First Edition: Jan. 10, 2024

KFF Health News: Mammography AI Can Cost Patients Extra. Is It Worth It?
As I checked in at a Manhattan radiology clinic for my annual mammogram in November, the front desk staffer reviewing my paperwork asked an unexpected question: Would I like to spend $40 for an artificial intelligence analysis of my mammogram? It’s not covered by insurance, she added. I had no idea how to evaluate that offer. Feeling upsold, I said no. But it got me thinking: Is this something I should add to my regular screening routine? Is my regular mammogram not accurate enough? If this AI analysis is so great, why doesn’t insurance cover it? I’m not the only person posing such questions. (Andrews, 1/10)

KFF Health News: California Offers A Lifeline For Medical Residents Who Can’t Find Abortion Training 
Bria Peacock chose a career in medicine because the Black Georgia native saw the dire health needs in her community — including access to abortion care. Her commitment to becoming a maternal health care provider was sparked early on when she witnessed the discrimination and judgment leveled against her older sister, who became a mother as a teen. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Peacock was already in her residency program in California, and her thoughts turned back to women like her sister. (Udesky, 1/10)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' 
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: In some states, anglers have little guidance about the “forever chemicals” in freshwater fish, and California once again expands access to its Medicaid program, opening the door wider for immigrants regardless of age or legal status. (1/9)

The Washington Post: Austin Treated For Prostate Cancer Before Emergency, Pentagon Reveals
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had surgery last month after a prostate cancer diagnosis, officials disclosed Tuesday, detailing for the first time what condition led to serious medical complications and a lengthy hospitalization that he kept secret for days from the White House, Congress and the American public. Austin’s condition was announced by the Pentagon in a statement attributed to John Maddox and Gregory Chesnut, doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. They said the retired Army general, 70, was diagnosed with cancer in December after routine screening and underwent a “minimally invasive surgical procedure” known as a prostatectomy, in which all or part of the organ is removed, while under general anesthesia. He was admitted Jan. 1 after developing complications from the surgery and remains a patient there. (Lamothe, Viser, Nirappil and Ryan, 1/9)

USA Today: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's Prostate Cancer Surgery, Explained
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had surgery last month for one of the most common cancers among American men, prostate cancer. The minimally invasive procedure to remove all or part of his prostate gland resulted in a severe infection that caused him to return to the hospital, according to Pentagon officials. ... Prostate cancer affects more than one in eight U.S. men, and one in six African American men, during their lifetime, the doctors said. The nonprofit American Cancer Society said it's the most common form of cancer in men other than skin cancer, and the risk of getting it increases with age. Austin, the first Black defense secretary, is 70. (Cuevas, 1/9)

Politico: When ‘Elective’ Doesn’t Mean Optional: Lloyd Austin’s Cancer Surgery
The Pentagon described Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s prostate cancer surgery as an “elective medical procedure,” which many people might take to mean it was minor. But that’s not the case, cancer experts say. “Elective means it’s not done on an urgent basis — it’s scheduled,” said Dr. Nitin Yerram, urologist and director of urologic research at Hackensack University Medical Center. “Most cancer operations are done on an elective basis.” A prostatectomy, the surgery Austin underwent last month, can be serious and is required for some patients, even if not urgently, said Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, co-director of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Prostate Cancer Center. The procedure removes some or all of the prostate to remove the cancer. (Payne, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Why A Urinary Tract Infections Can Become A Serious Health Problem 
News that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized with a urinary tract infection has cast light on a common condition that can quickly turn life-threatening, especially among older patients. (Sima, Soong, Bever and Cimons, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Congress May Need Short-Term Government Funding Law Despite Bipartisan Deal
Congress may need to pass a temporary government funding bill before a looming deadline to prevent a partial shutdown — even though leaders announced a spending deal over the weekend meant to keep the government open. Funding for roughly 20 percent of the federal government — including for essential programs such as some veterans assistance, and food and drug safety services — expires on Jan. 19, and money for the rest of the government runs out shortly after that, on Feb. 2. (Bogage, 1/9)

Axios: Congress Faces Pressure To Reverse Doctors' Payment Cuts — Again
Congress is once again being urged to reverse a cut to physicians' Medicare payments, prompting calls for a broader overhaul of how the program reimburses doctors. Congress is still stuck in an annual dance of being pressured to increase physician payments, even after Washington nearly a decade ago put an end to the despised "doc fix" that forced lawmakers to regularly forestall deep cuts. (Sullivan, 1/10)

