Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Hospitals Say They Found A Tool To Help Reduce Childbirth Risks: Wristbands Hospitals across the U.S. are trying to reduce maternal deaths and complications after pregnancies using one small tool: a silicone wristband stamped with the declaration “I Gave Birth.” The wristbands are part of a growing initiative first launched by North Carolina-based ECU Health as Congress sought to address the nation’s growing maternal mortality crisis during the covid pandemic. Since 2021, nearly 50 North Carolina hospitals and the state’s health department have begun distributing the wristbands, to give mothers and care providers a visual reminder of the life-threatening health risks after birth. (Jones, 8/12)
KFF Health News: Hospital Prepayment Requirements Add New Wrinkles To Patients’ Financial Responsibility Thomas Zordani flew from his home in Denver to Phoenix for a consultation with a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon, hoping to find out what could be done to treat his debilitating headaches after worrisome brain scan findings. When making the appointment, Zordani said, he’d been told the clinic was in his insurer’s network. Upon arrival, Zordani was summoned to the clinic’s financial office and told he had to make a $5,000 preservice deposit, because Mayo had since determined it did not accept his insurance. He was automatically designated “self-pay,” even though his plan had out-of-network benefits. (Appleby, 8/12)
KFF Health News: Years After He Quit Smoking, A Lung Cancer Scan Saved His Life Dennis Schmidt started smoking as a teenager, when that was so unexceptional that his Catholic high school designated outdoor “senior smoking quarters,” where students in their final year could take cigarette breaks. He smoked a pack of menthols daily for nearly 40 years. As a registered nurse at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and a former Air Force medic, he knew this was a bad idea. “I made a couple of attempts to quit and they failed miserably,” said Schmidt, now 75. (Span, 8/12)
TRANSGENDER CARE
The Hill: Trump Admin Blocks Medicaid And CHIP Funds For Minor Gender Care The Trump administration on Tuesday released a final rule blocking the use of federal Medicaid dollars for transgender healthcare for minors, as well as barring Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans from paying for gender-affirming procedures for minors. The final rule released by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) bars Medicaid dollars from paying for what it refers to as “sex-rejecting procedures for children under 18” as well as blocking CHIP agencies from paying for the same procedures for people under the age of 19. (Choi, 8/11)
VACCINES
CIDRAP: After Revising Charter, HHS Seeks Nominees For Its National Vaccine Advisory Committee The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking nominations for membership on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC), according to a notice in the Federal Register. Although it won’t be published until [Wednesday], the Federal Register features a link to the unpublished document. (Van Beusekom, 8/11)
NBC News: Trump Wants The MMR Vaccine Divided Into Three Shots. Is That Even Possible? Dividing the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine into three separate shots would be likely to cost millions of dollars and take years to accomplish, vaccine experts say, making it impossible to follow President Donald Trump’s latest directive to break up the immunizations and give them at three doctor’s office visits. (Edwards, 8/11)
The Hill: Cornyn Posts Vaccine Data After Trump Passes Executive Order Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) shared a post on Tuesday touting the effectiveness of vaccines following President Trump’s executive order seeking to decrease childhood vaccines and buck the standard order of shots by dividing immunizations for mumps, measles and rubella (MMR). “Since 1974, vaccination has averted 154 million deaths, including 146 million among children younger than 5 years of whom 101 million were infants younger than 1 year,” read a post from Cornyn’s account on the social platform X. Cornyn was directly citing an article published by The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. (Fields, 8/11)
The Hill: Dr. Ashish Jha Slams Trump Administration's New Childhood Vaccine Guidelines Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coordinator of the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Biden, is speaking out against the Trump administration’s new “gold standard” recommendations for childhood vaccines. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order that would split up the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot across three separate doctor’s visits. ... Jha called the move a “terrible idea” in a Monday interview with NewsNation, The Hill’s broadcast partner. (Davis, 8/11)
Stat: Health Care Industry Pushes Back On Trump Vaccine Policy Changes Health industry leaders pushed back on President Trump’s executive order on vaccines this week — including those he may need to rely on for his agenda. (Payne, 8/11)
The Hill: WHO Defends Global Immunization Guidelines After Trump Vaccine Order The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday defended its immunization guidelines amid the Trump administration’s decision to decrease the number of recommended childhood vaccines in the U.S. (Davis, 8/11)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
CBS News: Farm Linked To Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Hadn't Been Inspected In 7 Years As FDA Lags On Foreign Inspection Targets The Food and Drug Administration conducted just under 1,000 foreign food safety inspections in 2025, and the farm in Mexico believed to be at the center of the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak in the U.S. was not one of them. (Ingram, 8/11)
San Francisco Chronicle: Why California’s Cyclospora Rise Isn’t Being Called An Outbreak Cases of cyclosporiasis — gastrointestinal illness caused by the foodborne parasite cyclospora — are rising in California, but are not related to the major outbreak in the Midwest and Northeast, state health officials said Tuesday. (Ho, 8/11)
Fox News: Candida Auris Cases Top 3,437 Across 27 US States, CDC Data Shows Thousands of cases of a potentially deadly, drug-resistant fungus have been reported across 27 states so far this year, according to provisional CDC data. As of the week ending July 25, a total of 3,437 clinical cases of Candida auris (C. auris) had been documented in the U.S. so far in 2026. (Rudy, 8/11)
The Hill: USDA Speeds Opening Of Texas Sterile Fly Facility Amid Screwworm Outbreak A sterile fly facility is set to open in Texas next spring amid a New World Screwworm (NWS) outbreak that has affected two states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Monday. The USDA social media account dedicated to providing updates on the federal response to the NWS spread said the facility will open seven months ahead of schedule at the Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas. (Davis, 8/11)
The Washington Post: 30,000 Pounds Of Beef From Argentina Recalled In Two States About 30,000 pounds of Argentine beef has been recalled by the U.S. Agriculture Department because it wasn’t inspected before entering the country. The different cuts of raw beef from the company Corte Argentino USA were shipped to retailers and grocery distributors in Florida and Texas. The meat was produced from May 15 to May 20 and had freeze-by dates of Sept. 15-20. The recalled meat included cuts of top sirloin and eye round. (Canino-Quiñones, 8/11)
AP: Congo Says 2,000 People Have Died In Its Ebola Outbreak, The Fastest Growing On Record At least 2,000 people have died among the confirmed cases in Congo’s Ebola outbreak that is the fastest growing on record, according to the latest government data, as health authorities struggle to get help quickly to remote localities due to rebel conflict, bad roads and work stoppages over payment issues. Data published overnight into Tuesday showed the outbreak has recorded a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths. A total of 704 patients are in admission and isolation. (8/11)
COVID
MedPage Today: COVID Excess Deaths Paper Retracted Over Misinformation BMJ Public Health retracted a study on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic that appeared to suggest vaccination and other countermeasures as a possible explanation, following an investigation by the journal and the authors' institution. (Fiore, 8/11)
CIDRAP: Study Ties COVID Vaccine Conspiracy Theories To Distrust Of Government, Mainstream Media As soon as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began early in the pandemic, conspiracy theories about them started swirling. Some people claimed that the vaccines contained microchips, while others were suspicious about the intentions of the government or pharmaceutical companies. Researchers surveyed people in Japan about their beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories to understand who adheres to such ideas. The findings were published last week in Scientific Reports. (Holohan, 8/11)
IMMIGRATION CRISIS
AP: ICE Plans To Give Officers Gloves That Can Deliver Electric Shocks Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals. ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security. (Foley, 8/11)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
