First Edition: Tuesday, March 11, 2025

KFF Health News: Under Trump, Social Security Resumes What It Once Called 'Clawback Cruelty'
A year ago, a new head of Social Security set out to stop the agency from financially devastating many of the people it was meant to help. Overpayment OutrageSocial Security has been overpaying billions of dollars to people, many on disability — then demanding the money back, even if the government made mistakes, an investigation by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group revealed. The reporting has triggered harsh criticism in Congress and led to an investigation by the agency. (Hilzenrath and Fleischer, 3/11)

KFF Health News: Nursing Homes And The AMA, Once Medicaid Defenders, Hang Back As GOP Mulls Big Cuts
When congressional Republicans in 2017 pushed to repeal the Affordable Care Act and slash Medicaid, dozens of physician groups, patient advocates, hospitals, and others rallied to defend the law and the safety-net program. Eight years later, two industry groups have been notably restrained as GOP lawmakers consider sweeping new Medicaid cuts: the American Medical Association and the American Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes. (Levey, 3/11)

KFF Health News: Trump Health Care Proposal Billed As Consumer Protection But Adds Enrollment Hoops
The Trump administration issued its first major set of proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act on Monday that federal officials said are intended to crack down on fraud in the program. Policy experts said they will make it harder for consumers to sign up for coverage, potentially reducing enrollment. Details were released Monday after a draft press release was inadvertently posted earlier. (Appleby, 3/10)

KFF Health News: Thought Inflation Was Bad? Health Insurance Premiums Are Rising Even Faster
Kirk Vartan pays more than $2,000 a month for a high-deductible health insurance plan from Blue Shield on Covered California, the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. He could have selected a cheaper plan from a different provider, but he wanted one that includes his wife’s doctor. “It’s for the two of us, and we’re not sick,” said Vartan, general manager at A Slice of New York pizza shops in the Bay Area cities of San Jose and Sunnyvale. “It’s ridiculous.” (Reese, 3/11)

KFF Health News: Your Neighbor Has Backyard Chickens. Should You Be Worried?
The latest outbreak of bird flu has upended egg, poultry, and dairy operations, sickened dozens of farmworkers, and killed at least one person in the U.S. Traditional methods to curb H5N1 have so far failed. While the virus isn’t known to be spreading between people, each new infection is a chance for it to evolve. That could set the stage for another pandemic. Scientists worry the United States isn’t doing enough to track and curb the virus. (Maxmen, 3/10)

The Hill: Donald Trump Proposes Cutting ACA Enrollment Period, Ending 'Dreamer' Coverage
The Trump administration is proposing to shorten ObamaCare’s annual open enrollment period by a month, a move the administration said is aimed at helping consumers pick the right plan. According to a proposed rule released Monday, open enrollment would run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, instead of through Jan. 15. (Weixel, 3/10)

ScienceNews: 5 Years After COVID-19 Became A Pandemic, Are We Ready For What’s Next?
Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Whether it still is depends on who you ask. There are no clear criteria to mark the end of a pandemic, and the virus that causes the disease — SARS-CoV-2 — continues evolving and infecting people worldwide. “Whether the pandemic ended or not is an intellectual debate,” says clinical epidemiologist and long COVID researcher Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University in St. Louis. “For the family that lost a loved one a week ago in the ICU, that threat is real. That pain is real. That loss is real.” (Prillaman, 3/10)

The New York Times: For A Family That Lost 5 Loved Ones, ‘Covid Will Never Be Over’ 
Elizabeth Fusco’s relatives had their usual family dinner in New Jersey in early 2020. Soon, her mother, three siblings and aunt were all dead. (Tully, 3/10)

Axios: COVID's Legacy: Public Health's Diminished Power
COVID-19 put public health officials on the front lines against a once-in-a-lifetime threat. It's left them with less power and resources to respond to future emergencies. Instead of strengthening America's public health infrastructure, the pandemic experience spawned hundreds of new laws in at least 24 states limiting public health orders or otherwise undercutting emergency responses. (Reed, 3/10)

The New York Times: A Clearer Picture Of Covid’s Lasting Effects On The Body
Five years on, scientists are starting to understand how the virus can lead to long-term, sometimes invisible changes. (Blum, Agrawal and Callahan, 3/10)

CNN: Federal Government No Longer Accepting Orders For Free Covid-19 Tests 
The federal government program that provides free at-home Covid-19 tests says it is “not currently accepting orders,” according to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response website. It’s not clear whether the program has shut down permanently. (Christensen, 3/10)

The New York Times: Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak To Poor Diet And Health, Citing Fringe Theories
In a sweeping interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments. He issued a muffled call for vaccinations in the affected community, but said the choice was a personal one. He suggested that measles vaccine injuries were more common than known, contrary to extensive research. (Rosenbluth, 3/10)

NBC News: In West Texas' Measles Outbreak, Families Forgo Conventional Medicine Along With Vaccines
The building where hundreds of families are lining up for measles care amid a fast-growing outbreak in West Texas looks more like an abandoned car dealership than a doctor’s office. There’s no signage, nothing saying “Open” or indicating office hours. But nearly every day, dozens of pickup trucks from all over Gaines County fill the parking lot, squeezing into any available space. (Edwards and Zadrozny, 3/10)

The Washington Post: NIH To Terminate Or Limit Grants Related To Vaccine Hesitancy And Uptake
The National Institutes of Health will cancel or cut back dozens of grants for research on why some people are reluctant to be vaccinated and how to increase acceptance of vaccines, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post on Monday. The email, titled “required terminations — 3/10/25,” shows that on Monday morning, the agency “received a new list … of awards that need to be terminated, today. It has been determined they do not align with NIH funding priorities related to vaccine hesitancy and/or uptake.” (Johnson and Achenbach, 3/10)

NPR: RFK's Claims On Vaccine Advisers' Conflicts Of Interest Don't Check Out
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to purge conflicts of interest from the government agencies he's now in charge of, alleging close ties between employees and the pharmaceutical industry. In his confirmation hearings for the role, he took aim at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee that plays a key role in setting policies around vaccine schedules and access, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. (Huang, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Two Federal Food Safety Panels Get Disbanded, Worrying Advocates
Two federal committees tasked with advising policymakers on food safety have been disbanded as part of the administration’s cost-cutting and government-shrinking goals, according to advocates and one committee member. The elimination of the panels, whose members included experts from academia, industry and nonprofits, has raised alarms among some food-safety advocates, who point to large-scale outbreaks in recent years as a reason for needing even more attention and modern science around the issue. (Heil, 3/10)

Politico: USDA Cancels $1B In Local Food Purchasing For Schools, Food Banks
The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending. Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association. (Brown, 3/10)

Bloomberg: Cargill Says US Can’t Quit Seed Oils Despite RFK Jr.’s Criticism
Cargill Inc. said the US food industry can’t fully replace seed oils as there aren’t enough alternatives in the market. The world’s largest commodities trader said the best substitutes for things like soybean and canola oil make up just a fraction of the total volumes needed by the industry. Science supports the health benefits of oilseeds, said Florian Schattenmann, Cargill’s chief technology officer. (Hirtzer, 3/10)

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Pressed By Farm And Food Groups To Use ‘Sound’ Science
Around 300 groups representing the food and agriculture sectors urged the Trump administration to use “sound, quality science” when seeking to improve the health of American citizens. In a letter to department heads including US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the organizations that represent soybeans to maple syrup said they were eager to share “significant concerns regarding unfounded criticisms levied against the safety of the food and agricultural value chain.” (Chipman, 3/11)

Bloomberg: Trump Partially Blocked From Defunding USAID As Lawsuits Go On
A US judge ordered the Trump administration to undo some of its cuts to billions of dollars in foreign assistance programs through the US Agency for International Development, the latest turn in a legal fight that’s likely to end up at the US Supreme Court. In a ruling Monday, US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington issued a mixed ruling on a an effort by a group of nonprofits to block the spending cuts. The ruling requires USAID to follow through on payments obligations under contracts with groups that provide food and other essential services to people across the globe. (Larson, 3/10)

AP: Secretary Of State Rubio Says Purge Of USAID Programs Complete
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development, cutting 83% of them, and said he would move the remaining aid programs under the State Department. Hours later, a federal judge said President Donald Trump had overstepped his authority in shutting down most foreign assistance, saying the administration could no longer simply sit on the billions of dollars that Congress had provided for foreign aid. (Knickmeyer, 3/11)

AP: Musk Eyes Social Security And Benefit Programs For Cuts
Elon Musk pushed debunked theories about Social Security on Monday while describing federal benefit programs as rife with fraud, suggesting they will be a primary target in his crusade to reduce government spending. The billionaire entrepreneur, who is advising President Donald Trump, suggested that $500 billion to $700 billion in waste needed to be cut. “Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk told the Fox Business Network. “That’s the big one to eliminate.” (Megerian, 3/10)

The War Horse: VA Employees Say Trump, DOGE Cuts Hurt Veterans
For years, his morning routine was as therapeutic as the job he loved: Wake up at 4:30. Run or lift weights by 5 a.m. Then head to the veterans mental health facility where he works in California to help veterans who are struggling after leaving the military — just as he once had. But these days, he says he sleeps through his alarm and wakes up already exhausted, with a pulsing dread in his stomach. The first thing he does is check his email: Does his staff still all have jobs? Does he still have a job? Does his team still exist? (Kehrt, 3/7)

Military.com: Supreme Court Upholds VA Court Decision Not To Review 'Benefit-Of-The-Doubt' Evidence In Veterans' Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against two veterans who argued that their disability claims were unfairly denied because they did not receive favorable decisions when the evidence presented in their cases was equal. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is not required to review the Department of Veterans Affairs' application of the "benefit-of-the-doubt" rule in most decisions. The standard requires the VA to approve veterans' claims when the supporting evidence, either for or against approval, is close. (Kime, 3/10)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Launches DEI Investigation Into 4 Medical Schools, Hospitals
The Health and Human Services Department is investigating four medical schools and hospitals on allegations of discrimination in their medical education, training or scholarship programs. The agency said Friday it received complaints the four HHS-backed institutions, which were not identified, allegedly chose participants based on race, sex, color or national origin, violating an executive order President Donald Trump signed Jan. 21, his second day in office. (DeSilva, 3/10)

The 19th: Hospitals Continuing Intersex Surgeries As They Stop Gender-Affirming Care
For many Americans, planning a doctor’s appointment comes with logistical headaches: taking a day off from work; scheduling months in advance; dealing with insurance coverage and related costs. For Emory Hufbauer, it also involves a seven-hour cross-country flight. Hufbauer is intersex, meaning they were born with sex characteristics that don’t fit neatly into the binary of male or female. As an infant, they were subjected to procedures that assigned them a sex. They have long struggled to find health care needed as a result of these procedures in their state of Kentucky, where they advocate to bring that care and help others navigate it. (Rodriguez and Sosin, 3/10)

CBS News: DOGE Mischaracterizes A Study As Transgender, And USDA Cancels It
Last Friday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated on X that a $600,000 grant to Southern University in Louisiana was being revoked for studying "menstrual cycles in transgender men," in the latest mischaracterization of a grant that was then canceled by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency team, known as DOGE. ... The grant was actually intended for research on the potential health risks posed by synthetic feminine hygiene products and for developing alternatives using natural fibers and fabrics, according to the project's documentation, which was publicly filed on the USDA website. (Ruetenik, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Doctors Say Trump’s Orders Targeting Trans Patients Threaten Their Safety 
Panic buttons, security cameras and active-shooter drills: Those are some of the ways doctors who treat transgender children have armed themselves when facing violent threats over the years. Now doctors say threats of violence are rising — along with fears of legal action — in the wake of Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order that labeled gender transition care for minors a “dangerous trend” and “a stain on our Nation’s history.” Dozens of providers gave sworn affidavits as part of a lawsuit four states filed challenging the legality of Trump’s executive order. (Parks, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Colorado Ban On Conversion Therapy For Minors Gets Supreme Court Review
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a Christian therapist’s challenge to a state law barring “conversion therapy” that attempts to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Kaley Chiles, who practices in Colorado, says the state law banning such treatment is unconstitutional and has forced her to deny counseling to potential clients who share her faith, in violation of her religious beliefs. (Marimow, 3/10)

The New York Times: 3 People Killed In Medical Helicopter Crash In Mississippi 
All three people aboard a medical helicopter were killed when it crashed into a densely wooded area outside Jackson, Miss., on Monday while returning from transporting a patient, hospital officials said. Two of the people were crew members who worked for the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the other was a pilot, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the center’s top administrator, said during a news conference. The helicopter was not carrying any patients at the time of the accident, she added. (Vigdor, 3/10)

St. Louis Public Radio: Time Is Running Out For Homer G Phillips Hospital
The three-bed Homer G. Phillips Memorial Hospital in north St. Louis could soon lose its license for good. The troubled facility closed in December when the state found it didn’t have enough blood on hand. Hospital officials at the time said the closure was temporary but in late February sent many employees emails saying their jobs at the hospital had been eliminated. (Fentem, 3/11)

Modern Healthcare: Mass General Brigham Layoffs To Affect Second Round Of Employees
Mass General Brigham is laying off a second round of employees this week, as part of a restructuring plan announced in February. The organization said last month it would cut management and administrative positions to reduce redundancies and create more efficiency, in response to a projected $250 million budget shortfall in the next couple of years. Local media outlets report the cuts will affect about 1,500 employees, or just under 2% of the workforce, though the system has not confirmed numbers. ( Hudson, 3/10)

Axios: FTC Sues To Block Medical Device Coatings Deal
The Federal Trade Commission under President Trump is making its first move to challenge private equity in health care, by suing to block the $627 million acquisition of a maker of specialized coatings for catheters and other medical devices. It's the first such FTC action around M&A since Trump was sworn in and could signal continued regulatory scrutiny as private equity buys more health care firms. (Bettelheim, 3/10)

ProPublica: National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information On These Topics Without Special Approval
Employees at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, received internal guidance last week to flag manuscripts, presentations or other communications for scrutiny if they addressed “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” topics. Among the 23 hot-button issues, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica: vaccines, fluoride, peanut allergies, autism. While it’s not uncommon for the cancer institute to outline a couple of administration priorities, the scope and scale of the list is unprecedented and highly unusual, said six employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. (Waldman and Song, 3/10)

ProPublica: What A Wrongful Death Lawsuit Reveals About Lincare, America’s Largest Oxygen Provider
Lincare, a giant respiratory-device supplier with a long history of fraud settlements and complaints about dismal service, is facing its latest legal challenge: a lawsuit that claims its failures caused the death of a 27-year-old man with Down syndrome. The case, set to go to trial in state court in St. Louis on March 17, centers on the 2020 death of LeQuon Marquis Vernor, who suffered from severe obstructive sleep apnea and relied on a Lincare-supplied BiPAP machine to help him breathe while sleeping. The lawsuit, filed by his mother, accuses Lincare of negligence after the company took seven days to respond to her report that the device had stopped working. (Elkind, 3/10)

CBS News: More Hospitals Are Treating Patients At Home To Reduce Overcrowding. Here's How It Works
For James Edwards, a 57-year-old patient with congestive heart failure, recovering at home from shortness of breath rather than in a hospital setting was a welcome option. Nurses come to check on him twice a day and monitoring equipment would notify the hospital about any change in vitals. The house calls are part of a mobile medical program that's growing nationally, with Medicare, Medicaid and some private insurance carriers offering coverage for the service. (Strassmann, 3/10)

