Weekend Update

David Ermer

I am an attorney who practices law in Washington DC. My practice has involved the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program since 1983.

Weekend Update

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, Congress, HSA, Medicare, NIH, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Thanks to ACK15 for sharing their work on Unsplash.

From Washington, DC

  • On Saturday, the House Appropriations Committee unveiled “The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025.”
  • The Wall Street Journal adds,
    • “House lawmakers are expected to vote on the proposal, termed a continuing resolution or CR, as soon as Tuesday, with a majority needed to pass it. But even if House Republicans manage to stay united and pass the proposal over Democratic opposition, it will need at least 60 votes in the Senate, which has only 53 Republican lawmakers. 
    • “Funding for federal agencies runs out on Friday night. With no new legislation, many federal employees would be furloughed, while others would continue to report to work with no pay.” 
  • The Senate will be voting to confirm the President’s nominee for Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer Monday afternoon.
  • Committee meetings of note:
    • Committee: House Oversight and Government Reform
      Subcommittee: House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations
      Subject: “Shifting Gears: Moving from Recovery to Prevention of Improper Payments and Fraud”
      Date: 03/11/2025 (10:00 AM Local Time)(Add to My Calendar)
      Location: 2247 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
    • Committee: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Subject: Business meeting to consider the nominations of Jayanta Bhattacharya, of California, to be Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Martin Makary, of Virginia, to be Commissioner of Food and Drugs, both of the Department of Health and Human Services, and other pending calendar business
      Related Items: PN12-2, PN12-28
      Date: 03/13/2025 (9:30 AM Local Time)   (Add to My Calendar)
      Location: 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
    • Committee Senate Finance Committee Subject: Hearing to consider the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz to be CMS Administrator
      Witness: Dr. Mehmet Oz 
      Date: Friday, March 14, 2025, 10:00 AM Local Time)
      Location: 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC
  • The AP explains “How a health savings account fits into your retirement strategy.”

From the public health front,

  • The Wall Street Journal explores how “One Couple in Their 90s Confronts a Stark Reality: Aging at Different Speeds; Lifelong partners grapple with how and whether to stay together when one can’t care for the other.”
  • The New York Times points out six sources of protein that are not meat and answers questions about fentanyl.
  • Beckers Hospital Review notes,
    • Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have developed a drug that more than doubled median survival time and progression-free time for patients with glioblastoma during a clinical trial.
    • Patients who received the drug Rhenium Obisbemeda, or 186RNL, also experienced no dose-limiting toxic effects, according to a March 7 news release from UT Health San Antonio.
    • Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain tumor, with more than 90% of patients experiencing recurrence. If standard treatment fails, the median survival time is about eight months, the release said. \
    • “Glioblastoma has needed durable treatments that can directly target the tumor while sparing healthy tissue,” Andrew Brenner, MD, PhD, professor and chair of neuro-oncology research with Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, said in the release. “This trial provides hope, with a second phase under way and planned for completion by the end of this year.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare reports,
    • “Higher volumes, more favorable reimbursement rates and more efficient labor spending helped Providence cut its 2024 operating losses nearly in half.
    • “On Thursday the nonprofit system reported a $644 million operating loss (-2.1% operating loss) across 2024, a stark improvement over the $1.17 billion operating loss (-4.1% operating margin) of the year prior. The 2024 tally includes $183 million in reconstruction costs “related to asset rationalization, employee reductions and other items,” according to its filing.
    • “Operating revenues across the system grew 7% year over year to $30.7 billion (5% when excluding a $426 million net gain in the first quarter), with management noting in its filing that the growth was spread across all of its operating categories.”
  • and
    • “Earlier this week, Eli Lilly partnered up with telehealth providers LifeMD and Teladoc Health to offer its lower cost, single-vial Zepbound (tirzepatide) to patients in the virtual care companies’ full-service weight loss management programs.
    • “The companies are directly contracting with Eli Lilly’s self-pay pharmacy, GiftHealth. The move could be a boon for telehealth weight loss programs, which have proved lucrative for virtual primary care companies. Many of the chronic condition management programs, including for weight loss, also offer remote monitoring, access to dietitians and health coaches, as well as the ability to be prescribed medication for weight loss, including older medications.
    • “The announcement follows Eli Lilly’s partnership with telehealth platform Ro three months ago. The pharmaceutical company launched its own direct-to-consumer telehealth offering for weight loss in January 2024. Now, it seems to be creating a marketplace of access.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues ranks Medicare insurers by the quality of their mobile applications.

Cybersecurity Saturday

David Ermer–Cybersecurity–

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front.

  • Security Week informs us,
    • “The Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2025 [(HR 872)] instructs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to consult with CISA, the Office of the National Cyber Director, NIST, and other relevant departments, and require federal contractors to have a [vulnerability disclosure program] VDP that is consistent with NIST guidelines. 
    • “The bill also instructs the Defense Department to require defense contractors to adopt similar policies. 
    • “The goal is to make it easier for individuals and companies who find vulnerabilities in contractors’ systems to responsibly disclose them. 
    • “Just days before the bill passed the House, several major cybersecurity and tech companies signed a letter urging the House and Senate to approve the legislation.” * * *
    • “The legislation is now in the Senate, where it has been referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.”
       
  • Speaking of NIST, earlier this week, NIST finalized “Guidelines for Evaluating ‘Differential Privacy’ Guarantees to De-Identify Data.”
    • “Using differential privacy can help organizations glean useful insights from databases while protecting individuals’ data. 
    • “NIST has put the finishing touches on guidelines intended to help organizations evaluate differential privacy claims. 
    • “The finalized publication expands upon draft guidelines that NIST released last year.”
  • Bleeping Computer lets us know,
    • “U.S. authorities have seized over $23 million in cryptocurrency linked to the theft of $150 million from a Ripple crypto wallet in January 2024. Investigators believe hackers who breached LastPass in 2022 were behind the attack.
    • “Despite the threat actors’ efforts, law enforcement agents traced $23,604,815.09 of the stolen digital assets between June 2024 and February 2025 to the following cryptocurrency exchanges: OKX, Payward Interactive, Inc. (dba Kraken), WhiteBIT, AscendEX Technology SRL, Ftrader Ltd (dba FixedFloat), SwapSpace LLC, and Rabbit Finance LLC (dba CoinRabbit).
    • “A forfeiture complaint unsealed by the U.S. Justice Department yesterday [March 6] and first spotted by crypto fraud investigator ZachXBT reveals that U.S. Secret Service agents who interviewed the victim believe the attackers could have only stolen the cryptocurrency using private keys extracted by cracking the victim’s password vault stolen in a 2022 breach of an online password manager.”
  • Cyberscoop tells us,
    • The Justice Department on Wednesday [March 6] indicted 12 Chinese nationals for their alleged involvement in an extensive nation-state-backed espionage campaign that included a spree of attacks on U.S. federal and state agencies, including the late 2024 attack targeting the Treasury Department. 
    • Officials accused the Chinese individuals, including two officers of China’s Ministry of Public Security, eight i-Soon employees and two members of the Chinese state-backed threat group APT27 or Silk Typhoon, of breaching numerous networks globally to steal and sell data to China’s intelligence and security services. Some of the alleged attacks date back to 2011, officials said.
    • The indictments reveal China’s alleged well-coordinated effort to use a hacker-for-hire ecosystem to conduct espionage while obscuring the government’s direct involvement. The pool of victims impacted by the alleged co-conspirators is immense, including U.S.-based critics and dissidents of China, a large U.S.-based religious organization and foreign ministries of multiple governments in Asia.
  • Per a U.S. Justice Department news release,
    • “A federal jury in Cleveland convicted a Texas man today for writing and deploying malicious code on his former employer’s network.
    • “According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Davis Lu, 55, of Houston, was employed as a software developer for the victim company headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, from November 2007 to October 2019. Following a 2018 corporate realignment that reduced his responsibilities and system access, Lu began sabotaging his employer’s systems. By Aug. 4, 2019, he introduced malicious code that caused system crashes and prevented user logins. Specifically, he created “infinite loops” (in this case, code designed to exhaust Java threads by repeatedly creating new threads without proper termination and resulting in server crashes or hangs), deleted coworker profile files, and implemented a “kill switch” that would lock out all users if his credentials in the company’s active directory were disabled. The “kill switch” code — which Lu named “IsDLEnabledinAD”, abbreviating “Is Davis Lu enabled in Active Directory” — was automatically activated upon his termination on Sept. 9, 2019, and impacted thousands of company users globally.” 

From the cybersecurity vulnerabilities and breaches front,

  • Cyberscoop relates,
    • “The Chinese state-backed threat group Silk Typhoon shifted tactics in late 2024 to broaden access and enable follow-on attacks against downstream customers of its initial targets, Microsoft Threat Intelligence said in a blog released Wednesday. 
    • “The Chinese espionage group, which is also known as APT27, has abused stolen API keys and credentials for privileged access management, cloud-based application providers and data management companies to intrude networks operated by state and local governments and organizations in the IT sector.
    • “After successfully compromising a victim, Silk Typhoon uses the stolen keys and credentials to infiltrate customer networks where they can then abuse a variety of deployed applications, including Microsoft services and others, to achieve their espionage objectives,” Ann Johnson, corporate vice president at Microsoft Security, said in a LinkedIn post.”
  • Cybersecurity Dive reports,
    • “Cyberattacks targeting third-party vendors are causing more financial damage than ever before, cyber risk management firm Resilience said in a recent report.
    • “Nearly a quarter (23%) of cyber insurance claims filed with Resilience last year involved material losses resulting from a third-party breach, according to the analysis. It’s a first for the company, which hasn’t previously observed customer claims with material losses in the third-party risk category.
    • “Many of the vendor-related incidents from 2024 resulted in some sort of pause on our customers’ ability to conduct business and, as a result, had a much larger financial impact,” Ann Irvine, chief data and analytics officer at Resilience, said via email.”
  • and
    • Broadcom on Tuesday disclosed three zero-day vulnerabilities that affect multiple VMware products, including ESXi, Workstation and Fusion. The vulnerabilities have been exploited in the wild.
    • More than 37,000 VMware ESXi instances remain vulnerable to CVE-2025-22224, a critical zero-day vulnerability, according to scanning data from the Shadowserver Foundation. 
    • Some customers with downgraded VMware licenses have been unable to download the patches because of an issue with the Broadcom Support Portal. The company said in an FAQ that the issue is “a high priority and will be fixed shortly.”
  • The American Hospital Association News notes,
    • “A Microsoft report published March 5 identified recent tactics by Silk Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored cyberthreat group known for extensive espionage activities. The group has been recently targeting IT solutions such as remote management tools and cloud applications to gain access and potentially cause supply chain disruptions. Silk Typhoon is viewed as a significant threat to critical infrastructure, the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center said.  
    • “Silk Typhoon is a highly skilled group, and it has shown the ability to move rapidly and exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in systems,” said Scott Gee, AHA deputy national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “The best way for hospitals to defend themselves is focusing on the basics of cybersecurity like patch management.” 
  • The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) added nine known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.

