First Edition: June 7, 2024

KFF Health News: Thousands Of Children Got Tested For Lead With Faulty Devices: What Parents Should Know
A company that makes tests for lead poisoning has agreed to resolve criminal charges that it concealed for years a malfunction that resulted in inaccurately low results. It’s the latest in a long-running saga involving Massachusetts-based Magellan Diagnostics, which will pay $42 million in penalties, according to the Department of Justice. While many of the fault-prone devices were used from 2013 to 2017, some were being recalled as late as 2021. (Appleby, 6/7)

KFF Health News' 'What The Health?' Podcast: Nursing Home Staffing Rules Prompt Pushback
The nursing home industry — as well as a healthy number of Congress members — are all pushing back on the Biden administration’s new rules on nursing home staffing. Industry officials say that there are not enough workers to meet the requirements and that the costs would be prohibitive. Meanwhile, Democrats on Capitol Hill are trying to force Republicans to explain their exact positions on assuring access to contraceptives and in vitro fertilization. (Rovner, 6/6)

Reuters: US Must Pay More Of Native American Tribes' Healthcare Costs, Supreme Court Rules
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday held that the federal government has been under-funding Native American tribes that administer their own healthcare programs for 30 years and must pay potentially hundreds of millions more going forward. In its 5-4 ruling, the court found that federal law requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to pay the overhead costs that tribes incur when spending money from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. The ruling is a victory for the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona and the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, which had each sued over the funding. (Pierson, 6/6)

Courthouse News Service: Supreme Court Lets Insurer Object To Asbestos Bankruptcy Plan 
In a ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court expanded who can object to bankruptcy settlements, giving an insurance company a say in how to settle asbestos injury claims. The unanimous ruling said Truck Insurance Exchange could object to a construction company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan. ... Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Truck will have to pay the vast majority of its liability claims — up to $500,000 per claim for thousands of asbestos-injury claims. The current plan, Sotomayor said, would leave Truck alone in carrying that financial burden. (Reichmann, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Sugar Substitute Xylitol Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack, Stroke 
The popular sugar substitute xylitol, commonly used by those wanting to lose weight or who are diabetic, is associated with an increased risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack and stroke, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal on Thursday. (Chesler, 6/6)

NBC News: FDA Reverses Marketing Ban On Juul E-Cigarettes
The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it has reversed its ban on Juul e-cigarettes while it reviews new court decisions and considers updated information provided by the vape maker. The FDA first ordered the company to stop selling its products in 2022, but they have stayed on shelves pending an appeal. Juul has maintained its status as the No. 2 e-cigarette maker in the U.S. during this time. Now, the FDA says Juul's products are back under agency review. (Wile, 6/6)

Reuters: US FDA Staff Raise No Major Concerns About Eli Lilly Alzheimer's Drug
An FDA analysis of trial data for Eli Lilly's experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab released on Thursday revealed no red flags, but raised questions about safety of the treatment for patients with early-stage disease. The drug is a potential rival to Eisai and Biogen's Leqembi, which won approval last July. (Satija and Steenhuysen, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Conservatives Tied To Trump Want To Limit Insurance Coverage For Abortions 
Conservative policymakers influential with former president Donald Trump are discussing how to use a little-known labor law to impose sweeping restrictions on private-employer-covered abortions, according to a public statement and two people with direct knowledge of labor policy discussions among Trump advisers. Although Trump has not formally committed to anything and talks are ongoing, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has publicly called for using federal labor law to limit the ability of private employers to provide coverage that includes abortions in states with abortion restrictions. (Gurley and Stein, 6/6)

Health News Florida, WUSF: Judge Orders A Revised Financial Impact Statement For The Florida Abortion Amendment
The statement provides estimated effects of ballot measures on government revenues and the budget. A Leon County judge rules the statement is “inaccurate, ambiguous, misleading, unclear and confusing.” A Leon County circuit judge on Wednesday ruled a “financial impact statement” that would accompany a proposed constitutional amendment about abortion rights needs to be revised, finding that the statement is “inaccurate, ambiguous, misleading, unclear and confusing.” (Kam, 6/6)

