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POLLING
PUBLIC HEALTH: Via AP/NORC, VERBATIM: “When asked about confidence in medical professionals to act in the best interest of public health, AAPI adults report the most confidence in doctors, nurses, scientists, and medical researchers according to a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC Poll. Nine in 10 express at least some confidence in each of these professions, and about 6 in 10 are extremely or very confident. Fewer express the same level of confidence in alternative medicine practitioners (58%), and more than half (56%) are not confident in the federal government to do what is best for public health.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3P44ZlK
CAREGIVERS: Via ASHA, VERBATIM: “According to a new national poll commissioned by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and conducted by YouGov in March, communication breakdowns present a formidable daily challenge for U.S. caregivers—and they are raising concerns about the safety of adults with communication challenges.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4tS3K8t
OBSESSION: Via SWNS, VERBATIM: “According to new research, 64% of Americans believe the nation has a serious ‘obsession problem,’ where people will find anything to obsess over. The poll of 2,000 U.S. adults found that over half obsess over food (65%) and health and fitness (55%).” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4wdpQ6Z
Check out all the episodes of Sunday Take on 830 WCCO. CLICK: https://fluence-media.co/3KsuDrZ
MEDICAID SUPPORTS HEALTH CARE FOR ALL OF US: Medicaid keeps Minnesota’s hospitals strong and ensures communities across the state have access to care. Policymakers must protect Medicaid so every Minnesotan — regardless of income or health status — can get the care they need, when they need it. LEARN MORE: https://fluence-media.co/3FtrCuH (SPONSORED: Minnesota Hospital Association)
HOSPITALS IN CRITICAL CONDITION
The above graphic is from a Minnesota Hospital Association one-pager outlining what it sees as the crisis. MHA REPORT: https://fluence-media.co/48LFFrA
FORUM: Via WCCO-Radio, VERBATIM: “Hospitals across the country continue to raise concerns about their struggles to stay afloat. A forum Monday night, ‘Hospitals in Critical Condition,’ a Fluence Forum with Blois Olson on WCCO Radio [focused] on struggles felt by the country’s health systems.”
THE SITUATION: “Hundreds of rural hospitals across the country are facing closures after years of funding problems, but that struggle is also being felt by hospitals in the core of the largest U.S. cities as well. That is highlighted by the fight for Hennepin County Medical Center to stay afloat in Minneapolis. That system is facing closure unless state funding is granted through the Minnesota Legislature. HCMC is the state’s premier level one trauma center, that treated patients following last year’s Annunciation Church shooting, and is frequently the first stop for the most dire of emergency situations in the state.”
RURAL: “One of the experts joining the forums is United Hospital District CEO Rick Ash, who tells the WCCO Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar that OBGYN and delivery programs in rural Minnesota have been hit especially hard.” QUOTE: “About 11 years ago when I first got here, we had OB in every county around us,” says Ash. “Today, 19 programs across Minnesota have closed, and patients are driving 60-plus miles to give birth. And not to get into too much detail, but we’ve had a couple of occurrences where it’s been nip-and-tuck for babies. Fortunately we were here.”
MAKING THINGS WORSE: “Cuts to Medicaid funding vary by state. In Minnesota, the state is looking at a 15% cut, which amounts to approximately $19 billion over the next decade, and that’s money hospital systems can’t come close to making up.”
