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The Biden administration today proposed strengthening requirements so that health insurers cover behavioral health at the same level as physical health. Advocates have long argued that health plans are not adequately covering mental health services, despite a 2008 law intended to ensure parity. The issue has become a priority for policymakers as the aftereffects of the pandemic become clear. (Bettelheim, 7/25)

Pointing to rising rates of mental health issues and suicide, White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said in a press call that not enough Americans are able to access mental health care. She added that insurers make it harder to access mental health care in-network, forcing patients to pay out of pocket. “This rule will stop the industry evasion that has led millions of people to pay for care even when they have insurance,” Tanden said. (Leonard and Payne, 7/25)

Insurance companies, however, have previously not been found to conduct these analyses as thoroughly as the federal government might hope. The Departments of Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services reported to Congress in 2022 that 40 percent of insurance companies requested extensions of time when asked to provide comparative analyses on the limits they place on mental health benefits, like preauthorization requirements. (Choi, 7/25)

“I don’t know what the difference between breaking your arm and having a mental breakdown is — it’s health,” Biden said in an East Room event highlighting the announcement. “We must fulfill the promise of true mental health parity for all Americans now.” (Miller and Megerian, 7/26)

On Latino mental health news —

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) on Tuesday introduced a bill seeking to lift barriers to mental health care among Latinos. The pandemic exacerbated mental health needs in the U.S., especially among Latinos, whose rates of depression, anxiety and suicide have grown since 2020. (Contreras, 7/25)

Also —

���ϳԹ��� News: A Year With 988: What Worked? What Challenges Lie Ahead?
The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s 988 hotline marked its one-year milestone this month. Mental health experts say the three-digit number made help more accessible than before. The hotline was designed with the idea that people experiencing emotional distress are more comfortable reaching out for help from trained counselors than from police and other first responders through 911. (DeGuzman, 7/26)

If you are in need of help —

Ohio voters will decide in November whether to amend their state Constitution to establish a right to abortion, after state officials said on Tuesday that proponents had submitted over 495,000 valid signatures from voters, more than enough to put the question on the ballot. Supporters of the measure still face another hurdle. Republicans in the state legislature want to make the amendment harder to approve, and have put up a ballot question of their own that would raise the threshold of voters required to amend the state constitution to 60 percent instead of a simple majority. That question is on the ballot in a special election on Aug. 8; early voting on that amendment is already in progress. (Zernike, 7/25)

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) certified petitioners received a total of 495,938 valid signatures, exceeding the required minimum of 413,446 signatures — equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast for the governor’s office in the last election. These signatures were collected from 55 counties in Ohio, also surpassing the minimum requirement of at least 44 counties. The coalition said earlier this month they submitted over 700,000 signatures to place the measure on the ballot. (Nazzaro, 7/25)

The measure will be closely watched by groups on both sides of the abortion debate, as activists consider pursuing referendums in other states after the U.S. Supreme Court last year stripped away national abortion rights. Ohio is likely to be the only state to vote on abortion rights this fall. (Ax, 7/26)

On contraception in Ohio —

The Ohio Secretary of State said Tuesday that Republican lawmakers would not try to ban contraception if the threshold for passing a state constitutional amendment is raised. Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) made the comment during a debate, hosted by WCMH-TV in Columbus, over Issue 1, a ballot proposal that would raise the threshold for passing future changes to the Ohio Constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent. The move comes as Ohio is set to vote on a measure in November that would amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. (Suter, 7/25)

In other abortion news —

Gov. Kim Reynolds can proceed with an appeal on a temporary block on the state’s new, restrictive abortion law, the Iowa Supreme Court said Tuesday. Reynolds announced her intentions to appeal last week and said it was “just a matter of time” before lawyers for the state filed the request, which they did Friday. The Iowa Supreme Court had to say whether the request could move forward. (Fingerhut, 7/25)

Amid a legal battle about the future of abortion rights in Florida, more than 38,000 abortions were performed in the state during the first half of 2023, according to a newly posted report on the state Agency for Health Care Administration website. The report, dated July 3, said 38,244 abortions had been performed this year. About one-third of the abortions were performed on residents of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, while 3,390 were performed on women from other states. (7/25)

On abortion politics on Capitol Hill —

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R), who is holding up more than 280 senior military promotions over the Pentagon’s abortion policies, said Tuesday he’s not likely to change his position before the Senate departs for a five-week August recess. “No, I’m not going to change my mind,” Tuberville told “The Hill on NewsNation” when asked whether he would drop his holds before the long break from Washington. (Bolton, 7/25)

