First Edition: Sept. 16, 2021

KHN: No Papers, No Care: Disabled Migrants Seek Help Through Lawsuit, Activism
Desperation led José Luis Hernández to ride atop a speeding train through northern Mexico with hopes of reaching the United States 13 years ago. But he didn’t make it. Slipping off a step above a train coupling, he slid under the steel wheels. In the aftermath, he lost his right arm and leg, and all but one finger on his left hand. He had left his home village in Honduras for the U.S. “to help my family, because there were no jobs, no opportunities,” he said. Instead, he ended up undergoing a series of surgeries in Mexico before heading home “to the same miserable conditions in my country, but worse off.” (de Marco, 9/16)

KHN: When Covid Deaths Are Dismissed Or Stigmatized, Grief Is Mixed With Shame And Anger
Months after Kyle Dixon died, his old house in Lanse, Pennsylvania, is full of reminders of a life cut short. His tent and hiking boots sit on the porch where he last put them. The grass he used to mow has grown tall in his absence. And on the kitchen counter, there are still bottles of the over-the-counter cough medicine he took to try to ease his symptoms at home as covid-19 began to destroy his lungs. (Sholtis, 9/16)

KHN: How Fauci And The NIH Got Ahead Of The FDA And CDC In Backing Boosters 
In January — long before the first jabs of covid-19 vaccine were even available to most Americans — scientists working under Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were already thinking about potential booster shots. A month later, they organized an international group of epidemiologists, virologists and biostatisticians to track and sequence covid variants. They called the elite group SAVE, or SARS-Cov-2 Variant Testing Pipeline. And by the end of March, the scientists at NIAID were experimenting with monkeys and reviewing early data from humans showing that booster shots provided a rapid increase in protective antibodies — even against dangerous variants. (Tribble and Allen, 9/16)

Stat: FDA Scientists Strike Skeptical Tone On Covid Vaccine Boosters At This Time
Food and Drug Administration scientists have expressed skepticism about the need for additional doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for all people who have received it. The assessment by the agency’s staff, included in documents released Wednesday, sets up a high-stakes debate over who will need an additional booster dose — and when they will need it — at the meeting of experts being convened by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. (Herper and Branswell, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Says Covid-19 Vaccines Remain Effective Without Boosters 
An outside panel of scientific advisers will review the FDA report on Friday, along with a companion analysis from Pfizer and other information, as part of a discussion over who needs booster shots and when. ... The booster campaign hinges on FDA clearance of the additional shots and input by the panel meeting on Friday, plus a separate committee of outside experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends who gets priority for the vaccines and when. (Hopkins and Schwartz, 9/15)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Says Booster Shots of Vaccine Restore Waning Immunity
Pfizer Inc. said that data from the U.S. and Israel suggest that the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine wanes over time, and that a booster dose was safe and effective at warding off the virus and new variants. The company detailed the data in a presentation it will deliver to a meeting of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. The panel is expected to make recommendations for whether more Americans should receive booster shots. (Langreth, 9/15)

CNBC: Pfizer's Covid Vaccine Data For Kids Under Age 5 May Come In Late October, CEO Says
Pfizer expects to release clinical trial data on how well its Covid-19 vaccine works in 6-month to 5-year-old children as early as the end of October, CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday. Covid vaccine data for kids between ages 5 and 11 will come much sooner, he said, potentially ready to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this month. (Lovelace Jr., 9/14)

The New York Times: Drug Plan Fails, Signaling Thorny Path For Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Bill 
A Democratic plan to lower prescription drug prices as part of the party’s $3.5 trillion social policy package failed in a House committee on Wednesday after moderates refused to support it, highlighting internal divisions that could complicate the legislation’s path to enactment. Three Democrats — Representatives Scott Peters of California, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Kathleen Rice of New York — joined Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in voting against the drug proposal, which is fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry. Their opposition resulted in a tie that effectively blocked the plan from advancing out of that panel. (Cochrane and Sanger-Katz, 9/15)

Stat: Moderate Democrats Sink Pelosi’s Drug Pricing Bill In Key Committee Vote
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s aggressive drug pricing package failed a key committee vote on Wednesday, prompting questions about whether the measure can survive a full House vote. Reps. Scott Peters (Calif.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.), and Kathleen Rice (N.Y.), all Democrats, followed through on their threats to vote against the provision in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup. Republicans unanimously opposed the measure, too, leading to a tie vote that means the provision failed to advance to a full House vote. (Cohrs, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Drug-Prices Measure Splinters House Democrats 
Five House Democrats, including the three who voted no on Wednesday, have signed onto rival drug-pricing legislation they officially unveiled this week. Ahead of the vote, Mr. Peters said any pricing provision needs to both lower out-of-pocket costs while also supporting further incentives for private investment and innovation. Democratic leaders will need to find a consensus, given their narrow margins in both chambers. On legislation opposed by all Republicans, Democrats can afford no more than three defections in the House and none in the Senate. (Peterson and Bykowicz, 9/15)

The Washington Post: Democrats Target Cigarettes And Vaping As Potential Sources To Pay For $3.5 Trillion Economic Package
Millions of Americans who smoke could soon see an increase in their prices, as Democrats target tobacco and nicotine to help finance their $3.5 trillion economic package. The new proposal put forward in the House this week would raise or impose taxes on a wide array of products: It would hike existing federal levies on cigarettes and cigars while introducing new taxes on vaping. Democrats say the changes could help them raise $100 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. (Romm, 9/15)

The New York Times: Democrats’ Stumble On Drug Prices Shows Power Of Industry 
House Democrats writing the health provisions of their big social spending bill aimed high: new coverage for poor Americans without insurance; extra subsidies for people who buy their own coverage; and new dental, hearing and vision benefits for older Americans through Medicare. To pay for those, they also aimed high when it came to lowering drug prices. A measure that would link the prices of certain prescription drugs to those paid overseas was devised to save the government enough money to offset the costs of those other priorities. The House approach, estimates suggest, could save the government around $500 billion over a decade, with that money coming out of the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry. But it’s risky to bet against the drug companies. (Sanger-Katz, 9/15)

The Hill: House Panel Advances Key Portion Of Democrats' $3.5T Bill
The House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday approved a major portion of Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending package, including provisions that would raise taxes on high-income individuals and corporations in order to offset the cost of new spending. The committee advanced the legislation in a near party-line vote of 24-19. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) joined Republicans in voting against the measure. It now heads to the House Budget Committee, which will combine the various pieces of the spending package approved by House panels. (Jagoda and Folley, 9/15)

The Texas Tribune: Judge Sets Hearing To Consider Temporarily Blocking Texas Abortion Law 
A federal judge on Wednesday scheduled a hearing for Oct. 1 to consider temporarily blocking Texas’ near-total abortion ban, following an emergency request from the Biden administration. The Justice Department requested the temporary restraining order late Tuesday as part of its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas aiming to overturn the law. (Oxner, 9/15)

ABC News: DOJ Documents Impacts Of Texas Abortion Ban In New Court Filings 
Women driving hundreds of miles alone for an abortion, clinics overwhelmed with out-of-state patients, providers facing "relentless harassment" from "emboldened vigilante activities," those are some of the impacts detailed by the federal government in new court documents since the most restrictive abortion law went into effect in Texas earlier this month. Nearly a week after announcing a lawsuit against the state, the U.S. Department of Justice filed for an immediate injunction Tuesday to halt the enforcement of the law, known as SB8, which bars physicians from providing abortions once they detect a so-called fetal heartbeat -- technically the flutter of electrical activity within the cells in an embryo. That can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy -- before many women even know they're pregnant. (Deliso, 9/15)

