First Edition: Jan. 23, 2023 – Kaiser Health News

KHN: Abortion Debate Ramps Up In States As Congress Deadlocks 
Anti-abortion advocates are pressing for expanded abortion bans and tighter restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion. But with the debate mostly deadlocked in Washington, the focus is shifting to states convening their first full legislative sessions since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Although some state GOP lawmakers have filed bills to ban abortion pills or make it more difficult for women to travel out of state for an abortion, others seem split about what their next steps should be. Some are even considering measures to ease their states’ existing bans somewhat, particularly after Republicans’ less-than-stellar showing in the 2022 midterm elections and voters’ widespread support for abortion on state ballot measures. (Rovner, 1/23)

KHN: Anti-Abortion Activists Rally In DC In A Watershed Moment For Their Movement
Thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20 for the annual March for Life, a long-standing rally held for the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, rescinding a constitutional right to abortion. In this report co-produced by PBS NewsHour, KHN senior correspondent Sarah Varney spoke with activists gathered in Washington about what this moment means for them and the future of the broader anti-abortion movement. (1/23)

KHN: Transgender People In Rural America Struggle To Find Doctors Willing Or Able To Provide Care
For Tammy Rainey, finding a health care provider who knows about gender-affirming care has been a challenge in the rural northern Mississippi town where she lives. As a transgender woman, Rainey needs the hormone estrogen, which allows her to physically transition by developing more feminine features. But when she asked her doctor for an estrogen prescription, he said he couldn’t provide that type of care. (Santoro, 1/23)

KHN: Journalists Follow Up On Radon Mine Health Spas, Open Enrollment, And Health Fraud 
KHN Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton discussed Montana’s radon mine health spas on Montana Public Radio’s “The Big Why” podcast on Jan. 18. … KHN correspondent Julie Appleby discussed this year’s open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act health plans on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” on Jan. 15. … KHN senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble discussed gaps in the government system that bans bad actors from federal health programs on America’s Heroes Group on Jan. 7. (1/21)

The New York Times: Women’s March Holds Nationwide Rallies On 50th Anniversary Of Roe 
National organizers of the Women’s March said their emphasis on widespread local actions — about 200 were scheduled in 46 states — reflected the recent loss of federal protection, and the prime importance, now, of state politics. “The fight at the federal level just has nowhere left to go,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of Women’s March, the advocacy group that grew out of the first march. “The theater of the battle has shifted from national protections, which are gutted. All of the fights for the years to come will be at the state level.” (Russell and Sasani, 1/22)

The 19th: Post-Roe March For Life Showed Anti-Abortion Activists Are Far From Done
The March for Life, an annual mega-gathering of anti-abortion activists in Washington, D.C., started out as a protest of the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. On Friday — ahead of the 50th anniversary of Roe, which was overturned last year — the March for Life carried on as a celebration and put on display that the goals of the nation’s anti-abortion movement go far beyond the end of a federal right to abortion. (Barclay, 1/20)

Axios: Roe’s 50th Anniversary: Where The Abortion Fight Goes Now
Both sides in the abortion fight are trying to claim symbolic high ground on Sunday’s 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade while looking ahead to a new phase that will be largely fought in state capitals and the courts. (Gonzalez, 1/22)

Fox News: Biden Issues Memorandum To Protect Access To Abortion Pills 
President Biden issued a presidential memorandum Sunday on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in an effort to protect access to abortion pills across the country. Vice President Kamala Harris made the announcement during her remarks in Florida as she spoke on the administration’s efforts to expand abortion rights. “Members of our Cabinet and our administration are now directed as of the president’s order to identify barriers to access to prescription medication and to recommend actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe, that pharmacies can dispense and that women can secure safe and effective medication,” Harris said during her remarks in Tallahassee, Florida. (Chi-Sing, 1/22)

NPR: VP Harris Calls For Federal Abortion Protections On Roe V. Wade 50th Anniversary
Vice President Kamala Harris commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by imploring Americans to work to enshrine abortion rights into law. “For nearly 50 years, Americans relied on the rights that Roe protected,” Harris said at a speech delivered in Tallahassee, Fla., on Sunday. “Today, however, on what would have been its 50th anniversary, we speak of the Roe decision in the past tense.” (Heyward, 1/22)