AND…: “Government programs like Medicaid often don’t reimburse hospitals at the same cost of the care. This is compounded by a growing number of uninsured patients or even underinsured patients, leaving hospitals with huge amounts of debt and uncompensated care. It’s also costing more to operate a hospital. Inflation is driving up the cost of supplies, services, faculty maintenance, and the cost of labor with widespread staff burnout since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The entire two-hour forum is available for free online. LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/MNHospitalsCriticalCondition
A NATIONAL ISSUE: Via KFF Health News, VERBATIM: “Across the U.S., hospitals and patient advocates are looking to state lawmakers and local officials to help shore up shaky finances. In California, Assembly member Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat representing Fresno, is pushing legislation to expand a 2023 ‘distressed hospital loan fund’ that allocated nearly $300 million in zero-interest loans to 16 hospitals in the state, including $14 million to MLK. The state would pony up another $300 million under Soria’s bill. At least two other states are weighing similar programs. A bill in Pennsylvania would create a $100 million ‘distressed hospital grant’ program. And a funding bill for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services contains a provision to create an $85 million loan program for troubled hospitals.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4d16Hwg
MORE: Via Becker’s Hopsital Review, a look at how the loss of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits is impacting hospitals. VERBATIM: “Hospital leaders are not just absorbing a financial hit from the exchange contraction. They are trying to manage it in real time, with incomplete data, moving targets and no clear sense of where the floor is. The most direct impact is the shift from insured to uninsured volume. In the first quarter, [Nashville-based HCA Healthcare] reported a 16% increase in uninsured equivalent admissions compared to the fourth quarter, with more than half of that growth attributable to patients moving off exchange plans.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4umXxBo
340B HOSPITAL MARKUPS HURT PATIENTS: Minnesota’s latest 340B report shows covered entities generated $1.34 billion IN PROFIT in 2024, including an estimated $261 million from Medicaid prescriptions. Independent research finds the program raises costs for patients, taxpayers, and employers statewide. Minnesota should sunset the 340B mandate and Congress should fix the federal 340B program, so it actually helps patients. LEARN MORE: https://fluence-media.co/46Bh9IA (SPONSORED: PhRMA)
HEALTH HEADLINES
UNITEDHEALTH: Via The Wall Street Journal, VERBATIM: “UnitedHealth Group plans to stop requiring doctors to get approvals for an array of procedures, tests and services, cutting back on a process that has long been detested by physicians and patients. UnitedHealth, parent of the biggest U.S. health insurer, said the changes will slash the number of reviews by nearly a third starting later this year. Doctors have long complained about the paperwork they must complete to get insurers’ permission for care, which can lead to delays and denials.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4whH8A6
VACCINE STUDIES: Via The New York Times, VERBATIM: “Officials at the Food and Drug Administration have blocked publication of several studies supporting the safety of widely used vaccines against Covid-19 and shingles in recent months, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed. The studies, which cost millions of dollars in public funds, were conducted by scientists at the agency, who worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records. They found serious side effects to be very rare.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4ndHdQX
ABORTION PILL: Via NPR, VERBATIM: “Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Monday put a one-week hold on major changes to how the abortion pill mifepristone can be prescribed. The ruling temporarily restores nationwide access to a drug used for most medication abortions in the U.S. On Friday, an appeals court had said the Food and Drug Administration needed to revert to rules that the pills, part of a two-drug regimen for medication abortion, must be prescribed only in-person. The change was effective immediately for the whole country.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3Rn4m7y
ICE SURGE: Via MPR, VERBATIM: “The surge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in St. Cloud earlier this year created a climate of intense fear and anxiety in the Somali American community that lasted for months, and left some still feeling the effects on their mental health . . . mental health therapist, Ali Aden . . . opened the Bridge Healing Center in St. Cloud about four years ago. It provides culturally specific mental health services mainly for the East African community. Aden said many of his clients are experiencing mental health symptoms as a result of the ICE surge, including anxiety, depression and chronic stress.” LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/4nbNJYB
