WHITE HOUSE:

The White House focused this week on the “Major Economics Forum” on Energy & Climate (MEF), a new executive order on environmental justice, including a new “scorecard” to grade federal action on environmental activities, and more public-private partnerships on electric vehicles. One major item:

• The President announced a new executive order focused on caregivers, both for early childhood and in the long term care sectors. While the executive order is comprehensive, practically, there is very little new regulation contained therein that impacts us. The EO primarily consists of direction to federal agencies to review existing protocols and identify ways to strengthen the long-term care workforce, such as by creating incentives through the Medicare program for retaining staff. One specific interesting item for your legal teams is a directive to the Department of Labor to create sample employee agreements. Overall, many of the actions are already underway, in one form or another, through existing regulations.

CONGRESS:

Finally, some Congressional action on the debt ceiling. Speaker McCarthy released the 320-page (PDF) GOP plan to tackle the debt limit ceiling. While the proposal faced immediate pushback from the President and centrist Republicans, importantly, it has some support from Senator Manchin and Democrats are using it as an opportunity to encourage the President to meet with Speaker McCarthy again. A summary of the major provisions is available here. Without getting too deep into specifics, the bill does call for the implementation of work requirements on Medicaid recipients, something that several states have attempted over the last few years. The Speaker would like to get a House vote on the plan next week, although the votes aren’t yet there in the House, and there’s no viable path to pass through the Democratic Senate. Elsewhere on the political front:

• While the Speaker’s plan was most prominent, the “problem-solvers caucus”, a bipartisan group of moderates, released their own plan. Politico ran an op-ed on the unilateral steps the Federal Reserve can take to solve the issue on their own.

• Looks like the President formal announcement of a 2024 reelection campaign will come next week. On the GOP front former President Trump is picking up steam and endorsements to be the Republican nominee as Governor DeSantis had a very rough week.

• A fascinating look at the group of political advisors that Speaker McCarty is relying upon.

• Senators Wyden & Crapo released a bipartisan framework to better regulate PBM’s. You can download a copy of the framework here (PDF). In the meantime, Senator Sanders is continuing to look at PBM’s.

• Following up on an item last week about Senator Feinstein, Republicans, as expected, are not making it easy on Democrats to appoint a replacement to her committee seats, while more California groups are calling on her to resign.

• Lastly, a look at which Congressional members have requested earmarks for projects in their district.

AGENCIES

CMS will host a call this Tuesday, April 25, from 330 PM to 430 PM EST on the ending of the PHE. You can register here. This is an opportunity to hear directly from CMS on the end of the PHE and the transition for waivers currently in place.

HHS created a new set of resources to help healthcare providers with cybersecurity. One tool in particular, Knowledge on Demand, is designed to aid healthcare providers with training and learning modules for their employees.

We mentioned the President’s Executive Order on climate change earlier. In conjunction with the EO, HHS, through the Office of Climate Change & Health Equity (OCCHE), released a new tool to help healthcare providers (including SNF’s) tap into available resources created by the Inflation Reduction Act to help facilities minimize climate change impact. It’s a valuable tool that can be used to identify funding and grants that can potentially be used for green projects at the facility level.

HHS announced a new dashboard with ownership information for hospice and home health agencies, available at the central CMS data site.

They also released a fact sheet outlining the plan to make Covid-19 vaccines broadly available.

CMS released a fact sheet detailing the specifics of the agency’s final rule covering health insurers and plans available on the marketplace.

The latest CMS roundup of agency action with a complete list of recent agency action is available here.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK:

• The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new guide and FAQ detailing the changes to Medicare Part D as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. They also looked at how the end of the PHE will impact HCBS.

• The National Council on Aging released a new study highlighting just how unprepared 80% (!) of American retirees are for long-term care, reinforcing, yet again, the need to strengthen social safety net programs.

• CMS Deputy Administrator discussed the impact of the unwinding and Medicaid redeterminations for Modern Healthcare (registration required).

• It’s from a few weeks back, but the Massachusetts attorney general reminded temporary nursing agencies about the caps on the rates that they can charge SNF’s. You can download a copy of the notice here (PDF).

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