The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for January 31 – February 6.  Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.

Introduction

With the pause in external communication that the new administration imposed on HHS two weeks ago, including announcements, advisories, regular publications, and web site updates, there has been very little public communication from or activity involving HHS in the past week, including no new regulations or grant or meeting notices.  While an HHS spokesperson explained that the moratorium has been eased and agencies are now permitted to engage in some public communication, subject to review, such activity remains very limited.

The Administration

New Executive Orders

A new executive order issued by the Trump administration calls for a significant reduction in federal regulations and the cost of implementing new regulations.  Under the regulation, whenever a federal department or agency publicly proposes a new regulation it shall identify at least 10 existing regulations to be repealed.  Agencies also must ensure that the total incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, to be finalized in FY 2025 “…shall be significantly less than zero.”  Learn more about the executive order and how the administration proposes implementing it from the executive order itself and this White House fact sheet.

HHS Appointments and Nominations

The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-13, along party lines, to send to the full Senate President Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Other HHS nominations and reported appointments include:

  • Deputy Secretary – Jim O’Neill – nominated
  • CMS administrator – Mehmet Oz – nominated
  • FDA commissioner – Marty Makary – nominated
  • Surgeon General – Janette Nesheiwat – nominated
  • NIH director – Jay Bhattacharaya – nominated
  • CDC director – Dave Weldon – nominated
  • HHS principal deputy secretary for administration – Shana Weir – based on a published report
  • HHS chief of staff – Heather Flick – published report
  • HHS chief operating officer and deputy administrator – Kimberly Brant – according to CMS
  • CMS chief of staff – Stephanie Carlton (current acting administrator) – published report
  • CMS deputy administrator and chief policy and regulatory officer (according to CMS) and head of HHS landing team (published report) – John Brooks
  • Center for Medicare director– Chris Klomp – published report
  • CMS Center for Medicaid and CHIP director– Drew Snyder – published report
  • Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation director – Abe Sutton
Congress

Funding the Federal Government

Authorization for federal spending will expire on March 15 and health care extenders like the elimination of Medicaid DSH cuts, telehealth flexibilities, the Acute Hospital Care at Home program, and more will expire on March 31.  Appropriators in the House and Senate continue their negotiations but have not yet agreed on final spending levels for FY 2025, which began on October 1 last year.

Reconciliation Plans

House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Budget Committee continue to negotiate the outline of a single reconciliation bill that would address border security, energy policy, tax cuts, and deep cuts in federal spending.  Speaker Johnson needs every member of his party to agree to a bill if it is to pass without support from Democrats but House Republicans are finding it difficult to agree on the scope of the bill or the size of the spending cuts to be included.  In the Senate, Majority Leader Thune and the Senate Budget Committee are working on the first of two or three reconciliation bills.  The first bill would include border security, energy, and defense policies and spending cuts to offset the new policies; no details are yet available on what programs might be cut to pay for the bill.  The first step for both chambers will be to pass a budget resolution that will direct the reconciliation process.  The Senate Budget Committee plans to mark up that chamber’s FY 2025 budget resolution next week.

Both Congress and the administration are considering deep cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, and Affordable Care Act programs as ways to pay for their policy priorities.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
  • CMS has issued a public statement on its collaboration with the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency:

CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology. We are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump.

  • CMS has issued an extension of reporting exceptions for health care providers in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee that were affected by Hurricane Helene and to those affected by the California wildfires and straight-line winds.  The exceptions encompass inpatient, outpatient, and post-acute-care providers, ambulatory surgical centers, inpatient psychiatric facilities, and rural emergency hospitals and involve quality, interoperability, and MIPS reporting under specific circumstances.  Learn more from this CMS notice.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

The FDA has issued an alert to patients of the possibility of missing critical safety alerts due to phone settings when using smartphone-compatible diabetes devices.  The agency explains that users can miss alerts because of hardware and software changes, updates, and configurations.  Find the alert here.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

CISA has issued a warning about Contec CMS8000, a device used in hospitals, clinics, and home health care environments to monitor patient vital signs.  According to CISA, the monitor has an embedded backdoor function with a hard-coded IP address and functionality that enables the exposure of private, personal patient data to unauthorized parties.  CISA believes the inclusion of this backdoor in the firmware of the monitor can create conditions that may enable remote code execution and device modification with the ability to alter its configuration, introducing risk to patient safety because a malfunctioning monitor could lead to improper responses to vital signs displayed by the device.  In a document intended primarily for technical readers, CISA describes the affected devices and firmware, provides technical details about and a technical evaluation of the firmware, describes patient data spillage, offers mitigation and FDA recommendations, and directs interested parties to additional resources.  CISA also warns that the Contec CMS8000 may be re-labeled and sold by resellers and offers a link to a list of known resellers.  Find that link, and learn more about the warning, from this CISA bulletin.

Stakeholder Events

MACPAC – Commissioners Meeting – February 27-28

MACPAC’s commissioners will hold their next public meeting virtually on Thursday, February 27 and Friday, February 28.  An agenda and registration information are not yet available but when they are they will be posted here.

MedPAC – Commissioners Meeting – March 6-7

MedPAC’s commissioners will hold their next public meeting virtually on Thursday, March 6 and Friday, March.  An agenda and registration information are not yet available but when they are they will be posted here.