First Edition: Friday, April 11, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Trump HHS Eliminates Office That Sets Poverty Levels Tied To Benefits For 80 Million People
President Donald Trump’s firings at the Department of Health and Human Services included the entire office that sets federal poverty guidelines, which determine whether tens of millions of Americans are eligible for health programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, child care, and other services, former staff said. The small team, with technical data expertise, worked out of HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, or ASPE. (Allen, 4/11)

KFF Health News: More Psych Hospital Beds Are Needed For Kids, But Neighbors Say Not Here
In January, a teenager in suburban St. Louis informed his high school counselor that a classmate said he planned to kill himself later that day. The 14-year-old classmate denied it, but his mother, Marie, tore through his room and found a suicide note in his nightstand. (She asked KFF Health News to publish only her middle name because she does not want people to misjudge or label her son.) (Berger, 4/11)

KFF Health News: RFK Jr.’s Purge Of FOIA Staff At FDA Spares People Working On Covid Vaccine Lawsuits
Mass firings at the FDA have decimated divisions tasked with releasing public records generated by the agency’s regulatory activities. ... But as the dust settled on the layoff melee, a notable exception emerged among the agency’s staff charged with responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. The cuts spared at least some workers who furnish documents in response to court orders in FOIA lawsuits involving the FDA division that regulates vaccines, which includes litigation brought by an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s who represents anti-vaccine interests, according to four current or former agency employees. (Pradhan, 4/10)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The Dismantling Of HHS
A week after the announcement of the reorganization and staff cuts ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scope of the reductions is only starting to crystallize. Across such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and FDA, entire divisions have been wiped out, and it is unclear who will be left to enforce hundreds of laws and regulate millions of products. Meanwhile, legislators in a growing number of states are introducing abortion bans that would punish women as well as abortion providers. (Rovner, 4/10)

MEDICAID AND MEDICARE

Modern Healthcare: Congress Passes Budget, Teeing Up Huge Healthcare Cuts
Congress paved the way for deep cuts in healthcare spending as part of an effort to extend expiring tax cuts on Thursday. The House voted 216-214 to adopt the final version of the fiscal 2026 budget resolution, with GOP Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) joining the Democratic minority in opposition. This followed a Senate vote to approve the budget on Monday and a House vote in February on the lower chamber's first draft of the measure. (McAuliff, 4/10)

Stat: House Conservatives Cave On A Key Demand, Decreasing Threat Of Medicaid Cuts
House Republicans’ struggles to pass a tax cut plan could be good news for the Medicaid program. (Wilkerson, 4/10)

Politico: The Surprising Pair Fighting Medicaid Cuts
Republicans have managed to unite two health industry sectors normally at war — insurers and hospitals — by threatening to cut Medicaid. Lobbyists for both industries, faced with the prospect of losing billions of dollars in fees, are scrambling to convince lawmakers that tens of millions of low-income Americans who rely on the program will suffer. The cuts proposed in a House Republican budget blueprint could run as high as $880 billion over 10 years, more than 10 percent of federal Medicaid spending. (Hooper and Payne, 4/10)

The Hill: RFK Jr. Considering ‘Framework’ For Medicaid, Medicare Coverage Of GLP-1s
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is considering a “regulatory framework” for Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1 medications to treat obesity. Kennedy said in a CBS News interview that aired Wednesday the high cost of the medication is the biggest hurdle to coverage, but he said he’s considering a proposal for Medicaid and Medicare to cover the drug once patients have established they’ve exhausted other options. “Ideally, over the long term, we’d like to see … those drugs available for people after they try other interventions,” Kennedy said. (Fortinsky, 4/10)

MedPage Today: MedPAC Says Yes To Increasing Medicare Physician Pay Based On Healthcare Inflation
Medicare fee-for-service payments to physicians should be based on the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), a measure of healthcare inflation, according to a recommendation approved unanimously Thursday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). "I think it's so important that there be a predictable inflation-based formula for updating the fee schedule," said Larry Casalino, MD, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, who was attending his last meeting as a MedPAC commissioner. (Frieden, 4/10)

