As the prospects have risen for another budget reconciliation bill, so has the risk for another legislative round of healthcare spending cuts, pressuring insurers, hospitals and home care and hospice agencies as a partial pay-fors…

With government policy in a seemingly endless state of flux, we offer investors our quarterly lookahead to what we view as the most relevant catalysts across the medtech, biopharma, diagnostics, and life science tools (LST)…

With CMS set to release in the coming weeks FY27 Medicare payment proposals for inpatient providers (inpatient hospitals, hospices, inpatient rehab facilities, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient psych facilities, and long-term care hospitals), we expect most…

Recent developments on the AI front – including the Trump administration’s recently released AI policy blueprint and a letter made public today from Sens. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), urging an immediate pause in Nvidia (NVDA) AI chip exports to China, highlighting that while there will continue to be a great deal of sound coming out of DC, we’re…

Our review of comment submissions for CMS’s most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing model proposals in Medicare Part D (GUARD) and B (GLOBE) leave us with just ~30% odds of their being implemented. The risk…

With both chambers in session this week ahead of a scheduled two-week recess, Washington’s focus remains concentrated on a narrow set of issues, including:  The evolving U.S.-Iran conflict, which is expected to include another War Powers resolution in the Senate….

While this morning’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, entitled “Liability or Deniability? Platform Power as Section 230 Turns 30,” was lively and somewhat surprisingly well attended, we seriously doubt any material erosion of Section 230 protections for social media companies such as Meta (META), Alphabet’s YouTube (GOOGL), and Reddit (RDDT) will pass…

We estimate roughly a 35% probability that Congress will enact a youth online safety legislative package, including the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), COPPA 2.0, and the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA) or similar legislation. The combo of these measures would be negative for Snap (SNAP), Roblox (RBLX), Meta (META), and Alphabet’s…

We continue to expect CMS’s final CY27 rate announcement for Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers [HUM, ALHC, UNH, CVS, ELV, CNC], affecting their contracted value-based care providers [PRVA, ASTH, EVH], to produce a low single-digit increase…

With both the House and Senate back in Washington, the focused will be on a number of issues, including:   The evolving Iran conflict.   The standoff surrounding Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.  Senate debate over the SAVE America Act.   Also, the Federal…

There is a lot happening on the trade front from 60 Section 301 tariff country investigations announced by the Trump administration yesterday, to court dates set in the Section 122 legal challenge, and the ongoing USMCA saga. Taken together, these issues are likely to…

Amazon’s (AMZN) request for additional time to meet its Project Kuiper deployment timeframe has attracted renewed scrutiny from the FCC, given recent comments from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr—including a post on X this week criticizing the company’s opposition to SpaceX’s satellite expansion and…

CMS’s latest approvals for hospital-specific Medicaid state directed payment programs (DPPs) provide incremental positive news for HCA, THC and UHS due to their footprint in certain states (Georgia, Michigan, Kentucky, and Nevada) where CMS recently…

Despite recent speculation that Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) may not pursue a formal coverage policy for GKOS iDose procedures, we continue to expect a draft local coverage determination (LCD) in Q2 / Q3. Following the…

With Medicaid insurers [MOH, CNC, ELV] projecting more muted Medicaid enrollment changes for 2026 compared with the sizable attrition during the post-pandemic Medicaid unwinding – and little guidance on what comes next – investors are…