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UnitedHealthcare to cut prior authorization for 30% of services. Here’s what to know.

May 5, 2026 / 10:51 AM EDT / CBS News

UnitedHealthcare said on Tuesday it is eliminating “prior authorization” requirements for 30% of medical services that previously required insurer approval, a policy shift that could eliminate red tape and speed access to patient care.

The move comes amid pressure on the health insurance industry to limit prior authorizations, the process by which health care providers such as doctors or hospitals obtain approval from patients’ insurance carriers to deliver care.

Prior authorizations have long drawn criticism for the time they require of physicians’ offices and for hindering patients’ access to care, with the American Medical Association finding that such offices spend an average of 12 hours per week seeking insurer approval for medical treatments.

Critics say those hours would be better spent providing medical care, while some patients report being denied treatment by their insurance companies.

UnitedHealthcare, the largest U.S. health insurer, said in a statement that prior authorization is required for 2% of the medical services covered under its policies. About 92% of those are approved within 24 hours, the company said.

“Prior authorization is an essential safeguard but should only be used when it truly protects patients and improves care,” UnitedHealthcare CEO Tim Noel said in a statement. “Eliminating these requirements is one more way we are working to make it easier for patients to get the care they need when they need it and ensure doctors can spend more time with their patients.”

Former UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thomson was shot and killed in December 2024. The suspect in the shooting, Luigi Mangione, is awaiting trial in both federal and state court.

Which treatments will no longer require prior authorizations?

UnitedHealthcare said the following procedures will no longer require prior authorization:

• Select outpatient surgeries
• Some diagnostic tests, such as echocardiograms
• Some outpatient therapies
• Some chiropractic care

In its statement, the company said it would post the full list of services at UHCProvider.com before the changes take effect.

When does this take effect?

UnitedHealthcare said it will implement the changes by the end of 2026.

Are other health insurers reducing prior authorizations?

Last year, a group of insurers represented by Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade association for the health insurance industry, said some of its biggest members would take steps to streamline prior authorization.

They include many Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of California, as well as large insurers such as Humana, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare.

By Ellis Kim, Lauren Fox, Manu Raju

1 hr 20 min ago

PUBLISHED May 5, 2026, 10:50 AM ET

The U.S. Capitol Building seen from atop of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, May 2, 2026.

Ken Cedeno/Reuters

Senate Republicans are looking to give the US Secret Service $1 billion to shore up security for President Donald Trump’s future White House ballroom, as part of a broader immigration enforcement package.

Two GOP-led Senate committees unveiled late Monday their roughly $70 billion package to fund US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol, which they plan to pass with only Republican votes.

The Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees are aiming to spend roughly $38 billion for ICE and around $26 billion for US Customs and Border Patrol functions and upgrades, according to legislative text released by the panels. The funding would run through the end of September 2029.

The Judiciary Committee also tucked in the additional $1 billion in Secret Service funding that could go toward Trump’s ballroom project.

The text allocates the cash for “security adjustments and upgrades … to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features,” later stating the funding can’t be used for “non-security elements” of the project.

The Trump administration has long said the president would rely on money from private donors rather than American taxpayers, to fund his East Wing renovation.

But in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month, Republicans have grown increasingly vocal about the need for a White House ballroom, with some arguing that the public should foot some of the cost to aid construction.

“Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds. Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham demanded last week that the Senate vote on his separate bill to authorize $400 million for the ballroom, including a national security annex underground, after the shooting, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t indicate whether he would take up the legislation.

Asked about the prospect of using taxpayer money on the project, Sen. Katie Britt, who is backing Graham’s effort, argued at the time that “we need to make sure that we have oversight and do that responsibly,” and said the ballroom will mostly be for “future presidents” since it won’t be completed until further into Trump’s term.

The attack, the Alabama Republican told CNN, “kind of showed us where we are as a nation, and it’s not a good place. I mean, we have people that, instead of taking their fight to the ballot box, are taking their fight to people with bullets, and it’s fundamentally un-American.”

