Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Facing Funding Losses, States Call Out Big Businesses With Employees On Medicaid
As the Trump administration’s January deadline looms for states to enforce new Medicaid work requirements, some state lawmakers are turning the tables by pushing to publicly name the largest companies that have employees enrolled in the government program covering low-income and disabled people. California lawmakers seek to revive an expired law that would require the state to identify companies that employ 100 or more people and have employees enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. (Orozco Rodriguez, 7/15)
CDC LEADERSHIP
NPR: CDC Director Nominee Erica Schwartz Faces Senate For Confirmation Hearing
Dr. Erica Schwartz, Trump's latest nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is scheduled to appear before a Senate committee Wednesday morning, to answer questions about her vision and qualifications for the role. The confirmation hearing, with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, will be Schwartz's first public appearance since Trump nominated her for the role in mid-April. Schwartz is Trump's third nominee to lead the nation's beleaguered public health agency, which has not had a permanent director for most of Trump's second term in office. (Huang, 7/15)
Axios: Trump's CDC Pick Could Have Easier Path Than Other Nominees
The latest Senate debate over a Trump health appointment kicks off Wednesday with a less polarizing nominee than some of the president's previous picks — but that doesn't mean controversies around vaccines and public health are over. (Sullivan, 7/15)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes 1.7% Medicare Physician Pay Cut For 2027
Physicians would see a small Medicare pay cut next year under a proposed rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Tuesday. The conversion factor of the Physician Fee Schedule — the key multiplier that determines payment amounts for specific services — would decline 1.7% to $32.84 for most doctors and 1.2% to $33.17 for physicians participating in Medicare’s advanced alternative payment models. This partly reflects the expiration of a one-year reimbursement bump enacted in President Donald Trump’s tax law. (Young, 7/14)
Stat: Flood Of Comments On White House Grantmaking Overhaul Is Largely Negative, Analysis Shows
An analysis of a torrent of public comments submitted on a White House proposal to change the way federal contracts and grants are doled out shows a widespread rebuke of the potential change by scientists and others. (Oza and Parker, 7/15)
The New York Times: Public Health Groups Sue F.D.A. Over Flavored E-Cigarette Policy
A coalition of public health groups sued the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, seeking to block a new policy that could allow a wave of new flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches to enter the market without completing the required scientific review. The lawsuit asks for a judge to set aside a policy that was announced in May and finalized just days after executives of companies pushing for it dined with President Trump at his golf club in Florida. Two days before the lunch, Reynolds American, which sent top staff members to the meeting, donated $5 million to a super PAC backed by the president, campaign finance records show. (Jewett, 7/14)
Stat: Under A New Leader, The FDA’s Biologics Center Moves To Steady Itself After Stormy Chapter
In a recent town hall meeting, Karim Mikhail told Food and Drug Administration staff that he was normal. “I am with you on planet Earth,” he said in June. “I understand very well what everybody is going through.” Typically, such an acknowledgment would be unremarkable. But Mikhail is acting director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, where the previous leader, Vinay Prasad, was decidedly outside the norm. (Lawrence, 7/15)
MORE FROM CAPITOL HILL
The Washington Post: House Passes Trump’s Plan To Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent
The House voted Tuesday to end Americans’ practice of switching their clocks twice per year, delivering a win for President Donald Trump, who has called for permanent daylight saving time over the objections of medical groups and lawmakers who represent Midwestern states. The bill passed by a lopsided 308-117 vote but still needs to clear the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain, to take effect. ... The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other medical groups have said that year-round daylight saving time does not align with humans’ natural circadian rhythms and that year-round standard time would be preferable. (Liss-Roy and Diamond, 7/14)
The Hill: Senate Democrat Ron Wyden Requests Investigation Into Whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Broke Hatch Act
