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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told employees on Monday they could apply for early retirement over the next 10 days and should respond to a request for information on their accomplishments of the past week, according to emails seen by Reuters. The HHS told employees in an email that it received authorization on Monday from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to offer early retirement under the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, which impacts agencies "that are undergoing substantial restructuring, reshaping, downsizing, transfer of function or reorganization." (Wingrove and Levine, 3/3)

A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s proposed across-the-board cut to the National Institutes of Health funding for universities’ “indirect costs,” such as facilities and administration. But even if the courts reject the plan, Trump could turn to Plan B — renegotiating the payments one university at a time, Erin reports. At stake is $4 billion, a shortfall the universities say would devastate the nation’s scientific enterprise. (Hooper and Cirruzzo, 3/3)

The funding was supposed to last for at least several more months, said Jace Flatt, an associate professor of health and behavioral sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. But on Friday, he and several other scientists studying LGBTQ+ health received a letter from the National Institutes of Health informing them that some existing, ongoing grants from the federal government were terminated, effective immediately. (Chen, 3/3)

Some universities are freezing hiring, admitting fewer graduate students and warning that recent federal changes and proposals pose an existential threat to higher education. A U.S. judge last month put a temporary block on Trump administration orders for deep cuts to federal funding rates that the National Institutes of Health provides to support overhead costs for research at academic institutions. (Svrluga, 3/3)

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) on Monday defended the budgets and workforce cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, as he said he “can’t guarantee” veterans’ benefits and care would be immune from cuts. In an interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar, Murphy said the cuts are essential to reining in government spending and restructuring to ensure the agencies work efficiently for the American people. (Fortinsky, 3/3)

Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), said Monday the recent cuts made by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the agency could result in the “collapse” of the Social Security system “within the next 30 to 90 days.” (Zehra, 3/3)

The Justice Department is poised to drop a landmark lawsuit alleging that cancer-causing pollution from a Louisiana petrochemical plant poses an imminent danger to nearby communities, according to two individuals briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision is not yet final. (Joselow and Ajasa, 3/3)

Health care may not feature prominently in President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday night, but whatever he says about Medicaid will be closely parsed. Trump has said he would "love and cherish" the safety net program, but it still could be in the crosshairs as Congress looks for ways to pay for an extension of the president's 2017 tax cuts. (Reed, 3/4)

Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US National Institutes of Health, will tell senators this week that he plans to establish a culture of “scientific dissent” at the agency. “Over the last few years, top NIH officials oversaw a culture of coverup, obfuscation, and a lack of tolerance for ideas that differed from theirs,” Bhattacharya said in prepared remarks seen by Bloomberg ahead of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing on Wednesday. He pledged to “create an environment where scientists — including early career scientists – can express disagreement respectfully.” (Muller, 3/3)

Marty Makary, President Trump’s pick to be Food and Drug Administration commissioner, promised to step down as an adviser to various health tech, medical device, and telehealth startups if confirmed, and to sell off stock holdings in the companies as well, according to financial disclosures filed ahead of his confirmation hearing. (Lawrence, 3/3)

Organizers of a conference that brings Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs health leadership and military medical professionals together to share ideas excluded "independent media" this year, despite having allowed -- and welcomed -- press coverage for more than a decade. Reporters who tried to sign up to attend the annual meeting of the AMSUS Society of Federal Health Professionals were told that the media was being excluded this year. Those who managed to sign up received emails that their registrations had been canceled. (Kime, 3/3)

The top spokesperson at the Health and Human Services Department has abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Thomas Corry announced on Monday that he had resigned “effective immediately,” just two weeks after joining the department as its assistant secretary for public affairs. (Cancryn, 3/3)

In the 18 days since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, his department has postponed or canceled two major vaccine advisory committee meetings, he’s pledged to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule and he downplayed the seriousness of a measles outbreak that’s resulted in the first death from the disease in this country in a decade. Citing those moves and others – including an opinion piece from Kennedy on the measles response published by Fox News Sunday – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, sent a letter demanding the secretary clarify his “intentions regarding vaccine policy.” (Tirrell, 3/3)

In a statement yesterday, health officials said they are tracing contacts and examining exposures related to the shuttle bus, as well as at two health facilities, including a pediatrics office in Plymouth Meeting and an emergency department in King of Prussia. The case appears to be Pennsylvania’s first of 2025. (Schnirring, 3/3)

Texas’ health commissioner told lawmakers Monday they are still trying to determine the origin of a South Plains-Panhandle measles outbreak more than a month after the first patients reported symptoms. “I cannot link this particular outbreak,” Dr. Jennifer Shuford, who oversees the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the House Committee on Public Health. “We don’t know what the link is.” (Langford, 3/3)

