From Washington, DC,

• Healthcare Dive reports,
  • “The Senate Finance Committee is considering policies to create more stability in Medicare payments for doctors, an update cheered by physician groups that have long lobbied for reforming how the insurance program reimburses clinicians.
  • “Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, released the white paper on Friday proposing Medicare adjust payments to account for inflation, a key goal for physicians that argue government reimbursement hasn’t kept pace with rising costs.
  • “The Senate Finance Committee is also interested in exploring ways to use incentives to increase provider participation in alternative payment models, and potential changes to Medicare’s budget neutrality requirements, which require the CMS to cut payment to certain specialties to raise it for others.”

• Fedweek tells us
  • The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has passed:
    • S-4035, to require that when FEHB enrollees seek to add a family member to their coverage based on a qualifying life event that the event has occurred and that the individual is eligible for coverage; require the OPM to consider coverage of ineligible individuals when conducting FEHB fraud risk assessments; require a comprehensive audit be conducted of family members currently enrolled; and require OPM to disenroll any ineligible individual found to be receiving FEHB coverage.

• STAT News lets us know,
  • “Executives from the three major pharmacy benefit manager companies have been invited to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability next month, four sources familiar with the planning told STAT.
  • “Executives from Optum, CVS Caremark, and Express Scripts, owned by Cigna, were asked to testify before the panel on June 4. * * *
  • “Lawmakers are next eyeing action in December, when a number of health care programs and authorities are expiring.
  • “Ipsita Smolinski, founder and managing director of the consulting firm Capitol Street, said she believes some PBM reforms will pass in December, but not ones that are detrimental to the industry’s business model.
  • “They are largely Medicare and Medicaid, and provide minimal system savings,” she said.”

• The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced,
  • “Today, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) highlights key actions taken to recruit, hire, and train AI and AI-related talent into the federal government. OPM’s efforts support the AI in Government Act of 2020 and President Biden’s landmark Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI.   
  • “Recruiting AI talent ensures the federal government can use the latest technology to tackle global challenges, improve government services, and better support the American public,” said OPM Acting Director Rob Shriver. “As a strategic partner to federal agencies, OPM has taken a number of actions that will set agencies up to compete for top talent in this critical field now and in the future.” 

From the public health and medical research front,

• The Washington Post and Consumer Reports tell us about “Heart checkups you should have and those you can probably skip.”

• Per MedTech Dive,
  • “Physician enthusiasm for new pulsed field ablation systems suggests the treatment will be rapidly adopted, to the benefit of device makers bringing the products to market, said analysts who attended the Heart Rhythm Society’s (HRS) annual meeting over the weekend.
  • “Talk about pulsed field ablation (PFA), a catheter-based cardiac ablation technique to treat atrial fibrillation (AFib), dominated the meeting in Boston.
  • “The amount of data and discussions on pulsed field ablation (PFA) was almost overwhelming, with late-breaking data presentations packed by physicians,” Citi Research analyst Joanne Wuensch said in a report to clients Sunday. * * *
  • “PFA is seen as a potentially safer alternative to traditional radiofrequency and cryoablation to treat AFib, the most common form of irregular heart rhythm. Shorter operating times are viewed as another advantage.
  • “Antiarrhythmic drugs are currently recommended as the first treatment for AFib but are associated with adverse events, according to the HRS. PFA differs from thermal ablation to disable cardiac cells by using electricity instead of heat or extreme cold.”

• Medscape discusses how artificial intelligence fits into clinical practice.

• MedPage Today informs us,
  • “The FDA approved the first interchangeable biosimilars to aflibercept (Eylea) to treat macular degeneration, according to an announcementopens in a new tab or window from the agency.
  • “As interchangeable biosimilars, aflibercept-jbvf (Yesafili) and aflibercept-yszy (Opuviz) have the same approved indications as the reference product: diabetic macular edema, diabetic retinopathy, macular edema following retinal vein occlusion, and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Like reference aflibercept, the two biosimilars are administered via intravitreal injection.
  • “The FDA pointed out in the announcement that a biosimilar “has no clinically meaningful differences” from the reference product, which means that patients “can expect the same safety and effectiveness from the biosimilar as they would the reference product.” Interchangeability means that the biosimilar met other requirements and may be substituted for the reference product without consulting the prescriber.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• STAT News relates,
  • “Americans, especially Medicare beneficiaries, are getting more medical care these days. Demand from aging Baby Boomers is keeping people in doctor’s offices, and health care providers are continuing to build capacity post-Covid.
  • “Those trends — the same ones that tanked health insurance stocks a few weeks ago — made a strong mark on nonprofit health systems’ first quarter financial reports. STAT took a look at 20 large nonprofit health systems and found that all but four reported higher operating and net margins in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Hospitals are seeing more patients and cutting down on the expensive contract labor they relied on during the Covid-19 pandemic. And they’re seeing strong investment gains on the non-operating side.”

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Hims & Hers Health shares soared after the company said it would add injectable weight-loss drugs to its platform, granting access to the popular treatments to its telehealth patients.
  • “The company on Monday said it now offers access to GLP-1 injections in addition to its oral weight-loss treatments, giving users a broader option to choose from. It will be providing a compounded form of the injections that use the same active ingredients as the popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are facing shortages that are limiting access for some patients.
  • “The price for compounded GLP-1 injections will start at $199 a month. Its oral medication offering starts at $79 a month. Both are not available in all states.
  • “Hims & Hers said it plans to make branded GLP-1 options available to customers once consistent supply is available through the pharmacies’ wholesaler.”

• Per Healthcare Dive,
  • “Steward offered specifics on how it intends to auction off its assets in motions filed in bankruptcy court last week, including a timeline for selling its hospitals and physician group as well as contingency plans, including possible closures, if the assets fail to lure qualified bidders.
  • “The physician-owned healthcare network, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month, operates 31 hospitals and a physician group, Stewardship Health, in Massachusetts, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Florida. 
  • “All of its assets are up for sale — and Steward is looking to sell quickly, according to the filings.
  • “Steward says it is in advanced discussions with Optum and hopes to finalize an agreement in the near-term for the company to serve as the stalking horse bidder for its physician group, Stewardship Health — the initial bid that sets the floor price during auction.” 

• NBC News notes,
  • “Many of the ADHD medication shortages that have plagued the U.S. for the last two years have now been resolved, the Food and Drug Administration says. Yet some doctors and patients report they are still struggling to get prescriptions filled.
  • “Dr. Royce Lee, a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago Medicine, said supply has gotten better but it’s still an issue for about a third of the patients he writes prescriptions for. This often means he still has to call around to pharmacies to see if they have the medications in stock, switch patients to different drugs, and deal with insurance companies to confirm coverage.
  • “I do see signs of the shortages easing up,” Lee said. “But there are still enough shortages that every day we’re having to put in a little bit of work for prescriptions that need to be changed or hunted down.”
  • “I think a lot of people are still not getting their treatments,” he added.”