First Edition: Nov. 15, 2023

KFF Health News: Biden Administration’s Limit On Drug Industry Middlemen Backfires, Pharmacists Say
The Biden administration’s first major step toward imposing limits on the pharmacy benefit managers who act as the drug industry’s price negotiators is backfiring, pharmacists say. Instead, it’s adding to the woes of the independent drugstores it was partly designed to help. The so-called PBMs have long clawed back a fee from pharmacies weeks or months after they dispense a drug. A new rule, which governs Medicare’s drug program, is set to take effect Jan. 1 and requires PBMs to take most of their “performance fees” at the time prescriptions are filled. (Allen, 11/15)

KFF Health News: The Unusual Way A Catholic Health System Is Wielding An Abortion Protest Law
A Catholic hospital system is suing several California patients and their advocates because the patients allegedly refused to be discharged. The suits invoke a novel legal approach: accusing them of trespassing under a California law intended to stop anti-abortion protesters from blocking access to health facilities. Dignity Health has filed three lawsuits in Sacramento County accusing patients of “commercial blockade” for refusing to vacate hospital beds even though the health care provider had deemed them medically and legally eligible to either go home or go to another facility. Dignity alleges the patients “unreasonably and unlawfully” refused discharge, disrupting its ability to serve others at a time when health facilities were overwhelmed by covid-19. (Lin, 11/15)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' 
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: More than 10 million Americans have lost health care coverage as states purge their Medicaid rolls, and addiction treatment services compete with law enforcement for opioid settlement dollars. (11/14)

The New York Times: Israeli Military Raids Gaza Hospital After Days of Siege
The Israeli military said its troops had entered the grounds of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, early Wednesday, hours after a White House official said that U.S. intelligence supported Israel’s claims that Hamas was operating out of the complex. Thousands of civilians are sheltering at the hospital, along with gravely ill patients and premature infants whose care has been interrupted. Fuel and medical supplies have dwindled as Israeli troops drew nearer in recent days. (11/15)

The Hill: Clashes At Gaza Hospitals Raise Stakes For Israel 
Israel says Hamas is using the medical facilities as command bases, making them a legitimate military target — and the U.S. shared declassified intelligence Tuesday bolstering those claims. But clashes around the hospitals are endangering patients, including young children, and fueling concerns that Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire will soon lack any comprehensive treatment facilities in Gaza City. (Dress, 11/14)

Reuters: Lives Of 36 Babies In Gaza Hospital At Risk Despite Israeli Incubator Offer 
The lives of 36 babies at Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital were hanging in the balance on Tuesday, according to medical staff there who said there was no clear mechanism to move them despite an Israeli effort to supply incubators for an evacuation. Three of the original 39 premature babies have already died since Gaza's biggest hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going. (Al-Mughrabi and Williams, 11/14)

Reuters: WHO Loses Contact With Gaza Hospital Staff After Raid 
The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday it had lost touch with health personnel at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza after Israeli forces began raiding the facility. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the reports of the military incursion into Shifa were deeply concerning. "We've lost touch again with health personnel at the hospital. We're extremely worried for their and their patients' safety," he said on social media platform X. (11/15)

The New York Times: Inside The Desperate Effort To Evacuate Young Cancer Patients From Gaza 
They are some of the most vulnerable in Gaza. The youngest is not even a year old; the oldest is 14. All are battling lymphoma, leukemia and tumors that doctors said could kill them if left untreated. Over the past 10 days, 21 children with cancer have been evacuated from Gaza to hospitals in Egypt and Jordan, according to doctors involved in the effort. But at least 30 other young cancer patients have not made it out, and aid workers said that in the chaos of war, they can no longer reach some of the families. (LaFraniere and Green, 11/14)

Bloomberg: Biden, Xi To Announce Deal For China Fentanyl Crackdown At APEC In San Francisco
Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are set to announce an agreement that would see Beijing crack down on the manufacture and export of fentanyl, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially delivering the US president a major victory. Under the deal — which is still being finalized — China would go after chemical companies to stem the flow of both fentanyl and the source material used to make the deadly synthetic opioid, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the agreement. (Leonard, 11/14)

Reuters: Biden, Xi To Talk Fentanyl In City Gripped By Opioid Crisis 
Just blocks from where U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will meet other Asia-Pacific leaders this week in San Francisco is a neighborhood where it is commonplace to see people using and selling drugs. While the leaders are unlikely to see the blunt reality of the U.S. opioid crisis as they attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, it will be a topic of discussion when Biden and Xi meet one-on-one on Wednesday. (Henderson, Tong and Hunnicutt, 11/15)

