Congress remains in session this coming week on Capitol Hill. Tomorrow the President will deliver his proposed FY 2021 budget to Congress. The Wall Street Journal reports that the

$4.8 trillion budget [proposal] charts a path for the start of a potential second term, proposing steep reductions in social-safety-net programs and foreign aid and higher outlays for defense and veterans.

[The safety net program savings include] $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing.

Federal News Network advises that

Signs indicate the Trump administration is still pursuing the merger of the Office of Personnel Management with the General Services Administration, despite recent congressional language prohibiting the transfer of OPM statutory functions to other agencies.

The administration will, for example, issue a joint budget request for OPM and GSA for 2021 [just like the FY 2020 budget], Federal News Network has learned

Of course, rather than prohibiting the transfer, Congress more accurately put the merger on hold pending an independent study of the transfer by the National Academy for Public Administration. The report on the study is expected to be submitted in June 2020.

OPM released additional guidance on the Wuhan or novel coronavirus to Chief Human Capitol Officers on Friday February 7. Here’s a link to the Centers for Disease Control’s website about reports of the disease in our country.

Healthcare Dive reports that

Telehealth and remote monitoring are becoming significant forces in healthcare delivery, according to a new survey of 1,300 primary care and specialty physicians released Thursday by the American Medical Association.

The number of physicians who use telehealth for visiting with patients has doubled between 2016 and 2019, although the overall number remains relatively low with 28% of surveyed physicians reporting they have adopted telehealth technology. Remote patient monitoring has also grown, from just 13% of physicians using it in 2016 to 22% in 2019.

That’s encouraging news.