Happy International Women’s Day!

From Washington, DC,

• While the House of Representatives will be out of town this week, the Senate will remain in session for Committee business and floor voting.

• Roll Call outlines Congressional activities for the week.

• The New York Times reports that “Health Care Has Become the Lifeblood of the Labor Market.”
  • “An aging population is drawing workers to medical and social care, creating reliable jobs and revealing weakness for the rest of the economy.”

• CNN adds,
  • “Hiring at US businesses unexpectedly plunged last month as employers shed an estimated 92,000 jobs, according to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • ‘The unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4% from 4.3%.
  • “Economists were expecting job growth to slow somewhat after a surprisingly strong January – in part due a major labor strike by health care workers and a deep cold snap that hit many US states. The consensus estimates were for a net gain of 60,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to hold steady, FactSet estimates show.
  • “We had a labor market that nearly froze last year, and it seemed to show some signs of thawing, which made it slushy at best,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US, told CNN in an interview.
  • “February’s report, however, showed how precarious the US jobs market is when the supporting “one-legged stool” of health care is kicked out, she said. The health care industry, which has driven the vast majority of the job gains in the past year, posted a loss of 28,000 jobs (31,000 of which were likely attributed to the mid-month Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care workers strike [which recently ended).”

• Federal News Network offers guidance on how FEHB/PSHP work together for federal and postal annuitants.

From the judicial front,

• Healthexec tells us,
  • “An alleged conspiracy involving two drug suppliers and several doctors tied to the diversion and resale of nearly $50 million in medications has led to a series of guilty pleas, the U.S. Department of Justice from the District of New Jersey announced Tuesday [March 3].
  • “The two men who most recently pleaded guilty—Frank Incognito, 46, and Stephen Corba, 50, both from New Jersey—were the operations manager and owner of a wholesale drug seller, respectively. The name of the company was not revealed.
  • “According to prosecutors, the duo worked with doctors to resell cancer and ophthalmology medications, purchasing them from licensed distributors under false pretenses. Because Incognito and Corba were unable to buy the pharmaceuticals themselves, they relied on physicians to make “straw purchases” in exchange for kickbacks.
  • “The doctors would promise manufacturers the drugs were being purchased for their patients. Instead, they slipped them to Incognito and Corba, who then resold the medications on the black market at significant profit.” * * *
  • “Three physicians—Anise Kachadourian, MD; Jon Paul Dadaian, MD; and Joel Lerner, MD—previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy. The DOJ did not provide details about their sentencing status.” 

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• Virtual Capitalist informs us,
  • “West Virginia has the highest diabetes prevalence in the U.S., with 15% of adults diagnosed.
  • “Vermont reports the lowest rate at 7.7%, nearly half the level of the highest states.
  • “Many Southern states report rates well above the national average of 10.3%.”

• Point-Counterpoint. The Washington Post reports,
  • “The miracle of rapid weight loss has always come with fine print. Until recently, it read mostly like a list of digestive complaints —stomachaches, constipation — generally unpleasant but tolerable and rarely severe. New research presented this month suggests the drugs may affect something more structural: bone.
  • “In an analysis of nearly 150,000 patients, researchers found that people taking GLP-1 medications faced a significantly higher risk of skeletal disorders.
  • “Over five years, the risk of osteoporosis — a disease that weakens bones and makes them brittle — was nearly 30 percent higher. The risk of gout, a painful inflammatory arthritis which results from needlelike crystals forming in the joints, rose 12 percent. And the risk of osteomalacia, a softening of the bones caused by a low mineral-to-bone ratio that was rarer in the study, increased by more than 150 percent.
  • “It was a lot more than I expected,” said John Gabriel Horneff, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.
  • “The data was presented this month at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ annual meeting and drawn from electronic health records contained in a national database.”

• Evidently, according to Health Day, another perspective on this issue was presented at this conference.
  • “Treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) for type 2 diabetes and obesity is independently associated with a significantly increased five-year risk for osteoporosis, gout, and osteomalacia compared with nonuse, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, held from March 2 to 6 in New Orleans.
  • “Muaaz Wajahath, from the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in East Lansing, and colleagues evaluated the five-year risk for osteoporosis, gout, and osteomalacia in adults with both type 2 diabetes and obesity treated with GLP-1 RAs (semaglutide, liraglutide, dulaglutide, or exenatide) compared with matched controls (73,483 per group).
  • The researchers found that at five years, patients exposed to GLP-1 RAs had a significantly increased risk for osteoporosis compared with controls (4.1 versus 3.2 percent; risk ratio, 1.29). Gout incidence also was elevated among GLP-1 RA users (7.4 versus 6.6 percent; risk ratio, 1.12). Osteomalacia had the greatest relative risk increase, with a five-year incidence of 0.2 percent among GLP-1 RA users compared with 0.1 percent in the control group (risk ratio, 2.55). There was statistical significance for all differences in absolute and relative risk.”

