First Edition: Tuesday, March 18, 2025

KFF Health News: Her Case Changed Trans Care In Prison. Now Trump Aims To Reverse Course
In 2019, Cristina Iglesias filed a lawsuit that changed the course of treatment for herself and other transgender inmates in federal custody. Iglesias, a trans woman who had been incarcerated for more than 25 years, was transferred from a men’s prison to a women’s one in 2021. And in 2022, she reached a landmark settlement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to receive gender-affirming surgery, which the agency said it had never provided for anyone in its custody. (Sable-Smith, 3/18)

KFF Health News: Congressman Blames Trump Team For Ending Telehealth Medicare Benefit. Not Quite Right
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) posted a Tiktok video on Feb. 20 saying he had “breaking news” about the fate of Medicare coverage for telehealth visits, which allow patients to see health care providers remotely from their homes. “Breaking news: The Trump administration just announced that Medicare will stop covering telehealth starting April 1,” Khanna said. “We need to stand up to these Medicare cuts.” (Redfearn, 3/17)

The Hill: Third Challenge Filed To Trump’s Order On Transgender Troops
Two transgender service members are suing the Trump administration over a pair of executive orders targeting transgender Americans and their implementation by the U.S. military. The lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by two transgender men ... argues that President Trump’s executive orders proclaiming the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and barring trans people from serving openly in the military subject transgender service members “to unequal, harmful, and demeaning treatment.” (Migdon, 3/17)

ABC News: Gender-Affirming Care May Lower Depression Risk, Study Finds, But Many Are Losing Access
Transgender adults who received gender-affirming hormone therapy had a significantly lower risk of moderate-to-severe depression over four years compared to those who did not receive such care, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. ... The findings "support the mental health-promoting role of hormones" and their status as "a medically necessary treatment,” said Sari Reisner, an associate professor of epidemiology at University of Michigan School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors. (Gao, 3/17)

Politico: Trump Removes Gun Violence Public Health Advisory
The Department of Health and Human Services recently removed a former surgeon general’s warning declaring gun violence a public health crisis to comply with the president’s executive order to protect Second Amendment rights, according to a White House official. Giffords, the gun violence prevention group founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords, announced on Monday that former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s advisory recognizing gun violence as a public health crisis was wiped from the Department of Health and Human Services’ website. (Friedman, 3/17)

The New York Times: Anti-Abortion Lawyer Pushed Out Of F.D.A. After Republican Senator’s Pressure Campaign 
Hilary Perkins, a career lawyer and a conservative, was targeted by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri for defending the Biden administration’s position on the abortion pill. (Barrett, 3/17)

NBC News: Texas Midwife Arrested And Charged With Performing Illegal Abortions
A midwife in Texas has been arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without the appropriate license. Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, announced the arrest, which he said Monday happened earlier this month, after an investigation by his office. According to Paxton, the midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, 49, is alleged to have owned and operated three health clinics in the northwest area of Houston. In a news release, Paxton accused Rojas of performing abortions in the clinics — which are banned by law in Texas — and of employing people who falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals. The case appears to be the first in which a health care provider in Texas has been criminally charged with performing an abortion since the state’s ban went into effect in 2022. (Bendix and Stelloh, 3/17)

The New York Times: The Women Most Affected By Abortion Bans
Abortion bans successfully prevented some women from getting abortions in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to a detailed new study of birth data from 2023. The effects were most pronounced among women in certain groups — Black and Hispanic women, women without a college degree, and women living farthest from a clinic. (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 3/17)

Stat: Genome Center Director Is Out As Trump NIH Shakeup Continues 
Amid the Trump administration’s reshaping of America’s public health authorities, Eric Green, longtime director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, has abruptly left his role, according to two NHGRI employees with knowledge of the situation and internal communications reviewed by STAT. (Molteni, Oza, Mast, Herper and Lawrence, 3/17)

AP: FDA Staff Return To Crowded Offices, Broken Equipment And Missing Chairs
Thousands of employees returned to the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters Monday to find overflowing parking lots, long security lines and makeshift office spaces without chairs and other basic supplies. The FDA is the latest agency scrambling to meet the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate, part of a flurry of actions — including firings and buyouts — intended to radically shrink the federal workforce. Monday was the first day that all rank-and-file FDA staffers were required to report to offices, including the agency’s 130-acre campus just outside Washington. (Perrone, 3/18)

Stat: Trump Cuts Halt Research On A Top MAHA Chronic Disease Issue
The Trump administration has canceled funding for an ongoing 30-year, nationwide study tracking patients with prediabetes and diabetes, researchers said, at a time when top officials have emphasized their determination to curb the incidence of such chronic conditions. (Chen, 3/17)

Stat: U.S. Aid Cuts Can't Be Replaced By Philanthropy, Global Charity Says
The abrupt withdrawal of U.S. global health funding that many disease control programs and developing countries have long relied on presages a leaner future for the sector, says the head of one of the world’s largest charitable foundations. Charities and other governments will be unable to fill all the gaps left by the Trump administration’s decision to slash aid spending, John-Arne Røttingen, CEO of the Wellcome Trust, told STAT in an interview. (Branswell, 3/18)

