From Washington, DC,

• Politico reports,
  • “House Republicans have finalized changes to the party-line tax and spending package the chamber passed last month, to keep the bill in compliance with Senate rules. 
  • “An early copy of the amendment House Republicans plan to adopt this week, first obtained by POLITICO, would remove $2 billion for Pentagon military intelligence programs and strike policy that would have allowed mining in a protected wilderness in the Midwest, among other changes. By nixing items the Senate parliamentarian has flagged, the bill will retain its “privilege” and has a chance at passing the Senate without having to overcome the filibuster.
  • “House GOP leaders plan to adopt the tweaks on the floor Wednesday, according to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. 
  • “So, the House doesn’t have to vote again on passage of the bill that was difficult to whip the first time, the changes will be adopted through a fast-track tactic. By approving a resolution this week to tee up floor debate on a separate bill, the House will be voting to amend the megabill before it is officially transmitted to the Senate.”

• Fierce Pharma tells us,
  • “As President Donald Trump vows to bridge the drug pricing gap between the U.S. and other developed countries with his “most favored nation” (MFN) policy, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is calling for a U.S. government-led push to increase overall drug spending outside the U.S.
  • “While the exact mechanism of implementing MFN to reduce drug prices in the U.S. remains unclear, Bourla proposed (PDF) that other countries should spend a certain percentage of their GDP per capita on innovative medicines.
  • “Bourla laid out the concept Monday at the Goldman Sachs annual global healthcare conference, drawing a comparison to how members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have agreed to commit 2% of their national GDP to defense spending.
  • “The U.S. is spending about 0.8% of GDP per capita on innovative drugs within 10 years of their launch, Bourla said. That’s higher than the 0.5% by Italy and Spain, or 0.4% in Germany, while the U.K. is spending about 0.3%, he said.” * * *
  • “To Bourla, reining in U.S. drug costs and increasing foreign countries’ expenditures are two sides of the same coin. In the U.S., it remains to be seen how the health department will enforce MFN, and Bourla said he doesn’t expect the industry will gain much clarity anytime soon.”
    
• MedCity News opines,
  • “[P]olicy leaders overlook the fact that IVF is priced at around $20,000 per cycle because the system can’t expand to meet demand. Adding more insurance money will only inflate the queue, unless general insurers follow the lead of specialized fertility insurers that focus on actual outcomes; they have every incentive to keep costs controlled and success rates high. We risk repeating what happened in higher education, when the federal government expanded funding for college without restraining the total price. College prices continue to rise far faster than inflation. This is not a mistake we can afford with IVF.
  • “President Trump’s plan to fix IVF might look bold in a headline. In reality, it doesn’t create a single new embryology lab. It doesn’t hire one more specialist. It won’t change the fact that right now, only people with plenty of money can afford IVF, and throwing subsidies at a market that’s already bottlenecked only shifts who pays. If we keep ignoring capacity, we prolong the same heartbreak and keep IVF out of reach for many hopeful parents.
  • “We need more clinics, cutting-edge automation, and better oversight so clinics aren’t pressured to cut corners or limit embryo transfers just to stretch funding. We need a fundamental restructuring that rewards a successful pregnancy rather than a never-ending list of procedures.”

• Per Beckers Payer Issues,
  • “Groups representing insurers are pushing back on proposed tighter regulations on Medicare Advantage coding. 
  • “Senate Republicans are considering targeted changes to Medicare Advantage as part of the sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Lawmakers are considering adding provisions of the No UPCODE Act to the package. 
  • “The bipartisan proposal was first floated by Sens. Bill Cassidy, MD, and Jeff Merkley in 2023, and would make changes to the risk-adjustment model MA plans use to bill the federal government and limit the ability to include old or unrelated medical conditions in the cost of care.”

