First Edition: Tuesday, March 31, 2026

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: States Pay Deloitte, Others Millions To Comply With Trump Law To Cut Medicaid Rolls
States are paying contractors such as Deloitte, Accenture, and Optum millions of dollars to help them comply with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a law that will strip safety-net health and food benefits from millions. State governments rely on such companies to design and operate computer systems that assess whether low-income people qualify for Medicaid or food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps. Those state systems have a history of errors that can cut off benefits to eligible people, a KFF Health News investigation showed. (Liss and Pradhan, 3/31)

KFF Health News: Trump’s Hunt For Undocumented Medicaid Enrollees Yields Few Violators
Last August, as part of the federal government’s crackdown on people in the country illegally, the Trump administration sent states the names of hundreds of thousands of Medicaid enrollees with orders to determine whether they were ineligible based on immigration status. But seven months later, findings from five states shared with KFF Health News show that the reviews have uncovered little evidence of a widespread problem. (Galewitz, 3/31)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

Bloomberg: Obamacare Health Plans Cost Over $6,000 This Year For Twice As Many People
The share of Affordable Care Act insurance customers in plans that cost more than $6,000 a year doubled, a sign of the squeeze on household budgets after Congress let Covid-era assistance expire. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted data late Friday on ACA plans, also called Obamacare, that showed total enrollment this year dipping by about 5% to 23.1 million. That figure doesn’t yet count people who still may drop off plans because they can’t pay premiums, so the decline is expected to deepen. (Tozzi, 3/30)

Miami Herald: Meals, Mortgage Or Medicine? Floridians On Obamacare Are Facing Tough Choices
The new year brought Kellie Brvenik a choice. She could pay to keep her cancer at bay, or cover life’s other necessities, like food and her mortgage. Brvenik, 44, was diagnosed in 2024 with leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. A property manager in Lake Worth Beach, she stayed at work through 10 weeks of radiation, “until it became unbearable,” and she’s since lived off a $1,952 monthly disability check. (Klaver, 3/31)

MedPage Today: 8 Million People At Risk Of Losing Medicaid Under Work Mandate
More than 8 million people will be at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage once the Medicaid work requirement passed as part of last year's reconciliation bill is fully implemented by the states, a study found. Among a population of 16.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries ages 19 to 64, 50.4% of enrollees, or 8.3 million, would be at risk of disenrollment because they worked too few hours, Rishi Wadhera, MD, of the Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues reported in a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine. (Frieden, 3/30)

The Colorado Sun: Head Of Colorado’s Medicaid Program Resigns As State Senate Was Preparing To Take “No Confidence” Vote
The head of the Colorado agency overseeing the state’s Medicaid program abruptly announced her resignation Monday as the state Senate was preparing to debate a resolution of no confidence in her. (Paul, Ingold and Brown, 3/30)

Stat: HSA Firms Boost Lobbying To Cash In On Trump's Great Healthcare Plan 
Sellers of health savings accounts see an opening for expanding their market, and they’re ramping up lobbying efforts to seize the opportunity. (Wilkerson, 3/31)

Healthcare Dive: Tech Nonprofit Sues CMS Over Medicare AI Prior Authorization Pilot 
A digital and privacy rights nonprofit is suing the CMS in an attempt to get more information on the agency’s pilot program that uses artificial intelligence to manage prior authorization requests in Medicare. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues the CMS has not responded to a Freedom of Information Act request it submitted relating to the technology companies participating in the pilot and any evaluations on accuracy, bias or hallucinations in their technology.  (Olsen, 3/30)

IMMIGRATION CRISIS

The New York Times: Mexico Pressures U.S. Over Deaths Of Its Citizens In ICE Custody 
The government of Mexico on Monday condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and voiced concerns about the deaths of its citizens in immigration detention facilities in the United States. Top Mexican officials on Monday, including President Claudia Sheinbaum and diplomats in Los Angeles, vowed to take legal steps to pressure the Trump administration over conditions in detention facilities, including what lawyers and detainees have described as poor drinking water and inadequate medical care. (Arango, Ulloa and McCann, 3/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Private Health Data Still Being Given To ICE, California Says
The Trump administration has defied a federal judge’s order by sharing private information, including street addresses, of millions of low-income Americans with immigration officers who are conducting mass deportations, California and other states say in a court filing. The Trump administration doesn’t appear to be denying it. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco issued an injunction last August ordering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop providing data about recipients of Medicaid to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. (Egelko, 3/30)

WUSF: Terminating Protections For Haitians Could Deal A Blow To Elder Care In Florida 
Florida has the largest population of Haitian TPS holders. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on whether they can continue to live and work in the U.S. will impact the state's caretaking industry. (Guan, 3/31)

