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Newly released state enrollment data show ObamaCare coverage losses could be even more severe than initially anticipated, due to Congress’s unwillingness to renew enhanced subsidies. Monthly enrollment data through April from Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico and New York showed a significant number of people canceled their coverage or did not pay their premium bills after signing up for coverage in 2026, according to an analysis from Georgetown University. (Weixel, 6/10)

Patients enrolled in some of the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage plans were denied requests for rehabilitation and other critical services at unusually high rates, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general. It comes amid increased scrutiny of how insurers use prior authorization, a cost-cutting tool that experts say often leads to the delay or denial of necessary care. (Lovelace Jr., 6/11)

Legislation aimed at reducing delays when Medicare Advantage plans require preapproval for care could hit the House floor under fast-track rules for bills that have broad support. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., targets use of prior authorization in Medicare Advantage — in which insurers approve or deny services before they can be delivered. (Hellmann, 6/10)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has granted Clover Health higher Medicare Advantage quality scores after the insurer won a lawsuit last month, the company announced Wednesday. Clover Health’s largest Medicare Advantage contract — which comprises multiple plans — earned a boost to its 2026 star rating. The company successfully challenged the legality of some of the measures CMS uses to evaluate Medicare Advantage plans. (Tepper, 6/10)

North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services waited nearly a year for federal guidance on implementing the Medicaid work requirement approved by congressional Republicans last summer. The mandate, passed in the summer of 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, takes effect on Jan. 1. (Baxley, 6/11)

Following widespread outcry from providers and state lawmakers, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said it will lift payment suspensions for providers who filed an appeal, according to a memo sent to providers and obtained by MPR News on Wednesday. (Roth, 6/10)

Providers and payers want regulators to enforce a convoluted out-of-network arbitration process they say remains unchecked despite recent efforts to streamline it. A weedy new Independent Dispute Resolution rule resolves myriad communication and transparency concerns that have long ensnarled the arbitration process. But the technical rule issued in May wasn’t designed to address larger enforcement and policy questions, and that’s chafing the industry. (Early, 6/10)

Despite steady demand for obesity medications, 49% of payers who do not currently cover GLP-1s for obesity would not do so at any price, a new report from Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (PSG) found. (Gleeson, 6/10)

American doctors want their leading lobby to drop its nice guy routine with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At the American Medical Association’s annual meeting this week, members of the group’s House of Delegates are sending a clear message to their leaders: Call out Kennedy, even if it costs us in the pocketbook. That message was stated most clearly in the election of Sandra Fryhofer, an internist from Atlanta and uncompromising Kennedy critic, as AMA president-elect. (Levien, 6/10)

Artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine must always be overseen by physicians, according to a policy adopted by the American Medical Association (AMA) on Tuesday. At its annual meeting on Tuesday, AMA's House of Delegates passed a resolution requiring its leaders to advocate for legislation and regulation requiring AI tools to "integrate with the physician-led team and be used at the direction of the treating physician; respect the continuity of care and best practices related to transitions of care; have transparent, auditable data demonstrating safety and efficacy; [and] be subject to relevant and appropriate regulations (including but not limited to those related to liability and documentation)." (Frieden, 6/10)

A proposal to back universal newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) was fiercely debated among the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates on Tuesday. The proposal was ultimately referred for more study after several speakers threw cold water on the idea, saying such policies -- now in place just in Minnesota and Connecticut -- could do more harm than good. (Clark, 6/10)

It’s a common turn of phrase: “Talk to your healthcare provider today.” But according to the American Medical Association, the word “provider” doesn’t cut it. The AMA voted this week during its annual meeting in Chicago to oppose the use of “provider” when referring to a clinician with a medical degree. It’s a pointed reference to the AMA’s larger strategy to fight scope creep. (Hudson, 6/10)

American Diabetes Association Chief Executive Officer Chuck Henderson issued an apology for the forcible removal of five prominent obesity scientists from the group’s annual meeting who were handing out copies of an anti-Trump editorial. “Regardless of the circumstances that led to those events, I recognize the impact that experience had,” Henderson said in a video. “I am deeply sorry for the hurt, frustration, and the pain that resulted.” (Inampudi, 6/10)

The pharmacy benefit manager sector is undergoing a resorting as mergers and closures accumulate. The ranks of PBMs trying to chip away at the market dominance of UnitedHealth Group unit Optum Rx, CVS Health subsidiary CVS Caremark and Cigna division Express Scripts have been shrinking, and more transactions may be on the horizon. Smaller PBMs that market themselves as transparent alternatives to the top companies, pharmacy benefit models that bypass PBMs, and a bevy of regulations, federal mandates and state laws meant to curb abuses have been roiling the industry. (Tong, 6/10)

