disclosing his recent hospitalization to the White House. House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ohio) said in a letter to Austin Thursday that his "unwillingness to provide candid and complete answers" on his health meant his testimony was required at a Feb. 14 hearing "regarding decisions made to withhold information" from President Biden, Congress and the American people. (Falconer, 1/18)

Politico: Grassley Released From Hospital 
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest and longest-serving senator, has been released from the hospital after treatment for an infection, his office announced Thursday. "Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been discharged from the hospital and expects to be back to work next week,” an unsigned statement from his office said. (Snyder, 1/18)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'What The Health?': The Supreme Court Vs. The Bureaucracy 
The Supreme Court this week took up a case brought by two herring fishing companies that could shake up the way the entire executive branch administers laws passed by Congress. At stake is something called “Chevron deference,” from the 1984 case Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The ruling in that case directs federal judges to accept any “reasonable” interpretation by a federal agency of a law that’s otherwise ambiguous. Overturning Chevron would give the federal judiciary much more power and executive branch agencies much less. (1/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Raise Prices Of Ozempic, Mounjaro And Hundreds Of Other Drugs
Companies including Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, and Eli Lilly, which sells Mounjaro, raised list prices on 775 brand-name drugs during the first half of January, according to an analysis for The Wall Street Journal by 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit drug-pricing analytics group. The drugmakers raised prices of their medicines by a median 4.5%, though the prices of some drugs rose by around 10% or higher, according to the research group. The median increase is higher than the rate of inflation, which ticked up to 3.4% in December. (Calfas, 1/18)

CBS News: Drugmakers Hiking Prices For More Than 700 Medications, Including Ozempic And Mounjaro 
Not all medications saw price hikes, with the analysis finding that about two dozen medications dropped sharply in price at year start, including some popular insulin products. Other medications that saw price cuts include: Erectile dysfunction drug Cialis dropped 19%; Antidepressant Prozac declined 18%; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication Advair declined 22% to 60%, depending on the formulation. (Picchi, 1/18)

Stat: Klobuchar Urges Drugmakers To Remove Patents FTC Calls Improper
Amid a push to crack down on patent abuse by the pharmaceutical industry, a key U.S. lawmaker is urging six large drug companies to remove dozens of patents that were identified by regulators as improperly or inaccurately listed with a federal registry. (Silverman, 1/18)

Stat: Merck, J&J CEOs Could Be Subpoenaed By Bernie Sanders
Senate health committee chair Bernie Sanders has taken a step toward subpoenaing the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck related to an investigation into high drug prices in the United States, he announced Thursday. The step is highly unusual, as the health committee hasn’t issued a subpoena in more than 40 years. (Cohrs, 1/18)

Also —

Capitol News Illinois: Illinois Bill Would Make Prescription Drug Cost Oversight Board
A new bill in the Illinois General Assembly would create a board of health care experts that would have the authority to set price limits on prescription medications. House Bill 4472 was introduced Wednesday by Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, and Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria. Using a variety of information related to the medication’s market, including the number of people taking the medication and its out-of-pocket cost, the board would assess its price. If the board finds it to be unreasonable, it could limit the amount wholesalers, pharmacies and hospitals can bill insurers and consumers for the drug. (Abbeduto, 1/18)

Stat: Test For Long Covid? Researchers Find New Clue In Blood Samples
Long Covid has long eluded scientists looking for its cause. Not knowing what triggers its persistent and distressing symptoms makes the condition challenging to treat; it’s hard to even say definitively who has it. New research published Thursday in Science has identified proteins present in the blood of people with long Covid that could point the way to a much-needed diagnostic test and possibly to future therapeutic targets. (Cooney, 1/18)

The Mercury News: Long Covid Creates Changes In The Blood, Aiding Detection: New Study
An international team of scientists has found distinct changes in the blood of people with long COVID, suggesting a potential strategy to diagnose and perhaps treat a mysterious condition that takes many forms. The study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, adds to our understanding of long COVID, the lingering and often debilitating symptoms experienced by some people. One significant finding revealed shifts in proteins the body produces in response to inflammation that may persist months after infection. Another detected blood clots and tissue injury. (Krieger, 1/18)

Long covid patients testify on Capitol Hill —

CIDRAP: Patients, Experts Take Center Stage At Senate Long-COVID Hearing 
Before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) committee today, patients battling long COVID and the mother of a teen patient detailed the day-to-day struggles with the condition and the obstacles in getting care. Also, healthcare providers and researchers described the challenges in managing and studying a condition with a wide spectrum of health impacts and debilitating effect on patients. Today's hearing attracted a large crowd of patients and their advocates that spilled over into a second room. (Schnirring, 1/18)

Roll Call: Long COVID Advocates Ask Congress To Improve Federal Response  
“We are living through the largest mass disabling event in modern history,” Angela Meriquez Vázquez, a long COVID patient from Los Angeles, testified to the committee. ... Witnesses outlined ways in which Congress and the administration could improve the national response. Tiffany Walker, an internist and long COVID researcher with Emory University, testified that clinical trials run by the National Institutes of Health’s $1.15 billion RECOVER initiative were valuable, but were too slow and siloed to address long COVID in real time. (Clason, 1/18)

