First Edition: July 20, 2023

KFF Health News: A Mom Owed Nearly $102,000 For Hospital Care. Her State Attorney General Said To Pay Up
Bridget Narsh’s son, Mason, needed urgent help in January 2020, so she was offered the chance to send him to Central Regional Hospital, a state-run mental health facility in Butner, North Carolina. The teen, who deals with autism and post-traumatic stress and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, had started destroying furniture and running away from home. His mother worried for the safety of Mason and the rest of the family. (Clasen-Kelly, 7/20)

KFF Health News: Congress Considers Easing Regulations On Air Transport Of Donated Organs
What do kidney and pancreas transplants have to do with airplane regulations? Tucked into the hundreds of pages of legislative language to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration is a provision to change the life-or-death process by which human organs are flown commercially from donor to recipient. (DeGuzman, 7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Texas Women Denied Abortions Testify About Impact Of State Bans
For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women provided hours of testimony in front of a judge about the emotional and physical impact of being denied an abortion because of a state ban. (Kusisto and Flores, 7/19)

NPR: Texas Abortion Bans Challenged In Dramatic Court Testimony From 3 Women
Samantha Casiano, who gave birth to a baby who lived just four hours, broke down and became physically ill on the witness stand as she told the story of her doomed pregnancy in an Austin, Texas, courtroom on Wednesday. Her husband, Luis Villasana, rushed to the front of the courtroom to help her, during a hearing in a case challenging the abortion bans in Texas. (Simmons-Duffin, 7/19)

AP: Maine Governor Expands Access To Abortion Later In Pregnancy
Maine will soon expand abortion access, joining a half dozen states that leave it to doctors and patients to make the decision without restrictions on timing. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Wednesday that allows abortions at any time if deemed medically necessary by a doctor, making the law one of the nation’s least restrictive. The previous law banned abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, but allowed an exception if the patient’s life is at risk. (Sharp, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Abortion Providers In Democrat-Led States Work With Aid Access To Funnel Pills Into Antiabortion States
The doctor starts each day with a list of addresses and a label maker. Sitting in her basement in New York’s Hudson Valley, next to her grown children’s old bunk beds, she reviews the list of towns and cities she’ll be mailing to that day: Baton Rouge, Tucson, Houston. A month ago, a phone call was the only thing the doctor could offer to women in states with abortion bans who faced unexpected pregnancies. Hamstrung by the laws, she could only coach them through the process of taking abortion pills they received from overseas suppliers. (Kitchener, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: Extreme Heat Brings Misery To Daily Life In The Southwest
An unrelenting heat wave that has blanketed the the Southwestern U.S. continued to break records Wednesday, inflicting misery in major cities and offering what experts described as a disturbing glimpse into the future as human-caused climate change increases the frequency and duration of extreme heat events. (Herrera, Smith, Lin and Spencer, 7/19)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Study: Extreme Heat Increases Summer Health Care Costs By $1 Billion In ‘Ominous Trajectory’
A new study from Virginia Commonwealth University published by the Center for American Progress has reported that the heat wave running rampant across the U.S. is significantly inflating health care costs. The authors of the study — an interdisciplinary group of faculty, staff and students from the university — estimated that heat events each summer are responsible for nearly 235,000 emergency department visits and over 56,000 hospital admissions for heat-related or heat-adjacent illnesses. In total, this is believed to add approximately $1 billion in health care costs across the country each summer. (Boyce, 7/19)

Texas Public Radio: Texas Prisoners Struggle To Endure Heat Wave In Facilities Without Air Conditioning
A deadly heat wave continues across the Southwest, and an often forgotten group of people affected are prisoners. Many inmates struggle to stay cool in aging facilities, including in Texas — where some 100,000 prisoners live in large facilities that lack air conditioning. (Flahive, 7/19)

Reuters: WHO Urges Govts To Set Up Surveillance For People At Risk From Heatwaves
The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged governments and local authorities to set up a strong surveillance system for people who are most at risk of severe symptoms from a heatwave that is baking the northern hemisphere. People with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and diabetes, as well as pregnant women, children and homeless people, are seen as the most vulnerable to heatwaves that have scorched parts of Europe, Asia and the United States this week. (7/19)

The New York Times: ‘Unhealthy’ Air Quality In Portland Caused By An Industrial Fire, Experts Say
Air quality levels in Portland, Ore., reached “unhealthy” levels and were among the worst in the nation on Wednesday. Although wildfires in the region and beyond have been behind some of the recent spikes in air quality levels, this time the culprit was a factory fire an hour north of the city. A paper mill, Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview, Wash., caught fire on Tuesday night and was still burning as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Longview Fire Department. (Carballo, 7/19)

