First Edition: March 8, 2024

KFF Health News: Biden Team, UnitedHealth Struggle To Restore Paralyzed Billing Systems After Cyberattack
Margaret Parsons, one of three dermatologists at a 20-person practice in Sacramento, California, is in a bind. Since a Feb. 21 cyberattack on a previously obscure medical payment processing company, Change Healthcare, Parsons said, she and her colleagues haven’t been able to electronically bill for their services. She heard Noridian Healthcare Solutions, California’s Medicare payment processor, was not accepting paper claims as of earlier this week, she said. And paper claims can take 3-6 months to result in payment anyway, she estimated. (Tahir, Wolfson and Chang, 3/8)

KFF Health News: VIP Health System For Top US Officials Risked Jeopardizing Care For Soldiers
Top U.S. officials in the Washington area have received preferential treatment from a little-known health care program run by the military, potentially jeopardizing care for other patients including active-duty service members, according to Pentagon investigators. White House officials, senior military and other national security leaders, retired military officers, and family members have all benefited. (Hilzenrath, 3/8)

KFF Health News: California May Face More Than $40M In Fines For Lapses In Prison Suicide Prevention
California could face more than $40 million in fines after it failed to improve suicide prevention measures in state prisons despite a federal judge’s warning that she would impose financial penalties for each violation. Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller told state officials over a year ago that she would start imposing fines unless they implemented 15 suicide prevention protocols that had been lacking for nearly a decade. But court expert Lindsay Hayes reported March 1 that the state continues to lag on 14 of the 15 safeguards. (Thompson, 3/8)

KFF Health News' 'What The Health?' Podcast: The State Of The Union Is ... Busy
At last, Congress is getting half of its annual spending bills across the finish line, albeit five months after the start of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden delivers his annual State of the Union address, an over-the-counter birth control pill is (finally) available, and controversy erupts over new public health guidelines for covid-19 isolation. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. (3/7)

Modern Healthcare: State Of The Union Address Lays Out Biden’s Healthcare Priorities
President Joe Biden mostly painted in broad strokes in his State of the Union Address Thursday when it came to healthcare, touting a raft of healthcare accomplishments and proposals aimed at lowering costs for patients but perhaps raising costs for companies. He also pointed to some new proposals, including expanding the number of drugs that can be negotiated by Medicare to 50 a year, extending a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs to all Americans, and launching a $12 billion women's healthcare initiative. (McAuliff, 3/7)

Stat: In His State Of The Union, Biden Takes Clear Aim At 'Big Pharma' 
Often, a president’s State of the Union address is a staid affair, with platitudes and calls for bipartisanship and unity. But President Biden blasted the pharmaceutical industry with its unflattering moniker, “Big Pharma,” not once, but three times Thursday night, only the second time ever that sobriquet has been used in such a setting, after Biden’s address last year. (Wilkerson, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Takeaways From Biden’s State Of The Union Address
Biden confronted the Supreme Court—with some justices in the audience looking on—over the decision that eliminated the right to an abortion. “With all due respect, justices, women are not without electoral or political power,” Biden said. “You’re about to realize just how much.” It was an unusually direct rebuke of the court by Biden, an institutionalist who has long said he respects the independence of the court. (Lucey, 3/8)

The 19th: Latorya Beasley, Jill Biden’s State Of The Union Guest, Highlights Alabama IVF Ruling
Latorya Beasley was supposed to undergo an embryo transfer this week at her clinic, Alabama Fertility, in hopes of having her second child through in vitro fertilization (IVF). But her plans were thwarted by a state Supreme Court ruling that halted IVF for many in the state. Now, she’s attending President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as a guest of First Lady Jill Biden. (Panetta and Luthra, 3/7)

CNN: Alabama Clinics Resume Treatment Under New IVF Law, But Experts Say It Will Take More Work To Protect Fertility Services
Providers in Alabama are resuming some in vitro fertilization services Thursday, the day after the state’s Republican governor signed a bill into law aimed at protecting IVF patients and providers from the legal liability imposed on them by a controversial state Supreme Court ruling. The new law does not address the issue of personhood at the heart of last month’s unprecedented ruling, which prompted some providers to halt some IVF services, and experts say it’s going to take more work to fully protect fertility services in the state. (Mascarenhas and Rosales, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Alabama IVF Ruling Draws Attention To Technology’s Unregulated Frontiers
Vitaly Kushnir’s fertility clinic offers to screen an embryo to predict a baby’s sex, but the service can lead to ethically murky territory, like when a couple wanted it so their first child could be a boy. It struck him as a sexist motive, he said, and initially he declined. But the couple pushed back, saying that they would simply abort the baby if it was a girl. “I’m not in the business of bringing in unwanted children,” said Kushnir, who owns West Coast Fertility Centers and teaches at the University of California at Irvine. Kushnir, who ultimately agreed to the couple’s wishes, said he thinks there should be some restrictions on selecting a baby’s sex, but in the United States, there aren’t any. (Gilbert, 3/7)

