First Edition: July 10, 2024

KFF Health News: These Vibrant, Bigger-Than-Life Portraits Turn Gun Death Statistics Into Indelible Stories
Zarinah Lomax is an uncommon documentarian of our times. She has designed dresses from yellow crime-scene tape and styled jackets with hand-painted demands like “Don’t Shoot” in purple, black, and gold script. Every few months, she hauls dozens of portraits of Philadelphians — vibrant, bold, bigger-than-life faces — to pop-up galleries to raise an alarm about gun violence in her hometown and America. (Spolar, 7/10)

KFF Health News: Why The Election May Slow Plans To Replace Lead Pipes
With the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest — and strictest — plan to minimize the risk of Americans drinking lead-contaminated water on the horizon, the debate over whether the rules go too far or not nearly far enough is reaching a tipping point. Although lead was banned from new water service lines in 1986, it’s estimated that more than 9 million such lines still carry drinking water to homes and businesses throughout the country. Under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements proposal, water utilities would be required to replace all lead-containing lines within 10 years. (West, 7/10)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
“Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KFF Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week. (7/9)

The New York Times: F.T.C. Slams Middlemen for High Drug Prices, Reversing Hands-Off Approach
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday sharply criticized pharmacy benefit managers, saying in a scathing 71-page report that “these powerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.” The regulator’s study signals a significant ramping up of its scrutiny of benefit managers under the agency’s chair, Lina Khan. It represents a remarkable turnabout for an agency that has long taken a hands-off approach to policing these companies. (Abelson and Robbins, 7/9)

The New York Times: White House Doctor Discussed Business With the President’s Brother
Before Dr. Kevin O’Connor was appointed White House physician at the beginning of the Biden administration, he discussed a business venture with the president’s brother James Biden, but the doctor ultimately received no compensation, Mr. Biden’s lawyer said. The discussions revolved around James Biden’s involvement with a health care company called Americore, which was looking to expand a network of hospitals in underserved rural areas of the United States. (Vogel, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Navy Sailor Sought Access To Biden’s Medical Records, Military Says 
A U.S. sailor has been disciplined by the Navy for attempting unsuccessfully to access President Biden’s medical records without authorization, officials disclosed Tuesday amid ongoing scrutiny of the president’s health and fitness for office. The incident occurred in late February, well before Biden’s halting performance during last month’s presidential debate set off a panic among Democrats, and it was not immediately clear whether the actions were politically motivated. (Lamothe, 7/9)

The Washington Post: What Cognitive Tests Measure And Could Tell Us About Biden And Trump
Doubts about the mental fitness of President Biden and Donald Trump to hold the White House in their 80s have highlighted tests that could reveal whether an older adult is experiencing cognitive decline. Biden has not taken a cognitive test during his presidency and dismissed calls to take one arguing during his recent ABC News interview that leading the country amounts to a daily test. Trump has bragged about passing a short screening test in 2018, and his personal physician said last year that his cognitive exams were “exceptional” but did not explain what those exams entailed and when they were conducted. (Ortega and Nirappil, 7/9)

Becker's Hospital Review: CMS Launches Dementia Care With Alternative Medicare Payments
CMS has launched a dementia care program that will be piloted by 400 organizations. The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model focuses on comprehensive, coordinated care that is designed to improve the lives of people with dementia, reduce strain on their unpaid caregivers and enable people with dementia to remain in their homes, according to the agency's website. It is a voluntary, nationwide model that began July 1 and will run for eight years. (Taylor, 7/9)

Military.com: Restrictions On Transgender Health Care Slipped Into Senate's Must-Pass Defense Bill 
The military would not be able to pay for surgeries for transgender troops under the Senate's version of the must-pass annual defense policy bill, legislative text released Monday evening revealed. Transgender military kids could also lose access to hormone therapy, puberty blockers and other medication if the treatment "could result in sterilization" under another provision that was also added to the bill during the Senate Armed Services Committee's closed-door consideration of the measure last month. (Kheel, 7/9)

Military.com: VA Dropping Mandatory Overtime For Most Claims Processors As Work Proceeds At Faster Clip
The Department of Veterans Affairs has ended a seven-year-old policy that required claims processors to work mandatory overtime, a move enabled by increased hiring and efficiency, according to the VA's top benefits executive. Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs announced Tuesday that most staff will no longer be required to work up to four hours extra each week, although they still may volunteer to work up to 20 hours of overtime each week. (Kime, 7/9)

