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The Senate, now facing an impasse in negotiations, did not cast votes on a government funding deal on Thursday, sending the government ever closer to a partial shutdown with a little more than 24 hours until funding runs out. Senate Democrats announced earlier Thursday they had struck an agreement with the White House to move forward with a plan that would see the Department of Homeland Security funding bill separated from a package of five other bills. Programs funded by the five-bill package would be funded until the end of September. DHS would be funded for two additional weeks to allow lawmakers to negotiate on other provisions in the package. The Senate must get unanimous agreement to move forward with this plan if it wants to hold votes before Friday night's deadline. (Pecorin and Scott, 1/30)

Once again, Medicare payments for telehealth and hospital-at-home care are at risk if Congress doesn't make a deal before Saturday. (McAuliff, 1/30)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has conceded she may have gotten some information wrong in her initial response to Border Patrol’s killing of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis ICU nurse she labeled a domestic terrorist. Noem also dodged questions about her leadership of DHS amid widespread outrage, even among some Republicans, about the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good during an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. (Pellish, 1/29)

President Trump called Alex Pretti, the nurse who was one of two Americans fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis this month, an “agitator” and possibly an “insurrectionist” in a social media post early Friday, repeating efforts by his administration to blame the victims of the shootings. Mr. Trump posted his comments on social media after videos gained attention showing Mr. Pretti in a confrontation with federal agents at a protest 11 days before he was killed. (Yoon, 1/30)

Four days after federal immigration agents shot and killed intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, some 150 people gathered outside the Jesse Brown Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Chicago Wednesday evening to mourn his death and demand the end of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Kenny, 1/29)

Two children watched with wide eyes Thursday evening as a woman with a bright red megaphone stepped up to speak on the sidewalk in front of Research Medical Center. The pair’s snow boots tramped the nearly week-old Kansas City snow, two candles clutched in their small hands. Their mother, Sarah Patton, stood behind them. (Zimmerman and Curiel, 1/29)

People who knew Pretti describe him as "generous with his time" and denounce the Trump administration’s assessment of him. (Betts, 1/29)

RM, an observer who asked that their name remain anonymous because they feared further retaliation from federal agents while patrolling, said that they were at the scene of a raid – on the same day that Good was killed – when agents smashed their car window and sprayed chemical irritants directly into their car. Then an agent cuffed RM and used a pain-inducing restraint to drag them out, crushing their wrist in the process. They were not offered water to clear the irritant out of their eyes for more than an hour. Eventually, they were left to wash their face at a broken, low-pressure sink inside the cell where they were held. “The whole incident was painful and humiliating,” said RM. When they were released about three hours later, without any charges, they were finally able to wash in a shower. It took almost an hour to fully rinse off – and the irritant spread and burned their skin even as they tried to wash it off. “That, I would say, is the most painful experience of my life.” (Leingang and Singh, 1/29)

Agents use facial recognition, social media monitoring and other tech tools not only to identify undocumented immigrants but also to track protesters, current and former officials said. (Frenkel and Krolik, 1/30)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: �������ýҕ�l Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The Hazards Of ICE For Public Health

The actions of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are having ramifications far beyond immigration. Medical groups say that ICE agents in health facilities in Minneapolis and other cities are imperiling patient care, while in Washington, the backlash from a second fatal shooting by agents in Minnesota has stalled action on an eleventh-hour suite of spending bills. (Rovner, 1/29)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: ‘I Can’t Tell You’: Attorneys, Relatives Struggle To Find Hospitalized ICE Detainees

Lydia Romero strained to hear her husband’s feeble voice through the phone. A week earlier, immigration agents had grabbed Julio César Peña from his front yard in Glendale, California. Now, he was in a hospital after suffering a ministroke. He was shackled to the bed by his hand and foot, he told Romero, and agents were in the room, listening to the call. He was scared he would die and wanted his wife there. “What hospital are you at?” Romero asked. “I can’t tell you,” he replied. (Boyd-Barrett, 1/30)

Two more Minnesota children — a second grader and a fifth grader — were taken into custody with their mother on Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The children are from the same Columbia Heights elementary school as Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old whose detainment by ICE last week gripped the Twin Cities and the nation as images of the small boy flanked by agents in his winter hat circulated online. (Shockman and Yucel, 1/29)

