First Edition: Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024

KFF Health News: Patient Underwent One Surgery But Was Billed For Two. Even After Being Sued, She Refused To Pay
Jamie Holmes says a surgery center tried to make her pay for two operations after she underwent only one. She refused to buckle, even after a collection agency sued her last winter. Holmes, who lives in northwestern Washington state, had surgery in 2019 to have her fallopian tubes tied, a permanent birth-control procedure that her insurance company agreed ahead of time to cover. (Leys, 8/21)

KFF Health News: Cautious Optimism In San Francisco As New Cases Of HIV In Latinos Decrease
For years, Latinos represented the biggest share of new HIV cases in this city, but testing data suggests the tide may be turning. The number of Latinos newly testing positive for HIV dropped 46% from 2022 to 2023, according to a preliminary report released in July by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The decrease could mark the first time in five years that Latinos haven’t accounted for the largest number of new cases, leading to cautious optimism that the millions of dollars the city has spent to remedy the troubling disparity is working. (Sánchez, 8/21)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
“Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KFF Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week. (8/20)

AP: Voters In Arizona And Montana Can Decide On Constitutional Right To Abortion 
Voters in Arizona and Montana will be able to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in their state constitutions. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 200-word summary that abortion advocates used to collect signatures for a ballot measure is valid, clearing the way for the issue to remain on the ballot. Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen on Tuesday certified Montana’s constitutional initiative for the November ballot. Under both measures, abortions would be allowed until fetal viability — the point at which a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks. (Govindarao and Hanson, 8/21)

Politico: Trump Says He Would Not Enforce Comstock Act, Angering Anti-Abortion Groups
Former President Donald Trump gave his clearest answer to date on the federal regulation of abortion pills, and it’s not what conservatives wanted to hear. After months of avoiding specifics, Trump told CBS News on Monday that he would not use the 150-year-old Comstock Act to ban mail delivery of the drugs if elected in November, adding: “The federal government should have nothing to do with this issue.” Many prominent conservatives and anti-abortion activists were outraged by the remark, calling it “nonsensical” and “cowardly,” and warning that it could dampen turnout and enthusiasm on the right heading into a close election. (Ollstein, 8/20)

The Hill: Kamala Harris Blasts Donald Trump Over Roe V. Wade Comments
Vice President Harris on Tuesday ripped former President Trump for comments in a new interview in which he said he had no regrets about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Harris rallied thousands of supporters in Milwaukee, roughly 90 miles up the road from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where she seized on comments Trump made to CBS News a day earlier. “Yesterday, when he was asked if he had any regrets about ending Roe v. Wade, Donald Trump – without even a moment’s hesitation, you would think he would reflect on it for a second – said no. No regrets,” Harris said. Trump told CBS News the issue of abortion should be handled by the states and suggested people were “very happy about it.” (Samuels, 8/20)

The Hill: Kate Cox Says 'Nothing Pro Family About Abortion Bans' At DNC Appearance
Kate Cox, the Texas woman who fled the state to receive an abortion, made a brief appearance during the Democratic National Convention’s ceremonial roll call Tuesday to voice her support for Vice President Harris and warn of former President Trump’s risk to abortion rights. “I’m Kate Cox and I love being a mom. I have two beautiful children, and my husband and I have always wanted a third but when I got pregnant, doctors told us our baby would never survive, and if I didn’t need an abortion, it would put a future pregnancy at risk,” Cox said during the roll call for Texas Tuesday night. “But Trump didn’t care and because of his abortion bans and I had to flee my home,” she continued. “There’s nothing pro family about abortion bans. There’s nothing pro-life about letting women suffer and even die today because I found a way to access abortion care.” (Nazzaro, 8/20)

Politico: Tammy Duckworth Uses Her IVF Story To Slam Republicans 
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth has been public about her fertility struggles and her decision to conceive her two daughters through in vitro fertilization. But on Tuesday night, Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in a 2004 rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq, put it in the starkest of terms as she sought to frame the far-reaching consequences of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade two years ago. "My struggle with infertility was more painful than any wound I earned on the battle field," Duckworth said. (Messerly, 8/20)

