First Edition: Dec. 21, 2022

KHN: The Case Of The Two Grace Elliotts: A Medical Billing Mystery 
Earlier this year, Grace Elizabeth Elliott got a mysterious hospital bill for medical care she had never received. She soon discovered how far a clerical error can reach — even across a continent — and how frustrating it can be to fix. (Kreidler, 12/21)

KHN: Hundreds Of US Hospitals Sue Patients Or Threaten Their Credit, A KHN Investigation Finds 
Despite growing evidence of the harm caused by medical debt, hundreds of U.S. hospitals maintain policies to aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills, using tactics such as lawsuits, selling patient accounts to debt buyers, and reporting patients to credit rating agencies, a KHN investigation shows. The collection practices are commonplace among all types of hospitals in all regions of the country, including public university systems, leading academic institutions, small community hospitals, for-profit chains, and nonprofit Catholic systems. (Levey, 12/21)

KHN: Upended: How Medical Debt Changed Their Lives 
Some lost their homes. Some emptied their retirement accounts. Some struggled to feed and clothe their families. Medical debt now touches more than 100 million people in America, as the U.S. health care system pushes patients into debt on a mass scale. Debtors are from all walks of life and all corners of the country. Here are their stories ― how they got into debt, what they’ve given up for it, and how they’re living with the burden. (Levey, Pattani, Noguchi and Sable-Smith, 12/21)

ABC News: DEA Seized Enough Fentanyl To Kill Every American In 2022
The Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday said it has seized more than 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl this year, as the country continues to struggle with an epidemic of drug overdose deaths. The seizures include 50.6 million pills laced with the ultra-deadly synthetic opioid and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, the DEA said. (Owen, 12/21)

The New York Times: U.S. Drug Agency Doubles Its Catch Of Fentanyl-Laced Pills In 2022 
Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing the country, the agency said. It is a highly addictive man-made opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. Two milligrams of fentanyl, an amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, is considered a potentially deadly dose. Fentanyl, which is 100 times more powerful than morphine, was linked to the deaths of more than 70,000 Americans in 2021. (Diaz, 12/20)

Stat: Biden Admin Shares Ownership Data For Thousands Of Hospitals
Citing its commitment to transparency and promoting competition, the Biden administration on Tuesday released a massive spreadsheet with ownership data on all Medicare-certified hospitals in the country. The new data span more than 7,000 hospitals and include details like whether the owner is an individual or an organization. (Bannow, 12/20)

Axios: Medicaid Enrollment To Top 100 Million
The number of Americans on Medicaid is expected to surpass 100 million as early as next month, according to a new projection from the Foundation for Government Accountability. The record uninsured rate — achieved through both ACA subsidies and Medicaid expansion — has been a point of pride for the Biden administration, particularly in light of stark health disparities exacerbated by the pandemic. (Reed, 12/20)

NBC News: Congress Reaches Deal To Keep Puerto Rico's Medicaid Program Funded
Members of Congress reached a deal Tuesday to fund Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program in a way that prevents it from running out of federal money by the end of the year and ensures stable funding for the next five years. Ensuring consistent funding is crucial for the U.S. territory because of the way the money is allocated. (Acevedo, 12/20)

Axios: Congress's Pandemic Prep Effort Receives Mixed Reviews
The $1.7 trillion omnibus Congress is poised to pass this week has provisions addressing the ability to respond to future pandemics, but some experts say its lack of new spending, including on COVID-19, will leave Americans vulnerable. (Sullivan and Owens, 12/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland Reinstates Mask Mandate In Government Buildings Amid Surging COVID
Oakland will require all employees and visitors to wear a face mask when entering city facilities beginning immediately — an attempt to get a handle on the “tripledemic” hitting the Bay Area of COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. (Ravani, 12/20)

