First Edition: Monday, Nov. 18, 2024

KFF Health News: Social Security Tackles Overpayment ‘Injustices,’ But Problems Remain
In March, newly installed Social Security chief Martin O’Malley criticized agency “injustices” that “shock our shared sense of equity and good conscience as Americans.” He promised to overhaul the Social Security Administration’s often heavy-handed efforts to claw back money that millions of recipients — including people who are living in poverty, are elderly, or have disabilities — were allegedly overpaid, as described by a KFF Health News and Cox Media Group investigation last year. “Innocent people can be badly hurt,” O’Malley said at the time. (Hilzenrath and Fleischer, 11/18)

KFF Health News and Politifact: Does Fluoride Cause Cancer, IQ Loss, And More? Fact-Checking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Claims
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration could try to remove fluoride from drinking water, according to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who was tapped last week by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, called fluoride an “industrial waste” and linked it to cancer and other diseases and disorders while campaigning for Trump. (Putterman, 11/18)

KFF Health News: Journalists Examine Health Care For Native Americans And Recent Food Recalls
KFF Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media in recent weeks to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (11/16)

KFF Health News: What To Know About RFK Jr.'s Stances On Key Health Issues And What He Could Do At HHS
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is coming into the nomination process in an unusual position, with a long list of his own policy priorities separate from the president-elect’s, and a public promise by Trump to let him “go wild” on his ideas. (Gounder, 11/15)

Stat: Hospitals And Insurers Are Optimistic Republicans Will Extend ACA Subsidies
The health care industry’s interest isn’t necessarily rooted in political analysis. It’s financial: Those subsidies are worth $25 billion annually. Insurance companies that sell ACA plans retain some of that federal revenue as profit. Hospitals and doctors who treat patients with ACA coverage benefit from those plans’ higher payment rates and avoid bad debt if those patients had no insurance coverage at all. Oscar Health’s business heavily depends on Congress renewing those subsidies. The publicly traded insurer sells only ACA plans. Over the summer, Oscar forecast its ACA membership would decline 18% over a two-year period if the enhanced subsidies went away. (Herman, 11/18)

The Washington Post: Millions May Not Have Health Coverage If Subsidies Return To Pre-Biden Level
But eliminating the subsidy increase poses political risks. If subsidies fall to their pre-2021 level, experts say, many new subscribers would choose not to renew their coverage — the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that 3.4 million more people would become uninsured — and many of them live in states that lean heavily Republican. Health policy research organization KFF said that if the subsidy expansion expires, premiums would more than double in 12 heavily Republican states — including Texas, West Virginia and Alaska — while rising less sharply in many blue states. (Weil, 11/17)

Modern Healthcare: PBM Bill May Pass Congress As Part Of Telehealth Extension 
Congress has tried for much of the last two years to pass legislation to rein in pharmacy benefit managers, only to have negotiations fall just short. With lawmakers back for a post-election lame duck session, analysts see one last chance — but also a likelihood the effort may wait until Republicans take control of Capitol Hill next year. (McAuliff, 11/15)

Roll Call: Future Of Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Murky Under Trump 
The future of one of President Joe Biden’s key domestic policy achievements — getting Medicare to negotiate drug prices — could either become part of the Biden administration’s legacy, get rolled back by the incoming Congress or be weakened by President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has remained relatively mum about the drug pricing provisions of the 2022 reconciliation bill and its future appears even murkier now that Republicans will control both the House and Senate. (DeGroot and Hellmann, 11/15)

Modern Healthcare: Eli Lilly Sues HHS, HRSA Over 340B Drug Program 
Eli Lilly sued the federal government as the pharmaceutical manufacturer tries to limit the discounts it provides to hospitals. The company on Thursday sued the Health and Human Services Department and its subagency the Health Resources and Services Administration, claiming the government cannot dictate how it distributes 340 drug discounts. Under the 340B program, drugmakers must sell discounted outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that treat many low-income patients to stay enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. (Kacik, 11/15)

