First Edition: Wednesday, May 21, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: 3 Things To Watch On Mental Health In Trump’s Early Budget Proposals
Since President Donald Trump released his 2026 budget blueprint in early May, calling for $163 billion in federal spending cuts, much of the attention has focused on his slashing of foreign aid and boosting of border security. But the proposal also holds important clues — amid some mixed messages — about the administration’s approach to two pressing public health issues: mental health and addiction. (Pattani, 5/21)

KFF Health News: Trump Won’t Force Medicaid To Cover GLP-1s For Obesity. A Few States Are Doing It Anyway
When Page Campbell’s doctor recommended she try an injectable prescription drug called Wegovy to lose weight before scheduling bariatric surgery, she readily agreed. “I’ve struggled with my weight for so long,” said Campbell, 40, a single mother of two. “I’m not opposed to trying anything.” In early April, about four weeks after she’d started taking Wegovy, Campbell said she hadn’t experienced any side effects, such as nausea or bowel irritation. (Sausser, 5/21)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Sam Whitehead reads this week’s news: Using “elderspeak” with seniors can be harmful, and independent pharmacists worry tariffs could force them to close. Jackie Fortiér reads this week’s news: CPR and defibrillator training can give people the skills to help others survive cardiac arrest, and doctors are using telehealth to help thousands of patients each month access abortion care in states where it’s banned. (5/20)

COVID-19

The New York Times: F.D.A. Poised To Restrict Access To Covid Vaccines
The Food and Drug Administration will permit use of Covid vaccines by adults over 65 and those with certain medical conditions in the fall, but may require additional studies before approving the shots for healthy Americans younger than 65, agency officials said on Tuesday. At this point, the additional doses offer “uncertain” benefits to many young and middle-aged people who have already been vaccinated or have had Covid, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the F.D.A.’s vaccine division chief, and Dr. Martin Makary, the agency’s commissioner, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. (Jewett and Mandavilli, 5/20)

Stat: Worried Pediatricians Question New FDA Covid Vaccine Guidance 
A new framework for Covid-19 vaccines announced by Food and Drug Administration leaders Tuesday suggests the agency will no longer approve new Covid vaccines for healthy individuals under 65, including babies, without data from new randomized clinical trials showing their benefit. (McFarling, 5/20)

Newsweek: MAHA Influencer Slams Trump Admin COVID Vaccine Update—'Really Unfortunate'
The Trump administration announced a major change on Tuesday to U.S. COVID-19 vaccination policy: healthy children and younger adults will no longer be recommended to get an annual COVID-19 vaccine. While some celebrated the changes in recommendations, Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) influencer Diana Atieh was disappointed with the decision, as the vaccine is still recommended for other groups. (Mordowanec, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid Rates Are Low Right Now, But Doctors Are Vigilant For A Summer Rise
The Covid-19 virus in the U.S. has largely faded from view. But it hasn’t faded away. National wastewater data shows low Covid-19 activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The weekly reported Covid-19 deaths in April were slightly down compared with the same time a year earlier, federal data shows. Still, more than 300 Covid-19-related deaths were reported weekly as recently as mid-April. (Abbott, 5/20)

MEDICAID AND THE GOP 'MEGABILL'

Modern Healthcare: Trump Warns GOP Hardliners: 'Don't F*** Around With Medicaid'
President Donald Trump warned holdout House Republicans not to tank his top legislative priority by demanding deeper Medicaid cuts during a private session with GOP lawmakers Tuesday. According to Republicans who attended the meeting in the Capitol basement, Trump offered a simple message to hard-line conservatives threatening to vote against the bill: "Don't f*** around with Medicaid." (McAuliff, 5/20)

Fierce Healthcare: Catholic Health System Leaders Sound Alarm About Medicaid Cuts
Cutting funds to Medicaid will have a significant impact on people's access to care, a group of Catholic, nonprofit health systems said this week. In a Tuesday briefing hosted by the Catholic Health Association of the United States featuring members from Trinity Health, SSM Health, Providence and Ascension, hospital leaders referred to the “moral imperative” that they and Congress share to preserve the country’s safety net. (Gliadkovskaya, 5/20)

Axios: Tax Bill Would Cut Availability Of Med School Loans Amid Doctor Shortage
A little-discussed provision on student loan policies in President Trump's massive budget bill would restrict borrowing for medical school and possibly exacerbate the country's physician shortage. (Goldman, 5/21)

