First Edition: Friday, Sept. 12, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: A Surgical Team Was About To Harvest This Man’s Organs — Until His Doctor Intervened
Lying on top of an operating room table with his chest exposed, Larry Black Jr. was moments away from having his organs harvested when a doctor ran breathlessly into the room. “Get him off the table,” the doctor recalled telling the surgical team at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital as the team cleaned Black’s chest and abdomen. “This is my patient. Get him off the table.” (Anthony, 9/12)

KFF Health News: Under Trump, FDA Seeks To Abandon Expert Reviews Of New Drugs
FDA leaders under President Donald Trump are moving to abandon a decades-old policy of asking outside experts to review drug applications, a move critics say would shield the agency’s decisions from public scrutiny. The agency “would like to get away” from assembling panels of experts to examine and vote on individual drugs, because “I don’t think they’re needed,” said George Tidmarsh, head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He relayed the message Tuesday at a meeting of health care product makers and Wednesday to an FDA advocacy group. (Allen, 9/12)

KFF Health News: Watch: Why Is Having A Baby So Expensive In The US?
New moms all over social media are breaking down their incredibly expensive hospital bills after giving birth. So why is giving birth so pricey in the U.S.? And given the Trump administration’s anti-abortion, pro-natalist policies, is anything on the table to make having a child more affordable? (Norman, 9/12)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

Bloomberg: Shutdown Risk Grows As GOP Rebuffs Schumer Health-Care Demands
Republicans are moving forward with a plan to fund the government past an Oct. 1 deadline without making concessions to Democrats demanding health-care policy changes, setting up a standoff that risks a chaotic shutdown. The gambit to brush off Democrats, whose votes are needed in the Senate to pass the funding legislation, also lowers the chances of a deal to avert a large increase in Obamacare premiums that will affect millions of Americans starting Jan. 1. (Wasson and Dennis, 9/11)

The Hill: Republican Rep. Greg Murphy Pushes For Permanent Telehealth Coverage As Deadline Nears
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) Thursday called on federal lawmakers to reauthorize Medicare coverage for telehealth services, which is set to expire at the end of September. “We are still working on reauthorizing it, but it needs to be permanent and done,” Murphy said during The Hill’s event “Smarter Benefits: Redefining the Employer Role,” sponsored by Takeda. (O’Connell-Domenech, 9/11)

Fierce Healthcare: Census Bureau: 8% Of Americans Were Uninsured In 2024
Eight percent of Americans were uninsured in 2024, on par with the rate found for 2023, according to new federal data. The U.S. Census Bureau released this week its annual look (PDF) at insurance coverage across the country, finding that 92%, or 310 million people, were enrolled in coverage last year. The bulk, or 66.1%, were enrolled in a private health plan, while 35.5% had public coverage. (Minemyer, 9/11)

Axios: Surging Health Costs Bode Ill For Workers Next Year
Health care inflation hit a three-year high last month, in the latest sign that workers could soon be juggling big premium increases with higher prices for groceries, clothing and other items subject to President Trump's tariffs. (Reed, 9/12)

NPR: Health Care Costs Are Soaring. Blame Insurers, Drug Companies — And Your Employer
The United States has the most expensive health care in the developed world. Now it's about to get even more expensive. Some 154 million people get health insurance through their employer — and many could see their paycheck deductions surge next year, by 6% to 7% on average. Some will likely also see their out-of-pocket costs rise as employers pass along the spiking costs of care. (Aspan, 9/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Medi-Cal Changes Will Tighten Access, Add New Costs
Impending changes to California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, are expected to make it harder for adults — especially undocumented adults — to retain, enroll in and qualify for Medi-Cal coverage, and to afford coverage and care. Most of the federal changes under HR 1, commonly referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” apply to adults on Medi-Cal, the joint federal-state health insurance plan for low-income Californians. They enact new work requirements, more frequent renewal rules, and new copayments. (Ho, 9/11)

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL

Bloomberg: FDA Official Vinay Prasad Regains Chief Medical Officer Title
Top Food and Drug Administration regulator Vinay Prasad has regained his role as the agency’s chief medical and scientific officer after he abruptly departed and then came back to the agency, according to an update on the agency’s website Thursday. Prasad returned as the agency’s top regulator for vaccines and gene therapies as head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research on Aug. 9. (Cohrs Zhang, 9/11)

