First Edition: Friday, May 15, 2026
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Kennedy, Balancing MAHA And White House, Says He Won’t Run For President In 2028 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is caught between his Make America Healthy Again supporters who want him to do more to advance their priorities, including curtailing vaccines, and a White House trying to combat President Donald Trump’s unpopularity. (Armour and Seitz, 5/15)
KFF Health News: FDA Blocked Melanoma Drug As Confusion Reigned Under Makary The FDA’s recent decision to withhold approval of a new skin cancer treatment fell like a hammer on doctors who treat melanoma and patients who saw that the drug had prolonged the lives of a third of the participants in a clinical trial. “It was devastating news,” said Trisha Wise-Draper, a dermatologist at the University of Cincinnati who had patients enrolled in the trial.“ This is life or death for maybe 2,000 patients,” added Eric Whitman, medical director of the Atlantic Health System’s oncology service. A Wall Street Journal editorial assailed the ruling, noting that it “will have a chilling effect on drug development.” (Allen, 5/15)
KFF Health News: Minnesota Lawmaker Proposes Using Hospital Tax To Fill Charity Care Gap Minnesota lawmakers are wrestling with how to sustain the state’s financially distressed hospitals while patients confront growing medical debt. One Minnesota lawmaker wants to steer money from an existing healthcare tax back to hospitals so they can expand their charity care programs for patients who can’t afford their bills. The proposal follows a Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation that found hospitals across the state spend far less on charity care than hospitals in many other states, and use widely different standards to decide who qualifies for free or discounted care. (Olson, 5/15)
KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: In Search Of A New FDA Commissioner As had been rumored for weeks, Marty Makary is out as commissioner of the FDA after a chaotic 13 months presiding over drama in every corner of the agency. That leaves Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services with three senior vacancies: FDA commissioner, surgeon general, and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All must pass through the Senate committee chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has had a troubled relationship with Kennedy and President Donald Trump. (Rovner, 5/14)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
CNN: Supreme Court Allows Telehealth And Mail Access To Mifepristone For Now The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed women to continue to access the abortion pill mifepristone through telehealth visits, maintaining the status quo while officials in Louisiana continue to push for limiting availability of the drug in lower courts. (Fritze and Cole, 5/14)
AP: How The Pill Spurred Monumental Social Change The pill helped give birth to modern America. Known by one simple word, the revolutionary oral contraceptive — approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 66 years ago — didn’t just prevent innumerable pregnancies. It gave women new freedom, changing family life and society forever. “Its introduction in the 1960s afforded U.S. women this unprecedented control over their childbearing and subsequent life trajectories,” says Suzanne Bell of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The pill disentangled sex from procreation. Women no longer needed a man’s cooperation to control their fertility. (Ungar, 5/12)
Honolulu Civil Beat: Dr. William McKenzie Was Accused Of Fertility Fraud. In Hawaiʻi, No Law Prevents It It was 1993, and Victoria Snyder wanted a baby. The Hawaiʻi resident went to William McKenzie — a popular and renowned gynecologist on Oʻahu’s North Shore — and requested to be inseminated with sperm from an anonymous Filipino donor. The following year, she gave birth to twin boys. (Valera and Thompson, 5/14)
MedPage Today: Antidepressants In Pregnancy: What A New Study Found Children exposed to prenatal antidepressants had an increased risk of autism or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that was not significant after adjusting for confounding factors, a systematic review and meta-analysis showed. (George, 5/14)
CIDRAP: Study: Azithromycin Use In Late Pregnancy May Pose Less Risk Of Neurologic Issues In Babies Than Other Antibiotics New research indicates administration of the antibiotic azithromycin late in pregnancy may be tied to a lower risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) than other antibiotics used for bacterial infections during pregnancy, researchers reported this week in JAMA Network Open. An estimated 37% of US women are exposed to antibiotics during pregnancy for bacterial infections, including respiratory and sexually transmitted infections, and roughly 3% use azithromycin, which is also used in expectant mothers to help prevent surgical-site infection after cesarean and vaginal delivery. (Dall, 5/14)
HANTAVIRUS OUTBREAK
CNBC: CDC Says There Are No U.S. Hantavirus Cases Currently, 41 People Being Monitored The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there are no hantavirus cases in the country as of Thursday, as it monitors 41 people across the U.S. for the virus. (Constantino and Pramuk, 5/14)
Fox News: Doctor Shares Why Hantavirus Is Unlikely To Spread Like Coronavirus Concerns about rising hantavirus cases has Americans reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic. Although COVID-19 began with a foreign strain and spread rapidly around the world, experts say it’s not likely that hantavirus will behave the same way. The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Stabile, 5/14)
CIDRAP: Osterholm On Hantavirus: We’re Missing ‘Main Point Of This Outbreak’ Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News, said the media and even some public health officials are missing key elements of the hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship. During a Q&A with CIDRAP News, he explained how and why superspreaders are key to understanding the Andes strain of hantavirus, why close proximity is only part of the consideration, and why he doesn’t think this outbreak is the next “big one.” (Soucheray, 5/14)
AP: Oncologist Cleared From Nebraska Biocontainment Unit After Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak An oncologist traveling on the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak has been cleared to leave a special biocontainment unit in Nebraska, where he was the lone American placed in isolation after he helped care for fellow passengers who became sick on board. Dr. Stephen Kornfeld of Bend, Oregon, was among more than 120 passengers and crew evacuated from the ship and flown to different countries to enter quarantine. (Eunjung Cha, 5/14)
CNN: Penile Implant Specialist With History Of Far-Right Comments Led Hantavirus Presser As the Trump administration sought to reassure Americans this week that a hantavirus outbreak posed little risk to the public, Dr. Brian Christine, one of the top public health officials in charge of infectious disease policy, stood before reporters in Nebraska promising a response “grounded in science” and “grounded in transparency.” (Kaczynskl, 5/15)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
AP: Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Demand For Transgender Patient Data A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s sweeping demands for confidential transgender patient information from Rhode Island’s largest hospital that provides gender-affirming care to minors. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy’s Wednesday ruling is the latest setback for the U.S. Department of Justice, where at least seven other federal courts have agreed to quash or limit the expansive civil subpoenas sent to more than 20 doctors and hospitals last summer. (Kruesi, 5/14)
Fierce Healthcare: Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill Barring PBMs From Owning Pharmacies A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers of Congress has reintroduced a bill aimed at barring companies from owning both a pharmacy benefit manager and retail pharmacies. The bill, called the Patients Before Monopolies (PBM) Act, would force conglomerates that include a PBM to divest pharmacies that they own. The legislation has existed in some form since 2024, and since its first introduction, Arkansas has implemented a similar legislation at the state level. (Minemyer, 5/14)
Stat: Trump Administration Presses Germany On Prescription Drug Prices Over a recent breakfast, U.S. officials had a message for the German ambassador: pay more for pharmaceuticals. The meeting, between U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, chief health department adviser Chris Klomp, and German Ambassador Jens Hanefeld, was part of a larger push from the Trump administration to get other countries to pay more for medications as the U.S. pays less, according to a person familiar with the meeting. (Payne, 5/15)
MedPage Today: Here's What Stakeholders Want From The Next FDA Commissioner Stakeholders across the board are calling for a return to regular order at the FDA following the resignation of Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, MPH, who said he resigned in protest over the agency's decision to authorize flavored e-cigarettes. At a Future of Health Summit on Wednesday, Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said, "I think what we really need from the next leader of the FDA is to calm the waters and re-establish that certainty and predictability." (Firth, 5/14)