The Atlantic: Long COVID Is Now The Biggest Pandemic Risk For Most People
Although tens of thousands of Americans are still being hospitalized with COVID each week, emergency rooms and intensive-care units are no longer routinely being forced into crisis mode. Long COVID, too, appears to be a less common outcome of new infections than it once was. But where the drop in severe-COVID incidence is clear and prominent, the drop in long-COVID cases is neither as certain nor as significant. (Wu, 1/18)

More on the spread of covid —

Stat: Head Of FDA's Diagnostics Center, Who Led Through Covid, Retires
Timothy Stenzel, the federal regulator who led the Food and Drug Administration’s diagnostics division during the chaotic time of Covid-19 pandemic, has left the agency. The FDA confirmed Thursday that Stenzel, who led the FDA’s office of in vitro diagnostics, retired at the end of 2023. (Lawrence, 1/18)

PBS NewsHour: As COVID Cases Rise, Doctors Worry About The Consequences Of Misinformation
This week, speaking before a crowd of Republicans in New Hampshire, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out another falsehood about COVID vaccines. “Every booster you take, you’re more likely to get COVID as a result of it,” said DeSantis, one of several political leaders who have consistently and without evidence challenged the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Public health experts and doctors are worried that this kind of misinformation is still shaping how people perceive the virus and tools designed to protect individuals and communities against COVID’s worst outcomes. (Santhanam, 1/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco To Close Remaining Community COVID Vaccination Sites
San Francisco will close its remaining community COVID-19 vaccination sites next month. The city’s health department, citing a lack of funding and demand, confirmed on Thursday that it will permanently cease giving shots at the six remaining neighborhood health centers in mid-February. “Throughout the last four years, we received state and federal funding that allowed us to innovate and make San Francisco a model for mounting a response to COVID-19,” said Asa King, deputy director of community health at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “We led the way in terms of having low deaths.” (Vaziri, 1/18)

On covid treatments —

CIDRAP: Oral Antiviral Simnotrelvir Shows Promise For Treating Mild COVID-19 
Today in the New England Journal of Medicine Chinese researchers have published positive trial results of simnotrelvir, an oral antiviral that can shorten the duration of mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms. Unlike with Paxlovid or other antivirals tested against the virus, the simnotrelvir trial was conducted on mostly healthy young adults, none of whom had severe symptoms. The study included 1,208 patients enrolled at 35 sites in China; 603 were assigned to receive simnotrelvir, and 605 to receive placebo. The study ran from August to December 2022. (Soucheray, 1/18)

Reuters: Ex-Pfizer Employee Convicted Of Insider Trading On COVID Drug Trial 
A former employee of Pfizer Inc was convicted of insider trading on Thursday for buying stock options in November 2021 just before Pfizer announced clinical trial results for the COVID antiviral drug Paxlovid, federal prosecutors said. A federal jury in Manhattan found Amit Dagar, 44, of Hillsborough, New Jersey, guilty on one count of securities fraud, prosecutors said. Prosecutors alleged Dagar had traded and tipped a friend on Nov. 4, 2021, the day before the drug maker announced that Paxlovid had performed well in the trial. (1/18)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Unveils Integrated Mental Health Pilot Program
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is testing a new community-based behavioral health services model that aims to improve access and quality, the Health and Human Services Department announced Thursday. Under the Innovation in Behavioral Health Model, physical and mental healthcare providers will form interprofessional care teams with community organizations, which will coordinate care for Medicare and Medicaid enrollees with mental illnesses and substance-use disorders. (Bennett, 1/18)

NorthJersey.com: NJ Law Removes Barrier For Online Therapy To Ease Mental Health Crisis
New Jersey mental health professionals can now practice in 31 other states thanks to a bill Gov. Murphy signed into law Wednesday. Bill S3061 also lets licensed counselors from other states practice in New Jersey through telehealth services, bypassing the need for multiple state licenses. Developed in response to the mental health crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, the law aims to ease the shortage of mental health practitioners as reports of depression, substance abuse and suicide are on the rise. (Myers, 1/19)

If you need help —

Dial 988 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.

