Medicare backs off a planned pause & an ex-vegan restauranteur starts farming

Plus: A major LGBTQ+ health clinic will stop providing gender-affirming care to those under 19

October 16, 2025 Check out STAT+

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By Theresa Gaffney Morning Rounds Writer and Reporter

Good morning. To clarify: Editors are well-dressed too! In fact, some of STAT's best-dressed folks are editors. Happy Summit day two!

whiplash Medicare backs off plan to pause doctor payments  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said late last night that it was not pausing all Medicare payments to doctors, after a statement hours earlier had asserted that it would. Instead, the agency will only wait to process claims that are related to programs that have expired, such as some telehealth or rural services.  For background: The agency had said yesterday it was pausing all Medicare payments to doctors as negotiations tied to the government shutdown drag on, a move that surprised and worried clinicians, community health centers, and other health care providers. STAT's Daniel Payne and Tara Bannow have the updated details. yesterday CDC leaders, a YouTube sensation, and the cutest baby It was a lively first day at the STAT Summit here in Boston. Here are some of the highlights: Emma Walmsley, CEO of the drugmaker GSK, downplayed the company's role in the FDA's effort to update the prescribing information of the long-shelved drug leucovorin so that it can be used to treat a condition often associated with autism. GSK no longer makes the treatment, but the move to update the drug label will allow generic manufacturers to update their labels as well. Read more from STAT's Elaine Chen. Former CDC leaders Rochelle Walensky and Dan Jernigan stopped short of saying they no longer trust the CDC. But they did say it's been harder to trust CDC guidance under the Trump administration, and that physician groups should step up to fill the void. Read more from STAT's Chelsea Cirruzzo. And they weren't the only ones with this point of view. YouTube sensation "Doctor Mike" Varshavski had some spicy comments on messaging for the American Medical Association as well as federal health agencies. "How many times would I scroll past a CDC post with three likes on it? It's literally the equivalent of not doing it," he said. Particularly when it comes to the AMA, Varshavski's criticism is part of a wave of resistance from physicians to its historically quiet advocacy strategy. Read more from me. Kyle and Nicole Muldoon shared an inside look at how their family went from heartbreak to cautious hope after their son KJ was diagnosed with a rare urea cycle disorder and underwent gene therapy treatment. A story about celebrating a Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle brought many in the audience to tears. "This is what we thought we would never get," Kyle said. Read more from STAT's Megan Molteni. today What to expect at Summit day two These are the panels I'm most looking forward to today: First thing this morning, STAT's Chelsea Cirruzzo will talk with American Medical Association president Bobby Mukkamala. And between the flurry of HHS news, the CMS confusion above, and yesterday's criticism of the AMA from Doctor Mike, there's plenty to discuss. Later, STAT's Anil Oza will speak with former NIH leaders and a data analyst who is tracking the impact of health agency funding cuts about the upheaval at the agency since January. To prepare for the session, consider revisiting the science team's project on the impact of the Trump administration's first 100 days.  Joe Kennedy III, a former Massachusetts Democratic congressman, will talk with STAT's executive editor Rick Berke about efforts to protect and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid, the importance of expanding access to mental health care, the government shutdown, and more. Rick asked some great questions from the audience yesterday (at one point energetically rebutting a speaker who wished him a happy birthday: "How about for my birthday you answer my question?") so I have a feeling it'll be great to see him flex his reporting muscles on stage with a Kennedy.

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lone star state An ex-vegan Texan restauranteur puts a MAHA vision to the test Brenda Bazán for STAT  After decades of dishing out raw vegan bowls to stars at his family's California restaurants (including the famously kitschy Cafe Gratitude in L.A.), Ryland Engelhart decided to take up a new life as a "regenerative" farmer in Texas. Until he can coax some native plants to grow, Engelhart is cover-cropping (a process that involves planting fast-growing grass to keep weeds at bay without herbicides) while shuffling a small flock of sheep around the fields so they can fertilize naturally, if you know what I mean. (See above.) Sovereignty Ranch hits all the buzzwords of the Make America Healthy Again movement: it's a decentralized, small-scale, family-owned, chemical-free farm. STAT's Isabella Cueto visited Engelhart at the ranch last month and attended its first "Food is Medicine" summit. Engelhart has known Kennedy for years — their relationship goes back to a sweat lodge, Isa writes, as many MAHA stories do. Read Isa's story for an up-close look at how Sovereignty Ranch may serve as proof-of-concept for MAHA's farms of the future. LGBTQ+ health Large LGBTQ+ health center will stop gender-affirming care for those under 19 Fenway Health, a Boston-based health center devoted to LGBTQ+ inclusive care, announced Monday that the system will stop providing gender-affirming care to patients under age 19 "due to a change in federal requirements that went into effect October 1, 2025." It appears to be the first major LGBTQ+ clinic to submit to Trump's executive order from January on gender-affirming care for children and young adults, following multiple stoppages of care at children's hospitals across the country.  Last month, the Health Resources and Services Administration — which provides funding to federally qualified centers like Fenway — said that it would deprioritize funding programs that engage in gender-affirming care.   The move from Fenway came as a shock to trans patients and others. "I was previously on the board of this organization and I've never been so disgusted with their leadership cowardly capitulating like this," Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, said in a post on BlueSky.

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What we're reading Democratic governors form state public health alliance to counter RFK Jr., Washington Post America is heavily reliant on China for raw materials in medicines, New York Times The long history of euphemisms around the use of animals in lab research, STAT From the archives: Brain worms are more common than you think. Here's what doctors who've treated them say, Boston Globe No one was helping Black transgender youth. So these parents stepped in, The 19th

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Thanks for reading! More next time,

theresa.gaffney@statnews.com

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