First Edition: Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025

KFF Health News: Doctor Wanted: Small Town Offers Big Perks To Attract A Physician
For a rural community, this town of 1,750 people has been more fortunate than most. A family doctor has practiced here for the last 30 years. But that ended in December when Mark Newberry retired. To attract a new doctor, Havana leaders took out want ads in local newspapers, posted notices on social media, and sweetened the pot with a rent-free medical office equipped with an X-ray, an ultrasound machine, and a bone density scanner — all owned by the town. (Chang, 2/12)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘An Arm And A Leg’: How Do You Deal With Wild Drug Prices?
Prices for brand-name drugs in the U.S. are three times what the same drugs cost in other countries. And in a recent KFF survey, 3 in 10 adults reported not taking their medicine as prescribed at some point in the past year because of costs. (Weissmann, 2/11)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Katheryn Houghton delivers this week’s news: Pediatricians believe a decline in childhood vaccination rates could drive a return of deadly vaccine-preventable diseases, and addiction experts say legalizing sports betting has downsides for health. (2/11)

NPR: Judge Orders HHS, CDC And FDA To Restore Webpages And Data
A federal judge has ordered federal health agencies to restore websites and datasets that were abruptly pulled down beginning in late January, prompting an outcry from medical and public health communities. The temporary restraining order was granted in response to a lawsuit filed against the federal government by Doctors for America (DFA), a progressive advocacy group representing physicians, and the nonprofit Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. (Stone, 2/11)

The New York Times: Court Halt On Trump Cuts For Medical Research Is Extended Nationwide
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to hold off on a plan that would cut $4 billion in federal funding for research at the nation’s universities, cancer centers and hospitals. The funds disbursed by the National Institutes of Health cover the administrative and overhead costs for a vast swath of biomedical research, some of which is directed at tackling diseases like cardiovascular conditions, cancer and diabetes. (Jewett and Rosenbluth, 2/11)

Stat: As Outcry Builds Over Trump Cuts To NIH Payments, Drugmakers Are MIA
For decades, academic scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health conducted research into the function of a lung protein that is genetically altered in people with cystic fibrosis. The foundational scientific discoveries eventually led Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develop and win approval for the first medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. Those medicines have transformed the lives of people living with the disease and turned Vertex into one of the world’s largest and most valuable drug companies. (Feuerstein, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: What NIH's Grant Funding Cuts Mean For Providers
Cutting federal grant funding will limit access to care and stymie research, providers warn. Last week, the National Institutes of Health said it will cap the indirect cost payment rate for new and existing grants at 15%. Academic medical centers use that funding to cover the cost of administrative and infrastructure expenses tied to research. (Kacik, 2/11)

Military.Com: What's In Store For VA Disability Benefits With New Office Of Management And Budget Chief?
During his confirmation hearing Jan. 21, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins pledged to preserve veterans benefits and not "balance the budgets on the backs of veterans." But the confirmation of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who contributed to two conservative playbooks that support significant changes to VA disability benefits, has put veterans service organizations on guard against any potential shifts in VA compensation. (Kime, 2/11)

Politico: Trump Fires USAID’s Inspector General After Report Critical Of Funding Freeze
The Trump administration fired the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday — a day after he put out a report criticizing the foreign aid freeze, a USAID official and a former State Department official said. Paul Martin is the latest of some 20 inspectors general that President Donald Trump has ousted, despite objections from lawmakers and the watchdogs themselves that his methods of removing them violate statutes. (Toosi, 2/11)

The New York Times: Trump’s W.H.O. Exit Throws Smallpox Defenses Into Upheaval
President Trump’s order that the United States exit the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache. Health experts say discontinuation of the W.H.O.’s oversight threatens to damage precautions against the virus leaking into the world, and to disrupt research on countermeasures against the lethal disease. (Broad, 2/12)

The Washington Post: President’s DEA Pick Served 22 Years At The Agency
President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Terry Cole to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, elevating a longtime law enforcement official who spent more than two decades at the agency and now serves as Virginia’s top public safety official. The nomination came more than two months after Trump’s first selection, Florida sheriff Chad Chronister, announced his withdrawal amid withering criticism from conservative figures. (Ovalle and Vazquez, 2/11)

MedPage Today: Trump's NIH Pick Co-Founded New Journal 
A new journal purports to improve the publishing process through open access and public peer review, but it was co-founded by researchers who challenged the U.S. response to COVID-19 -- including President Trump's pick to lead the NIH, Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD. Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, PhD, have founded the Journal of the Academy of Public Health, where "good scientists can publish whatever their studies conclude," Kulldorff said in a post on X. (Fiore, 2/11)

