Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: March 20, 2024
KFF Health News: Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirements Costing Taxpayers Millions Despite Low Enrollment
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan for a conservative alternative to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers at least $26 million so far, with more than 90% going toward administrative and consulting costs rather than medical care for low-income people. Kemp’s Georgia Pathways to Coverage offers government health insurance to people earning up to the federal poverty level — $15,060 for an individual adult — if they can document that they’re working, in school, or performing other qualifying activities. (Miller and Rayasam, 3/20)
KFF Health News: Watch: Many Americans Are Unaware Of HIV Prevention Medication
Some Americans mistakenly believe medication to prevent HIV transmission through sex is just for certain groups such as gay men, but anyone who’s at risk for contracting HIV through sex could benefit. (Gounder, 3/20)
KFF Health News: Needle Pain Is A Big Problem For Kids. One California Doctor Has A Plan
Almost all new parents go through it: the distress of hearing their child scream at the doctor’s office. They endure the emotional torture of having to hold their child down as the clinician sticks them with one vaccine after another. “The first shots he got, I probably cried more than he did,” said Remy Anthes, who was pushing her 6-month-old son, Dorian, back and forth in his stroller in Oakland, California. (Dembosky, 3/20)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
“Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KFF Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week. (3/19)
AP: Biden And Congressional Leaders Announce A Deal On Government Funding As A Partial Shutdown Looms
President Joe Biden and congressional leaders announced Tuesday that they have reached an agreement on this fiscal year’s final set of spending bills. Now, the question is how fast lawmakers can get the bills passed to avoid a partial government shutdown. While Biden said he’ll sign the bill package as soon as he receives it, time is running short. Legislative staff needs time to finish the bill text, an arduous task. The House has a rule that lawmakers get 72 hours to review a bill before voting. And the Senate has never been known for its ability to sprint. Meanwhile, funding for several key agencies expires at midnight Friday. (Freking, 3/19)
Modern Healthcare: PBM Legislation Dropped — Again — From Funding Bill
A healthcare package that would have advanced pharmacy benefit manager legislation and other healthcare priorities including enhanced community health center funding will not move alongside the next round of federal appropriations. Committee leaders who hoped to build a legislative package around bipartisan PBM measures and other popular items were unable to come to agreement, and Senate and House leadership declined to add healthcare legislation to the fiscal 2024 government funding bill they are expected to release Tuesday or Wednesday. (McAuliff, 3/19)
Axios: Global AIDS Program Gets A Lifeline In New Spending Deal
A successful global AIDS program that was in limbo for months got a temporary reprieve this week when congressional negotiators agreed to a one-year renewal in the next government funding package. (Knight and Sullivan, 3/20)
CBS News: Women In New York Can Now Buy Birth Control Without A Prescription, Hochul Announces
With a stroke of a pen Tuesday morning, Gov. Kathy Hochul guaranteed birth control access for women in New York. "It's a new day. You now have access, easy access to the contraception you need to suit your needs because it is your body and it is your choice," Hochul said. As of Tuesday, all pharmacies across the state are allowed to dispense three types of contraception: The pill, ring or patch. Women in New York, or even those just visiting New York, can purchase up to a year's supply without visiting a doctor. (Moore, 3/19)
AP: Arizona Lawmaker Says She Announced Plans To Get An Abortion To Underscore Out-Of-Touch Laws
A pregnant Arizona lawmaker who revealed in a speech at the state Senate that she was planning to get an abortion says she wanted to share with her colleagues and the public the practical effects of abortion restrictions passed over the years. Democratic Sen. Eva Burch of Mesa told fellow lawmakers in a floor speech Monday that she was going to get an abortion because her pregnancy is no longer viable. The first-term lawmaker, who previously worked as a nurse practitioner at a women’s health clinic, described a “rough journey” with fertility and recounted a miscarriage she had suffered. (Billeaud, 3/19)
The Hill: Democratic Group Argued State Legislatures Are ‘Arbiters Of Reproductive Freedom’ In New Memo