From the ransomware front,

  • Per Cyberscoop,
    • “The FBI and threat researchers are warning executives to be on the lookout for physical letters in the mail threatening to leak sensitive corporate data. 
    • “The letters, which are stamped “time sensitive read immediately” and shipped directly to executives through the Postal Service, are part of a nationwide scamdesigned to extort victims into paying $250,000 to $500,000, the FBI said Thursday.
    • “The unidentified criminal or threat group behind the mail scam is masquerading as BianLian, a prolific ransomware and data extortion group that has attacked multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors since June 2022. 
    • “Cyber authorities and researchers have not confirmed BianLian’s involvement and believe the letters are an attempt to scam organizations into paying a ransom.” 
  • Cybersecurity Dive lets us know,
    • “A zero-day vulnerability in a Microsoft-signed driver from Paragon Software is being exploited in ransomware attacks.
    • “CERT Coordination Center on Friday warned in a security advisory that five vulnerabilities were discovered in Paragon Partition Manager’s BioNTdrv.sys driver. Threat actors have already exploited one of the flaws in what are known as “bring your own vulnerable driver” (BYOVD) attacks, in which attackers use signed drivers to compromise systems and evade detection.
    • “According to the advisory, CVE-2025-0289 is an insecure kernel resource access vulnerability that can be used to either escalate privileges or execute DoS attacks on targeted devices. CERT warned the vulnerability can be executed on Windows devices even if Paragon Partition Manager, which partitions hard drives to optimize disk space and performance, is not installed.
    • “Microsoft has observed threat actors (TAs) exploiting this weakness in BYOVD ransomware attacks, specifically using CVE-2025-0289 to achieve privilege escalation to SYSTEM level, then execute further malicious code,” CERT said in the advisory. “These vulnerabilities have been patched by both Paragon Software, and vulnerable BioNTdrv.sys versions blocked by Microsoft’s Vulnerable Driver Blocklist.”
  • Per Bleeping Computer,
    • “The Akira ransomware gang was spotted using an unsecured webcam to launch encryption attacks on a victim’s network, effectively circumventing Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), which was blocking the encryptor in Windows.
    • “Cybersecurity firm S-RM team discovered the unusual attack method during a recent incident response at one of their clients.
    • “Notably, Akira only pivoted to the webcam after attempting to deploy encryptors on Windows, which were blocked by the victim’s EDR solution.”
  • Per Hacker News,
    • “The threat actors behind the Medusa ransomware have claimed nearly 400 victims since it first emerged in January 2023, with the financially motivated attacks witnessing a 42% increase between 2023 and 2024.
    • “In the first two months of 2025 alone, the group has claimed over 40 attacks, according to data from the Symantec Threat Hunter Team shared with The Hacker News. The cybersecurity company is tracking the cluster under the name Spearwing.
    • “Like the majority of ransomware operators, Spearwing and its affiliates carry out double extortion attacks, stealing victims’ data before encrypting networks in order to increase the pressure on victims to pay a ransom,” Symantec noted.
    • “If victims refuse to pay, the group threatens to publish the stolen data on their data leaks site.”
    • “While other ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) players like RansomHub (aka Greenbottle and Cyclops), Play (aka Balloonfly), and Qilin (aka Agenda, Stinkbug, and Water Galura) have benefited from the disruptions of LockBit and BlackCat, the spike in Medusa infections raises the possibility that the threat actor could also be rushing in to fill the gap left by the two prolific extortionists.
    • “The development comes as the ransomware landscape continues to be in a state of flux, with a steady stream of new RaaS operations, such as Anubis, CipherLocker, Core, Dange, LCRYX, Loches, Vgod, and Xelera, emerging in the wild in recent months.”

From the cybersecurity defenses front,

  • Forbes discusses “How CISOs Will Navigate the Threat Landscape Differently In 2025.”
  • Here’s a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

Friday Report

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID-19, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, NIH, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • Govexec tells us,
    • “Lawmakers are pursuing two different paths to keep the government funded past March 14, though the Republican majority in both chambers is hoping to pass a measure to keep agencies funded at their current levels through September. 
    • “The year-long continuing resolution would allow for only a small number of changes to existing spending levels, which are currently at the same total that agencies received in fiscal 2024. Democratic appropriators are hoping to instead buy more time with a short-term stopgap bill that would allow negotiators to come to a bipartisan agreement on full-year fiscal 2025 funding measures.
    • “House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he will release the text of a continuing resolution to cover the remainder of fiscal 2025 in the coming days and put it to a vote on the House floor early next week. Johnson will face a narrow margin to pass the measure, particularly as the most conservative members of his caucus rarely vote for CRs of any duration. House Democrats have indicated they will not support the measure. 
    • “President Trump is pushing for the year-long stopgap option and the White House has lobbied Republicans to support that bill. 
    • “Despite Johnson’s plans, top appropriators from both parties in the House and Senate have continued to meet and are closing in on a deal to set the top-line funding levels for regular appropriations bills, according to a source familiar with the talks. They are hoping to finalize that agreement in the coming days to demonstrate that a full-year CR is not the only viable option to avert a shutdown.”
  • Medical Economics lets us know,
    • “The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is inching closer to a recommendation on revising how doctors get paid through the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
    • “On March 6, MedPAC opened its latest two-day meeting with almost 90 minutes of discussion of the best ways to balance beneficiary access and costs, physician pay, taxpayer resources, and overall costs to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
    • “While the members had suggestions about the nuances of physician pay and the language to describe it, there was general agreement on two draft recommendations to Congress:
      • Congress should replace the current law updates to the physician fee schedule with an annual update based on a portion of the growth in the Medicare Economic Index (MEI). An example could be: MEI minus 1 percentage point.
      • Congress should direct the HHS secretary to improve the accuracy of relative payment rates for clinician services by updated costs data regularly, and ensuring the methodology used to determine payment rates for different services reflects the settings in which clinicians practice medicine.
    • “Depending on commissioner feedback, MedPAC could vote on the recommendations in April to be included in its June 2025 report to Congress.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “The Federal Trade Commission has challenged a private equity firm’s attempt to buy Surmodics for approximately $627 million, the regulator said Thursday.
    • “Surmodics provides outsourced hydrophilic coatings for devices. GTCR, the private equity group that is attempting to buy Surmodics, owns a majority stake in another coating company, Biocoat.
    • “The FTC said the buyout “would lead to a highly concentrated market for outsourced hydrophilic coatings and eliminate significant head-to-head competition between Biocoat and Surmodics.”

From the judicial front,

  • The Hill informs us,
    • “A federal judge has effectively ended the ability of compounding pharmacies to make their own copies of Eli Lilly’s weight loss and diabetes drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro. 
    • “In a sealed decision filed late Wednesday, Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas declined to issue an injunction to stop the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from declaring there was no longer a shortage of the medicines’ active ingredient, tirzepatide.” * * *
    • “Eli Lilly in a statement said the decision “marks the end of the road for mass compounding of risky, unapproved knockoffs that threaten the health and safety of Americans.” 
    • “Any company that continues mass compounding tirzepatide “is breaking the law, and we will work with regulators and law enforcement to stop it,” a company spokesperson said.  
    • “A similar OFA lawsuit against the FDA for removing from the shortage list semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, is pending.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
    • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally but has decreased for three consecutive weeks. COVID-19 activity is declining nationally but elevated in some areas of the country. RSV activity is declining in most areas of the country.
    • “COVID-19
      • “COVID-19 activity is declining nationally but elevated in some areas of the country. Wastewater levels are moderate, emergency department visits are at low levels, and laboratory percent positivity is stable. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations are highest in older adults and emergency department visits are also elevated in young children.
      • “There is still time to benefit from getting your recommended immunizations to reduce your risk of illness this season, especially severe illness and hospitalization.
      • “CDC expects the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to work well for currently circulating variants. There are many effective tools to prevent spreading COVID-19 or becoming seriously ill.
    • “Influenza
      • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally but has decreased for three consecutive weeks. Data to date suggest the season has peaked, however, flu-related medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths remain elevated, and CDC expects several more weeks of flu activity.
      • “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
    • “RSV
      • “RSV activity is declining in most areas of the country. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations are highest in children and hospitalizations are elevated among older adults in some areas.
    • “Vaccination
      • “Vaccination coverage with influenza and COVID-19 vaccines is low among U.S. adults and children. Vaccination coverage with RSV vaccines remains low among U.S. adults. Many children and adults lack protection from respiratory virus infections provided by vaccines.”
  • The Washington Post reports,
    • “An unvaccinated New Mexico adult who tested positive for measles has died, the second death in a growing outbreak centered along the Texas-New Mexico border, officials said Thursday.
    • “The individual did not seek medical care before death, New Mexico health department officials said. The official cause of death is under investigation by New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator. However, the state health department scientific laboratory has confirmed the presence of the measles virus in the person, the state health department said.
    • “The person was a resident of Lea County, where at least 10 cases of measles have been reported. Lea County is just over the border from Gaines County, Texas, where the outbreak is centered.
    • “Six of the Lea County cases are among adults, and four are in children. Seven of the 10 were unvaccinated, and three have unknown vaccination histories.”
  • The American Hospital Association News relates,
    • “Cigarette smoking by adults has dropped to its lowest level in 60 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today. Despite that, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., the agency said. 
    • “From 2017-2023, an approximate 6.8 million decrease in adults who exclusively smoke cigarettes was offset by a 7.2 million increase in adults who exclusively smoke e-cigarettes. Cigarette smoking overall by U.S. adults decreased from 42.4% in 1965 to 11.6% in 2022.”
  • Per Aunt Minnie,
    • “Breast and colorectal cancer screening in 2023 rebounded from declines during the COVID-19 pandemic and surpassed pre-pandemic screening estimates, according to findings published March 5 in JAMA.
    • “Yet researchers led by Jessica Star from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, GA, also found that cervical cancer screening numbers are still below pre-pandemic estimates, and that improvements in cancer screening rates were mostly seen in individuals with higher socioeconomic status.
    • “Improving patient communication around cancer screening and providing patient navigators to assist with the structural and cost barriers to screening are two ways health systems can help with successful screening rebounds,” Star told AuntMinnie.com.”
  • Medscape assesses Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis and care.
  • The National Cancer Institute lets us know,
    • “How doctors treat a form of liver cancer called intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is likely to change, based on updated findings from two large clinical trials. Both trials tested a procedure called TACE in combination with immunotherapy drugs and treatments called angiogenesis inhibitors. TACE, or transarterial chemoembolization, involves using a catheter to deliver chemotherapy directly to the liver.”
  • Per Healio,
    • “After rising over a 35-year period, thyroid cancer incidence in the U.S. plateaued from 2010 to 2019, according to findings published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
    • “In a retrospective analysis of data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) and National Center for Health Statistics databases, researchers found no changes in metastasis or mortality rates for adults diagnosed with thyroid cancer from 1975 to 2019, despite a rising incidence rate during that time. These findings reveal thyroid cancer may have been over-diagnosed in more recent years, according to Zachary Zumsteg, MD, associate professor of radiation oncology and biomedical sciences, and radiation oncology director of the head and neck oncology disease research group at Cedars-Sinai. However, Zumsteg noted the plateau of thyroid cancer incidence in the past 10 years of the study may be indicative of a change in diagnostic practices.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • Johnson & Johnson is terminating some research for an experimental drug that the company previously predicted could be a multibillion-dollar product.
    • In a statement released Thursday afternoon, J&J said it will stop developing the drug, called aticaprant, as an add-on therapy for patients with major depressive disorder. Over the past few years, a series of large, late-stage clinical trials tested aticaprant in adults who have hard-to-treat MDD and moderate-to-severe cases of a defining symptom of the disorder, anhedonia, which presents as a loss of interest or an inability to experience joy.
    • “While the drug continues to look safe and well-tolerated, the program has shown “insufficient efficacy in the target patient population,” according to J&J. Aticaprant may still have potential, however, so the company plans to “explore future development opportunities” in other “areas of high unmet need.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Not much has gone right for Walgreens Boots Alliance in the past decade. 
    • “Customers bought more and more household items online at sites such as Amazon.com, instead of Walgreens’s more than 8,000 stores across the U.S. The pharmacy chain inked deals with other drug suppliers and doctors’ offices, but stood pat while rivals, including CVS and Express Scripts, merged with big health insurers, gaining control of the medical-reimbursement purse strings that were squeezing pharmacies.
    • “Walgreens cash flow sagged, its debt piled up and shares sank. And on Thursday, Walgreens was sold to private-equity firm Sycamore for $10 billion, down a staggering 91% from its $106 billion peak in 2015.
    • “The storied pharmacy chain—which became a ubiquitous seller of everything from diabetes injections to nail files as retailers consolidated across the U.S.—fell after it neglected to keep up with customer preference to buy online and failed to navigate the fierce competition and intense cost pressures of healthcare.
    • “It could shrink more after its sale. Sycamore, a New York-based firm that specializes in retail and consumer investments and, more recently, is better known for smaller deals, is expected to sell off pieces of the business or work with partners to turn it around, The Wall Street Journal reported.
    • “Globally, the transaction ranks as one of the largest leveraged buyouts in the past decade.”
  • The Journal also tells us about “The Walgreens Billionaire Watching His Empire Come Apart
  • From Monaco, Stefano Pessina built a retailer valued at about $100 billion. It agreed to be taken private this week for roughly $10 billion.”
  • BioPharma Dive points out,
    • “Optum Rx, a pharmacy benefit manager owned by one of the country’s largest insurance companies, UnitedHealth Group, has added a new, much-anticipated pain drug to some of its commercial formularies.
    • “Sold as Journavx, the drug received U.S. approval in late January as a treatment for the short-lived “acute” pain typically felt after an operation or accident. Journavx works differently than other available medications, and its developer, the biotechnology juggernaut Vertex Pharmaceuticals, has positioned it as an important, non-opioid option for pain management.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review lists 18 health systems with strong finances.

