First Edition: Oct. 23, 2023

KFF Health News: Using Opioid Settlement Cash For Police Gear Like Squad Cars And Scanners Sparks Debate
Policing expenses mount quickly: $25,000 for a law enforcement conference about fentanyl in Colorado; $18,000 for technology to unlock cellphones in Southington, Connecticut; $2,900 for surveillance cameras and to train officers and canines in New Lexington, Ohio. And in other communities around the country, hundreds of thousands for vehicles, body scanners, and other equipment. In these cases and many others, state and local governments are turning to a new means to pay those bills: opioid settlement cash. (Pattani, 10/23)

KFF Health News: Tiny, Rural Hospitals Feel The Pinch As Medicare Advantage Plans Grow 
Jason Bleak runs Battle Mountain General Hospital, a small facility in a remote Nevada gold mining town that he described as “out here in the middle of nowhere.” When several representatives from private health insurance companies called on him a few years ago to offer Medicare Advantage plan contracts so their enrollees could use his hospital, Bleak sent them away. “Come back to the table with a better offer,” the chief executive recalled telling them. The representatives haven’t returned. (Tribble, 10/23)

KFF Health News: Quick Genetic Test Offers Hope For Sick, Undiagnosed Kids. But Few Insurers Offer To Pay. 
Just 48 hours after her birth in a Seattle-area hospital in 2021, Layla Babayev was undergoing surgery for a bowel obstruction. Two weeks later, she had another emergency surgery, and then developed meningitis. Layla spent more than a month in neonatal intensive care in three hospitals as doctors searched for the cause of her illness. (Galewitz, 10/23)

KFF Health News: Why Is Finding Covid Shots For Young Children Still So Hard?
On Sept. 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the next round of covid shots for everyone 6 months and older. The shots were expected to be available within days in pharmacies and doctor’s offices across the country, the CDC said. But more than a month later, the pediatric versions of the new covid shots, for children 6 months to 11 years old, are still difficult to find. A confluence of problems — from technicalities about who can give shots to small kids to the lack of accurate information online on where the kid-sized doses can be found — are still preventing parents from making sure their children are protected. (Fortier, 10/20)

AP: Georgia Medicaid Program With Work Requirement Has Enrolled Only 1,343 Residents In 3 Months 
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s new health plan for low-income adults has enrolled only 1,343 people through the end of September about three months after launching, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The Georgia Department of Community Health has projected up to 100,000 people could eventually benefit from Georgia Pathways to Coverage. But the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement is off to a very slow start. (10/20)

AP: Affordable Care Act Provisions Codified Under Michigan Law By Gov. Whitmer As A Hedge Against Repeal
Federal law that prohibits insurers from denying healthcare based on preexisting conditions, or kicking dependents off their parent’s coverage until age 26, is now codified separately into Michigan law. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Thursday that attempts to duplicate the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” into state law. The second-term governor said earlier this year that the proactive move was necessary to ensure Michigan residents “aren’t at risk of losing coverage,” due to future Supreme Court rulings. (Cappelletti, 10/20)

Reuters: US FDA Approves Pfizer's Vaccine For Meningococcal Disease 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Pfizer's vaccine Penbraya, making it the first shot to protect against five groups of a deadly bacteria that can cause meningitis and blood poisoning, the company said on Friday. Meningococcal diseases are rare bacterial infections that commonly affect the brain, spinal cord and bloodstream, and can be deadly in a matter of hours. (10/20)

Reuters: Scientists Infect Volunteers With Zika In Hunt For Vaccines, Treatments
Researchers in the United States have shown for the first time they can safely and effectively infect human volunteers with Zika virus, a step towards learning more about the disease and developing vaccines and treatments. The study – known as a "controlled human infection model" – has previously been controversial for Zika because of the risks to participants and lack of treatments. But U.S. regulators and the World Health Organization ruled the new model, developed by a team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was safe and scientifically important. (Rigby, 10/21)

Los Angeles Times: Rare Case Of Mosquito-Borne Dengue Diagnosed In Pasadena
A case of locally acquired dengue, a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, was detected in Pasadena on Friday, according to the Pasadena Public Health Department. The instance is “extremely rare,” officials said, with the afflicted person being the first known case in California among someone who had not recently traveled. (Childs, 10/21)