WHAT RFK JR. IS SAYING

NBC News: RFK Jr. Grilled On Health Department Funding Cuts At His 3rd Congressional Hearing This Month
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returned to Capitol Hill for his third congressional hearing in a week to face more heated questions from lawmakers about the drastic funding cuts his department has made as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to reduce the size of the federal government. Tuesday's hearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee centered on Trump's 2026 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services, and within minutes, lawmakers expressed concerns about specific programs and funding that would be cut if the proposed budget passes. (Lebowitz, 5/20)

CBS News: RFK Jr. Tells Farmers, GOP Not To Worry About His Report Targeting Pesticides
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought Tuesday to reassure farmers and one Republican senator about his upcoming report on how pesticides are driving up rates of childhood chronic diseases, acknowledging that chemicals like glyphosate that he has long criticized are widely used for growing crops in the U.S. "I have said repeatedly throughout this process, that we cannot take any step that will put a single farmer in this country out of business," Kennedy said at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "There's a million farmers who rely on glyphosate. 100% of corn in this country relies on glyphosate. We are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model." (Smith, 5/20)

Politico: RFK Jr. Calls For Global Health Cooperation Outside The World Health Organization
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday called on other countries to work with the U.S. on global health outside of the World Health Organization, as he rejected the pandemic agreement WHO members just adopted. “We want to free international health cooperation from the straitjacket of political interference by corrupting influences of the pharmaceutical companies, of adversarial nations and their [non-governmental organization] proxies,” Kennedy said in prerecorded video remarks aired Tuesday at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, an annual gathering of top health officials from WHO member countries. (Paun, 5/20)

Bloomberg: HHS Demands Drugmakers’ US Prices Match What Similar Nations Pay
The US Department of Health and Human Services is demanding that pharmaceutical companies cut drug prices to the lowest price offered to nations with economies that are similar to the US’s, the agency announced Tuesday. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened drugmakers with regulatory action if they do not lower their prices to be more in line with what other developed countries pay. As part of that announcement, the White House directed HHS to release details on what prices the administration is hoping to achieve. (Cohrs Zhang, 5/20)

JOE BIDEN'S CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Politico: Biden Disclosure On Cancer Test Undercuts Doubts On Diagnosis
Joe Biden hadn’t received a commonly used blood test to check for prostate cancer for more than a decade before his recent diagnosis, the former president’s office said Tuesday amid questions about his health while in the White House. Biden last received a prostate-specific antigen test to screen for prostate cancer in 2014, according to a brief statement. (Svirnovskiy, 5/20)

The Hill: 5 Things To Know About Kevin O'Connor, Biden's Doctor, After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
The news of former President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis is putting a spotlight on his physician, Kevin O’Connor, and whether he took adequate measures to monitor Biden’s health. Biden’s personal office said in a statement Sunday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer two days prior after he was “seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.” (Vakil, 5/20)

The New York Times: Joe Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Is A Familiar Scenario For Prostate Experts 
Some Americans say they don’t understand how former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could have only recently learned that he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had already spread to his bones. How could the former commander in chief, a man with access to high-quality medical care, not have known earlier that he had such a serious condition? Many prostate cancers are detected using a test called a PSA, and Mr. Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014, according to a spokesman, Chris Meagher. Guidelines from professional organizations that advise doctors and public health officials recommend against screening for men over age 70. Mr. Biden is 82. (Kolata, 5/20)

Stat: Biden’s Diagnosis Highlights Little-Noticed Rise In Late-Stage Prostate Cancers 
The cancer diagnosis former President Joe Biden received was difficult — stage 4 prostate cancer — but has become more and more common in recent years. This trendline, cancer experts said, is not widely known, even among physicians, and points to a need to dispel myths about prostate cancer screening. (Chen, 5/21)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

CIDRAP: Texas And Georgia Announce More Measles Cases
The Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) today reported four more measles cases since its last update on May 16 in the large outbreak centered in West Texas, bringing the outbreak total to 722. So far, 92 people have been hospitalized, and the number of deaths remains at two. Based on rash-onset dates, cases have been declining since a peak in mid-March. Active transmission is still under way in seven counties, mostly in West Texas. The exception is Lamar County in East Texas, which has reported 19 cases. (Schnirring, 5/20)