The Washington Post: Republican Governors Are Rejecting Free Summer Lunch Programs For Kids 
Moving beyond efforts to block expansion of health care for the poor and disabled, Republican governors in 15 states are now rejecting a new, federally funded summer program to give food assistance to hungry children. The program is expected to serve 21 million youngsters starting around June, providing $2.5 billion in relief across the country. The governors have given varying reasons for refusing to take part, from the price tag to the fact that the final details of the plan have yet to be worked out. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said she saw no need to add money to a program that helps food-insecure youths “when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) said bluntly, “I don’t believe in welfare.” (Gowen, 1/10)

NPR: Meta Restricts Content For Teens On Facebook, Instagram
"Now, when people search for terms related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, we'll start hiding these related results and will direct them to expert resources for help," Meta stated in a blog post. (Kerr, 1/9)

Bloomberg: Online Mental Health: Students Use Technology Rather Than School Counselors
An overwhelming majority of teens and tweens — 87% — have sought mental health information online, and 64% have used mobile health apps, according to a report by the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit focused on emotional health and suicide prevention among US teens and young adults. But it’s not just a desire for relatability and privacy that is pushing high school and college students to seek mental health services virtually. Schools are straining to meet demand. (Li, 1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Biden Administration Overturns Trump-Era Provider Conscience Rule
The Health and Human Services Department has once again revisited conscience protections for providers who object to delivering medical services such as abortions on religious or moral grounds. HHS issued a final rule Tuesday that takes effect immediately and mostly rescinds a 2019 regulation that aimed to broaden the conscience policy but was struck down by federal courts before HHS implemented it. HHS published a draft version of the new rule in 2022. (Hartnett, 1/9)

Politico: In The Fight Over Abortion Rights, The Government Bans Its First Company From Tracking Medical Visits 
The Biden administration stopped a company from selling data on people’s medical visits on Tuesday, its first settlement on a privacy issue that has many Americans concerned about who can see their most sensitive personal data — particularly visits to abortion providers. After an investigation, the Federal Trade Commission said it had reached a settlement with Outlogic, a location data broker formerly known as X-Mode Social, which had been collecting information on people’s visits to medical centers. (Ng, 1/9)

Stat: Idaho Abortion Case May Prompt More Restrictions In Other States 
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to consider the legality of Idaho’s abortion law — and to reinstate its highly restrictive ban in the meantime — is expected to galvanize a push for similar measures in other states, even before the court issues a ruling later this year. (Goldhill and Merelli, 1/10)

CBS News: Planned Parenthood, SEIU Reach Tentative Agreement On 1st Contract For Union Workers In Minnesota, Iowa, Dakotas
The country's leading reproductive health care provider and a majority of its newly unionized employees in Minnesota and several other Midwestern states have reached a tentative agreement on its first contract. Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa (SEIU) announced Tuesday that the agreement with Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) was reached during their 37th bargaining session, with the final one wrapping up in the middle of the night after almost 14 hours of negotiations. (Swanson, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Tests May Be Taking Longer To Show Positive. Here's Why
It used to be that someone might test positive for the coronavirus one or two days after the onset of symptoms using a rapid test, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Now, positive results might not show up until the fourth day after symptoms start. (Lin II, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Has JN.1 Made Home COVID Tests Less Effective? Here Is What We Know
Mutations to the virus mean that test kits may not spot it for up to a week after exposure. That’s because the kits were designed for earlier variants, and while they can still sense the newer ones, a greater buildup of virus samples in the nostrils is required to trigger a positive test result. ... For newer variants, experts recommend starting to test around three days after exposure. If the result is negative, keep testing every day or two until the sixth day. (Vaziri, 1/9)

USA Today: This COVID Drug Is A Potential Lifesaver. So Why Aren't More People Taking It? What To Know
A recent National Institutes of Health study of about 1 million people found only 15% at risk for severe disease took a five-day course of the prescription medicine. Of the patients who took Paxlovid, the medication reduced the risk of death by 73% and hospitalizations dropped 26%, showing the medicine is highly effective for people at risk of severe complications. ... Doctors have been slow to prescribe Paxlovid, in part, due to concerns about interactions with other medicines, even though patients can pause taking the other drugs for a handful of days. (Alltucker and Weintraub, 1/9)

