First Edition: Friday, April 25, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Moms In Crisis, Jobs Lost: The Human Cost Of Trump’s Addiction Funding Cuts
When the Trump administration cut more than $11 billion in covid-era funds to states in late March, addiction recovery programs suffered swift losses. An Indiana organization that employs people in recovery to help peers with substance use disorders and mental illness was forced to lay off three workers. A Texas digital support service for people with addiction and mental illness prepared to shutter its 24/7 call line within a week. A Minnesota program focused on addiction in the East African community curtailed its outreach to vulnerable people on the street. (Pattani, 4/25)

KFF Health News: What ‘Fertilization President’ Trump Can Learn From State Efforts To Expand IVF Access
For nearly three agonizing years, Mariah Freschi and her husband have been trying to have a second baby. The California mother recently underwent surgery to remove her blocked fallopian tubes, leaving in vitro fertilization as her only option to get pregnant. But the cost quoted by her Sacramento-area clinic was $25,000 — out of reach for Freschi, a preschool teacher, and her husband, a warehouse worker. (Kwon, 4/25)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Can Congress Reconcile Trump’s Wishes With Medicaid’s Needs?
When Congress returns next week, it will be writing a budget reconciliation bill that’s expected to cut taxes but also make deep cuts to Medicaid. But at least some Republicans are concerned about cutting a program that aids so many of their constituents. (Rovner, 4/24)

FEDERAL REORGANIZATION AND FUNDING CUTS

Stat: NIH Grant Awards Plummeted $2.3 Billion Under President Trump
The National Institutes of Health has scaled back its awards of new grants by at least $2.3 billion since the beginning of the year, with the biggest shortfalls hitting the study of infectious diseases, heart and lung ailments, and basic research into fundamental biological systems, a new STAT analysis has found. (Molteni, Parker and Wosen, 4/24)

NPR: HHS Reverses Course And Restores Funding For Women's Health Initiative
The Trump administration is restoring financial support for a landmark study of women's health, an official said Thursday, reversing a defunding decision that shocked medical researchers. "These studies represent critical contributions to our better understanding of women's health," said a statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services. (Stein, 4/24)

The New York Times: Trump Cuts Threaten Agency Running Meals On Wheels
Every Monday, Maurine Gentis, a retired teacher, waits for a delivery from Meals on Wheels South Texas. ... But Ms. Gentis is anxious about what lies ahead. The small government agency responsible for overseeing programs like Meals on Wheels is being dismantled as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Roughly half its staff has been let go in recent layoffs and all of its 10 regional offices are closed, according to several employees who lost their jobs. (Abelson, 4/24)

The Colorado Sun: USDA Cuts Program That Funds Mental Health Lifeline To Farmers 
Colorado farmers and ranchers lost access to a critical lifeline when the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week froze funding for a program that supports the mental health of a population whose suicide rate is at least two times higher than the average population, and whose profession is marked by uncertainties in the weather, market and cost of operating. (Ross, 4/25)

MedPage Today: Remember That Simulation Training You Did? HHS Cuts Could Affect The Research For It
How do you train hospital staff to do a "warm" handoff from one team to another? What's the best way to make sure nothing gets missed in the communication? Improving that handoff -- in particular, the one that occurs between the hospital operating and recovery rooms -- was the idea behind a simulation-based training study that Matthew Weinger, MD, and his team designed; the study was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). (Frieden, 4/24)

Stat: With FDA In Turmoil, The ‘Revolving Door’ With Industry Is Spinning Faster
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has railed against what he sees as a “revolving door” between workers at drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration. But his department’s actions now seem to be causing that door to spin ever faster. (DeAngelis, Mast and Chen, 4/25)

MORE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

CBS News: Trump's Surgeon General Nominee, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Faces Scrutiny Over Credentials
President Trump's nominee to be the U.S. surgeon general, the Fox News contributor and family medicine physician Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, has described herself as a double board-certified physician with a degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine — credentials the president touted in his announcement. But those claims about her certification and schooling appear to be misleading. (Ruetenik, 4/24)

The Washington Post: Giant Tent Rises In Florida To House Hundreds Of Detained Immigrants
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Miami plans to move up to 400 immigrant detainees into a large tent that was erected in recent weeks to accommodate a surging population of migrants, said Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Florida), who toured the facility Thursday. (MacMillan, 4/24)