North Carolina Health News: Legal Challenges Keep NC Abortion Law In Flux
More than a year after state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 20, adding new abortion restrictions in a late-night vote overriding Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, the status of the law dictating access to the procedure in North Carolina remains in flux. That’s because the law has been entangled in two lawsuits that challenge some of the requirements lawmakers implemented. A federal judge’s ruling on June 3 in the first case loosens restrictions on how medication abortion pills can be provided in North Carolina. The same judge will soon determine the fate of two other contested provisions in a second case. (Crumpler, 6/7)

Slate: Surprise! The Worst Judge in the Country Just Landed Another Appalling Abortion Case
Two professors at the University of Texas at Austin are suing for the right to penalize students who miss class to obtain an abortion out of state. The professors, John Hatfield and Daniel Bonevac, are contesting the Biden administration’s efforts to shield students from retaliation when they obtain reproductive health care, a long-standing guarantee under Title IX. They also demand the freedom to discriminate against students and teaching assistants who identify as LGBTQ. (Lithwick and Stern, 6/7)

CBS News: Minnesota Cow Herd Tests Positive For Bird Flu; "Pasteurized Dairy Products Remain Safe To Consume," Says CDC
Lab tests have confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza in a dairy herd in Benson County, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health said. ... According to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, a producer noticed signs of illness in only a few cows over the weekend. The next day, however, the producer reported that over 40 cows had contracted a fever. (Lofgren, 6/6)

Reuters: Exclusive: Cows Infected With Bird Flu Have Died In Five US States 
Dairy cows infected with avian flu in five U.S. states have died or been slaughtered by farmers because they did not recover, state officials and academics told Reuters. Reports of the deaths suggest the bird flu outbreak in cows could take a greater economic toll in the farm belt than initially thought. Farmers have long culled poultry infected by the virus, but cows cost much more to raise than chickens or turkeys. (Douglas and Polansek, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Whooping Cough Cases Double In The U.S., A Potential Legacy Of The Pandemic 
Whooping cough, a bacterial illness that poses an especially significant threat to infants, is surging in the United States — another potential legacy of the coronavirus pandemic. Federal disease trackers report that during the first five months of this year, about 5,000 whooping cough cases were reported, more than double the number for the same period last year. (Johnson and Malhi, 6/6)

ABC News: Mpox Public Health Campaign Was Successful But Cases Still Occur At Low Levels In US: Study
In summer 2022, the global mpox outbreak seemed poised to overwhelm the U.S. with cases rising exponentially every week and no signs of slowing. A successful public health campaign -- promoting behavior changes and vaccination -- helped cases drop dramatically. However, a new small study published Thursday and led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) says that mpox cases are still circulating at low levels in the U.S. and primarily among unvaccinated high-risk groups. (Kekatos, 6/6)

Military.com: Nurses Rally At VA Headquarters In DC To Protest Staffing Reductions 
Nearly 70 Department of Veterans Affairs nurses rallied in front of the department's Washington, D.C., headquarters Thursday to protest staffing cuts they say are hurting the quality of veterans' medical care. The nurses, from 23 VA medical facilities across the country, called the expected reduction of 10,000 jobs in the Veterans Health Administration a "hiring freeze." However, VA officials have said the cuts are coming as a result of attrition and retirements and that hiring will continue for short-staffed, critical positions. (Kime, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Doctor, Resident Unions See Growth At Kaiser, Allina, Others
A wave of labor organization continues among doctors, residents and fellows as more than 3,000 have joined unions so far this year, driven by worries about burnout, administrative burden and inadequate patient care. Doctors and support staff are seeking contracts across organizations that ensure reduced workloads and more one-on-one patient care time. However, where doctors want more decision-making power, residents are pushing for better benefits and higher pay. (Devereaux, 6/6)

Axios: The Health Care Workforce Crisis Is Already Here
Demoralized doctors and nurses are leaving the field, hospitals are sounding the alarm about workforce shortages and employees are increasingly unionizing and even going on strike in high-profile disputes with their employers. Why it matters: Dire forecasts of health care worker shortages often look to a decade or more from now, but the pandemic — and its ongoing fallout — has already ushered in a volatile era of dissatisfied workers and understaffed health care facilities. (Owens, 6/7)

