Top FDA Official Exits; SCOTUS Takes Up Obamacare Case; Texas Doc Suspended

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Patrizia Cavazzoni, MD, will step down from her role as FDA’s director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on January 18. (Fierce Pharma)

Amid the raging wildfires, Los Angeles-area residents are being warned not to drink the tap water. (NPR)

HHS declared the wildfires a public health emergency.

In an exit interview, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra lamented the instantaneous disinformation of the social media age. (Washington Post)

The Supreme Court will decide whether to reinstate the Affordable Care Act’s free preventive care requirements — such as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV and certain cancer screenings — struck down by a lower court. (NBC News)

Medicare Advantage plans are slated to receive a 4.33% pay increase in 2026 under a proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

A database developed by researchers at Mass General Brigham ranked 50,000 processed foods and offers potential alternatives. (Nature Foods)

“Havana syndrome” injuries to diplomats and other personnel were not caused by foreign nations, the U.S. government concluded, though two intelligence agencies maintained that it could be possible. (AP)

In its final days, the Biden administration’s FDA is expected to propose a limit on the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. (NBC News)

And House members Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) urged the administration to ban Red Dye 3, a known carcinogen.

Residents at Philadelphia-based Temple University Hospital and Einstein Healthcare Network voted to unionize. (WHYY)

Scientists hope to knock out the gene in grapefruit that interacts with medications. (New York Times)

The Washington Post looked at the “hidden epidemic” of chronic pain.

A nurse’s aide in Iowa was fired after a video apparently showed her flossing her teeth over a patient. (WSAZ3)

In Texas, the state medical board suspended the license of Samer Elfallal, DO, charging that the neurosurgeon gave an overdose of lidocaine to a patient, causing a seizure and subsequent cardiac arrest. (Click2Houston)

Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Virginia — where a nurse was charged with child abuse after fractures were discovered in seven babies — “failed to protect” its patients, according to a report from the state’s department of health. (Washington Post)

Following the collapse of Steward Health Care, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) signed into law a sweeping bill that will beef up hospital oversight. (Healthcare Dive)

Prospect Medical Holdings — another large private-equity backed system that owns hospitals and health facilities in California and states in the Northeast — filed for bankruptcy. (CBS News)

Here’s what FDA found during an inspection at the Colorado facility linked to an E. coli outbreak at McDonald’s: wet and dirty equipment, not much handwashing, and sanitizing chemicals potentially winding up on ready-to-eat produce. (CBS News)

And here’s how FDA’s thinking on obesity has shifted in the last two decades. (STAT)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week barred medical debt from affecting credit reports. Here’s what it may mean for patients and the healthcare industry. (NPR)

Another child in California is presumed positive for bird flu. (CNN)

Cases of human metapneumovirus in northern China are declining, according to a health official there. (AP)