AP: As Immigrant Arrests Surge, Complaints Of Abuse Mount At America's Oldest Detention Center In Miami
As hundreds of migrants crowded into the Krome Detention Center in Miami on the edge of the Florida Everglades, a palpable fear of an uprising set in among its staff. As President Donald J. Trump sought to make good on his campaign pledge of mass arrests and removals of migrants, Krome, the United States’ oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse, saw its prisoner population recently swell to nearly three times its capacity of 600. (Goodman and Salomon, 4/25)

'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN'

Stat: RFK Jr. Outlines Addiction Policy At Appearance To Mixed Reception 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appearance at a major addiction and drug policy conference was marked by repeated interruptions on Thursday, as protesters and jeers forced him to pause and wait for noise to subside at least five times during his 36-minute speech. (Facher, 4/24)

Stat: No New Autism Registry, HHS Says Walking Back NIH Director's Claim
The federal health department is not creating a new registry of Americans with autism, a Department of Health and Human Services official said in a written statement Thursday. Instead, the official said, HHS will launch a $50 million research effort to understand the causes of autism spectrum disorder and improve treatments. (Broderick, 4/24)

LGBTQ+ HEALTH CARE

Politico: Pentagon To Resume Medical Care For Transgender Troops
The Pentagon will resume gender-affirming care for transgender service members, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO, an embarrassing setback to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to restrict their participation. The memo says the Defense Department is returning to the Biden-era medical policy for transgender service members due to a court order that struck down Hegseth’s restrictions as unconstitutional. (Detsch, McLeary and Cheney, 4/24)

NBC News: DOJ Will Investigate Doctors Who Provide Trans Care To Minors, Attorney General Says
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo this week seeking to further curtail access to transgender health care for minors. In the memo, Bondi said the Justice Department will use a variety of existing U.S. laws to investigate providers of such care, as well as drug manufacturers and distributors. She directed U.S. attorneys to use laws against female genital mutilation to investigate doctors who “mutilate” children “under the guise of care” and to prosecute these “offenses to the fullest extent possible.” (Yurcaba, 4/24)

CAPITOL WATCH

Fierce Healthcare: Cassidy Backs Greater 340B Hospital, Pharmacy Transparency
A new report on the 340B Drug Pricing Program released Thursday by the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee calls for “much-needed” legislative reforms around transparency and oversight of the contentious discount program. Chairman Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-Louisiana, kicked off his investigation in late 2023 as a response to substantial increases in the program’s utilization among providers. (Muoio, 4/24)

Politico: Once All-Powerful, Pharma’s Allies In Washington Are Fleeting
Big Pharma isn’t sure how to handle Donald Trump’s Republican Party. Trump is pledging to impose tariffs on drug imports, while Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vilified the drug industry’s profits and questioned the safety of its products. Long a lobbying powerhouse in Washington, pharma’s struggling to settle on a strategy for defending itself, according to six industry lobbyists and three company officials who spoke to POLITICO. All were granted anonymity to reveal internal discussions. (Gardner and Lim, 4/24)

CBS News: House Republicans Face Dilemma Over Medicaid Cuts As They Vow To Protect Benefits
House Republicans are facing the difficult task of slashing $1.5 trillion — with hundreds of billions likely in Medicaid spending — to help offset the cost of President Trump's tax cuts. House leadership has denied that Medicaid — a joint federal-state health insurance program that provides care for more than 70 million low-income adults, children and people with disabilities — will be gutted. But it's unclear how Republicans plan to reach the level of spending cuts laid out in the budget resolution that Congress adopted earlier this month without drastically trimming the program. (Yilek, 4/24)

The Hill: Oversight Democrat Questions How CDC Can Provide Public Records Without Staffers
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is demanding to know how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests when the relevant staff have been put on administrative leave. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid off or eliminated HHS staffers in charge of handling FOIA requests at the CDC, Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, according to reporting earlier this month. (Choi, 4/24)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

The Washington Post: Millions Of U.S. Measles Cases Forecast Over 25 Years If Vaccination Rates Decline
The United States faces millions of measles cases over the next 25 years if vaccination rates for the disease drop 10 percent, according to new research published Thursday. No change in the current vaccination rate would result in hundreds of thousands of measles cases over the same period, according to a mathematical model produced by a team of Stanford University researchers. (Sun, 4/24)