The Washington Post: House Passes Bill To Avert Government Shutdown, Sends To Senate 
The House on Tuesday passed stopgap legislation to keep the federal government operating past this weekend, sending the bill to the Senate days before the 12:01 a.m., Saturday deadline. ... The “laddered” deadlines in the bill are designed to allow the House and Senate to pass and negotiate full-year spending bills — though the two chambers are nowhere near an agreement on those — and avoid a massive year-end spending bill called an omnibus. It could still trigger two more standoffs that lead to partial government shutdowns early next year. Funds would expire for military and veterans programs, agriculture and food agencies, and the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development on Jan. 19. They would expire for the State, Defense, Commerce, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments, among others, on Feb. 2. (Bogage and Sotomayor, 11/14)

AP: Oklahoma Supreme Court Keeps Anti-Abortion Laws On Hold While Challenge Is Pending 
The Oklahoma Supreme Court reiterated its position on Tuesday in a 5-4 opinion that the state constitution guarantees a woman’s right to an abortion when necessary to preserve her life, although the procedure remains illegal in virtually all other cases. In a case involving a legal challenge to five separate anti-abortion bills passed by the Legislature in 2021, the court ordered a lower court to keep in place a temporary ban on three of those laws while the merits of the case are considered. Two of the laws were already put on hold by a district court judge. (Murphy, 11/14)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Top Ohio Republicans Indicate Bill Blocking Judicial Review Of State Abortion Laws Won’t Pass 
A pair of top Ohio Republicans are throwing cold water on some GOP lawmakers’ hopes to pass legislation stripping Ohio judges of the power to rule on the state’s new abortion-rights amendment. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens said Tuesday that he does not consider the proposal, which would directly challenge the traditional separation of powers between the state’s legislative and judicial branches, to be serious legislation. (Pelzer, 11/14)

The Texas Tribune: More Women Join Texas Abortion Lawsuit 
When Kimberly Manzano’s doctor first noticed some irregularities with her pregnancy, she turned to God, praying constantly for good news. When the diagnosis worsened, she and her husband sought comfort in the Bible’s Book of Hebrews — the book of hope. And when her doctor finally determined her baby could not survive outside the womb, she asked her pastor for advice. “He said, ‘if you believe your doctor to be a godly man, take what the doctor says as clarity from God in your decision,’” she recalls. Manzano and her husband, both devout Christians, decided the most loving thing they could do for their son was terminate the pregnancy. It was a difficult decision for the couple, who both considered themselves anti-abortion before this. (Klibanoff, 11/14)

Axios: How The Next Republican President Could Stop Most Abortions Without Congress
The next Republican president could effectively ban most abortions through a simple policy change at the Department of Justice, experts and advocates on both sides of the abortion debate say. While Republicans disagree about whether to pursue a national abortion ban that would face long odds in Congress, a GOP president may be able to unilaterally curb access to medication abortion across the country using an obscure 19th-century law. (Owens, 11/15)

ABC News: About 36M American Adults Have Received The Updated COVID Vaccine: CDC
An estimated 36 million adults in the United States have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, according to new data from the federal government. Additionally, about 3.5 million children have also gotten the updated shot, according to the survey, which is a sample size of the U.S. population, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 11/14)

The Baltimore Sun: End Of Maryland Nonprofit’s State Health Contract Disrupts Vaccine Rollout In Some Counties
Back-to-school vaccine clinics got off to a rocky start in some Maryland counties this year after the state health department did not renew a statewide contract with a Baltimore-based nonprofit that supported coronavirus immunization efforts. At least three counties did not hold their usual flu vaccination clinics without the help of nurses from the Maryland Partnership for Prevention or PrepMod, the nonprofit’s scheduling and vaccine documentation software, which they’d used to support those efforts as well. The end of the contract also disrupted flu and back-to-school immunizations in at least two other counties, officials said. (Roberts, 11/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Study Shows How Taking Paxlovid Affects COVID Rebound
A new study has affirmed that 1 in 5 individuals who take the antiviral medication Paxlovid to treat COVID-19 encounters a rebound infection. ... The preliminary research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, reveals that the phenomenon, known as “viral rebound,” occurred in approximately 21% of Paxlovid recipients, contrasting sharply with the 2% observed in those not prescribed the medication. (Vaziri, 11/14)

