Politico: Medicare Is A Target As Senate GOP Faces Megabill Math Issues
Senate Republicans are eyeing possible Medicare provisions to help offset the cost of their megabill as they try to appease budget hawks who want more spending cuts embedded in the legislation. Making changes to Medicare, the federal health insurance program primarily serving seniors, would be a political long shot: It would face fierce backlash from some corners of the Senate GOP, not to mention across the Capitol, where Medicare proposals were previously floated but didn’t gain traction. (Carney, Lee Hill and King, 6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Humana To Back Curbs To Medicare Advantage Billing Practices
Humana, the second-biggest Medicare insurer, has told congressional staffers that it will support moves that would curtail billing practices worth billions in extra payments to the industry, according to staffers and a document viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The stance by a leader in the Medicare Advantage business—in which insurers offer privately run Medicare plans—represents an important development in a growing debate over how the companies are paid in the $460 billion program. (Mathews and Weaver, 6/5)

Regarding Medicaid and the tax bill —

The Hill: Dr. Oz On Medicaid Cuts: People Should ‘Prove That You Matter’
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz defended President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” over criticism that millions of people could lose health coverage, saying those who would face new work requirements should “prove that you matter.” Oz made the comments during an interview Wednesday on Fox Business, arguing that when Medicaid was created in the 1960s lawmakers did not include work requirements because it “never dawned on anybody that able-bodied people who work would be on Medicaid.” (O’Connell-Domenech, 6/5)

Stat: Budget Bill Puts Doctors, And Their Lobbyists, In Middle Of Tug-Of-War
With millions of people at risk of losing health insurance under President Trump’s tax bill, lawmakers have begun lobbying the lobbyists: asking health care interests to keep quiet — or speak up — about potential cuts to Medicaid. Democrats and Republicans on key congressional committees and in leadership perches have been holding regular meetings in recent weeks with groups representing doctors, five people involved in or with knowledge of the talks told STAT. (Payne, 6/5)

And on Obamacare —

The New York Times: Millions Would Lose Their Obamacare Coverage Under Trump’s Bill
Millions of Obamacare enrollees would lose health coverage under the Republicans’ major policy bill, which would make coverage more expensive and harder to obtain. Most of the proposals in the bill, which passed the House last month, are technical changes — reductions to enrollment periods, adjustments to formulas, and additional paperwork requirements. But together, they would leave about four million people uninsured in the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 6/5)

Fierce Healthcare: Low-Income Patients See Fewer Claim Denials Reversed: Study
Low-income patients are less likely to see their insurance claim denials reversed, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Toronto found. The new report in Health Affairs analyzed Affordable Care Act marketplace and employer-sponsored insurance claims to find disparities between income, race, education and other demographical features. Researchers concluded low-income patients bear a larger burden for claims denials than higher-income enrollees. (Tong, 6/5)

KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’ Podcast: Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Lands In Senate. Our 400th Episode!
The House’s gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade won’t make it an easy sell. (Rovner, 6/5)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Scrambles To Rehire Fired Federal Employees
Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE’s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process. (Natanson, Taylor, Kornfield, Siegel and Dance, 6/6)

AP: CDC Leadership 'Crisis' Apparent Amid New COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance
There was a notable absence last week when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a 58-second video that the government would no longer endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the person who typically signs off on federal vaccine recommendations — was nowhere to be seen. The CDC, a $9.2 billion-a-year agency tasked with reviewing life-saving vaccines, monitoring diseases and watching for budding threats to Americans’ health, is without a clear leader. (Seitz and Stobbe, 6/5)

Axios: Questions Swirl Over Who's Running The CDC
Almost six months into Trump's administration, the agency has no public health official or designated point person at the helm. (Goldman, 6/6)

CIDRAP: GAO To HHS: Fix 'Persistent Deficiencies' In Infectious-Disease Testing Before Next Pandemic
The latest report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes four recommendations and details nearly 100 ways the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could improve federal diagnostic testing during a public health crisis such as a pandemic. It follows a May 2023 report that noted a lack of progress toward HHS emergency-preparedness goals. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)