The ongoing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico is edging closer to Colorado, at least geographically. Four cases — and possibly a fifth — have been reported in the Texas Panhandle county of Dallam, which sits about 35 miles south of Colorado’s southern border, separated by the Oklahoma Panhandle. This doesn’t mean an outbreak is imminent in Colorado, of course. But state health officials have been getting ready in case one is. (Ingold, 3/4)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring an unknown disease that has killed dozens in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said in a statement on Monday. "CDC is monitoring the situation closely and engaging with DRC officials on what support the agency can offer," the agency's spokesperson said. At least 1,096 people have been sickened and 60 people have died from the disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday in its most recent update. (Benadjaoud and Forrester, 3/3)

Sutter Health agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the health system inflated healthcare costs by forcing insurers into restrictive contracts. The Sacramento, California-based nonprofit system reached an agreement on March 2 with individuals and businesses that alleged Sutter used all-or-nothing contract provisions with insurers to monopolize Northern California hospital markets and drive up costs, according to a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California filing. All-or-nothing contracts require insurers to include all of a health system’s facilities in their networks regardless of cost. (Kacik, 3/3)

Sycamore Partners is nearing an acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said, in a deal that could end the drugstore operator’s tumultuous run as a public company. The private equity firm and Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens are putting the final touches on a transaction that may be announced as soon as this week, according to the people. (Tse, Kirchfeld and Basu, 3/4)

UnitedHealth Group is taking another step to refine its prior authorization requirements as it continues to face public frustration. The healthcare giant’s insurance business, UnitedHealthcare, plans to cut nearly 10% of prior authorizations this year, the company said in a notice Saturday. (Berryman, 3/3)

Mayo Clinic is investing nearly $1.9 billion in its Phoenix campus as part of the Bold. Forward. Unbound. strategy being implemented across the system's multistate footprint. The project covers 1.2 million square feet, including a new procedural building, an expanded specialty care building, 11 new operating rooms and two new patient units that support 48 beds, according to a Monday news release. (Hudson, 3/3)

AdventHealth acquired Community Health Systems-owned ShorePoint Health System Saturday. The $260 million deal involved ShorePoint Health Port Charlotte in Florida, certain assets of ShorePoint Health Punta Gorda and other businesses related to these facilities, according to a Monday press release from CHS. (Hudson, 3/3)

Providence and Compassus kicked off Monday the first phase of a joint venture to manage the health system’s home care operations. Brentwood, Tennessee-based Compassus will manage six Providence home health locations in Alaska and Washington and five of the health system’s hospice and palliative care locations in Alaska, Texas and Washington. The operations will be run under a new entity called Providence at Home with Compassus, the companies said in a news release. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal. (Eastabrook, 3/3)

Despite making up more than half of medical school students, women remain underrepresented in cardiology. Cleveland-based MetroHealth is working to change that. Women outnumber men in medical school for the sixth year in a row, and they now make up 54% of medical students. There are three specialties that female physicians tend to gravitate toward: pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology and dermatology. (Taylor, 3/3)

Microsoft is beefing up its artificial intelligence capabilities for clinical users. At the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference in Las Vegas on Monday, the big tech company announced a new way for clinicians to interact with its AI tools. Microsoft launched a natural language chat interface called Dragon Copilot, which takes clinician's text commands and documents them in the electronic health record. (Turner, 3/3)

New York University's Langone Health will use Amazon's palm recognition technology for patient check-ins, the health system announced Monday as a major health information technology conference kicked off. The new system, which will be optional for patients, aims to make it easier and faster to verify patient identities when they show up to an appointment. (Goldman, 3/4)

The Department of Justice is investigating Semler Scientific for possible violations of a federal anti-fraud law related to its marketing of a product known as QuantaFlo, a test used in the diagnosis of peripheral artery disease by UnitedHealth Group and other large insurers. (Lawrence and Ross, 3/3)

Ingredients that can cause cancer were found in 10 synthetic hair products used in braids, extensions and other hairstyles popular with Black women, including artificial hair from popular brands such as Magic Fingers, Sensationnel and Shake-N-Go, according to a Consumer Reports study published Thursday. Lead, which can cause serious health and developmental problems, was also found in nine of the 10 packs of synthetic hair surveyed, including one package of braiding hair that exceeded the maximum allowed dose of lead by more than 600%, according to the study. (Schwanemann, 3/3)

