First Edition: Oct. 11, 2023

KFF Health News: Feds Hope To Cut Sepsis Deaths By Hitching Medicare Payments To Treatment Stats 
Don Smith remembers the moment he awoke in an intensive care unit after 13 days in a medically induced coma. His wife and daughter were at his bedside, and he thought it had been only a day since he arrived at the emergency room with foot pain. Smith said his wife “slowly started filling me in” on the surgery, the coma, the ventilator. The throbbing in his foot had been a signal of a raging problem. (Appleby, 10/11)

KFF Health News: John Green Vs. Johnson & Johnson (Part 1)
Why is treating drug-resistant tuberculosis so expensive? Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s patents on a drug called bedaquiline have a lot to do with it. In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann speaks with writer and YouTube star John Green about how he mobilized his massive online community of “nerdfighters” to change the company’s policy and help make the drug more accessible. (10/11)

KFF Health News: Narcan, Now Available Without A Prescription, Can Still Be Hard To Get 
Last month, drugstores and pharmacies nationwide began stocking and selling the country’s first over-the-counter version of naloxone, a medication that can stop a potentially fatal overdose from opioids. It’s sold as a nasal spray under the brand name Narcan. Coming off a year with a record number of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States — nearly 83,000 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics — community health workers and addiction medicine experts were hopeful that the arrival of Narcan on retail shelves might make it easier for people to get the medication. (Fortier and Leonard, 10/11)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' 
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: What happens in a small town when the only practicing physicians are ready to retire. Plus, the Biden administration wants to stop medical debt from dragging down your credit score. (10/10)

Reuters: Idaho Abortion Ban Again Partly Halted Amid Appeal
A federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily limited Idaho's ability to enforce its near-total abortion ban in medical emergencies while it weighs in on a legal challenge to the ban by the Biden administration. A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month allowed the state to enforce its ban, reversing a lower court order that had partially blocked it. On Tuesday, however, the full 9th Circuit said it would rehear the case with 11 of its judges, automatically voiding the panel's order for now. (Pierson, 10/10)

AP: Abortion Rights And Marijuana Questions Expected To Drive Ohioans To Polls As Early Voting Begins
Heavier-than-normal turnout is expected Wednesday as early voting begins in Ohio’s closely watched off-year election to decide the future of abortion access and marijuana legalization in the state. Of greatest interest nationally is Issue 1, a proposed constitutional amendment giving every person “the right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.” The effort comes on the heels of a string of victories for abortion rights proponents around the country who have been winning in both Democratic and deeply Republican states since the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion was overturned. (Smyth, 10/11)

The 19th: Abortion Rights Are On A Winning Streak At The Ballot Box. Ohio Could Test That
On a cloudy recent Friday morning, thousands of protestors descended on the Ohio statehouse for the March for Life, many holding signs with sayings like, “Ohio is Pro-Life” and “Vote No on Issue 1.” That measure, Issue 1, would guarantee a constitutional right to an abortion and other reproductive health care. All eyes were on Ohio, said Jeanne Mancini, president of the national anti-abortion March for Life. They were at a “cultural crossroads, she said, and Ohioians would be judged on their vote on November 7. (Panetta, 10/10)

Politico: Anti-Abortion Groups Keep Losing Ballot Measure Votes. They Believe Ohio Will Buck The Trend.
Anti-abortion groups are banking on Ohio to end the movement’s run of state-level losses and create a blueprint for battles in 2024 and beyond. In four weeks, voters in the Buckeye State will decide whether to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution or be the first to reject an abortion-rights measure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. (Ollstein, 10/11)

Modern Healthcare: Providers Stress Need For Remote Prescribing Rules After DEA Extension
Telehealth groups expressed some relief at the Drug Enforcement Administration's extension of pandemic-era flexibilities allowing companies to continue prescribing certain controlled substances without in-person visits until the end of next year. They also pointed to the necessity of a permanent rule. The extension, published in the Federal Register Tuesday, authorizes providers to prescribe Schedule II-V controlled medications via telemedicine to new and existing patients, as they have since the COVID-19 pandemic began, through Dec. 31, 2024. (Turner, 10/10)

The New York Times: Illicit Vapes And E-Cigarettes Flood Stores As F.D.A. Struggles To Combat Imports 
Some vapes are appearing with increasing nicotine levels that approach those in a carton of cigarettes. U.S. regulators did not authorize them, but have failed to keep them off shelves. (Jewett, 10/10)

