The Senate will be on a State work period this week, while the House of Representatives will hold a DC work week. This means that Committee business will occur.

The Wall Street Journal reports

“Top Democrats and Republicans are racing to try to find a politically acceptable way to raise the nation’s borrowing limit in the coming weeks, diving into talks that President Biden has avoided during months of impasse. 

“Mr. Biden will host House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and other congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday, the first direct contact in months as officials grapple with the prospect of the first-ever U.S. default as soon as June 1. 

“While the two parties are publicly standing by their negotiating stances, officials on both sides of the aisle have started to quietly search for a way out of a potential crisis.”

From the Rx coverage front —

• Fortune Well tells us,
  • “U.S. health regulators are weighing the first-ever request to make a birth control pill available without a prescription.
  • “Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration meet [this] week to review drugmaker Perrigo’s application to sell a decades-old pill over the counter. The two-day public meeting is one of the last steps before an FDA decision.
  • “If the FDA grants the company’s request, Opill would become the first contraceptive pill to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter onto store shelves or online.
  • “In an initial review posted Friday, the FDA raised several concerns about studies of Opill, citing problems with the reliability of some of the company’s data and raising questions about whether women with certain other medical conditions would correctly opt out of taking it. It also noted signs that study participants had trouble understanding the labeling instructions.
  • “The agency will ask the panel to consider whether younger teenagers will be able to understand and follow the instructions.
  • “At the end of the meeting, the FDA panel will vote on whether the benefits of making the pill more widely available outweigh the potential risks. However, the panel vote is not binding, and the FDA is expected to make its final decision this summer.

• Healthcare Dive reports,
  • “U.S. supply of Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy will be “reduced temporarily,” the company said Thursday, revealing the latest setback to a launch that’s been slowed by manufacturing issues over the last year and a half. 
  • “Availability of the lower three of Wegovy’s five doses, used as weekly starter shots to gradually increase patients’ tolerance to the drug, will be limited to ensure people who now get maintenance treatment can maintain “continuity of care,” the company said. Novo indicated the problem will be eased once it gets a new contract manufacturer up and running. * * *
  • “Despite the production hurdles, Wegovy sales continued to grow. Sales rose to 4.6 billion Danish kroner, or about $676 million, in the first quarter, up from 2.4 billion kroner the previous quarter and 1.4 billion over the first three months of 2022.”

From the health plan design front, Fierce Healthcare points out

“The first step to living healthier is choosing that lifestyle, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield has tapped Noom for Work to help many of its approximately 3.2 million members make that decision.

“The partnership, announced this week, will focus on CareFirst members who struggle with obesity as well as those with prediabetes, according to an announcement.

“In what Noom called a “mind-first approach,” the program will include a curriculum for those struggling with weight control that will focus on the “why” behind the behaviors that have led to problems, and then get to work on changing those behaviors.

“Included are daily lessons tailored to each person’s weight-loss goals, such as continuous education, food intake tracking and advice on how to connect to devices, such as scales and wearables, that offer not only immediate feedback but also encouragement.

From the U.S. healthcare business front, NPR Shots notes

“The Biden administration on Thursday cautioned Americans about the growing risks of medical credit cards and other loans for medical bills, warning in a new report that high-interest rates can deepen patients’ debts and threaten their financial security.

“In its new report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that people in the U.S. paid $1 billion in deferred interest on medical credit cards and other medical financing in just three years, from 2018 to 2020.

“The interest payments can inflate medical bills by almost 25%, the agency found by analyzing financial data that lenders submitted to regulators.”

From the fraud, waste, and abuse front, Fierce Healthcare reports

“Just as the long off-ramp from the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends and telepsychiatry providers breathe a sigh of relief with a temporary extension of virtual prescribing flexibilities, a report dropped showing an estimated $348 million in telehealth psychotherapy Medicare payments were noncompliant.

“This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released the findings of an audit (PDF) of Medicare payments from March 2020 through February 2021. During the audit period, Medicare Part B paid $1 billion for more than 13.5 million psychotherapy services, including telehealth services.

“Of the $1 billion in Medicare Part B payments, approximately $591 million was for psychotherapy services that were billed as telehealth services, and approximately $439 million was in payments for in-person psychotherapy services, according to the report.

“The federal watchdog estimates $580 million in improper payments for services that did not comply with Medicare requirements during the audit period, including $348 million for telehealth services, or about 60% of the payments, and $232 million for non-telehealth services.”