Harvest Public Media: Immigrants Lose Access To Food Aid, As Federal Rule Change Takes Effect 
Recent changes to federal food aid mean some immigrants have been cut off from grocery assistance payments. Refugees, asylum seekers and human trafficking survivors without a green card are among the noncitizen groups who are no longer eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” (Pope, 3/30)

'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN'

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Takes His Eat-Real-Food Campaign To Hospital Trays
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is asking hospitals to use his revamped food pyramid to redo their food menus offered to patients, regulators announced on Monday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a memo to hospitals asking them to limit ultra-processed food options for patients, though there’s no formal definition for exactly what that means. Instead the agency wants hospitals to transition to serving whole grains, eliminate sugary drinks and ensure meals have less than 10 grams of added sugar. (Cohrs Zhang, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: New Heart Association Diet Advice Contradicts Government Recommendations
New nutrition guidance from the American Heart Association advises getting protein from plants rather than meat, choosing low-fat or fat-free dairy and using olive, soybean and canola oils instead of beef tallow and butter. The recommendations, released Tuesday by the association, contrast with dietary guidelines that the Trump administration introduced earlier this year. (Petersen and McKay, 3/31)

The Hill: Most Say Donald Trump Administration Has Not Done Enough To 'Make America Healthy Again': Survey
Most Americans say the Trump administration has not done enough to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), according to a Monday poll. In the Politico poll, 52 percent of respondents said the administration “has not done enough to Make America Healthy Again,” while 26 percent said the opposite. Twenty-two percent of respondents said they were unsure if the administration has done enough in alignment with MAHA. (Suter, 3/30)

The Washington Post: White House Reaffirms Backing Means As Surgeon General After Trump Remarks
The Trump administration threw its support behind Casey Means for surgeon general a day after President Donald Trump injected uncertainty into her nomination, which has been stalled in the Senate. The president Sunday night on Air Force One said he didn’t know how she was doing in the confirmation process, noting that he was more focused on Iran. But he added, “We have a lot of great candidates for” surgeon general. (Weber and Roubein, 3/30)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

AP: Florida Hospital Drops Lawsuit After Patient Who Refused To Vacate Room Finally Leaves
A Florida hospital has dropped its lawsuit seeking to evict a patient who refused to vacate a room for months after she was discharged because, the hospital said, she finally left. Tallahassee Memorial Hospital filed the lawsuit this month requesting an injunction to force the woman to leave room 373 and authorizing the county sheriff’s office to assist if necessary. She was officially discharged from the hospital in early October. A hearing had been scheduled for Monday, but was canceled after the hospital filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with prejudice. (3/30)

River City Journalism Fund: What’s The Future Of A St. Louis Hospital ‘Gradually Stripped’ For Parts? 
Kathy Cash walks down Miami Street with her chiweenie Charley Joe in her arms. In a hurry to cross Jefferson Avenue, she still makes time to comment on the looming empty medical complex beside her. “I think it needs to be turned into housing for the homeless,” she says. “The city does nothing but make people complacent and comfortable while [others] are homeless.” She doesn’t use any of its recent titles — South City Hospital, SouthPointe, or St. Alexius — but its original, Lutheran Hospital. (Frommelt, 3/30)

Modern Healthcare: Sage Health Gets $50M Investment From Trinity Capital
Primary care provider Sage Health is looking to double its footprint with a $50 million capital infusion from asset management firm Trinity Capital. Sage founder and CEO John Haskell said the provider plans to open about 11 health centers for Medicare-eligible seniors in multiple states in 2027. Founded in 2022, Sage operates 11 centers in Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland and Mississippi. Haskell said Sage is eyeing underserved markets with high senior populations and is planning to expand into more states. (Hudson, 3/30)

Minnesota Public Radio: Family Of Man Killed At St. Peter Psychiatric Hospital Sues State 
The family of a man killed at a state psychiatric hospital by a fellow patient alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that staff ignored warning signs and allowed the alleged killer to play a violent video game shortly before the attack, in violation of hospital rules. (Sepic, 3/30)

Stat: Why This Stanford Psychiatrist Thinks Diet Influences Mental Health
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made waves in February when he opined that changing your diet can “cure” schizophrenia. His comment sparked a wave of backlash from researchers who called the secretary’s remarks “unfounded.” While the current scientific consensus suggests that schizophrenia cannot be cured through diet, Kennedy’s interests in nutrition and diet as tools to treat mental illness are shared by some researchers and clinicians eager to find alternatives for conditions like schizophrenia that lack good treatment options. (Broderick, 3/30)