CIDRAP: CIDRAP Launches Vaccine Integrity Project To Help Safeguard US Vaccine Use
As the United States experiences a large measles outbreak and faces a continuing barrage of vaccine misinformation and cuts to public health programs, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota is launching a project to help ensure safe US vaccine use. Funded by an unrestricted gift of $240,000 from Alumbra, a foundation established by philanthropist Christy Walton, the Vaccine Integrity Project will be led by an eight-member steering committee of leading public health and policy experts from across the country. (Van Beusekom, 4/24)

Bloomberg: USDA To Withdraw Proposal To Tighten Raw Poultry Rules To Reduce Salmonella
The US Department of Agriculture is rolling back a Biden-era proposal that aimed to tighten regulations surrounding raw poultry products to reduce salmonella illnesses. The department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said it would withdraw the framework after public comments including from industry groups “raised several important issues that warrant further consideration,” according to an unpublished version of the proposed rule that was posted to the Federal Register. (Peng, 4/24)

CBS News: California Offering $25 Gift Cards To Encourage Bird Flu Testing
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now working with California on a project that is offering gift cards to encourage people to get tested or vaccinated near farms with bird flu, the state says. Some clinics in the state are giving $25 in gift cards to people in the community to get swabbed for a potential bird flu infection or to get a shot of the regular seasonal influenza vaccine. (Tin, 4/24)

The New York Times: They Caught The Flu, And Never Came Home 
Lauren Caggiano had felt sick for days by the time she tested positive for the flu in an emergency room on a February afternoon. Hours later, she was in the intensive care unit. By 4 in the morning, she was on a ventilator. Ms. Caggiano, a paralegal who lived in Oceanside, Calif., doted on her two dogs and had recently become a grandmother, died two days later. She was 49.“You don’t really think, if you’re in decent health, that’s going to be what gets you,” her son, Brandon Salgado, said. (Blum, 4/24)

Axios: Driving With COVID Linked To Higher Crash Risk
Driving with a case of COVID raised the odds of having a car crash about as much as being at the legal threshold of DUI or running a red light, according to an analysis of pandemic-era public health and transportation records from seven states. (Bettelheim, 4/24)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Bloomberg: FDA Leader Says He Has No Plan To Act On Abortion Pill Access
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said he has no plans to change government policy on the abortion pill mifepristone, a hot-button issue in the US since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022. Makary would reconsider the issue if new data emerged that signaled a safety issue with the drug that is now used in more than half of US abortions, he said during an appearance at the Semafor World Economy Summit on Thursday. (Cohrs Zhang and Nix, 4/24)

The Hill: Reproductive Health Group, ACLU Sue Trump Administration Over Title X Funding
One of the country’s largest reproductive health advocacy groups is suing the Trump administration for withholding millions of dollars in federal family planning grants earlier this year. The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday, claiming the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “unlawfully withheld” $65.8 million in Title X funds to 16 family planning groups. (O’Connell-Domenech, 4/24)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

CBS News: Closing Crozer Health Hospitals In Pennsylvania Could Harm Nearby Businesses, Owners Say
The closure of Crozer Health, Delaware County's largest hospital system, is leaving a void in health care in the county, resulting in thousands of layoffs and increasing pressure on emergency medical services. It's also impacting businesses near the hospitals slated for closure. Sam & Sam Meats is a supermarket half a mile away from Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland. The owner, Samuel Kushto, said he often sees customers walking in wearing scrubs. (Wright, 4/24)

Central Florida Public Media: Shuttered Rockledge Hospital Leaves Community Without Its Emergency Department 
Andrea Hardeman Brown remembers being 18 years old and getting her first hospital job at Rockledge Hospital. "It was large enough to be efficient for high-acuity patients, but it was small enough to still have the feel of a community hospital where everybody knew your name," Brown said. Brown, 43, now works as a clinical liaison for Kindred Hospital in Melbourne, though until recently her work brought her into Rockledge Hospital. (Pedersen, 4/24)

Aurora Beacon-News: Mercy Medical Center Has Trauma Center Designation Revoked
Over allegations of staffing shortages, the Illinois Department of Public Health has revoked Mercy Medical Center in Aurora’s Level II Trauma Center designation. Previously, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora was designated by the state as a Level II Trauma Center, which means it was able to provide trauma care to patients with serious injuries, like those from car crashes, falls or violence, through 24-hour on-site or readily available essential services. (Smith, 4/24)

