Happy Monday! This week, the White House is trying to keep its coalition together while leaning into moves that are already reshaping the political terrain around food, chemicals, and prevention. At the same time, agency leadership shifts and high-stakes regulatory decisions are adding fresh uncertainty for industry. Here is what we are tracking:

In this week’s Nimitz Health:

• Federal News: MAHA backlash over pesticides, CDC leadership shake-up, and FDA action on Moderna flu shot

• State News: Declining early prenatal care, DOJ lawsuit targeting OhioHealth, and Maine health system acquisition

• Industry News: CenterWell/MaxHealth deal, Veradigm workforce cuts, FTC premerger reporting rule struck down, Gilead/Arcellx oncology acquisition, and GLP-1 era impacts on restaurants

WHO’S HAVING EVENTS THIS WEEK?

Tuesday, February 24th

• *House Ways & Means: “Advancing the Next Generation of America’s Health Care Workforce” at 10am. Watch here.

• House Energy & Commerce: “From Source to Tap: A Hearing to Examine Challenges and Opportunities for Safe, Reliable, and Affordable Drinking Water” at 10:15am. Watch here.

Wednesday, February 25th

• Senate HELP: “Nomination of Casey Means to be Medical Director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service and Surgeon General of the Public Health Service” at 10am. Watch here.

Thursday, February 26th

• *Senate Aging: “From Regulator to Roadblock: How FDA Bureaucracy Stifles Innovation” at 9:30am. Watch here.

*Will be covered by Nimitz Health. Please email [email protected] if you would like a readout of any other hearings.

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NEWS DRIVING THE WEEK

Federal News

The White House’s health agenda continues to be shaped by midterm politics, with President Trump trying to hold together the MAHA coalition while reassuring traditional GOP farm and business constituencies. That tension erupted after Trump signed an executive order promoting domestic production tied to glyphosate supply chains, triggering a major backlash from MAHA-aligned activists who see pesticides as central to the movement’s purpose and credibility.

The administration and HHS have largely defended the move as a national security and food-supply decision rather than an endorsement of glyphosate, pointing to supply-chain vulnerabilities and arguing that “MAHA” priorities cannot come at the expense of agricultural stability. Kennedy publicly backed the order while also acknowledging the health tradeoffs and the difficulty of transitioning farmers away from chemical reliance without disrupting production.

At the agencies, leadership churn continues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya is being installed as acting CDC director following the dismissal of Jim O’Neill, per administration officials. The change comes amid broader restructuring and ongoing controversy around vaccine policy direction and governance at CDC.

On the FDA front, the agency’s decision to reverse course and begin reviewing Moderna’s seasonal flu vaccine filing came after a White House meeting in which Trump raised frustrations about vaccine-related handling, with sources describing an unusually rapid “Type A” process that helped create a path forward. FDA ultimately accepted an amended application and set a target date for an approval decision.

State News

New CDC data is flashing warning signs on maternal and infant health access: early prenatal care is declining nationally, and the deterioration is uneven across states. The data show rising shares of births with late or no prenatal care in a substantial number of states, with several jurisdictions seeing especially sharp movement in the wrong direction, raising near-term questions for Medicaid programs, state public health agencies, and provider networks about access, capacity, and maternal health outreach.

State and regional market enforcement is also heating up. The Justice Department sued OhioHealth, alleging the system used anticompetitive contract terms with insurers that restricted steering and limited payer flexibility—an important test case for how aggressively DOJ will pursue “all-or-nothing” and related contracting theories in local markets outside of merger review.

Consolidation pressures remain acute in rural and smaller-state systems. Prime Healthcare Foundation’s acquisition of a Maine health system underscores ongoing financial strain and the continued search for scale and capital in markets where hospital sustainability is a recurring policy issue for state officials and congressional delegations alike.

Industry News

Provider and payer consolidation remains active beyond the most visible enforcement fights. Humana’s CenterWell is buying primary care provider MaxHealth as it expands its value-based care footprint, a reminder that payer-owned care delivery is still moving forward even amid heightened scrutiny and operating pressure.

Health tech and data infrastructure saw notable moves. GE HealthCare and BARDA expanded a $35 million effort tied to AI-enabled imaging, while Veradigm cut roughly 15% of its workforce as it continues restructuring. At the same time, a federal judge struck down the FTC’s rule expanding premerger reporting requirements, a development with downstream implications for transaction timelines and information burdens (even as agencies pursue other ways to tighten review).

On the life sciences side, Gilead agreed to buy cancer drug developer Arcellx in a deal valued up to $7.8 billion, highlighting continued appetite for oncology assets even in a tighter capital environment.

Finally, the obesity-drug ripple effects keep spreading through adjacent sectors. Restaurants are resizing portions and adjusting menus to respond to GLP-1-era demand shifts and affordability pressures, while food policy debates are sharpening around how to define and regulate ultra-processed foods without treating the category as monolithic.

FOR FUN

There is a HillVets Happy Hour this Thursday. It starts at 5:30pm at Mission Navy Yard. RSVP here and bring your friends!

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