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National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli will resign on Jan. 17, she told staff this week, ending her tenure as the head of the $48 billion biomedical research agency after only a year. The NIH has typically been an agency with bipartisan support, and Bertagnolli’s predecessor, Francis Collins, served three administrations over more than 12 years. But lingering Republican anger over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed NIH squarely into partisan crosshairs. (Weixel, 1/15)

National Institutes of Health Director Monica Bertagnolli wishes she’d had the opportunity to help shape GOP plans to overhaul her agency. ... Bertagnolli definitely isn’t endorsing some of congressional Republicans’ more far-reaching plans, like consolidating the agency’s divisions, and certainly not Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s threat to fire hundreds of NIH workers. But she does see reason for a serious-minded rethink of the way the $47 billion agency pursues health care breakthroughs. (Schumaker, Svirnovskiy and Payne, 1/15)

The conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is calling on senators to vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary because of his previous support for abortion. “Whatever the merits of RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again initiative—indeed, whatever other qualities a nominee might possess—an HHS Secretary must have a firm commitment to protect unborn children, or else bend under the pressure and pushback surrounding these daily, critical decisions,” Advancing American Freedom President Tim Chapman and Board Chairman Marc Short wrote in a letter to senators. (Weixel, 1/15)

President-elect Donald Trump's HHS appointees represent a broad spectrum of healthcare perspectives and are poised to significantly influence public health, pharmaceuticals and health systems. With a $1.8 trillion budget in 2024, the department's leadership will have the authority to direct policy, allocate resources, and oversee pivotal agencies — including the CDC, FDA, CMS and NIH — affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. (Emerson and Gamble, 1/15)

As artificial intelligence evolves and gains new capabilities in health care, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep tabs on how it’s being used to make decisions about patient care. Hospitals and insurers are adopting applications that may save them time and money, but there is no way to track its impact on patients’ costs and outcomes, or to determine which AI models are subject to government regulation. (Ross, 1/16)

With less than a week to go until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Democrats are ramping up their resistance to the incoming administration by focusing on health care access for undocumented immigrants. Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is leading an effort with other states to safeguard access to government health insurance for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program — immigrants who came to the country as children but do not qualify for such insurance because they lack legal status. (Fernandez and Kashinsky, 1/15)

Conservative state lawmakers are prepared to press for more abortion restrictions this year, regardless of any action President-elect Donald Trump pursues in office. Many of the bills filed in state legislatures across the country focus on abortion pills, abortion access for minors and, in at least one state, how to undo protections for the procedure. (Luthra, 1/15)

The Food and Drug Administration banned the use of red dye No. 3 in food and ingested drugs on Wednesday, more than 30 years after the additive was found to cause cancer in rats. (Lawrence and Todd, 1/15)

Food safety advocates cheered the news that U.S. regulators are banning Red No. 3 — and said they don’t anticipate any hiccups in quickly removing the artificial dye from America’s grocery shelves. ... Those who petitioned to have Red No. 3 prohibited said there’s no reason why it can’t be taken out of products sooner. It has long been banned in the European Union and some other countries, meaning many companies that sell foods and beverages overseas already have recipes that they can easily swap in for American consumers. (Chuck, 1/15)

"This is kind of the opening of Pandora's box with this very important topic in the foods that we eat," said Dr. Natasha Mendez, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Broward Health Medical Center. Dr. Mendez explained that health professionals have warned about the dangers of synthetic dyes like Red 3 for decades. "A lot of different countries around the world already have bans on other dyes like Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40, which have also been linked to early-onset colorectal cancer," she said. (McAllister, 1/15)

A year after the American Academy of Pediatrics flagged what it described as "questionable marketing practices" by makers of formulas for older infants and toddlers, Abbott Laboratories is being sued over how it pitches such products. Abbott, a health care products conglomerate based in Illinois, is misleading parents and other caregivers about the nutritional value of its sugar-laden toddler milks, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) against the maker of Similac formulas. (Gibson, 1/15)

