With President Trump in Asia and trade agreements expected between the U.S. and various countries, including at least a narrow deal with China, we held a conference call yesterday with trade expert Dr. Derek Scissors. …

We view CMS’s final coverage policy for renal denervation (RDN) [Medtronic (MDT), Otsuka (4578.JT)] as largely consistent with the initial proposal, but with some modest new guardrails that may incrementally slow utilization and delay /…

This week’s main policy focus will be on: 1) trade; 2) the Fed’s decision on interest rates, where a 25-bps cut is widely anticipated on Wednesday; and 3) the government shutdown. President Trump is in…

The questions to be addressed at a November 12 Contractor Advisory Committee (CAC) on GKOS’s iDose bolster our expectations for real, but likely manageable, headwinds via an eventual local coverage determination (LCD), which we suspect…

Even amid a government shutdown, the remaining months of 4Q25 promises various policy catalysts across the health insurer and provider landscapes, informing company growth and revenue prospects for the year ahead. To help investors keep…

We view the weakness in GKOS shares this week as somewhat overdone following the announcement that iDose will be the subject of a Nov. 12 Contractor Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting among five Medicare Administrative Contractors…

We continue to see a few positive developments for the farm complex and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ comments late yesterday that the administration was going to provide $3 billion in aid to farmers from…

As the November 5 deadline approaches for state submissions to the highly anticipated $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), uncertainty remains about whether – or even how – these funds will reach hospitals [CYH,…

The top story in Washington this week remains the government shutdown, but a potential meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov in talks to try and end the…

Even amid a government shutdown – and in some ways because of it – 4Q25 promises a large number of policy catalysts across the medtech, diagnostics, life science tools (LST), and biopharma landscapes, informing company…

The Trump administration’s new guidance on employer-sponsored fertility benefits and deal with Merck KGaA’s (MRK.GY) EMD Serono to sell select fertility drugs at most-favored-nation (MFN) prices, which were announced Thursday, boosts visibility for companies like…

We have the following thoughts about various updates on the trade front: We continue to believe that the recent trade / tariff tit for tat by China and the U.S. is mostly posturing. We see…

Policy headwinds facing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) [CVS, CI, UNH, ELV] remain entrenched despite shifting details since this spring. Recent developments, like California’s PBM law, White House drug pricing efforts, and the FTC litigation, underscore…

We remain cautiously optimistic that any eventual longer-term FY26 funding bill will include legislation allowing – but not requiring – Medicare coverage of multi-cancer early detection (MCED) screening [GH, EXAS, GRAL]. Larger firms may nevertheless…

We think this morning’s court ruling against Humana (HUM) in its Medicare Advantage (MA) Stars litigation is likely the end of the road in its efforts to secure a higher score for its 2026 payment…