First Edition: April 17, 2023

KFF Health News: Journalists Track Opioid Settlement Cash And Fees For Telehealth Visits 
KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed the transparency — or lack thereof — and distribution of $50 billion in settlement funds from opioid manufacturers on WNHN’s “Attitude With Arnie Arnesen” on April 11. (4/15)

Stat: Supreme Court Temporarily Pauses New Limits On Abortion Pill
Access to the abortion pill mifepristone will remain unchanged until Wednesday, after a U.S. Supreme Court justice on Friday issued a stay on last week’s ruling from a conservative Texas judge banning the medicine. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay preserving access to mifepristone, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2000, until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday. It is likely the country’s highest court will rule more substantively on access to the medication before then, a decision that will have major ramifications for the FDA’s authority and access to the commonly used drug. (Owermohle, 4/14)

The Washington Post: Abortion Pill Ruling Cited Flawed Science 
A Texas judge’s decision to invalidate federal approval of a key abortion drug cites research based on anonymous blog posts, cherry-picks statistics that exaggerate the negative physical and psychological effects of mifepristone, and ignores hundreds of scientific studies attesting to the medication’s safety. The unprecedented ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk contradicted the recommendations of numerous medical groups when it assailed the safety of mifepristone, a two-decade-old medication used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. Another federal judge determined on the same day that the drug should remain available in a swath of states. (Weber, McGinley, Ovalle and Sellers, 4/13)

NBC News: VP Harris Is Top White House Messenger On Abortion Fight
Vice President Kamala Harris' central role in warning about threats to abortion rights has been tested anew amid a fresh fight over abortion access. It comes after years of concerns about her role in the administration as the White House seeks to keep pressure on the issue and galvanize voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The White House combats renewed Republican efforts to curb abortion through the courts with Harris as the unflinching face of a battle to protect what it sees as a cherished women’s right, according to interviews with two dozen present and past administration officials, Democratic strategists and people close to Harris. (Alcindor, Nicholas and Lee, 4/17)

AP: Colorado Offers Safe Haven For Abortion, Transgender Care
A trio of health care bills enshrining access in Colorado to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications became law Friday as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting care. The main goal of the legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis is to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can go to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-affirming surgery without fear of prosecution. Bordering states of Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion bans, and Utah has severely restricted transgender care for minors. (Bedayn and Slevin, 4/14)

ABC News: Gov. Wes Moore Says Maryland Will Continue With Abortion Access 
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore detailed his plan to protect abortion access after his announcement that his state will stockpile abortion pills in the wake of a federal court ruling. "Maryland is going to lead on this," Moore pledged Sunday in an exclusive interview on This Week. On Friday, Moore, who is roughly three months into his first term as governor, announced the state would begin stockpiling mifepristone after a judge struck down FDA approval of the abortion pill. On Wednesday, a federal judge put a temporary stay on that order, leaving a split decision for that the Supreme Court could decide on. (Vredenbregt, 4/16)

NPR: Out-Of-Staters Are Flocking To Places Where Abortions Are Easier To Get 
When Mara Pliskin started working at Planned Parenthood Illinois, she didn't expect to feel like a travel agent. Now, the abortion navigation program manager and her co-workers joke that that's half the job — booking flight, train and bus tickets for out-of-state abortion seekers, arranging hotel stays and giving them money for food and gas. "We're being as creative as possible to really just work with every individual patient to resolve all those barriers that might stand in the way between making their decision and getting to our door," she said. (Sheshadri, 4/16)

NPR: Supreme Court Looks At Whether Medicare And Medicaid Were Overbilled Under Fraud Law
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could undermine one of the government's most powerful tools for fighting fraud in government contracts and programs. The False Claims Act dates back to the Civil War, when it was enacted to combat rampant fraud by private contractors who were overbilling or simply not delivering goods to the troops. But the law over time was weakened by congressional amendments. Then, in 1986, Congress toughened the law, and then toughened it again. The primary Senate sponsor was — and still is — Iowa Republican Charles Grassley. ... He is alarmed by the case before the Supreme Court this week. At issue is whether hundreds of major retail pharmacies across the country knowingly overcharged Medicaid and Medicare by overstating what their usual and customary prices were. If they did, they would be liable for triple damages. (Totenberg, 4/17)

