Tuesday Report

Congress

Tuesday Report

David Ermer–AHRQ, CDC, Congress, FDA, Generative AI, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, NIH, Obesity, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • Bloomberg Law reports,
    • “President Donald Trump wants Congress to change a policy that gives certain drugs longer protection from drug price negotiations in Medicare, a fix that could address one of the drug industry’s top complaints with the Biden-era law.
    • “Trump directed his health secretary to work with lawmakers to end the differential treatment for small molecule drugs, typically pills, that face Medicare price negotiations sooner that more complex biologic medications.
    • “The directive came in an executive order Trump signed at the White House Tuesday. The order was light on specifics and included a grab-bag of other health policy goals.”
  • Modern Healthcare adds
    • “A bipartisan group of state attorneys general wants Congress to pass legislation that would break up healthcare conglomerates such as UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health and Cigna.
    • “Under the auspices of the National Association of Attorneys General, more than three dozen officials wrote congressional leaders on Monday asking them to ban companies from owning both pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacies, citing anticompetitive effects of consolidation in the healthcare system.”
    • Here is a link to that letter.
  • Fierce Pharma tells us,
    • “A two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which was originally scheduled for February but was postponed by new HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is underway today [April 15] in Atlanta and will conclude with panel votes on several vaccines on Wednesday afternoon.
    • “The independent advisers, who meet three times a year to inform vaccine policies in the U.S., today will discuss (PDF) the effectiveness of vaccines that defend against COVID-19, Mpox, chikungunya, HPV, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the flu.
    • “The last item on Tuesday’s agenda will be an update on the U.S. measles outbreak. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 712 cases in more than 20 states, with the most concentrated spread underway in West Texas.”
  • Per a Senate news release,
    • “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and a lifelong family farmer, joined Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), along with Reps. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) and Mark Alford (R-Mo.), in a letter urging the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission to use sound science and risk-based analysis in its policy decisions, particularly on crop protection tools and food-grade ingredients.
    • The letter was sent to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin.
      • “We write to express our strong appreciation for your leadership and interest in working with each of you to ensure America has the healthiest people in the world. In recent decades, chronic illness rates have risen. This warrants our careful scrutiny to support better health outcomes. It is essential that policies supported by sound science and risk-based analyses are used to accomplish this goal,” the lawmakers wrote.
      • “We have concerns that environmentalists are advancing harmful health, economic, or food security policies under the guise of human health. Despite insinuations to the contrary, regular testing by FDA and USDA finds that more than 99% of all pesticide residues meet extremely conservative limits established by EPA according to the best available science,” they continued.”
    • Here’s a link to the letter.

From the judicial front,

  • Bloomberg Law tells us,
    • “The Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Fund and participant Charles A. Whobrey sued Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Alan McClain April 11, arguing a law requiring health plans to report pharmacy cost data and pay pharmacies a minimum amount violates the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. 
    • “The multiemployer benefit plan serves 500,000 people via local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
    • “It’s the latest in a broader legal fight over states’ attempts to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, which oversee the prescription drug benefit for health plans. The US Supreme Court is weighing whether to accept a case challenging an Oklahoma law regulating pharmacy benefit managers after determining that ERISA did not preempt a separate Arkansas PBM law in 2020.” * * *
    • “The case is Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Fund et al v. McClain, in his official capacity as Insurance Commissioner of Arkansas et al., N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cv-03938, complaint filed 4/11/25.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The National Academy of Sciences announced,
    • “Bird flu has infected livestock, wildlife, pets, and humans. Most people have general questions about the looming threat of this highly pathogenic virus, and we have answers. Join @NASEM Health and Medicine Division and @NASEM Earth & Life Sciences on April 29, 2025, for the first public webinar of a special series addressing H5N1 avian influenza. Learn how we got here, who’s at risk, and what’s at stake. Can’t make the date/time? All registrants will receive a link to the recording. Register here: https://tinyurl.com/bdhrywv2
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “The number of children living with autism in the U.S. is growing.
    • “About 1 in 31 children aged eight years old in 2022 had autism—an increase from previous years, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Tuesday. 
    • “Increased awareness and screening of the disorder partly explains its rise over time. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he is assembling a team of researchers to focus on the root causes of the increase and expects to begin to have answers by September. 
    • “The autism epidemic has now reached a scale unprecedented in human history because it affects the young,” he said Tuesday. “Autism is preventable and it is unforgivable that we have not yet identified the underlying causes. We should have had these answers 20 years ago.”
    • “The idea that vaccines cause autism, which Kennedy has pushed, has long been debunked by scientists, after multiple studies have failed to find a link.”
  • The Rand Organization informs us,
    • “Specialized hospital services that aid people with opioid use disorder regardless of why they are admitted can boost the number of patients who begin treatment with FDA-approved medication for opioid use disorder and increase the likelihood they remain engaged in that care once discharged, according to a new study.
    • “Reporting results from the first parallel assignment randomized clinical trial of a hospital-based addiction consultation service for people with opioid use disorder, researchers found that people who received treatment from a specialized addiction consultation service were about twice as likely to begin medication treatment for opioid use disorder as patients who received the normal course of care.
    • “In addition, those who received care from the special program were significantly more likely to link to care for opioid use disorder once they were discharged.
    • “Researchers say the study contributes to growing evidence that an inpatient addiction consultation service can have a positive effect on treatment initiation and linkage to post-discharge care. The findings are published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.”
  • AHRQ offers advice on “Implementing [US Preventive Services Task Force] Recommended Mental Health and Substance Use Screening and Counseling Interventions in Primary Care Settings for Children and Adolescents.”
  • Per Medscape,
    • “New data confirmed the safety and efficacy of AXS-05, a combination of dextromethorphan and bupropion, for the treatment of agitation associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
    • “In the phase 3 ACCORD-2 study, AXS-05 (Axsome Therapeutics) met the primary and key secondary endpoints by statistically significantly delaying and preventing AD agitation relapse compared with placebo and was generally well tolerated.
    • “Overall, the data “build on the previous positive phase 2/3 studies and support the use of AXS-05 as a safe and effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease agitation,” George Grossberg, MD, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, said at a press briefing announcing the results.
    • “Grossberg presented the late-breaking findings from ACCORD-2 on April 7 at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2025 Annual Meeting.”
  • Per a National Cancer Institute news release,
    • “Many adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with advanced cancer don’t have discussions with their clinicians about how they want to approach palliative care until the final weeks of life, a study of medical records of nearly 2,000 young patients showed.
    • “The researchers also found that, as of more than 2 months before their deaths, few AYAs in the study had documented goals for care of any kind in their medical records, including things such as how aggressive they would like to be with their cancer treatments.
    • “The findings come from an NCI-funded study that analyzed how documented discussions between AYA patients with advanced cancer and their providers about the goals of care change over the patients’ last few months of life.  The study results were published December 19 in JAMA Network Open.”
  • Per an NIH news release,
    • “New studies in rats suggest the drug reserpine, approved in 1955 for high blood pressure, might treat the blinding disease retinitis pigmentosa. No therapy exists for this rare inherited disease, which starts affecting vision from childhood. A report on the studies, conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), published today in eLife.
    • “The discovery of reserpine’s effectiveness may greatly speed therapeutics for retinitis pigmentosa and many other inherited retinal dystrophies, which can be caused by one of more than a thousand possible mutations affecting more than 100 genes. Reserpine’s neuroprotective effect is independent of any specific underlying gene mutation,” said the study’s lead investigator, Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., senior investigator at NIH’s National Eye Institute.”
  • STAT News reports,
    • “U.S. researchers will soon test whether livers from a gene-edited pig could treat people with sudden liver failure — by temporarily filtering their blood so their own organ can rest and maybe heal.
    • “The first-of-its-kind clinical trial has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, according to pig producer eGenesis, which announced the step Tuesday with its partner OrganOx.” * * *
    • “The new study, which is expected to get underway later this spring, is a twist on the quest for animal-to-human organ transplants. Researchers won’t transplant the pig liver but instead will attach it externally to study participants.
    • “The liver is the only organ that can regenerate, but the question is whether having the pig’s liver filter the patient’s blood for several days could give it that chance.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Payer Issues notes,
    • “CMS’ payment increase of 5.03% in 2026 “will likely significantly support the recovery” of Medicare Advantage plans as they continue to face rising medical costs, according to Fitch Ratings.
    • “Increased government scrutiny, reduced base payments and rising utilization in the last couple of years has put pressure on the program, leading plans to reduce benefits or pull back from unprofitable markets. CMS’ rate hike will increase payments to MA plans by more than $25 billion in 2026.
    • “While the higher 2026 payment rates do not resolve all the challenges facing MA insurers, they help relieve some pressures from increased healthcare utilization in the program,” Fitch analysts wrote April 14. “Depending on the insurer, the higher rates could enable a mix of enhancement of benefits in certain geographies, mitigation of Star Ratings pressure, or partial margin recovery.”
    • “Fitch expects MA to remain a key focus for insurers, and a clearer picture on the success of course correction measures will become available in the next few weeks as Q1 earnings reports are released.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “Even as tariffs start to take a toll on Johnson & Johnson’s medtech business—with the threat of pharmaceutical duties not far behind—the New Jersey drug giant is confident it can weather any upcoming trade war turbulence. In fact, the company is boosting its sales guidance for the year following the close of a new neuroscience acquisition.
    • “J&J now expects to generate total operational sales of $91.6 billion to $92.4 billion in 2025, representing a $700 million increase over the forecast it initially unveiled in January, the company said in a Tuesday earnings release (PDF).
    • “J&J’s finance chief, Joseph Wolk, attributed the bump to J&J’s recent acquisition of neuroscience player Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6 billion. The deal, which closed earlier this month, allowed J&J to get its hands on the approved schizophrenia and bipolar disorder med Caplyta.”
  • Per Beckers Hospital Review,
    • “At the end of 2023, more than one-third of new prescriptions to treat Type 2 diabetes were GLP-1s, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic, among others, according to a study published April 15 in Annals of Internal Medicine. 
    • “Researchers at Mass General Brigham, based in Somerville, Mass., reviewed claims data from January 2021 to December 2023 to evaluate utilization trends among diabetes medications. 
    • “The drugs included glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (Ozempic), glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptors (Mounjaro), glucose-lowering medications (metformin and insulin) and weight-lowering medications (phentermine). 
    • “Over those three years, use of Mounjaro, Ozempic and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors increased among adults with Type 2 diabetes. Use of other glucose-lowering drugs, including metformin, rapidly declined.
  • and
    • “Houston-based Texas Children’s has experienced “astounding” results from AI projects in recent months, its IT leader told Becker’s.
    • “Myra Davis, executive vice president and chief information and innovation officer of Texas Children’s, was recently recognized for her work when she was nominated for an ORBIE award for the nation’s top healthcare CIO.
    • “Becker’s caught up with Ms. Davis to discuss her most innovative IT projects — and what comes next.”
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “The quest to create an A.I. therapist has not been without setbacks or, as researchers at Dartmouth thoughtfully describe them, “dramatic failures.”
    • “Their first chatbot therapist wallowed in despair and expressed its own suicidal thoughts. A second model seemed to amplify all the worst tropes of psychotherapy, invariably blaming the user’s problems on her parents.
    • “Finally, the researchers came up with Therabot, an A.I. chatbot they believe could help address an intractable problem: There are too many people who need therapy for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and not nearly enough providers.
    • “Fewer than a third of Americans live in communities where there are enough mental health providers to meet the local demand. According to one study, most people with mental health disorders go untreated or receive inadequate treatment.
    • “So the team at Dartmouth College embarked on the first clinical trial of a generative A.I. therapist. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine-AI, were encouraging.
    • “Chatting with Therabot, the team’s A.I. therapist, for eight weeks meaningfully reduced psychological symptoms among users with depression, anxiety or an eating disorder.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Bristol Myers Squibb on Monday said its drug Camzyos failed a Phase 3 trial in people with a progressive heart condition, closing off an opportunity to expand use of a medicine it sees as a future blockbuster.
    • “According to Bristol Myers, Camzyos missed the dual main goals of a study focused on the non-obstructive form of “HCM,” or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It failed to meaningfully improve peak oxygen consumption as well as scores on an assessment of heart health. The company didn’t provide study details, but said more information will be shared “with the scientific community in the future.”
    • “Camzyos was acquired through the $13 billion buyout of MyoKardia in 2020 and two years later became the first drug cleared for use in the “obstructive” and more common form of the disease. Biotechnology companies Cytokinetics and Edgewise Therapeutics are developing similar medicines that are both in the advanced stages of clinical testing. Cytokinetics’ drug, aficamten, could be approved in the U.S. later this year.”

Monday Report

David Ermer–CMS, Congress, COVID-19, FDA, Federal employment benefits, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Obesity, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash
  • Paul Wolfowitz, writing in the Wall Street Journal, shares “Reflections on Lincoln 160 Years After His Murder. America’s greatest president had moral vision, strategic genius, and astounding eloquence.” RIP.
    • “Tuesday is the 160th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. That grim milestone invites speculation about what might have been had he lived to serve out his second term. It is also an occasion to reflect on what made Lincoln great—why his example still matters.
    • “Lincoln is the greatest American president not because he was perfect, but because he had so many leadership qualities crucial for confronting the challenges facing him. He combined moral vision with strategic genius, a rare mix for any political leader.” * * *
    • “So, I am grateful to Providence that we had a leader of Lincoln’s stature at a time of our greatest need. And so should we all be.”

