From Washington, DC,

• Healio informs us,
  • “An FDA panel voted that for adults with uncontrolled hypertension, the benefits of an ultrasound renal denervation device outweigh its risks.
  • Concerns about long-term durability of effect were expressed.”

• The Department of Health and Human Services announced
  • “award[ing] more than $1.4 billion for Project NextGen to support the development of a new generation of tools and technologies to protect against COVID-19 for years to come.
  • “The awards announced today follow extensive coordination with industry partners and include support for clinical trials that will enable the rapid development of even more effective and longer-lasting coronavirus vaccines, a new monoclonal antibody, and transformative technologies to streamline manufacturing processes.”

• The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reaffirmed its 2019 Grade A recommendation that “clinicians prescribe preexposure prophylaxis using effective antiretroviral therapy to persons who are at increased risk of HIV acquisition to decrease the risk of acquiring HIV.”

• The Centers for Disease Control lets us know, based on a survey,
  • About 20% of women reported mistreatment while receiving maternity care.
  • About 30% of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial women reported mistreatment. 
  • Almost half (45%) of women held back from asking questions or sharing concerns during their maternity. * * *
  • Mistreatment was reported most often by Black, Hispanic, and multiracial moms and those with public insurance or no insurance.
• That’s a big bowl of wrong. The CDC observes,
  • Respectful maternity care is free from harm and mistreatment, maintains privacy, confidentiality, and dignity, and allows for shared decision-making and continuous support.

• The Department of Justice announced yesterday,
  • [“D]eferred prosecution agreements resolving criminal antitrust charges against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA. As part of those agreements, both companies will divest a key business line involved in the misconduct, and as an additional remedial measure, Teva will make a $50 million drug donation to humanitarian organizations. Teva will pay a $225 million criminal penalty — the largest to date for a domestic antitrust cartel — and Glenmark will pay a $30 million criminal penalty. Both companies will face prosecution if they violate the terms of the agreements, and if convicted, would likely face mandatory debarment from federal health care programs.
  • “The agreements each require the companies to undertake remedial measures, including the timely divestiture of their respective drug lines for pravastatin, a widely used cholesterol medicine that was a core part of the companies’ price-fixing conspiracy. This extraordinary remedy forces the companies to divest a business line that was central to the misconduct. Teva must also donate $50 million worth of clotrimazole and tobramycin, two additional drugs with prices affected by Teva’s criminal schemes, to humanitarian organizations that provide medication to Americans in need. Both Teva and Glenmark have agreed, among other things, to cooperate with the department in the ongoing criminal investigations and resulting prosecutions, report to the department on their compliance programs, and modify those compliance programs where necessary and appropriate.” 

• Federal New Network reports that OPM released guidance for hybrid teleworkers who are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its new strategic plan for fiscal years 2022 through 2026
  • “The new Strategic Plan reflects our thoughtful assessment of the agency’s mission, goals, and objectives in light of current conditions and what we expect in the next few years,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A Burrows. “It emphasizes expanding the EEOC’s capacity to eliminate systemic barriers to equal opportunity in the workplace, using technology and other tools to improve our services to the public, and achieving organizational excellence with a culture of accountability, inclusivity, and accessibility. I am grateful for the hard work of our staff across the agency who assisted in developing this plan and look forward to its successful implementation.”.

From the public health front,

• The Washington Post explains
  • how to address the factors that may underlie the growing number of women under age 40 who are afflicted with breast cancer,
• and
  • how to guard against germs in leafy green salads.

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The FEHBlog was surprised to read in the Wall Street Journal that
  • “America’s nursing homes are fading away.
  • “The U.S. has at least 600 fewer nursing homes than it did six years ago, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal data. More senior care is happening at home, and the Covid-19 pandemic caused many families to shun nursing homes while draining workers from an already short-staffed industry.
  • “The result? Frail elderly patients are stuck in hospitals, a dangerous place for seniors, waiting for somewhere to go—sometimes for months. Beds are disappearing while the need for senior care is growing. The American population 65 and older is expected to swell from 56 million in 2020 to 81 million by 2040.

• MedPage Today notes.
  • “States that recently adopted less-restrictive policies surrounding the use of telepharmacy had fewer pharmacy deserts in the following year, a cohort study involving a dozen states showed.
  • “Compared with nearby states that made no changes, states that formally implemented or updated pro-telepharmacy policies had a 4.5% relative decrease (95% CI 1.6-7.4) in the percentage of regions defined as pharmacy deserts (P=0.001) and an 11.1% relative decrease (95% CI 2.4-22.6) in the proportion of people living in one of these deserts (P=0.03).
  • “And in general, telepharmacies tended to serve areas of high medical need, reported Jessica Adams, PharmD, of TelePharm in Iowa City, Iowa, and colleagues.
  • “As pharmacy closures and socioeconomic factors persist, pharmacy deserts are likely to expand unless policies are implemented to ensure continued access to pharmacy services,” the researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open

• The Business Group on Health points out,
  • “Mental health needs among workforces continued to climb this year, with 77% of large employers reporting an increase and another 16% anticipating one in the future, according to Business Group on Health’s 2024 Large Employer Health Care Strategy Survey.
  • “This represents a 33 percentage-point surge over last year, when 44% of employers saw an increase in employee mental health concerns.
  • “The Business Group survey, released today in Washington, DC, also showed that cancer was still the top driver of large companies’ health care costs while rising prescription drug costs also proved to be a leading concern. Cancer overtook musculoskeletal conditions last year as the top driver of large companies’ healthcare costs and shows no sign of abating in the coming years.
  • “Yet as businesses respond to the increase in mental health needs, grapple with soaring health care costs and address issues of health equity and affordability, they will continue to invest strategically in diverse health and well-being offerings for the upcoming year, the survey also showed.”

• Axios reports that “Middle-class Americans [who earn $50,000 to $100,000 annually] are the most likely to be saddled with medical debt, with nearly 1 in 4 — or roughly 17 million people — having unpaid medical bills, according to a report shared first with Axios from center-left think tank Third Way.”

• Per Healthcare Dive,
  • “Epic and Microsoft announced on Tuesday an expanded collaboration focused on integrating generative artificial intelligence tools in the vendor’s electronic health records system. 
  • “The partners are working to “rapidly deploy dozens” of AI technologies, including clinical note summarization, medical coding suggestions and data exploration tools that aim to fill gaps in clinical evidence by using real-world data. 
  • “The expanded partnership is intended to speed the development of AI tools in healthcare, bringing the technology as “quickly as possible, responsibly and in partnership with providers,” according to a blog post by Eric Boyd, corporate vice president of AI platform at Microsoft.”