Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations. Note to readers: KFF Health News' First Edition will not be published Thursday in observance of Juneteenth. Look for it again in your inbox on Friday.
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Have Job-Based Health Coverage At 65? You May Still Want To Sign Up For Medicare When Alyne Diamond fell off a horse in August 2023 and broke her back, her employer-based health plan through UnitedHealthcare covered her emergency care in Aspen, Colorado. It also covered related pain management and physical therapy after she returned home to New York City. The bills totaled more than $100,000. The real estate lawyer, now 67, was eligible for Medicare at the time but hadn't enrolled. Since she was still working, she thought her employer health insurance plan would cover her. (Andrews, 6/18)
KFF Health News: Nurse Practitioners Critical In Treating Older Adults As Ranks Of Geriatricians Shrink On Fridays, Stephanie Johnson has a busy schedule, driving her navy-blue Jeep from one patient's home to the next, seeing eight in all. Pregnant with her second child, she schleps a backpack instead of a traditional black bag to carry a laptop and essential medical supplies — stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, and pulse oximeter. Forget a lunch break; she often eats a sandwich or some nuts as she heads to her next patient visit. (Arvin, 6/18)
KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'An Arm and a Leg': The Prescription Drug Playbook, Part I About 3 in 10 adults reported not taking their medicines as prescribed at some point between July 2022 and July 2023 because of the cost, according to a KFF survey. So, this year, "An Arm and a Leg" asked listeners: What strategies have you used when you've been struck by pharmacy sticker shock? (Weissmann, 6/18)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute' Sam Whitehead reads the week's news: Inadequate communications infrastructure is harming the health of rural Americans, and ministroke symptoms may look mild but need medical treatment. ... Katheryn Houghton reads the week's news: More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, and the federal government failed to warn the public about a major E. coli outbreak. (6/17)
MEDICAID
Modern Healthcare: GOP Tax Plan Would Cost Healthcare $1T: CBO A new analysis of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 concludes the economic benefits of its tax breaks would be outweighed by its costs over time and confirms the healthcare sector faces a hefty $1 trillion loss. Although cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance exchanges and other programs, and some economic growth would partially offset its $3.7 trillion price tag, the bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $2.8 trillion over 10 years, according to a report the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation issued Tuesday. (McAuliff, 6/17)
Politico: Hospitals Stunned By Senate GOP's Medicaid Plan One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is redoubling its efforts to avoid a cut to Medicaid payments in the GOP's megabill. Hospital executives weren't happy last month when the House included a provision in its version of the bill freezing a loophole states have used to boost payments to hospitals serving the low-income patients enrolled in Medicaid. Hospitals have long enjoyed deference from lawmakers — since they both care for and employ their constituents. (King, Oprysko, Carney and Chu, 6/17)
NBC News: How The Senate's Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Deepen The Rural Hospital Crisis Rural hospitals across the U.S. — many already hanging by a thread — could take a serious hit if a proposed Medicaid cut in the Senate's domestic spending bill is signed into law. The provision, outlined in the 549-page bill released by the Senate Finance Committee on Monday, would gradually limit states' use of Medicaid's so-called provider tax. Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal government and states. States cover the upfront cost of care and then are reimbursed by the federal government for at least 50%. (Lovelace Jr., 6/17)
Bloomberg: Senate Tax Bill Lacks Votes As Republican Leaders Seek SALT Cap, Medicaid Deals Republican leaders are aiming for quick negotiations over needed changes to the newly unveiled Senate tax bill which lacks the votes to secure majorities in both chambers as written. The prospect of prolonged talks with holdouts in both the conservative and moderate wings of the party threaten Senate Majority Leader John Thune's goal of passing President Donald Trump's tax-cut legislation by July 4. (Wasson, Diaz, and Dennis, 6/17)
The Hill: Mehmet Oz To Pitch GOP Senators On Need For Medicaid Changes Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is scheduled to speak to Republican senators at lunch Tuesday on the need to reform Medicaid, according to a GOP source familiar with the schedule. Oz is expected to speak in detail about the need to protect the program for low-income families, the elderly and the disabled, and what the administration views as current abuses of the program, such as people in the country without authorization receiving Medicaid benefits. (Bolton, 6/17)
HEALTH INSURANCE