• Healio adds,
  • “Women who start early menopausal hormone therapy after menopause have a lower risk for osteoporosis over a 5-year period, according to data presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.
  • “We know that with the aging population, fragility fractures are going to be a real problem in the future, and HRT is protective and may decrease the fracture burden,” James M. Barsi, MD, clinical associate professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery at Stony Brook University, told Healio.”

• MedPage informs us,
  • “A machine learning model for prediction of preeclampsia risk using routinely collected data was feasible, according to a retrospective cohort study of pregnancies in late gestation.
  • “Patients who developed preeclampsia were older and more frequently Black.
  • “The most informative predictor in the model was blood pressure.”

• Medscape points out,
  • “Chronic rhinosinusitis may be linked to an increased risk for cancer, according to a study of patients in Asia. 
  • “The study found that chronic rhinosinusitis was linked to an 18% increased risk for cancer in Korean patients and a 63% increased risk for cancer in patients from Japan. The results provide the first large-scale evidence for an association between chronic rhinosinusitis and the risk for cancer, suggesting a possible role for cancer surveillance in patients with the inflammatory condition, researchers said.
  • “This study suggests that certain chronic inflammatory conditions may be associated with an increased risk of cancer development and could warrant heightened cancer surveillance, particularly in middle-aged and older populations,” Seong H. Cho, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida, said. “While the consistency across both Asian populations strengthens the validity of the findings, confirmation in the US and other Western populations is essential before broad global application.”

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

• The Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Health Conference & Exhibition 2026 begins today in Las Vegas.

• For example, Bloomberg informs us,
  • “Oura Health is buying a gesture-recognition startup, setting up the company to eventually add such controls to its popular line of smart rings.
  • “Oura said it is acquiring Helsinki-based Doublepoint Technologies Oy, which specializes in technology that allows users to control wearable devices with small hand movements using a combination of artificial intelligence and biometric data. The purchase will guide future versions of Oura’s smart rings, where hand gestures could play a central role to the experience, along with possibly voice control, Chief Executive Officer Tom Hale said in an interview. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.”

• Beckers Payer Issues reports,
  • “Network Health, a Wisconsin-based insurer owned by Froedtert ThedaCare Health, grew 37% during this past annual enrollment period to 126,000 total Medicare Advantage members, its second consecutive year of record growth. The plan also posted a 98% member retention rate.
  • “The results make Network Health the second largest MA carrier in its 27-county service area, behind only UnitedHealthcare.” * * *
  • “One initiative that has distinguished Network Health nationally is its integration of Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs into its MA pharmacy network, making it one of the first plans in the country to do so when it first launched in early 2025. Ms. Dicus-Johnson [, the CEO,] said she first encountered Cost Plus Drugs four years ago and immediately wanted to bring the model to Network Health’s members. 
  • “Unlike coupon-based programs or out-of-pocket reimbursement models, Network Health built a fully electronic claims integration model with its PBM, Express Scripts, so prescriptions are processed in real time with no paper claims required. Mail-order benefits apply automatically, and eligible medications count toward members’ Part D accumulators.”
• and
  • “Clover Health said it is the first health insurer to be live on a CMS-aligned network for patient-directed requests, according to a March 4 news release from the company.
  • “While CMS previously listed other payers as “early adopters” of CMS-aligned networks, a Clover spokesperson clarified the company was the first to fully integrate with a government-backed network. In this case, Clover integrated with Kno2, the patient information exchange. Kno2 is a qualified health information network under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, and it is also a CMS-aligned network.
  • “These networks are data exchanges that voluntarily follow CMS’ interoperability framework. By leveraging its AI physician-enablement platform Counterpart Health, Clover can respond to patient requests for claims and clinical data in real time, the release said.”
    
• Beckers Hospital Review notes,
  • “Eight-four percent of primary care providers said they must play an essential role in meeting rising demand for mental and behavioral health treatment in the U.S, according to a Medscape survey published March 6. 
  • “The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Health Workforce data found the number of designated mental health professional shortage areas rose from 6,418 to 6,807 in 2025, increasing pressure on primary care providers to address patients’ behavioral health needs.” 

Notable Death

• The Washington Post reports,
  • “Paula Doress-Worters, who helped break the silence on postpartum depression, dies at 87
  • “She co-wrote “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” a 1970s touchstone conceived by and for women. The book offered information about abortion, pregnancy and postpartum life.”
• RIP.