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Health care employment grew at its fastest clip since 1991 last year as the industry's pandemic recovery continued and demand for care picked up. Health care is playing a big role in fueling a strong labor market, even as the industry grapples with high levels of burnout. Health care jobs expanded by 3.9% in 2023, much higher than the 1.5% growth rate across all other industries, according to new Altarum data. (Millman, 2/2)

Cano Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware late on Sunday and said it entered into a restructuring support agreement to reduce debt and solicit potential offers, including the sale of the firm. (2/5)

Steward Health Care said Friday that it has secured the financing it needs to keep its Massachusetts hospitals open as it works on a deal to potentially transfer ownership of some medical centers to other companies. In an email sent to its 16,000 Massachusetts employees, Executive Vice President Dr. Michael Callum said Steward had agreed upon the principal terms for a “significant financial transaction,” to stabilize the company, and that the money would begin coming in imminently. (Bartlett, 2/2)

Bail us out or we will leave. That was the message from Steward executives, according to Peter Sakai, who leads San Antonio’s Bexar County. Sakai and other local officials who met with the company said the news came too late for them to prevent the closure. ... Steward disputes that local officials were blindsided. But the closure represents an increasingly familiar story for the hospital chain. The for-profit health system has shuttered a number of hospitals in recent years, and its financial woes have now put at risk services for thousands of patients in Massachusetts. (Platoff and Gerber, 2/3)

Vista Medical Center East lost its designation from the Illinois Department of Public Health, and State Sen. Adriane Johnson (D-Buffalo Grove) said this will cause people with serious injuries "to have to be transported to hospitals more than 20 minutes away." "The Waukegan community is facing a detrimental downturn in trauma-focused care with the revocation of Vista Medical Center's trauma center designation. A lack of accessible, reliable, high-quality health care is already the reality for many, and the recent announcement will create even more damage for local residents. Simply put: Without proper intervention, lives will be lost," she said in a statement. (Lawrence, 2/4)

Lurie Children’s Hospital is now in its third day of a systemwide network outage due to a “cybersecurity matter” that’s disrupting all communication and patient care. Lurie’s said it is working to establish a call center in the meantime to address patient and provider needs. “We are taking this very seriously, are investigating with the support of leading experts, and are working in collaboration with law enforcement agencies,” Julianne Bardele, Lurie’s director of public affairs and communications, said in a text message to Crain’s. (Davis, 2/2)

Walgreens Boots Alliance in recent years has spent billions of dollars on various assets it said would prop up a new healthcare business intended to support the pharmacy chain’s long-term prospects. Shields Health Solutions, a specialty pharmacy firm, was among the companies Deerfield-based Walgreens added to its portfolio. Walgreens paid more than $2.34 billion over two separate investments into Shields, an asset that was supposed to be key to Walgreens’ transition into a full-fledged healthcare company. (Davis, 2/2)

To an outsider, Atrium Health might look no different than its Charlotte competitor Novant Health. Like other nonprofit hospital chains nationwide, both have gobbled up community hospitals, specialty clinics and physician practices in their quest to grow. But Atrium has a key advantage: It is a “unit of local government.” (Crouch, 2/5)

Two days after announcing it would sell its Medicare business, Cigna Group outlined plans to double down on growth opportunities for its Evernorth Health Services unit. Cigna CEO David Cordani told analysts on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call Friday it is looking to grow Evernorth's reach with health plan partners and remains interested in investments in digital-first and data-led capabilities. It also expects to benefit from the continued growth of Medicare Advantage, despite its pending exit, by offering pharmacy benefits to these plans. (Berryman, 2/2)

Devoted Health has been one of the most prominent health insurance and provider startups of the past decade — founded and overseen by several alumni of former President Barack Obama’s administration. But it has not turned a profit after five years of selling Medicare Advantage plans to older adults, according to a STAT analysis of Devoted’s financial filings. And Devoted isn’t sharing many details about its progress, either. (Herman, 2/5)

Starting this year, private Medicare plans have to cover their members’ hospitalizations at the higher inpatient rate if their doctors predict they’ll have to stay beyond two midnights. It’s the same rule — appropriately called the two-midnight rule — that traditional Medicare has followed for a decade. After it came out that Medicare Advantage plans were routinely denying coverage for necessary services, the federal government decided they ought to be held to the same standard, at least when it comes to hospital care. (Bannow, 2/5)

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to propose that companies conduct more stringent evaluation of the devices, called pulse oximeters, before applying for agency approval. The proposal, which the agency has not yet formally announced, calls on manufacturers to increase the devices’ accuracy and to boost the number of people on which the devices are tested. The agency also wants companies to test the devices on people whose skin colours span the entire range of a specific colour scale. FDA scientists presented the proposal at a meeting of an independent advisory committee on 2 February. (Kozlov, 2/2)

The Food and Drug Administration should move more quickly to ensure pulse oximeters — the ubiquitous devices used to measure blood oxygen — work well in all patients, should better inform clinicians about the devices’ shortcomings in patients with darker skin, and should recall versions that are particularly problematic, patients, researchers, and consumer advocates testified during a public meeting on Friday. (McFarling, 2/2)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted clearance for a vibration belt known as Osteoboost. ... "A study conducted at the University of Nebraska Medical Center showed the efficacy of Osteoboost in directly stimulating bone growth and preserving bone mineral density and strength in postmenopausal women with osteopenia by sending low-frequency vibrations directly to the lumbar spine and hips," Laura Yecies, CEO of Bone Health Technologies in Redwood City, California, told Fox News Digital. (Sudhakar, 2/4)

Digital home devices are in a regulatory gray area when it comes to accessibility standards. No agency requires manufacturers to incorporate features for blind folks. Advocates from the National Federation of the Blind have lobbied lawmakers for years to fix this. Now, federal lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to develop rules mandating device makers build accessible products. Insulin pumps and glucose monitors are a critical focus, as diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. But the bill would also direct the FDA to cover devices like CPAP machines or heart monitors. (Lawrence, 2/5)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is opening its first regional office in a developed nation, with the post in Japan set to enhance its work with allies on disease monitoring amid rising geopolitical tensions with China. “This region is incredibly important,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday. “It’s where a number of emerging infectious diseases have come from prior and so it’s important for us to be able to share information quickly to jointly invest in health security platforms and capacity.” (Matsuyama, 2/5)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Journalists Catch Up On Top Issues Facing 2024 Voters, From Obamacare To Opioids 

�鶹Ů�� Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, discussed the record enrollment in Affordable Care Act health plans on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Jan. 30. Rovner also discussed health care issues against the backdrop of the 2024 election on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” on Jan. 25. ... �鶹Ů�� Health News Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton discussed Montana’s opioid settlement money on Montana Public Radio on Jan. 23. (2/3)

Pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Kris Bryant told USA TODAY that this flu season has been more or less normal as far as pediatric cases. ... According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 10 influenza-related pediatric deaths in the week ending Jan. 20, bringing the total to 57 thus far for the 2023-2024 flu season. The "season" as categorized by the CDC, runs from late fall to early spring, and 106 total pediatric deaths were reported to the CDC by February of the 2022-2023 season, the highest number since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Walrath-Holdridge, 2/3)

Though flu indicators declined following the winter holidays, the CDC has said that it is watching for a second peak that sometimes occurs after the winter holidays. In its respiratory virus snapshot, the CDC said some regions are seeing rising flu indicators, especially in the Midwest and South-Central regions. (Schnirring, 2/2)

More than a year after the Florida Supreme Court granted Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request to empanel a statewide grand jury to investigate “criminal or wrongful activity” related to COVID-19 vaccines, the body released its first report and said its probe is “nowhere near complete.” Their 33-page report released late Friday said “lockdowns were not a good trade” and that “we have never had sound evidence of (masks’) effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” among other conclusions. “In a way, this Grand Jury has allowed us to do something that most Americans simply do not have the time, access, or wherewithal to do: Follow the science,” the report said. (DiMichele, 2/4)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Congressman Off-Base In Ad Claiming Fauci Shipped Covid To Montana Before The Pandemic

A fundraising ad for U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) shows a photo of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, behind bars, swarmed by flying bats. Rosendale, who is eyeing a challenge to incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, maintains that a Montana biomedical research facility, Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, has a dangerous link to the pandemic. This claim is echoed in the ad: “It’s been revealed that Fauci brought COVID to the Montana one year before COVID broke out in the U.S!,” it charges in all-caps before asking readers to “Donate today and hold the D.C. bureaucracy accountable!” (Houghton, 2/5)

Loneliness is officially a health emergency in California's San Mateo County, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and includes part of Silicon Valley. The county's Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday that declared loneliness a public health crisis and pledged to explore measures that promote social connection in the community. It’s the first county in the U.S. to make such a declaration. (Bendix, 2/2) 