The committees are expected to mark up the immigration enforcement package after senators return next week from their recess away from Washington, keeping in step with congressional Republicans’ plans to fund Trump’s border and immigration priorities through a multi-step budgetary process, known as reconciliation, which allows them to bypass a Senate filibuster.

Last month, the president publicly issued a directive to GOP congressional leaders to figure out full funding for the Department of Homeland Security by June 1.

Before returning to their home districts for the week-long break, lawmakers voted to reopen key parts of the department after weeks of infighting. But the bill that ended the record DHS shutdown did not include money for federal immigration enforcement.

CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

2 hikers injured in bear attack at Yellowstone National Park

May 5, 2026 / 10:43 AM EDT / CBS News

By Stephen Smith

Two hikers were attacked by one or more bears at Yellowstone National Park, officials said on Tuesday, marking the first time this year that a bear has injured people at the popular tourist attraction.

The National Park Service said emergency personnel responded to the attack, which occurred on Monday afternoon on the Mystic Falls Trail near the iconic Old Faithful geyser. Park officials said the incident is under investigation and did not reveal the extent of the hikers’ injuries.

The most recent bear attack in the park was in September when officials said a 29-year-old hiker was seriously injured in a “surprise encounter” on the Turbid Lake Trail.

The last human fatality caused by a bear inside Yellowstone National Park occurred in 2015, but a grizzly killed a woman just west of the park in 2023.

After Monday’s attack, at least five trails and multiple campsites at the park were closed. The park reminded visitors to stay at least 100 yards away from bears, carry bear spray and look for possible signs of the animals.

“See the bear before you surprise it,” the park said. “Watch for fresh tracks, scat, and feeding sites.”

In March, scientists spotted the first grizzly bear of 2026 at Yellowstone, marking the beginning of the end of hibernation season for the animals.

There are more than 1,000 grizzlies living across what’s called the “greater Yellowstone ecosystem,” an area covering portions of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming outside of the immediate park boundaries.

Grizzly bears are currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, after they were brought back from the brink of extinction in the contiguous United States over the last five decades. Yellowstone officials have estimated that the grizzly bear population in the region had dropped to just 136 in 1975. But, thanks to conservation efforts, scientists now consider the population to be doing well, occupying more than 27,000 square miles and expanding their habitats.

Emily Mae Czachor contributed to this report.

Alito rips Jackson’s ‘utterly irresponsible’ solo dissent as Supreme Court fight shakes up 2026 map

May 5, 2026 10:40am EDT / Fox News

Alito’s concurrence, joined by Gorsuch and Thomas, said Jackson’s rhetoric ‘lacks restraint’

By Ashley Oliver Fox News

Justice Samuel Alito tore into Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lone dissent in a high-stakes Louisiana redistricting dispute on Monday, calling her arguments “baseless and insulting” after the Supreme Court decided to fast-track implementing its recent redistricting ruling ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Alito used a concurring opinion, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, to directly rebuke Jackson, saying her “dissent in this suit levels charges that cannot go unanswered.”

“The dissent goes on to claim that our decision represents an unprincipled use of power,” Alito wrote, adding that that was a “groundless and utterly irresponsible charge.”

The clash highlighted Jackson’s increasingly isolated position on the court, as she broke not only from the conservative majority but also from her two liberal colleagues, who did not join her dissent. Jackson forcefully accused the Supreme Court of overreach, marking the latest in a pattern of solo dissents in which the Biden-appointed liberal justice has blasted high-profile majority decisions that have frequently favored President Donald Trump and Republicans.

MEDIA OUTRAGE OVER SUPREME COURT’S VOTING RIGHTS ACT DECISION COLLIDES WITH REALITY

Justice Samuel Alito joins his colleagues for the formal group photograph at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 7, 2022.

In Monday’s order, the high court decided in an unsigned ruling to allow Louisiana officials to quickly move forward with changing their congressional map, which is expected to reshape the state’s congressional representation in favor of Republicans ahead of the midterms.

