Public health leaders have urged Illinoisans to receive their flu shots and take other precautions as influenza cases continue to rise across the state. [Health News Illinois] 

The Department of Public Health said Monday that flu activity in the state has climbed to “Very High,” the most severe of five categories of respiratory illness activity as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just over 5 percent of hospital admissions in the week ending on December 27 were connected to flu cases, more than double the rate from the prior week.

Nearly 22 percent of Illinoisans have received their flu shot this season, while only 6.8 percent have received the COVID-19 immunization.

“Illinois is facing a significant winter surge in seasonal respiratory illnesses with flu activity at very high levels,” IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in a statement. “IDPH is monitoring the situation closely and working with our partners in public health and healthcare to protect Illinois families across the state.”

Illinois recently reported its first influenza death in a child this season. Last year, there were 12 pediatric deaths from influenza, 6 from RSV and 3 from COVID. 

The CDC reported Monday that visits to the doctor for fever plus a cough or sore throat, common flu symptoms, are at their highest level of respiratory illness since at least the 1997-98 flu season.

Nationally, about 8.2 percent of doctor visits were for flu-like symptoms during the last week of 2025. At the same point last season, that number was 6.7 percent.

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Multidose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is efficacious, yet the vaccine has been underused globally. Emerging data suggest that a single dose may provide protection. Whether a single dose of HPV vaccine would provide similar protection to two doses is uncertain.

Methods

In this trial, we assessed whether one dose of an HPV vaccine was noninferior to two doses. Girls 12 to 16 years of age were randomly assigned, in a 1:1:1:1 ratio, to receive one or two doses of a bivalent HPV vaccine or one or two doses of a nonavalent HPV vaccine. The primary end point was new HPV type 16 or 18 infection occurring from month 12 to month 60 and persisting for at least 6 months. The prespecified noninferiority margin was 1.25 infections per 100 participants. We also assessed vaccine effectiveness by comparing HPV16 or HPV18 infection among the trial participants with that among girls and women enrolled in a nonrandomized survey.

Results

A total of 20,330 participants were enrolled and underwent randomization, and 3005 unvaccinated participants were enrolled in the survey. The noninferiority analysis showed that one vaccine dose was noninferior to two doses in preventing HPV16 or HPV18 infection. The rate difference between one and two doses of the bivalent vaccine was −0.13 infections per 100 participants (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.45 to 0.15; P<0.001 for noninferiority), and the difference between one and two doses of the nonavalent vaccine was 0.21 infections per 100 participants (95% CI, −0.09 to 0.51; P<0.001 for noninferiority). The vaccine effectiveness was at least 97% in each of the four trial groups. No safety concerns were identified.

More>

Webinar - may be of interest? January 14, 2026 HPV > 

From Awareness to Action: Increasing HPV Vaccine Referrals in Dental Settings

(Second in the Oral Health Series & Preventive Health) 

Sponsors- contact us at sponsorship@iomc.org for more information

Overview

Human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US, responsible for over 70% of oropharyngeal cancers (OPC). The HPV vaccine can prevent these cancers. Dental providers are uniquely positioned to address this public health concern through regular oral examinations, patient interactions during critical vaccination periods, and trusted relationships. However, many lack confidence discussing the HPV-cancer link and vaccine referral. This session shares findings from implementation research integrating HPV vaccine promotion into dental practice. Attendees will learn how dental teams successfully incorporate the "Educate, Recommend, Refer" approach into daily workflows, transforming routine dental visits into cancer prevention opportunities.

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CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, has moved quickly to advance President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda in 2025. The push comes after President Trump this summer signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping package of reforms targeting Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA marketplace. [Becker's Hospital Review]

From plans to close a Medicaid funding “loophole” to probing hospitals over gender care for minors and clamping down on states using federal Medicaid funds to treat undocumented migrants, here are 20 key actions CMS has taken since Dr. Oz was confirmed as administrator:

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article originally printed in July 2025. This is not an exhaustive list.

