The New York Times: More Than 20 Million People Have Signed Up For Obamacare Plans, Blowing By Record 
More than 20 million people have signed up for plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces during the annual open enrollment period, far surpassing last year’s record of more than 16 million enrollments, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday. The figures were a landmark moment for the 2010 health law, underscoring the significance of enhanced subsidies for Americans and the continuing reach of the marketplaces after years of Republican efforts to whittle them down. “The Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever,” President Biden said in a statement. (Weiland, 1/10)

The Hill: Obamacare Enrollment Breaks Record For Third Consecutive Year 
Health insurance enrollment through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance marketplace has reached a record for the third consecutive year, according to the latest update from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS said in a statement Wednesday that enrollment for 2024 ACA plans had broken 20 million so far, with just less than a week left for people to sign up for plans. This exceeds 2023’s enrollment — 16.3 million — by roughly 4 million people. (Choi, 1/10)

ABC 15: Deadline Approaching For Affordable Care Act Enrollment
The deadline is approaching for families looking to enroll in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. You have until January 16 to check your eligibility status and enroll. Kathy Hempstead, senior policy adviser with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says ACA plans have become more affordable in the past year, with some as low as $10 a month. She says more people are also now eligible, which is causing more people to sign up. Despite that, there are still about 20 million Americans who are uninsured. (Warren, 1/10)

The New York Times: WIC Food Assistance For Mothers And Children Faces Funding Shortfall 
For the first time in decades, many states could begin turning away eligible applicants from an assistance program that provides low-income women and their children critical access to food. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, a federally funded program known as WIC, has traditionally received bipartisan support from lawmakers. But the broader push for spending cuts among some House Republicans has threatened the program’s ability to provide benefits to every eligible person who applies. Lawmakers are running up against a Jan. 19 deadline to extend funding. (Ngo, 1/10)

CBS News: Biden Administration To Provide Summer Grocery Money To 21 Million Kids. Here's Who Qualifies. 
A new federal program will provide summer grocery money to 21 million children across 35 states, part of the Biden administration's goal of making sure students get enough food when they're not in school and can't access free or reduced breakfast and lunch. The program will be rolled out in 35 states and all five U.S. territories, while four tribes have also opted into the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program, or Summer EBT, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday. (Picchi, 1/10)

Chalkbeat: Nearly 10 Million Eligible Students Will Go Without New Summer EBT Benefit
Summer EBT will work a little differently depending on the state, but generally states will identify which families qualify for the $120 or more in benefits and either mail out EBT cards for the summer, or load the value onto existing benefit cards. Then families can use that money to buy food at their local grocery store. (Belsha, 1/10)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Turns Down $350M In Summer Food Assistance For Children
Texas is passing up nearly $350 million in federal aid to help feed millions of low-income children during the summer months after a state agency said it lacked the time and resources to implement the program this year. Summer EBT, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture program approved by Congress in 2022, will provide families in participating states with funds to buy groceries to fill the void when their children are not receiving meals at school. ... Texas is among a minority of 16 states not participating. (Goldenstein, 1/10)

Meanwhile, spending negotiations continue as the first partial shutdown deadline looms —

AP: Speaker Johnson Is Facing Conservative Pushback Over The Spending Deal He Struck With Democrats
As Speaker Mike Johnson gathered House Republicans behind closed doors Wednesday to sell the spending deal he reached with Democrats, one thing quickly became clear: many GOP lawmakers weren’t buying it. .. In the afternoon, 13 Republicans refused to support a routine procedural vote setting the stage for considering three GOP-led bills. A similar revolt occurred in June when, for the first time in some 20 years, such a routine vote was defeated, essentially grinding the House to a halt. (Freking, 1/11)

NPR: Congress Faces A Hard Deadline To Approve A Government Spending Plan
GOP hardliners are balking at a government funding compromise negotiated by House and Senate leaders. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia about the impasse. (1/11)

Also —

The Washington Post: Congress Nears Deal To Partially Restore Biden’s Expanded Child Tax Credit
Congressional lawmakers are closing in on a deal that would partially revive President Biden’s expanded tax credit for lower-income families in exchange for extending tax incentives favored by business interests, according to two people familiar with the matter. The higher child tax credit for lower-income families took effect in 2021 but expired that same year amid GOP opposition. Since then, Democrats have sought to bring back the higher credit, which they say pulled millions of lower-income families out of poverty. (Bogage and Stein, 1/10)

ABC News: 118th Congress On Track To Become One Of The Least Productive In US History 
Lawmakers are halfway through the congressional session, and it looks like it could be a historic one for the wrong reasons, according to congressional data. The 118th Congress is on track to being one of the least functional sessions ever, with only 34 bills passed since January of last year, the lowest number of bills passed in the first year of a congressional session since the Great Depression, according to congressional records. (LoCascio, Siege and Pereira, 1/10)

