First Edition: Jan. 25, 2024
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
The Colonoscopies Were Free. But The ‘Surgical Trays’ Came With $600 Price Tags
Chantal Panozzo and her husband followed their primary care doctors’ orders last year after they both turned 45, now the recommended age to start screening for colorectal cancer. They scheduled their first routine colonoscopies a few months apart. Panozzo said she was excited to get a colonoscopy, of all things, because it meant free care. The couple run a business out of their suburban home near Chicago and purchase coverage costing more than $1,400 each month for their family of four on the exchange, which was created by the Affordable Care Act. (Liss, 1/25)
KFF Health News:
Native American Communities Have The Highest Suicide Rates, Yet Interventions Are Scarce
Amanda MorningStar has watched her children struggle with mental health issues, including suicidal thoughts. She often wonders why. “We’re family-oriented and we do stuff together. I had healthy pregnancies. We’re very protective of our kids,” said MorningStar, who lives in Heart Butte, Montana, a town of about 600 residents on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. (Platzman Weinstock, 1/25)
KFF Health News and NPR News:
New York Joins Local Governments In Erasing Billions In Medical Debt
New York City pledged this week to pay down $2 billion worth of residents’ medical debt. In doing so, it has come around to an innovation, started in the Midwest, that’s ridding millions of Americans of health care debt. The idea of local government erasing debt emerged a couple of years ago in Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago. Toni Preckwinkle, president of the county board of commissioners, says two staffers came to her with a bold proposal: The county could spend a portion of its federal pandemic rescue funds to ease a serious burden on its residents. (Noguchi, 1/25)
Axios:
Obamacare Sign-Ups Surge, Especially In Red States
States with the largest year-over-year increase in sign-ups include West Virginia (80.2%), Louisiana (75.9%), Ohio (62.2%), Indiana (59.6%) and Tennessee (59.5%), according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the marketplaces. Seven other states saw increases of 45% or more: Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Texas. Enrollment in Texas increased by just over 1 million to 3.5 million. In Florida, enrollment increased by just shy of 1 million to 4.2 million, the most of any state. Enrollment decreased only in Maine (-2.6%) and Washington, D.C. (-1.4%). (Millman, 1/24)
CNN:
Nearly 65,000 Pregnancies From Rape Have Occurred In States With Abortion Bans, Study Estimates
Tens of thousands of pregnancies have resulted from rape in states where abortion is not a legal option, researchers estimate in a new study. In the study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers from Planned Parenthood, Resound Research for Reproductive Health and academic institutions across the US used a combination of federal surveys on crime and sexual violence to estimate that there were about 520,000 rapes that led to 64,565 pregnancies in the time since abortion bans have been enacted in 14 states – ranging by state from four to 18 months ago. (Phillips, 1/24)
Houston Chronicle:
More Than 26K Rape-Related Pregnancies Estimated After Texas Outlawed
Texas saw an estimated 26,313 rape-related pregnancies during the 16 months after the state outlawed all abortions, with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That’s the highest estimate among the 14 states with total abortion bans, with Texas having the largest population, according to the study. (Gill, 1/24)
Houston Chronicle:
VP Harris Reacts To Chronicle Report On Rape-Related Pregnancies Study
“Women across our nation should not be subject to extreme and oppressive laws that dictate what they can do with their bodies, including and especially after surviving a violent crime,” Harris said in a statement to the Chronicle. “As a lifelong fighter for the health and wellbeing of women and children, this is immoral. The women of Texas and women of America deserve the freedom to make these personal decisions without the government telling them what to do. I will continue to fight for the fundamental freedoms of everyone throughout the country.” (Gill, 1/24)
AP:
Biden Extends State Of The Union Invitation To A Texas Woman Who Sued To Get An Abortion And Lost
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have extended an invitation to attend the State of the Union address to a Texas woman who sued her state and lost over the ability to get an abortion to end a wanted pregnancy. The Texas Supreme Court denied Katie Cox’s request. But by then, her lawyers said, she had already traveled out of state for an abortion. The Bidens spoke with Cox on Sunday and invited her to the annual address set for March 7 at the U.S. Capitol. Cox will sit with the first lady, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. Cox accepted the invitation, she said. (Long, 1/24)
The Hill:
Pregnant Women In ‘Cancer Alley’ More Likely To Give Birth Prematurely And To Babies With Low Birth Weight: Report
Pregnant women living in parts of Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ are far more likely to give birth prematurely and to babies that have low birth weight compared to women living outside the state, according to research in a Human Rights Watch report published Thursday. The research, which is part of a study currently under peer review, argues people living in Louisiana’s most air-polluted areas have premature birth rates as high as 25.3 percent, almost twice the state average of 13.5 percent. That number is also about two and a half times the U.S. average of 10.4 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (O'Connell-Domenech, 1/25)
TBIJ:
Inaction Leaves Children At Risk From Dangerous Chemotherapy Drug
A year after an investigation revealed widespread use of a substandard cancer drug, the World Health Organization and national drug regulators around the world have come under fire for failing to protect children from the dangerous chemotherapy. (Furneaux and Margottini, 1/25)
The Hill:
‘Zynsurrection’: GOP Rallies Behind Zyn Nicotine Pouches After Schumer Call For Action
Congressional Republicans are rallying behind Zyn, a brand of flavored oral nicotine pouches, amid a push from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for federal action on the tobacco and electronic cigarette alternative. “This calls for a Zynsurrection!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X, formerly Twitter. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, posted a photo of himself holding a pack of Zyn on X. “Big Brother Schumer doesn’t want us to chew or smoke. Now he’s against an alternative that’s helped many quit. Come and take it!” Hudson said in the post. (Brooks, 1/24)
Stat:
FTC Says It's On 'An Incredible Winning Streak' Against Pharma
Over the past two years, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has attempted to crack down on the pharmaceutical industry over concerns that drug companies too often use various means to thwart competition that could otherwise lower prices for consumers. The agency is doing so as part of a wider effort by the Biden administration to address the controversy over prescription drug costs, which remains a pocketbook issue for many Americans. By tapping the FTC, the administration is hoping to send a message to drug companies that any moves to unfairly establish monopolies — and cost consumers money — will not be tolerated. (Silverman, 1/24)
Stat:
Immunocompromised Patients Offer Clues On Chronic Covid
You’ve heard of long Covid, a condition in which the acute infection subsides but troubling symptoms persist. Less well known is chronic Covid: The virus just doesn’t leave, sometimes staying in patients’ bodies long enough to mutate into new variants. This happens to people whose immune systems are compromised, whether through disease or treatment, leaving them vulnerable to infections that last weeks, months, or, in one known case, a year. (Cooney, 1/24)
CIDRAP:
Chinese Study Suggests COVID Temporarily Affects Sperm Quality
A new small study of 85 men in China shows COVID-19 infections do impact semen quality, but only temporarily. The study is published in Virology Journal. (Soucheray, 1/24)
CBS News:
Study: Flu Vaccination During Pregnancy Decreases Flu Hospitalizations And ER Visits In Young Infants
UPMC Children's Hospital took part in a new study that found that if pregnant women get the flu vaccine, it dramatically reduces the chance their newborn will go to the ER or be hospitalized for the flu. Children's was one of seven hospitals around the country that studied how the flu vaccine in pregnant moms protected newborns who can't get the flu vaccine until they're 6 months old. They found it reduced hospitalizations or ER visits in young babies by about a third, and for the youngest infants under 3 months old, it went down by half. (Sorensen, 1/24)
The Hill:
Black Medicaid Patients More Likely To Be Hospitalized For Preventable Conditions: Analysis
An analysis published Wednesday found that Black Medicaid patients are more likely to be hospitalized for preventable conditions. The new analysis by the Urban Institute found that Black Medicaid enrollees were “significantly more likely” to be hospitalized for preventable reasons than white patients. Preventable conditions included asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and heart failure. (Sforza, 1/24)
St. Louis Public Radio:
St. Louis Nursing Home Endangered Residents, Report Says
A report from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services concludes that the owners of a north St. Louis nursing home didn’t develop emergency protocols and procedures before moving residents out in December. (Fentem and Davis, 1/24)
Military.com:
Some Military Patients Left Without Heat For A Week At Texas Base During Blast Of Frigid Weather
Barracks that house service members undergoing medical treatment at a Texas military hospital lost heat during frigid temperatures throughout the region last week, Military.com learned. Liberty Barracks, located on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, serves troops who are being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center. The heating stopped Jan. 15 in several rooms, and was out for a week, exposing vulnerable patients to unseasonably cold temperatures. (Novelly, 1/24)
Military.com:
In Reversal, Defense Department Now Wants To Bring Tricare Beneficiaries Back To Military Health System
The Defense Department is doing an about-face on a major component of reforms it launched seven years ago to reduce medical care costs, abandoning a plan to push family members and military retirees to private-sector care. In a memo sent last month to senior Pentagon leaders, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks outlined an effort to "re-attract" beneficiaries to military hospitals and clinics -- at least 7% of those now receiving medical care through Tricare, the DoD's private health program, by Dec. 31, 2026. (Kime, 1/24)
Modern Healthcare:
One Year Later: How CMS' Rural Pay Model Has Helped Hospitals
Friend Community Healthcare System’s hospital was hours from closing its doors in July. The City of Friend, a community of about 900 people in southeast Nebraska, gave its local hospital, Warren Memorial Hospital, $250,000 to help administrators make payroll and fund operations. But that was only a temporary solution for the 15-bed critical access hospital, which has struggled against bigger competitors in Lincoln and Omaha as it treats an increasing number of Medicaid beneficiaries. (Kacik, 1/24)
