| | | | |  | | By Ben Leonard and Chelsea Cirruzzo | | Presented by |  | | | With Megan Messerly
| | |  The spending package Congress passed in March doesn't include funding for President Joe Biden's ambitious cancer moonshot program. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | CONGRESS PULLS BACK $$ — President Joe Biden’s cancer moonshot — his plan to lower the death rate by half over 25 years — isn’t the bipartisan priority it once was. The spending package Congress passed in March doesn’t include funding for the 21st Century Cures Act, the 2016 law that provided the moonshot’s most direct funding stream — $1.8 billion in total. The NIH budget also fell, from $47.5 billion in fiscal 2023 to $47.1 billion this year, a net cut of $378 million. What’s going on? The new budget is tight across the board, reflecting Republicans’ control of the House, deficit concerns and, not least, the GOP’s desire to deny Biden a win months before the election. That has dismayed some Democrats, POLITICO’s Erin Schumaker reports. “Actions have consequences. Arbitrarily calling for spending cuts means the money will come from somewhere,” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who with former Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), spearheaded the Cures law eight years ago, told POLITICO in an email. But Republicans see the cuts differently. “When you’re running a $1.6 trillion deficit, spending cuts aren’t the problem,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the new chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said. “We’ve been very generous,” he added, referencing the hundreds of millions in funding each year since the Cures law passed. At the White House: Biden’s team offers a holistic perspective on the funding fallout. “We are well prepared to take forward the cancer moonshot in a tough funding cycle,” Danielle Carnival, deputy assistant to the president for the moonshot, told POLITICO. Advocates react: Concern hung over the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting in San Diego this month, where Jon Retzlaff, chief policy officer and vice president of science policy and government affairs at the nonprofit, and his allies in the research community strategized how to get Congress to invest more in NIH. During the last agency budget cut in 2013, the result of spending wars between then-President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled House, AACR mobilized a 10,000-person rally for medical research. “Something dramatic may be necessary” again, Retzlaff said. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. The Biden administration is delaying an FDA plan to ban menthol cigarettes. Reach us and send us your tips, news and scoops at bleonard@politico.com or ccirruzzo@politico.com. Follow along @_BenLeonard_ and @ChelseaCirruzzo.
| | A message from HCA Healthcare: HCA Healthcare is honored to be named for the 14th time as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere. Ethisphere evaluates companies based on over 200 categories, including their approach to environmental, social and governance practices and ethics and compliance programs. Through a variety of programs, resources and opportunities, we demonstrate how we show up for our patients, communities and colleagues. Learn more about our ethical business practices here. | | | | | | | 
CDC officials say a manufacturing flaw in the test that detects avian flu won't affect its ability to detect the disease. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images | AVIAN FLU TESTING WOES — The CDC told public health labs Friday to adjust the way they use the avian flu test on people, Chelsea and POLITICO’s David Lim report. A manufacturing issue with the test uncovered last week doesn’t have any practical bearing on the ability to screen people for the H5N1 bird flu, the agency said. Only one human case has been confirmed this year in the U.S. “CDC gave instructions to public health laboratories on how to continue using the human avian flu tests after the agency identified an issue that does not impact their effectiveness,” CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said. “No results from the H5 tests are inaccurate or need to be repeated.” Still, issues with testing raise the specter of the early Covid-19 pandemic when faulty tests developed by the CDC delayed a public health response and undermined public confidence in the agency. Scott Becker, CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, said the flaw’s detection shows the CDC has learned from those mistakes. “This is a manufacturing issue with a single lot whereas the issue with the Covid-19 test was a design flaw,” the APHL’s director of infectious disease programs, Kelly Wroblewski, said. The Biden administration said Friday that preliminary test results on milk samples containing fragments of bird flu virus haven’t detected any live, infectious virus, reaffirming the federal government’s assessment that the commercial milk supply is still safe amid the outbreak. A WIN FOR LGBTQ+ AND ABORTION RIGHTS — The Biden administration finalized regulations to boost safeguards in federally funded health programs for LGBTQ+ patients and people seeking abortions, Chelsea reports. The final rules overturn Trump-era changes narrowing civil rights protections under the Affordable Care Act. The agency reiterated its position that discriminating against someone who has had an abortion violates the person’s civil rights. The rules also: — Change the interpretation of Medicare Part B payments to providers, requiring they follow nondiscrimination rules — Require providers and insurers to let patients know that accessibility and language services are available at no cost — Clarify that the regulations apply to artificial intelligence used in clinical settings
