First Edition: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025

KFF Health News: Childhood Vaccination Rates, A Rare Health Bright Spot In Struggling States, Are Slipping
Jen Fisher can do only so much to keep her son safe from the types of infections that children can encounter at school. The rest, she said, is up to other students and parents in their hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. Fisher’s son Raleigh, 12, lives with a congenital heart condition, which has left him with a weakened immune system. For his protection, Raleigh has received all the recommended vaccines for a child his age. But even with his vaccinations, a virus that might only sideline another child could sicken him and land him in the emergency room, Fisher said. (Chang and Whitehead, 1/16)

KFF Health News: New California Laws Target Medical Debt, AI Care Decisions, Detention Centers
As the nation braces for potential policy shifts under President-elect Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” mantra, the nation’s most populous state and largest health care market is preparing for a few changes of its own. With supermajorities in both houses, Democrats in the California Legislature passed — and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed — laws taking effect this year that will erase medical debt from credit reports, allow public health officials to inspect immigrant detention centers, and require health insurance companies to cover fertility services such as in vitro fertilization. (Mai-Duc, 1/16)

The Hill: NIH Director To Resign After One Year In Office
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli will resign on Jan. 17, she told staff this week, ending her tenure as the head of the $48 billion biomedical research agency after only a year. The NIH has typically been an agency with bipartisan support, and Bertagnolli’s predecessor, Francis Collins, served three administrations over more than 12 years. But lingering Republican anger over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed NIH squarely into partisan crosshairs. (Weixel, 1/15)

Politico: NIH's Unfinished Business
National Institutes of Health Director Monica Bertagnolli wishes she’d had the opportunity to help shape GOP plans to overhaul her agency. ... Bertagnolli definitely isn’t endorsing some of congressional Republicans’ more far-reaching plans, like consolidating the agency’s divisions, and certainly not Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s threat to fire hundreds of NIH workers. But she does see reason for a serious-minded rethink of the way the $47 billion agency pursues health care breakthroughs. (Schumaker, Svirnovskiy and Payne, 1/15)

Stat: FDA Bans Use Of Red Dye No. 3, Suspected Carcinogen In Many Foods
The Food and Drug Administration banned the use of red dye No. 3 in food and ingested drugs on Wednesday, more than 30 years after the additive was found to cause cancer in rats. (Lawrence and Todd, 1/15)

NBC News: Food Safety Advocates Expect A Smooth Transition Away From Red No. 3
Food safety advocates cheered the news that U.S. regulators are banning Red No. 3 — and said they don’t anticipate any hiccups in quickly removing the artificial dye from America’s grocery shelves. ... Those who petitioned to have Red No. 3 prohibited said there’s no reason why it can’t be taken out of products sooner. It has long been banned in the European Union and some other countries, meaning many companies that sell foods and beverages overseas already have recipes that they can easily swap in for American consumers. (Chuck, 1/15)

Roll Call: DEA, HHS Finalize Rule Allowing Telehealth Drug Treatment 
The Biden administration Wednesday finalized a long-awaited rule laying out how some health care providers can prescribe gold-standard opioid use disorder treatments through telehealth. (Hellmann and Raman, 1/15)

MedPage Today: FDA Finally Proposes A Nicotine Crackdown, Years In The Making
On Wednesday, the FDA issued its long-awaited proposal to drastically limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and some other tobacco products, with the goal of making them less addictive. In its proposed rule, the FDA would cap the nicotine level at 0.7 mg/g of tobacco in cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products. The FDA's proposal would apply to cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, most cigars, and pipe tobacco -- not e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, noncombusted cigarettes, waterpipe tobacco, and smokeless tobacco products. (Lou, 1/15)

Stat: Biden Administration, Gilead Settle Battle Over Patents For HIV PrEP Pills
After years of sparring, the Biden administration and Gilead Sciences have settled a contentious lawsuit over patents for a pair of HIV prevention pills in a case that raised questions about the extent to which government-funded research should lead to affordably priced medicines. (Silverman, 1/15)

The New York Times: Insulin Prices Dropped. But Some Poor Patients Are Paying More
Maricruz Salgado was bringing her diabetes under control. Thanks to a federal program that allowed health clinics that serve poor people to buy drugs at steeply discounted prices, she was able to pay less than $75 for all five of her diabetes medications every three months. But in July, the cost of three of those drugs soared. Ms. Salgado, who does not have health insurance, suddenly faced costs of hundreds of dollars per month. She could not afford it. (Thomas, 1/16)

The Hill: Mike Pence-Founded Group Urges Senators To Vote Against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is calling on senators to vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary because of his previous support for abortion. “Whatever the merits of RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again initiative—indeed, whatever other qualities a nominee might possess—an HHS Secretary must have a firm commitment to protect unborn children, or else bend under the pressure and pushback surrounding these daily, critical decisions,” Advancing American Freedom President Tim Chapman and Board Chairman Marc Short wrote in a letter to senators. (Weixel, 1/15)