Health and Human Services, and RFK Jr. —

CNN: Despite Kennedy’s Claims, Vaccines Have Been Tested In Placebo-Controlled Studies – Nearly 260 Of Them
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly claimed in public statements that most vaccines recommended for children in the US have not been tested against placebos, and particularly inert placebos such as saline solution or water. “The only vaccine that has been tested in a full-blown placebo trial against an inert placebo was the Covid vaccine,” Kennedy said May 14 in testimony before the US Senate’s Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee. (Goodman, 6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: RFK Jr. Hire And Vaccine Opponent David Geier Scours Official Records For Autism Link
An antivaccine activist recently hired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has started hunting for proof that federal officials hid evidence that inoculations cause autism, according to people familiar with the matter. David Geier, a longtime vaccine opponent hired this spring as a contractor in the health department’s financial office, is seeking Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that antivaccine activists, including Kennedy, have alleged was buried because it showed a link between vaccines and autism, the people said. (Essley Whyte and Mosbergen, 6/5)

The New York Times: Kennedy Says ‘Charlatans’ Are No Reason To Block Unproven Stem Cell Treatments
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that he wanted to expand access to experimental therapies but conceded that they could be risky or fraudulent. In a podcast with Gary Brecka, who describes himself as a longevity expert, Mr. Kennedy vowed to end what he called the Food and Drug Administration’s war with alternative medicine. He said that would include stem cells, vitamins, peptides and chelation therapy, which involves removing heavy metals from the blood. (Jewett, 6/5)

MedPage Today: Calls For RFK Jr. To Resign Grow Louder
More physicians and researchers are calling for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign. In April, Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called on Kennedy to "resign or be fired." Since early May, vaccine expert Paul Offit, MD, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has called for Kennedy to step down at the end of nearly each of his weekly Substack posts. And now, after news broke last week that Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) report cited studies that don't appear to exist, more experts are calling for Kennedy's ouster. (Fiore, 6/5)

Elsewhere in the administration —

Politico: The FTC Takes On Kids Online Safety
The FTC’s three commissioners, all conservatives, want to use the agency’s enforcement authority to hold social media companies accountable for how their platforms affect kids’ mental and physical health. ... said Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson at an agency-led policy workshop Wednesday in Washington, devoted to companies that monetize attention. “But when there are tradeoffs to be made, the Trump administration has made it clear that the health and flourishing of our children is not a bargaining chip,” he said. (Reader, 6/5)

AP: Pollution Rules Targeted By EPA Are Projected To Save Billions Of Dollars And Thousands Of Lives
When the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a wide-ranging rollback of environmental regulations, he said it would put a “dagger through the heart of climate-change religion” and introduce a “Golden Age” for the American economy. What Lee Zeldin didn’t mention: how ending the rules could have devastating consequences to human health. The EPA-targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination that included the agency’s own prior assessments as well as a wide range of other research. (Borenstein, Wildeman, Walling, Bickel and Daly, 6/6)

AP: Casey Means, Trump's Surgeon General Pick, Profits From Wellness Sales
President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next U.S. surgeon general has repeatedly said the nation’s medical, health and food systems are corrupted by special interests and people out to make a profit at the expense of Americans’ health. Yet as Dr. Casey Means has criticized scientists, medical schools and regulators for taking money from the food and pharmaceutical industries, she has promoted dozens of health and wellness products — including specialty basil seed supplements, a blood testing service and a prepared meal delivery service — in ways that put money in her own pocket. (Smith and Swenson, 6/5)

CBS News: Key House Republican Subpoenas Biden's White House Doctor
The Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee is demanding that former President Joe Biden's White House physician testify before the panel — ramping up a congressional investigation into Biden's age and health. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, sent a letter to Dr. Kevin O'Connor on Thursday subpoenaing him to testify at a June 27 deposition. He said the committee wants details about "your assessment of and relationship with former President Biden." (Walsh and Kaplan, 6/5)