A large new study suggests that regularly eating processed red meats such as bacon, hot dogs, sausages, salami and bologna could increase your likelihood of developing dementia and cognitive decline as you age. Health authorities have long urged people to reduce their intake of processed red meat because of its association with cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes. But the new study, published on Wednesday in the journal Neurology, is among the first to suggest a link between cured meats and higher rates of dementia and worse cognition. (O’Connor, 1/15)

The gas xenon, like the other noble, or inert, gases, is known for doing very little. The class of elements, because of its molecular structure, don’t typically interact with many chemicals. But a new mouse study shows one possible use case for xenon — as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. (Oza, 1/15)

The Biden administration Wednesday finalized a long-awaited rule laying out how some health care providers can prescribe gold-standard opioid use disorder treatments through telehealth. (Hellmann and Raman, 1/15)

On Wednesday, the FDA issued its long-awaited proposal to drastically limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and some other tobacco products, with the goal of making them less addictive. In its proposed rule, the FDA would cap the nicotine level at 0.7 mg/g of tobacco in cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products. The FDA's proposal would apply to cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, most cigars, and pipe tobacco -- not e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, noncombusted cigarettes, waterpipe tobacco, and smokeless tobacco products. (Lou, 1/15)

After years of sparring, the Biden administration and Gilead Sciences have settled a contentious lawsuit over patents for a pair of HIV prevention pills in a case that raised questions about the extent to which government-funded research should lead to affordably priced medicines. (Silverman, 1/15)

A new report from HHS' Office of Inspector General raises concerns about the FDA's accelerated approval process for drugs with weak supporting evidence, Bloomberg reported Jan. 14. The report highlights issues with the approvals of Biogen's Alzheimer treatment, Aduhelm; Serepta Therapeutics' Duchenne muscular dystrophy therapy, Exondys 51; and Covis Pharma's preterm birth prevention treatment, Makena. (Murphy, 1/15)

Maricruz Salgado was bringing her diabetes under control. Thanks to a federal program that allowed health clinics that serve poor people to buy drugs at steeply discounted prices, she was able to pay less than $75 for all five of her diabetes medications every three months. But in July, the cost of three of those drugs soared. Ms. Salgado, who does not have health insurance, suddenly faced costs of hundreds of dollars per month. She could not afford it. (Thomas, 1/16)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services withdrew an eagerly awaited report detailing how health insurance companies fared during the Medicare Advantage annual enrollment period after identifying faults in the data Wednesday. The agency plans to issue a corrected report next week, according to a notice CMS published several hours after releasing the enrollment figures. (Tepper, 1/15)

More than half of fee-for-service Medicare enrollees are now in accountable care arrangements, putting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services past midway toward its 2030 goal, according to data the agency released Wednesday. Accountable care participation rose 4.3% to 14.8 million people from 2024 to 2025, the largest annual increase since CMS started tracking these numbers. That amounts to 53.4% of fee-for-service beneficiaries, according to the agency. (Early, 1/15)

Even though almost all Medicare Advantage (MA) plans boast coverage of supplemental benefits -- dental, vision, and hearing -- enrollees didn't get more care, and they spent just as much out of pocket as those with traditional Medicare, a cross-sectional study showed. MA and traditional Medicare enrollees had "virtually identical" rates of using hearing aids (13.4% and 13.2%), wearing eyeglasses (78% and 76.8%), and having an eye exam in the past year (53.5% and 53.6%), according to Christopher Cai, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues. (Fiore, 1/15)

Alignment Health remains committed to balancing margin expansion with membership growth this year, executives told investors Wednesday during the first of two health insurer presentations at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. "We're never going to swing to a growth at all-cost mentality,” Chief Financial Officer Thomas Freeman said. “At the same time, we're not going to shoot for a profitability at all-cost mentality either." (Berryman, 1/15)

Most Medicare patients who hit the new $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs could see massive savings, despite changes in premiums, according to a report released Thursday by AARP. (Constantino, 1/16)

