The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of HHS workers, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the FDA, CDC, 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 HHS, which employs more than 80,000 people and includes the NIH and CMS, in addition to the FDA and CDC. The White House on Thursday denied that there is an executive order related to HHS coming.
A variant of H5N1 bird flu that has circulated widely in wild birds — and in several instances led to severe illness in humans — has turned up in dairy cattle for the first time. The findings were relayed in a short update from the USDA, which traced the new variant back to dairy herds in Nevada. The variant, known as D1.1 genotype, belongs to a different genetic lineage than what's fueled the infections in dairy cattle over the past year. Scientists believe a single spillover event, from birds to cattle, in the Texas Panhandle in late 2023 seeded the nationwide outbreak. But this new finding points to at least one additional instance of the virus hopping into dairy cattle.
Ridding Pennsylvania's health care system of private investors is part of Gov. Josh Shapiro's new budget plan, which calls for additional regulatory muscle to review hospital and nursing home sales, mergers and acquisitions. Shapiro this week asked the General Assembly for a bill that would empower the state attorney general to review health care transactions "with the community's best interest at the forefront." Two dozen other states already have such authority, but efforts to enact the necessary legislation in Pennsylvania have fallen short. House Bill 2344, which would have given the state attorney general the additional review powers Shapiro wants, passed the full House in July and was taken up in October by the Senate, where it died.
How do you create a healthcare company that is known for being “superior” on some critical dimension? Indeed, there are few examples where the practice brand is more valuable and important in driving patient decision-making than the doctor brand.