Experimental Pig Kidney Transplant Recipient In Alabama Is On The Mend

AP: An Alabama Woman Is Doing Well After The Latest Experimental Pig Kidney Transplant
An Alabama woman is recovering well after a pig kidney transplant last month that freed her from eight years of dialysis, the latest effort to save human lives with animal organs. Towana Looney is the fifth American given a gene-edited pig organ — and notably, she isn’t as sick as prior recipients who died within two months of receiving a pig kidney or heart. (Neergaard, 12/17)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Girl, 10, Is One Of 33 Kids Taking New Drug To Fight Rare Disease
Juliette Picard, 10, loves drawing animals, playing Minecraft and hanging out with her dog. The Parker fourth-grader also has a blood disease so rare that only one in a million people are affected, and she is now one of 33 children in the world testing a new drug that means she can spend more days at school with her friends. (Brown, 12/16)

Expanding and closing —

The Mercury News: Healthcare Titan Plans Big South Bay Medical Hubs In $800 Million Plan
Sutter Health has unveiled plans to transform several empty office buildings in Santa Clara into two huge medical campuses that would create a healthcare destination in Silicon Valley. ... “This is going to improve access, it’s a lower cost of care and it provides better access points” for Sutter Health members, said Sutter Health president and chief executive officer Warner Thomas, in an interview with this news organization. (Avalos, 12/17)

CBS News: Advocate Health Care Announces Plans For $300 Million Hospital On Chicago's South Side
A $1 billion investment was announced Tuesday to improve health and wellness on Chicago's South Side—with a new lakefront hospital and 10 care locations. Mayor Brandon Johnson was present for the announcement by Advocate Health Care on Tuesday. (Tye, 12/17)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: McKee's St Louis Hospital Closes, Citing Lack Of Cash, Blood
A small hospital built by one of the city’s most controversial developers is suspending operations and furloughing employees until further notice, saying it will use the time to seek new sources of money — and blood — according to a memo sent to hospital employees Tuesday. The memo, signed by the board of directors at Homer G. Phillips Memorial Hospital, said the institution had notified the state of plans to halt operations until “a reliable and continuous source of blood can be secured.” It said the majority of hospital staff would be furloughed until further notice. (Huguelet, 12/17)

Also —

Bloomberg: Medicare Advantage Whistleblower Lawsuit Settled In New York
US authorities have reached a settlement to resolve a whistleblower case alleging that a New York state health insurer systematically defrauded the federal Medicare program by exaggerating how sick members were in order to boost profits. The settlement was disclosed in a court filing Monday that didn’t detail the settlement amount. The lawsuit in federal court in the Western District of New York concerns a type of health-care fraud claim that has drawn increasing attention from the Department of Justice. (Tozzi, 12/17)

The Boston Globe: Governor Healey Defends Handling Of MA Steward Health Care Crisis
Governor Maura Healey defended her record Tuesday on Steward Health Care, saying she “did all that I could do” to address the now-bankrupt hospital chain’s collapse, which a recent Globe Spotlight Team investigation found was enabled by years of lax state scrutiny. Healey placed the blame for the hospital chain’s subpar care and massive financial losses on former Steward chief executive Ralph de la Torre, who resigned in October and is now a focus of a federal corruption investigation. (Serres, Koh and Kowalczyk, 12/17)

The Boston Globe: Homelessness Surged 52 Percent In N.H. In One Year, Report Found
Homelessness in New Hampshire increased at an “alarming” rate in 2023, according to a 2024 report from the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness. The new report found that homelessness in New Hampshire grew by 52 percent from 2022 to 2023, the most recent data that’s fully available, based on an annual count of people who are homeless on a single day in January. (Gokee, 12/17)

NBC News: Tennessee Woman Accused Of Selling Fake Weight Loss Drugs As Counterfeit Concerns Grow
The first tip came into West Tennessee law enforcement about two months ago: A resident in the area was selling cheap versions of Ozempic and other weight loss drugs. According to officials with the West Tennessee Drug Task Force, the tipster believed the products couldn’t be legitimate due to their unusually low prices: A 10-milligram vial of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, sold for about $100, for example, and a 15 mg vial costs $140. The brand-name versions, from drugmaker Novo Nordisk, sell for around $1,000 for a month’s supply.  (Lovelace Jr., McLaughlin and Heikkila, 12/17)