From Capitol Hill —

Roll Call informs us

The House Appropriations Committee is tentatively planning to take up its fiscal 2023 spending bills in June, teeing up potential floor votes in July, according to people familiar with the schedule.

Subcommittees would mark up their 12 annual bills from June 13 to June 22. The full committee would hold its markups from June 22 through June 30.

The top four appropriators in the House and Senate, known as the “four corners,” are expected to meet shortly after the two-week recess this month to begin discussions aimed at reaching a bipartisan agreement on overall discretionary spending levels for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

STAT News tells us

A bipartisan group of four key lawmakers unveiled a long-shot policy that aims to alleviate one of the American health care industry’s most embarrassing problems: mind-bogglingly high prices for insulin, a drug millions of Americans need to survive.

The policy outline released Monday is a reboot of a three-year-old bill introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). It would dangle a carrot for drugmakers to lower their list prices. Insurers and middlemen wouldn’t get to keep fees for diabetes drugs — but only if drugmakers lower list prices for drugs back to 2006 levels. It would also make sure patients with Medicare or private insurance don’t pay more than $35 per month for their insulin, though it would not offer the same protection to the uninsured.

Federal News Radio follows up on last week’s Senate confirmation of Kristin Boyd to be the first Senate-confirmed OPM Inspector General in over six years.

From the Omicron and siblings front —

Fierce Healthcare calls attention to a Commonwealth Fund report on the efficacy of Covid vaccines

COVID-19 vaccinations have blunted the worst waves of the pandemic, preventing millions of deaths, limiting strain on the U.S. healthcare system and producing “substantial cost savings” in healthcare spending, according to new estimates published Friday by the Commonwealth Fund.

From the first authorizations in December 2020 through March 2022, COVID-19 vaccination was estimated to have averted roughly 2.3 million deaths and 66.2 million additional infections, per the analysis.

Further, the push for shots in arms was found to have prevented 17 million hospitalizations in the U.S. and saved the country’s healthcare system just shy of $900 million in total spending, notwithstanding the country’s savings related to workplace absences and deaths.

The Wall Street Journal reports

The risk of developing inflammatory heart conditions after Covid-19 vaccination is relatively low, two large studies found, especially when compared with the heart-related risks from Covid-19 disease itself and from vaccines against other diseases [such as the flu].

“The overall message is that you can never consider risk in isolation,” said Jason Perry Block, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a co-author of the CDC’s analysis.

Concerns over potential side effects from Covid-19 vaccines are one reason some eligible adults in the U.S. say they haven’t gotten the shots, according to public-opinion surveys. About 70% of eligible Americans have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the CDC.

In considering the cardiac risks associated with Covid-19 vaccines, Dr. Block said people “also have to consider the risk on the other hand. If you don’t get vaccinated and do get infected, the risk is higher of cardiac complications.”

From the Covid vaccine mandate front —

A federal district court in Georgia preliminarily enjoined the federal government’s vaccine mandate on its contractors. The federal government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The appeal was argued before a panel of three judges last Friday. Federal News Network adds

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit says it remains unclear whether the Biden administration has the authority to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on federal contractor employees.

The administration told the court last Friday that federal contracting law gives the president broad authority to set the terms of the federal government’s contracts, including making sure contractors have enough healthy employees to complete their contracts with agencies on time.

The judges,  however, repeatedly said during oral arguments that the federal government has a high bar to clear, in order for the court to overturn a lower court’s injunction barring the administration from enforcing the mandate.

The 11th Circuit likely will issue its opinion next month.

The Hill reports on the latest developments in the federal government’s vaccine mandate on its workforce.

The Biden administration on Monday asked a federal appeals court to clear a procedural hurdle that remained after a key legal victory last week and allow the administration to quickly resume enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees.  

The request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, if granted, would effectively reinstate the public health policy after it was put on hold across the country in January by a federal judge in Texas.

* * *

The administration’s request Monday would move up the timeline for the panel’s judgment to take effect, which is currently not set to occur until May 31. 

From the SDOH front, Health Payer Intelligence informs us

UnitedHealthcare announced that it will expand a program to advance maternal health equity in for minority communities in North Carolina.

“Access to quality maternal health care will help close the gap on health inequity in our state,” said Anita Bachmann, chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina. “We are honored to partner with Mountain Area Health Education Center and SistasCaring4Sistas of North Carolina to address disparities and outcomes with the expanded doula program.”

The payer partnered with the community-based organization SistasCaring4Sistas to expand access to the organization’s program, Doulas for Social Justice.

From the Aduhelm front, Fierce Healthcare reports on payers’ cheerful reaction to last week’s CMS Medicare coverage decision of that expensive drug only at the clinical trial level. “We appreciate that when these treatments receive an accelerated FDA approval, Medicare will cover for patients in [Food and Drug Administration] or [National Institutes of Health] approved trials,” according to a statement from insurance lobbying group AHIP.”

From the miscellany department

• The Wall Street Journal reports about “New apps and telehealth services [that] are providing women in middle age more access to health expertise, education and support to help them during menopause [such as MenoLife].”

• The Department of Health and Human Services shares Secretary Becerra’s remarks at the White House Medical Debt Event with Vice President Harris. Here is a link to the Administration’s fact sheet describing new actions to lessen the burden of medical debt and increase consumer protection. According to the fact sheet,

These actions will help:

Hold medical providers and debt collectors accountable for harmful practices;

Reduce the role that medical debt plays in determining whether Americans can access credit – which will open up new opportunities for people with medical debt to buy a home or get a small business loan;

Help over half a million of low-income American veterans get their medical debt forgiven; and,

Inform consumers of their rights.

• Medpage offers an interesting account of how a doctor is trying to make sure that his patients get the medical screening tests that they need.