NPR: Post-Roe, Abortion Providers Are Shifting Their Strategies
The CHOICES clinic in Memphis, Tenn., opened in 1974 in direct response to the Roe v. Wade decision a year earlier. When the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would take up the Dobbs case, CHOICES president and CEO Jennifer Pepper says it was clear what was coming. “We knew immediately that meant we would lose abortion access in Tennessee in the next 12 months, and so we began to plan,” Pepper says. “It has been a wild ride.” (McCammon, 1/22)

CNN: Supreme Court: Lead Investigator On Dobbs Leak Makes Clear She Spoke To All Nine Justices
The Supreme Court marshal who investigated last year’s leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade has revealed that she spoke to all nine justices and found nothing to implicate them or their spouses. Friday’s remarks by Marshal Gail Curley come after the court’s investigative report on the leak, which was released Thursday, did not specify whether justices had been interviewed, leading to questions as to whether investigators had considered their potential role. (de Vogue, 1/21)

The New York Times: Inside The Supreme Court Inquiry: Seized Phones, Affidavits And Distrust
Last spring and summer, employees of the Supreme Court were drawn into an investigation that turned into an uncomfortable awakening. As the court marshal’s office looked into who had leaked the draft opinion of the decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, law clerks who had secured coveted perches at the top of the judiciary scrambled for legal advice and navigated quandaries like whether to surrender their personal cellphones to investigators. (Kantor, 1/21)

AP: Tennessee Cuts HIV Program With Planned Parenthood Ties 
Top Tennessee health officials attempted to oust Planned Parenthood from a program designed to prevent and treat HIV before eventually deciding to forgo federal funding for the program, despite warnings that doing so will have a devastating impact on marginalized communities, documents show. The decision is the latest development in a ruby red state where abortion is already banned. Republicans leaders, however, have actively tried to cut off public ties with the organization for any other services, due to its long history of offering and defending abortion care. (Kruesi, 1/20)

NBC News: Tennessee Says It’s Cutting Federal HIV Funding. Will Other States Follow?
The move stunned HIV experts. “I can’t understand why the state would give back funds targeted toward health care,” said Diane Duke, president and chief executive officer of Friends for Life, a Memphis group that provides services to people living with HIV. Friends for Life was among the groups that received notice from the state. “It’s outrageous,” she said. (Edwards, 1/21)

Politico: What Kind Of Chief Of Staff Will Zients Be? Look At His Stint As Covid Czar
When Joe Biden won the presidency, he promised that his first priority would be to end the Covid crisis responsible at the time for more than 3,000 deaths a day. He then turned to Jeff Zients to make that pledge come true. A longtime corporate executive, Zients had no public health experience and little in the way of expertise in fighting pandemics. But during more than a year as the White House’s Covid response czar, he led a sweeping governmental effort to rein in the virus, spearheaded a complex national campaign to vaccinate the vast majority of the nation, and ultimately charted a path for the nation out of a once-in-a-century health emergency. It set Zients, who won internal praise for his managerial prowess, on course for his next high-profile job as Biden’s newest chief of staff. (Cancryn, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Jeff Zients To Be Biden’s Next Chief Of Staff 
Zients first entered government during the Obama administration and ended up serving in multiple senior roles, including running the Office of Management and Budget and the National Economic Council. He developed a reputation as “Mr. Fix-It” for his strong operational skills, including helping to fix the troubled rollout of the Obama administration’s health-care website, healthcare.gov. (Pager and Abutaleb, 1/22)

The New York Times: The December Omnibus Bill’s Little Secret: It Was Also A Giant Health Bill 
The giant spending bill passed by Congress last month kept the government open. But it also quietly rewrote huge areas of health policy: Hundreds of pages of legislation were devoted to new health care programs. The legislation included major policy areas that committees had been hammering away at all year behind the scenes — like a big package designed to improve the nation’s readiness for the next big pandemic. It also included items that Republicans had been championing during the election season — like an extension of telemedicine coverage in Medicare. And it included small policy measures that some legislators have wanted to pass for years, like requiring Medicare to cover compression garments for patients with lymphedema. (Sanger-Katz, 1/22)

Reuters: Trump Warns U.S. House Republicans Not To Touch Social Security, Medicare
Former President Donald Trump warned his fellow Republicans on Friday not to “destroy” federal retirement and health benefits as they try to exact spending cuts from President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies in the looming debate over the debt ceiling. “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security,” Trump said in a two-minute video message posted to social media that could test his influence among Republicans who now control the U.S. House of Representatives. (Morgan, 1/20)

