Asheville Watchdog: Mission Hospital In 'Immediate Jeopardy'
Mission Hospital has been officially informed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that it is in “immediate jeopardy” related to deficiencies in care, according to an internal email obtained by Asheville Watchdog. The finding is the most severe sanction possible for a hospital and starts a 23-day clock for Mission to produce a plan for fixing the problems or risk losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding. (Jones, 2/6)

CBS News: 2 Hospitals, 19 Clinics In Western Wisconsin Set To Close This Spring
Western Wisconsin residents are on the verge of losing many of their local health care facilities, sending lawmakers into panic mode. Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden, R-Eau Claire, sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers Monday to call for state and federal resources to cushion the blow from the upcoming closures of hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls operated by the Hospital Sisters Health System's Sacred Heart (HSHS), and Prevea Health's 19 facilities across the Chippewa Valley. (Swanson, 2/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: UC Health, Anthem Blue Cross Reach Deal To Avoid Disruptive Separation
More than a half million Californians won’t need to find new doctors, change their health plans or pay higher out-of-network medical fees after hospital chain UC Health and insurer Anthem Blue Cross settled a dispute over a new contract. “UC Health has reached a fair agreement with Anthem Blue Cross that will allow UCSF Health physicians, hospitals and clinics to remain in Anthem’s provider network,” the health care provider announced on Monday. (Cabanatuan, 2/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF To Pay $100 Million To Acquire Two Struggling SF Hospitals
UCSF Health has confirmed that its $100 million deal to acquire two struggling San Francisco community hospitals is just weeks away from closing. ... UCSF Health officials say the intent is to bring diversified care choices to consumers by investing in two underused hospitals that will augment UCSF Health’s academic medical system with community-based services. (Ho and Waxmann, 2/5)

The CT Mirror: Sharon Hospital Maternity Services Must Stay Open, CT Rules
The Connecticut Office of Health Strategy has denied Nuvance Health’s application to terminate labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital, according to a final decision published Monday. (Golvala, 2/5)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Hospital Profits Saw A Significant Dip In 2022
Colorado hospitals saw a significant dip in profits in 2022, according to a new report, confirming what scattered financial filings have previously hinted at. One state health official called the downturn an “aberration” and said it shouldn’t be used by hospitals to justify substantial increases in prices, while the Colorado Hospital Association pushed back and said hospitals’ financial outlook remains dreary. (Ingold, 2/6)

Modern Healthcare: Prospect Medical Holdings To Sell Crozer Health To A Nonprofit
Prospect Medical Holdings has agreed to sell Crozer Health to a nonprofit organization as part of a court-approved deal. The private equity company announced its plans to offload Crozer in October 2023. On Thursday, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Cheryl L. Austin ordered a 270-day pause in ongoing litigation against Prospect Medical Holdings while it finds a buyer. The court order also approves the terms set out in a letter of agreement signed by representatives from Prospect and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office limiting purchasers to nonprofit corporations. (DeSilva, 2/5)

Also —

Stat: Cano Health’s Bankruptcy Is A Warning For Medicare Advantage
Private Medicare just isn’t the gold mine it once was. Case in point: Cano Health, a company once valued at $4.4 billion, is now bankrupt. The prospect of bankruptcy had stalked the Miami-based primary care provider for well over a year before its Chapter 11 filing on Sunday. (Bannow, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: How Steward Health’s Relationship With Private Equity Soured
The financial decline of Steward Health Care may serve as a cautionary tale for health systems and other providers considering private equity investment. At its peak, the Dallas-based for-profit national hospital chain operated 37 hospitals across 10 states. But over the past year, Steward, whose private equity owner exited four years ago, has sold five Utah hospitals and closed or announced plans to close hospitals in Texas and Massachusetts. It also faces lawsuits from vendors and fraud allegations from the Justice Department. (Kacik, 2/5)