AP: Amid Firestorm Created By Austin's Cancer Secrecy, Missed Opportunities To Build Trust And Educate
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin could have seized his prostate check and early discovery of the cancer as a teaching moment, for his many male troops and workers across the department, and, even more importantly, for the African American population. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men. It affects 1 in every 8 men — and 1 in every 6 African American men — during their lifetime. Specifically, it’s been a problem for some of Austin’s own troops. The Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department are involved in multiple studies to address cancer rates — including prostate cancer — among service members, such as those deployed to war, aviators and aircrew, and those operating the nation’s nuclear missiles. (Baldor, 1/11)

The New York Times: Lloyd Austin’s Hidden Diagnosis: Why Some People Keep Serious Illnesses Private 
There are many reasons people might opt to keep their illness to themselves in certain contexts, experts said, but some are more common than others. Privacy can be a coping strategy, said Dr. Itai Danovitch, chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, particularly in the early days following a diagnosis, when patients are deluged with new information. “There are different strategies we use to try and control things that are uncontrollable,” he explained. “One common mechanism that we use is to compartmentalize.” Though compartmentalization, or keeping certain thoughts and emotions separate, is often maligned, it is adaptive, Dr. Danovitch said. For instance, it can help people to stay focused professionally even when illness is causing significant stress. (Pearson, 1/10)

The Washington Post: Secrets, Lies And TMI: A History Of White House Health Disclosures
On Sept. 26, 1955, the president of the United States did what many of us do upon waking up. It just happened to be national news. “He had a good bowel movement,” Dwight D. Eisenhower’s press secretary told reporters. One of Eisenhower’s physicians added, “The country will be very pleased — the country is so bowel-minded anyway — to know that the president had a good movement this morning, and it is important. It is good for the morale of people. ”This intimate detail, revealed two days after Eisenhower suffered a major heart attack, represents one extreme when it comes to medical transparency from the nation’s top brass. (Dotinga, 1/11)

Roll Call: Pressure Mounting On Austin As GOP Senators Launch Inquiry 
As the ramifications of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s failure to disclose his cancer surgery and subsequent hospitalization continued to reverberate through Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Senate Republicans opened a new inquiry into the matter, but lawmakers largely fell short of calling for his removal. (Satter, 1/10)

Other news from the Biden administration —

The Washington Post: White House Weighs Menthol Ban Amid Dueling Health, Political Pressures 
White House officials are wrestling with one of the most consequential public health decisions of President Biden’s term: whether to enact a nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes, which are a leading cause of death among Black Americans, according to six administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The years-long debate about banning menthol cigarettes has pitted public health officials who say the move would effectively save hundreds of thousands of Black lives in the coming decades against political advisers who warn that Biden could lose support by banning products popular in the Black community, jeopardizing crucial votes ahead of what is expected to be a close election. (Diamond and Pager, 1/10)

Stat: New Medicare Drug Pricing Powers Could Soon Be Upended In Court 
Pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to scuttle President Biden’s signature health care achievement, empowering Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, will soon face their first big tests. District court judges could soon weigh in on the litany of court cases that major companies filed against the government — shedding light on whether drugmakers have any hope of postponing the first parts of the negotiation process, scrapping it entirely, or sending the issue up to the Supreme Court. (Cohrs, 1/11)

Axios: How State Governments Plan To Target Drug Costs And Health Worker Shortages
As state legislatures get back to work across the country, state policymakers are eying measures to bolster their burned-out health care workforces, make prescription drugs more affordable and reform their Medicaid programs. (Goldman, 1/11)

AP: Nearly 10,000 Died From COVID-19 Last Month, WHO Says
The head of the U.N. health agency said Wednesday holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries — mostly in Europe and the Americas — that shared such trend information. “Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable,” the World Health Organization director-general told reporters from its headquarters in Geneva. (1/10)

ABC News: Why Are 1,500 Americans Still Dying From COVID Every Week? 
Experts said there are several reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including not enough people accessing treatments or getting vaccinated as well as waning immunity. Additionally, if more people get sick, even if in lesser numbers than in previous waves, it will naturally lead to more people becoming hospitalized and, in turn, dying. "We do have very good vaccines that [researchers] have been able to adjust as the variants have changed and very good treatment options that have been shown to decrease the risk of hospitalization as well as deaths," Dr. Shivanjali Shankaran, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told ABC News. (Kekatos, 1/10)

More on the spread of the 'tripledemic' —

Axios: COVID-19 And Flu Cases In Georgia Are Rising Sharply 
COVID-19 and flu activity in Georgia are rising sharply, Georgia Department of Public Health officials say. Yes, but: The number of new cases of RSV, which is particularly dangerous for infants under 6 months, is "stabilizing," state epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek said during this week's department board meeting. (Wheatley, 1/11)

New Hampshire Bulletin: As Respiratory Illnesses Spike, NH Hospitals Warn: 'Hospitals Are Busy, And Beds Are Full' 
You may be asked to wear a mask the next time you visit a New Hampshire hospital or health care facility. The New Hampshire Hospital Association said Wednesday the change comes as hospitals are nearly full due to an increase in respiratory illnesses among patients and staff, including flu, COVID-19, and RSV. It did not identify which hospitals have resumed mask requirements or are considering it. (Timmins, 1/10)

