Kaiser Health News Original Stories

Impending Hospital Closure Rattles Atlanta Health Care Landscape and Political Races

The nonprofit owners of Atlanta Medical Center, a 460-bed Level 1 trauma center in the heart of the city, plan to close the hospital in November. As many community members worry about the hole the closure will leave in the city’s safety net, the news has thrust health care into the political spotlight less than two months before Election Day. (Sam Whitehead and Andy Miller, 9/16 )

Experts Question the Role of White Mulberry in the Death of Congressman’s Wife

The Sacramento County coroner concluded that Lori McClintock, the wife of U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, died of dehydration after ingesting white mulberry leaf. But some scientists, doctors, and pathologists are questioning that ruling, and are urging the coroner’s office, which hasn’t explained its reasoning, to reopen the case. (Samantha Young, 9/16 )

Court Ruling May Spur Competitive Health Plans to Bring Back Copays for Preventive Services

The Affordable Care Act required that health insurers provide many medical screenings and prevention services at no out-of-pocket cost to health plan members. But insurers and employers may consider adding cost sharing for preventive services now that a federal court ruled the ACA’s mandate is unconstitutional. (Harris Meyer, 9/16 )

Montana Health Department Seeks to Ax Board That Hears Public Assistance Appeals

Applicants for cash, food, and health care assistance would need to go to court to appeal rejections if the Montana legislature approves a proposal to eliminate the Board of Public Assistance. (Matt Volz, 9/16 )

Covid Pandemic's End Is 'In Sight,' WHO Chief Says

With covid deaths declining worldwide after the surge of the last few months, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday: “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight." He urged nations to keep up efforts to combat the virus and to also better plan ahead for future pandemics.

AP: WHO: COVID End 'In Sight,' Deaths At Lowest Since March 2020  The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide last week was the lowest reported in the pandemic since March 2020, marking what could be a turning point in the years-long global outbreak. At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in a better position to stop COVID-19. “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said, comparing the effort to that made by a marathon runner nearing the finish line. “Now is the worst time to stop running,” he said. (9/14)

Reuters: End Of COVID Pandemic Is 'In Sight' - WHO Chief That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later. ... Countries need to take a hard look at their policies and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future viruses, Tedros said. He also urged nations to vaccinate 100% of their high-risk groups and keep testing for the virus. (Mishra, 9/14)

Bloomberg: End Of Covid Pandemic In Sight, WHO Head Says While Covid continues to circulate intensely around the world, future waves of infections don’t have to translate into waves of fatalities, said Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead officer for Covid. The organization declared Covid a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Since then, more than 606 million cases have been recorded, with nearly 6.5 million deaths. (Kresge, 9/14)

Fewer people are dying of covid —

CIDRAP: Global COVID-19 Cases Fall 28%; Deaths Drop 22%  New COVID-19 cases worldwide fell 28% last week—marking a fifth straight week of declining cases—and COVID-related deaths dropped 22% from the previous week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its weekly update today. (Wappes, 9/14)

ABC News: Hundreds Of Americans Still Dying Of COVID-19 Each Day Ahead Of The Fall The U.S. is currently averaging just under 400 daily COVID-19 related deaths. Although the daily number of fatalities is far lower than it was at the nation's peak, in January 2021, 3,400 Americans died of COVID-19 each day. (Mitropoulos, 9/15)

CNN: Covid-19 Death Toll Is A Tragedy And 'Massive Global Failure At Multiple Levels,' Lancet Commission Says  The death toll from Covid-19 is "both a profound tragedy and a massive global failure at multiple levels," the Lancet Covid-19 Commission said in a report Wednesday. (Thomas, 9/14)

Prominent Covid Data Tracker Will Start Scaling Back

Johns Hopkins University's "Covid-19 Dashboard" has served as a go-to resource for infection, hospitalization, and death data throughout the pandemic. Now, as the availability of metrics retracts and public interest wanes, the school plans to reduce its tracking.

Axios: Johns Hopkins To Reduce COVID Data Tracking Johns Hopkins University is scaling back how much and how frequently it tracks COVID-19 pandemic metrics due to a slowdown in local data reporting, the university confirmed to Axios. (Scribner, 9/14)

News Service of Florida: An Appeals Court Considers Whether Florida Should Provide Daily COVID-19 Data  More than a year after the lawsuit was filed, an appeals court Tuesday waded into a fight about whether the Florida Department of Health should be required to provide daily COVID-19 data. (Saunders, 9/14)

CIDRAP: Possible 69% Higher Risk Of Alzheimer's For Older COVID Survivors  Older COVID-19 survivors may be at a 69% higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease within 1 year of infection, according to a retrospective study of 6 million Americans 65 years and older published yesterday in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. (Van Beusekom, 9/14)

