Modern Healthcare: Congress Passes Budget, Teeing Up Huge Healthcare Cuts
Congress paved the way for deep cuts in healthcare spending as part of an effort to extend expiring tax cuts on Thursday. The House voted 216-214 to adopt the final version of the fiscal 2026 budget resolution, with GOP Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) joining the Democratic minority in opposition. This followed a Senate vote to approve the budget on Monday and a House vote in February on the lower chamber's first draft of the measure. (McAuliff, 4/10)

Stat: House Conservatives Cave On A Key Demand, Decreasing Threat Of Medicaid Cuts
House Republicans’ struggles to pass a tax cut plan could be good news for the Medicaid program. (Wilkerson, 4/10)

Mountain State Spotlight: West Virginia’s Republicans Said They Wouldn’t Cut Medicaid. Then They Voted To Cut Medicaid.
In early March, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito looked into the camera and told anyone watching that she wouldn’t kick any West Virginians off Medicaid. “I want to make sure that our benefits are still there for that 500,000 people,” Capito told WCHS. For his part, Sen. Jim Justice told Axios last month that he had concerns about cuts to Medicaid, which serves nearly 30% of the state’s population. Last weekend, Capito and Justice voted to move along a budget plan that would require $880 billion in cuts over the next decade, largely to Medicaid. When offered an amendment to prevent those cuts, the two Republicans voted with their party against it. (Culvyhouse, 4/10)

Politico: The Surprising Pair Fighting Medicaid Cuts
Republicans have managed to unite two health industry sectors normally at war — insurers and hospitals — by threatening to cut Medicaid. Lobbyists for both industries, faced with the prospect of losing billions of dollars in fees, are scrambling to convince lawmakers that tens of millions of low-income Americans who rely on the program will suffer. The cuts proposed in a House Republican budget blueprint could run as high as $880 billion over 10 years, more than 10 percent of federal Medicaid spending. (Hooper and Payne, 4/10)

More news about Medicaid and Medicare —

The Hill: RFK Jr. Considering ‘Framework’ For Medicaid, Medicare Coverage Of GLP-1s
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is considering a “regulatory framework” for Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1 medications to treat obesity. Kennedy said in a CBS News interview that aired Wednesday the high cost of the medication is the biggest hurdle to coverage, but he said he’s considering a proposal for Medicaid and Medicare to cover the drug once patients have established they’ve exhausted other options. “Ideally, over the long term, we’d like to see … those drugs available for people after they try other interventions,” Kennedy said. (Fortinsky, 4/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: Dr. Oz Outlines Vision For CMS: 8 Notes
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, said April 10 that his vision for the agency includes a commitment to President Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda and modernizing Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA marketplace. (Emerson, 4/10)

The New York Times: Medicare Bleeds Billions On Pricey Bandages, And Doctors Get A Cut
Seniors across the country are wearing very expensive bandages. Made of dried bits of placenta, the paper-thin patches cover stubborn wounds and can cost thousands of dollars per square inch. Some research has found that such “skin substitutes” help certain wounds heal. But in the past few years, dozens of unstudied and costly products have flooded the market. (Kliff and Thomas, 4/10)

MedPage Today: MedPAC Says Yes To Increasing Medicare Physician Pay Based On Healthcare Inflation
Medicare fee-for-service payments to physicians should be based on the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), a measure of healthcare inflation, according to a recommendation approved unanimously Thursday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). "I think it's so important that there be a predictable inflation-based formula for updating the fee schedule," said Larry Casalino, MD, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, who was attending his last meeting as a MedPAC commissioner. (Frieden, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Scan Group, Sutter Health To Form Medicare Advantage Venture
Scan Group and Sutter Health are launching a new Medicare Advantage company that blurs the payer-provider line. The healthcare companies will invest undisclosed sums to create a new, nonprofit entity focused on developing technology, co-branded Medicare Advantage plans and care models targeted at the 6.9 million eligible Medicare enrollees in California. Scan Group and Sutter Health plan to unveil new private Medicare plans over the next three years, beginning in the fall. The joint venture will launch in 2026. (Tepper, 4/10)

