First Edition: Wednesday, March 12, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Sent Home To Heal, Patients Avoid Wait For Rehab Home Beds 
After a patch of ice sent Marc Durocher hurtling to the ground, and doctors at UMass Memorial Medical Center repaired the broken hip that resulted, the 75-year-old electrician found himself at a crossroads. He didn’t need to be in the hospital any longer. But he was still in pain, unsteady on his feet, unready for independence. Patients nationwide often stall at this intersection, stuck in the hospital for days or weeks because nursing homes and physical rehabilitation facilities are full. Yet when Durocher was ready for discharge in late January, a clinician came by with a surprising path forward: Want to go home? (Freyer, 3/12)

KFF Health News: Some CT Scans Deliver Too Much Radiation, Researchers Say. Regulators Want To Know More. 
Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco medical school, has spent well over a decade researching the disquieting risk that one of modern medicine’s most valuable tools, computerized tomography scans, can sometimes cause cancer. Smith-Bindman and like-minded colleagues have long pushed for federal policies aimed at improving safety for patients undergoing CT scans. Under new Medicare regulations effective this year, hospitals and imaging centers must start collecting and sharing more information about the radiation their scanners emit. (Kenen, 3/12)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'An Arm And A Leg': Medical-Debt Watchdog Gets Sidelined By The New Administration
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken major steps to help people with medical debt in its nearly 14-year history. It issued rules barring medical debt from Americans’ credit reports and went after debt collectors who pressured customers to pay bills they didn’t owe. But in early February, the Trump administration moved to effectively shutter the agency. “An Arm and a Leg” host Dan Weissmann talks with credit counselor Lara Ceccarelli about how the CFPB has helped clients at the nonprofit where she works, and how she’s navigating the sudden change. (3/12)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' 
Zach Dyer reads this week’s news: The current bird flu outbreak is gaining momentum despite mass culling of infected poultry, and the Trump administration is embracing the conservative policy playbook known as Project 2025. (3/11)

ON CAPITOL HILL

Becker's Hospital Review: House Passes Bill With Short-Term Wins For Hospitals
House Republicans on March 11 passed legislation to keep the government running through Sept. 30 and extend several critical healthcare provisions that were due to expire March 31. The continuing resolution, which passed the House in a 217-213 vote, would: Eliminate the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital cuts through Sept. 30; Extend certain telehealth waivers and the hospital-at-home program through Sept. 30; Expand the enhanced low-volume adjustment program through Sept. 30 and the Medicare-dependent hospital program through Oct. 1; Extend add-on payments for rural ambulance services through Oct. 1. (Condon, 3/11)

NBC News: Bipartisan Pair Of Senators Reintroduce Bill To Expand Fentanyl Testing In Hospitals
The bill from Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., is called “Tyler’s Law,” named after a California teenager who died following a fentanyl overdose. (Tsirkin, 3/11)

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Gail Slater As Justice Dept.’s Antitrust Lead
The Senate on Tuesday approved Gail Slater, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department antitrust division, by a vote of 78-19. Ms. Slater, a veteran tech and media lawyer, has pledged to be skeptical of corporate power across the economy, and has been particularly critical of power in the tech industry. (McCabe, 3/11)

CIDRAP: Oklahoma Reports First Measles Cases Linked To Growing Texas Outbreak 
Today, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) reported two measles cases in the state likely linked to ongoing outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico. The individuals reportedly self-isolated and refrained from going out in public upon symptom onset, OSDH said. (Soucheray, 3/11)

CBS News: LA County Confirms First Measles Case In Resident 
The resident recently traveled through LAX before going to a North Hollywood nail salon and an El Monte grocery store. (Rodriguez, 3/11)

AP: Measles Cases Are Still Rising In Texas. Here's What You Should Know About The Contagious Virus 
Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas’ total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized. New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case in Eddy County. (Shastri, 3/11)

NBC News: Long-Term Dangers Of Measles Include 'Immune Amnesia,' Brain Swelling
Measles is unlike other childhood viruses that come and go. In severe cases it can cause pneumonia. About 1 in 1,000 patients develops encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and there are 1 or 2 deaths per 1,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus can wipe out the immune system, a complication called “immune amnesia.” (Syal, 3/12)

