First Edition: Friday, March 20, 2026

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Oz Escalates Medicaid Fraud Claims Against States After Focus On Minnesota
The Trump administration has signaled a willingness to halt billions of dollars in federal health payments to multiple states, mirroring moves they made against Minnesota. The specific target is Medicaid, the public health insurance program that pairs state and federal money. Federal officials have announced unprecedented actions in Minnesota this year, declaring they could withhold over $2 billion in payments slated for the state and claw back nearly $260 million from last year. (Sable-Smith, 3/20)

KFF Health News: ‘How Low Can You Go?’ The Shifting Guidelines For Blood Pressure Control
The patient initially came to see Mark Supiano in 2017 because her family was concerned about her short-term memory loss. While taking her history and vital signs, Supiano, a geriatrician at the University of Utah, saw one disturbing signal: Her blood pressure was 148/86, above normal despite her taking two medications intended to lower it. “Clearly that was too high,” he said recently. (Span, 3/20)

KFF Health News: Listen: Trump’s NIH ‘Reset’ Is Driving Away Scientists
The past year has been rough for the National Institutes of Health, which underwent cuts to its workforce and research funding. Now, the NIH is facing a new challenge: brain drain. Thousands of employees totaling about 20% of the agency’s staff have left in the tumult of President Donald Trump’s second term. Some scientists fear this exodus will mean fewer new treatments and diminish the government’s ability to respond to disease outbreaks and other public health crises. (Pradhan, 3/20)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Schedule Changes Blocked — For Now
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to change how the federal government recommends vaccines against childhood diseases was dealt at least a temporary setback in federal court this week. A judge in Massachusetts sided with a coalition of public health groups arguing that changes to the vaccine schedule violated federal law. The Trump administration said it would appeal the judge’s ruling. (Rovner, 3/19)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

ABC News: 1 In 10 ACA Enrollees Dropped Their Coverage Due To Rising Health Care Costs: Poll
When Jessica Chamberlain went to sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2026, she not prepared for the sticker shock. Last year, Chamberlain was paying $59.67 in monthly premiums. This year, she would be paying nearly $100. The 43-year-old mother of two from Illinois said she was floored to see her monthly premiums were nearly doubling. (Kekatos, 3/19)

The CT Mirror: Senate Dems Propose Their Own $200M 'CT Option' Health Care Bill
2026 is the year of the “Connecticut option.” On Thursday, the Human Services Committee passed a Connecticut option proposal put forth by Senate Democrats — separate from the policy proposal by the same name that Gov. Ned Lamont has been touting on the campaign trail and mentioned in his State of the State address in February. (Golvala, 3/19)

LGBTQ+ HEALTH

AP: Judge Rules The Government Overreached With Transgender Health Care Declaration
A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon. Judge Mustafa Kasubhai’s ruling was centered on Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not going through the proper administrative procedures when issuing the declaration in December. The declaration also warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments. (3/20)

AUTISM

Stat: Autism Scientists, Advocates Take First Step In Countering RFK Jr. 
Autism scientists and advocates met Thursday to develop an agenda for autism research, the first gathering of a group that hopes to command the attention of Congress and private organizations, in response to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reshaping the federal autism advisory committee to support his agenda. (Broderick, 3/19)

MedPage Today: Here's Why Dozens Of Autism Publications Were Retracted
Springer Nature has retracted more than three dozen publications that relied on a problematic dataset, the publisher confirmed to MedPage Today. All 38 of the papers, conference proceedings, and book chapters involved a dataset that purported to offer images of the faces of children with and without autism. However, there were major problems with how it was put together. (Robertson, 3/19)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Wall Street Journal: HHS Weighs Replacing CDC Vaccine Advisers
Days after a federal judge said the Department of Health and Human Services’ vaccine committee members were improperly appointed, the agency is now considering whether to find a new slate of members for the panel or appeal the court’s ruling, panel members said. The future of the committee was thrown into question after one member of the panel on Thursday announced that the committee would be dismantled. Hours later he said his earlier conclusion was based on miscommunication. The panel is charged with making vaccine recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Calfas and Essley Whyte, 3/19)

The Hill: ‘Rogue Employee’ At HHS Changed Voicemail To Domino’s Pizza Recording
Callers hoping to voice complaints about federal animal testing with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week instead reached what sounded like the voicemail for a popular pizza chain after a “rogue” staffer changed the phone’s outgoing message. The White Coat Waste Project (WCWP), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “expose and close the U.S. government’s $20 billion animal testing business,” urged social media followers last Friday morning to call HHS and demand the agency cut funding for cat testing at a National Institutes of Health-funded lab at the University of Missouri. (Brams, 3/19)

