First Edition: Nov. 30, 2023

KFF Health News: Uncle Sam Wants You ... To Help Stop Insurers’ Bogus Medicare Advantage Sales Tactics
After an unprecedented crackdown on misleading advertising claims by insurers selling private Medicare Advantage and drug plans, the Biden administration hopes to unleash a special weapon to make sure companies follow the new rules: you. Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are encouraging seniors and other members of the public to become fraud detectives by reporting misleading or deceptive sales tactics to 800-MEDICARE, the agency’s 24-hour information hotline. Suspects include postcards designed to look like they’re from the government and TV ads with celebrities promising benefits and low fees that are available only to some people in certain counties. (Jaffe, 11/30)

KFF Health News: FTC Chief Gears Up For A Showdown With Private Equity
A recent Federal Trade Commission civil lawsuit accusing one of the nation’s largest anesthesiology groups of monopolistic practices that sharply drove up prices is a warning to private equity investors that could temper their big push to snap up physician groups. Over the past three years, FTC and Department of Justice officials have signaled they would apply more scrutiny to private equity acquisitions in health care, including roll-up deals in which larger provider groups buy smaller groups in a local market. (Meyer, 11/30)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'An Arm and a Leg': To Get Health Insurance, This Couple Made A Movie 
Last fall, Ellen Haun and Dru Johnston were hustling to get their health insurance sorted out for 2023. The Hollywood couple are members of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors and writers. Members have to earn about $26,000 a year on union projects to be eligible for union insurance. And Haun was about $800 short. (11/30)

KFF Health News: Medicare Advantage Increasingly Popular With Seniors — But Not Hospitals And Doctors
A hospital system in Georgia. Two medical groups in San Diego. Another in Louisville, Kentucky, and nearly one-third of Nebraska hospitals. Across the country, health care providers are refusing to accept some Medicare Advantage plans — even as the coverage offered by commercial insurers increasingly displaces the traditional government program for seniors and people with disabilities. As of this year, commercial insurers have enticed just over half of all Medicare beneficiaries — or nearly 31 million people — to sign up for their plans instead of traditional Medicare. The plans typically include drug coverage as well as extras like vision and dental benefits, many at low or even zero additional monthly premiums compared with traditional Medicare. (Appleby, 11/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Cigna, Humana In Talks For Blockbuster Insurance Merger In Stock-And-Cash Deal 
Cigna and Humana are in talks for a combination that would create a new powerhouse in the health-insurance industry. The companies are discussing a stock-and-cash deal that could be finalized by the end of the year, assuming the talks don’t fall apart, according to people familiar with the matter. While the structure and terms under discussion couldn’t be learned, a merger of the managed-care providers would be huge, and give rise to a company worth some $140 billion given Cigna’s market value Wednesday morning of about $83 billion and Humana’s of roughly $62 billion.  (Thomas, Mathews and Cooper, 11/29)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna Medicare Advantage Future Murky Amid Sale Speculation
Reports that Cigna is eyeing a major Medicare Advantage move have provoked speculation about the health insurance company's plans for the lucrative market. Citing sources in the banking sector, Reuters reported this month that Cigna was seeking a buyer for its Medicare Advantage business. Subsequently, an analyst at the investment bank Stephens wrote that such a deal may be a precursor to a bold action: acquiring Humana, the second-largest Medicare Advantage carrier by membership. Medicare makes up a meager portion of Cigna's business. The insurer has about 600,000 Medicare Advantage enrollees this year, which amounts to 2% of the market, according to federal data compiled by KFF. Humana's 5.5 million members and 18% share are the most behind UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare's 8.9 million and 29%. (Berryman, 11/29)

Stat: FDA Chief Scientist Namandjé Bumpus To Replace Woodcock
The Food and Drug Administration’s chief scientist will replace retiring Janet Woodcock as principal deputy commissioner of the agency next year, the FDA commissioner announced Wednesday. Namandjé N. Bumpus was named chief scientist in June of last year. The chief scientist works closely with the FDA’s product centers, and Bumpus played a big role in the expansion of the agency’s regulation of cosmetics. (Wilkerson, 11/29)

