Thursday, May 25, 2023

KFF Health News Original Stories

A Trans Teen No Longer Feels Welcome in Florida. So She Left.

Josie sensed Florida lawmakers were threatening her health care and ability to be herself at school. So she left. Families of other trans youth are plotting exits as well. (Stephanie Colombini, WUSF, 6/8 )

California Hospitals Seek a Broad Bailout, but They Don't All Need It

As hospitals squeeze Democratic leaders in Sacramento for more money, health care finance experts and former state officials warn against falling for the industry's fear tactics. They point to healthy profits and a recession-era financing scheme that allows rich hospitals to take tax money from poorer ones. (Samantha Young and Angela Hart, 6/8 )

This Panel Will Decide Whose Medicine to Make Affordable. Its Choice Will Be Tricky.

Colorado's new Prescription Drug Affordability Board could cap what health plans and consumers pay for certain medications starting next year. The process will pit patient groups against one another. (Markian Hawryluk, 6/8 )

Political Cartoon: 'Computer Neck?'

KFF Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'Computer Neck?'" by Dave Coverly.

Here's today's health policy haiku:

People getting richfear losing their money toMedicare for all

- Tony Wilusz

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.

Science And Innovations

Implant Breakthrough Lets Man With Severed Spinal Column Walk Naturally

The technology implanted in a man paralyzed from the hips down had previously helped people with spinal injuries stand and take steps, but in this case spinal cord stimulators are activated by thinking about walking. Other nerve damage and paralysis news is also reported.

USA Today: Paralyzed Man Walks Naturally With Brain, Spinal Cord Implants A Dutch man whose spinal cord was injured in a bike accident a dozen years ago can now walk thanks to stimulators implanted on his brain and spinal cord, according to a study published Wednesday. Previous versions of the spinal cord stimulation that Gert-Jan Oskam received have helped people stand and take steps, but only after first pushing a button to activate the device. The new system enables him to merely think about walking before he can do it. (Weintraub, 5/24)

The New York Times: Brain And Spine Implants Allow Paralyzed Man To Walk Naturally Again Gert-Jan Oskam was living in China in 2011 when he was in a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the hips down. Now, with a combination of devices, scientists have given him control over his lower body again. "For 12 years I’ve been trying to get back my feet," Mr. Oskam said in a press briefing on Tuesday. "Now I have learned how to walk normal, natural." (Whang, 5/24)

Read the study in Nature —

Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain–spine interface

Also —

Forbes: Scientists Discover Chemical That Could Help Heal Nerve Damage—A Potential Breakthrough For Paralysis Patients Scientists have discovered a new chemical that could help heal nerve damage, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature, which offers early hope for one day reversing the paralysis and lost functioning that can stem from nerve injuries. (Hart, 5/24)

VnExpress International: Botulism Patients Face Paralysis Risk As Vietnam Runs Out Of Antitoxin Three men poisoned with botulinum after eating pork bologna and fermented food in Ho Chi Minh City could be paralyzed completely, doctors have said. ... According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, botulinum poisoning rarely occurs around the world and therefore the supply of BAT is limited. In Vietnam, BAT is not listed among medicines covered by the health insurance fund. The Ministry of Health is working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to get BAT as soon as possible.

Capitol Watch

Many Worry Debt Default Would Affect Medicare, Medicaid Provider Payments

News outlets cover the looming potential of a U.S. debt default and how it may impact health provider payouts and hit the VA and veterans themselves. Separately, Military Times reports on a boost to cost-of-living payouts to veterans targeted for next year.

Modern Healthcare: How A Debt Default Could Hurt Medicare, Medicaid Payments Hospitals and health systems hope for a resolution to the federal government's debt ceiling standoff, warning that a failure to reach an agreement could have a catastrophic impact on provider payments. Republicans and Democrats continue to haggle over a deal to raise the $31.4 trillion national debt limit and keep the U.S. from defaulting on its agreements, potentially in early June. (Hudson and Nzanga, 5/24)

Military.Com: VA Issues New Warning That Default Could Have 'Catastrophic' Effects For Veterans The Treasury Department pays $25 billion worth of bills for the Department of Veterans Affairs each month -- for veterans benefits, employee salaries, private health care, pharmacy costs and other programs like payments to small and veteran-owned companies that do business with the VA. A default on the debt on June 1 could put all those payments at risk -- a situation that could be "catastrophic," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said Wednesday, paraphrasing his boss, President Joe Biden. (Kime, 5/24)

The Boston Globe: McGovern Works Biden To Hold Line On Food Programs In Debt Limit Talks The phone rang while Representative Jim McGovern was enjoying time with his family on the evening of Mother's Day. "We have a problem," Caitlin Hodgkins, his policy director, told him. She said President Biden had indicated to reporters that he’d consider additional work requirements on food assistance programs as part of negotiations to raise the debt limit. (Kopan, 5/24)

The New York Times: Potential Debt Ceiling Deal Would Barely Change Federal Spending Path Yet in talks with Mr. Biden, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his lieutenants have focused almost entirely on cutting a small corner of the budget — known as nondefense discretionary spending — that includes funding for education, environmental protection, national parks, domestic law enforcement and other areas. That budget line accounts for less than 15 percent of the $6.3 trillion the government is expected to spend this year. It is not outsized, by historical standards. It is already projected to shrink, as a share of the economy, over the next decade. And it has nothing to do with the big drivers of projected spending growth in the coming years: the safety-net programs Social Security and Medicare, which are facing increasingly large payouts as the American population ages. (Tankersley, 5/24)

In related news about military benefits —

Military Times: Vets Will See A Cost-Of-Living Boost In Benefit Checks Next Year House lawmakers this week finalized plans to guarantee a cost-of-living boost in veterans benefits next year, sending legislation to the White House to be signed into law in coming days. The move guarantees that veterans’ support payments will keep pace with increases in Social Security checks and other federal stipends. It's a non-controversial annual procedure for Congress, but one that needs to be finished before the end of the year to ensure that veterans benefits keep pace with inflation costs. (Shane III, 5/24)

Medicaid

82% Of Floridians Kicked Off Medicaid Were Bumped Due To Red Tape

A quarter-million people in the state have lost coverage so far as states "unwind" their pandemic policies. State data show that most of those people are still eligible but lost coverage for procedural reasons such as having outdated contact info or computer glitches.

