First Edition: April 7, 2023

KHN: No-Cost Preventive Services Are Now In Jeopardy. Here’s What You Need To Know
When a federal judge in Texas declared unconstitutional a popular part of the Affordable Care Act that ensures no-cost preventive care for certain services, such as screening exams for conditions such as diabetes, hepatitis, and certain cancers, it left a lot of people with a lot of questions. On the face of it, the March 30 decision could affect ACA and job-based insurance plans nationwide and a host of medical services now free for patients. (Appleby, 4/7)

KHN: Montana May Require Insurers To Cover Monitoring Devices For Diabetes
In between sets of tumbling warmups, Adrienne Prashar crossed the gym to where she had stashed her diabetes supplies and tested her blood sugar. Prashar, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes the day before her 13th birthday, said tumbling usually drops her blood sugar levels. Prashar, now 14, did a finger stick, saw her blood sugar was 127, and went back to the mat. For most people with diabetes, the target range is about 80-130, and up to 180 two hours after meals. Prashar doesn’t have to check her blood sugar often. She wears a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, that gives her blood glucose readings on her phone every five minutes. When she’s feeling differently than her CGM is showing, as on that March day at the gym, she checks her level by doing a finger stick. (Larson, 4/7)

KHN: High Inflation And Housing Costs Force Many Americans To Delay Needed Care
At a health-screening event in Sarasota, Florida, people gathered in a parking lot and waited their turn for blood pressure or diabetes checks. The event was held in Sarasota’s Newtown neighborhood, a historically Black community. Local Tracy Green, 54, joined the line outside a pink-and-white bus that offered free mammograms. “It’s a blessing because some people, like me, are not fortunate, and so this is what I needed,” she said. (Colombini, 4/7)

KHN: KHN's 'What The Health?': The ‘Unwinding’ Of Medicaid 
Several states have begun the herculean task of redetermining how many of an estimated 85 million Americans currently receiving health coverage through the Medicaid program are still eligible. To receive federal covid-19 relief funds, states were required to keep enrollees covered during the pandemic. As many as 15 million people could be struck from the program’s rolls — many of whom are still eligible, or are eligible for other programs and need to be steered to them. (4/6)

USA Today: Education Department Issues Proposed Title IX Rule On Sports Inclusion
Schools and colleges largely could not ban nonbinary and transgender students from sports teams, the Biden administration said Thursday in a long-promised proposed rule to protect these students from discrimination. “Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement that included details of the rule. (Jimenez, 4/6)

The New York Times: Biden Plan Sets New Rules For Transgender Athletes And School Sports
Under the Department of Education proposal, “categorically” barring transgender athletes in that way would be a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding. But it would give universities and K-12 schools the discretion to limit the participation of transgender students, if they conclude that including transgender athletes could undermine competitive fairness or potentially lead to sports-related injuries, a key part of the debate about transgender athletes in women’s sports. (Mervosh, Tumin and Sasani, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Justice Clarence Thomas Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor, Report Says 
ProPublica reported Thursday on an array of trips funded by Harlan Crow, a Dallas businessman. The publication said Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. It said the justice also has vacationed at Crow’s ranch in East Texas and has joined him at the Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat in California. ProPublica cited a nine-day trip that Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, took to Indonesia in 2019, shortly after the court released its final opinions of the term. That trip, which included flights on Crow’s jet and island-hopping on a superyacht, would have cost the couple more than $500,000 if they had paid for it themselves, the publication said. (Wagner and Barnes, 4/6)

ProPublica: Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor
In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef. If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too. (Kaplan, Elliott and Mierjeski, 4/6)

The New York Times: After Clarence Thomas Revelations, Lawmakers Call For Tighter Ethics Rules 
The disclosure early Thursday renewed scrutiny of Justice Thomas, who has long faced questions over conflicts of interest in part because of the political activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas. No formal code of conduct on the Supreme Court specifically bars the justice from taking the trips mentioned in ProPublica’s reporting. But under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, justices, like federal judges, must file a financial disclosure each year that lists gifts of more than $415 in avoidance of even an “appearance of impropriety.” The cost of one of the trips with Mr. Crow may have exceeded $500,000, according to ProPublica. ... Justice Thomas has reliably voted with the conservative majority in far-reaching decisions that overturned a constitutional right to abortion, expanded the role of religion in public life and gave Americans a broad right to carry guns outside the home. (Montague, 4/6)

Politico: Florida Lawmakers, And DeSantis, Charge Ahead On 6-Week Abortion Ban 
Abortion rights supporters may be cheering this week’s victory in Wisconsin, but Ron DeSantis didn’t get the memo. Here in Florida, he and GOP lawmakers are still pushing — as early as next week — to approve a far-reaching ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Florida House Speaker Paul Renner is even trying to sell the legislative proposal as a “compromise” because there are some Republicans who want an all-out ban. (Fineout, 4/6)

