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Morning Briefing
In This Edition:
- KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
- 1. A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment in RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy
- 2. Kids Keep Getting Stuck in Hospitals, Even After Being Cleared for Discharge
- 3. Trump Bought Stock in Drugmaker as His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs
- 4. Journalists Unpack Latest on Vaccines, Vaping, and TrumpRx
- OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
- 8. WHO Proclaims Ebola Outbreak Is An International Public Health Emergency
- EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
- 11. Viewpoints: Refusing Childhood Vaccinations Is Not Patient Autonomy; US Drug Prices Are High On Purpose
From KFF Health News:
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES1. A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment in RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy The work of Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn has long been controversial. Until Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the U.S. health policy chief, most vaccine scientists tended to ignore it. That has changed. (Arthur Allen, 5/18) 2. Kids Keep Getting Stuck in Hospitals, Even After Being Cleared for Discharge Some children are healthy enough to leave the hospital after a medical stay but have no place to go. Across the country, the practice of allowing children to remain hospitalized “beyond medical necessity” has become a costly problem, and states have struggled to address the issue. (Cara Anthony, 5/18) 3. Trump Bought Stock in Drugmaker as His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs New ethics disclosures show the president invested in Eli Lilly and a company that manufactures injectable devices as his health agencies implemented policies that benefited them. (Darius Tahir, 5/18) 4. Journalists Unpack Latest on Vaccines, Vaping, and TrumpRx KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (5/16)
Summaries Of The News:
ADMINISTRATION NEWS5. CMS Inks Broad Changes To Eligibility, Plan Options For 2027 ACA Exchanges
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a final rule that will tighten eligibility verification requirements and broaden access to catastrophic policies, among other changes to the health insurance exchanges next year, Modern Healthcare reports. Other Trump administration news is on FDA leadership, RFK Jr., immigration, and more.
Modern Healthcare: CMS Finalizes ACA Exchange Rule For 2027 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a regulation Friday that will usher in major changes to the Affordable Care Act of 2010 health insurance exchanges next year. The final rule institutes substantial new policies, including tighter eligibility verification requirements and broader access to non-traditional health plans such as catastrophic policies that can be in place for multiple years and insurance without provider networks. (Early, 5/15)
NBC News: FDA Leadership Shakeup Continues With Departure Of Top Drug Regulator Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg is leaving her role as head of the FDA division that regulates over-the-counter and prescription drugs, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official. Høeg, a sports medicine doctor who criticized Covid shots for children during the pandemic, served as acting director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research for about five months. (Lovelace Jr. and Bendix, 5/15)
KFF Health News: Trump Bought Stock In Drugmaker As His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs President Donald Trump earlier this year bought as much as $680,000 in stock of Eli Lilly, the maker of blockbuster obesity drugs, as the agencies he oversees undertook an agenda that largely benefited the company. On May 14, the federal government released ethics disclosures revealing a list of stock and bond trades made on Trump’s behalf from January to March of this year. They included extensive trades across the economy, including investments in tech giants such as Microsoft and Nvidia, aerospace firms such as Boeing, and household-name companies such as Target and Chipotle. (Tahir, 5/18)
RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement —
Politico: RFK Jr.’s Department To Make It Easier To Fire Career Staff The Health and Human Services Department is moving hundreds of senior career staff to a new civil service classification that will make it easier to fire them. President Donald Trump tinkered with the idea late in his first term and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, recommended the reclassification of career staff with policy-making responsibilities in its Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s second term. Trump dismissed that document during his campaign, but has since adopted many of its proposals. (Paun and Sophie Gardner, 5/15)
