Big bills, tough choices: proposed federal cuts threaten Va.
(Insurance NewsNet – May 15, 2025)

Virginia would face big bills and tough choices if the Congress adopts federal spending cuts GOP committees proposed this week that would shift the cost of food assistance to states, make it harder for people to get health care through Medicaid and cost them more to buy health insurance. A pair of Republican-controlled committees in the House of Representatives released proposed budget cuts that could cost Virginia hundreds of millions of dollars each year and force the state to increase its share of spending or reduce services to people who need help the most.

Clinch Valley Medical Center celebrates National Hospital Week
(WVVA – May 14, 2025)

This is National Hospital Week and Clinch Valley Medical Center is celebrating it with several events for the community and their employees. The Richlands health facility today hosted community members who performed shadow internships, showcasing the different departments caring for southwest Virginians. Our own General Manger Charity Holman was one of the community members touring the facility.

Couple celebrates long but successful journey to parenthood
(HCA Virginia – May 14, 2025)

Diana and Chris Flowers had been on a long journey to start their family. After trying to conceive for four years, going through in vitro fertilization, and navigating multiple losses – they were elated to learn that they finally had a successful pregnancy last year. But when the Richmond couple went for a routine 20-week checkup in January, Diana’s doctor found that she had cervical incompetence and premature rupture of membranes. After her water broke during a procedure to try and close her cervix, Diana was transferred to Johnston-Willis Hospital with hopes of reaching 22 weeks so the pregnancy would still be viable.

Geriatric health expert stresses diet in aging
(29 News – May 14, 2025)

One doctor with the University of Virginia is putting focus on healthy aging through diet. Dr. Laurie Archbald-Pannone says she is seeing more people live longer but wants to make sure they are living with the best quality of life. She says you can increase your well being by changing your diet and forming healthy habits like eating more whole foods. “Our body is the body that we will have from birth through life,” Archbald-Pannone said. “So it’s really important along the way that we’re taking care of that body. It is great to make those changes as we’re getting older, but it’s even better to start those healthy habits younger in life as well.”

McClellan, Virginia Democrats warn of dire impact to state if proposed Medicaid cuts materialize
(Virginia Mercury – May 16, 2025)

U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, said she had been awake over 36 hours by the time she joined a call with members of the media on Thursday to discuss GOP lawmakers’ plan to slash $625 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade. The lack of sleep didn’t disturb her, she said, but her Republican colleagues’ advancement of Medicaid overhaul proposals that could leave over 630,000 Virginians  and millions of Americans without health insurance, however, did.

Milk bank at CHKD urges more donations
(13 News Now – May 14, 2025)

The King’s Daughters Milk Bank at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD) is going the extra mile, ensuring even the most vulnerable babies have access to human milk. Right now, they’re encouraging mothers who can donate. Ashlynn Baker, the director at the King’s Daughters Milk Bank, said every donation undergoes a rigorous screening and testing process to ensure the milk is safe for babies. Once cleared, she said the milk is distributed not only to families in Hampton Roads, but to hospitals across the country.

Sentara shifts to 4-market model
(Becker’s Hospital Review – May 14, 2025)

Sentara Health, a 12-hospital system based in Hampton Roads, Va., is shifting to a new market-based operating model. Eric Conley, Sentara’s executive vice president and president of acute and post-acute care, said in the May 14 release that the new structure allows the system to tailor operations to meet individual community needs, “while still benefiting from the consistency and coordination of market-based leadership.”

Teens and Vaping: What Parents Should Know
(Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters – May 14, 2025)

Using vape products or e-cigarettes, sometimes referred to as “juuling,” is a dangerous behavior among teens and young adults. Young people use vape products more than any other tobacco product. Nicotine affects the brain. Most vapes contain nicotine, an addictive chemical that can harm the brain. The developing adolescent brain is especially susceptible to nicotine addiction, which progresses faster in kids than adults. In addition to changing the way connections are formed between brain cells, nicotine affects the parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. Nicotine users may also be at increased risk of developing other drug addictions.

