Weekend Update

David Ermer

I am an attorney who practices law in Washington DC. My practice has involved the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program since 1983.

Weekend Update

David Ermer–Congress, Federal employment benefits, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, U.S. Healthcare–

Happy International Women’s Day!

From Washington, DC,

  • Roll Call outlines Congressional activities for the week.
  • The New York Times reports that “Health Care Has Become the Lifeblood of the Labor Market.”
    • “An aging population is drawing workers to medical and social care, creating reliable jobs and revealing weakness for the rest of the economy.”
  • CNN adds,
    • “Hiring at US businesses unexpectedly plunged last month as employers shed an estimated 92,000 jobs, according to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    • ‘The unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4% from 4.3%.
    • “Economists were expecting job growth to slow somewhat after a surprisingly strong January – in part due a major labor strike by health care workers and a deep cold snap that hit many US states. The consensus estimates were for a net gain of 60,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to hold steady, FactSet estimates show.
    • “We had a labor market that nearly froze last year, and it seemed to show some signs of thawing, which made it slushy at best,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US, told CNN in an interview.
    • “February’s report, however, showed how precarious the US jobs market is when the supporting “one-legged stool” of health care is kicked out, she said. The health care industry, which has driven the vast majority of the job gains in the past year, posted a loss of 28,000 jobs (31,000 of which were likely attributed to the mid-month Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care workers strike [which recently ended).”
  • Federal News Network offers guidance on how FEHB/PSHP work together for federal and postal annuitants.

From the judicial front,

  • Healthexec tells us,
    • “An alleged conspiracy involving two drug suppliers and several doctors tied to the diversion and resale of nearly $50 million in medications has led to a series of guilty pleas, the U.S. Department of Justice from the District of New Jersey announced Tuesday [March 3].
    • “The two men who most recently pleaded guilty—Frank Incognito, 46, and Stephen Corba, 50, both from New Jersey—were the operations manager and owner of a wholesale drug seller, respectively. The name of the company was not revealed.
    • “According to prosecutors, the duo worked with doctors to resell cancer and ophthalmology medications, purchasing them from licensed distributors under false pretenses. Because Incognito and Corba were unable to buy the pharmaceuticals themselves, they relied on physicians to make “straw purchases” in exchange for kickbacks.
    • “The doctors would promise manufacturers the drugs were being purchased for their patients. Instead, they slipped them to Incognito and Corba, who then resold the medications on the black market at significant profit.” * * *
    • “Three physicians—Anise Kachadourian, MD; Jon Paul Dadaian, MD; and Joel Lerner, MD—previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy. The DOJ did not provide details about their sentencing status.” 

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • Virtual Capitalist informs us,
    • “West Virginia has the highest diabetes prevalence in the U.S., with 15% of adults diagnosed.
    • “Vermont reports the lowest rate at 7.7%, nearly half the level of the highest states.
    • “Many Southern states report rates well above the national average of 10.3%.”
  • Point-Counterpoint. The Washington Post reports,
    • “The miracle of rapid weight loss has always come with fine print. Until recently, it read mostly like a list of digestive complaints —stomachaches, constipation — generally unpleasant but tolerable and rarely severe. New research presented this month suggests the drugs may affect something more structural: bone.
    • “In an analysis of nearly 150,000 patients, researchers found that people taking GLP-1 medications faced a significantly higher risk of skeletal disorders.
    • “Over five years, the risk of osteoporosis — a disease that weakens bones and makes them brittle — was nearly 30 percent higher. The risk of gout, a painful inflammatory arthritis which results from needlelike crystals forming in the joints, rose 12 percent. And the risk of osteomalacia, a softening of the bones caused by a low mineral-to-bone ratio that was rarer in the study, increased by more than 150 percent.
    • “It was a lot more than I expected,” said John Gabriel Horneff, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.
    • “The data was presented this month at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ annual meeting and drawn from electronic health records contained in a national database.”
  • Evidently, according to Health Day, another perspective on this issue was presented at this conference.
    • “Treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) for type 2 diabetes and obesity is independently associated with a significantly increased five-year risk for osteoporosis, gout, and osteomalacia compared with nonuse, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, held from March 2 to 6 in New Orleans.
    • “Muaaz Wajahath, from the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in East Lansing, and colleagues evaluated the five-year risk for osteoporosis, gout, and osteomalacia in adults with both type 2 diabetes and obesity treated with GLP-1 RAs (semaglutide, liraglutide, dulaglutide, or exenatide) compared with matched controls (73,483 per group).
    • The researchers found that at five years, patients exposed to GLP-1 RAs had a significantly increased risk for osteoporosis compared with controls (4.1 versus 3.2 percent; risk ratio, 1.29). Gout incidence also was elevated among GLP-1 RA users (7.4 versus 6.6 percent; risk ratio, 1.12). Osteomalacia had the greatest relative risk increase, with a five-year incidence of 0.2 percent among GLP-1 RA users compared with 0.1 percent in the control group (risk ratio, 2.55). There was statistical significance for all differences in absolute and relative risk.”
  • Healio adds,
    • “Women who start early menopausal hormone therapy after menopause have a lower risk for osteoporosis over a 5-year period, according to data presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.
    • “We know that with the aging population, fragility fractures are going to be a real problem in the future, and HRT is protective and may decrease the fracture burden,” James M. Barsi, MD, clinical associate professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery at Stony Brook University, told Healio.”
  • MedPage informs us,
    • “A machine learning model for prediction of preeclampsia risk using routinely collected data was feasible, according to a retrospective cohort study of pregnancies in late gestation.
    • “Patients who developed preeclampsia were older and more frequently Black.
    • “The most informative predictor in the model was blood pressure.”
  • Medscape points out,
    • “Chronic rhinosinusitis may be linked to an increased risk for cancer, according to a study of patients in Asia. 
    • “The study found that chronic rhinosinusitis was linked to an 18% increased risk for cancer in Korean patients and a 63% increased risk for cancer in patients from Japan. The results provide the first large-scale evidence for an association between chronic rhinosinusitis and the risk for cancer, suggesting a possible role for cancer surveillance in patients with the inflammatory condition, researchers said.
    • “This study suggests that certain chronic inflammatory conditions may be associated with an increased risk of cancer development and could warrant heightened cancer surveillance, particularly in middle-aged and older populations,” Seong H. Cho, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida, said. “While the consistency across both Asian populations strengthens the validity of the findings, confirmation in the US and other Western populations is essential before broad global application.”

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

  • The Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Health Conference & Exhibition 2026 begins today in Las Vegas.
  • For example, Bloomberg informs us,
    • “Oura Health is buying a gesture-recognition startup, setting up the company to eventually add such controls to its popular line of smart rings.
    • “Oura said it is acquiring Helsinki-based Doublepoint Technologies Oy, which specializes in technology that allows users to control wearable devices with small hand movements using a combination of artificial intelligence and biometric data. The purchase will guide future versions of Oura’s smart rings, where hand gestures could play a central role to the experience, along with possibly voice control, Chief Executive Officer Tom Hale said in an interview. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues reports,
    • “Network Health, a Wisconsin-based insurer owned by Froedtert ThedaCare Health, grew 37% during this past annual enrollment period to 126,000 total Medicare Advantage members, its second consecutive year of record growth. The plan also posted a 98% member retention rate.
    • “The results make Network Health the second largest MA carrier in its 27-county service area, behind only UnitedHealthcare.” * * *
    • “One initiative that has distinguished Network Health nationally is its integration of Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs into its MA pharmacy network, making it one of the first plans in the country to do so when it first launched in early 2025. Ms. Dicus-Johnson [, the CEO,] said she first encountered Cost Plus Drugs four years ago and immediately wanted to bring the model to Network Health’s members. 
    • “Unlike coupon-based programs or out-of-pocket reimbursement models, Network Health built a fully electronic claims integration model with its PBM, Express Scripts, so prescriptions are processed in real time with no paper claims required. Mail-order benefits apply automatically, and eligible medications count toward members’ Part D accumulators.”
  • and
    • “Clover Health said it is the first health insurer to be live on a CMS-aligned network for patient-directed requests, according to a March 4 news release from the company.
    • “While CMS previously listed other payers as “early adopters” of CMS-aligned networks, a Clover spokesperson clarified the company was the first to fully integrate with a government-backed network. In this case, Clover integrated with Kno2, the patient information exchange. Kno2 is a qualified health information network under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, and it is also a CMS-aligned network.
    • “These networks are data exchanges that voluntarily follow CMS’ interoperability framework. By leveraging its AI physician-enablement platform Counterpart Health, Clover can respond to patient requests for claims and clinical data in real time, the release said.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review notes,
    • “Eight-four percent of primary care providers said they must play an essential role in meeting rising demand for mental and behavioral health treatment in the U.S, according to a Medscape survey published March 6. 
    • “The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Health Workforce data found the number of designated mental health professional shortage areas rose from 6,418 to 6,807 in 2025, increasing pressure on primary care providers to address patients’ behavioral health needs.” 

Notable Death

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • “Paula Doress-Worters, who helped break the silence on postpartum depression, dies at 87
    • “She co-wrote “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” a 1970s touchstone conceived by and for women. The book offered information about abortion, pregnancy and postpartum life.”
  • RIP.

Cybersecurity Saturday

David Ermer–Cybersecurity, Generative AI–

From the Iran War front,

  • Security Week reports,
    • “The Iranian APT MuddyWater has hacked into the networks of several organizations in the US, including an aerospace and defense contractor, Broadcom’s Symantec and Carbon Black threat hunting team reports.
    • “The threat actor has been present in the environments of an airport, a bank, a non-governmental organization operating in the US and Canada, and a software company with a presence in Israel.
    • “According to the Broadcom experts, the APT’s activity has continued “in recent days following US and Israeli military strikes on Iran that have sparked conflict in the region”.
  • Cybersecurity Dive adds,
    • “Pro-Russia threat actors have formed a loose coalition with Iran-nexus hacking groups in response to the bombing campaign launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran. 
    • “The groups began working together Monday under the #OpIsrael campaign, with a focus on targeting critical infrastructure and exfiltration of data, according to researchers at Flashpoint.” * * *
    • “Researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 estimate that about 60 threat actors, including Iran-nexus and Russia-aligned groups, might be involved in various levels of hacking activity since the bombing campaign began.”  
  • The American Hospital Association News tells us,
    • “The FBI is reminding critical infrastructure organizations to implement mitigations from a June 2025 fact sheet on potential actions by Iranian-affiliated cyber actors who may target U.S. devices and networks due to geopolitical tensions. The fact sheet explains how cyber actors often exploit targets with unpatched or outdated software with known common vulnerabilities or passwords.  
    • “In the context of the ongoing conflict with Iran, it is particularly important to ensure that we are implementing cybersecurity measures to defend against the known tactics used by Iranian state-sponsored hackers or pro-Iranian hackers acting independently,” said John Riggi, AHA national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “Besides seeking to exploit common vulnerabilities and default passwords, they also target internet-connected operational technology and industrial control systems. These systems may be present in hospitals in the form of HVAC, water, life-safety and building automation systems. It is recommended that cyber teams closely coordinate with facilities and building engineers to identify internet-facing OT and ICS systems, assess the need for internet connectivity and ensure they are patched and secure.”

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “The Trump administration published its new cyber strategy Friday [March 6], framing digital security in the context of broader geopolitical issues and promising to incentivize the private sector to identify and disrupt cyber adversaries.
    • “Compared with the Biden administration’s 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy, which ran more than 35 pages and detailed dozens of policy initiatives, the new document is far shorter at five pages and sets out broad principles for future policy decisions and priorities.”
  • Cyberscoop adds,
    • “The strategy “calls for unprecedented coordination across government and the private sector to invest in the best technologies and continue world-class innovation, and to make the most of America’s cyber capabilities for both offensive and defensive missions,” the White House said in a statement accompanying its release.”
    • “Trump also signed an executive order Friday directing agencies to take action to combat cybercrime and fraud.”
  • The Congress did not resolve the Department of Homeland Security shutdown this week.
  • Fedscoop reports,
    • “The Department of Homeland Security is undergoing an overhaul of its IT and information security leadership, with multiple sources telling FedScoop there is a broad realignment underway at the department to replace key technology leaders.
    • “FedScoop has learned that at least two DHS officials are being replaced: Chief Information Security Officer Hemant Baidwan and Deputy CISO Amanda Day. 
    • “The reorg among IT officials comes as other leadership is changing at the department. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will be leaving the position at the end of March. Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla, as her replacement.
  • Cybersecurity Dive adds,
    • “The confirmation prospects for Sean Plankey, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have dimmed further following Plankey’s unceremonious departure from a job at the Department of Homeland Security.
    • “Security personnel escorted Plankey out of a DHS facility on Monday, a person familiar with the matter told Cybersecurity Dive, confirming an incident first reported by CBS News. Plankey announced on Wednesday that he had left his job as a senior Coast Guard adviser to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, but he framed his departure as a voluntary one intended to help him focus on his nomination to serve as CISA director.”
  •  Per an HHS news release,
    • “Today [March 5], the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with MMG Fusion, LLC (MMG), a Maryland software company, concerning potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. MMG is a business associate as it receives protected health information (PHI) from HIPAA covered entities and its software is used to communicate directly with patients of covered entities.” * * *
    • “The settlement resolves an investigation that OCR initiated in March 2023 after receiving a complaint concerning an unreported security incident at MMG, and the posting of PHI on the dark web. OCR’s investigation determined that in December 2020, an unauthorized actor infiltrated MMG’s information system and accessed PHI [of 15 million people], including names, phone numbers, mailing addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, and dates and times of medical appointments.” * * *
    • “The resolution agreement and corrective action plan may be found at https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ocr-mmg-fusion-hipaa-agreement.pdf [PDF, 264 KB].”
  • Cybersecurity Dive informs us,
    • “An international coalition led by Microsoft and Europol has taken down the operations of Tycoon 2FA, a notorious phishing-as-a-service platform that helped cyber criminals gain access to millions of email accounts across the globe. 
    • “Microsoft obtained a court order from the U.S. District Court from the Southern District of New York to seize 330 active domains used to back the core infrastructure of Tycoon 2FA.
    • “Taking this infrastructure offline cuts off a major pipeline for account takeovers and helps protect people and organizations from follow-on attacks such a data theft, ransomware, business email compromise and financial fraud,” Steve Masada, assistant general counsel at Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, said in a blog post published Wednesday.” 
  • Bleeping Computer lets us know,
    • “The FBI has seized the LeakBase cybercrime forum, a major online forum used by cybercriminals buy and sell hacking tools and stolen data.
    • This seizure action is part of an international joint operation coordinated by Europol, known as “Operation Leak,” that involved law enforcement agencies in 14 countries.
    • On March 3 and 4, the FBI and law enforcement agents shut down LeakBase by seizing two of its domains, posting seizure banners, and warning LeakBase members of the seizure after collecting further evidence.” * * *
    • Today’s [March 4] announcement follows the disruption of RaidForums in 2022 and BreachForums in 2023, two cybercrime marketplaces that preceded it, as well as the BreachForums founder’s conviction and sentencing in 2025.
  • and
    • “A U.S. government contractor’s son, accused of stealing more than $46 million in cryptocurrency from the U.S. Marshals Service, was arrested Wednesday on the island of Saint Martin.
    • “The arrest was the result of a joint operation between the FBI and France’s elite Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Thursday.
    • “Last night, John Daghita – a U.S. government contractor who allegedly stole more than $46 million in cryptocurrency from the U.S Marshals Service – was arrested on the island of Saint Martin by the French Gendarmerie’s premier elite tactical unit in a joint operation with the @FBI,” Patel said.”
  • Cyberscoop points out,
    • “Russian national Evgenii Ptitsyn pleaded guilty to running the Phobos ransomware outfit that extorted more than $39 million from more than 1,000 victims globally, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
    • “Ptitsyn assumed a leadership role in the Phobos ransomware group in January 2022, yet his criminal activities began by April 2019, according to court records. He continued leading the cybercrime syndicate until May 2024 when he was arrested in South Korea. Ptitsyn was extradited to the United States in November 2025.
    • “Federal prosecutors dropped multiple charges against Ptitsyn as part of a plea agreement he signed last month. He faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy.
    • “Ptitsyn agreed to forfeit $1.77 million in assets and is required to pay at least $39.3 million in restitution, representing the full amount of his victims’ losses.

