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In a party-line vote of 53-45, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz’s confirmation was expected; he is not as controversial as Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or some other Trump picks to run health agencies within the HHS. (Wilkerson, 4/3)

The chair of a key House panel in setting Republicans’ tax and spending agenda said the GOP will seek savings in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. But Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said that he’d oppose cutting them. Buchanan, the chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said that Republicans could do it by rooting out waste. (Leonard, 4/2)

The Trump administration has repeatedly said it won’t cut Medicare or Medicaid benefits, but these moves have sparked fear, including at rural hospitals. “Everyone is having discussions about these possible Medicare and Medicaid cuts. It’s almost…You can’t avoid talking about it. It’s on everyone’s everyone’s lips,” said Lisa Davis, the director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health. (Roach, 4/4)

Under an emerging Republican plan to require some Medicaid recipients to work, between 4.6 million and 5.2 million adults ages 19 to 55 could lose their health care coverage, according to a new analysis. The study, conducted by Urban Institute researchers with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, calculated that up to 39% of the 13.3 million adults in that age group who became eligible for Medicaid when their states expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act would lose coverage if Congress required states to impose work rules. (Chatlani, 4/3)

A bill that would tighten Medicaid eligibility in Indiana and add work requirements for certain programs was amended and passed out of the Ways and Means Committee in just under an hour on Wednesday, moving on a party-line vote. Earlier that day, a separate committee advanced two other bills impacting the state’s low-income health coverage program, with one seeking to establish a “diversion” program to the state’s fastest-growing expense. (Downard, 4/3)

The Department of Justice on Wednesday urged a federal judge not to toss out its long-running fraud case against UnitedHealth Group that alleges the company illegally collected billions of dollars from the Medicare Advantage program. (Bannow and Herman, 4/3)

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that he expects about 20 percent of fired employees to be reinstated as the agency backtracks after making cuts directed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “Some programs that were cut, they’re being reinstated,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday. “Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. We’re reinstating them.” (Irwin, 4/3)

On Tuesday, thousands of Food and Drug Administration workers were laid off. They were shut out from the government offices where they had worked and placed on administrative leave until June 2. But just hours after employees were shown the door, Barclay Butler, the agency’s new chief operating officer, asked top FDA officials to identify employees to keep working for the next two months, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post. It appears, according to the email, that the agency needed laid-off employees to help transition as it was shedding workers. (Roubein, 4/3)

House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce committee are demanding a hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F Kennedy Jr. about the massive layoffs happening at his agency. But so far, GOP leadership has committed to a staff-level briefing only, according to a spokesperson for Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). Health subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) in a statement Thursday said a staff briefing isn’t enough. (Weixel, 4/3)

The layoffs at CDC this week hit global and environmental health as well as HIV prevention programs especially hard, according to an overview document obtained by POLITICO. The document, shared during an agency meeting Tuesday, paints a picture of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will be more narrowly focused on infectious disease, with a significantly less holistic view of public health. The job cuts include the elimination of about a fourth of the staff at the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention and about a third of the workers at the CDC’s Injury Center. (Gardner, 4/3)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has eliminated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's laboratories for sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis, multiple officials tell CBS News, disrupting ongoing work to respond to outbreaks. Lab staff were informed this week of the cuts as part of the 10,000 layoffs done around the Department of Health and Human Services. Within the agency, officials are now warning of delays and disruptions to testing as a result. (Tin, 4/3)

A committee of experts that advises the Department of Health and Human Services on emerging ethical and legal issues in human health research has been disbanded, according to an email obtained by STAT. (Molteni and Silverman, 4/3)

The Trump administration has abruptly laid off the entire staff running a $4.1 billion program to help low-income households across the United States pay their heating and cooling bills. The firings threaten to paralyze the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which was created by Congress in 1981 and helps to offset high utility bills for roughly 6.2 million people from Maine to Texas during frigid winters and hot summers. (Plumer, 4/2)

Hotlines that have fielded millions of calls from people — including new mothers — looking for mental health support or to quit smoking are in limbo after federal officials fired the workers who oversaw them. (Cueto, 4/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: DOGE Job Cuts Hit Federal Workers’ Finances And Mental Health

