Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: In The Vast Expanses Of Indian Country, Broadband Gaps Create Health Gaps, Too
Standing atop Ferry Butte, Frances Goli scanned the more than half a million acres of Shoshone-Bannock tribal land below as she dug her hands into the pockets of a pink pullover. The April wind was chilly at one of the tribes’ highest vistas in remote southeastern Idaho. “Our goal is to bring fiber out here,” Goli said, sweeping one hand across the horizon. The landscape below is scattered with homes, bordered in the east by snowcapped mountain peaks and to the west by “The Bottoms,” where tribal bison graze along the Snake River. (Tribble, 12/17)
KFF Health News: Oregon Hospital Races To Build A Tsunami Shelter As FEMA Fights To Cut Its Funding
Residents of this small coastal city in the Pacific Northwest know what to do when there’s a tsunami warning: Flee to higher ground. For those in or near Columbia Memorial, the city’s only hospital, there will soon be a different plan: Shelter in place. The hospital is building a new facility next door with an on-site tsunami shelter — an elevated refuge atop columns deeply anchored in the ground, where nearly 2,000 people can safely wait out a flood. (Norman and Chang, 12/17)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: To get food benefits, more people now have to prove they’re working, and doctors say all newborns benefit from a hepatitis B shot, despite changing federal guidelines. (12/16)
ON CAPITOL HILL
Modern Healthcare: House Speaker Mike Johnson Shuts Down ACA Subsidies Vote
A last minute push by swing-district Republicans to secure a vote to extend enhanced tax credits for federal marketplace health insurance came up short Tuesday. More than a dozen Republicans had been lobbying for an amendment to a House GOP health plan expected to get a vote Wednesday, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters it will not happen. (McAuliff and Early, 12/16)
Politico: Fitzpatrick Declines To Turn Off ACA Discharge Petition As Amendment Talks Drag On
Vulnerable Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told Speaker Mike Johnson on the House floor Tuesday he would not withdraw his discharge petition that would force a floor vote on extending expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies — amid Johnson’s attempt to find a potential agreement to allow a vote on an amendment instead that would be similar in substance. (Hill and Guggenheim, 12/16)
Axios: House Sets Votes On Gender Care Penalties
The House of Representatives will vote this week on two bills to restrict transgender youths' access to gender-affirming care, including legislation led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that would criminalize providing certain procedures or medications. (Goldman, 12/17)
VACCINES
NBC News: CDC Formally Stops Recommending Hepatitis B Vaccines For All Newborns
Instead of recommending the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now officially advises women who test negative for the virus to consult health care providers about whether their babies should get their first doses within 24 hours of birth. (Bendix, 12/16)
Chicago Tribune: State Committee Recommends Hepatitis B Vaccines For Newborns
Illinois should continue to recommend that nearly all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B, a state advisory committee decided Tuesday, in a move that could represent another break with federal vaccine guidance. (Schencker, 12/16)
FUNDING FREEZE AND DEI
AP: Former NIH Scientist Sues Trump Administration Over Research Cuts
A former leading scientist at the National Institutes of Health sued the Trump administration Tuesday, saying she was illegally fired for warning that abrupt research cuts were endangering patients and public health. The NIH has cut billions of dollars in research projects since President Donald Trump took office in January, bypassing the usual scientific funding process. The cuts included clinical trials testing treatments for cancer, brain diseases and other health problems that a recent report said impacted over 74,000 people enrolled in the experiments. (Neergaard, 12/16)
AP: US Aid Cuts Are Contributing To Exploitation Of Rohingya Children
The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed this year by U.S. President Donald Trump, along with funding reductions from other countries, shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and youth training centers and crippled child protection programs. Beyond unwanted marriages, scores of children as young as 10 were forced into backbreaking manual labor, and girls as young as 12 forced into prostitution. With no safe space to play or learn, children were left to wander the labyrinthine camps, making them increasingly easy targets for kidnappers. (Gelineau, 12/17)
The Washington Post: Trump’s EPA Paid Employees $86.5 Million Not To Work For Half The Year
One was administering grants to tribes for environmental protection strategies. Another was negotiating cleanup for some of the worst contaminated sites in the country, while a third investigated the impact of air pollution on pregnant women and their babies. All three belong to a group of Environmental Protection Agency employees who were placed on extended paid administrative leave this year as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the agency — and were later fired. (Ajasa, 12/17)
NOTUS: ‘People Will Die’: Suspended FEMA Employees Say Their Agency Isn’t Delivering
Abby McIlraith returned to work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hyattsville, Maryland, office on the first day of December for the first time in more than three months. Her suspension for signing a public letter criticizing agency leadership was over, and she was looking forward to finally putting it behind her. (Banks, 12/16)
Fierce Healthcare: 'DEI Is Safety' And Helps Build Trust In Healthcare, Execs Say
Two healthcare organizations, Lyra Health and Texas Health Action, have maintained DEI practices in their organizations. While company leaders see more apprehension and scrutiny about the direction of DEI strategies, even internally, they have continued prioritizing diverse perspectives in hiring, distributing DEI-related content and supporting employees with DEI programs. They believe doing so not only improves the culture of their organizations, but it also helps build trust with patients and improve patient outcomes, executives told Senior Writer Anastassia Gliadkovskaya during a panel at the Fierce Health Payer Summit earlier this month. (Beavins, 12/16)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
NBC News: FDA Approves Label Change For Depo-Provera, Adding Brain Tumor Warning
The Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday a label change for Pfizer's birth control shot Depo-Provera that warns patients of the risk of meningioma, a tumor in the lining of the brain. Pfizer is currently battling a lawsuit in which more than 1,000 women claim the company knew about the risk and failed to warn patients. (Brooks and Essamuah, 12/16)
The Hill: Mike Pence Group Demands Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Removal Over Abortion Pill
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s organization said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “must go,” accusing the secretary of refusing to review the abortion pill mifepristone. In a statement posted on the social platform X, Pence’s nonprofit, Advancing American Freedom, said, “HHS Secretary RFK Jr. continues to refuse to review the dangerous chemical abortion pill, mifepristone. Despite the calls of state attorneys general across the country and pro-life promises made to Congress, RFK Jr. has followed in the footsteps of the Obama and Biden administrations by stonewalling pro-life efforts at HHS.” (Choi, 12/16)
Verite News New Orleans: ‘The Baby Was Completely Gray’: Immigrants Choose Between Health Care And Risk Of Deportation
As immigrants in southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi braced for this month’s U.S. Homeland Security operation, Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo received a panicked phone call from a friend. The friend’s Guatemalan tenant, who didn’t know she was pregnant, had just delivered a premature baby in the New Orleans house. The parents lacked legal residency, and the mother refused to go to a hospital for fear of being detained by federal immigration officers. (Parker, 12/16)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Modern Healthcare: US Health Spending Projected To Reach $5.6T In 2025
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary projects healthcare spending in 2025 will hit $5.6 trillion. Six months after the independent CMS division’s initial forecast, industry watchers also predict increases. “It’s hard to generalize, but I think many payers and risk-bearing entities are continuing to see elevated cost growth this year and going into next year with quite a bit of volatility,” said Dr. Jeet Guram, associate partner at McKinsey. (Broderick, 12/16)
Modern Healthcare: Federation Of American Hospitals Names Charlene MacDonald As CEO
The Federation of American Hospitals has named Charlene MacDonald its next president and CEO. MacDonald will assume leadership of the trade association Jan. 1, the organization said in a news release Tuesday. She succeeds retiring President and CEO Chip Kahn. MacDonald has been with the federation since 2023, serving as executive vice president of public affairs. In that role, she leads the organization’s government affairs, advocacy and communications initiatives. She also oversees finance and operations teams, the release said. (Eastabrook, 12/16)
Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Nurses Advance Union Effort Covering 800
Registered nurses at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, Calif., have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. The nurses are seeking to join the California Nurses Association, according to a Dec. 15 media advisory shared with Becker’s. As of Dec. 16, no election date had been scheduled. If an election occurs and nurses vote in favor of unionization, California Nurses Association would represent roughly 800 nurses at the hospital, according to the NLRB. (Gooch, 12/16)
Modern Healthcare: HCA Healthcare Chief Nurse Executive Sammie Mosier Dies At 50
Sammie Mosier, chief nurse executive and senior vice president of HCA Healthcare, died Friday, the system said in a Linkedin post Monday. She was 50. Her cause of death was not available. Mosier began working at HCA Healthcare nearly 30 years ago as a medical-surgical bedside nurse at its Kentucky-based Frankfort Regional Medical Center. She was named chief nurse executive in December 2021, a role HCA said involved leading the system’s more than 90,000 nurses. (DeSilva, 12/16)
Stat: Dana-Farber Settles Justice Department Suit Over Manipulated Data
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the nation’s premier cancer research and treatment centers, is paying $15 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that some of its top researchers authored papers containing manipulated data. (Wosen, 12/16)
WBUR: Former Harvard Medical School Morgue Manager Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison For Stolen Bodies Plot
The former Harvard Medical School morgue manager who stole and sold pieces of bodies donated to the school has been sentenced to 8 years in prison. (Jarmanning, 12/16)
ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
The New York Times: U.S. Transplant Hospitals Court Patients Overseas Despite Organ Shortage
International patients can bring a hospital as much as $2 million for a transplant. In recent years, they have typically gotten organs faster than U.S. patients. (Rosenthal and Hansen, 12/16)
AP: Social Media Is Being Harnessed To Help People Find Living Kidney Donors
Fernando Moreno has been on dialysis for about two years, enduring an “unbearable” wait for a new kidney to save his life. His limited world of social contacts has meant that his hopes have hinged on inching up the national waiting list for a transplant. That was until earlier this year, when the Philadelphia hospital where he receives treatment connected him with a promising pilot project that has paired him with “angel advocates” — Good Samaritan strangers scattered around the country who leverage their own social media contacts to share his story. (Scolforo, 12/17)
PHARMA AND TECH
San Francisco Chronicle: Global Biotech Company Exits Silicon Valley, 121 Jobs Cut
A major biotechnology company is exiting Silicon Valley. French diagnostics giant bioMérieux plans to permanently close its San Jose office and lay off 121 employees, according to a state filing, ending the company’s Bay Area operations. The layoffs were filed with California officials last week. (Vaziri, 12/16)
Bloomberg: GSK Says US FDA Approved Its Twice-Annual Asthma Drug
GSK Plc said it won US approval for a drug to treat severe asthma, boosting its prospects as a potential blockbuster. The US Food and Drug Administration approved Exdensur as an add-on maintenance treatment of severe asthma for patients aged 12 years and older, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. (Furlong, 12/17)
Bloomberg: DBV’s Peanut Allergy Patch Desensitized Kids In Crucial Study
DBV Technologies SA said its experimental skin patch helped young children with a peanut allergy in a crucial study. The product, called Viaskin, showed it could help desensitize children aged four to seven who wore it for a year, the French company said Tuesday. The patients then consumed peanut protein to mimic an accidental ingestion, and researchers found they could tolerate it better. DBV said it plans to seek US regulatory approval in the first half of next year. (Pham, 12/16)
Bloomberg: Kenvue Faces FDA Petition To Remove Benadryl’s Active Ingredient
Kenvue Inc. is dealing with another challenge to a top-selling product as it attempts to close its $40 billion acquisition by Kimberly-Clark Corp. US President Donald Trump linked the use of Kenvue’s Tylenol to autism in September. More recently three doctors filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration that requested the agency remove the active ingredient — diphenhydramine — in over-the-counter cold, cough and allergy medications such as Kenvue’s Benadryl because there are more effective products with fewer side effects. (Brown, 12/16)
Bloomberg: How Cancer Drug Trials Make Big Money For Doctors, Hospitals
The future of cancer drug research just might be in Omaha, Nebraska, between a Panda Express and a Mattress Firm. Here, in an otherwise unremarkable storefront, a little-known clinic called XCancer has become one of the most trusted research partners of pharmaceutical companies seeking to test experimental prostate cancer medicines. XCancer and its sole physician, Luke Nordquist, have participated in more than 200 trials over 15 years, and played a leading role in testing Novartis AG’s widely advertised blockbuster, Pluvicto. (Melby and Langreth, 12/16)
The Colorado Sun: CSU Professor Tries New Approach To Cancer Immunotherapy
This is a story that starts with a dog named Ella. She was a goldendoodle, nothing but bouncy blonde curls. She was 11 years old. And she had cancer. Bad cancer, in her liver. Veterinarians performed surgery to remove the tumor, but it had what are known as diffuse margins — meaning it had snuck into surrounding healthy tissue. The vets couldn’t get all of it. (Ingold, 12/17)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
NPR: Psychologists Are Increasingly Using – And Worrying About – AI Tools, Poll Finds
Psychologist Cami Winkelspecht decided to familiarize herself with artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, after patients started asking her for advice about how they could use the technology responsibly. "One of the interesting questions that kids and teenagers, in particular, brought in is how can you utilize AI to help support ideas or editing process or things like that for papers and assignments and presentations, but also make sure that you're not utilizing it to write something for you, [so] that you're not violating your school's honor code" says Winkelspecht, who is a child and adolescent psychologist with a private practice in Wilmington, Delaware. (Chatterjee, 12/16)
Modern Healthcare: Is There An AI Bubble In Healthcare? Why Investors Are Concerned
The healthcare industry has been transfixed by the promises of artificial intelligence and this past year has seen investors, health tech vendors, providers and payers buying big into the technology. Now there is fear within healthcare, like other industries, that the AI bubble could burst as expectations for both companies and their products fail to match reality. (Perna, 12/16)
