The New York Times: Supreme Court Wrestles With Challenge To Affordable Care Act Over Free Preventive Care
The Supreme Court appeared divided during arguments on Monday over the constitutionality of a provision of the Affordable Care act that can require insurance companies to offer some types of preventive care for free. At issue is a part of the 2010 health care law that established a task force that determines certain kinds of preventative health measures that insurance companies are required to cover. (VanSickle, 4/21)

Modern Healthcare: What The Supreme Court ACA Case Is About
Braidwood Management, Kelley Orthodontics and six individuals seek to invalidate the preventive coverage mandate on two grounds: That medical care such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PreP, to prevent HIV infection, violates their Christian beliefs against homosexuality and that the federal entities that decide what services insurers much cover lack constitutional authority. (Early, 4/21)

Also —

KFF Health News: The Ranks Of Obamacare ‘Fixers’ Axed In Trump’s Reduction Of Health Agency Workforce
They’re the fixers, the ones who step in when Affordable Care Act enrollees have a problem with their coverage, like a newborn incorrectly left off a policy or discovering that a rogue broker had signed them up or switched their plan without consent. Specially trained caseworkers help resolve such issues, which might otherwise cause consumers to rack up large doctors’ bills or prevent them or their family members from getting care. Now, though, the broad federal reduction in force set in motion by the Trump administration has cut the ranks of those caseworkers. (Appleby, 4/22)

In other news about Medicaid coverage —

South Dakota Searchlight: States That Enshrined Medicaid Expansion In Their Constitutions, Including SD, Could Be In A Bind 
Voters in Missouri, Oklahoma and South Dakota have limited their options, should Congress cut Medicaid, by enshrining its expansion in their constitutions. (Chatlani, 4/21)

MedPage Today: Medicaid Often Restricts Access To Heart-Protective Diabetes Agents
Medicaid plans often put up barriers around newer classes of diabetes medications that offer cardio protection, according to a national study of formulary policies as of March 2024. Mainly driven by restrictive formulary policies in the adult managed care organization (MCO) plans that cover over 80% of Medicaid enrollees, an estimated 1.7 million adults -- 25% of Medicaid beneficiaries with diabetes -- had restricted SGLT2 inhibitor availability, and 2.7 million (40%) had restricted GLP-1 receptor agonist availability. (Monaco, 4/21)

NBC News: RFK Jr. Announces Plan To Remove Artificial Dyes From Food And Beverages
The Trump administration said Monday it will announce a plan to remove petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary are expected to discuss the plan at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, according to a release from the Department of Health and Human Services. (Lovelace Jr., 4/21)

On autism —

CBS News: RFK Jr.'s Autism Study To Amass Medical Records Of Many Americans
The National Institutes of Health is amassing private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new effort to study autism, the NIH's top official said Monday. The new data will allow external researchers picked for Kennedy's autism studies to study "comprehensive" patient data with "broad coverage" of the U.S. population for the first time, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said. (Tin, 4/21)

People: RFK Jr. Says Autism Has Bigger Impact Than COVID ‘Because COVID Killed Old People’
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, is claiming that the impact of autism exceeds the impact of COVID-19 on American lives during a new interview. Speaking about autism on The Cats Roundtable radio show on WABC 770 AM on Sunday, April 20, Kennedy said, “It dwarfs the COVID epidemic and the impacts on our country because COVID killed old people. Autism affects children and affects them at the beginning of their lives, the beginning of their productivity.” (Sheffield, 4/20)

On DEI and federal funding cuts —

Stat: NIH Bans New Grants To Schools With DEI Programs, Israel Boycotts 
The National Institutes of Health will begin prohibiting the awarding of new grants to any institutions that have DEI programs or boycott Israeli companies, in an escalation of the Trump administration’s use of research funding as leverage to dismantle activities at universities that it deems discriminatory or antisemitic. (Oza, 4/21)

