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Content ArticleIn January 2025, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives’ Budget Committee offered a list of possible spending reductions to offset revenue losses from proposed tax cuts. In May, the Committee advanced a bill incorporating several reductions on the list. The Committee estimated that the 6 largest potential Medicaid cuts (for example, work requirements for some Medicaid enrollees) would each reduce the federal government’s Medicaid outlays by at least $100 billion over 10 years. On the basis of the Committee’s estimates of savings; Congressional Budget Office analyses; and peer-reviewed studies of the coverage, financial, and health impacts of past Medicaid expansions and contractions, the authors project the likely effects of each option and of the House bill advanced by the Budget Committee in May. Each option individually would reduce federal Medicaid outlays by between $100 billion and $900 billion over a decade, increase the ranks of the uninsured by between 600 000 and 3 900 000 and the annual number of persons forgoing needed medical care by 129 060 to 838 890, and result in 651 to 12 626 medically preventable deaths annually. Enactment of the House bill advanced in May would increase the number of uninsured persons by 7.6 million and the number of deaths by 16 642 annually, according to a mid-range estimate. These figures exclude harms from lowering provider payments and shrinking benefits, as well as possible repercussions from states increasing taxes or shifting expenditures from other needs to make up for shortfalls in federal Medicaid funding. Policy makers should weigh the likely health and financial harms to patients and providers of reducing Medicaid expenditures against the desirability of tax reductions, which would accrue mostly to wealthy Americans.
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News ArticleDoctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law. Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated. Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show. The changes also affect chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists. In making the changes, VA officials cite the president’s 30 January executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. The primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including “gender affirming” and “transgender”, from clinical settings. Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching. They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2025
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News ArticleOn 9 June 2025, federal employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stood up for the health and safety of the American people and faithful stewardship of public resources by authoring and signing the Bethesda Declaration. Read the open letter in support of the Bethesda Declaration.
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News Article
RFK Jr. names new slate of vaccine advisers after purging CDC panel
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unveiled eight people he has chosen to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel – just two days after taking the unprecedented step of removing all 17 sitting members. On Wednesday, Kennedy listed the names and short bios of the new advisers who will join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, at its upcoming meeting in late June. "All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense," Kennedy said in a post on X, "They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations." The new members are Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. Michael A. Ross, Dr. James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. "This is a huge win for the medical freedom [m]ovement," David Mansdoerfer, former deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services in the first Trump administration, wrote in a post on X, "they did everything by the book to put together this excellent slate of appointees." Public health advocates are wary. "Kennedy did not pick people with strong, current expertise in vaccines," says Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law, San Francisco, who studies vaccine policy. "It tells me that Kennedy is setting up a committee that would be skeptical of vaccines, and possibly willing to implement an anti-vaccine agenda." Read full story Source: NPR, 11 June 2025 -
Content ArticleIn this blog, Dr Jessica Knurick lists the policies, executive orders and administrative actions that she believes runs directly counter to making America healthy and actively harm public health.