Reuters: Sanofi Seeing 'Unprecedented' Demand For RSV Therapy
French drugmaker Sanofi said on Friday it was seeing an "unprecedented level" of demand for an antibody therapy it co-developed to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a leading cause of hospitalizations in infants. The therapy, branded Beyfortus and jointly developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, was approved in July to prevent RSV in infants and toddlers. (10/21)

NPR: A Seasonal Viral Stew Is Brewing With Flu, RSV, COVID And More
So what is brewing in the viral stew? There's the big three to start: the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19. "These are the three that cause the most utilization of the health care system and the most severe disease," says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. ... And there are other viruses in the mix, says Marlene Wolfe, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at Emory University. (Huang, 10/21)

CIDRAP: CDC Reports Slight Flu Rise
Flu activity in the United States is low and remains well below baselines, but some parts of the country are experiencing slight rises, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly update. The percentage of respiratory specimens that tested positive for flu at clinical labs rose last week in region 8, which includes Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Levels remained stable in other parts of the country. (Schnirring, 10/20)

CIDRAP: Most US COVID Markers Show Declines
COVID metrics showed more declines last week, though deaths from the virus—one of its severity indicators—rose 4.2% compared to the previous week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest data update. Deaths were up a bit in a number of states but were up more sharply in Oregon. (Schnirring, 10/20)

Stat: Researchers Explore Possible Ties Between Long Covid, Menopause
When she stopped getting her period in March 2022, Daryn Schwartz wasn’t especially concerned. At 42, she had recently come off birth control, and figured her cycles were still adjusting. When it hadn’t come back by the summer, she sought gynecological care, but was told to wait it out. So she did, with no changes. (Merelli, 10/20)

CIDRAP: Study Finds High Prevalence Of Drug Interactions In Adults Taking Paxlovid 
Adults who were treated with nirmatrelvir–ritonavir (Paxlovid) for their COVID infections in an outpatient setting during the earlier Omicron variant months had a high prevalence of drug-drug interactions (DDIs), Canadian researchers reported yesterday in PLOS One. In its clinical guidance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges healthcare providers to be aware of Paxlovid eligibility criteria and the potential for drug interactions. (Schnirring, 10/20)

USA Today: From Vaping To Abortion, Conservatives Are Targeting FDA Authority
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow,” the FDA posted to social media in mid-2021, as COVID-19 vaccines were already widely available in the USA. “Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” Those warnings are now the subject of a pending lawsuit by three doctors who claim the FDA overstepped its authority by weighing in with medical advice they say should be left to physicians. The ivermectin suit is one of several working through federal courts challenging the FDA's power to make decisions or dispense information. (Fritze, 10/23)

Politico: Fentanyl Is Killing Thousands, But Congress Has No Answer For The Opioid Crisis 
America’s drug overdose crisis is out of control. Washington, despite a bipartisan desire to combat it, is finding its addiction-fighting programs are failing. In 2018, Republicans, Democrats and then-President Donald Trump united around legislation that threw $20 billion into treatment, prevention and recovery. But five years later, the SUPPORT Act has lapsed and the number of Americans dying from overdoses has grown more than 60 percent, driven by illicit fentanyl. The battle has turned into a slog. (Paun, 10/22)

Texas Community Health News: Expired Narcan Still Works, But Texas Cities Are Destroying It
In 2019, the state of Texas gave out more than 230,000 doses of naloxone, a life saving medicine that can reverse opioid overdoses, through its More Narcan Please program. More than three years later, that medication, in the form of a nasal spray known as Narcan, is past the expiration date printed on its label. For some organizations, that expired Narcan is gold. (Buch, 10/23)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly Outreach Workers Delivering Naloxone, Fentanyl Testing Strips
City outreach workers are knocking on thousands of doors to give lifesaving overdose reversal drugs directly to residents in North Philadelphia neighborhoods, where overdose deaths have been rising sharply and people often lack access to addiction resources. Outreach workers from the city’s community engagement arm, Philly Counts, have been fanning out through the 19140 zip code, where 85 people died of overdoses in 2022. (Whelan, 10/21)

