Simplicity is a virtue.

A commenter, Patrick Morselli, accurately observed in response to the OPM Director’s blog post that “Simplicity has a high cost in most organizations. Feels like the hardest work is undoing complexity other smart people left behind.”

From Washington, DC

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Senate Republicans broke with President Trump over his administration’s plan to create a $1.8 billion settlement fund to pay people who claim political persecution, with widespread opposition forcing party leaders Thursday to abandon votes on immigration-enforcement funding and send lawmakers home early for their Memorial Day break.
  • “The “anti-weaponization” fund is a Trump priority, after he alleged for years that his supporters, including those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, had been targeted unfairly by the Biden administration. But its creation has run into blowback in the Senate, and the immigration-enforcement bill gave senators leverage to dig in their heels.
  • “I don’t like the fund at all,” said Sen. John Curtis (R., Utah), who added he didn’t think any guardrails could fix it. Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), a frequent target of Trump criticism who is retiring, called it a “payout pot for punks.”
  • “With no resolution in sight, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) sent senators home for their weeklong Memorial Day recess, putting the Republican-led Congress on course to miss Trump’s deadline to have the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol measure on his desk by June 1.”

• Healthcare Dive relates,
  • “Lawmakers are mulling reform of how Medicare pays physicians, concerned that insufficient reimbursement in the federal insurance program is incentivizing consolidation and increasing healthcare costs.
  • “Physician pay has declined over the past two decades when accounting for inflation, spurring independent providers to be acquired by hospital systems rather than go it alone, provider witnesses told representatives during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday. And representatives agreed that’s a concern.
  • “Making sure that independent physician practices stay open […] is one of the most critical ways we can ensure competition and drive down costs,” said Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash.”

• The American Hospital Association adds,
  • “Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, introduced the Rural Maternity Options for Medical Support Act on May 19. The bill would guarantee that beds used solely for labor and delivery are not counted toward the 25-bed limit for critical access hospitals. The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, and Kim Schrier, D-Wash. 
  • “New and expecting moms deserve access to high-quality labor and delivery services,” said Lisa Kidder Hrobsky, AHA senior vice president for advocacy and political affairs. “The Rural Maternity Options for Medical Support Act of 2026 strengthens access to maternal health services for mothers in rural areas by ensuring that higher volume critical access hospitals have labor and delivery beds available, even if their other patient beds are full. The AHA appreciates Rep. Feenstra’s leadership to support critical access hospitals and families across the nation.” 
• and
  • “The House Education and Workforce Committee May 21 unanimously passed the Transparency in Billing Act (H.R. 8684). The bill would require off-campus hospital outpatient departments to obtain a separate unique health identifier and include it on all claims for services billed to commercial group health plans or their enrollees. The legislation would prohibit the health plan from paying the claim and the hospital from collecting payment from the plan enrollee if the claim excludes the identifier, and it would impose civil monetary penalties on hospitals that violate the requirement. 
  • The AHA has previously opposed this policy, saying that hospitals are already transparent about the location of care delivery on their bills and that it would create a significant administrative burden to providers and the health care industry at large.” 

• Per a Senate news release,
  • “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is praising the Senate’s unanimous passage of his Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Reauthorization Act with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). The legislation would extend the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration (RCHD) program for another five years.
  • “Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) introduced companion legislation today in the House of Representatives.”

• Fierce Healthcare tells us,
  • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed two key leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a key advisory panel that offers guidance on preventive services, according to media reports.
  • ‘Vice chairs John Wong, M.D. and Esa Davis, M.D. were dismissed from the task force in letters sent to them by Kennedy on May 11, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing copies of the letters obtained by reporters. STAT, CNN, Politico and The Hill also reported the terminations, citing the letters.” * * *
  • “The terminations leave the panel with just eight sitting members. Five other members saw their terms expire at the start of this year, and Kennedy did not replace them, and the previous chair, Michael Silverstein, departed on his own, STAT reported.”
    
• Federal Network News informs us,
  • “Shane Stevens, the top official for the Office of Personnel Management’s healthcare and insurance arm, is stepping down from his role, Federal News Network has learned.
  • “Stevens, a political appointee, has been serving as associate director of healthcare and insurance at OPM since last summer. He announced in an email Thursday afternoon that he is voluntarily resigning, effective immediately.”
• Best wishes, Mr. Stevens. Thanks for your service.

• Tammy Flanagan, writing in Govexec, lets us know “what federal employees get wrong about divorce and retirement.”
  • “Errors involving survivor benefits, health coverage and court orders can create financial problems years after a marriage ends.”

