With help from Joanne Kenen, Brett Norman and Kathryn Smith
TODAY?S BIG QUESTION: WHAT ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH? ? The White House will announce recommendations from Vice President Joe Biden?s gun task force today, and the health care world wants to know what?s in store for mental health. The recent days have seen advocates call on the administration to fully implement a 2008 mental health parity law, and Biden has reportedly suggested an executive order allowing the CDC to research guns again. And there are expectations that the White House will do a lot more on the mental health front as part of a wide-reaching approach to stamping out gun violence. Will that translate to more federal funding? Stay tuned. Here?s the POLITICO setup on today?s announcement, scheduled for 11:45 a.m.: http://politi.co/X41Z14
--NEW YORK TAKES THE LEAD ? The state yesterday became the first to pass major gun control legislation in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an expansive overhaul yesterday that includes a provision allowing law enforcement officials to confiscate guns owned by patients deemed by mental health professionals to be a risk to themselves or others. The bill also strengthens an existing state law, known as Kendra?s Law, allowing judges to order outpatient treatment for mentally ill patients. The Associated Press story: http://politi.co/WalXbZ
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to PULSE, where we just realized it?s been about two years since the House first voted to repeal the entire ACA. Oh, how the time flies.
?Dorothy moves to click her ruby shoes, right in tune with ?PULSE Side of the Moon??
NIH CHIEF FEARS SEQUESTRATION ? If lawmakers can?t find a way to undo the sequester?s across-the-board cuts, the National Institutes of Health will lose 6.4 percent of its budget. That?s not sitting well with NIH Director Francis Collins, who?s seen the agency deal with smaller and smaller funding increases in recent years. The POLITICO story: http://politi.co/10yx9pC
A HOUSE MAJORITY WITH NO AGENDA ? House Republicans head to their annual retreat today unsure of what they?ll actually do with their majority over the next two years. ?The leadership has yet to cobble together anything resembling an agenda, and their members are complaining about what they describe as poor messaging,? POLITICO?s Jake Sherman writes. Republicans have pretty much been on the defensive in recent months, and they?re not on the same page on whether to allow default or a government shutdown if they can?t win the spending cuts they want. The upcoming fiscal fights are item No. 1 on the agenda this weekend. The POLITICO story: http://politi.co/TZi8rE
MISSISSIPPI INSURANCE CHIEF SAYS AG ON HIS SIDE ? Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney last night said the state?s attorney general believes Chaney has the authority to build a Mississippi-based exchange without the support of Gov. Phil Bryant, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. Chaney plans to submit the finding from the AG?s office to HHS, which he expects will soon decide on his exchange application. More from the Clarion-Ledger: http://on.thec-l.com/WaMINp
SURGEONS: TARGET ASSAULT WEAPONS ? The American College of Surgeons yesterday announced support for legislation banning civilian access to assault weapons, large ammunition clips and munitions designed for the military, as well as additional background checks at gun shows. It also called for a national firearm injury database to inform federal policy. The ACS letter: http://politico.pro/W9Dy3w
WATCHING OUT FOR KANSAS ? Gov. Sam Brownback will release his budget this morning, which isn?t expected to include an expanded Medicaid program. He didn?t address the issue in last night?s State of the State address, but it doesn?t sound like an expansion is in the cards. ?Where other governments expand, we grow smaller,? he said last night.
BRADY TO FOCUS ON TARGETED REPEAL ? Rep. Kevin Brady, whose chairmanship of the Ways and Means health subcommittee became official yesterday, says he?ll focus on building support for repealing specific Obamacare provisions. ?I intend to examine and shine a bright public light on the unprecedented host of new regulations and taxes in 2013 and their impact on patients and local health care providers,? the Texas Republican said in a statement.
--McDERMOTT TAKES W&M HEALTH SPOT ? As expected, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) was also officially named the ranking member of the Ways and Means health subcommittee yesterday. ?I have participated in health policy ever since I was a state legislator in Olympia, Wash., and I look forward to playing an even more central role in our national debate here in Congress as ranking member,? he said in a statement. The full list of committee members: http://1.usa.gov/13ApsxT
** A message from PhRMA: Medical innovation is a cornerstone to improving health and strengthening the economy. Patient-centric policies and continued collaboration among the public and private sector can help get us there. Join us for a webinar tomorrow on the value of innovation. **
E&C NAMES TOP HEALTH AIDES ? The Energy and Commerce Committee announced that Clay Alspach will be the new chief counsel to the health subcommittee, while Julie Goon will be deputy health policy director for the full committee. Alspach had been the health counsel to the subcommittee and has worked on issues involving the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, Public Health Service Act and Controlled Substances Act. Ryan Long, the previous subcommittee chief health counsel, is leaving, and as Pro reported earlier, former full committee chief health counsel Howard Cohen left in December.
SANTORUM HEADLINES MARCH FOR LIFE ? Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum is the top name at next Friday?s March for Life, marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Speaker John Boehner, after speaking at the rally last year, is sending in a video address this time.