The Minneapolis suburb of Anoka sits where Minnesota’s meandering 150-mile (241-kilometer) Rum River ambles into the mighty Mississippi. Like other communities, it touts itself as an agreeably placid place to live. But last year, a federal investigation found Anoka illegally discriminated against residents with mental health disabilities, saying the city gave landlords weekly reports over five years revealing personal medical information of renters who received multiple emergency calls to their homes. (Hanna, 2/4)

A new D.C. law eliminates a waiting period before divorce, a change spurred by victim advocates who say it will particularly help domestic violence survivors seeking to separate from an abusive spouse. D.C. law previously allowed a couple to divorce after six months of living separately, only if both parties mutually and voluntarily agreed to it. If a spouse contested the divorce, D.C. law required the couple to remain legally married for a year. (Silverman, 2/4)

With some 70% of teenagers and children dropping out of organized sports by age 13, experts are chiming in on potential reasons for early burnout. The dropout stat was revealed in a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) — "Overuse Injuries, Overtraining, and Burnout in Young Athletes" — published in the journal Pediatrics on Jan. 22. (McGorry, 2/3)

More than two decades of growing internet use has surfaced fears about the social and psychological impacts of nearly unfettered access to pornography. But many researchers and sex therapists worry that the online communities that have formed in response to these fears often endorse inaccurate medical information, exacerbate mental health problems and, in some cases, overlap with extremist and hate groups. (Hagen, 2/3)

Money is pouring into the fledgling psychedelic medicine industry, with dozens of startup companies vying to be among the first to sell mind-expanding drugs for depression, addiction and other mental health conditions. While psychedelics are still illegal under federal law, companies are jostling to try and patent key ingredients found in magic mushrooms, ayahuasca and other substances that have been used underground for decades or — in some cases — for millennia by indigenous cultures. (Perrone, 2/3)

It wasn’t the first tiny device to be implanted in a human brain. Still, Elon Musk’s announcement on Monday turned heads in the small community of scientists who have spent decades working to treat certain disabilities and conditions by tapping directly into the body’s nervous system. “Getting a device into a person is no small feat,” said Robert Gaunt, an associate professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh. “But I don’t think even Elon Musk would have taken on a project like this if it were not for the research and demonstrated capability over decades in neuroscience.” (Chow, 2/4)

The secrecy worries the research community, which has long advocated for accountability. “This is not like a product launch, We’re talking about human experiments here,” said McGill University’s  Jonathan Kimmelman, who studies the introduction of novel medical technologies.“Once you’ve entered the realm of doing human research, you now have a set of expectations and obligations. One of them is transparency,” he said. “You have to be able to establish that the benefits of doing research are sufficient to outweigh the risks and burdens.” (Krieger, 2/3)

Amgen is trying a unique strategy with its obesity drug candidate: testing whether it can wean patients toward lower or less frequent doses over time. Very early data hints that Amgen’s candidate, called MariTide, may provide longer-lasting weight loss than highly popular obesity drugs on the market like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. Amgen is already seeing if that means its drug could also be dosed differently from Novo and Lilly’s products, which are costly and expected to be taken consistently for life. (Chen, 2/5)

Animal and early-stage human trial data for Amgen's experimental obesity drug published in a medical journal showed that it promoted significant weight loss with an acceptable safety profile, the company said on Monday. The dataset published in Nature Metabolism details outcomes and adverse events for the 49 patients in the Phase 1 trial of the drug, maridebart cafraglutide. Trial participants received different doses of the drug ranging from 21 milligrams to 840 mg. Patients in the study were obese, but did not have other underlying health conditions such as diabetes. (Beasley, 2/5)

Talk to people who have tried to get one of the wildly popular weight-loss drugs, like Wegovy, and they’ll probably have a story about the hoops they had to jump through to get their medication — if they could get it at all. Emily Weaver, a nurse practitioner in Cary, N.C., said she told her patients that finding Wegovy was “like winning the lottery.” Here are six reasons why. (Abelson and Robbins, 2/2)

The drug tirzepatide — sold under the brand names Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes — significantly lowered the blood pressure of adults with overweight or obesity who took it for nine months, according to a new study. (Cheng, 2/5)

When you eat fewer calories than you burn, the body starts scavenging itself, breaking down fat, of course, but also muscle. About a quarter to a third of the weight shed is lean body mass, and most of that is muscle. Muscle loss is not inherently bad. As people lose fat, they need less muscle to support the weight of their body. And the muscle that goes first tends to be low quality and streaked with fat. Doctors grow concerned when people start to feel weak in everyday life. (Zhang, 2/2)