Modern Healthcare: AI In Healthcare Scrutinized By Congress
Lawmakers expressed concern about the implications of artificial intelligence for the healthcare system—and made clear that they aren't sure what to do about them—during a congressional hearing Wednesday. A House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee heard testimony from business, healthcare and academic experts at the session, which focused on issues such as safety, insurance coverage, legal matters, racial and ethic biases, and privacy. The hearing took place amid growing calls for federal regulation from organizations such as the American Medical Association and controversy about how insurers such as Cigna and UnitedHealth Group use AI. (McAuliff and Turner, 11/29)

Axios: How ChatGPT Is Changing The Health Care Industry, Medicine
It's passed medical licensing exams. It's advanced how researchers develop new medicines and cut down on doctors' hefty paperwork. And it's nudged health care closer to a world where AI can offer diagnoses. One year after OpenAI's ChatGPT exploded onto the scene, the generative AI model is already upending health care — an industry not exactly known for its speedy adoption of tech — while accelerating questions about AI's promises and limitations. (Reed, 11/29)

CIDRAP: CDC Revamps Wastewater COVID Data Reporting
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently unveiled new wastewater data tracking dashboard to make it easier to track local and national trends, even by variant. Wastewater tracking is one of the early indicators health officials use to gauge the activity of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses. Called the National Wastewater Surveillance Program, the main page says that, nationally, wastewater viral activity of COVID is high. (Schnirring, 11/29)

Axios: Biden Admin Will Send Free COVID Tests To Schools
The Biden administration for the first time will allow all schools to order free COVID-19 tests from the federal government ahead of the holidays, officials told Axios first. Uptake of updated COVID vaccines has been sluggish, making other precautions like timely testing all the more critical as respiratory virus season heats up. (Reed, 11/29)

Stat: Biden Health Officials Meet With Tobacco Lobbyists On Menthol Ban
A little-known group of Black law enforcement officers is getting significant access to the White House to talk about the FDA’s proposal to ban menthol cigarettes — and it’s bringing the tobacco industry along. (Florko, 11/29)

Stat: Biden Defends Trump-Era Drug Pricing Rule
The Biden administration is appealing a court ruling against a Trump-era regulation that aimed to protect the way health insurance companies handle some prescription drug costs — a rare moment of harmony between the two administration’s approaches to drug pricing reform. (Wilkerson, 11/29)

Military.com: Cavalry Soldiers At Fort Carson Can't See Doctors In The Early Morning Under New Rules 
An armor officer at Fort Carson, Colorado, this week issued a new set of policies to his formation effectively banning soldiers from seeking mental health care, dental treatment and legal counsel in the early morning hours to cement time for exercising, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by Military.com. "Soldiers are not authorized to schedule appointments before 0900," Lt. Col. Andrew Boyd, commander of 4th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, said in a memo Tuesday. "This restriction applies to medical, dental, behavioral health, and other types of appointments." (Beynon, 11/29)

Military.com: 'Broken And Alone': Father Pens Scathing Letter To Top Brass After Losing Airman Son To Suicide
A grieving father who lost his son -- an airman at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico -- to suicide this month has written an open letter to the service's leadership, as well as the Joint Chiefs chairman and defense secretary, pleading for the military to confront alarming numbers of suicides within the ranks. (Novelly, 11/28)

Politico: Tuberville Considers Dropping Some Military Holds 'Soon, But Not Today' 
Tommy Tuberville said in an interview on Wednesday he’s considering dropping his months-long holds on military promotions over the Pentagon's abortion policy “soon, but not today.” The Alabama GOP senator said he and other Armed Services Committee members are “getting close” to a resolution and will be holding more meetings on the subject later Wednesday with Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and other members of the panel. (Everett, 11/29)

Stateline: Abortion Opponents Push State Lawmakers To Promote Unproven ‘Abortion Reversal’
Anti-abortion organizations are pushing state lawmakers to promote a controversial and unproven “abortion reversal” treatment — flouting the objections of medical professionals who point out it is not supported by science. In the past several years, Republican lawmakers in at least 14 states have passed laws requiring health care providers to give patients information about abortion reversal. Kansas became the 15th state this year. Meanwhile, Democratic-controlled Colorado this year moved in the opposite direction, becoming the first state to effectively ban abortion reversal treatment, designating it as medical misconduct. (Claire Vollers, 11/30)

