�鶹Ů��

Cigna Group abandoned its pursuit of a tie-up with Humana after shareholders balked at a deal that would have created a roughly $140 billion giant in the health-insurance industry. The companies couldn’t come to agreement on price and other financial terms, according to people familiar with the matter. In the near term, Cigna is turning its focus toward smaller, so-called bolt-on, acquisitions. (Thomas, 12/10)

On Thursday, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reviewed Medicare performance data and concluded that despite doctors’ protests that their pay hasn’t kept up with inflation over the last 20 years, doctors shouldn’t get more than a minor raise for 2025. On the other hand, the committee admitted hospitals could use a larger increase in payment rates. (Trang, 12/8)

The Northern Arapaho Tribe is taking a case against the Department of Health and Human Services to the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit in question, Becerra v. Northern Arapaho Tribe, revolves around funding for health care and questions of tribal self-governance – and its outcome could have a big impact on the financial future of the tribe. (Habermann, 12/8)

First Lady Jill Biden toured the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center and Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday, Dec. 8, as part of the White House’s initiative on women’s health research. ... “Research on women’s health has been underfunded for decades and many conditions that mostly and only affect women, or affect women differently,  have received limited attention — like those debilitating migraines and undiagnosed heart attacks,” Dr. Biden said. (Grigoryants, 12/9)

Johns Hopkins University Friday announced that Dr. Theodore L. DeWeese, who has been interim dean for the School of Medicine and interim CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine since 2022, will take over the positions on a permanent basis. DeWeese, who joined Johns Hopkins hospital as a radiation oncology resident in 1991, was appointed to the leadership roles on a temporary basis following the retirement of Paul B. Rothman. (Roberts, 12/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Biology, Anatomy, And Finance? More Med Students Want Business Degrees Too 

Jasen Gundersen never considered a career in business when he entered medical school nearly three decades ago to become a rural primary care doctor. But, today, he isn’t working in rural America and he doesn’t do primary care. In fact, he no longer practices medicine at all. As CEO of CardioOne, which provides back-office support to cardiologists, Gundersen is part of a growing trend: physicians and medical school students earning advanced business degrees to work the business side of the booming health care industry. (Liss, 12/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Watch: She Had A Home And A Good-Paying Job. Then Illness And Debt Upended It All. 

Sharon Woodward used to travel the country as a medical technician. She made good money and prided herself on her skills. But in her mid-40s, Woodward retired after being diagnosed with a debilitating form of arthritis. Her condition required expensive drugs and regular medical care, which left her with more than $20,000 in medical debts. (Levey and Norman, 12/11)

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval on Friday of two groundbreaking gene therapy treatments for sickle cell disease has brought a rare moment of hope and celebration to people with the agonizing blood disorder. But there is no clear path for the new therapies — one-time treatments so effective in clinical trials that they have been hailed as cures — to reach the countries where the vast majority of people with sickle cell live. Shortly after the approval their manufacturers announced sticker prices in the millions of dollars: $3.1 million for Lyfgenia, made by Bluebird Bio, and $2.2 million for Casgevy, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. *Robbins and Nolen, 12/8)

The approvals of Casgevy and Lyfgenia mark a milestone in the treatment of a debilitating disease that affects an estimated 100,000 Americans, mostly of African descent, and 20 million people around the world. ... Until now, they've have had to turn to bone marrow transplants. But the new therapies edit genes directly in a patient's body and expand the kinds of diseases and conditions researchers can target to other blood disorders, certain cancers and infectious diseases. (Bettelheim, 12/9)

News of the Food and Drug Administration’s historic approval of the first gene therapies for sickle cell disease sparked discussion, debate, and, above all, measured optimism at this year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology. (Wosen, 12/9)

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a gene-editing therapy that's seen success in treating the most severe form of the disease. CRISPR Therapeutics had the treatment, brand name Casgevy, approved in the United Kingdom last month after seeing a successful global trial in which 28 out of 29 patients reported being free of severe pain. (Pedersen, 12/9)

