AP: Abortion Rights Initiatives Make The Ballot In South Dakota And Colorado 
Voters in Colorado and South Dakota will have a say on abortion rights this fall after enough signatures were collected to put measures on the ballots. South Dakota voters will get a chance at direct democracy on the contentious issue in a conservative state where a trigger law banning nearly all abortions went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Colorado’s measure, which made the ballot Friday, would enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution. (Dura, 5/17)

The Independent: Ohio Judge Set To Rule On State’s Near-Total Ban On Abortions
A judge in Ohio could rule as soon as Monday in a case that could overthrow the state’s 2019 abortion ban. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins is considering a case brought by a group of Ohio abortion clinics which seeks to invalidate the state’s law banning abortion in most cases after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. A ballot measure approved by voters last year already rendered much of that law moot, but parts remain in place including reporting requirements and a 24-hour waiting period, which can add stress and an increased financial burden for those in need of abortion care. (Bowden, 5/19)

Fox News: Planned Parenthood Suffers Loss In Legal Challenge To South Carolina's Fetal Heartbeat Law
Pro-life officials on Friday celebrated a South Carolina judge's denial of a Planned Parenthood motion to weaken the state's six-week abortion ban. A state judge in Columbia ruled against the reproductive health care organization's demand for a preliminary injunction that would slacken South Carolina's six-week abortion restriction to nine weeks, according to The State newspaper. (Creitz, 5/17)

The 19th: What Happens To Clinics After A State Bans Abortion? They Fight To Survive.
With fewer patients, clinics have to scale back, pivot or close. Ballot measures this November could restore abortion access — but may come too late. (Luthra and Carrazana, 5/20)

AP: Some Democrats Campaigning For Senate Want To Suspend The Filibuster To Pass Abortion Bills
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, facing a tough reelection fight in one of the races that will determine control of Congress, has made protecting reproductive rights a cornerstone of her campaign, and she’s willing to back that up by pledging to change the Senate filibuster rules if Democrats retain control of the chamber. The Wisconsin Democrat said taking that step is necessary to ensure that women in every state -– not the government -– can decide for themselves whether to have an abortion. As part of her campaign, she warns that Republicans might also target the filibuster to impose a national abortion ban if they prevail in November. (Fernando, 5/19)

CBS News: Florida Abortions Top 22,000 Before 6-Week Law
More than 22,000 abortions were performed in Florida this year before a law took effect May 1 preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Newly posted data on the state Agency for Health Care Administration website showed a reported 22,409 abortions had been performed as of May 1. That was up from 14,735 abortions a month earlier. (5/17)

In other reproductive health news —

USA Today: Graphics Show Changing Trend In Average Age Of Parents
Women in the U.S. are more likely to delay motherhood now, compared to decades past, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than two decades ago the average age of a first-time mother was 24.9. Now, the average woman or birthing person is having their first child at 27.5 - a record high in the country. Researchers have found that a major factor in this change of age is the decline of teen moms. (Chernikoff, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Screening Identifies Preeclampsia Cases More Accurately, Researchers Say
A personalized screening technique predicts preeclampsia more accurately than current guidelines relying on risk factors, recent research in the journal Hypertension suggests. “A pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure and signs of organ failure,” preeclampsia develops in about 1 in 25 U.S. pregnancies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Worldwide, it accounts for more than 70,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 fetal deaths each year. (Blakemore, 5/18)

CIDRAP: Drug-Resistant Trichophyton Fungus Represents Emerging Threat In US 
In a new JAMA Dermatology report, researchers describe 11 Trichophyton indotinea infections in New York City from May 2022 to May 2023. The fungus represents a new emerging public health threat that causes extensive tinea infections often unresponsive to terbinafine, a first-line oral antifungal. (Soucheray, 5/17)

CIDRAP: ECDC Warns Of Invasive Meningococcal Infections In Travelers From Saudi Arabia
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said today that it is monitoring reports from three countries of invasive meningococcal disease linked to Saudi Arabia travel. Nearly all cases are in patients who performed the Umrah pilgrimage while in Saudi Arabia, and most cases belong to serogroup W and involve no history of meningococcus vaccination, the ECDC said in a statement. (Schnirring, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Investigating Hepatitis A Case At Beverly Hills Whole Foods
Los Angeles County health officials are investigating a reported case of hepatitis A in an employee of a Whole Foods supermarket in Beverly Hills and are warning of possible public exposure to the highly contagious liver infection. Officials warned that anyone who purchased products from the seafood counter at the grocery store on Crescent Drive between April 20 and May 13 could be affected and urged those not already immune to hepatitis A to get vaccinated as soon as possible. (Queally, 5/17)

