First Edition: March 18, 2024

KFF Health News: As More States Target Disavowed ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis, Police Groups Push Back
Following a pivotal year in the movement to discard the term “excited delirium,” momentum is building in several states to ban the discredited medical diagnosis from death certificates, law enforcement training, police incident reports, and civil court testimony. In January, California became the first state to prohibit the medical term from many official proceedings. Now, lawmakers in Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, and New York are considering bills that also would rein in how the excited delirium concept is used. (Rayasam, 3/18)

KFF Health News: Covid And Medicare Payments Spark Remote Patient Monitoring Boom
Billy Abbott, a retired Army medic, wakes at 6 every morning, steps on the bathroom scale, and uses a cuff to take his blood pressure. The devices send those measurements electronically to his doctor in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and a health technology company based in New York, to help him control his high blood pressure. Nurses with the company, Cadence, remotely monitor his readings along with the vital signs of about 17,000 other patients around the nation. (Galewitz and Hacker, 3/18)

The Hill: Biden To Sign Executive Order To Expand Research On Women’s Health 
President Biden on Monday will sign an executive order aimed at expanding research and improving government initiatives on women’s health, a move that will coincide with a White House Women’s History Month reception. The president’s executive order will “ensure women’s health is integrated and prioritized across the federal research portfolio and budget,” the White House said, with a focus on the administration’s Initiative on Women’s Health Research.  (Samuels, 3/18)

Reuters: No One Should Go To Jail For 'Smoking Weed,' VP Harris Says At White House
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday said "nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed," as she met to discuss the topic with rapper Fat Joe and others pardoned for marijuana convictions. Harris added that "far too many people have been sent to jail for simple marijuana possession. "President Joe Biden, seeking a second four-year term in November's election, has sought to appeal to young voters, some of whom are dissatisfied with his sluggish policy reforms.. (Kelly, 3/15)

Reuters: Blinken Calls For Closer Global Cooperation On Tackling Synthetic Drugs 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called for greater international cooperation to fight the booming trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, the leading cause of overdose deaths in his country. He was speaking at an annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), which reviews global drug regulation and each year adds new so-called precursor chemicals - ingredients used to make illicit drugs - to international lists known as schedules to place strict controls on their trade. (Pamuk and Murphy, 3/15)

USA Today: Health Care Absent In 2024. If Voters Care, Why Don't Biden And Trump?
A recent poll shows that about three-quarters of Americans worry about the cost and availability of health care. But other than talking about reducing the cost of some medications ‒ a favorite topic of President Joe Biden's ‒ and how much of Medicare spending can be considered "wasteful," the leading presidential candidates have been largely silent about health on the campaign trail. (Weintraub, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Change Update: CMS Allows For Speedier Medicaid Reimbursements
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday it was taking steps to allow states to speed Medicaid reimbursement payments to providers affected by the Change Healthcare cyberattack. The flexibilities allow states to submit Medicaid state plan amendments so they can make make interim payments to providers for services for which claims have not been submitted because of the outage. (DeSilva, 3/15)

Modern Healthcare: Change Update: Congress Edges Toward Cybersecurity Legislation
More than three weeks since a cyberattack that continues to disrupt U.S. healthcare operations, Congress is still groping for a response. But paths forward have begun to emerge as awareness of the damage slowly spreads on Capitol Hill. Many lawmakers still have no answers ... But a growing number of them are devising plans that range from holding hearings and putting pressure on federal agencies to enacting legislation. (McAuliff, 3/15)

The Hill: Deal To Avert Shutdown Held Up Over Homeland Security Fight 
A bipartisan deal to fund swaths of the government and avert a shutdown later this week is hitting a snag as negotiations over the annual Homeland Security Department (DHS) spending bill sputter. The package initially planned for release Sunday would have included five full-year funding bills covering the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and State, along with the Internal Revenue Service and general government and foreign operations. ... However, the timeline for the package’s release is slipping after recent involvement from the White House in negotiations, Republicans say. (Folley, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-Era Case On Free Speech To Test Supreme Court
When Hank Aaron died in 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested in a tweet that the baseball legend’s death was caused by a Covid vaccine. The next day, a White House employee asked Twitter, now known as X, to take down Kennedy’s post. “Wondering if we can get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP,” the White House’s Covid-19 digital director wrote to two Twitter employees. The social-media platform did so. Meta Platforms went further, later suspending Kennedy, a nephew of John F. Kennedy and now a long-shot presidential candidate, from Instagram and Facebook. ... The Supreme Court this week will consider whether the administration’s zeal crossed a constitutional line. (Wolfe and Gershman, 3/17)