• FedWeek explains “Insuring Children at College and Federal Benefits Considerations (with a Checklist).”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

• Radiology Business reports,
  • “Medtronic is recalling more than 18,000 surgical devices due to a risk of contamination. The recall includes certain lots of the company’s Gundry and DLP retrograde cannulae, which are cardiopulmonary bypass vascular catheters used to perform open heart surgeries.
  • “This recall was put in place due to the potential of a sterile barrier breach. Only certain lots of these devices are included in the recall.
  • ‘The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ruled this as a Class II recall. This means the agency believes these devices could cause “temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences.”

• STAT News relates,
  • “Wearable maker Whoop has not resolved a dispute with the Food and Drug Administration over a blood pressure feature the company launched last year, according to a top health executive at the company. 
  • “FDA warned Whoop last July over the feature that gives users a daily estimate of their systolic and diastolic blood pressure, saying that it’s a medical device that requires agency review. Whoop argues that the feature is exempt from FDA review because it is intended for wellness purposes.” * * *
  • “The dispute between FDA and Whoop turned up the heat in a simmering debate about how the agency ought to oversee low-risk products. Proponents of deregulation argue that the time and expense required for FDA authorization impede innovation and that FDA review is unnecessary to ensure the safety of many products that potentially benefit consumers.”

From the judicial front,

• Federal News Network reports,
  • “Some federal employees may now have an easier time qualifying for disability retirement benefits, following a recent precedential decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.”
  • “In April, the court ruled that federal employees’ disability retirement applications cannot be denied solely based on a lack of “objective” medical evidence. The ruling applies in cases where federal employees have already been removed from their jobs due to a “medical inability to perform.”
  • “Objective documentation, like lab tests or prescription lists, can support an argument but cannot be the sole basis for denying claims, the court said. “Subjective” medical evidence, like a diagnosis based on self-described symptoms, must also be considered. If employees’ disability retirement claims rely on subjective evidence, they won’t automatically be denied benefits.
  • “The decision last month overturned a 2024 ruling from the Merit Systems Protection Board, which had upheld the Office of Personnel Management’s denial of a disability retirement application from a former OPM employee in 2016.”

• The New York Times relates,
  • “The Justice Department announced charges on Thursday against 15 people for attempting to defraud Minnesota Medicaid and other social service programs in the state of more than $90 million. 
  • “Top officials, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, and Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, appeared in Minneapolis to announce the charges. “The fraud here in Minnesota is shocking,” said Colin McDonald, an assistant attorney general overseeing the administration’s crackdown on fraud.
  • “Among the defendants are an owner and an employee of autism clinics, who are charged with submitting $46.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicaid, the public health plan that covers low-income people. Additional defendants were charged with filing bogus claims to Medicaid for other services, including those that assist disabled people with obtaining housing and living independently.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “The world’s most popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs are linked to a powerful new possible benefit: better outcomes for cancer patients. 
  • “A suite of four new studies suggest that people taking so-called GLP-1 drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro saw reductions in tumor progression, lower overall chance of death and less risk of developing breast cancer.
  • “It’s really provocative that they showed, in several cancers, that people who took these drugs seem to have a lower risk of their cancer returning,” said Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, a breast oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who wasn’t involved in any of the studies.
  • “One study from researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Institute tracked more than 10,000 patients with early-stage cancers who started GLP-1 drugs after diagnosis and compared their disease progression to those on a different diabetes medication. Those on GLP-1s were less likely to see their cancer spread.
  • “In lung cancer patients, the rate of progression to advanced disease was cut roughly in half—10% in GLP-1 users versus 22% in the comparison group. Breast cancer patients showed a similar pattern, with progression rates of 10% versus 20%. Colorectal and liver cancers also showed statistically significant reductions.”
• and
  • “An investigational drug developed by Eli Lilly LLY  delivered clinically meaningful weight loss in a trial, the company said as it looks to expand its obesity treatment portfolio amid soaring demand.
  • “Lilly said Thursday that retatrutide, designed to be taken once a week, met the primary endpoint in a phase 3 clinical trial, as well as key secondary endpoints.
  • “According to Ania Jastreboff, a Yale School of Medicine professor and lead investigator for the trial, every dose of retatrutide assessed resulted in clinically meaningful weight reduction for nearly all participants. On average, those with severe obesity on the highest dose lost 30% of their body weight over two years, Jastreboff added.
  • “The trial evaluated the therapy’s efficacy and safety on adults who are overweight and had other medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, chronic pain and cardiovascular issues.
  • “More results will be shared later this year, Lilly added.”