NBC News: Cucumbers Recalled After More Than 20 People Are Sickened In Salmonella Outbreak
The Food and Drug Administration announced a recall of cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales because of a multistate Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 20 people, including in California. The FDA said in a statement Monday that the cucumbers have been distributed to restaurants, wholesalers, retailers and distribution centers since April 29. The FDA is working to determine where the potentially contaminated vegetables were sold. (Alsharif, 5/20)

CIDRAP: Wisconsin To Begin Milk Sampling For H5N1 Avian Flu
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) announced yesterday that the state will soon begin mandatory monthly milk sampling for avian influenza as part of the National Milk Testing Strategy required by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA has been phasing in states for testing based on previous detections. Wisconsin is the nation’s second-biggest dairy producer and is among the 33 states that haven’t reported any H5N1 detections in dairy cattle. (Schnirring, 5/20)

CIDRAP: Family Likely Infected With Histoplasmosis In Bat-Colonized Cave
A new report describes how 12 members of an extended US family who toured a bat-colonized Costa Rican cave tied to a previous histoplasmosis outbreak returned with confirmed or likely cases of the fungal disease. Histoplasmosis, which primarily affects the lungs, is caused by inhaling Histoplasma spores from disturbed soil containing bat guano or bird droppings. Most people have no symptoms, but the disease can put infants and people with weakened immune systems at risk for severe illness that can be chronic or deadly if untreated. (Van Beusekom, 5/20)

CIDRAP: Multidrug-Resistant Shigella Outbreak In New Mexico Infected People, Primates
A paper published today in Nature Communications describes an outbreak of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Shigella in New Mexico involving humans and non-human primates (NHPs) from a local zoo. The outbreak of the highly infectious gastrointestinal condition, which stretched from May 2021 through November 2023, involved 202 Shigella flexneri serotype 2a cases identified by the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) in Bernalillo County, home to Albuquerque. (Dall, 5/20)

NBC News: Valley Fever In California: Climate Change Could Lead To More Fungal Infections
Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, is caused by inhaling coccidioides spores, a type of fungi endemic to the hot, dry climate of the southwestern United States. Climate change is creating drier soils that are inching farther east, expanding the range of the fungi. Valley fever is increasingly being diagnosed outside its usual territory and cases have been rising across the Western U.S. While Arizona still sees the highest number each year, California is closing the gap. (Sullivan, 5/20)

NPR: Diseases Are Spreading. The CDC Isn’t Warning The Public Like It Was Months Ago
To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it "conducts critical science and provides health information" to protect the nation. But since President Trump's administration assumed power in January, many of the platforms the CDC used to communicate with the public have gone silent, an NPR analysis found. Many of the CDC's newsletters have stopped being distributed, workers at the CDC say. Health alerts about disease outbreaks, previously sent to health professionals subscribed to the CDC's Health Alert Network, haven't been dispatched since March. (Eisner, 5/21)

MENTAL HEALTH

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Team Develops New Brain Injury Scale To Advance Concussion Care
A team of neurologists led by UCSF scientists has developed a new scale for assessing damage caused by brain trauma that could overhaul the field of concussion medicine and help doctors better treat patients with both the least and most severe injuries, including those who are comatose and considered near-death. Health providers have been using the Glasgow Coma Scale to assess brain injuries for more than 50 years. (Allday, 5/20)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

MedPage Today: Waiting Period Extends Abortion Wait Beyond Mandatory 24 Hours
Mandatory 24-hour waiting periods between consent and abortion visits often resulted in much longer waits than required, a prospective survey study found. The median interval between the two visits was 3 days (interquartile range 2-7), but for 32% of respondents the interval was more than 7 days and for 6% it was longer than 14 days, reported Ashley Brant, DO, MPH, a Cleveland-based ob/gyn, in a poster presentation at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) annual meeting. (Robertson, 5/20)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Bloomberg: The Man Who Built UnitedHealth Into an Industry Giant Now Has to Turn It Around
Stephen Hemsley never fully dropped the reins when he stepped down as UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s chief executive officer eight years ago. With the health giant in crisis, he’s taking back his old job – and confronting one of the toughest turnaround tasks any executive has ever faced. Widely credited with building UnitedHealth into the conglomerate it is today, Hemsley, 72, was reluctant to end his tenure as CEO in 2017, according to people familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity to describe internal company discussions. (Tozzi, 5/20)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Taps Dr. Creagh Milford As President Of Oak Street Health
Dr. Creagh Milford has been named president of CVS Health-owned primary care provider Oak Street Health. Milford succeeds Brian Clem, who joined Oak Street in 2015 and became president in 2019. Clem is leaving to spend more time with his family, a CVS Health spokesperson said. Milford will continue to be interim president of retail health at CVS until the company finds a replacement, the spokesperson said. (Hudson, 5/20)

