In This Edition:
From KFF Health News:
Here's today's health policy haiku:
CODE OVER CLINICIAN
Bots deny the claims.
Prompts replace the doctor's care.
Code decides who lives.
- Breanna Zoey Connors
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Summaries Of The News:
Administration News
4. Senate Health Committee Sets Key Vote For Heidi Overton's FDA Nomination
The vote is set for Nov. 18, but committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) remains undecided on Overton, Stat and The Hill reported. Other news on the Trump administration covers SNAP, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the scientist brain drain, and more.
Stat: Committee Vote Set For Heidi Overton, FDA Commissioner Nominee The Senate health committee has scheduled a pivotal vote for next week on the nomination of Heidi Overton to serve as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration — despite lingering doubts from Republicans on the panel. (Manto, 11/11)
The Hill: Senator Bill Cassidy Remains Undecided On Dr. Heidi Overton's FDA Nomination The Senate Health Committee scheduled a key vote next week for Dr. Heidi Overton to serve as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), even as her path forward is not assured. According to a committee press release, the vote on Overton’s nomination is scheduled for Nov. 18. The committee will also vote on James O’Neill’s nomination to serve as director of the National Science Foundation. (Weixel, 11/11)
Politico: Former FDA Head Accuses Trump Aides Of Bowing To Industry Former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary on Tuesday backed up a former White House adviser’s criticisms about industry influence over the administration’s health care policies. “A lot of pressure from White House and HHS aides was not on medical cures or healthy food but instead on getting more vapes approved and catering to lobbyists,” Makary told POLITICO. “Americans don’t want their kids smoking strawberry banana vapes — they want a government that stands up to corruption.” (Gardner and Cai, 11/11)
More news about the Trump administration —
AP: Millions May Lose Food Aid As Trump Administration Closes SNAP Loophole President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to make it harder to get food aid through the federal government’s big grocery assistance program that serves about 1 in 10 Americans. The administration says the proposed rule would close a loophole by no longer allowing some people who receive benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to automatically qualify for the separate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program too. (Mulvihill and Lieb, 11/11)
ProPublica: How Trump’s Dismantling Of The VA Left A Veterans Hospital In Crisis This was not normal. But nothing had been normal at East Orange since President Donald Trump returned to office last year and set his sights on the VA. The behemoth agency, which traces its roots to the Civil War, is both the country’s largest healthcare system and one of its most effective. It provides 9 million veterans what is essentially socialized medicine, often for free, under the cover of the American flag. The doctors, nurses and other staff are employed by the government. (Umansky and Jacobs, 11/11)
The New York Times: Trump-Era Funding Cuts Driving Young Scientists From U.S. Research Under Trump, new Ph.D. enrollments are down, funding is on the decline and many budding researchers are reconsidering their careers. (Miller, Patel, Adelson and Hwang, 11/9)
Politico: Calley Means Accuses Susie Wiles Of Interfering In Hemp Policy A former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Susie Wiles played a prominent role in steering the White House’s hemp policy stance — which has led to a delay for a pending ban on intoxicating hemp products. Calley Means has accused Wiles, the recently departed White House chief of staff, of doing industry’s bidding to help ultraprocessed food, e-cigarette and pesticide makers to the detriment of public health. He told POLITICO that the hemp pressure campaign is yet another example. (Friedman, 11/10)
Politico: Stephen Miller’s Appointment Energizes RFK Jr. And His MAHA Allies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again devotees are setting sky-high expectations for the White House now that Stephen Miller is running the show there. Since President Donald Trump named Miller to replace Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, Kennedy and his supporters have celebrated Miller as a steadfast ally. “Next to me, Stephen Miller is the strongest MAHA supporter in the administration,” Kennedy wrote on social media platform X on Friday. “It’s time to unleash the Kraken.” If Kennedy’s right, it would be quite the comeback. (Paun and Chu, 11/11)
On the immigration crisis —
