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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 Ben Leonard and Chelsea Cirruzzo | | | | | | | 
Dr. Bill Frist, former Senate majority leader, is promoting the idea of "prescribing" healthful foods to prevent or treat chronic conditions. | Senate Budget Committee | ‘FOOD IS MEDICINE’ GAINS STEAM — “Food is medicine” — a concept that employs prescribing medically tailored meals to tackle chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease — is having a moment. The White House last year pledged billions to the movement, and several state Medicaid programs are piloting such efforts. Backers say the programs — which don’t necessarily have a standard definition — can help prevent or treat some conditions and bolster health equity. Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who's also a surgeon, co-chairs a Bipartisan Policy Center working group developing policy recommendations alongside former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and others. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has been a strong backer on the Hill. The push highlights the growing support — from both sides of the aisle — for addressing social determinants of health. Major companies and insurers are lining up behind it. Kaiser Permanente said last month it was teaming up with Instacart to study how offering funds for California Medicaid beneficiaries to receive nutritious food to treat diet-related conditions would impact outcomes. “It’s pretty clear that food is medicine efforts hold a lot of potential,” Pamela Schwartz, executive director of food security at Kaiser Permanente, told Pulse. “It’s critical that we continue to demonstrate the impact these programs have on health outcomes.” Instacart Health will deliver the groceries from a virtual storefront as part of the study. The company has backed an effort by the American Heart Association, the Rockefeller Foundation and others to boost research. The company will also work with Medicare Advantage plan Alignment Healthcare beginning in January. Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president of Instacart and general manager of its health division, told Pulse the company can reach more than 93 percent of people in food deserts, and said there’s a “huge business case” for food is medicine to drive better outcomes that can lower health care costs. Questions about the cost of such programs and their effectiveness persist. The “food is medicine” push also comes as Republicans look to overhaul anti-hunger programs. How much insurers will cover such programs is still to be determined. Advocates hope to build evidence. Schwartz said more information is needed on which interventions work and which don’t. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, said the idea that the concept should save money for all cases and all people is “too high a bar.” Mozaffarian added that “food is medicine” isn’t intended to be a “charitable program” attempting to reach patients with the most social needs but to instead treat disease. WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. I recently made the treacherous journey across the Potomac Ocean and moved from Arlington to D.C. Let’s grab coffee and talk health policy. Reach me at bleonard@politico.com or my co-author at ccirruzzo@politico.com. Follow along @_BenLeonard_ and @ChelseaCirruzzo. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Katherine Ellen Foley talks with POLITICO health care reporter Megan Messerly, who breaks down the results of Tuesday’s election and discusses voters' support for abortion rights, which cut across party lines and did significantly better with voters than President Joe Biden and other Democrats — and what that means for the 2024 race.
| | | | | | | A message from PhRMA: The most profitable 340B hospitals provide the least amount of charity care. A new report shows the top performing 340B hospitals collected nearly $10 in profit for every $1 invested in charity care in 2021. 340B program discounts are meant to help hospitals care for their most vulnerable patients. Instead, 340B hospitals are making record profits while free and discounted care remains low. It's time to reset the balance with 340B. | | | | | | | 
Wastewater surveillance to monitor outbreaks is a key tool for public health officials. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo | WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE SET TO RESUME — After a pause amid a contract dispute, wastewater surveillance at a quarter of CDC-sponsored testing sites nationwide is set to resume, Ben reports. According to an email obtained by POLITICO, the agency on Thursday gave Verily, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, a temporary contract while a bid protest filed by the previous contractor, Biobot, plays out. That means testing at hundreds of sites can resume, including surveillance for Covid-19, mpox, respiratory syncytial disease and the flu. The situation had left public health officials without a key tool to monitor outbreaks in some areas, though the CDC argued the sites that remained open still gave a fairly comprehensive view. It’s unclear how long the temporary “bridge” contract will run. The email said Verily will contact wastewater facilities to arrange sample collections and logistics, and wastewater information will be available to health departments on a CDC platform. The agency will also launch a “revamped” data dashboard “in the coming weeks ” to make data easier to interpret. Verily and Biobot didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
