First Edition: Jan. 31, 2024
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Montana Vows Changes To Avoid Delayed Contracts. Some Health Providers Still Await Back Pay
The head of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said the agency has nearly cleared its backlog of incomplete contracts that risked people’s access to health services. Even so, some organizations say the state still owes them tens of thousands of dollars for services already provided. (Houghton, 1/31)
KFF Health News:
The FTC Is Attacking Drugmakers’ ‘Patent Thickets’
The Federal Trade Commission has challenged the validity of over 100 drug product patents, focusing on devices used to deliver medicines, like inhalers and autoinjectors, in an effort to increase competition and potentially lower some prices. The FTC says drugmakers illegitimately use the patents to prevent competitors from offering cheaper generic alternatives. It’s the first time the FTC has tried the tactic, said Hannah Garden-Monheit, director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning. (Rosenthal, 1/31)
KFF Health News:
Ketamine Therapy For Mental Health A ‘Wild West’ For Doctors And Patients
In late 2022, Sarah Gutilla’s treatment-resistant depression had grown so severe, she was actively contemplating suicide. Raised in foster care, the 34-year-old’s childhood was marked by physical violence, sexual abuse, and drug use, leaving her with life-threatening mental scars. Out of desperation, her husband scraped together $600 for the first of six rounds of intravenous ketamine therapy at Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles, which administers the generic anesthetic for off-label uses such as treating depression. When Gutilla got into an Uber for the 75-mile drive to Los Angeles, it was the first time she had left her home in Llano, California, in two years. The results, she said, were instant. (Megli, 1/31)
KFF Health News:
Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: The federal government will force some insurers to review prior authorization requests more quickly, and it’s still worth it to get vaccinated for the flu, covid, and RSV in the middle of respiratory virus season. (1/30)
AP:
The US Hasn't Seen Syphilis Numbers This High Since 1950. Other STD Rates Are Down Or Flat
The U.S. syphilis epidemic isn’t abating, with the rate of infectious cases rising 9% in 2022, according to a new federal government report on sexually transmitted diseases in adults. But there’s some unexpected good news: The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in a decade. It’s not clear why infectious cases of syphilis rose 9% while gonorrhea dropped 9%, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that it’s too soon to know whether a new downward trend is emerging for the latter. (Stobbe, 1/30)
The New York Times:
Syphilis Is Soaring In The U.S.
The rates soared in every age group, including newborns. In November, the C.D.C. said more than 3,700 cases of congenital syphilis were reported in 2022, roughly 11 times the number recorded a decade ago. The disease caused 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths in 2022. Experts pointed to a slew of reasons for the continued increases in syphilis and other S.T.I.s. Substance use, which is tied to risky sexual behavior, has risen. With better prevention and treatment for H.I.V., condom use has fallen out of vogue — decreasing by about 8 percentage points between 2011 and 2021 among high school students, for example. (Mandavilli, 1/30)
Roll Call:
HHS Launches Syphilis Strategy Amid Rising Cases
CDC said it is working to issue final guidance on using doxycycline, a commonly used antibiotic, for post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent bacterial STIs, which would be the first large-scale bacterial STI prevention innovation in decades. The Biden administration announced the first national multiagency plan to reduce climbing rates of STIs last year. (Raman and Hellmann, 1/30)
Modern Healthcare:
SAVE Act Aims To Prevent Violence Against Healthcare Workers
Congress could actually pass a bill to crack down on violence against healthcare workers this year, lawmakers and advocates said at a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday. The Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act of 2023, or SAVE Act, would make it a federal crime to attack healthcare workers in the process of doing their jobs and authorize penalties up to 10 or 20 years in jail, on a par with laws protecting airline workers. The American Hospital Association-endorsed measure also would supply $25 million in grants for hospital safety initiatives. (McAuliff, 1/30)
Modern Healthcare:
Medicare Pay Cuts Take Effect As Congress Weighs Options
If anyone were to ask members of Congress if doctors should be contending with Medicare pay cuts after a pandemic and a period of extraordinary inflation, and amid a chronic physician shortage, nearly all would say no. Yet, that is what happened on Jan. 1, and even powerful lawmakers who would like to ease or reverse that cut can't promise it will happen, even after recent actions to forestall hospital cuts and to extend expiring healthcare programs such as federally qualified health centers. (McAuliff, 1/30)