AP: Immigration Arrests Go On Unabated After GOP's Midterm Wipeout It’s business as usual for President Donald Trump’s deportation offensive despite the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections. In Los Angeles, masked immigration officers in body armor blocked a hospital emergency room driveway in a heavily Latino neighborhood early Saturday. In central Alabama, twin 19-year-old brothers from Venezuela were arrested while driving back to college a day after the election. (Gonzalez and Sullivan, 11/11)
The New York Times: A Beloved Nurse Was Arrested, Shackled And Hidden In ICE’s System Ann Lawani, a highly regarded nurse and professor, was still in her pajamas when federal agents detained her at her home in Lodi, Calif., on Sept. 16. She placed a call that day to family from a nearby holding facility. After that, however, her siblings and lawyer could not find her in a public database that shows where detainees are being held. They got no answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ms. Lawani had simply vanished. (Jordan, 11/10)
The New York Times: San Antonio Fights Plan To Turn Warehouse Into ICE Detention Center With roughly seven weeks until a Democratic majority takes over Congress, San Antonio is using a lawsuit to stall the Trump administration’s plan to turn a warehouse into a detention center for 1,500 immigrants. Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who represents part of the city, hopes the party’s new majority in Congress can block the project for good when it takes power in January. (Sandoval, 11/12)
Capitol Watch
5. Rand Paul Angles To Fill Key GOP Post On Senate Health Panel After Cassidy's Departure
"I will stand against efforts to put Washington between Americans and their doctors, their children’s schools, and their paychecks,” the Kentucky Republican said. In addition to Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Bill Cassidy, two other GOP members of the committee — Susan Collins of Maine and Roger Marshall of Kansas — were ousted in the midterm elections.
The Hill: Sen. Rand Paul Seeks Leadership Role On Senate Health Committee Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday he is seeking the top GOP spot on the powerful Senate health committee next Congress, a move that would likely signal a major shift for the focus of Republicans on the panel. Paul, an ophthalmologist, is the most senior Republican on the panel. He is currently the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee but would give that up to move to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). (Weixel, 11/11)
More developments from Capitol Hill —
AP: Mississippi Elects Democrat Scott Colom As State’s First Black US Senator Since Reconstruction Democratic nominee Scott Colom defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith on Wednesday in Mississippi’s closely contested U.S. Senate race after a prolonged ballot counting process, giving the state its first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction. Colom’s narrow victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations despite having the largest share of Black residents of any U.S. state. (Barrow and Bates, 11/12)
The Hill: Democratic Senators Question RFK Jr Regarding $250,000 Worth Of Gifts From Former Donor Two Democratic senators launched a probe into Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week after financial reports revealed he received over $250,000 in gifts last year from a former donor to his presidential campaign. In a letter addressed to the HHS secretary on Tuesday, Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (Md.) and Robert Wyden (Ore.) requested Kennedy provide more information about these gifts. (Davis, 11/11)
AP: House Approves Bill To Boost Compensation For Many Veterans The House passed a major package of veterans bills Wednesday on Veterans Day — but not without confusion and controversy. The centerpiece of the package is an effort to boost compensation for an estimated 58,000 veterans who are medically retired because of combat-related injuries. That objective has broad, bipartisan support in Congress, but lawmakers and veterans groups aren’t on the same page about how to get there. (Freking, 11/11)
Stat: Newly Elected Doctors Wrestle With Restoring Trust In Science Last week, doctors and scientists across the country persuaded Americans to vote them into office. Now comes the hard part: Convincing those who didn’t trust them to believe in their mission. (Florko, 11/12)
On transgender health —
The 19th: Republicans Bet Everything On Anti-Trans Messaging. It Didn’t Pay Off. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has passed some of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the country, and Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first transgender member of Congress, don’t have much in common. But they do have a similar assessment of what drove Republicans’ historic losses in last week’s midterms. “Anti-trans politics was a flop this election,” McBride said on a Monday press call with the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group. (Migdon and Rummler, 11/10)