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. News Sues S.F. City Attorney Over Hospital Ranking Subpoenas
A dispute between U.S. News & World Report and the San Francisco city attorney’s office over the media company’s well-known but increasingly scrutinized system for ranking hospitals and other healthcare institutions has in recent weeks turned into an all-out legal battle. San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu issued two subpoenas to the media company earlier this month. The first demanded answers about the company’s process for ranking hospitals. The second ... might reveal ... whether the financial relationships with hospitals are a factor. (Rector, 1/24)
Axios:
Health Care Providers Want Hospitals To Fight Climate Change
Nearly 80% of health care providers say it's important for their hospital to minimize its environmental impact, according to a large new Commonwealth Fund survey of clinicians. Health care accounts for 8.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with hospitals responsible for the largest portion of those emissions. (Goldman, 1/24)
Axios:
Patients Are Drowning In Notifications
Got an upcoming doctor's appointment? Perhaps a prescription to refill or a dental cleaning? Odds are your phone has been pinging away with incessant reminders about it. It's not just you. There's a growing flood of emails, texts, phone calls and other prods to patients that — beyond just potentially becoming another digital annoyance — may make them tune out the important stuff. (Reed, 1/25)
Modern Healthcare:
How PBM Legislation Could Affect Caremark, Express Scripts, OptumRx
The pharmacy benefit manager industry could look a lot different soon if Congress follows through with bipartisan efforts to pass bills governing the sector. PBMs such as CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx would face new transparency requirements that would give health insurance companies, employers, customers and regulators new insights into how they negotiate prices for prescription medicines—and how much of the savings they generate find their way to patients and plan sponsors. Pending legislation also would prohibit lucrative practices such as spread pricing. (Berryman, 1/24)
Reuters:
Exclusive: Suspected Fake Ozempic Linked To Three US Cases Of Hypoglycemia
Three people sought medical treatment for dangerously low blood sugar in the U.S. last year after taking suspected fake versions of Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Ozempic, America's Poison Centers told Reuters. One person also experienced hypoglycemia in 2023 after injecting a compounded version of Ozempic, said the organization, which represents 55 regional poison centers across the country and works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to identify public health risks. (Wingrove, 1/24)
USA Today:
Ohio Senate Overrides Veto To Restrict Trans Health Care, Athletes
The Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to override Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of legislation that restricts medical care for transgender minors and blocks transgender girls from female sports. The bill prohibits doctors from prescribing hormones, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery before patients turn 18 and requires mental health providers to get parental permission to diagnose and treat gender dysphoria. It also bans transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams in high school and college. (BeMiller, 1/24)
AP:
Washington State Reaches A Nearly $150 Million Settlement With Johnson & Johnson Over Opioid Crisis
The Washington state attorney general announced a $149.5 million settlement Wednesday with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, more than four years after the state sued the company over its role in the opioid addiction crisis. “They knew what the harm was. They did it anyway,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson told reporters Wednesday. (Valdes and Golden, 1/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Addiction Researchers Want To Kill Powerful California Panel
A group of more than 70 leading addiction researchers and advocates penned a letter to Newsom, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and state lawmakers requesting a dissolution of the Research Advisory Panel of California, which they call a “nonviable obstruction to essential research and public health activities in California.” Dissolving the panel would require passage of state legislation. “The cost of these RAPC delays is immense, entirely unique to California, and limiting the State’s capacity to respond to health crises tightly intertwined with homelessness,” the group’s letter reads. (Angst, 1/24)
News Service of Florida:
Medical Malpractice Caps Emerge In Bill Endorsed By Florida Senate Committee
Florida senators Monday began moving forward with a proposal that would make major changes in the state’s medical malpractice laws, including limiting pain-and-suffering damages in lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. The proposal refueled a decades-long debate in the Capitol about damage caps, pitting doctors, hospitals, insurers and business groups against plaintiffs’ attorneys and people who said they had suffered from malpractice. (Saunders, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
Alabama’s Nitrogen Gas Execution To Be Historic, Controversial First
When Kenneth Eugene Smith enters the death chamber at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., on Thursday night, he will be in a place that is at once familiar and entirely unknown. Smith, 58, is expected to be placed on the same gurney that was used 14 months earlier, when he survived a botched lethal injection that was eventually called off because his death warrant was expiring and prison workers failed to set his IV line. But instead of being administered lethal drugs, prison workers will place a mask over his face and start the process of making Smith the first person executed by an untested method that uses nitrogen gas to force death by oxygen depravation, a process known as nitrogen hypoxia. (Bellware, 1/25)