The Washington Post: Trump Picks Brendan Carr As FCC Chairman 
President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday he was naming Brendan Carr as the next Federal Communications Commission chairman, positioning the regulatory agency to do battle against social media companies and TV broadcasters that Republicans portray as too liberal. ... One issue on which Carr has been out of step with Trump is TikTok, which the president-elect has said he will “save” from a looming nationwide ban. Carr, an outspoken China hawk, has repeatedly called TikTok a danger to national security and has supported banning the app. (Dou and Lima-Strong, 11/17)

Bloomberg: Caroline Kennedy Calls Cousin RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Views Dangerous 
US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy described her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccinations as “dangerous,” the latest public rebuke by a senior member of the storied family against the man Donald Trump has tapped for a key Cabinet post. Ambassador Kennedy said Monday that her uncle, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, had spent 50 years “fighting for affordable health care” in the US Senate. “It’s something that our whole family is so proud of,” she said. “I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure, and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views,” she added. (Westcott, 11/17)

The Washington Post: Global Health Experts Sound Alarm Over RFK Jr., Citing Samoa Outbreak
Health officials around the world are alarmed over the likely impact of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a longtime vaccine skeptic who was tapped for the health secretary role this week — on global health. Experts from Samoa have been particularly vocal in sounding the alarm, citing the destructive impact of Kennedy’s rhetoric on the tiny Polynesian island nation. Warning that Kennedy will empower the global anti-vaccine movement and may advocate for reduced funding for international agencies, Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma, the director general of health for Samoa’s Health Ministry told The Washington Post that Kennedy “will be directly responsible for killing thousands of children around the world by allowing preventable infectious diseases to run rampant.” (Westfall and Sun, 11/15)

Stat: At HHS, RFK Jr. Could Strip Vaccine Manufacturers Of Legal Protection
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, has criticized laws that provide companies that make vaccines with protections from lawsuits. If he takes office, he has broad power to strip those protections, experts told STAT. Most routine vaccines have had protections from lawsuits for nearly 40 years, and vaccines developed to address emergencies have enjoyed protections for 20. For the most part, the programs have been uncontroversial. (Zhang, 11/15)

Politico: Selection Of RFK Jr. Will Amplify Discussion Of Public Health, Deborah Birx Says 
Dr. Deborah Birx, President-elect Donald Trump’s Covid response coordinator during his first term, said Sunday she expects that the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Trump’s second-term Cabinet will lead to illuminating discussions about public health. “When he talks about transparency,” Birx told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” “I’m actually excited that in a Senate hearing he would bring forward his data and the questions that come from the senators would bring forth their data.” (Cohen, 11/17)

CNN: Doctors Say RFK Jr.’s Anti-Ozempic Stance Perpetuates Stigma And Misrepresents Evidence
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to tackle high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. They’re goals that many in the public health world find themselves agreeing with — despite fearing what else the infamous anti-vaccine activist may do in the post. Just don’t suggest that he tackle those goals with medications like Ozempic. (Tirrell, 11/17)

The New York Times: RFK Jr.'s Vow To Take On Big Food Could Face Resistance 
Boxes of brightly colored breakfast cereals, vivid orange Doritos and dazzling blue M&Ms may find themselves under attack in the new Trump administration. In excoriating such grocery store staples and their mysterious ingredients, Robert F. Kennedy tapped into a zeitgeist of widening appeal for healthy foods to curb obesity and disease that helped propel President-elect Donald J. Trump to select him to oversee the country’s vast health agency. (Jewett and Creswell, 11/15)

Modern Healthcare: How RFK Jr.'s HHS Might Run Medicare And Medicaid
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a famous name and infamous views on vaccines, COVID-19 and other health issues. But the would-be Health and Human Services secretary is a virtual stranger to the healthcare sector. The former independent presidential candidate is President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead a department that regulates every aspect of healthcare and distributes more than $1 trillion a year in payments to providers and health insurance companies. Yet Kennedy's views on Medicare, Medicaid, the health insurance exchanges and other crucial programs are mostly unknown. (Early and McAuliff, 11/15)

