Sure, you got the nom
But, just how high can you count?
Do you have the votes?
The Rundown
- Not much progress on government funding as House tries to find a new Speaker
- Nomination hearing for new NIH Director scheduled
- DEA extends PHE-era tele-prescribing flexibilities
- FDA announces new digital health advisory committee
- The latest from our desks
- Join the Duke Health Advocacy Network!
Federal Updates
(Dys)functional House
It’s been about two weeks since Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown by passing a 45-day continuing resolution (CR). One would have expected that the near brush with a shutdown would have resulted in members in both chambers of Congress rolling up their sleeves to solve the very real differences between the House and Senate’s approaches to FY2024 funding. None of that has happened. The House is still struggling to fill the Speaker role, and it is not clear if a consensus has been reached that can get the House back to work.
On Wednesday, House Republicans met in a closed-door session and nominated current Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) for House Speaker. By Thursday evening, Scalise had taken himself out of the race, finding himself insurmountably short of the 217 votes he would need on the House floor to officially become Speaker.
The House remains stuck in limbo, with the Republican majority now lacking a nominee and no immediate plans to begin the process anew. Reports suggest that Scalise's original opponent, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is expected to seek the nomination again, but with both domestic and major international issues becoming increasingly urgent, House Republicans are getting restless and could gravitate toward a separate, consensus candidate to move the process forward more quickly.
NIH Director hearing scheduled
It is happening…finally! The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) scheduled an October 18 nomination hearing for Dr. Monica Bertagnolli to be Director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bertagnolli currently serves as the Director of the National Cancer Institute. HELP Committee Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had been holding up the nomination hearing until he received the Administration’s plan on lowering drug prices, which he felt was satisfied last month. Our office has reached out to Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), who serves as a member of the Committee, to see how Duke Health might be helpful as the Committee prepares for the hearing. In June,
Duke Health joined 115 other organizations expressing support for Dr. Bertagnolli’s nomination.
DEA extends PHE-era tele-prescribing flexibilities through 2024
Last Friday, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced that it is extending eased public health emergency (PHE) rules for prescribing controlled substances via telehealth through the end of calendar year 2024. DEA first signaled it was considering such an extension in September, following a two-day public meeting to allow stakeholders to provide input into final rules and the potential creation of a special registration process for providers.
The extension will continue to allow all patients, not just those with established provider relationships, to be prescribed controlled substances without an in-person visit. The prior extension of the PHE tele-prescribing rules for new patients was set to expire on November 11, 2023.
The DEA indicated that it plans to issue updated rules in the fall of 2024. Our team, working closely with health system leadership and experts, will continue to monitor the development of final rules and seek opportunities to engage with the agency to inform those efforts.
Net positive: FDA announces new digital health advisory committee
This week, the Food and Drug Administration announced the creation of a new Digital Health Advisory Committee designed to capture outside expertise on digital health technologies, including artificial intelligence, digital therapeutics, and wearables.
Nominations are currently being solicited for the following three categories of membership:
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Voting members (which can include members of academia and the research communities)
Voting member nominations will be accepted through early December of this year and FDA plans to have the advisory committee fully impaneled in 2024.
Our team is working with health system leadership to help identify potential candidates for nomination.
From our desk(s): Duke Health GR this week
This week, our team coordinated a meeting between Duke Health Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer Jeffrey Ferranti, MD and staff of Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC-04) to discuss Duke Health’s leadership in healthcare artificial intelligence (AI), as well as our industry partnerships and national coalition development. We will be assisting the Foushee team in preparation for a recently announced joint subcommittee hearing of the House Space, Science, and Technology Committee next week on AI and risk management by sharing Duke AI Health resources and expertise. Rep. Foushee is the ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee co-leading the hearing.
We coordinated Duke Health’s response to the House Ways and Means Committee’s request for information focusing on addressing chronic disparities in access to healthcare in rural and underserved communities and offering insights how to improve health and access in these communities.
Our office also participated in the North Carolina Healthcare Association (NCHA) federal update and strategy call, as well as national coalition meetings and working groups for rural health, data privacy, and telehealth expansion.
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