First Edition: Tuesday, April 15, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: States Push Medicaid Work Rules, But Few Programs Help Enrollees Find Jobs
For many years, Eric Wunderlin’s health issues made it hard to find stable employment. This article is part of KFF’s Medicaid Watch, featuring policy research, polling, and news about the Medicaid financing debate and related issues. Struggling to manage depression and diabetes, Wunderlin worked part-time, minimum-wage retail jobs around Dayton, Ohio, making so little he said he sometimes had to choose between paying rent and buying food. But in 2018, his CareSource Medicaid health plan offered him help getting a job. (Whitehead, Galewitz and Houghton, 4/15)

KFF Health News: Deportation Fears Add To Mental Health Problems Confronting Colorado Resort Town Workers
When Adolfo Román García-Ramírez walks home in the evening from his shift at a grocery store in this central Colorado mountain town, sometimes he thinks back on his childhood in Nicaragua. Adults, he recollects, would scare the kids with tales of the “Mona Bruja,” or “Monkey Witch.” Step too far into the dark, they told him, and you might just get snatched up by the giant monstrous monkey who lives in the shadows. Now, when García-Ramírez looks over his shoulder, it’s not monster monkeys he is afraid of. It’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. (Skowlund, 4/15)

FUNDING AND RESEARCH CUTS

NPR: Trump Administration Freezes More Than $2.2 Billion After Harvard Rejects Its Demands
The Trump administration responded quickly to Harvard University's defiance on Monday, freezing more than $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts after the university rejected demands that it change hiring, admissions and other policies. Earlier in the day, Alan Garber, Harvard's president, said in a letter to faculty and students that the university would not submit to a list of demands made last Friday. Among them are that it eliminate DEI programs, screen international students who are "supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism" and ensure "viewpoint diversity" in its hiring. At stake, the government said, was some $9 billion in federal funding. (Mehta, 4/14)

Stat: Harvard Scientists Brace For The Fallout From $2.2 Billion Cut In Federal Grants
Across Boston, researchers waited wearily for blowback from the administration. It wasn’t just Harvard University. Although protests have almost exclusively occurred on undergraduate campuses, the Administration’s cuts to funding have hit medical schools and their associated hospitals, which get substantial grants that NIH and other federal agencies dole out. (Mast, 4/15)

Stat: Under Pressure From Trump, Universities Look To Reform NIH Funding
As they battle the Trump administration in court over its plan to slash the amount of overhead and other “indirect costs” paid to recipients of National Institutes of Health research grants, universities have begun discussing alternative funding ideas in hopes of finding an approach that might be acceptable to all sides. (Oza, 4/15)

The Boston Globe: MGB Doctors Press Hospital Leaders To Stand Up To Trump’s Threats
As the Trump administration threatens to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding from Harvard University and its affiliates, more than 220 physicians and other workers at Mass General Brigham have called on leaders of the health system to reject a litany of demands by the government. In a signed letter sent to top executives on Monday, employees of the Harvard-affiliated system said MGB and other teaching hospitals in the country should band together and stand up for diversity, evidence-based medicine, and preservation of constitutional rights. (Saltzman, 4/14)

TARIFFS AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Stat: Trump Administration Launches Probe Into Pharmaceutical Imports
The Trump administration disclosed it formally opened an investigation into the extent to which the importation of certain pharmaceuticals may threaten national security, a move that is a widely anticipated prelude to imposing tariffs on a potentially large number of medicines. (Silverman, 4/14)

Modern Healthcare: AHA's Akin Demehin Seeks Tariff Exemptions On Medical Devices
Despite the Trump administration's recent 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, hospitals and health systems remain concerned about the ongoing impact of tariffs on medical devices. Industry organizations including the American Hospital Association continue to push for tariff exemptions for medical devices, but to date, no action has been taken by the administration. (Dubinsky, 4/14)