Chicago Tribune: Sens. Durbin And Duckworth Question Prime Healthcare
Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth are questioning a California-based health system that recently bought eight Illinois hospitals, after cuts to services at several of those locations. The senators sent a letter to Prime Healthcare founder, chairman and CEO Dr. Prem Reddy on Tuesday expressing concern about the changes and asking him to answer questions about the health system’s plans. (Schencker, 5/20)

Modern Healthcare: FTC: Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe Must Limit Work With USAP
The Federal Trade Commission finalized a consent order Tuesday that requires private-equity owner Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe to minimize its work with U.S. Anesthesia Partners. The order also requires Welsh, Carson to notify the agency if it plans to acquire or invest in other anesthesia or hospital-based physician practices. The FTC filed a lawsuit against Welsh, Carson and USAP in September 2023 for allegedly violating antitrust laws. (DeSilva, 5/20)

Bloomberg: Blackstone Leads Bidding For $1 Billion AGS Health Deal
Blackstone Inc. is emerging as the frontrunner to acquire revenue cycle management provider AGS Health from private equity firm EQT AB, people familiar with the matter said. Blackstone has pulled ahead of other bidders and could reach a deal as soon as the coming days, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. A transaction could value AGS Health at $1 billion or more, according to the people. (Chew, Kalesh, and Baigorri, 5/20)

Modern Healthcare: Optum Health Struggles With CMS' V28 Change To Medicare Advantage
For two years, UnitedHealth Group told investors it was working through a key federal change to how Medicare Advantage insurance companies are paid. Now shareholders are wondering whether the industry giant was promising returns it couldn't deliver. In April, UnitedHealth disclosed that Optum Health's 2025 revenue would be $10 billion less than anticipated. The company attributed the reduction to new Medicare Advantage members whose health was improperly assessed by their former plan, a continued unanticipated rise in medical costs and a federal payment change announced two years ago. (Tepper, 5/20)

St. Pete Catalyst: Mayor Says Moffitt Cancer Center Still Has A Home In St. Petersburg
The city recently approved construction of apartment towers on downtown property once earmarked for Moffitt expansion. Mayor Ken Welch tells the St. Pete Catalyst the cancer institute is not out of picture. (Parker, 5/19)

PHARMA AND TECH

Modern Healthcare: Function Health, Prenuvo Go All In On Preventative MRIs
A new cohort of companies are selling preventative MRIs and blood tests directly to patients. Their pitches focus on extending patients’ lives by identifying tumors, cancers and other diseases earlier than traditional tests given by primary care clinicians during annual physicals. These longevity companies are part of digital health’s trendiest and most frequently funded categories attracting celebrity and established investors alike. (Turner, 5/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: Devicemakers Amplify Electric Fields For Cancer Treatment
Medical devicemakers are tapping into electric fields as a new treatment for cancer, The Wall Street Journal reported May 16. For decades, electricity has been used to treat cardiovascular conditions and serious mental illnesses, but companies are now pioneering how electric fields and pulses can be used in cancer care. (Twenter, 5/20)

AP: Markers In Blood And Urine May Reveal How Much Ultraprocessed Food We Are Eating
Molecules in blood and urine may reveal how much energy a person consumes from ultraprocessed foods, a key step to understanding the impact of the products that make up nearly 60% of the American diet, a new study finds. It’s the first time that scientists have identified biological markers that can indicate higher or lower intake of the foods, which are linked to a host of health problems, said Erikka Loftfield, a National Cancer Institute researcher who led the study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. (Aleccia, 5/20)

STATE WATCH

The Hill: Delaware Becomes 11th State To Allow Assisted Suicide
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer (D) signed legislation on Tuesday to legalize physician-assisted suicide for some terminally ill patients, making his state the 11th to allow medical aid in dying after nearly a decade of debate on the issue. “This law is about compassion, dignity, and respect,” Meyer said in a statement. “It gives people facing unimaginable suffering the ability to choose peace and comfort, surrounded by those they love.” (Crisp, 5/20)

