First Edition: Dec. 13, 2022

KHN: How Medicare Advantage Plans Dodged Auditors And Overcharged Taxpayers By Millions 
In April 2016, government auditors asked a Blue Cross Medicare Advantage health plan in Minnesota to turn over medical records of patients treated by a podiatry practice whose owner had been indicted for fraud. Medicare had paid the Blue Cross plan more than $20,000 to cover the care of 11 patients seen by Aggeus Healthcare, a chain of podiatry clinics, in 2011. (Schulte and Hacker, 12/13)

KHN: Are You An Optimist? Could You Learn To Be? Your Health May Depend On It. 
When you think about the future, do you expect good or bad things to happen? If you weigh in on the “good” side, you’re an optimist. And that has positive implications for your health in later life. Multiple studies show a strong association between higher levels of optimism and a reduced risk of conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and cognitive impairment. Several studies have also linked optimism with greater longevity. (Graham, 12/13)

USA Today: Diabetes Care Gets Major Update: More Aggressive Approach To Weight Loss, Cholesterol, Disparities Recommended
The American Diabetes Association on Monday released new standards of care to reflect changes in technology, improved medications and a deeper understanding of the social factors that contribute to disease and diabetes control. The standards are updated annually, but this year includes almost 100 new or revised recommendations affecting all types of diabetes. (Weintraub, 12/12)

CNN: Covid-19 Vaccines Have Saved 3 Million Lives In US, Study Says, But The Fight Isn't Over
The Covid-19 vaccines have kept more than 18.5 million people in the US out of the hospital and saved more than 3.2 million lives, a new study says – and that estimate is most likely a conservative one, the researchers say. (Christensen, 12/13)

Stat: Covid Vaccines Averted 3 Million Deaths In US, Study Finds
This Wednesday will mark two years since nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the U.S. to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial. A study released Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund shows that in those two years, the Covid vaccines have averted over 3 million deaths in the U.S. (Trang, 12/13)

The Hill: White House Calls Attacks On Fauci ‘Incredibly Dangerous’ After Musk Tweets 
The White House on Monday condemned social media attacks against Anthony Fauci days after Twitter owner Elon Musk posted a tweet mocking the infectious diseases expert. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about Musk’s tweets criticizing Fauci, called them “personal attacks” that are “incredibly dangerous.” (Samuels, 12/12)

Axios: Musk's Fauci Tweet Angers Medical Twitter
Members of the medical community lashed out at Elon Musk on Sunday after Musk tweeted, without apparent context, "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci" in reference to the outgoing NIAID director. Some medical experts have already left the social media platform since Musk took over and stopped enforcing COVID disinformation policies. However, many health care users have largely continued using Twitter. (Reed, 12/12)

The New York Times: Plan For Commission To Investigate Covid Response Stalls In Congress 
The nation was reeling from an unfathomable number of deaths. Politicians were pointing fingers, asking why the United States had been so ill-prepared for a lethal threat. Congress, defying the White House, ordered an independent investigation. That was 20 years ago, and what came of it was a national reckoning. A bipartisan panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks held televised hearings, developed 41 recommendations for how to improve national security and produced a best-selling book — a gripping historical narrative about what had gone wrong. (Stolberg, 12/12)

The Boston Globe: ‘We Don’t See The End’: In Daily Juggling Act, Overstretched Hospitals Try To Maintain Services
Filled with people suffering from respiratory infections and chronic illnesses, Massachusetts hospitals are as strained now as they’ve been at any time during the pandemic. As a group they reported having fewer available beds in November than a year ago when the state ordered them to stop performing elective surgeries. (Freyer, 12/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Cases Among Kids Are Up Nearly 50% In 8 Weeks
COVID-19 infections among American children are up sharply, with 41,000 child cases reported last week, an increase of nearly 50% over the previous 8 weeks, after reported cases had plateaued at a weekly average of 27,000 cases. (Vaziri and Beamish, 12/12)

NBC News: POTS, A Debilitating Heart Condition, Is Linked To Covid And, To A Lesser Degree, Vaccines
Research published Monday has confirmed a link between a Covid infection and a debilitating heart condition called POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, that has been diagnosed in some patients with long Covid. (Lovelace Jr., 12/12)

AP: Judge Rejects Vaccine Choice Law In Health Care Settings 
A person’s choice to decline vaccinations does not outweigh public health and safety requirements in medical settings, a federal judge ruled in a Montana case. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy last week permanently blocked a section of law the state said was meant to prevent employers — including many health care facilities — from discriminating against workers by requiring them to be vaccinated against communicable diseases, including COVID-19. (Hanson, 12/12)

AP: Ohio Court: Insurance Doesn't Cover Business COVID Losses
A commercial insurance policy doesn’t cover the income a business lost when the governor ordered a shutdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ohio Supreme Court said Monday in a decision consistent with multiple court rulings nationally weighing similar questions. The state’s high court found that the temporary presence of COVID-19 in a community or at a business and the temporary presence of an infected person don’t amount to a direct physical loss that might be covered. ... A northeastern Ohio audiology company, Neuro-Communication Services Inc., had argued that its “all-risk” policy should cover financial losses from the shutdown. (Welsh-Huggins and Franko, 12/12)

