Audio Archives - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News /tag/audio/ Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is a core operating program of KFF. Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:26:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.11 /wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/04/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=32 Audio Archives - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News /tag/audio/ 32 32 257378068 Listen to the Latest ‘Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News Minute’ /news/listen-kff-health-news-minute-2026/ Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:00:14 +0000

The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News Minute is available every Thursday via direct download or the RSS feed.

Oct. 8

Katheryn Houghton [CATH-er-in HOW-tun] reads the week’s news: Hundreds of thousands of immigrants with legal status have become ineligible for government health insurance. Plus, some states are considering universal coverage to ease consumer health costs.

Can’t see the audio player? Visit kffhealthnews.org to listen.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2242497 Before Saying Yes to the Medical Test, Know the Risks and Benefits /health-industry/healthq-medical-tests-overtesting-risks-benefits-mri-full-body-scans/ Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2292777
(Maria Fabrizio for WPLN and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)

When Lori Baute first learned about precautionary full-body MRI scans, she dismissed the idea.

“ I heard Kim Kardashian got one, and some other wealthy people,” Baute said. But at 59, she was worried about her long-term health. She has a family history of cancer, and she’s a critical caregiver for her aging mom and her adult brother with special needs.

After a close friend was diagnosed with bladder cancer, Baute decided to make an appointment with a clinic that offers full-body scans near where she lives in Ocala, Florida. Her results came back a week later. One major finding: She has lesions on her pancreas. “When I got that, I was really petrified,” she said.

Worried about pancreatic cancer, Baute shared the results with her gastroenterologist, who ordered a targeted MRI scan as a follow-up. That test showed the lesions were benign cysts.

Baute’s experience is becoming more common as companies pitch body scans directly to consumers as a way to detect cancer and other diseases early. But no major medical association — including the American Cancer Society and the American College of Radiology — recommends these scans for people without a very high risk of certain cancers.

And even medical screenings that doctors do recommend can carry some of the same reasons for caution.

The QTip:

Before saying yes to the test, ask about the risks and benefits — even if your doctor recommends it.

Here’s what to know:

Every Test Comes With Costs and Risks

At a minimum, a medical test will cost you time — and could mean a hefty medical bill. Many tests marketed directly to consumers, like full-body scans and at-home blood screening kits, are not covered by insurance, and some tests can cost several thousand dollars.

Some laboratory tests might involve only the discomfort of a blood draw or the awkwardness of collecting a urine or stool sample, but others carry the possibility of physical harm. For example, a small percentage of people who get CT scans each year will develop cancer because of the radiation exposure from the tests, . Relatively simple procedures like a biopsy or an endoscopy come with the risks of pain, infections, tearing, a reaction to anesthesia, or further serious complications.

Plus, testing can cause anxiety and stress — as patients and if the results are inconclusive. “I see patients every week in my office who are tortured by the results of tests that they really didn’t need to ever have,” said , a University of California-San Francisco professor and cardiologist and . For example, if you discover a cyst, then “you’re living for the next year, two years, three years getting repeated tests to figure out whether it’s benign or a cancer,” Redberg said. She cautions patients against testing unless they have specific symptoms.

Testing Often Leads to More Testing — And More Risk

A reality of getting a medical test is that the results often lead to additional, and potentially more invasive, testing. Doctors call this “diagnostic cascade.”

Baute, for example, plans to continue monitoring her pancreas with annual scans. To her, she said, the financial cost and anxiety are worth it if she can feel “like I’m in control of my health and I have knowledge.”

But Redberg points to a worst-case scenario, in 2011: After starting an exercise program, a 52-year-old woman experienced chest pain and went to see her doctor. Her exam suggested that her pain was muscular and she had a low risk for heart disease. Still, her doctor ordered a scan of her heart to reassure her. The results led her doctor to order another test, during which her artery was ripped. She had emergency bypass surgery, experienced complications, and ultimately, Redberg said, “she ended up with a heart transplant — all from this unnecessary scan just to reassure her.”

A Few Simple Questions Can Help You Decide

Before saying yes to the test, it’s important to know about the risks and benefits — even if your doctor recommends it, Redberg said. She suggests asking a medical provider and yourself questions like:

  • What am I going to learn from this test?
  • How is this test going to help in my care?
  • Could I improve my health without doing this test?

She said many test results, especially in her field of cardiology, end up pointing patients back to the basics of a healthy lifestyle, like eating well, exercising, and not smoking. And those, she said, could be advised without a test.

People and Policy

If your health insurance covers a medical test, that means the test has most likely met vetted, scientific standards that demonstrate benefits to patients. Insurers must cover evidence-based services that have from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Private insurers, as well as Medicaid and Medicare plans, must cover the full cost of recommended preventive screenings. Many medical tests marketed directly to consumers are not covered by insurance.

Emily Siner at Nashville Public Radio contributed to this report.

HealthQ is a health series from reporters Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer, approachable guides to an unapproachable healthcare system. It’s a collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2292777 Doctors Should Keep an Eye on Your Mix of Medication. If They Don’t, You Should. /aging/wamu-health-hub-audio-rx-checkup-deprescribing-how-pills-mix/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2291604&preview=true&preview_id=2291604 Medications can snowball as we age. Pill organizers pile up. Prescriptions that are no longer necessary can mix with other drugs to create concerning side effects. 

“Once you get to six or seven prescription medications, you get a nearly 100% chance of some sort of side effect or intolerance,” said physician , director of geriatrics at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. 

Paula Span writes “The New Old Age” column for The New York Times and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News. She joined WAMU’s Health Hub on Sept. 30 to talk about common medications — from aspirin to benzodiazepines — that some older patients are overusing.

Span shared tips for keeping loved ones safe and said it’s important for patients and caregivers to be proactive. 

“Doctors prescribe medicine based on the evidence available at the time. But science doesn’t stop,” Span said. “Your doctor might not be up on the latest research. And patients get into a routine. They may not question if they still need the drugs they’ve been taking.” 

Experts and pharmacists say: Check with your doctor to make sure the meds you’re taking are still right for you.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2291604 Rural MAHA Followers Say Trump Health Policies Haven’t Reached Their Communities /rural-health/kff-ap-poll-rural-voters-maha-make-america-healthy-again-local-impact-midterms/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:01:00 +0000 /?p=2290225

About half of rural voters identify with , a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump administration, but most said President Donald Trump’s healthcare policies have not benefited their communities, according to a from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF.

About 8 in 10 rural voters — an important voting bloc for Trump and fellow Republicans in recent elections — said the Trump administration’s policies have had a negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live. Most MAHA supporters, 68%, also feel this way, according to the national survey of more than 2,000 rural registered voters.

The findings signal an apparent disconnect between the Trump administration’s MAHA-branded policy priorities and rural America’s perception of their reach and effectiveness.

Iowa pastor Mike Jager, 58, is a registered Republican and considers himself part of the MAHA movement. The Trump administration’s health policies have had “minimal” impact on the health of his community, Jager said, but he added that Trump’s health secretary, , is moving the needle “in the right direction.”

“It’s a beginning,” Jager said. “It’s a big ship to try and turn around and course-correct.”

Kennedy has used the MAHA label to support various agendas, including , , and investing in regenerative agriculture.

Jager lives in Sumner, Iowa, “less than a quarter mile from where the corn ends and the city begins.” He’s seen family members and neighbors develop diseases that he believes resulted in part from exposure to agricultural chemicals and consumption of unhealthy, processed foods.

In the June Republican primary for governor, Jager voted for Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer, who ran on a MAHA platform and beat out Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra. He plans to vote for him again in November.

A photo of Mike Jager standing in front of an altar inside of a church.
Jager said that President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is moving the needle “in the right direction.” (Miriam Alarcón Avila for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)

Many Rural Voters Are Prioritizing Health Issues

About two-thirds of rural voters who support MAHA said it’s “extremely” or “very” important to them to vote for a candidate who does, too, while only 4 in 10 rural voters overall said the same.

Trump sought to seize on MAHA support during his campaign for another term two years ago. Now, amid tight midterm races, Kennedy has campaigned to galvanize the movement’s support. In May, he attended a MAHA bill signing with Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, and in August, he went fishing with Lahn, posting about it on social media.

Yet the survey indicates voters are noticing “this weird split in the Trump administration” between what Kennedy messages and what Trump says and does, said David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University.

“It’s this mix of things coming out of D.C., out of different pieces of the administration, that’s confusing people,” Peterson said.

In Iowa, concerns about what’s causing are “a big deal,” he said. For many people who identify with MAHA, being healthy includes taking on corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies that they think cause cancer, he added.

“The sort of populist messaging around that is appealing right now,” Peterson said.

In the poll, views on healthcare access and costs largely diverged along party lines. Most Democratic and independent voters said the Trump administration’s healthcare policies have had a negative impact on their healthcare costs and the health and well-being of people in their communities. Republicans were likelier to say there hasn’t been an impact.

Talking on the phone from her 200-acre farm in Carroll County, Iowa, 71-year-old Donna Klocke said that her husband had died from cancer and that she has neighbors who also have cancer.

“It’s just very prevalent,” Klocke said. “We’re in a farming community. We use chemicals and pesticides and all kinds of things that aren’t necessarily good for us.”

Klocke, a Democrat, said the MAHA movement is a good idea because she cares about being healthy, but she does not consider herself part of it and will not be voting for a candidate who represents the movement.

Kennedy, who was an anti-vaccine activist before entering politics and has sent to Americans about , scares her.

“Measles are coming back and polio,” Klocke said. “It’s the measles that really gets me. It’s like, do you not understand how dangerous it is?”

A photo of Donna Klocke standing in front of a cornfield in Iowa.
Donna Klocke cares about being healthy but does not consider herself part of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Her husband died from cancer after a life spent farming the family’s 200 acres in Carroll County, Iowa. (Kathyrn Gamble for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)

Survey Reflects Angst Over Healthcare

About half of rural voters said their communities don’t have enough doctors or other healthcare providers, and even more said there aren’t enough mental health workers specifically. The share of rural voters who said their community does not have enough hospitals increased to 35% from 21% in a similar question asked in a KFF-Washington Post survey in 2017.

And as with the general population, healthcare, gas, and grocery costs are top pain points. More than 6 in 10 rural voters said they were worried about healthcare costs.

The level of worry varied based on coverage, with rural voters enrolled in employer plans or Medicare less likely to be worried. The survey found that 80% of working-age rural voters on Medicaid were very or somewhat worried about healthcare costs. Last year, Republicans passed that cut over $900 billion in projected Medicaid spending over a decade and mandated new eligibility requirements.

Among rural voters who purchase their own insurance, such as the individual coverage plans available on Affordable Care Act marketplaces, 77% said they were worried.

In the tiny community of Lipan, Texas, west of Dallas, Kim Solis and her husband have a handyman-and-home-remodel business and get their insurance on the marketplace. Since Trump was elected again, their premium payment jumped from zero to $166 a month. Their copays went up, and their deductibles each increased by $2,000.

Solis, 62, said she worries what will happen if they get a big medical bill.

“Certainly, we’d be in a world of hurt trying to take money out of savings or getting it out of our 401(k) just to be able to do something about it,” she said.

Most MAHA Voters Are Also MAGA — But Not All

Like the general population, rural voters said they trust their own doctors and healthcare providers for health information over government agencies or officials, according to the poll.

Trust in Kennedy and Trump fell largely along partisan lines. About 10% of rural Democratic voters reported having a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in Kennedy, compared with 74% of rural Republican voters. About 5% of rural Democrats and 69% of rural Republicans said they trust Trump a “great deal” or “fair amount” for reliable health information.

While Make America Great Again and MAHA identities are “linked in a lot of ways,” the rising costs of healthcare and groceries pose a challenge for those committed to the MAHA principles that Kennedy promotes, said Peterson, the Iowa State professor.

Buying healthy food “becomes, ‘I can’t afford to do that because of Trump’s policies,’” he said.

In Stamping Ground, Kentucky, Alma Johnson, 65, works as night security at a horse farm. Johnson said gas had gone up but her overall cost of living had decreased since Trump took office.

Johnson voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024 and said she “pretty much” likes how Trump is running the country. But she said she is not a MAGA devotee, preferring to “think for myself.”

MAHA, however, is an easy sell for Johnson because, she said, she doesn’t think people should be able to buy junk food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Still, she said she hasn’t seen much impact from the Trump administration’s healthcare policies, including the .

“It takes a long time to change people, their habits, their thoughts, or the things they do,” Johnson said.

About the Poll

The KFF-AP Rural Voters Survey was conducted online and by telephone Aug. 12-24, 2026, among 2,241 registered voters living in rural areas, defined as census tracts that fall within codes 5-10 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2020 Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes. Voters were reached through a combination of the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel and a registration-based sample from the L2 voter file. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, including design effects due to weighting. Error margins are larger for subgroups. In collaboration with the AP, KFF researchers worked to design the survey sample and questionnaire and analyze and report findings.

This report is from a collaboration between Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and The Associated Press.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2290225 After Failed Execution, Health Workers Say State’s Rules Flout Medical Ethics /health-industry/death-penalty-lethal-injection-execution-doctors-tennessee-carruthers-christa-pike/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2290583

This story describes a lethal injection procedure used in state executions.

In May, a group of healthcare workers spent about an hour trying to establish complete IV access so they could inject Tony Carruthers, an inmate at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, with a lethal dose of sedative.

Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers, was in the room. She said the workers stuck his arms and feet with needles, to no avail. A doctor then tried to insert a central line through his collarbone and shoulder. That didn’t work, either.

Carruthers groaned in pain and blood oozed from puncture wounds, DeLiberato said in a news briefing.

After more than an hour, Gov. Bill Lee called the warden, ordering him to halt the execution attempt. He later granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

Now, as another approaches, doctors and nurses in the state say they want medical professionals removed from the execution process. They’ve also joined defense attorneys and nine Republican state lawmakers in demanding a moratorium on the death penalty and an overhaul of the state’s execution methods.

The doctors’ arguments echoed those the American Medical Association has made and in its code of ethics.

Tennessee is where the death penalty is legal, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that offers data and analysis on issues surrounding capital punishment.

Governors in four of those states have halted all executions, citing and , such as being unable to obtain lethal injection drugs amid pharmaceutical companies’ refusal to sell them for use in executions. Lethal injection is still the primary nationwide, but some states may use , a , or .

Since the beginning of 2020, 170 people have been executed in 17 states, with most occurring in Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma. In that time, six states have had , according to the , which defines those as executions that include a departure from the protocol because of unanticipated problems and that cause more pain for the prisoner than anticipated, whether they ultimately end with a death or not. Several of the stories read like Carruthers’ — protracted but ultimately failed attempts to establish IV access.

Tennessee Health Workers’ Concerns

The IV team gave up on trying to place a typical line into Carruthers after several failed attempts, according to DeLiberato’s account. , physician Mark Fowler, a contractor for the state’s prison system, then tried to place a central line in a deeper vein. That’s a quasi-surgical procedure in which a plastic tube is inserted in the chest, groin, or neck. Fowler used a series of syringes, trying to insert the tube under Carruthers’ collarbone and then through his shoulder.

In an , Fowler said he hadn’t done such a procedure in the 12 years since he had stopped working in an emergency room, and didn’t know that placing a central line could be among his execution duties.

Fowler told NPR by phone on Sept. 24 that “the doctor does not participate in the execution. The only thing the doctor does is declare the person dead.” He did not have further comment.

Two months after the halted lethal injection, more than 40 doctors and nurses to Lee, calling on the Republican governor to pause executions and redesign the protocol to omit health workers from the process.

The letter said that Tennessee’s rules requiring the participation of pharmacists, physicians, and other healthcare workers in executions are at odds with medical ethics, as well as guidelines explicitly laid out by groups such as the American Medical Association. The doctors are to preserve life when there is hope of doing so and bars participation in executions.

“This means that the health care professionals who agree to take part in Tennessee’s executions are those willing to set aside their professional ethics,” the letter to Lee reads. “The problems that we have seen, such as in Mr. Carruthers’s case, are the predictable result of working with such unscrupulous actors.”

John Greer, a retired Nashville hematologist, said in a news conference about the letter that he wasn’t surprised the central line placement went awry.

“Placing a central line is not just sticking a needle in a person’s arm,” he said.

Greer said the doctor has to tap a large vessel above the heart. He said that it’s a risky procedure in which an error could cause a collapsed lung or heavy bleeding — and that only those with specific training and routine practice should attempt.

“And I cannot imagine that there would be someone who’s doing these routinely who would be involved in this procedure,” Greer said.

Some Republican state senators also hold on executions and an overhaul of the process, saying that “incompetent administration” of capital punishment gives its critics more ammunition.

This summer, Lee said he didn’t want a pause.

“The Department of Correction did exactly what they should,” he said. “It should not affect executions in the future.”

“It’s one of the most difficult things that we do in this state,” Lee said later. “But I am committed to making sure that it is done in the way that it should be.”

The state’s lethal injection protocol orders the prison to keep a curtain over the media witnesses’ viewing window until the IVs are established, so none of them could offer a visual account of the failed execution attempt.

A has been filed has been filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and news outlets including NPR member station WPLN. The lawsuit argues the lack of transparency during the IV placement process obscures problems like the ones that happened in Carruthers’ case.

There’s a broad understanding in the U.S. that the medical establishment doesn’t participate in executions, said , director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado’s medical school.

“We came out of World War II with a whole bioethics and medical ethics enterprise that is really strongly opposed to medicine serving as an arm of the state and using specialized medical skills to hurt people or kill people,” Wynia said.

A history of medical abuses by government doctors — such as and unethical studies of in the U.S., and in Nazi Germany — forged that consensus, he said.

Wynia mentioned other nations where medical professionals still participate in executions.

“But they are, you know, Iran and Saudi Arabia and Russia, sort of authoritarian states, where medicine is an arm of the government,” Wynia said. “Medical involvement in executions ends up happening because medicine is unable to say, ‘No, we don’t do that.’”

Upcoming Execution

On Sept. 30, Tennessee is scheduled to execute Christa Pike, who was 18 years old when she and her boyfriend killed Colleen Slemmer.

Pike’s attorneys this year raised several concerns that the state’s lethal injection protocol would violate her rights. Among them is their contention that because she suffers from a platelet disorder, it’s likely she will need a central line placed. They also argued that she was at risk of needless suffering, alleging Carruthers’ execution showed that Fowler — who has that he will oversee Pike’s execution — is incompetent at placing central lines.

In June, they put all of those concerns to the Tennessee Supreme Court, asking for a special investigator to collect evidence and hold hearings to determine whether they warranted an order to delay her execution and design a method for only her.

The court did appoint a special investigator, Senior Judge Mark Ward. He held a series of hearings in Knoxville last month. Ward said he didn’t believe Pike’s rights would be violated by the process and submitted to the court.

On Sept. 23, the Tennessee Supreme Court , agreeing with Ward, saying none of the concerns amounted to a constitutional violation. On Sept. 28, Lee announced he would not grant her clemency.

This article is from a partnership that includes , , and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2290583 Cost-Saving Medicaid Meal Deliveries Threatened by Cuts, Policy Uncertainty /medicaid/medicaid-meal-deliveries-food-nutrition-waivers-trump-massachusetts-north-carolina/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2279389

On a weekday morning in a quiet Boston neighborhood, a kitchen bustled with activity. Volunteers sliced chicken breasts, stuffed bell peppers, filled trays, and carefully labeled each item. It was part of an experiment to offer nutritious and medically tailored meals to Medicaid patients who are unable to shop for groceries and cook for themselves.

“Once I started to eat these meals that were geared toward my illness, I built up my muscle mass again, built up my strength, built up my confidence in myself,” said Vanessa Georges, who is in remission from throat cancer and said she would struggle to consume enough calories without the deliveries. “These meals have given me a second chance.”

Georges said she noticed another benefit from the meals: She spends less time at the doctor’s office.

Researchers have found evidence backing her observation. About 1,900 Massachusetts residents who, like Georges, received medically tailored meals for at least three months needed less medical care, according to published in the journal Nature Medicine. They had 20% fewer emergency department visits and 31% fewer hospitalizations than similar patients who did not receive meals.

“It actually saves the healthcare system money,” said , a cardiologist and professor at Tufts University who led the study. “That’s a really big deal, because most things in healthcare don’t.”

The research from Massachusetts that medically tailored meals could save states money — in addition to improving health. Yet such programs could land on the chopping block as states look to tighten spending under Trump administration budget cuts, even as federal officials argue that food is a critical component of health.

Medicaid Budget Cuts Loom

The 2025 law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed projected Medicaid funding by more than $900 billion. Many Republicans who backed the bill believe federal health spending is too high and riddled with fraud. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, for example, has accused California of “outrageous fraud” for using Medicaid dollars to fund housing and nutrition programs.

, a policy analyst at KFF, said states will have to make tough choices in the next few years as they figure out how to fill funding gaps. “If states are not able to offset the loss of federal funds with new taxes or reductions in other state spending, they may have to make program cuts,” she said. (KFF is a health information nonprofit that includes Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News.)

Thirteen states have received federal waivers to use Medicaid dollars to pay for meals — part of an approach known as “food is medicine.” Three other programs are awaiting federal approval.

President Donald Trump’s support for social services has wavered. While the first Trump administration allowed states to pursue medically tailored meals and other social supports, the second Trump administration for Medicaid initiatives that address social needs. It hasn’t detailed a new policy. Administration officials have warned that they will be more focused on the budget impacts of such initiatives.

“They signaled they’re going to be a lot more skeptical,” said , an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School who studies nutrition programs and helped lead the Massachusetts study. “Instead of using a broad-based approach nationwide, they’re going to make decisions on a state-by-state basis.”

At the same time, health leaders in Trump’s administration have made nutrition a major focus, including by promoting . Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who leads the Department of Health and Human Services, and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, have to serve healthier foods to boost patient outcomes.

Trays of meals
Trays of stuffed peppers and carrots from Community Servings are ready to be sealed and delivered to Boston-area residents who receive medically tailored meals. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

The healthcare system is often willing to pay for surgeries, Oz said in a social media video in June, “but not always willing to pay for the nutrition that might help prevent those outcomes in the first place. That’s bothered me my whole career.” He added that the agency is , including medically tailored meals, to prevent illness and hospitalization. CMS officials did not respond to several emailed requests for comment for this article.

, who studies social determinants of health at Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, said the lack of federal guidance is stirring uncertainty for states that want to pursue nutrition programs in Medicaid. “We’re still waiting to see that big step forward around ‘food is medicine’ interventions,” she said. “We need to see that step forward to resolve some of the uncertainty.”

Lawmakers have had a hard time engaging administration officials on medically tailored meals, said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who sponsored a bill that would pilot meal deliveries for some . The legislation has yet to come up for a vote.

“I had thought, based on some of his rhetoric before he entered the Trump administration, that RFK Jr. would be a natural ally on this,” McGovern said. “But we can’t seem to get his attention.”

The Costs of Poor Nutrition

Some companies have been accused of for meals that were neither healthy nor nutritious, raising concerns about lax regulation of these programs.

But at in Boston, the food is prepared with specific attention to sugar, salt, fat, vitamins, and minerals and is based on a person’s health needs, said , chief executive of the nonprofit. Many recipients require food that is mild or low in fiber, for example.

“What we’re able to do is to work with your healthcare provider to understand your health realities — what your diagnoses are, what your medications are, side effects, food allergies, cultural norms — and then prescribe a diet for you that is scratch-made,” Waters said.

The Massachusetts researchers found that the meals — at a cost of $125 per person per week — essentially paid for themselves. Patients with heart disease used about $10,000 less in healthcare services over six months, and patients with kidney disease used $12,000 less in healthcare. There were also savings for people with diabetes, depression, and anxiety.

“Those are pretty big numbers when you think of how expensive those diseases can be and the prevalence in the population,” Waters said.

