First Edition: Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Alabama’s ‘Pretty Cool’ Plan For Robots In Maternity Care Sparks Debate
It sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but Alabama officials’ plan to use robots to improve care for rural pregnant women and their babies is real. During a January White House roundtable touting the first grants to states under a new $50 billion rural health fund, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz called the idea “pretty cool.” Later that day, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, said it is decidedly not cool. And obstetricians and others chimed in on social media to express alarm, with one political activist calling it a “dystopian horror story.” (Tribble, 2/12)

KFF Health News: Louisville Found PFAS In Drinking Water. The Trump Administration Wouldn’t Require Any Action
Every day, the Ohio River sends billions of gallons of water flowing past Louisville’s pumping station, where the Kentucky city’s utility sucks it up to turn it into tap water. To ensure it tastes good and is safe to drink, a small team of scientists and technicians is constantly testing the water for pH, odors, heavy metals, and microbes. But unlike many smaller municipal utilities in the U.S., Louisville Water regularly checks for PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. (Watkins, 2/12)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

AP: Democratic-Led States Sue Trump Administration Over $600M In Health Cuts
Four Democratic-led states that have become frequent targets of President Donald Trump sued Wednesday to try to block his administration from cutting off hundreds of millions in public health grants. The Department of Health and Human Services told Congress on Monday that it planned to withhold about $600 million in grant funding allocated to the four states: California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. Their attorneys general argue the cuts are backlash for the states’ opposition to Trump’s immigration crackdown. (Schoenbaum, 2/12)

Stat: Dr. Oz Denies That Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Rural Providers, Patients 
The Trump administration is reframing the steep Medicaid cuts in Republicans’ tax bill to pit states with large urban centers against those with large rural populations. (Wilkerson, 2/11)

Politico: RFK Jr. Ally Says GOP Risks Losing His Supporters
Tony Lyons, a top ally of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and principle architect of his Make America Healthy Again coalition, has a message for Republicans ahead of the midterms: Don’t take Kennedy’s followers for granted. In a new memo obtained by POLITICO, Lyons described the Republican Party as “renting MAHA voters” but not fully committed to “purchase.” (Haslett, 2/11)

Stat: Spike In NSF Fellowship Rejections Raises Life Science Bias Concerns
When Kulindu Vithanachchi’s phone lit up with an update from the National Science Foundation about his application for a high-profile early-career fellowship, he couldn’t wait to open the message, hopeful for big news. But not this news. (Wosen, 2/11)

IMMIGRATION CRISIS

The Texas Tribune: Feds Are Sending Pregnant Migrant Girls To Texas Shelter
The Trump administration is sending all pregnant unaccompanied minors apprehended by immigration enforcement to a single group shelter in South Texas. The decision was made over urgent objections from the administration’s own health and child welfare officials, who say both the facility and the region lack the specialized care the girls need. (Betancourt, 2/11)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Forced To Share Personal Medicaid Data With Trump Administration, Including ICE 
In January, the state’s flagship safety net hospital, Denver Health, distributed a one-page notice about patient privacy that carried ground-shaking implications, especially for Colorado’s immigrant population. The notice stated that due to federal changes within Medicaid, the federal-state program for millions of low-income and disabled Americans, “limited” personal information could be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Birkeland and Daley, 2/11)

The New York Times: Portland Lawsuit Alleges Tear Gas Use By ICE Is A Health Threat
Federal agents have fired so much tear gas near Mindy King’s apartment in Portland, Ore., that she and her 13-year-old son bought gas masks to wear inside. Her neighbor, Diane Moreno, has gone to urgent care, twice, with tightness in her chest, and bloody discharge from her nose. The problem, they say, is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office less than 100 feet away from their homes. For months, ICE agents have sporadically used tear gas against protesters outside the facility. The repeated use of the chemicals, Ms. King and others fear, poses a serious threat to their health. (Tabuchi, 2/11)

VACCINES

The Hill: US Participating In Influenza Vaccine Meeting: WHO
The U.S. will participate in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) upcoming meeting on the composition of the influenza vaccine despite officially withdrawing from the global group last month. The WHO will meet on Feb. 26 in Turkey to discuss the composition of the 2026-2027 flu vaccine for the northern hemisphere. “The vaccine composition meeting will be taking place later this month. The U.S. will participate in that meeting as far as I understand,” Maria Van Kerkhove, interim director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said in a press conference Wednesday. (Choi, 2/11)

