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Good morning! Did you miss the newsletter last week? We’ve got a lot to catch up on, so let’s get right to it.
Everything the Trump administration did on health care last week
Last week was a busy one for federal health officials. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order remaking the federal vaccine agenda, with little evidence to support the changes. The WHO criticized the move, and vaccine manufacturers indicated they would not fall in line. As a reminder: Here’s how we know that splitting up the MMR vaccine could be dangerous.
In the days after the announcement, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took a completely different tone while touring his MAHA message across California and avoiding more divisive issues like vaccines, as STAT’s Chelsea Cirruzzo reports today. Some more action from the week included:
- HHS announced that companies looking to add a new substance to human or animal foods will be required to notify the FDA and provide details on how they deemed the additive “generally recognized as safe.”
- CMS finalized a rule banning federal Medicaid and CHIP funds from covering gender-affirming care for minors. Legal challenges are inevitable, but experts told me that this restriction may be the Trump administration’s most legally viable move yet against these treatments. HHS also referred a large number of providers for investigation regarding gender-affirming care billing codes.
- The administration unveiled a new toolkit for battling addiction and homelessness that prioritized faith-based interventions while rejecting harm reduction principles. Released two years after methadone treatment regulations were modernized, the toolkit only passingly mentions the medication known to vastly reduce someone’s odds of dying from opioid overdose.
Private equity takeovers of doctor groups are stalling
Over a dozen states now have laws enhancing their oversight of private equity deals in health care. A new report says that’s slowing down dealmaking. In 2021, there were 851 physician practice management deals. But in the first half of 2026, there were just 105.
“Each of the state laws are different, and so it creates more uncertainty and just it’s a lot more work to figure out how a particular transaction triggers each of the state’s laws,” said Paul Pitts, a partner with Reed Smith who works with health care providers. STAT’s Tara Bannow has more.
Succession, lawsuits, and AI — oh my!
The situation unfolding at Epic, which sells the country’s dominant electronic health records software, sounds like something straight out of the HBO show “Succession.” The company is facing antitrust lawsuits and questions about its artificial intelligence strategy. And recently, there’s been an exodus of key technology leaders, including the presumed heir apparent to founder and CEO Judy Faulkner.
“You’ve got a lot of people who have been waiting their turn under an absolutely controlling leader,” said one former Epic employee who spent years at the company and remains in touch with former colleagues. “This was always going to be messy.” Ahead of Epic’s annual conference, beginning tomorrow, STAT’s Brittany Trang and Casey Ross dove deep on the major looming questions surrounding the company. Read more. And if you’re at the meeting, reach out to Brittany to say hi.
Maternity care deserts persist
The March of Dimes released last week its biannual report on maternity care deserts in the U.S. Here are some of the key findings:
- Between January 2024 and May 2026, at least 96 labor and delivery units closed. And in nearly 60% of counties that saw a unit close, it had been the only local birthing facility.
- About 1 in 3 U.S. counties are maternity care deserts, meaning there’s no obstetric clinicians or birthing facilities. The closure of rural hospitals has a major impact on the availability of maternity care. Incoming Medicaid changes could further exacerbate access issues, per the report authors.
- About 1 in 9 reproductive-age women in the country are uninsured, with the worst rates in the South, rural areas, and maternity care deserts.
Some more great STAT stories from last week
There’s nothing like a week off from the newsletter to really demonstrate how much great reporting happens here every day. Sorry to sound so #sponsored, but there are a few more stories from last week that I want to make sure you saw:
- Casey and Brittney published a monthslong investigation into a $7 billion tech startup that uses AI to automate administrative tasks in health care. Their reporting found that the company offers thousands of dollars of compensation to customers and other parties willing to refer its products to new business prospects. Or at least it used to — follow-up reporting revealed that the company has terminated programs that pay partners for referrals.
- A new study suggests there may be no harm in stopping statins at age 75 in people with no history of cardiovascular disease, STAT’s Elizabeth Cooney reports.
- Brain-computer interface startups love to tout their devices as “minimally invasive.” But as STAT’s O. Rose Broderick reports, it’s a slippery term. A new study polled patients considering implantable devices for treatment-resistant depression about what mattered to them.
- Medical ethicists say research oversight has become overly beholden to industry priorities. STAT’s Angus Chen wrote about one nonprofit that its founders believe can save an industry that’s lost its way.
What we’re reading
- What Trump’s vaccine order says about his relationship with MAHA moms, The 19th
- AOC’s eggs and the working woman’s inconvenient truth, New Yorker
- Opinion: Paid paternity leave is pediatric preventive care, STAT
- Can your dog live forever? Pet owners are trying everything, Bloomberg
- Opinion: We proved bipartisan health care reform works in North Carolina. Let’s bring it nationwide, STAT