First Edition: July 7, 2022

KHN: Gun Safety ‘Wrapped In A Mental Health Bill’: A Look At Health Provisions In The New Law
The gun safety law forged through tense bipartisan talks in the Senate last month has been heralded as the first federal legislation in 30 years to combat rising gun violence. But what often falls below the radar is the new law’s focus on improving mental health services. News coverage has largely centered on the law’s provisions to enhance background checks for younger buyers, encourage states to implement their own “red flag laws,” and close the “boyfriend loophole.” Less attention has been paid to the mental health programs that most of the estimated $13 billion is earmarked for. (Knight, 7/7)

KHN: Seeking To Kick-Start Biden’s Agenda, Schumer Unveils A Bill For Medicare Drug Price Negotiations 
Democratic senators on Wednesday took a formal step toward reviving President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, starting with a measure to let Medicare negotiate prices with drugmakers and to curb rising drug costs more broadly. A similar proposal died in December when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) decided to oppose Biden’s $1.9 trillion Build Back Better bill, which also included provisions allowing for Medicare drug negotiations. (McAuliff, 7/7)

KHN: Feds Want A Policy That Advocates Say Would Let Hospitals Off The Hook For Covid-Era Lapses 
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is responding to the chaos of the covid-19 pandemic by proposing to hide from the public a rating that lets consumers compare hospitals’ safety records and to waive approximately $350 million in financial penalties for roughly 750 hospitals with the worst patient-safety track records. CMS’ chief medical officer, Dr. Lee Fleisher, said those safety metrics were not designed to properly account for how a pandemic, with its patient surges and workforce shortages, might affect hospital systems. (Weber, 7/7)

KHN: Montana Clinics That Provide Abortions Preemptively Restrict Pill Access For Out-Of-State Patients
The four states bordering Montana have “trigger laws” in effect or pending now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ended federal protections for abortion, making conservative Big Sky Country an unlikely haven for women seeking to end their pregnancies. But Montana’s potential to become an abortion refuge has been diminished — not by the lawmakers and governor whose attempts to restrict abortions have been stymied by the state constitution’s right to privacy, but by the operators of at least four of the state’s five clinics, which are preemptively limiting who can receive abortion pills. (Houghton and Zionts, 7/7)

ABC News: North Carolina Governor Signs Executive Order To Protect Abortion Rights In The State
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order to strengthen access to reproductive health care in the state on Wednesday. The order takes several steps to defend the existing services in North Carolina, including to state that patients who receive abortions or providers who perform abortions will not be penalized or criminalized for providing, receiving or inquiring about reproductive health care services. (Guilfoil, 7/6)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Will Not Cooperate With Abortion Investigations, Polis Declares
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order Wednesday saying the state will protect people who seek abortions and those who provide them, including those in other states. (Fish, 7/6)

AP: Louisiana High Court Leaves Abortion Bans On Hold 
The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected the state attorney general’s request to allow immediate enforcement of state laws against most abortions in a 4-to-2 ruling late Wednesday. The majority said only that the court declined to get involved “at this preliminary stage.” (McConnaughey, 7/7)

AP: Kentucky Abortion Clinics In Court To Block New State Law
Attorneys for Kentucky’s two abortion clinics sought an injunction in court Wednesday to block the state’s near-total ban on the procedure, one of numerous such efforts across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state’s abortion ban last week, and the two clinics, both in Louisville, resumed performing abortions. If granted, the injunction would suspend the state law while the case is litigated. (Lovan, 7/6)

USA Today: Mississippi Abortion Ban Takes Effect As Last Clinic Closes Wednesday
On Wednesday evening, after some of the last patients to receive a legal abortion in Mississippi had left Jackson Women's Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in the state closed its doors. On Thursday, abortion will become illegal in Mississippi, the state with the highest infant mortality and teen birth rates in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Perlis, 7/6)

Stateline: Abortion Rights Hacktivists Strike States With Bans
An abortion rights hacktivist group says it launched cyberattacks against Arkansas and Kentucky state governments and leaked files from their servers to protest their bans on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The group, which calls itself SiegedSec, said it hacked the two states because it was angry about their bans. (Bergal, 7/6)

AP: Large Texas Abortion Provider Will Relocate To New Mexico
Austin-based Whole Woman’s Health began winding down its Texas operations after a ruling Friday by the Texas Supreme Court forced an end to abortions in that state. Now, the provider wants to establish a new clinic in a New Mexico city near the state line to provide first and second trimester abortions. (7/6)

