First Edition: Monday, May 19, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Rural Patients Face Tough Choices When Their Hospitals Stop Delivering Babies
Sophie Hofeldt planned to receive prenatal care and give birth at her local hospital, 10 minutes from her house. Instead, she’s driving more than three hours round trip for her appointments. The hospital, Winner Regional Health, recently joined the increasing number of rural hospitals shuttering their birthing units. “It’s going to be a lot more of a stress and a hassle for women to get the health care that they need because they have to go so much further,” said Hofeldt, who has a June 10 due date for her first child. (Zionts, 5/19)

KFF Health News: Trump’s DOJ Accuses Medicare Advantage Insurers Of Paying ‘Kickbacks’ For Primo Customers
When people call large insurance brokerages seeking free assistance in choosing Medicare Advantage plans, they’re often offered assurances such as this one from eHealth: “Your benefit advisors will find plans that match your needs — no matter the carrier.” About a third of enrollees do seek help in making complex decisions about whether to enroll in original Medicare or select among private-sector alternatives, called Medicare Advantage. (Appleby, 5/19)

KFF Health News: Housing, Nutrition In Peril As Trump Pulls Back Medicaid Social Services
During his first administration, President Donald Trump’s top health officials gave North Carolina permission to use Medicaid money for social services not traditionally covered by health insurance. It was a first-in-the-nation experiment to funnel health care money into housing, nutrition, and other social services. Some poor and disabled Medicaid patients became eligible for benefits, including security deposits and first month’s rent for housing, rides to medical appointments, wheelchair ramps, and even prescriptions for fresh fruits and vegetables. (Hart, 5/19)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Unpack Drug Prices, Threats To Medicaid, And The Fluoridation Of Water
Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed the FDA’s phasing out of fluoride drops and tablets for children on CBS’ “CBS Mornings” on May 15. (5/17)

Roll Call: Joe Biden Diagnosed With ‘Aggressive Form’ Of Prostate Cancer 
Former President Joe Biden is reviewing treatment options after he was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones, his office said Sunday. Biden, 82, had experienced urinary symptoms that led to the discovery of a prostate nodule, according to his personal office, and he was diagnosed with cancer on Friday. (Altimari, 5/18)

The Conversation: Joe Biden Has Advanced Prostate Cancer With A Gleason Score Of 9. What Does This Mean?
Biden’s office said his cancer has a Gleason score of nine out of ten. To calculate the Gleason score, clinicians take multiple samples of the tumour, called biopsies. To obtain each sample, a small needle is inserted into the tumour and a sliver of tissue (usually around 12 millimetres long) is extracted for testing. Because the different regions of the tumour can have different cancer cells present, pathologists then pick two different sections of the tumour biopsy they think best represent the whole tumour. Then, they grade each of the two sections with a score from 1 to 5. Grade 1 means the cancer cells present look a lot like normal, healthy cells. Grade 5 means the cancer cells look very abnormal. To get a patient’s Gleason score, the two grades are added together. (Diepstraten and La Marca, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Joe Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: The Outlook For Advanced Disease 
Biden is likely to fight prostate cancer for the remainder of his life, specialists said. But men in advanced stages can live years or a decade longer, prostate cancer specialists said. Some 37% of patients diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer are alive after five years, based on data from patients diagnosed between 2014 and 2020, according to the American Cancer Society. Biden’s physicians didn’t publicly address his diagnosis. “Once it spreads to the bone, it’s usually not curable, but it is very treatable,” said Dr. Jason Efstathiou, a prostate-cancer radiation oncologist at Mass General Brigham. (Abbott and Whyte, 5/18)

Time: Political Leaders React To Joe Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
President Donald Trump, who has constantly attacked Biden’s health and cognitive ability from the 2024 campaign trail to the present, sent well-wishes to Biden in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump said, referencing the First Lady. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” (de Guzman, 5 /19)

Axios: What To Know About Biden's Cancer Moonshot
"Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe," former President Obama said. (Falconer, 5/19)

MEDICAID AND THE GOP 'MEGABILL'

Politico: House Budget Panel Approves Trump Megabill Following Hardliner Resistance
House Republicans finally launched their party-line tax and spending package from the Budget Committee late Sunday night, after GOP leaders promised changes to appease fiscal hawks after an embarrassing setback. The vote to approve the measure for floor action follows a weekend of negotiations between House Republican leaders, the White House and the four GOP lawmakers who tanked the same committee vote on Friday. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Sunday night that “minor modifications” were promised to those holdouts. (Scholtes and Lee Hill, 5/18)