NBC News: Many Pregnant Women Travel More Than An Hour To Give Birth, New Report Finds If you are pregnant in rural America, especially in the South, chances are you are among the millions of women for whom the nearest prenatal care or maternity hospital is more than an hour away. (Alvino, 8/11)
The Hill: March Of Dimes: Millions Of Americans Lack Adequate Access To Prenatal Care A new report from the March of Dimes says that 5.8 million women currently live in counties without full access to maternity care. The nonprofit organization founded by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt says 1 in 3 U.S. counties remains a maternity care desert, which is defined as an area without hospitals or birth centers that offer obstetric care, and lacks practicing obstetric clinicians like doctors or midwives. (Fields, 8/11)
The Hill: Texas AG Intervenes In Dallas Surrogacy Case Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has intervened in a Dallas County surrogacy case involving an unborn baby with a severe heart defect, seeking to ensure the fetus receives life-saving medical treatment after birth despite objections from his intended parents. The unborn child, who Paxton’s office referred to as “baby Gabriel,” was diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a congenital condition in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and unable to properly pump blood throughout the body. (Swai, 8/11)
The New York Times: Ocasio-Cortez Opened Up About Freezing Her Eggs. She Got Women Talking Eight long years ago, Meg Quinn decided not to share the details of a big decision. She was 37 and just out of a long-term relationship when she started panicking. Was she running out of time to have children? Feeling helpless, she decided to do something that was expensive but might help her chances of becoming a mother. She froze her eggs. (Macur and Hartocollis, 8/11)
The Hill: GLP-1s May Impact Birth Control Pill Effectiveness, Fertility: Study People taking GLP-1 drugs may find themselves part of an unexpected baby boom, with experts noting the popular weight-loss drugs can affect medications and fertility. Researchers say it is unclear exactly how GLP-1s interact with birth control pills, but there is some evidence that the drugs, which include Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, could reduce the effectiveness of the pills. One possible explanation has to do with how GLP-1 drugs work. The medications work on hormones that control appetite as well as how food moves through the digestive tract. (Whiteside, 8/11)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Healthcare Dive: DentaQuest Breach Exposes Data Of 15M People, A Record This Year The health data of more than 15 million individuals was compromised after a hacker breached Massachusetts-based dental and vision benefits administrator DentaQuest this spring, according to a breach notice filed with federal regulators. It’s the largest health data breach reported to the government this year. DentaQuest, the second-largest dental benefits administrator in the U.S., has approximately 32 million beneficiaries across its dental and vision plans. The company discovered that hackers had accessed its computer systems from May 17 to May 20, according to the notice. (Hughes, 8/11)
Becker's Hospital Review: AnMed Hit With Data Theft Claim After Facebook Hack Anderson, S.C.-based AnMed said unauthorized posts appeared on its social media accounts Aug. 11 as part of its ongoing cybersecurity incident. In a statement posted to its website, AnMed said it removed the content, disabled access to the platform and is working to secure its accounts. (Diaz, 8/11)
Becker's Hospital Review: NLRB Revives Bid To Decertify SSM Health Hospital Nurses Union The National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 4 revived a petition to remove the union representing about 563 nurses at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, reversing the decision of a regional director who had blocked it. (Gooch, 8/11)
Modern Healthcare: Molina Healthcare Loses Ground In ACA Marketplaces Molina Healthcare CEO Joseph Zubretsky’s plan to keep membership in the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges “small, silver and stable” is faltering. Last month, the insurer announced it expects to lose money in the exchanges after too many healthy members fled and remaining enrollees used high-cost drugs that did not correspond to higher risk-adjustment payments. Its difficulties contrast with the positive second-quarter financial results reported by rivals Elevance Health, Centene and Oscar Health. (Tepper, 8/11)
Modern Healthcare: Aidoc, 12 Health Systems Form Diagnostic AI Consortium As clinical artificial intelligence becomes more common, designing workflows that ensure the tools can help clinicians detect diseases, and evaluating their efficacy, will be crucial to advancement. Aidoc, a company that offers tools for radiology, vascular, neurovascular and cardiology teams, sees an opportunity to work with health systems partners on that shared goal. The company has launched a diagnostic AI consortium with 12 health systems. (Famakinwa, 8/11)
