First Edition: Nov. 29, 2023

KFF Health News: ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Thousands Of Private Wells Near Military Sites, Study Finds 
Water tests show nearly 3,000 private wells located near 63 active and former U.S. military bases are contaminated with “forever chemicals” at levels higher than what federal regulators consider safe for drinking. According to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that analyzed Department of Defense testing data, 2,805 wells spread across 29 states were contaminated with at least one of two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, above 4 parts per trillion, a limit proposed earlier this year by the Environmental Protection Agency. That new drinking water standard is expected to take effect by the end of the year. (Kime, 11/29)

KFF Health News: GOP Presidential Hopefuls Use Trump’s Covid Record To Court Vaccine Skeptics 
Former President Donald Trump often seems proud to advertise his administration’s record on speedily developing covid-19 vaccines. On the campaign trail to win another term in the White House, though, he also has knocked the use of those very vaccines. In October, for example, he unleashed a barrage of social media attacks on Ron DeSantis’ pandemic record by reposting claims that the Florida governor — who is running against him in the Republican presidential primaries — was too active in vaccinating Sunshine State residents. In a further twist, Trump simultaneously circulated an MSNBC article suggesting DeSantis wasn’t vaccinating his constituents enough. (Tahir and Chang, 11/29)

KFF Health News: Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Makes Other Public Assistance Harder To Get 
An hour before sunrise, Shelly Brost walked a mile in freezing rain to the public assistance office. She was running out of time to prove she still qualified for food aid after being stymied by a backlogged state call center. Twice, she’d tried to use Montana’s public assistance help line to complete an interview required to recertify her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. Each time, the call dropped after more than an hour on hold. (Houghton, Pradhan and Liss, 11/29)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' 
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Conflicting definitions of preventive care can leave patients with surprise bills, and high demand for a new RSV shot to protect babies this flu season leaves parents scrambling. (11/28)

The Washington Post: New CDC Life Expectancy Data Shows Painfully Slow Rebound From Covid 
Drug overdoses, homicides and chronic illnesses such as heart disease continue to drive a long-term mortality crisis that has made this country an outlier in longevity among wealthy nations. ... The United States has dug itself into a huge life-expectancy hole, and not just because of the virus that slipped into the country in stealth fashion in 2020. In articles this year, The Washington Post has explored the many reasons this country lags peer nations in life expectancy, and a major finding is that chronic conditions such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer play an underappreciated role in suppressing life spans. (Achenbach and Keating, 11/29)

CNN: Suicide Deaths Reached A Record High In The US In 2022, Despite Hopeful Decreases Among Children And Young Adults
More people died from suicide in the United States last year than any other year on record, dating to at least 1941, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 49,449 lives were lost due to intentional self-harm in 2022 – more than 14 deaths for every 100,000 people. (McPhillips, 11/29)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Suicides Reached A Record High Last Year 
America’s mental-health crisis drove suicides to a record-high number last year. Nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives to suicide in 2022, according to a provisional tally from the National Center for Health Statistics. The agency said the final count would likely be higher. The suicide rate of 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people reached its highest level since 1941. (Wernau, 11/29)

The Washington Post: Senators Accuse Major Anesthesiology Firm Of Anticompetitive Practices
Citing Washington Post reporting and a federal lawsuit, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal are accusing one of the nation’s largest anesthesiology firms of unfair business methods and requesting information from the firm about its prices, executive salaries, payouts to investors and acquisition of competitors. “USAP has engaged in anticompetitive practices that appeared to be designed to jack up prices and suck up as much profit as possible, with detrimental effects to patients and doctors,” Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a letter sent on Sunday to Robert Coward, the company’s chief executive. (Whoriskey, 11/27)

Reuters: Biden Campaign Taps Pelosi On Obamacare After Trump Threatens Health Law 
President Joe Biden's re-election campaign enlisted former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday to warn about threats to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, after former President Donald Trump pledged new efforts to replace the law if he wins a second term. (Bose, 11/28)

Bloomberg: Biden Campaign Attacks Trump’s Obamacare Threat With Help From Nancy Pelosi
Joe Biden’s campaign seized on Donald Trump’s call to overturn Obamacare, using it to cast the Republican as a threat to Americans’ health benefits ahead of a likely rematch with the president. “The former president reminded us that he is hellbent on destroying the Affordable Care Act,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday on a call organized by Biden’s campaign. “When he says he’s going after our health care, believe him because he’s done it before.” (Woodhouse and Korte, 11/28)