Supreme Court justices were scheduled on Friday to discuss whether to take up a high-stakes legal fight that could result in a definitive decision on federal approval of the drug most commonly used for medication abortion. ... The court later on Friday announced it was hearing one new case but the abortion cases were not mentioned. The court could next act on Monday or later next week. (Hurley, 12/8)

The Texas Supreme Court late Friday temporarily blocked a judge’s decision to let a Dallas woman get an emergency abortion. Attorney General Ken Paxton had asked the court to intervene after a Travis County district judge ruled on Thursday that Kate Cox, 31, could terminate her pregnancy after her fetus was diagnosed with a rare and usually fatal condition. Cox argued that carrying the pregnancy to term could risk her health and fertility because she already had delivered two other children via cesarean section. (Ikramuddin, 12/8)

Top Democratic leaders and advocacy groups on Saturday condemned the Texas Supreme Court's decision to temporarily block a pregnant woman from obtaining an emergency abortion. ... The top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said on Saturday, "MAGA Republicans in Texas and throughout the country are risking the lives of mothers," using an acronym for Republican former President Donald Trump's slogan "make America great again." Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign called Cox's story "horrifying" and "heartbreaking." (Singh, 12/9)

A pregnant woman and Planned Parenthood sued Kentucky on Friday, seeking to invalidate its near-total ban on abortion, saying the law violates rights to privacy and self-determination in the state constitution. The lawsuit was filed by an anonymous woman, who is eight weeks pregnant and wants an abortion, on behalf of a proposed class of similarly situated women in Kentucky. It comes after the state's court ruled in an earlier challenge brought by Planned Parenthood and another abortion provider that providers did not have standing to sue on patients' behalf. (Pierson, 12/8)

The future of reproductive rights for a wide swath of the Mountain West may be decided next week, as three state Supreme Courts hear arguments in cases that will determine abortion access in the region. Here's what to know. (Davis-Young, Fordham, Merzbach, 12/11)

After a successful abortion ballot measure in Ohio that enshrined abortion access into the state’s constitution, attorney generals in red states are making moves to address ambiguities and euphemisms in upcoming abortion measures in their states to avoid deceptive language, an issue that pro-life groups say was critical in the Ohio vote. In Arkansas, Attorney General Tim Griffin recently rejected a proposed abortion ballot that he said had a deceptive title and misleading text. (Mark Miller, 12/11)

A woman whose fetus was unlikely to survive called more than a dozen abortion clinics before finding one that would take her, only to be put on weekslong waiting lists. A teen waited seven weeks for an abortion because it took her mother that long to get her an appointment. Others seeking the procedure faced waits because they struggled to travel hundreds of miles for care. Such obstacles have grown more common since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, doctors and researchers say, causing delays that can lead to abortions that are more complex, costly and in some cases riskier — especially as pregnancies get further along. (Ungar, 12/9)

Respiratory viruses are back with a vengeance. Tragically, the health department is reporting Minnesota's first RSV death of the season. It hits older folks and young kids the hardest. The number of people going to the hospital for RSV is rising rapidly. (Ali, 12/8)

With flu season in full swing, Riverside County public health officials are urging residents to get their vaccines and to take other precautions against respiratory viruses after reporting the county’s first two flu-related deaths this winter. The deaths include a 73-year-old man and a 79-year-old woman from mid- and western Riverside County, respectively. Both had underlying health issues and died at local hospitals, according to county officials. No further information was immediately provided. (Vega, 12/9)

California hospitals are seeing increased strain heading into the winter holiday season, with more than three-quarters of inpatient beds occupied and nearly 67% of intensive care beds in use, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But for the first time in three years, the surge is not solely attributed to COVID-19, as various viral and bacterial infections, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, contribute to the burden on the state’s health care system. (Vaziri, 12/8)