Stat: Prasad Overruled FDA Staff To Reject Moderna Flu Vaccine Application 
Top Food and Drug Administration official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, STAT has learned. (Lawrence, 2/11)

CIDRAP: Study Finds No Link Between COVID-19 Vaccines And Autism
A study today finds no increase in autism rates in babies born to mothers who received COVID-19 vaccines just before or during pregnancy, compared with children of unvaccinated moms. The authors of the study, who presented their findings at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine 2026 Pregnancy Meeting, told CIDRAP News they hope the research will help dispel myths about COVID-19 vaccines, which multiple studies have found to be safe and effective during pregnancy. (Szabo, 2/11)

CIDRAP: Annenberg Poll Shows Drop In Perceived Safety Of Vaccines
A new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania shows a small yet significant decline in the perceived safety of influenza, COVID-19, and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines among American adults. Though most Americans think all three of those vaccines are safe to take, there has been a decline over the past three years in perceived safety. (Soucheray, 2/11)

The Hechinger Report: Without School Vaccine Mandates, Many Kids May Never See A Doctor
Every December brings an end-of-year crush to Washington, D.C.’s pediatric clinics. In addition to the usual culprits — colds, the flu, RSV — that’s also the time when the city school district issues notices reminding parents of children who are behind on required vaccinations to get caught up by December 8, or risk being turned away from school. (Carr, 2/11)

ON CAPITOL HILL

Axios: Dem Bill Would Revive Nursing Home Staff Minimums
Senate Democrats on Thursday are reviving a Biden-era effort to set the first-ever national minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes, Axios has learned. (Goldman, 2/12)

MedPage Today: PBM Trade Group CEO Apologizes To Lawmakers At House Hearing
Wednesday's House hearing on the pharmaceutical supply chain included the expected finger-pointing by various industries -- drugmakers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and healthcare distributors -- at one another. But it also contained a few surprises. One was an apology from David Marin, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), a trade group for PBMs. (Frieden, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: How PBMs Will Be Impacted By The Consolidated Appropriations Act
Years of gridlock on pharmacy benefit manager legislation gave way this month, and the sector now faces tougher regulation than ever. President Donald Trump signed legislation last week that “delinks” pharmacy benefit manager compensation from pharmaceutical list prices, imposes greater transparency requirements and mandates that drugmaker rebates are passed through to customers. Days before, the Labor Department proposed a regulation that would direct PBMs to disclose more information to group health plan sponsors. (Tong, 2/11)

Military.com: Mold-Induced Housing Health Issues Lead Alabama Military Spouse To Capitol Hill 
A military spouse has taken her family’s mold-induced health issues to the steps of Washington, imploring the Pentagon and Congress to adopt new legislation. The current major point of emphasis involves pushing Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to take up the Military Occupancy Living Defense Act, also known as the MOLD Act, that Thompson and others say if adopted will further improve environmental health and safety protections for members of the Armed Forces and their families that reside in such housing. (Mordowanec, 2/10)

The Washington Post: In Rebuke, House Votes To Roll Back Trump’s Tariffs On Canada
Six Republicans joined Wednesday night with Democrats in the House in voting to end President Donald Trump’s stepped-up tariffs on Canada, rebuking the president in the first of what could be several congressional challenges to his trade policies. The measure is largely symbolic and is not likely to succeed in overturning tariffs on the major U.S. trading partner, because Trump could veto the resolution if it clears the Senate as well. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers to override his veto. (Beggin and Lynch, 2/11)

WOMEN'S HEALTH

The New York Times: Stopping Antidepressants During Pregnancy Can Be a Health Risk, Research Shows
New research suggests that when pregnant women stop taking their antidepressants they are nearly twice as likely to have a mental health emergency as those who continue to take their medication. The research, which was presented at the annual conference of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, used private insurance and pharmacy claims data from Pennsylvania to examine the medical histories of more than 1,400 women who had a baby in 2023 or 2024. Each of the women had been diagnosed with anxiety or depression and were already taking an antidepressant before becoming pregnant. (Caron, 2/11)