The 19th: Lawsuit Quickly Follows Washington Ballot Measure On Trans Sports Participation A coalition of parents, educators and nonprofit organizations sued the state of Washington late Monday over a recently passed ballot initiative banning transgender girls from competing on girls’ K-12 sports teams, arguing that the measure, which is set to take effect next month, conflicts with the state’s own constitution. (Migdon, 11/10)
The Washington Post: Most Transgender People Have No Regrets Years After Hormone Therapy, Study Says Most transgender people who receive hormone therapy as teenagers do not regret it, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and other universities surveyed 376 transgender and gender-diverse people and found that five years after the initial treatment, 360, or nearly 97 percent, said starting hormone therapy was the right decision, and roughly 3 percent said they regretted taking the medication. Nearly 2 percent said they both regretted the transition and believe it harmed them. On average, the participants started hormone therapy at age 16. (Parks, 11/11)
State Watch
6. Minnesota's Recent Medicaid Reimbursement Was 1,000 Times Less Than It Expected
Minnesota was denied more than $112 million in Medicaid reimbursements for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2025, MPR News reported. John Connolly, Minnesota's temporary Human Services commissioner, alerted department leaders Tuesday of the disallowance. Also making news: Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Texas, California, Michigan, North Carolina, and elsewhere.
MPR News: Minnesota Medicaid Reimbursements Totaling More Than $112M Denied By Trump Administration The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has denied Minnesota more than $112 million in Medicaid reimbursements for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2025, raising concerns about the potential impact on more than 1 million state residents who rely on the program. (Zurek, 11/10)
More health news from across the U.S. —
Cardinal News: Tie Vote Again Delays Advancement Of Plan To Close State-Run Long-Term Care Facility Virginia lawmakers again delayed a vote Tuesday to advance plans to close Hiram Davis Medical Center, a state-run long-term care and skilled nursing facility in Petersburg. (Schabacker, 11/11)
Maryland Matters: Maryland Health Panel Backs Insurer Tax, Drug Price Limits A healthcare coverage watchdog group is urging lawmakers to free up funding to meet a “desperate need” for revenue to keep people insured. The Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission recommended Tuesday that legislators extend a 1% tax on insurance carriers. They also backed legislation that would make it easier for state officials to lower certain prescription drug costs. (Brown, 11/11)
New Hampshire Public Radio: NH Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Classify Kratom As A Dangerous Drug, Similar To Heroin A New Hampshire state senator has proposed a bill to classify kratom under the strictest level of drug controls, indicating it has a high potential for abuse. Sen. Bill Gannon, a Republican from Sandown, wants the state to classify kratom as a Schedule 1 drug. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is also seeking to categorize synthetic kratom as a Schedule 1 drug, similar to heroin. (Tuohy, 11/11)
The Texas Tribune: Texas Could More Closely Review Abortion-Ban Deaths With a power shift imminent at the Texas Capitol, advocates are more hopeful than ever that incoming elected officials will finally empower the state’s beleaguered maternal mortality committee to review abortion-related deaths. (Draeger-Mazer, 11/10)
AP: New Law Has Barely Budged Conservatorships For Mental Health Treatment Californians braced for major upheaval three years ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law meant to bring people with severe mental illnesses and addictions off the street and into involuntary treatment. Families who championed the measure hoped it would be the answer to their prayers – a tool that finally would compel their loved ones to receive treatment through conservatorship. Disability rights advocates who opposed the law warned it would traumatize large numbers of people by forcibly medicating them and removing their rights to make decisions about their own care. (Kendall and Wiener, 11/11)
