First Edition: July 11, 2024

KFF Health News: Finland Is Offering Farmworkers Bird Flu Shots. Some Experts Say The US Should, Too
As bird flu spreads among dairy cattle in the U.S., veterinarians and researchers have taken note of Finland’s move to vaccinate farmworkers at risk of infection. They wonder why their government doesn’t do the same. “Farmworkers, veterinarians, and producers are handling large volumes of milk that can contain high levels of bird flu virus,” said Kay Russo, a livestock and poultry veterinarian in Fort Collins, Colorado. “If a vaccine seems to provide some immunity, I think it should be offered to them.” (Maxmen and Allen, 7/11)

KFF Health News: Colorado Dropped Medicaid Enrollees As Red States Have, Alarming Advocates For The Poor
Colorado stands out among the 10 states that have disenrolled the highest share of Medicaid beneficiaries since the U.S. government lifted a pandemic-era restriction on removing people from the health insurance program. It’s the only blue state in a cluster of red states with high disenrollment rates — a group that includes Idaho, Montana, Texas, and Utah — in the Medicaid “unwinding” underway since spring 2023. (Bichell, 7/11)

Los Angeles Times: FTC Preparing Suit Against Drug Middlemen Over Insulin Rebates
The Federal Trade Commission is preparing a lawsuit against the three largest drug intermediaries over their use of rebates for insulin and other drugs, according to a person familiar with the probe. The agency has been investigating whether the rebate practices of insulin manufacturers and three pharmacy benefit managers — units of CVS Health Corp., Cigna Group and UnitedHealth Group Inc. — violate federal law, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing an ongoing probe. (Nylen and Tozzi, 7/10)

Reuters: US Senator Sanders Optimistic Novo Nordisk Can Be Pressured To Cut Wegovy, Ozempic Prices 
Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday expressed confidence that Novo Nordisk can be convinced to cut the U.S. prices of its popular Ozempic and Wegovy drugs used for weight loss by publicly shaming the company over how much it charges compared with prices in other countries. Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jorgensen is set to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which Sanders chairs, in a September hearing focusing on U.S. prices for Ozempic and Wegovy. (Aboulenein, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Doctors Hit With Proposed 2.9% Medicare Pay Cut For 2025
Medicare physician payments would decline 2.9% in 2025 under a proposed rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published Wednesday. The draft regulation provoked sharp criticism from the American Medical Association and other medical societies, which renewed their calls for Congress to come to their aid. The proposed rule also includes significant policies related to the Medicare Shared Savings Program and telehealth reimbursement. (Early, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Outpatient Hospitals May Get 2.6% Medicare Pay Bump In 2025
Hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgical centers would receive 2.6% reimbursement hikes next year under a proposed rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Wednesday. The draft regulation also includes a slew of maternal health and health equity provisions hospitals that participate in Medicare would be required to follow to receive the full pay hike, including policies on treatment and transfer protocols for pregnant patients. (Early, 7/10)

Stat: Biden Administration Ignores Calls To Bolster Hospital Price Transparency
The federal government will not modify regulations that dictate how hospitals publish their prices for consumers, ignoring pleas from patient advocates who have said hospitals still are not fully complying with the 3-year-old law. The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed an annual rule that sets payment rates for hospitals. This document is where the government has in the past rolled out changes to the so-called hospital price transparency rule, but the Biden administration did not address the issue in this edition. (Herman, 7/10)

Axios: Biden And Aging In U.S.: What Research Says About Americans' Longevity
Age is taking center stage this election year after President Biden's debate performance at 81 worried even his biggest supporters. Why it matters: Americans are living longer — and emerging research offers insight as to why — but not every senior fits the "Golden Bachelor" profile. (Mallenbaum, 7/10)

The Hill: Arkansas Abortion Rights Ballot Initiative Rejected By Secretary Of State
The Arkansas secretary of state on Wednesday rejected an effort for an abortion-rights ballot measure that would ensure access to the procedure up to 18 weeks in the state. In a letter to Arkansas for Limited Government — the group behind the effort — Secretary of State John Thurston said the group did not submit the required statements about paid signature gatherers. The group, in a statement Wednesday, said it was “alarmed and outraged” by Thurston’s letter. The group said it worked with the secretary of state’s office to ensure all rules and regulations were followed. (Nazzaro, 7/10)