The New York Times: Breaking Precedent, G.O.P. Changes Rules On Nominees 
Senate Republicans on Thursday bulldozed past Senate precedents and changed the rules to break a Democratic blockade of President Trump’s nominees, in an extraordinary move that is likely to undercut Congress’s future role in vetting executive branch officials. The change, pushed through along party lines, lowered the existing 60-vote threshold for considering a group of presidential nominees to a simple majority, weakening the ability of individual senators to block nominees they find objectionable. It was the latest step in a yearslong back-and-forth between the two parties that has eroded the filibuster, a once-potent Senate tool to protect the rights of the minority and force consensus. (Gold, 9/11)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The New York Times: Homeless Funding Was Limited To Groups Aligned With Trump Policies, Suit Says
A federal lawsuit filed on Thursday in Rhode Island by two organizations that support the homeless claims that, with $75 million in homelessness grants about to expire, the Department of Housing and Urban Development illegally coerced applicants into embracing President Trump’s positions on immigration enforcement, transgender rights and other charged issues. The new conditions on aid are so wide-reaching, the lawsuit says, that they disqualify groups in most states from applying, and critics warn they may foreshadow larger efforts to make federal aid a tool of ideological enforcement. (DeParle, 9/11)

AP: Appeals Court Reverses Federal Judge's Decision, Allowing Trump To Block Funds To Planned Parenthood
A U.S. appeals court panel on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood while legal challenges continue. A federal judge in July ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation. ... Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid. (9/12)

The New York Times: $10 Million In Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed On Orders From Trump Officials
Millions of dollars’ worth of birth control pills and other contraceptives destined for people in low-income countries have been destroyed at the direction of the Trump administration, the United States Agency for International Development said on Thursday. The pills, intrauterine devices and hormonal implants, valued at about $9.7 million, had been purchased by the agency before it was largely dismantled earlier this year. (Nolen, Smialek and Wong, 9/11)

Stat: NIH Is On Track To Spend Its Entire Budget 
Thanks to a frenzy of grantmaking activity during August, the National Institutes of Health looks, for the first time this year, like it might be able to spend its entire $47 billion budget before the Sept. 30 deadline. After lagging by billions of dollars throughout the spring and summer due to pauses in grant proposal evaluations, agency-wide layoffs, and new layers of political review, the NIH now appears on track to award close to the full tranche of taxpayer money appropriated by Congress. (Molteni, Oza and Parker, 9/12)

Stat: FDA Plans Advisory Committee Meeting On AI Mental Health Devices 
The Food and Drug Administration will convene experts to discuss challenges around regulating mental health products that use artificial intelligence, as a growing number of companies release chatbots powered by large language models whose output can be unpredictable. The move suggests the agency may soon tighten its focus on such tools. (Aguilar, 9/11)

GUN VIOLENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH

The New York Times: After Kirk Killing, Americans Agree On One Thing: Something Is Seriously Wrong
In interviews from across the country, people expressed fear and wariness, and said that the country seemed to be spinning out of control. It was not just the gun violence. Charlie Kirk’s death at 31 symbolized for many the collapse of what they thought was a basic, common-sense, need-not-be-debated American value: that people expressing a political opinion should not be shot for it. (Hubler, Sandoval and Burch, 9/12)

The New York Times: After Kirk Assassination, Fear and Vitriol Intensify in Congress
The killing of the right-wing activist deepened lawmakers’ fears of violence directed against them, and the toxic discourse that has fed such threats. Ever since rioters threatened their lives inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Democrats and Republicans have been living on edge, and under a near-constant barrage of death threats, with some stalked by armed and angry individuals or even targeted for assassination. “My head’s always on a swivel,” said Representative Nick LaLota, Republican of New York and a Navy veteran who served three deployments overseas. (Karni, Mineiro, Gold, Edmondson and Jimison, 9/11)

The New York Times: Student Who Shot 2 Others At Colorado School Was ‘Radicalized,’ Officials Say
The authorities in Colorado on Thursday named the 16-year-old student suspected of shooting two other students at Evergreen High School on Wednesday, and said that he had been “radicalized by an extremist network,” which they did not identify. (Hassan, 9/11)

The New York Times: A False Report Of A Shooter Prompts A Shooting At The U.S. Naval Academy 
The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., was placed under lockdown on Thursday after a post on an anonymous chat platform set off concerns that an active shooter was roaming the campus, military officials said. The threat was traced to a laptop belonging to a midshipman who had left the academy and was confirmed to be in his parents’ house in the Midwest, officials said. No active shooter was believed to have been present on the campus. The false report, coming at a moment of heightened tension nationwide, provoked a flood of misinformation on social media and led to an altercation between a law enforcement officer and a midshipman, injuring both. (Ismay, Jaffe and Kirk, 9/11)

VACCINES

Politico: States Counter RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Moves, But Many People Could Be Left Without Access 
Several blue and purple states that typically follow federal vaccine guidance are breaking with the Trump administration and taking steps to bolster immunizations. But tens of millions of people could still be left without access to free shots heading into the fall flu season. A flurry of bills and executive orders in Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and other blue and purple states aim to guarantee vaccine availability at pharmacies and push insurance companies to cover the shots regardless of what federal officials recommend. (Ollstein, 9/11)

