Los Angeles Times: Regular Mammograms Should Start At Age 40, Panel Recommends
To counteract growing rates of breast cancer in younger women and to reduce racial disparities in deaths, an influential panel has changed its advice and is urging most women to begin getting regular mammograms at age 40. The new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force say women without genetic mutations that make it extremely likely they will develop breast cancer should get their first mammogram to screen for the disease at age 40 and should continue with the exams every other year until they turn 74. (Kaplan, 4/30)

Axios: U.S. Panel, Cancer Groups Differ On New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines
An influential national advisory group has called for women to start getting mammograms beginning at age 40, but only every two years  — a recommendation that highlights a rift within the cancer community. (Reed, 4/30)

AP: EPA Rule Bans Toxic Chemical Methylene Chloride, Toxic Solvent Known To Cause Liver Cancer 
The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it has finalized a ban on consumer uses of  methylene chloride, a chemical that is widely used as a paint stripper but is known to cause liver cancer and other health problems. The EPA said its action will protect Americans from health risks while allowing certain commercial uses to continue with robust worker protections. (Daly, 4/30)

Los Angeles Times: DEA's Big Marijuana Shift Could Be A Lifeline For California's Troubled Pot Industry
If the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reclassified marijuana as a less dangerous drug, it wouldn’t eliminate the conflicts between the feds and states such as California that have legalized many uses of the substance. But it would bring one significant shift that could give California’s licensed pot companies a badly needed boost: a lighter tax burden. (Hernandez, 5/1)

AP: What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The U.S.
Schedule III drugs — which include ketamine, anabolic steroids and some acetaminophen-codeine combinations — are still controlled substances. They’re subject to various rules that allow for some medical uses, and for federal criminal prosecution of anyone who traffics in the drugs without permission. No changes are expected to the medical marijuana programs now licensed in 38 states or the legal recreational cannabis markets in 23 states, but it’s unlikely they would meet the federal production, record-keeping, prescribing and other requirements for Schedule III drugs. (Peltz and Whitehurst, 4/30)

The Hill: What Rescheduling Marijuana Would Look Like
Moving marijuana away from Schedule I would make it much easier to research.  Schedule III drugs are considered to have a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Substances within this category include ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone. Since Schedule I drugs have no medical value, there is no easy way to conduct clinical research.  (Weixel, 4/30)

Reuters: Explainer: How US Change On Marijuana Would Help Cannabis Companies 
One of the biggest benefits for cannabis firms would be that they would no longer be subject to Section 280E of the U.S. federal tax code. That provision prevents businesses dealing in schedule one and two controlled substances from claiming tax credits and deductions for business expenses. The tax change would put close to $3.5 billion of cash back into the sector, which will lower the overall cost of capital for the industry, and spark a flurry of M&A activity, said Katan Associates International founder Seth Yakatan. (Roy, 4/30)

Modern Healthcare: Leapfrog Group Safety Grades Show Patient Experience Scores Jump
The Leapfrog Group said hospitals improved their patient experience scores for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading some to earn higher safety grades in the nonprofit watchdog's latest report. The organization’s spring 2024 report found that hospitals’ average scores on measures related to staff responsiveness and doctor communication increased between October 2021 and March 2023. Around 70% of hospitals increased their score for at least one patient experience measure. (Devereaux, 4/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Where Are Leapfrog's 15 Straight-'A' Hospitals?
The Leapfrog Group has bestowed 15 U.S. hospitals with consecutive "A" safety grades since 2012. The organization biannually grades nearly 3,000 acute-care hospitals against 22 national patient safety measures from CMS, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and supplemental data. (Twenter, 5/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Where Are Leapfrog's 10 'F' Hospitals?
Three California hospitals and three New York hospitals made the list of the 10 nationwide to receive an "F" grade in The Leapfrog Group's spring safety rankings, released May 1. Twice a year, the nonprofit healthcare watchdog organization publishes a letter grade for 3,000 hospitals on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. Among the 3,000 hospitals evaluated nationwide, fewer than 1 percent received an "F." (Taylor, 5/1)

KQED: Nursing Home Staff Shortages Leave Patients Waiting In Hospitals
Some of the state’s sickest patients are stranded in hospitals rooms for weeks, months, and even years as they wait to be moved into nursing homes and psychiatric facilities. The backup is caused by nursing home staffing shortages, coupled with a rapidly aging population. KQED’s Lesley McClurg tells us the story of one Berkeley resident’s struggle to find adequate care for his wife. (Guevarra, McClurg, Montecillo, Prickett-Morgan, Esquinca, 5/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Kaiser Permanente Names 2 New C-Suite Leaders
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has named two new C-suite leaders to oversee business development and innovation. Sam Glick will serve as executive vice president for enterprise strategy and business development, while Shelby Decosta has been appointed chief business development officer. (Bruce, 4/30)

Modern Healthcare: Walmart Health To Close All Clinics, End Virtual Care
Walmart will close all of its clinics and its virtual care platform in a sharp reversal of its five-year-old health center strategy. The retailer attributed the shutdown of its Walmart Health unit, which involves closing 51 clinics across five states, to a challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs, making the business model unsustainable. Walmart declined to share closing dates for individual centers, but a spokesperson said some clinics will remain open for up to 90 days. (Hudson, 4/30)

Axios: End Of Internet Subsidy Threatens Telehealth Access
Millions of low-income Americans may find it harder to see health care providers virtually after federal subsidies for high-speed internet expired Tuesday. Many of the 23 million households that received financial help to afford their internet bill made or attended health care appointments online, a federal survey indicates. (Goldman, 5/1)

Bloomberg: Change Healthcare Hack: US Cybersecurity Agency Questioned Over Response
A trio of US senators asked the federal government’s lead cybersecurity agency to explain its response to a February ransomware attack on an insurance company that paralyzed much of the country’s health-care system. The group, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Monday asked the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to share details of its role in addressing the breach of Change Healthcare. ... The letter also requested a broader picture of the risk posed by ransomware and the agency’s efforts to combat it. (Bleiberg, 4/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Annual Refills Can Save Physicians 2 Hours A Day: AMA Leader
Physicians might be hesitant to write annual prescriptions, but Marie Brown, MD, director of practice redesign at the American Medical Association, says providers can save two hours a day with these scripts. Synchronized refills for chronic medications, not including controlled substances, are 90-day prescriptions written with four refills. They are renewed each year, and the ideal scenario aligns with a patient's annual wellness visit, Dr. Brown recently said in an AMA podcast. (Twenter, 4/30)

Stat: As Private Equity Dominates Wheelchair Market, Users Wait Months For Repairs
When Maureen Amirault purchased her first electric wheelchair in 2020, she had been living with muscular dystrophy for decades. Braces and a cane helped, but walking became too arduous, so she got a chair through a company called Numotion. (Broderick, 5/1)

Military.com: Tricare Lowers Age For Colon Cancer Screenings To 45
Tricare beneficiaries at average risk for colorectal cancer can now receive covered screening exams and lab tests five years sooner, at age 45, following a recent coverage change. The change in coverage comes as people younger than 50 are getting colon cancer more often, according to the American Cancer Society. The incidence of colorectal cancer in the U.S. rose steadily from 2011 to 2020 in people younger than 50, increasing at a rate of 2% per year. Cases of advanced colon cancer in patients under 50 grew even faster during that time, at about 3% per year. (Miller, 4/30)

Military.com: More Veterans Can Get Cancer Treatment Closer To Home As VA Expands 'Close To Me' Program
More than 9,000 veterans will have access to advanced oncology treatment and monitoring in locations closer to their homes under an expansion of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Close to Me cancer care program, according to VA officials. In the program, VA providers travel to community-based outpatient clinics to provide diagnostics, treatment and services, rather than the veteran having to travel to a VA medical center. (Kime, 4/30)

Military.com: Supreme Court Rejects Military Chaplains' Lawsuit Claiming Refusal Of COVID-19 Vaccine Hurt Their Careers 
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear a case involving 39 military chaplains who say they continue to face recrimination for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons. In an announcement Monday of the cases the court has selected to hear next year, the justices denied the chaplains' petition to review last year's dismissal of the case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. (Kime, 4/30)

LAist: Why LA Is Considering A Centralized Department To Keep Homelessness Efforts Accountable
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to begin the process of potentially creating a homelessness department as a way to bolster accountability across programs and initiatives. Details on the vote: The council voted 13 to 0, with two council members sitting out, in favor of a motion to evaluate the creation of a homelessness department. The aim would be to centralize oversight of city-funded efforts to address the homelessness crisis, including outreach to encampments, interim and permanent housing, prevention, contracting, and collection of real-time data. (Barajas, 4/30)

Bay Area News Group: San Jose Is Doubling Down On Homeless Safe Parking Sites. Is It Helping?
After months living out of an RV at a sprawling homeless camp north of downtown San Jose, Heidi White was relieved to move her 1995 Ford motorhome into the city’s first managed 24/7 safe parking lot. (Varian, 5/1)

The Hill: Biden Campaign Hits Donald Trump For Saying He Would Close Pandemic Preparedness Office
President Biden’s reelection campaign criticized former President Trump on Tuesday after Trump said he would get rid of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR).The OPPR was founded in 2022 over failures in government response to the COVID pandemic. Trump said in a TIME interview on Monday that office isn’t necessary. (Robertson, 4/30)

Politico: This Liberal Crusader Helped Convince America Covid Came From A Lab
Congressional Republicans are banking on a blockbuster hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid-19 to show once and for all that U.S. scientists, working with a Chinese lab, caused a devastating pandemic. To counter the view of many scientists that Covid originated naturally among wild animals, the Republicans will rely on evidence uncovered by a tiny nonprofit in Oakland, California, led by a disciple of consumer activist Ralph Nader. (Paun, 4/30)

CIDRAP: Study: COVID Vaccines Not Linked To Seizures 
Today a new meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials in JAMA Neurology finds no increase in seizures in the month following COVID vaccination. The study compared the incidence of new-onset seizures between the 63,521 vaccine and 54,919 placebo recipients involved in randomized controlled trials conducted in the last 4 years. In the vaccine group there were 9 seizure events reported, compared to 1 in the placebo group. (Soucheray, 4/30)

CNN: Spikes Of Flu Virus In Wastewater Raise Questions About Spread Of Bird Flu
Spikes of influenza A virus seen in wastewater samples from 59 sewer systems across 18 different states this spring may point to the spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that is currently infecting dairy cattle, a new study suggests. (Goodman, 4/30)

AP: USDA Is Testing Ground Beef For Bird Flu
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will test ground beef for bird flu particles, though officials said Tuesday they’re confident the nation’s meat supply is safe. Bird flu has been found in nearly three-dozen dairy herds across nine states. The new testing is the latest effort by the USDA to track and understand how the virus is spreading among livestock. Two studies will test if particles of the bird flu virus, called Type A H5N1, is found in beef for sale in the states where dairy cows have tested positive or in the muscles of dairy cows sent to slaughter. A third will test how cooking meat at different temperatures affects the virus using a bird flu surrogate. (Shastri, 4/30)

Reuters: Bird Flu May Infect Cows Outside The US, Says WHO 
There is a risk that the H5N1 bird flu virus, present in many wild birds, may infect cows in countries beyond the United States as they migrate, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday. "With the virus carried around the world by migratory birds, certainly there is a risk for cows in other countries to be getting infected," Wenqing Zhang, head of WHO's Global Influenza Programme, said at a news briefing in Geneva. (4/30)

Stat: What We’re Starting To Learn About H5N1 In Cows, And The Risk To People
The fact that infections so far appear to be limited to lactating dairy cows, and that the members of a herd that are the biggest milk producers — which are also the animals that stay on milking machines the longest — are the ones most heavily impacted by the disease. “There’s still a lot that’s unknown, but what we’re seeing right now is not a respiratory disease by and large; it’s a mastitic disease,” said Jared Taylor, a professor of veterinary pathobiology at Oklahoma State University. For now, that’s somewhat reassuring, because it means that increased attention to sterilization and disinfection during milking should make a dent in the virus’s further spread. ... Taylor noted another worry: H5N1, which is notorious for its ability to evolve, is being given a huge opportunity to adapt to bovine hosts. “The concern is if it becomes effective as a respiratory pathogen in cattle, it’s more likely to become effective as a respiratory pathogen in humans,” he said.

The Atlantic: America’s Infectious-Disease Barometer Is Off
The ongoing outbreak of H5N1 avian flu virus looks a lot like a public-health problem that the United States should be well prepared for. Although this version of flu is relatively new to the world, scientists have been tracking H5N1 for almost 30 years. Researchers know the basics of how flu spreads and who tends to be most at risk. They have experience with other flus that have jumped into us from animals. The U.S. also has antivirals and vaccines that should have at least some efficacy against this pathogen. (Wu, 4/30)

The Hill: Trump: It’s Up To States To Monitor Pregnancies, Prosecute Abortions
Former President Trump in a new interview suggested states with restrictive abortion bans might monitor women’s pregnancies and should be left to decide whether to prosecute women for having the procedure. Trump sat for an interview earlier this month with Time Magazine about his plans for a possible second term. When asked about various abortion policies and how he would handle them if he is elected in November, Trump repeatedly said it should be left up to individual states to decide. (Samuels, 4/30)

Time: Donald Trump On What His Second Term Would Look Like 
In exclusive interviews, the former President lays out a second-term agenda that would reshape America and its role in the world. (Cortellessa, 4/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCLA Researchers Find Blood Test That Can Better Predict Stoke Risk
A blood test that looks for specific molecules in the blood could help predict the risk of having a stroke and cognitive impairment in your lifetime, according to a UCLA study slated for publication Wednesday in the journal Stroke. In the study, researchers came up with a scoring system to measure the concentration of five molecules in the blood that are markers of inflammation, and found that the higher the score, the more likely someone was to have a stroke within the 10-year study period. (Ho, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: Do Dying People Have A 'Right To Try' Psilocybin Or Magic Mushrooms?
Do dying patients have a “right to try” illegal drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA if they might alleviate end-of-life suffering from anxiety and depression? That question is now before one of the nation’s highest courts, with a Seattle-based palliative care physician appealing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration decision barring him from prescribing psilocybin to his late-stage cancer patients. (Rector, 5/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: LGBTQ Youth Say Political Attacks Are Fueling Mental Health Crisis
The current American political landscape, including repeated attacks on LGBTQ rights that lately have focused on young people, is a major cause of stress for almost all young queer people that affects their overall quality of life, according to a national survey released Wednesday by The Trevor Project. About 90% of the 18,000 respondents to the annual survey reported that politics negatively impacted their well-being, including their sense of self and safety. (Allday, 5/1)

ABC News: Rural Americans Are At Higher Risk Of Early Death Than Urbanites: CDC
Rural Americans are more likely to die early from one of the five leading causes of death than those who live in urban areas, according to new federal data. Researchers looked at the number of potentially preventable deaths from 2010 through 2022. The report was published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Kekatos, 4/30)