The Hill: Democrats Accuse GOP Of Distorting Fauci’s Testimony From Hours-Long Meeting
Democrats who took part in the two-day interview with former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Republicans had distorted what the former government official told lawmakers on his first day. Fauci sat through roughly seven hours of interviewing with lawmakers Monday and returned to the Capitol on Tuesday for another round. These discussions marked his first time speaking with lawmakers since stepping down from government at the end of 2022. (Choi, 1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna Eyes In-Home Services M&A, CEO David Cordani Says
Cigna Group is on the lookout for deals that could expand its in-home care offerings and insurance services, CEO David Cordani said Tuesday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. He declined to comment on speculation that the company is in talks to sell its HealthSpring Medicare Advantage operations, or whether a sale would lead the insurer to once again pursue a deal with major Medicare Advantage carrier Humana. (Tepper, 1/9)

Crain's Detroit Business: 3 Michigan Hospitals Merge To Form Aspire Rural Health System
Three hospitals in Michigan’s Thumb region are merging to become a single health system. The rural hospitals ... are now Aspire Rural Health System, the companies announced this week. ... The new health system will operate under a single board made up of members from the three hospitals’ individual boards, which will be dissolved. (Walsh, 1/9)

The CT Mirror: Prospect Medical Holdings Chain Owes CT $67M, Tax Liens Show
The state has filed three tax liens against Prospect Medical Holdings because the California company has neglected to pay $67 million in taxes, records show. (Altimari, Carlesso and Phaneuf, 1/9)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Former Head Of UH Fertility Lab Sues Attorney Who Defended Him In Embryo Litigation
The former director of the University Hospitals’ fertility lab on Monday sued the attorney who defended him in a lawsuit involving the malfunction that rendered 4,000 embryos and eggs nonviable in 2018. (Shaffer, 1/9)

Reuters: Rite Aid Gets Court Approval For $575 Million Elixir Sale 
Pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp on Tuesday received bankruptcy court approval to sell its Elixir pharmacy benefit manager business for $575 million. Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in October with an agreement to sell the Elixir business to pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) MedImpact Healthcare Systems for that price. (Knauth, 1/9)

Stat: New Menopause Drug Shows Promise In Relief For Hot Flashes
More hopeful news on the menopause front: Bayer announced on Monday encouraging results in two Phase 3 trials for its non-hormonal drug candidate, elinzanetant, meant to treat hot flashes. The results follow the recent market launch of Veozah, Astellas Pharma’s groundbreaking non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last spring and received approval in the U.K., under the name Veozah, in December. (Merelli, 1/10)

Stat: Doudna Institute Plans To 'Cure Hundreds Of Diseases' With CRISPR
Researchers attending gene therapy meetings over the past couple years were liable to bump into a svelte, graying scientist explaining in emphatic, Russian-inflected English that the U.S. was wasting the grand potential of CRISPR gene editing. (Mast, 1/9)

Chicago Tribune: AI Model Could Suggest Better Treatment Plans For Breast Cancer Patients 
Mohamed Tageldin has worked at the intersection of artificial intelligence and pathology, the study and diagnosis of diseases, for six years. Tageldin, a resident physician at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center, is part of a team of researchers that has developed an artificial intelligence model to more precisely predict long-term outcomes for breast cancer patients. (Guffey, 1/9)

Fox News: Annual Breast Cancer Screenings Linked To Lower Risk Of Death, Study Finds
Making breast cancer screenings an annual event could save women’s lives, new research suggests. In a study led by Epic Research, a health analytics firm based in Verona, Wisconsin, women who were screened for breast cancer on a yearly basis were shown to have a 17% lower risk of death by any cause compared to those who received screenings every two years, according to a Jan. 4 press release. (Rudy, 1/9)

The 19th: Ohio House To Hold Veto Override Vote On Gender-Affirming Care Ban
On Wednesday, House Republicans in Ohio will vote on whether to override a veto from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine that blocked a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. This is the first step in allowing the ban to take hold; if passed, the bill moves to the Senate for another vote. DeWine is only the second governor in his party to block a state ban on hormone therapy and puberty blockers for minors. While announcing his veto in late December, he said that decisions on gender-affirming care should be left to parents and doctors — and emphasized that such care is life-saving, which he learned from direct conversations with trans youth and their families. (Rummler, 1/9)

CBS News: Trans Youth Sue Over Louisiana's Ban On Gender-Affirming Health Care
Five trans youth and their families filed a petition in Louisiana District Court on Monday over the state's ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors, alleging such an action "has endangered the health and wellbeing" of the plaintiffs. ... The suit alleges that the ban strips parents of their right to champion their children's health choices and violates the Louisiana State Constitution by a minor's right to medical treatment and discriminates against them based on sex and transgender status. (Mandler, 1/9)

