First Edition: Friday, March 28, 2025

KFF Health News: He Had Short-Term Health Insurance. His Colonoscopy Bill: $7,000
Tim Winard knew he needed to buy health insurance when he left his management job in manufacturing to launch his own business. It was the first time he had shopped around for coverage, searching for a plan that would cover him and his wife, who was also between jobs at the time. “We were so nervous about not being on a company-provided plan,” Winard said. (Appleby, 3/28)

KFF Health News: Their Physical Therapy Coverage Ran Out Before They Could Walk Again
Mari Villar was slammed by a car that jumped the curb, breaking her legs and collapsing a lung. Amy Paulo was in pain from a femur surgery that wasn’t healing properly. Katie Kriegshauser suffered organ failure during pregnancy, weakening her so much that she couldn’t lift her baby daughter. All went to physical therapy, but their health insurers stopped paying before any could walk without assistance. Paulo spent nearly $1,500 out of her own pocket for more sessions. (Rau, 3/28)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The Ax Falls At HHS
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced a proposed reorganization for the department — which, counting those who already have left the agency, amounts to about a 25% cut in its workforce. And its planned “Administration for a Healthy America” will collapse several existing HHS agencies into one. Meanwhile, the department continues to cut billions in health spending while the nation faces measles outbreaks in several states and the continuing possibility of another pandemic, such as bird flu. (Rovner, 3/27)

Politico: RFK Jr.’s Massive Cuts Stun Staff, Leave Senior Employees Scrambling
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s move to gut and reorganize the federal health department shocked many people tasked with making it happen, and left others fearful that everything from the safety of the nation’s drug supply to disease response could be at risk. The disaster preparedness agency in the Department of Health and Human Services has just two days to prepare a plan to fold itself into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an HHS official, granted anonymity for fear of retribution. (Cancryn, Cirruzzo, Reader, Lim, Gardner and King, 3/27)

Stat: HHS Cuts Met With Anger By Democrats, Shrugs From GOP
News of massive layoffs at the Health and Human Services Department was met with anger and predictions of lawsuits by Democratic lawmakers, and with a shrug by Republicans. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a department-wide reorganization on Thursday that calls for laying off about 10,000 employees. Combined with other Trump administration efforts, including early retirement and buyout offers, HHS will lose about 20,000 employees, one-quarter of its staff. (Wilkerson, 3/27)

Stat: HHS Cuts To Include 3,500 FDA Layoffs, Workers To Be Notified Friday
Around 3,500 employees are on the chopping block at the Food and Drug Administration, but they don’t yet know who they are. The Health and Human Services Department on Thursday announced a sweeping plan to cut 10,000 jobs and consolidate operations across its sub-agencies. FDA drug, medical device, or food reviewers and inspectors will not be among those fired, according to an HHS fact sheet. (Lawrence, Todd and Herper, 3/27)

MedPage Today: RFK Jr.'s Mass Layoffs: How Many Jobs Top Health Agencies Will Lose
HHS will slash 10,000 full-time employees, which combined with its previous buyout and early retirement initiatives, will take the agency down from 82,000 to 62,000 workers. It will also create a new "Administration for a Healthy America," or AHA, that will combine five independent agencies into one. Shedding 10,000 employees will save the government $1.8 billion per year, the agency said. It announced the changes in a press release and a fact sheet on Thursday morning, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. simultaneously posted a video to X. (Fiore, 3/27)

Roll Call: Targeting FDA User Fees Would Leave Agency Gutted, Experts Say 
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies rallied around removing industry influence from the Food and Drug Administration as part of their quest to Make America Healthy Again, which Kennedy has used in his early days in office to sound the alarm over food industry lobbying and pharma’s influence in D.C. But they’ve also, less explicitly, suggested plans to target a more unassuming but long-standing program that funds nearly half of the FDA’s budget: the user fees that industry pays to the FDA in exchange for reviewing their product applications. (DeGroot, 3/27)

Stat: At FDA Two Top Cancer Regulators To Depart 
Both deputy directors at the key Food and Drug Administration center that oversees the regulation of cancer drugs plan on departing the agency, sources told STAT Thursday, highlighting the drain on talent at the FDA created by layoffs, uncertainty, and shifts in policy at the agency even as it is set to lay off thousands more people. (Herper, 3/27)

MedPage Today: Patient Safety Research May Be Imperiled If AHRQ Is Downsized, Experts Warn
The Trump administration's efforts to downsize the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are causing alarm among public health workers as well as researchers who study patient safety and diagnostic errors. "Words like 'catastrophic' come to mind," David Newman-Toker, MD, PhD, director of the Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in a phone interview Wednesday. "From the perspective of diagnostic safety and quality and diagnostic excellence, AHRQ is really the only substantive funder of this work. It is a tiny investment for the return." (Frieden, 3/27)