Becker's Hospital Review: ‘Hospitals There Are Running Out Of Options’: Nonprofit Systems Expand Into Pennsylvania As For-Profits Exit Pennsylvania is becoming an increasingly difficult place to own or operate a hospital. Of the 22 hospital closures Becker’s reported in 2025, four were in Pennsylvania — more than in any other state. (Condon, 8/11)
Fierce Healthcare: Mandatory VBC Programs Brought Admin Costs For Hospitals: Study Participation in mandatory value-based payment programs is tied to higher annual administrative costs for hospitals, according to a comparative study published in JAMA Health Forum. (Muoio, 8/11)
Modern Healthcare: Delaware’s Ban On Private Equity Hospital Buys May Be Just A Start Delaware last month passed a two-year ban on for-profit acquisitions of hospitals amid wider scrutiny of private equity’s role in the healthcare system. Effective immediately, the law restricts the purchase of nonprofit acute-care hospitals to charities or other nonprofit organizations through July 1, 2028. State officials said the move was inspired at least in part by last year’s closure of the Springfield, Pennsylvania-based Crozer Health. The health system, which served Delaware, was owned by the private equity company Prospect Medical Holdings. (McAuliff, 8/11)
Modern Healthcare: States Easing Certificate Of Need Laws See More Providers: Research Patients in states without certificate of need restrictions tend to have a broader choice of providers compared with states that have those laws, research shows. States continue to narrow or repeal certificate of need laws, which require states to approve new healthcare projects or expansions of existing facilities. Construction and competition have increased since states began limiting the scope of those laws, and more states are expected to follow suit. (Kacik, 8/11)
Axios: Forget Air Taxis. Meet The Flying Medic A paramedic responding to a 911 call in coastal North Carolina recently piloted a "Jetsons"-like personal aircraft to the scene, landing in the patient's yard to begin treatment roughly 20 minutes before ground ambulances arrived. (Muller, 8/11)
PHARMACEUTICALS
Modern Healthcare: Smaller PBMs Gain On Optum Rx, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts Smaller pharmacy benefit managers are chipping away at their larger rivals’ dominance by securing smaller clients, according to a survey released Wednesday. UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum Rx, CVS Health division CVS Caremark and Cigna Group unit Express Scripts collectively control about 80% of U.S. prescription drug claims. They have had to overhaul their business practices to comply with legislation, regulations and settlement terms. As employers grow more receptive to unconventional strategies to reduce rising healthcare costs, dozens of companies have emerged, pitching themselves as transparent and cost-effective PBM alternatives. (Tong, 8/11)
HealthDay: Real-World Study Confirms Safety Of Alzheimer’s Drug Lecanemab A new Duke University study finds the real-world safety and effectiveness of Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab (Leqembi) closely match clinical trial results, with about 80% of early-stage patients staying on treatment for at least a year despite risks of brain swelling and bleeding (ARIA). (Thompson, 8/11)
Newsweek: GLP-1 Use Could Boost Risky US Plastic Surgery Demand GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound have helped millions of people shed significant amounts of weight. But for many, the next step isn’t losing more pounds—it’s addressing the aesthetic changes that can follow rapid weight loss. (Surles and Falkenberg-Hull, 8/12)
Stat: Neurocrine Biosciences Rare Disease Drug Possibly Tied To Safety Issues A group of physicians and experts in Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare disease that causes an insatiable desire to eat, on Tuesday notified clinicians of a series of patient deaths and cases of severe side effects potentially associated with Vykat XR, a newly approved drug sold by Neurocrine Biosciences. (Feuerstein, 8/12)
STATE WATCH
Los Angeles Times: California To Phase Out Paraquat, A Weedkiller Associated With Serious Health Issues California will begin phasing out paraquat, a powerful weedkiller associated with birth defects, thyroid issues and other serious health problems. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation said this week all manufacturers of pesticide products containing the active ingredient have voluntarily agreed to withdraw the product from the market. Paraquat is banned in more than 60 countries due to its toxicity but is still allowed in the U.S., and no state uses more of it than California. (Smith, 8/11)