WUSF: USF Is Studying How Coronavirus Spreads Between Humans And Animals
Scientists with the University of South Florida in Tampa want to learn more about how the coronavirus spreads between humans and wildlife. They’re involved in a national study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Colombini, 1/10)

On Dr. Anthony Fauci —

Stat: Fauci’s Covid Grilling Leads GOP To Weigh Foreign Research Rules
House Republicans want to explore tighter inspection and safety requirements for infectious disease work done in foreign labs, following a two-day grilling of former top health official Anthony Fauci. (Owermohle, 1/10)

The Hill: DeSantis Promises To ‘Bring A Reckoning’ To Fauci
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday promised to “bring a reckoning” to former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci if DeSantis is elected to the White House. “We cannot allow Anthony Fauci to escape accountability,” DeSantis wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I am the only candidate who will bring a reckoning for what tyrants like Fauci did to our country during COVID.” (Suter, 1/10)

In global news about the spread of Nipah and polio —

Reuters: Oxford Starts Human Testing Of Nipah Virus Vaccine
The University of Oxford said on Thursday it had begun human testing of an experimental vaccine against the brain-swelling Nipah virus that led to outbreaks in India's Kerala state and other parts of Asia. There is no vaccine yet for the deadly virus. Nipah was first identified about 25 years ago in Malaysia and has led to outbreaks in Bangladesh, India and Singapore. The first participants in the Oxford trial received doses of the vaccine over the last week. (1/10)

CIDRAP: WHO Prequalifies Next-Generation Oral Polio Vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently prequalified the novel oral poliovirus vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), the first time the group has ever prequalified a vaccine that is being used under the emergency use listing, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced yesterday. Rollout of the new vaccine began in March 2021, and nearly 1 billion doses have already been administered across 35 countries. WHO prequalification, though, paves the way for more countries to receive the vaccine, which has played a key role in stemming outbreaks involving type 2 variant poliovirus (cVDPV2). (Schnirring, 1/10)

Portland Press Herald: Maine Democrats Will Seek Constitutional Protection For Abortion Rights
Months after pushing through an expansion of abortion access that drew huge protests at the State House, legislative Democrats are now setting their sights on enshrining a right to an abortion in the Maine Constitution. Senate Democrats announced Wednesday that the Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing later this month on a proposed constitutional amendment sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic. (Billings, 1/10)

Politico: Phil Murphy Pushes Again For Abortion Access And New Jersey Affordability In State Of The State 
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat entering the final legislative session of his career but whose wife is trying to bring the family name to the U.S. Senate, used his annual State of the State address Tuesday to push back against attacks on abortion rights, champion the economic potential of artificial intelligence and hammer away at the state’s most stubborn issue, affordability. “We have seen a resurgent, radical, right-wing agenda that is hellbent on coming after our fundamental rights. Voting rights. LGBT rights. Reproductive rights, and explicitly, the right to an abortion,” Murphy said. “There is no sugarcoating it: Women’s health care in America is in a state of crisis.” (Rivard and Han, 1/9)

The Boston Globe: Majority Of Likely N.H. Voters Say Abortion Factors Into Vote
With just two weeks to go before the state’s presidential primary, a new poll of likely voters in New Hampshire suggests abortion will directly impact how they vote. Fifty-five percent of the 1,000 voters surveyed said their opposition to the Supreme Court overturning the federal right to an abortion is “the main” or “among” the factors motivating their vote, according to the poll by Suffolk University, The Boston Globe, and USA TODAY. (Villa de Petrzelka, 1/10)

The Guardian: Donald Trump Claims Credit For ‘Miracle’ Of Overturning Right To Abortion 
Donald Trump, the former US president, boasted about the “miracle” of ending the constitutional right to abortion but warned that Republicans who tout extreme bans are being “decimated” in elections. Trump was put on the spot on Wednesday during a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, his latest attempt at counter-programming a Republican debate that was being shown on CNN at the same time. (Smith, 1/10)

More abortion news —

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Abortions Surged The Year Roe Fell, State Says
More than 56,000 abortions were performed in Illinois the year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, marking the most pregnancy terminations statewide since the mid-1990s, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s annual abortion statistics report. The rise in abortions that year was driven by a roughly 49% spike in out-of-state patients: Nearly 17,000 people came from other states to Illinois to terminate a pregnancy in 2022 compared with roughly 11,000 abortion seekers who traveled from other states in 2021, the data showed. (Lourgos, 1/10)

Houston Chronicle: Lawyers: Anti-Abortion Language Comes Up Again In 5th Circuit Ruling
When the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Texas physicians are not required to perform life-saving abortions, the judges used an unusual legal interpretation of a federal emergency care law, according to scholars. The court’s opinion, authored by former President Donald Trump-appointed Judge Kurt Engelhardt, said the federal law obligates doctors to treat both a fetus and the pregnant patient because the law includes the term “unborn child.” ... But that reading strays from the federal law’s original purpose, lawyers say. (Gill, 1/10)

