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The National Science Foundation can continue to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from researchers in several states until litigation aimed at restoring it plays out, a federal court ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge John Cronan in New York declined to force the NSF to restart payments immediately, while the case is still being decided, as requested by the sixteen Democrat-led states who brought the suit, including New York, Hawaii, California, Colorado and Connecticut. (Ramakrishnan, 8/1)

In a whirlwind of negotiations over three days, Democrats asked for multiple billions in government funds to be released in exchange for a vote on a batch of nominees President Trump wanted confirmed before lawmakers left for their August break, sources told CBS News. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was negotiating with GOP leadership for $5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $1 billion for the Global Fund, $300 million for the World Food Program, $50 million to fight HIV in developing countries, about $140 million for the United Nations Children's Fund, and other money funding that had been previously approved, sources said. (He, 8/3)

The Senate left Washington Saturday night for its monthlong August recess without a deal to advance dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can “GO TO HELL!” (Jalonick and Cappelletti, 8/2)

Thousands of Medicare recipients will have to wait longer to get some price relief on the expensive cancer drugs they depend on for treatment, while others might not get any reprieve at all. Two little-known provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump in July will delay Medicare price negotiations for some of the biggest-selling drugs in the world, including Merck’s Keytruda, which is used to treat cancer and had $17.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2024. Other drugs, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Darzalex, will be excluded entirely. (Walker, 8/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Work Requirements And Red Tape Ahead For Millions On Medicaid

Now that the Republicans’ big tax-and-spending bill has become law, new bureaucratic hurdles have emerged for millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid for health coverage. A provision in the new law dictates that, in most states, for the first time, low-income adults must start meeting work requirements to keep their coverage. Some states have already tried doing this, but Georgia is the only state that has an active system using work requirements to establish Medicaid eligibility — and recipients must report to the system once a month. (Mador, 8/4)

When Congress passed President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last month, Republicans voted to take health care coverage away from about 10 million people. In the past, Republicans have typically shied away from promoting plans to end health benefits for millions. But in this case, they openly boasted about part of it. About half of the 10 million will lose coverage because of a new requirement that people who enroll in Medicaid prove that they are working, looking for work or unable to work. (Kliff, 8/1)

Over the past decade, pharmaceutical companies have released carefully curated “price transparency” reports that make it appear the prices of their medicines are barely increasing — or even going down. But the reports disclose no pricing information about specific drugs, manipulating the reality of how much Americans spend on prescription drugs. (Herman, 8/4)

Montana is well known for luring visitors with outdoor activities such as fly fishing and hiking. Now, longevity companies are exploring investments in the state in a moonshot bid to make it a medical tourism hub. State legislators have backed measures designed to ease patients’ access to therapies not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The measures, known as “Right to Try” laws, exist in more than 40 states. But Montana has pushed even further by adopting rules to make it easier for businesses to provide experimental drugs, therapies or devices and profit from selling them. (Janin, 8/3)

More than half of American adults — 59 percent — say they do not expect to get the COVID-19 booster shot this autumn, according to new poll findings from health care policy group �鶹Ů��. Poll results show 23 percent of U.S. adult respondents said they will “probably not” get the vaccine, while 37 percent said they will “definitely not” get the shot. Americans who said they will “probably” or “definitely” not get the shot were also more likely to say they think changes to U.S. vaccine policy are “major” and will make people less safe. (O’Connell-Domenech, 8/1)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Sorting Out Covid Vaccine Confusion: New And Conflicting Federal Policies Raise Questions

If you want a covid-19 shot this fall, will your employer’s health insurance plan pay for it? There’s no clear answer. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has upended the way covid vaccines are approved and for whom they’re recommended, creating uncertainty where coverage was routine. Agencies within HHS responsible for spelling out who should get vaccinated aren’t necessarily in sync, issuing seemingly contradictory recommendations based on age or risk factors for serious disease. (Andrews, 8/4)

Silver Cross Hospital violated federal law when it fired two employees in 2021 who did not comply with the New Lenox hospital’s mandatory policy that all employees be vaccinated for COVID-19, lawsuits allege. (Nolan, 8/1)