The New York Times: Medicare Bleeds Billions On Pricey Bandages, And Doctors Get A Cut
Seniors across the country are wearing very expensive bandages. Made of dried bits of placenta, the paper-thin patches cover stubborn wounds and can cost thousands of dollars per square inch. Some research has found that such “skin substitutes” help certain wounds heal. But in the past few years, dozens of unstudied and costly products have flooded the market. (Kliff and Thomas, 4/10)

WHAT RFK JR. IS SAYING

ABC News: RFK Jr. Pledges An Answer To The 'Autism Epidemic' By September
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a significant commitment at Thursday's Cabinet meeting at the White House, saying that his agency will "know what has caused the autism epidemic" by September. Kennedy said that HHS had launched, at President Donald Trump's direction, a large research effort involving "hundreds of scientists from around the world" to look into the rising rates of autism diagnoses. (Haslett, 4/11)

Stat: Health Secretary RFK Jr. Declares Certain Vaccines Have ‘Never Worked,’ Flummoxing Scientists
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed another unorthodox view on vaccines, with the long-time vaccine critic declaring that vaccines for respiratory bugs that target a sole part of the pathogen they are meant to protect against do not work. (Branswell, 4/10)

The Washington Post: RFK Jr: If You Smoke Or Eat Donuts, Should Society Pay For Your Health Care?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked whether society should pay for the health care of Americans who smoke or eat doughnuts when they know those habits can contribute to poor health outcomes. “If you’re smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, should you expect society to pay when you get sick?” the nation’s top health official asked in an interview released Wednesday with CBS News chief medical correspondent, physician Jon LaPook. (Weber, 4/10)

FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS AND FUNDING FREEZE

MedPage Today: HHS Scraps Advisory Committee On Newborn Screening
As cuts sweep across federal health agencies, the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC) has been terminated. Notably, the ACHDNC, which sits under the Health Resources and Services Administration, is responsible for the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP), a standardized list of dozens of conditions the HHS secretary recommends states screen for as part of their universal newborn screening programs. (Henderson, 4/10)

MedPage Today: Nearly Half Of CDC Birth Defects And Disabilities Staff Cut
More than 40% of the 225 scientists and public health workers at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) were put on administrative leave earlier this month as part of the Trump administration's reduction-in-force (RIF) initiative. A source told MedPage Today the cuts completely eliminated the staff in the Division of Blood Disorders and Public Health Genomics, which performed research on conditions such as hemophilia, sickle cell disease, and many other conditions impacting blood. (Clark, 4/10)

AP: CDC Officials Plan For The Agency's Splintering, But Questions Remain
A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told staff this week to start planning for the agency’s splintering. Several parts of CDC — mostly those devoted to health threats that aren’t infectious — are being spun off into the soon-to-be-created Administration for a Healthy America, the agency official told senior leaders in calls and meetings. (Stobbe, 4/10)

The New York Times: Attorneys General Sue Over Access To $1 Billion In Federal School Aid 
Sixteen attorneys general and a Democratic governor sued the Trump administration on Thursday to restore access to over $1 billion in federal pandemic relief aid for schools that was recently halted, saying that the pullback could cause acute harm to students. The suit, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and filed in Manhattan federal court, is one of the latest efforts by states to fight President Trump’s clawback of funding allocated to programs he does not want the government to support. The funding was part of a windfall of more than $190 billion that the U.S. Department of Education distributed to schools at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. (Meko and Closson, 4/10)

The War Horse: Trump Budget Cuts To Defense Department Could Hurt Tech Innovation
Some of the U.S. military’s most defining technologies have nothing to do with missiles, tanks, guns, and other deadly weaponry.  While important in war, these innovations — from duct tape and blood banks to GPS — ultimately play a far larger role on the home front, improving everyday lives. But now scientists are worried the Trump administration’s budget cuts threaten the long and historic funding growth for Department of Defense-supported breakthrough science, risking America’s global dominance in a tech-driven economy and undermining future payoffs. (Krieger, 4/10)