President Joe Biden called on the Senate to pass kids online safety and privacy bills that are getting a committee vote this week — which continues to put the pressure on Congress to advance stronger online protections for children. “We’re taking steps to address the harm that social media is doing to our kids,” Biden said during Tuesday remarks on expanding access to mental health care. “We’ve got to hold these platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.” (Kern, 7/25)

House Democrats said the Biden administration must do more to rein in overpayments and increase transparency of Medicare Advantage plans. Lawmakers spoke during a press conference Tuesday highlighting issues with care denials and quality in the popular Medicare Advantage program. Democratic lawmaker anger over the program has been simmering in recent months after reports of insurers using algorithms to deny Medicare claims that should have been approved. (King, 7/25)

The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mandy Cohen, is only two weeks into her new job. But already she hears the clock ticking. If all goes well, Cohen — the successor to Rochelle Walensky, who stepped down at the end of June — will have about 18 months at the helm of the world’s premier public health agency before the next U.S. president is sworn in. If the 2024 election goes one way, her term could be extended — pending Senate confirmation. If it goes the other way, there’s a very good chance someone else will take her place. (Branswell, 7/26)

On the cost of medical care —

Mounting frustration with hospitals' billing practices are stirring reform efforts in Congress, state legislatures and within the Biden administration. But not everyone agrees on where to start. Some measures under discussion could cost hospitals hundreds of billions of dollars, by paring payments that critics say are excessive and costing taxpayers and patients. (Owens and Goldman, 7/26)

Lawmakers in Congress generally agree that there’s something very broken with the way America pays for prescription drugs. They’re focused this summer on reining in pharmacy middlemen to make the system fairer — but none of their many proposals will actually tackle the core dynamic that has incentivized higher drug prices. (Cohrs, 7/26)

In other news —

House GOP appropriators are loading up their spending bills with anti-abortion and anti-gender affirming care measures that threaten Speaker Kevin McCarthy's goal of passing 12 separate appropriations bills. Unless the full Republican conference and the Democratic Senate are in agreement on the riders, it's time to start planning for a government shutdown at the end of September. (Knight, 7/26)

An attorney should not be allowed to shield information that would identify them in a U.S. food and drug inspection report that questioned a company's regulatory compliance, the U.S. Justice Department on Monday told a federal judge. The Justice Department asked U.S. Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., to dismiss what it called "threadbare allegations" that would stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from revealing the attorney's identity in a public report. (Scarcella, 7/25)

"PXDX is a simple tool to accelerate physician payments that has been grossly mischaracterized in the press," a Cigna spokesperson wrote in response to a request for comment. "The facts speak for themselves and we will continue to set the record straight." As alleged in court documents, Kisting-Leung’s doctors recommended she receive ultrasound screenings for ovarian cancer twice last year, and Cigna denied both claims by arguing they lacked medical necessity, leaving Kisting-Leung to pay nearly $750 out-of-pocket. Kisting-Leung appealed the denials but has yet to hear back from Cigna about the status of the bills, the complaint alleges. (Tepper, 7/25)

On Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy case —

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma may proceed with a bankruptcy settlement that protects its Sackler family owners from lawsuits, despite a potential U.S. Supreme Court appeal in the case, a U.S. court ruled on Tuesday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit court of appeals approved Purdue's bankruptcy plan in May, ruling that the company can shield its owners from opioid lawsuits in exchange for a $6 billion contribution to the company's broader bankruptcy settlement. (Knauth, 7/25)

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma can start executing a settlement that protects members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids, a court ruled Tuesday. The ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York allows the company’s transformation to start — though it’s still subject to approval from another court. (Mulvihill, 7/25)

Also —

���ϳԹ��� News: Listen To The Latest ‘���ϳԹ��� News Minute’
“���ϳԹ��� News Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the ���ϳԹ��� News newsroom to the airwaves each week. (7/25)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is being sued by its transgender clinic patients, who accuse the hospital of violating their privacy by turning their records over to Tennessee’s attorney general. Two patients sued Monday in Nashville Chancery Court, saying they were among more than 100 people whose records were sent by Vanderbilt to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. His office has said it is examining medical billing in a “run of the mill” fraud investigation that isn’t directed at patients or their families. Vanderbilt has said it was required by law to comply. (Matisse, 7/25)