The Washington Post: Healthcare.Gov Fraud Fuels GOP Attempt To Cut Affordable Care Act Millions are fraudulently receiving health insurance subsidized by the federal government, according to a new conservative think tank report to be released Tuesday, as Republicans move to tighten controls on Healthcare.gov and limit enrollment. The Biden administration's attempts to make it easier for people to sign up for insurance through the federal marketplace website also allowed insurance brokers to commit fraud, experts across the political spectrum agree. Those brokers were able to enroll people, sometimes without their knowledge, for subsidized plans by misstating their incomes, while earning commissions from insurers. (Winfield Cunningham, 6/17)
Axios: Tariffs Drive Some Health Plans To Hike Premiums Health insurers are starting to notify states that tariffs will drive up the premiums they plan to charge individual and small group market enrollees next year. (Goldman, 6/18)
Modern Healthcare: Fitch Lowers Insurance Credit Outlook Amid Medicaid Cuts Medicaid funding cuts outlined in the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" could lead to financial challenges for the insurance sector, according to a Tuesday report from Fitch Ratings. The credit rating agency lowered its outlook from "neutral" to "deteriorating" after the Senate released its proposed changes to the legislation on Monday, which called for more healthcare funding cuts than the House-passed version. (DeSilva, 6/17)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Bloomberg: FDA Announces New Vouchers To Cut Drug Reviews To Two Months The US Food and Drug Administration announced a new national priority voucher plan that aims to cut drug review times to one to two months for companies it says are backing national interests. The Commissioner's National Priority Voucher program is intended to slash review times from the current average of 10 to 12 months, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday. In the first year of the program, the FDA plans to give a limited number of vouchers to companies "aligned with U.S. national priorities," it said. (Amponsah, 6/17)
Stat: CDC Leaders Rally Troops, Sidestep Controversy In All-Hands Meeting In their first all-staff meeting since the start of the Trump administration, the interim leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attempted to sidestep controversy and rally troops at the storied but demoralized agency on Tuesday. (Branswell, 6/17)
The Washington Post: DHS Secretary Noem Taken To Hospital After Allergic Reaction Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem was taken to a hospital on Tuesday after suffering an allergic reaction, a department spokesperson told The Washington Post. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for DHS, said Noem was transported to the hospital by ambulance "out of an abundance of caution" and "is alert and recovering." (Tucker and LeVine, 6/16)
FUNDING AND RESEARCH CUTS
MedPage Today: Patient Safety Network Papers Restored Amid Lawsuit From Doctors Papers removed from a government patient safety website earlier this year have been restored. The reappearance of the papers comes amid a lawsuit challenging their removal from the Patient Safety Network (PSNet), which has existed as part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under HHS. (Henderson, 6/17)
AP: Judge Says Trump Administration Can't Cut Public Health Funding For Houston, Nashville, Other Cities A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from clawing back millions in public health funding from four Democrat-led municipalities in GOP-governed states. It's the second such federal ruling to reinstate public health funding for several states. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday sought by district attorneys in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, and three cities: Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and Kansas City, Missouri. The decision means the federal government must reinstate funding to the four municipalities until the case is fully litigated. (Shastri, 6/18)
The New York Times: South Africa Built A Medical Research Powerhouse. Trump Cuts Have Demolished It In Cape Town, South Africa, one of the world's foremost H.I.V. researchers has been spending a chunk of each day gently telling longtime workers and young doctoral students that the money is gone and so are their jobs. When the calls are done, she weeps in her empty office. In the heart of Johannesburg, the lobby of a building that once housed hundreds of scientists is empty of people but choked with discarded office furniture and heaps of files hastily gathered from shuttered research sites. (Nolen, 6/17)
The New York Times: Trump Official Eyes Power Of Rescission To Override Congress On Spending The White House is signaling it may soon invoke a little-known and legally untested power to try to cancel billions of dollars in federal spending, as President Trump's top aides look for novel ways to reconfigure the budget without obtaining the explicit approval of Congress. Under the emerging plan, the Trump administration would wait until closer to Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, to formally ask lawmakers to claw back a set of funds it has targeted for cuts. Even if Congress fails to vote on the request, the president's timing would trigger a law that freezes the money until it ultimately expires. (Romm, 6/17)
'MAHA' AND RFK JR.
