AP: Justice Department Formally Moves To Reclassify Marijuana
The Justice Department on Thursday formally moved to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a historic shift in generations of U.S. drug policy. A proposed rule sent to the federal register recognizes the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledges it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. The plan approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use. (Whitehurst, 5/16)

The Washington Post: Biden Announces Support For DOJ Measure To Reclassify Marijuana
President Biden on Thursday publicly endorsed the Justice Department’s recommendation to loosen restrictions on marijuana, a long-expected measure that marks a historic shift in the nation’s drug policy. “Far too many lives have been upended because of failed approach to marijuana, and I’m committed to righting those wrongs,” Biden said in a video posted on X. (Ovalle and Nirappil, 5/16)

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Politico: California’s Latest Push To Legalize Therapeutic Mushrooms Hits A Wall
State lawmakers have once again blocked a proposal that would have allowed for the therapeutic use of magic mushrooms — the fourth year in a row that bills to expand access to hallucinogenic drugs have died in the state Legislature. The proposal from state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, was pared down considerably from past attempts to fully decriminalize psychedelics, seeking only to legalize their use in therapeutic settings. But even those concessions weren't enough to get Senate Bill 1012 through. (Gardiner, 5/16)

The Hill: Britt: High Maternal Mortality Rate ‘American Issue,’ Not Democrat Or Republican
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) encouraged elected officials to work across the aisle in tackling the United States’s high maternal mortality rate during a panel discussion Thursday on maternal mental health. “I think it is so important that we continue to talk about this in a bipartisan way because this is not a Democrat or Republican issue, this is an American issue,” said Britt during The Hill’s Moms Matter: Closing the Maternal Mental Health Gap event, which was sponsored by Sage Therapeutics. (O’Connell-Domenech, 5/16) 

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Linked To Increased Preterm Birth, Other Problems In Pregnancy
Findings from a large study in California, which distinguished the COVID-19 pandemic period from individual SARS-CoV-2 infections, suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection is tied to increased preterm birth (PTB), high blood pressure during pregnancy, and severe maternal morbidity. The study is published as a research letter in JAMA Network Open. (Soucheray, 5/16)

The New York Times: Scientists Calculated The Energy Needed To Carry A Baby. Shocker: It’s A Lot
It takes a lot of energy to grow a baby — just ask anyone who has been pregnant. But scientists are only now discovering just how much. In a study published on Thursday in the journal Science, Australian researchers estimated that a human pregnancy demands almost 50,000 dietary calories over the course of nine months. That’s the equivalent of about 50 pints of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream, and significantly more than the researchers expected. (Zimmer, 5/16)

Chicago Tribune: Mental Health Begins In Infancy, Local Experts Tell Parents
Did you know babies can get depressed? Andria Goss, associate vice president of clinical and community services at the Erikson Institute, a graduate school for social work, early childhood education and child development programs, said people are astonished when they learn and appreciate that fact. (Rockett, 5/17)

NBC News: New Nonhormonal Menopause Drugs Ease Symptoms But Face Insurance Hurdles
New drugs to treat debilitating menopause symptoms — namely hot flashes — are finally on the market or are in development. But doctors say insurance companies either won’t pay for them or make women try and fail with other, perhaps less effective, drugs before they do. The conundrum has left women who might benefit from the new drugs at the mercy of health insurance companies. (Edwards, Thompson and Herzberg, 5/16)

In news relating to abortion —

The Hill: Raskin Presses Insurers, PBMs On Free Contraception Coverage
The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee wants to know how the country’s top health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers plan to make it easier for people to access contraception for free. In letters sent Thursday to the five largest health insurers and four largest pharmacy benefit managers first shared with The Hill, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked for information on how the companies plan to respond to federal guidance designed to improve no-cost access to birth control. (Weixel, 5/16) 

The 19th: How Abortion Bans In Texas, Florida, Arizona Impact Undocumented People
This year’s abortion bans in Florida and Arizona — following an older near-total prohibition in Texas — threaten to make the procedure virtually unattainable for undocumented people living in those states. (Luthra, 5/16)

The Texas Tribune: Amarillo City Council Must Vote On Abortion Travel Ban 
The Amarillo City Council must consider a policy that outlaws using local streets to access an abortion in other states after the city verified supporters of the policy gathered enough signatures to advance the issue. The five-member council in the heart of the Texas Panhandle had been reluctant to follow other conservative cities and counties that have put the largely symbolic policy in place. (Carver, 5/16)