AP: Florida COVID Data Critic Reaches Agreement On Felony Charge 
A fired Florida health department data manager charged with illegally accessing state computers after she publicly accused officials of wanting to make COVID-19 statistics look less dire has reached an agreement with prosecutors that should result in the case being dropped. Rebekah Jones, who helped design the state’s coronavirus website, signed an agreement with prosecutors admitting guilt to a charge of illegally accessing the state’s computer system and requiring her to pay $20,000 to cover the investigation’s costs, perform 150 hours of community service and see a mental health counselor monthly. If she completes those requirements, the charge will be dropped within two years. The agreement was filed late last week at Tallahassee’s circuit court. (Spencerr, 12/12)

CIDRAP: Analysis Shows Last Year’s Flu Vaccine 36% Protective Against H3N2 Strain
A new CDC analysis of 2021-22 data reveals that flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) against the H3N2 (influenza A) strain for all ages was 36%. The study was published today in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Soucheray, 12/12)

AP: Iowa Judge Blocks Effort To Ban Most Abortions In The State 
An effort to ban most abortions in Iowa was blocked Monday by a state judge who upheld a court decision made three years ago. Judge Celene Gogerty found there was no process for reversing a permanent injunction that blocked the abortion law in 2019. Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement that she would appeal the decision to the Iowa Supreme Court. (McFetridge and Pitt, 12/13)

The Colorado Sun: Pueblo Rejects Measure That Would Have Banned Abortion In City 
A Texas anti-abortion group working to make inroads in Colorado faced a setback Monday night after the Pueblo City Council rejected a proposed ordinance that would have effectively banned abortions in the city. The measure, which was expected to draw at least 100 speakers from the public, was dismissed in a 4-3 vote before any comments were made. (Wenzler, 12/12)

CBS News: Biden To Sign Respect For Marriage Act
President Biden will be signing the Respect for Marriage Act into law on Tuesday in a White House ceremony, enshrining gay and interracial marriages in federal law. (Watson, 12/13)

Bloomberg: LGBTQ Black Congressman Says US Same-Sex Marriage Law Isn’t Enough
Mondaire Jones spent much of his 35 years hiding his sexuality. As one of the first openly gay Black members of Congress he spent the past two years fighting for equality. For him, the Tuesday signing by President Joe Biden of a law enshrining federal protection for same-sex marriage, will be a seminal moment but far from the end of the line. (Dillard, 12/13)

Axios: Biden's Prescription Drug Pricing Decisions Aren't Over
The Biden administration faces a host of high-stakes decisions on prescription drug costs over the next several months, accompanied by pressure from congressional Democrats eager for a sequel to pricing components in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). (Owens, 12/13)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes Changes To ACA Network Adequacy, Standardized Plans Rules 
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aims to reduce the number of non-standard policies offered on the health insurance exchanges while boosting the availability of providers in carriers' networks, according to a draft regulation released Monday. (Tepper, 12/12)

Modern Healthcare: Oscar Health Stops Accepting New Florida Exchange Members
“This temporary pause in Florida is the result of proactive steps Oscar took in light of other market exits to ensure that our projected membership does not exceed the company’s targets for 2023 and allows us to maintain our strong financial position,” the spokesperson wrote. Oscar Health aims to achieve profitability in its insurance arm next year and overall profitability by 2024, the company previously advised investors. (Tepper, 12/12)

Stat: Affimed Natural Killer Cell Therapy Boasts Encouraging Results
An experimental immunotherapy from Affimed for patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma has started to demonstrate long-lasting remissions that have, so far, eluded other treatments involving so-called natural killer cells. (Feuerstein, 12/12)

CNN: Gene Editing Technology For Treatment-Resistant Cancer Could Be A 'Scientific Layup' To Treat Other Diseases 
For the first time, a new gene editing technology called base editing was used to modify immune cells and successfully treat a teen with treatment-resistant leukemia. A month afterward, 13-year-old Alyssa was in remission, and she continues to do well several months later. (Kounang, 12/12)

The Hill: Scientists Link 1 In 100 Heart Disease Deaths To Weather Extremes
Exposure to extremely hot or cold temperatures raises a heart disease patient’s risk of dying, according to a new study. Combing through four decades worth of global data on heart disease patients, the authors found that such extremes were collectively responsible for about 11.3 additional cardiovascular deaths for every 1,000 such incidents. (Udasin, 12/12)

CNN: Tantrums: Screens Hurt Kids' Emotional Regulation, Study Shows 
It’s late, dinner is just now on the stove, your phone is ringing, and your child’s tantrum begins. A little screen time almost always works to calm them down. Tempting as it may be to hand them a smartphone or turn on the TV as a default response, soothing with digital devices may lead to more problems with emotional reactivity down the road, a new study has shown. (Holcombe, 12/12)