Stat: IVF Doctors Demand Details After CooperSurgical Lawsuit
Patients from all over the country are filing lawsuits against medical supply giant CooperSurgical, alleging that fluid the company sent to in vitro fertilization clinics destroyed their embryos. (Lawrence, 3/8)

AP: Senate Passes Bill To Compensate Americans Exposed To Radiation By The Government 
The Senate passed legislation Thursday that would compensate Americans exposed to radiation by the government by renewing a law initially passed more than three decades ago. The bill by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., would expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include more people who believe that exposure caused their illnesses. While some Republicans have balked at the cost — an estimated $50 billion, according to Hawley’s office — the senators have argued that the government is at fault and should step up. (Jalonick and Salter, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Change Healthcare Update: Systems Coming Back Online Next Week 
UnitedHealth Group reopened Change Healthcare's electronic prescribing platform, and expects to restore other key parts of the system next week, the company said in a notice on its website Thursday. Change Healthcare's electronic prescribing platform came back online Thursday, according to UnitedHealth Group, which operates Change Healthcare through its Optum subsidiary. The company anticipates reactivating the electronic payments platform on March 15 and restoring the medical claims network for customers the week of March 18. (Young, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Epic Brings EHR Software To Apple App Store For Macs
Electronic health record company Epic said Thursday its software is available on Apple's App Store. Clinicians who use Apple's Mac computers can download the program directly through the technology giant's App Store. This version of Epic is designed specifically for Apple computers, the EHR company said. This is the first time Epic will run its application directly on Mac computers. (Turner, 3/7)

Reuters: Cigna To Help Health Plans Limit Costs Amid Boom In Weight-Loss Drugs
Cigna Group said on Thursday its pharmacy benefit management unit had launched a program aiming to cap annual cost increases for health insurance providers and employers from new weight-loss drugs at 15%, as demand for the treatments soars. (Leo, 3/7)

USA Today: 'Let's Get Serious': Eli Lilly Slams Hollywood's Ozempic Obsession Ahead Of Oscars
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is finally weighing in on Hollywood’s obsession with Ozempic. In a commercial spot released Thursday, the company criticizes people who prescribe or take weight loss drugs without an obesity diagnosis. The ad hits the airwaves days before the 96th Academy Awards, an epic Hollywood gathering where people tend to be laser-focused on celebrities and their bodies. Eli Lilly is the company behind tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Zepbound, which was approved in November to treat people with obesity. (Rodriguez, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Why Physician, Nursing Shortages Persist And What Can Be Done
Training bottlenecks, uneven distribution of certain providers and expected regulation are adding roadblocks to efforts to tackle pervasive staffing shortages throughout healthcare. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis predicts that by 2036 the industry will have shortages of more than 68,000 primary care physicians, 62,400 psychologists, 42,100 psychiatrists, 6,600 obstetrician-gynecologists and 33,100 family medicine physicians, in addition to deficits of other specialties. (Devereaux, 3/7)

The Boston Globe: AI Spotted Fake Health News Better Than People Per UNH Study
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that a machine learning model – a form of artificial intelligence – could better detect inadequacies in medical news than a layperson in a new study. Ermira Zifla, assistant professor of decision sciences at UNH’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, said she decided to look into fake news during the pandemic, when dubious health claims circulated widely on social media. (Gokee, 3/7)

Stat: Former Medical Device CEO Who Sold Dummy, Plastic Parts Convicted Of Fraud
A New York jury on Wednesday convicted the former CEO of Stimwave, a company that sold devices with dummy pieces of plastic, on two counts of health care fraud. The maximum jail sentence for each count is 20 years. (Lawrence, 3/7)

NBC News: Florida's Medicaid Call Center's Wait Times, Disconnection Rates Preventing Health Care Access, Study Warns
The Medicaid call center in Florida is experiencing long wait times and high rates of disconnection that could be preventing qualifying families from renewing or accessing Medicaid coverage, according to a report by UnidosUS, a national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. Around 1 million people, 17% of Floridians enrolled, have lost coverage since April, which is when the state started redetermining Medicaid eligibility for the first time since 2020. (Sesin, 3/7)

WUSF: A Florida Bill Creating 'Rural Emergency Hospitals' Is Going To The Governor
A bill that would create a new category of “rural emergency hospitals” in Florida is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The House on Wednesday unanimously passed the bill (SB 644), which was approved by the Senate last week. (3/7)

USA Today: Michigan Reports Three Measles Cases As Numbers Grow In Florida, Other States
Three new measles cases and hundreds of potential exposure have been reported in Michigan, one of the latest states impacted by the spread of the infection across the U.S. (Walrath-Holdridge and Jordan Shamus, 3/7)

Chicago Tribune: First Case Of Measles Detected In Chicago In 5 Years
Chicago public health officials on Thursday said they had identified the first case of measles in the city since 2019 and urged city residents to make sure they were vaccinated against the disease. Illinois saw five measles cases in 2023, public health officials said. (Kubzansky, 3/7)

