First Edition: Aug. 24, 2023
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Dangers And Deaths Around Black Pregnancies Seen As A ‘Completely Preventable’ Health Crisis
Tonjanic Hill was overjoyed in 2017 when she learned she was 14 weeks pregnant. Despite a history of uterine fibroids, she never lost faith that she would someday have a child. But, just five weeks after confirming her pregnancy, and the day after a gender-reveal party where she announced she was having a girl, she seemed unable to stop urinating. She didn’t realize her amniotic fluid was leaking. Then came the excruciating pain. “I ended up going to the emergency room,” said Hill, now 35. “That’s where I had the most traumatic, horrible experience ever.” (West, 8/24)
KFF Health News:
Timing And Cost Of New Vaccines Vary By Virus And Health Insurance Status
As summer edges toward fall, thoughts turn to, well, vaccines. Yes, inevitably, it’s time to think about the usual suspects — influenza and covid-19 shots — but also the new kid in town: recently approved vaccines for RSV, short for respiratory syncytial virus. But who should get the various vaccines, and when? “For the eligible populations, all three shots are highly recommended,” said Georges Benjamin, a physician and the executive director of the American Public Health Association. (Appleby, 8/24)
NBC News:
South Carolina’s All-Male Supreme Court Upholds 6-Week Abortion Ban
Just months after the exit of its sole female justice, the South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld restrictions that would ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy. ... The decision brings an end to the brief relief abortion rights advocates found in January when then-Justice Kaye Hearn wrote a majority opinion striking down a separate six-week ban tied to a 2021 state law, arguing it violated the state’s constitutional right to privacy. After Hearn’s mandatory retirement, South Carolina was left with an all-male high court. (Harris, 8/24)
AP:
Arizona Court To Review Ruling That Abortion Doctors Can't Be Charged Under Pre-Statehood Law
The Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to review a lower court’s conclusion that abortion doctors can’t be prosecuted under a pre-statehood law that bans the procedure in nearly all cases. The high court decided on Tuesday that it would review the Arizona Court of Appeals ruling that said doctors couldn’t be charged for performing abortions in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy because other Arizona laws passed over the years allow them to perform the procedure. Abortions are currently allowed in Arizona in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy under a 2022 law. (8/23)
Stat:
2024 Presidential Candidates Spar Over Abortion In Republican Debate
Republican presidential candidates sparred Wednesday over a question that has haunted the party since The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade: Now that abortion bans are possible, how far should they go? Like voters, candidates splintered on the question. From a national ban to state decisions and when in pregnancy limits should be imposed, no two had quite the same answer. (Owermohle and Lawrence, 8/23)
Politico:
White House To Name First 10 Drugs For Medicare Negotiations Early
The Biden administration is expected to disclose early next week the first 10 prescription drugs selected for Medicare price negotiations, ahead of a White House event Tuesday to celebrate the milestone, four people involved in the plans told POLITICO. The announcement will mark a major step in a bid to lower drug prices through the first-ever direct negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical manufacturers over a set of medicines. (Lim and Cancryn, 8/23)
Stat:
Mid-Year Drug Price Hikes Are Back Despite Inflation Reduction Act
It’s almost a tradition. At the start and halfway points of each year, many pharmaceutical companies raise drug prices to bolster revenue and reportedly fund new research. (Bajaj, 8/24)
Axios:
Medicare Gets Serious On Hospice Fraud
After a year of scrutinizing fraud in the hospice industry, Medicare dropped the hammer this week: The agency warned nearly 400 hospices are at risk of being bounced from the program if they can't prove they're a legitimate enterprise. (Goldman, 8/24)
Roll Call:
FDA Taps New Human Foods Program Head After Baby Formula Crisis
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced the selection of its first deputy commissioner for human foods — part of an effort to reorganize the agency’s oversight of food safety after contaminated baby formula caused major shortages last year. James “Jim” Jones, a former EPA official, will start his new role on Sept. 24 leading the new Human Foods Program, which will oversee food safety, chemical safety, nutrition and other areas. (Hellmann, 8/23)
Axios:
Biden Admin Invests $24M In Researching MRNA To Fight Cancer
The Biden administration's new biomedical research agency is providing $24 million for research leveraging an mRNA platform to train the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases, officials told Axios first. The project, led by Emory University in Atlanta, supports the administration's "cancer moonshot" — part of President Biden's "unity agenda" — aimed at cutting the cancer death rate in half over 25 years. (Reed, 8/23)