From Washington, DC,

  • From an FTC news release,
    • “Today, the Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry into the impact of federal regulations on competition, with the goal of identifying and reducing anticompetitive regulatory barriers. The FTC launched this inquiry in response to President Trump’s Executive Order on Reducing Anticompetitive Regulatory Barriers. * * *
    • “In a Request for Information, the FTC invites members of the public to comment on how federal regulations can harm competition in the American economy. The RFI seeks to understand what federal regulations have an anticompetitive effect. Members of the public—including consumers, workers, businesses, start-ups, potential market entrants, investors, and academics—are encouraged to comment.
    • “The public will have 40 days to submit comments at Regulations.gov, no later than May 27, 2025. Once submitted, comments will be posted to Regulations.gov.
    • “Comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force at Regulations.gov that contain information falling within the scope of the FTC’s RFI do not need to be resubmitted in response to the FTC’s RFI.” 
  • When will OPM invite deregulatory ideas from the public? Speaking of OPM,
  • Federal News Network tells us,
    • “The Office of Personnel Management faces a steep bill for employee relocation expenses, as it plans to bring staff working remotely back to the office.
    • “As part of its return-to-office plans, OPM is planning to spend nearly $42 million to relocate approximately 250 employees — spending about $166,000 per employee.
    • “The relocation cost per employee is higher than the annual salary of most federal employees, according to recent data analysis from the Pew Research Center. It also exceeds the maximum salary a career federal employee can receive under the General Schedule pay scale (not including locality pay). An OPM spokesperson declined a request for comment.
    • “OPM will pay certain mandatory relocation expenses. But the agency told employees in an April 4 email, first reported by Federal News Network, that “it is unlikely we will have the financial resources to relocate a significant number of employees who are greater than 50 miles from an OPM site.”
  • Govexec informs us,
    • “The Office of Personnel Management last week issued new guidance encouraging agencies to pay political appointees the maximum federal salary and removing career HR workers from the appointment process.
    • “The April 10 memo from acting OPM Director Charles Ezell to agency heads reminds them of the “great flexibility” they have when setting the pay of employees hired under Schedule C of the federal government’s excepted service, the portion of the federal workforce made up of low-level political appointees.
    • “Such flexibility is important to attract highly-qualified Schedule C employees to serve in important confidential, policy-determining, policy-making and policy-advocating roles,” Ezell wrote. “Well-qualified Schedule C employees are needed ‘to drive the unusually expansive and transformative agenda the American people elected President Trump to accomplish.’”
    • “The memo notes that Schedule C salaries cap out at $195,200. And it instructs agencies to “revoke delegations and sub-delegations” provided to agency HR employees as part of their work onboarding and vetting political appointees on behalf of the White House.”
  • Per an OPM news release,
    • “For the first time, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) personalized Retirement Booklets are now accessible online as digital downloads [at] servicesonline.opm.gov.”
  • MedTech Dive also points out,
    • “The Trump administration is investigating the effects of pharmaceutical imports on national security, disclosing Monday a probe that is likely to lay the foundation for sector-wide tariffs in the near future.
    • “The investigation, which was announced in a federal notice posted online, appears to be wide-ranging, covering branded and generic medicines, as well the active drug ingredients they contain. It will be conducted by the Department of Commerce under a legal authority known as Section 232, which President Donald Trump used earlier this year to expand duties on steel and aluminum.”
  • Per Beckers Clinical Leadership,
    • “CMS is proposing to modify several hospital quality measures and remove four others, including those focused on health equity and social drivers of health.
    • “The agency outlined the changes April 11 as part of its 2026 proposed rule for the Medicare payment systems that cover inpatient and long-term care hospitals.” 

From the judicial front,

  • Fierce Healthcare notes,
    • “Originally approved by the FDA in 1998, Amgen’s Enbrel is still sailing along without facing biosimilar competition in the United States. And unless a court rules otherwise, the Southern California company will retain its patent protection on the inflammatory disease medicine until 2029.
    • “Hoping to alter the timetable is Swiss generics and biosimilars specialist Sandoz, which has filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court in Virginia claiming that Amgen has blocked competition to “unlawfully extend its monopoly,” according to the complaint.
    • “Amgen, according to the lawsuit, allegedly did this by purchasing patent rights from one of its competitors, Swiss pharma giant Roche, which was developing a product from the same drug class to compete with Enbrel. Without these patents, Enbrel would have been subject to competition from biosimilars—as was the case in Europe—by as early as 2016.
    • “Sandoz is seeking an injunction preventing Amgen from using the patent rights to block biosimilar competition. Sandoz wants to launch its Enbrel biosimilar Erelzi as soon as possible. The company also is pursuing treble damages, which could be tripled, according to antitrust law.”
  • and
    • “The Department of Justice will head to mediation with UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys April 18 as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
    • “Both companies are attempting to finalize a $3.3 billion merger, which was challenged under the Biden administration Nov. 12 for allegedly threatening competition in the home health and hospice industry. Now, mediation will occur Aug. 18, as signed by Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey on April 10.” 

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about asthma. “Asthma can be life-threatening if you don’t get treatment. Two physicians, from Bayhealth and Rush University System for Health, share more.”
  • Cardiovascular Business relates,
    • “Following a Mediterranean-style diet that still leaves room for lean beef is associated with significant improvements in blood pressure (BP) and vascular health, according to new data published in Current Developments in Nutrition.
    • “The Mediterranean diet, named after the traditional eating habits of Greece and Italy, is based on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and olive oil. It primarily focuses on plant-based options, but does permits fish, seafood, poultry and dairy products to be eaten occasionally. 
    • “The Mediterranean diet is often viewed as one of the healthiest ways a person can eat. The team behind this latest analysis aimed to learn just how flexible these diets can be. If someone follows a Mediterranean-style diet, but wants to enjoy a little more meat, what does that mean for their cardiovascular health?
    • “Increasingly, the importance of customizing dietary choices to reflect personal preferences is recognized to promote sustained adherence to a healthy dietary pattern,” wrote first author Jennifer Fleming, PhD, an assistant teaching professor in the department of nutritional sciences at Penn State, and colleagues. “Therefore, although current dietary guidance consistently recommends limiting red meat, more clarity is needed about the amount of lean unprocessed red meat that can be incorporated into healthy dietary patterns that promote cardiovascular health.”
  • STAT News reports,
    • “Verve Therapeutics said initial data show that its investigational gene-editing therapy lowered cholesterol without inducing serious side effects, a positive step for the company after it paused development of an earlier treatment due to safety concerns.
    • “The early data from an ongoing Phase 1 study show that a single infusion of the therapy, called Verve-102, led to greater decreases in “bad” LDL cholesterol with higher doses, according to an announcement Monday. Among the four participants who received the highest dose of 0.6 mg/kg, they experienced an average 53% reduction in cholesterol.” * * *
    • “While the Verve-102 data are early, they move the company closer to its goal of using a one-time therapy to target a common condition that continues to be one of the leading killers in the developed world. The current chronic drugs that inhibit PCSK9 are not enough for patients with higher cholesterol, Verve argues, since patients often don’t take them consistently.”
  • The New York Times calls attention to a new study.
    • Middle-aged and older adults who sought hospital or emergency room care because of cannabis use were almost twice as likely to develop dementia over the next five years, compared with similar people in the general population, a large Canadian study reported on Monday.
    • When compared with adults who sought care for other reasons, the risk of developing dementia was still 23 percent higher among users of cannabis, the study also found.
    • The study included the medical records of six million people in Ontario from 2008 to 2021. The authors accounted for health and sociodemographic differences between comparison groups, some of which play a role in cognitive decline.
    • The data do not reveal how much cannabis the subjects had been using, and the study does not prove that regular or heavy cannabis use plays a causal role in dementia.
  • The Wall Street Journal considers whether long-Covid is rewriting the rules of aging. Brain decline alarms doctors. Millions of long-Covid patients continue to struggle with cognitive difficulties.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Pfizer is halting development of its experimental weight-loss pill, as the booming obesity drug market remains out of reach for the drug giant.
    • “The company said Monday the stoppage comes after it reviewed clinical data and a study subject developed a liver injury that might have been caused by the drug, called danuglipron.” 
  • The benefits consulting firm WTW offers a report titled “GLP-1 Drugs in 2025: Cost, access and the future of obesity treatment. “Employer health plans brace for another year of soaring costs as GLP-1 utilization continues to rise — per member per month spending on these medications nearly doubled each year since 2021.”
  • Per Beckers Payer Issues,
    • “Medicare Advantage plans spent $38 billion on non-Medicare benefits in 2024, according to a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report. 
    • “The group, which advises Congress on Medicare issues, held a meeting April 10. According to a presentation, MA plans received $83 billion in rebates from the federal government. Plans used these rebates to cover non-Medicare, or supplemental, benefits. These benefits include hearing, vision and dental care alongside fitness reimbursements, over-the-counter allowances and other benefits. These rebates are also used to reduce cost sharing and provide prescription drug benefits. 
    • “According to MedPAC, current data on supplemental benefit use in MA is inadequate to determine the value the funding is providing.” 
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “Average physician pay rose 3.6% between 2023 and 2024, from $363,000 to $376,000—about in line with recent years but well behind increases from before the pandemic.
    • “That’s according to Medscape’s latest physician compensation report, which also highlighted particularly narrow increases in year-over-year compensation for primary care docs (1.4%, from $277,000 to $281,000) and specialists (1%, from $394,000 to $398,000).
    • “The annual survey also counted more specialties reporting pay drops than pay increases, as well as a shrinking percentage of doctors who feel fairly compensated and a widening of pay gaps across gender and racial and ethnic lines.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review adds,
    • “Annual average compensation for U.S. physicians in four medical specialties surpassed $500,000 in 2024, according to Medscape’s “Comparing Your Pay Against Your Peers’: Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2025.“
    • “Orthopedic specialists topped the list as the highest-paid physicians last year, while those practicing public health and preventive medicine reported the lowest earnings.
    • “With the exception of anesthesiology, all seven of the top-earning specialties in 2024 have consistently ranked among the 10 highest-paid specialties in each of the last five editions of the annual report.”

Weekend Update

David Ermer–CMS, Congress, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Obesity, OPM, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Texas Blue bonnets

From Washington, DC,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “President Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” is headed for one big, ugly negotiation. 
    • “Congressional Republicans last week approved the fiscal blueprint that lets them pack disparate items from Trump’s wish list into a single bill that won’t need Democratic votes. GOP lawmakers expect the giant legislation to extend expiring tax cuts, implement Trump’s new tax-cut promises, increase the debt limit, cut spending and boost border security and national defense. 
    • “The one-bill strategy bets that Republicans lock arms with Trump and plunge ahead, unwilling to defy the president on an up-or-down vote on his agenda. Packaging everything together could give each party faction victories to highlight, even if they must accept pieces they detest. 
    • “The next few months will bring a blur of policies, numbers and congressional procedures that will make Republicans confront internal fractures over tax rates, incentives, Medicaid and budget deficits. The unity they have displayed so far will be tested, particularly in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has guided a fractious majority through tight votes by reassuring lawmakers they can fight over details later.”
  • Federal News Network lets us know,
    • “Although the details of House Republicans’ narrowly approved budget framework are still up in the air, some initial proposals show the possibility of changes to federal benefits, mainly in retirement and health care.
    • “As part of the GOP budget resolution, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is looking at cuts of at least $50 billion from its mandatory spending, according to the framework that lawmakers approved in a vote of 216-214 on Thursday. That level of spending cuts would almost certainly dig into federal benefits, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) said.
    • “Given the only major mandatory spending under the committee’s jurisdiction is federal retirement and health benefits, cuts of such a magnitude would necessarily come from cuts to federal retirement and health benefits,” NARFE wrote in a letter to Congress last week.” * * *
    • “A spokesperson for Oversight Committee Republicans declined to comment on where the proposed spending cuts would most likely move forward. But many proposals are already circulating, including several possibilities that could bring changes to federal employees’ retirement benefits, health insurance and more.”
  • Govexec adds,
    • “President Trump appears set to propose freeze civilian federal employees’ pay next year, according to draft budget documents.
    • “The news came in the form of a passback, which is effectively the Office of Management and Budget’s response to agencies’ individual budget submissions. A report by the Congressional Research Service says agencies can appeal certain programmatic decisions to OMB, the documents are, for all intents and purposes, the office’s final decision.
    • “A copy of one agency’s passback, obtained by Government Executive, said the document’s funding levels “reflect a pay freeze for civilian employees in calendar year 2026.”
    • “If enacted, it would mark the first year that federal workers have not received a pay increase since 2013, the last of three years of pay freezes amid sequestration. President Trump previously proposed pay freezes in the first three of his annual budget submissions, but Congress ultimately overruled him each time, with raises in the range of 1.4% to 2.6%.
    • “In 2020, he proposed a 1% across-the-board pay increase for feds as part of his budgetary request but reneged on that pledge and supported efforts to freeze their pay later in funding negotiations. Congress ultimately adopted the 1% increase that year.”
  • The American Hospital Association points out a bevy of proposed Medicare regulations.
    • “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services April 11 issued a  proposed rule that would increase Medicare inpatient prospective payment system rates by a net 2.4% in fiscal year 2026, compared with FY 2025, for hospitals that are meaningful users of electronic health records and submit quality measure data. 
    • “This 2.4% payment update reflects a hospital market basket increase of 3.2% as well as a productivity cut of 0.8%. This update also reflects CMS’ proposal to rebase and revise the market basket to a 2023 base year. In addition, the rule includes a proposed $1.5 billion increase in disproportionate share hospital payments and a proposed $234 million increase in new medical technology payments. Overall, it would increase hospital payments by $4 billion in FY 2026 as compared to FY 2025.  
    • “In addition, CMS has included in the rule its previously published request for information seeking input on opportunities to streamline regulations and reduce burdens on providers.”
  • and
    • “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services April 11 proposed increasing the long-term care hospital standard rate payments by 2.2% in fiscal year 2026 relative to FY 2025. This includes a 3.4% market basket update reduced by a 0.8 percentage point productivity adjustment. In addition, it includes a reduction of 0.3 percentage points due to CMS’ proposal to raise the fixed-loss amount for high-cost outlier payments to $91,247. The agency also has included in the rule its previously published request for information seeking input on opportunities to streamline regulations and reduce burdens on providers.”
  • and
    • “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services April 11 issued a proposed rule for the inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment system for fiscal year 2026.  
    • “CMS proposes to increase IPF payments by a net 2.4%, equivalent to $70 million, in FY 2026. The payment update reflects a proposed market-basket update of 3.2% minus a productivity adjustment of 0.8 percentage points. CMS also proposes to update the outlier threshold so that estimated outlier payments remain at 2.0% of total payments. In addition, the agency would increase the adjustment factors for IPFs with teaching status and rural location and recognize increases to IPF teaching caps as required by law.”
  • and
    • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services April 11 issued a proposed rule for the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system for fiscal year 2026. The proposal would increase aggregate payments by 2.8%, which reflects a 3.0% market basket update, a 0.8 percentage point cut for productivity, and an increase of 0.6 percentage points for the market basket forecast error for FY 2024. CMS also is proposing changes to some ICD-10 code mappings for payment classifications. In addition, it has included in the rule its previously published request for information seeking input on opportunities to streamline regulations and reduce burdens on providers.  
  • CMS adds
    • On April 11, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that proposes updates to Medicare payment policies and rates for hospices under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Updated Proposed Rule (CMS-1835-P). CMS is publishing this proposed rule consistent with the legal requirements to update Medicare payment policies for hospices annually. 
  • The public comment deadline for all five proposed rules is June 10, 2025. FEHB carriers certainly would appreciate receiving

