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A $6.3 billion bill heading for a vote in the final weeks before adjournment could provide an infusion of money for biomedical research and opioid-addiction therapy while taking steps favored by drug and medical-device companies to ease federal approvals of their products. The measure would wrap in provisions based on a bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.) and passed by the House in July aimed at improving patients’ access to mental-health treatment. (Burton, 11/29)

Republicans and Democrats put finishing touches Tuesday on a $6.3 billion medical research bill as GOP leaders prepared to try pushing the measure through the lame-duck Congress by next week. The White House said it backs the measure, all but ensuring its approval. (Fram, 11/29)

Legislation to bolster medical research and revamp the way new drugs and medical devices are approved is on the fast track through a Congress that has had little success to celebrate this year. The House could vote Wednesday on a vast bill that stretches nearly a thousand pages and holds changes large and small for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. (Harris, 11/29)

The goal of the 21st Century Cures Act, which has bipartisan support, is to help bring drugs and devices to market faster and at lower cost. It would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration and would provide grants to states to address the growing problem of narcotic overdoses. But tucked into the 996-page bill, released on Friday, are provisions that would water down some requirements of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, passed in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act. That law requires drug and device companies to publicly report virtually all payments to doctors, including meals, gifts, travel, royalties, as well as speaking and consulting fees. (Ornstein, 11/29)

If Congress passes the 21st Century Cures Act, the federal government would be barred from axing the worst performers in Medicare Advantage through 2018. The provision, Section 17001 in the 996-page bill being floated in Congress this week, flexes the lobbying muscle of private health insurers that could face the chopping block if their Medicare Advantage quality ratings falter. The Cures legislation essentially would ensure the CMS stays on the sidelines. (Herman, 11/29)

Amid intense criticism, lawmakers have removed a controversial provision in the 21st Century Cures Act that would have exempted companies from reporting payments made to doctors for receiving continuing medical education sessions, medical journals, or textbooks. The provision “is not going to be in the bill when it gets to the House floor” on Wednesday for a vote, a spokeswoman for Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat from Colorado, wrote us. The change came one day after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) threatened to put a hold on the entire bill unless the language was removed. We asked the House Energy and Commerce Committee for comment and will pass along any reply.

Tapping the brakes on an effort to speed new stem cell treatments to patients by relaxing regulations, Congress this week is considering a modified proposal that is attracting cautious support from the research community. Stem cell experts say they are still trying to tease apart how exactly the regenerative medicine sections of the 21st Century Cures Act, a behemoth bill that would expedite drug approval and increase funding for medical research, would affect the field. But a number of vocal critics of the original measure, the so-called Regrow Act, said some of their worries had been assuaged. (Joseph, 11/30)

Efforts to strengthen the country’s tattered mental health system, and help millions of Americans suffering from mental illness, are getting a big boost this week, thanks to a massive health care package moving through Congress. Key provisions from a mental health bill approved last summer by the House of Representatives have been folded into the $6.3 billion 21st Century Cures Act, which aims to speed up drug development and increase medical research. The act also would provide $1 billion in the next two years for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction. (Szabo, 11/30)

Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, will not seek re-election to his panel post, clearing the way for a younger lawmaker to grab the spot on the powerful committee. In a letter to his colleagues late Tuesday, the 85-year-old Levin informed them of his decision and said he wanted to do his part to ensure that the Democrats are united in stopping President-elect Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as they try to take the country in a different direction and “turn back the clock on progress we have made.” (11/29)