Modern Healthcare: How Virtual Reality Helps VA Patients In Clinical, Group Therapy 
Dr. Shereef Elnahal has gone all in on virtual and augmented reality since joining the Veterans Health Administration. ... In his two years running the nation's largest integrated health system, Elnahal has championed the use of immersive technology. The system has deployed more than 3,500 virtual and augmented reality headsets at more than 170 medical centers, a 250% increase from around 1,000 headsets deployed in 2023. (Perna, 7/9)

Fierce Healthcare: Physician Burnout Drops Below 50% For First Time Since 2020, AMA Poll Finds
The portion of physicians surveyed by the American Medical Association (AMA) who report at least one symptom of burnout has dropped below 50%, a first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group’s annual survey shows consistent declines in doctor burnout in the wake of an all-time high of 62.8% in 2021. Reported burnout dropped to 53% in 2022 and, as of the most recent 2023 survey, now sits at 48.2%. (Muoio, 7/9)

Stat: Free Medical School Tuition: Will Bloomberg Gift Spur Others?
Most of Johns Hopkins University’s medical school students will have free tuition starting this fall, thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, a longtime donor of the university, whose school of public health is named after Michael Bloomberg. The largesse is striking, but, even combined with other recent moves to relieve future doctors of crushing medical debt, the move may not reverberate to bring improvements to the broader health care system, experts say. According to the announcement, part of the gift will go toward increased tuition aid for health care students other than future doctors, such as public health and nursing. For future doctors attending the school, the impact will be more significant. (Merelli, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Ardent Health’s Second IPO Attempt Aims For $315M
Ardent Health Partners seeks to raise up to $314.6 million through an initial public offering, which the for-profit health system said would give it a valuation of $3.15 billion. In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Ardent said it planned to sell 14.3 million shares priced at $20 to $22 each. (Hudson, 7/9)

Bloomberg: Purdue Pharma Wins Short Window To Negotiate New Deal With Sackler Family
Purdue Pharma LP secured a two-month window to negotiate a new pact with members of the Sackler family as the OyxContin maker and its owners brace for a potential wave of civil opioid lawsuits after the US Supreme Court scuttled an earlier $6 billion settlement. Judge Sean Lane said during a Tuesday court hearing in New York that he’d extend for 60 days an injunction that, for years, has paused opioid litigation against the billionaire family while Purdue, government authorities and victims lawyers attempted to effectuate the earlier settlement. (Randles, 7/9)

Reuters: First Trial Against Abbott Over Premature Infant Formula Kicks Off In Missouri 
The first trial against Similac baby formula maker Abbott over claims that its formula for preterm infants used in neonatal intensive care units causes a potentially deadly bowel disease got underway with opening statements on Tuesday, as a lawyer for a mother suing the company urged jurors to hold it liable for her child's lifelong injuries. Jake Plattenberger of TorHoerman, a lawyer for Illinois resident Margo Gill, told the St. Louis, Missouri state court jury that Abbott made "no attempt to tell physicians in a clear and direct way" that its products could cause necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature babies. (Pierson, 7/9)

Reuters: SEC Blasts Pfizer's Bid For $75 Million From Insider Trading Victims' Fund
One of the most notorious insider trading schemes in U.S. history has led to a $75 million fight between drugmaker Pfizer and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That sum is what remains of a fund to compensate victims of insider trading by the now-shuttered hedge fund SAC Capital, which reaped more than $275 million in profits in 2008 from trading on unlawfully obtained clinical data about a prospective Alzheimer's drug. SAC Capital and related entities paid more than $600 million in 2013 to resolve the SEC's case in the largest insider trading settlement in U.S. history. (Frankel, 7/9)

Reuters: Pfizer's Chief Scientist Mikael Dolsten To Step Down 
Pfizer said on Tuesday Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten, a key figure behind the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, would step down after a more than 15-year career at the drugmaker. Dolsten, aged 65, served as the head of Pfizer's research and development after he joined the company through its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth in 2009. He became the company's chief scientist in 2010. (7/9)

NPR: Shortages Of Ozempic And Other Drugs Harms Type 2 Diabetes Patients
Jim Cox had heard of people with Type 2 diabetes who were unable to get Ozempic because the drug was being used off-label for weight loss. He just didn’t think the shortage would affect him. He has the disease too, but he takes a different drug called Trulicity, which is in the same class of GLP-1 drugs as Ozempic. But “then I went up to my local pharmacy to get my Trulicity and they said, ‘Sorry, we're out,’” Cox says. “I couldn't renew my prescription.” (Lupkin, 7/10)