Thursday Report

David Ermer–AHRQ, CDC, Congress, Electronic health records, FDA, Federal employment benefits, HSA, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Josh Mills on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • Fierce Healthcare reports,
    • “New legislation advanced by a voice vote March 4 would codify 14 pre-deductible healthcare services through high-deductible health plans (HDHPs).
    • “It codifies guidance from President Donald Trump’s first term increasing flexible coverage options for HDHPs. The bill would allow medical products and services like beta-blockers, blood pressure monitors, glucometers, inhalers and cholesterol drugs to be more easily covered by insurance by letting insurers pay for low-cost services before a deductible is reached.
    • “This legislation provides employers and their employees with greater flexibility to design healthcare coverage options that expand access to treatments for chronic diseases,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Missouri, in a statement on the House floor. “By providing flexible coverage options for more people living with chronic health conditions, we can help lower their costs and improve their health and well-being.” * * *
    • “The bill must still be passed by the full Senate.”
  • Roll Call tells us,
    • “Senate Republicans called on the Trump administration Wednesday to use the formal rescissions process to claw back money already appropriated by Congress that the “Department of Government Efficiency” has identified as wasteful.
    • “It’s also a way to avoid legal setbacks that have befallen the White House in its push to freeze agency budgets and programs, including foreign aid accounts.
    • “One day after President Donald Trump singled out small-dollar examples of waste in his joint address to Congress, the de facto leader of the DOGE effort, Elon Musk, came to the Capitol to soothe concerns over how some of the cuts have been implemented. Many lawmakers have expressed alarm at the wholesale gutting of agencies and the firing of thousands of federal employees.
    • “Hoping to regain some of their power of the purse, senators asked Musk at a private lunch to have the White House submit a rescissions package for congressional approval for any funding it deems fraudulent or wasteful. Congress would then have 45 days to approve the request, or else the money must be spent as appropriated once the clock runs out.
    • “What we got to do as Republicans is capture their work product, put it in a bill and vote on it,” Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters. “So the White House, I’m urging them to come up with a rescission package.”
    • “Graham said Musk was receptive to the idea and hadn’t known about the rescissions process as an available tool to cut spending.”
  • BioPharma Dive lets us know,
    • “Marty Makary, the Johns Hopkins surgeon who President Donald Trump chose to lead the Food and Drug Administration, fended off pressure from Republican and Democratic senators Thursday over a canceled agency meeting on influenza vaccines. 
    • “Questioned by several lawmakers at a hearing held to evaluate his nomination, Makary would not commit to reconvening the meeting, at which agency advisers were set to discuss the composition of this year’s flu shots. Members of the panel were notified last week that they would not meet as scheduled. 
    • “Instead, Makary seemed to indicate he would take a broader look at the role the advisory committee plays in the FDA’s vaccine decision-making and whether it is providing useful advice. 
    • “You have my commitment to review what the committees are doing [and] how they are being used,” Makary told Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., who serves as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee reviewing Markary’s nomination.” 
  • Per an HHS press release,
    • “Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) alerted providers of their obligation to protect American children from often irreversible chemical and surgical mutilation, including interventions that cause sterilization. Hospital providers were alerted of serious quality and safety concerns associated with harmful, medical interventions for gender dysphoria. CMS also announced it may begin taking steps to align its policies and regulations with medical evidence and to safeguard children from often irreversible experiments. CMS will continue to follow any applicable substantive and procedural requirements in taking any future action.” * * *
    • “Similar alerts are also being sent by other HHS agencies to grantees. View the CMS alert here: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/QSSAM-25-02-Hospitals.pdf”  
  • Govexec informs us,
    • “Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger said in a statement to Government Executive that he is dropping his lawsuit to reverse his removal by Donald Trump, enabling the president to name his own person to lead the office that protects federal employees and whistleblowers from prohibited personnel practices.
    • “A district judge on March 1 blocked Dellinger’s firing, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday allowed for him to be removed while it considers the Trump administration’s appeal.”
  • Federal News Network interviewed Tammy Flanagan about RIFs and early retirement for federal employees.

From the judicial front,

  • Thompson Reuters relates,
    • A federal trial court [in Maine} has dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit against an insurer/health plan administrator alleging discrimination under Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557 for failure to cover weight-loss drugs. The participant alleged that the insurer’s plan violated Section 1557 (which prohibits discrimination in certain health programs and activities based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability) because it excluded prescription drug coverage for commonly prescribed weight-loss medications if they were prescribed solely to treat obesity. She argued that she did not have access to the prescription medications required to treat her obesity (which she alleged was a disability and diagnosed health condition), while other participants had access to prescription medications medically necessary to treat their diagnosed health conditions, including the same or similar medications.
    • Concluding that the participant’s allegations did not support a finding of disability under Section 1557, the court dismissed the case. It determined that the participant had not plausibly shown that she was disabled merely as a function of her body mass index, nor that the insurer had ever regarded her as disabled. Pointing out that disability is an essential element of a Section 1557 disability discrimination claim, the court held that the participant had failed to state a claim for relief.
  • Fierce Health notes,
    • “Dozens of providers have filed new lawsuits against Blues insurers, arguing that the plans colluded to block competition and reimburse them at lower rates.
    • “The payers reached a tentative $2.8 billion settlement agreement in Alabama court in October, but the new lawsuits opt out of it and instead press for a jury trial. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and 33 of its affiliates are named in the new suits.
    • “Providers who have signed on to the filings include the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Geisinger, MedStar, CommonSpirit and physician staffing firm TeamHealth. They argue that the alleged collusion between Blues plans violated antitrust laws.”

From the Food and Drug Administration,

  • Cardiovascular Business reports,
    • “Genentech, part of the Roche Group, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for tenecteplase, the company’s new intravenous treatment for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in adult patients. Genentech will be marketing and selling tenecteplase under the brand name TNKase. 
    • “Tenecteplase is only the second clot-busting medication for stroke to gain approval from the FDA—and the first in decades. The only other one, alteplase, is also sold by Genentech under the brand name Activase.
    • ‘Tenecteplase is a tissue plasminogen activator given to patients through a single five-second intravenous bolus. This is much faster than alteplase, which was administered by giving patients an IV bolus that is then followed by a 60-minute infusion.”
  • The American Hospital Association (AHA) News adds,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration March 5 announced that Baxter Healthcare Corporation recalled its Spectrum infusion pumps due to the potential for missing motor mounting screws. The FDA said missing motor mounting screws could lead to insufficient or excessive therapy, interruption in therapy or delay in therapy, which can result in serious adverse health consequences. Baxter has reported one serious injury related to the issue.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “Philips stopped selling an implant used to repair damaged arteries after reports of 20 injuries and some devices needing to be removed.
    • “The Food and Drug Administration said in a Monday recall notice that all customers should stop using Philips’ Tack Endovascular System immediately. The agency classified the recall as Class I, the highest risk category.
    • “Philips is not aware of serious harm or death accompanying the use of the device, a company spokesperson wrote in an email. The FDA said no deaths were reported.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The AHA News points out,
    • “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention March 4 announced it sent agency experts to Texas to assist local officials in responding to the state’s measles outbreak. The CDC said the partnership, known as an Epi-Aid, is a rapid response effort by the agency’s Epidemic Intelligence Service to respond to urgent public health issues such as disease outbreaks. EIS officers will provide onsite support for one to three weeks. 
    • “As of March 4, there were 159 measles cases identified, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Twenty-two patients have been hospitalized and a school-aged child died Feb. 26. Texas DSHS officials said additional cases are likely to occur.” 
  • The New York Times reports
    • “Women’s brains are superior to men’s in at least in one respect — they age more slowly. And now, a group of researchers reports that they have found a gene in mice that rejuvenates female brains.
    • “Humans have the same gene. The discovery suggests a possible way to help both women and men avoid cognitive declines in advanced age.
    • “The study was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. The journal also published two other studies on women’s brains, one on the effect of hormone therapy on the brain and another on how age at the onset of menopause shapes the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease.”
  • and
    • “Postpartum depression affects about one in every seven women who give birth, but little is known about what happens in the brains of pregnant women who experience it. A new study begins to shed some light.
    • “Researchers scanned the brains of dozens of women in the weeks before and after childbirth and found that two brain areas involved in the processing and control of emotions increased in size in women who developed symptoms of postpartum depression.
    • “The results, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, constitute some of the first evidence that postpartum depression is associated with changes in the brain during pregnancy.”
  • The Washington Post adds,
    • “Bacterial vaginosis, a common vaginal infection also known as BV, has long been treated as a women’s condition; but a new study adds to evidence that it is a sexually transmitted infection and suggests that treating a male partner can help reduce recurrence.
    • “BV affects nearly 1 in 3 women of reproductive age globally. It has been associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, according to the World Health Organization. It has a high recurrence rate, with more than half of those who are treated experiencing the condition again within three months.
    • “The study, led by a team of Australian researchers, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.”
  • The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released for public comment a Draft Research Plan regarding Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults: Screening. The public comment deadline is April 2, 2025.
  • Per MedPage Today,
    • “In a retrospective study, semaglutide use leading up to bariatric surgery was not linked with greater weight loss a year after surgery.
    • “Rates of diabetes remission and complications were also comparable between semaglutide users and controls.
    • “Previous studies have found that taking semaglutide after surgery can help patients shed more pounds.”
  • Per Healio,
    • “Using visualized coronary calcium scoring independently reduced plaque progression among patients at intermediate risk vs. usual care.
    • “Improvements in lipid profiles were also reported.”
  • Per Medscape,
    • “Reports of children in the United States with influenza-associated encephalopathy or encephalitis (IAE) increased from none during the 2020-2021 flu season to a preliminary 14% for the 2024-2025 season, based on a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
    • “IAE involves a range of neurologic syndromes triggered by flu infection of the respiratory tract, with diagnosis based on brain lesions detectable on imaging, wrote Amara Fazal, MD, and colleagues at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
    • “A series of anecdotal reports of pediatric cases with IAE in January 2025 prompted the CDC’s investigation; the findings were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Hospital Review offers five takeaways from this week’s HIMSS conference and lets us know the amount of cash on hand for 35 U.S. healthcare systems as of December 31, 2024.
  • Beckers Payer Issues lets us know,
    • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has restructured to become a subsidiary of a new parent holding company, CuraCor Solutions.
    • CuraCor will include Blue Cross NC and other fully owned companies, allowing the new organization “to quickly partner and invest in new health programs and technologies to benefit customers,” according to a March 6 news release shared with Becker’s.
    • Blue Cross NC members will experience no changes to coverage, services or the open enrollment process. Insurance cards, provider networks and Medicaid and Medicare offerings will also remain the same.
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “Datavant is beefing up its data retrieval network with a new layer of artificial intelligence that will allow health plans and risk-bearing providers to improve operations and patient care by accessing and analyzing a trove of clinical data.
    • “Value-based care arrangements require health plans and risk-bearing providers to navigate complicated requirements for managing patient data and monitoring population health. While providers and health plans face increasing cost pressure and administrative burden, Datavant touts that the enhanced platform will ease the administrative burden of locating and analyzing patient and member data.
    • “Datavant’s new Clinical Insights Platform is the result of Datavant’s integration with Apixio. It acquired the company’s connected care platform and value-based care solutions in September 2024. With the release of the Clinical Insights Platform, the Apixio brand will sunset and the combined Datavant-Apixio product will be sold.”