• Per a CMS news release,
  • “As he turns 65 on Wednesday, June 11, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is using his own Medicare enrollment experience to help Americans better understand how to sign up for Medicare and select the coverage that best fits their needs. Through a new video and social media series, Dr. Oz is walking future enrollees through simple steps they can take to get started—beginning with Medicare.gov.
  • Dr. Oz’s public service messages highlight key reminders for those approaching Medicare eligibility:
    • Start early to learn about options.
    • Enrollment paths may vary depending on whether someone is already receiving Social Security benefits or whether you are still working and have employer coverage.
      Use Medicare.gov to get clear, personalized guidance on enrollment and coverage.
    • To watch Dr. Oz’s messages, visit: 
      

• JAMA Open informs us,
  • “The findings of a cross-sectional study suggest that although 988 has been contacted more than 16 million times since its launch [in July 2022], there remains opportunity to increase 988 use. For example, the past-year 988 contact rate of 23.7 per 1000 is less than half that of the rate of adult emergency department visits that include a mental health diagnosis (53.0 per 1000 population).⁴ Furthermore, there was regional and state-level variation in 988 use. This is consistent with state variation in funding for and legislative attention toward 988, both of which may affect awareness and use. Lower rates of 988 use in the South, which is more politically conservative than other regions, is also consistent with prior research showing less favorable attitudes toward 988 among Republicans than Democrats.
  • “Study limitations relate to 988 contacts being assigned to states according to area code, uncertainty about the 988 repeat contact rates, and state-level variation in the existence of other crisis lines that are not part of the 988 network. Despite these inherent data limitations, our findings suggest that there are opportunities to increase 988 use, especially in southern states.”

From the public health and medical research front,

• Healio lets us know,
  • “Data show men were less likely to seek care for diabetes, HIV/AIDS and hypertension.
  • “More research is needed to track gender-related health risks and how they change over time, a researcher told Healio.”

• MedPage Today points out,
  • “Active transportation modes in midlife — notably, cycling — were tied to a lower dementia risk over 13 years.
  • “Cycling was also associated with higher hippocampal volume.”

• Cardiovascular Business reports,
  • “A nationwide data analysis found that nearly one-third of U.S. adults with hypertension may be eligible for therapy by two catheter renal denervation (RDN) devices cleared by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, the study’s authors noted that eligibility alone does not indicate which of the 35 million patients are most likely to benefit from the treatment. The study was published June 4 online in JACC: Interventions.[1]
  • “Co-author of the study Eric Secemsky, MD—a cardiologist and researcher from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical—and his team used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to estimate the proportion of hypertension patients who meet the FDA’s criteria for consideration of RDN.
  • “The researchers then broke down how many patients would qualify for RDN using the same criteria of each study for the two approved devices. They also looked at how many patients would qualify under the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2023 RDN position statement on patient selection and best practices.
  • “The authors found that on-medication, sham-controlled randomized trials had the most selective enrollment criteria, matching only about 2% of U.S. adults with hypertension. In contrast, U.S. single-arm registries and the SCAI 2023 position statement estimated a much larger potential eligibility, approaching 25 million Americans. This discrepancy underscores the challenge of generalizing highly selective trial results to a broader patient population in real-world settings.”