A Democratic group that works to expand party control within state Capitols is arguing in a new memo that state legislatures are the “arbiters of reproductive freedom.” Heather Williams, president of Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), said in a new memo that “we are always just one Supreme Court decision away from a state law being catapulted to the national stage—like the Mississippi abortion ban that Dobbs upheld.” (Vakil, 3/20)
The CT Mirror: CT Bill Would Protect Those At Religious Hospitals Who Offer Care Info
Medical providers who work for religiously affiliated hospitals or other health care centers and provide counseling or referrals on reproductive care would be protected from dismissal, suspension, or penalties under a bill that is being considered by the legislature’s Public Health Committee. (Carlesso, 3/19)
Stat: Cancer, Immunology, HIV Research Ensnared In Fetal Tissue Politics
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have spent years trying to unravel the details of Down syndrome: What happens inside the womb, how the genetic disorder alters the formation of neurons, and what specific processes affect brain development. The work can’t proceed without studying fetal tissue. (Goldhill, 3/20)
San Francisco Chronicle: Measles Alert: Officials Warn Of Possible Exposure At East Bay Eatery
Alameda County health officials alerted the public Tuesday about a possible measles exposure at a San Leandro restaurant earlier this month. Health officials said the possible exposure occurred at Sons of Liberty Alehouse in San Leandro between the hours of 4:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on March 9. (Parker, 3/19)
CIDRAP: Transportation, Treasury Departments Need To Prep For Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Track Aid Money, Report Urges
The Department of Transportation (DOT) hasn't created a national aviation preparedness plan for infectious disease outbreaks, despite a 2015 US Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation to do so, according to a new report on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. When tasked with identifying pandemic lessons for the report, the GAO reviewed more than 20 of its previous reports and documents from offices of inspectors general and aviation stakeholders and interviewed officials from the DOT and the Department of the Treasury. (Van Beusekom, 3/19)
ABC News: COVID Vaccines Found To Cut Risk Of Heart Failure, Blood Clots Following Virus Infection: Study
COVID-19 vaccines were found to cut the risk of heart failure by up to 55% and blood clots by up to 78% following COVID infection, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. The positive health effects lasted for up to a year and were more pronounced right after getting vaccinated. (Benadjaoud, 3/19)
CIDRAP: Providing Lower Oxygen Levels May Be More Helpful In COVID ICU Patients
A new study based on outcomes seen at European intensive care units (ICUs) suggests higher is not better when it comes to targets for supplemental oxygenation levels for COVID-19 patients experiencing low oxygen, or hypoxia. (Soucheray, 3/19)
Wyoming Public Radio: After Three Years, COVID-19 Is No Longer A Leading Cause Of Death In Wyoming
COVID-19 is no longer among the top five causes of death for Wyoming residents, according to newly published Department of Health statistics for 2023. The coronavirus had been a leading cause of death for Wyomingites ever since 2020. (Victor, 3/19)
Stat: UnitedHealth Increases Loan Offers After Change Healthcare Outage
UnitedHealth Group appears to be offering some providers more substantial loans in the wake of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, according to three doctors who each saw their advances increase up to seven figures. (Trang and Bannow, 3/19)
Modern Healthcare: Cybersecurity Spending Too Low To Prevent Another Change Breach
Healthcare’s lack of investment in cybersecurity is in the spotlight as the Change Healthcare breach continues to disrupt the industry. ... Cybersecurity professionals are sounding the alarm on future attacks if healthcare organizations don't start putting more financial resources into protecting their data. “The landscape has changed. The threats are higher,” said David Ting, chief technology officer and founder of cybersecurity company Tausight. “We should be going to DEFCON 2.” (Turner, 3/19)
The Washington Post: After Years Of Ransomware Attacks, Health-Care Defenses Still Fail
Federal officials and industry executives have known for years that the U.S. health-care system was one of the critical industries most vulnerable to hacking but failed to make the improvements that might have stopped attacks like the one that has crippled pharmacists and other medical providers for three weeks. The danger was obvious in 2021, when ransomware gangs struck hospitals already overwhelmed by the covid-19 pandemic, forcing some to divert incoming emergency patients to other facilities and potentially contributing to deadly treatment delays. Menn, 3/19)
