|
Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | |  | | By Krista Mahr and Daniel Payne | With Katherine Ellen Foley
| | | | 
A new report says primary health care in the U.S. is in trouble. | Business Wire | NOT AN ‘F,’ BUT … The first report card on the state of the nation’s primary health care is out today, and it’s nothing to brag about. The report comes in response to a 2021 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which called for a scorecard to be developed to monitor — and improve — America’s primary care. Funded by the Milbank Memorial Fund and the Physicians Foundation, two nonprofits working on improving health care, it’s designed to offer baseline data for the federal government and state governments in financing, access, workforce development and research. The major findings of “The Health of U.S. Primary Care” won’t surprise anyone who tracks the U.S. healthcare system, but they’re nevertheless sobering. Among the key findings: — The U.S. doesn’t spend enough on primary health care. Average spending for all insurance types declined from 6.2 percent in 2013 to 4.6 percent in 2020, well below other wealthy nations that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development. — The U.S. doesn’t have enough primary care physicians. Between 2012 and 2020, only about 20 percent of physicians completing their residencies were practicing primary care two years later. And the availability of primary care physicians varied widely from state to state, the report found. In states like Utah, Ohio and Tennessee, less than 17 percent of doctors entered primary care in 2020, while Alaska, Washington, Idaho and New Mexico saw much higher entry numbers. — Primary care is not getting better in underserved communities. HRSA has designated medically underserved areas as rural or urban areas with too few primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty levels or high elderly populations. As of 2020, there were roughly 56 primary care physicians per 100,000 people in MUAs across the nation compared with nearly 80 physicians in non-MUAs. WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — Dozens of U.K. companies that participated in the world’s largest four-day workweek trial are not looking back, with companies finding the shorter week increased revenue, decreased turnover and lowered reports of worker burnout. Could this ever work in Washington, D.C.? Asking for a friend. Send your thoughts, news and tips to kmahr@politico.com and dpayne@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Megan Messerly talks with Krista about her reporting on the CDC's presence in East Palestine, Ohio, the site of the train carrying dangerous chemicals that derailed, to assess potential health risks to residents.
| | | | | | | 
Rahul Gupta, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, encourages states to use Medicaid to pay for substance use disorder treatment for people in prison. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | BETTER COVERAGE IN PRISONS — The Biden administration wants to encourage states to use Medicaid to cover substance use disorder treatment for incarcerated people, POLITICO's Daniel Han reports. Rahul Gupta, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said on Tuesday that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to release guidance this spring outlining how states could use the program and federal dollars to pay for treatments before people are released. During a visit to Camden, New Jersey, Gupta also announced that all 112 federal prisons will offer drug-assisted treatment for substance use disorder by the summer. Research has shown that access to medication drastically reduces the overdose risk for people leaving prisons and jails. Context: The remarks come shortly after CMS approved a California waiver that allowed the state’s Medicaid program to cover substance use treatment before Medicaid-eligible people are released from correctional facilities. Gupta said California could become a model for the broader guidance. States will have to apply for the expansion using a Medicaid 1115 waiver. Federal rules generally prohibit Medicaid coverage for incarcerated people. FDA TO REVIEW RSV VACCINE — Pfizer said today the Food and Drug Administration had accepted its application for its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine intended to protect infants up to 6 months old from the virus’ worst symptoms, Katherine reports. The FDA is slated to decide whether to approve the vaccine, which would be the first one administered to pregnant individuals, in August. The FDA already granted priority review for Pfizer’s RSV vaccine for older adults and is expected to make a decision by the end of May. The illness is more common in children under 5 than older adults but poses the biggest threat of severe disease for seniors, young infants and those with compromised immune systems.
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | | FTC WON’T GO AFTER ONE MEDICAL DEAL — The Federal Trade Commission won’t challenge Amazon’s $3.9 billion deal for primary care provider One Medical, POLITICO’s Josh Sisco reports. The time period in which the FTC can sue to block the deal before its closing expires today, paving the way for it to be closed later this week. One Medical is a membership-based primary care provider with locations around the United States. Amazon shut down a similar service shortly after it bought One Medical. A person with knowledge of the FT investigation into the deal said that while the FTC had serious concerns about the purchase, which it’s been reviewing for the last eight months, it would have been a challenging case.
| | | THE FUTURE OF COVID VACCINES — A new global strategy for developing vaccines that are broadly protective against future coronavirus threats was released Tuesday by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “The COVID-19 pandemic marks the third time in just 20 years that a coronavirus has emerged to cause a public health crisis,” said CIDRAP’s director Michael Osterholm in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic taught us the hard lesson that we must be better prepared.” The Coronavirus Vaccines Research and Development Roadmap brought together dozens of experts from around the world to chart a course to accelerate the development of broadly protective vaccines that reduce severe illness and death from current and future coronaviruses, mitigate the impact of future epidemics and can be used worldwide, including low- and middle-income countries.
| | | PUBLIC HEALTH AND PTSD — New analysis from the Big Cities Health Coalition has found that burnout and stress have dramatically risen among government public health workers, with nearly 30 percent reporting probable post-traumatic stress disorder. Forty-three percent of respondents in a 2021 public workforce survey reported burnout – up from 25 percent in 2017 — and 39 percent reported stress, up from 25 percent. Who is the public health workforce? In both 2021 and 2017, more than two-thirds of respondents identified as Black, Indigenous and people of color. More than three-quarters self-identified as women, and more than half were 45 years and older.
| | | EU HEADS TOWARD CAGE-FREE — On Tuesday, the European Food Safety Authority advised against using cages and recommended providing more space to improve the welfare of broiler chickens and laying hens, POLITICO’s Daniela de Lorenzo reports. The opinions will inform the European Commission’s proposals, due in September, to revise animal welfare legislation — part of its broader Farm to Fork strategy aimed at making farming more sustainable. Backdrop: The opinions on broiler chickens and laying hens come at a challenging time for the European poultry industry, which is battling the largest-ever epidemic of avian flu. Mass culls and import restrictions imposed by non-EU countries have inflicted heavy losses on the sector. The poultry industry says it would have to make major improvements at farm level to meet the EFSA’s advice, likely at significant cost to farmers and consumers, which could, in turn, make poultry farming in the EU uneconomical and lead the bloc to become more reliant on imports.
| | | HHS Photographer to the Secretary Chris Smith is retiring at the end of the month after 32 years. Art Motta is now director of government affairs and public policy at the National Hispanic Medical Association. He previously was national director of policy and legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens and is a Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) alum. The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services announced that Bart Howe was elected as the organization’s new president. Howe is the chief executive officer at HealthMark Group. Law firm Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani announced the addition of partners Diane Webster and Karen Nathan and associate Luca Giovine to the firm’s Chicago office. They join the firm from Hinshaw & Culbertson.
| | | Stat reports how a nine-line questionnaire written by a pharma marketer became a mainstay in the nation’s mental health system. Why do Southerners have such low credit scores? Medical debt, The Washington Post reports. Pepsi and Coca-Cola are getting into hard sodas. Hard Mountain Dew is just the beginning of the problem, The New York Times reports.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
