Florida's RSV season begins earlier and runs longer than anywhere else in the U.S., according to the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute. New vaccines can help, but most older adults, who are vulnerable to RSV, haven't gotten them yet. (Sam Ogozalek, Tampa Bay Times, )
"Health Minute" brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KFF Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week. ( )
Here's today's health policy haiku:
MANAGING AGE AND AGEISM
Biden is old, yup, and ageism is real, too, but his time was done.
- Anonymous
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of KFF Health News or KFF.
Although boys still more often take their own lives, girls account for a disproportionate increase in child suicide rates. Moreover, the bulk of young Americans who died by suicide did not have a mental health diagnosis.
The Washington Post: Suicide Rates In Children Have Continued To Climb Across 15 Years, Study Finds The suicide rate for U.S. children 8 to 12 years old has steadily climbed in the past decade and a half, with a disproportionate rise among girls, data released Tuesday by the National Institute of Mental Health shows. The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, highlight pervasive issues regarding mental health that affect U.S. children daily, the study authors said. (Malhi, 7/30)
CBS News: Nearly A Third Of Adolescents Getting Mental Health Treatment, Federal Survey Finds Close to 1 in 3 adolescents in the U.S. received mental health treatment in 2023, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported Tuesday, which works out to around 8.3 million young people between the ages of 12 and 17 getting counseling, medication or another treatment. The result is among the findings now released from SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2023. The federal agency's sweeping annual poll is closely tracked by mental health and addiction experts. (Tin, 7/30)
WUFT: Study: PTSD Among College Students Jumps, Especially During COVID Shutdowns College has always been a stressful time for some students, and mental health conditions have been on the rise at many campuses. But researchers said they had no idea it was this bad. Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses among college students more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, rising most sharply as the COVID-19 pandemic closed campuses, according to a recent study. (Anderson, 7/30)
Just as abortion rights supporters predicted: The number of women who "self-managed" their abortion — which means, as The Guardian notes, doing it outside the formal health care system — rose to 7% from 5% since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
The Guardian: More US Women Have Tried To Induce Their Own Abortion Since Fall Of Roe: Report Roughly 7% of women of reproductive age in the US have attempted to induce their own abortions outside the formal healthcare system, a new study has found, up from 5% before Roe v Wade fell in 2022. The study, published on Tuesday in the Jama medical journal, determined how many people reported ever "self-managing" their own abortion in 2021 and again in 2023 – a timeline that allowed researchers to examine how Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, the supreme court case that overturned Roe, has affected self-managed abortions. People of color and LGBTQ+ people were more likely to report having ever attempted to end their own pregnancies. (Sherman, 7/30)
Reuters: Kansas Hospital Sued For Refusing Emergency Abortion A Kansas woman on Tuesday sued the University of Kansas Health System for refusing to give her a medically necessary abortion in 2022, accusing the hospital of violating a federal law on emergency room treatment. Mylissa Farmer's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Kansas City, appeared to be the first case against a hospital under the federal law for witholding an abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 ruling ending the longstanding nationwide right to abortion. (Pierson, 7/30)
The Hill: Florida's Abortion Protection Amendment Leads Poll Florida's ballot initiative to protect abortion is winning and has more support among voters than either Vice President Harris or Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a new poll shows. According to the poll from University of North Florida's Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL), 69 percent of respondents said they would vote for Amendment 4, which would prohibit laws from restricting or banning abortion until fetal viability. (Weixel, 7/30)
Politico: States Break Out New Tactics To Thwart Abortion Ballot Measures Former President Donald Trump and much of the GOP insist abortion be left to "the will of the people" at the state level. Anti-abortion groups and Republican state officials are working to make sure that doesn't happen. In nearly every state where the question of abortion rights could be put to a popular vote this November, conservatives are deploying several strategies — from suing to have signatures thrown out in Montana and South Dakota to refusing to count signatures in Arkansas — as they attempt to block ballot initiatives that would restore or expand access to the procedure. (Ollstein, 7/31)
Axios: Abortion Fights Spark Major Spending In Battleground States Tens of millions of dollars are fueling ads across platforms to push abortion rights measures that are expected to be on the ballot in Arizona, Nevada and Montana this year, according to AdImpact data. Why it matters: Those same states could determine the next president and control of the Senate. Democrats hope having abortion on the ballot will keep the focus on their most potent issue — and turn out much-needed voters. (Kight, 7/30)
More reproductive health news —
The Boston Globe: IVF, Backed By Biden, Is Still Not Covered For All Federal Workers When Beth lost the pregnancy she had fought so hard for last year, the devastation was compounded by a thought she couldn't shake: There goes another $6,000. Despite Beth living in Massachusetts, a state that mandates insurance coverage for fertility treatments, the in vitro fertilization she had undertaken was not covered by her insurance because her employer — the US government — is exempt from the state law. (Kopan, 7/30)
The controversial policy document from conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation took a position further right than the Trump campaign does, the Hill notes. Forbes and Mother Jones describe how the platform could lead to a nationwide abortion ban.
