WHITE HOUSE:

Over the last few weeks, the White House focused on reducing consumer costs in several industries, including eliminating “junk” fees from rental housing (via HUD), lowering food costs through a coordinated price-gouging enforcement campaign (via the USDA), and releasing a new set of merger guidelines (PDF) by the FTC and DOJ (full fact sheet here as a PDF). Following up on their earlier cybersecurity efforts, they released the first “National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan” (available here as a PDF). Three items of specific interest for us:

• Following up on the President’s earlier executive order on child care, they announced a new series of efforts to strengthen the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) which will help lower childcare costs for qualified recipients. As many of your staff may benefit from this program, they may appreciate learning about it from you.

• They secured voluntary commitments from seven of the leading AI companies to work towards a more safe and stable AI usage environment. I’ve attached the guidelines of the agreed-upon commitments. While not binding, it’s a good insight into the government’s thinking on AI development and usage, something that those of you involved in software development of AI need to be aware of.

• They created a new office for Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. As we learned during Covid, policy creation during a pandemic is often a chaotic process. Hopefully, an office focused on responding can create a more measured, reasonable approach moving forward.

CONGRESS:

With the August Congressional recess coming up, July is historically a time when Congress does work on the 12 appropriations bills that make up federal discretionary spending. You can find a good explainer of the federal budget process here. It’s clear that the very slim GOP majority in the House, with hardliners pushing for more cuts, is causing major headaches for the Speaker and the budgetary process. Throw in the fact that most conservative agenda items are DOA in the Democratic Senate and we’re in for a rocky few months. Elsewhere in the political world:

• This coming Thursday, the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Oversight will be holding a hearing on the ERC. As many of our readers are impacted in some way by the ERC program, it’s a hearing to monitor. The notice can be accessed here (PDF).

• It’s from last week, but a good look at the President’s agenda for long-term care.

• Senators Chuck Grassley (R – IA) & Tom Carper (D – DE) introduced a bipartisan bill that would provide more regulatory oversight over PBM’s. You can find the summary here (PDF) and the full bill text can be found here (PDF).

• The Hill explored how Republican senators are handling the ideological shifts occurring in the party. At the same time, changing demographics of younger, college-age voters are wreaking havoc on election math.

• Another potential path to Congressional action on AI regulation.

AGENCIES:

The OIG at HHS issued a report highlighting the high rate of denial of prior authorization requests by MCO’s and recommended that CMS mandate greater oversight over MCO programs. You can access the full copy of the report here (PDF).

HHS announced that they are launching a new “Bridge Access Program” this Fall to help folks without insurance gain access to Covid vaccines and treatments. More information can be found at the central CDC resource page.

HHS, along with the FTC, issued a warning to telehealth providers about the need to ensure their services are compliant with HIPAA regulations. For those of you involved with telehealth, please share with your legal advisors. The full letter can be found here (PDF).

CMS’ Center for Program Integrity announced a “Period of Enhanced Oversight” for any “new” hospices in Arizona, California, Nevada & Texas. New is defined as entering the Medicare program after July 13^th. You can find a copy of the notice here (PDF).

CMS approved California’s request to eliminate asset test in determining Medicaid eligibility. The full State Plan Amendment is available here (PDF).

CMS made publicly available for the first time a database of related to MA utilization of SNF services. They only have data from 2019 but will be updating the database regularly.

There doesn’t appear to be a formal notice posted to a CMS site, but McKnight’s reported that CMS has halted all CMP approvals.

Continuing their investigations into PBM’s, the FTC voted to rescind guidance that they issued to PBM’s between 2004-2014. Please consult with your legal advisors to see if this impacts those of you involved with PBMS.

The Moving Forward Coalition released their nine “Action Plans” designed to rethink how long term care is provided. They are looking for public comment.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK

• The Kaiser Family Foundation did an analysis of the ability for SNF’s to meet new minimum staffing requirements and found that a staggering 70+% of facilities would have to hire new staff to meet any requirements above 4.0. With the existing staffing shortage, this only highlights the ongoing challenges of the staffing crisis.

• It’s not a formal Congressional inquiry, but Axios reported that Congressional Democrats are looking into the Medicaid Unwinding and the high pace of disenrollments. In fact, they’re reporting that CMS has informally halted the unwinding in 12 states.

• With former President Jimmy Carter in hospice, the Hill explored at how it’s changing the conversation around Hospice care.

• Harvard & Inovalon released a study on the demographic and socioeconomic makeup of beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage vs. FFS Medicare. Fierce Healthcare has a good summary.

• The NY Times did an analysis of the changing and aging demographics over the next 30 years.

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