First Edition: Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024

KFF Health News: Nursing Aides Plagued By PTSD After ‘Nightmare’ Covid Conditions, With Little Help
One evening in May, nursing assistant Debra Ragoonanan’s vision blurred during her shift at a state-run Massachusetts veterans home. As her head spun, she said, she called her husband. He picked her up and drove her to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. It was the latest in a drumbeat of health issues that she traces to the first months of 2020, when dozens of veterans died at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, in one of the country’s deadliest covid-19 outbreaks at a long-term nursing facility. (Maxmen, 9/26)

KFF Health News: In Montana Senate Race, Democrat Jon Tester Misleads On Republican Tim Sheehy’s Abortion Stance
In a race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is attacking his challenger, Republican Tim Sheehy, for his stance on abortion. Montana’s Senate race is one of a half-dozen tight contests around the country in which Democrats are defending seats needed to keep their one-seat majority. If Republicans flip Tester’s seat, they could take over the chamber even if they fail to oust Democrats in any other key races. (Jacobson, 9/26)

The Washington Post: Democrats To Unveil ACA Tax Credit Plan, Teeing Up Next Health-Care Fight 
Democrats on Wednesday launched a legislative push to extend federal subsidies that defray the cost of health insurance for millions of Americans. The effort tees up another Affordable Care Act fight that could stretch into next year — and perhaps challenge the next president. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced legislation to make permanent tax credits that lower the cost of plans sold through the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), who helped craft the initial legislation to create the expanded tax credits almost four years ago, introduced companion legislation in the House. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) joined Shaheen and Underwood at a news conference to unveil the legislation Wednesday. (Diamond, 9/25)

The Washington Post: Senate Votes To Hold Steward Hospital CEO In Criminal Contempt 
The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to hold Steward Health Care chief executive Ralph de la Torre in contempt of Congress, asking the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against the hospital executive for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena. It is the first time since 1971 that the Senate has asked the Justice Department to pursue criminal contempt charges against an individual, lawmakers said. Steward, a for-profit company that owns about two dozen hospitals across the country, is engaged in bankruptcy proceedings and has been seeking to sell its hospitals. (Diamond, 9/25)

The New York Times: Congress Passes Short-Term Spending Bill To Avert A Shutdown 
Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown just ahead of the November elections, sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk but punting a bigger funding fight to the end of the year. In a pair of votes in quick succession, lawmakers in both chambers overwhelmingly voted to pass the measure to keep federal funding flowing through Dec. 20. The Senate vote was 78 to 18. All the “no” votes were Republicans. Mr. Biden is expected to sign the legislation before the Sept. 30 deadline. (Edmondson, 9/25)

AP: US Suicides Held Steady In 2023 — At A Very High Level 
U.S. suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation’s history, preliminary data suggests. A little over 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number that could grow a little as some death investigations are wrapped up and reported. Just under 49,500 were reported in 2022, according to final data released Thursday. The numbers are close enough that the suicide rate for the two years are the same, CDC officials said. (Stobbe, 9/26)

USA Today: CDC Data Reveals Women Use Firearms More Often In Suicide Deaths
More U.S. women are using firearms in suicide deaths, according to a new federal report. Firearms were used in more than half the country’s record 49,500 suicide deaths in 2022, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. Traditionally, men die by suicide at a much higher rate than women, and they often do so using guns. However, a CDC report published Thursday found firearms were the leading means of suicide for women since 2020, with suicide deaths among women also increasing. (Cuevas, 9/26)

Military.com: Veterans Could Get Free Gun Safes Under Suicide Prevention Proposal Introduced In House 
Any veteran who wants a lockbox to store their firearm would be able to get one for free from the Department of Veterans Affairs under a bipartisan bill introduced in the House on Wednesday aimed at curbing veteran suicides. The bill, which has won the endorsement of a firearms industry group in addition to gun control groups, builds off an existing pilot program at the VA that provides lockboxes to at-risk veterans. (Kheel, 9/25)

The New York Times: In Switzerland, Reported Use Of Suicide Capsule Inflames Debate 
A 64-year-old American was reported to have died by assisted suicide in a remote forest in northern Switzerland with the help of two right-to-die groups that facilitated her use of a Sarco capsule, a coffin-sized, air-tight pod with a large window, according to the capsule’s inventor. The device, which can be transported to a location of a user’s choosing, has an interior button that replaces life-giving oxygen with fatal nitrogen, killing the person in minutes. Now, the authorities in the canton of Schaffhausen said they had arrested “several people” who may have helped the woman die. (Watkins, 9/25)

Minnesota Public Radio: The Toll Of Gun Violence On Survivors
We often focus on the people killed by guns. But there were also people wounded at each of these recent shootings, people who will live for the rest of their lives with physical scars and mental trauma. (Davis and Beckstrom, 9/25)

Los Angeles Times: Study: More Women Charged With Pregnancy-Related Crime Since Roe's End
In the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion in its Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, at least 210 women across the country were charged with crimes related to their pregnancies, according to the report released by Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization. That’s the highest number the group has identified over any 12-month period in research projects that have looked back as far as 1973. (Mulvihill, 9/25)

NBC News: Birth Control Access Fell In States With Abortion Bans. It’s Different In South Carolina, One Group Says
South Carolina’s most vulnerable women are asking for and getting birth control in record numbers — even in parts of the state without any doctors who specialize in women’s reproductive health, according to a new report. The findings — from New Morning, a nonprofit organization based in Columbia, South Carolina, that works to provide free or low-cost contraception access in the state — stand in contrast to what’s been happening in other states that enacted abortion restrictions after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. (Edwards, 9/25)

Reuters: Washington State's Abortion Pill Stockpile Is Insurance Against Trump Win, Governor Says 
Washington state's first-in-the-nation stockpile of abortion drugs will serve as insurance against future lawsuits seeking to ban the procedure nationwide or a second presidential term for Republican Donald Trump, Governor Jay Inslee said. Last year, with a federal lawsuit seeking to restrict access to abortion medication nationwide, Inslee, a Democrat, ordered the state's Department of Corrections to use its pharmacy license to purchase 30,000 doses of the abortion drug mifepristone. (Mcknight and Ax, 9/25)

Mother Jones: Big Tech Would Be Key To Delivering Project 2025’s Anti-Abortion Plans
Last week, 15 civil liberties groups sent a letter to the CEOs of eight of the biggest tech companies—including Meta, Apple, TikTok, and Google, among others—demanding they explain how they would protect users’ data and privacy, as well as combat abortion-related misinformation on their platforms if Project 2025’s anti-abortion recommendations were set in motion. “As written, Project 2025 would rely heavily on your companies to further its extreme agenda,” states the letter, which Mother Jones is the first to report. The signatories—which include Accountable Tech, GLAAD, and The Tech Oversight Project—warn that Project 2025’s anti-abortion policies would lead to “heightened surveillance and an increase in the trend of law enforcement using criminal subpoenas to weaponize the consumer data your companies collect and store.”  (McShane, 9/25)

Reuters: EPA Must Address Fluoridated Water's Risk To Children's IQs, US Judge Rules 
A federal judge in California has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen regulations for fluoride in drinking water, saying the compound poses an unreasonable potential risk to children at levels that are currently typical nationwide. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco on Tuesday sided with several advocacy groups, finding the current practice of adding fluoride to drinking water supplies to fight cavities presented unreasonable risks for children’s developing brains. (Raymond, 9/25)

Military.com: VA Checking For Connection Between PFAS Chemicals And Kidney Cancer In Afflicted Veterans 
The Department of Veterans Affairs will study whether kidney cancer is linked with exposure to chemicals used in military-grade firefighting foam and other products to determine whether veterans may be eligible for expedited benefits. The VA announced Wednesday that the process could decide whether kidney cancer should be designated a presumptive service-connected condition for former service members who were exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFAS, often called "forever chemicals" for their environmental persistence. (Kime, 9/25)

