Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Nursing Home Beds Are Becoming More Scarce
The San Vicente de Paúl Nursing Home in the South Bronx hasn’t admitted a patient since December 2024. ArchCare, which operates the facility, has reduced its capacity from 120 available beds to 53 and plans to shrink it further. Another ArchCare nursing home, on Staten Island, has shut down a full floor. North of the city, in Dutchess County, its Ferncliff Nursing Home has contracted from 309 available beds to 196. (Span, 9/23)
KFF Health News: Economic Frustration Tests Trump’s Standing With Rural Voters, New KFF-AP Poll Finds
About half of rural American voters believe the economy is worse off now than when President Donald Trump returned to office, according to a new survey that points to economic frustration among a key group that has backed Trump and other Republicans in recent elections. The poll of more than 2,000 rural registered voters by The Associated Press in partnership with KFF found broadly negative views on the national and local economies, including from many Republicans. The costs of groceries, gas, and healthcare rank as top pain points for the rural voters, who were surveyed over two weeks starting in mid-August. (Tribble, Swenson and Sanders, 9/23)
COVERAGE AND ACCESS
The New York Times: Trump Officials Eject 750,000 From Obamacare Markets, Claiming Fraud
The Trump administration has ejected more than 750,000 enrollees from the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces, Vice President JD Vance announced on Tuesday, claiming that many were receiving premium subsidies they did not qualify for and that some were not real people. “We’re actually making sure that the people receiving Obamacare subsidies are actually entitled to receive them,” Mr. Vance said at a news conference, using a different name for the health law. He estimated that removing the targeted enrollees would save the government $2.2 billion. (Sanger-Katz, Kliff and Rowland, 9/22)
Modern Healthcare: CMS Freezes Exchange Broker Enrollment
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will not permit new agents and brokers to register for health insurance exchange enrollment under an interim final rule published Tuesday. The freeze on new marketers servicing the exchanges applies to the federal exchanges accessed via HealthCare.gov but not state-run marketplaces. Agents and brokers who registered for the 2026 plan year may continue assisting consumers when the 2027 open enrollment period opens in November. (Young, 9/22)
IMMIGRATION CRISIS
AP: Costa Rican Man With Diabetes Dies In ICE Detention In Louisiana
A 36-year-old Costa Rican man whose family says he complained of missing insulin shots and meals to manage his diabetes is the third detainee to die in less than six months at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana. Carlos Josue Marchena Marchena was found unresponsive Sept. 18 at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, ICE said in a statement. It said staff began lifesaving measures before he was taken by ambulance to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. (Brook and Pineda, 9/22)
The Washington Post: ICE Officer In Texas Shooting Was Recruit Not Using A Body Camera
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Venezuelan man in Austin over the weekend is a recruit who was issued a body camera but was not using it during the incident, according to two former Department of Homeland Security officials briefed on the matter. The officer had previously worked at another federal law enforcement agency and joined ICE during DHS’s hiring spree last year, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. (Nakamura and Sacchetti, 9/22)
The Texas Tribune: Quick Hospital Release Of Venezuelan Shot By ICE Raises Questions
About four hours after Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was admitted to an Austin hospital with a gunshot wound, the Venezuelan man was discharged Sunday and taken 135 miles south to an immigration detention center where some detainees have complained about inadequate medical care. (Garcia, Leggio and Nguyen, 9/22)
ON CAPITOL HILL
The Hill: Susan Collins Urges White House To Drop Plan For National Institutes Of Health Grant Oversight
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday urged Trump administration officials to not proceed with an executive order that would give the White House political control over scientific grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Collins noted that the stopgap government funding bill passed earlier this month blocked a similar proposal that sought to give political appointees broader authority over approving federal research grants to ensure they meet the president’s priorities. (Weixel, 9/22)
AP: Sen. Bernie Sanders Unveils Bill To Ban Artificial Superintelligence
Two leading progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, are unveiling legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI as some of the industry’s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology. The bill, provided first to The Associated Press, would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are endorsing the bill. (Cappelletti, 9/23)
Axios: Why Congress Can't Avoid Medicare Cuts To Docs
Congress may be going home to campaign — but not before laying the groundwork for possible changes to how Medicare pays doctors. Wary of yet another headache for patients and physicians, lawmakers are growing more receptive to addressing a long-running complaint about the way the program reimburses physicians. That would be a departure from Congress' perennial practice of passing short-term funding patches, or doc fixes, to offset scheduled cuts. (Bettelheim, 9/23)
TRANSGENDER CARE
AP: Hospitals Agree Not To Offer Care For Transgender Minors
