Axios: Medicare Is About To Add Hundreds Of Thousands More Mental Health Providers
The largest expansion of Medicare's mental health services in a generation can provide a critical lifeline to America's seniors — if enough providers sign up. Starting Jan. 1, some 400,000 marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors for the first time can accept Medicare payment, following years of advocacy and amid a mental health crisis that has weighed heavily on seniors. (Goldman, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Hospital Prices: Medicare Warns Companies On Price Transparency 
Some of the largest US hospital chains and most prestigious academic medical centers have violated federal rules by not posting the prices they charge for care, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News. For-profit HCA Healthcare Inc., the nation’s largest hospital system, and big nonprofit operators including Ascension and Trinity Health have been cited for failing to make prices fully available to the public, enforcement letters Bloomberg obtained through a public records request show. So have marquee facilities such as New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, Emory University Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. (Tozzi and Meghjani, 12/20)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Seeks To Dismiss Medicare Home Health Payment Lawsuit
The Biden administration has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice challenging how the agency sets payments to providers. The motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Health and Human Services Department claims the lawsuit should be dismissed “for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.” (Eastabrook, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: How Home Health Services, Home Care Services Differ
Efforts to move more care into the home got a boost last week when the Biden administration announced $37 billion in funding to support home- and community-based services through the American Rescue Plan Act. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is encouraging states to use the money to create registries for consumers of direct care workers who can provide home-based care to Medicaid beneficiaries, as well as those who do not receive Medicaid benefits. (Eastabrook, 12/19)

On 'Medicare for All' —

The New York Times: Dean Phillips, An Upstart Challenger To Biden, Embraces ‘Medicare For All’
As he mounts a long-shot primary challenge to President Biden, Representative Dean Phillips says he has had an epiphany about American health care policy. Gone is his yearslong skepticism about adopting a national single-payer health care system. Now Mr. Phillips, a moderate Democrat from Minnesota, is embracing the “Medicare for all” proposal championed in two presidential campaigns by Senator Bernie Sanders — whose former top aide is now advising Mr. Phillips’s campaign. (Epstein and Stolberg, 12/20)

In updates from Capitol Hill —

CNN: Senators Raise Alarm About Nation’s Largest Prison Health Care Provider
The nation’s largest prison health care provider has come under fire from a group of Democratic senators who say they are alarmed the government contractor’s chronic understaffing and cost-cutting measures may have put inmates’ lives in danger. (Ellis and Hicken, 12/19)

KFF Health News: ‘I Am Just Waiting To Die’: Social Security Clawbacks Drive Some Into Homelessness 
More than a year after the federal government first cut off her disability benefits, Denise Woods drives nightly to strip malls, truck stops, and parking lots around Savannah, Georgia, looking for a safe place to sleep in her Chevy. Woods, 51, said she had rented a three-bedroom house she shared with her adult son and grandson until March 2022, when the government terminated her disability payments without notice. (Clasen-Kelly, 12/20)

CIDRAP: COVAX Winds Down With COVID Vaccine Shift To Regular Programs 
The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that COVAX, a program formed in 2020 to increase equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, will close on December 31 as distribution shifts to regular immunization programs. COVAX was jointly led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the WHO. So far, it has distributed nearly 2 billion doses to 146 economies, the WHO said in a statement. The groups estimate that the vaccines distrusted through COVAX averted 2.7 million deaths and helped lower-income countries achieve 57% two-dose coverage, compared to the 67% global average. (Schnirring, 12/19)

Biz Community: 3 Lessons From Covax As The Organization Draws To A Close
As an emergency solution launched amid the pandemic, Covax faced many challenges. Without having any cash reserves up front, it was initially limited in its ability to sign early contracts with manufacturers, and while it was able to ship doses to 100 economies in the first six weeks of the global roll-out, export bans and other factors meant that large-volume deliveries were only received in the third quarter of 2021. While Covax was unable to completely overcome the tragic vaccine inequity that characterized the global response, it significantly alleviated the suffering caused by Covid-19 in the Global South. (12/20)

More on the spread of covid —

Reuters: WHO Says JN.1 COVID Strain A 'Variant Of Interest', Poses Low Risk
While there might be more cases with the variant, JN.1 doesn't pose a greater risk, said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. JN.1 was previously classified a variant of interest as part of its parent lineage BA.2.86, but WHO has now classified it as a separate variant of interest. (Roy, 12/19)

The Atlantic: Winter Illness This Year Is A Different Kind Of Ugly
Earlier this month, Taison Bell walked into the intensive-care unit at UVA Health and discovered that half of the patients under his care could no longer breathe on their own. All of them had been put on ventilators or high-flow oxygen. “It was early 2022 the last time I saw that,” Bell, an infectious-disease and critical-care physician at the hospital, told me—right around the time that the original Omicron variant was ripping through the region and shattering COVID-case records. This time, though, the coronavirus, flu, and RSV were coming together to fill UVA’s wards—“all at the same time,” Bell said. (Wu, 12/19)

Bloomberg: US Workers Overuse Cold Medicine Due To Office Sick Shaming Fear
At the height of the pandemic, Meg McNamara’s employer sent her home with symptoms that looked a lot like Covid, but she knew better. A negative Covid test proved that the 37-year-old’s coughs and red eyes were just her usual allergies. Determined to not be wrongly accused again, the New York-based physician’s assistant turned to over-the-counter medication. She started popping Benadryl every morning to mask her symptoms, but that caused other problems. (LaPara andBrown, 12/20)

AP: States Are Trashing Troves Of Masks And Pandemic Gear As Huge, Costly Stockpiles Linger And Expire 
With expiration dates passing and few requests to tap into the stockpile, Ohio auctioned off 393,000 gowns for just $2,451 and ended up throwing away another 7.2 million, along with expired masks, gloves and other materials. The now expiring supplies had cost about $29 million in federal money. A similar reckoning is happening around the country. Items are aging, and as a deadline to allocate federal COVID-19 cash approaches next year, states must decide how much to invest in maintaining warehouses and supply stockpiles. (Peltz and Lieb, 12/20)

CIDRAP: Study Spotlights Persistent Daily Headaches After COVID-19
A study based on patients in 11 South American countries shows that new daily persistent headache (NDPH) can be a clinical symptom after COVID. "Persistent headache, with a prevalence ranging from 8 to 15% in the first six months after COVID-19 remission, is a frequent symptom," the authors of the study write. "However, limited knowledge exists regarding the clinical spectrum and predisposing factors." The mean age was 40 years, and most participants were women (81.5%), with university education (76.2%). More than 90% described their COVID-19 infections as mild to moderate. (Soucheray, 12/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: New California Rule Allows Sewage To Be Recycled To Tap Water
California water regulators on Tuesday approved rules, long in the making, that will allow local water agencies to recycle wastewater directly into tap water after extra cleaning. The unanimous decision by the State Water Resources Control Board will open a new option for water supplies across the drought-prone state. ... The presence of contaminants that are not already known — the arrival several years ago of the coronavirus was a recent example — is one of several areas that will be closely watched. (Galbraith, 12/19)

More environmental health news from California —

NPR: Study: Known Carcinogen Hexavalent Chromium Found In California Wildfire Ash
According to a study released in Nature Communications last week, researchers discovered dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium in samples of ash left behind by the Kincade and Hennessey fires in 2019 and 2020. Workers in the manufacturing industry who've been exposed to elevated levels of hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, have higher rates of lung cancer, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (Hernandez, 12/19)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Lost Tool That Could Cause Radiation Poisoning. Resident Finds It
A potentially dangerous device that uses radiation went missing last week, but was found Monday and returned to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. The agency had issued a $1,000 reward over the weekend for information that could lead to the recovery of the device, which could cause radiation poisoning if damaged or mishandled. (Childs, 12/19)