MORE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

MedPage Today: Will Memoli Be The Next NIAID Director?
During an on-camera interview with CBS News last week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Matthew Memoli, MD — currently the principal deputy director at NIH — will be the next director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Memoli, "the top flu researcher at NIH, is going to be running NIAID," Kennedy said in response to a question from Jon LaPook, MD, CBS News chief medical correspondent, about who is making decisions about NIH research. (Fiore, 4/14)

Politico: The FDA Fired Its Tobacco Enforcers. Now It Wants Them Back
The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month fired dozens of staffers responsible for going after retailers who illegally sell tobacco to minors. Now it’s begging them to come back. Senior FDA officials asked laid-off employees in recent days to temporarily return after mass cuts decimated the agency’s ability to penalize retailers that sell cigarettes and vapes to minors, four federal health officials familiar with the matter said. (Cancryn and Gardner, 4/14)

Roll Call: Health Groups Urge RFK Jr. To Reinstate Injury Center Staff
A group of more than 40 organizations is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reinstate staff who were purged at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (DeGroot, 4/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: ‘Able To Happen Again’: Local Japanese American Historians Warn Of Trump’s Use Of 1798 Wartime Law 
Kay Ochi’s parents were 21 and 22 years old when they were forced to leave San Diego, where they were born, and taken to an incarceration camp in the desert of Poston, Arizona, simply because of their Japanese heritage. “That was three years of pure hell,” said Ochi, a third-generation Japanese American, or Sansei, who is president of the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego. (Taketa, 4/13)

ABORTION

AP: Study Finds More Abortion, But Less Travel To Other States For It
Fewer people crossed state lines to obtain abortions in 2024 than a year earlier, a new survey has found. The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, estimates in a report released Tuesday that the overall number of clinician-provided abortions in states where it’s legal rose by less than 1% from 2023 to 2024. But the number of people crossing state lines for abortions dropped by about 9%. (Mulvihill, 4/15)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

NPR: CDC's Vaccine Advisory Meeting Set To Start After Delays
For the first time since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meeting publicly to discuss the nation's vaccine policies. A meeting of the CDC's advisory committee on immunization practices was initially scheduled for February but was postponed, raising concerns among some scientists and those working in public health about political interference in vaccine policy. The two-day meeting starts Tuesday morning. (Huang, 4/15)

CIDRAP: More H5N1 Detections In US Dairy Cows And Poultry; WHO Unveils H5 Surveillance Guide
Over the last few days the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has reported four more H5N1 avian flu detections in dairy cattle, two from California and two from Idaho, lifting the national total to 1,009 from 17 states since March 2024. Also, APHIS has confirmed more H5N1 detections in poultry flocks from two states. (Schnirring, 4/14)

The Hill: 7 US Service Members Had ‘COVID-19-Like Symptoms’ After 2019 Wuhan Games: Pentagon Report
Seven U.S. service members exhibited “COVID-19-like symptoms” during or after their return from the 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan, China, according to a Pentagon report recently made public. The report indicates the service members had symptoms between Oct. 18, 2019, and Jan. 21, 2020. The symptoms all resolved within six days, according to the report, which is dated December 2022. (Fortinsky, 4/14)

Roll Call: No Sign Of Texas Measles Outbreak Slowing, Contrary To RFK Jr.’s Claims 
On four separate occasions, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary, has suggested that the measles outbreak in Texas, which is now over 500 cases, is beginning to subside and grow more slowly. But a review of state data indicates there’s no decline yet in the pace of cases. (McDonald, 4/14)

CBS News: "It Doesn't Have To Be This Way" Infection Prevention Expert Weighs In On Colorado's Measles Cases
After seeing the latest case of measles in Colorado, an infection prevention manager with Common Spirit, Aaron Parmet, said things are changing in the fight against the extremely contagious disease. The reported cases have been similar in the sense that in the first two, the patients had recently visited Mexico, but in the third case out of Pagosa Springs, the patient had no obvious travel history where an exposure to the virus could be found. That unknown has Parmet concerned. (Wilson, 4/14)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

