Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday decriminalized abortion nationwide, making the country the latest in Latin America to expand access.
The big picture: The ruling ends the yearslong effort by abortion and human rights advocates nationwide and in individual states to decriminalize or legalize abortion.
The Biden administration wants states to control and lower their health care spending through a new Medicare experiment that takes a page from Maryland's unique hospital payment system.
The big picture: The latest attempt at transforming how America pays for health care builds on states' work to improve care quality while managing health care costs for all payers, including Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
One-third of political appointees to the Department of Health and Human Services go work for the industry they oversaw immediately after departing their government job, according to a comprehensive new study examining health care's revolving door.
Why it matters: There's long been concern that the flow of government employees to private companies they regulate, and vice-versa, may influence regulatory decisions. The study, published in Health Affairs, is billed as the first major effort to quantify this employment migration in the heavily regulated sector.
A late summer COVID surge is prompting some school districts to reinstate safety measures, as they try to protect student and teacher health without risking further disruptions to learning.
Why it matters: Widespread school closings are a non-starter, and officials in red and blue states also insist broad mask mandates won't return. But, in a flashback to the dark days of the pandemic, some districts in consultation with local health officials have reinstated limited masking and other precautions as COVID cases and hospitalizations rise.
Primary care physicians affiliated with large health systems drive up spending on patient care through increased referrals to specialists, emergency department visits and hospitalizations, per a study led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Driving the news: The findings in JAMA Health Forum are the latest to challenge claims by the hospital industry that consolidation leads to economies of scale that result in less spending.
The Biden administration's new proposed nursing home staffing minimums may be friendlier to industry than providers' loud protests suggest.
The big picture: The first-ever national staffing standard for nursing homes, issued just before Labor Day weekend, came in on the lower end of what federal officials previously analyzed, and it stops short of what patient advocates pushed for.
Amid new signs that AI could transform cancer care, clinicians and health systems are taking stock of thorny ethical and practical questions that still stand in the way of the technology's widespread adoption.
Why it matters: Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and innovations like AI-enhanced mammography could detect cases sooner and cut down on unnecessary tests and treatments.
First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, but she's "experiencing only mild symptoms" and will remain at home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, her spokesperson announced Monday night.
Details: President Biden tested negative for the virus and "will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms," per a White House statement.
