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Millions of Americans appear to be dropping Obamacare coverage in the months since Congress failed to extend the generous subsidies that had become a defining feature of the Affordable Care Act. Initial sign-ups had already fallen by about 1.2 million people. But insurance companies, state officials and industry analysts are reporting that many more have lost Obamacare coverage now that people are facing long-term higher costs. The federal government has yet to report current enrollment data. (Abelson and Sanger-Katz, 5/1)

Cigna Group will exit the Affordable Care Act individual insurance market after 2026, affecting about 369,000 members in 11 states who must find new coverage for 2027. (Saeed, 4/30)

The hit was in line with HCA’s expectations. The hospital operator is the first of its peers to detail financial impacts from the expiration of more generous subsidies in Affordable Care Act plans. (Halleman, 4/27)

Parsley Health, a functional medicine provider, is now in-network with all major commercial insurers nationwide. The company's in-network reach spans plans covering 150 million lives, including Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana and Centene. Eligible services covered include provider visits, diagnostic testing and prescriptions. Parsley members must pay an annual non-covered program fee of $1,500 for wraparound support. (Gliadkovskaya, 4/30)

Dozens of Twin Cities clergy members and supporters gathered outside Hennepin County Medical Center Thursday for a 24-hour prayer vigil, as they urge state lawmakers to fund the hospital. The hospital is the state’s biggest trauma center, and a major training site for the region’s doctors, but it’s facing financial struggles. (Timar-Wilcox, 4/30)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The Peculiar Politics Of Hospitals

Republicans and Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee had strong words for hospital CEOs about their prices at a hearing this week. But it remains unclear whether they will follow up their words with actions to force prices down. Meanwhile, in a rare bit of positive health policy news, a study of the first two years of the new 988 suicide prevention hotline shows it reduced suicides among young people, and more so in states that fielded more calls. (Rovner, 4/30)

President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s nominating radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Dr. Casey Means’ path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines. In a social media post, Trump said he would nominate Saphier, whom he called “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment.” (Swenson and Kinnard, 4/30)

President Trump on Thursday accused Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) of playing “political games” that ended his second surgeon general nominee’s confirmation in the Senate, comments that came as Trump was announcing his decision to withdraw her nomination. In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced he was replacing his nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, with former Fox News contributor Nicole Saphier. Both he and White House senior adviser Calley Means, who is Casey Means’s brother, blamed Cassidy for the failed confirmation. (Choi, 4/30)

Sen. Lisa Murkowski delivered the coup de grâce in ending the nomination of Casey Means, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s choice for surgeon general, Means told POLITICO Thursday. The Alaska Republican told the Trump administration this week she was a “no” on the nominee, Means said, effectively dooming her chances of winning the Senate Health Committee’s approval, a prerequisite for confirmation. (Friedman, 4/30)

Now that Casey Means is no longer the Trump administration’s choice for surgeon general, attention is turning to the new nominee for the position. Nicole Saphier, whose candidacy was announced Thursday, is a licensed physician — unlike Means, whose license lapsed. A radiologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Saphier (pronounced SAA-fire) is director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth in New Jersey. (Cooney, Branswell and Palmer, 4/30)

The Trump administration inadvertently exposed the Social Security numbers of health care providers in a database powering a new Medicare portal, The Washington Post found. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last year created a directory to help seniors look up which doctors and medical providers accept which insurance plans, framing it as an overdue improvement and part of the Trump administration’s initiative to modernize health care technology. (Diamond and Ence Morse, 4/30)

The Department of Justice has formed a new fraud strike force to target schemes across Arizona, Nevada and Northern California, the agency announced Thursday. The West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force launched under DOJ's National Fraud Enforcement Division and will unite that division's fraud section with U.S. Attorney's Offices in those regions. DOJ said in the announcement that this model has proven to be a powerful tool for fraud enforcement when deployed elsewhere. (Minemyer, 4/30)

The Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement notched a win Thursday when the House voted to strip a pesticides provision from the farm bill. (Kutz, 4/30)

The Trump administration is proposing wastewater testing on a national level to try to ferret out data on illegal drug use in real time, according to a draft of a new drug control strategy obtained by CBS News. The administration also aims to apply artificial intelligence technologies to screen cargo for illicit drugs at ports of entry, examine electronic health records to "identify patients at high risk of overdose" and create search algorithms to detect emerging threats, the plan says. (Jacobs and Breen, 4/30)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is reversing job cuts that Kristi Noem, the former homeland security secretary, had overseen before she was fired last month. FEMA has reinstated 14 people who had signed a public letter that became known as the Katrina Declaration, which warned that the agency risked repeating mistakes learned during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Abby McIlraith, one of the reinstated workers and an emergency management specialist. Another 21 people who signed their names are no longer at the agency, Ms. McIlraith said. (Dance, 4/30)

