| | | | |  | | By Chelsea Cirruzzo and Ben Leonard | Presented by 340B Health | With Carmen Paun
| | |  | CDC URGES MEASLES VAX — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants schools and providers to urge students to get their measles shot if their vaccinations aren’t up to date. The request comes in response to at least seven outbreaks of the illness in the U.S. this year. Since Jan. 1, the CDC has received reports of 58 cases of measles — the same number reported for all of 2023 — prompting the agency to release a health alert to providers Monday. It’s recommended that children get their first dose of the measles vaccine after they turn a year old and their second when they are between 4 and 6. Measles, a contagious and sometimes fatal disease that can cause a fever and rash, has been reported in 17 jurisdictions as of March 14, the CDC said. Seven of those jurisdictions are experiencing outbreaks compared with four outbreaks in 2023. This year, 54 percent of cases have been linked to international travel, and most cases are among unvaccinated children 12 months and older, the agency said. “Given currently high population immunity against measles in most U.S. communities, the risk of wide scale spread is low. However, pockets of low coverage leave some communities at higher risk for outbreaks,” the CDC said in its alert. The outbreaks come as vaccination coverage against measles among children has dropped in recent years, according to the CDC. The number of kindergartners vaccinated against measles declined from about 95 percent for measles in the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in the 2021-2023 school year, which translates to about 250,000 kindergartners at risk for the illness. States responses vary: The rise in cases led the CDC to send a team to Chicago to help local officials stem an outbreak. In Florida, where at least 10 people have reportedly had measles, the surgeon general has rejected official recommendations that urge parents to vaccinate their kids against the illness and keep them at home if exposed. Two doses of the vaccine are about 96 percent effective against the disease. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE. Federal officials convicted a Tennessee podiatrist for a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid by dispensing “medically unnecessary foot bath medications.” Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
| | | | A message from 340B Health: Support the 340B PATIENTS Act The 340B PATIENTS Act eliminates harmful big pharma restrictions on 340B savings that are vital for expanding health care and support for patients and rural communities in need. By restricting 340B pharmacy partnerships, drugmakers have siphoned billions from the health care safety net solely to bolster their profits. The 340B PATIENTS Act stops this damaging behavior. We call on Congress to support this vital legislation. Learn more. | | | | | | | 
House Speaker Mike Johnson sealed a deal for Homeland Security funding, setting up a possible House vote on a broader spending agreement on Friday. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | SPENDING DEAL CLINCHED — Top negotiators have reached an agreement on a spending deal for the Department of Homeland Security, allowing congressional leaders to close out a broader spending agreement including HHS funding in the days to come, POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes report, according to a source familiar with the talks. Lawmakers might need to resort to a short spending patch to avoid a government shutdown at midnight Saturday morning because the bill text won't likely be finalized for another day. Negotiators had been working through thorny immigration issues that had been slowing the text's release. When you can see it: Text of the tranche of funding is expected late today or Wednesday, possibly setting up a House vote on Friday at the earliest if House Speaker Mike Johnson sticks to his pledge to give Republicans 72 hours to review legislative text. A bundle of health provisions that would reform the practices of the pharmacy benefit managers that negotiate prescription drug prices for insurers, change hospital billing and boost funding for community health centers isn’t likely to be included in the upcoming bill, POLITICO previously reported. That likely means advocates will have to eye the end of the year to get their priorities signed into law.
| | | | JOIN US ON 3/21 FOR A TALK ON FINANCIAL LITERACY: Americans from all communities should be able to save, build wealth, and escape generational poverty, but doing so requires financial literacy. How can government and industry ensure access to digital financial tools to help all Americans achieve this? Join POLITICO on March 21 as we explore how Congress, regulators, financial institutions and nonprofits are working to improve financial literacy education for all. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | 
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks with reporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | SOCIAL MEDIA LAWSUIT MEETS CHILLY SCOTUS — The Supreme Court was skeptical Monday of a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Biden administration from urging social media companies to take down disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and election fraud, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Rebecca Kern report. The lawsuit, brought by Louisiana, Missouri and seven individual plaintiffs, claims that high-ranking Biden officials, including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media platforms to suppress or delete posts — mainly from conservatives — that federal officials found objectionable. But, a clear majority of the court seemed unconvinced, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett expressing concern that the rationale behind the suit could prohibit government officials from reaching out to social media platforms about individuals being doxxed, or publishing someone’s personal information online with malicious intent. Justice Samuel Alito was in the minority who thought the barrage of emails from the White House and others to social media companies might have met the legal standard for coercion, which some of his colleagues disagreed with. What’s next? Monday’s arguments raised the possibility that the injunction won by the plaintiffs could be thrown out because they failed to show that whatever actions the platforms took against them were actually “traceable” to the pressure from federal officials. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the case by late June.
