First Edition: Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024

KFF Health News: Small-Town Patients Face Big Hurdles As Rural Hospitals Cut Cancer Care
The night before her chemotherapy, Herlinda Sanchez sets out her clothes and checks that she has everything she needs: a blanket, medications, an iPad and chargers, a small Bible and rosary, fuzzy socks, and snacks for the road. After the 36-year-old was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in December, she learned that there weren’t any cancer services in her community of Del Rio, a town of 35,000 near the Texas-Mexico border. (Huff, 8/7)

KFF Health News: Social Media Bans Could Deny Teenagers Mental Health Help
Social media’s effects on the mental health of young people are not well understood. That hasn’t stopped Congress, state legislatures, and the U.S. surgeon general from moving ahead with age bans and warning labels for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. But the emphasis on fears about social media may cause policymakers to miss the mental health benefits it provides teenagers, say researchers, pediatricians, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (Chang, 8/7)

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. (8/6)

The Hill: Tim Walz On Health Care: Progressive With Some Pragmatism
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who was chosen Tuesday to be Vice President Harris’s running mate, brings a progressive approach to health care, with a focus on reducing costs. Walz has said his health policy priorities have been shaped in part by his personal experience. His father died of cancer when Walz was 19, leaving his mother drowning in medical debt.  (Weixel and Choi, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Tim Walz Policy Positions On Abortion, Climate, Immigration, Marijuana 
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Walz signed a bill protecting abortion as a state law in January 2023, making the state a hub for the procedure in the Midwest. In March, Harris visited a Planned Parenthood health center that provides abortions. In April 2023, Walz signed the “trans refuge” bill that shields people seeking and providing gender-affirming care in Minnesota. That same day, he also approved a bill banning conversion therapy. (Brasch, 8/6)

Roll Call: Walz’s Personal Experiences Shape His Health Policy Outlook 
In June, Walz signed legislation banning medical providers from withholding medically necessary care because of unpaid debt. The law also banned debt transfer to a widow. A former high school teacher, Walz signed state legislation last year establishing universal free school meals for kids. Walz has also spoken in favor of protecting access to fertility treatments, citing his family’s seven-year struggle with infertility. Earlier this year, he shared that he and his wife used in vitro fertilization to conceive their daughter, Hope. (Cohen, DeGroot and Raman, 8/6)

Forbes: VP Pick Walz’s Healthcare Policies Align With Harris
As a staunch supporter of the Affordable Care Act, Walz has defended ACA-driven policies such as Medicaid expansion and protections for people with pre-existing conditions enabling them to buy insurance at community rated- premiums (same price for all without medical underwriting) and no lifetime caps. (Cohen, 8/6)

Fortune Well: 5 Ways A Harris-Walz Win Could Reshape U.S. Health Care
Health policy experts stress that a lot of what Harris and Walz could do in office largely depends on what happens in Congress. “This is still a divided country,” says Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “I don’t think Harris would be likely to have control of both houses of Congress, but all sorts of things can happen.” “No matter who the president is, reforming health care in the United States is a tall order given the power and lobbying abilities of the health insurance companies,” says Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health. (Miller, 8/6)

Stat: Tim Walz Stood Up To Corporate Health Care. Mayo Clinic Was A Powerful Exception
Even for the most progressive of politicians, money talks. And elite nonprofit hospitals can throw around a lot of money. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday as her vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket, has cast himself as a progressive with a reputation for advancing policies like paid family and medical leave, free meals for children in school, and legalizing recreational marijuana. He’s been willing to take on some corporate interests in health care as well, provoking a lawsuit over a law that limited UnitedHealth Group’s role in the state’s Medicaid program and creating a prescription drug affordability board that can set limits on what medicines cost. (Zhang, Bannow and Herman, 8/6)

Managed Healthcare Executive: Walz Drew Fire From Minn Nurses Association For Siding With Mayo Clinic On Staffing Ratio Bill
After the Mayo Clinic threatened to move a billion-dollar expansion out of state, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the Democratic lawmakers pulled back from controversial nurse staffing ratios last year and reoriented the legislation toward violence prevention and studying burnout among nurses. (Wehrwein, 8/6)

Stat: Walz' Record On Covid-19 Will Be Target For Trump
After news broke that Vice President Kamala Harris had officially selected Tim Walz as her running mate, former president Trump’s campaign blasted a fundraising email warning Walz would “unleash hell on earth” with far-left policies. As Republicans scour Walz’ record for targets, the Minnesota governor’s controversial Covid-19 response is likely to resurface. (Owermohle, 8/6) 

