First Edition: July 31, 2024

KFF Health News: Florida’s RSV Season Has Started, And It’s Coming Soon To The Rest Of US. Here's A Primer
Many people have gotten used to rolling up their sleeves for flu and covid-19 vaccines. New immunizations are also available to combat respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for those at high risk of illness. Although the one-time shots reached pharmacies last year, fewer than a quarter of those 60 or older nationally had been vaccinated as of May. Even in Florida, not many older adults have gotten the shot yet. (Ogozalek, 7/31)

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. (7/30)

The Washington Post: Suicide Rates In Children Have Continued To Climb Across 15 Years, Study Finds
The suicide rate for U.S. children 8 to 12 years old has steadily climbed in the past decade and a half, with a disproportionate rise among girls, data released Tuesday by the National Institute of Mental Health shows. The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, highlight pervasive issues regarding mental health that affect U.S. children daily, the study authors said. (Malhi, 7/30)

CNN: Most Young People Who Die By Suicide In The US Do Not Have Previous Mental Health Diagnoses, Study Suggests
Suicide is a leading cause of death among young people in the United States, and new research suggests that the majority of young people who have died by suicide did not have a documented mental health diagnosis in their medical history. (Howard, 7/30)

CBS News: Nearly A Third Of Adolescents Getting Mental Health Treatment, Federal Survey Finds
Close to 1 in 3 adolescents in the U.S. received mental health treatment in 2023, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported Tuesday, which works out to around 8.3 million young people between the ages of 12 and 17 getting counseling, medication or another treatment. The result is among the findings now released from SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2023. The federal agency's sweeping annual poll is closely tracked by mental health and addiction experts. (Tin, 7/30)

WUFT: Study: PTSD Among College Students Jumps, Especially During COVID Shutdowns
College has always been a stressful time for some students, and mental health conditions have been on the rise at many campuses. But researchers said they had no idea it was this bad. Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses among college students more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, rising most sharply as the COVID-19 pandemic closed campuses, according to a recent study. (Anderson, 7/30)

The Guardian: More US Women Have Tried To Induce Their Own Abortion Since Fall Of Roe: Report
Roughly 7% of w​​omen of reproductive age in the US have attempted to induce their own abortions outside the formal healthcare system, a new study has found, up from 5% before Roe v Wade fell in 2022. The study, published on Tuesday in the Jama medical journal, determined how many people reported ever “self-managing” their own abortion in 2021 and again in 2023 – a timeline that allowed researchers to examine how Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the supreme court case that overturned Roe, has affected self-managed abortions. People of color and LGBTQ+ people were more likely to report having ever attempted to end their own pregnancies. (Sherman, 7/30)

Reuters: Kansas Hospital Sued For Refusing Emergency Abortion 
A Kansas woman on Tuesday sued the University of Kansas Health System for refusing to give her a medically necessary abortion in 2022, accusing the hospital of violating a federal law on emergency room treatment. Mylissa Farmer's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Kansas City, appeared to be the first case against a hospital under the federal law for witholding an abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 ruling ending the longstanding nationwide right to abortion. (Pierson, 7/30)

The Hill: Florida's Abortion Protection Amendment Leads Poll
Florida’s ballot initiative to protect abortion is winning and has more support among voters than either Vice President Harris or Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a new poll shows. According to the poll from University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL), 69 percent of respondents said they would vote for Amendment 4, which would prohibit laws from restricting or banning abortion until fetal viability. (Weixel, 7/30)

Politico: States Break Out New Tactics To Thwart Abortion Ballot Measures
Former President Donald Trump and much of the GOP insist abortion be left to “the will of the people” at the state level. Anti-abortion groups and Republican state officials are working to make sure that doesn’t happen. In nearly every state where the question of abortion rights could be put to a popular vote this November, conservatives are deploying several strategies — from suing to have signatures thrown out in Montana and South Dakota to refusing to count signatures in Arkansas — as they attempt to block ballot initiatives that would restore or expand access to the procedure. (Ollstein, 7/31)