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The New York Times offers “Five Science-Backed Longevity ‘Hacks’ That Don’t Cost a Fortune.” Check it out.
  • Per Kaufmann Hall,
    • This week’s graphic highlights data from a recent study published by The Lancet on cancer incidence trends in the United States between 2000 and 2019 among those born between 1920 and 1990. Of the 34 types of cancer studied, 17 were found to have an increased incidence among those from the Generation X and Millennial cohorts. Compared to individuals in the 1955 cohort, incidence of small intestinal, thyroid, kidney and renal pelvic, and pancreatic cancers among those in the 1990 cohort was about three times higher. The incidence of those in the Generation X cohorts was also higher among these four cancers compared to the 1955 cohort’s rate. More adults are also getting diagnosed with cancer at younger ages
  • The Wall Street Journal considers “The Latest in Hernia Repair: New Techniques, New Research. As the population ages, the incidence of hernias is increasing. How do you know when surgery is needed?”
  • The Guardian reports,
    • “People who use the drug Mounjaro are able to sustain weight loss for three years, data from a trial suggests.
    • “Mounjaro, nicknamed the “King Kong” of weight loss drugs, contains tirzepatide and is self-administered in once-a-week injections.
    • “It works by mimicking two hormones called GLP-1 and GIP, resulting in appetite suppression, increased production of insulin, greater insulin sensitivity and a reduction in the rate at which food is emptied from the stomach. The medication is available for weight loss to some people on the NHS and it can also be bought privately with a prescription.”
  • Per Medscape,
    • Now that the US Food and Drug Administration has removed both tirzepatide and semaglutide from its Drug Shortages List, the widespread compounding of these drugs is ending. Tirzepatide’s deadline has already passed, while physicians and pharmacies have until April 22 for semaglutide. An estimated 2 million Americans have been using these more affordable copycats every month.
    • Even with direct-to-consumer discounts, monthly doses of brand-name versions cost hundreds more than compounded ones, putting them beyond the reach of many people. This means a significant number of compounded glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) users will be forced to go cold turkey — but studies consistently show weight regain when patients stop taking them abruptly. [The article suggests] how can you help your patients?
  • Per NPR Shots,
    • “Scientists have re-created a pain pathway in the brain by growing four key clusters of human nerve cells in a dish.
    • “This laboratory model could be used to help explain certain pain syndromes and offer a new way to test potential analgesic drugs, a Stanford team reports in the journal Nature.
    • “It’s exciting,” says Dr. Stephen Waxman, a professor at Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the research.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The KFF Peterson Health System Tracker assesses how cost affects access to healthcare and examines challenges with effective price transparency analyses.
  • Beckers Hospital Review tells us,
    • Physicians are seeing slower pay growth in the last year amid economic uncertainty, according to Medscape’s “Physician Compensation Report 2025.”
    • The company surveyed 7,322 physicians across 29 specialties from Oct. 3, 2024 to Jan. 15, 2025, and found compensation increased around 3.6% on average for physicians, which was the lowest growth rate since 2011 when Medscape first began reporting compensation.
    • Pay gains were around 1.4% for primary care physicians, hitting $281,000 last year, and 1% for specialists, hitting $398,000. Pay growth was the lowest since 2021 at the height of the pandemic. The pay figures cover base salary, incentive bonus and other income including profit-sharing.
    • “Specialists’ compensation was squeezed by payer reimbursement cuts, and we saw fewer specialties reporting pay increases than in several years,” the report states. “Nor was it a banner year for primary care physicians. With a lot of uncertainty in the political and regulatory arenas, and the post-COVID salary spending seemingly done, it seems like a good time for physicians to be careful with their expenses.”
  • and
    • “U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kate Stickles has approved N.J.-based Hudson Regional Hospital to take over operational control of three Jersey City, N.J.-based CarePoint Health hospitals, allowing the system to exit bankruptcy.
    • “Hudson Regional now owns and operates Bayonne (N.J.) Medical Center and operates both Jersey City-based Christ Hospital and Hoboken (N.J.) University Medical Center, under the approved management agreement. Each hospital is now operated by an affiliated property owner, according to an April 11 news release shared with Becker’s.” 

Thursday Report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, Congress, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Michele Orallo on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • Yesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee favorably reported the President’s nominee for OPM Director, Scott Kupor, by a 7-4 vote. Mr. Kupor’s nomination will be headed for the Senate floor following the upcoming two week break from Capitol Hill.
  • Today, the American Hospital Association News let us know,
    • The House, by a vote of 216-214, passed the revised budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. This follows the Senate’s passage of the bill last week. Reps. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined all Democrats today in voting “no.”  
    • Notably, the resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over Medicaid and other health care programs, to cut a minimum of $880 billion in spending. * * *
    • With the House and Senate’s passage of the resolution, Congress can move forward with the reconciliation process. The next step calls for specific committees to begin drafting legislation consistent with their instructions in the budget resolution. This is where the hard work begins, as House and Senate committees must decide on the specific policies to be included within the reconciliation bill.  
    • The budget resolution gives Senate and House committees until May 9 to report legislation, but this is not a binding deadline. 
  • The approved budget resolution (page 47) calls for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to “submit changes in law within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $50,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.”
  • The AHA News further informs us,
    • The Trump administration yesterday [April 9] released executive orders on reducing anti-competitive regulatory barriers and repealing certain regulations deemed unlawful.  
    • The order on reducing anti-competitive barriers directs federal agencies to review all regulations subject to their rulemaking authority and identify those that create de facto or de jure monopolies, create barriers to entry for new market participants, create or facilitate licensure or accreditation requirements that unduly limit competition, or otherwise impose anti-competitive restraints or distortions in the market.   
    • The order on repealing unlawful regulations is linked to a Feb. 25 executive order that directed agencies within 60 days to identify unlawful and potentially unlawful regulations to be repealed. The new order instructs agencies to take steps to immediately repeal regulations and provide justification within 30 days for any identified as unlawful but have not been targeted for repeal, explaining the basis for the decision not to repeal.
  • Govexec adds,
    • “On Feb. 19, Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies, within 60 days and in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget and Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency, to identify for elimination or modification regulations that are unconstitutional or unlawful. 
    • “With roughly a week-and-a-half before that deadline, the president on Wednesday [April 9] declared that such regulations can be repealed without going through the notice and comment period. When an agency promulgates a new rule, or revokes one, it must seek, respond to and potentially incorporate public comment on the proposal. The process usually takes at least a year. 
    • “The Trump administration, however, is arguing that it does not have to take this step because of the “good cause” exception in the Administrative Procedure Act, which is the law that sets rulemaking requirements. The exception provides that agencies do not have to perform notice and comment if doing so would be “impracticable, unnecessary or contrary to the public interest.”
    • “Retaining and enforcing facially unlawful regulations is clearly contrary to the public interest,” the memo said. “Furthermore, notice-and-comment proceedings are ‘unnecessary’ where repeal is required as a matter of law to ensure consistency with a ruling of the United States Supreme Court. Agencies thus have ample cause and the legal authority to immediately repeal unlawful regulations.”
  • Fierce Healthcare notes, “The American people, more than any Federal official, know which regulations stifle entrepreneurship and economic growth,” the White House wrote in its fact sheet. “You are invited to tell us which regulations impede competition and should be changed or repealed.” The FEHBlog is a big fan of deregulation.
  • The AHA News was full of Washington, DC, news today.
    • “The Government Accountability Office yesterday [April 9] released a report calling for the Department of Health and Human Services to improve its efforts responding to drug shortages. The report found that although drug shortages have decreased since 2020, shortages are lasting longer. HHS responded to the GAO report, informing the GAO that its coordinator position overseeing medical product supply chains would be eliminated in May, leaving HHS without leadership to coordinate its drug shortage activities. The GAO recommended HHS implement a method to formally conduct any drug shortage activity and collaborate with other federal agencies.”
  • and
    • “The National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI, and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Center yesterday released guidance on mitigating deceptive online recruitment activities by foreign intelligence entities, particularly groups in China, that target current and former federal government employees. The agencies said the entities are posing as legitimate consulting firms, corporate recruiters, public policy institutions and other organizations on social and professional networking websites. The actors are said to be using deceptive online job offers and other virtual approaches to target individuals with federal backgrounds who may be seeking new employment.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review adds,
    • “More than one-third (41%) of active drug shortages began in 2022 or earlier, according to a new report from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 
    • “The report tracks national drug shortage trends from January 2001 through March 2025. So far this year, the ASHP has reported 26 new drug shortages. Since an all-time high of 323 active drug shortages in early 2024, the number of active shortages is now 270. 
    • “The “[w]orkload required to manage shortages, including work to change pharmacy automation and electronic health records, adds to the challenges of pharmacy staff shortages,” the report said. 
    • “In 2024, 17% of shortages were related to manufacturing issues, 9% to Hurricane Helene, 9% to business decisions, 8% to supply and demand, and 2% to a raw material problem. Manufacturers did not or refused to provide a reason for 55% of shortages.” 
  • In an HHS press release, the new CMS Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, shares his vision for CMS.
    • “I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for their confidence in my ability to lead CMS in achieving their vision to Make America Healthy Again,” said Dr. Oz. “Great societies protect their most vulnerable. As stewards of the health of so many Americans – especially disadvantaged youth, those with disabilities, and our seniors, the CMS team is dedicated to delivering superior health outcomes across each program we administer. America is too great for small dreams, and I’m ready to get work on the President’s agenda.”
  • Per an FDA press release,
    • “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking a groundbreaking step to advance public health by replacing animal testing in the development of monoclonal antibody therapies and other drugs with more effective, human-relevant methods. The new approach is designed to improve drug safety and accelerate the evaluation process, while reducing animal experimentation, lowering research and development (R&D) costs, and ultimately, drug prices.
    • “The FDA’s animal testing requirement will be reduced, refined, or potentially replaced using a range of approaches, including AI-based computational models of toxicity and cell lines and organoid toxicity testing in a laboratory setting (so-called New Approach Methodologies or NAMs data). Implementation of the regimen will begin immediately for investigational new drug (IND) applications, where inclusion of NAMs data is encouraged, and is outlined in a roadmap also being released today. To make determinations of efficacy, the agency will also begin use pre-existing, real-world safety data from other countries, with comparable regulatory standards, where the drug has already been studied in humans.”

In State government news,

  • STAT News reports,
    • An Arkansas bill that would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail and mail-order pharmacies was passed by the state senate and is now headed to Gov. Sarah Sanders, the first time such a bill has gotten this far down the legislative path in the United States.
    • “The bill is designed to eliminate what state — and some federal — lawmakers have called a conflict of interest that has forced residents to pay more for medicines and hastened the demise of independent pharmacies. And it arrives as scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers and their role in the opaque pricing of prescription drugs has increased dramatically. A spokesman for Sanders declined to say whether she would sign the bill and, if so, when.” * * *
    • “As for CVS, the company sent us a statement saying “This bill rips medicine away from sick patients and makes it harder for people to achieve better health. A veto will protect communities, improve care, and help hundreds of thousands of Arkansans get the medicines they need. Governor Sanders should choose people over misguided policy that will lead to serious consequences.”
    • “A spokeswoman for Express Scripts directed us to a web site where the company argues state residents will lose the convenience of home delivery as well as focused care for certain diseases that are treated by medicines distributed through a specialty pharmacy operation called Accredo.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • Tech Target tells us,
    • “Only half of Americans are getting regular cancer screenings and routine medical care, signaling a need for more public awareness of the importance of primary and preventive care, according to the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s 2025 Early Detection Survey.
    • “The survey of 7,000 U.S. adults aged 21 or older showed that only 51% of people are accessing routine medical care and cancer screening, a significant 10 percentage-point downswing from a similar 2024 survey.
    • “There are numerous reasons patients miss their cancer screenings, but most generally center on public awareness and information, the survey continued. For example, 43% of respondents said they weren’t aware that they needed to be screened for a certain type of cancer. Likewise, 40% said they didn’t have any symptoms of disease and another 40% said they had no family history of the illness.”
  • Per Health Day,
    • “Stroke, dementia and depression share 17 common risk factors
    • “Improving any of the risk factors can improve odds against any of the three brain health problems
    • “High blood pressure and kidney disease had the biggest impact on risk.”
  • Per the American Journal of Managed Care,
    • “Newer glucose-lowering medications glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events and heart failure in older adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to one study.1 The findings suggest these treatments outperform dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, regardless of age, and support their use in clinical guidelines for elderly populations.”
  • Per MedCity News,
    • “Solu Therapeutics, a company developing a new type of antibody drug, unveiled $41 million in financing on Wednesday for clinical testing of a therapy with the potential to bring a safer and more effective approach to blood cancers.
    • “Boston-based Solu has already begun dosing patients in a Phase 1 test of lead program STX-0712 in resistant or refractory chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and other hematologic malignancies. The target of the drug is CCR2, a receptor that plays a role in cancer development and progression. The Solu drug is intended to eliminate CCR2-positive cells. It does so in a novel way.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The New York Times reports,
    • “Seniors across the country are wearing very expensive bandages.
    • “Made of dried bits of placenta, the paper-thin patches cover stubborn wounds and can cost thousands of dollars per square inch.
    • “Some research has found that such “skin substitutes” help certain wounds heal. But in the past few years, dozens of unstudied and costly products have flooded the market.
    • “Bandage companies set ever-rising prices for new brands of the products, taking advantage of a loophole in Medicare rules, The New York Times found. Some doctors then buy the coverings at large discounts but charge Medicare the full sticker price, pocketing the difference.
    • ‘Partly because of these financial incentives, many patients receive the bandages who do not need them. The result, experts said, is one of the largest examples of Medicare waste in history.
    • “Private insurers rarely pay for skin substitutes, arguing that they are unproven and unnecessary. But Medicare, the government insurance program for seniors, routinely covers them. Spending on skin substitutes exceeded $10 billion in 2024, more than double the figure in 2023, according to an analysis of Medicare data done for The Times by Early Read, a firm that evaluates costs for large health companies.
    • “Medicare now spends more on the bandages than on ambulance rides, anesthesia or CT scans, the analysis found.”
  • The KFF Peterson Health System Tracker identifies health spending issues to watch this year.
  • Fierce Pharma reports
    • “On the heels of similar investment pledges from Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson, Switzerland’s Novartis is stepping up to the plate with a major plan to grow its U.S. footprint.
    • “Novartis will spend $23 billion to build and expand 10 U.S. facilities over the next five years, the company said in a Thursday press release. Reuters first reported the news following an interview with Novartis’ CEO Vas Narasimhan.
    • “The outlay is the latest in a series of moves seemingly spurred on by the threat of import tariffs on pharmaceuticals under the second Trump administration.
    • “On the production front, Novartis will build four new manufacturing facilities in “soon-to-be-determined states,” plus establish new radioligand therapy plants in Florida and Texas. The company will also expand existing radioligand manufacturing facilities in Indiana, New Jersey and California.”
  • Per MedCity News,
    • “Teladoc Health, a virtual care company, unveiled its new Cardiometabolic Health Program on Tuesday to prevent the advancement of diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
    • “Purchase, New York-based Teladoc Health serves both employers and health plans. In addition to support for weight management and diabetes, it offers mental health care, primary care and specialty services.
    • “The new program provides a premium subscription to BetterSleep, an app that’s focused on improving sleep quality. Patients also gain access to one-on-one support with a registered dietitian, outreach from health coaches, at-home testing for cardiometabolic measures and health insights from connected devices (like blood glucose meters). The program is available to those with a body mass index of 25 or above.”
  • Healthcare Dive relates,
    • “Kandu Health and Neurolutions have merged and raised $30 million to support stroke recovery and rehabilitation, the companies said Tuesday.
    • “The merger brings together Neurolutions’ brain computer interface technology and Kandu Health’s telehealth services to try to improve stroke patients’ outcomes after they leave the hospital. 
    • “Patients will have access to Neurolutions’ IpsiHand, a device that is cleared for use in the U.S. The system translates brain signals to enable stroke patients to open and close their hands.”
  • Per Beckers Hospital Review,
    • “West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health and the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey plan to open the state’s first freestanding cancer facility in May.
    • “Three things to know:
      • “The $750 million, 520,000-square-foot project broke ground in 2021. It is a 12-story facility that will house inpatient and outpatient cancer services, along with research laboratories. 
      • “The freestanding cancer facility is adjacent to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey campus in New Brunswick, N.J.
      • “The cancer pavilion is designed to serve as a leading model for cancer care on the East Coast, uniting research, education and patient care under one roof.”