Stat: NIH's Jay Bhattacharya Says Trump DEI Orders 'Misunderstood' 
National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya on Monday asserted that the agency remains committed to research that advances the health of minorities — despite the Trump administration’s sharp focus on rolling back programs dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Wosen, 4/21)

The New York Times: Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over Threats To Cut Funding
Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, sued the Trump administration on Monday, fighting back against its threats to slash billions of dollars from the school’s research funding as part of a crusade against the nation’s top colleges. The lawsuit signaled a major escalation of the ongoing fight between higher education and President Trump, who has vowed to “reclaim” elite universities. The administration has cast its campaign as a fight against antisemitism, but has also targeted programs and teaching related to racial diversity and gender issues. (Saul, 4/21)

Side Effects Public Media: Federal Funding Cancellation Threatens Major Diabetes Study, Researchers Say
The Trump administration's funding cancellations could dissolve a large nationwide study that's been ongoing for 30 years on diabetes and pre-diabetes. The research was partially conducted throughout the Midwest. Medical professionals say the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program changed the understanding of the process of developing type 2 diabetes and created the term 'pre-diabetes' — a condition in which a person's blood sugar is higher than normal and can indicate they're on the cusp of full blown disease. It also contributed to preventative treatments. (Gabriel, 4/21)

Also from the Trump administration —

The Wall Street Journal: Roche To Invest $50 Billion In U.S. Manufacturing, R&D As Tariffs Loom
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche plans to invest $50 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, the latest major spending commitment by a big drugmaker as the industry faces President Trump’s tariff threats. Pharma companies have in recent months set out plans to ramp up investments in the U.S. to boost local production and create jobs as the Trump administration prepares to impose tariffs on medicine imports–which have so far been exempted from such levies–and seeks to revive domestic manufacturing. (Smolak, 4/22)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Inauguration Received Donations From Hims, J&J, AHA
HCA Healthcare, Centene, Molina Healthcare, Hims & Hers, the American Hospital Association and other healthcare organizations donated at least $11.5 million to the inaugural committee for President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Records the Federal Election Commission released Sunday show the pharmaceutical industry made the largest contributions among healthcare interests to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, which collected an all-time high $239 million. (McAuliff, 4/21)

The New York Times: Mahmoud Khalil’s Wife Gives Birth as ICE Bars Him From Being There
The Department of Homeland Security denied Mahmoud Khalil permission to attend the birth of his first child, who was delivered at a New York hospital on Monday, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times. Instead, Mr. Khalil experienced the birth by telephone from Jena, La., more than 1,000 miles from the hospital where his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, gave birth to a son. It is unclear when he will be able to see the baby. Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who was a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia University campus, has been detained in Louisiana for more than a month. (Bromwich, 4/21)

CBS News: Walgreens To Pay $300 Million To Settle Claims It Illegally Filled Invalid Opioids Prescriptions
Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay $300 million to settle claims that it unlawfully filled millions of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances. In its complaint, the Justice Department, along with other federal agencies, alleges that for more than a decade pharmacists at the second largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. knowingly filled prescriptions of controlled substances, despite clear signs of their illegitimacy. (Cunningham, 4/21)

More on the opioid crisis and substance abuse —

New Hampshire Public Radio: Money Set Aside To Help NH's Opioid Crisis Could Be Steered Elsewhere In The State Budget
New Hampshire lawmakers have proposed diverting millions of dollars meant to address opioid addiction to help close the state’s budget gaps – alarming advocates who say it would upend a wide range of treatment, recovery and prevention programs. (Cuno-Booth, 4/21)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Makes $24 Generic Narcan Available To All Californians
California residents are now eligible to buy naloxone — a drug commonly sold under the brand name Narcan and used to treat opioid overdoses — for $24 through the state’s prescription website CalRx, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a news release Monday. “Life-saving medications shouldn’t come with a life-altering price tag. CalRx is about making essential drugs like naloxone affordable and accessible for all — not the privileged few,” Newsom said. (McDonald, 4/21)