STATE WATCH
Bloomberg: Northwell And NYC Union Make Deal To Save On Health-Care Costs
Northwell Health Inc., one of New York state’s largest hospital systems, has signed a deal with a major labor union intended to lower costs and expand access to thousands of doctors for its members in the New York area. The pact with 32BJ Health Fund aims to reduce the role of traditional health insurance companies, officials from the fund and Northwell said. Instead, the health fund will contract directly with Northwell, a move both sides said will cut out layers of bureaucracy. They called it the largest deal of its kind in the US. (Tozzi, 12/16)
North Carolina Health News: In Five Years The State Health Plan’s Billion-Dollar Surplus Became A Deficit
When new state treasurer Brad Briner walked into his new office at the beginning of 2025, he had a problem. After almost a decade of no premium increases for 750,000 state employees and their dependents, outgoing treasurer Dale Folwell had left the State Health Plan — one of the programs embedded in the treasurer’s office — with a deficit. (Hoban, 12/17)
Wyoming Public Radio: VA Clinic In Rock Springs Gets A New Building And In-House Physical Therapy
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) opened a new clinic in Rock Springs on Dec. 11. The new building is right down the street from the old location, with an additional 2,500 square feet of space and on-site physical therapy services. (Habermann, 12/16)
St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis County Sees Increase In Deaths From Potent Opioid
Health officials in St. Louis County want more people to carry the overdose reversal drug naloxone as deaths due to a super-potent opioid are becoming more common in the region. Although the number of opioid-related deaths in St. Louis County has been decreasing since 2022, health officials are concerned about the local emergence of carfentanil, a lab-made drug similar to the opioid fentanyl. (Fentem, 12/16)
AP: Doctor Who Helped Sell Ketamine To Matthew Perry Avoids Prison Time
A doctor who pleaded guilty in a scheme to supply ketamine to actor Matthew Perry before his overdose death was sentenced Tuesday to 8 months of home confinement. Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence that included 3 years of supervised release to 55-year-old Dr. Mark Chavez in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles. (Ding, 12/16)
GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC
The New York Times: One Way The Brown Attack Was Unusual: The Gunman Escaped
It is rare for a gunman in a high-profile shooting to get away, and many are apprehended within days. The authorities shared grainy video and begged for tips as the search stretched into its fourth day. (Dewan, 12/17)
The Washington Post: A School Locked Down After AI Flagged A Gun. It Was A Clarinet.
Some school safety and privacy experts said the recent incident at the Florida middle school is part of a trend in which threat detection systems used by schools misfire, putting students under undue suspicion and stress. (Wu and Rozsa, 12/17)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: China Sues Missouri, Demands Apology For COVID Judgment
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said Tuesday that China, in its own country, is suing Missouri in the wake of a $24 billion American court judgment the state obtained in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. (Schlinkmann, 12/16)
CIDRAP: Presenteeism Among Health Workers With COVID Rose Steadily Last Year, Study Suggests
Nearly 8% of US health care personnel (HCP) with symptomatic COVID-19 continued to work during their illness, and the practice became increasingly common as the pandemic progressed, suggests a new observational cohort study published in JAMA Network Open. (Bergeson, 12/16)
AP: School Attendance Plummeted During Texas Measles Outbreak
When a measles outbreak hit West Texas earlier this year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease. Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study. (Seminera and Shastri, 12/17)
CIDRAP: 2 Salad-Linked Listeria Outbreaks Show Need For Routine Surveillance
Two genetically unrelated US outbreaks of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked to packaged salads from two different firms caused 30 illnesses, 27 hospitalizations, and four deaths over eight years, according to a new report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers and collaborators published in Emerging Infectious Diseases recently. (Soucheray, 12/16)
MedPage Today: Lyme Disease Did Not Come From A Secret Military Lab, Contrary To FDA Chief’s Claim
Claims that Lyme disease was developed as a military bioweapon and escaped from a government lab are flatly contradicted by decades of scientific evidence -- despite what federal regulators have claimed recently, experts say. (McCreary, 12/16)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
Newsweek: Psychologists Reveal Three Personality Traits Linked To Early Death
Your personality may influence how long you live, according to major new research that suggests certain traits can significantly raise—or lower—the risk of dying early. The large study from the University of Limerick in Ireland found that certain personality traits—such as being anxious, highly organized, or outgoing—can strongly influence how long people live. (Gibbs, 12/16)