Wednesday Report

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19 vaccine, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, NIH, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • The New York Times lets us know,
    • “Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Donald J. Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, told senators at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that studies had not shown a link between vaccines and autism, even as he urged more research on the question.” * * *
    • “Dr. Bhattacharya [,a Stanford University health economist,] burst into the news at the height of the pandemic in October 2020, when he co-wrote an anti-lockdown treatise, the Great Barrington Declaration, that argued for “focused protection” — a strategy that would focus on protecting the elderly and vulnerable while letting the virus spread among younger, healthier people.
    • ‘The nation’s medical leadership, including Dr. Francis S. Collins and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, denounced the plan. Referring to Dr. Bhattacharya and his co-authors as “fringe epidemiologists,” Dr. Collins wrote in an email that “there needs to be a quick and devastating takedown of its premises.”
    • ‘Dr. Collins, who later stepped down as the N.I.H. director to pursue his laboratory research, retired last week in anticipation of Dr. Bhattacharya’s arrival. At Wednesday’s hearing, Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican of Nebraska, introduced Dr. Bhattacharya by praising him for having “great intellectual honesty and courage” to offer an alternative approach to handling the pandemic.”
  • The Wall Street Journal reports
    • “Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Texas Democrat who was just sworn into the House in January, died on Tuesday night.” * * *
    • “Turner’s sudden death will also have an immediate consequence in the political body in which he had served: House Republicans now have slightly more cushion as Democrats await a special election to fill the seat. With his death, the majority now stands at 218-214.
    • “The House GOP majority math is so slim that the confirmation of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations has been held up as Republicans wait to fill the seats of former Reps. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) and Mike Waltz (R., Fla.). The special elections for both Florida seats are set to take place on April 1. Stefanik has continued to serve in the House for now.” * * *
    • “It wasn’t immediately clear when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will call a special election for Turner’s seat.” 
  • MedTech Dive informs us,
    • “Philips stopped selling an implant used to repair damaged arteries after reports of 20 injuries and some devices needing to be removed.
    • “The Food and Drug Administration said in a Monday recall notice that all customers should stop using Philips’ Tack Endovascular System immediately. The agency classified the recall as Class I, the highest risk category.
    • “Philips is not aware of serious harm or death accompanying the use of the device, a company spokesperson wrote in an email. The FDA said no deaths were reported.”

From the judicial front,

  • Modern Healthcare reports,
    • “The Justice Department under President Donald Trump is defending the federal government’s position in several Medicare Advantage lawsuits challenging policies that originated during President Joe Biden’s term.
    • “Given Trump’s overall repudiation of the Biden years and Republicans’ generally favorable disposition toward Medicare Advantage and preference for light regulation, Wall Street expected the new administration to take it easier on health insurance companies. So far, in court at least, that’s not what’s happening.
    • “Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the Justice Department has filed briefs supporting the Biden administration’s defenses against companies such as Humana and eHealth in Medicare Advantage cases regarding the Star Ratings quality assessment program, marketing rules and the risk-adjustment system.”
  • and
    • “A health system at the center of a legal dispute over emergency abortions notified a federal court Tuesday that the Justice Department is dropping its challenge to Idaho’s anti-abortion laws.
    • “President Joe Biden’s administration contended that hospitals in states with restrictive abortion laws nevertheless are required to provide the procedure in emergencies to preserve the life and health of pregnant patients under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986, known as EMTALA. President Donald Trump, who opposes abortion rights, was expected to change course and now has, according to Boise, Idaho-based St. Luke’s Health System.
    • “St. Luke’s submitted a brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho on Tuesday saying its attorneys received an email on Monday from an unnamed federal official informing them that the Justice Department intends to withdraw its case against the Idaho laws.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • MedPage Today tells us,
    • “Over half of adults and a third of kids and teens around the world will have overweight or obesity by 2050, according to two reports using data on 204 countries and territories.
    • “If observed trends over the past 30 years continue, the total number of adultsopens in a new tab or window ages 25 and older living with overweight (body mass index [BMI] 25 to <30) or obesity (BMI ≥30) will reach 3.8 billion by 2050 — more than half of the likely global adult population at that time.
    • “Meanwhile, 356 million young people ages 5 to 14 years and 390 million young people ages 15 to 24 years are projected to have overweight or obesity by 2050, reported the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2021 Adult and Adolescent BMI Collaborators in The Lancet.
    • “This polycrisis will cause more avertable adverse health outcomes in the coming decades than any other modifiable risk at an individual level,” the researchers wrote. “Urgent, bold, and comprehensive initiatives are imperative to enable multisectoral collaboration and propel structural reforms to address drivers of overweight and obesity at individual and population levels. Although new-generation antiobesity medications appear promising, tactful, whole-system, public health strategies will continue to be crucial to achieving widespread and sustainable impact.”
  • Per an NIH press release,
    • A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a medication that shows promise in treating acute and chronic pain. The drug, known as VIP36, targets the body’s cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1). It was found to be effective in three different animal models for pain and does not appear to cause the harmful side effects that have frustrated other efforts to target CB1. These results enhance understanding of how to design safer and more effective drugs targeting cannabinoid receptors and are an important step towards developing novel, non-addictive treatments for pain.
  • Cardiovascular Business reports,
    • Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is associated with better in-hospital outcomes than surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), according to a new analysis published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.[1] However, researchers noted, SAVR was linked to superior long-term outcomes, including a lower stroke risk, for both low- and intermediate-risk patients.
    • The newly published study included data from nearly 160,000 patients 65 to 85 years old who underwent aortic valve replacement from 2018 to 2022. All data came from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database. While 124,897 patients underwent TAVR, another 34,215 underwent first-time SAVR. The median follow-up period was 2.7 years.
    • Using Society of Thoracic Surgeons mortality risk scores as their primary guide, researchers determined if each study participant was a low-, intermediate- or high-risk patient. The low-risk group was represented by more than 36,000 TAVR patients and more than 1,400 SAVR patients. The intermediate-risk group, meanwhile, was represented by more than 44,000 TAVR patients and more than 9,000 SAVR patients. The high-risk group was represented by 44,000 TAVR patients and nearly 10,000 SAVR patients. 
    • In all three risk groups, TAVR patients were older and more likely to present with a history of heart failure or coronary artery disease than SAVR patients
  • MedPage Today relates,
    • Patients using GLP-1 drugs had no difference in the odds of postoperative aspiration pneumonia versus non-users.
    • There was also no significant difference in the odds of acute respiratory failure.
    • Findings support guidance recommending that a GLP-1 agent hiatus is not necessary before surgery.
  • Per Healio,
    • “Children were around half as likely to develop one or more long COVID symptoms if they were vaccinated.
    • “Vaccinated children were 75% less likely to experience long COVID symptoms that affected daily function.”
  • Per Health Day,
    • “Physical activity can improve the mental well-being of women living with chronic pelvic pain disorders like endometriosis and uterine fibroids, a new study says.
    • “Activities like brisk walking or aerobic exercise caused measurable improvements in women with pelvic pain, researchers reported in the Journal of Pain Research.
    • “Chronic pelvic pain disorders are incredibly complex and burdensome for those affected, yet we still have very few effective treatment strategies,” said senior researcher Ipek Ensari, an assistant professor of artificial intelligence and human health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
    • “Our research suggests that physical activity could be an important tool for improving mental health in these patients, offering them a proactive way to enhance their well-being,” Ensari added in a news release.” * * *
    • “We were particularly intrigued to find that the positive effects of exercise seem to lag by a few days, meaning the mental health benefits may build up gradually,” Ensari said. “This insight is vital for both patients and health care providers, as it underscores the importance of consistency in physical activity.”
    • “As women’s mental health improved, they also experienced improvements in physical function and reductions in pain, results show.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare brings us the latest on the HIMMS conference ongoing in Las Vegas.
  • Beckers Hospital Review notes,
    • “Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic reported an operating income of $1.3 billion (6.5% operating margin) in 2024, up from an operating income of $1.1 billion (6% margin) in 2023, according to its March 5 financial report.
    • “The health system recorded revenue of $19.8 billion in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, up from $17.9 billion in the same period last year. Mayo Clinic reported medical service revenue of $16.6 billion in 2024, up from $15 billion in 2023. 
    • “Operating expenses totaled $18.5 billion in 2024, up from $16.9 billion in 2023. Salaries and benefits totaled $10.5 billion, up from $9.7 billion in 2023. Supply and service expenses totaled $6.7 billion, up from $6 billion in the prior year. 
    • “Mayo Clinic’s success in 2024 reflects the innovative spirit of our exceptional staff and their dedication to meeting our patients’ changing needs,” Mayo Clinic President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia, MD, said. 
  • STAT News reports
    • “Novo Nordisk will start selling its obesity drug Wegovy directly to patients at a reduced price, following a similar move from Eli Lilly as the two drugmakers compete for market share and try to draw patients away from compounding pharmacies that have been making cheaper copies of weight loss drugs.
    • “Wegovy normally carries a list price of about $1,350 a month, but Novo will sell the treatment through its new direct-to-consumer offering called NovoCare Pharmacy at $499 a month for all doses to cash-paying patients, meaning patients who are paying on their own without insurance.
    • “Orders will be fulfilled by CenterWell Pharmacy, a subsidiary of Humana that offers home delivery services.”
  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • Bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings may need to find another buyer for its Connecticut hospital portfolio, after Yale New Haven Health, which originally signed an agreement to acquire the three facilities in 2022, called the deal “impossible” in a statement to Healthcare Dive.
    • A spokesperson for Yale New Haven said the deal was unworkable due to Prospect’s failure to pay vendors on time, disinvestment in the facilities and record of mismanagement. 
    • Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a press conference on Monday that Prospect has found possible buyers located in Connecticut and out of state that could be named in the coming weeks, according to a report from the Register Citizen.
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Jazz Pharmaceuticals is expanding its foothold in cancer drug research, announcing Wednesday it will pay $935 million to buy Chimerix and an experimental medicine under Food and Drug Administration review for treatment of a form of the brain cancer glioma.
    • “Per deal terms, Chimerix investors will receive $8.55 a share, a 72% premium on Tuesday’s closing price. Jazz expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2025. The deal is all in cash, which Jazz will draw from holdings and investments that amounted to $3 billion at the end of 2024.
    • “If approved, Chimerix’s drug would join five other marketed cancer medicines in Jazz’s portfolio, potentially helping the Dublin-based company diversify revenue away from its biggest seller, the sleep drug Xywav.
    • “Called ONC201 or dordaviprone, the drug has been submitted for accelerated FDA approval in people who have gliomas with a mutation called H3 27M. A small 2014 study suggests that such mutations are common in people under the age of 50 who are diagnosed with glioma.”