Stat: Health Secretary RFK Jr. Declares Certain Vaccines Have ‘Never Worked,’ Flummoxing Scientists
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed another unorthodox view on vaccines, with the long-time vaccine critic declaring that vaccines for respiratory bugs that target a sole part of the pathogen they are meant to protect against do not work. (Branswell, 4/10)

Bloomberg: Novavax Shares Plunge After RFK Jr. Questions Its Covid Vaccine Efficacy
Shares of vaccine makers fell after US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised doubts about the efficacy of a certain type of Covid vaccine. Novavax Inc., which is seeking full approval of a shot Kennedy said might not be effective, plunged as much as 26% Thursday, the most since July. Rivals who make a different type of vaccine also saw their shares fall, with Moderna Inc. down as much as 11% and Pfizer Inc. falling 6.2%. (Smith, 4/10)

Related news about whooping cough, measles, and covid —

CIDRAP: Indiana Reports Measles Outbreak As Cases Rise In Ohio And Michigan
Just days after reporting its first measles case of the year, in a child, the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) yesterday reported five more related cases. The newly reported patients include three children and two adults who, like the first patient, are from Allen County in the northeast part of the state, an area that includes Fort Wayne. ... Officials said though all cases are connected, there are no known links to cases in other states. (Schnirring, 4/10)

ProPublica: “Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline
While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak concentrated in the small, dusty towns of West Texas, cases of pertussis have skyrocketed by more than 1,500% nationwide since hitting a recent low in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths tied to the disease are also up, hitting 10 last year, compared with about two to four in previous years. Cases are on track to exceed that total this year. (Eldeib and Callahan, 4/11)

CIDRAP: Nasal Bacteria May Boost COVID-19 Infection Risk
A new study in eBioMedicine from researchers at George Washington University suggests certain types of nasal bacteria may make someone more likely to get a COVID-19 infection. The study was based on 1,548 self-collected nasal swabs from adults in Washington DC. The swabs were collected during two retrospective case-control studies and a nasal microbiome study. Cases were defined as those with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and were matched with controls based on age and test date. (Soucheray, 4/10)

CIDRAP: Report: US COVID-Relief Funds Lost To Fraud Likely Total Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars
Fraudulently obtained US COVID-19 economic relief funds likely amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, although the true scope will never be known, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals. (Van Beusekom, 4/10)

More health news from the Trump administration —

The Washington Post: RFK Jr: If You Smoke Or Eat Donuts, Should Society Pay For Your Health Care?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked whether society should pay for the health care of Americans who smoke or eat doughnuts when they know those habits can contribute to poor health outcomes. “If you’re smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, should you expect society to pay when you get sick?” the nation’s top health official asked in an interview released Wednesday with CBS News chief medical correspondent, physician Jon LaPook. (Weber, 4/10)

AP: Trump Will Undergo His Annual Physical Friday After Years Of Reluctance To Share Medical Information
Donald Trump is undergoing his annual physical on Friday, potentially giving the public its first details in years about the health of a man who in January became the oldest in U.S. history to be sworn in as president. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, 78, posted on his social media site. Despite long questioning predecessor Joe Biden ‘s physical and mental capacity, Trump himself has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy — shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues. (Weissert, 4/11)

ABC News: RFK Jr. Pledges An Answer To The 'Autism Epidemic' By September
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a significant commitment at Thursday's Cabinet meeting at the White House, saying that his agency will "know what has caused the autism epidemic" by September. Kennedy said that HHS had launched, at President Donald Trump's direction, a large research effort involving "hundreds of scientists from around the world" to look into the rising rates of autism diagnoses. (Haslett, 4/11)

More about autism —

The New York Times: ‘Where’s Alex?’ A Beloved Caregiver Is Swept Up in Trump’s Green Card Crackdown
An autistic young man loses his caretaker as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown expands to permanent U.S. residents convicted of minor crimes years ago. (Jordan, 4/9)

SciTechDaily: New Research Challenges Long-Held Beliefs About Autism And Eye Contact
Using an innovative AI-driven observation method, a groundbreaking study reveals that avoiding eye contact may not be exclusive to individuals with autism. (4/9)