CIDRAP: Poll Finds Low Public Confidence In Federal Vaccine Policy Changes
In new polling designed to gauge American perceptions of the Trump administration’s vaccine policy shifts, only one in four believe that recent recommendations are based on scientific evidence and facts, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey. Led by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic, federal agencies have narrowed their recommendations on who should get COVID-19 shots, which now exclude younger healthy people without underlying health conditions as well as pregnant women. (Schnirring, 9/11)

HEALTH INDUSTRY AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Becker's Hospital Review: New York Surgery Center To Close, Citing Federal Funding Cuts
Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaleida Health plans to close its Millard Fillmore Surgery Center in Williamsville, N.Y., on Oct. 1, laying off 32 employees. “The decision to close the surgery center was based on a number of factors, including pending federal funding reductions, particularly in Medicaid reimbursement, a spokesperson for Kaleida Health said in a Sept. 11 statement shared with Becker’s. “It was also based on a thoughtful review of the overall financial sustainability of the facility and the availability of similar services in the community.” (Ashley, 9/11)

Modern Healthcare: AMA's CPT Codes For Remote Monitoring, AI Updated For 2026
Efforts to include artificial intelligence and remote monitoring services in standard billing codes are gaining traction. The American Medical Association released nearly 300 new Current Procedural Terminology billing codes Thursday as part of its proposed 2026 code set. (Hudson, 9/11)

Modern Healthcare: What CMS' Outpatient Plan For Cardiac Ablations Means For ASCs
Hospitals could see another popular procedure move to ambulatory surgery centers if it is reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Cardiac ablations are among a larger group of procedures CMS is considering adding to the list of procedures they would cover at ASCs and industry groups have advocated for their inclusion for years. Currently, the agency only reimburses the procedures in hospital and hospital outpatient settings. (Dubinsky, 9/11)

The Wall Street Journal: AbbVie In Settlement With Generic Drugmakers On Rinvoq
AbbVie has struck a deal with generic drugmakers aimed at extending patent protection for its blockbuster autoimmune drug Rinvoq well into the next decade. AbbVie on Thursday said it has settled litigation with all generic manufacturers that have filed applications with the Food and Drug Administration for generic versions of Rinvoq, which is approved for use in several autoimmune diseases. (Kellaher, 9/11)

Stat: Exact Sciences Launches Cancerguard, A Liquid Biopsy Cancer Test 
Consumers can now purchase Exact Sciences’ liquid biopsy early detection test, Cancerguard, and get an indication of whether they might have one of 50 different cancers included in the test’s analysis. The biotechnology company launched the test on Wednesday, and Tom Beer, Exact’s chief medical officer, relayed the news with elation. (Chen, 9/11)

Hartford Courant: Strokes Can Cause Debilitating Damage. Two UConn Researchers Have Found A Way To Limit It 
With limited treatment options for stroke patients available, two UConn researchers are developing an experimental drug that is capable of protecting the brain and improving recovery after a cerebral vascular accident also known as a brain attack. (Stanford, 9/11)

Newsweek: Superbugs Could Kill Millions By 2050. A 100-Year-Old Treatment Could Help
By 2050, drug-resistant "superbugs" could kill up to 10 million people a year, according to the World Health Organization. Antibiotics, the miracle drugs that revolutionized medicine in the 20th century, are rapidly losing their power. But a forgotten treatment, first discovered more than a century ago, could offer hope. Known as bacteriophage therapy—or "phage therapy," for short—it uses viruses that naturally prey on bacteria, hijacking and destroying them from the inside out. (Gibbs, 9/11)

Stat: Let The Rulemaking Begin: Why Direct-To-Consumer Drug Ads Deserve A Closer Look 
Call it death by disclosure. After nearly 30 years in which prescription drug ads have become a fixture on television, the Trump administration is attempting a crafty maneuver to largely rid the airwaves of these promotions. (Silverman, 9/12)

The New York Times: 2025 Lasker Awards Given To Cell Biology And Cystic Fibrosis Pioneers
The Lasker Awards, which honor fundamental discoveries and clinical advances that improve human health, were given on Thursday to scientists for discovering hidden complexity in cells, new states of biological matter, and a potent treatment for cystic fibrosis. (Zimmer and Kolata, 9/11)

STATE WATCH

Wyoming Public Radio: Millions Of Federal Dollars Are Up For Grabs To Prop Up Wyoming’s Rural Healthcare 
Wyoming is eligible to receive between $500 to $800 million in federal dollars over the next five years. The funds are part of the new Rural Health Transformation Program created in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA). The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is asking for public input on how the funds should be spent. (Kudelska, 9/11)

