First Edition: Feb. 29, 2024

KFF Health News: Hacking At UnitedHealth Unit Cripples A Swath Of The US Health System: What To Know
Early in the morning of Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, a company unknown to most Americans that plays a huge role in the U.S. health system, issued a brief statement saying some of its applications were “currently unavailable.” By the afternoon, the company described the situation as a “cyber security” problem. Since then, it has rapidly blossomed into a crisis. (Tahir, 2/29)

KFF Health News: Toxic Gas That Sterilizes Medical Devices Prompts Safety Rule Update
Over the past two years, Madeline Beal has heard frustration and even bewilderment during public meetings about ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas that is used to sterilize half of the medical devices in the U.S. Beal, senior risk communication adviser for the Environmental Protection Agency, has fielded questions about why the agency took so long to alert people who live near facilities that emit the chemical about unusually high amounts of the carcinogenic gas in their neighborhoods. (Miller and Whitehead, 2/29)

KFF Health News: Bathroom Bills Are Back — Broader And Stricter — In Several States
Republican lawmakers in several states have resurrected and expanded the fight over whether transgender people may use bathrooms and other facilities that do not match their sex assigned at birth. At least one bill goes so far as making it a crime for a transgender person to enter a facility that doesn’t match the sex listed on their birth certificate. The debate has been popping up in statehouses across the nation in recent months, predominantly in conservative, rural states, including at a hearing of the Arizona Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee in February. (Orozco Rodriguez, 2/29)

KFF Health News: California Takes Up White House Call To Toughen Gun Storage Rules
California lawmakers are weighing a pitch from the White House for states to toughen gun storage rules as legislation languishes in Congress. Even though many states, including California, have laws in place for safely storing guns when children are present, the Biden administration wants them to go further by requiring gun owners to secure firearms most of the time. (Young, 2/29)

KFF Health News: Readers Call On Congress To Bolster Medicare And Fix Loopholes In Health Policy
Occupational therapists are critical in helping patients adjust to new circumstances, empowering them with the tools they need to overcome barriers and regain control over their lives. Whether you’re transitioning from homelessness into a home (“In Los Angeles, Occupational Therapists Tapped to Help Homeless Stay Housed,” Jan. 24) or relearning how to do everyday tasks following a stroke, OTs are key to patients’ care plan. (2/29)

Modern Healthcare: Short-Term Spending Deal To Fund Government Announced
Congressional leaders reached a "deal in principle" on government spending Wednesday that extends government funding deeper into March and likely includes key health programs. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the other senior lawmakers who announced the agreement did not provide details on its contents. (McAuliff, 2/28)

AP: Republicans Block Senate Bill To Protect Nationwide Access To IVF Treatments 
Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, objecting to a vote on the issue Wednesday even after widespread backlash to a recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that threatens the practice. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, objected to a request for a vote by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who used IVF treatments to have her two children after struggling with years of infertility. Duckworth’s bill would establish a federal right to the treatments as the Alabama ruling has upended fertility care in the state and families who had already started the process face heartbreak and uncertainty. (Jalonick and Groves, 2/28)

Axios: Biden Campaign Torches Trump After GOP Blocks IVF Bill
The Biden campaign is seizing on Senate Republicans' decision to block a bill enshrining federal protections for in-vitro fertilization (IVF), arguing that former President Trump would have intervened if he truly supported IVF. (Basu, 2/29)

Axios: How Fertility Coverage Mandates Could Clash With IVF Restrictions
Proposed "personhood" laws getting a closer look after Alabama's IVF ruling could vastly complicate reproductive care in some states that require insurance coverage of fertility treatments and drugs, by setting up potentially clashing mandates on what to do with frozen embryos. (Reed, 2/29)

AP: About As Many Abortions Are Happening In The US Monthly As Before Roe Was Overturned, Report Finds
The number of abortions performed each month is about the same as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion more than a year and a half ago, a new report finds. The latest edition of the #WeCount report conducted for the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit organization that promotes research on abortion and contraception, finds that between 81,150 and 88,620 abortions took place each month from July through September of last year, the most recent period for which survey results are available. Those numbers are just slightly lower than the monthly average of about 86,800 from April through June 2022, before Roe and just after was overturned. (Mulvihill, 2/28)

