From Washington, DC

• Govexec reports,
  • “The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday unanimously advanced legislation aimed at updating the federal government’s buyout programs to encourage employees to leave.
  • “Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments are one of the government’s main tools for reducing agency headcounts, alongside Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and reductions in force. But VSIP offerings max out at $25,000, where the cap has sat since the 1990s.
  • “The Federal Workforce Early Separation Incentives Act (H.R. 7256), introduced by Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., would remove the $25,000 hard cap on VSIP payments and replace it with a maximum of six months of a federal worker’s salary, subject to agency head approval. The new model is based off how federal agencies already calculate severance pay for laid-off feds.
  • ‘Langworthy said an update to the federal government’s buyout program was long-overdue, and that the changes will allow agencies to move more agilely—and humanely—in workforce planning.”

• The Wall Street Journal relates,
  • “The Trump administration is planning to make it easier to discipline—and potentially fire—career officials in senior positions across the government, a move that would affect roughly 50,000 federal workers. 
  • “The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, issued a final rule on Thursday that creates a category of worker for high-ranking career employees whose work focuses on executing the administration’s policies. Workers who fall into that category would no longer be subject to rules that for decades have set a high bar for firing federal employees.
  • “While political appointees at agencies are considered at-will employees who serve at the discretion of the president, career employees have long enjoyed strong job protections, including the ability to appeal firings, suspensions, or disciplinary action to an independent board. Workers that fall under the new category wouldn’t be able to appeal to the board.”

• An OPM news release adds,
  • “The final rule was published for public inspection in the Federal Register on February 5, 2026, and will take effect 30 days after publication. Following the rule’s effective date, specific positions may be placed in Schedule Policy/Career by presidential executive order. Read Director Kupor’s blog post on the rule here.”

• Tammy Flanagan, writing in Govexec, points out “the federal leave options employees can use when annual and sick time run out.”
  • “From unpaid leave to parental and military leave, federal workers have multiple options for time off under specific circumstances.”

• STAT News informs us,
  • “President Trump on Thursday night is planning to announce the launch of TrumpRx, the website that he and his aides have touted for months as a platform aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. 
  • “The website, which uses technology from health care company GoodRx, is expected to display the cash prices — that is, the prices available when paying without insurance — for certain drugs and direct patients to other sites where they can buy the therapies. It’s part of Trump’s plan to lower drug prices in the U.S., but some experts are skeptical the platform will meaningfully affect affordability.” * * *
  • “TrumpRx will not sell medications. It is expected to be a searchable website that links to other sites through which patients can directly buy brand drugs. That might be a drug company’s own website, such as Eli Lilly’s LillyDirect or Novo Nordisk’s NovoCare Pharmacy, or an online pharmacy that partners with a drugmaker, such as Amazon Pharmacy and Truepill.”

• The American Hospital Association News notes,
  • “The Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced the selection of nine pilots as part of the Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative to help improve behavioral health data exchange across care settings. The BHIT Initiative is a $20 million effort led by ASTP/ONC in coordination with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to support standard data elements and foster data exchange. The pilots, which will be completed by the end of this year, will be used to inform future standards, technical specifications, guidance and policy considerations. The pilots span across 45 exchange partners and eight states and Washington, D.C. The states are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Rhode Island.”

• Healthcare Dive calls our attention to the fact
  • “More than one-fourth of doctors enrolled in Medicaid didn’t actually deliver care to any Medicaid beneficiaries in 2021, according to new research adding to worries about low physician participation in the safety-net insurance program.
  • “Almost 28% of doctors enrolled in Medicaid were “ghost providers” and didn’t treat a single patient that year, the study published in Health Affairs on Monday found. Another 10% treated fewer than 10 patients, while the remaining 62.2% were standard or “core” providers treating the brunt of Medicaid enrollees.
  • “Participation varied widely by specialty, with psychiatrists most likely to be ghost providers and primary care physicians and cardiologists least likely to be ghost providers, the study found.”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

• STAT News reports,
  • “The nation’s top drug regulator said he wants to do away with pharmaceutical ads that employ “dancing patients, glowing smiles, and catchy jingles that drown out the fine print.” On Super Bowl Sunday, the drug industry will treat him to lounging football stars, a shouting DJ Khaled, and the soothing tones of Enya.
  • “Sunday’s game, the annual zenith of American advertising, is the first since Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary began a self-described “crackdown” on drug marketing last year. And, based on the ads released in advance, little has changed in the eyes of the industry.” 