In related news about the military —

Reuters: Judge Won't Force Government To Turn Over Study On Cancer At Camp Lejeune 
The U.S. government will not be forced to turn over a draft of a study on cancer incidence at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune to attorneys representing people allegedly harmed by tainted water on the base, a federal judge in North Carolina said on Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Jones Jr denied a motion to compel production of the study filed by the plaintiffs’ leadership team in the litigation, which includes more than 1,400 lawsuits and more than 130,000 administrative claims filed with the government. (Jones, 12/19)

Military.com: Millions Of Vets Got Health Care And Benefits Under The PACT Act. Thousands Left Out Want The Same Chance. 
Legislation passed in 2022 expanded benefits for former troops sickened by burn pits, Agent Orange and contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, but others still wait. (Kime, 12/19)

Also —

CIDRAP: Court Strikes Down EPA Approval Of Streptomycin As Citrus Pesticide
A coalition of public interest, environmental health, and farmworker advocacy groups are hailing a decision by a federal appeals court that struck down the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) approval of the medically important antibiotic streptomycin for use on citrus crops. The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the EPA's amended registration of streptomycin for use as a pesticide against citrus diseases, saying that it did not satisfy the requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA). It also sent the amended registration back to the agency so that it could address the defects. (Dall, 12/19)

CNN: A Woman Who Had A Miscarriage Is Now Charged With Abusing A Corpse As Stricter Abortion Laws Play Out Nationwide
An Ohio woman who had sought treatment at a hospital before suffering a miscarriage and passing her nonviable fetus in her bathroom now faces a criminal charge, her attorney told CNN. Brittany Watts, 33, of Warren, has been charged with felony abuse of a corpse, Trumbull County court records show. (Campinoti, Yan and Sylla, 12/19)

KERA News: An El Paso Woman Is Suing Her Doctor For Negligence Over An Unwanted Pregnancy
Grissel Velasco didn’t want more kids. In 2014, Velasco — 31 years old at the time — was expecting her third child, and was receiving care at Sun City Women’s Health Care in El Paso, owned by OB-GYN and then-El Paso City Council member Dr. Michiel Noe. With Sun City staff’s guidance, allegedly at Noe’s recommendation, she paid to receive tubal ligation — also known as tube tying — at the same time she delivered her baby boy. Having any more C-section births in the future would be risky, she said she was told. (Osibamowo, 12/19)

The Texas Tribune: Leaders In Texas City Continue Debate Over Abortion Travel Ban 
The Amarillo City Council prolonged its debate over a so-called abortion travel ban on Tuesday, spending more than two hours in front of a packed room reviewing draft rules that would attempt to block access to Colorado and New Mexico, two states where a Texas woman could legally obtain an abortion. (Carver, 12/19)

Tampa Bay Times: Florida Abortion Rights Group ‘Confident’ It Has Enough Signatures For 2024 Ballot
The group behind a constitutional amendment that would protect abortion access in Florida says it is “confident” it has enough signatures to qualify for the 2024 ballot. But even if it gets the required 891,523 verified petitions by the Feb. 1, 2024, deadline, the fate of the proposed ballot measure still depends on the state’s conservative Supreme Court. (Ellenbogen, 12/20)

Medill News Service: Abortion Limits Complicate Choices For Pregnant Cancer Patients
The patient had already made the agonizing decision to start chemotherapy to address her colon cancer, even though she was 30 weeks pregnant. Within a day, the decisions got harder: her colon perforated, and the pain was excruciating. She would need urgent surgery — and she would have to undergo an emergency C-section immediately. (Pant, 12/20)

On the national landscape —

AP: Some State Abortion Bans Stir Confusion, And It's Uncertain If Lawmakers Will Clarify Them 
Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion throughout pregnancy. Two more have such bans on hold due to court rulings. And another two have bans that take effect when cardiac activity can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy — often before women know they’re pregnant. Each state ban has a provision that allows abortion under at least some circumstances to save the life of the mother. At least 11 — including three with the strictest bans — allow abortion because of fatal fetal anomalies, and some do when the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. (Kruesi and Mulvihill, 12/20)