At least six major hospitals have agreed to refuse gender-affirming hormones and surgery for transgender young people and agreed to make payments to the federal government, according to deals with the Department of Justice. The most recent agreements came last week. Most of the hospitals had already stopped offering the treatments because of state bans or previous pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration. (Mulvihill, 9/22)
The Colorado Sun: Judge Says Children’s Hospital Not In Contempt In Gender-Affirming Care Case
A Denver judge Tuesday night sided with Children’s Hospital Colorado after attorneys for young transgender patients had sought to hold the hospital in contempt of court. (Ingold, 9/22)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
NBC News: Supreme Court Declines To Intervene In Custody Case Involving Newborn With Heart Condition
Justice Elena Kagan on Tuesday rejected a request for the Supreme Court to get involved in the case of a surrogate enmeshed in a multistate custody battle with California parents who at one point asked her to abort the fetus because of a heart defect. McKenna West gave birth to the couple’s baby in Texas last month and argued in court there that California denied her due process when it awarded custody of the child, whom she named Gabriel, to his genetic parents. (Gregorian, 9/22)
San Francisco Chronicle: Bill Sought To Shore Up Newsom's Abortion Access Plan; He Vetoed It
One of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most reliable allies, abortion rights advocacy groups, are issuing a rare rebuke of the governor after he vetoed a bill that would have extended California’s abortion shield laws and expanded legal protections for gender-affirming care. Assembly Bill 2164 by Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, aimed to codify the state’s landmark protections for medical professionals providing abortion health care to out-of-state patients. (Palmer, 9/22)
CANCER
MedPage Today: U.S. Cancer Mortality Declined 35% Since 1991, AACR Report Shows
The overall cancer mortality rate in the U.S. declined by 35% between 1991 and 2024, resulting in almost 5 million cancer deaths averted, according to the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Progress Report. That decline was largely driven by decreased smoking rates and an ensuing decline in lung cancer deaths, a trend that accelerated due to advances in early detection and treatment. (Bassett, 9/22)
CIDRAP: Drug Shortages Disrupt Care At Leading US Cancer Centers
All 31 leading cancer centers responding to a new survey reported shortages of at least one cancer drug, and nearly two-thirds said they resorted to mitigation strategies to keep patients on their recommended treatments. But in many cases, those mitigation strategies weren’t enough. Ninety percent of centers reported that treatment plans had to be modified because of drug shortages, creating additional insurance hurdles that may have delayed care. (Bergeson, 9/22)
Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Expand Theranostics Programs For Cancer Treatment
Medicine typically offers surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy to treat cancer. Now, more providers are offering theranostics, an emerging targeted treatment approach. Major academic medical centers like Mayo Clinic, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UChicago Medicine have established theranostics programs, and community hospitals and outpatient cancer clinics are getting on board too. (Dubinsky, 9/22)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
MedPage Today: CDC, Epidemiologists Work On Definition For Measles Deaths
The CDC is indeed working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) on a definition for measles deaths, but the initiative was launched earlier this year and it was not at the request of the CDC. That's according to CSTE spokesperson Amy Heldman, MPH, who explained that a CSTE workgroup was launched earlier this summer "to develop future guidance to inform measles epidemiology case investigations associated with deaths." (Fiore, 9/22)
San Francisco Chronicle: Amtrak Passenger With Measles Traveled On These California Trains
A detailed California itinerary of the person who may have exposed other Amtrak passengers to measles this month included train travel from Sacramento to Emeryville on Sept. 13, and a departure from Emeryville on Sept. 14, Alameda County health officials said Tuesday. The passenger, who was unvaccinated and later hospitalized with measles, had been traveling through six California counties on their way to Colorado, state health officials said last week. They originally arrived in Los Angeles on Sept. 10, by train from Chicago. (Ho, 9/22)
ABC News: LA County Sees Highest Number Of West Nile Virus Cases In Nearly A Decade
Los Angeles County is seeing the highest number of West Nile virus cases in nearly a decade, health officials said Monday. The county has reported 100 cases so far this year. This is the highest figure since 2017 when 268 cases were recorded for the entire season. The number of current cases is also greater than the five-year average during the same period, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LA County DPH). (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 9/22)
CIDRAP: CDC Confirms 37-Case Multistate Hepatitis A Outbreak Linked To Frozen Clams
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced late last week that a multistate hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen clams has sickened at least 37 people. So far cases have been identified in four states, Massachusetts (three cases), Minnesota (three), New York (27), and Pennsylvania (four). No deaths have been reported but 30 people have required hospitalization. Illness-onset dates range from July 30, 2025, to June 23, 2026. (Soucheray, 9/22)
