Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
From KFF Health News - Latest Stories:
KFF Health News Original Stories
Violence Repeatedly Erupts at Dementia Care Facilities Despite Warnings, Inspections Show
Nursing homes and assisted living facilities can be fertile ground for violence between residents with dementia, including fatal assaults. A KFF Health News examination of health reports and court records shows how warning signs are missed and safeguards fall short.
Doctors ‘Cringe’ at Possibility of Documenting Which Medicaid Enrollees Too Sick To Work
Final regulations on Medicaid work requirements say enrollees must regularly obtain documentation — possibly from medical professionals — to prove that they’re too sick to work. Doctors say the rules put them in a tough spot.
Pregnant Woman’s Roadside Death Triggers Push To Reopen Mississippi Delta Hospital
The deaths of Harmony Ball-Stribling and her unborn daughter five years ago have galvanized local leaders determined to reopen a Mississippi Delta hospital. But once a rural community loses a hospital, bringing it back can be nearly impossible.
Journalists Dig Into HHS' Covid Injury List, ACA Sign-Ups, and Telehealth
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Here's today's health policy haiku:
FLYING BLIND
Task force sets the bar.
— Nicky Tettamanti
Preventative services,
we need your guidance.
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of KFF Health News or KFF.
Summaries Of The News:
Outbreaks and Health Threats
New Testing Casts Doubt On Iceberg Lettuce As Source Of Cyclospora Outbreak
CBS News: Taylor Farms Lettuce Sample That Tested Positive For Cyclospora Was A False Positive, FDA Says
A sample of lettuce from Taylor Farms that had tested positive for cyclospora was a false positive, the Food and Drug Administration said Sunday. "Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive," the FDA said. (Freiman, 7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle: Taylor Farms Recalls Lettuce In 27 States Over Cyclospora Outbreak
Taylor Farms has recalled iceberg lettuce distributed in 27 states, sharply expanding the scope of a cyclospora outbreak initially linked to shredded lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in five Midwestern states. The Salinas company said the recalled lettuce was sourced from central Mexico and distributed from June 29 through Thursday. Products have “best if used by” dates extending through Aug. 3. (Vaziri, 7/18)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Parasitic Diarrhea Cases Spike In Missouri
Cases of parasitic diarrhea are spiking in Missouri. More than 200 positive cases of cyclosporiasis, caused by a parasite linked so far largely to lettuce, have now been reported to Missouri state health officials, according to case counts released Sunday. (Bauman, 7/19)
The New York Times: Misery In The Epicenter Of Cyclospora: ‘A Baseball Bat To Your Abdomen’
For weeks, Sherry Dommer has been living a gastrointestinal nightmare. Violent cramps. Exhaustion. Unrelenting nausea. Sprints to the toilet at all hours of the night. Ms. Dommer, 49, has long considered herself a “go-go-go person,” but certainly not in this sense. (Bogel-Burroughs, 7/19)
The New York Times: What Did They Eat? Here’s How One Case of Cyclosporiasis Was Solved.
The leading suspect, it seemed, was the cilantro. Weeks before an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, now traced at least in part to iceberg lettuce, laid low thousands of Americans this summer, the New York City Health Department investigated a smaller outbreak. Testing labs and doctors notified the city that people were coming down with the intestinal illness, which is caused by a parasite and can result in explosive diarrhea and other types of gastric distress. (Newman, 7/19)
Three Deaths Confirmed In New York Legionnaires’ Disease Cluster
The New York Times: Three Patients Die In Outbreak Of Legionnaires’ Disease In Manhattan
An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has claimed three victims, city health officials said. The first death in the outbreak was announced on Friday. On Sunday the death of an 88-year-old man was announced, and that evening Dr. Alister F. Martin, the city’s health commissioner, announced a third death. (Haag and Goldstein, 7/20)
The latest on the Ebola outbreak —
Bloomberg: Health Workers In DR Congo May Get Experimental Ebola Vaccine
Frontline health workers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo may soon be offered an experimental vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, as researchers test whether it can provide partial protection while a strain-specific vaccine remains months away. (Gale and Furlong, 7/20)
AP: At Least 930 People Have Died In Congo's Ebola Outbreak
At least 930 people have died in Congo’s Ebola outbreak, the country’s Ministry of Health said Monday, with 37 new deaths recorded in a 24-hour span Friday into Saturday, one of the highest totals. The deaths were recorded out of the 2,344 cases confirmed as of Saturday, the health ministry said. (7/20)
On wildfire smoke exposure —
The New York Times: When Will The Wildfire Smoke Clear?