Federal workers are feeling demoralized and anxious as the Department of Government Efficiency slashes tens of thousands of jobs. Federal employment used to carry the promise of job security and an opportunity to serve the nation. But in recent weeks, uncertainty may be the most defining characteristic of being a federal worker. The stress is felt especially in Washington, D.C., where nearly 50,000 people work for the federal government. (Pradhan, 4/4)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: American Health Gets A Pink Slip

The Department of Health and Human Services underwent an unprecedented purge this week, as thousands of employees from the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other agencies were fired, placed on administrative leave, or offered transfers to far-flung Indian Health Service facilities. Altogether, the layoffs mean the federal government, in a single day, shed hundreds if not thousands of combined years of health and science expertise. (Rovner, 4/3)

More than 350,000 noncitizen healthcare workers in the U.S. may be at risk of deportation as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, researchers estimated. Based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) from March 2024, there were over 20 million individuals making up the workforce across formal and informal healthcare settings nationwide, of whom an estimated 16.7 million were U.S.-born citizens, 2.3 million naturalized citizens, nearly 700,000 documented noncitizens, and over 366,500 undocumented immigrants. (Lou, 4/3)

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's move to cut over $11 billion in public health funding to states after 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to keep the funding intact. The coalition of states sued the Health and Human Services Department and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that the money is used for many "urgent public health needs," including tracking diseases, funding access to vaccines and mental health and addiction services, and improving health infrastructures. (Rosen and Tin, 4/3)

The Trump administration plans to freeze $510 million in federal grants to Brown University while it reviews the school's response to antisemitism and its efforts to eliminate diversity policies, the White House confirmed Thursday. Brown, however, said it was unaware of the funding freeze. (Jacobs and Cordes, 4/3)

The Trump administration detailed a raft of changes it wants from Harvard University in a letter received by the school Thursday, days after threatening to end as much as $9 billion in federal funding for the school. The demands include nine items, including eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a broad ban on masks, merit-based admissions and hiring that eliminates any preferences including based on race or national origin, law enforcement cooperation, as well as additional oversight for “biased programs that fuel antisemitism.” (Lorin, 4/3)

Food has been front and center in the Make America Healthy Again movement, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign to solve chronic disease in the United States. That’s why forthcoming federal guidance on nutrition could draw extra attention this time around, even as a massive reorganization of the nation’s health workforce unfolds. (Cooney, 4/4)

The nation’s LGBTQ research field is collapsing. In recent weeks, academics who focus on improving the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans have been subjected to waves of grant cancellations from the National Institutes of Health. More than 270 grants totaling at least $125 million of unspent funds have been eliminated, though the true sum is likely much greater, researchers told NBC News.  (Ryan and Bendix, 4/3)

A transgender college student declared “I am here to break the law” before entering a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol and being led out in handcuffs by police. Civil rights attorneys say the arrest of Marcy Rheintgen last month is the first they know of for violating transgender bathroom restrictions passed by numerous state legislatures across the country. (Schoenbaum, 4/3)

Eliza Munshi kneeled on her bedroom floor curling her lashes. She dabbed glitter into the corners of her eyes and debated whether to tie her hair into one French braid or two. She slipped on her green jersey and headed to her first track and field meet. At Falls Church High School, she waited for a practice throw in the discus event, taking her place in a line of boys. Runners passed by on the track. Coaches hovered nearby. Eliza was nervous, but in the way that any teen might be before their first competition in a new sport. (Elwood, 4/3)

The Trump administration vows to emphasize addiction treatment alongside an enforcement-first drug policy, according to a not-yet-public strategy document obtained by STAT. In an effort to reduce overdose deaths caused by fentanyl and other illicit substances, the administration plans to “disrupt the supply chain from tooth to tail,” according to the document, known as the Statement of Drug Policy Priorities. (Facher, 4/3)

A secluded corner surrounded by litter and makeshift structures on the outskirts of South Africa’s capital is home to dozens of people with drug addiction. ... In the project backed by the University of Pretoria and the Tshwane municipality, they offer the chance to exchange needles for new, sterile ones. Needle exchange is not a new idea globally, but such efforts have been jolted by the Trump administration’s decision to kill 83% of U.S. Agency for International Development programs around the world. (Magome, 4/4)

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson said he will get involved in the agency’s legal action against the leading pharmacy benefit managers. In a post shared Thursday on the social media platform X, Ferguson said he no longer is recusing himself from the matter. (Berryman, 4/3)