Axios: Hospital Lobbying Could Sink Effort To Trim Medicare Costs
Hospitals intensely lobbying to stop a bipartisan measure that would trim their Medicare payments are emphasizing how the policy may hobble already struggling rural hospitals. The hospitals' argument is apparently resonating in the Senate — raising further doubts about whether Congress can overcome pressure from a politically powerful lobby to enact modest Medicare savings. (Sullivan, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Will Home Care’s Wage Violations Spark Closures—Or More Workers? 
Home care providers are split on whether the Labor Department’s fines against the industry for wage violations could force more business closures or attract more workers to the high-demand sector. As more care moved into the home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the department’s Wage and Hour Division targeted home care and home health providers in 2021 for overtime infractions, worker misclassification and other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. (Eastabrook, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Medica Layoffs Hit 6% Of Workforce
Nonprofit health insurance company Medica has laid off 162 employees. The job cuts represent about 6% of Medica's workforce of roughly 3,000 staff members. Minnetonka, Minnesota-based Medica declined to provide details on specific positions affected, but a company spokesperson said Monday the layoffs were spread across its offices and staff received severance packages and outplacement assistance. (Berryman, 2/5)

The Atlantic: GoFundMe Is A Health-Care Utility Now
GoFundMe started as a crowdfunding site for underwriting “ideas and dreams,” and, as GoFundMe’s co-founders, Andrew Ballester and Brad Damphousse, once put it, “for life’s important moments.” In the early years, it funded honeymoon trips, graduation gifts, and church missions to overseas hospitals in need. Now GoFundMe has become a go-to for patients trying to escape medical-billing nightmares. One study found that, in 2020, the number of U.S. campaigns related to medical causes—about 200,000—was 25 times higher than the number of such campaigns on the site in 2011. (Rosenthal, 2/5)

The Daily Wire: ‘Completely Unjustified’: Medical Journal Retracts Major Studies Critical Of Abortion Pill Ahead Of Supreme Court Clash
Major scientific studies on the potential harm of abortion pills were retracted on Monday by their publisher, just weeks before the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the availability of such drugs. Three studies, including two on the potential harms of the abortion pill just, were retracted on Monday by Sage Publishing, an independent academic publishing company. The retraction notice states that an independent review of the studies was conducted due to a single reader’s complaint that the studies included misleading data and that the authors were affiliated with a pro-life organization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, presenting a conflict of interest. (Le Mahieu, 2/5)

Read the details —

Retraction notice

In other abortion news —

The Hill: Florida Supreme Court To Hear Pivotal Battle Over Abortion 
Florida abortion rights groups are heading to the state Supreme Court this week as part of their effort to put abortion protections on the ballot in November. The court will hear arguments Wednesday about whether the ballot measure language meets state rules, the final hurdle to clear before the question can be put to voters. It needs to issue a ruling by April 1.  (Weixel, 2/6)

AP: South Carolina Woman Seeks Clarity On Abortion Ban In Lawsuit Backed By Planned Parenthood
A South Carolina woman who traveled elsewhere for an abortion just days after reaching six weeks of pregnancy wants a court to affirm that the state’s ban on the procedure — when a “fetal heartbeat” can be detected — should not take effect until later in a pregnancy. In a lawsuit filed in state circuit court Monday, Taylor Shelton and Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s chief medical officer Dr. Katherine Farris argued that the Republican-led state Legislature provided two different definitions of “fetal heartbeat” in its law restricting abortions. They said the correct interpretation is that the ban begins around nine weeks, and not six weeks as currently practiced. (Pollard, 2/5)

Axios: Why Abortion Won't Be On The Texas Ballot In 2024
A series of wins for abortion rights supporters have energized Democrats around the country — but abortion access itself won't be on the Texas ballot in November. Why it matters: Texas remains a deeply red state, and even as Democratic activists and politicians see abortion rights as a winning issue, they won't be able to put the sort of potentially galvanizing referendum on the ballot in November that could drive voters — especially swing suburban voters — their way. (Price, 2/5)

Roll Call: Bradley Opens Up About His Experience With Abortion
Bill Bradley, a former three-term New Jersey senator and presidential candidate, has opened up about his personal experience with abortion, both in a new documentary about his life and while speaking to Political Theater Friday. In his new film “Rolling Along,” Bradley, who sought the presidential nomination in 2000, describes how, in the 1960s while playing for the New York Knicks, a woman he was dating became pregnant unintentionally. The woman, he said, opted to have an abortion – which was illegal and difficult to find at the time. (Raman, 2/5)

PolitiFact: Fact Check: 1 In 3 Women Of Reproductive Age Live Under Abortion Bans?
The claim: ..."This is, in fact, a health care crisis and there is nothing about this that is hypothetical," Harris told the crowd. "Today in America, 1 in 3 women of reproductive age live in a state with an abortion ban." PolitiFact ruling: True. About 21.5 million women of reproductive age — 15 to 49 — live in states that ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That’s about 29% of U.S. women in this age group. (Putterman, 2/5)

