First Edition: Oct. 11, 2022

KHN: Hospitals Have Been Slow To Bring On Addiction Specialists 
In December, Marie, who lives in coastal Swampscott, Massachusetts, began having trouble breathing. Three days after Christmas, she woke up gasping for air and dialed 911. “I was so scared,” Marie said later, her hand clutched to her chest. Marie, 63, was admitted to Salem Hospital, north of Boston. The staff treated her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung condition. A doctor checked on Marie the next day, said her oxygen levels looked good, and told her she was ready for discharge. (Bebinger, 10/11)

KHN: If You’re Worried About The Environment, Consider Being Composted When You Die
Would you rather be buried or cremated when you die? If you feel the way I do, the answer is neither. I cringe at the thought of my body burning up at well over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit or being pumped full of toxic chemicals and spending the rest of eternity in a cramped box 6 feet underground. So here’s another question: How do you feel about having your body reduced to compost and used to plant a tree, grow flowers, or repair depleted soil in a forest? (Wolfson, 10/11)

KHN: Miami’s Little Haiti Joins Global Effort To End Cervical Cancer 
More than 300,000 women around the world die from cervical cancer each year. In the U.S., women of Haitian descent are diagnosed with it at higher rates than the general population. The disease is preventable, though, due to vaccines and effective treatments for conditions that can precede the cancer. That’s why health care workers and even the World Health Organization are focusing on Miami’s Little Haiti to try to save lives. (Zaragovia, 10/11)

KHN: Reporter Follows Up On ‘Cancer Moonshot’ Progress And The Bias In Digital Health Records 
KHN correspondent Darius Tahir discussed the latest developments related to the federal “Cancer Moonshot” initiative on Houston Public Media’s “Town Square With Ernie Manouse” on Oct. 4. Tahir also discussed how bias can be embedded in medical records on America’s Heroes Group’s “Roundtable” on Oct. 1. (10/8)

Stat: In Gold-Standard Trial, Colonoscopy Fails To Cut Rate Of Cancer Deaths
For decades, gastroenterologists put colonoscopies on a pedestal. If everyone would get the screening just once a decade, clinicians believed it could practically make colorectal cancer “extinct,” said Michael Bretthauer, a gastroenterologist and researcher in Norway. But new results from a clinical trial that he led throw confidence in colonoscopy’s dominance into doubt. (Chen, 10/9)

NBC News: Video: Colonoscopies Made No Difference In Death Rates, European Study Finds
In one of the largest studies ever, researchers found colonoscopy screenings cut cancer risk by 18 percent and made no difference in death rates. (10/10)

CNN: A Colonoscopy Study Has Some Wondering If They Should Have The Procedure. What You Should Know
A new European study on colonoscopies – the largest of its kind – has complicated results, and it’s left some people wondering whether they should have the procedure to screen for colon cancer. (Cohen, 10/10)

The Washington Post: Spread Of Catholic Hospitals Restricts Abortion, Birth Control Access
The Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion is revealing the growing influence of Catholic health systems and their restrictions on reproductive services including birth control and abortion — even in the diminishing number of states where the procedure remains legal. Catholic systems now control about 1 in 7 U.S. hospital beds, requiring religious doctrine to guide treatment, often to the surprise of patients. Their ascendancy has broad implications for the evolving national battle over reproductive rights beyond abortion, as bans against it take hold in more than a dozen Republican-led states. (Sellers and Venkataramanan, 10/10)

The 19th: Abortion Bans Are Preventing Cancer Patients From Getting Chemotherapy
A six-week abortion ban in Ohio has forced people with cancer to travel out of state for abortions that are necessary to continue with life-saving treatment, according to affidavits submitted by abortion providers in the state. (Luthra, 10/7)

The Boston Globe: Massachusetts Has Expanded Abortion Rights. But Even In The Metro Region, Clinics Can Be Distant
Massachusetts has emerged as a safe haven for reproductive health care, following the Supreme Court’s reversal on Roe v. Wade, but there are wide swaths of the state, some densely populated, where it’s impossible to schedule an abortion. (Ebbert, 10/9)

Houston Chronicle: Nearly Half Of U.S. Abortion Clinic Closures Are In Texas
Twelve clinics have shuttered their operations entirely in the state, and the rest have focused on other services, which could include cancer screenings, STI treatments and contraception, according to the review by the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health access. The count did not include a list of clinics that have closed. (Blackman and Goldenstein, 10/7)

