POLITICO's Pulse Check

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 talks with Katherine Ellen Foley about why.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As lawmakers weigh whether to extend pandemic-era rules that made it easier for Medicare beneficiaries to go to virtual visits, advocates for people with disabilities fear providers’ financial incentives could turn what’s been a benefit into a danger. Ben Leonard talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the calculus in Congress. Plus, a dispatch from Pennsylvania, where a Pennsylvania statehouse race is testing whether the GOP’s last abortion rights supporters can survive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Schaffner, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, on the limitations of the CDC.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 share all electronic health care data.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Payne about why the years-long effort to yank the drug’s approval offers a case study of the agency’s accelerated approval program.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 effect today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 over lack of preparation on abortion access.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 practice to other states.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 that Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech has licensed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices