Simplicity is a virtue.

From of a Washington, DC

• The New York Times reports,
  • “The White House’s push to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp products that President Trump signed into law last year has snarled an otherwise straightforward effort to pass legislation that would lock in government funding through the fall before senators leave Washington on a summer recess.
  • “In an unusual display of defiance, a group of Republicans led by Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina was vowing to kill the hemp proposal that Senate leaders had tucked into the spending bill at the request of Mr. Trump.
  • “The measure would postpone the date the ban will go into effect, from November to Dec. 11.”

• Beckers Hospital Review relates,
  • “Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., introduced the Stop Superbugs Act on Aug. 4 alongside a Joint Economic Committee-Minority report estimating antimicrobial resistance costs the U.S. healthcare system at least $5.7 billion annually.”

• Beckers Behavior Health adds,
  • Federal lawmakers have introduced or revived several bills this year [discussed in the article] aimed at expanding access to addiction and mental health treatment, from new Medicare coverage for residential opioid treatment to permanent funding for community behavioral health clinics.

• The current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Ronald Nahass, suggests in STAT News that “The U.S. needs a 9/11 Commission-style independent body to investigate Covid response.” The FEHBlog heartily agrees.

• Beckers Payer Issues tells us,
  • “This fall, CMS will start sharing monthly utilization reports with Part D plans on how their enrollees are using the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program.
  • “The agency said in an Aug. 5 memo that the reports will be organized at both the contract and plan level and will include claims-level data such as the date of service, drug dispensed, quantity, days supply, prescriber, fill number and beneficiary identifier. All Part D plans will be covered, except for PACE organizations, cost plans and private fee-for-service plans.
  • “CMS uses a central processor to handle prior authorization, claims adjudication and pharmacy reimbursement, meaning Part D sponsors don’t carry risk for GLP-1 drugs furnished through the demonstration. The utilization reports would give insurers a window into how their own members are using the program despite having no direct role in administering it.”

• The Wall Street Journal adds,
  • “Amazon AMZN .com said patients with Medicare Part D prescription plans now have access to certain GLP-1 weight-loss medications through Amazon Pharmacy.
  • “Oral and injectable versions of Novo Nordisk’s NOVO.B  Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s LLY  Zepbound KwikPen and Foundayo pills will be available and cost $50 a month with free home delivery, Amazon said. It’s offering same-day delivery in more than 3,100 U.S. locations, and no Prime membership is required, the company added.
  • “The medications are available through the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Program, a short-term federal initiative running through Dec. 31, 2027, that allows eligible Medicare Part D members who meet specific clinical criteria to access weight management prescriptions.” * * *
  • “Amazon Pharmacy manages the entire process, including verifying eligibility, handling prior authorizations, and initiating enrollment, once a clinician submits an electronic GLP-1 prescription, the company said. Customers need to link their Medicare information and Bridge insuranceplan to their account.
  • “Once a patient’s clinician sends the prescription, we take care of the rest and deliver their medication to their door,” said Tanvi Patel, vice president and general manager of Amazon Pharmacy.”

From the U.S. Office of Personnel Management front,

• Govexec reports,
  • “President Trump is expected sometime this month to issue a plan to freeze federal employee pay in 2027, though if last year was any indication, it may not be that straightforward.
  • “When the White House published its fiscal 2027 budget proposal in April, the document, which normally lays out the administration’s pay plan for the following year, was silent on civilian compensation. The Office of Management and Budget later confirmed that Trump was in fact proposing “no pay increase” for 2027, while military service members would see between a 5% and 7% raise, depending upon their rank.
  • “Trump now has until the end of August to formalize his alternative pay plan for next year; otherwise, much larger automatic increases in locality pay would take effect, due to a formula in the 1990 Federal Pay Comparability Act that has been criticized by presidents of both parties since its enactment.”

• Federal News Network explains how “OPM is preparing to take over federal employee appeals” as the FEHBlog has noted.
  • “OPM outlined significant changes in the new appeal adjudication process, including the loss of federal employees’ “categorical right” to a hearing.” 

• Fed Agent informs us,
  • “Federal employees who file claims for back pay, unpaid overtime, unused leave, and other compensation issues will soon be required to submit them through the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) eFile system rather than by mail or email. 
  • “The changes could be especially relevant for law enforcement officers and other federal employees who file Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime claims.
  • “In an updated rule for Procedures on Settling Claims, OPM said switching to an eFile system “will be used for all appeals and claims to allow for faster receipt facilitating OPM’s processing and review.”
  • “The new system will apply to a wide range of submissions, including claims filed by current and former federal employees, as well as claims submitted by beneficiaries of deceased federal employees and deceased veterans.”

