Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Uninsured But Undaunted, A Surgical Patient Searched The Globe For A Deal
Around the end of last year, Ronmel Rangel, 63, began to feel a familiar discomfort in his lower abdomen. Twenty-five years earlier, while living in his native Venezuela, he had undergone surgery to repair a hernia on the right side of his groin. Now, the same pain had returned — on the left. This time, Rangel was in the U.S. and lacked health insurance. In 2019, he moved to Portland, Maine, where one of his daughters lives. (Andalo, 7/29)
KFF Health News: Trump Has Quietly Throttled An Agency Devoted To The Safety Of American Healthcare
The Trump administration has effectively shut down most of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s activities, closing the spigot on federal funding estimated to have saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars over the past 27 years by improving medical practice. In a July 15 letter, the small Department of Health and Human Services agency known as AHRQ told researchers it was halting at least 104 grants, many aimed at improving patient safety. (Allen, 7/29)
KFF Health News: Hospice’s Bad Reputation Amid Fraud Crisis Will Hurt Patients, Industry Experts Warn
Mark Vantrease regularly sees his Vietnam War buddies over breakfast, attends his grandchildren’s Little League games, and, when he’s up to it, tends to his lush front-yard garden, which is dotted with shells retrieved from his abalone-diving days. Time is precious for him. Last year, doctors told the 76-year-old former truck driver that a combination of heart failure, lung disease, and liver damage had left him with only six months to live. “That was about 11 months ago,” Vantrease said in a May interview, smiling at having, for the moment, cheated death. (Udesky, 7/29)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
The New York Times: As Cyclospora Cases Climb, FDA Official Says Food Supply Is Safe
Even as the number of cyclospora cases in the United States hit record levels, top health regulators insisted that consumers could still trust what they were eating. “The U.S. food supply is safe,” Donald Prater, the acting deputy commissioner for food at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told attendees Monday at the annual meeting of the International Association for Food Protection. (Creswell, 7/28)
New Hampshire Public Radio: 33 Confirmed Cases Of Cyclosporiasis In NH, 2 Hospitalizations
There are now 33 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis in New Hampshire, according to the latest data from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. Seventeen of those cases are people who reported eating lettuce from locations that served recalled Taylor Farms products. All of those cases are linked to exposure to recalled lettuce at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, according to Jake Leon, spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services. (7/28)
The Baltimore Sun: Flesh-Eating Bacteria Vibrio Thrives As Chesapeake Bay Warms
A warming Chesapeake Bay may mean more days of swimming, but it brings a greater threat from a flesh-eating bacterium that thrives as the mercury rises. (Hille, 7/28)
CIDRAP: Public Health Alerts: Emergence Of Babesiosis In Nova Scotia, Canada
A Public Health Alerts report published today describes 11 cases of infection with Babesia, a genus of parasites transmitted by Ixodes ticks, in Nova Scotia since 2023, seven of which were confirmed last year. The paper also notes a potential detection—though not a confirmation—of Babesia among almost 11,000 blood samples from donors in the province. (Wappes, 7/28)
AP: Ebola Cases In Congo Top 3,200, Nearing Record Of The Country's Worst Outbreak
Confirmed cases in Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak have reached 3,262, its Ministry of Health said in an overnight update, nearly the same as the 2018-2020 outbreak that is the largest ever recorded in the country. Data from the Congolese health ministry showed that 1,437 patients have died out of the 3,262 cases, in what officials have said is the fastest Ebola outbreak on record, concentrated in the eastern Ituri province. (Bagalwa and McMakin, 7/28)
PHARMA AND TECH
Stat: Can Doctors Trust Clinical AI? The Complicated Issue Of LLM Benchmarks
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. doctors use clinical large language models, pitched by companies like OpenEvidence, Doximity, and UpToDate as an antidote to the dangers of hallucination-prone generalist models from Big Tech. Yet few studies have pitted them against each other — and this summer brought a high-profile head-to-head. (Palmer, 7/29)
Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Use AI To Grow Hospital-At-Home Programs
Health systems are rolling out artificial intelligence to simplify the process of determining which patients are best suited for hospital-at-home care, and the tools could grow programs and reduce readmissions. Hospitals typically refer patients to home-based acute care from the emergency department or during an in-facility stay. The programs free up beds for sicker patients, which helps boost profits. Technology that streamlines the patient selection process could encourage clinicians to make more referrals to hospital-at-home. Still, health systems are being cautious as they deploy AI. (Eastabrook, 7/28)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The Hill: Ex-Trump Health Official Dr. Brett Giroir Shocked By Fauci's 'Unabashed Narcissism' From Diaries
A former Trump health official on Tuesday slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci over his recently-released journal entries. “I’d like to see honesty and transparency and I’d like Tony to come clean with all the things that he’s really been caught in contradictions,” Dr. Brett Giroir, a former assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill,” discussing upcoming congressional testimony from Fauci. (Suter, 7/28)
MedPage Today: Stop 'Harassment' Of Fauci, Scientists Urge Politicians
Ahead of Anthony Fauci, MD, testifying before Congress on Wednesday, a group of 155 scientists, physicians, and public health advocates signed an open letter calling on elected officials to end the "vilification and harassment" of scientists. The letter states that the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are "waging a war on individual scientists, through public harassment, arrests, criminal indictment, and ongoing threats of prosecution." (Fiore, 7/28)
AP: Beshear Demands McConnell Prove Capacity To Serve Or Resign
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a rising national figure in the Democratic Party, is calling on the state’s Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to either prove that he is fit to continue serving after his lengthy hospital stay or resign from office. Beshear made the demand in a letter after McConnell’s office said Monday that the 84-year-old senator had not yet been medically cleared to leave the rehabilitation facility where he has been undergoing physical therapy. The office said he would miss a major Kentucky political event and upcoming Senate votes. (Cappelletti, 7/28)
The New York Times: Trump Will End Subsidies For Medicare Drug Premiums
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it intended to end a Biden-era program that for the past two years has helped tamp down the cost of monthly premiums for drug coverage for people on Medicare. The decision means that millions of Americans 65 and older could face higher Medicare drug premiums next year, when the cost of living is already a major concern. That could be politically damaging for Republicans in the midterm elections. (Robbins and Abelson, 7/28)
MedPage Today: Trump Administration Weighs Overhaul Of Doctor Payments In Medicare
The Trump administration is looking into alternatives to the current fee-for-service-based payment system for physicians who treat Medicare patients. The request for information issued on July 14 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) noted that the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding system, on which the Medicare reimbursement program is based, is owned by the American Medical Association (AMA). (Frieden, 7/28)
Politico: A Cancer Diagnosis May Not Be Enough: Trump And Democratic States Clash In Court Over Who’s Too Sick To Work
Democratic attorneys general and the Justice Department are facing off for the first time in court Tuesday over the fine line between being sick and being “medically frail,” a distinction that could cost Medicaid recipients their health benefits. At stake is a key part of a new Trump administration rule imposing work requirements on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurer for low-income people, starting in January. (Ollstein and King, 7/28)
Stat: DHS 4-Year Visa Limit For Foreign Scholars Puts U.S. Science At Risk
For nearly half a century, the federal government encouraged international students and scholars to study in the U.S. by allowing them to stay for the duration of their training — regardless of how many years it took. The Trump administration now plans to tear up that long-standing policy, fueling concerns in the research community that the U.S. could lose out on talented foreign scientists. (Wosen, 7/28)
