Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse Festival

Hot Topics | October 1, 2021

Welcome to October, ladies and ghouls. This month Policy News from Goodfuse will be sharing the scariest stories to ever emerge from Washington, D.C. and the halls of the U.S. government.

We kick off the month by briefing you on STRATCOM 8888, the U.S. Strategic Command’s plan to combat a zombie invasion, which “was not actually designed as a joke.”  This 16-page unclassified government document addresses threats from various types of zombies including: Pathogenic Zombies, Radiation Zombies, Evil Magic Zombies and Chicken Zombies. According to the document, “although it sounds ridiculous…[the Chicken Zombie] is actually the only proven class of zombie that actually exists.

STRATCOM 8888 was not a Department of Defense April Fool’s joke, but you should know that the fictional scenario was created as a training exercise that would avoid a diplomatic incident by naming real-world countries as the antagonists in a mock wartime scenario.

Or perhaps STRATCOM 8888 isn’t a training exercise and the government really is planning for a zombie apocalypse. A spooky thought to ponder as you read this week’s round up of public policy news:

Drug pricing download

• Several media outlets published scoops on the rapid developments in the debate on drug pricing reform:
  • The Senate Finance Committee is considering a policy that would exempt small biotech companies from drug pricing reforms. (STAT – full text below)
  • The House Judiciary Committee voted to advance three bills that would ban pharmaceutical companies from using certain practices that raise drug prices and prevent competition. (Reuters)
  • The Washington Post analyzed how a handful of moderate House Democrats are imperiling the Biden administration’s plans to reform drug pricing. (The Washington Post – full text below)

 Healthcare spending on the chopping block

• Ideological differences within the Democratic Party are forcing leaders to explore spending cuts to healthcare priorities in $3.5 billion reconciliation bill. Funding for long-term care services and plans to expand Medicaid are among the line items expected to face the heaviest cuts. (POLITICO, Axios)

White House sides with insurers

• As part of the implementation of a new law preventing surprise medical bills, the Biden administration has sided with insurers over providers. At issue is how disputes over surprise medical bills are resolved. Independent mediators charged with resolving billing conflicts will be directed to “favor a payment metric related to providers’ existing contracts with insurers.” (STAT – full text below)

If you enjoyed this week’s excerpt from Policy News from Goodfuse, we invite you to email us at [email protected] to sign up for the full weekly “insider only” newsletter featuring fun-to-read round-ups of Hot Topics, breaking news and some quirky facts to make your Fridays Goodfused.

 

Falling for the H Street Festival

Hot Topics | September 24th, 2021

Last Saturday, the 16^th annual H Street Festival took place in Washington, D.C.’s historic H Street Corridor neighborhood. The event features artwork across various mediums including visual art, music, dance, performance and poetry. From humble beginnings as a 500-person block party, the H Street Festival has grown 300-fold and now attracts 150,000 participants across 11 city blocks.

The festival has played a role in the neighborhood’s revitalization and economic growth. The core of H Street was hollowed out by the riots that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. The neighborhood struggled to rebound in the later decades of the 20^th Century. However, the commercial vacancy rate in the neighborhood has plummeted from 75% to under 5% over the past few years.

Were you at the H Street Festival last weekend? If so, we hope you will find this week’s round up of public policy news as enjoyable as the festival:

Bring on the boosters

• On Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use as a booster shot in three groups of Americans: seniors aged 65 years and older, Americans aged 18 years and older who are at higher risk of developing a severe COVID-19 infection and workers who face an increased risk of infection in their workplace. (STAT, Roll Call, FDA Press Release) However, on Thursday, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee recommended against authorizing boosters for Americans who may be at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 in their workplace. (STAT, The Hill) The panel’s recommendations were non-binding, and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky ultimately decided to recommend boosters for this group in alignment with the FDA. (NPR)

Preparing for a drug pricing jam-boree

• Democratic leadership in the House is pork-barreling drug pricing legislation into the party’s $3.5 trillion spending package. The move is meant to put moderate Democrats in a jam, as it would be politically difficult to vote down the entire bill. The drug pricing policy in question is House Resolution 3 (H.R. 3), which would allow the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate the price of certain drugs on behalf of Medicare. H.R. 3 is designed to generate up to $700 billion in savings over 10 years, which would help pay for some of the Democrats’ top policy priorities. (POLITICO)
  • Read more: Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, a Senate panel is expanding plans to penalize industry companies who raise drug prices faster than inflation.(STAT).

Testing, testing, 1-2-3

• A shortage of COVID-19 rapid tests is threatening to undermine President Biden’s plan to deploy widespread testing as a means to curb the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pricing could also be an issue, as the cheapest tests still cost at least $15 for a two-pack. The administration has largely been focused on vaccines, but experts are saying the government needs to invest more in testing as the pandemic enters its second winter. (Axios, The Hill)

If you enjoyed this week’s excerpt from Policy News from Goodfuse, we invite you to email us at [email protected] to sign up for the full weekly “insider only” newsletter featuring fun-to-read round-ups of Hot Topics, breaking news and some quirky facts to make your Fridays Goodfused.