The Hill: Project 2025 Director Steps Down Amid Trump Campaign Criticism The director of the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, Paul Dans, is departing from the role, the conservative think tank's president, Kevin Roberts, said Tuesday. "When we began Project 2025 in April 2022, we set a timeline for the project to conclude its policy drafting after the two party conventions this year, and we are sticking to that timeline," Roberts said in a statement. ... The project, made up of a coalition of more conservative organizations and many Trump allies, includes a 900-page hard-right policy blueprint intended to guide the next conservative administration and a bank of individuals who could staff it. Trump and his campaign have distanced themselves from Project 2025, which takes a farther right stance on some issues than Trump does. (Brooks, 7/30)
Forbes: What Is Project 2025? Trump's Potential Policy Agenda Explained As Its Director Steps Down While Project 2025 doesn't explicitly call for an abortion ban, it would take many steps to restrict the procedure, including directing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of abortion drug mifepristone, using the Comstock Act to block any abortion equipment or medication from being mailed—which abortion rights advocates have said would be a "backdoor" way to ban abortion—barring federal funds being used to provide healthcare coverage for abortion and requiring states to report all abortions that take place there to the federal government. (Durkee, 7/30)
Mother Jones: Here's How The GOP Platform Could Lead To A Nationwide Abortion Ban In drafting their platform, the GOP claimed the party does not plan to ban abortion nationwide (maybe because they know it is extremely politically unpopular). But the latest person to say that position is not, exactly, true is Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, an influential anti-abortion advocacy group. In an interview published Monday, Hawkins told the New York Times that, contrary to some mainstream headlines, the latest GOP platform does not represent a "softening" on abortion. (McShane, 7/30)
USA Today: Project 2025 Decried As Racist. Some Contributors Have Trail Of Racist Writings, Activity Billed as a vision built by conservatives for conservatives, the effort "dismantles the unaccountable Deep State, taking power away from Leftist elites and giving it back to the American people and duly-elected President," according to its website. But for months commentators and academics have been sounding the alarm on Project 2025. The effort, they say, is a deeply racist endeavor that actually is aimed at dismantling many protections and aid programs for Americans of color. (Carless, 7/29)
Politico: Harris To Hold First Rally With Running Mate Tuesday In Philadelphia Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday, when she will hold her first rally with her pick in Philadelphia. The two will barnstorm cities in seven swing states in four days. In addition to Philadelphia, they'll hit western Wisconsin, Detroit, Raleigh, Savannah, Phoenix and Las Vegas. (Otterbein and Daniels, 7/30)
Politico: Will Harris Move Faster Than Biden On Supreme Court Reform? Vice President Kamala Harris is embracing President Joe Biden's call to revamp the Supreme Court. Like her boss, it's the first time she has ever endorsed structural changes to the court. But there are small signs that, if elected president, Harris would prioritize the issue more forcefully than Biden ever has. Unlike Biden, who flatly rejected term limits for the justices when he was a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris said at the time that she was open to the idea. She even professed openness to a more radical proposal: expanding the size of the court. (Gerstein and Latson, 7/31)
Modern Healthcare: Health Rules 2024: What's Next For Medicare, Prior Authorization President Joe Biden has some unfinished business on health policy, and the final months of his term in office will feature a flurry of regulations touching areas from Medicare payments to prior authorizations to cybersecurity. ... While Harris likely would continue along a similar trajectory as Biden, she would put her own stamp on policy from the White House as president, while Trump's record and agenda indicate he would take health policy in a very different direction. (Early, 7/30)
The twin measures would require tech platforms to institute measures to ensure kids are not harmed. The bills now head to the House for consideration. Also, a bipartisan effort is underway to create a mental health hotline for first responders.
