First Edition: Monday, June 9, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: As Cannabis Users Age, Health Risks Appear To Grow
Benjamin Han, a geriatrician and addiction medicine specialist at the University of California-San Diego, tells his students a cautionary tale about a 76-year-old patient who, like many older people, struggled with insomnia. “She had problems falling asleep, and she’d wake up in the middle of the night,” he said. “So her daughter brought her some sleep gummies” — edible cannabis candies. (Span, 6/9)

KFF Health News: $20K Bonuses Among Latest Moves To Improve California’s Prison Mental Health System
After decades of unsuccessful efforts to improve California prison conditions ruled unconstitutional and blamed for record-high suicides, advocates and a federal judge are betting that bonuses and better work accommodations will finally be enough to attract and keep the mental health providers needed to treat prisoners. The funds come from nearly $200 million in federal fines imposed because of California’s lack of progress in hiring sufficient mental health staff. (Thompson, 6/9)

KFF Health News: In Axing MRNA Contract, Trump Delivers Another Blow To US Biosecurity, Former Officials Say
The Trump administration’s cancellation of $766 million in contracts to develop mRNA vaccines against potential pandemic flu viruses is the latest blow to national defense, former health security officials said. They warned that the U.S. could be at the mercy of other countries in the next pandemic. “The administration’s actions are gutting our deterrence from biological threats,” said Beth Cameron, a senior adviser to the Brown University Pandemic Center and a former director at the White House National Security Council. (Maxmen, 6/6)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Recap State Of NIH Cancer Research And Abortion Law's Effect On Clinical Decisions
KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed Trump administration cuts to the National Institutes of Health on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” on June 3. KFF Health News Southern correspondent Sam Whitehead discussed Georgia’s abortion laws on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on May 30. (6/7)

VACCINES

Stat: Four CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel Members Get Termination Notices 
Four members of the 19-person expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination policy have been informed that their status as special government employees has been terminated — a development that throws into question their ability to continue to work on the body, STAT has learned. (Branswell, 6/8)

MedPage Today: Infectious Disease Docs Slam New COVID Vaccine Recommendations
Infectious disease physicians expressed alarm over how the Trump administration bypassed open and established processes for changing vaccine recommendations, and voiced particular concern over restrictions to COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. During a briefing hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) on Friday, experts urged clinicians seeking information on COVID vaccination to look to specialty societies for evidence-based guidance in lieu of government websites. (Firth, 6/6)

The Hill: Patel Claims FBI Breakthrough In Fauci Investigation, Warns Against Expectations
FBI Director Kash Patel said in an interview this week that his agency made a “breakthrough” as it continues to investigate former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key player in the U.S.’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, Patel cautioned Fauci’s critics from expecting too much. (Crisp, 6/6)

MEASLES

ABC News: US Measles Cases Nearing 30-Year High
The number of measles cases in the U.S. so far this year has quadrupled compared to 2024 and is nearing a 30-year high. As of Friday, there have been 1,168 confirmed measles cases across 33 states nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, the U.S. saw just 285 measles cases, CDC data shows. (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 6/6)

Politico: WHO Sounds The Alarm As US Measles Cases Mount
Dr. Katherine O’Brien, the WHO’s vaccines director, told POLITICO’s Carmen Paun that U.S. political leaders should clearly endorse and promote measles vaccination to prevent the country from losing its disease-elimination status — and become a location that gives rise to future outbreaks that can easily spread domestically and abroad among travelers. If the disease spreads continuously for a year, it would be considered endemic for the first time in 25 years. “It’s really a sign of a country going backwards in terms of their ability to protect people,” O’Brien said. (Gardner and Hooper, 6/6)

Stat: Measles Laboratory Network Tries Public Fundraising After Trump Cuts
The Trump administration’s gutting of global aid is threatening to collapse a critical network of laboratories responsible for measles and rubella surveillance around the world. Now, philanthropic leaders are rushing to try to save it. (Branswell, 6/9)

The New York Times: Palantir’s Collection Of Disease Data At C.D.C. Stirs Privacy Concerns 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s plans to consolidate data on diseases like measles and polio are raising concerns about patient privacy, delays in spotting long-term trends and ways the Trump administration may use the information. The agency told state officials earlier this week that it would shift disease information to a new system managed by Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. (Mandavilli, 6/6)

MEDICAID AND MEDICARE

AP: Trump's Big Bill Also Seeks To Undo The Big Bills Of Biden And Obama
Chiseling away at President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Rolling back the green energy tax breaks from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. At its core, the Republican “big, beautiful bill” is more than just an extension of tax breaks approved during President Donald Trump’s first term at the White House. The package is an attempt by Republicans to undo, little by little, the signature domestic achievements of the past two Democratic presidents. (Mascaro, 6/7)