 

One of Washington’s coolest museums

Hot Topics | August 27th, 2021

Are you hungry for some culture? You could head to the National Mall and visit one of the Smithsonian museums, or you could head to The Fridge (capital “T” capital “F”). Located in Southeastern D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, The Fridge is a gallery specializing in street art. Before you can visit The Fridge, you first have to find it. The museum is located at 516 ½ 8^th Street SE, which is halfway down a back alley. You’ll know you’re in the right place if the alley is covered in wall-to-wall street art. Once you’ve located The Fridge, you’ll find exhibitions such as a street art sticker show.

Finding The Fridge might not be easy, but you’re exactly where you want to be if you’re looking for the healthcare public policy stories that were making headlines this week:

Pfinally approved

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) in people aged 16 or older on Monday. The approval came about nine months after the FDA granted the shot Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Public officials are hopeful the full approval will help persuade unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated. (FDA, STAT, POLITICO, Roll Call)

A multitude of mandates are materializing

• A new wave of vaccine mandates came crashing down on the heels of Comirnaty’s approval. Public sector employees including New York City public school employees and all services members under the Department of Defense are now required to be vaccinated. (Axios, The Hill) The American Medical Association also issued a formal recommendation that both the public and private sectors mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. (The Hill)

How low will guidelines go?

• Revised screening guidelines are recommending that Americans be screened for certain diseases at ever younger ages. Under new recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued earlier this week, Americans should now be screened for Type 2 diabetes starting at age 35. (Axios) Earlier this year, the USPSTF issued updated screening guidelines which lowered the age at which certain Americans should be screened for lung cancer. For a quick refresher, check out our newsletter from March 12.

Doubling down on drug pricing reform FTW

• The White House is going all-in on drug pricing reform as it seeks to help shepherd a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill through Congress. Officials in the Biden Administration are touting the popularity of a proposal that would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices to help ensure Democrats fall in line behind the larger bill. With the White House confronting a number of policy challenges from Afghanistan to COVID-19, drug pricing reform is seen as an issue that can help shore up support for Democrats who are running for re-election in 2022. (POLITICO)

If you enjoyed this week’s excerpt from Policy News from Goodfuse, we invite you to email us at [email protected] to sign up for the full weekly “insider only” newsletter featuring fun-to-read round-ups of Hot Topics, breaking news and some quirky facts to make your Fridays Goodfused.

Where Washingtonians go for Afternoon Delight

Hot Topics | August 20th, 2021

The story of Washington, D.C. singing/songwriting duo Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff does not end in 1970 after they composed “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” (Read our last edition of Policy News for that tale.) A few years later Nivert and Danoff formed the Starland Vocal Band, which cult fans of 70’s pop music may know from their single “Afternoon Delight.” In this week’s edition of Policy News, we share the decidedly D.C. (and safe for work) origins of everyone’s favorite song about a midday tryst.

The year was 1974, and Bill was dining with friend and fellow Starland member Margot Chapman at Clyde’s restaurant in Georgetown. The two were having a late lunch, and Bill noticed that Clyde’s was serving a menu from three to six called “Afternoon Delights.” After having his fill of spiced shrimp and hot Brie with almonds, Bill went to visit Taffy who was recovering from a cervical cancer operation to explain that he was going to write a song about what afternoon delight “should be.” The song would go on to top the charts in 1976, although as Taffy would later joke: “The song was huge but no one could remember the name of the group!”

And now for this week’s healthcare public policy news, which we hope you’ll find interesting, if not delightful:

Big news on boosters

• Amid rising infections from the Delta variant of COVID-19, the White House’s most senior health advisors announced on Wednesday that booster shots will be recommended for all Americans eight months after their last dose. The White House would like to begin offering booster shots the week of September 20^th, though timing is subject to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) review of clinical trial data and a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Roll Call, Axios, The Hill)
  • Read more: This decision from the White House is not without its critics. A number of scientists and public policy experts have spoken out against the plan to offer Americans COVID-19 booster shots. (STAT)

A mandate that will impact millions

• Also on Wednesday, President Biden announced that the approximately 1.3 million workers employed by nursing homes will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Facilities whose workers are not fully vaccinated will have Medicare and Medicaid funding withheld. (The Hill, Axios) Associations representing providers were cool to the idea, expressing concern that the mandate would worsen staff shortages in the industry. (The Washington Post – full text below)

The tussle over drug price transparency

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (representing the country’s pharmacy benefit managers) have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop a Trump-era regulation that would require the disclosure of prices for drugs and medical services. The lawsuit argues the regulation is illegal because of a change made to the proposed regulation that was incorporated into the final rule, as well as a potential conflict with an existing federal law. (Axios)

FDA Faces

• Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn gave an interview to the Associated Press (AP) where he advocated for additional safeguards to protect the agency from political interference. (AP – Washington Bureau)
• Bloomberg reported that Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock is no longer under consideration to lead the agency permanently. (Bloomberg – full text below)
• Ellis Unger, the long-time head of the Office of Drug Evaluation-I, has announced he will retire after 25 years at the agency. (STAT – full text below)

If you enjoyed this week’s excerpt from Policy News from Goodfuse, we invite you to email us at [email protected] to sign up for the full weekly “insider only” newsletter featuring fun-to-read round-ups of Hot Topics, breaking news and some quirky facts to make your Fridays Goodfused.