Monday, September 23, 2024
State officials threatened to withhold public money from hospitals, pioneering a strategy that could become a national model.(Noam N. Levey and Ames Alexander, Charlotte Observer,9/23)
She Was Accused of Murder After Losing Her Pregnancy. SC Woman Now Tells Her Story.Amari Marsh, now 23, was a student at South Carolina State University when she lost her pregnancy in 2023. She was charged with murder and faced at least 20 years in prison. A grand jury cleared her in August. Now she's sharing her story.(Lauren Sausser,9/23)
Here's today's health policy haiku:
C'MON, GIVE IT A TRY
Love a good haiku? So do we, and we'd like you to share your flair here.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.
CMS To Unveil Five-Pronged Plan To Reduce Health Care CyberattacksThe strategy will be outlined in the coming months, Modern Healthcare reported. In other news, Lehigh Valley Health Network has agreed to pay $65 million to settle a case in which it was accused of failing to safeguard sensitive patient information, including nude photos of cancer patients.
Modern Healthcare:Cybersecurity Plan For Reducing Data Breaches Unveiled By CMS The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has developed a five-pronged plan geared toward reducing data breaches and ensuring accountability among healthcare organizations. The strategy, which will expand on policies CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Jonathan Blum shared Sept. 12 at Modern Healthcare's Leadership Symposium, will be introduced and implemented in the coming months, according to federal agency leaders. (Perna, 9/20)
The Washington Post:Health System To Pay $65 Million After Hackers Leaked Nude Patient Photos In March 2023, a Pennsylvania woman received a phone call from a health-care executive that left her in disbelief: Hackers had obtained photos of her naked body while she underwent radiation treatments and posted them to a dark corner of the internet. Lehigh Valley Health Network refused to pay a ransom "in excess" of $5 million to recover the photos and other stolen patient information, but it couldn't sidestep financial damages from the breach. The unidentified woman, who is in her 50s and known as Jane Doe, became the lead plaintiff in a class action suing Lehigh for failing to safeguard highly sensitive patient information, including nude photos of hundreds of cancer patients. On Sept. 12, a law firm announced that Lehigh had agreed to pay $65 million to settle the case. (Gilbert, 9/22)
In other health industry updates —
Modern Healthcare:Medicare Fee Schedule Fixes May Only Be Short Term: GOP Doctors The best that physicians can hope for to repair the latest proposed cuts to the Medicare fee schedule is a short-term fix, said members of the House Republican Doctors Caucus Friday as they fumed that their private sector colleagues have been left out in the cold by the federal government. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in July proposed a 2.9% cut in the 2025 physician fee schedule, which was widely decried by physician groups. (McAuliff, 9/20)
Modern Healthcare:Private-Equity Firms Cool On Physician Groups Private equity firms are struggling to find buyers for physician groups in the wake of increased oversight and financial pressure. Rising interest rates, lower evaluations and tougher regulations have scuttled potential private equity-led physician group deals. Healthcare attorneys say a softening sellers' market has irked doctors, many of whom were promised a pay boost once private equity-backed management services organizations flipped a physician practice to another buyer. (Kacik, 9/20)
NPR:How A One Patient Got Trapped In A Health Insurance Ghost Network Early one morning in February 2023, before the sun rose over Phoenix, Ravi Coutinho went on a walk and, for a brief moment, thought about hurling his body in front of a moving bus. He had been feeling increasingly alone and depressed; anxious and unlovable; no longer sure if he was built for this world. Several hours later, Ravi swiped open his iPhone and dialed the toll-free number on the back of his Ambetter insurance card. (Blau, 9/22)
If you need help —
Dial 988 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.
Appeals Court Revives PhRMA Lawsuit Against Medicare Drug NegotiationsReuters reported that the court did not address the merits of the case, only that a Texas judge was wrong to dismiss it in February. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission has accused the three largest pharmacy benefit managers of inflating insulin prices.
