Union Health Minister J P Nadda reviewed the progress of the projects on Thursday and directed officials to ensure time-bound implementation, regular monitoring and coordination between ministries, states and institutions.
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The KFF Health News Minute is available every Thursday via direct download or the RSS feed.
Aug. 27
Katheryn Houghton [CATH-er-in HOW-tun] reads the week’s news: A wristband with the words “I Gave Birth” could be a lifesaving tool for new moms, and many homeless people will have to prove they’re working to stay on Medicaid.
Arielle Zionts [arr-ee-ELL ZY-ence] reads the week’s news: Pediatricians try to persuade more parents to vaccinate their kids amid measles outbreaks. Plus, how hospital monopolies drive up costs for patients and insurers.
Rachel Spears reads the week’s news: Many people with disabilities fear that a new Justice Department legal opinion could roll back protections that have given them access to in-home care. Plus, some cities are using 911 to respond to mental health distress calls with mobile crisis teams instead of police.
Katheryn Houghton [CATH-er-in HOW-tun] reads the week’s news: Some older adults are seeking roommates to help them age in place. Plus, doctors say they shouldn’t be the ones determining if someone is too sick to comply with Medicaid’s new work rules.
Zach Dyer [DYE-er] reads this week’s news: Health insurance companies promised to make it easier to get doctor-ordered care, but patients are still waiting. Plus, a common surgery might not be the best way to solve knee pain.
Jackie Fortiér [FOR-tee-ay] reads this week’s news: Coverage disruptions can have fatal consequences when switching health plans. Plus, more states are shaming employers that use your tax dollars to cover health costs for their low-income workers.
Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: Some health plans are pocketing their enrollees’ drug discounts, while many Affordable Care Act insurers want to raise rates by double digits next year.
Rachel Spears reads the week’s news: When babies receiving infant formula allegedly get sick or die, what happens next is largely up to the companies that make it. Plus, abortions continue to rise four years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Jackie Fortiér [FOR-tee-ay] reads the week’s news: More Americans than ever are surviving cancer and face lingering mental health issues. Plus, tips to get your health insurance company to pay for a GLP-1 drug.
Zach Dyer [DYE-er] reads the week’s news: The U.S. is getting its first new sunscreen ingredient in decades. Plus, at-home cancer tests have their limits.
Katheryn Houghton [CATH-er-in HOW-tun] reads the week’s news: New rules that require millions of Americans to work to access Medicaid are stricter than many expected. Plus, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act protects many people’s jobs — but there’s a big catch.
Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: More Americans are getting access to physician-assisted suicide as states legalize the practice. Plus, hundreds of people allege medical neglect in ICE detention centers.
Arielle Zionts [arr-ee-ELL ZY-ence] reads the week’s news: For some older adults, the risks of certain preventive screenings might outweigh the rewards. Plus, cost spikes for Obamacare plans have consumers seeking cheaper health coverage, which is often less comprehensive.
Jackie Fortiér [FOR-tee-ay] reads this week’s news: Suicide prevention experts argue that improving Americans’ financial well-being could save lives. Plus, the Trump administration proposes looser artificial intelligence safeguards to speed innovation in healthcare.
KFF 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 KFF.
Earlier this month, global investment firm KKR signed a deal to buy Medicover's India business for €1.2 billion ($1.40 billion), pending regulatory approvals.
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At Chain of Lakes Elementary School in Winter Haven, Florida, Josette Smith’s 9-year-old son, Ethan, gets to do what he loves most: crafts, math, and science. That is, when he isn’t being pulled out of class.
Ethan has autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He was diagnosed with autism in kindergarten after displaying behavior that concerned his relatives: He paced, flapped his arms, and became consumed with highly specific interests, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and dachshunds.
In a meeting with school administrators and the district to develop his individualized education program, a legal agreement that outlines the support Ethan requires, the team agreed he required a trained paraprofessional to help him regulate his emotions and remain in class, according to complaints Smith filed against the school. However, the complaints alleged, administrators were unwilling to provide the dedicated aide. Instead of implementing the supports her son needed, his school repeatedly removed him from instruction, suspended him, and even called police on him when he was in third grade, Smith wrote.
Smith, a seventh grade science teacher, said she first filed complaints with the school district and the state with these allegations. But when problems persisted, she turned to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the federal agency tasked with resolving complaints like hers. Smith’s federal complaint included the same account and alleged that the school discriminated against her son because of his disability and race, including deploying pressure tactics to push her Black son out of the public school. In May, the office said it would investigate several of her allegations.
For families who believe their child’s rights were violated based on race, disability, or gender in school, the federal agency often has been one of the main places to turn. But the White House cut its offices and weakened its ability to follow up with cases, as well as slashed funding to research on disparities that people of color face in getting diagnosed and attaining resources for disabilities.
About 1 in 31 U.S. kids by age 8 had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as of 2022. Although previous research on disparities in childhood autism diagnoses has had mixed results, a recent study from the State University of New York at Albany’s Institute for Social and Health Equity found that race, gender, and socioeconomic gaps persist. Among fourth graders from 2003 to 2022, students of color, girls, low-income students, and multilingual learners were less likely than peers to be identified with autism in school, even as diagnoses rose among children from historically marginalized groups, the study found. A large forthcoming study by the same researchers found the biggest gaps among overlapping identities. Black and Hispanic girls were especially unlikely to be identified.
All this has happened as President Donald Trump’s second administration has put autism in the spotlight. In early August, Trump signed an executive order to whittle down routine immunizations for kids while falsely tying vaccines to autism. He has presented it as a personal priority and one of “the most alarming public health developments in history.” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April 2025 called autism a “tragedy” that “destroys families,” and he’s lent credence to ungrounded claims of autism’s causes, including unfounded links to childhood vaccines and Tylenol during pregnancy.
“This administration is taking us backwards,” said Camille Proctor, founder and executive director of The Color of Autism Foundation.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email that Kennedy’s statements last spring “emphasized the need for increased research into environmental factors contributing to the rise in autism diagnoses, not to stigmatize individuals with autism or their families.” She added that the agency changes are “about making federal support systems work better for children and families.” White House spokesperson Kush Desai did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the press office for the Department of Education.
Josette Smith filed a complaint with the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of her 9-year-old son, Ethan, alleging that his school in Winter Haven, Florida, discriminated against him because of his disability and race. The office said it would investigate several of her allegations and dismissed others that the state had already reviewed. (Octavio Jones for KFF Health News)
Ethan was repeatedly removed from class, suspended, and charged with battery as a third grader at a public school in Winter Haven. (Octavio Jones for KFF Health News)
The cuts to agencies and research have affected parts of the federal government focused on students with disabilities. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education and closed seven of its Office for Civil Rights’ 12 regional offices. This June, his administration largely shifted special-education oversight to HHS and the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice.
“On paper, it’s a reorganization,” said Nancy Potter, a former supervising attorney at the Office for Civil Rights who now runs her own education law firm. In practice, she said, it could leave families whose complaints involve overlapping harms — such as race and disability discrimination — caught between agencies built for different jobs. “The hardest thing to prove in these cases is now the thing with no obvious home.”
In April, a year after the order, a Senate committee report from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) concluded that the Office for Civil Rights had reached a 12-year-low in resolutions to discrimination complaints and had a backlog of nearly 12,000 civil rights cases. A recent Washington Post investigation found that the Trump administration “indefinitely froze” many of these cases.
On top of those cuts, the White House vowed to stop “equity” investigations in areas such as school discipline despite research showing that nonwhite and low-income kids disproportionately face barriers to being identified with autism and attaining resources for the condition and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses.
It also decimated the Institute of Education Sciences, the Department of Education’s research arm, canceling roughly $900 million in funding for research, including long-standing data collection in schools. The administration further proposed ending data collection on racial disparities in school discipline. The National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation have purged projects referencing terms including “race” and “gender,” gutting research focused on diversity, equity, or inclusion.
“If we’re cutting any data collection that helps us understand the problem, we’re not going to fix it,” said Paul Morgan, director of the Institute for Social and Health Equity at SUNY-Albany, who led the studies on disparities in autism diagnoses. “All we’re doing right now is making the situation worse.”
The nation’s influential federal autism panel also appears to lack prominent scientists and Black members and has fewer autistic self-advocates than before, said Proctor of The Color of Autism Foundation, who served on the panel before the Trump administration took over. The panel has also been criticized for including vaccine opponents.
HHS’ Hilliard said the members “bring decades of experience in autism research and clinical care” and are committed to aligning “federal policy with gold-standard science.”
Disability advocates say federal officials are focused on the wrong priorities.
“All of it creates chaos where chaos is not necessary,” said Cameron Lynch, a former policy analyst for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
Josette Smith’s son was diagnosed with autism in kindergarten after displaying behavior that concerned his relatives: He paced, flapped his arms, and became consumed with highly specific interests, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and dachshunds. (Octavio Jones for KFF Health News)
Disability rights advocates fear the changes to special education oversight weaken the federal safety net for autistic students and others with disabilities, making these systems more confusing when families need help enforcing students’ rights.
David Sitcovsky, Autism Speaks’ vice president of advocacy, said families, especially those from marginalized communities, already often lack support for their children to receive a timely diagnosis or services in their school systems.
“The common thread across these issues is access,” Sitcovsky said. “If their child’s rights are not being upheld, do they have a clear path to get help?”
Smith awaits a decision about her federal civil rights case, which she was told could take more than a year amid the backlog, as Ethan has started fourth grade. She wants Ethan transferred to a school better equipped to support him. She has also requested an expedited hearing for a due process complaint she filed with the state.
The family is also navigating battery charges against Ethan, the first of which was filed in March after the school called police on him for allegedly hitting staff. A police report and an email provided by Smith showed that police arrived at her door hours after Smith informed the school district in writing that she had filed a federal discrimination complaint. Smith also pointed out the timing in several of her complaints.
A Polk County Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment, citing student confidentiality. The Florida Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
“As a Black mom, you dare not complain about anything,” Smith said. “Once you start advocating for your kids, it’s a problem. But it’s not these kids’ fault that they have a disability.”
Without timely assessments and interventions, studies show, children of color with disabilities such as Ethan are disproportionately at risk of being funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Catherine Lhamon led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in the Obama and Biden administrations and is now executive director of the Edley Center on Law & Democracy at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law. She said it’s a scary time for families who want to protect their children’s rights.
“People speed if they don’t see a police car,” Lhamon said. “If they think that there’s no one at the federal government watching them in school, we will see an increase in discrimination.”
KFF 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 KFF.
According to researchers, upon interaction with Aβ, TZ-48undergoes changes in fluorescence intensity, which are captured and quantified the smartphone application.
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Kedaara Capital has acquired a majority stake in Tynor Orthotics for $200 million. This private equity firm is expanding its medical devices portfolio with this significant investment. Tynor Orthotics is a leading Indian manufacturer of orthopaedic and rehabilitation products. The company has a wide distribution network reaching many countries globally. Kedaara will partner with existing promoters and management to drive future growth.
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H1N1 accounts for nearly 98% of Influenza A cases currently detected in India, while H3N2 accounts for only 2-3%, Bahl said. He stressed that the rise was consistent with the seasonal pattern of influenza and did not indicate a new or more dangerous strain.
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In January, Jeff La Marca got a prescription for the popular weight loss drug Zepbound. But he couldn’t afford the $750 monthly price tag.
Then Medicare launched an 18-month pilot program that offers GLP-1 medications to some enrollees for only $50 a month. La Marca thought he might finally be able to afford the drug.
“I thought, ‘Thank God, there’s a path,’” said La Marca, who lives in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and has tried numerous diets and exercise regimes.
But the 68-year-old’s celebration was short-lived.
His application to the pilot program was denied.
La Marca has severe obstructive sleep apnea, one of several diagnoses that exclude patients from the Bridge program’s $50 monthly price. The notification didn’t say why he was rejected. He thinks that if he didn’t have that diagnosis, he would qualify due to his weight.
“I’m obese, morbidly obese, BMI 42. I had quadruple heart bypass surgery. I’m at risk for stroke. I’m prediabetic. And yet I can’t get it. I’m livid,” he said.
Jeff La Marca uses a machine to treat his obstructive sleep apnea. It adjusts his breathing with every breath. (Erica S. Lee for KFF Health News)
La Marca, a retired professor living in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, is among an estimated 5.9 million Medicare enrollees excluded from a GLP-1 discount program because they have a medical condition such as Type 2 diabetes or sleep apnea. (Erica S. Lee for KFF Health News)
A Temporary Patch for a Long-Standing Gap
About 1 in 5 American adults have taken a GLP-1 medication, and most of them, including those with health insurance, say the drugs are difficult to afford. Federal law has long barred Medicare from covering drugs prescribed solely for weight loss, which is why the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program made a big splash when it launched in July.
It’s a short-term pilot program in which Medicare is offering coverage of three GLP-1s for weight loss and management, to see if that would save Medicare money later. Eligible patients must be enrolled in Medicare Part D, a prescription drug coverage add-on to Medicare. Even though people must have Part D insurance to qualify, the preauthorization request doesn’t go through the insurer; it’s instead submitted to a separate system run by a contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The pilot includes Wegovy, the KwikPen formulation of Zepbound, and the oral medication Foundayo.
Under the pilot, many Medicare beneficiaries with a body mass index of 35 or higher — the upper range of obesity — qualify for coverage of one of those drugs, if prescribed. Those otherwise eligible who have a BMI of 27 to 34 can qualify if they also have certain health conditions, such as prediabetes or cardiovascular disease.
But buried in the fine print is a distinction that’s tripping up patients like La Marca: The $50 price under Bridge applies only to people using the drug solely for weight loss. Anyone who has a qualifying medical condition that the Food and Drug Administration has approved GLP-1s to treat, such as Type 2 diabetes or moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, is instead routed back to their Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, which can require copays of hundreds of dollars a month for GLP-1s.
“The Bridge program was designed to target those people who can’t get GLP-1 coverage through Part D but would benefit from taking one for weight loss,” said Juliette Cubanski, who directs the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
The cost to Medicare of subsidizing the drugs will depend largely on how many people use the program, and the federal government hasn’t released an estimate.
Cubanski has estimated that 3.8 million people qualify and that, if a quarter of them enroll in Bridge and remain on treatment for the program’s full 18 months, it will cost Medicare about $3.3 billion. If three-quarters enroll, costs could rise to $10 billion.
If the government expanded the program to include the additional 5.9 million people who are overweight and already eligible for GLP-1 coverage through Medicare Part D, it would add billions more to the program’s cost.
The demonstration’s initial weeks have been positive, and most prior authorization requests have been completed in under 12 hours, CMS spokesperson Timothy Foster said.
“This has allowed thousands of eligible beneficiaries to access GLP-1 medications for weight loss at pharmacies nationwide,” Foster said.
“I’m obese, morbidly obese, BMI 42. I had quadruple heart bypass surgery. I’m at risk for stroke. I’m prediabetic. And yet I can’t get it. I’m livid,” La Marca says, referring to the popular weight loss drug Zepbound. (Erica S. Lee for KFF Health News)
GLP-1s Aren’t Covered
Patients like La Marca are left in a tough spot, qualifying for Part D coverage of a GLP-1 but facing much higher cost sharing.
“‘Coverage’ doesn’t always mean ‘affordable,’” said primary care physician Taylor Lacy, who describes herself as a “big proponent” of GLP-1s and practices at Sunflower Medical Group in Roeland Park, Kansas.
The Bridge program is leaving behind patients with the greatest medical need, she said. She noted that many Medicare patients already must navigate prior authorization and spend months trying alternate, often cheaper treatments, a process known as step therapy, before finally getting approval — only to arrive at the pharmacy counter and discover that their GLP-1 copays will run them $200 to $600 a month, if not more.
Researchers studying how Medicare insurers cover GLP-1s have found that recipients have faced increases in out-of-pocket costs and that almost all plans now require prior authorization, which can make getting the drugs more difficult.
Chris Bond, a spokesperson for insurance industry trade group AHIP, blamed drugmakers’ prices, “which they alone set and they alone can lower.”
La Marca’s insurer declined to answer specific questions about La Marca’s case.
Left Waiting
For now, La Marca’s GLP-1 prescription remains unfilled. The severe sleep apnea diagnosis that helps establish his medical need is also what excludes him from the discount program that would bring the cost within his reach.
As he reflected on his appeals and the dead ends, La Marca paused, his eyes filling with tears of frustration.
“This is now my quest, because it’s my only chance to improve my health,” he said. “It’s the only thing left. I’ve tried everything.”
KFF 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 KFF.
The Adani Group plans to establish a significant 2,000-bed hospital in New Town. Half of these beds will be allocated for free treatment of the poor. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari confirmed this development. He stated that Karan Adani had met him regarding the project. Gautam Adani has sent a commitment letter to begin work soon.
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Health minister U T Khader said surveillance and preparedness will be among the key issues to be discussed at the meeting, amid concern over the spread of the seasonal flu in Bengaluru.
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