MedPage Today: Top Causes Of Maternal Death May Not Be What You Think
Drug overdoses, homicides, and suicides accounted for more than a quarter of all deaths among pregnant and postpartum women, an analysis of maternal deaths from 2018 through 2023 showed. (Firth, 2/11)

MedPage Today: More Good News For GLP-1 Agonists And Cancer Risk
Women with nonmalignant uterine disease and a history of GLP-1 agonist and progestin treatment had a significantly lower risk of endometrial cancer (EC) compared with progestins alone, a retrospective study showed. Based on a large clinical record database, the propensity-matched study showed a 66% lower hazard for endometrial cancer with the GLP-1 agonist/progestin combination. (Bankhead, 2/11)

MedPage Today: Does Abortion Or Miscarriage Contribute To Breast Cancer Risk?
A history of induced abortion or miscarriage was not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a Finnish case-control study. (Bassett, 2/11)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

The New York Times: Nurses At 4 N.Y.C. Hospitals Vote To End Strike, But It Continues At One 
More than 10,000 nurses who have been on strike for a month will return to work at two major New York City hospital systems after voting to approve a new contract. But more than 4,000 strikers were still holding out for a better deal. On Wednesday, the nurses’ union, the New York State Nurses Association, announced that members at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital, along with two other medical centers in the Mount Sinai system, had ratified the tentative deal, which includes salary increases and modest improvements to nurse staffing levels. (Goldstein, 2/11)

Honolulu Civil Beat: Hawai‘i Doctor Shortage Has Patients Paying Fees For Fast Care
Last month, Kiah Bland of Waikiki set out to find a primary care physician. What she assumed would be a painless chore swiftly became a desperate search. Most doctors in her area weren’t accepting new patients. Those still building their patient base had lengthy waits for an office visit. Eventually, the 36-year-old found a Honolulu physician who could see her immediately — for a price. The doctor, who does not accept health insurance, explained that it would cost her $200 a month to become a patient. (Lyte, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Hiring Drives Growth In January Jobs Report
Healthcare hiring is starting off the year strong, accounting for more than half of all jobs added in January. The industry’s employers added 82,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Overall, the economy added 130,000 jobs across all industries. The gains follow a 2025 in which, despite propping up the job market, increases in healthcare hiring mostly were lower than in 2024. (DeSilva, 2/11)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Private Equity Deals Rose 10% In 2025: PitchBook
This year is expected to be a strong one for private equity investment in healthcare, especially for certain specialties. The number of deals rose 9.5% in 2025, with an estimated 747 deals announced or closed during the year, according to PitchBook. That’s compared with 682 deals in 2024 and 801 deals in 2023, according to a report from the financial data and research company. (Hudson, 2/11)

Becker's Hospital Review: 10 Years After CMS’ First Mandatory Bundled Payment Model, What Did It Actually Build?
This April will mark a decade since CMS launched the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model, the federal government’s first mandatory, episode-based payment program applied broadly to hospitals. CJR required hospitals in 67 randomly selected metro areas to take financial accountability for the full 90-day episode of hip and knee replacements, putting post-acute care, surgeon behavior, implant costs and readmissions into a single performance frame. (Emerson, 2/11)

PHARMACEUTICALS

Stat: Merck Is Urged To Ensure Wide Access To An HIV Prevention Pill Being Tested
In a preemptive move, more than 170 patient advocacy groups from 30 countries are urging Merck to create a global access strategy for an HIV prevention pill, which is still being studied in clinical trials. (Silverman, 2/11)

Bloomberg: Novo To Follow Lilly And Sell Obesity Shot Wegovy In Vials
Novo Nordisk A/S aims to start selling its weight-loss blockbuster Wegovy in vials, its latest move to win over customers it’s lost to rival Eli Lilly & Co. Currently Novo sells the drug in plastic injector pens. Lilly launched vials nearly two years ago to offer a lower-priced version of its shot and alleviate shortages. It’s unclear what Novo will charge for vials, but the company already has been aggressively discounting its obesity drugs to compete. (Kresge and Muller, 2/11)

