From Washington, DC,

• Govexec reports,
  • “The U.S. Postal Service confirmed on Friday it will name David Steiner, a long-time CEO of Waste Management and FedEx board member, to become the nation’s 76th postmaster general, handing the reins to the executive while the mailing agency continues to reel financially and is in the midst of major political and operational disruption. 
  • “Steiner will succeed former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who resigned amid pressure in March, and Doug Tulino, who is currently the acting USPS chief. The Postal Service’s board of governors hired an outside firm to conduct a search to replace DeJoy and made the selection as required by law, though The Washington Post, which first reported Steiner’s selection, said President Trump and his administration pushed for the hire. 
  • “Still, the postal board threw its full weight behind Steiner. 
  • “Dave is the right person to lead the Postal Service at this time to ensure this magnificent and historic organization thrives into the future,” said Amber McReynolds, the board’s chair and a President Biden appointee. “Dave is a highly regarded leader and executive with tremendous vision, experience and skill that can be applied to the long-term mission and business needs of the Postal Service. 
  • “Steiner, who is expected to take over his new role in July, called it an “incredible honor” to be named as postmaster general. While Trump has floated the possibility of removing the Postal Service’s independent status, Steiner committed to it. He also vowed to work closely with postal unions, industry associations, customers and policymakers.”
     
• The FEHBlog took a peek at reginfo.gov this morning, and he noticed the following:
  • “Department of Labor
    “AGENCY: DOL-EBSA RIN: 1210-AC30 Status: Pending Review
    “TITLE:Transparency in Coverage
    “STAGE: Prerule Economically Significant: No
    “RECEIVED DATE: 05/02/2025 LEGAL DEADLINE: None”
  • The FEHBlog expects that this prerule ties in with paragraph 12 of the President’s April 15, 2025, executive order on drug costs:
    • “Sec. 12. Improving Transparency into Pharmacy Benefit Manager Fee Disclosure. Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Labor shall propose regulations pursuant to section 408(b)(2)(B) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to improve employer health plan fiduciary transparency into the direct and indirect compensation received by pharmacy benefit managers.”
  • Evidently, you can request an EO 12886 meeting at this pre-rule stage. https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoDetails?rrid=937013

• On Monday, May 12, the Trump Administration must answer ERIC’s challenge to the legality of the 2024 mental health parity rule changes.  The FEHBlog reviewed the PACER docket sheet this morning, and the government has not asked for more time to answer beyond May 12. The Administration could resolve the case by withdrawing the rule making.

• Per Radiology Business,
  • “Sen. Roger Marshall, MD, R-Kan., introduced legislation on Wednesday to boost Medicare payments for radiologists and other physicians. 
  • “The lawmaker is proposing the ‘‘Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025.’’ This comes after Rep. Greg Murphy, MD, R-N.C., in January introduced the same bill in the U.S. House, which has now gathered 167 co-sponsors. 
  • “Marshall—who practiced as an OB-GYN specialist for 25 years before joining Congress—had not issued a statement about the proposal as of late Thursday. His office did not immediately respond to a Radiology Business request for comment.
  • “Anders Gilberg, senior VP of government affairs for the Medical Group Management Association, touted the bill on social media May 7. He said the initial proposal is to increase Medicare physician reimbursement by 8.51% starting on June 1.”

In Food and Drug Administration news,

• MedCity News reports,
  • “On Friday, a San Francisco-based startup received FDA approval for the first-ever at-home cervical cancer test.
  • “The company, named Teal Health, was founded in 2020 and has raised $23 million. The startup has developed an at-home cervical cancer screening kit, which seeks to give patients an alternative to the in-office pap smear. 
  • “Many women don’t get a pap smear, which is the standard screening method for cervical cancer — CDC guidelines say that women should be tested regularly from ages 21-65, yet only 1 in 4 women of screening age get screened. Not only do many women struggle to find access to this exam, but many patients find the pap test to be uncomfortable and invasive.”
  • The article explains the at-home testing process.
  • “The startup is preparing to launch in California first, and it is already in network with Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, [CEO and founder Kara] Egan stated.
  • “We’re also in conversations with several large national payers to get this covered nationally. For us, the goal is to make sure it’s affordable for women,” she declared.
  • “She said Teal plans to start shipping tests to patients’ homes sometime next month.”

• Per a National Institutes of Health news release,
  • “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a new, joint innovative research initiative that will serve as a key element in fulfilling U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s commitment to Make America Healthy Again. With diet-related chronic diseases continually rising, it is imperative that the FDA and NIH work in lockstep to invest in gold standard science, prioritize a better understanding of the root causes to end the diet-related chronic disease crisis and safeguard the health of America’s children.
  • “Under the new Nutrition Regulatory Science Program, the FDA and NIH will implement and accelerate a comprehensive nutrition research agenda that will provide critical information to inform effective food and nutrition policy actions to help make Americans’ food and diets healthier. The initiative will aim to answer questions such as:
    • “How and why can ultra-processed foods harm people’s health?
    • “How might certain food additives affect metabolic health and possibly contribute to chronic disease?
    • “What is the role of maternal and infant dietary exposures on health outcomes across the lifespan, including autoimmune diseases?
  • “Answering these questions and many others will enable effective policy development and help promote the radical transparency Americans deserve about the foods they are eating and how those foods can impact their health.”

