First Edition: Friday, Aug. 16, 2024

KFF Health News: Inside Conservative Activist Leonard Leo’s Long Campaign To Gut Planned Parenthood
A federal lawsuit in Texas against Planned Parenthood has a web of ties to conservative activist Leonard Leo, whose decades-long effort to steer the U.S. court system to the right overturned Roe v. Wade, yielding the biggest rollback of reproductive health access in half a century. (Pradhan, 8/16)

KFF Health News: Amid Medicaid ‘Unwinding,’ Many States Wind Up Expansions
Trisha Byers left behind one crucial item when she moved to North Carolina last year to be closer to her family after suffering a brain injury: health insurance. In Massachusetts, Byers, 39, was enrolled in Medicaid, the government health program that covers low-income people. But she was ineligible in North Carolina, which had not yet expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. She said she racked up thousands of dollars in unpaid emergency room bills while uninsured for several months after her move. (Galewitz, 8/16)

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?' Podcast: Happy 50th, ERISA
In this special episode of “What the Health?”, host and KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner speaks to Larry Levitt of KFF, Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, and Ilyse Schuman of the American Benefits Council about the history of ERISA and what its future might hold. (Rovner, 8/15)

The Washington Post: Sweden Detects Mpox Variant For The First Time Outside Of Africa
Swedish officials said Thursday they have detected a version of mpox that only a day earlier prompted global health authorities to declare a health emergency, marking the first time that variant has been discovered outside of Africa. Swedish officials said the patient was infected during a stay in a part of Africa where clade 1 is circulating and was diagnosed with that variant after seeking care in the Stockholm region. That patient has received care, said Magnus Gisslen, state epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Sweden. (Nirappil, 8/15)

Reuters: Mpox Virus Detected In Pakistan, Health Authorities Say
Pakistan's health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, as provincial health authorities reported they had detected at least three cases. A health ministry spokesperson said the sequencing of the confirmed case was underway, and that it would not be clear which variant of mpox the patient had until the process was complete. (Ali and Greenfield, 8/16)

Reuters: China To Monitor Arrivals Of People, Goods For Mpox Virus 
China will monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox for the next six months, a statement from its customs administration said on Friday, after the WHO said the virus was again a global health emergency. "Personnel from countries with monkeypox outbreaks who have been in contact with monkeypox cases or display symptoms ... should take the initiative to declare themselves to Customs," it said. The WHO changed the name of monkeypox to mpox. (8/15)

USA Today: As Mpox Outbreak Spreads Beyond Africa, How Is The US Preparing?
On Thursday, Swedish officials said they recorded their first case of mpox, which spreads with skin contact. The announcement came a day after the World Health Organization issued its second emergency declaration in two years due to the recent outbreak in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo, in central Africa. The mpox virus circulating in Congo and a dozen other African countries, and now Sweden, is a different strain than the one that has circulated in the U.S. since a global outbreak began in 2022. (Cuevas, 8/15)

Stat: Poxvirus Vaccine Maker Could Boost Doses By 8 Million Next Year
STAT caught up with CEO Paul Chaplin on Thursday to ask what Bavarian Nordic can actually produce — if purchasers place orders. To date the only order the company has received is one for 175,000 placed by the European Union’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), which it is donating to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BN, as Chaplin refers to the company, has topped that up with a donation of 40,000 doses. The combined purchases and donation equal 215,000 doses, enough vaccine to vaccinate 107, 500 people. Jynneos is given in two doses. (Branswell, 8/16)

Reuters: Mpox: Vaccine Group Gavi Says It Has Up To $500 Million For Shots 
The global vaccine group Gavi has up to $500 million to spend on getting shots to countries affected by an escalating mpox outbreak in Africa, its chief executive Sania Nishtar told Reuters. Gavi helps countries with fewer resources buy and deploy vaccines, usually against childhood diseases like measles, but it expanded into broader efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Rigby, 8/16)

Stat: Antiviral Medication For Mpox No Better Than Placebo, NIH Says 
The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that an antiviral often used to treat mpox did not resolve patients’ symptoms faster than placebo in a randomized trial. The results are notable because the drug, tecovirimat, has rarely been studied clinically for mpox, despite its wide use during the 2022 and 2023 outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe. (Mast, 8/15)

Reuters: US Undercounts Bird Flu In Cattle As Farmers Shun Testing 
The U.S. bird-flu outbreak in dairy cattle is much larger than official figures suggest due to farmers' reluctance to test their animals and risk the economic consequences of a positive result, according to Reuters interviews with dairy experts, veterinarians, and farmers in six states with known cases. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has counted bird flu in about 190 dairy herds in 13 states since March. The virus's jump from birds to cows heightened concerns that it could adapt to spread among humans. Scientists have warned that limited surveillance could weaken the U.S.' ability to respond to further human spread. (Douglas and Polansek, 8/15)