Midweek Report

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, Obesity, Rx coverage, SCOTUS, U.S. Healthcare–
Thanks to Alexandr Hovhannisyan for sharing their work on Unsplash.

From Washington, DC

  • The Wall Street Journal reports
    • “President Trump told Republicans wavering on the party’s fiscal framework to “close your eyes and get there.” GOP opponents of the plan say they are heading into the budget showdown with eyes wide open, and some appear willing to block the president’s push, setting up a too-close-to-call vote late Wednesday.
    • “Trump and House GOP leaders have routinely melted internal party opposition this year with promises and appeals to Republican unity. This time, they face dug-in critics of the budget passed by the Senate on Saturday.
    • “Republican leaders are optimistic they can get the measure through the House, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) told reporters that he thought it would pass. The House advanced the measure past a procedural hurdle in a 216-215 tally, setting up the final debate and vote. That procedural vote contained an unrelated provision that will make it harder this year for the House to reverse Trump’s tariffs.”
  • Politico adds,
    • “House Republican leaders canceled a vote on the Senate’s budget resolution Wednesday night, as Speaker Mike Johnson came to terms with what had been clear for many hours: Too many Republicans would vote in opposition and the measure was bound to fail.” * * *
    • “Lawmakers are slated to head back to their districts Thursday for a two-week recess, meaning that the president could have to wait to see any forward motion on his “big, beautiful bill” if a compromise can’t be reached soon.
    • “Johnson said Wednesday night that House leadership will now explore either amending the Senate-adopted budget or going straight to conference with the Senate and working out differences there.
    • “We’re going to make that decision,” he told reporters just after the resolution was pulled.”
  • The American Hospital Association News tells us,
    • “President Trump announced on April 9 (https://tinyurl.com/2t463edy) that reciprocal tariffs that went into effect after midnight for certain nations will be paused for 90 days, while tariffs for China would be increased to 125%. A 10% universal tariff on imported goods from all countries that began April 5 remains in effect.”
  • and
    • “The Office of Management and Budget April 9 released a notice seeking public input on rules to potentially be rescinded, requesting detailed reasons for their rescission. Comments must be received by OMB no later than 30 days after publication of the notice in the Federal Register. The notice will be published April 11. Comments can be submitted at www.regulations.gov.”

From the judicial front,

  • Federal News Network lets us know,
    • “For the second time in as many days, a higher court has paused a judicial ruling that ordered the reinstatement of federal employees who were fired en masse, leaving thousands of probationary workers vulnerable once again to potential termination.
    • “In a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily set aside a Maryland judge’s injunction that had ordered agencies to reinstate employees in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The majority found the government was likely to succeed in proving that the Maryland district court had no jurisdiction over the states’ claims that federal agencies had engaged in an illegal Reduction in Force (RIF).
    • “The panel’s ruling comes one day after the Supreme Court issued a separate stay that had a similar effect on a California court’s ruling that had also ordered the reinstatement of some agencies’ fired probationary workers. In that case, the high court, in an unsigned order Tuesday, also put the preliminary injunction on hold while claims of illegal firing work their way through the appeals process.” * * *
    • “And in California, the judge is considering whether to issue another preliminary injunction that could withstand the ruling the Supreme Court issued Tuesday. In that order, the justices found that the outside organizations harmed by the mass firings didn’t have standing to sue, but explicitly left open the possibility that other plaintiffs, including federal unions, could win an injunction of their own.
    • “In a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday, Judge William Alsup heard arguments over whether unions had standing to sue and win another injunction. However, he postponed issuing a ruling until attorneys in the case provide more information, including data about how many employees were affected by the mass terminations, their relationships with the union plaintiffs, and possible evidence that would show that agencies’ firing decisions were made at the behest of the Office of Personnel Management.”
  • Bloomberg Law points out,
    • “US Chief Justice John Roberts let President Donald Trump temporarily oust top officials at two independent agencies while the Supreme Court decides how to handle a new showdown over presidential power.
    • “Roberts’ order Wednesday puts on hold a federal appeals court decision that had let National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris go back to work. Roberts said his order will last until either he or the full court issues a longer-term decision.
    • “The case is testing a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that let Congress shield high-ranking officials from being fired, paving the way for the independent agencies that now proliferate across the US government. The legal wrangling ultimately could affect whether Trump has the power to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues notes, “A New York federal [district] judge dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare and MultiPlan that alleged the companies conspired to reduce reimbursement rates for an anesthesia services provider.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • AP reports,
    • “A day care facility in a Texas county that’s part of the measles outbreak has multiple cases, including children too young to be fully vaccinated, public health officials say.
    • “West Texas is in the middle of a still-growing measles outbreak with 505 cases reported on Tuesday. The state expanded the number of counties in the outbreak area this week to 10. The highly contagious virus began to spread in late January and health officials say it has spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico. 
    • “Three people who were unvaccinated have died from measles-related illnesses this year, including two elementary school-aged children in Texas. The second child died Thursday at a Lubbock hospital, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended the funeral in Seminole, the epicenter of the outbreak. 
    • “As of Friday, there were seven cases at a day care where one young child who was infectious gave it to two other children before it spread to other classrooms, Lubbock Public Health director Katherine Wells said.”
  • Per Newsweek,
    • “Cabot Creamery is recalling 1,700 pounds of butter after testing found elevated levels of coliform bacteria in the product, a marker of potential fecal contamination.
    • “The voluntary recall, initiated by Agri-Mark Inc, Cabot Creamery’s parent company, affects the brand’s 8-ounce Extra Creamy Premium Sea Salted Butter and was distributed in seven states.”
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “During a recent five-year period, a substantial portion of maternal deaths in America — almost one-third — took place more than six weeks after childbirth, at a time when most new mothers think they are in the clear, researchers reported on Wednesday.
    • “The study, published in JAMA Network Open, is one of the first to track maternal health complications during pregnancy and in the year after delivery.
    • “Pregnancy-related death rates in the United States rose almost 28 percent from 2018 to 2022, the researchers found, surging at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 before subsiding somewhat.
    • “Our study illustrates why we can’t take our eyes off maternal health,” said Dr. Rose L. Molina, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and one of the study’s authors.
    • “Women need “access to high-quality care from the moment of conception to a full year after birth,” she added. While there has been a growing emphasis on care in the year after childbirth, “we’re not there yet.”
  • The National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Highlights discusses “Targeting a Gene Fusion | Fat Cells to Starve Tumors | TIL Shrinks Solid Cancers.”
  • Per an NIH news release,
    • “In a massive scientific effort funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), hundreds of researchers have helped to map the connections between hundreds of thousands of neurons in the mouse brain and then overlayed their firing patterns in response to visual stimuli. This breakthrough is a critical piece of foundational science to build toward understanding how our brains process visual information to reconstruct the images we see every day.
    • “Information processing in the human brain occurs via electrical firing of 86 billion neurons that make trillions of connections with each other. The secrets of how our brain enable us to think, feel, and act lie hidden in the complexity of its wiring diagram and the barrage of electrical signals that move across it in millisecond time frames. While the current findings focus on a tiny fraction of the brain, they reveal the complex connections between the cells and show how those connections are wired to produce functional responses. This information, which was previously beyond our reach, could help us understand how the brain functions normally and offer a guide to what goes wrong as the result of various disorders or injuries.”  
  • Per UPI,
    • “Emergency room visits attributed to popular weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy remain quite rare overall, but do show an unexpected link to hypoglycemia, according to a study released Monday.
    • “Semaglutide brand names include Ozempic, Rybelus, and Wegovy, all made by Novo Nordisk, and Mounjaro from Eli Lilly.
    • “The study, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Cambridge Health Alliance, was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. It provides reassuring evidence that serious adverse events associated with the burgeoning use of the drugs are uncommon.
    • “That’s impressive given the overwhelming popularity of semaglutides, which are among a class of “wonder drugs” known as GLP-1 agonists.”
  • STAT New informs us,
    • Since 2021, when the information blocking rules kicked in, health systems and patients have been reckoning with the impact of electronic medical records that allow instant access to test results — good, bad, and in between — sometimes before a doctor has ever seen them. Patients overwhelmingly prefer having their health information as soon as possible, even before it’s interpreted. But there’s a tradeoff between medical transparency and the worry that can be caused when a result is unclear, or even inaccurate.
    • A new study published in JAMA Network Open on Tuesday aims to understand how health systems might find the right balance. “We were curious if refresh, refresh, refresh behavior could be measured,” said senior author Trent Rosenbloom, who directs the patient portal at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Over two years, researchers and physicians at Vanderbilt tracked how 290,000 patients at the medical center viewed their test results online. In 2022 and 2023, more than 100,000 patients — 37% of the total — refreshed the portal as they waited for results to appear. Some patients clicked to check their results as many as 16 times.  * * *
    • “Across health systems, information officers are working on other ways to ensure automatic test results are more of a benefit than a burden. At Stanford Medicine, said chief medical information officer Christopher Sharp, every primary care practice now uses large language models to generate interpretations of test results, which a doctor can sign off on to send to a patient. The system is also being piloted in specialties with more high-sensitivity results, and Stanford hopes to have it implemented across the entire organization by September.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Payer Issue lets us know,
    • “Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina reported a net income of $69 million in 2024, Business North Carolina reported April 7. 
    • “The company recorded $11.9 billion of revenue in 2024, compared to $12.2 billion in 2023.
    • “Claims and medical expenses increased 7.2% to $10.4 billion in 2024, and the company’s reserves are equal to 3.3 months of claims and administrative expenses.”
  • Per Beckers Hospital Review,
    • “Despite economic volatility, Fitch still expects healthcare providers to experience a “modest margin expansion” this year due to easing inflationary pressures and reimbursement increases, according to an April 9 report.
    • “The firm anticipates healthcare providers will see Medicare and commercial rate bumps 3% to 4% this year as rates increase and the volume of high acuity cases grows with the aging population.
    • “The workforce challenges plaguing healthcare providers over the last several years are lessening as well, according to the report.
    • “Chronic personnel shortages will continue to ease, suppressing wage inflation and reducing reliance on costlier external agency labour,” the report notes. “Wages are unlikely to exert pressure on provider margins in 2025, with revenue growth likely to match or exceed wage growth.”
    • “The healthcare providers in a more stable financial situation will be in the best position to grow over the next few years. Struggling hospitals will continue to have challenges, and some may seek merger or acquisition partners to stay operational.”
  • Per Modern Healthcare,
    • “A court ruling striking down a federal nursing home staffing mandate brought a sigh of relief from nursing home operators even as the industry still faces financial uncertainty.
    • “An end to the mandate could bring stability to nursing home budgets and valuations. However, some nursing homes still face challenges, such as tougher state staffing minimums, as well as the threat of potential Medicaid rate cuts.
    • “A federal judge in Texas on Monday tossed the controversial nursing home mandate the Biden administration rolled out last year that required nursing homes to have a registered nurse onsite 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The court also blocked a requirement that nursing homes provide at least 3.48 hours of care per resident, per day.
    • “The Health and Human Services Department said in an email it does not comment on legal matters when asked about a possible appeal. However, many in the industry had been expecting the Trump administration to roll back the regulation.”
  • and
    • “Nonprofit health insurance company CareSource has invested more than $400 million to buy struggling nonprofit insurer Commonwealth Care Alliance. 
    • “The deal adds nearly 50,000 Dual Special Needs Plan members who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare to CareSource’s book of business, the companies said in a news release Wednesday. CareSource also acquired Commonwealth Care Alliance’s two primary care clinics and its home care practice through the transaction. CareSource counts 2 million Medicaid, Medicare and exchange plan enrollees across seven states.
    • “CareSource CEO Erhardt Preitauer will take over as head of Commonwealth Care Alliance, replacing current CEO Chris Palmeri, who will depart the company. Palmeri currently serves on the board of directors of the insurance lobbying group AHIP. At the start of the year, he stepped down from his role as board chair of the Association of Community Affiliated Plans, a nonprofit Medicaid insurer trade group.
    • “The deal had not been previously announced.” 