Reuters: Backers Of Arizona Abortion Rights Amendment Sue Over Language In Voter Pamphlet 
Supporters of a ballot measure that would amend Arizona's constitution to establish a right to abortion sued Republican lawmakers on Wednesday over language in a pamphlet to be distributed to voters before they go to the polls in November, saying the document's use of the phrase "unborn human" is not neutral. Arizona for Abortion Access, the group behind the ballot measure, in its lawsuit asked the Maricopa County Superior Court for an order requiring the Arizona Legislative Council, a committee of lawmakers overseeing the pamphlet, to adopt "impartial" language. The group said "fetus" would be "a neutral, objective, and medically accurate term uniformly used by medical professionals and government agencies." (Pierson, 7/10)

AP: Bill Would Ban Sale Of Reproductive And Gender Affirming Care Locations Gathered From Cellphones 
The Massachusetts House unanimously approved legislation Wednesday that would ban companies from selling cellphone location data collected during visits to reproductive and gender-affirming care clinics. Democratic House Speaker Ronald Mariano said the goal is to ensure that the right to receive and provide that type of care remains ironclad in Massachusetts. (LeBlanc, 7/10)

Axios: Biden Plan Requires Hospitals To Improve Maternal Care
The Biden administration on Wednesday rolled out its latest election-year initiative on women's health, proposing standards that would require the hospital industry to invest billions in maternity care improvements to remain in Medicare. Why it matters: Maternal health has proven to be a winning issue for Democrats as restrictive abortion laws and insufficient care draw attention to poor access and outcomes. (Goldman, 7/11)

Military.com: Navy Had Record High Suicides So Far This Year Amid Reports Of High Stress, Quality-Of-Life Issues 
The Navy reported a record number of suicides in the first quarter of 2024, again drawing attention to the myriad issues revealed about the quality of life for sailors and the service's ability to prevent such deaths. According to recently released Pentagon data on suicide across all the services, the Navy reported 24 suicides among its sailors for the first three months of 2024. That is the highest-ever quarterly figure for the service going back to 2018, when data first started being released. (Toropin, 7/10)

Military.com: Disabled Veterans To Congress: Move Out On Stalled Bill To Allow Payment Of Both Retirement And Disability Benefits
Veterans with combat-related injuries rallied near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to finally act on a long-stalled proposal to allow all veterans full access to military retirement pay and Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits. Despite wide bipartisan backing, the Major Richard Star Act has languished for years, increasingly frustrating the veterans who are losing thousands of dollars in benefits that could help them support themselves and their families. (Kheel, 7/10)

Axios: Senate's Defense Bill Contains Gender-Affirming Care Restrictions
The ACLU on Wednesday criticized an amendment added to defense policy legislation that would restrict gender-affirming care, calling it "a dangerous and discriminatory attack on transgender members of the armed forces." Why it matters: If approved, the amendment would mean that government insurance would not cover gender affirming surgeries for soldiers and nearly all gender-affirming care for their children under 18, including hormones and puberty blockers. (Habeshian, 7/10)

CIDRAP: GAO Report Critical Of FEMA's Handling Of Pandemic
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has yet to identify lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The report examined the status of obligations and expenditures related to COVID-19 and how FEMA estimated spending from January 2020 to March 2024. For fiscal years 2020 through 2024, Congress passed both annual and supplemental appropriations for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) totaling $97 billion, the GAO said. (Soucheray, 7/10)

Reuters: Former CEO Of SCWorx Corp Convicted Of Securities Fraud Over COVID Tests
The former CEO of healthcare software company SCWorx Corp was found guilty of investor fraud for falsely stating the company was becoming a major supplier of COVID-19 rapid tests early in the pandemic, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. The Justice Department said in a statement that a federal jury in New Jersey convicted Marc Schessel, 64, of two counts of securities fraud for public statements by SCWorx in April 2020, early in the pandemic, claiming that it was buying and reselling at least 48 million COVID-19 test kits, despite knowing that the statements were false. SCWorx said it had a binding contract to acquire the rapid COVID test kits from an Australian supplier. (Singh, 7/10)