The attorney general's office said it is investigating potential medical billing fraud related to VUMC's transgender care, alleging a doctor publicly described manipulating billing to evade "coverage limits." Skrmetti's office called it a "run-of-the-mill" fraud investigation that is focused on providers, not patients, and said private patient health information would remain closely guarded. The lawsuit states the plaintiffs face "significant threats of harassment, harm, and bodily injury from being transgender or perceived as transgender." (Brown, 7/26)

In other news relating to transgender health —

Families of transgender children on Tuesday sued to block a new Missouri law banning gender-affirming health care for minors from taking effect as scheduled on Aug. 28. The law will prohibit Missouri health care providers from providing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries to minors. Minors prescribed puberty blockers or hormones before Aug. 28 would be able to continue to receive those treatments. (Ballentine, 7/26)

Opponents of a measure that would bar most transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming care are asking a judge to prevent it from going into effect. Several law firms filed a lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court on Tuesday to block legislation prohibiting transgender youth from obtaining puberty blockers and hormone therapy. It would also bar the state from paying for gender-affirming care for adults who are on Medicaid or incarcerated. (Rosenbaum, 7/25)

The reason Arizona is blocking two transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports is because they have a medical condition, the state’s top GOP legislative leaders say in a new court argument. That rationale means the state law isn’t discriminatory, they also argue. In a new court filing, the attorney for Senate President Warren Petersen of Gilbert and House Speaker Ben Toma of Peoria asks federal Judge Jennifer Zipps to delay an order she issued last week allowing two transgender girls who sued, including a Tucsonan, to take part in their schools’ girls’ sports teams. Petersen and Toma want the state to keep barring their participation. (Fischer, 7/25)

Also —

Several school districts in Virginia said they would be rejecting Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's model policies requiring students to use bathrooms and pronouns that match their biological sex. The updated Virginia Department Of Education’s 2023 Model Policies include "clear and useful" suggestions to school districts for preferred pronoun usage, maintaining student records, the identification of students and enforcing sex-based dress codes. (Mion, 7/26)

The U.S. is seeing high levels of heat-related illness this year, according to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided to NPR. The agency has been collecting national data on heat-related illness from emergency departments since 2018 and currently releases it daily through its Heat & Health Tracker. (Huang, Hurt and Wroth, 7/26)

As temperatures soar across the country, Texas Democratic Rep. Greg Casar is leading workers and civil rights leaders in an all-day hunger and thirst strike Tuesday to highlight the need for updated federal workplace heat standards and protections. Casar will have no water, food or breaks until nurses require him to stop, according to a release. The event is intended to call for a federal workplace heat standard, including protections for rest and water breaks. (Alvey, 7/25)

Much of the United States felt like a blazing inferno on Wednesday, as record heat attacked the South like a blowtorch, thick smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the Great Lakes region, and triple-digit temperatures threatened to wallop California for the first time this year. (Werner, Stillman and Selig, 7/25)

So far this year, 18 people have died from heat-associated deaths, and 69 more deaths are under investigation, according to Maricopa County's weekly heat report. "It feels like an oven," says Eric Brickley, of Feed Phoenix. The community organization has been setting up hydration stations around the city, delivering ice and water to the homeless population, and anyone who needs it. "It is basically the only thing that keeps someone from perishing. Some of the places people are living are so hot and deadly that without ice, even in the shade, they will die." (Lim and Marquez Janse, 7/25)

As many North Carolina residents seek chilled shelter from stifling heat advisories, warnings and indices expected to top 100 degrees, many in the state’s prison population are confined inside buildings without air conditioning. In 2021, state lawmakers included $30 million in the approved two-year spending plan to retrofit older prison buildings with cooling systems. In late June, a prison system spokesperson sent out a news release heralding the completion of the first project — one unit at Caswell Correctional Center, a medium-security facility for men. (Blythe, 7/26)

Temperatures continue to rise in Boston this week, with the city expected to see 90-degree days to mark the end of an already hot and humid July. Thursday and Friday are expected to top 90 degrees in Boston, possibly beating this year’s record high for the city of 91 degrees, set on July 17. Mayor Michelle Wu has declared a heat emergency for Thursday and Friday when “the heat index [is] expected to reach the mid-90s to 100 degrees,” her office said in a statement. A heat advisory will be in effect Wednesday through Saturday, when residents should also take steps to stay safe from the heat, the statement said. (Scales and Smilgius, 7/25)

