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The ideas and innovators shaping health care | | | | |  | | By Evan Peng, Erin Schumaker and Daniel Payne | | | | | 
Workers at the government's cybersecurity hub in Arlington, Va. | Cliff Owen/AP | The White House may soon have a leader to implement the muscular, government-centric approach to cybersecurity it proposed in March. How so? The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a confirmation hearing tomorrow for Harry Coker, whom President Joe Biden nominated to be his national cyber director in July, POLITICO’s John Sakellariadis reports. If the committee approves him, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can schedule a floor vote. The position has been vacant since Chris Inglis left in February. Why it matters: Hackers are laying siege to health care organizations, POLITICO’s Ben Leonard has reported. Nearly 89 million people in the U.S. have had sensitive health information breached so far this year, up from 43.5 million during the same period last year. Who’s Coker? He is a former official at the CIA and the National Security Agency, the country’s preeminent intelligence agencies. What’s the plan? The White House's March strategy document calls on the federal government to use “all tools of national power in a coordinated manner to protect our national security, public safety, and economic prosperity.” It responds to industry pleas that businesses are ill-equipped to defend themselves against sophisticated cyber criminals who are often backed by hostile foreign governments.
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Cub Neck Creek, Md. | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Ozempic and other weight loss drugs can cut a few pounds off our national debt — or so contends Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), who is pushing for expanded access to the drugs. Schweikert’s rationale is that the drugs could help reduce health care spending in the long term, the Daily Beast reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Evan Peng at epeng@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, Katherine Ellen Foley interviews Carmen about her report on the out-of-control U.S. drug overdose crisis and why Congress' efforts to stop it are stalled.
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Hospitals on the high plains are teaming up to offer their patients more. | Fredric J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images | Hospitals in North Dakota have a plan to shore up access to care in rural areas. It could be a model for others. How so? The group, the Rough Rider High-Value Network, has been in the works for over a year. The 23 member hospitals will have access to a menu of shared services and collaborate on clinical and operational initiatives with the aim of improving availability, affordability and quality of care for their 225,000 patients. The menu of shared services is still being determined but could include pharmacy, telehealth, clinical staffing and supply chains. Member hospitals will also collaborate to establish and support new specialty programs, such as surgery, obstetrics and mental health, that would be hard for most of the hospitals to support independently. Why it matters: Rural hospitals in the U.S. face financial struggles that have resulted in facility closures and mergers. Closures affect rural communities’ access to health care. Additionally, mergers might drive up prices and undermine the quality of care, some research has found. The Rough Rider network aims to avoid both fates by using the hospitals’ combined resources plus $3.5 million in state funding to achieve economies of scale. “Interdependence drives independence,” said Ben Bucher, CEO of a member hospital and chair of the Rough Rider board, in a release.
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Persistently getting just a little too little sleep has health consequences, new research found | Jeff Pachoud/AFP via Getty Images | Sleeping less than the recommended eight hours — even five or six hours each night — likely damages your cells and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease over time, according to new research. How’s that? A small study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, tracked 35 healthy women from New York City’s Washington Heights who normally sleep seven to eight hours a night, using wrist sleep trackers. For the first half of the 12-week study, the women kept their usual routines. For the second half, they went to bed 1.5 hours later than normal. After just six weeks of shortened sleep, cells lining the study participants' blood vessels weren’t activating the antioxidant response well-rested cells would typically produce. Over time, that impaired function could be an early precursor for heart disease, the study said. “This is some of the first direct evidence to show that mild chronic sleep deficits cause heart disease,” Dr. Sanja Jelic, study author and director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Columbia, said in a statement. Why it matters: The study follows prior research linking a lack of sleep to a litany of ill effects, including diseases such as Parkinson’s and cancer, accident risk and reduced work productivity, among many others. But while most previous research has focused on the impact of a few nights’ sleep deprivation, Jelic and her colleagues explored a more familiar pattern for one in three Americans: ongoing mild sleep deprivation. What’s next? The researchers want to do a future study on whether sleep variability affects vascular cells in the same way that chronic shortened sleep does.
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Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) signed a letter opposing a Biden administration proposal to boost nursing home staffing. | Sophie Park/Getty Images | The Biden administration is taking heat from the Hill, including from some Democrats, over its proposed nursing home staffing mandate. How so? Nearly 100 members of the House sent a bipartisan letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking it to reconsider the proposal, which for the first time would require most facilities to boost staffing. The representatives argued the policy “would inevitably result in limited access to care for seniors, mandatory increases in state Medicaid budgets, and most consequentially lead to widespread nursing home closures.” In the Senate, Veterans Affairs Committee members Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Angus King (I-Maine) sent a letter to the agency expressing concern that the rule would reduce veterans’ access to care. Why it matters: That line of thinking closely matches that of industry, whose leaders have argued that a staffing mandate would mean a spike in already-high labor costs and put struggling facilities out of business. The proposed rule has also drawn ire from patient advocates, who say the policy doesn’t go far enough. They have pointed to poor performance before and through the pandemic to argue for more government action to improve care. A recent KFF analysis found the rule would require about 80 percent of nursing homes to hire more staff. CMS has stood by its proposal, arguing it will improve outcomes while remaining achievable. The pressure comes about a week before final public comments on the proposal are due. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