ProPublica: New Law Increases Oversight Of Arizona Sober Living Homes 
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has signed legislation increasing oversight of sober living homes, two years after state officials announced that a Medicaid fraud scheme had targeted Native Americans seeking drug and alcohol treatment. The bill, sponsored by three Republicans, amends state law for the regulation and licensing of sober living homes. It places new demands on the Arizona Department of Health Services, though a lawmaker from the Navajo Nation expressed concern that the bill does not go far enough in addressing root causes of the fraud. Hobbs’ office announced late Friday that the bill, expected to take effect in the fall, was among dozens she had signed into law. (Hudetz, 4/22)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

FiercePharma: Top 20 Pharma Companies By 2024 Revenue
With only one of the biopharma industry’s top 20 revenue companies seeing a year-over-year decline in sales, 2024 was a remarkable year of revenue growth for the industry. Compare that to 2023, when eight of the top 20 drugmakers experienced revenue declines. Six of the top 20 drugmakers had double-digit increases in 2024, compared to just two in 2023. Five others saw a revenue bump of between 7% and 9%, compared to two reaching those figures in 2023. (4/21)

FiercePharma: TV Drug Ad Spending Grows Nearly 30% In Q1
Pharma advertisers have kicked off 2025 with a bang, with the top 10 spenders throwing almost 30% more money behind their TV commercials in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago. Across the first three months of this year, according to iSpot.TV, drugmakers have spent a combined $729.4 million to air commercials for the top 10 brands, up from $567.3 million in the first quarter of 2024. That represents a slight sequential increase, too, growing close to 2% over the $717.4 million outlay from the biggest spenders in the fourth quarter of 2024. (Park, 4/17)

Politico: The Government Embraces AI Lab Rats
The Food and Drug Administration wants to replace animal testing with artificial intelligence, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports. Politically speaking, the change has wide support. In 2022, Congress passed a bipartisan law, co-sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), to drop an FDA mandate that all experimental drugs be tested on animals before they’re tested on humans, opening the door for new methods. But the FDA hasn’t fully implemented that rule, and in January, Booker and Paul reintroduced an updated version of the bill, the FDA Modernization Act 3.0, to nudge the process along. (Reader, 4/21)

CNN: Cancer Death Rates Declining, New Report Says, But Diagnosis Rates Are On The Rise For Women
A new report on cancer in the US shows a steady decline in overall deaths from 2001 through 2022. The rate of diagnoses among men fell from 2001 through 2013 and then stabilized through 2021 but these incidence rates among women increased slightly every year between 2003 and 2021. (Dillinger, 4/21)

NBC News: New Images Could Change Cancer Diagnostics. ICE Detained Harvard Scientist Who Analyzes Them
A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk. The scientist, the 30-year-old Russian-born Kseniia Pertova, worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Lab until her arrest at a Boston airport in mid-February. (Lee, 4/21)

BioPharma Dive: Enhertu Combo Tops Standard Drugs In First-Line HER2 Breast Cancer 
A two-drug regimen involving AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu topped standard therapy in a large study in HER2-positive breast cancer, the companies said Monday. In a Phase 3 trial, a combination of Enhertu and the targeted therapy pertuzumab held tumors in check longer than THP, a regimen of chemotherapy and precision medicines that’s commonly used as an initial treatment for metastatic breast tumors expressing the HER2 protein. The companies didn’t provide specifics, but said the regimen displayed a “highly statistically significant and clinically meaningful effect” on so-called progression-free survival in the study, with benefits across all patient subgroups. (Fidler, 4/21)

MedPage Today: Women Don't Want AI As Sole Reader Of Breast Cancer Screenings
Few women wanted artificial intelligence (AI) as the sole reader of their screening mammograms, according to a survey, though most respondents generally supported some use of the technology. Among more than 500 women who presented for a screening mammography during a 6-month period in 2023, just 4% of survey respondents accepted the idea of stand-alone AI interpretation, whereas 71% were comfortable with AI as a second reader, reported Basak Dogan, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues. (Bassett, 4/21)

