First Edition: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025

KFF Health News: Health Clinic Workers Brush Up On Constitutional Protections As Immigration Raids Loom
The lobby at this St. John’s Community Health clinic in South Los Angeles bustles with patients. But community health worker Ana Ruth Varela is worried that it’s about to get a lot quieter. Many patients, she said, are afraid to leave their homes. “The other day I spoke with one of the patients. She said: ‘I don’t know. Should I go to my appointment? Should I cancel? I don’t know what to do.’ And I said, ‘Just come.’ ”Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, fear of mass deportations carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gripped immigrant communities. (Fortiér, 2/26)

KFF Health News: Los Angeles County Has Cut Homelessness, But Wildfires Threaten To Erase That Gain
As flames engulfed a nearby canyon, dozens of residents in a sober-living home fled to an unoccupied building about 30 miles south. The evacuees, many of whom were previously homeless, watched helplessly as their home burned on live TV. When they awoke on air mattresses the next morning, loss set in. Some feared uncertainty. Others were jolted back to lives they thought they’d left behind. (Hart, 2/26)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Jackie Fortiér reads this week’s news: Some states are turning to laundromats to reach people who could qualify for programs including Medicaid and food assistance, and cross-border telehealth is helping Spanish-speaking farmworkers get care. (2/25)

Stat: Budget Bill Passes In House, But Clashes Over Spending And Medicaid Cuts Still Loom
House Republicans passed a budget bill Tuesday that is the first step toward extending Trump’s tax cuts and reducing spending on Medicaid. But Republicans nearly failed, and the two hours of messiness that led to its passage is an early sign of how difficult it will be to enact President Trump’s agenda. (Wilkerson, 2/25)

The New York Times: What Can House Republicans Cut Instead Of Medicaid? Not Much. 
The House passed a budget resolution Tuesday night after the speaker, Mike Johnson, persuaded several Republican lawmakers, including those who have expressed reservations about possible Medicaid cuts, to support the bill. In theory, the budget, which kicks off the process of passing an extension of tax cuts enacted in 2017 and up to $2 trillion in spending cuts meant to partly offset them, could become law without significant cuts to Medicaid. But it won’t be easy. (Sanger-Katz and Parlapiano, 2/25)

The New York Times: Slashing Medicaid To Pay For Trump’s Tax Cuts Could Lead To Vast State Shortfalls
The change could leave the 40 states that participate in the Obamacare program with a difficult set of choices. They could shoulder the extra costs to preserve Medicaid coverage for millions, make cuts to coverage or look for cuts from other large government programs to offset the reduction in federal funds. (Weiland and Kliff, 2/25)

Center For American Progress: The Republican House Budget Resolution's Potential $880 Billion In Medicaid Cuts By Congressional District 
All states rely on federal matching funds to finance their state Medicaid and CHIP programs. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress explores the potential reach of these cuts by congressional district. Table 1 shows potential federal funding losses by district if the $880 billion in cuts were to be proportional to current Medicaid and CHIP enrollment using 2023 American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. On average, each congressional district would lose $2 billion in federal funding over nine years. (Estep, Murphy, and Ducas, 2/24)

Idaho Capital Sun: Idaho House Introduces Bill To Cut Medicaid Expansion Costs — Without Repeal Trigger
A North Idaho lawmaker pushing for Medicaid expansion reform introduced a new bill meant to contain expansion’s costs — without the threat of repealing the voter-approved law. ... the new bill proposes Idaho submit to the federal government a plan for “comprehensive medicaid managed care,” which is when private companies manage Medicaid benefits, and end Idaho’s use of doctor-managed care, which is commonly called value based care. (Pfannenstiel, 2/25)

AP: Advocates Push For Medicaid Expansion In Holdout Alabama
Thirty-year-old Kiana George works at a child care program in Camden, Alabama. She makes too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to qualify for federal subsidies to help buy health insurance. Without insurance, she tried to avoid going to the doctor. ... In the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, roughly 1.4 million people like George fall in the coverage gap — earning too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to get federal subsidies to help buy insurance, according to numbers released Tuesday by KFF, a health policy research organization. (Chandler, 2/26)

Fierce Healthcare: Trump Issues Executive Order To Crack Down On Price Transparency
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to reinforce rules, put into place during his first term, that push hospitals and payers to make healthcare prices more transparent for patients. The order directs the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to rapidly implement and enforce the Trump healthcare price transparency regulations, which were first issued in 2019. These rules were "slow walked" by the Biden administration, the White House said in a fact sheet explaining the executive order. (Landi, 2/25)

