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Utahns will continue to have access to abortion up to 18 weeks of pregnancy, the majority-woman Utah Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a long-awaited decision on whether a near-total ban on such care could take effect. The ruling impacts only a previously ordered block on the law and does not determine the final outcome of abortion policy in the Beehive State. The case now goes to a lower court to determine the constitutionality of the trigger law. (Stern, 8/1)

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has further delayed the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to revive a near-total abortion ban from 1864 — and she’s still eyeing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. ... On Thursday, the Arizona Supreme Court greenlit yet another delay of their ruling. (Gomez, 8/1)

A federal court judge in Alabama will soon answer a crucial question: In a state where abortion is illegal, can health care providers and advocates be punished for helping patients seek the procedure elsewhere? In 2022, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the state’s abortion ban kicked in, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, said on a radio show that groups helping to fund out-of-state abortions could face felony charges. (Harris, 8/1)

The emotional roller coaster of losing a wanted pregnancy, scrambling to raise money to travel out of state for an abortion and dealing with the onslaught of comments from internet trolls would be debilitating for most people. For Allie Phillips of Clarksville, Tenn., the experience motivated her. Phillips, 29, is running as a Democrat against her Republican state representative, one year after she gained national recognition for sharing her story and crowdsourcing funds through GoFundMe to travel to New York for an abortion. (Raman, 8/1)

On the fight for funding —

In the two years since Roe v. Wade’s overturn, states have increased public funding for anti-abortion centers — the non-medical facilities meant to dissuade people from terminating their pregnancies — by close to $500 million, according to a new analysis published today. (Luthra, 8/1)

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says it’s facing a “bleak” financial situation that could threaten patient services in the coming years, in part due to Republicans’ efforts to block long-standing family planning funding. (Cuno-Booth, 8/1)

More abortion news —

Obstetrician-gynecologists are seeing more pregnant patients with dangerous medical complications two-plus years after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, while at the same time receiving less training as residents about how to perform abortions, according to a new report. The findings, shared exclusively with NBC News, are the result of a monthslong investigation by Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. (Bendix, 8/1)

����ɫ��ƬHealth News: Since Fall Of 'Roe,' Self-Managed Abortions Have Increased
The percentage of people who say they’ve tried to end a pregnancy without medical assistance increased after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That’s according to a study published Tuesday in the online journal JAMA Network Open. Tia Freeman, a reproductive health organizer, leads workshops for Tennesseans on how to safely take medication abortion pills outside of medical settings. Abortion is almost entirely illegal in Tennessee. (Varney, 8/2)

����ɫ��ƬHealth News' 'What the Health?' Podcast: Abortion Heats Up Presidential Race
The elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the presumed Democratic presidential ticket is newly energizing the debate over abortion, while former President Donald Trump attempts to distance himself from more sweeping proposals in the “Project 2025” GOP blueprint put together by his former administration officials and the conservative Heritage Foundation. (Rovner, 8/1)

The Justice Department is starting a pilot program to reward whistleblowers who expose healthcare fraud schemes involving private insurance plans. According to an Aug. 1 fact sheet from the Justice Department, the program is intended to fill gaps in its existing reward programs. Under the program, whistleblowers who expose healthcare fraud targeting private insurers can collect a portion of proceeds if information they report results in a successful conviction. (Wilson, 8/1)

On health care cyberattacks —

Healthcare remains the most expensive industry for responding to and recovering from data breaches, a rank the sector has held since 2011, according to a report by IBM and the Ponemon Institute. The average cost for a breach in the industry this year was $9.8 million, a decline from 2023 when the price tag reached $10.9 million. (Olsen, 8/1)

OneBlood, a blood donation center that services hundreds of hospitals across the southeastern United States, is experiencing a ransomware event that’s limiting the organization’s software systems. The nonprofit organization said it’s remaining operational to collect, test and distribute blood, but there's going to be delays in getting that blood to hospitals. (Luginski, 8/1)

A South Florida hospital put together a blood drive a day after OneBlood became the latest victim of a ransomware attack. "People should donate because one pint of blood saves three lives," said Reanna Clabon a clinical research coordinator at the University of Miami Health System. (Carrero, 8/1)

Many hospitals have struggled to offer safe and effective care in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic turned their operations upside down. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ 2024 hospital star ratings, released Wednesday, showed more hospitals than last year performed poorly. That may be, in part, because the data submitted by hospitals was from April 2019 through March 2023 and excluded facilities’ performance on quality metrics from the first half of 2020. (Devereaux, 8/1)

Medicare reimbursements for inpatient hospital care will increase 2.9% in fiscal 2025 under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Thursday. The agency offered hospitals a larger pay hike than the 2.6% it proposed in April, which the industry decried as insufficient. The regulation also includes additional provisions such as higher graduate medical education funding and an initiative to improve drug supplies at small hospitals. (Kacik, 8/1)

More hospital news —

San Francisco’s largest skilled nursing facility, Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, will begin readmitting former residents it was forced to move out over the past two years while it underwent a grueling process to regain federal certification to care for patients. At least 10 former residents are slated to return in the coming weeks, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which oversees the public hospital. This week, one new resident moved in. (Ho, 8/1)

Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday she is pressing Steward Health Care to adhere to a state Department of Public Health regulation that hospital owners must give 120 days notice before any medical facility can close in Massachusetts. Healey made the comment a day after a bankruptcy judge allowed Steward’s decision to close two Massachusetts hospitals. Steward announced July 26 its plan to close the hospitals — Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center — on or around Aug. 31 because it had received no qualified bids for either facility. (Leblanc, 8/1)

Jefferson Health and Lehigh Valley Health Network completed a merger Thursday that creates a $15 billion nonprofit health system serving Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Jefferson Health CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione, who is leading the new enterprise, said the provider has its sights set on integrating the organization's 32 hospitals and more than 700 locations over the next few years. The company will operate under the Jefferson Health brand. (Hudson, 8/1)

Hundreds of UC healthcare and campus service workers converged in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center to picket during their lunch break Wednesday, demanding higher wages and investment in affordable housing solutions. The informational picket was one of five across the UC campuses organized by AFSCME Local 3299, which represents more than 30,000 workers, who are among the lowest-paid in the UC system. (Roseborough, 8/1)

Contract disputes between hospitals and health plans have become routine, but they tend to be local, affecting a handful of hospitals and the people in the surrounding communities. This latest one is different. It involves the country’s biggest private health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, and its biggest hospital chain, HCA Healthcare. (Bannow, 8/2)

����ɫ��ƬHealth News: Urgent Care Or ER? With ‘One-Stop Shop,’ Hospitals Offer Both Under Same Roof
Facing an ultracompetitive market in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, UF Health is trying a new way to attract patients: a combination emergency room and urgent care center. In the past year and a half, UF Health and a private equity-backed company, Intuitive Health, have opened three centers that offer both types of care 24/7 so patients don’t have to decide which facility they need. (Galewitz, 8/2)

Workers with the Department of Veterans Affairs made mistakes costing $100 million when reviewing veterans claims for full disability connected to injuries and illnesses from military service, a new report from the agency’s inspector general concluded. About 75% of claims for a 100% disability rating that auditors reviewed between May 2022 and April 2023 were improperly processed, resulting in overpayments and underpayments, according to the July report. (Hersey, 7/31)

Vietnam veteran Jim Esposito, who retired to the Philippines from Oklahoma in 2010, receives spinal treatments and pain medication at the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Manila for injuries suffered during military service 50 years ago. Terrence Michalski, a disabled Navy veteran also residing in the Philippines, has had frequent hospitalizations for a heart condition and degenerative disk disease related to combat duty. Both veterans said they must pay thousands of dollars each year for their medical care because the VA’s paper-based claims system leads to delays and uncertainties for health care reimbursement. (Hersey, 7/30)

