29 July 2024

This Week in Health Policy for July 29

This Week (July 29 - August 2)

The House is in recess this week. The Senate will be in session and is expected to continue with FY 2025 appropriations.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on bills to reauthorize programs for older Americans, brain injury, and more.

  • Date: Wednesday, July 31 at 10am ET
  • More information available here.

Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hear markup of HHS and other FY 2025 appropriations.

  • Date: Thursday, August 1 at 9:30am ET
  • More information available here.

Last Week (July 22 - 26)

Health Care Highlights

Biden drops out of presidential race. On Sunday (July 21), President Biden announced he will no longer seek re-election in November. Since then, Biden, former President Obama, Democratic members of Congress, and some of the other leading Democratic presidential candidates have been rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris who received the necessary delegate support to win the nomination in the first round of voting Monday night; it becomes official when party delegates hold a roll call vote ahead of next month's Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago.

While Harris did not serve on a health committee during her time in the US Senate, she has led the Biden administration's push to improve maternal health, particularly addressing inequities and care disparities that disproportionately impact black women, and improve access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care. If Harris secures the nomination and wins in November, she is expected to continue many of the Biden administration's other health care policies, including working to lower the cost of health care, drug prices, tackling anticompetitive behavior, and more. Harris is expected to announce her Vice President in the coming weeks.

ONC gets a new name, responsibilities. On Thursday (July 25), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will be renamed the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC), which will continue to be led by Micky Tripathi, who will assume the role of Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. HHS said oversight of technology, data, and AI policy and strategy will move to ASTP/ONC. HHS will host an informational webinar on the change on Thursday August 1. Click here for a blog post on the announcement. Click here for the Federal Register notice. Click here to register for the webinar.

CMS issues fact sheet on Oral Health Cross-Cutting Initiative. On Tuesday (July 23), CMS released a fact sheet on its Oral Health Cross-Cutting Initiative, which aims to ensure equitable access to oral health care by aligning proposals and policies across CMS. The fact sheet provides an update on the initiative's work and achievements. Click here for the fact sheet.

ICYMI: Health Care Highlights from the July 15-19

CMS provides update on activity related to unauthorized agents and brokers. On July 19, CMS outlined additional steps it has taken to address unauthorized changes to consumers' marketplace plan enrollment by agents and brokers. CMS stated that it would require new or "unassociated" agents or brokers from taking additional steps before changing a consumer's enrollment in a plan purchased on the federally-facilitated marketplace, including requiring them to conduct a three-way call with the consumer and the Marketplace Call Center. CMS also noted that between June 21, 2024, and July 10, 2024, the agency issued 200 suspensions of agent or broker Marketplace Agreements for reasonable suspicion of fraud or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switching. Click here for the press release.

CISA provides resource updates following CrowdStrike outage. On July 19, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) posted an alert on a non-malicious global technology outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike software update, which impacted many industries, including hospitals and health care organizations, which experienced IT disruptions prompting some appointment delays and cancellations. CISA has continued to provide updates on the outage and has directed those impacted to CrowdStrike's resources. Click here for CISA's updates.

FTC/DOJ extend deadline for serial acquisition RFI. On July 19, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice announced they have extended the deadline for public comment on a request for information on serial acquisitions and roll-up strategies. The new deadline for public comment is now September 20. Click here for the announcement.

HHS awards funding to spur domestic API production. On July 19, HHS' Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced it is awarding $18.5 million to Antheia and Capra Biosciences to domestically produce key starting materials (KSM) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) used in creating essential medicines, including those considered to be in shortage in 2023. Click here for the press release.

CMS issues final Part 2 guidance for MPPP. On July 16, CMS published the final part two guidance for the Medicare Prescription Payment Program (MPPP). The guidance details outreach and education responsibilities for Part D plan sponsors. The final guidance removed the requirement that sponsors base ongoing plan year outreach on prior authorization processes (instead they can use their own methodology), and there were minimal changes to point-of-sale identification and notification processes. Additionally, CMS noted that education and outreach responsibilities for drug manufacturers, among other concerns, were deemed out of scope. Click here for the guidance.

Hearings, Markups, and Other Committee Activity

House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization Oversight Hearing held a hearing on "Report Card: Assessing Electronic Health Record Modernization at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center." On Monday (July 22), the Subcommittee held a hearing during which lawmakers heard testimony from VA officials and representatives from former Oracle Health and Life Sciences, including former CMS administrator Seema Verma who is now an executive vice president and general manager for Oracle Health and Life Sciences. During the hearing, the witnesses fielded questions on the status of VA technology modernization projects.

  • More information available here.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing on the Role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers in Prescription Drug Markets Part III: Transparency and Accountability. On Tuesday (July 23), the Committee held a hearing during which members heard testimony from the CEOs of the nation's three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs): CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx. During the hearing, which marked the committee's third hearing focused on PBMs, the CEOs fielded critical questions from both Republican and Democratic members related to their business practices and level of transparency with topics ranging from independent pharmacies to patient access to drugs and drug affordability. The CEOs often pointed to drug manufacturers' high list prices and efforts to extend patents and delay biosimilar competition, saying that PBMs are doing the work to bring down those costs for their customers and patients. However, some members suggested they did not believe the CEOs' answers, with Chairman James Comer reminding the CEOs they were under oath after an exchange about patient steering.

In conjunction with the hearing, the committee published a report highlighting anticompetitive business practices and other policies — such as spread pricing, formulary placement, and rebates and fees — that the committee's report concluded negatively impact patient care. The report calls for Congress and states to implement legislative reforms to increase transparency into the PBM market.

  • More information available here.

House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing on "Are CDC's Priorities Restoring Public Trust and Improving the Health of the American People?" On Tuesday (July 23), the Subcommittee held a hearing during which lawmakers heard testimony from the directors of six CDC centers. The hearing centered around ways CDC fulfills and, at times, has veered away from its original mission, with topics discussed including the COVID-19 pandemic, data modernization and surveillance, and more.

  • More information available here.

Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law held a hearing on Health Impacts of Abortion Ban on Georgia Women. On Tuesday (July 23), the Subcommittee held a field hearing during which it heard testimony from local providers and policy experts on the impact of Georgia's six-week abortion ban.

  • More information available here.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held an executive session to consider authorizations for an investigation into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care and a subpoena of CEO Ralph de la Torre. On Thursday (July 25), the Committee voted 16-4 to subpoena Steward Health Care Systems CEO Ralph de la Torre to testify at a September 12 hearing. The Committee also voted 20-1 to launch an investigation into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care.

  • More information available here.

Reports, Studies, and Journals

Congressional Budget Office: Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy. CBO projects that Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program spending will increase by $40 billion over the next decade as about 300,000 eligible immigrants enter the programs. CBO estimates that in 2024, growth in immigration will increase the number of people receiving premium tax credits by 600,000.

HHS Office of Inspector General: HHS Office of the Secretary Needs to Improve Key Security Controls to Better Protect Certain Cloud Information Systems. The report, which examined cloud systems of the HHS Office of the Secretary, recommended the office address gaps in its cloud security systems to better manage cloud cybersecurity risks.

MedPAC: Data Book: Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program. The report provides data on Medicare spending, population demographics, beneficiaries' access to care and care quality, enrollment in alternative payment models, and more.

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Contact Information

For additional information concerning this Alert, please contact:

Washington Council Ernst & Young

Document ID: 2024-1451