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President Joe Biden’s pick to run the National Institutes of Health has agreed to a pair of major ethics demands made by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to help jumpstart her stalled candidacy for the top medical research job. Monica Bertagnolli, who was nominated more than three months ago, pledged to not seek employment or compensation from any of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies for four years after she leaves government, according to a letter sent to the Massachusetts Democrat and obtained by POLITICO. (Cancryn, 8/29)

Democrats Warren, of Massachusetts, and Jayapal, of Washington, wrote Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf on Monday urging the agency to do more to stop brand-name drugmakers from keeping lower-cost generic drugs off the market. In their letter, the lawmakers called for changes to rules that “pharmaceutical companies have exploited to rake in billions in profits.” (Edney, 8/29)

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) announced Tuesday that he has a “very treatable” form of blood cancer and has begun treatment that will last the next several months. “After a few days of not feeling like myself this past week, I had some blood work done,” Scalise said in a statement. “The results uncovered some irregularities and after undergoing additional tests, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a very treatable blood cancer.” (Wang and McGinley, 8/29)

The Texas Medical Association notched another win in its legal challenges to the No Surprises Act, further complicating the law's implementation. Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas last Friday issued a ruling largely in favor of the association, which argued that flawed methodology compromised the calculated median rate insurers pay for a service in a particular market, also known as the qualified payment amount. (Kacik, 8/29)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Exclusive: CMS Study Sabotages Efforts To Bolster Nursing Home Staffing, Advocates Say 

The Biden administration last year promised to establish minimum staffing levels for the nation’s roughly 15,000 nursing homes. It was the centerpiece of an agenda to overhaul an industry the government said was rife with substandard care and failures to follow federal quality rules. But a research study the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services commissioned to identify the appropriate level of staffing made no specific recommendations and analyzed only staffing levels lower than what the previous major federal evaluation had considered best, according to a copy of the study reviewed Monday by �鶹Ů�� Health News. Instead, the new study said there was no single staffing level that would guarantee quality care, although the report estimated that higher staffing levels would lead to fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits, faster care, and fewer failures to provide care. (Rau, 8/29)

A migrant woman died in South Texas after spending less than a day in federal custody, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced Tuesday. Border agents encountered the 29-year-old woman and her family in the Rio Grande Valley on Sunday afternoon, according to a statement from the agency. While she was in custody, she experienced a “medical emergency” and was treated by an on-site medical team and then taken to a hospital in Harlingen where she was pronounced dead, the agency said. (8/29)