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A federal judge in Texas reversed a Biden-era rule on Friday that permitted medical debt to be wiped from credit reports, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, a 2019 appointee of President Trump, said the rule by the previous administration exceeds the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). ... The Biden administration estimated that the action would remove nearly $50 billion of medical debt from the credit reports of roughly 15 million Americans. (Fields, 7/12)

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said his agency may fast-track new drugs from pharmaceutical companies that “equalize” the cost of their medicines between the US and other countries, an unusual proposition from the regulator that’s long avoided contentious pricing debates. ... Price adjustments may give companies another way to obtain “national priority vouchers,” the reward that comes as part of a new program the FDA announced last month that would slash review times for companies it says are backing national interests. (Cohrs Zhang and Hornblower, 7/11)

The Department of Health and Human Services has asked some laid-off staff if they could return to work temporarily, as the department grapples with a backlog of grants that has swelled to more than a billion dollars in the wake of hurdles set up by DOGE. Multiple HHS officials, who were not authorized to speak to the press, said the laid-off staff asked to return to work include a handful of employees who managed grants in the department's Administration for Children and Families, or ACF. (Tin, 7/11)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent much of his confirmation process before becoming the nation’s health secretary reassuring lawmakers that he would not undermine public confidence in vaccines and seeking to distance himself from the anti-vaccine group he founded, Children’s Health Defense. As health secretary, he has installed former prominent members of that group and other vaccine skeptics in positions at the department he runs or agencies it oversees. (Cirruzzo, 7/14)

Wearable health devices no longer are just a fashion statement for the already-healthy consumer. Health systems and tech companies see wearables playing an important part in improving the health of all populations. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., last month suggested every American could use a wearable device to track their health metrics and said HHS would launch a marketing campaign to promote them as a key to preventative health. (Perna, 7/11)

���ϳԹ��� News: Vested Interests. Influence Muscle. At RFK Jr.’s HHS, It’s Not Pharma. It’s Wellness

On his way to an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by the home of podcaster Gary Brecka. The two spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and tried some intravenous nutrition drips that Brecka, a self-avowed longevity and wellness maven, sells and promotes on his show, “The Ultimate Human.” Then the podcast taping started, and Kennedy — who was also on the mic — took aim at Big Pharma’s influence on federal health policy. (Armour, 7/14)

The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction. Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. (Thiessen, 7/12)

Just a week had remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward limiting one of history’s deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived. Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding. The news devastated the researchers, who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world. (Magome, 7/14)

Senate Republicans remain wary of eliminating the popular and successful global HIV/AIDS program PEPFAR, as they face down a July 18 deadline to vote on President Trump’s first tranche of rescissions requests. In his rescissions request to Congress last month, Trump asked that $900 million budgeted for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) be cancelled. The House has already passed Trump’s rescissions, and now the Senate must make the final move. (Choi, 7/12)

Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the FDA, Senate appropriators unanimously advanced a funding bill Thursday that maintains the agency’s funding in fiscal 2026 at roughly the same level as in fiscal 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee bill, which advanced by a 27-0 vote, funds the agency at $7 billion, comprised of $3.6 billion in taxpayer funds and $3.4 billion in user fee revenues. (Gardner and Lim, 7/11)