November 8, 2025

As we reported last night, the timing of the Hochul Administrations announcement (on Friday) that it would fully fund SNAP benefits for the month of November in concert with a federal court judge’s decision – also Friday night, to ‘pause’ the order of a lower court in Rhode Island requiring the Trump administration to release the funds, has caused major stress and confusion for food stamp beneficiaries, and for government officials in states across the country. As the article below says, the Governor apparently released a video condemning Trump’s continued ‘cruelty’ but she did not clear up the confusion. The message is that NYS will pay the benefits as long as the Trump Admin upholds its commitment and sends federal dollars to the states. Earlier today a Hochul spokesperson said the state plans to get funds to all New York SNAP recipients by the end of the week “if the federal government upholds their commitment.”

About as clear as mud.

Hochul says NY SNAP Benefits to Continue as Long as “Trump Admin Upholds Their Commitment”

By Ryan Kost and Caroline Lewis Gothamist November 8, 2:59pm

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said Saturday that her administration expects residents who receive federal food aid to start seeing their accounts replenished on Sunday after a weeklong delay — even after the Supreme Court paused the flow of funds from the federal government Friday night, causing confusion about what comes next.

A Hochul spokesperson said the state plans to get funds to all New York SNAP recipients by the end of the week “if the federal government upholds their commitment.”

The spokesperson, Nicolette Simmonds, said New York hadn’t heard from the U.S. Department of Agriculture since the Supreme Court order “and as such, the state is continuing to issue benefits using federal funds.”

But it wasn’t immediately clear what upholding the feds’ commitment would mean in light of the latest back-and-forth among the courts. Gothamist has reached out to Simmonds seeking further clarification.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP and release money for the program to states by Friday. The Trump administration immediately appealed that decision to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which said it would review the request but declined to pause the funds while it considered the case.

Hochul had told New Yorkers on Friday that food assistance was set to resume this weekend — but then late that evening, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily halted the Rhode Island judge’s order to give the appeals court time to decide whether to grant a longer delay — once again leaving millions of New Yorkers in limbo. Simmonds added that Hochul’s office continues to monitor the situation as it evolves.

Some advocates for hungry New Yorkers previously called on New York to use state funds to cover SNAP benefits for the month of November if federal dollars didn’t come through. Hochul posted a video Saturday afternoon calling the federal administration’s decision to go to the Supreme Court “cruel” and “depraved” but offered no updates in the video directly to confused New Yorkers who may have been wondering if there would be money in their accounts Sunday.

In New Jersey, officials said full November SNAP funding had already been released to the state’s 800,000 recipients before the Supreme Court’s order. Those benefits remain available, for now, through EBT cards. Still, officials in New Jersey said, it’s unclear whether the USDA will allow the state’s vendor to continue drawing federal funds beyond that. The state urged residents to check their EBT balances and use benefits as needed while it monitors developments.

In an appearance on FOX News, federal Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blamed Congress for the ordeal.

“The executive branch takes the money … from the legislative branch,” she said. “This goes back to the very beginning. We just can’t create money out of the sky. That’s not how the United States works.”

But multiple courts have now ruled that emergency funding does exist for scenarios like this and has repeatedly ordered the Trump administration to make that funding available to families in need.

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Hudson Valley health care provider to drop coverage of multiple low-cost plans

Optum Health said it would no longer cover Fidelis/Wellcare and Cigna/HealthSpring plans starting in January
https://www.timesunion.com/health/article/optum-health-out-of-network-plans-medicaid-21138541.php?utm_content=hed&sid=593182963f92a45314a80679&ss=P&st_rid=null&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=headlines&utm_campaign=altu%20%7C%20daily%20headlines

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The FDA grapples with risks of AI on mental health
There are several lawsuits accusing AI platforms of wrongful death, assisting suicide and causing involuntary manslaughter.

By Ruth Reader | 11/07/2025 07:31 PM EST, PoliticoPro
The Food and Drug Administration is grappling with how it can effectively regulate generative artificial intelligence for mental health.

On Thursday, the FDA’s Digital Health Advisory Committee met to discuss how the agency can ensure that generative AI is used safely in mental health care and whether the agency should regulate general use chatbots used as wellness and mental health tools.

At the virtual meeting, 15 members of the public — ranging from health tech executives to researchers, students, and mental health professionals — presented a variety of concerns about generative AI as well as their thoughts on how it should be regulated. The committee also heard from experts at the American Psychiatric Association, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, Dartmouth University, the National Institute of Mental Health Division of Services and Interventions Research, Peterson Health Technology Institute, and life sciences company Verily.

There are some 10 lawsuits accusing AI platforms, including OpenAI and Character.ai, of wrongful death, assisting suicide and causing involuntary manslaughter.

Still, researchers say AI could help ease the burden of a growing mental health crisis.

“We found some really strong effects for depression, anxiety, and eating disorders symptoms in a randomized controlled trial,” said Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, about a therapy bot that he helped develop and test.

The FDA has authorized over 1,200 medical AI devices, but no generative AI has been authorized for use in treating mental health conditions or supporting mental health treatment.

Key takeaways: There was some consensus on how generative AI could potentially be regulated and be used for mental health.

Several public participants said the FDA should considerrisk the “lifecycle” of generative AI technology in determining how the agency will test the technology, validate it can do what it says it can do, and develop a framework for monitoring that technology post-approval

The FDA has already started thinking about its approach to lifecycle management within the context of AI regulation. The agency released draft guidance on the topic in January.

But meeting participants discussed how FDA might expand how it conducts post market surveillance. One public participant, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student named Almog Hilel, said the FDA should use an independent third party to do post-market monitoring. Another, Miguel Amador, chief innovation officer at Complear, a regulatory and compliance platform for health AI based in Portugal, said that the FDA should look for guidance from Europe, which uses its own network of federated health data as the backbone of its post-market monitoring program.

Another area of agreement seemed to be that generative AI mental health therapy products should have human oversight. Several people also agreed that AI should also have the ability to be able to connect a patient or individual to a human professional if necessary.

There was also a lot of discussion around using a risk based framework, such that FDA oversight would depend on the risk an individual AI program poses.

Grey areas: Less clear was what to do about AI products like ChatGPT and Character.ai that Americans use as wellness products.

“The fact that the unregulated products don’t trigger review is concerning,” said Andy Molnar, CEO of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, and a member of the FDA Digital Health Advisory Committee.

Some entertainment or companion bots offer conversations with AI therapists, but disclaim that the content of these interactions are entirely fiction in order to ward off regulatory oversight. Still, other general purpose AI products don’t mention mental health at all, and therefore wouldn’t fall within FDA’s purview even though people may be using these tools for mental health purposes.

There were also questions about whether the FDA has the authority it needs to regulate generative AI at all. The current standards for regulating medical devices and drugs are very much designed around products that are static, but AI can change.

”There’s broad agreement that FDA needs to clarify its existing authority,” said Maya Sandalow, an associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Institute’s Health Program.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office published a report suggesting that Congress may need to act to expand FDA’s authority in order for it to adequately regulate AI.

The agency may also need more staff. Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has repeatedly said the agency would need to hire a significant number of people to build and run the infrastructure for monitoring AI products. But the agency would need Congress’ approval to expand.

What’s next: Most immediately, the FDA wants to know how it can effectively measure AI performance broadly. The agency has a request for public comment on how to measure real-world AI performance. Responses are due on Dec. 1 and will likely inform future draft guidance.

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Hochul hails Mamdani’s rise — then questions his biggest ideas
New York’s governor is striking a delicate balance with the mayor-elect of New York City.
By Jeff Coltin | 11/08/2025 02:14 PM EST, Politico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul spent the week celebrating Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral victory. Then, on Saturday, she made clear how far she’s willing to go with his progressive agenda.

The governor praised the democratic socialist “who’s lighting politics on fire” — but that didn’t stop her from opposing his plan to make New York City buses free, questioning how he plans to fund universal child care and saying she’ll keep an eye on how Mamdani leads New York’s Jewish community.

Her comments, delivered to reporters on the sidelines of a political conference in Puerto Rico, offered an early glimpse of the negotiations ahead between Albany and City Hall and the delicate balance Hochul will have to strike as she eyes reelection and a tough slate of congressional battlegrounds next year.

The moderate Democrat has always made clear she has political disagreements with Mamdani, even as she endorsed him over her old boss, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Now that Mamdani’s officially the mayor-elect, her remarks have taken on extra weight.

“I cannot set forth a plan right now that takes money out of a system that relies on the fares of the buses and the subways. But can we find a path to make it more affordable for people who need help? Of course we can,” Hochul said.

Mamdani has proposed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which Hochul controls, would eliminate the fare for New York City buses. MTA leadership has already expressed skepticism of the plan, even after Mamdani won a short-lived pilot program for one free bus in each borough in 2023.

Hochul also dug into the difficulties of implementing free, universal child care. She has embraced the concept, which was a key plank of Mamdani’s campaign, but suggested it would take time to phase in, raising concerns about training enough child care workers and having enough facilities.

She also said the state was on a “collision course” given federal cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration.

“Our ambitions are big, and I believe in them, and I want to accomplish them. We also have to figure out — now I’m in the hole $3 billion already on Medicaid cuts,” she said. “So if Republicans would stop doing that, and I got back to my normal budgeting cycle, it looks a lot easier.”

And Hochul’s concerns with Mamdani aren’t just about the budget. Addressing the many Jewish New Yorkers who felt alienated by Mamdani’s staunchly anti-Israel politics, Hochul said they need some time to “see action” from the mayor-elect.

“That’s one area where I know that there’s some opportunities for him to demonstrate, as he has said, but also demonstrate that he is there to protect all New Yorkers, to protect anyone’s right to worship or their beliefs but also their institutions,” she said.

Still, Hochul largely offered praise for the candidate she endorsed, applauding Mamdani for his plan to ask NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay in her role and saying she and the mayor-elect planned to meet again “very soon” to discuss a response the Trump administration’s threats to surge immigration enforcement or the National Guard into New York City upon Mamdani taking office.

Hochul has been meeting with civic leaders for weeks to plan for the potential of Trump taking over the city, POLITICO reported.

Mamdani and Hochul spoke to crowds at the same receptions three times at the conference, and the governor was quick to hype up the party’s new big star.

“It’s a new day in New York. You know why? Because we’re gonna have a new mayor, and I am so proud that this individual is gonna work with me shoulder-to-shoulder to deliver for New York City the way it’s never seen in its lifetime,” Hochul said at a labor union reception Saturday morning.

Mamdani basked in the excitement onstage. And despite the often-contentious relationship historically shared by the Empire State governor and the mayor of New York City, he struck a tone of unity when asked by reporters about navigating the differences with Hochul.

“I continue to be incredibly excited by the mandate that New Yorkers delivered on Tuesday, and the ever-growing coalition that we have to deliver on affordability,” he said. “And I think it’s that shared purpose that brings many of us together, no matter which part of the party that we belong to in delivering for New Yorkers.”