Creator: JJ Rabinowich
SNF Digest #196
From the White House to Congress to the regulatory agencies, JJ gives you the inside word on what is what for this week.
WHITE HOUSE:
Over the last week, the White House, as part of National Seafood month, released a new America First seafood strategy with a full strategy (PDF) and a Seafood.gov website; together with the First Lady, the President issued a new Executive Order focused on women’s health, and issued new analysis (PDF) highlighting the growth in U.S. manufacturing jobs. One item of indirect interest:
They issued a new Executive Order aimed at lowering housing costs, including by automatically targeting PMI costs, lowering closing costs, and other proactive measures designed to make it easier to build and get into new homes. While primarily aimed at the residential market, these efforts can have ripple effects throughout the borrowing markets.
CONGRESS:
With Congress home through the midterm elections, we’re going straight to the political roundup:
The President signed into law HR 2481, the “Romance Scam Prevention Act”, a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting users of dating apps and services from fraud. As seniors are particularly vulnerable to these types of scams, this can potentially be very helpful to residents.
The House Committee on Oversight opened an investigation into PBMs and whether they’re retaliating against independent pharmacies by issuing “punitive audits” when those pharmacies publicly support legislation regulating PBMs. An example of the letters that were issued can be foundhere (PDF).
It looks like Senator Ron Wyden has other priorities behind SNFs. Late Friday, he released a pair of bills related to AI: The “Stability and Opportunities for Workers Act of 2026” (PDF), which would create a new federal program to support workers displaced by AI, and a proposal to establish new taxes on data centers (PDF).
Yet another Republican Senator is calling for a Reconciliation bill following the midterms, although what such a bill could actually include remains murky.
With the national environment continuing to favor Democrats (although not as much as they hope) The Washington Post did a deep dive on Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who will likely be the next Speaker of the House if the Democrats do indeed flip Congress.
It’s not all rosy for Democrats as they can’t decide on which races spend their (relatively) limited cash.
After five years, AIPAC is ending its practice of direct candidate endorsements and PAC contributions.
There’s always a ton of ink spilled on narratives surrounding elections, but it typically comes down to the basics: gas prices and day-to-day prices.
A pair of relevant CRS reports from the week:
AGENCIES:
HHS launched a $275 million plan to recruit and retain nurses for SNF’s. CMS also issued their own press release. More details and the central resource page can be found here. A FAQ is available (PDF) as well as a list of currently eligible SNF’s (PDF)
Another week, another batch of Rural Health Transformation Program awards:
HHS released an update to the national strategic plan to address Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The full plan can be found at the central resource page.
HHS, together with CMS and the Department of Labor, announced that several more large employers joined the voluntary employer’s pledge to utilize electronic prior authorization for their employee health plans.
CMS issued a new proposed rule to increase eligibility verification requirements for those getting health insurance through the exchange.
A fact sheet on the rule can be found here. The rule is scheduled to be published to the Federal Register on October 27, but if you simply cannot wait, you can download a prepublication copy of the 203-page rule here (PDF).
HHS, in conjunction with the DOJ’s Civil Division, launched a six-month Healthcare False Claims Act self-disclosure pilot program to encourage healthcare companies to voluntarily disclose potential violations of the False Claims Act. More details are in the protocol sheet here (PDF).
HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) issued a new analysis of a surprising ancillary impact that cutting provider taxes can have: it’s possible that it can have the effect of lowering employee premiums for employer sponsored healthcare. The full study is here (PDF). If you’re so inclined, you can watch the full hearing where they announced the study here (YouTube link).
It was a busy week for Dr. Oz. He released a 27-minute documentary called the “War on Fraud”. He alsostopped in at senior day care centers in New York to challenge their billing practices.
HHS launched the “Kidney Care National Plan”, a coordinated government wide plan to revitalize kidney care. A fact sheet is available here.
The Department of Homeland Security released a rule banning DeepSeek from all federal agencies.
The FDA released a final rule related to prescriptions drug apps and software. The guidance can be found at the Federal Register.
The Treasury Department released a proposed rule related to proposed foreign investment, which includes foreign AI and biotech. More details are in the fact sheet (PDF).
FROM THE NOTEBOOK:
The Kaiser Family Foundation looked at State Directed Payments for nursing home services. Health Affairs also released their own look at SDPs and their effect on Medicaid Managed Care.
Texas became the latest state to join the chorus of lawsuits against Open AI for safety concerns.
Modern Healthcare did a deep dive into Special Needs Plans.
NYC is going after a group of ambulance chasers, filing a lawsuit against a PI firm they say ran a fraud scheme.
Dataspring (formerly the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare) launched the Provider Data Collective, a new effort to share data among healthcare providers.
A new study proposes that changing tax exempt status of non-profit hospitals can raise nearly $150billion over the next 10 years.
Epic released a new tool for developers to build “Connectors”, which can help link apps to Epic and better share information.
The leading AI companies, including Anthropic, Elon Musk, and others, are all pledging to give away a percentage of their profits to help the public deal with potential economic fallout from AI development and deployment.
It’s wonky, but the Hoover Institute (a public think tank) collected seven different proposals from policy experts that would each save more than $100 billion for Medicare.