Stat: Americans' Trust In Science, Scientist Continues Decline: Report
America’s trust in scientists and positive views of science has continued to decline, according to a new report. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, asked a random sample of 8,842 American adults this fall about their views on science and scientists. They found that roughly a quarter of Americans — 27% — said they have not too much or no confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests, compared to 12% who said the same in April 2020. (Nayak, 11/14)

The Washington Post: Scientists Have Discovered What May Be The First ‘Vampire’ Virus 
In March 2020, Tagide deCarvalho saw something truly strange — something she thinks no other scientist has ever seen before: a virus with another, smaller virus latched onto its “neck.” The backstory of this viral attachment is like a master class in how wild and weird biology can be. The two microbes are both bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, that were harvested from a clump of dirt in Poolesville, Md. Bacteriophages, also called simply phages, are among the most abundant organisms on Earth. There can be millions in a gram of dirt. (Johnson, 11/14)

Bloomberg: Drug Prices: Cigna Follows Mark Cuban’s Lead To Simplify Pricing
Cigna Group is taking a page from billionaire Mark Cuban’s playbook to sell medicines for a set markup, the latest sign that companies that manage drug benefits are responding to pressure from upstart competitors. Next year Cigna’s Express Scripts subsidiary will offer employers and health plans the option to pay pharmacies up to 15% above their wholesale costs, plus an extra fee for dispensing the medicines. (Tozzi, 11/14)

Reuters: German Drug Regulator Considering Export Ban On Ozempic
The head of German drug regulator BfArM is considering an export ban on Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Ozempic, which is in high demand for its weight-loss benefits, to prevent a worsened supply shortage. ... "We are currently in talks with lawmakers about what we will do if the current measures and the public messages don't show an effect," BfArM President Karl Broich told Spiegel magazine. "We would then think about imposing an export ban so that enough remains in the country for the patients that need it," said Broich, adding that the drug was going to other European countries and the United States. (Burger, 11/15)

Reuters: Drugmaker Mallinckrodt Emerges From Bankruptcy
Drugmaker Mallinckrodt, one of America’s biggest producers of prescription opioids, said on Tuesday it has emerged from bankruptcy and reduced its total funded debt by about $1.9 billion. Mallinckrodt, which won court approval for its bankruptcy plan last month, said it is moving ahead with ample liquidity to execute its strategic priorities. (11/14)

Reuters: US FDA Warns Amazon Against Sale Of Unapproved Eye Drops 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it had sent a warning letter to Amazon.com related to sale of seven unapproved eye drops on the company's e-commerce platform. In the letter dated Nov. 13, FDA said Amazon was selling eye drops which have not been recognized as safe and effective for providing temporary relief from eye symptoms such as excessive watery discharge, redness, burning, or pink eye. (11/14)

Modern Healthcare: Amazon's One Medical, Hackensack Meridian Health To Open Clinics
Hackensack Meridian Health and Amazon’s One Medical intend to open 20 primary care clinics throughout New Jersey over the next decade. The partnership announced Tuesday between the nonprofit New Jersey health system and One Medical, which provides virtual and brick-and-mortar primary care services to commercially insured patients for an annual membership fee, expands One Medical’s health system affiliate network. (Kacik, 11/14)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Medicare Advantage Ratings Dipped Due To Staff Shortages
Kaiser Permanente is diversifying in response to declines in Medicare Advantage star ratings and threats from large insurers and retailers. The Oakland, California-based integrated system suffered a setback in its Medicare Advantage business when it experienced one of the industry's biggest declines in quality ratings this year, with four of its seven plans losing out on bonus payments. (Tepper, 11/14)

CBS News: Howard Brown Health Workers Back On Strike For 2 Days At Chicago Clinics
The Illinois Nurses Association said they have been in contract negotiations for over a year, seeking better wages, a smaller workload, affordable insurance, and protections from layoffs. The strike is scheduled to last Tuesday and Wednesday, with a rally scheduled for Wednesday night at the Howard Brown Health clinic at 3501 N. Halsted St. Howard Brown Health is the largest LGBTQ+ healthcare clinic system in the Midwest. (Feurer, 11/14)