AP: Gunman In Lunar New Year Massacre Found Dead; Motive Unclear
Authorities searched for a motive for the gunman who killed 10 people at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations, slayings that sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities and cast a shadow over festivities nationwide. The suspect, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday in the van that authorities say he used to flee after being prevented from attacking another dance club. (Taxin and Dovarganes, 1/23)

The Washington Post: Safe Haven For Asian Immigrants Now Shares In Tragedy Of Gun Violence
The man who carried out the Saturday night shooting has been identified as Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old old man of Asian descent. He was found dead on Sunday behind the wheel of a white van, and his motive remains unclear. But in the cool winter light of day, this city of about 60,000 people has turned sharply from a venue for celebration to one of grief, from suburban calm to frightening revelation. Despite its remove from Los Angeles County’s more violent neighborhoods, Monterey Park is just as vulnerable to gun violence in a state that has tried more than most to corral it with laws and regulations, many of its fearful residents said in the aftermath. Investigators are still determining if its ethnic character played any role in the attack, city and regional officials said. (Wilson, Thebault and Guo, 1/22)

The New York Times: A 26-Year-Old Coder Wrested An Assault Pistol From The Gunman’s Hands, Preventing A Greater Tragedy.
Saturday night was winding down at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, with less than a half-hour to go until closing. There were three people left on the spacious dance floor. Brandon Tsay, the third-generation operator of the family-run dance hall in Alhambra, was in the office off the lobby, watching the ballroom, when he heard the front doors swing close and a strange clang that sounded like metallic objects hitting one another. He turned around to see a semiautomatic assault pistol pointed at him. (Kim, 1/23)

The Washington Post: California’s Strict Gun Laws Don’t Eliminate Violence, But They Have Helped 
California has a reputation as a tough place to buy a gun.It’s home to mandatory waiting periods and background checks for firearms purchases. It bans so-called military-style assault weapons, one of just eight states, plus D.C., with such a law. And in 2016, it became one of the first states to pass a red-flag law, which allows authorities to remove firearms from someone believed to be a danger to themselves or others. … But Saturday night’s horrific mass killing at a Monterey Park dance hall shows how the state’s strict gun laws are incapable of fully preventing gun violence in a country where gun ownership is widely considered a constitutionally protected right, firearms move freely between states with vastly different regulations and gun-control measures are dotted with exceptions. (Wilson and Frankel, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Physical Attacks Track Spikes In Hate Speech On Twitter, Researchers Say
Online researchers say that physical attacks in the United States have been tracking with Twitter spikes in some categories of hate speech, notably antisemitic and anti-gay slurs and rhetoric. New research to be released later this month by the misinformation tracker Network Contagion Research Institute suggests a connection between real-world incidents and variations of the word “groomer,” often aimed at gays and suggesting that they are adults bent on seducing children. Although polls indicate a significant minority of the population believes otherwise, gay people are not more likely to be predators than straight people. (Menn, 1/22)

NBC News: After Baby Formula Problems, Abbott Laboratories Under DOJ Investigation
Abbott Laboratories is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, the company confirmed Friday, almost a year after it shut down a Michigan baby-formula plant after illnesses were reported. Abbott did not specify what aspect of the company is under Justice Department scrutiny. (Strickler, 1/21)

The Washington Post: NIH Biosecurity Report Urges Tighter Oversight Of Pathogen Research 
Scientists advising the National Institutes of Health on Friday released a draft report urging intensified government oversight of experiments on dangerous pathogens, including broadening the definition of the kinds of pathogens that could trigger a pandemic. The new report from two biosecurity working groups echoes their preliminary recommendations released last fall, which said the definition of “enhanced potential pandemic pathogens” should cover not just the most lethal viruses and bacteria, but also less deadly pathogens that are extremely transmissible — a description that fits the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. (Achenbach, 1/20)

Reuters: Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5 Makes Up Nearly Half Of U.S. COVID Cases- CDC 
The fast-spreading Omicron XBB.1.5 is estimated to make up nearly half of U.S. COVID-19 cases, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed on Friday, putting it on track to become the dominant subvariant in the country. It is estimated to account for 49.1% of COVID cases in the country in the week ended Jan. 21, a jump from 37.2% last week. (1/20)