From the FDA front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Replimune Group said Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its therapy for advanced skin cancer, ending a regulatory saga that spanned three submissions and two rejections and was a flashpoint in the tenure of the agency’s last commissioner.
  • “Replimune’s drug, marketed as Tudriqev, is a genetically modified virus that doctors inject directly into tumors, where it is designed to kill cancer cells and trigger an immune response against tumors elsewhere in the body.
  • “The drug’s arduous journey through the FDA made it a poster child for the biotech industry’s criticism of the agency under former Commissioner Marty Makary. Replimune and other industry officials said the FDA, in its rejections, had reversed positions it had established in earlier meetings with the company.”

• Targeted Oncology relates,
  • “The FDA granted accelerated approval to RP1 (vusolimogene oderparepvec; Tudriqev), an oncolytic virus therapy, in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo), for the treatment of advanced melanoma following progression on an anti–PD-1–containing regimen.
  • “The decision follows a July 30, 2026, meeting of the FDA’s Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee (CTGTAC), which voted 10-3 in favor of the potential accelerated approval based on data from the phase 2 IGNYTE trial (NCT03767348). Despite the FDA raising concerns over the study design and clinical meaningfulness of the trial data, the committee supported the accelerated approval because of the unmet need in this setting, with the confirmatory IGNYTE-3 trial (NCT06264180) already underway to support regular approval.”

No Surprises Act News,

• FHAS, a certifed independent dispute resolution entity, offers helpful guidance about implementing the NSA RARC codes in out-of-network electronic and paper claims.

From the judicial front,

• Beckers Physician Leadership reports,
  • “A physician in Texas was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for operating a medical clinic as an illegal pill mill. 
  • “Maryam Qayum, MD, owned, operated and was the sole prescriber at Recare Health Clinic in Houston. The clinic was operated as a cash-only pill mill, and Dr. Qayum issued prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose, according to an Aug. 5 news release from the Justice Department. 
  • ‘Between 2022 and 2025, Dr. Qayum issued more than 3 million prescriptions for opioids including oxycodone and hydrocodone. Law enforcement shut down the clinic in 2025.”

• Beckers Health IT relates,
  • “Health systems, insurers and AI companies are facing a wave of litigation in 2026 over how artificial intelligence is used to make or influence decisions about patient care, coverage and billing.”
  • The article discusses three such cases. 

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• Health Exec identifies “Current and potential outbreaks to be aware of—and ready to talk about.”

• Cardiology Business adds,
  • “The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has shared a new concise clinical guidance (CCG) detailing specific vaccine recommendations for adults and children with a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD).[1] The group reviewed its own evidence-based guidelines as well as updated resources developed by the American College of Physicians and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
  • “Patients with heart disease face a higher risk of adverse outcomes, including hospitalization and death, following respiratory virus infection compared with the general population,” wrote first author Paul A. Heidenreich, MD, a cardiologist with Stanford University and chair of the CCG’s writing committee, and colleagues. “Additionally, the likelihood of infection after exposure may be elevated in this population.”
  • “Heidenreich et al. also emphasized that both randomized clinical trials and observational studies have consistently demonstrated the advantages of vaccination. Adverse side effects, the group added, are “exceedingly rare and are far outweighed by the demonstrated benefits.”  

• MedPage Today notes,
  • “The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual fecal immunochemical test screening starting at age 45 among average-risk adults to reduce the risk of death from colorectal cancer.
  • “In a retrospective population-based cohort study from Spain, fecal immunochemical test-based screening was linked to an ongoing decline in colorectal cancer mortality.
  • “Counterfactual analyses suggested a 41.7% relative reduction in mortality overall, a 46.2% relative reduction in those ages 50 to 69, and a 45.4% relative reduction in those ages 70 and older compared with projected trends without screening.”

• The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors want their patients to know about hand, foot, and mouth disease.

• The Washington Post reports,
  • “Hundreds of people in 27 states have been sickened in a salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers, including at Chipotle and Qdoba restaurants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
  • “As of Tuesday, 345 cases had been reported with 36 people hospitalized, the agency said Wednesday. The cases, which date back to June 19, are expected to rise and expand to more states. 
  • “Twenty-seven “illness clusters” have been identified at Chipotle and Qdoba locations in seven states, the agency said, after health officials found that most of those who got sick reported eating in a Mexican-style restaurant. * * *
  • Neither restaurant is considered an ongoing risk, the CDC said. The distributor is recalling the affected peppers, and other businesses are being urged to check their stocks for recalled jalapeños and not sell or serve them, it said.
  • Salmonella bacteria, the most frequently reported cause of foodborne illness, can cause diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.