Politico: NJ Leads Effort Before Trump Inauguration To Protect Health Care Access For DACA Recipients
With less than a week to go until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Democrats are ramping up their resistance to the incoming administration by focusing on health care access for undocumented immigrants. Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is leading an effort with other states to safeguard access to government health insurance for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program — immigrants who came to the country as children but do not qualify for such insurance because they lack legal status. (Fernandez and Kashinsky, 1/15)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage 2025 Enrollment Data Retracted By CMS
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services withdrew an eagerly awaited report detailing how health insurance companies fared during the Medicare Advantage annual enrollment period after identifying faults in the data Wednesday. The agency plans to issue a corrected report next week, according to a notice CMS published several hours after releasing the enrollment figures. (Tepper, 1/15)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare ACO Growth Inches Toward CMS's Value-Based Care Goal
More than half of fee-for-service Medicare enrollees are now in accountable care arrangements, putting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services past midway toward its 2030 goal, according to data the agency released Wednesday. Accountable care participation rose 4.3% to 14.8 million people from 2024 to 2025, the largest annual increase since CMS started tracking these numbers. That amounts to 53.4% of fee-for-service beneficiaries, according to the agency. (Early, 1/15)

CNBC: Medicare $2,000 Prescription Drug Cap May Save Enrollees Thousands: AARP
Most Medicare patients who hit the new $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs could see massive savings, despite changes in premiums, according to a report released Thursday by AARP. (Constantino, 1/16)

MedPage Today: Supplemental Benefits Offer Few Advantages For MA Enrollees
Even though almost all Medicare Advantage (MA) plans boast coverage of supplemental benefits -- dental, vision, and hearing -- enrollees didn't get more care, and they spent just as much out of pocket as those with traditional Medicare, a cross-sectional study showed. MA and traditional Medicare enrollees had "virtually identical" rates of using hearing aids (13.4% and 13.2%), wearing eyeglasses (78% and 76.8%), and having an eye exam in the past year (53.5% and 53.6%), according to Christopher Cai, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues. (Fiore, 1/15)

AP: New Mexico State Spending Plan Seeks More Federal Medicaid Dollars As Donald Trump Takes Office
Leading New Mexico legislators on Wednesday recommended a 5.7% general fund spending increase for the coming fiscal year that emphasizes health care access, public school improvements, and early education and childcare programs that can boost household finances. The lead budget writing committee to the Democratic-led Legislature proposed a $577 million increase to $10.8 billion for the fiscal year running from July 2025 to June 2026. A windfall in government income from petroleum production is slowing down though far from over in New Mexico, the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state. (Lee, 1/16)

AP: Some Parents Could Be Able To Join Georgia's Medicaid Program Without Working
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday he wants to let low-income parents with young kids enroll without working in a Medicaid program that provides coverage for some able-bodied adults. ... Georgia is the only state that requires some people to work, study or volunteer to enroll in Medicaid, under the program Georgia Pathways. If the incoming Trump administration approves Kemp’s plan, parents and guardians of kids up to age 6 in households at or below 100% of the federal poverty level could receive Medicaid without meeting those requirements. (Kramon, 1/16)

CBS News: U-M Health And Allied Professionals Union Reach Contract Deal
The University of Michigan Health system and the United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals have a tentative three-year agreement, according to a statement issued Tuesday. This is the union's first contract agreement with Michigan Medicine and its clinical operation known as U-M Health. A contract ratification vote will be scheduled in the coming weeks. (Wethington, 1/15)

Chicago Tribune: Waukegan's Vista Medical Center East Furloughs Dozens
A month ago, officials at Vista Health Systems and Vista Medical Center East in Waukeganspoke publicly about the purchase of millions of dollars in new equipment and the strides they were making in regaining lost patients. But last week, Vista furloughed 69 non-medical personnel — 8.6% of its workforce — for the next six weeks. (Sadin, 1/15)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Asked To Share Health Care Workers With Other States
A coalition of health industry leaders are backing a policy they say would help stop the statewide hemorrhaging of health care workers — allowing certain out-of-state professionals to practice in Texas. (Simpson, 1/16)

Modern Healthcare: America's Essential Hospitals' Dr. Bruce Siegel To Retire In 2025
America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Bruce Siegel plans to retire at the end of the year. Siegel joined the trade group, which represents the nation's safety-net hospitals, as CEO in 2010. He was named president the following year. Previous leadership roles include serving as president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital in Florida and president of NYC Health+Hospitals in New York. (DeSilva, 1/15)

Stat: Health AI: Regulatory Challenges Facing The Trump Administration
As artificial intelligence evolves and gains new capabilities in health care, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep tabs on how it’s being used to make decisions about patient care. Hospitals and insurers are adopting applications that may save them time and money, but there is no way to track its impact on patients’ costs and outcomes, or to determine which AI models are subject to government regulation. (Ross, 1/16)

AP: Battle Over 'Conversion Therapy' Ban, Separation Of Powers Before Wisconsin Supreme Court
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday over whether a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional. The challenge comes amid the national battle over LGBTQ+ rights. It is also part of a broader effort by the Democratic governor, who has vetoed Republican bills targeting transgender high school athletes, to rein in the power of the GOP-controlled Legislature. (Bauer, 1/16)