The Washington Post: Trump Tax Bill Reveals Striking Shift In GOP’s Focus
The sweeping tax legislation Republicans in Congress are trying to send to President Donald Trump to sign into law underscores a striking evolution in the party’s economic agenda: away from tax policy that prioritizes economic growth and toward populist giveaways inspired by Trump’s campaign promises. House Republicans last month approved a $2.4 trillion proposal that included attention-grabbing provisions such as exempting tips and overtime pay from income taxes and a new deduction for seniors. The bill’s cornerstone, making up the vast majority of its price tag, is the permanent extension of the individual cuts from the 2017 GOP tax law, which lowered rates across income brackets. (Stein, 6/9)

The Washington Post: Medicaid Cuts In Trump's Big Tax Bill Worry Republicans, Poll Finds
More than 4 in 10 Republicans worried significant cuts to Medicaid would hurt health-care providers in their communities and lead to people losing insurance, according to a KFF poll released Friday. The findings illustrate the political perils of upending the public health insurance program as Senate Republicans feud over Medicaid cuts. As they face pressure to slash spending to finance President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and immigration legislation, they risk alienating their own supporters who depend on the program. (Malhi and Winfield Cunningham, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Pediatric Hospital-At-Home Programs Blocked By CMS, Providers Say
Standalone children’s hospitals say the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is unfairly preventing them from offering hospital-at-home. The Children’s Hospital Association – which represents approximately 200 children’s hospitals nationwide — wants the agency to allow all children’s hospitals to be able to provide hospital-level services at home through Medicaid. However, the waiver on which hospital-at-home programs are built runs through Medicare, creating roadblocks for standalone hospitals that don't participate in the program. (Eastabrook, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Presses Congress: Cut Pay For Medicare Home Visits
UnitedHealth Group wants Congress to crack down on how Medicare Advantage plans bill the government for home visits. On Thursday, the Medicare Advantage market share leader called on lawmakers to implement new standards for how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reimburses for home visits. The same day, Humana offered similar suggestions to limit billing for conditions logged through in-home visits and chart reviews. (Tepper, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: How Medicare Advantage Claims Denials Weigh On Providers
New research on Medicare Advantage claims raises concerns that lost revenue from denials could affect providers' administrative costs and may discourage them from treating patients from groups that face higher denial rates. The study by Harvard University researchers, of 270 million Medicare Advantage claims from 2019, found of the 17% of initial claims that were denied, 57% of those were later overturned. (Broderick, 6/6)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Washington Post: As Disasters Loom, Emergency Managers Say They Aren’t Counting On FEMA 
Preparation for the unknown was always in Alan Harris’s job description as emergency manager for Seminole County, Florida, where thousands of homes suffered flood damage during Hurricane Ian in 2022. But as hurricane season begins this year, there is a fresh layer of uncertainty to contend with. The Trump administration has declared a desire to reshape a federal disaster response system widely considered to be too complicated and winding, and has already taken steps to upend it. Hundreds of Federal Emergency Management Agency veterans have left the agency, and those who remain will no longer go door to door in search of disaster victims who need financial aid, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. (Dance and Dennis, 6/8)

CBS News: FDA Food Inspector Vacancies Near 20% After Trump Hiring Freeze
Nearly 1 in 5 positions across the Food and Drug Administration's human food inspection divisions are now vacant, multiple agency officials tell CBS News, in the wake of departures encouraged by the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts and a government-wide hiring freeze that had stalled efforts to replenish their ranks. While the FDA has long struggled with hiring and retaining qualified investigators to inspect food producers and distributors, multiple federal health officials... say that the staffing gap has worsened due to early retirements and resignations. (Tin, 6/6)

ProPublica: DOGE Developed Error-Prone AI To Help Kill Veterans Affairs Contracts
As the Trump administration prepared to cancel contracts at the Department of Veteran Affairs this year, officials turned to a software engineer with no health care or government experience to guide them. The engineer, working for the Department of Government Efficiency, quickly built an artificial intelligence tool to identify which services from private companies were not essential. He labeled those contracts “MUNCHABLE.” (Roberts, Coleman and Umansky, 6/6)

NBC News: Trump's Ban Stalls Lifesaving Treatment For Haitian Children Who Need To Travel For Surgery
Leaders of an aid organization that has sent more than 100 Haitian children with serious cardiac conditions to the U.S. for heart surgery said President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from 19 countries will stall or cancel lifesaving procedures for at least a dozen children or young adults. The ban, which goes into effect Monday, has led to widespread uncertainty for many and drawn condemnation from international leaders. (Bellamy, 6/7)