PHARMACEUTICALS

Modern Healthcare: FTC-Express Scripts PBM Deal Making Matters Worse, Pharmacies Say
A settlement between Express Scripts and the Federal Trade Commission designed to curb anticompetitive business practices may counterintuitively have the opposite effect, pharmacies warn. In February, Cigna division Express Scripts agreed to a series of changes to resolve a federal lawsuit alleging the pharmacy benefit manager inflated insulin prices. The settlement, Express Scripts’ pledged shift to a rebate-free model, and other actions by lawmakers and regulators were viewed by some as positive developments that would foster equitable and transparent practices. (Tong, 3/30)

Bloomberg: CVS To Open More Stores In 2026 Than It Shuts In Retail Turnaround
CVS Health Corp. plans to open more pharmacies than it closes in 2026, marking the end of a four-year contraction for the largest American retail pharmacy chain. CVS will open about 60 stores this year, including nearly 20 small pharmacy-only sites, spokesperson Amy Thibault said. The company will also close a few dozen locations, she said. (Swetlitz, 3/30)

Stat: Doctors Without Borders Calls Gilead 'Unconscionable' For Refusing To Sell HIV Prevention Drug To Organization 
In the latest dustup over a groundbreaking HIV prevention medicine, Doctors Without Borders has harshly criticized the manufacturer for refusing to sell its treatment directly to humanitarian organizations. (Silverman, 3/30)

Bloomberg: Review Challenges Claims That E-Cigarettes Are Safer Than Smoking
E-cigarettes are likely to cause cancer, including in the lungs and mouth, according to a sweeping review of scientific evidence that challenges their positioning as a safer alternative to smoking. Published Monday in the journal Carcinogenesis, the review concludes that nicotine-based vapes are “likely to be carcinogenic to humans,” even though long-term population studies are still lacking. (Gale, 3/30)

CNN: Beta-Blockers Are Often A Lifelong Medicine After A Heart Attack – But Maybe They Shouldn’t Be 
For decades, surviving a heart attack has come with a lifelong prescription: Stay on medications called beta-blockers to help protect your heart. But doctors are taking a closer look at whether long-term beta-blocker use is really necessary, especially beyond the first year of recovery. (Howard, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Should You Take A Statin? A 10-Minute Scan Can Help You Decide
Measuring cholesterol levels has long been the main way doctors assess the risk of heart disease. Increasingly, people are opting, too, for a simple, relatively affordable test: a coronary artery calcium scan, or CAC. The tests recently got a boost from influential clinical guidelines issued earlier this month by leading cardiology groups. These guidelines also included, for the first time, recommended levels of LDL—known as low-density lipoprotein or “bad” cholesterol—based on calcium scores from the scans. (Reddy, 3/30)

MedPage Today: GLP-1 Drugs Pick Up Another Win, This Time In Psoriatic Arthritis
Adding a GLP-1 agonist to psoriasis medication significantly improved outcomes in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and overweight or obesity, a phase III randomized trial showed. (Bankhead, 3/30)

LGBTQ+ HEALTH CARE

AP: Justice Department Targets Minnesota In Transgender Athletes Lawsuit
The Trump administration sued Minnesota and its school athletics governing body on Monday, carrying out a threat to punish the state for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. The lawsuit is part of a broader fight over the rights of transgender youth. More than two dozen states have laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports and some have barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Courts have blocked some of those policies. (Karnowski, 3/30)

The Colorado Sun: Gender-Affirming Care Still Suspended At Children's Hospital Colorado
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Oregon said he would strike down a declaration from President Donald Trump’s administration targeting gender-affirming care for transgender youth, as well as hospitals that provide such care. The ruling was, at first glance, a win for supporters of transgender rights and hospitals. But Children’s Hospital Colorado still has not resumed providing gender-affirming care, which it suspended earlier this year in the face of mounting federal threats. (Ingold, 3/30)

Montana Free Press: What To Know About Montana's New Law Defining Sex As Only Male Or Female
Nearly a year after it passed the Legislature, Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill Tuesday defining sex as binary, based on a person’s reproductive system. The move officially amends wide ranging sections of Montana law to include new definitions of “male,” “female,” “sex,” and “gender.” Senate Bill 437 is largely similar to a 2023 law that was declared unconstitutional twice — first in June 2024, because its subject wasn’t clear in its title, and second in February 2025 because a judge found it violated the equal protections clause of the Montana Constitution. (Fairbanks, 3/30)

STATE WATCH

Bridge Michigan: ‘Extreme Shortage’ Of Paramedics, EMTs In Rural Michigan
Paramedics and emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, face a harsh reality in Michigan — shrinking revenue has left emergency medical service agencies grappling with multiple financial issues at once, with staffing being their top expense. Despite the state investing millions of dollars in grants to train workers, staff shortages that began at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to strain EMS agencies, especially in rural communities. (Newman, 3/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco ‘Orgasmic Meditation’ Founder Gets 9 Years
The founder of a San Francisco company that built a national following around “orgasmic meditation” was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison, after a jury convicted her last year in a forced labor conspiracy case. Nicole Daedone, 58, the founder of OneTaste, was also ordered to forfeit $12 million. Seven victims were awarded about $890,000 in restitution, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said. (Vaziri, 3/30)