Modern Healthcare: Change Breach Offers Competitors Waystar, Availity An Opportunity
UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare has restored some of its system a month after a catastrophic cyberattack crippled it and much of the nation's healthcare infrastructure, but the recovery process is only just beginning. Other companies offering revenue cycle management are gaining traction amid the Change outage, filling in service gaps left by a dominant player that likely won't be operating normally for weeks. (Hudson and Berryman, 3/19)
Bloomberg: UnitedHealth, Mount Sinai Deal Preserves Access To NY Doctors
UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Mount Sinai Health System agreed to a new multiyear contract that will prevent thousands of New Yorkers from losing access to their in-network doctors. The agreement reached Tuesday immediately restores access to the health system’s hospitals for people with employer-sponsored and individual plans, including the Oxford Health Plan, according to a statement on the UnitedHealth website. (Denham, 3/20)
The New York Times: The Unbearable Vagueness Of Medical ‘Professionalism’
When Joel Bervell thought about professionalism as an undergrad, he thought of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Specifically, he thought about how residents on the show were expected to be, although often were not: on time, prepared for their cases and respectful to everyone around them. “That was the only standard that I had of what it meant to be a doctor — especially someone like me, who doesn’t come from a family of doctors,” said Mr. Bervell, 28, a fourth-year medical student at Washington State University. Mr. Bervell, who is Ghanaian American, is one of the first Black medical students at the medical college, which opened in 2017. (Gross, 3/19)
CBS News: Digital Stethoscope Uses Artificial Intelligence To Help Doctors Detect Heart Valve Problems
A new, digital stethoscope uses AI to help doctors detect heart valve problems. ... Only about 40-percent of murmurs can be detected during a physical exam by a clinician with a regular stethoscope. But this new stethoscope, developed by EKO Health, and the new technology with it are changing that. (Marshall, 3/19)
The Boston Globe: As Their Private-Equity Firm Owners Look To Sell, The Future Of Two Safety-Net Hospitals In R.I. Is At Stake
For the last decade, workers at two cash-strapped safety-net hospitals in Rhode Island have been trying to care for thousands of patients while answering to an out-of-state, private-equity firm owner with a history of failing to pay the bills. Now, they’re faced with a new kind of pressure: figuring out whether being purchased by a private foundation will make matters better, or worse. Hospitals owned by private-equity firms are struggling nationwide as the companies prioritize profits over patients. (Gagosz, 3/19)
The Boston Globe: Centurion Foundation Was The ‘Only Viable’ Buyer For Roger Williams, Fatima Hospitals, CEO Says
While standing in front of a packed room of hospital workers and executives, CharterCARE chief executive Jeffrey H. Liebman said that when the two hospitals he leads in Rhode Island went up for sale, there was only one organization that came forward that could take them over. The Centurion Foundation “was the only viable candidate,” said Liebman during a public information meeting on Tuesday night at Rhode Island College regarding the sale of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, which are managed by CharterCARE Health Partners. (Gagosz, 3/19)
Modern Healthcare: Centene, Clover Health, Other Insurers Retreat From ACO REACH
Health insurers are pulling back from an accountable care organization pilot program intended to reduce costs for fee-for-service Medicare enrollees amid a surprise spike in medical costs and unfavorable regulatory changes. Alignment Health, Centene and NeueHealth scaled back their participation in ACO REACH this year, while companies such as Cityblock Health and Clover Health withdrew from the model altogether. (Tepper, 3/19)
Reuters: Drugmaker Endo Receives US Court Approval For Bankruptcy Restructuring
Bankrupt drugmaker Endo International said on Tuesday a U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved its restructuring plan and related opioid settlements to emerge from bankruptcy, which began in 2022. ... Endo had last month agreed to pay up to $465 million over a decade to resolve over $7 billion in claims for purported tax debts, a criminal investigation into the company's opioid marketing and the federal government's possible overpayment for its medications. (3/19)
CNN: FDA Approved A Lifesaving Therapy For Children With A Rare Genetic Disease. It Might Become The World’s Most Expensive Drug