Nationally, , 10 million Americans would benefit from medically tailored meals, though only a small fraction are enrolled.

“Poor nutrition is the top cause of poor health in this country. It’s the top cause of preventable healthcare spending,” said Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts. He has estimated that medically tailored meals could help patients avoid 1.6 million hospitalizations and in healthcare costs each year.

A Weekly Delivery That Makes a Difference

Steve Honyotski receives 10 meals at his Boston home each week, cooked fresh and delivered cold or flash-frozen. They’re ready to eat after just a couple of minutes in the microwave.

“The carrot ginger soup is my favorite,” Honyotski said.

Honyotski, 71, lives with several chronic conditions, including diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. He said he’s noticed improvements in his health since he started eating medically tailored meals. He needs less insulin to control his diabetes, and he’s lost enough weight to delay a knee replacement surgery.

The exterior of a building
Community Servings is a nonprofit that provides medically tailored meals in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

For now, those meals will keep coming. And Massachusetts’ Medicaid director, Ryan Schwarz, said the state will seek federal approval to continue medically tailored meals in the coming years. “We feel very strongly committed to continuing these services,” he said.

In North Carolina, researchers found that food and housing supports lowered Medicaid spending over time. Yet even with federal approval for medically tailored meals, and evidence that the meals — along with housing and transportation support — were helping people, North Carolina state lawmakers suspended the services in 2025 over budget worries. After budget deliberations this summer, state legislators changed course and decided to the program.

“To me, that’s a signal of what might occur in other states as these Medicaid cuts hit,” said Hager, the UMass researcher. “Even though they have the authority to run these programs, it might be a lot harder for the states to actually implement them.”

This article is from a partnership that includes , , and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2279389 Sticker Shock at the Doctor’s Office Could Motivate Midterm Voters /elections/healthcare-affordability-shapes-competitive-races-midterm-elections/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2284845&preview=true&preview_id=2284845 Healthcare prices are likely to next year. As midterm elections approach, candidates are laying out their plans to tackle these growing expenses.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner joined WAMU’s Health Hub on Sept. 16 to explain how healthcare could play a critical role in the midterm elections. She said similar cost increases in the early 2000s led to the debate that became the Affordable Care Act. 

“We’re seeing people have to pay more in their — not just premiums — but their deductibles, how much they pay before their insurance kicks in, and how much they pay when they go to the doctor,” said Rovner, host of the What the Health? From Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News podcast.

In recent years, it’s not uncommon for healthcare providers to ask for payment upfront. 

“Now you get there, and they say, ‘Can we have your credit card?’ before you even get to go in and get your care,” Rovner said.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2284845 States Bet Big on Rural Health Startups, With a Silicon Valley Twist /rural-health/rural-health-tech-startups-funding-louisiana/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2279897 Your browser does not support the audio element.

Can’t see the audio player? Visit kffhealthnews.org to listen.

When Josh Fleig, Louisiana’s chief innovation officer, learned his state had set aside $20 million a year, for five years, to invest in startup rural health companies, his reaction was not surprising: “Wow!”

In rural America, where people are often reported to be sicker with poor access to healthcare, the cash influx is a relief. In the economic development space where Fleig operates, it’s an opportunity.

“Look, that’s a lot of money for what we do,” said Fleig, whose state-funded economic development office invests in corporate launches, ranging from software startups to shipbuilders.

A headshot of Josh Fleig.
Josh Fleig, chief innovation officer for the Louisiana Economic Development agency, says he’s excited to help fund startup technology companies that could improve the health of rural residents in the state. (Margot McNeely/Louisiana Innovation)

Louisiana and a handful of other states set aside money from their share of the $50 billion federal Rural Health Transformation Program to quickly invest in new technologies, mirroring private industry moves. Lawmakers added the rural health program to offset more than $900 billion in reduced Medicaid spending expected over 10 years from Republicans’ sweeping 2025 tax and spending law.

But rather than filling the budget hole, the rural program’s assignment is to find new approaches for revitalizing rural communities where doctors are in short supply and hospitals have been downsizing and closing for decades. The federal government doled out the first-year rural health program awards to states this year, with pots ranging from $147 million in New Jersey to $281 million in Texas.

Modernizing technology infrastructure is a key pillar of the federal rural health program, and the catalyst money epitomizes the administration’s strategy to move fast and experiment with untested technology — much like the “move fast and break things” mantra during the heyday of Silicon Valley.

Instead of breaking things, though, the goal is to “move fast, fast-fail, innovate quickly, and move to sustainability,” said Aaron Bujnowski, a managing director with the healthcare industry group at the consultancy Alvarez & Marsal. “This is a transformation that is still meant to serve the people.”

Rigorous Rules and Tight Deadlines

Beyond Louisiana, Timothy Foster, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, confirmed that Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia are also creating rural health tech catalyst funds.

Every year, states must compete for rural funding in the five-year federal program. Federal regulators will take money away from states that do not meet the goals promised in their applications, including whether they designated money to companies for tech innovations.

CMS, which is overseeing the program, released a seven-step for states to follow when creating the tech catalyst operations. No more than 10% of each state’s award can be spent on a rural tech catalyst fund.

States’ initial annual progress reports for the rural fund were due at the end of August. CMS has declined to publicly post those reports; it plans to publish an annual report on state progress. States must show that first-year funds will be obligated — but not necessarily spent — by Oct. 30, according to the CMS guidance document.

Daniel X. O’Neil, a technology consultant who advocates for open data and open government, created a and parsed the original state applications to find dozens that mention catalyst awards and technology funds.

O’Neil said he is “looking forward to the clawbacks and the craziness of October because, you know, that’s serious stuff.”

For the rural health catalyst funds, CMS requires states to submit the list of finalists “at least 15 business days” before announcing winners, along with “sufficient information” for the agency to “assess each proposed project,” according to the guidance document.

The document outlines intellectual property and federal rights but does not provide guidance or standards for patient rights or protections. CMS spokesperson Foster stated in an email that the technology investments must comply with federal “privacy, security, interoperability, and patient safety” requirements.

