Lawmakers confront crisis in senior care funding
Licensed practical nurse Carol Marol has been working at Westmoreland Manor for about 28 years, and laments that the quality of care at the nursing home is not as good as it used to be because of decreased staffing. “When we are short-staffed, and when workers are not paid competitive...
Trump administration cancels $766 million Moderna contract to fight pandemic flu
The Trump administration has canceled $766 million awarded to drugmaker Moderna Inc. to develop a vaccine against potential pandemic influenza viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu. The company said it was notified Wednesday that the Health and Human Services Department had withdrawn funds awarded in July 2024 and in January...
Highmark ekes out $15 million margin in first quarter of 2025
Highmark Health brought in more money than it lost in the first quarter of 2025, but just barely. Financial results released Thursday show the health care and insurance provider made $15 million in operating income on $8 billion in revenue between January and March. The success, to some extent, was...
Giant Eagle to take over prescriptions from 78 Rite Aid stores
Giant Eagle will take over pharmacy prescriptions from 78 Rite Aid stores that are closing across Pennsylvania and Ohio, the supermarket chain announced Thursday. Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. According to Giant Eagle, transferred prescriptions will go to locations most convenient for affected customers....
New covid vaccine guidance pits ‘common sense’ vs. science, data
If pregnant women and healthy children follow new federal guidance, they won’t receive the covid-19 vaccine and will face a greater risk for complications from the disease, three public health experts told TribLive Wednesday. “This particular decision undermines years of medical research,” Dr. Syra Madad said of U.S. Health and...
Fundraising concert in Bell Acres will benefit Hair Peace Charities
Music is healing for Bonny Diver, and that’s what inspired an upcoming evening of performances by female singers to support other cancer survivors and raise money for Hair Peace Charities, which she founded. The organization helps women and girls in Western Pennsylvania with financial help to buy a wig needed...
Kennedy says covid vaccine no longer needed for healthy kids, pregnant women
The covid-19 vaccine will no longer be recommended for pregnant women and healthy children, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday. Kennedy announced the update in a video posted to the social media platform X, alongside Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and National...
U.S. measles case count climbs slightly to 1,046 cases, while Indiana’s outbreak ends
The U.S. saw a small increase in measles cases last week, an indicator that outbreaks are slowing down, though exposures at a busy airport in Colorado and a Shakira concert in New Jersey are keeping public health experts on their toes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday...
All-female psychology group offers mental health services in Indiana Township
A pair of female licensed psychologists is settling into their first year in Indiana Township after relocating their therapy practice. The Psychology Loft is owned by Chelsea Williams of Indiana Township and Corrine Fallon of Murrysville and occupies the top floor in a 100-year-old building that was formerly Dorseyville Public...
Living with lupus and the mystery of the disease
Kyleigh MacGregor plans her life five years at a time. MacGregor has lupus, an incurable disease in which her immune system attacks her body’s organs and tissue. It’s been a year since MacGregor, 31, stepped away from her altruistic work in the community. Through EMS and firefighting, her main goal...
Pa. health experts predict spike in uninsured Pennsylvanians with House bill outlining Medicaid cuts
Becky Ludwick foresees a spike in the number of Pennsylvanians without health insurance if a bill passed by the U.S. House this week moves forward. House committees have spent months developing the 1,000-plus-page legislation. It outlines a variety of House Republican priorities, including tax cuts for individuals and businesses and...
Weight-loss drugs may lower cancer risk in people with diabetes, a study suggests
Excess body weight can raise the risk of certain cancers, leading researchers to wonder whether blockbuster drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic and Zepbound could play a role in cancer prevention. Now, a study of 170,000 patient records suggests there’s a slightly lower risk of obesity-related cancers in U.S. adults with diabetes...
How do you navigate new covid vaccine guidance? We asked the experts
A drastic shift in national policy recommends that only people 65 and older and others with certain health risks should get annual covid-19 vaccines, but at least one vaccine expert says the guidance raises as many questions as it answers. The Food and Drug Administration published its new policy Tuesday...
Joe Biden’s office says his ‘last known’ prostate cancer screening was in 2014
Former President Joe Biden’s “last known” prostate cancer screening was in 2014, and he had never been diagnosed with the disease before last week, his office said Tuesday. Biden’s aides released the new details about his diagnosis amid intense scrutiny of Biden’s health during his presidency and skepticism that the...
New Trump vaccine policy limits access to covid shots
WASHINGTON — Annual covid-19 shots for healthy younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved under a major new policy shift unveiled Tuesday by the Trump administration. Top officials for the Food and Drug Administration laid out new requirements for access to yearly covid shots, saying they’d continue...
‘Dilbert’ cartoon creator says he has same prostate cancer as Joe Biden
The creator of the Dilbert comic strip, which was canceled by most newspapers two years ago over the creator’s racist comments, said Monday that he has been diagnosed with the same aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe Biden. “I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has,” Scott Adams...
RFK Jr. pledged not to upend the vaccine system, but big changes are underway
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clinched the political support needed to become the nation’s top health official by pledging to work within the decades-old federal system for approval and use of vaccines. Yet his regulators are promising big changes that cloud the outlook for what shots might even be...
UPMC doc on Biden: ‘It’s impossible to screen your way out of advanced prostate cancer’
More than half of Joe Biden’s peers also likely have prostate cancer. They may not know it because they’re not showing symptoms and doctors generally stop screening for it at age 69. “We don’t often actively look for it at this age,” said Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, chair of the Urology...
Komen Walk in Schenley Park draws thousands touched by breast cancer
Tammy McMillan has been attending the Susan G. Komen More Than Pink Walk for years in support of loved ones affected by breast cancer. But she wasn’t so sure about doing this year’s 2-mile stroll through Schenley Park. The 56-year-old Penn Hills resident was diagnosed with breast cancer in November....
Providing health care in rural areas offers challenges for physicians
Dr. Richard Conn is well-versed in the challenges of providing health care in rural areas. The primary care physician has been seeing patients in Connellsville for the past 19 years. “For some (patients), preventive care is foreign to them. There’s a hesitancy to do things,” said Conn, 52, a Fayette...
Easily distracted? How to improve your attention span
MILWAUKEE — Feel like you can’t focus? Like you’ll never finish a book again? Like the only way to keep your mind and hands busy is to scroll on social media for hours? You’re far from alone. One body of decades-long research found the average person’s attention span for a...
FDA clears first blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease
U.S. regulators have approved the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, potentially making it easier to find and treat patients with the mind-robbing disease that affects nearly 7 million Americans. The test made by Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc., a unit of Japan’s H.U. Group Holdings Inc., was cleared for...
As Rite Aid collapses, customers and other pharmacies bear the impact
It takes Kathy Younkins just a few minutes to walk to her neighborhood Rite Aid. The 67-year-old has picked up her prescriptions at the company’s Harrison location since the 2000s. But now the Philadelphia-based pharmacy empire is crumbling. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month, blaming “the...
DeSantis signs a bill making Florida the 2nd state to ban fluoride from its water system
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure Thursday prohibiting local governments from adding fluoride to their water systems, making it the second state in the country after Utah to implement a statewide ban on the mineral. DeSantis signed the bill at a public event...
EPA announces rollback for some Biden-era limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking waterVideo
The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it plans to weaken limits on some “forever chemicals” in drinking water that were finalized last year, while maintaining standards for two common ones. The Biden administration set the first federal drinking water limits for PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, finding they...
