The CDC is planning a large study looking into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources told Reuters, despite significant research showing vaccines and autism are not linked.

The move comes during one of the largest measles outbreaks in the past decade, with two deaths in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, 198 cases have been identified since late January, and 23 patients have been hospitalized.

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Advocates and provider groups said Wednesday that the future of Medicaid and the millions of Illinoisans it covers is uncertain as federal lawmakers consider billions of dollars in cuts to the program. [Health News Illiniois]

The House Appropriations-Health and Human Services Committee heard several hours of testimony on the issue Wednesday morning. Rep. Anna Moeller, a Democrat from Elgin and chair of the committee, said the discussion was meant to highlight how the proposed cuts “threaten not only individual lives but the stability of our healthcare system.”

“Since 1965, Medicaid has been a lifeline for millions of Illinoisans, ensuring that children, seniors and people with disabilities receive essential care,” she said. “But today, we know that that lifeline is under attack.”

Department of Healthcare and Family Services Director Elizabeth Whitehorn said that at the end of the last fiscal year, roughly 3.4 million Illinoisans, including 1.4 million children, were covered by Medicaid. Of those covered, 9 percent were seniors and 7 percent were adults with disabilities.

Medicaid covers over two-thirds of nursing facility days in the state and nearly half of all births.

Whitehorn said they are concerned that 770,000 Illinoisans could lose coverage if Congress cuts the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Illinois currently contributes $750 million to cover that population, with the federal government contributing $7.5 billion.

House Republicans last month narrowly passed a budget bill, which is the first step toward extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and reducing spending on Medicaid. A House proposal has called for $880 billion in cuts to programs like Medicaid.

Specific cuts or changes to the program have not been introduced, but Whitehorn told lawmakers that the reported changes would all lead to some decline in enrollment or benefits.

A per capita cap to limit federal Medicaid funding to states could cause Illinois to lose between $24 and $39 billion over 10 years.

“We'd be left to make unimaginable decisions about limiting benefits for customers,” Whitehorn said of that option.

Whitehorn said between 344,000 and 633,000 Illinoisans could lose coverage if work requirements are implemented. She said some of those would be due to administrative burdens, such as filing necessary paperwork in a timely fashion.

Another idea floated is to change provider taxes, which states use to help fund the program. The state will collect over $3.9 billion in assessments on hospitals, nursing homes and managed care organizations this fiscal year.

“We are continuing to follow all of this and continuing to assess what it means for the state of Illinois,” Whitehorn said.

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Black and Hispanic people paid more in out-of-pocket costs for maternal care than Asian and white people with the same commercial insurance, a new study published in JAMA Health Forum found.

Why it matters: Black mothers in the U.S. face a pregnancy-related death rate that is more than three times the rate for white mothers. About 80% of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women is similar to that of white mothers but has surged in recent years.

• The cost burdens of maternity care may exacerbate those significant racial disparities, the researchers say.

What they did: The study looked at pregnancy, delivery and postpartum care claims data from patients insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts from 2018 through 2022.

• Among nearly 77,000 unique enrollees who gave birth, almost 79% were white, roughly 10% were Asian, about 8% were Hispanic and about 4% were Black

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A small study identified potential immunologic patterns associated with post-vaccination syndrome, a very rare condition with neurologic symptoms that occurs in some people following a COVID-19 vaccine. [MEDPAGE Today]

Immune cell populations of people with post-vaccination syndrome had lower levels of effector CD4 T cells and higher levels of CD8 T cells that secrete tumor necrosis factor (TNF) compared with healthy controls, reported Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and co-authors in a preprint posted on medRxiv. The paper has not been peer-reviewed.

Post-vaccination syndrome patients had lower levels of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein versus healthy controls, likely because they stopped getting more vaccine doses, the researchers said. Evidence of recent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation was seen more frequently in people with post-vaccination syndrome than in vaccinated people without the condition.

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Data suggests this season's vaccines were less effective for some children, but the composition change should address that. Meanwhile, the CDC says that although influenza activity is still elevated, this flu season appears to have peaked. [KFF Health News]

CIDRAP: WHO Advisers Swap Out H3N2 Strains For Next Northern Hemisphere Flu VaccinesThe World Health Organization (WHO) today announced its advisory committee’s recommendations on strains to include for the Northern Hemisphere’s 2025-26 flu season, which swap out the H3N2 components but keep the current 2009 H1N1 and influenza B strains the same. The three strains recommended for the trivalent vaccine are also the same as those recommended for the Southern Hemisphere’s 2025 season vaccine, which the group weighed in on at its meetings in September 2024. (Schnirring, 2/28)

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Illinois' Medicaid managed care rolls fell just over 0.3 percent in November, according to recent data from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. [Health News Illinois] 

Enrollment in HealthChoice Illinois was 2,534,771 as of Dec. 1, down from the 2,542,981 enrolled on Nov. 1.

Three health plans saw dips in their Medicaid rolls. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and CountyCare Health Plan saw slight bumps in their enrollment.

As of Dec. 1, enrollment totals were:

• Aetna Better Health – 353,708 (1.1 percent decrease from Nov. 1)
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois – 709,986 (0.1 percent increase)
• Molina Healthcare – 297,234 (0.3 percent decrease)
• CountyCare Health Plan (Cook County only) – 418,697 (0.5 percent increase)
• Meridian Health Plan – 722,324 (0.8 percent decrease)

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Illinois lawmakers underestimated the cost and demand for the two healthcare programs that provide Medicaid-like coverage for certain undocumented adults, according to a report released Wednesday by Auditor General Frank Mautino. [Health News Illinois]

The programs have cost the state $1.6 billion since the one for those 65 and older launched in December 2020. The second program, which covers adults between 42 and 64, launched in 2022.

The report said that while the initial estimated number of enrollees for the senior program was 6,700, that number grew to 15,831. Estimates for the other program were 26,800 enrollees, but the actual number was 53,936.

The actual cost of the senior program between fiscal years 2021 and 2023 was $412.3 million, a figure the audit said was 84 percent higher than anticipated.

The other program's cost during those three years was $485.3 million, a nearly 284 percent increase over the expected cost.

An analysis of enrollees found more than 6,000 individuals in the programs who were listed as “undocumented” despite having a Social Security number, and more than 400 enrollees lived in the U.S. long enough to qualify for the Medicaid program.

The audit also found nearly 700 enrolled in the senior program were younger than 65.

The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which oversees the programs, told the Auditor General that, as of this January, it had removed 21,362 enrollees through its redetermination process. 

There were 19,872 enrollees removed for eligibility or procedural reasons, and another 1,490 were removed and enrolled in another healthcare program.

The report recommends that HFS and the Department of Human Services collaborate to remove unnecessary duplicate enrollees and develop controls over eligibility determinations.

The audit comes a week after Gov. JB Pritzker announced a spending plan that removes funding for the program that serves those under 65. His proposal allocates $132 million for the senior program, though new enrollment will remain paused.

He told reporters at an unrelated press conference Wednesday that the report does not reflect the challenge of people’s immigration status changing during a year, nor the redetermination effort to clean up enrollment.

“Some of those people become ineligible mid-year, and you’re still paying for them because we don’t know and maybe they don’t know that they’re no longer eligible for that program,” Pritzker said.

Republicans said the report shows the need to create more transparency around how the Pritzker administration spends on agency initiatives, specifically those related to undocumented individuals.

“What this (audit) truly does show is, while this was a good press pop for a governor trying to get more recognition on the national stage, he was unable to be trusted by the taxpayers of Illinois to actually manage and run this program properly and within cost estimated and associated to the program,” said Senate Minority Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove.

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For comparison, state lawmakers are grappling with funding mental health systems, rewriting standards for involuntary commitment and strengthening mental health parity requirements. [Becker's Behavioral Healht]

Here are seven state behavioral policy updates to know: 

1. Maryland behavioral health providers and other advocates are urging lawmakers to reverse course on a proposed $116 million cut to funding for the 988 lifeline and other state mental health services, NPR affiliate WYPR reported Feb. 25. 
   
   
2. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey halted plans to close two state behavioral hospitals. More than 14,000 community members petitioned the governor to scrap the plans. 
   
   
3. New Mexico lawmakers passed legislation that would establish a trust fund to pay for mental health and substance use programs in the state, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Feb. 21. Lawmakers also passed a bill to establish region-specific plans for local behavioral health needs, while a third bill to allocate additional funding has yet to receive approval from the state's House of Representatives.  
   
   
4. Connecticut legislators have revived a bill that would allow the state's insurance commissioner to penalize insurers for failing to comply with mental health parity requirements, CT Mirror reported Feb. 18. State lawmakers introduced similar legislation in 2024, but the bill failed to move forward. 
   
   
5. The Colorado House of Representatives passed a bill to strengthen mental health parity enforcement in the state, according to a Feb. 10 news release from the Colorado House Democrats. The bill is awaiting approval from the state's Senate. 
   
   
6. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed updating the state's involuntary commitment law to allow hospitals to involuntarily admit individuals at substantial risk of harm due to an "inability to meet basic needs," according to a Jan. 14 news release. The change would bring New York in line with other states, and clarify that individuals do not need to present imminent risk or recent overt harmful acts to be involuntarily committed to mental health treatment. 
   
   
7. Oregon lawmakers are also considering changing the state's standards around involuntary commitment. A bill backed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness would allow individuals at risk of harm within 30 days or unable to meet their basic needs to be committed to mental health treatment, CBS affiliate KOIN reported Feb. 19.

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The rapid adoption of AI, the integration of dental and healthcare professionals and the vast ownership opportunities are just three of the many things that have dentists and dental industry executives excited about the future. 

The 22 leaders featured in this article are speaking at Becker's 2025 Fall Future of Dentistry Roundtable, set for Sept. 29 and 30 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

[This article is highlighted for our dental ACHIEVE students, board members and Fellows in the dental space. 

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The Covid-19 pandemic illuminated a vast landscape of misinformation about many topics, science and health chief among them. [Chicago Health]

Since then, information overload continues unabated, and many people are rightfully confused by an onslaught of conflicting health information. Even expert advice is often contradictory.

On top of that, people sometimes deliberately distort research findings to promote a certain agenda. For example, trisodium phosphate is a common food additive in cakes and cookies that is used to improve texture and prevent spoilage, but wellness influencers exploit the fact that a similarly named substance is used in paint and cleaning products to suggest it's dangerous to your health.

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