From Washington, DC

• Healthcare Dive reports,
  • “Overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans are causing seniors’ Medicare premiums to spike by billions of dollars, according to new report from congressional investigators.
  • “Medicare Part B premiums rose by $212 per enrollee in 2025, totaling $13.4 billion in higher premiums, due to health insurer practices like recording extra member diagnoses to inflate government reimbursement, the report from the Joint Economic Committee published Tuesday found. [FEHBlog note — CMS tells us that the Medicare premium rose $10.30 monthly from 2024 to 2025 or $123.60 annually]
  • “Health insurance groups argued that the report is based on flawed data and that MA saves money and drives better health outcomes for enrollees.”

• Beckers Payer Issues relates,
  • “Elevance said it was “surprised and disappointed” by a recent CMS sanction threat, which would suspend enrollment in Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans, CFO Mark Kaye said March 10 at the Barclays 28th Annual Global Healthcare Conference in Miami.
  • “The executive claimed Elevance flagged provider-submitted diagnosis codes and shared information with CMS “in good faith.”
  • “The issues CMS raised relate to historical risk-adjustment processes. They do not reflect our current operating processes or practices,” he said.
  • “Mr. Kaye said he views the issue as a misalignment with policy interpretation.
  • “This is not simply a data submission issue. We view this as a broader policy and payments dispute about how retroactive corrections should be treated under the risk-adjustment framework that was in place during that period,” Mr. Kaye said. “This is a disagreement over the interpretation of policy. It’s not an unwillingness to correct inaccurate data.” He said the rules at the time were in line with Elevance’s conduct.” 

• The Hill brings us up to date on the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

• Per CMS news releases,
  • “The Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to improving health care and outcomes, and strengthening accountability, across the nation’s health- and long-term care systems.
  • “Over the next several years, CCSQ will focus on five strategic goals—Prevention, Quality and Safety, Coverage Innovation, Data and Technology, and Burden Reduction. These priorities build on CCSQ’s core mission to establish national health and safety standards; implement quality measurement, reporting and improvement; and support Medicare’s coverage determinations. Together, they represent a roadmap for health- and long-term care systems that are safer, stronger, and more transparent.”
• and
  • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued new guidance to strengthen public trust and ensure patients and their families are treated with dignity and care throughout the organ donation process. The guidance clarifies and reinforces the responsibilities of Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and donor hospitals, both in providing patients full medical care regardless of potential donor status and allowing families the time to make decisions regarding organ donation without coercion. This action follows reports that some OPOs have rushed aspects of the organ donation and procurement process, pressuring families to make decisions during moments of grief. 

• Govexec tells us,
  • “The No. 1 thing to know entering retirement: How much are you really spending?
  • “Many new retirees may overestimate how far their savings will go towards their budget. Having an idea of your cost of living can make them go further.”

From the Food and Drug Administration,

• Per an FDA news release,
  • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today launched a new unified platform for analyzing adverse event reports. This platform — called the FDA Adverse Event Monitoring System (AEMS) — represents a major achievement in the agency’s mission to modernize and provide radical transparency into the safety of regulated products.  
  • “The FDA’s previous adverse event reporting systems were outdated and fragmented and made important data difficult to access. These clunky systems also wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and created blind spots in our postmarket surveillance of products ranging from drugs and vaccines to cosmetics,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. “We’re fixing the problem through a major modernization initiative. Starting today, the FDA will have a single, intuitive adverse event platform that will better serve agency scientists, researchers, and the public.”

• Health Exec informs us,
  • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released an early alert pertaining to patient safety, after the agency said it became aware of an issue with flexible cryoprobes—used to deliver extreme cold to a site on the body for a variety of medical purposes, including removing tissue tumors—manufactured by Erbe USA.
  • “According to the FDA, the company reported incidents of its cryoprobes “rupturing or bursting during activation,” leading to excessive pressure at sites of foreign bodies, mucus plugs, blood clots, necrotic tissue, or biopsies—essentially anything a provider is trying to remove.”