The Hill: Health Experts Brace For Medical Coverage Losses From 'Big, Beautiful Bill'
Doctors, patients and health experts are bracing for massive coverage losses as House Republicans are poised to impose Medicaid work requirements as part of the “big, beautiful bill” encompassing many of President Trump’s legislative priorities. They are warning that a blizzard of red tape and administrative hurdles will strip people of needed health care. (Weixel, 5/18) 

The New York Times: As Congress Debates Cutting Medicaid, A Major Study Shows It Saves Lives
The expansion of Medicaid has saved more than 27,000 lives since 2010, according to the most definitive study yet on the program’s health effects. Poor adults who gained Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act expanded access were 21 percent less likely to die during a given year than those not enrolled, the research shows. By analyzing federal records on 37 million Americans, two economists found that deaths fell not only among older enrollees but also among those in their 20s and 30s — a group often assumed to have few medical needs, and who would have been far less likely to qualify for Medicaid before the expansion. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 5/16)

Military.com: Military Families Could Go Hungry Due To Food Assistance Cuts In GOP's 'Big Beautiful Bill' 
Active-duty service members face food insecurity at higher rates than the civilian population. While about 25% of service members were considered food insecure in 2018 and 2020, just about 10% of civilian adults were food insecure in the same time period, according to a 2024 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Congress has taken steps in recent years to alleviate food insecurity in the military, including approving a massive pay raise for junior enlisted troops that took effect in April and creating a new benefit called the Basic Needs Allowance for service members near the federal poverty line. But many military families rely on SNAP, more colloquially known as food stamps. (Kheel, 5/16)

ABC News: 'I Feel Very Scared': Some Americans Fear Losing Coverage Due To Proposed Medicaid Cuts
Key components of the bill to fund President Donald Trump's agenda looks to provide major tax breaks by cutting spending elsewhere, including massive cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid is a joint federal and state health insurance program for disabled and low-income Americans. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) works with state programs to administer Medicaid, under which more than 71.2 million people are enrolled. (Kekatos, 5/16)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

FiercePharma: HHS Unveils Public-Private Pact To Boost US Drug Manufacturing
On the heels of a production-tinged executive order earlier this month, the Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to boost medicine manufacturing in the U.S. In a new public-private partnership spearheaded by the administration, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS') Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are linking up with several universities and companies in a bid to improve manufacturing for essential medicines using technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and informatics. The project is dubbed Equip-A-Pharma. (Kansteiner, 5/16)

Politico: Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court To Allow Mass Layoffs Of Federal Workers
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to immediately proceed with its plan to lay off tens of thousands of workers across federal agencies. In an emergency appeal, the administration urged the justices to quickly lift a lower-court order that has temporarily blocked the layoffs. (Ali Kanu, 5/16)

The Hill: Federal Judge Extends Block On HHS Termination Of Billions In Public Health Funds
A federal judge on Friday indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from pulling back more than $11 billion in public health funding from state and local health departments. The ruling from Judge Mary McElroy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island extends a temporary restraining order she issued in April that stopped the administration from wiping out the pandemic-era funding to a group of 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia. (Weixel, 5/16)

Stat: Scientists Push Back On Research Cuts — And Some Are Winning 
The grant termination letters sting. Study after study gets spiked because it “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” If the research hints at diversity, equity, or inclusion, the wording gets a little nasty, in the view of neurologist Charles DeCarli, chair in Alzheimer’s research at the University of California, Davis. His $53 million inquiry into how vascular factors contribute to dementia among white, Black, and Hispanic people was terminated in March. But a month later, his grant was back. (Cooney, 5/19)

Politico: GAO Rejects DOGE Attempt To Land At Congressional Watchdog Agency
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency tried to place a downsizing team at the Government Accountability Office, but the congressional watchdog rebuffed the intrusion, according to an internal bulletin viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News. DOGE recently contacted the congressional watchdog with plans to “assign a team” to the office, according to the bulletin sent to all GAO staff on Friday. (Richards, 5/16)

Stat: Does The CDC Have An Acting Director?
Earlier this week, Lisa Blunt Rochester asked a seemingly simple question of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his testimony to the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee: “Who is the acting CDC director?” (Branswell, 5/16)

FERTILITY CLINIC BOMBING

Los Angeles Times: Details Emerge In Palm Springs Bombing, Including Website
“We believe he was the subject found by the vehicle,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, referencing a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan near the explosion site. Davis said investigators believed the suspect was attempting to livestream the attack, which he described as probably “the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California,” eclipsing the 2018 bombing of a day spa in Aliso Viejo. (Jany, St. John, Jarvie, Winton and Wick, 5/18)