Reuters:Challenge To US Drug Price Negotiation Program Revived By Appeals Court A U.S. appeals court revived a lawsuit on Friday by healthcare and drug industry groups challenging the first-ever U.S. law requiring pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices with the government's Medicare health insurance program that covers 66 million people. The decision from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not address the merits of the case, which was brought by the nation's largest drug industry lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and others. Instead, the court found only that a Texas judge was wrong to dismiss the case in February on the grounds that he did not have jurisdiction to hear it. (Pierson, 9/20)
The New York Times:F.T.C. Accuses Drug Middlemen Of Inflating Insulin Prices The Federal Trade Commission said on Friday that it had taken legal action against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers, accusing the drug middlemen of inflating insulin prices and steering patients toward higher-cost insulin products to increase their profits. The legal action targets CVS Health's Caremark, Cigna's Express Scripts and UnitedHealth's Optum Rx and subsidiaries they've created to handle drug negotiations, agency officials said. The three collectively control 80 percent of prescriptions in the United States. (Abelson and Robbins, 9/20)
Stat:Medicare Drug Price Negotiations: Study Predicts Drugs Up Next The GLP-1 drug Wegovy tops the list of medications expected to be included in the next round of Medicare price negotiations, according to a paper in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy. Last month, Medicare officials unveiled prices for the first 10 drugs chosen for negotiation. Now, all eyes are on which Part D drugs will be chosen for the next round of 15 drugs. (Wilkerson, 9/23)
On medical debt —
NBC News:North Carolina Hospital Company Forgives Debts Of 11,500 People After NBC News Report Less than a week after NBC News detailed how the hospital system Atrium Health of North Carolina aggressively pursued former patients' medical debts, placing liens on their homes to collect on hospital bills, the nonprofit company announced it would cancel those obligations and forgive the unpaid debts associated with them. Some 11,500 liens on people's homes in North Carolina and five other states will be released, Atrium's parent company, Advocate Health, said with some dating back 20 years or more. (Morgenson, 9/20)
KFF Health News:How North Carolina Made Its Hospitals Do Something About Medical Debt North Carolina officials had been quietly laboring for months on an ambitious plan to tackle the state's mammoth medical debt problem when Gov. Roy Cooper stepped before cameras in July to announce the initiative. But as Cooper stood by the stairs of the executive mansion and called for "freeing people from medical debt," the future of his administration's work hung in the balance. (Levey and Alexander, 9/23)
KFF Health News:Across North Carolina, Medical Debt Exacts A Heavy Toll On March 30, 2019, a swerving car upended Tom Burke's life. Severely injured after the crash, Burke was airlifted from the Fort Liberty U.S. Army base in North Carolina to UNC Medical Center, in Chapel Hill, where doctors performed surgeries to rebuild his leg. Medicaid covered most of the cost, but Burke was still left with more than $10,000 in bills. He was confined to a wheelchair for two years after the accident, unable to work his car sales job. As a result, he said, he couldn't pay the outstanding hospital bill and his account was turned over to a collection agency. (Alexander and Levey, 9/23)
Congress Agrees On Stopgap Funding Bill, Likely Averting Federal ShutdownThe plan does not include any part of the SAVE Act, which would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson and former president Donald Trump had pushed hard for its inclusion. Also: SNAP benefits and the PACT Act.
USA Today:No Government Shutdown For Now: Congress Agrees On Temporary Funding Deal Into December Congress has reached a deal to extend government funding through Dec. 20, leaders announced on Sunday, kicking the can down the road as lawmakers try to dodge a devastating shutdown. The agreement avoids the shutdown that was slated to begin at midnight on Sept. 30, ensuring Americans retain access to crucial government services and sidestepping an embarrassing political blunder with just weeks until the presidential election. The House is expected to vote on the funding extension, known as a continuing resolution or CR, on Wednesday. The deal struck between the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate came after Johnson tried and failed to pass a six-month extension that included a bill requiring people to show proof of citizenship to vote. The deal announced on Sunday didn't include the effort. (Beggin, 9/22)
Reuters:US Victims Of Food-Benefit Theft Could Lose Means Of Recovering Funds Recipients of U.S. federal food aid whose benefits are stolen will soon have no way to recoup the lost funds unless Congress takes action by the end of September. Roughly 42 million Americans receive food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The benefits are loaded onto electronic benefit transfer cards, akin to debit cards, and can be stolen when illegal devices on card-swiping machines copy the card data. Congress passed a law in 2022 that for the first time enabled states to replace stolen benefits. The provision expires on Sept. 30. (Douglas, 9/20)
Military.com:Veterans Not Covered By Toxic Hazards Legislation Wait Decades For VA Recognition, Report Finds The passage of the PACT Act gave millions of veterans the chance at expedited disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but thousands of others exposed to environmental hazards in military service wait roughly 31 years to receive similar recognition from the VA, a new report has found. (Kime, 9/20)
Tennessee Law Barring Adults From Helping Girls Get Abortions Is DelayedThe law, which is being challenged in court, makes it a crime for any adult who "intentionally recruits, harbors, or transports" a pregnant child without parental consent. Meanwhile, Texas sees a 56% increase in maternal deaths from 2019 to 2022.
