First Edition: Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024

KFF Health News: Abortion Clinics — And Patients — Are On The Move, As State Laws Keep Shifting
Soon after a series of state laws left a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri, unable to provide abortions in 2018, it shipped some of its equipment to states where abortion remained accessible. Recovery chairs, surgical equipment, and lighting from the Missouri clinic — all expensive and perfectly good — could still be useful to other health centers run by the same affiliate, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, in its three other states. Much of it went to Oklahoma, where the organization was expanding, CEO Emily Wales said. (Sable-Smith, 9/19)

KFF Health News: Cyberattacks Plague The Health Industry. Critics Call Feds’ Response Feeble And Fractured
Central Oregon Pathology Consultants has been in business for nearly 60 years, offering molecular testing and other diagnostic services east of the Cascade Range. Beginning last winter, it operated for months without being paid, surviving on cash on hand, practice manager Julie Tracewell said. The practice is caught up in the aftermath of one of the most significant digital attacks in American history: the February hack of payments manager Change Healthcare. (Tahir, 9/19)

KFF Health News: These Alabama Workers Were Swamped By Medical Debt. Then Their Employer Stepped In
Like most medical offices, the small suite of exam rooms at the PhiferCares Clinic fills daily with patients seeking help with bumps and bruises, sore throats, and stuffy noses. But there’s an important difference about this clinic in central Alabama: No one gets a bill, including for prescriptions. That’s because the clinic is owned by a manufacturing company with a specific agenda. “We don’t want you to spend money on health care,” said Russell DuBose, vice president of human resources at Phifer. (Levey, 9/19)

KFF Health News: California Medicaid Ballot Measure Is Popular, Well Funded — And Perilous, Opponents Warn
The proponents of Proposition 35, a November ballot initiative that would create a dedicated stream of funding to provide health care for California’s low-income residents, have assembled an impressive coalition: doctors, hospitals, community clinics, dentists, ambulance companies, several county governments, numerous advocacy groups, big business, and both major political parties. (Wolfson, 9/19)

NBC News: U.S. Ranks Last In Health Care Compared With Nine Other High-Income Countries, Report Finds
The health system in the U.S. is failing, a startling new report finds. The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone, regardless of gender, income or geographic location, according to the report, published Thursday by The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. (Lovelace Jr., 9/19)

The Hill: House GOP Torpedoes Speaker Johnson’s Funding Bill
A diverse group of House Republicans torpedoed Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) proposal to fund the government on Wednesday, dealing an embarrassing blow to the GOP leader and derailing his strategy to avoid a shutdown at the end of the month. Fourteen Republicans joined virtually every Democrat in voting against the spending plan — which paired a six-month stopgap bill with a measure that would require proof of citizenship to vote — bringing the final tally to 202-220, with two voting present. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to back the measure. (Schnell, 9/18)

Military.com: Veterans' Disability, Education Benefits Could Be Held Up If Senate Doesn't Vote To Fill $3B Shortfall By Friday 
A $3 billion hole in veterans benefits funding is closer to being filled, but the Friday deadline to fix the issue without potentially disrupting payments to veterans is fast approaching, with lingering questions about whether the Senate can act quickly enough. The House on Tuesday easily approved a bill to provide the Department of Veterans Affairs with $3 billion the agency says it needs in order to ensure benefits checks due Oct. 1 can go out on time. But the Senate still needs to approve the bill, and doing so before Friday will require the consent of every senator -- and at least one senator is raising the possibility of objecting. (Kheel, 9/18)

Stat: House Panel Passes Pediatric Rare Disease Bill
A House committee on Wednesday passed a bill to renew a program aimed at aiding development of drugs for rare diseases in children, putting it in a better position to be added to government funding legislation. The pediatric rare disease priority review voucher program is set to end on Sept. 30. The legislation would extend the program until Sept. 30, 2029. (Wilkerson and Mast, 9/18)