Also —

NPR: TBIs Can Affect The Brain Long After Abuse Ends
At least one in four women — and a much smaller proportion of men — experiences intimate partner violence in their lifetime. The resultant injuries, like brain trauma, can affect people for the rest of their lives. Domestic violence often looks like repeated blows to the head or frequent strangulation, which hurt the brain triggering brain cells to die or by depriving it of oxygen. And when those incidents happen again and again, they can trigger a slew of other mental problems: PTSD, memory loss, difficulty thinking, and even dementia. (Hamilton, Ramirez, Barber, and Cirino, 1/19)

On gun violence and its effect on mental health —

The New York Times: Justice Department Finds ‘Unimaginable Failure’ in Uvalde Police Response
A near-total breakdown in policing protocols hindered the response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead — and the refusal to rapidly confront the killer needlessly cost lives, the Justice Department concluded on Thursday after a nearly two-year investigation. The department blamed “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training” for the delayed and passive law enforcement response that allowed an 18-year-old gunman with a semiautomatic rifle to remain inside a pair of connected fourth grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School for 77 minutes before he was confronted and killed. (Sandoval, Thrush and Goodman, 1/18)

The Wall Street Journal: What to Know About ‘Significant Failure’ Described in Uvalde Massacre Report
The report points to a number of missteps after the shooting that made matters worse. Hundreds of parked and locked law enforcement vehicles blocked ambulances from responding and, once law enforcement went into the classroom, children with gunshot wounds were tossed into school buses to be driven for help. “The parents had just witnessed their child coming out of the building covered in blood,” the report said. “The parent was running to get their child and instead, due to this interaction, the bus with their injured child left the grounds.” (Findell and Gurman, 1/18)

NPR: Harris Is Leading On Gun Violence Prevention. Will It Reach Young Voters? 
Vice President Harris says young voters could create a "sea change" on the issue of gun violence prevention if they turn out and vote. It's an issue that the Biden campaign says will help motivate a key part of its base of support — and one where it sees Harris as being an effective messenger. "On this issue, it is a lived experience," Harris told U.S. mayors in Washington on Thursday, describing what she's learned from talking to younger people about the gun violence epidemic. (Sullivan, 1/19)

The 19th: Gun Safety Group GIFFORDS Names Emma Brown As New Director
In news shared exclusively with The 19th, GIFFORDS, the gun safety advocacy organization founded by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has named veteran campaign manager Emma Brown as its new executive director. The group recently marked its 10-year anniversary, and as the 2024 races shape up it is looking to connect with purple- and red-state voters around gun safety and gun violence prevention. (Gerson, 1/18)

CBS News: Biden-Harris Campaign To Unveil New Effort To Push Abortion Rights Advocacy Ahead Of Roe Anniversary
President Biden's reelection campaign is preparing to highlight abortion rights in the lead-up to the anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, CBS News has learned, seeking to tie the upcoming election to a "woman's right to make her own health care decisions — including the very possible reality of a MAGA Republican-led national abortion ban." The extensive plans include ad buys, campaign rallies and events across the U.S. organized in lockstep with the Democratic National Committee, which will launch opinion pieces in local newspapers focusing on statewide abortion bans. (Cordes, Mizelle, and Gómez, 1/18)

Axios: Roe V. Wade Anniversary Reheats Abortion Wars
Roe v. Wade may be history but Monday's anniversary of the 1973 decision is providing a potent rallying point for both sides in the abortion wars. Amid a showdown over funding the government, House Republican leaders brought up a pair of symbolic bills they said would protect pregnant women's rights but that Democrats contend would further erode abortion access. (Knight, 1/19)

The New York Times: What To Know About The Federal Law At The Heart Of The Latest Supreme Court Abortion Case 
One of the newest battlefields in the abortion debate is a decades-old federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known by doctors and health policymakers as EMTALA. The issue involves whether the law requires hospital emergency rooms to provide abortions in urgent circumstances, including when a woman’s health is threatened by continuing her pregnancy. But, as with many abortion-related arguments, this one could have broader implications. Some legal experts say it could potentially determine how restrictive state abortion laws are allowed to be and whether states can prevent emergency rooms from providing other types of medical care, such as gender-affirming treatments. (Belluck, 1/18)

More abortion news —

The Hill: Biggs Bill Tells Providers To Display Ultrasound Images To Those Seeking An Abortion 
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation Thursday to “ensure” pregnant people receive an ultrasound and are offered a chance to see its images before consenting to an abortion. The legislation says abortion providers “shall” perform an ultrasound, “provide a complete medical description of the ultrasound images” — including size of the embryo and whether there is cardiac activity — and show the images to the mother. (Suter, 1/18)

The Texas Tribune: In Amarillo, A Petition Forces The Abortion Travel Ban Issue
Ever since the so-called abortion travel ban crossed the desks of Amarillo’s city leaders in October, a majority of members did something very few municipal Texas lawmakers before them have — questioned it. Ordinances banning motorists from using city roads to transport women en route to an abortion have already passed in Odessa and Little-River Academy, as well as Lubbock, Cochran, Goliad, Mitchell and Dawson counties. (Carver, 1/18)

The 19th: Missouri Advocates Launch Ballot Measure Campaign To Restore Abortion Access
A coalition of abortion rights advocates in Missouri is formally launching a campaign to pass a constitutional amendment restoring a right to abortion, one of two ballot measure efforts in the state this year. (Panetta, 1/18)

AP: March For Life: Anti-Abortion Activists Brace For Challenges Ahead
A year ago, anti-abortion activists from across the U.S. gathered for their annual March for Life with reason to celebrate: It was their first march since the Supreme Court, seven months earlier, had overturned the nationwide right to abortion. At this year’s march, on Friday, the mood will be very different — reflecting formidable challenges that lie ahead in this election year. (Crary, 1/18)