Live Science: Simple Blood Test Could Reveal Likelihood Of Deadly Skin Cancer Returning, Study Suggests
A simple blood test could reveal who is at high risk of skin cancer recurrence after tumor-removal surgery. The test can detect fragments of tumor DNA with a simple blood draw to reveal the lingering presence of Stage III melanoma — a metastatic form of the deadliest form of skin cancer — that can't be seen with CT scans. Although the test isn't perfect, it could help flag patients who need aggressive treatment because their cancer is likely to come back. (Pappas, 4/21)

Fortune Well: Vitamin D May Play A Big Role In Lowering Colorectal Cancer Risk, Study Finds
Vitamin D plays an important role in your energy levels and the health of your bones, brain, heart, and gut. Now, researchers say this powerhouse vitamin may also play a crucial role in lowering risk for colorectal cancer, which has been on the rise in younger adults, becoming the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50, and the second leading among women under 50, according to the American Cancer Society. A study published in the journal Nutrients has linked vitamin D levels with colorectal cancer risk. Reviewing data from 50 different studies on vitamin D and colorectal cancer, researchers found that those with the highest dietary intake of vitamin D (80 ng/mL) had a 25% decrease in colorectal cancer risk compared to those with the lowest amount (10 ng/mL). (Freedman, 4/21)

SciTechDaily: Scientists Discover Drug That Could Finally End Long COVID Suffering
Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research In Australia have discovered that a new drug compound can prevent long COVID symptoms in mice, a major breakthrough that could pave the way for future treatment of this debilitating condition. In this world-first study, mice treated with an antiviral compound, developed by a multidisciplinary team at WEHI, were protected from long-term brain and lung dysfunction, two hallmark symptoms of long COVID. (4/20)

CIDRAP: Analysis Suggests COVID-19 Diminishes Sperm Quality
A study in China has found that COVID-19 is associated with poor sperm quality, researchers reported earlier this month in Scientific Reports. ... "Further research is needed to observe the long-term effect of COVID-19 on sperm quality or reproductive outcomes," the study authors wrote. "In addition, there may be a need to constantly monitor the SARS-CoV-2 infection and integrate screening and diagnosis of the disease in the management of male infertility." (Dall, 4/21)

More health and wellness news —

CNN: Psilocybin Use Rising Along With Calls To Poison Control Centers, Study Says 
Unsupervised use of psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” has accelerated among all age groups in the United States, but especially among adolescents and people 30 and older, a new study found. “The prevalence of psilocybin use in 2023 rose dramatically over the prior five years since states began liberalizing policy in 2019,” said study coauthor Dr. Andrew Monte, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. (LaMotte, 4/21)

Stat: Lower Blood Pressure Lowers Dementia Risk; Local Care Key Factor In Study
High blood pressure earned its reputation as the silent killer by causing heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes. It’s also been a suspect in dementia. Some studies have hinted at a correlation between lower blood pressure and fewer dementia cases, but they were too small and too short to lend statistical significance to the link. It’s also been noted that people with untreated high blood pressure carry a 42% higher risk of developing dementia. (Cooney, 4/21)

CBS News: Health Alert Issued For Pork Carnitas Sold At Aldi Over Possible Metal Contamination
Pork carnitas products sold at Aldi stores nationwide maybe contaminated with pieces of metal, according to a public health alert from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The FSIS says the fully cooked pork carnitas were produced from April 1-2 and have an establishment number "Est. 46049" inside the USDA mark of inspection. (Esteban, 4/21)

