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A key Senate committee is proposing that Medicare pay bonuses to hospitals that take measures to prevent drug shortages. It also wants to change the way doctors are paid to administer drugs in outpatient settings. (Wilkerson, 1/25)

The Biden administration is about to set the ground rules for next year’s Medicare Advantage plans, and two Democratic lawmakers want the government to aggressively change how those insurance plans operate. (Herman, 1/26)

The American population is aging — by 2060, nearly one in four Americans will be 65 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Assisted living facilities are already inadequately prepared for the aging population, witnesses told a Senate panel during a Thursday hearing. Patricia Vessenmeyer, who testified at the hearing, assisted her husband, John Whitney, during his journey living with dementia after he was diagnosed in 2013. Doctors diagnosed Whitney with dementia with Lewy bodies, causing him to act t violently during dreams.  (Vickers, 1/25)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Senate Probes The Cost Of Assisted Living And Its Burden On American Families 

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday launched an examination of assisted living, holding its first hearing in two decades on the industry as leaders of both parties expressed concern about the high cost and mixed quality of the long-term care facilities. The federal government has minimal oversight of assisted living, which is regulated by states, unlike skilled nursing homes. Both the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Special Committee on Aging said their inquiry aimed to detail the financial practices and quality levels in the industry so that consumers would be better able to choose facilities. Lawmakers expressed little appetite for Congress to take a more direct role in regulating the sector, such as by setting federal standards for staffing levels and how workers are trained. (Rau, 1/25)

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday jabbed the CEO of Merck for telling congressional staff that he didn’t have the expertise to testify at a Senate hearing on prescription drug prices because he’s a tax attorney. (Cohrs, 1/25)

Bipartisan legislation was introduced in both houses of Congress Thursday that would effectively ban China’s largest genomics company from doing business in the U.S., after years of warnings from intelligence officials that Beijing is gathering genetic information about Americans and others in ways that could harm national security. The bills, backed by leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Senate Homeland Security Committee, target BGI, formerly known as Beijing Genomics Institute, which in 2021 was blacklisted by the Pentagon as a Chinese military company. (Dilanian, 1/25)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants the federal government to investigate Zyn nicotine pouches. Schumer is no stranger to calling for crackdowns on popular products — he’s done similar with Four Loko and Logan Paul’s line of energy drinks. The problem for Schumer this time around is that many users of Zyn are very passionate, and very, very online. (Florko, 1/25)

It’s been three years since President Joe Biden signed an executive order overturning the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military. Months later, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that the agency would provide gender-confirmation surgery. But that change has not happened, so the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the VA over its failure to act. (Padilla, 1/25)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News' 'What The Health?' Podcast: Health Enters The Presidential Race 

Based on the results of the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, it appears more likely than ever before that the 2024 presidential election will be a rerun of 2020: Joe Biden versus Donald Trump. And health is shaping up to be a key issue. Trump is vowing — again — to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is even more popular than it was when Republicans failed to muster the congressional votes to kill it in 2017. Biden is doubling down on support for contraception and abortion rights. (1/25)

Big Pharma has invested big money in the organizations planning what a MAGA policy agenda will look like in a new Trump administration. Not surprisingly, that policy playbook contains a major gift for the drug industry: a swift end to the Biden administration’s landmark program to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. (Dickinson and Perez, 1/25)