| | | | A message from 340B Health:   | | | | | ADVANCE PROVIDER PAYMENTS — The number of insurers agreeing to accelerate payments to providers impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack is growing, senior HHS officials said Monday. Officials didn’t name the insurers or reveal how many when asked during a press call. HHS and White House officials met with payers Monday morning to ask them to move faster to get payments to providers, the officials on the call said. “Claims are starting to flow,” one of the senior HHS officials said, adding that the agency continues to hear from safety-net providers who need cash assistance. UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare — a clearinghouse that manages billions of medical bill transactions annually — began offering accelerated payments in March after a February cyberattack disrupted payments to providers nationwide. On Monday, UnitedHealth said it has advanced $2 billion in payments to impacted providers since the attack. CVS Health, which owns Aetna, told POLITICO on Friday it had accelerated payments for Medicaid plans on a case-by-case basis. Cigna and Elevance did not respond to requests for comment. A Humana spokesperson declined to comment.
| | | | Easily connect with the right N.Y. State influencers and foster the right relationships to champion your policy priorities. POLITICO Pro. Inside New York. Learn more. | | | | | | | | | EUROPE, US EYES SIDE DEALS — The EU and the U.S. are offering money and support for African health initiatives, such as a 2018 program to combat public health threats like antimicrobial resistance, per a letter seen by POLITICO. The talks, held on the sidelines of WHO pandemic agreement discussions, have worried some developing countries and nongovernmental associations about an attempt to sow division among African countries and garner support for rich countries’ demands in the deal, POLITICO’s Rory O’Neill reports. Background: Representatives of WHO member countries began the last round of negotiations on a pandemic agreement meant to implement the lessons learned from Covid-19. The draft negotiating text includes setting a mechanism for countries to share pathogen information in exchange for access to products developed based on that information, such as vaccines, drugs and tests. But, a briefing letter from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention suggested African countries would not progress on one of the most controversial elements of the talks — whether developing countries should be guaranteed access to vaccines and drugs developed with the pathogen data they report to the WHO — before the agency rowed back on that claim when contacted by POLITICO. To some working on the pandemic deal, the briefing illustrates the mounting pressure on developing countries to break their united front in the negotiations. When contacted by POLITICO, an Africa CDC staffer retracted the document, explaining it had been prepared by the DG’s office but hadn’t been reviewed by the technical or diplomatic teams. The Africa CDC declined to comment on the document’s content.
| | COVID ORIGIN DISPUTES HEAT UP — A spat among scientists who back a natural spillover origin for the pandemic and those who believe it was the result of a lab leak heated up in recent days following a formal complaint from one group about the other, Carmen reports. A dozen scientists who authored studies pointing to a natural Covid-19 origin, led by Scripps Research professor Kristian Andersen, have written to Rutgers University claiming faculty members Richard Ebright and Bryce Nickels have violated Rutgers’ guidelines and policies by harassing Andersen and other letter signatories online. Ebright and Nickels support the lab leak theory. “On a daily basis, they call us fraudsters, liars, perjurers, felons, grifters, stooges, imbeciles, murderers, and worse, and accuse us of various levels of bribery and criminal conduct as part of our peer-reviewed academic research,” the scientists wrote in the letter, reported by Science. In response, Ebright called the letter “a crude effort to silence their opponents” as the narrative about the Covid origin promoted by the letter authors “is collapsing, and they now are facing consequences for their actions.” Nickels pointed to some posts on X, formerly Twitter, by one of the letter authors, displaying the same behavior he complained about. Other supporters of the lab leak theory pointed to harassing behavior from those backing a natural origin. What’s next: The letter “will be forwarded to the appropriate offices for review,” a Rutgers University spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
| | | | A message from 340B Health: Support the 340B PATIENTS Act
340B hospitals are the backbone of the nation’s health care safety net, providing essential services to patients with low incomes and those living in rural America. 340B hospitals play a vital role in delivering 77% of Medicaid hospital care, providing 67% of the nation’s unpaid care, and offering comprehensive specialty services that otherwise might not be available. 340B helps lower health care costs and enable doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to provide expanded care for the benefit of their community—all at no cost to the taxpayer.
The 340B PATIENTS Act will end harmful drug company restrictions on 340B savings that are vital for protecting patients and communities. By restricting 340B pharmacy partnerships, big pharma has siphoned billions from the health care safety net solely to bolster its profits. The 340B PATIENTS Act stops this damaging behavior. We call on Congress to support this vital legislation. Learn more. | | | | | Jackson Hammond is now a senior policy analyst at Paragon Health Institute. He previously was a health care policy analyst at the American Action Forum. Gary Heimberg has joined the National Brain Tumor Society as its vice president and counsel of government relations, leading its advocacy strategy and policy agenda. He previously was at the law and lobbying firm Covington & Burling.
| | The Washington Post reports on an NIH probe into Havana syndrome finding no sign of brain injury. STAT reports on the FDA approval of a gene therapy for a fatal, genetic neuron disease in children. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
