First Edition: June 7, 2023

KFF Health News: Burnout Threatens Primary Care Workforce And Doctors’ Mental Health 
Melanie Gray Miller, a 30-year-old physician, wiped away tears as she described the isolation she felt after losing a beloved patient. “It was at the end of a night shift, when it seems like bad things always happen,” said Miller, who is training to become a pediatrician. (Sausser, 6/7)

KFF Health News: A Windfall In Health Insurance Rebates? It’s Not As Crazy As It Sounds 
Former Democratic Sen. Al Franken tweeted recently that Americans will receive “$1.1 B in rebates from health insurance companies this year” because of a provision he wrote into the Affordable Care Act. The tweet prompted many comments, including some from people who said they had never seen such a check from their insurers. That got us wondering: Is Franken’s tweet correct and, if so, how exactly do these rebates work? (Appleby, 6/7)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’ 
On the KFF Health News Minute this week: a fresh debate over new mammogram guidelines and the financial risks of traveling in the United States without extra health insurance. (6/6)

Politico: Appeals Court Weighs Nationwide Freeze Of Obamacare’s Coverage Mandate 
A federal appeals court panel appeared skeptical on Tuesday of calls to impose a nationwide freeze on Obamacare’s rules for no-cost coverage of preventive care while litigation continues — a move the Biden administration warned would threaten access to a range of services for millions of people on employer-sponsored insurance and Obamacare’s individual market. Both sides in the case agreed that the individual Texas businesses that sued over the mandate should be shielded from it while the case makes its way through the courts. But they split on whether more harm would be caused by keeping the current coverage rules intact for everyone else in the country or by suspending them nationwide. (Ollstein, 6/6)

AP: HIV Protection, Cancer Screenings Could Cost More If 'Obamacare' Loses Latest Court Battle 
A judge’s order that would eliminate requirements that health insurance plans include cost-free coverage of HIV-preventing drugs, cancer screenings and various other types of preventive care should remain on hold while it is appealed, the Biden administration argued before an appellate panel Tuesday. It’s the latest legal skirmish over mandates in former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, commonly known as “Obamacare,” which took effect 13 years ago. (McGill, 6/6)

Stat: Merck Sues U.S. Government Over Medicare Negotiation Program
Merck on Tuesday sued to stop the federal government from implementing a new Medicare drug price negotiation program. Merck called the negotiation process that Democrats designed in a law last August “a sham,” arguing that the federal government “dictates” prices. (Cohrs and Silverman, 6/6)

Reuters: White House Says It Will Win Merck Lawsuit, Defends Medicare Drug Negotiations
The Biden administration is confident it will succeed in the courts against Merck & Co's lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the White House said, defending the Medicare health insurance program's authority to seek deals on medicine prices. "We are confident we will succeed in the courts: there is nothing in the Constitution that prevents Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. (6/6)

Reuters: White House Vows An Improved Effort Against Drug Overdoses 
President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday pledged an improved effort to combat drug overdoses that claimed the lives of about 100,000 Americans last year, using a White House summit to tout a multifaceted approach to tackle synthetic and illicit drugs such as the powerful opioid fentanyl. "Today's summit is needed because the global and regional drug environment has changed dramatically from just even a few years ago," Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the summit, being held jointly with public health officials from Mexico and Canada. (Bose, 6/6)

The New York Times: Wildfire Smoke: Skies Darken As Air Alerts Are Issued Across Northern U.S. 
Smoke from the hundreds of wildfires blazing in eastern Canada has drifted south, casting a hazy pall over New York City and triggering air alerts from Minnesota to Massachusetts. (6/6)

NBC News: How Poor Air Quality Hurts Your Health
Many of the health issues people see from poor air quality, in general, can overlap with health issues people see from wildfire smoke, said Dr. Wynne Armand, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate director of the MGH Center for the Environment and Health. Air pollution from wildfire smoke can make breathing difficult for anyone, but especially for young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with asthma or other pre-existing respiratory conditions, she said.  (Lovelace Jr., 6/6)

The Hill: One Person Died From Gun Violence Every 11 Minutes In 2021, Setting New Record: Study
Gun deaths in the U.S. reached a record-high in 2021, with an average of one person dying every 11 minutes each day — a total of nearly 49,000 deaths from gun violence throughout the year, according to a new study. A new Johns Hopkins study, using the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control, found gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded for the second straight year in a row. (Fortinsky, 6/6)

Reuters: US Cannot Ban People Convicted Of Non-Violent Crimes From Owning Guns-Appeals Court
The U.S. government cannot ban people convicted of non-violent crimes from possessing guns, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The 11-4 ruling from the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest defeat for gun control laws in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide. (Pierson, 6/6)

Reuters: US FDA Approves Cue Health's At-Home COVID Test 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Cue Health's at-home COVID-19 test, the first coronavirus test to get marketing authorization using a traditional premarket review, the agency said. The FDA had granted emergency use authorization for the test in 2021 to make it available to consumers without a prescription. (6/6)

CIDRAP: Large Study Shows Safety Of COVID MRNA Vaccines In Young Children
Medical records were searched for 23 serious potential vaccine side effects, including blood clots, seizures, stroke, the aforementioned myocarditis, and brain inflammation, in days 1 to 21 postvaccination. (Soucheray, 6/6)

Reuters: Moderna, Pfizer Hit With New Patent Lawsuits Over COVID Vaccines
Biotech firm Promosome LLC sued Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech in federal court in San Diego, California, on Tuesday, accusing their COVID-19 vaccines of infringing a patent related to messenger RNA technology. The lawsuits add to a web of patent disputes between biotech companies over technology used in the coronavirus shots, including a case brought last year in Massachusetts by Moderna against Pfizer and its partner BioNTech. (Brittain, 6/6)

CIDRAP: Studies Describe Long-COVID Heart Dysfunction, Suggest 4 Symptom Profiles
A pair of US studies has better characterized persistent COVID-19 symptoms, with one suggesting a higher likelihood of small blood-vessel heart dysfunction among hospitalized patients, and the other concluding that long COVID is a range of conditions rather than a single one. (Van Beusekom, 6/6)

Reuters: Planned Parenthood Sues Kansas Over Abortion Reversal Claims
Planned Parenthood on Tuesday sued to block a new Kansas law requiring healthcare providers to tell patients that medication abortion can be reversed, a potentially dangerous claim not supported by evidence. The lawsuit in the District Court of Johnson County, filed against state and local authorities on behalf of a group of doctors, also challenges older mandates requiring providers to warn patients that abortion is linked to breast cancer, and to wait at last 30 minutes after meeting with a patient to perform an abortion. (Pierson, 6/7)

The Baltimore Sun: New Abortion Provider In Western Maryland Will Cut Patients’ Journeys From West Virginia, Where Procedure Is Banned
Katie Quiñonez stood ankle deep in snow last December in front of a brick building about five miles west of the West Virginia state line, staring at a small brass key in her hand. She had rented a two-door hatchback to drive through the Allegheny Mountains during a blizzard to get there. With tears in her eyes, she texted a photo of the key to her team at the Charleston-based Women’s Health Center of West Virginia with a message: “We did it.” (Roberts, 6/6)

NPR: Boppy's Recalled Infant Lounger Now Linked To At Least 10 Deaths 
In an announcement released by CPSC Tuesday, the agency confirmed that two more deaths were reported after 2021 recall, bringing the total number of deaths to 10. (While it is illegal to sell the product, they are still available on the secondhand market.) In October 2021, the commission said a child was placed on a lounger, rolled underneath a nearby adult pillow and died by positional asphyxia. The following month, a newborn was placed on a lounger in an adult bed and was later found dead. (Franklin, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Leapfrog Group: Health Disparities Persist In Highly Rated Hospitals
Hospitals that receive high safety grades and score well on external safety measures do not provide better care to patients of color than lower-rated facilities, according to a study of more than 10 million patient records. The research from Leapfrog Group and Urban Institute, which used 2019 discharge data from across 15 states, found that Black and Latino patients are more at risk of experiencing adverse safety events than white patients, regardless of a hospital’s Leapfrog Group ranking. (Devereaux, 6/7)

Modern Healthcare: 340B Drug Discount Program Faces Uncertainties Amid HRSA Silence
On May 11, the Health Resources and Services Administration removed guidance from its website, issued in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, that allowed 340B-eligible hospitals to prescribe discounted drugs for patients seen at off-site clinics before those clinics were registered with the Office of Pharmacy Affairs Information System and were listed on a Medicare cost report. Hospitals expected the June 2020 guidance to be made permanent rather than tied to the COVID-19 public health emergency, which ended May 11. (Kacik, 6/6)

Stat: Novocure's Electric Fields Device Prolongs Survival In Lung Cancer
A medical device made by Novocure that creates electric fields in the lungs via wearable skin patches extended the survival of patients with lung cancer in a clinical trial, researchers reported Monday. The findings could lead to a new approval for the device, called Optune, beyond its current marketing clearance to treat a type of brain cancer. Delivering additional sales, however, could be a significant challenge. (Feuerstein, 6/6)