And a new book claims Melania Trump tried to persuade her husband to do more about covid —

Insider: Melania Trump Told Her Husband He Was 'Blowing' The Covid Response, Book Says Former first lady Melania Trump worried that her husband was "blowing" the US response to COVID, but he told her she worried too much, a forthcoming book on Donald Trump's presidency reveals. Melania Trump was "rattled by the coronavirus and convinced that Trump was screwing up," wrote New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser in their new book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021." (Gaudiano, 9/14)

HuffPost: New Book Divulges Melania Trump's Blunt Warning To Her Husband About Coronavirus In 2020  She even asked Chris Christie to help persuade Donald Trump that the pandemic should be taken more seriously. Trump wasn’t moved. “He had just dismissed her. ‘You worry too much,’ she remembered him saying. ‘Forget it,’” Baker and Glasser wrote. (Mazza, 9/15)

Ohio Abortion Ban Temporarily Halted

Judge Christian Jenkins said it was "no great stretch" to see that Ohio law "recognizes a fundamental right to privacy, procreation, bodily integrity, and freedom of choice in health care decision making,” he wrote in the ruling. The state's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will be suspended for at least 14 days.

The New York Times: Ohio Judge Temporarily Suspends Abortion Ban  An Ohio judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the state’s ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, saying that the right to abortion is protected under the state’s Constitution. The decision restores broad abortion access — at least for the next 14 days — in Ohio and widens access in a block of states where abortion has been banned or unavailable since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision ended the constitutional right to abortion. (Zernike, 9/14)

The Hill: Judge Blocks Ohio’s Six-Week Abortion Ban For 14 Days  Jenkins granted the pause in part because he believes the plaintiffs have a substantially likely chance of winning the case under protections granted by the state’s constitution. “No great stretch is required to find that Ohio law recognizes a fundamental right to privacy, procreation, bodily integrity and freedom of choice in health care decision making,” Jenkins wrote in the ruling. (Schonfeld, 9/14)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Hamilton County Judge Immediately Halts Enforcement Of Ohio’s Fetal ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Law For 14 Days; Abortion Now Legal Until 22 Weeks  In his ruling, Jenkins acknowledged affidavits submitted by doctors with examples of Ohio patients who had been turned away from getting abortions due to the heartbeat law. ... A high-school-aged student was on suicide watch in a hospital after being turned away for an abortion because of SB 23, according to an affidavit. Several patients who had ectopic pregnancies were turned away from emergency rooms because of SB 23, even though there is a medical exception for the woman’s health. But doctors apparently were concerned that “intrauterine pregnancies might also be present and feared prosecution under S.B. 23 if they aborted such a pregnancy when intending to treat an ectopic pregnancy.” One woman’s fallopian tube ruptured because she didn’t get an abortion, requiring surgery, Jenkins’ ruling said.(Hancock, 9/14)

In abortion updates from West Virginia and Indiana —

The Washington Post: Most Abortions Stop In West Virginia After Lawmakers Pass Near-Total Ban  The Women’s Health Center had an empty parking lot Wednesday. A printed sign on the door said the health center was “closed for staff rest” and would open the next day. Across the street, a crisis pregnancy center run by antiabortion advocates remained open to patients. (Shepherd and Heyman, 9/14)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana's Abortion Law Goes Into Effect Today Abortion care providers say it's difficult to predict how many abortions will performed in Indiana under the new law. Last year, 8,414 abortions occurred in Indiana, according to the Indiana Department of Health's annual pregnancy termination report. The report does not include information on how many of those abortions were performed for any of the instances allowed under the new law. (Rudavsky, 9/15)

AP: Philadelphia To Consider Local Abortion Access Protections  Members of the Philadelphia City Council announced plans Wednesday to introduce legislation aimed at protecting access to abortions inside city limits — including a bill proponents said would be one of the nation’s strongest privacy protection laws. The measures would bar the voluntary sharing of information about reproductive health choices for the purpose of prosecution or civil lawsuits and update the city’s antidiscrimination laws to include protections for reproductive health decisions. It also would create a right of patients and providers to counter-sue if they are sued by out-of-state residents under one of several laws seeking to prevent people from traveling across state lines to seek abortions. (9/14)

Houston Chronicle: Baylor Says Texas Abortion Law Uncertainty Is Making Doctors Lose Confidence And Needs Clarity Baylor College of Medicine on Wednesday released a position paper saying Texas abortion laws need further clarity to allow physicians to provide medically necessary terminations — the latest example of the ethical challenges that healthcare providers now face in a post-Roe landscape. (Gill, 9/14)

Pharmacist Bill Introduced As Republicans Walk Abortion Tightrope

Republican House members introduced legislation Wednesday that would counter Biden administration guidance to pharmacists on dispensing contraception and abortion drugs. Like the proposed federal 15-week ban introduced in the Senate the day before — and now signed on to by Sen. Marco Rubio but dividing others in the party ahead of the midterms — the bill is not expected to advance unless Republicans regain congressional control next term.