Black pediatric patients believed to have neurological conditions are falling through the cracks. Half of Black pediatric patients completed the necessary genetic tests for diagnosis and treatment. That puts them well behind white pediatric patients at 75%. This is just one disparity highlighted in a new study from Washington University’s School of Medicine. WashU Medicine neurology professor Dr. Christina Gurnett said these tests are necessary to unlock treatment options. (Lewis-Thompson, 3/4)

Black and Hispanic people paid more in out-of-pocket costs for maternal care than Asian and white people with the same commercial insurance, a new study published in JAMA Health Forum found. Black mothers in the U.S. face a pregnancy-related death rate that is more than three times the rate for white mothers. About 80% of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women is similar to that of white mothers but has surged in recent years. (Goldman, 3/3)

The largest health insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Cigna, Humana and Elevance Health, are expressing less interest in diversity, equity and inclusion strategies, and more worry about bad publicity and the Trump administration, based on what they've tucked into their 2024 annual reports. Each year, publicly traded companies file the reports for investors with the Securities and Exchange Commission, filling the pages with dense details on finances, operations, leadership and risks. (Berryman, 3/3)

If a potato chip isn’t bright red, will people know it’s spicy? This type of question kicked off a yearlong effort by PepsiCo Inc.’s marketing innovation, research and development, and consumer insights teams to invent a new kind of seasoning. The result will hit grocery store shelves in North America on March 3: Simply Ruffles Hot & Spicy. The chips are not flaming red. They’re orangish and speckled with spices, but placed next to the famous Ruffles Flamin’ Hots, these chips are basically beige. (Shanker, 3/3)

China, India and the US will have the world’s largest populations of adults living with overweight and obesity by 2050, according to new research that highlights the global public health crisis and the potential for colossal economic losses. (Tong, 3/3)

It’s easy to think cervical cancer could be 100% preventable. Along with lung, breast, and colorectal cancer, it has screening tests to find precancerous changes that can be treated before full-blown cancer develops. Even more, there is a highly effective vaccine against HPV, the virus that causes most cervical cancer diagnoses. Still, those two forms of prevention are not enough if people aren’t getting them, a research letter published Monday in JAMA Network Open reports. (Cooney, 3/3)

Georgia’s Senate passed two bills Monday that would ban most gender-affirming care for minors and people incarcerated in state prisons, mirroring moves by Republicans across states and a handful of executive orders by President Donald Trump targeting transgender people. The chamber voted 34-19 for a bill that would ban puberty blockers and most gender-affirming care for people under 18, including those already undergoing treatment. (Kramon, 3/4)

Legislation to prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports failed to advance in the Senate on Monday after all Democrats voted against it. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act failed to clear an initial procedural hurdle on a 51-45 vote. It needed 60 votes to advance, which would have required at least seven Democrats to vote with all Republicans to move it. The bill cleared the House in January on an almost entirely party-line vote. (Migdon, 3/3)

Tampa General Hospital has opened a primary care clinic dedicated to treating only military personnel and veterans. The Military & Veteran Primary Care Center, at 2106 S. Lois Ave., offers primary care, behavior health, labs and pharmacy services, the hospital said in a Friday news release issued. (Mayer, 3/3)

A security guard at an Arizona hospital was shot and wounded over the weekend, and the man suspected in the attack was quickly disarmed and taken into custody, authorities say. The security guard was shot around 1 p.m. Sunday inside the emergency room at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center, Scottsdale Police said in a news release. The shooting was the latest in a series of incidents of increasing violence against U.S. healthcare workers and highlighted the challenges of protecting them. (3/4)

Colorado is on track to make key changes to prevent children and teens from running away from residential treatment centers and foster care, and keeping track of them when they do. Part of the plan is to allow a state-owned residential treatment center for young people with behavioral health problems to put up a fence — something currently prohibited under Colorado law. Legislation would allow a new youth treatment center set to open in Denver next year to build a secure perimeter fence. (Brown, 3/3)

After fentanyl sickened three toddlers and killed a fourth at the Divino Niño day care, its proprietor, Grei Mendez, professed to be caught up in a bewildering catastrophe. She told investigators at a police precinct in 2023 that she had no idea how narcotics had gotten into the day care, which she ran out of a Bronx apartment, according to court documents. She denied that contraband there belonged to her or her husband, who had fled while a 22-month-old, Nicholas Feliz Dominici, lay dying. (Moynihan, 3/3)

With April and the state's budget deadline looming, Maryland disability advocates went door to door Monday night speaking with legislators about why a proposed cut would be devastating. Maryland is facing a $3 billion budget deficit, which Gov. Wes Moore says he inherited. Because of this fiscal crisis, Moore's budget includes both spending cuts and revenues generated through tax reform and investments in key industries. (Lynch, 3/3)