As the link between oral health and overall wellness becomes more widely recognized among patients, healthcare leaders are looking for more ways to integrate care to enhance patient outcomes. (Portalatin, 6/10)

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has released a recommended vaccine schedule for pregnant people, one that diverges from the advice currently offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Branswell, 6/10)

Brazilian patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) had a lower immune response to the recombinant herpes zoster vaccine (Shingrix) compared with healthy controls in a randomized trial, casting doubt on the vaccine's long-term effectiveness in this population. (Gever, 6/10)

The FDA issued a drug safety communication approving a label change that warns about the risk of kidney stones or kidney injury with the over-the-counter (OTC) weight loss drug orlistat (Alli), the agency said Wednesday. The label now recommends that consumers with a history of kidney disease or kidney stones consult a healthcare provider before using the drug. (Monaco, 6/10)

The enormous popularity of new weight-loss drugs often eclipses the downsides: the burden of weekly injections, rough gastrointestinal side effects, muscle and bone loss. That is shaping a race among drug manufacturers vying to roll out better options. Eli Lilly, which makes Zepbound and Mounjaro, and Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, have the vast market for branded drugs to themselves and are steadily reaping billions of dollars. But pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim and Amgen are among competitors planning to bring improved drugs to the market. (Rowland, 6/10)

Rapidly expanding use of weight-loss medicines in the UK has wiped about £780 million ($1 billion) off annual grocery spending, according to research by a consumer data group. Households with at least one user of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs bought 299 million fewer food items in the year after adoption of the medication, with users reporting a dwindling number of cravings and cutting back on treats like chocolate and potato chips, the study from Worldpanel by Numerator published Wednesday showed. (Linsell, 6/10)

Take twice daily. Does that mean two pills in one sitting? Can you take once at breakfast and once at lunch? Should they be taken with food at all? Can you take them at the same time as your other medications? (Holcombe, 6/10)

Last year was tumultuous for US researchers, with numerous changes occurring at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While the agency eliminated billions of dollars of funding and often nixed peer-reviewed grant meetings, it was unclear who the cuts impacted the most. A study published this week in JAMA found that, while the number of investigators sank overall, Black and Hispanic researchers received fewer research grants and fellowships than their peers in 2025. (Holohan, 6/10)

Throughout Lawrence Tabak’s 25 years at the National Institutes of Health, serving first as the head of one of its institutes before becoming principal deputy director and subsequently acting director, he took many trips to universities around the country to talk to researchers. He made a point to prioritize state schools and smaller institutions. Never on those visits was there a shortage of researchers brimming with ideas they hoped would attract the funding to pursue. (Oza, 6/11)

Recent outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus infections are reminders that when such rare diseases flare up, they have the potential, in our interconnected world, to spread beyond their points of origin. While neither of these deadly menaces is thought likely to provoke a global epidemic, they’ve stoked anxiety about the ability of the US to respond to such a threat. The fundamentals of pandemic preparedness include maintaining a robust public health infrastructure, including a strong surveillance system to detect threats early; investing in research to facilitate the quick development of new treatments and vaccines; and building public trust in health officials. (Nix, 6/11)

Thousands of Haitian immigrants who take care of ill and aging Americans could soon be forced to leave the US. Their departure, some nursing-home operators and Republican lawmakers fear, would unleash a healthcare disaster. The Supreme Court is expected to decide by the end of its current term whether the Trump administration can revoke the temporary protected status, known as TPS, of about 350,000 Haitian nationals. The court’s ruling is also expected to affect immigrants who fled turmoil in Venezuela, Syria, El Salvador and other countries. (Cattan, 6/10)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Trump Bought Tobacco Stocks And Raked In Industry Donations As FDA Eased Standards

President Donald Trump, who once declared he had “saved” flavored vapes, grew his stock holdings this year to as much as $1.64 million in tobacco giant Philip Morris. He also had holdings in Altria and a third leading tobacco company, though an apparent discrepancy in his disclosures clouds the extent of his investments. In 2025, tobacco interests donated $6 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports the president, and Trump’s inauguration. And, on April 30, a week before FDA guidance that provided a critical boost to the industry, Reynolds American dropped an additional $5 million into the super PAC’s coffers. (Tahir, 6/11)

U.S. drug development is heavily dependent on China — and Washington is not keeping up with the whole-of-government response many experts say is needed to change that. (Owens, 6/10)

