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The Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier for students to prove their schools are not making proper accommodations for disabilities, ruling for the family of a Minnesota teen with a severe form of epilepsy who claimed her school district did not do enough to meet her instructional needs. An attorney for Ava Tharpe argued that schoolchildren had to meet an unfairly high burden to show schools are falling short under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act and other disability statutes. The high court unanimously agreed. (Jouvenal, 6/12)

Federal officials are holding off on implementing new regulations that were hailed as the largest expansion of rights for airline passengers with disabilities in a generation. The U.S. Department of Transportation said this week that it will not enforce what’s known as the “Wheelchair Rule” until at least August. The rule, which was finalized by the Biden administration in December, requires annual training for airline staff and contractors who help people with disabilities or who handle wheelchairs. In addition, the regulations impose stronger standards for how assistance must be provided, specifying that it be “safe and dignified,” and detail the steps airlines must take if a wheelchair is damaged or delayed. (Heasley, 6/11)

About a dozen residents of a homeless encampment in northwest Berkeley will be allowed to remain there while the city continues its effort to dismantle the settlement. The Berkeleyside reports the order will allow at least a dozen residents with physical and mental disabilities to remain at the site for about two months. The court gave the City of Berkeley the time to find accommodations for the disabled residents. (Khalid, 6/11)

Are students with special needs safe in school? It’s a question Project Baltimore has been asking for weeks after uncovering new information following a student’s death. Now, additional special education data obtained by Fox45 News, has one advocate saying safety is not always a school’s top priority. (Papst, 6/12)

The House overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation Thursday that would solidify federal policies cracking down on the synthetic opioid fentanyl and its analogs in a bid by lawmakers to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic. The HALT Fentanyl Act makes permanent a 2018 emergency rule that classifies knockoffs of fentanyl as Schedule I controlled substances, which results in harsher sentences for possession of the drug. The bill passed the House 321-104 and now heads to President Donald Trump for his signature. (Brown, 6/12)

Urine drug test (UDT) data can generate timely estimates of overdose deaths, a new study suggests. The study, published in JAMA Network Open by specialty lab Millennium Health and The Ohio State University, aimed to determine whether UDT data could provide near real-time indications of overdose trends. Effective responses to the overdose crisis must be prompt, the study noted, which requires a timely evaluation of current trends. However, current publicly available data on fatal overdoses in the U.S. can lag by at least six months. (Gliadkovskaya, 6/12)

Veterans’ advocates have worked for years to stop unaccredited consultants from charging vets thousands of dollars for help filing disability claims​, b​ut setbacks in court and on Capitol Hill indicate their quest to ban the deep-pocketed companies could be in peril. With Republicans in control of Congress, a bill legalizing for-profit claims consultants nationwide will advance to a full House of Representatives vote, the first time such a measure has made it out of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Meanwhile, a competing bill introduced by a Democrat, which would crack down on for-profit companies by imposing criminal penalties, has not advanced. (Rosenbaum, 6/12)

The House narrowly voted Thursday to cut about $9.4 billion in spending already approved by Congress as President Donald Trump’s administration looks to follow through on work done by the Department of Government Efficiency when it was overseen by Elon Musk. The package targets foreign aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides money for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service as well as thousands of public radio and television stations around the country. The vote was 214-212.Republicans are characterizing the spending as wasteful and unnecessary, but Democrats say the rescissions are hurting the United States’ standing in the world and will lead to needless deaths. (Freking, 6/12)

The Trump administration is working on a new effort to both weaken Congress’ grip on the federal budget and freeze billions of dollars in spending at several government agencies, people familiar with the strategy told POLITICO’s E&E News. The strategy: order agencies to freeze the spending now — then ask Congress’ approval, using a maneuver that allows the cuts to become permanent if lawmakers fail to act. (Waldman and Hiar, 6/12)

Senate Democrats introduced legislation Thursday to target waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid as the GOP majority hastens to cut more than $800 billion from the program. The Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 would enact a slew of tax cuts that are at the heart of President Donald Trump’s agenda, partially paid for by slashing healthcare spending by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, with most of the money coming from Medicaid. (McAuliff, 6/12)

The Republican megabill now before the Senate cuts taxes for high earners and reduces benefits for the poor. If it’s enacted, that combination would make it more regressive than any major tax or entitlement law in decades. (Badger, Parlapiano and Sanger-Katz, 6/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Batter Rural Hospital Finances, Researchers Say

Cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs proposed in President Donald Trump’s budget plan would rapidly push more than 300 financially struggling rural hospitals toward a fiscal cliff, according to researchers who track the facilities’ finances. The hospitals would be at a disproportionate risk of closure, service reductions, or ending inpatient care, according to a report authored by experts from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research following a request from Senate Democrats, who released the findings publicly Thursday. (Orozco Rodriguez, 6/12)

