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Companies that sell Medicare Advantage plans will receive a 2.5% pay bump on average in 2027, up significantly from what was proposed and a win for an industry that has experienced higher medical costs and has opposed nearly all reforms to the lucrative taxpayer-financed program. More importantly, the Trump administration scrapped a proposal that would have used more updated data in the payment process, ensuring that Medicare Advantage insurers retain billions of dollars. The finalized r

For the second time in two years, a bill is moving through the Colorado legislature that would exempt orphan drugs, which are used to treat rare diseases, from pricing caps that might be pursued by the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board — a panel whose work is being closely watched elsewhere in the country. The effort reflects concerns that patients may lose access to these drugs if pharmaceutical companies halt sales of such treatments in the state. But opponent

This is the online version of STAT’s weekly email newsletter Health Care Inc. Sign up here. Well hullo! You think you can get the last word, literally, with AI? Think again. There’s always human interaction available here: bob.herman@statnews.com. Today’s the day By law, the 2027 Medicare Advantage payment regulation must come out today. It will set the tone for how the Trump administration wants to work with the health insurance industry: as the “new sh

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating because that oh-too-familiar routine of meetings, deadlines, and the like has returned with a vengeance. You knew this would happen, yes? To cope, we are relying, as always, on cups of stimulation. Our choice today is laced with traces of cocoa. Feel free to join us. Remember, no prescription is required. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits to help you along. Best of luck accomplis

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. A four-month FDA delay prompted a cash-strapped biotech company to shutter. The White House’s proposed NIH cuts are drawing bipartisan backlash. Peptide hype is outpacing evidence. And more! The need-to-know this morning Neurocrine Biosciences said this morning that it would buy Soleno Therapeutics and its treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here. Good morning. You have until 9 pm ET tonight to vote in the final round of STAT Madness! Make your voice heard, and then make sure to read Sarah Todd’s great story on the inverse Fannee Doolee attitude that RFK Jr. and others seem to take on peptides vs. vaccines.Read the rest…

Neurocrine Biosciences said Monday that it would buy Soleno Therapeutics and its treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome for $2.9 billion.  Neurocrine is paying $53 a share for Soleno, a 34% premium to its closing price on Thursday.  Soleno’s drug, Vykat, was approved in March 2025 to treat hyperphagia in patients with the rare genetic disease. Hyperphagia is one of the defining features of Prader-Willi syndrome, causing relentless hunger and leading patients to overeat. Vykat

In February, a small biotech company called Kezar Life Sciences reached a breakthrough with the Food and Drug Administration, agreeing to a plan for a clinical trial it hoped could lead to the approval of its treatment for a rare, debilitating liver disease called autoimmune hepatitis. The problem: The agreement came four months too late. The meeting to discuss trial design, a critical step in the drug development process, had been scheduled for last October. But the FDA abruptly canceled it

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tends to favor health choices he sees as natural — whether that means eating “real food” like meat and vegetables instead of ultra-processed food or suggesting, falsely, that nutrition and vitamins are a good alternative for fighting off measles instead of vaccines.But there’s at least one area where the health secretary breaks with his own tradition. He’s among the many influential voices in health and wellness in favor of people injectin

I am sitting in a firm recliner with a wipeable surface during a two-day hospital admission for testing at our local children’s hospital. The chair is designed for durability, not sleep. The pillow beneath my head is flat and smells faintly of disinfectant. A thin hospital blanket scratches against my arms as I shift, unsuccessfully, trying to rest. The room is dim but never quiet. Monitors beep. Machines hum. Footsteps pass the door. Hospital noise does not fade. It embeds itself in the

My son is now in high school, but when he was in the second grade, I received a call that changed everything: “We think he had a stroke.” He had developed a facial droop and couldn’t walk on his own. His teacher carried him to the nurse’s office with the entire class following. He was eventually diagnosed with metabolic strokes due to mitochondrial disease, a genetic disorder that prevents your cells from producing enough energy.Read the rest…

From a scan of its job openings, it would be easy to mistake UnitedHealth Group for Silicon Valley’s latest artificial intelligence juggernaut. Hundreds of postings seek applicants with expertise in data science and artificial intelligence, part of a sweeping campaign to embed AI in the company’s core business operations. Already, UnitedHealth employs 22,000 software engineers worldwide, with more than 80 percent using AI to write code or build new agents, a sharp uptick from a

The White House is asking Congress to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health and to downsize the number of its institutes and centers from 27 to 22 — a plan that is expected to receive a chilly reception from lawmakers from both parties.  The president’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, released Friday, asks for $41 billion for the NIH and eliminates the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Fogarty International Center, and the Nation

WASHINGTON — The White House wants Congress to cut spending on the Department of Health and Human Services by more than 12%, according to its proposed 2027 federal budget, released Friday.  The budget is broadly similar to what the Trump administration proposed last year. That includes deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the elimination of a health research agency, and the creation of a new agency devoted to chronic diseases called the Administration for a Healthy Amer

Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us, and we’ll share it with others. That’s right. Send us your changes, and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going. And here is our regular feature in which we highlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Proxygen hired Chiara Conti as chief scientific officer. P

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. The Trump administration is using newly announced 100% tariffs as leverage to push both large and small drugmakers into confidential pricing and manufacturing agreements. Also, the burgeoning peptide craze is highlighting a trust gap in medicine, in which patients increasingly favor unproven treatments over well-established drugs.Continue to STAT+ to re

And so, another working week will soon draw to a close. Not a moment too soon, yes? This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda is rather modest so far. We plan to tidy up around the castle, promenade with the official mascots, and catch up on our reading. We also plan another listening party, where the rotation will likely include this, this, this, this and this. And what about you? The change of seasons opens up all sorts of possibilities, from lon

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here. Happy Friday. I spent an hour yesterday watching sea otters splish and splash about at the Vancouver Aquarium. Hopefully your weekend is as cozy and playful as these sleek little guys.Read the rest…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week against Colorado’s ban on licensed mental health providers engaging in gender and sexuality “conversion therapy” could narrow the authority of state medical boards to regulate aspects of health providers’ care that involves speech, according to legal experts. The implications could extend far beyond matters related to LGBTQ+ rights to other forms of talk therapy, telehealth, and physician advice on Covid-19, vaccines, or reprodu

A patient came to my office recently and told me she had stopped her statin. She’d been on it for two years. Her coronary artery calcium score was 280 and LDL was 168, up almost 100 points since she had stopped taking her statin. Her father had died from a heart attack at 58. When I asked about the decision, she crossed her arms and furrowed her brow.Read the rest…