Politico: House Republicans Are Pushing A Bill To Undo Biden Administration Abortion Rights Guidance To Pharmacies Nationwide House Republicans are introducing a bill today to roll back recent Biden administration guidance that warns the nation’s pharmacies of legal and financial consequences if they refuse to dispense abortion or contraception medication. The “Pharmacist Conscience Protection Act,” led by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and first shared with POLITICO, would give pharmacists freer rein to refuse to provide medication they suspect could be used to terminate a pregnancy. (Miranda Ollstein, 9/14)

The Hill: House GOP Leaders Hedge On 15-Week Abortion Ban House Republicans will not commit to bringing up a 15-week abortion ban legislation if the party wins control of the House next year. “First we’d need to see what our majority looks like,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in a news conference on Wednesday when asked if Republicans would put a 15-week abortion ban bill on the floor, adding: “We are a party that defends life. We stand up for life.” (Brooks, 9/14)

Miami Herald: Rubio Signs Onto Federal Bill Blocking Abortions After 15 Weeks Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is co-sponsoring a bill that would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks, an aide confirmed Wednesday, throwing support behind a measure that both aligns with his longstanding desire to restrict access to abortion and risks complicating his reelection bid less than two months before Election Day. (Roarty, 9/14)

NBC News: Republican Candidate Tests A Novel Strategy On Abortion In Nevada House Race April Becker doesn’t want to talk about abortion. As Democrats seek to make the November elections a referendum on Republican efforts to restrict abortion rights, the GOP nominee challenging Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in a competitive House district in Nevada is pursuing a highly unusual strategy: arguing that Congress doesn’t have the power to regulate abortion. ... Becker’s opinion is exceedingly rare and has drawn condemnation from both sides of the abortion debate, an indication of the tightrope she is walking. (Kapur, 9/15)

The 19th: Americans Don’t Trust Politicians To Make Abortion Laws, Poll Finds The vast majority of Americans — 7 in 10 —  do not believe politicians are informed enough about abortion to craft fair policies, according to a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll. (Luthra and Mithani, 9/15)

On anti-abortion groups and crisis pregnancy centers —

NPR: Anti-Abortion Groups Are Getting More Calls For Help With Unplanned Pregnancies On a summer day in a quiet neighborhood outside Houston, Pam Whitehead is sitting at the kitchen table of a split-level home, taking calls from women who are pregnant and need help. "We were preparing for this in advance," Whitehead says. "We knew this was coming, we anticipated it, and we knew that we needed to prepare to be able to serve women." Whitehead is the executive director of ProLove Ministries, a group that opposes abortion and tries to persuade women not to have them. She says calls to her group's hotline have been increasing – first, starting about a year ago, after the law known as S.B. 8 banned most abortions in Texas after about six weeks. They've continued – and come from across the country – since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.(McCammon, 9/14)

Monkeypox Antiviral Overuse Could Spur Mutations, Warns FDA

The Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors to be judicious in prescribing tecovirimat, or Tpoxx, to avoid forcing the virus to mutate. Separate reports say the number of Black men diagnosed with monkeypox is rising. And an Iowa nurse was fired for improper vaccine shots.

CBS News: FDA Warns Monkeypox Could Mutate If Antiviral Drug Is Overused The monkeypox virus is only one mutation away from evading a key antiviral drug being used to treat at-risk patients, federal health officials are now warning — and they're urging doctors to be "judicious" in prescribing the sought-after treatment. (Tin, 9/14)

Fortune: White Men Initially Suffered The Highest Number Of Monkeypox Cases In The U.S. Not Anymore  The number of Black men in the U.S. diagnosed with monkeypox is growing—and vaccines aren’t keeping up. At the beginning of the global outbreak, declared in May, the vast majority of U.S. patients—75%—were white. That share has slowly dropped over the course of the outbreak and now sits at around 25%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Prater, 9/14)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Nurse Fired After Improperly Administering Monkeypox Vaccine The county health department said Cheryl Sondall, an on-call nurse who had worked for the department for several years, chose not to follow protocol when she administered the vaccine to five patients during a clinic last week. Nola Aigner Davis, the department spokesperson, said the vaccine was supposed to be administered intradermally, or between the layers of the skin. Instead, the shots were given subcutaneously, or in the fatty tissue under the skin. (Ramm, 9/14)

A Senate committee met Wednesday to discuss the monkeypox response —

CIDRAP: CDC Head Says Monkeypox Slowing In US Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met for the first time to address the federal response to the US monkeypox outbreak, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, addressed the rocky federal start of outbreak response but noted that cases are now declining. She also highlighted CDC outreach at a time when the disease was brand new to most frontline clinicians. (Soucheray, 9/14)

PBS NewsHour: WATCH: Senate Committee Hearing On Monkeypox With CDC’s Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci  The Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions committee held a hearing Wednesday with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. (9/14)

House Passes Medicare Advantage Reform Bill; It Now Heads To Senate

The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act strives to make it easier for seniors to get care and to modernize the process of prior authorizations. For example, the current process often still requires using fax machines to send documents to insurance companies.