Stat: Gottlieb, Trump FDA Chief, Questions GOP’s Health Strategy
One of the Republican Party’s most prominent health care thinkers doesn’t know what the GOP’s current health care strategy actually is. Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday evening that the party’s previous health care focus — on technocratic strategies like increasing competition in drug markets or supporting private Medicare plans — have largely fallen off platforms and out of stump speeches. (Florko, 11/28)

Reuters: White House Urges RSV Immunization Makers To Meet Demand 
Senior Biden administration officials met with the makers of RSV immunizations for children this week to underscore the need for manufacturers such as Sanofi and AstraZeneca to urgently meet demand as winter approaches, the White House said on Tuesday. At a meeting at the White House on Monday, officials and manufacturers also agreed to plan now to meet next year's demand for the immunizations targeting respiratory syncytial virus, which generally causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can develop into severe illness in infants and older adults. (Heavey and Aboulenein, 11/28)

The New York Times: Americans Glimpse Jimmy Carter’s Frailty and His Resolve
His face was pale and gaunt, his legs were wrapped in a blanket, and his eyes never seemed to make contact with the family members huddled around him. But on Tuesday, Jimmy Carter was there, in the front row of a church in Atlanta, just a few feet from the coffin holding Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years. Mr. Carter, 99, was some 164 miles from his home in Plains, Ga., where he had been in hospice care since February. He was brought into the church in a wheelchair, as the crowd of mourners at the memorial service looked on, many of them catching their first glimpse of him in nine months. (Rojas and Fortin, 11/28)

Austin Bureau: Texas Supreme Court Appears Hesitant To Clarify Abortion Ban
Several of the Texas Supreme Court’s Republican justices appeared hesitant on Tuesday to clarify an emergency exception in the state’s abortion ban despite claims from nearly two dozen women that they were forced to continue medically dangerous pregnancies. “Our job is to decide cases, not to elaborate and expand laws in order to make them easier to understand or enforce,” Justice Brett Busby said. (Goldenstein, 11/28)

The Hill: Texas AG’s Office Argues Women Should Sue Doctors — Not State — Over Lack Of Abortion Access
Lawyers in the Texas attorney general’s office said Tuesday that women should sue their doctors, not the state, over a lack of access to abortion in defending the state’s strict law. Beth Klusmann of the Texas Attorney General’s Office made that point in oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in a case challenging Texas’s abortion ban, which bars doctors from providing abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected — typically around six weeks into pregnancy — with exceptions only for cases in which the life of the mother is at risk. (Elbein, 11/28)

St. Louis Public Radio: Illinois Abortions Jump In Year After Supreme Court Decision 
Health workers in Illinois are performing about 1,800 more abortions per month on average than before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to data compiled by the Society for Family Planning, a health worker-led nonprofit that advocates for abortion rights. Missouri and many other states banned the procedure after the court’s June 2022 ruling. But the report found the number of abortions nationwide increased slightly, fueled in part by people seeking the procedure in Illinois and other states that didn’t institute bans. (Fentem, 11/28)

The Washington Post: Newly Discovered Stem Cell Offers Clues To A Cancer Mystery 
Scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in the spine that appears crucial to resolving a long-standing mystery: why far more cancer cells spread to the spine than to other bones in the body. When breast, lung and prostate cancers metastasize to multiple bones in the body, three to five times more cancer winds up in the spine than in the lower and upper limbs. Scientists have known of this disparity for decades, but the reason for it has remained unclear. (Johnson, 11/28)

The New York Times: CAR-T, Lifesaving Cancer Treatment, May Sometimes Cause Cancer, FDA Says
A lifesaving cancer treatment may itself cause cancers, the Food and Drug Administration reported on Tuesday. The treatment, called CAR-T, was first approved in November 2017 for life-threatening blood cancers. But, the F.D.A. said, it had received 19 reports of new blood cancers in patients who received the treatment. (Kolata, 11/28)

Stat: Despite FDA Concern, The Risk That CAR-T Causes Cancer Appears Low
The announcement on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration was investigating whether CAR-T immunotherapy had itself caused blood cancers initially appeared to be a significant blow to one of the brightest spots in cancer care. But experts quickly cautioned that risk of this complication is probably minuscule compared to the known risk of secondary cancers from other cancer therapies like chemotherapy and radiation. (Chen, 11/29)

Reuters: SpringWorks' Non-Cancerous Tumor Drug To Be Priced At $29,000 Per Month In US 
SpringWorks Therapeutics' drug for treating adult patients with a type of rare non-cancerous soft-tissue tumor will be sold in the U.S. at a list price of $29,000 for a 30-day supply, the company said on a conference call on Tuesday. The monotherapy nirogacestat, branded as Ogsiveo, became the first approved treatment for desmoid tumors — abnormal growths that occur in connective tissues and are associated with a high rate of recurrence — following the U.S. health regulator's nod on Monday. (Jain, 11/28)

