Massachusetts Scores Big With ARPA-H Hub
Research universities, hospitals, and life sciences companies collectively received $276 million in federal funds after the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health opened in Cambridge last fall. In other news: The nationwide McDonald's E. coli outbreak is officially over.
The Boston Globe:
Health Agency ARPA-H Brings $276 Million To Mass. In First Year
When state officials celebrated the announcement that a new federal health agency would be coming to Cambridge, they boasted that it could bring an influx of research dollars for the state’s life sciences sector. After a year in operation, we now have an idea of just how much money has come this way. A tally by ARPA-H for The Boston Globe shows that various companies and nonprofits in the state have collectively received $276 million in federal funds, out of more than $2 billion in allocations, since September 2023 — essentially ARPA-H’s first year. (Chesto, 12/3)
AP:
Are You A Former SmileDirectClub Customer? You Might Be Eligible For A Refund
When SmileDirectClub shut down a year ago, scores of existing customers of the teeth-straightening company were left in limbo. Now, tens of thousands are set to get some relief. New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that her office recovered $4.8 million to distribute nationwide to more than 28,000 consumers. SmileDirectClub illegally charged those customers after it ceased operations, James said. (Grantham-Philips, 12/3)
Orange County Register:
Embattled California Addiction Treatment Empire Countersues Aetna In $40 Million Tug-Of-War
Nathan Young and his addiction treatment empire have mounted a full-throated defense of how they do business, turning the tables on Aetna — their accuser — by asserting that the insurance giant greedily endangers addicts’ lives by cutting treatment short. “In addiction treatment, more is generally better,” the counterclaim by Young and associates filed on Thanksgiving eve said. “Decades of research point to longer treatment as the number one predictor of a successful addiction treatment outcome. (Sforza, 12/3)
CBS News:
Colorado Mental Health Program Gives New Option For Outpatient Suicide Prevention
A new mental health treatment option in Boulder is working to lower suicide rates. The Hope Institute has already helped people stay out of the hospital for mental health crisis in other parts of the country and now the organization is aiming to do the same in Colorado. (Horbacewicz, 12/3)
The Hechinger Report:
School Buses Came To The Rescue For A Hurricane-Battered Health Company And The Parents Who Work There
It was 5:45 a.m. when three buses with “McDowell County Schools” painted on their sides rumbled through the mist into the gravel lot at Sandy Andrews Park. Starlight revealed the silhouettes of large oak trees lying on their sides, ripped from the earth by a storm that had dropped 40 trillion gallons of water across the Southeast just five weeks earlier. When the buses filled up over the course of an hour, it wasn’t with students. Instead, adults who work at the local plant of Baxter International, a medical supply company that produces 60 percent of the United States’ bags of intravenous fluid, filed in to get dropped off at the factory, whose parking lot had been destroyed by flooding. (Gilreath, 11/28)
KFF Health News:
Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Some hospitals are rethinking IV hydration amid a nationwide IV fluid shortage, and rattlesnake antivenom is cheap to make but expensive to receive. (12/3)
Also —
CNBC:
CDC Says McDonald's E. Coli Outbreak Is Over
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said the deadly E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions served at McDonald’s is over, more than a month after the agency began its probe of the spread. The CDC said 104 people in 14 states were infected in the outbreak. It led to 27 hospitalizations and one previously reported death of an older adult in Colorado. (Constantino and Lucas, 12/3)