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Bill Passes House Medicare Advantage carriers would be subject to new requirements governing the prior authorization process under legislation that passed the House Wednesday. The measure would compel Medicare Advantage insurers to use electronic prior authorization programs, annually submit lists of items and services subject to prior authorization, and adopt beneficiary protection standards. The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act now moves the Senate, where supporters hope it will advance after the November congressional elections. (Goldman, 9/14)

Medical Economics: House Passes Reform To Medicare Advantage Prior Authorizations The legislation was led in the House by Representatives Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, Mike Kelly R-Pennsylvania, Ami Bera, MD, D-California, and Larry Bucshon, MD R-Indiana. “Seniors and their families should be focused on getting the care they need, not faxing forms multiple times for procedures that are routinely approved. This takes away valuable time from providers who on average spend 13 hours a week on administrative paperwork related to prior authorization,” the representatives said in a joint statement published Sept. 14. “The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act will make it easier for seniors to get the care they need by cutting unnecessary red tape in the health care system. We urge the Senate to quickly take up this legislation and get it to President Biden’s desk.” (Payerchin, 9/14)

In other Medicare and Medicaid news —

Stat: Medicare Is Found To Give Insufficient Access To Opioid Addiction Treatment Medicare is vastly underserving older Americans with opioid use disorder, with only 18% of enrollees with the diagnosis receiving recommended medication treatment, according to a new federal oversight report. (Joseph, 9/15)

News Service of Florida: Florida Pushes Back On Medicaid Class Action Suit Over Incontinence Supplies Florida is trying to fend off a potential class-action lawsuit alleging that the Medicaid program is denying coverage for incontinence supplies in violation of laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Saunders, 9/14)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri Medicaid Application Backlog ‘No More,’ Says Social Services Director The director of the state agency overseeing Medicaid says an application backlog that caught the federal government’s attention has been eliminated. (Suntrup, 9/14)

US Will Spend Over $2B To Back White House Biomanufacturing Plan

The plan, outlined with new details Wednesday, is about expanding drug manufacturing capabilities in the U.S., with an eye on future pandemic responses. Meanwhile, Roll Call notes "pandemic fatigue" may threaten funding efforts in the battle against monkeypox. The polio outbreak is also reported.

Stat: U.S. To Spend More Than $2B To Launch Biden’s Biomanufacturing Initiative The federal government is pledging more than $2 billion to launch President Biden’s new national biomanufacturing initiative, funding efforts to build or expand drug manufacturing sites in the U.S. and readying the raw materials needed to respond to a new pandemic. (DeAngelis, 9/14)

Reuters: White House Unveils $2 Billion Biotech Spending Plan Ahead Of Industry Summit The White House released new details on Wednesday on how it plans to invest more than $2 billion in the U.S. biotechnology sector as it hosts a meeting of government leaders to discuss the emerging industry. ... The executive order allows the federal government to direct funding for the use of microbes and other biologically derived resources to make new foods, fertilizers and seeds, as well as making mining operations more efficient, administration officials said. It also will help fund a quest for medical breakthroughs, such as a vaccine to prevent cancer, or a blood test that could detect cancer in an annual physical. (Renshaw, 9/14)

On federal funding for covid and monkeypox —

Roll Call: Pandemic Fatigue Threatens COVID-19, Monkeypox Funding Requests  As the Biden administration asks Congress for additional federal dollars to fight infectious diseases, it faces a conundrum: pandemic fatigue. (Cohen, 9/14)

On the polio threat in America —

Politico: Biden Admin Officials Worried About Potential Polio Spread Top Biden health officials, increasingly concerned about the polio case in New York, have met several times in recent weeks to determine how to increase vaccination rates and improve surveillance, according to two senior administration officials. The conversations have taken place at the National Security Council, with senior officials from the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services. (Banco and Messerly, 9/14)

Axios: U.S. Added To WHO's List Of Countries With Circulating Polio The World Health Organization added the U.S. to the list of countries where vaccine-derived poliovirus is circulating according to a CDC announcement. (Dreher, 9/14)

Review Of Joint Commission's Standards Planned

The Joint Commission will assess all of its accreditation requirements, similar to how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been doing for requirements waived during the covid pandemic. Other industry news comes from Cleveland, Houston, and Atlanta.