Politico: State Department Will Dispense $600M For Vaccines RFK Jr. Held Up, Collins Says
The State Department will dispense the $600 million Congress appropriated to an international partnership helping developing countries buy and distribute vaccines, Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Tuesday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine safety skeptic, has held up the funding for months because he believes the partnership, Gavi, uses outdated and dangerous shots. (Paun, 7/28)
Stat: American Diabetes Association Faces Calls For Resignations
The expulsion of five diabetes experts from the American Diabetes Association meeting last month continues to reverberate, with more than 200 members now calling for two ADA leaders to resign. In response, the ADA delivered its own message Tuesday, expressing appreciation for members’ patience while a report is prepared. (Cooney, 7/28)
RESEARCH AND FUNDING
Becker's Hospital Review: HHS To Stop Funding ‘Dangerous’ Life Sciences Research
The federal government will stop funding what it determines to be “dangerous” gain-of-function research conducted in the U.S. and abroad after implementing a new policy. The “Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research” lands during broader upheaval in federal research funding. Between March and June 2025, the NIH terminated more than 2,500 grants and at least $3.2 billion in funding. Federal judges have ordered some of those cuts reversed. (Twenter, 7/28)
MedPage Today: NIH Funding Flows Slowly To Cancer Centers
Last year, National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers were worried about losing their status due to numerous delays in the grantmaking process. More than a year later, leadership at these centers said the situation is more stable -- but the funding is coming through much more slowly. (Fiore, 7/28)
CIDRAP: Reports Detail Scope, Impact Of Global HIV Funding Cuts
A trove of new reports highlights the scope of cuts to international funding for the HIV response in limited-resource countries, and the impact those cuts are having on the organizations that deliver HIV services. In a joint report published yesterday, KFF and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) found that donor government funding for HIV decreased by $2.1 billion, or 25%, in 2025 compared with the previous year. The decline reduced donor government funding for HIV to $6.2 billion, which is below pre-2008 levels, the report notes. (Dall, 7/28)
NPR: The 2026 International AIDS Conference Faces An Uncertain Future
"Rethink. Rebuild. Rise." That's the theme of this year's International AIDS conference, which began this week in Rio de Janeiro. "Rethink" is perhaps an understatement. This year, there are encouraging signs regarding the ongoing epidemic — even though 1.2 million people acquired the virus in 2025, the number of AIDS-related deaths was 547,000, the lowest number in 30 years. Yet the fate of the global campaign to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is now in doubt, as the Trump administration's aid cuts have taken a tremendous toll. (Bouscaren, 7/28)
PUBLIC HEALTH
Fierce Healthcare: American Red Cross Declares National Blood Supply Crisis
The American Red Cross declared Monday the second national blood supply crisis in its history, as the nonprofit says blood donations fell to a four-year summer low. The organization, which supplies roughly 40% of the nation’s blood, said it’s looking for all types of blood—with an emphasis on type O blood—to prevent treatment delays. Donations this summer are not “keeping pace with hospital demand,” with the Red Cross citing extreme heat, poor air quality and foodborne illnesses as factors in the low donor turnout. (Gleeson, 7/28)
Verite News: Many Of City’s Cooling Centers Closed Amid Dangerous Heat
New Orleans is facing dangerously hot conditions. With no rain and clear conditions expected throughout much of the week, temperatures are hovering in the mid-90s. Heat indices, or “feels like” temperatures in and around the city could soar to 115 degrees on Tuesday (July 28) and Wednesday, according to the National Service, which has issued an extreme heat warning for the area. ... For those without easy access to air conditioning at home or in a workplace, the city of New Orleans offers some refuge from the heat in the form of cooling centers — air conditioned public buildings open to anyone seeking relief. ... But on Tuesday afternoon, as the heat index neared 110 degrees in the city, a number of those sites were closed. (Chabrier, 7/28)