Fox News: Service Dogs Helpful For Kids With Autism, Research Shows
A recent study from the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine evaluated the impact of service dogs on autistic children and their caregivers in 75 families. Working with nonprofit service dog provider Canine Companions, the researchers found that having a service dog was associated with "significantly better child sleep behaviors," including less sleep anxiety and better sleep initiation and duration. (Stabile, 4/9)

The Conversation: Why The Autism Jigsaw Puzzle Piece Is Such A Problematic Symbol
For decades, a jigsaw puzzle piece has been used to symbolise autism across the world. It has been used for charity logos and awareness ribbons, and even tattooed on to the bodies of well-meaning parents. But for many autistic adults, the puzzle piece isn’t just outdated – it’s offensive. Some consider it a hate symbol: a reminder of how autistic people have long been misunderstood, pathologised and excluded from conversations about their own lives. (Grant, 4/10)

AP: Outrage Builds As Video Shows Idaho Police Shooting A Knife-Wielding Autistic Teenager
A teenage boy described by his family as autistic, nonverbal and intellectually disabled remains in critical condition after being shot in his backyard by Idaho police last weekend. (Johnson, Lauer and Thiessen, 4/8)

Politico: Here's Another Sign Musk's Power Is Waning
The National Institutes of Health told employees Thursday it was rolling back directives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to probe worker productivity and limit purchases and travel on company cards, according to messages obtained by POLITICO. It’s a possible sign that the agency’s recently confirmed director, Jay Bhattacharya, is willing to break with Musk and DOGE. (Nguyen, 4/10)

More on the budget cuts and funding freeze —

AP: CDC Officials Plan For The Agency's Splintering, But Questions Remain
A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told staff this week to start planning for the agency’s splintering. Several parts of CDC — mostly those devoted to health threats that aren’t infectious — are being spun off into the soon-to-be-created Administration for a Healthy America, the agency official told senior leaders in calls and meetings. (Stobbe, 4/10)

MedPage Today: HHS Scraps Advisory Committee On Newborn Screening
As cuts sweep across federal health agencies, the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC) has been terminated. Notably, the ACHDNC, which sits under the Health Resources and Services Administration, is responsible for the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP), a standardized list of dozens of conditions the HHS secretary recommends states screen for as part of their universal newborn screening programs. (Henderson, 4/10)

MedPage Today: Nearly Half Of CDC Birth Defects And Disabilities Staff Cut
More than 40% of the 225 scientists and public health workers at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) were put on administrative leave earlier this month as part of the Trump administration's reduction-in-force (RIF) initiative. A source told MedPage Today the cuts completely eliminated the staff in the Division of Blood Disorders and Public Health Genomics, which performed research on conditions such as hemophilia, sickle cell disease, and many other conditions impacting blood. (Clark, 4/10)

KFF Health News: Trump HHS Eliminates Office That Sets Poverty Levels Tied To Benefits For 80 Million People
President Donald Trump’s firings at the Department of Health and Human Services included the entire office that sets federal poverty guidelines, which determine whether tens of millions of Americans are eligible for health programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, child care, and other services, former staff said. The small team, with technical data expertise, worked out of HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, or ASPE. (Allen, 4/11)

KFF Health News: RFK Jr.’s Purge Of FOIA Staff At FDA Spares People Working On Covid Vaccine Lawsuits
Mass firings at the FDA have decimated divisions tasked with releasing public records generated by the agency’s regulatory activities. ... But as the dust settled on the layoff melee, a notable exception emerged among the agency’s staff charged with responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. The cuts spared at least some workers who furnish documents in response to court orders in FOIA lawsuits involving the FDA division that regulates vaccines, which includes litigation brought by an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s who represents anti-vaccine interests, according to four current or former agency employees. (Pradhan, 4/10)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The Dismantling Of HHS
A week after the announcement of the reorganization and staff cuts ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scope of the reductions is only starting to crystallize. Across such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and FDA, entire divisions have been wiped out, and it is unclear who will be left to enforce hundreds of laws and regulate millions of products. Meanwhile, legislators in a growing number of states are introducing abortion bans that would punish women as well as abortion providers. (Rovner, 4/10)

