Caroline Catherman

CMS’s kidney transplant overhaul has begun Could financial incentive be the secret ingredient to solving the kidney crisis?

“Given the number of people in need of a transplant and the better health and quality of life outcomes associated with a transplant, we need to find ways to improve the status quo.” -LaVarne Burton, president and CEO
@kidneyfund.bsky.social

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

IVF can cost $50k. Future Family wants to make it refundable The company began offering a “baby or your money back” guarantee in February.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

How Republicans sidelined the health care industry and pushed through historic Medicaid cuts The passage of President Trump's signature tax cut bill shows how the health care industry's influence is waning.

The passage of President Trump's signature tax cut bill shows how the health care industry's influence is waning.
www.statnews.com/2025/07/08/t...

Senate GOP tweaks health care measures in tax bill to win holdouts, please parliamentarian Late Friday, Senate GOP unveiled changes to health care policies in tax legislation in a bid to win over Republican holdouts and pass muster with budget rules.

Senate GOP tweaks health care measures in tax bill to win holdouts, please parliamentarian www.statnews.com/2025/06/28/s... Great weekend work via John Wilkerson and @danielpayne.bsky.social for @statnews.com

Recalled ventilator was so easy to hack, ‘a teenager’ could have done it ‘Secure by design’ isn’t just a tech buzzword.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

The future of Florida’s unique ‘free kill’ malpractice law Under the current law, people over 25 years old without a legal spouse or kids under 25 are out of luck in the state.

A unique FL law makes it effectively impossible to sue if medical malpractice kills a person aged 25+, unmarried, and without kids. (That's a lot of us, including me.) An attempt to overturn the law was recently vetoed. Read about potential industry impacts:

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

babe are you ok you've barely touched your unread books

Exclusive: The Onion has opened a creative agency America’s Finest Creative Agency is “like a writer’s room and like a strategic and conceptual laser in your pocket,” The Onion’s CMO Leila Brillson said.

Very exciting news: The Onion has started a creative agency.

We've been doing this quietly for months, so if you've seen a funny ad somewhere, it may be us. But now it is a whole-ass company.

Anyway, we have killed Don Draper for a second time and revived his drunk ghost. Contact me to access him.

CRISPR’s new era: Hope, hype, and hard truths It’s cutting-edge medicine—literally.

Remember CRISPR? I checked in with some leading researchers, doctors, and bioethicists on how it's being used today and what its future holds. www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

UnitedHealth Group CEO resigns We thought Q1 was bad, but this is another level.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

RFK Jr., DOGE gutted legally required offices. Courts may undo it all. Federal workers, Democratic lawmakers, state officials and independent legal experts say keeping offices afloat in name only – with minimal or no staff – is an unconstitutional power grab.

HHS insists legally-required programs are still running. Workers on those programs tell us otherwise.

“The idea that you can have a program with no people in it and no money in it, and that somehow, then you have not eliminated it — that’s just smoke and mirrors”
www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

Amid rising costs, self-funded health plans are getting a makeover A new wave of self-funded plans is shifting from cost cutting to value building, with health systems along for the ride.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

Florida Legislature approves ‘free kill’ malpractice law repeal “We are thrilled,” Brevard County advocate Lauren Korniyenko said. “The Legislature has listened to the voice of the people and repealed a 35-year-old unjust law.”

This is huge. FL was the only state with this kind of limit on who could sue for malpractice after a loved one's death. When I was an Orlando reporter, I talked to families who had pushed for this reform for decades.
www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/05/01/f...

RFK Jr. says there aren't autistic poets. We asked an autistic poet. "I will challenge RFK Jr. to write a poem as good as me any day of the week."

RFK Jr. says there are no autistic poets, so we interviewed one.

Hear from Elizabeth McClellan, @popelizbet.bsky.social, an award-winning poet, attorney, and legal educator based in Memphis, Tennessee.

State drug-pricing boards are gaining momentum Experts say more states may follow after judge dismisses Amgen lawsuit.

Have you heard of state drug-pricing boards? If not, you're about to: www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

HHS firings could face legal challenges over inaccuracies, process used to make cuts A week after widespread cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, many workers are left wondering: Was that legal?

A week after widespread cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, many workers are left wondering: Was that legal?

www.statnews.com/2025/04/08/h...