WMFE: About 250,000 Floridians Were Kicked Off Medicaid. Experts Say Most Were Still Eligible There are about 250,000 people who have lost Medicaid coverage since Florida began its redetermination process this month, however, many of those people could still be eligible. State data show that 10% of those who lost coverage were terminated because they were ineligible or hadn't used Medicaid over the past 12 months. However, 82% of people lost coverage for procedural reasons. (Pedersen, 5/23)

NPR: Medicaid Enrollees Are Losing Coverage In States Like Florida States have begun to remove people from Medicaid, something they could not do for three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. State Medicaid programs are reviewing the eligibility of roughly 90 million beneficiaries in the U.S., now that a rule suspending that process has expired. Those who remain eligible should be able to keep their coverage, and those who don't will lose it. (Simmons-Duffin, 5/24)

Axios: Medicaid Unwinding Will Catch Many Off Guard, Survey Shows About 1 in 4 Medicaid enrollees don't know where to look for other coverage if they drop off the safety net program's rolls, and 15% say they'll be uninsured, according to a new KFF survey. (Dreher, 5/25)

In other Medicaid news —

Stat: Biden Wants To Tackle High Drug Prices In Medicaid The Biden administration wants to help states control Medicaid prescription drug costs by making prices more transparent and curbing the practice of so-called spread pricing. The goal is to give states more leverage in price negotiations by forcing drugmakers to share and publish details about their pricing data. The government would collect specific drug pricing information from makers of up to 10 particularly high-cost drugs. (Wilkerson, 5/24)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Mercy Health Threatens Anthem Medicaid Contract Termination Bon Secours Mercy Health plans to terminate a Medicaid insurance contract with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield that covers 10,000 Ohioans unless the parties renegotiate a new contract by June 30.The two companies currently have a contract that runs through 2024 to provide Medicaid insurance to patients at Mercy's 21 hospitals in Ohio. (Sutherland, 5/23)

VTDigger: Vermont Medicaid Expected To Start Paying Dentists More Medicaid has not significantly raised its payments to dental providers for more than a decade. Over that same period, more and more practitioners stopped accepting new patients with the insurance. (Fountain, 5/23)

KFF Health News: California Hospitals Seek A Broad Bailout, But They Don't All Need It One of the country's richest hospitals, which caters to Hollywood elites, accepted nearly $28 million last year from an unusual source: a charity that siphons money from other California hospitals, many of which serve the state's poorest residents. Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles secured the grant under California's recession-era financing scheme that allows wealthy hospitals to take valuable health care tax money from poorer ones. Hospitals across the state agreed in 2009 to the arrangement in order to tap billions more per year in taxpayer dollars to support the state's Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal. (Young and Hart, 5/25)

Gun Violence

Biden Urges Renewal Of Assault Weapons Ban, Other Gun Controls

Marking the 1-year anniversary of the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas school, President Joe Biden called for "common-sense" gun measures like bans on AR-15s and high-capacity magazines as well as establishing universal background checks and national red flag laws.

Politico: Biden Calls For Stricter Gun Laws A Year After Texas School Shooting President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged Congress to pass stronger gun laws, including a ban on assault rifles, while commemorating the anniversary of the elementary school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers exactly one year earlier in Uvalde, Texas. "We still need to ban AR-15 firearms — assault weapons — once again," Biden said at the White House. "We can't end this epidemic until Congress has some common-sense gun safety laws that keep weapons of war off our streets." (Kim, 5/24)

The New York Times: A Look At The Fight For Gun Control Since The Uvalde Shooting From Colorado to Michigan to New Jersey, proponents of gun regulation have passed laws intended to limit access to firearms or blunt the effects of the Supreme Court case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. Opponents have moved swiftly to contest many such restrictions, using Bruen as the basis for one court challenge after another. And in states that were already gun friendly, gun rights groups have worked to further expand access to firearms. (Dewan, 5/24)

The Texas Tribune: Uvalde Commemorates "Somber Day" With Vigils On Anniversary Of Shooting Stopped at a red light, a woman rolled down her car window. "I love you," she yelled. "I love you too!" said Arnulfo Reyes, raising the arm that was wounded a year ago by a gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. Reyes, who taught fourth graders at the school, was the only survivor in his classroom, in which the gunman killed 11 students. (Serrano, 5/24)

More on the gun violence epidemic —

CBS News: Mass Shootings Take A Toll On Americans' Mental Health, Even From A Distance, Experts Say When mass shootings make headlines, you may feel a range of emotions, from anxiety to fear or even a sense of numbness over yet another tragedy. You're not alone. Experts say even from a distance, gun violence can take a toll on your mental health. (Moniuszko, 5/24)

Bloomberg: Strict Gun Laws Not Enough To Shield Children At High Risk Kids living in high-risk neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by gun violence, even in states with relatively strict firearm regulations, according to a study. (Muller, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Man Arrested At McLean, Va., Preschool Had AK-47 In His Car, Police Say A Florida man who authorities say was trespassing at a McLean, Va., preschool Tuesday had an AK-47 rifle and other weaponry in his car and told officers that he was headed to CIA headquarters, Fairfax County police said. The preschool's board of directors said in a statement Wednesday that the suspect had wanted to use the preschool's bathroom but was told no by the staff. ... The officers searched the car and found an AK-47 and a pistol, along with magazines and ammunition, police said. Officials wrote on Twitter that Sandow said he had been making his way to the CIA, which is near the school. (Diaz, 5/24)

Opioid Crisis

DEA Failed To Limit Wholesale Opioid Distributor, Worsening Crisis: Report

News reports say failures of the Drug Enforcement Administration allowed one of the country's largest drug distributors, Morris & Dickson Co., to contribute to the opioid crisis even after a judge recommended it should lose its license. Other news relating to fentanyl is also reported.

