confirmation hearing
Overton plans to ‘go fast’
At today's hearing, Overton will emphasize the need for speed and efficiency at the FDA to compete with China’s accelerating biotechnology industry, according to prepared remarks that Margaret obtained.
Overton says she is committed to continuing the work the administration began earlier this year to speed up the clinical trial process.
Her statement only references vaccines in passing, and there is no mention of her involvement in the recent changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, which health committee chair Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called “almost disqualifying.”
Read more of Margaret’s scoop about Overton's opening statement.
physician payment
Crying uncle on doctor pay reform
Congress is finally warming to the first major overhaul of how Medicare pays doctors in more than a decade.
The main measure under consideration would link Medicare’s doctor pay rates to a medical inflation measure, giving doctors guaranteed pay boosts, as hospitals and other parts of the health care system have long received.
In doing so, Congress would be retreating from the notion that Medicare can control how many services physicians provide on a national basis, an idea that has undergirded Medicare’s doctor payments for decades. And it would reduce the government’s push to get clinicians to engage in value-based care, where they get paid more to keep patients healthy.
Read more.
hospitals
Why a private-equity owned hospital chain is becoming a nonprofit
Is it a private-equity bailout or a lifeline for rural hospitals?
That’s the underlying question in this in-depth article by Tara Bannow about Quorum Health, a private equity-owned chain of mostly rural hospitals that’s converting to a nonprofit organization.
It’s a fascinating move. Individual private equity-owned hospitals have transitioned to nonprofit status before, but it’s unheard of for an entire chain to do so.
Read more about the potential upsides and downsides of the transition and why Moody’s Investors Service describes Quorum’s capital structure as “unsustainable.”
medical devices
How to pay for remote patient monitoring devices
Major insurers are at odds over a Medicare proposal that would significantly disrupt how many doctors bill for tracking the health of patients using devices like connected blood pressure cuffs, scales, and blood glucose meters, Mario Aguilar reports.
UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, and Kaiser Permanente oppose a Medicare proposal that would effectively ban providers from using contractors to deliver remote patient monitoring care. Those companies operate both insurers and care organizations.
Humana and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, in contrast, support Medicare’s proposal.
Read more about what their differences could mean for coverage of the devices.
research funding
White House backs off controversial NIH order
The Trump administration seems to be retreating from an executive order that would give the White House more influence over grants at the National Institutes of Health, Anil Oza and Chelsea Cirruzzo report.
The order would create a commission of political appointees, including White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. It met with pushback from many lawmakers in both parties, including Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The order is the latest attempt by the administration to politicize science funding. Read more.