ABC News: Abortions Via Telehealth Medication Have Been On The Rise, Report Finds
In the first nationwide count of telehealth abortions, researchers estimated that the number of such abortions had steadily increased over an 18-month period and that in September, 16% of abortions in the U.S -- approximately 14,000 -- were done via pills dispensed by mail after consultations with virtual clinicians online. The report, released on Wednesday conducted by the Society of Family Planning, examined the seismic shift in abortion access from April 2022 to September 2023, a period of time that mostly includes months since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. (Stewart, 2/29)

The Wall Street Journal: President’s Physical Gives Only Partial View Of Commander In Chief’s Health
For decades, the public release of the president’s annual physical has provided a window into the White House inhabitant’s well-being, listing their medications, weight and at times signaling a benign condition. But it typically offers a fairly narrow update that hasn’t revealed bombshells about any president’s health, and it is often framed by the administration to portray the president in robust condition. President Biden’s physical, conducted Wednesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, is the latest in this trend. Even before the results were released, Biden said there was “nothing different” in his physical this year from last year. He joked at a White House event, “they think I look too young.” (Thomas, 2/28)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Divided Over Gun-Rights Challenge To Trump Bump Stock Ban
A divided Supreme Court seemed to struggle Wednesday with the legality of a federal ban on bump stock devices, which allow semiautomatic rifles to fire hundreds of bullets per minute. Liberal justices suggested the devices were exactly what Congress had in mind when it long ago imposed restrictions on machine guns. Some conservative justices, however, said the law’s language was not so clear. (Marimow, 2/28)

Reuters: US Defense Secretary Austin Faces Congress Grilling Over Health Secrecy 
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin faces a reckoning in Congress on Thursday over his decision to keep secret his prostrate cancer surgery and subsequent hospitalization from President Joe Biden and even his deputy at the Pentagon. Austin has apologized for the way he handed the matter, including to Biden himself, but his appearance before the Republican-led House of Representatives Armed Services Committee at 10 a.m. will be the first time lawmakers will directly question him. (2/29)

Stat: NEJM Study Measures Covid Brain Fog, Impact On IQ
Of all the lingering symptoms of long Covid, difficulty focusing and thinking, known as brain fog, may be the most frightening and baffling. A new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, which looks at how much cognition is impaired in the months after a coronavirus infection, shows that Covid-19’s impact can be measured in the equivalent of IQ points. (Cooney, 2/28)

USA Today: Post-COVID, Depression, Anxiety-Related Prescriptions See Major Uptick
The COVID-19 pandemic was a breaking point for 43-year-old Tamalyn Paredes, an addiction counselor at a methadone clinic in Portland, Oregon. Living in California at the time, she worked at a group home for children with serious emotional disturbances – a job she described as taxing, especially when kids would lash out. Helping those with mental health conditions hit close to home for Paredes. She lived with depression and suicidal thoughts for years, but the hormonal side effects of ovary removal surgery in 2019 made things worse. (Garzella, 2/29)

The Baltimore Sun: Many Children Hospitalized With COVID Continue To Face Challenges.
A new study by the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore and 11 other medical sites found that up to a third of children who were hospitalized because of COVID-19 experienced persistent symptoms one to two years after they were released. (Roberts, 2/28)

Axios: Health Care Quality Took A Big Hit During COVID, Medicare Report Finds
Progress on many key health care quality measures was reversed during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new comprehensive federal review. The report identified a "significant worsening" of patient safety measures and "persistent" health equity gaps for historically disadvantaged patients as COVID-19 overwhelmed the health care system. (Goldman, 2/29)

The Atlantic: Why Are We Still Flu-Ifying COVID?
Four years after what was once the “novel coronavirus” was declared a pandemic, COVID remains the most dangerous infectious respiratory illness regularly circulating in the U.S. But a glance at the United States’ most prominent COVID policies can give the impression that the disease is just another seasonal flu. ... These changes are a stark departure from the earliest days of the crisis. ... COVID might still carry a bigger burden than flu, but COVID policies are getting more flu-ified. (Wu, 2/28)