CIDRAP: Measles Outbreak At Chicago Shelter Occurred Mostly In Unvaccinated, Case Study Shows 
A study published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)details a measles outbreak that sickened 57 people at a Chicago migrant shelter this year and how a prompt and coordinated mass-vaccination campaign helped contain it. (Van Beusekom, 5/17)

On the spread of bird flu —

The Boston Globe: Bird Flu Virus In Milk: Sample Bought In Mass. Tests Positive
Fragments of a highly contagious virus that has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the globe and sickened dairy cows from Michigan to Texas have made their way into local milk, though experts say commercial milk supplies remain safe. The inactivated remnants of H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu, were identified in one of 40 samples of milk purchased from 20 local grocery stores and analyzed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard on behalf of The Boston Globe. (Piore, 5/17)

Reuters: How Annual Bird Migration Could Spread Avian Flu
Poultry and cows risk exposure to sick wild birds migrating across the Americas. Here is how annual bird migration could spread avian flu. (Levine and Hartman, 5/20)

Crain's New York Business: Uber Expands Healthcare Reach With New Patient Transport Platform
Uber has announced a new platform to help caregivers facilitate transportation for those they care for. The move also further expands the company’s footprint in the healthcare space. The new offering, unveiled on Wednesday at the company’s annual product event, allows caregivers to request and monitor rides and deliveries of prescriptions, groceries and over-the-counter items for those they care for. (Glodowski, 5/17)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital-At-Home Expands Even Without Congress, Regulation
Health systems and technology companies are betting big on home-based hospital care, despite regulatory uncertainty about the program’s future. Hospitals are bullish on at-home acute care because it can save money and make more beds available in their facilities for sicker patients. Medicare also pays health systems the same rate as it would for an inpatient admission. (Eastabrook, 5/17)

In corporate news —

Modern Healthcare: Epic Widens EHR Market Share Lead Over Cerner, Rivals: Report 
Epic Systems was the only electronic health record vendor to increase its market share in 2023, according to a new report. The Verona, Wisconsin-based company added beds and customers, increasing its total market share to 39% of acute care hospitals and 52% of acute care beds, according to a new report from market research firm KLAS. In 2022, Epic had 36% of acute care hospitals and 48% of acute care beds. (Turner, 5/17)

Stat: As Health System Earnings Go Up, Health Insurance Stocks Go Down 
Americans, especially Medicare beneficiaries, are getting more medical care these days. Demand from aging Baby Boomers is keeping people in doctor’s offices, and health care providers are continuing to build capacity post-Covid. (Bannow, 5/20)

Bloomberg: Cano Health Wins Creditor Support To Cut Debt, Exit Bankruptcy
Cano Health Inc. won support from lower-ranking creditors for a plan to slash about $1 billion in debt and exit bankruptcy under new owners. At a court hearing Friday morning, the company and the official committee of unsecured creditors announced the deal, which calls for senior lenders owed about $974 million to take ownership of the Miami-based healthcare company in exchange for canceling most debt. (Church, 5/17)

Stat: Welsh Carson Private Equity Firm Escapes From FTC Antitrust Case 
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has wiggled out of the grasp of the Federal Trade Commission, but the private equity firm’s anesthesia company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, still must face the agency’s antitrust case, a judge ruled last week. (Herman, 5/20)

On layoffs and labor strikes —

Modern Healthcare: Optum Layoffs To Affect 129 Employees, Ohio Facility To Close
UnitedHealth Group’s Optum will lay off 129 employees and close a Toledo, Ohio, facility, according to a notice filed with the state's job and family services department. The separations are expected to take place in three waves, from July 15 to September 6, and will affect employees in Ohio and remote locations, Optum said in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed Thursday. (Berryman, 5/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF’s Public Hospital Nurses OK Strike After June Over Work Conditions
The roughly 2,220 registered nurses who work for the San Francisco Department of Public Health have voted to authorize a strike over what they say are staffing shortages and unsafe conditions for patients at the city’s public hospital and clinics, the union representing the nurses said late Friday. The union, SEIU Local 1021, completed a vote among its members Friday to authorize a strike that would begin after June 30 if the union cannot reach a new contract with the city before then. (Ho, 5/17)