Los Angeles Times:Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Tennessee 'Abortion Trafficking' Law A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked Tennessee from enforcing a law banning adults from helping minors get an abortion without parental permission. In a 49-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger argued that the Republican-controlled state cannot "make it a crime to communicate freely" about legal abortion options even in a state where abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy except for a handful of situations. Trauger's decision means that the law will be placed on hold as the case make its way through court. (Kruesi, 9/21)
NBC News:A Dramatic Rise In Pregnant Women Dying In Texas After Abortion Ban The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state's 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds. From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The nonprofit research group scoured publicly available reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and shared the analysis exclusively with NBC News. (Edwards, Essamuah and Kane, 9/21)
KFF Health News:She Was Accused Of Murder After Losing Her Pregnancy. SC Woman Now Tells Her Story Amari Marsh had just finished her junior year at South Carolina State University in May 2023 when she received a text message from a law enforcement officer. "Sorry it has taken this long for paperwork to come back," the officer wrote. "But I finally have the final report, and wanted to see if you and your boyfriend could meet me Wednesday afternoon for a follow up?" (9/21)
In other reproductive health news —
The Atlantic:Doctors Said These Women's Mutated Genes Wouldn't Harm Them Deb Jenssen never wanted her children to suffer from the disease that killed her brother at 28. The illness, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, initially manifests in childhood as trouble with strength and walking, then worsens until the heart or the muscles controlling the lungs stop working. She decided to get pregnant using IVF so that she could select embryos without the mutation for the disorder. But when she ended up with just two viable embryos—one with the mutation—the clinic urged her to transfer both. (Khamsi, 9/20)
Civil Rights Groups Sound Alarm Over Trump's Agenda Targeting Gender CareThe former president's position on LGBTQ+ issues has shifted over the years, but his second-term agenda is said to target gender care providers, worrying civil rights groups. Meanwhile, Stat reports an anti-pharma campaign bus is touring in swing states, though its funding remains unknown.
The Washington Post:Trump's Second-Term Agenda On LGBTQ Issues Alarms Civil Rights Groups The former president, who has shifted his position over the years on LGBTQ issues, is planning to lead the GOP charge on gender identity if he returns to the White House, according to his campaign and interviews with allies, testing the legal limits of federal action as the Supreme Court also takes up the issue. Donald Trump says he wants to kick providers out of Medicare and Medicaid for offering gender transition care to minors, such as hormone therapy and surgery; pull federal funding from schools if officials suggest a child "could be trapped in the wrong body"; and purge anything in the federal government deemed to promote transgender identity. The moves would go against the advice of leading medical groups. (Knowles, 9/22)
Stat:A Mysterious Anti 'Big Pharma' Bus Is Barnstorming Swing States The wheels on a big red bus emblazoned with anti-pharmaceutical industry messaging are going 'round and 'round all through the nation's electoral battlegrounds, from Montana to Arizona to Pennsylvania. But nobody will say who's paying to fill up the gas tank. (Zhang, 9/23)
USA Today:Medicare Dental Insurance Is Popular With Voters, But Not In Speeches More than half of U.S. adults don't have consistent access to dental care, and untreated issues such as oral infections can harm overall health. Although many people face these barriers to routine care, dental coverage has gained little traction among political leaders. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, have traded barbs over abortion and lowering the price of insulin. One health-related topic neither candidate has emphasized is how to extend dental care to the tens of millions of Americans who lack insurance. (Alltucker, 9/22)
The Washington Post:For Some Parents, Surging Child-Care Costs Could Determine How They Vote Kayla and Ryan Frost were desperate. Every local day care was full. Nannies were booked. Neither could quit their job. So they patched together a solution: paying their dog sitter to watch their 3-month-old daughter. But the dog sitter, who was great with their German shepherd mix, wasn't the right fit for their infant. And because of her $25 hourly rate, the Frosts could afford care for only a couple of days a week. (Bhattarai, 9/22)
White House Touts Progress In Its Efforts To Stem Gun ViolenceAfter the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act became law in 2022, more than 8,000 gun sales to youth and domestic abusers have been blocked after background checks. The White House also says homicides are down 17% and mass shootings this year are down 20%.
