First Edition: Friday, Oct. 18, 2024

KFF Health News: Helene And CVS Land Double Whammy For 25,000 Patients Who Survive On IV Nutrition
The CVS representative popped into Lisa Trumble’s third-floor Berkshire Medical Center hospital room in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to announce that everything was arranged for Trumble to return home, where she relies on IV nutrition because of severe intestinal problems that leave her unable to eat. That was on Tuesday, Oct. 8. The next morning a social worker and a doctor woke Trumble to say her discharge was canceled. CVS would no longer provide her home nutrition, and she had to stay in the hospital. (Allen, 10/18)

KFF Health News: Mountain Town Confronts An Unexpected Public Health Catastrophe
Before Hurricane Helene, had you stopped by one of the many breweries, art galleries, or award-winning restaurants in Asheville, North Carolina, and spoken with anyone who lives in these parts — including me — most would have told you they felt pretty safe from climate disasters. The mountains of western North Carolina have been known to flood: The area is bursting with creeks and rivers and enjoys an abundance of rain. (Dinan, 10/18)

KFF Health News: California Continues Progressive Policies, With Restraint, In Divisive Election Year
This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom affirmed abortion access, calling California “a proud reproductive freedom state” and criticizing Republicans across the country for trying to take away families’ rights. He signed legislation mandating that insurance companies cover in vitro fertilization. He supported restricting students’ cellphone use in schools and signed a nation-leading ban on food dye in school snacks and drinks. And he endorsed a bill allowing businesses to operate Amsterdam-style cannabis cafés. (Thompson, 10/18)

KFF Health News' 'What The Health?' Podcast: LIVE From KFF: Health Care And The 2024 Election
The Affordable Care Act has not been a major issue in the 2024 campaign, but abortion and reproductive rights have been front and center. Those are just two of the dozens of health issues that could be profoundly affected by who is elected president and which party controls Congress in 2025. (10/17)

AP: Teen Smoking And Other Tobacco Use Drop To Lowest Level In 25 Years, CDC Reports 
Teen smoking hit an all-time low in the U.S. this year, part of a big drop in the youth use of tobacco overall, the government reported Thursday. There was a 20% drop in the estimated number of middle and high school students who recently used at least one tobacco product, including cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches and hookahs. The number went from 2.8 million last year to 2.25 million this year — the lowest since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s key survey began in 1999. (Stobbe, 10/17)

AP: Tennessee Judges Say Doctors Can't Be Disciplined For Providing Emergency Abortions 
A three-judge panel on Thursday ruled that Tennessee doctors who provide emergency abortions to protect the life of the mother cannot have their medical licenses revoked or face other disciplinary actions while a lawsuit challenging the state’s sweeping abortion ban continues. The ruling also outlined specific pregnancy-related conditions that would now qualify as “medical necessity exceptions” under the ban, which currently does not include exceptions for fetal anomalies or for victims of rape or incest. (Kruesi, 10/17)

The Washington Post: Judge Orders DeSantis Administration To Stop Threats Over Abortion Ads 
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered the state to stop threatening TV stations with criminal charges if they run a political ad in support of a referendum that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban. Proponents of Amendment 4 sued the state on Wednesday over letters from the Florida Department of Health to broadcast stations around the state, threatening “criminal proceedings” if they ran the ads. U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Walker said the state’s actions amount to “unconstitutional coercion” and violate the First Amendment. (Rozsa, 10/17)

Politico: ‘Weird Consequences’: Abortion Rights Measure Could Scramble Arizona Election
Progressives in Arizona are worried that the state’s abortion-rights ballot measure isn’t giving Democratic candidates the boost they desperately need in the final stretch of the 2024 election. Voters in the battleground suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson are increasingly telling canvassers and pollsters that they plan to vote to overturn the state’s 15-week abortion ban but also support former President Donald Trump, Senate candidate Kari Lake and other Republicans who have a history of opposing abortion rights. (Ollstein, 10/17)

Bloomberg: Trump Says He Would Consider Religious Exemptions To Covering IVF
Former President Donald Trump said he would consider religious exemptions for his campaign pledge to cover the costs of in vitro fertilization, a concession to some of his conservative Christian supporters who oppose the fertility procedure. “Well, you know, I haven’t been asked that, but it sounds to me like a pretty good idea, frankly,” the Republican nominee said in an interview with Catholic news channel EWTN Thursday. (Lai, 10/18)