Stat: ASCO Showcased Payoff For New Cancer Medicines: Longer Lives
The biggest meeting in cancer research — and, really, one of the biggest annual conferences for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole — has drawn to a close. What did we learn from this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology? Here’s one lesson: New cancer medicines, given enough time, can be shown to affect the thing patients care about most — whether they live or die. (Herper, Chen, Feuerstein and MacPhail, 6/7)

AP: North Dakota Health Officials Urge Return Of Medicaid Renewal Forms As Thousands Lose Coverage 
Officials are urging North Dakotans who receive Medicaid renewal forms to complete and return them within 30 days, given that thousands of people who were still eligible were removed from the program last month. State Health and Human Services says about 13,000 Medicaid recipients in North Dakota were due for renewal at the end of May, but thousands failed to return their forms, so many lost coverage even though they may still qualify, KFGO reported. (6/6)

AP: US Judge Blocks Florida Ban On Trans Minor Care In Narrow Ruling, Says 'Gender Identity Is Real' 
A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, saying in a Tuesday ruling that gender identity is real and the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment. Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction, saying three transgender children can continue receiving treatment. The lawsuit challenges the law DeSantis signed shortly before he announced a run for president. “Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear,” Hinkle said, adding that even a witness for the state agreed. (Farrington, 6/7)

Los Angeles Times: LGBTQ+ Rights Organization Declares 'State Of Emergency' In The U.S. 
The volume of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation “is record-shattering,” said Cathryn Oakley, the HRC’s state legislative director and senior counsel. “It is a really scary time for LGBTQ people, and I am not certain everyone understands quite how scary it really is,” Oakley said. Republican-controlled state governments including those in Texas, Florida and Tennessee are at the forefront of the movement against LGBTQ+ rights, the HRC said, calling out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in particular for “criss-crossing the country to attack our community.” (Petri, 6/6)

The Boston Globe: State’s Largest Insurer Has Doubled Spending On Mental Health Care Since Start Of The Pandemic
In a sign of how the COVID emergency elevated the importance of mental well-being, the state’s largest health insurer disclosed it has doubled its spending on behavioral health services since the beginning of the pandemic and aggressively expanded its ranks of providers to meet swelling demand. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts reported this week that it spent $1.3 billion on mental health services in 2022, up from $610 million in 2019. The number of behavioral health visits likewise doubled, from 4 million to 8 million. (Freyer, 6/6)

North Carolina Health News: Could Medical Marijuana Make NC Roads More Dangerous?
Lawmakers are once again deliberating whether to legalize marijuana for medical use, an issue that has plenty of supporters in the state Senate but has failed to become law the past two legislative cycles. Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Southport), a primary sponsor of the bill and a colon cancer survivor, has been pushing for several years for North Carolina to join the 38 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and territories that allow the use of marijuana — also referred to as cannabis — for medical purposes. Reasons given for opposition to the proposal in years past have varied. This year, many of the bill’s detractors have argued that legalization would make North Carolina’s roadways more treacherous. (Thomae, 6/7)

The Washington Post: Bothered By Pot Smell, She Sued Her Neighbor To Stop Smoking — And Won
A D.C. judge has ruled that a man who smokes medical marijuana in his apartment must stop after a neighbor complained that the odor from his marijuana crept into her home and caused a nuisance. Judge Ebony Scott ruled late Monday that while Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd could not prove she is entitled to damages, she successfully made the case that the smell is a private nuisance, and Scott ordered Thomas Cackett to stop smoking. Scott said that Cackett is licensed to buy marijuana but “he does not possess a license to disrupt the full use and enjoyment of one’s land.” (Kornfield and Bellware, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Delta Unveils Seat That Would Let Fliers Use Their Own Wheelchairs
The system allows airlines to keep the design of their cabins and lets a standard seat fold up to accommodate a wheelchair restraint. If no wheelchair user is on board, it can be used like any other seat. (Sampson, 6/6)

The Washington Post: How Can I Avoid Eating Food With ‘Forever’ Chemicals?
Cindy Luppi, the national field director for Clean Water Action, said “it’s very hard” for people to avoid products with PFAS. “For the average consumer, there’s no way to avoid it,” said Graham Peaslee, a physics professor at the University of Notre Dame. “But, you can do some smart things.” (Anmenabar, 6/6)

AP: Pope Francis To Undergo Intestinal Surgery Under General Anesthesia
Pope Francis went to the hospital Wednesday to undergo abdominal surgery to treat an intestinal blockage, two years after he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed because of an inflammation and narrowing of the large intestine. The Vatican said Francis, 86, would be put under general anesthesia for the procedure Wednesday afternoon and would be hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for several days. (Winfield, 6/7)