From Washington, DC,

• Roll Call reports,
  • “Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to tie a six-month spending extension to a voting restriction bill pushed by former President Donald Trump was stymied Wednesday as the Louisiana Republican was forced to pull the package from the floor schedule.
  • “Johnson announced his decision midday in the face of certain defeat instead of pushing forward with the planned vote around 4:30 p.m. He said GOP leaders would continue to work on the package to try to shore up votes over the weekend, in hopes of bringing it back to the floor as soon as next week.
  • “The whip is going to do the hard work and build consensus. We’re going to work through the weekend on that,” Johnson told reporters shortly before the House convened at noon. “No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress. With small majorities, that’s what you do. …We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations, within the Republican conference, and I believe we’ll get there.”
  • “Despite vowing to push forward with the current text, the speaker and his allies will likely need to pivot to a new strategy to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month — or wait and see if the Senate will take action to move its funding extension to mid-December.”

• Per Healthcare Dive,
  • “More than 300 telehealth and provider organizations are urging Congress and the Biden administration to extend pandemic-era virtual prescribing flexibilities for controlled substances before they expire at the end of the year.
  • “In letters sent to Congressional leaders Tuesday, the groups asked lawmakers to pass a two-year extension of the flexibilities, which allowed clinicians to prescribe some controlled substances via telehealth without an in-person evaluation. The organizations, who want the extension included in an end-of-year legislative package, also pushed the White House to work with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to avoid an expiration of the telehealth prescribing changes.
  • “The groups argue the window for proposing a new rule is rapidly closing, and an extension would give regulators more time to figure out how to balance access to care and drug enforcement.”

• Federal News Network discusses FEHB coverage of GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

• Reg Jones, writing in FedWeek, explains the scope of retiree benefits for Benefits for those with less than a full federal career.
  
• KFF posted “a new KFF analysis finds that federal spending on Medicare Advantage bonus payments will total at least $11.8 billion in 2024, a decrease of $1 billion from last year.” 

From the public health and medical research front,

• NBC News reports,
  • “The number of pregnant women forced to travel farther to deliver their babies — or go without prenatal care entirely — is growing.
  • “A March of Dimes report published Tuesday found that over a third of U.S. counties (35.1%) are what the group calls “maternity care deserts,” meaning they don’t have a single doctor, nurse, midwife or medical center specializing in maternity care.
  • “More than 2.3 million women of childbearing age lived in one of these counties in 2022, when the data was collected for the new report, up from 2.2 million in 2020.
  • “The number of babies born in these counties also rose, from 146,000 to more than 150,000. 
  • “It’s getting worse over time,” said Ashley Stoneburner, lead report author and director of applied research and analytics at the March of Dimes.”  * * *
  • “States in which pregnant women had to travel the farthest to seek medical maternity care included Alaska, Hawaii and Montana.”
    
• The New York Times informs us,
  • “About one in six adults — and about a quarter of adults younger than 30 — use chatbots to find medical advice and information at least once a month, according to a recent survey from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization.
  • “Supporters hope A.I. will empower patients by giving them more comprehensive medical explanations than a simple Google search might. “Google gives you access to information. A.I. gives access to clinical thought,” said Dave deBronkart, a patient advocate and blogger.
  • “Researchers know very little about how patients are using generative A.I. to answer their medical questions. Studies on this topic have been largely focused on hypothetical medical cases.
  • “Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a public health researcher and professor at Brown University who studies patient uses for A.I. chatbots, said he doesn’t think experts have grasped just how many people were already using the technology to answer health questions.
  • “We’ve always thought that this is something coming down the pipe, but isn’t being used in big numbers right now,” he said. “I was quite struck by such a high rate” in the KFF survey.”

• The National Cancer Institute posted its most recent cancer information highlights on the following topics: “Young Adults | Ancient Viruses | Cell Therapy.”