Tuesday Report

David Ermer–AHRQ, CDC, Congress, FDA, Generative AI, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, SCOTUS, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • NBC News reports,
    • “Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is facing a growing rebellion from conservative hard-liners in the House as Republicans seek to take up a budget blueprint that was recently adopted by the Senate to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.
    • “House GOP leaders are eyeing a vote this week on the measure, which would unlock the path for committees to craft a massive bill to cut taxes, boost immigration enforcement and defense spending and lift the debt limit without Democratic votes.
    • “But a slew of House conservatives have blasted the Senate’s version for requiring just $4 billion in spending cuts. The House’s version, by contrast, called for $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts while largely steering clear of specifics.”
  • CBS News informs us,
    • “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun redeploying staff to respond to the deadly outbreak of measles in Texas, a spokesperson said Monday, a week after steep layoffs at the agency impacted its response to the spread of the virus. 
    • “A team of three deployed yesterday to meet with county and state officials to assess the immediate needs to respond to this outbreak. The team is meeting with officials again today,” CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said in an email. 
    • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first said Sunday that the CDC would be redeploying to Texas at its governor’s request, after another unvaccinated child died in the measles outbreak. An 8-year-old girl was the second fatality there this year.
    • “Once the assessment is complete, more CDC staff will be sent to Texas per Sec. Kennedy’s order and the governor’s request. The first teams deployed to Texas arrived on March and returned to CDC on April 1,” McDonald said.”
  • Per MedPage Today,
    • The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) still recommends primary care behavioral counseling for breastfeeding, mostly in line with its 2016 guidelines.
    • In the updated recommendation statement published in JAMA, USPSTF wrote that “providing interventions or referrals, during pregnancy and after birth, to support breastfeeding” received a B grade, indicating moderate certainty these interventions will have moderate net benefit.

From the judicial front,

  • The Wall Street Journal tells us,
    • “The Supreme Court lifted a lower-court order that directed the Trump administration to reinstate about 16,000 federal employees it fired, handing the White House the third victory in a row as it seeks the justices’ emergency action to stop district judges from slowing its policies. 
    • “The justices on Tuesday said that environmental groups and other nonprofit organizations who say they were harmed by the reduction in public services caused by the layoffs didn’t have legal standing to bring suit. 
    • “The brief order was unsigned, as is typical when the court acts on emergency requests. Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said they voted to deny the Trump administration’s request.” * * *
    • “The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed with the Trump administration that the nonprofits lacked legal standing to bring the case. The court added, though, that the order didn’t address other plaintiffs in the suit, including several labor unions and the state of Washington. Alsup’s injunction wasn’t based on their claims, although those parties may face other questions regarding their standing to bring suit.
    • “Tuesday’s order doesn’t resolve broader legal disputes over the administration’s mass layoffs of federal employees.”
  • Bloomberg Law relates,
    • “A string of lawsuits targeting the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms in claims denials is raising risks for private health insurers and employers, even as the litigation encounters early obstacles.
    • “A California federal judge’s recent decision to partially allow a case to proceed over Cigna Corp.’s alleged use of algorithms to improperly deny benefits signals that automation tools come with legal hazards.” * * *
    • “To the extent that these tools are being used to block or deny coverage across the board for medically necessary services and to a large number of beneficiaries—if that is the case and that’s how these have been used, that could expose insurers to significant risk,” said David Greenberg, partner at ArentFox Schiff LLP.
    • “Courts have allowed several lawsuits to proceed, but plaintiffs still face significant challenges in making their cases. In some instances, the insurance companies denied that the plaintiffs’ medical claims were even handled by an algorithm. Proving otherwise can be difficult.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The American Hospital Association News points out,
    • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention April 8 sent an alert to health care providers on measles prevention and treatment. The agency said that risk remains low for most individuals across the U.S. and that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is the best way to protect against the disease. 
  • and
    • “The incidence of invasive group A strep infections increased from 3.6 to 8.2 cases per 100,000 people from 2013 to 2022, according to a study authored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published April 7 by JAMA. The authors concluded that accelerated efforts to prevent and control these infections are needed, especially among groups at highest risk of infection, which includes individuals 65 years or older, American Indian or Alaska Native persons, residents of long-term care facilities, people experiencing homelessness, and people who inject drugs.” 
  • Per Medscape,
    • “Around 38 million people in the United States — or slightly over 11% of the population — have diabetes, according to the National Diabetes Statistics Report. Experts only expect that number to increase, and research suggests that the burden will be especially significant in low to low-middle socioeconomic areas.
    • “Consider the Mississippi Delta, a swath of fertile land in the floodplain of the Mississippi River. It has a rich and diverse cultural heritage, with a minority-majority population, along with significant economic challenges and a persistently high poverty rate. The region also has one of the highest diabetes rates in the country, which has put the healthcare community on alert.
    • “We are more intensely screening almost everybody,” said Brent Smith, MD, a family physician in Greenville, Mississippi, and a member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians.”
  • AP reports,
    • “Health care systems can reduce suicides through patient screening, safety planning and mental health counseling, a new study suggests, an important finding as the U.S. confronts it 11th leading cause of death.
    • “The “Zero Suicide Model” was developed in 2001 at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, where the focus on people considering suicide included collaborating with patients to reduce their access to lethal means such as firearms and then following up with treatment.
    • “The approach made a difference, and for all of 2009, the health system saw no suicides among patients. The researchers then studied what happened when a different health system, Kaiser Permanente, adopted the program in four locations from 2012 through 2019.
    • “Suicides and suicide attempts fell in three of the locations, while the fourth maintained a low rate of suicides and attempts. Suicide attempts were tracked in electronic health records and insurance claims data. Suicides were measured using government death records.”‘
  • The Washington Post notes,
    • “Those who exercised the most had a 26 percent lower cancer risk than those who exercised the least in an analysis of biomedical data, according to research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
    • “The article drew upon data from UK Biobank, a longitudinal study that enrolled 500,000 adults in Britain between 2006 and 2010. After enrolling, more than 106,000 adults were invited to participate in the sub-study on physical activity. The final sample, stratified into five groups, or quintiles, of physical activity levels, included about 85,000 participants with a median age of 63 years.” * * *
    • “The research identified an inverse relationship between overall daily physical activity and cancer risk, indicating that even modest increases in activity levels were sufficient to significantly reduce the risk of the 13 cancers. Individuals in the second-highest quintile of physical activity had a 16 percent lower risk compared with those in the lowest quintile. Higher levels of activity had a more protective effect.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “Johnson & Johnson said Monday it has enrolled the first patient in a pivotal study of a device for clearing “difficult-to-cross” coronary arteries.
    • “Like other products made by J&J’s Shockwave Medical, the Javelin intravascular lithotripsy catheter uses sound pressure waves to break up calcium deposits that are blocking blood flow. 
    • “The device is differentiated from other Shockwave products, and rival catheters from Abbott and Boston Scientific, because it emits waves from its tip. Other devices send waves from a balloon catheter that must cross the blocked part of the artery to be effective.” * * *

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Per Beckers Hospital Review,
    • “Hospital average operating margins dropped from 3.4% in January to 2.5% in February, but are still above 2024 averages, according to Kaufman Hall’s “National Hospital Flash Report.”
    • “Kaufman Hall, a Vizient company, gathered financial performance data from 1,300 hospitals. The average operating margin dropped 11% month over month but grew 5% year over year. The average operating EBITDA margin decreased 7% month over month but grew 1% year over year.
    • “Net operating revenue per calendar day increased 8% year over year, driven by an 11% jump in inpatient revenue. Outpatient revenue grew just 8% compared to February 2024.
    • “Expenses were also on the rise, with total expenses also up 8% year over year driven by a 10% growth in supply expenses per calendar day. Drug expenses and non-labor expenses both jumped 9% while labor expenses grew 6% year over year. Purchased services expenses also increased 13% from February 2024.
    • “Patient volume held steady, as discharges per calendar day were up 6% year over year in February. Observation days dropped 9% and the average length of stay was flat compared to the same period last year. Emergency department visits increased 4%.”
  • Modern Healthcare adds,
    • “Health systems announced five hospital merger and acquisition proposals in the first three months of the year, the lowest quarterly amount in more than a decade.
    • “Providers were reluctant to wade into hospital transactions amid the uncertainty surrounding tariffs, federal funding concerns, state and federal regulatory changes and economic volatility, according to a new report from consultancy Kaufman Hall. Four of the five proposed hospital deals involved financially distressed facilities, the report found.”
  • Specifically, Fierce Healthcare reports,
    • “Northwell Health and Nuvance Health’s 28-hospital merger has cleared its final regulatory hurdle and is expected to close within the next 30 days.
    • “Tuesday, Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy announced it had reached an agreement with the two health systems after just over two months of negotiations over their Certificate of Need application. The pair’s merger, announced 14 months ago, had received a similar all-clear from New York’s Public Health and Health Planning Council last September as well as sign-offs from each state’s attorneys general during the summer.
    • “Alongside price constraints tied in part to state and regional cost growth benchmark, Northwell—the acquirer—will invest at least $1 billion into Nuvance’s Connecticut and New York hospitals and refrain from any real estate sale leasebacks over a five-year period.”
  • Fierce Healthcare also lets us know,
    • “Rural hospital leaders are questioning whether they can continue to afford to do business with Medicare Advantage (MA) companies, and some say the only way to maintain services and protect patients is to end their contracts with the private insurers.
    • “MA plans pay hospitals lower rates than traditional Medicare, said Jason Merkley, CEO of the Brookings Health System in South Dakota. Merkley worried the losses would spark staff layoffs and cuts to patient services. So, last year, Brookings Health dropped all four contracts it had with major MA companies.
    • “I’ve had lots of discussions with CEOs and executive teams across the country in regard to that,” said Merkley, whose health system operates a hospital and clinics in the small city of Brookings and surrounding rural areas.
    • “Merkley and other rural hospital operators in recent years have enumerated a long list of concerns about the publicly funded, privately run health plans. In addition to the reimbursement issue, their complaints include payment delays and a resistance to authorizing patient care.
    • “But rural hospitals abandoning their MA contracts can leave local patients without nearby in-network providers or force them to scramble to switch coverage.”
  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • “CVS Health named a new CFO Tuesday as the healthcare giant continues to shake up its leadership team. 
    • “Brian Newman, most recently CFO of shipping and logistics firm UPS, will start at CVS on April 21. Tom Cowhey, who took on the permanent CFO position at CVS early last year, will become a strategic advisor to CEO David Joyner, effective May 12. 
    • “In addition to the leadership change, CVS said it expects financial results for 2025 to meet or exceed its previously issued guidance. In February, the company reported expected adjusted earnings for the year between $5.75 and $6 a share.” 
  • Per Beckers Hospital Review,
    • “Walgreens Boots Alliance reported a $5.6 billion operating loss in its fiscal second quarter, an improvement from the $13.2 billion loss in the same period last year as the troubled retailer continues to prepare for a private equity buyout. 
    • “Operating losses included a $3 billion impairment charge tied to its Village MD business, according to an April 8 company news release. 
    • “Despite ongoing challenges, Walgreens reported better than expected results in sales, with sales rising 4% to $38.59 billion. In addition, pharmacy sales rose 12% while retail sales fell by 3%. 
    • “The company announced last month that it would be acquired by Sycamore Partners in a deal valued at $10 billion. Walgreens also recently suspended its quarterly dividend part of a broader cost cutting effort.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “While much of the recent GLP-1 saga has been written in the U.S., Novo Nordisk continues to expand its semaglutide empire across the globe and make inroads into large markets like Brazil.
    • “Now, in a bid to boost its production capacity in Latin America’s most populous country, Novo is plugging 6.4 billion Brazilian reais (roughly $1.09 billion) into an expansion of its manufacturing plant in the Brazilian city of Montes Claros.
    • “The investment, which marks one of the largest ever for pharmaceuticals in Brazil, will “significantly” bolster the facility’s capacity to crank out a variety of injectables, including GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo said in a Portuguese-language press release.”

From the artificial intelligence front,

  • Cardiovascular Business reports,
    • “Powerful Medical, a New York-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, has received the FDA’s breakthrough device designation for its AI model designed to detect signs of an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in electrocardiography results.
    • “The company’s PMcardio STEMI AI ECG model, nicknamed “Queen of Hearts,” identifies STEMI and STEMI-equivalent patterns in a patient’s ECG. It was trained by Stephen W. Smith, MD, an emergency physician at Hennepin County Medical Center and founder of Dr. Smith’s ECG Blog.
    • “For the last 20 years, life-saving treatment exists for heart attack patients, yet far too many still don’t receive the urgent care they need due to delays in diagnosis and inefficient triage,” said Robert Herman, MD, PhD, chief medical officer of Powerful Medical, said in a statement. “By equipping physicians and allied providers with an AI-powered tool for accurate and immediate STEMI detection, available around the clock, we can bridge this gap, ensure timely treatment, and improve patient outcomes, often preventing avoidable deaths.”
  • and
    • “Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted mammography may be able to predict a woman’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to new data being presented at ACC.25, the American College of Cardiology’s annual conference.
    • “Breast artery calcifications are already visible when radiologists review mammograms, but nothing typically happens with those findings. Researchers aimed to see if AI could do some of the heavy lifting and help translate those findings into an easy-to-understand cardiovascular risk score.
    • “The group trained an advanced AI model to segment calcified vessels in mammography images and produce a risk score that calculates the patient’s risk of developing heart disease. To help make the new-look algorithm as accurate as possible, they developed it using mammography images and electronic health record data from more than 56,000 patients. The patients were all treated from 2013 to 2020 within the Emory Healthcare health system, and at least five years of follow-up data were available for each of them.
    • “Advances in deep learning and AI have made it much more feasible to extract and use more information from images to inform opportunistic screening,” lead author Theo Dapamede, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, said in a statement.”
  • Per Beckers Clinical Leadership,
    • “An AI tool that analyzes nurses’ notes for subtle clinical changes helped reduce patient risk of death by 35.6%, length of stay by 11.2% and sepsis risk by 7.5%, according to research published April 2 in Nature. 
    • “In a yearlong, multisite study, researchers assessed the tool across 74 clinical units in two health systems. Among 60,893 hospital encounters, about half involved the early warning system and the other half did not. 
    • “The system, dubbed COmmnuticating Narrative Concerns Entered by RNs (CONCERN), is a machine learning algorithm that uses real-time nursing surveillance notes and data patterns to detect all-cause deterioration risks. 
    • ‘Other EWSs often “rely on late and noisy physiologic indicators of deterioration” such as lab results and vital signs, according to the researchers. In contrast, this tool leverages nurses’ “subtle, yet observable, clinical changes that may not be captured in physiological data or well displayed in EHRs,” including small changes in mental status from baseline or slower recovery of arterial blood pressure after turning a patient.” 