New Hampshire Bulletin: Executive Council Republicans Reject Family Planning Contracts Again
For the fifth time in three years, the four Republicans on the Executive Council voted Wednesday to reject contracts with three organizations that had provided the majority of the state’s low-cost basic reproductive health care, such as cancer screenings, STD treatment, and contraception. (Timmins, 11/29)

Stat: Critics Say HCA’s Cost-Cutting Endangered Appalachian Patients
There was the beeping of monitors, the stiff sheets, the sterile smell of the hospital room. Mostly, there was pain. Sharp, relentless pain. Mike Messino was recovering from a successful surgery, but the nerve blocks had worn off. He spent two full hours waiting for a nurse to inject pain medication. When he’d worked in this hospital, he’d made sure patients didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes for that kind of care. (Bannow, 11/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: BJC, Saint Luke's Move Forward With 28-Hospital Merger
St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare and Kansas City, Mo.-based Saint Luke's Health System — which signed a letter of intent to combine in May — have satisfied all regulatory reviews and reached a definitive agreement to merge. The transaction is expected to close Jan. 1, 2024, according to a Nov. 29 news release shared with Becker's. An integrated academic health system will be formed, though the systems will maintain their distinct brands and operate from dual headquarters: BJC in St. Louis, and Saint Luke's in Kansas City. (Kayser, 11/29)

Bloomberg: Nature Made Vitamins Owner Buys Bonafide Health For $425 Million
Pharmavite LLC, the maker of Nature Made vitamins, has agreed to acquire women’s health company Bonafide Health LLC for $425 million. The company, whose ultimate parent is Otsuka Holdings Co., isn’t disclosing further financial details of its all-cash deal for Bonafide Health. Bonafide Health will continue to operate out of its current headquarters in Harrison, New York, after the purchase and there are no workforce implications to the acquisition. (Sanchez and Tse, 11/30)

The Boston Globe: Generation Bio Cuts Workforce By 40 Percent
Generation Bio, a Cambridge genetic medicines startup, became the latest Massachusetts biotech to slash its payroll, eliminating nearly 70 jobs as part of a move to conserve its cash into 2027. The company, launched by Atlas Venture in 2016 to develop new ways to deliver gene therapies, said Thursday that a “strategic reorganization” would reduce its workforce by 40 percent, or 68 jobs. Its shares edged up 3.4 percent to $1.16 on the Nasdaq after its announcement. (Weisman, 11/29)

Stat: UnitedHealth Has 90,000 Doctors — 10% Of All Physicians In U.S.
UnitedHealth Group has about 90,000 employed or affiliated doctors, approximately 10% of all physicians in the U.S. The number — disclosed Wednesday at the company’s investor day by Amar Desai, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s Optum Health division — means the company acquired or hired 20,000 doctors in the past year alone. (Herman, 11/29)

Becker's Hospital Review: Kentucky Hospitals See Dip In Nurse Vacancy Rate
Kentucky hospitals reported a slight drop in nurse vacancy rates this year, though nurse staffing still remains a core challenge, according to the Kentucky Hospital Association's 2023 Workforce Survey Report.  Among the 89 hospitals that responded to the association's survey, the nurse vacancy rate was 19.7%. This figure is down from 21.9% last year, according to KHA's 2022 workforce report.  (Bean, 11/29)

Fierce Healthcare: LinkedIn Rolls Out New Features For Healthcare Professionals
Updates include customized job search filters to help nursing professionals fine-tune the results to better match their qualifications and preferences. Nurses can filter jobs by specialty, shift, schedule and license. Job seekers also can set their job preferences for each of these when turning on Open to Work on their Profile, signaling to recruiters what they're looking for in their next role. (Landi, 11/28)

Becker's Hospital Review: After Nurse's Slaying, Home Health Workers Call For Increased Protections
Visiting nurses in Connecticut are calling for increased state and federal protections for home healthcare workers following the homicide of Joyce Grayson, 63, of Willimantic, Conn., NBC Connecticut reported Nov. 28. Ms. Grayson was a home care nurse for Elara Caring, a Dallas-based home health service agency. She disappeared after visiting one of her patients in late October. Her body was later discovered in the basement of the residence where the patient-turned-suspect lived — a halfway house for convicted sex offenders. (Hollowell, 11/29)

Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Security Changes Coming After Former Cop Kills Self In South Jersey Hospital
Nurses at a South Jersey hospital where a a patient killed himself earlier this year say they're pleased with efforts to improve security procedures. Health Professionals & Allied Employees, AFL-CIO filed a grievance against Inspira Health Network shortly after the suicide on Sept. 9.An initial report of a possible “active shooter” sent city police racing to the facility on West Sherman Avenue as follow-up calls eventually established a suicide had occurred with no other victims. (Smith, 11/28)

CBS News: Latest Hospital Cyberattack Shows How Health Care Systems' Vulnerability Can Put Patients At Risk
Annie Wolf's open-heart surgery was just two days away when the Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called, informing her that her procedure had been postponed after a major ransomware attack. "I've got a hole in my mitral valve, and basically walking around, I can't breathe," Wolf told CBS News. "And I get very fatigued, very tired, very quickly. If I go to the store, I've got to ride the scooter." (Sganga, 11/29)

Reuters: US FDA Clears Vivos Therapeutics' Oral Device For Sleep Apnea 
Vivos Therapeutics said on Wednesday the U.S. health regulator has cleared its oral device for severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), leading a massive rally in the company's shares before the bell. The clearance is the first ever for an oral appliance. ... According to Vivos, its treatment is an alternative to therapy devices made by companies such as Philips and ResMed that send pressurized air into a patient's nose and mouth during sleep as well as to surgically placed implants that send electrical signals to the brain. (11/29)

AP: Hundreds Of Thousands In North Carolina Will Be Added To Medicaid Rolls This Week
A decade after the federal government began offering expanded Medicaid coverage in states that opted to accept it, hundreds of thousands of adults in North Carolina are set to receive benefits, a development that boosters say will aid hospitals and local economies in addition to the long-term uninsured. North Carolina elected officials agreed this year to expand Medicaid, which will provide the government-funded health insurance to adults ages 19 to 64 who make too much money to receive traditional Medicaid but generally not enough to benefit from public subsidies available for private health insurance. The federal government will pay 90% of the cost, as stipulated under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. (Robertson and Schoenbaum, 11/30)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Lawmakers Push New Charges For Fentanyl Dealers
In the days after she lost her daughter to fentanyl in June 2021, Jamie Fisher began calling Independence police to find out what the department was doing to investigate her death. When she died, Samantha “Sami” Fisher, 23, had one photo on her new cellphone — which she had taken that day — of three pills that her family said she believed were Percocets. “My three little Percs,” she had written about the pills. In reality, they were fentanyl. (Bayless and Bauer, 11/29)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Medical Examiners Struggle To Keep Up With Autopsies For Overdose Deaths In NH
Less than half of the people who died of suspected drug-related deaths in New Hampshire this year received autopsies. The National Association of Medical Examiners recommends that an autopsy be performed whenever a drug-related death is suspected. The most recent data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shows that there were 327 confirmed and 61 suspected drug overdose deaths in 2023 so far. 157 of the confirmed deaths and 30 of the suspected overdose deaths had autopsy examinations. (Harris and Ganley, 11/29)

Los Angeles Times: Analysis Of EMS Data At California Migrant Detention Sites
An investigation published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. found discrepancies between emergencies at California immigrant detention facilities that were reported to local authorities and those reported publicly by the federal government. (Castillo, 11/29)

Reuters: Colorado Paramedics On Trial For Elijah McClain's Death 
Two Colorado paramedics went on trial on Wednesday for their alleged role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died after police roughly detained him and medics injected him with a powerful sedative. The trial is the last of three involving the death of McClain, 23, who a bystander reported as looking suspicious, but who was not alleged to have committed any crime. The first trial ended with one police officer found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and another acquitted. The second ended with a third officer acquitted. (Brooks, 11/29)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn Medicine BioBank Enrolls 260,000, Yields Clues To Heart Disease, Glaucoma, Hearing Loss
Any changes in your medications or allergies? Check. New health issues since your last visit? Check. And would you like to contribute a blood and DNA sample for a massive research project? That last question is now part of the electronic check-in process for patients at Penn Medicine clinics and hospitals, and it already is yielding promising clues in the study of disease. (Avril, 11/29)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Cooper University Health Care Opens Multispecialty Clinic In Old Sears At Moorestown Mall
Cooper University Health Care announced Thursday that it has opened the first phase of its $150 million outpatient center in a former Sears building at Moorestown Mall. The 166,000-square-foot, three-story facility has nearly 100 exam rooms and will offer 26 medical specialties, including bariatric surgery, gastroenterology, maternal-fetal medicine, rheumatology, and urogynecology. Specialists from MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper will be among the physicians seeing patients at the location. (Brubaker, 11/29)

