HJBR Sep/Oct 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  SEP / OCT 2025 31 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalBR.com line (about $22,000 for an individual), an option that was made available under the 2010 Afford- able Care Act. More than 20 million people were enrolled through Medicaid expansion as of June 2024 — those are the patients who will face work requirements. Previous attempts at implementing work requirements have ended up costing states mil- lions in administrative and consulting fees. And in some cases, people who were eligible for Medic- aid lost their coverage due to paperwork issues. The nonpartisan U.S. Government Account- ability Office in 2019 looked at five states that tested systems to track Medicaid work require- ments under the first Trump administration. Those demonstration projects were rescinded during the Biden administration. The states estimated their projected adminis- trative costs for implementing work requirements for one to three years, and the total far surpassed the $200 million Congress has provided in the new law. Kentucky alone estimated $270 million, Wisconsin $70 million, Indiana $35 million, Arkan- sas $26 million, and New Hampshire $6 million. Emma Herrock, a spokesperson for the Louisi- ana Department of Health, wrote in an email that the vast majority of the state’s Medicaid enroll- ees already work, so the agency expects few peo- ple to be disenrolled. Herrock said the depart- ment will establish work verification systems by the end of 2026. The Louisiana Illuminator article this news brief was taken from was shortened for space. To read the full article, go to: https://lailluminator. com/2025/07/16/medicaid-work-2/ UQ-Ochsner MD Program Student Receives Scholarship Kirsten Johnson, a student of the University of Queensland Medical School – Ochsner Health (UQ-Ochsner MD Program) was awarded the 2025 Dr. and Mrs. Roy Gregory Scholarship. The $3,000 award was established in 2018 to support senior medical students at the Ochsner Clinical School who commit to pursuing careers in family medicine and are dedicated to serving their com- munities, as exemplified by Dr. Gregory through- out his remarkable career. Johnson is a fourth-year medical student at the UQ-Ochsner MD Program. Originally from Pennsylvania, Johnson graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in biological sci- ences from West Virginia University. While there, she discovered her passion for community health through her volunteer work with the Global Medi- cal and Dental Brigades organization. FranUAnnounces $2MRenovations of Healthcare Building Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Universi- ty’s (FranU) $2 million renovation to its School of Health Professions Building is scheduled for com- pletion this fall. The renovation unites multiple health disciplines under one roof. The newly renovated Health Professions Build- ing will feature: • Flexible, student-centered classrooms that support cross-discipline learning. • Laboratories and rehab gym with the latest technology for hands-on clinical training in multiple healthcare disciplines. • A research and innovation laboratory, equipped with motion analysis and perfor- mance tools to advance discovery and best practices in care. • Collaborative study areas and reflective common spaces, designed to cultivate community, support, and servant leader- ship among students of all backgrounds. A Single Shot at BirthMay Shield Children fromHIV for Years, Study Finds A new study in Nature shows that delivering a single injection of gene therapy at birth may offer yearslong protection against HIV, tapping into a critical window in early life that could reshape the fight against pediatric infections in high-risk regions. This study is among the first to show that the first weeks of life, when the immune system is nat- urally more tolerant, may be the optimal window for delivering gene therapies that would other- wise be rejected at older ages. In the study, nonhuman primates received a gene therapy that programs cells to continuously produce HIV-fighting antibodies. Timing proved critical to the one-time treatment offering long- term protection. Those that received the treatment within their first month of life were protected from infection for at least three years with no need for a booster, potentially signifying coverage into adolescence in humans. In contrast, those treated at eight to 12 weeks showed a more developed, less toler- ant immune system that did not accept the treat- ment as effectively. More than 100,000 children acquire HIV annu- ally, primarily through mother-to-child transmis- sion after birth from breastfeeding. Antiretroviral treatments have shown success in suppressing the virus and limiting transmission, however, adherence to treatment and access to doctors both decline after childbirth, particularly in areas with limited access to healthcare. To deliver the treatment, researchers used an adeno-associated virus (AAV), a harmless virus that can act as a cargo truck to deliver genetic code to cells. The virus was sent to muscle cells, unique in their longevity, and delivered instruc- tions to produce broadly neutralizing antibod- ies, or bNAbs, which are capable of neutralizing multiple strains of HIV. This approach solved a longstanding problem with bNAbs. Previous studies found them effec- tive at fighting HIV, but they required repeated infusions, which are costly and pose logistical challenges in low-resource settings. Newborns showed greater tolerance and expressed high levels of bNAbs, which success- fully prevented infection during simulated breast- feeding and later exposures mimicking sexual transmission. Older infants and juveniles were more likely to have produced anti-drug antibod- ies that shut down the treatment. Researchers also found that exposing fetuses to the antibodies before birth helped older infants accept the gene therapy later, avoiding the immune rejection that often occurs with age. Still, a one-time injection at birth offered a more cost-effective and feasible real-world solu- tion, while putting less burden on the mother for a follow-up visit. Questions remain as to how the results trans- late to human infants and children, who may be less susceptible to AAV-delivered treatments. The study also used one strain of simian–human immunodeficiency virus, which doesn’t reflect the variety of HIV strains.