The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday that the UC Davis School of Medicine discriminated based on race in admissions, the latest Trump administration finding against a medical school after the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action ruling. (Vaziri, 6/10)

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sought to reassure senators Wednesday that the recent screwworm outbreak is under control and not a threat to the country’s food supply. “Over the past week and a half, USDA has confirmed six cases of the New World screwworm within the US, all but one in the south of Texas,” Rollins said while testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee. “We know this development is a serious threat but it did not catch us off guard.” (Umansky-Castro, 6/10)

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins pushed back on suggestions that staff cuts at her agency could slow the agency’s response to the outbreak of a deadly cattle parasite in the US. The US Department of Agriculture has added more than 100 full-time employees to work on New World screwworm over the last 15 months in preparation for the parasite to arrive in the country, Rollins said at a Senate hearing Wednesday. (Elkin, 6/10)

As cases of New World screwworm spread and threaten the beef and cattle industry, the Trump administration is rolling out a familiar playbook: Blame former President Biden. The parasitic fly had been eliminated in the U.S. since the 1960s, but now it’s back, and according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, the new resurgence is entirely due to the lax immigration policies of former President Biden’s administration. “The threat didn’t appear overnight; it was the direct result of the Biden-Harris Admin’s WEAK foreign policy agenda and FAILED immigration policies,” Rollins wrote in a social media post last week. (Weixel, 6/10)

The U.S. plan to open an Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya was meant to help contain the outbreak by isolating American patients exposed to the virus. Instead, it has caused an outbreak of violence and political rancor, with hundreds of Kenyans taking to the streets in protest. (Mpoke Bigg and Schmitt, 6/10)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s) government said yesterday the number of confirmed Ebola cases has risen to 598, with 115 deaths. All cases in the DRC are from Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces. The case-fatality rate of the DRC outbreak now stands at 19.2%. Almost 300 patients (297) are currently being treated in Ebola facilities for their infections, and 22 people have recovered. (Soucheray, 6/10)

When millions of soccer fans descend on North America this month for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, they will bring more than team jerseys and national pride. They will also bring the microbes that travel with people. Public health officials have spent years preparing for the tournament, which is expected to draw visitors from more than 100 countries to the United States, Canada and Mexico. Although diseases such as Ebola and hantavirus have been in the headlines, public health experts say the diseases most likely to show up in clinics, emergency departments or urgent care centers are likely to be less exotic. (Sun, 6/10)

While millions of soccer fans cheer or groan over World Cup matches spanning North America, health officials will be on high alert for germs. A heat wave may be the most obvious health threat. But infectious diseases can spread in a crowd, and experts are set to scrutinize wastewater, hospital visits, even social media for any signs that an outbreak might be brewing. Measles, one of the most contagious diseases, is among the top concerns, sparking a warning this week from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO. (Neergaard, 6/10)

San Quentin Rehabilitation Center is awaiting state and federal test results after an incarcerated person showed symptoms that could be consistent with hantavirus, the rare rodent-borne virus that has drawn renewed attention after a recent cruise ship outbreak. cruise ship outbreak. (Vaziri, 6/10)

According to an update yesterday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are now nine cases of listeriosis linked to an ongoing outbreak involving soft ricotta cheese. So far eight people have been hospitalized and one person from Maryland has died from his or her infection. Three people each have been sickened in New York, Maryland, and Virginia. Of the eight people interviewed, six reported eating any soft cheese prior to symptom onset. (Soucheray, 6/10)

Americans born after 1970 are dying faster than their parents did, data shows. New analysis from Tufts University reveals that Gen Xers and millennials are failing to outlive their predecessors, dying at higher rates from common chronic illnesses and external causes than previous generations did when they were the same age. (Quill, 6/10)

A supplement taken by millions of older adults to ease joint pain may accelerate the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to new research from the University of Florida. The study, published June 9 in Nature Metabolism, found that people already showing signs of mild cognitive impairment were 25 percent more likely to develop dementia if they were taking glucosamine in supplement form than those who did not use the pill. (Afshar, 6/11)

Eating a diet high in ultra-processed food such as hot dogs and packaged snacks may increase the risk of dementia, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They found that those who ate the highest amount of ultra-processed food every day had a 58% increased risk of developing dementia and a 46% increased risk for cognitive impairment compared to people who ate the lowest amount of daily ultra-processed food. (Roeder, 6/10)

Irrespective of weight loss, maintaining a lower level of visceral fat—fat stored deep within the abdomen, wrapping around vital organs—may lead to better long-term cardiometabolic and cognitive health, according to two new studies led by Iris Shai, adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (Brownstein, 6/10)

Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with an increased risk of two liver cancer subtypes, according to a pooled analysis of 11 prospective cohort studies including more than 1.5 million adults. (Bassett, 6/10)

Wildfire smoke is associated with a growing list of health impacts. New research now ties it to reproductive harm in bulls – a finding with implications for humans. (Woodhouse, 6/10)

Social media has been on trial for allegedly harming youth mental health, and tech companies have been facing uphill legal battles in recent months. In a landmark case in March, a California jury found Meta and Google liable for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a child, awarding her $6 million. (Henderson, 6/10)

After Cory Brown left the Army in 2015 after serving more than 16 years, he felt lost and isolated, missing the camaraderie and responsibility he enjoyed in the military. Body and mind still flowing with adrenaline and nervous energy, Brown needed to find a way to channel his anxiety. He turned to the thing he loved almost as much as Army life, cooking. (Damask, 6/10)

Myra’s daughter got a Roblox account when she was 8. For more than a decade, the immersive gaming platform had advertised itself as a safe place for kids to play, and during the pandemic, there weren’t many other options. Myra herself had grown up trawling the chatrooms on AOL Instant Messenger, but knew it was a different internet era and decided to be more stringent with her daughter’s safety. She reviewed Roblox’s website and checked various “parental control” boxes, according to a September lawsuit she filed in California. (D'Anastasio, 6/10)

Ohio lawmakers moved to pay nursing homes $875 million on Wednesday after a state Supreme Court ruling found they were underpaid. The money was included in an omnibus budget correction bill that now goes to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature. The $875 million is earmarked for skilled nursing facilities. (McGowan, 6/10)

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is laying off about 200 staff members and cutting 300 open positions. The cuts, part of a regular reassessment of services, primarily affect non-clinical roles and positions that are not patient-facing, a UPMC spokesperson said Tuesday. UPMC has 100,000 employees. (DeSilva, 6/10)

Almost 100 employees of the physician-owned Mankato clinic were laid off on Tuesday, and the layoffs were effective immediately. None of the 12 Mankato Clinic locations will close, and none of its 200 physicians are being laid off. But the cuts affected most departments, including management and ancillary support staff like front desk receptionists and imaging staff. (Yang, 6/10)

Optum is laying off 98 people in Moline, Ill., as it closes a mail-order pharmacy facility, according to regulatory documents filed June 5. The notice names Optum Services as the employer and lists the cuts under a plant closure at 4300 44th Ave. in Moline. The facility houses divvyDOSE, an online pharmacy purchased by Optum in 2020 that serves patients managing chronic conditions and complex medication regimens. (Emerson, 6/10)

Cleveland-based MetroHealth System will not seek reverification for its level 2 pediatric trauma center designation at its main campus. (Taylor, 6/10)

Stanford Medicine plans to begin construction of a major new cancer center in Redwood City as soon as 2029 that, upon completion, will serve the growing number of patients the provider expects to treat in the coming decades. (Ho, 6/10)

Supporters of a half-cent sales tax proposed to help fund health services in Los Angeles County declared victory Tuesday after days of steadily gaining ground as more ballots were counted. (Ellis, 6/9)

It's not every day high school students can practice listening to the heartbeat of a pediatric manikin – especially one that can talk, turn its head and even cry. Fifty high school students from Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties had the opportunity to not only examine “PediHal,” a high-fidelity pediatric manikin, but also dive into an early introduction to nursing with clinical simulations and skill labs. (Avlonitis, 6/11)

After winning a landmark transgender rights ruling that was later overturned, a sheriff’s deputy in central Georgia has settled an almost seven-year court battle challenging her employers’ health insurance plan. Sgt. Anna Lange, a deputy in the Houston County Sheriff’s Office from 2006, has been locked in a court fight with the county and its sheriff since October 2019, after they refused to cover her gender-affirming surgery under the plan. (Manins, 6/11)

A New Mexico judge is scheduled Thursday to consider arguments in a challenge to the state’s fledgling universal childcare program, an ambitious and closely watched effort to eliminate daycare costs for all working families. A lawsuit brought by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez and other plaintiffs challenges the process used by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration to eliminate an income cap and co-pays for childcare assistance before the Legislature had a chance to weigh in or approve funding. (Peters, 6/11)