Bloomberg: Senator Heinrich Calls For Closure Of New Mexico ICE Detention Center
New Mexico’s senior US senator is once again calling for the closure of one of his state’s most notorious immigration detention facilities, citing a recent tour he said confirmed that conditions there had deteriorated. Democrat Martin Heinrich said his staff visited the Torrance County Detention Facility in late May, two weeks after Bloomberg published a story that detailed a series of problems at the facility, which primarily detains people on behalf of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Adams-Heard and Mejía, 6/6)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

MedPage Today: AMA Urged To Speak Out Against EMTALA Guidelines Withdrawal
The American Medical Association (AMA) should speak out more forcefully on the Trump administration's rescission of guidance on provision of abortions during a medical emergency, AMA delegates said Saturday. "I'm terrified for my patients," Allie Conry, MD, of Memphis, Tennessee, a delegate for the Resident and Fellows Section who spoke for herself during a reference committee hearing. "I work in a county hospital that is publicly funded and will likely get wrapped up in this in some way or shape or form." (Frieden, 6/8)

The Hill: Trump Abortion Move Stirs Fear Among Emergency Room Doctors
The Trump administration sowed confusion and fear among physicians with its move this past week to rescind Biden-era guidelines to hospitals that provide life-saving abortions. While the move doesn’t change the law, doctors and reproductive-rights advocates fear it will have a chilling effect on health care workers in states with abortion bans, ultimately harming pregnant women. (O’Connell-Domenech, 6/7)

Politico: How Defunding Planned Parenthood Impacts Health Care
The GOP-led spending bill that passed the House on May 22 vows to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider and a health care resource that is used by one in three women (and one in 10 men) across the U.S. The organization has been on the chopping block since President Donald Trump took office. In March, the new administration cut funding to several Title X providers, including Planned Parenthood, shorting the organization tens of millions of dollars. If the bill succeeds to pass the Senate, Planned Parenthood patients would not be able to get care through Medicaid. (Cordover, 6/6)

The Hill: House Democrats Press RFK Jr. On Family Planning Grants
Nearly 100 House Democrats are calling on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore tens of millions of dollars in federal family planning grants to more than a dozen organizations that have been frozen for more than two months. In a letter to Kennedy sent Friday and seen first by The Hill, 95 lawmakers said the organizations that had their Title X funding frozen on March 31 — including nine Planned Parenthood clinics — are still in the dark about the status of their grants. (Weixel, 6/6)

HEALTH INDUSTRY AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Modern Healthcare: Adventist HealthCare, Howard University End Partnership
Adventist HealthCare will wind down its hospital management agreement with Howard University and end potential acquisition discussions, the organizations said Thursday. Adventist in 2020 began managing Howard University Hospital’s operations, leading to another management services agreement in 2023 for the hospital’s physician group. (Kacik, 6/6)

WUSF: BayCare Starts Academic Alliance With Northwestern Medicine 
BayCare on Thursday said it secured a “final key piece” in its development as an academic health system through a new collaboration with Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine. The partnership, which includes Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, gives BayCare expanded access to treatments, enhanced clinical research, and improved training and education for current and future physicians,” according to a news release. (Mayer, 6/8)

Modern Healthcare: FAH CEO Chip Kahn To Retire This Year
Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, will retire at the end of the year, ending his 24-year run at the helm of the trade association. Kahn has worked in healthcare and politics for nearly 50 years, holding various roles on Capitol Hill and leading the Health Insurance Association of America before joining the Federation of American Hospitals. The Federation, which represents more than 1,000 for-profit hospitals and health systems, has yet to name a replacement and has tasked management consulting company Korn Ferry to help its search. (Kacik, 6/6)

The New York Times: Doctors Were Preparing To Remove Their Organs. Then They Woke Up
Four years ago, an unconscious Kentucky man began to awaken as he was about to be removed from life support so his organs could be donated. Even though the man cried, pulled his legs to his chest and shook his head, officials still tried to move forward. Now, a federal investigation has found that officials at the nonprofit in charge of coordinating organ donations in Kentucky ignored signs of growing alertness not only in that patient but also in dozens of other potential donors. (Rosenthal, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Biosense Webster Must Pay Triple Damages In Antitrust Lawsuit
U.S. District Court Judge James Selna in California has tripled the damages to $442 million in a case where a jury found Johnson & Johnson’s medical technology unit Biosense Webster had violated antitrust laws. On May 16, a jury found Biosense Webster guilty of withholding clinical support from hospitals that purchased reprocessed catheters from Innovative Health, and ordered the company to pay $147 million in damages. (Dubinsky, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Yale's AI Championship Offers Doctors A Chance To Pitch Investors
It wasn’t exactly Shark Tank, but a recent competition at Yale New Haven Health in Connecticut showed how artificial intelligence has paved the path for physicians to become entrepreneurs. As tech companies, health system, insurers and investors pour money into developing AI, doctors are going beyond just using the technology. Some are creating algorithms with their free time to improve clinical care, even potentially looking to turn this interest into a full-time business as they watch the success of physician-led companies such as Abridge and Viz.ai. (Perna, 6/6)