Stat: STAT Summit: The Fight Over Methadone, A ‘Miracle Molecule'
A doctor, a patient advocate, and the most powerful figure in the methadone treatment industry presented competing visions for the future of American addiction medicine this week — a conversation that touched on stigma, patients’ rights, and a stark divide in health provider attitudes toward patients with addiction. (Facher, 10/20)

Military.com: Testing Of Navy SEALs May Unveil Scale Of Performance-Enhancing Drug Use -- And Unleash Legal Battles 
The Navy's Special Warfare Command is poised to begin regularly testing all Navy SEALs for performance-enhancing drugs next month, but the effort to root out the potentially dangerous substances could also lead the service into a legal minefield. The move is being presented as a reasonable safety measure by the Navy following a highly publicized sailor death, reports of widespread abuse of the drugs in the SEAL training program, and damning investigations that painted a picture of instructors showing little regard for the safety of recruits -- often pushing them beyond their physical limits. (Toropin, 10/20)

The Washington Post: 'Pharmacy Desert' Risks Rise As Drugstore Chains Move To Close Stores
After decades of expansion, the nation’s largest drugstore chains are closing hundreds of stores as they reorient their operations against rising competition, a crush of opioid lawsuits and other forces — relegating many already-vulnerable communities into pharmacy deserts. Rite Aid, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, CVS and Walgreens have signaled over the past two years plans to collectively shutter more than 1,500 stores. Public health experts have already seen the fallout, noting that the first neighborhoods to lose their pharmacies are often predominantly Black, Latinx and low-income. (Gregg and Peiser, 10/22)

Reuters: Express Scripts Conspired To Overcharge Pharmacies, Class Action Says 
A group of pharmacies has filed a proposed class action lawsuit accusing Cigna Group's pharmacy benefit manager unit Express Scripts Inc of conspiring with another company to charge higher fees and reimburse pharmacies at lower rates. In a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, four retail pharmacies said that a three-year collaboration agreement announced in 2019 between Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics was in fact a pretext for fixing reimbursement rates and fees, with no benefit for customers. (Pierson, 10/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Roche To Buy Telavant From Roivant Sciences And Pfizer In $7.25 Bln Deal 
Roche Holding has agreed to buy Telavant Holdings from Roivant Sciences and Pfizer in a deal worth up to $7.25 billion as the Swiss pharmaceutical giant seeks to bolster its immunology pipeline. The acquisition will give Roche rights over Telavant’s drug candidate that has shown promise for inflammatory bowel disease and could have potential in other indications, it said. Roche will have rights to commercialize the drug in the U.S. and Japan, pending clinical-trial data and regulatory approval. (Calatayud, 10/23)

Reuters: Three Listed Chinese Firms Used Endangered Animal Parts As Ingredients, Report Says 
Three publicly traded Chinese drugmakers which count global banks such as UBS and HSBC as investors have used parts of endangered animals as ingredients in their products, an environmental group said. ... The three companies are among a list of 72 firms the environmental non-profit organization (NGO) said used body parts of threatened leopards and pangolins as ingredients in at least 88 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products. (Silver andLi, 10/22)

Stat: Roche Drug Slashes Death Risk In Early-Stage Lung Cancer Trial
A Roche drug lowered the risk of recurrence or death by 76% versus chemotherapy for patients with a type of early non-small cell lung cancer, according to data from a Phase 3 trial presented Saturday. (Joseph, 10/21)

USA Today: Drug Trials Don't Require People With Obesity, So Dosing May Be Wrong
It's well known that having obesity increases the risk of a wide range of health conditions, but data suggests it may not be just the extra weight that adds risk. Medications may not work as well on people with obesity, studies suggest, because, although people with a lot of body fat metabolize drugs differently, they aren't required to be included in research trials. So prescribed doses may be too high in some cases and linger too long in others. (Weintraub, 10/22)

The New York Times: How Much Do Ozempic And Wegovy Cost? Not What You Think. 
The drugs’ list prices are generally very different from the net prices, which companies receive after making secret deals with health insurers or the intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers. Companies generally do not reveal net prices, but there are data sources that can be used to estimate them. (Kolata, 10/22)

