First Edition: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024

KFF Health News: After Congress Ended Extra Cash Aid For Families, Communities Tackle Child Poverty Alone 
If you bring a baby into the Hurley Children’s Center clinic in downtown Flint, Michigan, Mona Hanna will find you. The pediatrician, who gained national prominence for helping uncover the city’s water crisis in 2015, strode across the waiting room in her white lab coat, eyes laser-focused on the chubby baby in the lap of an unsuspecting parent. “Hi! I’m Dr. Mona!” she said warmly. “Any chance you guys live in Flint?” She learned the family is from neighboring Grand Blanc. (Wells, 11/14)

KFF Health News: As California Taps Pandemic Stockpile For Bird Flu, Officials Keep Close Eye On Spending
California public health officials are dipping into state and federal stockpiles to equip up to 10,000 farmworkers with masks, gloves, goggles, and other safety gear as the state confirms at least 21 human cases of bird flu as of early November. It’s the latest reminder of the state’s struggle to remain prepared amid multibillion-dollar deficits. Officials said they began distributing more than 2 million pieces of personal protective equipment in late May, four months before the first human case was confirmed in the state. They said they began ramping up coordination with local health officials in April after bird flu was first detected in cattle in the U.S. Bird flu has now been confirmed at more than 270 dairies in central California, and traces were recently detected at a wastewater sampling site in Los Angeles County. Bird flu was also recently detected in a flock of commercial turkeys in Sacramento County. (Thompson, 11/14)

CBS News: Opioid Overdose Deaths Drop For 12th Straight Month, Now Lowest Since 2020 
Opioid overdose deaths have now slowed to the lowest levels nationwide since 2020, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This marks the 12th straight month of decline since a peak last year. Around 70,655 deaths linked to opioids like heroin and fentanyl were reported for the year ending June 2024, the CDC now estimates, falling 18% from the same time in 2023.Almost all states, except for a handful in the West from Alaska through Nevada, are now seeing a significant decrease in overdose death rates. Early data from Canada also suggests overdose deaths there might now be slowing off of a peak in 2023 too. (Tin, 11/13)

Stat: GOP Keeps Control Of House, Giving Trump Broad Power On Health Care
With full control of the House and Senate, President-elect Trump and his fellow Republicans have the power to assert their will over health care policies. The GOP is set to have at least 218 seats in the House of Representatives, maintaining control of the chamber, according to CNN, NBC, and ABC. The party has at least 52 seats in the Senate. (Wilkerson, 11/13)

Roll Call: New Congress Brings Churn In Health Policy Leadership 
Congress’ most influential health panels will see dramatic changes next year, with several advocates on specific issues like mental health, Medicare and drug pricing retiring or losing their reelection bids. The biggest changes will be in store at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose wide-ranging jurisdiction includes health insurance, biomedical research, and drug and device safety. (Raman, 11/13)

The 19th: Where Trump AG Pick Matt Gaetz Stands On Abortion, LGBTQ+ Rights And Criminal Justice
The attorney general could influence pressing questions of abortion policy, such as whether to enforce the 1800s anti-obscenity law known as the Comstock Act, which abortion opponents believe could be used to ban the mailing of abortion pills — or even to ban abortion entirely. As a member of Congress, Matt Gaetz has opposed abortion rights, earning an A+ rating from the anti-abortion advocacy group SBA Pro-Life America. He voted against a bill that would have protected the right to contraception and in 2021 co-sponsored a proposed national ban on abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy. In Congress, Gaetz has also opposed federal LGBTQ+ protections such as the Equality Act. (Norwood, Luthra, Rummler and Becker, 11/13)

NBC News: Trump’s Pick For Defense Secretary Doesn't Want Women Serving In Combat
Pete Hegseth, 44, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, has said that he believes women should not serve in combat and that he wants to see the military purged of “woke” officials who support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. ... “I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the podcast. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.” (Kirell and Ortiz, 11/13)

Military Times: Could Trump Drop The VA And DOD Abortion Access Policies Right Away?
Conservative lawmakers hope that scrapping abortion access policies at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will be among the first major changes when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. But overturning those policies may not be as easy as a quick executive order. Advocates say that public protests and legal fights — especially in the case of VA rules — could create roadblocks for the incoming president in the months ahead. (Shane III, 11/13)

Stat: Can RFK Jr. Get Confirmed? Moderate GOP Senators Avoid The Question 
Moderate Republican senators, some of whom have bucked President-elect Trump in the past, are reluctant to criticize Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could be nominated for a Senate-confirmed health care leadership role in the next Trump administration. Kennedy has recently tried to distance himself from the anti-vaccine rhetoric that’s made him famous, claiming he just wants more data about vaccines. But for decades, Kennedy has pushed the unfounded theory that vaccines cause autism. (Zhang, Wilkerson and Owermohle, 11/13)

NBC News: RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Group Lost $3 Million Last Year
After years of financial growth, Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recorded a more than 30% drop in revenue last year, to $16 million, according to recent tax filings. The pandemic boosted the profiles and pocketbooks of anti-vaccine organizations and activists, but none more than Children’s Health Defense and Kennedy. The nonprofit doubled its revenue in 2020 to $6.8 million, then grew again to $16 million in 2021 and $23.5 million in 2022. Last year was the first substantial loss in the organization’s history, of about $3 million, driven by a reduction in contributions, according to the filings.  (Zadrozny, 11/13)

The New York Times: R.F.K. Jr. Scorns Trump’s Fast Food Habit: ‘Really, Like, Bad’
What happens when a 78-year-old, Diet Coke-drinking, McDonald’s-consuming president-elect buddies up with an alternative medicine aficionado like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? He gets publicly chided for his eating habits. Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic whose ideas about remaking the nation’s public health system include getting processed food off grocery store shelves, spared no niceties in passing judgment on Mr. Trump’s food choices during a recent interview with Joe Polish, a marketing industry podcaster. His remarks were first reported by The Daily Beast. “The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad,” Mr. Kennedy said, recounting the offerings on Mr. Trump’s plane. (Stolberg, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: CDC Director Warns About RFK Jr.’s Skeptical Vaccine Views 
The top US public health official warned about the threat of curtailing vaccination efforts as longtime skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepares for an influential role in the incoming Trump administration. “We have a very short memory of what it is like to hold a child who has been paralyzed with polio, or to comfort a mom who lost their kid from measles,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen said Wednesday at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit in Washington. “I don’t want to have to see us go backward in order to remind ourselves that vaccines work.” (Smith, 11/13)

Stat: Biden Officials Warn Of Threat To U.S. Children If Anti-Vaccine Views Prevail
Two senior Biden administration officials on Wednesday warned there could be serious consequences for the nation’s children if it had to relearn lessons about the public health benefits of vaccines. (Branswell and Oza, 11/13)

CIDRAP: Medical Boards Almost Never Discipline Doctors Who Peddle False COVID Claims, Legal Researcher Says
Less than 1% of all state medical-board disciplinary actions against physicians in the five most populous US states were for spreading misinformation about topics such as vaccines and therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with 29% for negligence, according to an analysis from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Law. Yet two public health experts argue that, because of First Amendment rights and other factors, that's how it should be. (Van Beusekom, 11/13)

CBS News: Many More Seniors Are Getting COVID Shots This Year, CDC Reports 
Nearly 4 in 10 seniors have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine so far this year, new survey data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests, marking a steep increase in vaccination rates compared with the same time last year. The data from the CDC's National Immunization Survey estimates that 37.6% of Americans ages 65 and older had gotten a shot of this season's updated COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 2, compared with 22.6% of older adults by the same week in 2023. (Tin, 11/13)

AP: Virginia Democrats Advance Efforts To Protect Abortion, Voting Rights, Marriage Equality 
Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access. The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes. (Diaz, 11/13)

Ohio Capital Journal: Abortion Opponents Back Measure Barring Local Support Programs 
State lawmakers in Ohio want to prohibit local governments from using public dollars in support of abortion. They’re casting a wide net. Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, bars public funds from being given directly or indirectly to an organization that provides abortions that aren’t necessary to protect the life of the mother. In addition, the bill prohibits funding going to any group providing services for people seeking such abortions like transportation, housing or wage reimbursement. (Evans, 11/14)

The Nation: What We Learn From The Texas Town That Voted For Abortion And For Trump 
In the Texas panhandle city of Amarillo on Election Day, in the buckle of the Bible Belt, Dexie Organ, 60, dressed in black leggings and a red shirt, stepped out of her beat-up Nissan and headed across the parking lot to vote. On her way, she saw a volunteer holding a sign that read: “Vote No on Prop A.” Organ stopped. “I need a little education,” she told the sign-holder, Diann Anderson, who explained to her that Proposition A was an abortion travel ban that would deputize private citizens to sue anyone they suspected of helping someone travel through Amarillo to get an abortion out of state. “I do believe that is unconstitutional,” Organ told me. “We’re women; I don’t know why they think they need to suppress us.” Organ told me she has 14 children—and she’s had an abortion. “I have eight daughters…and I want them to have what they want,” she told me. (Littlefield, 11/14)

Politico: Red Wave Crashes Down On Ballot Measures 
The left sees setbacks on abortion, drug legalization, minimum wage and election-process questions from coast to coast. (Schultheis, Zhang and Ukenye, 11/13)