Modern Healthcare: Mental Health Parity Requirements Must Be Finalized: Senate Dems
A group of Senate Democrats wants to know when the federal government will finalize a nearly year-old proposed rule to toughen enforcement of mental health parity laws. The Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury departments announced the draft regulation last July. The White House even touted it, signaling mental health parity as a priority for President Joe Biden. (Early, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Why The Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Hit UnitedHealth, Centene Finances
Health insurance companies are bracing for a near-term hit to their Medicaid finances as fallout from the eligibility redeterminations process takes shape. Insurers say they are pleading with state policymakers to boost the payments they receive for covering Medicaid beneficiaries, stressing that millions of people exiting the program over the past year has created unfavorable risk pools consisting of higher-acuity members. (Berryman, 6/6)

The CT Mirror: Prospect Medical Files Countersuit Against Yale New Haven Health
Prospect Medical Holdings is suing Yale New Haven Health, claiming the health system breached its contract with Prospect by “failing to deliver the agreed-upon purchase price” for the three Connecticut hospitals it has made a bid to buy. The California-based company also alleges that YNHH failed to make “reasonable best efforts” to complete the acquisition of the three Prospect-owned facilities and has “actively worked to prevent the closing of the transaction” in order to get a lower purchase price. (Carlesso, 6/6)

Stateline: For Some Rural Communities, A Stripped-Down Hospital Is Better Than None At All
On many days, some small hospitals in rural Mississippi admit just one patient — or none at all. The hospitals are drowning in debt. The small, tight-knit communities they’ve anchored for decades can do little but watch as the hospitals shed services and staff just to stay afloat. The federal government recently offered a lifeline: a new Medicare program designed to save dying rural hospitals that will pay them millions to stop offering inpatient services and instead focus on emergency care. (Claire Vollers, 6/6)

NPR: Telehealth, Decentralized Care Cut Cancer Care's Carbon Footprint Significantly
Cancer patients often prefer the convenience of video visits over in-person medical visits. A new study reveals another benefit – telehealth reduces greenhouse-gas emissions. By moving online all oncology visits that need not be done in person and by allowing patients to have blood drawn and other tests and procedures performed at clinics closer to their homes, researchers estimated they could reduce nationwide carbon-dioxide emissions generated as a result of cancer care by 33%, the study published Monday in JAMA Oncology found. (Cohen, 6/6)

Reuters: Nestle's Health Arm To Buy First-Ever Fecal Transplant Pill 
Nestle Health Science will buy the rights to Seres Therapeutics' Vowst, the companies said on Thursday, gaining full access to the first-ever pill alternative to fecal transplants for a deadly infection. The drug was greenlit by the U.S. health regulator in 2023 to prevent the recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) in adults, generally caused by the prolonged use of antibiotics, which can lead to potentially fatal diarrhea and inflammation of the colon. (Jain, 6/6)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Healing The Brain: Biotech To Test New Therapy For Stroke
A 3-year-old Sewickley, Pennsylvania, biotech firm is partnering with a Boston hospital to test a new drug combination, which has the promise of helping people debilitated by stroke. Neuro-Innovators LLC is collaborating with Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital to evaluate the effectiveness of Neuro-Innovators’ NIV-001 therapy to enhance and restore mobility and function lost through a burst or blocked vessel in the brain, which causes stroke. (Mamula, 6/6)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia Verdict Against Monsanto Over Roundup Weed Killer Reduced
A Philadelphia judge has substantially reduced a $2.25 billion verdict against agricultural giant Monsanto, ruling that a Pennsylvania man who contended he developed cancer from the company’s weed killer Roundup ought to receive $400 million. Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Susan Schulman’s ruling comes following a Philadelphia jury’s January verdict in favor of John McKivison. ... Exposure to Roundup, McKivison claimed, caused him to later develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. (Vadala, 6/6)

Bloomberg: Why Prescription Drug Prices In The US Are So High
Americans spend more on prescription drugs than anyone else in the world. It’s true that they take a lot of pills. But what really has set the US apart is how much drugs cost. Unlike in most other countries, their prices are set without direct government intervention. A new law aims to change that for certain drugs for elderly and disabled patients who rely on the government’s Medicare health program. The pharmaceutical industry opposes the change, and the law faces a raft of lawsuits seeking to stop it from taking effect. (Langreth, 6/6)

The Boston Globe: Marijuana Legalization Advances To Final Vote In New Hampshire
A proposal to legalize cannabis in New Hampshire cleared a key hurdle Thursday afternoon, as negotiators from the House and Senate settled on a compromise that’s now cued up for a final vote next week. The compromise, which incorporated several relatively minor changes to the version of the bill that passed the Senate, will head back to each chamber for a final up-or-down vote. (Porter, 6/6)