AP: What To Know About Abortion Policy Across The US Heading Into 2024 
Abortion is going to be a major issue in the U.S. again in 2024, the second full year after the nation's top court ended a right to abortion and making it largely a state issue. (12/20)

Also —

Reuters: US Senate Looks To End Last Of Abortion-Related Military Promotion Blockade 
The U.S. Senate will confirm this month the last of hundreds of military promotions held up for much of the year over a senator's protest of the Pentagon's payment of abortion-related travel costs, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday. "Before we leave for the Christmas holiday, the Senate will also finish confirming the last of the military nominees held up by Senator (Tommy) Tuberville," Schumer said in remarks opening the Senate. (Zengerle, 12/19)

NPR: The Annual Abortion Onscreen Report Finds Most Depictions Are Unrealistic
Scripted television continues to be unrealistic when it comes to depictions of abortion, though there's some improvement, according to the annual Abortion Onscreen report released Tuesday by a research program on reproductive health based at the University of California San Francisco. There was a slight decline in the number of abortion plotlines on TV in 2023, which researchers attribute not to "a lack of interest" but rather the lengthy writers' and actors' strikes. (Blair, 12/19)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' 
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: The end of federal abortion protections could be making it more dangerous for Black women to be pregnant, and new Sesame Street videos aim to help kids understand addiction. (12/19)

Health News Florida: There Are More Florida Nursing Students But Fewer Qualified Applicants, A Report Shows
The number of students enrolling in nursing programs in Florida is increasing. But colleges and universities are reporting a drop in qualified applicants. That’s one of the findings in a new report from the Florida Center for Nursing. It surveyed more than 500 programs over the past year – most of them in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. (Zaragovia, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Layoffs Hit 79 Administrative Employees
One week after confirming IT layoffs, Kaiser Permanente said it will cut 79 additional employees in California early next year.A spokesperson for the Oakland, California-based health system said Tuesday the change will affect administrative roles. The layoffs are effective Jan. 4, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification documents filed this month. (Hudson, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: Employer Direct Healthcare Scores $92M Investment, $1B Valuation
Employer Direct Healthcare, a specialty healthcare network that connects patients with providers, is now valued at $1 billion following a $92 million investment from Insight Partners, a global technology investor. The industry unicorn's other investors are Serent Capital, Redmile Group and Dundon Capital Partners, which will maintain their ownership stakes. (DeSilva, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: Jefferson, Lehigh Valley Health To Merge In 2024
Jefferson and Lehigh Valley Health Network plan to merge next year, creating a system of 30 hospitals and more than 700 care sites in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The two health systems said Tuesday they signed a non-binding letter of intent to merge and plan to sign a definitive agreement and close the transaction sometime in 2024, pending regulatory approval. (Hudson, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: General Catalyst, OMERS Investors Predict 2024 In Digital Health
Digital health faced a tumultuous funding environment in 2023, and some investors expect more of the same in 2024. The year started with only a trace of the momentum following funding records in 2021 and early 2022. As the calendar turned to 2023, all signs pointed toward a tighter market. ... Heading in 2024, most investors are still cautious about their investments, although some are a little more optimistic, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. (Perna and Turner, 12/19)

On the use of AI in health care —

Axios: AI Guardrails Can Fall Short In Health Care: Study
When physicians use artificial intelligence tools with baked-in systemic bias to help figure out what's wrong with patients, it's perhaps little surprise they're apt to make less accurate diagnoses. But a common safeguard against potential bias — transparency about how the AI came to form its predictions — doesn't help mitigate that problem, a new JAMA study finds. (Reed, 12/20)

Fierce Healthcare: Nabla Sees Rapid Uptake Of Spanish Language AI Scribe
Within the first four months of implementing a Spanish language AI assistant for practitioners, Nabla has seen 10% of its clinicians using the feature. Nabla, a Paris-based startup, launched a Spanish language option for Copilot, as the tool is called, earlier this summer. It claims to be the first AI scribe to have done so. So far, it has seen rapid adoption among clinicians, the company says, particularly among psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists, who account for nearly half of its total users. (Gliadkovskaya, 12/18)