Politico: On Pennsylvania’s Campaign Trail, The Doctor Will See You Now 
Physicians across Pennsylvania are politicking in unprecedented ways with less than a month to go before the midterm election, making the case that the abortion restrictions proposed by Republicans would threaten one of the state’s most important economic sectors. They’re flanking Democrats at campaign rallies and knocking on doors in flippable state legislative districts. They are registering patients and colleagues to vote. At town halls and in ads, they warn that doctors, residents and medical students will avoid a state where they could be prosecuted for helping a patient terminate a pregnancy — damaging one of the largest and most recession-proof pieces of the economy. (Ollstein, 10/10)

AP: Judge Blocks Restrictive Ohio Abortion Law As Suit Proceeds
An Ohio law banning virtually all abortions will remain blocked while a state constitutional challenge proceeds, a judge said Friday in a ruling that will allow pregnancy terminations through 20 weeks’ gestation to continue for now. ... “This court has no difficulty holding that the Ohio Constitution confers a fundamental right on all of Ohioans to privacy, procreation, bodily integrity and freedom of choice in health care decision-making that encompasses the right to abortion,” Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins said. (Smyth, 10/7)

Reuters: Appeals Court Temporarily Blocks Arizona's Abortion Ban
An appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked Arizona from enforcing a 1901 ban on nearly all abortions in the state, overruling a trial court's decision last month to let the ban proceed. The Arizona Court of Appeals granted Planned Parenthood's request for an emergency stay of Pima County Superior Court's ruling on Sept. 23 that lifted an injunction on the ban. The appeals court said the abortion-rights advocacy group "demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success" in its challenge of that decision. (Shakil and Singh, 10/10)

The New York Times: ‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions
A New York Times review of dozens of fraud lawsuits, inspector general audits and investigations by watchdogs shows how major health insurers exploited the program to inflate their profits by billions of dollars. (Abelson and Sanger-Katz, 10/8)

Stateline: Many Patients Can't Afford Health Costs Even With Insurance
The number of Americans with health insurance has climbed to historic highs during the COVID-19 pandemic, but within that silver lining is a darker hue. Many Americans have policies that only provide limited financial protection, to the point that many patients report forgoing needed medical care or prescriptions to avoid being hit with punishing out-of-pocket costs. (Ollove, 10/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Why A $158,000 Drug With Unclear Benefits Hurts Whole Health System
Like many patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS—also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease—Layne Oliff didn’t have any time to waste. Even before the drug Relyvrio was approved late last month by the Food and Drug Administration, he has had his own do-it-yourself method: He gets sodium phenylbutyrate in liquid form from a New Jersey pharmacy and taurursodiol online from Amazon. That costs him over $7,000 a year, but he says it has been well worth it because he feels the combination has helped stabilize a disease that often causes death within a few years. (Wainer, 10/10)

USA Today: Medicare Part D Drug Prices Vary Widely Between States
New data from the Medicare startup Chapter shows the cost of prescriptions can vary widely from one state to another and even from one zip code to another. For seniors with chronic medical conditions, a difference in geography could mean paying thousands of dollars more per year out-of-pocket for the same medicine. (Wedell, 10/9)

Modern Healthcare: Centene's Medicare Advantage Stars Scores Curtailing Future Growth
Centene will not be allowed to expand its Medicare Advantage footprint in certain locales next year after its plans consistently received poor scores in the federal quality ratings program. (Tepper, 10/10)

The Washington Post: Unions Fight Plan To Privatize Western Maryland Hospital Center Services
Unions representing nurses and other health-care workers at Western Maryland Hospital Center are fighting what they say is Gov. Larry Hogan’s final chance to outsource care at the Hagerstown facility before he leaves office. The powerful three-member Board of Public Works, which includes the governor, is scheduled Wednesday to vote on expediting contracts that would outsource key functions of the public, long-term-care hospital, which cares for patients with complex conditions who often have been turned away from private facilities. (Portnoy, 10/10)

Stat: Maternity Care ‘Deserts’ On The Rise Across The U.S., Report Finds
The home birth had been going well, with the baby having been delivered safely, when midwife Lauren Genter noticed that the mother was losing more blood than normal. (Gaffney, 10/11)

Stat: Second U.S. Oncology Provider Plans To Go Public 
The U.S. is about to have not just one, but two, standalone publicly-traded oncology providers. (Bannow, 10/10)

