�鶹Ů��

The Health and Human Services Department is weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention, according to people familiar with the matter. The plans could be announced as soon as within a day, the people said, but they haven’t been finalized and could be pulled back or adjusted. (Essley Whyte, Mosbergen and Rockoff, 3/18)

Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, of South Africa’s Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, has seen US funding for three trials of potential HIV vaccines involving eight countries cancelled and only reinstated after an appeal to the US supreme court. “We’re running around like chickens without heads to at least get one going, because the vaccines are sitting in the fridge and will expire,” she says. (Lay, 2/18)

Efforts by Elon Musk and his team to permanently shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development likely violated the Constitution “in multiple ways” and robbed Congress of its authority to oversee the dissolution of an agency it created, a federal judge found on Tuesday. The ruling, by Judge Theodore D. Chuang of U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, appeared to be the first time a judge has moved to rein in Mr. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency directly. (Montague, 3/18)

The person the White House identified last month as the leader of DOGE — despite public evidence that Elon Musk is calling the shots — has been working simultaneously at the Department of Health and Human Services since February. ... The filing shows that Amy Gleason, despite claiming responsibility as DOGE’s leader, was detailed to HHS last month and formally hired by the department as a “consultant/expert” on March 4, while retaining her status as a DOGE employee as well. (Cheney and Messerly, 3/18)

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists — 75% of the research program’s staff — could be laid off, according to documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. (Daly, 3/18)

The message of the PowerPoint was unmistakable. Eliminate references to “diverse students” and the word “marginalized” from websites and policy statements. Scrutinize and reconsider phrases such as “systemic racism” or “vulnerable.” Add more references to concepts like “opportunity” and “equal access.” Lawyers for NYU Langone Health, a leading hospital system in Manhattan, proposed these changes to the hospital’s website late last month, according to an internal PowerPoint presentation that contained a list of “trigger words.” (Goldstein, 3/19)

As the ALS disease that will one day claim her life progressed, Barbara Johnson enrolled in a clinical trial at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus funded by the federal National Institutes of Health. The trial did not prove successful, and now she can no longer participate in others because the disease has taken away her ability to swallow pills, her ability to eat, her ability to speak. (Ingold, 3/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute'

Sam Whitehead reads this week’s news: Trump voters may favor government regulation to cut health care costs, and health workers are being trained on the law to deal with possible raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in health care settings. ... Zach Dyer reads this week’s news: The current bird flu outbreak is gaining momentum despite mass culling of infected poultry, and the Trump administration is embracing the conservative policy playbook known as Project 2025. (3/18)

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from banning transgender people from serving in the military. In a forcefully written opinion that rebuked the president’s effort, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued an injunction that allows trans troops to keep serving in the military, under rules that were established by the Biden administration, until their lawsuit against the Trump administration’s ban is decided. (Philipps, 3/18)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will step up its testing for heavy metals in infant formula and review nutrients required in the products used to feed millions of babies, the agency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday. The development came as Consumer Reports shared results on Tuesday of tests by the group that found found potentially harmful chemicals in roughly half of 41 infant formula products, including acrylamide, arsenic, BPA, lead and PFAS. The remaining products were found to have low levels of, or no, concerning chemicals. (Gibson, 3/18)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has remained silent as the Trump administration prepares to roll back protections against mercury poisoning, despite Kennedy’s own history of suffering ailments after ingesting the toxic metal, writes Ariel Wittenberg. (Skibell, 3/18)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip. Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News. (Mandavilli, 3/18)

The Trump administration has not staffed an office established by Congress to prepare the nation for future pandemics, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy was established by Congress in 2022 in response to mistakes that led to a flat-footed response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The office, called OPPR, once had a staff of about 20 people and was orchestrating the country’s response to bird flu and other threats until January 20, including hosting regular interagency meetings to share plans. (Goodman, 3/17)

