First Edition: Aug. 2, 2023

KFF Health News: The Real Costs Of The New Alzheimer’s Drug, Most Of Which Will Fall To Taxpayers
The first drug purporting to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s disease is likely to cost the U.S. health care system billions annually even as it remains out of reach for many of the lower-income seniors most likely to suffer from dementia. Medicare and Medicaid patients will make up 92% of the market for lecanemab, according to Eisai Co., which sells the drug under the brand name Leqembi. In addition to the company’s $26,500 annual price tag for the drug, treatment could cost U.S. taxpayers $82,500 per patient per year, on average, for genetic tests and frequent brain scans, safety monitoring, and other care, according to estimates from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, or ICER. The FDA gave the drug full approval July 6. About 1 million Alzheimer’s patients in the U.S. could qualify to use it. (Allen, 8/2)

KFF Health News: Repeating History: California County Plugs Budget Gap With Opioid Settlement Cash
Over the past two years, as state attorneys general agreed to more than $50 billion in legal settlements with companies that made or sold opioids, they vowed the money would be spent on addiction treatment and prevention. They were determined to avoid the misdirection of the tobacco settlement of the 1990s, in which billions of dollars from cigarette companies went to plug budget gaps instead of funding programs to stop or prevent smoking. But in at least one California county, history is repeating itself. And across the country, many local leaders are finding themselves in similar positions: choosing between paying bills due today or investing in the fight against an ongoing crisis. (Pattani, 8/2)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’ 
This week on the KFF Health News Minute, we look at how airplane regulations add hurdles to lifesaving organ donation and the cancer risks associated with chemical hair straighteners. (8/1)

NPR: Indiana's Abortion Ban Has Been Halted By Another Lawsuit
A near total ban on abortion in Indiana to go into effect Tuesday is on hold again after abortion providers filed another lawsuit in a last-ditch effort to halt it. (Smith, 8/2)

AP: Indiana Abortion Clinics Stop Providing Abortions Ahead Of Near-Total Abortion Ban Taking Effect 
Indiana’s six abortion clinics have stopped providing abortions ahead of the state’s near-total abortion ban officially taking effect and as a petition is pending before the state’s high court asking it to keep the ban on hold while legal action continues, clinic officials said Tuesday. Planned Parenthood’s four Indiana abortion clinics stopped performing abortions Monday in accordance with state guidance that providers received in July alerting them that on or around Tuesday abortion would become illegal in Indiana in clinic settings “with really very, very limited exceptions,” said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of the Planned Parenthood division that includes Indiana. (Callahan, 8/1)

AP: Idaho Health Care Providers Can Refer Patients For Abortions Out Of State, Federal Judge Rules
A federal judge has ruled that it would violate Idaho medical providers’ free speech rights to sanction them for referring patients to out-of-state abortion services, rejecting the state attorney general’s interpretation of Idaho’s abortion ban. Idaho’s law makes it illegal to perform or attempt to perform an abortion, a crime punishable by two to five years in prison. It also makes it unlawful for health care professionals to assist in the provision or attempted provision of one, with the penalty being the suspension or loss of their medical license. (Johnson and Komenda, 8/1)

Reuters: US Appeals Court Reinstates Guam In-Person Abortion Counseling Law
A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a law requiring that women in Guam meet with doctors in person before obtaining abortions, a restriction that has made terminating pregnancies in the U.S. territory difficult due to a lack of doctors. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a judge's 2021 ruling that blocked enforcement of the law, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had established a national right to abortions. (Raymond, 8/1)

Bloomberg: Abortion Pill Provider Buys From Indian Manufacturer With Bad Quality Record
With splashy marketing campaigns and major donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DKT International has become one of the world’s largest sellers of abortion pills, serving women from India to Mexico. The Washington DC-based nonprofit says it provides high-quality medicines, condoms and other reproductive health products at affordable prices. But almost one-fifth of the 30 million products DKT distributes annually for abortions and postpartum hemorrhage prevention come from an Indian company with a record of making substandard medicine. (Taggart and Pulla, 8/1)

Axios: Giving Birth In America Continues To Get Deadlier
It's becoming ever more dangerous to give birth in America, especially for Black women, older women and those living in rural areas, according to a pair of new reports from March of Dimes and Milken Institute. The dismal U.S. maternal health statistics are usually a sidebar in the abortion wars, but many experts believe that increasing the number of births by further restricting access to abortion will only worsen the situation. (Owens, 8/2)

USA Today: Maternity Care Deserts: March Of Dimes Report Shows Worsening Access
The number of women struggling to access to maternal care in the U.S. continues to grow, with nearly 7 million women affected by areas of no to low access, according to a new report released Tuesday by March of Dimes. The nonprofit organization's 2022 report shows 1,119 counties qualify as maternity care deserts, marking a 2% increase from the 2020 report or an additional 15,933 women who have no maternity care. (DeLetter, 8/1)