AP: DEA's Failure To Punish Distributor Blamed In Opioid Crisis Raises Revolving Door Questions The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation's largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its "cavalier disregard" of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis. The DEA did not respond to repeated questions from The Associated Press about its handling of the case against Morris & Dickson Co. or the involvement of a high-profile consultant the company had hired to stave off punishment and who is now DEA Administrator Anne Milgram's top deputy. (Mustian and Goodman, 5/25)

Also —

Axios: GOP Fentanyl Plan Exposes Fault Lines Over Policing In Drug Policy House Republicans' first major attempt to address the opioid crisis since taking power is resurfacing a long-running debate over the role of law enforcement in drug policy. The GOP-sponsored HALT Fentanyl Act is up for a House vote on Thursday, marking the 117th Congress' first substantive response to the epidemic. (Moreno, 5/25)

Axios: San Francisco To Launch Pilot Program To Address Fentanyl Crisis San Francisco's emergency management department announced Tuesday it would launch a pilot program to address "when someone is so far under the influence of drugs that they may pose a danger to themselves or others," The San Francisco Chronicle reports. San Francisco is amid a deadly drug overdose epidemic, primarily driven by the opioid fentanyl. (Dickey, 5/24)

Axios: What To Know About The Fentanyl Crisis Addressing the fentanyl crisis has become a priority in an often-deadlocked federal government with the Biden administration calling on Congress to pass a bill aimed at tackling fentanyl trafficking in the U.S. The overdose death rate involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl in the U.S. nearly quadrupled between 2016 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (McBournie, 5/25)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Hillary Clinton Talks Naloxone In Las Vegas Robert Banghart's life was saved by naloxone twice in one evening when he overdosed from heroin. Banghart, a 47-year-old Las Vegas resident, was living under a bridge at the time when he took his usual dose of heroin and overdosed. Luckily the people he was with had naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug that a recovery foundation had provided. After he woke up from the hospital, he left, only to overdose again hours later. (Hill, 5/24)

Pharmaceuticals

House Panel Advances Legislation Aimed At Making PBMs Report More Details About Deals

The Promoting Access to Treatments and Increasing Extremely Needed Transparency act, a.k.a. PATIENT, would force pharmacy benefit managers to report more details about their deals with pharmaceutical companies. Also in the news, Sarepta's Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment, weight-loss drugs, ketamine, and more.

Modern Healthcare: PBM Legislation Passes House Energy And Commerce Committee Pharmacy benefit managers would be required to report more information on their deals with pharmaceutical companies under legislation unanimously approved by a House panel on Wednesday. The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the Promoting Access to Treatments and Increasing Extremely Needed Transparency (PATIENT) Act of 2023, sponsored by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), on a 49-0 vote. The panel's health subcommittee cleared the same measure last week. (Nzanga, 5/24)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: FDA Delays Decision On Sarepta's Gene Therapy For Duchenne The Food and Drug Administration is delaying by one month a decision on the approval of a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the treatment's maker, Sarepta Therapeutics, said Wednesday. Sarepta said the FDA expects to complete the review of its gene therapy called SRP-9001 by June 22. A decision had been expected on or before May 29. (Feuerstein and Mast, 5/24)

Bloomberg: Weight Loss Drugs Wegovy, Ozempic To Be Sold In Noom Subscription Noom Inc., a startup that for years has touted a psychological path to weight loss, is now ready to add drugs to the equation. After a pilot last year, the company is launching its Noom Med option that will include prescriptions for obesity drugs like Novo Nordisk A/S's Wegovy for about $120 a month. It's the latest weight-loss company to join the lifestyle-focused industry's push into using highly effective, costly GLP-1 obesity drugs to help customers slim down. (Court, 5/24)

Stat: Therapy Turned Brain Cancers From ‘Cold’ To ‘Hot’ In Mouse Study The promise of immunotherapies to treat cancer has yet to reach brain tumors. It's difficult to deliver medicines into the brain for a host of reasons. In particular, brain tumors are able to suppress the body's immune activity and have comparably few genetic vulnerabilities that cancer drugs can target. They’re considered immunologically "cold." That hasn't stopped researchers from trying various ways to enlist the body's own immune system to stamp out brain tumors. (Joseph, 5/24)

KFF Health News: This Panel Will Decide Whose Medicine To Make Affordable. Its Choice Will Be Tricky Catherine Reitzel's multiple sclerosis medication costs nearly $100,000 a year. Kris Garcia relies on a drug for a blood-clotting disorder that runs $10,000 for a three-day supply. And Mariana Marquez-Farmer would likely die within days without her monthly $300 vial of insulin. At best, a Colorado panel of medical and pharmacy experts seeking to cut the costs of expensive drugs will be able to help only one of them. (Hawryluk, 5/25)