USA Today: In What Could Be A 'Big Shift' For Cancer Treatment, MRNA Vaccine Shows Promise Against Melanoma
Instead of using a vaccine to try to prevent or shrink a tumor, the new mRNA vaccines are aimed at reducing the chances of a high-risk cancer recurring. "This represents a big shift in how we're using cancer vaccines," said Dr. Robert Vonderheide, who was not involved in the study but is the program committee chair of the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting, where the study was presented. (Weintraub, 4/16)

NBC News: MRNA Cancer Vaccine For Melanoma Reduces Risk Of Relapse
The trial’s results are “very exciting,” said Dr. Thomas Marron, director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at the Tisch Cancer Institute and an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “Once the tumor is removed, we know it can come back because tiny microscopic bits have traveled elsewhere in the body and set up shop there,” Marron said. The recurrence often appears quickly, between six months and two years, he said. The beauty of the vaccine in this study is that it targets up to 34 mutations, Marron said. “That’s like taking 34 shots on goal," he said. You’re teaching the immune system to recognize 34 different things that are unique to that cancer.” (Carroll and Lewis, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Why Melanoma Is So Deadly For Men, And Why It Doesn’t Have To Be
As his patient sat on the examining table, dermatologist Jeremy Brauer explained the pathology report, letting him know that the lesion on his chest was skin cancer and that minor surgery would be required to remove it. “I’d like to try to get this done before the weather gets nice,” the patient, himself a physician, told Brauer, “so I can get back out into the sun.”Brauer, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Health, says he was stunned. (Atkins, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Genetic Prostate Cancer Risks Identified For Men Of African Descent
When it comes to prostate cancer, Black men face a grimmer picture than their White counterparts. They’re more likely to get and die of the disease. They also face longer delays between diagnosis and treatment. What’s behind the disparities? A recent study covering tens of thousands of men of African descent offers one answer — increased genetic risk, including some risk factors found only in men of African ancestry. (Blakemore, 4/16)

Stat: Biden's HHS Will Hold On To Some Covid Emergency Powers 
Even though the Biden administration is ending its highest-profile Covid-19 emergency declaration next month, it’s still going to hold on to some pandemic-era powers. The Department of Health and Human Services gave governors a heads-up on Friday that it is planning to keep pharmacists’ ability to administer Covid-19 and flu vaccines past the end of the public health emergency. (Cohrs, 4/14)

The Washington Post: Covid Is Still A Leading Cause Of Death As The Virus Recedes
Federal health officials say that covid remains one of the leading causes of death in the United States, tied to about 250 deaths daily, on average, mostly among the old and immunocompromised. Few Americans are treating it as a leading killer, however — in part because they are not hearing about those numbers, don’t trust them or don’t see them as relevant to their own lives. (Diamond, 4/16)

CIDRAP: XBB.1.16 Picks Up Speed In US As WHO Experts Weigh COVID Vaccine Composition 
The Omicron XBB.1.16 SARS-CoV-2 subvariant fueling India's surge is gaining traction in the United States, but so far the nation isn't seeing increases in cases, deaths, or hospitalizations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest updates. (Schnirring, 4/14)

CIDRAP: Studies Show Real-World Usefulness Of Bivalent COVID Boosters
Authors writing this week in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet Infectious Diseases shared new evidence on the durability and efficacy of bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 boosters. The vaccines offer strong protection against hospitalization and death during the post-Omicron era, but protection wanes relatively quickly. (Soucheray, 4/14)

