First Edition: Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Workers’ Wages Siphoned To Pay Medical Bills, Despite Consumer Protections
Stacey Knoll thought the court summons she received was a scam. She didn’t remember getting any medical bills from Montrose Regional Health, a nonprofit hospital, after a 2020 emergency room visit. So she was shocked when, three years after the trip to the hospital, her employer received court orders requiring it to start funneling a chunk of her paychecks to a debt collector for an unpaid $881 medical bill — which had grown to $1,155.26 from interest and court fees. (Bichell, 10/2)

KFF Health News: ‘Demon Copperhead’ Author Lays Foundation For Women In Appalachia To Beat Addiction
On a Saturday evening in June, people of this rural region gathered at the historic Lee Theatre to celebrate the founding of Higher Ground Women’s Recovery Residence. Author Barbara Kingsolver opened the facility in January with royalties from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Demon Copperhead,” whose plot revolves around Appalachia’s opioid crisis. The home offers a supportive place for people to stay while learning to live without drugs. Kingsolver had asked the women now living there to join her on stage. (Sisk, 10/2)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Politico: Vance Says He’ll Talk Obamacare Premiums With Schumer — But Only With Government Open
Vice President JD Vance has an offer for Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown, he told “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday. Join onto the Republicans’ continuing resolution, and he’ll head to the Capitol “right now” to work with Democrats on extending insurance subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, the line in the sand Democratic party leaders have drawn in the government funding fight. (Svirnovskiy, 10/1)

Politico: How John Thune Sees The Shutdown Ending
Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid out a path to end the government shutdown in an exclusive interview Wednesday, saying he is willing to discuss the shape of future health care negotiations if a “critical mass” of Democrats say they are willing to support a House-passed funding bill in return. The comments, made in his Capitol office less than 18 hours into the first shutdown since 2019, are in keeping with the South Dakota Republican’s current strategy — which is to let pressure build on Democrats to back the GOP-led House stopgap as the only solution. (Carney, 10/1)

Roll Call: Republicans Hammer Immigration Rhetoric On Health Care, Though Details Are Elusive 
As the threat of a shutdown loomed this week, Republican leaders united behind a message: They weren’t going to cut a deal that would let Democrats provide health care to undocumented immigrants. (Cohen and Raman, 10/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Health Systems Scramble To Discharge Hospital-At-Home Patients
Health systems have had to scramble to discharge or move their hospital-at-home patients as CMS reimbursement for the program lapsed with the federal government shutdown. Healthcare organizations approved for the CMS waiver to provide acute hospital care at home had to discharge or transfer those Medicare beneficiaries to the hospital by midnight Oct. 1, sending many patients back to capacity-strained facilities. (Bruce, 10/1)

Fierce Biotech: NIH Research Grinds To A Halt As Government Shuts Down
As the U.S. government shuts down due Congress' failure to pass a spending bill, the National Institutes of Health is implementing a contingency staffing plan that will again roil a research apparatus that has already been heavily disrupted during the second Trump administration. The NIH will retain 4,477, or 24.5%, of its staff during the shutdown, primarily to maintain operations at the NIH Clinical Center, which is a hospital run by the agency, according to the plan. (Incorvaia, 10/1)

Bloomberg: US Government Shutdown Has Insurers Pressing For Obamacare Subsidy Renewal
Ominous images of anxious adults and children began flashing on streaming services and social media more than a week before Senate Democrats forced a government shutdown over their demands to renew expiring Obamacare insurance subsidies. “Health care costs will skyrocket,” the advertisements warn, urging Americans to “Tell Congress” to act to continue the tax credits as the video shifts to a view of the Capitol building. (Birnbaum, 10/1)

FUNDING FREEZE AND DEI

The New York Times: Trump Administration Asks Colleges To Sign ‘Compact’ To Get Funding Preference 
The White House on Wednesday sent letters to nine of the nation’s top public and private universities, urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump’s political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds. The letters came attached to a 10-page “compact” that serves as a sort of priority statement for the administration’s educational goals — the most comprehensive accounting to date of what Mr. Trump aims to achieve from an unparalleled, monthslong pressure campaign on academia. The compact would require colleges to freeze tuition for five years, cap the enrollment of international students and commit to strict definitions of gender. (Bender, 10/2)