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News Article
NIH grant cuts have pulled $2B from medical schools, academic hospitals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant terminations have pulled almost $2 billion in funding away from U.S. medical schools and hospitals, including $314.5 million in funding intended to train biomedical and health researchers, according to an analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The halted funding undercuts medical schools and academic hospitals’ financial sustainability, immediately ended at least 160 active clinical trials for patients being treated for conditions like HIV/AIDS or cancer and threatens “the ability of academic medicine to attract and retain the best and brightest scientists,” the association warned in a Wednesday data brief. An accompanying release from the AAMC framed the grant terminations alongside a slew of proposed executive and legislative actions it said threaten academic medicine and millions of patients, such as Medicaid provider tax limits and eliminating federal student aid programmes. “For generations, bipartisan leaders have recognized that America’s strength and future rely on the groundbreaking research performed at our nation’s biomedical research facilities, the complex and highly sophisticated care provided at academic health systems that is the envy of the world, and the ability of our medical schools and teaching hospitals to train the next generation of physicians," AAMC President and CEO David Skorton, M.D., said in a position piece published Wednesday. “For the sake of medical advancement, economic prosperity, and the health of every citizen, we need policymakers to work with us, not against us. The stakes could not be higher—lives truly hang in the balance.” Read full story Source: Fierce Healthcare, 11 June 2025 -
News Article
USA: Stanford pilots ChatEHR
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
California-based Stanford Health Care is piloting an internally developed, AI-backed software designed to revolutionize clinician interaction with the electronic health record (EHR) Nigam Shah, chief data science officer at Stanford Health Care, is leading the development team for ChatEHR, which allows clinicians to ask questions, request summaries and pull specific information from a patient’s medical record. ChatEHR is built directly into Stanford’s EHR to maximise clinical workflow. The pilot is available to a small cohort of 33 physicians, nurses and physician assistants. The technology is secure and designed for information gathering; not medical advice. ChatEHR, which has been in development since 2023, facilitates a more streamlined and efficient way for clinicians to interact with patient records. “This is a unique instance of integrating [large language model] capabilities directly into clinicians’ practice and workflow,” said Michael Pfeffer, MD, chief information and digital officer at Stanford Health Care and School of Medicine, in a news release. “We’re thrilled to bring this to the workforce at Stanford Health Care.” Stanford is still working on automation to evaluate tasks, such as determining whether to transfer patients between hospitals or units. Dr Shah and his team are using an open-source framework for real-world large language model evaluation, MedHELM, to evaluate ChatEHR. His goal is to scale ChatEHR to all clinicians and the team is working on more features to ensure accuracy. “We’re rolling this out in accordance with our responsible AI guidelines, not only ensuring accuracy and performance, but making sure we have the educational resources and technical support available to make ChatEHR usable to our workforce,” said Dr Shah in the release. Read full story Source: Becker's Health IT, 6 June 2025 -
News Article
USA: RFK Jr removes entire panel of CDC’s vaccine experts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed all members of a vaccine advisory board to restore "public trust above any pro- or antivaccine agenda,” he announced in a Monday op-ed. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published late Monday afternoon that America is facing a “crisis of public trust…toward health agencies, pharmaceutical companies or vaccines themselves.” To restore what Kennedy sees as Americans' distrust in the healthcare system and ensure that they receive “the safest vaccines possible,” the secretary announced that HHS will retire all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. The committee is responsible for evaluating the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines and then presenting its findings to the Centers for Disease Control. “The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy claimed in the op-ed. The current members will be replaced with new members “currently under consideration,” HHS said in a statement. “The new members won’t directly work for the vaccine industry. They will exercise independent judgment, refuse to serve as a rubber stamp, and foster a culture of critical inquiry—unafraid to ask hard questions,” Kennedy wrote in the Journal. Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 June 2025 -
Content ArticleIn the US, women die at a greater rate in pregnancy and during the postpartum period than in any other high-income country, and this rate has been increasing. Even if some of the apparent increase is attributable to changes in reporting, the fact remains that in the US, mortality rates are rising rather than falling, while disparities are widening.1Yet despite recent efforts to prioritise women’s health research, pregnancy research remains woefully underfunded. Much of the existing funding for pregnancy research focuses not on the health of pregnant individuals themselves; rather, they are considered hosts whose social, intrinsic biological, and environmental determinants affect fetal and child development: an important perspective, but not the only one. A recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine noted that National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending on women’s health research in the past decade has averaged only 8.8% of its total budget, of which only a fraction went to study pregnancy. Despite progress in the form of new initiatives—such as the NIH Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative—funding for research regarding preconception, pregnant, and postpartum individuals remains a small proportion of the NIH portfolio.
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Content ArticleWorkplace incivility and bullying have persisted in healthcare in the USA since increasing during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, so do the challenges teams face, according to Brian Reed, vice president and chief human resources officer for Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health’s east region. This article in Becker's Hospital Review outlines seven strategies to reduce workplace incivility among healthcare teams:
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News Article
USA: Hospitals push back on low Leapfrog grades
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospitals given “D” and “F” grades from The Leapfrog Group are rebuking the patient safety scores, arguing that Leapfrog’s grading was unfair. Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C., Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital and Madison (Ala.) Hospital said the scores are not accurate representations of their safety and quality performance. The hospitals did not report data to Leapfrog’s biannual safety grade survey — a factor they say contributed to the misleading scores. Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, told Becker’s that, of the approximately 2,500 general acute hospitals it evaluates, about 20% did not report to Leapfrog’s spring 2025 survey. Of those hospitals, more than 400 received a grade of “C” or higher. “It is perfectly possible to get a good grade and not report to the Leapfrog survey we use,” Ms. Binder said. “We use the Leapfrog survey when we have that data. We impute scores for the data when we don’t have it. I think the measures that the hospitals are concerned about are four out of the 30 measures we use in the hospital safety grade. So if these hospitals did well on more of those 30 measures, there would be no issue whatsoever. They’d be getting an “A,” “B” or “C,” but they are actually performing, in some cases, very poorly on some measures that come from CMS, so that’s an area where we would strongly encourage them to focus their attention.” In a statement shared with The Herald, Piedmont claimed that “Leapfrog’s scoring system deceives patients and rewards hospitals that either pay them or supply free data for their flawed survey, while punishing those that do not participate with inaccurate scores based on fabricated data.” Ms. Binder said this claim is “factually incorrect,” adding there is no “pay-to-play” for hospitals to participate in the survey or receive a grade. The organization also does not charge the public to access hospital safety data, she said. In April, five hospitals part of Palm Beach Health Network filed a lawsuit against Leapfrog, alleging the rankings are based on flawed methodology and damage hospitals’ reputations. The hospitals — two of which received a “D” and one an “F” — said Leapfrog penalises organisations that do not submit data by doling out low ratings. Ms. Binder described the lawsuit as an attempt to suppress critical safety information. Read full story Source: Becker's Clinical Leadership, 2 June 2025 -
Content ArticleOn the 28 March 2025, the Trump administration notified Congress that it planned to shut down USAID (United States Agency for International Development) by 1 July 2025. The State Department would assume responsibility for “certain USAID functions” that align with the administration’s priorities and discontinue the rest. Two weeks earlier, in a post on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the programmes being cut (including efforts to address emerging infectious diseases, famines, natural disasters, maternal and child mortality, HIV, and tuberculosis) “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.” To date, however, neither Rubio nor the State Department has elaborated on how these cuts and the reduction of USAID’s staff (from about 10 000 employees to 15) will affect the health of people around the world—or in the US itself. Initial reports on the direct effects of the cuts have come from different sources. A leaked USAID document projected that if programmes were permanently halted, the world would see an additional 12.5 million to 17.9 million malaria cases and 71 000 to 166 000 additional malaria deaths annually. If US foreign aid is not restored before the end of 2025, it is estimated that at least 62 000 additional people would die of tuberculosis. Enormous harms to children are also expected because USAID spending has played a pivotal role cutting child mortality rates in half since 2000.
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News Article
Trump rescinds guidance protecting women in need of emergency abortions
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded Biden-era guidance clarifying that hospitals in states with abortion bans cannot turn away pregnant patients who are in the midst of medical emergencies – a move that comes amid multiple red-state court battles over the guidance. The guidance deals with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (Emtala), which requires hospitals to stabilize patients facing medical emergencies. States such as Idaho and Texas have argued that the Biden administration’s guidance, which it issued in the wake of the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade, interpreted Emtala incorrectly. In its letter rescinding the guidance, the Trump administration said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) “will continue to enforce Emtala, which protects all individuals who present to a hospital emergency department seeking examination or treatment, including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy. CMS will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.” Abortion rights supporters said on Tuesday that rescinding the Biden administration’s guidance will muddy hospitals’ ability to interpret Emtala and endanger pregnant patients’ lives. Since Roe’s collapse, dozens of women have come forward to say that they were denied medical treatment due to abortion bans. A reported five pregnant women have died after having their care denied or delayed, or being unable to access legal abortions. “This action sends a clear message: the lives and health of pregnant people are not worth protecting,” Dr Jamila Perritt, an OB-GYN and the president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. “Complying with this law can mean the difference between life and death for pregnant people, forcing providers like me to choose between caring for someone in their time of need and turning my back on them to comply with cruel and dangerous laws.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 June 2025 -
News ArticleAs the Trump administration contemplates new clinical trials for Covid boosters and moves to restrict Covid vaccines for children and others, parents whose children participated in the clinical trials expressed anger and dismay. “It’s really devastating to see this evidence base officially ignored and discarded,” said Sophia Bessias, a parent in North Carolina whose two- and four-year-old kids were part of the Pfizer paediatric vaccine trial. “As a parent and also a paediatrician, I think it’s devastating that we might no longer have the option to protect kids against Covid,” said Katherine Matthias, a paediatrician in South Carolina and a cofounder of Protect Their Future, a children’s health organization. Robert F Kennedy Jr, head of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has called for new trials using saline placebos for each of the routine childhood vaccines recommended by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even though these vaccines have already been tested against placebos or against vaccines that were themselves tested against placebos. Marty Makary, the head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s vaccines chief, outlined a plan in a recent editorial to restrict Covid boosters for anyone under the age of 65 without certain health conditions. For everyone else between the ages of six months and 64 years old, each updated Covid vaccine would need to undergo another randomized controlled clinical trial, Makary and Prasad said. It’s not clear when, how or whether this plan will be implemented officially. On Tuesday, top US health officials said on the social media site X that they would remove the recommendation for Covid vaccination from the childhood immunization schedule, and would also cease recommending it for pregnant people, who have much higher risks of illness, death and pregnancy complications with Covid. On Friday, the CDC appeared to contradict that announcement by keeping Covid vaccines as a routine immunization for children – though the agency now says health providers “may” recommend the vaccine, instead of saying they “should” recommend it. Changing recommendations could affect doctors’ and parents’ understanding of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 June 2025
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News Article
Pennsylvania’s patient safety database tops 300,000 reports, a first in 2024
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
With more than 300,000 patient safety incidents and serious events reported, Pennsylvania’s patient safety database reached a new milestone in 2024. Analysis by the state’s Patient Safety Authority (PSA) shows that reports increased 9.5% from 2023 to 2024, with serious events up by 7.3% and high-harm events up by 1.1%. PSA Executive Director Regina M. Hoffman, M.B.A., R.N., says, “It is gratifying to see the increase in reporting; healthy reporting is associated with a culture that supports and prioritizes safety.” Pennsylvania requires all hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities and birthing centers to report events that cause or could cause patient harm. The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) is the largest patient safety data repository of its kind in the United States and is managed by PSA. Like the Betsy Lehman Center in Massachusetts, PSA uses data, education and collaboration to improve patient safety in Pennsylvania. PA-PSRS contains more than 5 million reports submitted since 2004, when the reporting requirement went into effect. Based on trends seen in the data, PSA is currently addressing a sharp rise in serious neonatal complications. Together with healthcare facilities and partner organisation ECRI, PSA analysed all serious event reports of neonatal injury or death in a single year and developed new recommendations to be released this summer. Read full story Source: Betsy Lehman Center, 28 May 2025 -
Content ArticleThe Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) is the largest patient safety data repository of its kind in the United States and one of the largest globally, housing over 5 million reports submitted since 2004. This article presents data from reports submitted to PA-PSRS in 2024. In 2024, 315,418 reports were submitted to PA-PSRS, marking a 9.5% increase from 2023. Reports of serious events rose by 7.3%, while high harm events increased by 1.1%. Of all reports, 96.0% came from hospitals, while 4.0% originated from nonhospital facilities (ambulatory surgical facilities (ASFs), birthing centres, and abortion facilities). The vast majority (96.0%) were incidents, while the remaining 4.0% were classified as serious events. Preliminary 2024 reporting rates show 32.2 reports per 1,000 patient days for hospitals and 11.4 reports per 1,000 surgical encounters for ASFs, with both rates increasing by 1.1 points from 2023 Error Related to Procedure/Treatment/Test (P/T/T) remained the most frequently reported event type overall, accounting for 33.4% of reports from all facilities combined and 47.6% from nonhospital facilities. Among serious events, Complication of P/T/T was the most common type, making up 57.7% of serious event reports from all facilities combined and 71.4% from nonhospital facilities.
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News Article
RFK Jr threatens ban on federal scientists publishing in top journals
Mark Hughes posted a news article in News
The US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has threatened to ban government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals, which he branded “corrupt”, and to instead create alternative publications run by the state. Kennedy outlined plans to launch government-run journals that would become “the preeminent journals” because National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding would anoint researchers “as a good, legitimate scientist”. The three publications Kennedy targeted are among the most influential medical journals globally, established in the 19th century and now central to disseminating peer-reviewed medical research worldwide. The Lancet and Jama each report more than 30m annual website visits, while the New England Journal of Medicine claims more than 1 million weekly readers. Read full article Source: The Guardian, 28 May 2025 -
News Article
USA: Physician appointment wait times climb
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A new AMN Healthcare survey published 27 May found it now takes an average of 31 days to schedule a physician appointment in 15 of the largest US metropolitan areas — up 19% from 2022 and 48% from 2004. AMN Healthcare conducted the survey of 1,391 physician offices in January and February. In 2022, the last year the survey was conducted, it took 26 days. In 2004, the first year the survey was conducted, it took 21 days. The survey, which focused on six medical specialties, gathered data from offices across the Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C., areas. It highlights ongoing challenges related to scheduling physician appointments. Read full story Source: Becker's Clinical Leadership, 27 May 2025 -
News ArticleThe White House has released its long-awaited 'MAHA Report' outlining the government’s target areas for addressing childhood chronic disease: diet, environmental chemical exposure, physical activity/stress and “overmedicalization.” The 68-page report, prepared by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission—which is chaired by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—was ordered by President Donald Trump in February. It serves as an initial assessment for the commission, which now has 82 days to develop a strategy document for realigning federal practices to address the four highlighted factors. “After a century of costly and ineffective approaches, the federal government will lead a coordinated transformation of our food, health and scientific systems,” the commission wrote of its work in the report. “This strategic realignment will ensure that all Americans—today and in the future—live longer, healthier lives, supported by systems that prioritize prevention, wellbeing and resilience.” The report’s takeaways largely align with RFK Jr.’s advocacy priorities prior to entering the administration, some of which he and other government heads have already instructed their departments to act on. In a White House event held hours after the report's release, Trump described the findings around increased incidence of health conditions like obesity (affecting more than one child in five who is over 6 years of age) and autism spectrum disorder (1 in 31 children by age 😎 as "alarming." "Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests," Trump said of the findings and recommendations. "I want this group to do what they have to do. ... In some cases it won't be nice, it won't be pretty, but we have to do it." Read full story Source: Fierce Healthcare, 22 May 2025