1. CMS plans to add prior authorization for some traditional fee-for-service Medicare services as part of its newly launched Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model. The agency said it will work with companies specializing in AI and machine learning to test ways to improve and expedite prior authorization for services including epidural steroid injections, cervical fusion, arthroscopy for knee osteoarthritis and skin and tissue substitutes. The news came one week after the wider insurance industry announced reforms that aim to reduce and streamline prior authorization processes across commercial, Medicare Advantage and managed Medicaid plans.

Full article> 

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Key Takeaways

• Women vaccinated against HPV had a 37% lower risk of developing high-grade vulvovaginal lesions compared with unvaccinated women. [MedPage Today]
• This increased to 55% for those vaccinated between the ages of 10 and 16, emphasizing the benefits of early immunization.
• Benefits were observed even in women who received only one dose of the vaccine.

Women vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) had a significantly lower risk of high-grade vulvovaginal lesions, a large cohort study from Sweden showed.

Vaccinated women had a 37% lower risk of developing lesions, which increased to 55% among women who were vaccinated at younger ages. The protection applied equally to vulvar and vaginal lesions. The vaccinated cohort included women who received as few as one of the recommended three doses of the quadrivalent vaccine.

Risk was reduced by 37-55% in vaccinated versus unvaccinated women in Sweden

More>

Check out IOMC's Upcoming Programs: 

1.14.2026  Webinar: From Awareness to Action: Increasing HPV Vaccine Referrals in Dental Settings. More details and to Register> 

2.17.2026 Webinar: Addressing the Health Needs of Justice Involved Individuals during Reentry. More details and to Register> 

Sponsors: Interested in sponsoring a webinar or program? Contact us at sponsorship@iomc.org. 

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Flu season is off to a rough start this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the virus arrived as expected, cases are rising faster, compared with previous years. [NPR & CDC]

Last week, more that 19,000 patients with influenza were admitted to hospitals, up about 10,000 from the previous week, according to new CDC data. To date, the CDC estimates at least 7.5 million people have been sickened, and over 3,100 people have died from the flu.

The surge seems to be driven primarily by a new strain of the virus — subclade K of influenza A(H3N2) — that emerged in Australia over the summer.

"Anywhere we detect this virus, you can see a large surge of influenza cases coming afterwards," says Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In the U.S., "the timing is not that much different from other flu seasons, but the number of cases, and how quickly those cases are increasing is something that is not usually seen this time of year."

New York has been hit especially hard, with state health officials announcing over 71,000 cases last week — the most cases ever recorded in a single week in the state. But other states are seeing high levels of flu activity, particularly in the northeast, midwest and south.

"The map is mostly red," says Pekosz, indicating high levels of disease that will likely increase over the coming weeks.

What's driving the upswing?

So far, there's no indication that this new strain is more severe, or even more contagious than previous years, says Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

But there have been changes to the virus that may allow it to get around our immune defenses, he says. "There's less immunity to it, and that's allowing the virus to spread very quickly and extensively."

More>

Check out IOMC's Upcoming Programs: 

1.14.2026  Webinar: From Awareness to Action: Increasing HPV Vaccine Referrals in Dental Settings. More details and to Register> 

2.17.2026 Webinar: Addressing the Health Needs of Justice Involved Individuals during Reentry. More details and to Register> 

Sponsors: Interested in sponsoring a webinar or program? Contact us at sponsorship@iomc.org. 

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A host of bills mandating health care coverage, regulating pharmaceutical practices and targeting specific health issues go into effect in Illinois for 2026, many on the first day of the year. [Crains]

With one major piece of legislation passed in 2025, the Prescription Drug Affordability Act, Illinois joins numerous other states that have taken aim at the practices of pharmacy benefit managers.

The act will forbid pharmacy benefit managers — or PBMs — from steering people to specific pharmacies or companies; limiting access to a covered drug by designating it a specialty drug, contrary to the drug's definition; and engaging in spread pricing, the practice of charging insurance plans more than they reimburse pharmacies for and keeping the difference.

In addition, the law levies a fee, per covered member, on PBMs that will be used to fund up to $25 million a year in grants to independent pharmacies and pharmacies located in rural counties, medically underserved areas, low-income communities and pharmacies that serve high concentrations of Medicaid patients.

Coverage considerations

Each year, Illinois legislators find specific health conditions, drugs and therapies they want to ensure can't be carved out of health coverage. The 2025 General Assembly sessions was no exception.

Health insurers will now have to ensure that when a patient receives neonatal intensive care at a nonparticipating provider or nonparticipating facility, the beneficiary, insured or enrollee will not incur greater out-of-pocket costs than he or she would have incurred with a participating provider or a participating facility, as long as the nonparticipating provider or nonparticipating facility bills the neonatal intensive care as emergency services.

Health plans must provide coverage, no less than once every 12 months, for a peripheral artery disease screening test for any at-risk individual.

Health maintenance organizations will be required to cover certain at-home pregnancy tests and certain medically necessary treatments to address a major injury to the jaw.

And starting on Jan. 1, 2027, insurers must also provide continuity of care for beneficiaries, in that a network plan shall permit the beneficiary to continue an ongoing course of treatment with that provider during a transitional period for 90 days after notifying a beneficiary that a provider is pulling out of a network plan.

Also starting in 2027, health insurers must cover medically necessary diagnostic testing and FDA-approved treatments or medications prescribed to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or another related dementia. They also must cover medically necessary horse-riding therapy or services that "incorporate equine movement as part of a therapeutic intervention."

And in 2027, insurers must find non-opioid pain medications. Health insurers must develop a plan to provide adequate coverage and access to a broad spectrum of pain management services, including, but not limited to, non-opioid, non-narcotic pain management services and non-medication pain management that serve as alternatives to the prescribing of opioid or narcotic drugs in accordance with guidelines developed by the state Department of Insurance.

Health plans must also tell their enrollees about these laws. Each year, health plans must provide, upon request, a statement of all basic health care services and all specific benefits and services mandated to be provided to enrollees by state law or administrative rule, highlighting any newly enacted state law or administrative rule.

Emergency, and not so emergency, services

In 2026, all 911 telecommunicators who are dispatching emergency services must be trained in "high-quality telecommunicator cardiopulmonary resuscitation (T-CPR)." The training would instruct 911 dispatchers on how to talk a caller through providing CPR.

People who, acting in good faith, administer an epinephrine delivery system in an emergency will not be liable for civil damages to a person who was given the epinephrine shot, except for in the case of willful and wanton misconduct.

Fire departments and fire protection districts may now begin charging nursing homes and assisted living facilities for nonemergency lift-assist services — calls to lift a patient into a bed, for instance — after the sixth time safety employees are called to a location in a year.

The state is taking a cue from Chicago by mandating the opioid overdose medication naloxone be made available at all public libraries across the state, and requiring at least one staff member be trained to identify overdoses and to administer the drug, typically a nasal spray.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal will begin tracking the manner of death for all firefighters in Illinois, including suicide and types of cancer.

Employers will have to allow part-time employees, as well as full-timers, to use up to 10 days of leave in any 12-month period to serve as an organ donor. It also provides that, for a part-time worker using leave to serve as an organ donor, the employer has to calculate their daily average pay during the previous two months and compensate them with that average for the leave days used.

The Illinois Department of Human Services' Office to Prevent & End Homelessness will begin to maintain a website on how a hospital or health care provider may connect a patient with a homeless shelter or homeless support services. The law taking effect Jan. 1 also requires the department to include on its website a way for the hospital or provider to determine which continuum of care applies, based on the facility's physical location.

Beyond health care, the Illinois Municipal League provides a comprehensive list of all kinds of state legislation "of municipal interest" that take effect in 2026 and 2027.

Check out IOMC's Upcoming Programs: 

1.14.2026  Webinar: From Awareness to Action: Increasing HPV Vaccine Referrals in Dental Settings. More details and to Register> 

2.17.2026 Webinar: Addressing the Health Needs of Justice Involved Individuals during Reentry. More details and to Register> 

Sponsors: Interested in sponsoring a webinar or program? Contact us at sponsorship@iomc.org. 

