Thursday Report
From Washington, DC

From Capitol Hill
- The Wall Steet Journal reports
- “House Republicans wrapped up a more than four-hour meeting at the White House saying that they had closed gaps in their own internal disagreements over extending expiring tax cuts and cutting spending, and they indicated that they were on track to hold a key committee vote next week.
- “We had a very productive meeting at the White House,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) told reporters after lawmakers streamed into the Capitol. “We are narrowing down the areas of differences.”
- “House Republicans from different factions of the party assembled at the White House, each hoping to get Trump’s support for their proposals and resolve disputes that have slowed the party’s progress on taxes, spending and immigration.”
- The Senate press gallery tells us Thursday evening, “The Senate is considering the nomination of Russell Vought to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget, post cloture. If all time is used, a confirmation vote would occur at 7:00 p.m. We expect several procedural votes to follow the vote on the Vought nomination.”
- The Washington Post adds,
- “The Senate on Thursday confirmed Russell Vought as the next director of the powerful White House budget office, installing a conservative fiscal hawk who has promised to pursue sweeping spending cuts and empower President Donald Trump to conform the budget to his political views.
- “Republicans marshaled a 53-47 vote in support of Vought, who immediately inherits the exceedingly complicated tasks of staving off a government shutdown and preventing a catastrophic debt default — with a political clash over the two critical fiscal deadlines just weeks away.”
From the White House,
- The Wall Street Journal lets us know,
- “The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers, according to people familiar with the matter.
- “Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees.
- “The order could come as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said, after workers have an opportunity to take a buyout. The terms of the order haven’t been finalized, however, and the White House could still decide against going forward with the plans.
- “The job cuts under consideration would affect the Department of Health and Human Services, which employs more than 80,000 people and includes the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in addition to the FDA and CDC.
- “The agencies are responsible for a range of functions, from approving new drugs to tracing bird-flu outbreaks and researching cancer. A loss of staff could affect the efforts depending on which workers are cut and whether they are concentrated in particular areas.
- ‘The White House on Thursday denied that there is an executive order related to HHS coming.”
From the judicial front,
- The Wall Street Journal informs us,
- “A federal judge paused a Thursday deadline for federal employees to decide whether to accept an offer from the Trump administration to resign their jobs voluntarily as the president and his allies attempt to shrink the government workforce.
- “U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Massachusetts scheduled a hearing for Monday on whether to grant a temporary restraining order that would block the program while the litigation challenging the offer proceeds.
- “Employees had previously been told they had until the end of the day on Thursday to decide whether to accept the offer.”
From the Food and Drug Administration front,
- Per Cardiovascular Business,
- “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning patients with diabetes about the risk of missing critical safety alerts when using continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, automated insulin dosing systems and any other similar medical devices.
- “While smartphones have made it easier than ever for patients to track their own insulin levels, the convenient technology is far from infallible. In fact, the FDA has received multiple reports of smartphone-compatible medical devices failing to send expected health alerts. When this happens, the agency warned, it creates a risk of patients experiencing severe hypoglycemia, severe hyperglycemia, diabetes ketoacidosis or even death.
- “Modern medical devices, such as diabetes devices that connect to a smartphone, can provide users with the convenience and flexibility to configure alerts that are personalized to them,” Courtney Lias, director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Products in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement. “However, users should stay aware of alert settings and monitor these devices to ensure they continue to receive critical alerts as expected. Even if configured correctly, certain hardware or software changes can interrupt the expected operation of these critical devices, which can lead to patient harm if undetected.”
- Per a news release,
- “The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today released a Draft Evidence Report assessing the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of sonpiretigene isteparvovec (Nanoscope Therapeutics) for the treatment of advanced retinitis pigmentosa.
- “This preliminary draft marks the midpoint of ICER’s eight-month process of assessing this treatment, and the findings within this document should not be interpreted to be ICER’s final conclusions.“
From the Postal Service front,
- Federal News Network reports,
- “The Postal Service ended the first quarter of fiscal 2025 with a net profit — a rare moment in the black that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says is evidence the agency is on the “right path” to overcome long-term financial challenges.
- “USPS reported $144 million in net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, a dramatic reversal from the $2.1 billion net loss for the same quarter last year. The agency’s first quarter is usually its best all year.
- “USPS, however, still anticipates ending FY 2025 with a $6.9 billion net loss.
- “The last time USPS saw a net profit was in fiscal 2022, when it ended the year with a $56 billion net profit, ending a nearly 15-year streak of annual net losses.
- “That sudden change, however, came from Congress passing the Postal Service Reform Act, which ended a mandate for USPS to pre-fund its retiree health benefits well into the future, and brought the agency back to a pay-as-you-go system. The legislation also forgave $57 billion in deferred payments to the retiree health fund.”
From the public health and medical research front,
- The American Hospital Association News points out,
- “The U.S. maternal mortality rate decreased to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023, down from 22.3 in 2022, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the mortality rate decreased overall, the maternal mortality rate for Black women in 2023 was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, significantly higher than rates for white (14.5), Hispanic (12.4) and Asian (10.7) women.”
- and
- “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Feb. 6 released an advisory about an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda caused by the Sudan virus disease. There are currently no suspected, probable or confirmed Ebola cases related to the outbreak that have been reported in the United States or outside of Uganda. The CDC recommends travelers monitor themselves for symptoms of SVD while in Uganda and 21 days after leaving.”
- “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Feb. 6 released an advisory about an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda caused by the Sudan virus disease. There are currently no suspected, probable or confirmed Ebola cases related to the outbreak that have been reported in the United States or outside of Uganda. The CDC recommends travelers monitor themselves for symptoms of SVD while in Uganda and 21 days after leaving.”
- Healio adds
- “Pregnant women are more likely to die of violence than any medical cause in the U.S. and are at greater risk for violent death compared with nonpregnant women, underscoring the need for intimate partner violence screening, data show.
- “In an analysis of CDC mortality data presented at The Pregnancy Meeting, researchers also found that domestic violence firearm legislation was associated with a reduction in homicide and firearm death in pregnancy.”
- Modern Healthcare reports,
- “Kaiser Permanente and Tufts University have launched a joint initiative aimed at improving nutritional and dietary health, the organizations said Thursday.
- “The Food is Medicine National Network of Excellence comprises Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Institute in Medford, Massachusetts, and Oakland, California-headquartered Kaiser, along with network members such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, CVS Health, Devoted Health, Elevance Health, Geisinger Health and Highmark Health.
- “Network members will track patient outcomes following nutritional and dietary changes and use the data to instruct care delivery and promote food-is-medicine initiatives, according to a news release.”
- Per the Health Care Cost Institute,
- The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), in collaboration with West Health, conducted an analysis on the use of telehealth mental health services among people with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). We found that telehealth played an outsized role in the delivery of mental health services starting in 2020, with over 40% of mental health visits occurring via telehealth from 2020-2022. Females, young adults, and people residing in the northeast and west coast received the highest share of mental health care via telehealth. Therapy was the most commonly received mental health service via telehealth.
- Per AHA News,
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Feb. 6 released a report on emergency department use during the Los Angeles County wildfires that began Jan. 7. All-cause ED encounters in Los Angeles County initially decreased 9% after the start of wildfires, while wildfire-associated encounters increased eightfold. Wildfire-associated ED encounters peaked from the period of Jan. 7-12, aligning with worsened air quality deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups. The CDC said the initial decrease in all-cause visits could be due to evacuations; alterations in activity patterns; or residents seeking care in clinics, urgent care centers or EDs in neighboring counties.”
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- STAT News reports,
- “A strange thing happened weeks before the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment made with CRISPR gene editing, an all-but cure for certain patients with sickle cell disease. CRISPR Therapeutics, the biotech that co-developed the therapy, laid off about 50 employees. “Everyone was dumbfounded,” said a scientist who was let go.