Doehler Dry Ingredient Solutions, LLC is recalling boxes of Member's Mark freeze dried fruit due to potential listeria contamination, which can lead to serious illness. In an alert Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the company discovered the problem affecting some 15-count boxes of "Member's Mark Freeze Dried Fruit Variety Pack" after internal product testing. So far, no illnesses have been reported. (Moniuszko, 8/1)

Health officials are warning of a rise in potentially deadly "flesh-eating" bacteria cases along the Gulf Coast, with Louisiana reporting higher numbers than usual this summer. Louisiana health officials have reported 17 cases of Vibrio vulnificus so far this year -- four of which have resulted in death. That compares to an average of seven cases and one death in the same period over the past 10 years. All 17 cases in Louisiana resulted in the person being hospitalized, the Louisiana Department of Health said. Meanwhile, health officials in Florida confirmed 13 cases and four deaths this year. (Louallen, 8/2)

Four radioactive wasp nests have been discovered at a South Carolina nuclear facility, according to federal officials. The first nest, which was found by workers at the Savannah River Site early last month, was recently disclosed in a report from the Department of Energy, which owns the site. The facility, near Aiken, S.C., produced material for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Three additional nests have since been discovered at the site, officials told The Times on Friday. (Anthes, 8/1)

Yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, investigators from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health officials recounted 2024 raccoon roundworm infections in two children in Los Angeles County, California, that left one with severe cognitive, motor, and visual deficits due to initial misdiagnosis. After possibly ingesting raccoon feces and/or contaminated soil, the two unrelated boys presented with signs and symptoms such as encephalopathy, roundworm larva in the eye, peripheral and cerebrospinal fluid eosinophilia (high levels of a kind of white blood cell), behavioral changes, and unsteady gait. (Van Beusekom, 8/1)

Although it's been over a decade since game-changing curative drugs for hepatitis C were approved, progress has been slow and treatment remains out of reach for many. But one small clinic in Buffalo, New York, is proving that doesn't have to be the case. Hepatitis C is a silent epidemic in the U.S., affecting up to 4 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people don't know they have it. Left untreated, the disease can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer. With a model that's faster, more accessible and remarkably effective, La Bodega, a clinic at Erie County Medical Center, is curing patients at a staggering rate. (Gounder and Moniuszko, 8/1)

Gonorrhea vaccines will be widely available from today in sexual health clinics across the UK, in a bid to tackle record-breaking levels of infections. The jabs will first be offered to those at highest risk - mostly gay and bisexual men who have a history of multiple sexual partners or sexually transmitted infections. NHS England say the roll out is a world-first, and predict it could prevent as many as 100,000 cases, potentially saving the NHS almost £8m over the next decade. (Parry, 8/3)

Smoke from Canadian wildfires hovered over several Midwestern states Saturday, bringing warnings of unhealthy air for at least the third day. Air quality alerts were in effect in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as eastern Nebraska and parts of Indiana and Illinois. Forecasters said the smoky skies would remain for much of the day. Canadian environmental officials said smoke from the forest fires would persist into Sunday for some areas. (Thompson and Pineda, 8/2)

Some people don’t need a weather app — they feel the forecast in their bones. A storm rolls in and so do throbbing heads, aching joints and mood drops. For years, this phenomenon was dismissed as imagination or coincidence. Now, with sharper tools and larger datasets, more researchers are taking weather-related symptoms seriously. As former Agriculture Department chief meteorologist Albert Peterlin put it: “It’s not the weather. It’s the change in weather that causes stress.” (Rota, 8/2)

Respiratory infections like COVID-19 and the flu can activate dormant cancer cells in breast cancer patients who are in remission, new research finds. The study, published in Nature, found that common viruses can reawaken small numbers of dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs. (Whiteside, 8/2)

The top regulator of cancer drugs at the Food and Drug Administration interceded during the late stages of a contentious review of a skin cancer therapy from Replimune Group — actions that contributed to the treatment’s last-minute rejection despite support from others inside the agency, STAT has learned. (Feuerstein, 8/4)

