First Edition: March 29, 2023

KHN: ER’s Error Lands A 4-Year-Old In Collections (For Care He Didn’t Receive)
Dr. Sara McLin thought she made the right choice by going to an in-network emergency room near her Florida home after her 4-year-old burned his hand on a stove last Memorial Day weekend. Her family is insured through her husband’s employer, HCA Healthcare, a Nashville-based health system that operates more hospitals than any other system in the nation. So McLin knew that a nearby stand-alone emergency room, HCA Florida Lutz Emergency, would be in their plan’s provider network. (Chang, 3/29)

KHN: GOP Lawmaker Calls For Tracking Homeless Spending, Working With Democrats On Mental Health 
Republican lawmakers say that, before California spends even more money battling homelessness, the public deserves to know exactly how the tens of billions of dollars already put toward the epidemic are being spent and whether the state is getting results. Among the GOP lawmakers calling for greater accountability is state Sen. Roger Niello, a businessman who returned to the Capitol in December after a 12-year hiatus. As a fiscal conservative from the Sacramento suburbs, with more than a decade of experience in local and state politics, Niello wants to work with Democrats. But he characterized the volume of money poured into fighting homelessness in recent years as runaway spending, saying Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t yet proved the money is working adequately to place homeless people into services and permanent housing. (Hart, 3/29)

KHN: A Progress Check On Hospital Price Transparency 
For decades, U.S. hospitals have generally stonewalled patients who wanted to know ahead of time how much their care would cost. Now that’s changing — but there’s a vigorous debate over what hospitals are disclosing. Under a federal rule in effect since 2021, hospitals nationwide have been laboring to post a mountain of data online that spells out their prices for every service, drug, and item they provide, including the actual prices they’ve negotiated with insurers and the amounts that cash-paying patients would be charged. They’ve done so begrudgingly and only after losing a lawsuit that challenged the federal rule. How well they’re doing depends on whom you ask. (Andrews, 3/29)

KHN: Listen To The Latest ‘KHN Health Minute’
This week’s KHN Health Minute asks what code-switching in the doctor’s office says about race and health care, and how efforts to curb the opioid crisis affect the care of patients with chronic pain. (3/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: One COVID-19 Bivalent Booster Is Enough For Now, CDC Finally Decides
There is finally clarity for Americans wondering whether it’s time to get another COVID-19 booster shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines on Monday emphatically stating that one updated dose is sufficient, even for individuals who received their last vaccination more than six months ago. (Vaziri, 3/28)

Reuters: WHO Revises COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations For Omicron-Era 
The World Health Organization has tailored its COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for a new phase of the pandemic, suggesting that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot but older, high-risk groups should get a booster between 6 to 12 months after their last vaccine. (3/28)

CIDRAP: Lucira Announces US Launch Of Combo COVID-Flu Home Test
Lucira today announced the US launch of its at-home combination COVID-19 and flu test, the first of its kind, following the February emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The biotechnology company, based in Emeryville, California, also announced that the test is now cleared for use as a point-of-care test in Australia. (Schnirring, 3/28)

The Washington Post: Pentagon Chief Warns Senate Amid Abortion-Policy Showdown
The nominations can still move ahead, but would require time-consuming steps by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y.), who complained Tuesday that Tuberville’s gambit was tantamount to “hostage taking.” “The women of our military,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor, “are more than capable of making their own decisions when it comes to their health. They do not need the senior senator from Alabama making decisions on their behalf. And they certainly do not need any senator throwing a wrench in the function, the vital functioning of our military when they work every day to keep us safe.” (Lamothe, 3/28)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Supreme Court Hears Arguments Concerning State’s Abortion Law
The Georgia Supreme Court will soon decide whether the abortion law the Legislature passed in 2019 should remain in effect — or if, as attorneys for abortion providers argued Tuesday, it was illegal from the start. In 2019, Georgia passed a law that bans most abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. (Prabhu, 3/28)

Reveal: Kentucky Lawmaker Pushes To Regulate Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers After Reveal Investigation
A state lawmaker is calling for Kentucky to regulate anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers after a Reveal investigation found that most centers aren’t subject to the same kind of oversight as other medical clinics, even though they perform procedures that can dramatically affect the lives of pregnant people. The Kentucky bill is among a wave of efforts by reproductive rights advocates in more than a dozen states to regulate crisis pregnancy centers through medical licensing requirements or consumer protection laws. (Morel, 3/27)

Reuters: U.S. Arrests Man For Firebombing Wisconsin Anti-Abortion Group's Office 
U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Wisconsin man with firebombing a conservative anti-abortion group's office last May, just days after a leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning the nationwide right to abortion became public. Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 29, was arrested at an airport in Boston after authorities said DNA from a thrown-away bag containing a partially eaten burrito had helped them identify who caused the May 8 fire at Wisconsin Family Action's office. (Raymond, 3/28)

AP: Wyoming Abortion Clinic Fire Suspect To Go Free Pending Case
She posted on social media about competing in a bike race, losing her pet hedgehog and visiting a butterfly garden with her grandmother but gave no sign of the anti-abortion views investigators say drove her to set fire to a Wyoming abortion clinic. On Tuesday, a judge ruled that Lorna Roxanne Green may be released from jail to carry on life as a college student pending further developments in her case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Hambrick ruled. (Gruver, 3/28)

NBC News: FDA Advisers To Meet On Over-The-Counter Birth Control Pills
Food and Drug Administration advisers will meet in May to discuss whether the agency should allow a birth control pill to be sold over the counter. The pill, called Opill from French drugmaker HRA Pharma, is currently approved by the FDA to prevent pregnancy, but it is only available with a prescription. (Lovelace Jr., 3/28)

Reuters: US Pharmacy Chain CVS To Bolster Customer Privacy Protection After Shareholder Push 
CVS Health Corp will enhance its data privacy disclosures following a shareholder proposal that asked the pharmacy chain to address concerns around threats to customers' reproductive health data, Arjuna Capital said. (3/28)

Reuters: Nashville School Shooter Had 'Emotional Disorder' And Small Arsenal, Police Say
Under Tennessee law, mental illness is not grounds for police to confiscate weapons, unless a person is deemed mentally incompetent by a court, "judicially committed" to a mental institution," or placed under a conservatorship "by reason of mental defect." (Allen and Ax, 3/29)

ABC News: Friend Says She Contacted Authorities After Messaging With Nashville Shooter Audrey Hale On Morning Of Attack
A friend of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale told ABC News that she contacted local authorities on Monday morning after Hale messaged her online about "planning to die today." ... She spoke to someone at the suicide prevention line who suggested she call local authorities. When she did, they said they would send someone out to her location to review the screenshots. But no one came to see the messages themselves until that afternoon, after the shooting had taken place, said the friend, Paige Patton. (Levine, 3/28)

The Hill: Biden Raises Pressure On GOP To Take Action On Guns
President Biden is focusing his anger over the elementary school shooting in Nashville this week squarely on Republicans, calling for lawmakers to show courage and warning that Congress will have to answer to families that have lost loved ones through gun violence. “The Congress has to act. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that,” Biden said on Tuesday. “I can’t do anything except plead with Congress to act reasonably.” (Gangitano and Lillis, 3/28)

The Hill: Tennessee Republican Responds To School Shooting: ‘We’re Not Gonna Fix It’ 
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett (R) said there’s no way to “fix” gun violence, after a shooter killed three children and three adults at an elementary school in his home state on Monday. “It’s a horrible, horrible situation,” Burchett told reporters. “And we’re not gonna fix it. Criminals are gonna be criminals.” (Shapero, 3/28)

NBC News: Fear Pervades Trans Community Amid Focus On Nashville Shooter's Gender Identity
Shortly after news broke Monday of a fatal shooting at a private Christian Nashville elementary school, police said the suspect was transgender. This detail, according to trans people in the state, has poured fuel on an already combustive environment that has led many of them to fear for their safety. (Lavietes and Yurcaba, 3/29)

Stat: GOP Presses Becerra On Gender-Affirming Care, Reproductive Rights
Republicans hammered the health secretary in hearings Tuesday, previewing a line of health- and science-related political attacks likely to dominate the 2024 elections. GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee repeatedly interrogated Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra about issues like gender-affirming care, reproductive rights, and migrant children at the border, continuing a theme laid out by two Senate committees last week as Becerra embarks on a committee tour to sell President Biden’s proposed 2024 budget. (Owermohle, 3/28)

CNN: FDA Sketches Out National Plan To Bolster The Fragile US Infant Formula Supply Management
The US Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday its initial strategy to boost and strengthen the management of the country’s supply of infant formula. The announcement came just ahead of a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about what went wrong during last year’s infant formula shortage. (Christensen, 3/28)

Reuters: Exclusive: WHO To Consider Adding Obesity Drugs To 'Essential' Medicines List 
Drugs that combat obesity could for the first time be included on the World Health Organization's "essential medicines list," used to guide government purchasing decisions in low- and middle-income countries, the U.N. agency told Reuters. A panel of advisers to the WHO will review new requests for drugs to be included next month, with an updated essential medicines list due in September. (Rigby, 3/29)

Bloomberg: Private Medicare Insurance Drives Up Costs, Senator Elizabeth Warren Says 
Big insurers who manage private Medicare plans are driving up seniors’ health costs, US Senator Elizabeth Warren said, urging the Biden administration to finalize new rules that would rein in how much the program pays companies. (Tozzi, 3/28)

Stat: Could A Fight Over QALYs Upend Medicare Drug Price Negotiation?
As Medicare drug price negotiation looms, congressional Republicans are scrambling to push through a limit that Democrats argue could hobble the agency’s efforts before they have even begun. A House committee last week advanced a bill that would bar federal health agencies from using a controversial value metric known as quality-adjusted life years, or QALYs. The metric places value not just on extension of life but also on various quality of life factors, which critics argue assigns a lower value to the life of someone who could be living with a debilitating disease. (Owermohle, 3/28)