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An aging nation. A post-pandemic rebound for the entertainment industry. Young adults delayed traditional milestones. Homebuyers faced higher mortgage payments. Childlessness rose— except among older women. Only Hispanic households experienced significant increase in median income. [United States Census Bureau]

These were just a few of the changes our nation experienced, according to U.S. Census Bureau data and research released in 2025. Here we recap some key trends and findings by topic through a selection of America Counts stories published this year.

Employment 

Housing 

Aging Population 

And more

More>

Influenza activity in the United States has spiked across the country, with 17 jurisdictions (14 states and Puerto Rico; Washington, DC; and New York City) reporting high or very high influenza-like illness (ILI) and other key indicators rising markedly, signaling the start of the flu season in earnest, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly FluView update.. [KFF Health News]

The CDC also noted two new flu-related deaths in children and provided data on the rise of subclade K among H3N2 flu viruses as Americans approach the peak season of gathering with family and friends.

The number of jurisdictions with high or very high ILI cases for the week ending December 13 is up from five the previous week, the CDC said. In addition, the percentage of respiratory viruses that tested positive for flu rose from 8.1% to 14.8%, and the rate of visits to clinics (outpatient visits) for respiratory illness rose from 3.2% to 4.1%, well above the national baseline of 3.1% (see CDC epidemiologic curve below).

Subclade K now prevalent

“Sustained elevated activity is observed across multiple key activity indicators in many areas of the country, signaling the start of the 2025-2026 influenza season,” the CDC noted. “Severity indicators remain low at this time, but influenza activity is expected to continue for weeks.”

The agency noted that 911 of 927 influenza viruses reported by public health labs were influenza A, with 16 being influenza B. Of 706 influenza A viruses subtyped, 10.1% were the H1N1 strain, and 89.9% were H3N2. Notably, among 216 H3N2 viruses collected since September 28 that underwent additional genetic characterization by CDC scientists, 89.8% belonged to subclade K, the subclade that is predominating in multiple countries and raising concerns about a possible mismatch with the seasonal flu vaccine.

The weekly hospitalization rate for respiratory illness reached 14.3 per 100,000 residents, up from 6.6 the week before. Almost 10,000 patients were admitted to hospitals for influenza last week. Deaths attributed to flu rose slightly, from 0.2% to 0.3%.

Both flu-related pediatric deaths were tied to H3 strains. One occurred in November and one last week. The CDC has now confirmed three deaths in children this year, after 2024-25 saw 288 over the entire season.

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PHILADELPHIA — Leon Harris, 35, is intimately familiar with the devastation guns can inflict. Robbers shot him in the back nearly two decades ago, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. The bullet remains lodged in his spine. [KFF health News]

This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free.

Help Us Investigate Medical Care for Gunshot Wounds

We’d like to talk to people who’ve been wounded or families of those killed by gun violence to better understand how insurance affects such medical care.

Read More

“When you get shot,” he said, “you stop thinking about the future.”

He is anchored by his wife and child and faith. He once wanted to work as a forklift driver but has built a stable career in information technology. He finds camaraderie with other gunshot survivors and in advocacy.

Still, trauma remains lodged in his daily life. As gun violence surged in the shadows of the covid pandemic, it shook Harris’ fragile sense of security. He moved his family out of Philadelphia to a leafy suburb in Delaware. But a nagging fear of crime persists.

Now he is thinking about buying a gun.

Harris is one of tens of thousands of Americans killed or injured each year by gun violence, a public health crisis that escalated in the pandemic and churns a new victim into a hospital emergency room every half hour.

Over the past two decades, the firearm industry has ramped up production and stepped up sales campaigns through social media influencers, conference presentations, and promotions. An industry trade group acknowledged that its traditional customer was “pale, male and stale” and in recent years began targeting Black people and other communities of color who are disproportionately victimized by gun violence.

More>

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