In honor of the annual World Lung Cancer Day commemoration on Aug. 1, Johnson & Johnson has unveiled a new initiative encouraging patients to speak up in the treatment decision-making process. The campaign centers around a neologism from J&J: “The 3rd Opinion,” meant to signify a patient’s own opinion, joining the traditional first opinion of a doctor and the second from seeking advice about or corroboration of the first opinion. (Park, 8/1)

A Brooklyn doctor warns that a modest transformation in fingernails could indicate lung cancer. Dr. Davood Johari, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, told the New York Post that 5 percent to 15 percent of lung cancer patients develop nail clubbing, which typically appears in later stages of the disease, often too late for effective intervention. “Fingertips appear wider and rounder than normal, with the nails curving downwards, resembling an upside-down spoon,” Johari said as August 1 marks World Lung Cancer Day. (Keller, 8/1)

After a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023, residents were exposed to carcinogens such as vinyl chloride, acrolein and dioxin. Since tumors are typically slow to develop, it could take decades to know what that might have done to the locals’ cancer risk. But there may be a quicker route to an answer: The residents’ dogs were also exposed, and dogs develop cancer more quickly. (Holmes, 8/2)

At 57, two-time Super Bowl champion Deion Sanders, has a brand-new bladder. The University of Colorado coach recently underwent reconstructive surgery to treat an aggressive form of bladder cancer after doctors discovered a tumor this spring. (Boden, 8/2)

The brand is often joked about as a sign of old age and embarrassing health issues involving problems going to the bathroom. Colorado football coach Deion Sanders, 57, appears to want to take the shame out of the issue by speaking about it publicly and promoting it. (Schrotenboer, 7/28)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Distill $50B Rural Health Fund And Newsmaking Diagnoses

�鶹Ů�� Health News chief rural correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble discussed the $50 billion rural health fund authorized by the recent Republican megabill on Daily Yonder’s “The Yonder Report” on July 31. ... Céline Gounder, �鶹Ů�� Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed bladder cancer symptoms and treatment on CBS News’ “CBS Mornings” on July 29. (8/2)

Inpatient rehabilitation facilities, hospice providers and inpatient psychiatric hospitals will receive modest Medicare reimbursement increases in fiscal 2026 under final rules the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Friday. Medicare payments for inpatient rehab facilities will rise 2.6% when the fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Hospice providers got a 2.6% payment update. The regulation also requires that face-to-face encounter attestations must include signatures and dates from the clinicians present. (Early, 8/1)

Rising healthcare costs and declining reimbursement rates are forcing hospitals to rethink how they operate and deliver care. High pharmaceutical, labor and administrative expenses coupled with looming Medicaid and Medicare cuts mandated by the new tax law are dragging hospital finances. As a result, providers are implementing new technology, tweaking their staffing models and retooling supply chain operations to try to eke out savings before reimbursement reductions and an expected decline in Medicaid enrollment hit, health system executives said. (Kacik, 8/1)

The era of generative artificial intelligence in healthcare has led to the industry’s growing use of agentic AI technology. The tools use AI models to complete time-intensive functions usually done by humans. While regular generative AI models focus on creating new content, agentic AI tools are programmed to autonomously make decisions and achieve specific goals. Big tech companies such as Epic, Amazon, Salesforce and Microsoft have developed them for use in healthcare settings, as have dozens of startups. (Perna, 8/1)

UnitedHealth Group has named Wayne DeVeydt as its next chief financial officer in another major leadership change. He will replace John Rex, who will become the strategic advisor to CEO Stephen Hemsley, on Sept. 2, according to a Thursday news release from the company. DeVeydt was most recently the managing director and operating partner at Bain Capital. He was previously CEO and chair of Surgery Partners and, prior to that, the CFO for Anthem, now known as Elevance Health. (DeSilva, 8/1)