Monday Report

David Ermer–CMS, Congress, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Mental health care, NIH, Rx coverage, SCOTUS, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “House Republicans’ moves to advance President Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” this week have been cast into doubt by defections from GOP lawmakers worried that spending cuts are being pushed aside in a rush to enact tax reductions.
    • “Republican leaders want to vote on a fiscal framework that would unlock a fast track to legislation carrying many Trump priorities, including tax cuts and new spending on border security and the military. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) are hoping to show progress on extending expiring tax cuts to counteract the market chaos sparked in recent sessions by Trump’s tariff rollout.” 
  • and
    • The Trump administration will substantially increase payment rates for Medicare insurers next year, generating more than $25 billion in additional revenue for the industry and doubling the boost proposed in January.
    • The rate increase of 5.06%, compared with 2.23% in the earlier proposal from the Biden administration, overshoots even optimistic expectations from many Wall Street analysts, and will likely lead to a rally in the shares of big Medicare insurers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and CVS Health, parent of Aetna.
    • The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the increase for 2026 payment rates on Monday. Investors are expected to view the bump as a sign of the Trump administration’s support for Medicare Advantage, the program under which private insurers administer the benefits of the federal program for older and disabled Americans. 
      The Medicare agency said the increase in the planned payment rate reflected rising medical costs, and that more recent data had led to the steeper final rise compared with the January proposal. 
  • Here are links to the CMS Medicare Advantage and Medicare D 2026 rate announcement, the related CMS fact sheet, and a CMS fact sheet about final 2026 Part D program redesign instructions:
    • “In CY 2026, the structure of the Part D benefit will be updated to reflect provisions of the IRA that become effective on January 1, 2026. The CY 2026 updates include the following:
    • “The CY 2026 annual out-of-pocket (OOP) threshold of $2,100, which is the original 2025 out-of-pocket cap of $2,000, adjusted based on the annual percentage increase in average expenditures for covered Part D drugs in the U.S. for Part D eligible individuals in the previous year (API).
    • “Changes to the liability of enrollees, sponsors, manufacturers, and CMS in the new standard Part D benefit design, specifically to account for the start of negotiated prices taking effect with respect to selected drugs for initial price applicability year 2026 under the Negotiation Program; and
    • “The establishment of the selected drug subsidy program.” * * *
    • “With the enhancements to the Part D benefit under the IRA, the current simplified determination methodology no longer reflects actuarial equivalence with defined standard Part D coverage. Accordingly, CMS has developed a revised simplified determination methodology that better reflects actuarial equivalence with the richer Part D defined standard benefit under the IRA. For CY 2026 only, non-RDS group health plans are permitted to use either the existing simplified determination methodology or the revised simplified determination methodology to determine whether their prescription drug coverage is creditable. Under the revised simplified determination methodology, the group health plan coverage must be designed to pay at least 72% of participants’ prescription drug expenses, versus 60% under the existing methodology.” 
  • In another surprising Medicare development, STAT News informs us,
    • “Medicare’s financial future unexpectedly got a lot rosier, at least according to some federal budget wonks. 
    • “The Congressional Budget Office recently published its long-term predictions of the federal budget and buried a big surprise for people who follow the Medicare program. The government’s primary piggy bank that pays for Medicare [Part A hospital and other facility] benefits won’t be depleted until 2052 — 17 years later than what CBO analysts predicted last year. 
    • “Quite a few responded they don’t believe it,” he said. “But they [CBO] do have their justification there. And of course this is a long-term projection, and a lot can change.”
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kicked off a tour through southwestern states on Monday by calling on states to ban fluoride in drinking water supplies, a move that would reverse what some medical experts consider one of the most important public health practices in the country’s history.
    • “The announcement came at a news conference in Utah, the first state to enact such a ban into law. The state’s new law is set to take effect in early May, despite concerns from public health experts who consider fluoridation of water core to preventing tooth decay.
    • “It makes no sense to have it in our water supply,” Mr. Kennedy said, echoing a position he took during the 2024 presidential campaign. “I’m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will come.”
    • “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which Mr. Kennedy oversees as health secretary, has listed fluoridation as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. After the news conference, Stefanie Spear, Mr. Kennedy’s principal deputy chief of staff, said Mr. Kennedy would direct the C.D.C.’s community preventative services task force to study fluoride and make a new recommendation.”
  • Per FedSmith,
    • “Retirement planning is a complex process for federal employees, requiring careful attention to eligibility rules and regulations. Among the many requirements that determine post-retirement benefits, the 5-year rule plays a crucial role in three key programs: Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB), Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI), and Roth Thrift Savings Plan (Roth TSP). Understanding these rules can ensure a smooth transition into retirement while maintaining access to critical benefits.”
    • The article provides an understanding of these important rules.

From the judicial front,

  • Govexec relates,
    • “There’s a quorum again on the board that hears appeals of firings and suspensions of federal employees after a majority of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated an earlier decision that temporarily enabled President Donald Trump to remove a Democratic appointee to the Merit Systems Protection Board. 
    • “Trump in February attempted to fire Cathy Harris, a Biden appointee, from the MSPB. A district judge blocked the removal, but that order was paused on March 28 in a 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit while it heard the Trump administration’s appeal. 
    • “On Monday, however, a majority of D.C. circuit court judges overruled that decision through en banc reconsideration, which is a rare process that can be utilized if a litigant feels a circuit panel didn’t adhere to Supreme Court precedent. Such reconsideration involves all circuit judges who are in regular active service rather than the usual three-judge panel. 
    • “The circuit court judges were split 7-4 in granting the motion for en banc reconsideration. 
    • “At issue in this case is Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 Supreme Court decision that found the president doesn’t have unfettered authority to remove officials on multimember, quasi-judicial bodies.” * * *
    • “Monday’s decision, as well as the overturned March 28 order, also apply to Gwynne Wilcox, a Biden appointee to the National Labor Relations Board who Trump similarly fired but who was later reinstated by a district court. 
    • “In a brief, lawyers for the Trump administration said they would seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court if Wilcox and Harris were allowed to return to their positions.”  
  • Bloomberg Law reports,
    • “A federal judge in Texas on Monday vacated a Biden administration rule that would have required about 75% of US nursing homes to add direct-care workers or face administrative penalties and fines.
    • “In his order granting a motion for summary judgment for the plaintiffs, the American Health Care Association, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, said the nation’s nursing homes suffer from “failures,” including “inadequate staffing levels, poor infection control, failures in oversight and regulation, and deficiencies that result in actual patient harm.” All of which “deserve an effectual response,” he wrote.
    • “But any regulatory response must be consistent with Congress’s legislation governing nursing homes. The Final Rule’s challenged provisions are not,” Kacsmaryk declared of the varied requirements of the mandate, which included that facilities have a registered nurse on site around the clock. “Though the Final Rule attempts to remedy chronic nursing home deficiencies, it does so deficiently.” 
    • “Although “rooted in laudable goals, the Final Rule still must be consistent with Congress’s statutes,” Kacsmaryk added. “To allow otherwise permits agencies to amend statutes though they lack legislative power. Separation of powers demands more than praiseworthy intent.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The American Hospital Association News clarifies,
    • “A second Texas child died from measles April 3 amid an ongoing outbreak in the state, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced April 6. The child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions, the agency said. The latest death follows a child that died Feb. 26. An unvaccinated adult in New Mexico that died in March also tested positive for measles after their death, but measles was not confirmed as the official cause of death.”
  • The American Medical Association News lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about improving their mental health.
  • Per MedPage Today,
    • “Biomarker and cognitive data supported treatment with the anti-amyloid agent lecanemab (Leqembi) for up to 36 months in early Alzheimer’s disease, initial findings from the CLARITY AD open-label extension study suggested.
    • “Continuous treatment led to greater changes in plasma amyloid-beta 42/40 levels, reported Christopher van Dyck, MD, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in a poster presented at the American Academy of Neurologyopens (AAN) annual meeting.” * * *
    • “Serious adverse events occurred in 20.5% of the total sample of 1,616 people in the core CLARITY AD trial and the open-label extension study who received lecanemab. Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities with edema (ARIA-E) occurred in 14.7%, ARIA with hemosiderin deposits (ARIA-H) occurred in 23.8%, and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) occurred in 0.7%. Three deaths concurrent with ARIA or ICH occurred.
    • “These findings provide the first evidence for a continued benefit of lecanemab and disease modification over the long term, out to 36 months,” van Dyck told MedPage Today.
    • “They also suggest that individuals with lower pathology — no or low tau, or low amyloid — experience a particularly robust stabilization of symptoms,” he continued. “These results collectively underscore the importance of early initiation and continued long-term treatment.”
  • and
    • “In a study of people without a history of cancer, comorbidities in midlife were associated with an overall risk of cancer.
    • “There was a stronger association between comorbidities and risk of multiple individual cancer types.
    • “The findings support the incorporation of formal comorbidity screening and/or risk assessment as a routine aspect of cancer screening visits.”
  • AHA News tells us,
    • “The National Institutes of Health April 7 released a study that found twins — smaller at birth on average than singletons — develop slower in early pregnancy than what was previously known. The ultrasound study found that twins have less fat tissue and muscle mass than singletons beginning at 15 weeks. Scientists believe the smaller size could be a way of adapting to accommodate more resources for two fetuses later in pregnancy. The NIH said confirmation of the findings in additional research could help guide physicians in monitoring and managing twin pregnancies.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Rhythm Pharmaceuticals on Monday said its drug for rare obesity conditions met the main goal of a Phase 3 clinical trial, helping people with weight gain triggered by brain injury lose about one-sixth of their body weight over one year of treatment.
    • The company plans to ask U.S. and European regulators to expand approval of the drug, called setmelanotide. The once-daily shot is marketed as Imcivree after being authorized in the U.S. in 2020 to treat people with genetically driven forms of obesity.
    • Imcivree earned $130 million in 2024 sales across its currently approved uses. Stifel analyst Paul Matteis wrote in a note to clients that the new indication is “a blockbuster opportunity with the potential for a fast ramp” in sales, adding that the weight loss data look “very strong.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare points out,
    • “Emergency department use has nearly recovered to prepandemic levels, but rising acuity, insufficient capacity and a laundry list of financial roadblocks are straining their viability and threatening patients’ access to care, according to a new report from RAND’s healthcare research arm.
    • “The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization’s nearly 200-page report (PDF)—sponsored by the Emergency Medicine Policy Institute (EMPI)—paints a distressing picture of the current state of EDs, which are among the few settings where patients receive 24/7 unscheduled acute care regardless of payment thanks to the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
    • “EDs, the report notes, have lately faced more complex and sicker patients. Steady increases in demand and limited capacity have led to an increase in ED crowding (referred to as boarding), longer waits and potentially violence toward healthcare workers, which compromise care quality and emergency care worker attrition due to burnout. At the same time, EDs are providing more uncompensated care and expanding the scope of their work into specialties like geriatric care and care coordination.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Labcorp is now offering a blood-based biomarker test in the U.S. to support the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
    • “The immunoassay measures the ratio of ptau-217 and beta amyloid 42, two distinct biomarkers of Alzheimer’s, according to the Wednesday announcement. The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease has called ptau-217 one the most promising blood-based biomarkers for amyloid status.
    • “Manufacturers of Alzheimer’s drugs have identified blood tests as a way to reduce the reliance on imaging and cerebrospinal fluid assays and to accelerate diagnosis and treatment.”
  • and
    • “GSK is betting potentially billions of dollars that a smaller drug company’s technology can help create new treatments for brain-corroding diseases.
    • “Through a licensing deal announced Sunday, GSK has gained access to drug delivery technology from South Korea’s ABL Bio. This “Grabody-B” platform is designed to shuttle medicines across arguably the trickiest obstacle in neuroscience — the blood-brain barrier or “BBB” — by using a protein that normally shepherds an important growth hormone across the divide.
    • “The platform had already caught the attention of another pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi, which in 2022 entered a collaboration with ABL to develop new therapies for diseases like Parkinson’s.”
  • KFF Health News tells us,
    • “Underscoring the massive scale of America’s medical debt problem, a New York-based nonprofit has struck a deal to pay off old medical bills for an estimated 20 million people.
    • “Undue Medical Debt, which buys patient debt, is retiring $30 billion worth of unpaid bills in a single transaction with Pendrick Capital Partners, a Virginia-based debt trading company. The average patient debt being retired is $1,100, according to the nonprofit, with some reaching the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    • “The deal will prevent the debt being sold and protect millions of people from being targeted by collectors. But even proponents of retiring patient debt acknowledge that these deals cannot solve a crisis that now touches around 100 million people in the U.S.
    • “We don’t think that the way we finance health care is sustainable,” Undue Medical Debt chief executive Allison Sesso said in an interview with KFF Health News. “Medical debt has unreasonable expectations,” she said. “The people who owe the debts can’t pay.”
    • “In the past year alone, Americans borrowed an estimated $74 billion to pay for health care, a nationwide West Health-Gallup survey found. And even those who benefit from Undue’s debt relief may have other medical debt that won’t be relieved.
    • “This large purchase also highlights the challenges that debt collectors, hospitals, and other health care providers face as patients rack up big bills that aren’t covered by their health insurance.”

