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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week released new data fueling a narrative of rampant broker fraud on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. Plans received data finding 23% of enrollees did not have a claim in 2019. That number jumped sharply to 35% last year. (Tong, 8/12)

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are no longer promising to repeal Obamacare, but that doesn’t mean they have given up efforts to take down the landmark health reform law. Unlike in 2017, when the late GOP Sen. John McCain’s dramatic thumbs-down dashed his caucus’s hope of overturning the Affordable Care Act, Republicans barely mentioned Obamacare as they swiftly pushed Trump’s massive domestic agenda package through Congress this year. Instead, they focused their talking points on eliminating fraud in Medicaid and protecting the program for the most vulnerable. (Luhby, 8/12)

With the passage of the big Republican tax and spending bill, the federal government is poised to reduce support for Medicaid and the insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that these cuts could cause 10 million Americans to lose health insurance by 2034. Lawmakers have justified these cuts as a necessary step to address the bigger budget deficit exacerbated by tax cuts and other spending increases in the big bill. However, that doesn't capture how these cuts will send costs spilling out around society, to be paid by hospitals, clinics, individuals and then in the end, back to the federal government. (Crawford, 8/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Medicaid Cuts Could Have Vast Ripple Effects In This Rural Colorado Community
In southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, clouds billow above the towering mountains of the Sangre de Cristo range. A chorus of blackbirds whistle as they flit among the reeds of a wildlife refuge. Big, circular fields of crops, interspersed with native shrubs, give it a feel of bucolic quiet. But amid the stark beauty in one of the state’s most productive agricultural regions, there was a sense of unease among the community’s leaders as Congress debated a budget bill that could radically reshape Medicaid, the government health program for low-income people. (Daley, 8/13)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘An Arm and a Leg’: A Wild Health Insurance Hustle
When a New York couple purchased a health insurance plan from a telemarketer, they thought it covered everything they wanted: doctor visits, tests, and medicine. But then came the unexpected bills for thousands of dollars, forcing them to skip crucial medical care. In their series “Health Care Hustlers,” Bloomberg reporters Zachary Mider and Zeke Faux revealed how this couple and thousands of other people signed up for health plans by unknowingly agreeing to work fake “jobs.” (Weissmann, 8/13)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute'
Aug. 7 Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: New Trump administration policies could limit patient access to qualified medical interpreters, and physicians often miss the signs of iron deficiency in older adults. (Cook, 8/12)

Also —

A review of how Louisiana keeps its Medicaid rolls up to date found the state paid out benefits for more than 1,000 people over the past six years after they died. Nearly $10 million was paid to managed care organizations over that period, even though no health care services were actually provided. The Louisiana Legislative Auditor conducted its study as part of Gov. Jeff Landry’s Fiscal Responsibility Program, which he has branded LA DOGE. It looked specifically at how state health officials keep track of when Medicaid beneficiaries die and whether outside data sources could help that process.  (Larose, 8/12)

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore hundreds of suspended UCLA science research grants, affecting more than a third of awards totaling $584 million that the government abruptly froze late last month. In her evening order, issued hours after a San Francisco court hearing, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin said the government’s slashing of UCLA funds violated her June ruling blocking science research grant terminations. The National Science Foundation’s “suspension of the grants at issue here is vacated,” wrote Lin, of the Northern District of California. (Kaleem, 8/12)

President Donald Trump issued an expansive executive order Thursday that would centralize power and upend the process that the US government has used for decades to award research grants. If implemented, political appointees — not career civil servants, including scientists — would have control over grants, from initial funding calls to final review. This is the Trump administration’s latest move to assert control over US science. The EO, titled ‘Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking’, orders each US agency head to designate an appointee to develop a grant-review process that will “advance the President’s policy priorities”. Those processes must not fund grants that advance “anti-American values” and instead prioritize funding for institutions committed to achieving Trump’s plan for ‘gold-standard science’. (Garisto, 8/8)

