First Edition: June 22, 2023

KFF Health News: Black, Rural Southern Women At Gravest Risk From Pregnancy Miss Out On Maternal Health Aid
As maternal mortality skyrockets in the United States, a federal program created to improve rural maternity care has bypassed Black mothers, who are at the highest risk of complications and death related to pregnancy. The grant-funded initiative, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, began rolling out four years ago and, so far, has budgeted nearly $32 million to provide access and care for thousands of mothers and babies nationwide — for instance, Hispanic women along the Rio Grande or Indigenous mothers in Minnesota. (Tribble, 6/22)

Stat: PBMs Criticized As Pushing Small Pharmacies Out Of Business
Drug middlemen once again were on the hot seat at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. The hearing by the House Education and Workforce health subcommittee was about consolidation in the hospital and health insurance sectors. No hospital or insurance company representatives testified, but JC Scott, president of the pharmacy benefit manager lobbying group Pharmaceutical Care Management Association was tapped as a witness. (Wilkerson, 6/21)

Politico: Federal Judge Knocks Down Florida's Medicaid Ban On Gender-Affirming Treatment 
A federal judge struck down Florida’s prohibition on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care, the second decision to upend restrictions put into place at the urging of Gov. Ron DeSantis. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Wednesday ruled against the ban by using some of the same conclusions and language that he used in another recent decision where he determined three Florida transgender minors could receive “puberty blockers” and other types of gender-affirming care despite a state-enacted prohibition on such treatment for those under the age of 18. In both rulings, Hinkle has stated that “gender identity is real. The record makes this clear.” (Fineout, 6/21)

AP: Judge To Weigh Suspending Wyoming's First-In-The-Nation Ban On Abortion Pills
Wyoming’s first-in-the-nation ban on abortion pills will come before a state judge Thursday as the court considers whether the prohibition should take effect as planned July 1 or be put on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit. While other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion, Wyoming in March became the first U.S. state to specifically ban abortion pills. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that access to one of the two pills, mifepristone, may continue while litigants seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of it. (Gruver, 6/22)

Reuters: Challenge To Abortion Clinic 'Buffer Zone' Law Rejected By US Court 
A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a New York county's law barring anti-abortion activists from approaching people outside abortion clinics, teeing up potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Wiessner, 6/21)

Axios: Becerra To Travel To Missouri-Illinois Clinics To Mark Dobbs Anniversary
The nation's top health official plans to visit two Planned Parenthood clinics on opposite sides of the Missouri-Illinois border Friday morning to highlight the differences that have occurred in each state since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, an HHS spokesperson tells Axios. (Reed, 6/21)

NPR: Googling 'Abortion Clinic Near Me'? The Top Result Is Often An Anti-Abortion Clinic
When people are looking for abortion services, they often turn to Google, searching a phrase like "abortion clinic near me" or "planned parenthood." Yet the ads they'll see at the top of the Google search results are often not abortion providers at all, but instead misleading ads for anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" — facilities that use various tactics to dissuade or delay pregnant people from getting an abortion. (Wamsley, 6/22)

The Washington Post: Effects Of Dobbs On Maternal Health Care Overwhelmingly Negative, Survey Shows
Sweeping restrictions and even outright abortion bans adopted by states in the year since the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling have had an overwhelmingly negative effect on maternal health care, according to a survey of OBGYNs released Wednesday that provides one of the clearest views yet of how the U.S. Supreme Court decision has affected women’s health care in the United States. The poll by the health research nonprofit KFF reveals that the Dobbs ruling — which ended federal protection on the right to abortion — affected maternal mortality and how pregnancy-related medical emergencies are managed, precipitated a rise in requests for sterilization and has done much more than restrict abortion access. Many OBGYNs said it has also made their jobs more difficult and legally perilous than before, while leading to worse outcomes for patients. (Bellware and Guskin, 6/21)

The New York Times: The U.S. Population Is Older Than It Has Ever Been 
The median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. It’s a rapid rise. In 2000, the median age was 35, and in 1980, the median was 30. While many 38-year-old millennials may still feel young, that age is an unusually high median for the country. (Goldstein, 6/22)