A recently ousted member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said Thursday that she is recommending that physicians go to sources other than ACIP for vaccine scheduling recommendations. "It puts us in a very dangerous place if we can't trust the national recommendations made by ACIP," said Helen Chu, MD, professor of allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington, in Seattle. (Frieden, 6/12)

Two new vaccine advisers tapped by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have served as paid expert witnesses for plaintiffs suing Merck & Co. over some of the drug company’s inoculations targeting measles, mumps and cancer. Robert Malone, a scientist who has espoused debunked theories about the safety of vaccines, along with Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard-trained epidemiologist who has studied their side effects, were added to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s committee on immunization policy. Both men have been hired by plaintiffs’ attorneys in the past to opine about Merck’s handling of its vaccines, court filings show. (Feeley and Garde, 6/12)

President Trump’s former surgeon general blasted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to fire the entirety of a federal advisory committee on vaccine guidance, saying the move jeopardizes public health and threatens public trust in health institutions. In an op-ed published by Time, former Surgeon General Jerome Adams wrote that Kennedy’s recent actions cast doubt over his pledge that, “We won’t take away anyone’s vaccines.” (Choi, 6/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: RFK Jr. Upends Vaccine Policy, After Promising He Wouldn’t

After explicitly promising senators during his confirmation hearing that he would not interfere in scientific policy over which Americans should receive which vaccines, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week fired every member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the group of experts who help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make those evidence-based judgments. Kennedy then appointed new members, including vaccine skeptics, prompting alarm from the broader medical community. (Rovner, 6/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Kennedy’s HHS Sent Congress ‘Junk Science’ To Defend Vaccine Changes, Experts Say

A document the Department of Health and Human Services sent to lawmakers to support Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to change U.S. policy on covid vaccines cites scientific studies that are unpublished or under dispute and mischaracterizes others. One health expert called the document “willful medical disinformation” about the safety of covid vaccines for children and pregnant women. (Fortiér, 6/13)

Public health experts are taking it upon themselves to counter recent moves by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that could dramatically change US vaccine policy. They have formed a shadow group of specialists who can give recommendations on who should receive which vaccines, and are urging insurers to continue paying for shots. (Cohrs Zhang, Nix, and Smith, 6/12)

Dozens of medical and public health organizations have signed a letter urging insurers to continue covering COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant patients. The letter from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is in response to the recent move by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to no longer recommend COVID-19 shots for healthy pregnant women. (Dall, 6/12)

The Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Moderna’s RSV vaccine on Thursday, extending the license to include adults aged 18 to 59 who are at high risk of severe illness if they contract respiratory syncytial virus. (Branswell, 6/12)

Under President Donald Trump’s order, signed in May, Wednesday marked the 30-day deadline for the administration to release its price targets. Executives and lobbyists for the industry were waiting for more details on the proposal and gaming out a wide variety of scenarios. But a White House spokesperson told STAT on Wednesday the companies already had the price targets, pointing to a May 20 announcement from the administration that laid out a broad target for the negotiations: that drugs should be the lowest price offered in peer nations. (Payne, 6/12)

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April that he plans to tell medical schools to teach nutrition or risk losing federal funding, ABC News reported last week. "Under Secretary Kennedy's leadership, HHS is committed to ensuring that nutrition is treated as core clinical knowledge -- not a wellness extra -- in building a healthcare system equipped to prevent and manage chronic disease," an HHS spokesperson told MedPage Today in an email. (Nielsen, 6/12)

A Harvard addiction scientist and a former government lawyer are urging the US Department of Justice to reject a plan that would ease federal restrictions on cannabis, which the industry has been counting on to grow their businesses. In a new paper published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, the authors argue that the Biden administration’s push to reclassify cannabis relied on flawed reasoning and downplayed health risks, including cannabis-use disorder and links to psychosis. (Rutherford, 6/11)

A judge released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the US on Thursday, freeing her on bail after a brief hearing. Kseniia Petrova, 30, who was brought into court wearing an orange jumpsuit, had been in federal custody since February. She was seen walking out of the courthouse laughing and hugging supporters. (Guardian staff and agency, 6/12)

The American Medical Association has adopted a new policy that calls for clinical AI tools that can explain their answers. It also wants the AI purveyors to provide safety and efficacy data. To make AI explainable means that the AI should be able to cite sources or back up its decisions with data clinicians can review. The AMA adopted the policy at its annual house of delegates meeting in Chicago this week, and it calls for an independent third party — like a regulatory agency or other certifying body — to verify that AI tools are actually explainable. (Reader, 6/12)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan said Thursday it has laid off nearly 220 nonunion staff members and eliminated more than 400 unfilled, nonunion positions. The cuts are part of a long-term, $600 million cost savings plan the insurer began in 2024 to reduce administrative expenses over three years. Last year, the company said it saved more than $200 million in administrative costs. (DeSilva, 6/12)