Politico: How Cassidy’s Loss Could Turn Into An Even Bigger Win For RFK Jr. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his followers scored a big win Saturday when Kennedy’s nemesis, Sen. Bill Cassidy, went down in his Louisiana primary. The cherry on top for Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement would be if another Republican doctor in the Senate, Kansas’ Roger Marshall, replaces Cassidy next year as chair of the Health Committee. Marshall, unlike Cassidy, is a big Kennedy fan, having founded a MAHA caucus to promote Kennedy’s push to combat chronic disease. (Levien, 5/17)
Roll Call: As RFK’S Lifestyle Seeps Into Policy, Some Fret Over Long-Term Effect When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the department in February 2025, he pledged to remove special interests from HHS and chart a new path focused on “gold-standard science.” He made his core policy interests clear in November 2024, even before he was President Donald Trump’s pick for the job, accusing the federal government of suppressing “psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma.” (DeGroot, 5/15)
KFF Health News: A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment In RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy In 1996, Guinea-Bissau seemed like an ideal research post for budding pediatrician Lone Graff Stensballe. Her supervisor, a fellow Dane named Peter Aaby, had spent nearly two decades collecting data on 100,000 people living in the mud brick homes of the West African country’s capital. Aaby and his partner, Christine Stabell Benn, believed that the years of research in the impoverished country had yielded a major discovery about vaccines — and what they described as “non-specific effects”: The measles and tuberculosis vaccines, which were derived from live, weakened viruses and bacteria, they said, boosted child survival beyond protecting against those particular pathogens. (Allen, 5/18)
More news from the Trump administration —
NPR: Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Takes A Toll On Mental Health. One Clinic Tracks It As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown stretches into its second year, researchers and health care workers say that it is creating a mental health crisis in immigrant communities. Data from one primary care clinic in Los Angeles, shared exclusively with NPR, shows a sharp rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among patients. (Chatterjee, 5/17)
The Washington Post: Efforts To Understand America’s Drugged-Driving Problem Stalls Under Trump Two state transportation workers were replacing a sign on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 6 in western Colorado one morning when a Jeep Grand Cherokee swerved off the road and struck them. The workers, Nathan Jones and Trent Umberger, died in the September 2024 crash, as did a passenger in the Jeep. Tests found that the driver, Patrick Sneddon, then 59, had oxycodone and six times Colorado’s presumed impairment threshold of THC — the psychoactive compound in cannabis — in his blood. He pleaded guilty and is serving 30 years in prison on three counts of vehicular homicide and other charges. (DiCola, 5/17)
Stat: U.K. Advocacy Groups Threaten Legal Action Over Provision In U.S. Pharma Deal Two advocacy groups are demanding the United Kingdom revoke regulations at the heart of a new trade agreement with the U.S. over concerns the deal will allow outsiders to influence official decisions about the cost-effectiveness of medicines. And if the government does not comply, the groups are readying legal action. (Silverman, 5/17)
HEALTH INDUSTRY6. Providers, Insurers Urge CMS To Exercise Caution In Fraud Crackdown
After the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services asked for feedback on its push to address fraud in federally funded healthcare programs, Modern Healthcare reports, provider and insurer groups, along with hospitals and physicians, have collectively suggested that the agency employ a measured approach and proceed with caution.
Modern Healthcare: CMS Healthcare Fraud Push Draws Caution From Hospitals, Insurers As federal regulators continue broadening their healthcare fraud crackdown, providers and insurers want them to move cautiously. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a formal request for information in February to solicit recommendations for an anti-fraud campaign dubbed Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare, or CRUSH. CMS asked about issues such as blocking Medicare-banned providers from participating in Medicare Advantage; using artificial intelligence in Medicare Advantage oversight; and improving identity verification for Medicare-enrolled providers and suppliers. (Early, 5/15)
Politico: Hospitals Are Taking The Fall For High Health Care Costs Two of the most powerful lobbies in the country are turning on a third in the hopes of deflecting Washington’s wrath and securing bigger shares of the $5 trillion Americans spend on health care each year. Drugmakers and insurers are aiming to take advantage of lawmakers’ worries about affordability to convince them it’s the hospitals they should regulate, and not them, if they want to bring down Americans’ bills. Some of the changes the drugmakers and insurers are pursuing would pad their own profits. (Chu, 5/17)
KFF Health News: Kids Keep Getting Stuck In Hospitals, Even After Being Cleared For Discharge Overwhelmed by the demands of caregiving, Quette dialed 911 when she found her teenage son downstairs in their kitchen struggling to breathe. He had rolled his wheelchair to the oven to keep himself warm as he tried to regulate his temperature, she recalled, and was drenched in sweat from an apparent infection. (Anthony, 5/18)
Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare, Philips Raise Prices Amid War In Iran Providers could face higher prices for medical devices and supplies as a result of the war in Iran. Major medtech companies said during recent earning calls that rising oil, transportation and component costs are driving the inflationary pressure, though most indicated they are not seeing widespread supply disruptions or shortages. The price increases come at a time when the companies are launching new products. At the same time, providers are looking to cut costs amid approximately $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funding cuts and other policy changes under the tax bill the Trump administration signed into law in 2025. (Dubinsky, 5/15)
Pharmaceutical developments —
Bloomberg: Astra’s Potential Blockbuster Blood Pressure Pill Approved In US AstraZeneca Plc’s new hypertension pill won US Food and Drug Administration approval in a boost for the drugmaker that’s seeking to garner more than $5 billion in annual sales from the medicine. The drug, called Baxfendy, significantly lowered blood pressure when added to other hypertension medicines in clinical trials. The regulator cleared it for patients who aren’t adequately controlled with existing treatments. (Furlong, 5/18)
The New York Times: Medicare Coverage For GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs: Cost, Eligibility And What To Know Millions of older Americans may have access for the first time to obesity drugs at a low price of $50 a month starting in July under a Medicare pilot program. While Medicare Part D already covers some GLP-1 medications for conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and sleep apnea, the government program for people 65 and older had prohibited coverage solely for obesity. Now, more people on Medicare will be eligible, including those who are most overweight and those with both obesity and conditions like prediabetes or uncontrolled hypertension. (Miller, 5/15)
More from the health industry —
Bloomberg: UnitedHealth Tracks Workers’ AI Use In Push To Transform Company UnitedHealth Group Inc. is tracking how often some employees use artificial intelligence tools as part of a push to embed the technology throughout its operations, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is monitoring whether some workers in its Optum services division perform at least one query a day with programs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft Corp.’s Copilot, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal operations. (Tozzi and Fletcher, 5/15)
Modern Healthcare: Kinderhook Industries Completes $1.1B Acquisition Of Enhabit Private equity firm Kinderhook Industries has closed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Enhabit Home Health and Hospice. Enhabit’s common stock will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the companies said in a Friday news release announcing the deal’s completion. Enhabit shareholders voted Tuesday to accept Kinderhook’s offer of $13.80 per share in cash. (Eastabrook, 5/15)
Bloomberg: Elliott Builds Stake In Life-Science Firm Bio-Rad, WSJ Says Activist investor Elliott Investment Management has built a sizable stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories to boost the firm’s underperforming stock price, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The exact size of Elliott’s stake in Bio-Rad, a supplier of life-science tools, was unclear, the Journal said. Bio-Rad has a market value of about $6.7 billion. The firm’s stock has dropped more than 70% since a peak in late 2021. (Yilun Chen, 5/18)
STATE WATCH7. Texas Hospital To Open ‘Detransition Clinic’ In Settlement Over Trans Care
On Friday, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the Texas Children’s Hospital will provide care to patients “who were subjected to ‘gender-transition’ procedures.” The hospital must cover the costs of this care for five years.