WLRN 91.3 FM and Reveal: How Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers In Florida Get Taxpayer Funds With Almost No Oversight
To understand the problems with Florida’s oversight of anti-abortion pregnancy centers, you don’t have to look much further than Mary’s Pregnancy Resource Center, north of Miami. The crisis pregnancy center in Broward County steered women away from abortion while providing free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and parenting classes. (Morel and Daly, 1/10)

Also —

North Carolina Health News: NC Pharmacists Step Up To Provide Contraception Services
At least 1,309 pharmacists in 91 counties across North Carolina have trained over the past two years to prescribe hormonal contraception to consumers who walk into their pharmacies. They also are confirmed as providers with the state’s Board of Pharmacy. (Crumpler, 1/11)

Stat: Doctors On The Psychiatric Bible, The DSM-5, Got $14M From Industry
Amid ongoing concerns over conflicts of interest, a new study found that 60% of the physicians who served as panel and task force members for the American Psychiatric Association’s official manual of psychiatric disorders received payments from industry totaling more than $14 million. And the authors argue the findings raise questions about the editorial independence of the reference book. (Silverman, 1/10)

On ADHD —

AP: More Adults Sought Help For ADHD During Pandemic, Contributing To Drug Shortages
Prescriptions for ADHD treatments surged among adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to fuel lingering shortages that frustrate parents and doctors. New prescriptions for stimulants used to treat the condition jumped for young adults and women during a two-year window after the pandemic hit in March 2020, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. (Murphy and Hollingsworth, 1/10)

The Baltimore Sun: There Are No US Clinical Guidelines For Treating And Diagnosing Adult ADHD. That May Change Soon
Fiona Edwards is 50 years old, but to this day, some of her most traumatic memories are from her elementary school classroom in the Caribbean. As a child with an overactive imagination who struggled to stay organized and to wait her turn, Edwards had a hard time learning as her classmates did. And her principal didn’t waste any opportunity to remind her — and everyone else – that she was “an unteachable dunce,” said Edwards, who now lives in Baltimore. (Roberts, 1/10)

On suicide and gun violence —

American Homefront Project: Pentagon Finds Troops' Suicides Are Often Preceded By Legal, Administrative Woes
In 2021, Seaman Michael Gregg was stationed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in Norfolk. He had been in and out of the Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, after he was diagnosed with mental health issues and had thoughts of suicide. (Walsh, 1/10)

The Boston Globe: Advocates Press For Suicide-Prevention Barriers On R.I. Bridges
After nearly 2,000 deaths and decades of demands for action, nets are finally being installed on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, one of the deadliest suicide locations in the world. And now, with a new General Assembly session under way, advocates are hoping this is the year that suicide-prevention barriers are funded for some of Rhode Island’s iconic bridges, including the Mount Hope, Jamestown Verrazzano, and Newport Pell bridges. (Fitzpatrick, 1/10)

AP: In His 1st Interview, Friend Warned Officials About The Maine Shooter 
Sean Hodgson watched and worried as his best friend of nearly two decades unraveled. His former roommate and fellow U.S. Army reservist’s anger and paranoia were mounting, he had access to guns, and he refused to get help. So Hodgson did the hardest thing of his life: He sent a text about Robert Card to their Army supervisor. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting,” he wrote on Sept. 15. Six weeks later, Card fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston before killing himself. ... “I did my job, and I went over and beyond it, and I literally spelled it out for them,” said Hodgson, 43, referred to by only his last name in documents related to the case. “I don’t know how clear I could have gotten.” (Ramer, Perry and Sharp, 1/11)

If you are in need of help —

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

On brain health and dementia —

Fox News: Study: Screen Time For Kids Under 2 Linked To Sensory Differences In Toddlerhood
Allowing very young children to access televisions and other screens could lead to sensory challenges for them later in childhood, according to a new study from Drexel University in Pennsylvania. The study, "Early-Life Digital Media Experiences and Development of Atypical Sensory Processing," was published on Jan. 8 in JAMA Pediatrics. "This study finds an association between greater screen time in the first two years of life and ‘high’ sensory-related behaviors in areas," the study's lead author, Karen Heffler, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Drexel University, told Fox News Digital. (Rudy, 1/9)

Fox News: California Could Ban Tackle Football For Kids Under 12 Over Health Concerns
California could soon outlaw tackle football for children under 12 amid concerns over health and safety. Lawmakers in the state will initiate debate on Wednesday on whether to ban tackle football in an effort advocates say would protect kids from brain damage or other medical issues. The bill’s critics include coaches who warn a ban on tackle football would cut off youths from an important source of physical activity. (Richard, 1/10)