The Washington Post: 10th Listeria Death Tied To Boar’s Head Liverwurst In Nationwide Outbreak
A New York resident has died amid a nationwide listeria outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meat, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 10 in the largest outbreak of the foodborne illness since 2011. The agency also reported two new hospitalizations associated with the outbreak. In total, 59 people have been hospitalized in 19 states since late May. (Roubein and Heim, 9/25)

Bloomberg: Los Angeles’ Dengue Cluster Grows To Four Cases In Two Weeks
Los Angeles County public health authorities are dealing with a fourth case of dengue reported in just over two weeks, as evidence mounts that the mosquito-borne infection is circulating in the area for the first time. None of the four patients recently traveled to areas where dengue regularly occurs, suggesting the virus is spreading locally via infected mosquitoes, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement. The infection disclosed Wednesday isn’t related to a cluster of three cases announced earlier this month, officials said. (Fay Cortez, 9/25)

CIDRAP: Review Finds Serious Gaps In Steps To Control Avian Flu In Mammals
Global strategies to control mammal-to-mammal avian flu transmission aren't working and pose an ongoing threat to people, especially as the viruses become entrenched in Europe and the Americas, according a team of virologists led by the United Kingdom's Pirbright Institute. Their bird's-eye view of the current H5N1 avian influenza panzootic in mammals appeared yesterday in Nature. Also, the team laid out different evolutionary pathways that could turn the influenza panzootic into a human pandemic virus. (Schnirring, 9/25)

The Hill: Trump's Former CDC Chief Endorses RFK Jr. To Lead Chronic Disease Commission
The Trump administration’s former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the “right man for the job” to lead a commission on chronic childhood disease. In an op-ed published Tuesday in Newsweek, Robert Redfield said he believes in Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.  (Weixel, 9/25)

The Washington Post: NFL Stadiums Will Soon Double As Disaster Shelters, Federal Officials Say
As Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana in 2005, more than 20,000 people sought a makeshift shelter in the Superdome, the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints. Nearly two decades later, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Football League are partnering to turn football stadiums across the country into emergency shelters, temporary hospitals and other venues needed during disasters, according to details shared with The Washington Post. The initiative, which comes as Florida braces for a major hurricane, and floodwaters from Hurricane Francine soak Louisiana, aims to better prepare communities for catastrophic events. (Joselow and Sacks, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Quality Measures Push Providers To Improve Senior Care
Medicare will begin compensating hospitals for providing quality data to support "age-friendly" medical care as the government seeks to bolster private sector efforts to adapt to the aging population. Starting in January, hospitals will report on a slew of measures to assess whether they are improving care for older patients in emergency departments, operating rooms and other settings. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services laid out the new policy in the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule for fiscal 2025, which it published last month. (Early, 9/25)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Exeter Hospital Cuts Are Postponed For 6 Months, After Pressure From AG's Office
Under pressure from state regulators, Exeter Hospital has agreed to delay a series of planned cuts for six months, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said Wednesday. Exeter Hospital has faced an uproar over its plans to cut neurology, podiatry, pediatric dentistry and allergy and immunology care at its Core Physicians practice, along with a widely used paramedic service. The hospital initially told patients those services would end within weeks. (Cuno-Booth, 9/25)

Crain's New York Business: Mount Sinai Partners With Noom
Mount Sinai Health System is teaming up with a major venture-backed company aimed at behavioral approaches to weight loss. The hospital system announced a partnership Wednesday with Princeton, N.J.-based health platform Noom, which offers tailored coaching on lifestyle and nutrition to address chronic diseases with a particular focus on obesity. The companies want to open up a two-way referral channel between one another in hopes of filling gaps in treatment created by the explosion in tech startups offering nontraditional healthcare. (Geringer-Sameth, 9/25)

