Musk's DOGE team can access sensitive data for now, appeals court rules

 A divided federal appeals court on Monday put on hold an injunction that blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Americans' private data at the Treasury and Education departments and the Office of Personnel Management.

In a 2-1 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the March 24 preliminary injunction imposed by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, while the government pursues its appeal.

The Richmond, Virginia-based appeals court separately voted 8-7 against taking up the matter "en banc," meaning all active judges would decide.

A dissenting judge warned that letting DOGE access personal information belonging to millions of Americans "lets the proverbial genie out of the bottle."

The appeals court set an expedited schedule for the appeal, and will hear oral arguments on May 5.

Five labor groups led by the American Federation of Teachers and six military veterans accused President Donald Trump's administration of violating federal privacy laws by letting Musk's team review Americans' sensitive personal data.

The information includes Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, income, citizenship status, student loan borrowings and veterans' disability benefits.

The Treasury Department maintains systems for disbursing Social Security benefits, income tax refunds and other sums.

Critics have said giving Musk and DOGE wide berth could lead to the government's using sensitive personal data for other purposes, such as to pursue Trump's immigration goals.

DOGE was created to advance Trump's effort to downsize the federal government. Musk, the world's richest person and CEO of electric car company Tesla, was hand-picked by Trump to head DOGE.

The case is separate from a lawsuit challenging DOGE's access to Social Security databases.

Neither the plaintiffs' lawyers nor the Department of Justice immediately responded to requests for comment.

WEIGHTING THE HARMS

The judges in Monday's 2-1 panel majority said the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their case, or even show they had standing to sue.

"Each plaintiff's information is one row in various databases that are millions upon millions of rows long," wrote Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee.

"The harm that might come from granting database access to an additional handful of government employees -- prone as they may be to hacks or leaks, as the plaintiffs have alleged --strikes me as different in kind, not just in degree, from the harm inflicted by reporters, detectives, and paparazzi," he added.

Circuit Judge Robert King, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented from the panel decision.

Republican presidents appointed six of the judges who opposed "en banc" review, while Democratic presidents appointed two.

Nicole Berner, a Biden appointee, was among the seven judges, all appointed by Democrats, who wanted the entire court to take the case.

"Permitting DOGE unfettered access to the plaintiffs' personally identifiable information lets the proverbial genie out of the bottle," she wrote. "Even if they ultimately prevail, the plaintiffs will already have suffered irreparable harm."

https://www.aol.com/news/musks-doge-team-access-government-164148593.html

Top Republican in US Senate says Congress will let tariffs play out

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated on Monday that his chamber is unlikely to impede the implementation of President Donald Trump's global tariffs.

"I expected some turbulence in the stock market, I think everybody did. This was a change in policy, a consequential one, but I think we got to let it play out and see what ultimately happens not only in the near term, but in the long term," Thune told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Thune also said that "everybody is concerned" about the U.S. stock market, citing Americans' investment and retirement savings accounts tied to the market's success.

The top Senate Republican, who is from the agriculture-heavy state of South Dakota, is in charge of the chamber's legislative schedule and said a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate to require congressional approval for new tariffs has no future after the president said he would veto the bill.

The measure was introduced last week by Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington and Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, after Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on imported goods that have sparked Wall Street's worst sell-off in years.

"The president has indicated he would veto it. I don’t see how they get it on the floor in the House. We are going to wait and see what is going to happen next," Thune said.

The U.S. Constitution granted Congress trade authority but over time the legislature has passed this power to the executive branch.

Seven Republican senators including Grassley have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

Grassley told reporters on Monday he wasn't surprised by Trump's veto threat.

"If a president has an authority, then I think a president is going to be very jealous about giving any of it up," Grassley said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-senate-bill-rein-tariffs-201730295.html

FTC chair joins PBM case

 The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against major pharmacy benefit managers, including UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, CVS Health’s Caremark and Cigna’s Express Scripts, over insulin pricing practices is set to move forward after being paused last week. 

FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said April 3 that he would no longer recuse himself from the case, clearing the way for the lawsuit to resume, according to an X post. 

This follows the FTC’s earlier decision to pause the case, as the two remaining commissioners, Mr. Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, both recused themselves due to previous work on PBM matters. On March 18, President Trump fired the commission’s two Democratic members, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Both have filed lawsuits contesting their terminations.

The PBM lawsuit, filed in September, alleges that PBMs are limiting access to lower-priced insulin and steering patients toward higher-cost options to secure millions in rebates.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/ftc-chair-joins-pbm-case/

'AI tool captures all-cause deteriorations, lowers risk of death by 35%'

 An AI tool that analyzes nurses’ notes for subtle clinical changes helped reduce patient risk of death by 35.6%, length of stay by 11.2% and sepsis risk by 7.5%, according to research published April 2 in Nature. 

In a yearlong, multisite study, researchers assessed the tool across 74 clinical units in two health systems. Among 60,893 hospital encounters, about half involved the early warning system and the other half did not. 

The system, dubbed COmmnuticating Narrative Concerns Entered by RNs (CONCERN), is a machine learning algorithm that uses real-time nursing surveillance notes and data patterns to detect all-cause deterioration risks. 

Other EWSs often “rely on late and noisy physiologic indicators of deterioration” such as lab results and vital signs, according to the researchers. In contrast, this tool leverages nurses’ “subtle, yet observable, clinical changes that may not be captured in physiological data or well displayed in EHRs,” including small changes in mental status from baseline or slower recovery of arterial blood pressure after turning a patient. 

Every hour, the CONCERN EWS signals mentions of concern in nurses’ narrative tones, as well as their increased surveillance. For example, the tool monitors for assessments performed at uncommon times. 