Axios: Rite Aid Faces 5-Year Facial Recognition Ban Over "Reckless" Use Of AI Tech
Rite Aid will be banned from using AI-powered facial recognition technology for five years under a proposed settlement of Federal Trade Commission charges, the FTC announced Tuesday. The FTC alleged in a complaint Tuesday that the pharmacy retail chain failed to implement reasonable procedures in hundreds of stores and prevent harm to consumers with what the agency called Rite Aid's "reckless" use of facial recognition technology that it said "disproportionately impacted people of color." (Falconer, 12/19)

In obituaries —

The New York Times: Michael Stone, Psychiatrist And Scholar Who Studied Evil, Dies At 90
Dr. Michael H. Stone, a psychiatrist and scholar who sought to define evil and to differentiate its manifestations from the typical behavior of people who are mentally ill, died on Dec. 6 at his home in Manhattan. He was 90. The cause was complications of a stroke he had in January, his son David said. Dr. Stone was best known to the public as the author of the book “The Anatomy of Evil” (2009) and as the host from 2006 to 2008 of the television program “Most Evil,” for which he interviewed people imprisoned for murder to determine what motivated them to engage in an evil criminal act. (Roberts, 12/16)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Delays New Criteria For Gravely Disabled
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to delay the implementation of Senate Bill 43, the landmark legislation that expands the criteria by which people can be detained against their wills by police, crisis teams and mental health providers. ... According to the motion, the size of the crisis presents logistical problems for counties responsible for administering involuntary holds that proceed conservatorship hearings. Adding severe substance use disorder to the definition of gravely disabled could lead to a 10% increase of those involuntarily detained. (Curwen, 12/19)

The Washington Post: New York To Study Reparations For Descendants Of Enslaved People
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill Tuesday to create a commission that will consider reparations for the descendants of enslaved people, following in the footsteps of California and Illinois, which have similar task forces. ... The measure authorizes a commission to examine the history of slavery and its legacy, the scale of the slave trade in the United States and the treatment of enslaved people. It will also investigate the extent to which the federal and state governments supported slavery, the effects of discrimination against Black people after 1865, and the negative impacts of slavery on “living people of African descent.” (Jeong, 12/20)

North Carolina Health News: Consolidation To Reshape Mental Health System 
Two state-funded businesses that manage behavioral health services for low-income residents say they will consolidate to create a single organization to serve 46 counties across eastern North Carolina. Trillium Health Resources will take control of Eastpointe Human Services under the agreement, which was signed Saturday by the companies’ CEOs. The arrangement will reshape the state’s managed care system for providing care to Medicaid participants with mental health needs, substance use disorders and intellectual or developmental disabilities. (Baxley, 12/20)

The Boston Globe: R.I. Health Insurer Raising Early Intervention Rates As Hundreds Of Infants And Toddlers Wait For Services
With more than 700 children under the age of 3 waiting longer than the legal amount of time for Early Intervention services, the largest private insurer in Rhode Island will increase how much it pays for the services without waiting for a potential mandate to do so from the General Assembly next year. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island notified providers this month that the insurer will raise its reimbursement rates for Early Intervention on Feb. 1, adopting the recommendations made by the R.I. Office of Health Insurance Commissioner, or OHIC, earlier this year. (Machado, 12/19)

CBS News: Baltimore County Public Schools To Provide Free Telehealth Therapy To High School Students
Baltimore County Public Schools announced a new partnership with the behavioral health care company Talkspace, in order to provide free unlimited telehealth therapy to high school students ages 13 and above. "BCPS is committed to the academic success and to the physical, social, and emotional well-being of all our students," BCPS Superintendent Dr. Myriam Yarbrough said. (Olaniran, 12/19)