CNN: Report Finds Nationwide Spike In Preventable Deaths, Maternal Mortality And Medical Bills 
A new report puts US states’ health care systems on a scorecard, with Massachusetts coming out on top. But it also highlights alarming trends across the country, especially in areas like premature deaths and women’s health care. (Viswanathan, 6/22)

Military.com: Protections For Troops Booted Over COVID Vaccine Mandate Added To House Defense Bill 
House Republicans moved Wednesday to protect former service members who were discharged over the military's now-defunct COVID-19 vaccine mandate, including easing their path to reinstatement. Troops who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine could be reinstated at the rank held when they were separated and without the discharge affecting future career advancement under one of a series of amendments related to the vaccine mandate approved by the House Armed Services Committee. The committee was debating its version of the annual defense policy bill. (Kheel, 6/21)

CIDRAP: Antidepressant Users May Be Less Likely To Test Positive For COVID-19 
New research published in BMC Medicine suggests that using antidepressants (ADs), especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), could help prevent COVID-19 infection. .. Mental health patients with a recent (previous 90 days) prescription for an SSRI had an almost 40% reduction in the likelihood of a positive COVID-19 test. (Soucheray, 6/21)

Reuters: US CDC Advisers Recommend Older Adults May Receive Pfizer, GSK Shots For RSV 
A panel of advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday recommended that new vaccines from Pfizer and GSK to prevent severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections be available to older adults in the U.S. but stopped short of saying all of them should get the shots. In two separate votes, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said that people aged 60 and older may receive the RSV shots after consulting with a health care provider. (Erman and Mahobe, 6/21)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis County Reports Its First Mpox Case Of The Year
St. Louis County on Wednesday reported its first confirmed mpox case of the year after a lull in the worldwide outbreak that hit the U.S. in May of last year. The case follows an increase in mpox cases in the Chicago area, which saw more than two dozen cases in April and early May. (Munz, 6/21)

NBC News: CDC Says To Make Sure You're Protected Against Measles Ahead Of Summer Travel
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans to make sure they're fully protected against the measles before traveling internationally this summer. The agency issued a health advisory Wednesday urging that people make certain they've had two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine at least two weeks before traveling to areas of the world with active measles outbreaks. (Edwards, 6/21)

Stat: New DNA Test Aims To Improve Cervical Cancer Screening
A genomic test for the human papillomavirus has shown promise in early-stage trials, raising hopes that it could bolster cervical cancer screening among women living in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest rates of cervical cancer deaths worldwide. (Tsanni, 6/21)

AP: New York Lawmakers OK Bill Removing Medical Debt From Credit Reports 
Hospitals and other health care providers in New York would be banned from reporting medical debt to credit agencies under a bill passed this week by the state’s legislature — a measure intended to limit the damage that illness and injury can do to someone’s financial health. If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the law would make New York the second state, after Colorado, to prohibit medical debt from being collected by credit reporting agencies or included in a credit report. (Khan, 6/21)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Nurses At Fox Chase Cancer Center Vote To Unionize
Nurses working at Fox Chase Cancer Center have voted to unionize, becoming the latest group of workers to form a collective-bargaining unit in recent months at the Northeast Philadelphia specialty hospital. Nearly 80% of the roughly 350 registered nurses who work at the Cottman Avenue center participated in Tuesday’s election, which was administered by the National Labor Relations Board. (Gutman and McLellan Ravitch, 6/21)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Nursing Home Inspectors Are In Short Supply, According To Report
Sen. Bob Casey worries that many of the 1 million-plus people living in 15,000 nursing homes across the United States are in facilities that haven’t been inspected for a long time. About one in four nursing homes hadn’t been inspected in at least 16 months, as required by federal law. (Gutman, 6/22)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Voters Could Clamp Down On Pay For Hospital Executives
Los Angeles voters will decide next spring whether to clamp down on pay for hospital executives, capping their total wages and other compensation at $450,000 annually, after the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to put the proposed measure on the March 2024 ballot. The L.A. ballot measure is backed by a union representing healthcare workers, which argues pay for hospital executives has been excessive and out of line with the mission of providing affordable care. (Alpert Reyes, 6/21)