Axios: Florida Challenges Federal Requirement To Keep Kids On Health Insurance
Florida is suing the Biden administration over a new policy limiting when states can remove children from public health insurance programs. The lawsuit challenges the implementation of a law requiring states to let kids remain eligible for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program for 12 straight months before reviewing their status, regardless of life changes that mean they may no longer qualify. (Goldman, 2/5)

Health News Florida: Florida Group Starts Signature Collection As Part Of Medicaid Expansion Effort
A coalition of groups that push for health care equity has begun to gather petition signatures supporting a Florida constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid. Florida Decides Healthcare needs roughly 1 million signatures to get its proposal on the ballot in Florida in 2026. (Zaragovia, 2/5)

Also —

San Francisco Chronicle: Covered California Open Enrollment Deadline Extended
Californians aiming to sign up for health insurance through the state’s Covered California marketplace have a little extra time, with the open enrollment deadline extended until Friday, officials said. Covered California extended the Jan. 31 deadline after seeing “record-breaking enrollment nationally” and high demand in the state for health insurance, officials announced last week. The new deadline to sign up for 2024 coverage is midnight Feb. 9, with coverage effective from Feb. 1. (Flores, 2/5)

Stat: Gene Therapy For Afghan Refugees’ Infant Will Be Fully Covered
After a months-long fight with Texas Medicaid over coverage of a gene therapy, Afghan refugees now have a chance to save their infant son. After initially balking, Texas officials have agreed to pay for the costly treatment, the boy’s family and his doctor told STAT. (Molteni, 2/5)

Forbes: Centene Turns A Profit Thanks To Big Jump In Obamacare Enrollment
Centene reported fourth quarter profits of $45 million as membership and premium revenue grew thanks to a big increase in Obamacare coverage, the health insurer said Tuesday. Centene, which sells an array of government subsidized health insurance including individual commercial insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, said total managed care membership increased slightly to 27.47 million, compared to 27.06 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022. Centene’s enrollment in individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which Centene calls its “commercial marketplace” business nearly doubled to 3.9 million members from 2 million a year ago. (apsen, 2/6)

On housing and internet —

Axios: Medicaid Enrollment Cuts Led To More Evictions, Study Finds
A major purge of Tennessee's Medicaid rolls almost 20 years ago led to a big increase in evictions, according to a new Health Affairs study that may hold lessons for the ongoing "unwinding" of pandemic-era coverage protections. More than 16.4 million Americans have been disenrolled from Medicaid since April, when the end of the COVID-19 emergency meant states were no longer barred from terminating coverage. (Goldman, 2/6)

KFF Health News: Is Housing Health Care? State Medicaid Programs Increasingly Say ‘Yes’ 
States are plowing billions of dollars into a high-stakes health care experiment that’s exploding around the country: using scarce public health insurance money to provide housing for the poorest and sickest Americans. California is going the biggest, pumping $12 billion into an ambitious Medicaid initiative largely to help homeless patients find housing, pay for it, and avoid eviction. Arizona is allocating $550 million in Medicaid funding primarily to cover six months of rent for homeless people. Oregon is spending more than $1 billion on services such as emergency rental assistance for patients facing homelessness. Even ruby-red Arkansas will dedicate nearly $100 million partly to house its neediest. (Hart, 2/6)

Reuters: US To Stop Accepting New Enrollments For Low-Income Internet Subsidy Program
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday will stop accepting new enrollments for a government broadband internet subsidy program, used by nearly 23 million American households, which is set to run out of money in months. "The enrollment freeze is necessary to slow the depletion of the remaining funding and reduce volatility in the program," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Congress last week saying after that the commission will finalize the projected end date of the program absent new funding from lawmakers. (Shepardson, 2/5)

Roll Call: GOP Lawmakers Argue Pandemic Treaty Threatens US Sovereignty 
The World Health Organization is rushing to finalize a treaty to prevent and combat future pandemics, but some House Republicans say the U.S. should not be a part of the global accord, arguing that the health group is infringing on the rights of American taxpayers. They’re concerned that the treaty will result in U.S. taxpayer dollars going toward abortion. They’re also concerned about threats to U.S. intellectual property rights. The sentiment underscores a large and growing Republican mistrust in the international body. (Cohen, 2/5)