A small federal agency that studies how to improve the health care system has been rendered functionally “incapacitated” after much of its staff was laid off or retired, according to three people, including two former employees, who spoke with STAT. (Cirruzzo, 8/13)

On homelessness and human rights —

As hundreds of National Guard troops deployed on Tuesday in the nation's capital, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said homeless people in Washington, D.C., who refuse to move into shelters will face prosecution or fines. "Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental health services," Leavitt said during a press briefing, when asked by NPR about the expanding crackdown. "If they refuse, they will be subjected to fines or jail time." (Mann, 8/13)

The State Department on Tuesday released an annual collection of reports on human rights records in nearly 200 nations, but left out language on persistent abuses in many nations that was present in prior reports. The omissions were another sign of the Trump administration’s sharp move away from criticizing human rights offenses. Key language in sections on El Salvador, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel — all seen as close partners by the Trump administration — was scaled back or excised. (Wong, 8/12)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Susan Monarez, warned staffers about the dangers of misinformation during an agencywide meeting Tuesday, the first since last week’s shooting at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, which left one police officer dead, according to a transcript of her remarks obtained by NBC News. ... She said the agency has taken steps to bolster security and expand mental health sources for employees. (Lovelace Jr., 8/12)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not blame vaccine misinformation as a motive in the August 8 shooting on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said in an interview with Scripps News. While visiting the agency in Atlanta Monday, Kennedy offered his condolences to the family of the officer who died while responding at the scene and expressed his support for CDC employees. (Nix, 8/12)

The man who opened fire at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta last week died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was motivated by his distrust of Covid vaccines, authorities confirmed on Tuesday. (Friedman, Gardner and Gardner, 8/12)

In related news about vaccines —

An international virologist group representing more than 80 research labs across more than 40 countries yesterday reaffirmed their support for the continued development and deployment of mRNA vaccines, a statement that came in response to the United States’ top health agency announcement earlier this month that it was scrapping further work on projects involving the mRNA vaccine platform. (Schnirring, 8/12)

At least a dozen countries are interested in developing their own vaccines because they’re losing confidence that the US government will have immunizations ready for the next pandemic, a top biotech investor said. Other nations have largely depended on the US to make shots that are deployed globally. The Covid-19 vaccines, developed by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. and embraced by the US government, were used by tens of millions of people around the world. (Smith, 8/12)

More on MAHA and RFK Jr. —

The anticipated release of the second report by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission has been delayed as the White House says scheduling will take some time. The second MAHA report was expected to be released this week, but the White House said the paper would be submitted by its Aug. 12 deadline, with some scheduling still needing to be coordinated. (Choi, 8/12)

A deadly shooting at one of the public health agencies that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vilified during his rise to power is proving to be a unique test of his leadership, at a time when fractures are emerging in his Make America Healthy Again movement. (Cirruzzo and Payne, 8/12)

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, MD, says his citizen's petition to the FDA to remove refined carbohydrates from the market unless the food industry can show they're safe is "remarkably simple." "Diet is the primary culprit behind this epidemic of chronic disease and metabolic harm," he told MedPage Today in a phone interview. "And these refined carbohydrates, these ultraprocessed foods, these are the main drivers." (Frieden, 8/12)

Prominent MAGA leaders are urging President Trump to back off his plans to review federal restrictions on marijuana, warning of a one-way ticket to societal ruin. Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug would open the door to expanded research and deliver a major boost to the legal cannabis industry, which is currently constrained by a patchwork of state laws. (Axelrod, 8/13)

Also —

At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates in June, the mood was tense. Hundreds of physicians had congregated in Chicago to vote on the organizations’ key policies. The AMA is the largest professional association for physicians, as well as a political lobbying group with a strong, if waning, presence on Capitol Hill. (Gaffney, 8/13)

Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study. AI helped health professionals to better detect pre-cancerous growths in the colon, but when the assistance was removed, their ability to find tumors dropped by about 20% compared with rates before the tool was ever introduced, according to findings published Wednesday. (Black, 8/12)

More on AI in health care —

Eighty-eight percent of health systems are using AI internally, yet only 17% have a mature governance structure and fully formed AI strategy, according to a report released Aug. 12 by the Healthcare Financial Management Association and Eliciting Insights, a healthcare strategy and market research firm. The findings are based on survey responses from 233 health systems and qualitative interviews with CFOs conducted in the second quarter of 2025. (Diaz, 8/12)

Highmark Health and clinical documentation vendor Abridge are developing a tool that uses generative artificial intelligence to approve prior authorization requests at the point of care, the companies announced Tuesday. The Pittsburgh-based health system and Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer will incorporate the software into its operations, and Highmark Health and Abridge have bigger plans. (Tepper, 8/12)

In hospital news from Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio —

Health care system CentraCare announced on Tuesday it’s cutting hundreds of staff. CentraCare spokesperson Karna Fronden said the cuts affect 535 employees at 44 different locations. About 70 percent are administrative and support roles, and the rest are patient care positions. (Marohn, 8/12)

A new hospital in Fort Leonard Wood will not be downgraded to a clinic, according to a Missouri senator. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said he has gotten language added to a Senate appropriations bill to make sure the new hospital will be built as originally planned. (Ahl, 8/12)

A former doctor who once worked at a children’s hospital in southwest Ohio appeared in federal court Tuesday on child-pornography charges. A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio says Howard Saal, 73, of Cincinnati, is charged with transporting and possessing child pornography. (Pinckard, 8/12)

More health care industry developments —

Credit ratings for nonprofit hospitals and health systems are looking stronger in the first half of 2025, following downgrades in recent years. The gap between credit upgrades and downgrades has nearly closed this year, with nine upgrades and eight downgrades from January through June, according to data from credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings. As of one the largest agencies, Fitch rates more than 250 nonprofit hospitals, including children’s hospitals. (Hudson, 8/12)

A growing number of health system CEOs are planning to retire or leave their organizations, exposing gaps in succession planning that could dent provider finances. Health systems are ramping up searches for the next generation of leaders, prioritizing a chief executive’s ability to navigate financial uncertainty brought about by the new tax law, grasp digital and data trends, work with policymakers and have a systemwide strategic vision, provider executives said. (Kacik, 8/12)

Cardinal Health agreed to purchase Solaris Health in a $1.9 billion deal, the company’s latest acquisition in the urology category and an expansion of its multispecialty strategy. “Urology is an attractive specialty for us,” said Jason Hollar, chief executive officer of Cardinal Health, in a statement. Among other recent urology acquisitions, Cardinal Health recently completed the purchase of Academic Urology & Urogynecology. Solaris Health has more than 750 providers in 14 states. (Garcia, 8/12)

Mecklenburg County commissioners chair Mark Jerrell said he is confident that Atrium Health will share data with him on the racial and ethnic makeup of the first class on the Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Charlotte campus — but he doesn’t have the numbers yet and doesn’t know if they will be made public. (Crouch, 8/13)

Should doctors always wear their white coats? —

Physician attire -- namely, white coats -- affected patients' perceptions of professionalism, trust, and communication, a systematic review indicated. However, patient preferences for such attire depended on clinical environment, medical specialty, physician gender, and the context of care, including the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Bo-Young Youn of Hwasung Medi-Science University in Hwaseong-si, South Korea, and colleagues in The BMJ. (Henderson, 8/12)

The percentage of Americans who report drinking alcohol has hit a 90-year low, according to a recent Gallup poll. The results of Gallup’s annual Consumption Habits survey, released Wednesday, revealed that only 54% of U.S. adults reported drinking alcohol in 2025. This figure represents a three-year decline from 67% in 2022, and falls below the previous record low of 55% in 1958. (Lander, 8/13)