On federal funding and program cuts —

NPR: 'Neglected Tropical Diseases' Could Lose The Drugs That Fight Them
For close to two decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development has partnered with countries around the world to combat neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs. The term refers to a group of diseases that affect more than a billion people, causing severe pain, disfigurement, disability and in some cases death. They're referred to as "neglected" because they disproportionately affect populations living in extreme poverty and thus don't attract investment from the pharmaceutical industry. (Adams, 6/5)

KFF Health News: In A Dusty Corner Of California, Trump’s Threatened Cuts To Asthma Care Raise Fears
Pesticides are a known contributor to asthma and are commonly used where Bejarano lives in California’s Imperial Valley, a landlocked region that straddles two counties on the U.S.-Mexico border and is one of the main producers of the nation’s winter crops. It also has some of the worst air pollution in the nation and one of the highest rates of childhood asthma emergency room visits in the state, according to data collected by the California Department of Public Health. (Green, 6/6)

The War Horse: Veterans To Protest VA, Federal Job Cuts In Washington D.C.
When the promises politicians made went unkept, when they were left without any reasonable alternatives, American veterans took to the streets by the thousands, forced to become their own advocates. The year was 1932. ... Calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, or the “Bonus Army,” veterans hitchhiked and rode freight train boxcars from all over the country to get to Washington, D.C. They protested for months, and the entire nation took notice. In 2025, a new Bonus Army has assembled and plans to rally in Washington on June 6 to protest the administration’s cuts to Veterans Affairs and federal employment, where veterans and their families comprise 30% of the workforce. (Daly, 6/5)

The New York Times: Four States Ask F.D.A. To Lift Special Restrictions On Abortion Pill
In a strategy aimed at countering efforts to further restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, attorneys general of four states that support abortion rights on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to do the opposite and lift the most stringent remaining restrictions on the pill. The petition filed by Massachusetts, New York, California and New Jersey might seem surprising given the opposition to abortion expressed by Trump administration officials. (Belluck, 6/5)

Fortune Well: How GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs Can Mess With Birth Control And Pregnancy, U.K. Agency Warns
Anecdotes abound about “Ozempic babies”—when women wound up with unplanned pregnancies while taking both birth-control and the popular GLP-1 drugs for diabetes or weight loss. But today marks the first official agency warning about the possibility of these drugs—specifically Mounjaro—decreasing the effectiveness of oral contraceptives. (Greenfield, 6/5)

Regarding IVF —

Newsweek: Parents Can Choose Genetic Makeup Of Their Children With New IVF Option
U.S.-based biotech company has unveiled a new in vitro fertilization (IVF) option that allows parents to select embryos based on genetic markers tied to health and longevity. DNA testing and analysis company Nucleus Genomics has announced the world's first genetic optimization software that "helps parents pursuing IVF see and understand the complete genetic profile of each of their embryos." (van Brugen, 6/5)

The Guardian: IVF Is Life-Changing For Infertile Families. But The Christian Right Says It’s Not In ‘God’s Plan’
As soon as they arrived home, Tyler, seven, and Jayden, three, rushed to a small green tent perched on the living room table and pressed their faces against its mesh windows. Inside, several gray cocoons hung immobile as the boys’ eyes eagerly scanned them for the slightest sign of movement. “We’re waiting for butterflies to emerge,” explained their mother, Alana Lisano. “It’s our little biology experiment.” Within seconds, the boys were off to play with their cars, having no patience for such waiting. But Tyler and Jayden, Alana told me, were like those butterflies not so long ago, suspended in a different kind of stasis for two decades. Technically, they existed long before Alana met her husband, Steven Lisano, in veterinary school. Before they got married, tried to get pregnant and learned that Alana’s eggs were of such poor quality that even in vitro fertilization probably wouldn’t help. (Oosterhoff, 6/5)

Antibiotics during pregnancy, gut microbiota, and menopause —

CIDRAP: Antibiotic Taken During Pregnancy Doesn't Increase Infant Birth Weight, Trial Finds
A randomized controlled trial involving nearly 1,000 women in Zimbabwe found that a daily dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic during pregnancy did not significantly increase infant birth weight, an international group of researchers reported yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. But women who received prophylactic (preventive) trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole had fewer preterm births than those who received a placebo, a finding the study authors say needs to be further explored. (Dall, 6/5)