• MedCity News lets us know,
  • “An experimental Metsera obesity drug led to an average 8.4% weight loss(Opens in a new window) in a small clinical trial, preliminary results that keep the biotech competitive in the crowded mix of companies pursuing a promising new metabolic target, but with the potential to offer less frequent dosing than its rivals.
  • “The drug, MET-233i, is a peptide engineered to activate amylin, a hormone that, like GLP-1, plays a role in regulating blood sugar and appetite. New York-based Metsera designed MET-233i with technology enabling the medication to last longer in the body.
  • “The 8.4% weight loss mark reported Monday was achieved by the 1.2 mg dose, the highest of four doses of the drug administered weekly for five weeks in a two-part Phase 1 study. Each part enrolled 40 participants. In the single-ascending dose portion of the study, in which a group of participants received just a single dose, the 1.2 mg dose led to an average 3.8% loss in body weight that was maintained for five weeks.”
  • “Metsera said its drug’s half-life of 19 days supports once-monthly dosing. That would be an advantage over the once-weekly dosing of the GLP-1 drugs currently available and the clinical-stage amylin drugs in development by other companies, such as Novo Nordisk, Roche, and AbbVie.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Fierce Healthcare notes,
  • “Employers are aiming to be more strategic in how they administer benefits as costs continue to rise, according to a new survey from the consulting firm WTW.
  • “WTW released its latest Benefits Trends Survey on Tuesday and found that rising benefit costs were the largest factor driving the strategy around coverage for employers. In addition, employers ranked the financial pressures on budgets as the fourth-highest factor.
  • “Close to half (44%) of those surveyed said that they faced challenges in delivering on their health benefit strategies given rising costs, with 44% saying the same about wellness programs and 36% saying they faced challenges around leave offerings.
• and
  • “The American Medical Association underwent its annual leadership change on Tuesday, inaugurating otolaryngologist Bobby Mukkamala, M.D. as the 180th president of the nation’s largest physician association. 
  • “The organization’s House of Delegates, composed of its member physicians and residents, also chose urologic surgeon William Underwood III, M.D., as its president-elect. Underwood will assume the presidency in June 2026. 
  • “Mukkamala is a Flint, Michigan-based physician who attended the University of Michigan Medical School and completed his residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. Mukkamala said in an interview with Fierce Healthcare in June 2024 that he hopes to work on prevention of chronic diseases rather than the “sick care” model that costs the health system millions.
  • “He will also continue the heavy-hitting physician group’s advocacy on increasing physician pay and easing the burden of prior authorization, two top concerns for physicians.” * * *
  • “Underwood, the new president-elect, has spent his 25-year career in Buffalo, New York as a urologic surgeon and doing robotic urologic surgery. He holds patents for discovering a biomarker in prostate cancer and has co-authored nearly 120 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and published abstracts.” * * *
  • “It is an incredible honor to be chosen by my peers to represent physicians and the patients we serve at this critical moment for health care and medicine,” Underwood said in a statement. “The AMA is leading the way in fighting for a rational Medicare payment system, to rein in prior authorization, and reduce physician burnout. I will stand up to advocate for our profession in a way that will inspire, motivate, and activate physicians to join the AMA in our efforts to improve the health of our nation.”
    
• Modern Healthcare reports,
  • “Mayo Clinic is investing in an ambient clinical artificial intelligence startup, the health system said Tuesday.
  • “The Rochester, Minnesota-based health system made an undisclosed investment and entered into a collaboration focused on ambient clinical intelligence with Hellocare.ai, a healthcare artificial intelligence and virtual care company.
  • “Mayo becomes the fourth major health system to invest in Hellocare.ai since April. The investment is an extension of Hellocare.ai’s $47 million Series A funding round that included support from a group of health systems including Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health, Aurora, Colorado-based UCHealth, OSF Ventures, the corporate investment arm of OSF HealthCare.
  • “Hellocare has developed an AI-enabled software and hardware platform for hospitals and health systems featuring cameras and microphones mounted on patient room televisions to assist clinical staff with tasks such as ambient documentation and patient monitoring. The company also offers a virtual care solution that supports clinicians with rounds, medication checks and patient discharge.”
• and
  • “Abbott and Tandem Diabetes Care announced Tuesday an agreement to combine Abbott’s upcoming dual glucose-ketone sensor with Tandem’s insulin delivery systems to create integrated diabetes solutions.
  • “The sensor is in development, but once it’s commercially available, it will be able to detect an early rise in ketone levels to help patients avoid diabetic ketoacidosis. The company expects the sensor to be available next year, according to a spokesperson.”
    
• Per Beckers Hospital Review,
  • “Cleveland-based University Hospitals recorded a $49.7 million operating loss (-3% operating margin) in the first quarter of 2025, an improvement from a $74.6 million operating loss (-4.9% margin), according to its June 10 financial report.  
  • “The system reported total operating revenue of $1.7 billion for the three months ended March  31, a 9.7% increase year over year. University Hospitals said that revenue growth was driven by a $106 million increase in net patient service revenue. 
  • “Total operating expenses increased 7.6% year over year to $1.7 billion. The growth was primarily driven by increased labor costs and patient care supplies of $39 million and $51 million, respectively.