Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Oct. 30, 2023
KFF Health News: When That Supposedly Free Annual Physical Generates A Bill
Christine Rogers of Wake Forest, North Carolina, didn’t hesitate when she was asked to fill out a routine mental health questionnaire during a checkup last November. Her answers on the form led her primary care doctor to ask about depression and her mood, and Rogers said she answered honestly. “It was a horrible year. I lost my mom,” Rogers said she told her physician. After what Rogers estimates was a five-minute conversation about depression, the visit wrapped up. She said her doctor did not recommend treatment nor refer her for counseling. (Appleby, 10/30)
KFF Health News: Dads Drive Growth In California’s Paid Family Leave Program
In a sign of growing domestic equality, more new dads are claiming paid family leave to bond with their babies and support their partners during the first weeks of parenthood. In California, which has one of the nation’s oldest programs, men filed 44% of bonding claims last year, up from 31% a decade prior, according to state statistics. About 119,300 California men took paid family leave for bonding in the state’s fiscal year that ended at the end of June, up by 19%, or nearly 20,000, from 2020, according to California’s Employment Development Department. The number of women taking state leave for bonding has held relatively steady at roughly 150,000 since 2019. (Reese, 10/30)
AP: Maine Police Were Alerted Weeks Ago About Shooter’s Threats
Two local law enforcement chiefs told The Associated Press that a statewide awareness alert was sent in mid-September to be on the lookout for Robert Card after the firearms instructor made threats against his base and fellow soldiers. But after stepped-up patrols of the base and a visit to Card’s home – neither of which turned up any sign of him – they moved on. “We added extra patrols, we did that for about two weeks. ... The guy never showed up,” said Jack Clements, the police chief in Saco, home to the U.S. Army Reserve base where Card trained. (Condon and Mustian, 10/28)
The New York Times: Maine Gunman Disclosed He Had Mental Health Issues, Gun Shop Owner Says
Nearly three months before Robert R. Card II fatally shot 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, a gun shop declined to let him complete his purchase of a firearm silencer after he disclosed on a form that he had mental health issues, the shop’s owner said in an interview Sunday. On Aug. 5, Mr. Card, 40, went to pick up a silencer from Coastal Defense Firearms in the neighboring town of Auburn, said Rick LaChapelle, the gun shop owner. Mr. LaChapelle said Mr. Card had bought the silencer — a device that quiets gun shots that is also known as a suppressor — from another store, and that store sent it to Coastal Defense Firearms for pickup. (Marcius, 10/29)
Bangor Daily News: Accused Shooter’s NY Mental Health Evaluation Wouldn’t Trigger Maine ‘Yellow Flag’ Law
The suspect in the Lewiston mass shootings had a mental health evaluation this past summer in New York, but that alone would not have triggered a Maine law restricting his access to guns. Maine’s “yellow flag” law, enacted in 2020, created a process by which police can temporarily confiscate guns from someone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others. The process involves police taking someone into protective custody, and then getting a medical professional and a judge to agree that the person poses a threat to either themselves or others. (Trotter and Weidmayer, 10/27)
Axios: Speaker Johnson On Shootings: "Problem Is The Human Heart, Not Guns"
New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News' Sean Hannity in his first interview as speaker that now is not the time to discuss legislation to address the scourge of mass shootings, adding: "The problem is the human heart, not guns." (Lawler, 10/27)
Politico: White House Hits Johnson Over Claiming Gun Violence Was A Matter Of The ‘Heart’
The Biden administration hit back Friday on Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent comments that placed blame for mass shootings in the United States on Americans’ “hearts,” calling the remarks “offensive.” In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the administration “absolutely” rejected “the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans’ ‘hearts.’” “Gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because congressional Republicans have spent decades choosing the gun industry’s lobbyists over the lives of innocent Americans,” Bates added. (Haberkorn, 10/27)
Axios: White House Calls For All Schools To Carry Naloxone Amid Rising Youth Overdoses