• Beckers Hospital Review relates,
  • “The CDC is tracking clinical cases of Candida auris in more than half of U.S. states this year, though the total number of infections from the deadly fungus is down from this time in 2025.
  • “The agency has recorded 3,302 clinical cases of Candida auris across 27 states through the week ending July 18, according to National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System data. That’s down from 4,102 clinical cases reported over the same period in 2025.
  • “A separate CDC screening count, which tracks colonization detected before any illness develops, logged 3,130 cases across 23 states over the same period, essentially flat compared with 3,348 a year earlier.
  • ‘California leads all states in clinical cases with 826, followed by Texas with 391 and Ohio and Tennessee tied at 274 each. The screening count tells a different geographic story: Texas leads with 706 screening cases, followed by Michigan (503) and Illinois (366).”

• Beckers Clinical Leadership adds,
  • “The Virginia Department of Health said Aug. 4 it has identified the state’s first locally acquired case of dengue.
  • “The patient lives in the Fairfax and Loudoun county area and had not traveled outside Virginia before falling ill.
  • “State officials traced the infection to an earlier traveler who had contracted dengue abroad. A local Aedes mosquito bit that infectious patient, then transmitted the virus to the second resident. The health department said it has found no evidence of continued local spread.
  • “The department called the overall risk of acquiring dengue in Virginia low.”

• MedPage Today tells us,
  • “Anxiety and depression have been extensively studied in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but research has rarely investigated the pre-diagnostic period.
  • “In a Swedish cohort study, the relative rate of any psychiatric disorder started to increase 2-3 years before IBD diagnosis, peaked soon after diagnosis, and rapidly decreased post diagnosis, but remained elevated at 10 years.
  • “This increased risk was mainly driven by major depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance misuse.”

• STAT News informs us,
  • “In the race for new ways to treat Alzheimer’s and other devastating neurologic diseases, the protein tau has become a tantalizing target for drug developers. A new study lends support to those efforts by describing a previously unknown role that tau plays in neurodegeneration — and suggesting a novel way researchers might block the protein’s activity.
  • “A team led by Stanford scientists found that tau can gum up the works of a cell’s mitochondria, its energy-producing powerhouse. The protein sends electrons flowing in the opposite direction of their usual microscopic relay race, a reversal that generates reactive oxygen species, cellular stress, and inflammation. Scientists found that blocking this phenomenon, known as reverse electron transport, reversed many of the harmful effects and improved learning and memory in flies and mice.
  • “Whether the same will hold true in people is for now unclear, though an analysis of human cells grown in the lab and patient brain tissue suggests blocking the retrograde flow of electrons could make neurons healthier. Two of the study’s authors have started a biotech startup to put this idea to the test. 
  • “The findings, published on Thursday in the journal Neuron, have implications for a range of so-called tauopathies, diseases marked by an abnormal buildup of tau, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and frontotemporal dementia.”

• Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News points out,
  • Chronically infecting viruses—such as Epstein Barr, cytomegalovirus, and herpes virus—are ubiquitous in humans. Although their presence is often innocuous and asymptomatic, the viruses can reactivate during stress, and emerging evidence suggests that their reactivation may contribute to autoimmune disease and other chronic conditions. SARS-CoV-2 infection is known to reactivate some chronic viruses, yet the full extent of the effects is not well understood.
  • Now, a study including 15 biomedical research institutions across the United States, Boston Children’s Hospital researchers and their collaborators have discovered that COVID-19 reactivates certain dormant viruses in hospitalized patients. These findings expand understanding of chronically infecting viruses and could inform development of strategies to combat their reactivation.
  • “This work is published in a new study in Nature, entitled, “Virus reactivation in acute and long COVID-19.”
    