In news about ketamine —

The Washington Post: Medical Use Of Ketamine Is Surging. So Are Illicit Forms Of The Drug U.S. authorities have seized increasing quantities of illegal ketamine, according to new research, a trend that coincides with the psychedelic drug's rising popularity as a treatment for mental health ailments. The number of ketamine seizures by federal, state and local law enforcement in the United States increased from 55 in 2017 to 247 in 2022, while the total weight increased by more than 1,000 percent over that time, according to a letter published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. Most of the ketamine was in powder form, which could raise the risk of being adulterated with deadly drugs such as fentanyl. (Gilbert, 5/24)

Stat: Ketamine Shown Comparable To ECT For Serious Depression When seriously depressed patients don't respond to antidepressants, the alternatives are limited. Now a new study has found that ketamine performs at least as well as the current gold standard for such patients, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), suggesting it deserves consideration as a frontline response for people with treatment-resistant depression. (Goldhill, 5/24)

After Roe V. Wade

Discipline Hearing Looms For Indiana Doctor Of Child Rape Victim

An Indiana medical licensing board will hear allegations that an Indianapolis doctor should be disciplined for public statements she made after providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who had to leave Ohio for the procedure. Separately, a bill to limit "judge shopping" will be introduced by Democrats in Congress.

AP: Indiana Doctor Faces Discipline Hearing Over 10-Year-Old Ohio Girl's Abortion An Indiana board is set to hear allegations Thursday that an Indianapolis doctor should face disciplinary action after she spoke publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio. The Medical Licensing Board's hearing comes after Indiana's Republican attorney general accused Dr. Caitlin Bernard of violating state law by not reporting the girl's child abuse to Indiana authorities. She's also accused of breaking federal patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl's treatment. (Davies, 5/25)

Reuters: Abortion Pill Case Spurs US Democrats' ‘Judge Shopping’ Bill Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday said they would introduce a bill designed to rein in the practice known as "judge shopping," where lawsuits are filed in small courts to increase their chances of being assigned to sympathetic judges. The lawmakers sponsoring the bill said it was spurred by a recent ruling from a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas that could, if upheld on appeal, limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide. (Wiessner, 5/24)

AP: Pending Abortion Restrictions Strain Providers In US Southeast A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the Southeastern United States has sent providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for a region with already severely limited access. Pending bans at varying stages of pregnancy in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida — states that had been holdouts providing wider access to the procedure — are threatening to further delay abortions as appointments pile up and doctors work to understand the new limitations. (Pollard, 5/25)

In news about birth control —

The CT Mirror: CT House Passes Bill That Expands Access To Contraception, Narcan A wide-ranging bill that permits the sale of non-prescription drugs in vending machines, including emergency contraception, and allows pharmacists to prescribe hormonal birth control passed the House Wednesday with broad support. (Carlesso, 5/24)

In related election news —

The Hill: DeSantis Says Roles To Play For Federal And State Governments On Abortion Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said the federal and state governments both have a role to play in deciding abortion policy in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. DeSantis said during an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, his first since announcing his campaign for president on Twitter earlier that evening, that he is concerned about a Democratic administration and Congress "trying to nationalize" abortion throughout the country. ... "Dobbs returned the issue to the elected representatives of the people, and so I think that there's a role for both the federal [government] and states," he said. (Gans, 5/24)

AP: Haley Commits To Federal Abortion Ban But Says It's Unlikely Without More Republicans In Congress Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday pledged to sign a federal ban on abortion but noted that passing one would be highly unlikely without more Republicans in Congress. Although Haley didn't say how many weeks a federal ban should encompass, her commitment to signing one is the most specific she has been on the issue during her presidential campaign. The former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said "no one has been honest" about how difficult a ban could be to achieve, in a closely divided federal government. (Kinnard and Ramer, 5/24)

Health Industry

Striking NYC Doctors To Return To Work With Tentative Deal

A three-day strike by residents at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens will end after the physicians' union announced a deal with its employer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, over wage inequity. In other health industry news, the head of AHIP is stepping down.

AP: Resident Doctors At NYC's Elmhurst Hospital Reach Tentative Deal After 3-Day Strike Resident physicians who went on strike at New York City's Elmhurst Hospital Center have reached a tentative deal on the third day of their walkout and will return to work, their union announced Wednesday. The strike by about 160 residents that began Monday was New York City's first strike by doctors since 1990, according to the Committee of Interns and Residents local of the Service Employees International Union, their union. (5/24)

Modern Healthcare: AHIP CEO Matt Eyles To Resign Matt Eyles, the head of insurance lobbying group AHIP, announced plans Wednesday to resign from the trade group Oct. 2. Eyles has served as president and CEO of AHIP for nearly five years and worked at the organization for more than eight years, according to a news release. AHIP's board of directors will conduct a national search for Eyles’ replacement, the group said. (Tepper, 5/24)

Stat: The Billionaires Taking Aim At Hospitals In Washington At a waterfront concert in one of this city's swankiest neighborhoods, rappers Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe interspersed their hits about love, wealth, and wild parties with mini-lectures about hospitals’ high prices. It was a nostalgia-fueled rager — but it was also a not-so-subtle effort by a billionaire to convince Congress and other policymakers to crack down on the commanding sway of the hospital industry. (Cohrs, 5/25)

Modern Healthcare: Bright Health Sells Zipnosis To Florence Bright Health Group has shed its telehealth business as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy. Patient intake and tracking startup Florence acquired telehealth provider Zipnosis from Bright Health for an undisclosed amount in a cash transaction, Florence CEO Aniq Rahman said. (Tepper, 5/24)

On artificial intelligence in health care —

Fox News: Latest Version Of ChatGPT Passes Radiology Board-Style Exam, Highlights AI's ‘Growing Potential,' Study Finds The latest version of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI, is smart enough to pass a radiology board-style exam, a new study from the University of Toronto found. GPT-4, which launched officially on March 13, 2023, correctly answered 81% of the 150 multiple-choice questions on the exam. Despite the chatbot's high accuracy, the study — published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) — also detected some concerning inaccuracies. (Rudy, 5/25)

Fox News: New AI ‘Cancer Chatbot’ Provides Patients And Families With 24/7 Support: 'Empathetic Approach' Cancer patients looking for quick answers or support between their appointments can now turn to "Dave," an artificial intelligence chatbot trained to discuss all things related to oncology. Launched earlier this month by Belong.Life, a New York-based health technology company, Dave is described as the world's first conversational AI oncology mentor for cancer patients. (Rudy, 5/24)

LGBTQ+ Health

Trans Patients Face Discrimination From Their Health Care Providers: Poll

A survey by The Washington Post and KFF also finds that nearly half of transgender adults say they have encountered ignorance about providing health care to trans patients, while 37% cite difficulty in finding knowledgeable medical personnel.