CIDRAP: US Sees Little Sign Of Post-Christmas COVID Bump; XBB.1.5 Continues Rise 
Most US COVID-19 markers declined last week, but health officials are closely watching the continued steady rise of the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, which is already dominant in much of the East and rising in all regions of the country. In its pandemic updates today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also unveiled two new dashboards for tracking hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits for three respiratory diseases: COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). (Schnirring, 1/20)

The Washington Post: Covid, Flu, RSV Declining In Hospitals As ‘Tripledemic’ Threat Fades 
So many patients sick with RSV had inundated Connecticut Children’s Medical Center that they had to be treated in hallways and playrooms. Facing their busiest season in memory last fall, hospital leaders floated a plan to enlist the National Guard to set up tents outside. Doctors braced for a dire winter — a looming disaster some dubbed a “tripledemic” — with flu season revving up, coronavirus roaring back and the holidays providing fuel for viruses to spread. But no such surge materialized. The RSV wave has receded in Connecticut and across the country. Flu cases have rapidly dwindled. Covid hospitalizations rose briefly after Christmas, only to fall again. (Nirappil, 1/22)

NPR: COVID Vaccine Strategy To Get An Overhaul By FDA
The Food and Drug Administration is considering a major shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy, NPR has learned. The goal is to simplify vaccination against COVID and perhaps adopt an approach similar that used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating. This is according to a federal official who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. (Stein, 1/23)

CIDRAP: US Adults Cite Misbeliefs About Eligibility, Immunity For Not Getting COVID Booster 
An online survey of 1,200 previously vaccinated US adults reveals that the most-cited reasons for not getting a bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 booster dose were lack of awareness about eligibility and overestimations of their own existing immunity. (Van Beusekom, 1/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Feds Tell Pharmacies To Give Unused N95s To Health Care Providers
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is asking pharmacies across the nation that received N95 masks meant to be distributed for free to local communities now to give their unused inventory to health care providers in their region. (Vaziri, 1/20)

AP: Navajo Nation Rescinds Mask Mandate On Vast Reservation 
The Navajo Nation has rescinded a mask mandate that’s been in effect since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Friday, fulfilling a pledge that new tribal President Buu Nygren made while campaigning for the office. The mandate was one of the longest-standing anywhere in the U.S. and applied broadly to businesses, government offices and tourist destinations on the vast reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. The tribe at one point had one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the country and among the strictest measures to help prevent the spread of the virus. (Fonseca, 1/20)

Reuters: China Says COVID Outbreak Has Infected 80% Of Population 
The possibility of a big COVID-19 rebound in China over the next two or three months is remote as 80% of people have been infected, a prominent government scientist said on Saturday. The mass movement of people during the ongoing Lunar New Year holiday period may spread the pandemic, boosting infections in some areas, but a second COVID wave is unlikely in the near term, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the Weibo social media platform. (1/21)

Modern Healthcare: S&P Global: Home Health Agencies Face Defaults, Consolidation
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ small pay bump for home health agencies in 2023 will not keep up with the rising expenses for some providers, potentially leading to credit defaults or consolidation, according to a new report. (Kacik, 1/20)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Aims To Clean Up Medicare Advantage Provider Directories
A merger left Hannah Hale without options. Digestive Health Associates of Texas combined with Texas Digestive Disease Consultants in January 2021 to become GI Alliance, a specialty group that includes nearly 700 gastroenterologists in 14 states. GI Alliance and her health insurance company, Cigna, failed to reach an agreement. But Cigna did not update its provider directory. (Tepper, 1/20)

The Boston Globe: Mass General Brigham Restructures Community Hospitals
Facing pressure to cut spending and distribute patients more efficiently through a crowded system, Mass General Brigham is reorganizing the leadership of its community hospitals and consolidating oversight of its community doctors. The move, executives say, is the latest step in integrating the state’s largest health system, as it tries to move from a federation of hospitals and structures to a unified organization. (Bartlett, 1/20)

The Boston Globe: Harvard Medical School Votes To Embed Climate Change In Its Curriculum
Intense temperatures can cause hypothermia or heat stroke, particularly among elderly and homeless people, while survivors of extreme weather events such as a cataclysmic hurricane can experience high levels of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to research from the CDC. And, the National Institutes of Health found that changes in air and water temperatures can increase bacteria, parasites, and chemical contaminants in food, according the National Institutes of Health. (Mohammed, 1/20)