Roll Call: House, Senate Democrats Renew Health Care Subsidies Push
House and Senate Democrats are pushing leadership to quickly pass legislation to permanently expand subsidies on the health care exchanges — ideally by the end of the year. Forty-one Senate Democrats, led by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and 154 House Democrats, led by Lauren Underwood of Illinois, sent a letter to leadership Wednesday morning urging their respective chambers to move “as soon as possible.” (Cohen, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Telehealth, Hospital-At-Home Extensions Pass House Committee 
Bills that would extend expiring telehealth and hospital-at-home authorities and reverse a regulation establishing staffing mandates for nursing homes are ready for final votes in the House after committee consideration Wednesday. The Energy and Commerce Committee met to vote on a number of healthcare bills at the session. Among them was the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024, which passed unanimously. (McAuliff, 9/18)

The Hill: Robert F. Kennedy Says He's Helping Trump Pick FDA, NIH, CDC Leaders
Former independent presidential candidate and antivaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that former President Trump wants him to choose leaders for key public health agencies if he wins the election in November. Kennedy told conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that under a second Trump term, he would be responsible for eliminating “corrupt influences” from agencies, Mediaite first reported. (Ventura, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Epic, Oracle Partner With VA To Track Patients Outside System
The Veterans Affairs Department said Tuesday it has partnered with EHR companies Epic and Oracle Health to identify veterans receiving care outside of the VA. Oracle and Epic, the top two companies in total market share among EHR vendors for acute care hospitals, have added the VA's Veteran Confirmation application programming interface to their systems. The API will help providers identify veterans receiving care in their health systems. (Turner, 9/18)

Stat: Ascension Financials Show $1.3 Billion Cost From Cyberattack
The cyberattack that forced Ascension to shut off access to its electronic health records cost the nonprofit hospital system roughly $1.3 billion, according to STAT’s analysis of financial documents the health system released Tuesday evening. (Herman, 9/18)

The Boston Globe: Steward CEO Ralph De La Torre Cites Fifth Amendment In Refusal To Testify
A lawyer for Steward Health Care chief executive Ralph de la Torre on Wednesday blasted congressional efforts to investigate the executive’s role in the crisis that thrust the hospital chain into bankruptcy, arguing that de la Torre’s refusal to testify is protected by the Fifth Amendment. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on civil and criminal referrals for contempt of Congress over de la Torre’s refusal to testify at a hearing last week despite being subpoenaed. (Pressman, 9/18)

Crain's Chicago Business: CVS' Oak Street Health Pays $60M To Settle Kickback Allegations
Chicago-based healthcare firm Oak Street Health has agreed to pay $60 million to resolve allegations from the U.S. Department of Justice that it paid kickbacks to third-party insurance agents in exchange for recruiting seniors to Oak Street’s primary care clinics. The DOJ alleged in a statement today that Oak Street’s Client Awareness Program, designed to grow patient membership, had third-party insurance agents contacting seniors eligible for or enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, seeking to recruit them to Oak Street locations. (Davis, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: CarePoint Health Submits Plans For Layoffs
CarePoint Health submitted plans with New Jersey authorities to lay off more than 2,600 workers at three of its hospitals in the state. The layoffs would take effect Dec. 12, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice filed with the state. (DeSilva, 9/18)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly-Area Hospitals Rank Below Average In Doctor Communication
Hospitals in the Philly area are ranked below the national average by patients when it comes to doctor communication, according to a federal survey. Across the region, hospitals received an average score of three stars for how well doctors communicate with patients, while the national average was a four-star rating. (Mulvey, 9/18)

Reuters: Hims & Hers Offers Compounded Wegovy For $99 A Month To Select Professions
U.S. telehealth company Hims & Hers Health on Wednesday said it will sell compounded versions of Novo Nordisk's popular weight-loss drug Wegovy to patients in certain professions for $99 a month. The company said the pricing would be available to eligible U.S. military members, teachers, nurses and first responders, including police and firefighters, as well as veterans. ... Novo and rival Eli Lilly, which makes the weight-loss drug Zepbound, have filed a flurry of lawsuits against medical spas, wellness clinics and compounding pharmacies for allegedly selling products claiming to contain the active ingredients in their drugs. Compounded GLP-1 injections are fulfilled and shipped from Hims & Hers' affiliated pharmacies and are FDA-regulated, the company said. (Niasse, 9/18)