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

ABC News: FDA Clears 1st Blood Test To Help Diagnose Alzheimer's Disease
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the first blood test on Friday to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The test, manufactured by Fujirebio Diagnostics, is for those aged 55 and older who are already exhibiting signs and symptoms of the disease, the agency said. (Benadjaoud, 5/16)

COVID-19

AP: FDA Approves Novavax COVID-19 Shot But With Unusual Restrictions
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a long-awaited approval of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine but with unusual restrictions. Novavax makes the nation’s only traditional protein-based coronavirus vaccine – and until now it had emergency authorization from FDA for use in anyone 12 and older. But late Friday, the FDA granted the company full approval for its vaccine for use only in adults 65 and older – or those 12 to 64 who have at least one health problem that puts them at increased risk from COVID-19. (Neergaard, 5/18)

The New York Times: When A Vaccine Safety Trial Becomes Unethical
The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced a new standard for testing the safety of vaccines, a “radical departure from past practices.” All new vaccines will be evaluated against a placebo, an inert look-alike that serves as a point of comparison, the department said. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as many anti-vaccine groups, has long argued that placebo-controlled trials were the only way to fully understand vaccine side effects. (Rosenbluth, 5/16)

The Washington Post: Long Covid Patients Are Desperate For Treatments. These Trials May Help. 
Five years since the pandemic began, millions of people are still grappling with long covid, even as new patients are joining their ranks. “Considering how far along we are and how tens of millions of people are suffering, we’ve done very little,” said Eric Topol, a professor of translational medicine and the executive vice president of Scripps Research. (Sima, 5/16)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

AP: The US Hasn't Seen A Human Bird Flu Case In 3 Months. Experts Are Wondering Why
Health officials are making a renewed call for vigilance against bird flu, but some experts are puzzling over why reports of new human cases have stopped. Has the search for cases been weakened by government cuts? Are immigrant farm workers, who have accounted for many of the U.S. cases, more afraid to come forward for testing amid the Trump administration’s deportation push? Is it just a natural ebb in infections? “We just don’t know why there haven’t been cases,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. (Stobbe and Aleccia, 5/19)

CIDRAP: US Measles Outbreak Grows To 1,024 Cases
The US measles picture grew by 23 cases this week, according to today's update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A total of 1,024 confirmed measle cases have been reported from 31 jurisdictions, with 14 outbreaks (defined as 3 or more related cases). Ninety-two percent of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated. (Dall, 5/16)

CIDRAP: Flu Activity In The US Has Reached Low Levels
US flu activity is low and declining further, according to the latest FluView update today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The percentage of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI), or respiratory illness, dropped slightly from 2.1% the previous week to 1.9% last week (see CDC graph at left). The number of patients hospitalized for flu dropped from 2,336 to 2,008. As with the previous week, no state reported moderate, high, or very high ILI activity. (Wappes, 5/16)

CIDRAP: Researchers Report Mpox DNA, Live Virus On Surfaces And In Air From Patients' Rooms
A study conducted in UK hospitals found mpox virus (MPXV) clade 1b DNA in 73% of surface samples and 7% of air samples from infected patients' rooms, as well as live virus in 19% of surface samples that underwent viral isolation. Scientists at the UK Health Security Agency sampled the rooms and anterooms of seven of the first eight mpox clade 1b patients admitted for clinical observation at centers dedicated to airborne high-consequence infectious diseases from October 2024 through January 2025. (Van Beusekom, 5/16)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

The New York Times: Surgeons Perform First Human Bladder Transplant
Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with debilitating bladder conditions. The operation was performed earlier this month by a pair of surgeons from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California on a 41-year-old man who had lost much of his bladder capacity from treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer. (Baumgaertner Nunn, 5/18)

CNN: At The Forefront Of Organ Transplants, Patients Are The Pioneers 
The story of transplants has always been one of altruism. After all, organs can be neither sold nor purchased. They can only be donated as a gift of life. It is a story that started in 1954, when Dr. Joseph Murray performed the world’s first successful organ transplant at Boston’s Peter Bent Brigham Hospital between identical twin brothers Ronald and Richard Herrick. (Gupta, 5/16)