The Washington Post:
Justice Dept. Brings Wave Of Cases Over $836 Million In Alleged Covid Fraud
In one of the largest national crackdowns on fraud targeting federal coronavirus aid, the Justice Department on Wednesday said it had brought 718 law enforcement actions in connection with the alleged theft of more than $836 million. The vast array of criminal charges and other sanctions — part of a federal sweep conducted over the past three months — reflected the ongoing, costly work in Washington to recover stolen pandemic funds roughly three years after the peak of the public health crisis. (Romm, 8/23)
Reuters:
US Says Stolen COVID Relief Funds Seized So Far Top $1.4 Billion
"This latest action, involving over 300 defendants and over $830 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud, should send a clear message: the COVID-19 public health emergency may have ended, but the Justice Department's work to identify and prosecute those who stole pandemic relief funds is far from over," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. A total of 119 defendants pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial during the sweep, according to the Justice Department. (Singh, 8/23)
Stat:
People Can Get Long Covid Without Testing Positive For Virus: Study
Of the 103 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., an estimated one-third have led to long Covid — a condition that ranges in severity, but can be debilitating. A new study suggests that even more people may be suffering from the post-viral syndrome without having ever received an official diagnosis of Covid-19. (Merelli, 8/23)
Reuters:
US CDC Says New COVID Lineage Could Cause Infections In Vaccinated Individuals
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday the new BA.2.86 lineage of coronavirus may be more capable than older variants in causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received vaccines. CDC said it was too soon to know whether this might cause more severe illness compared with previous variants. But due to the high number of mutations detected in this lineage, there were concerns about its impact on immunity from vaccines and previous infections, the agency said. (8/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
COVID Spike Prompts Bay Area Hospitals To Reinstate Mask Mandate
As the Bay Area experiences a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, one of its most prominent health care providers is requiring patients, staff and visitors to mask up again. Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center has reinstated a temporary mask mandate for people within its facilities. The measure is a direct response to the increasing number of individuals testing positive for the coronavirus, according to an official statement made on Wednesday. (Vaziri, 8/23)
NBC News:
Kentucky School District Cancels Classes Due To Covid, Flu, Strep
Less than two weeks into the school year, a Kentucky school district has canceled in-person classes for the rest of week after nearly a fifth of its students came down with Covid, strep throat, the flu and other illnesses. The Lee County School District, which has just under 900 students, began classes Aug. 9 but noticed attendance drop to about 82% on Friday, Superintendent Earl Ray Schuler said. By Monday, the rate dipped to 81%, and 14 staff members called in sick, Schuler said. (Pandey, 8/24)
CIDRAP:
Families Felt Pandemic Burdens Differently, Depending On Education Level And Child Age
The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect all US families the same way, a new cohort study in JAMA Network Open claims, with families helmed by caregivers with lower levels of education more strained during the first 2 years of the pandemic. ... Caregivers who had less than a high school education (compared to a master’s degree or higher) had more challenges accessing COVID-19 tests, lower odds of working remotely, and more food-access concerns. (Soucheray, 8/23)
Axios:
Kindergarten Vaccine Exemption Rate Keeps Rising: U.S. Average Nearly Doubles In A Decade
The nationwide median rate of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions nearly doubled between the school years ending in 2012 and 2022, per CDC estimates. While COVID-19 vaccination is not required for young children attending public school anywhere in the U.S., it appears that concerns over that shot may be fueling broader vaccine skepticism among a relatively small but growing number of parents — though that trend certainly existed before the pandemic. (Fitzpatrick and Beheraj, 8/24)
The New York Times:
Mallinckrodt’s Bankruptcy Plan Would Cut Payments To Opioid Victims By $1 Billion
In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Mallinckrodt disclosed that it had reached a plan to file for bankruptcy for the second time in three years. The plan would cancel a majority of the $1.25 billion that the company still owes under the original settlement agreement, in exchange for a final payment of $250 million that would be made before the company enters its second bankruptcy. The plan to cancel a majority of the outstanding payments was devised with backing from hedge funds that would control the company under a second bankruptcy. The funds had lent money to Mallinckrodt and were in a position to force the company to prioritize paying back its lenders over compensating victims. (Robbins, 8/23)
