ARPA-H MOMENTUM? — The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee will hold a hearing Feb. 8 on President Joe Biden’s proposed biomedical research agency ARPA-H, the committee announced Tuesday. White House office of science and technology director Eric Lander and other experts will speak at the hearing, E&C chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and subcommittee chair Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) said in a release. ARPA-H, inspired by the Defense Department’s research agency DARPA, would grapple with diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. The proposed 21st Century Cures 2.0 legislation, which contains a broad host of health care proposals, including telehealth expansion, would give $6.5 billion to fund the ARPA-H agency, which would be housed within the NIH. The path forward for the legislation, though, has been unclear after Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) put forward the proposal in November. Next week’s hearing signals a step forward in the process for the agency. Congress has been grappling with a number of other priorities, including Biden’s Build Back Better Act and funding talks ahead of the Feb. 18 continuing resolution expiration, leaving ARPA-H largely on the sidelines thus far. BIDEN’S CANCER MOONSHOT — President Joe Biden is refueling his cancer "Moonshot" program focusing on prevention and screening on Wednesday, pushing to cut the cancer death rate by at least half in the next two and a half decades, saying the goal is now possible due to advances in science. Biden launched the effort as vice president in the Obama administration. Biden aims to better the experience for people with cancer as well, with the end goal of “ending cancer as we know it today,” according to a White House fact sheet. The effort will include a White House Cancer Moonshot coordinator and a “Cancer Cabinet” convening departments and agencies, among other things. The new push doesn’t include new funding commitments despite the Moonshot having one year left in its budget from the 21st Century Cures Act. FIRST IN PULSE: TELEHEALTH USAGE DISPARITIES — Telehealth policy going forward will need to account for “significant disparities” in usage of audio versus video telehealth among groups, a new reportfrom HHS’ Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Overall reported telehealth usage (both audio and video) among nearly 675,000 adults surveyed between April and October 2021 was similar among education levels, and Black respondents used telehealth more than any other racial group on a percentage basis. Nearly 27 percent of Black respondents reported using telehealth in the previous four weeks compared with 21 percent of white respondents, 24 percent of Latino respondents and 22 percent of Asian respondents. And lower-income respondents were more likely to use telehealth. But differences emerged between groups in video telehealth usage by age, education, income and race in the study’s second half. People earning less than $25,000 used video for less than half of virtual visits, a figure that steadily rose among income brackets, with nearly 69 percent of visits by people earning at least $100,000. And white respondents had the highest rate of video telehealth visits at 61.9 percent, followed by multracial or other respondents at 58.9 percent, Black respondents at 53.6 percent, Asian respondents at 51.3 percent and Latino respondents at 50.7 percent. Why it matters: Telehealth use has exploded since the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic and figures to play a larger role in health care beyond the pandemic. The authors point to research suggesting that video-enabled telehealth may be better than audio-only in “many clinical contexts.” Audio-only telehealth has been touted by many as a way to reach more vulnerable communities that may lack stable internet. In November, CMS moved to permanently allow payment for audio-only mental health care, but only if the patient can’t use or “does not consent to” two-way audio/video. The report is sure to come up in talks about expanding telehealth access, which are intensifying ahead of the upcoming funding package that advocates are eyeing as a vehicle. It could fuel a push for expanding broadband access. Biden’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force’s final reportin October recommended expanding telehealth and broadband access. FIRST IN PULSE: SMALL PRACTICE BILL — Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) will introduce legislation Wednesday to reauthorize a soon-to-expire CMS technical assistance program for small practices that aids them with the Quality Payment Program. “Small health care providers in rural and underserved areas don’t have the big administrative staffs to deal with complex Medicare reporting requirements,” Cassidy said. The program is set to expire Feb. 15 if Congress doesn’t act. The legislation would extend the program through 2027.
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