Midweek Report

David Ermer–Congress, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports
    • “Senate Republicans said they would stick with their plan to vote on a narrow part of President Trump’s agenda focused on border security and military spending, brushing off his comments that he favored a broader approach led by House Republicans.
    • “Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said the Senate’s budget blueprint, which is up for a vote starting on Thursday, would give Trump another way to enact his domestic agenda, positioning it as a backup plan if the broader House package stalls. The House framework also includes trillions of dollars for tax relief and partially offsetting spending cuts.” * * *
    • “House and Senate Republicans are using a process called reconciliation that allows them to pass their plan through the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes usually required, allowing them to bypass Democratic opposition. But they have been working on different tracks. Both chambers of Congress have been racing to finish their versions of the budget framework, one of which would need to be passed by both houses and signed into law by Trump before work begins on the nitty-gritty of the underlying bill.”
  • Modern Healthcare reports,
    • “Dr. Mehmet Oz has agreed to divest stakes worth millions of dollars in numerous healthcare companies, including UnitedHealth Group and HCA Healthcare, if he is confirmed as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
    • “In an ethics agreement posted by the Office of Government Ethics Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead CMS said he would end investments in many companies within 90 days of confirmation. He also said upon confirmation, he would resign from numerous advisory positions he holds.”
  • Healthcare Dive informs us,
    • “The Federal Trade Commission will continue to use stricter guidelines inked by the Biden administration in reviewing corporate mergers, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson notified staff on Tuesday, in a setback for healthcare M&A.
    • “The guidelines finalized in 2023 raised the bar for antitrust review, and as such have been broadly opposed by the private sector. Their preservation complicates expectations that the Trump administration will take a looser stance toward combating consolidation.
    • “Ferguson said he felt the need to clarify the FTC’s M&A review process given a flood of new premerger filings the agency received after new submission requirements went into effect earlier this month.”