AP: Tornado Damages Pfizer Plant In North Carolina As Scorching Heat And Floods Sock Other Parts Of US
A tornado heavily damaged a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, while torrential rain flooded communities in Kentucky and an area from California to South Florida endured more scorching heat. Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount, but said in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries. A later company statement said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for. (Finley and Schoenbaum, 7/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Some People Never Get COVID Symptoms. We May Finally Know Why
About 1 in 5 people who contract the coronavirus exhibit no symptoms. Now, researchers at UCSF have uncovered a genetic mutation potentially responsible for the phenomenon of coronavirus super dodgers. (Vaziri, 7/19)

Bloomberg: US Suspends Wuhan Institute Of Virology’s Access To Federal Funding
The Biden administration formally halted the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s access to US funding, citing unanswered safety and security questions for the facility at the center of the Covid lab leak theory. The Department of Health and Human Services notified the institute about the suspension on Monday and told the lab it’s seeking to cut it off permanently, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. An HHS review that started in September raised concern that the facility based in Wuhan, where Covid first emerged, is violating biosafety protocols and isn’t complying with US regulations. (Griffin, 7/19)

Politico: It’s Mark-Up Day For Health Care Bills In The House 
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to mark up 15 health care bills today. The bills include legislation that would permanently allow telehealth to be a standalone benefit, a sweeping pandemic preparedness package and the reauthorization of the SUPPORT Act, which tackles the opioid epidemic. Lawmakers will also consider a measure that would require the CDC director to be Senate confirmed sooner than is currently required — lawmakers passed legislation last year requiring confirmation in 2025. (Leonard and Payne, 7/19)

Politico: Sanders Schedules July 26 Markup For Health Care, Workforce Package
The Senate HELP Committee will consider a sweeping package from Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would reauthorize a number of federal health programs and expand primary care. Sanders said the legislation — to be marked up July 26 — pushes for investments in health care services and would bolster the provider workforce. He added that it would save the health system money over time by increasing access to preventive, primary and mental health care, keeping Americans healthier. (Wilson, 7/19)

Politico: 'They Gave A Poor Answer': GOP Senators Slam Pentagon Briefing On Abortion Policy
A Pentagon briefing on the Defense Department’s abortion travel policy on Wednesday did little to sway Republicans, dimming hopes of progress on breaking a single senator’s blockade on more than 200 senior military promotions. Senator Armed Services Committee members who emerged from a closed-door briefing with Pentagon officials were still dug in on the issue as Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-Ala.) monthslong blockade of hundreds of military promotions over the policy continues. The Senate is scrambling to both pass its $886 billion Pentagon policy bill before August and also loosen the logjam. (Gould, O'Brien and Everett, 7/19)

Politico: House Committee Moves To Reauthorize Landmark Opioid Treatment Bill
The Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act, sponsored by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), the chair of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, would renew programs that will otherwise run out of funding by the end of September, such as opioid recovery centers and training for providers who treat people with substance use disorder. It also would allow the use of federal funding to pay for test strips that can detect drugs like fentanyl and the horse tranquilizer xylazine that dealers often mix with it to deadly effect. (Paun, 7/19)

Politico: GOP Advances Pandemic, Emergency Preparedness Bill Despite Dem Objections
The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved legislation meant to ensure the U.S. is prepared for pandemics and other emergencies in a party-line vote in which all Democrats voted against it. The GOP-led House markup is the first time that reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act — first signed into law in 2006 — has not moved on a bipartisan basis, with disagreements over the scope of the bill and whether to address drug shortages unresolved. (Wilson, 7/19)

The New York Times: Stanford President Resigns After Report Finds Flaws In His Research
Following months of intense scrutiny of his scientific work, Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced Wednesday that he would resign as president of Stanford University after an independent review of his research found significant flaws in studies he supervised going back decades. The review, conducted by an outside panel of scientists, refuted the most serious claim involving Dr. Tessier-Lavigne’s work — that an important 2009 Alzheimer’s study was the subject of an investigation that found falsified data and that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne had covered it up. (Saul, 7/19)

Politico: CMS Not Ready To Penalize States With Poor Medicaid Redetermination Records
The Biden administration knows thousands of Americans eligible for Medicaid are losing their health insurance because of paperwork problems — but CMS said Wednesday it isn’t ready to penalize states where it is happening. Instead, CMS leaders told reporters Wednesday they are working with several states in which a large number of eligible recipients have seen their coverage terminated. (King, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Unwinding Paused In Some States As CMS Finds Violations 
CMS has already ordered several states to pause redeterminations to address their failure to adhere to federal standards and is working with about a half dozen states to correct ongoing violations, Tsai said. The agency has required some states to pause so-called procedural terminations not related to eligibility and to reinstate coverage for those affected by policy, operational or compliance violations, he said. CMS is monitoring an additional dozen states to determine if they are in violation of Medicaid regulations. One state failed to provide some enrollees with renewal forms, and another didn’t implement required auto-renewal mitigation strategies, according to a CMS fact sheet. The agency continues to monitor states, intervene when necessary and offer technical assistance. (Berryman, 7/19)

