First Edition: Feb. 5, 2024
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Back From COP28, California Climate Leaders Talk Health Impacts Of Warming
Wildfire smoke. Drought. Brutal heat. Floods. As Californians increasingly feel the health effects of climate change, state leaders are adopting sweeping policies they hope will fend off the worst impacts — and be replicated by other countries. Several of them attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP28, late last year, where more than 120 countries signed a declaration acknowledging the growing health impacts of climate change and their responsibility to keep people safe. (Young, 2/5)
KFF Health News:
Congressman Off-Base In Ad Claiming Fauci Shipped Covid To Montana Before The Pandemic
A fundraising ad for U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) shows a photo of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, behind bars, swarmed by flying bats. Rosendale, who is eyeing a challenge to incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, maintains that a Montana biomedical research facility, Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, has a dangerous link to the pandemic. This claim is echoed in the ad: “It’s been revealed that Fauci brought COVID to the Montana one year before COVID broke out in the U.S!,” it charges in all-caps before asking readers to “Donate today and hold the D.C. bureaucracy accountable!” (Houghton, 2/5)
KFF Health News:
Journalists Catch Up On Top Issues Facing 2024 Voters, From Obamacare To Opioids
KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, discussed the record enrollment in Affordable Care Act health plans on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Jan. 30. Rovner also discussed health care issues against the backdrop of the 2024 election on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” on Jan. 25. ... KFF Health News Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton discussed Montana’s opioid settlement money on Montana Public Radio on Jan. 23. (2/3)
Axios:
Health Care Jobs Grew At Fastest Rate In Over 30 Years
Health care employment grew at its fastest clip since 1991 last year as the industry's pandemic recovery continued and demand for care picked up. Health care is playing a big role in fueling a strong labor market, even as the industry grapples with high levels of burnout. Health care jobs expanded by 3.9% in 2023, much higher than the 1.5% growth rate across all other industries, according to new Altarum data. (Millman, 2/2)
Bloomberg:
CDC Opens Office In Tokyo As US Seeks To Shore Up Political Allies
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is opening its first regional office in a developed nation, with the post in Japan set to enhance its work with allies on disease monitoring amid rising geopolitical tensions with China. “This region is incredibly important,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday. “It’s where a number of emerging infectious diseases have come from prior and so it’s important for us to be able to share information quickly to jointly invest in health security platforms and capacity.” (Matsuyama, 2/5)
Stat:
Quicker Fix For Pulse Oximeters Urged During FDA Public Meeting
The Food and Drug Administration should move more quickly to ensure pulse oximeters — the ubiquitous devices used to measure blood oxygen — work well in all patients, should better inform clinicians about the devices’ shortcomings in patients with darker skin, and should recall versions that are particularly problematic, patients, researchers, and consumer advocates testified during a public meeting on Friday. (McFarling, 2/2)
Stat:
Congress Might Make Insulin Pumps More Accessible To The Blind
Digital home devices are in a regulatory gray area when it comes to accessibility standards. No agency requires manufacturers to incorporate features for blind folks. Advocates from the National Federation of the Blind have lobbied lawmakers for years to fix this. Now, federal lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to develop rules mandating device makers build accessible products.
Insulin pumps and glucose monitors are a critical focus, as diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. But the bill would also direct the FDA to cover devices like CPAP machines or heart monitors. (Lawrence, 2/5)
NBC News:
Silicon Valley County Declares Loneliness A Health Emergency
Loneliness is officially a health emergency in California's San Mateo County, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and includes part of Silicon Valley. The county's Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday that declared loneliness a public health crisis and pledged to explore measures that promote social connection in the community. It’s the first county in the U.S. to make such a declaration. (Bendix, 2/2)
CIDRAP:
US Flu Markers Show Hint Of A Second Wind
Though flu indicators declined following the winter holidays, the CDC has said that it is watching for a second peak that sometimes occurs after the winter holidays. In its respiratory virus snapshot, the CDC said some regions are seeing rising flu indicators, especially in the Midwest and South-Central regions. (Schnirring, 2/2)
Reuters:
Cano Health Files For Bankruptcy, Receives $150-Mln Financing Commitment
Cano Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware late on Sunday and said it entered into a restructuring support agreement to reduce debt and solicit potential offers, including the sale of the firm. (2/5)
The Boston Globe:
Steward Health Care Has Deal To Keep Mass. Hospitals Open For Now
Steward Health Care said Friday that it has secured the financing it needs to keep its Massachusetts hospitals open as it works on a deal to potentially transfer ownership of some medical centers to other companies. In an email sent to its 16,000 Massachusetts employees, Executive Vice President Dr. Michael Callum said Steward had agreed upon the principal terms for a “significant financial transaction,” to stabilize the company, and that the money would begin coming in imminently. (Bartlett, 2/2)
The Boston Globe:
Steward Health Care's Texas And Nationwide Sites Share Challenges
Bail us out or we will leave. That was the message from Steward executives, according to Peter Sakai, who leads San Antonio’s Bexar County. Sakai and other local officials who met with the company said the news came too late for them to prevent the closure. ... Steward disputes that local officials were blindsided. But the closure represents an increasingly familiar story for the hospital chain. The for-profit health system has shuttered a number of hospitals in recent years, and its financial woes have now put at risk services for thousands of patients in Massachusetts. (Platoff and Gerber, 2/3)
CBS News:
Waukegan Hospital Loses Trauma Center Designation
Vista Medical Center East lost its designation from the Illinois Department of Public Health, and State Sen. Adriane Johnson (D-Buffalo Grove) said this will cause people with serious injuries "to have to be transported to hospitals more than 20 minutes away." "The Waukegan community is facing a detrimental downturn in trauma-focused care with the revocation of Vista Medical Center's trauma center designation. A lack of accessible, reliable, high-quality health care is already the reality for many, and the recent announcement will create even more damage for local residents. Simply put: Without proper intervention, lives will be lost," she said in a statement. (Lawrence, 2/4)
Modern Healthcare:
Cigna To Focus On Evernorth Services Amid Medicare Advantage Sale
Two days after announcing it would sell its Medicare business, Cigna Group outlined plans to double down on growth opportunities for its Evernorth Health Services unit. Cigna CEO David Cordani told analysts on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call Friday it is looking to grow Evernorth's reach with health plan partners and remains interested in investments in digital-first and data-led capabilities. It also expects to benefit from the continued growth of Medicare Advantage, despite its pending exit, by offering pharmacy benefits to these plans. (Berryman, 2/2)
Stat:
Devoted Health’s Losses In Medicare Advantage Persist
Devoted Health has been one of the most prominent health insurance and provider startups of the past decade — founded and overseen by several alumni of former President Barack Obama’s administration. But it has not turned a profit after five years of selling Medicare Advantage plans to older adults, according to a STAT analysis of Devoted’s financial filings. And Devoted isn’t sharing many details about its progress, either. (Herman, 2/5)
Stat:
The Two-Midnight Rule Is Changing Medicare Advantage Finances
Starting this year, private Medicare plans have to cover their members’ hospitalizations at the higher inpatient rate if their doctors predict they’ll have to stay beyond two midnights. It’s the same rule — appropriately called the two-midnight rule — that traditional Medicare has followed for a decade. After it came out that Medicare Advantage plans were routinely denying coverage for necessary services, the federal government decided they ought to be held to the same standard, at least when it comes to hospital care. (Bannow, 2/5)
Charlotte Ledger:
Atrium Health: A Unit Of ‘Local Government’ Like No Other
To an outsider, Atrium Health might look no different than its Charlotte competitor Novant Health. Like other nonprofit hospital chains nationwide, both have gobbled up community hospitals, specialty clinics and physician practices in their quest to grow. But Atrium has a key advantage: It is a “unit of local government.” (Crouch, 2/5)
Crain's Chicago Business:
Breaking Down Walgreens' Potential Shields Health Solutions Sale
Walgreens Boots Alliance in recent years has spent billions of dollars on various assets it said would prop up a new healthcare business intended to support the pharmacy chain’s long-term prospects. Shields Health Solutions, a specialty pharmacy firm, was among the companies Deerfield-based Walgreens added to its portfolio. Walgreens paid more than $2.34 billion over two separate investments into Shields, an asset that was supposed to be key to Walgreens’ transition into a full-fledged healthcare company. (Davis, 2/2)
Crain's Chicago Business:
Lurie Children's Hospital Network Disrupted By Outage
Lurie Children’s Hospital is now in its third day of a systemwide network outage due to a “cybersecurity matter” that’s disrupting all communication and patient care. Lurie’s said it is working to establish a call center in the meantime to address patient and provider needs. “We are taking this very seriously, are investigating with the support of leading experts, and are working in collaboration with law enforcement agencies,” Julianne Bardele, Lurie’s director of public affairs and communications, said in a text message to Crain’s. (Davis, 2/2)
Reuters:
Doctor Who Prescribed More Than 500,000 Opioid Doses Has Conviction Tossed
