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WHITE HOUSE:

The White House focused this week on the launch of their Phoenix “Workforce Hub”, more gun violence prevention efforts, and another nearly $5 billion for transportation projects. Two items of indirect interest for us:

• In order to make it easier for small businesses to participate in federal contracts, they announced new guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as well as improvements to the Small Business Administration (SBA) popular technical assistance program that helps small businesses grow. For those of you that are involved with small businesses, this is a useful resource to help them scale.

• As part of their efforts on AI, they held another meeting with invested stakeholders to discuss how to shape AI policy. As with everything AI related, it’s important to keep an eye on policy is shaped and emerging technologies will be regulated.

CONGRESS:

With the House out of session this past week, the legislative timeline to find a funding deal continues to tighten. There are only 7 days where both the House and Senate are currently scheduled to be in session at the same time in February, leaving little time for the many technical aspects of passing legislation, to say nothing of actually finding a real compromise that can get passed. Adding to the complexity is the inability of the Senate and House GOP to create a Ukraine aid & border bill as well as conservative pushback on the bipartisan tax bill we mentioned last week. With the slimmest House majority in history, Speaker Johnson will need Democratic support to pass legislation govern, which only adds to the pressure on the Speaker and a political dynamic that ultimately led to the ouster of former Speaker McCarthy. All in all, Congress appears to be stuck in neutral as we get closer to yet another funding deadline. Elsewhere in the political world:

• The Senate Special Committee on Aging, led by Senator Bob Casey, held a hearing on assisted living facilities, following up on the Washington Post’s December expose. The full hearing can be seen here. The Committee’s summary is here. The Washington Post and Kaiser Health News also have summaries. On the heels of the hearing, several Senators sent a letter (PDF) to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an investigation into federal and state funding of AL facilities.

• Senators Ron Wyden (D – OR) and Mike Crapo (R-ID), the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, released a new white paper that outlines how Medicare and Medicaid can help fund solutions to the ongoing generic drug shortage. The white paper can form the basis of legislation that the Committee will consider in the future. The White Paper can be found here (PDF).

• With all the discussion surrounding the regulation of AI, a group of conservatives are exploring how to roll back the new efforts.

• The Tax Relief Act that we mentioned last week (which would end the ERC program early) remains in limbo, with hope that it might come to a vote this week. For more on the Act, Kuno Bell wrote a summary right here at the eCap Intel Community.

• Now that Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the presidential race, an exploration of what his return means for Florida politics.

AGENCIES:

Following up on their earlier efforts to increase competition, HHS, via CMS, is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) on how to better collect data on Medicare Advantage plans and increase transparency on the program. To drive participation, they are extending the comment period to 120 days (twice the normal length). The formal RFI will be published to the Federal Register on January 30^th. In the meantime, you can access the unpublished version here (PDF). Fierce Healthcare has a summary of the RFI.

HHS unveiled a new set of voluntary “Cybersecurity Performance Goals” (CFG) to help healthcare organizations better strengthen their cybersecurity practices. A summary can found here.

HHS’ Office of Civil Rights issued new guidance to hospitals and Long Term Care Facilities on ensuring religious non-discrimination during patient visitation. The FAQ can be found here. Please consult with your legal and operating teams on implementation and compliance.

The FTC is exploring new tools to combat high drug prices, this time challenging drug patents listed in the FDA’s “Orange Book”. The goal is to limit patent filings to legitimate instances and bring down prices.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK:

• A new bill being proposed in Maine would create pathways for immigrants to help solve the state’s healthcare workforce shortage.

• An advisory group, formed by the Delaware Legislature, issued a recommendation that the state no longer offer a MA plan to state retirees. The full report is here (PDF).

• New York City became the latest local government to join the trend of paying off the medical debt for its residents, pledging to tackle nearly $2 billion in debt.

• Axios looked at how AI is going to transform healthcare.

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