On covid misinformation —

Stat: Supreme Court To Hear If Covid Misinformation Is Protected Speech
As social media sites were flooded with misleading posts about vaccine safety, mask effectiveness, Covid-19’s origins and federal shutdowns, Biden officials urged platforms to pull down posts, delete accounts, and amplify correct information. Now the Supreme Court could decide whether the government violated Americans’ First Amendment rights with those actions — and dictate a new era for what role, if any, officials can play in combating misinformation on social media. (Owermohle, 2/6)

Reuters: Fact Check: No Evidence For Vaccine DNA Risk Raised By Florida Surgeon General 
There is no evidence to suggest that residual DNA fragments in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines pose a health risk raised in statements by Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. Social media posts are sharing screenshots of a letter Ladapo wrote to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Dec. 6 asking if the agencies had done tests to see if DNA fragments in mRNA COVID vaccines might integrate into the genomes of vaccine recipients, potentially destabilizing chromosomes or causing cancer. (2/5)

More on the spread of covid —

The New York Times: Alternating Arms For Vaccines May Boost Your Immunity, Study Says 
If you’ve presented the same arm for every dose of a particular vaccine, you may want to reconsider. Alternating arms may produce a more powerful immune response, a new study suggests. The researchers studied responses to the first two doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Those who alternated arms showed a small increase in immunity over those who got both doses in the same arm. For individuals who respond poorly to vaccines because of age or health conditions, even a small boost may turn out to be significant, the researchers said. (Mandavilli, 2/6)

CBS News: COVID Variant JN.1 Now More Than 90% Of Cases In U.S., CDC Estimates 
Close to all new COVID-19 cases in the United States are now being caused by the JN.1 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, with an estimated 93.1% of infections now blamed on the highly mutated strain. The CDC's latest biweekly estimate of the variant's spread was published Friday. It comes as key trends reflecting COVID-19's spread are now showing signs of slowing, following a peak over the winter holidays. (Tin, 2/5)

CBS News: A Mild Case Of COVID-19 May Cause People To Lose Sleep, Study Says
A new study finds that having even a mild case of COVID-19 could cause you to lose sleep. Insomnia has been associated with COVID among hospitalized patients, but a team of researchers in Vietnam wanted to know whether it also affected people with mild illness. They looked at more than a 1,000 adults who had COVID within the past six months, but did not need to be hospitalized. They found that 76% of them reported experiencing insomnia. (Marshall, 2/5)

On the spread of flu —

CNN: Respiratory Virus Season In The US Isn’t Over Yet
After a few weeks of decline, some measures show that flu activity is starting to pick up again and respiratory virus levels remain high overall in the United States. During the week ending January 27, more than 82,000 people who visited an emergency department were diagnosed with influenza, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — an 8% bump, or about 6,000 more than the week before. The test positivity rate for flu also ticked up in the US overall. (McPhillips, 2/5)

The Atlantic: Flu Shots Need To Stop Fighting ‘Something That Doesn’t Exist’
In Arnold Monto’s ideal vision of this fall, the United States’ flu vaccines would be slated for some serious change—booting a major ingredient that they’ve consistently included since 2013. ... To include it again now, Monto, an epidemiologist and a flu expert at the University of Michigan, told me, would mean vaccinating people “against something that doesn’t exist.” That probably nonexistent something is Yamagata, a lineage of influenza B viruses that hasn’t been spotted by global surveyors since March of 2020, shortly after COVID mitigations plummeted flu transmission to record lows. (Wu, 2/5)

NBC News: How The Anti-Vaccine Movement Is Downplaying The Danger Of Measles
As outbreaks of measles spread throughout the world, anti-vaccine activists aren’t just urging people not to get vaccinated — they’re taking a page from a well-worn playbook, falsely downplaying the dangers from the highly contagious respiratory disease. ... But national health agencies warn the fear of measles is well-founded. ... For every 1,000 cases of  measles, about 200 children may be hospitalized, 50 may get pneumonia, one child may develop brain swelling along with deafness or disability, and between one and three may die. (Zadrozny, 2/5)

