WHITE HOUSE:

The White House focused this week on the President’s address on his decision to drop out of the Presidential race, the President & Vice-President’s meeting with Bibi Netanyahu, a new plan to tackle plastic pollution (PDF), and the new “Implementation Roadmap” (PDF) for the National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology. 2 items of indirect interest for us:

• They announced further progress on the President’s Executive Order related to AI, including an update on the 270-day goals for federal agencies. These actions include guidelines and roadmaps from federal agencies on how they plan to deploy and integrate AI into their agency activities. This information can be useful if you’re working with companies that are integrating or deploying AI for use.

• They released Phase Two of their environmental justice scorecard that outlines how they’ve used more than $600 billion in federal funding to invest in disadvantaged communities. One item of particular interest was the announcement of this week of $19 million, via HUD, for the “Green & Resilient Retrofit Program”, which can be used to modernize energy-efficiency and air quality for buildings supported by HUD. There may be opportunities there if you have facilities that meet their specific criteria.

CONGRESS:

As the calendar turns to August, the House left town for the summer recess with a surprise passage and a notable failure in their efforts to pass the 12 major appropriation bills. As we’ve seen in the past, the hard work on funding the government tends to happen the closer we get to the fiscal deadline, which this year will happen on September 30^th. The upcoming presidential election, of course, changes the calculus significantly as Congressional members focus more on messaging, rather than the actual business of, y’know, running the country. Regardless, the House’s failure to move more of their spending agenda only heightens the time crunch in September. For now, get ready for campaign season. Elsewhere in the political world:

• Before leaving town, the House held one last hearing on PBM’s with bipartisan support against PBM’s for their perceived role in driving up drug prices. The committee also issued a report, available here (PDF), with a more in-depth analysis of how PBM’s increase drug prices. A good summary of the hearing can be found here. Although a bipartisan bill was introduced ahead of the hearing, with the House heading out of town, and control of Congress very much up for grabs in November, not much will be happening legislatively in the short term.

• The VA is running out of cash and Congress is going to have to step up to the plate by September 20^th to fix it. While the budget crunch isn’t likely to directly affect providers, it’s something to monitor.

• With the Vice President’s campaign beginning in earnest this week, her path to 270 and electoral success looks different than the President’s, which is forcing the GOP to rethink their strategy. The change in candidate is also affecting downstream races in the Senate and House.

• Two interesting CRS reports from the week (links are to the PDF):

• LSB11210: We’ve talked at length about the Chevron decision and what it can mean for the administrative state. The CRS issued a report to Congress on recent court decisions that relied on Chevron. Beyond the sheer breadth of court rulings included in the report, there was a specific decision from 2019 related to CMS’s ability to regulate arbitration agreements in long-term care that relied on Chevron, highlighting yet again just how impactful the Chevron decision is. I’ve attached the report.

• R48133: While this may be a bit more esoteric, if you’re involved with folks that do device manufacturing and require FDA approval, the CRS issued a guide to the various FDA databases that cover drug and medical device approval from the FDA.

AGENCIES:

As the government continues to grapple with AI, cyberattacks, data usage and the full range of modern technological challenges, HHS announced a restructuring of their technological division to streamline the different areas.

With the government making a more concerted effort to enable incarcerated individuals to access Medicaid programs, CMS issued a guidance letter to state officials on better enabling the incarcerated youth population to access Medicaid. You can access a copy here (PDF).

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that recommended CMS do a better job of providing oversight on states as the Medicaid unwinding progresses. In response, CMS said that they plan on doing more to ensure compliance from the states. You can access a copy of the full report here (PDF).

A federal judge has ordered CMS to speed up their implementation of court ordered appeals for beneficiaries challenging their observation status.

From the notebook:

• New Jersey passed $500 million in tax incentive legislation to encourage companies to invest in AI development in the state. If you’re dealing with AI, it’s something to explore. A copy of the legislation is available here (PDF).

• With Medicare Advantage growth continuing, it’s starting to affect hospitals, and they’re starting to really make noise.

• South Dakota invested more than $2 million to help their SNF’s better integrate technology into resident’s daily lives.

• Politico reported on an important lawsuit between Epic and one of their vendors governing data security for patient information. Beckett’s has more details on the case, which can have far-reaching implications. (Further down in the Politico article is a rundown of the VP’s track record for healthcare as California’s attorney general).

• McKnight’s sat down with Clif Porter to discuss his vision for the future.

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