AP: 5 Michigan Cities Voted To Create ‘Health Action’ Boards. Now What? Amid growing concerns over medical costs, voters in five Michigan cities last week approved measures to create new citizen-led boards that will recommend ways to lower costs and improve healthcare policies. How the boards will function is not clear, nor is the source of funding for the successful ballot campaigns. Liberal “dark money” groups spent nearly $3 million on the initiatives, which were spread across two toss-up congressional districts represented by Republicans who lost their reelection bids. (Schuster and Erb, 11/11)
North Carolina Health News: Period Poverty Bill Sought By HPU Students High Point University senior Tatum James and three classmates spent about 10 minutes on Monday trying to convince former High Point Mayor Jay Wagner to support legislation forbidding states from taxing products to help women manage their menstrual cycles. (Fernandez, 11/12)
KFF Health News: Dubious Buys Raise Alarm Over Local Control Of Opioid Cash State and local governments spent about $3.7 billion in opioid settlement funds last year. That’s more than the median annual income of 42,000 American families combined. The money comes from companies that were sued for aggressively pushing painkillers and fueling the opioid crisis. (Pattani, 11/12)
KFF Health News: Opioid Settlement Cash And Homelessness: It’s Not Always Clear How Addiction Fits In Jason Fazekas has spent most of his adult life on the street or behind bars. He was addicted to heroin for decades and often stole to support his habit. On rainy days, he slept in building stairwells to stay dry. On winter mornings, he woke up with fingers too numb to bend. That all changed in September when he moved into a one-bedroom apartment in East Haven, Connecticut. (Pattani, 11/12)
Outbreaks and Health Threats
7. Decades After Achieving Measles-Elimination Status, US Will Lose It Again, Scientists Say
A Pan-American panel of the World Health Organization met Tuesday to consider whether measles transmission has spread uninterrupted in the United States for more than 12 months, the threshold for losing elimination status. Although the panel's decision won't be available until Nov. 17, scientists tracing transmission chains have concluded there's strong evidence that measles is endemic again.
The New York Times: The U.S. Has Lost Its Measles-Elimination Status, Data Suggests Measles is once again endemic — a constant and predictable presence — in the United States, 26 years after it was declared eliminated in the country, an analysis of genetic data from outbreaks of the disease has found. Data from the outbreaks will be the focus of deliberations by an international panel of scientific experts convening on Tuesday to decide whether the United States should lose its official designation as a nation that has eliminated measles. An announcement of the decision is expected on Nov. 17. The New York Times asked several scientists to analyze the publicly available genetic data before the meeting. (Mandavilli, 11/10)
ABC News: Measles Cases Grow Among Pregnant Women In Pennsylvania: What To Know About Risks Measles cases in Pennsylvania have now surpassed 1,500, according to data reported on Monday. As the outbreak continues to grow, doctors and health officials are concerned about a rising number of cases among pregnant women, posing a risk to both mom and baby. As of Nov. 6, "the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) has now confirmed that 97 of the state's measles cases in 2026 were in pregnant women," Stephanie Nojiri, the DOH deputy press secretary, told ABC News. (Cobern, 11/10)
NBC News: She’s Delivered 2,000 Babies. The Measles Outbreak Changed Her Mind About Vaccines When Roberta Devers, a midwife in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, did a prenatal check on an expectant mom this week, the woman — a member of the Amish community in her third trimester — had been sick with measles. Devers said she has cared for dozens of pregnant women infected with the virus since measles began spreading rapidly in the county in April. Lancaster County is largely rural, with sprawling family farms. “Every single day,” she said, “someone’s calling to ask what they do. They’re pregnant and they’ve gotten it, or their babies have gotten it.” (Edwards, 11/12)
NBC News: How Measles Surged In The U.S. Just a quarter-century ago, state and federal leaders rushed to eradicate measles, a life-threatening virus that, in severe cases, can cause miscarriage, pneumonia, encephalitis (or brain swelling), hospitalization and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Vossoughian and Garcia, 11/11)
On the spread of Ebola —
AP: Congo's Ebola Outbreak Tops 11,000 Cases Congo’s Ebola outbreak has topped 11,000 cases, the government said Wednesday, a stark figure that underscores the severity of the situation as the country grapples with the spread of the disease. According to the latest health ministry data, 11,042 people have been infected with the deadly virus that has now killed 5,387 — nearly half of those infected in what has been Congo’s deadliest outbreak. (11/11)