Los Angeles Times:
California Inmate Died After Not Being Given His HIV Medicine, Suit Says
The last time Lesley Overfield went to see her son in jail, everything had changed. She visited El Dorado County Jail every two weeks or so, and when she’d previously seen him, he’d been fine, walking and talking and looking healthy. But on April 22, when she visited her 38-year-old, HIV-positive son at the facility near Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border, he was completely different. Nicholas Overfield was in a wheelchair. He was unable to lift the phone to talk with his mother from behind the glass partition in the visiting room. Then he leaned forward and put his head down on the table. The two never spoke on that visit. Two months later, he was dead of a viral infection, varicella zoster virus encephalitis, which is among the conditions associated with AIDS, according to his family’s attorney, Ty Clarke. Medical records show that Overfield was not administered his HIV antiretroviral medications while in jail. Now, Lesley Overfield is suing over her son’s death. (Goldberg, 1/24)
USA Today:
New Jersey Pushes For Mental Health Resources After Sheriff's Death
In the wake of the death of a New Jersey sheriff, who appeared to have taken his own life in a restaurant, Gov. Phil Murphy and other state and local officials have emphasized that mental health resources are available for law enforcement officers and first responders. Research has shown that police officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. Despite the resources available, the stigma around asking for help is still there. (Wallace, Myers, Fagan, Nguyen, 1/25)
The New York Times:
To Get A Shelter Bed In New York, Now Some Migrants Must Take A Number
Moises Chacon is number 14,861. Jon Cordero’s number is in the 15,000s. Oumar Camara’s wristband says he is number 16,700. The men are all migrants who have come up against New York City’s 30-day limit for single adults on stays at any one homeless shelter. After 30 days, anyone who wants to stay in the shelter system has to reapply. But there are not enough beds these days, so each person has to take a number at a city office in the East Village in Manhattan, and wait. (Newman and Parnell, 1/24)
NBC News:
A Rare Fungal Infection Is Popping Up In An Unexpected Part Of The U.S.
A rare fungal infection thought to mainly occur in the northern Midwest and parts of the Southeast is more common in other parts of the U.S. than expected, new research published Wednesday finds. The illness, called blastomycosis, can be difficult to diagnose, in part because it can resemble other respiratory infections. And the longer it goes undiagnosed, the more difficult it is to treat. (Sullivan, 1/24)
CBS News:
Stew Leonard's Recalls Mislabeled Cookies That Contain Peanuts After Woman Dies
Stew Leonard's is recalling some cookies after a person died. The Vanilla Florentine cookies were made by an outside manufacturer and sold only at Stew Leonard's in Danbury and Newington, Conn. from Nov. 6 - Dec. 31, 2023. The cookies contained peanuts, but that wasn't listed on the label. Órla Baxendale, 25, a dancer, died anaphylactic shock. It's believed she consumed the cookies while at an event in Connecticut. (Zanger, 1/24)
CBS News:
Pennsylvania Sues Farm Selling Raw Milk Linked To E. Coli Sicknesses
The Pennsylvania attorney general's office and the state Department of Agriculture have filed a lawsuit against Miller's Organic Farm after authorities say they've been trying to bring it into compliance with the law for years. The complaint submitted Tuesday alleges the violation of multiple laws, including Pennsylvania's Milk Sanitation Law and the Food Safety Act. Two recent E. coli illnesses reported by other state's departments of health are suspected to have originated from Miller's Organic Farm raw milk, the attorney general's office said. (Bartos, 1/24)
AP:
New Estimate Shows Rural Americans And Men Are More Likely To Suffer From Hearing Loss
A new estimate shows hearing loss affects approximately 37.9 million Americans and is more common in rural areas than urban ones and in men than women. The study, published Wednesday in The Lancet Regional Health-Americas Journal, is the first to estimate hearing loss rates at the state and county level, and was led by NORC at the University of Chicago. The estimates are for 2019 and only include people who have hearing loss in both ears. (Shastri, 1/24)
Stat:
What Causes Osteoarthritis? Researchers Study Link To Brain Protein
A kind of protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease might also contribute to the breakdown of cartilage that’s characteristic of osteoarthritis. In a new study, published in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday, researchers analyzed tissue samples and joint fluid from 12 people, both those with osteoarthritis and healthy controls. They found those with osteoarthritis in their knee had a fourfold increase in apolipoprotein E, or APOE. (Cueto, 1/24)
Reuters:
South America Dengue Spike Prompts Vaccination Drive As Bug Spray Runs Out
South America is seeing a surge in cases of the mosquito-borne disease dengue during the southern hemisphere summer, prompting Brazil to roll out a novel vaccine campaign, while in Argentina many stores have run out of bug spray. With 2023 already having set a record for dengue cases in the region, Argentina has seen a sharp spike in the disease that's endemic in much of Latin America. While often asymptomatic, dengue can be fatal. (Brito and Elliott, 1/25)