Grantmakers In Health’s Health Policy Update

The Health Policy Update is a new Grantmakers In Health (GIH) monthly newsletter produced in collaboration with Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). Drawing on GIH’s policy priorities outlined in our 2023 policy agenda and our strategic objective of increasing our policy and advocacy presence, the Health Policy Update provides GIH Funding Partners with a range of federal health policy news. New issues are released on the first Wednesday of every month.

The December 2023 edition of the newsletter features the following sections:

Spotlight—a look at a news item or opportunity that we believe is of special interest to Funding Partners;
Congressional and Administration Updates—health policy news from the Hill and the Administration;
Reports—new reports related to health policy;
Funding Opportunities—opportunities to apply for federal discretionary grants or cooperative agreements;
Open Comment Opportunities and Requests for Information—opportunities to comment on Notices of Public Rulemaking (NPRM) and other requests for information; and
Events—health policy public events and webinars of interest to Funding Partners.

Email us at info@gih.org to let us know what you think of the newsletter and how we might improve it to make it even more useful to you.

Spotlight

The White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is releasing several resources to help support federal agencies, states, local, and tribal governments to better coordinate health care, public health, and social services. Specifically, the White House is releasing the first ever U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health. To accompany this, HHS is releasing a Call to Action to Address Health-Related Social Needs, and a Medicaid and CHIP Health-Related Social Needs Framework. This builds on the Administration’s work to advance health equity by acknowledging that peoples’ social and economic conditions play an important role in their health and well-being.

Congressional and Administration Updates

On November 16, 2023, Congress avoided a shutdown of federal agencies by enacting a short-term continuing resolution, which keeps funding at last year’s levels. The legislation extends funding for some federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Housing, and Transportation, through January 19, 2024, and extends most other federal agencies and programs, including Health and Human Services, through February 2, 2024. There has been little public progress on providing a full year of funding for health agencies and programs. Health advocates are concerned about the potential impact of the Fiscal Responsibility Act which could trigger major cuts to nondefense spending if a continuing resolution is still in place at the beginning of 2024.
The Senate voted 62 - 36 to confirm Dr. Monica Bertagnolli as the new Director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bertagnolli, who previously led the National Cancer Institute, steps into a role that has not had a permanent director since Dr. Frances Collins stepped down in December 2021.
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction Therapy Services (TREATS) Act, legislation to increase access to telehealth services for opioid use disorder. The bipartisan bill would waive regulatory restrictions for accessing care, preserving flexibilities put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the STAR Loan Repayment Reauthorization Act of 2023 which would reauthorize and double the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program. The program would provide student loan repayment for health care workers who focus on addiction treatment and recovery in underserved areas.
Representatives Mike Flood (R-NE) and David Trone (D-MD) introduced the Improving Measurements for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2023, which would establish a working group to develop standardized measures for loneliness and isolation. This working group would include representatives from several federal agencies and six states with the highest and lowest mental health workforce shortages to develop these measures.
The White House recently took steps to improve the health of rural communities and help rural health care providers stay open. These actions include building on the Affordable Care Act and Inflation Reduction Act to increase access to affordable health coverage and care for those living in rural communities, keeping more rural hospitals open in the long run to provide critical services in their communities, bolstering the rural health workforce, and supporting access to needed care such as behavioral health and through telehealth services.
President Biden recently announced the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, to be led by First Lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. The initiative will consist of executive departments and agencies across the Federal government. Within 45 days, initiative members will recommend concrete actions that the Biden-Harris Administration can take to improve how research on women’s health is conducted and maximize the Administration’s investments in women’s health research, including to address health disparities and inequities.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra was named chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), which harnesses the collective power of 19 federal agencies to coordinate the federal homelessness strategy and support state and local efforts to prevent and end homelessness. HHS, through the Administration for Children and Families, also announced nine new grants totaling $2.1 million to bolster supportive services for families living in affordable housing and 11 new grants totaling nearly $4 million for runaway and homeless youth prevention.
CMS finalized the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) rule for 2024. The final rule decreased some payment amounts but also implemented changes to increase access to behavioral health treatment and services. CMS is also finalizing coding and payment for community health integration services and facilitating access to community-based resources to address unmet social needs. These are the first PFS services designed to include care involving community health workers.