The Hill: House Republicans Weigh National Abortion Restrictions 
House Republicans are weighing what kind of national-level abortion ban legislation to pursue if they win the House majority next year, with a 15-week ban or further on the table. But even as they cheer the Supreme Court overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights bill, GOP congressional leaders have made few promises on specific measures they would pursue. Some Republicans advocate leaving abortion restrictions to the states. (Brooks, 7/7)

The Hill: Pentagon Allows Networks To Access Abortion-Related Websites
The Department of Defense (DOD) said Wednesday that it will allow its networks to access abortion-related websites, permitting military and civilian personnel to access those sites on the agency’s computers. (Williams, 7/6)

NPR: When Patients Induce Abortions At Home, They May Have Questions For Doctors
Unlike in years before Roe v. Wade in 1973, when women sometimes died from seeking unsafe and illegal abortions, Dr. Nisha Verma says patients now have more options. "We know that people can safely manage their own abortions with pills when they have the information and support that they need," Verma said. "We do expect that we will see more people that are self-managing their abortions." (McCammon, 7/7)

The Washington Post: Tip Helped Foil July Fourth Mass Shooting In Richmond, Police Say 
A tip from a concerned citizen helped Richmond police thwart a potential mass shooting targeting the July Fourth celebration in Virginia’s capital, authorities said Wednesday. Officers arrested two men on weapons charges and recovered guns and ammunition in connection with the planned attack, which was to occur at the Dogwood Dell amphitheater, Richmond Police Chief Gerald M. Smith said at a news conference. The motive is still under investigation. (Jouvenal, 7/6)

The New York Times: Highland Park Shooting Reveals Limits Of Illinois’s Gun Restrictions 
Under Illinois law, there are several opportunities for the authorities to intervene if a gun owner is deemed to pose a dangerous risk. This begins with the application process for a gun license, known in Illinois as a Firearm Owner’s Identification card. The application includes a long list of questions about past felony convictions, failed drug tests or recent hospitalizations for mental illness. It is submitted to the State Police, where it goes through dozens of steps, involving electronic and manual checks of national and state databases. At any point in that process, the state could determine that a person is not eligible. However, a vast majority are approved. (Smith, Robertson, Robles and Kovaleski, 7/6)

The Washington Post: How To Stay Safe In A Mass Shooting 
That grim reality of the recent large-scale killings, and the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in many American cities, raises two questions: What to do in the still-unlikely event you find yourself someplace where an armed person has opened fire? And how can you keep from being paralyzed by the possibility of that happening? (Jacobs, 7/6)

Politico: Technical Bug Bungles New York City's Monkeypox Vaccine Rollout
New Yorkers struggled mostly in vain to book appointments for one of the city’s scarce monkeypox vaccines Wednesday in a botched roll-out that the health department is blaming on technological glitches. ... The website was supposed to launch Wednesday afternoon, but some people were able to get access prematurely. It later became inaccessible, and when the city officially opened the portal later in the day, it quickly went down again — prompting frustration, one advocate said. (Eisenberg, 7/6)

AP: Idaho Announces First Probable Monkeypox Case
The first probable case of monkeypox has been announced in Idaho. The Idaho Division of Public Health and Central District Health on Wednesday said it appears this infection was acquired during travel to a country experiencing a monkeypox outbreak. (7/6)

CIDRAP: Global Monkeypox Cases Top 6,000, WHO Says
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the global outbreak of monkeypox has grown to more than 6,000 cases, with 80% in European countries. ... "Testing remains a challenge, and it's highly probable that there are a significant number of cases not being picked up," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned during a speech. (Soucheray, 7/6)

NBC News: Lesions, Headaches, Debilitating Pain: Gay Men With Monkeypox Share Their Stories
“The thought of a full three-week quarantine is pretty scary,” said John, 32, a New York City tech worker who believes he contracted monkeypox from a guy he hooked up with during a recent trip to Los Angeles for the city’s Pride events. “I’m just feeling disappointed and bummed out. It was a bummer to miss celebrating Pride” in New York. (Ryan, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Will Help Overseas Baby-Formula Makers Keep Selling In U.S. Beyond Shortages 
Federal health regulators are devising plans that would let overseas baby formula makers market their products in the U.S. long term beyond the current baby formula shortage. To ease shortages of baby formula, the Food and Drug Administration has been temporarily allowing foreign manufacturers to ship their products to the U.S. (Armour, 7/6)

