Marco's Morning Report — Friday, May 22, 2026

A · Top Stories

Knicks bury Cavs 109-93, take 2-0 ECF lead at MSG

Josh Hart dropped a playoff career-high 26 (8/13 from the floor); Brunson 19 pts / 14 ast. An 18-0 third-quarter run flipped a 53-71 hole into a runaway. Cavs shot 39% — Mitchell 26, Harden 18, but the supporting cast disappeared again. NY is two wins from its first Finals since 1999.

Why it matters: You wanted Knicks playoff coverage while they're alive — they are very much alive. Cleveland looked solved, not just beaten.

Next: Game 3, Saturday May 23, 8 PM ET in Cleveland (ESPN). Cavs open as 2.5-pt favorites at home. ESPN recap · NBA.com

Mets salvage series split with 2-1 win at Washington

David Peterson logged his first W of the year as a starter — 5 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 3 K. Bo Bichette's two-run single in the 6th was the only Mets damage off the Nats bullpen. NY had dropped two straight after the 16-7 marathon win Monday; this one stops the bleeding and lifts them to 22-28. Seventh win in their last ten.

Why it matters: With Holmes on the 60-day IL, Senga still ramping in Florida, Lindor not yet running, and Alvarez on a mid-July clock, the rotation depth — Peterson, McLean, the Thornton call-up — is the season's load-bearing question.

Next: Three-game home set vs Red Sox opens tonight at Citi. ESPN recap

Cuba: Díaz-Canel ties Castro indictment to 1902 Platt Amendment in May 20 address

On the 124th anniversary of the Cuban Republic, Díaz-Canel framed Washington's superseding indictment of Raúl Castro — and the State Department's named sanctions on the Assembly president, MININT/DI, and 11 officials — as continuity of the May 20, 1902 imposition: "intervención, injerencia, despojo, frustración." Per Granma, he called the charges against Raúl "political action without legal basis." Mainstream outlets simultaneously reported continued blackouts >19 hr/day in Havana and 65% nationwide outage May 13.

Why it matters: The U.S.–Cuba arc is now running on three rails — legal (indictment unsealed May 20), economic (named sanctions May 18), and back-channel (Díaz-Canel himself confirmed energy talks). It will be the family conversation in Lisbon in 10 days.

Watch for: Sanctions tranche 2 ("days and weeks," per Rubio); whether Cuban dissatisfaction on social media outpaces the regime's official line. CBS Miami · CNBC

B · The Debate

Should the Supreme Court have let Medicare's drug-price negotiation program — including Part B hospital-administered drugs — move forward?

Why it's live right now: On Monday, May 18, SCOTUS declined without comment to hear appeals from Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Janssen, BMS, Novartis, and Boehringer Ingelheim — leaving in place 3rd Circuit rulings that rejected the manufacturers' constitutional challenges. The third negotiation round, now beginning, is the first to fold in Medicare Part B drugs (chemo, biologics, infusions administered in your hospital). The hospital lobby is suddenly more interested in the program's design than its existence.

FOR — let it stand

The negotiation program was duly enacted by Congress in 2022, has now been blessed by three federal appellate circuits, and is delivering on its premise: the first ten drugs are projected to save the federal government roughly $6B and Medicare beneficiaries roughly $1.5B in out-of-pocket costs in 2026 alone, per CMS scoring cited by Public Citizen. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has defended the program continuously since the IRA, has argued in recent statements that Americans "have been forced to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world" — extending negotiation to Part B simply ends a carve-out that benefited manufacturers, not patients. Folding in hospital-administered drugs corrects an obvious distortion: a Medicare beneficiary getting a $14,000-a-month infusion in your unit shouldn't be subsidizing the same molecule's lower price abroad.

AGAINST — the program will choke innovation and burden providers

PhRMA has argued for two years that price-setting under penalty (the IRA imposes an excise tax of up to 95% of revenue for non-compliance) is not "negotiation" — it's coercion that will pull capital out of R&D. PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl has framed it as politics dictating "which treatments and cures are worth developing" (Life Science Leader). On the provider side, the American Hospital Association is now pressing CMS that the Part B retrospective process "conflicts with 340B" and is "complex, overly burdensome and operationally unworkable" — a 340B Health survey estimates rebate-model mechanics would add ~$72.2M/year in cost burden per disproportionate-share hospital and could push ~60% of 340B hospitals to consider withdrawal.

Where it might land: The legal fight is over — the operational fight has barely begun. Watch the Part B negotiation guidance CMS releases this summer and the AHA's pending rule comments. Sources: STAT · PBS · Becker's.

C · On My Radar

Iran ceasefire — "some good signs," Rubio says. Per Al Jazeera's May 21 live blog, Rubio expressed cautious optimism while Tehran continues to call enrichment "non-negotiable." Israel is openly pushing for a return to strikes — but Al Jazeera notes its options are limited mid-ceasefire.

Puerto Rico — Gov. González's annual address. Bid for 3,000 MW of new generation due by late summer; ~1,000 MW coming online in upcoming months as plants are repaired; Tesla batteries (430 MW of storage) being installed with $700M+ in federal funds. AP via WSLS.

Geriatric surgical pathway — concrete numbers. A May 2026 study via MedicalXpress: when older surgical patients are screened for fall risk and delirium with a dedicated geriatric pathway, the average stay drops by one day and complications including respiratory failure and sepsis fall ~50%. Exactly the population you admit every night.

GLP-1s, long-term cardiovascular benefit. A large international review (covered May 21) confirms sustained reductions in MI, stroke, heart failure, and all-cause mortality with extended GLP-1 use — relevant for the recurrent CHF / new-onset DM admissions that fill your service.

Mandalorian and Grogu opens theatrically today (Pedro Pascal). Critically softer than expected — wait for word-of-mouth before committing. RT preview.

Tuner (95% RT) and I Love Boosters (Boots Riley / Keke Palmer, 92%) also open today. Bushido (91%) hits streaming. RT in-theaters.

FDA — Baxfendy (baxdrostat) approved May 15 as the first aldosterone synthase inhibitor for hypertension. Niche right now, but worth knowing the class exists when resistant-HTN consults come up.

D · Trends to Watch

The 340B / Part B negotiation collision. The legal challenge to the IRA program is dead; the operational one is just starting. AHA, 340B Health, and CMS are now arguing about whether the rebate model breaks safety-net hospital margins. Worth tracking through summer — if 60% of 340B hospitals genuinely withdraw, that's a regional access story that lands in your unit as transfers.

Geriatric pathway becomes a metric, not a virtue. Anticholinergic-burden tracking, fall/delirium screening, "medically optimized" framing, and now hard length-of-stay + complication data — the pieces of an evidence-backed inpatient geriatric pathway are converging fast enough that bundled-payment programs will start asking for it.

Iran's nuclear posture continues to harden during the pause. Per IAEA numbers carried forward from Monday and Al Jazeera's Thursday updates, the 60% stockpile sits at ~440.9 kg with parliament still threatening 90% enrichment. Ceasefire is a label, not a fact.

E · Ideas & Opportunities

For your group meeting: the geriatric-surgical-pathway study (one fewer hospital day, ~50% lower respiratory failure / sepsis) is a clean argument for piloting fall + delirium screening on every admission ≥75. Concrete enough to put on a slide.

Movie night option (you + Havana before the trip): Tuner (95% RT) is the safest theatrical bet today; Bushido on streaming if you want couch-mode. Skip Mandalorian/Grogu until reviews settle.

Mets storyline to track on the trip: Zach Thornton's bulk-relief debut window — he's the patch for the Holmes-shaped rotation hole. Worth pulling up between Sevilla and Granada.