MENTAL HEALTH

Bloomberg: Health Care, Service Workers Report Highest Rates Of Depression
Health care, social services, food preparation and personal care workers such as hair stylists and childcare providers reported the highest rates of depression among more than half a million workers surveyed nationwide, a study published Friday found. More than one in five people in those professions said they had been diagnosed with depression, well above the 14% of all workers surveyed between 2015 and 2019. (Amponsah, 6/6)

CBS News: Nine Veterans With PTSD Went To Mexico For A Psychedelic Retreat. This Is How They Felt Nearly A Year Later
Last year, for the first time, the Veterans Administration announced it would begin funding its own clinical trials to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and addiction, using two psychedelic drugs psilocybin and MDMA. Even if these trials are successful, it would be years before the VA could prescribe either drug for its patients. Thousands of veterans who are suffering aren't waiting, desperate for help, they're attending psychedelic retreats in countries where the drugs are legal to use, mostly in indigenous ceremonies. (Cooper, 7/8)

AP: Utah Judge Rules A Convicted Killer With Dementia Is Competent To Be Executed
A convicted killer in Utah who developed dementia while on death row for 37 years is competent enough to be executed, a state judge ruled late Friday. Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was sentenced to die in 1988 for killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker. Despite his recent cognitive decline, Menzies “consistently and rationally understands” what is happening and why he is facing execution, Judge Matthew Bates wrote in a court order. (6/7)

The Washington Post: Obama’s Doctor Is Critical Of Care Decision By Biden’s Doctor
Joe Biden’s doctor should have given him a cognitive test during his final year as president because of his age, Barack Obama’s former physician said in an interview, contending that the results would have helped the White House and the public understand whether Biden was up to serving another four years. A report by White House physician Kevin O’Connor in February 2024 didn’t include any mention of neurocognitive testing for the then-81-year-old Biden. (Winfield Cunningham, 6/7)

The New York Times: What To Know About The Effects Of Ketamine
News reports detailing Elon Musk’s drug use have prompted renewed attention to ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that has become increasingly popular as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression and other mental health issues. Although Mr. Musk has acknowledged using ketamine in the past to treat depression, he has denied suggestions that he is currently using ketamine — or any other drug. (Jacobs and Fortin, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Dating Apps Might Be Messing With Your Mental Health
Jenny O’Hara initially signed on to a dating app to bump up her confidence. ... O’Hara is among the some 95.6 million people 18 and over who have used dating websites or apps, according to the research firm SSRS. And she’s not alone in seeing her mood shift downward the longer she was online. “My experience with patients who are on dating apps is it leads to fatigue, that people just get exhausted,” said Paul Hokemeyer, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Telluride, Colorado. “It takes up a lot of energy. It takes up a lot of time. It takes up a lot of emotions. And there’s a huge potential for rejection.” (Chesler, 6/7)

STATE WATCH

The Washington Post: D.C. Teens In Need Of Rehabilitation Wait Months In A Detention Center
The Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services struggles to provide adequate services to many teens, leaving them to languish in a violent detention center. (Dungca, Harden and Alexander, 6/9)

The Washington Post: D.C. Juvenile Court's Reliance On Ankle Monitors Had Deadly Outcomes
D.C. juvenile courts lost track of teens wearing GPS ankle monitors at critical moments, as they have committed or fallen victim to crime. (Brittain, 6/9)

CBS News: Michigan Opioid Overdose Deaths Projected To Drop For Third Straight Year
Opioid overdose deaths in Michigan are projected to drop in 2024, marking the third consecutive year of decline, according to the Department of Attorney General. Data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services shows a 34% reduction in overdose deaths between 2023 and 2024, which is around 1,000 fewer deaths, state officials said. The death rate from 2022 to 2023 decreased by 5.7% from 2,998 to 2,826. The state credits the three-year decline to investments in prevention, treatment, recovery and harm-reduction efforts, funded in part by national opioid settlements. (Lentz, 6/8)