The New York Times: As Need Rises, Housing Aid Hits Lowest Level in Nearly 25 Years
As the safety net has expanded over the past generation, the food stamp rolls have doubled, Medicaid enrollment has tripled and payments from the earned-income tax credit have nearly quadrupled. But one major form of aid has grown more scarce. After decades of rising rents, housing assistance for the poorest tenants has fallen to the lowest level in nearly a quarter-century. The three main federal programs for the neediest renters — public housing, Section 8, and Housing Choice Vouchers — serve 287,000 fewer households than they did at their peak in 2004, a new analysis shows. That is a 6 percent drop, while the number of eligible households without aid grew by about a quarter, to 15 million. (DeParle, 12/19)

In other news —

CBS News: Recalled Applesauce Pouches Now Linked To More Than 200 Lead Poisoning Cases In 33 States, CDC Says
Health authorities are now investigating at least 205 cases of lead poisonings across 33 different states linked to contaminated applesauce, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday. That's up from 125 cases in the agency's last weekly tally. The growing case count comes as the Food and Drug Administration continues its probe into the source of the tainted cinnamon blamed for the contamination. The FDA has faced "limited jurisdiction" in Ecuador, where the FDA says it cannot take "direct action" to investigate some of those suspected to be behind the poisonings. (Tin, 12/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Hemp Gummies Are Sending Hundreds Of Kids To Hospitals
Jessica Harris’s 15-year-old daughter was walking to her school bus in London, Ky., last month when a classmate offered her a piece of red candy. The square-shaped sweet seemed harmless at the time to Harris’s daughter. But it turned out it contained a form of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the intoxicating ingredient in cannabis plants, and it sent her to the hospital. An explosion of products containing THC and similar chemicals—some of them in kid-enticing forms such as candy or gummy bears—is sending children to emergency rooms across the country and has federal and state regulators grappling with how to contain it. (Whyte, 12/19)

St. Louis Public Radio: SLU Scientists Want To Make A Better Tuberculosis Vaccine
Scientists at St. Louis University say they’ve found a better way to test vaccines developed to fight tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that sickens millions of people each year. In a study recently published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, SLU researchers and scientists from New York University and Emory University said they can use the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine against tuberculosis administered to babies and small children to mimic the disease to see how well other immunizations in development will work in adults. (Fentem, 12/19)

Stat: The Latest In The Food As Medicine Movement: Teaching Kitchens
Tony McKoy, Jr. was ready to eat. Black chef’s hat on his head, apron tied on, the five-year-old contemplated his favorite foods, prompted by his mother, Shaquana Peebles. “Pineapple!” he said, savoring its sweetness with his eyes closed while he imagined biting into one. Also, brownies made with black beans. PB&J. Spaghetti. Tony’s enthusiasm for food is a remarkable turnaround for a child who wasn’t growing as well as he should just a couple of years ago. (Nayak and Cooney, 12/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Court Rejects Claims Linking Tylenol To Autism, ADHD 
A federal judge dealt a likely fatal blow to hundreds of lawsuits against manufacturers of Tylenol and generic acetaminophen, ruling the plaintiffs don’t have admissible evidence to support claims that using the pain reliever during pregnancy raises a child’s risks of autism or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. In a ruling late Monday, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the more than 400 consolidated lawsuits were centered on scientific claims that were fundamentally unreliable. (Mulvaney, 12/19)

Bloomberg: New Drugs To Stop Menopause May Have Longevity Breakthroughs
When David Pepin dissected the mouse on a dark fall afternoon in 2013, he couldn’t believe what he saw. As he pushed the kidneys aside to get to the ovaries, he noticed something strange. “They looked like neonatal ovaries,” Pepin recalls. They were the size he’d expect to see in a newborn female, not an adult. “They were miniature.” Pepin, then a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, had seen enough mouse ovaries to know that something unusual had happened. (Brown, 12/20)