WUSF: 'Turning Away Patients' Every Day: Georgia OB-GYN On The Effects Of Abortion Bans
Dr. Nisha Verma says in the nearly two years since Georgia's six-week abortion ban went into effect, she's seen patients suffer and some colleagues leave the state. She fears the same thing will happen in Florida. (Colombini, 5/16)

Roll Call: In France, Abortion Restrictions Offset By Medical Autonomy 
In an airless classroom in Paris City University one Friday afternoon in March, a group of 17 female health care professionals — some doctors, some midwives — gathered to spend the weekend learning how to perform surgical abortions. Sophie Gaudau is the no-nonsense leader of REVHO health network, which started providing abortion training for health professionals 20 years ago, back when abortion access in France was slightly more limited for patients and in terms of what the doctor could do. Today her organization receives support from the French Ministry of Health and Prevention. (Cohen, 5/16)

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Axios: WNBA, Women's Sports Craze Helping To Fuel Major Tampon Redesign
A startup tampon brand is aiming to disrupt the world of menstrual products with a patented spiral design for fewer leaks. It's "the first engineering redesign of the tampon in 80 years" according to Sequel, which aims to change the game for women athletes. (Kingson, 5/17)

News Service of Florida: Biden Administration Seeks Dismissal Of A Florida Challenge Over CHIP Rules
The Biden administration on Tuesday urged a judge to dismiss a lawsuit in which Florida has challenged federal guidelines for a program that provides subsidized health insurance to tens of thousands of children. The filing in federal court in Tampa by U.S. Department of Justice attorneys was the latest move in a months-long battle over guidelines issued last year for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which operates in Florida as KidCare. (Saunders, 5/16)

Modern Healthcare: What Biden’s Tariffs On Chinese Medical Supplies Mean For Industry
The Biden administration's decision to raise Chinese tariffs on a wide range of goods could boost domestic manufacturing and lessen worries about the safety of products healthcare providers use daily — or it could raise prices. The U.S. has imported $14.9 billion in medical equipment in 2024, compared with $14 billion at this time last year, according to the Census Bureau. (DeSilva, 5/16)

Stateline: Missed Care, Fewer Patients: Rural Families And Clinics Feel Medicaid Cuts
Rural children and families are having to skip vital health treatments and even ending up in the emergency room, while already struggling rural clinics are losing more patients, as states cull their Medicaid rolls. The exodus began in April 2023, when pandemic-era rules that prohibited kicking people off Medicaid coverage expired and states again began checking whether families met income restrictions. Nationally, nearly 70% of people who lost coverage did so for “procedural” reasons such as incomplete paperwork. (Hassanein, 5/17)

Modern Healthcare: Telehealth Extension, Remote Monitoring Passes House Subcommittee
A House subcommittee took the next steps Thursday to extend telehealth flexibilities and expanded remote patient monitoring rules due to expire at the end of the year. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health voted overwhelmingly to send to the full committee the Telehealth Enhancement for Mental Health Act of 2024, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 and the Expanding Remote Monitoring Access Act of 2024. (McAuliff, 5/16)

Crain's Chicago Business: Mental Health Disparity May Cost Trillions: Analysis
The staggering cost of mental health inequity in the United States, the counterpart to the more widely acknowledged economic burden of chronic illness, threatens to rise to a cumulative $14 trillion by 2040 if left unaddressed, according to a new analysis by Deloitte and the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College. The U.S. currently spends about $477.5 billion annually in avoidable and unnecessary expenses related to mental health inequities, according to the report. (Asplund, 5/16)

In other administration news —

Politico: Farm Groups Brace For EPA Formaldehyde Review
EPA and agricultural groups are clashing over the agency’s position that formaldehyde — a chemical with many industrial uses — poses an “unreasonable” risk to human health. In a preliminary risk evaluation, EPA said formaldehyde puts workers and others exposed to it at risk of noncancerous and possibly cancerous respiratory ailments.Formaldehyde in agriculture is added to animal feed to kill bacteria that might infect livestock. Pork producers use it to prevent viral diseases, and it helps reduce the risk of salmonella contamination in food. (Heller, 5/16)

AP: Watchdog: EPA's Lead Pipe Fix Sent About $3 Billion To States Based On Unverified Data
The Environmental Protection Agency distributed about $3 billion to states last year to replace harmful lead pipes based on unverified data, according to an agency inspector general’s memo, likely meaning some states got too much money and others got too little. Investigators found two states had submitted inaccurate data, the memo dated Wednesday said. It didn’t name the states. (Phillis, 5/17)