Minnesota Public Radio: Judge Says Law Allowing Jail Inmates Access To Prescriptions Can Continue For Now 
A Ramsey County judge has denied a request to temporarily block a new law requiring jails in the state to continue to provide the medications people were prescribed before their incarceration. The law passed with bipartisan support last session as part of the public safety bill. Chief Judge Sara Grewing had paused the law earlier while she considered whether to grant an injunction. (Collins, 9/11)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Schools Receive New Guidance On Student Health Care
Texas’ new parental consent law does not prevent nurses from administering basic health-related services like providing Band-Aids or checking a student’s temperature, according to updated state guidance sent to school district administrators on Thursday. (Edison, 9/11)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

Iowa Public Radio: Legionnaires' Disease Outbreak In Marshalltown Possibly Linked To Cooling Towers 
Health officials have said an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Marshall County may be linked to cooling towers. The state has confirmed 34 cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the county since the end of August, resulting in the death of one person. (Krebs, 9/11)

CIDRAP: Vermont Reports Its First Human Jamestown Canyon Case
Vermont has reported its first human case of Jamestown Canyon virus, a mosquito-borne disease. According to the state’s department of health, the case was confirmed earlier this week in a person from Windsor County. (Soucheray, 9/11)

St. Louis Public Radio: ‘Kissing Bug’ Disease Has Been Found In Missouri 
Scientists are calling on health authorities to classify Chagas disease – sometimes known as the "kissing bug disease" – as endemic to the United States. Chagas disease, a parasitic infection spread by bugs, mostly infects people in Central and South America. Still, human cases have been reported in Missouri and seven other states, and the bug that carries the parasite has been found in both Missouri and Illinois. (Fentem, 9/12)

CBS News: Map Shows West Nile Virus Cases As Officials Warn Season Isn't Over
High counts of West Nile virus cases are being reported in the U.S. this year, according to federal health data — and health officials are warning the season for this mosquito-borne disease isn't over yet. As of Sept. 9, at least 771 human cases across 39 states have been reported, according to data posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week. Of these cases, 490 are neuroinvasive, meaning they are severe cases impacting the brain. (Moniuszko and Johnston, 9/11)

CNN: Los Angeles County Child Dies Of Rare Measles Complication Years After Infection 
A school-age child in Los Angeles County who had measles as an infant has died of a rare complication, the county health department said Thursday. The child was infected before they were eligible to receive the measles vaccine, the agency says; the first vaccination is recommended between 12 months and 15 months of age, followed by a second dose between ages 4 and 6. They recovered from that infection but developed a condition called subacute sclerosing panenecephalitis, which affects about 1 in 10,000 unvaccinated people who get measles overall but up to 1 in 600 of those who catch the virus in infancy. (Dillinger, 9/11)

CBS News: California Bill To Ban "Forever Chemicals" In Cookware Pits Celebrity Chefs Against Environmental Advocates
California lawmakers are weighing whether to ban a group of chemicals known as PFAS, which are often called "forever chemicals," in cookware. The move has pulled in celebrity chefs on one side and environmentalists, including actor Mark Ruffalo, on the other. The proposal, Senate Bill 682, would prohibit PFAS in cookware, cleaning products, dental floss, ski wax, food packaging and certain children's products. (Metz, 9/11)

Bloomberg: LA Homes Still Pose Health Risks From Wildfire Smoke
Months after the smoke from California’s destructive fires cleared from LA skies, residents are still reckoning with a toxic stew of smoke pollutants whose effects on human health are poorly understood. Without federal and local standards on how to deal with contaminants like arsenic and the carcinogen benzene, dozens of researchers and private specialists are combing through yards and homes, work that goes beyond authorities' post-fire testing. (Court, 9/11)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

Bloomberg: Apple Watch Hypertension Detection Coming Next Week After FDA Nod
Apple Inc. said its hypertension detection system for its smart watch will arrive next week after receiving clearance Thursday from the US Food and Drug Administration. The feature, which was announced at Apple’s most recent product launch event in early September, will be available in 150 countries and regions, including the US, Hong Kong and the European Union. The company previously said it was waiting for approval from the FDA and other regulators. (Kelly, 9/12)

The Hill: Scientists Reveal PFAS Impact On Liver Function
Toxic “forever chemicals” are altering human liver function at a fundamental level by triggering both fat accumulation and cancer-linked cell damage, a new study has found. Several of these compounds, also known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), interrupt liver cell signaling and immune functions but do so via unique mechanisms, scientists observed in the study, published in Environment International. (Udasin, 9/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Are Gel Manicures A Harmless Beauty Trend, Or A Health Hazard?
Gel manicures are out in most of Europe. The European Union this month banned a key chemical used in gel nail polish that makes manicures last longer. But why are such manicures and nail polish still allowed in the U.S.? (Reddy, 9/11)