Fox News: Dementia Among Younger People Linked To 15 Factors, Major Study Reveals
Early-onset dementia has been on the rise in recent years — and a major new study has identified the likely reasons. Researchers from Maastricht University (UM) in the Netherlands and the University of Exeter in the U.K. have identified 15 factors linked to the development of dementia earlier in life. The study findings were published in JAMA Neurology on Dec. 26, 2023. "This study shows that there are a wide range of risk factors for young-onset dementia," Stevie Hendriks, PhD, the lead study author and a postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University, told Fox News Digital. (Rudy, 1/10)

NPR: Blood Tests Can Help Diagnose Alzheimer's, But Accuracy Varies
A new generation of blood tests is poised to change the way doctors determine whether patients with memory loss also have Alzheimer's disease. The tests detect substances in the blood that indicate the presence of sticky amyloid plaques in the brain — a hallmark of Alzheimer's. So these tests have the potential to replace current diagnostic procedures, like costly PET scans and uncomfortable spinal taps. ... But the accuracy of the tests still varies widely. (Hamilton, 1/11)

The New York Times: U.S. Diet Panel Adds Another Researcher With Alcohol Industry Ties
Shortly after dropping two Harvard scientists with financial conflicts of interest, the national organization assembling a committee to assess the evidence about drinking and health has chosen four new panelists, among them another Harvard professor who also has financial ties to the alcohol industry. The committee’s work, under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, will be used to update the federal government’s dietary guidelines, which advise Americans on nutrition and diet, including how much they should or should not drink. (Rabin, 1/10)

More health industry news —

Modern Healthcare: DOJ Requirements For Medical Equipment Aim To Meet ADA Standards
The Justice Department soon will propose a regulation to advise publicly owned healthcare providers on meeting requirements they offer patients with disabilities accessible medical diagnostic equipment. The pending regulation will feature guidance for how providers including hospitals that are operated by state or local governments can meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards for items such as examination tables, scales, dental chairs, X-ray scanners and mammography equipment, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. (Bennett, 1/10)

Modern Healthcare: Low Home Treatment Rates Cost Safety Net Dialysis Centers
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is penalizing some dialysis facilities. ... An observational study of nearly 2,200 dialysis facilities participating in the agency’s End Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices model found safety-net facilities serving mostly Black and Hispanic patients more frequently experienced CMS reimbursement cuts as high as 5% in the first year of the payment model for not moving more treatment to the home. The results of the study by researchers at five universities were published Tuesday in JAMA Network. (Eastabrook, 1/10)

Modern Healthcare: Are Hospital-At-Home Programs Overreliant On Family Caregivers?
As more care moves into the home, family caregivers are becoming an essential linchpin in the healthcare system. Approximately 53 million adults provide unpaid care to spouses, parents, children or other relatives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amount of time such folks spent caring for family members increased from 9 hours a week in 2020 to 26 hours in 2023, according to a study released in mid-December by insurance and benefits company Guardian. (Eastabrook, 1/10)

Modern Healthcare: Elevance Health Providing Some Medicaid Patients With Smartphones
Elevance Health is launching a program across more than 20 states to provide smartphones to some eligible Medicaid enrollees in hopes of improving their healthcare access. The smartphones will come with unlimited data, talk and texting service at no cost to some members of select affiliated Medicaid plans who are eligible for the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, according to a news release Wednesday. (Berryman, 1/10)

Modern Healthcare: JPM 2024: Oscar Health’s Mark Bertolini Details Marketplace Growth
Oscar Health expects the number of people signed up for its marketplace plans to grow by nearly a third compared with last year, CEO Mark Bertolini said during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Wednesday. The company anticipates increasing its membership by 31% to 1.3 million when open enrollment ends Jan. 16, he said. Most of Oscar Health’s growth has come from new members in existing markets, although “retention in enrollment for this year is going to be as high as it’s ever been,” Bertolini said. (Tepper, 1/10)

Stat: Generative AI Mines Health Records To Identify Patients’ Social Needs
Generative AI’s earliest applications in medicine have largely focused on curing not patients, but the plague of productivity physicians lose to digital documentation. Now, research suggests a way that large language models like ChatGPT could benefit both patients and providers: by automatically extracting a patient’s social needs from reams of text in their clinical records. (Palmer, 1/11)

Reuters: US FDA Allows Import Of Syphilis Drug To Address Shortages
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will temporarily allow the import of a syphilis drug made by France's Laboratoires Delbert, the company said on Wednesday. Laboratoires Delbert said it was coordinating with the health regulator to bring extencilline into the United States to address syphilis drug shortages, according to a letter on the FDA's website. In June, Pfizer (PFE.N) had warned that it would soon run out of supply of its drug, Bicillin L-A, used to treat syphilis and other bacterial infections in children because it has had to prioritize versions made for adults due to a spike in syphilis infections in that population at the time. (1/10)