The big takeaway from a new government survey of infant formula is that the U.S. supply is largely safe. But experts and health officials say there are still steps that can be taken to make a product consumed by two-thirds of infants in the U.S. even safer. (Todd, 5/1)

The Education Department finalized a rule Thursday capping federal borrowing limits for graduate-level aspiring healthcare providers. The final rule, slated to go into effect July 1, will impose an annual borrowing limit of $50,000 annually, or a total of $200,000, for “professional” degree programs, including medical school. (DeSilva, 4/30)

The AtlantiCare health system is teaming up with Temple in hopes of reducing New Jersey's physician shortage. The first students will start there in 2029. (Bond, 4/30)

Jeanne Rupert, the new college’s founding dean, said turning the former insurance building at 500 Main Street into Iowa’s first new medical school in more than a century will take a lot of work. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of the year, but then comes finalizing accreditation, hiring hundreds of faculty and staff, and recruiting the first incoming class for the fall 2028 semester. (Turnbough, 4/30)

If UNCW wins approval for medical school, it would avoid a teaching hospital model, instead bringing residents to hospitals across SE NC. (Denning, 4/30)

A student at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health plans to return to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques to be a cardiologist after graduating. (McGroarty, 4/28)

Nurses at University Medical Center will begin a five-day strike on May 1 (Friday) following more than two years of bargaining with the hospital’s administration for an initial collective bargaining agreement. The union filed a charge against UMC with the National Labor Relations Board last Monday, accusing the hospital of “surface bargaining” — dragging out negotiations with no intent of reaching a contract that satisfies both parties. In November, UMC filed a similar charge of bad faith bargaining against the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which represents UMC’s unionized nurses. (Yehiya, 4/30)

A structural calculation error embedded in nursing workforce planning textbooks, government frameworks and credentialing programs since at least 1960 may be causing hospitals to systematically underestimate the number of full-time equivalent nurses they need to budget, according to an April 17 analysis published by nursing informatics specialist Robert Wingo, BSN, RN. Here are four things to know. (Bean, 4/30)

Dozens of physician groups, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians, sent a letter to HHS and other federal agencies urging stronger enforcement of legislation meant to prevent "surprise billing." The No Surprises Act, signed into law in 2020 by President Donald Trump, was intended to protect patients from unexpected bills for care from out-of-network providers and to ensure fair contracts between health plans and physicians. (Firth, 4/30)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Delays In Visa Program Threaten Placement Of Hundreds Of Doctors In Underserved Areas

Hundreds of foreign doctors about to complete training in the U.S. will have to leave the country if the federal government doesn’t rapidly process their visa waiver applications, which have been languishing since the fall and winter, immigration attorneys say. The waiver program, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, allows physicians who aren’t U.S. citizens to stay in the country while transitioning from the visa they used during their training to temporary worker status. In exchange, the doctors agree to work in underserved areas for at least three years. (Zionts, 5/1)

Getting a paper published in Science is a highlight of many researchers’ careers. But for internist and clinical artificial intelligence researcher Adam Rodman, it’s also been a source of some agita. (Palmer, 4/30)

The Food and Drug Administration has named Katherine Szarama as the acting director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which regulates vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply. (Lawrence, 4/30)

When President Trump named a new leadership team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, public attention focused on Dr. Erica Schwartz, his nominee to be the agency’s director. Her public support of vaccines was interpreted by some as a sign that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s quest to limit childhood immunizations might be coming to an end. But another senior official Mr. Trump named to the team shares many of Mr. Kennedy’s views, suggesting the potential for continuing tension at the public health agency. (Mandavilli, 4/30)

The CDC's shift to an uncertainty-based approach when conveying the scientific evidence on vaccines and autism could already be increasing vaccine hesitancy and strengthening agreement with science-denial strategies, according to an online survey of U.S. adults. (Rudd, 4/30)

Where Americans get their news may play a significant role in shaping their attitudes toward the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to a national study published in Vaccine. (Bergeson, 4/29)

With a busy travel season approaching, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that additional measles cases in the U.S. can be expected over the next few months. The agency sent the alert to state and local health departments, reminding them to report measles cases to the CDC within 24 hours and to have measles cases reported in hospitals and to public health authorities. The CDC has encouraged public health departments to conduct contact tracing for exposed individuals as well as perform outreach to under-vaccinated communities. (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 4/29)

A Public Health Alerts report today describes the detection of measles virus in wastewater in the Chicago area that was linked to a single measles case in the community that same day, “demonstrating that untargeted metagenomics appeared to detect a single measles infection in a large municipal wastewater stream,” according to the authors. The report could serve as a template for using untargeted wastewater surveillance for identifying infectious diseases in the surrounding community, say the authors, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the University of Missouri, and elsewhere. (Wappes, 4/30)