In other reproductive health news —

Military.com: Navy Redesigns Its Pregnancy Policy To Give Sailors More Choice, Career Stability 
The Navy revamped its pregnancy policy this week into an opportunity for sailors to negotiate a new assignment that's far more like a regular rotation instead of a cursory transfer to a nearby, available shore-duty opening. The new policy, unveiled in an administrative message Tuesday, says that sailors who become pregnant while on sea duty will now be able to choose two-year orders to a shore command that lines up with their needs and careers. (Toropin, 1/18)

CBS News: SEIU MN & IA Members Ratify Agreement With Planned Parenthood For First Union Contract
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa members who work at Planned Parenthood North Central States ratified their first tentative agreement on Wednesday evening, which they are calling "historic." The agreement was ratified with 84% support from members. The three-year agreement goes into effect immediately, retroactive to Jan. 1. (Lofgren, 1/18)

WFSU: Care For Florida Moms And Expectant Parents Is At The Center Of Health Bills 
In Florida, finding care during pregnancy and in the year following birth can be a struggle. This session, the Republican-controlled Legislature is working to address that with measures that would shrink maternity care deserts and by looking for ways to better educate the public. But some Democrats say the state is also moving forward with rules that are making access to care harder and in some cases putting the life of pregnant people in danger. (McCarthy, 1/18)

North Carolina Health News: Experts Of Color Gather To Tackle The Black Maternal Health Gap
Ten days after Jonisha Brown gave birth to her second son, she was sitting at home talking with a “well-wisher” who came to see her and the new baby. All of a sudden, she said, she felt a strange pressure in her chest. It was a feeling Brown, a family medicine physician in Charlotte, had never experienced before and one that wouldn’t go away. The sensation developed into uncontrollable vomiting and shortness of breath. (Crumpler, 1/19)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Financial Pressures Push More M&A
Nearly a third of announced hospital and health system mergers and acquisitions last year involved a financially distressed partner, a new report shows. Waning COVID-19 relief funds and high labor costs pinched hospital margins in 2023, causing many health systems to seek financial stability with M&A partners. About 28% of announced merger and acquisition proposals included a hospital or health system in financial distress, up from 15% in 2022, according to a report published Thursday by Kaufman Hall. (Kacik, 1/18)

Modern Healthcare: BrightSpring IPO Values Company At Nearly $3B
KKR-backed BrightSpring Health Services plans to raise approximately $960 million in an initial public offering that would value the company at about $3 billion. The home health provider announced plans to go public earlier this month. On Wednesday, it updated its regulatory filing, saying it planned to sell 53.3 million shares of stock priced between $15 and $18 per share. Shares would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol BTSG. The company said it will use most of the proceeds to pay down debt. (Eastabrook, 1/18)

Stateline: ‘Shell Game’: When Private Equity Comes To Town, Hospitals Can See Cutbacks, Closures
Peggy Malone walks the quiet halls of Crozer-Chester Medical Center, the Pennsylvania hospital where she’s worked as a registered nurse for the past 35 years, with the feeling she’s drifting through a ghost town. ... Her community — her hospital — is a cautionary tale for what can happen when private equity comes to town. “We want to give good patient care,” she told Stateline. “We want to not be using broken equipment and piecing supplies together. But we don’t have the power to stop what’s happening.” (Claire Vollers, 1/18)

Stat: Hospitals Offer Their Custom-Built Tech For Sale In Search Of New Revenue Streams
Hospitals aren’t usually in the business of selling technology tools. But that’s changing thanks to a collision of financial pressures and an explosion of new technology that could both improve patients’ health and ease the burden of administrative tasks on limited staff. (Ravindranath, 1/19)

Stat: Humana Cuts Profit Projections As Medicare Advantage Costs Soar
Humana’s Medicare Advantage enrollees got care in the hospital and physician clinics way more often than the company predicted at the end of 2023, forcing the health insurance giant on Thursday to drastically slash its profit projections for both 2023 and 2024. (Herman, 1/18)

In legal news —

Reuters: Chicago's NorthShore Hospital To Pay $55 Mln In Class-Action Settlement 
NorthShore University HealthSystem in Illinois has agreed to pay $55 million to resolve a consumer class-action lawsuit in U.S. federal court that would mark the end of more than a decade of litigation over a merger with a rival suburban Chicago hospital. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in a filing on Wednesday disclosed the terms of the settlement with NorthShore, which followed what they described as years of “extensive” evidence collection and “aggressive” legal wrangling over its 2000 merger with rival Highland Park Hospital. (Scarcella, 1/18)