From the artificial intelligence front,

  • Modern Healthcare interviewed Pat Geraghty, Guidewell’s CEO, who discusses the use of AI in prior authorization approvals
    • “How do you educate consumers about the value of prior authorization? 
    • “There’s been a lot of noise around this topic recently. 
    • “We don’t want to come out and say, “let me just explain prior auth to you.” What we’re trying to do is say, “We know we can be better. We can use technology to help us be better. We can make the process quicker and smoother, and we’re going to do that and we’re committing to that.”
    • “We also want to be clear about the rest of the issues around prior auth. There is some clarification and explaining that is appropriate, but it’s not the lead thing. The lead thing is making sure we’re taking the hassle out of the process.
    • “How are you using technology to improve the process? 
    • “We use AI to say yes, not deny, and that allows us to get a very quick answer to the provider. We had 2.4 million authorizations last year that were done in just seconds. About 80% of our prior authorizations are on an automated basis.
    • “But the more complex the issue is, the more it really does involve the oversight of a clinician who understands the area that is being reviewed. You wouldn’t want to give up those kinds of dialogues. Oftentimes the discussions may end up with a modified treatment plan that’s best for all involved. It also is one of the ways we have a check on fraud, waste and abuse.
    • “The thing we find that drives the highest volume for denials is when a service is not covered by the health plan.”
  • The Washington Post reports, “AI is coming to skin cancer detection. Technology is already assisting with diagnoses, but experts predict better tools for non-experts will become available in the not-too-distant future.”

Weekend Update

David Ermer–Congress, FDA, Federal employment benefits, Generative AI, Medicare, Mental health care, Obesity, U.S. Healthcare–
Texas bluebonnets

From Washington, DC,

  • Roll Call reports,
    • “The Senate adopted a fiscal 2025 budget blueprint early Saturday mostly along party lines after a debate that began the night before, teeing up the House for a climactic final vote next week.
    • “Republicans beat back numerous amendments en route to adopting the measure on a 51-48 vote. 
    • “Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted “no” as he’s long promised due to the resolution’s allowance for raising the statutory debt limit by up to $5 trillion.
    • “Maine’s Susan Collins was the other GOP “no” vote, having earlier expressed concerns about potential Medicaid cuts later in the reconciliation process but not saying how she’ll vote. Collins is up for reelection in 2026 in a Democratic-leaning state.
    • “No Democrats voted for it.:
  • and
    • ​”Speaker Mike Johnson and his GOP leadership team on Saturday sought to tamp down a brewing revolt on the budget resolution that emerged even before the Senate adopted the plan in the wee hours and gained steam later in the morning.
    • “Johnson and the rest of the top four House Republican leaders sent a letter to the rank and file ahead of next week’s House vote on the Senate-revised budget blueprint assuring them that they will not accept watered-down spending cuts in the eventual filibuster-proof reconciliation bill the process is intended to unlock.
    • “We have and will continue to make it clear in all discussions with the Senate and the White House that —in order to secure House passage — the final reconciliation bill must include historic spending reductions while protecting essential programs,” the letter says.
    • “The leadership comments come after key figures in the conference, including House Budget Chairman Jodey C. Arrington, R-Texas; Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the Freedom Caucus policy chair, all expressed opposition to the Senate budget plan.” * * *
    • “The House GOP leadership letter Saturday * * * [laid] out a process they say will lead to a pre-negotiated settlement between the two chambers. 
    • “The reconciliation bill “must be drafted using a collaborative process that results in a single product that both chambers can pass, and President [Donald] Trump can sign into law,” the leadership wrote. “We have made it clear the House will NOT accept nor participate in an ‘us versus them’ process resulting in a take it or leave it proposition from the Senate.”
    • “The letter goes on to say that immediately after adopting the budget, House and Senate committees “will begin preparing together their respective titles of the reconciliation bill to be marked up in the next work period.”
    • ‘The process House GOP leaders laid out appears to follow what Democrats and then-President Joe Biden employed during the 117th Congress when they enacted two reconciliation bills. Both of those packages went through committee markups in the House, but not in the Senate; but senators were able to make their voices heard through amendment “vote-a-ramas” in that chamber.”
  • On April 9, 2025, at 10 am, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a “business meeting to consider the nominations of Scott Kupor, of California, to be Director of the Office of Personnel Management for a term of four years, and Eric Matthew Ueland, of Virginia, to be Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget.”
  • Federal News Network offers an interview with Kevin Moss about “the benefits and caveats to having both Medicare and FEHB. While enrolling in Medicare with FEHB coverage may seem like duplicating benefits, it can provide cost savings.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • A second child who was diagnosed with measles has died in Texas, marking another death in a growing measles outbreak that has so far sickened hundreds of people, hospitalized dozens and spread to nearby states. 
    • The school-age child was being treated for measles-related complications at UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said the health system’s spokesman, Aaron Davis. The child, who died Thursday, wasn’t vaccinated, didn’t have any known underlying health conditions and died of “measles pulmonary failure,” according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
    • “This unfortunate event underscores the importance of vaccination,” Davis said. * * *
    • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. traveled to Gaines County, Texas, the center of the measles outbreak, to console the two families who have lost children, he said in a post on X.” 
  • STAT News adds,
    • “Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” his most direct statement yet on the issue, following the death of a second child of the condition in the outbreak in West Texas.” 
  • The Washington Post informs us,
    • Brandy Ellis [, a 49-year-old insurance compliance consultant] calls herself a cyborg.
    • Two small electrodes — thin metal wires — implanted deep inside her brain lead under her skin to a battery pack in her chest. Pulsing about 130 times a second, the deep brain stimulation (DBS) device, a kind of pacemaker, energizes an area that scientists say is key in regulating moods. * * *
    • “DBS is one of several emerging, high-tech therapeutic approaches — a.k.a. electroceuticals — that proponents say are extending psychiatry’s ability to help millions of patients. Increasingly over the past 20 years, testimonials to the potential of treatments that modulate brain functioning, such as DBS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation and, most recently, focused ultrasound, have been fueling new hope, despite considerable expense and hardship for patients, and mixed evidence of their effectiveness.
    • “Emory University neurologist and psychiatrist Patricio Riva Posse, one of Ellis’s therapists, describes the new trends — combined with ever more sophisticated brain-scanning technologies and new optimism about psychedelic drugs such as ketamine and psilocybin — as explosive progress.”
  • Per Medscape,
    • This patient case [discussed in the article] is a prime example of how, in some instances, losing weight with glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists can impact muscle mass. To combat this health risk, more clinicians are now emphasizing on fat loss vs weight loss in patients taking GLP-1s. Weight loss refers to the overall decrease in weight from the body, which can include fat, muscle, and water, whereas fat loss refers only to the reduction of fat from the body.

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • BioPharma Dive provides us with an “M&A recap: Big pharma starts the year mostly avoiding billion-dollar deals. Big-ticket biotech buyouts have become scarce in recent months. U.S. policy upheaval threatens to keep it that way.”
  • Here is a link to Optum Rx’s Winter 2025 report on notable new drugs.
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “Eargo and Hearx have merged to create the over-the-counter hearing aid company LXE Hearing, the companies said Monday.
    • “Hearx, the maker of Lexie hearing aids, and Eargo competed for the OTC hearing aid market that the Food and Drug Administration created through the publication of a final rule in 2022. 
    • “Patient Square Capital, which took Eargo private in 2024, has invested $100 million in the combined company. LXE said the investment reflects confidence in the direct-to-patient hearing market.”
  • HR Dive relates,
    • “The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reached a settlement in two pregnancy discrimination cases and filed a new lawsuit on a third, the agency announced Thursday in a series of media releases.
    • “In the first settlement, an assisted living facility paid $20,000 to resolve allegations that it refused to schedule and then fired a temporary worker upon learning she was pregnant. In the second, a plant nursery paid $40,000 to resolve allegations it did not allow a worker to return after maternity leave. EEOC’s newly filed lawsuit alleged an employer refused to allow a worker with a high-risk pregnancy to work remotely to limit her exposure to COVID-19.  
    • “The actions highlight the agency’s continued interest in enforcing the relatively new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. However, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas has expressed her opposition to aspects of the agency’s final rule, which was passed in April 2024.”

From the artificial intelligence front,

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • “In 2017, Ezekiel Emanuel, a well-known oncologist and health policy commentator, said radiologists would soon be out of work thanks to machine learning.
    • “That hasn’t happened, but although artificial intelligence isn’t replacing radiologists, it has significantly changed their field.
    • “More than three-quarters of the AI software cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for medical use is designed to support radiology practice, says Curtis Langlotz, a radiology professor at Stanford University and president of the Radiological Society of North America’s board of directors.
    • “Radiology is leading the way in the development and implementation of AI in clinical practice,” he adds. But AI isn’t reducing the need for human input.
    • “AI is not a better kind of intelligence, it’s just a different kind of intelligence,” Langlotz says. “A human plus a machine is better than either one alone. I would say that has been true since I began studying AI in the 1980s, and it continues to be true today.”

Friday Report

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

From Washington, DC,

  • The American Hospital Association News reports,
    • “The Senate over the weekend is expected to cast a final vote on its revised budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. Senate Republicans April 3 voted to proceed on the resolution which kicked off debate. Today the Senate was slated to debate and process a number of amendments before holding a final vote on the resolution. The budget resolution is expected to pass and move to the House for consideration next week.” 
  • Per a CMS fact sheet,
    • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule on April 4, 2025, that modernizes and improves Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D), Medicare cost plan, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) programs. The Contract Year (CY) 2026 MA and Part D final rule implements changes related to prescription drug coverage, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs), Star Ratings, and other programmatic areas, including the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. This final rule also codifies existing sub-regulatory guidance in the MA and Part D programs. 
    • CMS is not finalizing certain provisions from the proposed rule at this time. CMS may address these proposals in future rulemaking, as appropriate. CMS is also announcing that it is not finalizing three provisions from the proposed rule (Enhancing Health Equity Analyses: Annual Health Equity Analysis of Utilization Management Policies, Procedures and Ensuring Equitable Access to Medicare Advantage Services—Guardrails for Artificial Intelligence, and Part D Coverage of Anti-Obesity Medications (AOMs) and Application to the Medicaid Program). 
    • This fact sheet discusses the major provisions of the CY 2026 MA and the Part D final rule. The final rule can be downloaded here: https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2025-06008/medicare-and-medicaid-programs-contract-year-2026-policy-and-technical-changes-to-the-medicare. 
  • The Wall Street Journal emphasizes,
    • “The Trump administration said Friday that Medicare and Medicaid won’t expand coverage of popular anti-obesity drugs, rejecting a proposal issued late last year by the Biden administration.
    • “The decision deals a blow, at least for now, to Americans who are covered by the government health-insurance programs and wanted their help paying for the popular but pricey drugs. 
    • “Yet the administration left open the possibility of revisiting the decision later.
    • “Expanding coverage of the obesity medications “is not appropriate at this time,” a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman said.
    • “She said CMS may reconsider the policy after more review of the drugs’ “potential benefits” and “relevant costs,” including costs to state Medicaid agencies.”
  • For perspective, STAT News pointed out last September
    • A new report from congressional budget experts this week estimated that it would cost Medicare an additional $35 billion over nine years if the program began covering GLP-1 drugs for obesity. But the report also noted that half of seniors who would qualify for obesity coverage already have access to the drugs for other conditions.
  • Per a House Budget Committee news release,
    • “House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) today appointed Budget Committee Member Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) to chair the Committee’s Health Care Task Force. 
    • “The Task Force will build on its work from the 118th Congress by examining opportunities to modernize and personalize the health care system and support policies to fuel innovation and increase patient access to quality and affordable care. One of the initial areas of focus for the Budget Health Care Task Force will be examining the budgetary effects of chronic disease and opportunities to Make America Healthy Again.” 
  • Per an HHS news release,
    • “HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will embark [next Monday through Wednesday] on a multi-state tour to celebrate MAHA initiatives in the Southwest. He will meet with elected officials, tribal leaders, nutrition experts, and charter school visionaries as he works to fulfill President Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
    • “Seasonal influenza activity continues to decline. COVID-19 and RSV activity are declining nationally to low levels.
    • COVID-19
      • “COVID-19 activity is declining nationally to low levels. Wastewater levels and 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
    • 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 AHA News tells us,
    • “There are 607 confirmed cases of measles across the U.S., according to the latest data released April 4 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority of cases are in Texas, as an outbreak in the state has grown to 481 cases, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.  
    • “Cases have been reported by 21 states, with 93% being outbreak-associated, according to the CDC. The vaccination status of 97% of cases is classified as “unvaccinated or unknown.” 
  • Per Health Day,
    • “Strokes caused by an artery tear are landing five times as many Americans in the hospital these days, a new study says.
    • “Cervical artery dissection involves a small tear in the inner lining of an artery in the neck that supplies blood to the brain.
    • “Blood can clot at the site of the tear. If the clot breaks loose, it can travel to the brain and cause a stroke.
    • “Hospitalizations for this sort of stroke have increased nearly fivefold during the past 15 years, according to findings published April 2 in the journal Neurology.
    • “Cervical artery dissection is an important cause of stroke, especially in people under 50, so it is crucial to detect it right away,” senior researcher Dr. Shadi Yaghi, a vascular neurologist at Brown University in Providence, R.I., said in a news release.
    • “Strokes that are not fatal can lead to long-term disability, poor mental health and reduced quality of life,” he said. “Our research found a dramatic increase in the number of hospitalizations for cervical artery dissection, with rates rising steadily year over year.” 
    • “These sort of tears in the cervical artery are most often caused by a motor vehicle crash or other accident that causes neck strain, researchers said. However, activities as simple as heavy lifting has been known to cause a cervical artery tear in some people.”
  • The New York Times shares “10 Small Things Neurologists Wish You’d Do for Your Brain. Easy everyday habits can help keep you sharp. And it’s never too late to start them.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “Boston Scientific’s pulsed field ablation catheter, Farapulse, was noninferior to Medtronic’s Arctic Front cryoballoon in a randomized trial, researchers found in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
    • “The study, which was published Monday and funded by a Swiss hospital, randomized 210 patients with symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation to undergo PFA or cryoablation. Atrial tachyarrhythmia, a heart rhythm disorder where the atria beat too fast, recurred in 39 patients in the PFA cohort and 53 people in the cryoablation group.
    • “Medtronic reported declines in its cryoablation business last year but said the losses were offset by growth of its PulseSelect single-shot catheter, which competes with Farapulse for the growing PFA market.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare informs us,
    • “Rural areas are quickly losing independent physicians and medical practices amid the corporatization of healthcare, a new report finds.
    • “The report was commissioned by the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI), a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on fair and transparent payment policies. The research, conducted by Avalere Health, used the IQVIA OneKey database, which contains physician and practice location information on health system ownership.
    • “The number of independent doctors in rural areas fell 43% from January 2019 to January 2024, with rural areas losing 5% of all practicing physicians. Meanwhile, people in rural areas had access to 11% fewer medical practices as of January 2024.
    • “Nearly 9,500 doctors left independent practice in rural areas, predominantly in the Midwest and Northeast. States like Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio lost more than 50% of independent docs.
    • “This decline in rural healthcare providers has been primarily driven by a drop in independent docs and practices as well as the acquisition of these practices by hospitals and corporate entities, the report said.” 
  • Beckers Hospital Review lets us know,
    • “South Bend, Ind.-based Beacon Health System has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ascension Michigan’s southwest region, which includes four hospitals, 35 outpatient clinics and an ambulatory surgery center.
    • “The hospitals include:
      • “Ascension Borgess Hospital (Kalamazoo)
      • “Ascension Borgess Allegan Hospital
      • “Ascension Borgess-Lee Hospital (Dowagiac)
      • “Ascension Borgess-Pipp Hospital (Plainwell)
    • “Expanding our reach deeper into southwest Michigan broadens access to high-quality, affordable care for communities served by Ascension, extends our service area and provides growth opportunity to further strengthen the health system,” Beacon Health CEO Kreg Gruber said in an April 3 news release. “This acquisition will create a bright future for these communities by ensuring access to quality healthcare services for generations.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “With a label expansion for Uplizna pushing the drug into an untouched rare disease market, Amgen is getting its money’s worth out of another drug from its $27.8 billion Horizon Therapeutics buy. 
    • “Uplizna is the first drug to win an FDA approval for immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD), a chronic inflammatory condition that can present in multiple organs and cause fibrosis and permanent organ damage, with or without symptoms.
    • “The CD19-targeted therapy made strides in treating the disease in its phase 3 MITIGATE trial. In the study, Uplizna demonstrated an 87% reduction in the risk of IgG4-RD flares over placebo during the 52-week placebo-controlled period, with 10.3% of those on Uplizna experiencing a flare-up compared to 59.7% of those taking placebo.
    • “With the approval, patients and physicians now have a “proven treatment that targets a key driver of the disease, reducing the risk of flares and reliance on harmful long-term steroid use,” Amgen’s executive vice president of R&D Jay Bradner, M.D., said in a company release. “This approval underscores Amgen’s ongoing commitment and leadership in developing innovative treatments targeting CD19+ B-cells across multiple therapeutic areas.”
    • “Now, the road ahead for Amgen’s success in IgG4-RD lays in raising awareness of the rare disease, which was only recently established with an International Classification of Diseases code in 2023. About 20,000 people are estimated to have the disease in the U.S., but the exact number is hard to pinpoint due to limited data, according to Amgen.”
  • and
    • “As the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine field grapples with a significantly reduced market size thanks to regulatory uncertainties, GSK and Pfizer have decided to lay to rest their patent feud.
    • “GSK and Pfizer have moved to scrap a patent lawsuit around their respective RSV vaccines, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court in Delaware.
    • “The settlement comes after a U.K. high court in November sided with Pfizer, ruling that two GSK RSV vaccine patents were invalid.”