The Hill: GOP Leaders Downplay Medicaid Cuts As They Seek $2T In Savings
House Republican leaders on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of cuts to Medicaid benefits as they seek a reconciliation bill with up to $2 trillion in savings. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) sought to reassure the public — and potential jittery members of their own caucus — that the Medicaid changes under discussion include work requirements and fraud reduction, not drastic cuts like lowering the federal match for Medicaid expansion states or instituting a per capita cap. (Weixel, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: PBM Bill Eyed For In March Spending Legislation
Lawmakers who came within days of passing new restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers are trying to revive those measures as part of major funding bills Congress is rushing to complete. It was unclear if the specific provisions from December's package would be the same, but lawmakers said it was vital to move PBM legislation after the last Congress advanced numerous bipartisan measures, but failed at the last minute to include them in the year-end government funding bill. (McAuliff, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: Telehealth Rules Face Extension Uncertainty In Congress
Lawmakers say they are confident Congress will extend expanded telehealth authorities past a looming deadline next month — but they have no idea how and could not rule out a lapse. In 2020, Congress and President Donald Trump temporarily expanded Medicare reimbursement for services clinicians provide remotely as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers have hailed extended telehealth rules for providing lifelines to rural and underserved populations in particular, prompting some to propose bills last year to make the changes permanent. (McAuliff, 2/11)

The Hill: Connecticut Rep. John Larson Says He Had Seizure On House Floor
“Yesterday, at around noon, I experienced a medical incident on the House floor, when my speech momentarily paused,” a statement from Larson posted to X reads. “Following the incident, I saw the House Attending Physician, Dr. Monahan, who referred me for further evaluation.” “After a round of tests, it was determined that the cause of the brief pause in my speech was a complex partial seizure.” (Suter, 2/11)

The Hill: Kansas Gov. Kelly Vetoes Ban On Gender-Affirming Care For Minors
Kansas’s Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a proposal to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth for the third consecutive year, setting up another battle with the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature that has previously failed to overrule her on the issue. Kansas’s Senate Bill 63 would broadly prevent health care professionals from providing gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, to minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria — the severe psychological distress that stems from a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and sex at birth. (Migdon, 2/11)

AP: Georgia Senate Bill Would Cut Funding For Adult Gender-Affirming Care, But It May Have Cloudy Future
Georgia’s state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would cut off public funding for gender-affirming care for adults, but the future of the legislation remains cloudy in the state House, one illustration of how the Republican-controlled swing state has been slow to join the blizzard of laws targeting transgender people. Senators voted 33-19 to pass Senate Bill 39, which would bar state money for gender-affirming care in state employee and university health insurance plans, Medicaid and the prison system. (Amy, 2/11)

NBC News: New York Doctor Says He'll Continue Providing Transition Care Despite Trump Executive Order
A New York City doctor said he will continue providing gender-affirming treatments to his patients younger than 19 despite President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to ban such care, because, the doctor said, these patients’ lives depend on it. “Until somebody calls me away, I’m just going to keep doing it,” said Dr. Jeffrey Birnbaum, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist. He doesn’t think that will happen, he added, noting that New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a statement Monday telling doctors that state law requires them to continue providing such care. (Yurcaba, Herzberg and Gosk, 2/11)

The Boston Globe: Worcester City Council Taking Up Sanctuary Resolution For Transgender Community
The Worcester City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night to make New England’s second-largest city a “sanctuary” jurisdiction for the transgender community, a proposal that cites President Trump’s executive order limiting the federal government’s gender recognition to male and female. Over nearly three hours, councilors heard from dozens of residents who overwhelmingly supported declaring Worcester “a sanctuary city for transgender and gender diverse people.” (Andersen and Alanez, 2/12)

The Marshall Project: How Trump's Trans Order Sows Chaos For Federal Prisoners, Staff
First, President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting the use of federal funds for gender-affirming care. Then, in response to a lawsuit from prisoners, a judge temporarily blocked the order. The result, say employees and incarcerated transgender people, has been chaos and uncertainty as policies are adopted and applied unevenly throughout the federal prison system. (Schwartzapfel, 2/11)

AP: When Does A Heartbeat Start? South Carolina Supreme Court Again Takes Up Abortion Issue
With a heartbeat abortion ban solidly in place in South Carolina, lawyers for the state and Planned Parenthood return to the state’s highest court Wednesday to argue how restrictive the ban should be. The law is being enforced in South Carolina as a ban on almost all abortions around six weeks after conception, setting that mark as the time cardiac activity starts. But Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups are arguing the 2023 law includes alternative definitions about the timing of a fetal heart forming and a “heartbeat” starting and the true ban should start around nine or 10 weeks. (Collins, 2/12)

