From Washington, DC,

• Govexec reports,
  • “Republican leaders on the House Homeland Security Committee want to know what the Biden administration is doing about Havana syndrome, mysterious brain injuries that became public in 2016 after State Department officials in Cuba’s capital city were affected. 
  • “We are deeply alarmed that these incidents continue to take place here and abroad, and that there has been little to no explanation from the administration as to who or what has caused these phenomena,” wrote full committee Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., and Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, in a letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Tuesday. 
  • “The brain injuries, referred to as anomalous health incidents, include symptoms of headaches, pain, nausea, disequilibrium and hearing loss. Additional reports of similar symptoms later emerged from federal employees in other countries such as China, Russia, Vietnam, Colombia and various parts of Europe.
  • “Green and Pfluger, who have held numerous hearings and briefings on this matter, requested a committee briefing from the National Security Council. They also urged the administration to prioritize expending unused funds allocated to provide care for AHI victims and to fully implement the HAVANA Act, a 2021 law that authorizes payments to impacted intelligence, diplomatic and other governmental personnel.”  
    
• Reuters informs us,
  • “The U.S. Navy has received more than 546,500 claims for compensation from people impacted by decades of contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, a new court filing shows, putting it squarely among the largest injury cases of all time.
  • “That number may fluctuate up or down by a few thousand, the government said in the filing, opens new tab. The U.S. Navy is reviewing additional claims received up to the Aug. 10 deadline and removing claims that are found to be duplicates.
  • “The number of administrative claims filed with the U.S. Navy – a step claimants must have taken by the Aug. 10 deadline to receive compensation for injuries they attribute to the water – surpasses the nearly 400,000 lawsuits filed over 3M Co’s military-issue earplugs, which is regarded as the largest multidistrict litigation in history.”

• The Chair and Ranking Member of the House Education and Labor Committee sent a letter to the Assistant Secretary of Labor who handles ERISA matters. The letter asks the Assistant Secretary about the Department’s efforts to “address troubling practices of certain group health plan service providers.”

• Federal News Network interviews Colleen Heller-Stein, the first career fed to lead the CHCO Council.

From the public health and medical research front,

• Per a Food and Drug Administration press release,
  • “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (2024-2025 formula) to include a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant KP.2 strain of SARS-CoV-2. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been updated with this formula to more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. Today’s actions relate to updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by ModernaTX Inc. and Pfizer Inc.”
    
• Beckers Hospital Review offers three notes on the FDA action.

• The Wall Street Journal adds,
  • “The two shots [Pfizer and Moderna] will be available to anyone over 6 months of age, a move that comes as Covid hospitalizations continue to climb and remain higher than they were at this time last year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
  • “Doctors say everyone who is eligible should get a shot. But older people who have skipped other recent vaccine updates should especially consider it. 
  • “I saw a lot of people in the hospital who got a lot of shots in the beginning of the pandemic and then didn’t get any shots for a year or two years,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine at University of California-San Francisco and an infectious-disease specialist. * * *
  • “Unless you’re very concerned about acquiring Covid right now, my recommendation would be to get it in September or October,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “That will provide the best protection throughout the winter season.” 
  • “The CDC recommends people get one of the new vaccines by the end of October. Both will be available at local clinics and pharmacies.” 

• The American Hospital Association News lets us know,
  • “The Food and Drug Administration Aug. 22 granted emergency use authorization for two new combined COVID-19 and influenza tests. The Nano-Check Influenza-COVID-19 Dual Test is authorized for use by laboratories to detect and differentiate influenza A and B and SARS-CoV-2 in nasal swab specimens. The Flowflex Plus COVID-19 and Flu A/B Home Test is authorized for home use for people aged two and older.” 
    
• The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about pre-eclampsia.

• MedPage Today suggests that “Europe Offers Clues for Solving America’s Maternal Mortality Crisis.”

• The Brown and Brown consulting group makes an urgent call for employers worldwide to become more aware of the risk of suicide among their employees and engage in suicide prevention efforts.

• Beckers Hospital Review shares patient safety goals at top rated U.S. hospitals.

• Per HealthDay, “The overdose-reversing drug naloxone can help save the lives of people whose hearts have stopped due to an opioid OD, a new study shows.”
  
• The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s “independent appraisal committee voted that current evidence is not adequate to demonstrate net health benefits for imetelstat added to best supportive care when compared to best supportive care alone; treatment [for the treatment of anemia in patients with low-to-intermediate risk myelodysplastic syndrome] would meet common thresholds of cost effectiveness if priced between $94,800 to $113,000 per year, therapy currently priced at approximately $365,000 per year.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Modern Healthcare tells us,
  • A federal judge’s ruling this week that blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s near-total ban on noncompete clauses in employment contracts is creating more uncertainty for healthcare employers as they await the agency’s next move.
  • Federal regulators have cracked down on what they view as anticompetitive behavior in recent years, particularly in healthcare. The FTC’s nationwide noncompete ban will no longer take effect Sept. 4, but that doesn’t mean the issue is resolved.
  • Noncompete agreements are common in the healthcare industry. Many organizations, including hospitals, health systems, physician groups, insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, use the agreements in employment contracts to protect business interests and ensure competitors don’t obtain proprietary information.” * * *
  • “The FTC has said Tuesday’s ruling does not remove its authority to challenge noncompete bans on a case-by-case basis.”
  • “There’s not going to be any certainty on this for a while,” said Jason Weber, an employment attorney at law firm Polsinelli.” * * *
  • “Polsinelli’s Weber said companies should try to reduce confusion by educating employees on the ruling and emphasizing that noncompete obligations remain in effect.
  • Weber said employers also have a good opportunity to assess their existing agreements and reevaluate whether noncompete clauses are essential to protecting their businesses. For example, employers could use less-restrictive options such as non-solicitation covenants, he said.” 

• Beckers Payer Issues lists,
  • “Several insurers [that] landed on Forbes’ annual ranking of the “Best Employers by State.” 
  • “The 2024 ranking, published Aug. 20, sorts 1,294 top employers in the U.S. by state. Forbes surveyed more than 160,000 employees at companies with more than 500 people. Respondents evaluated their current employers, employers they’d worked with in the past two years and organizations they knew through their industry. 
  • “Insurers appeared among the top employers in most states, except for Alaska, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming.” 

• Medscape relates,
  • “Most physicians oppose the way standardized relative value units (RVUs) are used to determine performance and compensation, according to Medscape’s 2024 Physicians and RVUs Report. About 6 in 10 survey respondents were unhappy with how RVUs affected them financially, while 7 in “10 said RVUs were poor measures of productivity.
  • The report analyzed 2024 survey data from 1005 practicing physicians who earn RVUs.” * * *
  • “[O]ver half of clinicians said alternatives to the RVU system would be more effective, and 77% suggested including qualitative data.” 

• Per Fierce Healthcare,
  • “A Thursday afternoon [bankruptcy] sale hearing scheduled for several Steward Health Care hospitals was shelved in favor of an amended bankruptcy court itinerary hashing out multiple disputes related to the company’s pending deals for hospitals in Florida and Pennsylvania.”  ***
  • “Though not the focus on Thursday’s hearing, Steward’s counsel also opened the hearing with quick updates on developments in Massachusetts and Ohio.
  • “For the former, Candace Arthur, who represents Steward, said that the company’s estate is “very close to the finish line and still fully engaged in mediation” regarding the deal announced last week.
  • “As for Ohio, where closure notices were issued yesterday for two Steward hospitals, Arthur described those filings as “a deadline thing.”