Stat:
CMS Will Use Outcomes-Based Agreements In Bid To Help Medicaid Pay For Sickle Cell Gene Therapies
In response to concerns over multimillion-dollar price tags for new gene therapies for sickle cell disease, the U.S. government on Tuesday announced a long-awaited “access model” designed to blunt the cost that state Medicaid programs would pay for these curative treatments. (Silverman, 1/30)
The Hill:
Democratic Senators Call On DEA To Deschedule Marijuana Entirely
A group of Democratic senators called on the Biden administration Tuesday to completely deschedule marijuana, arguing the White House’s recommendations to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reschedule the drug do not go far enough to address the harm that has occurred from the current system. In a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, 11 Democratic senators, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), argued the administration “should deschedule marijuana altogether.” (Choi, 1/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Big Tech CEOs To Face Senate Grilling Over Child Safety Issues
Members of the Senate will interrogate CEOs of five social media giants Wednesday about their efforts to address child sexual exploitation. ... The grilling will take place amid growing concerns about social media’s impact on young users’ mental health. And as a recent episode involving AI-generated, sexually explicit images of pop star Taylor Swift — distributed without her knowledge or consent — drives home, artificial intelligence is amplifying the dangers of online platforms. (Stein, 1/30)
CIDRAP:
US Government Failure To Protect Frontline Workers From COVID Led To Thousands Of Deaths, Scientists Say
Thousands of frontline workers may have survived the COVID-19 pandemic if the US regulatory system had better protected them, report the authors of an analysis published yesterday in BMJ. The study is the first in a series that discusses the lessons learned from COVID-19 and the steps needed to avert deaths in the next pandemic and improve public health. Frontline workers are those who couldn't work from home and thus were at higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Black and Hispanic workers and immigrants make up high proportions of "essential" workers, or those in healthcare, meatpacking plants, agricultural production, and public transportation. (Van Beusekom, 1/30)
CIDRAP:
Three Fourths Of Adults Have Hidden Infectious Illness To Work, Travel, Or Socialize, Surveys Suggest
Up to 75% of adults have concealed an infectious disease from others in order not to miss work, travel, or social events, according to a new study in Psychological Science. The article, by researchers at the University of Michigan, is based on four studies and surveys given to 4,110 survey participants. All surveys were given after March 2020, when the COVID-10 pandemic began, and initial survey participants included 399 university healthcare employees. Only 5% of participants across all studies said they had concealed a COVID-19 infection. (Soucheray, 1/30)
CBS News:
ACLU Warns Supreme Court That Lower Court Abortion Pill Decisions Relied On "Patently Unreliable Witnesses"
The American Civil Liberties Union is warning the Supreme Court that lower court decisions in a closely watched battle over a widely used abortion pill relied on "patently unreliable witnesses" and "ideologically tainted junk science." In a friend-of-the-court brief the ACLU filed with the Center for Reproductive Rights and The Lawyering Project, the groups argued the lower courts that have ruled in the case involving the drug mifepristone supplanted the Food and Drug Administration's scientific judgment with unproven assertions from anti-abortion rights medical associations and doctors about the alleged harms of medication abortion. (Quinn, 1/30)
The Hill:
Sotomayor Says She Feels ‘Frustration’ Daily As Conservative Justices Move US To Right
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday she feels daily “frustration” as conservative justices move the country to the ideological right. In an appearance at the University of California, Berkely School of Law, Sotomayor was asked how she copes with the consistently conservative rulings from the court. “Every loss truly traumatizes me,” but “I get up the next morning,” she said in response to the question, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The crowd — about 1,300 students — applauded. (Fortinsky, 1/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Newsom Joins Governors Urging SCOTUS To Preserve Abortion Pill Access