The Texas Tribune: Federal Trial Over Insufficient AC In Texas Prisons Starts
There were allegedly five heat-related deaths over the last two summers in Texas prisons, the plaintiff’s attorneys presented on the first day of the federal trial over insufficient air conditioning in these facilities. (Nguyen, 3/30)

NBC News: 15-Year-Old Texas Student Shoots Teacher At High School And Then Kills Himself
A student shot a teacher Monday morning at a Texas high school before fatally shooting himself, law enforcement said. The teacher at Hill Country College Preparatory High School was hospitalized and the student, a 15-year-old boy, died at the scene, the Comal County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. (Burke and Romero, 3/30)

KBIA: State Warns Of Nitazene, A New Highly Potent Opioid Found In Missouri 
Multiple state agencies put out a warning this month about a potent new opioid that appears to be increasingly prevalent in the state — nitazene. The Department of Public Safety, the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education and the Department of Mental Health wrote in their alert that nitazene can be 5 to 10 times more potent than fentanyl. (Smith, 3/30)

The Baltimore Sun: How VR Is Helping Marylanders With Autism And Down Syndrome Master Life Skills
Virtual reality headsets like the Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR 2 and HTC Vive have long been tied to gaming, covering users’ eyes with high-resolution screens and delivering immersive, interactive worlds to explore and problem-solve. Now, a pioneering study by the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Silver Spring uses that same technology to help young people with Down syndrome and autism practice life skills and learn through experience. (Hille, 3/30)

PUBLIC HEALTH

AP: About 100 Toxic Superfund Sites Vulnerable To Flooding, Storms, Wildfires
About 100 of the nation’s most contaminated toxic waste sites are in areas prone to flooding and wildfires, a potential public health threat to millions of Americans in surrounding communities, the internal watchdog at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found. The EPA’s Office of Inspector General issued two new reports last week that are part of a series assessing the weather-related vulnerabilities of the 157 federal Superfund sites prioritized for cleanup due to the serious risk they pose to public health and the environment. About 3 million Americans live within a mile of a Superfund site, while 13 million people live within 3 miles (4.8 kilometers). (Biesecker and Dearen, 3/30)

AP: Judge Hears Challenges To Vermont's Climate Superfund Law
Vermont’s effort to make fossil fuel companies pay for damage caused by climate change was tested Monday in a federal courtroom, where the state argued that two lawsuits challenging its groundbreaking 2024 law should be thrown out. Vermont became the first state to enact a climate superfund law, modeled on the federal superfund law that taxed petroleum and chemical companies to pay to clean up sites polluted by toxic waste. (Ramer and McDermott, 3/31)

Stat: Lead Exposure Plays Little-Noticed Role In Cardiovascular Deaths 
Lead may be out of gasoline and paint but it’s not out of our hearts. Physicians and patients alike may assume that lead poisoning is a relic of the past, with the notable exceptions of contaminated water plaguing people in Flint, Mich., or Milwaukee in recent years. A new study analyzing lead levels in bones reminds us that lead lingers in the body for a lifetime, including in the heart’s vital arteries, where it can elevate blood pressure, injure the lining of blood vessels, and raise risk of death from heart attacks. (Cooney, 3/30)

CNN: A Common Plastic Toxin May Be Linked To Infant Deaths And Prematurity, Study Says 
Two chemicals used to make plastic more flexible are linked to nearly 2 million premature births and the deaths of 74,000 newborns worldwide in 2018, according to a new study. (LaMotte, 3/31)

CIDRAP: Big Decline In Syphilis Seen After Introduction Of DoxyPEP
Syphilis diagnoses declined dramatically in the Seattle area following implementation of doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP), researchers reported last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 3/30)

CIDRAP: Tpoxx Should No Longer Be Used To Treat Mpox, European Drug Regulators Say
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is recommending that the antiviral drug tecovirimat (Tpoxx) no longer be used for treating mpox. The recommendation, made by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, is based on four studies that have found that Tpoxx was no better than a placebo to heal active mpox lesions, relieve pain, or help clear the virus faster. (Dall, 3/30)

CIDRAP: Ebola Virus May Linger In Breast Milk For Weeks After Recovery
The Ebola virus (EBOV) might persist in breast milk for weeks after maternal recovery, according to a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings raise the possibility of post-illness transmission to infants, even as blood tests and other measures of viral load are negative. (Bergeson, 3/30)