First Edition: Jan. 5, 2024

KFF Health News: Older Americans Say They Feel Trapped In Medicare Advantage Plans 
In 2016, Richard Timmins went to a free informational seminar to learn more about Medicare coverage. “I listened to the insurance agent and, basically, he really promoted Medicare Advantage,” Timmins said. The agent described less expensive and broader coverage offered by the plans, which are funded largely by the government but administered by private insurance companies. For Timmins, who is now 76, it made economic sense then to sign up. And his decision was great, for a while. Then, three years ago, he noticed a lesion on his right earlobe. (Tribble, 1/5)

KFF Health News: States Begin Tapping Medicaid Dollars To Combat Gun Violence 
To tackle America’s gun problem, a growing number of states are using Medicaid dollars to pay for community-based programs intended to stop shootings. The idea is to boost resources for violence prevention programs, which have been overwhelmed in some cities by a spike in violent crime since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. An infusion of reliable federal funding, advocates say, could allow these nonprofits to expand their reach to more residents most at risk of being shot — or of shooting someone. (Young, 1/5)

KFF Health News: Listen To ‘Tradeoffs’: How The Loss Of A Rural Hospital Compounds The Collapse Of Care 
The share of rural Americans who live in communities without a hospital grows each year. It’s part of an ongoing collapse in rural health care that has persisted for decades and isn’t improving, despite regulatory efforts to shore up small-hospital finances. Since 2010, about 150 rural hospitals have shuttered and hundreds more have slashed services, leaving a growing number of America’s 60 million rural residents in health care deserts. (1/5)

KFF Health News: Most People Dropped In Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Never Tried To Renew Coverage, Utah Finds 
A first-of-its-kind survey of people who lost Medicaid coverage last year found just over half made no effort to renew their coverage — in many cases because they were unable to navigate paperwork requirements. The survey sheds light on why millions of beneficiaries nationwide were dropped from the federal-state health insurance program for “procedural reasons.” KFF Health News obtained the survey, which Utah’s Medicaid program paid more than $20,000 to conduct, through a public records request. (Galewitz, 1/4)

KFF Health News: New Year, Same Abortion Debate 
It’s a new year, but the abortion debate is raging like it’s 2023, with a new federal appeals court ruling that doctors in Texas don’t have to provide abortions in medical emergencies, despite a federal requirement to the contrary. The case, similar to one in Idaho, is almost certainly headed for the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Congress returns to Washington with only days to avert a government shutdown by passing either full-year or temporary spending bills. And with almost no progress toward a spending deal since the last temporary bill passed in November, this time a shutdown might well happen. (1/4)

Politico: Hydroxychloroquine Could Have Caused 17,000 Deaths During COVID, Study Finds
Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of COVID, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, "despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits," the researchers point out in their paper, published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. Now, researchers have estimated that some 16,990 people in six countries — France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.S. — may have died as a result. (Eccles, 1/24)

The New York Times: Paxlovid Cuts Covid Death Risk. But Those Who Need It Are Not Taking It
As Covid rises again, killing about 1,500 Americans each week, medical researchers are trying to understand why so few people are taking Paxlovid, a medicine that is stunningly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the disease. A study of a million high-risk people with Covid found that only about 15 percent who were eligible for the drug took it. If instead half of the eligible patients in the United States had gotten Paxlovid during the time period of the research, 48,000 deaths could have been prevented, the authors of the study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, concluded. (Jewett, 1/4)

CIDRAP: Study Describes Clinical Features That May Lead To Long COVID
Today a study published in Nature Communications describes features of the acute phase of COVID-19 infection seen in patients who later developed long COVID, and a second study in the same journal suggests that long-COVID fatigue is linked to changes to the mitochondria in muscle cells. (Soucheray, 1/4)

