Senate reaches wide-ranging budget deal

With help from Arthur Allen (@arthurallen202) and Mohana Ravindranath (@ravindranize)

SENATE REACHES WIDE-RANGING BUDGET DEAL: The Senate reached a wide-ranging budget deal Wednesday, with many items of interest for the eHealth world:

— Funding: The agreement bursts through spending caps imposed by sequestration, and consequently makes quite a bit more funding available to the National Institutes of Health and the government’s response to the opioid crisis. The NIH will get $2 billion over two years, and the epidemic will get $6 billion overall.

“This agreement will also bolster our ongoing national struggle against opioid addiction and substance abuse,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a floor speech. “It will fund new grants, prevention programs, and law enforcement efforts in vulnerable communities across the country.”

— Telemedicine: As we noted in yesterday’s Morning eHealth, the House budget deal — while more limited in scope from a funding perspective — includes many adjustments to telehealth policy. The Senate’s deal is much the same: increasing access to telemedicine services for Medicare Advantage enrollees, encouraging care providers to expand use of telemedicine for remote care, and promoting it for stroke patients. Krista Drobac, executive director of the Alliance for Connected Care, tells POLITICO the group is “excited to see the language in both versions of the budget deal.”

FDA NOTES: The agency had another active day Wednesday:

— Pilot data processing search: The FDA is searching for software from a small business that can — we’ll skip the buzzwords here — look at the various databases the agency can access to find previously unrecognized adverse events from drugs. The FDA wants the program to look at some VA data, as well as its main FAERS database.

The latter is particularly noteworthy. FAERS collects reports of adverse events from drugs but is famously limited — relying on reports from manufacturers, providers, or consumers is not ideal, as all three entities might miss signals. The database therefore misses a lot of potential safety problems, and the FDA is thinking new software might improve its ability to find problems.

The agency is seeking a response by Feb. 21.

— Also searching for…: The FDA’s digital health unit is also looking for talent. Specifically, an “interdisciplinary engineer” who can advise on technology and its pre-certification pilot — the much-discussed project to overhaul software regulation by focusing on the company, rather than its products. Same Feb. 21 deadline.

eHealth tweet of the day: Grant Z Price @grantzprice Medication reconciliation #medrec upon #discharge was a great first step towards #MeaningfUse. Next step for #medication #adherence and #compliance is incentivising ‘completing the digital loop’ with interop from retail pharmacies into the hospital #EHR.

THURSDAY: Your correspondent has been listening to the Phantom Thread soundtrack, and let me tell you — if there were an Oscar for “Best Music To Work For,” it’d be a felony if this didn’t win. Discuss other non-standard awards categories at [email protected]. Talk about movies at @ravindranize, @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @POLITICOPro, @Morning_eHealth.

STARTUP ROUNDUP: A few interesting notes from the world of startups to share:

— Virta Health study: A few months back, people were very excited about startup Virta Health, which attracted tons of money and some bold-font talents, like former CMS administrator Don Berwick (who’s on the company’s board). The firm hopes to reverse type 2 diabetes through a combination of changed diet (extremely low-carbohydrate) plus remote monitoring and coaching. The theory had some very small-scale validation, and it was put into practice in one — albeit unrandomized — study conducted in Indiana.

The study, published yesterday in Diabetes Today, enrolled 349 adults, of whom 262 were sorted into Virta’s intervention.

Those patients had seemingly spectacular results. Mike Payne, the company’s head of commercial and policy, was ebullient, saying it showed six in 10 patients achieved diabetes reversal (though 35 percent continue single-agent metformin).

The study served as proof-of-concept for Purdue University, which is now a client, Payne said.

Arien Malec, an executive with health IT company RelayHealth, was excited — with caveats — on Twitter. “A small molecule oral drug that reversed T2D, eliminated insulin therapy, normalized HbA1c, & caused 30lb weight loss would be the biggest blockbuster in history,” he tweeted. “That being said, an oral drug would still be in phase II trial right now.”

— The Church of blockchain: Harvard geneticist George Church wants to sequence your genome and put it on the blockchain, whereupon patients can sell it to drug companies, the MIT Technology Review reports. This is the part of Morning eHealth in which many of you have won your buzzword bingo.

WASHINGTON URGED TO CONSIDER SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION: If you’ve ever had the feeling of being unable to tear yourself away from social media – or you’ve put down the phone only to snatch it up again mere seconds later – your disquiet is starting to be channeled into calls for government action, our Tech colleague Steven Overly reports.

The calls were heard Wednesday at a conference called “Truth About Tech,” which featured some lawmakers calling for NIH studies and contemplating regulations. It’s not just lawmakers who are concerned — tech leaders like Sean Parker and Marc Benioff are alarmed, too. Pros can get the rest here.

VIRGINIA PDMP BILL: Following passage by the Virginia House of Delegates, the State Senate is considering a bill that would ramp up prescription drug monitoring program use for professional oversight. Under the legislation, the state would use PDMP data to review clinicians’ prescription patterns, identify the top 10 percent of prescribers, and alert them as well as enforcement agencies .

EPIC CASE TOSSED: A False Claims Act lawsuit alleging Epic’s EHR caused overbilling was tossed — with prejudice — Tuesday. The judge presiding over the case found the plaintiff had few facts to support her claims.

MANATT HEALTH READS THE TEA LEAVES: Policy experts including former CMS administrator Cindy Mann foresee big changes in Medicaid this year, including an uptick in states’ investments in behavioral health to lower the cost of long-term care. Among their other predictions: a handful of forward-thinking groups, including startups, will combine social determinants of health with technology. States could be “pushing the limits of state plan benefits” to cover programs addressing social determinants, they predict. Cityblock Health, an Alphabet spinoff, could provide a novel approach — that company aims to better connect Medicare and Medicaid patients to local health services. Manatt’s full report is here.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING ON:

—News analyst Ken Doctor examines the Patrick Soon-Shiong acquisition of the Los Angeles Times.

—What happens when you install all of the smart devices in your home?

— Could your Apple Watch alert you about signs of diabetes?