Politico: Federal Workforce Unhappy, Disengaged, New Survey Finds 
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought reportedly said in 2023 and 2024 he wants to put federal workers “in trauma.” He appears to have done it. A new survey of federal workers found that, government wide, only 32 percent of the federal workforce is satisfied with and engaged in their jobs. The numbers are particularly stark at certain larger agencies: Only 20 percent of the Department of Health and Human Services staff is satisfied; along with 22.5 percent of the Treasury Department and 8.1 percent of the few employees remaining at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Johansen, 3/19)

Stat: Robert Califf Says Political Influence Is A 'Serious Problem’ At FDA
Hundreds of individualized treatments for rare diseases could become available over the next decade — but only if government regulators handle the new therapeutics properly. (Payne, 3/19)

Military Times: Service Members Must Prove Sincere Religious Beliefs For Facial Hair Waivers
U.S. service members will now be granted religious exemptions from grooming standards only on “sincerely held religious beliefs,” according to a recent Pentagon memorandum. Current service members and those applying for military service who request an exception for religious reasons must provide “a sworn written attestation affirming the requester’s belief is sincerely held and religious in nature,” according to the March 11 Department of Defense memorandum. (Stassis, 3/19)

IMMIGRATION CRISIS

The New York Times: ICE Released Hundreds Of Children From Immigration Detention
The number of children being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined dramatically in recent weeks, as the Trump administration scaled back some of its most aggressive immigration enforcement tactics. Earlier this year, after a surge of arrests in Minnesota and elsewhere, hundreds of children were being held with their parents at a federal detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families described poor medical care, inadequate food and water and little education for children. (Mervosh, Jordan and Aleaziz, 3/20)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

AP: Georgia Woman Faces Murder Charge In Medication Abortion Case
A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an illegal abortion. If state prosecutors decide to move forward with the murder charge brought by local police against Alexia Moore, her case would be one of the first instances of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a 2019 law banning most abortions. (Bynum, 3/19)

ProPublica: Inside A Court Hearing That Decided How She’d Give Birth
It’s difficult to put yourself in the place of Cherise Doyley, a pregnant mother of three who found herself facing a judge while in labor at the University of Florida Health hospital in downtown Jacksonville. She had arrived at the facility with a plan for her birth. She wanted to try for a vaginal delivery, but she understood from years of experience as a professional birthing doula that things don’t always go as planned. (Yurkanin, 3/20)

The 19th: Pesticide Exposure Before Pregnancy Could Be Linked To Newborn Health Risks
Pesticide exposure may affect the health of a baby even before a person becomes pregnant, according to a new study released last week. (Kutz, 3/19)

Verite News: Free Crawfish, STI Testing At Upcoming Annual Block Party
The Louisiana Abortion Fund (LAAF) and SHER Lab are co-hosting a community block party this weekend in the Tremé where attendees can get free food, music and STI testing and meet representatives of dozens of local health organizations. ... It is the first year the organizations will be partnering to host the block party. In previous years, both organizations hosted similar but separate block parties. (Yehiya, 3/19)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

AP: A New York Man Pleads Guilty To Cyberstalking A Family Member Of The Late UnitedHealthcare CEO 
An upstate New York man admitted to leaving harassing and threatening voicemail messages to a family member of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as he pleaded guilty to cyberstalking in federal court Thursday. Shane Daley, 40, was accused by federal prosecutors in August of placing multiple calls to a Thompson family member immediately after the December 2024 shooting and expressing glee about the insurance executive’s killing. (3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Providence Exploring Sale Of Its Health Plan
Providence is exploring the sale of its health insurance arm as the system seeks to improve its finances. The Renton, Washington-based nonprofit is weighing several strategic options for Providence Health Plan, including a possible divestment. It has not specified a timeline or publicly identified potential buyers. The 51-hospital chain is in the middle of an estimated $2 billion financial turnaround that includes cuts to administrative positions and the sale of hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. (Tepper, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Stryker Cyberattack Highlights Hospital Cybersecurity Needs
Two major medtech companies recently were hit by cyberattacks, calling into question how exposed hospitals could be to such incidents that take place beyond their own walls. Stryker announced March 12 a cyberattack affected its internal Microsoft network worldwide, causing disruptions to order processing, manufacturing and shipping. A company spokesperson said Wednesday the company believes the incident has been contained and is bringing its systems back online, prioritizing those that directly support customers, ordering and shipping. Also on March 12, Intuitive Surgical said it was hit by a cyberattack that exposed customer information and employee and corporate data. (Dubinsky, 3/19)

WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS

CNN: Weight-Loss Treatment Is On The Verge Of A Dramatic Shift – Again 
At the end of a seemingly ubiquitous commercial for telehealth company Ro, a characteristically flabbergasted Charles Barkley speaks for us all when he remarks, “Wait, you’re telling me they have a GLP-1 pill for weight loss now?” They do – and it turns out to be as wildly popular as its injectable predecessors. (Tirrell, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Novo Nordisk’s Higher Dose Wegovy Weight-Loss Drug Gains U.S. Approval
Novo Nordisk said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a higher dosage of its Wegovy weight-loss medication, a boost for the Danish drugmaker as it faces growing competition in the obesity market. The group said Thursday that the FDA had expedited approval of the Wegovy injection with a higher dose based on results from a trial that showed 20.7% mean weight loss for participants with obesity. (Look and Orru, 3/19)

The New York Times: Ozempic Is About To Go Generic In India, China And Canada
The blockbuster weight loss drug sold as Ozempic and Wegovy will soon go generic in countries that are home to 40 percent of the world’s population, significantly lowering the price of a costly medicine that had been largely unaffordable to nearly all but the wealthiest people. On Saturday, Novo Nordisk, the company that until now has had a monopoly on selling the drug, will lose patent protection in several of the world’s most populous countries. The first generic versions are expected to arrive in India as soon as this weekend. In the coming months, the generics are also expected to become available in China, Canada, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa. (Robbins, Tobin, Nelson, Travelli and K.B., 3/19)

Bloomberg: Lilly’s Experimental Diabetes Shot Yields Record Weight Loss In Study
One of Eli Lilly & Co.’s most highly anticipated experimental medicines helped diabetic patients lose more weight than any drug currently on the market, underscoring its potential in the increasingly crowded race for next-generation therapies. Patients on the highest dose of the drug, called retatrutide, lost 15.3% of their body weight on average using a measure that includes those who discontinued treatment, Lilly said in a statement Thursday. The late-stage results handily beat earlier trials of the company’s diabetes blockbuster Mounjaro. (Muller, 3/19)

Bloomberg: Obesity Drug Trials Disrupted As Placebo Patients Drop Out Early
The companies developing new weight-loss medicines have a problem: the balance of power has shifted, and patients are bailing out of their clinical trials. People who don’t lose weight can quickly figure out that they were assigned to take a placebo instead of the real drug. And with highly effective obesity medications on the market — Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy shot and pill — that are getting cheaper, there’s little reason to stay in a study that doesn’t yield the intended benefits. (Muller, Furlong and Kresge, 3/19)

The Colorado Sun: Pythons' Metabolisms Offer Clue For New Weight Loss Drugs, Study Says
A molecule produced in abundance by pythons following a large meal could hold the key to developing a new class of weight loss drugs with fewer side effects, according to a study published Thursday by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and two other institutions. (Ingold, 3/19)

PHARMA AND TECH

MedPage Today: FDA OKs First Drug For Liver Disease-Related Pruritus
The FDA approved linerixibat (Lynavoy) as the first drug indicated for cholestatic pruritus stemming from primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), drugmaker GSK announced on Thursday. PBC is a rare but serious autoimmune disease where bile flow from the liver is disrupted. The vast majority (89%) of PBC patients experience an internal itch -- thought to result from bile acids in circulation -- that affects sleep, quality of life, and is sometimes so debilitating it can necessitate transplant even in the absence of liver failure. (Ingram, 3/19)

Stat: Novartis Buys Synnovation Breast Cancer Drug For $2B
Novartis said Friday it was buying an experimental breast cancer drug from Delaware-based Synnovation Therapeutics for $2 billion upfront. The deal includes includes up to another $1 billion if the drug reaches certain milestones. (Joseph, 3/20)

Fierce Healthcare: Verily Banks $300M To Fuel AI Roadmap, Separates From Alphabet
Verily raised a $300 million investment round to accelerate its work in artificial intelligence and precision health as it also moves out from under the corporate umbrella of Alphabet. The massive round was led by Series X Capital, and includes an investment from Alphabet, who will remain a significant minority investor, but will no longer have a controlling stake in the company, Verily said in a press release. (Landi, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Perplexity Health AI Tool Links EHR, Wearable Health Data
Perplexity is making its debut on the consumer health market. The artificial intelligence-enabled search engine announced the launch of Perplexity Health, which looks to provide users with personalized responses to health questions. The AI tool relies on medical literature and user-provided patient records to answer health-related inquiries. It also offers an individualized dashboard with insight on users’ behavioral patterns such as their sleep and activity levels. (Famakinwa, 3/19)

