First Edition: April 11, 2024

KFF Health News: Arkansas Led The Nation In Measuring Obesity In Kids. Did It Help?
Sixth-grade boys were lining up to be measured in the Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School library. As they took off their shoes and emptied their pockets, they joked about being the tallest. “It’s an advantage,” said one. “You can play basketball,” said another. “A taller dude can get more girls!” a third student offered. Everyone laughed. What they didn’t joke about was their weight. (Cardoza, 4/11)

KFF Health News: After Uphill Battle, Company Is Poised For Takeover Of Bankrupt California Hospital
When American Advanced Management made a bid for the bankrupt Madera Community Hospital last year, many local officials and others involved in trying to reopen the facility didn’t take the company seriously. The 11-year-old firm, based in Modesto, was already running a handful of small, rural hospitals, but Madera had far larger and more prestigious suitors, including Trinity Health and then Adventist Health. (Montalvo and Wolfson, 4/11)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Says ‘Forever Chemicals’ Must Be Removed From Tap Water 
For the first time, the federal government is requiring municipal water systems to remove six synthetic chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems that are present in the tap water of hundreds of millions of Americans. The extraordinary move from the Environmental Protection Agency mandates that water providers reduce perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS, to near-zero levels. Exposure to PFAS has been associated with metabolic disorders, decreased fertility in women, developmental delays in children and increased risk of some prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, according to the E.P.A. Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, called the new regulation “life changing.” (Friedman, 4/10)

AP: Shouts Of ‘Shame! Shame!’ Erupt In Arizona House As Fight Over Abortion Ban Engulfs Lawmakers
The Arizona Legislature devolved into shouts of “Shame! Shame!” on Wednesday as Republican lawmakers quickly shut down discussion on a proposed repeal of the state’s newly revived 1864 law that criminalizes abortion throughout pregnancy unless a woman’s life is at risk. ... House Democrats and at least one Republican tried to open discussion on a repeal of the 1864 abortion ban, which holds no exceptions for rape or incest. GOP leaders, who command the majority, cut it off twice and quickly adjourned for the week. Outraged Democrats erupted in finger-waving chants of “Shame! Shame!” (Snow and Lee, 4/11)

NBC News: At Arizona Abortion Clinics, Chaos And Confusion After Court Ruling On 1864 Ban
Abortion providers in Arizona faced chaos and confusion after the state’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that a 160-year-old abortion ban is enforceable, throwing abortion access into question. Dr. DeShawn Taylor, founder and president of the Phoenix-based Desert Star Institute for Family Planning, said she was initially unsure how quickly the change could go into effect, so she rushed her staff to call seven patients with appointments on Tuesday to ask them to come in earlier in the day. (Victoria Lozano and Bendix, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Trump Says Arizona Supreme Court Ruling On Abortion Went Too Far 
Two days after he said states should make their own decisions about regulating abortion, former president Donald Trump criticized Arizona for reinstating an abortion law he said goes too far. “That will be straightened out,” Trump said when asked by a reporter Wednesday about the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate a near-total ban on abortion in the state. (LeVine and Vazquez, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Trump's Telling Comment On Arizona Abortion Law And Punishing Doctors 
The former president on Wednesday responded to the Arizona Supreme Court’s reviving a harsh 1864 abortion ban — which indeed threatens abortion providers with two to five years in prison — by punting on this basic issue. Asked whether doctors who provide abortions should be punished, Trump allowed that certain states could do that. “I’d let that be to the states,” Trump said. “You know, everything we’re doing now is states and states’ rights. And what we wanted to do is get it back to the states, because for 53 years it’s been a fight. And now the states are handling it. And some have handled it very well, and the others will end up handling it very well." (Blake, 4/10)

NPR: How Far Do You Have To Travel To Access An Abortion? Maps Show New State Bans
In a few weeks, Florida and Arizona are set to join most states in the southern U.S. in banning abortion. ... Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, has been tracking abortion facilities and travel distances since 2009. She analyzed how these latest rulings will affect the access map. "Because of these bans, it's about 6 million women of reproductive age who are experiencing an increase in distance of more than 200 miles," she says. (Simmons-Duffin and Fung, 4/11)

Axios: South Florida's Latino Population Could Swing Abortion Vote 
Even as Miami-Dade County has shifted right in recent years, support for abortion rights has remained resilient among its majority Latino population, despite the group's strong religious views and typically conservative politics. Where South Florida's Latino population stands on the issue could be vital to the outcome of November's referendum that would enshrine a person's right to an abortion in the state constitution. (Brugal, 4/10)

