First Edition: Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: End Of Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies Puts Tribal Health Lifeline At Risk
Leonard Bighorn said his mother tried for two years to get help for severe stomach pain through the limited health services available near her home on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. After his mom finally saw a specialist in Glasgow, about an hour away, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, Bighorn said. Now, 16 years after his mother’s death, Bighorn has access to regular screenings for cancer and other specialty care that she didn’t have, through a health insurance program the Fort Peck Tribes created in 2016. (Houghton and Orozco Rodriguez, 2/11)

KFF Health News: New Medicaid Work Rules Likely To Hit Middle-Aged Adults Hard
Lori Kelley’s deteriorating vision has made it hard for her to find steady work. The 59-year-old, who lives in Harrisburg, North Carolina, closed her nonprofit circus arts school last year because she could no longer see well enough to complete paperwork. She then worked making dough at a pizza shop for a bit. Currently, she sorts recyclable materials, including cans and bottles, at a local concert venue. It is her main source of income ― but the work isn’t year-round. (Liss and Whitehead, 2/11)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: American farmers are being hit hard by the end of extra Obamacare subsidies, and hospitals are starting their own Medicare Advantage plans. (2/10)

VACCINES

Stat: FDA Refuses To Review Moderna's Flu Vaccine Application 
The Food and Drug Administration refused to review Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, the company said Tuesday, a surprise decision that could  raise concerns about the agency’s posture toward drug companies and the Trump administration’s policies on vaccines. (Herper and Branswell, 2/10)

The Hill: AMA Launching Its Own Vaccine Safety, Effectiveness Review System
The American Medical Association (AMA) on Tuesday announced the launch of its own “evidence-based review process” of vaccine safety and efficacy for the next respiratory viral season, an apparent tacit rebuke of the federal government’s current regulations. The AMA’s evaluation process will be conducted in collaboration with the Vaccine Integrity Project at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. The review will focus on immunizations for flu, COVID-19 and RSV. (Choi, 2/10)

CIDRAP: Polls: 90% Of Americans Want Vaccine Access, For US To Be Global Science, Tech Leader 
Polls from the Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease and Research!America find strong support for vaccines and scientific and technologic advancement, regardless of political stripe, with 90% and 91% of Americans saying policymakers must ensure access to vaccines and cement the country’s global leadership in medical progress, respectively. (Van Beusekom, 2/10)

CIDRAP: Aluminum In Our Diets Far Exceeds That From Vaccines, Researchers Note
Throughout life, aluminum exposure from food far exceeds aluminum exposure from routine childhood vaccines, according to a review published yesterday in JAMA. Concerns about aluminum adjuvants in vaccines have endured for decades, despite many years of research spanning multiple countries that has not identified related health concerns. (Bergeson, 2/10)

CIDRAP: Amicus Brief Filed Against RFK Jr Attacks ‘Shared Clinical Decision-Making’
A group of public health organizations, lawyers, and scholars, has filed an amicus brief in the US District Court of Massachusetts supporting plaintiffs American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and others against defendant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and warning that recent federal actions weakening routine childhood vaccination recommendations pose an urgent threat both for children and the public’s health. The AAP alleges in a lawsuit filed last year that recent changes to the routine childhood vaccine recommendation schedule in the United States violates the Administrative Procedure Act. (Soucheray, 2/10)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Hill: FDA Reviews BHA Safety In Food Products
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday that it is reviewing whether butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is safe when used in food and as a food contact substance. The FDA called the review part of its “broader efforts to proactively review chemical additives in the food supply.” The administration identified BHA as a top priority for review after launching a strengthened program to assess chemicals in the food supply last May. (Rego, 2/10)

Stat: New Food Pyramid Website Has A Chatbot Skeptical Of Its Own Content
How trustworthy is the new U.S. food pyramid? It’s a mixed bag, according to the government website devoted to that pyramid. Kyle Diamantas, head of the Human Foods Program at the Food and Drug Administration, alerted the public this week to a generative artificial intelligence tool added to the government’s “transformational” realfood.gov site. The tool, with a headline “Use AI to get real answers about real food,” features “AI integration to provide parents and consumers with clear and concise answers at the click of a button,” Diamantas wrote on X. (Todd, 2/10)

MedPage Today: Here's How Many Jobs HHS Has Lost Since RFK Jr. Took Over
Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of HHS last February, his department has shed more than 17,000 jobs, according to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). MedPage Today created this data visualization using the OPM's new federal workforce data website, which it launched in January. The OPM website touts that 242,260 federal employees have left since Jan. 20, 2025, the day President Donald Trump took office. (Fiore and Booth, 2/10)

The Washington Post: RFK Jr.’s Surgeon General Pick Challenges The Medical Mainstream 
Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, left her prestigious surgical residency more than seven years ago. (Weber and Roubein, 2/9)

AP: Trump To Gut US Climate Change Policy And Environmental Regulations
The Trump administration on Thursday will revoke a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the White House announced. The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a final rule rescinding a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding. That Obama-era policy determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. (Daly, 2/10)

ProPublica: Forest Service Took Years To Address PFAS In Wildland Firefighter Gear
Officials at the U.S. Forest Service knew gear worn by wildland firefighters contained potentially dangerous “forever chemicals” years before the agency publicly acknowledged the issue, according to internal correspondence obtained by ProPublica. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, have been linked to negative health impacts, including certain cancers and delayed development in children. For years, PFAS chemicals were commonly used to treat the heavy gear worn by municipal firefighters to help it repel water and oil. (Streep, 2/10)

ON CAPITOL HILL

The Hill: Warren, Hawley Introducing Legislation To Break Up ‘Big Medicine’
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are teaming up to “break up big medicine.” The lawmakers introduced legislation to crack down on health care conglomerates that own multiple parts of the industry — including pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which act as a conduit between insurers and drug manufacturers, and pharmacies themselves. Warren and Hawley’s “Break Up Big Medicine Act” proposes prohibiting parent companies from owning a medical provider or management services organization and a PBM or insurer. (Rego, 2/10)

The New York Times: Congress Quietly Used Funding Law To Try To Rein In Trump On Spending 
Top Republicans and Democrats quietly tucked new requirements into the government funding package Congress passed last week to make it more difficult for the Trump administration to defy lawmakers and refuse to allocate federal dollars in the way they intend. Many of the measures fall far short of what Democrats wanted, including provisions restricting departments from canceling federal contracts and barring the White House from unilaterally rescinding funds Congress already approved. In some instances, House Republicans rejected stronger language written by appropriators in the Senate. (Edmondson, 2/10)

CRISIS IN MINNESOTA

The New York Times: ‘No Reason He Should Have Died’: Alex Pretti’s Parents Open Up 
In their first sit-down interview, Michael and Susan Pretti avoided recriminations and recalled the son that Michael called “an exceptionally kind, caring man.” (Healy, 2/10)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

CBS News: Tens Of Thousands Of Mothers Were Flagged To Police Over Flawed Drug Tests At Childbirth
Ayanna Harris-Rashid was sitting up in bed, her newborn son latched to her breast, one hand scrolling on her phone, when the police called. She was wanted on a felony charge of child neglect. ... What happened to Harris-Rashid is happening to women across the country with staggering frequency. In at least 70,000 cases in 21 states, parents were referred to law enforcement agencies over allegations of substance use during pregnancy, according to six years of state and federal data obtained and published for the first time by The Marshall Project. (Walter and Castellano, 2/10)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Modern Healthcare: Memorial Hermann Offers Voluntary Buyouts To Cut Operating Costs
Memorial Hermann Health System is offering voluntary severance to some employees to save on operating costs and improve efficiency. Packages will be offered to eligible full-time and part-time staff in non-clinical roles, the system said in a statement Monday. Memorial Hermann did not say how many staff members would receive offers, when the buyouts would go into effect or whether layoffs are a possibility if enough employees don’t agree to voluntary severance. (DeSilva, 2/10)

Chicago Tribune: Billionaire Neil Bluhm Donates $50 Million To Northwestern
Casino magnate Neil Bluhm and his family’s foundation are donating another $50 million to Northwestern Medicine to further expand and support cardiac care. The money will go toward a Northwestern cardiovascular institute that already bears Bluhm’s name: the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. (Schencker, 2/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: Amazon One Medical Launches Health Insights
Amazon One Medical has launched Health Insights, a new beta feature designed to help eligible members better understand routine blood test results through personalized analysis and recommendations. Available at no additional cost through the One Medical mobile app, Health Insights analyzes more than 50 biomarkers from standard bloodwork and organizes results into health categories such as cardiovascular, metabolic and immune function. Amazon One Medical said in a Feb. 10 press release that the feature is intended to help members interpret lab results and support more informed conversations with their care teams. (Diaz, 2/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: CMS Revives Nursing Home Staffing Campaign After Scrapping 24-Hour Rule
CMS has republished a Notice of Funding Opportunity related to addressing nursing home staffing challenges. The agency is again accepting applications to help fund financial incentives, such as loan repayment and stipends, to registered nurses and licensed practical nurses who work for three years in an eligible nursing home or state oversight agency. (Gregerson, 2/10)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital-At-Home Waiver Pushes Health Systems To Expand Programs
Health systems are aggressively ramping up plans for hospital-at-home programs after President Donald Trump last week approved an extension of Medicare’s Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver through September 2030. They’re aiming to launch in-home acute care programs or expand existing ones to attract a wider variety of patients or start services such as home infusion, skilled nursing and behavioral health. Companies that provide technology and other services to health systems are jockeying to cash in themselves. (Eastabrook, 2/10)

NBC News: Hospitals And Insurers Are Fighting Over Money, Leaving Patients In The Lurch
Natalie Reichel is due for her next cancer therapy in March. But a contract fight between Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, where she gets care, and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose network her insurance uses, has cast doubt on whether she’ll be able to get it on time. “I am feeling dubious,” said Reichel, 40. The dispute is about money: Mount Sinai says Anthem owes it more than $450 million in unpaid claims, while Anthem says Mount Sinai is demanding a 50% rate increase. (Lovelace Jr., 2/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: AI Scribe Guidance Lags For Residents: Study
Guidance on how residents should use AI scribes is limited, even as physicians in training could benefit from the tools, according to a Feb. 10 study in Advances in Medical Education and Practice. The researchers — from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Sidney Kimmel Medical College, both in Philadelphia — reviewed five major medical and specialty society websites and searched PubMed for residency-focused studies, finding no directives for the deployment of the technology in medical training programs. (Bruce, 2/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: The Physician Work-Pay Gap Widens 
The same financial pressures hospitals are facing are increasingly evident at the physician enterprise level, according to Kaufman Hall’s latest quarterly “Physician Flash Report,” which is based on data from more than 200,000 employed providers — physicians and advanced practice providers — across more than 100 specialties. Provider productivity continues to climb, even as reimbursement and compensation lag behind, according to the report. Provider productivity — measured by work relative value units per full-time equivalent — has increased 7% since 2023. Over the same period, provider compensation rose 6%, while reimbursement declined 1%, as measured by net patient revenue per provider wRVU. (Condon, 2/10)

PHARMACEUTICALS

STATE WATCH

Stat: Landmark Settlement Could Create New Protections For Harm Reduction Under Disability Law
A Christian group in Washington state on Tuesday announced a potentially landmark legal settlement that could establish new legal protections for harm reduction services for people experiencing drug addiction, including syringe exchange, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Facher, 2/10)

The Texas Tribune: Texans Born Without Traditional Sex Traits Worry New Law Will Force Them To Choose A Gender They Don’t Identify With
Aside from a hole in his heart that surgery fixed early in his life, Mo Cortez didn’t have any notable medical complications growing up in San Angelo. By all accounts, he was a normal, healthy kid. But on July 20, 1989, a five-year-old Cortez awoke on a hospital table, forever interrupting his comfortably mundane life. (Johnstone, 2/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Measles Outbreak Spurs Call For Vaccine Checks
An outbreak of eight measles cases in Shasta County — the first measles outbreak in California in at least six years — is prompting state health officials to urge all residents to check their vaccination status against the deadly and highly contagious viral disease. The outbreak, defined as three or more related cases, marks a notable uptick in measles in California. As of Monday, 17 measles cases have been reported in the state so far in 2026. This surpasses the entire years of 2023 and 2024, when there were four cases and 15 cases, respectively, according to state data. In 2025, there were 25 cases. (Ho, 2/10)

CIDRAP: 13 New Measles Cases In South Carolina As Florida University Outbreak Grows
The South Carolina Department of Health confirmed 13 new measles cases today, raising the state total to 933. Currently 235 people are in quarantine and six in isolation. The Upstate South Carolina outbreak is the largest single outbreak of measles in the United States in more than three decades. Though 95% of cases have occurred in Spartanburg County, officials identified a new case-patient in Lancaster County. Officials are still investigating the source of exposure for that person. (Soucheray, 2/10)

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH

The Washington Post: Under Growing Pressure, The Biggest Social Networks Agree To Be Rated On Teen Safety
Three leading social media companies have agreed to undergo independent assessments of how effectively they protect the mental health of teenage users, submitting to a battery of tests announced Tuesday by a coalition of advocacy organizations. Meta — which operates Facebook and Instagram — TikTok and Snap are first three companies to sign up for the process. (Duncan, 2/10)

Bloomberg: YouTube Lawyer Sees No Addiction From Half Hour Of Videos
The 20-year-old woman at the center of a landmark trial over social media addiction used YouTube for an average of just 29 minutes per day over the last five years, a lawyer for Google told jurors. Moreover, the woman identified in court filings as K.G.M. and in the courtroom as Kaley said in pretrial testimony last year she didn’t consider herself at the time to be an addict, and neither her mental health therapist nor her father saw her as one, attorney Luis Li said Tuesday in his opening statement. (Mekelburg, 2/10)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

CNN: Over 70% Of Tested Baby Foods Are Ultraprocessed And Full Of Additives 
The vast majority of baby foods, drinks and snacks sold in the United States for children ages 6 months to 36 months are ultraprocessed and may contain additives increasingly linked to potential health harms, a new study found. (LaMotte, 2/11)

The Guardian: Exercise Can Be ‘Frontline Treatment’ For Mild Depression, Researchers Say
Aerobic exercise such as running, swimming or dancing can be considered a frontline treatment for mild depression and anxiety, according to research that suggests working out with others brings the most benefits. Scientists analysed published reviews on exercise and mental health and found that some of the greatest improvements were observed in young adults and new mothers – groups that are considered particularly vulnerable to mental health problems. (Sample, 2/10)

The New York Times: Drinking Is A ‘Social Lubricant.’ That’s Not Always A Good Thing
The psychologist first became intrigued by the phenomenon decades ago, while he was setting up an experiment about the effects of drinking on anxiety and heart rate. Women had been excluded from many such studies, so Michael Sayette, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, asked five female volunteers to come into the lab and drink, allowing him to set blood alcohol benchmarks for his experiment. (Rabin, 2/10)