Politico: Fearing Trump Cuts, California Democrat Proposes Creating State’s Own NIH 
An ambitious California Democrat wants the world’s fifth-largest economy to create its own National Institutes of Health and vaccine program, saying the state can’t rely on the Trump administration to support research and science. A bill introduced in the California Senate on Thursday, shared first with POLITICO, would create a new state agency to fund the scientific research being slashed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as well as bolster the vaccine access being questioned by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Bluth, 3/27)

Military.com: Senate Confirms Deputy VA Secretary As Department Preps For Mass Firings 
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a new No. 2 official after the Senate voted along party lines Thursday to approve Paul Lawrence as deputy VA secretary. Lawrence, a former Army captain who served as the VA's under secretary for benefits in the first Trump administration, was approved in a 51-45 vote Thursday, an unusually partisan split for a VA nominee. By contrast, VA Secretary Doug Collins, who has since become toxic for Democrats, was approved 77-23 last month. (Kheel, 3/27)

The Washington Post: Veterans Crisis Line Operators Say They Feel Battered By Trump, Musk 
About 2,600 times each day, someone has a story for the Veterans Crisis Line. The calls to the Department of Veterans Affairs hotline always vary, both in intensity and duration. Phone operators talk callers through their problems, enlisting help from local first responders or other VA programs when warranted. But over the past six weeks, employees at the crisis line have been left reeling over President Donald Trump’s cuts to the staffing and contracts of federal agencies, including VA. (Craig, 3/27)

The Boston Globe: Russian Scientist At Harvard Medical School Detained By ICE
A Russian scientist who works at Harvard University’s Medical School has spent the last six weeks in immigration detention and is facing possible deportation after undeclared frog embryo samples, which she was bringing back to her lab from France, were found in her luggage, her supervisor in the systems biology department told the Globe Thursday. Kseniia Petrova was returning from a two-week vacation in France, where she went to see a famed classical pianist perform, when she was detained at Logan International Airport in Boston on Feb. 16, Leonid Peshkin, a principal research scientist at Harvard, said in a phone interview. (Alanez, 3/27)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Launches DEI Investigation Into California Medical School
The Health and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights is investigating an unnamed California medical school following allegations of discrimination in its admission practices. The agency said Thursday it received information that the school was allegedly admitting students based on race, color or national origin. The complaints, if affirmed, would violate an executive order President Donald Trump signed Jan. 21, his second day in office. (DeSilva, 3/27)

Fierce Healthcare: Medicaid, SNAP Cuts To Lead To 1M Job Losses: Commonwealth Fund
As the Trump administration and legislators weigh cuts to federal spending, Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other entitlements are set to be prime targets. But a new report from the Commonwealth Fund and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health warns that doing so could cause significant financial turmoil among the states. The paper estimates that budget cuts for Medicaid and SNAP could lead to the loss of 1 million jobs and a $113 billion decline in states' gross domestic product. (Minemyer, 3/27)

Bloomberg: Senators Seek To Modify Tax Plan To Require Fewer Medicaid Cuts
Senate Republicans are working to change a House GOP tax plan to require fewer cuts in Medicaid health benefits for the poor and disabled, seeking to mollify members of the party worried about a public backlash. The move, which is not finalized, also pares back requirements for other spending cuts but risks alienating deficit hawks in both the Senate and the House. Fiscal conservatives in the party want steep spending cuts to help offset the multi-trillion-dollar tax-cut package. (Wasson and House, 3/27)

The Hill: Advocacy Groups Ask John Thune To Oppose House Budget Plan
Hundreds of advocacy organizations have called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to reject a budget blueprint from House Republicans. A letter sent to Thune, led by the liberal health care advocacy group Families USA, features more than 300 organizations, such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union. (Suter, 3/27)

Becker's Hospital Review: 75% Of This Hospital's Patients Are On Medicaid. Here's How It's Bracing For Potential Cuts
As CEO of MLK Community Healthcare — a safety-net health system based in South Los Angeles — Elaine Batchlor, MD, has a lot on her plate. But in recent weeks, her strategy has been dominated by proposed cuts to Medicaid funding — and what they could mean for the community and for the survival of the system’s 131-bed Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. Dr. Batchlor, who is also a University of California regent, expressed her concerns about the proposed $880 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years in a March 16 op-ed for The Hill. She also spoke with Becker’s on March 26 about the proposed cuts and how she is preparing her leadership team and board for the possibility of reductions. (Gooch, 3/27)

The Hill: Bipartisan Bill Seeks To Get Rid Of Prior Authorization
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) reintroduced a bill Thursday seeking to reform prior authorization requirements in Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Part D prescription drug plans requiring only specialty board certified physicians to make important decisions about treatment. The prior authorization measure is used by insurers to approve the cost of treatment plans, medication and or procedures before a prescription or operation can be obtained or performed. (Fields, 3/27)