Politico: No Wisconsin Wake-Up Call: Republicans Go Full Steam Ahead On Abortion Restrictions 
The drubbing Republicans took in Wisconsin this week revealed how harmful the issue of abortion still is to the party — and will likely remain through 2024. But following a state Supreme Court race that largely turned into a wholesale rebuke of GOP efforts to restrict abortion rights, Republicans in states across the country are plowing ahead with new restrictions anyway. (Siders, 4/6)

NPR: Abortion Clinics Face Rising Legal Battles And Threats
Thirty years ago, Blue Mountain Clinic Director Willa Craig stood in front of the sagging roof and broken windows of an abortion clinic that an arsonist had burned down early that morning in Missoula, Montana. "This morning, Missoula, Montana, learned that there is no place in America that is safe from hateful, misguided groups," she told the crowd of reporters and onlookers. (Bolton, 4/7)

Reuters: COVID Caused Brain Damage In 2 Infants Infected During Pregnancy -US Study 
Researchers at the University of Miami reported on Thursday what they believe are the first two confirmed cases in which the SARS-CoV-2 virus crossed a mother's placenta and caused brain damage in the infants they were carrying. Doctors previously had suspected this was possible, but until now, there was no direct evidence of COVID-19 in a mother's placenta or an infant's brain, the team told reporters at a news briefing. (Steenhuysen, 4/6)

CIDRAP: Two Infants Born To COVID-Infected Mothers Suffer Severe Brain Damage
The infants, born to COVID-19–positive mothers, had seizures on the day of their birth, microcephaly (small head size), and substantial developmental delays over time. Repeated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated severe brain damage. Both mothers were infected in the second trimester, and one was reinfected in the third trimester. While neither newborn was COVID-positive at birth, both had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and elevated levels of blood inflammatory markers. The placentas showed abnormalities such as inadequate blood flow to the fetus and increased inflammatory markers. One infant died unexpectedly at 13 months, the brain showing evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. (Van Beusekom, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Masking Up In Hospitals Didn't Stop COVID Spread, U.K. Study Finds
In a world moving on from the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and medical offices have been the last bastions of mandatory masking. But new research finds that in communities where pandemic precautions have been largely abandoned, mask mandates in healthcare settings do little to prevent coronavirus infections among patients. (Healy, 4/6)

Reuters: WHO Chief Thinks COVID-19 Emergency Will Be Lifted This Year 
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday he expected the organization to lift the emergency status of COVID-19 sometime this year, without giving a more specific time frame. (4/6)

Reuters: China Holds The Key To Understanding COVID-19 Origins: WHO Chief
The World Health Organization chief pressed China on Thursday to share its information about the origins of COVID-19, saying that until that happened all hypotheses remained on the table, more than three years after the virus first emerged. "Without full access to the information that China has, you cannot say this or that," said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in response to a question about the origin of the virus. (4/7)

Bloomberg: Covid Is 60% Deadlier Than Flu, Study Of Hospital Patients Finds
Covid-19 isn’t “just a flu,” with a study of hospital patients finding that the virus was still 60% deadlier than influenza last winter. Greater immunity against the coronavirus, better treatments, and different virus variants lowered Covid’s mortality risk to about 6% among adults hospitalized in the US last winter from 17-21% in 2020, researchers at the Clinical Epidemiology Center of the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri found. That was still much higher than the flu’s death rate of 3.7%. (Gale, 4/6)

Reuters: RSV Cases In US Show Signs Of Return To Pre-Pandemic Seasonality - CDC
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulation is showing signs of return to pre-pandemic seasonality in the U.S. after two years of irregular onsets and peaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday. Typically, cases of RSV virus that can cause severe illness or death in the very young and old rose in October before waning in April. But during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the circulation pattern changed. (4/6)

Politico: Tennessee House Votes To Expel 2 Of 3 Dems, Both Black, Over Gun Protest 
Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled in a vote largely along party lines, an effort to oust them led by the GOP supermajority. Rep. Gloria Johnson escaped removal from office because Republicans failed to gather the necessary two-thirds-majority support. When asked by reporters why Johnson was the only lawmaker to evade expulsion, she answered: “it might have to do with the color of our skin.” Their offense was joining protesters who gathered in Nashville last week to call for gun safety reform in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting that left seven dead, including the shooter. The members approached the lectern without being called on by House GOP leadership and toted a bullhorn to lead chants on the House floor, a stunt that temporarily suspended legislative business. House Speaker Cameron Sexton later likened their behavior to “an insurrection.” (Crampton, 4/6)