Some current and past members of an FDA advisory committee felt snubbed when the agency went ahead and made decisions about influenza strain selection for next season without them. The FDA's decision to abruptly cancel the March 13 meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) -- and instead hold a meeting on that date with representatives from the CDC, FDA, and the Department of Defense -- "is very unfortunate," said Tina Tan, MD, of Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. (Clark, 3/18)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today issued a Health Alert Network notice to healthcare providers and the public about the ongoing risk of dengue virus infections, with levels remaining high in some US territories and surges still under way in other countries, especially in the Americas region. (Schnirring, 3/18)

The White House is elevating an ally of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to implement the Trump administration’s plan to address chronic illness. Entrepreneur and author Calley Means will be a White House adviser and “special government employee,” according to two people familiar with the appointment. It’s the same classification that has allowed tech billionaire Elon Musk to retain his private-sector roles even as he tried to transform the federal bureaucracy. (Cohrs Zhang, 3/18)

While the Senate works to confirm the remaining of President Trump’s picks to lead federal agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services is filling out with allies to both Trump and RFK Jr. Taken together, they reveal a pattern: Trump loyalists and those with a conservative pedigree are front and center, but Kennedy has some who share his priorities, too. Here are eight people to know inside of the nation’s giant health agency. (Cueto, 3/18)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has filed for summary judgment in its favor regarding lawsuits brought by pharmaceutical companies that attempted to reinvent hospital discounts through the 340B program—the first explicit sign that the new administration is taking up its predecessor’s stance on the controversial industry issue. The HHS, now listing Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a defendant, asked the courts to rule against plaintiffs Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis Pharmaceuticals in one of the ongoing consolidated lawsuits related to a 340B rebate model they had planned to adopt. (Muoio, 3/18)

While congressional Republicans hunt for hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare cuts, an old, bipartisan idea seems poised for a comeback: "site-neutral" Medicare reimbursements for outpatient care. This policy, which the hospital sector opposes and health insurers endorse, would require health systems to charge the same prices for services whether they are performed in a hospital or another location. (McAuliff, 3/18)

Nicole Stallings, President and CEO of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, joined the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast to shed light on the challenges ahead — chief among them, the battle to protect Medicaid. With 3.2 million Pennsylvanians relying on the program, potential funding cuts could send shockwaves through hospitals, communities and the state’s economy. In this conversation, Ms. Stallings unpacks the policy noise, outlines the stakes for hospital leaders, and shares how advocacy can shape the future of healthcare access. (Condon, 3/18)

Democrats rallied outside the state Capitol in Hartford on Tuesday in a coordinated national  “day of action” aimed at heading off what they say are inevitable cuts to Medicaid as the Trump administration and Republicans move to extend provisions of the 2017 tax cut law. (Pazniokas, 3/18)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Tribal Health Leaders Say Medicaid Cuts Would Decimate Health Programs

As Congress mulls potentially massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding, health centers that serve Native American communities, such as the Oneida Community Health Center near Green Bay, Wisconsin, are bracing for catastrophe. That’s because more than 40% of the about 15,000 patients the center serves are enrolled in Medicaid. Cuts to the program would be detrimental to those patients and the facility, said Debra Danforth, the director of the Oneida Comprehensive Health Division and a citizen of the Oneida Nation. (Orozco Rodriguez, 3/19)

Susan Brackney, of Columbus, said she’s an author and freelancer who is on the Healthy Indiana Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. She said she receives care for rheumatoid arthritis, which is a chronic autoimmune disease, and other ailments. As a self-employed writer, Brackney said her income fluctuates greatly, which has resulted in a lot of conversations with Family and Social Services Administration employees and paperwork to prove her income to remain on the program. (Kukulka, 3/18)

Patina Health rolled out a new program Tuesday that will provide expanded home-based care to Medicare Advantage members. The Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania-based company said Patina Total Health will provide health assessments, medication management, primary care, urgent care and behavioral health services to older adults in their homes through in-person and telehealth visits. (Eastabrook, 3/18)

Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance companies have finally emerged as significant players in the Medicare Advantage market after years of struggling to make their mark. But financial pressures could drive them to depart the sector as quickly as they arrived. Rising medical expenses, unfavorable changes to federal policies and declining federal reimbursement dogged the Medicare Advantage industry in 2024, leading companies such as CVS Health’s Aetna and Humana to cut back where they sold policies. (Tepper, 3/18)

Purdue Pharma asked a bankruptcy judge late Tuesday to consider the latest version of its plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, a deal that would have members of the Sackler family who own the company pay up to $7 billion. The filing is a milestone in a tumultuous legal saga that has gone on for more than five years. (Mulvihill, 3/19)

Merck is planning layoffs in Pennsylvania as part of a multi-year plan to wind down operations at a manufacturing plant in the state. The pharma giant will cut 163 jobs at its Cherokee manufacturing plant in Riverside, Pennsylvania, through three rounds of cuts, according to a state notice that cites a site closure as the reason for the workforce reduction. (Becker, 3/17)

Optum Rx — which includes the pharmacy benefit manager of health care conglomerate UnitedHealth Group — is dropping annual reauthorization requirements for 80 drugs, which will eliminate more than 10% of overall pharmacy prior authorizations, the company announced. (Owens, 3/19)

In the case of Dr. Reddy’s, the company unveiled a voluntary recall on March 13 for one lot of 1,000 mg/100 ml single-dose levetiracetam infusion bags that had been shipped out across the U.S. in early November. Sun Pharma, for its part, is recalling nearly 10,000 100 mg bottles of morphine sulfate extended-release tablets after the products failed to meet FDA dissolution specifications. Lastly, Zydus Pharmaceuticals initiated two separate Class II recalls on Feb. 13 covering a whopping 38,871 vials of the chemotherapy injection nelarabine, which were manufactured at the company’s Ahmedabad, India, production facility. (Keenan, 3/17)

GE HealthCare announced on Tuesday that it is partnering with Nvidia to work on autonomous X-ray and ultrasound scanners that will leverage artificial intelligence-enabled software to capture and analyze medical images. The company is developing the technology to help ease the burden of rising patient volumes and staff shortages on healthcare professionals, Roland Rott, president and CEO of imaging at GE HealthCare, said in a news release. (Dubinsky, 3/18)

The gene-editing field may have yet another legal squabble on its hands — this time between two companies created by the same star biotech researcher, in a dispute that gets at the core of some of the challenges facing the field. (Mast, 3/19)

Sarepta Therapeutics said Tuesday that a 16-year-old boy died after receiving Elevidys, its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the first known death linked to the treatment. The teenager suffered liver failure, a side effect that has been seen with other gene therapy treatments over the last two decades. (Mast, 3/18)

The expanding measles outbreak that has spread from West Texas into New Mexico and Oklahoma could take a year to contain, a public health leader in the area where the outbreak started warned on Tuesday. (Branswell, 3/18)

Three hundred and twenty-one cases have been reported in the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, the states said Tuesday. This is an increase of 25 cases since an update on Friday. (Mukherjee, 3/18)

Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors is unconstitutional and must be permanently blocked from being enforced, a three-judge panel of appellate judges ruled Tuesday. The law also banned trans women and girls from participating in female sports. The state attorney general vowed an immediate appeal. On Tuesday, the state’s 10th District Court of Appeals reversed the decision made last summer to allow the law to go into effect after a judge found it “reasonably limits parents’ rights.” (Carr Smyth, 3/18)

Florida's insurance regulator is facing concerns over patient privacy and government overreach after requesting personal and prescription information from potentially millions of people. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) called for the data from pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which act as third-party intermediaries between pharmacies, insurance companies or employers and drug manufacturers. PBMs also determine which medications will be covered by health insurance plans, as well as the cost of prescriptions. (Palmer, 3/18)

On one side are people telling heart-wrenching stories about the deaths of their adult children or parents. On the other are people warning about shortages of doctors and soaring medical-malpractice insurance costs. The two sides are colliding in the Florida Legislature, where a Senate committee Tuesday approved a bill that would change a decades-old law and clear the way for more malpractice lawsuits over patient deaths. (Saunders, 3/19)