Stat: CDC Nominee Dave Weldon Has Long Supported Anti-Vaccine Theories
Unlike President Trump’s picks to lead other health agencies who established their conservative bona fides during the Covid-19 pandemic, his choice to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dave Weldon, was virtually invisible during that period. But an examination by STAT of thousands of pages of documents from Weldon’s 14 years in Congress, part of his archives housed here at the Florida Institute of Technology, and interviews with a half-dozen former health officials, found that his support for anti-vaccine theories runs long and deep. (Owermohle, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Education Department, With Mass Layoff, Cuts Nearly Half Of Its Staff
The Education Department said Tuesday that it is cutting its staff by about half, a major step toward President Donald Trump’s goal of shrinking the federal role in education and one that critics denounced as damaging to American children. Trump has said he wants to eliminate the department altogether, but that is unlikely because it would require an act of Congress and 60 yes votes in the Senate, where Republicans hold only 53 seats. Absent that, the administration has been working to gut the agency by cutting grants and contracts and reducing staff. (Meckler and Douglas-Gabriel, 3/11)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Plans To Close All Environmental Justice Offices
The Trump administration intends to eliminate Environmental Protection Agency offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities, according to a memo from Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator. Mr. Zeldin’s move effectively ends three decades of work at the E.P.A. to try to ease the pollution that burdens poor and minority communities, which are frequently located near highways, power plants, industrial plants and other polluting facilities. Studies have shown that people who live in those communities have higher rates of asthma, heart disease and other health problems, compared with the national average. (Friedman, 3/11)

ProPublica: The Office That Investigates Disparities in Veterans’ Care Is Being “Liquidated”
The Trump administration has shut down a unit of the Department of Veterans Affairs created under President Joe Biden to address disparities in how the federal government provides disability compensation to military service members. The closure of the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Office of Equity Assurance effectively hobbles internal efforts at the VA to investigate and eliminate long-standing racial inequities the department itself has acknowledged. (Coleman, 3/11)

NPR: Mental Health Care From Veterans Affairs Is Shaken By Trump's Policies, Sources Say
In the wake of federal firings and executive orders, providers and patients at the Department of Veterans Affairs say mental health and mental health care are suffering. They fear this struggle will get worse as the VA carries through with 80,000 promised job cuts. The agency is one of the largest providers of mental health care in the country. (Riddle, 3/12)

The Washington Post: USAID Workers Told To Shred, Burn Documents, Unnerving Congress 
The U.S. Agency for International Development ordered employees to destroy internal documents Tuesday, according to an agency directive, raising new questions about how sensitive records are being handled in the Trump administration’s drive to curtail America’s assistance activities overseas. (Ryan and Hudson, 3/11)

Stat: Fired CDC Employees Press RFK Jr. To Reinstate Them 
Dozens of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees sent a letter to agency leaders on Monday asking to be reinstated, citing shifting guidance from the government office that triggered their layoffs. (Cueto, 3/11)

Stat: After Cuts, SAMSHA Employees Describe An Agency In Shambles
The new administration’s decision to fire a tenth of the workers at the federal government agency that oversees mental and behavioral health will imperil efforts to curb suicides and drug overdose deaths, according to current and former employees. (Broderick, 3/12)

Stat: Columbia Scientists Reel As Trump Administration Cancels Grants 
Uma Reddy was sitting at her kitchen table Monday night, wrapping up patient notes, when the notice finally came: The $16.6 million grant she had used to build a maternal health center at Columbia University had been terminated. (Mast, 3/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Johns Hopkins $800 Million Cuts Will Be ‘Devastating’ For Maryland And Beyond
The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects, from breast-feeding support efforts in Baltimore to mosquito-net programs in Mozambique. The cuts, which are in addition to threatened trims to National Institutes of Health grants, are related to the university’s work with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The school is preparing to shrink its Baltimore-based affiliated nonprofit, JHPIEGO, that since the 1970s has worked closely with the USAID and has already stopped work on a number of international health projects. (Essley Whyte, 3/11)

ABC News: RFK Jr. Tells Food Leaders He Wants Artificial Dyes Removed From Food Products Before He Leaves Office 
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told food industry leaders in a closed-door meeting on Monday that he wants them to remove artificial color additives from their products by the end of his time in office, according to a memo describing the meeting, which was obtained by ABC News. At the Washington gathering, which included the CEOs of Kellogg's, Smucker's and General Mills, Kennedy said it is a top priority of the Trump administration to rid America's food of the artificial dyes, wrote Melissa Hockstad, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group, who penned the memo. (McDuffie and Flaherty, 3/11)