BJC HealthCare will reinstate a mask requirement for employees, effective Wednesday, in response to rising virus cases in the community. The health system said in a statement Saturday that it will institute temporary, heightened mask requirements from time to time, when infection rates are particularly high, and will loosen the requirements when appropriate. Beginning Wednesday, employees will be required to wear masks in patient care areas. (Merrilees, 12/9)

So far, only about 15 percent of Americans over 60 have received one of the two new R.S.V. shots, which the Food and Drug Administration approved in May and are the first-ever vaccines against the disease. Just 16 percent more said they definitely planned to, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By contrast, more than 62 percent of adults over 65 have received the recommended flu shot this fall, and a third have gotten the updated Covid-19 vaccine. (Span, 12/9)

One in six Americans have received their updated COVID vaccine so far this year, and federal data show people with little to no health insurance are far less likely to have that level of protection against severe COVID illness or death. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of U.S. adults overall had received the updated COVID vaccine as of Nov. 25. ... To address that gap, in September the CDC launched the Bridge Access Program, a $1 billion effort to deliver free COVID vaccine doses to adults who are uninsured or underinsured. (Santhanam, 12/8)

A randomized controlled trial in Hong Kong finds that the synbiotic drug SIM01 relieves multiple symptoms of long COVID, or post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS). SIM01 contains strains of anaerobic Bifidobacterium bacteria (which are probiotics) and soluble fibers (prebiotics) to alter the gut microbiome and possibly modify immune response. (Van Beusekom, 12/8)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning travelers to Baja California, Mexico, about Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a potentially fatal bacterial disease that spreads through the bite of an infected brown dog tick, which can be carried by pets. The warning comes after a San Diego, California, resident who traveled to Baja California died last month after contracting the disease, San Diego County Public Health Services reported. (Singh, 12/8)

The number of cases in an ongoing Salmonella outbreak tied to whole and cut-up cantaloupe has more than doubled—to 230 cases—a third death has been reported. Almost 100 people have been hospitalized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said [Friday] in an update. Since the CDC's previous update on November 30, 113 more illnesses have been confirmed, and 4 more states are affected, bringing the total to 38 states. At least 96 people have been hospitalized, including 35 new case-patients. The new outbreak-related death was in Oregon; the previous two were in Minnesota. (Wappes, 12/8)

The CDC added the number of people affected by salmonella may be much higher. "This outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses, and the true number of sick people is likely much higher than the number reported. This is because many people recover without medical care and are not tested for salmonella," the agency said. (McCloud, 12/8)

TGD Cuts LLC has initiated a recall of some of its fresh-cut fruit cup, clamshell and tray products because they contain cantaloupe from TruFresh, which has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. This recall includes products with use-by dates of Nov. 2 through Nov. 24. Products were distributed to retail and food service locations in Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina. (12/6)

The first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in Kentucky, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) announced in a news release yesterday. CWD has now been confirmed in 32 US states. ... While no human cases have been identified, health officials urge people to avoid eating the meat of infected animals and to take precautions when field dressing or butchering cervids. (Van Beusekom, 12/8)

President Joe Biden applauded the courage of law enforcement officers who responded to the deadly shooting on Wednesday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and again called for restrictions on assault weapons. Biden, speaking just miles from the campus on Friday, called gun violence an “epidemic” and said “we need Congress to step up.” (Jamrisko, 12/8)

On Wednesday morning, three college professors in Las Vegas got up and went to work in Beam Hall, home of the business school at the University of Nevada. One oversaw Japanese Studies, another taught accounting, a third management of information systems. All were slaughtered, gunned down by a disgruntled former professor who came to campus with a .9 mm handgun, 150 rounds of ammunition and a vendetta. ... The Clark County Coroner's Office identified the final person killed in the shooting as Naoko Takemaru, 69, on Friday. Takemaru lived in Las Vegas and was an associate professor at UNLV, teaching Japanese studies at Beam Hall, according to her staff page on the university's website. (Schermele, Nurse, Collins and Arshad, 12/8)