Leading New Mexico legislators on Wednesday recommended a 5.7% general fund spending increase for the coming fiscal year that emphasizes health care access, public school improvements, and early education and childcare programs that can boost household finances. The lead budget writing committee to the Democratic-led Legislature proposed a $577 million increase to $10.8 billion for the fiscal year running from July 2025 to June 2026. A windfall in government income from petroleum production is slowing down though far from over in New Mexico, the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state. (Lee, 1/16)

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday he wants to let low-income parents with young kids enroll without working in a Medicaid program that provides coverage for some able-bodied adults. ... Georgia is the only state that requires some people to work, study or volunteer to enroll in Medicaid, under the program Georgia Pathways. If the incoming Trump administration approves Kemp’s plan, parents and guardians of kids up to age 6 in households at or below 100% of the federal poverty level could receive Medicaid without meeting those requirements. (Kramon, 1/16)

A coalition of health industry leaders are backing a policy they say would help stop the statewide hemorrhaging of health care workers — allowing certain out-of-state professionals to practice in Texas. (Simpson, 1/16)

A month ago, officials at Vista Health Systems and Vista Medical Center East in Waukeganspoke publicly about the purchase of millions of dollars in new equipment and the strides they were making in regaining lost patients. But last week, Vista furloughed 69 non-medical personnel — 8.6% of its workforce — for the next six weeks. (Sadin, 1/15)

The University of Michigan Health system and the United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals have a tentative three-year agreement, according to a statement issued Tuesday. This is the union's first contract agreement with Michigan Medicine and its clinical operation known as U-M Health. A contract ratification vote will be scheduled in the coming weeks. (Wethington, 1/15)

America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Bruce Siegel plans to retire at the end of the year. Siegel joined the trade group, which represents the nation's safety-net hospitals, as CEO in 2010. He was named president the following year. Previous leadership roles include serving as president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital in Florida and president of NYC Health+Hospitals in New York. (DeSilva, 1/15)

At the J.P. Morgan Health Care conference this week in San Francisco, drugmakers had their sights set on the next generation of GLP-1 medications, alternatives, and a growing list of indications beyond diabetes and obesity. Meanwhile, the digital health industry was squarely focused on managing the impact of existing drugs, which have placed enormous pressure on health care spending. (Palmer, 1/16)

Nonprofit health systems presenting at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week said they aim to expand into $30 billion organizations through both organic growth and mergers and acquisitions. AdventHealth and Novant Health have each set $30 billion annual revenue targets, fueled by a growing demand for care and interest in deal-making. If successful, those health systems would follow other major nonprofit systems ... which eclipsed that revenue threshold after completing major mergers. (Kacik, 1/15)

Are we entering a world in which all of the exciting new therapeutics come from China? That question and variations of it could be heard at coffee meetings and late-night cocktail parties this week during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. (DeAngelis, 1/15)

Kira Weibel was in eighth grade when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the student’s Altadena charter school, cutting off critical community connections. As the weeks and months of online learning and isolation dragged on, Weibel spiraled into a deep depression. That changed when the school, Aveson Global Leadership Academy, reopened a year later and brought back the social interaction. But now Weibel and thousands of other students who weathered the pandemic are struggling with another historic calamity: the Eaton and Palisades fires. (Watanabe and Miller, 1/15)

In the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles, the asking rent for a two-bedroom condo jumped from $5,000 to $8,000 in the wake of the fires that started last week and have left thousands homeless. In Venice, a single-family house saw a jump of nearly 60%. In Santa Monica, an owner listed a five-bedroom house for $15,000 above what they were asking last year — a gain of more than 100%. (Dillon, Flemming, Khouri and Mehta, 1/15)

Sion Roy, MD, was on cardiac ICU service at Harbor UCLA Medical Center last week when he got a call from someone in his Big Rock neighborhood of Malibu. ... Though it was hours before the evacuation order, Roy, a cardiologist, was aware of the fires affecting Los Angeles because of the uptick in patients seeking care for cardiac issues, probably due to smoke and stress. But fire warnings had happened before, even last month with the Franklin fire that threatened his neighborhood. (Clark and Henderson, 1/15)