Hawaiʻi faces a reckoning as its population of kūpuna age 75 and older surges, consuming more resources than they bring in. The challenge, outlined in a recent report, is on the state’s doorstep: how to meet the needs of a group described as the super-aged. (Hay, 3/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Law And Order Or Bystander Safety? Police Chases Spotlight California’s Competing Priorities

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pressuring Oakland to expand its police department’s ability to chase suspects, referencing the public’s desire for a crackdown on crime. He said that voters had recently taken more tough-on-crime positions and “expressed in pretty clear terms they want change.” Weeks later, a police pursuit across the bay in San Francisco ended with the suspect’s vehicle crashing and sending six people, including a child, to the hospital. (Thompson, 3/4)

James Harrison, a prolific Australian blood donor famed for having saved the lives of more than two million babies, has died at age 88. Harrison, whose plasma contained a “rare and precious antibody” known as Anti-D, donated blood more than 1,100 times, according to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, which confirmed his death in a statement published Saturday. Harrison, who was known as the “Man with the Golden Arm,” died in his sleep at a nursing home north of Sydney on February 17, according to the statement. (Guy, 3/3)

Engineers at Washington University have built a sensor that can detect the presence of bird flu particles within minutes. The researchers say the biosensor machine could keep farmers from having to cull their flocks when they detect the contagious virus. (Fentem, 3/4)

An artificial intelligence model for digital stethoscopes can identify patients with weakened hearts that can’t pump blood effectively, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in the March issue of JACC: Advances. This condition, known as reduced ejection fraction, is an indicator of heart failure. An echocardiogram is typically used to diagnose it, but it’s not widely available because the technology is expensive, it requires specialist training and it’s a time-consuming examination. The new AI model is intended to be used by primary care physicians to detect heart problems earlier before symptoms escalate. (Dubinsky, 3/3)

An experimental medicine from Protagonist Therapeutics stabilized red blood cells and improved symptoms in patients with a rare blood cancer — achieving the efficacy goals of a Phase 3 study. (Feuerstein, 3/3)

A diverse diet that introduced 13 or 14 foods to 9-month-old babies was associated with a 45 percent lower risk of food allergy compared with the introduction of fewer foods at that age, according to a study in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. (McMahan, 3/3)

Elite athletes are learning that the best way to recover from a sports-related concussion isn’t to shut down all physical activity. It’s to get back in a workout routine—and quickly. (Radnofsky, 3/2)

President Trump and Elon Musk have unleashed a sandstorm of chaos in the past six weeks — on purpose. From starting a trade war with Canada to renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Trump is trying to distract from his real agenda: more tax giveaways for billionaires and billionaire corporations, paid for on the backs of hard-working Americans. One of their top targets? Medicaid. (U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 3/3)

Last week, a blogger wrote about a Yale School of Medicine study that he alleged proved that millions of long Covid sufferers might, in fact been injured by the vaccine. The story blew up on social media among anti-vaxxers and was posted to X by Elon Musk. (F.D. Flam, 3/3)

As veterinarians, flu scientists, and biosecurity experts, we have watched with growing concern the rise in H5N1 avian influenza in cats. Since 2022, more than 100 domesticated cats in the United States have had confirmed infections — some house pets, some barn cats, some feral — with high mortality, although mortality data remain undocumented on federal sites. Contaminated raw milk and raw meat pet foods have been implicated in numerous cases, while others could be linked to exposure to wild birds. The virus has also killed great cats, at least 20 at a single sanctuary, cougars and bobcats among them. (Meghan F. Davis, Ellen P. Carlin, Erin M. Sorrell, and David Stiefel, 3/4)

For decades, I was a cog in the machine, part of a health care system that has drifted far from its original mission — to care for people. I worked tirelessly at the top health care organizations, including UnitedHealthcare and Magellan. Ultimately, I was driven by the demands of the system, rationalizing success through stock options and promotions, even as I was forced further away from the patients whose well-being was supposed to be at the center of it all. (Michael Waterbury, 3/4)

For Illinois families of all backgrounds and across the state, health care isn’t an afterthought — it’s a lifeline. Since becoming governor, I have made it a top priority — eliminating the Medicaid backlog, passing the Healthcare Protection Act, expanding Medicaid access and coverage, erasing hundreds of millions of dollars in medical debt, and investing in safety net and rural health systems. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans passed a budget that will mean stripping away health care from working families to finance tax cuts for a privileged few, taking from low- and middle-income families to benefit the rich. From day one, Donald Trump and JD Vance’s administration has put health care on the chopping block. (JB Pritzker, 3/3)