First Edition: Aug. 15, 2022

KHN: Community Health Centers’ Big Profits Raise Questions About Federal Oversight 
Just off the deserted town square, with its many boarded-up businesses, people lined up at the walk-up pharmacy window at Genesis Health Care, a federally funded clinic. Drug sales provide the bulk of the revenue for Genesis, a nonprofit community health center treating about 11,000 mostly low-income patients in seven clinics across South Carolina. (Galewitz and Sable-Smith, 8/15)

KHN: For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable 
Deborah Lewis rose from bed before dawn and signed in to her phone so she could begin delivering fast food, coffee, and groceries to residents in this western patch of the Mojave Desert where test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier generations ago. Lewis prayed she would earn $75, just enough to fill the tank of her Kia sedan so she could drive her 8-year-old daughter, Annabelle, 80 miles south to Los Angeles to receive her weekly chemotherapy treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Just a year ago, the same tank of gas would have cost $30 less. (de Marco, 8/15)

KHN: ‘Still A Lot Of Pain’: Four Years After Mass Shooting, Texas Community Grapples With Fallout 
In May 2018, after a high school shooting killed 10 people, the Santa Fe Resiliency Center opened in a church. Any resident could see a counselor, attend a support group, and take part in a healing mandala coloring class, music therapy, or a workshop on emotional first aid — all free of charge. Today the center sits in a strip mall sandwiched between a seafood restaurant and vacant storefronts. On a recent evening, instead of patients filling the waiting room, counselors saw clients over video from their offices. The center looks empty but, according to therapists, the need is still there. (Rayasam, 8/15)

KHN: Journalists Scrutinize Retail Giants’ Push Into Health Care And Government’s HIV Surveillance
On Aug. 5, KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed CVS Pharmacy’s plan to offer more primary care services and Amazon’s offering to buy One Medical on Peacock/NBC’s “NOW Tonight With Joshua Johnson.” She also discussed the Kansas ballot measure, rejected by voters, that would have stripped abortion rights from the state constitution on WAMU/NPR’s “1A” on Aug. 5. ... KHN correspondent Sam Whitehead discussed the potential harm of genetic HIV surveillance by the government on NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Aug. 4. (8/13)

KHN: Watch: How Nursing Homes Put Friends And Families On The Hook For Residents’ Debts 
Barbara Robinson was just trying to help her mother’s friend sign up for Medicaid and move into the Monroe County nursing home in Rochester, New York. But because Robinson signed the admissions form, the nursing home considered her financially responsible for the woman’s care, Anna Werner reported for CBS News. After the woman died, the county sued Robinson for $21,000 in unpaid bills. This report was done in partnership with a KHN-NPR investigation of America’s medical debt crisis. Noam N. Levey, KHN senior correspondent, wrote about Lucille Brooks, another woman sued by Monroe County, this time over her brother’s nursing home bill. (8/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Has Passed A Big Piece Of His Agenda. Will It Move Voters?
President Biden has often said that America wanted to see big legislative accomplishments. Now that he has delivered on some of his goals, he will find out if those wins give him a boost with voters. The passage along party lines of the $700 billion climate, healthcare and tax bill in the House Friday capped a run of legislative victories for the Democrats and the White House in recent months that also included bipartisan bills to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, support veterans’ healthcare and address mass shootings. With November’s midterm elections looming, Mr. Biden and Democrats hope to use these victories to appeal to the electorate as they seek to defend their narrow majorities in Congress. (Lucey and Thomas, 8/14)

The New York Times: A Detailed Picture Of What’s In The Democrats’ Climate And Health Bill 
Democrats in Congress have had to scale back their legislative ambitions since last year, but the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the House on Friday and sent to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for his signature, is still a substantial piece of legislation, which will make big investments in the environment and health care, and increase taxes on some key groups. This table describes everything in the bill, including the prices. (Paris, Parlapiano, Sanger-Katz and Washington, 8/13)

Stat: House Sends Drug Pricing Reforms To President Biden’s Desk
Fifteen years later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is fulfilling one of her first campaign promises. When she first took the speaker’s gavel in 2007, Pelosi promised six policy accomplishments, on national security, energy, education, and health care. She passed six bills within 100 hours of assuming power. The only promise that didn’t become law was allowing Medicare to negotiate for prescription drugs — until Friday, when the House passed a major health care, tax, and climate package by a vote of 220 to 207. (Cohrs, 8/12)

Axios: Employers And The Government Will Soon Pay Different Prices For Prescription Drugs
Democrats are on the cusp of their most significant health policy victory since passage of the Affordable Care Act, but the legislative wrangling it took to get here came at a steep cost: The prescription drug pricing reforms included in the health, tax and climate package are limited to Medicare and exclude the millions of Americans with private insurance. (Owens, 8/15)

CNBC: Passage Of Inflation Reduction Act Gives Medicare Historic New Powers Over Drug Prices
There is no official, publicly available list of drugs that HHS plans to target for negotiations. But Bank of America highlighted some potential Medicare D candidates based on how much Medicare spent on them in 2020, including Eliquis, Xarelto, and Keytruda. (Kimball, 8/12)

The Hill: When Will Americans Feel The Impact Of The Inflation Reduction Act?
On health care, some provisions take effect next year. Others, like most of the drug pricing provisions, won’t kick in for years. The enhanced subsidies for ObamaCare plans are already in effect, and the legislation will extend them for another three years. If the House doesn’t pass the bill, those subsidies will expire on Dec. 31, putting Americans on the hook for major premium increases. (Chalfant and Weixel, 8/12)

Reuters: Explainer: When Will Americans Feel The Inflation Reduction Act's Impact?
Affordable Care Act premiums: At the end of this year, 13 million Americans would have seen their Affordable Care Act premiums increase, after subsidies expanded in COVID-19 spending bills expired. The bill extends those subsidies until 2024, and President Joe Biden's Democrats say they will save each individual $800. (8/12)

The Hill: WHO Renames Two Monkeypox Variants To Avoid Geographic References 
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Saturday that it renamed variants of the virus monkeypox as it looks to counter concerns about the original naming conventions. “Newly identified viruses, related diseases & virus variants are given names to avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, & minimize the negative impact on trade, travel, tourism, or animal welfare,” the WHO said in its announcement.  (Mueller, 8/14)

Bloomberg: Monkeypox Virus: WHO Asks Public To Submit New Name Ideas In Online Portal
The World Health Organization is asking for the public’s help in renaming the monkeypox virus, part of an ongoing effort to discourage harmful misconceptions associated with the current name. “WHO is holding an open consultation for a new disease name for monkeypox. Anyone wishing to propose new names can do so,” the organization said in a statement. (Muller, 8/12)

The New York Times: ‘Frustration And Stress’: State Officials Fault Rollout Of Monkeypox Vaccine
Roughly 5,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine intended for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., left the national stockpile’s warehouse in Olive Branch, Miss., on July 19. They somehow ended up in Oklahoma. Then Tennessee. Then Mississippi again. Then, finally, Florida. In Idaho, a shipment of 60 vaccine doses disappeared and showed up six days later, refrigerated rather than frozen, as needed. Another 800 doses sent to Minnesota — a significant portion of the state’s total allotment — were unusable because the shipment was lost in transit for longer than the 96-hour “viability window.” (Mandavilli, 8/15)

Fox News: COVID Sites In NYC Transition To Respond To Monkeypox Virus
New York City will transition some of its COVID-19 vaccination sites for children under the age of 5 next week. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene cited a recent decrease in demand for the sites, as well as greater access to coronavirus vaccines. (Musto, 8/12)

Newsweek: Dog With Monkeypox Sparks Questions About Human-To-Animal Transmission
A recent report from The Lancet showed evidence that two patients, both male who lived together, contracted monkeypox and most likely gave the virus to their 4-year-old Italian greyhound. ... The report said that 12 days after the onset of symptoms, their dog appeared to have the same scabs and lesions that coincide with monkeypox. Using PCR testing protocol and comparing monkeypox virus DNA sequences from the dog with one of the dog's owners, it was confirmed that the dog had monkeypox. (Mayer, 8/12)

AP: Clark County School District Confirms 1st Case Of Monkeypox 
Nevada’s largest school district has its first case of monkeypox. The Clark County School District in Las Vegas announced Friday that someone at Palo Verde High School has been diagnosed with monkeypox. District officials did not say whether the person was a student or school staffer. (8/12)

CIDRAP: Maine Announces Pediatric Case Of Monkeypox
Maine, which has confirmed only four monkeypox cases, today reported a case of the virus in a resident under the age of 18. No further details were released by the Maine Centers for Disease Control. Maine now joins California and Florida as states with pediatric cases. Also, researchers in Spain detail a possible human-to-dog case. (8/12)

TribLive.com: UPMC Children's Hospital Employee Diagnosed With Monkeypox 
A UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh employee who works in an outpatient clinic has been diagnosed with monkeypox, officials said Friday. “Precautions to prevent transmission were already in place and were followed, so we believe there is very low risk of exposure,” said Beth Mausteller, a spokeswoman for the UPMC health care system. (Guza, 8/12)

Slate: Monkeypox And Kids: The Risk Is Low.
Of the three ways that monkeypox is capable of spreading, direct contact with viral skin lesions is what’s really driving the outbreak. And “direct contact” does not mean just a fleeting touch. “This virus is in the lesions, and it’s on the surface of lesions. You have to rub the lesion enough on somebody so that enough virus finds a break in their skin, or finds a mucous membrane to cross,” says Susan McLellan, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The best way for the virus to do this, McLellan said, is sex. (Requarth, 8/13)

Vox: Why Monkeypox Is A Repeat Of The Data Mistakes Made With Covid-19 
The US declared monkeypox a public health emergency this month, but the decision may have come too late. Though states are now required to report cases, and commercial labs have an approved test, a testing bottleneck persists, and cases — which passed 10,000 confirmed cases this week — are likely still being underreported. Any effective public health response to an infectious disease is dependent on having accurate data. If the virus spreads to other populations, such as college dorms — where cases have already been reported — the testing bottleneck could ultimately make it impossible to contain the spread. Reliable demographic information is key to making the right choices for allocating limited tests and vaccines. (Dixon-Luinenburg, 8/14)

Stat: A Monkeypox Drug Was Approved Under The 'Animal Rule.' STAT Explains
Take a look at the list of conditions that have treatments available thanks to what’s known as the “Animal Rule” and you’ll see a rogues’ gallery of plagues you hope never see the light of day. There’s smallpox, anthrax, and, well, the actual plague. (Joseph, 8/15)

Los Angeles Times: U.S. Polio Case Sparks Alarms From New York To California
Delays in getting children vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic and antivaccination sentiment in general may be fueling the most serious threat of polio in the U.S. in years, raising alarms from New York to California. (Lin II and Money, 8/13)

AP: What To Know About Polio Spreading In New York
U.S. children are still routinely vaccinated against polio and the shots are considered to be highly effective. Federal officials recommend four doses: to be given at 2 months of age; 4 months; at 6 to 18 months; and at age 4 through 6 years. Some states require only three doses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent data, about 93% of 2-year-olds had received at least three doses of polio vaccine. (8/12)

BuzzFeed News: Polio Is In New York, So Now People Are Texting Their Parents Asking If They Are Vaccinated
As if we don't already have enough to deal with, the announcement Friday that the virus that causes the potentially deadly disease polio was detected in New York wastewater has sent a lot of people scrambling to find out if they have been vaccinated. And that meant a whole lot of text messages to moms. (Skinner, 8/12)

AP: Idaho Supreme Court Won't Block Strict Abortion Bans 
Idaho’s strict abortion bans will be allowed to take effect while legal challenges over the laws play out in court, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled Friday. The ruling means potential relatives of an embryo or fetus can now sue abortion providers over procedures done after six weeks of gestation — before many people know they are pregnant. Another stricter ban criminalizing all abortions takes effect later this month. (Boone, 8/12)

AP: Louisiana Supreme Court Rejects Appeal In Abortion Ban Case 
The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday denied an appeal filed by plaintiffs in the ongoing legal battle over the state’s abortion ban, allowing the ban to stay in effect. The ruling marked a major blow to abortion-rights advocates and providers, who had hoped the ban would be blocked for a third time, allowing Louisiana’s three abortion clinics to begin performing procedures again. (Cline, 8/12)

Bloomberg: NYC Mayor Adams Signs Six Bills Aiming To Bolster Abortion Care
The legislation includes a mandate for clinics operated by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to provide free abortion medication. It also prohibits the use of city resources to detain people for performing the procedure, and forbids city agencies from cooperating with out-of-state law enforcement about abortions performed in New York. (Sheinerman, 8/12)

AP: Kansas To Recount Abortion Vote By Hand, Despite Big Margin
Kansas’ elections director says the state will go along with a request for a hand recount of votes from every county after last week’s decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights, even though there was a 165,000-vote difference and a recount won’t change the result. (Hanna, 8/12)

The Kansas City Star: Activist Offers To Pay For Kansas' Recount Of Abortion Vote 
A credit card belonging to the Kansas Republican Assembly was provided to advance a statewide recount of the abortion amendment vote expected to cost more than $229,000, said Mark Gietzen, the group’s president and a strident anti-abortion activist. The amendment, called Value Them Both, would have stripped abortion rights from the Kansas Constitution. Instead the measure suffered a landslide 59% to 41% defeat, with 165,000 more voters rejecting the proposal than supporting it. (Shorman and Swain, 8/14)

The Washington Post: Anti-Abortion Groups Take Aim At Medicated, At-Home Abortions
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, 14 states now ban or partially ban the use of mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in more than half of all abortions. But the drugs remain widely available, with multiple groups working to help provide them even to women in states with abortion bans. Students for Life of America and National Right to Life Committee, which have played leading roles in crafting antiabortion laws, hope to change that with new legislation. (Kindy, 8/14)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Jolt: Doctors At Democratic Event Slam New Abortion Law: ‘A Crime Against Humanity’
At a roundtable sponsored by the Democratic Party of Georgia Thursday night, OB-GYNs talked the confusion the law has caused for patients and doctors, as well as the limits the law creates for women experiencing miscarriages or high-risk pregnancies. (Murphy and Bluestein, 8/12)

The New York Times: Why Abortion Has Become A Centerpiece Of Democratic TV Ads In 2022
All across America, Democrats are using abortion as a powerful cudgel in their 2022 television campaigns, paying for an onslaught of ads in House, Senate and governor’s races that show how swiftly abortion politics have shifted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June. (Goldmacher and Glueck, 8/14)

AP: Physician Green Wins Hawaii Democratic Primary For Governor
For their 16th wedding anniversary, Democrats in Hawaii gifted Josh Green and his wife, Jaime, a comfortable margin of victory in the gubernatorial primary Saturday. Green, the state’s current lieutenant governor, handily defeated former first lady Vicky Cayetano and Kaiali’I Kahele, who decided to seek the governor’s office instead of a second term in the U.S. House. ... Green was a state senator and representative before serving as lieutenant governor. He was a doctor in rural areas on the Big Island before entering politics. He has continued working part time as a physician while in the state Legislature and as lieutenant governor. (McAvoy, 8/14)

Bloomberg: CDC Takes Back Control Of Pandemic Hospitalization Data Despite Criticism
The US won’t renew its contract with TeleTracking Technologies Inc., a private company that took over Covid-19 hospitalization data collection from CDC in 2020, according to an email seen by Bloomberg News. Hospitals will resume reporting the data to the CDC in mid-December, with TeleTracking’s contract expiring on Dec. 31. (Griffin, 8/12)

The Boston Globe: Even Without A COVID Surge, State’s Largest Hospitals Suffer Multimillion-Dollar Losses
The state’s two largest health systems reported multimillion-dollar operating losses for the three months ending in June, a troubling bellwether of the immense financial strain facing hospitals just weeks after the Massachusetts Legislature failed to approve critical relief funding. (Bartlett, 8/12)

Politico: ‘Left To Rot’: The Lonely Plight Of Long Covid Sufferers 
Thousands of long Covid patients across the globe are urging their governments to provide more help for the growing number of people facing lingering symptoms after infection. At least 90 long Covid groups exist around the world in 34 countries. Most are pushing for more research, improved clinical treatments and increased access to disability benefits, while others offer support and advice. (Payne, 8/14)

CIDRAP: COVID's Long Shadow: Symptoms May Last 2 To 18 Months 
A pair of studies published Friday detail long COVID, with US researchers finding that more than one in four pediatric patients hospitalized for COVID-19 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) had persistent symptoms or impaired activity 2 to 4 months later, and a Norwegian study revealing that nearly half of patients with mild COVID-19 still had symptoms after 1 year. MIS-C is a rare but serious post-infectious complication of COVID-19. (Van Beusekom, 8/12)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Says Data Confirms Enhertu Benefit In Breast Cancer Patients
AstraZeneca said a late-stage trial had confirmed the benefit of breast cancer drug Enhertu in patients with an advanced form of the disease who had been previously treated with another therapy. (Grover and Aripaka, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: The Joint Commission To Add Health Equity Standards To Accreditations
The Joint Commission has established new accreditation standards to accelerate equity efforts within healthcare organizations. As of Jan. 1, accreditation programs for primary care clinics, behavioral health centers, critical access facilities and hospitals will include new mandates for their leaders. The updated standards include designating an officer to lead a strategy for reducing health disparities and screening patients for social determinants of health. (Hartnett, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: Signify Health Cutting Nearly 500 Employees
Signify Health is laying off nearly 500 employees, beginning Oct. 1. The value-based care technology company notified the Connecticut Department of Labor it planned to cut 489 employees, including 147 who work in one of the company’s five offices and 342 who work remotely. (Perna, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: Physician Assistant Role Sees Record Growth
Nearly 11,000 physician assistants earned their certification in 2021, a new record for a profession that has grown by nearly 30% in the past five years. The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants said the number of newly certified professionals rose 10.4% in 2021. Altogether, there were 158,470 certified physician assistants in the U.S. last year. (Devereaux, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: Humana Invests In Medicaid Plan As Dual-Eligible Market Share Rises
Humana will pay an undisclosed sum to buy Wisconsin-based Medicaid managed-care company Inclusa, cementing its foothold in the increasingly competitive market for dual-eligible patients. Inclusa provides long-term care services to approximately 16,600 older adults and individuals with disabilities, according to Humana. The deal, announced Friday, is subject to regulatory approval. (Tepper, 8/12)

Politico: The Medical Crisis That Finally Convinced Republicans In North Carolina To Expand Medicaid 
The early days of Courtney Smith’s pregnancy were dark. She bled for six weeks, a common but frightening experience during the first trimester of pregnancy. Doctors in Louisiana, where Smith was living at the time, made matters worse by suggesting she might miscarry. After diagnosing her with hypertension, diabetes and depression, the doctors “threw pills at me,” Smith says. Medicaid paid for her care, but the care was poor: Her Prozac dose was too high, her blood pressure medication was too low, and they gave her medication to control her diabetes without giving her a way to monitor her blood sugar. Meanwhile, her boyfriend made it clear he wasn’t interested in being a father. By the time she was eight weeks pregnant, she was ready to drive into the bayou and end her life. (Rab, 8/14)

Stat: Private Equity Is Shortchanging Kids With Autism, Parents, Clinicians Say
When a new person comes into his living room, a giggly “E” smiles and passes a balloon her way. His fifth birthday was a few weeks ago, and these half-filled remnants still loiter around his suburban house. (Bannow, 8/15)

AP: 2 Radiation Incidents Investigated At Salem Health 
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued two “event notifications” for incidents involving Salem Hospital’s radiation oncology department earlier this year. One incident involved hospital employees, while the other involved patients. Investigations to-date have shown no injuries, the Statesman Journal reported. (8/13)

NBC News: Fungal Infections Are Developing Drug Resistance
Aspergillus and another fungus, Candida auris, are growing resistant to the treatments frequently used to fight them — in particular, a class of drugs called azoles. "If we lose that drug class because of resistance, we’re in for big trouble," said Darius Armstrong-James, an infectious disease physician at Royal Brompton Hospital in the U.K. (Bendix, 8/13)

CIDRAP: More H3N2v Flu Cases Linked To West Virginia Fair
The CDC reported two more variant H3N2 (H3N2v) flu infections in West Virginia, both with links to the same agricultural fair as the initially identified case. In its weekly flu report, the CDC said the two new cases involve people ages 18 and younger. Neither was hospitalized, and both have recovered. So far, no human-to-human spread has been identified. (8/12)