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Congress paved the way for deep cuts in healthcare spending as part of an effort to extend expiring tax cuts on Thursday. The House voted 216-214 to adopt the final version of the fiscal 2026 budget resolution, with GOP Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) joining the Democratic minority in opposition. This followed a Senate vote to approve the budget on Monday and a House vote in February on the lower chamber's first draft of the measure. (McAuliff, 4/10)

House Republicans’ struggles to pass a tax cut plan could be good news for the Medicaid program. (Wilkerson, 4/10)

In early March, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito looked into the camera and told anyone watching that she wouldn’t kick any West Virginians off Medicaid. “I want to make sure that our benefits are still there for that 500,000 people,” Capito told WCHS. For his part, Sen. Jim Justice told Axios last month that he had concerns about cuts to Medicaid, which serves nearly 30% of the state’s population. Last weekend, Capito and Justice voted to move along a budget plan that would require $880 billion in cuts over the next decade, largely to Medicaid. When offered an amendment to prevent those cuts, the two Republicans voted with their party against it. (Culvyhouse, 4/10)

Republicans have managed to unite two health industry sectors normally at war — insurers and hospitals — by threatening to cut Medicaid. Lobbyists for both industries, faced with the prospect of losing billions of dollars in fees, are scrambling to convince lawmakers that tens of millions of low-income Americans who rely on the program will suffer. The cuts proposed in a House Republican budget blueprint could run as high as $880 billion over 10 years, more than 10 percent of federal Medicaid spending. (Hooper and Payne, 4/10)

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is considering a “regulatory framework” for Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1 medications to treat obesity. Kennedy said in a CBS News interview that aired Wednesday the high cost of the medication is the biggest hurdle to coverage, but he said he’s considering a proposal for Medicaid and Medicare to cover the drug once patients have established they’ve exhausted other options. “Ideally, over the long term, we’d like to see … those drugs available for people after they try other interventions,” Kennedy said. (Fortinsky, 4/10)

CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, said April 10 that his vision for the agency includes a commitment to President Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda and modernizing Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA marketplace. (Emerson, 4/10)

Seniors across the country are wearing very expensive bandages. Made of dried bits of placenta, the paper-thin patches cover stubborn wounds and can cost thousands of dollars per square inch. Some research has found that such “skin substitutes” help certain wounds heal. But in the past few years, dozens of unstudied and costly products have flooded the market. (Kliff and Thomas, 4/10)

Medicare fee-for-service payments to physicians should be based on the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), a measure of healthcare inflation, according to a recommendation approved unanimously Thursday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). "I think it's so important that there be a predictable inflation-based formula for updating the fee schedule," said Larry Casalino, MD, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, who was attending his last meeting as a MedPAC commissioner. (Frieden, 4/10)

Scan Group and Sutter Health are launching a new Medicare Advantage company that blurs the payer-provider line. The healthcare companies will invest undisclosed sums to create a new, nonprofit entity focused on developing technology, co-branded Medicare Advantage plans and care models targeted at the 6.9 million eligible Medicare enrollees in California. Scan Group and Sutter Health plan to unveil new private Medicare plans over the next three years, beginning in the fall. The joint venture will launch in 2026. (Tepper, 4/10)