CNN: Some IUDs Linked To Higher Rates Of Breast Cancer, But Overall Risk Remains Low
A new study adds to a growing set of evidence that women who use hormonal birth control have higher rates of breast cancer, but experts have stressed that the overall risk remains low. (McPhillips, 10/17)

AP: Scientists Show How Sperm And Egg Come Together Like A Key In A Lock 
How a sperm and an egg fuse together has long been a mystery. New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people. “We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell. (Ungar, 10/17)

NPR: This Year's Flu Shot Protects Against 3 Strains Instead Of 4 
This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade. That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health. Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion. (Boden, 10/17)

AP: Whooping Cough Is At A Decade-High Level In US 
Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800. (Shastri, 10/17)

Reuters: Cows Dead From Bird Flu Rot In California As Heat Bakes Dairy Farms 
Cows in California are dying at much higher rates from bird flu than in other affected states, industry and veterinary experts said, and some carcasses have been left rotting in the sun as rendering plants struggle to process all the dead animals. Carcasses left in the open and picked over by scavengers could facilitate the spread of bird flu to other birds and wild animals or degrade the carcasses such that they cannot be processed for rendering, experts told Reuters. (Douglas, 10/17)

Politico: Avian Flu Spreading In California Raises Pandemic Threat To Humans
Health officials across the U.S. are working to prevent a potentially dangerous combination virus as avian flu rips through one of the nation’s largest milk-producing regions during the height of flu season. Public health experts have long warned that avian flu poses a significant pandemic threat to humans, and the number of infections among dairy workers in California continues to grow. The timing of the outbreak will soon collide with the seasonal flu, complicating efforts to track bird flu and raising the risk that the two viruses could mix, potentially creating a virulent combo that could spread beyond dairy workers to the rest of the population. (Bluth, Lim and Brown, 10/17)

Reuters: Families Of Fentanyl Victims Ask US For China Tariffs Over Opioid Crisis
A group of families whose loved ones died of fentanyl overdoses filed a petition with the office of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Thursday, requesting a probe into China's alleged role in fueling the U.S. synthetic opioid crisis. The petition was filed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a statute that allows the U.S. to impose sanctions on foreign countries that violate trade agreements or hurt U.S. commerce. The families are seeking trade countermeasures that include tariffs of at least $50 billion on Chinese merchandise. (Gottesdiener and Martina, 10/17)

Stat: A Former Medicare Official Says The Program Is In Trouble, And Medicare Advantage Is Largely To Blame
Medicare is in trouble, and it’s largely the fault of the Medicare Advantage program that is run by private insurers, according to Donald Berwick, who ran Medicare during the Obama administration. (Wilkerson, 10/17)

Modern Healthcare: Elevance Health Challenging Medicare Advantage Ratings For 2025
Elevance Health took a hit on its Medicare Advantage star ratings for 2025 and plans to do something about it, President and CEO Gail Boudreaux told investor analysts Thursday. The for-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee is the latest Medicare Advantage insurer to push back on the lower quality scores the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced last week. UnitedHealthcare parent company UnitedHealth Group already sued the agency and Humana is appealing to CMS before taking other actions. (Berryman, 10/17)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Insurers Partner With Providers
Health systems are forging partnerships with certain Medicare Advantage plans, even as increasingly frequent battles over reimbursement rates and pay policies cause them to break ties with others. Disputes over pay rates, claim denial policies and care quality benchmarks have led some health systems to drop out of Medicare Advantage networks. However, health systems are willing to partner with certain Medicare Advantage plans that disclose reasonable claim denial and prior authorization processes, invest in MA-tailored joint ventures and renegotiate reimbursement rates, system executives said. (Kacik and Hudson, 10/17)

The Boston Globe: Some Brigham And Women’s Hospital Nurses May Face Hefty Penalties For Noncompliant Health Insurance, Union Says
Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses on Thursday urged the hospital to cover any potential tax penalties they incur after learning two of their health insurance plan options do not comply with state law, according to the nurses’ union. Noncompliance could result in hefty punitive costs for 2,000 nurses and their families, according to a news release by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. In a statement, the hospital said it is in the process of requesting waivers of the requirements. (Tannenbaum, 10/17)

Stat: California Developers Target 340B Drug Discounts, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Californians are about to vote on an aggressive policy proposals to reform a drug discount program that is a key source of revenue for hospitals and health clinics. The group behind it? Apartment builders. (Wilkerson, 10/18)

