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A new wave of companies think they can pull off the difficult feat of becoming a health insurer. National carriers have pulled back in recent years by exiting unprofitable business lines and geographies, as costs rise in commercial insurance and government health programs. Health systems, reckoning with cost inflation, must battle insurers during network negotiations and enlist outside vendors to ease prior authorization pressures. And that’s leading some companies to bet their twist on administering health insurance will succeed where others failed. (Tong, 10/21)

Corporate America is getting hit by healthcare sticker shock—and companies are passing a greater share of the cost on to workers. The trend is accelerating. New data shows that this year, the average cost of a family health plan crossed $28,000, rising by 5%, according to an annual survey from the nonprofit KFF, which provides the broadest picture of U.S. employer health coverage. The share coming out of employees’ paychecks shot up even faster—to $7,471, an increase of 9% from 2025. (Wilde Mathews, 10/22)

Mark Cuban says many of the customers flooding his low-cost pharmacy have something in common: They already have insurance. And they’re still better off paying cash. (Witman, 10/21)

�Թϲ�����: Job-Based Health Plan Costs Rise, With Little Relief In Sight

Rising healthcare costs aren’t a problem just for those who buy their own health insurance. Increases hit employers and their workers this year, too, and more are expected for 2027 plans — adding to growing concerns about affordability heading into the midterm elections. Polls show that healthcare costs — and affordability, in general — are among top concerns cited by likely voters. Much attention has been focused on mounting costs and declining enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans, the insurance used by roughly 19 million people who buy their own. But work-based plans are adding financial pressure for the more than 150 million Americans covered through their jobs. (Appleby, 10/22)

Open enrollment for Medicare, the nationwide federal health insurance program primarily for those aged 65 and older, has started. Many enrollees in privately run Medicare Advantage plans may need to find new plans as insurers scale back their offerings. Additionally, costs may increase for prescription drugs after the Trump administration ended a temporary subsidy program. (Kekatos, 10/20)

�Թϲ�����: Listen To The Latest ‘�Թϲ����� Minute’

Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Support for “Medicare for All” is at its highest in at least a decade, even though many don’t understand the specifics. Plus, celebrities are getting full-body medical scans, but more screening might not be a good thing. (10/22)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to allow the Trump administration to immediately enforce new medical restrictions for transgender people in federal prison. The decision leaves in place a lower-court block on the policy. It was adopted after an executive order from President Donald Trump, a Republican who has taken several steps to roll back transgender rights during his second term. (Whitehurst, 10/22)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved testing of a military-grade "heat ray" for potential use along the U.S.-Mexico border — a weapon that uses invisible energy beams to produce an intense burning sensation on human skin. (Scribner, 10/21)

The Trump administration has cut $46 million to groups that work on HIV prevention across the country by diverting grants previously awarded to community-based organizations and allocating the money to state health departments instead. HIV advocates warn of a possible rise in cases, particularly in states with high rates of new HIV infections like Florida, which ranks third in the nation after Washington, DC and Georgia. (Sheridan, 10/22)

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has raised veterans' combined disability ratings to 100% more than 625,000 times between 2023 and 2025, including roughly 250,000 upgrades last year alone, according to a Military.com review of the department's congressional budget submissions. More than 2 million veterans now hold the VA's highest disability rating, up 122% from about 941,000 in June 2021, according to VA benefits datapreviously reported by OAF Nation. (Gramegna, 10/22)

Just one week after being granted the authority to kick providers off of federal health care programs, U.S. health officials are using it on adult day care centers in New York City they say are committing fraud. (Bannow, 10/21)

Americans' ratings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have fallen to a record low, according to a recent Gallup poll, driven by a plunge in Democrats' views of the agency. (Adkins, 10/21)

Changes to federal hepatitis B vaccination recommendations could lead to more childhood infections and leave up to 1.8 million young adults vulnerable to the virus, a new study finds. It comes as health experts raise concerns about the potential long-term impact of changing childhood vaccination recommendations. (Tsapatsaris and Assoumou, 10/21)

The US-backed hepatitis B vaccine trial in African newborns that drew global backlash was halted, the lead researcher said on Wednesday. It was “now clear” that the study “will not move forward in Guinea-Bissau”, Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, a Danish researcher, wrote on LinkedIn, adding, “we were not given the necessary governmental approval.” (Schreiber, 10/21)

�Թϲ�����: ‘Go To Canada’: Trump Touted Americans’ Access To Cheaper Drugs. A New Rule Threatens It

Days before it was to go into effect, the Trump administration pushed back a U.S. customs rule threatening the supply of vital prescription drugs imported by millions of Americans. Under the rule, Customs and Border Protection and the FDA will require coding on packages that makes it easier to know what’s in them. It is aimed at collecting tariffs on even low-value imports, and at catching illegal drugs like fentanyl. It will also add costs and complex paperwork to each order. Now the regulation, which was set to start Oct. 22, is delayed until Jan. 20. (Allen, 10/22)

Health officials in California and Washington, facing outbreaks of measles this past spring, asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May to validate a test that can diagnose 500 cases in eight hours. They did not hear back for two months. Officials from the West Coast Health Alliance — California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii — recounted the experience this week in a letter to Dr. Erica Schwartz, the C.D.C.’s new director, who assumed the position in August, shortly after they got the agency’s reply. According to the letter, obtained by The New York Times, the C.D.C. had told them that it had “other competing priorities” and could not dedicate time to making a high-volume test available to state labs. (Mandavilli, 10/21)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added a third measles death to its dashboard on Wednesday, but the agency would not reveal whether the death occurred in Pennsylvania or another state – which is “notable” as the agency delays reporting other measles deaths, experts say. The CDC cited privacy laws in not sharing the name of the state, but experts say there are no privacy concerns in doing so – and this information is important for the public to have as the outbreak continues accelerating, growing by 8% in one week to 4,410 confirmed cases so far this year, nearly double last year’s count. (Schreiber, 10/22)

The Pennsylvania health department issued a warning to doctors Monday about an increase in measles cases during pregnancy, along with rising concern about congenital measles, a disease rarely seen in the U.S. The department’s alert said congenital measles — a measles infection in a newborn contracted from the mother — was identified “for the first time in decades.” (Weixel, 10/21)

A person in DuPage County has the measles, health authorities announced Wednesday. The individual, who had been vaccinated, recently returned from an international trip, the DuPage County Health Department said in a news release. County health officials said it was “a rare breakthrough infection.” (Sarkauskas, 10/21)

In the United States, rabies can seem like a disease of the past, a remote risk caused by a mostly vanquished virus. But in recent months, this ancient foe has returned to the spotlight. A handful of unusual outbreaks have made headlines: rabid beavers at a Maryland state park, a cluster of goat cases at a North Carolina petting zoo. Officials in several states, including Idaho and Alabama, flagged surges in animal cases; California set an annual record for rabid bats. (Anthes, 10/21)

More people are contracting mosquito-borne West Nile virus and dying in Los Angeles and Orange counties than anywhere else in California, pushing state levels to a five-year high. The two counties combined account for at least 63% of the 378 human infections reported this year by the California Department of Public Health, making the region a hotbed for the disease transmitted by the female Southern House mosquito. The actual count is likely higher than the state’s database, which lags behind the local numbers reported by individual counties. (Fobar and Saavedra, 10/21)

Federal and Texas officials on Wednesday confirmed the first known case of the New World screwworm parasite in U.S. wildlife during the current outbreak. The discovery raises new questions about whether the flesh-eating parasite is spreading beyond livestock. (Falconer, 10/21)

Nigeria is confirming its first Ebola case as an outbreak continues to spread in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the patient is a woman who arrived on an international flight from Uganda. She was admitted to a private hospital in the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital city of Abuja is located. The woman received care for several days before a diagnosis was confirmed through laboratory testing on Tuesday. She is currently in isolation and receiving medical care, according to the ministry. (Kekatos and Jovanovic, 10/21)

Just over six weeks after the American Diabetes Association said its review of an incident at its New Orleans meeting in June would need more time, one of its top leaders is out. (Cooney, 10/21)

For the popular diabetes and obesity medications known as GLP-1s, addiction medicine is one of many possible promising next acts. (Palmer, 10/22)

Kaiser Permanente-backed Risant Health is set to acquire its third health system, Integris Health. Risant and Integris have signed a definitive agreement, according to a Wednesday news release. The proposed deal is expected to close early next year, pending regulatory approval. Financial details were not disclosed. (Hudson, 10/21)

Stellis Health, a healthcare organization based in Wright County, plans to merge with CentraCare, the central Minnesota region’s largest healthcare provider. (Marohn, 10/21)

Abbott Laboratories plans to spin off its nutrition business into a separate company — a move that follows years of tumult over its infant formulas. The new business will sell Abbott products including Similac, PediaSure, Pedialyte, Glucerna and Ensure. The north suburban-based company also makes medical tests, medical devices and generic pharmaceuticals. (Schencker, 10/21)

As a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit, Jean Stone knows what it really means to live in a country with no paid parental leave. She’s watched this scene play out so many times it’s almost the norm: Once their babies stabilize in the NICU, parents often return to work to preserve whatever parental leave they have left for when their babies come home. Stone calls the parents in the middle of the day to update them — starting each call with, “Everything is OK” — and watch them come in at the end of their workday, their faces reflecting the relief of reunion. (Carrazana, 10/21)

Major health insurance companies are joining forces to build up a legacy provider data platform in preparation for looming federal mandates.At the start of the year, UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare, CVS Health subsidiary Aetna, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield and nine other insurers acquired the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare and transitioned it from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit company. In June, the group rebranded the operation as DataSpring. Last week, DataSpring, several large insurance companies and the American Medical Association launched a new shared provider data standard. (Tepper, 10/21)

The parent company of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has agreed to acquire multispecialty care provider Summit Health’s operations in the state. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, Horizon Mutual Holdings said Wednesday. Horizon did not provide an expected closing date or financial details of the proposed deal. (Hudson, 10/21)

Elevance Health Inc. raised its full-year profit guidance after a better-than-expected third quarter and signaled earnings next year would top current Wall Street estimates, a sign of growing confidence as the healthcare giant rebuilds profits in its insurance business. Elevance, which includes a major insurer and a health services arm, boosted its 2026 earnings outlook by $2 a share. Adjusted earnings next year will increase by at least 12% from a new baseline of $26.75 a share, which excludes some current-year items, the company said in a presentation Wednesday. (Swetlitz, 10/21)

Treatment with the novel triple agonist retatrutide improved obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in adults with obesity or overweight regardless of type 2 diabetes, two parallel randomized clinical trials showed. (Phend, 10/21)

Findings from a pair of randomized trials in Sjögren's disease with the anti-B cell biologic ianalumab have now been published and it's no longer clear that they're sufficient to support regulatory approvals. The two trials were called NEPTUNUS-1 and NEPTUNUS-2 and were almost identical in design. Some results were presented last year at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting, indicating that their primary endpoint (more change from baseline in disease activity than with placebo) was met in both studies. P values approached the usual 0.05 threshold for insignificance, but pooling the data made them look stronger. (Gever, 10/21)

Roivant and its spinout Priovant said Wednesday that their immune-modifying pill Lisraya was more effective than placebo in treating the inflammatory eye disease non-infectious uveitis. (Mast, 10/21)

Markers of systemic inflammation and mitochondrial stress were reduced after psilocybin therapy in Parkinson's disease patients with mood dysfunction, a small nonrandomized trial showed. Relative to baseline, an inflammatory index was significantly lower at all follow-up time points after psilocybin was administered, reported Ellen Bradley, MD, of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and co-authors. (George, 10/21)

Epic Systems will roll out a new tool that enables artificial intelligence agents to find information and complete tasks in other apps. Connectors will give developers the ability to link outside apps to the Epic electronic health record, the company said Wednesday. It will also let users pull information from those apps to its clinician AI assistant, Art; its patient-facing generative AI tool, Emmie; and Penny, the company’s AI-backed revenue cycle management product. (Famakinwa, 10/21)

Testosterone therapy for menopause was linked to heightened risk of incident cardiovascular disease, a large retrospective cohort study suggested. (Robertson, 10/21)

Since the 1970s, cervical cancer deaths in the United States have plummeted by more than half, thanks in part to screening, according to the American Cancer Society. Still, about 13,000 women receive new cervical cancer diagnoses annually—and about 4,000 of them die. Understanding cervical cancer screening (CCS) uptake trends can help doctors reach more patients and reduce the number of deaths. From 2019 to 2024, rates of CCS increased overall, but there were differences among the groups screened, finds a study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. (Holohan, 10/21)

Nearly 30 Minnesota hospitals have stopped providing obstetric services over the past 15 years, leaving fewer options for families who need maternity care close to home, according to University of Minnesota research. (Gordon and Finn, 10/21)

In October of 2023, Marci Bothwell had just turned 33 and completed her certification to become an oncology nurse. The mom of three was very knowledgable about the symptoms of many cancers, and how to monitor for them. But she wasn’t looking for unusual changes in her breasts when she found one. (Kee, 10/21)

When it comes to protecting kids from the human papillomavirus (HPV), earlier vaccination is better, new research shows. Children are more likely to be fully vaccinated against HPV—a ubiquitous virus that causes six types of cancer— if doctors offer the immunization when kids are 9 or 10 years old, compared with beginning the series of injections at ages 11 or 12, the age when most clinicians now offer the shots. (Szabo, 10/21)

A drug that's not FDA approved and still in clinical trials is being advertised all over the internet. Buying it turned out to be alarmingly easy. First, CBS News national correspondent Adam Yamaguchi placed an online order through the website for Reset Wellness, a clinic started by a nurse practitioner, for 20 milligrams of retatrutide. The weight-loss medication, known as Reta, is an experimental peptide drug that Eli Lilly is studying as a next-generation obesity treatment. At checkout, he was promised a health evaluation, but the product arrived a week later without ever having to speak to a health professional. (Yamaguchi and Geller, 10/21)

More than 4.3 million tubes of toothpaste, including children's products featuring popular characters such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Crayola and My Little Pony, have been recalled nationwide, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The voluntary recall affects 17 toothpaste varieties sold under the Brush Buddies, evo and ARU brands. The FDA lists “current good manufacturing practice deviations” as the reason, but does not specify the exact manufacturing issues. The agency classified the recall as Class II on October 19. (Backus, 10/22)

Pope Leo XIV will need no further treatment for lung cancer after tests confirmed the disease was localized, the Vatican said Wednesday. Leo, 71, had part of one lung removed last week in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. Leo was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic on Saturday, four days after surgery, and said he would gradually resume his activities. (10/22)

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration didn’t follow rulemaking procedures and overstepped its authority when it proposed eliminating four required vaccines for school and daycare entry, a rule challenge filed in state administrative court alleges. (Sexton, 10/21)

Arkevious Armstrong, 45, returned to C.A. Dillon Juvenile Detention Center in Butner on Oct. 12. He had last walked out of the facility 30 years ago. Armstrong spent four years of his childhood there, from age 13 to 17. This time, though, he came to celebrate the opening of a new behavioral health unit at the facility. (Crumpler, 10/22)

�Թϲ�����: Trump Dangles Rural Health Dollars To Push States To Change Hospital Laws

The Trump administration has hinged federal funding for states on whether they end or loosen powerful but controversial laws that regulate the construction of new hospitals — with a handful of states poised to comply. A chunk of the $50 billion available to states through the five-year Rural Health Transformation Program is partly contingent on policy commitments. The administration told states it would score their applications higher if they walked back their certificate of need, or CON, laws, which give a state approval authority over the expansion or construction of any healthcare facility. Six states indicated plans to revisit their laws in their applications. (Jones, 10/22)

Pamphlets purporting to come from a transgender rights organization — mailed to families across Texas and igniting a storm of criticism from conservatives — came from a company formed last month in Wyoming. Social media posts began circulating Monday and Tuesday, the opening days of early voting for the Nov. 3 midterm election, that showed a pamphlet marketed as a resource guide for LGBTQ+ students from the Texas Transgender Student Union. (Runnels, 10/21)

Billionaire Gary Michelson has pledged $120 million to help establish a medical research institute in Los Angeles. Now he’s asking California voters to approve a far larger investment of public money, with much likely to go to the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, which he co-founded and chairs. Proposition 38 would authorize $8.4 billion in state borrowing to study the immune system and develop treatments for afflictions including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Michelson says the investment would help sustain American scientific advancements as the Trump administration cuts federal research funding. (Gittelsohn, 10/21)

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is closing out one of the nastiest races of the 2026 cycle by suggesting that Democrat Amy Acton, his opponent in the Ohio governor’s race, has lied about the well-documented childhood sexual abuse she experienced for political gain. (Becker, 10/21)

A ruptured chemical tank billowed a white plume into the air for hours Wednesday, forcing hundreds of residents out of their homes due to the potentially toxic leak and the possibility of an explosion. More than 50,000 people in Toledo, Ohio, were advised to stay indoors for much of the day until the city lifted a shelter-in-place order in the evening. (Seewer and McCormack, 10/22)

A fire tore through a Mississippi senior living center Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of its residents and destroying much of the building that was home to more than 100 people. There were no confirmed casualties, but authorities searched the site into the night to account for everyone. There were no immediate reports of injuries at Brookdale Clinton, where many residents have mobility issues, and by Wednesday night the fire was under control, according to officials. (Bates and Golden, 10/22)

An Idaho prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a woman charged with murder in the 2025 deaths of her twin toddlers. Andrea Shaw, 23, has pleaded not guilty and has said the 18-month-old twins became sick and died after receiving flu shots and routine childhood vaccinations. But Payette County Prosecutor Mike Duke wrote in court documents that an autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with smothering and wrote that suffocation “is the only conceivable explanation” for their deaths. (Boone, 10/21)