The North Carolina Supreme Court has granted Mission Hospital’s request for a temporary stay of a lower court’s decision to grant 67 acute care beds to AdventHealth nearly three years ago. (Jones, 8/2)

Three new centers are part of the PACE expansion in Ohio funded by American Rescue Plan Act dollars. (Eastabrook, 8/1)

Seventeen Democratic officials accused President Donald Trump’s administration of unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth in a lawsuit filed Friday. The complaint comes after a month in which at least eight major hospitals and hospital systems — all in states where the care is allowed under state law — announced they were stopping or restricting the care. The latest announcement came Thursday from UI Health in Chicago. (Mulvihill, 8/1)

Another Chicago hospital has ended gender-affirming pediatric surgery amid threats to its federal funding. But Illinois and 15 other states are fighting back in a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for “intimidating providers” into denying such care. On Friday, UI Health became the latest hospital to suspend gender-affirming surgical procedures for adolescents effective immediately, according to an announcement posted on the hospital’s website. (Channick, 8/1)

The former U.S. soldier suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar was still at large early Sunday and may be armed after escaping in a stolen vehicle containing clothes and camping gear, officials said. Authorities believe 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown killed four people on Friday morning at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, about 75 miles southeast of Missoula in a valley hemmed in by mountains. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said at a news conference Sunday that Brown committed the shooting with a rifle that law enforcement believes was his personal weapon. “This is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood for no reason whatsoever. So there absolutely is concern for the public,” Knudsen said. (Riddle, 8/3)

Texans who sought an abortion out of state more than quadrupled between 2021 and 2023 after a state law went into effect that bans the procedure in almost all cases. Data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) shows at least 7,844 Texas residents received an abortion in a different state in 2023, up from 4,718 in 2022 and 1,712 in 2021. Still the total number of abortions for Texas residents dropped by 85 percent compared to 2021. (Adams, 8/1)

The provision would have made Connecticut one of the only states in the country to have an overdose prevention center, or OPC, a space equipped with supplies to mitigate the dangers of drug use that would allow people to bring illegal drugs and use them under the supervision of trained staff, equipped with supplies, like Narcan, that can prevent and reverse overdoses. (Golvala and Tillman, 8/3)

It’s been two years since recreational cannabis became legal in Maryland. While revenue has increased and arrests for cannabis possession have decreased, health experts and school officials say there’s an often-overlooked impact — many kids don’t see the drug as risky. (Fine, 8/4)

When Jennifer Hughes’ son was in a mountain biking accident last year, she was prepared to go into full “mama bear” mode, overseeing his medical care and insurance details. But the Chicago-area mom ran into repeated roadblocks — federal privacy laws — that turned an already stressful time into a nightmare. (Hernandez, 8/2)

In dozens of U.S. cities, the next time you call 911, a drone might show up before an officer does. The technology behind that — “Drone as First Responder,” or DFR — has skyrocketed in popularity among police departments nationwide since the Federal Aviation Administration streamlined the process for agencies to adopt the program this spring. While it could previously take up to a year to get approval, it now often takes just days. Law enforcement and drone industry leaders praise the technology as lifesaving, with the potential to help authorities in situations ranging from missing persons cases to active shooter incidents. But critics worry the programs encourage mass surveillance and violate the public’s privacy. (Sheinerman, 8/4)

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a medical device that offers new hope to patients incapacitated by rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic condition that afflicts 1.5 million Americans and is often resistant to treatment. The condition is usually managed with medications. The device represents a radical departure from standard care, tapping the power of the brain and nervous system to tamp down the uncontrolled inflammation that leads to the debilitating autoimmune disease. (Rabin, 7/31)

In March 2024, radiation oncologist Sanjay Mehta had been dealing with painful Achilles tendinitis on his left ankle for over a year. He’d tried steroid injections and PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections, which Mehta said eventually did the trick. But when his right Achilles started hurting three months later, he opted for a different approach. He had recently started offering low-dose radiation therapy to treat some patients suffering from inflammatory conditions and thought: Why not try it himself? (Carlson, 8/3)

