Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of March 24, 2025

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of March 24, 2025–March 28, 2025.

The New York Times (3/21, Rosenbluth) reported that as containment efforts “falter,” the measles outbreak in West Texas is “likely to persist for a year, perhaps even setting back the country’s hard-fought victory over the virus, according to Texas health officials.” As of Friday, the outbreak had “sickened more than 300 people in Texas since January; 40 have been hospitalized.” In New Mexico, officials have “reported 42 cases and one death. In Oklahoma, there have been four probable measles cases.”

Reuters (3/21, Satija, S K) reported measles cases in Texas and New Mexico rose to 351 as of Friday, “an increase of 34 infections” in three days. The number of cases in the two states has already eclipsed last year’s count of 285 infections nationwide, according to CDC data. In addition, the CDC said that, as of Thursday, a total of 378 confirmed measles cases were reported by 18 jurisdictions, but these figures “do not reflect the update from Texas and New Mexico on Friday.”

The AP (3/21, Shastri, Pananjady) reported that a “silver lining” of the outbreak is that “more people have received a measles, mumps and rubella vaccination this year in Texas and New Mexico...compared to last year—even if it’s not as high” as health experts would like. Furthermore, “pharmacies across the U.S., especially in Texas, are seeing more demand for MMR shots.”

Healthcare IT News (3/24, Fox) reports that HHS and the DEA “will delay the effective date of two final rules that were expected to go into effect on Friday, March 21. By extending the Expansion of Buprenorphine Treatment via Telemedicine Encounter and Continuity of Care via Telemedicine for Veterans Affairs Patients final rules—first promulgated Jan. 17—to Dec. 31, the agencies can spend more time considering comments they have received.” The expansion rule “would have permanently allowed virtual care providers to prescribe new patients a six-month supply of buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder. After the six-month mark, the rule requires patients to see a provider in person.” Congress and telehealth industry groups “have urged the DEA and HHS to jointly extend prescribing flexibilities allowed under the original COVID-19 public health emergency since it was initially set to expire.”

You may also be interested in: What else must be done to end the drug-overdose epidemic.

Stateline (3/25, Chatlani) reports health insurance companies are facing “scrutiny for allegedly using artificial intelligence bots and algorithms to swiftly deny patients routine or lifesaving care” without a human reviewing the claims. So far, lawmakers in more than a dozen states are considering “legislation designed to regulate prior authorization and claims reviews.” Such laws would, for example, “limit the use of AI in reviewing claims” and “exclude certain prescription medications from prior authorization rules.” Insurers allege that prior authorization is needed to “rein in health care costs and limit unnecessary services. But many doctors and patients say the practice has gotten out of hand, causing delays and denials of care that are harming and even killing people.”

You may also be interested in: Is AI leading to more prior authorization denials?

HealthDay (3/26, Thompson) reports a new American Cancer Society study estimates that “tobacco control measures like anti-smoking campaigns and cigarette taxes have prevented nearly 4 million lung cancer deaths during the past five decades.” Researchers claim that “more than 3.8 million lung cancer deaths were averted due to substantial reductions in smoking, gaining a little more than 76 million years of extra life among Americans.” In fact, “the number of averted lung cancer deaths accounts for roughly one-half of all cancer deaths that were prevented in recent decades, researchers said.” The study was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

You may also be interested in: What doctors wish patients knew about lung cancer screening.

MedPage Today (3/27, Fiore) reports CDC researchers said during a clinician-focused call on Thursday that murine typhus, “a flea-borne disease that was once largely eradicated” in the U.S., “may be making a resurgence.” Experts warned that “cases are on the rise in two states that actively monitor the disease—Texas and California—and the illness may be going undiagnosed.”

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