Stat: Colonoscopy Often Costs More For Those At Higher Cancer Risk 
Ashley Conway-Anderson was prepared for a lot of things when it came to her first colonoscopy. She sought out tips to make the daylong prep more bearable. She braced herself mentally for what the doctors would find; her mother, after all, was just a couple years out of recovery from colorectal cancer. When she awoke from the procedure, she said, things seemed relatively fine. “Surprisingly fine,” said Conway-Anderson, a 36-year-old agroforestry professor at the University of Missouri. There was an 11-millimeter precancerous polyp that the doctors had discovered, but they’d snipped it out of her colon and recommended surveillance every three years. “Obviously, it’s big news to hear, but grateful this seems to be manageable. I’ll do it,” she said. “Then the bill came.” (Chen, 11/29)

Fox News: AI Model Could Help Predict Lung Cancer Risks In Non-Smokers, Study Finds: ‘Significant Advancement’
Among the latest artificial intelligence innovations in health care, a routine chest X-ray could help identify non-smokers who are at a high risk for lung cancer. The study findings will be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. Researchers from the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center (CIRC) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School in Boston developed a deep learning AI model using 147,497 chest X-rays of asymptomatic smokers and never-smokers. (Rudy, 11/29)

CIDRAP: Cancer Patients With COVID At Higher Risk Of Death, Hospitalization Amid Omicron 
A study from Israel finds that adult solid-cancer patients had a higher risk of death and hospitalization after COVID-19 infection than infected patients without cancer during a period of Omicron variant predominance and that vaccination lowered that risk. (Van Beusekom, 11/28)

CIDRAP: Birth Records Show COVID-19 Caused Spike In Preterm Births
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly raised the risk of preterm birth for expectant California mothers, and vaccination likely prevented thousands of them, according to a study today published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But within 1 year of the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, that risk virtually disappeared in ZIP codes reporting high vaccination coverage, suggesting vaccination was a key strategy in mitigating preterm birth risks caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. (Soucheray, 11/28)

CIDRAP: Maintaining Coping Strategies During Pandemic Tied To Lower Risk Of Anxiety, Depression
People who were able to have steady and stable coping mechanisms throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic were less likely to experience depression and anxiety, according to a new study in The Annals of Family Medicine. The study, conducted via Veterans Affairs health services, was based on more than 2,000 participants who completed three online surveys during the period when COVID-19 vaccines were widely available but restrictions were still in place across much of the United States (December 2 to 27, 2020; January 21 to February 6, 2021; and March 8 to 23, 2021). (Soucheray, 11/28)

Reuters: WHO Authorizes Emergency Use Of Novavax's Updated COVID Shot 
Novavax's updated vaccine has been granted emergency-use authorization by the World Health Organization (WHO) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 in individuals aged 12 and older, the company said on Tuesday. The updated Novavax shot, which was authorized in the U.S. last month, targets a descendant of the XBB lineage of the coronavirus that was globally predominant earlier this year. (11/28)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brenntag Great Lakes Receives FDA Warning Letter Over Hand-Sanitizer
Brenntag Great Lakes, a Wauwatosa chemical company, has received an FDA warning letter alleging it produced hand sanitizer with the same equipment used for brake parts cleaner. Inspections at the company's Menomonee Falls plant revealed "significant violations," the Oct. 26 letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration noted. The company had agreed to take corrective action but failed to follow through, according to the FDA. (Barrett, 11/28)

Minnesota Public Radio: Mayo Clinic Unveils Plans For A New $5 Billion Campus In Downtown Rochester
A $5 billion plan to redesign Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus will attempt to upend the traditional health care model where patients ping-pong between buildings and appointments and replace it with health care neighborhoods that bring services to patients based on their clinical needs. (Richert, 11/28)

Bay Area News Group: Kaiser Permanente Grabs Empty San Jose Land Site In Expansion Quest
Kaiser has bought a big chunk of San Jose land, paving the way for a possible expansion by the health care titan in a deal that also jolts prior plans for an office project on the choice site. ... Kaiser Foundation Health Plan paid $43.5 million for the vacant site, according to documents filed on Nov. 21 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office. Hudson Pacific Properties, acting through an affiliate, sold the land. (Avalos, 11/28)

