First Edition: June 6, 2023

KFF Health News: As Fewer MDs Practice Rural Primary Care, A Different Type Of Doctor Helps Take Up The Slack
For 35 years, this town’s residents have brought all manner of illnesses, aches, and worries to Kevin de Regnier’s storefront clinic on the courthouse square — and he loves them for it. De Regnier is an osteopathic physician who chose to run a family practice in a small community. Many of his patients have been with him for years. Many have chronic health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or mental health struggles, which he helps manage before they become critical. (Leys, 6/6)

KFF Health News: Recovery From Addiction Is A Journey. There’s No One-And-Done Solution
The atmosphere inside the Allen House is easygoing as residents circulate freely through the hallways, meet in group sessions, or gather on a large outdoor patio that features a dirt volleyball court with an oversize net. The 60-bed safety-net residential treatment center in Santa Fe Springs, run by Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, has a dedicated detox room, on-site physicians and nurses, substance abuse counselors, licensed therapists, and other practitioners. It offers group counseling as well as individual and family therapy, and it endorses the use of medications for addiction treatment, such as buprenorphine and naltrexone, which are increasingly considered the gold standard. (Wolfson, 6/6)

The Hill: Appeals Court To Hear Arguments About ObamaCare Preventive Coverage
A federal appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday about whether to continue a pause of a Texas district court’s ruling that struck down an ObamaCare provision requiring insurers to cover preventive services for free. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily paused Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision until a panel could hear oral arguments on whether the pause should be continued during the appeals process. (Weixel, 6/5)

Axios: Appeals Court To Weigh Fate Of ACA Preventive Care Requirement
The three-judge panel that will preside over the court hearing is comprised of Judges Edith Brown Clement and Leslie Southwick, two George W. Bush appointees, and Judge Stephen Higginson, an Obama appointee. The Justice Department argues the public will be harmed unless the lower court ruling is stayed. Regardless of the outcome, the decision is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court. (Gonzalez, 6/6)

Bloomberg: FDA Revokes Authorization Of J&J’s Covid Vaccine As Demand Wanes 
US regulators revoked emergency authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after the company’s Janssen unit requested its withdrawal. Janssen informed the Food and Drug Administration that shots bought by the government had expired and there was no demand for the product in the US, the regulator said in a statement released last week. (Cattan, 6/5)

Reuters: Novavax Exec Says Its New COVID Shot Should Work Against Variants On The Rise
Novavax Inc's head of research and development on Monday said an updated COVID-19 vaccine the company is already producing is likely to be protective against other fast-growing coronavirus variants circulating in the U.S. Protein-based vaccines like Novavax's take longer to produce than the messenger RNA-based versions made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. (Erman, 6/5)

USA Today: U.S. To Import Chemotherapy Drug Cisplatin From China To Ease Shortage
Citing a shortage of commonly prescribed drugs for U.S. cancer patients, the Food and Drug Administration will temporarily allow overseas drug manufacturers to import some chemotherapy drugs. The FDA will let Qilu Pharmaceutical, a drug manufacturer in China, import the injectable chemotherapy drug cisplatin in 50-milligram vials. Toronto pharmaceutical company Apotex Corp. will distribute the medication in the United States. (Alltucker, 6/5)

The Washington Post: Record-High Shortage Of Chemo Drugs Puts Patients At Risk 
Cancer patients and their doctors are grappling with a record-high shortage of effective chemotherapy, putting their treatment — and lives — at risk. “The majority are cheap, generic drugs that have been utilized in cancer medicine for decades,” says Satyajit Kosuri, clinical director of the stem cell transplant and cellular therapy program at the University of Chicago, who has experienced the consequences firsthand. At the end of last year, there were 295 active medication shortages, ranging from antibiotics and anesthetics to cardiac mediations and chemotherapy drugs, according to a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report, a 30 percent increase since 2021. (Ebersole, 6/5)

Stat: The Woman Behind AstraZeneca’s Cancer Winning Streak
It was the kind of moment scientists who develop new medicines wait their entire careers to experience. On Sunday, thousands of oncologists applauded after researchers presented data on AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso. When given after surgery to the right lung cancer patients, selected using genetic tests, it cut the death rate in half. (Herper, 6/6)

USA Today: DNA Sequencing Improves Cancer Treatment But Remains Underused. Why?
Unlike many oncologists, the tears Dr. Thomas Roberts often saw in his office were those of joy. His patients had been told they had less than six months to live. But Roberts, then a fellow specializing in lung cancer care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was able to give many an extra lease on life. Because they had certain genetic mutations in their tumors, he could promise them at least another year and often three, five or more. (Weintraub, 6/6)