The New York Times: Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says 
At least five children and three adults with cholera died as they went in search of treatment in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration shuttered local health clinics during the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, the international charity Save the Children reported this week. The victims, all from the country’s east, died on a grueling three-hour walk in scorching heat as they tried to reach the nearest remaining health facility, the agency said in a statement. (Sampson, 4/11)

CIDRAP: WHO Director Says Public Health-Funding Independence Needed Amid Global Cuts
At a briefing today, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that almost 75% of WHO country offices have reported health service disruptions due to recent funding cuts, 25% reported health facility closures, and 25% reported increased out-of-pocket expenditures for populations. "They also report job losses for health and care workers, and disruptions to information systems, and the supply of medicines and health products," the WHO said. (Soucheray, 4/10)

Politico: Here's Another Sign Musk's Power Is Waning
The National Institutes of Health told employees Thursday it was rolling back directives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to probe worker productivity and limit purchases and travel on company cards, according to messages obtained by POLITICO. It’s a possible sign that the agency’s recently confirmed director, Jay Bhattacharya, is willing to break with Musk and DOGE. (Nguyen, 4/10)

IMMIGRATION

The Washington Post: Social Security Classifies Thousands Of Immigrants As Dead, As Part Of Trump Crackdown
The Social Security Administration this week entered the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants into a database it uses to track dead people, effectively erasing their ability to receive benefits or work legally in the United States, according to four people familiar with the situation and records obtained by The Washington Post. The move, requested by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, is aimed at putting pressure on the undocumented immigrants to leave the country, according to a White House official. (Rein, Natanson and Sacchetti, 4/10)

The Washington Post: FBI, Other Criminal Investigators Drafted For Welfare Checks On Migrant Children 
The Department of Homeland Security has enlisted the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in recent weeks to conduct welfare checks on children and young people who came to the United States without their parents, alarming advocates who worry it’s an effort to target them for deportation or scare them. President Donald Trump has long accused his predecessor of losing more than 300,000 migrant children, claiming that they are now “slaves, sex slaves or dead,” though many also arrived during the president’s first term. Immigration experts have said that most of those children have been safely reunited with their parents or relatives in the United States. (LeVine, Sacchetti, Roebuck, Loennig and Nakashima, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Fearing Paper On Evolution Might Get Them Deported, Scientists Withdrew It
President Donald Trump’s orders haven’t targeted research involving evolution, but the authors’ unease about publishing reflects uncertainty in the science world. (Johnson, 4/10)

MORE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Hill: FDA To Phase Out Some Animal Testing Requirements
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday it plans to phase out animal testing requirements for biological products and drugs, instead moving toward alternative testing models such as computer simulations and “organoids.” The agency said in a release that its animal testing requirements would be “reduced, refined, or potentially replaced using a range of approaches,” including “AI-based computational models of toxicity” and cell lines. (Choi, 4/10)

AP: Trump Will Undergo His Annual Physical Friday After Years Of Reluctance To Share Medical Information
Donald Trump is undergoing his annual physical on Friday, potentially giving the public its first details in years about the health of a man who in January became the oldest in U.S. history to be sworn in as president. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, 78, posted on his social media site. Despite long questioning predecessor Joe Biden ‘s physical and mental capacity, Trump himself has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy — shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues. (Weissert, 4/11)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

ProPublica: “Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline
While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak concentrated in the small, dusty towns of West Texas, cases of pertussis have skyrocketed by more than 1,500% nationwide since hitting a recent low in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths tied to the disease are also up, hitting 10 last year, compared with about two to four in previous years. Cases are on track to exceed that total this year. (Eldeib and Callahan, 4/11)

CIDRAP: Indiana Reports Measles Outbreak As Cases Rise In Ohio And Michigan
Just days after reporting its first measles case of the year, in a child, the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) yesterday reported five more related cases. The newly reported patients include three children and two adults who, like the first patient, are from Allen County in the northeast part of the state, an area that includes Fort Wayne. ... Officials said though all cases are connected, there are no known links to cases in other states. (Schnirring, 4/10)