Becker's Hospital Review: Joint Commission To Conduct Review Of Requirements The Joint Commission plans to review all of its accreditation requirements that go "above-and-beyond" CMS requirements. In a Sept. 13 statement, the organization said it will "address the necessity" of its requirements, similar to how CMS has been reviewing requirements that were waived during the nation's COVID-19 public health emergency. (Carbajal, 9/15)

Modern Healthcare: Joint Commission Standards Under Review The Joint Commission plans to name the first major set of standards to be retired in January, President and CEO Dr. Jonathan Perlin said. (Devereaux, 9/14)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: St. Vincent To Close To Inpatient Care Nov. 15 At Cleveland Hospital; Will Keep Some Outpatient, Primary Care St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, which has been caring for Cleveland’s sick since the Civil War era, announced Wednesday that in mid-November it will stop offering inpatient, surgical and emergency room care. (Washington, 9/14)

Houston Chronicle: Areas Of Ben Taub Hospital Closed Amid Heightened Legionella Bacteria Levels Parts of Ben Taub Hospital have been closed after tests revealed heightened levels of Legionella bacteria in water samples, Harris Health System confirmed on Wednesday night. (Wayne Ferguson, 9/14)

KHN: Impending Hospital Closure Rattles Atlanta Health Care Landscape And Political Races Like many neighborhoods in cities across the country, Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward is changing. Condo buildings and modern minimalist homes punctuate city blocks of low-income housing. Many longtime residents of the historic neighborhood where Martin Luther King Jr. was born have been priced out and pushed to other parts of town. Atlanta Medical Center, a 460-bed Level 1 trauma center, will be the next fixture to change. (Whitehead and Miller, 9/14)

On the high cost of medical care —

Bloomberg: Sexual-Assault Survivors Pay Average $3,551 For Emergency Care, Study Says Sexual assault and rape victims seeking care in US emergency rooms face costly medical bills, in spite of a federal law meant to defray these types of expenses. (Taylor, 9/14)

Axios: Mental Health Spending Rises Average annual spending on mental health services by individuals enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans covered reached $2,380 per enrollee in 2020, up 20% since 2013, according to a report from the Employer Benefit Research Institute. (Reed, 9/14)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Requests Info On Explanation Of Benefits Policy Changes The government wants feedback on how to regulate the advanced explanation of benefits and cost estimate provisions of the surprise billing ban, several departments announced in a request for information issued Wednesday. (Goldman, 9/14)

KHN: Court Ruling May Spur Competitive Health Plans To Bring Back Copays For Preventive Services  Tom and Mary Jo York are a health-conscious couple, going in for annual physicals and periodic colorectal cancer screening tests. Mary Jo, whose mother and aunts had breast cancer, also gets regular mammography tests. The Yorks, who live in New Berlin, Wisconsin, are enrolled in Chorus Community Health Plans, which, like most of the nation’s health plans, is required by the Affordable Care Act to pay for those preventive services, and more than 100 others, without charging deductibles or copays. (Meyer, 9/15)

Study: If Your Doctor Is Burned Out, Your Safety May Be At Risk

The Press Association reports that the study, conducted by researchers at the University of Manchester in the U.K., links burned-out doctors with a higher incidence of patient safety issues. Other news on health care personnel issues is on the Minnesota nurses strike, mental health workers in Colorado, violence in hospitals and more.

Press Association: Burned-Out Doctors Pose Risks To Patient Safety, BMJ Study Finds Patients being treated by burned-out doctors may face additional risks when they receive care, a new study suggests. A new review concluded that doctors experiencing burnout are twice as likely to be involved in patient safety incidents such as medication errors and "suboptimal care". (Pickover, 9/14)

USA Today: Nurses Strike In Minnesota Highlights Worsening Pay, Staff Shortages "The challenges that we highlighted around the fatigue and the mental well-being of nurses continue to this day," said Zina Gontscharow, a senior policy adviser at the  American Nurses Association. "Nurses are really feeling a lot of stress with not having adequate (staffing) on the floor, overtime and long shifts." (Alltucker, 9/14)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Mental Health Workers Demand Equal Pay A legislative-ordered report aimed at shining a light on Colorado’s payment system for mental health care has done little to calm the ongoing frustration of therapists and psychologists in private practice. (Brown, 9/14)

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Is The Only State Without Specific Protections Against Violence In Hospitals As violence against healthcare workers continues to rise, healthcare administrators asked Wyoming lawmakers to enhance the penalties for violence against their employees. Lawmakers rejected that request. (Victor, 9/14)