CBS News: Hennepin Healthcare Nurses Vote "No Confidence" In CEO Ahead Of 2024 Budget Decision
Hennepin Healthcare employees say they aren't happy. Tuesday morning, several union members representing nurses, EMTs, paramedics and other hospital employees gathered to shared their vote of "no confidence" in Hennepin Healthcare's CEO. "At this point the decision is do you stay at Hennepin or do you leave?" Minnesota Nurses Association co-chair with HCMC Janell Johnson Theile said. (Leone, 11/28)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Systems Aims To Expand, Acquire Hospitals
Community Health Systems wants to get back to acquiring hospitals, President and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Hammons said Tuesday. In the past year, Community Health Systems has sought buyers for multiple facilities, including hospitals in Florida, West Virginia and North Carolina. But it's not all cuts, Hammons said Tuesday during a presentation at the Bank of America Securities Leveraged Finance Conference. The health system has also pursued acquisition opportunities, although none have come to fruition. (Hudson, 11/28)

CBS News: About 4 Million New Yorkers Impacted By Medical Company's Data Breach, New York Attorney General Letitia James Says
Attorney General Letitia James is warning New Yorkers affected by a medical company's data breach to take action to prevent identity theft. In May 2023, the medical transcription company Perry Johnson & Associates became aware of a breach affecting their systems. Some of the breached data included social security numbers, insurance information and clinical information from medical transcription files. (11/28)

Iowa Public Radio: Lawsuit Claims Insurance Company Used Exceptional Case To Push For Medical Malpractice Tort Reform 
A new lawsuit claims an insurance company involved in a high profile medical malpractice case helped influence Iowa lawmakers to pass tort reform last session. The civil lawsuit was filed this month by the Obstetric and Gynecological Associates of Iowa City and Coralville, the OB/GYN practice at the center of an exceptional medical malpractice case, and three of its doctors. (Krebs, 11/28)

Modern Healthcare: How Hospital Unions Are Advancing Health Equity
Healthcare unions have scored major contract wins amid a wave of labor action across the U.S. and used their muscle to push beyond priorities such as pay and staffing and secure guarantees that their employers will take action to promote health equity. ... While those contracts include pay boosts and similar provisions, they went further by creating power-sharing arrangements, accountability structures, and policies and programs related to racial justice and community health. (Hartnett, 11/28)

Modern Healthcare: Academic Partnerships Likely To Increase Amid Financial Hurdles
Health systems and academic medical centers have navigated complex partnerships for decades, and many of the partners argue the reward is worth the risk. Despite the potential financial challenges of those agreements, as illustrated by the latest development between Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota, the affiliations are expected to continue. (Kacik, 11/28)

Reuters: 3M, DuPont Defeat Massive Class Action Over Forever Chemicals
A U.S. appeals court on Monday handed 3M, Corteva Inc subsidiary E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co and other manufacturers of toxic so-called "forever chemicals" a big win in their fight against legal liability for the substances, rejecting a lower court's ruling that would have allowed about 11.8 million Ohio residents to sue the companies as a group. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court's approval of the massive class action, which included virtually every resident of Ohio and put considerable legal pressure on the chemical manufacturers to settle the plaintiffs' claims. (Mindock, 11/28)

New Hampshire Bulletin: NH Hospital Shooting Prompts Recommendations For Security Upgrades At State Buildings
The New Hampshire Department of Safety has recommended several security improvements at all state buildings in response to the Nov. 17 shooting at the New Hampshire Hospital that killed a security officer. At the psychiatric hospital, those measures include upgrading the existing weapon detection system to scan staff, visitors, and patients for guns, knives, and other prohibited items; enhancing the emergency notification system; and requiring all staff to enter through a separate security checkpoint. (Timmins, 11/29)

ABC News: Cannabis Use Does Not Reduce Long-Term Heroin Use, Study Finds
People with heroin dependency don't use less of that drug if they start also using cannabis, according to a new study. The findings cast some doubt on the idea that cannabis might help people reduce their dependence on opioids, experts say. "Cannabis is becoming increasingly recognized as a therapeutic product," says study author Dr. Jack Wilson, a researcher at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney. (Jhaveri, 11/29)

NBC News: How Fast Should You Walk To Lower Your Diabetes Risk?
The American Diabetes Association recommends taking 10,000 steps per day or walking daily for at least 30 minutes to reduce your diabetes risk. Walking at a faster pace can improve that benefit, but researchers haven't identified an ideal speed — until now. An analysis published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that, independent of distance or step count, walking at least 2.5 mph can significantly lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. That's the equivalent of a brisk walk — around 87 steps per minute for men and 100 steps per minute for women. (Bendix, 11/28)