UVA Health Honors Nurses and Fights Hunger: UVA Health Gives Back
(WJLA – May 14, 2025)

UVA Health Prince William Medical Center spent the past week shining a well-deserved spotlight on their incredible nurses during National Nurses Week. While nurses are recognized year-round for their vital role in patient care, this past week offered a special opportunity to celebrate the compassion, skill, and dedication they bring to every shift. Across all three UVA Health facilities, daily events and activities honored the invaluable contributions of nurses, highlighting their role not just as caregivers, but as the heart of the patient experience.

CT officials on federal Medicaid cuts bill: ‘Designed to hurt people’
(The CT Mirror – May 12, 2025)

Connecticut officials on Monday warned that Medicaid cuts outlined in a Congressional Republican plan would have devastating consequences, even though the changes stop short of the scenarios that would have most heavily impacted enrollee benefits and the state budget. Connecticut officials on Monday warned that Medicaid cuts outlined in a Congressional Republican plan would have devastating consequences, even though the changes stop short of the scenarios that would have most heavily impacted enrollee benefits and the state budget.

Health care spending in R.I. exceeds predictions. A new report looks at why.
(Rhode Island Current – May 12, 2025)

Rhode Islanders’ health care spending rose 7.8% in 2023 over the previous year — a new state record — thanks in part to more hospital visits and the popularity of pricey weight-loss drugs, according to a new report out Monday. The finding exceeded the 6% rate anticipated by the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC), which published the annual report on health care spending and quality.  The office is charged with multiple duties regulating the Ocean State’s health insurance plans, including data collection and yearly review of health insurers’ proposed rate increases.

Maryland: State officials, advocates fear impact of expected Medicaid cuts in House bill
(Maryland Matters – May 12, 2025)

State officials and health care advocates worry that many Marylanders on Medicaid could lose coverage under a recent proposal from congressional Republicans that aims to cut billions in federal dollars by tightening program eligibility and other administrative hurdles. While state officials are still determining the full scope of the GOP proposal unveiled Sunday night, they anticipate that a “significant” portion of Maryland’s 1.55 million Medicaid recipients could lose coverage under the current proposal.

Medicaid cuts would destabilize mental health care: How Michigan is responding
(Second Wave Michigan – May 13, 2025)

Reductions in federal funding will lead to longer wait times, reduced capacity, and fewer options for patients at every income level. As federal lawmakers debate steep reductions to Medicaid, Michigan health leaders are raising urgent concerns about the consequences for the state’s behavioral health system. They warn that the proposed funding changes — ranging from block grants to reductions in federal cost-sharing — have sparked urgent concern across hospitals, mental health providers, and policy advocates. Proposed funding cuts have the power to dismantle critical services, especially for residents facing poverty, mental illness, or substance use disorders — groups already struggling to access timely and affordable care. Organizations across Michigan are mobilizing to prevent the cuts before they happen. The Michigan League for Public Policy (MLPP), Community Mental Health Association of Michigan (CMHA),  and Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA) are three of more than 140 Michigan groups involved with Protect MI Care, a coalition working to raise awareness, organize public education campaigns, and put pressure on lawmakers.

North Carolina: Hospitals, nursing homes at risk if Medicaid provider tax cap is lowered
(NC Health News – May 13, 2025)

North Carolina health officials are warning that one of the many proposals being floated in Congress to shrink a key Medicaid funding mechanism could devastate hospitals and nursing homes across the state — cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from a system already straining to meet growing needs. The proposals target taxes — referred to in the state as “assessments” — that North Carolina and other states impose on health care providers to generate revenue. The state then turns around and uses those tax dollars to draw down federal matching funds for Medicaid, which reimburses North Carolina for about two-thirds of every Medicaid dollar spent.

11-year-old receives living donor heart valve to replace artificial one in breakthrough surgery
(Good Morning America – May 12, 2025)

An 11-year-old boy recently became the first person in the world to have an artificial heart valve replaced with a living donor heart valve. Preston Porter, who has lived for the past near-decade with a mechanical mitral valve, underwent replacement of the artificial valve with a living donor mitral valve through a partial heart transplant surgery on April 27. Preston received a mechanical mitral valve when he was 1, after doctors discovered he had a heart defect when he was hospitalized with a virus at 20 months old. Those with a failing or infected valve may undergo open heart surgery to replace the defective valve with a mechanical valve made from durable material or bio-prosthetic valve from a cadaver or an animal like a pig or cow.

A key to successfully leveraging AI is understanding staff workflows
(Healthcare IT News – May 12, 2025)

Before implementing AI tools, leaders must ensure data flows freely between their EHR and practice management systems, and that they know how the tool will fit into existing procedures, says Matt Murren, CEO of True North ITG.

Data suggest COVID-19 reinfections less likely to cause long COVID
(CIDRAP – May 12, 2025)

A new preprint study on the preprint server medRxiv involving healthcare workers in Quebec shows that the risk of long COVID following any initial COVID-19 infection was similar among participants, cumulative risk increased with the number of infections, but reinfections were associated with a much lower risk of long COVID than a person’s first infection. The study is based on 22,496 online survey participants and 3,978 telephone survey participants who took part in a retrospective cohort study from May 16 to June 15, 2023. It has not yet been peer-reviewed. Participants, all healthcare workers, were asked to assess self-reported COVID-19–attributed symptoms lasting at least 12 weeks, classified as mild, moderate, or severe based on perceived symptom intensity.  Results were compared with COVID controls (infected participants without long COVID) and with non-COVID controls (uninfected participants).

Healthcare adopts AI with care
(Healthcare IT News – May 13, 2025)

The global AI healthcare market, valued at USD 29.01 billion in 2024, is projected to reach USD 504.17 billion by 2032. In Europe alone, the market is expected to grow from USD 7.92 billion in 2024 to USD 143.02 billion by 2033, with an incredible 38% annual growth rate. The growing adoption underscores AI’s significant potential across many areas of healthcare: It can enhance the accuracy and early detection of diseases, support personalised treatment plans, streamline administrative tasks such as billing and scheduling, and improve hospital resource management through predictive analytics. In clinical practice, AI is already showing impact in areas such as early detection of sepsis and improved breast cancer screening. As Antoine Tesnière, a professor of medicine at and managing director of PariSanté Campus, noted in an interview with HIMSS TV: “AI is a true revolution for healthcare. AI tools allow us to understand that we will have super-precise, super-productive, super-preventive, super-personalised approaches in the very near future.”

How Payers Can Realize Hard ROI From Hyperpersonalization
(HealthLeaders Media – May 12, 2025)

Personalization has been a paradox for payers. Health plan leaders believe that personalized member outreach is important at every stage of care but are still in search of results. The title of a new report from Lirio suggests the solution. (Re)defining personalization: Unlocking the future of superior member engagement and outcomes highlights the importance of “hyperpersonalization” — an approach designed to deliver hard ROI for health plans and lasting health outcomes for members.

Inside the first U.S. medical school to fully incorporate AI into its doctor training program
(CBS News – May 12, 2025)

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a part of our daily lives, whether in the office or the classroom, and one medical school is fully embracing the technology. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City has become the first in the nation to incorporate AI into its doctor training program, granting access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu to all of its M.D. and graduate students. Faris Gulamali is among the school’s future doctors taking full advantage of the AI tool. Gulamali said he uses ChatGPT to help him prep for surgeries and to improve his bedside manner when explaining complex diagnoses to patients.

New device helps patients cope with tinnitus, Pennsylvania audiologist says
(CBS News – May 12, 2025)

A growing number of patients are turning to a new treatment for a condition that causes ringing in the ears. The device tricks the brain with a tickle to the tongue. Silence really is golden for Clara Flores. Her days used to be filled with the constant buzzing and ringing that comes with tinnitus, which affects 25 million Americans. “This ringing that you hate and can’t stand … you cannot turn it off,” Flores said. “You get depressed, you get angry. Your relationships suffer.”

Report: Health care had most reported cyberthreats in 2024
(American Hospital Association – May 12, 2025)

Health care had more cyberthreats last year than any other critical infrastructure industry, according to the FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report released April 23. A total of 444 reported incidents impacted health care, comprised of 238 ransomware threats and 206 data breach incidents. Only critical manufacturing had more ransomware incidents, with 258, but fewer data breaches, with 71. The report also found that ransomware groups with the most FBI complaints in 2024 included Akira, LockBit and RansomHub.

The Next Stop on Healthcare’s EHR Optimization Journey: AI
(HealthTech – May 12, 2025)

It’s been more than 15 years since the U.S. government passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act to incentivize healthcare organizations to adopt electronic health record systems (EHRs). Now, with the emergence of newer tools and processes, providers are looking to optimize these critical applications to streamline clinical workflows and hopefully address burnout. “There’s a tremendous amount of energy happening with the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning that is pushing organizations to truly optimize the technologies around EHRs, with the focus on improving efficiencies, reducing burnout and enhancing patient care,” says Christopher Kunney, a health IT strategist who hosts the Straight Outta Health IT podcast.

District judge grants 14-day pause on federal department reorganizations, terminations
(Fierce Healthcare – May 12, 2025)

A collection of labor unions, nonprofits and city governments have secured a two-week pause on the Trump administration’s large-scale reorganization of several federal departments, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The temporary restraining order, granted on the evening of May 9, does not require the government to rehire any workers who have already been terminated, but reflects U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s view that the plaintiffs “are likely to succeed on the merits of at least some of their claims” that the widespread firings are unlawful and that plaintiffs would face irreparable harm absent the injunction.

FDA’s plan to roll out AI agencywide raises questions
(Axios – May 12, 2025)

The Food and Drug Administration is rolling out an aggressive plan to make generative AI a linchpin in its decision-making, part of a bid to get faster and leaner in evaluating drugs, foods, medical devices and diagnostic tests. Why it matters: The plan raises urgent questions about what’s being done to secure the vast amount of proprietary company data that’s part of the process and whether sufficient guardrails are in place. Driving the news: The FDA is racing to roll out generative AI across all its centers to augment employees’ work following a successful pilot, officials said.

House E&C Committee unveils budget reconciliation proposal, including steep Medicaid cuts
(Fierce Healthcare – May 12, 2025)

The House Energy & Commerce Committee has released a hotly-anticipated budget reconciliation bill that aims to thread the needle between policymakers who want to see Medicaid funding slashed and those who view steep cuts as a political flashpoint. The committee was tasked with cutting approximately $880 billion in federal outlays, and early estimates (PDF) from the Congressional Budget Office estimate that the proposals would reduce the deficit by $912 billion between 2025 and 2034. However, the CBO also projects that the impacts on Medicaid would likely lead to 8.6 million people becoming uninsured by 2034. At least $715 billion of the proposed savings would come from impacts in healthcare, per the CBO’s preliminary estimates.

Mapping Hospitals By Congressional District
(KFF– May 12, 2025)

The House and Senate are working on legislation to meet the requirements in the budget resolution, which targets cuts to Medicaid of up to $880 billion or more over 10 years. Although it is unclear what specific policies will be included in the final reconciliation bill, significant reductions in Medicaid spending would likely impact hospitals given that the program accounted for about one fifth (19%) of all spending on hospital care in 2023. Reductions in payments to hospitals, coupled with an increase in the number of uninsured Americans, resulting from Medicaid spending cuts or other policy changes would likely have implications for hospital finances, access to hospital services, the quality of patient care, and local economies (in that hospitals are the sixth largest employer in the country across industry subsectors).

From pandemic preparedness to precious frozen spit, NIH contract terminations cut deep
(STAT News – May 9, 2025)

Jay Tischfield prides himself on his long track record of cellular custodianship. As the founding director of the Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey at Rutgers University, he maintains one of the largest university-based DNA banks in the world — much of it, on behalf of the U.S. government. Starting about three decades ago, the National Institutes of Health began outsourcing the storage and distribution of samples from several nationwide studies to Tischfield and his network of finely tuned freezers.

