From Washington, DC,

• Beckers Payer Issues offers three takeways from the President’s healthcare plan that was announced yesterday.
  • “President Donald Trump released a sparsely detailed healthcare policy framework Jan. 15 that calls on Congress to codify voluntary drug pricing agreements with major pharmaceutical companies, direct payments to Americans over extending enhanced ACA subsidies, and expand price transparency requirements for insurers and providers. The proposal does not identify how most of its provisions would be implemented or enforced.”
    
• Rick Pollack, the American Hospital Association’s President, points the healthcare cost increase finger at health insurers.

• Healthcare Dive adds,
  • “The federal government will pay an estimated $76 billion more to cover Medicare Advantage seniors this year than it would if those same seniors were in traditional Medicare, according to new estimates from an influential advisory group.
  • “It’s a smaller sum than last year thanks to the continued phase-in of a new risk adjustment model. Overpayments were estimated to reach $84 billion in 2025.
  • “Still, the report released Friday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is likely to add more fuel to concerns about overpayments in the privatized Medicare program, which has grown to cover more than half of all Medicare enrollees.”

• The American Hospital Association News tells us,
  • “The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Jan. 15 voted to recommend that Congress update Medicare payment rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient services by the current law amount for 2027 and reiterated its recommendation to distribute an additional $1 billion to safety-net hospitals by transitioning to a Medicare safety-net index policy. The AHA Jan. 9 urged the commission for higher updates.
  • In other action, MedPAC recommended that Congress update 2027 Medicare payments for physicians and other health professional services by current law plus 0.5%. The commission also recommended reducing the 2027 payment rates for home health agencies by 7%, skilled nursing facilities by 4% and inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 7%.
• and
  • The White House hosted a roundtable on rural health Jan. 16 that included health care leaders, legislators and administration officials. The event included discussion on the Rural Health Transformation Fund and the “The Great Healthcare Plan,”with a focus on “most favored nation” prescription drug pricing and other topicsimpacting rural health. Speakers included President Trump, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, M.D., Andrew McCue, M.D., a cardiologist at AdventHealth, Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Gov. Jim Pillen, R-Neb., Reps. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.”

• Per Medical Economics,
  • “Telehealth adoption did not increase overall office visit volumes among traditional Medicare patients, with visit volumes remaining stable or declining through mid-2024.
  • “Researchers categorized specialists into low, medium and high telehealth usage groups, finding declines in outpatient office visits across all groups.
  • “The study suggests telehealth serves as a substitute for in-person visits, not increasing total utilization among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries.
  • “Congress must decide on extending Medicare’s telehealth coverage standards, impacting patient access to virtual care.”

• Per a Senate news release,
  • “U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) support the Trump administration taking action to implement the No Surprises Act, which protects patients from surprise medical bills and ensures they know the cost of care before receiving it.
  • “Since the bipartisan legislation, led by Cassidy and Hassan, was signed into law by President Trump in 2020, the No Surprises Act has protected American patients from more than 25 million surprise medical bills. This would not be possible without the work of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury.
  • “We are writing to express our support of the Department’s efforts to improve the implementation of the No Surprises Act and encourage the pursuit of additional solutions to ensure that the process established under the law to resolve payment disputes between providers, facilities, and health plans is effective,” wrote the senators. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Department and stand ready to assist to ensure that the implementation of the No Surprises Act continues to be successful.”

• OPM Director Scott Kupor posted to his Secrets of OPM blog today about “the launch of OPM’s new Federal Workforce Data (FWD) website. 
  • “A more transparent federal workforce starts with better tools. This is one of them. Visit data.opm.gov to explore the new FWD website.”

• An HHS news release informs us,
  • “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced today [January 13] a $231M funding opportunity to administer the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The 988 Lifeline is comprised of a national network of more than 200 local crisis contact centers managed by a SAMHSA-funded 988 network administrator. In 2025, 988 received more than 8 million contacts from help seekers via call, text, chat and ASL videophone.”

• NCQA calls our attention to its 2026 trends.
  • “Re-Thinking Our Approach to Population Health”
  • “Understanding Health Differences Within Populations and Communities”
  • “Shaping the Future of Primary Care”
  • “Integrating Primary Care and Behavioral Healthcare”
  • “Advancing the Transition to Digital Quality Measurement”
  • “Expanding Use of Clinical Data in HEDIS®”
  • “Improving Quality of Care for Patients with Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome”
  • “Defining High Quality Diabetes Care”
  • “Reducing the Administrative Burden of Utilization Management”

From the judicial front,

• Bloomberg Law reports,
  • “The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Bayer AG’s appeal taking aim at thousands of lawsuits targeting its top-selling Roundup weedkiller for causing cancer. 
  • “The high court agreed Friday to hear Bayer’s challenge to a $1.25 million Missouri jury verdict against the company’s Monsanto unit over Roundup on the grounds some of the claims in the 2023 case were preempted by federal law. Bayer officials hope the justices’ ruling will help knock out thousands of Roundup cases that include failure-to-warn claims.”
• and
  • “The US Supreme Court will hear generic drug maker Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.’s challenge of an appeals court holding that it induced doctors and pharmacists to prescribe its heart medicine for off-label treatments that would infringe a rival’s patents. (Case no.
    24-1068)
  • “The government urged the high court to reverse the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s ruling reviving a lawsuit from Amarin Pharma Inc. Amarin claimed that Hikma infringed its patents despite the generic company’s use of a “skinny label” instructing users only to take the drug to treat severe hypertriglyceridemia, a method-of-use no longer covered by any Amarin patent.” (Case No. 24-889).