Reuters: Court OKs Mallinckrodt Restructuring, $1 Billion Cut To Opioid Settlement 
Drugmaker Mallinckrodt on Tuesday won court approval for a bankruptcy plan that cuts $1 billion from what it must pay opioid crisis victims, cancels existing equity shares, and trims nearly $2 billion in other debt. The Ireland-based company reached a relatively swift conclusion to its second Chapter 11, which began on Aug. 28, just 14 months after its previous bankruptcy concluded. (Knauth, 10/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Mallinckrodt Bankruptcy Plan Gets Approval, Will Wipe Out $1 Billion In Opioid Payments 
This is a setback to governments and individual addicts who filed lawsuits seeking compensation from drugmakers for their role in the opioid crisis. The legal fight stretches back nearly a decade, when more than 3,000 lawsuits from states, Native American tribes and counties alleged the drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors played down the risk of painkillers and didn’t stem their flow. A few opioid manufacturers that lacked the funds to settle those thousands of lawsuits turned to bankruptcy to try to resolve them. (Saeedy, 10/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom Signs Bill Making It Easier To Place People On Psychiatric Hold
California will expand its standards for involuntary medical treatment to include people whose mental illness or drug addiction inhibits their ability to keep themselves safe, under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. ... Advocates of SB43 said it was needed because the law currently applies only to people who are unable to provide their own basic food, clothing and shelter or who are found to be mentally incompetent. (Bollag and Egelko, 10/10)

Axios Washington D.C.: Narcan Vending Machines In DC Help Prevent Opioid Overdoses 
D.C.'s harm-reduction vending machines have pumped out at least 2,800 distributions of Narcan, Fentanyl tests, and other protective items since a pilot program launched last spring. With opioid overdoses at an all-time high, more communities are investing in innovative and low-cost intervention efforts — like vending machines stocked with free medical supplies — to help save lives. (Spiegel, 10/10)

MPR News: A Life Not Fully Lived: Federal Bill Aims To Prevent More Opioid Overdose Deaths 
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said more needs to be done to hold social media companies responsible when fentanyl or contaminated drugs are sold through their services. Anastasia Shevtsova's family said she lost her life after buying some pills on the social media app SnapChat. Later that night, Olga noticed the light shining out from under her daughter’s door. She knocked, then opened the door. She found her cold on her bed, with her face turning blue. (Collins, 10/10)

The Colorado Sun: Fentanyl Killed Their Kids At College. Now Schools Are Changing
The alert shared in Boulder a few weeks ago warned of a powdered form of fentanyl, its texture similar to drywall plaster, and its color pink or tan, like sand. Boulder law enforcement officers found it near a dead body. They told the county health department, which released the public health alert five days later. The University of Colorado posted the alert on its website and Facebook page the same day, warning students to beware of the deadly powder. This is what they wanted, the parents who have pushed CU and the rest of the state’s universities and colleges for two years to do more to protect students from fentanyl poisoning. (Brown, 10/9)

The Washington Post: Inmates Settle After Arkansas Jail Gave Them Ivermectin For Covid-19
When five detainees at the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, Ark., got sick with covid-19 in August 2021, they were given a “cocktail” of drugs to treat the virus, a lawsuit alleged. The detainees were not told the contents of their medication, an assortment of pills administered twice daily, according to the lawsuit. They allegedly suffered side effects, including vision issues, stomach cramps and diarrhea. (Wu, 10/10)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Lawmakers Again Target Private Businesses’ COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Conservative Texas lawmakers are taking another shot at prohibiting private businesses from requiring employees to get COVID-19 vaccines. The new legislation comes after years of Republican attempts to reign in COVID-related restrictions like mask mandates and vaccine requirements. (Harper, 10/10)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. COVID-19 Cases Falling As Officials Brace For Winter
“We’re definitely seeing a decline,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in an interview. “The summer bump is over.” ... Ferrer said she anticipates L.A. County will remain at a lower level of coronavirus transmission “hopefully for a few more weeks, until the weather gets colder, more things are moved indoors and there’s a lot more celebrations and travel” that could help spread the virus. (Lin II, 10/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Healthcare Strikes Threaten To Prolong Wage Pressure On Hospitals 
Because of a confluence of factors such as political support from the White House and a tight labor market, Americans across a variety of industries are walking off the job at a rate not seen in years. In the healthcare sector, those broader factors have converged with industry-specific grievances, such as nursing shortages, that were exacerbated by the pandemic. (Wainer, 10/10)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna To Buy Bright.Md, Integrate It With Evernorth Health’s MDLive
Cigna Group will pay an undisclosed sum for digital health company Bright.md, the companies announced in a news release Tuesday. Cigna’s Evernorth Health Services unit will integrate Bright.md’s asynchronous digital services into MDLive, a telehealth platform that covers 60 million commercial, Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. MDLive supports about 2 million virtual urgent care, behavioral health, tele-dermatology and primary care visits annually, MDLive Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eric Weil said during an interview at the HLTH conference. (Tepper, 10/10)

Axios: Sanders, Hospital Lobby Clash Over Nonprofits' Service
Sen. Bernie Sanders and one of the biggest hospital lobbies on Tuesday offered clashing views on how much nonprofit health systems benefit the communities they serve. Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate HELP Committee, issued a report that found six of the biggest nonprofit hospital systems dedicated less than 1% of their total revenue to charity care in 2021 — a key criteria for maintaining their tax-exempt status that Sanders wants tightened. (Goldman, 10/11)

CNBC: Walgreens Names Veteran Health-Care Executive Tim Wentworth As Next CEO
Walgreens Boots Alliance has chosen veteran health care executive Tim Wentworth as the company’s new chief executive. Wentworth is the former CEO of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits management company, Express Scripts, which was acquired by Cigna in 2018. He stayed on and served as chief of Cigna’s health services, before retiring in 2021. (Coombs, 10/10)

Modern Healthcare: Walgreens To Launch Virtual Care Services In 2023
Walgreens will launch an on-demand virtual care service later this month, Tracey Brown, chief customer officer and president of retail, announced at a HLTH conference keynote Monday. The company will offer dermatology, primary care, urgent care, women’s health and men’s health services, Brown said. Patients can set up video visits with providers, attend virtual consultations with a doctor or nurse practitioner and have prescriptions shipped to their home, she said. (Hudson and Tepper, 10/10)

Reuters: Walmart Expands Online Healthcare Benefits For US Employees 
Walmart said on Tuesday it will expand online primary care benefits as part of its employee health insurance plan to its workers in 28 U.S. states. The retailer employs more than 2 million people, according to a regulatory filing, and is the largest private employer in the United States. (10/10)

The Boston Globe: Dana-Farber, Beth Israel Unveil $1.68 Billion Cancer Hospital Project
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said its planned collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will include construction of a $1.68 billion, 300-bed cancer hospital, a project that would fulfill a longstanding vision the cancer hospital has had about how to deliver care. Dr. Laurie Glimcher, chief executive of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Dr. Kevin Tabb, chief executive of Beth Israel Lahey Health, outlined their plans in an editorial board meeting with the Globe on Tuesday, with Dana-Farber executives saying they tried diligently to continue working with Brigham and Women’s Hospital before seeking a new partner. (Bartlett, 10/10)

Stat: Liquid Biopsy For Lung Cancer Is Launched By Delfi
Delfi Diagnostics, a well-funded startup in the burgeoning field of creating blood tests to detect cancer, said on Monday that it is launching a new test, FirstLook Lung, to try to identify people who could most benefit from lung cancer screening. (Herper, 10/9)

Fox News: Veterans Plagued By Errors In Health Benefit System Due To Computer Mishap
An automated Veterans Affairs system meant to help accelerate claims decisions actually helped contribute to inaccurate ratings on 27% of high blood pressure claims. A VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report published last week found that more than a quarter of the 60 reviewed high blood pressure claims that were handled by the Automated Benefits Delivery System resulted in wrongful claims decisions for veterans, according to a report from Military.com. (Lee, 10/11)

Reuters: US FDA Warns Online Vendors To Stop Selling Unapproved Weight-Loss Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday published letters warning two online vendors to stop selling unapproved versions of semaglutide and tirzepatide, the active ingredients in popular GLP-1 class medications including Novo Nordisk’s powerful weight-loss drug Wegovy. In the letters sent to Semaspace and Gorilla Healing on Oct. 2, the FDA said the only approved semaglutide products were Wegovy and Novo’s diabetes drugs Ozempic and Rybelsus. It noted that tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, had only been approved for diabetes. (Wingrove, 10/10)

Modern Healthcare: SCAN, Alignment Tailor Medicare Advantage Plans For Diverse Groups
Medicare Advantage carriers are designing plans for underserved populations that address specific healthcare needs while also finding a way to differentiate their business from competitors. Tailoring Medicare Advantage plans for specific populations is an emerging trend that could become part of these companies' long-term strategies and prompt other industry players to follow suit. (Berryman, 10/10)

AP: Arkansas Purges 427K From Medicaid After Post-Pandemic Roll Review; Advocates Worry About Oversights 
More than 427,000 Arkansas residents were dropped from Medicaid in the past six months, as the state became among the first nationally to complete a post-pandemic eligibility review of the government-funded health care program for lower-income residents. The state ended coverage for more than half of those whose cases were reviewed during the period — a removal rate that raised concerns Tuesday among some health care advocates even as the Republican-led administration defended its efficiency in shrinking the Medicaid rolls. (Lieb and DeMillo, 10/10)