Over 30 state attorneys general including in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio have urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take action against “bad actors” selling counterfeit weight loss drugs. High demand for drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, Zepbound and Wegovy paired with a shortage has created a market for counterfeits, according to the letter. (Thorp, 4/3)

A pharmacist at the University of Maryland Medical Center installed spyware on hospital computers, allowing him to access intimate pictures and videos of medical personnel, according to a lawsuit filed last week against the medical system. (Belson and Gluck, 4/3)

Just weeks after two state surgeons general said they will no longer promote vaccinations, state officials announced that two Louisiana children have died of pertussis, or whooping cough—a vaccine-preventable disease—in the past 6 months, CNN reported yesterday. The news comes as Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, MD, confirmed 110 pertussis cases in Louisiana as of last week, compared with 154 for all of 2024. (Wappes, 4/3)

An adult infected with measles traveled through Newark International Airport while infectious, New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) officials said yesterday. The person, who is not a resident of New Jersey, potentially exposed fellow travelers at Newark and other places in Bergen County in the last week of March. (Soucheray, 4/3)

Tiny Tots U Learning Academy on University Avenue confirmed its first case of measles in a child they take care of on March 24; since then, it had grown to several confirmed cases. The measles cases were being found in unvaccinated children and some who had received the first dose of the MMR vaccine. (Powers, 4/3)

Katherine Wells was tapping her phone. It was the last week of January, and the director for the Lubbock Health Department had a jam-packed schedule. She was working with her team to put in place the new community health plan. Flu cases were on the rise. She had media interviews lined up to talk about stopping the spread. She refreshed her email again. And there it was — confirmation that someone in nearby Gaines County had tested positive for measles. It was the first for the region in 20 years. (Carver, 4/3)

Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico reported new measles cases this week, with the outbreak expanding for the first time into central Texas. Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. ... The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak. (Shastri, 4/3)

As the United States faces one of its worst measles outbreaks in decades, a new analysis finds that nearly a third of young children who were eligible to be vaccinated against the disease did not get their first shot on schedule. (McPhillips and Mukherjee, 4/3)

A U.S. judge said several companies including Walmart, Beech-Nut and Gerber must face a nationwide lawsuit claiming that toxic heavy metals contaminated their baby food, causing brain and neurodevelopmental damage to children who ate it. In a decision on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said parents can try to prove that defective manufacturing, negligence and failure to warn about more than 600 baby food products caused their children to suffer autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (Stempel, 4/3)

Workers at one of the nation’s largest baby formula plants say the Abbott Laboratories facility is engaging in unsanitary practices similar to those that led it to temporarily shut down just three years ago, sparking a nationwide formula shortage. Current and former employees told ProPublica that they have seen the plant in Sturgis, Michigan, take shortcuts when cleaning manufacturing equipment and testing for microbes. ... One worker complained to the Food and Drug Administration in February. (Vogell, 4/4)

Scientists are finding microplastics everywhere from brain tissue to arteries and warning of the health risks posed by their buildup inside our bodies. They’re also discovering just how easily the tiny particles get there. Microplastics don’t just shed off of plastic items from overuse, like when a water bottle breaks down over weeks or months of being washed and refilled. They also leach into our food and drinks with even the brief use of a product with plastic components, alarming scientists. (Steinberg and Nguyen, 4/3)

At 40, Keith Krehbiel was a successful political scientist with a distinguished professorship, an award-winning book and a membership at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. But he also was experiencing a tremor and pain in his right hand that later spread to his arm. Two years later, a neurologist confirmed that Krehbiel had Parkinson’s disease. (Kim, 4/3)

Miller Gardner, the 14-year-old son of former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, died from carbon monoxide poisoning during the family's vacation at an upscale Costa Rican resort, authorities in the country revealed. Authorities conducted a blood test for carbon monoxide and found a saturation level of 64% in the teen's body, Costa Rican officials said. Concentrations above 50% are considered lethal. (Reja, 4/3)

Taylor Crittenden still feels “righteous rage” when she thinks about her experiences at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Crittenden, a nurse at a hospital in Texas, remembers staffing shortages, limitations on personal protective equipment like heavy-duty masks, and long hours as health facilities were being overrun with COVID patients. (Rodriguez, 4/3)