The Department of Veterans Affairs has overhauled its registry for veterans exposed to burn pits and other airborne hazards overseas, working with the Defense Department to include 4.7 million veterans who served in locations with potentially dangerous air quality. The VA announced Thursday that the new Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, which includes basic information on veterans as well as deployment history, will advance scientific research on the health effects of exposure overseas to smoke, sand, chemical fires and fine particulate matter. (Kime, 8/1)

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough will continue in his role until President Joe Biden exits office in January, a VA official confirmed Thursday. Until that time, McDonough is “fighting like hell” to help veterans get their earned benefits and health care, said VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes. A Bloomberg report Tuesday suggested the VA secretary would step down after the election, which is Nov. 5. (Wentling, 8/1)

Cash will finally start to flow this month from a federal program that enables the state to use Medicaid to pay for housing, nutrition and transportation. The $7.5 billion pilot program, called the 1115 waiver, unlocks federal money to revamp the Medicaid program, allowing New York state to use Medicaid in ways it’s never been used before. The state will offer Medicaid benefits for rent payments, cooking tools and non-medical transportation, for example, to attempt to improve health among enrollees and address disparities. (D'Ambrosio, 8/1)

Enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program continued to decrease in June, as a federal judge weighs whether the state improperly dropped people from the program after the end of a public health emergency linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. (8/1)

Iowa’s health department announced the boundaries of seven behavioral health districts Thursday, following a new state law aimed at making it easier for Iowans to access mental health and substance use treatment services. (Sostaric, 8/1)

Juveniles at five state detention facilities in Texas were subject to a pattern of unlawful physical abuse and prolonged isolation and denied essential rehabilitation services, the Justice Department said Thursday in announcing the findings of a three-year investigation. Federal authorities detailed allegations against the Texas Juvenile Justice Department in a 72-page report that found staffers routinely used pepper spray as a response to misbehavior by youths, used physical restraints that obstructed their breathing, and placed them in isolation for days without educational programs or other activities. The facilities house individuals ages 10 to 19 years old. (Nakamura, 8/1)

Mayor London Breed on Thursday ordered city employees to offer homeless people a bus ticket out of town before presenting shelter or housing as an option. The mayor’s new executive order, which marks a shift from current practices, comes amid an escalated crackdown on homeless encampments after a recent court Supreme Court ruling gave city officials more power to enforce anti-camping laws. (Angst, 8/1)

Regular aspirin use may keep the oncologist away, at least when it comes to colorectal cancer, according to a new study, and people with unhealthy lifestyles seemed to see the greatest benefit. (Christensen, 8/1)

U.S. regulators have authorized a cutting-edge treatment relying on T cells for a rare cancer that arises in the body’s soft tissues, extending the power of immunotherapies to difficult-to-reach sarcomas. (Joseph, 8/2)

In July, federal health officials warned hospitals that there would be a critical shortage of blood culture bottles that will stretch into September. Blood culture bottles are key in diagnosing sepsis, a deadly infection of the bloodstream caused by a number of different bacteria. (Trang, 8/2)

On weight loss drugs —

U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly expects its blockbuster weight-loss drug to officially come out of shortage in the United States in coming days, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing an interview with the company's CEO, David Ricks. Lilly's drug, tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight management, will cease to be in shortage "very soon," CEO David Ricks said in an interview with Bloomberg in Paris. (8/1)

WW International Inc., better known as WeightWatchers, is laying off employees and cutting costs as blockbuster obesity drugs have decimated its business. The New York company is now “investigating” selling compounded versions of weight-loss drugs made by Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk A/S, Chief Executive Officer Sima Sistani said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. The company previously said it was “wholeheartedly against this path” on its website earlier this week. (Garde, 8/1)

