From Washington, DC,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Medicare drug plan premiums are expected to rise significantly next year due to rising costs and regulatory changes.
  • “A subsidy program that shielded seniors from rising monthly bills will be cut by about 40% in 2026.
  • “The premium increase will affect millions of seniors and may push more enrollees into Medicare Advantage plans.”

• KFF tells us,
  • “Two new KFF analyses examine the latest data about Medicare Advantage, including trends in enrollment, premiums, out-of-pocket limits, supplemental benefits and prior authorization.
  • “The first analysis, focusing on enrollment trends, finds that 54% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2025, though increases in enrollment slowed this year. One in five Medicare Advantage enrollees is in a special needs plan (SNP), reflecting a steady increase in recent years. And Medicare Advantage enrollment remains highly concentrated among a handful of insurance companies. 
  • “The second analysis finds that more than three quarters (76%) of enrollees in individual Medicare Advantage plans with prescription drug coverage pay no premium other than the Medicare Part B premium. The share of enrollees in plans offering a rebate against the Part B premium rose sharply from 12% in 2024 to 32% in 2025, but among these enrollees, about half are in plans that offer rebates of less than $10 a month while fewer (36%) are in plans that offer rebates of $50 or more per month. Prior authorization is most often required for expensive services such as skilled nursing facility stays (99%), Part B drugs (98%), inpatient hospital stays (acute: 96%; psychiatric: 93%) and outpatient psychiatric services (80%).” 

• STAT News reports,
  • “No decision has been made on the future of an advisory panel [the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force] that decides which preventive care offerings, like cancer screenings, must be covered by insurers, a federal health department spokesperson said, after a [Wall Street Journal] report that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to oust all members. 
  • “But the report has alarmed the American Medical Association, which is calling on Kennedy to keep the panel’s members in place.” 

• Modern Healthcare informs us,
  • “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants to take another crack at creating a national provider directory in an effort to replace insurance company lists that are often riddled with errors.
  • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz touted the idea at a meeting with health information technology executives in June. In a later post on the social media platform X, CMS described its goal as a “dynamic, interoperable directory that connects the data CMS has with what the industry knows, so we all work from the same map.” * * *
  • “The insurance industry would support a national provider directory “grounded in a robust public-private partnership,” the trade group AHIP said in a statement. At the AHIP 2025 conference last month, executives from Centene, Cigna and Aetna parent company CVS Health said their companies have met with CMS to discuss the concept.”
• and
  • “Top Trump administration health officials are expected to bring tech companies to the White House this week to roll out a plan to encourage more seamless sharing of healthcare data, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz are expected to host executives at an event on Wednesday, said the people, who did not provide names of the attendees and asked not to be named because the details haven’t been made public.
  • “The plan was developed in coordination with the White House, building on a May effort by CMS to get public input on addressing barriers to sharing patient data.”

• The American Hospital Association lets us know,
  • “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration July 28 released its latest national survey on drug use and mental health. Among the findings, the percentage of adolescents aged 12 to 17 who had serious thoughts of suicide declined from 12.9% in 2021 to 10.1% in 2024. It also found a decline in adolescents who experienced a major depressive episode, dropping from 20.8% in 2021 to 15.4% in 2024. The survey also found that among the 61.5 million adults aged 18 or older in 2024 with any mental illness, 52.1% (32 million) received any mental health treatment in the past year. Among 14.6 million adults with serious mental illness in the past year, 70.8% (10.3 million) received mental health treatment. Due to changes to the survey questions and approach, not all estimates in the 2024 survey are comparable with 2023 and 2022 estimates, SAMHSA notes.” 

• An HHS news release adds,
  • “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a $100M pilot funding opportunity to prevent, test for, treat, and cure Hepatitis C (HCV) in individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) and/or serious mental illness (SMI). This program is designed to support communities severely affected by homelessness and to gain insights on effective ways to identify patients, complete treatment, cure infections, and reduce reinfection by Hepatitis C (a liver disease caused by the Hepatitis C virus).
  • “HHS is delivering on our promise to the American people for a healthier, brighter future,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Through this pilot program, we are launching a comprehensive, integrated care model that not only cures HCV but also tackles critical risk factors like substance use, mental health challenges, and homelessness head-on.”

• Beckers Hospital Review highlights five things to know about the foreign trade deals that the Trump administration has recently struck.

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

• BioPharma Dive reports,
  • “The Food and Drug Administration has given Sarepta Therapeutics a green light to resume shipping its gene therapy Elevidys to some patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a little over one week after demanding the company halt sales over safety concerns. 
  • “In a statement Monday evening, Sarepta said it would begin shipments to treatment sites “imminently.” The resumption applies only to Duchenne patients who can still walk, which typically describes individuals who are younger and whose disease hasn’t advanced as far.”
• and
  • “The Food and Drug Administration has delayed its review of a Bayer therapy for hot flashes related to menopause, telling the drugmaker it needs additional to review the company’s application.
  • “In a Friday statement, Bayer said the FDA did not raise any concerns around “general approvability” of the drug, called elinzanetant. Still, the agency extended its decision deadline by three months.”

• Per MedTech Dive,
  • “Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit has corrected disposable surgical stapler cartridges over a fault related to one death and one injury, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
  • “The company wrote to customers in April after learning that devices may activate but not cut or staple tissue. Additional steps are needed to open and remove locked devices from tissue. 
  • “Ethicon designed the stapler to prevent lockout events from harming patients. Still, the FDA said the lockout problem could cause life-threatening hemorrhage, surgical delay and death.”

From the public health and medical research front,

• The New York Times reports,
  • “A combination of healthy activities including exercise, nutritious diet, computer brain games and socializing can improve cognitive performance in people at risk for dementia, according to a large new study.
  • “The study, conducted in five locations across the United States over two years, is the biggest randomized trial to examine whether healthy behaviors protect brain health.
  • “It confirms that paying attention to things like physical activity and vascular risk factors and diet are all really important ways to maintain brain health,” said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, an expert in cognitive aging at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study.
  • “The results were presented on Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto and published in the journal JAMA.”

• The Washington Post adds,
  • “Any amount of walking is good for your health but picking up the pace has significant benefits — and it’s never too late for someone to train to walk faster.
  • “In an analysis published in PLOS One earlier this month, researchers found that frail older adults who deliberately walked faster saw a meaningful improvement in the distance they could travel when instructed to walk for six minutes straight. (Frailty is an age-related syndrome that affects 5 to 17 percent of older adults and is characterized by fatigue, a loss of strength and unexplained weight loss.)
  • “The results show that regardless of your age, the intensity of your workout can lead to greater improvements in physical function, said Daniel Rubin, the lead author of the analysis and an associate professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago.”

• Per the National Academy of Medicine,
  • “With more than half a million people globally living beyond the age of 100, it is time to rethink how health professionals and educators view older adults and the aging process. “Redefining aging” begins with transforming the mindset of current and future health professionals through targeted education. This involves encouraging them to reconsider how they address the unique needs of older adults and identifying those who can drive this change. Educators, health professionals, administrators, and policymakers must collaborate to reshape systems and attitudes. Together, they can build a well‑trained workforce that is not only prepared but motivated to address the complexities of aging that may include chronic disease and functional decline but also opportunities for growth and innovation. The barriers to achieving a change in mindset and solutions for overcoming challenges prompt a call to action. This paper is an entreaty by a group of interprofessional educators passionate about ensuring all health professionals are trained to meet the complex needs of older adults.”

• MedPage Today tells us,
  • “Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects at least 4.5% of those 18-49 years old, according to an analysis of U.S. cohorts * * * as reported in NEJM Evidence.”
  • “The early COPD group was more likely to be hospitalized or die from chronic respiratory disease, to develop heart failure, and to die before 75 years of age from any cause.
  • “Having a definition for early COPD might allow for studies to find ways to treat the disease and reduce its impact.”

• The AHA News informs us,
  • “Five pediatric flu deaths were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, pushing the total to 266 for the 2024-2025 flu season, according to the latest data. The total is the highest reported in any non-pandemic flu season since the agency began reporting it in 2004. The CDC said 90% of reported pediatric deaths this flu season have happened to children who were not fully vaccinated against the flu.”
    
• The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about the impact of caffeine.

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • Bristol Myers Squibb BMY and Bain Capital are forming a new biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for autoimmune diseases.
  • The new company will be created with $300 million in financing led by Bain Capital, including funds from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
  • The company will begin with five potential treatments for autoimmune diseases in-licensed from Bristol Myers Squibb, which will retain 20% equity in the new company. Bristol Myers Squibb will also be entitled to royalties and milestones from the potential treatments.
  • Biotech executive Daniel Lynch, currently chairman of the board at Xilio Therapeutics XLO, will lead the new company as chief executive.

• Per BioPharma Dive,
  • “GSK is turning to a China-based biotechnology company in search of its next blockbuster medicine, announcing Monday a broad drug making alliance with Hengrui Pharma that could be worth billions of dollars.
  • “GSK will pay Hengrui $500 million upfront to start the alliance. In return, it will receive rights outside of the greater China region and Taiwan to an experimental drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as the potential to develop up to 11 other therapies for respiratory illnesses, immune disorders or cancer. If a variety of milestones are met, the deal could be worth up to $12 billion, plus royalties, GSK said.”

• Beckers Payer Issues offers us six prior authorization updates that Beckers has reported since June 23.

• Per an NIH news release,
  • “Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) agent powered by a large language model (LLM) that creates more accurate and informative descriptions of biological processes and their functions in gene set analysis than current systems.
  • “The system, called GeneAgent, cross-checks its own initial predictions—also known as claims— for accuracy against information from established, expert-curated databases and returns a verification report detailing its successes and failures. The AI agent can help researchers interpret high-throughput molecular data and identify relevant biological pathways or functional modules, which can lead to a better understanding of how different diseases and conditions affect groups of genes individually and together.”