The Washington Post: White House Insists Musk Cuts To Social Security, Medicare Won’t Affect Benefits 
White House officials on Tuesday reiterated allegations of “waste and fraud” in entitlement programs after Elon Musk suggested his U.S. DOGE Service may seek to slash the programs’ spending, as the administration sought to reassure the public that no cuts will be made to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. (McDaniel, 3/11)

Central Florida Public Media: Medically Unnecessary: Kids With Complex Needs Moved To State Insurance That Doesn’t Help
“Your insurance is no longer valid.” Breana Dion understood the words. What she didn’t understand was why and how she no longer had health insurance for her 6-year-old daughter, Kamila. “I open up every piece of mail that comes for my kid. There’s no way. I didn't receive anything,” Dion said. “I don't let things like this slide with my kid. I can't. It's her life.” When Dion says “It’s her life,” she means it. Kamila has a compromised immune system due to a rare condition. If Kamila gets a cold, it could cause sepsis, a condition that can be life-threatening. (Pedersen, 3/11)

The CT Mirror: CT Medicaid Reimbursement Rates Prompt Petition To State
The Community Health Center Association of Connecticut sent a petition Tuesday to the Department of Social Services demanding the agency admit it’s violating state and federal law governing reimbursements for care they provide to low-income patients on Medicaid. (Golvala, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Disabled Americans Fear Losing Protections If States’ Lawsuit Succeeds
Jennifer Kucera has a form of muscular dystrophy that limits her ability to move. Daily caregivers help her get out of bed, bathe and dress. Without them, Kucera, 55, said she would be forced to live in an institution. She is one of millions of disabled Americans who rely on Medicaid for legally mandated services to remain integrated in society. An ongoing lawsuit challenges these legal mandates, leaving Kucera and others fearful that their services could be cut. (Morris, 3/11)

NBC News: Pregnant And Parenting Students Face Loss Of New Title IX Protections
Saige Dahmen was eager to learn the basics of hair cutting and coloring in cosmetology school in Beaverton, Oregon, in 2023. There was just one hiccup: She needed a 20-minute break during her five-hour school day to express milk for her nearly 1-year-old daughter, and the school only allowed 15 minutes.  Dahmen, 24, was told to submit a request under the Americans with Disabilities Act to the school’s Title IX coordinator, but it was denied, according to interviews and correspondence reviewed by NBC News, on the grounds that it did not meet the requirements for an ADA accommodation. Instead, the coordinator said she’d have to clock out and make up the time. (Harris, 3/11)

ProPublica, States Newsroom: Idaho’s Largest Health System Is Taking On The State’s Abortion Ban
With a steady but urgent cadence, Dr. Jim Souza told reporters what would become one of the most cited talking points in a protracted legal fight over Idaho’s abortion ban: Without a court order protecting emergency room doctors from prosecution, his hospital system was sending patients to nearby states when certain pregnancy complications meant termination might be necessary. It was April 2024. Souza said Boise-based St. Luke’s Health System had airlifted six pregnant patients in a span of four months to states where abortion was a legal treatment option in health emergencies. (Dutton and Moseley-Morris, 3/12)

Axios: FDA Counsel Pick May Anger Anti-Abortion Advocates
A Justice Department attorney who defended the availability of abortion pills in a high-profile case during the Biden administration will be the Food and Drug Administration's top lawyer, a choice made by commissioner-designate Marty Makary. The future of access to medication abortion — specifically mifepristone — is a hot-button issue facing the Trump administration and was a key line of questioning at Makary's Senate confirmation hearing last week. (Owens, 3/11)

AP: Advocacy Group Says States Should Scale Back Abortion Reporting Requirements 
States should stop requiring health providers to file reports on every abortion because the information poses a risk to both them and their patients in the current political environment, a research group that advocates for abortion access says. The Guttmacher Institute says in a new recommendation that the benefit of mandated and detailed data collection is no longer worth the downsides: It could reveal personal information, be stigmatizing for patients and cumbersome for providers — or could be used in investigations. (Mulvihill, 3/12)

AP: Louisiana Woman Pleads Not Guilty To A Felony In Historic Abortion Case 
A Louisiana woman pleads not guilty Tuesday to a felony, after allegedly getting abortion pills from a New York doctor and giving them to her teenage daughter to terminate a pregnancy. The woman’s arraignment is part of a cross-state legal battle that involves what may be the first instance of criminal charges against a doctor accused of sending abortion pills to another state, putting Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban in tension with New York’s shield laws. (Cline, 3/11)

