From Washington, DC,

• Federal News Network reports,
  • “Congressional appropriators are seeking less aggressive budget cuts for the IRS than what the Trump administration has proposed.
  • ‘Members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, in the latest package of spending bills for fiscal 2026, are also renewing efforts to shrink federal office space.
  • “Funding for the State Department remains relatively unchanged, despite a massive reorganization carried out last year.
  • “Meanwhile, lawmakers want agencies to use artificial intelligence tools to speed up the delivery of public-facing benefits and services.

• Govexec adds,
  • “Lawmakers in Congress appear to have abandoned a plan to bar insurers participating in the federal government’s employer-sponsored health care program from covering gender affirming care for federal workers and their family members, though the development changes little, practically speaking.
  • ‘When the House first unveiled its draft of the fiscal 2026 Financial Services and General Government appropriations package last September, it included language barring federal funds being used to cover the cost of “surgical procedures or puberty blockers or hormone therapy” as part of gender affirming care under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
  • “But a new version of the bill unveiled Sunday, negotiated with Senate appropriators and containing three of the 12 traditional appropriations packages, strikes that language, issuing no prohibition on gender-affirming care for FEHBP participants.
  • “Despite the recent reversal, the measure, if passed, on its own would not restore access to gender affirming care for federal workers and their families. That’s because the Office of Personnel Management last year instructed insurance carriers who participate in FEHBP to cease covering those treatments.”

• Here is a link to the House Appropriations Committee’s January 11 news releases on these new appropriations bills.

• The American Hospital Association News tells us,
  • “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a request for information seeking input on replacing its Medicare claims processing system with a real-time, cloud-based platform. Under the program, called ClaimsCore, CMS is seeking vendors already capable of supporting more than 2 million active members on a single production instance and processing more than 100,000 claims per day. CMS said the program would provide faster, more transparent claims, strengthen fraud protection and provide near real-time explanations of benefits, among other improvements.” 

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

• Per FDA news releases,
  • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the Zycubo (copper histidinate) injection as the first treatment for Menkes disease in pediatric patients.” * * *  
  • “Menkes disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a genetic defect that impairs a child’s ability to absorb copper. The disease is characterized by seizures, failure to gain weight and grow, developmental delays, and intellectual disability. It leads to abnormalities of the vascular system, bladder, bowel, bones, muscles, and nervous system. Children with classical Menkes (90% of those with the disease) begin to develop symptoms in infancy and typically do not live past three years. It affects approximately one in every 100,000-250,000 live births worldwide and is more common in boys.”
• and
  • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today published draft guidance designed to facilitate the use of Bayesian methodologies in clinical trials of drugs and biologics, helping drug developers make better use of available data, conduct more efficient clinical trials, and deliver safe and effective treatments to patients sooner. 
  • “Bayesian methodologies help address two of the biggest problems of drug development: high costs and long timelines,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. “Providing clarity around modern statistical methods will help sponsors bring more cures and meaningful treatments to patients faster and more affordably.”
  • “Bayesian approaches use a different framework from traditional statistical approaches. In a Bayesian analysis, data from a study are combined with relevant prior information to form a new distribution that can be used for inference and to draw conclusions about safety and efficacy.” 

From the judicial front,

• Bloomberg Law lets us know,
  • “The US Supreme Court rejected a case seeking to force health insurers to pay arbitration awards that medical providers win in disputes over surprise medical bills, ending a long-running fight for a pair of air ambulance companies.” * * *
  • “Courts have so far mostly ruled for insurers in determining that oversight of the process resides with the Department of Health and Human Services, though providers have notched a couple of victories in district court.
  • The petition sought the high court’s input on whether the law grants parties the private right to sue, as well as whether breaching the relevant plan terms constitutes an injury to an enrollee under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.” * * *
  • “The case is Guardian Flight LLC v. Health Care Serv. Corp. , U.S., No. 25-441, decision issued 1/12/26.”