A Virginia doctor who prescribed more than 500,000 opioid doses in less than two years had his conviction and 40-year prison sentence thrown out by a federal appeals court on Friday, because the jury instructions misstated the law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia also ordered a new trial for Joel Smithers, 41, who has been serving his sentence in an Atlanta prison. (Stempel, 2/2)
The Boston Globe:
Opioid Settlement Funds In Mass. Go Unspent As Deaths Mount
Less than 5 percent of the $50 million that Massachusetts communities received from the opioid settlements so far has been spent on addiction-related services and overdose prevention efforts, according to a Globe analysis of municipal spending reports. More than 90 percent of the 247 communities that submitted financial reports to the state hadn’t spent a single penny in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023. (Serres, 2/4)
AP:
As Investors Pile Into Psychedelics, Idealism Gives Way To Pharma Economics
Money is pouring into the fledgling psychedelic medicine industry, with dozens of startup companies vying to be among the first to sell mind-expanding drugs for depression, addiction and other mental health conditions. While psychedelics are still illegal under federal law, companies are jostling to try and patent key ingredients found in magic mushrooms, ayahuasca and other substances that have been used underground for decades or — in some cases — for millennia by indigenous cultures. (Perrone, 2/3)
Reuters:
Abbott Labs Must Face Lawsuit Over PediaSure Height Claims
A judge has rejected Abbott Laboratories' effort to dismiss a New York City grandmother's lawsuit claiming it misled consumers into believing its PediaSure Grow & Gain nutrition drinks were "clinically proven" to help children grow taller. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan said on Friday that Joanne Noriega's complaint set forth "strong, evidence-backed reasons" to doubt Abbott's claim that clinical studies supported its marketing claims. (Stempel, 2/3)
Reuters:
Promising Early Data Details On Amgen Weight-Loss Drug Published
Animal and early-stage human trial data for Amgen's experimental obesity drug published in a medical journal showed that it promoted significant weight loss with an acceptable safety profile, the company said on Monday. The dataset published in Nature Metabolism details outcomes and adverse events for the 49 patients in the Phase 1 trial of the drug, maridebart cafraglutide. Trial participants received different doses of the drug ranging from 21 milligrams to 840 mg. Patients in the study were obese, but did not have other underlying health conditions such as diabetes. (Beasley, 2/5)
CNN:
Tirzepatide: Weight Loss Drug Helps Significantly Lower Blood Pressure In Adults Who Are Overweight Or Obese, Study Finds
The drug tirzepatide — sold under the brand names Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes — significantly lowered the blood pressure of adults with overweight or obesity who took it for nine months, according to a new study. (Cheng, 2/5)
The New York Times:
6 Reasons That It’s Hard To Get Your Wegovy And Other Weight-Loss Prescriptions
Talk to people who have tried to get one of the wildly popular weight-loss drugs, like Wegovy, and they’ll probably have a story about the hoops they had to jump through to get their medication — if they could get it at all. Emily Weaver, a nurse practitioner in Cary, N.C., said she told her patients that finding Wegovy was “like winning the lottery.” Here are six reasons why. (Abelson and Robbins, 2/2)
St. Louis Public Radio:
Planned Parenthood President Yamelsie Rodriguez To Step Down
Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, has announced she will step down from her position at the end of this month. Rodriguez has led the regional organization since 2019 and has guided its efforts as access to abortion dwindled and then ended in Missouri. (Fentem, 2/2)
Reuters:
US Judge Won't Shield Yelp From Texas Lawsuit Over Crisis Pregnancy Center Notices
A California federal judge has refused to shield Yelp from a lawsuit by the state of Texas accusing it of posting misleading notices about crisis pregnancy centers on its online review site. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in Oakland, California, ruled Thursday that federal courts cannot interfere with state actions enforcing their laws unless they are brought in bad faith. She said that required her to dismiss a preemptive lawsuit Yelp had filed against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last September in an effort to stop him from suing the San Francisco-based company for posting notices warning users that the centers provided limited medical services. (Pierson, 2/2)
News Service of Florida:
Florida House Committee Backs The Creation Of ‘Rural Emergency Hospitals’
With supporters saying the proposal would help ensure access to health care, the Florida House began moving forward Friday with a proposal that would create a category of “rural emergency hospitals” in the state. (2/4)
Missouri Independent:
Naturopathic Doctors Could Become Licensed In Missouri
Emmayln Pratt has been surrounded by firefighters her whole life, growing up in Kearney, 30 miles northeast of Kansas City. Her father is the local fire chief, and he’s part of a long line of firefighters in the family. “I’ve lived the sacrifices that they make to be away from their families and put their lives on the line,” Pratt said. “But they’re also putting their health on the line.” That’s part of the reason she decided to study at the Sonoran University of Health Sciences in Arizona to become a naturopathic doctor — or a primary care physician with a focus on holistic care. Pratt’s dream is to open her own practice in her hometown to, in part, help optimize the health of first responders. But under current state law, Pratt couldn’t establish that practice in Missouri. (Rivas, 2/2)