Meanwhile, in Florida sea temperatures reach worrying highs —

No hot tub needed in South Florida this week. Water temperatures in the bays between the mainland and the Florida Keys were so warm Monday that meteorologists say they were among the hottest ocean temperatures ever recorded on Earth. Water temperature at a buoy in Manatee Bay south of Miami reached an incredible 101.1 degrees Monday evening. That could be a new world record, besting an unofficial 99.7 degree temperature once reported in Kuwait. But meteorologists say the Florida gauge's location in dark water near land could make that difficult to determine. (Voyles Pulver, 7/25)

More than one third of Americans living in rural areas skipped medical care they needed due to the costs, according to a new study. The Commonwealth Fund’s 2020 International Health Policy Survey found that 36 percent of rural Americans did not get the care they needed due to costs, which is more than double the rate for rural residents in six of the other countries the study looked at. Less than 10 percent of rural residents in the United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden reported that they did not get medical care due to costs. (Sforza, 7/25)

The U.S. outranks other developed nations in the percentage of rural adults who skip medical care because they can't afford it, per a new Commonwealth Fund analysis of 11 high-income countries. About 15%, or nearly 46 million people, live in outlying areas in the U.S., and rural Americans have poorer health outcomes than their urban counterparts, in part due to access issues. (Dreher, 7/25)

Faced with steep health care costs in the U.S., an increasing number of women are going abroad for fertility treatments, including egg freezing and IVF. The number of women seeking to freeze their eggs surged after the onset of the pandemic, but sky-high costs, coupled with a lack of insurance coverage, have put some fertility treatments out of reach for many people. (Saric, 7/25)

The proposed merger between two of Missouri’s largest health care systems could result in higher prices for patients, according to researchers and health economists. St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare and Kansas City-based St. Luke’s Health System announced the merger earlier this year but plan to maintain their own headquarters, location and branding. The Federal Trade Commission will need to approve the $10 billion merger for it to go through. (Fentem, 7/25)

In other health industry news —

The American Medical Association, the insurance trade group AHIP and the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations jointly released recommendations to facilitate data sharing among participants in value-based care arrangements on Tuesday. The three organizations described the guidelines as the first product emerging from their partnership. (Berryman, 7/25)

Emergency call center workers say their centers are understaffed, struggling to fill vacancies and plagued by worker burnout, according to a national survey released Tuesday. (Lauer, 7/25)

Shortages of Eli Lilly & Co.’s Mounjaro have expanded to include all of the higher doses, showing just how strong demand is for the drug before it even gets formal approval for use in obesity. Just last month, US regulators said that three of the higher doses of Lilly’s drug were experiencing “intermittent backorders” through July due to increased demand. The latest update adds a fourth dose to that list and extends issues with another, higher-dose option through September, according to a Food and Drug Administration website. Only the two lowest doses of the drug remain fully available. (Muller and Cattan, 7/25)

Truvian Health, a San Diego blood diagnostics company, shared data on Tuesday showing that its benchtop instrument’s results are largely consistent with those generated by large central laboratories. But while the results lend support for the company’s vision of decentralized and widely available clinical testing, they also resurface questions about the value of an approach widely associated with the now defunct and notorious Bay Area startup Theranos. (Wosen, 7/25)

On financial matters —

Biogen said Tuesday it will cut about 1,000 jobs, roughly 11 percent of its global workforce, as part of a plan to lower costs as the Cambridge biotech starts to roll out the new Alzheimer’s drug it codeveloped and prepares for the possible approval of a treatment for depression next week. Biogen, which had 8,725 employees worldwide at the end of last year, didn’t specify where the cuts will take place. But chief executive Christopher Viehbacher told reporters after the company’s second-quarter earnings call that “there will be an impact in Massachusetts, and it’s a little too early yet to say exactly how many.” (Saltzman, 7/25)

Universal Health Services is upping its 2023 guidance range after posting a strong first half of the year. The for-profit health system said Tuesday it is revising its adjusted earnings per share outlook for the year to $9.85 to $10.50, compared with $9.50 to $10.50. (Hudson, 7/25)

Teladoc Health elevated key guidance following revenue gains in the second quarter, the virtual care company announced Tuesday. Revenue rose 10% to $652.4 million as integrated care membership grew 7% during the second quarter, Teladoc reported. Although the company recorded a $65.2 million net loss, or 40 cents per share, Teladoc advised investors that it had raised its low-end revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization guidance for the year. (Turner, 7/25)