The number of children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention on a given day has skyrocketed, jumping more than sixfold since the start of the second Trump administration. The Marshall Project analyzed data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and found that ICE held around 170 children on an average day under Trump. During the last 16 months of the Biden administration, ICE held around 25 children a day. (Flagg and Heffernan, 1/29)

President Trump signed an executive order aimed at combating drug addiction and substance abuse on Thursday, dubbing it “the Great American Recovery Initiative.” The initiative directs federal agencies to use grant funds to support addiction recovery and increase awareness surrounding addiction. The effort will also help agencies consolidate a number of programs including those pertaining to drug prevention, treatment and recovery support. (Manchester, 1/29)

The Trump administration is delaying the launch of its website, TrumpRx, which it announced in the fall as a way for Americans to buy discounted prescription drugs directly from manufacturers, according to four people familiar with the decision granted anonymity to discuss the timing. The portal was scheduled to go live this month. At a Cabinet meeting Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the launch “is going to be happening sometime, probably in the next 10 days.” (Lim, 1/29)

The Trump administration soon plans to launch TrumpRx, a website it says will allow patients to buy prescription drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies at a discount. Over several months, the administration has made deals with more than a dozen pharmaceutical manufacturers to expand access to their drugs through the platform. (Palmer, 1/29)

Pharmacy benefit managers would have to follow new transparency requirements under a proposed rule issued Thursday by the Labor Department. Under the proposed rule, PBMs would be mandated to disclose information to large group employers about drugmaker rebates, pharmacy reimbursements and other negotiated compensation. The disclosures would have to include services provided, payments and the arrangements with other parties in the pharmaceutical supply chain, the proposed rule said. It would also allow employers to audit the accuracy of the disclosures and seek relief, if necessary. (Tong, 1/29)

A lawsuit targeting a landmark disability law has received new life after nine states filed an update that seeks to undercut federal mandates that people with disabilities receive care in their communities. (Broderick, 1/29)

An aspiring bioengineer, Alex Sathler was walking through the streets of London with a friend last summer when he pulled out his phone and saw that he’d been chosen for a prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship right before entering graduate school. He couldn’t believe his luck. (Wosen, 1/30)

Michael Beck, the first of scores of federal workers to develop neurological symptoms while serving at U.S. government facilities overseas, a condition that has come to be known as Havana Syndrome and which, Mr. Beck claimed, resulted in his diagnosis of a rare form of Parkinson’s disease when he was 45, died on Saturday in Columbia, Md. He was 65. His daughter, Regan, said that he died while shopping and that the cause had not been determined. (Risen, 1/29)

We follow Maryland's 52-day rush to convince the Trump administration to give the state new funding to transform rural health care. Our article explains the basics of the Rural Health Transformation Program and key takeaways from the first round of state awards. (Evans and Gorenstein, 1/22)

Maryland finds out how much the state will get from a nationwide competition for federal rural health investment. (Evans and Gorenstein, 1/29)

Elizabeth Kromm spent the final months of last year locked in a $50 billion competition. The prize: a windfall to make progress on longstanding barriers to health that lead rural Americans to live sicker and die younger than their metropolitan counterparts. Kromm is a top health official in Maryland. She had to convince the Trump administration that her plan to improve rural health was better than the ideas being cooked up in the other 49 states. (Evans, 1/29)

The Trump administration recently announced how much money each state will receive under an ambitious 5-year initiative known as the Rural Health Transformation Program. (Levi, 1/22)

Tradeoffs co-hosted a virtual event on Jan. 6 with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania to dig into this rare bit of new federal funding for rural health care. (Levi and Gorenstein, 1/12)

States will have to find new ways to pay for Medicaid under a regulation the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Thursday. The agency finalized a proposal it made last May to crack down on the provider taxes states assess on hospitals, Medicaid insurers and others to help finance their share of Medicaid spending. The final rule also implements related provisions from the tax law President Donald Trump enacted last July. These taxes generate $24 billion a year for states, according to CMS. (Early, 1/29)