A judge has rejected Abbott Laboratories' effort to dismiss a New York City grandmother's lawsuit claiming it misled consumers into believing its PediaSure Grow & Gain nutrition drinks were "clinically proven" to help children grow taller. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan said on Friday that Joanne Noriega's complaint set forth "strong, evidence-backed reasons" to doubt Abbott's claim that clinical studies supported its marketing claims. (Stempel, 2/3)

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is asking a Hamilton County judge deciding the legality of the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks to dismiss the case, which would let that ban stand. That’s even though voters approved an amendment guaranteeing abortion and reproductive rights in November. On Friday, Yost asked Judge Christian Jenkins to dismiss the case, but his 16-page filing didn't include specifics of what parts of the six-week ban could still be constitutional. (Kasler, 2/4)

A California federal judge has refused to shield Yelp from a lawsuit by the state of Texas accusing it of posting misleading notices about crisis pregnancy centers on its online review site. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in Oakland, California, ruled Thursday that federal courts cannot interfere with state actions enforcing their laws unless they are brought in bad faith. She said that required her to dismiss a preemptive lawsuit Yelp had filed against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last September in an effort to stop him from suing the San Francisco-based company for posting notices warning users that the centers provided limited medical services. (Pierson, 2/2)

When Deanna Gomez found out she was pregnant in September 2023, it turned her world on end. She was a college senior in San Bernardino and didn’t feel ready to have a baby. She was working two jobs, doing well in her classes, and she was on track to graduate in December. She used birth control. Motherhood was not in the plan. She ended up driving more than 300 miles to three medical offices and paying hundreds of dollars in medical and travel expenses. She missed a month of classes, which put her graduation date from Cal State San Bernardino in jeopardy. She had no idea she was entitled to a free medication abortion right on campus. (Fortier and Guzman-Lopez, 2/5)

DakotaRei Frausto was 17 years old and 12 weeks pregnant when they had to travel 11 hours by car from San Antonio, Texas, to New Mexico to terminate a pregnancy after contraception failed them. The appointment was April 1, 2022, about six months after Senate Bill 8 initially took effect in Texas, banning abortions after about six weeks. “I had a lot of health issues that played into me wanting to get an abortion, but those very issues made it difficult for me to realize I was pregnant in the first place,” said Frausto, who was eight weeks along by the time they discovered they were pregnant. (Moseley-Morris, 2/5)

Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, has announced she will step down from her position at the end of this month. Rodriguez has led the regional organization since 2019 and has guided its efforts as access to abortion dwindled and then ended in Missouri. (Fentem, 2/2)

A Virginia doctor who prescribed more than 500,000 opioid doses in less than two years had his conviction and 40-year prison sentence thrown out by a federal appeals court on Friday, because the jury instructions misstated the law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia also ordered a new trial for Joel Smithers, 41, who has been serving his sentence in an Atlanta prison. (Stempel, 2/2)

Less than 5 percent of the $50 million that Massachusetts communities received from the opioid settlements so far has been spent on addiction-related services and overdose prevention efforts, according to a Globe analysis of municipal spending reports. More than 90 percent of the 247 communities that submitted financial reports to the state hadn’t spent a single penny in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023. (Serres, 2/4)

Emmayln Pratt has been surrounded by firefighters her whole life, growing up in Kearney, 30 miles northeast of Kansas City. Her father is the local fire chief, and he’s part of a long line of firefighters in the family. “I’ve lived the sacrifices that they make to be away from their families and put their lives on the line,” Pratt said. “But they’re also putting their health on the line.” That’s part of the reason she decided to study at the Sonoran University of Health Sciences in Arizona to become a naturopathic doctor — or a primary care physician with a focus on holistic care. Pratt’s dream is to open her own practice in her hometown to, in part, help optimize the health of first responders. But under current state law, Pratt couldn’t establish that practice in Missouri. (Rivas, 2/2)

With supporters saying the proposal would help ensure access to health care, the Florida House began moving forward Friday with a proposal that would create a category of “rural emergency hospitals” in the state. (2/4)

The MetroHealth System has opened a clinic at Cleveland State University to expand healthcare services for the university’s students, faculty and staff. MetroHealth will operate the CSU Clinic in the university’s College of Health, 2112 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Patients with minor illnesses and injures that don’t need to be seen in an emergency department can be treated at the clinic, MetroHealth said in jointly announcing the clinic with CSU. (Washington, 2/4)

