Hold Your Shape

STAT News — Medicaid and SNAP cuts are exacerbating the intertwined problems of hunger and mental illness, with food insecurity leading to increased hospital visits, including for psychiatric emergencies.

A 2023 systematic review found high rates of food insecurity among adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression.

The cuts, including $863 billion from Medicaid over 10 years, will disproportionately damage access to behavioral health services, particularly for Medicaid enrollees who are more likely to have behavioral health disorders.

Employee Wellness — Many modern workplaces are designed in a way that conflicts with how the human brain functions, leading to decreased productivity and increased burnout.

Open-plan offices, multitasking, and rigid eight-hour workdays can all negatively impact employees' ability to focus and work efficiently.

Research suggests that taking micro-breaks, working in uninterrupted blocks of time, and setting boundaries around work hours can help improve focus and reduce burnout.

Employee Benefit Trends — A survey by Wondr Health and Harris Poll found that 68% of Americans believe menopause should be acknowledged in the workplace — including 67% of employed men and 70% of employed women who agree women shouldn't have to push through perimenopause and menopause symptoms.

Menopause is estimated to cost $1.8 billion a year in lost work time, and $26.6 billion once medical expenses are added.

Employers can respond with a whole-person approach: education, leadership visibility, and ongoing communication.

STAT News — Mwyngil Therapeutics, a new biotech startup, is developing obesity treatments that do not target the GLP-1 receptor, a common approach in the field.

The company's CEO, Luba Greenwood, was drawn to the company's unique approach, which she finds more interesting than the prevalent GLP-1-based treatments.

Mwyngil's approach may lead to innovative solutions in the multibillion-dollar weight loss market.

STAT News — Sales from the 340B Drug Discount Program rose to $100 billion in 2025, a 22.8% increase from the previous year, with expensive medicines accounting for nearly 62% of spending.

The program requires drugmakers to offer discounts of 25% to 50% off outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics serving lower-income patients.

Spending on specific treatments, such as Merck's Keytruda and Gilead's Biktarvy, totaled $8.9 billion and $4.47 billion, respectively.

Employee Benefit Trends — The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's expiration and subsequent permanent extension of tax brackets through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act have created a favorable environment for Roth conversions.

With historically low tax rates expected to increase in the future due to the national debt, employees may consider converting pre-tax assets to Roth IRAs. This strategy allows employees to pay taxes now and potentially avoid higher tax rates in retirement.

Employee Benefit Trends — The challenges working parents face during the summer months and potential solutions for employers to support them. It highlights the importance of creating a cultural movement that prioritizes working parents' needs.

Employers can play a key role in helping working parents balance their responsibilities.

HR Executive — CVS Health CEO David Joyner stated that the economics of covering GLP-1 agonist weight-loss drugs, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, are not yet justified due to high costs.

Joyner estimated that providing these drugs to every obese US resident at 2024 prices would cost $1.2 trillion. He emphasized the need for further research on the long-term impact of these drugs to determine their cost-effectiveness for employer-sponsored health plans.

Employee Benefit Trends — The Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a challenge to Wells Fargo's use of forfeitures to satisfy its employer contributions, and the Fourth Circuit held that an incentive compensation program was exempt from ERISA as a bonus payment plan.

Around 100 lawsuits have been filed in recent years raising similar challenges to how plans allocate forfeited employer contributions.

The District of New Jersey court granted a motion to dismiss in a case alleging breaches of ERISA fiduciary duties and prohibited transactions regarding a 401(k) plan's investment options and recordkeeping fees.

Nebraska Legislature — Nebraska and Minnesota have implemented robust authorities to oversee hospital transactions, allowing state-level agencies to review and approve certain health care transactions, with the goal of monitoring health care markets and determining the impact of consolidation on costs, patient access, and quality.

As of October 2025, 41 states and DC have some explicit authority to oversee hospital transactions, with nine states having notification, review, approval, and post-transaction oversight authority.

Nebraska's authority has been in place since 1996, while Minnesota recently extended its nonprofit oversight authority to health care entities and passed a broader transaction oversight law in 2023.