Also —

Jim Wilson, a leading gene therapy researcher who has persisted through the field’s ups and downs, is leaving his longtime academic home at the University of Pennsylvania to found two new companies. (Joseph, 8/1)

On Thursday morning, Marty Kedian did something that was beyond his abilities for years: He sat at a table with his wife and friends and had a conversation. Diagnosed with larynx cancer a decade ago, Kedian had suffered through his voice being reduced to a whisper. ... But in February, Kedian, 59, had his larynx removed and received a donor organ in its place. For almost six months, he recovered and relearned to speak, eat, and breathe near the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. (Laughlin, 8/1)

Robin Warren, an Australian pathologist who shared a Nobel Prize for rewriting medical views on gut health with research that included his partner drinking a bacteria-laced brew to show how microbes can cause ulcers, died July 23 in Perth, Australia. He was 87. The death was announced by the University of Western Australia, where Dr. Warren was a professor emeritus. The statement gave no other details. The discoveries by Dr. Warren and Barry Marshall at Royal Perth Hospital completely upended long-standing medical assumptions that the stomach’s gastric fluids would kill any invasive bacteria. Yet, for more than a decade, the two researchers confronted a medical community slow to accept their theories and acknowledge their findings. (Murphy, 7/31)

A team of US researchers has revealed evidence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu infections in two Texas farmworkers not previously confirmed to have the disease, and the investigators also cultured infectious H5N1 virus from milk and cattle samples taken from two Texas dairy farms that previously had H5N1 outbreaks. The research, led by scientists with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, was published yesterday on the preprint server medRxiv, meaning that it has not yet been peer-reviewed. It comes as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed two more dairy farms affected by H5N1 in cows, as well as newly infected mammalian species. (Wappes, 8/1)

Highly pathogenic bird flu was discovered in Van Buren County dairy herd, bringing the total number of Michigan affected dairy herds to 27, state officials announced. (Devereaux, 8/1)

Researchers from Kyushu University have discovered that blowflies, a family of flies strongly attracted to decaying flesh and feces, are carrying the bird flu virus in southern Japan. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, introduce a potential new route of transmission for bird flu and highlight the need to develop new countermeasures to prevent and control the disease in poultry farms. (8/1)

As health authorities have suspected for some time now, bird flu is consistently being spread between mammals, increasing the risk of sustained outbreaks emerging among humans in the future. (Koumoundouros, 8/2)

On the spread of covid, West Nile virus, Klebsiella, and rabies —

The levels of coronavirus in Massachusetts waste water nearly quadrupled over two weeks in July and are now about twice the national average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new data is based on testing that concluded in late July, according to the agency. (Ellement, 8/1)

Three New Jersey residents tested positive for West Nile Virus, health officials said Thursday. These are the first cases of West Nile Virus in New Jersey so far this year. Health officials said two patients, one person older than 70 and another under 18, have been treated and released. (Zanger, 8/1)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning countries about increasing reports of hypervirulent and multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp). ... In contrast to "classic" K pneumoniae, an opportunistic pathogen that is a leading cause of healthcare-associated infections and tends to cause infections in vulnerable, immunocompromised hospitalized patients, hvKp strains can cause severe invasive infections in healthy individuals that develop quickly and spread to various body sites. Infections caused by hvKp strains have been associated with high morbidity and mortality. (Dall, 8/1)

The outbreak may be the first ever documented in marine mammals. (Anthes, 7/25)

Advocates say air conditioning is no longer a luxury but a public health and affordability issue. The growing number of people dying without sufficient cooling when outdoor temperatures rise underscores the necessity of air conditioning in areas affected by rising summer temperatures. (Snow, 8/2)

The hottest place on Earth just observed its hottest month. Death Valley, Calif., registered an average July temperature of 108.5 degrees, the highest monthly value ever recorded among thousands of weather stations around the globe, according to Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist based in Alaska. (Stillman, 8/1)