CBS News: $646 Million Set Aside To Rebuild N.Y. Health Care Workforce Devastated By COVID, Gov. Kathy Hochul Says
A major financial boost is in the works to help rebuild New York's health care industry decimated by COVID-19. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced a program called Career Pathways Training, which will provide funding to recruit and train thousands of much-needed workers. Speaking to a group of workers at the headquarters of 1199 SEIU Health, one of the largest health care unions, the governor said they would be one of three groups to receive a combined $646 million to recruit and train a new wave of workers. (Duddridge, 8/15)

Stat: Medicare Drug Price Savings: Why Estimates Will Vary Widely
The White House is touting just how much its new Medicare negotiation process cut drug prices. The problem is, the numbers it’s using don’t actually mean much. (Zhang, 8/15)

The Washington Post: Biden-Harris Health Care Event Quickly Takes The Tone Of A Rally
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, touting their efforts to lower prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients, hosted their first joint appearance since Biden ended his reelection bid, a policy event that quickly took on the tone and feel of a campaign rally. ... Turning to the reason for the event, Biden said he had been fighting since 1973, his first year in the Senate, to give Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices. If Republicans regained the White House, he added, they would undo the progress his administration had made. “We finally beat Big Pharma,” he said. “And, might I add, with not one Republican vote in the entire Congress.” (Abutaleb and Wootson Jr., 8/15)

Stateline: To Lower Prescription Drug Costs, States Head To The Courthouse
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission released a scathing report suggesting that pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen in the drug supply chain known as PBMs, are “profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies. ”The FTC found that because of consolidation in the industry, the three largest PBMs now manage nearly 80% of all prescriptions filled in the United States. PBMs use that power, the agency concluded, to raise drug prices, control patients’ access to them, and steer people away from independent pharmacies and toward the pharmacies they own. (Chatlani, 8/15)

Bloomberg: CVS Court Defeat Shows Ways Drug Middlemen Try To Influence Health Care
A recent court defeat for CVS Health Corp. is shining a light on how health-care corporations wield their financial might over doctors and pharmacies in ways that can put profits over patient care. With more than a dozen similar cases still pending in private arbitration, the pharmacy giant has millions of dollars on the line. (Tozzi, 8/15)

Roll Call: NIH Reorganization Unlikely To Happen This Congress, Analysts Say 
House and Senate Republicans have floated separate plans to reorganize the National Institutes of Health, but the efforts are unlikely to go anywhere this Congress, say multiple Capitol Hill staffers and other stakeholders. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIH enjoyed bipartisan support from Congress, with year-over-year funding increases and praise for the agency whenever its officials appeared before Congress. (Cohen, 8/15)

Reuters: US FDA Seeks Fresh Curbs On Sodium Levels In Packaged, Processed Foods
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday laid out fresh goals to cut sodium levels in packaged and processed foods by about 20%, after its prior efforts to address a growing epidemic of diet-related chronic diseases showed early signs of success. The FDA in October 2021 had set guidelines to trim sodium levels in foods ranging from potato chips to hamburgers in a bid to prevent excessive intake of salt that can trigger high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. The agency is now seeking voluntary curbs from packaged-food makers such as PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz and Campbell Soup. (8/15)

AP: Iowa Abortion Providers Dismiss Legal Challenge Against State's Strict Law Now That It's In Effect 
Iowa abortion providers opted to dismiss their lawsuit against the state Thursday, forgoing a continued legal battle after the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the state’s strict abortion law and reiterated that there is no constitutional right to an abortion in the state. Iowa’s law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant, went into effect on July 29. Abortion had been legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. (Fingerhut, 8/15)

The 19th: Abortion Providers Brace For 'Havoc' Under Trump-Vance
With former President Donald Trump open to restricting access to a major abortion pill physicians are steeling themselves if he wins for the possible end of legal telehealth abortion — a method that has allowed thousands of patients to circumvent state bans over the past two years. (Luthra, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Employer Health Plan Costs Expected To Rise 9% In 2025: Aon
Employer-sponsored health plan costs are expected to rise 9% in 2025, totaling more than $16,000 per employee before cost-saving measures, according to professional services and consulting company Aon. Aon predicts that demand for prescription drugs such as glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists and growth in medical claims for high-cost treatments such as gene and cell therapies are among the main drivers of rising costs for employers. (DeSilva, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Supply Chain Shortages Forced Providers To Delay Care In 2023
Health systems have been forced to delay care and forgo revenue as they manage device and drug shortages. More than half of 102 hospitals, health systems and suppliers surveyed had to cancel or reschedule procedures multiple times last year due to product shortages, according to a poll conducted this spring by Premier, a consulting and group purchasing organization. Syringes, IV fluids, saline, aortic balloon catheters and surgical tourniquets are in short supply, providers said. (Kacik, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Bankruptcies Slow In 2024: Gibbins Advisors
Healthcare company bankruptcy filings are on track to slow in 2024. Twenty-nine healthcare companies, each with liabilities of more than $10 million, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the first half of the year. At that rate, 58 healthcare companies are projected to seek bankruptcy protection this year, which would be a 27% decrease from 2023's 79 cases filed, according to a report published Wednesday by advisory firm Gibbins Advisors. (Hudson, 8/15)