Hippocratic AI, a generative artificial intelligence company focused on healthcare, said Monday it has raised $15 million in funding and added 10 healthcare partners. Launched by venture capital companies General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz in May, Hippocratic AI is setting out to build a large language generative AI model for healthcare across various sectors, said co-founder and CEO Munjal Shah. (Turner, 7/25)

GE HealthCare Technologies Inc (GEHC.O) said on Tuesday that the commercial launch of Alzheimer's treatment and related testing for patients would help drive demand for its imaging equipment at hospitals and medical centers next year. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed broader coverage for a type of brain scan used in identifying a key Alzheimer's disease protein to determine patients' eligibility for the new treatment. (Mandowara, 7/25)

GSK raised its full-year profit and sales guidance on Wednesday after its second-quarter earnings beat expectations, helped by strong sales of its shingles vaccine Shingrix and HIV medicines. The strong results may further help revive investor confidence in CEO Emma Walmsley, coming a year after the company spun off its consumer health business, Haleon, in its most radical shake-up in 20 years. (Fick and Anil Kumar, 7/26)

In news on health care staff —

For 15 years, orthopedic surgeon Charles S. Day has been working to highlight the striking lack of diversity in his field, publishing studies showing orthopedics had the fewest Black, Hispanic, and female residents of any surgical specialty. Day himself is Asian American, a group that’s abundant in medicine. But as he dug further, his datasets and personal experiences began to collide. He found that white doctors were more than four times as likely as their Asian American colleagues to be promoted to medical school department chair positions in a wide array of medical specialties, and that Black and brown doctors were more than twice as likely as Asians to be promoted. (McFarling, 7/26)

Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., sent a notice to the hospital on Monday that they plan to strike, according to a union president and the hospital. The union opted for an 11-day notice, putting a work stoppage on track to begin Aug. 4, according to United Steel Workers Local 4-200 President Judy Danella. While a minimum 10-day notice is required, Danella said that the steelworkers typically send an 11-day notice. (Han, 7/25)

The state wants a federal judge to put on hold a ruling aimed at keeping children with complex medical conditions out of nursing homes, saying a shortage of nurses would make it “impossible” to comply with a key part of the decision. Attorneys for the state filed a motion for a stay Friday, a week after U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled that Florida has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and needs to make changes to help children receive care in their family homes and communities instead of nursing homes. The state is seeking a stay while it challenges Middlebrooks’ ruling at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Saunders, 7/24)

From eczema to hay fever, kids with allergic conditions might be on track to develop others down the road, a new study finds. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at the electronic medical records of nearly 220,000 children in the US who were screened between 1999 and 2020. The results provide evidence for a recognized trend called the allergic march, a natural progression of allergy-related diseases from infancy through childhood, at the largest scale yet. (Viswanathan, 7/25)

Eczema in young babies could be a sign that a child will go on to develop more allergies. New research, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, confirms a phenomenon known as the “allergic march” — a pattern that describes the way allergies tend to develop and progress in children, beginning in infancy through age 3. (Sullivan, 7/25)

In other research news —

Results from the phase three trial were published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The study of 196 women with severe postpartum depression found that those who took a daily 50-milligram dose of zuranolone in a pill for 14 days showed “significant improvements in depressive symptoms” compared with those who were given a placebo. (Howard, 7/26)

Yesterday in Pediatrics researchers mined vaccine records of 16,365 US children ages 19 to 35 months in 2019 to determine how many complete the seven common multidose vaccine series given in infancy and early childhood. They found 1 in 6 US children had incomplete vaccine series. Currently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends several vaccine series, each consisting of 1 to 4 doses, to protect against 15 diseases in the first 2 years of a child's life. (Soucheray, 7/25)

Today during the 2023 American Association for Clinical Chemistry Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, researchers presented new data on SARS-CoV-2 confections in the US, and showed among 26,000 samples, 1.33% of positive cases were also infected with another virus, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or influenza. (Soucheray, 7/25)

Also —

Tattoos are considered to be among the oldest forms of art, dating back thousands of years and practiced by many cultures across human history. Now some researchers believe the next generation of tattoos will be about more than just markings – by helping keep tabs on our health. (Bresnahan, 7/26)