Mother Jones: Texas May Be Next State To Restrict Abortion Pills As “Controlled Substances” 
Pat Curry, a Republican lawmaker in Texas, pre-filed a bill in the state legislature this week that would classify the two drugs as schedule IV substances there. The next legislative session does not begin until January 14—if passed, the bill would take effect in September 2025. Curry did not immediately respond to a Facebook message from Mother Jones on Sunday. (McShane, 11/17)

Axios: Abortion Pills May Be FDA's First Test Under Trump
While the early focus on a Trump administration Food and Drug Administration has been on vaccine policy, one of its first moves could be overhauling the federal rules that have made it easier to access the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. Use of the drug has surged as states enacted near or total abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. But new agency leadership could quickly move to roll back some of the policies that were the focus of a closely watched Supreme Court case this year. (Reed, 11/18)

OPB: CDC Confirms Oregon’s First-Ever Human Case Of Bird Flu
Oregon is the latest state to confirm a case of avian influenza in a human, according to a release from the state Health Authority. It’s the first time that a human transmission of the virus has been confirmed in Oregon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, there have been 52 cases in people across the country, including 11 in Washington. (Wiley, 11/15)

The Boston Globe: Long COVID May Be Far More Common Than Previously Known: Study
Almost one in four Americans may be suffering from long COVID, a rate more than three times higher than the most common number cited by federal officials, a team led by Boston area researchers suggests in a new scientific paper. The peer-reviewed study, led by scientists and clinicians from Mass General Brigham, drew immediate skepticism from some long COVID researchers, who suggested their numbers were “unrealistically high.” But the study authors noted that the condition is notoriously difficult to diagnose and official counts also likely exclude populations who were hit hardest by the pandemic but face barriers in accessing healthcare. (Piore, 11/17)

NPR: A Simple At-Home Test Can Tell If You've Got The Flu Or COVID 
For the first time, new home tests — available at pharmacies without a prescription — can test for both the flu and COVID simultaneously. The tests are very reliable — they rarely say someone's positive when they're really negative or vice versa, according to the FDA. If you test negative but are still having symptoms that feel like COVID or the flu a couple of days later, doctors recommend taking a second test. (11/18)

Axios: COVID-Era Telehealth Prescribing Extended Again
The Drug Enforcement Administration and Health and Human Services ended an impasse over the virtual prescribing of controlled substances that threatened access to drugs like Adderall by extending pandemic-era flexibilities through the end of 2025. Keeping the status quo leaves the question of whether to make controlled substances available without an in-person doctor's visit for the Trump administration to decide. (Bettelheim and Goldman, 11/18)

The Washington Post: Easing EMS Access To Blood Could Save 10,000 U.S. Lives, Surgeons Say 
Up to 10,000 lives could be saved each year by improving access to blood in the field, a group of surgeons said in a news conference last month. The event, which took place at an American College of Surgeons clinical conference in San Francisco, emphasized how faster access to blood could improve survival during emergencies. (Blakemore, 11/16)

Fox News: Online Vape Sellers Exposed For Failing To Comply With Safety Restrictions
Online e-cigarette and vape retailers are under fire for not complying with sales restrictions. Regulations are in place to help prevent the sale of vape products to minors, including age verification, shipping methods and flavor restrictions. Researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego put those regulations to the test. (Stabile, 11/17)

NPR: The 'Magic' Drug For Malaria May Be Falling Short
Lately, Dr. Ruth Namazzi and her colleagues have been stopping one another in their hospital ward with worried looks. ... For years, Namazzi — who is also a lecturer at Makerere University College of Health Sciences — has turned to a medication called artemisinin. The drug is derived from an ancient Chinese malaria treatment that was rediscovered several decades ago and has saved millions of lives. It made such a profound difference that one of the people who helped revive the medical recipe received a Nobel prize for her work. (Emanuel, 11/15)