Politico: Michelle Lujan Grisham Boosts Kamala Harris’ Record On Health Care 
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham knows health care. She's a former state health secretary, after all, whose name was once floated as a potential Health and Human Services secretary under Joe Biden. Now, she's using her credentials to boost Vice President Kamala Harris' profile on health care issues. Lujan Grisham said on the convention floor Tuesday evening that Harris took on drug companies that "jacked up prices" and hospitals that "overcharged patients," voted "hell no" on repealing the Affordable Care Act and cast the tie-breaking vote on legislation that capped insulin costs at $35 for Medicare beneficiaries. (Messerly, 8/20)

Politico: What, No More 'Obamacare'?
Former President Barack Obama spent much of his Tuesday remarks talking up the reasons Kamala Harris should win. But he did take a moment to remind Democrats gathered in the United Center about his signature domestic achievement: the Affordable Care Act. “We should all be proud of the enormous progress that we've made through the Affordable Care Act providing millions of people access to affordable coverage, protecting millions more from unscrupulous insurance practices and notice,” Obama said. Then he pointed out it's no longer referred to by its old nickname: “I’ve noticed, by the way, that since it's become popular, they don't call it Obamacare no more.” (Booker, 8/20)

Stat: Lilly’s Zepbound Slashed Risk Of Developing Diabetes
Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound significantly cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, showing the benefits of long-term use of the blockbuster therapy. In a Phase 3 trial that lasted over three years, people with pre-diabetes taking Zepbound had a 93% lower risk of progressing to diabetes compared with people on placebo, Lilly said Tuesday. The company did not report absolute risk rates. (Chen, 8/20)

The New York Times: Eating Meat Is Linked With Type 2 Diabetes, New Studies Suggest 
For sausage, salami and steak lovers, the news has not been good. Scientists have been consistently finding links between red and processed meat consumption and heart disease, some types of cancer and earlier death. And now, two recent studies have added to the growing body of evidence that a meat-heavy diet may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes. (Callahan, 8/20)

Reuters: J&J's Chemotherapy-Free Treatment For Lung Cancer Gets US Approval 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Johnson & Johnson's chemotherapy-free combination treatment for a type of non-small cell lung cancer, setting up a challenge for AstraZeneca's blockbuster drug Tagrisso. The approval allows the use of the cancer drug, Rybrevant, in combination with J&J's existing drug, lazertinib, as a first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a mutated form of a gene called EGFR. NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer. (Satija and Santhosh, 8/20)

Reuters: J&J To Buy Medical Device Maker V-Wave For Up To $1.7 Bln
Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it would buy privately held V-Wave for up to $1.7 billion, the healthcare conglomerate's second deal this year aimed at boosting its presence in the market for heart disease devices. J&J said it will pay $600 million upfront, with potential payments of up to $1.1 billion contingent on regulatory and commercial milestones. (8/20)

Reuters: Tylenol ADHD Lawsuits Cannot Go Forward, Judge Rules 
Plaintiffs claiming that Kenvue's popular painkiller Tylenol causes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the children of mothers who took it while pregnant have lost a last ditch bid to revive their claims after a judge rejected their last remaining expert witness. (Pierson, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Gene Therapy, GLP-1 Costs To Drive Up Employer Costs For 2025
Employers are bracing for the largest surge in healthcare costs in more than a decade as pharmacy spending is expected to continue accelerating next year. Growing demand for pricey medications, including glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, cancer treatments, and cell and gene therapies, has employers budgeting for a 7.8% increase in healthcare costs in 2025, according to the Business Group on Health’s annual survey, published Tuesday. (Berryman, 8/20)

Axios: Congress Probes Pharma Work With Chinese Military
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is scrutinizing hundreds of clinical trials they say U.S. drug companies conducted with medical centers connected to China's military over the last decade. (Goldman, 8/21)