Acrid air from wildfires burning in the Canadian province of Ontario and in Minnesota continued to darken skies over parts of the Midwest on Sunday and stretched into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The smoke’s path was expected to shift by the hour, though forecasters said the worst conditions on Sunday were expected across the Great Lakes region. Air quality alerts were in effect across the region, including in parts of Minnesota and much of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and parts of Ohio. Eastern Iowa was also under air quality alerts. (Graff and Ghaffar, 7/19)
AP: How To Keep The Air Inside Your Home Clean During Wildfires
The eerie glow of an orange sun through thick wildfire smoke might be unnerving, but the biggest risk from the haze is something much harder to see. Tiny particles in the air can cause a range of short-term and chronic health issues, experts say. (Shastri, 7/19)
On covid —
CIDRAP: New Study Offers Clues About Long COVID’s Brain Symptoms
For years, patients with long COVID have described neurologic symptoms like brain fog, memory problems, difficulty concentrating, and lack of motivation, but scientists have struggled to identify the biology behind these symptoms. Now, a new study suggests they may be tied to measurable changes in the brain's dopamine system. (Bergeson, 7/17)
KFF Health News: Journalists Dig Into HHS' Covid Injury List, ACA Sign-Ups, And Telehealth
Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed the Department of Health and Human Services’ plan to offer compensation for automatic covid vaccine injuries and the drop in enrollment in Affordable Care Act health plans on CBS’ The Takeout With Major Garrett on July 10 and 9, respectively. KFF Health News Southern correspondent Sam Whitehead discussed abortion telehealth on WUGA’s The Georgia Health Report on July 10. (7/18)
Administration News
Second Lady Usha Vance Welcomes 4th Child — And Gets A Spot In The History Books
The Washington Post: JD And Usha Vance Announce Birth Of Fourth Child
Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance on Sunday announced the birth of their fourth child, Alec Neel. The baby boy was born on Sunday morning, the couple announced on social media. His birth marks the first time in more than 150 years that a sitting vice president has had a baby while in office, after Schuyler Colfax in 1870. (Zakrzewski, 7/20)
More health news about the Trump administration —
Roll Call: HHS Research Agency Ends Funding For Dozens Of Health Studies
The Trump administration terminated dozens of health research grants this week, telling grantees it is shifting priorities to issues like the “overmedication of children” and autism, according to a prominent research organization. (Hellmann, 7/17)
CIDRAP: Federal Health Agencies Say They Need A Big Funding Bump To Prepare For Future Emergencies
Federal agencies tasked with planning for and responding to public health emergencies say they need a big bump in funding to prepare for future pandemics and antimicrobial resistance, as well as chemical, biological, radiologic, or nuclear threats. (Boden, 7/17)
Politico: Red States Reject Trump’s Shift On Overdose Prevention
President Donald Trump and his Health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are cutting the federal budget for initiatives that aim to make illicit drug use less deadly, such as needle exchanges and drug testing strips. But some red states are responding by boosting their own funding for those harm-reduction programs. (Friedman, 7/18)
From Capitol Hill —
The 19th: Darline Graham's Career Centered Disability. Now She Could Help Shape National Policy.