The New York Times: Sixth Grader Killed And 5 Others Injured In Iowa School Shooting
A gunman killed a sixth-grade student and injured five other people at a high school in Perry, Iowa, early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. Four of the injured were students, and one was an administrator, Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said at a news conference on Thursday. One of the injured victims was in critical condition. The administrator was identified by Easton Valley Community School District as Dan Marburger, the principal at Perry High School, where the shooting took place. Officials did not release the names of any other victims. The gunman, identified as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at the high school, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mr. Mortvedt said. Law enforcement officials believe he acted alone and said the motive for the attack was not yet known. (Tumin, Mather and Mensching, 1/4)

The Hill: Haley Calls For Mental Health Reform After Iowa School Shooting 
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for mental health reform following the deadly school shooting in Perry, Iowa on Thursday. “We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health. We have to,” Haley told voters at a CNN town hall in Iowa. “One in three people have a mental health issue, but if treated they can live a perfectly normal life. What we see is that 80 percent of mass shooters are in some sort of crisis at the time that they do that. We have got to do better. The problem is we don’t have enough mental health therapists.” (Manchester, 1/4)

The Hill: Ramaswamy Slams ‘Knee-Jerk Policy Reactions’ After Iowa Shooting 
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the “knee-jerk policy reactions” he expects to see from politicians calling for gun control legislation after a school shooter killed one student and injured five others on Thursday. In a sit-down with voters Thursday, Ramaswamy said the legislative focus shouldn’t be on guns, but on mental health. (Robertson, 1/4)

Houston Landing: Houston Schools Brace For Losing COVID Mental Health Funds
In Harris County, thousands of students continue to grapple with the long shadow of grief cast by the deaths of parents and caregivers from COVID-19. Yet today, with federal stimulus funding for schools drawing to an end and state lawmakers dedicating virtually no additional money for public schools during the 2023 legislative session, education leaders are starting to make tough choices about whether to maintain mental health support for children. Their decisions will have lifelong effects on students quietly struggling with their anguish. Researchers have found the sudden loss of a parent trumps all other traumas when it comes to impact on academic performance. (Lehrer-Small, 1/5)

CBS News: New N.Y. Law Aids Mental Health Crisis Response; "Every Second Counts"
Westchester County is building a network of mobile crisis response teams, trained experts who respond to mental and behavioral health emergencies. Now a new state law "green lights" helping them get where they're needed, faster. ... "Individuals with mental health needs should be approached and helped, not by law enforcement, but by professionals who are trained in mental health and mental health crisis," said Joe Glazer, of the county's Department of Community Mental Health. (Aiello, 1/4)

AP: It Took Decades, But San Francisco Finally Installs Nets To Stop Suicides Off Golden Gate Bridge
Suicide-prevention barriers at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge have been completed more than a decade later. “We have a continuous physical suicide barrier installed the full length of the 1.7-mile bridge on the east and the west side. The bridge is sealed up,” said Dennis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. The barriers are already working as intended, he added. (Rodriguez, 1/3)

Reuters: Wegovy, Ozempic Not Linked To Increase In Suicidal Thoughts, US Study Finds 
A large U.S. study found no evidence that taking Novo Nordisk's Ozempic or Wegovy is tied to an increase in suicidal thoughts, researchers reported on Friday. Both Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and the obesity treatment Wegovy have the same active ingredient, semaglutide. Instead, the analysis of electronic medical record data from more than 1.8 million patients found a lower risk of new and recurrent suicidal thoughts in those taking semaglutide compared to those using other medications for weight loss or diabetes. (Lapid, 1/5)

Modern Healthcare: Ozempic Demand Drives Insurers To Ease Bariatric Surgery Coverage
Health insurance companies are expanding their coverage of bariatric surgery amid rising demand for pricey new weight loss drugs. Geisinger Health Plan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield carriers in Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont are among those easing access to bariatric surgery over the past year as patients seek medicines such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Trulicity that can cost about $1,000 a month in perpetuity. (Tepper, 1/4)