MedPage Today: New AML Regimen For Unfit Patients Gets FDA's Blessing The FDA on Wednesday approved a new all-oral regimen for newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in patients ineligible for intensive chemotherapy. (Ingram, 5/14)
Stat: DOJ Accuses Yale, UCLA Of Discriminatory Med School Admissions The Justice Department sent a letter to Yale School of Medicine on Thursday, alleging it was illegally discriminating against applicants who are not Black or Hispanic, following a similar missive sent last week to the University of California, Los Angeles medical school. (Oza, 5/15)
The Hill: Cleveland Clinic Pushes Back On Reports Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Operated Robotic Arm During Surgery The Cleveland Clinic is pushing back on a report that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. operated a robotic arm during a patient’s heart surgery on a recent visit to the medical center, clarifying that he was merely an observer. “He briefly observed a robotic heart surgery as part of a broader tour, which included a demonstration using a disconnected teaching console that was unable to perform any surgical functions,” a spokesperson for the clinic told The Hill in a statement on Thursday. “He played no role in the patient’s care,” they added. (Brams, 5/14)
AP: EPA Aims To Roll Back Limits On Toxic Wastewater From Power Plants The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved Thursday to roll back limits that require coal-fired power plants to prevent the release of toxic heavy metals into streams and rivers through polluted groundwater, saying a three-year-old rule is unduly costly for the energy industry at a time when energy demand is spiking. It is the latest step that President Donald Trump’s administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power and empower fossil fuels as a primary energy source to feed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers. (Levy, 5/14)
PUBLIC HEALTH
CIDRAP: Fragile Progress On Global Public Health Under Threat The World Health Organization's (WHO’s) annual health statistics report paints a sobering picture. Too many people are dying of preventable causes, while hard-fought gains are losing steam or even reversing, said Yukiko Nakatani, MD, PhD, the WHO's assistant director‑general for health systems, access and data. (Boden, 5/14)
CIDRAP: US Officials Note A Handful Of New Avian Flu Outbreaks At Poultry Facilities Highly pathogenic avian flu has affected a handful of commercial poultry operations recently, per the latest updates from the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). In the past 30 days, the virus has been detected among eight commercial and six backyard flocks, affecting a total of 250,000 birds. (Soucheray, 5/14)
Cardinal News: 12 Cases Of Measles Confirmed In Buckingham County, Health Officials Say At least 12 people in Buckingham County have contracted measles, marking Virginia’s first confirmed outbreak this year, according to a May 13 letter to doctors from the Virginia Department of Health. (Schabacker, 5/15)
Bloomberg: Half Of US Pilots Killed In Crashes Tested Positive For Drugs, NTSB Finds More than half of pilots killed in US civil aviation accidents between 2018 and 2022 tested positive for at least one drug, the US National Transportation Safety Board said in a report published Thursday. Of the 984 pilots who died in crashes and other fatal events, tests in about 29% of cases detected “potentially impairing drugs” that could diminish a pilot’s performance, the report said. (Versprille, 5/14)
Military.com: Veterans Are Facing A Hidden Psychological Wound Many Still Don’t Recognize Making high-stakes decisions and dealing with the rules of engagement hits differently for U.S. service members who were exposed to human suffering and sanctioned lethal force. For some, experiences that deeply conflicted with moral beliefs left them with what we now call moral injury. The concept of moral injury came to light through the work of psychiatrist Jonathan Shay with Vietnam Veterans back in the 1990s. Today, an estimated 955,000 military veterans experience moral injury and more than 1 million have a service-connected disability for PTSD. While the two may have similarities, they are different. (O'Brien, 5/15)
Bloomberg: Longevity’s Male-Biased Science Is Fueling A New Market For Women On a typical day, after a protein coffee, a workout, a sauna session and a multitasking moment of red-light therapy and prayer, Kayla Barnes-Lentz takes a walk in Texas’ early-morning light to reset her circadian rhythm. Today she’s had to truncate this routine — she’s on the road for work — but standing atop one of San Francisco’s many hills, eyes closed, palms outstretched, chin tilted upward, she still makes time to take in the rising sun. It’s a practice, she is quick to explain, backed by science. Barnes-Lentz is a longevity influencer and entrepreneur who’s built a following by treating her own body as a one-woman laboratory. (Brown, 5/14)
