First Edition: July 31, 2023

KFF Health News: Be Aware: Someone Could Steal Your Medical Records And Bill You For Their Care
After HCA Healthcare announced this month that the personal identification data of roughly 11 million HCA patients in 20 states had been exposed in a breach, people may be justifiably concerned that their own medical data and identities could be stolen. Consumers should realize that such “medical identity” fraud can happen in several ways, from a large-scale breach to individual theft of someone’s data. (Andrews, 7/31)

KFF Health News and Tampa Bay Times: To Protect A Mother’s Health: How Abortion Ban Exemptions Play Out In A Post-‘Roe’ World
This pregnancy felt different. After the heartache of more than a dozen miscarriages, Anya Cook was 16 weeks along. She and husband Derick Cook spent a Sunday last December sharing the news with his parents and looking at cribs. As they left a restaurant in Coral Springs, Florida, that evening, Cook’s water broke. Her husband rushed her to the nearest emergency room. (O'Donnell, 7/31)

KFF Health News: Sen. Sanders Says Millions Of People Can’t Find A Doctor. He’s Mostly Right
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has long been a champion of a government-sponsored “Medicare for All” health program to solve long-standing problems in the United States, where we pay much more for health care than people in other countries but are often sicker and have a shorter average life expectancy. Still, he realizes his passion project has little chance in today’s political environment. “We are far from a majority in the Senate. We have no Republican support … and I’m not sure that I could get half of the Democrats on that bill,” Sanders said in recent remarks to community health advocates. (Andrews, 7/31)

KFF Health News: Journalists Explore Shortage Of Foster Care Sites And Prevalence Of Covid Misinformation 
KFF Health New correspondent Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez discussed the shortage of foster care homes in rural Nevada on The Nevada Independent’s “The Indy” on July 25. (7/29)

AP: Paperwork Problems Drive Surge In People Losing Medicaid Health Coverage
Though a decline in Medicaid coverage was expected, health officials are raising concerns about the large numbers of people being dropped from the rolls for failing to return forms or follow procedures. In 18 states that began a post-pandemic review of their Medicaid rolls in April, health coverage was continued for about 1 million recipients and terminated for 715,000. Of those dropped, 4 in 5 were for procedural reasons, according to newly released data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Lieb, 7/28)

The Washington Post: Nearly 4 Million In U.S. Cut From Medicaid, Most For Paperwork Reasons 
Most of those people have been dropped from Medicaid for reasons unrelated to whether they actually are eligible for the coverage, according to KFF, a health-policy organization, which has been compiling this data. Three-fourths have been removed because of bureaucratic factors. Such “procedural” cutoffs — prompted by renewal notices not arriving at the right addresses, beneficiaries not understanding the notices, or an assortment of state agencies’ mistakes and logjams — were a peril against which federal health officials had cautioned for many months as they coached states in advance on how best to carry out the unwinding. (Goldstein, 7/28)

Reuters: Centene Aims To Enroll Back Some Lost Medicaid Members 
Centene Corp said on Friday it was working to enroll people back into government-backed Medicaid plans after the end of pandemic-relief measures left hundreds of thousands of members without coverage. Medicaid memberships, the largest contributor to Centene's revenue, were hit by the removal of pandemic-related relief measures on April 1 that rendered several members ineligible for insurance coverage. (Sunny and Leo, 7/28)

Houston Chronicle: HHS Sec. Becerra's Houston Visit Highlights Medicaid Coverage Struggle
Vanessa Tovar knows how to navigate the Medicaid renewal process, but the long wait times and cumbersome phone calls still take an emotional toll on the single mother of two. She said she can’t imagine what the process is like for people who are less tech-savvy. “I feel like every time it’s time to renew, I’m like ‘Oh Lord, just let me get this,’” the Houston woman said Friday to a crowd of community health leaders at Hope Health & Wellness Center. (Gill, 7/28)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Hospice Payment Final Rule Boosts Medicare Fees For 2024
Hospice providers will receive a 3.1% Medicare payment increase next fiscal year under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Friday. That's higher than the 2.8% reimbursement increase CMS proposed in a draft regulation published in March. The final rate for fiscal 2024 is the product of a 3.3% market basket increase adjusted for productivity. Beginning next year, hospice providers that fail to meet quality reporting requirements will be subject to a four-percentage-point penalty. The final rule raises the aggregate amount hospices can be paid per patient per year by 3.1% to $33,491. (Eastabrook, 7/28)

NPR: Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Raise The Question: What's A Fair Price?
Drugmakers around the globe are bracing for a major shakeup in how one of their largest customers does business. On Sept. 1, Medicare will target its first 10 drugs for historic price negotiations. The medications are sure to be among the country's costliest and will likely include common treatments for cancer and diabetes. (Walker and Gorenstein, 7/28)