Bloomberg: Weight Loss Drugs Can Now Be Delivered To Your Home By Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly & Co. launched a service to sell its weight-loss drugs directly to the public. That pits the company against startups such as Ro and Noom that have fed the frenzy over GLP-1 medications by making them easy to access online. ... It will also offer direct home delivery of certain drugs through third-party pharmacies, Lilly has partnered with closely-held Form Health Inc., a virtual weight loss program, on obesity and will work with 9amHealth Inc on its diabetes offerings. (Muller, 1/4)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Alleges Trade Secret Theft By Ex-Execs
Two former UnitedHealth Group executives allegedly took trade secrets with them on the way out the door and used the information to found a pair of diabetes management startups, the conglomerate claims in a federal lawsuit. UnitedHealth Group filed suit against Ken Ehlert, Mark Pollmann and other leaders of Lore Health and Sequelae in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on Dec. 28. (Tepper, 1/4)

Reuters: New Lawsuits Claim CooperSurgical IVF Solution Killed Embryos 
Two couples have sued fertility technology company CooperSurgical, claiming that a solution made by the company for growing embryos for in vitro fertilization was toxic and killed the embryos they hoped to use to have children. In a pair of lawsuits filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, the two couples said CooperSurgical belatedly recalled several lots of its so-called embryo culture medium late last year, after the embryos were lost. They said the company has not made any public statement about the recall, leaving fertility patients in the dark. (Pierson, 1/4)

Modern Healthcare: Elevance To Boost Infusion Services With Paragon Healthcare Deal
Plano, Texas-based Paragon Healthcare specializes in infusible and injectable therapies and serves more than 35,000 patients with chronic and acute conditions. It operates more than 40 ambulatory infusion centers in eight states: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Elevance aims to grow the provider’s footprint and operations following completion of the deal, according to the release. (Berryman, 1/4)

Stat: Allogene Pivoting To New Strategy On Off-The-Shelf CAR-T Therapy 
Allogene Therapeutics is making unexpected changes to development plans for its off-the-shelf cell therapy for a type of blood cancer — a concession that competition from personalized CAR-T treatments, already entrenched in the market, has become more challenging. (Feuerstein, 1/4)

Axios: Medical Devices Could Be Hackers' Next Target, Health Officials Fear
Amid growing cybersecurity threats to health care facilities, federal officials and health systems are turning their attention to potential vulnerabilities hiding in plain sight in hospital rooms, imaging centers and even patients' homes: medical devices. Hackers have especially targeted health systems for their valuable troves of patient data and in some cases have temporarily knocked systems offline, disrupting patient care. (Reed, 1/4)

Stat: FDA Deal With Data Provider On Opioid Misuse Faces Pushback
Several advocacy groups are blasting a Food and Drug Administration proposal to work with a Denver Health surveillance system for monitoring misuse of prescription opioids over long-standing ties the operation has to the pharmaceutical industry. (Silverman, 1/4)

The Boston Globe: Fentanyl Test Strips Could Become Legal In Massachusetts
Massachusetts could soon become the latest state to legalize small strips of paper for detecting whether street drugs contain fentanyl, the fast-acting and highly potent synthetic opioid driving the overdose crisis. For years, those who carried or distributed fentanyl test strips could be arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. ... On Thursday, the state Senate voted unanimously to approve legislation that would legalize the test strips. (Serres, 1/4)

CBS News: Pennsylvania Has One Of The Highest Xylazine Overdose Death Rates, CDC Says
According to the CDC, Pennsylvania has one of the highest overdose death rates when it comes to xylazine. It's an animal tranquilizer that's being used with drugs like heroin and fentanyl. The state Department of Health said xylazine contributed to more than 640 deaths in 2022. That's a 1,000% increase from 2018.  CDC data shows Pennsylvania as one of the highest states for overdose deaths with xylazine detected. ... Xylazine, or "tranq," is presenting challenges as naloxone is not bringing people out of overdoses. (Hoffman, 1/4)