Stat: Experts: Trump Speech Patterns Hint Of Potential Cognitive Decline
Back in 2017, Trump’s first year in the White House, a STAT analysis showed Trump’s speaking style had deteriorated since the 1980s. Seven years on, now that Trump has the GOP presidential nomination, STAT has repeated the analysis. The experts noted a further reduction in Trump’s linguistic complexity and, while none said they could give a diagnosis without an examination, some said certain shifts in his speaking style are potential indications of cognitive decline. (Goldhill, 8/7)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Pulls From the Market a Weedkiller Harmful to Fetuses
In a move not seen for almost 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued an emergency order suspending all uses of a weedkiller linked to serious health risks for unborn babies. The herbicide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA or Dacthal, is used on crops such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions. Fetuses exposed to it could suffer from low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased I.Q., and impaired motor skills later in life, the E.P.A. said. (Tabuchi, 8/6)

NPR: U.S. Lawmakers Propose A Ban On Weighted Infant Sleepwear
“The stakes are simply too high to allow weighted infant sleep sacks and swaddles to stay on the market without evidence that they are safe,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement. The Safeguarding Infants from Dangerous Sleep Act, which was introduced in both the Senate and the House, would ban wearable blankets, sleep sacks and swaddles that contain added weight “for a purpose other than insulation or decoration” for children age 1 and younger. (Hernandez, 8/6)

Bloomberg: Abortion Access: Walmart, Costco Pressured By Investor Group Over Mifepristone
A group of faith-based investors are warning some of the largest US retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Walmart Inc. against selling the abortion pill mifepristone. Companies offering the drug risk reputation and legal repercussions, according to an Aug. 2 letter sent to chief executive officers at the two retail giants, as well as Kroger Co., Albertsons Co. and medical distribution company McKesson Corp. (Green and Kishan, 8/6)

HuffPost: Roe v. Wade Didn’t Go Far Enough For Abortion Rights, Hundreds Of Health Care Providers Tell Biden And Harris
More than 400 health care providers called on the Biden administration to “actively and unequivocally” support an abortion rights policy that goes further than Roe v. Wade and restores access to abortion later in pregnancy. Advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health, along with 430 physicians providing sexual and reproductive health care, on Tuesday sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, urging them to do better on abortion care and gender-affirming care. (Vagianos, 8/6)

The New York Times: Manhattan Planned Parenthood Will Stop Offering Abortions After 20 Weeks
Planned Parenthood announced this week that its only Manhattan clinic would stop performing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a significant shift in a state that has maintained and even expanded access to abortion in the two years since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to the procedure. The clinic, Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan Health Center, can no longer afford the “deep sedation” required to perform abortions beyond the 20-week mark, Wendy Stark, the president of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said in an interview. (Fahy, 8/7)

Los Angeles Times: California Could Make It Harder For Cities To Block Abortion Clinics 
A bill that California lawmakers are expected to consider this month aims to make it easier to build reproductive health clinics. Debate over the legislation comes as out-of-state abortion seekers travel to California for care after the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down federal abortion protections. (Mays, 8/7)

The Hill: GOP Lawmakers Push NCAA To Ban Trans Athletes In Women’s Sports
A group of GOP lawmakers pushed the NCAA in a Tuesday letter to “update” its “student-athlete participation policy to require that only biologically female students participate in women’s sports.” “Amid the Biden-Harris administration’s unprecedented assault on Title IX, we write to urge the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to update your student-athlete participation policy to require that only biologically female students participate in women’s sports,” the letter, addressed to NCAA President Charlie Baker and signed by GOP senators including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Katie Britt (Ala.) and Joni Ernst (Iowa), reads. (Suter, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Ohio Judge Upholds Ban On Gender-Affirming Care For Minors 
A judge upheld a law Tuesday that bans gender-affirming care for minors in Ohio, keeping it among the nearly two-dozen states that have levied similar restrictions in recent years and drawing criticism from advocates who say the statute infringes on transgender peoples’ rights. Franklin County Judge Michael J. Holbrook wrote in the ruling that recourse for those “dissatisfied with the General Assembly’s determinations must be exercised through their vote as opposed to the judicial system.” (Kaur and Lee, 8/6)

The CT Mirror: CT Prisons Must Provide Gender-Affirming Care, Court Rules
After a five-year legal battle, the U.S. District Court recently ruled that transgender people incarcerated in Connecticut prisons are entitled to gender-affirming health care. (Pohly, 8/7)