Axios: Prescription Drug Ads Should Soon Start Looking Noticeably Different
A new chapter in drug advertising begins Monday when a federal transparency rule takes effect requiring commercials to clearly spell out potential side effects and when a person should avoid the medicine. (Bettelheim, 5/20)

CNN: Gene Test May Predict Success On Injectable Weight Loss Drugs, A Step Toward Precision Medicine For Obesity
One of the big mysteries with popular GLP-1 medications for weight loss is why some people will lose 20% or more of their starting body weight on the drugs while for others, the scale will barely budge. (Goodman, 5/20)

CNN: People Using Popular Drugs For Weight Loss, Diabetes Are More Likely To Be Diagnosed With Stomach Paralysis, Studies Confirm
Injected medications that treat diabetes and obesity increase the risk of a rare but serious side effect: stomach paralysis, according to new data on the real-world use of the drugs. (Goodman, 5/20)

More pharmaceutical industry news —

CBS News: Fallout From Massive Data Breach At Ascension Continues As Patients Are Unable To Fill Prescriptions
Ascension has reported that patients are unable to fill prescriptions at its pharmacies in light of a recent data breach that occurred on May 8. The data breach, which has disrupted its computer system and prevented prescriptions from being filled as a result, has led to an increase in business for nearby pharmacies. (Vicci, 5/17)

NBC News: ADHD Medication Shortages Easing, FDA Says, But Still Affecting Patients
Many of the ADHD medication shortages that have plagued the U.S. for the last two years have now been resolved, the Food and Drug Administration says. Yet some doctors and patients report they are still struggling to get prescriptions filled. Dr. Royce Lee, a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago Medicine, said supply has gotten better but it’s still an issue for about a third of the patients he writes prescriptions for. (Lovelace Jr., 5/19)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Pharmacists Protest Contracts At Express Scripts
About 70 pharmacists and advocates gathered outside Express Scripts’ North County headquarters Friday, voicing wide-ranging complaints about the company and its peers in the business of drug-industry middlemen. Pharmacists and activists accused the company — and competitors like Optum Rx and CVS Caremark — of pushing independent pharmacies into unfavorable, “take-it-or-leave-it” contracts, and pressuring patients to switch to mail-order prescriptions. (Merrilees, 5/17)

Stat: Has Bernie Sanders Reached The Limit Of His Pharma Bullying Effort? 
Bernie Sanders is figuring out just how far bullying drugmakers can take him. For more than a year, Sanders has used his perch atop the Senate health committee to haul the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies that make insulin, vaccines, and more before the panel with progressively more ambitious demands related to their pricing. (Zhang, 5/20)

CBS News: Illinois Department Of Public Health Reports First 2 Mosquito Batches Of 2024 To Test Positive For West Nile Virus
Two batches of mosquitoes in Illinois have tested positive for West Nile Virus for the first time this year, the Illinois Department of Health announced on Friday. The Northwest Mosquito Abatement District collected the first batch of mosquitoes in Hoffman Estates, Cook County, on Tuesday. A second batch was found in Jacksonville, Morgan County, on Thursday. (Bizzle, 5/17)

The Washington Post: Mosquitoes Are Swarming Houston After Flooding, Storms And Warm Weather 
After flood-inducing rain pummeled much of Texas over the past few weeks, another sort of inundation is now swamping the Houston region: Mosquitoes. Lots of them. More than many longtime residents can ever remember. (Keyser and Grandoni, 5/18)

In Medicaid news —

Houston Chronicle: Texas Children's Health Plan Poised To Lose Key Medicaid Contract
The Texas Children’s Health Plan is pushing back on the potential loss of a major state contract to provide Medicaid STAR and CHIP coverage for children in low-income families and pregnant women, as well as some other adults. The loss of the contract would mean most of its 450,000 members throughout Southeast Texas will have to find new insurance plans by next year — a disruption that health plan officials say will be especially burdensome for a vulnerable population. (Gill, 5/17)

KFF Health News: Medicaid Unwinding Deals Blow To Tenuous System Of Care For Native Americans
About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the covid-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income families. A chorus of stories recount the ways the unwinding has upended people’s lives, but Native Americans are proving particularly vulnerable to losing coverage and face greater obstacles to reenrolling in Medicaid or finding other coverage. (Orozco Rodriguez, 5/20)