Reuters: Bird Flu Response In Michigan Sparks COVID-Era Worry On Farms
Some dairy farmers are resisting Michigan's nation-leading efforts to stop the spread of bird flu for fear their incomes will suffer from added costs and hurt rural America. The government's restrictions, which include tracking who comes and goes from farms, are rekindling unwanted memories of COVID-19 in Martin and other small towns in central Michigan. (Polansek, Huffstutter and Douglas, 7/11)

CIDRAP: H5N1 Confirmed In 5 More US Dairy Herds, More Cats 
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today added five more dairy herds in three states to its list of H5N1 avian flu outbreak confirmations. Also, APHIS confirmed the virus in three more cats from two states, both of which are experiencing H5N1 outbreak in dairy cows and poultry. (Schnirring, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Steward Health Care Indefinitely Delays Some Hospital Sales
Steward Health Care indefinitely delayed the sale proceedings for some of its hospitals as the system continues to push back the sale timeline for its various assets. Steward, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, said in a Tuesday court filing it indefinitely postponed the planned July 11 sale hearing for its five hospitals in Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Bids for those facilities were due June 24. (Kacik, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Sanford Health, Marshfield Clinic In Talks To Combine
Sanford Health and Marshfield Clinic Health System said Wednesday they are exploring a combination, following failed efforts of their own to expand. Under a nonbinding memorandum of understanding, the combined system would be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, home to Sanford, and led by Sanford President and CEO Bill Gassen, according to a Wednesday news release. (Kacik, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Geisinger To Add 11-Story Patient Tower With $880M Expansion
Geisinger plans to embark next year on an $880 million expansion of its Danville, Pennsylvania, medical center, including the addition of an 11-story patient tower. The project has been formally approved by Geisinger parent company Risant Health, said Megan Brosious, chief administrative officer for Geisinger’s central region, on Tuesday. (DeSilva, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: ONC Rule To Establish Voluntary Health IT Software Certifications 
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology introduced a proposed rule on Wednesday to improve interoperability between payers, public health organizations and providers. ONC's proposed rule would establish voluntary certifications for health IT software tools used by public health organizations and payers. The proposed rule implements provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law in December 2016 by President Obama. (Turner, 7/10)

The New York Times: Doctors Use A.I. Chatbots To Help Fight Insurance Denials
At his rehabilitation medicine practice in Illinois, Dr. Azlan Tariq typically spent seven hours a week fighting with insurance companies reluctant to pay for his patients’ treatments. He often lost. There was the 45-year-old man who spent five months in a wheelchair while his insurer denied appeal after appeal for a prosthetic leg. Or the stroke survivor who was rehospitalized following a fall after his insurer determined his rehab “could be done at home.” (Rosenbluth, 7/10)

The Star Tribune: Most Patients Quit GLP-1 Drugs In Two Years, Jeopardizing Their Weight Loss
Four in five people taking GLP-1 medications for weight loss quit them in two years, even though the drugs are supposed to be taken much longer to maintain their benefits, according to a new report by Eagan-based Prime Therapeutics. Wednesday's report is disappointing because many people regain all their weight after discontinuing the injectable drugs such as Wegovy and put themselves back at risk for costly chronic diseases, said Pat Gleason, an associate vice president for health outcomes at Prime, which manages pharmacy benefits for Blue Cross insurance plans nationwide. (Olson, 7/10)

The Texas Tribune: Beryl Power Outages Force 17 Texas Hospital To Use Generators
Electricity outages caused by Hurricane Beryl in Houston and southeast Texas forced health care providers there into a sharp pivot on Wednesday as they were forced to hold onto discharged patients longer instead of having them return to powerless homes baking in the summer heat. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick addressed the scramble in a news conference, pointing to how Houston officials transformed NRG Arena, one of the event spaces used by the city’s annual rodeo and livestock show, into a field hospital for 250 discharged patients to free up space in local hospitals. (Simpson, 7/10)

