First Edition: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025

KFF Health News: The Covid ‘Contrarians’ Are In Power. We Still Haven’t Hashed Out Whether They Were Right
In October, Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya hosted a conference on the lessons of covid-19 in order “to do better in the next pandemic.” He invited scholars, journalists, and policy wonks who, like him, have criticized the U.S. management of the crisis as overly draconian. Bhattacharya also invited public health authorities who had considered his alternative approach reckless. None of them showed up. (Allen, 2/19)

KFF Health News: Republicans Are Eyeing Cuts To Medicaid. What’s Medicaid, Again?
In January, during a congressional hearing on his way to becoming secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got basic details wrong about Medicaid — a program he now oversees. He said that Medicaid is fully funded by the federal government (it’s not) and that many enrollees are unsatisfied with high out-of-pocket costs (enrollees pay limited, if any, out-of-pocket costs). (Rayasam and Whitehead, 2/19)

KFF Health News: Deny And Delay? California Seeks Penalties For Insurers That Repeatedly Get It Wrong
When Colleen Henderson’s 3-year-old daughter complained of pain while using the bathroom, doctors brushed it off as a urinary tract infection or constipation, common maladies in the potty-training years. After being told her health insurance wouldn’t cover an ultrasound, Henderson charged the $6,000 procedure to her credit card. Then came the news: There was a grapefruit-sized tumor in her toddler’s bladder. (Mai-Duc, 2/18)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Weighed Destroying $500 Million In Covid Tests
The Trump administration reversed a plan to shut down the government website that ships free coronavirus tests to households late Tuesday, after The Washington Post reported that the administration was preparing to end the program and was evaluating the costs of destroying or disposing of tens of millions of tests. (Sun and Johnson, 2/18)

NBC News: USDA Says It Accidentally Fired Officials Working On Bird Flu And Is Trying To Rehire Them
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired "several" agency employees who are working on the federal government's response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak. The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings. (Smith, Zanona and Strickler, 2/18)

AP: Layoffs Hit Many At CDC Lab Program That Was Started To Address Previous Failures
The nation’s top public health agency is losing most of the scientists in a prestigious, but lesser-known, laboratory program that has become a mainstay of outbreak responses. The fellowship program was hit hard during the layoffs coming to many federal departments. ... The program had been created about 10 years ago to help the CDC remedy embarrassing lab-safety failures. The cuts may not have an immediate impact, but they likely will haunt the nation in the months to come, said Stephan Monroe, a former CDC official who oversaw the reform of the agency’s lab services. (Stobbe, 2/19)

Axios: Updated Bird Flu Vaccine For Poultry Gets License
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave conditional approval for an updated bird flu vaccine to protect poultry against the H5N1 strain that's stricken more than 150 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks. Why it matters: None of the current vaccines completely match the deadly strain driving the current outbreak, and officials are working to rebuild a national stockpile for use in livestock. (Bettelheim, 2/18)

The Hill: Trump Signs Executive Order To Reduce IVF Treatment Costs
President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to reduce the high cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. The order directs the Domestic Policy Council to make recommendations “on how to ensure reliable access to IVF,” according to a White House fact sheet. It sets a 90-day deadline for the recommendations to be submitted. (Weixel, 2/18)

NBC News: Woman Sues IVF Clinic After She Birthed Another Couple’s Baby
A 38-year-old woman is suing the fertility clinic she used to conceive a child after the wrong embryo was implanted in her, resulting in a shocking discovery as soon as the infant was born, according to a lawsuit. The suit, filed Tuesday in Georgia state court, alleges that Krystena Murray “unknowingly and unwillingly carried a child through pregnancy who was not biologically related to her,” something she learned only once she delivered the baby boy. Murray then had to give custody of the baby to his biological parents five months later, adding to her trauma, the suit says. (Sridhar and Chuck, 2/19)

The Hill: Missouri Proposes Registry For Pregnant Mothers
Legislation introduced in Missouri would create a list of “at risk” pregnant women in the state in order to “reduce the number of preventable abortions.” House Bill 807, nicknamed the “Save MO Babies Act,” was proposed by Republican state Rep. Phil Amato. The bill summary states that, if passed, Missouri would create a registry of every expecting mother in the state “who is at risk for seeking an abortion” starting July 1, 2026. The list would be created through the Maternal and Child Services division of the Department of Social Services, but the measure did not specify how the “at risk” would be identified. (Mueller, 2/18)

CBS News: Planned Parenthood Of Illinois Expands Access To Medication Abortion Through App
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is expanding abortion access using medication through an app, less than a month after announcing it would close four clinics, including one in Chicago. Patients can use the PPDirect app to get birth control, emergency contraception, treatment for urinary tract infections (UTIs), at-home testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and medication abortion. (Feurer, 2/18)

The New York Times: Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off Limits In Scrutinizing Chronic Disease
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in his first address to employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, said a new presidential commission would scrutinize childhood vaccine schedules, psychiatric medications and other frequent targets of his suspicion as part of his efforts to fight chronic disease. “Nothing is going to be off limits,” Mr. Kennedy said. Mr. Kennedy’s 22-minute address was not public; The New York Times watched via video link. (Gay Stolberg and Jewett, 2/18)

The Hill: Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand Blast RFK Jr. Cuts To 9/11 Survivor Program
New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a Monday letter to newly minted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to reverse recent cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that impact a program for 9/11 first responders. “...These brutal cuts mean layoffs for staff who have dedicated their careers to caring for our 9/11 survivors. It means delayed care for our sick first responders,” Schumer said in a Tuesday statement about the reported cut to the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP). (Fields, 2/18)

The New York Times: Is This Common Herbicide Harming Your Health?
As part of his pledge to “Make America Healthy Again,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants to build an “off-ramp” from the country’s reliance on insecticides and herbicides to grow food. ... Mr. Kennedy’s opposition to herbicides, particularly a widely used chemical called glyphosate, has earned support from some environmental advocates, so-called “MAHA moms” and wellness influencers. But some of the claims he and others have made about glyphosate — including that it is potentially linked to cancer, gluten allergies and a variety of other health issues — are based on science that is still not settled. (Sheikh, 2/19)

Modern Healthcare: FTC Hit With Premerger Notification Filings Ahead Of New Form
Companies flooded the Federal Trade Commission with premerger notification filings the week before new requirements went into effect. FTC’s Premerger Notification Office during the week ended Feb. 7 received nearly 400 filings that accounted for about 200 transactions, Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a Monday staff memo. The filings represented an estimated fourfold increase from historical weekly averages. FTC staff should evaluate those filings using the 2023 merger guidelines, which the agency plans to retain, Ferguson said. (Kacik, 2/18)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Caremark Names Ed DeVaney As President
CVS Health has named Ed DeVaney president of its pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark. DeVaney has served as interim president of CVS Health's PBM unit since December and has worked with the company for two decades. He was responsible for growing and retaining CVS Caremark’s business as president of employer and health plans before taking the role of interim president, the company said in a news release Monday. (Berryman, 2/18)

Modern Healthcare: MultiPlan Changes Name To Claritev Amid Antitrust Lawsuits
Healthcare analytics company MultiPlan has rebranded and changed its name to Claritev. The company, which spent much of the past year navigating rising debt and antitrust lawsuits, said Tuesday the rebrand will have no affect on its existing services. It also plans to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CTEV on Feb. 28. (DeSilva, 2/18)

Modern Healthcare: Ascension Data Breach Still Impacting Operations, Patient Volume
Ascension is still grappling with the operational fallout from last year's cyberattack impacting millions of patients. After discovering the attack in May, Ascension took several weeks to restore its main systems, and clinicians pivoted to paper records and fax machines. Since then, nonprofit Ascension has worked to recover lost revenue and patient volumes negatively impacted by the incident. (Hudson, 2/18)

The Current and ProPublica: Georgia Touts Its Medicaid Experiment as a Success. The Numbers Tell a Different Story.
Plagued by enrollment and verification barriers, the program is a warning for other states looking to cut Medicaid under Trump. (Coker, 2/19)

NBC News: Measles Outbreak Grows Bigger In Rural Texas, And Officials Expect More Cases
At least 58 new cases of measles have been reported across northwest Texas in recent weeks, state health officials said Tuesday, in a "highly contagious" outbreak that might be linked to lack of vaccination. ... At least four patients had been vaccinated, but the "rest are unvaccinated, or their vaccination status is unknown," the health department said. Most of the infections are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. (Li, 2/18)

CBS News: NYC Council Member Proposes Two Bills Aimed At Keeping Used Needles Out Of Parks
The pollution of syringes and needles in Bronx parks has been a reoccurring issue CBS News New York has been following for several months. The battle continues as New York City Councilmember Oswald Feliz, of the 15th district, pushes for more to be done within the city's Syringe Exchange Program to keep the needles away from parks and schools. (Lunsford, 2/18)

The New York Times: Anne Marie Hochhalter, Paralyzed In Columbine Shooting, Dies At 43
Anne Marie Hochhalter, who spoke publicly about the long-lasting effects of gun violence after she was paralyzed in the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, was found dead on Sunday at her home in Westminster, Colo. She was 43. ... The Adams County coroner, which initially handled Ms. Hochhalter’s case, said it had been transferred to the Jefferson County coroner, “given that her death was likely related to complications of paraplegia associated with the Columbine shooting.” (Levenson, 2/18)

Bloomberg: Lifestyle Beats Genetics On Path To Premature Death, Study Finds
Environmental and lifestyle factors play a far greater role than genetics in determining the likelihood of dying young, according to the largest study yet to untangle the contributions of nature and nurture to healthy aging. A range of external factors including exercise and smoking — collectively dubbed the “exposome” — was almost 10 times more likely than genetic risk factors to explain premature mortality, scientists from the University of Oxford and Massachusetts General Hospital said in the Nature Medicine journal. (Kresge, 2/19)

Newsweek: Bioengineers Reveal Key To Reversing Cellular Aging
The key to reversing cellular aging may lie in a protein responsible for toggling cells between a "young" and an "old" state. This is the conclusion of researchers from the University of Osaka, who experimented with the expression of the protein "AP2A1" in cells of different ages. "The results were very intriguing," bioengineering professor Shinji Deguchi, one of the paper's authors, said in a statement. (Randall, 2/18)

Fortune Well: Dietary Supplements Can Cause Liver Damage, Research Warns
If you’re like most Americans, you probably down a daily multivitamin or take turmeric pills from time to time. About 58% of U.S. adults 20 and older, including 64% of women and 51% of men, reported consuming a dietary supplement in the past 30 days, according to the 2017–18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A 2024 poll from the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), a dietary supplement trade association, suggests usage is even higher, with 75% of U.S. adults 18 and older taking dietary supplements. Nearly all users in the CRN survey (91%) said supplements are essential to maintaining their health—which is why it’s so troubling that supplement-spurred liver damage is skyrocketing. A 2022 study published in the journal Liver Transplantation found that drug-induced acute liver failure tied to herbal and dietary supplements had increased eightfold from 1995 through 2020. (Leake, 2/19)

The Boston Globe: Apple Health Study Could Bring Breakthroughs, Boston Leader Says
Apple opened a massive new health study last week that will track data from hundreds of thousands of iPhone owners who volunteer to participate. The goal is to uncover previously unseen connections between the human body and all manner of medical conditions. Data collected from phones, smartwatches, and other Apple devices will be flowing through the office of cardiologist Calum MacRae, vice chair for scientific innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and principal investigator for the Apple study. MacRae, who moved to Boston in 1991 after studying medicine in the United Kingdom, hopes that eventually millions of people will share their data to improve medicine. (Pressman, 2/18)