The New York Times: Attorneys General Sue Over Access To $1 Billion In Federal School Aid 
Sixteen attorneys general and a Democratic governor sued the Trump administration on Thursday to restore access to over $1 billion in federal pandemic relief aid for schools that was recently halted, saying that the pullback could cause acute harm to students. The suit, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and filed in Manhattan federal court, is one of the latest efforts by states to fight President Trump’s clawback of funding allocated to programs he does not want the government to support. The funding was part of a windfall of more than $190 billion that the U.S. Department of Education distributed to schools at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. (Meko and Closson, 4/10)

The War Horse: Trump Budget Cuts To Defense Department Could Hurt Tech Innovation
Some of the U.S. military’s most defining technologies have nothing to do with missiles, tanks, guns, and other deadly weaponry.  While important in war, these innovations — from duct tape and blood banks to GPS — ultimately play a far larger role on the home front, improving everyday lives. But now scientists are worried the Trump administration’s budget cuts threaten the long and historic funding growth for Department of Defense-supported breakthrough science, risking America’s global dominance in a tech-driven economy and undermining future payoffs. (Krieger, 4/10)

Also —

The New York Times: Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says 
At least five children and three adults with cholera died as they went in search of treatment in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration shuttered local health clinics during the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, the international charity Save the Children reported this week. The victims, all from the country’s east, died on a grueling three-hour walk in scorching heat as they tried to reach the nearest remaining health facility, the agency said in a statement. (Sampson, 4/11)

CIDRAP: WHO Director Says Public Health-Funding Independence Needed Amid Global Cuts
At a briefing today, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that almost 75% of WHO country offices have reported health service disruptions due to recent funding cuts, 25% reported health facility closures, and 25% reported increased out-of-pocket expenditures for populations. "They also report job losses for health and care workers, and disruptions to information systems, and the supply of medicines and health products," the WHO said. (Soucheray, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Social Security Classifies Thousands Of Immigrants As Dead, As Part Of Trump Crackdown
The Social Security Administration this week entered the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants into a database it uses to track dead people, effectively erasing their ability to receive benefits or work legally in the United States, according to four people familiar with the situation and records obtained by The Washington Post. The move, requested by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, is aimed at putting pressure on the undocumented immigrants to leave the country, according to a White House official. (Rein, Natanson and Sacchetti, 4/10)

The Washington Post: FBI, Other Criminal Investigators Drafted For Welfare Checks On Migrant Children 
The Department of Homeland Security has enlisted the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in recent weeks to conduct welfare checks on children and young people who came to the United States without their parents, alarming advocates who worry it’s an effort to target them for deportation or scare them. President Donald Trump has long accused his predecessor of losing more than 300,000 migrant children, claiming that they are now “slaves, sex slaves or dead,” though many also arrived during the president’s first term. Immigration experts have said that most of those children have been safely reunited with their parents or relatives in the United States. (LeVine, Sacchetti, Roebuck, Loennig and Nakashima, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Fearing Paper On Evolution Might Get Them Deported, Scientists Withdrew It
President Donald Trump’s orders haven’t targeted research involving evolution, but the authors’ unease about publishing reflects uncertainty in the science world. (Johnson, 4/10)

ProPublica: Meet The Tent Company Making A Fortune Off Trump’s Deportation Plans 
The privately held company Deployed Resources has made billions running tent detention facilities to hold immigrants entering the U.S. at the border. Now it is cashing in again on Trump’s plan to hold immigrants before deportation. (Ernsthausen, Rosenberg and Asher-Schapiro, 4/11)

The Hill: FDA To Phase Out Some Animal Testing Requirements
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday it plans to phase out animal testing requirements for biological products and drugs, instead moving toward alternative testing models such as computer simulations and “organoids.” The agency said in a release that its animal testing requirements would be “reduced, refined, or potentially replaced using a range of approaches,” including “AI-based computational models of toxicity” and cell lines. (Choi, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Cuts To Health Research Put Lab Animals At Risk, Scientists Say 
scientists in the United States worry that the Trump administration’s deep cuts to research funding and the federal workforce will compel an early end to their work, as well as a needless sacrifice of the animals that enable it. “My great fear is that millions of animals are going to be sacrificed because they can’t be cared for,” said Paul Locke, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health with experience in laboratory animal law. (Somasundaram, 4/11)