The Washington Post: Senate Passes Landmark Bills To Protect Kids Online, Raising Pressure On House The Senate overwhelmingly passed a pair of bills to expand online privacy and safety protections for children on Tuesday, delivering a major win for parent and youth activists who have clamored for action against tech companies they say are endangering the well-being of kids. The legislation, approved 91-3, would force digital platforms to take "reasonable" steps to prevent harms to children such as bullying, drug addiction and sexual exploitation, and it would broaden existing federal privacy protections to include kids and teens 16 years old and younger. (Lima-Strong, 7/30)
Fox News: Gillibrand, Hawley Lead Bipartisan Bill To Create Mental Health Hotline For Police, First Responders A Democrat and Republican senator duo are looking to take on higher rates of mental health issues among first responders with new legislation. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., partnered to introduce the First Responders Wellness Act on Wednesday, which would create a grant program that would help provide mental health resources and services to law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel and public safety telecommunicators. It would also establish a mental health hotline devoted to assisting first responders. (Johnson, 7/31)
The Washington Post: Congress Will Probably Have To Punt To Keep The Government Open In October Lawmakers in Congress haven't left themselves much choice if they want to fund the government and prevent a government shutdown in a few months: They'll need to kick the can down the road. The House left Washington last week, and the Senate will soon follow, with scant progress made toward passing the 12 annual spending bills, or appropriations, that keep vital agencies and government programs running. Current federal financing expires Sept. 30, the end of the 2024 fiscal year. (Bogage, 7/30)
The Wall Street Journal reports that months after its investigation found Facebook and Instagram ads steering users to illegal drug marketplaces, the company has run "hundreds" more despite facing a federal investigation. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden pressed Congress to tackle fentanyl traffickers.
The Wall Street Journal: Exclusive: Meta Has Run Hundreds Of Ads For Cocaine, Opioids And Other Drugs Meta Platforms is running ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs, months after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the social-media giant was facing a federal investigation over the practice. The company has continued to collect revenue from ads that violate its policies, which ban promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs. A review by The Wall Street Journal in July found dozens of ads marketing illegal substances such as cocaine and prescription opioids, including as recently as Friday. A separate analysis over recent months by an industry watchdog group found hundreds of such ads. (Rodriguez, 7/31)
The Washington Post: Biden Urges Congress To Get Tougher On Fentanyl Traffickers The White House on Wednesday backed proposals to permanently stiffen penalties on synthetic drug traffickers, monitor machines used to make fentanyl pills and close a loophole that allows criminal groups to easily ship drugs in packages. President Biden announced the initiatives as state and federal officials from both political parties grapple with how to curb a drug epidemic that has killed more than 300,000 people during his administration. (Ovalle, 7/31)
Stat: Groups Urge Biden Administration To Push For Addiction Medication The Biden administration isn't doing enough to ensure people living in recovery housing have access to gold-standard addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine, according to a coalition of health care, harm reduction, and addiction recovery groups. (Facher, 7/31)
Also —
Stat: 48 Million Americans Estimated To Have Substance Use Problem Rates of mental illness and substance use remained largely stable in 2023, according to federal data, underscoring the severity of the long-running U.S. mental health crisis and worst-in-the-world rates of illicit drug use. (Facher, 7/30)
Roll Call: SAMHSA Finds Increase In Nicotine Vaping, Treatment Uptake Almost 23 percent of adults reported having any mental disorder last year, according to a report released Tuesday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. That number, and several others included in the results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2023, showed that incidence of mental health and substance use issues have largely remained stable since 2021. (Raman, 7/30)
Nine poultry workers in Colorado have been infected with bird flu, bringing the total to 14 across the nation since 2022. Meanwhile, the CDC will put $5 million toward seasonal flu vaccines for livestock workers. USA Today explains how the seasonal flu vax can help prevent bird flu.