NPR: ‘Segregated Facilities’ Are No Longer Explicitly Banned In Federal Contracts
After a recent change by the Trump administration, the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains. The segregation clause is one of several identified in a public memo issued by the General Services Administration last month, affecting all civil federal agencies. (Simmons-Duffin, 3/17)

NBC News: Deported Family Of U.S. Citizen Girl Recovering From Brain Surgery Alleges Civil Rights Abuses
A family that was deported to Mexico is requesting an investigation into abuses they say they faced in U.S. detention, according to a civil rights complaint first obtained by NBC News. The mixed-immigration status family, including four U.S. citizen children, one of whom is a 10-year-old girl recovering from brain surgery, are in an area of Mexico where, they say, they fear for their safety. Since the family was deported, the 10-year-old girl hasn’t been able to get the follow-up care she needs. With the swelling on her brain still not fully gone, she has difficulties with speech and mobility on the right side of her body, her mother said. (Acevedo, 3/17)

Chicago Tribune: Immigrants Scramble As Illinois Considers Health Insurance Cuts
Despite being born with malformed limbs and later giving birth to four children, Francisca avoided going to the doctor as much as possible for about two decades. The 58-year-old Southwest Side resident lacked health insurance, so when she got sick or was in pain she often relied on home remedies. When she had a toothache, she wouldn’t go to the dentist. Nearly two years ago, though, Francisca’s situation changed dramatically. She obtained health coverage through a state program that provides taxpayer-funded insurance to immigrants like her who are in the country without legal permission as well as green card holders who haven’t been in the U.S. long enough to qualify for Medicaid, the traditional health care program for the poor. (Presa and Petrella, 3/17)

Politico: Newsom’s Office Seeks Another $2.8B To Plug Medicaid Gap
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is asking for an extra $2.8 billion immediately for the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, on top of a recently proposed $3.44 billion loan. New budget figures laid out to state lawmakers on Monday showed the state will need to allocate additional funds from the general fund to fully cover Medi-Cal bills through the end of the year, after the loan proposed by the administration last week. (Bluth, 3/17)

The Daily Yonder: GOP Cuts To Medicaid Could Threaten Rural Hospitals 
Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, Colorado, received more than 59,000 patient visits last year. That’s enough to treat everyone in Cortez and surrounding Montezuma County twice. Staff call the small hospital a bedrock of both medical care and the local economy. But warnings that the Republican-controlled federal government might cut Medicaid funding have community members worried about the facility’s future.  (Melotte and Newman, 3/17)

Becker's Hospital Review: Work Requirements Could Strip 5M People Of Medicaid
The potential implementation of federal Medicaid work requirements poses a serious threat to healthcare access for millions of Americans. An analysis published March 17 by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation warns that up to 5 million adults could lose their Medicaid coverage by 2026 — not because they fail to meet work criteria, but due to bureaucratic hurdles and reporting challenges. (Condon, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Better Medicare Alliance Ads Call For No Medicare Advantage Cuts
Better Medicare Alliance continued its pressure on the Trump administration to protect Medicare Advantage, releasing a third ad Monday in its campaign targeting the Washington, D.C., area. The advocacy group's 30-second spot, part of a seven-figure campaign, features testimonials from seniors about their reliance on Medicare Advantage. It will run on connected TV, online news sites, social media platforms and podcasts. The alliance is a coalition of insurers, providers, patient advocates and business groups. (DeSilva, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: CMS' TEAM Motivates Nursing Homes To Prep For 2026 Launch
Post-acute providers are eager to show hospitals how they can help with a Medicare payment demonstration model that goes into effect early next year. Compassus, Elara Caring, ArchCare and other post-acute providers said careful coordination of patient care from the hospital through the post-acute system is essential for hospitals to succeed in the Transforming Episode Accountability Model, or TEAM. (Eastabrook, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Sharon Regional Medical Center To Reopen Following Steward Sale
Sharon Regional Medical Center is set to reopen Tuesday, about two months after the former Steward Health Care facility in Pennsylvania closed. On Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health approved Pasadena, California-based Tenor Health Foundation’s plans to reopen the 163-bed hospital. In January, Judge Christopher Lopez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston signed off on the hospital management company’s takeover of the facility, which employed more than 800 workers. (Kacik, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Scripps Health To Build $1.2B Outpatient, Hospital Campus
Scripps Health plans to build a $1.2 billion medical campus that will include a 200- to 250-bed hospital and outpatient facilities. The San Diego-based health system’s board last week approved the 13-acre development in San Marcos, California. The first phase of the project will feature space for specialty and primary care offices, ambulatory surgery, cancer care, imaging, lab and other services, and the second phase includes the hospital, according to a Monday news release. (Kacik, 3/17)