AP: Jill Biden Welcomes Proposal For Medicare To Pay For Navigation Services For Cancer Patients
First lady Jill Biden on Wednesday welcomed a new proposal to have Medicare pay for navigation services for cancer patients, saying it will make “an enormous difference in people’s lives.” She joined other Biden administration officials on a conference call to discuss a proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to pay for “principal illness navigation services,” which help patients make decisions about treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses and overcome barriers to quality care. (Superville, 7/19)

The New York Times: Health Insurers Deny Medical Care For The Poor At High Rates, Report Says
Private health insurance companies paid by Medicaid denied millions of requests for care for low-income Americans with little oversight from federal and state authorities, according to a new report by U.S. investigators published Wednesday. Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor that covers nearly 87 million people, contracts with companies to reimburse hospitals and doctors for treatment and to manage an individual’s medical care. About three-quarters of people enrolled in Medicaid receive health services through private companies, which are typically paid a fixed amount per patient rather than for each procedure or visit. (Abelson, 7/19)

Reuters: Juul Seeks US Authorization For New E-Cigarette
Juul Labs said on Wednesday it was seeking U.S. authorization for a new e-cigarette that has age-verification capabilities and prevents the use of unauthorized refill cartridges. The vaporizer, which has a unique Pod ID chip to prevent the use of counterfeit cartridges and an app to restrict underage access, is already on sale in Britain after its launch in 2021 as JUUL2 System. In its latest premarket tobacco product application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration submitted on Tuesday, Juul Labs said it was seeking to sell tobacco-flavored pods at a nicotine concentration of less than 2%. (7/19)

The Washington Post: Rising Number Of Overdose Deaths Involve Mix Of Opioids With Cocaine, Meth
The evolving overdose crisis in the United States is making another lethal turn, federal disease trackers reported Wednesday: Increasingly, people dying from opioids are also using stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine. An analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that between 2011 and 2021, the age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths involving opioids and cocaine nearly quintupled, far outpacing the rate of deaths involving only cocaine. In 2021 alone, nearly 80 percent of the 24,486 cocaine overdose deaths recorded in the United States also involved an opioid. (Ovalle, 7/19)

Stateline: States Stiffen Penalties For Fentanyl, Despite Public Health Concerns
As they struggle to reduce drug overdose deaths, policymakers across the United States are embroiled in a heated debate over creating and increasing criminal penalties related to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that’s up to 100 times more potent than morphine. Legislators pushing the new wave of criminal penalties say the laws will deter drug distributors and hold offenders accountable. But opponents — including some public health officials — warn of potential consequences such as worsening the opioid crisis and pushing users toward more dangerous synthetic alternatives. (Hernández, 7/20)

Stateline: A ‘She-Cession’ No More: After COVID Dip, Women’s Employment Hits All-Time High
After fears of a “she-cession” during the pandemic, women have returned to the workforce at unprecedented rates. Much of the gain reflects a boom in jobs traditionally held by women, including nursing and teaching.  Many good-paying jobs in fields such as construction and tech management are still dominated by men, a continuing challenge for states trying to even the playing field for women workers. (Henderson, 7/19)

USA Today: The Fittest City In America Ranks Health Of The 100 Largest Cities
Even as the nation moves beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, about half of U.S. adults don’t get enough aerobic activity and fewer than 1 in 4 adults do enough aerobic and strength exercises. According to the latest fitness ranking of the nation's 100 largest cities, about 51% of adults get American College of Sports Medicine's recommended 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity every week. Such routine physical activity helps stave off chronic disease and reduces or prevents symptoms of anxiety and depression. (Alltucker, 7/19)

Politico: UN: Brain Chips Must Respect Human Rights
As Elon Musk’s Neuralink gears up for the first clinical trial implanting chips into people’s brains to treat diseases, the United Nations is developing an ethical framework for neurotechnology’s use. On the plus side: The field, which encompasses electronic devices or methods to read or modify how neurons function in the nervous system, holds promise that was until recently seen as science fiction, said Gabriela Ramos, assistant director-general for social and human sciences at UNESCO. (Paun, Peng, Schumaker and Leonard, 7/19)

Reuters: Regulator Says Found No Animal Welfare Breaches At Musk Firm Beyond 2019 Incident
The head of the U.S. agency responsible for animal welfare has told lawmakers that it did not find any violations of animal research rules at Elon Musk's Neuralink beyond a 2019 incident the brain implant company had already reported. Officials with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted a "focused" inspection in response to a complaint about the company's handling of animal experiments, but identified no compliance breaches, the agency's secretary Thomas Vilsack wrote to Congressman Earl Blumenauer in a July 14 letter reviewed by Reuters. (Taylor, 7/19)