The Washington Post: Schools Turn To Telehealth As Student Mental Health Crisis Soars
In the southwestern suburbs of Denver, the Cherry Creek school system has been tackling the mental health crisis gripping students here, as in the rest of the country. Social workers and psychologists are based in schools to help. But this month, the district debuted a new option: telehealth therapy for children. (St. George, 12/9)

The New York Times: How To Get More Men To Try Therapy 
Despite men's higher risk of death related to mental illness, women are more likely to seek out help. In 2020, 15 percent of men reported receiving either psychotropic medications or therapy in the past year compared with 26 percent of women. This disparity in care has left experts scrambling for ways to reach more men, particularly those most at risk and who might be reluctant to talk about their mental health. Research has found that men who exhibit traditional stereotypes of masculinity, such as stoicism and self-reliance, are even less likely to ask for help. (Smith, 12/9)

The Hill: Biden Administration Approves Washington State Request To Offer Health Insurance To Undocumented Immigrants 
The Biden administration has approved an application by Washington state to expand health insurance access for all residents regardless of immigration status by allowing it to forgo requirements set by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (Choi, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: Long Waits After California Prenatal Testing Program Changed
On Nov. 1, Kate Manriquez, whose first child is due in May, did what many women do a couple months into their pregnancies: She gave a blood sample at her doctor’s office for a genetic test meant to help detect birth defects. More than a month later, 26-year-old Manriquez is still anxiously awaiting her results from California’s state-run prenatal screening program. (Petersen, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court OKs California Ban On Flavored Vaping Products
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a last-minute plea from the tobacco industry and cleared the way for California to enforce a statewide ban on the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. (Savage, 12/12)

AP: CVS, Walgreens Finalize $10B In Settlements Over Opioids 
CVS and Walgreens have agreed to pay state and local governments a combined total of more than $10 billion to settle lawsuits over the toll of opioids and now want to know by Dec. 31 whether states are accepting the deals. States announced final details Monday of settlements that the two largest pharmacy chains in the U.S. offered last month. (Mulvihill, 12/12)

Bloomberg: Fentanyl Hidden In Fake Adderall, Cocaine Drive Surge In US Drug Overdoses
Covid-19 helped pave the way for fentanyl’s ascent. Driven into boredom and isolation by the pandemic, many Americans turned to illegal drugs – and in 2020 and 2021, more people than ever were killed by fentanyl. (Court, Campbell and Lin, 12/13)

Fox News: Fentanyl And A Stronger Form Of Meth Now Driving American Homeless Crisis
A stronger and more dangerous version of methamphetamine and fentanyl are helping drive America's homeless crisis, with users quickly slipping into debilitating addiction and mental illness that makes it impossible for them to function in society. (Lee, 12/13)

The Washington Post: Washington Faltered As Fentanyl Gripped America 
During the past seven years, as soaring quantities of fentanyl flooded into the United States, strategic blunders and cascading mistakes by successive U.S. administrations allowed the most lethal drug crisis in American history to become significantly worse, a Washington Post investigation has found. (Miroff, Higham, Rich, Georges and O'Connor, 12/12)

The Washington Post: From Mexican Cartel Labs To U.S. Streets, A Deadly Fentanyl Pipeline
Fentanyl’s catastrophic surge came after the Drug Enforcement Administration cracked down on the excesses of the U.S. opioid industry. Millions of Americans who had become addicted to prescription pain pills suddenly found them difficult or impossible to get. (Kan, Miroff, Higham, Rich and Remmel, 12/12)

The Washington Post: What To Know About Fentanyl, The Leading Cause Of U.S. Overdose Deaths 
Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller developed nearly 60 years ago, is at the center of the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. More people have died of synthetic-opioid overdoses than the number of U.S. military personnel killed during the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49. (Vitkovskaya and Kan, 12/12)

CalMatters: California Fentanyl: The Youth Overdose Crisis
Expect a lot of debate over how California should respond to the state’s mounting fentanyl epidemic when state lawmakers return to Sacramento early next year. Bills dealing with the super-powerful synthetic opioid are already piling up, many of them focused on youth in the wake of a stunning analysis that found fentanyl was responsible for 1 in 5 deaths among 15- to 24-year-old Californians in 2021. (Hoeven, 12/9)

The New York Times: Fentanyl Cuts A Bitter Swath Through Milwaukee 
Glenda O. Hampton doesn’t need to look far to witness the devastation of the fentanyl epidemic in her neighborhood on Milwaukee’s north side. She has found men lying on the curb, barely conscious, their legs splaying into the street as cars whiz by. She can count at least three people in recent months who sought treatment at the storefront rehabilitation center she runs, then relapsed and died from using fentanyl. “I’ve seen a lot of terrible drugs,” said Ms. Hampton, 68, a tiny figure seated behind her crowded desk, as a group counseling session was underway down the hall. “This is the worst.” (Bosman, 12/12)

Stat: Cambodia Halts Exports Of Non-Human Primates Used In Research
Following the recent indictments of several people allegedly involved in a monkey-smuggling operation, Cambodia has halted exports of non-human primates that are widely used in pharmaceutical research, a move that may crimp drug discovery efforts by a wide array of companies and institutions. (Silverman, 12/12)