Governors of California and other Democratic-led states urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to maintain women’s access to the pills used in more than half of all U.S. abortions, saying a ban or restrictions on mifepristone would harm women and their states and would protect no one. “Significantly reducing access to mifepristone will not make patients safer — it will only add extreme burdens to healthcare providers, patients, state medical systems, and those responsible for safeguarding public health and safety,” the governors of 21 states and the territory of Guam said in a filing with the court. (Egelko, 1/30)
The 19th:
What A Second Trump Term Could Mean For Abortion Restrictions
Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has cast abortion to the background of his campaign and declined calls to champion a national abortion ban. But, if reelected, Trump’s tune could change: Without the aid of Congress, the former president would have tools to quickly curtail access to the procedure — and the pressure on him to wield them has already started. (Luthra and Barclay, 1/30)
Military.com:
VA Set To Expand Fertility Treatment To Single Veterans And Same-Sex Couples Following Defense Department Shift
The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to give more veterans who use the VA for medical care broader access to advanced fertility treatments, including those who require in vitro fertilization to conceive and who need egg or sperm donations as part of their efforts to start a family. The revised policy, based on a change required at the Defense Department by ongoing litigation, is expected to expand availability of the benefit to single veterans, same-sex couples and married couples unable to use their own gametes. (Kime, 1/30)
Axios:
Utah Governor Signs Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill on Tuesday that would ban transgender people's access to public restrooms and locker rooms. "We want public facilities that are safe and accommodating for everyone and this bill increases privacy protections for all," said Cox, who is running for re-election this year, in a statement. (Bojorquez, 1/30)
The 19th:
Trans People In Florida Can No Longer Update Their Driver’s Licenses
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will no longer update a transgender person’s driver’s license with their correct gender identity, according to an internal agency memo sent last week — a move that was not prompted by any new law. The new policy “pertains solely to replacement license requests,” the agency’s director of communications said in an emailed statement. This would affect transgender adults across the state, since people typically update their documentation after, or while, undergoing medical treatments or socially transitioning. (Rummler, 1/30)
Modern Healthcare:
MedStar Health Agrees To ADA Violation Settlement
MedStar Health has agreed to resolve accusations it discriminated against patients with disabilities and will take corrective actions, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The Columbia, Maryland-based nonprofit health system allegedly barred family members, health aides and other support people from its facilities as a COVID-19 mitigation measure from 2020 through 2022, the Justice Department asserts in a complaint and a consent decree filed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Tuesday. (Bennett, 1/30)
Modern Healthcare:
Humana’s CenterWell Senior Primary Care Expands Into New Markets
Humana’s CenterWell Senior Primary Care will expand into three new markets this spring and add locations in five existing markets later in the year, the company announced Tuesday. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company said clinics opening in Asheville, North Carolina, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and New Orleans will begin seeing patients in late spring or early summer. Humana has not yet set a timeline for opening additional clinics in Charlotte, North Carolina, Indianapolis, Jackson, Mississippi, Orlando, Florida and Richmond, Virginia. However, the company said it hoped to have those locations operating by the end of 2024. (Eastabrook, 1/30)
Modern Healthcare:
Accompany Health Launches With $56M In Funding From Venrock, ARCH
Dr. Rahul Rajkumar founded Accompany Health in 2022 because he said low-income Americans with complex medical needs deserve better than what the healthcare system has given them. On Tuesday, the company launched publicly with a $56 million Series A funding round. Accompany provides primary, behavioral and social care to low-income patients through at-home providers and virtual platforms. (Perna, 1/30)
CBS News:
Mayor Says He Supports Washington Health System Merging With UPMC
The mayor of Washington is offering his support for the potential merger between Washington Health System and UPMC. The hospital CEO painted a dire picture, saying the merger is critical or they'll be forced to shut down, and Mayor JoJo Burgess agrees. He says the hospital found a willing participant in UPMC to help and no one should stand in the way. "We have to support this type of merger because if we don't, I do believe that Washington Health System will not be here in the coming years," Burgess said. (Bortz, 1/30)
Axios:
Good Vibes For Hospitals On Wall Street