SF Gate: Calif. Says Catholic Hospital's Abortion Policy 'Endangers' Patients
The California Attorney General’s Office is challenging a rural Catholic hospital’s assertion that emergency abortion requirements violate its religious freedom. In recently filed court documents, the state argues that Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Humboldt County “endangers the safety of its patients” by refusing to provide emergency abortion care. This latest move by the office of Attorney General Rob Bonta stems from a lawsuit filed by the state in September on behalf of a Humboldt County woman who says she was denied a medically necessary abortion by St. Joseph after a pregnancy loss. The denial of care endangered her life, the lawsuit states. (LaFever, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: Humana Plans Medicare Advantage Investment
Humana plans to invest a “few hundred million” dollars in its struggling Medicare Advantage business this year, executives said Tuesday. “We’re focused on stars, of course, we’re investing in clinical excellence and membership strategies,” Chief Financial Officer Celeste Mellet said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. (Tepper, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth, Amedisys Plan Divesture Of Up To 128 Locations
UnitedHealth Group said in a court filing Friday its plans to sell at least 128 home health and hospice locations to ease the Justice Department's antitrust concerns around its acquisition of Amedisys. The divestiture plans were part of a filing in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland in a response to the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the proposed acquisition. The government alleges the deal is unlawful because it would stifle competition in hundreds of markets. However, UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys allege the lawsuit essentially ignores the companies' proposed divestiture package. (Eastabrook, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: The Queen's Health Systems Layoffs To Hit About 100 Employees
The Queen's Health Systems plans to lay off about 100 employees as the organization looks to improve efficiency across its six hospitals and more than 70 other care sites. The Honolulu-based system said less than 1% of its estimated 9,500 employees would be impacted. Affected staff members would have the opportunity to apply for other positions within the organization. (DeSilva, 2/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Benioff Hospital Sued Over Minority Internship Program
The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation has sued UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland over an internship program for minority high school students, alleging the program violates state and federal laws because it bases eligibility on race. The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, also names the UC Board of Regents as a defendant. It was filed on behalf of a 15-year-old Berkeley High School student, identified only as G.H., who applied for the program and was rejected. The student is white. (Ho, 2/11)

Becker's Hospital Review: Mass General Brigham, IBM Collaborate On New Tool
Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham and IBM have teamed up to develop an AI tool for health systems and community health centers. The tool will be designed to predict local heat waves, identify patients at risk and send automatic warnings when extreme heat is expected, according to a Feb. 11 news release. The tool will also alert patients to available resources and help physicians take preventive steps by identifying and addressing health risks. (Diaz, 2/11)

Fierce Healthcare: Walgreens Ordered To Pay $987M In COVID-19 Test Contract Case
Walgreens must pay more than $987 million as part of an arbitration award won by a virtual care company, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews in Delaware sided with PWNHealth, upholding a previously determined arbitration award related to a contract dispute between the pharmacy retail giant and PWNHealth, which also does business as Everly Health Solutions. (Landi, 2/11)

The Hill: FDA Approves New Genetic Disorder Drug
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug to treat a disorder causing the growth of noncancerous tumors on nerves throughout the body. The federal agency said on Tuesday it greenlighted SpringWorks Therapeutics’s drug Gomekli for patients dealing with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) “who have symptomatic plexiform neurofibromas (PN) not amenable to complete resection.” (Timotija, 2/11)

The New York Times: A Promising New Development For Millions Of People With Liver Disease 
Until recently, doctors could only hope to intervene by suggesting diet and lifestyle changes, or by helping patients manage related conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol. But those efforts often haven’t been enough. Now a promising new study shows that weight-loss surgery could reduce the chances of severe complications, even in some patients with cirrhosis. (Agrawal, 2/11)

Chicago Tribune: Game-Changing Lung Fridge Serves Chicago Transplant Patients
The lungs that Dr. Ankit Bharat took out of Tadd Crosslin, a 49-year-old father of twins, were marred with billions of cancer cells. They were “perhaps the most diseased that we’ve ever seen,” said Bharat, a thoracic surgeon and director of Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute. A technology the institute adopted just months ago was a game changer for Crosslin, whose lungs were fused so tightly to his chest cavity that doctors needed extra time to delicately remove them. (Breen, 2/11)