From the public health, medical and Rx research front,

• The New York Times reports,
  • “In a survey by the health research group KFF and The Washington Post, released in September, 16 percent of parents said they had skipped or delayed at least one childhood vaccine other than for flu or Covid-19. And doubts about vaccines are increasingly spilling into refusal of other mainstays of pediatric medicine, including antibiotics, medications like Tylenol and diagnostic procedures like spinal taps.
  • “At a hospital in Boise, Idaho, for example, three infants died last year after their parents declined a shot of vitamin K, administered to newborns to prevent bleeding, said Dr. Amanda Lee, a pediatrician there.
  • “Parents have always had questions about vaccines, but Dr. Lee and other pediatricians say they are now finding their expertise to be sometimes powerless against the flood of misinformation.” * * *
  • “Conferences of pediatricians now routinely hold workshops on earning parents’ trust. They are training clinicians to be less authoritarian, less judgmental and more patient, said Dr. Brandan Kennedy, a pediatric hospitalist in Kansas.”

• Medpage Today tells us,
  • “Semaglutide for weight loss (Wegovy) was associated with a significantly higher risk of ischemic optic neuropathy (ION) compared with the diabetes formulation (Ozempic) and other GLP-1 agonists.
  • “Added to the existing evidence base, the study suggests a dose-dependent risk of ION.
  • “Men treated with Wegovy had a threefold higher risk of ION versus women.”
• and
  • “The COBRRA trial directly tested apixaban and rivaroxaban, the oral anticoagulants most frequently used to treat acute venous thromboembolism.
  • “The risk of clinically relevant bleeding came out significantly lower with apixaban than with rivaroxaban during the 3-month treatment period.
  • “The study-specific dosing regimen may have played a role in the results, however.”
• and
  • “Over 40% of smokers who received one psilocybin dose quit by month 6 versus 10% of nicotine patch users in a pilot randomized trial.
  • “No serious adverse events were reported, and the most common side effects with psilocybin were temporary increases in blood pressure and nausea.
  • ‘Psilocybin works by increasing “mental flexibility,” allowing patients to reframe their relationship with addiction, researcher said.”

• Health Day lets us know,
  •  “Women who have pregnancy complications might face a higher risk of heart disease, a new study has concluded.
  • “The stress of these complications increase a woman’s risk of high blood pressure for years after they deliver, researchers reported March 9 in the journal Hypertension.
  • “For women who were having babies for the first time and had complications, referred to as adverse pregnancy outcomes, we found that higher stress levels over time were associated with higher blood pressure levels two to seven years after delivery,” lead researcher Virginia Nuckols, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Delaware, said in a news release.”
• and
  • “An already-approved IV drug significantly reduces the symptoms of lupus, a new clinical trial showed.
  • “More than three-quarters of lupus patients taking obinutuzumab (Gazvya) had a significant improvement in their symptoms after a year on the drug, researchers reported March 6 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
  • “The drug also improved time between lupus flares, and had a more than doubled remission rate compared to placebo, researchers said.”

• Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News informs us,
  • “Researchers headed by a team at the University of California San Diego have found that a novel blood-based biomarker can predict a woman’s risk of developing dementia as many as 25 years before symptoms appear. The study, involving more than 2500 women, showed that higher levels of phosphorylated tau 217 (ptau217)—a form of tau protein that reflects early brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease—were strongly associated with future mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia among older women who were cognitively healthy at the start of the study, before any memory or thinking problems were detected.
  • “Our study suggests we may be able to identify women at elevated risk for dementia decades before symptoms emerge,” said Aladdin H. Shadyab, PhD, MPH, UC San Diego associate professor of public health and medicine at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and the School of Medicine. “That kind of long lead time opens the door to earlier prevention strategies and more targeted monitoring, rather than waiting until memory problems are already affecting daily life.”