In other pharmaceutical updates —

Reuters: Pakistan Seizes Poisonous Solvent Used In Cough Syrup 
Pakistan has seized a batch of contaminated propylene glycol solvent that was labelled as manufactured by Dow Chemical, Thailand, the nation's drug regulatory authority said on Thursday. Dow Chemical, Thailand did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The move comes as authorities have identified toxic propylene glycol used in cough syrups as a possible reason for the deaths of more than 300 children in Indonesia, Gambia and Uzbekistan since 2022. The World Health Organization has linked the deaths outside Indonesia to cough syrups made in India. (Shahzad, 1/11)

The New York Times: ‘Gas-Station Heroin’ Sold As Dietary Supplement Alarms Health Officials
Often sold as a dietary supplement and promoted by retailers as a mood booster and focus aid, tianeptine is among a growing, unregulated class of potentially addictive products available in gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops and across the internet. They typically include synthetic pharmaceuticals and plant-derived substances. ome, like kratom and phenibut, can be addictive and, in rare cases, fatal. They often originate in other countries, including Indonesia and Russia, where they are commonly used, even prescribed, for mood management. But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved them as medicines in the United States. “Tianeptine is an emerging threat,” said Kaitlyn Brown, clinical managing director of America’s Poison Centers, which represents and collects data from 55 centers nationwide. (Hoffman, 1/10)

Stat: Risky Weight Loss Products Often Used By Teens Globally, Per Study
New weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have garnered a lot of attention in the past year, but they aren’t always easy to get, especially for young people. Instead, teens surfing TikTok often see other options that don’t even require a doctor’s note. Berberine, for example, is a supplement that has been referred to online as “nature’s Ozempic.” Then there’s what some influencers call “budget Ozempic” — laxatives. (Gaffney, 1/10)

Bloomberg: Wegovy Drug Combos To Prevent Muscle Loss To Be Tested By Regeneron (REGN)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. will soon start testing its antibody drugs in combination with Wegovy to see if they prevent muscle loss, a problem that drugmakers including Eli Lilly & Co. have been racing to solve. GLP-1 drugs made by Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk A/S have exploded in popularity, but experts have started raising concerns that older patients may also be at risk of losing critical muscle mass that helps prevent injuries. (Muller, 1/10)

Also —

Stat: JPM 2024: Verve Therapeutics Looks To Mainstream Genome Editing
The promise of genome editing has given rise to potentially curative medicines for rare, life-threatening diseases that generally affect small numbers of patients. But since Verve Therapeutics was founded in 2018, it’s had a wider aperture: using the molecular tools of genome editing to go after the most common cause of death in the world. (Garde, 1/10)

CNN: Connor Bowman: Minnesota Doctor Accused Of Poisoning His Wife Betty Bowman Now Faces A Tougher Charge
A Minnesota doctor accused of fatally poisoning his pharmacist wife now faces a tougher charge that could put him in prison for the rest of his life, if convicted. (Rose, 1/10)

Axios: Gender Dysphoria Diagnoses Are Rising Nationwide
Gender dysphoria diagnoses rose in nearly every U.S. state between 2018 and 2022, per a new Definitive Healthcare report. They fell only in South Dakota, which last year became the sixth state to restrict gender-affirming care for minors. The nearly nationwide increases suggest growing demand for gender-affirming care, even amid efforts in many states to restrict access. (Fitzpatrick and Beheraj, 1/11)

Politico: Ohio House Overrides Governor On Transgender Health Care Legislation
The Ohio House of Representatives voted Wednesday to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill targeting gender-affirming care for transgender youths and the participation of transgender girls in middle school and high school sports. The override of House Bill 68, titled the “Saving Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” passed 65-28, above the three-fifths threshold to overcome a gubernatorial veto. The vote was along party lines and closely mirrored the original vote to pass the measure. The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate, which will next convene on Jan. 24. (Zhu and Bazail-Eimil, 1/10)

Fox News: South Carolina Lawmakers Advance Bill Banning Health Care For Transgender Minors
Republican lawmakers in South Carolina are bringing a bill banning hormone therapy, the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs and gender transition surgery for anyone under 18 years old to the House floor. During the first two days of the 2024 legislative session, the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee voted to advance the bill, which is similar to restrictions on health care for transgender minors already in effect in at least 22 other states, according to the Associated Press. House bill 4624 focuses on preventing health professionals from providing the aforementioned therapy, medication and procedure to minors, and also prevents Medicaid from covering such services for anyone under 26 years old. (Pritchett, 1/11)

Other health news from across the U.S. —

Reuters: US Judge Allows First Nitrogen-Gas Execution To Proceed
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Alabama can proceed later this month with the first execution by nitrogen gas asphyxiation, saying that the condemned prisoner was unlikely to show the new method amounts to cruel or unusual punishment. Kenneth Smith, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in 1988, is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Jan. 25 using the method, in which execution officials will bind a mask to his face connected to a cylinder of nitrogen intended to deprive him of oxygen. (Allen, 1/10)