Bloomberg: Pharmacists Can Prescribe Pfizer’s Covid Pill Under FDA Order
Pharmacists will be permitted to prescribe Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid under a move by US regulators aimed at providing prompt access to the widely used Covid treatment. State-licensed pharmacists can prescribe Paxlovid to eligible patients, subject to certain limitations to assure appropriate treatment, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday in a statement. (Langreth, 7/6)

Stat: Doctors Are Clamoring For More Clarity On Paxlovid Prescribing
Six months after regulators issued an emergency use authorization for Paxlovid, physicians say they still have significant questions about prescribing guidelines for the leading treatment for high-risk Covid patients. (Chen, 7/7)

CIDRAP: Newest Omicron Subvariants Can Evade Boosters, Antibody Therapies
The latest Omicron subvariants behind new COVID-19 surges in the United States and abroad have an enhanced ability to escape immunity conferred by three vaccine doses and all but one antibody therapy tested, finds a laboratory study published yesterday in Nature. ... Relative to BA.2, the BA.2.12.1 subvariant was about 80% more resistant (1.8-fold) after three vaccine doses, but BA.4 and BA.5 were at least 4.2 times more resistant, increasing the likelihood of breakthrough infections. (Van Beusekom, 7/6)

CIDRAP: Fourth Vaccine Dose Protects Against Omicron In Nursing Home Residents
A study in Ontario suggests that, compared with a third dose of mRNA COVID vaccine, a fourth dose improved protection against infection and severe outcomes among long-term care residents during the Omicron wave. The study was published today in The BMJ. (7/6)

CBS News: Yellowstone Is Latest National Park To Add Indoor Mask Mandate Due To Rising COVID Cases
Yellowstone National Park will now require visitors 2 years and older to wear face masks in its indoor facilities, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases. Several other parks have similar restrictions, and the National Park Service has implemented a mask mandate on public transit in all of its parks. (Reardon, 7/6)

AP: Norwegian Cruise Line To Drop Requirement For COVID-19 Test 
Norwegian Cruise Line is dropping a requirement that passengers test negative for COVID-19 before sailing unless it is required by local rules. The company said Wednesday that it will drop the testing requirement Aug. 1 except on ships sailing from places with local testing rules, including in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Greece. (7/6)

AP: Proposed Ohio Amendment Would Limit Vaccine Mandates
A proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would limit vaccine mandates imposed by businesses, health care providers and governments is a step closer to the statewide ballot. The proposal would prohibit those entities from discriminating against people based on vaccination status or mandating any vaccine, medical procedure, treatment or medical device. (Hendrickson, 7/6)

AP: Juul, FDA Suspend Court Case While E-Cigarette Ban On Hold 
The Food and Drug Administration and Juul agreed Wednesday to put their court fight on hold while the government reopens its review of the company’s electronic cigarettes. The agreement comes one day after the FDA placed a hold on its initial order banning Juul’s products from the market, saying that Juul’s application warranted “additional review.” (Perrone, 7/7)

The Washington Post: Pig Heart Recipient Died Of Heart Failure, Study Finds 
Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have concluded that a man who received a first-of-its-kind pig-heart transplant in January died two months later of heart failure. The reasons for the failure remain under investigation. The man, David Bennett, was able to get out of bed, begin rehabilitation and spend time with his family in the weeks after the transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His doctors say that makes the effort a success. (Cohn, 7/6)

AP: State Office Denies Plan To Permanently Close Maternity Ward
Hartford Healthcare said Wednesday it is reviewing its legal options after the state Office of Health Strategy this week denied the health system’s application to permanently close the decades-old maternity ward at Windham Hospital. (7/6)

Crain's Chicago Business: St. Anthony Hospital Can Sue Illinois Over Medicaid Payments
Most of St. Anthony’s patients are on Medicaid, a government-run program for the poor and disabled. The hospital claimed at the time of its original suit that it was in financial distress, losing about 98% of its cash reserves, allegedly because managed care organizations had delayed and reduced Medicaid payments. As of February 2020, St. Anthony said it was missing more than $20 million in payments. (Davis, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Report Hits AbbVie’s Bermuda Tax Structure For U.S. Humira Sales
Illinois-based AbbVie Inc. makes the bulk of its profits from arthritis drug Humira on sales in the U.S., but the company reports almost all its taxable income in foreign subsidiaries, according to a Senate Finance Committee report that criticizes the pharmaceutical company’s use of entities in Bermuda and Puerto Rico to reduce its tax burden. (Rubin, 7/7)

