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...

Politico: Congressional Leaders Roll Out Final $1.2T Funding Package Ahead Of Saturday Shutdown Deadline Congressional leaders are one step closer to closing out a particularly chaotic government funding season, releasing a massive, $1.2 trillion spending package early Thursday morning that they aim to pass through both chambers by week’s end. Lawmakers are again racing against a partial government shutdown that would hit just after midnight Saturday morning, after a fight over border-related funding delayed legislative text. The new package leaders unveiled overnight would boost budgets for the military through the end of September, while keeping funding for most non-defense agencies about even with current spending levels. (Emma and Scholtes, 3/21)

Modern Healthcare: Bill To Help Health Workers With Burnout Moves Ahead In Congress A bill designed to help counter depression, burnout and suicide among healthcare providers cleared a key hurdle Wednesday, passing unanimously out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act of 2024 updates and extends for five years an earlier version of the law. It funds grants for healthcare organizations and associations to run programs aimed at improving workers' mental health amid staff shortages and ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. (McAuliff, 3/20)

Politico: CDC: US Life Expectancy Rises After 2-Year Dip U.S. life expectancy increased for the first time in two years, according to a new report by the CDC. The report, released Thursday, marks a notable reversal: People born in the U.S. in 2022 can expect to live 77.5 years, an increase from 76.4 in 2021. Life expectancy had dropped in 2020 and 2021, which experts have said was driven by Covid-19 deaths and drug overdoses. The 2021 life expectancy report — a decline from 77 years to 76.4 years — marked the lowest U.S. life expectancy since 1996. (Cirruzzo, 3/21)

For a Deeper Dive...

Axios: Government Spending Deal Keeps Health Programs Near Status Quo The latest government funding deal wasn't just stripped of big health policy changes — it also lacks significant raises for a host of federal health agencies. A gridlocked Congress essentially settled on flat funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, avoiding an automatic sequester cut while leaving pandemic preparedness, mental health, biomedical research and public health efforts running at or near the status quo. (Knight and Sullivan, 3/22)

The Hill: Biden To Sign Executive Order To Expand Research On Women’s Health President Biden on Monday will sign an executive order aimed at expanding research and improving government initiatives on women’s health, a move that will coincide with a White House Women’s History Month reception. The president’s executive order will “ensure women’s health is integrated and prioritized across the federal research portfolio and budget,” the White House said, with a focus on the administration’s Initiative on Women’s Health Research. (Samuels, 3/18)

Bloomberg: 270,000 Overdose Deaths Thrust Fentanyl Into Heart Of US Presidential Race To understand the 2024 US presidential election, it is essential to understand the politics of fentanyl. Americans have been traumatized by a years-long wave of overdose deaths caused by the synthetic opioid. Once rarely used outside hospitals, fentanyl has become a ubiquitous street drug made by criminal gangs, often in Mexico, from cheap chemicals typically manufactured in China. It frequently is a hidden ingredient in other illicit drugs and can have fatal consequences for unsuspecting users. (Griffin, Meghjani, and Dmitrieva, 3/21)

CBS News: Social Security Clawed Back Overpayments By Docking 100% Of Benefits. Now It's Capping It At 10% By law, the agency must claw back overpaid benefits, but SSA's policies had sparked outrage and concern after some Social Security recipients reported surprise bills that demanded payment within 30 days. Sometimes the bills mounted into the tens of thousands of dollars. If they couldn't immediately pay the bill, the agency could dock their entire monthly Social Security payment, leaving some people financially destitute, as reported by "60 Minutes," KFF Health News and other media outlets. In a statement issued Wednesday, Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley said the agency will cease "the heavy-handed practice of intercepting 100% of an overpaid beneficiary's monthly Social Security benefit." (Picchi, 3/20)

NBC News: Medicare Will Cover Wegovy To Reduce Heart Disease Risk Medicare will provide coverage for Wegovy for patients with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke or other serious cardiovascular problems, an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The decision, experts say, could grant millions of patients access to the popular yet expensive weight loss medication. Medicare, which currently provides health insurance to more than 65 million people in the U.S., has long been barred from paying for weight loss drugs. (Lovelace Jr., 3/21)

Fierce Healthcare: House Bill Extends CBO's Scoring Window For Preventive Care Preventive care or healthcare innovation legislation promising decadeslong savings benefits may soon get fairer appraisals from Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper. Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow lawmakers to request the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to generate budgetary savings estimates of prospective preventive healthcare legislation over a 30-year window as opposed to the current 10-year scoring window. (Muoio, 3/20)

Modern Healthcare: Cybersecurity Spending Too Low To Prevent Another Change Breach Healthcare’s lack of investment in cybersecurity is in the spotlight as the Change Healthcare breach continues to disrupt the industry. ... Cybersecurity professionals are sounding the alarm on future attacks if healthcare organizations don't start putting more financial resources into protecting their data. “The landscape has changed. The threats are higher,” said David Ting, chief technology officer and founder of cybersecurity company Tausight. “We should be going to DEFCON 2.” (Turner, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: PBM Legislation Dropped — Again — From Funding Bill A healthcare package that would have advanced pharmacy benefit manager legislation and other healthcare priorities including enhanced community health center funding will not move alongside the next round of federal appropriations. Committee leaders who hoped to build a legislative package around bipartisan PBM measures and other popular items were unable to come to agreement, and Senate and House leadership declined to add healthcare legislation to the fiscal 2024 government funding bill they are expected to release Tuesday or Wednesday. (McAuliff, 3/19)

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