First Edition: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Try This When Your Doctor Says ‘Yes’ To A Preventive Test But Insurance Says ‘No’
Trying to figure out why her claim was denied took Anna Deutscher a lot of time and work. Baby Beckham’s hearing screenings were preventive care, which is supposed to be covered by law. Every hearing test cost them about $350 out-of-pocket. Between those bills and Beckham’s other health costs, the family maxed out two credit cards. “Everything just immediately goes right to trying to pay that debt off,” Deutscher said. (Fortiér, 8/21)

KFF Health News: How Older People Are Reaping Brain Benefits From New Tech
It started with a high school typing course. Wanda Woods enrolled because her father advised that typing proficiency would lead to jobs. Sure enough, the federal Environmental Protection Agency hired her as an after-school worker while she was still a junior. Her supervisor “sat me down and put me on a machine called a word processor,” Woods, now 67, recalled. “It was big and bulky and used magnetic cards to store information. I thought, ‘I kinda like this.’” (Span, 8/21)

CDC

The Washington Post: Hundreds Of CDC Employees Receive Permanent Layoff Notices
Hundreds of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees have received permanent termination notices, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, marking the latest blow in the Trump administration’s sweeping purge of the agencies that oversee government health programs. Between 500 and 600 employees at the agency were terminated as of Monday, said one CDC employee, who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation. A federal health official confirmed that these notices were sent, but declined to provide a number. (Sun and Moon, 8/21)

ABC News: 750 HHS Employees Send Signed Letter To RFK Jr. Asking Him To Stop Spreading Misinformation
More than 750 employees across the Department of Health and Human Services sent a signed letter to members of Congress and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday morning, calling on the secretary to stop spreading misinformation. The letter states the deadly shooting that occurred at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 8 was "not random" and was driven by "politicized rhetoric." (Kekatos, 8/20)

The Hill: CDC Funding Changes Inject ‘Chaos’ Into Local Health Programs
The Trump administration has delayed or blocked millions of dollars in federal grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leaving state and local health departments in the dark, uncertain when or even if they will get money that’s already been appropriated by Congress for key public health initiatives. With little communication from the White House, CDC staff are trying to expedite getting grants out the door, and public health officials are scrambling to spend the money they have before it expires Sept. 30. (Weixel, 8/20)

FUNDING AND RESEARCH CUTS

MedPage Today: Senate Labor-HHS Funding Bill A Rebuke To Trump's Budget Proposal, Experts Say
One of the big items on Congress's plate when it comes back in September will be passing appropriations bills to keep federal funds flowing, including money for health agencies and healthcare. And while the Senate has made a start on appropriating health funds, the House has yet to act. (Frieden, 8/20)

ProPublica: Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies
When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was getting rid of excess administrators who were larding the government with bureaucratic bloat. But a groundbreaking data analysis by ProPublica shows the administration has cut deeper than it has acknowledged. Though Kennedy said he would add scientists to the workforce, agencies have lost thousands of them, along with colleagues who those scientists depended on to dispatch checks, fix computers and order lab supplies, enabling them to do their jobs. (Roberts, Waldman and Rebala, 8/21)

ProPublica: RFK Jr. Cut Grants For Autism Research While Vowing To Find A Cause
Erin McCanlies was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promising to find the cause of autism by September. The secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin was responsible for the dramatic increase in the condition and vowed to gather “the most credible scientists from all over the world” to solve the mystery. Nothing like that has ever been done before, he told an interviewer. (Lerner, 8/20)

TRANSGENDER CARE

The Washington Post: Government’s Demand For Trans Care Info Sought Addresses, Doctors’ Notes, Texts
The Justice Department is demanding that hospitals turn over a wide range of sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients, including billing documents, communication with drug manufacturers and data such as patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses, according to a copy of a subpoena made public in a court filing this week. The June subpoena to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia requests emails, Zoom recordings, “every writing or record of whatever type” doctors have made, voicemails and text messages on encrypted platforms dating to January 2020 — before hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery had been banned anywhere in the United States. (Parks and Ovalle, 8/20)

