WHITE HOUSE:

The White House focused this week on the issuance of a final rule on gun violence, a new proposed rule on stock buybacks (via the Treasury Department), and a new standard to protect pollution in public water supplies (via the EPA). 3 items of interest:

• Following up on the President’s Executive Order from December 2021 that instructed the federal government to provide a better customer experience for public beneficiaries of Medicaid, SNAP, WIC and other support programs delivered by federal agencies, they provided an update on their actions. As those efforts include making the Medicaid application process easier, it’s an important trend to monitor.

• As part of “Care Workers Recognition Month”, they highlighted the many actions that the Administration has taken to help care the direct care workforce. You can access their summary of the full list here (PDF), which is a useful resource.

• Trying yet again on the student loan front, the President announced a new plan that would provide debt relief to approximately 30 million student loan borrowers. As many of your employees may benefit from the new plan, they may appreciate hearing about it from you.

CONGRESS:

Fourth time’s the charm for House Speaker Mike Johnson. After failing on three previous occasions, he finally got the House to pass a reauthorization of FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). While the bill itself isn’t entirely relevant to long-term care providers, the underlying tension and discord among the GOP was on full display. With Congress still needing to act on Ukraine and Israel, the Speaker remains in political peril. In the meantime, Congress continues to struggle with passing legislation, as next week’s calendar focuses almost exclusively on “messaging” bills. For now, with one stumbling block behind him, Speaker Johnson has made it through another week. Elsewhere in the political world:

• Congressman Steven Horsford (D – Nevada) introduced new legislation specifically meant to strengthen the workforce at SNF’s. The full text can be found here (PDF). The summary is here (PDF).

• With the backing of the White House, a trio of Democratic Senators introduced the “Fraud Prevention and Recovery Act, which is designed to provide additional resources to federal agencies to go after pandemic fraud. As with most legislation these days, actually passing will be an uphill battle, particularly in this Congress, but this one may have legs across the aisle. The summary is here (PDF).

• Following the introduction by Senator Ed Markey (D – MA) of the “Health Over Wealth Act” that would create new licensing requirements on private equity firms that want to do business in healthcare (among many other provisions), Axios explored the latest on the three parallel efforts by Senate Committees to tackle private equity in healthcare. The bill summary is here (PDF).

• After Democrats flipped the Wisconsin state supreme court, which led to new district maps, control of the state supreme court will again be up for grabs as a liberal Justice announced this week that she won’t seek reelection. As control of state supreme courts is a key part of Democratic political strategy this will be a race to keep an eye on.

• A California effort to get the state pass a higher minimum wage across the state appears to be losing steam. Why? Because many of the advocates for increased minimum wage already feel like they’ve won with the sector specific minimum wage increases they’ve won in California. Given the outsized impact minimum wage legislation has on the healthcare sector, understanding the political strategy on minimum wage legislative is critical.

• One relevant CRS report from the week: a breakdown of different types of rural hospitals as it relates to Medicare payments. You can access a copy here (PDF).

AGENCIES:

HHS, via HRSA, is making available $51 million for HRSA-funded health centers to support folks transitioning out of prisons into the community. More information is available at the HRSA central resource page.

CMS released the 2025 payment rule for hospital inpatient and long term care hospitals. The fact sheet is available here. The rule is scheduled to be published to the Federal Register on May 2^nd. In the meantime, you can access a copy of the 1,902-page prepublication rule here (PDF). One interesting thing about the rule is that CMS is using it to address other policy goals, such as access to care and equity policies. It’s a trend to monitor.

The OIG at HHS released an audit of Ohio’s rate of disenrollment for Medicaid beneficiaries during the unwinding, finding that by and large the state complied with federal and state requirements during the unwinding. The summary is here (PDF). The full report can be accessed here (PDF).

The CDC is planning on sharing more data with the public, despite hesitation from Congressional members. They updated their 2-year public health data strategy with a focus on what they have the authority to publish without Congressional approval.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK:

• The NY Times looked at the way Maine is trying to solve a workforce shortage caused by an aging workforce (sound familiar?) by tapping into an immigration population. Hopefully, this is a prelude of things to come.

• Three interesting Kaiser Family Foundation briefs from this week:

• They did a deep dive into the many pieces of information missing from Medicare Advantage data reporting, despite CMS’ efforts.

• They released a survey that found 23% of Medicaid beneficiaries that were disenrolled during the unwinding currently have no health insurance, highlighting the plight of the more than 20 million people that were impacted.

• They explored the impact that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Chevron Deference case may have on healthcare.

• Mississippi is the latest Republican state to explore Medicaid expansion, as the state legislature is working out the differences on competing visions of what expansion would look like.

• Another study released this week from the Milken Institute looked at the impact of the Medicaid unwinding, finding that a year later providers are struggling with enrollment. Fierce Healthcare has a summary.

• It looks like Change Healthcare has been hit with a second cyberattack, although this one doesn’t yet appear to be as severe as the first one.

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