USA Today: Cancer Patient Receives Double Lung Transplant At Northwestern Medicine
At 34 years old, Minnesota resident Mandy Wilk thought she had just 2½ years left to live. She had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, and it had spread to her liver. ... Eventually, doctors detected cancer in her lungs, and she found out about the DREAM program, housed in Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute. Doctors in the program treat cancer patients who have no other options by performing double lung transplants. (Martin, 9/25)

CBS News: Westmoreland County Nurses Fired After Taking, Sharing Inappropriate Patient Pictures, Police Say
Four Independence Health System employees at Westmoreland Hospital have been fired after an investigation uncovered misconduct involving at least eight patients. Police here say that misconduct is disturbing, and includes videos and pictures of nude elderly patients taken inside their rooms at the hospital. (Bortz, 9/25)

The New York Times: Heads Up: That Patient Portal May Contain Your Therapy Notes
Starting in 2021, the federal government required all U.S. health care systems to share clinicians’ visit notes electronically, often referred to as open notes, as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. This includes therapy progress notes, which typically provide information about the client’s appearance and mood, a diagnosis, the treatment plan and any progress the client has made toward therapy goals. As a result, mental health visit notes are easily accessible via online portals from many health care institutions. But there are still networks that choose not to make the notes so easy to find. (Caron, 9/25)

Axios: FDA Weighs KarXT, First Schizophrenia Drug Shift In Decades
The Food and Drug Administration is slated to decide Thursday whether to approve the first new schizophrenia drug in at least three decades. The complex condition is currently treated with antipsychotics that carry safety risks like metabolic disorders, cause weight gain and often cause people to stop taking their medications. (Goldman, 9/26)

Reuters: Pfizer Withdraws Sickle Cell Disease Treatment On Risk Of Complication, Death
U.S. drugmaker Pfizer said on Wednesday it is withdrawing its sickle cell disease treatment Oxbryta from all markets where it is approved, citing risks of a painful complication and deaths. Pfizer bought Oxbryta, also known as voxelotor, as part of its $5.4 billion buyout of Global Blood Therapeutics in 2022. (9/25)

Stat: Study Finds MRI Cuts Overdiagnosis In Prostate Cancer Screening
Prostate cancer presents a tricky screening challenge. Catching it early could mean dodging a painful journey with advanced cancer. Yet a sizable majority of prostate cancers are “indolent” — slow growing tumors that most likely would never metastasize during the patient’s lifetime, and whose treatment  would do more harm than good. (Chen, 9/25)

Stat: Sleep Apnea On Apple Watch: Experts See Potential, Not Perfection
This month, Apple launched a feature for the Apple Watch that alerts users if it determines they may have sleep apnea, potentially leading to treatment for a dangerous health condition that often goes undiagnosed. (Aguilar, 9/26)

The Texas Tribune and ProPublica: Texas Ignored Medicaid Enrollment Guidance And Warnings, Records Show 
For three years during the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government gave Texas and other states billions of dollars in exchange for their promise not to exacerbate the public health crisis by kicking people off Medicaid. When that agreement ended last year, Texas moved swiftly, kicking off more people faster than any other state. (Klibanoff and Kriel, 9/26)

The Baltimore Sun: Kaiser Permanente Retained As Maryland Medicaid Provider
The Maryland Department of Health has agreed to renew Kaiser Permanente’s contract as a Medicaid provider, averting an outcome that one prominent health care advocate said would have amounted to a blow to public health. (Pitts, 9/25)

Politico: Gavin Newsom Vetoes Bill To Offer Free Condoms In California Schools — Again 
Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a bill Wednesday for the second year in a row that would have required high schools to offer free condoms to students, arguing that it would cost too much. The bill was overwhelmingly supported by Newsom’s fellow Democrats in the Legislature and mainly opposed by conservative and Christian groups, like the California Family Council. But Newsom said the ongoing price tag would be too much to bear. (Bluth, 9/25)