Ascension plans to sell four Michigan hospitals to Beacon Health System as the national hospital operator continues to narrow its acute care footprint. ... Nonprofit Beacon Health System operates six hospitals in Indiana and one in Michigan. The proposed transaction is expected to close this summer, pending customary regulatory approvals, Beacon said in a Thursday news release. (Kacik, 4/3)

Aveanna Healthcare announced Thursday it has made an agreement to acquire Thrive Skilled Pediatric Care for $75 million. The Atlanta-based home healthcare provider expects the deal to close in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, pending regulatory approval, according to a news release. Aveanna is funding the purchase through a variety of sources, including stock and cash, the release said. (Eastabrook, 4/3)

David Banks has been named the new president and CEO of AdventHealth, the system said in a news release Thursday. Banks succeeds Terry Shaw, who stepped down as CEO in December but will remain a member of the organization's board, the health system said. Banks previously served in multiple leadership roles across the system, including most recently as chief strategy officer, as well as CEO of the Primary Health Division and the Multi-State Division of AdventHealth, overseeing 22 campuses across eight states and three regional partnerships. (DeSilva, 4/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Immigration Crackdowns Disrupt The Caregiving Industry. Families Pay The Price

Alanys Ortiz reads Josephine Senek’s cues before she speaks. Josephine, who lives with a rare and debilitating genetic condition, fidgets her fingers when she’s tired and bites the air when something hurts. Josephine, 16, has been diagnosed with tetrasomy 8p mosaicism, severe autism, severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, among other conditions, which will require constant assistance and supervision for the rest of her life. (Sánchez and Chang, 4/4)

Until last summer, Coloradans who wanted to learn more about problems inspectors found at funeral homes could get copies of their reports. The documents would reveal whether refrigerators storing bodies were set at the correct temperature, whether the facility was sanitary, whether or not workers had the proper equipment and if records were properly maintained. But state regulators say the legislature removed the public’s access to funeral home inspection reports last year in the same bill they passed to tighten regulations on the industry. (Franz, 4/4)

A South Carolina Senate committee rejected the Republican governor’s nominee to be the state’s top doctor after hours of hearings dominated by the state’s response to the COVID pandemic. Just one of 13 Republicans on the Senate Medical Affairs Committee voted for Dr. Edward Simmer ‘s nomination to lead the new Department of Public Health — in contrast to the Republican-dominated Senate’s overwhelming endorsement of Simmer in 2021 as head of the state’s old public health and environmental agency. (Collins, 4/4)

Most Minnesota parents have long supported comprehensive sexual health education for students, and Minnesota school districts have the power to do more on sex education than what the state requires — and students can opt out from the curriculum. The question under discussion now is whether to require districts statewide to do more. (Stroozas, 4/4)

Rather than seek an abortion, parents who want or need to give their newborns up for adoption anonymously could surrender their babies at climate-controlled boxes installed at Kansas City fire stations under a proposal introduced Thursday by 1st District Councilman Nathan Willett. (Hendricks, 4/4)

The city of Baltimore filed a lawsuit Thursday against sports betting companies DraftKings and FanDuel, accusing them of violating state and city law by engaging in “unfair and deceptive practices. ”In a complaint filed with the Baltimore City Circuit Court on behalf of the city’s mayor and municipal council, the two sites were accused of employing misleading promotions to lure people into signing up with their platforms, then using reams of data to identify users least able to resist enticements to keep gambling. (Bieler, 4/3)

Three people in Mammoth Lakes (Mono County) have died of hantavirus, the rodent-borne virus that killed Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, health officials announced Thursday. Human cases of hantavirus — which spreads through contact with infected deer mice — are rare. Fewer than 100 California residents have been diagnosed with the respiratory illness since 1980, according to the state Department of Public Health. (Mishanec, 4/3)

When wildfire smoke drifts into the Methow Valley, it tends to stay, settling in the folds of the Cascade foothills like a choking fog. Recent summers have brought weeks-long binges of unhealthy air to one of Washington state’s poorest counties, rivaling some of the most polluted cities in the world. Countering this intensifying threat are small nonprofit organizations such as the Methow Valley Citizens Council, which has been distributing air purifiers, maintaining a network of air quality monitors, and spreading the message about how to keep safe when the smoke rolls in. Much of that work was funded by a three-year, $440,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, which got cut off last week amid the agency’s push to slash spending. (Partlow and Ajasa, 4/3)