More health and wellness news —

Autism is being diagnosed earlier in young children, especially in boys, according to a major new analysis of medical records published on Tuesday. Conducted by Epic Research -- the data and analytics arm of the electronic health record software company, Epic Systems -- the analysis also found that many girls still face years-long delays in receiving a diagnosis and an increasing share of women are not diagnosed until adulthood. (Monsalve, 8/12)

Men had higher mortality and hospitalization rates after a dementia diagnosis compared with women, even after controlling for age and comorbidities, a study of 5.7 million Medicare beneficiaries showed. Crude 1-year mortality rates were lower for women with incident dementia compared with men. After adjusting for age, race, ethnicity, Medicaid dual eligibility, medical comorbidity burden, and access to healthcare resources, the hazard of death associated with male sex was 1.24, said Jay Lusk, MD, MBA, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and co-authors. (George, 8/12)

It's been more than seven years, so Benjamin Stein-Lobovits is now able to crack dad jokes about the inoperable brain cancer diagnosis he received, just before his 32nd birthday. "I like to say that I turned 30-tumor," he says. (Noguchi, 8/13)

Feel Free was launched by Botanic Tonics in 2020. Feel Free Classic contains kava root, which is touted for its relaxing effects, and kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia that’s known for its stimulant and opioid-like effects. It’s the kratom in Feel Free that has experts and health officials concerned. The Food and Drug Administration declared kratom to be an opioid in 2018 and has taken steps to crack down on products related to it. (Bellamy, 8/12)

If Novo Nordisk A/S’s wildly popular weight-loss drug succeeds in a highly anticipated trial for Alzheimer’s disease, Biogen Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher doesn’t see it as a roadblock for his company’s medication. Rather, he sees it as an opportunity to potentially combine drugs and create a more potent therapy. (Smith, 8/12)

In other pharmaceutical updates —

The FDA approved oral brensocatib (Brinsupri) as the first treatment for non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis in adults and kids 12 years and up, drugmaker Insmed announced on Tuesday. A first-in-class reversible dipeptidyl peptidase-1 (DPP-1) inhibitor, brensocatib addresses the underlying inflammatory process of the serious chronic lung disease, which can lead to permanent lung damage and affects roughly half a million people in the U.S. (Ingram, 8/12)

Common food bacteria could be rewired to produce more vitamins—and "help to transform nutrition and medicine." This is the discovery of scientists at Rice University who have revealed how a bacterium called Lactococcus lactis regulates the production of a key precursor in the production of vitamin K₂, which is important for bone health, vascular health and clotting factors that stop bleeding. (Millington, 8/12)

The Food and Drug Administration labeled Draeger’s July recall of its SafeStar and TwinStar mechanical breathing system filters as the most serious type. The company recalled the filters because of the risk of misleading carbon dioxide readings, which could cause clinicians to administer unnecessary or harmful treatments. Using the filters could result in airway injury, delayed or incorrect treatment, brain injury or death, the FDA said in a notice issued Tuesday. (Dubinsky, 8/12)

Pharmaceutical company AbbVie announced Tuesday that it will construct a new $195 million facility near its headquarters in North Chicago, Illinois. AbbvVie is one of the largest biomedical companies in the world, ranking just below Pfizer in revenue. The company is known for its production of Humira, a treatment for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s, and Botox. (Weaver, 8/12)

Hims & Hers Health Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Dudum sold more than $33 million worth of company stock in the biggest insider transaction since the company went public four years ago. Through a family trust, Dudum sold 660,000 of his company’s shares on Aug. 7 in what’s known as an open market transaction, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The sale comes halfway into the third quarter and wasn’t triggered by price changes as dictated in Dudum’s preestablished trading plan. (Muller, 8/12)