AP:
Gender-Affirming Surgeries In The US Nearly Tripled Before Pandemic Dip, Study Finds
The increase likely reflects expanded insurance coverage for transgender care after the Obama administration and some states actively discouraged discrimination based on gender identity, lead author Dr. Jason Wright of Columbia University said. The dip in 2020 can be attributed to the pandemic. A little more than half the patients were ages 19 to 30. Surgeries in patients 18 and younger, were rare: fewer than 1,200 in the highest volume year. (Johnson, 8/23)
AP:
Opponents Are Unimpressed As A Georgia Senator Revives A Bill Regulating How Schools Teach Gender
A Georgia state senator is trying to revive a proposal aimed at stopping teachers from talking to students about gender identity without parental permission, but both gay rights groups and some religious conservatives remain opposed to the bill. (Amy, 8/23)
The New York Times:
Florida Considers Tough Consequences For College Staff Who Break Bathroom Law
The Florida State Board of Education voted Wednesday to approve new rules at state colleges for transgender employees and students that are intended to comply with a law, passed in May, restricting access to bathrooms. Colleges will be forced to fire employees who twice use a bathroom other than the one assigned to their sex at birth, despite being asked to leave. And bathroom restrictions also now apply to student housing operated by the colleges. (Goldstein and Edmonds, 8/23)
The New York Times:
How A Small Gender Clinic Landed In A Political Storm
The small Midwestern gender clinic was buckling under an unrelenting surge in demand. Last year, dozens of young patients were seeking appointments every month, far too many for the clinic’s two psychologists to screen. Doctors in the emergency room downstairs raised alarms about transgender teenagers arriving every day in crisis, taking hormones but not getting therapy. (Ghorayshi, 8/23)
Stat:
Complete Sequence Of Y Chromosome Published For First Time
Two years ago, when an international team of scientists announced it had finally sequenced and assembled the first fully complete human genome, including previously unmappable regions, Melissa Wilson was ecstatic. She reached out to Adam Phillippy, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and a leader of the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium to congratulate him on the accomplishment. And to ask the question she was almost too excited to utter: “And the Y?” (Molteni, 8/23)
The New York Times:
A Stroke Stole Her Ability to Speak at 30. A.I. Is Helping to Restore It Years Later
At Ann Johnson’s wedding reception 20 years ago, her gift for speech was vividly evident. In an ebullient 15-minute toast, she joked that she had run down the aisle, wondered if the ceremony program should have said “flutist” or “flautist” and acknowledged that she was “hogging the mic.” Just two years later, Mrs. Johnson — then a 30-year-old teacher, volleyball coach and mother of an infant — had a cataclysmic stroke that paralyzed her and left her unable to talk. (Belluck, 8/23)
NPR:
New Technology Is Letting Paralyzed Patients Communicate
For Pat Bennett, 68, every spoken word is a struggle. Bennett has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative disease that has disabled the nerve cells controlling her vocal and facial muscles. As a result, her attempts to speak sound like a series of grunts. But in a lab at Stanford University, an experimental brain-computer interface is able to transform Bennett's thoughts into easily intelligible sentences, like, "I am thirsty," and "bring my glasses here." (Hamilton, 8/23)
AP:
PeaceHealth To Shutter Only Hospital In Eugene, Oregon; Nurse's Union Calls It 'Disastrous'
PeaceHealth announced this week it is closing the only hospital in Eugene, Oregon, and moving services 6 miles to its Springfield location. PeaceHealth said Tuesday the hospital serving the city of about 178,000 people is underutilized, the Register-Guard reported. The PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center University District in Eugene, which first opened in 1936, employs hundreds of nurses, health care professionals and staff. (8/23)
The Boston Globe:
UMass Memorial Still Closing Leominster Hospital Maternity Unit
UMass Memorial Health is pushing forward with the closure of maternity services at Leominster hospital, saying in a letter to state officials that it is developing a transportation plan to accommodate women who will have to give birth elsewhere than the local hospital. (Bartlett, 8/23)
Modern Healthcare:
Nursing Homes At Risk As More Companies File Bankruptcy
High labor costs, rising interest rates and looming federal staffing minimums are prompting more nursing homes and senior living operators to file for bankruptcy. The two kinds of care providers accounted for half of the 40 filings for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in healthcare through the first half of the year, according to Gibbins Advisors, a healthcare advisory and restructuring consultancy. (Eastabrook, 8/23)
Modern Healthcare:
Allina Health Rescinds Patient Debt Policy Amid Investigation