AP: Federal Appeals Court Hearing Arguments On Nation's First Ban On Gender-Affirming Care For Minors 
A federal appeals court will hear arguments Thursday over Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as the fight over the restrictions on transgender youths adopted by two dozen states moves closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. Arkansas is appealing a federal judge’s ruling last year that struck down the state’s ban as unconstitutional, the first decision to overturn such a prohibition. The 2021 law would prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18. (DeMillo, 4/11)

NPR: Consumer Reports Asks USDA To Pull Lunchables From School Lunch Menus
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said ... in a statement. "The USDA should remove Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program and ensure that kids in schools have healthier options." Consumer Reports said it found high levels of sodium in Lunchables, detected lead and cadmium in tests and also observed the presence of phthalates, which can impact reproductive health and the human hormonal system. (Archie and Hernandez, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Food-Is-Medicine Programs Gain Speed Amid Funding Concerns
Food-is-medicine programs are spiking in popularity, with health systems, grocers and delivery services getting in on the action. But the efforts are far from hitting their stride. Programs have had trouble securing funding and settling on a uniform definition of what food-is-medicine really is — or what it should be as such efforts try to tackle poor nutrition. Even the name of the initatives is up for debate, with some organizations using "food is medicine" while others opt for "food as medicine." (DeSilva, 4/10)

Medical Xpress: Scientists Flag Previously Overlooked Type Of Immune Cell As Suspected Source Of Severe COVID-19
Stanford Medicine investigators have implicated a type of immune cell known as an interstitial macrophage in the critical transition from a merely bothersome COVID-19 case to a potentially deadly one. Interstitial macrophages are situated deep in the lungs, ordinarily protecting that precious organ by, among other things, engorging viruses, bacteria, fungi and dust particles that make their way down our airways. But it's these very cells, the researchers have shown in a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, that of all known types of cells composing lung tissue are most susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2. (Stanford University, 4/10)

The Independent: Scientist Discover Another Tell-Tale Sign Of Long Covid 
Findings from the largest UK study of patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus show that long Covid leads to ongoing inflammation which can be detected in the blood. In an analysis of more than 650 people who had been in hospital with severe Covid-19, patients with prolonged symptoms showed evidence of their immune system being activated. (Massey, 4/9)

ABC News: 12-Year-Old Describes 4-Year Battle With Long COVID
Theo Huot de Saint-Albin was a 9-year-old elementary school student when he first contracted COVID-19 in July 2020, near the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Four years later, as much of the world has moved on from the pandemic and resumed normal life, Theo, now nearly a teenager, is still battling the effects of long COVID. "What happened directly after COVID-19 was worse than my actual COVID-19," Theo, now in seventh grade, told "Good Morning America." (Kindelan, 4/10)

The Washington Post: They’re Young And Athletic. They’re Also Ill With A Condition Called POTS. 
First described more than 150 years ago, the syndrome has proliferated since the coronavirus pandemic. Before 2020, 1 million to 3 million people suffered from POTS in the United States, researchers estimate. Precise numbers are difficult to come by because the condition encompasses a spectrum of symptoms, and many people have still never heard of it. Recent studies suggest 2 to 14 percent of people infected with the coronavirus may go on to develop POTS. (Cha, 4/10)

Politico: Newsom Orders State Workers Back Into The Office As Pandemic Eases
Gov. Gavin Newsom is setting a government-wide requirement that state employees work from the office two days a week starting in June, according to a memo his cabinet secretary sent to top state officials on Wednesday and shared exclusively with POLITICO. The directive is a significant policy shift for the administration, which from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has allowed leaders of the state’s roughly 150 agencies, departments and offices to set their own remote work policies for the state’s 240,000 workers. (Venteicher, 4/10)

CIDRAP: Labcorp Gets FDA Nod For At-Home Mpox PCR Test
Labcorp, a lab services company based in North Carolina, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for its PCR Test Home Collection Kit for mpox, the first at-home sample collection kit of its kind for the virus. In a statement, the company said the test is available for physicians to order for use in adults who have suspected mpox infections. (Schnirring, 4/10)

CIDRAP: Avian Flu Detected In North Carolina Dairy Herd 
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDAC) today announced that tests have confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in one of the state's dairy herds, raising the number of affected states to seven. Officials didn't detail the potential source of the virus, but said movements of cattle from earlier affected states has been suspended. (Schnirring, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: IPPS Proposal Would Boost Medicare 2025 Pay By 2.6%
Hospitals would get a 2.6% pay increase in fiscal 2025 under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The reimbursement boost, which the agency projects would be a $3.2 billion pay bump, is down from the 2.8% pay hike in fiscal 2024. The American Hospital Association, along with other hospital associations, said the proposed pay rates aren't enough to combat inflation. (Kacik, 4/10)

