As Pennsylvania’s budget impasse nears 100 days, rape crisis centers are at a breaking point. Several organizations across the state are turning to layoffs, program downsizing and some may close amid the stoppage in government aid, advocates told WESA.

The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience, or GUIDE, Model is designed to benefit people with traditional Medicare health insurance who want to age in place at home while living with dementia. All services offered through the program are fully covered by Medicare.

93.7% of Pennsylvania kindergarteners got both recommended doses of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine before the 2024-2025 school year. That’s lower than the recommended 95% vaccination rate for herd immunity, the threshold to provide community resistance to infectious diseases.

More court action this week pertaining to gender-affirming care for Pittsburgh's transgender youth. Federal court filings seek to quash a DOJ subpoena that orders UPMC to hand over the health records of teenage trans patients:

A group of transgender patients and their families have filed a discrimination complaint with the state Human Relations Commission against UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, asserting that UPMC’s refusal to provide gender-affirming care for trans patients under 19 is sex-based discrimination.

Pennsylvania officials have confirmed the health department is part of a public health collaboration with other state health agencies in the Northeast. Though agencies have shared best practices in the past, this more formal coordination comes amid sweeping changes at the federal level under RFK Jr.

Dr. @ashishkjha.bsky.social, who led Biden’s coronavirus response, on what the Trump administration’s MAHA report leaves out. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/12/o...

As Trump administration health officials seek to reshape vaccine policy — which could impact insurance coverage of certain immunizations for millions of Americans — Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed new requirements aimed at “protecting access” to those vaccines.

The health department began deploying mobile air units Thursday provided by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and Carnegie Mellon University. The units will travel around Clairton to test for dozens of hazardous air pollutants.

NEW: In June, ProPublica reported that the FDA has given more than 20 foreign factories a special pass to send drugs to the U.S. even though they were made at plants the agency had banned. Today, we’re publishing a list of those exempted drugs.

Tentative 2026 health insurance rates for individual plans show a 19% average increase and small business group plans show a 13% jump, according to Pennsylvania regulators.

About 1,000 nurses at Pittsburgh's Magee-Womens Hospital are set to decide whether they’d like to be represented by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania later this month. The organizing effort is the latest in a growing labor movement among health care professionals in Pennsylvania.

Health groups are mobilizing behind the scenes to preserve access for vaccines as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. works to upend the nation’s decades-old vaccine system, according to public health experts.

UPMC is winding down gender-affirming care for young trans patients this month, citing “federal directives.” Now, more than 100 UPMC doctors, therapists and staff are demanding the health system reverse course and use its “immense resources” to “fight back.” www.wesa.fm/health-scien...

NEW: ProPublica has sued the FDA, accusing the agency of withholding information about the safety and availability of generic drugs critical to millions of Americans.

NEW: A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA gave substandard factories banned from the United States a special pass to keep sending drugs to an unsuspecting public.

The CDC is rehiring more than 400 people who had received layoff notices. Around half of those employees are in the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention. www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel that makes immunization recommendations for the United States. wapo.st/43zDOE2

President Trump took yet another step Tuesday to place NPR and PBS at the center of his broader clash with major cultural institutions, formally asking Congress to take back the $1.1 billion it has set aside for all public broadcasters for the next two years.

Bishop David A. Zubik, who has led the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh since 2007, is stepping down. Pope Leo XIV has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Mark A. Eckman to fill the role.

Some of the CDC's main channels for communicating urgent health information to the public have gone silent.

Federal funding to support harm reduction initiatives could disappear under President Trump’s budget proposal, which calls for major cuts to agencies tasked with fighting the opioid epidemic. At the same time, local groups say they have no clear indications about government support beyond 2025.

University of Pittsburgh leaders responded to demand for a more aggressive response to the Trump admin's funding cuts during a town hall meeting today. They also hinted at cost-cutting measures like shrinking Pitt's laboratory footprint and pursuing corporate-sponsored research opportunities. ⬇️

Today the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the ACA's mandate to cover preventative care services with no cost sharing. A new study led by @jsalomon.bsky.social shows that nearly 1 in 3 people with private health insurance use the top 10 of these services. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

“All funding is on hold,” an NIH official told colleagues at a meeting on Thursday, according to audio. “The bottom line is no one is getting any money right now. But they don’t know they’re not getting any money because it just says that it’s ‘in transit.’”