The Washington Post: Heat Wave Sweeping The U.S. Has Caused At Least 28 Deaths, Reports Show
A searing heat wave that has gripped much of the United States in recent days is suspected of killing at least 28 people in the last week, according to reports from state officials, medical examiners and news outlets. The number, which is based on preliminary reports from California, Oregon and Arizona, is likely to grow as authorities assess the death toll of a heat wave that began last week, delivering record-breaking temperatures throughout the West and scorching East Coast cities. As of Wednesday, more than 135 million people across the Lower 48 were under heat alerts, many of which are expected to continue until the weekend. (Phillips,7/10)

The Washington Post: As Extreme Heat Bakes The West, Emergency Helicopters Struggle To Fly
The call came at 2 p.m. Sunday: A driver suffered a brain injury in a traffic accident and needed to be flown to a different hospital as soon as possible. Lead helicopter pilot Douglas Evans noted the 116.6-degree temperature in Redding, Calif., where he would need to land. The tarmac was probably even hotter. In 27 years of operating medical helicopters around California, Evans had never had to cancel a flight because of excessive heat — until now. (Mellen, 7/10)

Houston Chronicle: NRG Arena To Hold 250 Patients Discharged From Houston Hospitals
NRG Arena is being converted into a 250-bed facility for patients who have been discharged from hospitals but cannot return to homes without power, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Tuesday. The move, which Patrick announced during a news conference with Mayor John Whitmire and other Houston leaders, will alleviate a backup in some local hospitals and free up space for new patients. (MacDonald, 7/10)

Stat: Medicaid Is Paying Millions For Salty, Fat-Laden ‘Medically Tailored’ Cheeseburgers And Sandwiches
They’re marketed as healthy, “dietitian-approved” meals and delivered directly to the homes of people seriously ill from cancer, diabetes, or heart disease: a Jimmy Dean frozen sausage breakfast sandwich, biscuits and gravy, a cheeseburger. These are among the offerings sold by an Idaho-based company, Homestyle Direct, which is paid millions of dollars each year by taxpayer-funded state Medicaid programs to deliver what the company calls medically tailored meals. The company, which advertises delivering 7.8 million meals annually, has menus catering to customers trying to manage their cancer and diabetes, as well as “heart healthy” and “renal friendly” dishes. (Florko, 7/11)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Autism Providers Under Investigation, Lawmakers Eye ‘Guardrails’
Investigators are examining potential Medicaid fraud among Minnesota autism services, and state lawmakers say they will consider licensing the providers, whose numbers have increased dramatically across the state. The Minnesota Department of Human Services has 15 active investigations into organizations or individuals providing certain autism services and has closed 10 other cases, the agency told the Star Tribune. The investigations were first reported by the the Reformer, which wrote last month that the FBI is looking into fraud by autism service providers. (Berkel, 7/10)

The Washington Post: Some Massachusetts Towns Are Trying To Say Goodbye To Tobacco — Forever 
The idea was ingenious, Richard Lopez thought: a slow but relentless way to phase out tobacco for good. Lopez chairs the board of health in Reading, Mass., a town of 25,000 north of Boston. Last month, the board adopted a regulation to create what advocates call a “nicotine-free generation. ”Anyone born in 2004 or later will not be allowed to buy cigarettes or nicotine products in Reading when they turn 21, the legal age to purchase. (Slater, 7/10)

Los Angeles Times: How California Local Governments Are Using Opioid Settlement Payouts
Sonja Verdugo lost her husband to an opioid overdose last year. She regularly delivers medical supplies to people using drugs who are living — and dying — on the streets of Los Angeles. And she advocates at Los Angeles City Hall for policies to address addiction and homelessness. Yet Verdugo didn’t know that hundreds of millions of dollars annually are flowing to California communities to combat the opioid crisis, a payout that began in 2022 and continues through 2038. (Pattani and Thompson, 7/11)