CIDRAP: Right Blend Of Gut Microbiota Could Avert Hospitalization For Viral Respiratory Infection In Babies
An optimal mix of gut bacteria (microbiome) found in infants born vaginally could help children fight off severe viral lower respiratory-tract infections (vLRTIs) for the first 2 years of life, UK researchers wrote yesterday in The Lancet Microbe. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)

CapRadio: California Lawmakers Want Doctors To Know More About Menopause
Former middle school teacher Lorraine Carter Salazar isn’t easily embarrassed. But when she began having hot flashes at school, she worried about how she came off to coworkers, students and parents. “It doesn't convey competence,” said Carter Salazar, 62. She recounted how parents could tell she was uncomfortable in meetings. One time, a student even fanned her and remarked that she was used to seeing her grandma feeling the same way. (Myscofski, 6/4)

The Wall Street Journal: A New Shot Prevents HIV—And Breathes New Life Into A Stagnant Biotech
Later this month, the Food and Drug Administration is widely expected to approve a groundbreaking twice-yearly injection to prevent HIV—a milestone in the decadeslong fight against a once-devastating disease. For Gilead Sciences, the dominant player in HIV treatment, the breakthrough is doing what years of splashy but underwhelming acquisitions failed to achieve: It has Wall Street paying attention again. Since reporting last June that just two annual shots of lenacapavir prevented all HIV infections in a study of women and girls, shares have surged 73%. (Wainer, 6/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Stanford Mini-Heart Breakthrough Could Change Medical Research
Stanford scientists have solved a key conundrum in keeping organoids — lab-grown clusters of cells that resemble human organs — alive. These mini-brains and mini-hearts mimic human organs and enable scientists to investigate developmental processes, human diseases and drug therapies. But the assemblages have typically lacked blood vessels, which limits their growth. But no longer: In a study published on Thursday in Science, Stanford researchers were able to create heart organoids with branching blood vessels. The breakthrough opens up possibilities for future medical developments. (Lee, 6/5)

Regarding aging —

MedPage Today: Semaglutide Linked To Age-Related Macular Degeneration Risk
Older adults taking GLP-1 receptor agonists, primarily semaglutide (Rybelsus, Ozempic, Wegovy), had a small uptick in their risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), according to a retrospective, population-based cohort study from Canada. Patients taking GLP-1 agonists for type 2 diabetes for at least 6 months had an excess risk of nAMD compared with matched non-users over 3 years of follow-up (adjusted HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.65-2.96), reported Reut Shor, MD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues in JAMA Ophthalmology. (Dotinga, 6/5)

The Hill: Drinking Coffee Daily Tied To Healthy Aging Among Women, Study Finds
A study presented at the American Society for Nutrition Monday suggests that an eye-opening cup of java may also have long-term health benefits for women. “Our study has several key strengths,” said Sara Mahdavi, lead researcher and an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, in a press release. “In addition to the large sample size and 30 years of follow-up, we assessed several different aspects of longevity and healthy aging as well as very comprehensive information on nutritional and lifestyle habits that were collected every four years after the initiation of the study.” (Tanner, 6/5)

Stat: Taurine May Not Be Anti-Aging Wonder Many Believe, Study Says
Vijay Yadav warned people not to start downing taurine — an amino acid abundant in plants, animals and some energy drinks — just because his mice and monkey study suggested it might be an elixir for long life. But that doesn’t mean they listened. “The other day, I was talking to I think the scientific director of one of the largest pharma in the U.S., he was taking 14 grams of taurine per day,” said Yadav, or roughly 14 Red Bulls’ worth. “He asked me, ‘is it appropriate?’ I said, ‘I cannot recommend.’” (Mast, 6/5)