Ten technology vendors are offering $600 million worth of discounts to states that pick them to help implement Medicaid work requirements, the Trump administration announced Thursday, signaling how lucrative they think the sweeping change could be. (Bannow, 1/29) 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is looking at ways it could incentivize hospitals to purchase supplies and medications made in the U.S.—including via a potential new “Secure American Medical Supplies” designation within the Medicare program. The agency this week put out the call for public feedback, inviting stakeholders to weigh in on how such a designation “could facilitate the creation of new, streamlined payment policies to support hospitals in their efforts,” according to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM). (Muoio, 1/30)

Less than a month into the program that introduced prior authorizations to fee-for-service Medicare, providers say they are running into the kinds of problems they warned about last year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model, or WISeR, on Jan. 1. Under WISeR, vendors use artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technologies to review prior authorization requests for a limited set of procedures in six states through 2031. The agency touts the initiative as a means to reduce waste, fraud and abuse and predicts it will save $3 billion. (Early, 1/29)

Physicians described how restrictive noncompete agreements have hurt their careers and their patients during an online workshop hosted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said the agency plans to address anticompetitive noncompete agreements. At the same time, he made clear that the FTC had no interest in pursuing a blanket ban -- something the Biden administration tried and failed to implement. (Firth, 1/29)

Pennsylvania has given the go-ahead for Community Health Systems to sell three of its hospitals in a deal marking the company’s exit from the state. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has approved Tenor Health Foundation’s acquisition of Commonwealth Health, a CHS spokesperson said Thursday. The CHS subsidiary comprises Regional Hospital and Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, along with clinics. CHS would have no affiliated hospitals in Pennsylvania following the close of the transaction, the spokesperson said. (DeSilva, 1/29)

Health systems are getting smarter on how they handle post-acute care discharges to keep patients from bouncing back to the hospital. They’re educating clinicians on the most appropriate post-acute setting for patients, adding teams to speed up care transitions and going toe-to-toe with health insurers over referral denials. The added focus on process comes as more providers pivot to value-based care, which rewards them for quality and outcomes. (Eastabrook, 1/29)

As more Americans sidestep doctors’ offices to order lab tests and genetic screenings online, privacy experts warn that the new trove of sensitive health data could end up in the hands of companies selling certain types of insurance, lenders, employers, or law enforcement. (Ravindranath, 1/30)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Blurry Line Between Medical And Vision Insurance Leaves Patient With Unexpected Bill

Barbara Tuszynski was concerned about her vision but confident in her insurance coverage when she went to an eye clinic last May. The retiree, 70, was diagnosed with glaucoma in her right eye in 2019. She had a laser procedure to treat it in 2022, and she uses medicated drops in both eyes to prevent more damage. She is supposed to be checked regularly, she said. During the May appointment, Tuszynski’s optometrist examined her eyes and reassured her that the glaucoma had not worsened. (Leys, 1/30)

A man was arrested on Wednesday evening after he impersonated an F.B.I. agent at a federal jail in Brooklyn while carrying a pizza cutter, saying he had a court order for the release of Luigi Mangione, according to a criminal complaint and people familiar with the episode. The man, Mark Anderson, originally from Mankato, Minn., appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday and was charged with impersonating an F.B.I. agent. A judge ordered him detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the same jail that houses Mr. Mangione, who is charged with murder in the 2024 fatal shooting of a health care executive. (Meko, Nerkar and Bromwich, 1/29)

For much of the pandemic, discussions of Covid-19 in pregnancy were dominated by a simple reassurance: Babies rarely tested positive. Doctors concluded that the virus seldom passed from mother to fetus. That message shaped medical guidance and public perception of the risks, but it was incomplete. Early studies relied heavily on nasal swab PCR tests that focused on whether babies had an active infection at birth. ... When researchers started using tests more sensitive than nasal swabs on newborns, evidence mounted that many babies had been exposed to the coronavirus in utero. (Gale, 1/30)

During the pandemic, many women were afraid to be vaccinated because of widespread misinformation that COVID-19 shots would harm their chances of getting pregnant. But in a new study from Sweden, researchers found no statistically significant difference in rates of childbirth or miscarriage among vaccinated and unvaccinated women. (Szabo, 1/29)

