Direct care

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Imagine a patient who’s 74 years old and lives alone. After being hospitalized for heart failure, she leaves with medications, a follow-up appointment, and instructions to reduce sodium in her diet. Clinically, she’s stable. Now, more than ever, whether she remains healthy may depend more on which state she lives in and less on what happened in the hospital.

Federal policymakers understood for years the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH)—nonclinical factors that affect health outcomes—and research has consistently shown that housing, nutrition, transportation, education, and economic stability play major roles in good health and longevity. Under a national health equity framework, the government built programs and supported community organizations to address these challenges.

The Trump administration, however, has been stepping away from health equity programs and fired nearly 20,000 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees who shaped how billions of dollars flowed from appropriations bills to patient care. So while Congress is still funding some health programs, the federal workforce has become too lean, and states must fill the operational gaps. In effect, it also means hospitals and health systems are on the hook even more to resolve systemic health inequities.

Check out the rest of the op-ed here.—CLD

      

From The Crew

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Payers

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On July 1, Medicare patients gained access to GLP-1s for just $50 a month. The 18-month program’s success, so far, depends on who you ask.

The pilot, known as GLP-1 Bridge, covers drugs like Eli Lilly’s Foundayo and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy for weight loss. Previously, Medicare patients could only get coverage for GLP-1s for other indications, like diabetes or sleep apnea, through their Part D plans.

This program may potentially expand GLP-1 access to millions of patients. This could add to growing evidence about the broader health impacts of these drugs, and even provide data to help employers decide whether to start covering GLP-1s for obesity treatment. KFF’s 2025 employer health benefits survey found just 1 in 5 employers with 200+ workers cover GLP-1s for weight loss.

Eli Lilly and Company and Novo Nordisk executives both said during August earnings calls that Bridge’s rollout was going well so far. Derek Asay, SVP of government strategy and federal accounts at Eli Lilly, told Healthcare Brew over email the company is “hearing encouraging feedback from healthcare providers.”

Get the program update here.—CC

      

Tech

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For individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the diagnostic journey is typically a harrowing and expensive year-plus ordeal involving at least three healthcare professionals.

ALS, a fatal condition with few options for treatment, slowly robs patients of their ability to move and communicate. Diagnosing the condition can be extremely difficult, according to the ALS Association, a nonprofit group that supports ALS research.

Symptoms present differently in different patients, and rates of progression can vary. The standard questionnaire for measuring that progression is subjective by nature.

“If you’ve met one person with ALS, you’ve met one person with ALS,” Kuldip Dave, SVP of research at the ALS Association, told Morning Brew. “ALS looks different in every patient.”

Researchers are turning to tech to decipher the disease’s underlying causes. The hope is tools like AI, robots, and digital twins might help them identify biomarkers, or molecular fingerprints, that are specific to ALS. In theory, that would enable faster diagnoses and the development of much-needed medications, among other benefits.

“We don’t fully understand the biology as to why [ALS] happens. We don’t fully understand the biomarkers that would tell us whether somebody has ALS or diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. Drug development is really difficult in ALS because of the variability,” Dave said. “If we can use AI to help us make it less complex, I think that’s the promise I see for AI.”

Learn more about the research here.—PK

      

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Stat: 91%. That’s how much sales of Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 Mounjaro grew YoY in Q2, driven by international sales. (Reuters)

Quote: “I think we should be outraged every single time someone dies from any condition that has treatment available that someone isn’t getting. We would not allow, as a society, people with heart attacks to come to a hospital and not get appropriate treatment. This is as serious as that.”—Judy Chertok, director of addiction medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, on a patient who was discharged from the hospital but died of an overdose soon after (NPR)

Read: Arbitration is used in the MLB, but how well does it work in healthcare? (the New York Times)