Stat: Plan To Save Rural Hospitals Is Underused, Comes With Complications 
When Ted Matthews came out of retirement in early 2023 to retake the helm of the rural Texas hospital where he’d started his health care career, it was something of a rescue mission. They were having bake sales to keep the place afloat. Staff were updating their resumes. At every board meeting, they’d decide which bills to pay. (Bannow, 3/18)

The Boston Globe: After A Big Donor Sought Care From A Dana-Farber Doctor, Things Went Awry
Day or night, Marc Cohen, a major donor to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, had a direct line to one of its leading oncologists. No question was too big or too small, and almost no hour was off limits for a consultation. Cohen and Dr. Kenneth C. Anderson exchanged hundreds of emails and texts over two decades about Cohen’s disease, multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer that is Anderson’s specialty. It was no problem for the physician to pause a Sunday morning walk with his wife to weigh in on test results, respond to a 5:50 a.m. email on a Saturday to suggest medication for insomnia-inducing leg pain or jump on the phone at short notice. (Kowalczyk, 3/17)

The New York Times: Digital Therapists Get Stressed Too, Study Finds
Even chatbots get the blues. According to a new study, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT shows signs of anxiety when its users share “traumatic narratives” about crime, war or car accidents. And when chatbots get stressed out, they are less likely to be useful in therapeutic settings with people. The bot’s anxiety levels can be brought down, however, with the same mindfulness exercises that have been shown to work on humans. (Nazaryan, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare Launches New Editions Of Mac-Lab, CardioLab Systems
GE HealthCare launched new editions of its Mac-Lab, CardioLab and ComboLab cardiac procedure recording systems on Monday. The AltiX AI.i editions of the systems received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration and are designed to improve the user experience and the workflow in the cardiac catheterization lab, the company said. It also is meant to provide support for complex electrophysiology procedures. (Dubinsky, 3/17)

Fierce Healthcare: OrganOx, ProCure Partner To Expand Access To Organ Transplant Tech
OrganOx, maker of a device to preserve liver donations, has teamed up with ProCure On-Demand, an organ recovery services provider. The partnership aims to improve the recovery and assessment of donor livers for transplantation by leveraging OrganOx’s normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) technology and ProCure’s solutions. ProCure offers surgical, preservation and logistics services to transplant centers and organ procurement organizations. (Gliadkovskaya, 3/17)

MedPage Today: Hair Loss: Another Wegovy Side Effect?
A preprint study suggested that GLP-1 receptor agonists may be associated with hair loss, though only in women. Using a random sample of 16 million patients, researchers found that women who newly initiated semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) had a twofold higher risk of hair loss than those starting on the weight-loss drug bupropion-naltrexone (Contrave). (Monaco, 3/17)

The Hill: Mississippi Reports First Outbreak Of Highly Pathogenic Bird Flu Strain In US Since 2017
Mississippi state and federal officials have confirmed an outbreak of a strain of bird flu not reported in the U.S. since 2017, with quarantine and depopulation efforts already underway. In a statement released March 12, the Mississippi Board of Animal Health stated that poultry from a commercial broiler breeder chicken flock in Noxubee County had tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). (Choi, 3/17)

The Boston Globe: Federal Funding Cuts Threaten Gains In Springfield, The ‘Asthma Capital’ Of The US
It was a damning nickname: Springfield, the 2018 asthma capital of the United States. And the challenge was daunting. How exactly could leaders fix a problem caused by a chronic condition that cannot be cured? But over the past seven years, Springfield has made a concerted effort to help manage people’s asthma, using a mix of state and federal funding to, among other initiatives, develop a widespread air monitoring system and remodel older homes prone to excess indoor pollutants. Though struggles remain, it hasn’t been the asthma capital since. (Jimenez, 3/17)

Colorado Public Radio: Colorado Lawmakers May Route License Plate Revenue Away From The Disabled
Over the past few years, Colorado has started to reissue a number of historic license plate designs in solid red, blue, or black, as well as green mountains on a white background. To get them, car owners must pay a $25 upfront fee, plus an annual $25 fee. The money goes to support programs for people with disabilities. (Birkeland, 3/18)

CBS News: Minnesota Republicans' Bill To Define "Trump Derangement Syndrome" As Mental Illness Provokes Backlash
The bill's authors define, in the bill's wording, the syndrome as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump," and go further to argue that it "produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump's behavior." (Henderson and Cummings, 3/17)

Axios: Exclusive: Teachers Increasingly Worried About Childhood Hunger, Survey Finds
Teachers across the country are growing increasingly worried about childhood hunger, with three-quarters reporting students come to school hungry, a nationally representative survey of U.S. teachers found. Proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal food assistance program serving more than 41 million Americans, could exacerbate an already dire issue, experts say. (Habeshian, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Your Grass-Fed Burger Isn’t Better For The Planet, New Study Finds
For years, ranchers and some conservationists have argued that grass-fed beef is better for the planet than conventional cattle. But a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges that idea, finding that cattle raised only on pastures do not have a smaller carbon footprint than feedlot cattle, which are quickly fattened on corn and other grains. (Phillips, 3/17)