KFF Health News: A New Test Could Save Arthritis Patients Time, Money, And Pain. But Will It Be Used? 
Erinn Maury knew Remicade wasn’t the right drug for Patti Schulte, a rheumatoid arthritis patient the physician saw at her Millersville, Maryland, practice. Schulte’s swollen, painful joints hadn’t responded to Enbrel or Humira, two drugs in the same class. But the insurer insisted, so Schulte went on Remicade. It didn’t work either. What’s more, Schulte suffered a severe allergic reaction to the infusion therapy, requiring a heavy dose of prednisone, a steroid with grave side effects if used at high doses for too long. (Allen, 12/20)

In news about the opioid crisis —

Bloomberg: Bankrupt Rite Aid Agrees To Mediation With Opioid Victims, Creditor Panel
Bankrupt pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp. agreed to begin court-supervised mediation with lower ranking creditors, including groups that blame the company for contributing to America’s opioid addiction crisis. The company, backed by senior lenders, will negotiate with unsecured creditors about how to end the retailer’s insolvency case and on a potential loan package to fund the company’s exit from bankruptcy, Rite Aid attorney Aparna Yenamandra said in court Tuesday. The company will try reach a deal before the end of January, Yenamandra said. (Church and Pollard, 12/19)

Reuters: US FDA Approves First Test To Identify Opioid Use Addiction Risk 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday it has approved the first test to assess if there is a risk of opioid use addiction in certain individuals. The test, AvertD, is developed by privately held SOLVD Health. The FDA granted the approval to AutoGenomics, a unit that SOLVD acquired in 2019. ... It is a prescription-use only genetic laboratory test for patients 18 years and older for those who have not previously used oral opioid painkillers. (12/20)

The Wall Street Journal: One State Wanted To Understand Youth Opioid Use. So It Tested High-School Wastewater
To get a better handle on its youth drug use, New Mexico health officials are looking in school sewers. Using a technique that became popular nationally to spot Covid-19 outbreaks, New Mexico appears to be the first state to test wastewater at public high schools for a range of opioids and stimulants. Initial data released since last week from more than three dozen high schools mostly in and around Albuquerque included what school leaders and state officials called a surprise: cocaine use in nearly 82% of the campus communities. (Randazzo, 12/19)

How one country is tackling cocaine —

Reuters: Swiss Capital Bern Considers Legal Cocaine Project 
Switzerland's capital is examining a pilot scheme to allow the sale of cocaine for recreational use - a radical approach to the war on drugs that is not thought to have been tried elsewhere. Parliament in Bern has supported the idea, which still needs to overcome opposition from the city government and will also require a change in national law. (Revill, 12/20)

CIDRAP: Early Paxlovid For COVID-19 Halved Death, Hospitalization In New Study 
Starting the antiviral drug nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) 0 or 1 day after COVID-19 symptom onset halved 28-day all-cause death and hospitalization rates compared with waiting 2 or more days, University of Hong Kong researchers report in Nature Communications. (Van Beusekom, 12/19)

ScienceDaily: Secret Vulnerabilities Of Cancer's 'Death Star' Revealed 
Researchers have comprehensively identified the allosteric control sites found in the protein KRAS. These are highly sought after targets for drug development, representing secret vulnerabilities which can be exploited to control the effects of one of the most important causes of cancer. (Center for Genomic Regulation, 12/18)

Reuters: US FDA Approves Astellas' Combination Therapy For Bladder Cancer 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Astellas Pharma's (4503.T) Padcev in combination with Merck's (MRK.N) Keytruda for a type of bladder cancer. In April, FDA had granted accelerated approval to this combination for treating patients suffering from the disease that are ineligible for chemotherapy with the commonly used cancer drug, cisplatin. (12/15)

Reuters: US FDA Approves Arcutis' Drug To Treat Chronic Skin Disease 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved Arcutis Biotherapeutics' (ARQT.O) drug for treating a skin condition called seborrheic dermatitis in individuals nine years of age and older. Shares of Arcutis jumped 20% in extended trade to $2.94. (Jain, 12/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Bristol Myers Squibb To Discontinue Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Trial 
Bristol Myers Squibb said its study that evaluated treating metastatic colorectal cancer through a combination of nivolumab and relatlimab will be discontinued. The global biopharmaceutical company on Friday said the decision regarding the Phase 3 Relativity-123 trial comes after receiving a planned analysis conducted by an independent data-monitoring committee. (Ojea, 12/15)