Military.com: Pentagon Complied With COVID-19 Waiver Rules According To Watchdog But Services Moved Slowly 
A Pentagon watchdog review of the military's COVID-19 vaccine exemption process found that each of the branches largely complied with policies and, in some cases, even went beyond what was required to consider service members' requests for religious accommodation. While rejecting a number of accusations that the services hadn't properly reviewed waiver requests, the Pentagon's inspector general did fault the Army and Air Force for taking too long to process the requests and wrote in a report released Thursday that discharges were inconsistent, leaving some service members with full benefits while others were left with partial benefits. (Toropin, 3/15)

USA Today: How COVID-19 Misinformation Is Still Hurting Some Americans' Health
Jesse Ehrenfeld, an anesthesiologist at a Wisconsin hospital, asked a patient about to have heart surgery if she would consent to a blood transfusion should it become necessary. It's a standard question. But the patient refused. It was 2021, and the COVID-19 vaccine had become publicly available only a few months earlier. This patient, though, made it clear she did not want it – or blood from anyone who already had it. "It was at that moment I knew we were in for it," Ehrenfeld said. (Mueller, 3/15)

The New York Times: Health Misinformation Is Evolving. Here’s How to Spot It
Keep an eye out for instances where claims online jump to conclusions without evidence, or appeal to your emotions, advised Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. When you see a piece of medical content online, ask yourself: Does any aspect of the message seem designed to hook you? Does the message seem engineered to make you upset or concerned? Does the source correct itself when it makes a mistake? (Blum, 3/16)

WMFE: CDC Director Cohen Makes Another Orlando Visit Hoping To Build Trust 
Dr. Mandy Cohen spoke with Orlando health leaders as part of her tour of the country's local health facilities. Her message: "We all need to keep working as a team." (Pedersen, 3/14)

CIDRAP: Brisk US Flu Activity Continues As COVID Indicators Drop Further 
The nation's flu activity remained elevated last week, with an increase in test positivity, as levels of two other respiratory viruses—COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—continued their steady declines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in updates today. In its respiratory virus snapshot of all three diseases, the CDC said illness levels remain elevated in many parts of the country. Sixteen jurisdictions are reporting high or very high activity, down from 22 the previous week. (Schnirring, 3/15)

AP: How Bad Are Flu, COVID-19 And RSV? These Charts Show How Respiratory Viruses Are Spreading In The US 
Spring is nearly here, but the 2023-24 respiratory virus season isn’t over yet. Viral activity from flu, COVID-19 and RSV has fallen from the peak, but levels remain elevated. (Forster, 3/15)

Axios: Funding Crunch Threatens A Key Virus-Fighting Tool: Tracking America's Poop
More of America's sewage systems are tracking viral risks beyond the coronavirus, but unpredictable funding threatens the future of what's become an important surveillance tool for cash-strapped public health departments. Wastewater testing — supercharged by the creation of a national surveillance system in 2020 — has been one of the more reliable metrics for tracking COVID-19 spread since other data, like daily case counts and testing, became much more scarce last year. (Moreno, 3/16)

Axios: Long COVID’s Testing, Treatment Could Be Close
Researchers are getting closer to understanding the underlying causes of long COVID and potential ways to definitively test for it. That would be a massive step toward unlocking a complex condition that's debilitated millions of Americans, mystified scientists and frustrated patient advocates who feel their struggles have been ignored. (Reed, 3/16)

AP: Marriages In The US Are Back To Pre-Pandemic Levels, CDC Says
U.S. marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022. That’s a 4% increase from the year before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the data Friday, but has not released marriage data for last year. In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 1.7 million U.S. weddings — the lowest number recorded since 1963. The pandemic threw many marriage plans into disarray, with communities ordering people to stay at home and banning large gatherings to limit the spread of COVID-19. (Stobbe, 3/15)

Modern Healthcare: Match Day 2024: Record Number Of Residency Positions Filled
Medical students filled a record number of residency positions this year as some states and individual health systems funded an increased number of graduate medical education slots amid federal caps. Hospitals and medical centers offered 41,503 residency positions in 2024, a 3% increase from last year, according to Match Day results released Friday by the National Resident Matching Program. (Devereaux, 3/15)