Fierce Healthcare: 'Medical Gaslighting' Tops Patient Safety Concerns For 2025, ECRI Warns
Clinicians’ increased burdens are making it harder for valid concerns voiced by patients, their families and their caretakers to be acknowledged, raising the risk of missed diagnoses and exacerbated health disparities, the ECRI warned in a new report. An annual ranking of the top 10 patient safety concerns, released Monday by the healthcare quality and safety group and its Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) affiliate, places dismissed concerns above other issues like insufficient artificial intelligence governance and medical misinformation. (Muoio, 3/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: Women Spent $8.8B More Than Men On Medications In 2024: 4 Takeaways
Women in the U.S. continue to pay significantly higher out-of-pocket healthcare costs than men, with a new report from GoodRx showing an $8.8 billion gap in prescription spending in 2024. Here are four takeaways: Women consistently spend 30% more out of pocket on prescriptions than men, totaling $8.5 billion more in 2024 alone. The disparity is driven by higher healthcare utilization, chronic condition management and the costs of female-specific treatments, according to the healthcare technology company's report. (Murphy, 3/10)

The New York Times: Mutated DNA Restored To Normal In Gene Therapy Advance
Researchers have corrected a disease-causing gene mutation with a single infusion carrying a treatment that precisely targeted the errant gene. This was the first time a mutated gene has been restored to normal. The small study of nine patients announced Monday by the company Beam Therapeutics of Cambridge, Mass., involved fixing a spelling error involving the four base sequences — G, A, C and T — in DNA. (Kolata, 3/10)

NPR: Scientists Are Engineering A Sense Of Touch For People Who Are Paralyzed
In 2014, engineering professor Chad Bouton got a lesson on the importance of touch. Bouton, an engineer at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research on Long Island, had developed a brain-computer interface that allowed a man living with paralysis to control one hand. (Hamilton, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Ozempic’s New Frontier: The War On Aging
For decades, scientists have been on the hunt for an antiaging drug. Now, some say we may have already found it. A fast-growing body of research signals potential health benefits of GLP-1s, the class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs known by names like Ozempic, beyond what they were initially approved to treat. That includes age-related conditions like Alzheimer’s, osteoarthritis, certain cancers and even mortality. (Janin, 3/10)

Politico: Thousands Exit CDPAP Ahead Of Transition Deadline
At least 30,000 New Yorkers have switched out of Medicaid’s consumer-directed personal assistance program — or CDPAP — as the deadline approaches for participants to transition to a new system run by financial services company Public Partnerships LLC, POLITICO reports. The data, which is shared by Medicaid managed long-term care plans with the state Department of Health, indicates that more than 10 percent of CDPAP recipients decided in the past two months to switch to personal care services rather than remain in the program. (Carballo, 3/10)

WLRN Public Media: Key West's Only Hospital Seeks A New Operator As Lease Nears Expiration In 2029 
Three additional companies are now vying to run Key West’s only hospital. The Lower Keys Medical Center is operated by Community Health Systems, a Tennessee-based company. But the lease on the hospital is set to expire in 2029. The district board overseeing health infrastructure in the Lower Keys is working to prepare for that. (3/10)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Lawmakers Consider Rollback Of Sperm Donor Disclosure Requirements Adopted In Wake Of Scandals 
The state legislature is considering whether to roll back Colorado’s first-in-the-nation transparency requirements for sperm donors and banks aimed at helping families and donor-conceived children be more informed about their genetic lineage. (Paul, 3/10)

North Carolina Health News: NC Prisons Face Growing Health Care Costs 
The Department of Adult Correction is constitutionally required to provide medical, mental and dental health care to the roughly 31,000 people in North Carolina’s 53 prisons. However, providing this health care comes with a growing price tag, a fiscal analyst told state lawmakers March 4 during a presentation to the Joint Appropriations Committee on Justice and Public Safety. (Crumpler, 3/11)