Stat: FDA Cancer Head Wants Advisory Panels To Keep Voting On Drugs
As commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Robert Califf has made clear he’d like to do away with the votes that punctuate meetings of expert panels evaluating new drugs for approval. On Sunday, Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, took issue with his boss. (Chen, 6/5)

Stat: More Than 200 FDA Staffers Have Retired In Less Than A Year 
More than 230 people have retired from the Food and Drug Administration since Oct. 1, Chief of Staff Julie Tierney said Monday. It’s part of a bigger wave of exits: In total, 634 employees have left the agency, which has a staff of about 18,000 people. There are about 2,000 vacancies at the FDA, which is a normal level at an agency that has for a long time struggled to hire and keep employees who can make bigger salaries in the private sector. (Wilkerson, 6/6)

Roll Call: Biden's Pick To Lead The CDC Faces Tough Summer On Capitol Hill 
Mandy Cohen, the former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Biden’s expected pick to head the public health agency, would take the helm at a critical time. The agency will spend this summer lobbying Congress to increase its funding and authorities via two must-pass bills: the reauthorization of a pandemic preparedness law which expires on Sept. 30, and fiscal 2024 appropriations legislation. (Cohen, 6/5)

Stat: Medicare Taps Acting Official To Head Drug Price Negotiations 
Medicare has chosen a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation official to temporarily lead its implementation of Democrats’ drug pricing law, a document obtained by STAT shows. Christina Ritter is listed on a document dated June 2 as acting director of the Medicare division implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, which enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices and penalize drugmakers for price hikes. (Cohrs, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Redeterminations Tech Solutions Aim To Ease Process 
As states grapple with Medicaid redeterminations and high rates of disenrollments, states are teaming up with technology vendors to facilitate communications and outreach to affected enrollees. (Turner, 6/5)

Stat: UnitedHealth Starts Bidding War With $3.3 Billion Offer For Amedisys
There’s now a two-party showdown for one of the largest home health companies in the country. UnitedHealth Group and its Optum division on Monday formally proposed to buy Amedisys for $100 per share, or about $3.3 billion. (Herman, 6/5)

Detroit Free Press: Sparrow Health To Get New Name In University Of Michigan Acquisition
One year after the University of Michigan's acquisition of Sparrow Health, the Lansing-based health system will get a new name. As of April 1, 2024, it will be known as the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow. (Jordan Shamus, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic Announces Rochester Campus Redevelopment
Mayo Clinic on Monday announced a large redevelopment of its main campus in downtown Rochester, Minnesota, two weeks after the health system's threats to scrap investment in the state led to changes in a nurse staffing bill. Minnesota legislators removed a provision to enforce nurse staffing levels after Mayo Clinic officials said they would pull billions of dollars in investments unless the proposal was thrown out or an exemption was provided for the health system. (Hudson, 6/5)

Stat: Teetering Postdoc System Imperils Life Sciences Diversity 
For young life scientists hoping to land a prestigious faculty job in academia, postdoctoral research is practically a requirement. But it’s not a path equally open to everyone. Freshly minted life science Ph.D. graduates who have started families or have big loans, or are Black or female, say they plan to pursue postdoc positions at lower rates than their peers, according to a STAT analysis that includes previously unreported data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (Wosen, 6/6)

The Boston Globe: Wu Launches Workforce Initiative To Get 1,000 Boston Residents Into Biotech Jobs 
Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled a plan Monday to plug more Boston workers into the growing biotech industry, launching a workforce initiative aimed at getting 1,000 city residents trained and hired at drug research and production labs and other life sciences operations by the end of 2025. The city government will initially commit $4 million to the program, funded through grants from the city’s Neighborhood Jobs Trust and the federal American Rescue Plan, but the investment is expected to grow. (Weisman, 6/5)

The Hill: Louisiana Senate Passes Resurrected Gender-Affirming Care Ban
The Louisiana Senate voted Monday to pass a controversial bill to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, advancing the measure even after it was defeated by a GOP-controlled state Senate committee last month. The measure, House Bill 648, seeks to bar health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to patients younger than 18 under the threat of having their professional licenses revoked. (Migdon, 6/5)