Axios: Medical School Graduates Are Returning To ERs
New doctors' interest in emergency medicine is rebounding after the field became the embodiment of professional burnout during the pandemic. New data out Friday from The National Resident Matching Program shows medical school graduates are continuing to choose higher-paying specialties like orthopedic surgery, ophthalmology, thoracic surgery and radiology. (Goldman, 3/15)

The Washington Post: As America Ages, There Are Few Doctors Who Specialize In Seniors’ Care 
Pat Early, 66, has lived with the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s syndrome since her 30s. She must rely on a stable of specialists — a rheumatologist, gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, ophthalmologist and the like — to manage the fatigue, muscle pain and other complications of the disease, all helmed by her longtime primary-care doctor. When that doctor started cutting back his staff, she began searching for someone new and stumbled across a medical practice of geriatricians — doctors who specialize in patients over age 65. Early didn’t consider herself old, so “it never even crossed my mind that that’s something I should be looking at,” she said. But she’s grateful for the switch. (Stern, 3/17)

CBS News: Allegheny Health Network Raises Hourly Minimum Wage To $18
Allegheny Health Network is boosting its minimum hourly starting wage to $18, the company announced on Friday. AHN says the increase will start at the end of March, affecting about 1,700 employees who are already at or near the current minimum hourly wage of $16 an hour. The company says the increase will have the greatest impact on those working in entry-level positions that are essential to the patient experience like environmental services, dietary services and patient care technicians. (Bartos, 3/15)

CNN: Why Your Doctor’s Office Is Spamming You With Appointment Reminders
Going to see the doctor soon? Prepare to be hounded with appointment reminders by phone. By text. By robocall. By email. And in your online “patient portal.” Doctors and dentist offices for years left a courtesy voicemail on patients’ home answering machines giving them a heads-up about their appointment. But now, medical practices are flooding patients with reminders of upcoming appointments — and warnings of cancellation penalties. (Meyersohn, 3/16)

Stat: CVS Caremark Has Created A New Ploy: The Drug ‘Rebate Credit’
The biggest enticement that large pharmacy benefit managers offer to the employers that hire them is drug rebates — a steady stream of money sent back to their clients, a tangible symbol of the discounts that PBMs are able to wrangle out of pharmaceutical companies. (Herman, 3/18)

Stat: FDA Advisers Back CAR-T Cell Therapies In Blood Cancer, Despite Concerns
A panel of expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted in favor of expanding the use of CAR-T therapy in blood cancer, despite concerns about the powerful treatment’s side effects. (Garde, 3/15)

Reuters: Lilly Weight-Loss Drug Zepbound New US Prescriptions Surpass Wegovy For First Time
Eli Lilly’s powerful weight-loss drug Zepbound hit 77,590 new prescriptions in the U.S. for the week ending March 8, surpassing Novo Nordisk’s rival obesity medicine Wegovy for the first time since it was launched, according to data from IQVIA. Some 6,000 fewer Wegovy prescriptions were filled in the United States that week, but Novo maintained its lead for total weekly prescriptions over Zepbound by 25,307, according to the data published by JPMorgan in a weekly note.

The Washington Post: Failure Of ALS Drug Puts A Spotlight On Controversial FDA Approvals
Justin Klee and Josh Cohen had pulled off an improbable success, turning an idea they hashed out as undergraduates into a drug that aimed to slow one of the world’s most implacable and deadly neurological diseases. On the strength of a single clinical trial, they’d won U.S. regulatory approval for their drug to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. They expected that a larger trial would cement the effectiveness of their treatment. Instead, the trial showed that their drug, Relyvrio, doesn’t work. (Gilbert, 3/16)

Reuters: Reckitt Unit Hit With $60 Million Verdict In Enfamil Baby Formula Case In Illinois 
An Illinois jury has ordered Reckitt Benckiser unit Mead Johnson to pay $60 million to the mother of a premature baby who died of an intestinal disease after being fed the company's Enfamil baby formula. The jury in an Illinois state court in St. Clair County on Wednesday found that Mead Johnson was negligent and that it failed to warn of the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The disease, which causes the death of bowel tissue, mostly affects premature newborns and has a fatality rate of about 15% to 40%. (Pierson, 3/15)