Tuesday Report

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, FDA, Federal employment benefits, Medicare, NIH, OPM, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • The Wall Street Journal offers a summary of seven takeaways from the President’s speech on Tuesday night.
  • Bloomberg Law tells us,
    • “A battle over legislation that would make it easier for Medicare cancer patients to get their drugs may reignite this week when a key Republican lawmaker is expected to reintroduce the proposal.
    • “The measure (H.R. 5526) was passed in the House in September 2024 but stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the pharmacy industry. Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), a pharmacist, said in a statement to Bloomberg Law the legislation “is one of my top healthcare priorities, and I expect to reintroduce it this week.”
    • “This legislation had strong bipartisan support in Congress last year because it would greatly benefit the lives of countless seniors who need life-saving medications but might not be able to access them easily,” Harshbarger said. “I’m looking at all legislative opportunities to advance this bill and get it enacted into law.”
    • “The legislation, and S. 3458 introduced last Congress by former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), would have amended the physician self-referral law and restored a Covid-19 pandemic-era waiver that allowed Medicare patients to receive their oral cancer medications through the mail, by courier, or via pick-up by family members.”
  • Wolters Kluwer lets us know,
    • “On March 2, 2025 the United States Department of the Treasury announced that with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), it will not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the beneficial ownership information reporting (BOIR) rule under the current deadlines, and it will further not enforce any penalties or fines against United States citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners after a forthcoming rule change takes effect. 
    • “The Treasury Department also announced that it will be issuing a proposed rulemaking that will narrow the scope of the BOI reporting rule to foreign reporting companies only. Treasury stated that it was taking this step “in the interest of supporting hard-working American taxpayers and small businesses and ensuring that the rule is appropriately tailored to advance the public interest.”
    • The Treasury Department’s press release can be read in full here: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0038“
  • Federal News Network tells us,
    • “The Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management has revised its guidance on probationary employees, now stating that OPM was not directing agencies to fire federal workers.
    • “An update to OPM’s Jan. 20 memo on Tuesday adds a paragraph clarifying that any decision to fire employees should be left to individual agencies.
    • “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” the updated memo states. “Agencies have ultimate decision-making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.”
  • Kevin Moss, writing in Federal News Network, discusses how federal annuitants can control their FEHB premiums.
  • Per an FDA news release,
    • On Monday, the FDA approved the first generics of Xarelto (rivaroxaban), 2.5 mg, tablets to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events in adult patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and to reduce the risk of major thrombotic vascular events in adult patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), including patients who have recently undergone a lower extremity revascularization procedure due to symptomatic PAD. Anticoagulants (blood thinners) are among the most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S., and Monday’s approval of the first generics of rivaroxaban, 2.5 mg, tablets will make a direct impact on American patients who rely on anticoagulant medications. Approving safe and effective generics to help provide patients more treatment options continues to be a priority for the FDA.

From the judicial front,

  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “UnitedHealth Group notched a major court win in a legal challenge over its Medicare Advantage (MA) billing practices that is stretching into its second decade.
    • “The suit was first filed by a whistleblower in 2011, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) joined the case in 2017. The court-appointed special master released its report this week, in which, after reviewing the evidence, it determined “that the government is lacking any evidence in support of two essential elements of its False Claim Act and related common law claims.”
    • “The suit alleges that UnitedHealth conducted reviews of patients’ medical records that allowed it to identify underpayments while ignoring instances of overbilling. This would enable the company to juice its risk scores and thus its MA payouts.” * * *
    • “In the lawsuit, the feds argue that the billing practices allowed UHG to pocket $2.1 billion. The special master rebuffed an analysis from a government expert who identified 1.97 million codes among 28 million that were allegedly unsupported by the patients’ diagnoses.
    • “The special master noted in its report that the expert did not review medical charts before making this determination.” * * *
    • “The special master’s report recommends that the courts grant UHG a summary judgement and reject the DOJ’s request for partial summary adjudication.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • Katelyn Jetelina, a/k/a Your Local Epidemiologist, remarks
    • “If you’re 65+ or moderately/severely immunocompromised, a spring Covid-19 vaccine is available. Last October, CDC recommended a second dose of the 2024-2025 Covid-19 vaccine for this spring. It’s a 6-month recommended interval, so the first people will be eligible this week.
    • “Are they still working? Yes. Data published last week showed Covid-19 vaccines provided 45% additional protection against hospitalizations this winter.”
  • The Wall Street Journal points out that the Health and Human Services Department under its new leadership is heightening its scrutiny of vaccines.
  • In this week’s online Research Matter, NIH discusses “Tracking diet from stool samples | Diabetes & antibiotic resistance | Cancer cell cooperation.”
  • Per an NIH news release,
    • An observational study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that infants who had more diverse bacteria in their gut had lower childhood blood pressure, and this protective association was stronger if they were breastfed for at least six months. The findings published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
    • For the research, investigators reviewed data from 526 children enrolled in a prospective study in Denmark. They looked for connections between infant gut bacteria, which can be influenced by nutrition and supports a variety of health functions, and childhood blood pressure. To assess this, they collected fecal samples to analyze bacteria in the infants’ intestines during their first week, month, and year of life. Three and six years later, they measured the children’s blood pressure.
    • The researchers found children with more diverse gut bacteria at one month had lower blood pressure six years later. They then assessed the influence of breastfeeding, which was measured in this study for durations of at least six months. They discovered that among children breastfed for at least six months, the blood-pressure lowering effect of having more diverse bacteria in their gut was even stronger. Specifically, those with a greater diversity of gut bacteria throughout the first month of life had systolic blood pressure that was about 2 mm Hg lower six years later if they were breastfed for at least six months.
  • The National Cancer Institute points out,
    • “A new study has identified a group of genetic changes that are likely involved in the development of cancer in children. According to the findings, genomic changes affecting large pieces of DNA, called structural variants, contribute to an estimated 1% to 6% of pediatric solid tumors.” * * *
    • “Overall, the researchers estimated that structural variants are involved in the development of 1% to 6% of neuroblastomas, Ewing sarcomas, and osteosarcomas. That is a rough estimate limited by the relatively small number of children in the study and the exclusion of certain types of structural variants due to technical limitations, the team noted.”
  • STAT News reports,
    • “It’s easy to think cervical cancer could be 100% preventable. Along with lung, breast, and colorectal cancer, it has screening tests to find precancerous changes that can be treated before full-blown cancer develops. Even more, there is a highly effective vaccine against HPV, the virus that causes most cervical cancer diagnoses.
    • “Still, those two forms of prevention are not enough if people aren’t getting them, a research letter published Monday in JAMA Network Open reports. The cross-sectional study found incidence and mortality rates have been climbing in rural counties in the United States since 2012, going in the wrong direction after declining since 2001. Cases were 25% higher and deaths were 42% higher in rural counties compared to urban counties through 2019. 
    • “Researchers said those jumps in incidence and mortality showing up in rural areas may be a result of lower screening, diagnosis, and treatment rates, all an offshoot of reduced options for care outside cities.
    • “There was also a trend toward higher incidence among Black women starting in 2017, but that rise was not statistically significant. Other research, from the American Cancer Society, has concluded the mortality rate for Black women is roughly 65% higher than the rate for white women.”
  • BioPharma Dive relates,
    • “Merck & Co.’s cancer immunotherapy Keytruda is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest successes. The drug’s arrival in 2014 introduced a new way of treating cancer and, over time, it became standard therapy for a panoply of different tumors. Clinical achievements brought about commercial performance, making Keytruda the world’s best-selling medicine.
    • “After the repeated failure of past attempts to improve on Keytruda, a new class of drugs might finally offer a better backbone for immunotherapy’s next decade.
    • “Last September, biotechnology companies Summit Therapeutics and Akeso revealed clinical trial results showing one of these drugs significantly outperformed Keytruda. Called ivonescimab, it cut the risk of lung cancer progression in half compared to Keytruda in a Phase 3 study — a result so striking it sparked a wave of investment in oncology research practically overnight.
    • “This really was a ‘black swan’ event,” said Allen Yang, Summit’s chief medical officer. “It’s clearly what everybody’s been looking for.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare shares news from this week’s HIMSS conference being held in Las Vegas.
  • Healthcare Dive adds,
    • “Lightning-fast evolution in artificial intelligence and growing adoption of the models is giving rise to concerns that AI could exacerbate existing divides between technological haves and have-nots in the healthcare industry.
    • “But all types of providers — regardless of location or finances — can adopt AI, experts said Monday at the HIMSS conference in Las Vegas.
    • “It’s just a question of knowing how.
    • “Rural hospitals, smaller systems and health clinics without a massive IT infrastructure should reach out to AI companies to discuss potential partnerships, said Graham Walker, co-director of advanced development at Kaiser Permanente’s medical group, during a panel.”
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Walgreens Boots Alliance is closing in on a deal with private-equity firm Sycamore Partners that would take the struggling drugstore chain off the public market for around $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. 
    • “The sides are aiming to complete a deal as soon as Thursday, assuming a last-minute snag doesn’t delay the talks or end them entirely, the people said. 
    • “They have been discussing Sycamore paying between $11.30 a share and $11.40 a share in cash, the people said. The deal could also include contingent value rights that would increase the value if certain targets are later reached, they added. 
    • “Should Sycamore complete the deal for the whole company, it is expected to maintain the core U.S. retail business and sell off or take public the other parts of the company, the people said.”
  • Modern Healthcare informs us,
    • “CVS Health has dealt its Medicare Shared Savings Program accountable care organization business to Wellvana, the companies announced Tuesday.
    • “As part of the all-stock transaction, CVS Health took a minority stake in Wellvana, a privately held physician-enablement vendor. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal and did not immediately respond to interview requests.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues lets us know,
    • “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan reported a loss of $1.02 billion on enterprise revenue of $40.6 billion in 2024, driven by rising utilization of expensive medical services and costs for prescription and specialty drugs.
    • “The company reported an underwriting loss of $1.7 billion in 2024, resulting in a negative operating margin of -4.2%. These losses were partly offset by strong performance from the company’s investment portfolio. 
    • “In 2024, Blue Cross saw an increase of $3 billion for medical and pharmacy claims costs compared to 2023. There was an increase of $900 million in pharmacy claims costs, including $544 million for specialty drugs, of which $215 million was for new indications on autoimmune drugs. GLP-1 drugs alone produced $1.1 billion in claims in 2024, a 29% increase from 2023.
    • “Total membership stands at 5.1 million. There are 663,000 Medicare Advantage members, 286,000 Medicaid members, and 160,000 ACA members.”
  • Healthcare Dive tells us,
    • “Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Novant Health and Durham, North Carolina-based Duke University Health System will partner to build an unspecified number of new campuses across North Carolina, according to a Monday press release.
    • “The partnership aims to increase patient access to primary care and advanced specialty treatment, as well as shorten wait times for care.
    • “Construction on the first sites will begin this summer, and facilities will open approximately 18 months after work begins, according to the news release.” 