AP: Feds Move To Restrict Funding For Virginia Schools, Punishing Support For Transgender Students
The Trump administration appears to be following through on its threat to withhold federal funds from public schools in Northern Virginia after they refused to roll back policies that support transgender and gender non-conforming students. The U.S. Education Department announced Tuesday that it has placed Fairfax County Public Schools and the school systems in Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William and Loudoun on “high-risk status,” a move that it claims lets it attach specific conditions for releasing funding. (Woolsey, 8/20)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The New York Times: As Trump Weighs I.V.F., Republicans Back New ‘Natural’ Approach To Infertility 
Long confined to the medical fringe, “restorative reproductive medicine” has unified Christian conservatives and proponents of the Make America Healthy Again movement on the political right. (Kitchener, 8/21)

Bloomberg: Texas Warns Health Providers Who Mailed Abortion Pills To State
Texas officials are warning health care providers to stop sending abortion pills into the state or risk fines and prosecution, as Attorney General Ken Paxton seeks to halt the flow of medicine that’s circumventing local restrictions. Prosecutors wrote to three providers last week, including a California doctor and a Delaware women’s health clinic, citing evidence that they had sent the drugs that can end a pregnancy to women in Texas. (Flitter, 8/20)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Inpatient Costs Rise As ERs See Sicker Patients
Hospital costs are growing as an increasing number of sicker patients visit the emergency department, according to a new report. The average cost of an inpatient stay rose 4.8% from mid-2023 to early 2025, according to the latest national data from Sg2, a data analytics company owned by group purchasing organization Vizient. At academic medical centers, per-case cost growth nearly doubled the rate of expense inflation at community hospitals between the first quarters of 2022 and 2025. (Kacik and Broderick, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Lease Post-Acute Beds, Embed Staff To Move Patients
Health systems are teaming up with skilled nursing facilities on bed space and staffing to quickly move patients to post-acute care and avoid readmissions. Stanford Health Care, Scripps Health, Cone Health and others say leasing beds within nursing homes and embedding hospital staff at those facilities frees up hospital capacity. These strategies can also help the systems avoid millions of dollars in penalties and tee up partnerships ahead of the Transforming Episode Accountability Model or TEAM. But providers warn the collaborations must be carefully choreographed to work effectively. (Eastabrook, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Caremark To Pay $289M In Medicare Part D Overbilling Lawsuit
CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit management arm of CVS Health, has been ordered to pay more than $289 million in damages stemming from a 2014 false claims lawsuit. Judge Mitchell Goldberg issued the final judgment Tuesday in the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, according to a court filing. He initially set damages at $95 million in June when the court ruled in favor of whistleblower Sarah Behnke in her suit accusing CVS Caremark of overbilling the Medicare Part D program. (DeSilva, 8/20)

Bloomberg: UnitedHealth Adds A New Board Committee To Increase Oversight
UnitedHealth Group Inc. formed a new “public responsibility committee” within its board to enhance governance and oversight as the embattled health-care conglomerate tries to repair its standing with shareholders, regulators and the public. The committee “will monitor and oversee financial, regulatory, and reputational risks,” the company said in a filing Wednesday. UnitedHealth also named a new lead independent director, the former Vanguard Group chief F. William McNabb, who has served on the board since 2018. (Tozzi, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna, UnitedHealthcare Invest In Variable Copay Plans
Health insurance companies are looking to cut costs by ranking providers like they tier pharmaceuticals. Last week, HealthPartners announced plans to offer large employers its Simplica NextGen Copay, a plan that sets fixed copays by provider and eliminates coinsurance and deductibles. CVS Health subsidiary Aetna is rolling out Aetna Informed Choice, a new plan for employers based on its variable copay plan, a spokesperson said in an email. (Tepper, 8/20)

Chicago Tribune: UChicago Medicine Aims To Expand Its Cancer Care Nationwide
UChicago Medicine hopes to expand its cancer care across the country — becoming the latest hospital system to try to grow by working with health systems outside its home turf. UChicago Medicine announced its first affiliation Tuesday with AdventHealth Cancer Institute Shawnee Mission in the Kansas City area. As part of the affiliation, patients at the Kansas cancer institute will have access to UChicago Medicine treatments, clinical trials and second opinions from UChicago Medicine doctors. (Schencker, 8/20)

Stat: Epic’s AI Overhaul Promises To Address EHR Headaches For Clinicians And Patients 
Epic CEO Judy Faulkner took to the stage at the company’s sci-fi-themed annual customer meeting Tuesday in a lavender wig, bright green glasses, and silver pants. In the spirit of “making science fiction science fact,” she announced several new artificial intelligence features the electronic health records system giant will be integrating into its software. (Trang, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Where Food Is Medicine Programs Are Heading
Some call it food is medicine. Others say food as medicine. Either way, the efforts to keep people healthier through better nutrition are garnering more attention as need and interest from healthcare leaders grows. Health and Human Services Department Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has targeted processed foods and food additives, has called out food-is-medicine programs as a way to improve health and mental health. (DeSilva, 8/20)