Bloomberg: General Mills Is Latest Packaged-Food Company To Remove Dyes Packaged-food maker General Mills Inc. is joining Kraft Heinz Co. in removing synthetic food dyes from its US products by the end of 2027 — a move that will eliminate ingredients such as Red 40 and Yellow 5 from its brightly colored cereals. The Minneapolis-based company said it will remove the colorants from US cereals and foods served in schools by the summer of next year. The company will also "work to remove certified colors from its full US retail portfolio by the end of 2027." (Kubzansky, 6/17)
NPR: Trump Administration Moves Undercut RFK Jr.'s MAHA Agenda On Toxic Chemicals It was a surreal moment for Susanne Brander. She was sitting in the audience at a conference in April as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke about the health effects of exposure to harmful chemicals in our food, air and water. As she listened, Kennedy cited recent research on microplastics from researchers in Oregon, finding these tiny particles had shown up in 99% of the seafood they sampled. (Stone, 6/18)
Stat: RFK Jr., FDA Eye Psychedelics For Mental Health Treatment Eight months after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that the Food and Drug Administration's "aggressive suppression of psychedelics" was about to end, he and his newfound allies in the Trump administration are in a position to do something about it. (Goldhill and Keshavan, 6/18)
OPIOID CRISIS
NPR: U.S. Overdose Deaths Rise After Hopeful Decline For the first time in more than a year, street drug deaths appear to be rising across the U.S. according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest available data, compiled in January of this year, shows fatal overdoses over the previous 12-month period increased by roughly 1,400 deaths. (Mann, 6/18)
AP: A Judge Could Advance A $7B Settlement For OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma A judge on Wednesday is being asked to clear the way for local governments and individual victims to vote on OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma 's latest plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids. Government entities, emergency room doctors, insurers, families of children born into withdrawal from the powerful prescription painkiller, individual victims and their families and others would have until Sept. 30 to vote on whether to accept the deal, which calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to pay up to $7 billion over 15 years. (Mulvihill, 6/18)
MEASLES
CBS News: At Least 3% Of Measles Cases This Year Were In People Who Were Fully Vaccinated, CDC Says At least 3% of measles cases confirmed so far this year have been in people who received two doses of the measles vaccine, meaning they were fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. About three dozen of the nearly 1,200 measles infections in 2025 have been in people with two vaccine doses, the agency said Friday in its weekly update on cases. An additional 2% of cases were in people who received at least one dose of the measles vaccine. (Tin, 6/17)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The 19th: A Brain-Dead Georgia Woman Set To Be Taken Off Life Support After Baby Delivered Adriana Smith, the pregnant Georgia woman who has been brain-dead since February, gave birth by emergency Caesarean section Friday and is set to be taken off life support this week, her family told a local NBC News affiliate. (Luthra, 6/17)
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri Abortion Ballot Measure Bars Care For Trans Kids A temporary ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors could become permanent if Missourians vote to amend the state's constitution in 2026. The measure is attached to a ballot initiative that would place a ban on most abortions in the Missouri Constitution. Lawmakers this year approved a bill that asks voters to decide in 2026. (Fentem, 6/18)
HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY
Chicago Tribune: Birth Center Of Chicago Announces Sudden, Temporary Closure A Chicago birth center is abruptly closing for the rest of the summer because of staffing challenges — forcing patients to make new plans. (Schencker, 6/17)