Modern Healthcare: Friday Health Plans In Texas Declared Insolvent, Assets Seized
The Texas Department of Insurance has placed Friday Health Plans under receivership after the health insurance company declared insolvency. The Lone Star State’s insurance commissioner has seized the Friday Health Plans' assets and is charged with liquidating its local property, technology, bank accounts and other valuables to pay outstanding claims, according to a liquidation order issued Thursday. (Tepper, 3/28)

The Boston Globe: Union Votes ‘No Confidence’ In Women & Infants Hospital Management
An overwhelming number of unionized workers have voted “no confidence” in Women & Infants Hospital’s management, representing about 95 percent of those employees who voted, union leaders said Tuesday. (Gagosz, 3/28)

Reuters: Walgreens Plans No Further Wage Hikes For Pharmacists As Shortage Eases 
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc said on Tuesday it does not plan to increase wages further, as a shortage of pharmacists eases after the company doubled down on hiring and pay raises last year. A labor shortage during the pandemic prompted Walgreens and other U.S. drugstore operators, including CVS Health Corp and Walmart Inc, to raise minimum wages to $15 per hour to attract pharmacists. (Mandowara and Leo, 3/28)

WFSU: Florida Lawmakers Look To Increase Penalties For People Who Attack Hospital Personnel
A Jacksonville nurse told a state House panel that the bill would give her more tools to use when dealing with misbehaving patients and gave examples. Hospital workers regularly face verbal and physical attacks while on the job. Data shows those attacks are on the rise and nurses are most likely to be the victims. That can lead to a higher rate of turn-over all as the state stares down a nursing shortage. (McCarthy, 3/28)

The Washington Post: These Women Survived Combat. Then They Had To Fight For Health Care.
More than 300 women participated in the cultural support team program between 2009, when it was activated, and 2021, when the Afghanistan war ended. Many sustained life-changing injuries as a result of their work, only to find that they have had to prove to the federal government their need for specialized health care because the Pentagon never classified them as “combat” veterans. (Seck, 3/27)

AP: Kansas Moving To Raise Age For Buying Tobacco To 21 From 18 
Kansas is moving to increase its legal age for buying cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and other tobacco products to 21 from 18 after the federal government and most other states already have done it. The state Senate approved a bill to raise the age Tuesday on a 28-11 vote, sending it Gov. Laura Kelly. The House had approved it earlier this month on a 68-53 vote. (3/29)

AP: At Trial, Minnesota Says E-Cigarette Maker Juul Targets Kids 
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison personally opened his state’s case against Juul Labs on Tuesday, accusing the e-cigarette maker of using “slick products, clever ads and attractive flavors” to hook children on nicotine as the first of thousands of cases against the company reached trial. Minnesota is seeking more than $100 million in damages, accusing Washington, D.C.-based Juul of unlawfully targeting young people to get a new generation addicted to nicotine. (Karnowski, 3/28)

The Hill: Dems Push Back On GOP Fentanyl Claims During Hearing With Mayorkas 
Senate Democrats on Tuesday made their most forceful push yet against narratives linking immigration and the fentanyl crisis, slamming Republicans for their attempts to entangle the two issues. Data shows the vast majority of fentanyl enters the U.S. through the cars of American citizens, a fact highlighted repeatedly by Democrats as GOP lawmakers increasingly cast blame at Mexico in the fight against fentanyl. "Some are pushing the narrative that asylum seekers are smuggling fentanyl across the border when the facts tell a different story,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Beitsch, 3/28)

CNN: Xylazine Test Strips Available To Help Users Check For Animal Sedative In Drug Supply
The biotech company BTNX says it is shipping out new test strips this week that detect the presence of xylazine, an animal sedative that officials say is increasingly being mixed with fentanyl. As with fentanyl test strips, these pieces of paper have a reagent that can help users detect whether a drug has any xylaxine in it. Commonly called “tranq” or “tranq dope,” xylazine has not been approved for human use. The drug has heavy sedative effects like an opioid but isn’t one, so it doesn’t respond to the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone, also known as Narcan. (Kounang, 3/28)

Reuters: U.S. Sues Walmart For Firing Deli Worker With Crohn's Disease
According to a complaint filed in the Charlotte, North Carolina federal court, Walmart did not excuse several absences though Tucker provided doctor's notes, and rejected her requests for periodic leave or a transfer to a job nearer the bathroom. Crohn's disease is an chronic bowel disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract, and can lead to diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and weight loss. (Stempel, 3/28)

Oklahoman: Tuberculosis Screenings Underway For Edmond Santa Fe Students, Staff
At least some students and staff at Santa Fe High School are being tested to see if they've been exposed to tuberculosis, health officials confirmed Monday. Susan Riley, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, said Monday the agency will be testing those persons this week as it attempts to maintain the health and safety of the community. (Money, 3/28)

The Washington Post: Probiotic Supplements Claim To Boost Gut Health, But May Do Opposite 
Probiotic supplements have grown into a multibillion-dollar industry, spurred by claims that the products will populate your gut with bacteria that can boost your health in numerous ways. But beware of the hype: In healthy people, probiotic supplements offer little benefit, and they can potentially do more harm than good. (O'Connor, 3/28)