Stat: House GOP Plan To Stem Drug Shortages Differs From Democrats’
House Republicans have drafted drug-shortage legislation that differs significantly from the approach Democrats propose to stem shortages of chemotherapies and other critical medicines that hospitals typically use. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are focused on what they say are the underlying economic reasons for shortages. Hospitals band together to negotiate drug prices, and makers of generic injectables say those group purchasing organizations can drive prices down so low that they stop making certain drugs or can’t afford to maintain manufacturing facilities, which then leads to manufacturing interruptions. (Wilkerson, 7/28)

Roll Call: Senate Sends Organ Transplant Bill To Biden's Desk
Days after it was passed by the House, the Senate cleared legislation Thursday evening that aims to overhaul the organ transplant system in the United States. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. The bill would give the Department of Health and Human Services the authority to expand competition for contracts related to the operation of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which matches donor organs with patients waiting for transplants. (Hellmann, 7/28)

Reuters: US FDA Approves Second Over-The-Counter Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the prescription-free sale of the second opioid overdose reversal drug, its manufacturer Harm Reduction Therapeutics said on Friday. The approval of the drug, called RiVive, will provide patients with another over-the-counter option in the United States, where drug-related overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in 2021. (7/28)

Reuters: US Asks Supreme Court To Delay Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Settlement
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Purdue Pharma from proceeding with a bankruptcy settlement that protects its Sackler family owners from lawsuits. An appeals court rejected a proposed delay earlier this week, ruling that Purdue may proceed with a bankruptcy plan that was approved in May. Purdue's bankruptcy plan would shield its owners from opioid lawsuits in exchange for a $6 billion contribution to the company's broader bankruptcy settlement. (Knauth, 7/28)

Axios: A Possible New Way To Prevent Fentanyl Overdoses: Monoclonal Antibodies
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday gave a North Carolina biotech company the go-ahead to test if a monoclonal antibody can prevent people from overdosing on fentanyl. The synthetic opiate is becoming a leading cause of death for people under 50. Naloxone is currently the most widely used drug to reverse an overdose, but researchers are looking at other treatments, including an experimental vaccine. (Moreno, 7/28)

NPR: CDC Says Summer COVID Wave May Have Begun
Yet another summer COVID-19 wave may have started in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."After roughly six, seven months of steady declines, things are starting to tick back up again," Dr. Brendan Jackson, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, tells NPR. The amount of coronavirus being detected in wastewater, the percentage of people testing positive for the virus and the number of people seeking care for COVID-19 at emergency rooms all started increasing in early July, Jackson says. (Stein, 7/28)

CNBC: Covid Vaccine: What Uptake Of New Shots Could Look Like
A new round of Covid vaccines is coming to the U.S. this fall — but many Americans may not roll up their sleeves and take one. That’s largely because pandemic fatigue, the belief that Covid is “over” and confusion over personal risk levels could deter some people from getting an additional shot, experts in public health and health policy told CNBC. (Constantino, 7/29)

AP: 3 North Carolina Residents Killed By Vibrio Bacteria That Can Be Found In Brackish Water 
Three North Carolina residents died this month from infections from bacteria naturally found in warm seawater and brackish water, state health officials said Friday. (7/28)

NBC News: Georgia Resident Dies From Rare Brain-Eating Amoeba
A Georgia resident has died from a rare brain-eating amoeba after they were likely infected while swimming in a freshwater lake or pond, officials said. The resident, who has not yet been identified, died after being exposed to Naegleria fowleri, which can cause a rare infection that "destroys brain tissue, causing brain swelling and usually death," the Georgia Department of Public Health said in a news release Friday. (Da Silva, 7/31)

The Washington Post: What To Know About Brain-Eating Amoeba, Symptoms And How To Avoid It
As Americans find ways to cope with an unusually sweltering summer, many of them have taken to bodies of water to cool off. But at least two people who ventured to freshwater swimming holes this summer have died after contracting an amoeba that devours brain tissue. A man died after he was infected by the amoeba, whose scientific name is Naegleria fowleri, the Georgia Department of Public Health said Friday. Earlier this month, Nevada public health officials said a boy died of the same infection after he probably came into contact with the amoeba at Ash Springs, a hot springs about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. (Pietsch, 7/31)

The 19th: Kamala Harris Returns To Iowa To Defend Abortion Access
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Iowa’s capital city Friday to defend abortion access, her second such visit to the ruby-red state this year. The political significance was palpable. Friday marked exactly two weeks since the state’s Republican governor signed into law a six-week abortion ban that was quickly put on legal hold. Harris’ visit also fell on the same day that the major Republican candidates for president — many of whom support more abortion restrictions — were scheduled to speak at a party fundraiser just a few miles away. (Rodriguez, 7/28)