Roll Call: Health Officials Report More Colorado Workers Infected With Bird Flu The number of bird flu infections among Colorado poultry workers increased to nine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Tuesday, for a total of 14 cases nationwide from exposure to poultry and dairy cattle since 2022. The cases in Colorado come out of two farms located in Weld County, which is northeast of the Denver metro area. The workers experienced mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis. The CDC assessment of the risk to the public remains low, but poultry workers tasked with culling infected birds are at a heightened risk of infection. (Bridges, 7/30)
CIDRAP: CDC Urges Livestock Workers Get Seasonal Flu Vaccine To Cut Pandemic Risk A top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced a $5 million plan to offer seasonal flu vaccine to livestock workers, mostly to protect their health but also to reduce the chance of human flu viruses mixing with H5N1 avian flu viruses, which would pose a new pandemic flu threat. The announcement follows a recent flurry of H5 avian flu infections in Colorado poultry cullers and sporadic infections in workers exposed to dairy cows infected with H5N1 and comes ahead of the upcoming flu season. (Schnirring, 7/30)
USA Today: CDC: Seasonal Flu Shots Best Tool To Prevent Bird Flu Health officials believe the seasonal flu vaccine is better suited to prevent a bird flu pandemic right now than a dedicated H5N1 vaccine would be, though the first doses of a bird flu-specific vaccine rolled off an assembly line in North Carolina last week. The bird flu virus hasn't caused severe disease in any of the workers, hasn't been transmitted without symptoms and hasn't developed the ability to jump from person to person, said Shah, of CDC. (Cuevas, 7/30)
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' final hospice provider reimbursement boost is higher than the 2.6% proposed in March. Also in health industry and pharma news: HealthPartners, Community Health Systems, Mount Sinai, Eisai, Biogen, and more.
Modern Healthcare: Hospice To See Medicare Pay Increase In 2025 Medicare reimbursements for hospice providers will increase 2.9% in fiscal 2025 under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Tuesday. That's higher than the 2.6% payment update CMS proposed in March and comprises a 3.4% increase in the market basket minus a 0.5 percentage point productivity adjustment. Hospice providers that do not report quality data will receive a 1.1% reimbursement cut. (Young, 7/30)
Minnesota Public Radio: HealthPartners To Stop Taking UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage A shake-up between two health behemoths could affect 30,000 seniors across the state. HealthPartners recently announced it is dropping out of UnitedHealthcare's Medicare Advantage network. That means starting next year, Medicare Advantage recipients through UnitedHealthcare will no longer be covered at certain HealthPartners clinics and hospitals. (Moini and Bui, 7/30)
Modern Healthcare: CHS To Sell 3 Pennsylvania Hospitals To WoodBridge Healthcare Community Health Systems is selling its three Pennsylvania hospitals to WoodBridge Healthcare for $120 million. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes 186-bed Regional Hospital of Scranton, 122-bed Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton and 369-bed Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, for-profit CHS said Tuesday in a news release. Related facilities such as ambulatory surgery centers, emergency departments and outpatient rehabilitation sites are included in the sale. (Hudson, 7/30)
Stat: Mount Sinai Mounted Campaign To Stifle Debate Over Living Brain Project Mount Sinai, a leading hospital network in New York City, has mounted an extraordinary behind-the-scenes campaign to blunt the fallout over revelations about its controversial research project in which brain biopsies are taken from patients undergoing deep brain stimulation, STAT has learned. (Eban, 7/31)
The Marshall Project and The Frontier: Health Care Company's Practices Put Jail Patients At Risk Two days after Thanksgiving in 2022, Shannon Hanchett walked into an AT&T store for a new phone, and ended up in handcuffs. Hanchett ran the Cookie Cottage, a popular bakery in this college town, where she made treats named for places across the state, from Stilwell Strawberry to Lawton Lemon. But lately, her mental health seemed to be fraying. (Aspinwall, Bailey and McClendon, 7/31)
Los Angeles Times: Long Waits For Home Care Persist In California Despite Expansion Lyla Abuebaid needs to check on her 5-year-old son through the night to make sure he keeps breathing. ... She is among thousands of Californians who have been trying to get Medicaid benefits for services to help medically vulnerable people remain at home through the Home and Community-Based Alternatives waiver. Demand for the HCBA waiver, which helps people who might otherwise have to live in nursing facilities, has far outstripped the available spots. (Alpert Reyes, 7/30)
Modern Healthcare: How Talkiatry, Others Landed In-Network Status At Magellan Health Virtual care providers, particularly those providing behavioral health services, face stiff competition in their quest to become an in-network partner. Just how stiff? Ask Chris Daher, vice president of network development and provider relations at Magellan Health. Daher helps the managed care company vet potential behavioral health virtual providers and neither he nor the company takes the easy route. Magellan manages the behavioral health coverage for Blue Shield of California, the third-largest insurer in a state of 39 million people. (Perna, 7/30)
In pharma and tech news —
Stat: Eisai, Biogen Cite New Alzheimer's Data To Make Case For Long-Term Use Of Drug Patients with early Alzheimer's disease treated with a medication developed by Eisai and Biogen for up to three years experienced less cognitive decline than what's expected of untreated patients based on historical data, according to new study results reported Tuesday. The manufacturers said the data support long-term, continuous use of the drug. (Chen and Feuerstein, 7/30)
The Boston Globe: As 'Pharmacy Deserts' Spread, Federal Discount Drug Program Faces Pushback Since the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center opened its own pharmacy more than a year ago, the facility has acted as an oasis for a community that sorely lacks drug stores. As CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid closed hundreds of stores across the state in recent years, nonprofit community pharmacies like the one in Brockton — and others in Dorchester, South Boston, and Roxbury — have stepped up to fill the void. (Lee, Kohli and Woodard, 7/30)
Stat: Animal Rights Victory In NIH Lawsuit Ruling In a boost for animal rights advocates, a U.S. appeals court ruled that a National Institutes of Health policy for monitoring comments posted to its online forums violated the First Amendment because the agency made a point of removing remarks about animal testing. (Silverman, 7/30)
Politico says legal entanglements mean nearly half of states don't have to abide by President Joe Biden's new Title IX policies designed to protect trans and pregnant students' civil rights. In other news, police caught one of four teens who escaped a psychiatric facility in Washington, D.C.