AP: Flu Shots Are Doing OK Vs. Virus, US Numbers Indicate 
Early estimates suggest flu shots are performing OK in the current U.S. winter flu season. The vaccines were around 40% effective in preventing adults from getting sick enough from the flu that they had to go to a doctor’s office, clinic or hospital, health officials said during a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccines meeting Wednesday. Children who were vaccinated were roughly 60% less likely to get treatment at a doctor’s office or hospital, CDC officials said. Officials generally are pleased if a flu vaccine is 40% to 60% effective. (Stobbe, 2/28)

CIDRAP: Chikungunya Vaccine Recommended For US Travelers In Outbreak Settings 
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory group today recommended the chikungunya vaccine for people ages 18 and older who will be traveling to a country or territory experiencing an outbreak of the disease. The vote passed with 12 yes votes and 1 abstention. Last November the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the nation's first chikungunya vaccine, which is a live attenuated vaccine made by Valneva that is given as one intramuscular dose. (Schnirring, 2/28)

CBS News: CDC Braces For Shortage After Tetanus Shot Discontinued, Issues New Guidance
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging doctors to conserve shots of a kind of tetanus vaccine, as the agency braces for a potential shortage of those shots this year. Doctors should switch from using the so-called Td vaccine – the immunization that protects against both tetanus and diphtheria infections – to giving the broader Tdap vaccine instead whenever possible, the CDC now says. ... This year's shortage risk stems from a decision by nonprofit vaccinemaker MassBiologics to discontinue production of its Td vaccine, branded as TdVax. (Tin, 2/28)

Stat: 'Vaccine-Like’ Obesity Drug Is On The Drawing Board At Novo Nordisk
New obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are currently taken once a week, indefinitely. But what if they could be taken once a year instead, like a vaccine? That’s a question that Novo Nordisk, the pharma company behind Wegovy, is exploring as it faces increased competition from other drugmakers aiming to develop similar GLP-1-based treatments for obesity. (Chen, 2/29)

CBS News: 1 In 3 Women Are Impacted By Obesity, But Treatments Are Often Uncovered
One in three women are impacted by obesity, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The disease is associated with more than 200 different health conditions, but treatments are often not covered by insurance. The Alliance for Women's Health and Prevention is advocating for change with a new campaign. (2/28)

The Washington Post: Exercise Helps Keep Pounds Off After Taking A Weight-Loss Drug, Study Shows
An important, new, long-term study of people who used and then quit one of the weight-loss drugs suggests there may be a simple, accessible way to stave off unhealthy weight regain after stopping the drugs: exercise. In the study, people who exercised while using a weight-loss drug kept off far more of their weight after quitting the medication than people who didn’t work out, and they maintained more muscle. (Reynolds, 2/28)

CNBC: Oprah Is Leaving WeightWatchers Board, Giving Away All Her Stock
Oprah Winfrey — who had joined the company program, acquired a significant stake and also become a board member in 2015 — announced she was leaving the executive position in May and donating her shares to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Shares were down by as much as 25% in trading after the news. Winfrey said in a statement she will continue to advise and collaborate with WeightWatchers and CEO Sima Sistani in “elevating the conversation around recognizing obesity as a chronic condition, working to reduce stigma, and advocating for health equity.” (Rosenbaum, 2/28)

Modern Healthcare: Northwell Health, Nuvance Health Plan To Merge By End Of 2024
Northwell Health plans to acquire Nuvance Health in a deal that would create a system with 28 hospitals and more than 1,000 care sites across New York and Connecticut. Under the proposed no-cash deal announced Wednesday, Northwell said it would make "significant investments" in Nuvance, but an exact sum was not provided. Nuvance President and CEO Dr. John Murphy said the system has requested hundreds of millions of dollars from Northwell to support programs and facilities. (Hudson, 2/28)

Modern Healthcare: Henry Ford Health Expansion Lands $3B For Detroit Campus
Henry Ford Health's $3 billion Detroit expansion is taking another step forward. After hours of debate, the Detroit City Council on Tuesday night approved community benefits and rezoning requests for the project, which was announced last February. The project, a partnership between Henry Ford, Michigan State University and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, will invest close to $3 billion into hospital expansions, a medical research center, housing developments, retail and public spaces around Henry Ford’s Detroit campus over the next 10 to 15 years. (Hudson, 2/28)

