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[ad_1] Enfimil infant formula, made by Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., sits on display in a supermarket in New York, U.S. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg News | Getty Images Baby formula maker Reckitt Benckiser's Mead Johnson Nutrition has voluntarily chosen to recall certain batches of baby formula powder due to possible bacterial contamination, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The possibly impacted batches of Nutramigen Powder, an infant formula specially designed for children allergic to cow's milk, were produced in June and distributed throughout the summer. "Based on the limited availability of the remaining stock of this special infant formula, it is believed that much, if not all, of the products recalled in the United States have been consumed," Reckitt said in a statement published by the FDA on Sunday. The company said no "illnesses or adverse events" have been recorded yet but urged consumers who have purchased Nutramigen to check t...

[ad_1] A banner hanging from on overpass along the southbound lane of I-83 that says, "Deny Defend Depose Health Care 4 All." Lloyd Fox | Baltimore Sun | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Major insurance stocks have fallen more than 6% since their closing prices last Tuesday, the day before the deadly shooting of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth Group 's insurance arm, in midtown Manhattan.  That includes UnitedHealth, CVS Health and Cigna , which operate three of the nation's largest private health insurers. Thompson, 50, led UnitedHealthcare, the largest private payer of health insurance benefits in the U.S.  Luigi Mangione , 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday last week, as the CEO headed to UnitedHealth Group's investor day. Investigators have said Mangione was a critic of the health-care industry, a view some Americans sympathized with online in the days after Thompson's d...

[ad_1] When Dr. Tra'chella Johnson Foy greets her patients, she sits across from them facing away from the computer in the exam room. Then, she pulls out her phone, and asks for permission to record the appointment. "It listens in on our visit so I can pay more attention to you," explains Foy, a family physician at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, while looking straight at her patient. Foy and other doctors at Baptist Health have been using the DAX app , powered by artificial intelligence, from Microsoft's Nuance division since last year. The program transcribes doctors' and patients' comments, then creates a clinical physician summary formatted for an electronic health record.  Dr. Trachella Johnson CNBC The app frees doctors from having to type up notes during patient visits, and from having to finish them up at night. A practice so common doctors have a nickname for it. "Pajama time — which should be the time where you're getting ready...

[ad_1] Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos Inc., arrives at federal court in San Jose, California, March 17, 2023. Benjamin Fanjoy | Bloomberg | Getty Images Imprisoned Silicon Valley CEO  Elizabeth Holmes  has shaved more months from her initial  11-year-plus sentence  for wire fraud and conspiracy, federal records show, and is due to be released two years earlier than expected. Holmes, 40, has a current release date of Aug. 16, 2032, from a women's federal prison in Bryan, Texas, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Last July, her expected  release date was listed  as Dec. 29, 2032. The disgraced founder of failed blood-testing startup Theranos entered prison in May 2023 after she was handed a  135-month prison sentence  for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. While the BOP declined to comment specifically about Holmes' status for privacy and security reasons, the agency said in a statement that "projected release dates are calculated with ...

[ad_1] In this photo illustration, Abbott's at-home covid-19 rapid test kits are seen on display in Orlando. Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images As Covid cases surge again in the U.S., Americans are digging out unused at-home tests that they stashed earlier on in the pandemic.  Many of those tests may have passed their expiration dates , but don't throw them away just yet.  The Food and Drug Administration has extended the expiration dates of many popular at-home test products, which means some of your old kits may still be safe to use. You can check by visiting a page on the FDA's website that lists expiration information for each test brand. "That's the first thing I would do before using an expired test or throwing it away," Andrew Pekosz, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNBC. If the date has not changed, the FDA advises against using expired tests. Doing so increases the chance of an inaccurate tes...

[ad_1] In this photo illustration, an insulin pen manufactured by the Novo Nordisk company is displayed on March 14, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images The top executives of the three drug companies that control 90% of the global insulin market will testify May 10 before the Senate Health Committee on lowering prices of their diabetes drugs, panel Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders said Friday. Those companies — Eli Lilly , Novo Nordisk and Sanofi — had announced in March that they will slash prices of their most widely used insulin products by 70% or more. related investing news Sanders on Friday called that move an important step forward that was the result of "public outrage and strong grassroots efforts." But the Vermont independent added that Congress must ensure that insulin, whose price has increased by more than 1,000% since 1996, is affordable for everyone. "We must make certain, however, that those price reductions go in...

[ad_1] Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine mRNA 2024-2025 formula. Courtesy: Moderna A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions. It's that time of the year again. A new round of Covid shots is on its way to Americans.  The Food and Drug Administration last week approved updated mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna amid a relatively large summer surge of the virus. Here's what you need to know, including how the shots are different this time around, who is eligible, where to get a vaccine and more.  What makes these shots different? U.S. health officials have long told patients to expect annual updates to Covid shots as the virus mutates into new strains that can dodge the immunity people develop from previous vaccinations or infections. It's similar to how the U.S. rolls out new flu shots each year.  This time, the shots fro...

[ad_1] A person receives a COVID-19 vaccination dose, during a free distribution of COVID-19 rapid test kits for those who received vaccination shots or booster shots, at Union Station on January 7, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images The U.S. Food and Drug Administration 's independent panel of advisors raised doubts about the need to "periodically" update Covid vaccines, noting that it's unclear if the virus is seasonal like the flu. Advisors on Thursday unanimously voted that new jabs for the fall should be monovalent — meaning they are designed against one variant of Covid — and target one of the omicron XBB strains . Those are now the dominant variants nationwide.  But the original voting question included language about whether the panel recommends a "periodic update" to Covid shots.  Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA's vaccine division, asked the panel's chair to strike the wording from the question after severa...

[ad_1] The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2023. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked in full a lower court ruling that would have curbed the Biden administration's ability to communicate with social media companies about contentious content on such issues as Covid-19. The decision in a  short unsigned order  puts on hold a Louisiana-based judge's ruling in July that specific agencies and officials should be barred from meeting with companies to discuss whether certain content should be stifled. The Supreme Court also agreed to immediately take up the government's appeal, meaning it will hear arguments and issue a ruling on the merits in its current term, which runs until the end of June. Three conservative justices noted that they would have denied the application: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. "At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by so...

[ad_1] Life expectancy in the U.S. is between three and five years lower than the average in other high-income countries — and the gap comes in part from misinformation, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said. "It's looking worse, not better, over the last several years," Califf told CNBC in an interview Thursday at the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. It's not just the Covid pandemic contributing to the decline, he said, pointing out the gap with peer nations is widening. Califf said a new factor has joined the list of known causes of life-expectancy disparities like race, ethnicity, income and education: living in a rural area, where he noted that people are exposed to different information sources. "Why aren't we using medical products as effectively and efficiently as our peer countries? A lot of it has to do with choices that people make because of the things that influenced their thinking," Calif...

[ad_1] A UnitedHealth Group health insurance card is seen in a wallet, Oct.14, 2019. Lucy Nicholson | Reuters Good afternoon! Health insurers are feeling the squeeze as older patients head to the doctor more than expected. CVS , which owns health insurer Aetna, on Wednesday  slashed its full-year profit outlook , citing the potential for higher medical costs to bite into its profits. That warning came two weeks after insurance giant  Humana  cited the same factor as it issued a  dismal 2024 earnings guidance . Medical costs from Medicare Advantage patients have  spiked over the last year  as more older adults return to hospitals to undergo procedures they had delayed during the Covid pandemic, such as joint and hip replacements.  Medicare Advantage , a type of privately run health insurance plan contracted by Medicare, has long been a key source of growth and profits for the insurance industry.  More than half  of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in such plans, enticed by lower...