Voters could weigh in on abortion rights this fall in Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming. In the post-Roe v. Wade era, where decision-making power over abortion lies in state hands, ballot initiatives have become a popular way of restricting or protecting these rights, and often a way to get around courts. (Merzbach, 1/29)

A group of longtime abortion opponents, emboldened by Trump's pardons, regrouped in Washington to plan a new wave of demonstrations at abortion clinics. (McShane, 1/29)

Mammography screening supported by artificial intelligence (AI) showed consistently favorable outcomes compared with standard double reading by radiologists, including a noninferior interval cancer rate, according to results from the MASAI randomized trial. (Bassett, 1/29)

Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness for the first time has trained about 30 doulas to help families leading up to and during birth as other birthing services across the state have ceased. Lisa Sockabasin, co-CEO of the health organization based in Bangor, said she heard from concerned community members about the crisis of closing birthing centers across Maine, so Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness decided to help fill in the gaps. Most of the participants in the late-September training were Indigenous, though some were not, she said. (Lundy, 1/29)

A person’s genes play a far greater role in likely lifespan than previously thought, according to a major new study published Thursday in the journal Science. Using data from human twin studies, an international team of researchers arrived at the conclusion that the genetic contribution to how long we’re likely to live is as high as 55%. (Cox, 1/29)

The UK warned some patients have died of severe inflammation of the pancreas linked to obesity and diabetes drugs such as Eli Lilly & Co.’s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy. Though the worst cases of pancreatitis were rare, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said Thursday doctors and patients should know some incidents had been particularly severe, as it strengthened its warning over taking the drugs. (Kresge, 1/29)

GLP-1 receptor agonist use was tied to a lower risk of recurrent major adverse limb events (MALEs) in people with diabetes compared with another drug class, a retrospective Taiwanese study showed. (Monaco, 1/29)

There’s growing awareness of rare, but potentially serious side effects from high doses of vitamin B6, a nutrient that’s become popular in a range of dietary supplements, electrolyte drinks and fortified foods. Vitamin B6, or pyridoxine, is a nutrient critical to many bodily functions, including nerve health, protein metabolism and blood sugar regulation. Because vitamin B6 is also vital to brain development, it’s important during pregnancy and infancy. It’s often promoted to help boost energy, as well as relieve stress. (Leake, 1/29)

A “superfood” sold nationwide is under recall over the risk of salmonella contamination. California-based Navitas Organics is recalling certain eight-ounce packages of organic chia seeds after its supplier notified the company of a recall. The seeds, which are advertised on the product pouches as a “plant-based superfood,” were sold online by retailers including Amazon, and at Whole Foods and other retailers across the country. (Tanner, 1/29)

Democrats in the Colorado legislature are pursuing an expansion of the state’s red flag law this year and are also trying to impose new rules on the sale of gun barrels. (Woods, 1/28)

Doug Fuller sits at his dining room table in the middle of his nearly 1,000-acre corn and soybean farm. He holds up a plaster mold of a cat’s paw engraved with the name “Ellie.” “I had a pet cat here, and it was just my pet cat and I for most of the time,” 69-year-old Fuller said. “And I had to put this cat to sleep. And that was so hard for me.” (Kelley, 1/29)

During a rain storm that rolled into Kerr County one night last week, Austin Dickson, who lives near Kerrville, began receiving calls from concerned neighbors that water was rising downtown. They feared the conditions could become a repeat of the July 4 floods. Dickson, who is also the CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, said his community is suffering from anxiety and PTSD, which mental health experts say are expected to surge this year. (Simpson, 1/29)

Cellphones could soon become a rarer sight in classrooms, thanks to the Mississippi Legislature. The House Education Committee passed a bill during its Wednesday meeting that would require local school boards to enact policies that restrict or prohibit the use of cellphones during the school day. The Senate Education Committee greenlit a similar bill during its meeting last week, which bodes well for the legislative success of the policy. (Bose, 1/29)

A Florida House panel Thursday backed a wide-ranging plan that seeks to trim health care regulations and carry out federal changes in programs such as food assistance and Medicaid. (Saunders, 1/30)

In a ruling handed down today, the high court ruled that police must find marijuana in a condition that’s ready to be smoked if they are going to charge a driver with an open container violation. (Duara, 1/29)