Modern Healthcare: Lifespan Rebranded As Brown University Health
Lifespan, Rhode Island’s largest health system, officially rebranded as Brown University Health Thursday. The health system said in a news release the rebranding will help raise its national profile and solidify its position as a leading healthcare provider in the state. The system includes three teaching hospitals, three community hospitals, a psychiatric children’s hospital, a community-based behavioral health service and a physicians group. (Eastabrook, 10/17) 

Bloomberg: PAI Partners Said To Raise Offer For Sanofi’s Consumer Unit
PAI Partners has submitted an improved offer for Sanofi’s consumer health business, according to people familiar with the matter, an unexpected twist in one of the biggest deals in Europe this year. The private equity firm has raised its bid by about €200 million ($217 million) for the Opella unit and pledged to keep the operation’s headquarters and other key sites in France, the people said. PAI Partners also said in the revised proposal that it will keep jobs through an investment of at least €60 million over five years, the people said. (Gopinath, Nair, Kirchfeld, and Barbaglia, 10/17)

The Wall Street Journal: When Stock Prices Fall, Antidepressant Prescriptions Rise 
Feeling depressed when the stock market is down? You have plenty of company. According to a recent study, when stock prices fall, the number of antidepressant prescriptions rises. ... “Our findings suggest that as the stock market declines, more people experience stress and anxiety, leading to an increase in prescriptions for antidepressants,” says Chang Liu, an assistant professor at Ball State University’s Miller College of Business in Muncie, Ind., and one of the paper’s co-authors. The analysis controlled for other factors that could influence antidepressant usage, like unemployment rates or the season. (Ward, 10/17)

Stat: Consumer, Labor Groups Urge FTC To Block Catalent Sale To Novo Holdings
A coalition of unions, consumer groups and public interest organizations urged the Federal Trade Commission to challenge a $16.5 billion deal in which Novo Nordisk’s parent foundation would acquire Catalent, a leading contract drug manufacturer, over concerns the acquisition will harm competition and reduce patient access to popular diabetes and weight loss medicines. (Silverman, 10/17)

CNBC: Merck Says Experimental RSV Treatment Protected Infants In Trial
Merck on Thursday said its experimental treatment designed to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus showed positive results in a mid- to late-stage trial, bringing the company one step closer to filing for approval of the shot. (Constantino, 10/17)

NBC News: New Heart Stents For Infants Mean Kids Could Avoid Series Of Surgeries
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a heart stent made specifically for infants and young children, a device that could help kids born with certain congenital heart defects avoid a series of open heart operations over their childhoods. About 40,000 babies are born with congenital heart defects in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some cases, those defects are treated with stents, which prop open blood vessels, ensuring that blood can properly flow through them. (Syal and Herzberg, 10/17)

Roll Call: FCC Requires 988 Calls Be Routed To Local Call Centers 
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to require that all calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline be routed by wireless carriers to local call centers. Cellphone carriers will be required to use georouting to connect callers to the 988 call center closest to the caller’s physical location, a change intended to streamline connections to local resources and broaden services. (Hellmann, 10/17)

The New York Times: Texas Attorney General Sues Doctor Over Treatment For Transgender Minors 
Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas sued a Dallas pediatrician on Thursday, accusing her of providing gender transition treatment to minors in violation of a 2023 state law. Mr. Paxton described the suit as the state’s first enforcement action under the new law. The doctor, May C. Lau, is an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a state school and medical research institution. She also treats young patients at Children’s Health in Dallas, which has ties to UT Southwestern, and has worked at a clinic for transgender adolescents that closed in 2021 under pressure from Texas officials. (Harmon, 10/17)

CNN: Execution Of Inmate Robert Roberson In ‘Shaken Baby’ Death Is Halted After Last-Minute Texas Supreme Court Decision
The scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter has been halted after the Texas Supreme Court issued a partial stay late Thursday night, according to court documents. The 11th-hour stay came just over an hour before Roberson’s death warrant was set to expire and followed a remarkable exchange of legal maneuvers as the state and Roberson’s advocates fought over his fate. (Lavandera, Killough and Fritze, 10/18)

The New York Times: Father And Son Indicted On Murder Charges For Georgia School Shooting 
A 14-year-old boy and his father were indicted by a grand jury on Thursday on murder charges connected to the deadly shooting at a Georgia high school last month. The boy is accused of carrying out the attack, and his father is accused of giving his son the rifle used in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history. The indictments from the grand jury contain dozens of other charges stemming from the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., where the authorities said that the boy, Colt Gray, killed two students and two teachers. At least nine other people were injured. (Rojas, 10/17)

