{"id":2039,"date":"2021-03-08T18:06:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T21:25:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T21:25:30","slug":"health-policy-report-3-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Policy Report (3\/8)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senators passed (50-49<\/a>) President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan\u201d over the weekend following a marathon \u201cvote-a-rama\u201d debate on amendments. The process was delayed for nearly 12 hours on Saturday as Senators deliberated changes to the unemployment benefits portion. Ultimately, a compromise was reached that pared back the weekly boost to $300 per week until September 6, up to $10,200 of which is to be excluded from taxable income for unemployed workers. Given the changes to the underlying bill, the House now needs to vote on the virus relief package again before it gets placed on the President\u2019s desk for signature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

House lawmakers will\nconvene for legislative business this afternoon. In addition to a forthcoming\nvote on the revised COVID-19 relief bill tomorrow, Members will continue their\npush to clear key Democratic priorities pertaining to labor rights and gun control.\nOn the labor front, the lower chamber will consider a sweeping measure<\/a> that would, among other things: (1) allow\nthe National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to levy fines against businesses that\nviolate certain workers’ rights rules; (2) broaden the scope of individuals covered\nby fair labor standards to include independent contractors; and (3) permit\nlabor organizations to encourage the participation of union members in strikes.\nLawmakers will also take up a pair of measures (H.R. 8<\/a>; H.R 1446<\/a>) that seek to strengthen background check\nrequirements for gun purchases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Committee Sends\nBecerra Nomination to Senate Floor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Wednesday, the\nSenate Finance Committee voted along party lines to advance the nomination of\nCalifornia Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of Health and Human\nServices (HHS) to the Senate floor. Every Democrat on the Committee voted in\nfavor of Becerra\u2019s nomination. No GOP member broke ranks on the vote, however.\nWith the Committee roster evenly divided, Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) must notify\nthe Secretary of the Senate of a tie vote, after which Senate Majority Leader\nChuck Schumer (D-NY) will move to discharge the nomination from the Committee,\nbringing it to the Senate floor. This will require one additional procedural\nvote in the full Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becerra has proven to be\namong President Biden\u2019s more controversial cabinet picks. Senate Minority\nLeader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has declared Becerra to be \u201cradical\u201d and\n\u201cunderqualified,\u201d despite two degrees from Stanford, a long career in public\nservice, and having previously served as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic\nCaucus. McConnell specifically criticized Becerra\u2019s opposition to religious\nexemptions with regard to employer coverage of birth control. Prior to\nWednesday\u2019s vote, Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) said that while he does not\nsupport Becerra\u2019s nomination, he will work to find bipartisan solutions should\nBecerra be confirmed as Secretary. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) pointed to\nBecerra\u2019s performance in his confirmation hearing as a reason to oppose him;\nspecifically, Becerra\u2019s dodge of questions about the statutory definition of\ncontract pharmacies with regard to the 340B program. Senate leadership will\nmove to schedule a vote on Becerra\u2019s nomination in the full Senate.\nConfirmation could come as early as this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump Administration\nDirected Provider Relief Funds Toward Operation Warp Speed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An investigation by STAT\nNews revealed last week that the Trump administration redirected around $10\nbillion from the Provider Relief Fund intended to assist hospitals and\nproviders through the pandemic towards Operation Warp Speed contracts. Trump\u2019s\nDepartment of Health and Human Services (HHS) used a loophole allowing them to\nredirect the money without informing Congress \u2014 a move approved by the HHS\nOffice of the General Counsel. The Biden administration has not yet commented\non whether the redirected funding will impact total funds available to assist\nproviders with pandemic-related expenses such as staffing, personal protective\nequipment, care for uninsured patients, and vaccine distribution. Former White\nHouse budget office director Russ Vought, who was involved in the\ndecision-making, stated that the expenditure was necessary to ensure the\nsuccessful development and purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies and that\nthe administration had the authority to redirect the funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former HHS officials\nexplained that because Operation Warp Speed was created by the administration,\nit had to pull funding from existing pools of money. They revealed that the\nfunding available for the program was running out at the end of last summer,\nand officials were forced to look elsewhere for money to ensure progress on\nvaccines and therapeutics did not slow down. While Congress gave HHS the\nauthority to transfer money between the accounts to respond to the pandemic, it\nclarified that HHS was required to notify Congress and Appropriations\nCommittees at least ten days before the money was moved. Spokespeople from the\ncommittees stated they were not made aware of any transfer of funds. In order\nto avoid reporting the funding change, officials spent the money directly out\nof the Provider Relief Fund account. Former HHS officials said that the\nredirected funds were initially intended to be a loan backfilled after\nadditional funding was provided by Congress. The Health Resources and Services\nAdministration reported that the funding has not been repaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACA Exchange Signups Off\nto Solid Start Under Special Enrollment Period <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centers for Medicare\n& Medicaid Services (CMS) reported last week that more than 200,000\nindividuals signed up for insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA)\nExchanges in the first two weeks of the special enrollment period implemented\nas part of President Biden\u2019s COVID-19 response. The initial reporting is\npartial as it only covers the 36 states served by the federal ACA Exchange, and\nNational enrollment is expected to be higher. The special enrollment period\nwill run until May 15, about twice as long as the regular annual open\nenrollment period, and the administration has allocated $50 million in\nadvertising to encourage individuals to seek coverage. The Biden administration\nalso announced last Monday that $2.3 million in funding will be available to\nbolster ACA signups in underserved communities through navigators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden Announces U.S. Will Have Vaccines for All Adults By May<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Tuesday, President Biden announced that the U.S. will have enough vaccines by the end of May in order to vaccinate all eligible adults, bumping up the administration\u2019s timeline by two months. The president credited his administration\u2019s \u201cstepped up response,\u201d as well as Merck and Johnson & Johnson\u2019s partnership to produce the latter\u2019s vaccine. President Biden noted he had invoked the Defense Production Act to adequately equip Merch manufacturing facilities to safely and effectively produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and all facilities will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help increase U.S. supply. Additionally, last week, analysis from The New York Times revealed the U.S. is administering an average of two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines per day, up from 1.3 million one month ago. At this pace, the Biden administration is on track to reach its goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses within the first 100 days of the new presidency.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators passed (50-49) President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan\u201d over the weekend following a marathon \u201cvote-a-rama\u201d debate on amendments. The process was delayed for nearly 12 hours on Saturday as Senators deliberated changes to the unemployment benefits portion. Ultimately, a compromise was reached that pared back the weekly boost to $300 per week until September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Policy Report (3\/8) - thornrun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Policy Report (3\/8) - thornrun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senators passed (50-49) President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan\u201d over the weekend following a marathon \u201cvote-a-rama\u201d debate on amendments. The process was delayed for nearly 12 hours on Saturday as Senators deliberated changes to the unemployment benefits portion. Ultimately, a compromise was reached that pared back the weekly boost to $300 per week until September […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"thornrun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-08T18:06:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-08T21:25:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thornrun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thornrun\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/\",\"name\":\"Health Policy Report (3\/8) - thornrun\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-08T18:06:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-08T21:25:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2565f7fbcfeca70f7bbd34d7aca4c772\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Health Policy Report (3\/8)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/\",\"name\":\"thornrun\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2565f7fbcfeca70f7bbd34d7aca4c772\",\"name\":\"Thornrun\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ac3e22300d81a1b855333fa91058bc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ac3e22300d81a1b855333fa91058bc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Thornrun\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/author\/thornrun\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Health Policy Report (3\/8) - thornrun","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Health Policy Report (3\/8) - thornrun","og_description":"Senators passed (50-49) President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan\u201d over the weekend following a marathon \u201cvote-a-rama\u201d debate on amendments. The process was delayed for nearly 12 hours on Saturday as Senators deliberated changes to the unemployment benefits portion. Ultimately, a compromise was reached that pared back the weekly boost to $300 per week until September […]","og_url":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/","og_site_name":"thornrun","article_published_time":"2021-03-08T18:06:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-08T21:25:30+00:00","author":"Thornrun","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thornrun","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/","url":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/","name":"Health Policy Report (3\/8) - thornrun","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-03-08T18:06:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-08T21:25:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2565f7fbcfeca70f7bbd34d7aca4c772"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/health-policy-report-3-8\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Health Policy Report (3\/8)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/","name":"thornrun","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2565f7fbcfeca70f7bbd34d7aca4c772","name":"Thornrun","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ac3e22300d81a1b855333fa91058bc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ac3e22300d81a1b855333fa91058bc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Thornrun"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/thornrun.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/author\/thornrun\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thornrun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}