CIDRAP: In-Person School Reopenings Tied To Modest Rise In Community COVID Spread
A study of US counties suggests that communities with schools that switched from remote to in-person instruction in fall 2020 had slightly higher COVID-19 case rates 4 to 8 weeks later than those that remained virtual. The research was published today in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 4/14)

Politico: McCarthy’s Pitch To Shrink Food Aid Drawing Skepticism From Fellow Republicans 
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s new debt limit negotiating proposal set to be unveiled Monday morning will include broad moves to restrict food assistance for millions of low-income Americans. His GOP colleagues in the Senate aren’t optimistic any of those measures will survive. McCarthy’s initial list calls for expanding the age bracket for people who must meet work requirements in order to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Food Assistance Program or SNAP, while closing what Republicans say are “loopholes” in existing restrictions, according to two people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. (Hill, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Iowa To Spend Millions Kicking Families Off Food Stamps. More States May Follow
Iowa’s food bank operators say any new restrictions on food stamps are likely to fuel a surge in demand. But they are not sure whether they can absorb it because they are still reeling from a decision last year to scale back SNAP benefits. (Swenson, 4/16)

Axios: Electronic Health Records Rule Sets Up "Bridge To Nowhere," Insurers Say
A Biden administration effort stemming from the 21st Century Cures Act to make health data sharing more transparent is facing pushback from health insurers. The rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology aims to get providers and payers to share patient health information in a more seamless way. (Dreher, 4/14)

Stat: UnitedHealth Says Medical Costs Aren’t Soaring. Reality Is Murkier
Executives at UnitedHealth Group hinted Friday that hospitalizations are not rising and that people are not racing to see their doctors. However, UnitedHealth’s own data, plus other outside estimates, indicate those medical costs are not exactly slowing down either. (Herman, 4/14)

Fierce Healthcare: Humana Puts $40M Toward Affordable Housing
Humana will invest $40 million in expanding affordable housing options, the company said Thursday. The new funding will bring Humana's total investment in affordable housing to $90 million, according to the announcement. The investments aim to address shortages of low-cost housing units in the communities that Humana serves. (Minemyer, 4/14)

Fierce Healthcare: 800,000 Nurses Say They Plan To Leave The Profession By 2027
Nearly 100,000 registered nurses were estimated to have left the field during the COVID-19 pandemic and almost 800,000 intend to follow them out by 2027, according to a survey analysis released Thursday by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). (Muoio, 4/14)

Health News Florida: KidCare Expansion Gets OK By The Florida House In An Unanimous Vote
The Florida House unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would expand eligibility for the KidCare subsidized health insurance program. Kidcare provides health insurance for families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. Under the program, families who do not qualify can pay $15 or $20 a month in premiums to insure children. Subsidized coverage is available to families with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $60,000 for a family of four, according to a House staff analysis. (4/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: 15 Specialties, 4 Liver Transplants And 1 Life Saved: Inside A Rare Surgery At Children's Hospital Colorado
Every April, the healthcare industry recognizes National Donate Life Month, celebrating the field of organ transplantation and raising awareness about the need for more donors. This year's awareness month holds more meaning than ever for Children's Hospital Colorado, where a multidisciplinary team of experts from 15 different specialties and departments recently performed an exceedingly complex surgery to save one transplant patient's life. The 18-year-old patient, who lives in Montana, first underwent a liver transplant at the Aurora-based hospital about 10 years ago. (Bean, 4/14)

Stat: In Areas With More Black Doctors, Black People Live Longer
Black people in counties with more Black primary care physicians live longer, according to a new national analysis that provides the strongest evidence yet that increasing the diversity of the medical workforce may be key to ending deeply entrenched racial health disparities. (McFarling, 4/14)

The Washington Post: Why Black Men Face So Many Health Hurdles 
Social epidemiologist Roland Thorpe Jr. is on a double mission: to improve the health and extend the life expectancy of Black men, and to do the same for himself since both of his grandfathers died prematurely from heart disease. An expert in minority aging and men’s health, Thorpe is the principal investigator of the Black Men’s Health Project — a partnership of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and Michigan State University — created to call attention to the health crisis of Black men. (Petrow, 4/15)