Politico: Trump Plans To Block Funding To Groups That Promote Diversity Policies Abroad
The Trump administration plans to block U.S. funding to organizations that do work abroad on issues related to gender identity and diversity, according to a U.S. official and nonprofit groups informed of the plan. It’s a major expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which prevents foreign groups receiving U.S. global health funding from providing or promoting abortion, even if those programs are paid for with other sources of financing. (Paun and Toosi, 10/1)

TARIFFS AND DRUG PRICES

Stat: Trump’s 100% Pharma Tariff, Promised Oct. 1, Is Delayed
President Trump told pharmaceutical companies last week that they should start building infrastructure in the U.S. — or face a 100% tariff, starting Wednesday. But a White House official told STAT on Wednesday that the tariffs have not gone into effect and that the administration would now “begin preparing” tariffs on companies that don’t build in the U.S. or make a drug pricing agreement with the administration. (Payne, 10/1)

The New York Times: How TrumpRx Website May Affect Your Drug Costs After Pfizer Deal
Much is still unknown about the administration’s Pfizer deal and the planned drug-buying website. Trump officials hinted that similar deals with other pharmaceutical manufacturers would follow. But with the price equalization idea, Mr. Trump is tapping into widespread frustration that drug prices are too high in the United States. The Biden administration also took steps to try to lower drug costs for patients and the government, though it did not zero in as Mr. Trump has on the idea that drug prices are unfairly low in Europe. (Robbins, 10/1)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Politico: Trump To The Health And Tech Giants: AI Is Not Your ‘Cartel’ 
The Trump administration has a message for the biggest names in health care and tech: You won’t control the development of artificial intelligence in medicine. Top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services tell POLITICO that the administration does not support a multi-year quasi-regulatory effort by firms including Microsoft and OpenAI, and health systems including the Mayo Clinic and Duke Health, to pilot private-sector-led vetting of AI tools under the banner of the Coalition for Health AI. (Reader, 10/1)

Stat: UpToDate Launches Expert AI To Answer Doctors' Clinical Questions 
When UpToDate, the decades-old, expert-curated medical resource for doctors, announced the launch of a generative artificial intelligence update last week, clinicians responded with a common refrain: It’s about time. (Palmer, 10/2)

'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN'

AP: Walmart Plans To Stop Using Artificial Colors And 30 More Food Additives
Walmart said Wednesday that it plans to remove synthetic food dyes and 30 other ingredients, including some preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes, from its store brands sold in the United States by January 2027. The move announced by the the nation’s largest retailer amounts to an acknowledgment that American consumers and the U.S. government under President Donald Trump are paying attention to what goes into packaged foods. (D’Innocenzio and Aleccia, 10/1)

AUTISM

NBC News: Different Forms Of Autism May Exist, Not Only Different Severities, Genetic Study Shows
People who learn they have autism after age 6 — the current median age at diagnosis — are often described as having a “milder” form of autism than people diagnosed as toddlers. A new study challenges that assumption. A genetic analysis finds that people with autism spectrum disorder diagnosed in late childhood or adolescence actually have “a different form of autism,” not a less severe one, said Varun Warrier, senior author of a study published Wednesday in Nature. (Szabo, 10/1)