Modern Healthcare: FTC's Noncompete Ban Blocked By Federal Judge
The Federal Trade Commission does not have authority to enact its ban on noncompete agreements, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Ada Brown wrote the FTC's near-total ban is "unreasonably overbroad without a reasonable explanation," siding with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and tax firm Ryan LLC. Many healthcare organizations include noncompete agreements in employment contracts. (Hudson, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Steward Health: Medical Properties Interfered With Asset Sales
Steward Health Care filed a complaint Monday alleging Medical Properties Trust is interfering in its efforts to sell off assets, which the landlord denies. In Monday's complaint, Steward alleged Medical Properties Trust has undermined the bankruptcy sales process by talking to bidders without Steward's consent and pressuring bidders to allocate too much value to the landlord's real estate. (Hudson, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Epic's Judy Faulkner Debuts New Prior Authorization, AI Features
Epic is planning to deepen its relationships with health insurance companies, the electronic health record giant said at its annual user group meeting Tuesday. The EHR company is working with health systems and large insurers such as CVS Health subsidiary Aetna, Elevance Health and multiple Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to streamline prior authorization requests and ease provider appeals to payers, Epic founder and CEO Judy Faulkner said during a keynote address. (Turner, 8/20)

Jacksonville Today/WJCT: Patients Wait As Baptist Health And Florida Blue Squabble Over Costs
A struggle between Northeast Florida’s largest health care system and its largest health insurance provider has left tens of thousands of people with uncertainty about their future health care. The three-year hospital-insurer agreement between Baptist Health and Florida Blue will expire Sept. 30. If the two do not come to a new agreement, as many as 50,000 people will be forced to find medical solutions or pay for out-of-network costs to use certain Baptist facilities, physicians or services. (Brown, 8/20)

WUSF: 'Medical Freedom' Candidates Lose Out In Sarasota Hospital Board Primary
All four candidates who pushed for "medical freedom" platforms and were critical of Sarasota Memorial Hospital have lost to Republican opponents in a primary race for the county's public hospital board seats on Tuesday. (Colombini, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Interim HealthCare Names Rexanne Domico As President, COO
Home health services company Interim HealthCare has tapped Rexanne Domico as its president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. Interim HealthCare provides home health, non-medical home care, hospice and medical staffing services across 42 states. Domico will oversee operations of Interim’s more than 300 franchise locations and its clinical, quality, operations excellence, and growth and development divisions, a company spokesperson said Tuesday. (Eastabrook, 8/20)

Reuters: New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Forgives $100 Mln In Medical Debt 
Nearly 50,000 people in New Jersey will have $100 million in medical debt erased, Governor Phil Murphy said on Tuesday, in one of the largest cases of a state providing direct relief to people unable to pay medical bills. Murphy allocated $550,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds and partnered with Undue Medical Debt, a non-profit that buys unpaid medical bills from hospitals at a discount, to execute the one-time debt abolishment. (Cui, 8/20)

CIDRAP: Georgia Reports Another Measles Case As Oregon Outbreak Hits 30
The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) yesterday reported a measles infection in an Atlanta resident who wasn't fully vaccinated, marking the state's fifth case of the year, according to a statement. The DPH said the patient was exposed to the virus during international travel, adding that it is working to identify people who had contact with the patient during the infectious period. (Schnirring, 8/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Valley Fever Cases Rise To Record High In California In 2023: CDPH
California in 2023 reported a record-high number of valley fever cases — a potentially debilitating infection caused by inhaling fungal spores in dirt or dust — and 2024 is on track to surpass that, state health officials said Tuesday. (Ho, 8/20)

Los Angeles Times: Nearly $1 Billion Left Unspent By Centers For Disabled Californians
Nearly $1 billion allocated for regional agencies that purchase supportive services for Californians with developmental disabilities went unspent in a recent year and was ultimately returned to the state, even as some disabled people and their families said they needed more help. California provides assistance to people with autism and other developmental disabilities through a system of nonprofits called regional centers, which are contracted with the California Department of Developmental Services. (Alpert Reyes, 8/20)