The stepped-up demand for medical care that's left health insurers nervous is bringing good vibes to the hospital industry, whose outlook was buoyed Tuesday by HCA Healthcare's better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings. (Reed, 1/31)
Crain's Chicago Business:
Walgreens Layoffs Hit More Workers In Third Round Of Cuts
As Walgreens Boots Alliance continues to cut costs, the Deerfield, Illinois-based company is laying off more workers, marking its third round of corporate layoffs in less than a year. The pharmacy, retail and healthcare giant cut 145 workers across the company, primarily from its corporate workforce, according to an internal memo written by Chief Customer Officer Tracey Brown and obtained by Crain’s. (Davis, 1/30)
The New York Times:
Vertex Experimental Drug Cuts Off Pain At The Source, Company Says
Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston announced Tuesday that it had developed an experimental drug that relieves moderate to severe pain, blocking pain signals before they can get to the brain. It works only on peripheral nerves — those outside the brain and the spinal cord — making it unlike opioids. Vertex says its new drug is expected to avoid opioids’ potential to lead to addiction. The company reported that it had completed two randomized studies, the first in 1,118 people who had abdominoplasties and the other in 1,073 people who had bunion surgery. The two procedures are commonly used in studies of people with acute pain, the temporary kind that is brought on by something like a surgical procedure and is likely to ease with time. (Kolata, 1/30)
Stat:
New Ultima Genomics DNA Sequencer Can Read Genome For $100
Ultima Genomics, an upstart some observers have called a “dark horse” in the world of DNA sequencing, will soon launch a line of high-power instruments that can read a human genome for as little as $100, the company’s leadership told STAT. (Wosen, 1/30)
Stat:
Novo Nordisk To Expand Supply Of Wegovy For U.S. Patients
Novo Nordisk said Wednesday that it had started to increase the availability of its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy for new patients in the United States, after massive demand and a supply crunch had led it to limit such doses last May. (Joseph, 1/31)
Stat:
FDA Drug Safety: Singulair Case Shows Systemic Surveillance Flaws
After a drug enters the market, it’s up to Food and Drug Administration regulators to ensure its continued safety and efficacy. A recent New York Times story suggests that, in the case of the popular asthma drug Singulair, the FDA fell short — both because the agency delayed action for years on reports from patient advocates and independent groups that the drug could cause suicidal thoughts, and because when it did add a warning label about its potential side effects in 2020, clinicians and patients still weren’t always aware of the risks. (Gaffney, 1/31)
The Texas Tribune and Propublica:
Texas’ Civil Medicaid Fraud Unit Is Falling Apart
For years, an elite team of lawyers at the Texas attorney general’s office went toe-to-toe with some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, on a mission to weed out fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system. And the team was wildly successful, securing positive press for the attorney general’s office and bringing in money for the state — lots of it. In a little more than two decades, the Civil Medicaid Fraud Division has helped recover a whopping $2.6 billion. Of that, $1 billion went to the state’s general fund, which pays for critical services like education and health care. (Davila, 1/31)
The Mercury News:
Following Expansion Of MediCal, Officials Call On Santa Clara County Residents To Apply And Renew Coverage
With the state expanding full MediCal coverage this month to include all Californians regardless of immigration status, Santa Clara county officials and health providers are urging county residents to enroll in and renew their MediCal coverage. ... Officials met at the Social Services Agency in Gilroy to push the coverage at a news conference on Tuesday. ... “Healthcare is a human right,” said Arenas. “If we can help everyone now eligible for Medi-Cal coverage take action, this can be a huge step forward towards our goal of health coverage for all in Santa Clara County.” (Melecio-Zambrano, 1/30)
The Mercury News:
Why TB Cases Are Rising In California After Decades Of Decline
Once known as consumption, the disease that killed Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederic Chopin and all five of the sisters Bronte, tuberculosis is often viewed as a bygone threat. But there is an uptick in new California illnesses after years of decline, with the number of cases in the Golden State increasing from 1,704 in 2020 to 1,848 in 2022. On Tuesday, Santa Clara County released new data showing a 19% jump in cases from 2022 to 2023. Increased cases also were reported in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties. (Krieger, 1/30)
CBS News:
Investigation Uncovers High Measles Risk At 350 Southern California Schools With Low Vaccination Rates