Reuters: Texas Seeks To Bolster $1.8 Bln Fraud Claim Against Planned Parenthood
Texas and an anonymous anti-abortion activist made a joint court filing over the weekend, urging a federal judge to decide a $1.8 billion fraud lawsuit they brought against Planned Parenthood in their favor, saying a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling strengthened the case. ... Texas and the anonymous plaintiff are seeking to force Planned Parenthood to return money it collected from Texas' and Louisiana's state Medicaid programs after the states tried to cut off its funding, plus heavy additional penalties. (Pierson, 6/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Mayor Breed Urges Biden To Step Up Federal Action On Fentanyl
San Francisco Mayor London Breed led two dozen fellow mayors to urge the Biden administration on Monday to step up enforcement against trafficking of fentanyl, start a public awareness campaign against open-air drug markets and increase public health interventions to address an out-of-control epidemic nationwide. (Moench, 6/5)

Houston Chronicle: 3 Texans Die From Fungal Meningitis, CDC Ties Deaths To Mexican Clinic
Three Texas residents have died this year as a result of a fungal meningitis outbreak linked to elective surgeries in Mexico, prompting a travel advisory warning of the newfound dangers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Nickerson, 6/5)

Reuters: Norfolk Southern Says East Palestine Residents' Suit Barred By US Law 
Norfolk Southern Corp has asked a U.S. judge to toss a proposed class action lawsuit it is facing over a February train derailment that led to a toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, arguing the claims are “threadbare” and barred by federal law. (Mindock, 6/5)

AP: North Carolina Governor Launches Safe Gun Storage Campaign As Raleigh Recovers From Mass Shooting
A safe firearm storage campaign launched Monday by the North Carolina governor’s administration aims to counter a recent surge in gun thefts and shooting injuries by making safety features available to more gun owners statewide. The initiative will distribute free gun locks starting this week and equip local law enforcement, doctors and school personnel with resources they can use to teach community members how to prevent children from accessing guns. (Schoenbaum, 6/6)

Dallas Morning News: Medics Saved ‘Every Recoverable Victim’ Of Allen Mass Shooting, Fire Department Says
The Allen Fire Department released a report Monday related to how long it took for emergency medical crews to respond to the May 6 shooting at an outlet mall. Within five minutes of the first call about the Allen Premium Outlets shooting, dispatch notes showed emergency crews receiving information about victims at various stores at the mall. Emergency crews also dealt with unsubstantiated reports of a second possible gunman, the notes state. (Choi, 6/5)

Reuters: Microsoft To Pay $20 Mln To Settle US Charges For Violating Children's Privacy 
Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that the tech company illegally collected personal information from children without their parents' consent, the FTC said on Monday. The company had been charged with violating the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents' consent, and by retaining children's personal information, the FTC said in a statement. ... "This action should also make it abundantly clear that kids' avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. (Singh, 6/5)

USA Today: Should A Baby's DNA Be Sequenced At Birth? Yes, New Study Suggests
What would happen if every newborn's genes were sequenced at birth? That's the question the BabySeq study has been trying to answer for a decade. Its newest results suggest the genetic information could be used to save lives. And not just the baby's. (Weintraub, 6/5)

CNN: How Long You Breastfeed May Impact Your Child’s Test Scores Later, Study Shows 
Whether children were breastfed as infants and for how long may have an impact on their test scores when they are adolescents, according to new research. The report, published Monday in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, followed about 5,000 British children from their infancy in the early 2000s to their last year of high school, according to lead study author Dr. Reneé Pereyra-Elías, a doctoral student and researcher in the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. (Holcombe, 6/5)

CNN: Oral Estrogen-Only Use Riskier Than Patch Or Vaginal Cream For Menopausal Women, Study Says
People who use estrogen-only pills during menopause were more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure than those using patches or creams, a new study found. However, doctors who treat menopause say estrogen-only pills are rarely prescribed for high-risk patients, and the overall benefits of hormone replacement therapy far outweigh the risks for many patients. (LaMotte, 6/5)

The Washington Post: You Can Reduce Your Odds Of Getting Osteoporosis As You Age 
Osteoporosis — a disease that thins and weakens bones, making them more likely to break — afflicts about 10 million people in the United States age 50 and older, and four times more women than men, according to the Osteoporosis Workgroup, a panel of experts in the Department of Health and Human Services that focuses on improving screenings and treatment to reduce the prevalence of the ailment. ... A bone density scan, a type of low-dose X-ray that measures the minerals in a person’s bones, can help evaluate bones’ strength and thickness. (Searing, 6/5)