KFF Health News: In This Oklahoma Town, Most Everyone Knows Someone Who’s Been Sued By The Hospital
It took little more than an hour for Deborah Hackler to dispense with the tall stack of debt collection lawsuits that McAlester Regional Medical Center recently brought to small-claims court in this Oklahoma farm community. Hackler, a lawyer who sues patients on behalf of the hospital, buzzed through 51 cases, all but a handful uncontested, as is often the case. She bantered with the judge as she secured nearly $40,000 in judgments, plus 10% in fees for herself, according to court records. (Black and Levey, 1/19)

Houston Chronicle: UMMC Hospital Leader Sentenced To 21 Months In Prison
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison last week sentenced a Houston businessman who ran the embattled United Memorial Medical Center hospital to 21 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $11 million in restitution in connection with a federal conspiracy charge, according to documents made public Wednesday. The charge stemmed from an $8 million loan Syed Rizwan Mohiuddin obtained in 2010 with fraudulent records, documents show. (Gill, 1/18)

More hospital news —

WUFT: North Florida Regional Hospital Suspends Surgeries Amid Concerns Over Equipment Sterilization
North Florida Regional Medical Center, one of the state’s largest hospitals, is abruptly suspending surgeries for at least four days to deal with concerns about its processes to sterilize surgical instruments. (Sandoval, 1/18)

WGCU: Lee Health Says Its Emergency Departments Are At Capacity And Recommends Alternatives
Lee Health on Wednesday said it is reaching capacity in its emergency rooms and hospitals as seasonal residents and visitors flood into Southwest Florida and the area population increases. Lee Memorial Hospital reported having more than 1,000 visitors to its emergency rooms on Tuesday. (1/18)

Boston Globe: Could High School Initiative Help Address Hospital Worker Shortage?
The Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers will be revamped to create a guaranteed path to jobs at Mass General Brigham thanks to a multimillion-dollar investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation announced Wednesday. The school, an in-district charter within Boston Public Schools, is one of 10 schools and districts around the country that will be funded by a new $250 million initiative. (Huffaker, 1/18)

On artificial intelligence —

Stat: Microsoft Launches AI Tool For Clinical Documentation Through Epic
Microsoft on Thursday said it will launch its artificial intelligence tool for automating clinical documentation within health records software made by Epic, a move to embed the technology in health systems nationwide. (Ross and Trang, 1/18)

Politico: The World Health Organization's AI Warning 
Governments should assess and approve advanced AI models intended for use in health care and medicine if their resources allow, the World Health Organization said in a set of artificial intelligence ethics and governance recommendations released Thursday. (Paun, Payne, Schumaker and Reader, 1/18)

St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri Sets Record Enrollment In The Insurance Marketplace
More than 340,000 Missourians signed up for plans on the federal health insurance marketplace before open enrollment drew to a close, a more than 35% increase compared with the year before, according to preliminary data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Fentem, 1/18)

The Baltimore Sun: Record Number Of Marylanders Sign Up For Health Coverage On State Marketplace; Enrollment Up By 17% 
A record number of Marylanders signed up for coverage on the state’s health benefit exchange during this year’s open enrollment period, leadership at the exchange announced at a Thursday news conference. During open enrollment, which began Nov. 1 and ended on Monday, 213,895 people enrolled in coverage through Maryland Health Connection — the state’s health insurance marketplace. That’s 17% more than the 182,166 Marylanders who enrolled last year, said Michele Eberle, executive director of Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. (Roberts, 1/18)

The CT Mirror: CT Health Care Open Enrollment Draws Record Numbers, Officials Say
Leaders at Connecticut’s Affordable Care Act exchange reported a record number of sign-ups for health plans during the open enrollment period that ended Monday. A total of 129,000 people enrolled in a qualified health plan for 2024, compared to 108,142 during last year’s enrollment period. This year’s program ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15. Coverage began on Jan. 1 for people who signed up from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15. For those who enrolled between Dec. 16 and Jan. 15, coverage starts Feb. 1. (Carlesso, 1/18)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

CBS News: Florida Senate Unanimously Passed 'Comprehensive' Health Plan
The Florida Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a wide-ranging plan that President Kathleen Passidomo and other supporters tout as a strategy to expand health care access as the state's population continues to grow. The plan, which is in two bills, includes trying to increase the number of doctors in the state, shifting patients away from emergency rooms, creating new facilities for women to have babies, and boosting health innovation efforts. (1/19)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Washington University Dedicates New Neurosciences Building
The Washington University School of Medicine celebrated Thursday the opening of its 11-story Neuroscience Research Building, touted as one of the largest neuroscience research buildings in the world, built to match the school’s reputation as the nation’s premier research institution in neurology. (Munz, 1/18)

Houston Chronicle: Healthcare For The Homeless Houston Launches Street Medicine Program
On a cold Wednesday morning, a doctor, a medical assistant and a community health worker drove a minivan along Brays Bayou on the lookout for a man named Steve. ... They parked nearby and unloaded backpacks filled with medical supplies — a blood pressure cuff, an oximeter, syringes, vials, gloves. Each wore a blue vest with the words “HHH Street Medicine.” The HHH stood for Healthcare for the Homeless Houston, which recently launched the region’s first program that takes medical care directly to people living on the streets instead of asking them to come to a clinic. (Schuetz, 1/18)