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News ArticleBoston Scientific Corp. will have to pay a total of $26.7 million in damages to four women in a court ruling related to its vaginal mesh product. Following a federal court trial in Miami, jurors found that the company’s Pinnacle pelvic floor replacement kit had a faulty design and the company failed to effectively warn patients and doctors about the possible risks associated with the device. Pelvic organ implants are used to treat female patients experiencing major discomfort due to pelvic organ prolapse. This was the first federal trial related to Pinnacle. Others lawsuits are pending. Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when a pelvic organ—such as the bladder—drops (prolapses) from its normal place and pushes against the walls of the vagina. This can happen when the muscles that hold pelvic organs in place are weakened or stretched from childbirth or surgery. Many women will have some kind of pelvic organ prolapse. It can be uncomfortable or painful, but isn’t usually a big health problem. It doesn’t always get worse. And in some women, it can get better with time. Boston Scientific officials told Reuters that they disagree with the verdict and have a strong case for post-trial motions and appeal. Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific is one of seven companies, including Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon division and C.R. Bard, faced with lawsuits over similar mesh products. Officials with Endo International plc said in September it the company has set aside $1.6 billion to settle “substantially all” the cases against it and its American Medical Systems unit. Read full story Source: Medical Product Outsourcing
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News Article
USA: House passes Trump’s agenda bill
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The House of Representatives passed the President Donald Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill” in a 215-214 vote on 22 May after debating for hours overnight on the controversial legislation that includes significant cuts to Medicaid. Healthcare revisions to the multitrillion-dollar legislation include a two-year acceleration of Medicaid work requirements for able-bodied people ages 18-64 no later than 31 December 2026. The work requirements were originally set for 2029, but have been accelerated to generate faster savings. Gender transition procedures will no longer be covered by ACA plans beginning 1 January 2027. The bill, which President Trump and GOP leaders argue is aimed at tackling “waste, fraud and abuse,” now heads to the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. However, it is not clear when the vote will be held. The bill’s revisions have also resulted in backlash from several healthcare advocacy groups. America’s Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, said that their organisation “strongly opposed” the “deep Medicaid cuts” in the bill, highlighting that the cuts would “threaten the health and well-being of millions of Americans.” Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 22 May 2025 -
Content ArticleThe US has traditionally been the largest donor to health programmes in low- and middle-income countries. In January 2025 almost all such funding was stopped and prospects for resumption are uncertain. The suddenness of the funding cuts makes it difficult for national programmes to adapt. This preprint* paper estimated the impact of these cuts on outcomes for four health areas that have been a focus of US assistance: HIV, tuberculosis (TB), family planning (FP) and maternal and child health (MCH). *Note: Preprints are early-stage research papers that have not been peer-reviewed. The authors conclude that a complete cessation of US funding without replacement by other sources of funding would lead to dramatic increases in deaths from 2025-2040: 15.2 (9.3-20.8) million additional AIDS deaths, 2.2 (1.5-1.9) million additional TB deaths, 7.9 million additional child deaths from other causes, 40-55 million additional unplanned pregnancies and 12-16 million unsafe abortions. There has been great progress in improving global health in the last few decades. This progress has given hope of reaching many of the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. However, the recent funding cuts threaten to change these trajectories and lead to sharp increases in avoidable mortality for the poorest countries. Even a partial restoration of US funding would combat the most severe effects and provide time for national programs to adjust to the new funding landscape.