• Healio adds,
  • “Studies show that GLP-1 receptor agonists have significant potential for treating glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases, but important nuances remain to be investigated, according to a review published in BMC Ophthalmology.
  • “Although GLP-1 RAs have revolutionized metabolic disease management, their potential therapeutic role in ocular diseases — particularly those driven by shared metabolic and inflammatory pathways — remains underexplored,” Yu Luo, of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “Their multifaceted neuroprotective properties and anti-inflammatory mechanisms present a distinctive therapeutic opportunity for ophthalmic pathologies, potentially offering direct ocular benefits beyond systemic metabolic control.”
• and
  • “Adults with obesity achieved greater long-term weight loss if they partook in a nutrition plan designed for rapid weight loss compared with one designed for gradual weight loss, according to trial data.
  • “Line Kristin Johnson, RD, PhD, senior researcher at Vestfold Hospital Trust in Norway, said there has been debate among researchers regarding whether rapid weight loss leads to worse long-term outcomes for people with obesity. In findings from a randomized pragmatic trial presented at the European Congress on Obesity, Johnson and colleagues found implementing a calorie-restricted eating pattern for rapid weight loss can induce a larger decrease in body weight at 1 year than a gradual weight-loss eating pattern.”

• Endocrinology Advisor points out,
  • “Life-course body size progression, particularly transitioning from a thinner childhood body size to adult obesity, significantly increases risks for stroke, coronary artery disease, and heart failure.”

• Healio also notes,
  • “Only a third of cancer survivors receive advice on weight control and improving their diet from health care professionals, and less than half are informed about the benefits of physical activity.
  • “Individuals who do receive advice on losing weight, salt and fat intake, and exercise are three to eight times more likely to engage in healthy behaviors than those who did not.
  • “We need more effort to deliver lifestyle behaviors to patients,” Chao Cao, PhD, MPH, instructor in the department of medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told Healio.”

• Fierce Pharma tells us,
  • “Phase 3 data for Merck & Co. and Kelun-Biotech’s antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) suggest the race is heating up to establish a new standard of care in first-line non-small cell lung cancer.
  • “According to an abstract released ahead of the ASCO 2026 annual meeting, combining the TROP2-directed ADC with Keytruda slashed the risk of disease progression or death by a major 65% compared with Keytruda alone in treatment-naïve, PD-L1-positive NSCLC. The p-value is below 0.0001, suggesting high statistical significance.
  • “Key overall survival results, which will underpin regulatory considerations in first-line NSCLC, were not mature at the Sept. 29, 2025, data cutoff, but a strong trend with a preliminary 45% improvement in favor of the combo arm was observed.” 

• Per MedPage Today,
  • “Undetected attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was not uncommon among adults hospitalized after traffic accidents, according to a cross-sectional study from the Dominican Republic.
  • ‘Among 95 adults admitted for traffic-related injuries without a prior diagnosis, more than a third (34.7%) screened positive on the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, reported Amanda Abreu, MD, of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
  • “High-risk driving behaviors — including violations, mistakes, and slips — were more common among adults who screened positive (66.6% vs 30.6%, P=0.0016), she reported at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.
  • “We’re not saying that ADHD alone caused the accidents, nor are they unsafe drivers, but these findings suggest that this is a really vulnerable population we should look into, and we should help protect,” Abreu said.”
• and
  • “Low-risk pancreatic cystic lesions were found to be associated with a long-term risk of pancreatic cancer in a retrospective cohort study.
  • “The incidence rate of pancreatic cancer among patients with pancreatic cystic lesions was higher than that of the general population (1.89 vs 0.14 per 1,000 person-years).
  • ‘Over a quarter of patients were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer more than 5 years after detection of lesions, suggesting longer-term follow-up is needed to avoid missed diagnoses.”

• Per the Wall Street Journal,
  • “New French research links natural food color additives to increased risks of Type 2 diabetes and cancer, similar to synthetic dyes.
  • “Beta-carotene, curcumin and anthocyanins used as color additives were linked to a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. Beta-carotene used as a food coloring was also linked to breast cancer.
  • “The findings challenge the Trump administration’s push for natural dyes and food companies’ shift away from artificial colors.”

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “BioMarin is looking to expand the use of its top-selling medicine, Voxzogo, with positive study results released Wednesday.
  • I’n 2021, Voxzogo became the first drug approved to improve growth in children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. The new results pertain to a related condition called hypochondroplasia that generally presents in less severe ways and might not be noticed until later in a child’s life.
  • ‘In the Phase 3 trial, researchers found participants given Voxzogo were growing faster than those who received a placebo. After a year, the Voxzogo patients also had significant increases in standing height and arm span, a key finding that could help children function better in daily tasks and retain more independence.”