St. Louis Public Radio: Mercy Begins Construction On Wentzville Hospital
Mercy has begun construction on a 75-bed hospital in Wentzville that will soon serve the region’s booming west suburbs. The facility will be built less than a half-mile from where Interstates 70 and 64 converge at Highway 61 in St. Charles County. Workers have cleared a 60-acre property previously filled with trees and started constructing a utility building, the first steps of what will eventually be a $650 million facility. (Fentem, 4/25)

CBS News: Patients Who Needed Financial Assistance Said Nonprofit Hospitals In Massachusetts Didn't Help Them
There are 55 nonprofit hospitals in Massachusetts. Those hospitals receive tax benefits totaling more than $1.9 billion a year. In exchange for the tax breaks, the hospitals are required to provide financial assistance to patients who need it and give free care to the poor. But, some patients said they are in debt because they didn't get the help they were entitled to. (Fiandaca, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: Yale New Haven Health Hacking Hits More Than 5.5M Patients
Hackers may have accessed the information of more than 5.5 million people in a recent security breach reported by Yale New Haven Health. In March, the New Haven, Connecticut-headquartered provider flagged unusual activity on its information technology systems, Yale said in a news release posted to its website earlier this month. An investigation found an unauthorized third-party had obtained copies of some patient data on March 8. (DeSilva, 4/24)

WUSF: Sarasota Memorial Opens Research And Education Facility
The future is now for the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which cut the ribbon Thursday on a long-awaited $75 million facility designed to merge its research and medical education programs under one roof. (Mayer, 4/24)

Bloomberg: UPS To Buy Andlauer For $1.6 Billion, Bolstering Health Business
United Parcel Service Inc. agreed to acquire Canada’s Andlauer Healthcare Group Inc. for $1.6 billion, building out the package handler’s growing business transporting goods for health-care customers. AHG shareholders will receive C$55 a share in cash, according to a statement Thursday. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. (Clough, 4/24)

Axios: Gen Z Increasingly Listens To Peers Over Doctors For Health Advice
Young adults around the world are increasingly taking health decisions into their own hands, according to new global survey results from communications firm Edelman. Adults under age 35, many who've come of age since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, still rely on their individual providers to help with medical choices. But they're also seeking information on their own more than ever. (Goldman, 4/24)

STATE WATCH

The Colorado Sun: Colorado’s Medicaid Program Now Covers Doula Services
When Halle Payne became pregnant with her second child, she didn’t have much trust in the health care system. During her first pregnancy, when she was just 19 years old, doctors found what they believed to be a fibroid on her ovary. She was in her second trimester, and her providers recommended monitoring it during subsequent check-ups. (Singer, 4/25)

CBS News: State House Halts Investigation Into Hope Florida, Casey DeSantis-Linked Foundation, Amid Lack Of Cooperation
After weeks of investigation, a state House leader said Thursday his panel is halting a probe into a foundation linked to First Lady Casey DeSantis' signature economic-assistance program, Hope Florida. Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican who chairs the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, announced the decision after the Hope Florida Foundation's lawyer, Jeff Aaron, and leaders of nonprofits that received $5 million grants from the foundation refused to appear before the panel. (4/24)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Expansion In North Carolina Heats Up
North Carolina health systems are vying for a limited number of hospital beds to try to expand their reach and keep up with population growth. Cone Health, Duke Health, Novant Health, Advocate Health and other North Carolina providers are pursuing acute care expansions. North Carolina, however, has a certificate of need law requiring the state to approve new healthcare projects based on access to care, competition and other factors. The law seeks to prevent oversaturation of services, potentially creating a set of health system winners and losers and limiting hospital capacity in one of the country's fastest growing states. (Kacik, 4/24)

AP: San Francisco Inches Closer To Adopting Drug Policy With Abstinence As Its Primary Goal
Reeling from drug overdose deaths and scenes of people smoking fentanyl on sidewalks, San Francisco moved closer Thursday to adopting a “recovery first” drug policy that sets abstinence from illicit drugs as its primary goal, a proposal that has prompted heated debate in the city that pioneered harm reduction. Opponents of Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s proposal say its emphasis on stopping drug use alienates those who are not ready to quit, while proponents say the city has been far too permissive and making drug use safer does not help break the cycle of addiction. (Har, 4/25)

CNN: Ivermectin Is Now Available Over The Counter In Some US States. What Is It Used For? 
Ivermectin can now be purchased in Idaho just like Tylenol or ibuprofen, without the need for a prescription, after Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law that permits the deworming medication to be sold over the counter. Two other states, Arkansas and Tennessee, have passed similar legislation. (Hetter, 4/24)