AP: Kentucky Governor Backs Longer List Of Conditions Eligible For Treatment Under Medical Marijuana Law 
Access to medical marijuana in Kentucky should expand to include a longer list of severe health conditions, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday in advocating a change that would make hundreds of thousands more people eligible for treatment when the program begins next year. The measure passed by the GOP-led legislature in 2023 specified that the eligible conditions include cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy, chronic nausea and post-traumatic stress disorder. (Schreiner, 1/4)

USA Today: Ibogaine Helps Combat Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD
Herb Daniels attempted suicide twice before he decided he'd try anything to make life livable again. The 52-year-old former Green Beret had traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. ... In July 2022, Daniels booked a trip to Tijuana to become part of an experimental psychoactive treatment. He knew little about ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from the root bark of a plant from the African rainforest, and neither do many U.S. scientists. But he signed up for the treatment anyway, along with other combat veterans, compelled reports of its curative potential. (Cuevas, 1/5)

New Hampshire Bulletin: NH House Declines To Make Expanded Medicaid Permanent
House Republicans rejected legislation Thursday that would have permanently continued the state’s expanded Medicaid program, which provides nearly 57,000 low-income Granite Staters health insurance. (Timmins, 1/4)

New Hampshire Bulletin: Effort To Ban Gender-Affirming Surgeries For Minors Moves Forward At NH State House
The New Hampshire House passed a bill to ban gender-affirming procedures for minors Thursday, in a 199-175 vote that edges the bill closer to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk. House Bill 619 would prohibit a doctor or other health care professional from carrying out “genital gender reassignment surgery” to anyone in New Hampshire under 18. It would also prohibit health care workers from referring minors to facilities out of state that offer those procedures. (DeWitt, 1/4)

The Boston Globe: Senate Voting On Bill To Speed Wheelchair Repairs In Mass.
Wheelchair users took a victory lap at the State House on Thursday after the state Senate passed legislation to address a national crisis, chronic delays of months or longer for even the most basic repairs to chairs. The bill, passed with a vote of 39-0, would extend warranties on new chairs from one year to two, a period during which chair owners could avoid cumbersome insurance authorization for fixes, advocates said. Chairs with expired warranties would not need insurance approval for repairs less than $1,000. (Laughlin, 1/4)

Los Angeles Times: LA's Old Westside Pavilion Will Become UCLA Science Center
The former Westside Pavilion, a long shuttered indoor mall, will be transformed into a UCLA biomedical research center aimed at tackling such towering challenges as curing cancer and preventing global pandemics, officials announced Wednesday. The sprawling three-story structure will be known as the UCLA Research Park and will house two multidisciplinary centers focusing on immunology and immunotherapy as well as quantum science and engineering. (Vincent and Petersen, 1/4)

The Texas Tribune: Eddie Bernice Johnson’s Family Says Medical Neglect Caused Congresswoman’s Death
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson died a “terrible, painful death” from an infection caused by negligence at her Dallas recovery facility following a September back surgery, according to a statement Thursday from Johnson’s family outlining their intention to file a lawsuit. "She had no reason not to be here," Kirk Johnson, the congresswoman's son, told reporters at a Thursday afternoon news conference. "If she had gotten the proper care, she would be here today." (Harper, 1/4)

The New York Times: Ambulance Workers In Texas Are Reeling Under The Border Surge
Through the long, busy months of autumn, the calls kept coming in: Mothers losing grip of their children while trying to cross the treacherous waters of the Rio Grande. Pregnant women getting caught in barbed wire. Bodies washing up on shore. Cities like New York and Chicago have struggled in recent months to accommodate the busloads of migrants arriving during the latest surge in migration. But here on the border, the small town of Eagle Pass, Texas, has been one of several cities facing an even more difficult challenge. Up to 5,000 migrants a day were crossing the border there from Mexico during the height of the influx in recent weeks, gathering along the river, running through people’s yards and looking for help. (Sandoval, 1/4)