San Francisco Chronicle: Children's Hospital Oakland To Shut Most Locations During 5-Day Strike Health care workers at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland plan to begin a five-day strike Wednesday over what they say are cuts in take-home pay under new union contracts slated to take effect in July. Led by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the picket line will take place outside the main hospital in Oakland and the outpatient center in Walnut Creek from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. (Ho, 6/17)
Chicago Tribune: Ex-Loretto Hospital CFO Hit With New Charges Alleging Massive $290 Million COVID Testing Fraud Scheme A former top executive of Loretto Hospital on Chicago's West Side has been charged in a massive $290 million fraud scheme that allegedly used stolen patient data to bill nearly a billion dollars worth of bogus COVID-19 tests for purportedly uninsured patients at the height of the pandemic. (Meisner, 6/17)
Modern Healthcare: Headspace Launches Direct-To-Consumer Therapy Service Virtual mental health provider Headspace is rolling out a direct-to-consumer therapy service, the company said Tuesday. The move signifies another pivot from an enterprise-based to a consumer-centric business model for Headspace, which started a direct-to-consumer coaching service in April 2024. (Perna, 6/17)
Modern Healthcare: Ascension To Acquire Amsurg Outpatient Centers For $3.9B Ascension has entered a definitive agreement to acquire ambulatory surgery provider Amsurg. The transaction would add more than 250 ambulatory surgery centers across 34 states to Ascension's footprint. The centers offer gastroenterology, ophthalmology, orthopedics and other services, according to a Tuesday news release. (Hudson, 6/17)
Modern Healthcare: Hinge Health Launches In-Person Care With Provider Network Hinge Health is expanding its clinical network by partnering with in-person musculoskeletal care providers, the company said Tuesday. Less than a month after its initial public offering. Hinge said it will launch partnerships with third-party clinicians who can offer in-person care to supplement and augment its existing platform. It is also giving patients the option to complete an intake or have a consolation with a doctor specializing in orthopedics through its telehealth platform. (6/17)
Fierce Healthcare: Providers Still Topping Health Plans In Most OON Pay Disputes A much higher volume of out-of-network pay disputes were being filed and processed through the first half of 2024 than during the year preceding it, though cases remain concentrated among a small handful of states and large provider groups, according to an analysis of the most recent data released by the federal government. The review of Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) cases, published in Health Affairs Forefront, outlined a continuation of plans' low win rates: 14% of resolved cases in Q1 2024 and 18% of resolved cases in Q2 2024. (Muoio, 6/17)
Axios: Hospital Purchasing Still Buffeted By Trade Winds Tariffs and supply chain uncertainty are playing havoc with hospitals' purchasing plans, especially for lower-margin products like gloves, gowns and syringes. The uncertainty is in some cases delaying spending decisions, including capital improvements, as health system administrators wait to see the effect of increased duties and whether manufacturers win exemptions from the Trump administration. (Reed, 6/18)
PHARMA AND TECH
MedPage Today: FDA Approves Once-Monthly Hereditary Angioedema Drug Anti-factor XIIa biologic garadacimab (Andembry) got the FDA greenlight for use in preventing hereditary angioedema (HAE) attacks in adult and pediatric patients ages 12 years and older, CSL announced. Garadacimab is the only HAE treatment to target factor XIIa, a plasma protein that plays a key role in the unpredictable and potentially life-threatening attacks of swelling that can affect the abdomen, larynx, face, and extremities. The monoclonal antibody is self-injected subcutaneously once monthly from initiation using an autoinjector that takes 15 seconds. (Phend, 6/17)
Modern Healthcare: Brain Navi Receives FDA Approval For NaoTrac Neurosurgical Robot Taiwanese surgical robotics company Brain Navi Biotechnology said Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration approved its NaoTrac neurosurgical robot. It's designed to assist with brain tumor biopsies, deep brain stimulation and other complex brain surgeries. (Dubinsky, 6/17)