The Washington Post: Michigan To Pay $13M After Shooter Drill At Child Psychiatric Hospital
A frantic announcement played through the speakers of a Michigan psychiatric hospital in 2022: Two men with guns were on the property. Staff members rushed crying children into windowless rooms and stacked chairs, tables and mattresses against the doors. They armed themselves and children with any items they could find — hot coffee, combs and soap. They called 911 while holding back tears. But unbeknownst to the employees and children, there was no actual threat. Officials for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), which owned the hospital, were conducting a surprise active shooter drill, police said. Many patients and employees at the Hawthorn Center filed a class-action lawsuit against the MDHHS last year, claiming that the shooter drill gave them post-traumatic stress and upended their lives. (Melnick, 10/17)

CIDRAP: Spike In Detection Of Multidrug-Resistance Gene Reported In New York Hospitals 
Analysis of blood and urine from hospitalized patients in a large New York health system found that detection of a multidrug-resistance gene was common and associated with high mortality, researchers reported yesterday at IDWeek 2024. (Dall, 10/17)

The New York Times: Groups That Run N.Y.C. Shelters Are Riddled With Problems, Report Finds 
Self-dealing, nepotism and conflicts of interest are widespread at dozens of the nonprofit groups that run New York City’s $4 billion network of homeless shelters, according to a sweeping report released on Thursday. The comprehensive review, which was conducted by the city’s Department of Investigation, found that some shelter operators were enriching themselves as homelessness climbed to record levels. (Harris,10/17)

CBS News: Syracuse, N.Y. Has Double The Levels Of Lead In The Water Than Flint, Michigan, NRDC Says
The Central New York city of Syracuse is facing a crisis over lead in the water, the Natural Resources Defense Council said. According to the NRDC, Syracuse has more than double the levels of lead in the water that caused alarm and outrage in Flint, Michigan. The council is calling on authorities to declare a state of emergency in Syracuse. (Zanger, 10/17)

Stat: Chickenpox, Shingles, Alzheimer’s? Evidence Mounts For A Viral Cause Of Dementia
Pascal Geldsetzer believes in open access, in disseminating science as quickly as it happens. Even so, last summer, as he uploaded the surprising results of his latest study to the MedRxiv preprint server, the Stanford University epidemiologist was feeling something other than the usual excitement. “I was scared to put this up because it’s such a different approach from what’s generally done in epidemiology and medicine,” he said. (Molteni, 10/18)

Bloomberg: Instagram Video Warns Teens About Sextortion
Instagram is sending a video to millions of teenagers to warn them about sextortion, a cybercrime that has proliferated on the app and in some cases has driven young users to suicide. The video, which opens with the line “Let’s talk about sextortion,” will be pushed to teens and young adults in the US, the UK and Canada on Thursday, Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc. said in a statement. (Carville, 10/17)

Stateline: Computer Programs Monitor Students’ Every Word In The Name Of Safety
Whether it’s a research project on the Civil War or a science experiment on volcano eruptions, students in the Colonial School District near Wilmington, Delaware, can look up just about anything on their school-provided laptops. But in one instance, an elementary school student searched “how to die.” In that case, Meghan Feby, an elementary school counselor in the district, got a phone call through a platform called GoGuardian Beacon, whose algorithm flagged the phrase. (Fitzgerald, 10/17)

AP: Africa's Mpox Deaths Surpass 1,000 As Health Officials Urge International Support
The number of mpox -related deaths in Africa has surpassed 1,000, the head of the continent’s top public health agency said Thursday, warning of the continuing threat of cross-border contamination and a lack of rapid test kits. There were 50 mpox-related deaths in the past week, bringing the total to 1,100, indicating that authorities face a challenge in stemming outbreaks currently affecting 18 of the continent’s 55 nations, said Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Muhumuza, 10/17)

Reuters: Mpox Vaccine Rollout In Congo Slower Than Expected, Health Official Says 
Congo needs to do more to raise awareness about mpox and the availability of vaccines, an official with the response team said on Thursday, warning the campaign to distribute the shots would take longer than anticipated. Congo's mpox vaccination campaign launched this month in the hard-hit east. A Reuters reporter at a vaccination site in North Kivu province found that locals seemed unaware or suspicious of the shots. (Al Katanty, 10/18)

Reuters: More Time And Money Needed To Wipe Out Polio, Global Group Says
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) needs more funds and has pushed back by three years its target to officially wipe out all forms of the disease, officials said on Thursday. The coalition now hopes to declare an end to both the wild virus and the vaccine-derived variant by 2027 and 2029, respectively, compared with a previous deadline of 2026 for both forms. (Satija, 10/17)