First Edition: Friday, Sept. 19, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Kennedy’s Take On Vaccine Science Fractures Cohesive National Public Health Strategies
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has had a busy few months. He fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, purged the agency’s vaccine advisory committee, and included among the group’s new members appointees who espouse anti-vaccine views. The leadership upheavals, which he says will restore trust in federal health agencies, have shaken the confidence many states have in the CDC and led to the fracturing of a national, cohesive immunization policy that’s endured for three decades. (Armour, Mai-Duc, Maxmen and Allen, 9/19)

KFF Health News: Exactech Will Pay $8M To Settle Lawsuits Over Defective Knee Implant Parts
Medical device manufacturer Exactech has agreed to pay $8 million to settle allegations that it concealed defects in a popular line of artificial knee implants, which have been blamed for thousands of patient injuries in lawsuits. The settlement resolves two whistleblower lawsuits alleging the Florida company violated the federal False Claims Act by billing government health care programs such as Medicare for knee replacement parts it knew were defective. (Schulte, 9/19)

KFF Health News: Listen: The Surprising Power Of Pushback When Health Insurance Won’t Pay
Being denied insurance coverage can be both confusing and, at times, enraging. But mounting a skillful challenge can turn a “no” into “yes.” From confusing policy language to coding errors to shifting insurer rules, a new episode of NPR’s “Life Kit” podcast explores why denials happen and how to avoid common pitfalls. (Fortiér, 9/19)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Ousted CDC Officials Clap Back At RFK Jr.
The recently fired head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told senators that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered her to fire top officials and agree to approve changes to national vaccine recommendations — before the recommendations were made and regardless of what the science says. Meanwhile, Congress heads toward a government shutdown, with expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans in the balance. (Rovner, 9/18)

VACCINES

NBC News: CDC Advisory Panel Recommends Restricting Access To The MMRV Vaccine
A closely watched advisory panel to the CDC voted Thursday to tweak recommendations for a measles vaccine that includes protection against the varicella, or chickenpox, virus. The new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) suggests the vaccine, called MMRV, shouldn’t be recommended for children under age 4 because of a small risk for febrile seizures in that age group. The seizures can be prompted by fevers associated with viruses or, sometimes, vaccines. They usually last for a few minutes and, while they are scary for parents to witness, are generally harmless, doctors say. (Bendix, Edwards, Lovelace Jr. and Szabo, 9/18)

FiercePharma: RFK Jr.'s Revamped ACIP Contradicts Itself As Confusion, Tension Reign Over MMRV Vaccine Vote 
The confusion-riddled voting process marked the end of a frequently heated meeting, in which a theme of distrust seemed to pervade the proceedings. (Kansteiner, 9/18)

Stat: ACIP Panel Weighs Delaying Hepatitis B Vaccine Schedule From Birth
A key government advisory committee discussed on Thursday whether to recommend delaying the first hepatitis B vaccine shot, currently given at birth, by at least one month for babies who are born to mothers that test negative for the virus. Experts fear such a change could set back decades of public health work that has almost eliminated infant hepatitis B cases in the U.S. The members of the Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices pushed a vote on the issue to Friday. Experts fear that if ACIP does shift the initial shot, more children will develop chronic liver infections and complications. (Oza, Chen and Cirruzzo, 9/18)

The Hill: RFK Jr. Vaccine Advisors To Examine Shots During Pregnancy
A panel of federal vaccine advisers appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will launch a new review on the use of vaccines during pregnancy, the panel’s chair said. Martin Kulldorff, a statistician and former Harvard professor who chairs the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), made the announcement at the start of Thursday’s meeting, where panelists will consider recommendations related to the pediatric vaccine schedule, including hepatitis B. (Weixel, 9/18)

CIDRAP: Universal COVID Vaccination Saves Lives, Averts 10% To 20% Of Disease Burden, Estimates Suggest
A modeling study today in JAMA Network Open estimates that COVID-19 vaccination of all people in the United States in 2024-25 would have prevented 10% to 20% of hospitalizations and deaths compared with no vaccination, with additional indirect benefits to older adults compared with vaccinating only high-risk groups. The findings come at a crucial time, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May recommended COVID vaccines only for adults 65 and older and for people at risk for severe illness. (Van Beusekom, 9/18)

MedPage Today: Controversial RFK Jr. Advisor Has Access To Private Info In CDC Vax Database
Discredited autism researcher David Geier has full access to personally identifiable data from the original Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) and may be angling to conduct more studies with newer VSD data, according to a former CDC official. In a letter sent to co-chairs ahead of the Senate's health committee hearing on Wednesday, Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, provided insights into what Geier is doing inside the agency. (Fiore, 9/18)

