Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

Health policy impacts everyone, but it can be hard to know what is important. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

Forbes: Voters Say Healthcare Not A Top Issue. Covid-19 Explains Why In a striking departure from recent voting and polling trends, healthcare has tumbled to the 16th-most important problem facing Americans today, according to Gallup data released Friday. At first glance, this shift is bewildering, especially considering the central role healthcare played in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles. Americans now list the nation’s top problems as immigration (28%), the government (20%), the economy in general (12%), inflation (11%), poverty, hunger and homelessness (5%), unifying the country (4%), crime/violence (4%), and so on. ... Healthcare continues to be a pivotal issue, but its impact now permeates a broader array of societal concerns, reshaping our understanding of what constitutes a “healthcare issue.” (Pearl, 4/1)

Politico: CMS Rejects Drugmaker Price Offers, Kick-Starting Medicare Talks CMS said Tuesday it shot down drugmakers’ price offers for 10 pharmaceuticals subject to Medicare price negotiations, kicking off talks expected to stretch through the summer. The agency’s decision is the latest development in a negotiation process created by the Inflation Reduction Act. Officials touted the prospect of savings for those on Medicare, but the final prices won’t take effect until 2026. (King, 4/2)

Axios: Medicare Advantage Plans To See 2025 Base Pay Fall The Biden administration on Monday followed through on its proposal to cut next year's base payments to Medicare Advantage plans an average of 0.16%, despite pressure from insurers and their allies in Congress. Why it matters: While the plans will wind up seeing a net increase once payments are risk-adjusted to account for the health of their customers, the news sent shares of UnitedHealth, CVS Health, Humana and Centene falling amid predictions of continued financial pressure. (Goldman, 4/2)

For a Deeper Dive...

AP: Biden And Sen. Bernie Sanders Join Forces To Promote Lower Health Care Costs, Including For Inhalers “Bernie, you and I have been fighting this for 25 years,” Biden said to Sanders ... “Finally, finally we beat Big Pharma. Finally.” Both men touted the lower health care costs that come through the Democrats’ sweeping climate, health care and tax package that Biden signed into law in 2022. It caps various health care costs for those on Medicare, including $35 a month for insulin and $2,000 a year for prescription drugs. No Republican lawmakers voted for the law. (Superville, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: The Federal Budget Process Is A Mess. These Providers Pay The Price. While the medical community has grown accustomed to a certain level of frustration about this recurring phenomenon, the increasing frequency and scope of the chaos is exacting a meaningful toll across the sector, providers and their representatives said in interviews. When Congress fails to operate predictably, that exacerbates the underlying financial problems already causing burnout and staffing shortages and limiting access to healthcare, particularly in rural and underserved urban areas, they said. (McAuliff, 4/3)

Stat: White House Offers New Plan To Address Drug Shortages The White House at long last published a plan to stem drug shortages, and it involves basing Medicare pay to hospitals on whether hospitals adopt business practices that avoid shortages. The White House formed a task force at the beginning of 2023 to deal with the issue of persistent drug shortages, including cancer drugs. As of late last summer, lawmakers working on drug shortage legislation hadn’t spoken to the task force and didn’t know who was in charge of it. (Wilkerson, 4/2)

Modern Healthcare: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey Target Private Equity Federal lawmakers are pushing for more oversight of private equity investment in the healthcare industry, citing the ongoing financial struggles of Steward Health Care hospitals. The national for-profit system has been selling and closing hospitals since last year, this week shuttering New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Lawmakers worry more facilities will close as Steward’s outstanding rent and vendor payments pile up. (Kacik, 4/4)

KFF Health News: End Of Internet Subsidies For Low-Income Households Threatens Telehealth Access For Cindy Westman, $30 buys a week’s worth of gas to drive to medical appointments and run errands. It’s also how much she spent on her monthly internet bill before the federal Affordable Connectivity Program stepped in and covered her payments. “When you have low income and you are living on disability and your daughter’s disabled, every dollar counts,” said Westman, who lives in rural Illinois. (Tribble, 4/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicare Keeps Getting Tougher For Health Insurers Medicare Advantage plans had already been facing an unusual rise in medical costs. Now, the payments they get from the government also are squeezing them from the other side. Late Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would leave an earlier payment proposal unchanged, which came as a big disappointment to investors who had expected an increase. On Tuesday morning, insurance giants were tumbling, with Humana declining nearly 10%. Centene and UnitedHealth were down by less. (Wainer, 4/2)

The Washington Post: FDA Approves AI-Driven Test For Sepsis Made By Prenosis Bobby Reddy Jr. roamed a hospital as he built his start-up ... an artificial intelligence tool that would individualize treatment. Now, the Food and Drug Administration has greenlighted such a test developed by Reddy’s company, Chicago-based Prenosis, to predict the risk of sepsis — a complex condition that contributes to at least 350,000 deaths a year in the United States. It is the first algorithmic, AI-driven diagnostic tool for sepsis to receive the FDA’s go-ahead, the company said in a statement Wednesday. (Gilbert and Roubein, 4/3)

NBC News: Senate Investigating Whether ER Care Has Been Harmed By Growing Role Of Private-Equity Firms A Senate committee has asked three major private-equity firms for information on how they run or staff hospital emergency departments to see if private equity’s management of a large share of the nation’s ERs has harmed patients. Led by its chairman, Sen. Gary Peters’ ... staff conducted interviews with over 40 emergency department physicians who expressed “significant concerns” about patient safety and care resulting from the aggressive practices of private-equity firms in the arena. (Morgenson, 4/1)

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For the Visual Among Us...

A few years ago I started a weekly e-mail for friends and colleagues who want to keep up on major federal health policy developments but did not have time to plod through all the minutiae--they were busy doing important things like running organizations and taking care of patients! Much to my surprise, it became pretty popular. I have now converted to a weekly newsletter format so you can manage your own subscription preferences and forward to others that might be interested.

These summaries represent my judgement on health policy issues that may not on the front pages, but are relevant to clinicians, administrators, and educators. I monitor many news sources and clipping services to identify content for this newsletter and I try hard to be as factual, balanced, and non-partisan as possible. While the articles are written by others (with credit attributed), the choice of what to include is entirely mine. If you are interested in receiving a daily summary of health policy news, you might consider signing up for the KHN Morning Briefing. If you enjoy podcasts, I suggest What the Health? and Tradeoffs.

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD