WHITE HOUSE:

The White House focused this week on their efforts in Iran, the ongoing DHS shutdown, which is wreaking havoc at airports across the county, and working to strengthen the US-Japan alliance. Two items of interest for us:

• The White House released a “comprehensive national legislative framework” on AI. The Administration has made the growth of AI a central effort and this represents the clearest sign yet as to their efforts. It outlines the legislative recommendations and goals that the Administration wants to implement. One recommendation, touching upon something we’ve discussed before, is a goal that all state-level AI regulation be preempted by federal regulations. The framework is available here (PDF).

• The President signed a new Executive Order establishing a task force to eliminate fraud. Given the Administration’s ongoing focus on fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA), this represents a coordinated effort to establish more collaboration in rooting out wasteful federal spending. As always with these efforts, the devil will be in the details, but it’s a trend to monitor. The full EO is here.

CONGRESS:

As we enter our sixth week of the government shutdown of DHS, the two sides are finally talking again, despite another failed vote in the Senate, the fifth such vote to not reach the necessary 60-vote threshold. There’s renewed efforts to break the logjam, even as the SAVE Act (a voter ID bill) dominates the Senate’s floor time. Both Republicans and Democrats are looking for ways to split out the more controversial elements of the bill (ICE) while allowing the bipartisan elements to proceed. For now, the waiting game continues… Elsewhere in DC:

• The House Energy & Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee continued their hearings focused on healthcare affordability by exploring consolidation among healthcare providers. Committee staff put together a memo (PDF) with background on the issue. For those so inclined, the 3-hour hearing can be watched here. Healthcare Dive has a good summary.

  
  

• With FWA such a hot topic, the House Energy & Commerce Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee explored the role CMS plays in combating Medicare & Medicaid fraud. The committee memo is here (PDF).

  
  

• Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee released a new “discussion draft” focused on AI regulation. While not yet formally introduced to a committee, the bill incorporates most of the wish list from the White House’s national framework. The 291 page draft can be found here (PDF).

  
  

• It was a good series of election outcomes in Illinois for Governor Pritzker, as many of his hand-picked candidates won their primaries, including the likely next Senator of Illinois and the comptroller.

  
  

• The Texas Republican runoff is getting closer and the President still hasn’t made an endorsement, despite an effort by Attorney General Ken Paxton to appeal to an audience of one. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate appears to have a real shot, based on the latest polling.

  
  

• Early voting has started on Virginia’s public referendum to redistrict, which could shape control of the House.

  
  

• While we like to speculate about the politics of midterms, it can have a real impact on votes in Congress, especially when the majority is so slim, as Congressional members miss votes to campaign.

  
  

• Gubernatorial races are also starting to lean towards Democrats.

AGENCIES:

Hallelujah! CMS announced a rule to finally kill fax machines in healthcare. The fact sheet is here. The final rule is scheduled to be published to the Federal Register on March 24, but you can access a prepublication copy of the 165-page rule here (PDF).

As programs related to the Rural Health Transformation Program get underway, CMS hosted a gathering of folks from all 50 states to accelerate the program’s implementation.

CMS is making a new data from their Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative available to researchers and health innovators. It’s all part of their plan to make data more publicly available.

The HHS at OIG took a long look at the use of antipsychotics in SNF’s. The summary is here (PDF). The full report is here (PDF).

It’s not just blue states that are the subject of CMS audits. Dr. Oz announced that CMS is looking hard at the DME fraud issues popping up in Florida.

CMS announced their approval (PDF) of Minnesota’s “Corrective Action Plan,” which is the state’s game plan to go after FWA in the state. In theory, that should lead to the end of the federal hold on Medicaid payments to several of the programs in the state.

NY Governor Kathy Hochul announced that, following a meeting with Dr. Oz, CMS approved the state’s Essentials plan.

CMS sent out a letter (PDF) to states advising them of resources to help them develop better oversight on managed care programs.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK:

• We mentioned last week the effort by Indiana to remove long-term care from the state’s Managed Medicaid program. McKnight’s has a good follow-up.

  
  

• Minnesota SNF’s are suing over the state’s workforce standards board.

  
  

• Speaking of Minnesota, the Governor wants to get managed care entirely out of the state and move everything back to a fee-for-service model.

  
  

• Healthcare affordability really creates strange alliances. States are using a tax credit promoted by the President to encourage sign-ups for Obamacare.

  
  

• A new study looks at ownership changes in SNF’s during the pandemic.