NBC News: Premature Births In The U.S. Remain At An All-Time High, The March Of Dimes Reports
Many pregnant women in the U.S., particularly in the South, face inadequate prenatal care, complicated by abortion restrictions, air pollution and extreme heat, according to a new March of Dimes report. As a result, there have been no improvements in the preterm birth rate in the last 10 years. In its annual report, released Thursday, the March of Dimes gave the U.S. a dismal D+ grade based on the number of babies born too soon last year. Last year, the preterm birth rate was 10.4%. In 2022, it was 10.5%. In fact, little has changed in the past decade. In 2013, the preterm birth rate was 9.8%. (Edwards, 11/14)

ABC News: Black Infant Mortality Rate More Than Double The Rate Among White Infants: CDC 
Infant mortality rates remained relatively unchanged from 2022 to 2023, but racial and ethnic disparities still persist, new provisional federal data released early Thursday finds. The U.S. provisional infant mortality rate in 2023 was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged from the 2022 rate, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The report also found that infants born to Black mothers still died at much higher rates than those born to white and Asian mothers -- more than double the rate of white infant mortality, according to the CDC. (Kekatos and Rayala, 11/14)

ProPublica: Their Baby Died. An Idaho Coroner Did Little To Find Out Why. 
With a lack of regulation for coroners, a child who dies unexpectedly or outside of a doctor’s care in Idaho is less likely to be autopsied than anywhere else in the United States. (Dutton, 11/11)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna, Cigna, Elevance Cut Medicare Advantage Commissions 
Aetna, Cigna and Elevance Health sell Medicare Advantage plans. But that doesn't necessarily mean they want people to buy them. Partway through the Medicare annual enrollment period for 2025, which started Oct. 15 and ends Dec. 7, those three insurers stopped offering commissions to brokers and other third-party marketers who steer new customers toward some of their Medicare Advantage products. Sam Melamed, CEO of the dental and vision insurer NCD and founder of a social media platform for brokers and agents called Insurance Forums, has never seen anything like it. (Tepper, 11/13)

ProPublica: Lincare Made Billions While Repeatedly Defrauding Medicare. Feds Did Little To Rein It In. 
For Lincare, paying multimillion-dollar legal settlements is an integral part of doing business. The company, the largest distributor of home oxygen equipment in the United States, admitted billing Medicare for ventilators it knew customers weren’t using (2024) and overcharging Medicare and thousands of elderly patients (2023). It settled allegations of violating a law against kickbacks (2018) and charging Medicare for patients who had died (2017). The company resolved lawsuits alleging a “nationwide scheme to pay physicians kickbacks to refer their patients to Lincare” (2006) and that it falsified claims that its customers needed oxygen (2001). (Lincare admitted wrongdoing in only the two most recent settlements.) (Elkind, 11/13)

Axios: Medicare Spent $2B On Unneeded Back Surgeries
Hospitals performed more than 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries on Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. over three years, according to a new analysis. Roughly $2 billion was spent on the "low value" procedures while patients were put at risk of poor outcomes, researchers from the Lown Institute wrote. (Reed, 11/14)

Chicago Tribune: Nurses At University Of Illinois Hospital & Clinics Strike
Nurses at University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics walked off the job Wednesday morning, with plans to strike for an indefinite length of time. The nurses are seeking better security to prevent patients from attacking them at the hospital, are concerned about potential staffing changes, and they’re asking for higher pay. (Schencker, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Baystate Health Cuts Hit 134 Leadership Positions
Baystate Health has eliminated 134 leadership positions as part of a larger cost-saving effort amid financial challenges. The cuts will affect less than 1% of the system's workforce, the system said in a statement Wednesday. Some of the affected positions are vacant roles that will not be filled. (Desilva, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Ex-MetroHealth CEO's Bonuses Did Not Break The Law, Auditor Says
The Ohio Auditor of State’s office has released the findings of its criminal investigation and special audit of the allegations that ex-MetroHealth president and CEO Dr. Akram Boutros paid himself $1.9 million in unauthorized bonuses. The report, published Tuesday, Nov. 12, on the state auditor’s website, says the office concluded Boutros’ actions were not criminal, and it was not able to determine whether he had proper authorization to receive supplemental performance-based variable compensation (SPBVC). (Bennett, 11/13)

Stat: FDA Still Lacks Enough Inspectors, GAO Says
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration continues to struggle with a lack of investigators needed to inspect domestic and foreign pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and has not yet developed a plan to keep needed staff, a U.S. government watchdog found. (Silverman, 11/13)

The Hill: Ozempic And Wegovy May Help With Alcohol Addiction
The weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy may be beneficial for people struggling with alcohol addiction, a study published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry said. The study examined about 228,000 people in Sweden who had alcohol use disorder and Type 2 diabetes. The people who were taking drugs like semaglutide were less likely to be hospitalized for alcohol-related issues. Of the nearly 228,000 individuals, 58.5 percent experienced alcohol-related hospitalization. The study noted that while semaglutide drugs “substantially decreased” the risk of hospitalization, the results were not associated with suicide attempts. (Irwin, 11/13)