Monday Report

David Ermer–Uncategorized–
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash

From Washington DC,

  • Roll Call discusses events occurring on Capitol Hill this week.
  • STAT News reports,
    • “Marty Makary, President Trump’s pick to be Food and Drug Administration commissioner, promised to step down as an adviser to various health tech, medical device, and telehealth startups if confirmed, and to sell off stock holdings in the companies as well, according to financial disclosures filed ahead of his confirmation hearing. 
    • “According to the disclosures, Makary does not hold stock in any large pharmaceutical companies, unlike some previous FDA commissioners, including the last individual to hold that office, Robert Califf. Makary’s financial ties include holdings in a telehealth company that sells compounded drugs, a clinical stage company developing drugs for tissue injury, and a medical device company focused on cataract surgery.” 
  • Govexec lets us know,
    • “Some federal agencies are continuing to fire their recently hired or newly promoted staff despite a court ruling that deemed the justification for those firings unlawful, while others are responding to that decision by rehiring those they had already terminated. 
    • “A federal judge last week said the Trump administration—through the Office of Personnel Managment—directing the mass firings of employees on their probationary periods was illegal, though the judge did not directly call for the terminations to cease or for agencies to recall those they had already let go. The ruling applied to only a handful of agencies whose employees were party to the case brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and other groups.”
  • Here’s a Dropbox link to the Court decision issued last Friday.  
  • Per a press release,
    • The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today posted a Special Report evaluating the evidence of two Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) treatments, Trelegy Ellipta® and Breo Ellipta®, that will be sent as its public comment submission to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of its work on Medicare drug price negotiations. Both of the inhaler therapies were developed by GSK.
    • Downloads: Final Report 
    • “Over 15 million people in the United States suffer from COPD. Our special report focuses on the medical evidence and value of these two inhalers, specifically for COPD,” said ICER’s President and CEO Sarah K. Emond, MPP. “We recognize that our report will be one of many inputs CMS may consider, and we hope that it will help them as they continue to build a reliable, value-based, transparent drug price negotiation process on behalf of the American people.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “Over nearly the last three decades, Genentech has had the lone medicine on the market for the acute treatment of stroke. Monday, the Roche subsidiary added a second stroke treatment to its repertoire, gaining an FDA endorsement for TNKase (tenecteplase).
    • “The tissue plasminogen activator, clot-dissolving, thrombolytic medicine has been approved for adults with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). TNKase can be shot into the arm in five seconds, making it a faster treatment option compared to its forerunner, Activase (alteplase), which was approved for heart attack in 1987 and for stroke in 1996. Activase is administered as an IV bolus followed by a 60-minute infusion.
    • “TNKase is not a new treatment. It was approved in 2000 to reduce the risk of death from heart attack—acute ST elevation myocardial infarction—which is what happens when a coronary artery is completely blocked.
    • “Today’s approval is a significant step forward and underscores our commitment to advancing stroke treatment options for patients,” Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Genentech’s chief medical officer and head of global product development, said in a statement. “TNKase provides a faster and simpler administration, which can be critical for anyone who is dealing with an acute stroke.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about atrial fibrillation.
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Emulsifiers, used to improve food texture, have been linked to health risks such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
    • “Research suggests that emulsifiers alter the gut microbiome, leading to inflammation and potentially contributing to chronic diseases.
    • “Consumers can reduce the potential health risks of emulsifiers by avoiding ultra-processed foods and opting for certain natural emulsifiers like soy lecithin over synthetic ones like carboxymethylcellulose.”
  • Per an NIH news release,
    • “A clinical trial has found that the medication omalizumab, marketed as Xolair, treated multi-food allergy more effectively than oral immunotherapy (OIT) in people with allergic reactions to very small amounts of common food allergens. OIT, the most common approach to treating food allergy in the United States, involves eating gradually increasing doses of a food allergen to reduce the allergic response to it. Thirty-six percent of study participants who received an extended course of omalizumab could tolerate 2 grams or more of peanut protein, or about eight peanuts, and two other food allergens by the end of the treatment period, but only 19% of participants who received multi-food OIT could do so. Researchers attributed this difference primarily to the high rate of allergic reactions and other intolerable side effects among the participants who received OIT, leading a quarter of them to discontinue treatment. When the participants who discontinued therapy were excluded from the analysis, however, the same proportion of each group could tolerate at least 2 grams of all three food allergens.
    • ‘The findings were published in an online supplement to The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and presented at the 2025 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology/World Allergy Organization Joint Congress in San Diego on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
    • “People with highly sensitive multi-food allergy previously had only one treatment option—oral immunotherapy—for reducing their allergic response to moderate amounts of those foods,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H., director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the study’s funder and regulatory sponsor. “This study shows that omalizumab is a good alternative because most people tolerate it very well. Oral immunotherapy remains an effective option if treatment-related adverse effects are not an issue.”
  • Per Health Day,
    • “Many young women entering menopause suffer needlessly from symptoms related to the transition, a new study suggests.
    • “More than half of women aged 30 to 35 have already developed moderate to severe symptoms of impending menopause, researchers found.
    • “These include mood swings, delayed or absent periods, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, painful sex, heart palpitations and frequent urination.
    • “Unfortunately, most wait decades before seeking treatment, under the mistaken belief that menopause symptoms that shouldn’t appear until their 50s, researchers said.”
  • NFP adds,
    • “Mayo Clinic research reveals that menopause-related symptoms cost an estimated $1.8 billion in lost work time annually in the US, with total costs reaching $26.6 billion when medical expenses are included.
    • “Understanding how menopause affects women in the workplace has become crucial, as the study found that 13% of women experienced adverse work outcomes related to menopause symptoms, with 11% missing workdays specifically due to these symptoms. 
    • “Despite affecting approximately 17.5% of the US workforce, menopause in the workplace remains one of the most overlooked aspects of workplace health policy. With substantial financial implications, this oversight of menopause employee benefits is no longer sustainable in today’s competitive talent market.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu has become the first HER2-directed drug to mount a patient survival benefit in a randomized clinical trial in second-line metastatic stomach cancer, the partners said on Monday.
    • “Enhertu significantly extended the lives of patients with previously treated HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in the phase 3 Destiny-Gastric04 study, according to the partners’ press release. For the study, investigators pitted the HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate against Eli Lilly’s VEGFR inhibitor Cyramza and chemotherapy.
    • “An independent data monitoring committee noted the “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” overall survival improvement during a planned interim analysis and recommended unblinding the trial, the companies said Monday. 
    • ‘The latest trial win won’t affect Enhertu’s regulatory status in the U.S. Back in 2021, the FDA approved Enhertu in stomach cancer following prior treatment with a trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based regimen. That second-line nod was based on results from the phase 2 Destiny-Gastric01 trial in a third-line setting, which showed that Enhertu reduced the risk of death by 41% versus chemotherapy alone.”
  • and
    • “Already billed as a potential blockbuster, Amgen and AstraZeneca’s Tezspire has turned in strong clinical data in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). 
    • “Tezspire showed numerically better efficacy results in CRSwNP compared with two prominent rivals in the three drugs’ separate studies. However, separate teams of analysts at William Blair and Leerink Partners stopped short of handing Tezspire the crown in the indication, citing trial design differences that likely play into the cross-trial comparisons.
    • “As Amgen and AZ previously announced, Tezspire significantly improved total nasal polyp score (NPS) and nasal congestion score (NCS) in patients with CRSwNP compared with placebo after 52 weeks in the phase 3 Waypoint study.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare announced its Fierce 15 [healthcare innovators] of 2025.
  • BioPharma Dive informs us,
    • “AbbVie is joining the industry’s rush to develop new obesity medicines, announcing Monday a deal with Denmark-based Gubra to license a drug that could compete with experimental therapies being developed by Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Zealand Pharma.
    • “Per deal terms, AbbVie will pay Gubra $350 million up front and offer up to $1.9 billion in additional payments tied to the achievement of development and sales milestones. AbbVie will assume responsibility for development and commercialization.
    • “Gubra is developing a type of drug called an amylin analog that regulates appetite and blood sugar levels. If successful, these drugs could be used as alternatives to or in combination with marketed drugs like Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound to increase weight loss or reduce side effects.”
  • Modern Healthcare reports,
    • “UnitedHealth Group is taking another step to refine its prior authorization requirements as it continues to face public frustration.
    • “The healthcare giant’s insurance business, UnitedHealthcare, plans to cut nearly 10% of prior authorizations this year, the company said in a notice Saturday.
    • “As part of the initiative, the insurer said it will remove pre-approval requirements for home health services managed by its home and community division. The changes will apply to Medicare Advantage and dual special needs plans in 36 states and Washington, D.C., starting April 1.”
  • and
    • “Mayo Clinic is investing nearly $1.9 billion in its Phoenix campus as part of the Bold. Forward. Unbound. strategy being implemented across the system’s multistate footprint.
    • “The project covers 1.2 million square feet, including a new procedural building, an expanded specialty care building, 11 new operating rooms and two new patient units that support 48 beds, according to a Monday news release.
    • “A two-story indoor promenade will wrap around the front of the campus, and complementary clinical services will be clustered together in so-called care neighborhoods, according to the release. Mayo Clinic is starting the design phase this year and expects to complete the project in 2031.
    • “The project will increase the campus’ clinical space by nearly 60%, Dr. Richard Gray, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said in the release.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review offers an interesting interview. Here’s the background:
    • “Since 2021, St. Louis-based Ascension has reduced risk-adjusted mortality by more than 20% across 88 hospitals through its Recognize and Rescue initiative, a systemwide effort to support care teams in identifying high-risk conditions and intervening quickly to prevent clinical deterioration. 
    • “Over a three-year period, the program prevented more than 4,000 deaths, outpacing a group of nearly 1,100 peer hospitals by 12%, according to findings recently published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
    • “This is an incredible achievement for Ascension,” Mohamed Fakih, MD, Ascension’s chief quality officer, said. 
    • “Becker’s recently spoke to Dr. Fakih to learn more about how the health system implemented Recognize and Rescue, what made it successful and how its structure can be applied to other quality initiatives.”