Alito argued that delaying the judgment of the high court’s 6-3 ruling last month — which significantly narrowed section two of the Voting Rights Act by finding Louisiana’s map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander — served no practical purpose. Jackson’s reasons for wanting to prolong implementation of the landmark ruling were “trivial at best” and “baseless and insulting,” Alito said.

“The dissent accuses the Court of ‘unshackl[ing]’ itself from ‘constraints,’” Alito wrote. “It is the dissent’s rhetoric that lacks restraint.”

SUPREME COURT HEARS PIVOTAL LOUISIANA ELECTION MAP CASE AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks at an event.(Getty Images)

Jackson had warned that the high court’s intervention risked improperly injecting itself into an active election and creating the “appearance of partiality,” pointing to ongoing voting and legal challenges already unfolding in the state.

Legal experts observed the unusually pointed tone of Alito’s response, suggesting it indicated a deeper internal friction. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said the conservative justice appeared to reach a breaking point in responding to Jackson’s criticism.

“Justice Alito had had enough,” Turley wrote. “He noted that her reliance on the 32-day period was a ‘trivial’ objection that put form above substance since no party had asked for reconsideration. It would be waiting for 32 days for no purpose, while the other parties had stated a reasonable and pressing need to finalize the opinion.”

Turley added that Alito took particular issue with Jackson’s accusation that the Supreme Court was acting in an “unprincipled” manner.

Voting rights activists protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 15, 2025, as the court prepares to hear arguments challenging Louisiana’s congressional map.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The dispute centered on the Supreme Court’s procedural rule that typically allows about 32 days before a judgment is formally sent down to lower courts. Alito emphasized that the rule is flexible and intended primarily to allow time for rehearing petitions, which he signaled were not expected in this case.

The Supreme Court’s decision Monday sends Louisiana into a scramble to implement a new map as ballots have already been sent to voters and the state’s primary has been paused. The ruling is expected to have broader implications across the country as state election officials and courts attempt to finalize constitutionally compliant maps in time for the upcoming election.

Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.

德国东部莱比锡市汽车冲撞人群 酿两死多伤

2026年5月5日 20:43 / 联合早报

德国东部莱比锡市汽车冲撞人群 酿两死多伤

5月4日，德国东部莱比锡市发生一辆汽车冲撞事件。大批救援人员在事发区域进行救援工作，警方已对现场实施封锁并展开调查。 （法新社）

（柏林综合电）德国东部城市莱比锡周一发生汽车冲撞人群事件，造成两人死亡、20多人受伤，其中三人重伤。33岁的嫌犯当场被捕。

当地警方说，一辆大众SUV从老城区中心广场驶入步行区，沿商业街冲撞数百米后停下。

一名居民称，他险些被撞到，随后追赶车子并协助伤者。 他说：“一名女子先被撞到车顶上，随后掉落到车下，被车辆压住身亡。”

萨克森州州长克雷奇默说，嫌疑人可能存在心理健康问题。警方也称，没有发现政治或宗教动机。两名死者分别为63岁女性与77岁男性。

莱比锡市长容格说：“目前还有三人重伤，以及许多轻伤者。” 他形容事件令人震惊。

近年来，德国多地发生类似车辆冲撞事件，包括2024年12月在马格德堡针对圣诞市场的袭击，造成6死、200多人伤，柏林和慕尼黑也发生过类似事件。

Utz potato chips sold nationwide recalled over salmonella risk

May 5, 2026 11:39 AM EDT / CBS News

By Aimee Picchi

Utz Quality Foods is recalling some Zapp’s and Dirty brand potato chips due to potential salmonella contamination from an ingredient.

The seasoning includes dry milk powder that could contain the organism, according to a May 4 recall notice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, older adults and those with weakened immune systems.

Multiple varieties of potato chips sold under the Zapp’s and Dirty brands are under recall due to the risk of Salmonella. FDA

While there are no reports of illness related to the product, Utz is recalling the chips because its ingredient supplier issued a recall due to the salmonella risk, the FDA said.

“Consumers who have these products should not eat them and should discard any products they may have,” the agency said.

Customers with questions can call Utz at 1-877-423-0149, Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 6 pm ET.

Below are the recalled potato chips:

Supreme Court abortion case could force Trump to take a public stance on mifepristone

2026-05-05T15:21:12.070Z / CNN

By Tierney Sneed

9 min ago

PUBLISHED May 5, 2026, 11:21 AM ET

Abortion rights Donald Trump Supreme Court Federal agencies

See all topics

Anti-abortion activists participate in the annual March for Life rally on January 23 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The return of abortion to the Supreme Court is testing President Donald Trump’s strategy of avoiding the issue as the anti-abortion advocates grow increasingly frustrated that his administration hasn’t done more to crack down on access to mifepristone, the drug approved to terminate pregnancies.

By leaving intact a Biden-era regulatory regime that made abortion pills easier to obtain, Trump’s administration has mostly kept the issue off the political front burner for both parties. But a conservative appeals court threw wrench in that approach Friday, with a ruling that would add limits to access nationwide by requiring in-person doctor’s visits to obtain the pills.

The ruling from the US 5th Circuit Cout of Appeals is a major win for anti-abortion state officials and advocates who sued the Trump administration to force it to tighten the rules for mifepristone. They argue that allowing the medication to be obtained by online appointments was undermining state laws restricting abortion.

If the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court doesn’t freeze the ruling, as mifepristone manufacturers are now asking, it will limit access to abortion nationwide as the midterms approach.

“What is shocking is that the Trump administration’s inaction has stopped pro-life laws from taking effect, and that they forced several Republican attorneys general to take their battle to the federal courts,” said Kelsey Pritchard, the communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which supports anti-abortion candidates.

The group on Monday reiterated its calls that US Food and Drug Administration head Marty Makary be fired, which the White House has repeatedly rebuffed.

“It’s just really hard for us to understand how the Trump administration has been so negligent as to leave this policy in place,” Pritchard added.

In lower courts, the Trump administration has tried to thread the needle by pushing back on the lawsuit, brought by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, for procedural reasons while not defending the safety of the drug outright.

“It’s clear that they do not want to have a ruling taking access to mifepristone away from women across the country before the midterms,” said Sam Bagenstos, who was general counsel for US Department of Health and Human Services during the Biden administration and who defended the FDA rules in court then.

“However,” Bagenstos added, “they are doing everything they can to preserve their ability to take access to mifepristone away from women across the country as soon as they’re out of the woods.”

Even the administration’s silence could be a political problem for Trump as Democrats are already seizing on the case, with the Democratic National Committee accusing Trump in a statement Monday of making “it even harder to get lifesaving reproductive healthcare by banning medication that has been safely used for decades.”

Asked by CNN whether Trump supports the 5th Circuit ruling, the White House did not answer the question directly. Instead, a spokesperson issued a statement pointing to the “Gold Standard Science-based review of mifepristone” that the US Food and Drug Administration is conducting “to address widespread safety concerns about its use.”

The Justice Department has similarly pointed to that review – which is expected to last at least several months – to argue the lawsuit challenging the regulations should be paused.

Standing by regulatory chief under fire

Anti-abortion advocates have grown to suspect the review is just a way for the administration to slow-walk the issue – a claim that the FDA has previously denied. Their concerns were exacerbated by a Wall Street Journal report this weekend indicating Makary had expressed indifference to regulations for mifepristone.

Court briefs from Louisiana noted how a Justice Department lawyer could promise in the proceedings only that parts of the review “’might’ be done by 2027.

“As this case moves along, the current game plan about making this only about procedural issues is going to become more and more untenable,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at University of California, Davis, and author of several books about the anti-abortion movement. “The 5th Circuit blew up that strategy.”