Modern Healthcare: American Oncology Network To Combine With SPAC
The oncology provider will be the second of its kind to be publicly traded on NASDAQ as a result of combining with a SPAC. The Oncology Institute was the first cancer specialist to hit the stock market in November 2021 following its merger with blank-check company DFP Healthcare Acquisitions Corp. (Berryman, 10/10)

NBC News: The Anesthesiologist Who Is Putting You Under May Work For A Private-Equity Firm
North American Partners in Anesthesia is the nation’s largest anesthesia staffing company, employing 6,000 clinicians at 500 facilities in 21 states. The company is owned by two well-heeled private-equity firms, American Securities of New York City and Leonard Green & Partners in Los Angeles. Four of NAPA’s nine directors are private-equity executives. (Morgenson, 10/10)

AP: Info Expected To Emerge Slowly In Hospital Chain Cyberattack 
Details of an apparent cyberattack on one of the largest health systems in the U.S. were slow to emerge as security experts on Friday warned that it often takes time to assess the full impact on patients and hospitals. Earlier this week, CommonSpirit Health confirmed it experienced an “IT security issue” but it has yet to answer detailed questions about the incident, including how many of its 1,000 care sites that serve 20 million Americans may have been affected. The health system giant, which is the second largest nonprofit health system in America, has 140 hospitals in 21 states. (Foody and Kruesi, 10/7)

Reuters: White House Says COVID Booster Campaign Going Well, Should Pick Up 
The White House expects the rate of vaccination in its fall booster campaign to pick up over the coming weeks, and its COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on Friday characterized the initial pace as "a really good start." Jha estimated that between 13 million and 15 million Americans will have gotten the so-called bivalent booster by the end of [last] week. (Aboulenein and Erman, 10/7)

Reuters: AstraZeneca's COVID Vaccine Suffers A Setback In Nasal Spray Trial
Attempts by Oxford University researchers and AstraZeneca Plc to create a nasal-spray version of their jointly developed COVID-19 shot suffered a setback on Tuesday as initial testing on humans did not yield the desired protection. An antibody response in the respiratory mucous membranes was seen in only a minority of participants in the trial, which was in the first of usually three phases of clinical testing, the University of Oxford said in a statement on Tuesday. (10/10)

Reuters: Norwegian Cruises Loses Challenge To Florida Ban On Vaccine Mandates
A divided U.S. appeals court has rejected a challenge by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd to a Florida law barring businesses from requiring customers to show documentation proving they received a COVID-19 vaccine. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling on Thursday said the ban on "vaccine passports" adopted by Florida last year regulates economic conduct and not speech, so it does not violate Norwegian's free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. (Wiessner, 10/7)

CIDRAP: Omicron Tied To Less Preterm Birth, Maternal Illness Than Delta
The risk of maternal critical care admission and preterm birth were much lower amid dominance of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant than during the Delta-dominant period, finds a Scottish study published late last week in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 10/10)

Los Angeles Times: With COVID On The Retreat, How Safe Are Holiday Gatherings?
“People should plan on being able to get together with the people that they love,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said recently. But that optimism, as always, is tinted with caution. Families with members who are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness should consider taking some additional precautions, officials say. (Money and Lin II, 10/10)

Chicago Tribune: If You Misled Others About Your COVID Status, Getting Vaccinated Or Prevention Measures, You’re Not Alone
During the height of the pandemic, 4 in 10 Americans misled others about their COVID-19 status or their adherence to public health measures designed to prevent the spread of the virus, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the Chicago-based American Medical Association. (Lourgos, 10/10)

AP: Telemedicine Was Made Easy During COVID-19. Not Any More
Telemedicine exploded in popularity after COVID-19 hit, but limits are returning for care delivered across state lines. That complicates follow-up treatments for some cancer patients. It also can affect other types of care, including mental health therapy and routine doctor check-ins. Over the past year, nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C., have ended emergency declarations that made it easier for doctors to use video visits to see patients in another state, according to the Alliance for Connected Care, which advocates for telemedicine use. (Murphy, 10/9)

Reuters: FDA Expands Use Of GSK's Vaccine During Pregnancy To Prevent Whooping Cough In Infants
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday allowed the use of GlaxoSmithKline's Boostrix vaccine during the third trimester of pregnancy to prevent whooping cough in infants younger than two months of age. "When the Boostrix vaccine is given during pregnancy, it boosts antibodies in the mother, which are transferred to the developing baby," the agency said. (10/7)