COVID-19

CIDRAP: Report: US COVID-Relief Funds Lost To Fraud Likely Total Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars
Fraudulently obtained US COVID-19 economic relief funds likely amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, although the true scope will never be known, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals. (Van Beusekom, 4/10)

CIDRAP: Nasal Bacteria May Boost COVID-19 Infection Risk
A new study in eBioMedicine from researchers at George Washington University suggests certain types of nasal bacteria may make someone more likely to get a COVID-19 infection. The study was based on 1,548 self-collected nasal swabs from adults in Washington DC. The swabs were collected during two retrospective case-control studies and a nasal microbiome study. Cases were defined as those with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and were matched with controls based on age and test date. (Soucheray, 4/10)

HEALTH INDUSTRY AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Fierce Healthcare: Prospect's Crozer Health Tiptoes Past Another Funding Deadline
Yet another funding deadline has come and gone for two Pennsylvania hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings, and while a concrete deal hasn't yet emerged the bankrupt for-profit raised enough funds to keep the lights on for at least another week. On Tuesday, an attorney for Prospect told a bankruptcy judge that another $9 million was needed by 4:00 p.m. April 9 in short-term funding, otherwise the Crozer Health hospitals would go on diversion and begin transferring patients the following morning—a now-familiar precipice for the hospitals as Prospect struggles to close a sale. (Muoio, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Scan Group, Sutter Health To Form Medicare Advantage Venture
Scan Group and Sutter Health are launching a new Medicare Advantage company that blurs the payer-provider line. The healthcare companies will invest undisclosed sums to create a new, nonprofit entity focused on developing technology, co-branded Medicare Advantage plans and care models targeted at the 6.9 million eligible Medicare enrollees in California. Scan Group and Sutter Health plan to unveil new private Medicare plans over the next three years, beginning in the fall. The joint venture will launch in 2026. (Tepper, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare, Cincinnati Children’s To Partner
GE HealthCare and Cincinnati Children’s on Thursday announced a joint research program focused on developing innovative pediatric medical imaging technologies in MRI, CT, ultrasound and molecular imaging. The program will bring together clinicians and researchers from Cincinnati Children’s and clinical scientists and engineers from GE HealthCare. (Dubinsky, 4/10)

The CT Mirror: Freestanding Birth Center Not Feasible In Windham, Study Finds 
In late 2023, state officials approved the closure of Windham Hospital’s labor and delivery unit, on certain conditions. Among them: Hartford HealthCare, the hospital’s owner, had to study the feasibility of opening a freestanding birth center in the region. (Golvala, 4/10)

The Washington Post: CEO Of GWU Hospital Leaving Days Before New Hospital Opens In D.C.
Kim Russo, the chief executive of D.C.’s George Washington University Hospital, is leaving her position days before a new hospital she helped spearhead opens in an underserved part of the city. Russo will serve as chief executive of the central region of OSF HealthCare in Illinois starting April 28, according to an announcement from the company this week. (Portnoy, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic Hires Former HHS Official Micky Tripathi
Mayo Clinic hired former federal government official Micky Tripathi for a role focused on artificial intelligence. Tripathi, the former assistant secretary for technology policy at the Health and Human Services Department, is joining Mayo Clinic as its chief AI implementation officer, a spokesperson for the Rochester, Minnesota-based health system said in a statement Thursday. Mayo didn't specify when Tripathi would start. (Turner, 4/10)

Stat: Gilead Is Urged To Rework Licensing Deals For Groundbreaking HIV Prevention Drug
A group of academics is arguing that countries seeking access to a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug from Gilead Sciences should issue compulsory licenses if the company fails to modify an existing licensing program with half a dozen generic makers. (Silverman, 4/10)

