First Edition: Feb. 28, 2024
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Say That Again: Using Hearing Aids Can Be Frustrating For Older Adults, But Necessary
It was an every-other-day routine, full of frustration. Every time my husband called his father, who was 94 when he died in 2022, he’d wait for his dad to find his hearing aids and put them in before they started talking. Even then, my father-in-law could barely hear what my husband was saying. “What?” he’d ask over and over. (Graham, 2/28)
KFF Health News:
California Lawsuit Spotlights Broad Legal Attack On Anti-Bias Training In Health Care
Los Angeles anesthesiologist Marilyn Singleton was outraged about a California requirement that every continuing medical education course include training in implicit bias — the ways in which physicians’ unconscious attitudes might contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Singleton, who is Black and has practiced for 50 years, sees calling doctors out for implicit bias as divisive, and argues the state cannot legally require her to teach the idea in her continuing education classes. She has sued the Medical Board of California, asserting a constitutional right not to teach something she doesn’t believe. (Cohen, 2/28)
KFF Health News:
KFF Health News' 'An Arm And A Leg': Wait, Is Insulin Cheaper Now?
Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture insulin made headlines last year when they voluntarily agreed to provide discount cards that lower the monthly cost of insulin for many people to $35. But getting your hands on this card — and persuading a pharmacist to accept it — can be a hassle. (2/28)
KFF Health News:
Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Pain specialists say injections for kids don’t have to hurt so much, and states overwhelmed by the housing crisis are using Medicaid funds to curb homelessness. (2/27)
Modern Healthcare:
PBM Reform Advocates Hold Out Hope Congress Can Still Act
Advocates for tougher restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers are not giving up after Congress reportedly shelved several proposals this week, even if lawmakers see no immediate path forward. PBM legislation has broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. Negotiations appear to have broken down, however, regarding which specific measures to include in the full-year government funding bills that must pass by March 1 and March 8. (McAuliff, 2/27)
Stat:
FTC Says Pharmacy Benefit Managers Are Stonewalling Requests For Information
A much-anticipated inquiry by U.S. antitrust regulators into pharmaceutical industry middlemen has been stymied because the companies have failed to provide many of the documents that, in some cases, were requested as far back as June 2022. (Silverman, 2/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Shutdown Fears Fade After White House Meeting
Democratic and Republican congressional leaders struck an optimistic tone that they would avert a government shutdown this weekend after a White House meeting in which lawmakers also stepped up pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) to allow a long-stalled vote on Ukraine aid to go forward. Johnson is expected to put forward legislation in coming days that would keep the government fully open, but the details remained uncertain. The Congress has until Saturday at 12:01 a.m. to fund the departments of Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Agriculture, Energy and several other agencies that have been operating on temporary extensions since Sept. 30. The funding for the rest of the federal government expires after March 8. (Wise, Hughes and Linskey, 2/27)
The 19th:
Senate Democrats Aim For Expedited Vote To Protect IVF Access
Senate Democrats on Tuesday highlighted their plan to protect IVF, warning their Republican colleagues they will need to decide by Wednesday whether to block a bill that would preserve access to assisted reproductive technologies. (Becker and Davis, 2/27)
Axios:
Biden's Next Move On IVF Protections May Be Limited
Fertility providers are talking with the Biden administration about possible steps it can take to ensure access to in vitro fertilization, while legal experts say the administration likely has some limited powers. (Goldman, 2/28)
Politico:
Alabama Republicans Want To Give IVF Doctors Immunity After Court Rules Frozen Embryos Are Kids
Alabama’s GOP-controlled legislature is scrambling to strike a compromise to restore access to in vitro fertilization after a recent state Supreme Court decision declaring that frozen embryos are children forced clinics to pause operations. Under state legislation introduced Tuesday afternoon, Republican lawmakers propose giving doctors who perform in vitro fertilization immunity from civil and criminal prosecution to give clinics enough legal cover to resume providing services. The measure, however, falls short of an earlier draft of the bill that said embryos created during the IVF process that aren’t implanted in the uterus should be considered a “potential life” but not “human life.” (Messerly, 2/27)