AP: Global AIDS Program Targeted In Abortion Battle Gets New Home In State Department Bureau 
The State Department launched a new bureau Tuesday aimed at making the battle against global outbreaks a lasting priority of U.S. foreign policy, even as one of its key elements – a widely acclaimed HIV program – has become caught up in the political battle over abortion. The bureau is to include the 20-year-old initiative known as the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. ... Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a ceremony for the new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, made only a passing reference to the abortion fight threatening PEPFAR’s normally assured support from lawmakers, saying he hoped Congress approved the program for another five years, without amendments. (Knickmeyer, 8/1)

The Hill: COVID Hospital Admissions Jump In What Could Be A New Norm Of Summer Surges 
Total COVID-19 hospital admissions jumped by 12.1 percent in the past week, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), marking the highest jump in admissions since last winter. This week’s hospital admission rate follows last week’s rise of more than 10 percent. While this data suggests more infections, a metric the CDC does not track anymore, it remains unclear how concerned people should be. (Choi, 8/1)

ABC News: Why Rising COVID Hospitalizations Should Not Necessarily Be A Cause For Concern
For the week ending July 22, hospitalizations rose 12% from the previous week from 7,165 to 8,035, according to data released Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While a double-digit percentage jump may seem scary, experts say these numbers are still among the lowest we have seen since the pandemic began and that there is no reason to panic just yet. (Kekatos and Benadjaoud, 8/1)

NBC News: Updated Covid Boosters Could Be Authorized By End Of Month, Pfizer Says
The Food and Drug Administration could authorize Pfizer's updated Covid boosters by the end of August, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during an investor call Tuesday. The drugmaker asked the FDA in June to authorize an updated version of its Covid booster that is designed to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant, a coronavirus strain that began circulating widely last winter. Moderna made a similar request that same month. (Lovelace Jr., 8/1)

CNN: Vaccines For Flu And RSV Now Available Ahead Of Fall Virus Season
With the fall respiratory virus season just around the corner, major US pharmacy chains have begun rolling out flu and RSV vaccine appointments. Walgreens is now offering both kinds of shots, the company said Tuesday. Anyone 3 or older can get a flu shot, and adults 60 and older are eligible for the RSV vaccine. Rite Aid also plans to announce availability of those vaccines soon, spokesperson Catherine Carter says. (Musa, 8/1)

CIDRAP: Long-COVID Patients Have Altered Metabolite Levels 2 Years After Infection 
Levels of metabolites were altered in long-COVID patients 2 years after infection, suggests a study published today in Scientific Reports. Metabolites are products of metabolism, or the process of changing food and drink into energy, that have cell-level roles, such as providing fuel, structure, or defense. (Van Beusekom, 8/1)

CIDRAP: Overall Risk Of Pediatric ICU Stay, Death In COVID-19, MIS-C Low, Study Shows 
A University College London–led team finds a very low risk of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission and death from COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) during the first 2 years of the pandemic, with the highest risk among children with complex medical problems and neurodisabilities. The researchers conducted a population-level analysis of hospitalizations after COVID-19 infection in England among youth 0 to 17 years old from February 1, 2020, to January 31, 2022. They linked national hospital data with data on COVID-19 testing, vaccination, PICU admissions, and death. (Van Beusekom, 8/1)

CIDRAP: Healthcare Workers' Depression Increased In Second Year Of Pandemic 
A study today of 2,564 Czech healthcare workers finds that their prevalence of depression increased twice during the pandemic. The study is published in Scientific Reports. ... "This change was explained the most by increased stress, contact with COVID-19 patients, and experience of death due to COVID-19," wrote the authors, who employed a number of models to show how and why participants saw increased rates of depression. "Perceived stress has been consistently found to be a risk factor for depression in HCWs over the course of [the] COVID-19 pandemic." (Soucheray, 8/1)

NPR: After COVID, The New CDC Director Is Focused On Building Trust With The Public
The pandemic was a chance for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do what it does best. Instead, that public health crisis left the CDC marred by political interference and criticism of confusing messaging — and the agency lost trust among Americans. Trust is clearly one issue on the mind of the agency's new director, Dr. Mandy Cohen. She mentioned the word more than 50 times at a commencement speech she delivered earlier this year. (Pfeiffer, Lim and Intagliata, 8/2)

CNN: AI-Supported Mammogram Screening Increases Breast Cancer Detection By 20%, Study Finds
Artificial intelligence found more breast cancers than doctors with years of training and experience and cut doctors’ mammogram reading workload almost in half, a new early-stage study found. This doesn’t mean your hospital will let a computer determine whether you have cancer any time soon. There’s still a lot more research to do, but the study, published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet Oncology, shows that AI is safe to use in breast cancer detection and could make doctors even more effective at finding cancer than they are now. (Christensen, 8/1)

NPR: Henrietta Lacks' Family Reaches Settlement Over Use Of Her 'Stolen' Cells : NPR
The family of Henrietta Lacks has reached a settlement with a science and technology company that it says used cells taken without Lacks' consent in the 1950s to develop products it later sold for a profit. Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University in 1951 when doctors removed cells from her tumor without her knowledge or permission. Those cells — now known as HeLa cells — had remarkable properties that allowed them to be endlessly reproduced, and they have since been used for a variety of scientific breakthroughs, including research about the human genome and the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines. (8/1)

The Conversation: Who Was Henrietta Lacks? Here’s How HeLa Cells Became Essential To Medical Research
In an amazing twist of fate, the aggressive cervical cancer tumor that killed Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year old African American mother, became an essential tool that helped the biomedical field flourish in the 20th century. As a cancer researcher who uses HeLa cells in my everyday work, even I sometimes find it hard to believe. On Aug. 1, 2023, over 70 years after doctors took Lacks’ cells without her consent or knowledge, her family reached a settlement with biotech company Thermo Fisher. Lacks’ descendants had sued the company in 2021 for making billions of dollars off her cells. The family has not been previously been compensated. (Martinez, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: Labor Department Sues UnitedHealth’s UMR Over Denied Claims
A UnitedHealth Group unit denied thousands of emergency department and drug screening claims without reviewing them for medical necessity, the Labor Department alleges in a lawsuit initiated on Monday. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin targets UMR, a third-party administrator within the company's UnitedHealthcare subsidiary, and accuses it of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The Labor Department alleges UMR "simply denied" claims without assessing their merit. (Tepper, 8/1)

Axios: Hospitals Cinch $2.2 Billion Medicare Pay Bump
Hospitals secured a $2.2 billion increase in Medicare payments for inpatient services in 2024, according to a final rule issued Tuesday. The 3.1% increase is slightly higher than the rate the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed in April. However, the agency did not grant hospitals' request to raise payments further to account for previous underestimates in hospitals costs. (Goldman, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: Addus HomeCare May Exit States If CMS Advances Medicaid Wages Rule
Addus HomeCare may pull out of states with low Medicaid reimbursements if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services moves forward with a proposal requiring states to spend 80% of home- and community-based services funding on caregiver wages. Chair and CEO Dirk Allison challenged the federal government's authority to dictate caregiver wage percentages to states and said a one-size-fits-all mandate would create an administrative nightmare for providers operating across multiple states. Addus HomeCare offers personal care, home health and hospice services in 22 states. (Eastabrook, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: Independent Hospitals Prices Increase Post-Acquisition: Study
Average inpatient prices for commercially insured patients rose 5% after health systems acquired an independent hospital, according to an analysis of commercial claims from 2012 to 2018 showing the prices hospitals negotiate with insurers. Readmission rates for patients receiving cardiac care at those hospitals increased by up to 12%, and remained elevated for three years after the acquisition, researchers found. The paper was published by the Public Policy Institute of Elevance Health, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. (Kacik, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: Amazon Brings Direct-To-Consumer Telehealth To All 50 States
Amazon Clinic, a direct-to-consumer telehealth marketplace, is expanding to all 50 states and Washington D.C., the tech giant said on Tuesday. The direct-to-consumer telehealth service gives users access to third-party providers for non-urgent health conditions ranging from pink eye to urinary tract infections. Amazon, which first launched the service in November 2022, initially made it available in 32 states. (Turner, 8/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Another Big Health System Starts Billing For MyChart Messages
St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare has begun billing patients for MyChart messages, KMOV reported. The health system didn't specify how much the messages will cost but noted the charges will apply to "complex interactions," according to the July 24 story. ... BJC joins a growing list of health systems that bill for MyChart messages as providers have experienced an explosion in patient portal traffic in recent years. However, hospital executives have differing opinions on the effectiveness of charging for the interactions. (Bruce, 8/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Black Med Students 50% More Likely To Leave MD Training, Study Finds
Half of Black medical students pursuing an MD degree leave before finishing — an attrition rate that is significantly higher than that of their peers, research published July 31 in JAMA found. ... Between the 2004 and 2012 study timeframe, only 17 percent of White MD students did not finish their training compared to 29 percent of Black students. (Hollowell, 8/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Doctors Sue California Medical Board To Halt Implicit Bias Training
A pair of doctors and a group that says it is determined to protect health care from “radical, divisive ideology” sued the Medical Board of California on Tuesday to stop it from enforcing a state law that requires doctors to study the role of implicit bias in treatment. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco targets a 2019 state law that describes implicit bias in health care as unconscious “attitudes or internalized stereotypes” that can lead to disparities in care among ethnic groups and by gender or sexuality even when medical complaints are similar. (Asimov, 8/1)