Reuters: A Second Zantac Cancer Trial Ends With Hung Jury
The latest trial over claims that the discontinued heartburn drug Zantac causes cancer ended with a hung jury on Wednesday, as jurors in Chicago were unable to agree on whether Boehringer Ingelheim must pay damages to an Illinois man who said he developed prostate cancer as a result of taking the drug, according to the man's lawyer. It was the second time a jury failed to reach a verdict at trial during the ongoing wave of litigation over the now-discontinued drug. (Pierson, 9/18)

Reuters: ICU Medical Recalls Tubes Used In Tracheostomy Due To Manufacturing Defect 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on Wednesday, classified the recall of certain tubes made by a unit of ICU Medical as the most serious type, which could cause severe injury or death. Specific lots of the tubes sold under the Bivona brand by ICU's unit Smiths Medical for neonatal or pediatric and adult patients are being recalled due to a manufacturing defect, opens new tab that may cause the device's securement flange to tear. (9/18)

Stat: Colon Cancer Blood Test Competition Spills Over To Social Media 
Biotech companies routinely compete to develop and commercialize products. But these rivalries are seldom as publicly heated as what has played out on social media this week between two firms racing to develop new ways to screen for colon cancer. (Wosen, 9/18)

Axios: Lawsuits Threaten Infant Formula For Preemies
The fragility of the infant formula market is being tested again — this time by legal fights over safety labeling. Two and a half years after supply chain issues and a recall led to a nationwide formula shortage, the only two manufacturers of premature infant formula are threatening to exit amid a flurry of lawsuits from families whose infants got sick or died after taking one of these formulas. (Reed, 9/19)

Reuters: Musk's Neuralink Gets FDA's Breakthrough Device Tag For 'Blindsight' Implant 
Elon Musk's brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday its experimental implant aimed at restoring vision received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "breakthrough device" designation. The experimental device, known as Blindsight, "will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see," Musk said in a post on X. (9/18)

The Washington Post: Kentucky Governor Bans Conversion Therapy, Setting Up Legal Battle
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Wednesday signed an executive order banning “conversion therapy” for minors — skirting the Republican-led state legislature and setting up a likely legal challenge. Beshear said the new policy, which goes into effect immediately, is an overdue step to protect children from a widely discredited medical practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. (Paul, 9/18)

The Boston Globe: Generational Nicotine Bans Proposed In Lexington, Medford
Lexington and Medford are tiptoeing toward considering prohibiting their youngest adults from buying nicotine products in their municipalities throughout their lifetimes, potentially joining a growing list of Massachusetts cities and towns with similar generational bans. At Lexington’s Board of Health meeting Tuesday, leaders heard about both the public health benefits of such a policy — which would ban sales of cigarettes and vaping products to people born after a certain year — and the potential business impacts for convenience stores and other retailers who sell cigarettes and vaping products. (Tannenbaum, 9/18)

CBS News: State's First Organ Donation Center To Open At Chicago's Rush University Hospital
Illinois' first hospital-based organ donation center will begin operations on Thursday, and CBS News Chicago got an exclusive sneak peek at the new setup that could save hundreds of lives a year. The beeping inside Rush University Medical Center is about to intensify. In a few weeks, they'll be very busy, according to transplant surgeon Dr. Edie Chan, who is in charge of the new Gift of Hope Organ Donor Care Center at Rush, which uniquely focuses on deceased patients whose lungs, hearts and more will live on in others. (Victory, 9/18)

Stateline: States, Hospital Systems Try Less Punitive Drug Testing Of Pregnant Women And Newborns
Some states and hospital systems have updated their policies on drug testing for pregnant women and newborns, aiming to better support patients’ treatment and recovery from substance use disorder and combat racial disparities in testing and reporting. Under federal law, medical professionals must notify child protective agencies when an infant has been affected by the mother’s substance use, including alcohol use. However, the federal rules ... emphasize that substance use disorder on its own doesn’t constitute child abuse. (Hassanein, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Face Uphill Battle To Comply With Mental Health Rules
Health insurance companies and employers will soon be directing more time, money and resources to comply with mental health parity mandates. But questions remain about what regulators expect of health plans and whether new federal rules effectively tackle the issue. About one in five U.S. adults has at least one behavioral health condition and many struggle to find and afford treatment, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (Berryman, 9/18)