The New York Times: It’s Time for New Yorkers to Mask Up Again, Mayor Adams Says
Mayor Eric Adams put his face mask on again on Tuesday and encouraged New Yorkers to do the same. Mr. Adams held a news conference at City Hall to urge residents to take precautions in the face of a winter surge of Covid-19 cases and other illnesses. “With the holiday season in full swing and cases of Covid-19, flu and R.S.V. rising, we are asking New Yorkers to protect themselves and their loved ones once again,” Mr. Adams said. It was the mayor’s first Covid briefing in months, and he does not typically wear a mask in public. (Fitzsimmons, 12/20)

CIDRAP: Study: Wearing Surgical Masks Over N95s Can Cause Dangerous Leaks 
For optimal protection against respiratory pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, procedure masks shouldn't be worn over N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. (Van Beusekom, 12/20)

CBS News: BF.7: What To Know About The Omicron COVID Variant
Since the COVID variant Omicron emerged in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into multiple subvariants. One subvariant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the main variant spreading in Beijing, and is contributing to a wider surge of COVID infections in China. (Mohammed, 12/20)

The Atlantic: Maybe Consider Not Kissing That Baby
Barack Obama did it. Donald Trump did it. Joe Biden, of course, has done it too. But each of them was wrong: Kissing another person’s baby is just not a good idea. ... A moratorium on infant smooching might feel like a bit of a downer—even counterintuitive, given how essential it is for infants and caregivers to touch. But kissing isn’t the only way to show affection to a newborn, and the rationale for cutting back on it specifically is one that most can get behind: keeping those same wee bebes safe. An infant’s immune system is still fragile and unlearned; it struggles to identify infectious threats and can’t marshal much of a defense even when it does. (Wu, 12/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Sees First Pediatric Influenza Death
In a call with reporters Tuesday, Tom Haupt, the state Department of Health Service's influenza surveillance coordinator, said the child was from Western Wisconsin. There was no evidence that the child had received a flu shot this year, Haupt said. Nationwide, 30 children have died this flu season. (Shastri, 12/20)

The Washington Post: Why Is There A Children's Tylenol Shortage? Here's What Parents Can Do. 
The Washington Post spoke with experts about the shortage and to answer common questions about what parents can do to help their children if they can’t find these drugs. Here’s what they said. (Cimons and Amenabar, 12/20)

CNN: China's Covid 'Chaos': How A Shortage Of Fever Drugs Is Sparking A Global Run On Medicines
An unprecedented wave of Covid infections in China has triggered widespread drug shortages, as people scramble to buy fever medicines and painkillers to alleviate flu-like symptoms. The panic buying has spread outside mainland China’s borders, with the generic versions of Tylenol and Advil sold out at drugstores in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and as far afield as Australia, prompting some local pharmacies to limit sales. Even home remedies such as canned peaches are being snapped up by people looking for ways to fight Covid. (He, Chen and Cheung, 12/21)

CNBC: Long Covid Patients Face Battle Claiming Disability Insurance Benefits
Mike Yada remembers the day in August 2020 when it became clear that his unusual symptoms — which emerged after a mild case of Covid-19 earlier in the year — were worsening. “I went for an easy hike, but by the end I was so winded that I couldn’t walk back to my car,” said Yada, who, pre-Covid, would have easily traversed the flat terrain near the beach. He had to call an Uber for the one-mile ride back to his parked car. (O'Brien, 12/20)

Axios: Republicans Block Dem Request To Pass Bill To Protect IVF Access
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Tuesday blocked a unanimous consent request to pass a bill that would have set federal protections for IVF and other fertility treatments whose future remains uncertain in the post-Roe era. (Gonzalez, 12/20)

The Kansas City Star: Planned Parenthood Starts Telemedicine Abortions In Kansas
Telemedicine abortions have begun in Kansas, potentially making it easier for residents of Missouri and other nearby states with abortion bans to end their pregnancies, despite repeated efforts by Kansas legislators to prohibit the procedure. (Shorman, 12/20)

