Pete Hegseth’s announcement of annual testosterone screenings for service members divides medical experts Reactions range from lauding defense secretary’s plan as ‘valuable’ to calling it ‘crazy’

https://www.statnews.com/2026/07/16/hegseth-testosterone-testing-proposal-reactions-range-promising-crazy/ By Annalisa MerelliJuly 16, 2026 Contributing Writer

Despite earnings celebration, UnitedHealth signals more financial pain for employers Medical costs for UnitedHealthcare’s employer clients soared 11%

https://www.statnews.com/2026/07/16/unitedhealth-employer-insurance-costs-medical-spending/ By Bob HermanJuly 16, 2026 Bob Herman is the author of Health Care Inc., an award-winning weekly newsletter about the business of health and medicine.

Predicting biotech clinical trials and a new Alzheimer’s drug controversy

https://www.statnews.com/2026/07/16/readout-loud-podcast-predicting-clinical-trials-biogen-alzheimers-tau/ By Elaine Chen, Adam Feuerstein, and Allison DeAngelisJuly 16, 2026

MAHA is rewriting the vocabulary of American mental health care ‘Wellness,’ ‘metabolic dysfunction,’ ‘dependency crisis’ — this language smuggles in an agenda

https://www.statnews.com/2026/07/17/maha-mental-health-care-vocabulary-rhetoric-wellness/ By Sunny PatelJuly 17, 2026 Patel is associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He previously served as senior adviser for children, youth, and families at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The state of specialty care: Advancing patient care for complex conditions

https://www.statnews.com/sponsor/2026/06/22/the-state-of-specialty-care-advancing-patient-care-for-complex-conditions/

Lettuce at Taco Bell in five states confirmed as a source of diarrhea-causing parasite Experts have said not every recent U.S. illness might be caused by a single source

https://www.statnews.com/2026/07/17/cyclosporiasis-outbreak-traced-taylor-farms-lettuce-taco-bell/ By Associated PressJuly 17, 2026

What the 20th-century war on smog tells us about today’s wildfire smoke The evolution of air pollution policy shows how to respond to the dangerous haze

https://www.statnews.com/2026/07/17/wildfire-smoke-air-quality-smog-policy-climate-change/ By Rebecca Florsheim, Neil Vora, Peter J. Winch, and Connie HoeJuly 17, 2026 Florsheim is an environmental health physician at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Vora is a physician and executive director of Preventing Pandemics at the Source. Winch develops and evaluates interventions to promote health behaviors for water, sanitation, infectious diseases, and environmental sustainability. Hoe is a public health researcher who serves as endowed division head for policy and implementation research at the German Cancer Research Center.