Politico: RFK Jr.’s Movement Is Coming To His Defense
The MAHA movement is rallying behind its leader, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after senators berated the health secretary in back-to-back hearings this month for firing the CDC’s director and moving to revise vaccine guidance. Now those in Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again Movement plan events in nearly a dozen cities, from Florida to California, on Sept. 27 to thank him for sticking up for kids’ health, they said during a call with supporters. (Paun, 9/18)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Hill: State Department Outlines Plans To Move From Global Health Aid To Self-Reliance
The State Department outlined a new plan Thursday to move from global health aid to fostering the self-reliance of countries the U.S. has supported in prior years. The U.S. will focus on working directly with nations, requiring them to co-invest in global health initiatives in order to tackle diseases such as tuberculosis, polio and HIV/AIDS as part of a new strategy from President Trump’s administration. (Timotija, 9/18)

MedPage Today: Trump Administration Moves To Close 'Failing' Organ Donation Agency
For the first time, HHS is taking steps to decertify an organ procurement organization (OPO), alleging years of unsafe practices and chronic under-performance, health officials announced on Thursday. The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency -- one of the nation's 55 OPOs that procure major organs for transplants -- is "failing," according to HHS. (Firth, 9/18)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

NPR: House To Vote On Funding Bill, But Health Care Fight Risks Shutdown
House Republicans are working to avert a government shutdown with a Friday vote on legislation that funds federal agencies through November 21 and boosts money for security for government officials. But few, if any, Democrats are expected to go along. Their fight to inject health care into the funding debate could mean Congress could fail to approve spending legislation before the September 30 deadline. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Thursday he expected the bill to pass. (Grisales, Walsh and Sprunt, 9/19)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Subsidy Extension Would Cost $350 Billion: CBO
Congressional Democrats’ push to make subsidies for Obamacare health plans permanent would cost about $350 billion over a decade, budget analysts said Thursday, raising the stakes in a standoff that threatens to shut down the government in less than two weeks. (Cohrs Zhang and Tozzi, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Fewer Hospitals Posting Prices, Flouting Transparency Laws
Hospitals are posting fewer prices for services than in previous years despite a push for greater transparency that would benefit patients, new research has found. An interim semiannual report from Patient Rights Advocate, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, reviewed pricing files of the top 2,000 largest hospitals from March 1 to April 19. It found 43% of hospitals posted fewer prices for services than they did when the group researched the issue in November. (DeSilva, 9/18)

MORE FROM CAPITOL HILL

Fierce Healthcare: Democrats Introduce Bill To Bar Payers From Owning Certain Clinics
A group of congressional Democrats have submitted a bill to prevent large payers from buying up clinics. The Patients Over Profits Act would bar large insurers and their subsidiaries from owning certain clinics participating in Medicare, in what a press release described as a move to “pad their own pockets and leave patients out in the cold.” The announcement specifically called out UnitedHealth’s Optum, which has bought up a string of clinics across the members' home states of Oregon, New York and Washington. (Gliadkovskaya, 9/18)

MedPage Today: New Blood Tests For Early Cancer Detection Get Some Love From House Members
House members seemed generally supportive Thursday of bills that would expand access to "breakthrough" medical devices, although Democrats complained that the focus on the topic was misguided at a time when the Trump administration and Congress are cutting funding for research on cancer and other diseases. "We continue to fiddle in this subcommittee while Rome burns," said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, during a hearing on "Examining Policies to Enhance Seniors' Access to Breakthrough Medical Technologies." (Frieden, 9/18)

TARIFFS AND DRUG PRICES

FiercePharma: Fujifilm Signs On To Produce Argenx's Vyvgart At Site In NC
In addition to manufacturing drug substance for argenx’s autoimmune blockbuster Vyvgart at its facility in Hillerød, Denmark, Fujifilm will also make the product at its large-scale complex in Holly Springs, N.C. The CDMO will initiate production of Vyvgart at the plant in 2028. ... Deals are coming quickly for Fujifilm as the industry reacts to the threat of sector-specific tariffs on pharmaceutical imports under the second Trump administration. (Dunleavy, 9/18)

Newsweek: Chemical Discovery Could Lower Prescription Drug Costs
A new sustainable method to produce pharmaceuticals could help to lower prescription drug costs in the U.S. This chemical discovery by the University of Maine, the USDA Forest Products Laboratory and the University of Wisconsin could help to address one of the main factors driving high prices for medications like cholesterol-lowering drugs and antibiotics—the cost of production. (Millington, 9/18)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The Guardian: Abortion Pill Providers Targeted By New Texas Law Refuse ‘Anticipatory Obedience’
Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, on Wednesday signed into law a bill that lets people sue anyone suspected of manufacturing, distributing or mailing abortion pills to or from Texas. The first-of-its-kind law is almost certain to dramatically escalate the state-by-state showdown over abortion laws in the post Roe v Wade United States – especially as some out-of-state abortion providers have already vowed that they will continue shipping pills to Texans. “Our mantra as a practice is: ‘No anticipatory obedience’,” said Dr Angel Foster, co-founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (Map), a Boston-area based group that uses telemedicine to ship abortion pills to patients across the United States. (Sherman, 9/18)