Health News Florida: Orlando Health Bids $439M To Bankrupt Steward Health For 3 Florida Hospitals
Orlando Health has made an offer to buy bankrupt Steward Health Care’s “Space Coast” Florida properties for $439 million, according to a court document filed Wednesday. The qualified, binding purchase agreement includes Rockledge Regional Medical Center and Melbourne Regional Medical Center, both in Brevard County, and Sebastian River Medical Center in Indian River County. The deal also includes some of Steward’s medical clinics in those areas. (Mayer, 8/15)

Stat: UnitedHealth In Contract Dispute With Trinity Health 
A widespread, monthslong contract dispute between UnitedHealthcare and Trinity Health has created a confusing patchwork of disrupted access across multiple states. (Bannow, 8/15)

Reuters: US FDA Clears Use Of Cresilon's Gel To Stop Severe Bleeding In Seconds 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared Cresilon's gel to quickly control bleeding, the privately held company said on Thursday, potentially giving emergency medical technicians and combat medics a tool to prevent death from blood loss. Unlike its previously approved product for small nicks and cuts, the new gel, Traumagel, can be used for life-threatening injuries, CEO and co-founder Joe Landolina told Reuters. (Singh, 8/15)

Reuters: US FDA Approves AstraZeneca's Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AstraZeneca's blockbuster cancer drug, Imfinzi, for the treatment of patients with a type of non-small cell lung cancer on Thursday. The health regulator approved Imfinzi as an additional treatment after surgery in adult patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The drug is already approved in the U.S. for patients with a late-stage form of the disease, where the cancer cannot be removed through surgery. (8/15)

Reuters: Bayer Wins Victory In US Legal Battle Against Roundup Cancer Claims 
Bayer won a legal victory in its fight to limit liability from claims that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer, as a U.S. appeals court on Thursday said federal law shields the German company from a lawsuit by a Pennsylvania landscaper. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia rejected plaintiff David Schaffner's claim that Bayer's Monsanto unit violated state law by failing to put a cancer warning on the label for Roundup. Schaffner was diagnosed in 2006 with a kind of cancer called non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a common claim for Roundup plaintiffs. (Stempel, 8/16)

Stat: Lykos Therapeutics Cuts 75% Of Staff After FDA Rejects MDMA-Assisted Therapy
Lykos Therapeutics, whose MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder was rejected late last week by U.S. regulators, announced Thursday that it would cut 75% of its staff, and that the company’s founder would step down from its board. (Keshavan, 8/15)

CIDRAP: NY Officials Tell Providers To Stop Using Ciprofloxacin To Prevent Bacterial Meningitis
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDH) is telling healthcare providers to discontinue the use of ciprofloxacin in people who've had contact with patients diagnosed as having bacterial meningitis. Ciprofloxacin is among the antibiotics that have been recommended for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent illness in contacts of people with invasive meningococcal disease, a rare but severe infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis. But in a health advisory notification yesterday, department officials said they've been finding an increase in ciprofloxacin-resistant strains of N meningitidis over the past 18 months. (Dall, 8/15)

The Atlantic: Why People Are Breaking Open Their Mounjaro Pens
By the time Lisa started breaking open her Mounjaro pens with pliers, she had run out of other ideas. She was 300 pounds. She had already tried bariatric surgery. (It had limited success.) She had tried getting her insurance company to cover Mounjaro. (It stopped after a month.) She had tried a cheaper copycat version from a compounding pharmacy. (It didn’t work as well, and she worried about what she was actually getting.) “I was absolutely desperate to stay on,” she says, but she could not afford the sticker price. (Zhang, 8/15)

The Baltimore Sun: Judge Rules Baltimore’s $11 Billion Opioid Lawsuit Can Head To Trial 
Baltimore’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors will proceed to a trial next month after a city judge on Thursday denied motions from the companies to throw out the case. (O'Neill, 8/15)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Sues Biden Again To Block Protections For Transgender Workers
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton returned to court on Thursday to press his case against the Biden administration’s workforce protections for transgender employees. Texas’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Thursday against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, argued that the agency’s guidelines were unlawful and asked that the court permanently block them. (Guo, 8/15)