The New York Times: FDA Approves Amgen Drug For Persistently Deadly Form Of Lung Cancer
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved an innovative new treatment for patients with a form of lung cancer. It is to be used only by patients who have exhausted all other options to treat small cell lung cancer, and have a life expectancy of four to five months. The drug tarlatamab, or Imdelltra, made by the company Amgen, tripled patients’ life expectancy, giving them a median survival of 14 months after they took the drug. Forty percent of those who got the drug responded. (Kolata, 5/16)

Also —

KFF Health News: Watch: John Oliver Dishes On KFF Health News' Opioid Settlements Series
Opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are paying tens of billions of dollars in restitution to settle lawsuits related to their role in the nation’s overdose epidemic. A recent broadcast of “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” examined how that money is being spent by state and local governments across the United States. The segment featured reporting from the KFF Health News series “Payback: Tracking the Opioid Settlement Cash.” (5/17)

Stat: Military Medical Care Influenced By Rank And Race, New Study Finds
Higher ranking military officers receive more resources and better care than low ranking military officers, according to an analysis of 1.5 million military ER visits published Thursday in the journal Science. (McFarling, 5/16)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Warns Of A Resurgence Of Mpox
With Pride events scheduled worldwide over the coming weeks, U.S. officials are bracing for a return of mpox, the infectious disease formerly called monkeypox that struck tens of thousands of gay and bisexual men worldwide in 2022. A combination of behavioral changes and vaccination quelled that outbreak, but a majority of those at risk have not yet been immunized. (Mandavilli, 5/16)

CIDRAP: Study Suggests Mpox Patients With No Symptoms Partly Fueled 2022 Outbreak In New York City
About 1 in 15 unvaccinated adults who visited a New York City sexual health clinic for testing had antibodies to mpox despite no history of vaccination or infection during the peak of the city's 2022 outbreak, suggesting that asymptomatic infections contributed to transmission, according to a new report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 5/16)

On other public health developments —

Newsweek: Attack Jets' 'Rumbling' May Be Harming 74,000 People's Health In Washington
Military attack jets may be harming the health of up to 74,000 people in Washington state, a study has found. The research, published by University of Washington (UW) scientists, focused on how noise emitted from the Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft flying from the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island is affecting the area's entire population. (White, 5/16)

CNN: Nearly 900,000 Popular ‘Immune Support’ Tea Bags Recalled Due To Possible Pesticide Contamination 
Nearly 900,000 tea bags by the organic tea brand Yogi are being recalled due to a detectable amount of pesticide on the product, according to an enforcement report posted on the US Food and Drug Administration’s website. (Hassan, 5/16)

Reuters: Obesity And High Blood Sugar Play Ever Growing Role In Ill-Health, Study Shows
Obesity, high blood sugar and high blood pressure among other metabolic issues now lead to almost 50% more years of healthy life lost to either disease or premature death than in 2000, a major international study showed on Thursday. Over the same period, the number of years lost due to factors associated with undernutrition for mothers and children, such as stunting or wasting, dropped by 71.5%. (Rigby, 5/16)

Politico: EU Agency Sounds Alarm Over Health Risks Of Warming Waters
Serious food poisoning from contaminated fish, drug-resistant bacteria emerging from melting permafrost and reindeer populations decimated by anthrax — these are just some of the looming threats to Europe as the continent's waters warm, the European Environment Agency said in a report released Wednesday. (Cater, 5/16)

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CNN: New USDA Testing With Substitute H5N1 Bird Flu Virus Reminds Us Why Eating Rare Burgers Can Still Be Risky 
Laboratory tests by the US Department of Agriculture haven’t found any H5N1 bird flu virus in raw beef, but they are a good reminder why eating rare hamburgers can be risky. (Goodman, 5/16)

Reuters: Properly Cooked Hamburgers Pose No Bird Flu Risk, US Study Finds
No bird flu virus was found after cooking ground beef to medium to well done, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a briefing on Thursday after conducting a study as it addresses concerns over an outbreak of the disease in dairy cattle. The findings, in which scientists injected high levels of an H5N1 bird flu virus surrogate into ground beef, indicate that properly cooking hamburgers to a temperature of about 145 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (63 to 71 degrees Celsius) keeps them safe for consumers. (Polansek and Steenhuysen, 5/16)