AP: Judge Allows Suit Alleging That Hospital Ignored Parents And Performed Fetal Autopsy Without Consent 
A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that a Delaware hospital system performed an autopsy on a 16-week-old fetus despite the parents refusing to give their consent. Superior Court Judge Patricia Winston denied a motion this week by Christiana Care Health Services and Christiana Care Health System to dismiss a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress filed by Maryland residents Meredith and Brandon Boas. (Chase, 7/28)

Stat: Biogen To Acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals In $7 Billion Deal
Biogen on Friday said it would acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals, the maker of an approved therapy for a rare neurological condition, in a deal worth $7.3 billion. The transaction price of $172.50 per share is a nearly 60% premium from Reata’s share price at Thursday’s close. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. (Joseph and Feuerstein, 7/28)

Stat: What AstraZeneca-Pfizer Deal Means For Early-Stage Gene Therapy
AstraZeneca said Friday it will buy up a group of early-stage gene therapies from Pfizer, bucking a trend of drugmakers axing programs and exiting a field that had once captured the imagination — and checkbooks — of many pharmaceutical executives. AstraZeneca will pay Pfizer up to $1 billion plus royalties for the portfolio of treatments, none of which has entered clinical trials yet. The companies did not say how much it is paying upfront. (Mast, 7/28)

USA Today: Antibiotics Can (And Will) Stop Working. Is Modern Medicine Ready?
In some ways, Melanie Lawrence is living a future that awaits us all. She's resistant to nearly every antibiotic and allergic or intolerant to the rest. Now when she gets an infection, which she does every few months, she has to hope her immune system can fight it without much help from modern medicine. Despite more than a century of antibiotic research and development, the world is quickly running out of these lifesaving drugs. (Weintraub and Rodriguez, 7/23)

Modern Healthcare: Centene CEO Sarah London: Medicare Advantage Star Ratings May Drop
Centene’s standing in the Medicare Advantage market may further deteriorate as the company anticipates losing its sole four-star quality rating, CEO Sarah London told investors Friday. The insurer reported the greatest drop in star ratings among Medicare Advantage carriers last year after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid resumed stringent reviews it had paused during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Insurers strive to achieve at least four out of five stars in order to qualify for the biggest bonuses, which they use to offer supplemental benefits and zero-premium plans. (Tepper, 7/28)

AP: Merger Talks End Between Large Health Care Systems In Minnesota, South Dakota
A merger that would have created one of the largest health service companies in the Upper Midwest has been scrapped. Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services and Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Sanford Health announced Thursday that they would not proceed with the merger they had been discussing since late last year. It would have created a system with more than 50 hospitals and about 78,000 employees. (7/28)

AP: Legal Approval Puts Takeover Of Augusta University Hospitals A Step Closer 
A plan for an Atlanta-area hospital system to take over Augusta University’s hospitals complies with state law and may proceed, Georgia’s attorney general ruled Thursday. Marietta-based Wellstar Health System would take over the 478-bed Augusta University Medical Center and 154-bed Children’s Hospital of Georgia, as well as the rights to build a 100-bed hospital in Grovetown, in the growing Columbia County suburbs of Augusta. (Amy, 7/28)

The Washington Post: How A Renowned Fertility Doctor Profits From An Unproven Supplement
Older women struggling to conceive often find hope in an over-the-counter steroid hormone supplement called DHEA. Though evidence for its effectiveness is weak, DHEA has rocketed to prominence as a fertility booster thanks largely to one man: Norbert Gleicher. Gleicher, 74, is among a small cadre of prominent fertility doctors. He said in an interview that he identified “the aging ovary as the issue of the future” more than two decades ago. His small clinic in a neo-Georgian townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side has become a beacon for women in their 40s trying to conceive with their own eggs — a statistical long shot. (Torbati, 7/30)

Stat: MIT Professor Designs An Ultrasound Bra To Detect Breast Cancer
Canan Dagdeviren has dedicated her career to creating tools that can capture data from every nook and cranny of the human body. An electrode that reads brain signals in Parkinson’s patients. A tattoo-like patch to detect skin cancer. And now, a bra containing a flexible ultrasound that could one day be used to more comfortably screen for breast cancer. (Lawrence, 7/28)