AP: Months After CEO's Killing, An Intruder Is Arrested Near UnitedHealthcare Headquarters In Minnesota
A man was arrested near UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota after threatening violence, months after the company’s CEO was killed, authorities said Monday. The man was spotted around 11 a.m. in a parking lot outside of the UnitedHealthcare corporate campus in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. City spokesman Andy Wittenborg said the man contacted the FBI’s field office in Minneapolis once he arrived, and an FBI negotiator made contact with him by phone. (Karnowski, 4/15)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Violence Costs Scripps, Cone Health Millions In Security
Health systems are spending millions of dollars ramping up security measures at their facilities to protect patients and staff. Many systems are hiring more officers, implementing weapons detection screenings and updating communication protocols. Executives said these efforts are a response to an uptick in workplace violence over the past several years, ranging from assaults on staff members to sexually aggressive comments and shootings. (Hudson, 4/14)

Fierce Healthcare: UnitedHealth Group, Amedisys Will Head To Mediation With DOJ
The Department of Justice will head to mediation with UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys April 18 as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit. Both companies are attempting to finalize a $3.3 billion merger, which was challenged under the Biden administration Nov. 12 for allegedly threatening competition in the home health and hospice industry. Now, mediation will occur Aug. 18, as signed by Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey on April 10. (Minemyer and Tong, 4/14)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals File New DSH Payment Lawsuits Against HHS
A growing number of hospitals are working to bolster providers’ legal fight to increase Medicare reimbursement for treating low-income patients. Nearly 150 hospitals filed three lawsuits last week alleging the Health and Human Services Department's Provider Reimbursement Review Board wrongfully denied appeals to boost Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments, which are meant to support providers that treat many low-income patients. (Kacik, 4/14)

CBS News: Crozer CEO To Step Down Amid Potential Shutdown Of Pennsylvania Health System
Amid a potential shutdown, the CEO of the Crozer Health system in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, is stepping down. In an email to employees on Monday, Crozer CEO Tony Esposito announced that he will step down on Friday after five and a half years as the CEO. "It has been an honor to serve alongside this talented team, and I want to thank each of you for the dedication that you bring to caring for our patients and the Delaware County community day in and day out," Esposito wrote in the email in part. (Holden and Ignudo, 4/14)

CBS News: Over 200 Hennepin County Physicians Certified As First To Unionize In Minnesota
Around 250 doctors at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) have been certified as the first unionized resident and fellow physicians in Minnesota, according to union officials. The physicians are represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union (CIR/SEIU), who said the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services made the certification on April 3. (Lentz, 4/14)

Fierce Healthcare: Doc Compensation Rose 3.6% In 2024—But These Specialties Got Even More
Average physician pay rose 3.6% between 2023 and 2024, from $363,000 to $376,000—about in line with recent years but well behind increases from before the pandemic. That’s according to Medscape’s latest physician compensation report, which also highlighted particularly narrow increases in year-over-year compensation for primary care docs (1.4%, from $277,000 to $281,000) and specialists (1%, from $394,000 to $398,000). (Muoio, 4/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: Miscommunication Tied To 1 In 10 Hospital Patient Safety Events: Study
At least 10% of patient safety events stem from poor communication among healthcare workers, patients and caregivers, according to a meta-analysis published April 14 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers at the University of Leicester reviewed 46 studies examining whether communication failures contributed to safety events — including adverse events, near misses, medical errors and medication errors. The studies involved data from 67,639 patients across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. (Twenter, 4/14)

CBS News: Discarded Organs: Why Donated Organs Are Left Unused
In the U.S., thousands of donated organs never reach the patients who need them. CBS News found that last year, one in three kidneys recovered from deceased donors were never transplanted. Specialized organ recovery teams made more than 26 million attempts to place these kidneys with transplant centers, offering them again and again in search of a suitable match--before they were ultimately discarded as medical waste. And it's not just kidneys. Nearly 12,000 potentially life-saving organs were discarded last year in the United States. (Moniuszko, 4/14)