In a first-of-its-kind project in South Dakota, the small hospital in this southern Black Hills town is investing in a subdivision project to provide housing for its employees. Fall River Health Services, an independent nonprofit medical center in Hot Springs, is paying $2.3 million of the overall $3.4 million cost of infrastructure for a subdivision that could create 48 new affordable housing units a few hundred yards from the hospital campus. Like many South Dakota employers, Fall River Health is enduring a long-range worker shortage that has put pressure on its existing staff and driven up costs due to hiring of expensive traveling, short-term medical employees. (Pfankuch, 6/10)

Duke Health has established a Nursing Innovation Fund to support nurse-led care models and help nurses develop, test and scale new ideas aimed at improving patient outcomes and strengthening the profession. (Diaz, 6/10)

Two new reports have ranked New Hampshire high in children’s wellbeing but one has ranked the state as the worst for youth depression. (Richardson, 6/10)

The state of Utah has been getting a lot of attention for an innovative — yet controversial — pilot project to have AI refill patients’ prescriptions. (Bruce, 6/10)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘�������ýҕ�l Health News Minute’

Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: More Americans are getting access to physician-assisted suicide as states legalize the practice. Plus, hundreds of people allege medical neglect in ICE detention centers. (6/11)

Patients receiving a type of vitamin D lived longer after chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer in a small study run by researchers with the Salk Institute. (Hille, 6/9)

Primitive or regressive reflexes — known as frontal release signs — later in life were associated with increased dementia risk, a longitudinal study of cognitively normal older adults showed. ... Frontal release signs are present in newborn children and gradually disappear as the brain matures in early life. Reappearing signs are associated with brain injury or neurodegeneration and can be seen in late-life dementia. (George, 6/8)

Cervical epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) accrued more evidence backing its safety and feasibility as a treatment for chronic upper-limb paresis in stroke survivors. In a pilot study, seven people got SCS neuroprosthetic implants and showed improvements in motor function immediately upon SCS being turned on (average +32% strength and +5.6 Fugl-Meyer Assessment [FMA] points), according to Marco Capogrosso, PhD, a biomedical engineer at the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues. (Lou, 6/4)

Long-term exposure to air pollution might contribute to clogged arteries and heart disease, a new study says. People with higher levels of exposure to smog had an elevated risk of calcium deposits and plaques in their arteries, researchers reported today in the journal Radiology. (Thompson, 6/9)

Potentially deadly sepsis may be more likely in certain patients due to problems in the gut. Researchers from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology's Infectious Disease Research Center used female mouse models to investigate why sepsis outcomes can vary so dramatically. The study, published in the journal Nature, looked at genetically similar mice with different gut microbiomes. The mice were infected with Acinetobacter baumannii — a highly resilient bacterium that can lead to sepsis. (Stabile, 6/8)

Two commonly used mucoactive agents leaned toward more harm than benefit for critically ill patients with acute respiratory failure, according to the open-label randomized MARCH trial. (Rudd, 6/10)

If history someday defines our current political era as one in which America inexplicably allowed preventable, once-defeated diseases to reemerge and ravage society — and that narrative is growing today with alarming clarity — the most baffling part of the story will be how we failed to see it coming. (6/10)

My family’s life changed the moment we learned our child was diagnosed with an SLC6A1-related disorder, a rare neurological condition that can cause seizures, developmental delays, cognitive impairment and lifelong challenges for affected children and their families. Most people have never heard of SLC6A1-related disorders, and today, there are still no approved cures. (Kimberly Fry, 6/9)

I snap on my gloves and silence my work phone, taking a breath and mentally preparing for another initial palliative care consult. Another family carrying the impossible weight of loving a medically complex child in a world that makes them fight for every ounce of support. But before I knock, I hear laughter and celebration. (Kristen Campbell, 6/8) 

Mitchell Miglis had two months left. The Stanford University neurology professor had spent two years studying what long Covid does to the human nervous system — why patients’ hearts race when they stand, why their blood pressure collapses, why their bodies lose the ability to regulate themselves. His National Institutes of Health RECOVER grant was weeks from completion, data collected, analysis underway. (Steven Phillips, 6/11)

In June 2025, I led a study that was accepted for publication in Nature Medicine. The cost to publish this manuscript, which reported the results of a randomized clinical trial, was zero dollars. The paper underwent rigorous peer view and extensive edits and copy editing by the editorial staff. This study was the result of years of work by a large team of staff and investigators at Johns Hopkins and was funded by a combination of philanthropy and grants from the National Institutes of Health (your and my tax dollars). (Elizabeth Selvin, 6/11)