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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 Megan Messerly and Daniel Payne | | | With Ben Leonard and David Lim
| | |  HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra will talk about the evolving health care landscape at today's POLITICO Health Care Summit. | AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin | HEALTH CARE INSIDERS JOIN POLITICO FOR SUMMIT — Top government officials, lawmakers and health policy experts, including HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, convene today at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit to discuss lessons the U.S. learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, the future of health care innovation, the impact of the fentanyl overdose crisis and more, David reports. The morning will kick off with a discussion between Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein on the opioid epidemic and what lessons he learned as a doctor in West Virginia. And later in the afternoon, Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator, will be on stage to explore what the end of the public health emergency means for the nation’s ability to manage the next stage of the pandemic and what steps are needed to prepare for new viruses or Covid variants. Other panelists at the summit include Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.); Danielle Carnival, deputy assistant to the president for the cancer moonshot; Kate McEvoy, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors; Bakul Patel, head of digital health regulatory strategy at Google; and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.). There’s still time to join us. Register here. Can’t make it in person? Watch the live stream beginning at 11 a.m.
| | POLITICO’s Health Care Summit on Wednesday, June 7, will explore how tech and innovation are transforming health care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the U.S. Register now. | | WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE. I’m Megan Messerly, states reporter, filling in again today. Any state health care goings-ons that ought to be on my radar? Drop me a line at mmesserly@politico.com. And, as always, your regular Pulse host Daniel Payne wants to hear from you, too, at dpayne@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, join us for a preview of today's POLITICO Health Care Summit where we'll explore the transformative impact of technology and innovation on health care and the challenges that lie ahead for the U.S. as the country grapples with improving access to quality care for all Americans. Megan Messerly chats with David Lim, who tells us what to expect.
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Health care organizations want Congress to pass the Telehealth Expansion Act of 2023. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images | TELEHEALTH BENEFIT PUSH — A group of nearly 200 organizations is urging the House Ways and Means Committee to advance legislation that would permanently allow high-deductible health plans to offer telehealth before patients hit their deductible, Ben reports. The Republican-sponsored legislation, dubbed the Telehealth Expansion Act of 2023, is set for a markup Wednesday morning. Congress extended the provision from the public health emergency through the end of 2024 in the most recent omnibus spending bill. The bill has six Democratic co-sponsors, but Democrats have historically been less enthusiastic about boosting high-deductible health plans than Republicans, arguing they're a workaround to the Affordable Care Act that primarily benefits wealthier people. Led by the Alliance for Connected Care, the wide-ranging group includes Walmart, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the ERISA Industry Committee, Intel and CVS Health.
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | HOSPITALS LOOK FOR CLIMATE CHANGE RX — Hospitals are stepping up their sustainability efforts by shutting off pipes that leak nitrous oxide, setting timers for handwashing in operating room sinks and cutting down on single-use items, like IV tubes, blood pressure cuffs and syringes. It’s part of a broader effort by the health care industry to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions as the Biden administration pushes to make climate change a bigger focus in American health care, Joanne Kenen reports for POLITICO Magazine. The health sector is responsible for 8.5 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and hospitals are the biggest source. Right now, it’s a largely voluntary effort. But sustainability leaders — including some sustainability medical officers — are now common at health systems, and more of the health care industry is engaging in the efforts, especially as interest in how climate change impacts human health grows. APPEALS COURT WEIGHS ACA CHALLENGE — A federal appeals court Tuesday seemed skeptical of arguments that an Obamacare provision requiring certain preventive services to be provided at no cost to patients should be blocked while litigation continues, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. Lawyers representing the Texas employers and workers challenging the mandate asserted a nationwide injunction is unlikely to cause harm because insurers are unlikely to start charging for preventive care. But Judge Leslie Southwick, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, called the idea “speculative” and said the court couldn’t rule on how insurers might act.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | ‘REMARKABLE INTRUSION’ INTO PARENTS’ RIGHTS — A federal judge slammed Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth Tuesday as politically motivated, saying that it didn’t represent a “legitimate state interest,” POLITICO’s Gary Fineout reports. In a 44-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said the restrictions represented a “remarkable intrusion into parental prerogatives” based only on “opposition to transgender status itself.” Hinkle, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, blocked Florida from applying the ban to three minors as part of his decision, saying they would “suffer irreparable harm” if they weren’t allowed to continue treatment. NYC GETS FOOD EDUCATION ROADMAP — New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday a new plan for teaching kids about healthy eating in the city’s K-12 public schools, POLITICO’s Madina Touré reports. Only 56 percent of the city’s schools have food education programs, which are more common in elementary schools than in high schools. Educating kids about food could include activities inside and outside the classroom, such as hands-on meal preparation, school assemblies and field trips.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | | FULL APPROVAL FOR AT-HOME TEST — The FDA granted Tuesday its first full approval to an at-home Covid-19 test, David reports. The over-the-counter product, made by Cue Health, is the first-ever test greenlit through a traditional FDA review pathway for a respiratory illness. “This is part of the FDA’s broader effort to advance the development and availability of at-home tests for a variety of medical conditions to expand patient access to testing,” top FDA medical device regulator Jeff Shuren said in a statement.
| | Major Gen. Paul Friedrichs is joining the National Security Council as the senior director for global health security and biodefense. He was previously the Joint Staff surgeon at the Pentagon, where he coordinated all issues related to health services, served as medical adviser to the DoD Covid-19 Task Force and provided medical advice to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Marie C. Scott has been promoted to associate general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services.
| | | Pharmaceutical giant Merck sued HHS and CMS on Tuesday to block planned Medicare drug price negotiations, claiming the program is “tantamount to extortion” and “political Kabuki theater,” POLITICO’s Megan Wilson reports. Birth control for cats? A new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communication suggests gene therapy could prevent pregnancy in cats for at least two years — potentially reducing feral cat populations without needing to capture the furry felines for sterilization, The New York Times reports. Dozens of wildfires burning in Canada have sent air quality in much of the Northeastern U.S. plummeting, NPR reports.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Middlemen say they want lower prices, yet they often deny or limit coverage of lower-cost generics and biosimilars while giving preferential coverage to medicines with higher prices. This might be good for PBM’s bottom line, but it can lead to higher costs for patients. What else are they hiding? | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