Allina Health said Wednesday it rescinded a policy that denied non-urgent treatment to patients with unpaid medical bills. The announcement follows reporting in June by The New York Times that revealed the Minneapolis-based nonprofit system prevented patients with at least $4,500 of unpaid debt from booking an appointment at its 90 outpatient clinics. Last week, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said his office is investigating Allina’s billing practices. (Kacik, 8/23)
Modern Healthcare:
Optum Layoffs Executed In Texas, West Virginia
UnitedHealth Group is laying off Optum employees as it restructures its healthcare service subsidiary. The healthcare conglomerate cut jobs at MedExpress urgent care clinics and at WellMed Medical Group this month, the company confirmed, although it would not disclose how many employees were laid off or if Optum workers in other locations have been or will be let go. (Tepper, 8/23)
Military.com:
32,000 Veterans Have VA Disability Claims Decisions Delayed By Technical Glitch
Roughly 32,000 veterans are receiving letters this month notifying them that their disability claims submitted through the VA.gov website weren't processed, with the error dating back to 2018 for some. A Department of Veterans Affairs official told Military.com Monday that the letters were going to all veterans “impacted by the issue,” which was described as a "technical issue" that resulted in the claims not being automatically routed for processing. (Kime, 8/23)
AP:
Indiana Hospital Notifies Hundreds Of Patients They May Have Been Exposed To Tuberculosis Bacteria
A southern Indiana hospital where an employee recently tested positive for tuberculosis has notified hundreds of patients that they may have been exposed to the bacteria that causes the illness. Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said Clark Memorial Health had a “significant exposure” and has notified about 500 patients by letter that they were potentially exposed to TB at the hospital. (8/23)
CBS News:
FDA Says To Stop Using 2 Eye Drop Products Because Of Serious Health Risks
Federal health regulators are warning consumers to immediately stop using two additional eye drop products because of potential bacterial or fungal contamination. The Food and Drug Administration is advising people not to buy "Dr. Berne's MSM Drops 5% Solution" and "LightEyez MSM Eye Drops – Eye Repair," warning that they could pose a serious health risk, including vision- and life-threatening infections. The agency noted that it doesn't know of anyone who has reported a problem due to the products. (Cerullo, 8/23)
NBC News:
Federal Staffers Recommend Safety Requirements For Nursing Pillows After Dozens Of Infant Deaths
The Consumer Product Safety Commission staff on Wednesday recommended the first federal requirements to make nursing pillows safer and discourage caregivers from setting babies down on the pillows to sleep, citing dozens of deaths associated with the popular infant product. ... “Because infants frequently fall asleep during or after feeding, nursing pillows are foreseeably misused for infant sleep, which creates a potential hazard for the infant,” according to the staff’s draft proposal. (Khimm and Chuck, 8/23)
USA Today:
Eastern Equine Encephalitis, A Mosquito-Borne Virus, Found In 2 States
Health officials in Alabama and New York are warning the public about confirmed cases of a rare, deadly mosquito-borne virus that's been found in people, animals and insects. The dangerous mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalitis virus, also known as Triple E, was detected in two people in Alabama, including one person who died as result of contracting the disease, according to the state's Department of Public Health. (Neysa Alund, 8/23)
NPR:
New Class Of Flame Retardants Found In Breast Milk Raises Concerns
In the early 2000s, researchers tested breast milk samples from U.S. mothers and found high levels of toxic compounds used as a common flame retardant in household items. The compounds, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), were gradually phased out after a link was found with certain health risks. It sounds like a public health success story, but new research suggests it may not be quite that simple. This summer, scientists detected a new set of similar flame retardants in the breast milk of 50 U.S. women. (Roldan, 8/24)
The Washington Post:
Stop Kissing And Snuggling Turtles, CDC Warns Amid Salmonella Outbreak
“Don’t kiss or snuggle your turtle, and don’t eat or drink around it. This can spread Salmonella germs to your mouth and make you sick,” the CDC warned, adding that turtles with shells less than four inches long are “a known source of illness.” (Cho, 8/23)
The Washington Post:
More Than 100 Chaplains Urge Texas School Boards Not To Hire Chaplains Instead Of School Counselors
More than 100 chaplains signed a letter urging local Texas school boards to vote against putting chaplains in public schools, calling efforts to enlist religious counselors in public classrooms “harmful” to students and families. ... The chaplains who signed the letter, released Tuesday, bemoaned the lack of standards for potential school chaplains aside from background checks, contrasting it with the extensive training required for health-care and military chaplains. (Jenkins, 8/23)