• Per a National Institute of Health press release,
  • “Newborns who had an atypical pattern of metabolites were more than 14 times as likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), compared to infants who had more typical metabolic patterns, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. Metabolites are molecules produced by the body’s various chemical reactions. Researchers found that infants who died of SIDS had a specific pattern of metabolites compared to infants who lived to their first year. The researchers believe that checking for this pattern could provide a way to identify infants at risk for SIDS. The study was conducted by Scott Oltman, M.S., of the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, and colleagues. It appears in JAMA Pediatrics.
  • “SIDS is the sudden, unexplained death of an infant younger than 1 year of age that remains unexplained after a complete investigation.​ From more than 2 million infants born in California, researchers compared newborn screening test results of 354 SIDS cases to those of 1,416 infants who survived to at least one year old. The state screens all its newborns for many serious disorders. Test results include checking for metabolites that are markers for disorders and conditions. In the study, infants identified with the highest risk metabolic profile involving eight metabolites were 14.4 times more likely to have SIDS than infants with the lowest risk metabolic profile.
  • “The authors say that testing for metabolic patterns may provide a way to identify infants at risk for SIDS soon after birth, which could inform efforts to reduce SIDS risk. Similarly, research on the biochemical pathways that produce the metabolites linked to SIDS may yield insights into the causes of SIDS and ways to reduce its risk. NIH funding for the study was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).”

• Per Fierce Healthcare,
  • “Remote physiologic monitoring company Cadence released data showing that rural patients at Lifepoint Health clinics who took part in Cadence’s Type 2 diabetes and hypertension programs had better outcomes than their urban counterparts.
  • “The data are a result of the companies’ three-year partnership. Brentwood, Tennessee-based Lifepoint is deploying remote monitoring throughout its 60 community hospital campuses, more than 60 rehabilitation and behavioral health hospitals and more than 250 other sites of care. Together, they are serving 4,600 patients. About two-thirds of patients in the remote monitoring programs for diabetes and hypertension lived in rural or underserved areas.
  • “The data, released Wednesday by Cadence, show that 10% more patients achieved their target blood glucose level in rural areas than patients in urban areas—63% compared to 53%—and they achieved better blood glucose reduction.”

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “Sanofi and Regeneron plan to make a second attempt at expanding use of their blockbuster drug Dupixent to people with a chronic skin condition that causes hives.
  • “The Food and Drug Administration rejected the companies’ initial application in chronic spontaneous urticaria, or CSU, last year, requesting additional efficacy data to support the new use. On Wednesday, Sanofi and Regeneron said they now have the results they need to try again and said they plan to submit a new application to the FDA by the end of the year.
  • “The trial, known as LIBERTY-CUPID Study C, enrolled patients with CSU who had uncontrolled symptoms and were taking antihistamines. Patients who added Dupixent to their treatment regimen had almost a 50% reduction in itch and urticaria activity scores, compared with those who received a placebo, Sanofi and Regeneron said.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Beckers Hospital Review ranks 36 health systems by second quarter 2024 revenue.

• ALM Benefits Pro tells us, “U.S. employer health plan medical spending has been rising more quickly for the plan enrollees who rank in the top 10% in terms of claims than for other enrollees, researchers report in a new paper published by the American Journal of Managed Care.”
  
• Modern Healthcare reports,
  • “Aetna is leaning into technology it believes will alleviate patient and provider headaches from burdensome utilization management rules, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Cathy Moffitt said.
  • “To expedite care and reduce administrative obstacles, the health insurance company intends to automate about one-third of preapproval requests from providers this year, Moffitt, also a senior vice president at parent company CVS Health, said in an interview. But Aetna is walking a fine line as health insurers face backlash over how they incorporate technologies such as algorithms and artificial intelligence into the preapproval process.”
• and
  • “Steward Health Care received approval from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to sell three of its Florida hospitals to Orlando Health in a $439 million deal. 
  • “Orlando Health, the highest bidder for the facilities, is acquiring Melbourne Regional Medical Center, Rockledge Regional Medical Center and Sebastian River Medical Center, all in Florida, according to a Tuesday court filing.”

• Per Fierce Healthcare,
  • “More Kaiser Permanente members in Colorado will soon be able to visit CommonSpirit Health hospitals for their inpatient and emergency care, the nonprofit giants announced Tuesday.
  • “Beginning “in early 2025,” Kaiser will integrate physicians and other employees into four Metro Denver area hospitals—St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster, Longmont United Hospital in Longmont and OrthoColorado Hospital (an orthopedic and spine specialty hospital) in Lakewood.
  • “Physicians who will be working at these centers under the strategic partnership will include hospitalists and surgeons alongside specialists such as cardiologists and pulmonologists, according to the announcement.”