Newsweek: Nurses Were Covid Heroes. Now They're Being Squeezed By Medicaid Cuts
New York City nurses are calling for reforms as an industry plagued by a "broken" health care system threatens their livelihoods and the future of their profession. Nurses were considered vital and lauded as heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic, when at the outset the National Institutes of Health highlighting their "critical roles and responsibilities" that included front-line patient care in hospitals; ensuring personalized, high-quality services irrespective of infectious conditions; and engaging in planning for outbreaks stemming from coronavirus-related outbreaks that could overwhelm health systems. (Mordowanec, 6/9)

AP: Southern California Air Regulators Reject Rules To Phase Out Gas Furnaces And Water Heaters
Air quality regulators in Southern California voted 7 to 5 to reject rules that would have curbed harmful emissions from gas-powered furnaces and water heaters, but the majority voted to send the rules back to committee to be changed and reconsidered. The rules aimed to reduce emissions of smog-contributing nitrogen oxides, also called NOx, a group of pollutants linked to respiratory issues, asthma attacks, worse allergies, decreased lung function in children, premature death and more. Burning natural gas is also one of the primary drivers of climate change. (Pineda, 6/6)

Bloomberg: Miami’s Drinking Water Supply Threatened By Turkey Point Nuclear Plant
A few miles from where American crocodiles swim by the hundreds in the cooling canals of the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, engineers are fighting an invisible threat to Miami’s drinking water. The hulking plant, which provides power to run air conditioners and appliances for 1 million homes and businesses, sits about 25 miles south of Miami, in the middle of paradise. A few feet to its east are the azure waters of Biscayne Bay. The lush islands of the Florida Keys beckon to the south. To the west are the vast and vital Florida Everglades. (Smith, 6/6)

AP: Unsubstantiated 'Chemtrail' Conspiracy Theories Lead To Legislation Proposed In US Statehouses
As Louisiana Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates stood before her colleagues in the state’s Legislature she warned that the bill she was presenting might “seem strange” or even crazy. Some lawmakers laughed with disbelief and others listened intently, as Coates described situations that are often noted in discussions of “chemtrails” — a decades-old conspiracy theory that posits the white lines left behind by aircraft in the sky are releasing chemicals for any number of reasons, some of them nefarious. ... Louisiana is the latest state taking inspiration from a wide-ranging conspiratorial narrative, mixing it with facts, to create legislation. (Cline and Goldin, 6/9)

St. Louis Public Radio: 911 Fails 3 Trapped Inside St. Louis Church During Tornado 
The sun was out in full force on May 16 when DeMarco K. Davidson walked into Centennial Christian Church in St. Louis’ Fountain Park neighborhood. The executive director of Metropolitan Congregations United had a 1:30 p.m. meeting with longtime Centennial church member Sherrill Jackson. Davidson and Jackson were in the church’s north chapel. His phone was on silent. They were talking about the church’s future. Its pastor had resigned recently. (Lewis-Thompson, 6/9)

PUBLIC HEALTH

NBC News: At Least 1.7 Million Eggs Recalled As CDC And FDA Investigate Multistate Salmonella Outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to at least 1.7 million eggs, according to a news release issued on Saturday. The brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs were distributed by the August Egg Company from Feb. 3 through May 15 to retailers in nine states — California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana and Wyoming, per the FDA. (Alsharif and Mullen, 6/7)

CBS News: Botulism Cases From Botox Injections Linked To Milton Spa, Health Officials Say
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says that a string of botulism cases from Botox injections has been linked to a spa in Milton. Ten people are suspected to have contracted iatrogenic botulism, a rare but serious illness, after receiving a procedure at Rodrigo Beauty on Granite Avenue. Health officials advise that anyone who received Botox injections between May 1 and June 4 at the Milton Spa should contact their nearby health department or DPH. (Rourke, 6/8)

CBS News: BowFlex Adjustable Dumbbells Recalled After More Than 100 Dislodging Injuries
BowFlex is recalling millions of units of its adjustable dumbbells because their weight plates can dislodge and cause injury to users. The recall comes after over 100 reports of injuries including concussions, abrasions, broken toes or contusions, according to the CPSC. (Cerullo, 6/8)

Bloomberg: ‘Kissing Disease’ Mono Could Be Linked To Cancer, Dementia And Long Covid
Jeff Cohen was 17 and living in Baltimore when mononucleosis knocked him off his feet. He thinks he got it from his high school girlfriend — now his wife — who once he got sick would ring the doorbell, drop off his homework and run away before he could get to the door. ... That teenage case of mono, also known as glandular fever, would make a lasting impression. Five decades later, Cohen is now chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases inside the National Institutes of Health, where he’s leading efforts to create a vaccine for Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV, which causes mono. (Gale, 6/6)