USA Today: Deadly Deliveries: Childbirth Complication Rates At Maternity Hospitals
How often do women giving birth at individual hospitals experience heart attacks, seizures, kidney failure, blood transfusions or other potentially deadly problems? USA TODAY calculated the rates of severe childbirth complications for hospitals in 13 states where it could obtain data from state health agencies. The rates are often used by hospitals, insurance companies and researchers – but are kept secret from patients. (12/20)

Stat: In Post-Roe California, A Painful Wait To End A Wanted Pregnancy
He loved peaches. He loved ice cream. He loved blueberry waffles, evenly gridded, which she’d pulled from the crinkly package in the freezer and popped in the toaster to eat on her way to work. L. knew all this from the way he moved, the way he made her sick. His name was Kai. He was due on December 18. (Boodman, 12/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Many Hospitals Get Big Drug Discounts. That Doesn’t Mean Markdowns For Patients.
A decades-old federal program that offered big drug discounts to a small number of hospitals to help low-income patients now benefits some of the most successful nonprofit health systems in the U.S. Under the program, hospitals buy drugs at reduced prices and sell them to patients and their insurers for much more, often at facilities in affluent communities. (Mathews, Overberg, Walker and McGinty, 12/20)

NBC News: Mark Cuban’s Next Act On Drug Costs: Tackling Insulin
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban says it’s not a matter of if his online business will sell low-cost insulin — but when. “It may be a month, it may be six months, it may be two years,” said Cuban, referring to when his business, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co., could begin offering insulin directly to consumers. (Lovelace Jr., Dunn and McFadden, 12/20)

Modern Healthcare: Joint Commission Healthcare Quality Standards Overhauled
The Joint Commission is retiring 14% of its quality standards during the first round of a review process that seeks to refocus hospital safety and quality goals and decrease administrative burden, the healthcare accrediting organization will announce Tuesday. (Devereaux and Hartnett, 12/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: St. Francis Hospital In Milwaukee To Close Labor And Delivery Unit
Ascension St. Francis Hospital plans to close its labor and delivery unit by the end of the week, which hospital labor leaders said would leave Milwaukee's south side without a hospital to deliver babies. (Volpenhein, 12/20)

Crain's Chicago Business: Northwestern Medicine Plans $389M Expansion Of Chicago-Area Hospital
The Chicago-based healthcare system plans to add 96 inpatient beds, 84 of which would be medical and surgical beds and 12 of which would be intensive care unit beds, according to an application submitted to the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board. Plans also include the relocation and expansion of the emergency department, as well as adding more imaging equipment and inpatient rehabilitation services. (Davis, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Phillips Found Low Health Risk In Test Of Recalled Apnea Devices
Royal Philips NV said tests on its recalled sleep apnea devices showed the products are unlikely to result in “an appreciable harm” to the health of patients, expressing a degree of confidence that sent shares higher. (Roach, 12/21)

The Boston Globe: Mass. Dept. Of Correction Aims To Improve Treatment Of Mentally Ill Inmates, After Settlement With Federal Investigators
Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins on Tuesday announced an agreement with the state Department of Correction to settle a federal investigation that found the prison system did not do enough to address the needs of inmates with serious mental health issues. (Fonseca, 12/20)

The New York Times: Simple Steps for Managing Holiday Loneliness
The holidays are a time for joy and togetherness, but for many they can also spur feelings of loneliness. There aren’t comprehensive statistics for how many people feel starved for connection this time of year, but there are clues: A 2017 AARP survey, for instance, found that 31 percent of adults aged 18 and older have felt lonely during the holidays. And the past few holiday seasons have been especially fraught: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a global uptick in loneliness, which experts describe as the difference between how much connection a person wants and how much they’re actually getting. (Pearson, 12/20)