Reuters: New York Hospital To Pay $2.6 Mln Over Doctor's Unnecessary Surgeries A New York hospital has agreed to pay about $2.6 million to settle claims that a former physician affiliated with it performed and billed for unnecessary implantable defibrillator battery replacements, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced Wednesday. (Pierson, 9/14)

The Boston Globe: N.H. Hospital Promises Review After Revelations About Doctor With 21 Malpractice Settlements Leaders of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H., told employees on Wednesday that they will launch a full review of how the hospital oversees medical care after a Boston Globe Spotlight Team series revealed that a former surgeon there racked up one of the worst surgical malpractice records in the country and that administrators did little to address repeated warnings by employees. (Fernandes and Saltzman, 9/14)

Despite mRNA Advances, An HIV Vaccine Is Still Far Off

A leading scientist from South Africa is warning that though the pandemic accelerated progress of using mRNA in vaccines, using the tech against HIV will still take a long time. Also: key appointments at Philip Morris, threats to a judge over J&J's bankruptcy, and clinical trial diversity.

Bloomberg: HIV Vaccine Still Years Away, Former AIDS Society Head Warns The use of messenger RNA to make vaccines for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic has reinvigorated a decades-long hunt for a shot to safeguard against HIV, but the development process will still be a protracted one, according to a leading South African scientist. (Cohen, 9/14)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Reuters: Philip Morris Appoints Two Former U.S. FDA Officials To Key Roles Philip Morris International Inc (PM.N) said on Wednesday it had appointed two former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to key positions at a time when tobacco companies have come under intense regulatory and public scrutiny. (9/14)

Reuters: Judge Reports Threats, Harassment Over J&J Talc Bankruptcy  A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday said he has received threats related to the bankruptcy of a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary he is overseeing, with some messages suggesting that the case is an effort to "cover up" harms allegedly caused by J&J's talc products. Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey said at a hearing that he and his staff have been getting angry and menacing messages through phone calls, voicemails, emails and social media posts since his February decision not to dismiss the bankruptcy case of LTL Management LLC. (Knauth, 9/14)

Stat: These 3 Startups Are Trying To Improve Diversity In Clinical Trials A host of health tech startups and companies are advertising their apps and platforms as key solutions to improving diversity in clinical trials, promising to help researchers improve their outreach, enrollment, and retention — what one researcher calls a “modern-day gold rush.” (Castillo, 9/15)

California Governor Signs Law Enabling Some Forced Mental Health Care

AP says the new law could "force" some of the 100,000 unhoused people in California into treatment, a move critics say is cruel. The law could also be used in instances where people have been diagnosed with particular disorders, such as schizophrenia. Other news is from Alaska, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Montana.

AP: California Governor OKs Mental Health Courts For Homeless  With more than 100,000 people living on California’s streets, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-of-its kind law on Wednesday that could force some of them into treatment as part of a program he describes as “care” but opponents argue is cruel. Newsom signed the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act on Wednesday. It would let family members, first responders and others ask a judge to draw up a treatment plan for someone diagnosed with certain disorders, including schizophrenia. Those who refuse could be placed under a conservatorship and ordered to comply. (Har and Beam, 9/14)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

Anchorage Daily News: Gov. Dunleavy Vetoes Alaska Tax On Vaping And Increase To Minimum Tobacco Purchase Age Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed legislation last week that would have imposed a statewide tax on e-cigarettes and brought the state’s minimum age to buy tobacco into compliance with federal law, raising it from 19 to 21, because the governor thought the vaping tax rate was too high. (Maguire, 9/14)

Stateline: Court Victories Deliver Cautious Hope For Voters With Disabilities Paralyzed from the neck down, downtown Milwaukee resident Martha Chambers has difficulty voting. She can use a mouth stick to mark her ballot and sign her name on an absentee ballot, but she has no way of folding the ballot, slipping it back in the envelope or returning it to the mailbox. Driven by its conservative majority, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July outlawed assistance in the absentee voting process. (Vasilogambros, 9/14)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Household Income Flat, But More Have Health Insurance: Census Michiganders are making just as much money but more have health insurance now than before the pandemic, according to census data released Thursday. "Despite the enormous effects of the pandemic in so many ways, it did not kick the income and poverty numbers in a big way," said Charles Ballard, an economics professor at Michigan State University. "It's a remarkable story in itself, that you have this social and demographic and health earthquake and yet if you squint, you can't see that it did anything to the income and poverty numbers." (Tanner, 9/15)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia’s New 988 Mental Health Crisis Hotline Is Already Responsive Data from the first 45 days show that the 988 calls were answered quickly, in 7.4 seconds on average, according to new numbers from the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. In those first 45 days, 476 calls resulted in rescues of people whose lives were believed to be in danger. (Landergan, 9/15)

