Good morning. The best part about having a library card is that even when you have three overdue books, you can still request new ones with no penalty. (I’ll return them soon, I swear!) Today, I requested “Forgetting Elena,” the 1973 debut novel of Edmund White, who died earlier this week.
UnitedHealth accidentally sent STAT a confidential prep doc
An internal document drafted in advance of UnitedHealth Group’s shareholder meeting this week reveals how the company’s leadership — facing an extraordinary series of financial and legal challenges — sought to downplay complaints about its business practices and assure jittery investors that it will soon return to maximum profitability.
The 18-page document, marked in red “privileged and confidential,” was mistakenly sent by a UnitedHealth spokesperson to STAT’s Casey Ross, who had emailed with questions for a different story. The memo runs through manicured talking points apparently intended to coordinate the response to shareholders’ questions. It also discusses missed revenue targets, a litany of lawsuits and federal investigations, and concerns revealed in reporting by STAT that the company uses artificial intelligence and bureaucratic barriers to delay and deny care.
Casey said he was “stunned” upon seeing the email. “As a reporter, you understand that these activities take place within publicly traded companies,” he said. “But it is another thing entirely to get an unvarnished, behind-the-scenes window.” Read more from Casey, Tara Bannow, and Bob Herman. And it’s never a bad time to re-read some of the team’s excellent, award-winning coverage on the company:
10.9 million
That’s how many people would lose health insurance under Trump’s tax cut bill, according to projections published yesterday by nonpartisan congressional scorekeepers. Overall, the bill increases the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion over a decade, thanks to its extension of Trump’s tax cuts and the enactment of new ones. Read more on the details from STAT’s John Wilkerson.
The approaching confusion over Covid vaccinations
Last week, key changes were made to the CDC’s Covid vaccination recommendations for healthy children and healthy pregnant people. For children, the recommendation changed from saying they “should” get vaccinated to saying they “may.” For pregnant people, the CDC now offers no advice at all. The changes will complicate discussions between pediatricians and parents, obstetricians and pregnant people, along with both groups and insurers, experts told STAT’s Helen Branswell. And the lack of any recommendation for pregnant people could lead insurers to stop covering the cost of the shots for that group.
“The last thing that health care professionals who are advocates for the health of women and their babies need is an undermining or mixed message from the federal government,” Ruth Faden, a professor of biomedical ethics, told Helen. Read more about what problems could arise.
Former Novo Nordisk employees on falling behind in the obesity drug race
When Novo Nordisk launched its new weight loss medication Wegovy in 2021, it took an early lead in the race to dominate what quickly became a booming market for obesity medications. But now, the company is widely seen as trailing competitor Eli Lilly. Novo’s stock has tumbled over 50% since its peak around a year ago, it just ousted its CEO, and there’s been an exodus of other top leaders from its Copenhagen headquarters.
So what happened? STAT’s Elaine Chen spoke with former Novo employees who have some theories, which all come down to an overly conservative approach to obesity drugs. “The open discussions in general about anti-obesity meds was — we needed to be cautious at that time and that adverse events would weigh heavier at the early stages of these types of programs,” one former employee said. Read more about what went wrong, according to the folks that were there.
These psych meds come with a higher risk of ALS, study says
Prescribed use of common psychiatric medications comes with a higher risk of later developing the devastating neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. Specifically, the use of anti-anxiety meds, antidepressants, or hypnotics/sedatives was associated with a 34%, 26%, and 21% higher risk of ALS respectively. Using these drugs before diagnosis was also linked with poor survival afterward.
Researchers analyzed data from all patients diagnosed with ALS in Sweden between 2015 and 2023. That constituted more than 1,000 people, each of whom was age- and sex-matched with up to five people from the general population, as well as their siblings and spouses.
The results shouldn’t be seen as cause to quit your meds. For people who used medication within a year before their ALS diagnosis, the link could reflect reverse causation, the authors wrote, as the disease can come with psychiatric symptoms. And even for people who used these meds more than five years before their diagnosis, the psych conditions could be initial symptoms. More research is needed.
What we’re reading
How measles tore through a remote West Texas city, NBC News
‘They called us ungrateful’: Abortion providers say Texas exam puts them and patients at risk, Autonomy News
- Opinion: Do you remember the Human Genome Project? I’m not sure the Trump administration wants you to, STAT
- Texas hospital that discharged woman with doomed pregnancy violated the law, a federal inquiry finds, AP
- Opinion: Ending U.S.-global health research partnerships will cost America, STAT