Protecting Patients

Maya Sandalow, director of the health program at the Bipartisan Policy Center and one of the leading analysts watching the rural fund, said the catalyst funds are “public dollars” and has called for more transparency in the overall rural health program. The center is a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

Accurate and timely reporting must be done to ensure “the necessary guardrails are in place” to protect patients, she said, adding that the innovation needs to be “tested in a way that’s safe for the patients that they are going to be used on.”

To apply, startups must be less than 10 years old and have raised less than $50 million in early funding. Companies that win a portion of state catalyst funds must meet predetermined milestones before being paid — and federal officials will make “targeted reviews as needed,” according to the guidance document.

Louisiana officials announced the state’s tech catalyst fund with an event in rural Natchitoches, known as the filming location of the 1989 film Steel Magnolias. The fund quickly drew more than 200 companies competing for between $250,000 and $3 million in seed money.

Tiny startup Greens Health was invited to the event. The 2-year-old company analyzes Medicare claims to identify patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, and works with local home health nurses and senior facilities to improve care.

“We’ve been looking for a way to launch in Louisiana,” said Kehlin Swain, co-founder and chief executive of Greens Health. The company serves about 100 patients across Texas, Alabama, and Florida and hopes to get a $250,000 investment from Louisiana.

Louisiana’s Fleig said his state is “at a really interesting turning point.” The state secured $208.4 million for the first year of the rural health program and quickly created its catalyst fund using the state’s already established innovation department.

At the same time, nearly 1.1 million people live in Louisiana’s rural parishes and the state ranks as the “least healthy” in the nation, according to its own application. State rates of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease are among the highest in the nation.

Fleig believes Louisiana is an ideal place to test technology solutions. So, while Silicon Valley has “not needed much of what Louisiana has had to offer” for much of its existence, it does now, he said.

Caret Health is one of those companies. Co-founders Riya Pulicharam, who is a physician-researcher, and Kevin Zhao, an engineer, met in Silicon Valley. Together, they created a technology platform that identifies patients who need help getting to their appointments, having scans done, or picking up prescriptions. That technology flags a human, who then contacts the patient with a call or text.

Zhao said Caret had successful pilots at large health systems, but those places also had other vendors and “it was a pretty big uphill battle” to get in and scale. Then, in 2024, the company began paying attention to rural places.

“There wasn’t a lot of existing infrastructure. And that was really good for us because we were able to come in very quickly,” Zhao said. “A lot of the hospitals really needed this kind of service.”

Fast-forward to 2026: Caret Health is about 4 years old and has contracted with about 60 hospitals in 16 states. Pulicharam and Zhao hope to win $3 million to expand into Louisiana.

Louisiana’s Fleig said the state will take an equity stake in each company it invests in. “The dream” is that selected startup companies will also help the state make money to reinvest. If some companies fail — or fail fast — that’s to be expected, but the state should still make money because of “the law of averages,” he said.

“If we are good, we’ll make more money than we spent,” Fleig said. “Either way, it’s going to go back into improving healthcare outcomes.”

Rural Tech-Catalyst Funds: Fast-Moving, High-Pressure

First-year progress reports were due at the end of August. Using the annual report, federal officials will recalculate and potentially claw back money from underperforming states, according to created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the program.

States will be scored on a multitude of initiatives and plans, plus whether they earmark their first-year spending by Oct. 30. Year 2 funding will be determined by the end of October.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2279897 A NY Hospital Tried To Close Its Birthing Center. This City United To Fight Back. /courts/troy-new-york-hospital-birthing-center-bipartisan-fight/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2281344 TROY, N.Y. — Like many residents of this aging industrial city on the Hudson River, Starletta Washington was stunned when she heard Troy’s last remaining hospital planned to close its birthing center.

“It was devastating,” said Washington, who heads the local YWCA. Washington was born at the hospital and had her children there. She couldn’t believe families would now have to get to a hospital half an hour away or face the prospect of an emergency delivery.

“Nobody else was going to be born in the city of Troy unless they were born on a city bus, in the back of a cab, or, disgustingly, on the side of the street?” Washington said. “Blew my mind.”

Troy wasn’t the first community to face this prospect. Since 2010, hospitals have as cities and towns shrink and hospitals consolidate into larger systems.

Troy found a more hopeful ending.

A group of women and one man stand holding signs that say "Save Burdett Birth Center" with a yellow "SAVED" sticker added to the front.
State Assembly member John T. McDonald III (center), a Democrat, worked to secure $5 million in state funding to help keep the Burdett Birth Center open in Troy, New York. (Katherine Bruno/Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood)
A woman in business formal attire sits at a desk with two American flags behind her.
Carmella Mantello, the Republican mayor of Troy, New York, says even nonprofit hospitals seem to have become more corporate. “The whole hospital scene has changed,” she says. (Hannah Norman/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)
A woman wearing a black T-shirt looks towards the camera. She wears a necklace with a tiny star on it, with earrings to match.
Starletta Washington, who heads the YWCA in Troy, was born at the hospital where Burdett Birth Center is located. Like many in the community, she says she was blindsided by Trinity Health’s plan to close the center. (Hannah Norman/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)

Elected officials from both major parties joined patient advocates, mothers, midwives, doulas, and community leaders like Washington to challenge Trinity Health, the large Catholic health system that owns Troy’s hospital and birthing center. The campaign even united Planned Parenthood and the .

“Whether you were Republican or Democrat, or if you didn’t vote, it literally brought everyone together,” said Carmella Mantello, the city’s Republican mayor. “Everyone just said, ‘We can’t let this happen.’”

Throughout the country, healthcare remains a flash point as politicians square off ahead of November’s elections. But in many places, Americans are also quietly finding common ground.

In this small city, residents were brought together by frustration over large, corporate health systems that can seem to put profits over patients. And they resolved to work together to keep critical medical services in their community.

A Community Institution

Babies have been delivered at Samaritan Hospital on a hill above Troy since this city’s once bustling factories produced most of America’s shirt collars a century ago.

More recently, Samaritan’s Burdett Birth Center had become a model for patient-focused care. Midwives and doulas work alongside OB-GYNs and support mothers who want to avoid a delivery by cesarean section unless necessary.