Weekend Update

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, Medical / Rx research, Obesity, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • Committee hearings of note this week:
    • Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions March 5 10:00 AM (EST) | 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. Meeting: Hearings to examine the nomination of Jayanta Bhattacharya, of California, to be Director of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
    • Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions March 6 10:00 AM (EST) | 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. Meeting: Hearings to examine the nomination of Martin Makary, of Virginia, to be Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Department of Health and Human Services.
  • USA Today observes,
    • President Trump on Tuesday [March 4] will deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress since his reelection. While the speech shares many characteristics with a State of the Union address, this presentation is slightly different in nature.
    • Trump’s speech to Congress is expected to outline his legislative priorities for the upcoming term and highlight the work his administration has accomplished since taking office.
    • But since this is his first address in his second nonconsecutive term, the speech is not classified as a State of the Union.
  • The FEHBlog noticed today that on February 12, the Congressional Research Services released a legal sidebar titled Rescission of Executive Order 11246, Employment Opportunity”: Legal Implications.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “Tandem Diabetes Care received Food and Drug Administration clearance for its Control-IQ+ algorithm in Type 2 diabetes. The automated insulin delivery (AID) system can pull data from glucose monitors and integrate with Tandem’s insulin pumps, automatically calculating how much basal insulin patients should receive. 
    • “The expanded indication increases access for people with Type 2 diabetes who use Tandem’s t:slim X2 tubed pump and Tandem Mobi, a smaller form-factor pump.
    • “CEO John Sheridan told investors in a Wednesday earnings call that the expanded indication covers all people with Type 2 diabetes who take insulin, more than doubling Tandem’s total addressable market in the U.S.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • Hospitals across the country have reported an increase in pediatric flu cases this season, with many children experiencing severe complications such as pneumonia, dehydration and organ failure. Hospital admissions for flu in children ages 5 to 17 increased by 145 percent, from 959 on Jan. 4 to 2,348 on Feb. 1, according to an analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
    • “Death is obviously the most severe outcome, but there is a huge spectrum between well and not well,” Patel said. “The flu can take a previously healthy kid and land them on a ventilator.”
    • “Doctors say early symptoms like dehydration or difficulty breathing should not be ignored, as they can indicate a more severe infection.
    • “Patel added that while cases at her hospital have started to decline, the tail end of this flu season could last a few more months.”
  • The Wall Street Journal discusses “The New Thinking on Concussions in Sports. Elite athletes are learning that the best way to recover from a sports-related concussion isn’t to shut down all physical activity. It’s to get back in a workout routine—and quickly.”
  • NPR Shots offers patient perspectives on two Alzheimer’s drugs — Leqembi and Kisunla. The FDA has approved “since 2023 that can clear the brain of sticky amyloid plaques, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.”
  • Fortune Wells points out “Nutritionists offer these six ways to get back to a healthy diet.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Modern Healthcare reports,
    • “Prime Healthcare completed its acquisition of eight Ascension Illinois hospitals.
    • “The transaction closed March 1 and involves more than half of Ascension’s Illinois hospital network, along with several skilled nursing, home health and senior living facilities. Federal and state regulators signed off on the $375 million deal last year.
    • Prime, a for-profit system based in Ontario, California, pledged to invest $250 million in the facilities.
  • MedTech Dive lets us know,
    • “Teleflex will split into two publicly traded companies, with the new entity comprising its urology, acute care and OEM businesses. The remaining company will consist of the hospital-focused vascular access, interventional and surgical businesses.
    • “The separation positions each organization to accelerate growth under a simplified operating model and increased management focus, with a streamlined manufacturing footprint and better allocation of resources, Teleflex said in a Thursday announcement.
    • “In addition, Teleflex said it agreed to pay about 760 million euros (about $791 million) to acquire nearly all of Biotronik’s vascular intervention division. The company also announced the planned retirement of CFO Thomas Powell.”

Cybersecurity Saturday

David Ermer–Cybersecurity–

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front,

  • Next week, House of Representatives will fast track approval of H.R. 872 – Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2025, as amended. This bill which would apply known exploited vulnerability (KEV) remediation rules to certain federal contractors has not received Senate consideration yet.
  • CISA explains “Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate [CISA] identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.”
  • Cyberscoop reports
    • “A push is gearing up to renew an expiring 10-year-old cybersecurity law that was viewed at its initial passage as the most significant cybersecurity legislation Congress had ever passed, and that advocates say now fosters several important threat-sharing initiatives.
    • “The 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act provides safeguards for companies that voluntarily share threat intelligence data with the government or each other, such as federal antitrust exemptions and shields against state and federal disclosure laws.
    • “Reauthorization of the law faces several hurdles, including uncertainty about who will take the lead on the bill in the House and Senate, potential privacy concerns, a tight timeline, and other competing priorities. There are also some who believe the law could use updates to fit today’s threats, potentially introducing further complications.
    • “But its renewal has some bipartisan support, including among leaders of committees important to its passage, and there is optimism among outside groups that it can win congressional approval. The push is in the very early stages, but there’s a “growing recognition” that it needs to be reauthorized, said Matthew Eggers, vice president of cybersecurity policy in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s cyber, intelligence and security division.
    • “We’re in a little bit of spring training in the sense that we haven’t advocated for this legislation for about 10-plus years,” he said. “A number of organizations, over the last 10 years, have probably taken for granted the work that’s been done to get the legislation passed.”
  • Cybersecurity Dive tells us,
    • “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed that Karen Evans was named executive assistant director for cybersecurity under the Department of Homeland Security. 
    • “Evans, who first joined CISA in January as a senior adviser, will be responsible for leading the agency’s cybersecurity efforts as the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience. 
    • “Starting in 2018, Evans served as assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response at the Department of Energy. She was named chief information officer at DHS and served from March 2020 to January 2021. She also served as managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute before joining CISA.”
  • Cyberscoop adds,
    • “President Donald Trump hasn’t yet selected an overall leader for CISA, although Sean Plankey has reportedly been in line for the Senate-confirmed job. But Evans’ appointment is the latest key position to get a name attached to it among top cyber jobs in the administration.
    • “The administration recently named Sean Cairncross as its pick for the Senate-confirmed position of national cyber director. It also picked Alexei Bulazel as senior director for cyber at the National Security Council.”
  • The National Institute of Standards and Technology is celebrating the first anniversary of its Cybersecurity Framework 2.0.
  • Dark Reading lets us know,
    • “The US Army soldier arrested for unlawful transfer of confidential phone records told a federal judge he intends to plead guilty to the charges.
    • “Cameron John Wagenius, who went by the online alias “Kiberphant0m,” was involved in the Snowflake hacking campaign alongside Connor Riley Moucka, known as “Judische,” who was arrested in October 2024.
    • “Wagenius was arrested after infiltrating 15 telecommunications providers while on active military duty. He then reportedly published the stolen AT&T call logs of high-ranking officials like President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris on Dark Web forums.”

From the cybersecurity vulnerabilities and breaches front,

  • Security Week informs us,
    • “CrowdStrike this week published its 2025 Global
Threat Report, which summarizes the latest adversary tactics and techniques, as well as important trends that defined 2024.
    • “The cybersecurity giant started tracking 26 new threat groups in 2024, which brought the total number of adversaries known by the company to 257. 
    • “CrowdStrike pointed out that China-linked activity surged, with a 150% increase seen across all sectors, and a rise of 200-300% in industries such as financial services, media, manufacturing, and industrials and engineering compared to 2023. 
    • “One interesting aspect that CrowdStrike has been tracking is breakout time, the time it takes threat actors to move from initial access to high-value assets. This breakout time is important because that is how much time defenders have to detect and respond to an attack before the hackers start establishing deeper control.
    • “In 2024, the average breakout time in the case of cybercrime intrusions dropped to 48 minutes, from 62 minutes in 2023, and the fastest breakout seen by CrowdStrike last year was just 51 seconds.
    • “Over half of the vulnerabilities seen by CrowdStrike last year were related to initial access, which the company says reinforces the need to secure exposed systems. It also noted that identity-based attacks are increasingly favored over traditional malware attacks.”  
  • Cyberscoop lets us know,
    • “Cybercriminals intentionally disrupted operations at a growing rate last year, Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence firm Unit 42 said in an annual incident response report released Tuesday.
    • “Of the nearly 500 major cyberattacks Unit 42 responded to last year, 86% involved business disruption, including operational downtime, fraud-related losses, increased operating costs and negative reputational impacts. 
    • “Unit 42 called this trend the “third wave of extortion attacks,” another point of potential leverage for threat groups to impose on targets in addition to encryption and data theft. 
    • “These disruptive attacks stand out for the pain, impact and broader ripple effects they inflict on society and the economy at large, said Sam Rubin, senior vice president of consulting and threat intelligence at Unit 42.
    • “This is what organizations need to be worried about from a threat perspective and from a defensive strategy standpoint,” Rubin said.” 
  • Cybersecurity Dive reports,
    • “Approximately 2,850 IP addresses are vulnerable to CVE-2025-22467, a critical stack buffer-overflow vulnerability that affects Ivanti Connect Secure VPNs, according to a post on X by the Shadowserver Foundation.
    • “Ivanti disclosed and patched CVE-2025-22467 on Feb. 11 and said it was not aware of any exploitation of the vulnerability prior to the public disclosure. Exploitation of the critical flaw can allow a remote authenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution.
    • ‘Shadowserver found the U.S. and Japan were the countries with the highest number of vulnerable IP addresses, with 852 and 384 instances, respectively.”
  • CISA added four known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.

From the ransomware front,

  • CSO points out five things to know about ransomware threats in 2025.
  • Per Security Week,
    • “Threat Intelligence firm Kela warns of a new ransomware group called Anubis operating as a RaaS service with an extensive array of options for affiliates.
    • “The group emerged as recently as late 2024, although the researchers believe that its members have experience in ransomware, both malware and operations. Information on Anubis comes from an analysis of the group’s dark web footprint rather than code analysis of the ransomware.
    • “As with most ransomware groups today, Anubis uses double extortion. The researchers suggest that “Anubis appears to be an emerging threat, highlighting different business models employed by modern extortion actors.”
  • Dark Trace discusses “Lynx ransomware, emerging in 2024, targets finance, architecture, and manufacturing sectors with phishing and double extortion.” 
  • Cybersecurity Dive lets us know,
    • “Researchers analyzed leaked chat logs from the infamous Black Basta ransomware gang and found references to 62 unique CVEs, 53 of which are known to have been exploited in the wild.
    • “Black Basta favored vulnerabilities in “widely adopted enterprise technologies” that included Microsoft products, Citrix Netscaler and Atlassian Confluence, as well as flaws in network edge devices from Fortinet, Cisco, F5 Networks and Palo Alto Networks, according to the findings by VulnCheck.
    • “VulnCheck’s research revealed that in many cases Black Basta members began discussing CVEs within days of security advisories being published, underscoring the importance of prompt patching and mitigations for critical flaws in widely used applications and devices.”
  • Cyberscoop adds,
    • “Black Basta’s inner workings reveal a cybercrime group rife with internal conflicts. Yet, the notorious ransomware-as-a-service group’s affiliates have wreaked havoc on organizations globally.
    • “Over a two-year period, the ransomware variant was used to encrypt and steal data from at least 12 of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, impacting more than 500 organizations, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. 
    • “The group pulled in at least $107 million in ransom payments by late 2023, research from Elliptic and Corvus Insurance found.
    • “The Black Basta leak followed a decrease in activities earlier this year, which was caused by key members defecting to other cybercriminal operations, like the Cactus ransomware group, according to Alptekin. “This exposure has further destabilized the group and impacted trust among its members,” he said.
    • “Rapid7 observed a resurgence of social engineering attacks linked to Black Basta operators in early October, but the group has been largely inactive this year.” 