The Biden administration on Monday will send a letter urging all schools to keep an opioid overdose reversal drug on hand and train staff and students on how to use it. The request is a response to the grim reality that opioid overdoses — particularly those involving illicit fentanyl — have risen rapidly among children and teenagers in recent years. (Owens, 10/30)
NPR: The FDA Issues Warning For Eyedrop Products Due To Infection Risk
U.S. health officials are warning consumers to stop using more than two dozen over-the-counter eye drop products due to the potential risk of eye infection that could lead to vision loss. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued the alert for 26 products from the following brands: CVS Health, Leader (Cardinal Health), Rugby (Cardinal Health), Rite Aid, Target Up&Up and Velocity Pharma. (Bowman, 10/29)
CNBC: Pharmacy Staff From Walgreens, Chains Like CVS To Walk Out Again
Some pharmacy staff from Walgreens and other drugstore chains are planning to walk out this week in the latest pushback against what they call unsafe working conditions that put both employees and patients at risk. (Constantino, 10/29)
The Washington Post: As Ohio Prepares To Vote On Issue 1, Anti-Abortion Forces Struggle
Students hoping to get others to vote “no” on an upcoming Ohio amendment to ensure abortion rights took the soft approach at a recent event at the University of Cincinnati. The signs in their booth were alarmist — “Late-Term Abortion is on the Ballot” — but the young “Students for Life” advocates opted for a moderate appeal as they stopped students hurrying back and forth to class. (Gowen, 10/29)
Stat: Paying For Covid Pills Will Soon Shift To Insurers
The Biden administration is slowly shifting millions of Covid-19 treatments to private insurers and drugmakers, starting [this] week. The transition to commercial payers and providers will begin Nov. 1 but last through at least December as providers dole out existing stock, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter issued Friday. That includes Pfizer’s Paxlovid, which the government will stop ordering on Dec 15, and Merck’s Lagevrio, which will be open for provider orders through Nov. 10. (Owermohle, 10/27)
Axios: Federal Coverage Of COVID Drugs Ending
The uninsured, and those with Medicare or Medicaid coverage, will be able to get Paxlovid at no cost until the end of 2024. Pfizer is also setting up a patient-assistance program for uninsured and underinsured people, and it will run a co-pay savings program for those with private insurance. (Reed, 10/30)
NBC News: New Covid Variant Gains Dominance Amid Slow Uptake Of Updated Shots
A new Covid variant has become dominant in the U.S., but relatively few people have thus far gotten the new shots that could offer some protection against it. The variant, called HV.1, replaced EG.5 as the country's most prevalent this week, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The two variants are genetically similar versions of omicron. (Bendix, 10/27)
CIDRAP: US, Global COVID-19 Markers Show Declines
Of the two main severity indicators, hospitalizations last week declined by 0.2%, with some counties in the moderate range—especially in Montana—and a few counties listed as high, mainly in the central part of the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its weekly data updates. (Schnirring, 10/27)
CIDRAP: COVID-19 That Confines You To Bed For Several Days Most Likely To Lead To Long COVID, Study Finds
[In the study,] COVID-19 survivors who were bedridden for at least 7 days had the highest prevalence of symptoms, while those never bedridden had similar rates to uninfected participants. A higher prevalence was also noted in those hospitalized for their infections 2 to 22 months after diagnosis. (Van Beusekom, 10/27)
The Atlantic: The Other Group Of Viruses That Could Cause The Next Pandemic
Whether it begins next week, next year, or next decade, another pandemic is on its way. ... But scientists can at least make an educated guess about what might catalyze the next Big One. Three main families of viruses, more than most others, keep scientists up at night: flu viruses, coronaviruses, and paramyxoviruses, in descending order of threat. Together, those groups make up “the trifecta of respiratory death,” Sara Cherry, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. (Wu, 10/29)
Stat: Biden Proposes Fixes To No Surprises Act Dispute Resolution Process
The Biden administration dropped a new proposal Friday designed to fix the controversial dispute resolution process that’s part of the federal surprise billing ban. Since the beginning of 2022, the No Surprises Act has shielded patients in most cases against bills from out-of-network providers for care delivered at in-network facilities. But the behind-the-scenes battles between those providers and health insurers over what that care should cost have gotten ugly. (Bannow, 10/27)