AP: Texas Abortion Law Strains Clinics: 'Exactly What We Feared'
One Texas woman traveled nearly 1,000 miles to Colorado for an abortion. Others are driving four hours to New Mexico. And in Houston, clinics that typically perform more than 100 abortions in a week are down to a few a day. Two weeks after the nation’s strictest abortion law took effect in Texas, new court filings showed the deepening and swift impact of the state’s near-total ban on abortion. A federal judge on Wednesday set an Oct. 1 hearing over the Biden administration’s efforts to block the law known as Senate Bill 8. One network of clinics in Texas, which performed more than 9,000 abortions in 2020, said it has so far turned away more than 100 patients. (Weber, 9/15)

AP: Portland Scraps Texas Boycott, Allocates Abortion Funds
The City Council in Portland, Oregon, has scrapped a plan to boycott Texas businesses because of a new law that prohibits most abortions there, deciding Wednesday to instead set aside $200,000 to fund reproductive care. The liberal Pacific Northwest city made headlines earlier this month when Mayor Ted Wheeler announced plans to ban city business with the Lone Star State. However the proposal was abandoned due to concerns that it could be “punitive to Texans who, are in fact, the most affected” by the abortion law. (Cline, 9/15)

AP: South Dakota Enlists Trump Attorney In Abortion Lawsuit
South Dakota has enlisted one of former President Donald Trump’s lead attorneys to help in its attempt to lift a decade-old injunction that nullified part of a state law requiring women to consult with a crisis pregnancy center before having an abortion, the governor and attorney general said Wednesday. Jay Sekulow, who was one of President Donald Trump’s lead attorneys during his impeachment trial last year, will offer the services of his firm, the American Center for Law and Justice, for free, the governor’s and attorney general’s offices said. The nonprofit Christian legal advocacy group is based in Washington, D.C. (9/15)

AP: Biden: Nearly 3M Get Health Coverage During COVID-19 Sign-Up
Nearly 3 million consumers took advantage of a special six-month period to sign up for subsidized health insurance coverage made more affordable by the COVID-19 relief law, President Joe Biden said Wednesday. He called that number encouraging and urged Congress to keep the trend going by extending the more generous financial assistance, currently available only through the end of next year. “That’s 2.8 million families who will have more security, more breathing room, and more money in their pocket if an illness or accident hits home,” Biden said in a statement. “Altogether, 12.2 million Americans are actively enrolled in coverage under the Affordable Care Act — an all-time high.” That’s an increase of about 20% since the end of last year. (Superville, 9/15)

Modern Healthcare: Almost 90% Of Pandemic-Era Medicaid Enrollees At Risk Of Losing Coverage
Almost 90% of people expected to have gained Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic could get dropped from the program once the public health emergency ends, a new report finds. Federal law has prohibited states from kicking beneficiaries off of their Medicaid programs during the public health emergency. That, coupled with COVID-related job losses, has caused membership to remain higher than usual. However, 15 million new members risk losing coverage once the federal government ends its emergency declaration, researchers at the Urban Institute said in a report released Wednesday. (Bannow, 9/15)

USA Today: Americans Believe Worst Of Pandemic Is Yet To Come, Poll Says
More than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans believe the coronavirus remains a major threat to public health and the U.S. economy, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday. Despite widespread vaccination efforts, 54% of U.S. adults say the worst of the outbreak is still to come. The report, based on a survey of 10,348 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 23-29, 2021, found 73% of those ages 18 and older say they’ve received at least one dose of a vaccine for COVID-19. (Bacon, Santucci and Hauck, 9/15)

Bloomberg: U.S. Covid Vaccinations Slide Again Ahead Of Biden Mandates
The number of people getting a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine is declining again in the U.S. after a fleeting uptick in August. The drop is being led by the South and Central regions of the U.S. It’s a reversal of what just a month ago seemed like a hopeful trend for public health officials, when those places — hit hard by a wave of delta variant-driven cases — briefly led the nation in the number of people starting vaccinations. (Armstrong, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Meets With Top Executives On Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate 
President Biden met Wednesday with executives from companies including Walt Disney Co. , Microsoft Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. to advance his Covid-19 vaccination requirements for the private sector. The White House meeting comes after a plan Mr. Biden announced last week designed to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control, which includes vaccine requirements affecting roughly 100 million workers. (Siddiqui, 9/15)

AP: US Working On New COVID-19 Rules For International Visitors
The Biden administration is considering requiring vaccinations against COVID-19 and contact tracing of international visitors after the U.S. revamps current broad restrictions that bar many foreigners from traveling to the U.S., a top White House adviser said Wednesday. Jeffrey Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that because of the recent increase in COVID-19 cases, current travel restrictions will remain in place until the administration rolls out a “new system” for regulating international travel. (9/15)

NPR: U.S. Will Require Immigrant Visa Applicants To Prove COVID Vaccination Status
People applying to immigrate to the U.S. will have to show they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of a required medical exam, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says. The new policy takes effect on Oct. 1. The requirement includes an exception for children who are too young to receive the vaccine as well as for people with medical conditions that rule them out for the shot. It also outlines a waiver process for people who refuse to be vaccinated due to religious and other reasons. The COVID-19 shot joins a list of well-established vaccines required by the U.S., from hepatitis A to polio and varicella (chickenpox), according to a policy update issued by USCIS. (Chappell, 9/15)

AP: Arkansas' Largest School District Ends Its Mask Mandate
Arkansas’ largest school district has ended its mask mandate as the state reported 28 new COVID-19 deaths. The Springdale School Board on Tuesday voted to end its requirement Wednesday for K-7 students to wear masks indoors and on buses. Springdale was among more than 100 districts that imposed mask requirements after a judge blocked the state’s ban on government mask mandates. The requirements have covered more than half of the state’s public-school students. (9/15)

Houston Chronicle: Federal Judge Fast-Tracks Lawsuit Challenging Gov. Abbott's Ban On School Mask Requirements
Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel said Wednesday morning he intends to fast-track a lawsuit filed on behalf of 14 Texas schoolchildren with disabilities who allege that Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates breaks federal law by discriminating against them because they are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. In Wednesday’s hearing, Yeakel denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred Texas from enforcing Abbott’s order until Oct. 6, when the case is scheduled for trial. (McKinley, 9/15)

The Washington Post: Ron DeSantis And GOP Refuse To Correct Vaccine Misinformation 
For four-plus years of Donald Trump’s ramblings on Twitter, the GOP conveniently didn’t see that tweet. When Trump claimed a stolen election, his fellow Republicans instead offered a watered-down case for merely questioning the election results — even as the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters internalized Trump’s starker version. And now, with coronavirus vaccine misinformation proliferating in their midst and severely hampering efforts to stomp out the virus, they have repeatedly shrugged off the need to do anything about it. ... At an event Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appeared with a man who promoted a conspiracy theory common among anti-vaxxers. “The vaccine changes your RNA,” claimed the man, an employee of a utility company. “So for me, that’s a problem.” DeSantis stood right next to him, staring at him as he said this. But when pressed on why he, as an advocate for vaccination, didn’t weigh in, DeSantis claimed he didn’t hear the man’s statement. (Blake, 9/15)

NPR: Oregon Hospitals Crushed By COVID Put Other Surgeries On Hold
It's a bad time to get sick in Oregon. That's what many doctors are telling their patients and the public, as hospitals full of COVID-19 patients have been forced to postpone some treatments of other medical conditions. Charlie Callagan had his scheduled bone-marrow transplant postponed. Now he's waiting for a new surgery date, hunkered down at his home in Merlin, a small Rogue Valley town in southern Oregon. Though he looks perfectly healthy, sitting in the smoky summer air on his outdoor deck, Callagan, 72, has multiple myeloma, a blood cancer of the bone marrow. (Neumann, 9/16)