Medtronic announced Thursday that its new diabetes company will be called MiniMed. The move comes after the news on May 21 that the company intends to separate its diabetes business into a standalone company. The company said at the time that the decision would allow it to focus on high-margin growth markets. The diabetes business accounted for 8% of its $33.5 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025, which ended April 25. (Dubinsky, 6/12)

The collaboration boosts AstraZeneca’s presence in ChinaAstraZeneca said it entered into a strategic research collaboration with China’s CSPC Pharmaceuticals, focused on artificial intelligence-driven research, valued at up to $5.33 billion. The partnership aims to advance the discovery and development of novel oral candidates, with the potential to treat diseases across multiple indications, the British pharmaceutical giant said Friday. (Figueras, 6/13)

Systematic reviews, which involve pooling data from multiple studies and analyzing them together, are increasingly popular as a way to produce more authoritative conclusions than can be derived from the individual smaller papers. In recent weeks, systematic reviews have been used to justify policy around gender affirming care as well as in the MAHA report. (Oza, 6/12)

The average age of moms giving birth in the U.S. continues to rise, hitting nearly 30 years old in 2023, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the report, published Friday by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, researchers found the average age of all mothers giving birth in the United States increased from 28.7 years old in 2016 to 29.6 in 2023. For new first-time moms, average age also increased, from 26.6 in 2016 to 27.5 in 2023. The data was taken from the National Vital Statistics System, which includes all birth records in the country. (Moniuszko, 6/13)

A common household chemical might hold a surprising secret—one that could help prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In a new paper published in the Journal of Perinatology, researchers at Rutgers Health propose that caffeine—long used as a respiratory stimulant in premature infants—could help protect babies from the low-oxygen episodes that may trigger SIDS and other forms of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). (Gray, 6/12)

Prenatal exposure to a class of dangerous, widely used chemicals could be linked to your child having high blood pressure as a teen, according to a new study. (Holcombe, 6/12)

At Odenplan Square in central Stockholm, high school students move in packs, enjoying a day off and the early spring weather. Even though graduation is still weeks away, some seniors are already sporting their celebratory caps, per Swedish tradition. One of them is 19-year-old Olivia Persson, who, in addition to wearing the sailor-style hat, carries a bright tin of nicotine pouches. So do most of the other girls in her crew, each in turn showing off colorful containers with peach and apple-mint flavors tucked into pockets and purses. (Ekblom, 6/12)

A new study based on blood samples from 147 children with or without COVID-19 shows severe COVID infections may cause lasting metabolic changes in children that could impact heart health. The study was published yesterday in the Journal of Proteome Research. The blood samples included serum taken from children who were hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital for severe COVID infections, including MIS-C (multiple inflammatory syndrome in children), a rare but serious complication that can follow mild to moderate COVID cases. (Soucheray, 6/12)

The FDA approved mitomycin intravesical solution (Zusduri) as a nonsurgical option for recurrent low-grade, intermediate-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The product won the indication despite a negative recommendation from the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC). During a meeting in May, the panel voted 5-4 to recommend that the risks of the treatment outweigh the benefits. (Bankhead, 6/12)

Starting fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) at ages 40 to 49 was associated with reduced colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality compared with starting screening at age 50, a Taiwanese cohort study suggested. Among over 263,000 participants, the incidence of CRC was 26.1 per 100,000 person-years for those who participated in early screening (at ages 40 to 49) versus 42.6 per 100,000 person-years for those who participated in regular screening (at age 50 and older), reported Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen, PhD, of National Taiwan University in Taipei, and colleagues. (DeBenedette, 6/12)

Lawmakers have strengthened Illinois’ longstanding sexual abuse survivors law in an effort to ensure patients receive critical care after sexual assault. (Martin, 6/12)

The Illinois secretary of state on Thursday asked for an investigation into a suburban Chicago police department after learning that it violated state law by sharing data from automatic license-plate readers with a Texas sheriff seeking a woman who had an abortion. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias asked the attorney general to review the matter. He also is creating an audit system to ensure police departments don’t run afoul of a 2023 law banning the distribution of license-plate data to track women seeking abortions or to find undocumented immigrants. (O’Connor, 6/12)

Hospitals, physician groups, and nursing homes across 15 states will receive billions of dollars in extra Medicaid funding this year thanks to federal health care officials signing off on new agreements. (Herman, 6/13)