The Hill: Home Healthcare For Elderly Sees Largest Price Increase Ever 
Costs for home healthcare for the elderly and bed-ridden have gone up by 14.2 percent over the past year, according to new Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday.  That represents the largest percent increase in home healthcare costs during a 12-month period since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting data on such costs in 2005.  The United States has an aging population, and the need for care among the nation’s roughly 73 million Baby Boomers is driving up the cost of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and home healthcare.  (O'Connell-Domenech, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Change Healthcare Update: Providers See Some Improvements
Providers are seeing some improvements following the Change Healthcare cyberattack nearly two months ago, but not necessarily because they are reconnecting to restored systems. Hospitals and medical groups are submitting claims to payers through alternate vendors, allowing them to generate cash. But the level of claims and payments moving among healthcare organizations that had heavily relied on Change Healthcare is still far from normal. (Berryman, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Sanford Health To Acquire Great Plains Women’s Health Center
Sanford Health has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Great Plains Women's Health Center in Williston, North Dakota. The Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based rural health system said in a Tuesday news release it intends to continue offering reproductive healthcare services at the facility and eventually add primary care and cardiology, orthopedics, pediatrics and plastic surgery services. (DeSilva, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Prime Healthcare Buys 5 Hospitals From Medical Properties Trust
Prime Healthcare finalized its $350 million acquisition of five New Jersey and California hospitals from Medical Properties Trust. The purchase agreement, announced in February, consists of $250 million in cash and a $100 million interest-bearing mortgage note due to the real estate investment trust in nine months, according to a news release issued April 9. The hospitals include Saint Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, California, and four Saint Clare’s Health facilities in New Jersey. (Kacik, 4/10)

Los Angeles Times: MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Named Among Best U.S. Hospitals In Orthopedics By U.S. News & World Report
In a rigorous assessment of over 4,500 adult hospitals, U.S. News & World Report recognized MemorialCare’s Long Beach Medical Center as one of the top 50 best U.S. hospitals in orthopedics. In addition, the medical center scored high performance rankings for hip replacement, hip fracture and knee replacement. (4/10)

Modern Healthcare: AMA, AHIP, NAACOS Outline Value-Based Care Best Practices
Health insurers, physicians and accountable care organizations issued recommendations Wednesday outlining what they see as the best ways to boost value-based care initiatives. The report from the health insurance trade group AHIP, the American Medical Association and the National Association of ACOs focuses on total-cost-of-care contracts, ACOs that typically span three to five years and have demonstrated success improving quality and reducing costs, according to the organizations. (Tepper, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: How The Privacy Rights Bill Could Impact Insurers, Providers
A far-reaching new privacy bill could have major implications for how healthcare providers, insurance companies and third parties handle and utilize sensitive data. While the bipartisan American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 is not specific to the healthcare industry, a number of its proposed policies would impact how healthcare companies do business. (McAuliff, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Walgreens’ VillageMD Names Jim Murray President, COO
VillageMD selected Jim Murray to serve as president and chief operating officer, effective April 1. Murray is tasked with leading operations, including those of Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD, for the Walgreens-backed organization, according to a Wednesday news release.  (DeSilva, 4/10)

Stat: Medicare Estimates $3.5 Billion Cost On Alzheimer's Drug Leqembi
Medicare for the first time has estimated that a new Alzheimer’s treatment could cost the program billions of dollars by next year — well beyond what Wall Street or even the drug’s manufacturer have projected — according to a document obtained by STAT. (Herman and Zhang, 4/11)

Stat: Justice Dept. Accuses Regeneron Of Manipulating Medicare Pricing 
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit accusing Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of manipulating Medicare pricing by inflating the average sales price for its expensive and widely prescribed Eylea treatment for serious eye disease. (Silverman, 4/10)

Stat: Drug Shortages Reached A Record High As 2023 Drew To A Close 
The number of ongoing and active drug shortages in the U.S. stood at 323 during the fourth quarter of last year — the highest figure reached since such data began being tracked in 2001 — underscoring growing concerns about patient harm across the country. (Silverman, 4/11)

Stat: Telehealth Antibiotic Dispensing Fuels Worries Of Antibiotic Resistance
Ho Anh had just started working at Lemonaid Health when he was caught up in a sting. In 2017, after receiving reports about the telehealth site, an investigator for the California medical board logged on to Lemonaid using an alias. “Mark Peters” filled out a brief questionnaire about his imaginary symptoms, and Anh answered in a message: “Mark” likely had a bacterial sinus infection, the doctor said, writing a prescription for 10 days of amoxicillin. (Palmer, 4/11)

CBS News: Measles Case Confirmed In 4-Year-Old Detroit Resident
A 4-year-old Detroit resident was diagnosed with measles, health officials announced Wednesday. The Detroit Health Department is alerting residents of the case and the exposure sites, including three healthcare facilities where the 4-year-old was taken for treatment. No other cases have been confirmed in relation to this incident at this time, including with the child's family members, who are following isolation protocols. (Powers, 4/10)

