Simplicity is a virtue.

From Washington, DC

• The House of Representatives is on a District work break until August 31, 2026, and the Senate is on State work break until September 14, 2026.

• The Western Journal discusses the federal government’s efforts to stop paying benefits to beneficiaries who have passed away. FEHB and PSHB plans, as private entities, cannot use the federal government’s Do Not Pay system. It obviously would be helpful if OPM used the HIPAA 820 enrollment roster transaction which would allow FEHB and PSHB plans to reconcile premiums payments with individual enrollees. The HIPAA 820 tranaction has been in use since 2012, and FEHB and PSHB plans are reportedly the only plans serving large employers that do not benefit from the HIPAA 820.

From the public health and medical / Rx research front

• IFL Science reports,
  • “Currently, there are more COVID cases in [California] than there were during the winter season. It is thought that this is being driven by the mutated “cicada” variant.
  • “Known more formally as BA.3.2, the variant was first identified in southern Africa in 2024. Since then, it has spread around the world, having now been detected in least 32 countries, including Australia, Germany, and the US.
  • “The variant has caught the attention of virologists and researchers because it has more than 70 spike mutations compared to the original wild-type virus.” * * *
  •  “Our summer peak was much higher in 2025 than it was in the winter,” Dr. Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health and the state public health officer, said in a briefing.
  • “Summer is really the bigger peak. So if you do have patients or loved ones who have not gotten the ’25-’26 vaccines, it is still effective and highly recommended, given this surge we’re starting to see.”
  • “It seems that the shift from bigger winter to summer peaks started to occur around 2024. While so far this has been more noticeable in California, there is also evidence for this trend emerging right across the country.
  • “Why it is happening, and if the trend will continue, is still unknown.
  • “What is known, however, is that the COVID vaccines are safe and effective. A newly formulated shot is expected in the coming fall, but those at an increased risk of the disease can get a booster shot earlier if needed.”

• The American Medical Association lets us know,
  • “One case of measles is concerning. Thousands are a warning.
  • “Our nation is experiencing the largest measles resurgence in decades—even though we have had a vaccine for more than 60 years. This year’s case count has already surpassed the total reported in all of 2025, making 2026 the worst year for measles our country has experienced in decades.
  • “For many physicians, measles is something they have read about rather than seen firsthand. That is a testament to the success of vaccination. It is also a reminder that vaccine-preventable diseases return when vaccination rates decline.
  • “For all clinicians, this resurgence is more than a public health statistic. It is a reminder that conversations about vaccination remain among the most important forms of preventive care we provide”

• PBS News adds,
  • “The nationwide cyclospora outbreak is very likely a result of sewage contaminationin the food supply, according to scientific researchers and public health officials.” * * *
  • “As floods and droughts occur routinely across the U.S. and around the world, sewage may overflow into bodies of water or be used directly on crops. That increases the risk that diseases, including protozoa such as cyclospora, which are transmitted through ingestion of fecal matter, may spread through food and water supplies.
  • “And because cyclospora oocysts mature in outdoor heat, it is possible that increasing temperatures, such as heat domes, could speed up their maturation, exposing more people to the infectious form of the parasite.
  • “Modern technology and techniques are capable of monitoring water quality, detecting harmful pathogens and eliminating them. Expanding monitoring of wastewater for protozoan diseases and other dangers can help prevent outbreaks and slow the spread of disease from sewage-contaminated water in the future.”
    
• Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News informs us,
  • “Memories can survive even after the brain temporarily loses more than half of its synaptic connections, according to the results of a study in mice that challenge the long-held view that long-term memories depend on stable individual synapses. The researchers, headed by a team at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), and including teams at the University of Tsukuba, Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS), and National Institutes of Physiological Sciences, used a mouse model of artificial hibernation to examine structural mechanisms underlying memory retention.
  • Their findings indicate that memory may be preserved not through individual synapses, but through resilient patterns of neural architecture, including specific clusters of connected synapses that remain protected during widespread hibernation-associated brain remodeling. These preserved structural motifs could act as a “core memory trace,” allowing the brain to rebuild functional networks after major disruptions.
  • “Research lead Kazumasa Tanaka, PhD, head of OIST’s Memory Research Unit, said, “Previously, synaptic strengthening was thought to be key to memory recall, and that stronger synapses with larger dendritic spines were fundamental to long-term memory retention. Here, we show that not every synapse matters, and demonstrate instead the vital importance of engram architecture. The study indicates that small clusters of engram-engram synapses are preserved to enable accurate recall even after hibernation.”
  • “Tanaka is senior and corresponding author of the team’s published paper in Science, titled “Artificial hibernation reveals synaptic engram architecture associated with memory retention.”

• Health Exec points out,
  • “Higher doses of semaglutide were associated with significantly lower cardiovascular risk in patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, while the amount of weight loss achieved did not appear to predict subsequent cardiovascular protection, according to a large real-world analysis. This was according to a new article in the journal Nature.[1]
  • “The findings raise the possibility that semaglutide’s cardiovascular effects extend beyond weight reduction. This adds to growing clinical data showing how GLP-1 drugs are having a positive impact on patient health separate from weight loss outcomes.
  • “The degree of weight loss surprisingly did not correlate with cardiovascular protection as measured by all-cause mortality or multiple individual incident disease diagnoses,” explained lead author Karthik Murugadoss, a data scientist with nference and its Metabolism Agentic Intelligence Atlas (MAIA) initiative. “In a direct comparison of semaglutide to other anti-diabetic medications, semaglutide was associated with reduced rates of multiple cardiovascular endpoints after treatment initiation.”
  • “He said the findings suggest a cardioprotective role of semaglutide which may be related to attained dose, but is not explained simply by the amount of weight loss achieved while on therapy.”

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

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Patients, families and healthcare professionals are turning to AI tools to help identify rare and hard-to-diagnose diseases.
  • “A study published in a JAMA journal found that two AI chatbots suggested the correct rare-disease diagnoses more often than doctors did.
  • “Doctors and researchers caution that AI tools still make mistakes and are limited by a lack of digitized data for rare conditions.”

• Beckers Payer Issues relates,
  • “Point32Health, the parent organization of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, logged an adjusted net income of $68 million for the second quarter of 2026. 
  • “According to an Aug. 14 update shared with Becker’s, this profit was up from an adjusted net loss of $25 million during the same period in 2025.
  • “For the second quarter of 2026, operating income was $38 million. The operating loss in the second quarter of 2025 was $57 million.
  • “Point32Health had 1.9 million members during the second quarter of 2026, slightly down from 2 million members during the same time in 2025. Revenue was $2.3 billion for the second quarter of 2026, down about 4% year over year.”
• and
  • “Health insurers denied between 12% and 18% of standard prior authorization requests across Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care and ACA marketplace plans in 2025, with wide variation among the largest payers, according to a KFF analysis published Aug. 13.
  • “CMS previously finalized a rule requiring certain insurers to publicly report prior auth metrics, including denial rates, processing times and appeal overturn rates. The first reports, covering 2025, were due March 31. The data is aggregated across all items and services, with no breakdown by service type, so there’s limited insight into what services are being approved or denied. Payers are also not required to report reasons for denials.
  • “The rankings below only cover standard prior auth requests and they don’t include data for prescription drugs (though CMS has proposed a rule to require that information to be public as well). Denial rates for urgent requests, which are included in KFF’s analysis, were slightly lower across all markets.
  • “Prior auth denials are rarely appealed, but when they are, a considerable share are overturned, including 67% for Medicare Advantage plans, 47% in Medicaid managed care and 43% in the ACA marketplace.”