Reuters:Background Checks Blocked Thousands Of Gun Sales To Youth, Domestic Abusers, White House Says Enhanced background checks have blocked thousands of gun sales to people under the age of 21 and those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes in the past year, the White House said on Sunday, a year after President Joe Biden set up a new office to accelerate work on preventing gun violence. Homicides have dropped 17% in the period, building on the largest-ever drop in homicides in 2023, the White House said. It said data from the Gun Violence Archive showed that mass shootings were also down 20% to date in 2024 compared to a year earlier and would reach their lowest level this year since 2019. (Shalal, 9/22)
Stateline:Safe Storage And Minimum Age Gun Laws Would Curb Violence, Study Says Gun policy has been a topic of debate in America for decades, and its prominence has increased as gun-related deaths and mass shootings have risen nearly every year since 2014, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence in the United States. Many Americans despair of ever taming the epidemic, but a new report says certain laws can make a difference. (Hernández, 9/20)
In other public health news —
Axios:Childhood Trauma Linked To Major Lifelong Biological, Health Risks Childhood trauma can raise the risk of developing major diseases later in life that vary based on a person's unique experiences and even their sex, new research concludes. Although it's widely understood that trauma early in life has biological and real-world health impacts, the findings shed light on how different life experiences can shape the way the body functions and make a person susceptible to chronic diseases. (Owens and Snyder, 9/23)
The Washington Post:Racism, Other Social Factors May Affect Asian Americans' Heart Health Immigration status, structural racism and other social factors may contribute to disparities in cardiovascular health among Asian Americans, according to a statement prepared by a group of clinicians and researchers and published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation. Asian Americans are less likely than White adults to have or die of heart disease, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. But researchers in the Circulation note that cardiovascular health can vary widely between subgroups of Asian Americans, and warn that combining different subgroups of people into a single "Asian" category could mask important differences. (Blakemore, 9/22)
CNN:Nonalcoholic Drinks: Some Experts Are Calling For Age Restrictions On Sales They won't get you buzzed, but some experts say low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers and mocktails shouldn't be sold to minors, and they're calling for laws that curb underage sales to kids and teens. (Goodman, 9/20)
In obituaries —
The Washington Post:John A. Clements, Lung Expert Who Helped Save Premature Infants, Dies At 101 John A. Clements, a pulmonary specialist whose research into one of the puzzles of human respiration — the inhale-exhale cycle of the lungs' air sacs — revolutionized neonatal care with a treatment that saved thousands of premature infants from fatal oxygen deprivation, died Sept. 3 at his home in Tiburon, Calif. He was 101. The death was announced by the University of California at San Francisco, where Dr. Clements had based his research for more than six decades. (Murphy, 9/21)
FDA Approves At-Home Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine, Will Be Available Next YearThe FluMist vaccine will be able to be ordered from an online pharmacy, but it will still require a prescription. Meanwhile, U.S. covid levels decline, while whooping cough cases surge.
NPR:No Needles Required: The FDA Approves An At-Home Flu Vaccine The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first flu vaccine that people can administer to themselves at home. The agency on Friday gave the green light for people who have been screened to give themselves the FluMist nasal spray, which can be ordered directly from an online pharmacy, skipping the need to visit a doctor's office. It will still require a prescription from a doctor's office, however. It's expected to be available next year. (Wise, 9/20)
On covid and whooping cough —
arkers Declines US COVID activity continued to decline in many areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest updates. Detections of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater are still high nationally, according to CDC tacking. The highest levels remain in the West, followed by the Midwest and the South. However, all regions show downward trends. (Schnirring, 9/20)
KFF Health News:Florida's New Covid Booster Guidance Is Straight-Up Misinformation In what has become a pattern of spreading vaccine misinformation, the Florida health department is telling older Floridians and others at highest risk from covid-19 to avoid most booster shots, saying they are potentially dangerous. Clinicians and scientists denounced the message as politically fueled scaremongering that also weakens efforts to protect against diseases like measles and whooping cough. (Allen, Chang and Whitehead, 9/23)
CNN:Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring. Can Infecting People Help Test A Better Vaccine? Whooping cough is surging in the United States, with cases now five times higher than they were at the same point last year, according to preliminary data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was reported Friday. It's the highest number of whooping cough infections since 2014, "with no indication of slowing down," said Dr. Susan Hariri of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who presented the data Friday at a meeting of experts who advise the US Food and Drug Administration on its vaccine decisions. (Goodman and McPhillips, 9/20)
On H5N1 bird flu and H3N2v flu —
CNN:Health Care Worker Is Third Person To Become Ill After Contact With Missouri Patient Who Had Bird Flu A third close contact of a patient in Missouri who was hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has reported that they also experienced symptoms, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The person, a health care worker, was not tested because their symptoms resolved before the investigation into the illnesses began, according to the CDC. (Goodman, 9/20)
CIDRAP:California Confirms More Avian Flu In Dairy Herds, Poultry The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed 6 more H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in California dairy herds, raising the state's total to 16 since the virus was first found in the state's Central Valley dairy farms in the middle of August. (Schnirring, 9/20)
CIDRAP:Minnesota Reports 2 H3N2v Flu Infections In Fairgoers The Minnesota Department of Health has reported two variant H3N2 (H3N2v) flu infections, both involving young people who visited agricultural fairs, where they were exposed to pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly flu update. ... Investigators found that the patients were not contacts of each other but had attended the same agricultural fair. One child had indirect contact with pigs, and the other had direct contact. Both have recovered from their infections. (Schnirring, 9/20)
Many Lawsuits Over Femur Risks Of Merck Drug Fosamax Can Now ProceedMore than 500 lawsuits, which a U.S. appeals court revived on Friday, allege Merck & Co. failed to warn patients that its osteoporosis drug Fosamax raised the risk of thigh bone fractures. Separately, a J&J subsidiary has filed for bankruptcy for the third time as part of its tactic to tackle thousands of lawsuits alleging its talc products caused cancer.