• The New York Times notes,
  • “Novo Nordisk stunned the cardiology world last week when it announced that a large study it was running on an experimental drug for heart disease had failed. The drug, widely expected to be a blockbuster, was no better than a placebo.
  • “The drug, ziltivekimab, reduces inflammation, which is generally thought to be a cause of atherosclerosis. Stopping that inflammation was hoped to be a way to save lives.
  • “Now the drug’s failure is raising a troubling question. Is inflammation really a cause or is it just a marker of atherosclerosis, the way gray hair is a marker of aging?
  • “Cardiologists had mixed reactions to the news. Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist at Cedars Sinai, quoted Thomas Huxley on X: “The great tragedy of science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

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

• Health Exec points out,
  • “The latest lineup of America’s “best of the best” hospitals from US News & World Report is something of an embarrassment of riches for a few cities and health systems. 
  • “The list—which ranked hospitals numerically until 2023 but now presents 20 institutions alphabetically as an “honor roll”—names one health system three times.
  • “That would be Mayo Clinic, recognized for each of its operations in Rochester, Minn., Phoenix, Ariz., and Jacksonville, Fla. 
  • “Meanwhile New York City is home to three winning institutions—Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian and NYU Langone. 
  • “A few cities have two hospitals in the roll. These are Boston (Brigham and Women’s, Massachusetts General), Chicago (Northwestern, Rush) and Los Angeles (Cedars-Sinai, UCLA Ronald Reagan).
  • “The state with the most honorees is California, which has bragging rights to five—the two L.A. hospitals named above plus Stanford Health Care in Palo Alto, UC San-Diego Health in that city and UCSF Health in San Francisco.”

• Beckers Hospital Review adds,
  • “The Emergency Nurses Association awarded a record-breaking 126 emergency departments with the 2026 Lantern Award.
  • “To receive a Lantern Award, EDs must submit a comprehensive application which measures how they excel in meeting challenges, including ED boarding, improving pediatric readiness and enhancing nurse professional development, according to a July 27 news release. ENA Lantern Award Committee reviews and scores applications based on evidence-based practices and innovation in emergency care. Learn more here. The Lantern Awards have been awarded annually since 2011.
  • “Last year, 96 hospitals received a Lantern Award.”
  • The article lists the 2026 awardees by State.

• Beckers Hospital Review outlines the 23 hospital M&A transactions that have happened this year.

• Beckers Payer Issues calls attention to “the thread running through payers’ and for-profit [health] systems’ Q2 earnings,” and tells us,
  • “Oscar Health’s membership as of June 30 was 2,963,002, up from 2,027,148 at the same time in 2025.
  • “The company reported net income of $361.8 million for the second quarter of 2026, up from a $228.4 million loss during the same period last year. Revenue was roughly $4.9 billion, up 70.4% year over year. Earnings from operations were $388.6 million versus a prior $230.5 million loss, driven by stronger underwriting performance, along with favorable prior period development.
  • “The insurer logged a medical loss ratio of 79.2% for the quarter, down from 91.1%. 
  • ‘The full-year 2026 outlook for earnings from operations is now $500 million to $700 million, a boost from $250 million to $450 million previously.”

• BioPharma Dive reports,
  • “LifeMine Therapeutics, a biotechnology company led by serial entrepreneur Greg Verdine, said Thursday it raised $263 million in a pair of venture financings that will push a novel, protective treatment for organ transplants deeper into later clinical testing.
  • “To find that new drug, codenamed “LIFE-001,” LifeMine looked to a billion-year-old place: the fungal genome. It’s the same starting point that led to the first statin, penicillin, and a widely used immunosuppressant called cyclosporine. While these and many other medicines are derived from fungi, LifeMine has for years been working to make the discovery process more systematic and repeatable, amassing a database of genomic information in the hopes of uncovering promising drug prospects. 

• MedTech Dive interviews “Medtronic’s George Murgatroyd [about] an advanced computing platform that works with the company’s Hugo robot will power AI algorithms that can assist surgeons as they operate.”
  
  
• Beckers Physician Leadership notes,
  • “Aflac’s fourth annual Wellness Matters Survey found 76% of Gen Z and 63% of millennials now turn to artificial intelligence as their first line of primary healthcare, according to results released Aug. 4.
  • “The survey, conducted in March 2026 by Kantar Profiles among 2,000 employed U.S. adults ages 18 to 65, found AI use for healthcare drops sharply with age: 47% of all Americans surveyed use AI for health information, compared to 76% of Gen Z and 63% of millennials.
  • “The shift toward AI comes as younger workers skip in-person care. Sixty-five percent of Gen Z and 61% of millennials reported skipping routine checkups in the past year, compared to 47% of Gen X and 33% of baby boomers. Only 48% of Gen Z respondents have a primary care doctor, versus 87% of baby boomers.
  • “Emergency and urgent care use also rose among Gen Z, climbing to 62% in 2026 from 51% in 2025. Usage increased among Hispanic, Black, and Asian American respondents as well.
  • “Matthew Owenby, Aflac’s chief human resources officer and chief administrative officer, said younger Americans are substituting convenience for consistent care. “Young Americans are replacing in-person preventive care with the convenience and speed of digital health support,” Mr. Owenby said.”