The Hill: Walmart Recalls Pasta Due To Listeria Concerns
Pasta sold at Walmart locations nationwide is being recalled over possible listeria contamination, according to a notice posted by the Food and Drug Administration. New York-based Gias Foods said it is recalling two lots of bettergoods brand Authentic Italian Lemon Alfredo Fettuccine, distributed nationwide at Walmart Inc. stores. The product, which is frozen in 22-ounce packages with the UPC number 194346442706, has lot numbers L6079C or L6080C and expiration dates of Sept. 19, 2027, or Sept. 20, 2027. (Swaim, 9/22)
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
The New York Times: Hayden Panettiere Died From Toxic Effects of Fentanyl and Other Drugs
The actress Hayden Panettiere died from a toxic mixture of the powerful opioid fentanyl, antipsychotic and anti-anxiety drugs and muscle relaxants, the Greenville County Coroner’s Office said on Tuesday, adding that her death was ruled an accident. An autopsy showed no signs of trauma that would have contributed to the death, the coroner’s statement said. According to Dr. Kevin Simon, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the drugs found in Ms. Panettiere’s system represented a potentially “deadly combination.” (Taylor, 9/22)
NBC News: Sober Home Where Presley Gerber Died Is Not Required To Be Licensed Like Rehab Facilities
The Southern California facility where the 27-year-old son of supermodel Cindy Crawford died Sunday following a suspected overdose appeared to operate as a sober living home and was not required to be licensed by the state agency that regulates substance-use treatment centers. (Burke, Deverson and Madani, 9/22)
NBC News: Kratom Found At Locations Where Two Ole Miss Students Were Discovered Dead
Two University of Mississippi students died this week and packaged kratom was found during the separate death investigations, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Authorities said they have not confirmed that kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor in either death. (Helsel, Arcodia and Solis, 9/22)
Stat: Kratom Withdrawal A Growing Problem For Addiction Clinics
Addiction clinics around the country are seeing a growing number of cases related to gas station products made from the kratom leaf and its derivatives. At the telehealth addiction clinic Boulder Care, for example, people who report using kratom products constituted 3% of all new patients in September 2025. By July 2026, that number was 8%, and in August, it jumped to 14%. (Gaffney, 9/21)
Cardinal News: Psychedelics As Treatment For Cocaine Addiction? A Roanoke Doctor Won A Federal Grant To Study The Possibilities.
Could there be magic in some mushrooms? Carilion Clinic researchers are studying whether psilocybin — the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms” — could help people with addiction. (Schabacker, 9/23)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals Urge Minimal Disruption As CMS Trims Provider Taxes
Hospitals are urging the Trump administration to implement Medicaid provider taxes as outlined in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act “with the least possible disruption,” with calls this week to more closely stick to statute and existing policy in order to limit administrative burden and uncertainty. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in July shared its proposed rule addressing the process states use to draw healthcare funds from the federal government—namely a matched tax on providers and Medicaid managed care companies that’s later returned to providers. (Muoio, 9/22)
Stat: UnitedHealth, CVS Push Back On Medicare Plan To Curb RPM
Major insurers are pushing back on a Medicare proposal that would significantly disrupt how many doctors bill for tracking the health of patients using devices like connected blood pressure cuffs, scales, and blood glucose meters. These remote monitoring services help patients manage a range of medical conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure. (Aguilar, 9/23)
Healthcare Dive: Texas Hospitals Sue Independence Blue Cross Over Denied Claims
Five Texas hospitals are suing Pennsylvania insurer Independence Blue Cross, a local licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, for failing to pay more than $345,000 in claims between 2022 and 2024. The hospitals, which are all affiliated with HCA Healthcare, argue that IBX wrongfully denied or underpaid claims for medically necessary services to eight of its members based on lack of authorization, lack of medical necessity and coding issues, even for emergency services. (LaPointe, 9/22)
Stat: Quorum’s Hospitals Are Going Nonprofit – And Adding 30% More Debt
When Greg Kiser gave the mayor and county judge a heads up about a change underway at his hospital, they responded with sighs of relief. One of the town’s biggest employers wasn’t closing. (Bannow, 9/23)
Cardinal News: State Program To Boost Virginia's Nursing Workforce Relaunches With $4.8 Million To Award
A program designed to bolster the state’s healthcare workforce by providing financial assistance to nursing programs has been restarted after the management of the program was shifted to the newly created Virginia Nursing Workforce Center. (Schabacker and Beyer, 9/23)
The Baltimore Sun: St. Agnes Nurse Challenges Union Over Nonmembers’ Contract Voting Rights
A nurse at Ascension Health’s St. Agnes Hospital filed a complaint Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board challenging a union tactic she alleges is designed to coerce workers into signing union membership and dues cards. (Castaneda, 9/23)
PHARMA AND TECH
Stat: FDA, NIH Unveil New Rules To Reduce Animal Testing In Drug Development