GPHA HIRES NEW COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF ? The Generic Pharmaceutical Association will bring on a new VP of communications next week: Claire Sheahan, formerly a senior VP and partner at Fleishman-Hillard. There she handled public affairs campaigns for health care organizations throughout the industry, including for-profits, nonprofits and government agencies. Before that, she was public affairs manager for Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The release: http://bit.ly/Vh3Z9d
NAPH SENDS IN DSH SUGGESTIONS ? In anticipation of an upcoming proposed rule, the trade group representing safety net hospitals has a few ideas about how the Obama administration should calculate the ACA?s cuts to Disproportionate Share Hospital payments an issue that becomes all the more sensitive as states opt out of the ACA?s Medicaid expansion. The National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, in a letter to CMS, urges the agency to take a broader look at the hospitals? patient care costs, account for payment shortfalls from caring for patients with government-sponsored insurance, and take a more precise count of uncompensated costs for charity care patients. The NAPH letter: http://bit.ly/UOHANW
COMPANY FIGHTING CONTRACEPTION RULE SCORES WIN AGAINST STATE LAW, TOO ? Triune Health Group, which received a preliminary injunction against the Obama administration?s contraception coverage rule from a district court judge earlier this month, racked up another victory yesterday in state court. Triune had filed a separate suit against an Illinois law requiring health plans that provide coverage for outpatient services and medications to also cover FDA-approved contraceptives. A county circuit court yesterday granted the company?s motion for a temporary restraining order. The ruling: http://bit.ly/Xc4DCs
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DEMAND FOR SUNSHINE ? The intense interest in seeing long-overdue final regs on the Physician Payment Sunshine Act is officially hitting a fever pitch. A group of physicians, including two former editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, are the latest to call on the White House to issue final rules defining how drug and device companies report payments to doctors. ?The administration should implement the act without any further delay so that it can begin, as soon as possible, to rein in the undue and harmful influence of money on medicine,? they wrote. Their letter: http://politico.pro/10xGGgH
CLASSY HOPES ? SCAN Foundation President Bruce Chernoff says the formal repeal of the CLASS Act may yet prove to have created an unexpected opportunity.?The commission on long-term care created in the last-minute fiscal cliff legislation may present ?realistic? solutions when it reports next summer. And finding good ways of treating people with chronic long-term needs may actually alleviate pressure on hospitals and emergency rooms which provide ?the most expensive and least person-centered types of care.? His Altarum Health Policy Forum post: http://bit.ly/UNnmUR
TAKE TWO GOOGLE SEARCHES AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING ? More and more people are turning to the Web for their medical maladies. A new Pew Internet Project poll finds 55 percent of Internet users say they searched online for information about a specific disease or medical problem in the past year, compared with 66 percent of users who had ever done such a search as of 2010. Women are more likely to turn to the Web for medical information, while college grads are two times more likely than people without high school diplomas to do so. The poll: http://bit.ly/WHQkoM
WHAT WE?RE READING, by Paige Winfield Cunningham
In the next big spending battle that?s shaping up, don?t expect many details about entitlement cuts from Republicans, who risk losing support when they target specific programs, The Associated Press writes. http://wapo.st/W2AhTY
When Los Angles voters go to the polls in May, they could face not one, not two, but three ballot measures intended to regulate the sale of medical marijuana, the L. A. Times reports. http://lat.ms/13xS7U9
Another pizza chain is apparently embroiled in public drama over a health care law, reports The Sacramento Bee, highlighting San Francisco-based Patxi?s Chicago Pizza, which recently settled legal charges that it collected a surcharge to pay for the city?s health care law but didn?t use most of the money for its intended purposes. http://bit.ly/10vl8kH
As the country deals with a flu season that seems to be particularly bad, emergency rooms are filled with a feverish crowd that is much larger than last year, Kaiser Health News reports. http://bit.ly/VY2iy4
The Washington Times delves into the challenges ? and divisions ? state GOP officials are facing as they try to decide how to handle the Affordable Care Act. http://bit.ly/XcEuna
Washington and Lee University?s Tim Jost takes to the Health Affairs blog to dissect the 474-page rule HHS released this week, offering his take on the agency?s guidelines for Medicaid, CHIP and the exchanges. http://bit.ly/ViuVph
** A message from PhRMA: Progress can bring us hope. By the time Bill Clinton was inaugurated for the second time in 1997, a first-in-class treatment for HIV/AIDS had been discovered by biopharmaceutical scientists. Since 1995, the death rate from HIV/AIDS has fallen by 70 percent. Today, there are nearly 70 new medicines in development to treat this complex disease. As we approach the inauguration, let us be inspired by the progress we have made working together and the hope of the cures yet to come. Visit www.FromHopetoCures.org for more on the medical innovations from the past 100 years of inaugurations. **
Source: http://feeds.politico.com/click.phdo?i=2bb5b3651bbbf64b2d4dc31bbad0a15a
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