NPR: There's A Spike In Respiratory Illness Among Children — And It's Not Just COVID
The United States is seeing a significant spike in respiratory illness among children. Sick kids are crowding emergency rooms in various parts of the country, and some pediatric hospitals say they are running out of beds. But this uptick in illness has largely been due to viruses other than the coronavirus, like RSV, enteroviruses and rhinovirus. (López Restrepo and Louise Kelly, 10/11)

CIDRAP: Monkeypox Study Spotlights Role Of Sexual Transmission 
A significant proportion of patients reported attending large mass gatherings before developing monkeypox symptoms. Of 161 patients with available information, 37 (23%) met their sexual partners at such gatherings, including the Maspalomas Festival on Spain's Gran Canaria island, and various other Pride-related festivities in Europe and the United States, the authors said. Thirty percent of patients said they developed lesions or rash as a first symptom. (Soucheray, 10/10)

Houston Chronicle: UT's Narcan Program Can't Keep Up With Student Demand
The University of Texas at Austin has run out of its Narcan supply twice since spring, when it began providing the opioid overdose reversal medication free to students at some of its libraries. (Ketterer, 10/7)

NPR: Is 'Rainbow Fentanyl' A Threat To Your Kids This Halloween? Experts Say No
The DEA says they identified a deliberate new marketing scheme by Mexican cartels and street dealers who want the pills to "look like candy to children and young people." "It looks like candy," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told NBC News. "In fact, some of the drug traffickers have nicknamed it Sweet Tarts, Skittles." (Mann, 10/11)

NPR: A Lawsuit Accuses Amazon Of Selling Suicide Kits To Teenagers
Amazon is facing a lawsuit accusing it of selling so-called suicide kits, brought by the families of two teenagers who bought a deadly chemical on the company's website and later used it to take their own lives. (Hernandez, 10/9)

AP: As Suicides Rise, US Military Seeks To Address Mental Health
After finishing a tour in Afghanistan in 2013, Dionne Williamson felt emotionally numb. More warning signs appeared during several years of subsequent overseas postings. “It’s like I lost me somewhere,” said Williamson, a Navy lieutenant commander who experienced disorientation, depression, memory loss and chronic exhaustion. “I went to my captain and said, ‘Sir, I need help. Something’s wrong.’” As the Pentagon seeks to confront spiraling suicide rates in the military ranks, Williamson’s experiences shine a light on the realities for service members seeking mental health help. For most, simply acknowledging their difficulties can be intimidating. And what comes next can be frustrating and dispiriting. (Khalil, 10/10)

NPR: AI App Could Diagnose Illnesses Based On Speech
Voices offer lots of information. Turns out, they can even help diagnose an illness — and researchers are working on an app for that. The National Institutes of Health is funding a massive research project to collect voice data and develop an AI that could diagnose people based on their speech. (Molina Acosta and Weiner, 10/10)

CIDRAP: Frozen Falafel Tied To 20 E Coli Illnesses In 6 States
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct 7 announced an Escherichia coli O121 outbreak that has sickened 20 people from 6 states is linked to frozen falafel sold at Aldi stores. (10/10)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Beware Of Deadly Wild Mushrooms: Portage County Man Survives Poisoning, Thanks To Experimental Drug At UH
A recent rash of nearly lethal poisonings have experts worried that mobile naturalist apps may be lulling otherwise cautious citizens into a false sense of security, and they’re warning Ohioans against eating any mushrooms found growing in the wild. (Kroen, 10/10)

NBC News: Toxic Herbicides: Map Showing How High Exposure Is By State
On a daily basis, many people in the U.S. could be exposed to a potentially cancer-causing chemical used in the world’s most common weedkillers. Data shows that people in the Midwest, parts of the South and Colorado have the highest exposure. (Jefferies, 10/10)

The New York Times: Fall Allergies Are Real. And They’re Getting Worse
Ragweed, a tall, willowy plant that grows in cities and rural areas alike, is the most common culprit behind fall allergies, said Dr. Michele Pham, an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Just one pesky plant can release one billion grains of pollen, she said, which can irritate and inflame our sinuses. Ragweed starts to bloom in August and typically peaks in mid-September, but it can continue to grow into November. (Blum, 10/8)