The New York Times: Prediction Market Betting On Drug Trials And Approvals Sparks Concern About Undermining Research
On the betting websites Kalshi and Polymarket, people can now wager on whether the Food and Drug Administration will decide this year to approve medicines for cancers of the lung, breast, pancreas and blood. Kalshi also plans to allow users to bet on whether drug trials will succeed. (Robbins, 7/28)
Sentient: Roundup’s Surprising Connection To Industrial Meat
For years, Bayer and the biotech giant it purchased, Monsanto, have faced allegations that glyphosate, the active ingredient in its popular herbicide Roundup, causes cancer. The saga has resulted in over 100,000 lawsuits, billions of dollars in settlement funds, a Supreme Court case and several actions by the Trump administration. But amidst the flurry of legal activity, few have stopped to ask a fundamental question: Why are we spraying so much glyphosate in the first place? The answer, in many cases, is animal agriculture. (Millstein, 7/28)
SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS
The New York Times: There’s A Way To Prevent Ovarian Cancer. Few Know About It
Kira Wynn will do almost anything to avoid ovarian cancer, which killed her mother. “My mom thought she’d pulled a muscle in her side,” Ms. Wynn said. Her mother’s doctor, she added, “told her to do physical therapy.” As is often the case with ovarian cancer, Ms. Wynn’s mother’s disease was already at an advanced stage when she was diagnosed. She died 10 months later. (Kolata, 7/28)
MedPage Today: FDA Staff Unconvinced Drug For Melanoma Shows Benefit
Another attempt to win accelerated approval for RP1 (vusolimogene oderparepvec) -- a melanoma drug candidate that's already been rejected twice by the FDA -- could face tough going at a meeting of FDA's outside experts this week. In a briefing document published in advance of Thursday's meeting of the Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee, FDA staff wrote that the phase II single-arm IGNYTE study -- submitted by Replimune to support accelerated approval of RP1 in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of advanced melanoma -- was not "an adequate and well-controlled investigation that demonstrates substantial evidence of effectiveness." (Bassett, 7/28)
MedPage Today: COVID Study Supports Antiviral Use In Kidney Transplant Recipients
Kidney transplant recipients with COVID-19 who received remdesivir (Veklury) early had a lower risk of graft loss, a target trial emulation study found. (Monaco, 7/28)
MedPage Today: Even Short Bouts Of Antipsychotics Linked To Diabetes Risk
Initiation of antipsychotic medications, even for short durations, was linked to an increase in the prevalence of pharmacologically treated type 2 diabetes in youths, according to a Dutch cohort study. (Firth, 7/28)
Newsweek: One Simple Test May Detect ALS Years Before It Starts
A discovery in the blood could bring researchers one step closer to a long-sought goal in the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Scientists have identified a group of proteins that begin to change months—or even years—before symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease appear, raising hopes that people at risk could one day be treated before irreversible nerve damage occurs. (Notarantonio, 7/28)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Modern Healthcare: Boston Scientific Restructuring Plan Targets Workforce Reductions
Boston Scientific Corp. is undertaking a three-year global restructuring that will include job cuts and relocation of some of its product manufacturing. The plan, the majority of which will be completed by 2029, is expected to result in pre-tax charges of about $700 million to $800 million, including an estimated $275 million to $300 million in termination benefits, the company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. (Dubinsky, 7/28)
Modern Healthcare: Wellstar Health System Layoffs Impact 761 Workers
Wellstar Health System laid off 761 corporate and administrative employees Tuesday to try to simplify operations and strengthen finances. The cuts impacted corporate and shared services functions, as well as certain administrative roles at its affiliated physician group, a spokesperson for the Marietta, Georgia-based organization said in a statement. Frontline care teams were not affected, the statement said. (Kacik, 7/28)
AP: Johnson & Johnson Seeks $5.5 Billion Of Long-Running Talc Lawsuits