The Washington Post: Elizabeth Holmes Attempted ‘to Flee The Country,’ Prosecutors Allege 
Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO, booked a one-way plane ticket to Mexico that was scheduled to depart just weeks after she was convicted of fraud in January 2022, a recent court filing says. In the document, filed Thursday, prosecutors describe the booking as an “attempt to flee the country.” Government attorneys learned of the flight three days before its Jan. 26, 2022 departure, and alerted Holmes’s legal team by email. They replied that she had booked the flight before the verdict hoping to attend a wedding in Mexico. Holmes canceled the ticket, “but it is difficult to know with certainty what Defendant would have done had the government not intervened,” the prosecutors wrote. (Ables, 1/21)

Reuters: U.S. Fines J&J $9.75 Mln Over Kickbacks To Surgeon For Overseas Surgeries 
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and its DePuy Synthes unit will pay $9.75 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice accusations that DePuy illegally provided free products to a Massachusetts surgeon who used them in spinal surgeries in six Middle Eastern countries. According to settlement papers, the surgeon used more than $100,000 of DePuy’s implants and instruments between July 2013 and Feb. 2018 in more than 20 surgeries in Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (1/20)

CBS News: Easing Prescription Rules For Opioid Treatment Meds Did Not Increase Overdose Deaths, Study Finds
A new study shows that reducing restrictions on buprenorphine, a medication that can treat opioid use disorder, did not lead to an increase in overdose deaths involving the treatment. The findings may help allay concerns that making buprenorphine more widely available could lead to more overdose deaths. (Breen, 1/20)

Axios: Doctors Prescribe Opioids At Discharge Less Often, CDC Data Shows
Doctors sent patients home with opioids after emergency department visits about 8% of the time in 2019–2020, down from about 12% in 2017–2018, according to figures released today by the CDC. It continues a downward trend line from about 21.5% of emergency department discharges in 2010–2011 that resulted in an opioid prescription and a signal that efforts to educate doctors and reduce the use of opioids have gained traction. (Reed, 1/20)

The New York Times: N.Y.U. Langone Withdraws From Type 1 Diabetes Vaccine Trial In Adolescents
Researchers at N.Y.U. Langone Health have pulled out of a trial investigating the use of an old tuberculosis vaccine to treat children with Type 1 diabetes only months after they began enrolling participants on Long Island. The vaccine, called Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin, or B.C.G., has generated intense interest among various patient advocacy groups, including those focused on Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, as well as diabetes. … The lead investigators of the pediatric trial, who are at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, are proceeding with the study, but N.Y.U. Langone’s abrupt withdrawal could potentially jeopardize its viability if they are unable to collect data on the children at the N.Y.U. site. (Rabin, 1/20)

Los Angeles Times: Fewer Medi-Cal Patients Got Hepatitis C Treatment Amid COVID
Fewer people have gotten crucial medication for hepatitis C under Medi-Cal in recent years, troubling advocates who have pushed to expand the lifesaving treatment. Hepatitis C, a slow-moving virus that can lead to liver cancer, cirrhosis and death, can now be cured in most cases with a few months of direct-acting antiviral medication. California has taken steps to dismantle barriers to obtaining the pills under Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, including eliminating requirements for prior authorization. (Alpert Reyes, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Guidelines Suggesting Drugs, Surgery For Child Obesity Get Backlash
Critics on the left have raised concerns about unequal access to treatment, which insurance does not always cover, and worry that earlier medical interventions may create more fat-shaming of vulnerable children. Conservative commentators have suggested that the guidelines offer an easy out for poor lifestyle choices. People on both sides express uneasiness about the potential long-term consequences of putting millions of children on drugs or under the knife, instead of doing more to prevent the condition in the first place. (Cha, 1/20)

Stat: Researchers Test AI Model To Predict Lung Cancer Risk Using CT Scans
Massachusetts General Hospital is launching a prospective trial of an artificial intelligence tool designed to predict patients’ risk of lung cancer, a crucial area of inquiry amid rising incidence of the disease in never-smokers. (Ross, 1/23)

AP: Military Probing Whether Cancers Linked To Nuclear Silo Work 
Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died. All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Daniel Sebeck. (Copp, 1/23)