CIDRAP: Study: Eliminating Nonmedical Exemptions Tied To Increased School Vaccine Uptake In NY
Researchers show that the passage of a bill in New York state that banned nonmedical vaccine exemptions for school entry was associated with an increase in vaccine uptake outside of New York City, according to a study late last week in JAMA Network Open. The bill, Senate Bill 2994A, was passed by state lawmakers in June 2019 after two large measles outbreaks in the state almost removed the country's measles elimination status. The bill was effective immediately and did not excuse students with existing nonmedical exemptions from compliance. (Soucheray, 2/5)

Fox News: Travelers At Cincinnati Airport May Have Been Exposed To Measles, Ohio Health Officials Warn
Health officials in Ohio are warning of a possible measles exposure on Monday after a person traveled through the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport over a weekend last month. ... "ODH is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other state and local health officials to identify people who might have been exposed, including contacting potentially exposed passengers on specific flights," the agency said. (Sorace, 2/5)

Nature: Measles Outbreaks Cause Alarm: What The Data Say
UK health services are battling an outbreak of measles — causing alarm in a nation that had eliminated the disease in 2017. On January 19, the UK Health Security Agency, the public-health authority, declared a national incident over rising cases of measles. The agency has logged more than 300 cases in England since October 1. A decline in uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is given in two doses, during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the spread of the disease across England and the rest of Europe, while small outbreaks have occurred in a handful of US states. (Wong, 1/31)

In other outbreaks —

AP: Rio De Janeiro Declares A Dengue Health Emergency Days Ahead Of Carnival 
Rio de Janeiro on Monday has declared a public health emergency because of an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever, the city announced Monday, just days before Carnival celebrations kick off across Brazil. The outbreak wasn’t expected to derail Carnival, which officially starts Friday evening and runs until Feb. 14, but it has prompted a slew of special measures by the city in hopes of containing the illness. (Hughes, 2/5)

The Washington Post: U.S. Rules On Donated Transplant Organs To Be Tightened
The U.S. government is moving to tighten a regulation for the collection of human pancreases for research after a Senate committee and others complained the rule was being exploited by groups that also procure kidneys, hearts, livers and other organs for transplant. A rule issued in 2020 allows the nation’s 56 nonprofit organ procurement organizations to collect human pancreases for research and count them toward benchmarks they must meet so they can retain government certification to operate. (Bernstein, 2/5)

On Medicare —

Stat: A Single Democrat Is Willing To Weaken Medicare Negotiation Power
Two Republican lawmakers who introduced legislation to water down the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation program managed to find themselves a Democratic co-sponsor — even though every single Democrat in Congress in 2022 voted for the legislation. (Cohrs, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Rate Cut May Cause Insurers To Ding Providers
Medicare Advantage insurers are likely to respond to a modest rate cut next year by adjusting premiums, benefits, provider reimbursements and other factors to emphasize profitability, financial analysts said. Although the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has downplayed the effects of its proposed 0.16% reduction in the Medicare Advantage benchmark rate for 2025, the rule issued last Wednesday is the latest in a string of policies that has Medicare insurers and their investors wary about the program. (Tepper, 2/6)

On the funeral industry's deal with the FTC —

The Wall Street Journal: How The Funeral Industry Got The FTC To Hide Bad Actors 
Unethical funeral homes have exploited grieving customers for decades. What consumers don’t know is that many of the industry’s bad actors have been hidden from the public thanks to a sweetheart deal struck between the Federal Trade Commission and the funeral industry more than 25 years ago. In that deal, unlike any known to exist between the FTC and any other industry, the names of funeral homes that violate rules requiring price transparency and fair practices aren’t made public to consumers, as long as they complete a virtual remedial program run by the funeral industry’s own lobbying group.  (Mosbergen, 2/5)

Axios: Pharmacies Are Struggling To Refill Their Own Ranks
Pharmacy retail chains staking their future on expanding the health care services they offer are running into a big problem: It's getting harder to draw the next generation of pharmacists amid turmoil in the industry. (Reed, 2/6)

Also —

Stat: Diabetes Treatments Have Improperly Listed Patents, Analysis Finds
More than half of the injector-pen patents for several widely used diabetes treatments — including Ozempic and Mounjaro — do not mention several important characteristics that should otherwise prevent them from being listed in a key federal registry, according to a new analysis. As a result, the researchers contend the patents may be unfairly used to preclude competition from companies that may want to market lower-cost generic products. (Silverman, 2/5)