Twelve state schools serving students with disabilities will close next year as part of a plan approved Tuesday afternoon by the Missouri State Board of Education. There was little discussion Tuesday about the plan to consolidate the Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled, or MSSD. Board members delved into the plan more thoroughly during a May meeting and a retreat last month. (Hanshaw, 8/12)

More news from Missouri —

The fight over whether and when abortions can resume fully in Missouri will move to a new courtroom following a decision Tuesday by the Missouri Supreme Court. Faced with deciding whether to side with a Jackson County judge who blocked the state from enforcing almost all of the now-upended laws regulating the procedure, the high court instead assigned further deliberations to an appeals court, giving Planned Parenthood and Attorney General Andrew Bailey another venue to continue fighting over the case. (Erickson, 8/12)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

Health officials in New York City say a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease in Central Harlem has grown to 90 cases, including three deaths. The update comes days after New York City’s health department proposed new regulations for the testing of cooling towers, which they suspect are linked to the outbreak. (Kopp, 8/11)

The Wyoming Department of Health is tracking down visitors from 38 states and seven countries after hundreds of people were potentially exposed to rabies at a hotel in Grand Teton National Park. Hotel employees are also being contacted, though are believed to be less at risk than those who slept in the rooms. (McMurtry, 8/12)

The Community Foundation of Broward is investing $900,000 to support cutting-edge cancer research at two leading South Florida institutions, aiming to bring life-saving therapies closer to home — especially for underserved communities. (8/11)

As cities across California ban homeless encampments and Gov. Gavin Newsom encourages more sweeps, San Jose lawmakers are standing up against criminalizing homelessness. State Sen. Sasha Perez along with Assemblymembers Ash Kalra, Alex Lee and Matt Haney have co-authored a bill that would make it illegal for cities to prohibit organizations or people from helping homeless residents. Senate Bill 643 has passed the Senate and is being considered in the Assembly. (Chu, 8/12)

In the more than three years since the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a key question about the delayed police response has been why the incident commander tried to negotiate with the gunman rather than storm into the classroom where he was holed up with dozens of students. The commander, Pete Arredondo, determined that the gunman was no longer an active shooter but a barricaded subject, a decision that will be central to Mr. Arredondo’s trial scheduled for later this year. He has been charged with abandoning or endangering the children on his watch. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, and 17 other people were injured. (Sandoval, 8/12)

When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. terminated $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine research last week, claiming he had “reviewed the science,” his press release linked to a 181-page document as justification. I reviewed Kennedy’s “evidence.” It doesn’t support ending mRNA vaccine development. It makes the case for expanding it. (Jake Scott, 8/13)

On first glance, the data that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited to justify canceling some $500 million in federal grants for mRNA vaccine research looked impressive. The data, according to the agency, were embodied in some 400 research papers listed in a compilation that ran to 181 pages. The document was headlined “COVID-19 mRNA ‘vaccine’ harms research collection.” (Michael Hiltzik, 8/12)

David Wallace-Wells, a writer for Times Opinion, talks with the economist Emily Oster about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policy priorities as secretary of health and human services and what the changes he’s wrought — from canceling mRNA vaccine research to phasing out food dyes — mean for our health. (Emily Oster and David Wallace-Wells, 8/13)

Japanese regulators just quietly gave researchers there a historic OK to generate human embryos from stem cells in the lab — no ovaries or testes needed. Scientists in Japan and around the world are quickly working toward making viable human eggs and sperm from stem cells, a process called in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG. Those stem cell-derived sperm and eggs could be used for vitro fertilization (IVF) to generate human embryos for research or, one day, making babies. Let’s call the potential new process stem cell IVF. (Paul Knoepfler, 8/13)

Some time ago, I discovered an online calculator meant to help heart surgeons determine patients’ chances of complications or death. Surprisingly, the calculator, based on published studies, is not password-protected. A patient willing to wade through a thicket of technical terms could use the information in their electronic health record to manually fill in the needed numbers and discover their surgical risk. (Michael L. Millenson, 8/13)