AP: Anti-Abortion Groups Aim To End Planned Parenthood Funding And Suggest Musk's DOGE To Get It Done
Major anti-abortion groups gathered in the nation’s capital on Thursday to begin a lobbying effort with Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, with some calling on Elon Musk to make the organization one of his cost-cutting targets. (3/27)

The New York Times: New York County Clerk Blocks Texas Court Filing Against Doctor Over Abortion Pills
A New York county clerk on Thursday blocked Texas from filing a legal action against a New York doctor for prescribing and sending abortion pills to a Texas woman. The unprecedented move catapults the interstate abortion wars to a new level, setting the stage for a high-stakes legal battle between states that ban abortion and states that support abortion rights. (Belluck, 3/27)

The Texas Tribune: Critics: Texas Bill To Clarify Abortion Ban Won’t Save Lives
A bipartisan bill to clarify exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban garnered widespread support Thursday from health care professionals and abortion opponents who said the bill would remove any hesitation doctors might have to save a pregnant woman’s life. Critics, meanwhile, told lawmakers that Senate Bill 31 doesn’t go far enough to protect women facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies and even quietly resurrects 160-year-old laws that could be used to criminalize those who have undergone an abortion or have helped those who receive an out-of-state abortion. (Salhotra and Klibanoff, 3/27)

Stat: Gender-Affirming Hormones Protect From HIV, New Data Show 
Over a decade ago, psychologist and researcher Jae Sevelius had an idea: The behaviors that might put transgender people at particularly high risk of getting HIV stem from the fact that their gender wasn’t being affirmed as they needed. (Gaffney, 3/27)

AP: Another Federal Judge Blocks Trump Policy Banning Transgender Troops In The Military
A U.S. judge in Washington state has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from serving in the military, the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks. The order Thursday from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came in a case brought by several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discriminatory, and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations. (Johnson, 3/28)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Targets California Ban On 'Forced Outing' Of Students' Gender Identity To Parents 
Federal officials have launched an investigation of the California Department of Education for withholding from parents information about changes to their child’s gender identity, setting up a showdown between the state and President Trump, with billions of dollars in federal funding potentially at stake. The investigation, announced Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Education, takes aim at a California law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July, which prohibits schools from automatically notifying families about student gender-identity changes and shields teachers from retaliation for supporting transgender student rights. Federal officials contend the California law illegally violates the right of parents to receive school records related to their children. (Blume, 3/27)

MedPage Today: Clinicians Should Be On The Lookout For Murine Typhus, CDC Says
A flea-borne disease that was once largely eradicated from the U.S. may be making a resurgence, CDC researchers said during a clinician-focused call on Thursday. Murine typhus became so rare after public health efforts against it in the 1940s that it eventually stopped being a nationally notifiable disease. But now, cases are on the rise in two states that actively monitor the disease -- Texas and California -- and the illness may be going undiagnosed, experts said. (Fiore, 3/27)

CIDRAP: WHO Alert On US Measles Outbreak Adds New Genetic Details 
The WHO said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 128 measles genetic sequences. Texas submitted 92 identical sequences that belong to the D8 genotype. Ten identical sequences have been reported from New Mexico, and one sequence matching the Texas outbreak virus has been reported from Kansas. Five distinct B3 genotype sequences have been reported from eight other states. "The source of this outbreak is unknown. Currently, there is no evidence of decreased vaccine effectiveness or changes in the virus that would result in increased severity," the WHO said. (Schnirring, 3/27)

CIDRAP: Pan American Health Organization Warns Of Increase In Yellow Fever Cases 
Yellow fever cases in the Americas are increasing, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said yesterday in an epidemiologic alert. Officials have confirmed 131 cases this year in four countries, 53 of them fatal, for a 40% case-fatality rate. This is roughly 70 more cases than PAHO reported in early February.  (Soucheray, 3/27)

Modern Healthcare: Penn Medicine, Doylestown Health To Merge April 1
The University of Pennsylvania Health System is set to acquire Doylestown Health Tuesday. The 245-bed Doylestown Hospital north of Philadelphia will be rebranded as Penn Medicine Doylestown Health, according to a news release. It will become Penn Medicine's seventh hospital. (Hudson, 3/27)

Health News Florida: Strong Opposition To Selling Tallahassee Memorial During Packed Commission Meeting 
A discussion on the future of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare’s ownership and governance packed the city commission’s chambers Wednesday, with strong sentiment to keep the facility in local hands. During the meeting, in which about 20 citizens spoke, most commissioners agreed they want the hospital to remain locally owned. (McCarthy, 3/27)