Concerns are heightened across the United States as the East Coast experiences an unexpected outbreak of measles. A CBS News investigation revealed that at least 8,500 American schools are at risk of similar outbreaks as vaccination rates drop below the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended 95% for student bodies, hundreds of which are located in California. (Palombo, 1/30)
The Baltimore Sun:
The U.S. Has Had 23 Measles Cases In The Past Month
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging health care providers to be “on alert” for patients with symptoms of measles — a virus declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 — after nearly two dozen cases have been reported across the country in the past month. (Roberts, 1/30)
CBS News:
2 Legionnaires' Disease Cases Identified In Brooklyn
New York City's Health Department is alerting tenants of a public housing building in Brooklyn about Legionnaires' disease. Two residents in the building on Sutter Avenue in Brownsville have been diagnosed with the disease within the past 12 months. People get Legionnaire's disease by breathing in the vapor of contaminated water. Health officials say residents should not take showers since they can create mist. However, tenants can still use and drink the water. (Zanger, 1/30)
CIDRAP:
Nontuberculosis Mycobacteria Outbreak Linked To Florida Cosmetic Surgery Clinic
A cluster of nontuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM) skin infections across nine states has been linked to cosmetic surgery procedures and gaps in infection control at a clinic in Florida, researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) reported last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Dall, 1/30)
AP:
Fentanyl State Of Emergency Declared In Downtown Portland, Oregon
Several elected leaders in Oregon declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for downtown Portland over the public health and public safety crisis fueled by fentanyl. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson made the declaration for a 90-day period during which collaboration and response will come from a command center downtown. The three governments are directing their agencies to work with first responders in connecting people addicted to the synthetic opioid with resources including drug treatment programs and to crack down on drug sales. (1/30)
NBC News:
Ohio Reverses Local Menthol Tobacco Bans, Infuriating Doctors
On New Year's Day, the city of Columbus, Ohio, did what the federal government has not been able to: ban the sale of menthol cigarettes. Three weeks later, the state Legislature voted to reinstate menthol and other flavored tobacco products. ... The move has frustrated public health officials in Ohio who say residents are already at greater risk of dying early from smoking-related diseases. The state has one of the highest smoking rates among adults in the country: 17.1%, compared to the national rate of 11.5%, according to the American Cancer Society. (Edwards, 1/30)
NBC News:
Improving Fitness Linked To 35% Lower Risk Of Prostate Cancer: Study
A new study suggests that getting into better shape could reduce the risk of prostate cancer in particular, a diagnosis that around 113 out of every 100,000 men get every year in the U.S. The research, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that men whose cardiorespiratory fitness improved by 3% or more annually over three years, on average, were 35% less likely to develop prostate cancer than men whose cardiorespiratory fitness declined by 3% annually. (Bendix, 1/30)
CBS News:
Harvard, MIT Students Develop Female Manikins To Make CPR Training More Inclusive To Women
There's a group of students at MIT and Harvard banding together to save lives by improving CPR training. "There is very little female representation in the curriculum and so we thought we should fix that," MIT student Charles Sloane, a member of LifeSaveHer, told WBZ-TV. LifeSaveHer is a company developed by MIT and Harvard undergraduate students, who are also EMTs and CPR instructors, to create female manikin covers that address gender disparities in CPR training. Research from the National Institute of Health shows that women are less likely than men to receive bystander CPR. (Kincade, 1/30)
The Washington Post:
Elmo Asked How Everyone’s Doing And, Um, They’re Not Great!
It was a Monday morning at the end of a long January — a double whammy of devastation — and Elmo had a question. “Elmo is just checking in!” the beloved Sesame Street character wrote on social media. “How is everybody doing?” Not well, apparently, and maybe really bad. Celebrities, news outlets, Sesame Street characters’ accounts and everyday people replied — many with existential dread, despair and exhaustion. By Tuesday morning, Elmo’s post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, had received over 110 million views. While there was plenty of banter among the responses, the overall tone also reflected a sense of hopelessness that appears to be common. (Rosenzweig-Ziff, 1/30)