POLITICO's Pulse Check

Washington’s top pharmaceutical lobby is doing some self-reflection, commissioning a report that looks at its advocacy in the runup to its most consequential legislative loss in decades. Megan R. Wilson talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the upcoming report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elon Musk’s health tech company Neuralink shared updates to its brain-implant technology on Wednesday. Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about the technology, which has big implications for people who suffer with mobility issues such as those with spinal cord injuries or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democratic governors in North Carolina and Kansas are set to take another run at expanding Medicaid next year. Megan Messerly talks with Megan Wilson about how increased federal incentives and Medicaid expansion advocates have gradually worn down traditional GOP opposition.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Payne talks with Lauren Gardner about the lobbying from health care providers trying to convince lawmakers to extend the telehealth rules that were passed during the pandemic — and that would expire after the lifting of the Covid-19 public health emergency.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doctors, researchers and women’s activists convened in Riga, Latvia, to explore ways to use pills to circumvent anti-abortion laws. Emily Schultheis talks with Ruth Reader about this network of activists that is becoming increasingly international. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services declared that long Covid can be classified as a disability under federal law, opening up protections and accommodations that extend into the workplace. POLITICO labor reporter Nick Niedzwiadek joins Katherine Ellen Foley to discuss how gaps between what the law requires of employers and the on-the-ground reality factor into how people with lon...

Host Carmen Paun talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about her exclusive report on a new strategy being used by abortion opponents. The approach comes as the pills mifepristone and misoprostol, taken at home during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, have become the most common method of abortion in the U.S. and virtually the only option for millions of people in states with laws that have forced clini...

Ruth Reader and Katherine Ellen Foley discuss the impact on long Covid treatments if the new congress doesn’t approve additional funding for Covid-19 research. The Biden administration has asked Congress for more than $9 billion in additional funding for Covid-19 that would go toward next-generation vaccine development and long Covid research, a poorly understood, chronic condition affecting milli...

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Krista Mahr about why the rise of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants 6 months and younger is worse this season compared to previous seasons. This statement comes after the Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics asked the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency over the surging caseloads filling pediatric h...

Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about why venture capitalists are pulling back on investments in health tech because of recession fears and rising interest rates — threatening a period of stasis in medical innovation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace Scullion talks with Lauren Gardner about the newest Covid funding request from President Biden, intense lobbying efforts on possible health care legislation, and a push by some key doctor and hospital groups asking for a public health emergency declaration for RSV. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Politicians on both sides of the aisle agree that more safeguards are needed to protect Americans’ health data. The urgency level has risen as data collection online has grown, states have begun enforcing abortion bans and cyberattacks have increased. Ruth Reader talks with Carmen Paun about the multitude of views that lawmakers, lobbyists and the Biden administration have on how to protect health...

The military’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement could end if Republican senators succeed in amending the National Defense Authorization Act that’s expected to be taken up in the coming weeks. Megan Messerly talks with Grace Scullion about the legislation. Plus, Carmen Paun discusses the U.N.'s recognition of a huge milestone: the earth’s population now totals eight billion. Learn more about your ad ch...

A pair of little-discussed Republican victories on Tuesday threaten to undermine abortion access in two states. Megan Messerly talks with Katherine Ellen Foley about why this highlights a bright spot for the GOP amid an otherwise challenging election night for anti-abortion groups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a gastroenterologist, is a contender to chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee if Republicans can eke out control of the Senate. Ben Leonard talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about his recent conversation with Cassidy, who is a telehealth proponent and has repeatedly warned about hackers targeting hospitals and other health care organizations. Plus, La...

A coming Supreme Court decision could have broad implications for who is accountable for ensuring individual rights to federally funded services are protected, including housing, foster care and nutrition. Ruth Reader talks with Grace Scullion about HHC v. Talevski. Plus, Chris Murray on the new study out of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of...

Pennsylvania's current Democratic attorney general Josh Shapiro was elected governor Tuesday night, and Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman won against Mehmet Oz. Both Shapiro and Fetterman made abortion rights central to their campaigns. Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Ben Leonard about what we know and what we don't know so far about how motivating abortion rights were at t...

Although they haven't been focused on as much as abortion, other measures across the health care spectrum are on the ballot Tuesday. Daniel Payne talks with Ruth Reader about Medicaid expansion, medical debt, health as a human right, flavored vape bans and marijuana legalization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From governors to ballot measures, legislatures to attorneys general, voters are casting ballots both directly and indirectly on abortion. Megan Messerly talks with Katherine Ellen Foley about the top races she's watching that will impact who can obtain an abortion, where and how. Also, Alice Miranda Ollstein provides a dispatch from Kentucky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

A new congressional report links cybersecurity in the health sector to patient safety. Ben Leonard talks with Megan Messerly about the new report from Senate Cybersecurity Caucus co-founder Mark Warner’s (D-Va.) office, which asks Congress to consider getting HHS to set minimum security standards for the health industry. Plus, Katherine Ellen Foley on what you should know from Pfizer and Moderna's...

On Wednesday, in a deal not yet finalized, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart agreed to pay a total of $13.8 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits for their roles in the opioid crisis. Krista Mahr talks with Grace Scullion about the settlement and the newest developments on the opioid front. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The FDA’s tobacco regulatory decision-making process is so slow and opaque that it’s ineffective, say legal, industry and public health experts appearing before an outside panel conducting a commissioner-mandated review of the program. Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Ben Leonard. Plus, Greer Donley, a professor specializing in reproductive health care at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, b...

Pediatric hospitals nationwide are filling with children severely ill with respiratory syncytial virus that, after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, has made a sudden surge. Lauren Gardner talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about how the increase in RSV cases casts attention on a handful of drugmakers with vaccines. Plus, Alice's dispatch from Michigan where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is trying to mak...

The leading industry group for biopharmaceutical companies is reeling after the departure of its CEO — just as the Biden administration is poised to begin implementing a new law aimed at reducing drug prices and as the balance of power could shift in Congress. Megan Wilson talks with Katherine Ellen Foley about the turmoil at the industry group. Plus, Chris Hammond, a Covid long-hauler, shares wha...

David Lim talks with Ruth Reader about the biggest takeaways from MedTech, an annual conference held by the medical device industry. Plus, researcher Eric Bressman discusses a new study that found that sending patients automated text messages to check on them after they’ve left the hospital can reduce their chances of readmission or a visit to the emergency room. Learn more about your ad choices....