Trump, touting his appointment of three of the five justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, has embraced the way that ruling was framed in the majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito as returning the issue to the states to decide for themselves.

Related article: A patient prepares to take Mifepristone at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, on April 20, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Supreme Court temporarily restores ability to receive abortion drug mifepristone by mail 3 min read

But medication abortion – the two-pill regimen that terminates a pregnancy – has shown such an approach is easier said than done. The method now makes up some two-thirds of all US abortions – as the number of abortions overall has increased since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling – and now it’s the top target of the anti-abortion movement.

Reviews of mifepristone have found it to be safe. The Supreme Court in 2024 rejected a challenge to the pill’s access brought by anti-abortion doctors, concluding that the physicians hadn’t shown they were being harmed by the current regulations in a way that would warrant a court’s intervention.

Since his reelection, Trump has enacted some policies sought by abortion opponents. But his appointees to lead federal health agencies have not shown interest in implementing regulatory changes that would limit access to medication abortion. Pritchard, the SBA List spokesperson, argued that Trump’s refusal to act on the regulations will dampen turnout by Republicans’ base in the midterms as she pointed to CNN exit polling from 2024.

“If 1-2% of pro-lifers had stayed home in 2024, Trump wouldn’t be president,” she said.

The White House is apparently making the opposite gamble and standing by Makary.

Makary “continues to deliver for the American people, from modernizing the drug approvals process to cracking down on artificial ingredients in our food supply,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told CNN.

What comes next in the Supreme Court case

The Supreme Court has put the 5th Circuit ruling on a brief “administrative” hold, allowing telehealth abortions to continue, until May 11. Louisiana has been asked to file briefs on Thursday. A DOJ spokesperson did not respond to CNN’s inquiry as to whether it will file briefs by then as well.

Among the options for next steps put forward by the mifepristone manufacturers is the possibility that the Supreme Court could take up the case on the merits now, hearing arguments in the coming weeks.

Supreme Court temporarily restores ability to receive abortion drug mifepristone by mail

1:55

For now, according to Ziegler, the administration could hold on to the arguments that Louisiana’s lawsuit should be thrown out for procedural reasons and maintain its approach of not spelling out its views on the safety of mifepristone and allowing it to be procured online.

“What I think will get complicated is if the justices have the appetite for anything more,” she said.

However, the Supreme Court itself might not be eager to jump into another abortion dispute that has nationwide implications, after framing its 2023 Roe reversal as putting the policy debate in the hands of state legislators.

The Trump administration is eventually “going to have to put up or shut up about their position regarding whether mifepristone was appropriately approved for termination of pregnancy and whether the in-person dispensing requirement should have been eliminated,” Bagenstos, now a University of Michigan Law School professor, said. “Are they going to have to do that soon? You know, it all depends on what the Supreme Court does.”

Abortion rights Donald Trump Supreme Court Federal agencies

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5月4日，德国东部莱比锡市发生一辆汽车冲撞事件。大批救援人员在事发区域进行救援工作，警方已对现场实施封锁并展开调查。 （法新社）

（柏林综合电）德国东部城市莱比锡周一发生汽车冲撞人群事件，造成两人死亡、20多人受伤，其中三人重伤。33岁的嫌犯当场被捕。

当地警方说，一辆大众SUV从老城区中心广场驶入步行区，沿商业街冲撞数百米后停下。

一名居民称，他险些被撞到，随后追赶车子并协助伤者。 他说：“一名女子先被撞到车顶上，随后掉落到车下，被车辆压住身亡。”

萨克森州州长克雷奇默说，嫌疑人可能存在心理健康问题。警方也称，没有发现政治或宗教动机。两名死者分别为63岁女性与77岁男性。

莱比锡市长容格说：“目前还有三人重伤，以及许多轻伤者。” 他形容事件令人震惊。

近年来，德国多地发生类似车辆冲撞事件，包括2024年12月在马格德堡针对圣诞市场的袭击，造成6死、200多人伤，柏林和慕尼黑也发生过类似事件。

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