PHARMA AND TECH

Stat: Former FDA Head Stephen Hahn Joins Radiopharmaceuticals Startup As CEO
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is taking the top spot at a  radiopharmaceuticals startup, bringing him back into the field where he started his career. (DeAngelis, 8/20)

MedPage Today: U.S. Drug Plants Squarely In The Path Of Hurricanes, Floods, And Fires
Most of the nation's drug manufacturing plants reside in the path of hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, posing risks to the supply chain, a national assessment indicated. Among nearly 11,000 active U.S. facilities from 2019 to 2024, 62.8% were located in counties where at least one climate-related disaster was declared, reported researchers led by Mahnum Shahzad, PhD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston. (Henderson, 8/20)

CIDRAP: Iterum Therapeutics Launches New Oral Antibiotic For Urinary Tract Infections
Drugmaker Iterum Therapeutics today announced the US commercial launch of its new oral antibiotic for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTIs). The antibiotic, Orlynvah (sulopenem etzadroxil and probenecid), is a broad-spectrum oral penem antibiotic that's indicated for treating uUTIs caused by certain bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, or Proteus mirabilis) in adult women who have limited or no alternative treatment options. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in October 2024, it's the first oral penem antibiotic commercially available in the United States. (Dall, 8/20)

CIDRAP: More Than 40% Of Primary Care Prescriptions Contain Antibiotics, Global Study Estimates
The first known global systematic review and meta-analysis of antibiotic prescribing in primary care estimates 42 of every 100 primary care prescriptions contain antibiotics, and more than half are inappropriate, Chinese researchers reported late last week in the American Journal of Infection Control. (Dall, 8/20)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Company That Makes Airborne Germ Sensors Moves To St. Louis
Varro Life Sciences, a biotech company developing sensors that can detect airborne germs that cause the flu and COVID-19, is opening its headquarters and research labs in the Cortex Innovation District with plans to hire 30 scientists and lab workers over the coming months. (Barker, 8/21)

STATE WATCH

Bloomberg: UnitedHealth, Elevance Set To Exit Colorado ACA Health Plans
UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Elevance Health Inc. told Colorado regulators they will exit some individual health plans in the state, the latest sign of instability in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The plan exits would mean 96,000 Coloradans would have to find new coverage next year, according to a news release from the state’s Division of Insurance. (Tozzi, 8/20)

North Carolina Health News: Despite Years Of Safety Violations, Holly Hill Looks To Treat More Patients
A for-profit psychiatric hospital in Raleigh — regularly sanctioned by regulators and visited by police due to fights, patient escapes and reports of alleged sexual assault — is expanding to serve more people. Last year, Holly Hill Hospital announced a partnership with the Raleigh Police Department in which officers would take people in mental distress directly to the hospital’s campus in downtown Raleigh instead of first going to a hospital emergency department or other facility for evaluation. (Knopf, 8/21)

NBC News: Lawsuits Accuse Construction Companies In NYC In Deadly Legionnaires Outbreak
A pair of construction companies overlooked safety concerns, causing a “completely preventable” outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City that's killed at least five people and sickened dozens more, according to lawsuits filed Wednesday. ... "This medical tragedy that led to the deaths of five citizens from Harlem, that we know about, was a completely preventable outbreak," the plaintiffs' attorney, Ben Crump, told reporters. (Li, 8/20)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Man Infected By Brain-Eating Amoeba In Lake Of The Ozarks Has Died
A man battling a rare brain infection from an amoeba in Lake of the Ozarks has died, state health officials confirmed Wednesday. The man died Tuesday at a St. Louis area hospital. No other information was provided. (Munz, 8/20)

AP: Flesh-Eating Bacteria Infections: States Alert Beachgoers To Vibrio Vulnificus Threat
States are warning beachgoers about a summertime surge in infections from a frightening, flesh-eating bacteria found in coastal waters. Vibrio vulnificus are becoming an annual threat along the Gulf Coast and — increasingly — up the Eastern Seaboard. People should listen to the warnings, said Bernie Stewart, a 65-year-old retired bounty hunter in Florida who counts himself lucky to have survived an infection. In August 2019, Stewart’s right leg was infected while he was kayak fishing in Pensacola Bay. (Stobbe, 8/20)