Los Angeles Times: Kratom Regulation Bill Quietly Dies In California
A California bill that would have imposed regulations on kratom products was quietly shelved Thursday following a clash between advocacy groups focused on the burgeoning industry. ... Scientists are still learning about its complex effects, which can range from stimulant to sedative and stem from chemical compounds called alkaloids. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against using kratom for medical treatment and says it is “not appropriate for use as a dietary supplement.” (Alpert Reyes, 8/15)

The New York Times: Matthew Perry’s Assistant And Doctors Charged With Getting Him Ketamine 
Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, two doctors and two others have been indicted and charged with providing the ketamine that caused the death of Mr. Perry, a star on the television show “Friends,” the authorities said on Thursday. In documents filed in federal court in California, prosecutors said that Mr. Perry’s assistant and an acquaintance had worked with two doctors and a drug dealer to procure tens of thousands of dollars worth of ketamine for Mr. Perry, who had long struggled with substance abuse and addiction. (Stevens, 8/15)

The Washington Post: D.C.’s 911 Call Center Has Had Tech Problems Eight Times In 2024 
D.C.’s beleaguered 911 center has experienced outages and connection issues eight times this year, ranging in duration from 20 minutes to five hours, with the most recent glitch occurring Friday, according to D.C.’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice. Officials acknowledged the challenges following a rough stretch with two outages in the past two weeks, including one on Aug. 2 where call center workers lost access to key location-tracking software for hours. While the problems did not prevent people from being able to call 911, they did open the door for mistakes by reducing dispatchers’ ability to assess the availability of first responders. (Gathright, 8/15)

Military.com: A Patient Died At Colorado VA Hospital After Staffer Turned Off Their Notification Device
A patient at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Aurora died last year after a hospital staff member turned off their notification device alerting them to the veteran’s rapidly declining condition. An investigation by the VA’s Office of Inspector General found, in spring 2023, a telemetry medical instrument technician missed several red alarms concerning the patient’s oxygenation levels. By the time clinicians arrived, the individual was “unresponsive and pulseless,” inspectors found. (Tabachnik, 8/15)

The Boston Globe: Maternal Health Bill Passes Mass. Legislature
Expectant parents in Massachusetts are likely to have more freedom choosing where and how they give birth following the passage Thursday of a sweeping maternal health bill that expands access to midwives in the state. If the measure gets the governor’s signature, certified professional midwives would be licensed, regulated, and covered by Medicaid in Massachusetts and would be able to write prescriptions. Massachusetts is one of just 12 states without licensed midwives. (Laughlin, 8/15)

AP: Massachusetts Governor Signs Law Phasing Out Toxic PFAS In Firefighters' Gear 
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed into law Thursday a bill that would phase out the use of PFAS, a group of toxic industrial compounds, in firefighters’ protective gear. The chemicals — associated with health problems including several types of cancer, such as breast, kidney and testicular cancer — are used in gear to repel water and other substances when fighting a fire. Connecticut is the only other state with a similar law regarding firefighters’ protective gear. (LeBlanc, 8/15)

USA Today: Rocket Fuel Chemical Found In Food And Water, Consumer Reports Says
Perchlorate, a chemical found in rocket fuel, has contaminated water and food and is more likely to be found in food given to babies and children, a study from Consumer Reports found. The chemical is naturally occurring and man-made, but it is being found more often in groundwater, according to the Department of Toxic Substances Control. This is an issue, according to James Rogers, Ph.D., the Director of Food Safety Research and Testing at Consumer Reports. (Gomez, 8/15)

Reuters: PepsiCo Can Be Sued Over Health Claims For Gatorade Protein Bars, Judge Says
PepsiCo can be sued for marketing its Gatorade protein bars as good for you though they have more sugar than protein and more sugar than typical candy bars, a federal judge ruled. In a decision on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California said three self-described fitness enthusiasts leading a proposed class action plausibly alleged that PepsiCo's marketing and labeling was deceptive. (Stempel, 8/15)

The Washington Post: A TikTok Candied-Fruit Recipe Is Causing Burns, Hospital Warns 
Colleen Ryan, a surgeon at Shriners Children’s Boston, said Wednesday that she had seen two patients in two weeks who had suffered burns while participating in the trend. “Word of mouth” among colleagues in the United States and around the world indicates that many doctors are seeing an uptick in related deep-scald burns, she said in a statement released by the hospital this week. The hospital warned parents to be wary of their children’s attempts to make tanghulu’s dipping syrup, in which sugar is melted in the microwave or in a pan. (Heil, 8/15)