The White House on Tuesday announced a new plan to address the presence of xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer also known as "tranq," which has contributed to overdoses throughout the United States, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, Georgia, and Tennessee.

• District of Columbia: The White House on Tuesday announced a new plan to address the presence of xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer also known as "tranq," which has increasingly been mixed into opioids like fentanyl and has contributed to overdoses throughout the United States. Xylazine isn't an opioid and as a result, it doesn't respond to naloxone, the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. According to Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the plan will rely on six pillars: testing, research, data collection, disrupting xylazine supply, and developing evidence-based treatment and harm reduction practices. The government also plans to "explore" adding xylazine to the list of medications under the Controlled Substances Act, which would allow a more aggressive prosecution of xylazine importation and distribution for illicit purposes, Gupta said. (Facher, STAT, 7/11)
• Georgia: CDC is reducing funding to states for child vaccination programs, according to a June 27 email obtained by KFF Health News. CDC officials said the cut comes as a result of the debt ceiling deal struck by the Biden administration and Congress — which rescinded around $27 billion in unspent federal money allocated to fighting COVID-19 — and that the cut may result in less complete vaccination reporting. (Miller, KFF Health News, 7/5)
• Tennessee: HCA Healthcare on Monday announced it experienced a data breach that affected approximately 11 million patients across 1,400 hospitals and physician offices in 20 states. According to HCA, hackers stole data from an external storage location used to automate emails and posted the data to an online forum. The compromised data includes patients' names, email addresses, and service locations, but HCA said it doesn't believe the data includes clinical or payment information. According to a Politico analysis of HHS data, healthcare entities have reported more than 330 breaches affecting 41.4 million people so far this year. (Bannow, STAT+ [subscription required], 7/10; Schumaker et. al., "Future Pulse," Politico, 7/10)