The Boston Globe: FDA Warns Mass. Consumers, Restaurants About Potentially Contaminated Scallops
Federal regulators are warning restaurants and consumers in Massachusetts and at least four other states to steer clear of “whole, live scallops” recently caught from an unlicensed harvester in prohibited waters off the Bay State. In a statement Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration advised consumers “not to eat, and restaurants and food retailers not to sell,” scallops from Intershell International Corp. that were received from the unlicensed harvester. (Andersen, 1/10)

KFF Health News: Delicate Labor-Industry Deal In Flux As Newsom Revisits $25 Minimum Health Wage 
Gov. Gavin Newsom is revisiting California’s phase-in of a nation-leading $25 minimum wage for health workers in the face of a projected $38 billion deficit, less than three months after he approved the measure. But renegotiating wages could threaten a delicate compromise between unions and the health industry. Newsom, whose administration initially opposed the wage deal as too costly, signed the bill, SB 525, into law without knowing the final price tag. His Democratic administration now projects the first-year cost to be $4 billion, though that number has been questioned by labor leaders. (Thompson, 1/11)

KFF Health News: Delays In State Contracts Leave Montana Health Providers Strapped
Montana health organizations say a state government backlog in paying its contractors has hindered their ability to provide care, and they worry the bottleneck’s ripple effects will be felt long after the money comes through. Several organizations waiting for contracts to be approved and funding to arrive said that more than 200 private and public contractors across the state government were affected at one point. Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services officials acknowledged the delays but would not confirm the total number of contracts affected. (Houghton, 1/11)

KFF Health News: Hoping To Clear The Air In Casinos, Workers Seek To Ban Tobacco Smoke 
The instant Tammy Brady felt the lump in her breast in February 2022, she knew it was cancer. With no known genetic predisposition for breast cancer, she suspects 38 years of working in smoky Atlantic City casinos played a role. “I was just trying to make a living,” said Brady, 56, a dealer and supervisor at Borgata in that New Jersey resort city. “You don’t think, you know, that you’re going to get sick at your job.” (West, 1/11)

USA Today: High Rent In The US: It's Harming Health And Shortening Lifespans
Paying high rent is stressful, and a recent study found it can actually shorten your lifespan. People who spent a vast portion of their income on rent were more likely to experience poor health and had a greater risk of premature death, the study found. The research published in November in the peer-reviewed journal Social Science & Medicine also found that evictions and even the threat of being evicted were linked to higher mortality rates. (Rodriguez, 1/10)

USA Today: Black Americans Face Higher Rates Of Stroke At Younger Ages
Black Americans suffer from strokes at far younger ages than white patients, according to a new study. The gap is nearly a decade. ... Researchers at Brown University evaluated stroke trends using data from 17 hospitals in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky from 1993 to 2015. ... They found the rate of stroke decreased from 230 cases per 100,000 people to 188 cases in that time, according to the report published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. (Rodriguez, 1/10)

Inside Climate News: Chemicals Found In Everyday Products May Increase Breast Cancer Risk
More than 900 chemicals in widespread use could be increasing breast cancer risk, scientists reported in a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday. Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women globally, and recently replaced lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed form of the disease. (Gross, 1/10)

Axios: YouTube Tries To Make It Easier For You To Help In A Medical Emergency
First things first: If there's an emergency, call 911. But then, maybe check YouTube for quick advice on how to help, the tech giant says. YouTube is launching a new feature directing users to short, step-by-step first-aid tutorials on how to deliver potentially life-saving care — such as directions on performing CPR, recognizing a heart attack or administering overdose reversal drug Narcan — before first responders arrive. (Reed, 1/10)

The Washington Post: Sexual Assaults On Cruise Ships Are Rising
Sex crimes on cruise ships sailing to and from the United States increased last year, according to numbers released by the Transportation Department. From January to September 2023, the FBI received 39 reports of sexual assault and 58 reports of rape from passengers. The incidents represent less than 1 percent of the tens of millions of passengers who take cruises each year. However, sexual assaults continue to be the most commonly reported crimes on cruise ships. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, more than two out of three sexual assaults are not reported. (Hiatt, 1/10)

Also —

The Washington Post: Ancient DNA Helps Trace Multiple Sclerosis Origins In European Descendants 
Five thousand years ago, sheep and cattle herders migrated westward from Asia to Europe, bringing with them their pastoral way of life — and higher genetic risk for multiple sclerosis, according to a new study of DNA from thousands of ancient and present-day people. The finding answers a long-standing conundrum in medical science: Why is this debilitating autoimmune disease most common in people from northern Europe? The research also recasts the modern-day illness, suggesting it is rooted in an evolutionary trade-off. (Johnson, 1/10)

Stat: U.K. Sequencing Study Surfaces New Findings About Tumor DNA
A decade ago, the U.K. launched its 100,000 Genomes Project, a major research endeavor that involved sequencing the DNA of that many people to discover how our genes shape our health. But the initiative wasn’t just focused on sequencing our regular DNA. One arm of the project also entailed decoding the genomes of some participants’ tumors. (Joseph, 1/10)