From the judicial front,

  • Per Modern Healthcare,
    • “The Federal Trade Commission’s legal action against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers will move forward after a federal judge rejected their bid to halt the case.
    • “In a court filing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp denied a request by CVS Health’s CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx for a preliminary injunction in the FTC’s in-house case examining their influence over insulin costs.”
  • The Wall Street Journal alerts us,
    • “The implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act, which requires millions of companies to disclose their true ownership to the government, is back on after a federal judge in Texas reversed an injunction he issued last month.
    • “The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which oversees the enforcement of the law, on Tuesday issued a notice that extended the filing deadline for most companies to March 21. FinCEN said it recognized that companies may need additional time to comply. 
    • “Judge Jeremy Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas, in a ruling this week, granted the U.S. government’s request to stay a national injunction issued on Jan. 7. Kernodle cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Treasury issued in January by Justice Samuel Alito, which overturned a lower court order that was blocking enforcement of the CTA in another case challenging the constitutionality of the law.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • Healthcare Dive tells us,
    • “U.S. hospitals are busier than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Open Network. If occupancy trends continue to rise as expected, the nation could be on the brink of a bed shortage.
    • “Average hospital occupancy rates were up 11% in 2024 compared to 2019, due mostly to a declining supply of staffed beds rather than an increase in hospitalizations. The average supply of staffed beds fell from 802,000 beds between 2009 and 2019 to 674,000 beds between May 2023 and April 2024.
    • “Without changes to the projected hospitalization rate or existing bed supply, the U.S. is poised to experience an adult bed shortage by 2032, with some states experiencing a shortage before that time, according to the study.”
  • Per Healio,
    • “Antidepressants were more effective than placebo in reducing anxiety symptoms among adults with moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder, according to a review published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
    • “The research shows that antidepressants are highly effective at treating generalized anxiety disorder, at least in the specific circumstances seen in trials,” Giuseppe Guaiana, MD, MSc, PhD, FRCPC, associate professor of psychiatry in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, and chief of psychiatry at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital in St. Thomas, Canada, said in a press release. “For people with generalized anxiety disorder and no other conditions, we have good evidence that antidepressants lead to clinically meaningful improvements over a 1- to 3-month period compared to placebo.”
  • The National Cancer Institute lets us know,
    • “A form of nivolumab that can be injected under the skin (subcutaneous) has gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The approval allows the injectable version to be used for most of the same patient groups as the original formulation, which is given as an infusion through a vein (intravenous or IV).
    • “Experts say the injectable version of nivolumab, also called Opdivo Qvantig, will make the treatment quicker and easier for patients to get. The injection takes less than 5 minutes, compared with about 30 minutes for the infusion.” 
  • Per MedPage Today,
    • “Higher calcium intake was consistently associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) across calcium sources and tumor sites, according to a cohort study using data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.
    • “Among over 470,000 participants who were cancer-free at baseline, higher total calcium intake was associated with a lower risk of CRC (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.65-0.78, P<0.001 for trend), reported Erikka Loftfield, PhD, MPH, of the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues.
    • “Dairy, nondairy, and supplemental sources contributed a mean of 42.1%, 34.2%, and 23.7% of total calcium intake, respectively, they noted in JAMA Network Open.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Healthcare Finance News reports,
    • “It remains a challenging time for the nation’s rural hospitals. The percentage of such hospitals operating with negative margins is slightly lower than it was last year, at about 46%.
    • “At the same time the number of rural hospitals deemed at risk of closure has increased.
    • “According to a new Chartis report, the national median operating margin for rural hospitals is 1%, but the median margin is negative in 16 states. At the state level, all three of Connecticut’s rural hospitals are operating in the red, and 87% of Kansas’ rural hospitals are in the red, followed by Washington (76%), Oklahoma (70%) and Wyoming (70%). 
    • “At the other end of the spectrum, Alaska (15%) and Wisconsin (19%) are the only states in which the percentage of rural hospitals in the red is less than 20%.”
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “Sutter Health will invest $1 billion to expand its services across Northern California’s East Bay region, including a new flagship campus in Emeryville.
    • “The health system announced Wednesday that the campus will feature a new medical center with up to 200 beds as well as a regional destination for ambulatory care. The plans also leave room for future expansion, according to the announcement.
    • “The ambulatory services complex at the 12-acre campus will feature a wide array of specialties and will offer imaging and laboratory services. It expects to welcome its first patients as early as 2028, Sutter said.
    • “The 335,000-square-foot medical center will include labor and delivery, surgical services, intensive care, emergency care and neonatal intensive care. The facility will be designed with the potential to add additional patient rooms in the future.
    • “Sutter is targeting a 2032-33 opening date for the medical center, according to the announcement.”
  • and
    • “Humana’s senior-focused primary care division is charting a course for further expansion throughout 2025, the company announced Wednesday.
    • “Those expansion plans include centers in four new markets: Augusta and Savannah in Georgia, North Carolina’s Triad Region and Wichita, Kansas. Between CenterWell and Conviva, the team plans to open between 20 and 30 new centers in existing markets, too, across 11 states.
    • “That number includes CenterWell facilities that are co-located at Walmart stores, with 11 remaining locations in that partnership set to open by the end of this year.
    • “With our expansion efforts, we’re taking a thoughtful approach to growth, seeking out communities that would benefit from our holistic and personalized senior care model,” said Sanjay Shetty, M.D., president of Humana’s CenterWell healthcare services segment, in a press release.”
  • Fierce Healthcare adds from the VIVE conference,
    • “Value-based care company Lumeris rolled out new AI technology for primary care doctors that produces personalized, next-best actions at both the patient and population levels. 
    • “Dubbed “Tom,” and described as a Primary Care as a Service solution embedded in clinical workflows and is designed to extend the primary care team’s reach across patient management areas including prevention and wellness, care coordination, social determinants of health, population health and chronic disease management.
    • “Tom reduces burnout by automating time-consuming tasks, according to the company, and the tech can support physicians to help health systems manage larger patient panels without sacrificing care quality. 
    • “Unlike traditional analytics-based systems, Lumeris’ AI tool executes next-best actions, including scheduling screenings and appointments, monitoring medication adherence, conducting post-discharge outreach, and sharing patient education, according to the company.
    • “The tech can initiate an interactive, patient-specific outbound call or text based on best next action such as following up post discharge, answer questions about medications and identify and reach out to close preventive gaps in care. The tech also will summarize patient text and voice interactions into relevant notes and actions into the practice’s workflow.”