Politico: Biden's Efforts To Assist Transgender Students Are Unraveling Schools are agonizing over how to implement one of President Joe Biden's top civil rights priorities after a tangle of court orders created a baffling patchwork just weeks before students return to campus. The regulation, which takes effect on Thursday, updates a federal anti-discrimination law to bolster protections for transgender and pregnant students. But nearly half of the states don't need to abide by the new rule due to legal holdups and many others aren't sure how to — especially since the policy's fate is unclear. (Quilantan, 7/30)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
The Washington Post: D.C. Police Detain One Of Four Teens Who Escaped A Psychiatric Facility Authorities have apprehended one of four missing youths who escaped an acute psychiatric care facility in upper Northwest Washington earlier this month by overpowering at least one employee and stealing a badge and keys, according to D.C. police and other officials. Police have not said how they found the 15-year-old, or where he is detained. Still missing are 14- and 16-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl. Two of the four youths who escaped are charged in a carjacking. Two are alleged to have committed nonviolent offenses. All were ordered to receive mental health care after they were arrested and evaluated. (Hermann, 7/30)
CBS News: Report: Florida Leads Nation In Hospital Visits For Heat-Related Illnesses One of the reasons people come to Florida is because of the weather and year-round sunshine. According to a new report, Florida is leading the country in hospital visits for heat-related illnesses. ... According to the Florida Policy Institute, the state saw more than 26,000 emergency room visits between 2018 and 2022. Dr. Jason Mansour at Broward Health says people going to the hospital due to the heat are people working outside, athletes and the vulnerable population, which includes kids and elderly. (Carrero, 7/30)
Minnesota Now: How Adoptees Can Build A 'Personal Health History' In Lieu Of Family Medical Information It has been nearly a month since all Minnesota-born adoptees gained access to their birth records. The Open Records Bill was a huge win for adoptees, in part because it allowed them to request medical history from their birth parents. However, there are still many Minnesota adoptees born in a different country whose medical history remains a question mark. (Wurzer, Younger and Elder, 7/30)
KFF Health News: Florida's RSV Season Has Started, And It's Coming Soon To The Rest Of US. Here's A Primer Many people have gotten used to rolling up their sleeves for flu and covid-19 vaccines. New immunizations are also available to combat respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for those at high risk of illness. Although the one-time shots reached pharmacies last year, fewer than a quarter of those 60 or older nationally had been vaccinated as of May. Even in Florida, not many older adults have gotten the shot yet. (Ogozalek, 7/31)
The breakthrough came after scientists looked at the health records of hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports on two blood tests that may predict people's risk of heart disease more than standard tests do.