More health news from across the U.S. —

New Hampshire Public Radio: NH Missed A Court Deadline To End ER Boarding. But It's Making Some Progress. 
For the last year, New Hampshire has been staring down a deadline for ending a persistent problem: patients languishing in emergency rooms for days or weeks, due to a lack of inpatient mental health care. Last May, a federal judge ruled that had to end and gave the state 12 months to fix it. That deadline is today, May 17. But state officials say they need more time — because the backlog of patients in hospital emergency rooms is just one symptom of larger challenges facing New Hampshire’s mental health system. (Cuno-Booth, 5/17)

CBS News: Spanish-Speaking Pediatric Clinic At Children's Hospital Colorado Aims To Boost Healthcare Accessibility
If you've ever had to take your child to the hospital or undergo a major procedure yourself, you know it's not always easy to understand what your doctor is saying. For Spanish-speaking families, those conversations can be even more challenging. Children's Hospital Colorado's Clínica de Cirugía Pediátrica -- Pediatric Surgery Clinic -- is the first of its kind in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. (Arenas, 5/19)

AP: After The Only Hospital In Town Closed, A North Carolina City Directs Its Ire At Politicians 
Weeds have punctured through the vacant parking lot of Martin General Hospital’s emergency room. A makeshift blue tarp covering the hospital’s sign is worn down from flapping in the wind. The hospital doors are locked, many in this county of 22,000 fear permanently. Some residents worry the hospital’s sudden closure last August could cost them their life. “I know we all have to die, but it seems like since the hospital closed, there’s a lot more people dying,” Linda Gibson, a lifelong resident of Williamston, North Carolina, said on a recent afternoon while preparing snacks for children in a nearby elementary school kitchen. (Seitz and Bree, 5/20)

KFF Health News: Newsom Boosted California’s Public Health Budget During Covid. Now He Wants To Cut It. 
When a doctor in Pasadena, California, reported in October that a hospital patient was exhibiting classic symptoms of dengue fever, such as vomiting, a rash, and bone and joint pain, local disease investigators snapped into action. The mosquito-borne virus is common in places like Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America, and when Americans contract the disease it is usually while traveling. But in this case, the patient hadn’t left California. (Hart, 5/20)

NBC News: Study Links Talc To Ovarian Cancer, With Implications For J&J Lawsuits
New research published this week lends credence to the more than 50,000 lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson that allege its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer. The analysis, released Wednesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that applying talc powder to the genitals was associated with ovarian cancer — and that the association was greater for people who used the powder frequently or for long periods of time. (Bendix, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Influencers Are Saying Sunscreen Causes Cancer. They Are Wrong. 
Some wellness influencers tout the sun’s natural healing powers. Others tell their followers to make homemade sunscreen or that sun protection prevents people from producing the vitamin D that they need. Consuming seed oils is what really causes sunburns, some say. (Calfas, 5/19)

KFF Health News: Journalists Broach Topics From Treating Shooting Victims To Sunscreen Safety
KFF Health News and California Healthline staffers made the rounds on national and local media in the last couple of weeks to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (5/18)

On HIV/AIDS —

CNN: Moms With HIV Can Breastfeed If Taking Treatment And Virus Is Undetectable, Pediatricians’ Group Says 
Each time LaTonya looks at framed photos of herself breastfeeding her baby son for the first time, she swells with emotion. As a mother living with HIV in Colorado, it was a moment she wanted to commemorate. “That’s how important it was to me to be able to breastfeed,” LaTonya said about the photos. “So, I wanted to make sure we had that forever.” (Howard, 5/20)

Stat: HIV Vaccine Remains Elusive. Immunologists Keep Trying New Ideas 
HIV has long stumped immunologists looking to develop an effective vaccine. All of the most promising approaches pioneered in the past three and a half decades have ultimately failed, and only a few months ago, the last trial expected to potentially deliver a vaccine within this decade was shut down. (Merelli and Wosen, 5/17)

On veterans' health —

Stat: Black Vets Could Get Higher VA Benefits If Race Not Used In Lung Test 
Removing a patient’s race from an equation used to assess lung function — a change called for by health equity advocates — would mean that the lung disease of nearly half a million Black Americans would be reclassified as being more severe, and that Black veterans could receive more than $1 billion in additional disability payments, according to a study published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (McFarling, 5/19)

