Over the last few weeks, the White House focused on signing, and vetoing, several pieces of Congressional legislation, delaying the tariffs on furniture, cabinets & vanities, and issuing a new Presidential Memorandum to start the “6G race”. One note of interest:

·         With all the disturbing news out of Minnesota, the Administration highlighted the efforts they’re taking to tackle the fraud, including freezing all childcare payments across the country, pending verification. While currently limited to childcare programs, different agencies are investigating further to get a sense of how far ranging the problems extend. The federal government is also pursuing repayment of benefits by the sponsors of immigrants in Minnesota. 

Welcome back, Congress! Following the end of year Holiday break, the House returns on Monday and the Senate on Tuesday, with a lengthy to-do list for each chamber. The big-ticket item is the government funding deadline, which is coming up fast on January 30^th. There’s little appetite in DC for a repeat of the government shutdown drama from October, which left both parties feeling defeated. Health care also remains a priority as Speaker Mike Johnson declaring that it’ll be a prime focus over the next few months. For now, Congress is back to work in an election year. Elsewhere in the political world:

·         Beyond the obvious human impact the expiring Obamacare subsidies has on beneficiaries, the political implications are powerful and will be a major messaging point for Democrats in the upcoming months.

·         We’re now up to more than 50 lawmakers leaving Congress, with more expected to come. It’s a sign of just how polarizing DC has become.

·         An unlikely opponent of the Administration’s laissez-faire approach to AI regulation has emerged: Ron DeSantis, who wants to take on AI in his last year as Florida governor.

·         One goal for Congress in 2026: try to become a little less irrelevant in the age of Trump.

·         One useful end of year report from the CRS: an updated guide to their report on what are the legal ramifications of reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug. The report reflects the recent Executive Order from the President directing the government to get it done.

HHS, via CMS, announced the award of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund to each of the states. 50% of the funding was awarded equally and the rest was awarded for project requests by each state. The central resource page for the program can be found here. A full list of all the state abstracts, describing the programs they plan to build with the funding, can be found here (PDF). 

As part of the announcement, CMS launched a new Office of Rural Health Transformation to oversee the ongoing implementation of the program.

HHS, together with the DEA, announced an extension of a flexibility that allows providers to provide prescriptions via telehealth. The full notice is at the Federal Register.

CMS, via CMMI, announced a new voluntary model that will enable Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1 drugs for beneficiaries. The central resource page for the program is here.

As part of the Administration’s efforts to lower drug costs, CMS announced a new mandatory model that would tie pricing for Medicare Part D drugs to prices paid in other countries. The central resource page is here.  The notice can be found at the Federal Register.

They also proposed a new voluntary model that would tie pricing for Medicare Part B to the prices paid in other countries. The central resource page for the model is here. The notice can be found at the Federal Register.

HHS rescinded several proposals of a Biden-era rule related to health IT certification. Healthcare Dive has a good summary.  The two proposals can be found here (PDF) and here (PDF).

The OIG at HHS performed an audit on payments made to MCO’s, finding that Medicaid Agencies had made nearly $300 million in improper payment on behalf of deceased beneficiaries. The summary is here (PDF) and the full report is here (PDF).

The OIG at HHS also did an audit on assisted living facilities, finding that quite a few of them were not in compliance with PRF requirements. The summary is here (PDF) and the full report is here (PDF).

From the notebook:

·         While the Administration has been pushing hard to rein in drug costs, a new report found that drugmakers are raising prices on more than 350 different medications. 

·         A look at how Louisiana and Connecticut are planning on spending some of the funds from the Rural Health Transformation Fund.

·         Tighter Medicaid budgets are forcing states to reevaluate all their healthcare programs, including ABA and other therapies.

·         Following an independent analysis, United Health Group is promising changes… Healthcare Dive has a good summary.