NBC News: CEO Of HCA Hospital In Florida That Allegedly Had Roaches In The Operating Room Leaves Job
The chief executive of HCA Florida Bayonet Point, the Hudson, Florida, hospital whose physicians characterized it as unsafe and unclean in a February NBC News report, has departed after less than four years, according to a memo delivered to the staff Friday. Regina Temple is leaving “to pursue other opportunities outside HCA Healthcare, effective immediately,” the memo said. Temple’s exit seemed sudden, physicians working at the hospital said, as she was engaged in long-term initiatives as recently as mid-July. (Morgenson, 8/1)

Bloomberg: Adderall Shortage Has US FDA, DEA Urging ADHD Drugmakers To Boost Production
US drug regulators and law enforcement officials asked pharmaceutical companies to manufacture more Adderall, an ADHD medication that has been in short supply for nearly a year. The Food and Drug Administration, which reviews drugs for safety and effectiveness, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which polices controlled substances like stimulants, “have called on manufacturers to confirm they are working to increase production,” the agencies wrote in a letter Tuesday. (Swetlitz, 8/1)

AP: Blackfeet Tribe Of Montana Declares Emergency Over Medicaid Scam That Lured Members To Arizona
A widespread Medicaid scam that left an unknown number of Native Americans homeless in metro Phoenix is being declared a public health state of emergency by the Blackfeet Nation of Montana after the Navajo Nation took similar action in June. The scam left an unknown number of Native Americans without shelter in the greater Phoenix area after Arizona’s Medicaid program suspended scores of programs suspected of fraud. The declarations allow the tribes to get staffing and other resources to help people hurt by the scam. (8/1)

Axios: 988 Calls, Texts For Mental Health Help In Minnesota Spike In Year One
Minnesotans experiencing mental health crises are increasingly turning to texts for help. Texts to Minnesota's suicide prevention and mental health hotline have increased more than 900% in the 10 months since the hotline rebranded to 988 last summer, per Minnesota Department of Health data. (Van Oot, 8/1)

Stat: Adults Seen As Increasingly Susceptible To Measles
Simon Matthews made three trips this spring to the emergency room of his local hospital in Eastbourne, on England’s southeast coast, before doctors managed to figure out what was making him so ill. He had a fever of 104 Fahrenheit, uncommonly high for an adult. On his first foray to the hospital — in an ambulance — it was feared he had meningitis. Cleared of that, Matthews, 62, was sent home with a vague diagnosis; doctors believed he had an unidentified viral infection. (Branswell, 8/2)

CIDRAP: Experimental Study Suggests Bed Bugs Could Be Vector For MRSA Spread
The results of an experimental study suggest bed bugs may be able to acquire and transmit methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), researchers reported yesterday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 8/1)

CNN: What Is Gianotti-Crosti Syndrome, The Condition Affecting Mandy Moore’s Son? Experts Explain
Actor Mandy Moore’s son recently woke up to a startling rash covering his body, according to her Instagram posts. It took trips to urgent care, the pediatrician, a dermatologist and a pediatric dermatologist to figure out what was causing him to itch all over his arms, legs and feet. The cause? Gianotti-Crosti syndrome. (Holcombe, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Infant Peanut Exposure Can Prevent Allergies, But Parents Worry
Exposing infants to peanuts between 4 and 6 months of age can potentially prevent peanut allergies, yet many parents remain anxious about the prospect and aren’t aware that it’s safe, new research shows. ... When more than 3,000 parents and caregivers of infants and young children were asked about the practice, nearly 9 in 10 weren’t aware of the new guidelines. (Camero, 8/1)

Grist: As Climate Change Leads To More And Wetter Storms, Cholera Cases Are On The Rise
As climate change intensifies, storms like Ana and Gombe are becoming more frequent, more powerful, and wetter. The World Health Organization says that while poverty and conflict remain enduring drivers for cholera around the world, climate change is aggravating the acute global upsurge of the disease that began in 2021. According to the WHO, 30 countries reported outbreaks in 2022, 50% more than previous years’ average; many of those outbreaks were compounded by tropical cyclones and their ensuing displacement of people. (Begert, 8/1)

The Wall Street Journal: In Ukraine, Amputations Already Evoke Scale Of World War I 
In February, Ruslana Danilkina, a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier, came under fire near the front line around Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine. Shrapnel tore her left leg off above the knee. She clutched her severed thigh bone and watched medics place her severed leg into the vehicle that took her to a hospital. “I was holding the bone in my hands… there and then I realized that this was the end, that my life would never be the same again,” Danilkina said. Danilkina is one of between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians who have lost one or more limbs since the start of the war, according to previously undisclosed estimates by prosthetics firms, doctors and charities. (Pancevski, 8/1)