Ground beef contaminated with salmonella has sickened at least 16 people, including six hospitalized, in four Northeastern states, federal health officials said Tuesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said illnesses have been reported in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Ground beef is the only common food reported in the outbreak. People who recalled what they ate and where they bought it reported eating 80% lean ground beef purchased from ShopRite stores in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. No recall has been issued, and an investigation is continuing, the agency said. (Aleccia, 7/26)

While investigators are still reviewing the incidents, they say nine patients reported eating ground beef before falling ill. Those who remembered the ground beef they purchased identified it as 80% lean beef purchased at ShopRite locations in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Among the 16 people who became ill, nine live in New Jersey. Five are from New York, and Connecticut and Massachusetts have each confirmed one case of salmonella that was linked to this outbreak. The CDC warns there could be more sick people, in these states or others, who recovered without medical care and are therefore not tested for salmonella. For those who are tested, it can take up to a month to determine whether they are linked to this specific outbreak. . (Bink, 7/25)

In other insect-borne diseases —

The Department of Public Health & Environment said the case was found in an individual from La Pata County, as well as in mosquitoes in seven counties. "Mosquito populations are at historic levels in some parts of the state due to the high rainfall this year. This unusually high mosquito activity along with known presence of the virus has caused an elevated risk of West Nile virus transmission to humans," the department warned. (Musto, 7/25)

The Santa Clara County Vector Control District is set to spray parts of Palo Alto and Stanford after mosquitoes there tested positive for West Nile Virus. The infected insects were collected in the 94301, 94304, 94305 and 94306 ZIP codes, the district said in a news release. (Green, 7/25)

In 2022, doctors recorded the first confirmed case of tick-borne encephalitis virus acquired in the United Kingdom.It began with a bike ride. A 50-year-old man was mountain biking in the North Yorkshire Moors, a national park in England known for its vast expanses of woodland and purple heather. At some point on his ride, at least one black-legged tick burrowed into his skin. Five days later, the mountain biker developed symptoms commonly associated with a viral infection — fatigue, muscle pain, fever. (Teirstein, 7/25)

On a high-profile cardiac arrest, and covid misinformation —

When Vince Iwuchukwu collapsed on the court during a summer workout at Galen Center on July 1 last year, USC’s training staff rushed to revive the 7-foot freshman whose heart had stopped suddenly. A trio of certified athletic trainers converged on Iwuchukwu and began administering CPR. One staff member called 911. Another retrieved the automated external defibrillator (AED) that hangs in a hallway off the main court. The speed with which the USC’s staff reacted ultimately saved Iwuchukwu’s life — and later allowed for him to resume playing competitive basketball. (Kartje, 7/25)

At the time, Dr. Michael Emery, cardiologist and co-director of the sports cardiology center at Cleveland Clinic, told Fortune, “The [suggested] link between the COVID-19 vaccine [and cardiac arrest] is wildly and irresponsibly speculative from a very vocal minority.” According to The Sports Institute, roughly one or two in every 100,000 young athletes experience a sudden cardiac arrest each year, with African American males being at greater risk (nearly six in 100,000). (Thompson Payton, 7/25)

In other public health news —

Fetal mortality rates declined among Black women in 2020 but were much higher than other racial/ethnic groups in the U.S., new federal data shows. A report, published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, looked at data from the National Vital Statistics System. Fetal deaths are deaths that occur at 20 weeks' gestation -- about five months of pregnancy -- or later and affect 1% of all pregnancies in the U.S. (Kekatos, 7/26)

Cook County recorded the deadliest year for opioid overdoses in 2022, according to the medical examiner’s office, a record that’s unsurprising to advocates and public health officials who said this signals a need for more harm reduction strategies. In 2022, there were 2,000 deaths, surpassing 1,935 deaths in 2021. The large majority of deaths involved fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. (La, 7/26)

Ozempic no longer needs an explanation. The drug is a household name, in part thanks to its popularity on social media. TikTok in particular has been flooded with hundreds — if not thousands — of videos touting the medication and other GLP-1 drugs, which are increasingly prescribed off-label to patients looking to slim down. Ozempic, for example, accounted for nearly 40% of GLP-1 prescriptions in people who did not have diabetes in 2022, according to the data analytics firm Komodo Health. That suggests a large number of patients are using it for weight-loss, when the medication is specifically intended to help to lower blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. (Muller, 7/25)

USA TODAY analyzed a decade's worth of data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration about the movement of hazardous chemicals across Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Here are the most important takeaways revealed in the data, as well how reporters evaluated the information. (Oung, 7/25)

