• Federal News Network reports,
  • “Following more than a year of sweeping reductions across the federal workforce, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told House lawmakers on Wednesday that he would be open to hiring more federal employees — with one crucial caveat.
  • “Kupor said he would be “perfectly happy” to see an increase in federal workforce staffing if it meant that the number of federal contractors went down. The OPM director described contractors as a “shadow” workforce and argued that creating that type of shift would save taxpayer costs and improve government services.
  • “Contractors, I think, can be very valuable where you have temporary assignments, or you have skill gaps where potentially the government can’t recruit those,” Kupor told the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on financial services and general government. “Instead, we have people who are contractors for five, 10, 15, 20 years. They are basically full-time employees in disguise, and they get paid anywhere from 25% to 100% higher than what a federal employee would.”

• The FEHBlog thought the the Director did an impressive job during the oversight hearing. At one point in the hearing, a Congressman asked the Director about OPM’s improper payments rate, and in reply he mentioned OPM’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Improper Payments report.

• Payment accuracy.gov commends OPM for being one of the three highest performing agencies. OPM’s annual agency financial report for FY 2025 (p. 112) adds the following detail
  • “In FY 2025, FEHB ERC [experience rated carriers, which includes all nationwide plans] activity is reporting a statistically valid improper and unknown payment estimated amount and rate. The ERC activity reports one year in arrears, based on the time necessary to collect, test, report and aggregate the data. Because the ERC activity reports in arrears, PSHB data is not included in the IP estimate being reported in 2025.
  • “Independent public accountants (IPAs) provide the data by conducting sampling, testing and reporting of transactions performed by carriers as required in the Financial Reporting and Audit Guide’s Agreed Upon Procedures.” * * *
  • Based on the results of the sampling and testing for 2024, the FEHB ERCs properly paid 99.86 percent of payments. The FEHB ERCs had an improper and unknown payment rate of 0.14 percent.
• That information shows that carriers have strong controls over benefit payments.

• The Food and Drug Administration has issued an early alert for certain Streamline Airless System Hemodialysis Bloodlines and B3 Low Volume Bloodlines by B. Braun Medical due to preliminary testing that showed a change to the tubing resin led to small air bubbles adhering to the inside of the arterial bloodline. The FDA urged customers to use alternate dialysis equipment. The agency provided instructions for users without access to alternate equipment to help mitigate potential harm. B. Braun Medical has not reported any serious injuries or deaths related to the issue as of March 20. 
  
• The Wall Street Journal points out,
  • “Indiana is barring Piece by Piece Autism Centers from billing its Medicaid program after a Journal article detailed the company’s practices.
  • “Piece by Piece received the highest per-patient payments in 2023, averaging $340,000, in part by raising list prices up to $640 an hour.
  • “Indiana’s Medicaid director, Mitch Roob, issued an ultimatum to providers to self-report abuses by April 3 or face federal scrutiny.”

• Modern Healthcare relates,
  • “The Republican congressional majority is weighing further cuts to health programs a year after taking $1 trillion out of the system.
  • “The GOP would use an expedited process called budget reconciliation to prevent Senate Democratic filibusters.
  • ‘The measure could be a vehicle for cuts that didn’t make it into last year’s tax law and for President Donald Trump’s health proposals.
  • “Trump’s demands for Iran war funding and voting restrictions provide the GOP with an opportunity to advance more spending cuts.”

• Federal News Network further notes,
  • “The U.S. Postal Service is adding a temporary surcharge to most of its standard package shipping options, citing higher fuel and transportation costs.
  • “USPS told its regulatory agency on Wednesday that it plans to implement an 8% across-the-board increase in prices for its core package and shipping services on April 26, and would remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027.
  • “At that time, the Postal Service can determine if a different long-term approach is needed,” USPS said in a press release.
  • “Previously, USPS has only sought limited-time price increases on its package services during its busy holiday peak season, which runs from October through December. But agency officials told the Postal Regulatory Commission that this surcharge is now necessary to account for the higher cost of fuel and contracted transportation services.”

• Beckers Hospital Review tells us,
  • “The White House has delayed nominating a new CDC director, allowing Jay Bhattacharya, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health, to continue leading the agency past the March 26 deadline, The Washington Post reported March 25.
  • “Dr. Bhattacharya has served as acting CDC director since Feb. 18. Although he will no longer hold that title due to federal rules, he will retain authority over the agency’s delegable duties, an HHS spokesperson told the Post.”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

• The American Hospital Association News reports,
  • “The Food and Drug Administration has issued an early alert for certain Streamline Airless System Hemodialysis Bloodlines and B3 Low Volume Bloodlines by B. Braun Medical due to preliminary testing that showed a change to the tubing resin led to small air bubbles adhering to the inside of the arterial bloodline. The FDA urged customers to use alternate dialysis equipment. The agency provided instructions for users without access to alternate equipment to help mitigate potential harm. B. Braun Medical has not reported any serious injuries or deaths related to the issue as of March 20.” 
    
