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Presented by PhRMA: Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | |  | | By Daniel Payne and Krista Mahr | | | With help from Ben Leonard
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AbbVie is cutting ties with PhRMA and other major industry groups. | Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo | PARTING WAYS — Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie is leaving several major industry groups representing its interests in Washington, D.C., POLITICO’s Megan Wilson reports. The company is leaving the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the two prominent pharmaceutical trade associations, the groups said. It’s also leaving the Business Roundtable, a group comprising the chief executives of the largest U.S. companies, a person with knowledge of the departure said. The decision comes as regulators begin to implement the drug-pricing provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that drugmakers spent millions in lobbying to defeat. It also comes as pharmaceutical lobbyists are doing some soul-searching about what went wrong in that fight, which ended in Medicare being allowed to negotiate prices for some drugs. “We regularly evaluate our memberships with industry trade associations and our most recent assessment led us to decide not to renew our membership with select trade associations,” an AbbVie spokesperson said in an email. The spokesperson declined to name the associations. It’s the latest in a series of concerns facing the pharmaceutical lobby, known as one of the most influential industries in Washington, D.C. But don’t expect their campaigns to stop anytime soon. “We can confirm that AbbVie has decided not to renew their membership with PhRMA in 2023. This does not change our focus on fighting for the solutions patients and our health care system need,” said Brian Newell, a spokesperson for PhRMA, in an email. WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE — Need some good news? The World Cup has made for an uplifting, unifying force among hospital patients. Who are you cheering on in the final? Let us know — and share your best tips — at dpayne@politico.com and kmahr@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, Grace Scullion talks with Carmen Paun about the planned $5 billion over five years for global health security in the National Defense Authorization Act, which is one step closer to passage since the House voted on it last week.
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One measure the Biden administration is taking to help ward off an anticipated Covid surge this winter is allowing nursing home staff to vaccinate residents against virus. | Nathan Howard/AP Photo | PREPARING FOR WINTER — The Biden administration is planning for another Covid winter, releasing a list of government actions to face a rising wave of cases. One action, to reopen its program for free at-home Covid-19 tests, was first reported Wednesday by POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn and David Lim. In partnership with the U.S. Postal Service, the government plans to revive one of the government’s most popular and widely used pandemic programs as the administration prepares for a potential winter surge. The program, resuming today, was paused in September amid concerns the high demand would deplete supplies before the winter. The administration is also suggesting ways for state leaders to boost Covid vaccinations. HHS is sharing guidance to add more pop-up vaccination and test-to-treat sites. Additionally, the administration will offer $125 million to support organizations serving aging and disabled populations to boost vaccinations. The White House is readying clinical supplies and personnel for deployment if case surges require more resources. Hundreds of millions of N-95 masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of gowns and more than 100,000 ventilators are ready to be shipped, officials said. It will also release a “winter playbook” for nursing homes and long-term care facilities and add nursing home staff to those allowed to administer Covid vaccines. WHAT DRUG SENDS THE MOST PEOPLE TO ER? NOT FENTANYL — SAMHSA released 2021 statistics for drug-related emergency room visits Wednesday, compiling records from the 52 hospitals around the country that report to the agency’s Drug Abuse Warning Network database, Krista reports. The drugs: Alcohol topped the chart of the five substances involved in the most drug-related emergency department visits with about 42 percent of incidents, followed by opioids (15 percent), methamphetamine (11 percent), marijuana (11 percent), and cocaine (5 percent). The patients: Most ER visits were by male patients ages 26 to 44. White patients accounted for the largest number of visits, but when taking population into account, Black and African-American patients had the highest rate of all drug-related emergency department visits, followed by Pacific Islander patients. Drug-related ER visits were spread relatively evenly across the major regions of the U.S. New fentanyl deets: Fentanyl-related ER visits rose steadily throughout the year, peaking in the last quarter. Nearly 40 percent of those visits were in the West, with the West and South comprising more than 70 percent of all incidents.