The Mercury News: Kaiser Expects To Launch Construction Of New San Jose Hospital In 2025
Construction on a brand-new Kaiser hospital could begin next year in San Jose, the centerpiece of the health care organization’s plans to replace a 50-year-old medical center and revamp an adjacent campus. Kaiser Permanente plans to develop a modern hospital at its South San Jose medical campus, documents on file with San Jose officials show. The new hospital would replace the existing medical center that was built in 1974. (Avalos, 2/28)

The Washington Post: Changes At Amazon-Owned Health Services Cause Alarm Among Patients, Employees
Elderly patients used to take cooking classes and do puzzles at Iora Health clinics, which also paid for taxi rides so they wouldn’t miss appointments. The late-night phone calls, free transportation and ability to text with clinical staff helped pull Deborah Wood of Kennesaw, Ga., out of a spiraling health crisis, she said. But since Amazon bought Iora parent company One Medical and rebranded it as One Medical Seniors, appointments have gotten shorter, clinical staff have lost their jobs and some of the unique offerings have disappeared, patients and former employees told The Washington Post in interviews. (O'Donovan, 2/28)

The Wall Street Journal: San Francisco Poised To Start Drug-Testing Welfare Recipients 
Voters in this famously progressive city appear poised to pass a pair of law-and-order ballot measures Tuesday that would represent a turn to the political center amid mounting frustration with public drug use, homelessness and property crime. Proposition F would mandate drug screening for recipients of public benefits, while Proposition E would expand police surveillance tools and reduce oversight of the force.  (Elinson and Carlton, 2/28)

The Washington Post: Virginia House And Senate Agree On Bill Creating Legal Marijuana Market
Democrats who control the Virginia House of Delegates and state Senate agreed Wednesday on a framework establishing a legal market for recreational marijuana, teeing up the issue for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who has not signaled whether he will sign, veto or amend the bills. (Schneider and Vozzella, 2/28)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Medicaid Accused Of Discriminating Against People With Disabilities
Delays and convoluted policies that have plagued Colorado Medicaid for years are violating the rights of people with disabilities, according to a federal complaint against the program. (Brown and Flowers, 2/28)

The Washington Post: Idaho Fails To Execute Serial Killer Thomas Creech By Lethal Injection
Authorities in Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical workers were unable to insert an IV for lethal injection. Creech was brought into the execution chamber and strapped down, according to Josh Tewalt, director of the Idaho Department of Correction. “The team attempted eight times, through multiple limbs and appendages, to establish IV access,” he said at a news conference, but those efforts were unsuccessful and the execution was called off. (Masih, 2/29)

The Washington Post: New Review Links Ultra-Processed Foods To 32 Health Problems: What To Know 
A review of research involving almost 10 million people has found a direct association between eating too many ultra-processed foods — those breads, cereals, snacks and frozen meals that have been industrially manufactured with flavors and additives to make them more palatable — and more than 30 health conditions, including heart disease, anxiety and early death. (Pannett, 2/29)

The Hill: Boiling Tap Water May Be Solution To Microplastics
Worried about plastic pollution in your tap water? Try boiling in it, a new study suggests. Boiling tap water can destroy at least 80 percent of three of the most common plastic compounds that can be found in your water, according to findings published Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters. (Elbein, 2/28)

NBC News: FDA Says Toxic Chemicals In Pizza Boxes And Popcorn Bags No Longer Used In Food Packaging
Chemicals once commonly found in a range of products, including pizza boxes and microwave popcorn bags, are no longer being used in food packaging in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Eliminating the grease-proofing substances ends a yearslong campaign by the agency to phase out per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, toxic chemicals that may be linked to serious health problems, including cancer, birth defects and immune system suppression. (Lovelace Jr., 2/28)

Bloomberg: Bayer Gets $332 Million Roundup Verdict Slashed By More Than 90%
Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit persuaded a California judge to slash by more than 90% a $332 million jury award to a former land surveyor who blamed his cancer on the company’s Roundup weedkiller. Judge Kevin Enright in San Diego rejected Monsanto’s bid for a new trial in Michael Dennis’ lawsuit but agreed to reduce the verdict to $28 million. (Feeley, 2/28)