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The Trump administration has frozen more than $867 million in California Medicaid dollars over “suspected fraud,” U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday. Kennedy, alongside Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz, did not provide specific examples or evidence of fraud when they announced the move but said the administration paused reimbursements because of “questionable spending.” The administration also froze more than $200 million of Medicaid funds in Minnesota, another Democratic-led state that has become a regular target of Trump funding freezes. (DiNatale, 7/21)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is seeking to implement a major tax policy from last year’s sweeping spending law. CMS proposed Tuesday a new regulation paring back provider taxes, which states apply to hospitals, Medicaid managed-care companies and others to help finance the state share of Medicaid spending. Every state except Alaska levies such taxes, along with Washington, D.C. (Early, 7/21)

Cody Coughenour landed in jail at least half a dozen times by the time he was 47 years old. First, it was crimes related to his alcohol addiction. Then, when he was 26 years old, his mother died of a meth-induced heart attack. The overwhelming grief led him to the same methamphetamines that killed his mother. "What people are running away from, that's what they're going to run into," he said. (Wernau, 7/22)

More than 4 million people nationwide were dropped from the federal food assistance program known as SNAP from July 2025 through March, according to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan think tank. (Martinez, 7/21)

Illinois will get an extra year, until October 2028, before it must begin sharing the cost of food assistance benefits with the federal government, after the state’s own payment error rate climbed high enough to qualify for a delay built into a sweeping federal law. (Olander, 7/21)

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) on Tuesday unveiled a proposal for all American children to receive Medicare, a program he’s dubbed MediKids, saying Democrats must bring new ideas to move the conversation on healthcare forward. (Choi, 7/21)

An increasing number of adults are slogging through jobs they don’t like solely because they don’t want to lose their health insurance. This phenomenon — known as “job lock” — has existed in the U.S. workforce for decades. The worry of losing health benefits inhibits the ability for people, especially those with more health problems or complex conditions, to switch jobs or careers. Economists have also said job lock prevents people from starting their own businesses. (Herman, 7/22)

One in three people cannot afford to eat a healthy diet, a new report has found, prompting calls for urgent action on food affordability. There are 2.69 billion people unable to afford a diverse diet that meets their energy and nutrient needs, and it will take “immense” amounts of work to achieve the global target of zero hunger by 2030, the annual report from five UN agencies warned. (Lay, 7/21)

President Donald Trump says Trump Accounts could hoist children out of poverty and give more Americans the chance to benefit from investments in the stock market. But some parents say they’re still waiting for the money to arrive. (Balingit, 7/22)

President Donald Trump said generic drugs imported into the U.S. will face zero tariffs for two years starting August 1, before a 100% levy takes effect in August 2028 and rises to 200% a year later. The phased schedule is intended to push generic drugmakers to move production onshore, Trump said in a social media post Tuesday, describing the escalation as “a penalty” for companies that don’t build plants and facilities in the U.S. within the grace period. (Bao, 7/21)

Camp East Montana, an immigrant detention center in East El Paso, had an unannounced quarantine this month after four female detainees were exposed to varicella, also known as chickenpox. An additional 55 detainees were identified as secondary contacts, meaning they interacted with someone exposed to chickenpox, but not directly with an infected person. (Totiyapungprasert, 7/21)

For weeks, U.S. immigration officials alerted their colleagues about dangerous overcrowding at 26 Federal Plaza, where detainees were held in small rooms with no beds, showers or full-time medical staff. In New York, ICE agents were arresting immigrants much faster than they could be transported to longer-term detention centers, officials said in emails and text messages, waylaying dozens of detainees for days in crowded rooms that usually hold people for no more than 12 hours. People slept sitting up because there wasn’t enough space to lie down. (MacMillan, Steckelberg, Kirkpatrick and Shapiro, 7/22)

On an early April morning, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents approached Y.R. in the parking lot of her Dallas-Fort Worth area apartment as she was about to head to her construction job. Y.R., a 37-year-old undocumented Honduran immigrant who came to the U.S. in early 2022, had spent nearly a year filling out government forms and submitting to a background check and DNA test to get custody of her niece and nephew, who had been stuck in a federal shelter after they crossed the Texas-Mexico border in the spring of 2025. (Garcia, Nguyen and Mahajan, 7/21)

Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order to crack down on the practice of "birth tourism." The move appears to be a response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship, despite efforts by President Donald Trump to restrict it. Abbott's order directs six health-focused state agencies to investigate schemes aimed at helping non-citizens travel to the United States illegally for the alleged purposes of giving birth and securing U.S. citizenship for their children. (Schneider, 7/21)

The House passed a stopgap bill to fund the government into December in an effort to avoid another government shutdown weeks before the midterms, but the effort faces an uphill climb in the Senate. The resolution, which would fund the government through Dec. 4, passed 220-205. (Dillard, Alfaro and Binday, 7/22)

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities. It’s an admission that lawyers for the research professors say is proof that the agencies illegally cancelled nearly $2 billion in grants. And that’s a major development in a lawsuit filed by UC researchers against the Trump administration to permanently get their grants back. The researchers’ legal team is now asking the judge in the case to skip a trial and formally declare that the White House repeatedly violated the constitution, including the First Amendment. A court hearing on whether that’ll happen is scheduled for Oct. 20. (Zinshtey, 7/21)

The department announced it's investigating these institutions: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.; Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C; Saint Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.; Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.; and William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Miss. (Wickham, 7/21)

The Trump administration’s cuts to the largest global H.I.V. program last year resulted in sharp drops in both prevention efforts and treatment for the people most at risk from the disease, according to the first large survey of organizations that had received the funds. (Mandavilli, 7/21)

Organizations serving American Indian and Alaska Native survivors of violence say reductions in federal funding have led to over 1,000 unmet requests for help, according to a new report. (Hassanein, 7/21)

A few weeks ago, Rena Dixon, the head of Fact Forward, a South Carolina nonprofit that offers adolescent health and sex education classes, got a letter from the Trump administration with crushing news. The government was terminating the organization’s $1.6 million grant from a federal program to reduce teen pregnancies, effective immediately. (Hoffman, 7/22)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Trump’s Personnel Agency Says It Will Remove Some Identifying Info As It Sweeps Up Medical Records 

The Office of Personnel Management said it will “pseudonymize” medical records it collects on more than 8 million people —federal workers and retirees, and their family members. Democrats and employee unions say the agency’s move is an overreach. (Seitz, Rosenfeld, and Tahir, 7/22)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: American Scientists See Prosecutions As Part Of Federal Campaign Against Them 

The Trump administration has stepped up arrests and public condemnation of federal scientists studying viruses as the world faces one of its worst Ebola epidemics. (Houghton and Allen, 7/22)

A fifth person has died in connection with an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side. The death is among 82 confirmed cases associated with the outbreak, the city Health Department said on Tuesday. The numbers continued to rise just one day after the city confirmed a fourth death from the disease, a type of pneumonia contracted by inhaling water vapor containing Legionella bacteria. Confirmatory testing has found live bacteria in 34 cooling towers at 33 buildings on the Upper East Side, officials said. All 34 cooling towers have been cleaned and disinfected, as have other cooling towers that previously tested positive, the city said. Officials said the city was awaiting results for 140 remaining cooling tower systems tested for the bacteria. (Heyward, 7/21)

The U.S. measles case count for this year has surged past last year's total and now stands at 2,295 — a level that hasn't been seen in 35 years, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker that compiles state and local health data. (Reed, 7/21)

A national measles surge that will almost certainly make 2026 the worst year in decades for the disease is threatening even well-protected regions, where vaccination rates are high, because of the strain on limited resources, public health leaders from California and Oregon said Tuesday. The United States has reported 2,260 measles cases this year as of last Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s just 25 cases shy of last year’s total count, which was the worst since the 1990s. (Allday, 7/21)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the cyclosporiasis outbreak was “under control” even as health authorities continue to search for answers about why thousands of people in the U.S. have gotten sick. (Bendix, 7/21)

Mexico’s health minister on Tuesday said no evidence has yet indicated that a lettuce farm in Guanajuato, Mexico, is the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak in the United States, despite a Food and Drug Administration conclusion linking the farm to the investigation. ... Mexican Health Minister David Kershenobich said Mexican health officials have traveled to Guanajuato and taken samples to conduct their own investigation in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Schmidt, 7/21)

Even the hint that cyclospora — the parasite behind the outbreak that has taken over the news and inspired memes and songs — may be linked to Taylor Farms could jeopardize the livelihoods of company employees, lettuce growers, market vendors and their families. (Mega, 7/22)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Tuesday that it had confirmed more than 2,500 additional cases of cyclospora infections in the United States, making 2026 the worst year for the parasitic infection on record. Since May 1, there have been 4,173 confirmed domestic cases across 41 states, as well as 767 people who were infected during international travel. The C.D.C. is investigating more than 7,400 additional cases that are not yet confirmed. No deaths have been reported, and 308 people have been hospitalized. (Callahan and Hopkins Legaspi, 7/21)

A trio of healthcare bills passed through Delaware Governor Matt Meyer’s desk Monday that, among other actions, brings a temporary ban on private equity’s hospital purchases and sets a multi-year phase-in of hospital price caps. The legislation was applauded by the Delaware Healthcare Association (DHA), which had initially pushed back against an earlier iteration of the price caps when that bill was first introduced in March. (Muoio, 7/21)

Two giants of the Colorado healthcare market — hospital systems AdventHealth and Intermountain Health — announced Tuesday that they are coupling up. (Ingold, 7/21)

The Ohio-based company agreed to buy a diabetes health business and medical supplier Strive Medical to boost its growing in-home solutions unit. (Halleman, 7/21)

A San Francisco sexual health clinic significantly reduced rates of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among patients by preemptively prescribing the antibiotic doxycycline for use after unprotected sex (DoxyPEP). (Boden, 7/21)

The Brainerd-Baxter community is grieving after two middle-school students died by suicide within a few weeks. The deaths have sparked difficult conversations about bullying and mental health, along with the roles of schools and communities in protecting young people. (Marohn, 7/22)

At least six people in Cook County are dead after successive heat waves blanketed the city in July, marking the area’s deadliest month for heat-related deaths in more than a decade, according to data from the medical examiner’s office. (Hempel-Edgers, 7/21)

About once a month, Alika Maunakea and Ruben Juarez and their staff fly medical equipment from the University of Hawai‘i on O‘ahu to the west side of Maui. On the edge of the Lāhainā burn zone, the two researchers transform the local health center into an impromptu lab. (Chen and Milner, 7/22)

A 3-year-old girl’s joy at picking up an Amazon package addressed to her at the family’s rural Santa Clarita home turned to terror last week when she picked it up and became the latest Californian to be bitten by a rattlesnake. The girl is expected to survive. (Garcia, 7/21)

GLP-1 drugs could lead to cost savings for workers and their employers by reducing employee sick leave, a new economic study finds. (Cerullo, 7/21)

The weight-loss drug wars reached a new level of intensity Tuesday as Novo Nordisk sued Eli Lilly, accusing its arch-rival of misleading advertising. Lilly and Novo are the market leaders in GLP-1 drug sales, controlling the lion's share of the surging segment. (Bomey, 7/21)

Long-term exposure to residential road traffic noise was associated with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease, a study of more than 3 million adults in Denmark showed. (George, 7/21)

People who frequently watch television in midlife may be more likely to develop brain changes associated with memory problems, cognitive decline and dementia later in life, according to new research. The study, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, suggests that what people do while sitting may matter just as much as how long they spend sitting. (Azzurra Volpe, 7/21)

A University of Florida study is shedding new light on the biological changes linked to adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of spine found in many children. (Mayer, 7/21)

Peptide researcher Joshua Kritzer explains why mouse studies and online testimonials aren't enough to prove a treatment is safe or effective. (Talpos, 7/21)

Sanae Takaichi has said she gets just “zero to three hours” of sleep a night, prompting a debate in the country over work-life balance and the hazards of sleep deprivation. (Hernández and Ueno, 7/22)

The past week has brought us two similar ideas of masculinity, separated by 4,000 years. When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the initiation of testosterone screening in all U.S. servicemembers 30 and older under the title “The High T Department of War,” his vision was as clear as an IMAX projection of Odysseus: a warrior in his physical prime, lethal in battle, unquestionably ascendant in the home, anointed by god. (Elizabeth Dray, 7/21)

A government bureaucrat doesn’t know how much your medicine or doctor’s visit should cost. (Lorens Helmchen and Tony LoSasso, 7/20)

Cyclospora outbreaks are just a small part of a much larger food safety crisis linked to fresh produce. (Timothy D. Lytton, 7/20)

A long-awaited moment in preventive cardiology arrived last week, when enlicitide (which Merck is selling under the name Lipfendra) was approved by the FDA to lower blood cholesterol levels. (Vishal Khetpal, 7/22)

Walk into almost any U.S. hospital today and you will find AI doing some of the important work of medicine: drafting clinical notes, flagging sepsis, screening imaging, conducting prior authorizations, and answering patient messages. Adoption is moving fast, and the benefits are real. But there’s a problem. (Peter Pronovost, Justin Norden and Kedar Mate, 7/22)