The model then assigns a deterioration risk score of low, increased or high. Scores are updated hourly and presented in the EHR. 

Across the two systems, 28 acute care units and nine ICUs used the CONCERN tool, while 25 ACUs and 12 ICUs performed usual care. 

In addition to the above reduced risk results, units that used the EWS also saw a 24.9% increase in in-hospital risk of unanticipated ICU transfers. 

“Our study demonstrates that nursing surveillance patterns are a valuable signal to predict deterioration of hospitalized patients,” the researchers wrote in conclusion. 

New York City-based Columbia University Irving Medical Center led the research, which also involved Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham, Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and St. Louis-based Washington University Medical Campus. 

Further research will evaluate the predictive model’s capabilities in other hospital units and inpatient populations, including pediatrics.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-safety-outcomes/ai-tool-captures-all-cause-deteriorations-lowers-risk-of-death-by-35/

Rural US loses 43% of independent physicians

 The number of independent physicians in U.S. rural areas declined 43% over five years — from 21,956 in January 2019 to 12,467 in January 2024 — according to an Avalere study sponsored by the Physicians Advocacy Institute. 

The analysis — which used the IQVIA OneKey database containing physician and practice location information on hospital and health system ownership — shows a growing shift toward the consolidation of physician services under hospitals and corporate entities in rural areas following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Five things to know:

1. From 2019 to 2024, rural areas lost nearly 2,500 physicians. This represents a 5% decline from approximately 52,600 to 50,100. 

2. Likewise, the number of medical practices in rural areas fell from 30,000 at the beginning of 2019 to 26,700 in January 2024, an 11% decline.

3. This declining number of rural medical practices was particularly acute among independent practices, with the number of those practices falling by 7,300 during the study period, marking a 42% decline.

4. Nearly 9,500 physicians in rural areas left independent practice during the study period. Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina and South Dakota saw declines of more than 50% within their independent physician workforce.

5. During the same period, physician employment in rural areas within hospitals and health systems and corporate entities grew by 15% and 57%, respectively.

Click here to view the full analysis.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/rural-us-loses-43-of-independent-physicians-5-things-to-know/

Nardelli: Market response to Trump's tariffs an 'over-reaction'

 Former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli called the stock market’s response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs an "over-reaction" on Monday and argued they will be very beneficial for the economy going forward.

The stock market has taken a major hit since Trump announced wide-sweeping tariffs across multiple countries that are set to go into effect this week. Although fears of a recession have spiked as a result, Nardelli told "America Reports" on Fox News that tariffs have yielded positive results in the past and will continue to do so if given time.

"As I mentioned many times, we’ve become a society of instant gratification," Nardelli said. "We saw the early tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and as a result, we saw border closings. We saw a repatriation of the criminals and illegal aliens that came in here. People were very happy about that."

Former Home Depot and Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli discussed Trump's widespread tariffs on "America Reports." (Fox News / Fox News)

He continued, "Here we see another move by this president to really level the playing field, and we’re seeing over-reaction in my opinion. The secretary treasurer said it, I’m saying it, we should just stand down. We’re going to see these ups and downs, these goes ins and goes outs, but I, for example, personally have not sold a share."

"I’m staying in this market because I believe what he’s doing over the long haul will benefit the country in a number of ways. Not only balancing the tariffs, but he’s also focused on balancing the dollars of trade, which is also important for this economy going forward."

Host Sandra Smith pressed Nardelli on concerns from people like billionaire investor Bill Ackman and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who have warned about increased prices and an "economic nuclear winter" because of the tariffs.

Nardelli replied that the administration was likely aware of the uncertainty that came with the tariff policy but argued it was a "risk worth taking" to help the economy in the long run.

"We have to stop letting Wall Street determine our business. Every 90 days, the satellite passes over, and they take a vote. When they don’t like you and vote against you, then you get the activist coming in trying to tell you how to run your business," Nardelli said.

The Trump administration has said since the tariff announcement, more than 50 countries have reached out for new economic negotiations.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/former-home-depot-ceo-calls-stock-market-response-trumps-tariffs-over-reaction

EU approves expanded use of Vertex’s cystic fibrosis drug

 The European Commission has approved a label expansion for Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ:VRTX) cystic fibrosis medication, KAFTRIO® (ivacaftor/tezacaftor/elexacaftor) in combination with ivacaftor, broadening its use to patients aged 2 years and older with at least one non-class I mutation in the CFTR gene. This regulatory milestone makes the treatment available to approximately 4,000 additional individuals living with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the European Union.

The decision follows Vertex’s long-term commitment to addressing the needs of the CF community, including those with rare mutations. Executive Vice President Carmen Bozic expressed satisfaction with the European Commission’s decision, which she believes will allow more CF patients to benefit from the transformative effects of KAFTRIO®.

In countries such as Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, where KAFTRIO® reimbursement agreements exist, and in Germany, where healthcare system provisions apply, eligible patients are expected to gain access to the therapy shortly. Vertex plans to continue its collaborative efforts with reimbursement authorities throughout the EU to facilitate access for all eligible patients.

Cystic fibrosis is a life-shortening genetic disease that affects over 94,000 individuals in North America, Europe, and Australia. It is a multi-organ condition that leads to progressive lung damage and other complications, with the median age of death in the 30s. However, treatments like KAFTRIO® are improving the projected survival rates.

KAFTRIO® works by increasing the quantity and function of the CFTR protein at the cell surface, which is crucial for the transport of salt and water across cell membranes. This helps to hydrate and clear mucus from the airways, addressing the fundamental cause of CF.

https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/eu-approves-expanded-use-of-vertexs-cystic-fibrosis-drug-93CH-3971729