The New York Times: Black Pregnant Women Are Tested More Frequently For Drug Use, Study Suggests 
Hospitals are more likely to give drug tests to Black women delivering babies than white women, regardless of the mother’s history of substance use, suggests a new study of a health system in Pennsylvania. And such excessive testing was unwarranted, the study found: Black women were less likely than white women to test positive for drugs. (Rabin, 4/14)

North Carolina Health News: Black Maternal Health Conference Seeks Solutions
Everyone here knew the data: Black women are three times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than white women. And they knew the cause: hard-to-solve social and structural problems in health care. Their goal: Get to the source of the problem to help save the lives of Black mothers and their babies. As the United States marked Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17) this year, North Carolina advocates and health care professionals from across the state met in Colfax to discuss solutions. (Fernandez, 4/17)

AP: Hospital Sues Missouri's Top Prosecutor Over Trans Care Data 
A Kansas City hospital is suing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey over what it calls his “burdensome” requests for records on gender-affirming care. In a lawsuit filed Friday in Jackson County, attorneys for Children’s Mercy Hospital asked a judge to deny Bailey’s 54 investigative demands for records and testimony despite the hospital facing no allegations of wrongdoing, The Kansas City Star reported. (4/15)

The Washington Post: With Body Dysmorphia, Young Men Are Risking Their Health To Bulk Muscles 
Fueled by the rise of social media and a lucrative, unregulated supplements industry, more boys and young men today are bulking up to the point of risking their overall health. A measured amount of weight training can be positive and healthy, but it’s neither when body image turns into an obsession or exercise becomes excessive. “Though its generally underrecognized, boys have body ideals just like girls do,” says Jason Nagata, a pediatrician at the University of California at San Francisco who specializes in adolescent eating disorders. “The idealized masculine body type is big and muscular, and because of that, many boys are trying to get bigger and more muscular.” (McMahan, 4/14)

Stat: Once A Distant Dream, Gene Therapy For Duchenne Nears Reality
Brent and Sabina Furbee could see something was wrong with their son, Emerson, even if the doctors didn’t. They were the kind of signs easily dismissed: falling at music class, struggling to climb a ladder at the playground. A physical therapist near their home in rural Tennessee said the 3-year-old had flat feet and prescribed ankle braces. “I wish I was kidding,” said Brent. (Mast and Feuerstein, 4/17)

The Hill: New City Earns Title Of Nation’s Top City For Weed: Report 
Denver lost its place as the nation’s marijuana mecca, according to an analysis from Clever Real Estate. The new king of kush is Portland, Oregon. Oregon was two years behind Colorado in legalizing recreational cannabis. Washington and Colorado legalized it in 2012, while Alaska and Oregon legalized it in 2014. (Summers and Martichoux, 4/16)

NPR: Residents Near Indiana Warehouse Fire May Have Asbestos On Their Property, EPA Says
Federal officials are telling people near the site of an Indiana warehouse fire that broke out last week not to touch any debris they find on their property since it may contain asbestos, a known carcinogen. "It is essential not to remove or disturb any debris believed to be from the fire as these materials may contain asbestos, a substance that releases microscopic fibers when disturbed," the Environmental Protection Agency said in a fact sheet for local residents posted on Sunday. (Hernandez, 4/16)

The New York Times: Bird Flu Sample From Chilean Man Showed Some Signs Of Adaptation To Mammals 
A sample of avian influenza isolated from a Chilean man who fell ill last month contains two genetic mutations that are signs of adaptation to mammals, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. In experimental animal studies, the mutations, both of which are in what is known as the PB2 gene, have previously been shown to help the virus replicate better in mammalian cells. The risk to the public remains low, health officials said, and no additional human cases have been linked to the Chilean man, who remains hospitalized. (Anthes, 4/14)