First Edition: Aug. 14, 2023

KFF Health News: Parents See Own Health Spiral As Their Kids’ Mental Illnesses Worsen 
After her teenage daughter attempted suicide and began to cycle through emergency rooms and mental health programs during the past three years, Sarah Delarosa noticed her own health also declined. She suffered from mini strokes and stomach bleeding, the mother of four in Corpus Christi, Texas, said. To make things worse, her daughter’s failing behavioral and mental health caused Delarosa to miss hours from her job as a home health aide, losing out on income needed to support her family. (Rayasam, 8/14)

KFF Health News: Patients In California County May See Refunds, Debt Relief From Charity Care Settlement 
California’s largest public hospital plans to start notifying 43,000 former patients Monday that they may be eligible for refunds or billing corrections, part of what advocates called a major legal settlement that will help force the hospital to fulfill its charity care obligations. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, along with other units of county-owned Santa Clara Valley Healthcare, will also adopt procedures to ensure patients are informed of their eligibility for charity care, which nonprofit and public hospitals must provide. (Castle Work, 8/14)

KFF Health News: Proposed Rule Would Make Hospital Prices Even More Transparent
“How much is the ice cream?” A simple enough question, featured on a new TV and online advertisement, posed by a man who just wants something cold. A woman behind the counter responds with a smile: “Prices? No, we don’t have those anymore. We have estimates.” The satirical ad pretends to be a news report highlighting a “trend” in which more retail outlets take up “the hospital pricing method”: substituting estimates for actual prices for the cost of meals, merchandise on store shelves, and clothing. The scene ends with a partially deleted expletive from the ice cream-seeking man. (Appleby, 8/14)

KFF Health News: Journalists Sum Up The Costs To Patients Of New Weight Loss Drugs And Hospital Mergers 
KFF Health News correspondent Rachana Pradhan discussed a lobbying effort to get Medicare to cover a new class of weight loss drugs on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Aug. 10. ... KFF Health News senior contributing editor Elisabeth Rosenthal discussed how hospital mergers are leading to higher medical bills for patients on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” on July 31. (8/12)

KFF Health News: Watch: As Opioid Settlement Money Starts To Flow, States And Local Officials Debate How To Use It 
Over 18 years, more than $50 billion in settlement funds from pharmaceutical companies that made and sold opioid painkillers will be paid to state and local governments across the country. But the debate around how this money should be spent is just beginning. PBS NewsHour featured KFF Health News’ Aneri Pattani as it reported on how this debate is playing out in North Carolina and Ohio. (8/11)

AP: Nebraska Judge Allows Abortion Limits And Restrictions On Gender-Affirming Surgery 
A Nebraska judge on Friday rejected an effort to block a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret sided with the state and allowed a law approved by the Nebraska Legislature earlier this year to remain in effect. (McFetridge, 8/11)

Politico: RFK Jr. Backs 15-Week Federal Ban On Abortion, Then Reverses Himself 
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday said he would support a federal ban on abortion after the first three months of pregnancy, but his campaign later said he “misunderstood” the question. Speaking to NBC from the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy said, “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,” but added: “Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child.” (Cohen, 8/13)

Medill News Service: Native American Women Struggle To Get Plan B Contraceptive In Oklahoma
The federal government promises free health care for Native Americans, which it provides through both federally-operated clinics and funding for Native American tribes and private organizations to run their own clinics. The federal government requires its own clinics to provide emergency contraception, but many tribally-run clinics do not. (van Waasbergen and Erbach, 8/11)

The 19th: Maui Wildfires: Team Mobilizes To Provide Care To Pregnant And Postpartum People
After the scale of destruction caused by the wildfires in Maui came into focus Wednesday, the team from Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, a Hawaii-based reproductive health nonprofit, jumped into action. They set up a 24-hour hotline to assist pregnant and postpartum people displaced by the fires, and are sending breast pumps, infant formula, diapers and many other supplies to the island from Oahu, where they are based. On Thursday, six members of their team including nurses, a midwife and a mental health provider traveled to Maui to staff a mobile health clinic in a converted van. (Kutz, 8/11)

AP: Maui Wildfires: Toxic Particles Will Remain, Official And Scientists Warn 
When flames swept through western Maui, engulfing the town of Lahaina, residents saw toxic fumes spewing into the air as burning homes, pipes and cars combusted, transforming rubber, metal and plastic into poisonous, particulate matter-filled smoke. ... “It is not safe. It is a hazardous area and that’s why experts are here,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a news conference Saturday. “We’re not doing anybody any favors by letting them back in there quickly, just so they can get sick.” Hawaii’s state toxicologist Diana Felton told Hawaii Public Radio that it could take weeks or months to clean up the pollutants.