Armed with two garden hoses hooked up to a sputtering tap, Matthew Craig battled fire and smoke to save his house from the onslaught of flames that devastated much of Altadena, a once leafy corner of Los Angeles County. The wind felt like dragon’s breath, he said, and “we were all eating smoke.” But even though his home is secure, for now, it will be a long time before he and his family feel safe enough to go back. Every room in the house, he said, was covered in ash, dust, soot and dirt that the high winds had blown inside. (Tabuchi, 1/15)

The specific number of deaths and hospitalizations tied to wildfire smoke often are not well-known until months — if not years — after these natural disasters. That said, during the region’s recent wildfires, fire-related hospital visits spiked 16-fold across Los Angeles County, according to the county Department of Public Health. At its height, on Jan. 8, at least 81 people visited hospitals for burns or smoke exposure. (Briscoe, 1/16)

The Wildfire Conservancy is conducting a first-of-a-kind cancer study on firefighters battling the Palisades Fire. The goal is to track how the extreme conditions increase firefighters’ risk of cancer. The study comes after the International Agency for Research on Cancer officially classified firefighting as a carcinogenic profession. (Smith, 1/15)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed another human H5N1 avian flu case in California, which likely reflects follow-up testing of a presumed positive involving a San Francisco child. The latest confirmation puts the national total since early 2024 to 67 cases, of which 38 are from California. (Schnirring, 1/15)

One in every 50 men in California has been violent against an intimate partner in the past year. Just under two percent of California men—the equivalent of some 280,000 individuals—self-reported perpetrating some form of intimate partner violence (IPV), or violence against a romantic partner, according to a new paper in the journal PLOS ONE. (Thomson, 1/15)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: New California Laws Target Medical Debt, AI Care Decisions, Detention Centers

As the nation braces for potential policy shifts under President-elect Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” mantra, the nation’s most populous state and largest health care market is preparing for a few changes of its own. With supermajorities in both houses, Democrats in the California Legislature passed — and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed — laws taking effect this year that will erase medical debt from credit reports, allow public health officials to inspect immigrant detention centers, and require health insurance companies to cover fertility services such as in vitro fertilization. (Mai-Duc, 1/16)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday over whether a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional. The challenge comes amid the national battle over LGBTQ+ rights. It is also part of a broader effort by the Democratic governor, who has vetoed Republican bills targeting transgender high school athletes, to rein in the power of the GOP-controlled Legislature. (Bauer, 1/16)

It could cost you more to get a soda soon. The Boston City Council is proposing a tax on sugary drinks, saying the money on unhealthy beverages can be put to good use. City Councilor Sharon Durkan brought the idea before the Boston City Council on Wednesday to start the conversation about what rates would look like. (Hall, 1/15)

Becton, Dickinson & Co. is investing more than $30 million to boost its U.S. manufacturing of intravenous catheters. The additional production lines at its plant in Sandy, Utah, follows previous investments of more than $12 million in its U.S. manufacturing network to increase its supply of syringes, needles and intravenous catheters. (Dubinsky, 1/15)

"Pennsylvania is probably the most radon-prone state in the country...We have results at least 25 times the EPA guideline of every county and some much more than others," said Bob Lewis, the radon program manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Radiation Protection. According to the American Lung Association, about 40 percent of Pennsylvania homes are believed to have radon levels, specifically above the EPA action level of 4 picocuries per liter (PCI/L). (Guay, 1/15)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Childhood Vaccination Rates, A Rare Health Bright Spot In Struggling States, Are Slipping

Jen Fisher can do only so much to keep her son safe from the types of infections that children can encounter at school. The rest, she said, is up to other students and parents in their hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. Fisher’s son Raleigh, 12, lives with a congenital heart condition, which has left him with a weakened immune system. For his protection, Raleigh has received all the recommended vaccines for a child his age. But even with his vaccinations, a virus that might only sideline another child could sicken him and land him in the emergency room, Fisher said. (Chang and Whitehead, 1/16)