The number of deaths stemming from domestic violence in Colorado has held steady over the past five years, with a slight uptick in both fatalities and cases reported in 2025, according to a report released Wednesday by Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office. (Breunlin, 10/21)

This summer, it seemed like climate change took its toll on St. Louis. The city has had nearly 200 days this year when temperatures were in the 90s. And in the heart of the city, it can feel even hotter. In urban areas, all of that brick, concrete and asphalt retains heat — and there aren’t as many trees and green spaces to cool cities down. This causes “the heat island effect,” making many cities hotter than the suburban and rural areas around them. (Varner, 10/22)

They were all held at the St. Louis City Justice Center, waiting for their day in court. One, 32 years old, died of complications from his untreated diabetes, the city medical examiner’s office concluded. Another, a year older, hanged herself in her cell, dying days later from a lack of oxygen to her brain, according to her autopsy report. A third, 31, died from what the city said was an overdose, but his family called it negligence by the jail’s employees. (Scott and Wimbley, 10/21)

Researchers from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center and other institutions examined, in extraordinary detail, brain tissue from 11 people who died at ages 80 to 91. They discovered that some particles had penetrated deep into the brain, reaching the amygdala, a region that helps shape emotion and memory. (Eunjung Cha, 10/22)

Presidential sessions at top cancer meetings typically feature practice-changing clinical trials, detailed in front of thousands of global experts packed into rooms so cavernous they merit their own ZIP codes. But last year, at the most important European oncology conference, one slot was reserved for a presentation of early results from a German biotech’s study of just 16 patients. (Joseph, 10/21)

People with aging-associated farsightedness gained a new topical treatment option as the FDA expanded the approval of phentolamine ophthalmic solution 0.75% (Ryzumvi) to include presbyopia, according to Opus Genetics and Viatris. The eye drops, designed to improve near vision while preserving distance vision, reduce pupillary dilation by means of a sympatholytic mechanism that does not involve the ciliary muscle. (Bankhead, 10/19)

Children and adolescents who received antibiotics had 1.5-times-higher odds of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by age 24 than those who had not, Swedish researchers reported today at the annual United European Gastroenterology (UEG) conference. The findings are from an analysis of 2,853 participants enrolled in the BAMSE study, which began in Stockholm in 1994 and was originally established to study environmental and nutritional factors involved in the development of allergies and other chronic conditions. (Dall, 10/19)

An emerging technique called spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) proved its mettle for evaluating skin fibrosis in systemic sclerosis (SSc), also called scleroderma, in an early clinical study. Comparing SFDI parameters with modified Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS) values and findings from histological biopsy analyses yielded correlations strong enough that the new approach deserves additional testing in larger samples, according to Andreea M. Bujor, MD, PhD, of Boston University (BU), and colleagues writing in Lancet Rheumatology. (Gever, 10/15)

In an "exceptionally" rare case, an infant was found to have a second colon, researchers reported. (Jeffrey, 10/19)

People who smoke or vape weed — but not those who use edibles — might need more anesthesia, researchers say. Weed smokers required substantially higher levels of the general anesthetic propofol than non-users during colonoscopy or upper endoscopy, researchers reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. However, people who consumed weed edibles wound up requiring less anesthesia, researchers found. (Thompson, 10/19)

The U.S. health system is making Americans sick; and a better, fairer model will become increasingly important at the ballot box. (Dan Perry, 10/16)

Employer-sponsored plans are failing workers. A public system with private supplements offers a logical, lasting fix. (Kathryn Anne Edwards, 10/21)

In November 2009, I joined 10 other economists in a letter urging Congress to pass a bill that became the Affordable Care Act. I could hardly imagine what would come next. (Dana P. Goldman, 10/22)

Millions of Americans lost their health insurance this year when Obamacare premium subsidies disappeared. Many small families found that their health insurance costs quadrupled — pricing them out of the market. Many of these uninsured work for small businesses that do not offer health insurance. But this month, if you work for a small business, there is a once-a-year chance to get the same affordable group health plan coverage that is offered to big businesses in your state — at absolutely no cost to your employer! (Terry Savage, 10/21)

The disease didn’t have a name in our house. It had descriptions: the way her hands shook or she lost her words midsentence. The way she could be fully present at breakfast then somewhere unreachable by dinner. (Miranda Pappas, 10/22)