Insurance companies are warning that health care premiums would likely go up if state lawmakers pass a bill dismantling New Hampshire’s universal vaccine-purchasing program. Republicans have proposed repealing the New Hampshire Vaccine Association, which collects payments from insurance companies to fund bulk purchases of childhood vaccines. Those vaccines are then distributed to health care providers at no cost. (Cuno-Booth, 3/18)

A California legislator plans to unveil a first-of-its-kind bill Wednesday that would phase out certain ultra-processed foods from meals served in public schools statewide. If enacted, Assembly Bill 1264 would direct state scientists to identify what the legislation refers to as “particularly harmful” ultra-processed products. The bipartisan bill proposes removing such ingredients from public schools starting in 2028, with the goal of eliminating them entirely by 2032. (Chuck, 3/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Indiana Lawmakers Seek To Forbid Hospital Monopolies, But One Merger Fight Remains

Union Health is making a new bid to Indiana regulators to buy its rival hospital in Terre Haute as the door looks poised to close on such deals. The nonprofit health system is trying to leverage an existing state law to acquire Terre Haute Regional Hospital, the only other acute care hospital in Vigo County. After withdrawing its initial application in November amid pushback, Union has shifted its pitch to emphasize what it describes as Regional’s “declining position” while offering more concrete promises, such as limits on price increases. (Liss, 3/19)

A second person has been arrested in connection to a Texas midwife who is accused of providing illegal abortions at a network of clinics operated outside of the Houston area. Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, a 29-year-old medical assistant, is accused of performing an illegal abortion and practicing without a license at a clinic in connection to Maria Margarita Rojas whose arrest was announced Monday by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Lathan, 3/18)

When the news broke on Jan. 31 that a New York physician had been indicted for shipping abortion medications to a woman in Louisiana, Dr. Kohar Der Simonian was hit by a wave of emotions, among them fear and concern. Der Simonian works as medical director for Maine Family Planning, which is 1,500 miles from Louisiana. Like the indicted doctor, Margaret Carpenter, Der Simonian mails abortion medication to patients in states where the procedure is banned — and her own name is written on the prescriptions. (Westwood, 3/19)

Democrats’ efforts to close the gap between the right to end a pregnancy in Colorado and the cost of the procedure by letting health insurance safety net programs pay for abortions is expected to save the state money, according to an analysis by nonpartisan legislative staff. That’s because some Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus recipients aren’t getting abortions because of the cost. And it’s cheaper to end a pregnancy than to deliver a baby. (Paul, 3/18)

U.S. births rose slightly last year, but experts don’t see it as evidence of reversing a long-term decline. A little over 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released Tuesday. The 2024 total is likely to grow at least a little when the numbers are finalized, but another set of preliminary data shows overall birth rates rose only for one group of people: Hispanic women. (Stobbe, 3/18)

Amid growing evidence of slowing fertility rates in the United States, a new report contained a pair of surprising details from two divergent age groups: A growing number of women older than 40 are having children and a record low number of teenagers are giving birth. The report, released earlier this month by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), showed that the U.S. fertility rate ... continued its decadeslong slide through 2023, with American women having an average of 1.62 children, compared to 1.66 in 2021 and 2022. (Varney, 3/18)

Financial pressures on rural hospitals keep some North Carolina facilities from adequately serving pregnant women, new mothers and babies, but that isn’t the full picture. Workforce shortages and demographic shifts — coupled with a lack of regulatory requirements and policy support — compound the problem, further distancing women from the care they need. (Sartwell, 3/19)

Over 200 Johns Hopkins employees will be laid off in May, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification the university submitted Thursday. The Bloomberg School of Public Health and JHPIEGO, a nonprofit global health affiliate of the Baltimore institution, are primarily affected by the first batch of mass layoffs. JHPIEGO will experience 130 employee layoffs, while the school of public health will have 107. (Foster, 3/18)

