Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Doctors Increasingly See AI Scribes In A Positive Light. But Hiccups Persist
When Jeannine Urban went in for a checkup in November, she had her doctor’s full attention. Instead of typing on her computer keyboard during the exam, Urban’s primary care physician at the Penn Internal Medicine practice in Media, Pennsylvania, had an ambient artificial intelligence scribe take notes. At the end of the 30-minute visit, Urban’s doctor showed her the AI summary of the appointment, neatly organized into sections for her medical history, the physical exam findings, and an assessment and treatment plan for her rheumatoid arthritis and hot flashes, among other details. (Andrews, 1/27)
KFF Health News: Trump Policies At Odds With Emerging Understanding Of Covid’s Long-Term Harm
Possible risk of autism in children. Dormant cancer cells awakening. Accelerating aging of the brain. Federal officials in May 2023 declared an end to the national covid pandemic. But more than two years later, a growing body of research continues to reveal information about the virus and its ability to cause harm long after initial infections resolve, even in some cases when symptoms were mild. (Armour, 1/27)
KFF Health News: Watch: A Strange Checkup Bill Revealed A Firefighter’s Kids Were Mistakenly Uninsured
After Susannah Reed-McCullough’s husband died in 2018, she and their young daughters continued to receive health insurance through his job as a firefighter in Maryland. Then, in 2024, she got an unexpected medical bill: $377 for a checkup for one of her children the previous fall. Reed-McCullough said she called the doctor’s billing department and learned the insurance company had dropped the children’s coverage. The drop turned out to be a mistake. (Jackman, 1/27)
CRISIS IN MINNESOTA
MedPage Today: Nursing Groups, Colleagues Speak Out On Killing Of ICU Nurse In Minnesota
Nurse organizations and other health professional groups expressed outrage and sorrow over Saturday's killing of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents. "The ENA [Emergency Nurses Association] community mourns Alex Pretti and extends its condolences to his loved ones and his nursing family," ENA President Dustin Bass, RN, DNP, said in a statement. "Nurses play a vital role in their communities not only within the hospital, but anywhere someone needs help. We always try to do what's right for others, using our clinical expertise to care for patients and relying on personal beliefs to show up for people, even beyond the stretcherside." (Frieden and Firth, 1/26)
Politico: Gun Rights Groups Blast Trump Over Minnesota Response
The killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minnesota has led to a rare rebuke of top Trump administration officials by leading 2nd Amendment advocates. Multiple national gun-rights organizations, as well as a prominent Minnesota gun rights group, have expressed horror at top Trump administration officials’ criticism of Pretti for being armed with a handgun that he had a legal permit to carry. (Howard, 1/27)
Axios: ICE Fear Is Keeping Patients From Medical Care, Amid Trump Deployment
The escalation of ICE activity in Minnesota is disrupting care at hospitals and clinics that already were navigating shifting legal standards on immigration enforcement in their facilities. Health workers say many patients aren't coming in for necessary care out of fear they'll be detained by federal agents. (Goldman, 1/27)
Modern Healthcare: ICE Activity At Hospitals, Emergency Rooms Is Concerning: AMA
The American Medical Association weighed in Monday about immigration enforcement activities at hospitals and emergency rooms. “The American Medical Association is deeply concerned by reports of immigration enforcement activity in and around hospitals and emergency rooms — a tactic fueling fear among patients and hospital staff alike,“ the organization said in a statement. ”When people are afraid to seek medical attention for themselves or their families, it threatens their health, impedes the ability of physicians to render care, and ultimately undermines basic trust in our health care institutions." (DeSilva, 1/26)
The Washington Post: Republican Drops Bid For Governor, Citing GOP’s ‘Retribution’ On Minnesota
Chris Madel, a Minneapolis attorney who was running as a Republican for Minnesota governor, said Monday that he was ending his campaign because of the national GOP’s “retribution” on his state, describing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations there as an “unmitigated disaster.” “United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship — that’s wrong,” Madel said, noting that he had spoken to Hispanic and Asian members of local law enforcement whom immigration officers had stopped. ... "The reality is that the national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,” he said. (Wang, 1/26)
USA Today: Trump Officials Raise Pressure On Minnesota Over Transgender Sports
President Donald Trump's administration is calling on its Justice Department to enforce policies on transgender students playing in girls' sports in Minnesota. The Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services made the announcement Jan. 26 – the same day state and local officials fought the Trump administration in court over whether immigration actions in Minnesota have crossed the line. (Mansfield, 1/26)