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
  • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated across the country. RSV activity is elevated in many areas of the country. Emergency department visits for RSV are highest among infants under 1 year and children 1-4 years old and RSV hospitalizations are highest among infants less than 1 year old. COVID-19 activity is low but increasing nationally.
  • “COVID-19
    • “COVID-19 activity is low but increasing nationally.
  • “Influenza
    • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated across the country, but influenza activity has decreased or remained stable for two consecutive weeks. CDC will continue to monitor closely. A second period of increased influenza activity does often occur after the winter holidays.
    • “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC.
  • “RSV
    • RSV activity is elevated in many areas of the country, including emergency department visits among infants under 1 year and children 1-4 years old and hospitalizations among infants less than 1 year old.
  • “Vaccination
    • “National vaccination coverage for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV vaccines remains suboptimal for children and adults. COVID-19, influenza, and RSV vaccines can provide protection against severe disease this season. Talk to your doctor or trusted healthcare provider about what vaccines are recommended for you and your family.”

• Beckers Hospital Review offers five notes about dipping numbers of hospital admissions for flu.

• The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP relates,
  • “Two new analyses, one from France and one from China, suggest that seasonal influenza vaccination provided moderate protection during the early months of the 2025–26 flu season, despite the rapid spread of influenza A(H3N2) subclade K viruses, which differ from the strains anticipated during vaccine development for the current flu season.”

• STAT News notes,
  • “Reported measles cases in South Carolina surged by almost 30% in the last few days, state health officials said Friday.
  • “The South Carolina health department reported 124 new cases since Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 558 in a wave of infections centered around an outbreak in Spartanburg County.”

• The AP informs us,
  • “Wastewater testing can alert public health officials to measles infections days to months before cases are confirmed by doctors, researchers said in two studies published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • “Colorado health officials were able to get ahead of the highly contagious virus by tracking its presence in sewer systems, researchers wrote. And Oregon researchers found wastewater could have warned them of an outbreak more than two months before the first person tested positive.
  • “The findings add to evidence that wastewater testing is a valuable weapon in tracking disease, including COVID-19, polio, mpox and bird flu.”

• The American Hospital Association News points out,
  • “The AHA has published a webpage that highlights facts, causes, effects and solutions that hospitals and health systems can use for reducing the risk and severity of postpartum hemorrhage. Resources include how to prepare for, train, measure and support the workforce and patients during maternal care. LEARN MORE“

• The Washington Post reports,
  • “A sweeping new study of psychiatric and genetic records has the potential to change treatment for millions of psychiatric patients, finding that many conditions involve similar genes and may not need to be treated as distinct illnesses.
  • “In essence, the study suggests that bolstering the traditional emphasis on patient behavior with a deeper understanding of the biology of mental illness could lead to better treatment.
  • “Published in Nature, the paper addresses the boundaries psychiatry uses to separate similar conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The research also suggests that linking genes to the brain processes they influence will provide psychiatrists with greater insight into their patients, and guide researchers toward new therapies.”
  • “The findings could also spare patients the burden of carrying multiple different diagnoses that require an assortment of different pills.”
    
• Per Healio,
  • “People with hypertension who meet guideline-directed levels of weekly physical activity in just 1 or 2 days may derive similar mortality benefit vs. those who are consistently active, researchers reported.
  • “The 2020 WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, recommended 150 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week for people with chronic conditions such as hypertension.”

• Per Fierce Pharma,
  • “Just days after AbbVie unveiled a major new oncology play in the form of its high-dollar RemeGen collab, the Illinois drugmaker closed out the week with some mixed news for its marketed cancer offering Epkinly.
  • “Friday afternoon, the company and its partner Genmab shared word that the phase 3 Epcore DLBCL-1 trial missed on its primary endpoint of overall survival. Specifically, the partners’ Epkinly failed to mount a statistically significant OS benefit among patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).” 

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Fierce Healthcare reports,
  • “Despite ongoing pushback, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Jan. 15 unanimously approved a proposed deal to bring jointly operated Nebraska Medicine under its full ownership and governance.
  • The deal would see co-owner Clarkson Regional Health Services offload its 50% share of the independently run system for $500 million plus another $300 million for owned land and buildings. Nebraska Medicine’s board is staunchly opposing the plan, and launched a public messaging campaign warning that sole governance, among other possibilities, would allow the university to redirect healthcare funds to cover its own budget gaps.

• Beckers Hospital Review tells us,
  • “Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt Transplant Center completed 960 solid organ transplants in 2025 — the most ever performed by a single center in one year — making it the largest transplant center by volume in the U.S. 
  • “In addition to the record number of solid organ transplants, the center set a world record for the performing 210 adult and pediatric heart transplants in 2025, according to a Jan. 14 news release from Nashville-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center.” 

• MedTech Dive informs us,
  • “Intuitive Surgical executives said this week that general surgery, particularly in after-hours care, drove procedure growth for the da Vinci robotic platform. U.S. procedures increased 15% in the fourth quarter compared with a year ago.
  • “After-hours procedures such as gallbladder removal and appendectomy using a da Vinci robot grew 35% in the fourth quarter, CFO Jamie Samath said in a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
  • “Intuitive has been ramping up the launch of its latest system, da Vinci 5, making it broadly available in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2025. Da Vinci 5 is also cleared in Korea, Japan and Europe. 
  • “The strong launch has exceeded the company’s expectations, with about 1,200 da Vinci 5 systems installed and 270,000 procedures performed globally, CEO Dave Rosa said at the conference.”