Fatty liver disease, exercise, cancer, and Ozempic side effects —

The Guardian: Millions In West Do Not Know They Have Aggressive Fatty Liver Disease, Study Says
More than 15 million people in the US, UK, Germany and France do not know they have the most aggressive form of fatty liver disease, according to research. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) – the formal name for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – occurs in people who drink no or minimal amounts of alcohol whose liver contains more than 5% fat. (Bawden, 6/5)

Becker's Hospital Review: Coronary Artery Build-Up Linked To High-Volume Exercise: What Cardiologists Need To Know
Male athletes who exercised more than 3,000 metabolic equivalents of task-minutes per week had a higher likelihood of experiencing subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, according to a study published June 4 in JACC: Advances. One of the study’s authors, Leandro Slipczuk, MD, PhD, section head of clinical cardiology, director of advanced cardiac imaging and director of the Cardiovascular Atherosclerosis and Lipid Disorder Center at New York City-based Montefiore Einstein Health System, shared with Becker’s what cardiologists need to know about the study’s findings. (Gregerson, 6/5)

Military.Com: Cancer Risk At Air Force Missiles Sites Low 'But Not Zero,' Latest Service Data Shows
Airmen who watched over America's nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cold War-era facilities faced marginally higher risk of cancer due to contaminants found there and more workplace oversight is needed, according to the latest findings of an Air Force health study. Air Force Global Strike Command, during a town hall event Wednesday, released the latest data showing the slightly elevated cancer risk as part of its ongoing probe into health concerns for America's missileers, maintainers and other support roles at several bases in the Midwest and Western U.S. (Novelly, 6/5)

Fox News: Ozempic Users Report Strange Attraction To Sweet Perfumes As Side Effect
While Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs have been shown to have myriad benefits, they can also present some unwelcome effects, primarily nausea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal symptoms. Some are also reporting changes in their sense of smell — sometimes referred to as "Ozempic smell" — as one of the lesser-known side effects of GLP-1 medications. (Quill, 6/5)

Also —

The Washington Post: Robert Holton, Who Helped Develop A Potent Cancer Drug, Dies At 81
Robert Holton, a chemist who helped develop an easier, cost-efficient way to produce the blockbuster cancer drug Taxol, paving the way for large-scale production of a medication that has been used to treat hundreds of thousands of patients, died May 21 at his home in Tallahassee. He was 81. The cause was emphysema, said his son Robert L. Holton. (Smith, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: JAMA Publications Sign Content Deal With OpenEvidence
The American Medical Association signed a multi-year agreement with an artificial intelligence clinical decision support company, allowing the startup to use content from AMA’s publications. The Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA Network Open and 11 JAMA specialty journals, will inform answers delivered on AI startup OpenEvidence's platform, the companies said on Tuesday. OpenEvidence has developed an AI search tool that allows clinicians to input details about a patient’s clinical presentation into its search bar. (Turner, 6/5)

NBC News: ‘Ghost Networks' Are Harming Patients, But Attempts To Eliminate Them Have Fallen Short
By prolonging the search for a provider, ghost networks can delay patients’ ability to get diagnosed and treated, or cause them to forgo care altogether. But regulatory efforts to force insurance companies to update their directories or penalize them for inaccurate provider information have fallen short, prompting some patients to turn to the courts. (Bendix, Herzberg and Nguyen, 6/5)

MedPage Today: The Law Barring 'Surprise Billing' By Providers Has A Big Gap: Ground Ambulances
The No Surprises Act may be reducing the amount of "surprise billing" patients face when they encounter an out-of-network provider in an in-network facility, but there's one area where the law's effects don't reach: ground ambulances. The law, signed in December 2020 by President Trump, exempts patients from having to pay out-of-network charges under certain circumstances, such as when they are transported to an out-of-network hospital during an emergency, or when they unexpectedly get a service such as anesthesia from an out-of-network provider at their in-network hospital. (Frieden, 6/5)