ABC News: People's Physical And Mental Health Could Be Affected By Maui Wildfires
During a press briefing on Thursday, Gov. Josh Green called the wildfires "likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii's state history." But the impacts go beyond evacuations and damaged buildings. Experts say the fires are also affecting residents' and tourists' physical health and could have impacts on their mental health. (Kekatos, 8/12)

AP: Mishmash Of How US Heat Deaths Are Counted Complicates Efforts To Keep People Safe As Earth Warms
Even when it seems obvious that extreme heat was a factor, death certificates don’t always reflect the role it played. Experts say a mishmash of ways more than 3,000 counties calculate heat deaths means we don’t really know how many people die in the U.S. each year because of high temperatures in an ever warming world. That imprecision harms efforts to better protect people from extreme heat because officials who set policies and fund programs can’t get the financial and other support needed to make a difference. (Snow and Lafleur, 8/13)

CIDRAP: US COVID Markers Up Slightly Again 
The two main indicators that federal health officials use to track COVID-19 activity—hospitalizations and deaths—both registered small rises this week, as did other indicators of virus activity, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Starting from very low levels, hospitalizations for COVID rose 12.5% this week compared to last week. Though levels have now risen for the fifth straight week, COVID admissions still make up a small percentage of all hospitalizations. (Schnirring, 8/11)

AP: New Zealand, Whose Pandemic Response Was Closely Watched, Removes Last Of COVID-19 Restrictions
New Zealand on Monday removed the last of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions, marking the end of a government response to the pandemic that was watched closely around the world. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the requirement to wear masks in hospitals and other healthcare facilities would end at midnight, as would a requirement for people who caught the virus to isolate themselves for seven days. (Perry, 8/14)

CIDRAP: No Evidence Athletes At Risk For Cardiac Arrest After COVID Vaccinations 
A study yesterday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine from researchers at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers (UMC) reviews all current literature on athletes, sudden cardiac arrest, and myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccines, and finds that athletes engaged in intensive activity are not at increased risk for heart complications following vaccination. On social media platforms, COVID-19 vaccines have been named the cause of cardiac arrest in young athletes, most recently Bronny James, LeBron James' college basketball-playing son who suffered a sudden heart attack while practicing for the University of Southern California last month. (Soucheray, 8/11)

USA Today: Playing Football May Increase Risk For Parkinson's, New Study Finds
While the risk of concussions from playing tackle football has received considerable attention, a new study indicates the game's repetitive head impacts could also increase participants' risk factors for Parkinson's disease. The study, conducted by Boston University researchers and released Friday, also showed that players who had longer careers or played at higher levels of competition experienced even higher odds of being diagnosed with Parkinson's or having symptoms associated with the disease. (Gardner, 8/11)

The Washington Post: Early MS Treatment May Lead To Less Disability Later 
Starting treatment for multiple sclerosis soon after first experiencing symptoms of the disease may slow its progression. People who start treatment quickly are 45 percent less likely to advance to moderate disability in the next decade or so, compared to those who delay treatment, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. (Searing, 8/13)

AP: Popular Weight-Loss Drugs Like Wegovy May Raise Risk Of Complications Under Anesthesia 
Patients who take blockbuster drugs like Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss may face life-threatening complications if they need surgery or other procedures that require empty stomachs for anesthesia. This summer’s guidance to halt the medication for up to a week may not go far enough, either. Some anesthesiologists in the U.S. and Canada say they’ve seen growing numbers of patients on the weight-loss drugs who inhaled food and liquid into their lungs while sedated because their stomachs were still full — even after following standard instructions to stop eating for six to eight hours in advance. (Aleccia, 8/13)