The Washington Post: For Trans People, Medical Visits Can Be More Traumatizing Than Healing One trans woman recalled a doctor calling her "it." A nonbinary person was grilled about their use of "they/them" pronouns during an ultrasound. A trans-masculine person moved out of Tennessee, fearing they would lose access to hormone therapy as legislators passed bills restricting gender-affirming care. Transgender Americans often face subtle discrimination, outright hostility and ill-informed medical professionals in their interactions with the health-care system, according to a poll by The Washington Post and KFF, a nonprofit focused on national health issues. (Nirappil, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Trans Kids Crave Acceptance At School In A Nation That Often Resists It Rowan Johnson learned what it meant to be transgender not from a parent or a teacher, but from Jerry Springer. Home from school one day when they were about 8 years old, Johnson caught Springer's often-raucous daytime talk show. "There are girls here to tell their parents they want to be boys," Johnson recalls hearing at the top of the hour. (Meckler, 5/24)

The Washington Post: 6 Takeaways From The Washington Post-KFF Survey Of Transgender Americans Since January, state legislators have introduced more than 200 bills that seek to limit transgender rights, whether it is access to gender-affirming care, what children can learn about transgender identity in schools or whether trans girls can play sports. In this atmosphere of intense polarization around transgender rights, The Washington Post and KFF set out to hear what transgender Americans had to say, on topics ranging from their experiences as children in school to navigating the workplace, the doctor's office and family relationships as adults. The resulting Post-KFF Trans Survey, which also includes responses from cisgender Americans on trans-related restrictions, is the largest nongovernmental survey of U.S. trans adults to rely on random sampling methods. (Shin, 5/23)

On states' efforts to block transgender care —

AP: Republican-Controlled Committee Rejects Louisiana Bill To Ban Gender-Affirming Care For Minors Bucking the trend of other reliably red states adopting restrictions on young transgender people, a Republican-controlled Louisiana legislative committee voted Wednesday to a kill a bill that would have banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Proponents of Louisiana's failed bill, which would have prohibited hormone treatments, gender-affirming surgery or puberty-blocking drugs for any transgender minor, say they fear that the state could draw minors from surrounding states — where there are bans — seeking gender-affirming health care. Those in Louisiana's LGBTQ+ community say gender-affirming care in the state is not as easily accessible as conservatives make it seem. (Cline, 5/24)

Health News Florida: Pediatricians Battling Florida House's Subpoena Over Trans Care Standards A statewide pediatricians association is pushing back in federal court against the Florida House's efforts to obtain internal communications showing how the group adopted standards of care for the treatment of gender dysphoria. House Health & Human Services Chairman Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, issued subpoenas last month, amid efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican legislative leaders efforts to wipe out gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical procedures for minors. (Kam, 5/24)

Houston Chronicle: CEO: Texas Children's To Discontinue Trans Care In Coming Months Texas Children's Hospital will discontinue hormone therapy and other transgender care, or help patients find care outside the state, before state legislation banning such treatment for children potentially goes into effect Sept. 1, according to an email sent Wednesday to hospital faculty and staff. "We will work with patients and their families to manage the discontinuation of hormone therapies, or source appropriate care outside of Texas," hospital system CEO Mark Wallace said in the email. (Gill, 5/24)

St. Louis Public Radio: Transgender Missourians Fear More Gender Care Restrictions Coming Missouri lawmakers recently joined a number of other GOP-dominated states in limiting gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and while some Republican legislators say they’re not interested in adult restrictions, trans community members remain on guard. When asked if adult restrictions are next up for the Missouri legislature, state Rep. Bill Hardwick, R-Pulaski County, said, "Part of freedom is you make decisions I don't like." (Rosenbaum, 5/25)

The Colorado Sun: Most LGBTQ Educators In Colorado Don't Feel Safe To Come Out At School As National Debates Threaten Gay And Transgender Rights Klaudia Neufeld has had to dodge a truck trying to run them off the road, been physically assaulted, continually endured harassment and constantly felt the scrutiny and gaze of straight white men, including in the Adams 12 Five Star Schools building where Neufeld works. The onslaught of violence and criticism has empowered Neufeld, who is transgender and nonbinary and uses both she/her and they/them pronouns, more than it has dampened their sense of self. (Breunlin, 5/25)

KFF Health News: A Trans Teen No Longer Feels Welcome In Florida. So She Left Josie had put off packing long enough. The high school sophomore in St. Augustine, Florida, sat on her bed while her mom, Sarah, pulled clothes from her closet. It held a trove of good memories — like the red dress Josie wore to the winter homecoming dance and a pink cover-up she sported at a friend's pool party. Good times like these have felt scarce lately. Josie, who's transgender, no longer feels welcome in Florida. ... Josie moved more than a thousand miles from St. Augustine — and her parents — to start a new life in Rhode Island and stay with her aunt and uncle, who live outside Providence. (Colombini, 5/25)