More on the use of AI —

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic Hires Former HHS Official Micky Tripathi
Mayo Clinic hired former federal government official Micky Tripathi for a role focused on artificial intelligence. Tripathi, the former assistant secretary for technology policy at the Health and Human Services Department, is joining Mayo Clinic as its chief AI implementation officer, a spokesperson for the Rochester, Minnesota-based health system said in a statement Thursday. Mayo didn't specify when Tripathi would start. (Turner, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Google's AI Agents See More Flexibility With Centralized Hub
Google is creating more ways to help its healthcare customers build and deploy artificial intelligence agents. On Wednesday, Google’s cloud arm introduced a host of new AI tools and capabilities for its enterprise customers in healthcare and other sectors. The developments primarily focus on AI agents, which are specialized tools developed to help organizations perform time-intensive functions more efficiently. (Perna, 4/9)

Politico: AI’s Next Role? Screening For Opioid Use Disorder
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health used artificial intelligence to screen the electronic health records of patients admitted to the UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, between March and October 2023, for any sign that they were at risk of or had an opioid use disorder. The AI model would constantly scan intake notes health care providers added to a hospitalized patient’s record for the first 24 hours of their hospital stay looking for clues. (Paun and Reader, 4/10)

In other pharma and tech updates —

Stat: Gilead Is Urged To Rework Licensing Deals For Groundbreaking HIV Prevention Drug
A group of academics is arguing that countries seeking access to a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug from Gilead Sciences should issue compulsory licenses if the company fails to modify an existing licensing program with half a dozen generic makers. (Silverman, 4/10)

NPR: Pain Pathway In A Dish Could Aid Search For New Analgesic Drugs
Scientists have re-created a pain pathway in the brain by growing four key clusters of human nerve cells in a dish. This laboratory model could be used to help explain certain pain syndromes, and offer a new way to test potential analgesic drugs, a Stanford team reports in the journal Nature. (Hamilton, 4/10)

CIDRAP: New Handheld Device Can Diagnose TB Without A Lab In Under An Hour, Its Developers Say
A new smartphone-sized device can deliver tuberculosis (TB) test results at the point of care in less than an hour, an innovation that could improve diagnosis of the deadly disease in settings in which access to healthcare facilities and lab equipment is limited, its Tulane University developers reported yesterday in Science Translational Medicine. Over 90% of new TB cases occur in low- and middle-income countries. (Van Beusekom, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Mobile MRIs Offer Providers Cost Savings, Flexibility
Providers are finding more affordable ways to keep up with the rising demand for MRI exams. As the population ages and more people are diagnosed with chronic diseases, hospitals are seeing an uptick in patients who need MRI exams. But instead of building out new suites, some providers are renting and buying mobile MRI units to cut down on construction costs. Medtech companies such as Siemens Healthineers, Philips and GE HealthCare sell movable MRIs that can fit inside trailers and scan patients being treated for everything from knee cartilage problems to cancer. (Dubinsky, 4/10)

Fierce Healthcare: Prospect's Crozer Health Tiptoes Past Another Funding Deadline
Yet another funding deadline has come and gone for two Pennsylvania hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings, and while a concrete deal hasn't yet emerged the bankrupt for-profit raised enough funds to keep the lights on for at least another week. On Tuesday, an attorney for Prospect told a bankruptcy judge that another $9 million was needed by 4:00 p.m. April 9 in short-term funding, otherwise the Crozer Health hospitals would go on diversion and begin transferring patients the following morning—a now-familiar precipice for the hospitals as Prospect struggles to close a sale. (Muoio, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare, Cincinnati Children’s To Partner
GE HealthCare and Cincinnati Children’s on Thursday announced a joint research program focused on developing innovative pediatric medical imaging technologies in MRI, CT, ultrasound and molecular imaging. The program will bring together clinicians and researchers from Cincinnati Children’s and clinical scientists and engineers from GE HealthCare. (Dubinsky, 4/10)

The CT Mirror: Freestanding Birth Center Not Feasible In Windham, Study Finds 
In late 2023, state officials approved the closure of Windham Hospital’s labor and delivery unit, on certain conditions. Among them: Hartford HealthCare, the hospital’s owner, had to study the feasibility of opening a freestanding birth center in the region. (Golvala, 4/10)