The Washington Post: D.C. Medics Save Trauma Victims With On-Site Blood Transfusions 
Since April, D.C. medics responding to emergencies have administered blood transfusions to scores of trauma victims, pulling them back from the brink of death. (Williams, 9/25)

Stateline: Idaho AG Accuses Pediatrics Group Of Possible Consumer Violations Over Gender Care Policies
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador — along with attorneys general and officials from 20 other U.S. states — has accused the American Academy of Pediatrics of possible “violations of state consumer protection statutes” over its standards and recommendations for gender dysphoria care for children. In a letter sent by Labrador, a Republican, on Tuesday, the attorneys general requested information detailing the academy’s evidence for its current recommendations for puberty blockers for gender dysphoria-diagnosed youth. (Lords, 9/25)

The New York Times: Former Vikings All-Pro QB Tommy Kramer Goes Public With Dementia Diagnosis 
Tommy Kramer, a star quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings in the ’80s, announced Wednesday he was diagnosed with dementia. In a post on X, Kramer said he decided to go public after Brett Favre shared Tuesday he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Kramer, 69, said he received his diagnosis a year ago from doctors at the NFL Cleveland Clinic and was told he could have anywhere from two to 10 years to live. (Puleo, 9/25)

AP: Parkinson's Diagnosis Came After Favre Began Struggling With His Right Arm, He Tells TMZ Sports
Brett Favre was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January after he began having trouble using his right arm and was unable to hold a screwdriver steady, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback said in an interview with TMZ Sports. ... Favre said he suspected something was wrong when his right arm would get “stuck.” He said he didn’t notice a decrease in strength but was unable to hold a screwdriver with one hand. He said he notified his physician about the problem when he struggled to put on a jacket. (9/25)

Stat: Ozempic Linked To Lower Opioid Overdose Rate, Study Shows
People taking semaglutide medications like Ozempic for diabetes may be at reduced risk of drug overdose, according to new research. Prescriptions for semaglutide, which includes Ozempic and Rybelsus, were linked to lower overdose rates among patients with type 2 diabetes who were also diagnosed with opioid use disorder, according to a paper published Wednesday. (Facher, 9/25)

Stat: Higher Buprenorphine Dose Safe For People With Fentanyl Addiction: Study
Patients who received higher doses of buprenorphine, a common medication used to alleviate opioid withdrawal and cravings, were less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to discontinue treatment, according to a new study. (Facher, 9/26)

The Boston Globe: Woonsocket RI Non-Fatal Overdose Rate Prompts Health Advisory
The rate of non-fatal opioid overdoses in Woonsocket has jumped to more than twice Rhode Island’s statewide average, as powerful substances such as fentanyl and xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer, continue to pervade the illicit drug market, public health officials say. The alarming rate prompted the Rhode Island Department of Health to issue a public health advisory Tuesday evening. (Gavin, 9/25)

The New York Times: What To Know About Galaxy Gas, The Latest Name In Nitrous Oxide Misuse 
Galaxy Gas, a vendor in Georgia, sells canisters of nitrous oxide that it says are meant to turn liquid cream into foam for beverages and desserts. But videos of young people inhaling the gas from colorful canisters — some of them advertising flavors like vanilla cupcake and strawberry cream — have gained traction on TikTok, YouTube and X in videos with millions of views. The visibility of the products on social media, where the name “Galaxy Gas” has taken off as a shorthand for nitrous canisters generally, has prompted a fresh wave of concern about the dangers of the gas and its appeal to young people. (Holtermann, 9/25)

AP: West Virginia's New Drug Czar Was Once Addicted To Opioids Himself 
West Virginia’s new drug czar has a very personal reason for wanting to end the state’s opioid crisis: He was once addicted to prescription painkillers himself. Dr. Stephen Loyd, who has been treating patients with substance use disorder since he got sober two decades ago, says combating opioid addiction in the state with the highest rate of overdose deaths isn’t just his job. It’s an integral part of his healing. (Willingham, 9/26)