The Texas Tribune: State Rejects Health Plans’ Protests Over Medicaid Contracts
Texas officials on Thursday rejected attempts by several major insurers for needy families to cancel a proposal that would drop them from the state Medicaid program and shake up the coverage of nearly 2 million low-income Texans. At issue are some $116 billion in Medicaid contracts that Texas Health and Human Services officials are attempting to award by the end of the summer, a plan announced earlier this year that has drawn wide criticism because it would eliminate three major health plans run for decades by the state’s premiere nonprofit children’s hospitals. (Harper, 6/6)

The Oregonian: Oregon State Hospital Failed To Conduct Hourly Checks To Ensure Patients Were ‘Alive And Breathing’
Staff at the Oregon State Hospital neglected to conduct hourly checks to ensure patients were alive and breathing, a failure that in one case led to a patient being found dead 4 1/2 hours after the last verification, investigators found. Those findings, outlined in a notice provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive, led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to place the state psychiatric hospital in Salem in “immediate jeopardy status.” (Goldberg, 6/6)

CBS News: In Funding Crisis, Denver Health Medical Center Wants Voters To Approve A Sales Tax
Times have been getting tougher and tougher in health care. It shows up in the copays, the bills and now Colorado hospitals are facing a crisis. "Reimbursement is down everywhere partly because we have an increase in the number of uninsured patients across the country," said Denver Health's CEO Donna Lynne. Lynne went before a Denver City Council committee Wednesday to ask them to advance a ballot question to Denver voters requesting a sales tax hike. The increase would be devoted to help pay cost shortages and would cost shoppers an extra 3.4 cents on a $10 purchase. (Gionet, 6/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Can’t Say Whether Drug Users It Has Arrested Are Getting Treatment
A year after San Francisco launched a multiagency effort to dismantle open-air drug markets in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, it remains unclear whether arrests have led any drug users to engage in treatment programs. The Chronicle spoke to several unhoused people who use fentanyl and who were recently arrested or cited, all of whom said it had not affected their drug habits. (Angst, 6/6)

CBS News: Pennsylvania Lawmakers Want To Allow First Responders To File PTSD Claims
A new push to break the stigma around mental health just expanded to first responders in Pennsylvania. Firefighters aren't just responding to fires anymore. They're going out on all sorts of calls. But because of a court decision, firefighters say they're not able to access the care they need for their mental health. (Schiller, 6/6)

Colorado Sun: Colorado Middle, High Schools Must Provide Free Period Products By 2028
A survey of more than 200 Colorado students showed 90% of teen girls have started their menstrual cycle unexpectedly at school or during a school-related activity when they didn’t have access to period products. Eighty percent of those girls missed class because they didn’t have a pad or tampon; 72% of them used a substitution in place of a typical period product within a year before the study was conducted such as toilet paper, paper towels and napkins; and 59% said they struggled to afford or access period products. (Flowers, 6/7)

The Washington Post: A Salty Diet May Increase Eczema In Adults, Study Finds 
Adults who eat a salty diet appear to have a higher risk for eczema, according to a study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. An estimated 1 in 10 Americans will develop eczema, or atopic dermatitis, which causes the skin to become irritated, inflamed and itchy. But according to the National Institutes of Health, the cause of the rash remains unknown. Dermatologists say the study, published on Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology, will lead to further research regarding how salt may play a role in the skin condition. (Amenabar, 6/6)

ABC News: Study Finds 1 In 5 Young Athletes Meet Criteria For Pre-Hypertension
Up to one in five young athletes ages 10 to 31 may have pre-hypertension, a precursor to high blood pressure, according to a new preliminary study. More than 20% of athletes studied met the criteria for having high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. Teenage boys appeared to be more at risk than teenage girls, according to the study, with more than double the rates of stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension. (March and Rahman, 6/6)

NPR: UNICEF Report: 1 In 4 Young Children Suffer Extreme Food Poverty
We often hear that many children in the world aren't getting enough to eat. But what does that mean exactly and what does 'not enough' look like? ... A new report by UNICEF has pulled together these details and other data from 137 low and middle income countries to understand what young children are being fed and what that means for their growth. ... One in four children under the age of five are experiencing what study authors call “severe food poverty” which means kids are only being fed two or less food groups per day. (Tanis, 6/6)