A chemical fire, explosion or toxic release occurs every two days in the U.S., according to data compiled by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, a group of environmental justice organizations. At least 25 chemical incidents have occurred in Texas so far this year, the most of any state, according to the data, which is compiled from news, industry and government reports. Chemical incidents can impact the health of people living and working nearby. (Martinez and Douglas, 7/26)

More than five months after a train carrying noxious chemicals derailed down the street from the hydraulic equipment supply store where he works, Tim Cumberlidge is still trying to find out exactly what he was exposed to. “It’s not been a good ordeal all around. You can’t get a straight answer,” said Cumberlidge, warehouse manager at Brushville Supply and Hardware. The cleanup workers in neon vests, visible from the store, are still blocking the street, a constant reminder of the accident and a significant hindrance, he said, for customers and business. (Post, 7/25)

In news from California —

Monthly health insurance premiums for roughly 1.7 million people in California will go up an average of 9.6% next year — the largest increase in five years — but state officials said many consumers won’t feel those hikes because taxpayers will pay for them. The federal Affordable Care Act lets people who don’t get health insurance from their job buy coverage from a marketplace. Most states let the federal government run their marketplaces for them. But California runs its own marketplace called Covered California. (Beam, 7/26)

San Francisco's response to the COVID-19 crisis resulted in one of the lowest coronavirus-related death tolls among U.S. metropolitan cities, a study has found. According to the study conducted by University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) researchers and the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), the city implemented "one of the most intensive, inclusive and multi-pronged" COVID responses in the U.S., leading to one of the lowest fatality rates among U.S. cities across all ages and ethnicities. (7/25)

California is the epicenter of American gun violence research, largely because it maintains an extensive repository of firearms data and, unlike other states, has historically made much of the data available to scientists studying the root causes of gun deaths. A lawsuit brought by gun-rights activists now threatens that longstanding data infrastructure. And although the federal government began funding gun-violence research again in 2019, following a two-decades-long drought, that funding is under threat from House Republicans, who have vowed to kill it. (Tucker Smith, 7/25)

���ϳԹ��� News: Pain Clinic Chain To Pay $11.4M To Settle Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Claims
The owner of one of California’s largest chains of pain management clinics has agreed to pay nearly $11.4 million to California, Oregon, and the federal government to settle allegations of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice and the states’ attorneys general say Francis Lagattuta, a physician, and his Lags Medical Centers performed — and billed for — medically unnecessary tests and procedures on thousands of patients over more than five years. It was “a brazen scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid of millions of dollars by inflicting unnecessary and painful procedures on patients whom they were supposed to be relieving of pain,” Phillip Talbert, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement this month. (Thompson, 7/26)

On other developments across the country —

Cook County recorded the deadliest year for opioid overdoses in 2022, according to the medical examiner’s office, a record that’s unsurprising to advocates and public health officials who said this signals a need for more harm reduction strategies. In 2022, there were 2,000 deaths, surpassing 1,935 deaths in 2021. The large majority of deaths involved fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. (La, 7/26)

Cases of tuberculosis (TB) — an illness that kills more people than any other infectious disease — rose in the U.S. during 2022, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And some doctors are concerned that limitations of testing at the border could be partly to blame for the surge. (Rudy and Siegel, 7/25)

With the purchase of three hospitals from Bravera Health, Tampa General is expanding its “geographic footprint” into Hernando and Citrus counties. The agreement, estimated at $290 million, includes Bravera Health Brooksville, Bravera Health Spring Hill and Bravera Health Seven Rivers. The purchase, announced Tuesday, also includes clinics and outpatient services, according to Bravera’s parent company, Community Health Systems. (Mayer, 7/26)

Community Health Systems has agreed to sell three Florida hospitals to Tampa General Hospital in a deal valued at about $290 million, the for-profit system announced Monday. The transaction, which is expected to close later this year, includes Bravera Health Brooksville in Brooksville, Bravera Health Seven Rivers in Crystal River, and Bravera Health Spring Hill in Spring Hill. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. (Hudson, 7/25)

The state Agency for Health Care Administration has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit that is expected to lead to the Medicaid program providing incontinence supplies to adults with disabilities, according to court documents. Lawyers for the state, two women with disabilities and the advocacy group Disability Rights Florida this past week asked a federal judge to approve the settlement and put the lawsuit on hold while the Agency for Health Care Administration moves forward with a rule-making process. (Saunders, 7/25)

