Trending News Today: Payers, Employer Groups Urge Congress to Halt Surprise Billing

The Supreme Court rejected appeals from Kansas and Louisiana that sought to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, according to the Associated Press. The appeal challenged lower court rulings that blocked the states from withholding funds for health services provided to low-income women. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr, and Neil Gorsuch were the lone votes in favor of adding the case to the court dockets, with Thomas charging that the other justices sidestepped the case for political reasons, according to the article.

Health insurer, employer, and consumer groups are lobbying Congress to pass legislation that shields patients from surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers, according to Modern Healthcare. These bills can occur when a patient unintentionally visits a physician or health care facility that does not contract with their health insurer, such as when patients are taken to an out-of-network emergency department, the article reported. This can occur in 4 out of 10 insured adults, who indicated that they received a surprise medical bill within the past year, according to the report.

Women who have given birth to a child may have a greater risk of breast cancer, which continues for up to 23 years after their most recent birth compared with women who have never had children, according to CNN. The risk apparently changes after 23 years and may then be protective against breast cancer, according to the study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. However, the study authors said that the higher breast cancer risk is small and women should not worry, the article noted. "What we saw was this pattern where risk was highest about five years after birth, and then it gradually declined as time went on," said first author Hazel Nichols, as reported by CNN.