AP: Judge Gives Trump Administration Two Days To Release Billions Of Dollars In Blocked Foreign Aid
A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court order to ease its funding freeze. The lawsuit was filed by nonprofit organizations over the cutoff of foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department, which followed a Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump targeting what he portrayed as wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals. (Knickmeyer and Kunzelman, 2/26)

Stat: CDC Will No Longer Process Transgender Data 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer process transgender identity data in order to comply with President Trump’s executive order, agency representative Melissa Dibble told STAT on Tuesday. Sexual orientation data is unaffected and “will be processed per usual protocols,” Dibble added. (Gaffney, 2/25)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Suggests Terms Like ‘Health Equity’ Are Off-Limits, Then Backtracks 
The latest battle erupted on Monday, inside the domain of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., when employees of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received an email instructing them to avoid using more than a dozen “key words" when writing annual goals for performance evaluations. The disfavored terms, according to copies of the email reviewed by The New York Times, included “health equity,” “race,” “bias,” “disparity,” “culturally appropriate” and “stereotype.” (2/26)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Says Undocumented Migrants Must Register
The Trump administration will require all unauthorized immigrants in the United States who are 14 and older to register with the federal government or face civil and criminal penalties, including up to $1,000 in fines and up to six months in prison. (Sacchetti, 2/25)

AP: Fired Cybersecurity Chief For Veterans Affairs Site Says Data Is At Risk
Sensitive financial and health data belonging to millions of veterans and stored on a benefits website is at risk of being stolen or otherwise compromised, according to a federal employee tasked with cybersecurity who was recently fired as part of massive government-wide cuts. The warning comes from Jonathan Kamens, who led cybersecurity efforts for VA.gov — an online portal for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and services used by veterans, their caregivers and families. (Witte and Ngowi, 2/25)

The War Horse: Nonprofit Launches Burn Pit Registry For Civilian Military Contractors
Despite facing many of the same risks service members do, military contractors have little in the way of support or resources when they return home. A new organization launching this month aims to change that. The Association of War Zone Contractors is the first nonprofit dedicated to organizing and advocating for the hundreds thousands of contractors the U.S. relies on in its overseas operations. Like generations of veterans before who have come home from battle, scarred physically and psychologically, and pushed for better care, the group hopes to draw attention — and eventually resources — to support contractors as they increasingly bear the costs of war. (Kehrt, 2/25)

The New York Times: Abortion Pill Maker Enters Legal Fight Over F.D.A. Rules
The country’s largest manufacturer of abortion pills is wading into the first major legal battle over abortion of President Trump’s second term. The company, GenBioPro, on Tuesday asked a Texas court to add it to the list of defendants in a lawsuit filed in October by three Republican state attorneys general. The move was a significant offensive action on an issue seen as a vanguard in the fight over access to abortion. (Lerer, 2/25)

The Gazette: Bill Would Require Iowa Doctors Inform Patients Of Medication Abortion 'Reversal' 
Health care providers in Iowa would be required to tell patients that it may be possible to reverse the effects of a medication abortion, something reproductive rights advocates and medical groups say is not supported by science. Republican members of a three-member House subcommittee on Tuesday advanced House Study Bill 186 for consideration by the full House Health and Human Services Committee. (Barton, 2/25)

Fierce Healthcare: Providers 'Wasted' Almost $18B In 2023 Overturning Claims Denials
Hospitals and health systems spent an estimated $25.7 billion in 2023 contesting insurers’ claims denials, translating to just over $57 in additional administrative costs per claim, according to a report from provider group purchasing organization Premier. That report, which surveyed 280 of the organization’s member hospitals, suggests a 23% increase in spending over a similar analysis of 2022 data Premier had conducted a year prior. (Muoio, 2/26)

Modern Healthcare: Inpatient Capacity Can't Keep Up With Demand, Hospital Execs Say
Health systems are treating sicker patients, straining already full emergency departments and inpatient units. Many health systems are struggling to keep up with the increasingly complex healthcare needs of an aging population, leading to overcrowded emergency rooms and delays in care. Providers are ramping up strategies to treat patients more efficiently and keep those who aren't as sick out of emergency departments. These strategies are critical as capacity wanes and providers face a potential decline in federal healthcare funding, executives said. (Kacik, 2/25)

MedPage Today: Historic Strike Involving Thousands Of Oregon Healthcare Workers Comes To An End
A strike involving nearly 5,000 healthcare workers at Providence Health in Oregon, which began Jan. 10, has come to an end. Late Monday, eight RN bargaining units voted overwhelmingly to ratify their contracts and end the strike, which was believed to be the largest involving healthcare workers, and the first involving physicians, in the state's history, according to the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA), which represented the workers. (Henderson, 2/25)