TECHNOLOGY

Becker's Hospital Review: Oracle Health Sued Over Alleged Data Breach Affecting US Hospitals
Two women have filed a class-action lawsuit against Oracle Health, accusing the company of failing to protect sensitive patient information during a recent cyberattack that allegedly compromised data from several U.S. hospitals. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on April 11, alleges that hackers accessed Oracle’s legacy Cerner servers — which had not yet been migrated to Oracle Cloud — using stolen customer credentials. The breach, which Oracle discovered around Feb. 20, exposed names, Social Security numbers, clinical testing results and other protected health information, according to the filing obtained by Becker’s. (Diaz, 4/14)

Bloomberg: Dialysis Provider DaVita Says Ransomware Locked Down Parts Of Network
DaVita Inc. said it has been impacted by ransomware that had locked down parts of its network. The company, which specializes in providing kidney dialysis to patients at more than 700 hospitals in the US, said in a statement Monday to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the incident was impacting some of its operations. (Gallagher, 4/14)

CBS News: Radiation From CT Scans Could Lead To Thousands Of Future Cancer Diagnoses, Study Finds
Approximately 93 million computed tomography examinations, or CT scans, are performed on 62 million patients annually in the United States — but the radiation from that process can raise the risk of future cancers. Now a new study is projecting just how many cases of cancer could be linked to CT scans. In the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday, researchers estimate that over the lifetime of those millions of patients, about 103,000 radiation-induced cancers are projected to result from CT exams done in 2023. (Moniuszko, 4/14)

STATE WATCH

AP: California OKs $2.8B To Close Medicaid Funding Gap After Expanding Immigrant Coverage
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday to close a $2.8 billion budget gap in the state’s Medicaid services and ensure coverage through June for 15 million people, including immigrants, who receive health care via the program. The legislation is part of the state’s solution to solve the $6.2 billion hole in the state’s Medicaid budget. It comes a year after California launched an ambitious coverage expansion to provide free health care to all low-income adults regardless of their immigration status. (Nguyễn, 4/14)

Politico: How Bad Is California’s Housing Crisis? A First-In-The-Nation Bill Would Let Students Live In Cars.
A progressive Democratic lawmaker is seeking a simple but jarring remedy of last resort for California’s college students navigating the state’s housing crisis: Let them sleep in their cars. While roughly half a dozen state legislative proposals this year seek to fund student or faculty housing or loosen building regulations, the benefits would come far too late for current students struggling to stay afloat. With one in four California community college students experiencing homelessness in the past year, Democrats — who have a supermajority in the statehouse — face increasing pressure to deliver on affordability issues. (He, 4/13)

The Texas Tribune: The Texas Legislature Is Having Big Battles Over Gender And Sexuality
As fundamental questions of gender and sexuality dominate Republican priorities at the state and federal level, the Texas Legislature is considering a record number of anti-trans bills this session. (Klibanoff, 4/14)

The Texas Tribune: String Of Law Enforcement Suicides Rattles First Responders And Exposes Gaps In State Support
After two officers he had worked with during a 20-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps took their own lives, Dustin Schellenger researched what mental health resources were available to his friends, both of whom were local first responders when they died. (Salhotra, 4/14)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

The New York Times: Older People Seeking Care For Cannabis Use At Greater Risk For Dementia, Study Finds
Middle-aged and older adults who sought hospital or emergency room care because of cannabis use were almost twice as likely to develop dementia over the next five years, compared with similar people in the general population, a large Canadian study reported on Monday. When compared with adults who sought care for other reasons, the risk of developing dementia was still 23 percent higher among users of cannabis, the study also found. (Caryn Rabin, 4/14)