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Monday asked the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to investigate whether Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. violated the Hatch Act last month when he spoke with two candidates running for congressional office. In a letter to Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, Wyden requested that he “immediately open an investigation” into Kennedy’s contact with two Libertarian candidates in June and whether these interactions violated the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act of 1939 limits federal employees from participating in certain political activities. (Choi, 7/14)
Stat: Nation's Largest Medicare Advantage Insurers Pressed On AI Denials
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are calling on the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage insurers to provide internal records and detailed information on their use of artificial intelligence to block rehabilitative care. (Ross and Herman, 7/15)
CYCLOSPORIASIS OUTBREAK
MedPage Today: CDC Says Cyclosporiasis Outbreaks In Multiple States May Be Linked
Cyclosporiasis outbreaks in four states are likely epidemiologically linked, part of an unusually large wave of cases in at least 34 states, CDC officials said. While the agency still hasn't identified a specific culprit behind the likely foodborne illnesses, cases in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia are likely part of a single outbreak, said Gwen Biggerstaff, ScD, deputy director of CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. (Rudd, 7/14)
Reuters: Yum's Taco Bell Removes Select Items, Says No Confirmed Link To US Cyclosporiasis Outbreak
Yum Brands’ Taco Bell said on Tuesday it had removed limited items from some restaurants as a precaution but said U.S. health officials have not linked the widening outbreak of cyclosporiasis to the chain or any specific food product. “Public health officials have not confirmed a link to Taco Bell or any specific ingredient, supplier, restaurant or retailer,” Taco Bell said. The chain said it would continue to monitor the situation closely and follow the guidance of public health authorities. (7/14)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Modern Healthcare: Sanford Health To Sell Hospital To UW Health
UW Health has entered a definitive agreement to buy a Wisconsin medical center from Sanford Health’s Marshfield Clinic region. The acquisition of Marshfield Medical Center-Beaver Dam is slated to close by November, a Sanford spokesperson said. Financial details and agreement terms were not disclosed. (DeSilva, 7/14)
MedPage Today: Primary Care Needs More Attention And Investment, CMS Officials Say
Healthcare payers, including the federal government, aren't investing enough in primary care, said experts during a conference sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) on Tuesday. Without that investment, there are "consequences in terms of [detecting] disease and initiating lifestyle change, and consequences in the chronic disease burden that we see in America," including obesity, said Abe Sutton, director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. (Frieden, 7/14)
CNN: Why More Than 1 In 4 Gen Zers Don’t Have Primary Care Doctors
A yearly physical is the standard preventive measure for adults, but many Gen Z patients are forgoing regular doctor appointments. More than 1 in 4 young adults don’t have a primary care provider, according to a recent national survey by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. (Galinato, 7/14)
The Baltimore Sun: Northwestern Performs Rare Quadruple-Organ Transplant On Woman Who Previously Had Lung Transplant
Before she went into surgery, Elizabeth Wehrle knew that doctors wanted to transplant four new organs into her body. She didn’t know, at the time, that the operation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital was potentially the first of its kind in the country — a quadruple-organ transplant performed on a person who had already had a previous lung transplant. (Schencker, 7/14)
The New York Times: Leonard Abramson, Health Care Innovator And Philanthropist, Dies At 93
Leonard Abramson, a former pharmacist who built U.S. Healthcare, one of the first health maintenance organizations, and who used some of the nearly $1 billion he received from selling it to give generously to cancer research and other medical causes, died on July 4 at his home in Blue Bell, Pa. He was 93. His daughter Judith Abramson Felgoise confirmed the death.Mr. Abramson started U.S. Healthcare at the right time: two years after the passage of the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, which encouraged the growth of H.M.O.s to fight spiraling medical costs. (Sandomir, 7/14)
PHARMACEUTICALS
Stat: FTC Settles Lawsuit With CVS Caremark Over Insulin Prices