Kansas City Star: KC Hospitals Treat Frostbite, Hypothermia In Severe Cold Snap
As temperatures nosedived in the Kansas City area this week, hitting record lows of minus 12 on Sunday and minus 16 on Monday, hospitals saw an influx of patients with injuries related to extreme cold, as well as seasonal respiratory illness. Conditions like frostbite, injuries from vehicle accidents and falls on ice are keeping hospitals busy as Kansas City prepares for another cold stretch, with temperatures forecast to plummet overnight to a low of around 3 degrees with wind chill values between minus 3 degrees and minus 13 degrees. (Calfee, 1/18)

CIDRAP: CDC Report Details 2023 Pseudomonas Outbreak Traced To Maine Hotel Pool 
Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe a 2023 Pseudomonas outbreak tied to a hotel swimming pool that lacked a disinfectant feeder system. Twenty-three of 26 people (88%) who swam in the Maine hotel pool on March 4 or 5 reported developing ear pain (70%), rash (65%), or pain or swelling in their feet and hands (30%) after a median of 1 day. (Van Beusekom, 1/18)

On the opioid crisis —

CBS News: Deep Winter Freeze Creates Issues For Life-Saving Drug Narcan
This deep winter freeze we are experiencing is not good for the life-saving drug naloxone, or Narcan, used to reverse the affects of an opioid overdose. But Narcan can freeze, making it impossible to administer. Opioid overdose is a growing problem across the Twin Cities. Especially in poor neighborhoods and homeless encampments, there is a huge need for Narcan. (Chapman, 1/18)

Bloomberg: Massachusetts, Washington, DC, Fight Opioid Deaths With Naloxone Near Transit
Sheila Haennicke’s son was on a Blue Line train in Chicago when he overdosed on fentanyl. The only thing that might have saved his life in the five minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive is naloxone, an emergency opioid overdose reversal treatment. In the wake of her son’s death, Haennicke is part of a growing movement to make the nasal spray, commonly distributed as Narcan, available near public transit. (Xie, 1/18)

CBS News: 100 Naloxone Vending Machines To Be Distributed Across Wayne County
In the latest effort to combat the opioid epidemic, Wayne County announced on Thursday, a massive investment in access to the life-saving drug Narcan. Wayne County Executive Warren Evans announced a new partnership with Wayne State University's Center for Behavioral Health and Justice to deploy 100 Naloxone vending machines across Wayne County. (1/18)

KFF Health News: Michigan Disbands Racial Equity Group As Tension Mounts Over Opioid Settlement Money
An advisory group formed to help Michigan tackle high rates of opioid overdoses in communities of color has been disbanded by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration, leading to hard feelings among some members who say their work is being buried. The Whitmer administration is “trying to … silence in a systematic way the voices of the Racial Equity Workgroup,” said Native American activist Banashee “Joe” Cadreau, a member of the work group. “For two years, we put our blood, sweat, tears, thoughts, time, to …. [come] up with these recommendations.” (Erb and French, 1/19)

Live Science: Zika Virus Could Potentially Treat Cancer, Another Early Study Hints
The Zika virus has plagued humans since its identification in 1947, but now, scientists are harnessing its ability to damage cells to fight a different foe: cancer. In a new study published Jan. 9 in the journal Cancer Research Communications, researchers used the Zika virus to treat mice that had been implanted with cells from human neuroblastoma tumors, a type of nerve-tissue cancer. These mice's tumors showed almost complete tissue death immediately after they were injected with Zika, and the animals showed prolonged survival. "The difference was stunning," Joseph Mazar, a research scientist at Nemours Children Hospital in Orlando, Florida, and first author of the study, told Live Science. "You just don't see this; it's crazy. We got 80% to 90% efficacy. The tumors were eradicated — single injection, no recurrence, no symptoms." (Zieba, 1/15)

CIDRAP: Brazilian Study Indicates Zika Reinfection Possible
Three of 135 patients in a Brazilian cohort were reinfected with the Zika virus (ZIKV), according to a study published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. ... ZIKV is transmitted in tropical and subtropical regions through the bite of Aedes mosquitoes. While 80% of Zika cases cause few or no symptoms, infected pregnant women can give birth to babies with severe birth defects, including microcephaly, an abnormally small head. After a large Zika outbreak occurred in Brazil in 2015, viral circulation declined, and cases are uncommon today. (Van Beusekom, 1/18)

Mpox can be tracked in wastewater —

AP: Wastewater Tests Can Find Mpox, Study Finds. Expect More Bugs To Be Tracked That Way 
Wastewater testing does a good job at detecting mpox infections, U.S. health officials said in a report Thursday that bolsters a push to use sewage to track more diseases. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found that over the course of a week, there was a 32% likelihood the tests would detect the presence of at least one person infected with mpox in a population ranging from thousands to millions. (Stobbe, 1/18)

In other health and wellness news —

Reuters: US Government Set To Release Camp Lejeune Cancer Study
A key study on cancer rates caused by contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune conducted by U.S. government researchers is expected to be released later this month, according to the U.S. Justice Department. In court documents, filed late Wednesday, the attorneys for people claiming they were harmed by the water told the judges overseeing cases involving the contamination that they are dropping their fight to get access to the study after the director of the U.S. (Jones, 1/18) Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) said the agency was working toward releasing it by the end of January.