Yahoo Finance: Hims & Hers Launches GLP-1 Tracker In Response To FDA's Shortage Decision
Hims & Hers is launching a new GLP-1 tracker in its efforts to fight back against the FDA’s decision to end compounded GLP-1s on the market. The tracker allows patients to self-identify, provide their location, and say which brand of GLP-1 drug they are not able to find. The data will be aggregated and regularly published by Hims in order to provide proof to the FDA that the shortages of the branded drugs haven’t ended, according to co-founder and CEO Andrew Dudum. (Khemlani, 11/13)

FiercePharma: Lilly Unwraps Detailed Data Showing Tirzepatide Kept Nearly 99% Of Prediabetic Patients Diabetes-Free Over 3 Years
Following an impressive data drop this summer highlighting the potential for Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide to stave off progression to Type 2 diabetes in prediabetic patients, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker is laying out full results from its longest completed study of the dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist to date. In the three-year SURMOUNT-1 trial, tirzepatide curbed the risk of disease progression to Type 2 diabetes by 94% versus placebo in adult prediabetes patients who were obese or overweight, Lilly said in a release Wednesday. (Kansteiner, 11/13)

CBS News: 23andMe Customer? Here's What To Know About The Privacy Of Your Genetic Data. 
23andMe, the struggling ancestry tracing company, continues to spiral, raising questions about its business prospects and what could happen to its sensitive customer genetic testing data. CEO Anne Wojcicki has said she intends to take the company private and is not considering third-party takeover proposals. Customer data collected from its genetic testing tools makes up the company's most valuable asset. Because 23andMe is not a health care company, health privacy laws don't apply, raising questions about what the business might opt to do with its 15 million users' personal genetic data. (Cerullo, 11/13)

AP: Bill On School Bathroom Use By Transgender Students Clears Ohio Legislature, Heads To Governor
The Ohio Senate on Wednesday approved a ban on transgender students using bathrooms that fit their gender identities and sent the measure to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. The Republican-backed bill applies to public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. It requires the schools to designate separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations “for the exclusive use” of either males and females, based on one’s gender assigned at or near birth, in both school buildings and facilities used for a school-sponsored event. (Smyth, 11/13)

NBC News: South Carolina Trans Student Sues School District And State Over Bathroom Rule
An eighth grade transgender boy, who was allegedly threatened with expulsion for using the boys restroom, is suing his South Carolina school district and the state over a budget rule that restricts accommodations for transgender students. In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, John Doe, a pseudonym for a 13-year-old student in the Berkeley County School District, said that administrators told him in August he could only use the girls restroom or a single-occupancy toilet in the nurse’s office due to a new state rule. The school suspended him for a day when administrators later caught him using the boys restroom, and the principal warned that the punishment could escalate to expulsion if he did it again, according to the suit. (Kingkade, 11/13)

The Washington Post: School District Sued For Trying To Ban Student’s Service Dog 
A Tennessee couple says the district is failing to accommodate their 9-year-old son’s service dog, which helps detect his seizures. (Edwards, 11/13)

Harvard Public Health: Health Information Exchanges Supply Missing Public Health Data
In 2017, Maryland’s Department of Health found funding for a program to send caseworkers to the homes of asthmatic children to help get their disease under control, but they had a problem: finding the kids. Targeting infectious diseases like influenza or lead exposure would have been easier: State laws required reporting those illnesses to public health officials. But asthma is a chronic disease that health care providers weren’t required to report. How could caseworkers find the children they wanted to help? (Feder, 11/13)

CIDRAP: CDC Data Show Sharp Rise In Rates Of Meningococcal Disease 
Surveillance data released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that rates of meningococcal disease have risen sharply in the United States since 2021 and now exceed pre–COVID-19 levels. A total of 438 confirmed and probable cases of meningococcal disease were reported in 2023, the most US cases reported since 2013. (Dall, 11/13)

AP: E. Coli Cases Climb To 104 In McDonald’s Outbreak Tied To Slivered Onions
At least 104 people have been sickened, with 34 hospitalized, in an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers, federal health officials said Wednesday. Cases have been detected in 14 states, according to an update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person died in Colorado and four people have developed a potentially life-threatening kidney disease complication. (Aleccia, 11/13)

Stat: Canadian Teen's Bird Flu Infection Is Not The Version Found In Cows
A Canadian teenager who is in critical condition after contracting H5N1 bird flu was infected with a version of the virus that is different from the one circulating in dairy cattle in the United States, Canadian authorities announced Wednesday. (Branswell, 11/13)