Reuters:Court Revives More Than 500 Lawsuits Over Fosamax Femur Fracture Risk A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived more than 500 lawsuits alleging that Merck & Co failed to warn that its osteoporosis drug Fosamax increased the risk of thigh bone fractures. unanimous panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal law did not block the plaintiffs' state law claims over the drug. Fosamax was acquired in 2021 by Organon, which agreed to indemnify Merck against liability from the lawsuits. (Pierson, 9/20)
Reuters:J&J Unit Files For Bankruptcy To Advance $10 Billion Talc Settlement A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary filed for bankruptcy for a third time on Friday as the healthcare giant seeks to advance an approximately $10 billion proposed settlement that would end tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging that the company's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer. (Knauth, 9/20)
NPR:Philip Morris Sells Asthma Inhaler Company, Citing 'Unwarranted Opposition' To Its Goals Three years after raising health groups' suspicions by acquiring Vectura, a British pharmaceutical firm that makes asthma inhalers, cigarette giant Philip Morris International has made a deal to sell off the inhaler business. Philip Morris says that under its corporate umbrella, the asthma inhaler business was hindered by "unwarranted opposition to PMI's transformation" from a Big Tobacco stalwart into a broadly based health company. Health groups have met this stated goal with skepticism. (Chappell, 9/20)
Stat:Smoking Cessation Drug Development Has Stagnated. Here's Why Of the roughly 15 million Americans who tried to quit smoking in 2022, 5 in 6 failed. It's a jarring statistic — and an indictment of the treatment options for an addiction that kills 480,000 people in the U.S. each year. (Florko, 9/23)
Viewpoints: How Easily Could Obamacare Be Dismantled?; More Menopause Research Is CrucialEditorial writers weigh in on these public health issues.
The New York Times:Trump And Republicans Only Need The Courts To Destroy Obamacare This summer, a pair of Supreme Court decisions radically reshaped the health care landscape by overturning the so-called Chevron doctrine. For the past 40 years, this doctrine acknowledged the technical knowledge of scientists and policy experts within federal agencies, giving deference to "reasonable" regulations these agencies issued to interpret ambiguities always present in the complex laws. (Danielle Ofri, 9/23)
San Diego Union-Tribune:If Your Doctor Refuses To Address Your Menopause, Get Another Doctor American actress Halle Berry, recently joined a group of senators on Capitol Hill demanding research and education dollars for women's health and menopause. When I listened to the audio of her voice, I smiled. With her guttural yell of, "I'm in menopause," I became an instant fan. (Jacqueline Carr, 9/20)
Stat:Time To Rethink The Hatch-Waxman Act As the Hatch-Waxman Act approaches its 40th anniversary, it's time to critically examine its legacy and what it actually gave us: the highest drug prices in the world. (Tahir Amin and Timi Iwayemi, 9/23)
Dallas Morning News:Narcan Vending Machines Are Welcome, But A Troubling Sign Conscience Conduit and nonprofit Livegy, as well as other partners, are delivering Narcan vending machines in Dallas-Fort Worth with hopes of expanding to other parts of the state. The machines provide open access to a powerful drug that can stop an opioid overdose in its tracks. (9/23)
Stat:A Simple — But Not Easy — Way To Stop Research Misconduct On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services published new policies on research misconduct, which apply to research institutions receiving funding through the U.S. Public Health Service. The policies set standards that institutions must follow when investigating and potentially sanctioning researchers alleged to have engaged in research misconduct. (Paul Martin Jensen, 9/23)