KFF Health News: Bird Flu Lands As The Next Public Health Challenge
Public health authorities are closely watching an unusual strain of bird flu that has infected dairy cows in nine states and at least one dairy worker. Meanwhile, another major health system suffered a cyberattack, and Congress is moving to extend the availability of telehealth services. (Rovner, 5/16)

Stat: Microsoft's Peter Lee Says ChatGPT Shouldn't Be Used For Initial Diagnosis
Surging interest in generative AI among medical professionals since ChatGPT’s launch is perhaps a testament to its potential — but it could also lead clinicians, and patients to experiment with it before there is wider consensus on how to navigate its biases and other pitfalls, Microsoft’s head of research Peter Lee said Thursday at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit. (Ravindranath, 5/16)

In other industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Cuts Seattle’s Yesler Terrace Medical Tower
Kaiser Permanente is reversing its plans to build a $500 million medical tower in Seattle's Yesler Terrace neighborhood. Kaiser confirmed this week its decision to step back from a years-long project that involved building a nine-story, roughly 250,000-square-foot facility. (Hudson, 5/16)

Reuters: GSK Raises $1.5 Bln From Sale Of Remaining Haleon Stake
British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L) has raised 1.25 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) from a sale of its remaining stake in consumer healthcare company Haleon (HLN.L) to institutional investors. The sale will allow GSK to sharpen its focus on vaccines, cancer and infectious diseases, which are part of CEO Emma Walmsley's plans to boost earnings at the drugmaker. (5/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Surging Hospital Prices Are Helping Keep Inflation High
One reason U.S. inflation is still high: Increases in prices for procedures to prop open clogged arteries, provide intensive care for newborns and biopsy breasts. Hospitals didn’t raise prices as early in the pandemic as supermarkets, retailers and restaurants. But they have been making up ground since then. Their increases have contributed to stubbornly high inflation readings from the consumer-price index, which in April increased 3.4% from a year ago. (Evans, 5/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Roche Shares Climb After Weight-Loss Drug Shows Efficacy In Early-Stage Trial
Roche Holding said its weight-loss drug candidate achieved positive results in an early-stage trial, giving the company a boost in its bid to catch up to Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in a class of medicines that has shaken up everything from pharma to snack companies.The Swiss drug giant joined the race for drugs to treat obesity and diabetes through its $3-billion-plus purchase of Carmot Therapeutics. (Calatayud and Chopping, 5/16)

Reuters: Lilly's Weekly Insulin As Effective As Daily Doses In Studies
Eli Lilly (LLY.N) said on Thursday its once-weekly insulin injection, efsitora, showed blood sugar reduction that was consistent with commonly used daily insulins across two studies in patients with type 2 diabetes. Lilly and Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) are both developing weekly injections for long-acting insulins that could reduce the treatment burden for patients with diabetes. Novo's weekly injection, insulin icodec, has been recommended for approval in Europe and is under regulatory review in the United States. (5/16)

Reuters: Biogen, Ionis To Discontinue Development Of Experimental ALS Drug
Biogen (BIIB.O) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS.O) said on Thursday they will terminate the development of their experimental treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) after failing to show improvement in patients in an early-to-mid stage study. Shares of Biogen and Ionis were each down nearly 2% in premarket trading. This marks another setback in the search for new treatments for ALS. (5/16)

Philadelphia Inquirer: ChristianaCare Attending Physicians File Unionization Petitions
Physicians at ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest health system, are petitioning to form the first union in the Philadelphia region for hospital-employed attending doctors. Doctors increasingly are looking to unions to advance their workplace concerns and negotiate their benefits, as a growing number of physicians work as hospital staffers. (Gutman, 5/16)

KFF Health News: The Lure Of Specialty Medicine Pulls Nurse Practitioners From Primary Care
For many patients, seeing a nurse practitioner has become a routine part of primary care, in which these “NPs” often perform the same tasks that patients have relied on doctors for. But NPs in specialty care? That’s not routine, at least not yet. Increasingly, though, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are joining cardiology, dermatology, and other specialty practices, broadening their skills and increasing their income. (Andrews, 5/17)

CIDRAP: HPV Vaccine Program Tied To Big Drop In Cervical Cancers Across All Socioeconomic Strata
England's human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program is linked to dramatically lower rates of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions in all socioeconomic groups, reveals a study led by Queen Mary University of London researchers. For the observational study, published yesterday in BMJ, the researchers analyzed the effect of the country's school-based HPV vaccination program on the incidence of cervical cancer and grade 3 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) in English women aged 20 to 64 years from January 2006 to June 2020. (Van Beusekom, 5/16)