The New York Times: Should The Autism Spectrum Be Split Apart? 
That broadening of the diagnosis, autism experts believe, along with the increasing awareness of the disorder, is largely responsible for the steep rise in autism cases that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called “an epidemic” and has attributed to theories of causality that mainstream scientists reject, like vaccines and, more recently, Tylenol. And the diagnostic expansion has now become a flashpoint in a long-running debate over how autism should be defined, one that has divided parents and activists, ignited social media battles and grown fiercer with Mr. Kennedy’s laser focus on autism. (Ghorayshi, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Are Folate Supplements The Same As Leucovorin?
The Food and Drug Administration last week announced it would make it easier for parents to access leucovorin calcium to treat children with autism. Leucovorin is a form of vitamin B9 or folate, a nutrient essential for neurodevelopment. Though its effectiveness for autism treatment has only been researched in small studies, the announcement appeared to send some rushing to buy over-the-counter supplements with the same key ingredient as the drug Trump administration officials touted. Some online shops appeared to sell out of folinic acid supplements. (Malhi, 10/1)

MedPage Today: Can A Dementia Drug Help Some Kids With Autism?
Memantine hydrochloride, a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist, may help improve social impairment in a specific subset of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a small trial suggested. (Monaco, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Maryland Residents With Non-Apparent Disabilities Get A Butterfly ID Marker 
Under Eric’s ID law, people with autism and other non-apparent disabilities can obtain a state-issued ID that is meant to alert law enforcement officers of their condition. (Munro, 10/1)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

AP: Maine Clinics To Halt Primary Care After Trump Administration Cuts To Planned Parenthood
A network of medical clinics that serves low-income residents in Maine said Wednesday it is shutting down its primary care operations because of Trump administration cuts to abortion providers. President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big beautiful bill,” blocked Medicaid money from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The parameters in the bill also stopped funding from reaching Maine Family Planning, a much smaller provider that also delivers other medical services in the mostly rural state. (Whittle and Mulvihill, 10/1)

The Hill: Abortion Pill Lawsuit Revived, Transferred To Missouri
A Texas federal judge late Tuesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration seeking to sharply restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, instead transferring the case to Missouri and keeping the effort alive. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that Idaho, Missouri and Kansas — which were not the original plaintiffs — have no ties to Amarillo, Texas, where the original lawsuit was filed. (Weixel, 10/1)

Chicago Tribune: Black Babies Die Suddenly, Unexpectedly At A Higher Rate
Black babies died suddenly and unexpectedly in their sleep at a rate 14 times higher than white babies in Cook County between 2019 and 2023 — a startling disparity revealed in a report released Wednesday by county and health officials. (Schencker, 10/1)

NBC News: Is Depo-Provera Birth Control To Blame For This Woman’s Brain Tumor? A Lawsuit Alleges Pfizer Failed To Warn Of Potential Risk
Robin Phillip’s fresh haircut is dyed her favorite color — green. But beneath the dye job is a scar that runs along the side of her head, the result of two craniotomies. ... Today, Phillip believes her birth control is to blame. For nearly 30 years, stopping only when she had her two children, she used Depo-Provera — a progestin shot given every three months. She’s one of more than 1,000 women suing Pfizer, which makes the drug, alleging it knew more about the risks and failed to warn users. (Brooks and Essamuah, 10/1)

CIDRAP: Poll Shows Americans View COVID-19 Vaccines As Unsafe For Pregnant Women
Research presented last week during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2025 National Conference & Exhibition shows maternal COVID-19 vaccination is linked to a 58% lower risk of being infected with the virus, as well as a lower risk of experiencing a stillbirth or preterm birth. But a new poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center suggests significant hesitation among pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19, with just 38% of poll respondents saying they would recommend that someone who is pregnant get the COVID-19 shot. (Soucheray, 10/1)

Stat: Clinical Trials Need More Pregnant Women. It's Easier Said Than Done 
Researchers have shut pregnant women out of gold-standard clinical trials in order to protect them and their babies. But the practice has had the opposite effect. Instead, women have to wade through a chaotic data landscape, and many may choose to suffer through untreated illnesses. (Lawrence, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Robots Are Learning To Make Human Babies. Twenty Have Already Been Born.
Quietly, over the past three years, babies have been conceived — and at least 20 of them have been born — through clinical trials that involve automation with little to no human intervention. The same algorithmic computer-vision software that helps autonomous vehicles spot objects on the road and finds signs of breast cancer in a mammogram can instantaneously detect the most robust swimmer among hundreds of thousands of flailing, corkscrewing sperm — each one a fraction of the width of a hair strand. It’s a capability that far exceeds any trained embryologist’s eye. A robotic arm can collect that sperm and mix the chemicals required for an egg to stay viable. And it can delicately and reproducibly fertilize an egg, initiating the moment of conception. (Dwoskin and Murphy, 10/1)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Modern Healthcare: General Catalyst's HATCo Acquires Summa Health
General Catalyst’s Health Assurance Transformation Company on Wednesday closed its acquisition of Summa Health, making it the first health system wholly owned by a venture capital firm. (Kacik, 10/1)