The New York Times: Herbert J. Gans, 97, Dies; Upended Myths On Urban And Suburban Life 
Herbert J. Gans, an eminent sociologist who studied the communities and cultural bastions of America up close and shattered popular myths about urban and suburban life, poverty, ethnic groups and the news media, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 97. A refugee from Nazi Germany who became one of the nation’s most influential social critics, Dr. Gans taught at Columbia and other leading universities for 54 years, wrote a dozen books and hundreds of articles and shaped the thinking of government and corporate policymakers, colleagues in sociology and a wide public audience. (McFadden, 4/21)

In global news —

CBS News: Pope Francis' Cause Of Death Was Stroke And Irreversible Heart Failure, Vatican Says
"We don't have a lot of details," said CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook. "But the bottom line is, you know, he had all these underlying conditions. He had the stroke, which is [when] you have too little blood supply to the brain. That can cause death in a number of ways, including shutting down the ability— the centers in the brain that allow you to breathe normally, and even the centers that allow the heart to work correctly." (Moniuszko, 4/21)

AP: Abortions Are Resuming At A Wyoming Clinic After Judge Suspends Laws
Wyoming’s only abortion clinic is resuming abortions after a judge on Monday suspended two state laws. One suspended law would require clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers. The other would require women to get an ultrasound before a medication abortion. Wyoming Health Access in Casper had stopped providing abortions Feb. 28, the day after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed the licensing requirement into effect. (Gruver, 4/21)

More abortion news from Virginia, Montana, Oklahoma, and Idaho —

Axios: Virginia Sees Nation's Largest Spike In Abortions 
Virginia had the greatest increase in clinician-provided abortions nationwide last year, according to a new analysis. It's the latest data to show just how much the limited abortion access in the South has impacted the only Southern state without a post-Roe abortion ban or waiting period. By the numbers: The number of clinician-provided abortions in Virginia jumped from about 33,400 in 2023 to nearly 39,000 last year, per data compiled by Guttmacher, a research group that supports reproductive rights. That's the biggest spike of any state in the country. (Moreno, 4/21)

Daily Montanan: 'Personhood' For Embryos Fails, Other Abortion Bills Head To Governor's Desk
Voters in Montana won’t see a proposed constitutional amendment to confer “personhood” rights on embryos, but a couple of other bills related to abortion are headed to the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte. Last week, House Bill 316 sponsored by Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel, failed to earn the minimum 100 votes out of 150 in the Montana Legislature needed to present a constitutional amendment to voters. (Szpaller, 4/21)

Oklahoma Voice: Panel Advances Bill Banning Delivery Of Abortion-Inducing Drugs In Oklahoma 
A Senate panel on Monday advanced a measure to prevent the use of popular abortion-inducing drugs, including mifepristone. House Bill 1168 makes it a felony to intentionally deliver abortion-inducing drugs in the state. “We are stopping the pill from the abortion side of this just because of the damage it does to an unborn person, primarily, but also because of the damage it does to women and mothers,” said Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, the Senate author of the measure. Abortion in Oklahoma is already illegal, except to save the life of the mother. (Hoberock, 4/21)

InvestigateWest: Under Idaho’s Abortion Ban, A Family Confronts Life-Or-Death Reality — And A Crisis Of Faith 
Desi Ballis didn’t understand why her doctor needed her to go to Utah. She lay on an exam table in Boise, her pregnant belly wet with ultrasound gel. At 38, she’d done various genetic tests that confirmed her baby was developing normally. Its small features looked perfect on the screen. But her baby wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Her 20-week ultrasound in February 2024 showed findings of hydrops fetalis, an often lethal condition where fluid builds up in the fetus’ body, according to Desi’s medical records. Her baby would almost certainly die before delivery. If she remained pregnant, Desi risked dying, too. She remembers the tears in the ultrasound technician’s eyes as the doctor calmly repeated, “I need you to get to Salt Lake.” It wasn’t until later that day, when the Utah doctor called on her drive home, that Desi learned the blunt truth: She might need an abortion to save her own life. And she would have to leave Idaho to get it. (Turner, 4/19)