Chicago Tribune: Walgreens To Pay $595 Million Settlement To Everly Health
Deerfield-based Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay a $595 million settlement to a virtual care company over a dispute involving COVID-19 testing — dodging a $987 million arbitration award that a federal judge recently said Walgreens had to pay. (Schencker, 2/25)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Expands Access To Clozapine, A Key Treatment For Schizophrenia
The Food and Drug Administration has taken a crucial step toward expanding access to the antipsychotic medication clozapine, the only drug approved for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, among the most devastating of mental illnesses. The agency announced on Monday that it was eliminating a requirement that patients submit blood tests before their prescriptions can be filled. (Barry, 2/25)

The Hill: Drug Compounders Sue Over Weight Loss Drugs’ Removal From FDA Shortage List
A trade group representing compounding pharmacies has filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for removing semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, from its drug shortage list. (Choi, 2/25)

Axios: New Sickle Cell Treatment Cures Disease At Lower Cost Than Gene Therapies
A new type of bone marrow transplant can cure sickle cell disease with only half of the donor's cell proteins matching, according to new clinical trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The procedure would greatly expand the pool of potential donors, in addition to costing less than one-quarter of the price of innovative gene therapies for the condition that have earned Food and Drug Administration approval in recent years. (Goldman, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: AstraZeneca’s Breast Cancer Drug Shows Positive Results In Late-Stage Trial
AstraZeneca said its breast cancer drug candidate showed positive results in a late stage trial, with improved progression-free survival in patients. The British pharma giant said Wednesday that the trial for Camizestrant showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared with the standard-of-care treatment. For the trial the drug was combined with a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, which slows cell proliferation. The experimental pill also showed improved trends of delayed progression to secondary disease. (Smolak, 2/26)

NPR: Did An Alzheimer’s Drug Give Sue And Ken Bell More Time? Maybe
In 2020, Sue Bell became one of the first Alzheimer's patients in the U.S. to receive the drug now marketed as Leqembi. Four years later, she and her husband, Ken, halted the treatment. Sue's Alzheimer's had reached the point where her taking the drug no longer made sense. "I think it helped," says her husband, Ken Bell. "But I'm not sure." (Hamilton, 2/26)

NBC News: As Texas Measles Outbreak Grows, Parents Are Choosing To Vaccinate Kids
As the measles outbreak in Texas keeps spreading, parents who previously chose not to vaccinate their children are now lining up to get their kids the shots needed to protect them from the serious illness. “We’ve vaccinated multiple kids that have never been vaccinated before, some from families that didn’t believe in vaccines,” said Katherine Wells, director of public health for Lubbock's health department. On Tuesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported that 124 cases of measles have been confirmed since late January, mostly in counties in West Texas, near the New Mexico border. (Edwards, 2/25)

NBC News: Utah Set To Become First State To Ban Fluoride In Public Water
Utah is gearing up to make history as the first state to ban fluoride in public water systems if Gov. Spencer Cox signs a bill to prohibit the addition of the tooth decay-fighting mineral. If signed into law, HB0081 would prevent any individual or political subdivision from adding fluoride "to water in or intended for public water systems." ... "The bill also repeals previous laws related to fluoridated water provisions, including sections about providing fluoridated water upon resident request and under emergency circumstances," the bill summary reads. (Alsharif, 2/25)

The Denver Post: Colorado Issues First Psilocybin-Related Licenses, Kicking Off Psychedelic Industry Rollout 
Colorado regulators have issued the first licenses to individuals seeking to open psilocybin-related businesses. As of Thursday afternoon, the Department of Revenue’s Natural Medicine Division had approved seven license applications for prospective business owners, including one who wants to open a psilocybin mushroom cultivation and another who hopes to operate a healing center. Additionally, the division issued one license to a local who hopes to work in the nascent industry. (Ricciardi, 2/25)

Iowa Public Radio: House GOP Advances Bill To Remove Civil Rights Protections For Transgender Iowans 
Republicans on the Iowa House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill Monday that would remove civil rights protections for transgender Iowans from state law, as a few hundred people protested the bill at the Statehouse. (Sostaric, 2/25)

The New York Times: To Identify Suspect In Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data 
New records show that the F.B.I. identified Bryan Kohberger as a potential murder suspect after tapping consumer databases GEDmatch and MyHeritage, which were supposed to be off limits. (Baker, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Congo Reports Over 50 Deaths From Mystery Illness
An unknown illness has killed 53 people in a northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a significant portion of deaths taking place within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, according to the World Health Organization, which describes the outbreak as posing “a significant public health threat.” At least 431 cases have been reported since January of individuals suffering from fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, headaches and fatigue, according to the WHO’s Africa office. (Ho, 2/25)