The Washington Post: CEO Of GWU Hospital Leaving Days Before New Hospital Opens In D.C.
Kim Russo, the chief executive of D.C.’s George Washington University Hospital, is leaving her position days before a new hospital she helped spearhead opens in an underserved part of the city. Russo will serve as chief executive of the central region of OSF HealthCare in Illinois starting April 28, according to an announcement from the company this week. (Portnoy, 4/9)

Becker's Hospital Review: Promotion Rates Among Academic Radiologists: What To Know
Promotion rates among academic radiologists have improved over the past two decades, according to a study published April 7 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. (Gregerson, 4/10)

Also —

The New York Times: ‘The Pitt’ Captures The Real Overcrowding Crisis In Emergency Rooms
The emergency department waiting room was jammed. ... One man had had enough. ... As he left, he assaulted a nurse taking a smoking break. No, the event was not real, but it was art resembling life on “The Pitt.” ... “EDs are gridlocked and overwhelmed,” the American College of Emergency Physicians reported in 2023, referring to emergency departments. “The system is at the breaking point,” said Dr. Benjamin S. Abella, chair of the department of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York. (Kolata, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Maryland’s Max Security Psych Hospital Denied Accreditation After Inspection 
A nationwide health-care safety inspection group preliminarily denied accreditation last week to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Maryland, the maximum-security psychiatric facility that has been beset by patient safety concerns, chronic understaffing and high leadership turnover. ... It was not immediately clear on Thursday what the commission’s decision is based on or what the accreditation trouble means for Perkins — a 289-bed facility in Jessup, Maryland, that houses people who have been charged with a violent crime and diagnosed with a serious mental illness. (Mettler, 4/10)

KFF Health News: More Psych Hospital Beds Are Needed For Kids, But Neighbors Say Not Here
In January, a teenager in suburban St. Louis informed his high school counselor that a classmate said he planned to kill himself later that day. The 14-year-old classmate denied it, but his mother, Marie, tore through his room and found a suicide note in his nightstand. (She asked KFF Health News to publish only her middle name because she does not want people to misjudge or label her son.) (Berger, 4/11)

More health news from across the U.S. —

Stat: Arkansas May Force Companies To Choose Between Running A PBM Or Pharmacies
An Arkansas bill that would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail and mail-order pharmacies was passed by the state senate and is now headed to Gov. Sarah Sanders, the first time such a bill has gotten this far down the legislative path in the United States. (Silverman, 4/10)

AP: Alabama Lawmakers Advance Bill To Let Alfa Sell Health Plans Outside Insurance Regulations
State lawmakers advanced legislation Thursday that would allow the Alabama Farmers Federation to sell healthcare plans to its members that would not be considered or regulated as health insurance. The Alabama House of Representatives approved the bill on a 98-1 vote after nearly three hours of debate. The bill now moves to the Alabama Senate. The bill would allow the Alabama Farmers Federation (Alfa) to sell health plans to farmers and also to people outside of agriculture that join the organization. (Chandler, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Wary As Farm Bureau Health Plans Spread
Health insurance companies are pushing back against proposals to allow farm bureaus in more states to sell cheaper, leaner health plans as alternatives to exchange policies. Lawmakers in Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri and Ohio are debating whether to let farm bureaus offer individual and small-group health plans that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which set coverage minimums for health insurance plans. The farm bureaus contend that, because premiums are based on health status rather than income, they are a better fit for agricultural workers whose earnings can be as unpredictable as the weather. (Tepper, 4/10)

AP: States Advance Fetal Rights Measures That Critics Warn Will Pave A Path For Outlawing Abortions
A new Kansas law and a Florida bill outline policies backed by abortion opponents that critics see as moves toward giving embryos and fetuses the same rights as the women carrying them. The Kansas Legislature’s Republican supermajorities on Thursday overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill to require that child support payments cover embryos and fetuses and to grant an income tax break for a pregnancy or stillbirth. In Florida, lawmakers are advancing a bill that would permit parents to seek civil damages for the wrongful death of an embryo or fetus. (Payne and Hanna, 4/11)