EXCLUSIVE: A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

DOGE-induced delays in trials at the NIH Clinical Center (Dr. Steve) Rosenberg said. “Right now, assuming things don’t get any worse, it would be a month [delay]. These are not patients that have very many months left.” This seemed inevitable but is still a big deal... wapo.st/4j8Hwd1 (Gift link)

Allegheny County debuted its new public health lab in Warrendale Monday. The facility can run 8 times as many tests as the county’s previous lab in Lawrenceville. But Trump admin funding threats loom over the last $20M needed for new equipment. www.wesa.fm/health-scien...

Pittsburgh-area state Rep. Lindsay Powell is rallying in Harrisburg today, urging lawmakers to enshrine into Pennsylvania law a federal act that protects abortion clinics from threats and damages.

Asian grocery stores are a lifeline to the communities they serve. But store owners say the prospect of sweeping tariffs are threatening their ability to stock up on goods and keep prices affordable.

People who are trying to figure out where the NIH goes in the future are turning to a small, 2 month old journal bc of its connection to the new director, Jay Bhattacharya As one expert put it: "Is this what Jay thinks? If that’s the case, then we worry" 🧪 www.statnews.com/2025/04/03/a...

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January demanding medical institutions that receive federal funding cease gender-affirming care for patients under 19. Despite a court order blocking enforcement of the policy, hospitals such as UPMC have yielded to the new restrictions.

A coalition of states including Pennsylvania is suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop the termination of $11 billion in grant funding to public health departments and programs.

Hearing from all corners of HHS this morning about a total bloodletting — firings of scientists, analysts and many more as delayed RIFs take effect. Many folks didn’t see early AM email and showed up, only to be turned away when badges didn’t work. Was sent this photo of long lines at one HHS site.

After a ticketed book event featuring Pennsylvania's senators was canceled in Pittsburgh, hundreds of protesters gathered at Schenley Plaza in Oakland to demand an audience with Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dave McCormick.

The Allegheny County Jail has opened an in-house licensed opioid treatment medication unit. The unit, which began operations last week, expands the jail’s ability to treat incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder.

Administrators’ decision followed concerns from parents, teachers, and even Pittsburgh City Council, about a lack of data on the repercussions of the school closures, including future feeder patterns in the Hill District and East End.

BREAKING: The United States' top health agency announces it will cut 10,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan.

“Physicians at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, say they’ve now treated a handful of children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage. Some of them had received unsafe doses of supplements for several weeks in an attempt to prevent a measles infection”

NEW: An @npr.org review of thousands of pages of records across more than a dozen federal lawsuits finds an alarming pattern across agencies, where DOGE has given conflicting information about what data it has accessed, who has that access, and most importantly — why. w/@jennamclaughlin.bsky.social

Get your candidates for the top 2025 local races in Allegheny County right here folks. Includes the names of the 22 candidates seeking one of the 8 Common Pleas Court slots. www.wesa.fm/politics-gov...

Keeping up with the news can be stressful. Psychology experts often advise unplugging, but David Creswell, a social psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University, is championing another approach: He wants people to lean into the discomfort.

A federally funded database helps track long-term, missing-person cases. Yet an NPR investigation finds that even in states legally required to use it, more than 2,000 people haven't been added.

Weeks after pausing admissions to Ph.D. programs, the University of Pittsburgh is now ordering a hiring freeze for faculty and staff. It's the latest move as the school grapples with what it calls an "evolving research funding landscape," amid major federal funding cuts. www.wesa.fm/health-scien...

Are you a Pennsylvanian who was fired from a federal job? I’d like to talk to you for a story. @wesa.fm

Pittsburgh researchers, doctors, and supporters filled Schenley Plaza Friday to speak out against government research funding cuts. Similar demonstrations were held across the country as part of a nationwide “Stand up for Science” movement.

A federal judge has granted a temporary injunction in the case against significant funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health. The ruling spares research institutions like the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University from major budget concerns for now.

Acting police chief Christopher Ragland, who Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey nominated to lead the department permanently just a month ago, has withdrawn his name from the position and appears to be leaving the department he once seemed poised to lead.

Another protest on the PA Capitol steps today, opposing Trump ahead of his address tonight

The Trump administration’s first round of sweeping staff cuts to federal agencies eliminated dozens of positions at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, which is tasked with implementing the No Surprises Act. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...