AP: Montana Asbestos Clinic Seeks To Reverse $6M In Fines, Penalties Over False Claims
A health clinic in a Montana town that was polluted with deadly asbestos will ask a federal appeals court on Wednesday to reverse almost $6 million in fines and penalties after a jury determined it submitted hundreds of false claims on behalf of patients. The jury verdict came last year in a lawsuit brought by Texas-based BNSF Railway, which separately has been found liable over contamination in Libby, Montana, that’s sickened or killed thousands of people. Asbestos-tainted vermiculite was mined from a nearby mountain and shipped through the 3,000-person town by rail over decades. (Brown, 8/21)

AP: 3 People Charged After Death Of Federal Prison Worker Who Opened Fentanyl-Laced Mail 
A federal prison inmate and two other people were charged Tuesday with conspiring to mail drugs to a penitentiary in California where a mailroom supervisor died this month after opening a letter that prosecutors said was laced with fentanyl and other substances. According to prosecutors, Jamar Jones, a prisoner at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, California, plotted with Stephanie Ferreira, of Evansville, Indiana, and Jermen Rudd III of Wentzville, Missouri, to send him drugs that he could sell at the prison. They disguised the shipment as “legal mail” from a law office, investigators said. (Sisak, 8/20)

The Independent: Thailand Detects First Suspected Case Of Dangerous Mpox Strain In European Traveler
Thailand has reported a suspected first case of a new, more dangerous strain of mpox in a European traveler. The patient, a 66-year-old man who arrived from an unnamed African country on 14 August, is believed to be infected by the Clade 1 variant, which is deadlier and more transmissible and triggered a warning from the world health authority last week. (Muzaffar, 8/21)

The Independent: Argentina Suspects First Case Of Mpox As Entire Cargo Ship Quarantined 
Argentina quarantined a cargo ship over the first suspected case of mpox on the vessel, as an outbreak of a new fast-spreading variant triggered a global public health alert. The Liberian-flagged ship raised the alert after one of its crew members of Indian nationality showed “cyst-like skin lesions predominantly on the chest and face," the health ministry said. (Sharma, 8/21)

Reuters: Africa Could Start Mpox Vaccinations Within Days, Health Agency Says 
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries could start vaccinating against mpox within days, Africa's top public health agency said on Tuesday. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has been working with countries experiencing mpox outbreaks on logistics and communication strategies to roll out vaccine doses that are due to arrive following pledges by the European Union, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic BAVA.CO, the United States and Japan. (Miridzhanian, 8/20)

Reuters: Roche Says It Is Working To Enhance Lab Testing Capacity For Mpox Worldwide
Roche is actively working to enhance laboratory testing capacity for mpox worldwide, the Swiss pharmaceutical company said on Tuesday. Roche said it is partnering with governments, healthcare providers and organizations to combat the outbreak, as well as providing training for labs across the African continent. (8/20)

AP: Disney Drops Bid To Have Allergy-Death Lawsuit Tossed 
Disney is no longer asking a Florida court to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit on the grounds that the victim’s family had signed up for its streaming service Disney+. The company filed a notice in Orange County court on Tuesday to withdraw the motion, which had drawn swift backlash when it became public. Josh D’Amaro, chairperson of Disney’s theme park division, said in a statement emailed earlier to The Associated Press that the entertainment giant will waive its arbitration rights and allow the suit, brought by the husband of a New York doctor who suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant in Disney Springs, to proceed in court. (Marcelo, 8/20)

Nature: PlayStation Is Good For You: Video Games Improved Mental Health During COVID
Playing video games for a couple of hours a day can improve mental health, according to a study on gamers in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research — which was done from December 2020 to March 2022 — found that even just owning a game console increased life satisfaction and reduced psychological distress. The results were published today in Nature Human Behaviour. (8/19)