Bloomberg: White Men Experience Biggest Cognitive Declines After Retirement 
Post-retirement cognitive declines were almost three times more acute among White Americans compared with their Black peers, and twice as large for men as for women. That’s according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. It found that immediately after retirement, white adults tended to experience a significant worsening of cognitive function, whereas for Black retirees the decline was minimal. (Tanzi, 7/19)

Stat: Dementia Risk Linked To Living In Disadvantaged Areas: Study
Americans who live in neighborhoods with less socioeconomic advantage may have a higher risk of dementia, according to a new study published Wednesday in JAMA Neurology. This can be true regardless of an individual’s background, according to the study, which found that people living in areas of the U.S. with the lowest levels of income, education, employment, and housing quality had a 1.17 times higher risk of developing dementia compared to residents of the least disadvantaged areas. (Castillo, 7/20)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Bivalent COVID-19 Booster Outperforms Monovalent Version
A new Italian study finds that estimated relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) was 49.3% for the bivalent (two-strain) booster and 26.9% for the monovalent (single-strain) booster, with protection lasting at least 4 months for the bivalent booster and waning fast for the monovalent version. The study appears in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Soucheray, 7/19)

CIDRAP: Obstructive Sleep Apnea Linked To Severe COVID-19
Yesterday in PLOS One, Israeli researchers report that a high risk of obstructive sleep apnea is associated with severe COVID-19 and longer hospitalization. The study was based on medical records and outcomes seen among 119 COVID-19 patients who were given questionnaires about sleep quality in the 6 to 8 weeks following hospitalization for the novel coronavirus. (Soucheray, 7/19)

CIDRAP: Studies In Kids Shed New Light On Long COVID, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome
Today in JAMA Network Open, two studies detail long COVID and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), with Swedish researchers reporting that long COVID is rare in this group—but hospitalization or having a parent with long COVID dramatically increases the risk—and another finding that a significant proportion of US and Canadian youth who had MIS-C have persistent neurologic and psychological symptoms. (Van Beusekom, 7/19)

Stat: Hospitals Struggle To Profit From CAR-T Drugs, But That May Change
Hospitals for years have complained that Medicare pays so little for CAR-T cancer treatments that they sometimes lose money administering the incredibly expensive treatments. But that could soon change: if drug companies succeed in making the cancer treatments safer, hospitals could provide them more often in outpatient departments, where payment is higher. CAR-T uses the body’s own immune system to kill cancerous cells. (Wilkerson, 7/20)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital-At-Home Care Could Pose Challenges For Larger Health Systems
While health systems' margins dropped in 2022, most provider organizations are wrapping up the first half of 2023 on a more positive note. But analysts warn new threats to bottom lines may be on the horizon. “Margins have begun to recover, but they’re not where they were pre-pandemic,” said Matt Wolf, director and healthcare senior analyst at the consultancy RSM US. (Broderick, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: Elevance Health Profits Up In Second Quarter
Elevance Health exceeded Wall Street expectations for the second quarter as executives sought to reassure investors that medical costs do not remain higher than anticipated. The posture differs from rival UnitedHealth Group's announcement last week that pent-up demand for surgeries from Medicare Advantage members was dragging margins at its insurance and provider arms. Competitor Humana has also reported higher-than-expected Medicare Advantage utilization. (Tepper, 7/19)

Reuters: TPG To Buy Healthcare IT Platform Nextech For $1.4 Bln
TPG Inc (TPG.O) said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy healthcare IT platform Nextech for $1.4 billion to increase the private equity firm's presence in the healthcare services market. The deal gives TPG access to Nextech's network of over 11,000 physicians and more than 60,000 clinics, to which it provides services. (7/19)

Reuters: Activist Investor Elliott Takes Big Stake In Drugmaker Catalent
Activist investor Elliott Investment has built a significant stake in Catalent (CTLT.N) and is pushing for a shake-up on the contract drug manufacturer's board, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Elliott has been talking to potential director candidates about joining a slate of nominees to run in a proxy contest, WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter. (7/20)

The Washington Post: Florida Kept Disabled Kids In Institutions. A Judge Is Sending Them Home
Cayden Armour has lived most of his life in a Florida nursing home, where his father said the disabled 9-year-old was often left alone in his room, sitting in soiled diapers for hours. Cayden, who has multiple medical complications after nearly drowning as an infant, is one of many children in Florida who have been separated from their families and institutionalized rather than getting state-provided at-home care. (Morris, 7/19)