Military.com: Officers With Higher Rank Get Better Care Than Those With Lower Ranks At Military Hospitals, Study Finds 
Officers who outrank their military physicians and personnel who have been recently promoted receive better attention and care in Defense Department health facilities than lower-ranking service members, new research on military emergency room visits has found. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, also found racial bias in treatment and care in military ERs, with white physicians "exerting less effort" on Black patients. (Kime, 5/17)

Fox News: Heart Attacks Are More Likely During Presidential Elections And Other Stressful Times, Study Shows
Research from Massachusetts General Hospital found that people who have specific genetic traits, paired with anxiety or depression, are at a "significantly higher heart attack risk" during periods of social or political stress, such as presidential elections, winter holidays or even the Super Bowl. The study, presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session in April, was the first to examine stress sensitivity based on genetics as a driver of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). (Stabile, 5/20)

The Washington Post: What Science Tells Us About Biden, Trump And Evaluating An Aging Brain 
The 2024 presidential election has turned into a crash course in gerontology. On Election Day, former president Donald Trump will be 78 years old, and President Biden will be a couple weeks shy of 82. Never have two people of such advanced age been the nominees of the major political parties, nor has there been a campaign so rife with suspicions and allegations that candidates are showing signs of age-related cognitive decline. But this public discussion of the aging brain — a scientific topic if ever there was one — has been conducted largely without reference to any scientific facts. (Achenbach and Johnson, 5/18)

In related news about aging —

Axios: The Booming Business Of Eternal Youth
Consumers, especially the rich, are spending big on the colossal, growing longevity industry — spas, food subscriptions, gym memberships and pills. The wellness industry is worth nearly $500 billion in the U.S. and $2 trillion globally, McKinsey says. But there's a growing gap between what's available to wealthy consumers and everyone else. (Pandey, 5/19)

NPR: Biking Helps Prevent Knee Pain And Boosts Longevity, Studies Show
A substantial body of evidence supports the health benefits of cycling, everything from strengthening the immune system to boosting the likelihood of living longer. Now, a new study finds people who are in the habit of riding a bike are significantly less likely to have osteoarthritis and experience pain in their knees by age 65, compared to people who don't bike. ... "Bicyclers were 21% less likely to have X-ray evidence and symptoms of osteoarthritis compared to those who did not have a history of bicycling," explains study author Dr. Grace Lo of Baylor College of Medicine. (Aubrey, 5/20)

The Conversation: Slouching Isn’t Bad For Your Spine But May Impact Your Memory, Research Says
Often a posture assigned to teenagers and disaffected youth, slouching is traditionally considered to be a “bad” posture — with some claiming it will damage your spine and cause pain. (McCarthy, 5/19)

The Atlantic: God's Doctors
Nearly 20 million people gained health-insurance coverage between 2010 and 2016 under the Affordable Care Act. But about half of insured adults worry about affording their monthly premiums, while roughly the same number worry about affording their deductibles. (Matt Eich and Bryce Covert, 5/18)

The Boston Globe: We Ask Too Much Of Primary Care Doctors. 26.7 Hours A Day, To Be Exact. 
If you’ve recently tried to find a new primary care doctor (spoiler: it isn’t easy), the fact that primary care is in crisis is no surprise. Data released Thursday by the Center for Health Information and Analysis and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners show how bad the situation has gotten. (5/20)

The Boston Globe: Medicare Has Enough Money For Now — But Not For Long
Medicare recently announced it has enough money to pay for hospital care for five more years than thought — a recent report says it will be able to pay full benefits until 2036. However, the federal health care program as a whole is growing so fast because of the aging population that it’s only a matter of time before the United States is in a serious financial mess trying to pay for it. (Elsa Pearson Sites, 5/20)

Stat: Deliver Public Health Messages At The Right Time
I was 31 years old when my mother was dying of breast cancer. One day, while sitting with her in the hospital, her oncologist asked me a question no one had ever asked me before: “Have you had a mammogram yet?” (Hilary Hatch, 5/20)

Stat: HHS's Proposed Rule Does Nothing To Address The Climate Crisis 
In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the world’s most powerful health care agency — responsible for overseeing the largest industry in the world’s largest economy — offered a pretend proposal for regulating health care’s massive carbon footprint of 550 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e), or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. (David Introcaso, 5/20)