Axios: Doctors Rally Behind Autonomous Vehicles As Public Health Issue Two high-profile doctors are urging policymakers to support autonomous vehicle deployment, arguing the technology is already saving lives and should be a public health imperative. (Muller, 5/14)
SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS
MedPage Today: De-Escalated Treatment For Early Breast Cancer Continues To Gain Momentum The number of women skipping sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for early breast cancer doubled over a 5-year period to become the predominant strategy for low-risk disease, a prospective study showed. (Bankhead, 5/14)
Stat: Study: PSA Tests Likely Reduce Risk Of Death From Prostate Cancer Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood testing is likely to reduce the risk of death from prostate cancer, found a new review published on Thursday by an influential international science research organization — a shift in medical evidence that could encourage wider use. (Merelli, 5/14)
The Guardian: Prostate Cancer Screening Can Save Lives But ‘Absolute Benefit Is Small’, Study Says Screening for prostate cancer with a blood test can save men’s lives, but the “absolute benefit is small” and many men could face unnecessary treatment and medical complications, according to the most comprehensive study yet. In a review that analysed six trials involving nearly 800,000 men, screening with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test reduced prostate cancer deaths by two for every 1,000 men screened, meaning 500 men must be screened to prevent one death from the disease. (Sample, 5/15)
Stat: CDC Plans To Transfer Monkeys To Nonprofit In Bid To Curb Animal Testing As part of efforts to phase out the use of monkeys in research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intends to transfer more than 160 macaques to Born Free USA, a nonprofit that runs a large primate sanctuary in Texas. (Silverman, 5/14)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
MedPage Today: Here's How Many Hospitals Earned Five Stars From CMS CMS updated its Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating this week, with the bulk of facilities sitting in the middle of the pack. Overall, 385 (12%) rated hospitals earned top marks with five stars, while 204 (6.4%) received only one star, according to CMS. (Henderson, 5/14)
MedPage Today: Doctors Skeptical Of Insurers' Pledges To Rein In Prior Authorization Physicians remain skeptical that health insurers' pledges to ease prior authorization hassles will result in any meaningful action, an American Medical Association (AMA) survey found. In June 2025, a group of about 60 insurers said that they would standardize electronic prior authorization by the end of 2026 to help speed up the process. They also said they would reduce the scope of claims subject to medical prior authorization, and would honor the pre-approvals of a previous insurer for a window of time after someone switches plans. (Frieden, 5/14)
Modern Healthcare: Why UnitedHealth, Elevance, Alignment Are Bolstering Reserves Health insurance companies including UnitedHealth Group and Elevance Health are bolstering their reserves to safeguard against tougher times ahead. Several major insurers conveyed confidence and raised earnings guidance when announcing their first-quarter financial results, suggesting the industry is surmounting challenges that have squeezed earnings in recent years. That’s put companies such as the UnitedHealth Group, Elevance Health and Alignment Healthcare in a position to stockpile cash after they raised premiums and cut down on spending. (Tong, 5/14)
Modern Healthcare: Epic Grows Hospital EHR Market Share As Oracle Slips: KLAS Epic grew its market share last year, even as fewer providers made electronic health record purchase decisions. Smaller health systems and midsize standalone hospitals drove the increase, with the vendor adding nearly 50 customers from these categories, according to a Thursday report from market research firm KLAS. Epic in 2025 expanded its acute-care hospital market share to 44%, compared with 42% the previous year. (Famakinwa, 5/14)
Becker's Hospital Review: CVS To Sell Its Troubled Long-Term Care Pharmacy CVS Health secured court approval to sell its long-term care pharmacy business, Omnicare, according to a May 14 news release and bankruptcy court filings. GenieRx, a partnership between a private investment firm and a healthcare investment and management firm, is buying the subsidiary. The transaction’s closing cash consideration is $250 million. (Casolo, 5/14)