A new report examining deaths of young children in Connecticut over the past several years found that babies and toddlers are dying of fentanyl overdoses — a new concern in the state — and that unsafe sleep deaths have remained an issue. (Monk, 7/25)

A jury has ordered anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy and associates to pay more than $50 million in damages to Idaho's largest hospital in connection with armed protests last year that led to a security lockdown. (Siegler, 7/25)

Gov. Phil Murphy plans to nominate a physician from Cooper University Health Care to be the next commissioner of the Department of Health, his office announced Tuesday. The pending nomination of Kaitlan Baston follows the reported retirement of current Commissioner Judith Persichilli later this summer. Perischill oversaw the state health department starting in 2019 and during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Han, 7/25)

The results of a randomized clinical trial suggests testing children who present with symptoms of acute sinusitis for three specific nasal bacterial pathogens may be a strategy for reducing unnecessary antibiotic use. (Dall, 7/25)

Researchers have developed a drug delivery system that shows promise for greatly enhancing the efficacy of the medicine given to women with the life-threatening condition of ectopic pregnancy. (Oregon State University, 7/24)

Patients with the eyelid disease Demodex blepharitis can now see a cure in Tarsus Pharmaceuticals’ Xdemvy, the first FDA-approved treatment for an ailment that affects some 25 million Americans. (Becker, 7/25)

SARS-CoV-2 deaths in UK cancer patients dropped 84% after the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, estimates a University of Birmingham-led team today in Scientific Reports. (Van Beusekom, 7/25)

The law of demand applies to pharmaceuticals, but with one big difference. It’s not always the customer who decides that the price is too high. Often, it’s the insurer. (Keith Ericson and Tal Gross, 7/24)

The United States is approaching a public health milestone. With the recent recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make anyone 60 and older eligible for the newly approved vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus, this will be the first year that vulnerable individuals can protect themselves against the “tripledemic” of RSV, influenza and the coronavirus. (Leana S. Wen, 7/25)

This month, the FDA approved a birth control pill called Opill for over-the-counter pharmacy distribution. This is amazing news for reproductive autonomy. (Kim Adamski, 7/26)

At 86, retired nurse Eleanor McLaughlin suffers from congestive heart failure. She spent months in hospitals last year. After McLaughlin recently went to the emergency room with trouble breathing and swollen legs, she was offered the chance to return to her Needham apartment with hospital-level care. She jumped at it. (7/26)

The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency this spring brought with it a massive health care challenge: redetermining eligibility for the 94 million people across the nation who depend on medical assistance. (7/25)

Trust forms the bedrock of an ethical health care system, one that fosters an environment that prioritizes the well-being of the patient above all else. But as health care startups attempt to reshape the delivery of patient care, major concerns have emerged regarding the prioritization of business interests over patient outcomes. (Manan Shah, 7/25)

Ohio's healthcare landscape is coming into some very bumpy challenges in the days ahead. The complications of the affordability crisis in our state are well known. (Bob McEwen, 7/25)

Sustained heat at such levels is inhospitable to human life. Homeless people and those living without air conditioning die by the dozens each year in Phoenix. At least a dozen have already perished this year. People passing out from heat stroke get second- and third-degree burns from the pavement. Everyone else is condemned to being trapped inside for months at a time, blasting air-conditioning and straining the electrical grid. (Mark Gongloff, 7/24)

Our youth are in a mental health crisis. Young people describe steadily increasing sadness, hopelessness and suicidal thoughts. These mental health challenges are greater for youth who hold marginalized identities that include sexual orientation, gender identity or race or ethnicity. (Myeshia Price, 7/25)

Black men in the United States experience higher rates of prostate cancer and are twice as likely to die from the disease than White men. The Black maternal mortality rate is more than double what it is for White women. And Black and Hispanic children living with heart conditions have a much higher risk of death than do White children. These are examples of the bleak health picture for many Americans, and an unfortunate Supreme Court ruling last month may make a bad situation worse. (David J. Skorton and Frank R. Trinity, 7/25)

Last week, Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced that he will resign as president of Stanford over work performed many years ago, in labs at three different institutions. While most of the attention has been focused on the fall from grace of this distinguished scientist, this sad situation carries broader lessons about avoidable outcomes. (C.K. Gunsalus, 7/26)

In the 15 years since it began, Pelotonia has raised more than a quarter of a billion dollars, with every cent brought in dedicated to supporting cancer research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute — OSUCCC – James —, including the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology. (Mary Yost, 7/26)