Weekend Update

From Washington, DC,
- Roll Call reports,
- “President Donald Trump signed the wrapup spending bill for fiscal 2025 on Saturday, heading off a partial government shutdown that would have begun to be felt on Monday when federal agencies are scheduled to open for business.
- “The six-month stopgap measure, which funds government programs through Sept. 30, cleared the Senate on Friday after enough Democrats crossed the aisle to vote to end debate, defying intense pressure from the left wing of their party. The deadline for Trump’s signature was technically midnight, but shutdown procedures don’t typically begin until the workweek starts.”
- The House of Representatives and the Senate are on a District / State work break this week.
- Here’s a link to the American Medical Association’s view of last week’s MedPAC report to Congress.
- “Endorsing a stabilizing approach to Medicare reform, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended today that Congress link next year’s physician payment update to the growth in the cost of providing care.
- “The recommendation comes just as Congress failed this week to prevent this year’s 2.8 percent cut, marking the fifth consecutive year of cuts.
- “With exquisite timing, MedPAC has highlighted how Congress can strengthen Medicare policy. With uncertainty surrounding the continuing resolution, the report offers a roadmap to Congress on how to address the cuts,” said American Medical Association President Bruce A. Scott, M.D. “The AMA appreciates commissioners and staff for listening to physicians around the country.”
From the judicial front,
- Bloomberg Law reported last Friday night,
- “The Trump administration filed an emergency motion Friday asking a federal appeals court to immediately pause an order from a San Francisco judge requiring six cabinet agencies to rehire thousands of terminated employees.
- “The petition asks the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the largest appeals court in the country, to issue an order on Friday temporarily blocking a preliminary injunction from Judge William Alsup while the case proceeds through the appeals process.
- “The judge, who sits on the US District Court for the Northern District of California, on Thursday ordered the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Treasury to rehire the probationary employees who were laid off in early February at the direction of the Office of Personnel Management.
- “The government also filed a notice of appeal on Friday to the Fourth Circuit in a second case that reinstated probationary workers. A Maryland federal judge on Thursday ruled in that case that 18 different federal agencies must rehire the workers.”
- Govexec adds in a report posted last night,
- “The Trump administration appears to be preparing to comply with multiple court orders to quickly place tens of thousands of federal workers fired during their probationary periods, according to officials at three agencies briefed on the plans.
- “The recently hired, or in some cases recently promoted or transferred, employees will not immediately go back to their jobs but instead be placed on paid administrative leave. The employees are impacted by two separate court rulings issued on Thursday, which could lead to different outcomes for different workers.”
From the public health and medical research front,
- The Washington Post reports,
- “How old are your organs? The answer might not match your chronological age — and a new analysis finds that an organ’s biological age might predict a person’s risk of diseases such as cancer, dementia and heart disease.
- “The research, published in the Lancet Digital Health, analyzed data from Whitehall II, a long-running British study of aging that has followed over 10,000 British adults for more than 35 years. Between 1997 and 1999, the Whitehall study took blood plasma samples from participants when they were 45 to 69 years old.
- “The current study analyzed those blood samples as well as follow-up data for 6,235 Whitehall participants, who were by then ages 65 to 89. The researchers used the analysis to help measure the gap between a person’s age and the biological age of nine of their organs: heart, blood vessels, liver, immune system, pancreas, kidneys, lungs, intestines and brain. Then they looked at follow-up data that showed the kinds of diseases participants developed as they aged over the next two decades.
- The organs aged at different rates in different people and even within the body, the researchers write — and those with “fast-aging” organs had an increased risk of 30 of the 45 age-related diseases studied.” * * *
- “The researchers say the study shows the promise of an organ-specific blood test, which is simpler than past methods.”
- The Post also offers “The good news about anxiety. In the right amount, anxiety can heighten focus and detail orientation. It also spurs creativity and motivates us to problem-solve.”
- The Wall Street Journal delves into “Generation Xanax: The Dark Side of America’s Wonder Drug. Amid rising concerns about benzodiazepines, some patients who try to quit are suffering extreme anxiety, memory loss and intense physical pain.”
- Medscape tells us,
- “Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) are linked to a 54% lower risk for developing hematologic cancers than insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The medication shows particular effectiveness in reducing risk for myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative neoplasms vs metformin.”
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- The Wall Street Journal reports,
- “A new breed of drug middlemen are pushing an unusual cost-saving strategy that lets their employer clients tap a federal program meant for hospitals that serve the poor.
- “The government program, known as 340B, allows hospitals that care for many uninsured and low-income patients to purchase outpatient medicines at steep discounts. Hospitals can pocket the savings, but they can also choose to pass the discounts on to patients at their pharmacies.
- Companies such as Rescription, MakoRx and Liviniti are selling pharmacy-benefit plans that save employers money by funneling workers to those 340B hospital pharmacies instead of traditional drugstores. The workers get the discounted 340B price under these plans. Hospitals participate because it expands their customer base and they receive fees for dispensing prescriptions, the companies say.
- “The companies count some of the participating hospitals among their clients, providing benefits for hospital workers. They say they are hoping to change the business of pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, which traditionally negotiate prices for their clients with drugmakers and demand rebates to cut net costs.”