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The Federal Trade Commission, along with Utah and California authorities, sued telehealth company Hims & Hers, alleging it misled consumers about privacy, billing and subscription practices. The FTC alleges that Hims & Hers shared consumers’ sensitive health information, including medical conditions, with third-party advertising platforms, despite claiming that its services maintain consumers’ privacy. The case was joined by officials in Utah and Los Angeles County. (Landi, 7/29)

Young life scientists have been increasingly abandoning academia, a seismic shift that has fueled calls for rethinking graduate education. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced that it’s funding a pilot program to test a new strategy: Giving Ph.D. students industry experience — and dollars — as part of their training. (Wosen, 7/29)

Chelsea Adolphus had been bleeding for a week. She told Danny Gyal, her best friend, that it was like a period that wouldn’t end. It was getting worse, and she felt so weak she couldn’t stand. Adolphus’ mother eventually convinced her to call 911, and early on the morning of January 22, 2025, an ambulance took her to the only emergency room in town: Vista Medical Center East. After so much blood loss, the 28-year-old was disoriented and anemic. Staff at the Waukegan, Illinois, hospital examined her and noted symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. They gave her Ativan and had her settle in for monitoring. (Levintova and Cleek, 07/29)

A first-of-its-kind U.S. study suggests invasive mold infections may be an underappreciated — and potentially deadly — threat. The researchers detected about 450 cases in Atlanta-area hospitals over five years. About a third of the patients died in the hospital. The findings, published this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from an attempt to better gauge how common these kinds of illnesses are. The government does not require doctors to report the illnesses. (Stobbe, 7/29)

CMS issued its fiscal year 2027 final payment rules for skilled nursing facilities and inpatient psychiatric facilities July 29. The rules update Medicare payment rates and revise quality reporting, value-based purchasing and patient assessment policies. (Condon, 7/29)

Medicare reimbursements to skilled nursing facilities will rise 2.4% in fiscal 2027 under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published Wednesday. The agency finalized the same payment update it proposed in April. Nursing homes got a 3.2% payment hike this year.The reimbursement update reflects a 3.3% gross increase based on expenses from the skilled nursing facility market basket, minus a 0.9 percentage point productivity adjustment. The fiscal year begins Oct. 1. (Early, 7/29)

GE HealthCare reported double-digit revenue growth in the second quarter of 2026 on the strength of record growth in orders, products and services, despite poor performance in its patient care services segment, which faces an uncertain future with the company. Organic revenue growth for the Chicago-based medical imaging company was up 3.5%, with record organic orders growth of 11.1%, book-to-bill ratio of 1.15 and backlog of $23.9 billion. (Asplund, 7/29)

A rise in uninsured patients and challenges in specialized care are increasing the financial pressure on large for-profit health systems. A growing number of patients are dropping their insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and a greater-than-expected portion of those patients are staying uninsured. The shift in payer mix is leading to lost revenue and higher levels of uncompensated care. Weaker surgical volumes and higher expenses tied to specialized physicians are adding to the obstacles. (Hudson, 7/29)

The major health insurance company most reliant on Medicare Advantage is changing course and pulling back from the program, Humana Chief Financial Officer Celeste Mellet said Wednesday. Humana will exit underperforming geographic markets next year and shed 600,000 beneficiaries as it confronts high costs and tightened profit margins, Mellet said during a call with investor analysts to announce the company’s second-quarter earnings. (Tepper, 7/29)

Employers are chewing on strategies to avoid costly lawsuits over their employee wellness programs. Dozens of corporations including JPMorgan Chase and Walmart have been sued due to their health plans’ execution of tobacco cessation programs. A former Comcast employee sued the cable and internet company this month, for instance. Health plans can charge employees that use tobacco products up to 50% more in premiums in some states to encourage healthier behavior. But companies must offer a reasonable alternative workers can utilize to receive lower-cost insurance, and plaintiffs allege the programs fail to meet key criteria. (Tong, 7/29)

³Ô¹Ï²»´òìÈ: Listen To The Latest ‘³Ô¹Ï²»´òìÈ Minute’

Zach Dyer 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. (7/30)

For decades, efforts to develop non-opioid pain drugs were marked by failure. But what was once a graveyard of drug discovery is quickly turning into a race for a multibillion-dollar market, with Latigo Biotherapeutics publishing positive data on Wednesday for a therapy meant to rival a Vertex medicine already on the market. (Wosen, 7/29)

An FDA panel said that trial data did not provide substantial evidence showing that investigational deramiocel was effective in treating cardiomyopathy among patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In a 9-3 vote, the FDA's Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee said deramiocel did not meet the cardiac endpoint, though the primary outcome of the drug's phase III HOPE-3 trial was change in upper limb function. (George, 7/29)

Antihistamines hold only a slight benefit for atopic dermatitis (eczema) and shouldn't be routinely used in management, a network meta-analysis concluded. For moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, adding a first-generation H1 antihistamine had no significant impact on severity of the condition or itch severity compared with placebo, found Derek K. Chu, MD, PhD, of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues. (Phend, 7/29)

Artificial intelligence primary care platform Doctronic has acquired Summer Health. The deal allows Doctronic to expand into pediatric primary care. Summer Health’s virtual care platform offers on-demand access to pediatricians via text messages. Doctronic’s platform uses chatbots for health-related questions and intake, and offers consultations with human physicians. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. (Famakinwa, 7/29)

While the recent artificial intelligence boom in healthcare may belie a much shorter history for the technology, scientists and computer programmers paved the way for today’s frenzied pace of development beginning in the 1950s. Several academic institutions began developing AI systems for diagnostic purposes in the early 1970s. Some of the early experiments fizzled. The last several years have seen massive financial investments into AI-focused healthcare companies, and widespread adoption of ambient AI scribes and other tools throughout the industry. (Famakinwa, 7/29)