good morning. As I told STAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Burke, I’ll try any pizza at least once. But for now, let’s drink coffee and read the news.
“Scientists listening, don’t pay attention to the hype.”
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
That was NIH Director Jay Bhattacharyya speaking before the House Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday. Despite the slow pace of grant awards, Mr. Bhattacharyya pledged that the agency would spend its entire budget by the end of fiscal year 2026.
“I will use what I am allotted,” he said. “We are in the process of identifying good projects and grants have already been awarded.” Read more from STAT’s Jonathan Wosen on Bhattacharyya’s comments and lawmakers’ reactions.
Two doctors talk about today’s medical challenges
Jay Baruch, an emergency medicine physician and repeat contributor to First Opinion, writes about the pervasive and worsening problem of hospitals parking patients in hallways when there aren’t enough rooms to actually turn them around. He has dealt with this issue as a health care provider and is embarrassed and frustrated about how it affects the care he is able to provide. But he also saw it from the patient’s side, when his mother was left alone in the hallway for a long time because she urgently needed to go to the bathroom. read more.
In another essay, retired surgeon Frances May Hardin writes about the difficult decision to leave medicine. After 10 years of hard training, Hardin finally gave himself permission to walk away. “What I found on the other side was not failure,” she writes. “It was the beginning of the life I really wanted.”Read more.
How did this Texas couple get rich from out-of-network medical bills?
STAT’s Molly Ferguson
Short answer: In a new system designed to make health care more affordable for patients, a little-known intermediary called HaloMD is using a tactic that can be even more lucrative for health care providers than surprise billing.
The long answer begins at a party in Las Vegas where a recently divorced woman met a health care entrepreneur. About 10 years later, the now-married LaRoque duo founded HaloMD to help providers navigate the federal arbitration process to resolve claims disputes with insurance companies. However, according to the lawsuit against the company, HaloMD often takes advantage of an overburdened system to profit from disputes that should not be considered eligible. While it’s not the only company taking this approach, it’s by far the largest.
“Overall, I don’t think they’re bad people,” said one surgeon who worked for another of the couple’s medical companies. “Now, are they going to do everything they can to make as much money as possible? Absolutely.”
STAT’s Tara Banau reviewed thousands of pages of court filings and company documents and interviewed more than 50 people. You can’t even imagine how fascinating a story about a process called “independent dispute resolution” would be.
Kratom Usage Trends in a Hospital System
The kratom plant has been incorporated into herbal medicine for centuries and has recently become popular in the United States for recreational use and pain treatment. A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open aimed to quantify this trend by analyzing electronic medical records from one hospital system in Boston.
Between 2017 and 2024, hospitalizations with kratom listed in the clinical record increased significantly, increasing by an average of 15% per year. Although not significantly, mentions of kratom also increased in emergency room visits. (Overall, the number of mentions increased from less than 500 in 2017 to nearly 1,500 in 2024.)
As kratom use increases, it is unclear what the best regulatory approach is. Kratom itself is not a significant cause of overdose death, and there are no records of fatal overdoses involving only 7-OH without other substances.
Last summer, the FDA recommended adding 7-OH, a psychoactive compound derived from this plant, to the Schedule of Controlled Substances. Some states have banned it. In California, the Department of Public Health recently seized $5 million worth of products, justified by current law that allows authorities to seize products that are not approved by the federal government or the state. In Kansas, lawmakers are considering a bill that would criminalize kratom and 7-OH products. But as fentanyl overdose deaths continue, some argue that criminalizing safer alternatives will only make the situation worse.
9.9%
This is the lowest smoking rate among U.S. adults in 2024 on record. As STAT’s Sarah Todd reports, that number itself is a big problem. But what’s remarkable is that everyone is becoming aware of it. The federal government typically reports the data it collects. But instead, this news was brought to you through an external analysis produced by researchers and published in NEJM Evidence.
“In public health, the number 10% is very symbolic for us,” said Israel Agak, author of the analysis. “If it’s less than 10%, it’s considered a rare or unusual event.” Learn more about this milestone and what it means for public health.
what we are reading
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US considers withholding HIV aid unless Zambia expands access to minerals, New York Times
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Snipshift: March Madness used to promote vasectomies. Abortion is now prohibited, Part 19
- Drug smoking can cause severe burns, complicating harm reduction efforts, STAT
- ‘I feel hopeless’: Minnesota woman suffering from medical emergency locked in Texas custody, Minnesota Reform Center
What word? Test your knowledge with today’s STAT Mini crossword.