The New York Times: Kenya Contains Ebola Outbreak As Last Patient Leaves Hospital Kenya began a countdown on Wednesday to declare the end of its Ebola outbreak. The final patient who had tested positive for the virus was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. And the Kenyan cabinet secretary for health, Aden Duale, said at a news conference that the last 11 people being monitored for Ebola symptoms had also been discharged after completing a 21-day quarantine period. (Bigg, 11/11)
Bloomberg: Kenya Rejects US Plan To Host Ebola Quarantine Facility For Travelers Kenya said it won’t serve as a quarantine hub for travelers heading to other countries, an apparent reversal of plans to host a facility for US citizens exposed to the Ebola virus. “Travelers will not be detained in Kenya to fulfill entry requirements imposed by their destination countries,” the health ministry said in a statement following the discharge of its last known Ebola patient. “The ministry will not issue quarantine or Ebola-free certificates for travel purposes, as such requirements have no basis in the International Health Regulations.” (Nyambura, 11/11)
Also —
The New York Times: Her Death From Dengue May Signal That The Disease Is Here To Stay On the last Friday in August, Gay Rabb Small went for her daily walk along the Tampa shore. Nearing 80, she was determined to stay healthy and walked at least five miles a day. That night at dinner, her daughter, Anna Small, noticed that her mother seemed a little off. “I thought she had overdone it,” Ms. Small said. By Saturday, Gay Small had developed a tremor, and her daughter took her to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with dengue, a viral illness transmitted by mosquitoes. She died the following Friday, Sept. 4, her 80th birthday. (Hartocollis, 11/9)
CIDRAP: New Study Links COVID To Fewer Long-Term Health Problems A new study links COVID-19 infection to substantially fewer long-term health problems than previous research suggests. (Bergeson, 11/9)
The New York Times: The Russian Scientist Behind The Deadly Novichok Nerve Agents Has Died Vladimir Uglev, a Russian chemist who during the Cold War developed a class of highly deadly nerve agents called Novichok, then turned against the Russian government when it was used against dissidents including Alexei A. Navalny, died on Oct. 25 in Anapa, Russia. He was 80. His son Alexandr confirmed the death, in a hospital, from complications of a heart attack. (Risen, 11/11)
Health Industry
8. CMS Metes Out Final 200 Residency Positions; Medical Groups Urge More Federally Funded Spots
"While this final distribution represents a meaningful step forward, our country remains in desperate need of additional, permanent residency positions to help alleviate the persistent physician workforce shortage," David Skorton, MD, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said.
MedPage Today: Last Batch Of New Residency Spots Doled Out By CMS As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) doled out the final 200 of an additional 1,000 residency positions created by Congress 5 years ago, medical groups called for more federally funded spots to mitigate workforce shortages. (Fiore, 11/11)
More healthcare industry developments —
STLPR: Illinois Health Department Preps To Move Patients From Granite City Hospital Illinois regulators are preparing to potentially transfer patients out of Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City, and ambulances are being sent to other hospitals. The hospital is still open, but the Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed Gateway and another medical center owned by the same company are on bypass status due to “staffing instability.” (Fentem, 11/10)
Modern Healthcare: BJC Health Plans To Acquire St. Luke’s Hospital In St. Louis BJC Health plans to acquire St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis, the nonprofit health system announced Wednesday. St. Louis-based BJC and St. Luke’s signed a letter of intent to combine, according to a news release. The organizations will work during the coming months on a definitive agreement and securing customary regulatory approvals. An expected closing date for the proposed transaction was not given. (Kacik, 11/11)
WUSF: $47M Grant Aims To Make Moffitt A Hub For Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Treatment A Tampa Bay coalition has landed $47.3 million in federal funding to help establish the region as a national hub for developing and manufacturing radiopharmaceuticals, an emerging field of cancer treatment that the United States is looking to expand domestically. (Mayer, 11/10)