Modern Healthcare: Meet The Value-Based Care Consultants Coming To Health Systems
Growing interest in value-based care is prompting more health systems to hire consultants to smooth the transition from the traditional fee-for-service payment model. Fee-for-service reimbursement has reigned as the go-to way of delivering and paying for care. Value-based care is intended to produce better patient outcomes while controlling costs because it focuses on preventative care. (DeSilva, 3/27)

CIDRAP: COVID Impact Survey: New Doctors Less Likely To Opt For Rural Practice, More Likely To Report Poor Job Market
Newly graduated New York physicians' likelihood of practicing in rural areas, as well as their base salaries, declined amid the COVID-19 pandemic—especially for primary care doctors—which could constrain healthcare access in those areas. The findings come from a Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute–led study published in Medical Care. (Van Beusekom, 3/27)

Stat: Wyden Claims Pfizer Used 'Colossal' Scheme To Avoid Paying Billions In Taxes
In what one U.S. lawmaker described as possibly the “largest tax-dodging scheme” by a pharmaceutical company in history, Pfizer sold $20 billion in medicines to U.S. customers six years ago, but did not report any profits from those sales on its 2019 tax returns because all of the income was supposedly earned offshore, according to an investigation by the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee. (Silverman, 3/27)

Axios: New Chan Zuckerberg Biohub To Focus On Cells' Inner Workings
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is launching a biohub focused on developing new imaging technologies that allow scientists to study the inner workings of living cells. Next-generation imaging tools could give researchers a better understanding of the processes that govern cells, especially when they go awry due to disease. Those insights could be used to develop new treatments. (Snyder, 3/27)

Stat: Eli Lilly To Connect Patients To Telehealth Providers Of Alzheimer’s Care
For the last year, Eli Lilly has been rapidly expanding a new website that connects patients with telehealth providers specialized in certain conditions it also sells drugs for, such as diabetes, obesity, and migraines. It’s now adding on another, one that pushes the envelope of telemedicine: Alzheimer’s. (Chen and Palmer, 3/27)

Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare Launches Flyrcado In Some US Markets
GE HealthCare announced Thursday the commercial launch of Flyrcado, its PET imaging agent that assesses blood flow to the heart muscle, in select U.S. markets. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services granted Flyrcado pass-through status starting April 1, allowing separate payments for the imaging agent and the PET/CT scan in hospital outpatient settings. (Dubinsky, 3/27)

Crain's New York Business: New York Single-Payer Advocates Renew Effort
A long-shot push to get New York to adopt a single-payer healthcare system persists despite a federal landscape far less amenable to government health spending than at any point in the proposal's yearslong history. The New York Health Act would establish government-backed health coverage for every resident in the state, an idea popular among progressives that has failed for decades to gain the political steam needed to advance in Albany. (Geringer-Sameth, 3/27)

Politico: 23andMe Collapse Raises Questions For California’s Nation-Leading Privacy Laws
Mounting concerns about genetic data privacy in the wake of 23andMe’s dramatic collapse are stress-testing California’s uniquely tough privacy laws, demonstrating the real-world challenges of actually implementing the protections outlined on paper. California has some of the strongest privacy laws in the country — and the only dedicated privacy agency — but 23andMe has revealed the limits of legislation when the worst happens, with even the state attorney general admitting he struggled to delete his own data from the company. (Katzenberger, 3/27)

ProPublica, The Salt Lake Tribune: New Utah Law Seeks To Crack Down On Life Coaches Offering Therapy Without A License
Utah legislators this session took aim at life coaches who harm their clients’ mental health, but the law that the governor signed Wednesday stops short of prescribing minimum standards or ethical guidelines for the burgeoning profession. Anyone can call themselves a life coach, which, unlike being a mental health therapist, does not require any kind of education, training or license. (Schreifels, 3/27)

ProPublica: A North Carolina Political Power Grab Disrupted Funding For Sexual Abuse Survivors
For years, North Carolina’s Republican-majority Legislature has taken steps big and small to wrench power from Democratic governors and the agencies under their control. One move that didn’t get much attention — tucked into a 628-page budget bill four years ago — was to direct $15 million in funding for sexual assault victims away from Democratic-led agencies that had long overseen such money. The money instead would be funneled through the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission, an obscure group that’s part of the state’s GOP-helmed courts system. (Bock Clark, 3/28)

Iowa Public Radio: Iowa House Bill Would Limit SNAP Benefits To ‘Healthy’ Foods And Drinks 
The Iowa House passed a bill Wednesday that would restrict purchases in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to only “healthy foods and beverages.” According to the bill, healthy food includes grains, dairy, meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables, or foods and beverages “based on necessary nutrition for good health.” Under the proposal, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services would have to request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service to override the current list of eligible foods and beverages. (Luu, 3/27)