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News ArticleMore than a dozen lawsuits have been filed on behalf of weight-loss drug users who claim that popular weight-loss medications such as Ozempic have caused a loss of vision. Patients from New York and New Jersey have claimed that they suffered non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy after taking drugs containing semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus. The condition is rare and includes a loss of blood flow to the optic nerve that causes sudden vision loss in one eye. "People are just waking up and developing this [vision] condition,” Jason Goldstein, the lawyer representing the patients, told Newsday. “They wake and they totally can't see. A lot of them lose their peripheral vision. They could lose total vision. I have one client who lost it in both eyes." One of the patients, 57-year-old Edward Fanelli, told the newspaper, "If it was on the label, I definitely wouldn't have taken it,” referring to a warning of potential vision loss. Fanelli, a New Jersey resident, started taking Ozempic to treat his Type 2 diabetes in October 2022 and was diagnosed with the condition about eight months later. He could no longer do his job as a general contractor because of his vision loss. Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, has defended its popular medications. Lauren Browdy Weiner, a spokesperson for the drug maker, said the condition is not considered a possible adverse reaction for drugs. "Novo Nordisk is of the opinion that the benefit-risk profile of semaglutide remains unchanged,” she told Newsday. She continued: “Patient safety is a top priority for Novo Nordisk, and we take all reports about adverse events from use of our medicines very seriously. “This also relates to eye conditions, which are well-known comorbidities for people living with diabetes." Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 May 2025
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News ArticleCuts to international aid ordered by Donald Trump have caused many African HIV researchers to fear for the future of long-term research programmes. In January, as one of his first acts after taking office, the US president froze all foreign aid and announced a 90-day review. That move and the firing of all but 15 employees at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) mean the agency has, in effect, been closed down. Also under threat are US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that support HIV research in Africa: cuts have affected funding for HIV-related research in specific populations, and a mechanism that awards grants to international collaborators has been suspended. US dollars have been key in mitigating the scourge of the virus, both through research and by providing lifesaving antiretroviral drugs. Salim Abdool Karim is co-founder and director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. He says three USAID-funded collaborative grants for HIV research and one NIH grant related to tuberculosis have been terminated, totalling US$1.4 million. The public-health physician, who founded CAPRISA with his wife Quarraisha Abdool Karim, an infectious-disease epidemiologist, says that these funding cancellations will stymie the centre’s research, which prioritises slowing the number of new HIV infections in young women and reducing deaths from HIV–tuberculosis coinfections in Africa. “All our HIV-vaccine trials, and most of our HIV-treatment trials, will be stopped as these are funded by the NIH,” he says. Although he does not expect the suspended work to result in increased deaths, “it will, however, slow scientific progress on HIV vaccines and treatment”, he adds. He doesn’t think that USAID funding will be restored. “Although it has many great scientists, the United States government is now an unreliable funding partner. We have to mobilize our own resources.” Read full story Source: Nature, 20 May 2025
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Content ArticleMembers of what is now the field of patient safety are fortunate to have a unique resource at their fingertips: the web-based AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet). PSNet is a comprehensive and continuously updated compendium of patient safety news and useful resources. Remarkably, it provides an annotated description of virtually every important paper on patient safety ever written. The collection offers proven frameworks, current information, and practical guidance that improves patient care and strengthens health system safety. But now, this irreplaceable resource is threatened. In the end of March 2025, with impending changes in the organisation in the US Department of Health and Human Services, the PSNet contract was cancelled. In an editorial for the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, Albert Wu and colleagues describe why PSNet serves as an essential tool for healthcare professionals dedicated to advancing patient safety. "For healthcare professionals dedicated to advancing patient safety, PSNet serves as an essential tool. The comprehensive collection offers practical guidance and strategic insight that support the development of effective safety protocols and clinical decision-making. The platform encourages system-based thinking and continuous learning by presenting real-world errors and near-misses in a constructive manner. By facilitating reflection and promoting accountability, PSNet contributes significantly to safer healthcare practices and plays a pivotal role in strengthening the overall culture of safety within health care organizations and the medical community. "By presenting evidence, best practices, and thoughts of experts, PSNet can also help patient safety professionals make the case for the value of patient safety to top leaders and policy makers. "We know that investing in patient safety improves the health outcomes for patients. Investing in patient safety also reduces the costs that occur when patients are harmed. In so doing, this also improves the efficiency of health systems. A continued investment in PSNet would contribute to the health and wellbeing of all who stand to benefit from improved patient safety. Discontinuing PSNet would be a great loss to the field of patient safety. We need to take steps to ensure it remains a vital and meaningful resource for all of us." Related reading on the hub: The legacy and loss of AHRQ’s Patient Safety Net: A pillar of patient safety