The Washington Post: Shingles Vaccine Linked With Lower Risk Of Dementia, Study Shows The shingles vaccine, recommended for people 50 and older to fight the painful viral infection, might also decrease the chances of developing dementia, according to data presented at a medical conference Tuesday. The study, which looked at the health records of hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, shows that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia in the five years following vaccination compared with a control group of people who received a vaccine for a different illness. (Cohen, 7/30)
The Wall Street Journal: The Blood Tests That Could Assess Heart Disease Risk Better Than Traditional Ones Two blood tests you probably haven't heard of might predict your risk of heart disease better than standard tests do. The first measures a protein called apolipoprotein B, or apoB for short, that contributes to artery-blocking plaque. The other test, for lipoprotein(a), measures a type of bad cholesterol. High levels of each have been linked to increased risk of heart disease. (Janin, 7/30)
Reuters: US Agency Puts Onus On Amazon For Sale Of Hazardous Third-Party Products Amazon.com is responsible for the sale of hazardous third-party products on its platform, a U.S. government agency said, ordering the e-commerce giant to propose steps to inform consumers and encourage them to return or destroy the products. The directive from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) covers more than 400,000 products, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection and children's sleepwear that violated flammability standards. (Sophia, 7/30)
CBS News: Boar's Head Recall Expanded To Dozens Of Meat And Poultry Products Amid Listeria Outbreak A recall of Boar's Head deli meat products has been widely expanded over concerns that they may be linked to a fatal listeria outbreak in the U.S., federal officials said Tuesday. Another 3,500 tons of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold under the Boar's Head and Old Country brands have been added to the initial recall, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. This is in addition to approximately 103 tons of Boar's Head products that were recalled last week. (Tanyos, 7/30)
Read recent pharmaceutical developments in KFF Health News' Prescription Drug Watch roundup.
Modern Healthcare: Drug Costs To Increase 3.81% In 2025: Vizient Drug prices are expected to increase 3.81% next year, propelled by expensive cell and gene therapies and glucagon-like peptide agonists. The estimate from Vizient, a group purchasing organization, tops the company's 2024 drug cost growth projection of 3.42%. Vizient uses recent provider purchasing data to forecast what hospitals and health systems might pay for drugs after discounts and rebates. (Kacik, 7/30)
Reuters: Patients Push Back Against Novo Nordisk Move To Scrap An Insulin Product Novo Nordisk's decision to stop selling its long-acting insulin Levemir in the United States has left some diabetes patients struggling to switch treatments, patients and doctors in a dozen U.S. states told Reuters. The Danish drugmaker said in November it would halt U.S. sales of Levemir by the end of 2024. Many health plans no longer cover the drug, which went off patent in 2019, and there are other options for patients on the market, Novo said. (Fick and Aboulenein, 7/30)
Stat: Wells Fargo Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over PBM Drug Prices Former employees sued Wells Fargo on Tuesday, alleging the banking giant violated federal law by not diligently monitoring how much it was paying for their prescription drugs, which led to massive overcharges. (Herman and Silverman, 7/30)
Reuters: Pharma Companies Less Concerned After Hearing From US On Negotiated Prices For Medicare Four pharmaceutical companies involved in the first U.S. negotiations over prices for the Medicare program said they do not expect a significant impact on their businesses after seeing confidential suggested prices from the government for their drugs that will take effect in 2026. Top executives from Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and AstraZeneca, which have five of the 10 drugs chosen for the first wave of negotiations, described their newly informed views on quarterly conference calls. (Wingrove and Erman, 7/29)
Stat: Four Ways To Evaluate Medicare Drug Price Negotiations The deadline for announcing how much Medicare lowered drug prices in the first year of negotiation is Sept. 1, just ahead of U.S. elections. Here are four ways to tell whether the Biden administration got a good deal. (Wilkerson, 7/30)
The New York Times: The Problem With The Natural Childbirth Movement The natural-parenting movement, like the anti-vaccine movement, relies on our forgetfulness about what life was like before the innovations that it denounces. Having a baby without medical help may be natural, but so is obstetric fistula and hemorrhaging to death. (Michelle Goldberg, 7/31)
Chicago Tribune: Safeguards Aren't Sufficient In Physician-Assisted Suicide For centuries, assisted dying was abjured by most societies and specifically prohibited by the Hippocratic oath ("I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan."). It became a legitimate movement in the 1970s, the product of an aging society, the emerging Western concept of patient rights and the gradual acceptance of the idea by the lay and medical communities. (Cory Franklin and Victoria Tiller, 7/30)
Stat: Medical Schools Need To Teach Cost Counseling And Stewardship In my third week as a medical intern, I learned a vital lesson about the realities of everyday medicine that textbooks and professors hadn't taught me: how profoundly the financial cost of care affects patients. (Henry Bair, 7/31)
Stat: BIOSECURE Act Should Focus On Robust Data Protection By All The BIOSECURE Act, now rolling through Congress, aims to protect the DNA data of Americans from companies with perceived national security risks. That is a noble goal. But the legislation's misguided approach would single out a small number of companies, including the California-based company I founded in 2005, Complete Genomics, despite the fact that we have no access to such data. It would also let many companies with large volumes of DNA data sell or transfer this data without any legal protections. (Radoje Drmanac, 7/31)
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF. (c) 2024 KFF Health News. All rights reserved.
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