The Texas Tribune: Texas Children’s Hospital To Create Clinic Reversing Trans Care The Texas attorney general has secured an unusual settlement over child transgender care that compels Texas Children’s Hospital to create the nation’s first ever “detransition clinic” in addition to paying the state $10 million. (Langford and Deguzman, 5/15)
AP: Kansas Protects Gender-Affirming Care As Texas Case Attacks It A Kansas judge on Friday protected access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors as the nation’s largest children’s hospital moved to restrict such care in Texas, buckling under pressure from the Trump administration. Texas Children’s Hospital, based in Houston, said in a statement that it had agreed to a legal settlement “to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation.” The hospital, which serves more than 1 million patients a year, stopped providing hormone treatments for transgender children and teens in 2022, a year before the state banned such care, but still faced a yearslong investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office. (Hanna, 5/16)
Legislative updates —
CalMatters: California Lawmakers Rush $25 Million To Hospitals A $25 million grant to cash-strapped hospitals became law less than a week after it was introduced — so fast that it caught some hospitals, their advocates, and even some lawmakers, off guard. It also left a litany of unanswered questions: who came up with the narrow criteria, how many hospitals would qualify and whether the funding will be enough to prevent hospital closures in the near term. (Yu and Ibarra, 5/15)
North Carolina Health News: Families With Disabled Children Press Lawmakers To Preserve Funding Finley Thomas is an 11-year-old girl who’s got a morning makeup and skin care routine. She loves Halloween, dressing up, her older brothers and cheering with her squad. She also uses a wheelchair, has a tracheostomy tube that gets hooked up to a ventilator at night, receives tube feedings for much of her nutrition, and has multiple therapy sessions each week—all the result of a neurological condition she was born with that has recently required a couple of surgeries. (Hoban, 5/18)
Connecticut Public: Effort To Bring Dental Cleanings To Homebound People In CT Failed When the Connecticut legislature gaveled out on May 6, several bills didn’t make it across the finish line. Among them was a proposal that would have allowed dental cleanings in private residences. (Savitt, 5/15)
Regarding hemp, magic mushrooms, and salmonella —
The Denver Gazette: Colorado Regulators Privately Concede To ‘Rampant’ Illegal Hemp Sales A top regulator for Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division acknowledged in a private meeting with industry representatives that the amount of chemically converted hemp being illegally sold as marijuana is far greater than the agency has publicly disclosed. The remarks confirmed testing by The Denver Gazette and ProPublica, which found signs of hemp in marijuana vapes sold at dispensaries, as well as reporting that regulators have discovered that some hemp-derived vapes were contaminated with a toxic chemical. (Osher, 5/15)
NBC News: More Mushroom Poisoning Cases Reported In California In Biggest U.S. Outbreak Ever California’s monthslong spate of mushroom poisonings, in which four people have died and 43 others hospitalized, has become the largest known outbreak of its kind in U.S. history, experts say. Three cases were reported earlier this week, long after the typical growing season for the mushrooms behind the illnesses, leaving public health officials and mycologists puzzled about why the poisonings have been so widespread and what is causing the trend. (Bush, 5/15)
The Baltimore Sun: Backyard Poultry Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 6 In Maryland Salmonella outbreaks tied to backyard poultry have sickened at least 184 people across 31 states this year, including six in Maryland, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person has died and 53 people have been hospitalized, the CDC said in a May 14 notice. More than a quarter of the people sickened were children younger than 5. (Davis, 5/16)
Also —
Asheville Watchdog: In Quest For More Beds, Mission Plans To Keep Staff Lean, CON Application Shows Mission Hospital has no plans to add staff in key areas – including trauma care, security, and nursing administration – as part of its recently approved, now-contested, 95-bed acute-care expansion, according to its application to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. (Clifford, 5/16)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS8. WHO Proclaims Ebola Outbreak Is An International Public Health Emergency
The World Health Organization moved quickly to declare the emergency on Saturday, prompting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to step up its response. Plus, hantavirus updates.
Stat: WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak A Global Public Health Emergency The World Health Organization late Saturday declared the outbreak of Ebola that was first seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo an international public health emergency, underscoring the concern about the spread of the virus as travel-related cases were reported in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. (Joseph, 5/17)
Bloomberg: CDC To Escalate Ebola Response After WHO Declares Emergency The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is escalating its response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, after the World Health Organization labeled the outbreak a public health emergency. The agency plans to deploy additional staff to the affected countries and will provide technical support including laboratory testing, contact tracing and surveillance through its country offices, said Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incident manager, on a call with reporters Sunday. It has also activated its emergency response center. (Nix, 5/17)
CBS News: At Least 6 Americans In Congo Were Exposed To Ebola Virus, Sources Say At least six Americans were exposed to Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sources with international aid organizations told CBS News, although it was unclear if any had been infected. Three of the Americans faced a high-risk contact or exposure, the sources said, and one was symptomatic. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Americans are still in Congo. The health news organization STAT was first to report on the exposures. (Gounder, 5/17)
Politico: Ebola Risk In U.S. Remains Low Amid Congo Outbreak, CDC Says The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that risk of the Ebola virus to the U.S. population remains low as the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency amid an outbreak of the disease in central Africa. “Travelers to the region should avoid contact with sick people, report symptoms immediately and follow our travel health guidance,” Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incident manager, said on a call with reporters. (Hooper, 5/17)