States are turning to hospital price caps as other regulatory policies have yet to significantly slow healthcare spending. Nearly a dozen states have introduced bills over the past year that look to curb healthcare cost growth by limiting hospital prices, borrowing strategies from early price cap adopters in Rhode Island and Oregon. More states are poised to crack down on hospital prices because cost growth benchmarks, price transparency and other policies have yet to dent healthcare spending, industry observers said. (Kacik, 6/12)

The State of Nevada will pay more than $753,000 in court-ordered fines for delays in providing criminal defendants with mental health care at a psychiatric facility in Sparks. The Nevada Board of Examiners — composed of the governor, attorney general and secretary of state — signed off on the payment Tuesday after a Washoe County district court judge in April held the state in contempt for failing to provide timely treatment to criminal defendants deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. (Neugeboren, 6/12)

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Thursday she is investigating whether pharmaceutical giant CVS improperly used customers’ personal information to send out text messages lobbying against a proposed state law. Murrill also said she plans to issue a cease-and-desist letter to the company to stop the messages. As lawmakers debated a now-failed bill on Wednesday they held up screenshots of text messages sent by CVS. (Cline and Brook, 6/13)

The 2025 Texas Legislature proved to be a session of recalibration, where health care regulations were either tightened or loosened and attempts to delve further into some policy areas were left hanging until the next session. (Langford, Simpson and Klibanoff, 6/13)

A reported 17,377 abortions had been performed in Florida this year as of June 2, a 45.8 percent decrease from a comparable period in 2024, according to state data. The drop came after a law took effect in May 2024 that prevented most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. (6/12)

Much has been said and written over the years about controversial malaria research conducted on inmates at Illinois’ Stateville Penitentiary starting in the 1940s. But at least one part of that story has been largely ignored until now: the role of Black prisoners in that research, which helped lead to the modern practice of using genetic testing to understand how individual patients will react to certain medications, according to the authors of a newly published paper out of the University of Utah. (Schencker, 6/11)

American physicians’ understanding of health was based around the male body, while diagnoses for mental health disorders were based around symptoms experienced by women — a history that still haunts health care today. (Dunlap, Troutman and Nebbe, 6/10)

The young woman’s voice trembled over the phone. Sitting in her car in Alabama, where abortion is almost totally banned, the 26-year-old mother of two was grappling with an unintended pregnancy. “I’m like ‘How in the world?’” she said, stifling a sob. “I already have two children, and I cannot. I can’t. I just can’t go through with it.” She wanted an abortion, she said, but was afraid of getting caught and didn’t know what to expect from the process. (Belluck, 6/9)

From movies and TV shows to music, the habit is no longer taboo. It’s even being celebrated for the way it makes characters look cool or powerful. (Zuckerman, 6/11)

Tanner and Shay found themselves facing an unbearable duality: Preparing for their daughter’s arrival and bracing for her father’s death. (Cha, Cornejo, Chikwendiu, Keating and Wall, 6/12)

Pesticides are a leading means of suicide. The tiny nation of Suriname is working to restrict access to one of the most common and dangerous ones. (Alcorn, 6/10)

The Ah Ma Flippa Ball team (ah ma means grandmother) is one example of how Singapore is encouraging its growing population of seniors to stay active. As Singapore has prospered, life expectancy here has soared to 84 and now nearly a fifth of the population is over 65. (Wee, 6/13)

Many readers say they no longer trust guidance from federal health agencies and have asked where else they can go for vaccine information now. I think they should still continue to consult government sites including the CDC, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, as most information featured there appears unaltered. This could change, especially if anti-vaccine voices gain additional influence. (Leana S. Wen, 6/12)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda may get the headlines, but his plans as Health and Human Services secretary also include something that has gone largely overlooked: overhauling U.S. health care spending priorities, targeting the current procedural terminology (CPT) billing codes. (Rotimi Kukoyi, Victor Agbafe, David N. Bernstein and Joan Perry, 6/13)

If Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to “clean up the corruption and conflicts” at HHS, he is going about it the wrong way. I study conflicts of interest at federal agencies. While industry influence is a widely shared concern, Kennedy’s dismissal of all the members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee, and the rapid hiring of eight replacements, could easily misfire. (Genevieve P. Kanter, 6/12)

Every day on my way to work, I used to walk past a memorial wall in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. It honored USAID workers who had died in the line of duty and made the ultimate sacrifice so the United States could be safer, stronger and more prosperous. I was proud to be affiliated with such brave Americans who sacrificed for the common good and to work alongside partners all over the world who shared our mission of bringing security and a healthier life to people all over the world. (Angela Weaver, 6/12)

Congress is floating a 40% cut to the National Science Foundation and deep reductions to the National Institutes of Health — America’s two flagship research engines. The justification? A $2 trillion deficit. But cutting science to fix the deficit is like burning your seed corn because you’re low on groceries. It’s fiscally shortsighted and strategically self-defeating. (Sahand Hormoz, 6/13)