Axios

Republican leaders of North Carolina's state legislature on Thursday reached an agreement on how to expand the state's Medicaid program, after years of blocking the policy, Axios' Lucille Sherman writes.

• Negotiations between the two chambers stalled last summer over what to include in a Medicaid expansion bill, in part because of the North Carolina Hospital Association's resistance to regulatory provisions in one version of the legislation.

Walmart Health is eyeing more Medicare Advantage business as it prepares to nearly double the footprint of its in-store clinics.

Driving the news: The big retailer said Thursday it's planning to add 28 additional health clinics — which offer primary care, behavioral health services, vision checks and dental care within select Walmart stores —  in 2024.

A federal crackdown on overprescribing controlled substances via telehealth is causing confusion and consternation in the behavioral health community over an in-person prescribing requirement for drugs used to treat pain and opioid use disorder.

Why it matters: Child care, transportation and other hurdles can make in-person requirements "an extremely high hurdle" for patients with opioid use disorder, said David Deyhimy, medical director of an addiction treatment clinic in Orange County, California.

A group closely aligned with House Republican leadership is spending over $2 million to accuse President Biden of being the one who truly wants to cut Medicare, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: It's some of the earliest spending of the 2024 election cycle and signals that Republicans plan to go on offense, rather than just defend against Biden's claims that the GOP wants to slice into Medicare and Social Security.

U.S. abortion rights advocates this week met with their Latin American counterparts in Washington, D.C., to learn about the successful strategies they've used to dramatically increase access in several countries

The big picture: While U.S. courts and states have gutted or chipped away at abortion rights, a movement in Latin America known as the "Green Wave" (Marea Verde) has helped increase abortion access in several countries across the majority Catholic region through protests and legal action.

Children in Texas who live along the U.S.-Mexico border have a 30% higher risk of death within five years of being diagnosed with the most common type of childhood cancer compared to those living elsewhere in the state, a new study found.

The big picture: Childhood cancer is the second-leading cause of death for kids under 16 years of age, and people who live in Texas border communities — about 80% are Hispanic — have long had less access to health care.

Hospitals and health systems are dealing with a shortage of the inhalation drug albuterol after one of the last manufacturers producing the drug shuttered operations.

Why it matters: Liquid albuterol is a mainstay for treating asthma in kids and was in heavy use for RSV and COVID-19. Health systems have scrambled to get more supplies and figured out workarounds after drugmaker Akorn ceased operations in late February, the Washington Post reported.

The inability to pin down COVID's origins has opened the door to politically charged speculation and fierce debate, but without concrete evidence, people are forming narratives based on incomplete information with major geopolitical consequences.

Why it matters: The lingering questions about how the virus emerged could likely only be filled through intelligence or new information gathered from Wuhan, China, in the early days of the pandemic.

Alarming new findings offer more evidence of a puzzling rise in colorectal cancer in patients under 50 and the challenges of reaching them with timely screening.

Driving the news: Research published Wednesday showed the uptick in new colorectal cases — among the top causes of cancer death in the U.S. — among younger patients as well as an increase in colorectal cancers diagnosed at more advanced stages.

Railroad union leaders are claiming that rail workers are falling ill at the site of the East Palestine, Ohio, toxic freight train derailment, according to a letter sent to government officials on Wednesday.

The big picture: The union that represents workers on Norfolk Southern Railroad, the rail operator of the train that derailed last month alleges that workers at the cleanup site are getting sick with "migraines and nausea" and are not being provided necessary protective equipment.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended Wednesday the second vaccine in two days against the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for adults over 60.

Why it matters: If approved by the FDA, the vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer would be the first publicly available against a respiratory virus that claims thousands of lives every year.