Modern Healthcare: Insurance Contract Disputes With Johns Hopkins, Ascension Ramp Up
Health insurance companies and health systems are familiar with heated contract battles, but the scramble to lock down favorable terms is rising. Hospitals, under pressure to operate within tight margins, are wrestling with the financial ramifications of looming federal healthcare cuts and coping with sustained labor shortages Insurers seek to clamp down on rising utilization and appease dissatisfied investors. (Tong, 10/1)

WUSF: Florida Blue, BayCare Reach Agreement, Ensuring In-Network Coverage For Most Members 
Florida Blue and BayCare on Wednesday said a new multiyear agreement ensures that most patients can continue accessing the health system's hospitals, specialty physicians and services without disruption. The deal encompasses all 16 BayCare hospitals, its extensive ambulatory network, and BayCare Medical Group, the Tampa Bay area's largest multispecialty physician group. (Mayer, 10/1)

Modern Healthcare: CommonSpirit Health To Grow Ambulatory Care To Boost Operations
CommonSpirit is betting on ambulatory care expansion to shore up operations and putting hospital deals on ice. The Chicago-based system has added 90 ambulatory care sites to its footprint in its last two fiscal years, 34 of which opened across nine states in fiscal 2025, which ended June 30. (Hudson, 10/1)

Chicago Tribune: Advocate Health Installs Medicine Vending Machines On South Side
Most patients don’t expect to be sent to a vending machine immediately after a doctor’s appointment or a hospital stay. But there are two new vending machines that dole out prescription medications — not snacks — at Advocate Trinity Hospital in Calumet Heights and Advocate Medical Group’s Imani Village clinic in Pullman. (Schencker, 10/1)

PHARMA AND TECH

MedPage Today: Oral Drug Wins FDA Approval For Chronic Hives 
The FDA approved oral remibrutinib (Rhapsido) as a second-line treatment for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), or chronic hives, Novartis announced on Tuesday. Indicated for adults with stubborn symptoms despite the use of antihistamines, the approval marks the first Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor for CSU. (Ingram, 10/1)

Modern Healthcare: How Remote MRI, CT Scanning Can Ease Radiology Staffing Shortages
Providers are eyeing remote scanning technology as a way to address the imbalance between too many requests for imaging tests and too few technologists to handle them. A handful of medtech companies received Food and Drug Administration clearance in the past two years for products that allow technologists to perform multiple scans simultaneously from remote locations. (Dubinsky, 10/1)

Stat: Researchers Find Clues Linking ALS And Autoimmune Responses 
Researchers have found that patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have autoimmune responses, a finding with the potential to reshape how scientists think of the devastating and complex neurologic disorder. (Wosen, 10/1)

STATE WATCH

Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota Health Insurance Premiums Set To Rise In 2026 
Health insurance premiums for thousands of Minnesotans will increase in 2026 due to rising health care costs and uncertainty around the future of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are currently set to expire at the end of the year. (Zurek, 10/1)

Minnesota Public Radio: Many Sober Home Residents Lose Housing Due To New State Law 
Over a decade ago, Rhett Murdaugh moved to St. Paul to live in sober housing. He had already relocated from Nashville to Pennsylvania for addiction treatment. There, he says his program’s leadership recommended he try Minnesota. “I could barely find Minnesota on the map. When they told me to come here I was like, ‘What?’” he said. “But it was because it's known as a hotbed of recovery.” (Gerezgiher, 10/2)