Modern Healthcare: Court Slashes Punitive Damages In Epic-Tata Trade Secrets Suit
The court order filed Friday marks the latest chapter in the electronic health records vendor's legal fight against India-based information-technology services and consulting firm Tata Consultancy Services. In 2016, a jury awarded Epic Systems $940 million, but subsequent court actions have substantially reduced the amount Tata must pay. A federal appeals court previously ruled that punitive damages should not exceed the amount of compensatory damages, which is also $140 million. (Kim Cohen, 7/6)

Stat: Here’s What Democrats Changed In Their Latest Drug Pricing Bill
Senate Democrats have put final tweaks on their drug pricing proposal, as they race to achieve one of their signature domestic policy promises ahead of the midterm elections. (Cohrs, 7/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Voters Will Weigh In On Dialysis Clinics For The Third Time In Four Years. Here’s What’s Different This Time
A nearly identical version of Prop. 29 appeared on the state’s 2020 ballot and failed. Voters also rejected Prop. 8, a related measure, in 2018. All three were filed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), an Oakland-based union that represents medical workers. (Pak, 7/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Will Try Removing Police From Low-Level 911 Calls About Homelessness
San Francisco plans to create a six-month pilot program to have community workers instead of police respond to low-level emergency calls about homelessness — a year after supervisors set aside $3 million for the initiative. But the program is still up to a year away from launching, officials said. (Moench, 7/6)

AP: Rural Florida County Shocked By Fentanyl Deaths Over Holiday
A small, largely rural county west of Florida’s capital experienced an unheard-of spike in deadly drug overdoses believed to be caused by fentanyl over the July 4 weekend, with nine people dying in the latest sign that a national crisis is becoming even more far-reaching. In all of 2021, Gadsden County had just 10 overdoses, Sheriff Morris Young said. He couldn’t recall any being fatal. (Farrington, 7/7)

The New York Times: Parents Sue TikTok, Saying Children Died After Viewing ‘Blackout Challenge’ 
The parents of two girls who said their children died as a result of a “blackout challenge” on TikTok are suing the company, claiming its algorithm intentionally served the children dangerous content that led to their deaths. The girls were 8 and 9 when they died last year after viewing the challenge, which encouraged users to choke themselves until they passed out, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday in Superior Court in Los Angeles County. (Levenson and Rubin, 7/6)

AP: California Woman Fakes Cancer, Forges Notes To Avoid Prison 
One note submitted to the federal judge sentencing a 38-year-old California woman for embezzlement claimed that a biopsy had revealed “cancerous cells” in her uterus. Another indicated that she was undergoing a surgical procedure, and her cancer had spread to the cervix. Yet another letter warned she “cannot be exposed to COVID-19” because of her fragile state. But federal officials say the notes and cancer were all fake, and now Ashleigh Lynn Chavez is headed to prison for three times as long. The court this week added an additional two years to her initial, one-year prison sentence. (7/6)

Axios: Truth Is Good For Health
The average American tells 11 lies a week. Lying less actually improves our mental and physical health. That's according to a recent study by researchers at Notre Dame. (Pandey, 7/7)

AP: UN: 2.3 Billion People Severely Or Moderately Hungry In 2021 
The spike in food, fuel and fertilizer prices sparked by the war in Ukraine is threatening to push countries around the world into famine, bringing “global destabilization, starvation and mass migration on an unprecedented scale,” a top U.N. official warned Wednesday. David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Program, said its latest analysis shows that “a record 345 million acutely hungry people are marching to the brink of starvation” — a 25% increase from 276 million at the start of 2022 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The number stood at 135 million before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. (Lederer, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Doses, Once In High Demand, Now Thrown Away
“We are now throwing doses in the garbage,” Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in May. “It’s sad to say.” ... In some low-income countries, access to doses remains an issue. Some of the countries lacked the healthcare infrastructure to handle and store the shots at low temperatures, while others had difficulty planning and rolling out vaccination campaigns because supplies were unpredictable and lagged behind wealthier countries. (Loftus, 7/6)

The Washington Post: Access To Abortion In Australia Becomes Easier Amid Roe V. Wade
Access to abortion became easier in Australia on Thursday as decriminalization took effect in South Australia state, part of a wave of liberalization that contrasts with recent moves in the United States. For the most part, abortion is not the subject of polarizing national debate Down Under, as it often is in American politics. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade shocked many Australians, leading thousands to attend rallies in support of abortion rights. (Vinall, 7/7)