988: Via KARE-TV, VERBATIM: “The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has answered more than 17 million calls and text messages since July 2022, according to figures shared through early 2026, as officials point to early signs of impact in youth mental health trends. During that same period, youth suicide rates have decreased by 11%, a development advocates say underscores the importance of accessible crisis support services. One of the key figures behind the lifeline’s development is Kristen Christy, a military spouse and resilience expert who co-created the 988 system.” WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/49oCbv9
PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES CONTINUE TO SOAR: While Minnesota’s safety-net hospitals navigate bleak financial outlooks, drug manufacturers continue to raise drug prices at rates that far outpace inflation, rising 23% in the last year alone. By strengthening the 340B drug pricing program, local hospitals can weather these soaring prices and continue to deliver the care and treatments that Minnesotans need. NEW: Minnesota Prescription Drug Price Transparency, Report to the Minnesota Legislature, March 2026 (SPONSORED: Essentia Health)
INNOVATION & RESEARCH
MAYO: Via Star Tribune, VERBATIM: “Mayo Clinic will no longer post remote-only jobs in a move the state’s largest employer says is meant to ‘strengthen collaboration across roles and disciplines.’ The Rochester-based nonprofit health system will continue to offer hybrid arrangements that allow for some work-from-home flexibility. Hybrid jobs will require employees to live within 100 miles of their assigned sites, which would put most of the Twin Cities metro within range of jobs in Rochester.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4usZkov
SKIN PRINTER: Via Mayo Clinic, VERBATIM: “In a laboratory at Mayo Clinic, a machine that looks strikingly similar to a desktop printer is quietly reshaping the future of dermatology. Instead of ink, it dispenses living human cells. Instead of paper, it builds tissue — layer by layer — replicating one of the body’s most complex organs: skin. For Saranya Wyles, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist and researcher at Mayo Clinic, the journey into 3D bioprinting began not with an ambitious plan to reinvent tissue engineering, but with a practical problem. Her team needed a better way to test new therapies.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4tWkgV4
STENT: Via Twin Cities Business, VERBATIM: “After three decades in the medical device industry, including leadership roles at Pfizer and Baxter, John Schorgl believed there was still room to improve the stent. Now, as CEO of Plymouth-based Peytant Solutions, Schorgl is leading a Twin Cities startup developing what it says is a first-of-its-kind airway stent covered with human tissue, taken from the inner membrane of the placenta, rather than with synthetic materials. Founded on patents issued in late 2016, Peytant now employs 11 people.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4tcQj1X
ALZHEIMER’S: Via Kindai University, VERBATIM: “A new study suggests a surprisingly simple compound could help fight Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that arginine—an inexpensive amino acid already considered safe—can reduce the buildup of toxic amyloid proteins in the brain, a hallmark of the disease. In animal models, oral arginine not only lowered harmful protein deposits but also improved behavior and reduced brain inflammation.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4wiYLiX
SEPSIS: Via Twin Cities Business, VERBATIM: “Tom Burke, founder of Vail Scientific, a Bloomington-based med tech startup focused on early sepsis detection, noticed a problem inside hospitals . . . Vail Scientific, founded in 2015, is aiming to avert as many as 80% of sepsis deaths via rapid diagnosis and treatment, to be achieved with a new device called VSNO, which stands for vital signs and nitric oxide. It is a battery-powered tool the size of a desk telephone that mounts onto an IV pole and monitors a patient’s breath for a chemical called nitric oxide. This way, Vail Scientific claims, its new device can detect sepsis within two minutes.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4d2fnCv
MULTIPLE MYELOMA: Via Mayo Clinic, VERBATIM: “Research from Mayo Clinic is helping refine how multiple myeloma is diagnosed and treated, with findings that support more personalized therapies and identify promising immunotherapy strategies for aggressive forms of the disease. The research led by Sikander Ailawadhi, M.D., Shaji Kumar, M.D., Akhilesh Pandey, M.D., Ph.D., and Richard Kandasamy, Ph.D. in the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, focuses on tailoring treatment based on disease biology and improving outcomes for patients living longer with the cancer.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3PoMJUm
FORUM: If you’re interested in having the Fluence Forum host a topic, please contact Blois Olson at bloisolson@gmail.com
COFFEE: Via University College Cork, VERBATIM: “Coffee doesn’t just energize—it actively reshapes the gut and mind. Researchers found that both caffeinated and decaf coffee altered gut bacteria in ways linked to better mood and lower stress. Decaf even improved learning and memory, while caffeine boosted focus and reduced anxiety. Together, they show coffee works through multiple pathways beyond just caffeine.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/42c9FJv
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