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $5.5 billion to tie up remaining lawsuits that claim its talc products caused ovarian cancer. The drugmaker, which has been fighting talc-related lawsuits for more than a decade, said that the settlement is conditioned on at least 95% of remaining claimants participating. A U.S. bankruptcy court judge denied a $9 billion settlement proposed by company subsidiary Red River Talc last year that would have been one of the biggest mass tort settlements in history. Johnson & Johnson decided not to appeal that ruling and instead fight on in court. (Chapman, 7/28)
Modern Healthcare: Stryker, Medtronic, Edwards Lifesciences Take Aim At Care Gaps
Health systems have never had more technology at their fingertips, yet solving some of the most persistent challenges — such as timely diagnoses, treatment gaps and inconsistent outcomes — remains out of reach. Medtech companies including Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, Siemens Healthineers’ Varian, Olympus Corp. and Stryker Corp. are developing new technologies and strategies designed to overcome these barriers. (Dubinsky, 7/28)
Modern Healthcare: Cooper University Health Lands $100M Gift From George Norcross III
A $100 million gift to Cooper University Health Care and the MD Anderson Cancer Center affiliate partner it operates will go toward creating jobs and improving local training opportunities. The Camden, New Jersey-headquartered health system in a Tuesday news release announced the donation commitment from philanthropist George E. Norcross III. Cooper will direct the money to investments in Camden and its broader service area in southern New Jersey, the release said. (Eastabrook, 7/28)
Bloomberg: Centene Raises Profit Guidance After Strong Second-Quarter Results
Centene Corp. shares fell after the health insurer said it would take longer than planned to rebuild profits in its Medicaid business, a worrying sign that overshadowed an upbeat earnings report. The company also cut its outlook for Medicaid enrollment this year and said it lost more members in those than expected. Federal cuts to Medicaid are expected to accelerate in 2027. (Swetlitz, 7/28)
STATE WATCH
Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Cuts, ACA Subsidies Loss Worry Iowa Doctors
Doctors in Iowa, like in most in the country, don’t spend their days thinking about politics. But politics in Washington lately has focused on healthcare, and a lot of physicians have become acutely aware that policy flowing from the capital will make their lives and the lives of many patients worse. “Are those of us who are working clinically at the bedside mindful of the potential changes?” said Dr. Nick Kluesner, an emergency physician in Des Moines. “The answer is yes.” (McAuliff, 7/28)
WUSF: Ladapo Issues New Florida Guidance On Children’s Psychiatric Medications
New guidance from the Florida Department of Health urges providers to take a more comprehensive approach before prescribing psychotropic medications to children. The recommendations were released Friday in Orlando during a roundtable discussion on youth mental health hosted by state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. (Mayer, 7/28)
Iowa Public Radio: Sand Meets With Survivors And Advocates To Discuss Iowa’s Growing Cancer Rate
Democrat Rob Sand participated in the first of two roundtables directed at the state’s gubernatorial candidates on addressing Iowa’s high cancer rates. Iowa has the second highest rate of cancer in the country. It's a topic that’s become a major issue in the competitive race for the state’s next top official. (7/28)
Bloomberg: PE Firm Unloads Mental Health Chain Into Muni Bond Market
A Connecticut-based private equity firm plans to sell a chain of mental health centers and sober-living homes through a deal financed by municipal bonds. Clearview Capital, which buys lower-middle market companies, is selling the New Jersey-based Advantage Behavioral Health, just over a year after recapitalizing the company in partnership with its founders and management. (Braun, 7/28)
The Marshall Project: Missouri Executes Prisoners At High Rate Among Death Penalty States
For more than two decades, Vincent McFadden has been sitting on Missouri’s death row. He’s watched a steady stream of his friends get marched off to their executions — and he’s waiting for his own as he fights in court to spare his life. (Moore, 7/29)
Mississippi Today: Mississippi Is Getting Hotter. Experts Say It’s Hurting Moms And Babies
Going for nearly a year with broken heating and air conditioning has been miserable for Ashley Matthews. But the last few months have been unbearable – and potentially dangerous. Matthews, 27, is six months pregnant with her third child. (Paffenroth and Kenen, 7/28)