ON CAPITOL HILL
Fierce Healthcare: Government Funding Deal Begins To Unravel As Deadline Looms
Six annual spending bills for the current budget year are awaiting action in the Senate this week, including a key appropriations package that would fund the Department of Health and Human Services through Sept. 30. But the sweeping government funding package is now in peril as Senate Democrats vowed to oppose it in the wake of the shooting death of a Minneapolis man by federal immigration agents, which would trigger a partial government shutdown. The number of agencies that would be affected by a shutdown remains unclear. (Landi, 1/26)
MEDICARE
Stat: Medicare Advantage Plans Face Tiny Pay Raise From Trump Admin
The Trump administration plans to increase payments to next year’s Medicare Advantage plans by less than 0.1% on average — far below what the industry had expected. (Herman, 1/26)
MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The New York Times: After Donations, Trump Administration Revoked Rule Requiring More Nursing Home Staff
Executives who donated to the president’s super PAC met privately with him and urged a repeal of the rule, which was intended to prevent neglect of patients. (Vogel and Jewett, 1/27)
Bloomberg: US Exits Paris Agreement: What Trump’s Withdrawal Means For Climate Change
The US officially exited the Paris Agreement on Jan. 27. It’s the second time President Donald Trump has pulled out of the pact that commits almost 200 countries to keep global warming to no more than 2C (3.6F), and ideally 1.5C, above pre-industrial levels. Compared with his first term in office, Trump has escalated his retreat from global cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Roston and Kahn, 1/27)
Politico: Republicans Think RFK Jr. Can Help Them In The Midterms. Democrats Worry That’s True.
Republicans have embraced HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s healthy food crusade, hoping it will boost their prospects in the midterms. Some Democrats fear it might work. The health secretary was in Pennsylvania last week, touting a new campaign to “take back” Americans’ health. It was the first of what is expected to be many stops ahead of the midterms where the secretary, a former presidential candidate with a constituency all his own, will tout the administration’s efforts to keep Americans, especially children, healthy. (Haslett and Doherty, 1/27)
MedPage Today: Cardiologists Send RFK Jr. A Wish List On 'Long Overdue' USPSTF Overhaul
Prominent cardiology leaders wrote a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding a "forward-looking" U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) roster that will be willing to adopt the latest science on cardiovascular prevention. The nonprofit Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE) coalition of physicians, scientists, and public health leaders criticized past USPSTF recommendations for lagging "far behind contemporary science and real-world clinical needs." (Lou, 1/26)
VACCINES
NBC News: Many CDC Databases Are Not Being Updated, Most Related To Vaccines, Study Finds
Nearly half of the databases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used to update regularly — surveillance systems that tracked public health information like Covid vaccination rates and hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus — have been paused without explanation, according to new research. The findings, published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, indicate that at the start of 2025, the CDC maintained 82 databases that were updated at least monthly. But by the end of October, the study found, 38 had gone stale, with 34 showing no new entries at all in the previous six months. (Bendix, 1/26)
News Service of Florida: Florida Senate Committee Backs Bill With Expanded Vaccine Exemptions
A Senate committee Monday narrowly approved a bill that would create a new path for parents who don’t want their schoolchildren vaccinated, with the proposal’s sponsor saying parents should be in the “driver’s seat” — but opponents warning of public health consequences. (Saunders, 1/27)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
News Service of Florida: Federal Judge Nixes Challenge To Florida's Pregnant Parking Law
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging a new state law allowing pregnant women to use parking spaces reserved for people with disabilities violates federal protections. (Kam, 1/27)
Post-Tribune: Indiana Senate Shoots Down Democratic Amendments To Abortion Bill
Indiana Senate Democrats proposed four amendments to an abortion medication bill, but all of them failed in voice votes Monday. (Kukulka, 1/26)
The Maine Monitor: Her Labor Turned Dangerous. The Closest Hospital Had Just Stopped Delivering Babies
In the early hours of the morning on June 1, 2025, Katie Gowell went into labor at her home in Patten, a town on the outskirts of Maine’s northern wilderness containing Mount Katahdin, where her family doctor was prepared to deliver her fifth child. Shortly after her water burst, a complication arose: she had a prolapsed umbilical cord, a medical emergency that can cut off the baby’s oxygen supply. Her physician, Dr. Rose Fuchs, quickly intervened to keep the blood flowing and called for an ambulance. (Hedegard, 1/26)