Bloomberg: Generic Viagra, Cialis, Lipitor Safety In Question After FDA Finds False Data
Generic versions of erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis, among other medications, were allowed on the US market using potentially problematic data that call into question their safety and efficacy, a Bloomberg analysis found. The US Food and Drug Administration alerted brand-name and generic companies June 18 about a research company in India that had falsified the data used in key studies to gain approval of their medications. Data from the researcher, Synapse Labs Pvt. Ltd., may have been used in hundreds of drugs, which remain available for sale on pharmacy shelves and in Americans’ medicine cabinets. (Edney, 7/9)

Stat: Biotech Layoffs: Larger Firms Being Hit To A Greater Degree Than In Years Past
After getting laid off from Bristol Myers Squibb last December, Jennifer Ariazi is trying her best to be a Vulcan. Ariazi, a former BMS senior principal scientist, is a devout “Star Trek” fan. And she has made a personal mantra out of emulating the stoicism and tough-minded logic that define the fictional humanoid species. Layoffs happen. It’s a business. You’ve gotten through this before. (Wosen, 7/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Hospital Visits Are Rising In California. Are Symptoms Changing?
California’s COVID-19 emergency room visits and test positivity rate are rising sharply as the summer coronavirus wave gains momentum with some people reporting more severe symptoms than in previous encounters with the illness. However, there are signs of hope. Current figures remain far lower than in previous years, and health officials have now recommended an updated fall vaccine to protect against the latest coronavirus variants during the anticipated winter surge. (Vaziri, 7/9)

KHON: Hawaii Faces Shortage Of Covid Vaccines As Demand Surges
The storage unit at Doctors of Waikiki is out of Covid vaccines. “Like everything, when there’s a higher demand, you have issues with getting certain products,” said Dr. Tony Trpkovski. “And right now because we’re seeing an uptick in Covid, we’re seeing an increased demand for the vaccine.” Experts say that demand increased because of timing with graduations, summer-time get-togethers and peak travel season. (7/9)

Axios: Health Officials Pitch Anonymous Bird Flu Testing
Public health officials seeking a better view of how bird flu is spreading in cows have a new pitch for resistant dairy farmers: anonymized testing. Many farmers are refusing to test their herds, fearing the economic consequences, while concern builds that the relatively benign virus could morph into a much bigger risk to humans. (Reed, 7/10)

Stat: Debate: Is Bird Flu Virus In Cows Adapted To Better Infect Humans?
A study published Monday provides new evidence that the H5N1 virus currently causing an outbreak of bird flu in U.S. dairy cattle may be adapted to better infecting humans than other circulating strains of the virus, a result that is already courting controversy among the world’s leading flu researchers. (Molteni, 7/8)

ScienceNews: Bird Flu Viruses May Infect Mammary Glands More Commonly Than Thought
The new study finds that the H5N1 virus currently circulating in U.S. cows also charts a path to mammary glands, suggesting that the tissue unique to mammals is a more common target for the virus than originally thought. (de Jesus, 7/8)

ABC News: Colorado Public Health Officials Confirm Human Plague Case In The State 
Colorado public health officials have confirmed a human case of plague in a Pueblo County resident, according to the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment. Plague is very rare, with an average of seven human plague cases reported annually in the U.S., according to the CDC. (Reinstein, 7/10)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Health Officials ID Measles Case In New Hampshire Resident 
State health officials have identified a case of measles in an unvaccinated New Hampshire resident. This and another recently confirmed case in Vermont are linked to an international traveler who visited Hanover in late June. Health officials say the New Hampshire resident may have exposed others to the highly contagious disease while visiting several public places. (Cuno-Booth, 7/9)

WMTW: Mosquitoes In Maine Test Positive For Jamestown Canyon Virus
Mosquitoes collected from Orono have tested positive for Jamestown Canyon Virus. The town said it got verbal notice of the positive test from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention before the state agency confirmed the news on Tuesday. The Maine CDC said this mosquito pool, a group of up to 50 mosquitoes collected for regular testing, is the first in the state this year to test positive for any virus transmitted by mosquitoes. (Bartow, 7/9)

Bay Area News Group: Report: California's Extreme Heat Caused Over $7.7B In Hidden Costs
How much do heatwaves cost? The hidden costs of extreme heat — from lost productivity to healthcare for heat-related illnesses — totaled more than $7.7 billion over the last decade, a new report from the California Department of Insurance found. It concluded that there are gaps in traditional insurance coverage for losses due to extreme heat events and recommended the creation of new insurance solutions. (Pender, 7/9)