Stat: Gilead Data Suggests Yearly Shot Of PrEP Drug Blocks HIV Infection 
Last year, Gilead released data showing that an HIV drug, called lenacapavir, could provide virtually complete protection against infection with just a single injection every six months. The drug, now under regulatory review, was greeted as a breakthrough, the closest thing the field has ever had to a vaccine. On Tuesday, Gilead published early data suggesting a new formulation of the drug  could be used to prevent infection with just a single shot every year. (Mast, 3/11)

CNN: Microplastics May Enable Spread Of Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs, Study Says 
By being an excellent host for slimy biofilms created by bacteria to protect themselves from attack, microplastics may be contributing to the proliferation of dangerous antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a new study found. (LaMotte, 3/11)

CNN: Man Lives For 100 Days With Artificial Titanium Heart In Successful New Trial 
An Australian man lived for 100 days with an artificial titanium heart while he awaited a donor transplant, the longest period to date of someone with the technology. The patient, a man in his 40s who declined to be identified, received the implant during surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital Sydney last November. (Whiteman, 3/12)

Axios: AI Failed To Detect Critical Health Conditions: Study
AI systems designed to predict the likelihood of a hospitalized patient dying largely aren't detecting worsening health conditions, a new study found. Some machine learning models trained exclusively on existing patient data didn't recognize about 66% of injuries that could lead to patient death in the hospital, according to the research published in Nature's Communications Medicine journal. (Goldman, 3/12)

NBC News: Hospitals Keep Dodging Price Transparency Rules, Leading Trump To Take Action — Again
For 17 years, Michelle Arroyo did everything she could to keep her son alive after he’d been diagnosed with brain cancer at 6 years old. The single mom from California moved from Orange County to Los Angeles to be closer to the best doctors and medical facilities, quit her job in real estate to care for her son around-the-clock and liquidated all her financial assets, including her retirement account. But despite her best efforts, Arroyo’s son, Grayson Arroyo-Smiley, died in 2023 at 22 years old, leaving Arroyo distraught and saddled with mounting medical bills that soared, she said, into the millions. (Francis, 3/12)

Stat: End-Of-Life Doulas Gain Ground As Caretakers For The Dying
For the Rev. Beth Stotts, death is a natural part of her ministry. A major aspect of her job is guiding her congregants through their most vulnerable moments from birth throughout life. The struggles she has seen in her community led her to seek more training to help people face death, and in 2022 she added another credential to her spiritual one: end-of-life doula. (Empinado, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: The Hologram Doctor Will See You Now
Last year, some cancer patients in Tennessee and Mississippi got a startling offer: Instead of videoconferencing with oncology specialists located hours away, they could see a hologram doctor, courtesy of the same special effects that have projected the Jonas Brothers and other celebrities at concerts and live events. The offer came from West Cancer Center & Research Institute, a health system that employs about 61 doctors and serves about 19,240 new patients a year across 12 locations in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. The system’s main clinic is in Germantown, Tenn., a suburb of Memphis. (Bousquette, 3/11)

NBC News: Hyperbaric Chamber Facility Where Boy Died Put Profits Before Safety, AG Says
The Michigan facility where a hyperbaric chamber fire killed a 5-year-old child “held safety among their lowest considerations,” the state attorney general said Tuesday, a day after four people were arrested in the boy’s death. Thomas Cooper died Jan. 31 at the Oxford Center, an alternative medicine facility in the Detroit suburb of Troy that says it treats over 100 conditions, including Alzheimer’s, autism and dyslexia. Those conditions are not cleared for hyperbaric oxygen therapy by the Food and Drug Administration, nor are the ones that a family attorney said Thomas’ parents took him in for: sleep apnea and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. (Chuck, 3/11)

CBS News: Federal Judge Halts Louisiana's First Nitrogen Gas Execution, State Says It Will Appeal 
A federal judge has halted Louisiana's first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week. Louisiana has three approved execution methods, including lethal injection as the default and electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia as alternatives. (3/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Halts Plan For A New Mental Health And Addiction Center In SoMa
San Francisco is withdrawing plans to open a new mental health service center on the border of the city’s Mid-Market and SoMa neighborhoods following backlash from the community and Board Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who lives on the same block as the proposed site. The city’s Department of Public Health was recently pursuing plans to move its behavioral health service center from a leased property at 1380 Howard St. to 1125 Mission St., a more modern building that the city was looking to purchase. (Angst, 3/11)