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

• Managed Healthcare Executive reports,
  • ‘For the average person, healthcare costs rose 7.9% in 2026 to $8,460, which is the highest annual increase in more than a decade, according to the 2026 Milliman Medical Index
    (MMI). For a hypothetical family of four, healthcare costs reached $37,824, Milliman found. The Milliman Medical Index measures healthcare costs covered by a typical employer-sponsored health insurance plan.”
  • “The increase reflects structural forces that are not going away, Milliman Principal and Consulting Actuary Deana Bell said in a news release. “Outpatient costs have quadrupled for the MMI’s family of four since the MMI was first published in 2005, with much of the trend exacerbated by delivery system consolidation, specialty drug growth, and site-of-care shifts.”
    
• Beckers Hospital Review relates,
  • “The National Council of State Boards of Nursing found the District of Columbia has the most licensed nurses per capita, while Utah is the state with the fewest for the second year in a row.
  • “The organization created a course of nursing licensure statistics in the U.S. and its territories. The data was compiled using the NCSBN’s database and Nursys, an electronic information system where regulatory bodies enter licensure data. All of the council’s 58 members shared licensure data, which amounted to 6,903,665 registered and practical nurses — up from 6,870,362 last year.
  • ‘According to the data, Wyoming and Vermont had the fewest licensed nurses in their states overall, at 9,620 and 13,528, respectively. Meanwhile, California and New York had the most licensed nurses at 708,141 and 610,207, respectively.” 

• Healthcare Dive tells us,
  • “Nonprofit health system Providence is throwing in the towel on the majority of its health insurance businesses, citing the difficulty of running a regional health plan amid regulatory pressures and rising costs.
  • “Starting next year, Providence, which covers about 440,000 people in a handful of western states, will no longer offer Medicaid, Affordable Care Act or employer-sponsored plans, the Renton, Washington-based system announced on Wednesday.
  • ‘The decision comes as Providence attempts to shore up its financial footing and refocus on delivering care. Still, the company plans to maintain its Medicare Advantage operations through a partnership with a national carrier, according to the release.”

• Modern Healthcare tells us,
  • “Sutter Health and Allina Health have moved a step closer to joining forces.
  • “Sacramento, California-based Sutter and Minneapolis-based Allina said Thursday they signed a definitive agreement to form a $26 billion combined system with 39 hospitals. The agreement follows a letter of intent announced in March. The proposal is on track to close by the end of the year pending customary regulatory approval, the organizations said in a news release.” 

• BioPharma Dive informs us,
  • “Eli Lilly has snagged Engage Biologics, a biotechnology company that aims to deliver genetic medicines without viral payloads, in a deal worth up to $202 million.
  • “Lilly said Wednesday it has acquired the preclinical biotech in an all-cash deal, including an undisclosed upfront payment, with the possibility of future payouts based on research, development and commercialization milestones. The acquisition gives Lilly non-viral DNA delivery technology, dubbed the “Tethosome” platform.
  • “We believe that the combination of Engage’s platform with Lilly’s significant capabilities will meaningfully accelerate development of new genetic therapies,” Will Olsen, co-founder and CEO of Engage, said in a statement.”

• Fierce Healthcare lets us know,
  • “Electronic medical record (EMR) company Canvas Medical launched Canvas Studio Thursday, a no-code interface that allows clinicians and other healthcare professionals to build custom EMR workflows.
  • “Canvas Medical CEO Adam Farren told Fierce Healthcare the company was “serving a market” for software developers to customize workflows for end users within its ONC-certified EHR platform. 
  • “What Studio does is replace the developer with an AI agent, so that the end user, the clinician or administrative staff user, can directly customize and extend Canvas themselves using the agent,” Farren said.”
• and
  • “Employers are set to significantly increase their use of AI in health benefits, a new survey shows, even as they continue to face barriers to rolling out the tech.
  • “WTW polled 312 employers with about 4.6 million workers for the 2026 AI Use in Health and Benefits Survey, and found that 72% of those surveyed plan to embed AI into their benefits programs in the next two years. By comparison, only 20% said they are currently doing so.
  • “The employers cited several key areas where they see AI likely supporting benefits at work, such as improved communication, cited by 68%, and data insights and analytics, noted by 59%. In addition, 57% of those surveyed said AI would likely support greater personalization.
  • “Jeff Chandler, North America commercialization leader for Health & Benefits at WTW, said in a press release that these top priorities are all “areas where AI can materially improve how benefits teams make decisions and support employees.”