• MedPage points out,
  • “The nation’s safest hospitals, according to annual rankingsopens in a new tab or window from Healthgrades, represent the top 10% of hospitals nationwide for patient safety, with the lowest incidences of 13 preventable patient safety events.
  • “Patients treated at these 438 hospitals, located across 40 states, were significantly less likely to experience the four most common patient safety indicators, characterized as serious, preventable complications, which account for 78% of all safety events, including:
    • “In-hospital falls resulting in fracture: 52.4% less likely
    • “Collapsed lungs due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest: 57.5% less likely
    • “Catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital: 67.8% less likely
    • “Pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital: 71.9% less likely
  • “The data behind this year’s Patient Safety Excellence Award highlights how measurable improvements in safety can prevent thousands of complications,” said Alana Biggers, MPH, medical advisor at Healthgrades, in a press release.

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “Biogen on Wednesday unveiled updated data showing its spinal muscular atrophy drug salanersen slowed neurodegeneration and improved motor function in an early-stage study.
  • “The trial enrolled patients who had already been treated with the Novartis’ gene therapy Zolgensma, and found a reduction of 75% in neurofilament light chain levels, a measure used to evaluate neurodegeneration. Half of those patients also achieved a motor function milestone according to World Health Organization standards.
  • “As part of the update, Biogen also revealed the design for a late-stage study that includes three separate trials of salanersen in newborns, infants already treated with Zolgensma, and teens and older adults who have either not been treated or previously took another SMA drug, Roche’s Evrysdi.”

• Per Fierce Pharma,
  • “After strutting its stuff against blockbusters in three head-to-head psoriasis trials, UCB’s Bimzelx has conquered another powerhouse product—AbbVie’s Skyrizi—in psoriatic arthritis (PsA).
  • “A phase 3b study of 553 adults with active psoriatic arthritis has achieved its primary objective, showing the “statistically significant superiority” of Bimzelx over Skyrizi in reducing disease activity as measured by the ACR50 endpoint at Week 16, the Belgian company said.”
  • “ACR50 is a composite efficacy measurement, specified by the American College of Rheumatology, which indicates 50% or greater improvement from baseline in tender or swollen joint counts in addition to 50% improvement in three of five other disease markers.”  

From the HIMSS conference front,

• Fierce Healthcare reports,
  • “Epic is ramping up more artificial intelligence capabilities and features as it also touts how its AI tools drive measurable outcomes beyond just faster documentation time. 
  • “Health systems are reporting earlier diagnoses, fewer denials and improved patient experiences, the company said.
  • “At the 2026 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Health Conference & Exhibition, which kicked off Monday, Epic teased its future AI road map with new features across clinical, patient-facing and operational workflows.”
• and
  • “Samsung Electronics and digital health company b.well Connected Health are working together to toss out the traditional patient clipboard and replace it with smartphones.
  • “Samsung Galaxy smartphone users, through the Samsung Health app, will now have digital access to their complete health history and can share their medical record with participating providers via a QR code. That eliminates the intake paperwork patients fill out at nearly every healthcare visit, according to the two companies. 
  • “Despite advances with technology, patients typically still fill out the same paperwork at the doctor’s office and often have to repeat pertinent medical information from memory and log into multiple portals.”

• Health Tech Magazine adds,
  • “Documentation overload, clinical burnout and rising operational costs are just some of the challenges healthcare organizations face today. This can have a major impact on clinician satisfaction and retention.
  • “Microsoft Dragon Copilot is one way health systems can address these concerns. The artificial intelligence-powered tool streamlines clinical documentation, giving clinicians more time in their day for seeing additional patients or other important tasks. In addition to improving clinical workflows, Dragon Copilot improves documentation, creates more accurate coding and improves the patient experience.
  • “At HIMSS26 in Las Vegas, HealthTech spoke with two Microsoft Dragon Copilot experts about what problems it solves, how it integrates with the electronic health record, how it can be used across departments and clinical specialties, and tips for implementation success.”