The Washington Post: Many Teachers Can’t Afford To Have A Baby, And Some States Are Trying To Help
A growing number of states are implementing paid leave policies in an effort to attract and retain teachers. (Lumpkin, 1/26)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser Strike Begins As 31,000 Workers Walk Off The Job
More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and other health care workers walked off the job early Monday, launching an open-ended strike across California and Hawaii that could disrupt operations at dozens of hospitals and hundreds of clinics. The workers, represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, say the strike was triggered by what they describe as unfair labor practices and Kaiser’s refusal to return to national bargaining talks. (Vaziri and Flores, 1/26)
Minnesota Public Radio: Hennepin Healthcare Cuts 100 Positions And 5 Medical Programs
Hennepin Healthcare is cutting five medical programs and about 100 full-time positions to address a $50 million budget shortfall by the end of March. (Zurek, 1/26)
Minnesota Public Radio: University Of Minnesota, Fairview And M Physicians Reach Agreement For Medical School
The University of Minnesota, Fairview and M Physicians have reached a 10-year agreement to fund the U’s medical school and support physician training and research after seven weeks of intensive mediation. (Zurek, 1/26)
PHARMA AND TECH
Bloomberg: Roche Obesity Shot Led To 18% Weight Loss In Study
Roche Holding AG said patients on its experimental shot lost 18% more weight than those who got placebo in a study that will help set the stage for the Swiss drugmaker to compete in the lucrative obesity market. Almost half of the volunteers treated with the highest dose shed 20% or more of their body weight by week 48 of the mid-stage trial, Roche said Tuesday. (Kresge, 1/27)
MedPage Today: Menopause Hormone Therapy May Boost GLP-1 Drug Benefits
Postmenopausal women on the GLP-1 medication tirzepatide (Zepbound) for obesity lost more weight if they were also using menopause hormone therapy, a retrospective cohort study indicated. Among 120 women with overweight or obesity on tirzepatide, hormone therapy users lost 19.2% of their body weight, while those not using hormone therapy treatment lost 14% (P=0.0023), reported Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and colleagues. (Monaco, 1/26)
Modern Healthcare: Why Mayo, Cleveland Clinic Are Investing In Pulsed Field Ablation
Health systems are making big investments in pulsed field ablation systems, reasoning that the technology will help expand their cardiac programs and the short-term financial hit quickly will be recouped. Pulsed field ablation has only been available in the U.S. within the past two years. Despite it being reimbursed at the same level as older technology, hospitals have embraced it as an atrial fibrillation treatment because it’s considered safer, in demand by patients and the procedure is faster. (Dubinsky, 1/26)
The New York Times: Thomas Fogarty, 91, Who Helped Revolutionize Vascular Surgery, Dies
In time, his surgical innovations were credited with saving millions of lives, and publications hailed him for his supreme skill and accomplishments as the “Thomas Edison” and even the “Mickey Mantle” of medical device inventors. But long before Thomas J. Fogarty drew such renown, he was a tinkerer — a boy growing up in Cincinnati in the 1940s, fixing things around the house for his widowed mother. (Longman, 1/26)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Bloomberg: AI-For-Prescriptions Startup Tandem Lands $1 Billion Valuation
Health care technology startup Tandem Technology Inc., which aims to smooth the process of writing and receiving medical prescriptions using artificial intelligence, has reached a valuation of $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is raising $100 million in the deal, which is being led by venture capital firm Accel, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. (Torrence, 1/26)
Reuters: Drugmakers Turn To AI To Speed Trials, Regulatory Submissions
Artificial intelligence has yet to deliver on the most challenging aspect of drug development -- finding new molecules that lead to major medical advances -- but it is already streamlining less glamorous parts of the process, industry executives say. AI is helping find participants and sites for clinical trials and drafting documents for regulators, shaving weeks off these labor-intensive processes, seven large drugmakers and six smaller biotech companies said at the recent JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. (Fick and Erman, 1/26)
The New York Times: How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them
Julia Sheffield, a psychologist who specializes in treating people with delusions, is difficult to rattle. But she was unnerved last summer when patients began telling her about their conversations with A.I. chatbots. ... By the end of the year, Dr. Sheffield had seen seven such patients at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Although she is accustomed to treating people with mental instability, Dr. Sheffield was disturbed that this new technology seemed to tip people from simply having eccentric thoughts into full-on delusions. (Valentino-DeVries and Hill, 1/26)