Allegheny Health Network Chair of Pediatrics Dr. Joseph Aracri said cases of the highly contagious rotavirus among local children are increasing. The uptick usually happens every year, but the increase is usually in February and March. "It's been coming through the emergency room and urgent cares, and we're getting a lot of phone calls about it," Dr. Aracri said. "I don't think we're seeing much more than we usually do; we're just seeing it later in the season." (Linder, 4/29)

Avian flu detections among both commercial poultry and wild birds have dropped significantly this past week, per the latest updates from the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Only one new poultry detection was reported this week, in Meade County, South Dakota, affecting 60 birds. This is the ninth facility in either North or South Dakota to be hit with H5N1 in April. (Soucheray, 4/30)

Novo Nordisk A/S’s obesity shot Wegovy helped people with alcoholism reduce their drinking, in the first controlled study of patients who sought help with their addiction. Volunteers on Wegovy reported drinking heavily for five days in a 30-day period after six months of treatment, 12 fewer days than before they started. The improvement showed in other measures of addiction, such as total alcohol consumption and bloodwork. (Kresge, 4/30)

Retailers’ efforts to infiltrate the complex world of healthcare services haven’t been as successful as planned. Now they see promise in weight-loss drugs. Several retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, have launched weight management programs to improve access to glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs and wraparound resources to support lifestyle changes. They are weaving the services into existing pharmacy and primary care offerings to tap into the demand for GLP-1s and capture market share with a less cost-intensive strategy. (Hudson, 4/30)

New weight-loss drugs are making people eat less food, but chew more gum. Hershey Co. Chief Executive Officer Kirk Tanner said GLP-1 drugs are helping to boost sales of mints and gum, including the company’s Ice Breakers. Retail sales of the line, now its third largest confection brand, grew 8% last quarter, the CEO said Thursday. “We’ve also seen strong demand for gum and mint products as the category benefits from functional snacking tailwinds, including GLP-1 adoption,” Tanner said in prepared remarks. (Peterson, 4/30)

As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sets out to rein in the use of psychiatric medications, a group of prominent psychiatrists are developing guidance for helping patients to stop taking them, noting that providers sometimes “park” patients on medications that are no longer necessary or effective. The experts, whose first recommendations appeared in JAMA Network Open and the British Journal of Psychiatry, identify structural problems that may lead to overprescribing: There are few clinical trials showing when it is advisable to stop a medication; many providers do not regularly review whether a prescription is still needed; and psychiatry residents receive more training in starting drug prescriptions than stopping them. (Barry, 5/1)

A novel strategy for switching breast cancer therapy intrigued members of an FDA advisory committee but failed to sway the panel to recommend approval of the strategy. (Bankhead, 4/30)

Julia Vitarello, whose daughter Mila eight years ago received a bespoke medicine designed for her particular disease-causing mutation, said this week that she is in the process of starting a new company to try to create these individualized therapies at scale. (Joseph, 5/1)

Lisa Harding’s first seven patients are already getting high by 8 a.m. With a few spritzes, Johnson & Johnson’s ketamine-derived nasal spray Spravato is rewiring their brains. Their reactions vary: Some patients sob uncontrollably; others close their eyes and drift off. A few reach for J&J-designed coloring books. By 10 a.m., those patients are out the door. Fifteen minutes later, seven more take their seats at the Milford, Connecticut, clinic. (Muller and Gorrivan, 4/30)

Women online are sharing an unusual over-the-counter treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) symptom relief: doubling up on antihistamines. ... Zachary Rubin, MD, a pediatric allergist who practices near Chicago, has reacted on social media to a few videos of women praising the antihistamine hack. He explained that "estrogen and progesterone interact with cells of your immune system, like mast cells, which contain histamine." Histamine is the chemical that causes many allergy symptoms, but it also does other things, like regulating mood, hunger, and sleep. (Robertson, 4/30)

New single and two family homes would need to have passive radon mitigation systems installed, under a bill (HF 2297) now headed to the governor’s desk. (Luu, 4/30)

Saying they want to help policyholders who’ve faced skyrocketing rates on long-term care insurance plans, senators on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to advance a bill that imposes consumer safeguards and requires greater financial transparency from insurance companies. (Carlesso, 4/30)

Be Lanier, a sophomore at Cape Fear Academy, recently turned 16 years old — a milestone that often brings new independence. But for Lanier, it’s hard to think about getting older when she thinks about Solly Wynn, a 15-year-old from Wilmington who died from health complications related to vaping. (Fredde, 5/1)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Gavin Newsom, Early Champion Of Single-Payer, Moderates In The Face Of Fiscal Limits