Bloomberg: Astra’s Ex-Chief In China Formally Charged With Insurance Fraud
AstraZeneca Plc’s former China head Leon Wang has been formally charged with medical insurance fraud, unlawful collection of personal information and illegal trade, with the case heading to court. The company was also indicted on charges of illegal trade, and the unlawful collection of personal information, AstraZeneca said in its latest financial results this week, though it said no illegal gain was alleged from that. It will not face the more serious charge of insurance fraud. (Furlong, 2/11)

STATE WATCH

ProPublica, The Frontier: Their Water Was Undrinkable. Oklahoma’s Oil Regulators Failed To Help.
In the summer of 2022, months after Tammy Boarman and her husband, Chris, moved into their newly built “forever home” 30 miles from Oklahoma City, the plants in their yard began to turn yellow. The shrubs wilted, though Tammy watered them often. And the couple began to notice a salty taste in their drinking water. The water came from a private well, drilled the year before, and they hoped that the bad taste would fade with time and with the help of a water softener. (Bowlin, 2/12)

North Carolina Health News: Who Gets A Bed In NC’s State Psychiatric Hospitals — And Who Waits? 
North Carolina’s three state-run psychiatric hospitals — Cherry, Central Regional and Broughton — serve about 570 patients each day. But hundreds more who need inpatient treatment wait weeks — even months — for a bed to open. (Crumpler and Knopf, 2/12)

ProPublica, The Denver Gazette: Colorado Marijuana Regulators Consider Changes In Testing Sample Products
Colorado marijuana manufacturers would no longer be allowed to choose which product samples they send for mandatory lab testing under a new regulatory proposal discussed at a policy forum on Friday. Instead, the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division may require independent labs or outside vendors to collect product samples for the testing that’s required before companies can sell their products to ensure they’re free of contaminants. (Osher and Wyloge, 2/11)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Sues Snapchat Over Inappropriate Content, Addictiveness
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday sued the company that owns Snapchat, accusing the social media organization of failing to adequately warn parents about inappropriate material on the platform and downplaying its addictiveness. (Simpson, 2/11)

AP: Instagram Chief Casts Doubt On Clinical Addiction To Social Media
Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta’s Instagram, testified Wednesday during a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms. The question of addiction is a key pillar of the case, where plaintiffs seek to hold social media companies responsible for harms to children who use their platforms. Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled. (Huamani and Ortutay, 2/12)

Chicago Tribune: Conagra Ordered To Pay $25 Million In Lawsuit Over Pam Spray
A jury awarded a Los Angeles man $25 million in a lawsuit against Chicago-based Conagra alleging its butter-flavored Pam cooking spray caused a rare chronic lung disease that will require a double lung transplant. (Channick, 2/11)

PUBLIC HEALTH

ABC News: New Study Examines Possible Risk Factors Linked To Childhood Food Allergies
A new study on food allergies has found that as many as 1 in 20 children may develop a food allergy by age 6. The research, published in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed 190 studies of more than 2.7 million children across 40 countries and identified major and minor risk factors linked to food allergies. It found about 5% of kids in the U.S. had a food allergy by the age of 6. (Charles, 2/10)

NBC News: Whole Grains, Plant-Based Foods Key To Lower Coronary Heart Disease Risk
In a long-term, observational study of nearly 200,000 adults, low-fat and low-carb diets rich in plant-based foods, whole grains and unsaturated fats were associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease occurs when fatty deposits called plaque build up in the heart’s arteries, preventing them from delivering oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. It can result in chest pain, heart attack or cardiac arrest when the heart suddenly stops pumping. On the other hand, diets that are high in refined carbs and animal-based fats and proteins were associated with higher risk. The findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (Mantel, 2/11)

Stat: Drug Injection Fades As Smoking Grows More Common, Marking Sea Change In U.S. Fentanyl Epidemic
Megan Merrill paused, mid-hike, as she surveyed the steep drop before her. She was standing on a five-foot snow drift, icy and brittle after 10 days of unrelenting New England cold, below which lay the railroad tracks that serve as a de facto border between the town behind her and the homeless encampment in front. (Facher, 2/12)

CELEBRITIES AND POP CULTURE