Thursday was another hot, dry and smoky day for the Denver metro area. The unhealthy air quality is due to both local and out-of-state wildfire smoke. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Regional Air Quality Council issued an Action Day due to the combination of wildfire smoke and ozone. This alert is in place through Friday afternoon. (Zanandrie and Ruch, 8/1)

A Spanish laboratory is breeding and sterilizing thousands of tiger mosquitoes to fight dengue fever and other diseases as climate change encourages the invasive species to spread across Europe. Using an electron accelerator, the regional government-funded Biological Pest Control Centre in Valencia sterilizes and releases about 45,000 male mosquitoes every week so they can pair with females - whose bite transmits diseases among humans - and eventually reduce the overall mosquito population. (Manez and Garcia, 8/1)

Among Lexie Manion's memories of her junior year of high school in New Jersey was the experience of being regularly hassled by a school nurse who was trying to weigh her. The nurse, Manion recalled, was trying to get Manion’s weight on file — a common practice at schools across the United States, which aim to use the data to improve student health. But for Manion, who had an eating disorder, the experience was deeply distressing. The thought of getting on a scale in school — of someone other than her doctor handling this sensitive measurement — terrified Manion. It also triggered her eating disorder: She began to restrict her food intake more intensely to lose weight before the school nurse put her on a scale. (Salazar, 7/29)

A guilt-free chocolate bar, full of sugar, could someday land at a supermarket near you. The chocolate would look and taste normal, and contain the same amount of sugar. But an enzyme, encased in an edible substance and added to the bar, would reduce how much sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream, and even turn it into a fiber that is good for your gut. (Newman, 7/31)

Just outside the perimeter of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village was a special room, the only space near the village where athletes with young children were directed to care for their babies. (Davis, 7/28)

Just outside the center of Ede, Nigeria, on the campus of Redeemer’s University, a sort of mirage rises from the red earth: a pair of sleek, almost-completed two-story structures surrounded by elegant gardens featuring native plants. The stores along the high road to Ede, population 160,000, are mostly open-faced wooden shelters, their roofs propped up by crooked tree branches. They couldn’t be in sharper contrast to the $11 million headquarters of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID). (Donahue, 7/30)

On Dec. 22, 1874, the H.M.S. Dido arrived in Fiji from Sydney, Australia, carrying about 200 people and an invisible payload. A king of Fiji and his son, who were on the ship, were infected with measles. When they debarked, they started an epidemic that killed 20,000 people in Fiji — up to one-fourth of the population — who had no immunity to the disease. But in those days, when people traveled by sail or steam, such events were the exception rather than the rule. (Kolata, 7/26)

Death by suicide has become the second-leading cause of deaths among 10-to-14 year-olds and ranks third among teens and young adults. Yet according to a new analysis, published this week in JAMA Network Open, 3 out of 5 adolescents and young adults who died by suicide had no known mental health diagnosis. (Lisa Jarvis, 7/31)

Some of the world’s finest athletes were sidelined by a torn anterior cruciate ligament (the ligament that helps stabilize the knee joint) long before the torch was lit for the Paris Olympics. It’s time for more answers about why women athletes — of all skill levels and in all sports — disproportionately experience this painful injury. Women are three to six times more likely than men to endure an ACL tear. (Amy West, 8/2)

Kamala Harris, the current vice president and now Democratic candidate for president, made a bold statement in her inaugural campaign speech by shining a spotlight on caregiving. That issue is rarely addressed on the campaign trail even though it profoundly affects millions of Americans’ lives. Her vision for affordable childcare, paid leave, and dignified retirement resonated deeply with families grappling with the complexities of care. (Jason Resendez, 8/1)

The promise of scientific and medical innovation often comes with a downside: improvements in care benefit some people, but not all. Without concerted effort, that is exactly what could happen with liquid biopsy — an evolving technology aimed at improving cancer care using just a few milliliters of blood or other body fluids. (Gebra Cuyun Carter and Caitlin Kubler, 8/2)