In his earliest days in the governor’s office, Democrat Gavin Newsom huddled with his advisers to consider how to realize a key campaign promise: transforming a healthcare system replete with insurance company intermediaries into the nation’s first state-run single-payer model providing comprehensive coverage to all residents, similar to those in Canada and Taiwan. (Hart, 5/1)

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan this week accused a national chain of opioid addiction clinics with multiple locations in New Hampshire of improper business practices that undermine the quality of care in pursuit of profit. (Skipworth, 4/30)

Six transgender Idaho residents are suing the state in federal court, asking a federal judge to declare a strict new bathroom ban unconstitutional. The law, which goes into effect in July, is the strictest bathroom ban in the nation, subjecting people to time behind bars if they knowingly enter a bathroom, locker room or changing area that does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth — even if the bathroom is in a privately owned business. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to a year in jail for a first offense, or a felony with up to five years in prison for a second offense. (Boone, 4/30)

The surge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in St. Cloud earlier this year created a climate of intense fear and anxiety in the Somali American community that lasted for months, and left some still feeling the effects on their mental health. (Marohn, 5/1)

An expanded residential mental health facility is opening Friday in Geauga County, increasing local capacity for people who need intensive, short-term support outside of a hospital setting. (Walsh, 4/30)

With their son in the throes of a mental health crisis last November, Bill and Faith Piersing did what they’d been told to do countless times before: They dialed 911. The couple were hoping for a helping hand to deescalate the situation and transport him to a hospital. Instead, the law enforcement officers who showed up at their home seemed intent on arresting their son, sparking an altercation that would quickly escalate, Bill Piersing told Bridge Michigan. “They came in the house and made him a felon,” he said. (Gibbons, 4/30)

Hawaiʻi will need nearly 60,000 additional housing units by 2050 to meet future demand driven largely by an aging population and to prevent younger residents from getting squeezed out of the housing market. Residents age 65 or older will need 44,000 of the new units, according to a new report released by AARP Hawaiʻi, which also said the housing shortage is driving up prices and pushing younger residents to leave the state. (Hay, 4/30)

Aditi Gandhi spends a lot of time in the pool. The 17-year old started swimming when she was four, and she now swims competitively for her high school, the Blake School in Minneapolis. (Bloch, 5/1)

Camp Mystic on Thursday halted plans to reopen this summer on the Texas river where floodwaters killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors, backing down in the face of outraged families and investigations that accused the all-girls Christian camp of dangerous safety and operational deficiencies. The decision, a striking reversal of the camp owners’ determination to reopen, follows weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations. (Vertuno and Murphy, 4/30)

In Illinois and other states, officials hoped that culls could halt the progress of chronic wasting disease. Now they are losing hope. (Robbins, 4/26)

Some consider the regular feeding of late-stage dementia patients to be nonnegotiable. Others see it as extending life unnecessarily. (Raphael, 4/30)

Fatimah Shepherd knew she was not supposed to get pregnant — not now, while her illness was acting up, and maybe never. Lupus, an autoimmune disease, was gnawing away at her kidneys, and doctors had warned her that pregnancy could tip her into full-blown kidney failure. But in December 2023, there it was, a positive pregnancy test: two bold lines on the test strip, bright pink and indisputable. (Rabin, 4/27)

When Jacqueline Pritchett’s 11-year-old son, Jacob, vanished last year, she refused to acknowledge that he existed. Her life is as mysterious as his disappearance. (Cramer, 4/26)

For people living with disabilities, barriers to tourism can range from the obvious — such as an out-of-service elevator — to the unseen, like an outing that’s too long or a setting that’s too loud. As the baby boom generation ages, the travel industry is increasingly catering to older adults with the time and money to sightsee internationally and who sometimes need additional assistance. (Dazio, 4/26)

Pediatrician and former state senator Richard Pan is on a mission—to make vaccines great again. (Anna Rogers, 4/30)

Coverage of the country’s declining birth rate reflects widespread unease: Families are struggling, young adults are delaying or forgoing parenthood, and the future labor force feels uncertain. (Sonya Borrero, Christine Dehlendorf and Rachel Logan, 5/1)

Women are clearly done being sidelined, shushed, gaslit and otherwise disregarded the moment their bodies pass child-bearing age. (Heidi Stevens, 5/1)

Flanked by one of psychedelics’ biggest celebrity cheerleaders, Joe Rogan, and a troupe of MAHA loyalists, President Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at accelerating psychedelic access for clinical research and treatment. (Jerel Ezell and Sugy Choi, 5/1)

A growing body of evidence indicates psychedelics can help treat serious conditions such as treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, even as some advocates of these therapies want to establish a principle that consumers, not regulators, should decide which substances are beneficial. (Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, 4/30)