From Capitol Hill, the Wall Street Journal reports
The House on Wednesday passed a one-week government funding measure to give congressional negotiators time to complete and pass a full-year omnibus spending bill, overcoming opposition from Republicans who urged postponing any deal until next year, when the GOP will take control of the chamber. * * *
The Senate is expected to next approve the one-week extension [on Thursday December 15].
The vote on a one-week continuing resolution, which keeps the government funded at fiscal 2022 spending levels, follows the announcement Tuesday that Democratic and Republican negotiators had reached agreement on a framework and would turn to completing the details.
From the public health front, Healthcare Dive tells us
- National health spending grew almost 3% in 2021, reaching $4.3 trillion as big increases in healthcare use and insurance coverage were offset by lower government spending on COVID-19.
- The year’s growth rate was smaller than the 10% notched in 2020. CMS actuaries chalked the deceleration up to lower federal health spending, which fell 3.5% in 2021 compared to a 37% increase in 2020 as funding to combat the pandemic skyrocketed.
- Health spending grew at a much slower clip than the nation’s gross domestic product, which increased 11% in 2021 — the largest growth rate since 1984.
Here’s the report which is posted on Health Affairs.
Medscape relates
New more aggressive targets for blood pressure and lipids are among the changes to the annual American Diabetes Association (ADA) Standards of Care in Diabetes — 2023.
The document, long considered the gold standard for care of the more than 100 million Americans living with diabetes and prediabetes, was published December 12 as a supplement in Diabetes Care. The guidelines are also accessible to doctors via an app; last year’s standards were accessed more than 4 million times.
The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research’s Director is posting a series of four reports concerning the agency’s effort to rethink healthcare quality in view of the fact
In seven years, the United States is expected to reach a demographic tipping point that will redraw the picture of healthcare delivery in America.
In 2030, all baby boomers [birth dates from 1946 to 1964] will be older than 65, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Just four years later—in 2034—older adults will outnumber children for the first time in history. The scope of this and future demographic shifts—including our population’s growing racial and ethnic diversity—will profoundly impact how healthcare is accessed, delivered, paid for, and evaluated.
The National Institutes of Health reports “Two randomized, placebo-controlled trials evaluating three Ebola vaccine administration strategies in adults and children found that all the regimens were safe in both age groups, according to results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.”
Health Payer Intelligence informs us
Privately-insured Americans experienced higher rates of heat-related illness diagnoses in 2021 compared to 2016, in some cases a more than 37 percent increase, according to a report from FAIR Health.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified projected increases in extreme summer heat as one source of adverse health impacts from climate change. However, systematic, national data on trends in heat-related illnesses in the United States have been lacking,” the report began.
From the omicron and siblings front, a subset of public health —
- The New York Times explores the question — who are the never Coviders? Even if you have never had Covid, you certainly have been impacted mightily by Covid. Nevertheless, it is an interesting article.
- MedPage Today notes “Long COVID played a role in more than 3,500 deaths in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).” The NCHS report may be overestimating because the first death occurred in April 2020 just after Covid got rolling and the most commonly mentioned term on death certificates with long COVID was “post COVID,” which was mentioned in 89.6% of long COVID-related deaths.” This may be a rare case in which the “retrospectoscope” is cloudy. See Dr. Martin Markary’s opinion piece on long Covid in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
From the regulatory front —
- CMS issued a proposed rule on Medicare Part D changes for 2024.
- Health Affairs began a series of three informative articles on the proposed 2024 notice of benefit payments and parameters released on Monday.
- STAT News discusses a feature of the parameters notice that is drawing industry attention. To wit, “The Biden administration signaled Monday that it will require health plans on federal exchanges to cover more of the costs of generic drugs, a small tweak that nevertheless has industry groups divided on how best to manage drug costs.”
- Health Leaders Media examines the gap that must be bridged to achieve a recent HHS proposed rule’s goal of implementing electronic prior authorization.
In agency event news —
- OPM issued a press release about its “first government-wide summit for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) on December 6-8, 2022.”
- Federal News Network reports on the Office of Management and Budget’s event celebrating and reflecting on the first anniversary of the President’s Management Agenda.