STATE WATCH
CalMatters: Feds Drop Effort To Get Trans Patients’ Records From LA Children’s Hospital
Transgender patients of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles secured a win last week after the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to end its efforts to obtain personal and medical information of more than 3,000 young patients. (Ibarra, 1/24)
Colorado Sun: A Plan To Cut Medicaid Rates For Coloradans With Disabilities Gets No Support From Governing Board
When it came time for any of the Colorado Medical Services Board members to make a motion, there was only dead silence. For two hours, the 11-member board that governs the state Medicaid program heard pleas from parents who provide round-the-clock care of their adult children with severe disabilities. And when the testimony was over, no one on the board would make a motion that would result in cuts to the parents’ monthly pay. (Brown, 1/26)
The New York Times: New York City Races To Help Homeless People As Temperatures Plunge
Between Friday evening and Monday afternoon, eight people were found dead outside or later died at a hospital, officials said. They had not yet determined how the eight had died by Monday and said they were still investigating whether the people were homeless. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said some of them had “interactions with the shelter system” in the past, but did not provide specifics. (Zaveri, 1/26)
CBS News: Major Winter Storm Brings Warnings About Heart Attack Risk Of Shoveling Snow
As large parts of the U.S. dig out from a major winter storm, health officials are renewing warnings about the serious and potentially deadly risks of shoveling snow, which has been linked to heart attacks. "Snow shoveling is definitely associated with an increased risk of both heart attack and sudden cardiac death, especially in men and those with unknown cardiac coronary heart disease, or with multiple cardiac risk factors," said Christopher Kramer, a cardiologist and University of Virginia Health and the president of the American College of Cardiology. (Czachor, 1/26)
The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Police Met A Mental Health Crisis Training Goal, But Gaps Remain
Baltimore Police are showing progress on a goal to address mental health crises, with more than a quarter of the department’s patrol officers now certified in crisis intervention. (Belson, 1/26)
WUSF: Candy Under The Microscope: Florida Testing Reveals Arsenic In Sweet Treats
The DeSantis administration's Healthy Florida First initiative finds traces of the toxic element in several popular candies. How dangerous is this? Manufacturers criticize the testing as "misguided." (Mayer, 1/26)
The Washington Post: Stress And Inflammation In Black Communities Shortens Survival, Study Says
Nearly half of the mortality gap between Black and White adults can be traced to the cumulative toll of a lifetime of stress and heightened inflammation, a new study published Monday shows. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, bolsters the body of evidence showing that chronic stress takes a biological toll that shortens lives. (Johnson, 1/26)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
MedPage Today: Teen Boy Grows A Tooth Between Eyelid And Eyebrow
A 16-year-old boy in India had a mature canine tooth removed from an unusual location: the superior orbit of his left eye between his eyelid and eyebrow. The case, published in Ophthalmology, is apparently the first documented report of an ectopic tooth in that part of the eye socket, although teeth have sprouted in plenty of unexpected parts of the face. (Dotinga, 1/26)
The Washington Post: Man With Dementia Forgot He’s Been Married 40 Years. He Proposed Again
Michael O’Reilley doesn’t always remember his wife’s name when she visits him, or even that she’s his wife at all. “He just knows he loves me,” said Linda Feldman, O’Reilley’s wife of 39 years. “That’s a constant.” O’Reilley, 77, has Alzheimer’s disease. Last November, during a visit at his memory care facility in Berkeley, California, he pulled Feldman close, looked at her and asked her a question she had already answered nearly four decades earlier. “Will you marry me?” he asked. “Yes,” Feldman replied. (Page, 1/26)
The New York Times: The ‘R-Word’ Returns, Dismaying Those Who Fought To Oust It
The use of a hurtful word still considered taboo is emblematic of the provocative language that courses through the manosphere sector of social media these days — almost gleefully transgressive language often adopted in messaging from the White House. Diplomacy is out and mockery in, whether by displaying plaques that insult former presidents, depicting Donald Trump spraying excrement on protesters from a military jet — or using the “R-word” to question the intelligence of a political opponent, as Mr. Trump did in a Truth Social post on Thanksgiving Day, in which he called Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, “seriously retarded.” (Barry and Rao, 1/26)