Also —

The New York Times: For One Group Of Teenagers, Social Media Seems A Clear Net Benefit The surgeon general's warning Tuesday about social media's "profound risk of harm" to young people included a significant qualification. For some of them, the warning said, social media can be beneficial to health in important ways. For one group in particular — the growing share of young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer — social media can be a lifeline, researchers and teenagers say. Especially for those growing up in unwelcoming families or communities, social media often provides a sense of identity and belonging at a crucial age, much earlier than for many L.G.B.T.Q. people in previous generations. (Miller, 5/24)

Covid-19 Crisis

WHO Warns Us To Think Of 'Disease X' — The Cause Of The Next Pandemic

It's what the Cambridge University Press called a "hidden but inevitable creeping danger," a currently unknown but potentially worse illness than covid that may be bubbling under the radar. In other news, air pollution is linked to severe covid outcomes.

New York Post: What Is 'Disease X'? COVID Experts Warn It Could Cause Deadlier Pandemic The World Health Organization keeps a short list of "priority diseases" that could cause the next deadly pandemic. Most of the diseases are already known to us — Ebola, SARS and Zika made the cut — but the final entry has the terrifying name "Disease X." The term Disease X is used by the WHO as a placeholder to describe a disease that's unknown to medical science as a cause of human infections. (Lallanilla, 5/24)

More from the back files on Disease X —

Cambridge University Press: Disease X: A Hidden But Inevitable Creeping Danger Some experts have even commented that COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), met the standards to be considered the first Disease X,4 while some authors have called Zika a Disease X.5 However, one unfortunate possibility is that COVID-19 and other recent pandemics might have been milder versions of what will eventually be the most prominent Disease X. (Tahir et al, 7/26/21)

In updates on covid and pandemic policies —

CIDRAP: Air Pollution Exposure Linked To Severe COVID-19 Outcomes Air pollution exposure is associated with a higher risk of experiencing severe outcomes from COVID-19 infections, including intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and death, according to new evidence in Nature Communications from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). (Soucheray, 5/24)

Fox News: New York Department Of Health To Repeal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate For Health Care Workers The New York State Department of Health said it will repeal the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for all workers at regulated health care facilities, which was imposed by the state. In a statement posted to the agency's website, the Department of Health announced it had begun the process of repealing the coronavirus vaccine requirement for health care workers because of the changing landscape of the pandemic and the evolving vaccine recommendations. (Wehner, 5/24)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Audit Faults DHS Over Grants, Ventilators Distributed During COVID-19 During their work to combat the coronavirus pandemic in Wisconsin, state health officials awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to long-term health care and emergency medical services providers without receiving sufficient documentation to justify the payments and have not properly tracked some of the ventilators the state purchased for COVID-19 patients, state auditors have found. (Beck, 5/24)

The Boston Globe: Boston Public Health Commission Awards $1.4 Million To Community Health Centers Community health centers that provided critical health care and information to vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 pandemic are getting a funding boost from the city of Boston. The Boston Public Health Commission announced Wednesday that it had awarded $1.4 million in grants to seven Boston-based organizations working to reduce health inequities across the city. The funding comes from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. (Mohammed, 5/24)

Public Health

Births Decline Across US And Nation Gets Older, On Average

New data shows birth rates declined in most states last year, following a long-term trend, though a few states showed upticks. The overall shift means that the American population grew older, faster, on average over the last decade than before.

Stateline: Births Decline In Most States, Continuing A Long-Term Trend Fast-growing Texas and Florida had the biggest increases in the number of births last year, while a dozen other states — half of them in the South — continued to rebound from pandemic lows. In the United States as a whole, however, the number of births has plateaued after a modest increase following the worst of the pandemic, according to preliminary data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Henderson, 5/25)

AP: Aging America: Baby Boomers Push Nation's Median Age Higher As Fewer Children Are Born The United States grew older, faster, last decade. The share of residents 65 or older grew by more than a third from 2010 to 2020 and at the fastest rate of any decade in 130 years, while the share of children declined, according to new figures from the most recent census. The declining percentage of children under age 5 was particularly noteworthy in the figures from the 2020 head count released Thursday. Combined, the trends mean the median age in the U.S. jumped from 37.2 to 38.8 over the decade. (Schneider, 5/25)

In research on SIDS and memory loss —

NBC News: Clues Emerge About Possible Factors Behind Sudden Infant Death Syndrome The prevailing theory points to three possible factors: First, the infant is at a critical stage of development during the first year of life. Second, the baby is exposed to a stressor, such as sleeping face down, which can lower the amount of oxygen in their blood while raising the level of carbon dioxide. And third, the infant has an underlying abnormality that makes it harder to survive that traumatic event. A study published Thursday in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology points to one such abnormality. (Bendix, 5/25)

NBC News: Brain Memory: Multivitamin Protects Aging Brain, Science Suggests Multivitamin supplements may help slow the normal forgetfulness that comes with aging, researchers reported Wednesday. The analysis of data from more than 3,500 older participants showed that those who took a daily Centrum Silver pill over a period of three years had better memories than those who received a placebo treatment, according to the report published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (Carroll, 5/24)

Lifestyle and Health

200 At Risk After Meningitis Linked To 2 Post-Surgery Deaths In Mexico

The CDC is collaborating with Mexican officials over the outbreak of fungal meningitis in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. More than 200 U.S. patients who traveled to clinics there may be at risk. Also: dangerous chemicals in sunscreen, high asthma rates among Black children, and more.