Unlike her late brother Lindsey, whose political career spanned 33 years, Darline Graham has never run for or held elected office — until she was appointed to serve the remainder of the U.S. senator’s term this week. Instead, she has worked in vocational rehabilitation, publicly funded programs that help people with disabilities overcome barriers to employment. (Luterman, 7/17)
Health Industry
Medicare Rule Change Would Pay Docs More If They Help Patients Quit Smoking
Stat: Medicare Moves To Pay Doctors More For Smoking Cessation Advice
Pretty much everyone who cares about public health agrees that it’s a good idea to help people quit smoking, the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. Doctors may soon get some extra encouragement to lend a hand, thanks to proposed changes in Medicare’s physician fee schedules. (Todd, 7/17)
In other healthcare industry updates —
Stat: LifeMD, A Popular Telehealth Firm, Put Profits Over Patient Safety, Ex-Workers Say
Novo Nordisk, maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, lists the telehealth company LifeMD on its website as a provider that offers “legitimate medicine sourcing and patient support” for people seeking GLP-1 drugs. But some former employees describe LifeMD differently, as a company that has sought to maximize the volume of prescriptions it doles out at the expense of patient safety. (Chen, 7/20)
KFF Health News: Violence Repeatedly Erupts At Dementia Care Facilities Despite Warnings, Inspections Show
Sam Ato Timaloa, a paroled sex offender who also served time for attempted murder, had dementia and an acute intolerance of noise — especially from roommates at Sunrise Post Acute, a nursing home in Banning, California. Over four months in 2025, a state investigative report found, Sunrise switched Timaloa’s room eight times, the last into one occupied by Attilio Cecchetto, 92, a retired tile installer whose dementia led him to frequently moan, mumble, and yell. (Rau, 7/20)
Chicago Tribune: UChicago Trauma Surgeon Calls For Gun Violence Solutions In Book
At the end of a particularly difficult shift in the University of Chicago Trauma Center, Dr. Selwyn Rogers Jr. came home, put some Miles Davis on and started to write. During that shift in the summer of 2022, Rogers and the team of trauma surgeons he leads at UChicago Medicine had treated two teenage boys who were each shot multiple times and died from their injuries. (Kubzansky, 7/17)
Fortune: A Decade After The ‘Godfather Of AI’ Said Radiologists Are Obsolete, Salaries Are $571K And Growing
In 2016, the “Godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, stood onstage at a machine learning conference in Toronto and declared AI would soon kill the radiology profession. (Quiroz-Gutierrez, 7/19)
CIDRAP: Dentists Prescribed Fewer Inappropriate Antibiotics After Educational Course, Small Study Shows
Many dentists prescribe antibiotics for common procedures, such as tooth removals, “just in case,” hoping to prevent their patients from developing oral bacterial infections. But prescribing unnecessary antibiotics can put patients at risk. Research shows that 80% of preventive antibiotics prescribed by dentists are unnecessary or inappropriate, because they don’t actually reduce infections. (Szabo, 7/17)
KFF Health News: Doctors ‘Cringe’ At Possibility Of Documenting Which Medicaid Enrollees Too Sick To Work
Alice Thornton has spent more than two decades treating people living with HIV in Lexington, Kentucky. Her team tends to “cringe” anytime they hear about patients having to fill out lots of paperwork, like when applying for Social Security Disability payments, because it can be a difficult, burdensome process. (Whitehead, 7/20)
State Watch
Survey: Healthcare Discrimination Is A Barrier To Care For Many Minnesotans
MPR News: Healthcare Discrimination Leads Minnesotans To Delay Or Avoid Care
A 2024 survey found that nearly half of the participants experienced discrimination when accessing healthcare services. Consequently, one in three individuals chose to forgo necessary care. (Zurek, 7/20)
Health news from Iowa —
Stat: Iowa Audit Says PBMs Turned Accounting Moves Into Millions In Profit
A recent audit of state Medicaid records revealed how pharmacy benefit managers are using complicated and sophisticated approaches for handling prescription drug claims that ultimately overcharge taxpayers, a finding that underscores controversy surrounding these crucial middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain. (Silverman, 7/20)
Politico: ‘Cancer Doesn't Care What Party You Belong To’: Poisoned Water Is Turning This Rural State Bluer
Democrats see an opening in rural states for the first time in decades. In Iowa, it’s about water. (Philpott and Elkadi, 7/19)
In reproductive health news —
KFF Health News and Mississippi Today: Pregnant Woman’s Roadside Death Triggers Push To Reopen Mississippi Delta Hospital
Harmony Ball-Stribling’s path to pregnancy had been turbulent, from an endometriosis diagnosis to an arduous in vitro fertilization process and sky-high blood pressure. But as her due date approached in the summer of 2021, her health improved and those storm clouds seemed to scatter. “It was just too perfect,” said her mother, Shenelle Ball-Green, of those calm, hot weeks. Then, early on July 5, four days shy of her scheduled cesarean section, Ball-Stribling began experiencing complications from preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening blood pressure disorder. Speeding up to 110 mph, her husband drove her to the nearest hospital 25 miles away from their home in Belzoni, a Mississippi Delta town of about 1,900 people. (Dilworth, 7/20)
The New York Times: A Mother Strangled Her Children. Was It Mental Illness, or Murder?