WUSF: Florida Seeks To Join Lawsuit Challenging Mifepristone
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier cites health risks and potential conflicts with state abortion laws as the states ask to intervene in the high-profile FDA challenge. Florida and Texas have filed a petition to join a federal lawsuit challenging federal approval and expanded access to the abortion pill mifepristone. (Mayer, 9/18)

Newsweek: Largest Ever Pregnancy Nausea Study Raises 'Very Serious' Concerns
The largest study ever conducted on pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting has revealed links between severe morning sickness and long-term mental health risks, raising what researchers call "very serious" concerns. The study—led by King's College London and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust—examined the records of 476,857 pregnant women diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a condition marked by extreme and persistent nausea and vomiting. (Gray, 9/18)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Modern Healthcare: Rural Wisconsin Hospitals Form Clinically Integrated Network
Ten Wisconsin rural hospitals formed a clinically integrated network, following dozens of rural providers that have joined similar initiatives over the past two years. The Wisconsin High Value Network looks to pool the expertise and scale of the independent rural hospitals, which have combined $880 million in net revenue, to improve care and lower costs. (Kacik, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Blue Shield Of California Spinoff Stellarus Adds Blues Customers
Blue Shield of California’s tech-focused sister company has added two regional Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers as customers and co-founders. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas and Hawaii Medical Service Association announced Thursday they had signed on as co-founders of Stellarus. (Tong, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: VillageMD Sells 32 Texas Clinics To Harbor Health
VillageMD is selling 32 Texas clinics to Harbor Health, an Austin-based primary and specialty clinic group that also offers health plans. The deal includes 10 clinics in Austin, 10 in San Antonio, six in El Paso and six in Dallas. More than 80 clinicians will join Harbor as part of the transaction, according to a Thursday news release. (Hudson, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Crozer’s Taylor Hospital Closed. Now An Investor Is Stepping In
Medical transport company owner Todd Strine said Crozer Health’s Taylor Hospital closed because its private equity-backed owner drained resources. Now, he’s taking a hands-on approach to bringing it back. The community hospital on the outskirts of Philadelphia was forced to close its doors five months ago after extensive efforts to secure a buyer failed. But a group of investors sponsored by Keystone Quality Transport, of which Strine is majority owner, acquired the former Crozer Health Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, for $1 million on Sept. 10. (Hudson, 9/18)

North Carolina Health News: Nursing Shortage Persists In NC Despite Recent Improvements
Though North Carolina still has far fewer nurses than it needs, incremental gains have been made in addressing the shortage. That was the key takeaway from an analysis released Sept. 15 by the NC Health Talent Alliance, a public-private partnership of the NC Center on the Workforce for Health, the NC Chamber Foundation and the state’s network of Area Health Education Centers. (Baxley, 9/19)

MPR News: New Report Finds Rochester Leads Nation In Physician Pay
It pays quite well to be a doctor in Minnesota. Physicians in Rochester are paid more than doctors in any other metropolitan area in the U.S., according to a new report. And doctors in Minneapolis earn the eighth highest salaries. (Castle Work, 9/18)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Plans To Disclose Provider Directories In 2026
Medicare Advantage insurers will be required to submit provider directories to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services next year under a final rule issued Thursday. CMS intends to incorporate provider network information into the Medicare Plan Finder portal. This policy builds on a plan the agency announced last month to assemble provider lists it will add to the plan finder for the upcoming annual enrollment period. Insurer participation in that initiative is voluntary. CMS eventually aims to create a national provider directory. (Early, 9/18)

AP: good news//A Robot Programmed To Act Like A 7-Year-Old Girl Works To Combat Fear And Loneliness In Hospitals
Days after Meagan Brazil-Sheehan’s 6-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, they were walking down the halls of UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center when they ran into Robin the Robot. “Luca, how are you?” it asked in a high-pitched voice programmed to sound like a 7-year-old girl. “It’s been awhile.” Brazil-Sheehan said they had only met the 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter-tall) robot with a large screen displaying cartoonlike features once before after they were admitted several days earlier. (Golden, 9/19)

PHARMA AND TECH

Modern Healthcare: Cigna's Shield Health Investment Signals Specialty Pharmacy Focus
Cigna aims to strengthen its grip on the specialty pharmacy market through a recent deal with Shields Health Solutions. The company’s Evernorth Health Services subsidiary, which includes the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts and the specialty pharmacy Accredo, announced a $3.5 billion investment into Shields Health Solutions on Sept. 2. (Tong, 9/18)