AP: Judge Bars Agencies From Punishing Catholic Groups Over Trans Rights Views
Two federal agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse for religious reasons to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients or won’t provide health insurance coverage for such care to their workers, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Peter Welte, the chief federal judge in North Dakota, bars the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a health care rule it imposed in 2024 under Democratic President Joe Biden. (Dura and Hanna, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Specialty Pharmacies Work To Address Drug Shortages
High manufacturing costs could limit the federal government's efforts to increase pharmaceutical production across the U.S. An aging population with increasingly complex medical conditions is driving pharmaceutical growth. Health systems aim to capitalize on that expanding sector through in-house pharmacies, which executives say will help increase medication adherence, reduce hospital admissions, improve access to care and diversify revenue — if they can overcome cost barriers. (Kacik, 6/5)

CBS News: Former Crozer Health System Employees Struggle To Access Unemployment Benefits
More than a month after the Crozer Health system collapsed, some laid-off employees are struggling to get the unemployment benefits they're entitled to. ... A total of 2,651 employees were laid off when Taylor Hospital shut down on April 26 and Crozer Chester Medical Center permanently closed on May 2. Julia Simon-Mishel, supervising attorney at Philadelphia Legal Assistance, said many people face challenges when trying to access unemployment benefits. (Wright, 6/5)

CBS News: Denver Mental Health Program Contributes To Significant Decrease In Overdoses, Jail Bookings
A Denver mental health program for the community's most vulnerable members is sharing its success. That program is called Transforming Health by Reducing Inequities for the Vulnerable (THRIVE). The program helped nearly twice as many people in the first year as it had anticipated. In year two, the program has expanded to have an even greater impact on communities that battle with addiction, homelessness or dealing with the justice system. (Susel, 6/5)

North Carolina Health News: State Health Plan Considers Legal Action Against CVS Caremark
The health plan that covers some 750,000 current and former state employees and their families has hit a stone wall in negotiations with its pharmacy benefit manager, CVS Caremark, and is pondering legal action against the company, the Office of the State Treasurer announced on June 5. The company owes the state tens of millions of dollars and is trying to rewrite their contract to get out of having to pay it back, State Treasurer Brad Briner claimed in an exclusive interview with NC Health News. (Vitaglione, 6/6)

CBS News: Maryland Could See A Spike In Health Insurance Costs In 2026
Thousands of Maryland residents who buy health insurance from the state could see an 18% spike in their premiums in 2026. The Maryland Insurance Administration announced the proposed increases from healthcare providers on Tuesday, June 4. (Eber, 6/5)

CBS News: Emergency Room Visits For Nitrous Oxide Misuse Surge 757% Over 4 Years In Michigan
Michigan health officials are reporting a dramatic increase in emergency medical incidents relating to the recreational use of nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas." The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services related the circumstances in a press release issued Wednesday. Specifically, calls to the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center involving recreational nitrous oxide use and its adverse health effects increased by 533% from 2019 to 2024. (Wethington, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: Nebraska Rural Hospitals Form Clinically Integrated Network
Nineteen critical access hospitals in Nebraska have formed a clinically integrated network, the third coalition of its kind created over the past three months. The Nebraska High Value Network aims to give rural hospitals the scale to lower costs, invest in new technology, improve treatment and expand value-based contracts while remaining independent. The network, announced Thursday, follows similar alliances in Montana, Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota. (Kacik, 6/5)

Bloomberg: Celebrity Deepfakes Supercharged Florida Health-Care Hustle
The ads were deceptive, but they weren’t trying to con people out of their money—at least not directly. The goal was to sign them up for actual government-subsidized health-insurance plans, whether they wanted them or not. People responding to the ads were routed through a network of middlemen to call centers, many of them in South Florida. Telemarketers there would wave off questions about cash giveaways and sign up customers for health insurance instead, sometimes without their knowledge. (Faux and Mider, 6/5)

CBS News: Mosquitoes In 2 Illinois Counties Test Positive For West Nile Virus
The DuPage County and McHenry County health departments confirmed that mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile virus for the first time this year. The mosquitoes tested in McHenry County for the virus were found in Lake in the Hills. DuPage County health officials tested mosquitoes from Roselle, Medinah, Clarendon Hills, and Burr Ridge in May. While the mosquitoes tested positive in both counties, no human cases of West Nile virus have been reported in either county. (Kaufman, 6/5)