Reuters: Parents Seek To Revive Claims They Overpaid For Abbott Formula Before Recall 
Parents who say they overpaid for Abbott Laboratories' baby formula before one of its plants was shuttered for unsanitary conditions urged a federal appeals court on Monday to revive their lawsuit against the company. Kiley Grombacher of Bradley Grombacher, a lawyer for the parents, told a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that her clients would not have bought, or would have paid less, for Similac and other Abbott brands if they had known of the safety risks that led to the plant shutdown and a subsequent recall. (Pierson, 2/5)

Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson Worker Alleges Company Overpaid For Prescription Drugs 
Johnson & Johnson was sued by an employee who said the company’s health plan wasted workers’ money by paying inflated prices for prescription drugs. In one instance, the health plan agreed to pay more than $10,000 for a drug to treat multiple sclerosis, a chronic nerve condition, that’s available for as little as $40 at retail pharmacies, according to the suit filed Monday in federal court in Camden, New Jersey. (Tozzi and Dolmetsch, 2/5)

Reuters: US Appeals Court Finds Bayer Not Shielded From Roundup Lawsuit
A U.S. appeals court on Monday refused to dismiss a Georgia doctor's lawsuit claiming that Bayer AG's Roundup weedkiller caused cancer, the latest setback in the German company's efforts to fend off thousands of similar cases carrying potentially billions of dollars in liability. A three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bayer's argument that federal regulators' approval of Roundup shielded the company from being sued under state law for failing to warn consumers of the product's risks. Several other appeals courts had previously reached the same conclusion in similar lawsuits. (Pierson, 2/5)

On weight loss drugs —

Reuters: FDA Website Shows Limited Availability Of Some Doses Of Lilly's Mounjaro 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) website showed that three higher doses of Eli Lilly's tab diabetes drug, Mounjaro, would be available only in limited amounts through early March 2024, due to increased demand. According to the health regulator's website, 10, 12.5 and 15 milligram doses of the injection will have limited availability, while lower doses of Mounjaro were shown to be available. (2/5)

Stat: Novo’s Catalent Deal Is Great For GLP-1s. But What About Drug Manufacturing?
Sixteen billion dollars is a lot of money. But Monday’s announcement that the parent company of Novo Nordisk, the maker of the weight loss drug Wegovy, plans to buy Catalent, a company to which drugmakers outsource manufacturing, is probably even more important than it seems. (Herper, 2/5)

WBUR: Drugs Like Ozempic Can Help Weight Loss, But Not Without Ethical And Health Concerns 
Last Thursday, the state decided not to pay for it any longer. Celebrities and people like Elon Musk who can afford $1,000 a month for Ozempic and Wegovy can still get them. However, a nurse in North Carolina told The New York Times that finding Wegovy is like winning the lottery. ... Injectible drugs like Ozempic help about half of users lose significant amounts of weight without making lifestyle changes, Caplan says. Like Viagra, the drugs put a Band-Aid over an underlying problem, he says. (Young, Miller-Medzon, and Hagan, 2/5)

AP: The Effect Of Police Violence On Black Americans' Health Is Documented In 2 New Studies
The effect of police violence on Black Americans is tracked in two new studies, with one tying police-involved deaths to sleep disturbances and the other finding a racial gap in injuries involving police use of Tasers. The health effects of police violence on Black people “need to be documented as a critical first step to reduce these harms,” three editors of JAMA Internal Medicine wrote in an editorial published Monday with the studies. (Johnson, 2/5)

In other health and wellness news —

NPR: Drug Busts Of 'Magic Mushrooms' Went Way Up In Recent Years, Study Finds
In recent years, there's been growing interest in psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in "magic mushrooms" or "shrooms" as a potentially beneficial therapy for mental health conditions. At the same time, drug busts of mushrooms went way up between 2017 and 2022, and the amount of the psychedelic substance seized by law enforcement more than tripled, according to a new study. "What I think the results indicate is that shroom availability has likely been increasing," says Joseph Palamar, an epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health and the main author of the new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. (Chatterjee, 2/6)

CNN: Healthy Living May Battle Cognitive Decline Even With Signs Of Dementia In The Brain, Study Suggests 
Living a healthy lifestyle with a focus on a nutritious diet, regular exercise, minimum alcohol consumption and other healthy habits can help keep your brain sharp into old age, doctors say. But what if your brain already has signs of beta amyloid or tau — two of the hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s and other brain pathologies? Will a healthy lifestyle still protect you from cognitive decline? (LaMotte, 2/5)