Medicare, Medicaid won’t be required to cover GLP-1s for obesity, CMS says Insurers have warned the proposed requirement would be costly.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

Are doctors liable when AI makes a mistake? Malpractice experts weigh in. You can’t spell malpractice without A and I.

Artificial intelligence is supposed to make errors less common. But what happens if it doesn’t?

@cecatherman.bsky.social spoke with medical malpractice experts to try to understand who's liable when AI makes a mistake in healthcare.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

Hearing from all corners of HHS this morning about a total bloodletting — firings of scientists, analysts and many more as delayed RIFs take effect.

Many folks didn’t see early AM email and showed up, only to be turned away when badges didn’t work. Was sent this photo of long lines at one HHS site.

Top FDA Vaccine Official Resigns, Citing Kennedy’s ‘Misinformation and Lies’ Dr. Peter Marks, a veteran of the agency, wrote that undermining confidence in vaccines is irresponsible and a danger to public health.

Breaking News: The top vaccine official at the FDA abruptly resigned, saying that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “misinformation and lies” were irresponsible.

Workers Prep To Meet ICE Officials at the Health Clinic Door - KFF Health News Recent arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in northern Virginia have put immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area on alert. Health clinics that serve those communiti...

Health care workers give vaccines, take blood pressure, and now read warrants. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Meet two former federal health technologists whose work halted due to DOGE DOGE removed their jobs. They discuss its potential impact on healthcare.

Really important and interesting article from @cassiemcgrath.bsky.social

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

Synchron’s Brain-Computer Interface Now Has Nvidia’s AI The company has partnered with Nvidia to develop “cognitive AI,” which it says will allow people with severe physical disabilities to have more natural interactions with the world around them.

The company has partnered with Nvidia to develop “cognitive AI,” which it says will allow people with severe physical disabilities to have more natural interactions with the world around them.

Sarepta’s gene therapy faced internal FDA doubts. Now, a teen has died The death is heating up concerns around the FDA’s approval process.

The death of a 16-year-old taking Sarepta Therapeutics' ELEVIDYS has reignited concerns about the FDA's accelerated approval process:
www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

A Congresswoman with Dementia Stopped Coming to Work. The DC Press Corps Never Noticed. Here’s the story behind how the media missed the story.

DC media didn't notice when a congresswoman with dementia stopped coming to work. Months later, local reporters found her in an assisted-living facility.

Our columnist @michaelschaffer chronicles how DC press corps missed the story👇

CMS quietly cancels public forums, equity conference The cancellations come as the agency pulls away from the public in other ways, too.

Scoop: CMS has canceled public forum after forum—and postponed an April Health equity conference—leaving few opportunities for providers to ask questions about rule and policy changes.

www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2025...

Telehealth platforms in senators' crosshairs over relationship with Eli Lilly, Pfizer Senators ask if contracts between drugmakers and telehealth companies violate the federal anti-kickback statute.

A group of senators sent letters to five telehealth companies that offer care through direct-to-consumer portals from pharmaceutical manufacturers Pfizer and Eli Lilly, interrogating their financial relationships.

Can House Republicans Cut $880 Billion Without Slashing Medicaid? It’s Likely Impossible. - KFF Health News A Republican House resolution, which needs the Senate’s buy-in, directed a committee to propose ways to reduce the deficit by at least $880 billion over a decade. Lawmakers have taken Medicare off the...

A Republican House resolution directed a committee to propose ways to reduce the deficit by at least $880 billion over a decade. Lawmakers have taken Medicare off the table for cuts, which makes it impossible to reach $880 billion without cutting Medicaid. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

A Health System Is Fighting Idaho’s Abortion Ban. It’s Not Its First Controversial Stance. St. Luke’s, Idaho’s largest health system, was outspoken in defending its staff during a backlash against masks and vaccines. It also sued right-wing figure Ammon Bundy — and won. Now it’s backing its...

St. Luke’s is the one major institution — other than advocacy groups — standing in the way of restrictions on emergency abortion care in Idaho, a state with one of the most absolute abortion bans in the country. @audreydutton.bsky.social w/ @statesnewsroom.com

6 things to know about antidepressants An abundance of data show that SSRIs, a class of drugs commonly used as antidepressants, are effective, though, like any drug, they have risks.

Just gonna leave this here in case anyone needed to educate themselves...
www.sciencenews.org/article/anti...