Patient safety advocates have pushed for years to reduce surgical deliveries, which can lead to complications. At Burdett, only about a quarter of newborns are delivered by C-section, compared with about a third statewide, according to 2025 hospital data. Burdett also had fewer preterm births and fewer babies with low birth weights.

“I wouldn’t go anywhere else,” said Lidia Zambrano-Madera, who gave birth to both her children at Burdett with the help of a midwife.

A woman who just gave birth holds her infant while lying in a hospital bed. Three adult family members and one child stand around her.
Lidia Zambrano-Madera, a Troy resident, gave birth to both her children at the Burdett Birth Center with the help of a midwife. “I wouldn’t go anywhere else,” she says. (Jayana Espinoza)

For Zambrano-Madera, who recently opened a children’s play center in Troy, Burdett offered another advantage: It was just five minutes from home.

But three years ago, Trinity Health, a multibillion-dollar Michigan-based hospital system, said the birth center was losing money and would close. Families from Troy and surrounding Rensselaer County would have to deliver at another Trinity hospital in Albany, up to a half-hour’s drive away. The hospitals are branded under St. Peter’s Health Partners in the Albany region.

“We’ve been frantic about trying not to cut the care at the bedside,” said Steven Hanks, a physician who oversees Trinity hospitals in New York and New England. “But, you know, you get to a point where you can only consolidate so much. You can only spread people so thin, and then you have to start taking harder looks at your actual services.”

Corporate Backlash

Trinity’s plans — news of which — came without warning, surprising the obstetrical staff and community leaders. They set off a firestorm.

Within days, midwives, mothers, community leaders, and politicians held a rally at the YWCA in downtown Troy. Others would follow. Volunteers led by doulas and midwives made T-shirts and handed out pink “Save Burdett” signs at the local farmers market.

Activists were outraged that the hospital hadn’t adequately assessed the impact of the closure, particularly on low-income families. They conducted a community survey that found 1 in 4 Troy residents didn’t have access to a car and would have trouble getting to Albany.

The campaign drew on deep connections that many residents had to Burdett. “They realized what a gem Burdett is, and what a great community service they provide,” said Jessica Hayek, a doula and birth educator who helped lead the campaign.

A woman stands beside a bed with a quilt looks away from the camera with a subtle smile.
Jessica Hayek, a doula and birth educator, helped lead the campaign to stop Trinity Health from closing the Burdett Birth Center. She says Michigan-based Trinity didn’t appreciate how important the center was to the Troy community. (Hannah Norman/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)

Hayek and others also tapped into deep-seated frustration with Trinity, a healthcare behemoth that and last year recorded more than $25 billion in revenue and a healthy operating margin that topped 5%.

“Trinity Health is in the Midwest, and they are not in the community,” Hayek said. “So when you’re looking at just the numbers from an office in the Midwest somewhere, they’re not looking at the benefit that this place has on the community.”

Hayek describes herself as a liberal Democrat. But Trinity’s focus on its bottom line also irked many Republicans, including Mantello, who was the City Council president at the time.

“The whole hospital scene has changed,” Mantello said. “It was very personable. You had nurses and doctors who were able to give more care and spend more time with patients.” Now, by contrast, many hospitals have what she described as a “more corporate type of atmosphere.”

Even the Catholic bishop decried the planned closure of the birthing center as out of step with the values of his faith and the hospital system’s.

“Nothing is more central to the Catholic healthcare mission than supporting life and all those who bring it into the world,” Bishop Edward Scharfenberger said after Trinity announced the closure plan. Scharfenberger has since retired.

A Bipartisan Solution

Despite the backlash, Trinity Health executives for months insisted they had no choice. The system even sued the state to push through the closure.

Ultimately, though, powerful state officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, joined the fight to save the birthing center, launching an investigation into the proposed closure and hosting a daylong hearing in Troy.

State Assembly member John T. McDonald III, a Democrat who represents Troy, worked with Republican elected officials, including the county executive and the state senator representing Troy, to secure $5 million in state funding to help keep Burdett open.

 “You had a Democrat and a bunch of Republicans all working together on the same issue,” McDonald said, “because, at the end of the day, our job is to listen to what the public has to say.”

A crowd of people of various genders, ethnicities, and ages stand with signs that say "Save Burdett Birth Center."
Community leaders, politicians, midwives, doulas, and families from Troy rallied for months to stop the Burdett Birth Center from closing, including at the state Capitol in Albany. (Katherine Bruno/Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood)
A plastic lawn sign with white text and a bright pink background reads, "Midwives Save Lives / Save Burdett Birth Center / SAVED!"
Community volunteers in Troy celebrated the success of their campaign to save the Burdett Birth Center by adding a yellow tag to the pink protest signs. (Hannah Norman/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News)

Nearly a year after announcing the closure, Trinity reversed itself and said Burdett would remain open.

Lois Uttley, a New York City-based researcher and activist who has worked with communities facing hospital consolidation, said Troy’s success reflects a growing bipartisan suspicion of corporate healthcare organizations.

“The executives of these health systems will tell the community that joining a big health system will be good, that the quality of care will improve, that efficiencies will mean they can keep the costs low,” Uttley said. “But what I have seen over the last 30 years of work is that those promises often are broken.”

As hospitals close or downsize, she said, communities are catching on. “They’re becoming more skeptical.”

There’s another, more hopeful lesson in Troy’s success, said McDonald, the state lawmaker.

“If we take down our swords,” he said, “and put out our arms, maybe we can get something done.”

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

]]> 2281344 A Camp for Children With Brain Injuries Zips Ahead, Despite Federal Uncertainty /news/children-with-brain-injuries-summer-camp-uncertain-federal-funding/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 /?p=2277184

MILLVILLE, Pa. — In an open field, arrows whizzed through the humid June air and struck their targets. Campers and counselors cheered.

It was archery hour at . Operations director Drew Meyer watched, a few tears escaping from behind his dark sunglasses.

“They will surprise you, like, flat out,” he said of the campers, who have all survived brain injuries. “They’ll come out here, and they’ll shoot for three hours and start hitting the target.”