A child in Montgomery County has been diagnosed with measles, the first confirmed case in Ohio this year. The Ohio Department of Health says it’s not aware of any additional current cases of the disease. The department is working with health officials in Dayton and Montgomery County to identify and notify anyone who might have been exposed, according to a news release. (Pinckard, 2/5)

Across the country, the number of new hepatitis C infections reported annually more than doubled between 2014 and 2021, topping 5,000. That same year, more than 107,000 longtime infections were newly discovered, according to federal data. Some untreated infections may clear up on their own, but many will endure, leaving people at risk of illness and death. People with long-term infections can develop cancer or end up with liver scarring so grave they need an organ transplant. (Alpert Reyes, 2/4)

Dr. Cheryl Bettigole is resigning as Philadelphia's health commissioner effective Feb. 15, Mayor Cherelle Parker announced Friday. Parker named Deputy Health Commissioner Frank Franklin as the city's interim health commissioner. The mayor said the search for Philadelphia's next health commissioner will be nationwide. "Dr. Bettigole has served our city and citizens well as health commissioner, and we thank her for all her public service to Philadelphia," Parker said in a news release. (Dougherty, 2/2)

Kevin Hernandez was in awe as he watched his baby in her hospital crib this week. Her brown eyes, after turning nearly neon yellow, now twinkled. Her tummy was flat instead of bulging from her tiny body. Her orangish skin was a beautiful olive. “She’s just happier,” said Hernandez, 31, of Florissant. Baby Eden’s dramatic turnaround from a life-threatening liver disease is thanks to a selfless relative who two weeks ago donated part of her liver to Eden — the first living donor liver transplant in St. Louis in about 10 years. (Munz, 2/4)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Back From COP28, California Climate Leaders Talk Health Impacts Of Warming 

Wildfire smoke. Drought. Brutal heat. Floods. As Californians increasingly feel the health effects of climate change, state leaders are adopting sweeping policies they hope will fend off the worst impacts — and be replicated by other countries. Several of them attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP28, late last year, where more than 120 countries signed a declaration acknowledging the growing health impacts of climate change and their responsibility to keep people safe. (Young, 2/5)

The likely arrival of a new kind of pain pill—one that doesn’t carry the risk of addiction — feels like a rare moment of lightness amid the relentlessly heavy news about opioids in the US. (Lisa Jarvis, 2/3)

Recently, California surprised the public-health world by easing the state’s recommendations for asymptomatic people who test positive for COVID. The state previously urged them to isolate for five days to avoid infecting others. In a January memo, though, California Public Health Officer Tomás Aragón declared that “there is no infectious period for the purpose of isolation or exclusion.” (Juliette Kayyem, 2/4)

The Supreme Court of the United States ruling last year that colleges and universities can no longer take race and ethnicity into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission delivered a significant blow to diversity efforts on campuses nationwide. This ruling applies to medical education, where the lack of a diverse physician workforce is a known factor that leads to health care inequalities. (Cesar Padilla and Michael Galvez, 2/2)

In February 2021, Oregon decriminalized possession of small amounts of all drugs, via a ballot initiative known as Measure 110. The idea was to treat addiction as a public health problem, based on overwhelming evidence that jailing people for having small amounts of drugs for personal use is both ineffective and counterproductive. (Maia Szalavitz, 2/5)

Nearly one year ago, we came together to tell Americans that "protecting America's medical supplies is a bipartisan national security priority." We highlighted America's overreliance on China for life-saving drugs and the need to act quickly in the interest of national security. That idea has come to fruition, as we are pleased to announce the United States-Abraham Accords Cooperation and Security Act of 2024 (H.R. 7155). (Rep. Juan Vargas and Rep. Diana Harshbarger, 2/2)

The Biden administration’s proposed minimum staffing standard is likely the most important nursing home reform measure in decades. If finalized, the rule would establish detailed federal nursing home staffing standards for the first time, requiring facilities to always have a registered nurse onsite and to meet explicit levels for RN and nurse aide staffing. Following the release of the proposed rule in September, however, the administration has received intense criticism from both industry and advocacy stakeholders. (David C. Grabowski and David G. Stevenson, 2/5)

Mission Health should not have been sold to HCA. What is less obvious, but more important for the future of healthcare in western North Carolina, is that the purchase of Mission has not been good for HCA, is unlikely to get better, and that HCA can, and should, sell Mission sooner rather than later. For proponents of locally governed, not-for-profit health care in western North Carolina — of which I am one — that might be good news. (Jonathon Yeatman, 2/1)