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF HEALTHCARE POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries, like healthcare, equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced and better sourced than any other. Our healthcare reporting team—including Alice Miranda Ollstein, Megan Messerly and Robert King—is embedded with the market-moving legislative committees and agencies in Washington and across states, delivering unparalleled coverage of health policy and the healthcare industry. We bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | | | | | TICKTOCK FOR MISSISSIPPI MEDICAID — Mississippi lawmakers are about out of time to reach a compromise on Medicaid expansion, Megan reports. Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state House and Senate have been meeting in a conference committee to hash out a deal to expand the health insurance program to more low-income Mississippians. But the two chambers have yet to reach a consensus on one very large sticking point: work requirements. On Friday, the Senate inched closer to the House’s proposal by agreeing to cover people up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $43,000 for a family of four. While today is the conference committee’s deadline to report back to the full legislature, lawmakers could keep negotiating in the final days of the legislative session, which was set to end Sunday. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell said on Friday that requiring people to work as a condition of coverage is a “non-negotiable” even as they agreed to adopt an Arkansas-style approach to expansion by covering people who make between 100 and 138 percent of the federal poverty level through the federal health insurance exchange. While the House proposal also includes a work requirement, it allows the state to ditch that provision if federal health officials don’t agree to it. The Biden administration has made its opposition to work requirements clear, though a future Trump administration could be open to the idea. The Senate version, meanwhile, directs the state attorney general to appeal to federal court if federal health officials deny their request to impose a work requirement. Medicaid expansion wouldn’t move forward without a work requirement. “We are hopeful a compromise is on the horizon. When people are healthy, they are working, raising their families, and contributing to their communities,” Hosemann said in a statement. “Access to healthcare is a critical component of economic and workforce development efforts in Mississippi—and reforming healthcare is the right thing to do.” Even if they can reach a compromise, the legislation will need two-thirds support in each chamber to override an expected veto by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. Reeves, who is term-limited and will leave office in 2028, remains staunchly opposed to expanding the program.
| | | | A message from HCA Healthcare:   | | | | | PROBE INTO CMMI LIKELY — A congressional watchdog is poised to accept a request from top House Republicans to investigate the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a Government Accountability Office spokesperson told Pulse. Although the request to look into CMMI’s funding and performance still needs to “undergo a formal review,” GAO expects to accept it, the spokesperson said. That process usually takes a week or two, they said. It’s unclear when a final report would be ready. Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who chairs the panel’s health care task force, asked GAO to scrutinize CMMI and look into what payment models it’s tested have saved money or increased spending. An investigation could offer more transparency into the agency’s practices and comes amid a push to lower health care costs. Why the scrutiny? The Congressional Budget Office found last year that the agency, created under Obamacare to test ways to reduce health care costs, is set to increase federal spending by $1.3 billion between 2021 and 2030. It added $5.4 billion in spending in the previous decade. The response: A CMS spokesperson told Pulse that the first decade of experiments was a “strong foundation” and that they led to “important policy and operational insights.” “CMS anticipates that current and future models will have a substantial positive impact on beneficiaries’ care experience and clinical outcomes,” the spokesperson said.
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | Katie Everett is now communications manager at Bentley Systems. She most recently was communications director for Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas). Emily Horowitz is now a public health analyst at the CDC. She previously was federal government relations manager at the American Heart Association.
| | Healthcare Dive reports on Kaiser disclosing a breach impacting more than 13 million people. The Wall Street Journal reports on criticism of a prominent scientist’s claims of “reverse aging.”
| | A message from HCA Healthcare: HCA Healthcare is honored to be named for the 14th time as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. This recognition is a gratifying acknowledgment of our commitment to show up for our patients, our communities and our colleagues.
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