Fierce Healthcare: Carelon Agrees To Pay $10M Settlement In New York Cases Carelon will pay more than $10 million across two settlements in New York over mental health networks and coverage denials. The company, a division of Elevance Health, will pay $2.35 million in penalties, fees and costs as well as up to $8 million in restitution for members who paid out-of-pocket for out-of-network mental healthcare, to reimburse those whose claims were improperly denied or to overhaul its networks. (Minemyer, 11/11)
Becker's Hospital Review: Lehigh Valley Hospital Sues Highmark Over Specialty Drug Access The specialty pharmacy operated by Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network, under Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, filed a lawsuit Nov. 10 against Highmark regarding the ability to dispense drugs. The complaint, filed in a state court, alleged that Highmark is blocking LVHN’s pharmacy from dispensing some high-cost, self-administered specialty drugs to Highmark members, including LVHN patients. According to the lawsuit, LVHN’s pharmacy is a participating provider under a Sept. 25, 2023, contract, but Highmark routes some prescriptions to other pharmacies, including Highmark Health’s Allegheny Health Network Specialty Pharmacy. (Casolo, 11/11)
Modern Healthcare: Hims & Hers FTC Lawsuit Expands As Five More States Join Five states joined a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging Hims & Hers shared patients’ sensitive health information with third-party advertising platforms and misled customers about its billing practices. The FTC first filed the suit in July with Utah and Los Angeles County. The amended complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday. It now includes Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, Arizona and Wisconsin. (Famakinwa, 11/11)
CIDRAP: Hospital Wastewater Boosts Growth Of Resistant Bacteria, Study Finds Hospital wastewater has long been viewed as a potential driver of antibiotic resistance in the environment. New research out of Sweden bolsters this argument. In a study published late last month in Nature Communications, a team of researchers from the University of Gothenburg collected wastewater from 10 hospitals and eight municipal treatment plants in Sweden’s Vastra Gotaland region. In a series of experiments, they found that the water from the hospital sewers promoted the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while the water from the municipal treatment plants had no effect. (Dall, 11/11)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’ Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: Your phone may know when you’re visiting the doctor, and companies are using that information to sell unproven treatments. Plus, more dads are taking time off to bond with their newborns through state leave programs. (11/12)
On the high cost of prescriptions and healthcare —
CNBC: CANARX Official Arrested On Drug Importation Charges U.S. authorities are accusing the two top officials of a Canadian company of operating a long-running scheme to illegally import prescription drugs into the U.S., according to court records filed Tuesday. (Zamost, 11/11)
Cardinal News: Unnecessary Medical Tests Are Raising Healthcare Costs. A Group Of Virginia Doctors And Researchers Has Shown It's Possible To Change The Approach. When a patient arrives in the doctor’s office with back pain, it’s become routine for some clinicians to immediately order an MRI, even when established guidelines don’t recommend imaging. A prescription for opioids to manage the pain often follows. According to a recent initiative by the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, similar patterns of unnecessary treatments have become ingrained across healthcare, driving up costs for patients and health systems. (Schabacker, 11/12)
Stat: No Surprises Act: Employers Sued Over Medical Bills Insurers Didn't Pay This past August, Joe Hancock, a Kentucky plumbing and heating contractor, opened a just-delivered box packed with hundreds of sheets of paper. Leafing through them, he read seven words no small business owner wants to see: “A lawsuit has been filed against you.” (Herman, 11/11)
The New York Times: Hospitals Brace For Medicaid Work Rules And Deep Funding Cuts Hospitals across the country are mobilizing an expansive outreach effort in an attempt to ensure that roughly 19 million patients do not lose their insurance coverage under new Medicaid work rules that begin in January. Saying the requirements are generating widespread anxiety and confusion, health care executives are using a variety of methods to help guide the Americans who will be affected. They are deploying staff and volunteers to contact patients with text messages, phone calls and offers of help. (Rowland, 11/11)
Pharma and Tech
9. Google Launches Own Agentic AI Healthcare Platform
Google Cloud has developed and launched a specific version of Gemini for healthcare. Agentic AI systems can act independently and make complex decisions with minimal human oversight, Healthcare Dive explained.