A Massachusetts mother charged in the killing of her children goes on trial on Monday. The small coastal town of Duxbury is preparing to relive a case focused on postpartum mental health. (Russell, 7/20)
The Hill: Anti-Abortion Groups Push For Planned Parenthood Funding Ban In Republican Framework
Anti-abortion groups are turning up their activism after a prohibition on Medicaid funding going to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood was left out of Republicans’ reconciliation 3.0 framework. (Brooks, 7/18)
Public Health
Fueling Your Day With Coffee Is OK — If You Brew It The Right Way, American Heart Association Says
The Wall Street Journal: Five Cups Of Coffee A Day Is Fine For Most Adults, Heart Association Says
There is good news for coffee drinkers: Up to five cups of the brew a day are safe for most adults and may even have benefits for heart health, according to a new scientific statement by the American Heart Association. (Petersen, 7/20)
On children's health —
CNN: Drowning Deaths Among Young Kids Are Up. Here’s How To Prevent
Drowning is the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 4 in the United States, and it’s getting worse. After years of declining rates, child drowning deaths have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, perhaps because of disruptions to swimming lessons and public pool access. This trend has renewed concern among pediatricians and parents. (Hetter, 7/18)
AP: Keeping Babies Safe In The Summer Heat
Infants, toddlers and young children need outdoor activity to build strong bodies and minds, but they also require extra care in the heat. In the summer months, those twin imperatives can make parents anxious. How long should kids be out? How do I know they’re OK? What should I avoid? (7/20)
On HIV and aging —
San Francisco Chronicle: HIV Care Controls The Virus But Fails To Keep Some Patients Alive
Wanda Demus, 72, has lived with HIV for more than half of her life. She’s also lived with complex PTSD, a particularly disabling form of chronic post-traumatic stress, and has battled addiction for decades. She’s been unhoused for long periods and is a victim of domestic violence and sex trafficking. All of those factors have been life-threatening at times. And in many ways, HIV has been the least of her concerns. But the way people with HIV are cared for in the United States often prioritizes the infection and ignores those other issues, say Demus’ care providers at UCSF. (Allday, 7/19)
San Francisco Chronicle: Could The Body’s Immune ‘Trash Trucks’ Point To A Way To Slow Aging?
The immune system is made up of all kinds of cells with different functions. Among them are macrophages, which are basically tiny garbage collectors. Macrophages primarily haul out dead cells, hundreds of billions of them every day. And almost all of those dead cells are neutrophils, which are like the first responders of the immune system. Neutrophils are constantly circulating in the blood looking out for pathogens and other enemies to attack, and they’re constantly dying — neutrophils only live about half a day. (Allday, 7/18)
Editorials And Opinions
Viewpoints: Roundup Decision Deserves A Closer Look; National Security Hinges On Pandemic Preparedness
The CT Mirror: There's More To The Story On The Supreme Court Decision On Roundup
The recent Supreme Court decision concerning the labeling of Roundup pesticide (Monsanto Co. v. Darnell) has important implications. While lawyers discuss the legal ramifications of this decision, there is a good chance that the Supreme Court missed some very important nuances of what’s going on. (Samuel Brauer, 7/20)
Stat: Pandemics Are National Security Threats
Pandemics like the great influenza of 1918-1919 and Covid-19 are often viewed and treated as health care challenges. That view, however, is far too narrow. They should be viewed and combated as threats to national security, too. (David Blumenthal and James A. Morone, 7/20)
The Hill: The Data To Find Medicaid Fraud Already Exists, But No One Is Using It
Last month, the Department of Justice announced its 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown: 455 defendants charged and $6.5 billion in alleged false claims, with cases spanning 56 federal districts. The number of defendants charged was nearly 40 percent higher than in the prior year. (David Maimon, 7/18)
The Washington Post: Medicare-For-All Means Taxes-For-All
Roughly three-quarters of Medicare-for-all supporters believe that it could be paid for entirely by taxing billionaires. They’re wrong. (7/19)
Stat: My Husband’s Suicide Shows There’s Something Very Wrong With The U.S. Insurance Industry
I’m a physician. We had good insurance. He died anyway. (Joy Evers, 7/20)
MedPage Today: Real Care Happens In The Moments In Between
In a year defined by illness, healthcare workers' humanity is what carried us through. (Sarah Whaley, MEd, 7/19)