STATE WATCH
San Francisco Chronicle: Major Strike Averted At UC Hospitals And Campuses As Deal Reached The union representing thousands of University of California medical and service workers reached a tentative labor agreement with UC early Thursday, narrowly averting an open-ended strike that had threatened to disrupt care at five medical centers and 10 campuses across the state. About 40,000 members of AFSCME Local 3299 had been set to walk out in a labor dispute centered on pay and housing benefits for UC’s lowest-paid employees. Among those prepared to strike were radiology, lab and ultrasound technicians, respiratory and mental health therapists and nurses’ aides, as well as campus custodians, groundskeepers, security guards and food workers. (Asimov, 5/14)
Los Angeles Times: California Announces Two Air Contaminants Pose Higher Cancer Risks Than Benzene Two toxic contaminants present in California’s ambient air appear to be much stronger carcinogens than previously known, state environmental health officials announced Thursday. The draft finding from the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment finds that acrolein and ethylene oxide may pose an estimated cancer risk more than 10 times higher than benzene, a serious carcinogen linked to leukemia and other cancers. (Smith, 5/14)
The New York Times: Will Her Daughter Be Safe At Pali High As It Rebuilds From LA Wildfires? The evening before Pearl’s senior year began, Michelle Villemaire watched her daughter unravel. The school hadn’t released her class schedule yet, Pearl complained. She knew there were logistical complexities to operating a 2,400-student high school in a retrofitted department store, but couldn’t they get just this one thing right? And how could it take so long to get back to their real campus? In the next breath, she started pressing Michelle about the status of their smoke-damaged home in the Pacific Palisades, a mile and a half from the school’s grounds. (Baumgaertner Nunn, 5/14)
AP: Texas Agency's Bungled Message About Immigrant Housing Led To Exodus Until recently, young children ran in and out of their public housing homes in this Gulf Coast town, playing on sun-dappled lawns as mothers looked over their shoulders for the school bus to drop off their older kids. ... Within weeks, the neighborhood was a ghost town and the playground was empty.What prompted the mass exodus was a bungled message from the housing authority in Port Isabel, a South Texas community of 5,000 people, many of whom are immigrants working at hotels and restaurants on the beaches of nearby South Padre Island. The Port Isabel Housing Authority indicated a Trump administration proposal was about to take effect that would end housing assistance to families with at least one member in the country illegally. (Gonzalez, 5/15)
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri Makes Major Changes To Health Care Services The Missouri legislature sent a nearly 200-page health care bill to Gov. Mike Kehoe on Thursday that includes adding doula services to Medicaid coverage and allows 12-month prescriptions for oral contraceptives. By a 116-21 vote, the House approved legislation to allow patients to start their care through telemedicine, rather than a physical examination, whenever possible. (Halloran, 5/14)
Modern Healthcare: Rural Hospitals Turn To Academic Medical Centers For A Lifeline Day Kimball Hospital has for years sought a partner to help support its operations in northeastern Connecticut, a rural area dappled with farms and lined with two-lane roads. After failed negotiations with multiple health systems, Day Kimball has found a match in UConn Health, a Farmington, Connecticut-based integrated academic medical center. Last month, UConn Health signed letters of intent to acquire Putnam, Connecticut-based Day Kimball, in addition to Bristol, Connecticut-based Bristol Health. (Hudson, 5/14)
Bridge Michigan: Michigan Teen Tobacco Use Ticks Up As Prevention Funding Lags While teen tobacco use in Michigan remains far below historic highs, data shows it’s beginning to rise again, fueling renewed calls to boost prevention spending that has fallen far short of federal recommendations. Tobacco use among high school students rose to 16.5% in 2023, up from 14% in 2021, according to the most recent data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. E-cigarettes were the most common form of tobacco used by Michigan high schoolers, including 11% of males and 19% of females, and use of both cigarettes and chewing tobacco products also rose slightly. (James, 5/14)
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