AP: Virus Surge Twice As Bad In Reno As Vegas; Hospitals Filling
Nevada’s hospital association urged residents Wednesday to stay out of emergency rooms except in true emergencies, especially in northern Nevada where a resurgence in COVID-19 cases continues at a rate twice as high as the Las Vegas area. “Many hospital emergency departments in northern Nevada are at capacity with patients,” said Pat Kelly, president and CEO of the Nevada Hospital Association. (Sonner, 9/16)

The Washington Post: Va. Relatives Of Front-Line Doctor Who Died By Suicide Press House To Pass Physicians’ Mental Health Bill
Before she died in April 2020, one of the last academic articles Lorna Breen co-authored focused on the “alarming prevalence” of burnout among emergency-department clinicians, and what was to be done about it. But if Breen, an emergency-department physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, was ever experiencing burnout herself, she didn’t show it, her family says. She had no history of mental illness, no bouts of anxiety or depression, and that was what made what happened to Breen feel so implausible after the pandemic hit, said her sister, Jennifer Feist. Weeks into the pandemic, Breen fell ill with covid-19. After she recovered, she promptly returned to work at the hospital. Twenty-four days later, she died by suicide in Charlottesville, where her family lives and where she is from — feeling overwhelmed by the onslaught of dying covid-19 patients. (Flynn, 9/15)

Stateline: COVID Hits Wildfire Fighters Even Harder Than Last Year
As wildfires rage across Western states, flattening rural towns and forcing thousands of people to evacuate, coronavirus cases and pandemic-related supply chain problems have made it harder to deploy firefighting resources to where they’re needed, fire officials say. More firefighters appear to be falling ill with COVID-19 and quarantining this year than last year, the officials say, because of the highly contagious delta variant and mixed adherence to COVID-19 safety measures such as masking, vaccinations and social distancing. “Last year, I actually was incredibly, pleasantly surprised by how little COVID it seemed like we had,” said Melissa Baumann, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees’ Forest Service Council. Her union represents U.S. Forest Service employees, including wildland firefighters who work for the agency. (Quinton, 9/15)

CBS News: Fauci Says There Is "No Evidence" To Support Nicki Minaj's Suggestion That The COVID Vaccine Causes Impotency
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has debunked a viral tweet from rapper Nicki Minaj that suggested the COVID-19 vaccine could cause reproductive issues. Minaj, who has over 22 million Twitter followers, sparked controversy Monday for a series of tweets she posted about the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the Met Gala. "They want you to get vaccinated for the Met," the 38-year-old wrote. "if I get vaccinated it won't for the Met. It'll be once I feel I've done enough research. I'm working on that now. In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one" (Jones, 9/15)

AP: White House Offers Nicki Minaj Call To Answer Vaccine Qs
The White House offered Wednesday to connect Nicki Minaj with one of the Biden administration’s doctors to address her questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, after the Trinidadian-born rapper’s erroneous tweet alleging the vaccine causes impotence went viral. The White House said that they’ve offered such calls with others concerned about the vaccine, part of an aggressive public relations campaign to beat back rampant disinformation about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness. Minaj tweeted Wednesday that “the White House has invited me” and “yes, I’m going,” but a White House official said the rapper was simply offered a call. (Jaffe, 9/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Prenetics, A Covid-19 Testing Startup, To Go Public In SPAC Merger 
Hong Kong-based Prenetics Group Ltd. is going public on the Nasdaq Stock Market via a special-purpose acquisition company, in a deal that values the medical diagnostic startup at $1.25 billion. Prenetics, whose revenue has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, will merge with Artisan Acquisition Corp. , a blank-check company founded by Adrian Cheng, grandson of the late Hong Kong real estate and jewelry magnate Cheng Yu-tung. The younger Mr. Cheng invested in Prenetics last year and held a 0.8% stake in the startup before the latest deal. (Yang, 9/16)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna Walks Back LGBTQ Infertility Coverage Policy After Discrimination Lawsuit
Aetna will update its coverage rules for infertility treatment just two days after a woman sued the insurer over its policy that forced LGBTQ individuals to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for procedures that it offered to heterosexual people with no cost-sharing. The insurer, which is owned by CVS Health, acknowledged it improperly denied coverage to Emma Goidel, a 31-year-old covered under an Aetna plan for Columbia University students who filed the proposed class-action against the company Monday. (Tepper, 9/15)