The San Francisco Department of Public Health is investigating an active outbreak of tuberculosis at Archbishop Riordan High School that has sickened at least three individuals. (Mohney, 1/29)

Shirley Raines, a beloved advocate for the homeless who used social media to amplify her message of respect and dignity for people on Los Angeles’s Skid Row and beyond, died Tuesday. She was 58. Her death was confirmed by the Clark County Coroner’s Office in Nevada, which said information on the cause of death was pending. Ms. Raines had lived in Las Vegas in recent years, broadening her advocacy efforts far beyond the Skid Row section of downtown L.A. where she started. (Rozsa and Hernandez, 1/28)

Doctors in Chicago saved the life of a young Missouri man with a rare infection that had liquefied his lungs, hooking him up to what they have called a total artificial lung. The patient, whose name was not released, survived on the lung for 48 hours, and then received a lung transplant. Two and a half years later, the patient, now in his mid-30s, is alive and back working in his family business, according to Ankit Bharat, his lead surgeon and executive director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, where the surgeries were performed. (Johnson, 1/29)

“All I have is sperm,” Akash Bakshi says. “I’m just looking at sperm counts.” Every day the co-founder of YourChoice Therapeutics arrives at his startup’s office in San Francisco to do this work. A biochemist by training, Bakshi could become the first biotech company chief executive officer to bring a hormone-free male birth control pill to market. The pill his team developed, YCT-529, works by blocking a vitamin-A-dependent protein essential for sperm growth, temporarily rendering men infertile without affecting their testosterone levels and thereby potentially introducing related side effects. (Castelain, 1/28)

It was cast as a lifesaving medication, a “best-in-class” overdose antidote built specifically for the fentanyl era. It was far more powerful than Narcan, the nasal spray it was designed to supplant. Data suggested that the newer spray, Opvee, would restore breathing faster, averting death and brain injury for thousands of Americans who experience an opioid overdose. (Facher, 1/29)

When a new presidential administration comes in, it is responsible for filling around 4,000 jobs sprinkled across the federal government’s vast bureaucracy. These political appointees help carry out the president’s agenda, and, at least in theory, make government agencies responsive to elected officials. Some of these roles — the secretary of state, for example — are well-known. Others, such as the deputy assistant secretary for textiles, consumer goods, materials, critical minerals & metals industry & analysis, are more obscure. (Schulson, 1/29)

The owner of a marijuana testing lab called a top regulator in Colorado on his cellphone in April 2024 with an urgent situation. “We’ve got something that’s kind of a big deal,” he remembers saying. During a routine test of a manufacturer’s products, Bona Fides Laboratory in Denver had found a toxic chemical in a popular brand of marijuana vapes sold at dispensaries in Colorado. The chemical, methylene chloride, is prohibited by Colorado’s marijuana regulators and for most uses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because it can cause liver and lung cancer and damage the nervous, immune and reproductive systems. (Osher and Wyloge, 1/29)

In December, the federal government escalated its efforts to dismantle established standards of care for transgender youth by proposing to deny Medicaid funding to children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. The proposal is currently under review, with the public comment period ending Feb. 17. (Ian D. Wolfe, Rafael Escandon, Meredithe McNamara, Sabrina Derrington, Emily Berkman, Amy Caruso Brown and Alyssa Burgart, 1/30)

Texas, with the blessing of the federal government, is freezing H-1B visa hiring in a way that will harm the ability of hospitals to bring talented foreign medical professionals to treat U.S. patients. (1/29)

As a kid growing up in rural Oklahoma, weekday lunches were a decision minefield. My family didn’t consume beef or pork, a religious and social product of my parents’ upbringing as Hindus who immigrated from Pakistan. Those restrictions initially made for awkward encounters in the school lunch line, where I was often confronted by a hot meal of cheeseburgers or pepperoni pizza. (Vishal Khetpal, 1/30)

Connecticut prides itself on strong schools, world-class healthcare, and a commitment to caring for its most vulnerable residents. We are a state that values education, innovation, and community. Yet for families affected by rare disease and disability, that promise too often collapses at the point of need. (Rachel Milloy Jasiczek, 1/30)