The Wall Street Journal: A ‘Digital Twin’ Of Your Heart Lets Doctors Test Treatments Before Surgery
Patients diagnosed with heart disease, cancer and other ailments face myriad decisions: Which drug will be most effective? Will the side effects outweigh the benefits? Will surgery be enough? Determining the best path forward may be far easier in years to come. Instead of trying a therapy and hoping it works, researchers are creating so-called digital twins to predict how a patient will respond before ever starting treatment. (Armour, 5/16)

The Washington Post: Some Mice Have A Cheating Heart. It’s A Hormonal Thing, Scientists Find
Oldfield mice are monogamous. Fathers groom their young, keep them warm and ensure they don’t wander far from the nest. The deer mouse prefers the swinging lifestyle when it comes to sexual partners. ... Until now. Researchers at Columbia University investigating the two species of mice discovered what appears to be a crucial difference: Oldfield produce an adrenal cell not found in other mice. The cell makes a hormone, which, when injected into virgin deer mice of both sexes, spurred 17 percent to groom their young and keep them close to the nest. (Johnson, 5/16)

Also —

Stat: Data Integrity In Scientific Journals Requires "Effort" By Publishers, Institutions
According to Elisabeth Bik, a scientific watchdog who has discovered thousands of errors in scientific papers, the problem of fraud, errors, or data mishandling in the scientific literature seems to be getting worse. In the last couple of years, Bik’s been seeing an influx of AI-generated papers in the scientific record that are “nonsensical and clearly low quality.” The possibility that AI-generated, fraudulent data could be making its way into more established journals is a constant fear. (Chen, 5/17)

CIDRAP: Report Highlights Role Of Socioeconomic, Sociocultural Factors In Antimicrobial Resistance
A policy brief published yesterday by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies suggests antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policies need to take socioeconomic and sociocultural factors into account. The brief notes that while efforts to understand AMR have focused on the biomedical model, interactions between socioeconomic and sociocultural determinants of health and AMR ... have not been studied extensively. (Dall, 5/16)

CIDRAP: UK Announces Funding To Boost Global Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance 
The British government today put forth a package worth £85 million (roughly $108 million US) to support international efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).The funding ... includes £50 million ($63 million) to help countries and institutions in Africa access essential antibiotics, £25 million ($32 million) to strengthen AMR surveillance in Caribbean countries and territories, and £10 million ($13 million) to help establish an international scientific panel to coordinate action on AMR. (Dall, 5/16)

Politico: Push To Create Universal Health Care In California Gets Scrapped In Committee
A bill to make California the first state to create universal health care through a single-payer system was shot down Thursday during a state Assembly appropriations hearing. The proposal, Assembly Bill 2200 from Bay Area Democrat Ash Kalra, would have established CalCare, a state-run insurance system for all residents without premiums, deductibles or copays. (Lynch, 5/16)

NBC News: California Bill That Aimed To Combat Tween Skin Care Overuse Fails To Move Forward
A bill in California that aimed to ban the sale of anti-aging skin products to kids under 13 failed to advance in the state Assembly on Thursday after it was brought forward at an Appropriations Committee meeting. Democratic Assemblymember Alex Lee introduced AB 2491 last month to combat the controversial skin care craze influencing young children online. (Yang and Griffin, 5/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Homelessness Rises Despite City Spending More
Despite a massive increase in homelessness funding, San Francisco saw a 7% surge in its unhoused population over the past two years, reversing the gains shown in its last count, according to preliminary data from a one-night snapshot released Thursday. The city counted 8,328 unhoused people across the city, which was up from 7,754 in 2022. Unsheltered homelessness, which includes people living in tents, on sidewalks and in vehicles, dipped 1%, according to city estimates. (Angst, 5/16)

In other news from across the country —

WUSF: The VA Adds A Veterans Health Clinic In An East Tampa Neighborhood
A new satellite clinic run by the Department of Veteran Affairs in East Tampa is open for veterans to get primary care, mental health support and other services. It’s part of a growing partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. (Colombini, 5/16)

Chicago Tribune: More Health Care Facilities Would Have To Report Abuse Under New Bill
Doctors’ offices and clinics affiliated with hospitals would have to report allegations of patient abuse to the state health department under a measure introduced by Illinois lawmakers this week — legislation that comes about three months after a Chicago Tribune investigation examined the issue. (Hoerner, 5/16)