Axios: Abortion Fights Spark Major Spending In Battleground States
Tens of millions of dollars are fueling ads across platforms to push abortion rights measures that are expected to be on the ballot in Arizona, Nevada and Montana this year, according to AdImpact data. Why it matters: Those same states could determine the next president and control of the Senate. Democrats hope having abortion on the ballot will keep the focus on their most potent issue — and turn out much-needed voters. (Kight, 7/30)

The Hill: Project 2025 Director Steps Down Amid Trump Campaign Criticism
The director of the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, Paul Dans, is departing from the role, the conservative think tank’s president, Kevin Roberts, said Tuesday. “When we began Project 2025 in April 2022, we set a timeline for the project to conclude its policy drafting after the two party conventions this year, and we are sticking to that timeline,” Roberts said in a statement. ... The project, made up of a coalition of more conservative organizations and many Trump allies, includes a 900-page hard-right policy blueprint intended to guide the next conservative administration and a bank of individuals who could staff it. Trump and his campaign have distanced themselves from Project 2025, which takes a farther right stance on some issues than Trump does. (Brooks, 7/30)

Mother Jones: Here’s How The GOP Platform Could Lead To A Nationwide Abortion Ban 
In drafting their platform, the GOP claimed the party does not plan to ban abortion nationwide (maybe because they know it is extremely politically unpopular). But the latest person to say that position is not, exactly, true is Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, an influential anti-abortion advocacy group. In an interview published Monday, Hawkins told the New York Times that, contrary to some mainstream headlines, the latest GOP platform does not represent a “softening” on abortion. (McShane, 7/30)

Stat: Predicting The Key Players In Shaping Health Policy Under Trump 
A second Trump administration would bring a new wave of health policy officials into power in Washington. But many of those faces may be familiar. (Owermohle and Zhang, 7/31)

Politico: Harris To Hold First Rally With Running Mate Tuesday In Philadelphia
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday, when she will hold her first rally with her pick in Philadelphia. The two will barnstorm cities in seven swing states in four days. In addition to Philadelphia, they’ll hit western Wisconsin, Detroit, Raleigh, Savannah, Phoenix and Las Vegas. (Otterbein and Daniels, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Senate Passes Landmark Bills To Protect Kids Online, Raising Pressure On House
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a pair of bills to expand online privacy and safety protections for children on Tuesday, delivering a major win for parent and youth activists who have clamored for action against tech companies they say are endangering the well-being of kids. The legislation, approved 91-3, would force digital platforms to take “reasonable” steps to prevent harms to children such as bullying, drug addiction and sexual exploitation, and it would broaden existing federal privacy protections to include kids and teens 16 years old and younger. (Lima-Strong, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Congress Will Probably Have To Punt To Keep The Government Open In October 
Lawmakers in Congress haven’t left themselves much choice if they want to fund the government and prevent a government shutdown in a few months: They’ll need to kick the can down the road. The House left Washington last week, and the Senate will soon follow, with scant progress made toward passing the 12 annual spending bills, or appropriations, that keep vital agencies and government programs running. Current federal financing expires Sept. 30, the end of the 2024 fiscal year. (Bogage, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Exclusive: Meta Has Run Hundreds Of Ads For Cocaine, Opioids And Other Drugs
Meta Platforms is running ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs, months after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the social-media giant was facing a federal investigation over the practice. The company has continued to collect revenue from ads that violate its policies, which ban promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs. A review by The Wall Street Journal in July found dozens of ads marketing illegal substances such as cocaine and prescription opioids, including as recently as Friday. A separate analysis over recent months by an industry watchdog group found hundreds of such ads. (Rodriguez, 7/31)

The Washington Post: Biden Urges Congress To Get Tougher On Fentanyl Traffickers 
The White House on Wednesday backed proposals to permanently stiffen penalties on synthetic drug traffickers, monitor machines used to make fentanyl pills and close a loophole that allows criminal groups to easily ship drugs in packages. President Biden announced the initiatives as state and federal officials from both political parties grapple with how to curb a drug epidemic that has killed more than 300,000 people during his administration. (Ovalle, 7/31)

