Internal Pentagon documents obtained by @thewarhorsenews.bsky.social show Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team began laying the groundwork for a new review of women in combat just weeks after he took office. Read our exclusive report: thewarhorse.org/women-in-com...

Hegseth Ordered a New Study of Women in Combat. Critics Say It’s Built to Reach One Conclusion

Defense Secretary Hegseth convened a team to study women in combat roles with a controversial researcher to lead the inquiry.

thewarhorse.org

My villain origin story is university administration requiring four different departments to review and approve my purchase of an Excel crosswalk between two different types of billing codes Gotta justify those indirects somehow I guess!

Peptide Showdown: F.D.A. Scientists May Clash With Kennedy’s Agenda Agency scientists are advising against allowing widespread use of several peptide injections. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has said people should be free to experiment. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/h...

A Peptide Showdown: F.D.A. Scientists May Clash With R.F.K.’s Agenda

Agency scientists are advising against allowing widespread use of several peptide injections. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has said people should be free to experiment.

nytimes.com

Question for other soft money faculty: How often do your finance/grant folks email you with requests and forms to fill out each month, on average?

🚨 New in @plosone.org led by @geronimob.bsky.social! Physical therapy is an alternative to opioids for musculoskeletal pain However, referral requirements may be a barrier Physical therapy direct access laws were associated with fewer opioid prescriptions LINK: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

The impact of physical therapy direct access policy on opioid shipments and opioid-related deaths: A difference-in-differences analysis

Background We exploit state-level policy changes for physical therapy direct access to estimate the effect of enacting direct access physical therapy policy on per-capita opioid pill volume (PCPV) and...

journals.plos.org

Samsun Naher sharing new work at #ASHEcon2026 - did Medicaid expansion crowd out private coverage for Mexican Americans? She found expansion increased Medicaid coverage by 9.%, decreases private coverage by 2.8% (~30% crowdout)

If you're still at #ASHEcon2026, let me shamelessly plug two of my presentations: 930am: does congestion explain why veterans tend to see lower quality providers in the VA's community care network? 1230pm: how has Medicaid expansion affected hospitals' bad debt & charity costs pre/post COVID-19?

Rich Nelson sharing evidence on a novel produce prescription program at two VA medical centers $100/month for 12 mos dietitian coaching. What happened? ↓ blood pressure ↑ BMI (income effect?) ↑ outpatient costs ↓ ED costs ↔ food insecurity #ASHEcon2026

Today, the AAUP released the Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2025–26. It is sobering. Full-time faculty salaries are down about 0.4% in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Average full-time faculty salaries remain 9.5% below fall 2019 & about 5.8% below fall 2008. 1/

Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession Now Available

This year's Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession finds that faculty salaries are still losing ground to inflation and expands data collection on part-time faculty pay.

aaup.org

Examining weight stigma shows that the "obese" cutoff increases patient mortality. Analyses of diagnostic effort and clinical documentation point to stigma as a mechanism, from Manasvini Singh www.nber.org/papers/w35277

Health_Economics@NIH.gov is also a resource your can send research ideas to and they will help match make you to staff at relevant institutes that may be a good fit!

Pretty poor rates of referrals to specialists being converted from primary care orders to completed specialty encounters. Work by @assumenormality.bsky.social

Jay Battacharya speaking now at #ASHEcon2026 🧵 First addresses plight of early career researchers and growing age at first R01 grant award Nowadays average is 44-45 years? Need to find a way to lower than and support early career scholars

Sooyeon Song sharing new research on which orthopedic low value services are predictive of Medicare spending and 30-day readmissions in the next year #ASHEcon2026

Paul Shafer evaluating a telenephrolology pilot in the VA, finding no effects on patient wait times or community care spending Limited staffing at many clinics may explain failure to move the needle #ASHEcon2026

Early risers at #ASHEcon2026, come see my work looking at referral frictions from primary to specialty care in the VA!

Who's going to #ASHEcon2026?

The Feed is Fake www.vulture.com/article/soci...

Was glad to have the opportunity to join @selenasd.com on All Things Considered yesterday to chat about the new work requirements regulation, which is will dial up paperwork — and, as a result, coverage losses — for some of the most vulnerable Medicaid enrollees

Trump administration puts out strict Medicaid work rules

Work rules for sick people on Medicaid will be stricter than advocates had hoped. The Trump administration released its guidance for states, which have to stand up the new bureaucracies by Jan. 1.

npr.org

New RCT evidence from @adrianna.bsky.social and coauthors testing effects of work requirements for SNAP Some enrollees get exemptions, others did not Work requirements had very small effects on employment, but large effects on enrollment Preview of what to expect in Medicaid next year #ARM26

Watched an interview with Orson Welles where the guy asks him if he has any regrets and he immediately goes “MINE ARE AS COUNTLESS AS THE SANDS OF THE DESERT” and how can you not fucking love Orson Welles

Medicaid work requirements are projected to cause many workers to lose eligibility due to weekly fluctuations in the number of hours worked New research by Paul Shafer, @thcallaghan.bsky.social, and Dave Anderson at #ARM26

Many Veterans use care outside the VA, and simple risk adjustment will miss a lot of comorbidities and outcomes Predictive quality is notably improved when accounting for VA-purchased community care data, less so for Medicare/Medicaid! New research at #ARM26 by @megan-vanneman.bsky.social

So who's going to #ARM26?

Supposedly they are shutting down ResDAC in 5 weeks, and, I’m told, replacing them with a totally novice firm with no experience/expertise in Medicare data.

Narrative violation 📢 VA actually does excellent work under very tough constraints. 78% of VA facilities earned 4 or 5 stars, the highest percentage since CMS first started rating them in 2023. VA accounted for ~15% of all 5-star rated hospitals in 2026! www.militarytimes.com/veterans/202...

VA hospitals earn top marks in federal review

Roughly 78% of VA medical centers earned four or five star ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this year.

militarytimes.com

Come work with us! Open rank faculty search for Vanderbilt's Department of Health Policy jobs.academyhealth.org/job/assistan...

this is the most relatable space travel has ever felt to me

niki grayson@nikigrayson.com · 4mo ago

right now the astronauts are calling houston because the computer on the spaceship is running two instances of microsoft outlook and they can't figure out why. nasa is about to remote into the computer

Pope Leo: "This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war...(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: 'Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood'"

Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Pope Leo says God rejects prayers of leaders who wage wars www.reuters.com/world/pope-l...