July 17, 2025
john-wilkerson-avatar-teal
Washington Correspondent, D.C. Diagnosis Writer

The Congressional Fragrance Caucus has renewed its certification. That might sound like a frivolous group, but the business of smelling good is a $30 billion industry, according to the Fragrance Creators Association, a trade group that this year hired Trump fundraiser Ballard Partners to lobby on tariffs, tax credits and EPA chemical reviews. Tip jar: John.Wilkerson@statnews.com or John_Wilkerson.07 via Signal.

doctor payment

Primary care doctors get a win

The second Trump administration is continuing down the path, trod during the first Trump administration, of increasing Medicare pay for primary care doctors at the expense of specialists, Bob Herman and Tara Bannow report. 

The agency that runs Medicare on Tuesday proposed creating an “efficiency adjustment” that would reduce payment by 2.5% for thousands of procedures that are mainly provided by specialists while increasing pay rates for primary care doctors. 

Read more for how the proposal would work and why it suits HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s disposition against the medical establishment.

congress

The Hawley shuffle

Sen. Josh Hawley this week introduced a bill to repeal some of the approximately $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts he voted for two weeks ago in Republicans’ tax bill.

“You can’t get everything you want in one piece of legislation,” the Missouri Republican said Tuesday when asked why he introduced the bill after voting for the Medicaid cuts.

To hear Hawley tell it, rural hospitals could come out ahead after all is said and done. The government begins paying out the $50 billion from the new rural hospital fund next year, and he expects Congress to repeal the funding cuts before they start.

 

trump transition 

From erectile dysfunction to administrative functions

Brian Christine, the HHS assistant secretary for health nominee, made the case during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he knows firsthand the concerns that patients have with the health system, be they insurance denials, high drug costs, or a shrinking workforce, Chelsea Cirruzzo reports.

The Alabama urologist is a curious choice for an administration set on weeding out gender ideology from government policy and everything the government funds. Christine, a sexual health specialist with a focus on penile implants and erectile dysfunction, advertised his services to transgender men, according to a Wall Street Journal article that includes the ad.

On the other hand, he has said transgender kids should undergo “corrective care,” rather than transitioning, according to The Washington Post. That’s more in line with the administration’s policies.

Christine has no government experience and would oversee several HHS offices. Read more about how the hearing went.

hhs

Two top HHS aides dismissed

As Kennedy embarks on an overhaul of HHS, he let go of Chief of Staff Heather Flick Melanson and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Hannah Anderson, the department confirmed to Chelsea.

Melanson has a long track record of government work in a department whose top ranks have largely been staffed by outsiders to the federal government. Anderson was most recently the director of the Center for a Healthy America at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank devoted to promoting President Trump’s agenda.

No reason was given for their departures, but the Wall Street Journal reported that it was due to a clash of personalities involving Kennedy’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stefanie Spear.

biotech

US biotech startups stall

The shared laboratory real estate businesses LabCentral and BioLabs used to have a waiting list. Now they have vacancies, Johannes Fruehauf, the cofounder of those businesses and a prominent biotech investor, tells Allison DeAngelis.

Venture capitalists already must contend with scientific uncertainty. The government has layered on political uncertainty. The situation is expected to worsen as scientists in academia are laid off due to government funding cuts, Fruehauf said.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is speeding the invention of drugs, Fruehauf said. That’s good for drug development, but an increasing share of those drugs might be invented elsewhere. 

Read more of Allison’s interview for Fruehauf’s unique perspective on the biotech industry.

 

More around STAT
Check out more exclusive coverage with a STAT+ subscription
Read premium in-depth biotech, pharma, policy, and life science coverage and analysis with all of our STAT+ articles.

What we’re reading

  • Opinion: I worked for 20 years for the HHS office that safeguarded people in research studies. DOGE gutted it, STAT
  • Upended by Meth, Some Communities Are Paying Users to Quit, The New York Times
  • CMS proposes more remote patient monitoring coverage without heeding warnings about abuse, STAT
  • PEPFAR keeps millions of people with HIV alive and may be spared from Trump spending cuts, AP