NBC News: A Rare Fungal Infection Was Found In Two Cats In Kansas. The Vet Tech Also Got Sick
A cluster of rare fungal infections was found in two pet cats and a vet who treated them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday in a report in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The three cases — in late 2022 and early 2023 — were caused by a fungus called Sporothrix schenckii. The CDC is monitoring the spread of a similar fungal infection, also in cats, in South America. That infection is spread by a related fungus, Sporothrix brasiliensis, which hasn’t been detected in the U.S. (Sullivan, 4/10)

CBS News: Mount Sinai Mobile Prostate Cancer Screening Unit Helping Thousands Of Men Across New York City
An effort is being rolled out in New York City to address prostate cancer rates. Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer for men in the United States with about 1 in 8 being diagnosed in their lifetime. While grabbing groceries at Food Bank for New York City in Harlem, Glendon Cooper got even more than he came for; within minutes, he was in the hands of health care workers, getting screened for prostate cancer in the Mount Sinai Robert F. Smith Mobile Prostate Cancer Screening Unit. (DeAngelis, 4/10)

Minnesota Public Radio: Bills Offer Birth Justice, Reduced Mortality For Black And Indigenous Minnesotans 
Black and Indigenous pregnant Minnesotans have long faced more health disparities than their white counterparts. Now, there’s a push at the Legislature to change that. DFL Sen. Mary Kunesh — who is the first Indigenous Minnesotan elected to the state Senate — is sponsoring a pair of bills to reduce harmful birthing experiences and help Black and Indigenous parents heal from past traumas. (Olson and Stockton, 4/10)

Axios: Why A Deep-Red State Could Be On The Verge Of Expanding Medicaid
Mississippi, one of the country's poorest and least healthy states, could soon become the next to expand Medicaid. It's one of several GOP-dominated states that have seriously discussed Medicaid expansion this year, a sign that opposition to the Affordable Care Act coverage program may be softening among some holdouts 10 years after it became available. (Goldman, 4/11)

CNN: Suicide Rates Among College Athletes Have Doubled, Study Finds 
Suicide rates among people of all ages in the United States have increased over the past two decades, making it a serious public health problem. Among US college athletes, suicide is now the second leading cause of death after accidents — and rates have doubled from 7.6% to 15.3% over the past 20 years, according to a study published April 4 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. (Rogers, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Finalizes Rules To Close ‘Gun Show Loophole’
In a move that officials touted as the most significant increase in American gun regulation in decades, the Justice Department has finalized rules to close a loophole that allowed people to sell firearms online, at gun shows and at other informal venues without conducting background checks on those who purchase them. Vice President Harris and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland celebrated the rules and said they would keep firearms out of the hands of potentially violent people who are not legally allowed to own guns. (Stein, 4/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: Human Brains Are Getting Bigger — And That Could Lower Dementia Risk
Human brains are gradually getting bigger, decade by decade, potentially lowering people’s risk of developing age-related dementia, according to a recent study published by Alzheimer’s researchers at UC Davis Health. People born in the 1970s have more brain volume and more brain surface area than people born in the 1930s, according to the study, published March 25 in JAMA Neurology. (Ho, 4/10)

American Homefront Project: Vets Exposed To Chemicals In Panama Canal Zone Want Inclusion In PACT Act 
Veterans like Steven Price were left out of a law that made it easier to get care and benefits from the VA. He says his leukemia diagnosis can be traced toxin exposure while deployed in Panama. (Frame, 4/10)

Bloomberg: Whooping Cough Is Surging In China With More Than A Dozen Deaths
Whooping cough is making a post-pandemic comeback in China, with cases surging more than 20-fold in the first two months of 2024. The world’s second-most populous country reported a combined 32,380 cases of pertussis — more commonly known as whooping cough — in January and February, compared with 1,421 cases during the same period in 2023, according to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration. There were 13 deaths. (4/10)

Reuters: Nigeria Recalls J&J Children's Cough Syrup Over Toxic Substance
Nigeria's health regulator is recalling a batch of Johnson & Johnson children's cough syrup after finding an unacceptably high level of a potentially fatal toxic substance, it said on Wednesday. Laboratory tests on Benylin Paediatric showed a high level of diethylene glycol, which has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since 2022 in one of the world's worst waves of poisoning from oral medication. (4/10)

Bloomberg: Argentina Dengue Cases Hit All-Time; Country Runs Out Of Bug Spray
Bug spray is out of stock across Argentina as the country confronts its worst-ever outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that’s surged across Latin America amid high heat and heavy rains. Argentina reported 233,000 cases of dengue so far during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer — about eight times the number of case reported during the same week last year — and 161 deaths, according to its Health Ministry. (Tobias, 4/10)