CBS News: New $650 Million Plan To Address NYC's Mentally Ill Homeless Unveiled By Mayor Eric Adams
Mayor Eric Adams announced a new plan Wednesday to help address the issue of homeless people with mental illness. He revealed details of a $650 million plan that he first previewed during his State of the City address last week. (Gainer, 1/15)

CBS News: Boston City Councilor Introduces "Sugar Tax" At Wednesday Hearing
It could cost you more to get a soda soon. The Boston City Council is proposing a tax on sugary drinks, saying the money on unhealthy beverages can be put to good use. City Councilor Sharon Durkan brought the idea before the Boston City Council on Wednesday to start the conversation about what rates would look like. (Hall, 1/15)

Modern Healthcare: Becton Dickinson To Invest $30M In Utah Facility
Becton, Dickinson & Co. is investing more than $30 million to boost its U.S. manufacturing of intravenous catheters. The additional production lines at its plant in Sandy, Utah, follows previous investments of more than $12 million in its U.S. manufacturing network to increase its supply of syringes, needles and intravenous catheters. (Dubinsky, 1/15)

The Baltimore Sun: Another Head Of Troubled Maryland Psychiatric Hospital Resigns
The acting head of Maryland’s main state-run mental hospital resigned last week, according to an internal memo obtained by The Baltimore Sun, months after his predecessor’s ousting and at the conclusion of an independent evaluation of the psychiatric facility’s leadership. (Belson, 1/15)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado’s Eating Disorder Treatment Expands As Patients Get Sicker
Clinics that treat eating disorders are evolving, nationally and in Colorado, to deal with yet another disturbing result of the pandemic — people with anorexia or bulimia are now far sicker by the time they seek help. (Brown, 1/15)

CBS News: More Than 1,000 Teens Gather In Arlington To Learn Suicide Prevention Strategies
More than 1,000 teens gathered Wednesday to learn to recognize the signs of suicide and strategies that could help save a life. The gathering came at a time when suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24 in Texas, according to the Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas. (Evans, 1/15)

The Hill: Palisades Fire Firefighters Taking Part In First-Of-Its-Kind Cancer Study
The Wildfire Conservancy is conducting a first-of-a-kind cancer study on firefighters battling the Palisades Fire. The goal is to track how the extreme conditions increase firefighters’ risk of cancer. The study comes after the International Agency for Research on Cancer officially classified firefighting as a carcinogenic profession. (Smith, 1/15)

MedPage Today: California Doctors Lose Homes And Much More To Devastating Fires
Sion Roy, MD, was on cardiac ICU service at Harbor UCLA Medical Center last week when he got a call from someone in his Big Rock neighborhood of Malibu. ... Though it was hours before the evacuation order, Roy, a cardiologist, was aware of the fires affecting Los Angeles because of the uptick in patients seeking care for cardiac issues, probably due to smoke and stress. But fire warnings had happened before, even last month with the Franklin fire that threatened his neighborhood. (Clark and Henderson, 1/15)

The New York Times: Even Homes That Evade The Fire Face Toxic Ash Risk, Studies Show
Armed with two garden hoses hooked up to a sputtering tap, Matthew Craig battled fire and smoke to save his house from the onslaught of flames that devastated much of Altadena, a once leafy corner of Los Angeles County. The wind felt like dragon’s breath, he said, and “we were all eating smoke.” But even though his home is secure, for now, it will be a long time before he and his family feel safe enough to go back. Every room in the house, he said, was covered in ash, dust, soot and dirt that the high winds had blown inside. (Tabuchi, 1/15)

CIDRAP: CDC Tests Confirm Another H5N1 Case From California
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed another human H5N1 avian flu case in California, which likely reflects follow-up testing of a presumed positive involving a San Francisco child. The latest confirmation puts the national total since early 2024 to 67 cases, of which 38 are from California. (Schnirring, 1/15)

CBS News: Abbott Accused Of Deceiving Parents With Potentially Harmful Formula For Toddlers
A year after the American Academy of Pediatrics flagged what it described as "questionable marketing practices" by makers of formulas for older infants and toddlers, Abbott Laboratories is being sued over how it pitches such products. Abbott, a health care products conglomerate based in Illinois, is misleading parents and other caregivers about the nutritional value of its sugar-laden toddler milks, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) against the maker of Similac formulas. (Gibson, 1/15)

The Washington Post: Processed Meats Linked To Increased Risk Of Dementia, New Study Shows
A large new study suggests that regularly eating processed red meats such as bacon, hot dogs, sausages, salami and bologna could increase your likelihood of developing dementia and cognitive decline as you age. Health authorities have long urged people to reduce their intake of processed red meat because of its association with cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes. But the new study, published on Wednesday in the journal Neurology, is among the first to suggest a link between cured meats and higher rates of dementia and worse cognition. (O’Connor, 1/15)

Stat: New Alzheimer's Research Suggests Xenon Gas As Treatment Option 
The gas xenon, like the other noble, or inert, gases, is known for doing very little. The class of elements, because of its molecular structure, don’t typically interact with many chemicals. But a new mouse study shows one possible use case for xenon — as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. (Oza, 1/15)