The Washington Post: At Least 77 People Died Homeless In D.C. In 2022, Medical Examiner Says 
At least 77 homeless people have died in the District so far in 2022, according to D.C.’s medical examiner, perishing by intoxication, hypothermia, homicide and other causes as officials and the White House battle a problem entrenched in American life. (Moyer, 12/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Can End Homelessness With $8.1B A Year, New Report Says
A new report estimates California could end homelessness by 2035 if it spent at least $8.1 billion every year on the problem, a daunting goal that points out the enormity of the challenge despite ramped-up efforts in recent years. (Fagan, 12/20)

The Wall Street Journal: 3M To Stop Making, Discontinue Use Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ 
3M Co. said it would stop making so-called forever chemicals and cease using them by the end of 2025, as criticism and litigation grow over the chemicals’ alleged health and environmental impact. 3M Chief Executive Mike Roman said that the decision was influenced by increasing regulation of the chemicals known as PFAS, and a growing market for substitute options. (Maher and Tita, 12/20)

Stat: Why EPA's Proposal For Two ‘Forever Chemicals’ Will Be Controversial
By the end of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency has promised to propose new national drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, two of the most studied pollutants among the thousands of compounds known as PFAS, or, more colloquially, “forever chemicals.” (Trang, 12/21)

Stat: Diabetes Treatments Are Improving. Disparities Are As Wide As Ever
Despite advancements in insulin treatments over the past three decades, disparities in outcomes have widened among people with diabetes taking them, a new study found. For example, the share of Mexican Americans taking insulin who achieved good blood-sugar control sharply dropped to 10% during the period of 2013 to 2020 from 25% during 1988 to 1994, researchers reported Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. (Chen, 12/20)

Bay Area News Group: Saratoga Man Charged With Unlicensed Botox After Miami Bust
A Saratoga man has been charged with posing as a doctor to perform an unlicensed Botox injection on a woman, which comes on the heels of him avoiding a jail sentence after he was prosecuted for similar acts in Miami, according to authorities and court records. (Salonga, 12/20)

The Washington Post: How To Cure (Or Prevent) A Hangover
Tis the season for eggnog, mulled wine, champagne — and hangovers. So, what can you do to prevent the morning-after misery as you enjoy your end-of-year festivities? Most of the evidence for hangover cures is thin, and there is no surefire way to avoid a hangover short of avoiding alcohol altogether. But there are some things you can do before, during and after drinking that can lower your risk for a hangover. (O'Connor, 12/20)

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Kidney Transplant Reunites Florida, Arizona Classmates 35 Years Later
"I'd give my kidney for a ..." It's not the most common idiom being bandied about, but you hear it from time to time, as a means of expressing a strong desire. Rarer, still, is the person who says, "I'd give my kidney." Period. No qualifiers. (Harper, 12/21)

Stat: McDonald's Sets Targets For Limiting Antibiotic Use In Beef
After being accused of backtracking on a commitment to reduce its use of medically important antibiotics, McDonald’s has set specific targets to ensure “responsible use” of these medicines in 10 countries that are its most important sources for beef. (Silverman, 12/20)

CIDRAP: In Europe, Jumps In Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Linked To Ukraine
Two reports published last week in Eurosurveillance show an increase in multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in countries that have taken in refugees and hospital patients from Ukraine. The reports from the Netherlands and Germany show a significant rise in MDROs in both countries starting in March, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with many isolates collected from patients who had fled from or were evacuated from hospitals in Ukraine. Among the MDROs reported were bacteria harboring carbapenemase-producing New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) genes, which confer resistance to most antibiotic classes. (Dall, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Strep A: Scarlet Fever Outbreak In UK Far Bigger Than Previously Thought
A UK outbreak of scarlet fever that has prompted shortages of some antibiotics is far more widespread than previously thought, with about 27,000 cases now reported since mid-September. More than 9,000 cases of the illnesss, caused by group A streptococcus bacteria, were reported in the latest week in England and Wales, according to the UK Health Security Agency. (Pfanner, 12/21)