• To that end, an HHS news release announced that the FDA “granted three new color additive petitions that will expand the palette of available colors from natural sources for manufacturers to safely use in food.”
  
• STAT News tells us,
  • “The FDA has granted accelerated approval to Verastem’s combination treatment for ovarian cancer. It licensed and has paired two drugs — avutometinib, an MEK inhibitor first developed by Roche subsidiary Chugai Pharmaceutical, with defactinib, an adhesion kinase blocker developed by Pfizer. The approval is for adults with a recurrent KRAS-mutated form of the disease who have already received systemic therapy.
  • “The approval of the treatment, called Avmapki Fakzynja, is based on a study of 57 pre-treated patients who showed a 44% overall response rate, with responses lasting up to 31 months. The company is also testing this combination in Phase 1/2 trial in patients with front-line metastatic pancreatic cancer.”

From the public health and medical research front,

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
  • “Seasonal influenza, COVID-19, and RSV activity is low and declining.
  • “COVID-19
    • “COVID-19 activity has declined to low levels nationally. Wastewater levels are at low levels, emergency department visits are at very low levels, and laboratory percent positivity is stable.
    • “Additional information about current COVID-19 activity can be found at: CDC COVID Data Tracker: Home
  • “Influenza
    • “Seasonal influenza activity is low and declining.
    • “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
  • “RSV
    • “RSV activity has declined to low levels in most areas of the country.
  • “Vaccination
    • “New research finding: In the first RSV season with widespread availability of RSV prevention products (maternal vaccine and nirsevimab), RSV-associated hospitalization rates among infants were lower than in prepandemic seasons. A report released in the May 8, 2025, MMWR demonstrated that in 2024–25, RSV hospitalization rates were 45-52% lower in infants younger than 3 months old and 28-43% lower in infants younger than 8 months old compared to 2018-2020 seasons before product introduction.”

• The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP adds,
  • “A 2024-25 flu season that has been classified as high severity has now reached low transmission levels, but 10 new flu-related deaths in children bring the season’s total to 226, the most since 2009-10, when 288 pediatric deaths were recorded, according to the latest FluView update today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
• and
  • “In a weekly update today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 66 more measles cases, pushing the national total to 1,001 and in just over 4 months keeps the nation on track to pass the 2019 total, which marked the nation’s worst year since the disease was declared to be eliminated in 2000.
  • “The steady rise in cases is fueled by multiple outbreaks, with two more reported this week. The CDC is tracking 14 outbreaks that are responsible for 93% of cases.
  • “The Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) today reported 7 more cases since its last update on May 6, lifting the state’s total to 709 confirmed patients, of whom 679 (96%) were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. The number of affected counties remained at 29, and most cases are in Gaines County, the outbreak’s epicenter.
  • “Five more hospitalizations were reported, putting that total at 92. The number of deaths remained at two.”

• BioPharma Dive informs us,
  • “Pittsburgh-based pharmaceutical firm Viatris on Thursday said a pain drug it’s been developing succeeded in two large clinical trials, setting the stage for an approval filing later this year.
  • “The drug is a reformulated version of an old medication, meloxicam, designed to more quickly treat the sharp, “acute” pain felt after an injury or operation.”

From the U.S. business healthcare front,

• Fierce Healthcare reports,
  • “The American Medical Association (AMA) has announced John Whyte, M.D., as its new CEO and executive vice president, effective July 1.
  • “Whyte, a practitioner and author with experience at government agencies and private sector medical media outlets, will be taking over for James Madara, M.D. The outbound executive had shared plans to end his 14-year run last June.
  • “Unlike the physician association’s president and president-elect titles, which are voted on by membership for single-year terms, the CEO position is appointed by the AMA’s board of trustees for an open-ended tenure. They are tasked with overseeing the organization’s day-to-day operations.”
• and
  • “Artificial intelligence assistants could ease the transition to value-based care for primary care practices, a new report by Phyx Primary Care found. 
  • “VBC can be administratively burdensome due to its enhanced reporting requirements. Primary care practices report that the transition to VBC is often long and results in a mix of VBC and fee-for-service billing practices. 
  • “In a study of 120 physicians who had used an AI scribe for 30 days or more, providers reported a 40% reduction in clinical review time for complex patients and a 32% decrease in physician burnout. The study was conducted by Phyx Primary Care, a nonprofit innovation lab that evaluates emerging technologies and evolving payment models.” 

• Healthcare Dive relates,
  • “HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare, Universal Health Services and Community Health Systems all posted financial results that beat Wall Street expectations for the first quarter of 2025. 
  • “Still, the health systems are maintaining their full-year outlooks as they exit the first quarter, despite most systems growing their revenue.” 

• Per a press release,
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (“Blue Cross”) today announced a new virtual-first primary care option designed to support members’ health when and where they need it. CloseKnit, which provides virtual and in-person access to primary care, is now available to most Blue Cross members. This comes at a critical time as Massachusetts continues to face a primary care physician shortage.
  • As part of their agreement, CloseKnit is participating in Blue Cross’ value-based payment program and provides members with convenient and timely access to primary care.
  • Here is a link to CloseKnit’s website.