CBS News: Philadelphia Health Confirms At Least 4 Measles Cases, Warns About Addition Exposures At Day Care And Hospitals
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health reported additional measles exposures with at least four confirmed cases Thursday afternoon after warning the public of a possible measles exposure in late December. Three cases and an index case, which is the the earliest known or suspected case of infection in an outbreak, have been confirmed, according to a release from Philadelphia Health. (Newbill, Tallant, and Roberts, 1/4)

Fox News: Portland Health Officials Warn Of Bacteria Spreading Among Homeless Population
Portland, Oregon, is grappling with a cluster of a highly infectious illness that spreads through fecal matter and puts the city’s large homeless population at high risk, according to health officials. "While we are currently seeing an increase in Shigella cases in the Portland metro area, the risk to the broader public remains low at this time and there are no measures for most folks to take at this time. ..." Multnomah County Deputy Health Officer Teresa Everson said in a comment to Fox News Digital. (Colton, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Kentucky Woman Loses Arms, Legs After Kidney Stone Infection 
Lucinda Mullins lay on her Kentucky home’s bathroom floor last month in excruciating pain from a kidney stone. She was vomiting and had developed a fever and back pain, so she yelled for her husband, DJ, to help. Mullins went to a hospital. Weeks later, she would be a quadruple amputee. Her kidney stone had become infected and caused sepsis, the immune system’s extreme attempt to fight an infection, which can cause organ failure and death. Doctors gave Mullins medication that sent all her blood flowing to her organs — and restricted it from her less vital arteries in her legs and arms. (Melnick, 1/5)

CBS News: Study: Disrupted Sleep In Early Middle Age Linked To Cognitive Decline
People who have more interrupted sleep in their 30s and 40s are more than twice as likely to have memory and thinking problems a decade later, according to a new study. ... The research was published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. ... People with the most disrupted sleep were found to be more than twice as likely to score worse than average on the set of cognitive tests compared with those who had the least disrupted sleep. (McPhilips, 1/4)

Stat: A Non-Hormonal Male Birth Control Gel Shows Early Promise
Between condoms and vasectomies lies a vast, undeveloped chasm of male birth control. Contraline, a device startup that released early, positive clinical data in a press release on Thursday, hopes to fill it. (Lawrence, 1/4)

CBS News: New Study: Just One Alcoholic Beverage Increases Risk Of Cancer
A recently released study by the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that cessation of alcoholic beverage consumption reduces the risk of several cancer diseases. "Even a single glass per week is sufficient to increase the risk for several types of cancer that are not related to the liver," said Dr. Mike Cusnir, Chief Oncologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, in Miami Beach. He echoes the results of the recent study about alcohol and cancer, which includes beer, wine and hard liquor. Basically, the data says "No safe amount." (Taylor, 1/4)

Reuters: Consumer Reports Finds 'Widespread' Presence Of Plastics In Food 
Consumer Reports has found that plastics retain a "widespread" presence in food despite the health risks, and called on regulators to reassess the safety of plastics that come into contact with food during production. The non-profit consumer group said on Thursday that 84 out of 85 supermarket foods and fast foods it recently tested contained "plasticizers" known as phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic more durable. (Stempel, 1/4)

Military.com: Denied Care, Deaths In Japan Result From Lack Of Emergency Medical Services For American Personnel 
At least 24 American service members, civilian Defense Department employees or military dependents have been turned away for medical care from Japanese hospitals in the past two years, and four have died, according to Navy and Marine Corps leadership responsible for personnel in Japan. In one case, a 7-year-old child who suffered a traumatic brain injury last January died from the oxygen deprivation she experienced as ambulance techs spent 35 minutes searching for a facility that would take her. (Kime, 1/4)