Senate Republican leaders have increased the rural hospital relief fund from $15 billion to $25 billion to be distributed over five years as part of discussions on the federal budget bill. This increase is significantly less than the $100 billion requested by Sen. Susan Collins to support rural hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers.

Hospital-at-home programs are expected to continue growing, even with the potential expiration of a Medicare waiver that has supported them, according to executives from Mass General Brigham, Atrium Health and Ochsner Health. The programs are credited with reducing costs, easing hospital overcrowding, improving outcomes and achieving high patient satisfaction.

A coalition of more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., has filed a federal lawsuit challenging billions of dollars in funding cuts that affect scientific research and other programs. The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used an obscure clause to cancel programs and grants based on changing priorities.

Foundational large language models are vulnerable to malicious instructions that can turn them into health disinformation tools, according to a study in Annals of Internal Medicine. "Even persons with little to no coding expertise can easily and invisibly manipulate currently available large language models (LLMs) to deliver harmful disinformation with convincing scientific polish," experts wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended vaccination against for everyone older than 6 months but recommended against use of flu vaccines with the preservative thimerosal. Most vaccines use little to none of the preservative, and the FDA and CDC have said low doses have not been shown to cause harm aside from the possibility of redness and swelling.

A study in The American Journal of Gastroenterology found that 93.6% of coin ingestions in children passed through the gastrointestinal tract without requiring intervention. Of the cases where coins were retained in the esophagus, about 25% resolved spontaneously, particularly those in the mid- or distal esophagus.

A study in the journal Diabetic Medicine found that children who had COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to develop type 1 diabetes within six months compared with those who were not infected. The study, which reviewed records of more than 1 million hospitalized children in England, found that 475 developed type 1 diabetes after having COVID-19, at a rate of 90.5 per 100,000 person-years.

The use of GLP-1 receptor agonists among pediatric patients with type 2 diabetes increased from 12.3% to 60.9% from 2019 to 2024 in a population of 696 patients, according to a study presented at the American Diabetes Association's 85th Scientific Sessions. The retrospective study tracked trends in obesity, A1C and medication use, and researchers noted the rise in GLP-1 use reflects "evolving practices and prioritization of high-risk subgroups."

The House Education and Workforce Committee has advanced two bills aimed at helping small employers with health insurance benefits. The first bill would make it easier for small employers and self-employed individuals to join association health plans, and the second bill would aid small businesses in offering self-insured plans by preempting state regulations on stop-loss insurance.