NPR: Inside The Fight To Save Mississippi's Babies Amid Medicaid Cuts
For months, Dr. Daniel Edney had watched his state's infant mortality rate rise. "It just kept climbing," he remembers. "We'd get another death coming in, another death coming in." As the public health officer in Mississippi, it's Edney's job to monitor the number of infant deaths in the state. When he saw the final figures for 2024, they were as bad as he feared. (Riddle, 10/2)

Wyoming Public Radio: Grants Help Wyoming Parents Pay For Uncovered Medical Bills 
Once in a while, a friend meets you exactly where you are. It is the message greeting Wyoming families who turn to Casper-based Jason’s Friends Foundation for help paying medical bills when their child is diagnosed with cancer, or tumors in the brain or spinal cord. (Galatas, 10/1)

Iowa Public Radio: No One Making Sure Iowa Schools Test For Radon 
When a pulmonologist told Gail Orcutt she had lung cancer in May 2010, the non-smoker was shocked. She began researching and quickly learned about radon and its prevalence in Iowa, where she lived her entire life. She tested both her childhood and current homes, both of which had dangerous levels. Yet, Orcutt’s five remaining siblings do not have lung cancer. Nor does her husband. Seeking answers, Orcutt turned her attention to the Iowa schools where she spent much of her life, as a student, then as a teacher of 33 years. Orcutt died of lung cancer in May of 2020. (Loomis, 10/1)

CNN: Top States For Mental Health, According To Mental Health America 
A new report ranks US states on rates of mental well-being and mental health care, and New York, Hawaii and New Jersey have outperformed the rest — in that order. (Rogers, 10/1)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

CIDRAP: Treating Recurrent C Difficile Cases Cost Hospital Millions, Study Finds 
A study conducted at a community hospital in New Jersey highlights the excess costs associated with recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), researchers reported this week in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. The retrospective study of patient medical records by clinicians at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center included patients who had three or more inpatient admissions due to CDI from January 2017 through December 2020. (Dall, 10/1)

CIDRAP: CDC Issues New Guidance For Prevention, Treatment Of Sporadic, Bioterrorist-Deployed Tularemia
Today, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published updated guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on postexposure prophylaxis (prevention) and treatment of the rare but potentially serious tickborne disease tularemia. The recommendations are aimed at healthcare providers caring for patients with naturally occurring infections or, in the case of bioterrorist deployment of the pathogen, working with preparedness experts and public health authorities to prepare their clinics, hospitals, and communities. (Van Beusekom, 10/1)

CIDRAP: US Measles Total Climbs To 1,544 As Cases Spike In Minnesota 
In its latest weekly update today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 30 more measles cases, putting the national total at 1,544, a record high since the United States eliminated the disease in 2000. Two more outbreaks were reported, bringing the total to 42. The CDC said 86% of cases are linked to outbreaks, and 92% of patients are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. The number of affected jurisdictions remained the same, at 42. (Schnirring, 10/1)

CIDRAP: Valneva Reports Good Antibody Persistence For Chikungunya Vaccine
Valneva today reported strong antibody persistence for Ixchiq, its live-attenuated vaccine against chikungunya, a virus spread by mosquitoes. In a press release, the company said data from 254 healthy adults suggested that 95% retained an antibody response above the seroresponse threshold for 4 years after a single dose. Antibody persistence in adults age 65 and older was similar to that for younger adults, which held for geometric mean titers and seroresponse rates. (Schnirring, 10/1)

AP: Flu Vaccines: What To Know About The Shots And The At-Home FluMist Option
It’s time to get a flu vaccine, and pediatricians are urging people to get them after last winter, when the U.S. saw the most flu-related child deaths in 15 years. October is the ideal month to get protected, experts say, because flu cases typically begin climbing in November. “The best time is today. If you haven’t already had it, get it. I got mine yesterday,” said Dr. Laura Riley, of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (Neergaard, 10/1)