Stat: Hospitals Look To New Technology To Keep Health Care Workers Safe
One day in early 2020, just weeks before Philadelphia entered lockdown, Thomas Jefferson University’s public safety lead Joseph Byham abandoned a brisk walk to respond to an urgent incident. A clinician at one of Jefferson’s Center City hospitals had pressed a badge-worn button summoning security immediately: a traumatic brain injury patient was attempting to flee, and they feared it would escalate into violence. By the time Byham arrived, the patient had escaped to the stairwell and was surrounded by six hospital staff, each of whom had been automatically notified that a nearby colleague was in distress. Once security arrived, the patient was returned to their hospital bed, and staff resumed rounds uninjured. (Ravindranath, 11/15)

Stat: Life Scientists Are Leaving Academia For Biotech, Imperiling Research
Step inside Natasha Sheybani’s office at the University of Virginia, where she runs a bioengineering lab, and you’ll find a kaleidoscopic sea of sticky notes. She uses purple for ideas sparked by meetings, orange for future grant proposals. But she’s most excited about the yellow stickies, which Sheybani saves for moonshots: projects that are high-risk and high-reward. (Wosen, 11/15)

Stat: NIH Chief: Government Has Fallen Behind Pharma On Clinical Trials 
The new National Institutes of Health director, Monica Bertagnolli, said it’s a “failure” that enrollment in government-funded clinical trials has lagged behind those funded by the pharmaceutical industry. (Cohrs, 11/14)

CNN: Suicide Rates In The US Are Highest Among Elderly Men, And Most Involve Guns, CDC Report Says 
 The suicide rate in the United States spiked in 2021, reversing two years of decline, and rates among older men were especially high, a new report says. There were about 30 suicide deaths for every 100,000 men ages 55 and older in 2021, according to a report published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – more than double the overall age-adjusted rate of about 14 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people that year. Men 85 and older were the most at risk, with nearly 56 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people in that group, higher than any other age group. (McPhillips, 11/15)

Fox News: Older Adult Women Caregivers Have Lower Death Rates Than Non-Caregivers, Study Finds: ‘A Sense Of Purpose’ 
Caregiving was associated with a lower risk of death in older women in the U.S., according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. ... The women who reported themselves as caregivers had a 9% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to the non-caregivers, according to the study findings. The researchers also found that the caregiving group had a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease or cancer. (McGorry, 11/15)

CBS News: New Report Reveals Growing Number On Young Nonsmokers With Lung Cancer
Donna Thompson, who lives in Havertown, has had lung cancer twice. She was first diagnosed when she was 45. "It's scary and it is life-changing," she said. Doctors think environmental exposures to things like radon could be part of the reason for the growing number of young nonsmokers with lung cancer. (Stahl, 11/14)

CBS News: American Lung Association Releases New State-By-State Report
A new report details the toll lung cancer is taking on public health. The American Lung Association's data breaks down the challenges faced by each state. More than 350 people die from lung cancer nationwide each day. But there's been a 22% increase in survival rates over the past five years. (11/14)

The New York Times: Race Cannot Be Used To Predict Heart Disease, Scientists Say 
Doctors have long relied on a few key patient characteristics to assess risk of a heart attack or stroke, using a calculus that considers blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and diabetes status, as well as demographics: age, sex and race. Now, the American Heart Association is taking race out of the equation. The overhaul of the widely used cardiac-risk algorithm is an acknowledgment that, unlike sex or age, race identification in and of itself is not a biological risk factor. (Rabin, 11/14)

Axios: Eating Disorders Skewed Younger During The Pandemic
The demographics of eating disorders are shifting younger, now most commonly affecting teens between 14 and 18 years old, according to a new analysis. The data, based on a FAIR Health repository of 43 billion private health insurance claims, sheds new light on an uptick in eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among teens. (Reed, 11/15)

AP: Documents Show The WHO Paid Sexual Abuse Victims In Congo $250 Each 
Internal documents show the WHO paid at least 104 women who say they were sexually abused or exploited by officials working to stop Ebola. ... Paula Donovan, who co-directs the Code Blue campaign to eliminate what it calls impunity for sexual misconduct in the U.N., described the WHO payments to victims of sexual abuse and exploitation as “perverse.” “It’s not unheard of for the U.N. to give people seed money so they can boost their livelihoods, but to mesh that with compensation for a sexual assault, or a crime that results in the birth of a baby, is unthinkable,” she said. (Cheng, 11/14)

AP: UK Experts Recommend Chickenpox Shot For Kids For The First Time, Decades After Other Countries
An expert scientific committee advising the British government recommended for the first time Tuesday that children should be immunized with the chickenpox vaccine — decades after the shots were made widely available in other countries, including the U.S., Canada and Australia (11/14)