Politico: Biden Condemns Tennessee House Vote To Expel Dems Over Gun Protests
President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned as “shocking” and “undemocratic” moves by Republicans in Tennessee to expel Democrats from the state Legislature for their roles in gun control protests. ... The president on Thursday repeated his pleas for Congress to re-implement an assault weapons ban. He also called for legislators to eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability and to implement universal background checks. “A strong majority of Americans want lawmakers to act on commonsense gun safety reforms that we know will save lives,” Biden said. “But instead, we’ve continued to see Republican officials across America double down on dangerous bills that make our schools, places of worship, and communities less safe. Our kids continue to pay the price.” (Ward, 4/6)

MPR News: How Reframing Mass Shootings As Suicide Could Help Prevent Them
As the nation grapples with another school shooting and media rushes to put it into context, there's a good chance you've heard a statistic compiled right here in Minnesota. The Violence Project in St. Paul is the nonprofit, nonpartisan research center behind what's believed to be the largest, most comprehensive database of mass shooters. And in 2021, its co-founders came out with a book called “How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic.” (Crann and Burks, 4/6)

Military.com: VA Delays Rollout Of Troubled Electronic Medical Records System To More Hospitals
The Department of Veterans Affairs has put the introduction of its new electronic health records system on hold at the hospital system slated to adopt it this summer -- a pause that extends to all future rollouts, VA officials said Thursday. In a memo to staff at the VA Saginaw, Michigan, Health Care System, Veterans Integrated Services Network 10 Director Laura Ruzick said Thursday that the training scheduled to begin April 1 on the Oracle Cerner Millennium records system has been postponed. VA confirmed to Military.com the postponement applies to all planned deployments. (Kime, 4/6)

Military Times: VA Delays Rollout Of Health Records System To Next Scheduled Sites
The delay is the latest in a series of setbacks for the 10-year, $16 billion health records overhaul project, launched by President Donald Trump in 2017. Only five of the department’s 170-plus medical sites have begun using the software, and new deployments have been delayed for months amid concerns with the new system. In the last few weeks, lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced a series of legislative proposals to delay future deployments until VA officials can verify that certain patient safety, staff training and software usability standards have been reached. (Shane III, 4/6)

Military.com: Navy Takes Another Look At Bremerton Hospital Cuts After Lawmaker Cites Miscarriage, Readiness Issues
The lawmaker whose district includes Naval Hospital Bremerton has challenged the Navy over years of downsizing and staffing cuts at the facility, saying it has not only hurt readiness but also endangered patients. "I had a service member who said that she was pregnant. ... With the closure of labor and delivery, she ended up seeking care from a local provider where she sat for eight hours in a waiting room and miscarried," Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., told Military.com in an interview Thursday. (Toropin, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Seniors On Medicaid Are Getting Evicted From Assisted-Living Homes
Shirley Holtz, 91, used a walker to get around. She had dementia and was enrolled in hospice care. Despite her age and infirmity, Holtz was evicted from the assisted-living facility she called home for four years because she relied on government health insurance for low-income seniors. Holtz was one of 15 residents told to vacate Emerald Bay Retirement Community near Green Bay, Wis., after the facility stopped accepting payment from a state-sponsored Medicaid program. And Emerald Bay is not alone. A recent spate of evictions has ousted dozens of assisted-living residents in Wisconsin who depended on Medicaid to pay their bills — an increasingly common practice, according to industry representatives. (Rowland, 4/6)

Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Determinations Present Profit Opportunity For Contractors
States are inking big contracts with contractors promising to help remove masses of people from their Medicaid rolls for the first time in two-and-a-half years. Outsourcing regulatory and administrative work is common and can reduce the burden on government agencies. For contractors such as Maximus, Public Consulting Group and Automated Health Systems, a Medicaid redeterminations process that the Health and Human Services Department projects will disenroll 15 million beneficiaries is good business. (Tepper, 4/6)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Insurers Will Cover Preventive Screenings During ACA Appeals
Michigan insurance companies pledged Thursday to continue to fully cover preventive health services while legal challenges wend through the courts over a controversial ruling from a federal judge who struck down a provision of the Affordable Care Act last week that requires no-cost preventive screenings, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration told the Free Press. (Jordan Shamus, 4/6)

Axios: Privacy Is At Risk As HIPAA Fails To Keep Pace With Digital Health
Nearly three decades old, HIPAA appears obsolete and riddled with new technology-induced gaps. Why it matters: With regulators unable and politicians unwilling to address the shortcomings of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, private companies are offering a fix. (Brodwin and Reed, 4/6)