Jeff Raya stood up from a Mission Hills church pew Saturday and said the name of his late aunt, Wendy Raya, who was fatally shot in Los Angeles 20 years ago, he said. A bell rang out in her honor and then sounded a dozen more times to commemorate all victims of gun violence.“(Her death) could have been prevented,” said Raya, a San Diego resident among 100 others who gathered at the Mission Hills United Methodist Church for the 11th annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence. (Murga, 12/9)

Ashley Hlebinsky sat cross-legged on a wooden stage in a community center in Laramie. Two men sat next to her. “So my next question is for Devin. And then I promise I'll open it up. But I'm fascinated…You guys are getting my selfishness. Like, ‘Tell me more’,” laughed Hlebinsky as she asked the question. “So I'm kind of just wondering if you have advice for how to talk to somebody that wants to do it but is worried about the legal liability of [safe storage]. ”She was leading a town hall between two firearm owners who have been open about their own mental health struggles. Hlebinsky is having them share what they’ve done with their handguns when hard times hit. (Kudelska, 12/8)

City dwellers have long noticed that gentrifying neighborhoods report more gun violence. Now, a study, published in Jama Surgery earlier this year and conducted by a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School with Brigham and Women’s hospital, shows just how much – and could suggest new ways to combat gun violence. The report found that the firearm injury incidence rate was 62% higher in neighborhoods that had gentrified between 2014 and 2019 than in non-gentrifying neighborhoods with similar sociodemographic characteristics. On top of that, it found that the gunshot injury rate was an additional 26% higher in neighborhoods that were actively gentrifying. (The study didn’t specify who was committing the violence.) (Nowell, 12/8)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Journalists Delve Into Gun Violence, Medicaid's 'Unwinding,' Opioid Lawsuits, And More 

�鶹Ů�� Health News senior correspondent Liz Szabo described how being a victim of gun violence affects kids’ health in the long term on Spectrum News 1’s “LA Times Today” show on Dec. 6. ... �鶹Ů�� Health News Midwest correspondent Samantha Liss discussed Missouri’s Medicaid “unwinding” on KCUR’s “Kansas City Today” on Dec. 5. (12/9)

Annual mammograms are recommended indefinitely for breast cancer survivors in many countries, including the U.S., but a large British study finds that less frequent screening is just as good. Yearly screening is meant to monitor whether cancer has come back. All that testing causes anxiety for patients and costs money. (Johnson, 12/8)

A study of DNA from half a million volunteers supports an old evolutionary theory about why our bodies eventually wear out. (Zimmer, 12/8)

Federal safety regulators have warned consumers to stop using high-powered magnetic-ball toy sets that have been linked to seven deaths and hundreds of injuries. The Consumer Product Safety Commission flagged six children’s products that do not comply with U.S. safety regulations because they contain magnets small enough to go down a child’s throat. The agency pointed to seven deaths — including five in the United States — involving people who ingested the tiny magnets, as well as an estimated 2,400 emergency hospitalizations from 2017 through 2021. (Gregg, 12/8)

Attorney General Dana Nessel is warning people about medical brace scams. ... "While there is only one confirmed Michigan resident who was targeted by this latest scam, it is critical that we alert other residents who may have also been targeted by similar operators," Nessel said. "The scam of mailing or prescribing unneeded durable medical equipment costs Medicare tens of millions of dollars every year, sometimes disqualifying patients for these devices when they really need them." (Dawson, 12/9) 

A Louisiana federal judge on Friday largely rejected Novo Nordisk’s bid to dismiss one of the earliest lawsuits brought against the pharmaceutical company over side effects of its blockbuster drug Ozempic. U.S. District Judge James Cain Jr said plaintiff Jaclyn Bjorklund had provided enough support at this point in the case for her claim that Novo failed to warn her doctors about the risk of gastroparesis, a slowdown in the emptying of the stomach into the small intestine, associated with the drug. (Jones, 12/8)

