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The public has until Oct. 22 to comment about the proposed changes that would cut the required eight hours off between shifts, reduce the rest period after a 24-hour in-house call to 12 hours, eliminate the rule that prohibits residents from being scheduled more than every third night over a four-week period, and revise night-float requirements, MedPage Today reported.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tapped five medical specialists to serve on the panel that decides what preventive services health insurers are required to cover. Past members were clinicians who served on the front end of care, not those who practiced specialized care after a diagnosis. “[P]reventive medicine does not stop at the boundaries of any one discipline," Kennedy said.
Each week, KFF Health News finds longer stories for you to enjoy. Today's selections are on alcoholism, Lyme disease, noise pollution, and more.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Editorial writers tackle these public health topics.
Each week, KFF Health News compiles a selection of health policy studies and briefs.
The initiative, started in 2008 in over 80 embassies across the globe, gathered data and made it publicly available, leading to better air quality. After the Trump administration shuttered the program in March 2025 citing monetary costs, air pollution levels measured via satellite increased by 24%-33%, researchers reported Monday in the journal PNAS.
The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others deprived Tierra Walker of her right to live after she was refused abortion care despite experiencing complications. "She did not think she would survive the pregnancy," according to the lawsuit.
The 12 independent pharmacies claim that the underpayments resulted from Express Scripts' system used to adjudicate claims, Healthcare Dive reported. Under Arkansas law, PBMs aren’t allowed to reimburse pharmacies less than their cost of acquiring a drug, but according to the complaint, the 12 pharmacies estimate they have been underpaid tens of thousands of times between August 2025 and the end of March 2026.
The agency has hired 1,050 staff since October 2025, and 956 new hires are “in the final stages of the hiring process,” an FDA spokesperson acknowledged to Stat. In other news, grant applicants allege in a lawsuit that the National Institutes of Health infringed on their First Amendment rights when it screened their work for terms that weren't in line with the administration's policy priorities.
The Apples to Apples Act would direct the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, to conduct an analysis of Medicare Advantage expenditures that excludes favorable selection, the idea that MA attracts healthier seniors to sign up compared to traditional Medicare. The change might make the math more favorable for insurers, Stat reported.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., pressed surgeon general nominee Nicole Saphier on how she would handle healthcare stances taken by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump. Although she personally expressed support, she would not renounce the administration's decisions. “The way to dispel confusion is not to sell more confusion,” Cassidy said.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers examine these public health issues.
The new analysis, which produced two interactive, county-level maps, came from the Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute and was shared exclusively with NPR. Plus: continued coverage of the Lindsay Clancy case; a donation from Walmart heirs to lower the maternal death rate; and more.
On Tuesday, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael Sachs ruled that parents asking about their child's gender identity must be told. It remains illegal in California for a school district to force teachers and staff to alert parents about their child’s gender identity unprompted, the Los Angeles Times reported.
A Montana state law will expand access to drugs that have not been deemed safe and effective by regulators and will rely on a privately run board to decide which treatments to offer. Montana will require that patients give informed consent, have the money to pay, and have a provider’s recommendation, Politico reported. Advocates of the new law worry that the FDA could penalize participating companies in the federal drug approval process.
The rate of uninsured kids has been rising since the end of the pandemic. Axios reported that policy experts aren't sure what's behind the increase in Western states seen in Census data for 2025, but one factor may be post-pandemic Medicaid eligibility redeterminations in some states.
The 18-year-old Mifflin County resident suffered a rare and severe neurological condition that causes inflammation in the brain, NBC News reported. Meanwhile, House Democrats want the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explain why it isn't counting the Pennsylvania deaths in its weekly tally.
Dr. Nicole Saphier is President Donald Trump's third pick to guide the American public through health concerns. Confirmation hearings also are set for Chris Klomp, tapped to serve as deputy secretary of HHS, and Dr. Timothy Westlake, nominated to become assistant secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use.
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