| | | | JOIN US ON 11/15 FOR A TALK ON OUR SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: As the sustainability movement heats up, so have calls for a national standard for clean fuel. Join POLITICO on Nov. 15 in Washington D.C. as we convene leading officials from the administration, key congressional committees, states and other stakeholders to explore the role of EVs, biofuels, hydrogen and other options in the clean fuel sector and how evolving consumer behaviors are influencing sustainable energy practices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | 
Once Rep. Earl Blumenauer retires from Congress, he'll continue to build on his work in health care. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo | BLUMENAUER ON WHAT’S NEXT — Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who recently announced he wouldn’t seek reelection after nearly 30 years in office, sat down with Pulse this week to discuss the path forward for his health priorities. Blumenauer, who founded the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus and the Cannabis Caucus, has served on the House Ways and Means health subcommittee and helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act. He told Chelsea and Ben he’ll continue to work on health care post-Congress. He’s optimistic about making permanent hospital-at-home care — an issue he’s prioritized since the program was established under the Covid public health emergency. “The evidence is that it is working,” Blumenauer said. “We ought to be able, within the course of this calendar year or the end of this fiscal year, to show some results. If not a permanent extension, which I would prefer, then a longer extension so that we can really make sure that people can understand how it works and we give it a fair shot.” He also argued that his push to expand the ability of health savings accounts tied to high-deductible health plans to offer benefits for chronic care shouldn’t be controversial. “My objective is not that we have a rapid expansion of HSA. That's not a particularly cost-effective or equitable way to deal with some of the health care gaps, but HSAs are the reality,” Blumenauer said. “The approach I've taken should be supported on both sides of the aisle: acknowledging the reality of them, but to make sure people get the benefit of the HSA.” FINANCE LEADERS WANT AI ANSWERS — The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee — Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) — are pushing HHS for more details on how it plans to use artificial intelligence. “As agencies, providers, manufacturers, and insurers scale up their adoption of these types of tools across diverse health care settings, the Senate Finance Committee seeks to strengthen our understanding of the relevant regulatory and statutory landscape, as well as engage on plans for adapting as the technology evolves,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, requesting staff briefings. They asked CMS about gaps it sees in authority to cover tools using AI, and how the agency monitors “potentially problematic applications” of the technology in Medicare. Wyden has raised concerns about insurers using AI to adjudicate claims. Wyden and Crapo also asked whether CMS has a database on state Medicaid and Medicare Advantage AI use. The lawmakers’ push comes after President Joe Biden’s AI executive order last week called on HHS to create an AI task force to craft a strategic plan for deployment, an assurance policy and a safety program for detecting errors, among other things.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | ACA OPEN ENROLLMENT UPDATE — Open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act exchanges is off to a hot start, a White House official told Pulse. About 1.6 million people picked a plan in the first week, including 300,000 new consumers, according to the official, up 50 percent from the same period last year. That could be partly attributed to patients booted from Medicaid enrolling in such plans, which the administration has pushed for. More than 10 million Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled thus far in the unwinding process, according to the latest KFF data.
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CDC | RISING COVID SHOT UPTAKE — Nearly 10 percent of adults have gotten their updated Covid vaccine as of Oct. 28, according to new CDC data. Why it matters: The rate of Covid vaccines administered, representing about 25 million adults, has increased in recent weeks but is still outpaced by uptake in the flu vaccine. CDC Director Mandy Cohen had told POLITICO that the U.S. was on track to see similar Covid uptake to last year — 17 percent of Americans. The updated data also shows that 3.9 percent of children and 22.5 percent of adults 65 and older have gotten their Covid shot.
| | Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) announced Thursday night he will retire from Congress at the end of his term next year and not seek reelection. Dr. Cheryl Creamer has been appointed Visory Health’s chief clinical officer. Creamer has more than 30 years of military service and was previously chief of the Army Nurse Corps Branch at Human Resource Command.
| | | | A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We’re kicking off with a series exploring darknet marketplaces, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY. | | | | | | | | | STAT reports on an abortion clinic in Cancun taking in U.S. patients from states with restrictions on the procedure. Healthcare Dive reports on for-profit hospital systems seeing "mixed results" in the third quarter.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: 340B hospitals charge patients more. The average costs per prescription for a patient was more than 150% greater at a 340B hospital. 340B program discounts are meant to help hospitals care for their most vulnerable patients. Instead, 340B hospitals make record profits while patients often pay more. It's time to reset the balance with 340B. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
