Check today’s KFF Healthy News
In other news:
FDA Official With Oversight of Musk’s Neuralink Devices Fired: An official who oversees a team at the Food and Drug Administration that reviews Neuralink Corp. devices was fired, according to an email the agency sent to staff Tuesday morning viewed by Bloomberg.
Ross Segan, who was formerly the director of the Office of Product Evaluation and Quality at the FDA’s medical device center, was one of thousands of employees fired across the US Department of Health and Human Services in recent days.
Missouri bill proposes registry for pregnant women to ‘reduce preventable abortions’:The bill summary states that, if passed, Missouri would create a registry of every expecting mother in the state “who is at risk for seeking an abortion” starting July 1, 2026. The list would be created through the Maternal and Child Services division of the Department of Social Services, but the measure did not specify how the “at risk” would be identified.
About health insurance/insurers
MultiPlan rebrands amid price-fixing allegations : Data analytics firm MultiPlan is rebranding to Claritev…
The name change comes as the company has faced a series of lawsuits from the American Medical Association; Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems; Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth and others alleging the firm colluded with commercial payers in a price-fixing scheme to underpay providers by tens of billions annually.
About the public’s health
Kennedy says panel will examine childhood vaccine schedule after promising not to change it: To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule.
But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of U.S. Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
Food for Thought 2025: Hospitalizations, deaths from contaminated food doubled in 2024 as recalls from Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli increased by 41%; 98% of all illnesses linked to just 13 outbreaks, ranging from cucumbers to deli meat.
Measles outbreak in Texas rises to at least 58 cases — the state's worst in over 30 years: A measles outbreak in Texas has grown to 58 confirmed cases, local health officials confirmed to CBS News Tuesday, making it the state's worst in over 30 years — and officials say additional casesare likely. At least 13 people have been hospitalized in the outbreak so far, Texas officials said.
Other states are seeing cases too. New Mexico's Health Department confirmed a case there last week in an area that borders Gaines County, Texas, where the outbreak in centered. It said the teenager who got sick had not traveled to Texas and it's unclear how they were exposed to the virus.”\