The health insurer planned to cap the length of time anesthesia can be covered during medical procedures in three states, prompting outrage. 0 Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said Thursday it was not going ahead with a policy change that would limit reimbursements for anesthesia during surgery and medical procedures. The new policy would have reimbursed doctors based on time limits set by the insurer. Anthem BCBS, one of the largest health insurers in the U.S., quietly announced the new reimbursement policy last month for Connecticut, New York and Missouri beginning in February. The policy change triggered outrage from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Initially, the policy update went unnoticed, but that changed Wednesday after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot killed in New York City. The killing sparked a wave of online vitriol about the U.S. health care system, and Anthem BCBS’s decision roared into the conversation. A spokesperson for Anthem BCBS said in a statement: “There has been significant widespread misinformation about an update to our anesthesia policy. As a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change.”  The spokesperson added, “To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services.

Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show how disease detectives pieced together what was making people sick.  In one of the early reports to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in what would later lead to a recall of McDonald’s Quarter Pounders in several states, a 61-year-old man from Wisconsin said he got sick after eating the hamburger with onions that he said he didn’t order. “Patient reported that he ordered the Quarter Pounder without onions and was angry because it came with them on it,” according to the Oct. 21 patient report. The man ate the burger, onions included, the report said, when he was passing through a Colorado airport during a layover Sept. 29. He later tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, a particularly nasty strain of the bacteria that can cause severe kidney problems.  In another report, a 76-year-old woman in Colorado got sick Oct. 5 and needed to be hospitalized. She reported eating an Egg McMuffin, fries and a Quarter Pounder from McDonald’s. Another day, she said, she had a ceasar salad and salmon and rice at other restaurants. She also tested positive for the E. coli strain. And a 16-year-old boy in Colorado who reported

Officials are monitoring the outbreak but say a vaccine isn’t yet warranted because the virus isn’t spreading among people or causing severe illness. Biden administration officials said Wednesday they have no current plans to authorize a stockpiled bird flu vaccine, despite an escalating outbreak among livestock in the U.S. and at least 58 human infections across seven states.  The move means any decisions about a bird flu vaccine will likely be left to health officials in the incoming Trump administration, who may be led by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The virus has been spreading in dairy cows since the spring and had infected at least 774 herds in 16 states as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last Friday, the Agriculture Department stepped up its response to the outbreak, issuing a federal order mandating testing of the national milk supply. The USDA said the testing, set to begin next week in six states, will give farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and their ability to protect themselves from infection, as well as give officials a better sense of where herds are

The U.S. last year hit a grim milestone: the most pediatric flu deaths since before the pandemic. Even though a record number of kids died from the flu last year, the percentage of children getting flu shots continues to plummet. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that as of Nov. 30, just over a third of U.S. kids — 37% — had gotten flu shots, down from 43% at the same time last year. The downward trend worries pediatricians who are starting to see an uptick in flu cases. “I always have a little bit of dread when flu season is around the corner,” said Dr. Kristina Bryant, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky, “because children experience illness and suffering during flu season, and much of that can be prevented through vaccination.” Just over half of kids, 55%, got the flu shot during the 2023-24 season, the lowest rate in 12 years, said Alicia Budd, head of the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team. “Flu coverage had been slowly increasing” before Covid hit, Budd said. “Flu vaccination levels have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.” This year’s flu shot covers the two main strains of the virus circulating

The report, from an advisory committee to the USDA, also suggests encouraging people to reduce their intake of sugary drinks and sodium and eat more whole grains. Eat more beans, peas and lentils as protein sources and decrease consumption of processed and red meat — those changes are among the recommendations detailed in a new report suggesting potential updates to U.S. dietary guidelines. The guidelines are changed on a five-year schedule, and the new set is expected to go into effect next year. The report, released Tuesday, comes from an advisory committee to the Agriculture Department, made up of 20 professors in the public health and medical sectors. The committee proposed that the updated guidelines, which would remain in effect into 2030, should emphasize plant-based proteins and encourage people to eat more whole grains and decrease their intake of sugary drinks, sodium and processed foods. “There’s strong evidence to suggest that a dietary pattern that is high in beans, peas and lentils is associated with lower chronic disease risk,” said the advisory committee’s vice chair, Angela Odoms-Young, a professor of maternal and child nutrition at Cornell University. Under the current dietary guidelines, beans, peas and lentils are categorized as both vegetables and