Thursday Report

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,
- “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined a bipartisan group of 60 senators in reintroducing the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act. The legislation will expand coverage of telehealth services through Medicare, make telehealth flexibilities permanent and make it easier for patients to connect with their doctors. Current flexibilities are set to expire on September 30 unless Congress extends them.”
- 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.”