North Carolina Health News: Momentum Building For MAT In Jails Across N.C. During his 20 years in the field of substance use disorders, Eric Morse has seen countless patients forced off their medication-assisted treatment (MAT) — a treatment that’s often working — while incarcerated. (Crumpler, 9/15)

KHN: Montana Health Department Seeks To Ax Board That Hears Public Assistance Appeals Montana health officials are asking state lawmakers to eliminate a board that hears appeals from people who believe they were wrongly denied public assistance benefits. Since 2016, the Board of Public Assistance has heard fewer than 20 cases a year, and very few of those are overturned, but preparing for those appeals and board meetings takes time from state Department of Public Health and Human Services’ staff members and attorneys, according to the department’s proposal. (Volz, 9/15)

LGBTQ+ Patients Say Doctors Discriminate Against Them

A survey finds that LGBTQ+ people report more experiences of medical discrimination than cisgender people. Meanwhile, a study suggests multivitamins may have a role in improving seniors' cognition. Also: the risks of sitting, a Starbucks recall, and more.

The 19th: LGBTQ+ Americans Report More Discrimination At The Doctor, Poll Finds When LGBTQ+ people go to the doctor, they are more likely to be refused medical services, blamed for their health problems and discriminated against than cisgender and heterosexual people, a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll has found. (Rummler and Mithani, 9/15)

In other health and wellness news —

Stat: Multivitamins Improved Cognition Of Seniors, But Questions Remain While pharma companies struggle to show that cutting-edge therapies can treat, prevent, or slow Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, a new study suggests that a far simpler and cheaper tool could improve cognition in seniors: daily multivitamins. (Wosen, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Are You An Active Couch Potato? How Sitting All Day Can Erase A Workout  Are you an active couch potato? Take this two-question quiz to find out: Did you work out for 30 minutes today? Did you spend the rest of the day staring at your computer and then settle in front of the television at night? If you answered yes to both questions, then you meet the definition of what scientists call “an active couch potato.” It means that, despite your commitment to exercise, you could be at risk for a variety of health problems, according to a sweeping new study of how people move — or don’t move — throughout the day. (Reynolds, 9/14)

CBS News: Starbucks Espresso Drink Recalled Over Possible Metal Fragments A Starbucks-branded drink has been recalled in seven states due to the possible presence of metal fragments in the bottles. The recall covers Starbucks Vanilla Espresso Triple Shot drink, which is sold in 15-ounce bottles and is manufactured by PepsiCo, according to a statement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Picchi, 9/14)

KHN: Experts Question The Role Of White Mulberry In The Death Of Congressman’s Wife Scientists, doctors, and pathologists are questioning the Sacramento County coroner’s conclusion that Lori McClintock’s death was related to white mulberry, a plant that has been used as an herbal remedy for centuries — and one that the coroner’s botanical consultant called “not toxic” in a letter to her office. McClintock, the wife of U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), died suddenly in December from dehydration due to gastroenteritis — an inflammation of the stomach and intestines — that was caused by “adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion,” according to a report from the Sacramento County coroner. The coroner ruled the death an accident. (Young, 9/14)

Research Roundup: Covid; Dementia; Pain Management

Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.

CIDRAP: Study Finds MRSA Bacteremia Rate Much Higher In NYC COVID-19 Patients The rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia was five times higher among COVID-19 patients than non-COVID patients at 11 New York City hospitals during the pandemic, researchers reported last week in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. (9/12)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Vaccines Not Tied To Lower Fertility In Men Or Women A systematic review and meta-analysis today in Vaccine finds no link between COVID-19 vaccines and infertility in men or women. ... Fertility markers in men and women were unchanged before and after COVID-19 vaccination of any type (ie, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, or Sputnik V). The latter is not authorized for use in the United States. (9/12)

CIDRAP: COVID Boosters Safe And Well Tolerated In Pregnant And Lactating Women COVID vaccine boosters or third doses after an initial two-dose series are well tolerated in pregnant and lactating women, according to a large cohort study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (9/9)

CIDRAP: Study Finds Omicron Hospital Risk 10 Times Higher In Unvaccinated After the emergence of the Omicron variant, the rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States was 10.5 times higher in unvaccinated adults and 2.5 times higher in those who were vaccinated but received no booster than in booster recipients, according to a new study. (Van Beusekom, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Most COVID Survivors Had Cardiac Involvement Nearly 1 Year Later A study of 346 previously healthy COVID-19 survivors finds that 73% had cardiac signs and symptoms more than 3 months after infection, and 57% still had them at nearly 1 year. In the study, published yesterday in Nature Medicine, a team led by University Hospital Frankfurt researchers in Germany measured blood biomarkers of heart injury and dysfunction and performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 346 COVID-19 survivors who had no previous heart disease or notable chronic conditions at a median of 109 and 329 days. (9/6)