The New York Times: The Ethical Minefield Of Testing Infants For Incurable Diseases 
In every postpartum hospital unit across the country, 1-day-old babies undergo the same ritual: A nurse pricks the newborn’s heel and stamps tiny drops of blood onto a paper filter, which is then sent off for a standard screening panel. Today, that panel checks for unusual bio-markers that may indicate a rare but treatable disease like sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. But what if that same dried blood spot could tell you about the baby’s risk of developing certain conditions later in life — some with no method of prevention or cure? (Baumgaertner Nunn, 6/5)

Newsweek: How Dinosaurs Could Help Us Fight Cancer
Dinosaurs might be more than just fascinating relics of the past—they could help pave the way towards new and better treatments for cancer. This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers from the Anglia Ruskin University and Imperial College London, both in England, that reveals that dinosaur fossils still carry biological clues—specifically, preserved proteins—that can teach us how ancient species dealt with diseases like cancer. (Patrick, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Some Ultra-Processed Foods Go Down So Easily, So Fast
New research is helping to answer an important question about ultra-processed foods: Which ones might be healthier? One reason many ultra–processed foods often lead us to eat big meals and heavy snacks is because of their texture, which makes them go down easily and quickly, according to a new study presented this week at a conference in Orlando, Fla., of the American Society for Nutrition. (Petersen, 6/3)

The Texas Tribune: In Texas, An Unlikely Coalition Unites Over Consumer Health
Months ago, when Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chair Lois Kolkhorst first held a hearing on Senate Bill 25 — requiring among other things, warning labels on foods containing certain additives — the first person to speak was Calley Means, a top adviser to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. “Texas can really lead here…These bills represent a Texas way that prioritizes transparency, prioritizes good education and prioritizes incentive change,” said Means, a former food and pharmaceutical consultant, who spearheaded the federal Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission. He’s also the brother of Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Surgeon General. (Langford and Huff, 6/2)

The Boston Globe: 'Therapy Speak' Is Everywhere, And It's Not Healthy
Psychiatric diagnosis has taken on a new role in public life. Turbocharged by social media, “therapy speak” has permeated every corner of today’s culture. More and more people are diagnosing themselves with mental health and behavioral disorders, whether or not they’ve seen a licensed mental health care provider. In fact, many people are embracing a psychiatric diagnosis as more than a clinical tool. They are using it to explain who they are, define their identities, and find community online. (Victor G. Petreca, 6/6)

Bloomberg: Heat Is Bad For Workers’ Health. RFK Jr. Doesn’t Care. 
We’re on the verge of what will probably be one of the hottest Northern Hemisphere summers in human history. In early May, the water in the English Channel was already so hot that octopuses invaded it, inspiring Bloomberg News’ Joe Wertz to dub this “hot octopus summer,” and not in a fun, Megan Thee Stallion way. (Mark Gongloff, 6/6)

The Washington Post: This Could Be RFK Jr.'s Most Costly Mistake
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already tarnished his legacy as Health and Human Services secretary with numerous false statements and questionable decisions about vaccines. Last week, he added yet another serious blunder: The federal government, his department announced, will pull more than $760 million committed to developing shots for bird flu. (Leana S. Wen, 6/5)

Stat: We Set Out To Quantify U.S. Academic Contributions To Medicines. The Results Stunned Even Us
Behind nearly every prescription filled in America lies a powerful engine of innovation, fueled by the research conducted within the nation’s universities. Picking up a new prescription at the pharmacy represents the culmination of a decades-long choreography between the private, public, and academic sectors that drives this country’s medical innovation and ensures the most cutting-edge care and technology are available here. (Kevin Gardner and Michael Kinch, 6/6)

Stat: A Medical Forensic Nurse's Concerns About At-Home Sexual Assault Kits
Recently, in a significant shift toward accessible, patient-driven health care, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first at-home cervical cancer screening test. This decision supports a growing trend toward decentralizing health services and empowering people to have more control over their health screenings and tests. (Rachell A. Ekroos, 6/6)