When the first lupus patient received CAR-T therapy, researchers watched in amazement as her autoimmune disease rapidly went into remission. Then, they monitored her disease anxiously for months, wondering if it would return — especially as her immune B cells began recovering. Now, two and a half years later, the researchers reported at the annual American Society of Hematology meeting that not only is this patient still in complete remission without the use of any immunosuppressive drugs, 14 other autoimmune patients treated with CAR-T are as well. (Chen, 12/9)

Researchers on Saturday presented an unusual case of a T cell lymphoma marked with a CAR, the key synthetic protein in CAR-T therapy, in an online abstract for the American Society of Hematology annual meeting. It is the first published case of the rare blood cancer that’s associated with a commercial CAR-T product, the Janssen/Legend Biotech drug Carvykti, or cilta-cel in this case. But researchers are still untangling how much — if it all — the therapy contributed to the development of the blood cancer. (Chen, 12/9)

New data released yesterday by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) show that sales of medically important antibiotics for use in food-producing animals rose by 4% last year. ... Since 2017, antibiotic sales have steadily risen—a trend that advocates for better antibiotic stewardship in food-animal production say indicates the FDA isn't doing enough to ensure more judicious antibiotic use on farms. (Dall, 12/8)

Posing as shoppers, a team of researchers from the University of Mississippi called nearly 600 pharmacies across the state and asked a simple, yes-or-no question: “Do you have naloxone that I can pick up today?” ...The results of the survey, conducted last year, were disheartening: Despite the Mississippi law, 41% of the pharmacies the researchers called refused to dispense naloxone. Only 37% had naloxone available for same-day pickup. Most of the pharmacies saying they could not immediately provide naloxone said it required a prescription, which was false. (Claire Vollers, 12/8)

For decades, the biotech industry has tried — and repeatedly failed — to develop new and effective painkillers without the addictive potential of opioids. But there’s reason to think that could begin to change soon. (Wosen, 12/11)

Mexican authorities raided dozens of pharmacies in Ensenada and seized thousands of boxes of pills as part of a broader effort to crack down on drugstores suspected of selling counterfeit and fentanyl-tainted medications. The joint effort by the Mexican navy and federal health authorities is at least the third such operation this year. (Sheets, Blakinger and Mejia, 12/10)

Thousands of Californians may have to pay out-of-network medical costs to go to their nearest hospital after contract negotiations between Adventist Health and Blue Shield of California — a major health care provider and health insurer in the state, respectively — fell through last week. Adventist Health and Blue Shield had been in talks to reach a new contract for about 11 months, but failed to come to an agreement about reimbursement rates before the previous contract expired Dec. 1. (Ho, 12/8)

Earlier this year, Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem received national attention for doing something extraordinary: It erased nearly $3.3 million in medical debt for 3,355 local families living below the poverty line. The tiny church, with an average attendance of about 75 on Sundays, did it by raising $15,000 and partnering with RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that buys unpaid medical debt and forgives it. (Crouch, 12/11)

In a win for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Colorado state board voted not to place the company’s best-selling cystic fibrosis medication on a list of drugs for which payment limits will be set for most residents, including those whose insurance is covered by a government agency or a commercial health plan. (Silverman, 12/8)

Some patients of a Seattle-based cancer center received threatening emails following a data breach last month. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center officials said a Nov. 19 hack hit a portion of the health care system’s clinical network, possibly leaking patient data. This week, some former and current patients received threatening emails claiming names, Social Security numbers, medical history and other data of more than 800,000 patients had been compromised, The Seattle Times reported. (12/9)

Pregnant and postpartum MassHealth members are slated to gain access to doula coverage this spring as state officials aim to tackle worsening maternal health outcomes. Doula coverage will be offered during labor and delivery, as well as for visits throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services announced Friday. (Kuznitz, 12/8)