AP: CDC: 2 Dead Of Suspected Cases Of Meningitis After Surgeries In Mexico, Over 200 Patients At Risk Federal officials say more than 200 patients could be at risk of fungal meningitis after having surgical procedures at clinics in a Mexico border city. ... The CDC is working with more than two dozen state and local health departments to contact people with potential exposure and urge them to go to their nearest medical facility for testing. Meningitis testing includes an MRI and a lumbar puncture, also called a spinal tap.(5/25)

More health and wellness news —

Bloomberg: Many Sunscreens Still Have Potentially Dangerous Chemicals In 2019 the Food and Drug Administration told sunscreen manufacturers it had safety concerns about 12 ingredients that give so-called chemical lotions and sprays their protective power. The one that became the poster child for concern among researchers and consumer advocates was oxybenzone. It can upset the balance of hormones in ways that may increase cancer risk and lead to shorter pregnancies as well as lower testosterone levels in adolescent boys, studies have shown. Oxybenzone has been found in amniotic fluid and breast milk. (Edney, 5/24)

CNN: Lower Cholesterol With A Plant-Based Diet, Study Says Only 1 in 10 Americans eat enough fruits and vegetables, which are a key pathway to good health. And according to a new study, there's a distinct benefit for anyone diagnosed with high cholesterol. Researchers looked at levels of LDL, or low-density lipoproteins — often called "bad" cholesterol because a buildup can increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. In study participants, LDL levels dropped 10% and total cholesterol declined 7% for people following a plant-based diet when compared with those who eat both meat and plants, the study found. (LaMotte, 5/24)

In environmental health news —

AP: High Rates Of Asthma In Black Children Linked To Racist Housing Laws Black children are more likely to have asthma than kids of any other race in America. They're more likely to live near polluting plants, and in rental housing with mold and other triggers, because of racist housing laws in the nation's past. Their asthma often is more severe and less likely to be controlled, because of poor medical care and mistrust of doctors. (Stafford, 5/23)

AP: Over Half Of The Contaminated Water Leaked At Nuclear Plant Recovered, Xcel Says More than half of a radioactive isotope that leaked from a pipe at a Minnesota nuclear plant has been recovered, while crews are making "substantial progress" in recovering contaminated groundwater, officials said. The pipe initially leaked in November 2022 at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, allowing 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of water containing tritium to spill. The first leak wasn't publicly announced until March, after a second leak was discovered at the site of a temporary fix to the first release. Industry experts have said the spill did not threaten public health, despite the monthslong delay in announcing the initial leak. (5/24)

The Mercury News: New Setback For Efforts To Protect Californians Living Near Oil Wells From storming the stage at a Shell shareholders meeting to filing lawsuits over anti-racketeering claims, climate activists are trying a wide range of tactics in attempts to shame fossil fuel companies and hold them financially responsible for the harms their operations can cause. Oil companies are pushing back, spending big money and counting on support from legislators, courts and voters — so far with mixed results. But big oil just scored another big win in California. (Staggs, 5/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Another Blow To The Return To Offices: Everyone's Got Allergies The most miserable allergy season in recent memory is filling offices with a symphony of coughs, sniffles and sneezes. The pollen has tormented employees—and any co-workers within earshot—as they constantly sniffle and interrupt presentations and meetings with coughing and sneezing fits. (Lukpat, 5/24)

State Watch

Health Data Possibly Compromised After Ransomware Hit On Mass. Insurer

Point32Health, which is the second-largest health insurer in Massachusetts, was struck by a ransomware attack that may have compromised sensitive health data of current and past members. Other news includes financial worries at hospitals across the U.S., staffing shortages, and more.

AP: Major Massachusetts Health Insurer Hit By Ransomware Attack, Member Data May Be Compromised The second-largest health insurer in Massachusetts was the victim of a ransomware attack in which sensitive personal information as well as health information of current and past members may have been compromised, company officials said. Point32Health said in a statement on its website Tuesday that a "cybersecurity ransomware incident" affecting its Harvard Pilgrim Health Care program was detected April 17. (5/24)

Bloomberg: California Hospital Operator Files Chapter 9 Bankruptcy In yet another sign of the increasing financial stress facing US hospitals, a public health care operator in California has filed for bankruptcy protection. San Benito Health Care District in Hollister filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Tuesday, citing labor costs, a years-long shortage of working capital and a $5.2 million overpayment from Medicare it had to return, the court filing said. The Chapter 9, which is filed by municipalities and public entities, is rare compared to other bankruptcy filings used by corporations and individuals. (Coleman-Lochner, 5/24)

Roll Call: Mississippi Delta Hospitals Battle Financial Factors To Survive DeeAnn Brown was not scheduled to work the evening of Friday, March 24. But after a monster tornado leveled the Mississippi Delta town of Rolling Fork and damaged Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital, where she is a registered nurse, she and her family rushed to help. (Clason, 5/24)

Wyoming Public Radio: Organization Says For-Profit Healthcare Is Taking Advantage Of Understaffing Since the pandemic began, healthcare institutions have had many problems including having enough staff. And now, a local chapter of a national advocacy organization says for-profit healthcare organizations are taking advantage of nonprofit facilities closing. (Kudelska, 5/24)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri Easing Training Requirements For Nursing Aides To Help Staffing Shortages Gov. Mike Parson's administration is easing training guidelines for nursing aides in an attempt to address a labor shortage in Missouri hospitals. An emergency rule change posted Wednesday by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services would double the time unlicensed assistive personnel have to undergo training in hopes of drawing more aides into the workforce. (Erickson, 5/24)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louisans Experiencing Homelessness Receive Access To Healthcare A local health care facility is partnering with a nonprofit to provide people experiencing homelessness with health care services. Affinia Healthcare will offer medical, optical, dental and medical case management services to City Hope St. Louis clients. Bishop Michael Robinson, the CEO and founder of City Hope St. Louis, said many of his clients avoid going to the hospital and doctors because of the cost. He said this latest partnership with Affinia Healthcare will ease that burden. (Lewis-Thompson, 5/24)

New Hampshire Bulletin: NH Teen Pushes To Add Eating Disorder Hotline To Student IDs Two months into his summer break last year, Matthew Brown began to worry he had an eating disorder. Brown, who was then about to enter Merrimack High School as a freshman, did not want to talk to his parents about it. But he did want answers. (DeWitt, 5/24)

Health Policy Research

Research Roundup: ECMO Treatment; Diabetes; 'Microrobots'; And More

Each week, KFF Health News compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.