Bloomberg: UnitedHealth, Anthem Penalized for Inadequate Plan Spending
Federal regulators have barred three Medicare health plans operated by UnitedHealth Group Inc. and another owned by Anthem Inc. from enrolling new members next year because they didn’t spend the minimum amount required on medical benefits. Private Medicare health plans are required to spend a certain threshold of their premium revenue on medical claims. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined that the plans didn’t hit the required 85% level for three years in a row, prompting the sanctions, according to letters dated Sept. 2 and posted on the CMS website. (Tozzi, 9/15)

Modern Healthcare: Banner Health Taps Atlantic Health System Exec As President, COO
Banner Health named Amy Perry president and chief operating officer on Wednesday, with the former Atlantic Health System executive preparing to assume the new role November 1. Perry currently serves as head of Morristown, New Jersey-based Atlantic Health's hospital division and executive vice president of care delivery, where she oversees operations across the company's more than 400 sites of care. Those include medical centers, home health, hospice, adult day care services, along with the organization's information technology and innovation efforts. She will succeed Banner Health COO Becky Kuhn, whose previously-announced retirement will be effective November 3. Phoenix, Arizona-based Banner Health is an integrated delivery system that provides care in six states and officials say it is one of the largest, secular not-for-profit health systems in the nation. In 2020, Banner Health generated $10.4 billion in revenue. (Tepper, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Ex-Employee Says She Was Rebuffed In Attempt To Raise Alarms 
A former Theranos Inc. lab worker testified Wednesday that she raised alarms about the blood-testing startup’s practices with colleagues, managers and even a top executive and a board member but was rebuffed at every turn. ... Over two days of testimony, Ms. Cheung testified that Theranos’s highly publicized proprietary technology often didn’t work, and that the company cut corners to give the impression that its product was ready for wide-scale use by patients. (Randazzo, 9/15)

Stat: FDA Does About-Face On Review Of Potential ALS Treatment From Amylyx
The Food and Drug Administration has reversed an internal decision and will now review an experimental treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — a victory for ALS patients and advocates who have been pressuring regulators to act with more urgency against the fatal, neurodegenerative disease. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, Mass.-based drug maker, said Wednesday that it will submit an application for its ALS treatment, called AMX0035, “in the coming months.” (Feuerstein, 9/15)

Stat: With KRAS-Blocking Drug, Amgen Sees Improved Response In Colon Cancer
A combination treatment that pairs Amgen’s KRAS-blocking drug Lumakras with another of its targeted cancer medicines showed improved tumor response rates in patients with advanced colon cancer, the company said Thursday. Amgen secured U.S. approval of Lumakras in May to treat patients with lung cancer caused by a genetic mutation to the KRAS protein. But the pill’s benefit in other types of solid tumors where KRAS also plays a role has proven to be more modest, necessitating a search for combination treatments that might boost efficacy. (Feuerstein, 9/16)

Stat: Generic Zantac Makers Plan To Seek Legal Expenses From Consumers
A few months ago, a federal court judge dismissed all claims against more than a dozen generic manufacturers over allegations that their versions of the Zantac heartburn pill may contain a carcinogen. Now, those companies are seeking to recover potentially significant costs from approximately 1,000 people who filed the lawsuits alleging they were harmed by the pills. (Silverman, 9/15)