CIDRAP: New Handheld Device Can Diagnose TB Without A Lab In Under An Hour, Its Developers Say
A new smartphone-sized device can deliver tuberculosis (TB) test results at the point of care in less than an hour, an innovation that could improve diagnosis of the deadly disease in settings in which access to healthcare facilities and lab equipment is limited, its Tulane University developers reported yesterday in Science Translational Medicine. Over 90% of new TB cases occur in low- and middle-income countries. (Van Beusekom, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Mobile MRIs Offer Providers Cost Savings, Flexibility
Providers are finding more affordable ways to keep up with the rising demand for MRI exams. As the population ages and more people are diagnosed with chronic diseases, hospitals are seeing an uptick in patients who need MRI exams. But instead of building out new suites, some providers are renting and buying mobile MRI units to cut down on construction costs. Medtech companies such as Siemens Healthineers, Philips and GE HealthCare sell movable MRIs that can fit inside trailers and scan patients being treated for everything from knee cartilage problems to cancer. (Dubinsky, 4/10)

STATE WATCH

The Washington Post: Maryland’s Max Security Psych Hospital Denied Accreditation After Inspection 
A nationwide health-care safety inspection group preliminarily denied accreditation last week to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Maryland, the maximum-security psychiatric facility that has been beset by patient safety concerns, chronic understaffing and high leadership turnover. ... It was not immediately clear on Thursday what the commission’s decision is based on or what the accreditation trouble means for Perkins — a 289-bed facility in Jessup, Maryland, that houses people who have been charged with a violent crime and diagnosed with a serious mental illness. (Mettler, 4/10)

Stat: Arkansas May Force Companies To Choose Between Running A PBM Or Pharmacies
An Arkansas bill that would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail and mail-order pharmacies was passed by the state senate and is now headed to Gov. Sarah Sanders, the first time such a bill has gotten this far down the legislative path in the United States. (Silverman, 4/10)

AP: Alabama Lawmakers Advance Bill To Let Alfa Sell Health Plans Outside Insurance Regulations
State lawmakers advanced legislation Thursday that would allow the Alabama Farmers Federation to sell healthcare plans to its members that would not be considered or regulated as health insurance. The Alabama House of Representatives approved the bill on a 98-1 vote after nearly three hours of debate. The bill now moves to the Alabama Senate. The bill would allow the Alabama Farmers Federation (Alfa) to sell health plans to farmers and also to people outside of agriculture that join the organization. (Chandler, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Wary As Farm Bureau Health Plans Spread
Health insurance companies are pushing back against proposals to allow farm bureaus in more states to sell cheaper, leaner health plans as alternatives to exchange policies. Lawmakers in Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri and Ohio are debating whether to let farm bureaus offer individual and small-group health plans that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which set coverage minimums for health insurance plans. The farm bureaus contend that, because premiums are based on health status rather than income, they are a better fit for agricultural workers whose earnings can be as unpredictable as the weather. (Tepper, 4/10)

AP: States Advance Fetal Rights Measures That Critics Warn Will Pave A Path For Outlawing Abortions
A new Kansas law and a Florida bill outline policies backed by abortion opponents that critics see as moves toward giving embryos and fetuses the same rights as the women carrying them. The Kansas Legislature’s Republican supermajorities on Thursday overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill to require that child support payments cover embryos and fetuses and to grant an income tax break for a pregnancy or stillbirth. In Florida, lawmakers are advancing a bill that would permit parents to seek civil damages for the wrongful death of an embryo or fetus. (Payne and Hanna, 4/11)

North Carolina Health News: School-Based Telehealth Expands Further In North Carolina
Advocates say school-based telehealth care reduces absenteeism, ensures students receive routine care, and can even boost test scores. (Fernandez, 4/11)

AP: In Fight Over Insurance, Neighbors Crowdsource LA Fire Contamination Data
All sense of survivors’ guilt was fleeting for those residents whose homes remained standing after wildfires ripped through the Los Angeles area three months ago. Many worried that smoke from the Eaton wildfire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 18 people may have carried toxins, including lead, asbestos and heavy metals, into their homes. But they struggled to convince their insurers to test their properties to ensure it was safe to return. (Lauer and Ho, 4/11)