CIDRAP: 84% Of Perinatal Women With COVID Receiving ECMO Lived, But 76% Had Serious Event A multicenter US study of 100 pregnant or postpartum women—those who had recently given birth—who required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to treat COVID-19 respiratory failure reports that 16 died, and 76 had at least one serious event such as venous thromboembolism. The research was published this week in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 5/24)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Infection Associated With Type 1 Diabetes In Kids A new study suggests that a diagnosis of COVID-19 in children is associated with an increased incidence of type 1 diabetes in 2020 and 2021 in Bavaria, Germany. The study was published yesterday in JAMA. (Soucheray, 5/23)

ScienceDaily: Medical 'Microrobots' Could One Day Treat Bladder Disease, Other Human Illnesses Engineers have designed a new class of 'microrobots' several times smaller than the width of a human hair that may be able to treat human illnesses like interstitial cystitis -- a painful bladder disease that affects millions of Americans. (University of Colorado at Boulder, 5/24)

ScienceDaily: Skin Patch Shows Promise For Toddlers With Peanut Allergy A global phase 3 clinical trial found that a year-long immunotherapy through a skin patch safely desensitized toddlers with peanut allergy, lowering the risk of a severe allergic reaction from accidental exposure. (Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, 5/23)

Editorials And Opinions

Viewpoints: Female Doctors Face Unequal Treatment; Insurance Should Cover Mental Health Rehab

Editorial writers examine these various public health topics.

The Washington Post: Rude Comments And Bottom Slaps: The Things Female Doctors Put Up With I recently asked my female colleagues to share some of the gender-based criticism they’ve received over the years. Patients have commented on their makeup and appearance. Co-workers have offered unsolicited advice about the impact of career choices on family. Patients have assumed they weren't doctors because they are female. One doctor told me she was criticized for the pitch of her voice; another for talking too much to her patients. (Shirlene Obuobi, MD, 5/23)

The Washington Post: America Should Fund Rehab For Schizophrenia - Not Jail Or ER Roughly a quarter of the unsheltered homeless in the United States are people with untreated mental illness. Estimates in California suggest that, in the past decade, there has been a nearly 50 percent rise in homelessness, including as many as 40,000 people suffering from untreated severe mental illness. Many with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder languish in urban single-room occupancy hotels or board and care homes. (Thomas Insel, Arvind Sooknanan and Ken Zimmerman, 5/23)

Stat: Opportunistic Imaging Could Revolutionize Patient Care More than 80 million CT scans are performed each year in the U.S. alone. In fact, most Americans have had a CT scan by the time they reach age 60, and many will have had several scans. While CT scans often provide key information for diagnosing a certain problem, our current approach leaves an immense amount of information unmined. Given the cost and radiation involved in CT scanning, we have an obligation not to leave any useful data on the metaphorical cutting room floor. (Miriam A. Bredella and Robert M. Wachter, 5/25)

Stat: Could AI Diagnose Politicians' Mental Health Problems? For psychiatrists, Donald Trump's third run for the presidency means that we’ll once again face the challenge of diagnosis: Should we, or shouldn't we? For 50 years, the American Psychiatric Association's code of ethics has forbidden any member from diagnosing public figures unless the doctor has interviewed them and obtained their permission, a constraint known as the Goldwater Rule. During the 2016 presidential race, some psychiatrists skirted the rule and, through indirection, labeled Trump paranoid, sociopathic, or pathologically narcissistic. In justification, they referred to a competing obligation to warn the public about impending disaster. (Peter D. Kramer, 5/24)

Stat: The Newly Proposed Label 'Preaddiction' Will Not Help People The National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recently proposed a new addition to the addiction vernacular: "preaddiction." The idea is that the word will help identify and intervene on harmful substance use earlier and more effectively. While it's an admirable goal, the term fails to align with the evidence. Worse, adopting it could have potentially disastrous consequences for people with substance use disorders — an already marginalized group. (Cassandra L. Boness, 5/25)

New York Times: Texas Is Torturing Women Whose Pregnancies Fail It's increasingly clear that it's not safe to be pregnant in states with total abortion bans. Since the end of Roe v. Wade, there have been a barrage of gutting stories about women in prohibition states denied care for miscarriages or forced to continue nonviable pregnancies. (Michelle Goldberg, 5/23)

The CT Mirror: CT Insurers Should Cover Fertility Preservation For Cancer Patients More and more people are being diagnosed with cancer in their 20s and 30s. At the same time, more people are delaying having children until their 30s and 40s. So what happens to a young person's plans for children after receiving a cancer diagnosis? (Norin Ansari MD, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Caring For Seniors Is Mandatory. Investing In Kids Is Discretionary In Washington, Republicans have floated budget cuts that could kick 380,000 children out of care programs and take food aid from 1.7 million women and their young children. (Alyssa Rosenberg, 5/23)

The Washington Post: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy Warns Of Social Media For Kids When I travel around the country talking with parents, the No. 1 question they ask me has to do with social media: "Is it safe for my kids?" Nearly 70 percent of parents say their job is harder now than it was for parents 20 years ago, mainly because of technology and social media. (Vivek H. Murthy, 5/23)

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