Health News Florida: DeSantis Administration Fights Allegations Over Medicaid Redeterminations
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is trying to fend off a potential class-action lawsuit that alleges the state has not provided adequate information to Medicaid beneficiaries before dropping them from the health-care program. Attorneys for the state Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families on Friday filed court documents arguing that a federal judge should reject requests to issue a preliminary injunction and to make the lawsuit a class action. (Saunders, 10/10)

USA Today: Utah Lawsuit Claims TikTok Baits Children Into Destructive Habits
“We're tired of TikTok lying to Utah parents," Cox said. "We're tired of our kids losing their innocence and even their lives addicted to the dark side of social media." Utah officials cited public health concerns and research showing the impact social media has on children's mental health, including risks of depression, anxiety, higher levels of developmental sensitivity and disruptions to neurological development. (Nguyen, 10/10)

AP: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Say Social Media Is Harming Kids
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Tuesday called for social media platforms to adopt better content-moderation policies and other fixes, saying modifications need to be made to addictive apps that can harm young people’s mental health. The couple spoke at a panel discussion coordinated by their Archewell Foundation in New York City as part of a second annual mental health awareness festival hosted by a nonprofit called Project Healthy Minds. (Hadero, 10/10)

Axios: America's Mental Health Crisis Is Getting Worse
A trio of new studies paints a grim picture of how overdose deaths, depression and barriers to care are weighing heaviest on disadvantaged and minority groups — and are aligning to widen health disparities as the U.S. emerges from the pandemic. (Owens, 10/11)

Axios: Surgeon General: Mental Health Key To Healing Political Divisiveness
The issue of mental health is "fundamentally impacting the fabric of society," U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said during a recent event hosted ahead of Tuesday's World Mental Health Day. Political divisiveness, climate change, COVID, gun violence and social media are among stressors taking a simultaneous toll on mental health, which in turn fuels more harmful behaviors. (King, 10/10)

Stat: Stroke Deaths Set To Near 10 Million Globally By 2050 
The number of stroke deaths worldwide is set to climb 50% to nearly 10 million by 2050, with most cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new wide-ranging report from the World Stroke Organization-Lancet Neurology Commission. (Chen, 10/9)

USA Today: Life-Changing Surgery: Doctor Disconnects Brain Of 6-Year-Old With Rare Disease
A 6-year-old girl with a rare neurological disease recently underwent a 10-hour surgery in California where half of her brain was disconnected in an effort to help cure her. ... The surgery was performed by Dr. Aaron Robison at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. Robison told ABC 7 that "just disconnecting it [the brain] is enough to stop the disease completely and essentially, potentially cure it." (Hauari, 10/10)

USA Today: Bird Flu Detected In Poultry Flocks In South Dakota And Utah
The U.S. Department of Agriculture detected traces of highly pathogenic bird flu in commercial poultry flocks in South Dakota and Utah on Friday, raising concerns about possible future outbreaks across the country. So far, virus detections in 328 commercial flocks and 516 backyard flocks in the U.S. have affected 58.97 million birds nationwide. Backyard flocks are residences that keep 1,000 or fewer birds, whereas commercial flocks exceed that amount, according to the USDA. (Dausch and Arredondo, 10/11)

USA Today: CRISPR Gene Editing Used To Make Chickens Resistant To Bird Flu: Study
The chicken may be getting an upgrade. In a scientific first, U.K. researchers have used gene editing technology to create poultry that's partially resistant to bird flu infection, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications. It’s no bionic chicken. But study authors say growing disease-resistant chickens in the lab is an important first step to giving farmers a tool to combat bird flu, which wiped out tens of millions of chickens amid an H5N1 outbreak over the past two years. (Rodriguez, 10/10)

Community News Collaborative: Sarasota County's Malaria Scare Brought New Tactics In Mosquito Control
With seven documented cases of malaria reported in Sarasota County this year, the county’s Mosquito Management Services team spent the summer on high alert. The cases were reported in May, June and July, prompted by mosquitos carrying the Plasmodium vivax infection. (Owens, 10/10)

Los Angeles Times: Mary Lou Retton Is Hospitalized With Pneumonia, Unable To Breathe On Her Own, Daughter Says
United States gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton has been hospitalized for more than a week after contracting “a very rare form of pneumonia,” her daughter said Tuesday. Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, has launched a fundraising campaign to help pay for her mother’s medical expenses. In the description for the campaign, Kelley explains that her “amazing mom” is in the intensive care unit “fighting for her life” with no medical insurance. “We ask that if you could help in any way, that 1) you PRAY! and 2) if you could help us with finances for the hospital bill. ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y’all so very much!” (Carras, 10/10)