WFSU: DeSantis Touts $188 Million From Federal Grant To Help Expand Healthcare In Florida's Rural Areas Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting $188 million in funding to help expand healthcare access throughout Florida's rural communities. In a Tuesday announcement, DeSantis said the funds will be spent across 31 rural counties. (Vuxta, 8/11)
The Texas Tribune: Texas Fights Ruling On Quicker Access To State Psychiatric Beds Tracy McClain remembers clearly the first time her son was arrested and charged with a crime because she was the one who placed the 911 call. She told dispatchers that her son JohnRobert Holmes III, 21 at the time, was at risk of hurting himself, hoping that he would get the help he needed — a pathway to a bed at a state psychiatric hospital. (Ma, 8/11)
AP: 3 Executions Planned In One Day As Handful Of States Drive Execution Numbers Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma plan to execute inmates Thursday in what would be the first time in nearly 16 years that three people are put to death on the same day in the United States. The executions come as a small number of states, including the three with scheduled lethal injections Thursday, drive execution numbers in the United States. (Chandler, Loller and Stengle, 8/11)
ABC News: 16 Taken To Hospital After Lightning Strike At Ohio Correctional Facility A lightning strike at Grafton Correctional Institution sent 16 incarcerated people to hospital for treatment Wednesday evening, according to a statement from the facility. The lightning strike at the correctional institution, which is located approximately 30 miles southwest of Cleveland, occurred while incarcerated individuals were returning from their evening meal, according to the update. One person was airlifted to a hospital, officials said, but there have been no reported deaths in the incident. (Haworth, 8/12)
The New York Times: University Of Michigan Will Ease Up On Grades For Student Mental Health The University of Michigan will replace traditional letter grades for some first-semester freshmen with a pass/fail-style grade, to more gently ease new students into academic life. The plan will go into effect in the fall of 2027 at the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts. It is intended to relieve pressure on freshmen and help them “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the university said in a statement. (Arsenault, 8/11)
The CT Mirror: CT Is Installing Free Sunscreen Dispensers. Here's Where To Find One Melanoma is one of Connecticut’s most common types of cancer, ranking among the top 10 diagnoses every year. So, Connecticut health officials have partnered with CT Cancer Partnership and American Cancer Society to place free sunscreen dispensers in some beaches, parks and public spaces in the state and provide sun safety outreach. (Ramkumar, 8/10)
AP: Focus Turns To Medications Prescribed To Lindsay Clancy Before Murders Lindsay Clancy messaged one of her caregivers less than two months before she killed her three young children in 2023 to say she was having “intrusive thoughts I never had before,” “feeling completely hopeless” and worried about becoming addicted to some medications. Rebecca Jollotta, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at South Shore Health Perinatal Behavior Health Program, testified at the trial Tuesday she exchanged messages with Clancy regularly on a patient portal throughout in late November and December 2022. (Casey, 8/11)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
CIDRAP: Public Health Alerts: Sales Of Unauthorized E-Cigarettes In The United States, December 2025 More than two-thirds of US sales of e-cigarettes are illicit, with most targeting young people, according to a Public Health Alerts report today. The report’s authors—scientists from the CDC Foundation—analyzed retail scanner data from Circana, a market research company that collects point-of-sale data, to estimate the proportion of unauthorized sales of e-cigarette products in US stores last December. (Wappes, 8/11)
HealthDay: Study Finds Undisclosed Chemicals In Most Personal Care Products A new study finds 98% of shampoos, sunscreens, baby lotions and other personal care and cleaning products contain at least one undisclosed chemical, many with known or suspected health risks. (8/11)
Stat: Stopping Statins At 75 May Be Safe For Healthy Adults, Lancet Study Says Not long after guidelines shifted to considering statin therapy as early as age 30, new research from France suggests there may be no harm in stopping the cholesterol-lowering drugs at age 75 in people with no history of cardiovascular disease. The lessons, however, may not translate elsewhere. (Cooney, 8/11)
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