STATE WATCH

AP: States Challenge EPA Repeal Of Endangerment Finding In Climate Fight
Two dozen states, along with more than a dozen cities and counties, sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s repeal of a scientific finding that had been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. A rule finalized by the EPA last month revoked the 2009 endangerment finding that determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The Obama-era finding had been the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet. (Daly, 3/19)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Orders Cigna To Halt Underpaying Doctors Or Give Cause
Maryland regulators fined Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company $80,000 and ordered it to stop reducing payments on certain doctor-billed services — a practice that could leave patients on the hook for more of their health care costs. (Hille and Bazos, 3/20)

NBC News: If States Ban Fluoride, Kids With Cavities And Medicaid Costs Could Spike, Study Finds
Tooth decay can begin very early in a child’s life. If five states ban fluoride in drinking water, the costs to Medicaid for a significant increase in kids with cavities could top $40 million within three years, a new analysis finds. CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit which advocates for fluoridation, used Medicaid claims data and survey responses to predict the outcomes if the five states — Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma — stopped adding fluoride to water systems. (Edwards, 3/19)

Becker's Hospital Review: New York Expands Northwell’s Hospital Gun Violence Prevention Initiative 
New York state has launched a pilot program to integrate firearm access and injury risk screening into emergency department visits. The initiative, supported by a $1.5 million investment from the New York State Office of Gun Violence Prevention, expands New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention program to providers at three hospitals, according to a March 19 news release from Gov. Kathy Hochul. (Kuchno, 3/19)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Seeks To Revive Law On Storing Guns In Parked Cars 
A Missouri appeals court is weighing whether the City of St. Louis can require gun owners to lock up their firearms if they want to leave them in an unattended parked vehicle. (Lippmann, 3/19)

AP: Scientists Say Blistering Southwest Heat Is Latest In Parade Of Ultra Extremes
The dangerous heat wave shattering March records all over the U.S. Southwest is more than just another extreme weather blip. It’s the latest next-level weather wildness that is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds. Experts said unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger. For example, the Southwest is used to coping with deadly heat, but not months ahead of schedule, including a 110-degree Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) reading in the Arizona desert on Thursday that smashed the highest March temperature recorded in the U.S. (Borenstein, 3/20)

DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER'S

MedPage Today: Type 1 Diabetes Linked To Threefold Increase In Dementia Risk
Older adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes had a higher risk of dementia, a U.S. prospective cohort study found. ... An estimated 64.5% of dementia cases in people with type 1 diabetes could be attributed to the condition, Jennifer Weuve, MPH, ScD, of Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues reported in Neurology. (Monaco, 3/19)

MedPage Today: Alzheimer's Gene Carriers With Higher Meat Intake Had Lower Dementia Risk
People with a genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease did not have an expected increase in cognitive decline or dementia if they consumed relatively large amounts of meat, a Swedish cohort study showed. (George, 3/19)

WUFT: Grandparents Can Get A Cognitive Boost From The Grandkids 
It might not seem like it at the time if the grandkids are making a ruckus. But babysitting them might be good for Grandma and Grandpa’s brains. A recent study in the journal Psychology and Aging suggested that grandparents’ memory, verbal fluency and other cognitive skills were fortified by the caregiving of their grandkids. (Levesque, 3/19)

PUBLIC HEALTH

TODAY: Nearly 90,000 Bottles Of Children's Ibuprofen Recalled Due To 'Foreign Substance'
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that nearly 90,000 bottles of children’s ibuprofen sold nationwide have been recalled. In an enforcement report, the federal agency said that 89,592 bottles of Strides Pharma’s Children’s Ibuprofen Oral Suspension are being recalled due to the “presence of foreign substance.” (Brockington, 3/20)

MedPage Today: When A Trip To The Hair Salon Ends In The Emergency Room
Getting your hair washed at the salon should be a relaxing experience, but in rare cases a trip to the hairdresser can result in an emergency neurology consult. Dizziness, weakness, numbness, or a sudden headache following a hair wash could be a sign of beauty parlor stroke syndrome -- a vertebral artery stroke resulting from compression of the vessels on the back of the head. (Robertson, 3/19)