- “It was one early sign that, for all the public accolades, the CRISPR revolution wasn’t exactly going according to plan.
- The gene editing tool, wrested out of bacteria 13 years ago by a fractious group of biochemists, was supposed to change medicine. Excitement surged through boardrooms, patient communities, and the press. No less an authority than a Nobel Prize committee announced, in 2020, that CRISPR “may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.” Billions were spent chasing that vision, along with treatments for cancer and other non-hereditary diseases, such as HIV.
- “Few still talk that way. They sure don’t spend that way.
- “Over the last 16 months, layoffs have hit nearly every major CRISPR public and private biotech. Eight public CRISPR stocks are down roughly 50% over the past year. Most are down over 75% from their 2021 peak, when near 0% interest rates and the enthusiasm around mRNA fueled a gene editing bubble. Buzzy startups have closed or merged out of existence, sometimes thunderously. In August, Tome Biosciences collapsed, just eight months after announcing $213 million in funding from biotech’s most prestigious investors and a plan to write “the final chapter in genomic medicines.” [See STAT’s updated CRISPR Tracker here.]“
- Earlier this week, Kaufmann Hall released its December 2024 Hospital Flash Report and its Fourth Quarter 2024 Physicians’ Metrics Report.
- Notably, the hospital report tells us “In 2024, hospital financial and operational performance stabilized. Outpatient revenue increased, and patient observation days decreased. Though expenses in 2024 rose, they did not outpace inflation on a volume-adjusted basis.”
- From Beckers Payer Issues, we learn that “KLAS Research, a healthcare IT data and insights company, named its “Best in KLAS” payer tools for 2025.”
- Healthcare Dive notes,
- “Molina reported mixed fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations on revenue but missing on earnings. The payer also laid out earnings guidance for 2025 that was lower than analysts had anticipated.
- “The fourth-quarter earnings miss was due to higher medical spending in Medicaid, with no help from the risk corridors that kept the worst of utilization jumps from hitting Molina’s bottom line earlier in 2024. Meanwhile, the lower earnings forecast for this year is because of implementation costs from recent contract wins in Medicaid and for individuals dually eligible for both the safety-net program and Medicare, according to the insurer.
- “The results and 2025 outlook are “disappointing at face value,” but accretion from the contract wins could set Molina up well for 2026, J.P. Morgan analyst John Stansel said in a note Wednesday.”
- Per BioPharma Dive,
- “Bristol Myers Squibb is expanding its plan to cut costs, announcing alongside quarterly earnings on Thursday that it will slash an additional $2 billion in annual expenses by the end of 2027.
- “The announcement builds on cutbacks Bristol Myers announced last April and that affected about 2,200 employees. Bristol Myers didn’t say how many workers will be impacted by the new initiative, but Chief Financial Officer David Elkins told analysts on a conference call that cuts will drive “operational efficiencies across multiple areas of the business.”
- “Bristol Myers is already facing limited generic competition for one of its highest-grossing products, the multiple myeloma drug Revlimid. But it’s also bracing for the loss of billions in yearly revenue when patents expire for its cancer immunotherapy Opdivo and blood thinner Eliquis. The planned cuts announced Thursday will help Bristol Myers become a “leaner, more focused company” along the way, CEO Chris Boerner said.”
- and
- “Sales of Cobenfy, a new mind-stabilizing medicine, totaled $10 million in the final months of last year, results that fell in line with analyst expectations.
- “Bristol Myers Squibb, which acquired Cobenfy through its $14 billion purchase of Karuna Therapeutics, gave a first look at the medicine’s launch in an earnings report released Thursday. Cobenfy comes as a capsule. It received Food and Drug Administration approval on Sept. 26 as a treatment for schizophrenia, then launched onto the U.S. market in late October.
- “By Bristol Myers’ count, the number of filled Cobenfy prescriptions had climbed to around 1,000 per week by the end of January. Chief Commercial Officer Adam Lenkowsky told investors on an earnings call that the “launch is really off to a strong start” and the company has “made very good progress achieving our access goals.”