• STAT News reports,
  • “The Trump administration has signaled plans to drop its appeal of a court order that blocked a pilot program from changing payment terms for a controversial federal drug discount program.
  • “In a Monday court document, the Department of Justice indicated talks are underway with the American Hospital Association and several hospital systems, which filed a lawsuit challenging a plan that allowed drug companies to pay rebates — instead of discounts — for some medicines purchased under the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
  • “The parties are engaged in discussions about returning the [rebate] approvals challenged in this litigation to the agency for reconsideration. The agency intends to resolve such proceedings promptly. Therefore, the parties do not believe that expediting this appeal is warranted at this time and plan to dismiss the appeal in short order,” the DOJ wrote.”
    
• MedTech Dive informs us,
  • “Edwards Lifesciences said Friday it has dropped plans to acquire JenaValve Technology after a U.S. district court granted the Federal Trade Commission’s motion for an injunction blocking the transaction.
  • “Edwards said it disagrees with the ruling, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and believes the acquisition would have been in the best interest of a large underserved group of patients.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “If everyone you know seems to have the flu, there is a reason for that: Influenza climbed to unusually high levels across the country, thanks to a flu strain that caught us off guard.
  • “There have already been an estimated 15 million cases of the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths.
  • It is the worst flu season in recent years though numbers are starting to decline yet remain high. But there are two things making things easier for some folks.
  • One, we all became familiar with at-home rapid tests for Covid-19 during the pandemic so more people are comfortable taking such tests at home for influenza. This results in more timely diagnoses.
  • That makes it easier to take antivirals, which make people feel better sooner, provided they are started within two days of getting sick. While most people are familiar with Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate), there is another antiviral, Xofluza (baloxavir marboxil) making the rounds on social media.

• The AP related last Friday,
  • “South Carolina’s measles outbreak exploded into one of the worst in the U.S., with state health officials confirming 99 new cases in the past three days. 
  • “The outbreak centered in Spartanburg County grew to 310 cases over the holidays, and spawned cases in North Carolina and Ohio among families who traveled to the outbreak area in the northwestern part of the state.
  • “State health officials acknowledged the spike in cases had been expected following holiday travel and family gatherings during the school break. A growing number of public exposures and low vaccination rates in the area are driving the surge, they said. As of Friday, 200 people were in quarantine and nine in isolation, state health department data shows.
  • “The number of those in quarantine does not reflect the number actually exposed,” said Dr. Linda Bell, who leads the state health department’s outbreak response. “An increasing number of public exposure sites are being identified with likely hundreds more people exposed who are not aware they should be in quarantine if they are not immune to measles.”

• The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about donating blood.
  • “When caring for patients, physicians and other health professionals rely on blood donation to support care ranging from trauma response to cancer treatment. But ongoing blood shortages mean many hospitals and health systems struggle to keep an adequate supply on hand. With the need for donating blood rising during seasonal shortages or public health crises, a single donation of blood can help up to three people. Donating blood when you can is vital because maintaining an adequate blood supply is a shared responsibility that strengthens patient care across the country.”
    
• The Washington Post informs us,
  • “An estimated quarter of traditional Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are prescribed risky, brain-altering drugs despite years of clinical guidelines cautioning against the practice, a new study shows.
  • “The drugs fall into five broad categories — including antidepressants, antipsychotics, antidepressants and barbiturates — that may leave older adults in a drowsy, confused fog that can make them less steady on their feet and more prone to falls. And while the study published Monday in JAMA found that overall prescriptions for these types of drugs for traditional Medicare beneficiaries fell from 2013 to 2021, their “potentially inappropriate” use was significantly higher for people who are cognitively impaired or have dementia compared to people whose cognition was normal.

• Per Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News,
  • “Many of us will recognize being in a situation where it’s really hard to get started on a task—whether it’s making a difficult phone call or preparing a presentation that’s stressful just to think about. We understand what needs to be done, yet taking that very first step feels surprisingly hard.
  • “When this difficulty becomes severe, it is known medically as avolition. People with avolition are not lazy or unaware. They know what they need to do, but their brains seem unable to push the “go” button. Avolition is commonly seen in conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease, and it can seriously disrupt a person’s ability to manage daily life and maintain social functions.
  • “Working with macaque monkeys trained to perform certain tasks, scientists at Kyoto University applied chemogenetics techniques to identify a pathway between the ventral striatum (VS) and ventral pallidum (VP) in the brain that functions as a “motivation brake,” suppressing this internal “go” button, particularly when facing stressful or unpleasant tasks. The results showed that chemogenetic suppression of this VS–VP pathway restored motivation in the animals under aversive conditions.
  • “The team, headed by Ken-ichi Amemori, PhD, an associate professor at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology (WPI-ASHBi), and colleagues, suggests that the discovery of this VS–VP motivation brake may shed light on conditions such as depression and schizophrenia, where severe loss of motivation is common, and point to interventional strategies.”