The Federal Trade Commission settled a lawsuit against CVS Caremark, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S., over allegations that the company artificially inflated the price of insulin and impeded access to the lifesaving diabetes treatment. (Silverman, 7/14)
Stat: Sales From Controversial U.S. Drug Discount Program Rose To $100B Last Year
Prescription medicines purchased in the U.S. under a controversial government discount program amounted to $100 billion in 2025, a 22.8% increase from the previous year, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the program. (Silverman, 7/14)
Stat: A New Biotech Startup Tries To Tackle Obesity, But Not In The Way You Might Expect
A new startup is making a bold move in the world of obesity drug development: It’s not working with the GLP-1 target that has taken the world by storm. (DeAngelis, 7/15)
DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER'S
The New York Times: ‘Sully,’ ‘Miracle On The Hudson’ Pilot, Announces Alzheimer’s Diagnosis
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot known as Sully who guided a passenger jet to a water landing in 2009 in what became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” after he saved 155 lives, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he said in a statement on Tuesday. The diagnosis is “early stage,” he said, adding: “I am in the beginning of this long journey.” (Cerro, 7/14)
STATE WATCH
AP: Wildfire Smoke Will Engulf Swaths Of The US This Week
Heavy smoke from several large wildfires blazing in Canada and Minnesota is expected to engulf large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. this week, exposing millions of people to dangerous air pollution. Minnesota officials issued an air quality alert from Tuesday through Friday for areas including the Twin Cities metro area, Alexandria and Two Harbors, with very heavy smoke expected across the state’s northeastern corner as large wildfires spread. Air quality levels in Two Harbors, the Tribal Nation of Grand Portage and other regions in northeast Minnesota were expected to reach hazardous levels, making it unsafe for everyone. (Pineda and Ganun, 7/15)
CNN: Dozens Of New York Cooling Towers Test Positive For Legionnaires’ Bacteria As Outbreak Reaches 60 Cases
New York City is managing a community cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases on the Upper East Side that officials believe is tied to bacteria found in cooling towers. Towers on 76 buildings on the Upper East Side have tested positive for the bacteria, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Tuesday. (Christensen, 7/14)
inewsource: San Diego County Sheriff Not Answering 911 Calls Fast Enough
In 2025, 1 in 4 911 callers waited more than 15 seconds before a San Diego County Sheriff's Office dispatcher picked up the phone. (Futterman, 7/14)
Capital & Main: California Lawmakers Target Price Gouging At ICE Detention Facilities
Immigrant detainees say they pay $20 for tampons and nearly $19 for instant coffee while earning only $1 per day through a federal work program. (Davis, 7/13)
The 19th and LA Public Press: Patients Accuse Tia Health Clinic Of Undetected Pregnancies, Surprise Bills
When Areli Ramos arrived for her appointment at the women’s health clinic Tia in June 2022, she was showing signs of pregnancy. Her ankles were swollen, and she had missed several periods. At Tia Inc.’s Scottsdale, Arizona clinic, providers performed a pelvic exam and collected urine and blood samples. Ramos assumed she was being tested for pregnancy. (Yehiya and Pulmano, 7/14)
AP: Lawsuit Claims Meta's AI Unfairly Targeted Employees On Leave
A group of 26 Meta employees has sued the company, claiming it used artificial intelligence systems to select people for layoffs, disproportionately targeting those on medical, parental or family leave. They are among the 8,000 employees, or about 10% of its workforce, Meta said it would lay off in May. The lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, claims the company used internal AI systems, keystroke and activity-monitoring data, AI token-usage dashboards and algorithmically assisted performance rankings, among other methods, to determine who would be laid off. (Ortutay and Olson, 7/15)
NBC News: Idaho Mother Charged With Killing Her Twins Is ‘Not A Vaccine Case,’ Prosecutor Says
An Idaho woman charged with killing her 18-month-old twins appeared in court Tuesday, where state prosecutors referred to evidence that they say demonstrates she suffocated the children. The case has drawn attention because the woman, Andrea Shaw, has publicly blamed vaccines for the twins’ deaths. (Bendix, 7/15)
GLOBAL WATCH
CIDRAP: Nigeria’s Lassa Fever Death Count Surpasses 2025 As Outbreak Worsens
Nigeria has recorded 221 deaths from Lassa fever since the beginning of the year, now surpassing the 190 fatalities recorded last year, officials from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) announced yesterday. (Soucheray, 7/14)