The New York Times: New York City Hid Realities Of Homelessness Crisis, Report Finds 
As New York City faced a worsening homelessness crisis in recent years, officials repeatedly sought to hide the reality on the ground, according to a city investigation released on Tuesday. The investigation came after reports that homeless families stayed overnight at a Bronx intake office in the summer of 2022, violating a legal mandate requiring the city to provide them shelter. The former social services commissioner, Gary Jenkins, delayed reporting the violation and did not give a full accounting of the situation to the mayor’s office, according to the 49-page report by the New York City Department of Investigation. (Fitzsimmons, 1/9)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Man Found 3 Weeks After St. Louis Nursing Home Closed
After more than three weeks missing, a former resident of Northview Village Nursing Home was found Tuesday morning about a mile away, authorities said. Northview Village shut down without warning to residents or staff on Dec. 15. As workers scrambled to prepare residents for transfer to other facilities, and employees from other nursing homes arrived to take them, one resident, Frederick Caruthers, 61, walked away from the building. (Merrilees, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Gov. Wes Moore Proposes First State-Level Gun Violence Prevention Center
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Tuesday announced three bills to tackle mounting concerns about crime, including one that would create a gun violence prevention center — the first state-level center in a Biden administration effort to reduce the number of fatal shootings across the United States. On the eve of a legislative session expected to have a strong focus on juvenile justice, Moore on Tuesday rolled out plans that he said would help hold children accountable for violence while keeping rehabilitation in mind, and lamented the devastating toll gun violence has had on Maryland communities. (Shepherd and Hilton, 1/9)

CBS News: East Bay City Managers Call For Faster Ambulance Response Times
The city managers of Livermore and Pleasanton recently sent a letter to the Alameda County's contracted ambulance provider, Falck, saying that medical help is taking too long to reach patients in the far eastern parts of the county. ... Falck is required to be on scene of a priority call in 10-14 minutes at least 90% of the time, but the city manager's letter says that's only happening on 82-85% of priority calls. (Nielson, 1/9)

CBS News: Free Clinic At School Gives Denver Migrant Students A Shot, Or Up To 8 If Needed
As the City of Denver shelters more than 4500 migrants from the southern border, there's been an increase in incidents of chickenpox. The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment says 75 cases of chickenpox have been reported in the last 30 days across Denver's migrant shelters. ... McMeen Elementary recently held a free clinic to ensure the newcomer students are up-to-date on their school-required vaccines. (Alejo, 1/9)

North Carolina Health News: Too Few Resources To Meet Demand For Substance Use Disorder Treatment In NC Prisons
Nearly eight out of 10 people entering the North Carolina state prison system in fiscal year 2021-22 had a substance use disorder in need of treatment, according to a report from the Department of Adult Correction. Those numbers come from screenings done as people were coming into the system. But there’s a chance those numbers are even higher because, though the prison system screens most people for substance use problems, some people can be missed due to behavior issues, mental acuity and language barriers. (Crumpler, 1/10)

The Boston Globe: App Helps Track The Days You Don’t Consume Alcohol
“We know that one-third of US drinkers are trying to cut back on alcohol, and Track Record will enable users to easily log the days they stay dry,” says Athletic chief marketing officer Andrew Katz.The app works like many other health tracking apps, allowing users to mark their number of dry days and then view their progress in a calendar, as well as showing dry “streaks” and dry days by percentage. The goal, Katz says, is to motivate users without the rigidness of a traditional Dry January routine, where even one day of drinking might chalk the whole month up as a loss. (Dzen, 1/9)

Reuters: Salmonella Tests Negative At Mexico Cantaloupe Plant Amid Outbreak
Tests were negative for traces of salmonella at a cantaloupe-processing plant in Mexico amid an investigation into a deadly outbreak in the United States and Canada, Mexico said on Tuesday. Mexican health officials in December ordered the temporary closure of the plant in the northern state of Sonora and took samples from surfaces and water. Health authorities in both countries have implicated Mexico's Malichita- and Rudy-branded cantaloupes as the sources of the outbreak and issued recalls of the fruit. (1/9)

AP: Cesarean Deliveries Surge In Puerto Rico, Reaching A Record Rate In The US Territory, Report Says 
Cesareans are surging in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which has one of the world’s highest rates with more than 50% of babies now delivered via surgery compared with only 32% on the U.S. mainland, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The rates of cesarean delivery on the island increased from 2018 to 2022 for each age group younger than 40 after remaining stable for nearly a decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report did not provide an explanation, but medical experts in Puerto Rico say reasons behind the surge vary and include the island’s crumbling health care system. (Coto, 1/10)