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Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday voted to put new regulations on pharmacy benefit managers in an effort to curb the closure of small pharmacies across the state. The Alabama House of Representatives voted 102-0 for the proposal that will require pharmacy benefit managers to reimburse independent pharmacists at least at the state Medicaid rate for prescription drugs. The bill now goes to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. (4/9)

Alabama legislators unanimously passed a bill on Tuesday that would expedite access to Medicaid for pregnant women, as more states across the South attempt to stem high maternal and infant mortality rates. The “presumptive eligibility” legislation states that Medicaid will pay for a pregnant woman’s outpatient medical care for up to 60 days while an application for the government-funded insurance program is being considered. The bill will now go to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk for her signature. (Riddle, 4/8)

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined lawmakers in Arizona on Tuesday to celebrate the passage of two bills targeting causes he’s championed in his so-called Make America Healthy Again agenda. Arizona will join a growing list of states seeking to stop low-income residents from using government-issued food benefits to purchase sugary beverages, including those made by Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc. Arizona legislators also passed a bill banning ultra-processed food from being purchased in public schools. (Pulley and Muller, 4/8)

A California appeals court judge expressed concern Tuesday that a ruling ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs to build housing for homeless veterans on the grounds of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center would be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, during oral arguments, Judge Consuelo Callahan, the presiding judge on a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, said "it's hard to say the VA has done a good job" of meeting the needs of the estimated 3,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles. (Sisk, 4/8)

Leading Democrats in Congress are turning their attention to service members exposed to toxins at domestic military bases and other environmental disasters who were left out of a sweeping law that extended veterans benefits to millions who were exposed to toxins in combat zones. At a roundtable on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, representatives from more than a dozen military and veterans advocacy groups and researchers detailed health battles that service members have faced after drinking tainted water, working with radiation and hazardous chemicals, living in moldy housing, and breathing toxic fumes. (Kheel and Novelly, 4/8)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: This Bill Aims To Help Firefighters With Cancer. Getting It Passed Is Just The Beginning

As firefighters battled the catastrophic blazes in Los Angeles County in January, California’s U.S. senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, signed onto legislation with a simple aim: Provide federal assistance to first responders diagnosed with service-related cancer. The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act is considered crucial by its supporters, with climate change fueling an increase in wildfire frequency and firefighting deemed carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. (Kreidler, 4/9)

Laura Putnam never thought her sons would receive melatonin supplements at day care. She enrolled them at Apple Blossom Childcare in Falmouth, Maine, when they were 1 and 2 years old. She said she hasn’t given them melatonin and hasn’t granted anyone else permission to give them the supplement, which mimics a hormone produced in the brain that makes people sleepy. But in August, Putnam said, she learned from a former employee at the day care center that he and others had given melatonin gummies to children, including her older son, who was 4 years old at the time. (Steinberg and Nguyen, 4/8)