USA Today: CDC Looks To Treat US Suicides. People Find Salvation In NYC Clubhouse
Samantha Alexander calls Manhattan's Fountain House her “earthly salvation.” Months ago, while living in a midtown homeless shelter, she attempted to take her own life. Despite being assigned male at birth, she'd known since she was young that she was female. She'd experienced chronic depression since childhood, and had tried various medications to treat it, she said. After her attempt, she agreed to go with a friend to the Fountain House, a mental health nonprofit around the corner from the shelter. (Cuevas, 5/16)

Concord Monitor: NH Senate Votes Down Medical Aid In Dying Proposal
The New Hampshire Senate voted down a bill on Thursday that would have allowed medical aid in dying, taking away the opportunity for terminally ill individuals to end their suffering through self-administered medication. (Gopalakrishnan, 5/16)

St. Louis Public Radio: Pharmacists, Patients Say Express Scripts Limits Access To Meds
Pharmacists and patient rights advocates plan to protest Express Scripts’ business practices Friday outside the company’s headquarters in north St. Louis County. They claim the company’s negotiating tactics result in decreased availability of medicines and higher prices for consumers. (Fentem, 5/17)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: BJC, Encompass Open Rehab Hospital In West St. Louis County
Patients ready to be discharged from the hospital but not quite well enough to return home may sometimes wait for an available room at a rehabilitation facility. That means they are not only holding up a hospital bed for someone who might need it, but also not getting the intensive therapy they need. The opening this month of a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation facility, The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis-West County, hopes to alleviate any wait. (Munz, 5/16)

The Boston Globe: Cape Cod Hospital To Pay $24.4 Million For Medicare Billing Issues
Cape Cod Hospital has agreed to pay the federal government nearly $24.4 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly submitted Medicare claims that failed to comply with billing requirements. A Department of Justice investigation found that cardiac surgeons at the hospital did not sufficiently document patient evaluations for transcatheter aortic valve replacements, known as TAVR, required for Medicare reimbursement. Richard Zelman, a former cardiologist at the hospital who first called attention to the lapses in a 2022 lawsuit against the hospital, will receive nearly $4.4 million of the civil settlement for his whistleblower role. (Johnston, 5/16)

Reuters: Parent Sues Weighted Sleep Sack Company Amid Dispute Over Product Safety
A company that sells weighted sleep sacks for babies was hit with a proposed class action in Massachusetts federal court, amid controversy over whether the products are safe. Los Angeles mother Roz Saedi filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against Nested Bean, accusing the company of selling millions of the sleep sacks while knowing that weighted products are unsafe for babies. Saedi said she used the sack with her baby twice and had concerns the baby was struggling to breathe while wearing it. (Novak Jones, 5/16)

Also —

KFF Health News: Clean Needles Save Lives. In Some States, They Might Not Be Legal
Kim Botteicher hardly thinks of herself as a criminal. On the main floor of a former Catholic church in Bolivar, Pennsylvania, Botteicher runs a flower shop and cafe. In the former church’s basement, she also operates a nonprofit organization focused on helping people caught up in the drug epidemic get back on their feet. (Mahon and Boden, 5/17)

Bloomberg: Wegovy Should Be Treating More Than Obesity
A new analysis found that the profound benefits of Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy for people at risk of heart attacks or strokes don’t depend on the number of the scale—cardiovascular health improves whether people lose a lot or even very little weight. (Lisa Jarvis, 5/17)

Stat: Bird Flu: Don't Repeat Covid's 'Health Versus The Economy' Framing
The Biden administration announced new programs on May 10 to incentivize dairy farmers and workers to collaborate with public health efforts to investigate and mitigate the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak among dairy cattle. Farmers and agriculture officials have called such testing “overreach,” telling public health officials to “back off.” But the Biden administration’s new programs are a first step toward creating trust and collaboration between public health and industry. (Celine Gounder, 5/17)

The New York Times: Is There A Constitutional Right To Talk About Abortion?
Federal District Courts in Indiana and Alabama both ruled this month that while states in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s demise can ban abortion, they cannot make it illegal to give abortion-related advice, including advice to minors seeking abortions without parental consent. (Linda Greenhouse, 5/17)

Stat: Helping Hospitals And Community Health Centers Plan For Resilience 
Extreme weather fueled by accelerating climate change puts patients, providers, and health care facilities at severe risk, jeopardizing lives. Unpredictable shifts in weather patterns are creating new regional extremes, and communities have to adjust to survive. (Marquisha Johns, 5/17)