Fierce Healthcare: CureIS Healthcare Hits Epic With Lawsuit For Alleged 'Scheme To Destroy' Its Business
Epic Systems is facing another legal battle as a healthcare company filed a lawsuit alleging anti-competitive practices and illegal interference in its business. CureIS Healthcare, founded in 2006, offers technology and managed services for government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and state healthcare initiatives. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Epic engaged in a multi-pronged “scheme to destroy” its business. Epic is the largest electronic health record software company in the U.S. (Landi, 5/17)

Modern Healthcare: Oracle, Cleveland Clinic, G42 Partner To Create AI Platform
Cleveland Clinic, Oracle and G42, have partnered to develop an artificial intelligence-based healthcare delivery platform. A launch date for the platform has not yet been announced. The platform will be released first in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, with plans to eventually be available globally. The partnership is part of a nonbinding agreement between the three organizations, according to a Friday news release. (DeSilva, 5/16)

Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals Cheer 340B Rebate Ruling But Still Await HHS' Final Say
Thursday’s ruling earned a warm reception from hospital associations, which used the moment to lobby the administration for a continued hard stance against the rebate models. “HRSA has rightfully seen through these proposals, which undermine hospitals’ ability to fulfill [340B] program intent,” Bruce Siegel, M.D., president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, said in a statement. “They are not attempts to improve compliance but rather money grabs to reduce access to discounts. … There is certainly adequate justification for rejecting these proposals, and we are confident HRSA’s final decisions for four manufacturers and reconsideration of Sanofi will demonstrate that.” (Muoio, 5/16)

PHARMACEUTICALS

Fierce Healthcare: Rite Aid Inks Deals To Sell 1K Stores To Rivals Including CVS
Rite Aid confirmed Thursday that it had secured a series of deals to sell off more than 1,000 of its stores to multiple pharmacy competitors, including CVS Health and Walgreens. The grocers Albertsons, Kroger and Giant Eagle—which operate pharmacies at their stores—will buy assets from Rite Aid as well, according to the announcement. The news follows media reports that these companies were looking to scoop up stores put up for sale by Rite Aid. (Minemyer, 5/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Ozempic Knockoffs Survive Crackdown Thanks To Loophole
A government crackdown on cheaper copies of Ozempic and similar diabetes and weight-loss drugs was intended to shut the door on that booming market. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. Instead, some compounding pharmacies and telehealth companies that make the copies have found new ways in. They are making and selling dosages slightly different from the standard, FDA-approved amounts or including additives such as vitamins B3 and B12. Others have changed how the drug is taken, switching from injectables to under the tongue drops or pills. (Janin, 5/18)

PUBLIC HEALTH

CBS News: How To Limit Exposure To Arsenic In Rice After Report Finds High Levels In Brands Across U.S.
Toxic heavy metals like arsenic are found in high levels in rice brands sold across the United States, according to a recent report — but experts say there are ways to reduce your exposure. The report, from Healthy Babies, Bright Futures, an organization focused on babies' exposure to toxic chemicals, says testing found arsenic in 100% of 145 rice samples purchased from stores across the U.S. One in four rice samples also exceeded the federal limit of 100 parts per billion of inorganic arsenic set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for infant rice cereal in 2021, according to the report. (Moniuszko, 5/16)

NBC News: Publix Recalls Baby Food Pouches Over Potential Lead Contamination
Publix, a national supermarket chain, is voluntarily recalling baby food that could be contaminated with lead, the company announced this week. ... It’s the second recall of baby food for potential lead contamination in recent weeks — and in both cases, the Food and Drug Administration didn’t issue its own news release to warn the public, which safety experts and advocates said surprised them. (Khimm, 5/16)

AP: Ice Cream Maker Issues Recall Over Concerns About Plastic
An Iowa-based ice cream manufacturer has recalled nearly 18,000 containers of ice cream and frozen yogurt over concerns they could contain pieces of plastic. Wells Enterprises issued the voluntary recall last month, according to recently released information from the Food and Drug Administration. (5/18)

GLOBAL WATCH

AP: WHO Opens Annual Assembly As UN Health Agency Faces 'Existential Crisis' In Wake Of US Funding Cuts
The World Health Organization on Monday opened its annual meeting of government ministers and other top envoys facing one of the most serious crises of its 77-year history in the wake of Trump administration funding cuts and plans to withdraw the United States. The U.N. health agency this year has seen a plunge in its ability to carry out its sweeping mandate to do everything from recommend reductions in sugar levels in soft drinks to head the global response to pandemics like COVID-19 or outbreaks like polio or Ebola. (Keaten, 5/19)