From the artificial intelligence front,

  • Beckers Payer Issues discusses how health plans can use “AI to Drive Patient Outcomes & Health Plan ROI.”
  • Modern Healthcare adds,
    • “Artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge innovations could radically reshape how care is delivered, but tapping technology’s full potential and getting a return on investments is far off, according to industry executives.
    • “We need enduring, ambitious vision,” said Dr. Vivek Garg, chief medical officer at Humana’s CenterWell healthcare services division, during Modern Healthcare’s 2030 Playbook conference in Nashville Wednesday. “You’re going to need the leadership and the board to make trade-offs and to make investments. …They’ve got to do it because they know what they stand for, and they want to see what they can become and how much further they can go in their vision.” * * *
    • “More collaboration between payers and providers is imperative, said Mike Bennett, chief strategy and transformation officer at Highmark Health.
    • “If we both don’t start working together and using the tools we both have, we’re going to end up leaving [our populations] behind,” Bennett said. “AI doesn’t care whether you’re a payer or provider.”

Thursday Report

David Ermer–CMS, Congress, Medical / Rx research, OPM, Telehealth–
Photo by Josh Mills on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • The FEHBlog watched today’s confirmation hearing for the President’s nominee for OPM Director, Scott Kupor. Clearly, Mr. Kupor is on a glide path to Senate confirmation. The next step toward that goal will occur at a business meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday April 9 at 10 am.
  • The American Hospital Association News tells us,
    • “The Senate April 3 by a vote of 53-45 confirmed Mehmet Oz as the new administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.” 
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would reinstate some programs and federal workers cut earlier this week as part of his sweeping reorganization of the department.
    • “Some programs that were cut, they’re being reinstated,” Kennedy said Thursday. “Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. We’re reinstating them.”
  • Per Senate news releases,
  • and
    • “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) led a markup on six bipartisan Grassley-backed bills to boost competition in the pharmaceutical industry and improve access to more affordable prescription drugs. All six bills advanced in committee by voice vote.” Five of the six bills target pharma, while the sixth bill requests an FTC study of consolidation in the PBM industry.
  • Healthcare Dive reports,
    • “AdvaMed, one of the medical device industry’s largest trade groups, reiterated its opposition to broad-based tariffs Wednesday, saying the actions would hurt innovation, cost jobs and increase healthcare costs, after the Trump administration announced new duties on most U.S. trading partners.
    • “The medtech industry should be exempted from these tariffs,” CEO Scott Whitaker said in a statement.” * * *
    • “Meanwhile, providers have been bracing for the impact of tariffs after the American Hospital Association, alongside the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, also failed to secure carve-outs for critical medical supplies, despite months of lobbying.”
  • Stars and Stripes informs us,
    • “The Department of Defense has scheduled “listening sessions” at three U.S. military bases in Japan next week to collect feedback on a pilot program designed to connect DOD civilians with Japanese health care providers.  Anyone who has used the program — the Health Insurance Enhancement for DOD Civilian Employees in Japan — is encouraged to participate at sessions at Misawa Air Base, Camp Foster and Yokosuka Naval Base, according to a March 28 email distributed by the Defense Health Agency’s National Capital Region.”
  • The Government Accountability Office released a report about DOD’s Actions to Address Challenges with Accessing Health Care in Japan and Guam.
    • The Department of Defense relies on its civilian employees and contractors in Japan and Guam to provide services such as engineering, food service, and teaching. They may receive health care at military facilities but only on a space-available basis—after active-duty service members and their families.
    • Accessing health care through local providers can be difficult. For example, in Japan, they face language barriers and must pay for care up front. DOD started a program intended to help them find providers and pay bills. In Guam, DOD has a working group to address issues that may arise from planned growth of the civilian population on Guam.

From the judicial front,

  • Modern Healthcare reports,
    • “Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson said he will get involved in the agency’s [internal] legal action against the leading pharmacy benefit managers.
    • “In a post shared Thursday on the social media platform X, Ferguson said he no longer is recusing himself from the matter.” * * *
    • “Ferguson, a critic of PBMs, recused himself due to his prior role in advising Virginia’s attorney general on the decision to file an amicus brief in a class-action lawsuit against PBMs, he wrote Thursday in a statement shared on the social media platform. He said his stance had changed to “ensure that the case can continue.”
    • “He said he consulted with the agency’s ethics attorneys when making the decision to involve himself.
    • “The FTC did not immediately respond to questions about next steps. In the Tuesday order pausing the case, FTC General Counsel Lucas Croslow said the pause would remain in effect for at least 105 days, and an evidentiary hearing date would be scheduled 225 days after the stay is lifted.”
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “The Department of Justice is urging the courts to reject a legal expert’s report that puts its longstanding challenge to UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage billing practices in jeopardy.
    • “In a memorandum issued this week, DOJ argues that the court-appointed special master’s report, which was released in March, erred in determining that the agency had not presented enough evidence to support the main claims in the case. 
    • “In addition, DOJ alleges that the special master is also pushing to make California’s Central District Court “the first and only court in the nation to read a new requirement into the reverse False Claims Act.” In the report, it interprets a key phrase in the FCA as requiring “proof of an affirmative act of deception,” which DOJ says is “inconsistent with the text, structure and purpose of the FCA.” * * *
    • “In a statement, UnitedHealth emphasized that its “business practices have always been transparent, lawful and approved by our regulator, CMS.”
    • “After more than a decade of DOJ’s wasteful and expensive challenge to our Medicare Advantage business, the Special Master concluded there was no evidence to support the DOJ’s claims we were overpaid or that we did anything wrong,” the company said.
    • “A judge will now be tasked with ruling on whether the case will move forward.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • Cardiovascular Business offers key takeaways from the 2025 conference of the American Association of Cardiologists.
  • Per an NIH news release,
    • “An artificial intelligence (AI)-driven screening tool, developed by a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research team, successfully identified hospitalized adults at risk for opioid use disorder and recommended referral to inpatient addiction specialists. The AI-based method was just as effective as a health provider-only approach in initiating addiction specialist consultations and recommending monitoring of opioid withdrawal. Compared to patients who received provider-initiated consultations, patients with AI screening had 47% lower odds of being readmitted to the hospital within 30 days after their initial discharge. This reduction in readmissions translated to a total of nearly $109,000 in estimated healthcare savings during the study period.
    • “The study, published in Nature Medicine, reports the results of a completed clinical trial, demonstrating AI’s potential to affect patient outcomes in real-world healthcare settings. The study suggests investment in AI may be a promising strategy specifically for healthcare systems seeking to increase access to addiction treatment while improving efficiencies and saving costs.
    • “Addiction care remains heavily underprioritized and can be easily overlooked, especially in overwhelmed hospital settings where it can be challenging to incorporate resource-intensive procedures such as screening,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “AI has the potential to strengthen implementation of addiction treatment while optimizing hospital workflow and reducing healthcare costs.”
  • Per Cardiovascular Business,
    • “New research shows early-pregnancy blood pressure trajectories are strongly associated with new-onset hypertension years after pregnancy. This may help better stratify risk for targeted surveillance and early interventions, and improve the prediction of cardiovascular disease risk in women later in life. The study was published in the American Heart Association Journal Hypertension this week.[1]
    • “Blood pressure patterns observed in the first half of pregnancy, even among women without hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), can identify women at greater risk of developing hypertension up to 14 years after giving birth. The new findings are from a large observational study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Among groups of women who did not develop HDP, those with higher-risk blood pressure patterns, including elevated-stable patterns during early pregnancy, were still 11 times more likely to develop hypertension years later than those women with less risky blood pressure patterns.”  
  • Per HCP Live,
    • “Bariatric surgery improves survival and is cost-effective for patients with obesity and cirrhosis, compared to lifestyle modifications alone.
    • “Sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass show increased expected survival and quality of life benefits, despite higher initial costs.
    • “The study emphasizes the need for greater awareness and uptake of bariatric surgery, given its long-term health improvements and potential reductions in obesity-related comorbidities.”
  • Fierce Pharma tells us,
    • “The interim results of a phase 3 trial of Merck’s pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) treatment Winrevair were so conclusive that the company not only halted the study for efficacy but did the same two months later in another trial of the first-in-class activin signaling inhibitor.
    • “Merck has revealed data from the study, providing further evidence of the value of Winrevair, which has been approved in more than 40 countries, including in the U.S. a year ago. 
    • “The Zenith trial included 172 patients at the highest risk of mortality—those in the World Health Organization Functional Class (FC) III or IV—and achieved its primary endpoint of time to clinical worsening to first morbidity or mortality event.”
  • Medscape reports,
    • “A low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level below 70 mg/dL was associated with a 26% reduced risk of all-cause dementia and a 28% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia (ADRD), with statin use further decreasing that risk, a new study suggests.
    • “While earlier research had suggested lower LDL levels may offer a protective advantage against dementia, these findings provide a specific target number, which investigators said could prove helpful in clinical practice. 
    • “These findings emphasize the importance of targeted LDL-C management as part of dementia prevention strategies, with potential integration into clinical guidelines,” lead investigator Yerim Kim, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues wrote.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare takes a five year look back at the COVID 19 pandemic and how it impacted healthcare.
  • Beckers Payer Issues offer thoughts about “From volume to value: The shift in healthcare that’s helping put patients first.”
  • Plan Adviser lets us know,
    • “Research and investment provider Devenir LLC reported that health savings account balances rose 19% in 2024 from 2023 levels, reaching almost $147 billion. The number of accounts grew 5% last year, according to the firm’s year-end survey.
    • “The sustained growth in both assets and participation demonstrates a growing awareness among consumers and employers of HSAs’ long-term value in managing healthcare costs,” said Jon Robb, a Devenir senior vice president of research and technology, in a statement.”
  • Per Beckers Hospital Review
    • “California has the highest hourly mean wage for registered nurses in the U.S., and Oregon has the highest hourly mean wage for RNs after adjusted for cost of living, according to data published April 2 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    • “[In the article you will find] the mean hourly and annual wages for nurses in 49 states and Washington, D.C., adjusted for cost of living. Becker’s calculated these figures using May 2024 salary data from BLS and 2024 cost of living index data from the World Population Review.” 
  • and
    • “Heritage Valley Kennedy Hospital in Kennedy Township, Pa., will close on June 30 due to declining patient volume and reduced insurance reimbursements, according to an April 2 news release shared with Becker’s.
    • “Following the closure, emergency care, outpatient surgery, and diagnostic services will shift to Heritage Valley’s Sewickley and Beaver locations, according to the report. Some services, including a walk-in clinic, X-rays and physical rehabilitation, will remain available at the adjacent medical office building.
    • “Heritage Valley said it is in talks with Encompass Rehabilitation about its leased 12-bed unit at Kennedy Hospital and is exploring partnerships to sustain behavioral health services in the area.”