From the cybersecurity defenses front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Every company needs a cybersecurity strategy but getting the money to enact it can be complicated. 
    • “Benchmarks that compare cyber spending across companies relative to their revenues, overall tech budget or head count can validate funding choices, but they aren’t useful in establishing the security needs of an organization, chief information security officers say. 
    • “That tactic never worked for me,” said Selim Aissi, a cybersecurity consultant who has held executive cyber roles at companies including Intel, Visa and Blackhawk Network Holdings, which sells gift cards.
    • “The CEO, the CFO will shut you down immediately and say, ‘Who cares? We’re not [company] XYZ.’”
    • “Cybersecurity is a necessary expense. Attackers exploit new vulnerabilities within days of discovery and malware multiplies by the day. It takes just 48 minutes, on average, for a hacker to move through a corporate network after getting in, according to cyber company ReliaQuest. International Business Machines found the average cost of a data breach in the U.S. was $4.9 million last year. But companies are wary of paying for more protection than they need, and it falls on CISOs to justify the expense.
    • “Understanding the costs of disruption is a useful way to allocate spending, said Mike Anderson, chief digital and information officer of cyber company Netskope. Some business functions are more critical than others or will take more resources to fix if they are disrupted, he said. 
    • “You can’t treat everything exactly the same,” Anderson said. “I align the investments to the criticality.”
  • Here is a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

Friday Report

David Ermer–Uncategorized–
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • Fierce Healthcare tells us
    • “Friday morning, the HHS uploaded a policy statement that is set to be published in the Federal Register on March 3.
    • “Bylined by the secretary, it says the department is no longer required to undergo a public comment period it typically observes following the publication of proposed rulemaking in “matters relating to agency management or personnel or to public property, loans, grants, benefits or contracts.”
  • The FEHBlog has often wondered why CMS circulated draft Medicare Advantage call letters for public comment but OPM hasn’t circulated draft FEHB / PSHB call letters. This article explains why, but HHS is doing away with this practice.
  • Federal News Network informs us,
    • “SSA will offer employees voluntary separation incentives and early retirement options as part of a major reorganization.
    • “Through these massive reorganizations, offices that perform functions not mandated by statute may be prioritized for reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments and reductions in staffing,” SSA stated in a Feb. 27 release. “The agency may reassign employees from non-mission critical positions to mission critical direct service positions (e.g., field offices, teleservice centers, processing centers). Reassignments may be involuntary and may require retraining for new workloads.”
    • “SSA says it’s looking to shed about 7,000 workers. The latest data from last March says SSA had 56,645 employees, up slightly from 2023 and down from 66,967 in 2010.”
  • Yesterday, OPM reminded FEHB plan carriers,
    • [A]n enrollee whose FEHB enrollment is terminated, other than by cancellation or discontinuance of the plan, is entitled to a 31-day extension of coverage without contributions by the enrollee or the Government. This applies to Self Only, Self Plus One, or Self and Family enrollments.   See 5 CFR 890.401(a)(1).  Carriers must provide the 31-day extension of coverage beyond the coverage end date provided by employing agencies in the SF-2810 action to all terminated enrollments cited in the regulation.”  
  • Cardiovascular Business lets us know,
    • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a new recall for the ablation catheters associated with Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s Varipulse pulsed field ablation (PFA) system. No devices need to be returned or removed from the market. Instead, the FDA is urging all customers to read updated instructions provided by Johnson & Johnson MedTech. 
    • “The recall comes after approximately 3% of patients treated with the device during the early stages of its U.S. rollout experienced a stroke or transient ischemic attack shortly after treatment. The expected stroke rate is closer to 1%, the FDA explained, prompting this action. 
    • “In total, four serious injuries have been linked to this issue.
    • “This is a Class I recall, which means the FDA believes patients face a risk of serious injury or death if they use the devices without reviewing the updated instructions.” 

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
    • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally but has decreased for two consecutive weeks. COVID-19 activity is declining nationally but elevated in some areas of the country. RSV activity is declining in most areas of the country.
    • “COVID-19
      • “COVID-19 activity is declining nationally but elevated in some areas of the country. Wastewater levels are moderate, emergency department visits are at low levels, and laboratory percent positivity is stable. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations are highest in older adults and emergency department visits are also elevated in young children.
      • “There is still time to benefit from getting your recommended immunizations to reduce your risk of illness this season, especially severe illness and hospitalization.
      • “CDC expects the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to work well for currently circulating variants. There are many effective tools to prevent spreading COVID-19 or becoming seriously ill.
    • “Influenza
      • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally but has decreased for two consecutive weeks. Data to date suggests the season has peaked, however, flu-related medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths remain elevated, and CDC expects several more weeks of flu activity.
      • “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
    • “RSV
      • “RSV activity is declining in most areas of the country. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations are highest in children and hospitalizations are elevated among older adults in some areas.
    • “Vaccination
      • “Vaccination coverage with influenza and COVID-19 vaccines is low among U.S. adults and children. Vaccination coverage with RSV vaccines remains low among U.S. adults. Many children and adults lack protection from respiratory virus infections provided by vaccines.
  • The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP adds,
    • “Newly confirmed US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins, JD, [on February 26] introduced new steps to battle avian flu in poultry and stabilize the egg supply, which includes $500 million to help poultry producers shore up biosecurity measures.
    • “Earlier this week, Rollins met with egg producers during a tour of an egg-laying facility in Texas, and today she detailed USDA’s strategy in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. The USDA also detailed the plan today on its website.
    • “Since 2022, the H5N1 avian flu virus has led to the loss of more than 166 million poultry, including 19 million over the past 30 days. Outbreaks over the fall and winter have hit poultry farms hard, especially layer facilities in some of the top egg-producing states, such as Ohio.” 
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said ending the measles outbreak in Texas is a top priority for him and listed the steps his agency had taken to combat the spread of disease, including supporting the state’s vaccine efforts.
    • “I recognize the serious impact of this outbreak on families, children, and healthcare workers,” Kennedy wrote Friday in a post on X.
    • “There have been at least 155 measles cases linked to the outbreak across West Texas and New Mexico, local health officials said Friday. Twenty patients have been hospitalized, and one school-age child died this past week. Most of those sickened weren’t vaccinated, or their vaccination status wasn’t known. 
    • “Kennedy said HHS had provided lab support to track the virus, offered technical assistance to local public health officials and updated federal advice on doctors offering vitamin A to manage measles cases.
    • “HHS communicated about the disease in Low German to the affected population in Texas’ Gaines County, Kennedy said, where the outbreak was concentrated among Mennonites.”
  • Medscape relates,
    • “For decades, physicians had little to offer patients who have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which is a growing global health problem with a grim death rate in the 5 years after diagnosis. But that started to change in 2021, when a drug trial showed benefits in preventing hospitalization and death.
    • “And each year since, has brought a new clinical trial that shows the value of yet another drug for HFpEF.
    • “It’s so wonderful,” said Michelle Kittleson, MD, PhD, professor of cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and chair of the writing committee for the latest American College of Cardiology (ACC) update to the HFpEF management pathway.”
  • The Wall Street Journal points out “New Treatments Give Hope to Patients with One of the Deadliest Cancers. Half of all pancreatic cancer patients live less than a year after diagnosis. But researchers say there is potential for change.”
  • The American Hospital Association News tells us,
    • “A study published Feb. 26 by JAMA Psychiatry found that female physicians died by suicide at more than 1.5 times the rate of female nonphysicians from 2017-2021. During the same time, male physicians had a lower suicide risk than male nonphysicians. The study also found that physicians who died by suicide had higher odds of depressed mood and mental health, job and legal problems preceding suicide compared to the general population. 
    • “The AHA has a dedicated webpage with resources on preventing suicide in the health care workforce.”
  • Per MedPage Today,
    • “Rates of pancreatitis and liver-related complications from alcohol have increased in teens and young adults.
    • “Males were most affected, yet young females had changes in rates that were higher than males.
    • “These findings suggest a need for addiction medicine training in gastroenterology.”
  • and
    • “Diabetes prevalence in U.S. adults over the past decade has remained stable, with a small non-significant increase.
    • “HbA1c and rates of glycemic control significantly worsened from 2017-2020 to 2021-2023, with changes concentrated in adults ages 20 to 44.
    • “The changes observed in HbA1c and glycemic control among these younger adults would be expected to increase their lifetime risk of cardiovascular events, according to the researchers.”
  • and
    • “To improve mental health, risk factors related to “social determinants” like food insecurity or inadequate housing need to be addressed, according to some health experts. But even doing that doesn’t go far enough upstream, said one psychiatrist here on Thursday.
    • “It’s not enough to intervene at the level of the risk factors — [if you do], you’re actually intervening too late,” said Ruth Shim, MD, MPH, a professor of cultural and clinical psychiatry at the University of California Davis in Sacramento. “So, I started looking into and trying to understand what is actually happening before the risk factor.”
    • “Those upstream factors are sometimes known as the “causes of the causes,” Shim said at an event sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy. “What’s the context that’s going to set you further upstream from the risk factor?”
    • “The answer is that there are two “very fundamental issues,” she noted. “Social norms, or the belief in common society, about who in our society is worthy of value and who is less worthy of such value, who in our society deserves advantage, and who is less deserving of this advantage. And what are the public policies or the laws that we pass that reflect those belief systems? Because those laws that we pass then create unfair and unjust distribution of opportunity, which set into motion the social determinants of mental health, which then lead to the risk factor, which then leads to poor outcomes.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Healthcare Dive lets us know,
    • “Universal Health Services’ net income soared in 2024, rising to $1.1 billion from $717.8 million in 2023 on strong demand for services, particularly in the operator’s behavioral health division.
    • ‘The Pennsylvania-based hospital operator plans to expand its behavioral health offerings next year to drive revenue growth, with a specific focus on outpatient services, executives said on a Thursday earnings call.
    • “UHS expects to take in between $17 billion and $17.4 billion in net revenue in 2025. However, the company is contending with several possible headwinds, including potential healthcare policy changes in Washington, which could impact the company’s bottom line.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues informs us,
    • “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts reported a $400 million operating loss in 2024, driven by spending on GLP-1 medications and other rising medical costs. 
    • “The nonprofit insurer reported its financial results for 2024 on Feb. 28. The company posted a -4.3% operating margin in 2024, compared to a 0.4% margin in 2023. 
    • “In a news release, CFO Ruby Kam said medical costs are rising at the fastest rate in more than a decade. Costs are rising across almost every category of services, but GLP-1 drugs have had the single largest impact, she said. GLP-1 drugs accounted for nearly 20% of the insurers’ pharmacy spending in 2024. 
    • “The insurer is repricing its plans to reflect higher costs and cutting administrative spending, including through hiring freezes and eliminating some jobs, according to the release. 
    • “In a statement, CEO Sarah Iselin said the company does not expect the trend to change any time soon.” 

AI News

  • Fierce Healthcare reports,
    • “Last week at the ViVE conference in Nashville, two topics seemed to dominate most conversations—artificial intelligence and the impending snowstorm. (Music City got about two inches of snow.)
    • “According to many executives who attended the digital health-focused conference, AI took the main stage at ViVE and discussions about adoption and use of the technology in healthcare has evolved significantly in just the past year.
    • “Many conversations centered around AI agents and sophisticated prompt engineering. Compared to HLTH, where conversations felt more theoretical, vendors and healthcare customers were speaking about concrete use cases. For a while now people healthcare incumbents have had robotic process automation, then intelligent automation and now AI on their roadmaps. It seems we’ve finally arrived at the final destination and most are piloting different AI tech now,” Neil Patel, Redesign Health’s head of ventures told Fierce Healthcare.”
  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • “A private-public partnership formed to create standards for artificial intelligence adoption in healthcare is launching a new registry for hospitals and developers to access and share information on AI tools.
    • “The hub, known as a model card registry, was unveiled by the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) and health system members of the group, including Providence, Cleveland Clinic and Kaiser Permanente, on Friday. The goal of the registry is to make it easier for healthcare companies to evaluate and shop between validated AI products, CHAI said.
    • “AI companies and other developers can input their tools into the registry regardless of whether they’re a member of CHAI, according to a spokesperson. There’s no cost to upload model cards or access the registry, though it could include paywalled features in the future, they said.”
  • and
    • “Cloud-based software company Salesforce is rolling out a library of prebuilt artificial intelligence tools meant to make it easier for providers, payers and other healthcare companies to apply digital labor to time-consuming tasks.
    • “Salesforce’s “Agentforce for Health” relies on agentic AI, which unlike older AI assistants can operate relatively autonomously.
    • “The product includes patient access and services capabilities, including answering questions and checking patient eligibility with insurers; public health capabilities, like helping organizations monitor the spread of infections; and clinical capabilities to accelerate research and development for drugs and medical devices.”