AP: Insurers Won't Cover New Alzheimer's Treatment For Some Customers
Some private insurers are balking at paying for the first drug fully approved to slow mental decline in Alzheimer’s patients. Insurers selling coverage in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York, among other states, told The Associated Press they won’t cover Leqembi with insurance offered on the individual market and through employers because they still see the $26,000-a-year drug as experimental. (Murphy, 8/11)

Axios: How Medicaid Disenrollments Could Squeeze Some Insurers
Big Medicaid-managed care plans that serve the majority of the program's beneficiaries are seeing membership slip as more states redetermine program eligibility — a trend that could eat into some of the insurers' bottom lines, according to Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families. If the remaining Medicaid enrollees as a group are sicker overall, plans may have to eat some of the higher cost of care unless states adjust their payment rates upward. (Bettelheim, 8/14)

Axios: Costliest Medicare Drugs More Than Tripled In Price Since Entering Market: Report
The 25 drugs that accounted for the highest Medicare Part D spending in 2021 more than tripled in price since they first entered the market, according to a new report from AARP. The report comes just weeks before the Biden administration is to announce the first 10 Medicare Part D drugs that will be considered for price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act, on Sept. 1. (Dreher, 8/11)

Axios: Scrutiny Over Drug Costs Shifts To Pharmacy Benefit Managers
The pharmaceutical industry has taken most of the heat in Congress and the public's mind for high drug prices. But increasingly, scrutiny is shifting to a different part of the supply chain: pharmacy benefit managers. PBMs may not resonate with the average person the way big drugmakers like Pfizer do, but they play an important role in determining how much people wind up paying for medicines. (Sullivan, 8/14)

Stat: White House Drug Shortages Task Force Keeps Mum With Congress
A White House task force created to work on drug shortage reforms has yet to contact the lawmakers who are writing legislation to stem shortages — and it’s not clear when the task force will recommend policies. (Wilkerson, 8/11)

The Hill: Price Of Elder Care Soars As Demand Increases, Baby Boomers Age 
Many Americans who serve as caregivers are consumed by the immense cost of tending to ailing or aging family members. And as the baby boomer generation ages, more Americans are in for a rude awakening as to just how expensive caring for older adults has become. The price of nursing home care increased by an average of 2.4 percent each year between 2012 and 2019, for a cumulative increase of 20.7 percent, according to data from the health research group Altarum Institute. (O'Connell-Domenech, 8/13)

The Boston Globe: Tufts Medicine Eliminating Hundreds Of Jobs As It Outsources Lab Services
Hundreds of employees at Tufts Medicine will be let go as part of the sale of its laboratory business, according to state disclosures released on Friday, however the health system said many of those affected will be offered other jobs. The health system, which has faced prolonged financial difficulties, on Aug. 3 announced the sale of its Tufts Medicine Outreach Laboratory business and some operating assets to Labcorp of North Carolina. (Bartlett, 8/11)

Modern Healthcare: Elon Musk’s Neuralink Lands $280M From Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund
Neuralink, a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk, raised $280 million in a Series D funding round. ... Neuralink, founded in 2016, has developed an implantable chip designed to connect brain activity to a computer. After Neuralink won approval from the Food and Drug Administration in May to run human clinical trials, the company said it could start testing within six months. It has only run trials with animals, which drew scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers after 1,500 animals died under Neualink's care, according to a report from Reuters. (Perna, 8/11)

Stat: Hospitals Are Dialing Back On Venture Capital Investing
Hospitals once dove headfirst into venture capital with splashy headlines and attention-grabbing numbers. Now, in an era of flattened margins and exceedingly uncertain returns, many health systems are quietly pulling back. (Bannow, 8/14)