Medicaid cuts could have ‘drastic impact’ on providers
(Healthcare Dive – May 9, 2025)

Sinai Chicago, a safety-net health system located on the city’s South and West sides, serves patients who could face life expectancies many years shorter than city residents who live just miles away. Most patients are African American and Latino, and face greater incidences of chronic disease and worse health outcomes, said Ngozi Ezike, Sinai’s president and CEO. “It gives us a great opportunity to try to narrow these health disparities between the individuals who are in our community and those who are just a few miles away that enjoy many more years of life and higher quality of life,” she said.

NIH and CMS to build autism data platform
(Healthcare IT News – May 9, 2025)

The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are working together to build what they’re calling a “real-world data platform” that can be used to research claims information, electronic medical records and consumer wearable data – all with the goal, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to “advance understanding of autism.” The data use agreement announced Wednesday was touted as for its security by HHS, but many observers, including public health researchers and privacy attorneys, have raised questions about what it means for the privacy and security of autism patients’ data.

On Medicaid Expansion, History Matters
(KFF Health News – May 9, 2025)

Some Republicans who want to reduce federal funding for Medicaid have characterized the Medicaid expansion as unjust because the federal government provides a 90% match to states for uninsured adults they characterize as “able bodied,” while it provides a smaller match for younger, older and disabled beneficiaries they characterize as Medicaid’s traditional and more needy populations. The 90% match takes money from the “traditional” populations, they say. Republicans have talked about reducing the federal match for the expansion population, recently leaning towards gradually imposing a per capita cap on it or dropping the idea altogether.

RFK Jr. set to name new top HHS spokesman
(Politico – May 8, 2025)

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to tap Rich Danker as the department’s new top spokesman, three people familiar with the decision told POLITICO. The selection comes two months after Kennedy’s first assistant secretary for public affairs, Tom Corry, abruptly quit just days into his tenure over disagreements with Kennedy’s senior team and Kennedy’s handling of the measles outbreak.

State attorneys general sue CVS Health for alleged Medicaid overpayments
(Healthcare Finance News – May 9, 2025)

Attorneys general from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oklahoma and Indiana have filed a lawsuit against CVS Health claiming that it submitted “false and fraudulent claims” to state Medicaid programs. The AGs say CVS Health charged these programs higher prices than they offered to the general public for the same drugs. Specifically, the complaint alleges that CVS offered lower drug prices to cash-paying customers through a discount program administered by a company called ScriptSave, but did not report the discounted rates to state Medicaid programs.

Trump administration shuts down federal advisory committee on infection prevention
(CIDRAP – May 8, 2025)

The Trump administration has terminated a federal advisory group that issues recommendations to US health agencies to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases in healthcare facilities. According to reporting by NBC News, members of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) were informed of the termination last week in a letter from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HICPAC is one of several federal advisory groups that have been terminated since President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at reducing the federal bureaucracy.

Trump Team Faces Key Legal Decision That Could Put Mental Health Parity in Peril
(KFF Health News – May 9, 2025)

The Trump administration must soon make a decision that will affect millions of Americans’ ability to access and afford mental health and addiction care. The administration is facing a May 12 deadline to declare if it will defend Biden-era regulations that aim to enforce mental health parity — the idea that insurers must cover mental illness and addiction treatment comparably to physical treatments for ailments such as cancer or high blood pressure. Although a federal parity law has been on the books since 2008, the regulations in question were issued last September. They represent the latest development in a nearly two-decade push by advocates, regulators, and lawmakers to ensure insurance plans cover mental health care equitably to physical health care.

Will commercial insurers ‘fill the gap’? Health system execs focus on Medicaid
(Becker’s Hospital Review – May 9, 2025)

Medicaid funding is a top concern this year for health system executives as legislators mull potential cuts to balance the budget. Republicans released a budget proposal early this year seeking $880 billion in savings from federal healthcare spending. However, President Donald Trump’s budget proposal released May 3 didn’t include any Medicare or Medicaid cuts, and House Republicans dropped two proposals to cut Medicaid funding from their budget reconciliation plan in May: the per capita caps on Medicaid funding and reducing federal assistance to Medicaid expansion states.