In other reproductive health news —

MedPage Today: Ob/Gyns Mostly Stayed Put After SCOTUS Overturned Roe, Study Finds
In the post-Roe v. Wade era, ob/gyns continued to practice in similar locations as before, according to a descriptive cohort study. From the quarter right before the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision through the end of the study in September 2024, 95.8% of ob/gyns remained in states that protect access to abortion, 94.8% remained in states threatening bans, and 94.2% remained in states with abortion bans, reported Becky Staiger, PhD, of the University of California Berkeley, and colleagues. (Robertson, 4/21)

Axios: OB-GYNs Rethink Prenatal Care Schedules
The professional association for OB-GYNs is recommending a shift in the way prenatal care is delivered, away from a dozen or more office visits to a more individualized approach built around social needs and patient choice. (Bettelheim, 4/21)

KFF Health News: Fate Of Black Maternal Health Programs Is Unclear Amid Federal Cuts
Eboni Tomasek expected to take home her newborn the day after he was born in a San Jose hospital. But, without explanation, hospital staff said they needed to stay a second night. Then a third. A nurse said her son had jaundice. Then said that he didn’t. She wondered if they had confused her with another African American mother. In any event, why couldn’t she and the baby boy she’d named Ezekiel go home? No one would say. (Cohen, 4/22)

CBS News: Crozer Health Hospitals In Pennsylvania Are Closing, Prospect Medical Holdings Says
Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, will close after months of uncertainty, according to Prospect Medical Holdings, the parent company of Crozer Health. Thousands of employees who work for Crozer Health received emails Monday morning that the system will be shutting down despite efforts to find a buyer to assume ownership of Crozer Chester Medical Center, Taylor Hospital and other facilities. (Dougherty, Corrado, Wright and Holden, 4/21)

Modern Healthcare: Providence Hiring Freeze To Affect Nonclinical Roles
Providence has implemented a hiring freeze for nonclinical roles as the health system struggles to reach profitability. President and CEO Erik Wexler expressed concerns for the company's financial challenges in a Thursday memo to employees. He emphasized the need for action as expenses continue to outpace revenue. Wexler noted issues with low reimbursement rates, high labor and supply costs, the Crowdstrike outage and Los Angeles wildfires. (Hudson, 4/21)

The Boston Globe: Mass General Brigham Primary Care Doctors To Hold May Union Election
The National Labor Relations Board dealt an unequivocal victory to primary care doctors seeking to unionize at Mass General Brigham, ruling that the proposed bargaining unit of about 400 physicians can proceed with an election next month. The health system, the state’s largest, had tried to pare down the size of the bargaining unit vying to join the Doctors Council. In December, lawyers for MGB argued before the National Labor Relations Board that 18 of the 29 locations in the proposed bargaining unit were actually part of MGB’s acute-care hospitals, rendering those doctors ineligible to join the primary care physicians unit with the rest of their colleagues. (Gerber, 4/21)

Modern Healthcare: Providence-Compassus Deal Faces Scrutiny After Preliminary Review
The state of Oregon has launched a comprehensive review of the proposed joint venture between home health company Compassus and Providence Health. Oregon Health Authority’s Health Care Market Oversight program began looking deeper into the deal after a preliminary review ended last month, according to a Friday news release. The preliminary review found the transaction could substantially change how many Oregon residents receive home health and hospice care. (Eastabrook, 4/21)

Modern Healthcare: Providers To See More Dialysis Options From Fresenius Medical Care
Dialysis therapy in the U.S. has remained largely unchanged for decades. That may be changing. Fresenius Medical Care is trying to get a foothold in the U.S. for its more advanced form of dialysis called high-volume hemodiafiltration, which has been used in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific for more than a decade. It is more expensive than traditional hemodialysis systems, but the company has equipped it with advanced features designed to justify the cost. (Dubinsky, 4/21)