Mayor Eric Adams announced a new plan Wednesday to help address the issue of homeless people with mental illness. He revealed details of a $650 million plan that he first previewed during his State of the City address last week. (Gainer, 1/15)

The acting head of Maryland’s main state-run mental hospital resigned last week, according to an internal memo obtained by The Baltimore Sun, months after his predecessor’s ousting and at the conclusion of an independent evaluation of the psychiatric facility’s leadership. (Belson, 1/15)

Clinics that treat eating disorders are evolving, nationally and in Colorado, to deal with yet another disturbing result of the pandemic — people with anorexia or bulimia are now far sicker by the time they seek help. (Brown, 1/15)

More than 1,000 teens gathered Wednesday to learn to recognize the signs of suicide and strategies that could help save a life. The gathering came at a time when suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24 in Texas, according to the Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas. (Evans, 1/15)

New results from the National Institutes of Health's Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER)-Adult Initiative suggest that 4.5% of COVID-19 survivors have myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), compared with less than 1% of their uninfected counterparts. ME/CFS, which can be triggered by viral and non-viral infection, causes severe fatigue for at least 6 months and may entail impaired memory, brain fog, dizziness, and muscle or joint pain. Physical or mental activity exacerbates symptoms, which aren't fully relieved by rest. (Van Beusekom, 1/15)

Three main factors contributed to COVID vaccine hesitancy among Black women, according to a qualitative study using interviews conducted in 2021.Among the 54 Black women interviewed, three primary themes emerged: mistrust in healthcare and government due to past medical exploitation; concerns about vaccine safety and long-term effects, especially relating to reproductive health; and "ineffective and coercive" communication about and promotion of the vaccine, reported Brittany C. Slatton, PhD, of Texas Southern University in Houston, and co-authors. (Firth, 1/9)

Researchers have identified nine mutations in a bird flu strain from a person in Texas. Bad news: this strain is more capable of causing disease and replicates better in the brain. Good news: approved antivirals are still effective. (Texas Biomedical Research Institute, 1/15)

A research team proposes a method to assess cancer patients for their likelihood to either respond to treatment or relapse. (Tohoku University, 1/15)

There is every indication that incoming President Trump and congressional leadership will look to slash federal health care spending — primarily Medicaid — to pay for tax cuts for wealthy Americans. House Republicans recently released a list that proposes $2.3 trillion in Medicaid spending cuts. Many of these proposals aim at changing Medicaid’s fundamental financing structure from an entitlement to a welfare program. This change would be almost impossible to undo and comes without any viable replacement. (Carmel Shachar and MaryBeth Musumeci, 1/16)

Growing up as a female in the United States of America, I was always told that a woman could do anything a man could do. Now, as a young American woman, I see that this is not the case. I am fearful. With all of the freedoms put in place by the constitution, I would expect to have the right to my own body, and not expect others to make decisions for me. Biological men have this luxury. (Deven Taggart, 1/16)

There is about one geriatrician for every 10,000 older Americans. And it’s getting worse. The number of board-certified geriatricians has fallen from about 10,000 in 2000 to barely 7,400 in 2022. (Pamela Paul, 1/16)

If you’ve ever faced long waits for a doctor’s appointment, or traveled hours for care, it might surprise you that as recently as the turn of the century, policymakers sounded the alarm regarding a glut of U.S. physicians. In 1980, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) issued a pivotal report, “Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee Report,” that documented the surplus concerns that persisted for about 20 years. Today, to the contrary, the U.S. faces a dramatic physician shortage. (Nicole C. McCann and Rochelle Walensky, 1/15)

Maine has one of the highest rates of opioid use disorder in the nation. But a program at a rural Maine jail initiated by an addiction medicine specialist, Alane O’Connor, is offering hope and saving lives. (Alane O'Connor, 1/16)