People with Type 2 diabetes — especially those with less severe diabetes, and those who are in earlier stages of the disease — can achieve remission through diet and lifestyle changes, according to a new study from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Diabetes remission is relatively rare, and doctors and researchers have long known that weight loss — particularly through bariatric surgery — is one main way people with diabetes can achieve it. But the new research offers hope that people can also achieve remission through less extreme methods, while noting the challenges of sustaining it. (Ho, 8/2)

Hidden human 'superpowers' could one day help develop new treatments to reverse diabetes and neurodegeneration. This the conclusion of research from University of Utah that suggests hibernating animals' superpowers could lie dormant within our own DNA and could potentially be unlocked to improve our health. (Millington, 7/31)

Wearable devices like Fitbits can help health care providers spot postsurgical complications in kids, a new analysis in Science Advances finds. About 1 in 7 children will have postoperative complications, but diagnoses can be delayed because they can be difficult for caretakers outside the hospital to spot. (Blakemore, 8/3)

A procession of mothers wearing red sashes, pushing strollers and tending to toddlers made their way Friday to a little festival in Flint, Michigan, where families received diapers and kids played. It was called a “baby parade.” The sashes indicated the women were participants of a growing program in Michigan that helps pregnant women and new moms by giving them cash over the first year of their children’s lives. Launched in 2024, the program comes at a time when many voters worry over high child care costs and President Donald Trump’s administration floats policy to reverse the declining birth rate. (Volmert, 7/31)

A handful of older adults in Matteson are always on the go. They’re bowling, having their nails done and sometimes they’re just chilling out to gospel music therapy at an adult day service designed just for them. The Young 60 Plus Club, as its name indicates, is for anyone aged 60 and up, and caters to those with some degree of mental decline. And it has been growing in popularity since it opened in Matteson a year ago. Some days the storefront center is booming with clients. (Neumann, 7/31)

The penetration appears so complete that some researchers have begun to worry that their methods, too, are compromised by ambient contamination and plastic materials in the lab. Some have called for whole new protocols to systematically stress-test the findings of their colleagues, which seem on first blush simply impossible. But to trust their findings is to believe, for instance, that the buildup inside brain tissue has grown 50 percent in just eight years, and that, as of last year, there might be inside your skull the equivalent of a full plastic spoon — by weight perhaps one-fifth as much polymer as there is brainstem in there. (David Wallace-Wells, 8/4)

The EPA plans to erase current limits on pollution from cars, factories, and power plants. In doing so, it plans to claim that climate regulations on automakers and other polluting industries harm human health because of higher prices and reduced consumer choice, according to a report by The New York Times. This is not true and is a reversal of fundamental economic and health data that long demonstrated these regulations save lives and help the economy. (Vanessa Kerry, 8/2)

There is a kind of waiting in medicine that does not happen in chairs or hallways. It happens in lives, quietly, when the next step is unknown. It is not the waiting room with check-in desks and background television. It is the one that begins after a diagnosis, when a plan has been made but not yet set in motion. (Judith Eguzoikpe, 8/4)

This large trial gives weight to a growing body of work underscoring the connection between lifestyle and cognitive health. That link was highlighted in a study commissioned by The Lancet that found nearly half of all dementia cases worldwide could be delayed or attenuated by focusing on specific aspects of our health. (Lisa Jarvis, 8/3)

An unseen provision in the recent congressional overhaul of Medicaid will bankrupt poor families with sick newborns — and raise costs for us all. Hidden within the 940 pages of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a reduction in Medicaid’s ability to pay for care retroactively (care that has already been delivered) from 90 to 60 days. Shortening this window of payment targets parents of newborns, and will burden families with thousands of dollars of medical debt. (Shetal Shah and Marsha Spitzer, 8/3)

Physician and Harvard professor JoAnn E. Manson told me that women no longer eligible for systemic therapy may still experience significant relief with low-dose vaginal estrogen. She also emphasized that though hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms treated by systemic therapies usually subside over time, GSM is a progressive condition that worsens without treatment. (Leana S. Wen, 7/31)