• Per an FDA news release,
  • “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took additional steps to support the transition of our nation’s food supply from the use of artificial petroleum-based colors to alternatives derived from natural sources. Companies will now have flexibility to claim products contain ‘no artificial colors’ when the products do not contain petroleum-based colors. In the past, companies were generally only able to make such claims when their products had no added color whatsoever — whether derived from natural sources or otherwise.
  • “The agency sent a letter to industry providing notice of the FDA’s intent to exercise enforcement discretion related to these voluntary labeling claims.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• The AP reports,
  • “Chronic exposure to pollution from wildfires has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States, according to a new study. 
  • “The paper, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that from 2006 to 2020, long-term exposure to tiny particulates from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states.
  • “Our message is: Wildfire smoke is very dangerous. It is an increasing threat to human health,” said Yaguang Wei, a study author and assistant professor in the department of environmental medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 
  • “Other scientists who have studied the death toll from wildfire smoke were not surprised by the findings. 
  • “The estimates they’re coming up with are reasonable,” said Michael Jerrett, professor of environmental health science at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved in the study. “We need more of them. It’s only if we’re doing multiple studies with many different designs that we gain scientific confidence of our outcomes.”

• Bloomberg Law tells us,
  • “Chris Womack is one of a dwindling number of Texas ranchers who can remember fighting the New World screwworm, a once-vanquished pest threatening to make an unwanted encore in the US after its recent return to northern Mexico. 
  • “You never forget the smell,” Womack, 60, said of his first encounter with a calf being devoured by screwworm maggots. It was one of many he and his father would treat in the early 1970s as an outbreak of the parasite — which can kill cattle in less than two weeks — devastated Texas ranchers.
  • “More than 50 years later, Womack and other Texas cattlemen are bracing for the screwworm’s potential comeback. Cases are proliferating in a Mexican state that borders Texas, with the pest having escaped containment by an international eradication program that banished it for decades. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration last week to open up state resources for the screwworm response.
  • “The pest’s resurgence would squeeze the $130 billion US cattle industry, which is already struggling with a record-low herd and rising costs. The screwworm prompted the US to ban cattle imports from Mexico for much of the last 14 months, crimping American beef producers at a time when record prices for the meat are adding to the pressure on shoppers angry about the cost of food.”

• MedPage Today lets us know,
  • “New research challenged the longstanding belief that autism is much more common in males versus females.
  • “In a Swedish study of 2.7 million people, male-to-female ratios in autism diagnoses were nearly equal by age 20.
  • “Diagnosis rates peaked earlier for males, but females experienced a significant catch-up in adolescence.”

• Genetic Engineering and BioTechnology News relates,
  • “Some types of CD8+ T cells (killer T cells) may play a role in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS). This is according to data from a new study published in Nature Immunology. Specifically, scientists found specific T cells that are abundant in people with MS, which also target the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). They suggest that this points to a possible role for the virus in triggering the immune response seen in the autoimmune disease.   
  • “Full details are published in a paper titled “Antigen specificity of clonally enriched CD8+ T cells in multiple sclerosis.” For Joe Sabatino, MD, PhD, senior author on the study and an assistant professor of neurology at University of California, San Francisco’s Weill Institute for Neurosciences, “these understudied CD8+ T cells [connect] a lot of different dots.” That is because scientists have known for several years that EBV, a common virus carried by about 95 percent of adults, is present in virtually everyone who develops MS. This data “gives us a new window on how EBV is likely contributing to this disease,” he said.” 

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “Bayer’s experimental blood thinner asundexian cut the relative likelihood of a repeat stroke by 26% without increasing the risk of internal bleeding, the company said Thursday, boosting hopes that the company might become a new option for “secondary treatment” of the disorder.
  • “The news could also elevate the outlook for medicines like asundexian, which are called Factor XIa inhibitors and are being advanced by a handful of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
  • “Members of that drug class, including asundexian and a similar therapy from Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson, have previously suffered clinical setbacks in different types of cardiovascular illnesses. But asundexian’s success, first announced in November, lifted Bayer shares and indicated the drugs might be able to fulfill at least some of their commercial potential.
  • “The German drugmaker released full data from its positive study, “Oceanic-Stroke,” at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans on Thursday.” 

• Per the AP,
  • “A new kind of pill sharply reduced artery-clogging cholesterol in people who remain at high risk of heart attacks despite taking statins, researchers reported Wednesday.
  • “It’s still experimental but the pill helps rid the body of cholesterol in a way that today can be done only with injected medicines. If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the pill, named enlicitide, could offer an easier-to-use option for millions of people.
  • “Statins block some of the liver’s production of cholesterol and are the cornerstone of treatment. But even taking the highest doses, many people need additional help lowering their LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol enough to meet medical guidelines.
  • “In a major study, more than 2,900 high-risk patients were randomly assigned to add a daily enlicitide pill or a dummy drug to their standard treatment. The enlicitide users saw their LDL cholesterol drop by as much as 60% over six months, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.”