• Healthcare Dive notes,
  • “Amazon is expanding access to its health-focused artificial intelligence chatbot, the technology giant said Tuesday. 
  • “The Health AI assistant first launched for members of Amazon’s primary care chain One Medical in January. The tool allows users to connect their health information and ask questions about their health, symptoms and potential treatments. 
  • “Now, the tool is rolling out to all U.S. consumers. “The desire to ask questions of an AI agent is enormous,” Dr. Andrew Diamond, chief medical officer at Amazon One Medical, told Healthcare Dive at the HIMSS conference Tuesday. “It is clearly the fastest way for people to get their basic health questions answered. And even basic is almost putting it too simply. They’re getting pretty in-depth questions answered.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Beckers Hospital Review reports,
  • “American hospitals saw expenses grow 7.5% in 2025, more than twice the rate of growth in hospital prices that year, according to the American Hospital Association’s annual “Costs of Caring” report.
  • “The findings, which were drawn from industry benchmark data compiled by Strata Decision Technology, point to a system under mounting strain: Hospitals are treating more patients, those patients are getting sicker and the cost of supplies from drugs to disposable gloves is increasing quicker than reimbursements can keep up with.
  • “Rising costs for labor, supplies, drugs, and administrative burdens caused by corporate insurers, combined with caring for sicker patients, have created challenges for hospitals and health systems,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said in a March 11 news release shared with Becker’s. “These strains are jeopardizing hospitals’ ability to provide around-the-clock care and services that patients and communities need.”
• and calls attention to ten hospital M&As finalized in 2026.

• Fierce Healthcare relates,
  • “It’s not a secret that commercial payers are navigating an earnings slump.
  • “Weighed down by elevated member utilization and staring down stagnant proposed Medicare Advantage (MA) rates for 2027, insurers are looking to lessen the pain by securing more favorable network contracts with providers and increasing scrutiny of reimbursement claims.
  • “The former has recently led to some high-profile dustups in which MA contracts with health systems are permitted to expire, while the latter has forced hospitals to devote more resources toward combating denials. 
  • “However, for-profit hospital and ambulatory surgery center chain Tenet Healthcare isn’t viewing payer pushback as a major headwind. In last month’s earnings call, executives told analysts that its commercial rate updates are so far landing in a healthy range of 3% to 5%. The company is also almost entirely contracted for 2026, and about 80% contracted for 2027, they said.”
• and
  • “Carrum Health, which offers value-based specialty care for employers, is teaming up with Virta Health on weight management.
  • “Virta offers virtual counseling, nutrition coaching and medication management with GLP-1s. Employers can customize Virta’s offering depending on their benefits. Meanwhile, Carrum has already provided bariatric surgeries for weight management. 
  • “Now, members can be referred and coordinated between the two as needed.”

• Fierce Pharma tells us,
  • “Twelve months ago, drugmakers came roaring into 2025, fueled by a massive year of growth that peaked in the fourth quarter of 2024. Now, the momentum has dissipated, and most companies are bracing for a slowdown in sales heading into 2026. 
  • “In fact, over the last few weeks of earnings reports, drugmakers’ financial results were less noteworthy than their guidances. Of 25 companies with quarterly revenue of at least $2 billion that had reported through March 5, just five projected that their sales would grow at a higher rate in 2026 than in 2025, with each of those increases slight.
  • “The pharmas offered a variety of reasons—macro and micro—for their pessimistic 2026 projections. Several mentioned pricing effects related to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well as U.S. President Donald Trump’s most-favored-nation plan and his threats of tariffs on pharmaceutical products. An anticipated decline in vaccine sales, linked to a demand shortfall in the U.S., also plays into the computation for several companies, while many others are dealing with the loss of exclusivity (LOE) of blockbuster products.”