Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making infant formula the next target of his review of the food supply, launching an initiative on Tuesday that includes evaluating nutrients and increasing testing for heavy metals and other foreign substances.
Why it matters: The supply chain for infant formula, which is complicated to manufacture and highly regulated, is notoriously fragile.
Optum Rx — which includes the pharmacy benefit manager of health care conglomerate UnitedHealth Group — is dropping annual reauthorization requirements for 80 drugs, which will eliminate more than 10% of overall pharmacy prior authorizations, the company announced.
Why it matters: Prior authorizations have rocketed to the center of health carepolicy conversations, driven largely by patients' frustration with a practice that can result in delayed or even denied care.
Trump administration spending cuts and freezes to federal grants are roiling major academic medical research programs, prompting layoffs, and leading administrators to abandon studies and rescind admissions offers to graduate students.
Why it matters: Experts predict the face of university research could be permanently changed, affecting work on treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes, among other conditions, along with studies on the underpinnings of disease.
An Ohio appeals court partially overturned the state's ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.
Why it matters: The Tuesday decision delivers a win for transgender kids as the Trump administration vows to ban funding for youth gender-affirming care nationwide.
Mayo Clinic agreed to continue presumptively making some patients in Minnesota eligible for free or discounted care as part of a settlement with the state attorney general following an investigation into methods the health system used to collect medical debt from patients.
Why it matters: The settlement, announced Friday, comes amid increasing scrutiny of nonprofit hospitals, which are required to provide some level of payment assistance or "charity care" to low-income patients but have wide latitude to set their own financial aid policies.
The Trump administration has removed a 2024 surgeon general's advisory on the public health impacts of gun violence and a related webpage from the Health and Human Services website.
The big picture: Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States and account for an average of 45,738 annual deaths nationwide.
UnitedHealth Group is bracing for scrutiny fromthe Trump administrationover the way it and other Medicare Advantage insurers bill the government, along with other cost-related topics, an executive at the health company told Axios.
Why it matters: Mehmet Oz's characterization of the Medicare Advantage system as "upside down" during his Senate confirmation hearing to become Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator on Friday may have surprised those who assumed he'd enter office as a champion for the program.
