Daily Edition for Friday, September 26, 2025
Scripps Details Hospital Expansion Projects: San Diego-based Scripps Health plans to consolidate its operations in north San Diego, adding a third medical tower to the Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla campus and eventually closing Scripps Green Hospital. The company still plans to build a hospital in San Marcos. Read more from The San Diego Union-Tribune and Becker’s Hospital Review.
Off-Label Drug Helps One Boy With Autism Speak, Parents Say. But Experts Want More Data.
By Céline Gounder
This week, the FDA began the process of approving leucovorin, an inexpensive, generic drug derived from folic acid, to help children diagnosed with autism.
States Target Ultraprocessed Foods in Bipartisan Push
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett
States are taking aim at chemicals and additives in foods as Republicans and Democrats alike embrace at least one aspect of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” push. It’s a shift for Republicans, who had vilified past Democratic efforts to impose government will on what people eat and drink.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Public Health Further Politicized Under the Threat of More Firings
In a rambling news conference that shocked public health experts, President Donald Trump — without scientific evidence — blamed the over-the-counter drug acetaminophen, and too many childhood vaccines, for the increase in autism diagnoses in the U.S. That came days after a key immunization advisory panel, newly reconstituted with vaccine doubters, changed several long-standing recommendations. Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Demetre Daskalakis joins KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories. Meanwhile, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join Rovner with the rest of the news, including a threat by the Trump administration to fire rather than furlough federal workers if Congress fails to fund the government beyond the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Daily Edition for Thursday, September 25, 2025
Farmworkers With Disabilities Win Case Against Carrot Grower: A federal court ruled a San Joaquin Valley carrot company engaged in discriminatory practices against farmworkers with disabilities. The ruling Monday from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California comes out of a long-standing battle between Grimmway Farms and the California Civil Rights Division. The agency filed a lawsuit against the farm in 2021. Read more from KVPR.
Big Loopholes in Hospital Charity Care Programs Mean Patients Still Get Stuck With the Tab
By Michelle Andrews
Even if people qualify for financial help with their hospital bills, the care they receive may not be covered.
AI Will Soon Have a Say in Approving or Denying Medicare Treatments
By Lauren Sausser and Darius Tahir
A pilot program testing the use of artificial intelligence to expand prior authorization decisions in Medicare has providers, politicians, and researchers questioning Trump administration promises to curb an unpopular practice that has frustrated patients and their doctors.
As Trump Punts on Medical Debt, Battle Over Patient Protections Moves to States
By Noam N. Levey and Katheryn Houghton and Arielle Zionts
Some states are enacting medical debt laws as the Trump administration pulls back federal protections. Elsewhere, industry opposition has derailed legislation.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Hospital Will Close ED Sooner Than Planned: Willows-based Glenn Medical Center is fast-tracking the planned closure of its emergency department due to staffing shortages, according to a Sept. 22 Facebook post from the hospital. Both the 25-bed hospital and its ED were set to close Oct. 21 after CMS revoked its critical access designation, but the ED will now close on Sept. 30 by 7 p.m. PDT. Read more from Becker’s Hospital Review.
Trump Claims ‘No Downside’ to Avoiding Tylenol During Pregnancy. He’s Wrong.
By Madison Czopek, PolitiFact
Doctors say acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, is safe to take during pregnancy. Other over-the-counter pain relievers such as aspirin and ibuprofen aren’t recommended because they can harm fetal development. Untreated fever in pregnancy can pose maternal and fetal health risks.