ABC News: More Than 40% Of LGBTQ Youth Said They Considered Suicide In The Past Year, CDC Report Finds
Youth who identify as LGBTQ+ reported higher rates of poor mental health and experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their cisgender and heterosexual peers, a new U.S. survey found. In 2023, more than three in five LGBTQ+ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or another non-heterosexual identity -- high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and more than half reported having poor mental health, according to the latest results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published Tuesday morning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Kekatos, 8/6)

The New York Times: Sadness Among Teen Girls May Be Improving, C.D.C. Finds 
In 2021, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on teen mental health focused on a stark crisis: Nearly three in five teenage girls reported feeling persistent sadness, the highest rate in a decade. But the newest iteration of the survey, distributed in 2023 to more than 20,000 high school students across the country, suggests that some of the despair seen at the height of the pandemic may be lessening. (Ghorayshi, 8/6)

CIDRAP: Colorado's Bulk-Tank Testing IDs More Avian Flu In Dairy Herds
The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) today reported its first avian flu outbreaks in dairy herds that are based on mandatory weekly bulk-tank milk testing, which went into effect on July 22. The testing turned up nine more outbreaks in dairy herds, according to the CDA's line list, which now reflects 63 herds affected since late April.  (Schnirring, 8/6)

The New York Times: Free Covid Vaccines Will Soon Become Harder For Some To Find
After Covid-19 vaccines transitioned to the commercial market last fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stepped in to ensure that adults without insurance, or those whose insurance plans did not fully cover the vaccine, could receive shots for free. The agency’s Bridge Access Program provided roughly 1.5 million shots, said Dr. Georgina Peacock, the director of the immunization services division at the C.D.C. Nationwide, about 27 million adults do not have health insurance. But the program ends this month, making it even harder for health centers to provide shots for free. (Blum and Mogg, 8/6)

USA Today: West Nile Virus Kills Woman In Texas As Mosquito Season Picks Up
A Dallas woman has died from West Nile virus, local health officials announced Tuesday. Less than a week ago, a woman in her 50s was identified Dallas County’s sixth person with West Nile virus, Christian Grisales, spokesperson for the Dallas County Health and Human Services, told USA TODAY. On Tuesday, health officials announced she had become the county’s first West Nile death this year, at the start of the season when cases begin appearing when people get bit by infected mosquitoes. (Cuevas, 8/7)

Modern Healthcare: Bloomberg Donates $600M To 4 HBCU Medical Schools
Four historically Black medical schools will share a $600 million donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies to improve racial wealth equity and bolster the population of Black healthcare providers. The donations will be used for scholarships and to improve infrastructure, including technology, at the schools. (DeSilva, 8/6)

Modern Healthcare: How Systems Are Changing Compensation To Attract Executive Talent
Hospitals and health systems have a tall order: find exceptional executive talent in a competitive market and employ their skills to successfully navigate a challenging operating environment. Given their limited budgets, organizations must ensure they are directing dollars toward the most critical leadership positions, said Bruce Greenblatt, executive workforce practice leader at consulting firm SullivanCotter. (Hudson, 8/6)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Children's Hospital Layoffs Include 5% Of Workforce
Texas Children’s Hospital said Tuesday it is laying off 5% of its workforce amid a series of financial challenges for the nation’s largest children’s hospital. The hospital declined to provide a specific number of employees being affected by layoffs, but Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources officer Linda Aldred said in an interview that Texas Children’s has approximately 20,000 employees across 120 locations in Houston, across Texas and around the world. A 5% reduction in that workforce would cut roughly 1,000 jobs. (MacDonald and Gill, 8/6)

Bloomberg: Steward Gets $30 Million Lifeline Following Apollo Landlord Deal
Bankrupt healthcare network Steward Health won permission to use a $30 million state lifeline for six Massachusetts hospitals after landlord Medical Properties Trust Inc. and Macquarie Asset Management struck a deal with their lender, Apollo Global Management. Apollo will take over the real estate those hospitals lease as part of an agreement in principal with MPT and Macquarie, Steward lawyer David Cohen said during a bankruptcy court hearing Tuesday. (Randles, 8/6)

Modern Healthcare: Centene's Medicare Advantage Business To Exit 6 States In 2025
Centene is stepping away from Medicare Advantage in at least six states for 2025, according to the investment bank Stephens and the insurance brokerage Pinnacle Financial Services. The health insurer will not sell Wellcare Medicare Advantage plans in Alabama, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont next year, but will continue to offer Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, Stephens Managing Director Scott Fidel and colleagues wrote in a research note Monday. (Berryman, 8/6)