AP:
Lots Of Cities Have Anti-Crime Laws. A Minnesota City Used Theirs Against People With Mental Illness
The Minneapolis suburb of Anoka sits where Minnesota’s meandering 150-mile (241-kilometer) Rum River ambles into the mighty Mississippi. Like other communities, it touts itself as an agreeably placid place to live. But last year, a federal investigation found Anoka illegally discriminated against residents with mental health disabilities, saying the city gave landlords weekly reports over five years revealing personal medical information of renters who received multiple emergency calls to their homes. (Hanna, 2/4)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
Ohio Health Officials Confirm First Measles Case In 2024
A child in Montgomery County has been diagnosed with measles, the first confirmed case in Ohio this year. The Ohio Department of Health says it’s not aware of any additional current cases of the disease. The department is working with health officials in Dayton and Montgomery County to identify and notify anyone who might have been exposed, according to a news release. (Pinckard, 2/5)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
MetroHealth Opens Health Clinic On Cleveland State University Campus
The MetroHealth System has opened a clinic at Cleveland State University to expand healthcare services for the university’s students, faculty and staff. MetroHealth will operate the CSU Clinic in the university’s College of Health, 2112 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Patients with minor illnesses and injures that don’t need to be seen in an emergency department can be treated at the clinic, MetroHealth said in jointly announcing the clinic with CSU. (Washington, 2/4)
The Washington Post:
New D.C. Law Eliminates Waiting Period Prior To Divorce; Some Say It Will Help Domestic Violence Survivors
A new D.C. law eliminates a waiting period before divorce, a change spurred by victim advocates who say it will particularly help domestic violence survivors seeking to separate from an abusive spouse. D.C. law previously allowed a couple to divorce after six months of living separately, only if both parties mutually and voluntarily agreed to it. If a spouse contested the divorce, D.C. law required the couple to remain legally married for a year. (Silverman, 2/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Why L.A.’s Battle Against A Deadly Disease Relies On Unpaid Volunteers
Across the country, the number of new hepatitis C infections reported annually more than doubled between 2014 and 2021, topping 5,000. That same year, more than 107,000 longtime infections were newly discovered, according to federal data. Some untreated infections may clear up on their own, but many will endure, leaving people at risk of illness and death. People with long-term infections can develop cancer or end up with liver scarring so grave they need an organ transplant. (Alpert Reyes, 2/4)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
First Living Liver Donation In 10 Years In St. Louis Gives Florissant Baby New Life
Kevin Hernandez was in awe as he watched his baby in her hospital crib this week. Her brown eyes, after turning nearly neon yellow, now twinkled. Her tummy was flat instead of bulging from her tiny body. Her orangish skin was a beautiful olive. “She’s just happier,” said Hernandez, 31, of Florissant. Baby Eden’s dramatic turnaround from a life-threatening liver disease is thanks to a selfless relative who two weeks ago donated part of her liver to Eden — the first living donor liver transplant in St. Louis in about 10 years. (Munz, 2/4)
Fox News:
To Fight Bone Loss, FDA Approves Vibration Belt Shown To Help Post-Menopausal Women
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted clearance for a vibration belt known as Osteoboost. ... "A study conducted at the University of Nebraska Medical Center showed the efficacy of Osteoboost in directly stimulating bone growth and preserving bone mineral density and strength in postmenopausal women with osteopenia by sending low-frequency vibrations directly to the lumbar spine and hips," Laura Yecies, CEO of Bone Health Technologies in Redwood City, California, told Fox News Digital. (Sudhakar, 2/4)
NPR:
Masturbation Abstinence Is Popular Online. Doctors And Therapists Are Worried
More than two decades of growing internet use has surfaced fears about the social and psychological impacts of nearly unfettered access to pornography. But many researchers and sex therapists worry that the online communities that have formed in response to these fears often endorse inaccurate medical information, exacerbate mental health problems and, in some cases, overlap with extremist and hate groups. (Hagen, 2/3)
Fox News:
Burnout And Overtraining Are Forcing Young Athletes To Drop Out Of Sports, New Report Reveals
With some 70% of teenagers and children dropping out of organized sports by age 13, experts are chiming in on potential reasons for early burnout. The dropout stat was revealed in a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) — "Overuse Injuries, Overtraining, and Burnout in Young Athletes" — published in the journal Pediatrics on Jan. 22. (McGorry, 2/3)