Axios: As Millions Lose Medicaid, ACA Sign-Up Season May Help
Relatively few people who lost Medicaid coverage this year have wound up in Affordable Care Act plans — but the HealthCare.gov sign-up period starting this week could be a chance to enroll people who've fallen through the cracks. The ACA's health insurance markets, which offer heavily subsidized coverage for lower-income people, can provide a backstop for some of the millions who have been removed from Medicaid this year as states pare their rolls for the first time since the pandemic. (Goldman, 10/30)
Modern Healthcare: Bright Health, Friday Health Cost ACA Risk-Adjustment Program $1.1B
Health insurance companies will lose $1.1 billion in expected exchange risk-adjustment payments this year because two troubled companies can't make good on their obligations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services disclosed Friday. Financially struggling Bright Health Group is short $380.2 million owed to exchange carriers ..., CMS wrote in a notice. Bankrupt Friday Health Plans owes $741 million to insurers ... . Bright Health and Friday Health are the sole insurers unable to contribute to the $9.24 billion risk-adjustment program this year. (Tepper, 10/27)
USA Today: Hospitals Terminate Medicare Advantage Contracts Over Payments
One large health system with hospitals in Virginia and Ohio this year cut off in-network access to consumers enrolled in some Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare and Medicaid health insurance plans. Two doctors groups with Scripps Health in San Diego are terminating contracts with private Medicare plans over concerns about payments and routine denials. (Alltucker, 10/27)
The Atlantic: What Financial Engineering Does To Hospitals
Riverton, Wyoming, a city of about 11,000 people at the feet of the Wind River mountain range, seems far away from the world of Big Finance. Yet like so much of America, Riverton has become well acquainted with the business that most epitomizes today’s Wall Street: private equity. In 2018, the local hospital, SageWest, was purchased by Apollo Global Management as part of the giant private-equity firm’s $5.6 billion deal to buy a chain of hospitals called LifePoint Health. (Nocera and McLean, 10/28)
The Colorado Sun: Boulder Deconstructs And Recycles An Entire Old Hospital
For three years, the 250,000-square-foot hospital on Balsam Avenue went untouched. Lights, doors, toilets and medical technology sat quietly inside, ready to be bulldozed and sent to landfills. City officials knew they couldn’t leave up the massive beige block of a building. The structure, abandoned when its owner decided to consolidate at a different location, didn’t fit into the walkable neighborhood residents wanted at Balsam and Broadway. In trying to convert the hospital for other use — where occupants could get some sunlight, ideally — they knew they would end up taking most of it down anyway. (Zhang and Booth, 10/29)
AP: A New Cure For Sickle Cell Disease May Be Coming. Health Advisers Will Review It Next Week
The only cure for painful sickle cell disease today is a bone marrow transplant. But soon there may be a new cure that attacks the disorder at its genetic source. On Tuesday, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will review a gene therapy for the inherited blood disorder, which in the U.S. mostly affects Black people. Issues they will consider include whether more research is needed into possible unintended consequences of the treatment. (Ungar, 10/27)
Bloomberg: Crispr Sickle Cell Therapy Safety Data Concerns Raised By FDA Staff
The Food and Drug Administration’s staff raised concerns about safety data on a potential gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease, ahead of a closely watched meeting where scientific experts will weigh the first therapy using Crispr technology. FDA advisers are preparing to meet Oct. 31 to consider and discuss an application from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Crispr Therapeutics AG to use a Crispr-based treatment for people with the painful blood disorder. (Smith, 10/27)
Bay Area News Group: CRISPR Could Kill HIV. But We Don't Know If It's A Cure
In a provocative first step toward an elusive end to a devastating disease that has claimed 40 million lives, three patients have received CRISPR gene-editing therapies in an effort to eradicate HIV from their bodies. The results ... have not yet been disclosed by the San Francisco biotech company that created the technology based on Nobel Prize-winning research by UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna. But the potential treatment, called EBT-101, is safe and caused no major side effects, Excision BioTherapeutics reported at a meeting in Brussels this week. (Krieger, 10/28)