Researchers historically have viewed autism as a distinctly “male” neurotype. But why? Is it because they only paid attention to symptoms in boys, and girls haven’t been screened properly? Boys are 10 times more likely than girls to be referred for autism assessments, a 2020 review showed, and a 2023 study suggests that up to 80% of girls and women may receive a diagnosis of social anxiety, eating disorder or borderline personality disorder before being accurately diagnosed as autistic. (Villano, 4/2)

A recent arrest in Georgia highlights the criminal suspicion that surrounds pregnancy loss in several states, experts say. (Aspinwall, 4/2)

Hospitals routinely report parents to child welfare authorities based on error-prone drug tests. Some hospitals are changing policy as a result. (Walter, 4/2)

Katharine Dexter McCormick, who was born to a life of wealth, which she compounded through marriage, could have sat back and simply enjoyed the many advantages that flowed her way. Instead, she put her considerable fortune — matched by her considerable willfulness — into making life better for women. An activist, philanthropist and benefactor, McCormick used her wealth strategically, most notably to underwrite the basic research that led to the development of the birth control pill in the late 1950s. (Seelye, 4/3)

Alabama and Illinois share little in common politically — especially when it comes to guns. But both are among the growing number of states bridging the partisan divide to ban “Glock switches,” a cheap, tiny device that gives a pistol the fully automatic capabilities of a machine gun. Last month, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill making hers the 25th state to outlaw the conversion devices, sometimes called auto-sears. New Mexico’s governor signed a similar ban in an omnibus health and safety bill in February, while New Jersey could become the 26th state (plus Washington, D.C.) after passing a ban through its general assembly last week. (Bellware, 4/3)

Alice Cook knows big challenges. As a US Olympic figure skater, her drive and dedication landed her in Innsbruck, Austria, skating in the pairs competition at the 1976 Games. Nine years later, at age 30, she became Boston’s first full-time female reporter in the male-dominated world of local television sports — a position that made her a familiar face on WBZ, embraced by viewers and athletes for 25 years. Now faced with her most daunting challenge, Cook has her athlete’s eye fixed on running the Boston Marathon. It will be her second time running the race since being diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in December 2023. (Dupont, 4/3)

Biomedical research carried out across the Harvard ecosystem is a beacon for progress across the globe, ranging from fundamental studies of molecules, cells and biological systems to therapeutic advances in cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and virtually every area of human health. N.I.H. funding supports a large proportion of this work, carried out by thousands of physicians and Ph.D. scientist faculty members and trainees. It’s unclear how the threatened review of grants will affect this extraordinary community, but losing momentum for this work and the care of patients could be dire. (Jeffrey Flier, 4/4)

There is a troubling possibility that the amount and quality of American research will decline over the next four years. But it seems early-onset cancer is an arena in which the interests of the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., align with scientific priorities. After all, this is about chronic illness that may be at least somewhat linked to consumption of ultra-processed foods and an unhealthy lifestyle. If Mr. Kennedy truly wants to make America healthy again, perhaps he should forgo pointless investigations into whether vaccines cause autism, and focus here instead. (Daniela J. Lamas, 4/4)

There’s a theory of cancer causation that I’ve been thinking about recently called the two-hit hypothesis. It proposes that cancer begins with two mutations: one that can be inherited and one that is influenced by environmental or other factors. Public health seems to be in the midst of experiencing two hits. The result could be deadly. (Scott Rivkees, 4/4)

To our community and supporters of reproductive freedom, I am compelled to speak out regarding the recent use of Abortion Action Missouri resources in support of a mayoral campaign that is actively targeting a staunch reproductive freedom advocate in the St. Louis mayoral race — Alderwoman Cara Spencer. (Sheila Greenbaum, 4/2)

Coal dust is associated with a range of lung illnesses including, most famously, black lung and is believed to carry more risk of emphysema, a progressive lung disease, than smoking. Yet what is also concerning, but not really addressed by what scientists found in dust samples, is this: What other airborne toxic substances might folks living in Curtis Bay be breathing in on a regular basis and what has been the impact over years? (4/3)