North Carolina Health News: School-Based Telehealth Expands Further In North Carolina
Advocates say school-based telehealth care reduces absenteeism, ensures students receive routine care, and can even boost test scores. (Fernandez, 4/11)

AP: In Fight Over Insurance, Neighbors Crowdsource LA Fire Contamination Data
All sense of survivors’ guilt was fleeting for those residents whose homes remained standing after wildfires ripped through the Los Angeles area three months ago. Many worried that smoke from the Eaton wildfire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 18 people may have carried toxins, including lead, asbestos and heavy metals, into their homes. But they struggled to convince their insurers to test their properties to ensure it was safe to return. (Lauer and Ho, 4/11)

The New York Times: They Work All Day And Go Home To Shelters 
Thousands of working people in New York City now live in shelters, unable to afford apartments despite holding down jobs that pay them $50,000 or more. (Shapiro, 4/8)

The New York Times: The Lab Racing To Find Out What Microplastics Are Doing To Our Bodies 
Inside a New Mexico lab, researchers estimate there is five bottle caps worth of plastic in human brains. Now they are trying to find out its effects. (Agrawal, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Want Better Health And Status? For $250,000, Longevity Clinics Promise Both 
For up to six figures a year, longevity clinics promise to buy their patrons longer, healthier lives. For now, they’re conferring something maybe just as valuable: status. Plenty of people are deciding the hefty fees are worth it. High-end medical clinics aimed at optimizing their clients’ health for years to come are proliferating, as demand for their often-experimental treatments grows. A few hundred such clinics now operate in the U.S., longevity doctors and market researchers estimate. (Janin, 4/6)

The Guardian: Cory Booker Didn’t Go To The Bathroom For 25 Hours. Is That … OK? 
Many praised New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker for the rousing political act. Some were also impressed by a particular physical feat: namely, he seemingly didn’t pee once the whole time. (A rep for Booker confirmed to TMZ that he did not wear a diaper during his speech.) Afterwards, Booker told reporters that he prepared for the speech by fasting for days and intentionally dehydrating himself. Booker’s speech was a feat of stamina and determination. According to urologists, his no-pee marathon was also deeply unadvisable. (Aggeler, 4/3)

The New York Times: A New Push To Open The Doors On Childhood Sexual Abuse 
A man abused as a child at a Missouri Christian camp agreed to remain silent, and took his own life. His sister is pushing several states to ban such nondisclosure agreements. (Chen, 4/8)

The Guardian: Farmers Face One Of The Highest Rates Of Suicide. This Social Worker Believes The Solution Is Buried In Their Land
A licensed social worker, Kaila Anderson knows first-hand that farmers have a high propensity for depression and one of the highest rates of suicide of any occupation, often attributed to the demanding and precarious nature of the job. Yet she has found that crisis-line staffers, doctors and therapists in farm country often don’t have the cultural training to recognize the signs of emotional stress unique to farmers. (Kuipers, 4/10)

If you need help —

Dial 988 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.

The Boston Globe: Ending The Stigma For Police Seeking Help For Trauma Is The Place To Start
Police and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than be killed in the line of duty, according to a 2022 study by the Ruderman Family Foundation. (4/11)

Newsweek: It's Time To Bring Health Care Systems Into The Digital Age
If Donald Trump and Elon Musk want a bold win for Americans, they should champion the creation of a PayPal for health care administration. The current fragmented system exists primarily to protect big insurance companies from competition. The rest of us pay with our time, our health, and sometimes our lives. (David Scheinker, Kevin Schulman, and Stefanos Zenios, 4/9)

Newsweek: Former Surgeon General: Health Is A Shared Priority, Not A Privilege Of The Few
Recent job and funding cuts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the current administration have sparked widespread concern over the future of public health in America. Significant reductions affecting vital institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Office of Minority Health raise questions about whether there is a sincere plan to improve America's health or if the intent is simply to dismantle existing infrastructures. (Jerome Adams, 4/9)

Newsweek: Improving The Global Health Workforce Is A Bipartisan Imperative
We rely on trusted doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and their colleagues to care for us when we are sick. The same is true in communities worldwide. Yet, in low-resourced countries, they are overworked, underpaid, under-resourced, and in short supply. (Vanessa Kerry, Rabih Torbay, and Tina Flores, 4/8)