From the U.S. healthcare business and artificial intelligence front,

• Healthcare Dive reports,
  • “Cigna posted fourth quarter 2025 results Thursday morning that outperformed analysts’ consensus expectations, with adjusted revenue of $72.5 billion up more than 10% and adjusted operational income of $2.1 billion up 16%.
  • “Cigna Healthcare, the company’s insurance division, saw its revenue drop 16% in the quarter due to the sale of its Medicare Advantage business to Health Care Service Corporation. Cigna Healthcare’s operational income rose 44% year over year, however, after the company jacked up premiums for its stop-loss products after seeing those costs spike in the fourth quarter of 2024.
  • “But the lion’s share of attention on Thursday morning’s call was devoted to Express Scripts, and how the FTC settlement might impact the massive PBM’s profits.
  • “Short answer? It won’t, executives said.”

• BioPharma Dive relates
  • “Hims & Hers Health is launching a copycat form of Novo Nordisk’s newly launched obesity pill, ushering in the latest contentious battle between the makers of branded weight loss medications and their drug-compounding counterparts. 
  • “Hims said Thursday that it’s now enabling healthcare providers to prescribe a compounded pill with the same active ingredient, semaglutide, as Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy. That treatment will be sold as part of treatment plans that begin at $49 for the first month — $100 lower than the price Novo is charging under a deal with the Trump administration. Hims also claimed that its treatment is formulated differently and involves a different delivery method to protect the active ingredient during digestion. 
  • “In a statement issued in response to Hims’ announcement, Novo spokesperson Ambre James-Brown called Hims’ move “illegal mass compounding and deceptive advertising” and threatened litigation. The compounder is “unlawfully” mass-marketing an “unapproved, inauthentic, and untested knockoff” of Novo’s medication, she said.” 
    
• Modern Healthcare tells us,
  • “Adtalem Global Education has become Covista, the Chicago-based education company said, with a plan to expand its healthcare career network.
  • “Covista serves nearly 100,000 students and has a community of 385,000 alumni across its five accredited institutions.
  • “Covista touts it puts 24,000 new professionals annually into the healthcare workforce — more than any other U.S. institution — including 10% of America’s new nurses.”

• Beckers Payer Issues lets us know,
  • “Participating Medicare Part D plans can officially begin covering weight-loss treatment in 2027. 
  • “The initiative falls under CMS’ voluntary “Better Approaches to Lifestyle and Nutrition for Comprehensive hEalth” — or BALANCE — model. The December news followed President Trump’s negotiations with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to secure most-favored-nation pricing for drugs that treat obesity, diabetes and related conditions.
  • “To better understand Medicare usage and spending shifts, KFF analyzed CMS data from 2019 through 2024 [as discussed in the article].
• and
  • “Here are 12 payer tools that achieved “Best in KLAS” recognition for 2026:
    • “Care management solutions: Cognizant (TriZetto CareAdvance Enterprise) 
    • “Claims & administration platforms: Cognizant (TriZetto Core Claims/Administration Solutions)
    • “CMS payer interoperability: Edifecs (XEngine Server for FHIR)
    • “Data analytics platforms: Innovaccer (Healthcare Data Platform)
    • “Payer/provider data exchange: Moxe (Digital ROI)
    • “Post-payment accuracy & integrity solutions: Trend Health Partners (TRENDConnect) 
    • “Pre-payment accuracy & integrity solutions: HealthEdge (Source)
    • ‘Quality measurement & reporting: Inovalon (Converged Quality) 
    • “Risk adjustment (coding, retrieval & compliance solutions): Datavant (Risk Adjustment Suite)
    • “Risk adjustment (POC & in-home health assessments): Cozeva (PayerOne Risk)
    • “IT consulting services: Huron
    • “Employer-sponsored healthcare services: Premise Health
  • “The full report is accessible from KLAS Research here.“

• Per Beckers Hospital Review,
  • “Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health now has 242 artificial intelligence applications live across its hospitals, up from 230 last year.
  • “We are expanding our use of AI across CommonSpirit by deploying new capabilities and scaling the most impactful of our existing tools,” CIO Daniel Barchi told Becker’s.
  • “In 2025, the health system generated more than $100 million in annual savings through its use of AI and robotic process automation tools across multiple areas of the organization. Mr. Barchi said the value generated in fiscal year 2026 is expected to exceed last year’s total.
  • “More important than the financial impact is the expanded clinical and operational value we are seeing from these tools — value that is not measured only in dollars,” he said. “Our sepsis surveillance tool has contributed to continued reductions in sepsis-related mortality. Screening tools for colon and breast cancer are helping us identify high-risk patients, leading to thousands of additional screenings. AI tools for imaging are reducing scan times by up to 50%, supporting a better experience for patients and providers.”
  • “As CommonSpirit expands its AI footprint, Mr. Barchi said the health system has also declined or scaled back AI tools that failed to deliver expected value.”