WUSF: Hillsborough Reports Locally Acquired Case Of Dengue 
A locally acquired case of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness, has been confirmed in Hillsborough County, state health officials said Tuesday. In response to the report, Hillsborough’s mosquito control division is conducting aerial spraying and other preventive measures to limit mosquito activity. (Mayer, 8/20)

The Washington Post: Nitrogen Gas Execution Scheduled In Alabama As Legal Challenges Grow 
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Monday set an October date for the state’s next execution by nitrogen gas despite pending lawsuits in her state and Arkansas from prisoners alleging the death penalty method violates inmates’ rights. Anthony Boyd, 53, is scheduled to be put to death on Oct. 23 or 24 despite his lawsuit challenging Alabama’s use of nitrogen for executions as unconstitutionally “cruel and unusual” under the Eighth Amendment. A federal judge has scheduled a Sept. 4 hearing in the case. (Sheinerman and Bellware, 8/20)

The Washington Post: FTC Sues LA Fitness Operators Over Difficult-To-Cancel Memberships 
The Federal Trade Commission sued LA Fitness and other gym franchises on Wednesday over memberships that it said are “exceedingly difficult” to cancel — the agency’s latest effort to force companies to make cancellations more straightforward. The lawsuit filed in a California district court accuses Fitness International and subsidiary Fitness & Sports Clubs — which operate gym franchises including LA Fitness, Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club and Club Studio — of unfair practices. Their gyms have more than 600 locations and over 3.7 million members nationwide, according to the FTC. (Vinall, 8/21)

AP: Cellphone Bans Are Changing Classrooms In More Than 33 States
Jamel Bishop is seeing a big change in his classrooms as he begins his senior year at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky, where cellphones are now banned during instructional time. ... Kentucky is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia starting this school year with new restrictions, bringing the total to 35 states with laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school. (Amy, 8/21)

PUBLIC HEALTH

Newsweek: Parents Warned Against Deadly Bacteria In Infant Formula
Parents of newborns are being urged to take extra care when preparing powdered infant formula after new research revealed that the ambiguity of many current instructions may leave babies vulnerable to a deadly foodborne bacteria. The study, published in the Journal of Food Protection by Cornell University researchers, highlights dangerous gaps in the guidelines printed on formula packaging. (Gray, 8/20)

The New York Times: Why Covid Cases Are Up This Summer
Covid cases are climbing again this summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s forecasting model estimates that infections are growing, or likely growing, in most states. While the agency is reporting low levels of the virus in wastewater nationally, some states, including Texas, Utah and Nevada, are showing very high concentrations of Covid in their wastewater. Emergency department visits linked to Covid are rising, too. (Blum, 8/20)

The Hill: Tick-Borne Illness Leads To Rise In Meat, Dairy Allergies
Emergency room visits have spiked across the Midwest this summer as millions of Americans grapple with tick bites, but a lesser-known tick-borne illness is causing particular alarm in some communities. Alpha-gal syndrome, transmitted by the lone star tick, creates severe allergies to meat and dairy products that can last for years. The condition essentially forces people to adopt vegan diets, with some patients experiencing life-threatening reactions even to the smell of cooking meat. (Menezes and Vargas, 8/20)

SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS

NBC News: New Study Reveals How Fat Cells Can Fuel Cancer Tumors
Being overweight or obese has long been linked to a greater risk of developing or dying from breast cancer. New research suggests a reason: Certain breast cancer tumors may feed on neighboring fat cells. The findings may help scientists find ways to treat triple-negative breast cancer, which is notoriously aggressive and has lower survival rates. Moreover, the results may apply to any cancer that uses fat as an energy source, according to the report, published Wednesday in Nature Communications. (Carroll, 8/20)

Stat: Study Challenges Assumptions About Brain Change After Amputation 
Neuroscientists have long held that the brain reorganizes itself when a body part is amputated. A new study says that’s not the case. (Paulus, 8/21)

Newsweek: Alzheimer's: Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Protect Women From Disease
Omega-3 fatty acids could help to protect women against Alzheimer's—with women "disproportionately impacted" by the disease compared to men. It seems there is a noticeable loss of unsaturated fats, like those that contain omega fatty acids, in the blood of women with Alzheimer's disease compared to healthy women. Scientists from King's College London came to this discovery through analysis of lipids—fat molecules that perform many essential functions in the body. (Millington, 8/20)