9news.com: Denver Medical Team Receives Live Ebola Vaccines
A few medical employees at Denver Health made history Monday as some of the first people to receive the live Ebola vaccine for preventative measures, the hospital said. Ebola is a rare but deadly disease. In 2014, a major outbreak in West Africa led to some cases in the United States. While there are no known outbreaks in the world right now, members of Denver Health's High Risk Infection Team said they are some of the first to receive the live vaccine as a way to be prepared in the event of a future outbreak.  (Irizarry, 11/28)

Minnesota Public Radio: Children's Minnesota Served 660 Kids In Inpatient Mental Health Unit's First Year
Exactly one year ago, Children’s Minnesota opened it’s first inpatient mental health unit. It serves children as young as six and is one of the few in the state to admit kids with more complex medical conditions — and also one of the few in the country to allow parents or guardians to say overnight with their child. (Wurzer and Kuznetsov, 11/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Reno Is Beating The Odds In Solving Homelessness 
The “Biggest Little City in the World” is earning a new distinction: one of the few cities in the West to get large numbers of homeless off its streets. The city teamed with Sparks, a neighboring city, and surrounding Washoe County to build a Nevada Cares Campus in 2021 that could accommodate more than 600 people in a giant tent and satellite sleeping pods. Since that year, the number of homeless living on the street has plummeted to 329 this year from 780, according to annual point-in-time counts. (Carlton, 11/29)

ABC News: Gen Z, Millennial Women Face Historic Headwinds When It Comes To Their Health: Report
Progress in women's health since the 1960s is backsliding, with millennial and Gen Z women facing heightened risks to their physical well-being and safety compared to their moms or grandmothers, according to a report released on Thursday by the Population Reference Bureau. The analysis, which looked at how women in their 20s and early 30s fared across generations, found that women born after 1981 are more likely to be at risk of suicide, death in childbirth and being murdered than young women in previous generations. (Flaherty, 11/30)

Bloomberg: Indeed Drops Mental Health Days As Companies End Covid-Era Perks
Indeed Inc., the online job-search company, is canceling the monthly mental health days it introduced during the pandemic, joining a growing group of firms paring back benefits they rushed to provide during the Covid-19 crisis. Indeed initiated “YOU Days” in June 2020, giving all employees the same day off each month at a time when exhausted staff were taking fewer vacation days because of travel restrictions. Three years later, employees are once again booking time off at a similar rate to before the pandemic. “As a result, we have agreed that the global need for YOU Days has passed,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. (Butler and Constantz, 11/29)

Stat: What To Do When Lifesaving Products Contribute To Climate Change
Many commonly suggested ways to addressing climate change present few ethical challenges: Cut fossil fuels. Eat less meat. Don’t buy fast fashion. But what happens when products that contribute to climate change also save lives — millions of them? A new report, published on Nov. 28 by the global health initiative Unitaid, looks into this issue, quantifying the environmental impact of 10 essential public health items. (Merelli, 11/30)

The Atlantic: Obesity Drugs Are Giving New Life To BMI
So much depends on the simple calculation of dividing one’s weight by the square of their height. According to the FDA, people qualify for prescriptions of Wegovy and Zepbound—the obesity-drug versions of the diabetes medications Ozempic and Mounjaro—only if their BMI is 3o or higher, or 27 or higher with a weight-related health issue such as hypertension. (Tayag, 11/29)

AP: South African Company To Start Making Vaginal Rings That Protect Against HIV
A South African company will make vaginal rings that protect against HIV, which AIDS experts say should eventually make them cheaper and more readily available. The Population Council announced Thursday that Kiara Health of Johannesburg will start making the silicone rings in the next few years, estimating that 1 million could be produced annually. The devices release a drug that helps prevent HIV infections and are authorized by nearly a dozen countries and the World Health Organization. (Cheng, 11/29)

Stat: U.K. Biobank Has 500,000 Peoples' Genome Sequences Available
Data from half a million people’s whole genome sequences are now available to researchers worldwide, as the U.K. Biobank on Thursday debuted the latest addition to what it aims to be the world’s most comprehensive health data resource. (Joseph, 11/29)