The Washington Post: Matthew Perry’s Death Offers A Tragic Lesson About Ketamine 
The Food and Drug Administration approved ketamine for use as a general anesthetic in 1970. It remains the medication of choice in many surgeries and is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines because of its record of safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness. (Leana S. Wen, 12/18)

New England Journal of Medicine: Silencing The FDA’s Voice — Drug Information On Trial 
On September 1, 2023, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed a case to proceed against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concerning its public statements on the use of ivermectin for treating Covid-19.1 This decision raises questions about the agency’s ability to advise the public about the safety and efficacy of medical products and to influence the off-label use of drugs. If the case against the FDA ultimately prevails, the agency’s ability to protect the public and support evidence-based medicine could be eroded. (Tina Watson, B.A. and Christoper Robertson, J.D., Ph.D., 12/16)

New England Journal of Medicine: Continued Progress In The Development Of Safe And Effective RSV Immunizations 
Before 2023, there were no immunizing tools to protect older adults and all infants from illness and death due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In 2023, two RSV vaccines for older adults, one of which is also approved for use in pregnant persons, and a long-acting monoclonal antibody to protect infants and some toddlers up to 19 months of age were approved by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Amanda C. Cohn, M.D., and Aron J. Hall, D.V.M., M.S.P.H., 12/14)

The New York Times: Hey, What Happened To My Health Insurance? 
Tamikka Burks was in an Arkansas emergency room when she found out she had lost her Medicaid coverage. In mid-September, she went in to deal with a cyst in her toe, and someone at the hospital informed her that the state’s Department of Human Services had cut off her coverage on Sept. 1. She felt, she said, “just exhausted. Scared.” (Bryce Covert, 12/20)

The Boston Globe: Mifepristone Challenge Is About More Than Abortion Access — It’s About Keeping Ideological Interests Out Of Fact-Based Decision Making 
By taking up a case that will determine the future availability of mifepristone, half of the two-drug medical abortion regimen that has been administered for more than two decades, the court didn’t just place reproductive rights squarely on its docket for the second time in three years. More broadly, it will determine whether the judgment of FDA experts, based on a broad body of medical scientific research, can be second-guessed in court on the basis of political and religious ideology. (12/20)

Stat: Raise U.S. Federal Alcohol Excise Taxes 
Eleven years ago, two days before Christmas, my 24-year-old brother, who was a university graduate and former law student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After a decade of hard and continuous drinking interspersed with addiction and mental health treatment, he could not sustain his recovery. His suicide came on the heels of my mother’s death a year before, and just weeks later, my grandfather died in a car accident. My family’s holidays would never be the same. Like so many others who survived the loss of someone dear from the chaos of severe substance use disorder (SUD), I am too familiar with unspeakable grief. But I have found meaning through it and purpose in passing that on. (Cara Poland, 12/20)

Chicago Tribune: Curbing Exposure To Weed And Alcohol Marketing Can Improve Teens' Mental Health
There is so much dismal news about young people struggling with mental health problems, suicide, fentanyl, vaping, social media, pornography and online gambling. Yet we continue to overlook one of the most effective and expedient ways to address these problems: regulatory action to curb youth exposure and access to addictive, unhealthy influences purportedly meant for adults only. (Aaron Weiner and Linda Richter, 12/20)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Diapers And Feminine Hygiene Products Are Not 'Luxuries'
State lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are invested in the issue of luxury sales tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers, which means they must be hearing from their constituents that this is an important matter to Missourians. In Missouri, both feminine hygiene products and diapers are taxed as tangible personal property at a rate 4.225%. These basic necessities are being taxed as luxuries, while other necessities — such as groceries — are taxed at a reduced rate of 1.225%. Prescription medications and other medical products, such as hearing aids, are exempt from sales tax entirely. (Marilou Jackson, 12/19)