Health News Florida: Florida Appeals A Ruling Regarding Payment Of KidCare Insurance Premiums 
The judge dismissed the state's lawsuit against two federal agencies and said the case should instead be an administrative challenge. Next stop is the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. (Saunders, 7/9)

Modern Healthcare: Rural Clinically Integrated Network Lands Value-Based Contracts
The rural hospital collaborative in North Dakota has secured two value-based contracts with commercial insurers and more are expected this year, building momentum for those considering similar alliances. Cibolo Health in October created the Rough Rider High-Value Network comprised of 23 critical access hospitals in North Dakota. The rural hospital advisory firm has since helped launch a similar venture in Minnesota and is in early talks to expand the model in several other states, CEO Nathan White said. (Kacik, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Va. Gov. Youngkin Calls For ‘Phone-Free’ Public Schools In Executive Order
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) called for policies restricting cellphone use in schools in an executive order Tuesday, citing rising concerns about the effects of phone usage and social media on youth mental health. Under the order, the state Education Department will create guidance for school districts to develop policies for a “phone-free” education environment. The goal, the order says, is to limit the amount of time children are on phones “without parental supervision.” The order is not an outright ban on the use of phones in class. (Elwood, 7/9)

Bloomberg: Chicago Lead Pipe Replacement Lags As National Mandate Looms
Chicago has an estimated 400,000 lead lines, the most of any US city. While the scale of the problem in Chicago eclipses other cities, the hurdles it faces to remove known toxic lines reflect the broader funding and logistical challenges of making America’s tap lead-free. Nationally, an estimated 9 million lead lines remain buried underground. Ten years after the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the Environmental Protection Agency is now working to finalize new rules requiring most cities and public water systems to remove all lead pipes within a decade beginning in 2027, at a pace of 10% of total lines annually. (Poon and Porter, 7/9)

AP: Milk, Eggs And Now Bullets For Sale In Handful Of US Grocery Stores With Ammo Vending Machines 
A company has installed computerized vending machines to sell ammunition in grocery stores in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, allowing patrons to pick up bullets along with a gallon of milk. American Rounds said their machines use an identification scanner and facial recognition software to verify the purchaser’s age and are as “quick and easy” to use as a computer tablet. But advocates worry that selling bullets out of vending machines will lead to more shootings in the U.S., where gun violence killed at least 33 people on Independence Day alone. (Chandler, 7/9)

The New York Times: Second Patient To Receive Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died
A 54-year-old New Jersey woman who was the second person to receive a kidney transplanted from a genetically modified pig, and who lived with the organ for 47 days, died on Sunday, surgeons at NYU Langone Health announced on Tuesday. The patient, Lisa Pisano, was critically ill, suffering from both kidney failure and heart failure. She received the pig kidney on April 12, just eight days after implantation of a mechanical heart pump. (Rabin, 7/9)

USA Today: All Patients Who Have Received Pig Organs Have Now Died
The first trials using pig organs in people, two heart transplants at the University of Maryland in 2022 and 2023, followed by a kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital at NYU in April, were supposed to turbocharge the field. But none of the patients survived more than two months with their pig organs. (Weintraub, 7/9)

AP: Cancer Stole His Voice. A Rare Larynx Transplant Brought It Back 
A Massachusetts man has regained his voice after surgeons removed his cancerous larynx and, in a pioneering move, replaced it with a donated one. Transplants of the so-called voice box are extremely rare, and normally aren’t an option for people with active cancer. Marty Kedian is only the third person in the U.S. ever to undergo a total larynx transplant – the others, years ago, because of injuries – and one of a handful reported worldwide. (Neergaard, 7/9)

NPR: Some Argue For Age Limits On Buying Nonalcoholic Beer, Wine And Mocktails
Darryl Collins owns a zero-proof bottle shop called Hopscotch in Baltimore, Md., selling over 200 options of nonalcoholic spirits, beer, wine and canned cocktails. ... Collins set his own age limit, and he’s free to set it however he wants because in Maryland — as in the majority of states — there are no state age restrictions on who can buy adult non-alcoholic beverages. Now, some health researchers are calling for clear, consistent age limits for non-alcoholic beers, wines and liquors, likening them to candy cigarettes. (Huang, 7/9)