The New York Times: Why Some Therapists Are Taking Their Clients Outdoors 
Mental health practitioners are hiking, camping and braving the elements with their clients — all in an effort to help them connect with the Earth, and with themselves. (Caron, 2/5)

Stateline: Gunfire, Screams, Carnage: As Mass Shootings Proliferate, Training Gets More Realistic
First responders and law enforcement agents have for decades used simulations to train for mass casualty events such as shootings or natural disasters, especially after the Columbine school shooting in 1999. But in recent years, as mass shootings have become increasingly common in the United States, the simulations have become more and more realistic. Now they feature visceral sound effects, trained actors, pyrotechnics and even virtual reality. The trainings also have become more and more expensive for public agencies. (Vasilogambros, 2/5)

In celebrity news —

People: Toby Keith Dead At 62 Following Stomach Cancer Diagnosis
Country singer Toby Keith, known for hits such as “Red Solo Cup” and “Should Have Been a Cowboy,” has died. He was 62. The singer-songwriter “passed peacefully” on Monday night, his family shared in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2022. (Walcott, 2/6)

CNN: Bob Beckwith, 9/11 Rescuer Who Stood Next To President George W. Bush Atop Debris, Dies At 91
Bob Beckwith, the former New York City firefighter who famously stood alongside President George W. Bush atop a charred fire truck in the rubble of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has died, according to the union representing New York firefighters and former US Rep. Peter King. He was 91. The cause of Beckwith’s death was not immediately released. He had malignant skin cancer, along with other health problems, he told Focus on the Family last year. (Yan and Rose, 2/5)

The New York Times: Cancer Diagnosis Like King Charles’s Is Not Unheard-Of 
A patient checks into the hospital for a routine procedure to treat an enlarged prostate. And, unexpectedly, a test done in the hospital — perhaps a blood test or an X-ray or an examination of the urethra and the bladder — finds a cancer. Apparently, something like that happened to King Charles III. When the British monarch was treated for an enlarged prostate in January, doctors found a cancer that the palace said is not prostate cancer. Charles started treatment Monday. The palace did not disclose what had led to the king’s diagnosis. (Kolata, 2/6)

The New York Times: The Economist Who Helped Patients Get New Kidneys 
Roth shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2012 for work he did on practical applications of game theory, including a brilliant system for increasing matches between kidney donors and recipients. He has also worked on better matching of medical students to hospital residencies, children to schools in New York City and Boston and newly minted Ph.D. economists to starting jobs at universities. (Peter Coy, 2/5)

Mankato Free Press: A Failure To Meet Mental Health Needs
Kids needing mental health treatment in Minnesota wait for days in emergency rooms. When kids and adults do get care, the providers are paid about 74% of what the government would pay for Medicaid patients. Woefully inadequate. (2/4)

The New York Times: A Second Trump Term Could Lead To A ‘Backdoor Federal Abortion Ban’ 
With Donald Trump seemingly unstoppable in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the law professor Mary Ziegler considers what a second Trump term would mean for abortion rights. (Mary Ziegler, 2/6)

Kansas City Star: Gov. Mike Parson Brags About Harmful Missouri Abortion Ban 
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson touted his accomplishments in his recent State of the State address. Huh? Of what is he so proud? Well, for one, it’s been six years since he took over after Eric Greitens resigned. OK, that is a good thing. That guy Greitens is bad news wherever he goes. However, the rest is not so great. For example, Parson suggested that he prevented 8,000 abortions in the state. Ha! Joke’s on him, as most of those desperate women, if they could afford it, went to neighboring states of Kansas and Illinois to get the health care they needed. Because abortion is health care. (Sue Homberg, 2/6)

Stat: The Philips CPAP Disaster Exposes Public Health Shortcomings 
Millions of Americans’ bedtime routine includes wearing a mask attached to a respiratory machine that pushes air into their lungs, supporting their breathing during sleep. These airway pressure machines, known as CPAP or BiPAP depending on their design, are sophisticated medical devices that have been used for decades by patients with sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea. In 2021, Philips Respironics recalled more than 15 million of these machines after it was revealed that internal foam components were degrading into debris and other particulates that propelled into patients’ lungs, exposing them to potentially toxic material. (Kushal T. Kadakia, Joseph S. Ross, and Vinay K. Rathi, 2/6)