AP: CDC Expands Warning About Charcuterie Meat Trays As Salmonella Cases Double 
Federal health officials are expanding a warning about salmonella poisoning tied to charcuterie meat snack trays sold at Sam’s Club and Costco stores. At least 47 people in 22 states have been sickened and 10 people have been hospitalized after eating Busseto brand and Fratelli Beretta brand meats, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. (1/18)

AP: An Experiment Shows How Pigs Might One Day Help People With Liver Failure
Surgeons externally attached a pig liver to a brain-dead human body and watched it successfully filter blood, a step toward eventually trying the technique in patients with liver failure. The University of Pennsylvania announced the novel experiment Thursday, a different spin on animal-to-human organ transplants. In this case, the pig liver was used outside the donated body, not inside — a way to create a “bridge” to support failing livers by doing the organ’s blood-cleansing work externally, much like dialysis for failing kidneys. (1/18)

Los Angeles Times: More Concerning Than Nanoplastics In Water Bottles Are The Chemicals On Them
Of particular concern are a class of additives known as endocrine disruptors — chemicals that mimic and confuse hormone signaling in humans. ... A team of physicians, epidemiologists and endocrinologists have estimated the costs of plastic exposure on the U.S. healthcare system and come to a sobering conclusion. In 2018, several common endocrine disruptors cost the nation almost $250 billion — just $40 billion shy of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2024 budget for the entire state of California. (Rust, 1/18)

KFF Health News: Insurance Doesn’t Always Cover Hearing Aids For Kids 
Joyce Shen was devastated when doctors said her firstborn, Emory, hadn’t passed her newborn hearing screening. Emory was diagnosed with profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears as an infant, meaning sounds are extremely muffled. But Shen and her husband, who live in Ontario, California, faced a horrible situation. Without intervention, they were told, their baby daughter’s hearing impairment would prevent her from acquiring age-appropriate language skills and likely leave her with developmental problems affecting her education. Pediatric hearing aids can look like modified earbuds and sometimes come in pink, blue, and other bright colors. The ones Emory needed can cost more than $6,000 a pair, and she would require a new pair about every three years as her ears grow. But the family’s work-based insurance does not cover those costs. (DeGuzman, 1/19)

The Washington Post: New Generation Of Female Entrepreneurs Tackles Women’s Heart Health 
When women complain to doctors of shortness of breath, fatigue and indigestion, they’re often told they’re stressed. Or worse, they go to the emergency room, and are diagnosed with a panic attack or a virus. Some learn later they’ve suffered heart attacks. Some die first. A new generation of female entrepreneurs is determined to address these shockingly common misdiagnoses and care delays that are among the reasons women are up to twice as likely to die of heart attacks as men. (Eisenberg, 1/16)

Grist: How Climate Disasters Hurt Adolescents' Mental Health 
Young people traumatized by Hurricane Maria were more likely to report substance use. (Teirstein, 1/19)

The Washington Post: Psychedelics Gave Terminal Patients Relief From Their Intense Anxiety
When Brian Meyer received a Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis three years ago at age 62, he was determined to make the most of his remaining years. He immediately retired from a decades-long career in the grocery business and took every opportunity to hike, camp and — his all-time favorite — fish for salmon. Brian and his wife, Cheryl, regularly visited their two grown children and three grandsons and spent time with their many friends. But it was sometimes hard to keep his mind off his pain and the reality that life was nearing an end. (Landau, 1/13)

Undark: The Cost Of Freeing Drinking Water From ‘Forever Chemicals’
The EPA is set to limit PFAS in drinking water to barely detectable levels. Can water utilities meet the standard? (Schmidt, 1/15)

The Washington Post: Should Potatoes Be Classified As Vegetables? 
Just as tomatoes are botanically considered a fruit, should potatoes really be considered a vegetable? That’s the surprisingly polarizing question under review by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, as part of its mission to assess the latest research and issue new health recommendations to the government every five years, with the next edition set for 2025. While most nutrition experts and botanists say that potatoes are a vegetable, a years-long debate over whether they should be considered a grain or part of another food group has raged on, often in the name of public health — and especially in the United States, where more than 40 percent of people age 20 or older are considered obese. (Cho, 1/18)

Undark: The Unseen Barriers Around Bathroom Breaks In The Field
Gawain Antell knew something was seriously wrong when students started vomiting. In spring 2019, the paleobiologist — then earning a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford — was working as a teaching assistant on a geological mapping field trip in Scotland when, after returning to the hotel, a handful of undergraduate women grew grievously ill. Antell soon learned that the students hadn’t been drinking enough water, a situation made worse by the unusually warm weather. Antell was particularly alarmed to discover that the students were deliberately dehydrated. And for one simple reason: They didn’t want to pee while out in the field. (Kreier, 1/17)