ScienceDaily: A Common Marker Of Neurological Diseases May Play Role In Healthy Brains 
Researchers have discovered that a protein called phosphorylated -synuclein, which is associated with several neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, is also involved in the normal processes of how neurons communicate with each other in a healthy brain. (NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 1/9)

Medical Xpress: Scientists Discover Potential Nasal COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate That Offers Better And Longer Protection
A team of scientists, led by Duke-NUS Medical School, has discovered a potential intranasal vaccine candidate that provides improved, longer-lasting immunity against SARS-CoV-2 viruses compared to when given as an injection. By triggering an immune response directly at the point of entry, the intranasal vaccine candidate enhanced long-term immune memory of the virus, which could translate to a reduced need for booster shots. (Yu, 1/9)

CIDRAP: Sickle-Cell Patients At Increased Risk For Severe COVID But Have Low Vaccine Uptake 
New research from the University of Michigan shows that patients with sickle-cell disease completed the initial COVID-19 vaccination series at just over half the rate of others, despite the former group being more at risk for severe outcomes with COVID-19. (Soucheray, 1/10)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Safety Of MVA-BN Vaccine For Mpox
A new study from Canadian researchers shows the Modified Vaccinia Ankara – Bavarian Nordic vaccine (MVA-BN), a smallpox vaccine that provides protection against other orthopoxviruses, was safe when used among people in Toronto and Vancouver at high risk for contracting mpox. (Soucheray, 1/10)

CIDRAP: Trial Supports Antibiotic De-Escalation For Bacteremia Caused By Enterobacterales 
The findings from a randomized clinical trial in Spain support de-escalation of antibiotic therapy in patients with bacteremia caused by Enterobacterales, researchers reported yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Although empiric treatment with antipseudomonal beta-lactams is often necessary with severe infections to ensure that the causative organism is covered, these drugs can exert selection pressure for resistance mechanisms and increase the risk of Clostridioides difficile, which is why de-escalation to a narrower-spectrum drug is recommended once the infecting pathogen has been identified. But the dearth of evidence on the safety and efficacy of de-escalation in specific clinical situations has been a barrier to wider acceptance of the practice. (Dall, 1/10)

The Washington Post: Private Equity Firms Are Gnawing Away At U.S. Health Care 
The number of private equity firms has exploded in health care in recent years, spending hundreds of billions of dollars to buy physician practices, hospitals, laboratories and nursing homes. It’s a trend that should have everyone’s attention, from politicians to patients, because it can significantly increase costs, reduce access and even threaten patient safety. (Ashish K. Jha, 1/10)

Bloomberg: Ohio Lawmakers Override DeWine's Veto Of Bill Banning Gender-Affirming Care
The Ohio House voted to override DeWine’s veto on Wednesday. The bill, which is broader than DeWine’s executive order on issues related to minors, would prevent transgender youth from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy. It’s likely to become law later this month, though it will certainly face legal challenges. (Nia-Malika Henderson, 1/10)

The New York Times: Botox Destroyed What I Liked About My Face 
I tried Botox for the first time two years ago. I was rapidly approaching my 40th birthday, and like so many other people, I spent the early Covid years staring at my increasingly pallid and wrinkled visage through daily video calls. That I succumbed to the expensive allure of cosmetic injectables as a result of this scrutiny was both banal and mildly embarrassing. (Jessica Grose, 1/10)

Stat: Designating Disabled People As Health Disparity Population Is Crucial
My daughter Katie was born with severe disabilities. She went on to develop profound autism, attention deficit disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The hardest part for her is knowing that she’s different but not understanding how or why. My career as a health care manager and now a researcher has been derailed and fragmented because I have a profoundly disabled daughter who has undergone so many treatments and required special schools. (Lynne Moronski, 1/11)

New England Journal of Medicine: The Overdose Crisis Among U.S. Adolescents 
Every week in 2022, the equivalent of a high-school classroom’s worth of students — an average of 22 adolescents — died of drug overdoses in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Joseph Friedman, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Scott E. Hadland, M.D., M.P.H., 1/11)

New England Journal of Medicine: Centering Women Of Color To Promote Excellence In Academic Medicine 
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the use of affirmative action in university admissions threatens decades of progress in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic medicine. Although women accounted for the majority of medical school enrollees in 2022, they represented only 28% of full professors, 23% of department chairs, and 27% of deans that same year, and gender-based disparities in compensation persist at the highest levels of academic medicine. (Christina Mangurian, M.D., Nancy D. Spector, M.D., and Ruth S. Shim, M.D., M.P.H., 1/11)

Stat: Biased LCSW Exams Are Colliding With The Black Suicide Crisis 
In the spring of 2020, Jamal Clay, a gifted young man who grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, died by suicide. He was 19 years old. Jamal’s loved ones describe him as creative and talented, a leader in different youth-focused organizations in his community who supported and cared for those he loved. He was just as brilliant as he was kind. (Janelle Goodwill, 1/11)