Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
HHS Rolls Back Nondiscrimination Waivers Allowed By Trump Admin
The Hill: Biden Administration Reverses Trump-Era Waivers Of Nondiscrimination Protections
The Biden administration is reversing Trump-era rules that allowed federally-funded child welfare agencies to bypass non-discrimination rules if they conflicted with providers' religious beliefs. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday said it was rescinding waivers granted to three states that allowed faith-based foster care groups that contracted with state agencies to turn away same-sex and non-Christian couples while still receiving federal money. (Weixel, 11/18)
Modern Healthcare: How FDA's New Head Could Shape Agency Policy
Dr. Robert Califf was nominated by President Joe Biden last week to lead the Food and Drug Administration. If confirmed, Califf will lead an agency still fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic while working to innovate. Califf previously served as FDA commissioner for nearly a year at the end of the Obama administration. He knows how the agency works and can hit the ground running, stakeholders say. Califf's leadership style revolves around setting key priorities and following through on them, according to Howard Sklamberg, a partner at Arnold & Porter who worked as a deputy commissioner at the FDA during Califf's first tenure. (Goldman, 11/18)
Stat: Former DARPA Director Warns That ARPA-H Should Stand Alone
The former director of DARPA, the Pentagon’s high-stakes research arm, says that for an equivalent health care agency to succeed, it should be fully separated from the National Institutes of Health. Arati Prabhakar, who led DARPA from 2012 to 2017, also warned that the Biden administration should think bigger. Instead of focusing only on new medicines and vaccines, she said, ARPA-H should consider the root causes of poor U.S. health outcomes, ranging from obesity to the overdose crisis. (Facher, 11/18)
AP: Biden Administration Acts To Restore Clean-Water Safeguards
The Biden administration took action Thursday to restore federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, undoing a Trump-era rule that was considered one of that administration’s hallmark environmental rollbacks. At issue is a regulation sometimes referred to as “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, that defines the types of waterways qualifying for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. The regulation has long been a point of contention among environmental groups, farmers, homebuilders, lawmakers and the courts. (Naishadham and Daly, 11/19)
CNN: Biden's First Annual Physical As President To Be At Walter Reed Friday
President Joe Biden is set to undergo his routine annual physical Friday at Walter Reed Medical Center -- his first physical in office as the oldest first-term president in US history. ... The last extensive update on Biden's medical state came in December 2019, when the doctor he eventually recruited to serve as White House physician described him as "a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency." (Collins, Stracqualursi and Klein, 11/19)