ABC News: Exclusive Look At Groundbreaking Remote Robotic Surgery: Patient Was In Africa; Doctor Was In Florida Fernando da Silva, who lives in the southern African nation of Angola, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March. Three months later, he underwent a procedure to cut out the cancer from a surgeon who has done tens of thousands of similar procedures. But the doctor performing the surgery was 7,000 miles away -- in Orlando, Florida. Da Silva was the first patient of a groundbreaking human clinical trial approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to test transcontinental robotic telesurgery. (Benadjaoud, Serratos, Mendelsohn, and Miller, 6/18)
STATE WATCH
Becker's Hospital Review: 2nd State Adopts 'Physician Associate' Title Maine has become the second state in the U.S. to adopt legislation changing the "physician assistant" title to "physician associate." The Maine State Legislature passed the bill June 2, and it was enacted June 16. The title change follows a two-year lobbying campaign by the Maine Academy of Physician Associates. (Bean, 6/17)
St. Louis Public Radio: Need To Reach 911 In St. Louis County? Now You Can Send A Text People who need emergency assistance in St. Louis County can now reach 911 services by text message. The county's Emergency Communications Commission launched the program Tuesday. (Goodwin, 6/17)
Stat: Life Expectancy Of Native Americans, Alaska Natives Adjusted Lower American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States live nearly four years less than official statistics would have you believe. In fact, their life expectancy (72.7 years) is closer to that of a typical citizen of El Salvador (72) than the U.S. (78). (Russo, 6/18)
CANCER RESEARCH
Fox News: Johns Hopkins Study Detects Cancer In Blood 3 Years Before Diagnosis Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say they have uncovered an advanced method for detecting cancer. A new study, published in the journal Cancer Discovery and partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, found that genetic material shed by tumors can be detected in the bloodstream three years prior to a cancer diagnosis. (Stabile, 6/17)
MedPage Today: BRCA Mutations Hike Risk Of Rare Breast Implant-Associated Lymphoma Patients with BRCA-mutant breast cancer had a significantly higher risk of breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), a large cohort study showed. BRCA1/2 mutations conferred a 16-fold increased risk of BIA-ALCL in women who received textured breast implants as part of breast reconstruction. The association between BRCA mutations and BIA-ALCL persisted in a secondary case-control analysis to rule out a non-association. (Bankhead, 6/17)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
AP: Older Adults Are Dying More From Unintentional Falls In The Last 20 Years Older U.S. adults are increasingly dying from unintentional falls, according to a new federal report published Wednesday, with white people accounting for the vast majority of the deaths. From 2003 to 2023, death rates from falls rose more than 70% for adults ages 65 to 74, the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The rate increased more than 75% for people 75 to 84, and more than doubled for seniors 85 and older. (Stobbe, 6/18)
CIDRAP: Poor Sleep And Long COVID Linked In UK Study Having a history of poor sleep quality prior to COVID-19 infection may increase the likelihood of developing post-COVID condition, or long COVID, according to data from the COVIDENCE UK study recently published in BLJ Open Respiratory Research. The research was based on information from non-hospitalized participants with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study authors assessed sleep quality via participant answers to a subset of questions from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Long COVID was defined as unresolved symptoms at least 12 weeks after infection. (Soucheray, 6/17)
CBS News: Cannabis Use Linked To A Doubled Risk Of Heart Disease Death, New Study Finds With growing marijuana use across the country, studies have looked at the link between cannabis use and cardiovascular problems — but new research is showing the magnitude of such risk. In the study, published Tuesday in the journal Heart, researchers found cannabis use is linked to a doubled risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a 29% higher risk for acute coronary syndrome and 20% higher risk for stroke. The authors analyzed data from 24 studies published from 2016 to 2023. (Moniuszko, 6/17)
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