Stat: FDA Warns Telehealth Providers Over Obesity Drug Marketing
Hundreds of telehealth companies, concierge medical practices, and medical spas have over the last few years built huge businesses offering compounded versions of popular GLP-1 obesity drugs while branded versions were in shortage. In more than 50 warning letters sent last week and published on Tuesday, the FDA took these health providers and companies to task for false and misleading claims about the compounded products they market. The FDA has framed the letters as part of a broader crackdown on direct-to-consumer drug advertising from the Department of Health and Human Services, which also included dozens of letters to drugmakers about promotional activities. (Palmer, 9/19)

Newsweek: Daily Pill May Slow Progression Of Type 1 Diabetes-'Really Exciting Step'
A daily pill previously shown to slow the progression of type 1 diabetes has now shown a loss of therapeutic benefit when stopped—affirming the promise of the treatment. In 2023, an Australian trial reported that a daily pill of baricitinib—commonly prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and alopecia—could safely preserve the body's own insulin production and slow the development of type 1 diabetes in those recently diagnosed. (Millington, 9/18)

MedPage Today: JAK Inhibitor Benefits In Type 1 Diabetes Lost After Discontinuation
The effects of the JAK inhibitor baricitinib (Olumiant) waned after treatment was stopped among patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes, 2-year data from the phase II BANDIT trial showed. (Monaco, 9/18)

Bloomberg: China’s Brain Implant Startups Take On Musk’s Neuralink In New Tech Race
America’s leadership in the cutting-edge field of brain technology is being challenged as Chinese startups rise with the support of a full-throttle policy drive. For years, US companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. have led the industry with state-of-the-art procedures implanting chips into patients’ brains. A wave of clinical trials by Chinese startups this year is shifting that narrative. (Tong and Rai, 9/18)

STATE WATCH

Fierce Healthcare: Northeast States, NYC Band Together On Public Health
Seven Northeastern states and New York City have announced a regional coalition aimed at strengthening public health capabilities and reinforcing evidence-based health guidance. Called the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, it follows an informal meeting in August and other talks between the members’ public health authorities that began earlier this year. (Muoio, 9/18)

AP: Report Reveals Georgia Medicaid Program Has Spent More On Admin Than Care
A federal watchdog reported Thursday that Georgia’s program requiring able-bodied adults to document low-paying work to get Medicaid has spent much more on administrative costs than on providing health care. The U.S. Government Accountability Office report on Georgia Pathways comes after Republicans mandated similar work requirements throughout the U.S. as part of the “big, beautiful bill” signed into law by President Donald Trump. (Kramon, 9/18)

ProPublica: Local Officials Waver On Water Fluoridation In Michigan, Where It Started
Just 15 months after receiving an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for excellence in community water fluoridation, the city of Grayling, Michigan, changed course. With little notice or fanfare, council members voted unanimously in May to end Grayling’s decadeslong treatment program. The city shut down the equipment used to deliver the drinking water additive less than two weeks later. (Clark, 9/18)

Military.com: Restaurant Fined $25K For Kicking Out Disabled Veteran, Service Dog 
A Lexington, Kentucky, restaurant has been fined $25,000 by the Lexington Human Rights Commission for discriminating against a patron over her service dog. The woman, a disabled Navy veteran, was denied service and told to leave the Oasis Mediterranean Restaurant in Chevy Chase in March 2023 because of her service dog. According to the hearing officer’s report, the restaurant "refused to accommodate her request to use the restaurant’s restroom and presumably the use of its buffet table.” (Patton, 9/18)

PUBLIC HEALTH

San Francisco Chronicle: Wildfire Smoke Could Cause Over 70,000 Excess Deaths Per Year By 2050s
Harmful wildfire smoke could drive more than 70,000 deaths per year across the U.S. by mid-century, according to a new study led by scientists from Stanford and other institutions. The projections, calculated for a high warming climate scenario, reflect 30,000 more annual deaths compared to the number of deaths triggered by wildfire smoke from 2011-2020. California residents face some of the highest risks across the country, according to the analysis. The authors say the findings highlight the importance of mitigating climate change impacts, as well as taking steps for adaptation. (Lee, 9/18)

Undark: Interview: Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Made Healthier?
In 2019, nutrition scientist Kevin Hall and his colleagues published eye-popping results from a unique experiment. For four weeks, study participants stayed in a hospital ward at the National Institutes of Health, splitting their time on two different diets: one high in minimally processed foods, the other high in ultra-processed foods, products that contain factory-made ingredients and additives not found in a typical home kitchen. On the ultra-processed diet, individuals ate a whopping 500 calories more per day. Although small and time-limited, this was the first experimental study to link UPFs to human obesity. (Talpos, 9/19)