Minnesota's emergency services providers say they're facing a crisis of their own, prompting the state legislature to form a task force focused on solutions. It had its first meeting on Friday. The EMS woes are particularly troubling in rural parts of the state, said to Rep. John Huot, an EMT for 30 years and the co-chair of the panel. He sounded the alarm that some communities can wait as long as 90 minutes to get the care they need. "We need to fix a system that's on collapse," he said in a news conference. (Cummings, 12/8)

St. Cloud will soon be home to a new University of Minnesota Medical School campus beginning in 2025. Friday was a banner day for Minnesota's nationally known medical program as the Board of Regents approved the expansion of the University of Minnesota Medical School program with the addition of CentraCare Regional Campus St. Cloud location. This was the first time they've expanded the program in 50 years since the addition of the Duluth campus in 1972. (Johnson, 12/8)

Texas has less than one mental health facility for every 100,000 people, according to an analysis of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data. ... That lack of facilities resulted in Texas being ranked as the worst state to seek mental health support, according to a new list by MentalHealthRehabs.com, a national directory of mental health providers. (Ikramuddin, 12/8)

Cleveland is preparing to double the number of social workers who team up with specially-trained police to handle some mental health calls. With City Council approval this week, Mayor Justin Bibb received the OK to strike a new contract to provide what’s known as a co-response model of policing, in partnership with the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County. (Astolfi, 12/8)

 Seniors in New York have a new tool for dealing with loneliness. The state Office for the Aging is partnering with Intuition Robotics to combat senior isolation. Officials say hundreds of free artificial intelligence companions have been distributed to seniors, and 150 devices are still available. (12/8)

A hot new product has been sending parents of newborns on a wild goose chase this holiday season. Message boards are filled with chatter about how to find it. It could take hours on the phone to track down. No, it’s not a Furby or a Barbie Dreamhouse. It’s a new protective treatment for RSV, the respiratory virus that sends up to 80,000 babies and toddlers to the hospital each year. (Lisa Jarvis, 11/9)

For 39 years, I have lived with sickle cell disease. As of late, the sickle cell community has heard a lot of excitement about gene therapy’s potential to be the cure we’ve all been waiting for. That potential took a step toward fulfillment Friday when the Food and Drug Administration approved Casgevy from Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ and Lyfgenia from Bluebird Bio, both gene therapy treatments for people with sickle cell. Yet I find myself teetering between excitement and skepticism. (Jennifer Fields, 12/8)

I wrote about long Covid in June 2020. In the following days, I got more than 100 emails from people who thought they were going mad — or had been told as much — and felt validated to see their reality reflected. That story was the first of an octet; those responses were the vanguards of thousands more. (Ed Yong, 12/11)

On Sunday, professor Katalin Karikó will receive a Nobel Prize for her research on mRNA that led to the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines and saved millions of lives. Though most Nobel laureates remain little known, Karikó’s story is famous for the way she and her work were dismissed by colleagues and her university for decades. (Dr. Andrew Lam, 12/10)

Oliver McGowan was 18 years old when he was hospitalized in England with recurrent seizures and pneumonia. He was autistic, and he and his parents had one specific request for the medical team: no antipsychotic medications. When he had taken them in the past, they made his seizures worse and had devastating effects on his mood. Despite the family’s vehement protests, doctors gave him an antipsychotic. A few days later, Oliver suffered a lethal neurological side effect. A week later, he was taken off life support. An inquest into his death found that the drug had led to the rapid deterioration. (Romila Santra, 12/11)

If you ask most women, they can tell you about a friend, family member, or how they themselves have experienced such debilitating pain once a month that it renders them incapacitated. For those living with endometriosis (a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus) — 11% of American women between ages 15-44 according to the Office on Women’s Health — debilitating menstrual cramps, chronic pain in the lower back and pelvis, intestinal pain, and painful bowel movements or pain when urinating are common symptoms of the disease. For many individuals with endometriosis, this excruciating pain interferes with their ability to work. (Jillian Gilchrest, 12/11)