From Washington, DC,
- Govexec tells us,
- “President Biden formalized his plan to provide civilian federal workers with an average pay increase of 2% next year, in a letter to congressional leaders Friday.
- “Last March, Biden first announced the pay raise plan as part of his fiscal 2025 budget proposal, marking a significant decrease from previous pay raises of 5.2% in 2024 and 4.7% in 2023. Friday’s announcement confirms that, if implemented, federal employees will see an across-the-board boost of 1.7% to basic pay and an average 0.3% increase to locality pay, a slight departure from the traditional 0.5% of the overall raise figure being set aside for locality adjustments.”
- and
- “In accordance with a 2021 Biden administration executive order promoting voting access, OPM in 2022 began requiring agencies to provide federal employees up to four hours of administrative leave to vote in federal, state, local, tribal and territorial elections, which can be used both on Election Day and during early voting. Additionally, agencies must provide an additional four hours of paid leave to employees who serve as election judges or observers.
- “In a memo to agency heads Thursday, acting OPM Director Rob Shriver reminded agencies of the new voting leave rules.”
- The Washington Post reports,
- “Tens of thousands of D.C. residents on Friday will begin receiving letters with good news. That medical debt weighing them down? Poof, it’s gone.
- “D.C. has deals in place to cancel $42 million in medical debt for 62,000 residents, through a partnership with a nonprofit that has helped cities and states across the country purchase the debt for pennies on the dollar, city officials said.
- “The program is one way, they say, to ease a financial burden that can have ramifications for jobs, housing and physical and mental health, and disproportionately impacts people of color.
- “In the District, about 60 percent of the total debt relief will benefit 36,000 residents making $25,000 or less, and 80 percent of residents receiving the relief live in D.C. Zip codes that are majority Black or Latino, city officials said.”
From the public health and medical research front,
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lets us know,
- “Seasonal influenza and RSV activity are low nationally, but COVID-19 activity is elevated in most areas.”
- “COVID-19
- “COVID-19 activity is elevated nationally, with continued increases in many areas and early signs of decline in others. COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, and rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations remain elevated, particularly among adults 65+ and children under 2 years. Surges like this are known to occur throughout the year, including during the summer months. There are many effective tools to prevent spreading COVID-19 or becoming seriously ill.
- “Influenza
- “Nationally, seasonal influenza activity remains low. Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC.
- “RSV
- “Nationally, RSV activity remains low.
- “Vaccination
- The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP adds,
- “Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections are still at the very high level and are highest in the South. Though levels are dropping in the West, they are rising in the South, Midwest, and Northeast, the CDC said.
- “Meanwhile, wastewater tracking from WastewaterSCAN shows that detections nationally are still at the high level, with no clear trend up or down over the past 3 weeks. The group, however, noted an upward trend in the Midwest.”
- and
- “The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that it has granted emergency use authorization for Novavax’s updated COVID-19 vaccine.
- “Approval of the protein-based vaccine comes about a week after the FDA green-lighted the two updated mRNA vaccines—made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech—which target the KP.2 variant. The Novavax vaccine targets JN.1, the parent of KP.2.
- “Novavax’s updated vaccine is authorized for people ages 12 and older.”
- The New York Times reports,
- “Wegovy, the popular obesity drug, may have yet another surprising benefit. In a large clinical trial, people taking the drug during the pandemic were less likely to die of Covid-19, researchers reported on Friday.
- “People on Wegovy still got Covid, and at the same rate as people randomly assigned to take a placebo. But their chances of dying from the infection plunged by 33 percent, the study found. And the protective effect occurred immediately — before participants had lost significant amounts of weight.
- “In addition, the death rate from all causes was lower among subjects taking Wegovy, a very rare finding in clinical trials of new treatments. The result suggests that lower life expectancy among people with obesity is actually caused by the disease itself, and that it can be improved by treating obesity.
- “Stunning,” Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency room physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, said of the data. The study was published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology.”
- What’s more, STAT News informs us,
- “Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy cut the risk of severe complications in patients with a common form of heart failure, according to a new analysis that could boost the company’s efforts to expand the label for the blockbuster treatment.
- “Researchers combined data on nearly 4,000 patients across four trials who had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (or HFpEF) and found that 5.4% of those treated with Wegovy experienced cardiovascular-related death or heart failure events, compared with 7.5% of those who received placebo. This translated to a 31% risk reduction.
- “On heart failure events, defined as hospitalizations or urgent care visits, Wegovy cut the risk by 41%. On cardiovascular-related deaths, it reduced the rate by 18%, but this result was not statistically significant, according to the data, presented Friday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology and published in the Lancet.”
- and
- “An experimental drug from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals substantially cut the risk of death and serious cardiovascular complications among patients with an increasingly diagnosed heart disease, likely teeing up the medicine to be a new option for patients, but one that will face competition from another treatment [from Bridge Bio] also nearing potential approval.
- “The full results from the Phase 3 HELIOS-B study, presented here Friday at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting, bolstered the case that the drug, vutrisiran, can offer added benefits for patients with the progressive disease, known as ATTR-CM. Top-line data were released in June.
- Per FiercePharma,
- “As a new deadly strain of mpox continues its global spread, Emergent BioSoultion’s smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 has officially joined the ranks of FDA-approved defense measures against the virus.
- ‘The FDA signed off on the vaccine’s use as an mpox disease preventive in those deemed to be at a high risk for infection.” * * *
- “Emergent last week linked up with the U.S. government and the World Health Organization (WHO) to donate 50,000 doses of ACAM2000 to the impacted countries the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda through relief organization Direct Relief.”
- Here’s food for weekend thought. NBC News reports,
- “For adults who struggle to get the recommended amount of quality sleep, new research suggests “catching up” those lost hours on the weekends may significantly decrease the risk of heart disease.
- “Many people build up “sleep debt” during the week, hoping to make up for it by getting extra hours over the weekend. Sleep debt is the difference between how much quality sleep we need — at least seven hours each night — and how much we actually get, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
- “In a new analysis being presented Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in London, cardiovascular researchers based in China found that people who got the most sleep on the weekend were 19% less likely to develop heart disease, compared with a group who slept the fewest extra hours those two days.
- “Previous research has shown that not getting enough sleep is associated with poor health. However, there has been little research into how getting extra sleep on the weekend affects the heart.
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- Healthcare Dive points out,
- “U.S. hospitals reported strong operating margins on growing patient volumes in July, according to new data from analytic solutions firm Strata.
- “Hospitals’ median year-to-date operating margin climbed from 4.9% in June to 6.5% in July amid increasing demand for both inpatient and outpatient services, according to the report.
- “Still, expense increases were “sizable” in July, Strata said. Non-labor expenses, including for drugs and supplies, grew at a quicker clip than labor costs year over year.”
- and
- “Steward Health Care has signed definitive agreements to sell four Massachusetts hospitals and is close to finalizing agreements to transition two other facilities to new operators, according to documents filed in U.S. federal bankruptcy court Thursday.
- “Rhode Island-based Lifespan Health System will pay $175 million for the operating licenses, buildings and land associated with St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton, according to the purchase agreement. Massachusetts-based Lawrence General Hospital plans to take over both Holy Family Hospital campuses in Methuen and Haverhill for approximately $28 million.
- “Steward is “continuing to work to finalize” deals to sell St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center to Boston Medical Center, according to a press release Thursday.”
- Beckers Hospital Review identifies five major health system mergers yet to close.
- Per Fierce Healthcare,
- “Pennsylvania-based insurer and care delivery network Highmark Health recorded $7.4 billion in revenue and $223 million in net income during the second quarter.
- “Combined with first-quarter results, Highmark’s revenue is 8% higher year over year compared to the first half of 2023.
- “Executives credited Highmark Health Plans, United Concordia Dental and HM Insurance Group for the robust results.
- “Highmark Health continues to be financially strong and stable, positioning our organization to adapt and succeed as the healthcare landscape continues to evolve,” said Carl Daley, chief financial officer and treasurer of Highmark Health, in a news release.
- “After entering southeastern Pennsylvania, with plans to launch Medicare Advantage products in 2025, the health plan’s segment said membership was stronger than anticipated.
- “Still, high pharmaceutical costs, utilization trends and Medicaid redeterminations are headwinds to the business.”