Medical Researchers Face Drastic Cuts After NIH Issues New Funding Policy
The policy change, effective today, limits institutions' payments to 15% for indirect costs such as support staff, equipment, and overhead expenses. In other news, as the legality of Elon Musk's role in the U.S. government is challenged in court, his team starts searching for evidence of fraud in Medicaid and Medicare logs.
NPR:
NIH Announces New Funding Policy That Rattles Medical Researchers
The National Institutes of Health is capping an important kind of funding for medical research at universities, medical schools, research hospitals and other scientific institutions. In the latest step by the Trump administration affecting scientific research, the NIH says the agency is limiting funding for "indirect costs" to 15% of grants. That's far below what many institutions have been getting to maintain buildings and equipment and pay support staff and other overhead expenses. For example, Harvard receives 68% and Yale gets 67%, according to the NIH. (Stein, 2/8)
The Boston Globe:
Trump Administration Single Outs Harvard And MIT In Announcement About NIH Cuts
Biomedical researchers in Massachusetts braced this weekend for drastic and sudden federal funding cuts, which local officials say will upend scientific endeavors at universities and medical centers synonymous with the state’s reputation and economy. The change — announced by Republican President Trump’s administration on Friday and set to take effect Monday — caps reimbursement rates from the National Institutes of Health at 15 percent for expenses that support research operations but aren’t directly tied to performing science. (Crimaldi, 2/9)
CNN:
Researchers Decry ‘Disastrously Bad Idea’ As NIH Slashes Payments For Research Infrastructure
Dr. Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington, noted on social media that the new policy “means cutting one of the most important sources of university funding nationwide by 75% or more.” “For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds,” he said in a post on Bluesky. Dr. Theodore Iwashyna, a professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine and of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University, said the move was “a disastrously bad idea.” “This would be devastating for research,” he wrote in an email to CNN. (Dillinger, 2/8)
Stat:
NIH Indirect Costs: Accounting Behind Research Cuts Explained
Science is complicated, and so are the rules that govern how it’s paid for by the federal government. An abrupt Friday afternoon announcement from the National Institutes of Health that it would slash support for indirect research costs paid to universities, medical centers, and other grant recipients left academics bewildered and deeply concerned that the policy change would grind scientific progress to a halt. Many universities get an extra 50% or more on each grant to cover overhead; starting Monday, that rate will drop to 15% for new and existing grants across all institutions. (Wosen and Chen, 2/8)
On Medicare and Medicaid costs —
Politico:
DOGE Working With Two Trump Health Appointees To Examine Medicare And Medicaid Books
The Trump administration has tasked two top political appointees with monitoring the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to key systems inside the health agency responsible for managing Medicare and Medicaid, according to internal emails obtained by POLITICO. The appointees, Kim Brandt and John Brooks, are leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ “collaboration” with the unofficial cost-cutting group led by Elon Musk, including “ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology.” (Cancryn, 2/7)
Fierce Healthcare:
Democrats Pounce On Elon Musk’s Role In HHS, Treasury
A new lawsuit is yielding quicker success in challenging the legality of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) takeover of the Treasury payment systems, which has opened up new, wide-reaching privacy concerns not limited to Americans’ healthcare records. (Tong, 2/8)
Modern Healthcare:
HHS, CMS Improper Payments: $88.5B In 2024
Improper payments made through programs of the Health and Human Services Department, which ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic, are on the decline but still amounted to more than 5% of outlays by the agency last year — or about $88.5 billion. Elon Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly been combing through systems at federal agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, looking for fraud. (Broderick, 2/7)
On cuts at Veterans Affairs, USAID, and USDA —
AP:
Veterans Affairs Deems More Than 130 Occupations Ineligible For Trump's Deferred Resignation Plan
Most nurses, doctors and other staff caring for military veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs are not eligible for the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, according to an email sent Friday by VA leadership to staff. ... The new email, which was reviewed by The Associated Press, included an attached letter from VA’s human resources department and a spreadsheet with a list of more than 130 occupations labeled “VA EXEMPTION REQUESTS.” (Johnson, 2/8)
ProPublica:
Trump Administration’s USAID Takeover May Have Broken The Law
It was the week President Donald Trump had signed a sweeping executive order shutting off the funding for foreign aid programs. Inside the U.S. Agency for International Development, his political appointees gathered shell-shocked senior staffers for private meetings to discuss the storied agency’s new reality. Those staffers immediately raised objections. USAID’s programs were funded by Congress, and there were rules to follow before halting the payments, they said. Instead of reassuring them, the agency’s then-chief of staff, Matt Hopson, told staff that the White House did not plan on restarting most of the aid projects, according to two officials familiar with his comments. (Barry-Jester and Murphy, 2/9)
The Washington Post:
Farmers On The Hook For Millions After Trump Freezes USDA Funds
Farmers report missing millions of dollars of funding they were promised by the U.S. Agriculture Department, despite promises from the Trump administration that a federal funding freeze would not apply to projects directly benefiting individuals. (Wu, Gupta and Kaur, 2/10)