Stat: Groups Urge Biden Administration To Push For Addiction Medication
The Biden administration isn’t doing enough to ensure people living in recovery housing have access to gold-standard addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine, according to a coalition of health care, harm reduction, and addiction recovery groups. (Facher, 7/31)

Stat: 48 Million Americans Estimated To Have Substance Use Problem 
Rates of mental illness and substance use remained largely stable in 2023, according to federal data, underscoring the severity of the long-running U.S. mental health crisis and worst-in-the-world rates of illicit drug use. (Facher, 7/30)

CIDRAP: CDC Urges Livestock Workers Get Seasonal Flu Vaccine To Cut Pandemic Risk
A top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced a $5 million plan to offer seasonal flu vaccine to livestock workers, mostly to protect their health but also to reduce the chance of human flu viruses mixing with H5N1 avian flu viruses, which would pose a new pandemic flu threat. The announcement follows a recent flurry of H5 avian flu infections in Colorado poultry cullers and sporadic infections in workers exposed to dairy cows infected with H5N1 and comes ahead of the upcoming flu season.  (Schnirring, 7/30)

USA Today: CDC: Seasonal Flu Shots Best Tool To Prevent Bird Flu
Health officials believe the seasonal flu vaccine is better suited to prevent a bird flu pandemic right now than a dedicated H5N1 vaccine would be, though the first doses of a bird flu-specific vaccine rolled off an assembly line in North Carolina last week. The bird flu virus hasn’t caused severe disease in any of the workers, hasn't been transmitted without symptoms and hasn't developed the ability to jump from person to person, said Shah, of CDC. (Cuevas, 7/30)

Modern Healthcare: Hospice To See Medicare Pay Increase In 2025
Medicare reimbursements for hospice providers will increase 2.9% in fiscal 2025 under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Tuesday. That's higher than the 2.6% payment update CMS proposed in March and comprises a 3.4% increase in the market basket minus a 0.5 percentage point productivity adjustment. Hospice providers that do not report quality data will receive a 1.1% reimbursement cut. (Young, 7/30)

Modern Healthcare: CHS To Sell 3 Pennsylvania Hospitals To WoodBridge Healthcare
Community Health Systems is selling its three Pennsylvania hospitals to WoodBridge Healthcare for $120 million. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes 186-bed Regional Hospital of Scranton, 122-bed Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton and 369-bed Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, for-profit CHS said Tuesday in a news release. Related facilities such as ambulatory surgery centers, emergency departments and outpatient rehabilitation sites are included in the sale. (Hudson, 7/30)

Modern Healthcare: How Talkiatry, Others Landed In-Network Status At Magellan Health
Virtual care providers, particularly those providing behavioral health services, face stiff competition in their quest to become an in-network partner. Just how stiff? Ask Chris Daher, vice president of network development and provider relations at Magellan Health. Daher helps the managed care company vet potential behavioral health virtual providers and neither he nor the company takes the easy route. Magellan manages the behavioral health coverage for Blue Shield of California, the third-largest insurer in a state of 39 million people. (Perna, 7/30)

The Boston Globe: As ‘Pharmacy Deserts’ Spread, Federal Discount Drug Program Faces Pushback
Since the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center opened its own pharmacy more than a year ago, the facility has acted as an oasis for a community that sorely lacks drug stores. As CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid closed hundreds of stores across the state in recent years, nonprofit community pharmacies like the one in Brockton — and others in Dorchester, South Boston, and Roxbury — have stepped up to fill the void. (Lee, Kohli and Woodard, 7/30)

Stat: Animal Rights Victory In NIH Lawsuit Ruling
In a boost for animal rights advocates, a U.S. appeals court ruled that a National Institutes of Health policy for monitoring comments posted to its online forums violated the First Amendment because the agency made a point of removing remarks about animal testing. (Silverman, 7/30)