Reports

The White House recently released the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). The report is the most comprehensive analysis of the state of climate change in the United States, providing authoritative, decision-relevant information on how people across the country are experiencing climate change, the risks we face now and will face in the future, and actions underway to reduce carbon pollution and build resilience. For more information, a fact sheet from HHS is available here.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) recently published a report examining National and State Level Estimates of Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program Eligibility and Program Reach in 2021. The report found that while roughly 12 million people were eligible to participate in the WIC program on an average month, WIC only served an estimated 51.2 percent of that population. Coverage rates were highest for Hispanic (58.1 percent) WIC-eligible individuals and lowest for non-Hispanic White (44.2 percent) WIC-eligible individuals. In addition, more than 50 percent of WIC-eligible Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid recipients do not participate in WIC. The analysis also provides estimates by FNS region, by state and territory, by race and ethnicity, and, for the first time in this series of reports, by urbanicity.
HHS, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), released the results of the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The report shows how people living in United States reported about their experience with mental health, substance use, and treatment related behaviors in 2022. The report is accompanied by a high-level brief that includes infographics.
The Government Accountability Office recently published the report Public Health Preparedness: Building and Maintaining Infrastructure beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic. The report found that the most significant challenges to building public health infrastructure include the temporary nature of public health funding, varying levels of jurisdictional funding, and barriers to building out the public health workforce.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report demonstrates that food insecurity has increased in the United States. In 2022, an estimated 12.8 percent of households in the United States experienced food insecurity sometime during the year. This rate has increased since 2020 and 2021, demonstrating a concerning upward trend in risk factors for obesity and development of other nutrition-related chronic diseases.
According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Vital Statistics System, the U.S. saw a 3 percent rise in its infant mortality rate in 2022, marking the first increase since 2001-2002, after a 22 percent decline from 2002 to 2021. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the provisional rate for 2022 was 5.60 deaths per 1,000 live births, up from 5.44 in 2021, with a total of 20,538 infant deaths. Key findings revealed heightened mortality rates among neonatal and postneonatal infants, infants born to American Indian, Alaska Native, and White non-Hispanic women, those born to women aged 25-29, preterm infants, male infants, and infants in four states (Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, and Texas). Maternal complications and bacterial sepsis were the leading causes of the increase.
CDC’s Vital Signs reports that there has been a significant increase in newborn syphilis cases and offers recommendations for promoting health equity and preventing future cases. The increase in newborn syphilis—or congenital syphilis—is an outcome of rising syphilis cases among women of reproductive age; a combination of social factors that create barriers to high-quality prenatal care; and ongoing declines in U.S. sexually transmitted infection prevention infrastructure and resources. New CDC data reveal that over 3,700 babies were born with syphilis in 2022, more than 10 times the number in 2012.
A recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) analyzed coverage with selected vaccines and exemption from school vaccine requirements among children in kindergarten in United States for the 2022-23 school year. The report found that vaccination coverage among children in kindergarten (93 percent) remains lower than the prepandemic level (95 percent), while vaccination exemptions increased to 3 percent, the highest vaccination exemption rate ever reported in the United States.
Another recent CDC MMWR examines tobacco product use among U.S. middle and high school students. The report found that 10 percent of middle and high school students reported current tobacco product use. From 2022 to 2023, current e-cigarette use among high school students declined from 14.1 percent to 10 percent. E-cigarettes remained the most commonly used tobacco product among youths. Among middle school and high school students who currently use e-cigarettes, 25.2 percent used e-cigarettes daily, and 89.4 percent used flavored e-cigarettes.

Funding Opportunities

HHS has announced a new Environmental Justice Community Innovator Challenge funding opportunity. This Challenge aims to engage local leaders with experience solving problems at the grassroots level to advance community level solutions that advance environmental justice and health equity. This effort is part of HHS’ broader work to support disadvantaged communities and Tribes that are disproportionately burdened by environmental injustices, including health harms due to climate change. The Challenge has two phases and will award a total of $1,000,000. Participants will have access to a technical assistance opportunity in each phase of the Challenge. Applications are due January 30, 2024.

Open Comment Opportunities and Requests for Information

HHS has announced its intention to establish the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID and invites nominations for the Committee. This Committee is called for in the National Research Action Plan on Long COVID, published in April 2022 to accelerate research and innovation in the whole-of-government response to the longer-term impacts of COVID-19. Nominations are due by January 16, 2024.

If your organization submits comments to this call for nominations, please share a copy with GIH (info@gih.org) so we can track and compile input from health funders.

Events

March 19-21, 2024: Society for Public Health Education’s 2024 Annual Conference Gateway to Health Equity: Global Solutions to Strengthen Health Education and Promotion Capacity (St. Louis, MO)
March 25-28, 2024: 2024 Preparedness Summit: Public Health, Healthcare, and Emergency Management: Aligning to Address Cascading Challenges (Cleveland, OH)
July 23-26, 2024: National Association of County & City Health Officials Annual Conference: NACCHO360: Heard it Through the Grapevine: Public Health Partnerships, Collaboration, and Innovation (Detroit, MI)

The Health Policy Update is an exclusive benefit available to GIH Funding Partners and Philanthropy Support Partners; please do not forward.

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