Reuters:
Florida Lawmakers Pause 'Unborn Child' Bill In Wake Of Alabama Ruling
Florida lawmakers have paused efforts to pass a bill that would have provided protections to an "unborn child," but which some worry could expose the state's in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics to lawsuits like one that happened this month in Alabama. Florida state Senator Erin Grall said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that she had requested her bill "be temporarily postponed at this time." (Brooks, 2/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Opens UnitedHealth Antitrust Probe
The Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth, owner of the biggest U.S. health insurer, a leading manager of drug benefits and a sprawling network of doctor groups. The investigators have in recent weeks been interviewing healthcare-industry representatives in sectors where UnitedHealth competes, including doctor groups, according to people with knowledge of the meetings. (Mathews and Michaels, 2/27)
Modern Healthcare:
Change Healthcare Outage: AHA Advises Staying Disconnected
UnitedHealth Group, the American Hospital Association and the Health and Human Services Department remain focused on a cyberattack that has crippled electronic transactions between pharmacies and payers for nearly a week. The AHA continues to advise member hospitals to remain disconnected from UnitedHealth Group division Change Healthcare's systems, which were attacked last Wednesday. (Berryman, 2/27)
Reuters:
Hospitals Sue Leading US Anesthesia Provider Over Non-Compete Contracts
Two hospitals in New York and Florida have sued one of the country’s largest providers of anesthesia services, claiming it unlawfully restricts its physicians from freely choosing where to work. Trinity Health affiliates St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse and Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale sued North American Partners in Anesthesia and related business entities on Monday in federal court in New York and Florida. (Scarcella, 2/27)
USA Today:
Exclusive: CDC Head Aims To Fix U.S. Divisiveness About Public Health
At a time when public health guidance is increasingly politicized and divisive, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a plan to bring Americans back together. Dr. Mandy Cohen, who took the helm at the agency in July, says the key to addressing health issues is to begin with topics people agree on and build a relationship across the aisle. “This is a journey,” she said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. “There’s a lot of threats in the world, let’s start at the places where we have a lot of good agreement.” (Rodriguez, 2/27)
CBS News:
FDA To Develop New "Healthy" Logo This Year – Here's What Consumers Could See, And Which Foods Could Qualify
The Food and Drug Administration could roll out a new logo as soon as this year for companies to stamp on the packaging of "healthy" foods they make, aimed at clearing up confusion on what products actually should count as good for you. The new symbol will follow a long-awaited update to the FDA's definition, due to be published this April, of what foods can claim to be healthy to eat under federal rules. It comes as the agency is also working on another major new rule: front-of-package nutrition facts. (Tin, 2/27)
Becker's Hospital Review:
FDA Recalls More Saline, Sterile Water Products
The FDA is recalling additional saline and sterile water products made by Nurse Assist after receiving reports of adverse events. On Nov. 6, Nurse Assist, a Texas manufacturer of water-based medical products, voluntarily recalled some products that were found to not be sterile. At the time, no adverse events were associated with the affected products. However, a Feb. 13 FDA update said the agency has received reports of adverse events associated with Nurse Assist products. The events are under investigation and no details were provided. (Taylor, 2/27)
Stat:
Medicare Isn't Yet Testing Food As Medicine
Some twelve percent of traditional Medicare beneficiaries have heart failure. Roughly a quarter have diabetes. There’s early evidence suggesting that both conditions — and a slew of others — could be better managed with pre-made healthy meals. So why doesn’t Medicare try out delivering food to sick seniors? (Florko, 2/28)
Modern Healthcare:
WellBe Senior Shows What In-Home Care Brings Medicare Advantage
