Simplicity is a virtue.

From Washington, DC,

• Roll Call reports,
  • “The Senate easily passed a bipartisan continuing resolution early Saturday morning, likely easing the traditional September rush to head off a partial government shutdown in October.
  • “On a lopsided vote of 90-6, the Senate passed a measure that would extend current funding through Dec. 11, giving lawmakers about 10 extra weeks to complete full-year appropriations bills for fiscal 2027.
  • “But the bill still requires a vote in the House, which won’t be back in session until the first week of September. The House had passed a more bare-bones funding extension last month without many of the “anomalies,” or deviations in current spending, requested by the Trump administration.”

• Bloomberg Law adds,
  • The US Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general, elevating President Donald Trump’s one-time personal defense lawyer to lead the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency.
  • Republicans closed ranks and supported Blanche, 52, in a 50-49 vote even after two GOP senators joined Democrats in opposition. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of the holdouts, came out in support of Blanche after Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against him. 

• The House of Representative and the Senate are now on District / State work breaks until August 31 for the House and September 14 for the Senate.

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

• Kevin Moss, in an interview with Federal News Network, explains why “Retirement [from the federal goverment or the Postal Service] doesn’t make your health benefits simpler. It makes them more complicated.

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

• The American Medical Association points out,
  • “The measles vaccine is given as part of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, so we call it MMR. It’s also given as part of MMRV, which adds in varicella for chickenpox,” Dr. Land said, noting “It’s typically given to child at age 1.”
  • “We give it at 12 months, but it can be given at 12 or 15 months—it can be given as either MMR or MMRV—and then again at 4 to 5 years old,” she said, emphasizing “the measles vaccine is probably the most successful vaccine that we have.”
  • “If you’ve had both of your vaccinations, you are 97% immune for life,” Dr. Land said. “If you have just one dose, you’re 93% and that is incredible protection.”
  • “For adults who do not have immunity or have not received vaccination, “one dose is typically enough,” Dr. Kaufman West said. “But depending on your medical history and what’s going on with you, it’s a good idea to talk to your physician and see if there would be any changes to that.”

• CBS News reports,
  • “Federal officials on Saturday issued a public health alert for meat products containing jalapeños that may be linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people across at least 27 states. 
  • “The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, or FSIS, said the alert applied to red meat and poultry products containing jalapeños that may be contaminated with salmonella. 
  • “The USDA said that it learned of the issue when it discovered that multiple establishments that are regulated by FSIS had received a recalled ingredient. 
  • “It released a list of 18 recalled products that are impacted by the alert. Those included the brands Taylor Farms, Ready Meals, Meal Simple, Higher Harvest and Deli Kitchen. 
  • “The agency said in a statement that it “expects additional downstream products will be identified as this ingredient recall progresses.”

• The Washington Post relates,
  • “Cyclospora and other parasites can survive sewage treatment in small quantities, and crops are sometimes irrigated with treated water.
  • “That’s why scientific researchers and public health officials are pointing to sewage contamination in the food supply as one of the most plausible theories for the current U.S. cyclospora outbreak. The government says it is still investigating the cause.
  • “The parasite’s spread can become a self-perpetuating cycle. Cyclospora is found only in humans, where it replicates in the intestinal tract, causing severe diarrhea. The organism reproduces by releasing oocysts, which are excreted in those human feces. In the United States, feces usually end up in sewage systems.
  • “In many states, sewage water is treated — though not always in ways that remove or kill the oocysts — and then released into waterways that can be used to irrigate crops. The oocysts mature in the environment with warm temperatures in about a week. Then a human comes along and eats the irrigated food or drinks the water and gets sick, releasing more oocysts into sewage systems.”
• The FEHBlog asked Claude AI about the last paragraph. Here is his response:
  • “[T]he Post’s “many states” is best read as a general characterization — sewage discharge into surface waters is a nationwide Clean Water Act practice — but the specific research documenting the produce-safety risk concentrates on four states: Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Florida/California.”

• Healio tells us,
  • “A pivotal trial is now underway for i-Lumen AMD, a bioelectric therapy being investigated for intermediate to advanced dry age-related macular degeneration, according to a press release from i-Lumen Scientific.
  • “The noninvasive, office-based therapy applies low-level microcurrent stimulation via the closed eyelid, which may improve photoreceptor cell function by repolarizing retinal pigment epithelium cells, according to the company.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• The Washington Post reports,
  • “More than a million times a year, a U.S. surgeon slices open a knee, strips out worn cartilage, caps the leg bones with metal and drops in a plastic spacer to allow the new joint to glide.
  • “But while these knee-replacement procedures have become standard, the prices charged have not.
  • “At Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, North Carolina, for example, the cost of the procedure under a Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan this year was about $16,000, according to data from Serif Health, a San Francisco start-up that collects recently released data from hospitals and insurers. Little more than an hour’s drive east, however, at Mission Hospital in Asheville, the cost of the procedure under the same health plan was around $40,000, or more than double, the data showed.
  • “Formed by the merger of the two largest hospitals in the region, Mission has little competition and more power to demand the higher price.
  • “The comparison between these two hospitals illuminates how large hospital systems created by a wave of U.S. mergers in recent decades can dominate the competition and push up health care costs. 
  • “While many factors affect the price of a medical procedure, hospitals with few competitors can charge more, health economists say.” * * *
  • “Over time, anyone who pays for health insurance pays a price for hospital monopolies, as insurers boost premiums as medical costs rise. The full cost for an employer to pay for an average family health insurance plan rose to more than $27,000 in 2025, up from $21,000 just six years ago, according to figures from KFF.”

• The American Medical Association adds,
  • “A report recently released by Resolve, a contract review and negotiation firm specializing in physician employment, draws on data from the thousands of physician contracts the firm handles to outline must-know trends nationally, as well as across regions, practice settings and more.
  • “The report shows that physicians’ base salaries grew roughly 2% to 4% per year, a growth rate down from years past, in which physicians were seeing increases of 5% to 6% per year. 
  • :And importantly, more of physician compensation comes in sign-on and retention bonuses than in past years, and it is increasingly tied to variable factors such as relative value units (RVUs), along with quality and other metrics.
  • “Physician compensation did not simply grow or shrink; it became more conditional,” the report’s authors noted.”