Stat: How UnitedHealth Turned A Questionable Artery-Screening Program Into A Gold Mine
The nation’s largest health care company pressed thousands of its clinicians to use a thinly tested medical device to screen people for artery disease, dramatically boosting payments from the federal government for years even though many of the patients were not sick, a STAT investigation found. (Ross, Lawrence, Herman and Bannow, 8/7)

Health News Florida: After Ransomware Cyberattack, OneBlood’s Computer Systems Are Recovering
OneBlood, Florida’s primary distributor of blood, is able to again move supplies to hospitals but is still recovering from a ransomware attack that shifted the nonprofit into manual operations. (Pedersen, 8/6)

The War Horse: ‘I Had a Body Part Repossessed’: Post-9/11 Amputee Vets Say VA Care Is Failing Them
Travis Vendela died three times in triage and medevac, by his own account, after the lead Humvee he was directing in Iraq in 2007 drove over an improvised explosive device and blew off both of his legs. Scott Restivo lost his right leg to infection and sepsis in 2018 after surgery to address injuries he suffered at Fort Drum, New York, and aggravated in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bone cancer claimed Army parachute rigger Matt Brown’s left leg after he served for years at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. ... From Utah to Tennessee to North Carolina, they say they are all experiencing similar frustrations with the dense bureaucracy and gaps in care for prosthetics and accessibility equipment provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Seck, 8/6)

Axios: Co-Pays Block Inmates From Accessing Health Care: Study
Inmates in U.S. prisons appear to not be seeking the health care they need because they can't afford co-pays, per a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Co-pays, found in up to 90% of state and federal prisons, could be a barrier to addressing the increasing prevalence of chronic health conditions among the incarcerated. (Reed, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: Hospitals That Pursue Patients For Bills Will Have To Tell L.A. County
Hospitals must promptly report to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health every time they try to collect medical debt from patients, under an ordinance backed Tuesday by county supervisors. The ordinance, which requires a second vote to be adopted, requires hospitals to tell the county within a month or two of initiating debt collection, which can include making phone calls or mailing letters to seek payment more than 180 days after the initial billing, selling the debt to a collections agency, garnishing wages, seizing a bank account or informing a consumer reporting agency. (Alpert Reyes, 8/6)

The Baltimore Sun: 4th Circuit Upholds Maryland’s Ban On Assault-Style Weapons 
A federal appeals court upheld Maryland’s ban on assault-style weapons Tuesday in an opinion that found regulating “excessively dangerous weapons,” including the AR-15, compatible with the Second Amendment. (O'Neill, 8/6)

The Washington Post: D.C.’s 911 Center Under Fire After Baby Dies During Computer Outage 
District officials are scrutinizing what went wrong Friday when a five-month-old infant who needed advanced medical care died during a computer outage that scrambled D.C.'s troubled 911 center, authorities said. The system failure frustrated dispatchers’ efforts to assess which units were available and closest to the scene, resulting in an approximately 15-minute delay in providing the required level of care, according to three people familiar with D.C.'s emergency operations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that remains under investigation. (Gathright, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: The Salton Sea Is Smellier Than Ever And Worsening People's Asthma
Five years ago, Lisa Clark and her husband left her hometown of El Centro for Niland, a small town of 500, in search for more affordable housing. But now they’re paying a hidden cost for living just two miles southeast of the Salton Sea. ... Before, she’d need to use only one inhaler a year; since moving to Niland, she’s been using three. ... As California’s largest lake has continued to evaporate, it’s become saltier and dustier, causing breathing problems for locals like Clark. (Deng, 8/6)

U.S. News & World Report: Why Falls Church, Virginia, Is America’s Healthiest Community 
Falls Church, Virginia, has risen to No. 1 in the 2024 Healthiest Communities rankings by U.S. News, unseating the reigning three-peat winner, Los Alamos County, New Mexico. The latest edition of the project, released Tuesday, assessed close to 3,000 counties and county equivalents nationwide across more than 90 metrics, exploring the important role location plays in the health and well-being of America’s more than 330 million residents. (Davis Jr., 8/6)

U.S. News & World Report: Healthiest Communities Rankings 2024
Discover the No. 1 Healthiest Community in America, based on 92 metrics tied to education, population health, local economy, the environment, public safety and more. (8/6)