Daily Edition for Monday, June 16, 2025
Wojcicki's Nonprofit Wins Bidding War To Buy Most Of 23andMe Assets: A nonprofit controlled by Anne Wojcicki, former chief executive of San Francisco-based 23andMe, has won the bidding process to buy the bankrupt genetic testing company. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
‘Not Accountable to Anyone’: As Insurers Issue Denials, Some Patients Run Out of Options
By Lauren Sausser
Health insurers issue millions of prior authorization denials every year, leaving many patients stuck in a convoluted appeals process, with little hope of meaningful policy change ahead. For doctors, these denials are frustrating and time-consuming. For patients, they can be devastating.
A Revolutionary Drug for Extreme Hunger Offers Clues to Obesity’s Complexity
By Claire Sibonney
A new drug is helping families who’ve spent years padlocking fridges, chaining garbage cans, and hiding food as their children with Prader-Willi syndrome deal with unrelenting hunger. But additional progress — and a broader understanding of obesity — is now under threat as the government dismantles the pipeline for promising new research.
Daily Edition for Friday, June 13, 2025
Hospital To Shutter Transyouth Health Center: Citing “external pressure” — the Trump administration is attempting to block gender-affirming care for youth — Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has announced that it will close its Center for Transyouth Health and Development on July 22. Read more from LAist.
CDC Staffing Upheaval Disrupts HIV Projects and Wastes Money, Researchers Say
By Amy Maxmen
Researchers laid off in April were putting the finishing touches on in-depth HIV surveys that guide treatment and prevention. Some staff have been reinstated, but data remains in limbo.
Inestabilidad de la planta profesional en los CDC altera proyectos de VIH y desperdicia dinero, dicen investigadores
By Amy Maxmen
Decenas de investigadores fueron despedidos justo antes de terminar de recopilar datos de la encuesta nacional sobre el VIH que aporta información clave.
Expertos dicen que el secretario de Salud envió “ciencia basura” a congresistas para defender cambios en las vacunas contra covid
By Jackie Fortiér
Para apoyar el cambio en la política nacional sobre las vacunas contra covid-19, el HHS envió a legisladores un documento que cita estudios controversiales, y tergiversa otros.
Kennedy’s HHS Sent Congress ‘Junk Science’ To Defend Vaccine Changes, Experts Say
By Jackie Fortiér
A look inside the Department of Health and Human Services document citing vaccine misinformation that could influence congressional perceptions.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': RFK Jr. Upends Vaccine Policy, After Promising He Wouldn’t
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week did something he had promised not to do: He fired every member of the scientific advisory committee that recommends which vaccines should be given to whom. And he replaced them, in some cases, with vaccine skeptics. Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the National Institutes of Health sent an open letter to the agency’s director, accusing the Trump administration of policies that “undermine the NIH mission.” Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Batter Rural Hospital Finances, Researchers Say
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez
Rural hospitals would take an outsize hit from Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs. Researchers say the financial erosion would trigger hospital closures and service cuts, especially in communities where large shares of patients are enrolled in Medicaid.