• Fierce Pharma relates,
  • “The FDA has approved Denali Therapeutics’ enzyme replacement therapy for a genetic lysosomal storage disease after a string of high-profile rejections for rare disease candidates.
  • “In approving Denali’s tividenofusp alfa, now known as Avlayah, the FDA has greenlit the first treatment for Hunter syndrome that can address the condition’s pernicious cognitive symptoms. 
  • “Avlayah is the first product approved to address neurologic complications of Hunter syndrome,” Tracy Beth Høeg, M.D., Ph.D., acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), said in a March 25 release. “This accelerated approval was based on a surrogate endpoint: reduction of cerebrospinal fluid heparan sulfate, which the review team determined was reasonably likely to predict Avlayah’s clinical benefit.”
• and
  • “With a new U.S. green light in certain ovarian cancer patients, Corcept Therapeutics has redeemed its lead asset relacorilant after stumbling at the finish line in a separate indication late last year. 
  • “The FDA has given the all-clear to Corcept’s class-first selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonist (SGRA) to treat adults with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Patients must have tried one to three prior lines of systemic treatment, at least one of which had to include bevacizumab (Avastin). 
  • “The FDA approval covers a regimen of relacorilant, to be sold as Lifyorli, alongside the chemotherapy nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane), according to a March 25 press release. The drug is taken orally the day before, of and after treatment with the regimen’s chemotherapy component, Corcept explained.” “

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• Infectious Disease Advisor relates,
  • “The high rate of persistent physical and psychosocial sequelae of mpox suggests clinicians should consider screening affected individuals for symptoms of depression as well as social and occupational disruptions following acute illness.”

• Health Day adds,
  • “New fathers might be proud poppas, but their mental health might be shaky as they adapt to their increased responsibilities, a new study says.
  • “Men have a 30% increased risk of depression and stress disorders by the end of their first year of fatherhood, researchers reported March 23 in JAMA Network Open.
  • “This follows a mental health boost among men during pregnancy and the first few months following birth, researchers found.”

• Healio tells us,
  • “Limiting sedentary time and increasing light-intensity physical activity may reduce risk for developing a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, according to study findings.
  • “Clinicians should consider counseling pregnant patients not only about exercise, but also about their everyday movement patterns. Based on our findings, limiting sedentary time to no more than 10 hours per day, and ideally closer to 8 hours, may help reduce the risk of developing a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. Encouraging frequent light-intensity movement throughout the day appears to be an important and achievable target for improving pregnancy health,” Kara M. Whitaker, PhD, MPH, FAHA, associate professor in the department of health, sport and human physiology at University of Iowa, told Healio.”

• Pharmacy Time adds,
  • “Compositional modeling of sedentary time, light activity, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and sleep quantified insulin-resistance impacts of time reallocation while adjusting for sociodemographic and seasonal covariates. 
  • “Replacing 30 sedentary minutes with MVPA correlated with approximately 15% lower the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, a clinically meaningful shift in a validated proxy for type 2 diabetes risk. 
  • “Shifting sedentary time to sleep also improved insulin resistance, supporting sleep duration as a metabolic cotarget alongside physical activity in adolescents.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • Merck MRK has reached a nearly $6 billion cash deal to buy the cancer biotech Terns Pharmaceuticals TERN and its promising leukemia treatment.
  • If it proves to work safely, the experimental drug would give Merck a boost as the company prepares for its top-selling drug, Keytruda, to lose patent protection [in 2028].
  • Under the terms, Merck would pay $53 a share for Terns, Merck said Wednesday. The deal is worth $5.7 billion including the cash that Terns has on hand.” * * *
  • “Merck said it expects the deal to close by the end of June and result in a second-quarter charge of about $5.8 billion, or about $2.35 a share.”

• MedTech Dive relates,
  • “Thermo Fisher Scientific said Tuesday that it has closed the $8.9 billion takeover of Clario, expanding its capabilities for handling clinical trial endpoint data.
  • “The buyout, which was announced in October, gives Thermo Fisher a platform for capturing and managing safety data, efficacy results and patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials.
  • “Thermo Fisher will integrate Clario’s platform with its existing capabilities for analyzing biological samples to create a high-growth business, CEO Marc Casper said at a recent investor event.”

• BioPharma Dive informs us,
  • “Sarepta Therapeutics shares jumped 25% Wednesday morning after the company unveiled promising early clinical data for two medicines that it gained rights to through a deal with Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals worth more than $1 billion.
  • “The experimental drugs, dubbed SRP-1001 and SRP-1003, aim to treat two rare, genetic conditions that cause dangerous muscle deterioration. The therapies work by delivering small interfering strands of RNA, or siRNA, into muscle tissue to target the genetic abnormalities.
  • “Results from two Phase 1/2 studies released Wednesday show both medicines achieved high muscle concentrations without severe side effects, according to Sarepta. The company said it also has proof-of-concept data showing these treatments can hit their genetic targets.”