From the cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports on March 6,
    • “U.S. investigators believe hackers affiliated with the Chinese government are responsible for a cyber intrusion on an internal Federal Bureau of Investigation computer network that holds information related to some domestic surveillance orders, according to people familiar with the matter.
    • “The scope and severity of the intrusion aren’t known, and the investigation is in its early stages, the people said. Any preliminary conclusions could change as investigators gather more information. 
    • “If China is confirmed to be responsible for the breach, it would signal the latest intrusion by Beijing’s hackers of computer systems related to law-enforcement surveillance orders, which contain highly sensitive material.
    • “A notification sent in recent days to some lawmakers in Congress said the FBI began investigating the matter last month, the people said. The intrusion involved hackers accessing an unclassified system that contains information about the calls and internet activity of criminal suspects and others under government surveillance. Information in the system includes incoming and outgoing calls, IP and website addresses and some routing information, but doesn’t include the contents of calls or digital communication.” 
  • Cybersecurity Dive adds,
    • “A total of 90 zero-day vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild in 2025, according to a report released Thursday by Google Threat Intelligence Group.
    • “Of that total, almost half of the exploited vulnerabilities were used against enterprise-grade technology, marking an all-time high. 
    • “Exploitation from state-sponsored groups targeted networking and security tools with a strong emphasis on edge devices, which often lack endpoint detection and response capabilities, according to GTIG researchers. 
    • “China-nexus groups remain the most prolific state-sponsored groups, with a long history of detailed knowledge of vulnerable devices. 
    • “They have a significant zero-day development ecosystem that includes industry, academia, and government,” John Hultquist, chief analyst at GTIG, told Cybersecurity Dive.”
  • Bleeping Computer relates,
    • “TriZetto Provider Solutions, a healthcare IT company that develops software and services used by health insurers and healthcare providers, has suffered a data breach that exposed the sensitive information of over 3.4 million people.
    • “The firm, which has been operating under the Cognizant umbrella since 2014, disclosed that it detected suspicious activity on a web portal on October 2, 2025, and launched an investigation with the help of external cybersecurity experts.
    • “The investigation revealed that unauthorized access began nearly a year before, on November 19, 2024.’ * * *
    • “Affected providers were alerted on December 9, 2025, but customer notification started in early February 2026. According to a filing Maine’s Attorney General submitted today [March 6], the number of exposed individuals is 3,433,965.
    • “TriZetto says that payment card, bank account, or other financial information was not exposed in this incident. Also, the company is not aware of any cases where cybercriminals have attempted to misuse this information.”
  • CISA added seven known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.
    • March 3, 2026
      • CVE-2026-21385 Qualcomm Multiple Chipsets Memory Corruption Vulnerability
      • CVE-2026-22719 Broadcom VMware Aria Operations Command Injection Vulnerability
        • Cybersecurity News discusses the Qualcomm KVE here.
        • Bleeping Computer discusses the VM Aria KVE here.
    • March 5, 2026
      • CVE-2017-7921 Hikvision Multiple Products Improper Authentication Vulnerability
      • CVE-2021-22681 Rockwell Multiple Products Insufficient Protected Credentials Vulnerability
      • CVE-2021-30952 Apple Multiple Products Integer Overflow or Wraparound Vulnerability
      • CVE-2023-41974 Apple iOS and iPadOS Use-After-Free Vulnerability
      • CVE-2023-43000 Apple Multiple products Use-After-Free Vulnerability
        • The Hacker News discusses the Hikvision and Rockwell KVEs here.
        • Bleeping Computer discusses the Apple KVEs here.
  • Cyberscoop adds,
    • “Cisco released information on a pair of max-severity vulnerabilities in its firewall management software Wednesday that unauthenticated, remote attackers could exploit to obtain the highest level of access to the underlying operating system or on affected devices.
    • “The vulnerabilities — CVE-2026-20079 and CVE-2026-20131 — affect the web-based interface of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software, regardless of device configuration, the vendor said.
    • “Cisco disclosed the critical vulnerabilities one week after it warned that attackers have been exploiting a pair of zero-days in Cisco’s network edge software for at least three years. That campaign, which is ongoing, marked the second series of multiple actively exploited zero-days in Cisco edge technology since last spring. 
    • “Both campaigns prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to issue emergency directives months after the attacks were first detected, and both attack sprees were underway for at least a year before they were discovered.” 
  • and
    • “Google disclosed one actively exploited zero-day vulnerability Monday, warning that the high-severity defect affecting an open-source Qualcomm display component for Android devices “may be under limited, targeted exploitation.”
    • “The memory-corruption vulnerability — CVE-2026-21385 — which Google’s Androidsecurity team reported to Qualcomm Dec. 18, affects 234 chipsets, Qualcomm said in a security bulletin. Qualcomm said it notified customers of the vulnerability Feb. 2.
    • “Qualcomm declined to say when the earliest known instance of exploitation occurred, how many victims have been directly impacted, and what occurred during the 10-week period between the reporting and public disclosure of the vulnerability. 
    • “We commend the researchers from Google’s Threat Analysis Group for using coordinated disclosure practices,” a Qualcomm spokesperson told CyberScoop. “Fixes were made available to our customers in January 2026. We encourage end users to apply security updates as they become available from device makers.”
  • and
    • “North Korean threat groups are using artificial intelligence tools to accelerate and expand the country’s long-running scheme to get remote technical workers hired at global companies for longer durations, Microsoft Threat Intelligence said in a report Friday. 
    • “AI services are empowering North Korean operatives across the attack lifecycle. Attackers have turned AI into a “force multiplier” that bolsters and automates their efforts to conduct research on targets, develop malicious resources, achieve and maintain access, evade detection, and weaponize tools for attacks and post-compromise activities, researchers said.
    • “Microsoft said a trio of groups it tracks as Coral Sleet, Sapphire Sleet and Jasper Sleet are using AI to shorten the time it takes to create digital personas for specific job markets and roles. These groups frequently leverage financial opportunities or interview-themed lures to gain initial access.”
  • The Hacker News notes,
    • “Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new phishing suite called Starkiller that proxies legitimate login pages to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) protections.
    • “It’s advertised as a cybercrime platform by a threat group calling itself Jinkusu, granting customers access to a dashboard that lets them select a brand to impersonate or enter a brand’s real URL. It also lets users choose custom keywords like “login,” “verify,” “security,” or “account,” and integrates URL shorteners such as TinyURL to obscure the destination URL.
    • “It launches a headless Chrome instance – a browser that operates without a visible window – inside a Docker container, loads the brand’s real website, and acts as a reverse proxy between the target and the legitimate site,” Abnormal researchers Callie Baron and Piotr Wojtyla said.”

From the ransomware front,

  • The Record reports,
    • “The University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center said up to 1.2 million people had information leaked as a result of a ransomware attack on its epidemiology division last year. 
    • “Hackers accessed records containing Social Security numbers (SSNs) and driver’s license numbers collected from the Hawaiʻi State Department of Transportation as well as City and County of Honolulu voter registration records from 1998, according to a statement released by the organization last week.” * * *
    • “In January, the university sent a report to the state legislature that said the cyber incident was first discovered on August 31, 2025.” * * *
    • “Naoto Ueno, director of the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center, apologized for the incident last week and said the organization was “committed to transparency.” 
    • “The university said the attackers encrypted and likely exfiltrated data, prompting them to notify law enforcement and hire cybersecurity experts to resolve the situation. The cybersecurity firm obtained a decryption tool and secured “an affirmation that any information obtained was destroyed.”  
    • “University officials claimed there is “no evidence that any of the information has been published, shared or misused.” The group responsible for the attack was not identified.”   
  • Cybersecurity Dive relates,
    • “Identity has replaced malware as the biggest threat vector opening the door for ransomware attacks, Cloudflare said in an annual threat report published on Tuesday.
    • “Hackers’ increasing use of legitimate credentials, rather than malicious code, is making it harder for defenders to detect and contain their attacks.
    • “Cloudflare’s new report also discussed nation-state threat actors’ behavior and how artificial intelligence is changing attacks.”
  • Mobihealth News interviews Scott Doerr, virtual CISO, or vCISO, at Fortified Health Security, [who] previews his upcoming talk at the 2026 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exposition, where he will discuss how healthcare companies can strengthen their preparedness for ransomware attacks. 

From the cybersecurity business and defenses front,

  • Cyberscoop reports,
    • “CrowdStrike Holdings reported record earnings in the fiscal fourth-quarter, defying investor concerns about the rising use of agentic AI potentially curbing demand for cybersecurity software and services. 
    • “The Texas-based cybersecurity company said total revenue grew 23% on a year-over-year basis, to $1.31 billion in the quarter ended Jan. 31. 
    • “Annual recurring revenue, a closely watched metric among cybersecurity companies, grew 24%, to $5.25 billion. 
    • “The results come at a time of growing market anxiety about how AI adoption could render traditional software — including cybersecurity tools — obsolete. CrowdStrike executives acknowledged those larger industry concerns and noted the Q4 performance was a demonstration that certain companies were well-positioned to compete in the new marketplace.” 
  • ZDNet adds,
    • “Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google tools can automate code debugging. 
    • “But cybersecurity is too complex a problem for these tools to solve. 
    • “AI’s biggest contribution may be to reduce avoidable software flaws. 
  • Healthexec relates,
    • “In January, National Security Agency (NSA), released protocols for the U.S. Department of War to achieve “zero trust” security across the agency, meaning any access to the network must come from something continually inside it. While such a setup would be technically demanding for healthcare, the American Hospital Association (AHA) said it may be time for facilities to start moving in that direction.
    • “Zero trust security would mean radical changes for hospitals, where a countless number of devices have access to networks, including everything from EHRs to medical devices, to tablets and smartphones used for communication.
    • “What the NSA wants the Department of War to adopt is a system where no one gains access to a network from the outside, meaning no logins or passwords. In fact, even systems connected to the network from the inside are not automatically trusted.
    • “In other words, every user, device, and system must continually prove they are allowed access—and access is limited strictly to what’s necessary.
    • “The ethos of zero trust means that it’s assumed even the network itself isn’t safe, hence the continuous verification. Something like a two-factor authentication app displaying a constant active code would be required to log on.”
  • The AHA News adds,
  • SC World tells us,
    • “The 2026 Zero Trust World conference kicked off here Wednesday (March 4) with a particularly optimistic keynote by futurist and TV host Jason Silva and also featured a last-minute addition in the form of a talk by former White House CIO Theresa Payton.
    • “But it was the smaller sessions, including a dark-web primer and a live Security Now! podcast broadcast featuring cybersecurity veterans Steve Gibson and Leo LaPorte, that stole the show during the first day of ThreatLocker’s annual user conference.”
  • Tech Target explains “how to perform a data risk assessment, step by step.”
  • Here’s a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

Friday report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, COVID-19, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Obesity, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • Federal News Network reports,
    • “The U.S. Postal Service will run out of cash within a year unless Congress lifts a decades-old cap and allows the agency to borrow more money, the new postmaster general warned in an interview.
    • “If it doesn’t, the Postal Service might not be able to pay its employees or vendors by February 2027, with potentially dire consequences for mail delivery, Postmaster General David Steiner told The Associated Press.
    • “How long are employees going to work and vendors going to show up if we’re not paying them?” Steiner said in an interview on Wednesday.
    • “The postmaster general is scheduled to testify before Congress later this month about the Postal Service’s financial struggles and the need to change longstanding rules and regulations that he considers burdensome. He singled out the $15 billion cap on borrowing that has been in place since 1990.”
  • Per an HHS news release,
    • “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced $69.1 million in funding opportunities for three grant programs: the Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI), Implementing Zero Suicide in Health Systems (Zero Suicide) and Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT).
    • “Last month, I launched a comprehensive plan to strengthen prevention, expand treatment, and advance President Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “These grants will directly address the root causes of addiction — including homelessness and serious mental illness — and strengthen community safety by expanding treatment that prioritizes recovery, stability, and self-sufficiency.”
    • “Recovery is possible, and these investments help communities reach people earlier with the support and treatment that can change lives,” said Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery Kathryn Burgum. “By expanding access to evidence-based mental health services and strengthening community partnerships, we are helping more Americans find a path to healing and stability.”
  • STAT News adds in an editorial piece,
    • “In a political moment defined by division, it is telling that former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D) and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are attempting to find common ground on on one issue: the urgent need to take mental health and addiction seriously as national priorities.” * * *
    • “The urgency for our nation’s leaders to act is underscored by sobering data. Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death for young people. Anxiety and depression among adolescents have risen sharply over the past decade. Alcohol-related deaths continue to climb while overdose deaths remain high, particularly in communities already facing economic and health disparities. The economic toll of mental illness and addiction now reaches hundreds of billions of dollars annually — costs borne by families, employers, health systems, and taxpayers.
    • “In the discussion about this crisis, one fact is routinely overlooked: These conditions are often preventable in the first place. If the health secretary is serious about making America healthier, preventing behavioral health disorders is one place to start.”
  • Earlier this week, Blue Shield of California Paul Markovich and others launched a healthcare political movement called Worthy. Check it out.
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “Just over 56 million people are enrolled in Medicare Part D, with the share of those securing coverage through Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MAPD) plans growing alongside the overall program.
    • “As of 2026, 24.9 million people were enrolled in standalone Part D plans, according to a new analysis from KFF, while 31.4 million were in MAPD plans. By comparison, overall enrollment in 2006 was just 21.8 million, with 15.8 million of those individuals with just Part D coverage.
    • “The data for 2026 do reflect slight growth year over year in the number of people with standalone Part D, as 23.2 million were enrolled in just the prescription drug coverage for 2025.
    • “The report found that enrollment in non-group MAPD plans has steadily risen over the past several years, while sign-ups for non-group standalone prescription coverage has plateaued.
    • “Meanwhile, it’s the opposite story in employer group Medicare, according to the report. Enrollment in employer group MAPD plans fell from 3.9 million to 2.7 million between 2025 and 2026, while sign-ups for group Part D plans rose from 5.1 million to 6.3 million.
    • “This marks the first time enrollment in employer group MAPD coverage has declined, the KFF researchers said.
    • “The researchers note that this shift may be in response to the Part D premium stabilization program, instituted last year, which is applicable only in standalone prescription plans and not MA plans. In employer Part D plans, the program would afford $10 per member per month in additional subsidies.”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration’s controversial vaccines chief is leaving the agency.
    • “Dr. Vinay Prasad, who has led the FDA’s vaccines and biotech drugs division, will depart at the end of April, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said Friday. Federal health officials are searching for his replacement, Makary said.”
  • Per an FDA press release,
    • “Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration held a meeting with several states to discuss the section 804 importation program (SIP), which allows states and Indian tribes to import certain prescription drugs from Canada to significantly reduce the cost of these drugs to the American consumer. The gathering was the latest step toward the FDA’s implementation of President’s Trump’s executive order on lowering drug prices. 
    • “The meeting provided a forum to exchange information, with the goal of making it easier for states that have expressed interest in the program to obtain authorization without sacrificing safety or quality. Representatives from HHS and the National Academy for State Health Policy also participated.
    • “We are committed to lowering prescription drug prices for Americans, building on recent MFN wins,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. “We’re moving forward to implement the president’s executive order as we continue the crucial work of helping states and Indian tribes import reduced cost prescription drugs, while protecting public health and safety.” * * *
    • “Presentations from yesterday’s meeting are available for download at: Section 804 Importation Program Policies and Authorizations.”
  • The American Hospital Association News points out,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration March 5 issued a request for information seeking public comments on potential new standards for in-home opioid disposal products. The FDA said it is considering whether to require opioid sponsors to make in-home disposal systems available through dispensers. Comments are due April 6.”
  • BioPharma Dive tells us,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration has approved a regimen involving Johnson & Johnson’s antibody drugs Tecvayli and Darzalex for relapsed multiple myeloma less than three months after the drugmaker presented study data suggesting the combination could have curative potential.   
    • “The regulator reviewed the drug under its new “national priority voucher” program, which it used “proactively” following J&J’s release of the findings at the American Society of Hematology meeting. The approval issued Thursday was the third under that program, following that of an older antibiotic and a lung cancer treatment from Boehringer Ingelheim. The review took a total of 55 days, according to the FDA.
    • “The decision also converts Tecvayli’s authorization from a conditional, “accelerated” approval to full clearance that’s based on its ability to improve survival in early disease.”
  • Cardiovascular Business informs us,
    • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is sharing additional information about a series of recalls for certain electrophysiology (EP) and ultrasound catheters from Medline Industries. The agency emphasized that these devices should be destroyed immediately as opposed to being set to the side or returned to the manufacturer.
    • “Back in February, Medline Industries recalled several reprocessed catheters after discovering that they may contain small traces of residual material that could harm a patient. The catheters were originally made by a variety of vendors, but Medline Industries reprocessed the devices and then sold them again. Reprocessing single-use devices is a central component of the company’s business model, and it estimates this diverts more than 1 million pounds of waste from landfills each year. 
    • “Initial details about these recalls first appeared in an FDA database in February. However, this new advisory is the first time the agency has warned the public about these concerns.”

From the judicial front,

  • Govexec reports,
    • “A coalition of federal employee unions and other employee advocacy groups this week renewed their effort to block the implementation of President Trump’s plan to convert tens of thousands of federal workers into at-will employees who can be fired for virtually any reason, arguing that Trump exceeded his authority and violated federal law in advancing the policy.
    • “On Trump’s first day back in office last year, he signed an executive order reviving Schedule F, the abortive 2020 proposal to move feds in “policy-related” positions out of the competitive service and stripping them of most civil service protections, and renaming it “Schedule Policy/Career.” Final regulations implementing the policy are set to take effect next week, after which Trump is expected to sign an additional executive order formally converting the first tranche of positions into the new job category. Officials have estimated around 50,000 employees will be targeted for conversion.
    • “On Wednesday, the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the AFL-CIO, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Democracy Forward filed an amended complaint in their lawsuit challenging Schedule Policy/Career, which began in January 2025 in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, incorporating new details that arose in the 14 months that the administration has spent preparing to launch the new excepted service job category.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
    • “RSV activity started later than expected in most regions of the United States, though severity is not higher compared with recent seasons. This atypical season indicates that higher levels of RSV activity may continue into April in many regions. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations for RSV are highest among infants and children less than 4 years old. Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally. COVID-19 activity is decreasing nationally but remains elevated in some areas of the country.
    • “COVID-19
      • “COVID-19 activity is decreasing nationally but remains elevated in some areas of the country.
    • “Influenza
      • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally. Influenza A activity is decreasing in most areas of the country while trends in influenza B activity vary by region.
      • “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
    • “RSV
      • “RSV activity has started later than expected in most regions of the United States, though severity is not higher compared with recent seasons. This atypical season indicates that higher levels of RSV activity may continue into April in many regions. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations for RSV are highest among infants and children less than 4 years old.
    • “Vaccination
      • “RSV is a leading cause of hospitalization among U.S. babies.
      • “To help keep babies safe from severe RSV, babies younger than 8 months of age should get protection in their first RSV season (which usually starts in the fall) in one of these ways:
        • “The pregnant mother gets the RSV vaccine during pregnancy, or
        • “The baby gets an RSV antibody (nirsevimab or clesrovimab) just before the start of the RSV season or soon after birth, if born during the season.
      • “A CDC report showed that these protections are working. During the 2024–25 RSV season, infant RSV hospitalization rates were reduced by up to half compared to rates during seasons before when RSV prevention products were available.”
  • The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP relates,
    • “Children under two years of age hospitalized for COVID-19 are more likely to die or become seriously ill than babies with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), according to a study  published this week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 
    • “Babies can become sick and die from both respiratory viruses, even if they were healthy before becoming infected, according to the study, which was led by researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” * * *
    • “Although RSV immunizations were approved in 2023, they were not yet widely available during the study. Only 5.5% of babies age six to 23 months were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the study.
    • “Research shows that vaccinations for both RSV and COVID-19 are safe and effective. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends women receive a COVID-19 vaccine at any time during pregnancy and an RSV vaccine between the 32nd and 36th week of pregnancy. Both vaccines can protect newborns too young to be vaccinated. 
    • “For babies whose mothers weren’t vaccinated against RSV, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends newborns under 8 months receive an injection of lab-grown antibodies. The pediatric group also recommends babies age six to 23 months be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
  • The AHA News reports,
    • “The South Carolina Department of Public Health March 6 reported that the state’s measles outbreak is at 991 cases. The agency said the vaccination status of 925 cases is unvaccinated, 26 are fully vaccinated, 19 are partially vaccinated and the status of 21 cases is unknown. Additionally, the agency reported that more than 17,300 doses of the measles vaccine were administered statewide last month, a 70% increase compared to February 2025. Nationwide, 1,277 confirmed measles cases have been reported this year to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 5% of all cases have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.” 
  • USA Today relates,
    • “International travel often comes with vaccine reminders, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now warning travelers to ensure their polio vaccinations are up to date.
    • “The CDC issued a level 2 travel advisory on March 3, warning that poliovirus has been detected in multiple destinations within the past 12 months – including parts of Africa, the Middle East and Europe.” 
  • Healio tells us,
    • “In-hospital mortality was significantly higher for younger women vs. younger men after a first heart attack, with women receiving fewer cardiac procedures and having more nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors, researchers reported.
    • “A study evaluating trends in first MI outcomes, both STEMI and non-STEMI, based on sex was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.”
  • Health Day informs us,
    • “Regular cannabis users may be more likely to experience anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts than non-users
    • “Rates of generalized anxiety and major depressive episodes among Canadians have nearly doubled since 2012
    • “Younger people show the strongest cannabis-mental health link.
  • Genetic Engineering and BioTechnology News notes,
    • “According to a new Stem Cell Reports paper, scientists have demonstrated that targeted delivery of mRNA can restore sperm production and fertility in genetically infertile male mice without introducing permanent changes to the germline. Full details are provided in a paper titled “Messenger RNA delivery into Sertoli cells restores fertility to congenitally infertile male mice.” The study was done by a team of scientists from Kyoto University, RIKEN, and elsewhere.  
    • “The findings represent a step forward in efforts to develop therapies that may help people affected by infertility.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Healthcare Dive reports,
    • “The Mayo Clinic ended 2025 with income over 13% higher than the year before, as the nonprofit health system was buoyed by increased volumes and demand for healthcare services, according to earnings documents released this week.
    • “The Rochester, Minnesota-based nonprofit health system said increases in its outpatient, hospital and surgical volumes accounted for the rise in revenue compared to the year prior.
    • “Still, as revenues rose, so too did expenses. Mayo’s increase in volumes drove supply and services expenses up, contributing to an over 8% year-over-year increase in operating costs, according to the health system.”
  • Modern Healthcare adds,
    • “Many large health systems are on the upswing financially — at least for now.
    • “Health systems are seeing improved margins as they benefit from higher volumes, investment returns and technology-driven efficiency efforts. They are betting that a stronger balance sheet will help offset the coming reimbursement cuts. 
    • “Nonprofit health systems addressed these issues in quarterly and full-year earnings reports released over the past few weeks. Here are five key themes from those reports.
      • “Systems are strengthening their margins
      • “Investment income is driving profits
      • “Cash on hand is improving
      • “Non-labor expenses are climbing, and
      • “Systems are bracing for what’s ahead.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review tells us,
    • “Fairfield, Calif.-based NorthBay Health has signed a letter of intent to acquire Providence Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, Calif., a move that would expand the system to three hospitals.”
  • and
    • “Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems has signed a definitive agreement to sell four Arkansas hospitals to Freeman Health System for $112 million.” 
  • STAT News relates,
    • “Generic versions of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster Wegovy and Ozempic medications could be mass produced for about $3 per person per month, a cost that could greatly widen access in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new analysis.
    • “After reviewing data for active pharmaceutical ingredients from the past two years, the researchers estimated a generic version of semaglutide — the key ingredient in the Ozempic diabetes treatment and Wegovy weight loss drug — could be made for $28 to $140 per person a year and then sold at low prices once patents expire this year in several countries.
    • “Specifically, patents for semaglutide are due to expire starting later this month in India, China, Canada, Brazil, and Turkey, along with three other countries later this year, which is expected to spark distribution of generic versions. This is especially true of India, where numerous generic makers are based and are seeking new markets.
    • “The standard dose of semaglutide is 2.4 milligrams per week as an injection, which is the equivalent of 10 mg per month. This is a very small amount of drug, which is why the cost of production is so low,” said Andrew Hill, a University of Liverpool pharmacology professor, who has previously analyzed production costs for HIV, cancer, and hepatitis drugs. “These low prices open the door to worldwide access to an essential medicine.”
  • Fierce Pharma informs us,
    • “As nonprofit-governed Servier continues to make gains with its IDH-mutant glioma med Voranigo, the drugmaker is wading deeper into the rare oncology arena with a new M&A play. 
    • “Servier on Friday unveiled a definitive agreement to acquire Day One Biopharmaceuticals—a commercial-stage company developing targeted therapies for pediatric cancers and other diseases—for $21.50 per share in cash. The total value of the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, comes to roughly $2.5 billion, the companies said in a March 6 release.” 
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Blackstone Life Sciences is widening its presence in drug development, announcing Tuesday a $400 million commitment over four years to support Teva Pharmaceutical’s work on a late-stage gut disease drug likely to be in a hotly contested class.
    • “Per deal terms, if the drug, called duvakitug, gains Food and Drug Administration approval, Teva will owe a milestone payment to Blackstone, along with additional payouts and royalties based on commercial sales. Blackstone has signed similar deals with Moderna, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Autolus Therapeutics.
    • “Duvakitug is in Phase 3 clinical trials that will enroll more than 3,000 people with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease and follow them for up to 40 weeks. The deal will help subsidize Teva’s research and development spending, which topped $1 billion in 2025.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “MiniMed, Medtronic’s diabetes tech spinoff, made its debut on the public markets Friday. 
    • “The company started trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “MMED.” MiniMed offered 28 million shares priced at $20 each, for a total value of $560 million.
    • “The amount was below the $25 to $28 per share suggested by the company in filings last month.
    • “MiniMed has a market capitalization of about $5.29 billion, according to Yahoo finance.” 

Thursday report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, Congress, FDA, Generative AI, Medical / Rx research, Obesity, OPM, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • The House of Representatives today passed the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026 (HR 7744) by a 221 to 209 vote. The Senate , however, failed to invoke cloture on a similar bill (HR 7147) by a 51-45 vote (60 votes required), meaning the ongoing DHS shutdown will continue.
  • Per a Senate news release,
    • “U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today’s hearing on how the U.S. Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is improving health outcomes using patient health information.
    • “Click here to watch the full hearing.”
  • Govexec reports,
    • “The Trump administration will continue working to shrink the size of the federal workforce after already shedding more than 300,000 employees, a White House official said on Thursday, who suggested a leaner civil service will be more effective as a result of its reduced stability. 
    • “Continuing to reduce the size of the federal government and its workforce remains “priority number one,” Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director for Management Eric Ueland said at a government efficiency conference in Washington, adding it would contribute to the goal of tackling waste, fraud and abuse. He pledged that individual agencies would ensure consistent and transparent communication on their plans, so employees would at least have a clear roadmap of what is to come even if they disagree with the destination.” * * *
    • “Scott Kupor, the Office of Personnel Management [OPM] Director who also spoke at the panel, said his agency is not giving agencies any specific targets for workforce reduction.” * * *
    • “He added the needs of government will continue to grow, but agencies must find ways to add to their portfolios without adding staff.” 
  • Per an OPM news release,
    • “The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) today announced the launch of the Attorney Talent Network.
    • “The Attorney Talent Network enables attorneys from across the United States to connect directly with federal recruiters and explore career opportunities in the federal government. By joining the network, attorneys can make their resumes searchable, receive notifications about job openings, and be alerted to upcoming hiring events.” * * *
    • “Attorneys interested in joining can create or log in to their USAJOBS account, upload their resume, and opt in to share their profile with federal recruiters through the here.
    • “For more information or to join the Attorney Talent Network, click here.”
  • The American Hospital Association News tells us,
    • “The Departments of Health and Human Services and Education March 5 announced a new initiative to increase nutrition education in medical schools beginning this fall for the next academic year. The agencies announced commitments from 53 schools for the program, which will provide at least 40 hours of nutrition education or a 40-hour competency equivalent for medical students. HHS also announced $5 million in funding for a multi-phase education challenge by the National Institutes of Health to support medical schools, nursing residency, nutrition science and dietitian programs that integrate nutrition education into their curricula. Additionally, HHS said that Public Health Service officers will be required to complete nutrition-focused continuing education hours as part of their career development.”
  • Newfront offers RxDC reporting considerations for 2026 filings.
  • Per an AHIP news release,
    • “A new national survey finds American workers hold consistently positive views of employer-provided health care coverage, with nearly nine in 10 expressing satisfaction with their plans and strong majorities valuing the financial security and peace of mind their coverage provides.
    • “Employer-provided coverage is the backbone of our nation’s health care system, delivering high-quality, affordable health care and financial security to more than 180 million Americans. These findings confirm once again that Americans strongly value their employer-provided health coverage and want policymakers to support the longstanding partnership between employers and health plans,” said AHIP president and CEO Mike Tuffin.
  • Modern Healthcare points out,
    • “A health insurance industry-backed coalition is going after hospitals in a bid to capitalize on Washington’s bipartisan focus on affordability and rising healthcare costs.
    • “Better Solutions for Healthcare launched its “Hospital Watch” campaign last month. The organization’s website links to news articles and data that are unflattering to the hospital sector. A banner on the home page reads, “Shining a Light on Corporate Hospital Systems’ Role in Driving America’s Healthcare Cost Crisis.”
    • “The effort could prove well-timed. Over the past few years, Congress has focused on drug prices and pharmacy benefit managers — as has President Donald Trump — and on health insurance premiums and industry practices. Their attention may be shifting to providers.”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

  • The Wall Street Journal lets us know,
    • “Federal health officials, facing criticism from lawmakers for recent rejections of rare-disease drugs, attacked an Amsterdam-based biotech company seeking approval of a Huntington’s disease treatment and accused it of lying.
    • “The public criticism of Uniqure by officials at the Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Services department was unusual for agencies that normally shy away from commenting on products still under consideration.
    • “The attacks risk further angering members of Congress who have been pressing the Trump administration to be more open to approving rare-disease therapies, after FDA officials rejected or delayed some applications for approval of some new drugs.”
  • STAT News explains,
    • “Is it better to approve a drug with undetermined or debatable benefits that is later found not to be effective?
    • “Or, is it better to reject or block a drug with undetermined or debatable benefits that is later found to be effective?
    • “These are two fundamentally different regulatory philosophies. Peter Marks, the former FDA regulator of cell and gene therapies, was firmly in the “approve now” camp. He believed in maximal flexibility, one might even call it absolute permissiveness.
    • “If there was a chance a treatment could help a patient with a rare disease, even if the data were equivocal, Marks was willing to approve it. Rejecting that drug and later learning that it was effective is a far worse outcome, in Marks’ view.
    • “Vinay Prasad, Marks’ successor at the FDA, takes a maximalist approach in the other direction. He wants to approve drugs that work with certainty. The regulatory bar is high.
    • “Uncertainty — anything outside the statistical fence — is a disqualifier. For Prasad, approving a drug without proven benefit is false hope. Approving a drug that later ends up being ineffective is the worst outcome.
    • “Two regulators, two extreme regulatory philosophies, one replacing the other.
    • “The rare disease community is suffering whiplash. Drugmakers are frustrated. Investors are sitting on their wallets.”
  • Fierce Pharma reports,
    • “Since discontinuing its two branded versions of asthma inhaler Flovent at the start of 2024, GSK has still produced “authorized generic” versions of the treatment, which are the same products with different labels distributed by another firm.
    • “Now, true competition has finally arrived for GSK’s Flovent in the form of an FDA approval for Glenmark’s fluticasone propionate inhalation aerosol. The inhaled corticosteroid, which reduces inflammation in the lungs, is a maintenance treatment and can be used by patients ages 4 and older to prevent wheezing and shortness of breath.
    • “As the first company to gain FDA approval for a Flovent generic, Glenmark receives 180 days of exclusivity before other makers of generics can enter the market. Glenmark will begin distributing fluticasone this month, the company said in a release.”
  • Radiology Business reports,
    • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first artificial intelligence-powered imaging device for breast cancer surgery. 
    • “Manufacturer Perimeter Medical Imaging announced the news on Tuesday after earning premarket approval for “Claire” (formerly the Perimeter OCT B-Series). The product also has received Breakthrough Device designation, with it designed to enhance surgeon’s ability to detect difficult-to-see cancers during surgery. 
    • “This could potentially reduce the need for repeat operations and save excess healthcare costs, the company contends. 
    • “Repeat breast cancer surgeries due to residual disease remain a significant clinical, health and economic burden,” Perimeter CEO Adrian Mendes said in a statement March 3. “Claire’s FDA approval marks a major milestone in breast cancer care, as we advance our goal of reducing repeat surgeries so that no patient has to be told ‘we didn’t get it all.’”
    • “Mendes said the Dallas-based company plans to roll out the product nationwide in the coming weeks. Claire combines proprietary AI with wide-field OCT imaging, enabling high-res, real-time evaluation of excised tumor margins. The system purportedly can deliver 10 times higher resolution when compared to standard X-ray and ultrasound.” 
  • BioPharma Dive adds,
    • “PepGen is in a holding pattern on its request to include U.S. patients in a Phase 2 trial of a muscle disorder treatment after the Food and Drug Administration put a partial halt on the study.
    • “The agency did not raise any questions about the company’s data in patients with the condition known as myotonic dystrophy type 1, or DM1, instead focusing on previously submitted preclinical work, PepGen said Wednesday. Specifically, the FDA seems concerned about drops in blood pressure in a study of mice that have not been seen in humans, analysts wrote.
    • “PepGen said it’s working with the FDA to address the concerns as quickly as possible. The company is continuing its Phase 2 work elsewhere and recently got permission to open the “Freedom2” studyto patients in New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.” 

From the judicial front,

  • Per a Justice Department news release,
    • “Brad D. Schimel, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced today that Kinex Medical Company, LLC, agreed to pay $6,925,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare, TRICARE, and other federal programs.
    • “Based in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Kinex sells and distributes durable medical equipment, including knee, shoulder, and hip braces, to patients across the United States. After receiving information from a whistleblower, the United States investigated and alleged that the company submitted false claims to Medicare, TRICARE, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), and the Office of Workers Compensation Programs of the Department of Labor (OWCP). 
    • “Specifically, the United States alleged that from 2019 through 2024, Kinex provided patients covered by these programs with medical braces that the patients did not need and then billed Medicare, TRICARE, FEHBP, and OWCP as if the braces had been necessary. The United States also alleged that Kinex convinced the patients to accept the braces by waiving costs like patient co-pays and by giving the patients other equipment for free.
    • “In addition to paying nearly $7 million to resolve the allegations concerning these false claims, Kinex also entered into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), to ensure compliance with applicable regulations going forward.”
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may be nearing settlements with the remaining two pharmacy benefit managers involved in a lawsuit over insulin pricing.
    • “In a court filing (PDF) posted this week, the agency disclosed that it is making “significant progress” in talks with both CVS Health’s Caremark and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx on the heels of a broad settlement with Cigna’s Express Scripts.
    • “In late January, the FTC suspended the administrative case against Express Scripts, indicating a settlement was in the works. That settlement was later confirmed Feb. 4, with the PBM agreeing to a slew of changes to resolve allegations that it unlawfully and artificially inflated the price of insulin.
    • “In the filing, the agency pushed back the date for an evidentiary hearing and oral arguments in the case by 21 days, to late March, to allow for greater negotiation time.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • MedPage Today reports,
    • “Initiation of a GLP-1 receptor agonist was tied to lower risks of several substance use disorders (SUDs) in adults with type 2 diabetes, according to a target trial emulation using data on veterans.
    • “In patients without a history of any SUD, those who started a GLP-1 drug versus an SGLT2 inhibitor had a reduced risk of a composite outcome of all SUDs, including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, nicotine, opioid, and other SUDs (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.83-0.88), reported Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of the VA Saint Louis Health Care System, and colleagues.
    • “Benefits also extended to those with pre-existing SUDs, the researchers wrote in The BMJ.” 
  • The AAMC shares information about
    • GLP-1 pills for weight loss are here. How will they change obesity care?
  • and
    • What you need to know about the updated childhood vaccination schedule.
  • Cardiovascular Business informs us,
    • “A new implantable artificial intelligence (AI) device that modulates venous pressure to increase renal perfusion in diuretic-resistant heart failure patients was associated with positive 90-day data in the first-in-human RELIEF-FIH study. Researchers presented the data at the THT 2026 conference in Boston.
    • “The Relief System from Relief Cardiovascular is a first-of-its-kind device. The goal of the device is to better manage heart failure congestion at home. It is one of many new heart failure technologies aimed at finding new ways to reduce heart failure rehospitalizations, which are a major driver for healthcare costs.
    • “The Relief System incorporates a valve and sensor implant that uses AI to intelligently modulate venous pressure using hemodynamic data. The system actively adjusts flow in the inferior vena cava (IVC), which lowers venous pressure to drive durable decongestion in heart failure. It uses a daily transmission of hemodynamic data to adjust the valve through a cloud-enabled interface.”

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

  • Beckers Payer Issues reports,
    • “Excellus BlueCross BlueShield ended 2025 with a 1.4% operating loss totaling $108 million, as medical and drug claims climbed 16% year over year to nearly $7 billion. The insurer said March 5 the results are its largest annual claims increase in nearly 20 years.
    • “Last year, Excellus spent roughly $19 million daily on medical and drug benefits for its 1.5 million members. The company’s 2025 medical loss ratio was 92%, and it recorded a 2% net margin and $150 million in net income. Reserves closed the year at $1.7 billion, which is equal to less than three months of claims and operating expenses.
    • “Medicare Advantage drove most of the cost increase.”
  • and
    • “Three of four Regence health plans ended 2025 with operating losses as medical and drug costs climbed across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah, according to results published by the organizations on March 2.
    • “The Washington plan was the hardest hit. Regence BlueShield reported an operating loss of nearly 8% on total revenue of $2.38 billion and a net loss of 3.1%. The plan paid $2.17 billion in care for its fully insured members, with per-member costs rising more than 15% year over year. Total membership at the end of 2025 was 1.58 million.
    • “In Oregon, Regence BCBS posted a 1.3% operating loss on revenue of $3.18 billion, though investment returns pushed the plan to 1.5% net income. The plan paid $2.9 billion in care for fully insured members, at $6,022 per member, up 15% from 2024. Total membership was roughly 950,000 at the end of 2025.
    • ‘Regence BlueShield of Idaho also ran an operating loss, at 0.5% on revenue of $752 million, but finished with net income of 2.5% because of the strength of investment returns. Per-member costs rose more than 22%, the steepest increase among the four plans. The plan had more than 350,000 members at year’s end.
    • “Regence BCBS of Utah reported net income of 3.5% on total revenue of $1.45 billion, slightly above its 10-year average of 3%, driven by strong member retention and investment income. The plan paid $1.31 billion in care for fully insured members, with per-member costs rising nearly 5%. Membership held at roughly 740,000.”
  • The Commonwealth Fund tells us,
    • “Changing how we pay for primary care can incentivize clinicians to deliver the right care at the right time. Historically, clinicians have been retroactively paid a fee for each service they provide. Known as fee-for-service (FFS), this practice encourages clinicians to provide more services, rather than efficiently deliver comprehensive care. Although it can lead to more care, it may not lead to better health outcomes.
    • “Instead, we could use payment to encourage primary care clinicians to deliver appropriate, efficient care in coordination with other clinicians. An increasingly common way to do this — value-based payment (VBP) — ties clinicians’ payments to their performance on outcomes, including the cost and quality of care. Specific outcomes include the way clinicians manage patients’ chronic conditions or the minimization of avoidable hospitalizations. The evidence shows that changing how we pay for primary can improve patients’ outcomes, including reducing avoidable hospitalizationsand increasing access to coordinated care.
    • “Despite the promise of VBP, some primary care practices have been left behind, and their patients haven’t been able to benefit. Policymakers and payers are particularly worried about low participation among rural, small, and independent practices, as well as community health centers (CHCs) that face unique barriers to participation.
    • “In this blog post, we assess current rates of primary care physician (PCP) participation in VBP, using data from the 2025 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians. We also highlight opportunities to design value-based models to account for the needs of different practice settings, such as small or rural practices.”
  • STATNews relates,
    • “Digital chronic care company Omada reported a quarterly profit for the first time since going  public less than a year ago, the company revealed while announcing  its full year 2025 earnings Thursday. 
    • “Omada also provided earnings guidance for 2026, suggesting the company will continue to grow as it capitalizes on the demand for popular GLP-1 obesity medications.
    • ‘Omada earned $260 million in revenue in 2025, 53% more than the year before — above top-end preliminary results the company announced at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January. In August, shortly after it went public, it projected top-end earnings of $241 million for the year.
    • “Notably, the company reported $5 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2025 — the first time the company has turned a net profit. 
    • “We’re pretty ahead of schedule on a lot of positive financials,” Omada CEO Sean Duffy told STAT.”
  • Modern Healthcare tells us,
    • “CVS Health plans to launch a health technology subsidiary later this year that will offer an artificial intelligence-based platform designed to help consumers access healthcare information and services. 
    • “The platform will allow patients to find providers, compare costs of care and centralize their health records and information, CVS said. It also will make recommendations for the next steps of care for patients with chronic conditions and offer care management through a digital health portal between visits.
    • “The Health100 consumer platform, slated to launch midyear, will use agentic AI and be powered by Google Cloud technology, including Gemini AI programs.
    • “It will be rolled out first to CVS Health customers and not all features will be available upon launch, a spokesperson said. It will be expanded to other consumers, and outside providers and other companies can opt in to participate, the spokesperson said.”
  • Healthcare Dive adds,
    • “Amazon Web Services rolled out a suite of agentic artificial intelligence tools Thursday that aim to handle a range of healthcare tasks, like helping patients schedule appointments and summarizing medical data for clinicians. The product, called Amazon Connect Health, includes five capabilities: verifying patients’ identities; handling appointment scheduling; creating summaries of patient medical histories; creating clinical notes based on conversations between clinicians and patients; and generating medical codes from clinical documentation. 
    • “Amazon Connect Health should help patients more easily access care and assist with clinicians’ administrative work, according to Naji Shafi, general manager and director of healthcare AI at AWS. “Our healthcare workers are overburdened, drowning in administrative complexity, and it’s costing everyone,” he said.” 
  • Per Beckers Health IT,
    • “Optum is expanding its collaboration with Microsoft to introduce new AI-powered capabilities within Optum Real, a real-time claims platform designed to connect payers and providers and streamline reimbursement workflows.
    • “In a March 5 news release, the companies said the new capabilities combine Optum’s healthcare data and analytics expertise with Microsoft technologies including Azure, Dragon Copilot and Microsoft Foundry. The platform aims to give providers a unified view of clinical and operational data while helping teams identify coverage issues, automate documentation tasks and address prior authorization requirements earlier in the care process.”
  • Fierce Healthcare informs us,
    • “Eli Lilly has officially launched Employer Connect, its direct-to-employer platform for its obesity medications, after teasing the rollout late last year.
    • “The drugmaker said in an announcement that the program is aimed at supporting employer choice and enabling them to build the solution that works best for them and their workforces. It will launch with more than 15 independent program administrators as partners, which allows employers to select multiple models.
    • “Coverage for GLP-1s remains a key challenge for employers to navigate, as there is significant demand for the drugs that often come at a high cost. Within the program, Lilly will offer Zepbound KwikPen to network pharmacies at a discounted $449 price.
    • “What the patient ultimately pays could vary based on the employer’s cost sharing model and which partner they lean on, per the announcement.”
  • Fierce Pharma points out,
    • “Galderma has significantly raised its peak annual sales estimate for Nemluvio (nemolizumab) to more than $4 billion, doubling its previous projection of more than $2 billion. The update follows what CEO Flemming Ørnskov described as an “outstanding launch trajectory” for the inflammatory skin condition drug in its first full year on the market. 
    • “Driven by strong adoption in its existing indications of atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis (PN), Nemluvio posted $452 million in 2025 sales. Growth accelerated sharply in the second half of the year, with the period contributing $321 million to the total. It comes as real-world experience with the IL-31 receptor inhibitor exceeded initial expectations, Ørnskov said on Galderma’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.”
  • and
    • “After delivering solid sales growth in a difficult 2025, Germany’s Merck KGaA may have a tougher go of things this year, which the company is crediting in part to a predicted onslaught of U.S. generics to its multiple sclerosis blockbuster Mavenclad. 
    • Approved by the FDA in 2019, Mavenclad delivered its third straight year of blockbuster sales in 2025, charting nearly 17% growth over the previous year to 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) worldwide, Merck KGaA reported Thursday. In North America specifically, the drug reeled in 635 million euros ($735 million) last year, Merck noted in a detailed earnings report issued(PDF) March 5.” * * *
    • “[I]n an unfortunate turn for Merck, recent efforts to stave off Mavenclad patent challenges in the U.S. have fallen short, prompting the drugmaker to more or less throw in the towel on future growth for the MS med stateside. 
    • “In particular, Merck’s guidance for the year—anticipating sales between 20 billion euros and 21 billion euros, or -1% to 2% growth— “assumes no U.S. sales of Mavenclad from March 2026 amid generic competition.”  

Midweek update

David Ermer–AHRQ, CDC, CMS, Congress, COVID-19, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, NIH, Obesity, OPM, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • The Hill reports,
    • “The House on Wednesday advanced a GOP-backed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, an effort by Republicans to pressure Democrats to end the partial government shutdown in the wake of the U.S. launching strikes against Iran.
    • “The panel voted 211-209 to pass the rule, which tees up debate and a vote on the final passage of the measure. The bill is expected to pass the lower chamber on Thursday.”
  • Roll Call relates,
    • “The White House tentatively aims to release President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal the week of March 30, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the plan.
    • “That timing would put budget delivery some eight weeks after the statutory due date of the first Monday in February, though presidential budgets often miss that deadline.
    • “Office of Management and Budget staff couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.”
  • Federal News Network tells us,
    • “Agencies would make layoff decisions based more highly on federal employees’ performance, rather than how long they have been working in government, according to a new proposal from the Trump administration.
    • “If finalized, proposed regulations that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is expected to publish Thursday morning would reorder the factors that agencies consider when determining which employees to retain or remove during a reduction in force (RIF).
    • “When it comes to personnel decisions during RIFs, current federal regulations tell agencies to first look at employees’ tenure and length of service, before considering their performance ratings. The new proposed regulations seek to reverse that order, making employee performance the top priority.”
  • Per an OPM news release,
    • “The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today announced the launch of NASA Force, a dedicated talent track within the US Tech Force initiative designed to recruit and deploy the nation’s top engineers and technologists to support America’s space program.
    • “NASA Force will identify and place high-impact technical talent into mission-critical roles supporting NASA’s exploration, research, and advanced technology priorities, ensuring the agency has the cutting-edge expertise needed to maintain US leadership in space.”
  • Healthcare Dive informs us,
    • “Federal regulators received a record number of comments on their proposal to keep Medicare Advantage rates flat next year, Trump administration officials said Tuesday during an industry event, as insurers continue to lobby heavily for higher reimbursement.
    • “We appreciate all the input. I mean, obviously there’s been a little bit more input this year than we typically get,” John Brooks, the CMS’ chief policy and regulatory officer, said during the Better Medicare Alliance’s summit in Washington, D.C.
    • “In January, the Trump administration proposed an average rate bump of less than 0.1% for MA plans in 2027, along with tighter guardrails around how plans adjust for the health risks of their members.” * * *
    • “Regulators received almost 47,000 comments on the rule during the input period ended Feb. 25 — an all-time high, according to Brooks.
    • “In their comments, major MA carriers like UnitedHealth along with industry associations like the BMA and AHIP argued that the CMS ignored rising costs, resulting in a payment proposal underfunding MA.”
  • and
    • “The CMS innovation center is exploring more mandatory payment models as the Trump administration brainstorms how to get more providers to participate in value-based care, health officials said Tuesday.
    • “Mandatory models are going to have to be part of the equation,” CMMI Director Abe Sutton said at a conference hosted by value-based care advocacy group Accountable for Health.
    • “The CMMI tests ways of injecting more value-based care into federal programs through its models, which can be mandatory or voluntary. Mandatory models require all eligible participants — usually providers — to take part. Participants generally can’t exit the model before the testing period is up.
    • “That’s opposed to voluntary models, in which accountable care organizations or other actors can opt into participation.” * * *
    • “The CMMI started trialing more mandatory models during the first Trump administration, a direction that continued under President Joe Biden. Now, the second Trump administration is once again reiterating its support of expanded mandatory tests.”
  • Cardiovascular Business points out,
    • “The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a list 2,600 cardiologists who will be required to participate in a new Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM) payment model for heart failure starting on Jan. 1, 2027.
    • “CMS said the new program aims to improve prevention and upstream management of high-cost chronic diseases with an initial push in heart failure and lower back pain. The new payment model is an attempt to reduce avoidable hospitalizations and unnecessary procedures. Heart failure is a major driver of Medicare expenses, and currently costs the U.S. health system about $179.5 billion annually.[1]
    • “Participation in the ASM will be mandatory for certain specialists who commonly treat these conditions in Medicare patients in an outpatient setting. The ASM will begin on Jan. 1, 2027, and run for five performance years through Dec. 31, 2031.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review notes,
    • “For the third time since March 2025, HHS has postponed a planned meeting for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which provides clinical preventive health recommendations to Congress every year. 
    • “The USPSTF, which is a volunteer panel of national experts that was launched in 1984, usually meets three times a year. The group did not meet in July or in November of 2025, with the latter tied to a government shutdown. * * *
    • “An HHS spokesperson confirmed the March 2026 meeting’s postponement to Becker’s, adding that the meeting “will be rescheduled in the coming months.”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

  • BioPharma Dive reports,
    • “Food and Drug Administration officials are giving Prime Medicine new hope for a gene-editing treatment the company was forced to shelve last year.
    • “The therapy, PM359, is designed to treat chronic granulomatous disease, or CGD, a potentially deadly condition that leaves patients highly susceptible to bacterial and fungal infections. A study of two patients released last year suggested PM359 could correct the genetic anomaly that causes the disease, offering the possibility of a cure.
    • “But the condition is so rare that Prime opted not to continue development of the therapy amid a cash crunch. Even as it announced the promising early results, Prime said it would deprioritize PM359 and focus on other programs after cutting a quarter of its staff. On Tuesday, Prime said it now sees the possibility of approval based on the two-patient study alone.”

From the judicial front,

  • STAT News reports,
    • “For the fourth time, federal auditors have turned up improper or potentially improper Medicaid payments in every sample of autism therapy records they audited. This report, focused on Colorado, yielded the highest improper payment amount yet. 
    • “The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General uncovered $285.2 million in improper and potentially improper payments in 2022 and 2023 to clinicians who provide a popular form of autism therapy called applied behavior analysis, or ABA. The payments, administered under Colorado’s Medicaid program, come from the state and federal governments. 
    • “HHS OIG announced in 2022 it would conduct reviews of Medicaid payments to ABA providers in seven states. The first was Indiana, then Wisconsin, and Maine. ABA is a commonly used therapy for managing autism symptoms, but a 2022 STAT investigation found that a rapid influx of private equity investment in the industry has contributed to a crisis of providers routinely overbilling insurers while providing substandard treatment to vulnerable children and families.” 

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • Heard about a lot of people getting flu this winter but not much about covid?
    • It’s not just you. For the second winter in a row, the United States has faced a punishing flu season, with covid as a more muted threat.
    • Early in the covid pandemic, coronavirus proved far more transmissibleand deadly as it ripped through the world than the flu typically was. Flu was almost nonexistent that first pandemic winter in 2020-2021.
    • Now that SARS-CoV-2 is no longer a novel virus sweeping through a population with little immunity, covid and influenza illnesses are becoming more similar, with a key difference: Coronavirus circulates year-round and ticks up in the summer, when flu is gone.
    • “Does that mean flu is now the woe of the winter, and covid is the scourge of the summer? It’s complicated and too soon to say.”
  • The American Hospital Association relates,
    • “The U.S. maternal mortality rate fell to 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, statistically similar to the 2023 rate of 18.6 per 100,000, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC reported that the maternal mortality rate for Black women in 2024 was 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, significantly higher than rates for white (14.2), Hispanic (12.1) and Asian (18.1) women. 
    • “The AHA is committed to safeguarding mothers and babies by eliminating maternal mortality and reducing maternal morbidity. For more on members’ efforts, including case studies, podcasts, webinars and other resources, visit the AHA’s Better Health for Mothers and Babies Initiative webpage.” 
  • The New York Times tells us,
    • “The doctor kept hearing the same story from his patients. After taking GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and finally shedding those excess pounds, some had gone a bit rogue. They began spacing out the shots instead of injecting themselves every week.
    • “And it seemed to be working, said Dr. Mitch Biermann, an obesity and internal medicine specialist at Scripps Clinic in San Diego.
    • “By the time the third person told me they were taking it every second or third week and still maintaining their weight, I started recommending it to other patients,” he said.
    • “Dr. Biermann also conceived a study to test the strategy. Now the results of that research are in: After 36 weeks of follow-up, most of the patients who spaced out their GLP-1 injections kept the weight off and also maintained health benefits like reduced blood pressure and better blood sugar control.
    • “Only four patients gained weight after making the switch, and they quickly reverted back to weekly injections, the report said.
    • “The study was small, only 34 patients in a relatively homogeneous group — mostly white and privately uninsured. And it was done by analyzing their existing medical charts.
    • “Still, the research, published in February in the journal Obesity, provides a potentially appealing new option for patients who are loath to commit to lifelong weekly injections of a costly medication that may not be covered by insurance and that some fear could have unknown side effects.”
  • Medscape informs us,
    • “Viral and bacterial infections’ overlapping symptoms and signs can complicate RSV diagnosis and lead to unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.
    • “In this study, children who had RSV detected via a rapid antigen test had a 48% lower likelihood of receiving antibiotics within 14 days of diagnosis.
    • ‘Overall, 20% of the kids who tested positive for RSV received at least one antibiotic prescription compared with 40% of those testing negative.”
  • and
    • “Alzheimer’s brain changes progressed up to 20 times faster in women with Alzheimer’s and alpha-synuclein co-pathology compared with men, a cohort study showed.” * * *
    • “The findings suggest that when alpha-synuclein — a protein associated with Parkinson’s and other Lewy body diseases — accumulates alongside Alzheimer’s pathology, it may drive faster Alzheimer’s progression in women.”
  • Health Day points out,
    • “A frequently prescribed atrial fibrillation drug might interact with blood thinners
    • “Diltiazem had a higher rate of serious bleeding events when taken with blood thinners like apixaban or rivaroxaban
    • “Diltiazem interacts with enzymes that play a role in the metabolism of the blood thinners.”
  • Per an NIH news release,
    • “A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a versatile machine learning model that could one day greatly expand what medical scans can tell us about disease. Scientists used their tool, named Merlin, to assess 3D abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans, accomplishing tasks as simple as identifying anatomical features to as complex as predicting disease onset years in advance. Despite being developed as a general-purpose CT model, Merlin surpassed a gauntlet of similar automated tools in tasks they were specifically built to handle.
    • “The team trained their model on a unique set of patient CT scans linked to radiology reports and medical diagnosis codes collected from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers note that it is the largest collection of abdominal CT data to date.  
    • “Rich datasets like this are necessary to push the limits of what artificial intelligence models can accomplish in medicine,” said Bruce Tromberg, Ph.D., director of NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). “This work exemplifies how meticulously crafted training data can enable remarkable insights that significantly streamline workflows and assist in clinical decision-making.” 
  • Genetic Engineering and BioTechnology News adds,
    • “Life is governed by tiers of gene regulation, driven by modulation of RNA polymerase (RNAP) by transcription factors. The second tier is composed of cell signaling cascades and feedback loops. Dissecting gene regulation requires distinguishing transcription factor targets from indirect network effects. 
    • “A new study by The Rockefeller University published in Molecular Cell titled, “Cell-free genomics reveals fundamental regulatory principles of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcription cycle,” has revealed fundamental features of the transcription cycle in the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. The study informs the development of new drugs.
    • “Gaining a deep understanding of how transcription works reveals central principles in biology that have huge significance for human health,” said Elizabeth Campbell, PhD, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathogenesis at The Rockefeller and corresponding author of the paper. “We can more precisely design therapeutics to target a process if we truly understand it.” 

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Payer Issues reports,
    • “In recent months, payers across the country have tried tightening policies to get a better grip on evaluation/management coding.
    • “While payers often say the policies aim to control costs or combat fraud, these more restrictive policies are often met with provider backlash. [You will find in the article] three insurer policies from the past few months — and where they stand.
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “Even as its inpatient occupancy surged near the end of 2025, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital system said it has generally managed to avoid revenue-limiting capacity constraints and should continue to do so through 2026 even as its volumes grow. 
    • “HCA Healthcare, with its stock sitting at an all-time pricing high, pleased investors earlier this year when announcing a better-than-expected fourth-quarter performance and bullish 2026 guidance despite hundreds of millions in expected headwinds due to changes in Medicaid policy. 
    • “But, while that quarter’s same-facility equivalent admissions rose 2.5% over the prior year, in line with expectations, its inpatient surgeries remained flat while its outpatient surgical volume dipped by about 1.5%. At the same time, its hospitals were filled to about 73% to 74% capacity, a historical high point that could place strains on the operating efficiency of hospitals pulling the average upward.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review tells us,
    • “Grand Forks, N.D.-based Altru has acquired CHI St. Alexius Health Devils Lake (N.D.) — a 25-bed critical access hospital — from Chicago-based CommonSpirit. The hospital is now known as Altru Hospital Devils Lake, according to a March 2 Altru news release. 
    • “This transition represents an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve,” Altru CEO Todd Forkel said in the release. “Over the next several months, we will be expanding services and enhancing care offerings to better meet the needs of this important community.” 
    • “Altru is also in the process of acquiring three more hospitals from CommonSpirit. In January, Altru signed a nonbinding agreement to acquire CHI St. Alexius Health in Bismarck, CHI St. Alexius Health Turtle Lake and CHI St. Alexius Health Garrison (N.D.). If finalized, the move would expand Altru’s footprint further west in North Dakota.
    • “CommonSpirit is also in talks with Pittsburgh-based UPMC to sell Trinity Health System — a three-hospital network based in Steubenville, Ohio. CommonSpirit CFO Michael Browning said on the system’s March 2 investor call that both deals, if approved, could close in 2026.”
  • and
    • “Academic health systems posted a wide range of operating performance in 2025 and early fiscal 2026, with margins spanning from negative territory to double digits. While strong investment returns buoyed bottom lines at many organizations, core operations remain under strain from rising labor, supply and drug costs.
    • “Across these systems, operating margins spanned from -2.6% to 10.7%, highlighting the uneven financial recovery taking shape in academic healthcare. Many organizations saw stronger net income driven by investment returns and nonoperating gains, even as core operating performance remained thin. Expense growth — particularly labor, supplies and drug costs — continues to pressure margins, while scale, integration and restructuring efforts are increasingly shaping financial trajectories across academic healthcare.
    • “{The article shows] how 12 major academic and nonprofit systems stack up based on their most recent financial reports. 
  • Health Day informs us,
    • “Telemedicine appointments aren’t only more convenient, but actually save money for both patients and health care systems, a new study says.
    • “Telemedicine visits are five times less costly than in-person appointments for the most common conditions, researchers recently reported in JAMA Network Open.
    • “On average, telemedicine patients are billed $400 less, researchers found, and are less likely to need follow-up visits after their first appointment.
    • “Before we did this study, there was a common concern that telemedicine might serve only as an easy source of ‘first aid,’ just delaying in-person care and increasing costs overall,” said co-senior researcher Dr. David Asch, senior vice president for strategic initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.
    • “But we found that wasn’t true, and our work suggests that for many patients, telemedicine can be a complete solution, not just a temporary band-aid,” he said in a news release.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “The primary growth drivers in Bayer’s pharma sector—Nubeqa and Kerendia—are performing even better than the company anticipated and their momentum is expected to continue in 2026. But that won’t lead to growth of Bayer’s pharma business overall this year as two contraction drivers—Xarelto and Eylea—are working in the opposite direction. 
    • “This will be the last year of the sector’s “resilience phase,” Bayer’s pharma president Stefan Oelrich said during a quarterly conference call, which will set it up for growth in 2027.”
    • “In a way, Bayer’s pharma business is the company in a microcosm. As the German conglomerate absorbs massive litigation charges related to its disastrous acquisition of Monsanto a decade ago and eyes a potential $7.25 billion settlement of Roundup lawsuits, a rebound is finally in sight.”
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “Eldercare company Papa is rolling out a new program that leans on its existing companion care services to support quality improvements for health plans.
    • “Called Papa Plus, the company’s network of vetted “Pals” will be able to provide key services that insurers need in addition to their work in addressing social needs of members. These tasks could include assisting a member in scheduling a key wellness visit and then accompanying them to the appointment, providing support after hospital discharge or helping an individual use a telehealth visit.
    • “This builds a direct engagement channel to some of the most vulnerable—and least reachable—patients, Papa said in the announcement, which was shared exclusively with Fierce Healthcare.”

Tuesday report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, Congress, FDA, Generative AI, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Mental health care, OPM, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • The Hill reports,
    • “Top Democrats are whipping against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill expected to come to the floor this week, even as Republicans press them to support it in the wake of the U.S. attacks on Iran. 
    • “The White House and Democrats have been locked in an impasse over a deal to reopen DHS, as the minority party calls for the administration to overhaul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal agents.” 
  • Per a CMS news release,
    • “Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Medicare.gov Enhanced Login options. By providing people with Medicare these options, Medicare.gov is helping users better manage their health care information by delivering more login choices. People with Medicare do not need to create an account to access general Medicare information or their individualized Medicare information. If someone chooses to create an account, Medicare is providing new and free options with enhanced security to help protect their Medicare information.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues adds,
    • “Medicare Advantage plans looking to maintain no-premium models could face 50% cuts to supplemental benefits and $1,000 more in older adults’ cost exposure in 2027, according to February reports commissioned by health insurance trade association AHIP.
    • “Wakely Consulting Group conducted the research. The groups evaluated how CMS’ proposed 0.09% 2027 payment increase for MA would play out for insurers and their beneficiaries. AHIP sent the findings to CMS in a Feb. 25 letter.”
  • The Paragon Health Institute notes,
    • “The [Medicare] primary base hospital payment rate for inpatient services—known as the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) operating base rate—has increased by 30 percent since 2016, mainly because of statutory formulas.  The outpatient services base rate—known as the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) conversion factor—has increased by 26 percent since 2016, also mainly because of statutory formulas. Meanwhile, the physician base payment rate—known as the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) conversion factor—has declined by 7 percent over the same period.
    • “The declining PFS conversion factor and the rising hospital base rates are not an accident but a result of policy choices made by Congress.” * * *
    • “To reduce distortions, hospital payments in Medicare should be subject to similar fiscal sustainability pressures as physician payments. Policymakers should consider proposals that address distortions and, in particular, site neutral payment policies that equalize payments for the same services across all providers.” 
  • Per an Institute for Clinical and Economic Review news release,
    • “The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today posted a Special Report on Entyvio® (vedolizumab, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.) for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. This report will be submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of the 2026 public comment process defined in CMS guidance on Medicare Drug Price Negotiations for price applicability year 2028. 
    • “Downloads: Final Report
    • “Over three million people in the United States suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Our special report focuses on the medical evidence for and value of Entyvio, which is commonly used to treat both conditions,” said ICER’s President and CEO Sarah K. Emond, MPP. “We recognize that our report will be one of many inputs CMS may consider, and we hope that it will support their ongoing efforts to build a reliable, value-based, transparent drug price negotiation process on behalf of the American people.”
  • Per an OPM news release,
    • “The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) today announced Kurt Dykstra as General Counsel.
    • “Dykstra is an accomplished attorney with nearly three decades of experience handling complex workforce issues, regulatory compliance, internal investigations, and governance. His career spans corporate law, higher education, financial services, and public service, including leadership roles as a law firm shareholder, university counsel, college president, bank executive, mayor, and Major in the US Army Reserve.
    • “As OPM’s Chief Legal Officer, Dykstra will lead the Office of the General Counsel and advise the director and agency leadership on legal and policy matters.
    • “Kurt is a proven leader with the judgment and experience to help guide OPM through complex legal and workforce challenges,” said OPM Director Scott Kupor. “He understands how strong governance, accountability, and sound legal strategy support effective government. I am confident his leadership will help ensure OPM continues to serve federal employees and the American people with integrity and excellence.”
  • The Wall Street Journal relates,
    • “Patient Advocate Foundation and Patient Access Network Foundation merged, creating a nonprofit with over $800 million in assets.
    • “Kevin Hagan is chief executive of the combined Patient Advocate Foundation, which aims to serve patients facing rising costs.
    • “The combined foundation will launch a TotalAssist program in July and offer more than 130 disease-specific financial assistance funds.”

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

  • STAT News reports,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration has been talking a big game about bringing artificial intelligence to patients. In January, when it announced relaxed rules for certain AI products, Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency is “developing a new regulatory framework for AI.” 
    • “How the agency will regulate rapidly-evolving uses of generative AI is one of the big questions facing health technology developers. Large language models’ wide-ranging applications evade simple measures of safety and efficacy, challenging the FDA’s longstanding approach to device validation — and the agency has yet to authorize a device that relies on generative AI. But a recent breakthrough designation from the FDA could offer hints about its approach to regulating patient-facing chatbots that fall under its purview. 
    • “In November, the FDA quietly handed one of its breakthrough device designationsto a chatbot for patients recovering from joint replacement surgery. Under development by RecovryAI, which is coming out of stealth as it announces the designation, the LLM-powered device would be prescribed to patients to use in the 30 days after surgery. It will encourage them to check in twice a day about their sleep, activity, diet, and other elements of recovery, answering questions and escalating to a care team when necessary.” 
  • Radiology Business adds,
    • “An artificial intelligence-enabled tool capable of accurately predicting an expectant mother’s delivery date has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s De Novo clearance. 
    • “Ultrasound AI—a company that specializes in medical imaging AI applications—on Monday announced the clearance of its flagship Delivery Date AI technology. The product is a cloud-based software as a medical device that predicts delivery dates using ultrasound imaging alone. This could help to better prepare both patients and providers for potential complications, reducing the likelihood of preterm birth. 
    • “It was trained on a diverse dataset of over 1 million ultrasound images and evaluated via a peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. The study, which included nearly 6,000 patients, determined AI could achieve an accuracy of 0.92 R² value for predicting the day a mother would deliver her child using only standard ultrasound images. 
    • “Delivery Date AI can be easily integrated into most ultrasound systems. Ultrasound AI indicates that installation takes just a few minutes and offers organizations scalability while also potentially reducing long-term costs by improving maternal outcomes.” 
  • Per an FDA news release,
    • “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the issuance of 30 warning letters to telehealth companies for making false or misleading claims regarding compounded GLP-1 products offered on their websites. 
    • “It’s a new era. We are paying close attention to misleading claims being made by telehealth and pharma companies across all media platforms—and taking swift action,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. “Compounded drugs can be important for overcoming shortages or meeting unique patient needs—but compounders should not try to compound drugs in a way that circumvents FDA’s approval process.”
    • “This is the second group of warning letters sent to telehealth firms since the agency launched in September a crackdown on misleading direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertisements. Over the past six months, the agency has sent thousands of letters warning pharmaceutical and telehealth firms to remove misleading ads, more than had been sent over the entire preceding decade.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals has asked the Food and Drug Administration for an urgent meeting to discuss why the agency rejected a cell therapy for a post-organ transplant malignancy, the company said Tuesday, following claims by partner Atara Biotherapeutics that the agency contradicted its previous guidance.” * * *
    • “The regulatory dispute over Ebvallo is one of a series of recent squabbles between drugmakers and the FDA related to previous agreements on approval standards. On Monday, UniQure learned it will have to conduct another trial of a Huntington’s disease gene therapy. Last month, the agency initially refused to review a flu vaccine from Moderna before quickly changing course.”

From the judicial front,

  • Medical Economics tells us,
    • “Advanced analytics and multi-agency coordination are shortening investigative timelines and expanding parallel civil FCA, criminal, administrative, and state litigation exposure from a single operational issue. 
    • “Enterprise-level FCA theories are emphasizing systems, governance, and vendor relationships, with sustained focus on managed care, prescription drugs, and medically unnecessary services. 
    • “Medicare Advantage risk adjustment scrutiny is extending to incentive design, retrospective addenda, chart review vendors, and documentation tools that may be construed as rewarding coding intensity. 
    • “Telehealth platforms face continued controlled-substance risk despite extended prescribing flexibilities, with enforcement targeting clinical legitimacy, marketing representations, cross-state compliance, and decision-making controls. 
    • “Cybersecurity and privacy failures are becoming enforcement multipliers via FCA cyber-fraud theories, CCPA actions, and HIPAA tracking-technology scrutiny involving adtech and analytics data sharing.”
  • STAT News reports,
    • “Moderna has agreed to pay Roivant up to $2.25 billion to settle claims that the mRNA vaccine developer infringed on Roivant’s patents in its Covid-19 shot.
    • “Roivant will receive $950 million and then another $1.3 billion if Moderna’s attempts to have parts of its liability offloaded to the federal government fail upon appeal. If the full amount is paid, it will be among the largest patent settlements in history. 
    • “It is probably the largest ever,” said Jacob Sherkow, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
    • “The settlement comes less than a week before the two companies were set to go to a jury trial in Delaware, where legal experts say Moderna may have faced an uphill battle.\