CIDRAP: High Rate Of Antibiotic Use Found In People With Dementia A study of Veterans Health Administration data found that antibiotic prescribing was prevalent among a national cohort of persons living with dementia (PLWD), and inappropriate use appeared high, researchers reported late last week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. (9/7)

ScienceDaily: Researchers Develop Bioresorbable, Implantable Device To Block Pain Signals From Peripheral Nerves  Researchers test the efficacy of a soft, bioresorbable, implantable device to block pain signals from sciatic nerves of rat models. (Pusan National University, 9/6)

Viewpoints: New Malaria Vaccine Sorely Underfunded; The Important Role Of Pharmacists

Editorial writers examine these public health issues.

Bloomberg: Breakthrough Malaria Shot Needs More Funding To Succeed  It took scientists 30 years to create the first malaria vaccine, approved by the World Health Organization in 2021. A second, even better one is now almost ready to be deployed against the disease. (Lisa Jarvis, 9/14)

Stat: Congress Needs To Preserve Seniors' Access To Pharmacist Care Covid-19 demonstrated how quickly the United States can mobilize to produce and distribute new tests, vaccines, and treatments for a previously unknown virus. (Ilisa BG Bernstein and Paul W. Abramowitz, 9/15)

The New York Times: The Space Between Brain Death And Organ Donation The headlines might make you think that Anne Heche died twice. First on a Friday, when the actress was declared brain-dead. And then again on a Sunday, when her body was disconnected from machines so that her organs could be donated. (Daniela J. Lamas, 9/15)

Stat: A Challenge Trial Can Streamline Testing Of Hepatitis C Vaccines Trade-offs in medicine can be harsh, even when clearly necessary. Chemotherapy can save people from cancer, but the side effects can wreak havoc on their bodies for months or years. These trade-offs aren’t limited to the clinical world. They are also part of research. (Andrea L. Cox, 9/14)

Stat: 6 Tactics To Make Artificial Intelligence Work On The Frontlines Artificial intelligence is a transformative tool in the workplace — except when it isn’t. For top managers, state-of-the art AI tools are a no-brainer: in theory, they increase revenues, decrease costs, and improve the quality of products and services. But in the wild, it’s often just the opposite. (Katherine C. Kellogg, Mark P. Sendak and Suresh Balu, 9/15)

Different Takes: The Abortion Battle Just Keeps Getting Worse; Do People Care About The Newest Covid Booster?

Opinion writers weigh in on Lindsey Graham's 15 week abortion ban as well as the new covid bivalent boosters.

The New York Times: Lindsey Graham’s Unbelievably Cruel Abortion Ban  At the end of Senator Lindsey Graham’s news conference on Tuesday proposing a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a woman named Ashbey Beasley stood up and asked him a question inspired by her own excruciating loss. (Michelle Goldberg, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Lindsey Graham’s 15-Week Abortion Ban Gives The Endgame Away  Sen. Lindsey O. Graham on Tuesday unveiled legislation that would ban abortion nationwide at 15 weeks. The South Carolina Republican’s proposal puts the lie to the notion that the Supreme Court, in overruling Roe v. Wade, merely returned the contentious issue of abortion to state control. (Ruth Marcus, 9/14)

CNN: What I Think Lindsey Graham Is Up To With His 15-Week Abortion Ban On Tuesday, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a bill that would ban abortion nationally after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. Which leads to an obvious question: Why? (Chris Cillizza, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Lindsey Graham’s Abortion Bill Is Hypocritical And Dangerous  Only months ago, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham wanted states to write their own abortion rules. Now, he has changed his mind: States should still write their own abortion rules, but only if those rules are harshly restrictive. (9/14)

Chicago Tribune: Will Vaccine Fatigue Affect How Many Get The Bivalent Booster? Pfizer’s and Moderna’s bivalent boosters, which are now available to many age groups, offer protection against the original COVID-19 virus plus the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. Is the nation ready for yet another COVID-19 vaccine shot? (Sheldon Jacobson and Janet Jokela, 9/14)

The New York Times: The New Covid Boosters Are Amazing News  For the first time, the United States is rolling out Covid vaccines updated to match variants that are currently dominant, as well as the original strain. (Zeynep Tufecki, 9/15)

The Boston Globe: The Latest COVID Booster Is Recommended For Pregnant Women, So Why Don’t More Of Them Know That?  Pregnant women should get the new CDC-approved Omicron-specific COVID-19 booster, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). (Catesby Holmes, 9/14)

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