The Washington Post: EPA Seeks To Restrict A Toxic Medical Device Sterilizer 
Acting in response to community health experts and environmental justice advocates, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing tougher standards on pollution from several toxic chemicals, including ethylene oxide, widely used for sterilizing medical equipment and other purposes. But parts of the health-care and chemical industries are warning that these Biden administration rule changes could disrupt the supply of safe medical equipment, affecting hospitals and clinics nationwide. (Puko, 4/6)

NPR: FDA Pulls Makena From Market, Saying Company Didn't Prove It Works
The Food and Drug Administration is pulling its approval for a controversial drug that was intended to prevent premature births, but that studies showed wasn't effective. Following years of back-and-forth between the agency and the drugmaker Covis Pharma, the FDA's decision came suddenly Thursday. It means the medication, Makena, and its generics are no longer approved drug products and can no longer "lawfully be distributed in interstate commerce," according to an agency statement. (Lupkin and Stone, 4/6)

Stat: Weight Loss Drug Ads: Telehealth Wades Into A Regulatory Gray Area
They’ve swiftly caught the attention of subway goers: splashy ads plastered on train station walls and turnstiles across New York by telehealth companies promoting controversial weight loss medications like Wegovy by name. Companies including Ro and Calibrate have capitalized on the new drugs by launching telehealth services dedicated to prescribing Wegovy and Ozempic, which patients inject themselves to treat obesity. Novo Nordisk’s drug Wegovy is FDA-approved for weight loss in adults, while the company’s drug Ozempic is approved to treat diabetes but is also prescribed off-label for weight loss. (Ravindranath, 4/6)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Launches $10 Million Effort To Combat Fentanyl Crisis
To combat the growing number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday announced a $10 million fentanyl awareness campaign and plan to distribute doses of Narcan to every county in the state. Abbott said the state’s “One Pill Kills” multimedia campaign is designed to warn Texans about the unlawful use of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. In addition, the governor said the Texas Division of Emergency Management will be delivering a total of 20,000 doses of the overdose-reversing medication, naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan, to all 254 counties in Texas. (Simpson, 4/6)

AP: Alabama Lawmakers Approve Harsher Penalties For Fentanyl
Alabama lawmakers on Thursday approved harsher penalties for trafficking fentanyl — with punishments of up to life imprisonment — as lawmakers try to respond to the deadly overdose crisis. (Chandler, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Coolio's Primary Cause Of Death Revealed: Fentanyl
Rapper Coolio died in September due to the effects of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine, the Los Angeles medical examiner determined Thursday. The Grammy-winning “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr., died Sept. 28, 2022. He was 59. (Del Rosario, 4/6)

AP: Bottle Battle: Boston Talks Of Banning Tiny Bottles Of Booze 
Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo has proposed banning city liquor stores from selling the bottles that hold from 50 to 100 milliliters (1.7 to 3.4 fluid ounces), which he says would address both alcohol abuse and excessive litter. “The fact that this handled even one of these two issues would have been enough for me,” Arroyo said at city hall hearing on the issue on Monday. ... Other Massachusetts communities that have banned the sale of the tiny bottles have seen benefits, Arroyo said. (Pratt, 4/6)

NBC News: Brain Scans Reveal How Obesity Factors Differ Between Men And Women
Changes in the way peoples’ brains are wired could explain some of the differences in obesity between men and women, new research published Thursday finds. In women with obesity, changes in the brain tended to be centered on regions related to emotions, while in men with obesity, the changes tended to be found in regions that play a role in gut sensations, such as how hungry or full a person feels, the study found. (Sullivan, 4/6)

NBC News: Sleep Apnea Caused Cognitive Problems Even In Healthy Men, Research Finds
Most people with untreated sleep apnea develop heart disease, and researchers have assumed that's why they also have cognitive problems. But a small new study finds that obstructive sleep apnea itself is harming the brain, giving new urgency to recognizing and treating the disorder. (Carroll, 4/6)

NBC News: Starbucks Customers Are Complaining About Stomach Issues From New Olive Oil-Infused Coffee
Starbucks customers have taken to social media to share their experiences with the coffee chain’s new slate of olive oil-infused drinks, and apparently, for some, the picture is not so pretty. On March 16, a post titled “Olive oil drinks...” was added to the subreddit r/starbucks by a Redditor who claims to be a current Starbucks barista. In it, they share an experience their coworkers allegedly had after trying the new roster of Oleato drinks. (Lamour, 4/6)

Anchorage Daily News: How Do You Get A Moose Out Of An Anchorage Medical Facility? Very Carefully
A young and hungry moose caused a stir when it strolled through the front doors of a Providence Alaska medical facility Thursday afternoon in Anchorage — apparently without an appointment. In the only-in-Alaska videos posted to social media Thursday, the juvenile moose’s ears peeked from behind a potted plant it was munching on, briefly impervious to the attention it received from bystanders at Providence Health Park. (Berman, 4/6)