Stat: Pharmacists Can Make Shortage Drugs, But At What Cost? 
Pharmacists increasingly are being asked to make drugs in bulk for hospitals that are in short supply, and they’re even beginning to make chemotherapies. But some in the industry worry about the unintended consequences of overreliance. Hospitals’ reliance on pharmacist-made drugs, a practice called compounding, has risen in step with worsening drug shortages. (Wilkerson, 10/20)

Modern Healthcare: Providence St. Joseph Workers In Burbank, California, To Strike
Around 700 frontline healthcare workers at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, plan to strike Monday over claims that the system is bargaining in bad faith. The strike is set to run Monday through Friday and will include lab technicians, phlebotomists, patient transporters and other staff represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. (Devereaux, 10/20)

Modern Healthcare: Resident, Doctor Unions Find New Interest Amid Allina Health Vote
Organized labor is having a moment, and doctors and support staff in the nation's hospitals want in on it. While those groups of workers have historically been less engaged in union activity than their nurse colleagues, they are expressing an unprecedented level of interest in organizing. (Devereaux, 10/20)

Modern Healthcare: Blue Cross North Carolina, FastMed Make Urgent Care Deal
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has struck a deal to acquire 55 urgent care centers from FastMed, the insurer announced Friday. The nonprofit carrier plans to ramp up FastMed operations in North Carolina after a downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in part by boosting hiring. The parties did not disclose the terms of the sale agreement. (Berryman, 10/20)

Military.com: Pentagon Raises Cap On Service Members' Medical Malpractice Claims
Service members now can file claims related to alleged malpractice at military medical facilities for up to $750,000, after the Pentagon proposed an increase from the previous limit of $600,000. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder announced in an email to media outlets that the proposed change applies "to any pending claims" and was published in the Federal Register on Friday. (Novelly and Kheel, 10/20)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn Hospital Will Get $86 Million From 340B Drug Program
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is in line to receive $86 million from the government under a legal settlement resolving cuts made to a national drug discount program designed to strengthen safety-net hospitals. The amount for Penn’s flagship hospital in University City amounts to the sixth-largest payout to any hospital in the nation, and accounts for the bulk of the $129.2 million coming to the University of Pennsylvania Health System, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Brubaker, 10/23)

Stat: FDA Gives Detailed Accounting Of AI-Enabled Medical Devices
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday released a new accounting of artificial intelligence tools cleared for use in health care, adding scores of new products designed to reshape care in several areas of medicine. (Ross and Palmer, 10/20)

Axios: Study: Some AI Chatbots Provide Racist Health Info
Some of the most high-profile artificial intelligence chatbots churned out responses that perpetuated false or debunked medical information about Black people, a new study found. As AI takes off, chatbots are already being incorporated into medicine — with little to no oversight. These new tech tools, if fueled by false or inaccurate data, have the potential to worsen health disparities, experts have warned. (Goldman, 10/23)

The Hill: Giving Birth Is Pricey In The US, And Growing Pricier
Having a baby is expensive in the U.S. — and it’s getting costlier. The median cost for an in-network C-section in the U.S. last year was about $15,500, while the median cost of a vaginal birth with no complications was almost $13,000, according to FAIR Health’s cost of giving birth tracker.   And the national median price for an out-of-network birth is more than twice as expensive, according to the tracker.    (O'Connell-Domenech, 10/22)

Fox News: Dementia’s Staggering Financial Cost Is Revealed In New Report: It’s ‘Bankrupting Families’ 
A great deal of emphasis is placed on the emotional and mental impact of dementia — but a new study from the University of Michigan highlights the financial burden it puts on families as well. Among people who were diagnosed with dementia, out-of-pocket health care costs more than doubled within the first eight years, researchers found. Dementia patients also experienced more than a 60% reduction in their net worth, according to the study findings, which were published in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Rudy, 10/23)

AP: A Month After A Pig Heart Transplant, Man Works To Regain Strength With No Rejection So Far
It’s been a month since a Maryland man became the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig –- and hospital video released Friday shows he’s working hard to recover. Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant because of other health problems when doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine offered the highly experimental surgery. (Neergaard,10/20)