The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first therapy for a rare and devastating condition called metachromatic leukodystrophy, which typically kills affected children before they turn 7. The one-time treatment, called Lenmeldy, takes stem cells from someone with MLD and uses a harmless virus to insert working copies of a faulty gene. The repaired cells are then infused back to the patient, where they begin to produce an enzyme that’s lacking in children who have the disease. (Goodman, 3/19)
NBC News: Even Among The Insured, Weight Loss Drugs Are Rarely Prescribed, Study Suggests
Powerful weight loss medications aren’t reaching the people who need them most, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. ... “Obesity has been a long-standing clinical and public health change and it’s growing in scope,” said Dr. Chiadi Ndumele, director of obesity and cardiometabolic research in the division of cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, who presented the findings Tuesday at an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago. (Miller and Kopf, 3/19)
Stat: Baby Aspirin Cuts Fat Buildup In Liver Disease Patients, In Small Study
Low-dose aspirin led to a reduction in liver fat among patients with metabolic-associated liver disease, a small study out of Boston found. (Cueto, 3/19)
Los Angeles Times: California Communities Are Banning Syringe Programs. State Fights Back
As Indiana officials struggled to contain an outbreak of HIV among people who injected drugs, then-Gov. Mike Pence reluctantly followed the urgings of public health officials and cleared the way for an overwhelmed county to hand out clean syringes. ... After it rolled out in 2015, the percentage of injection drug users there who said they shared needles dropped from 74% to 22%. Within a few years, the number of new HIV infections plummeted by 96% and new cases of hepatitis C fell by 76%. (Alpert Reyes, 3/19)
CBS News: Colorado Lawmakers Look To Regulate Food Preservative Being Used For Suicide
Colorado lawmakers heard powerful testimony Tuesday about a bill aimed at saving lives. The measure would regulate a food preservative that is lethal in its concentrated form. The preservative, sodium nitrite, is primarily used - in a diluted form - by meat processing companies. But in recent years, it has also been increasingly used - in its pure form - as a suicide agent. (Boyd, 3/19)
The Boston Globe: Rhode Island Senate OKs Safe Gun Storage Bill
The Rhode Island Senate on Tuesday voted 28 to 7 for a bill requiring the safe storage of firearms, giving a boost to the gun bill that appears most likely to pass this legislative session. Senator Pamela J. Lauria, the Barrington Democrat who introduced the bill, emphasized that guns are the number one killer of children in the United States. “That bears repeating: not cancer, not motor vehicle accidents, but firearms are the number one killer of our children,” she said. (Fitzpatrick, 3/19)
News Service of Florida: USF Trustees Approve Starting A Degree Program For School Psychologists
The University of South Florida is preparing to launch a new degree program to train educational specialists in school psychology, amid what one national organization says is a shortage of psychologists at schools. (3/19)
NPR: Syphilis Cases Are Rising In Babies. Illinois Has A Potential Solution
Laurie Ayala works out of an office deep in Northwestern Medicine's Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago, IL. Whenever the small, black landline phone on her desk rings, she answers. This phone is home base for Illinois' Perinatal Syphilis Warmline. Launched in November 2023, the phone line is designed to answer questions about perinatal syphilis from medical professionals across the state. ... There were roughly 4,000 babies born with syphilis in the United States in 2022 – in 2012, that number was 335. (Khera, Kwong, and Carlson, 3/20)
Los Angeles Times: Trader Joe's Recalls Whole Cashews Due To Possible Salmonella
“Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our customers and crew members,” a Trader Joe’s representative said in an email, adding that when a product doesn’t meet TJ’s “stringent food safety expectations,” the company moves swiftly to recall it. (Petrow-Cohen, 3/19)
NPR: The World Happiness Report Shows A Generational Divide In Well-Being In The U.S.
People aged 60 and older in the U.S. reported high levels of well-being compared to younger people. In fact, the United States ranks in the top 10 countries for happiness in this age group. Conversely, there's a decline in happiness among younger adolescents and young adults in the U.S. "The report finds there's a dramatic decrease in the self-reported well-being of people aged 30 and below," says report author Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a professor of economics and behavioral science, and the director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University. (Aubrey, 3/20)