The New York Times: When Medicaid Comes After The Family Home
The letter came from the state department of human services in July 2021. It expressed condolences for the loss of the recipient’s mother, who had died a few weeks earlier at 88. Then it explained that the deceased had incurred a Medicaid debt of more than $77,000 and provided instructions on how to repay the money. “I was stunned,” said the woman’s 62-year-old daughter. At first, she thought the letter might be some sort of scam. It wasn’t. (Span, 3/16)

The Colorado Sun: State Allocates $7.2 Million To Colorado Medicaid To Help It Reimburse Longer Stays At Psychiatric Facilities
A decades-old policy incentivizes Colorado health providers to prematurely discharge patients with serious mental illness from psychiatric hospitals, crisis stabilization units, residential treatment centers and nursing homes, state leaders said. Now, legislators are working to address the issue by recommending that $7.2 million is allocated to the Colorado Medicaid department to reimburse providers that work with patients who need care for up to 30 days. (Flowers, 3/18)

The Boston Globe: Patients From The Courts Add Strain To State's Psych Hospitals
An influx of patients from the criminal justice system is overwhelming a Massachusetts psychiatric hospital, contributing to overcrowding and dangerous conditions at a facility ill-equipped to properly care for them. At Tewksbury Hospital ... staff complain of groping, threats, and assaults; and local police have responded to violent incidents and patients wandering off the property, according to town records, state data, and interviews with current and former workers. (Laughlin, 3/16)

AP: A New Kind Of Hospital Is Coming To Rural America. To Qualify, Facilities Must Close Their Beds
As rural hospitals continue to struggle financially, a new type of hospital is slowly taking root, especially in the Southeast. Rural emergency hospitals receive more than $3 million in federal funding a year and higher Medicare reimbursements in exchange for closing all inpatient beds and providing 24/7 emergency care. While that makes it easier for a hospital to keep its doors open, experts say it doesn’t solve all of the challenges facing rural health care. People might have to travel further for treatments for illnesses that require inpatient stays, like pneumonia or COVID-19. (Bose, 3/16)

AP: Idaho Considers A Ban On Using Public Funds Or Facilities For Gender-Affirming Care 
Idaho lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a bill that would ban the use of any public funds for gender-affirming care, including for state employees using work health insurance and for adults covered by Medicaid. The legislation already passed the House and only needs to clear the majority Republican Senate before it is sent to Gov. Brad Little’s desk, where it would likely be signed into law. The Republican governor has said repeatedly he does not believe public funds should be used for gender-affirming care. (Boone, 3/18)

CNN: Lewiston Shooting: Sagdahoc Sheriff Had Probable Cause To Take Maine Gunman Into Custody Before Shooting, Report Says
Law enforcement officers had probable cause to confiscate the firearms from Robert Card and take him into protective custody before he went on a shooting rampage in northern Maine, but failed to invoke a state law that could have been used to disarm him, according to an independent report into the mass shooting made public Friday. The interim report, released by an independent commission to investigate the October 25, 2023, mass shooting in Lewiston, determined the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had sufficient evidence to believe the US Army Reservist posed a likelihood of serious harm and stressed the department could have utilized the state’s so-called “yellow flag” law. The report detailed how those who knew Card alerted authorities on several occasions to his deteriorating mental state and serious concerns he would become violent. (Tucker, 3/15)

CIDRAP: Chicago Measles Total Rises To 12 Cases 
Amid a small but steady rise in infections nationally, Chicago has now reported 12 measles cases, 10 of them linked to people who recently arrived at a local migrant shelter. In a weekly update, the Chicago Department of Public Health said 6 of the cases involve children and 6 are in adults. A local media report said 2 of the patients had attended separate Chicago public schools, 1 of them reportedly a child who is staying at the migrant shelter. (Schnirring, 3/15)

CBS News: Health Officials Confirm Probable Measles Exposure In Merced County
Health officials have confirmed a probable measles exposure in Merced County and are working with exposed individuals and health care providers in the area. Last week, officials said hundreds of people may have been exposed at a Sacramento hospital after an El Dorado County child was confirmed to have contracted it. That child appeared to have contacted it after a trip out of the country. Earlier this week, an unvaccinated Central Valley child was confirmed to have a case of measles. (Downs, 3/15)