Stat: Safety-Net Hospitals Take Big Markups On Cancer Drugs For Commercially Insured Patients, Study Finds 
Hospitals participating in a federal drug discount program marked up cancer medicines four times for privately insured patients, and often charged cash-paying consumers the same as commercial insurers, a practice that does not “fit the mission” of serving low-income populations, a new analysis found. Specifically, the median price charged for cancer treatments to commercial insurers or cash-paying patients was 3.8 times what was paid by 123 hospitals participating in the so-called 340B program. Moreover, the hospitals did not reduce prices charged to insurers or patients when their own purchase prices decline, according to the analysis by Moto Bioadvisors, a consulting firm. (Silverman, 9/15)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Doctor And Former Tammany Coroner Candidate Indicted For $5 Million In Illegal Opioid Scrips
As the opioid crisis spiraled in 2015, Dr. Adrian Dexter Talbot allegedly signed off on prescriptions to 81 different patients in a single day — most of them for pain medication with a "high potential for abuse. "Most general practitioners like Talbot are only able to see about 20 patients a day, according to a 2018 survey of American physicians by the Physicians Foundation. A federal grand jury in New Orleans recently indicted Talbot, 55, on seven counts of illegal dispensation of controlled substances "not for a legitimate medical purpose." The indictment claims he illegally prescribed over a million doses of oxycodone, morphine and other opioids and defrauded health care benefit programs of $5.1 million from February 2015 to July 2018. (Pierce, 9/15)

Stat: Black Children Have More Complications During Appendectomies 
Black children consistently have more medical complications during appendectomies than their white peers, including higher rates of “perforated” or burst appendixes. That not only leads to extended hospital stays for the children, but it’s costing the U.S. health care system millions. (Cueto, 9/16)

USA Today: CDC Report: States With High Obesity Rates Nearly Double In Two Years
The number of states with high obesity rates nearly doubled over two years as Americans grappled with pandemic stress, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. A total of 16 states had obesity rates of 35% or more in 2020, up from nine states in 2018. Just two decades ago, no state had an adult obesity rate above 25%. Experts say the CDC figures, based on self-reported data of height and weight, represent an alarming trend because obesity is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and many types of cancer. It also increases health spending by $149 billion a year and raises the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and death, according to the Trust for America's Health, which released a report analyzing the CDC figures. (Alltucker, 9/15)

AP: Nutrition Aid Surges, Food Banks Brace For Uncertain Future
Food banks in New Mexico with high rates of childhood poverty and hunger are watching with apprehension as the federal government boosts standard food stamp benefits in October and extends generous emergency allotments temporarily. President Joe Biden’s administration has approved a permanent 25% increase in food aid over pre-pandemic levels, available to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries across the country. The increase on Oct. 1 coincides with the expiration of a smaller, 15% boost in food-aid benefits that was ordered as a pandemic protection measure. (Lee, 9/15)

Modern Healthcare: Racial Disparities In Maternal Health Have Widened Since The 1980s, Federal Report Says
Maternal mortality in the U.S. has worsened over the past three decades due in large part to mounting disparities in access to quality perinatal care among women of color, according to a report the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued Wednesday. The maternal mortality rate rose from 6.6 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 1987 to 20.1 deaths by 2019, for a total of 754 that year, according to the report. The U.S. maternal death rate ranks among the highest of any high-income nation. (Ross Johnson, 9/15)

Bloomberg: China Has Fully Vaccinated More Than 1 Billion People
China has fully vaccinated more than 1 billion people against Covid-19 -- over 70% of its total population -- powering ahead of the U.S. and Europe despite having no immediate plans to ease some of the strictest pandemic measures in the world. A total of 2.16 billion doses have been given in China as of Sept. 15, Mi Feng, a spokesperson at the National Health Commission, told reporters in Beijing on Thursday, fully inoculating more than 1.01 billion people. (9/16)