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • To live long, be strong.
    • That’s the poetic implication of a new study of longevity and mortality in a large group of women aged 63 to 99.
    • “In the study, published in February in JAMA Network Open, researchers checked the women’s health, fitness, grip strength and lifespans. By analyzing that data, they hoped to tease out the importance of muscular strength for healthy aging.
    • “The results “were a bit of a surprise,” said Michael J. Lamonte, lead author of the study and a professor of epidemiology and healthy aging at the University of Buffalo in New York. Strength turned out to be a key — and singular — contributor to longer lives, he said, reducing the risk for early death by a third or more, even when the researchers took into account people’s aerobic fitness, health, age and exercise habits.”
  • The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about cystic fibrosis.
  • MedPage tells us,
    • “A meta-analysis found that women lost more weight than men while taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist.
    • “Biological differences, such as estrogen levels and body composition, may explain why women respond more to these agents.
    • “Weight loss was consistent across many other patient subgroups broken down by age, race and ethnicity, body mass index, and HbA1c.”
  • and
    • “Lithium carbonate might have slowed decline in verbal memory in a pilot study.
    • “However, the treatment did not meet a prespecified threshold for the trial’s primary outcomes.
    • “Earlier research suggested lithium may offer neuroprotective benefits in Alzheimer’s and dementia.”
  • Genetic Engineering and BioTechnology News points out,
    • “Immune monitoring is useful to monitor processes like vaccination and during diseases like infectious disease, cancer, and autoimmunity. However, detection of antigen-specific lymphocytes is challenging given that are low in frequency and have a dispersed distribution.
    • “Now, the first bandage-like, painless, microneedle patch that can sample the body’s immune responses from the skin has been developed. The device detects inflammatory signals within minutes and collects specialized immune cells within hours without the need for blood draws or surgical biopsies.
    • “The study appears in Nature Biomedical Engineering in the paper, “Leveraging tissue-resident memory T cells for non-invasive immune monitoring via microneedle skin patches.”
    • “The patch is helping researchers and clinicians study immune responses in aging and skin autoimmunity, including vitiligo and psoriasis. In the future, it could make it easier to track how people respond to vaccines, infections, and cancer therapies by complementing traditional blood tests and biopsies while being far easier on patients.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Shares of Aardvark Therapeutics lost more than half their value after safety worries led the biotechnology company to halt testing of its most advanced drug prospect. 
    • “Aardvark said Friday that, “out of an abundance of caution,” the company has voluntarily paused dosing and enrollment in a Phase 3 trial of ARD-101, an experimental drug it’s been developing for the rare genetic disease Prader-Willi syndrome. According to Aardvark, trial monitors detected “reversible cardiac observations” during a routine safety check in a study of healthy volunteers.” 
  • and
    • “Kyowa Kirin will stop all trials of an eczema drug once seen as a possible future blockbuster, claiming a new safety review has led the company to believe that the treatment’s risks may outweigh its benefits.
    • “In a Tuesday statement, the company said a planned evaluationconducted by the company and former development partner Amgen in recent weeks unearthed “emerging concerns of malignancies” related to treatment with a therapy known as rocatinlimab. These concerns included one new confirmed case and another suspected case of Kaposi’s sarcoma, a cancer that forms around skin lesions.”
    • “The findings suggest a potential link between onset of the cancer and the drug’s mechanism of modulating an immunogical pathway called OX40. While the overall number of cases is below expected background rates, the “characteristics” involved “raised a plausible biological concern that cannot be excluded,” the company said.
    • “All studies will be discontinued after study participants complete their required safety follow-up visits, Kyowa Kirin added.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Hospital Review relates,
    • “Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic recorded an income from current activities of $1.5 billion (6.8% margin) in 2025, up from $1.3 billion (6.5% margin) in 2024.”
  • and
  • and
    • “Nacogdoches County Hospital District in Nacogdoches, Texas, unanimously approved a new lease agreement with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare on Feb. 27, The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel reported March 2.
    • “The 15-year lease agreement designates Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital and Cecil R. Bomar Rehabilitation Center as campuses of Nacogdoches Medical Center. Tenet, which operates Nacogdoches Medical Center, will assume daily operations of Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital.”
  • and
    • “Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and Ascension are planning competing freestanding emergency departments in Fairview, Tenn., a fast-growing community in western Williamson County.”
  • Fierce Healthcare tells us,
    • “Health systems interested in preserving their operating margins will need to be proactive in addressing a growing minority population responsible for an outsized share of care utilization: patients with multiple chronic conditions. 
    • “In a newly released analysis of 2025 claims data, Vizient found that 11% of the U.S. population with multiple chronic conditions accounted for 52% of inpatient admissions. These patients also represented 35% of emergency department visits and 32% of office visits.
    • “To put it another way—compared to those without any chronic disease, these patients have about 10 times more inpatient admissions and ED visits, as well as six times as many office visits. Further, ED and office visits among those with multiple chronic conditions are projected over the next decade to grow at nearly double the rate of those with a single chronic condition, who are also higher care utilizers.
    • These patients pose a major financial challenge for providers due to their unfavorable payer mix. Specifically, Vizient found that 72% of inpatient admissions for those with multiple chronic conditions were covered by Medicare and another 10% by Medicaid. 
  • and
    • “Grow Therapy, a hybrid mental health provider, has clinched $150 million to build out physician and employer relationships.
    • “The series D round was led by TCV and Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with participation from new investors BCI and Menlo Ventures. 
    • ‘Physicians and employers are newer customer types for Grow but have been the focus of the platform’s growth over the past five years. The capital will also be used to strengthen the tech powering Grow and enhance the user experience for patients, therapists and other partners.
    • “Grow has amassed a range of partners that today includes 125 payers, provider groups like Circle Medical, health systems like Kaiser Permanente and employers. Primary care docs are of particular focus to Grow right now, given they deliver 60% of the nation’s mental healthcare.” 
  • MedTech Dive informs us,
    • “RadNet has struck a 230 million euros deal to buy radiology artificial intelligence company Gleamer.
    • “The takeover, which the companies disclosed Monday, gives RadNet control of devices that are used in more than 25 indications and are forecast to generate about $30 million in annualized recurring revenue this year.
    • “Buying Gleamer will expand the capabilities RadNet acquired through the DeepHealth buyout in 2020, particularly in X-ray, and accelerate its expansion outside the U.S. Gleamer will be integrated into DeepHealth, a full-owned subsidiary of Radnet.”

Monday report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, Congress, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Patient safety, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • Govexec reports,
    • “Republicans are renewing their push to fully fund and reopen the Homeland Security Department, suggesting the war the United States launched against Iran over the weekend has heightened the need to end the single-agency shutdown that entered its third week on Monday. 
    • “House Republicans will bring up another vote on a DHS appropriations bill this week, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., announced, saying it was dangerous for Democrats to continue holding up the funding due to concerns over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown. 
    • “The legislation would “end the DHS shutdown so we can ensure agencies can protect America during this dangerous time,” Scalise said, noting the FBI has warned of an elevated threat of terrorist activity domestically.” * * *
    • “Most of the department’s employees have continued to work during the shutdown, with only about 8% of the workforce home on furlough. Many employees, such as law enforcement and other personnel at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, are receiving their normal paychecks thanks to funding Congress provided in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Others, such as Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency workers, have started to receive partial paychecks or will do so this week. The U.S. Coast Guard is paying its uniformed personnel on time, but civilians will face delayed pay.” 
  • Healthcare Dive relates,
    • “The American Medical Association is overhauling how U.S. doctors report and bill for pregnancy services, bulldozing the current system of bundled payments and replacing it with more granular, itemized codes next year.
    • “The changes, shared exclusively with Healthcare Dive, could help improve poor maternity health outcomes in the U.S. But it’s also an acquiescence to specialty groups, which have long lobbied the powerful medical association that modern obstetric services are more complex than the current coding system is able to reflect.
    • “The move also represents a step back for value-based care, and could incentivize OB-GYNs and other doctors to provide unnecessary medical services at a time of skyrocketing health spending.
    • “But the changes shouldn’t result in OBGYNs, nurse-midwives or other maternity care specialists bringing in more revenue, according to the AMA, which argues the new coding system will benefit the entire healthcare industry.” * * *
    • “Global codes are normally billed when a baby is delivered, which can keep insurers in the dark about their members’ pregnancies. The new codes should give insurers more information, including when a member gets pregnant, that could help them ensure expecting mothers get adequate prenatal care, or know if mothers had complications during delivery that could necessitate follow-up services, according to Dr. Daniel Halevy, an executive at New York nonprofit insurer Healthfirst.”
  • and
    • “Sweeping reforms in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this month, included changes that could upend the traditional PBM model, while also turning attention back to drugmakers.” * * *
    • “With PBMs’ bargaining power facing stricter limits under the new reform [which takes effect later this decade to allow for necessary rulemaking], questions surrounding pricing could shift in a new direction.
    • “Be ready for the spotlight to swing back to drug manufacturers,” said Jesse Dresser, a partner in law firm Frier Levitt’s life sciences department and head of its pharmacy practice group.
    • “As PBMs lose traction in the coming years, the pressure on drugmakers to justify their own list prices could intensify.
    • “Now, the argument is going to be that PBMs have been handcuffed, limiting their ability to use some of these abusive tools,” Dresser suggested. “So, it’s going to be up to the drug manufacturers to make sure they’re taking the appropriate steps and not continuing in the old paradigm now that there should be a shift in financial incentives.”
  • Bloomberg Law reports,
    • “A group representing thousands of pharmacies across the US said its members are experiencing financial issues after the rollout of the government’s drug price negotiation program, urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to immediately address cash flow concerns.
    • “A letter from the National Community Pharmacists Association is asking CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz to ensure pharmacies receive timely payments under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, finding in a survey that its members are facing cash flow issues after dispensing certain drugs and waiting for a refund from the manufacturer. 
    • “We need CMS to take all necessary steps to expedite the manufacturers’” refund payments to pharmacies, Ronna Hauser, senior vice president of policy and pharmacy affairs for NCPA, said in the letter to the CMS sent Thursday. “Pharmacies cannot continue to dispense these drugs with delayed payments unless the cash flow issues significantly improve.”
  • Per an Employee Benefits Research Institute news release,
    • “Rising health care costs are affecting household finances for many privately insured adults, with 4 in 10 reporting higher expenses in the past year and many cutting discretionary spending or reducing retirement contributions, according to results from the 2025 EBRI/Greenwald Research Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey (CEHCS) released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
    • “Employment-based coverage remained the dominant source of private insurance, with 6 in 10 covered through their own job. Deductibles also remained widespread across plan types: More than three-quarters of enrollees had a medical deductible, including 70% of traditional plan enrollees. Enrollment in high-deductible health plans dipped slightly in 2025, while enrollment in consumer-directed health plans and health savings accounts (HSAs) appeared relatively stable.
    • “The annual survey also found that most enrollees spent relatively little time selecting coverage during open enrollment, with about half spending less than an hour reviewing options and most spending under two hours. While most adults reported being satisfied with the ease of plan selection and the information available, satisfaction with the availability of affordable plan options and the number of plans to choose from declined in 2025.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues tells us,
    • “CMS is sanctioning Elevance Health and plans to suspend enrollment into the insurer’s Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans, according to a Feb. 27 agency letter.
    • ‘The enrollment and communications pause is set to begin March 31 unless Elevance submits all data corrections and an attestation in advance. CMS said the intermediate sanctions stem from “substantial and persistent noncompliance with Medicare Advantage risk adjustment data submission requirements.” The sanctions will apply until Elevance resolves the issues.”
  • Per a Labor Department news release,
    • “The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced [February 26] a proposed rule designed to help workers and employers better understand how to determine when a worker is an employee and when the worker may be classified as an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act and related federal laws. 
    • The proposed rule would rescind the department’s 2024 final rule addressing the classification of independent contractors and replace it with an analysis for employee classification similar to the one adopted by the department in 2021. Consistent with Supreme Court and federal circuit court precedent, the proposed rule would make it easier to properly differentiate between employees with the protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act and those workers who work as independent contractors.” * * *
    • “The department encourages all interested parties to submit comments on the proposed rule, which has a 60-day comment period that closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on April 28, 2026.” 

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

  • BioPharma Dive reports,
    • “Ascendis Pharma said Friday the Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to a treatment it’s developed for the most common type of dwarfism, ending what had been a monopoly for rival drugmaker BioMarin Pharmaceutical. 
    • “The new drug, previously known as TransCon CNP and now Yuviwel, is a once-weekly injection cleared for children aged two and older with achondroplasia and open growth plates. The treatment will compete with Voxzogo, a daily shot sold by BioMarin.”
  • MedTech Dive relates,
    • “Abbott has won approval for updated remote heart failure monitoring technology, the company said Friday.
    • “The Food and Drug Administration awarded approval to CardioMEMS Hero, a new version of the device that patients use to take daily pulmonary artery pressure readings.
    • “Abbott has made Hero smaller and 60% lighter than the previous reader, fitting the electronics into a device the size of a laptop case to make it easier to use and take on planes.”
  • and
    • “Unomedical, a subsidiary of Convatec and a supplier of insulin infusion sets to diabetes tech firms, received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration in January.
    • “Inspectors raised concerns with leaking infusion sets, which can pose a risk of insulin under-delivery, potentially leading to life-threatening complications like diabetic ketoacidosis.  “Regulators called for Unomedical to address problems with validating its devices, addressing complaints and providing timely adverse event reports to the FDA.
    • “The warning letter followed a remote regulatory assessment of Unomedical’s facility in Reynosa, Mexico, last summer.”

From the judicial front,

  • Bloomberg Law reports,
    • “The Justice Department said it won’t appeal the decision of a New York federal judge to throw out a murder charge against Luigi Mangione, which means he won’t face the death penalty if he’s convicted of killing UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson.
    • “US District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled in January that prosecutors can’t pursuethe capital murder charge, but that a jury could determine if Mangione caused Thompson’s death under two federal stalking laws. If convicted of those crimes, he could face life in prison without possibility of parole. 
    • “In a one-page letter Friday to Garnett, a Justice Department lawyer said prosecutors won’t challenge the judge’s decision.” 

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • The American Hospital Association News reports,
    • “A report published March 2 by the American Cancer Society found that colorectal cancer rates among adults 65 and older continue to decline while rates for younger adults continue to increase. The study found that the increase is being driven by a higher prevalence of rectal cancer, which now makes up 32% of all colorectal cancer diagnoses, up from 27% in the mid-2000s. The study also projects 158,850 new cases of colorectal cancer in the U.S. in 2026, and that 55,230 individuals will die from the disease. Nearly one-third of deaths are estimated to be younger than age 65.” 
  • Cardiovascular Business tells us,
    • “Patients with type 2 diabetes who use GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) and make healthy lifestyle choices can significantly lower their risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, according to new data published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.[1]
    • The study’s authors explored data from more than 98,000 participants from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Million Veteran Program. These individuals were enrolled from 2011 to 2023. 
    • “Lifestyle habits explored in this analysis included getting a recommended amount of exercise, not smoking, sleeping well, drinking minimal alcohol, properly managing stress, connecting with others socially and avoiding opioids. Overall, adults on a GLP-1 RA and following six to eight of these healthy habits was associated with a 43% lower risk of experiencing a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) than those not taking GLP-1 RA or adhering to these habits. When adults followed all eight habits, meanwhile, the risk was approximately 60% lower.
    • “In addition, those using a GLP-1 RA had a 16% lower MACE risk than those who did not use a GLP-1. 
    • “Our findings underscore that, even in the era of highly effective GLP-1 pharmacotherapy, lifestyle habits remain central to diabetes management and cardiovascular risk reduction and can substantially amplify the benefits of modern medications,” corresponding author Frank Hu, MD, PhD, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement.”
  • Contemporary OB/GYN informs us,
    • “The quadrivalent HPV vaccine is associated with a significantly reduced risk of invasive cervical cancer that persists for at least 18 years after administration.
    • “Vaccination before the age of 17 provides a 79% lower risk of cervical cancer, while those vaccinated at age 17 or older also experience significant long term risk reductions.
    • “Population level data shows that school based vaccination cohorts have significantly lower rates of invasive cervical cancer compared to earlier opportunistic vaccination cohorts.”
  • MedPage Today points out,
    • “The location and amount of brain microbleeds that a person has could be telling of their risk of dementia, according to an observational analysis.
    • “Compared with controls with no cerebral microbleeds detected on MRI, there was an increased dementia risk in older people with:
      • “Mixed subcortical and lobar microbleeds (HR 1.99, 95% CI 1.40-2.83)
      • “Lobar-only microbleeds, with or without cortical superficial siderosis (HR 1.96, 95% CI 1.30-2.97)
      • “Any cortical superficial siderosis (HR 2.57, 95% CI 1.36-4.89)
    • “Participants with three or more cerebral microbleeds of any pattern also had an increased risk of dementia (HR 1.92, 95% CI 1.35-2.72), as did peers with at least two subcortical microbleeds, according to Rebecca Gottesman, MD, PhD, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues.
    • “Their report, based on the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities-Neurocognitive Study, was published in Stroke.
  • and
    • “Chronic migraine patients who used GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat conditions like obesity or diabetes had fewer emergency department (ED) visits than those on topiramate (Topamax), a real-world data analysis showed.
    • “Compared with topiramate users, GLP-1 drug initiators were 10% less likely to visit the ED over the following year (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.86-0.94), reported Hsiangkuo Yuan, MD, PhD, of Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, in an abstract released ahead of the American Academy of Neurologyopens in a new tab or window annual meeting.”
  • The Wall Street Journal asks whether Multi-Cancer Blood Tests Are Ready for Prime Time?
    • Early detection tests are already on the market, but without FDA approval or proof they reduce deaths some doctors urge caution
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Roche’s experimental pill fenebrutinib hit its main goal in a second Phase 3 trial in the most common form of multiple sclerosis, helping treatment recipients experience significantly fewer relapses than study volunteers who got Sanofi’s Aubagio, the company said Monday.
    • “However, Roche also reported a case of severe liver side effects in one enrollee who got fenebrutinib in the study. It also revealed a higher number of deaths among people who took its therapy in the two Phase 3 trials in relapsing MS, which prompted one analyst, Michael Leuchten of Jefferies, to question the drug’s approval prospects. Analysts have forecasted peak sales of more than 3 billion Swiss francs, or $3.8 billion, for fenebrutinib, Leuchten wrote.
    • “Fenebrutinib is part of a new crop of “BTK inhibitors” that drugmakers are now positioning as potential autoimmune disease treatments. The effort has yielded multiple setbacks in MS, though, as the Food and Drug Administration recently rejected a BTK drug from Sanofi, and other developers like Merck KGaA and Biogen have given up on prospective drugs.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Payer Issues reports,
    • “UnitedHealth Group has named Dennis Stankiewicz as chief accounting officer, effective March 2. 
    • “Tom Roos, who has served as CAO since 2015, has been named CFO at Optum Insight, the company said in regulatory filings.”
  • Healthcare Dive adds,
    • “UnitedHealth executive and former Optum leader Heather Cianfrocco is leaving the company, according to a post on LinkedIn.
    • “Cianfrocco was promoted to executive vice president of governance, compliance and information security at UnitedHealth in May, after serving for a year as CEO of Optum, the company’s health services arm. Patrick Conway, the former CEO of Optum Rx, replaced Cianfrocco.
    • “Cianfrocco is departing UnitedHealth after serving in a number of executive positions, including as CEO of Optum Rx and chief of UnitedHealthcare’s community and state division. “After 24 years, I am saying goodbye to the team at UnitedHealth Group,” she said in a post on LinkedIn. “I am leaving with so much pride in what we have accomplished together.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review notes,
    • “According to data gathered by Becker’s, Parkland Health and Hospital System [in Dallas, Texas] saw the highest number of emergency department visits in 2025. 
    • “The figures [shown in the article] represent the number of ED visits at individual hospital facilities, rather than the total visits across entire health systems. These self-reported totals were provided directly by hospitals.
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “Healthcare technology companies DoseSpot and Arrive Health have merged to combine an electronic prescribing platform with medical and pharmacy benefits data to advance real-time medication price transparency for providers and patients.
    • “The new company, called Interra Health, combines Arrive Health’s coverage and pricing network with DoseSpot’s e-prescribing capabilities to support prescribing decisions and help patients access the right medication at the lowest cost, according to the companies.
    • “Bain Capital Tech Opportunities is backing the deal and will serve as majority owner. PSG, the former majority owner of DoseSpot, will be a minority owner. Additional minority investors include Providence and UPMC Enterprises.
    • “The combined company is profitable, growing at approximately 40% annually and projected to exceed $100 million in revenue in 2026, executives said.”
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Privately held Candid Therapeutics will merge with Rallybio in a deal to take the inflammatory disease drugmaker public, the companies said Monday.
    • “The new entity will operate under Candid’s name, and trade on Wall Street under the ticker “CDRX.” As part of the deal, Candid raised $505 million from more than a dozen venture capital firms and mutual funds including Venrock, RA Capital Management and Janus Henderson Investors.
    • “Candid is developing bispecific antibodies known as T-cell engagers it acquired in two deals with Chinese biotechnology firms in 2024. One of Candid’s central goals is to show it can advance drugs that are similar to cell therapies targeting B cells, but easier to manufacture and administer. While bispecifics research has largely focused on cancer, startups like Candid — and even some pharmas — are now testing the applicability of these drugs against autoimmune conditions.”

Weekend update

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Obesity, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • Roll Call previews Congress’s agenda for this week here.
  • Of note,
    • Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
    • 10:00 AM (EST) – Senate | 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
    • Meeting: Hearings to examine transforming health care with data, focusing on improving patient outcomes through next-generation care.
    • Meeting Details
  • Per a February 27, 2026, HHS news release,
    • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced the appointment of two new members to the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
    • The two new members are:
      • Sean G. Downing, M.D., physician specializing in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and
      • Angelina Farella, M.D., pediatrician and owner of A Brighter Tomorrow Family Health and Wellness in Webster, Texas.

From the judicial front,

  • Per a February 27, 2026, Justice Department news release,
    • “Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates located in Atlanta, Georgia, has agreed to pay $4.75 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by receiving kickbacks in exchange for referrals of gastrointestinal pathology services and by performing certain gastrointestinal pathology services that were not medically reasonable or necessary.
    • “The United States alleged that beginning in approximately May 2017, Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates contracted with Advanced Pathology Solutions (APS), a pathology laboratory located in Little Rock, Arkansas, to construct and operate a limited-capacity pathology laboratory in Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates’ office. Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates received various benefits from APS in connection with the setup and ongoing operations of the in-house lab, in which histology technicians prepared and stained specimen sample slides and Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates billed Medicare and other insurers for the technical component of those services. In exchange, Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates agreed to exclusively refer patients to APS, which interpreted the slides and billed for the professional component of the services. The United States alleges that the benefits provided by APS to Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates were unlawful remuneration in exchange for patient referrals.” * * *
    • The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • Health Day reports,
    • “Some Great Value cottage cheese products sold at Walmart are being recalled because they may not have been fully pasteurized, Saputo Cheese USA said.
    • “The recall affects select cottage cheese products made between Feb. 17 and 20, and sold in the following states: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported.
    • “No illnesses or hospitalizations have been reported so far.
  • Medscape tells us,
    • “Age-adjusted rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality tripled from 3.4 to 10.34 per 100,000 people between 1999 and 2023 among US adults with obesity, with higher rates observed in men, older adults, non-Hispanic Black adults, and in the South.”
  • and
    • “Most Americans with obesity perceive themselves as only having overweight regardless of race or ethnicity, whereas experiences of weight stigma and bias differ across White, Black, and Hispanic groups with obesity, new research found.
    • “Clinicians need to know their patients, understand them from a cultural and racial perspective, and tailor treatment plans to align with their expectations and needs. This will improve motivation, engagement, and adherence,” study author Rodolfo J. Galindo, MD, Director of the Comprehensive Diabetes Center, Lennar Medical Center, University of Miami Health System, told Medscape Medical News.
    • “Obesity medicine physician scientist Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, told Medscape Medical News that the new findings add “an important, clinically relevant nuance that weight stigma is not monolithic and that experiences and attitudes can differ meaningfully across racial/ethnic groups among adults living with obesity.”
  • The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish patients knew about social isolation.
  • Medscape informs us,
    • “Can agnostic therapies revolutionize precision oncology? Are we ready to treat cancer without looking at the organ? For decades, cancer has been told as a story of organs: lungs, breast, colon, etc. Each diagnosis implied a predictable therapeutic path. In recent years that map has begun to blur, and in oncology clinics it is increasingly common for specialists to focus less on the patient’s cancer type and more on the molecular alteration driving its growth. The idea is to concentrate on the molecular footprint rather than the organ — a shift that is transforming precision oncology.”
  • and
    • “Described for the first time in the 1940s, lipedema has long been misunderstood, often mistaken for common obesity or lymphedema and frequently treated as a cosmetic issue. This has produced chronic underdiagnosis, stigma, and fragmented care.
    • “But that picture has changed structurally with the recent publication of the Lipedema World Alliance’s first international consensus on the definition and management of lipedema, based on the Delphi method.
    • “Specialists from 19 countries contributed 59 consensus statements covering definition, pathophysiology, diagnosis, impact on quality of life, therapeutic strategies, and future research directions. Rather than offering definitive solutions, the document provides a shared starting point for clinicians, researchers, and policymakers.”
  • Fierce Pharma points out,
    • “The treatment landscape for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) could be due for a shake-up following dual breakthroughs from Merck’s Litespark clinical trial program for Welireg. Data being presented at the 2026 American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium suggest that adding Welireg to other existing drugs significantly improves outcomes for patients at two distinct stages of their cancer journeys.
    • “For advanced ccRCC patients whose cancer has recurred following previous immunotherapy, a combination of Welireg (belzutifan) and Merck’s Eisai-partnered Lenvima (lenvatinib) significantly reduced patients’ risk of disease progression or death by 30% compared with Exelixis’ Cabometyx (cabozantinib), according to results from the Litespark-011 trial.
    • “Separately, in patients with resected ccRCC at an increased risk of recurrence following surgery, by adding Welireg to Merck’s standard Keytruda, investigators achieved a 28% reduction in the risk of the patients’ cancer returning, according to data from the Litespark-022 study.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The Healthcare Cost Institute reports,
    • “Hospital outpatient care is a large and growing component of the health care spending equation among ESI [employer sponsored insurance] enrollees. There is a disconnect between the most common reasons for hospital outpatient visits and the drivers of spending. Diagnostic tests, imaging, and evaluation and management visits accounted for more than 75% of visits in 2022, but these three categories represented just 39% of spending, which was largely driven by imaging procedures. Meanwhile, major surgeries and minor procedures accounted for 34% of spending despite being only 8% of visits.
    • “Site neutral payment policies are one approach to curbing the growth of hospital outpatient spending. These policies require providers to charge the same amount for a service regardless of whether it was performed in a hospital outpatient department or a less intensive setting like a doctor’s office. Site neutral payments could reduce the amount of money spent on imaging and evaluation and management visits, but may not be appropriate for major surgeries like joint replacement.
    • “Hospital outpatient services are also nearly three times more expensive in ESI than in Medicare. Policies that aim to align Medicare and ESI payments for outpatient care may be more suited to addressing the drivers of cost like outpatient surgery and other higher intensity procedures. Payment parity policies can also impact lower-cost, high-volume services like mammography and diagnostic testing. Effective approaches to addressing outpatient hospital costs will require creativity and a blended approach that accounts for the wide spectrum of care delivered in this setting.”
  • Healthcare Dive relates,
    • “For-profit hospital operator Universal Health Services expects to increase admissions and hit long-standing growth targets in its behavioral health unit this year, executives said on a fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.
    • “Executives said 2026 would be the year its behavioral health unit achieved 2% to 3% growth in adjusted patient days — a number the system has struggled to hit as it tries to address lagging growth at its behavioral facilities. The system initially expected to hit that target last year, but deferred due to challenges with labor and staffing.
    • “Still, executives said they anticipate multiple headwinds this year, including losses from the lapse of more generous subsidies in Affordable Care Act plans and a new staffing law in California.”
  • BioPharma Dive tells us,
    • “UniQure lost nearly half a billion dollars in market value Thursday, as comments made by the head of the Food and Drug Administration appeared to stoke investor fears that the company’s most advanced research project won’t be approved in the U.S.
    • “Shares of UniQure dropped more than 30% shortly after FDA Commissioner Martin Makary appeared on CNBC to defend the agency’s approach to approving rare disease therapies. The agency has come under fire for multiple delays and regulatory setbacks involving these medications. Makary, though, said critics have been searching for a “boogeyman” to blame for recent rejections, when the bottom line is that some of these therapies just haven’t been proven effective.
    • “He mentioned, as one example, how the FDA was pressured to approve a product that’s injected into the space surrounding the brain, through a burr hole drilled into patients’ skulls.
    • “Makary didn’t name any company, but that didn’t stop some investors from interpreting his remarks as a reference to UniQure’s “AMT-130,” a gene therapy for Huntington’s disease administered via burr hole.
    • “Wall Street analysts noted that Makary might not have been talking about UniQure * * *.
    • In any case, what’s notable from Makary’s appearance is his “steadfast defense” of the FDA, “which is discouraging for those hoping that the agency can be convinced to reconsider recent negative decisions, in the absence of specific political pressure,” wrote Paul Matteis, of Stifel, in a note to clients.
  • MedTech Dive informs us,
    • GE HealthCare has struck a 10-year deal with UCSF Health to support imaging at the healthcare system, the company said Thursday.
    • UCSF Health will work with GE HealthCare to implement remote scanning capabilities, train staff and improve magnetic resonance imaging performance. 
    • The agreement is part of a series of large deals involving GE HealthCare. CEO Peter Arduini told investors last month that the company has inked enterprise deals worth $7 billion in three years.

Cybersecurity Saturday

David Ermer–Cybersecurity, Generative AI–

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front,

  • Cybersecurity Dive reports,
    • “The Trump administration late Thursday removed the scandal-plagued acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, injecting fresh uncertainty into the operations of an agency already grappling with a morale crisis as it tries to protect the U.S. from sophisticated hacking threats.
    • “The Department of Homeland Security reassigned Madhu Gottumukkala, the deputy CISA director who had led the agency in an acting capacity since last May, to a position at DHS headquarters. Nick Andersen, the executive assistant director for CISA’s Cybersecurity Division and one of the few remaining political appointees at the agency, will step in as acting director.”
  • Federal News Network adds,
    • “Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is blocking the Trump administration’s nominee to lead both U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. Wyden said Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, who currently serves as the deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, lacks the experience needed to immediately step into the dual leadership role. The lawmaker added that when it comes to U.S. cybersecurity, “there is simply no time for on-the-job learning, the threat is just too urgent for that.”
  • Gov Info Security relates,
    • “A bipartisan group of senators called on the federal government to update the regulations governing healthcare cybersecurity through a Thursday vote sending a bill aimed at bolstering sector resilience to the full Senate.
    • ‘The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 22 to 1 to advance the Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act, a bill that requires publishing cybersecurity guidance for rural medical practices and improved coordination between federal agencies.
    • It has the backing of a healthcare cybersecurity working group that includes committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La.
    • “The legislation would additionally bolster an apparently stalled effort to update the HIPAA Security Rule that the Department of Health and Human Services published during the final weeks of the Biden administration (see: What’s in HHS’ Proposed HIPAA Security Rule Overhaul?).
    • “The bill would enforce many of the proposed rule’s updates, including requiring HIPAA-covered organizations and business associates to adopt multifactor authentication and encryption, to conduct audits, including penetration testing. It additionally calls for “other minimum cybersecurity standards” to be determined by the HHS secretary, “in consultation with private sector organizations, based on landscape analysis of emerging and existing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and consensus-based best practices.”
    • “The fate of the Biden administration’s proposed HIPAA overhaul is uncertain at this point. The HHS Office of Civil Rights is expected to make some kind of decision in May on whether it will move forward with the proposals, or perhaps issue a revised version of proposed rulemaking.”
  • Cyberscoop notes,
    • “An ex-L3 Harris executive was sentenced to over seven years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to selling eight zero-day exploits to a Russian broker in exchange for millions of dollars.
    • “Peter Williams, 39, admitted to two counts of theft of trade secrets in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., last year, acknowledging he took at least eight exploits or exploit components while working at Trenchant, a specialized cybersecurity unit owned by L3Harris. Prosecutors said the materials were intended for restricted use by the U.S. government and allied partners.
    • “Authorities said Williams sold the stolen information to a broker that advertised itself as a reseller of hacking tools and described it as serving multiple customers, including the Russian government. In court, the government referred to the buyer as “Company 3,” but details read aloud during the plea hearing pointed to Operation Zero, a Russian exploit broker that publicly markets itself online as a platform for purchasing zero-day vulnerabilities.”

From the cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities front,

  • Cybersecurity Dive reports,
    • “Federal agencies have until Friday evening [February 27] to update certain Cisco networking devices that are vulnerable to compromise, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Tuesday [February 24].
    • “In an emergency directive about Cisco’s Software-Defined Wide-Area Networking (SD-WAN) systems, CISA said it was “aware of a cyber threat actor’s ongoing exploitation” of two vulnerabilities in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager and Catalyst SD-WAN Controller devices and called the activity “an imminent threat to federal networks.”
  • and
    • “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Thursday warned that a malware variant previously used in attacks against Ivanti Connect Secure environments may remain undetected on systems. 
    • “In March 2025, CISA issued an alert about the malware, dubbed Resurge, in connection with exploitation of CVE-2025-0282, a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in certain versions of Ivanti Connect Secure and other Ivanti products. 
    • “The agency has since analyzed three samples from a critical infrastructure provider’s Ivanti Connect Secure device after hackers exploited the flaw to gain initial access. The analysis shows that Resurge can remain latent on a device until a remote hacker attempts to contact the device.” 
  • Cyberscoop adds,
    • “Would-be attackers spent 2025 swimming in a sea of more than 40,000 newly published vulnerabilities, VulnCheck said in a report released Wednesday, but only 1% of those defects, just 422, were exploited in the wild.
    • “As the deluge of vulnerabilities grows every year, and CVSS ratings lose significance for vulnerability management prioritization, some defenders are turning to research on known exploited vulnerabilities to narrow their scope of work and place more emphasis on verified risks. 
    • “The growth in CVE volume is ludicrous, not necessarily unfounded, but it’s large. Defenders don’t know what to pay attention to,” Caitlin Condon, vice president of security research at VulnCheck, told CyberScoop. “Prioritization is still a huge problem.”
    • “Too many defenders and researchers are paying attention to defects and unsubstantiated exploit concepts that aren’t worth their time, Condon added. “The indicators of risk that used to be semi reliable, now no longer are.”
  • and
    • “Cyberattacks reached victims faster and came from a wider range of threat groups than ever last year, CrowdStrike said in its annual global threat report released Tuesday, adding that cybercriminals and nation-states increasingly relied on predictable tactics to evade detection by exploiting trusted systems.
    • “The average breakout time — how long it took financially-motivated attackers to move from initial intrusion to other network systems — dropped to 29 minutes in 2025, a 65% increase in speed from the year prior. “The fastest breakout time a year ago was 51 seconds. This year it’s 27 seconds,” Adam Meyers, head of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, told CyberScoop.
    • “Defenders are falling behind because attackers are refining their techniques, using social engineering to access high-privilege systems faster and move through victims’ cloud infrastructure undetected.”
  • Cybersecurity Dive points out,
    • “Hackers are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence into all phases of the cyberattack life cycle, with the technology regularly analyzing target information, generating phishing emails and providing coding assistance, security firm ReliaQuest said in a report published on Tuesday [February 24].
    • “Other recent reports from IBM and cyber insurer Resilience similarly highlight how AI has changed the threat landscape.
    • At the same time, a new Sophos report said it was important to put in perspective AI’s ‘capabilities and impact.”
  • LinkedIn informs us,
    • “One of the largest data breaches in U.S. history is even bigger than was known. The Conduent cyberattack has now affected more than 25 million Americans, according to a recent update. The January 2025 incident exposed Social Security numbers, medical records and other sensitive information. Conduent is one of the largest contractors for the U.S. government, providing mailroom, printing and payment processing services for state government benefit offices — meaning it manages “a large amount of personal information belonging to a large swath of the United States,” per TechCrunch.”
  • Cybersecurity Dive adds,
    • “Hackers working for the Chinese government broke into more than 50 telecommunications companies and government agencies in 42 countries, in a campaign that exploited cloud platforms’ legitimate features to hide the attackers’ tracks.
    • “The attacker was using API calls to communicate with [software-as-a-service] apps as command-and-control (C2) infrastructure to disguise their malicious traffic as benign,” researchers at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant said in a report on Wednesday.
    • “Google said the “prolific, elusive” China-linked hacker team, which it tracks as UNC2814, “has a long history of targeting international governments and global telecommunications organizations across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.”

From the ransomware front,

  • The Mississippi Clarion Ledger reports,
    • “Officials with the University of Mississippi Medical Center stated the hospital system is “getting closer to full functions” following a cyberattack on Feb. 19 that disrupted operations.
    • “UMMC issued a statement Friday, Feb. 27, stating after being able to access patient records, clinics statewide will resume normal operations and scheduled appointments on Monday, March 2.
    • “UMMC also stated that on March 2, clinics will begin reaching out to patients to reschedule appointments that were cancelled. Officials added that UMMC clinics will reopen with extended hours and additional days in order to accommodate patients as soon as possible.
    • “All hospitals and emergency departments located in Jackson, Madison County, Holmes County and Grenada remain open.”
  • Cybersecurity Dive relates,
    • “UFP Technologies, a Massachusetts-based medical device maker, said it is investigating a cyberattack in mid-February that led to some of its company data being stolen or potentially destroyed, according to a regulatory filing. 
    • “The company said the attack, which was detected Feb. 14, impacted most of its IT network, as well as its billing and label-making capabilities for customer deliveries. The company said it was able to continue operations using data backups and implementing contingency plans.
    • “This was a classic ransomware attack that appeared to have impacted many, but not all, of our IT systems,” Ronald Lataille, chief financial officer at UFP Technologies, said Wednesday on a quarterly conference call with analysts. “Data was taken and then destroyed.”
    • “The company is still trying to figure out how much sensitive information, including personally identifiable data, may have been impacted by the attack, according to the 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the company does not currently believe the attack will have a material impact on its financial condition.”
  • The Hacker News adds,
    • “The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group (aka Diamond Sleet and Pompilus) has been observed using Medusa ransomware in an attack targeting an unnamed entity in the Middle East, according to a new report by the Symantec and Carbon Black Threat Hunter Team.
    • “Broadcom’s threat intelligence division said it also identified the same threat actors mounting an unsuccessful attack against a healthcare organization in the U.S. Medusa is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation launched by a cybercrime group known as Spearwing in 2023. The group has claimed more than 366 attacks to date.
    • “Analysis of the Medusa leak site reveals attacks against four healthcare and non-profit organizations in the U.S. since the beginning of November 2025,” the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News.”
  • The Register informs us,
    • “Ransomware payments cratered in 2025, but it seems like the cybercrooks launching the attacks didn’t get the memo.
    • “That’s the headline from Chainalysis’ 2026 Crypto Crime Report, which shows total on-chain ransomware payments falling for a second straight year, even as victim counts and leak site pressure continue to climb.
    • “Ransomware gangs pulled in about $820 million in 2025, roughly 8 percent less than the year before, as the share of victims paying dropped to an all-time low of 28 percent. That drop might sound like progress if the wider picture weren’t so bleak: the median ransom demand jumped from $12,738 in 2024 to $59,556 in 2025, and the number of publicly claimed attacks climbed along with it.
    • “Despite the relative stability in total payments, ransomware attacks surged across multiple vectors in 2025, with eCrime.ch data showing a 50 percent YoY increase in claimed ransomware victims, marking the most active year on record,” Chainalysis said.”
  • Help Net Security adds,
    • Intrusions continue to center on credential access and timed execution outside standard business hours. The Sophos Active Adversary Report 2026 analyzes 661 incident response and managed detection and response cases handled between November 1, 2024 and October 31, 2025, spanning organizations in 70 countries.
    • “The dataset examines how attackers gain access, how quickly they reach key systems, and when ransomware and data theft occur.” * * *
    • “Timing patterns show that the most disruptive stages of ransomware incidents often occur when organizations are operating with reduced staffing. In 88% of ransomware cases, encryption was deployed during non business hours.
    • “Data exfiltration followed a similar pattern, with 79% of theft activity also occurring outside the typical workday.
    • “Off hours deployment increases the likelihood that encryption or large scale data transfers proceed without immediate interruption. It places emphasis on monitoring coverage that extends beyond standard schedules.”

From the cybersecurity business and defenses front,

  • Dark Reading reports,
    • “The cybersecurity venture capital market experienced unprecedented activity in 2025, driven primarily by the rush to AI-native security solutions and a massive surge in mergers and acquisitions that reached record levels.
    • “In 2025, VC firms invested $119 billion in cybersecurity businesses, with 400 M&A transactions accounting for the majority of funding and another 820 financing deals totaling nearly $21 billion, according to data from Momentum Cyber, a cybersecurity investment bank. The total value of M&A, financing, and IPO activity in 2025 nearly tripled that of deals in the previous year.”
  • and
    • “Cybersecurity experts are calling for a major shift in how companies handle data breaches and security failures, arguing that greater transparency and specific detail disclosure about how and why they occur is essential if the industry hopes to effectively reduce cyber-risk.
    • “At the upcoming RSAC Conference, threat research experts Adam Shostack and Adrian Sanabria will make the case for greater incident transparency and the need for structured feedback loops in cybersecurity, in a session aptly titled “A Failure Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: The Case for Breach Transparency,”scheduled for Monday, March 23.”
  • Cybersecurity Dive informs us,
    • “The AI era is transforming what CISOs do and how they do it, the enterprise software firm Splunk said in a report published on Tuesday [Feburary 24].
    • “Nearly all CISOs have been assigned to manage their organizations’ AI governance responsibilities, the report found, a significant expansion of “their already overwhelming mandates.”
    • CISOs interviewed in the report expressed both an awareness that they needed to use AI and a range of concerns about its potential harms.”
  • Dark Reading relates,
    • “As one ransomware community shutters in RAMP, two more pop up to take its place. 
    • “Rapid7 today published an analysis of that ransomware ecosystem after US authorities seized infrastructure tied to the notorious RAMP cybercrime forum last month. For years, RAMP has been the primary vehicle for acquiring ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) affiliates, but the Jan. 28 interagency sting led by the FBI forced many cybercrime outfits to find a new means to sell their wares. 
    • “Rapid7’s Alexandra Blia and Efi Sherman in this week’s blog post identified two potential forums where attackers might go next. The bigger takeaway, however, is that the cybercrime ecosystem is fragmenting, and defenders will need to adapt.”
  • and
    • A newly developed method for gauging the impact of an OT cybersecurity incident could pave the way for more accurate measurement and response to an event, and also shine light on risk and business ramifications.
    • The Operational Technology Incident (OTI) Impact Score — which will be unveiled today [February 24] at the ICS/OT industry’s S4x26 Conference in Miami — aims to provide rapid clarity on the actual effects of OT cyber incidents, which often get over- or under-hyped, according to Dale Peterson, co-creator of the OTI model and head of ICS/OT consulting and research firm Digital Bond.
    • The OTI model, inspired by the Richter Scale used for measuring earthquake intensity and impact, is meant for OT business executives, governments, cyber insurers, the media, and the general public, according to Peterson, who is the founder and program chair of S4.
  • Here is a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

Friday report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, FDA, Generative AI, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, NCQA, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC

  • Fierce Healthcare reports,
    • “The Trump administration has proposed flat rates in Medicare Advantage (MA) for 2027, and insurers argue in new commentary that those levels do not reflect the realities of the program.
    • “In late January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its annual proposed advance notice governing MA and Part D. 
    • “The proposal includes a net payment rate increase of 0.09% in MA, meaning levels will be essentially flat if the plan becomes final.
    • “The proposed rule drew immediate ire from the industry, which is already navigating significant financial challenges in this market. Multiple leading players have elected to exit certain MA markets. 
    • “In official comments (PDF) submitted Wednesday to the CMS, the AHIP said the proposed rule “risks undermining CMS’ goal of providing beneficiaries with stable, affordable choices during the annual enrollment period.”
    • “At a time of sharply rising medical costs and high utilization of medical services, the combined effect of the proposed policy changes and growth rates will not keep pace with the cost of caring for seniors in 2027,” the organization, which is the largest lobbying group representing insurers, said in its comment letter.”
  • MedPage Today relates,
    • A top health official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) [Chris Klomp] hedged on payment reform, but committed to helping physicians address prior authorization challenges, during the American Medical Association’s (AMA) National Advocacy Conference.”
  • Per Beckers Health IT,
    • “CMS has rolled out an app directory for Medicare recipients as part of the agency’s push to digitize healthcare.
    • “The Medicare App Library seeks solutions that fall under one of three use cases: “kill the clipboard,” conversational AI assistants, or diabetes and obesity prevention and management.
    • “We are calling on health app developers, tech-enabled organizations, and innovators to voluntarily align around a shared framework for data and access that empowers people, improves care, and accelerates progress,” CMS stated Feb. 23. “This is a movement, not a mandate. It is a call to action, not a regulation. Let’s show what’s possible when we work together — and finally bring healthcare into the modern era.”
  • Federal News Network tells us
    • “Tens of thousands of federal employees at U.S. Customs and Border Protection are expected to continue receiving pay during the Department of Homeland Security’s current funding lapse, according to an email viewed by Federal News Network.
    • “CBP, a component of DHS, plans to use discretionary funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to exempt and continue paying more than 57,600 agency employees who have been working throughout the partial shutdown this month. Details of the agency’s decision come from an email sent this week by the National Treasury Employees Union, obtained by Federal News Network.
    • “Under the current shutdown, CBP will “exempt” and provide pay to a large portion of its workforce, including law enforcement personnel and certain civilian agency employees. Some other CBP employees, however, are still considered “excepted” and will not receive pay until after the shutdown ends.”
  • MedTech Dive informs us,
    • “The Trump administration is imposing a six-month moratorium on Medicare enrollment for certain suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotics, or DMEPOS, as part of a broader plan to combat fraud in healthcare.
    • “The administration said Wednesday that the nationwide halt on enrollment would give the government time to consider more actions “to further mitigate longstanding instances of fraud, waste, and abuse perpetrated by certain DMEPOS companies.”
    • “The temporary freeze applies to all applications for initial enrollment and changes in majority ownership for medical supply companies.
    • “Durable medical equipment includes items such as walkers, wheelchairs, oxygen equipment, hospital beds, continuous positive airway pressure machines and blood sugar monitors.”
  • NCQA, writing in LinkedIn, announced its “Advanced Primary Care Pilot Program” and invited readers to “Meet Our Primary Care Partners!”
  • The Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration let us know about extending the public comment period on its proposed Improving Transparency Into Pharmacy Benefit Manager Fee Disclosure rule to April 15, 2026.

From the Food and Drug Administration front,

  • MedTech Dive tells us,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday posted a warning letter sent to Beta Bionics in late January.
    • “The letter raised concerns with how the diabetes tech company handled complaints of severe low and high blood sugar associated with its automated insulin delivery system. The FDA also flagged problems with the company making modifications to its device without notifying regulators.
    • “In an annual report filed Tuesday, the company said it has already taken several corrective actions, including improvements to the processes identified in the warning letter. The company is also preparing a written response to the letter.”
  • Cadiovascular Business informs us,
    • “Cara Medical, a medtech company focused on advanced imaging technologies, has secured U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its new platform that noninvasively visualizes a patient’s cardiac conduction system.
    • “The CARA System, which previously earned the FDA’s breakthrough device designation, was designed to help interventional cardiologists and electrophysiologists plan ahead before procedures and then guide them during treatment. It can be used for structural heart interventions such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as well as pacing procedures.
    • “The newly cleared system includes two primary components. The CARA Metis Simulator is a preprocedural planning software that identifies the cardiac conduction axis on CT angiography results and generates a 3D map of the patient’s conduction system. The CARA Atlas Navigator, meanwhile, overlays that map onto live fluoroscopic images to assist with intraprocedural guidance. 
    • “Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms play a role in both components, extracting metadata and detecting the user’s catheter for visualization, but all AI calculations can still be confirmed by a physician.”

From the public health and medical / Rx research front,

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today,
    • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally. RSV activity is elevated and increasing in some areas of the country. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations for RSV are highest among infants and children less than 4 years old. COVID-19 activity is decreasing nationally but remains elevated in some areas of the country.
    • “COVID-19
      • “COVID-19 activity is decreasing nationally but remains elevated in some areas of the country.
    • “Influenza
      • “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally. Influenza A activity is decreasing while influenza B activity is increasing nationally and in most areas of the country.
      • “Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
    • RSV
      • “RSV activity is elevated in many areas of the country, including emergency department visits and hospitalizations among infants and children 4 years and younger.
    • Vaccination
      • “National vaccination coverage for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV vaccines remains low for children and adults. COVID-19, influenza, and RSV vaccines can provide protection against severe disease. It is not too late to get vaccinated this season. Talk to your doctor or trusted healthcare provider about what vaccines are recommended for you and your family.”
  • The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP tells us,
    • “The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ended its investigation into the recent multistate infant botulism outbreak traced to ByHeart powdered formula and lowered the total case number by three. In a Public Health Alert issued earlier this week, California, CDC, and Food and Drug Administration scientists reported 51 infections, but yesterday the CDC said it has excluded three suspected cases, for a total of 48 (28 confirmed, 20 probable) in November and December 2025. While the outbreak is over, investigators continue to probe how Clostridium botulinum bacteria got into the formula, the CDC said.
    • “A report published yesterday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report describes how officials used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify contaminated ice in a beer cooler as the source of a 2024 Salmonella enterica outbreak at a county fair. Ice is an uncommon vehicle for Salmonella spread at public events, noted author Katherine Houser, RN, of the Brown County Health Department in Mount Sterling, Illinois. The outbreak sickened 13 people (seven confirmed, six probable cases). AI tools helped synthesize background information to support and contextualize the environmental health team’s assessment, Houser said.”
  • The CDC also announced today,
    • “As of February 26, 2026, 1,136 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 1,130 measles cases were reported by 28 jurisdictions: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. A total of 6 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States. 
    • “There have been 10 new outbreaks** reported in 2026, and 90% of confirmed cases (1,023 of 1,136) are outbreak-associated (152 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 871 from outbreaks that started in 2025).”
  • MedPage Today informs us,
    • “Identical stool samples sent to seven direct-to-consumer microbiome testing companies produced substantially different bacterial profiles and health assessments.
    • “Across 18 commonly reported microbial genera, no company’s results matched the consensus; and only three genera of 1,208 identified taxa appeared in every report.
    • “Researchers attributed the discrepancies to differences in laboratory methods and analysis pipelines, and say the results underscore the need for standardized testing and quality controls.”
  • The Wall Street Journal considers
    • “Why All The Fuss About Bone Density?
    • “Like most of my peers, I’m being bombarded daily with hectoring advice about my bones. What’s a 40-something woman to do?” * * *
    • “For guidance, [the journalist] consult[s] with Dr. Karen Tang, the author of “It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (but Were Never Told),” who offers a more measured take.” 
  • Medscape adds,
    • “A low-dose, single pill that combines three antihypertensive treatments is as effective as standard-dose monotherapy — in some cases even better — for treating mild-to-moderate hypertension, according to the first phase 3 double-blind trials comparing the medications.
    • “Investigators for the HM-APOLLO-301 and HM-APOLLO-302 phase 3 clinical trials, which were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, contend there is now concrete evidence to support the efficacy of the single-pill therapy.
    • “They argue that starting with the traditional single-agent therapy and then titrating up can delay blood pressure control, increase the possibility of adverse effects, and affect patient adherence.”
  • The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP relates,
    • “The results of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) indicate that meningococcal B vaccine is not effective at preventing gonorrhea infection in high-risk groups.
    • “The results, presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Infections by a team of Australian researchers, show that among gay and bisexual men with a history of gonorrhea infection who received either the 4CMenB vaccine or placebo, gonorrhea incidence was essentially the same—roughly 48% in both arms.
    • “The 4CMenB vaccine is designed to protect against four serogroups of Neisseria meningitidis, which can cause invasive meningococcal disease. But in recent years, observational studies have suggested 4CMenB might also provide moderate cross-protection against Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea—one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) worldwide.” 
  • Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News reports,
    • “CAR T cell therapy has revolutionized the treatment of many blood cancers, but has shown little success against solid tumors, which account for more than 85% of all cancers.
    • “Columbia University researchers have now developed a new form of highly sensitive CAR T cells, known as HIT T cells, that aims to overcome one of the biggest barriers in solid tumor immunotherapies, which is the way that solid tumors lack a single, widely shared surface target.
    • “Headed by Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, director Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy (CICET), the researchers engineered an ultra-sensitive and highly selective chimeric antigen receptor called an HLA-independent T cell (HIT) receptor, which is capable of detecting even the smallest amounts of the protein CD70 on tumor cells.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Healthcare Dive reports,
    • “Elevance is consolidating control of its health insurance businesses under Felicia Norwood, its head of government benefits, as the company looks to improve coordination across its Medicaid, Medicare and commercial plans and — hopefully — bolster waning profits.
    • “Mark Kaye, Elevance’s CFO, will also take on leadership of health services division Carelon as current president Peter Haytaian leaves to spend more time with his family, according to a press release Thursday announcing the executive changes.
    • “Haytaian will leave the role effective May 4 and stay on as an advisor through the end of the year. The executive first joined Elevance in 2012 through its acquisition of Amerigroup before becoming president of Carelon in 2021.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues adds,
    • “Longtime UnitedHealth Group executive Heather Cianfrocco is leaving the company.
    • Ms. Cianfrocco has served as executive vice president of governance, compliance and information security at UnitedHealth since April 2025. She briefly served as CEO of Optum from 2024 to 2025 before being succeeded by Patrick Conway, MD, who previously led Optum Rx. 
    • “After 24 years, I am saying goodbye to the team at UnitedHealth Group,” she wrote on LinkedIn Feb. 27. “I am leaving with so much pride in what we have accomplished together. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the most talented, mission-driven people who show up every day determined to make health care easier to navigate, more affordable and more human.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review notes,
    • “CVS Caremark is expanding its use of Surescripts’ Touchless Prior Authorization platform to accelerate approvals for select specialty medications.
    • “The prior authorization technology connects directly to patients’ EHRs to gather required clinical data and match it with prior authorization criteria, according to a Feb. 25 news release. When requirements are met, CVS Caremark can approve medications automatically in as little as 22 seconds.
    • “The platform is currently used for select specialty drugs, including Vivitrol and Epidiolex, which treat substance use disorder and epilepsy. These medications typically require complex approvals because of their high impact and specialized clinical use cases.”
  • Healthcare Dive tells us,
    • “Teladoc Health projects membership in its business-to-business integrated care unit will decline this year, in part due to the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, management said during a fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday.
    • “The company expects 97 million to 100 million members in U.S. integrated care in 2026, down from 101.8 million at the end of last year. 
    • ‘Teladoc expects the decline will be driven by enrollment reductions at some client health plans in government programs, which were impacted by the lapse of more generous financial assistance for ACA coverage, CEO Chuck Divita said on the call.”
  • Fierce Healthcare adds,
    • “Walgreens is wading into the self-pay GLP-1 space, going head-to-head with telehealth subscription offerings.
    • “The retail pharmacy giant launched a digital weight management service to offer access to personalized, clinician-guided support for weight loss. The service expands Walgreens’ virtual healthcare platform and provides patients with access to licensed doctors and nurse practitioners, FDA-approved medication options and ongoing virtual support, according to the company in a press release.
    • “Virtual visits through the weight management service cost $49 with no requirement for a monthly subscription. The program, currently available in 28 states, is intended for eligible overweight and obese adults ages 18-64 who plan to self-pay for their GLP-1 medication.”
  • Healthexec summarizes news from “the 2026 ViVE conference, part of HLTH, [which] just wrapped up in California. On the show floor, people from across the healthcare and health IT space gathered for four days of events, thought leader insights and product showcases on the floors of the Los Angeles Convention Center.