An aging population and an increase in chronic conditions among older adults are driving partnerships between Medicare Advantage plans and at-home care companies, though it could take time to see savings from such programs. Insurers are seeking out these value-based care arrangements as the plans face rising medical care costs and a potential 0.16% rate cut in 2025 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Eastabrook, 2/27)
Modern Healthcare:
CareSource Proposes Deal With ACA Co-Op Common Ground Healthcare
CareSource is looking to bring one of the last remaining Affordable Care Act cooperatives under its umbrella. The nonprofit insurer signed a letter of intent with Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, a Wisconsin-based individual marketplace and small group insurer, the companies said in a news release Tuesday. The Wisconsin cooperative represents one of just three still operating, according to a Georgetown University Center for Health Insurance Reforms report. (Tepper, 2/27)
Modern Healthcare:
What The Healthcare Sectors Wants From AI Legislation
Healthcare interests clamoring for congressional action on artificial intelligence would also like lawmakers to remember the Hippocratic oath: First, do no harm. Second, they would like a little protection. Opinions about precisely which needs legislating or protection, of course, vary greatly among interest groups, some of which have competing agendas. (McAuliff, 2/27)
The New York Times:
Appeals Court Allows Indiana Ban On Transition Care For Minors To Take Effect
Indiana’s ban on hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender minors can go into effect, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday, undoing a lower court decision last year that had largely blocked the law. The three-paragraph ruling by a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago, said it was staying a preliminary injunction that the district court had issued in June, just before the law was scheduled to take effect last summer. (Smith, 2/27)
Los Angeles Times:
California Seized Enough Fentanyl Last Year To Kill Everyone In The World ‘Nearly Twice Over’
Roughly 62,000 pounds of fentanyl smuggled into California was confiscated by authorities in 2023. The total amount of the potent synthetic opioid seized last year “is enough to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Tuesday. In 2023, the California National Guard supported other law enforcement agencies in counter-drug operations across the state, seizing a record 62,000 pounds of fentanyl at ports of entry, according to a news release from Newsom’s office. (Solis, 2/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco Collected And Incinerated 10 Cable Cars Worth Of Pills
San Francisco has collected and destroyed 140,000 pounds of unused pills and other medications — equivalent to the weight of 10 cable cars — as part of a program urging residents to discard unused drugs so they don’t contaminate landfills and water sources, or fall into the wrong hands, city officials said Tuesday. The drugs were collected from 2017 to 2022 under the Safe Medicine Disposal Program, which was created by a 2015 ordinance spearheaded by then-Supervisor London Breed. (Ho, 2/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Funds At Risk For California Program Steering Drug Users To Treatment
Health providers and addiction experts warn the funding structure is unstable for a California initiative that steers patients with substance use disorder into long-term treatment after they are discharged from emergency rooms, which has already led some critical employees to leave their jobs. Supporters of CA Bridge’s behavioral health navigator program, which started in 2022, say its reliance on one-time money makes it hard for hospitals to retain navigators amid a growing drug crisis. (Sánchez, 2/27)
Stat:
Neuroscience Renaissance Leads To New Crop Of Psychiatric Drugs
One by one, the companies behind Zoloft, Prozac, and Paxil soured on psychiatry. It was the early 2000s, and as America warmed to the sounds of Sisqó and Shakira, the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms were running out of ideas to treat mental illness. Their blockbuster treatments for depression and schizophrenia had reshaped society and made billions of dollars in the process, but the old cash cows were soon to go generic. (Garde, 2/28)
North Carolina Health News:
Dentists Lobby For Better Medicaid Reimbursement
The phones at many dental offices across North Carolina have been ringing repeatedly in recent months with requests for oral health care from newly enrolled Medicaid recipients. The state’s expansion of Medicaid benefits to nearly 600,000 low-income residents on Dec. 1 opened a robust array of services such as dental exams, routine cleanings and more complicated care for many people who previously had little access to a dentist because of the cost. (Blythe, 2/28)
AP:
States Promise To Help Disabled Kids. Why Do Some Families Wait A Decade Or More?