Los Angeles Times: City Of Hope Researchers Develop Promising New Therapy For Advanced Ovarian Cancer
Researchers with City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the nation, have published preclinical research in Nature Communications demonstrating that a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cell therapy worked against ovarian cancer in the laboratory and in preclinical models. (8/11)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Public Health Warns Of Possible Hepatitis A Exposure
On Saturday, the Public Health Department issued a notice alerting customers who visited a Panda Express in Lancaster, at 44411 Valley Central Way between July 21 and Aug. 4, after a food handler was found to have the liver infection. The department said no additional cases have been identified. As a result of the identified infection, the department is offering free hepatitis A vaccinations to those who were exposed, beginning Monday and continuing until Friday. The vaccine is not necessary if an individual has already completed the hepatitis A vaccine series or has had a past infection. (Gomez, 8/13)

Los Angeles Times: Eating Disorder Surge In Medi-Cal Patients Shows Gaps In Care
The crisis is particularly acute for teenagers, many of whom are hospitalized repeatedly for complications of malnutrition while waiting to be approved for mental health care. “Kids with eating disorders who have Medi-Cal, they get into this vicious cycle,” Accurso said. “Some of these kids have well over 10 hospitalizations.” (Sharp, 8/11)

AP: Tennessee Hospital Faces Civil Rights Investigation Over Release Of Transgender Health Records 
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is facing a federal civil rights investigation after turning the medical records of transgender patients over to Tennessee’s attorney general, hospital officials have confirmed. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ investigation comes just weeks after two patients sued VUMC for releasing their records to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti late last year. (Kruesi and Mattise, 8/11)

The Texas Tribune: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn Has Made Fentanyl Crisis A Priority 
Horrified by the skyrocketing number of fentanyl-related deaths and motivated by families who lost a child to the dangerous drug, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has made addressing the crisis a priority. Cornyn, R-Texas, has introduced legislation to decriminalize fentanyl test strips and address drug trafficking at the U.S. border with Mexico, where criminal cartels are blamed for producing the vast majority of fentanyl. (Alafriz, 8/14)

Reuters: Opioids Expose Unhealthy Bankruptcy Addictions
Two big opioid cases suggest the U.S. bankruptcy process is unjustly providing relief for some while inflicting pain unnecessarily on others. The first involves Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which may be headed for insolvency a second time. Between 2006 and 2014, it manufactured roughly 30 billion opioid pills. When states, Native American tribal governments and thousands of localities started suing all involved in the addictive medicine’s supply chain, from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) to CVS Health (CVS.N), creditors decided the drugmaker would be better off resuscitated than sold off for parts. It emerged from Chapter 11 in June 2022, agreeing to pay plaintiffs some $1.7 billion over eight years and warrants equal to a 20% stake in the company while sheltering executives including former CEO Mark Trudeau from legal liability. (Cyran, 8/11)

AP: St. Louis Activists Praise Biden's Support For Compensation Over Manhattan Project Contamination 
St. Louis-area activists have been fighting for years to get government compensation for people with cancer and other serious illnesses potentially connected to Manhattan Project nuclear contamination. This week marked a major victory, with support coming from the president. Uranium was processed in St. Louis starting at the onset of World War II as America raced to develop nuclear bombs. In July, reporting as part of an ongoing collaboration between The Missouri Independent, the nonprofit newsroom MuckRock and The Associated Press cited thousands of pages of documents indicating decades of nonchalance and indifference for the risks posed by uranium contamination. (Salter, 8/11)

CNN: How Water-Bottle Fill Stations Can Impact Children’s Health, According To A New Study
Making water more accessible to kids leads to an increase in hydration and a decrease in children being overweight, according to a new study. And the change didn’t require a focus on children’s weight. The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, included more than 1,200 students across 18 schools in California’s Bay Area. (Holcombe, 8/10)

Stat: Kim Kardashian Sparks Debate On Benefits Of Full-Body MRI Scans
The last time Kim Kardashian posted about medical imaging, it was to prove her butt was real. Now, she’s praising its ability to find aneurysms and cancers before they turn deadly. Kardashian’s Instagram post this week about Prenuvo, which sells full-body MRI scans that can run in the thousands of dollars, has renewed a long-running debate about whether the tests are actually valuable or just run the risk of clogging hospitals with false positives and unnecessary follow-ups from wealthy and largely healthy patients. (Ravindranath and Lawrence, 8/11)