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Medicaid managed care organizations say profits are looking up after several challenging years. UnitedHealth Group, Elevance Health, Centene and Molina Healthcare have reported second-quarter earnings and reassured investors that their Medicaid margins will rise in 2027 after sinking this year. Insurers cited cost-cutting strategies targeting services such as autism therapy and state funding increases as reasons for optimism. (Tepper, 7/30)

Health systems are working to simplify their electronic health records, but high costs, staffing constraints and technology limitations stand in their way. Providers are navigating years-long upgrades to their EHR systems, hoping to work more efficiently after consolidating dozens of disparate systems that store and analyze patient data. Health systems have been reworking projects to accommodate reprioritized budgets, mergers and acquisitions and workforce needs. (Kacik, 7/30)

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News: The Newest Federally Recognized Tribe Wants Better Healthcare. It May Be On Its Own

Soybean fields surround Angie Lowery’s home in Robeson County, on a plot of rural land in southeastern North Carolina. Dozens of antique gas station signs, 20 feet tall, dominate her front yard. A framed re-creation of The Last Supper, Lone Ranger posters, and a 3-foot-wide tobacco harvesting basket adorn the walls of her home. A collector, Lowery over the years has amassed remnants of her region’s past. But behind the house, the 44-year-old’s backyard garden showcases her goals for the future, one that involves a long, healthy life with her kids: collard greens, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, red and white potatoes, kale. (Jones, 7/31)

The weight-loss drug boom is beginning to show signs of a slowdown as employers and insurers pull back on coverage, signaling the market could be entering a more restrained phase after years of breakneck expansion. In the past few months, growth in prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs for weight loss like Novo Nordisk A/S’ Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound have moderated, according to Cigna Group Chief Executive Officer Brian Evanko. (Muller and Swetlitz, 7/30)

A group of outside experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted in favor of Replimune’s experimental treatment for advanced melanoma. (Herper and Chen, 7/30)

Veterans with hard-to-treat PTSD have seen major improvements in their symptoms, thanks to a trial of a new psychedelic therapy treatment involving the drug psilocybin—a controlled substance and the main ingredient in magic mushrooms. Researchers as part of a clinical trial treated 12 former soldiers suffering with PTSD using psilocybin and found that after a month of treatment, nine of the 12 veterans in the trial no longer met the criteria for PTSD, according to the pilot study published July 30 in Communications Medicine. (Plummer, 7/30)

The war with Iran has driven oil prices up, prompting concern that the supply of some medicines will be disrupted. But there is another consideration. In a new report, Unitaid emphasized that essential medicines are exposed to oil price volatility. (Silverman, 7/30)