Reuters: Bayer Must Pay $1.25 Million In Roundup Cancer Trial, Jury Finds 
Bayer AG must pay $1.25 million to a man who sued the company alleging he developed cancer from exposure to its Roundup weedkiller, a jury in St. Louis, Missouri found Friday. W. Wylie Blair, a lawyer for plaintiff John Durnell, said the verdict broke a winning streak for the company, which had prevailed in the previous nine trials over Roundup. Blair said the trial was the first in which jurors heard evidence that other chemicals in Roundup besides its main ingredient, glyphosate, could cause cancer. (Pierson, 10/20)

The Mercury News: New Rules Approved To Reduce Air Pollution From Ships At California Ports
In a move cheered by environmentalists and public health groups but opposed by the oil industry, the Biden administration has approved new rules aimed at reducing the amount of air pollution emitted by large ships when they are docked at ports along the state’s coastline. ... That pollution can affect communities in waterfront cities like Oakland, Richmond, Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego, increasing the risk of asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. (Rogers, 10/20)

The Mercury News: Chavez: EPA Finally Confirms Dangers Of Leaded Airplane Fuel
The long overdue EPA finding states clearly that emissions from piston-engine aircraft that use leaded aviation gasoline, known as avgas, are a public health hazard. This finding is an important step toward desperately needed avgas regulation. The Biden Administration’s EPA made the finding after years of advocacy by Earthjustice and other organizations. ... The county study revealed children living near Reid-Hillview faced lead exposure similar to what the residents of Flint, Mich., faced during that city’s 2014 water crisis. (Chavez, 10/21)

NBC News: Mediterranean Diet May Reduce Or Prevent PTSD Symptoms, New Research Shows
A Mediterranean diet that's rich in vegetables, fruits and fish may help reduce or stave off symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to research published this week in the journal Nature Mental Health. The peer-reviewed findings are based on patient data from two studies — one in 2008 and another in 2013 — which collectively involved tens of thousands of female participants. The researchers behind those studies gathered stool samples, as well as information about the women's mental health and dietary habits. (Bendix, 10/22)

The New York Times: In Global Conflict Zones, Hospitals And Doctors Are No Longer Spared 
Over last two decades, as the principle of sparing health care workers and facilities has continually eroded, the most dangerous incidents have been carried out by state actors, said Michiel Hofman, who is an operational coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Sudan and a veteran of medical aid delivery in Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria. Yet Article 18 of the First Geneva Convention, ratified by United Nations member states after World War II, says that civilian hospitals “may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the parties to the conflict.” Article 20 of the convention says that health care workers similarly must be protected by all sides. (Nolen, 10/21)

AP: A View From The ‘Nightmare’ Of Gaza’s Hospitals 
The only thing worse than the screams of a patient undergoing surgery without enough anesthesia are the terror-stricken faces of those awaiting their turn, a 51-year-old orthopedic surgeon says. ... A shortage of surgical supplies forced some staff to use sewing needles to stitch wounds, which Dr. Nidal Abed said can damage tissue. A shortage of bandages forced medics to wrap clothes around large burns, which he said can cause infections. A shortage of orthopedic implants forced Abed to use screws that don’t fit his patients’ bones. There are not enough antibiotics, so he gives single pills rather than multiple courses to patients suffering terrible bacterial infections. “We are doing what we can to stabilize the patients, to control the situation,” he said. “People are dying because of this.” (Debre andShurafa, 10/21)

AP: Dwindling Fuel Supplies For Gaza's Hospital Generators Put Premature Babies In Incubators At Risk 
At least 130 premature babies are at “grave risk” across six neonatal units, aid workers said. The dangerous fuel shortages are caused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which started — along with airstrikes — after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7.At least 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to access essential health services, and some 5,500 are due to give birth in the coming month, according to the World Health Organization. (Shurafa, Magdy and Kullab, 10/22)

Modern Healthcare: War In Israel Spurs Support For Digital Health Startups
The October attacks this year ignited the Israel-Hamas War and spurred the country's startup ecosystem into action. Newer companies are receiving support, from the Israeli government and tech leaders, as well as from U.S.-based healthcare partners. However, anti-Israel sentiment at some U.S. universities threatens long-term relationships between the startups and academic institutions. (Perna, 10/20)