The New York Times: ChatGPT Defeated Doctors At Diagnosing Illness 
Dr. Adam Rodman, an expert in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, confidently expected that chatbots built to use artificial intelligence would help doctors diagnose illnesses. He was wrong. Instead, in a study Dr. Rodman helped design, doctors who were given ChatGPT-4 along with conventional resources did only slightly better than doctors who did not have access to the bot. And, to the researchers’ surprise, ChatGPT alone outperformed the doctors. “I was shocked,” Dr. Rodman said. (Kolata, 11/17)

Bloomberg: CareMax Becomes Latest Health System To File For Bankruptcy 
CareMax Inc., which runs a system of medical centers catered toward elderly patients, has filed for bankruptcy. Miami-based CareMax filed Chapter 11 in Texas on Sunday, listing assets of between $100 million and $500 million, and liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion. CareMax sought court protection after cost cuts and attempts to refinance its debt. (Randles, 11/17)

Modern Healthcare: Epic, Oracle Health Compete For International Business
Epic, Oracle Health and other electronic health records companies are eyeing opportunities abroad, primarily in countries where the digitization of healthcare lags behind the U.S. The U.S. hospital market for EHR vendors has firmly shifted in Epic’s favor over the last few years. It was the only vendor to add beds and hospital customers in 2023, according to a May report from market research firm KLAS. Consolidation among health systems has meant that more than half of acute care beds use Epic, and that share is expected to grow as more large integrated systems switch to the vendor. (Perna, 11/15)

The Baltimore Sun: Cannabis Public Health Dashboard Launched, Tips For Safe Use
Maryland has experienced a “significant increase” in cannabis-related emergency department visits, according to the Maryland Department of Health. The health department launched a data dashboard last week to track public health impacts of cannabis and visualize trends pre- and post-marijuana legalization in the state. (Hacker, 11/18)

The New York Times: Texas Supreme Court Paves Way For Execution In ‘Shaken Baby’ Case 
Texas can go forward with the execution of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in a case that relied on evidence of shaken baby syndrome, the Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday. Lawmakers of both parties in the Texas House, who believed Mr. Roberson deserved a new trial, had temporarily halted the execution last month by issuing a legislative subpoena for Mr. Roberson to testify before a House committee. (Goodman, 11/15)

Carolina Public Press: WNC Infrastructure Damage A Challenge For Social Services
From monitoring suspected child abuse and neglect cases to accounting for children in foster care to taking on additional emergency responsibilities and maintaining essential services amid power and communication outages, county Department of Social Services offices faced major disruptions as a result of Tropical Storm Helene in Western North Carolina. Damage to roads has created ongoing challenges for mandatory home visits for child protective services and foster care oversight, as well as inspections of long-term care facilities for adults. (Thomae, 11/16)  

The New York Times: 1 Dead And Dozens Ill In E. Coli Outbreak Linked To Organic Carrots 
One person has died and 39 people have become ill in an E. coli outbreak linked to organic carrots, federal regulators said on Sunday. The infections were tied to multiple brands of recalled organic whole bagged carrots and baby carrots sold by Grimmway Farms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Fifteen people have been hospitalized, according to the agency. ... The carrots were sold under multiple brand names and at several retailers, including Trader Joe’s and Wegmans. “If you have any recalled carrots in your home, throw them out or return them to the store,” the C.D.C. said. (Diaz, 11/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: MeRT Therapy For Autism: One Family Decides To Find Out If It Can Work
On a sunny day in July, while other Bay Area kids were playing at camps or water parks, 8-year-old Charlotte O’Neill was leaning back in a reclining chair in a small, carpeted San Jose office room. Her eyes were fixed on a television playing her favorite cartoon, “Bluey.” Maureen and Bill O’Neill, her parents, sat beside her in the room at Summit Brain Health, where a neuro-technician had placed a large, figure-eight-shaped magnetic coil on her forehead. Every 28 seconds, the coil sent a magnetic pulse to her brain, which required Charlotte’s eyes to be closed for five seconds at a time. (Vainshtein, 11/16)