• Louisiana: According to court documents, Louisiana has issued an arrest warrant for an out-of-state doctor accused of mailing abortion medications to a patient in the state. The warrant was issued for Remy Coeyteux, a physician from California. Rosalie Markezich, a Louisiana woman who was prescribed abortion medication in 2023, said her boyfriend at the time used her email address to order the medication from Coeytaux. In court filings, Markezich said she did not want to take the pills but felt forced to and said that she would not have had an abortion if telehealth prescriptions for abortion medications were banned. Coeyteux is also the target of a separate lawsuit in Texas where a man accused her of illegally providing his girlfriend with abortion medication. These cases are part of an ongoing conflict over telehealth prescriptions for abortion medications, with states that have abortion bans going after out-of-state providers. Currently, eight states, including California and New York, have shield laws to protect providers who prescribe abortion medications to out-of-state patients. (Associated Press/MedPage Today, 9/29)
• Maryland: According to a new study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, children and teenagers are twice as likely to develop long COVID after a second coronavirus infection compared to an initial one. The study, which is part of NIH's RECOVER Initiative, examined health data from roughly 465,000 patients at 40 U.S. children's hospitals. The patients either had a first or second coronavirus infection between Jan. 1, 2022, and Oct. 13, 2023. Overall, the researchers found that 1,884 per 1 million young people developed long COVID after two infections, twice the rate of those with one infection (904 per 1 million). The researchers also noted that tens of thousands of patients who did not receive a long COVID diagnosis were treated for conditions that could be long COVID symptoms, including respiratory problems and abdominal pain. "Reinfection really increases the risk," said Yong Chen, the study's senior author, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Penn Computing, Inference and Learning Lab. "Your body really has a memory system and is really going to be hurt from recurrent infection." (Belluck, New York Times, 9/30)
• Pennsylvania: Rite Aid, which was once one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, has closed its remaining 89 stores. The company initially filed for bankruptcy in October 2023 and finalized the process in September 2024. It filed for bankruptcy again in May after facing continued financial difficulties. At the time, Rite Aid had around 1,250 stores still in operation, but all have since closed. "All Rite Aid stores have now closed. We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support," the company said in a statement on its website. Although the company no longer offers any services, its website remains available to allow customers to request their pharmaceutical records or find another nearby pharmacy to fill their prescriptions. Previously, Rite Aid sold the pharmacy assets of more than 1,000 stores to several competitors, including CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Albertsons, and Kroger. According to Rite Aid CEO Matt Schroeder, the decision helped "ensure our pharmacy customers will experience a smooth transition while preserving jobs for some of our valued team members." (Bacon, CNN, 10/4)

Amid rising costs and shrinking margins, explore six data-driven strategies health systems can leverage to enhance financial resilience in uncertain times.