When Lilly Miller was in elementary school, teachers told her parents they needed to immediately sign up their youngest daughter, who has Down syndrome, for a wait list so the state would pay for a day program when she grew up. The teachers predicted a six-year wait. The Millers have been waiting 10 years. Lilly is now 21 and has aged out of special education programs in the public schools in their hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Her parents, also teachers, have hired a home caregiver. A day program, where she would learn new job skills or flex existing ones while socializing, would cost between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, Marvin Miller said. (Hanna, 2/28)
Fresh Take Florida:
Lawmakers Look To Localize Purple Alerts For Missing Adults With Mental Disabilities
Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee are considering major changes to the state's Purple Alerts used to help find missing adults who suffer from an intellectual or developmental disability. The bills, sponsored by Democrats, would limit the number of statewide alerts in favor of local, countywide notifications where someone may have vanished. (Teitel, 2/27)
CBS News:
New York And New Jersey Report More Than A Dozen Child Flu Deaths So Far This Season
More than a dozen children have died from the flu this season across New York and New Jersey.New York health officials say 11 children have died from the flu. Their ages have not been released. New Jersey reports two child influenza deaths. The victims were between the ages of 5 and 17 years old, and one had significant health conditions. Health officials urge people to get their flu shots, if they haven't already. (2/27)
CBS News:
Philadelphia Health Department Announces End Of Measles Outbreak
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health officially announced the end of the citywide measles outbreak that spiked between December 2023 and January 2024 on Tuesday. The outbreak impacted nine people, eight of whom -- two adults and six children -- were from Philadelphia. Health Department officials said six of the positive Philadelphia cases were hospitalized at one point but have since been released. (MacAulay, 2/27)
Fresh Take Florida:
Sunshine State Looks To Require Some Insurers To Cover Costs Of Skin Cancer Screenings
Lawmakers are poised to make it easier and cheaper for Florida residents to undergo potentially lifesaving skin cancer screenings by ensuring that all costs are covered by health insurance. (Friedman, 2/27)
Fox News:
Cancer Prevention For The Esophagus Could Be Just A Pill Away, Doctor Says: ‘Tremendous Benefit’
A vitamin-sized diagnostic could be the future of esophageal cancer prevention. Cancer of the esophagus — the muscular tube that moves food from the mouth into the stomach — has just a 20% five-year survival rate. Yet there are no standard or routine screening tests for the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Lucid Diagnostics, a New York-based biotech company, is looking to change that with its newly developed test, which only requires taking a single, pill-sized diagnostic. (Rudy, 2/27)
Reuters:
US Military Says It Is Immune To Dozens Of PFAS Lawsuits
The United States government has asked a federal judge to dismiss more than two dozen lawsuits filed against it for allegedly contaminating water and soil at hundreds of sites near military bases and facilities across the country with toxic “forever chemicals. ”The U.S. told a federal judge in Charleston, South Carolina, late Monday that it is immune to the lawsuits filed by state and local governments, businesses and property owners who say the U.S. military is liable for property and environmental damage caused by its use of firefighting foams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. (Mindock, 2/27)
CNN:
Any Use Of Marijuana Linked To Higher Risk Of Heart Attack And Stroke, Study Says
Smoking, vaping or eating marijuana is linked to a significantly higher risk of heart attack and stroke, even if a person had no existing heart conditions and did not smoke or vape tobacco, a new study found. (LaMotte, 2/28)
CNN:
Drugs Like Ozempic And Wegovy Could Boost The US Economy By A Trillion Dollars In A Few Years, Goldman Sachs Predicts
The US economy is set to reap considerable benefits from Americans taking popular medications used for weight loss, including Ozempic and Wegovy, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a recent research report. (Mena, 2/27)
Chicago Tribune:
Can Mixed Reality Technology Help Solve The Blood Shortage?
Samantha Peterson sat in a reclining chair with a headset stretched across her face. Colorful lights danced over her eyes as she peered around the room. Through the glasses, a holographic garden bloomed. Meanwhile, a narrow tube protruded from her forearm into a blood bag dangling below. She was the latest donor to try mixed reality technology at a blood drive at the Field Museum on Tuesday. (Armanini, 2/27)
The New York Times:
A Fading Weapon In The HIV Fight: Condoms
Gay and bisexual men are using condoms less than ever, and the decline has been particularly steep among those who are young or Hispanic, according to a new study. The worrisome trend points to an urgent need for better prevention strategies as the nation struggles to beat the H.I.V. epidemic, researchers said. Over the past decade, prevention medication known as PrEP has helped fuel a moderate drop in H.I.V. rates. And yet, despite persistent public health campaigns promoting the drugs, they have not been adopted in substantial numbers by Black and Hispanic men who are gay or bisexual. (Ryan, 2/27)
The New York Times:
Why Is Mercury Stubbornly High In Tuna? Researchers Might Have An Answer.
Old accumulations of the toxic metal in the deep sea are circulating into shallower waters where the fish feed, new research found. (Tabuchi, 2/27)
Stat:
Cholera Vaccine Supplies Dangerously Low, Outbreaks Surging
An unprecedented shortage of cholera vaccine has public health experts fearing that a recent surge of outbreaks across developing countries will only worsen, a situation they argue is as regrettable as it was avoidable. (Merelli, 2/27)