• Idaho: Earlier this month, Judge Jason Scott issued a ruling that expanded medical exemptions to Idaho's strict abortion bans after four women sued the state. Currently, Idaho bans abortions at any stage of pregnancy unless it is "necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman." Under the ruling, abortion is not prohibited if a patient experiences pregnancy complications that could cause their death, even if that death "is neither imminent nor assured." This change allows doctors to perform an abortion if "good faith medical judgment" shows that a patient with an existing medical condition or pregnancy complication has a risk of dying at some point without an abortion. "Pregnant Idahoans whose health is in danger shouldn't be forced to remain pregnant, and we are glad the court recognized that today. But this decision leaves behind so many people, including some of the women who brought this case," said Gail Deady, a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the case. "No one should have to choose between carrying a doomed pregnancy against their will or fleeing the state if they can." (Associated Press, 4/11)
• Maryland: CMS has announced that it will no longer approve or extend federal Medicaid funding requests for certain state health programs. According to the agency, the programs, which aim to address social determinants of health, duplicate other resources available in federal and state programs and serve as an "overly-creative financing mechanism to skirt state budget responsibilities." CMS also argued that the programs increased federal spending, going from around $886 million in eligible expenditures in 2019 to almost $2.7 billion in 2025. Katherine Hempstead, senior policy advisor at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said that states will likely stop proposing these programs to the federal government and have to find ways to fund them on their own. "It represents the end of an era of being open to a broader conception of health within the Medicaid program," Hempstead said. (Olsen, Healthcare Dive, 4/14)
• New York: Towana Looney, a 53-year-old woman who received a genetically modified pig kidney in late November, had the organ removed after experiencing symptoms of rejection. Looney, who was the third person to receive a transplant from a pig kidney, had the kidney for 130 days, the longest time a human has ever lived with an animal organ. After her body began rejecting the pig kidney, Looney had it removed on April 4 and is recovering well from the surgery. "Towana's willingness to endeavor into the unknown to help solve the nation's organ shortage crisis will impact many more lives after her. We celebrate her tremendous courage and sacrifice," said Robert Montgomery, Looney's surgeon who is the director of the NYU Langone Tranplant Institute and chair of NYU Langone Health's surgery department. "She lived with a pig kidney longer than any other human in history, and the field has learned a great deal from her. Her contribution has furthered the hope and promise of genetically engineered pig organs as an alternative source to human organs." Earlier this year, FDA approved two biotechnology companies, United Therapeutics Corporation and eGenesis, for separate clinical trials that will transplant genetically modified pig organs into patients with kidney failure. (Neergaard, Associated Press, 4/11; McPhillips, et al., CNN, 4/11)

Listen to experts from Advisory Board and Optum to understand the 2026 CMS program changes, what the updates mean for your organization, and the impact these updates will have on the future of healthcare. Understanding what happened and what's next is the only way to respond quickly to the proposed changes.