For the second time this year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new set of strategies to speed a shift toward human-based research methods and reduce the use of animals in medical testing. (Silverman, 9/22)
The New York Times: Many Americans Use GLP-1 Drugs Without A Medical Reason, Study Shows
A large new study confirms what many people have long suspected: A sizable number of people taking drugs like Ozempic have no medical reason to do so. The study, an analysis of the medical records of more than 92 million U.S. adults, identified more than 1.1 million who were taking GLP-1 medications, without any record of an issue that would make them eligible, like obesity or diabetes. While the researchers didn’t examine why people took these medications, doctors said many people are probably using them simply to shed some pounds or in the hope they might deliver other, buzzy potential benefits. (Blum, 9/22)
Modern Healthcare: Epic Systems Pauses Product Development To Focus On Cybersecurity
Epic Systems has paused most of its technology development while it ensures its systems are secure and not vulnerable to cyberattacks. The move involves hundreds of projects, company founder and CEO Judy Faulkner said while speaking at Modern Healthcare’s Leadership Summit Tuesday. Faulkner said the decision was a “shame,” although she suspects work is continuing in some development areas. (Famakinwa, 9/22)
Bloomberg: Apple Developing New Fitness Tracker Aimed At Rivaling Whoop
Apple Inc. is developing a screenless health and fitness tracker similar to Whoop Inc.’s wrist-worn device, part of an effort to rethink its smartwatch lineup and add new wearable technologies. The company has been exploring the category for several months and is now developing prototypes, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The effort has support from top executives, but Apple hasn’t decided whether to release the product, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is confidential. (Gurman, 9/22)
STATE WATCH
The Texas Tribune: Texas Ordered To Air Condition All Prisons By The End Of 2029
A federal judge has ordered Texas to air condition all of the state’s lockups, which the prison agency said could cost $1.5 billion, by the end of 2029. (Nguyen, 9/22)
Roll Call: Settlement Of Camp Lejeune Case Shows Dilemma Facing Many Victims
Among the thousands of victims of contaminated drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune was a woman with the ironic name of Mary Freshwater, who was raising her family at the North Carolina base in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when toxins in the water were at their peak. (Magner, 9/22)
AP: Illinois EPA Releases Plan To Reach ‘Net Zero’ Emissions
A new report says Illinois has made significant strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants such as Illinois has made substantial progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in recent years, but it is not yet on track to meet its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. That’s the conclusion of a new Comprehensive Climate Action Plan released this month by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. (Hancock, 9/22)
Bloomberg: MTA Seeks Higher Health Insurance Contributions From NYC Transit Workers
New York City’s transit system wants its subway and bus workers to pay a greater share of health insurance costs, as the parties negotiate a new wage agreement. The contract between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the city’s subway, buses and commuter rails, and the Transport Workers Union Local 100, representing about 40,000 MTA transit employees, expired in May. The MTA is seeking to limit increases in labor expenses as the nation’s largest transit system already faces an estimated $900 million budget deficit by 2030. (Kaske, 9/22)
AP: Foster Kids Now Have An Alternative To Staying In State Offices
Foster children without placements are no longer sleeping in government offices or hotels thanks in part to a new residential program launched by the Department of Human Services last month to help temporarily house and rehabilitate the most difficult-to-place youth. The issue of kids sleeping in offices and hotels has plagued the department for years and even sparked the creation last year of an internal task force aimed at finding alternative solutions after Civil Beat wrote about it for a second time. (Valera, 9/22)
PUBLIC HEALTH
Newsweek: Scientists Tracked 3.7 Million Births—One Rare Factor Was Linked To Autism
Children exposed to rare infections in the womb may face a higher risk of autism and intellectual disability, according to a major new study. Researchers from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet found that babies born with congenital TORCH infections were about three times more likely to later be diagnosed with autism compared with children who were not infected. (Gray, 9/23)
MedPage Today: Pediatric Acute Kidney Injury Cases Increased Tenfold Over Past 25 Years
Hospitalizations complicated by acute kidney injury (AKI) surged among patients in pediatric units or children's hospitals over the past 25 years, a large retrospective study indicated. (Monaco, 9/22)
The New York Times: C.T.E. Can’t Be Detected In The Living. New Brain Research Offers Hope
How do you fight an illness you can’t diagnose?In recent years, hundreds of people, most of them professional football players, have been diagnosed with C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is associated with repeated impacts to the head. But in every case, the diagnosis has been made through an autopsy. The inability to confirm the presence of the disease in living patients has been an enormous impediment to finding treatments for their memory loss, volatile mood swings and erratic behavior. (Jacobs, 9/22)