The Washington Post: D.C. Police Detain One Of Four Teens Who Escaped A Psychiatric Facility
Authorities have apprehended one of four missing youths who escaped an acute psychiatric care facility in upper Northwest Washington earlier this month by overpowering at least one employee and stealing a badge and keys, according to D.C. police and other officials. Police have not said how they found the 15-year-old, or where he is detained. Still missing are 14- and 16-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl. Two of the four youths who escaped are charged in a carjacking. Two are alleged to have committed nonviolent offenses. All were ordered to receive mental health care after they were arrested and evaluated. (Hermann, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Long Waits For Home Care Persist In California Despite Expansion
Lyla Abuebaid needs to check on her 5-year-old son through the night to make sure he keeps breathing. ... She is among thousands of Californians who have been trying to get Medicaid benefits for services to help medically vulnerable people remain at home through the Home and Community-Based Alternatives waiver. Demand for the HCBA waiver, which helps people who might otherwise have to live in nursing facilities, has far outstripped the available spots. (Alpert Reyes, 7/30)

CBS News: Report: Florida Leads Nation In Hospital Visits For Heat-Related Illnesses
One of the reasons people come to Florida is because of the weather and year-round sunshine. According to a new report, Florida is leading the country in hospital visits for heat-related illnesses. ... According to the Florida Policy Institute, the state saw more than 26,000 emergency room visits between 2018 and 2022. Dr. Jason Mansour at Broward Health says people going to the hospital due to the heat are people working outside, athletes and the vulnerable population, which includes kids and elderly. (Carrero, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Shingles Vaccine Linked With Lower Risk Of Dementia, Study Shows 
The shingles vaccine, recommended for people 50 and older to fight the painful viral infection, might also decrease the chances of developing dementia, according to data presented at a medical conference Tuesday. The study, which looked at the health records of hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, shows that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia in the five years following vaccination compared with a control group of people who received a vaccine for a different illness. (Cohen, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: The Blood Tests That Could Assess Heart Disease Risk Better Than Traditional Ones
Two blood tests you probably haven’t heard of might predict your risk of heart disease better than standard tests do. The first measures a protein called apolipoprotein B, or apoB for short, that contributes to artery-blocking plaque. The other test, for lipoprotein(a), measures a type of bad cholesterol. High levels of each have been linked to increased risk of heart disease. (Janin, 7/30)

Roll Call: SAMHSA Finds Increase In Nicotine Vaping, Treatment Uptake 
Almost 23 percent of adults reported having any mental disorder last year, according to a report released Tuesday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. That number, and several others included in the results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2023, showed that incidence of mental health and substance use issues have largely remained stable since 2021. (Raman, 7/30)

AP: Boar’s Head Expands Recall To Include 7 Million More Pounds Of Deli Meats Tied To Listeria Outbreak
The popular deli meat company Boar’s Head is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as an investigation into a deadly outbreak of listeria food poisoning continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday. The new recall includes 71 products made between May 10 and July 29 under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. It follows an earlier recall of more than 200,000 pounds of sliced deli poultry and meat. The new items include meat intended to be sliced at delis as well as some packaged meat and poultry products sold in stores. (Aleccia, 7/30)

CNN: Organic And Regular Dark Chocolate Contaminated By Lead And Cadmium, Study Finds
Dark chocolate and similar cocoa products are contaminated with lead and cadmium, two neurotoxic metals that are linked to cancer, chronic disease, or reproductive and developmental issues, especially in children, a new study found. (LaMotte, 7/31)

Reuters: US Agency Puts Onus On Amazon For Sale Of Hazardous Third-Party Products
Amazon.com is responsible for the sale of hazardous third-party products on its platform, a U.S. government agency said, ordering the e-commerce giant to propose steps to inform consumers and encourage them to return or destroy the products. The directive from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) covers more than 400,000 products, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection and children's sleepwear that violated flammability standards. (Sophia, 7/30)