Campers, ranging in age from 10 to 21, have been coming to Camp Cranium in Pennsylvania’s rural Columbia County since 2008. Some of their brain injuries are so severe that they have to relearn basics, from talking to tying their shoelaces. Some use wheelchairs or crutches. But during a week at camp, they climb rock walls, swim, and whiz down a zip line through the lush forest.

The existence of Camp Cranium, and a handful of others like it, is a response to a decades-long national trend: More people, including children, now survive crises resulting in brain injury than did in the 1980s. The improvements in survival are largely due to seat belt laws and and trauma centers that can treat injuries quickly.

But recently, efforts to track and prevent one type of brain injury, traumatic ones, are in flux after Congress didn’t renew a and prevention of traumatic brain injuries, and the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the team tracking traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs.

“Brain injury can happen to anybody,” said , executive director of the . “This community deserves more.”

A boy in a blue helmet sits in a harness and holds onto a colorful grip on a rock climbing wall.
Lucas Hardy uses a hoist to climb the 30-foot rock wall at Camp Cranium in Millville, Pennsylvania, in June. (Sarah Hofius Hall/WVIA News)
A girl in a wheelchair pulls an arrow against a bow while a young woman standing behind her helps position the arrow's aim.
Camp Cranium counselor Anvitha Tharra (right) helps participant Angelica Zander learn to use a bow and arrow. (Sarah Hofius Hall/WVIA News)

Tracking Brain Injuries

Lucas Hardy, 14, smiled at the encouraging crowd below. In a shady clearing in the woods, he climbed the 30-foot rock wall, aided by a hoist that pulled him out of his wheelchair and helped support his moves. Hardy suffered a traumatic brain injury at age 3, when a tree branch fell on him at a birthday party.

Annually, an estimated 2.8 million Americans experience a TBI — including about 475,000 children, according to the .

Recent data suggests those are undercounts. In 2018, a CDC team piloted a household survey asking about TBIs in a sample of U.S. children and adults. The results concluding that such injuries, which are often considered “hidden” because the damage is internal and unseen, are more widespread than hospitalization numbers suggest.

The mass firings at the CDC in early 2025 studying TBI, right before they were expected to launch a . A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, Emily Hilliard, did not respond to questions about the number of employees terminated, or if they were reinstated or replaced.

In a statement, she said: “The Trump Administration remains committed to supporting efforts to prevent traumatic brain injuries, improve surveillance, and ensure Americans have access to practical, evidence-based information that can help protect their health and safety.”

She said the agency’s TBI work is now handled by other staff members at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Hilliard said the CDC is deciding how to establish a cost-effective national concussion surveillance system within the bounds of current funding, and said the agency in 2026 dedicated funds to support, among other things, an about concussions, an , and concussion surveillance.

But Wolfkiel still worries about how the CDC firings and the impasse over federal funding will affect brain injury research and prevention efforts in the long term.

“The lack of resources and programs and information that’s out there is really just sort of appalling,” Wolfkiel said.

A man stands outside with his arm around the shoulders of his teenage son. Both smile at the camera.
Tony Sadowski (right) serves as executive director of Camp Cranium. He first learned about the camp when a speech therapist recommended it to his son, Bryan, who had suffered a brain bleed that caused a hemorrhagic stroke at age 6. Now 18, Bryan (left) is preparing to study occupational therapy at Elizabethtown College. (Sarah Hofius Hall/WVIA News)
A whiteboard on a wall with "Thursday" written at the top outlines the activities and times for two groups throughout the day.
Activities at Camp Cranium include time on a zip line, archery, and a dance. Sadowski says that the event helps campers and parents find community and combat social isolation. (Sarah Hofius Hall/WVIA News)

Federal Funding Uncertainty

Tony Sadowski, the camp’s , remembers when his son, Bryan, suffered a brain bleed that caused a hemorrhagic stroke at age 6. “You’re in the emergency room,” he recalled, “not knowing what version of your son’s going to wake up.”

Now 18, Bryan Sadowski has attended the camp for years.

“We’re very lucky to be able to be here,” the elder Sadowski said.

In 1996, before Bryan was born, Congress passed the Traumatic Brain Injury Act, which has provided many states with grants for TBI research, advocacy, and services. Since then, Congress reauthorized the act four times, largely with bipartisan support, until 2024.

It has remained lapsed since then. Trump’s secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, , supported when he was a senator. Congress is whether to reauthorize funding through 2030.

Despite the lapse in funding, money is still flowing to TBI programs at the CDC and in states, according to , president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America.

Congress did appropriate $8.25 million for TBI program activities through the . That’s far less than the $23 million Congress provided for each fiscal year, from 2020 through 2024, the last time it .

“The TBI Act is the only piece of federal funding for traumatic brain injury at the federal level,” Willis said. “We’re aiming to preserve what we have.”

The funding uncertainty has not affected the handful of brain injury camps, including Camp Cranium and in Alabama, because they are nonprofits that mostly rely on private donations.

A young woman with short hair leans over a table to look at a book that that another person holds out to show her.
Brianna Engleman (right) collects song requests for a dance scheduled that night at Camp Cranium. Engleman has been a camper since 2018 and says she plans to come back as a counselor to support other campers like herself. (Sarah Hofius Hall/WVIA News)

Back at Camp Cranium, bursts of laughter, whoops of delight, and distant chatter punctuated the humid summer air.

While her fellow campers did archery or art, Brianna Engleman moved between groups, collecting song requests for a dance that evening. When she was 5, doctors performed a to relieve her of debilitating seizures. But the surgery itself can injure other parts of the brain.

She lives in Northern Virginia and first attended Camp Cranium as a teen in 2018. It was her first time being around so many people like her, said Engleman, now 21.

“I’ve gotten more confident,” Engleman said. “It made me think, well, there’s actually good people out there.”

Next time she returns to camp, she said, she plans to do so as a counselor.

A boy in a blue helmet sits in a wheelchair in front of a rock climbing wall as two other people prepare ropes leading to the harness the boy is wearing.
(Sarah Hofius Hall/WVIA News)

This article is from a partnership that includes , , and Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article first appeared on Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News and is republished here under a .

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