St. Louis Public Radio: Experts Warn Of Lung Health Problems After St. Louis Tornado 
Days after a deadly tornado hit St. Louis, experts say health problems and risks can continue for victims left in a natural disaster’s path of destruction. That includes respiratory issues such as asthma flare-ups and pneumonia caused by debris kicked up during the storm and building materials from destroyed or damaged buildings. (Fentem, 5/21)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Emergency Management Head Placed On Leave
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer placed the head of the city’s emergency management agency on paid leave Tuesday following the failure to activate tornado warning sirens on Friday. Spencer put CEMA Commissioner Sarah Russell on paid administrative leave pending an external investigation into the actions of the emergency management agency when a deadly tornado ripped through the city, according to a statement the city released late Tuesday. (Ehrlich, 5/21)

CBS News: Most States Don't Require School Emergency Plans For Disabled Students. They Feel Left Behind And At Risk
More than 7.5 million U.S. public school students live with a disability, according to a federal Department of Education data. A CBS News analysis found nearly 6.3 million of them live in states that do not require schools to make specific emergency plans for students with disabilities. Kira Tiller, who now attends college in North Carolina, was always worried about that when she was younger. She has epileptic seizures that could be triggered by the flashing lights from fire alarms. She's not only concerned about real-world emergencies, but even fire drills back at her Northern Virginia high school. (Geller, Hanson, Kelly, Sherman and Beard, 5/20)

The 19th: USDA Program Connecting Small Farms With Food Banks Is Ending
Oaks and Sprouts, Tonni and Graham Oberly’s family farm, got the email from the Ohio Association of Foodbanks just after five o’clock on the first Friday in March. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, had notified the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that it was ending a program that gave state, tribal and territorial governments federal dollars to stock food pantries from farms within a 400-mile radius. (Becker, 5/20)

The Boston Globe: Mass. Emergency Shelter: Healey Used 'Unlawful' No-Bid Contracts
Governor Maura Healey’s administration did not “adequately” prepare for the escalating strain migrant and homeless families put on the state’s emergency shelter system in 2023, prompting officials to deploy ”unlawful" no-bid contracts to feed and transport children, women, and others, the state auditor’s office charged Tuesday. In a scathing 74-page report, Auditor Diana DiZoglio said state officials excessively relied on multimillion-dollar no-bid deals with vendors, unnecessarily driving up costs when the demand for shelter “could have been addressed through alternative means.” (Gross and Stout, 5/20)

The Boston Globe: Homelessness Among Seniors: Massachusetts' Hidden Crisis
Lisa Furr was mortified. She’d worked all her life, mostly as a personal health care assistant, and raised a family. But she suddenly found herself in her 50s without a home. She fled an abusive marriage three years ago, carrying what she could fit in one suitcase. Her weight and blood pressure shot up, her knees gave out, her ability to work declined, and, with little money, she resorted to alternately renting a room from a friend and couch surfing at her daughter’s home in Boston. (Lazar, 5/20)

CNN: Kennedy Said A ‘Team’ Is In Milwaukee To Help With Lead Contamination. The City Says That’s Not True 
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that the federal government has “a team in Milwaukee” helping the city address a lead crisis in its schools. The city says that that’s not true and that it’s still not receiving requested aid from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s childhood lead poisoning experts to deal with the ongoing contamination. (Goodman, 5/20)

GLOBAL WATCH

The Guardian: ‘World-First’ Gonorrhoea Vaccine To Be Rolled Out In England
A vaccine for gonorrhoea will be rolled out in England as part of a world-first programme, officials have announced. The move, hailed as a “landmark moment for sexual health”, will aim to tackle rising levels of the sexually transmitted infection (STI). Gonorrhoea cases in England topped 85,000 in 2023, the highest since records began in 1918, with warnings over some strains being resistant to antibiotics. (PA Media, 5/21)

The Washington Post: China Expands Global Influence With $500 Million WHO Donation
China has pledged to give $500 million to the World Health Organization as Beijing is set to replace the United States as the group’s top state donor, expanding China’s global influence in the wake of Washington’s retreat from international cooperation. Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong told the World Health Assembly (WHA) that his country was making the contribution to oppose “unilateralism,” a trait Beijing often ascribes to Washington as relations between the two powers deteriorate. (Kuo and Chiang, 5/21)