USA Today: Against Backdrop Of A Mental Health Care Shortage, Emergency Room Doctors Are Overwhelmed
A 9-year-old boy lived for weeks in a hospital emergency room, dressed in paper scrubs, because his parents couldn't handle him and the state's social services agency had nowhere to place him. A 14-year-old spent more than four weeks in an emergency room in a community with no beds for a teen with mental health needs. (Alltucker, 6/21)

Health News Florida: Mental Health Providers Back College Board's Decision To Keep Gender In AP Psychology
Central Florida mental health providers are voicing support for the College Board’s decision to keep gender identity and sexuality in AP Psychology classes in Florida. The College Board says it won’t modify its AP Psychology curriculum after the Florida Department of Education asked it to remove all references to gender identity and sexuality. (Prieur, 6/21)

Fox News: Spike In Teen Depression Aligns With Rise Of Social Media, New Poll Suggests: ‘It’s Not Going Anywhere’ 
"I can’t do anything right." "I do not enjoy life." "My life is not useful." The share of teens who agree with these phrases has doubled over the past decade, according to an annual poll conducted by the University of Michigan — and one expert asserts that the increase in depressive symptoms is tied to the rise of social media. (Rudy, 6/21)

AP: Navajo Nation Declares Widespread Medicaid Scam In Arizona A Public Health State Of Emergency 
A widespread Arizona Medicaid scam that has left an unknown number of Native Americans homeless on the streets of metro Phoenix is being declared a public health state of emergency by the Navajo Nation as fraudulent sober living homes lose their funding and turn former residents out onto the streets. The emergency declaration was issued late last week by the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management and signed this week by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, according to documents posted on the Facebook page of the tribe’s Operation Rainbow Bridge, which was created to deal with the scam’s effects on its enrolled members. (Snow, 6/22)

Health News Florida: A Second Case Of Malaria In A Month Has Been Confirmed In The Sarasota-Manatee Area 
A second case of malaria in less than a month has been confirmed in the Sarasota-Manatee area, health officials said Monday. Officials said the patient is receiving treatment and recovering, but didn’t specify where in region the transmission was reported. A previous case was confirmed on May 26. Officials said that person spent extensive time outdoors, was treated promptly at a hospital and has recovered. (6/21)

CNN: FDA To Test Out Nutrition Labels On The Front Of Food Packaging
The United States Food and Drug Administration will test out labels on the front of food packages in the hope of giving shoppers better access to nutrition information, the agency said. The goal is to address diet-related chronic disease by “empowering consumers with nutrition information to help them more easily identify healthier choices and encouraging industry innovation to produce healthier foods,” the FDA said in a recent regulatory filing. (Holcombe, 6/21)

The New York Times: Lab-Grown Meat Approved To Sell For The First Time In The U.S.
The Agriculture Department approved the production and sale of laboratory-grown meat for the first time on Wednesday, clearing the way for two California companies to sell chicken produced from animal cells. ... Supporters of alternative proteins along with the companies that sought federal approval — Upside Foods and Good Meat — celebrated the news as pivotal for the meat industry and the broader food system at a moment of growing concern about the environmental impact of meat production and its treatment of animals. (Qiu, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Athletes Swear By Ketone Drinks. A New Study Says They Don’t Work
Many competitive athletes, especially cyclists and runners, swear by ketone drinks, a popular sports supplement that promises to improve athletic performance by packing many of the purported benefits of a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet into a single beverage. ... But in a new study, the supplement didn’t amplify recreational cyclists’ racing speed and instead left them performing worse after swallowing the beverage than after a placebo. It also gave many of them gas. (Reynolds, 6/21)

USA Today: Study: Genetics Can Explain Why Sex Matters In Some Cancer Outcomes
It's long been known men fare worse with colon cancer than women. The presumption was male smoking habits, extra meat consumption and maybe hormones made the difference. But a pair of studies out Wednesday in the journal Nature finds genetics can sometimes explain why sex matters. (Weintraub, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: Cooking With Gas May Be As Bad As Inhaling Secondhand Smoke 
Cooking with gas-fired stoves can cause unsafe levels of toxics to accumulate inside homes, exposing people to roughly the same cancer risk as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, according to a new study. Researchers from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy tested gas and propane stoves in 87 homes across California and Colorado and found that every appliance produced a detectable amount of cancer-causing benzene — a chemical with no safe level of exposure. (Briscoe, 6/21)