The New York Times: CUNY Halts Investigation Of Alzheimer’s Researcher
The City University of New York is pausing its investigation into a faculty member, an Alzheimer’s researcher accused of misconduct, the university said in a statement on Friday. Studies by the neuroscientist, Hoau-Yan Wang, underpin an Alzheimer’s drug in advanced clinical trials. The drug, simufilam, is made by Cassava Sciences, a pharmaceutical company based in Texas. Dr. Wang frequently collaborated with Lindsay H. Burns, the company’s chief scientist. (Mandavilli, 10/28)
Health News Florida: Risk For Alzheimer’s May Increase With Lack Of Green Space, UM Study Says
The risks for Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias and strokes might increase for those living in areas lacking green spaces. That’s according to a new study led by a doctor at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. (Zaragovia, 10/27)
AP: Syphilis, Other STDs Are On The Rise. States Lost Millions To Treat Them
State and local health departments across the U.S found out in June they’d be losing the final two years of a $1 billion investment to strengthen the ranks of people who track and try to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — especially the rapid increase of syphilis cases. The fallout was quick: Nevada, which saw a 44 percentage-point jump in congenital syphilis from 2021 to 2022, was supposed to get more than $10 million to bolster its STD program budget. Instead, the state’s STD prevention budget went down by more than 75%, reducing its capacity to respond to syphilis, according to Dawn Cribb at the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health. (Hunter, 10/28)
USA Today: Headaches And Migraines: Childhood Trauma Could Be Causing Them
If you suffer from headaches, new research suggests your childhood may be partially to blame. A report published last week in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that people who experienced one or more traumatic events during childhood were 48% more likely to develop headache disorders as an adult. The body holds trauma that can manifest into physical symptoms, the study found. (Rodriguez, 10/30)
NPR: Intermittent Fasting Helps With Weight Loss And Blood Sugar For Type 2 Diabetes
Research suggests that simply having less time to eat can lead people to cut down on how much they ultimately consume, without the rigmarole of watching each calorie. Now, new research bolsters the case that intermittent fasting — specifically limiting when you eat to a given window of time during the day — can be a safe and effective strategy for managing Type 2 diabetes. The study, published on Friday in JAMA Open, finds people with Type 2 diabetes can successfully shed weight and manage their blood sugar by eating only within an 8-hour window each day. (Stone, 10/27)
CNN: Counting Time Instead Of Calories Also Controls Blood Sugar And Belly Fat
People with type 2 diabetes who followed a time-restricted diet lost belly fat and improved their blood sugar as much as those who counted calories, according to a new randomized clinical trial that followed a group of 75 people for six months. (LaMotte, 10/27)
First for Women: Little-Known Ozempic Side Effect Is Worse For Women Over 50: MDs Explain & Advise
By now, we’ve all heard about the wildly popular prescription injectable drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy that are helping people lose loads of pounds quickly. Perhaps you’ve seen friends successfully slim down. Or you’ve noticed Hollywood celebs, like Sharon Osbourne, looking a bit scary-thin. But amid all the buzz and success stories is a growing list of side effects for these prescriptions. One that keeps popping up: muscle pain. (Maxbauer, 10/29)
Bloomberg: Extreme Heat Set To Increase Heart Attack, Stroke Deaths In US
Cardiovascular-related deaths due to extreme heat are expected to nearly triple in the US by mid-century as climate change raises the frequency of very hot days, according to a new study. ... The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health and published Monday in the journal Circulation, predicts that the number of heat-related cardiovascular deaths in the contiguous US will increase from an annual average of 1,651 recorded in recent years to 4,320 by mid-century (defined as from 2036 to 2065). (Liu, 10/30)
The Telegraph: Matthew Perry: The Tragedy Of Extreme Addiction Is That The Body May Never Recover
The comic star appeared to have achieved sobriety-induced optimism – but drink and drug abuse takes its toll on the body, even in recovery. (Lytton, 10/30)