On gun violence and the health industry —

Stat: UnitedHealth Executive Security Spending Amid Brian Thompson Killing
UnitedHealth Group spent nearly $1.7 million on security for its top executives last year, and it appears the expenses all occurred in the final weeks of 2024, after top executive Brian Thompson was killed, new filings show. (Herman, 4/21)

CNN: With Future Of Gun Research In Question, New Report Finds US Emergency Departments See A Firearm Injury Every 30 Minutes 
When Dr. Christina Johns, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, thinks about her time working at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, one case always comes rushing back: Two-year-old. Gunshot wound. Chest. ETA five minutes. The child was rushed to the emergency department after being accidentally shot by an older sibling who was playing with a gun that was left unlocked in the house. (Mukherjee, 4/21)

On veterans' health care —

American Homefront Project: How Much Of The VA's Budget Savings Will Go To Patient Care?
When Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cut the ribbon this month for a new outpatient clinic in Chesapeake, Virginia, the event underscored the challenges facing the agency as it attempts to implement President Donald Trump's spending cuts. This part of Virginia has one of the fastest growing veteran populations in the country, and the clinic is opening with less than a third of the staff it needs to run at full capacity. Collins has said the VA will increase staffing in stages. (Walsh, 4/21)

The War Horse: For-Profit Firm Spends Millions To Maintain Stake In VA Benefits Claims
It started in 2017 with a group of friends and colleagues—the first 40 clients whom U.S. Army veterans Scott Greenblatt and Bill Taylor signed up to help. They had come home from combat zones weary and weakened by illness and injury, with a promise of monthly disability payments from the country they served. But first, they had to navigate the lumbering bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Rosenbaum, 4/18)

Kansas City Star: Mothers Of Autistic Children Respond To RFK Jr’s Remarks 
Maverick is magic. At four years old, he gently pets flowers and belly laughs when a strong wind blows. He loves to hug his big brother. Maverick is also severely autistic, and according to our new U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he’s part of a group of children who “will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date,” as Kennedy said on Wednesday. (Linda Blackford, 4/22)

Stat: NIH’s Nutrition For Precision Health Diet Trial Will Fail To Answer Questions
Imagine a clinical trial with sedentary, overweight adults. One group is assigned to remain sedentary, the other to undergo intensive physical training with daily runs, calisthenics, and sports. After a week or two, the training group would probably feel sore and tired, and their endurance might be reduced. But we wouldn’t conclude that physical activity is bad for health. Clearly, we’d need a better, longer study to see the benefits. (David S. Ludwig and Mary E. Putt, 4/22)

Stat: Six Reasons For Employers To Waive Preventive Care Out-Of-Pocket Costs
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, a case in which an employer is arguing that the formation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) violates the Constitution’s appointments clause. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations require that employer-sponsored health plans cover USPSTF-approved preventive care without cost sharing. The Supreme Court’s eventual decision could leave employers with important decisions about coverage for preventive care. (Jeff Levin-Scherz, 4/22)

The Washington Post: What I Learned From Having Cancer In My 20s
I know all too well the fear and isolation many young people with cancer experience. Cancer is always a lonely proposition, but it’s especially so for young adults. The loneliness I experienced was pervasive. Older people, mostly my parents’ friends, didn’t understand, and my contemporaries often struggled because I had the dubious distinction to be their first friend facing a life-threatening illness. One grad school colleague told me years later, “I just didn’t know how to be your friend once you were diagnosed.” (Steven Petrow, 4/21)

The New York Times: A Good Doctor Knows When To Bend The Rules
Dr. Van Scoy sees acceding to requests for unproven medicines as a “slippery slope.” When doctors prescribe medications that they don’t believe in, even ones that pose little risk to the patient, it can cost them the trust of their colleagues. Families might question why their doctors give in to some requests and not others. She believes that what patients and their families really need is honest and open communication surrounding doctors’ decisions and the time to build confidence in their providers. (Daniela J. Lamas, 4/20)