AP: In Rare Case, Georgia Father Jailed After His Son Was Accused Of A School Shooting Is Granted Bond
In a rare case of a parent being charged after a school shooting, a judge on Tuesday granted a $500,000 bond for the father of a 14-year-old boy accused of a deadly attack at a north Georgia high school. Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Sept. 4 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. (Martin, 2/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Lurie Taps Biden’s Ex-Medicaid Chief To Run S.F. Health Department
Mayor Daniel Lurie named a former Medicaid director as San Francisco’s new public health director, tapping an experienced healthcare administrator to help lead the city’s response to the drug crisis in one of his most consequential appointments since taking office last month. Daniel Tsai, who ran the Medicaid program under former President Joe Biden, will succeed Dr. Grant Colfax, who announced in mid-January that he would resign after almost six years running the city’s Department of Public Health. Tsai is the second new department head that Lurie has named since he became mayor; he previously appointed a new fire chief. (Morris, 2/11)

CalMatters: Prop. 36 Promised ‘Mass Treatment’ For Drug Offenses. Some Counties Aren’t Ready
It’s been three months since California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, a new law that pledged to provide “mass treatment” for those facing certain drug charges. But since the law took effect on Dec. 18, some counties are scrambling to fulfill that promise. Now, prosecutors have the ability to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony, which would direct them to substance use disorder or mental health treatment in lieu of up to three years in jail or prison. (Mihalovich, 2/11)

The CT Mirror: CT Needs Long-Term Care Insurance Reform, Policyholders Say
Members of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee introduced a broad bill aimed at providing people with long-term care insurance some relief from large rate hikes and boosting transparency around the state’s rate review process. But policyholders who gathered at a public hearing Tuesday called on leaders of the committee to offer consumers more protection while lobbyists for the insurance sector opposed the measure. (Carlesso, 2/11)

Newsweek: Flu Now Deadlier Than COVID In California For First Time Since 2020
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, influenza is causing more deaths in California than the coronavirus, according to state health data. While COVID-19 has dominated as the deadliest respiratory virus in recent years, flu-related fatalities have now surpassed those attributed to COVID in the state this winter. Newsweek has reached out to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for comment on the matter. (Castro, 2/11)

AP: 10 New Cases Of Measles Reported In West Texas County And New Mexico
Public health authorities said Tuesday that an outbreak of measles in western Texas has expanded, while a new case was confirmed nearby across state lines in New Mexico. The Texas Department of State Health Services has identified 24 measles cases in connection with the onset of symptoms within the last two weeks. ... In neighboring Lea County, New Mexico, residents were alerted Tuesday to the measles infection of an unvaccinated teenager, as well as the possible exposure of more people in Lovington at a hospital emergency room and sixth grade school gymnasium. (2/12)

CNN: Georgia Lifts Suspension Of Poultry Activities After Extensive Bird Flu Testing Finds No Additional Cases
The Georgia Department of Agriculture has lifted the suspension of poultry activities in Georgia, one of the country’s top poultry-producing states, after bird flu testing, depopulation, cleaning and disinfecting were done in the area and no new cases were found. (Riess, 2/11)

NPR: Preventing Ticks On Reservation Dogs Curbed A Deadly Disease
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is one of the deadliest tickborne diseases in the United States, often killing people within about a week if left untreated. At one point, the San Carlos Apache Reservation had rates of infection 150 times the national average. But now, they've achieved a huge milestone: No deaths from the disease in five years. (Huang, Lim, Kwong, McCoy, Ramirez, 2/12)

The New York Times: Covid Learning Losses
Schoolchildren in Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania are still about half a year behind typical pre-Covid reading levels. In Florida and Michigan, the gap is about three-quarters of a year. In Maine, Oregon and Vermont, it is close to a full year. This morning, a group of academic researchers released their latest report card on pandemic learning loss, and it shows a disappointingly slow recovery in almost every state. (Leonhardt, 2/11)

Axios: Workers With Chronic Illnesses Struggle To Manage Health On Job
More than half of U.S. employees have chronic health conditions, and three-quarters of those workers have had to spend time managing their health on the job in the past year, a new Harvard poll found. (Goldman, 2/12)

Stat: Treating ADHD Earlier Could Help Curb Smoking: Study
Researchers have long known that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more likely to use nicotine and tobacco — putting them at higher risk for a host of diseases and increasing the likelihood that they may become addicted to drugs and alcohol. But early diagnosis and treatment of ADHD could help prevent young people from picking up the habit in the first place, according to a new study. (Todd, 2/11)

CNN: Canned Tuna Sold At Trader Joe’s, Costco, Walmart And More Recalled Due To Botulism Risk 
Tri-Union Seafoods is recalling certain canned tuna products sold at Costco, H-E-B, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Walmart and other stores. There was a defect in manufacturing the “easy open” pull tab on the lids of the tuna, branded as Genova, Van Camp’s or various store brands. Without proper sealing, the company said, there’s a risk of food leaking or contamination with Clostridium botulinum, or botulism. (Mukherjee, 2/11)