The Washington Post: Alzheimer's, Dementia Patients End Up In ERs More Often, Study Says 
Older people with dementia seek care in the emergency room twice as often as their peers, a new analysis suggests — leading to what researchers call “potentially avoidable and harmful visits” for some patients. The study, published July 24 in JAMA Neurology, examined data from the 2016-2019 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which collects demographic and other information about a nationally representative sample of ER visits. About 1.4 million of the annual 20.4 million ER visits among adults over 65 involved patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, researchers found. (Blakemore, 7/30)

CNN: Just One Drink A Day Can Raise Blood Pressure, Study Says
As little as one alcoholic drink a day increased systolic blood pressure — the top number in a blood pressure reading — even in men and women with no existing hypertension, a new study found. “We found no beneficial effects in adults who drank a low level of alcohol compared to those who did not drink alcohol,” said senior study author Dr. Marco Vinceti, a professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, in a statement. (LaMotte, 7/31)

NBC News: More Women In The U.S. Are Drinking Themselves To Death, Research Finds
Deaths related to excessive alcohol consumption are rapidly rising in the United States, especially among women, a new study finds. While drinking is still killing more men than women, the rate of alcohol-related deaths is rising faster among women, according to the report published Friday in JAMA Network Open. “The gender gap is narrowing,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Ibraheem Karaye, a professor of population health and director of the health science program at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. (Carroll, 7/28)

NBC News: Mosquitoes That Carry West Nile Are Becoming Resistant To Insecticides, CDC Says
John VanDenBerg suspects he was gardening when a mosquito got him. It was September 2018, and VanDenBerg, then 67, had been feeling a little "off" for a few days, he said, like maybe he had the flu. But one morning, as he was walking out of his Colorado home, he collapsed. "I just went down," VanDenBerg said. "That's the last I remember for quite some time." VanDenBerg had a severe form of West Nile virus, caused by a single mosquito bite. (Edwards, 7/29)

The Boston Globe: Can You Cure Lyme Disease? A Cancer Drug May Provide Treatment
A type of drug used to treat some cancers could be effective in halting the symptoms of tick-borne Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that affects nearly half a million Americans each year, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (Fox, 7/28)

Stat: As Wildfires Burn, Scientists Race To Understand The Health Dangers Of Prolonged Exposure
More than 120 million Americans — one-third of the U.S. population — have been living under air quality alerts this summer, with citizens in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit at times experiencing some of the unhealthiest air in the world. The hazy conditions, fed by an unprecedented surge in Canadian wildfires likely fueled by climate change, has grounded planes, canceled outdoor sporting events, and filled emergency rooms with asthma patients. (Molteni, 7/31)

NBC News: New Jersey Woman Posed As A Doctor For More Than A Year And Wrote Prescriptions, Prosecutors Say
A New Jersey woman who posed as a doctor, treated patients and prescribed medications has been arrested, prosecutors in Ocean County said Thursday. Toms River resident Maria F. Macburnie, 62, also known as Marife L. Macburnie, was charged with practicing medicine without a license, forgery, health care fraud, and distributing a dangerous substance, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. (Romero, 7/29)

AP: What To Know As Recreational Marijuana Becomes Legal In Minnesota On Aug. 1 
Minnesotans can legally possess and grow their own marijuana for recreational purposes starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, subject to limits meant to keep a lid on things while the state sets up a full-blown legal cannabis industry. The Democratic-controlled Minnesota Legislature approved a massive legalization bill and Democrat Gov. Tim Walz signed it in May. (Karnowski, 7/28)

Axios: Few In Georgia Know 988 Exists
Only about 16% of Georgia residents have a complete understanding of the national suicide prevention hotline a year after it launched, according to a new survey conducted by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. The survey, which was conducted in May, shows 31% of respondents were aware of the 9-8-8 number while 54% "correctly understood its role as the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline," the agency said Tuesday. (Dixon and Moreno, 7/28)

The Mercury News: A Virginia Man Won Right To Keep Emotional Support Emu Is Running For Office
Nicholas Olenik has battled mental health challenges throughout his life. As a sometimes anxious child, it took longer for him to process emotions. Four years ago, the 41-year-old fell into a depression when his brother died from a heart attack. The dark days of the pandemic, and his father’s battle with — and later death from — cancer in 2021 only made things worse. So last year, after a buddy told him about emus and how they can be a great emotional support companion, Olenik decided to give it a try. (Harper, 7/29)

NPR: Trader Joe's Says Its Falafel And Two Types Of Cookies Could Have Rocks In Them
Trader Joe's has recalled its frozen falafel for potentially having rocks in it, after it recalled two of its cookie products for the same reason recently. The company's supplier informed them of the concern, and Trader Joe's said in a statement Friday that "all potentially affected product has been removed from sale and destroyed." (Archie, 7/29)