DispatchHealth Tuesday announced a definitive agreement to acquire Medically Home, which would create one of the nation’s largest providers of home-based healthcare services. The combined company would offer an array of home-based medical services, including urgent care, acute-level care and skilled nursing to patients in 50 metropolitan markets across 23 states and the District of Columbia, with approximately 2,200 employees. (Eastabrook, 3/18)

The fate of a Brown University kidney transplant specialist hangs in limbo after she was deported on Friday to Lebanon. Rasha Alawieh, MD, 34, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday after returning from a visit to that country, according to a petition filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by Alawieh's cousin, Yara Chehab. (Frieden, 3/18)

Tim Noel knows his new job as UnitedHealthcare CEO isn’t going to be much like his predecessor’s role. Noel was promoted to the position previously held by Brian Thompson, who was killed in an early morning shooting in December on his way to a UnitedHealth investor conference in Manhattan. Thompson’s death prompted a social media outcry about health insurers denying care, causing Noel to look inward about his job and industry. (Tozzi and Koons, 3/18)

When psychiatrist Liz Frye first encounters a potential patient, she knows she is entering the conversation at a disadvantage. She works with people who are unhoused and living on the streets — many who’ve likely had negative experiences with health care workers in the past. “It’s important for me to offer a different experience for the person sleeping outside and to recognize that they have no reason to trust me,” said Frye, who has been a street psychiatrist for 16 years, first in Atlanta and more recently, in Pittsburgh. She is also chair of the board of directors at the Street Medicine Institute. (Cueto and Empinado, 3/19)

Patients can access their own health records — including test results — as soon as they're available. While it might sound beneficial, in some cases, people are receiving life-changing diagnoses before their doctors have a chance to speak with them. The accessibility is due to legislation that went into effect in 2021 called the 21st Century Cures Act. It is designed to give patients easier access to electronic health records and quicker access to medical innovations, but experts say it comes with an unintended side effect. (Hoffman, 3/18)

Quest Diagnostics is adding generative artificial intelligence capabilities by partnering with Google’s cloud division. The national laboratory provider said in a news release Tuesday it will use Google Cloud’s technology to personalize experiences for its consumers. The two companies said Quest will explore using generative AI to offer physicians and patients insights into lab data. (Perna, 3/18)

Digital health companies are moving quickly to launch a new type of artificial intelligence tool that can complete tasks faster than humans. A growing number of established vendors and startups are seeking to sell hospitals, health systems and payers on AI agents, which are specialized tools developed to help organizations complete time intensive functions more efficiently. Companies are developing AI agents to verify insurance benefits, share information to patients before a procedure and assist with prescription refills. (Turner, 3/18)

In the early 1990s, Katalin Karikó was obsessed with an idea most of her fellow scientists dismissed: Could messenger RNA, or mRNA, a genetic molecule that helps cells synthesize proteins, be harnessed to create new kinds of treatments? (Caleb Watney, 3/19)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs to stop saying vaccines are “a personal choice.” They’re not. (Donald G. McNeil Jr., 3/19)

I started my medical career in the early 1990s as a vaccine nihilist. The immunization seminar during my residency was dry and uninspiring. I offered vaccines to my patients and was adherent to the routine schedules, but certainly did not go out of my way to encourage or cajole. I neglected to have my first child vaccinated against chickenpox; the scars are still present. (Jonathan Temte, 3/19)

Back when I was a kid, two of my two favorite food items were Coca-Cola and soft ice cream. I spent hot summer evenings standing on long lines at the local Carvel, waiting for my coveted cola float. It took me many years to kick my addiction to soft ice cream and to transition my craving for soda to sparkling water, which delivered the bubbles my palate was expecting without the sugar and food coloring. (Marc Siegel, 3/19)

The National Institutes of Health estimates that between one in 10,000 and one in 50,000 infants is born with CdLS, although researchers say that’s probably an underestimate. It’s a random genetic mutation, often in families with no history of the condition, which was the case for Caitlin. The first of the genes that cause CdLS was only identified in 2004, a few months after she was born. (Katherine J. Igoe, 3/19)