aca
About those enhanced ACA subsidies
The prospect of an extension of ACA premium tax credits has also been significantly diminished.
It was bad enough when the credits were left out of the HHS spending bill. Last week, there was still some hope that the two parties could negotiate a separate deal to renew the ACA credits, but the debate over ICE is diverting lawmakers’ attention. It also creates another policy that Democrats want, and Republicans might be wary of giving the Democrats too many wins right now.
Democrats were willing to use a government shutdown to try to extend the credits. Now a potential shutdown over ICE is pushing the ACA credits into the background.
health insurance
Pointing fingers
On Thursday, executives for America’s largest health insurance companies were called to testify at back-to-back hearings, where they blamed everyone else in the health care system for high costs, according to Bob Herman and Daniel Payne.
Congress struck a deal on PBM reforms days before the hearings, and the big three PBMs are integrated with the conglomerates represented at the hearings.
That deal, and marathon grilling from lawmakers in both parties, is a sign of the new political dynamic for the health sector: one where traditionally laissez faire Republicans are finding common ground with Democrats to more strictly regulate insurers.
Read more from Bob and Daniel.
cdc
Another CDC departure
Sara Patterson, acting director of the CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure Center, told staff on Friday she planned to step down next month, according to an email obtained by Daniel Payne.
Patterson, who has been at the agency for 23 years, said she would be leaving federal service for a new opportunity. She acknowledged “this past year’s challenges” in her note to staff, saying they had only brought them “closer together.”
The office’s work may be familiar to Americans just a few years out from a pandemic — it includes coordinating strategies across state and local health departments that became crucial to the response to Covid-19. The office also oversees the grants that, over the weekend, were briefly paused.
Patterson and HHS officials did not respond to requests for comment about the departure.
research funding
A brief pause of a lot of grants
On Friday, federal officials told states and research organizations that $5 billion in public health infrastructure grants from the CDC was on hold. By Saturday evening, that pause was over.
Chelsea Cirruzzo reported the pause on Friday, based on screenshots of the notices that she obtained, then reported its end the following day.
The pause was meant to give the agency time to review the grants to “ensure alignment with administration and agency priorities.” Read more.
autism
A meeting on the down low
O. Rose Broderick reports on an orientation meeting for new nonfederal members of an influential advisory panel on autism.
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee recently added multiple members who align with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism — decades of scientific research has yet to find any conclusive evidence for such a link.
The meeting on Thursday was the first time the newly remade panel gathered, and it wasn’t publicly announced. It’s not clear whether the meeting was required to be public, but prior administrations did not hold similar orientations for members before announcing the rest of the list or in advance of the first public meeting. Read more about why researchers and people with autism are worried about what a nonpublic meeting portends.
fda
Debating the right way to do the right thing
The new approval path that the FDA is developing for personalized gene editing treatments is a good idea, according to researchers and biotech executives.
But bioethicists and regulatory experts caution against the way FDA officials are going about it, Jason Mast reports. The approval process is meant to be used only in special circumstances, and it could be abused if not carefully developed.
FDA officials Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad have laid out the new pathway in a short journal article, instead of the detailed guidance documents that are required by FDA regulations. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said formal guidance is coming.
Read more.
medicare advantage
Teensy MA pay bump
The Trump administration on Monday announced plans to increase payment by less than 0.1% for Medicare Advantage plans, according to Bob.
That’s far lower than the 4%-6% pay hike analysts expected, and stocks for major insurers took a tumble in after-hours trading. Medicare officials also proposed to restrict further how insurers can code the illnesses of their Medicare Advantage enrollees.
Read more for why.