Healthcare Dive: Google Cloud Debuts Gemini For Healthcare Google Cloud has launched Gemini for healthcare, a version of its AI agent designed to be used by providers and payers in clinical and administrative settings, the company announced on Tuesday. The platform connects to a healthcare organization’s electronic health record, claims workflows and other systems to automatically surface patient records, prep paperwork and check insurance details. Google is betting those integrations will reduce clinician burnout and promote interoperability, according to the announcement. (Hughes, 11/11)
The New York Times: Why Is It So Hard To Teach A.I. Agents To Behave? Researchers Have A Theory. The makers of A.I. want to build systems that follow human direction, without resisting or deceiving their operators. (Freedman and Castro Varón, 11/11)
More on AI in healthcare —
Stat: MDCalc Launches ‘Rumble Strip’ For Doctors Using Generative AI MDCalc, a medical reference tool site, on Wednesday launched CrossCover, a tool the company said is meant to help clinicians trust the answers of medical artificial intelligence chatbots while preserving patient and provider privacy. (Trang, 11/11)
CIDRAP: Americans Growing More Comfortable With AI In Medicine, But They Want Providers Involved A new survey suggests that Americans are becoming more comfortable with artificial intelligence (AI) making medical decisions—but not without oversight. The Gallup survey of more than 5,000 US adults, published this week, found that 56% of respondents who’ve seen a healthcare provider within the last year are somewhat or very comfortable with AI making diagnosis and treatment decisions as long as the provider can override them. Only 9% said they were comfortable with AI making decisions without provider review, while 38% said they’re comfortable when AI assists and the provider makes the decision. (Dall, 11/11)
In other pharma and tech news —
The New York Times: New Research Compares Long-Term Relief From 21 Antidepressants A new meta-analysis found that certain antidepressants worked better on average than Prozac at helping people with depression feel better and stick with their treatment over the long term. The analysis looked at 21 different drugs across 115 studies to identify which drugs were most likely to help patients who planned to use antidepressants for more than three months. The study authors compared each drug to Prozac, also known as fluoxetine, because it’s a well-known drug that has been commonly prescribed, researchers said. (Caron, 11/10)
Fox News: New Weight-Loss Drug Offers Significant Relief From Chronic Knee Pain, Major Study Finds An experimental weight-loss drug significantly reduced chronic knee pain and improved mobility in people with obesity and knee osteoarthritis, according to two clinical trials led by researchers at Northwestern University. The trials, which were funded by Eli Lilly and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated retatrutide, a once-weekly injectable medication developed by Eli Lilly and Co. (Quill, 11/11)
The Washington Post: As Gene Editing For Deafness Advances, Gallaudet University Speaks Out The world’s leading school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students took an official position on advancing therapies, saying, “Deaf lives are not deficits to be corrected.” (Solano, 11/11)
Stat: All Of Us Data Helps Scientists Find New Variants Of Pharmacogenes A study of nearly 100,000 Americans identified thousands of new variants in a set of genes that influence our responses to prescription drugs, thanks to the inclusion of participants from a more diverse set of ancestries than previous studies of these so-called pharmacogenes. (Oza, 11/11)
Health Policy Research
10. Research Roundup: The Latest Science, Discoveries, And Breakthroughs
Each week, KFF Health News compiles a selection of health policy studies and briefs.
The Guardian: Medical Breakthrough Offers Hope To People With Same Stiff Person Syndrome As Céline Dion Patients who previously needed help with basic daily tasks and struggled to walk have regained their ability to take part in everyday life, with some even returning to work and resuming hobbies, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic. (Gregory, 11/9)
ABC News: Hits To Center Of Head Are More Predictive Of Concussions For Athletes: Study Hits to the center of the head are more predictive of concussions than hits that occur when the head is rotated, a new study published Monday finds. (Kekatos, 11/9)
The New York Times: Subtle Changes In Speech May Help Predict Dementia Risk Signals can be detected in the way people talk years before symptoms of cognitive decline emerge, researchers are finding. (Belluck, 11/11)
Stat: BMI Alternative Could Flip Obesity Diagnosis For Millions, Study Finds Millions of people would have their obesity diagnoses flipped — from having obesity to not, and vice versa — if an alternate way of defining the disease supplanted the standard body mass index measure, according to a new study that argues such an approach could lead to better care for patients. (Joseph, 11/11)
MedPage Today: GLP-1 Drugs Linked To Improved Survival After Liver Transplant Liver transplant patients who took a GLP-1 receptor agonist had a lower risk of death than those who weren't on a GLP-1 drug, according to a retrospective three-center cohort study. (Rudd, 11/11)
MedPage Today: Ibuprofen And Kidney Injury: Study Reveals Who Is Most At Risk Higher AKI risk was seen only in certain patients. (Monaco, 11/11)
CIDRAP: Common Diabetes Drug Linked To Lower Risk Of Death After COVID Infection People with type 2 diabetes who were taking the drug metformin when they contracted COVID-19 had a 39% lower risk of dying over the following year than peers who were taking a different diabetes medication, according to a study published last week in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. (Bergeson, 11/11)
CIDRAP: Clinicians Should Avoid Lyme Disease PCR In Favor Of Serologic Testing, Study Authors Say Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for Lyme disease produces low positivity, only nominally informs clinical decision making, and represents substantial healthcare costs in endemic areas, per a new study in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 11/11)
MedPage Today: Is It Over For DAPT After Left Atrial Appendage Closure? Antithrombotic monotherapy worked at least as well at 6 months. (Lou, 11/4)
Editorials And Opinions
11. Viewpoints: Incoming Governors Should Take These Health-Related Steps; High-Cost Nutritious Food A Gamble For Low-Income Parents
Opinion writers tackle these public health topics.
Stat: New Governors Must Prioritize 3 Things On Health As former state health leaders, we know the challenges and opportunities facing the 21 new governors stepping into their roles on Jan. 1. Health is what lets people go to work, raise their kids, and enjoy the years they’ve earned. Health is also the largest line item in most state budgets and a primary driver of the affordability crisis for American families. (Mandy Cohen and Ellen Montz, 11/12)
Stat: Low-Income Parents Can’t Afford Nutritious Food Kids Won’t Eat As high food costs and cuts to food assistance squeeze families’ budgets, concerns are growing about whether low-income parents will be able to keep putting food on the table. But these financial pressures threaten to do more than increase hunger. They also risk harming children’s diets and health in the long run — by making nutritious foods not only harder to afford, but also increasingly risky for parents to buy. (Priya Fielding-Singh and Darcy Cherlin, 11/11)
Stat: MAHA Is Standing By Russell Brand. That’s No Surprise The British comedian Russell Brand is a major figure in health secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement. He regularly joined conference calls organized by the super PAC MAHA Action, on one occasion dialing in naked from a bath tub. He was a keynote speaker alongside Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz at the September 2026 MAHA Summit. He is also a convicted rapist who was just sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail. (Gavin Yamey, 11/11)
Stat: The Complicated Relationship Between MAHA And Black Voters When one thinks about the key supporters of MAHA, they likely don’t envision Black people, and rightfully so. A 2025 poll from KFF and The Washington Post found that only 30% of Black Americans support the MAHA movement, compared with 43% of white Americans. But the data belie a stark reality: On an issue-to-issue basis, Black people are strikingly aligned with MAHA, at least in terms of their concerns around the movement’s tentpole issues. I’ve been studying why, or rather how, this came to be. (Jerel Ezell, 11/12)
Bloomberg: Vitamin K Shot Refusal Puts Babies At Risk. RFK Jr. Isn’t Helping The growing number of American infants going without a potentially lifesaving intervention — the vitamin K shot — should be a clarion call to top US health officials. (Lisa Jarvis, 11/11)
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