Houston Chronicle: Meningitis Cases In Texas Prompt Vaccine Reminders
Multiple people in Houston have been infected with a severe bacterial disease that triggered a statewide health advisory last month, according to the Houston Health Department. Between November and February, four adults and three children in Houston were infected with meningococcal disease. This highly infectious but vaccine-preventable illness can lead to meningitis, or inflammation of the brain and spinal cord membranes. (Gill, 3/7)

AP: Maine Mass Shooter Had A Brain Injury. Experts Say That Doesn't Explain His Violence. 
Brain injury experts are cautioning against drawing conclusions from newly released and limited information about evidence of a brain injury in an Army reservist who killed 18 people last year in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting. (Ramer and Casey, 3/8)

The New York Times: Panel Examining Lewiston Shooting Presses Army Reservists on Gunman
A commission investigating the October mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, interrogated Army Reserve colleagues of the gunman, Robert R. Card Jr., at a hearing Thursday, pressing for answers about their failed efforts to prevent him from inflicting harm and eliciting some of the most detailed accounts yet of the months leading up to the rampage. Members of the commission drilled down on key moments of inaction by military supervisors who knew of the shooter’s threats, erratic behavior and access to weapons, seeking accountability among the multiple law enforcement agencies and military personnel who traded concerns about Mr. Card, as his mental state deteriorated last year. (Russell, 3/7)

CBS News: Marine Veteran Fights To Expand Mandated Insurance Coverage Of Life-Changing Prosthetics In Maryland
In Maryland, those without limbs are fighting to make insurance companies pay for prosthetics that are essential for their mobility. There's a push in Maryland to mandate coverage that can change lives. "I'm a high-ranking, professional sprinter. I snowboard. I surf. There are so many things that I'm able to do by the access that I'm allowed. I want to be able to give that to other people," said John Edward Heath. Heath, a Marine veteran and Paralympian, lost his leg after being hit by a drunk driver. (Hellgren, 3/7)

Military.com: A Nurse With An Amputation Hopes To Join The Air Force. A New Bill Could Allow Her To Do So. 
Hannah Cvancara is the namesake of the "Hannah Cvancara Service Act," a bill introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., in February. If passed, it would allow amputees interested in joining the military to serve in medical personnel fields in the National Guard, reserves and on active duty. Cvancara was born with a condition called fibular hemimelia, meaning she was born without a fibula bone and had a few other bone defects through her left leg and foot. As a one-year-old, she underwent a below-the-knee amputation and has been using prosthetics since. (Nostrant, 3/7)

CNN: Single Dose Of LSD Provides Immediate, Lasting Anxiety Relief, Study Says
A clinical trial’s encouraging results won US Food and Drug Administration breakthrough therapy status for an LSD formulation to treat generalized anxiety disorder, Mind Medicine Inc. announced Thursday. The biopharmaceutical company is developing the drug. (LaMotte, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: E.R. Visits Quadruple For Children Accidentally Eating Melatonin
More parents with young children are taking melatonin to sleep. And some of them are going to the emergency room after their children took melatonin accidentally. The number of children who visited emergency rooms for unsupervised melatonin consumption increased 420% from 2009-2020, federal data showed. Melatonin was implicated in some 7% of recent E.R. visits for children 5 and younger who had taken medication without supervision. (Wernau, 3/7)

CIDRAP: Body's Response To COVID Differs In Men, Women, Researchers Report 
COVID-19 affects men and women differently, with men having greater increases in skin temperature, breathing rate, and heart rate, concludes a study published yesterday in PLOS One. (Van Beusekom, 3/7)

Bloomberg: Why Do Women Get Worse Long Covid? Study Points To Testosterone
A new study by a prominent team of researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has found that women with long Covid had significantly lower levels of testosterone compared to those who had recovered from their infection. (Jarvis, 3/7)

Stat: RSV Shot Was 90% Effective At Preventing Hospitalizations In Kids
A new monoclonal antibody product to protect against respiratory syncytial virus was 90% effective at preventing little children from being hospitalized with RSV, according to new data from the first season it was in use. (Branswell, 3/7)

Axios: America's Split On Whether The Pandemic Is Over
Free COVID tests are over, for now. So are guidelines for infected people to isolate. Half of the country thinks the pandemic is finished. But, in reality, COVID-19 is still with us. Though the official trappings of the crisis keep fading away and it's increasingly being treated like the flu, the virus remains an ever-present threat that's killing hundreds of Americans every week and consuming health care dollars and resources. (Goldman, 3/8)

Mayo Clinic News Network: Study Shows Daylight Saving Time Has Minimal Effect On Heart Health 
A recent Mayo Clinic study examining the effects of daylight saving time (DST) on heart health suggests that the impact is likely minimal. (Jacobbi, 3/7)

AP: UNICEF: 230 Million Females Are Circumcised Globally, 30 Million More Than In 2016
Over 230 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation, most of whom live in Africa, according to a report issued on Friday by the United Nations children’s agency. In the last eight years, some 30 million people have undergone the procedure, in which external genitalia are partially or fully removed, UNICEF estimated in the report, which was released on International Women’s Day. (Elhennaway, 3/8)