The Washington Post: The Ideal Vacation Length For Peak Relaxation, According To Experts
Health and travel experts have common advice for the amount of time it takes to disconnect from life’s obligations. (Sachs, 1/18)

A few good reads about health experts —

The Washington Post: Claire Fagin, Renowned Nurse And Researcher Who Led UPenn, Dies At 97
As a clinician, educator and advocate, she helped reshape American nursing. She was also one of the first women to lead an Ivy League school. (Smith, 1/19)

The Washington Post: Roy Calne, A Pioneer Of Organ Transplant Surgery, Dies At 93 
While making the rounds at a London hospital in 1950, a medical student named Roy Calne was presented with a young man dying from kidney failure. Make him comfortable, Dr. Calne was told, because the patient would be dead within two weeks. The order troubled Dr. Calne (pronounced “kahn”), who had grown up tinkering with cars in his father’s auto shop, learning how to take apart an engine and put it back together again. Wasn’t it possible, he asked, to remove the failing kidney and swap in a working one, like replacing a spark plug or — his mind drifted to gardening — grafting a rose? Impossible, he was told. (Smith, 1/16)

Houston Chronicle: Baylor Chemist Wins Award For Developing Tech To Detect Cancer
One of the greatest challenges that surgeons face when they remove a cancerous tumor is determining the boundary between that tumor and the healthy tissues that surround it. A Baylor College of Medicine scientist is hoping to solve that problem with the stroke of a pen. Livia Schiavinato Eberlin is the developer of the MasSpec Pen, a device that uses a technique known as mass spectrometry to help doctors and scientists analyze cancer tissues. The pen — which is a bit larger than the one used for writing — provides an analysis of the tissue within about 15 seconds. (MacDonald, 1/18)

Harvard Public Health: A Q&A With Jen Gunter, The Internet’s OB/GYN
Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and pain medicine physician, got her start as a writer more than a decade ago, after her sons were born prematurely. As she sought out information online to support their health, she discovered just how easy it is to fall down a rabbit hole of mis- and disinformation. Since then, she’s launched a blog, The Vajenda, that mixes evidence-based reproductive health information with righteous indignation. She’s also built robust followings on social media, where’s she’s known for her sharp-tongued takedowns of dubious health influencers and supplement peddlers (including a famous manifesto against Gwyneth Paltrow-endorsed “jade eggs”). (Roeder, 1/10)

Columbus Dispatch: Rise Of The Superbugs. Why Antibiotics Barely Have Fighting Chance
Since the widespread use of penicillin to quell gangrene during the Second World War, we have been living in the so-called antibiotic era where we have managed to subdue microscopic bacterial invaders that have waged war with humans for millennia. (Jacob Harris, 1/17)

The Tennessean: Loneliness Is A Health Crisis Plaguing Americans. We Need To Reconnect With Each Other
Lacking quality relationships in your life is about as much of a wrecking ball on your health as being a pack-a-day smoker. You read that correctly. You don’t have to take my word for it. In 2023, the United States Surgeon General identified loneliness and isolation as a public health epidemic. We are more technologically connected than we’ve ever been, and yet we are so deeply alone. (Cameron Smith, 1/19)

Seattle Times: Bill Requiring Fentanyl Education In WA Schools Deserves Bipartisan Support 
Lawmakers may be in an abbreviated legislative session, but there’s still enough time for them to pass important legislation that will ultimately save lives. House Bill 1956, and its companion bill, Senate Bill 5923, does just that. By request from Gov. Jay Inslee, the legislation would require all public middle and high schools to educate students on the dangers of opioids, particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl. It deserves strong support. (1/18)

Stat: There's An Unseen Cost To Disruptive Road-Blocking Protests 
Recent events in Israel and Gaza have sparked a wave of protests, with some activists in major cities using a familiar tactic: obstructing traffic. While this seems to have been an effective strategy by protesters across the political spectrum to draw attention to a variety of issues in recent years — including racial injustice, climate change, and pandemic restrictions — these protests raise an important question: At what cost do these disruptions come? (Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam B. Jena, 1/19)

Stat: The Biotech Job Market Outlook For 2024 Is Bright 
What a week — this year’s might have been the busiest JPM I’ve ever had. I’m not saying that to brag, it’s a statement about the industry. There was even one tweet from STAT’s Adam Feuerstein calling the meeting mood “jubilant.” As a partner at an executive search firm, I’d concur. My time was packed with the usual mix of requests from potential, current, and former clients as well as investors to discuss search projects, and of course the meeting requests from potential candidates. Perhaps most notably: I didn’t encounter nearly as many “can you please help me find a job?” requests as last year. That suggests to me that 2024 will be a better year for the industry’s job seekers. (Christopher Palatucci, 1/19)