From the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2026,

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “JPM26: US biotech’s ‘Sputnik moment,’ Pfizer’s obesity ambitions and Bristol Myers’ big year.
  • “Four recent deals fueled more angst about China’s biotech progress, while Pfizer, Bristol Myers and Sarepta all worked to appease jittery investors.”

• Fierce Healthcare reports,
  • “Abridge is partnering with real-time health information network Availity to fire up AI-powered prior authorization, expanding the reach of real-time coverage approval to more providers.
  • “The two companies announced a partnership, timed to the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, to scale up real-time prior authorization. The integration of the two companies’ technologies could significantly speed up prior auth, from months to minutes. The use of Abridge’s ambient AI and Availity’s data exchange tech can compress a weekslong process that occurs post-visit to one that happens in real-time during the patient exam.
  • “Rather than create disparate AI systems, Abridge and Availity decided to team up to share information between providers and health plans at the point of care, making the process of medical necessity review more efficient, the companies said in a press release.”
• and
  • “Teladoc is improving its 24/7 virtual urgent care for health plans by upskilling providers through real-time specialist consultations and offering care for a broader set of conditions, the company announced at the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
  • “The company hopes to save health plans money by reducing the number of follow-up appointments a patient may need to have after a virtual urgent care visit. 
  • “Teladoc’s virtual urgent care, which has been operational for over 20 years, will now be treating back and joint pain, hair loss and sleep issues, in addition to acute conditions like colds, coughs and ear infections.” 

• Fierce Pharma offers a potpourri of stories from day one of the conference.

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• BioPharma Dive reports,
  • “Boston Scientific said Monday it has agreed to acquire Valencia Technologies, a developer of treatments for bladder dysfunction, for an undisclosed sum.
  • “Valencia makes the eCoin tibial nerve stimulator, which received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2022 to treat urinary urge incontinence. The leadless device is implanted near the ankle.
  • “The deal will allow Boston Scientific to expand into a high-growth area that complements the company’s existing pelvic health product line, Meghan Scanlon, Boston Scientific’s president of urology, said in a statement.” 

• Beckers Payers Issues points out,
  • Administration and automation are not the only AI use cases payers should be focused on this year, according to McKinsey Senior Partner Adi Kumar, who broke down his 2026 predictions for insurers in a Jan. 12 report.
    • “1. Payers are at a place to look beyond AI administrative use cases. Care management is one opportunity where payers can assert more control.
    • “2. Mr. Kumar said healthcare has been slow to reach a technological revolution, but payers can harness technology to better engage with consumers.
    • “3. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will raise the bar for payer performance, affecting how much money insurers get from the federal level. Payer financials could either take a hit — hurting risk pools — or payers could play the “productivity game” to get ahead.
    • “4. Mr. Kumar encourages payer CEOs to consider what types of business they want to focus on as the line between payers, providers and services get more blurred.
    • “5. CEOs also need to think about productivity and “how to do more with less.”

• BioPharma Dive calls attention to five questions facing biopharma this year.
  • “The biopharmaceutical sector finally regained its footing in 2025. Here are five issues that could determine whether the renewed optimism will carry over into the new year.”
    
• Beckers Hospital Review relates,
  • “In recent years, a swell of states has adopted laws to lessen the requirements for foreign-trained physicians to join the U.S. workforce.  
  • “The laws aim to combat the nation’s growing physician shortage, which is becoming more urgent as patient acuity rises, more physicians approach retirement age and a plethora of other factors. One tactic to staunch the shortage is reducing or eliminating residency requirements for internationally trained medical school graduates to gain employment in the U.S.
  • “Eighteen states have laws allowing internationally trained physicians to gain full licensure, three states grant limited licensure, three other states have pending bills related to limited licensure and another six state legislatures are considering pathway bills in 2026.
  • “International medical graduates account for about one-fourth of physicians practicing in the U.S., according to the American Medical Association, which supports these pathway laws.”