POLITICO's Pulse Check

Two years after Congress offered a fix to struggling rural hospitals, the overwhelming majority are taking a pass. Daniel Payne talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about why. Plus, Katherine Ellen Foley breaks down the CDC's newest Morbidity and Mortality weekly report on monkeypox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona voters could approve a measure designed to stop creditors from gouging people with medical bills, and other states are taking notice. If the Arizona measure passes, the union-backed initiative is likely to be replicated in other red and purple states where progressives have successfully pushed ballot measures to accomplish what conservative legislators will not, like expanding Medicaid, ra...

Nearly three years into the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report from Resolve to Save Lives is highlighting the infectious diseases that didn’t end in catastrophe. Daniel Payne talks with Krista Mahr about what we can learn from case studies of of successful containment in ebola, rabies and cholera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Large health systems are investing big money into providing more care at home — everything from post-operative care to treatments for chronic disease. Even as successive administrations have touted remote patient monitoring programs as key to improving health and reducing unnecessary government spending, state Medicaid offices often remain an impediment to scaling them nationally. Ruth Reader talk...

The Biden administration is racing against the dropping temperatures to convince more Americans to get the updated Covid-19 booster shot amid low uptake numbers driven by confusion over the shot, declining infection numbers and profound pandemic fatigue. Krista Mahr talks with Grace Scullion about what the Biden administration's messaging strategy is and whether it's working. Plus, William Schaffn...

President Joe Biden signed a national security memorandum Tuesday that aims to ensure the U.S. is ready to detect and respond to the next large-scale viral or biological threat. Erin Banco talks with Ben Leonard about the administration’s preparedness plans. Plus, Micky Tripathi, the national coordinator for Health IT speaks about HHS's deadline this month requiring health care organizations to sh...

The FDA will make its case this week to do something it hasn’t in over a decade — order a drug it expedited to the market to be pulled. A panel of independent expert advisers on obstetric and reproductive drugs will decide whether to recommend that Makena, an injection marketed as lowering the risk of preterm birth, remain available for at least some patients. Lauren Gardner talks with Daniel Payn...

Americans are now more concerned about their mental health than Covid, according to a recent poll from Ipsos, and the situation is motivating lawmakers in both parties to provide an increasingly stressed, depressed and anxious populace with the appropriate care. Grace Scullion talks with Lauren Gardner. Plus, David Lim on the FDA’s new rule allowing over-the-counter hearing aids that goes into eff...

Top Biden White House and health officials are looking to Japan to potentially make its smallpox vaccine available to countries that need doses to help combat monkeypox. Erin Banco talks with Megan Wilson about why Japan’s smallpox doses could be crucial for low and middle-income countries. Plus, Rep. Elissa Slotkin told Alice Miranda Ollstein why she's still frustrated with Democratic leadership...

Rising health care costs are poised to become the next big battle in President Joe Biden’s war against inflation. Sam Sutton talks with Carmen Paun about why your health coverage and out-of-pocket medical bills are about to go through the roof. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Physicians across Pennsylvania are politicking in unprecedented ways with less than a month to go before the midterm election, making the case that the abortion restrictions proposed by Republicans would threaten one of the state’s most important economic sectors. Alice Miranda Ollstein shares a dispatch from Pennsylvania and Michigan with Krista Mahr. Plus, Dr. Katie McHugh on moving her abortion...

Foreign rivals are developing nasal vaccines that could stop Covid transmission and a U.S. company invented the nasal vaccine that an Indian drugmaker licensed. But in the United States, Congress can’t agree on how to pay for additional money to fund next-generation Covid vaccines. Carmen Paun about her reporting with Megan Messerly. Plus, Dr. David Curiel on developing the nasal Covid-19 vaccine...

Sunday marked 100 days since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Since then, 66 clinics in more than a dozen states have stopped providing abortions, according to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights advocacy and research group. POLITICO’s Megan Messerly talks to Ruth Reader about her reporting. Plus, Adam Cancryn on Biden’s revival of Operation Warp Speed. Learn more about your...

More than 100 researchers, scientists and public health professionals want fentanyl-related substances to no longer be Schedule I drugs — saying a different classification has the potential to unlock research on those drugs to treat opioid addiction or other mental health conditions. Daniel Payne and Ben Leonard unpack a Tuesday letter sent to the White House. Plus, Jason Gibbons, a postdoctoral f...

Predictions of doom about the future of nursing grew, as hospitals reported critical staffing shortages during the Covid surges of 2020 and 2021. But there are signs staffing shortfalls are dissipating as the federal and state governments send aid—maybe. Lauren Gardner talks to Shawn Zeller about whether the crunch is easing. Plus, David Markowitz, a professor of communication at the University of...

The Biden administration is offering the opportunity to use Medicaid to help cover costs for people who cross state borders for abortions. But not a single state has applied. Megan Messerly reports. Plus, Megan Wilson on the lobbying battle heating up on Capitol Hill over legislation that would bolster dialysis coverage following a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. Learn more about your ad c...

Lawmakers are on the brink of missing a critical window to fix America’s broken antibiotic market — and to prepare for the growing crisis of superbugs that federal officials say is a national security threat and experts warn is already a silent pandemic. Krista Mahr talks to Alice Miranda Ollstein about her reporting. Plus, Ruth Reader on four consequential trends that will affect health care’s fu...

Patients seeking drugs to treat everything from arthritis to acne  in the dozen-plus states with near-total abortion bans must show extra documentation to prove that they’re not using the drugs to end a pregnancy. Alice Miranda Ollstein dives into her reporting. And, Ruth Reader on the White House's ambitious plan to end hunger in the country by 2030. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

President Joe Biden’s Sunday declaration that the pandemic is over caught his own senior health officials off guard. Ben Leonard talks to  Adam Cancryn about the President's “60 Minutes” interview and the implications that will have on his policy agenda. Plus, Alice Miranda Ollstein provides a reality check from Capitol Hill, where the likelihood of Congress passing any additional Covid-10 funding...

Syphilis rates jumped 26 percent last year — the biggest annual increase since the Truman administration — amid a broader rise in sexually transmitted infections. Plus, Erin Banco breaks down her seven-month investigation into the global pandemic response of four non-governmental global health organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bolstered by contacts at the highest leve...

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have received the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine since the U.S. outbreak started in May, but there’s a long list of things we still don’t know about how efficacious it will be. Plus, Professor Robert Blendon, the co-director of the POLITICO-Harvard polls, on the most interesting toplines from survey data released today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

On Wednesday, the FDA authorized Covid booster shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna capable of generating protection against the coronavirus strains circulating most widely in the U.S. The move allows the Biden administration to begin offering boosters just after Labor Day, pending an endorsement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Plus, Katherine Ellen Foley sits down with Dr....

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a first-of-its-kind application from HRA Pharma for Opill. If green-lit by the agency, Opill would become the first daily, hormonal birth control pill sold without a prescription. The submission of the application follows more than six years of studies the company has run. Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

Stung by messaging missteps over the coronavirus crisis, baby formula shortage and abortion access, the Food and Drug Administration is planning to hire Vin Gupta, a new senior adviser to shore up the agency’s public messaging. Gupta’s hire is part of a series of high-level additions to the FDA in the last few weeks. Adam Cancryn reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...

For decades, state lawmakers had limited avenues to control abortion. Now, the power to decide when — and whether — abortion should be legal is squarely in their hands. Megan Messerly looks at the states and people re-shaping abortion policies in 2022 and 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices