First Edition: Aug. 16, 2022

KHN: Buy And Bust: Collapse Of Private Equity-Backed Rural Hospitals Mired Employees In Medical Bills 
The first unexpected bill arrived in December, just weeks before Tara Lovell’s husband of 40 years died from bladder cancer. Lovell worked as an ultrasound technologist at the local Audrain Community Hospital, in Mexico, Missouri, and was paying more than $400 a month for health insurance through her job. The town’s struggling hospital, the sole health care provider and major employer, had changed ownership in recent years, selling in March 2021 to Noble Health, a private equity-backed startup whose managers had never run a hospital. (Tribble, 8/16)

KHN: After Wiping Out $6.7 Billion In Medical Debt, This Nonprofit Is Just Getting Started
Soon after giving birth to a daughter two months premature, Terri Logan received a bill from the hospital. She recoiled from the string of numbers separated by commas. Logan, who was a high school math teacher in Georgia, shoved it aside and ignored subsequent bills. She was a single mom who knew she had no way to pay. “I avoided it like the plague,” she said, but avoidance didn’t keep the bills out of mind. (Noguchi, 8/16)

KHN: On The Wisconsin-Illinois Border: Clinics In Neighboring States Team Up On Abortion Care
Around two days a week, Natalee Hartwig leaves her home in Madison, Wisconsin, before her son wakes up to travel across the border into Illinois. “Luckily it’s summer,” said Hartwig, a nurse midwife at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “For now, he can sleep in. But any getting ready that has to happen will be on my spouse.” She drives at least two hours each way, immersed in audiobooks and podcasts as she heads back and forth from a clinic in this northern Illinois suburb. She spends her days in the recovery room, caring for patients who have had abortions and checking their vitals before they go home. (Schorsch, 8/16)

The Hill: Biden To Sign Health And Climate Bill On Tuesday 
President Biden will sign into law the sweeping climate, health care and tax legislation that has been Democrats’ priority for more than a year during a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday.  The signing will represent a major milestone for Biden and his domestic economic agenda. The prospects of his climate proposal appeared hopeless a month ago but were dramatically revived in an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) at the end of July. (Chalfant, 8/15)

AP: Biden To Sign Massive Climate, Health Care Legislation
Biden is set to sign the bill during a small ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, sandwiched between his return from a six-day beachside vacation in South Carolina and his departure for his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He plans to hold a larger “celebration” for the legislation on Sept. 6 once lawmakers return to Washington. (Miller, 8/16)

CNBC: UK Becomes First Country To Approve Moderna's Dual Covid-19 Vaccine
Britain on Monday became the first country in the world to approve a dual Covid-19 vaccine, which tackles both the original virus and the newer omicron variant. The updated Moderna vaccine — known as a bivalent because it targets two variants — is expected to be available to adults as a booster jab from the fall after receiving the go-ahead from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Monday. (Gilchrist, 8/15)

The Hill: UK Becomes First Country To Approve Updated Moderna Vaccine Targeting Omicron 
The United States is also working on updated vaccines for a possible fall booster campaign, though the shots might be slightly different. The vaccine approved by the U.K. targets the first version of the omicron variant, known as BA.1, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has instructed vaccine makers to target the more recent subvariants of omicron, known as BA.4 and BA.5.  (Sullivan, 8/15)

The New York Times: U.K. Approves Covid Booster Vaccine That Targets Two Variants
In the United States, Moderna said in late July that the government had secured 66 million doses of a vaccine it was developing that targets the virus that circulated in 2020 and the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. The Biden administration expects to begin a Covid-19 booster campaign next month with updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna targeting new variants, according to people familiar with the deliberations. (Gross, 8/15)

Reuters: Novavax Seeks U.S. Authorization For COVID Vaccine Booster 
Novavax Inc said on Monday it had filed for U.S. authorization for use of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose in people who had either received its shots or a different vaccine. ... [Novavax] is a protein-based vaccine that uses purified pieces of the virus to spur an immune response, a technology that has been used to combat diseases including hepatitis B and influenza. (8/15)

The Boston Globe: 100-Year-Old Tuberculosis Vaccine May Protect Against COVID
A small study from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital suggests that a widely used, 100-year-old vaccine for tuberculosis also may offer protection from COVID-19. The findings, published in Cell Reports Medicine on Monday and conducted in volunteers with type 1 diabetes, found that the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine was 92 percent effective versus a placebo in protecting against infections. (Bartlett, 8/15)

AP: Judge Refuses To Immediately Block Georgia Abortion Ban
A state judge refused Monday to immediately stop enforcement of Georgia’s restrictive abortion law, which took effect last month and bans most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is present. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled he did not have the authority to issue a preliminary injunction and block the law at this stage of the lawsuit. (8/15)

AP: Judge: Legislature Can Intervene A Little In Abortion Case 
A federal judge says the Idaho Legislature can intervene in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit targeting Idaho’s total abortion ban, but only to present evidence about emergency abortions performed in Medicaid-funded emergency rooms. In the written ruling handed down Saturday, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the Legislature’s interests are already well-represented by the Idaho Attorney General’s office and Gov. Brad Little, so there’s no legitimate reason to add another party to the lawsuit. (Boone, 8/15)

AP: WVa Governor: Voters Shouldn't Decide Abortion Access Issue 
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice scoffed Monday at a suggestion by Democratic lawmakers to let voters decide whether abortion should continue to be allowed in the state. The Republican governor said the state’s abortion law falls under the scrutiny of the Legislature and the attorney general. (Raby, 8/15)

The Washington Post: Post-Roe, More Americans Want Their Tubes Tied. It Isn’t Easy
Frances Vermillion showed up to their consultation for a tubal ligation prepared for the worst. Expecting resistance from their gynecologist, the 24-year-old from Ames, Iowa, carefully assembled a binder containing information about sterilization, including their reasons for wanting to get their tubes tied. When they arrived at the initial consultation in late July, Vermillion said their doctor “didn’t even look at the binder” and instead pressed them on why they wanted the procedure, suggesting they were too young and might change their mind later. (Venkataramanan, 8/15)

Stat: Once Routine, Pre-Surgical Pregnancy Testing Now Is Anything But 
Monica da Silva, a critical care and cardiac anesthesiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was counseling a patient who had been in a car accident. Just before they headed to the operating room, however, the patient’s pregnancy test came back unexpectedly positive. (Pasricha, 8/16)

AP: US Offers More Monkeypox Vaccine To States And Cities
U.S. officials said they are able to ship out more monkeypox vaccine doses than previously planned — because of a strategy shift that allows more shots to be drawn from each vial. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had previously anticipated allowing 221,000 doses to be ordered starting Monday. But officials said they would release 442,000 doses for order by state, local and territorial health departments. (Stobbe, 8/15)

Stat: Immunization Leader Lays Bare Challenges Facing The Monkeypox Response
In the United States, the circumstances around monkeypox vaccine are a good news, bad news kind of story. (Branswell, 8/15)

Reuters: Abortion Bans Limit Training Options For Some Future U.S. Physicians
University of Oklahoma medical student Ian Peake spent four years shadowing doctors at a Tulsa abortion clinic because his school didn't offer courses on abortion or provide any training. But the Tulsa Women's Clinic stopped abortion services in May when Oklahoma enacted a near-total ban, and the provider closed for good after the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional abortion protections in June. Peake, 33, now had no local options to learn about abortion. (Horowitch, 8/15)

ABC News: 7th Child In US Tests Positive For Monkeypox
A child in Martin County, Florida, has tested positive for monkeypox, state health data shows. Across the U.S., at least seven children have now tested positive for monkeypox. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data. (Mitropoulos, 8/16)

NBC News: Monkeypox Misinformation Spreading Faster Than The Virus, Experts Say
In interviews with NBC News, epidemiologists and infectious disease experts dispelled some of the most common misconceptions, including whether the virus spreads easily through the air, that cases among women and children are being undercounted, and that health care workers are at high risk. (Ryan, 8/15)

The Boston Globe: Schools Move Away From Masks As Studies Suggest They Are Effective
Heading into a third fall of living with COVID-19, many schools and colleges are ditching mask mandates and telling students that face coverings are optional. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Monday made it official, releasing fall guidelines that informed families “there is no longer any statewide masking mandate in schools (other than school health offices) and there is no testing requirement for schools.” (Lazar, 8/15)

AP: WVa Providing Free COVID Tests, Vaccines At Schools 
West Virginia’s health agency has bought 16 vans to provide free COVID-19 testing and vaccines at school and community events, officials said. ... Schools that are interested in having a van come to an event should contact their local health department, the statement said. (8/16)

Stat: It's Going To Be A Complicated Fall For Covid And Flu Vaccinations
For the health officials who steer vaccination campaigns, it’s going to be a complicated fall. (Joseph, 8/16)

AP: Defense Secretary Austin Positive For COVID For Second Time
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday he has tested positive for COVID-19, is experiencing mild symptoms and will quarantine at home. It’s the second time Austin has gotten the coronavirus. In a statement, Austin, 69, said he is fully vaccinated and has received two boosters. He said he’ll quarantine for the next five days in accordance with CDC guidelines and “will retain all authorities and plan to maintain my normal work schedule virtually from home.” (8/15)

USA Today: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla Tests Positive For COVID-19, Takes Paxlovid
Pfizer's CEO tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing "very mild symptoms," he announced Monday. "I would like to inform the public that I have tested positive for COVID-19," the biopharmaceutical company's chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla, said in a statement. (Naysa Alund, 9/15)

AP: NC Governor Signs Order Officially Ending COVID-19 Emergency 
North Carolina’s state of emergency giving extraordinary powers to state government to address the COVID-19 pandemic is ending Monday as Gov. Roy Cooper officially concluded it nearly 2 1/2 years after he entered his first order. (Robertson, 8/15)

PBS NewsHour: The COVID Lessons The U.S. Still Needs To Learn To Tackle Monkeypox
“Without even finishing the COVID pandemic, we’re already facing monkeypox,” said Dr. Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security and a founding member of the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics. (Santhanam, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Workers On Strike
No further bargaining sessions are scheduled, according to Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Steve Shivinsky. “Kaiser Permanente has made it known we are prepared to meet with the union at any time and will continue bargaining in good faith. Our goal is to reach a fair and equitable agreement and bring this strike and our negotiations to a conclusion,” he wrote in an email. (Christ, 8/15)

Crain's New York Business: New York Hospitals, Healthcare Workers Reach Few Agreements On Staffing Levels
Hospitals across New York largely failed to reach consensus with nurses and ancillary-service workers in their final clinical staffing plans submitted to the state Department of Health, union members said. (Kaufman, 8/15)

USA Today: Nurses Of Color Await Action After American Nurses Association Apology
In a recent statement, the American Nurses Association apologized to nurses of color, saying in the coming months it will launch a multi-phase project of “accountability, healing, and reconciliation. ”The “racial reckoning” statement is a “starting point for an overdue journey toward the future. "ANA intends to take full accountability for its actions,” the association wrote, promising “historic action.” (Hassanein, 8/16)

Bloomberg: Activist Elliott Takes Large Stake In Cardinal Health, Dow Jones Reports
Elliott Management Corp., the activist investor firm, has taken a large position in drug distributor Cardinal Health Inc. and is seeking seats on the company’s board, Dow Jones reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (Lauerman, 8/15)

Axios: Few Cancer Centers Have Price Transparency
Less than a third of the 63 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in the U.S. are fully complying with federal price transparency rules, according to an analysis in JAMA Surgery. (Reed, 8/15)

Billings Gazette: Montana Hospitals Facing Unprecedented Financial Crisis
Record high hospitalizations during surges of COVID-19 infections led to burnout among nurses and front-line workers, resulting in an exodus from the field. To backfill, hospital administrators have turned to traveling or contracted staff, whose wages, agency fees and housing cost at least three times more than the wages of permanent employees. (Schabacker, 8/14)

Stat: BrainStorm To Seek FDA Approval For ALS Drug, Despite Agency Objections
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration issued a rare public statement to inform the ALS community that a negative clinical trial involving an experimental stem-cell therapy from Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics did not support the filing of a marketing application. (Feuerstein, 8/15)

The Baltimore Sun: How Do You Make Painkillers Work Faster? Lie On Your Right Side, Research Says
When you have a pounding headache, it can be rough waiting for the pain meds to kick in. So don’t wait too long, say researchers at Johns Hopkins University. (Cohn, 8/15)

Stat: Sales From Controversial Drug Discount Program Rose To $44 Billion Last Year
Prescription medicines purchased in the U.S. under a controversial government discount program amounted to $44 billion in 2021, a nearly 16% increase from the previous year, according to the Health Resources & Service Administration, which oversees the program. (Silverman, 8/15)

Detroit Free Press: Boil Water Advisory To Continue For 2 Weeks As Repairs Begin
Seven communities, approximately 133,000 people, will remain under a boil water advisory for two weeks while the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) investigates what caused the Saturday morning break. A new section of the 120-inch pipe arrived Monday, beginning the repair process that's anticipated to take a week to complete. (Marini, 8/15)

Los Angeles Times: Free For All California Students: At Least Two Meals A Day
California is the first state to enact free school meals for students served by public school districts, county offices of education and charter schools, whether or not they’re eligible for the National School Lunch Program’s free or reduced-price meals. The state started a universal meal effort last year, with the federal government picking up most of the tab ... (Garcia and Healey, 8/15)

Bloomberg: Eating Disorder Crisis Plaguing Americans On Government-Funded Insurance
The pandemic exacerbated many mental health problems, and eating disorders are no exception: Emergency room visits for girls suffering from anorexia and bulimia were twice as high in January of this year as they were three years earlier. (Muller, 8/15)

Newsweek: Millions Of Baby Swings, Rockers Recalled After Child Strangled And Killed
More than 2 million infant swings have been recalled for "entanglement and strangulation hazards" after one child died and another was injured. The 4moms MamaRoo Baby Swing and RockaRoo Baby Rocker were recalled Monday because the dangling restraint strap pose a strangulation hazard to crawling infants, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). (Giella, 8/15)

USA Today: Capri Sun Recalled: Cleaning Solution Contamination Prompts Recall
Kraft Heinz issued a voluntary recall of more than 5,700 cartons of Wild Cherry flavored Capri Sun drinks that were contaminated with cleaning solution used on food processing equipment, the company announced in a statement Friday. (Mayorquin, 8/15)

The Washington Post: In A World First, Scotland Offers Tampons And Pads For Free
Scotland is offering tampons and other period products free to anyone who needs them — the first nation in the world to do so — as part of a push to end “period poverty.” From this week, menstrual products will be available free in public spaces such as community centers, pharmacies and youth clubs, in line with legislation initially approved by lawmakers in 2020. (Pannett, 8/16)