| |   | | | | | Republicans prep their health agenda  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) (AL DRAGO/AFP via Getty Images) Some of the most vocal critics of scientists and science agencies like the NIH and the CDC are poised to ascend to powerful committee chairmanships that will enable them to effectively put health officials on public trial and tighten agencies’ purse strings, I report with my colleague Rachel Cohrs this morning.
Beyond promised hearings with Anthony Fauci in the spotlight, Republican leaders plan to throw the spotlight on spending and transparency at health agencies from CDC to CMS, whose administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, hasn’t testified since her Senate confirmation.
The agenda stands in stark contrast to the broad, bipartisan support that science agencies enjoyed before the pandemic, and speaks to growing GOP frustration with the Biden administration’s health goals and spending.
That said: The Republican caucus is also keenly aware that even if they win both chambers, veto power sits with President Biden. Subsequently, the party’s overall agenda is less about legislation that tears down Biden’s recent record – like a sweeping reform to let Medicare negotiate drug prices – and tipped more towards oversight. Read more from me and Rachel about what could be in store. | FDA finally talks pulse oximeters. What took so long? An FDA advisory committee meets today to discuss whether pulse oximeters — seemingly at-home staples of the coronavirus pandemic — need to be regulated differently or even reworked, amid mounting evidence that they are less accurate for people with darker skin.
For many, the question is what took so long, my colleague Usha Lee McFarling writes. Questions began with studies nearly two decades ago that pointed out that the oximeters use light to make their readings, and less light passes through skin with more melanin. But that study and other, similar findings, weren’t published in major medical journals or broadly taught in medical schools.
After today’s nine-hour meeting, FDA advisers will issue recommendations that the agency could use to change 10-year-old oximeter and propel the industry to reconfigure how they make the devices. Besides arguing for changes, physicians and advocates slated to speak at the meeting are prepared to question’s FDA’s pace when deficiencies were exposed.
“The fact that this went unrecognized for so long was really jarring,” Michigan who led a 2020 study on pulse oximeters that drew the first widespread attention to the issue. Read more. | In-depth analysis of biopharma and the life sciences Sign up for STAT+ to access in-depth analysis of biopharma, inside intelligence from Capitol Hill, the latest on medicine tech, and more. Subscribe today to start your free 30-day trial. | A private equity firm’s push for profit drains care The senior care company InnovAge can’t shake allegations that it withholds care and drugs in a relentless drive for profits — pushed in large part by its eager private equity investor, STAT’s Tara Bannow and Bob Herman report.
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, — which counts among its partners the former head of Medicare and Medicaid, Tom Scully — engineered an InnovAge , transforming it into a for-profit company and the largest PACE program in the country. It’s just one business in Welsh Carson’s sprawling health care portfolio, and a prime example of beltway influence in the financial space, too, since Scully had to pull strings with CMS to let for-profit companies participate in PACE in the first place.
Read more on the InnovAge saga and a whole lot more about Welsh Carson’s strategy, performance, and reputation from Tara and Bob here. | CMS touts open enrollment with final rule The agency on Monday finalized a rule to install special enrollment periods and expand coverage, one day before open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, which has seen record numbers in recent years.
The final rule lets people start coverage more quickly (the month after they enroll) and change their plans in the case of big life events that kept them from enrollment, like natural disasters, being incarcerated, or — as noted in the press release — “their Medicaid coverage was terminated after the Covid-19 [public health emergency] ends or on or after January 1, 2023 (whichever is earlier).”
A record-breaking 14.5 million people enrolled in ACA plans during the last enrollment period, which typically ends on Jan. 15 each year. Biden health officials have attributed that to a combination of easier enrollment processes, broader coverage, and pandemic dynamics.
Medicare will also indefinitely cover immunosuppressive drugs for people with kidney transplants, CMS announced Monday, a move that has been in the works since 2020. | What we're reading - ‘Science is just rocketing forward’: A Q&A with former NIH director Francis Collins, STAT
- CDC Director Walensky has Covid rebound after Paxlovid treatment, Bloomberg
- In a year it was supposed to flare, polio-like syndrome in kids doesn’t, adding to mystery, STAT
- FDA says providers offering medication abortion before pregnancy have gone rogue, Politico
- Advanced practice clinicians slightly more likely to take industry funding than doctors, STAT
| | | Thanks for reading! More on Thursday,  | |
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