A speedy reversal of cuts to addiction, mental health programs

The Trump administration planned to cut nearly $2 billion from programs for treating opioid addiction, curbing homelessness, and other behavioral health services. Then, after an outcry from lawmakers and advocates, it reversed course, Lev Facher reports.

The administration did not consult the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the agency that oversees mental health and addiction treatment, or announce the planned cuts internally.

The administration had already cut about $2 billion from SAMHSA grants to states and cut more than half the agency’s staff.

Read more.

Following RFK Jr.’s advice to ignore his medical advice

The health secretary said last year that people should not follow his medical advice. Doctors and hospitals agree, Daniel reports.

Last week, the Trump administration cut the number of recommended pediatric vaccines, without so much as consulting Kennedy’s hand-picked advisers first.

Kennedy said the changes are intended to restore trust in public health, but major health systems and clinicians plan to ignore the new federal guidelines, placing their trust instead in guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Read more.

Epic sues another health network

EHR giant Epic Systems on Tuesday sued health information network Health Gorilla and several of its users alleging fraud and breach of contract in a complex scheme to obtain hundreds of thousands medical records for purposes other than delivering medical care. Health Gorilla denied the allegations, and said that it worked to address Epic’s concerns since they came up three months ago. The company said it plans to defend itself. None of the other defendants responded to STAT’s request for comment.

Though the suit is not directly connected to the ongoing legal battle between Epic and Particle Health, it shares an overlapping individual. Both cases hit on a fundamental tension between facilitating the easier access to patient data to enable health care and concerns that bad actors will abuse any window they can. Notably, both Epic and Health Gorilla have signed pledges to collaborate with each other as part of the CMS-led health technology ecosystem.

Read Brittany Trang’s new story on the suit here

Medical Devices

Breakthrough updates, a pulse ox study, and more

Many medical device updates to discuss:

• Katie published an update to STAT’s tracker of devices that have been deemed breakthroughs by the Food and Drug Administration. In an accompanying story, she writes about the renewed push to secure automatic Medicare reimbursement for breakthrough devices. These devices receive a streamlined process at the FDA and sometimes get the designation before they have much data to show. Experts warn automatic coverage risks paying for things that may not be worth the cost. Read more here.
• A study commissioned by FDA to explore why pulse oximeters don’t work as well on people with darker skin tones led to puzzling results. In the study, pulse oximeters underestimated blood oxygen levels. Previous research has suggested the devices overestimate oxygen. Read more from STAT’s Anil Oza here.
• Welldoc announced it submitted to the FDA for clearance a feature that uses continuous glucose monitoring data to predict values for people with type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin. The company calls it a “generative AI submission.” A spokesperson clarified that “[t]he submission and use of the term ‘generative’ describes how Welldoc has used a transformer-based architecture to accomplish what has traditionally been done via classical machine learning (ML) predictive models.”
• Empatica announced that EmbraceMini, its wearable designed for clinical trials, received FDA clearance to continuously monitor activity during sleep. According to FDA summary documents the device can be used to “analyze circadian rhythms and assess activity in any instance where quantifiable analysis of physical motion is desirable.”