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: In 2021, Insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) subjected patients to six times the out-of-pocket costs for brand medicines through the use of deductibles or coinsurance compared to patients with only copays — even when these middlemen received a discounted price. That’s not fair. Learn more. | | | | | | HEALTH ON THE HILL — After appropriators clinched a deal Tuesday night on an omnibus package — albeit thin on details — there was optimism on the Hill that health care provisions would be included, Ben reports. Some updates from the Hill Wednesday: Health top line: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, told reporters that no top-line spending figure has yet been set for health care. “We haven’t done the allocation. We’ve made an agreement in principle,” Shelby said. “Once we do that, we’ll get into the weeds.” Health care extenders: “We’re making good progress” on health care extenders, said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the outgoing ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, who’s expecting a bipartisan deal. He also “feels good” about provider issues. Telehealth: Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a leading voice on telehealth, told Ben he’s “reasonably confident” a Medicare telehealth extension would get into an omnibus spending package. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told Ben he’s looking for as long as possible of an extension. It’s “on the table” but hasn’t been decided to his knowledge, Brady said. Ways and Means chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said he’d go for a more than one-year extension. Pandemic preparedness: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate HELP committee, said she’s “really working hard” to get as much of the PREVENT Pandemics Act into the spending package as possible but declined to elaborate. Long Covid: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Ben he feels good about additional funding for long Covid research getting into the omnibus. “We have some sense of what it is,” Kaine said, adding that it will build on the NIH’s RECOVER research funding. BILL TO STOP MEDICARE CUTS FAILS — A bill Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) introduced last week that would have effectively stopped Medicare cuts failed to get the votes needed to pass by unanimous consent Tuesday. The bill includes a provision to use uncommitted Covid-19 provider relief funds to make up for the costs of stopping the cuts. Kennedy tried to pass the bill through unanimous consent, bypassing the Senate Finance Committee, where it currently sits. Wyden objected to the passage and said the Senate Finance Committee is already working on a plan to stop the cuts. He argued that passing Kennedy’s proposal would make it harder to pass a larger set of health policies in a year-end package. But Kennedy argued it was risky to rely on a year-end package with little time remaining in this Congress.
| | | | POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023. | | | | | | | | FIRST IN PULSE: REPS ASK REGULATORS TO CLARIFY TRANSPARENCY RULES — Leaders of the House Committee on Education and Labor asked the Employee Benefits Security Administration to require more transparency from providers that contract with health group plans like management and consulting services. In the letter, Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) say the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 is clear in its requirement that contractors must disclose significant compensation, adding that regulators need to enforce the law to prevent conflicts of interest.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | | CALLING ON LEADERSHIP — Lawmakers sent two letters to leadership this week, urging action to stop looming Medicare cuts. The letters, first reported by POLITICO, come just after top appropriators made a deal for a framework to fund the government — for which many lawmakers have been waiting to negotiate the details of a deal on Medicare cuts. The first letter, from 115 bipartisan legislators led by Reps. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), calls for all cuts to be stopped — without taking from other health provider funding. Several provider groups also announced support for the letter. The second letter, from members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, similarly asks for leadership to address the cuts and is supported by 160 organizations. But congressional staffers have said stopping the cuts entirely is unlikely, with ongoing talks already involving discussions of stopping only some cuts, some staffers and lobbyists have told POLITICO. NEW BILL WOULD PROTECT PAYMENT BONUS — Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced a bill that would continue a 5-percent Medicare payment bonus for value-based care. The bonus for Alternative Payment Models is set to end in 2023 and is yet another fight for providers to boost their government reimbursements by preserving increased payments and stopping cuts. Some provider groups wasted no time in announcing support of the measure.
| | | | LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today. | | | | | | | | STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports how state prisons blatantly avoided testing and treating people with hepatitis C. ProPublica’s Neil Bedi, Sharon Lerner and Kathleen McGrory report on the U.S.’ losing battle to ban toxic chemicals. The Associated Press’ Morgan Lee writes about a report that found Medicaid providers are largely unreachable by phone.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Every day, patients at the pharmacy counter discover their commercial insurance coverage does not provide the level of access and affordability they need. New data from a study by IQVIA reveal the harmful practices of insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can lead to significantly higher out-of-pocket costs for medicines — causing some patients to abandon their medicines completely. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