CBS News: St. Paul Ending Program That Let Mental Health Providers Work With Police To Follow Up On 911 Calls
St. Paul is dropping a program that's helped thousands of people in need. Mental health providers will no longer work with police to follow up on 911 calls to connect people in need to resources. The Community Outreach and Stabilization Unit, or COAST, handles about 1,700 cases a year. ... The city's scrapping COAST in hopes of providing those same services more efficiently, without overlapping agencies. (Schuman, 9/18)

Side Effects Public Media: Sexually Abusive Calls Burden 988 Mental Health Crisis Line Counselors. They Want More Protection
Daisy started working as a crisis counselor for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline because she was personally affected by the loss of loved ones who’d taken their own lives, and wanted to help people avoid that outcome. She and other crisis counselors talk to people facing a mental health emergency, and in some cases, in the process of dying by suicide. It is a difficult role, but Daisy said she felt the training at PATH Crisis Center in Bloomington, Ill. prepared her for it. Then, she started getting what she described as “bogus sex calls.” (Ellin, 9/18)

The Texas Tribune: Texas’ Private Psychiatric Hospitals Seek Medicaid Rate Hike
As Texas embarks on a $2.5 billion expansion of its 163-year-old state psychiatric hospital system, the private psychiatric hospital industry, which offers a more accessible entry point for those who are seriously mentally ill, would like a word. How about a raise to the Medicaid rate for inpatient psychiatric care? (Langford, 9/19)

CIDRAP: Imported Oropouche Virus Cases Continue Steady US Rise
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday reported 22 more imported Oropouche virus cases, raising the national total to 74 in five states. So far, 1 case of the neuroinvasive form of the disease has been reported. Most of the illnesses are in Florida, which has reported 70 cases. The Florida Department of Health (Florida Health) said in its latest weekly arbovirus report that all of the state's cases involve travel to Cuba, one of the newly affected countries in the Americas experiencing an outbreak. Florida has reported cases in 11 counties, but most have been in Miami-Dade County. (Schnirring, 9/18)

Time: Did The Pandemic Break Our Brains? 
COVID-19 can directly affect the brain, and living through the pandemic has indirectly affected cognition and memory, too. (Ducharme, 9/16)

CBS News: Overweight Cancer Patients More Likely To Get Second Cancer Diagnosis, Study Says
Patients who are overweight when they're first diagnosed with cancer may be at higher risk of developing a second cancer. Investigators at the American Cancer Society looked at data on nearly 27,000 people who were diagnosed with cancer. They found that compared to cancer survivors with a normal BMI, those who were overweight were 15% more likely to be diagnosed with a second primary cancer. Those who were obese were 34% more likely. (Marshall, 9/18)

USA Today: What Is Myopia? Experts Now Calling Nearsightedness A Disease
More than 40% of Americans are estimated to have myopia, also known as nearsightedness. While many may consider it a minor inconvenience easily remedied with glasses, authors of a report published Tuesday are calling on health agencies to classify it as a disease. Committee members at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine say nearsightedness has become an “evolving epidemic” that requires more research, standardization of care and early prevention, recommending at least one hour of outdoor time daily for kids. (Rodriguez, 9/19)

WUFT: A Study Suggests The Effectiveness Of Multivitamins Is More Myth Than Reality
Millions of Americans regularly take multivitamins, accepting as fact that the dietary supplement can help them stay healthy and live longer. Consumers reliably scoop them up at the drugstore or supermarket. One estimate pegs the annual value of the multivitamin market at more than $21 billion. A new study, however, questions their usefulness. (Levesque, 9/18)

Reuters: Who Still Uses Pagers Anyway? The Healthcare Industry
The tiny electronic devices remain a vital means of communication in some areas - such as healthcare and emergency services - thanks to their durability and long battery life. "It's the cheapest and most efficient way to communicate to a large number of people about messages that don't need responses," said a senior surgeon at a major UK hospital, adding that pagers are commonly used by doctors and nurses across the country's National Health Service (NHS). "It's used to tell people where to go, when, and what for." Many pagers can also send out a siren and then broadcast a voice message to groups so that whole medical teams are alerted simultaneously to an emergency, a senior doctor in the NHS said. That is not possible with a mobile phone. (9/19)