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The Trump administration is rolling out a new model that aims to bring most-favored nation pricing to the Medicaid space. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced late Thursday the launch of the GENErating cost Reductions fOr U.S. Medicaid (GENEROUS) model, under which participating state Medicaid programs will be able to purchase certain drugs at prices that align with what is paid in other countries. (Minemyer, 11/6)

On weight loss drugs —

The Trump administration has struck a deal with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to offer their breakthrough weight-loss medications at steep discounts for certain Medicare and Medicaid patients, President Donald Trump announced at the White House on Thursday. The deal also includes lower prices for GLP-1 drugs for Americans who use cash to buy them through a new government website, expected to debut next year, that will allow people to buy drugs directly from companies. (Lim and Haslett, 11/6)

Dr Oz says that the drug executive who collapsed in the Oval Office is doing “much better,” after the man fainted on live television. The unnamed businessman was attending an official meeting at the White House, where Donald Trump told reporters that a deal had finally been reached between the government and the manufacturers of weight-loss drugs. Now, Dr. Mehmet Oz says that he has spoken with the businessman following his collapse. “He is doing much better,” Dr Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told Newsmax. “I actually just corresponded with him so he’s doing okay.” After that, the former TV doctor shared some advice with viewers. He urged them to step in immediately if they thought someone was about to faint. (Scott, 11/7)

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was uncharacteristically chummy with pharma executives at the White House on Thursday as he cheered the Trump administration’s plan for lowering obesity medication prices. Kennedy has railed against drugmakers in the past, and his lifestyle-focused Make America Healthy Again movement has opposed Medicare coverage of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. (Cueto, 11/6)

The Trump administration’s deal on weight loss drugs might have been made possible in part by Biden’s Medicare drug price negotiation program, three experts said. (Wilkerson, 11/6)

More pharma and tech developments —

The FDA awarded six additional products a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher, bringing the total number of recipients to 15, according to a Nov. 6 news release. The pilot program aims to reduce drug review timelines to as short as two months for therapies addressing key public health priorities, affordability or domestic manufacturing, according to an Oct. 16 FDA podcast episode. (Jeffries, 11/6)

For the past few months, CVS Caremark has declined to add a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug from Gilead Sciences to its formularies. Clinical trials showed the twice-a-year injectable, called Yeztugo, was highly effective in preventing the infectious disease, prompting enthusiasm about combating HIV globally. But the pharmacy benefits manager has argued that the $28,000 price tag — before any rebates or discounts — in the U.S. is too high. (Silverman, 11/7)

Synchron Inc. raised $200 million to advance its work building brain implants that doctors can insert through blood vessels, avoiding the costly and high-risk surgeries necessary to install devices made by other rival companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. With the new funds, the company’s valuation is nearly $1 billion, a Synchron spokesperson said. That makes it the second-most valuable brain implant company after Neuralink, which investors think is worth more than $9 billion. (Swetlitz, 11/6)

Earlier this year, a Georgia jury punished Bayer AG to the tune of almost $2.1 billion after a man who had used Roundup, the German company’s glyphosate-containing weedkiller, developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It was only the latest slapdown by a jury. Bayer has coughed up more than $10 billion in legal costs over a product it inherited last decade with its $63 billion acquisition of agrochemical producer Monsanto. Its legal battles are far from over, too, with Bayer facing more than 60,000 outstanding claims from US plaintiffs who say the chemical caused their cancer. (Loh, Warren and Janicki, 11/6)

The last monkey on the loose among several that escaped after a Mississippi highway crash has been found and captured, authorities said Thursday. A resident who lives near the crash site called authorities to report the animal’s location and it was then “successfully recovered,” the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said in a statement to The Associated Press. (11/6)

A federal judge in Rhode Island has ordered the Trump administration to deliver SNAP payments in full to states by Friday. The order, which U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued Thursday afternoon, followed two weeks of chaos and confusion about the fate of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, during the government shutdown. (Bendix, 11/6)

In New Jersey, a single mother struggled to figure out how to feed her two young sons with $50. In Oklahoma, a 61-year-old woman questioned whether driving to a food pantry was worth the gas money. And in Colorado, a woman grabbed food from a Walmart dumpster. For the 42 million people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the country’s largest anti-hunger program, it has been a chaotic, nerve-racking week. (Adelson, Gahan, Medrano, Morales, Rao, Simmons and Williams, 11/7)

Over the last week, Martina Santos said she feels like she's been living a nightmare. The 67-year-old from the Bronx, New York, is one of the nearly 42 million Americans who saw their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits lapse on Nov. 1. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would partially fund the program using emergency funds, officials said it could take "a few weeks to up to several months." Additionally, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that no benefits will be distributed until the government reopens. (Kekatos, 11/6)

With the ongoing government shutdown the federal food assistance for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) was at risk of running out of funds. But the New Hampshire health department announced Thursday it received additional funding to extend supplement nutrition benefits for WIC recipients till at least the end of this month. (Richardson, 11/6)

On Obamacare and other news from Capitol Hill —

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday he would not offer Democrats a House vote on extending expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies as part of a deal to end the government shutdown. Asked at a press conference if he could assure Democrats in the House that they would get a vote on extending the subsidies, Johnson said, “No, because we did our job, and I’m not part of the negotiation.” “I’m not promising anybody anything. I’m going to let this process play out,” he continued. (Brooks, 11/6)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: �������ýҕ�l Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The State Of The Affordable Care Act
Open enrollment for health plans under the Affordable Care Act began Nov. 1, yet it remains unclear how much the estimated 24 million Americans who purchase from the ACA marketplaces will be expected to pay in premiums starting in January. Unless Congress acts to extend tax credits added to the program in 2021, most consumers will be expected to contribute much more out-of-pocket; in some cases, double or triple what they are paying in 2025. (Rovner, 11/6)

The bitter standoff over government funding in Congress has not stopped some health policy bills from attracting greater bipartisan support. Legislation that would regulate health insurance companies’ prior authorization requirements and measures to expand telehealth coverage under Medicare are the most notable examples of bills that have gained backers during the historic standoff on Capitol Hill. The Senate has been nearly frozen since the government shut down on Oct. 1, and the House left Washington Sept. 19 and hasn’t returned. (McAuliff, 11/6)

And Nancy Pelosi is retiring from Congress —

While it has President Barack Obama’s namesake, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi was the chief architect of “Obamacare.” Pelosi helped orchestrate the landmark Affordable Care Act, getting the sweeping health care reform legislation passed in Congress and to Obama’s desk. The law enacted the most significant overhaul to the U.S. healthcare system since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 by expanding health care coverage through Medicaid and a new health insurance marketplace. (Morin, 11/7)

All 50 states have submitted applications for their share of a $50 billion pot of money to transform rural health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz said Thursday. Wednesday was the deadline for states to submit a detailed application for the first tranche of the five-year fund created to help rural providers offset the cuts to Medicaid and other health programs contained in the tax cut law. (Weixel, 11/6)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Concerns Over Fairness, Access Rise As States Compete For Slice Of $50B Rural Health Fund
Echo Kopplin wants South Dakota’s leaders to know that money from a new $50 billion federal rural health fund should help residents with limited transportation options. Kopplin, a physician assistant who works with seniors, low-income people, and mental health patients in the rural Black Hills, shared her thoughts at a meeting hosted by state officials. (Tribble and Zionts, 11/7)

On AI and prior authorization —

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has selected the six technology companies that will administer artificial intelligence-powered prior authorization programs for Medicare, STAT has learned. The pilot, called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) model, is a CMS effort to reduce waste and abuse within the taxpayer funded health insurance program that spent more than a trillion dollars in 2024. (Trang, 11/6)

On visa fees —

A staffing agency that works with international specialty nurses is suing President Trump and his administration over an executive order that slaps a $100,000 price tag on H-1B visa applications. Attorneys for Global Nurse Force argued in an Oct. 3 complaint that if the fee requirement remains in place the company would be forced to close its U.S. operations, costing it millions of dollars in revenue. Patients would also be hurt by the fees, the lawsuit argued. (Firth, 11/6)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Immigrants With Health Conditions May Be Denied Visas Under New Trump Administration Guidance
Foreigners seeking visas to live in the U.S. might be rejected if they have certain medical conditions, including diabetes or obesity, under a Thursday directive from the Trump administration. The guidance, issued in a cable the State Department sent to embassy and consular officials and examined by �������ýҕ�l Health News, directs visa officers to deem applicants ineligible to enter the U.S. for several new reasons, including age or the likelihood they might rely on public benefits. The guidance says that such people could become a “public charge” — a potential drain on U.S. resources — because of their health issues or age. (Seitz, 11/6)

In other health industry news —

In what could become one of the largest labor actions in the University of California’s history, more than 86,000 nurses, health care professionals and campus workers — including those at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley — plan to walk off the job this month, accusing the university of neglecting its lowest-paid employees while rewarding those at the top. UC officials have sharply disputed those claims, arguing that the unions’ wage and benefit demands go beyond what the university can responsibly afford. (Vaziri, 11/6)

Allina Health is closing its Faribault birth center and putting its resources into building up the birth center 15 miles away at its hospital in Owatonna, following Mayo Clinic Health System’s decision to discontinue its labor and delivery services there. (Work, 11/6)

Patients at Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown have a long list of complaints about their living quarters: unhygienic conditions and mice, the closure of the woodworking shop and vegetable garden, frustrations about staff behavior and a lack of privacy. State leaders are working to address some of those shortcomings. But it’s been a deliberate process. (Otte and Tillman, 11/6)

Cambia Health Solutions plans to bring another Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer under its umbrella as it seeks to scale its technology and care management services. The nonprofit, which operates Regence Blue Cross plans in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington, announced Thursday that it plans to join forces with Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The proposed strategic affiliation is Cambia’s second this year; in August, the company proposed a similar partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. (Tepper, 11/6)

Cigna is joining forces with basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson to support mental health using the power of music. The insurer and Johnson will release a collaborative album later this month titled "Magic Sounds," which includes multiple tracks that lean on techniques like binaural beats and autonomous sensory meridian response to support relaxation, focus and stress management. (Minemyer, 11/7)

The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to bar transgender people from changing the gender markers on their passports, it announced in an order Thursday. The order is the latest in a back-and-forth on the policy as the country debates the right for its transgender citizens to live openly. (Sosin, 11/6)

More LGBTQ+ news from California —

Nursing home employees who deliberately and repeatedly refer to transgender patients with a name or pronoun different from the one they prefer can be charged with a crime under state law, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday, overturning a lower-court ruling that had declared the law unconstitutional. The 2017 statute “properly regulates discriminatory conduct aimed at vulnerable seniors who typically constitute a captive audience, residing in long-term care facilities that have become, in effect, their homes,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote in the court’s lead opinion. (Egelko, 11/6)

In other news about the Trump administration —

A suspicious package was delivered to a US military base in Maryland on Thursday which caused multiple people to fall ill and be taken to the hospital, CNN has learned. ... Several people were transported to the on-base Malcolm Grove Medical Center after the package was opened, which contained an unknown white powder, two sources familiar with the investigation said. (Britzky and Campbell, 11/6)

Hundreds of public health workers and their allies, flanked by photographers shading their eyes from the glare of the afternoon sun, marched from the National Mall toward HHS headquarters at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building on Wednesday. Their mission: Demand HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s resignation. (Firth, 11/6)

​The Trump administration’s plan to revamp the entire Health and Human Services Department, which Congress has rejected, has nevertheless led to the gutting of a 33-year-old agency that had been leading the nation’s response to the drug and mental health response epidemic. (Hellmann, 11/6)

The Department of Veterans Affairs has confirmed it is expanding psychedelic-assisted therapy trials for veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment resistant depression, and anxiety disorders. Nine VA facilities, in the Bronx, Los Angeles, Omaha, Palo Alto, Portland (Oregon), San Diego, San Francisco, West Haven, and White River Junction; are participating in the multi-year studies, each designed to test the safety and clinical impact of psychedelic compounds used under strict supervision. (Hultz, 11/5)

Lisa Emery loves to talk about her “boys.” With each word, the respiratory therapist’s face softens and shines with pride. But keep her talking, and it doesn’t take long for that passion to switch to hurt. She knows the names, ages, families and the intimate stories of each one’s scarred lungs. She worries about a whole community of West Virginia coal miners — including a growing number in their 30s and 40s — who come to her for help while getting sicker and sicker from what used to be considered an old-timer’s disease: black lung. (Mason, 11/7)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Wielding Obscure Budget Tools, Trump’s ‘Reaper’ Vought Sows Turmoil In Public Health
When President Donald Trump posted a satirical music video on social media in early October depicting his budget director, Russell Vought, as the Grim Reaper lording over Democrats in Congress, public health workers recognized a kernel of truth. Vought has exerted extraordinary control over government spending this year, usurping congressional decisions on how the nation’s money is used. His push for more layoffs during the government shutdown is only the latest blow, following months of firings, canceled grants, and withheld funds. (Maxmen, 11/7)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a federal judge to issue a restraining order against the makers of Tylenol to force them to immediately stop advertising to consumers that in consultation with a doctor the pain reliever is safe for pregnant women and young children to use. Paxton made the request in a Thursday filing, one week after he sued the drug's makers, Johnson & Johnson and its corporate spin-off Kenvue, claiming that they deceptively marketed the over-the-counter medication to pregnant women despite alleged links to autism and other disorders. (McDuffie, 11/6)

Related news about Tylenol —

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing Planned Parenthood of falsely advertising that abortion medication is “safer than Tylenol.” (11/6)

More news from Florida, Maryland, Colorado, and Indiana —

House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday filed proposals that could lead to lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers that advertise in Florida. The identical bills (HB 339 and SB 408), filed by Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, and Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, would allow people to sue manufacturers if they are harmed by vaccines advertised in the state. (11/6)

The Arc Baltimore — a nonprofit that supports people with developmental disabilities — is expanding its services beyond its traditional base of Baltimore City and Baltimore County into Anne Arundel County, effective immediately. (Byrne, 11/6)

Kathy Fieber cannot rest. When she has taken her eyes off her son in the past 25 years, he has eaten the foam that covered the springs on the trampoline, ingested the carpeting and swallowed a necklace. (Brown, 11/6)

For the past year, families in need of child care assistance in Indiana have been sitting on a waitlist that has ballooned from 3,000 to 30,000 kids. It’s still climbing — and no one is coming off of it. (Carrazana, 11/6)

Meta Platforms Inc., ByteDance Ltd., Alphabet Inc. and Snap Inc. must face trial over claims that they designed social media platforms to addict youths, a judge ruled, clearing the way for the first of thousands of cases to be presented to juries. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl late Wednesday ruled against the companies on their last chance to avoid trial. Kuhl trimmed a negligence allegation from one case, but allowed other claims to proceed after lawyers have spent years pouring through evidence and dueling over legal theories. (Mekelburg and Spoto, 11/6)

Four wrongful death lawsuits were filed against OpenAI on Thursday, as well as cases from three people who say the company’s chatbot led to mental health breakdowns. The cases, filed in California state courts, claim that ChatGPT, which is used by 800 million people, is a flawed product. One suit calls it “defective and inherently dangerous.” (Hill, 11/6)

In other health and wellness news —

A new study suggests that pouring a third drink could mean trouble for your brain. Harvard researchers have found that people who drink three or more alcoholic drinks a day may suffer a stroke more than a decade earlier than people who drink less. The research, published this week in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, links heavy drinking to not just earlier strokes, but also larger, deadlier brain bleeds and long-term brain damage. (Quill, 11/6)

Financial well-being can have an outsize imprint on older Americans’ quality of life, affecting their physical health, social life and even cognitive skills, new research shows. Low-income seniors are more likely to experience mental confusion, spend less time pursuing hobbies, and face difficulties with everyday tasks such as climbing stairs and grocery shopping, compared with their more affluent counterparts, according to survey results released Thursday from Pew Research Center. And just 21 percent are highly confident of having enough money in retirement. (Najmabadi, 11/6)

As birds fly south for the winter, they're carrying with them some unwelcome cargo: the H5N1 virus, or bird flu. In the past 30 days, the virus has struck 66 poultry flocks, leading to the deaths of more than 3.5 million turkeys, chickens and ducks, a steep increase compared to the summer months. The virus can spread easily when infected wild birds mix with commercial or backyard flocks. (Stone, 11/6)

A phase 1 randomized controlled trial of an experimental intranasal vaccine against multiple H5N1 avian flu strains generated a broad immune response in US adults, researchers reported today in Nature Communications. The findings come the same day as the Mexican Ministry of Health reported the death of a 3-year-old Durango girl from H5N1 infection, highlighting the need for prevention. (Van Beusekom, 11/6)

Two new analyses conclude that high-dose influenza vaccine is more effective against hospitalization and infection than the standard-dose version. (Van Beusekom, 11/6)

After conventional wisdom seemed to make peanut allergies worse, a 15-year scientific journey led to “landmark” recommendations that now appear to be reducing their incidence. (Tirrell, 11/3)

For more than three decades, Marion Nestle has been telling people what to eat. In the late 1980s, she edited the first Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health, then went on to co-write the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans and co-found New York University’s influential food studies program. Nestle, now an emerita professor at NYU, says her time in government opened her eyes to the multi-billion-dollar food industry’s enormous influence over Congress. (O'Connor, 11/5)

Norman Rosenthal uses light in his home to help with depression related to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Spoiler alert: He has a lot of light boxes. (Sima, 11/6)

Three years ago Jordie Poncy was 39 years old and about to start his dream job: counseling patients at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. His father had been treated there for bladder cancer years earlier and Poncy saw it as a chance to give back. In the weeks before he was supposed to start, he was having stomach aches. Poncy has a history of ulcerative colitis. He decided to go to the emergency room and get it checked out. After tests, Poncy learned that he had a rare and aggressive form of cancer, neuroendocrine carcinoma. The data suggested he had two years to live. (Penman, 11/4)

“Never once did pregnancy cross my brain,” said Rebecca Johnson, a Virginia schoolteacher. (Page, 11/6)

Scientists say they have found a way to test ancient human remains for hormones linked with pregnancy, a breakthrough that may allow archaeologists to determine whether a woman was pregnant or had recently given birth at the time of her death. (Guy, 10/31)

A White House deal with Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk to lower the prices of their popular obesity medicines, Zepbound and Wegovy, is a step toward making them more affordable and accessible to Americans — but until we have more details, it’s hard to tell how big a step it really is. (Lisa Jarvis, 11/7)

Six Americans have died and more than 20 others have been sickened in a growing listeria outbreak linked to prepackaged pasta meals. It is upsetting, but not surprising. I worked on food safety at the Food and Drug Administration for many years. The U.S. has one of the safest food systems in the world, but too many Americans fall ill from contaminated food every year — and too many families experience tragic, preventable loss. That’s unacceptable in the 21st century. (Frank Yiannas, 11/7)

Former vice president Dick Cheney’s death stunned me this week — because of how extraordinarily long he lived in defiance of a failing heart. His decades-long journey through cardiovascular catastrophe mirrors the triumphant arc of modern medicine, which has turned what was once a death sentence into a chronicle of survival built on relentless scientific progress. (Charles C. Hong, 11/6)

In recent months, the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health have announced new initiatives to reduce and replace animal testing in biomedical research. Central to these efforts are “new approach methodologies,” such as lab-grown human-based models and computational technologies, promoted as more modern and human-relevant. But amid this rush toward alternatives, we risk abandoning modern animal models that have become increasingly relevant to human biology. (Anis Barmada, 11/7)

More evidence highlighting the benefit, and limitations, of covid-19 vaccines. (Leana S. Wen, 11/6)