POLITICO's Pulse Check

In his second go as Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek Murthy is focused on the nation’s mental health and in particular how to help kids with this struggle. Ruth Reader talks to Murthy about his office’s guidelines for how to support youth mental health and testified before Congress on the matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The drumbeat of calls to enact reforms to pharmaceutical middlemen is growing louder after years of largely unsuccessful attempts by lawmakers to make sweeping changes to how the industry operates — and reform advocates hope that conditions are ripe this year for action. Megan R. Wilson talks with host Ruth Reader about the bills that have been introduced and how PBMs are fighting back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CDC epidemiologists and environmental health scientists are in Ohio this week, helping assess the potential health risks to residents after a 150-car train carrying dangerous chemicals derailed in the small town of East Palestine earlier this month. Krista Mahr discusses her reporting about the CDC’s response with host Megan Messerly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America’s nursing homes have been at the epicenter of the Covid pandemic since its earliest days. Today, nursing home residents remain the most vulnerable group in the country when it comes to Covid, with hundreds of people still dying each week. Krista Mahr talks with host Katherine Ellen Foley about why ensuring residents and staff have the best protection out there from the unpredictable virus hasn’t been easy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Wednesday, expert advisers to the FDA voted 19 to 0 that the agency should approve a non-prescription version of naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, meaning it eventually could be sold in gas stations, grocery stores and convenience shops. Katherine Ellen Foley talks with host Carmen Paun about its potential impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erin Schumaker talks with host Ruth Reader about the prospect of developing next-generation non-hallucinogenic versions of drugs such as psilocybin to treat brain disorders like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, and the regulatory barriers that researchers who want to study psychedelics are up against. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration is proposing new rules that would require more transparency about the owners, managers and contractors at nursing homes, in part to better understand private equity's impact on the industry. Daniel Payne talks with host Ruth Reader about the proposal, which could take effect this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services celebrated another step in helping patients get easier access to their own health data. Ruth Reader talks with host Ben Leonard about the new pilot program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress has appropriated $1.8 billion for the “cancer moonshot” Biden began in 2016, and positive reaction to Biden’s recent request for more suggests it’s eager to maintain the momentum. But cancer researchers are less unified about the moonshot than Washington policymakers. Erin Schumaker talks with host Katherine Ellen Foley about Biden's cancer moonshot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Josh Gerstein about a federal judge’s recent suggestion that a constitutional right to abortion could be conferred by the 13th Amendment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doctors and advocates are urging people to pre-order and stockpile abortion pills while they still can in the face of a looming court decision that could wipe out access to the drugs nationwide. Host Ruth Reader talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid an influx of fentanyl into the state and a rise in teen overdose deaths, state lawmakers may soon require schools to keep Narcan on hand. Host Ben Leonard talks with Blake Jones about the new push in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Cancryn tells Ben Leonard about his exit interview with David Kessler, who reflected on nearly three years of fighting a pandemic as President Joe Biden’s chief science officer — and the political fallout. Plus, Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), co-chair of the Telehealth Caucus, on how technology can become a bigger part of health care delivery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With public opinion turning pro-legalization, 21 states now permit cannabis use for medical reasons or for recreation. Another 16 allow medical marijuana. But policymakers overseeing legalization were flying surprisingly blind about its effect on public health. Ben Leonard talks with Megan Wilson about the recent data on health impacts and the reaction from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a first-of-its-kind enforcement action, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday said it reached agreement with GoodRx on a fine and remedies after the prescription discount site shared customers’ health data with Google, Facebook and other third parties. Ruth Reader talks with Megan Messerly about why, if the court agrees, the decision could upend the business models of online businesses that routinely use or sell data to better target users with services and advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As of Wednesday, states can start reevaluating whether the millions of Americans who have remained covered by Medicaid during the pandemic are still eligible for those health insurance benefits. Megan Messerly talks with Erin Schumaker about how we got here and the approaches some states may take. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration will end the Covid-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11. Daniel Payne talks with Ruth Reader about this major step, meant to signal that the crisis era of the pandemic is over. Plus, Katherine Ellen Foley on the four biggest takeaways from Pfizer’s earnings call. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Megan Wilson talks with Katherine Ellen Foley about the rumors spooking health care lobbyists on K St. about incoming Senate HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Ben Leonard about what we know and what we don't about the FDA’s recent decision making on the future of Covid-19 vaccines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon is launching a prescription subscription service called RxPass - which for $5 per month, allows existing Prime members to get eligible generic prescription medications. Ruth Reader talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the service, which competes with discount drug companies like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company and GoodRx, as well as online prescription delivery services from bigger pharmacy brands like CVS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A federal court in California could decide whether social media firms need to pay for the damage they’ve allegedly done to Americans’ mental health. Ruth Reader talks with Carmen Paun about the consolidated complaint, which will test a novel legal theory on product liability. Plus, Krista Mahr breaks down what we know about the newly named members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anti-abortion groups are pushing back against Republican lawmakers in some conservative states. Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Lauren Gardner about some groups’ fear that GOP-controlled legislatures will water down their near-total abortion bans and stir up politically contentious debates over already-vetted laws. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Zients is on his way back to the White House as President Joe Biden’s new chief of staff, where the managerial prowess he showed as Covid czar will be put to the test. Adam Cancryn talks with Ruth Reader about his track record. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More-than-typical shortages of common over-the-counter and prescription drugs have caused headaches for sick Americans and those managing chronic diseases. Erin Schumaker talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the demand shortages and supply disruptions. Plus, Alice's dispatch from the first March For Life rally on the National Mall since the fall of Roe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The watchdog arm of Congress called on the Department of Health and Human Services to better oversee its funding of research into “enhanced potential pandemic pathogens.” Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about why this adds fuel to a contentious debate in Washington over so-called gain-of-function research. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is aiming to introduce health care cybersecurity legislation during the first quarter of 2023 that could set minimum standards for health care organizations to protect patient data from hacking threats. Ben Leonard talks with Lauren Gardner about his conversation with Sen. Warner with thoughts from some of biggest advocacy groups in the space, CHIME and AHA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration plans to widen the testing of bathroom waste for Covid variants and other pathogens when international flights arrive. Krista Mahr talks with Megan Messerly about collecting wastewater samples from long-haul flights, which administration officials and public health experts see as part of a revolution in biosafety infrastructure, and a critical plank of national security in the post-pandemic era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soaring Covid and seasonal infections like flu and RSV have compounded long-term problems at the NHS. Long wait times for treatment and a chronically understaffed and burned out workforce have raised a contentious debate about whether the U.K. should move away from its single-payer system. Helen Collis talks with Lauren Gardner about what the changes could look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Covid public health emergency, which looks likely to end as soon as April, could curtail access to drugs used to treat substance use disorders and mental illnesses. Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about what's holding the DEA back from setting up a special registration process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal officials are paying attention to promising programs emerging on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic — in prisons and jails. Krista Mahr talks with Ben Leonard about her report out of the Maine State Prison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Adam Cancryn about his report that senior Biden officials are targeting an end to the Covid-19 emergency designation, which would trigger a complex restructuring of major elements of the federal response. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Leonard talks with Lauren Gardner about the debate over HHS's directive requiring doctors to send patients test results before they have a chance to explain them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Friday, the FDA granted accelerated approval to Leqembi, previously known as lecanemab, made by Eisai and Biogen. The drug is the second that targets amyloid proteins in the brain, which are thought to cause progressive dementia. Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Megan Messerly about the future of the drug. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to the latest data from the HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration annual survey, one in three Americans had a substance abuse disorder or mental illness in 2021. Lauren Gardner talks with Daniel Payne. Plus, Ben Leonard talks with Amy Abernethy, the former No. 2 at the Food and Drug Administration and now president of Verily’s clinical research business, about barriers to improving trials, the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus Omicron strain XBB.1.5, which has become the dominant strain in the U.S. in just a matter of weeks, could drive a new wave of cases, a World Health Organization official told reporters Wednesday. Lauren Gardner talks with Carmen Paun about what the WHO knows and what it doesn't — yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the influx of new demands that anti-abortion groups have presented to the 118th Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Ruth Reader about the state of artificial intelligence in health care and why it hasn’t reached its promise yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carmen Paun talks with Daniel Payne about the trajectory of the mpox outbreak in 2022 and what lessons we can learn from it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision — throwing the future of abortion access in the U.S. into flux. Since then, roughly a quarter of states have made accessing the procedure illegal in most circumstances, while others have bolstered protections for doctors and patients. At the federal level, members of Congress and the Biden administration have been grappling with how to respond. Megan Messerly talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the state abortion fights they followed in 2022 and what they’re looking at next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Cuban is famous for his "Shark Tank" reality TV show on ABC and is one of America's most prominent investors. But he's also trying to disrupt the prescription drug space. Earlier this year, he made a foray into health care, launching the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company to take on the pharmaceutical market and lower drug prices. Ben Leonard talked with him about the Cost Plus Drug company he founded with Dr. Alex Oshmyansky and how he plans to pull it off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) takes the reins of the Senate HELP Committee next month. Lauren Gardner talks with Megan Wilson about why lobbyists are bracing for what comes next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The House voted on the National Defense Authorization Act last week – the Senate hasn’t yet, but it’s one step closer to passage. Grace Scullion talks with Carmen Paun about the NDAA's planned $5 billion over five years for global health security. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At least 3,500 Americans have died due, at least in part, to long Covid, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ben Leonard talks with Krista Mahr about the analysis from the CDC’s Center for National Health Statistics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Megan Messerly about the situation inside hospitals as Covid, RSV and flu cases rise. Nearly 30,000 people currently U.S. hospitals have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the CDC, up 30 percent since Thanksgiving — with New York, Arizona and New Mexico among the hardest hit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today in our Pulse Check podcast, Lauren Gardner talks with Megan Messerly about the introduction of biosimilars next year to compete with Humira, the anti-inflammatory used to treat arthritis that has been the best-selling drug in America. Competition could reduce prices for consumers, but that’s not certain. Lauren explains how it could play out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retiring Republican Rep. Fred Upton has been a big advocate for major health care policies in his tenure. He joined Ruth Reader to discuss what he accomplished while in office and his hopes for Cures 2.0 and the PASTEUR act. Later, John Halamka talks about the future of AI in health care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the second day of the Milken Future of Health conference, Grace Scullion talks with Dr. Ofer Levy, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases at Boston Children's Hospital and a voting member of the FDA COVID vaccine advisory panel. Plus, Sen. Tim Kaine on why he's optimistic there will be funding for long covid in an end-of-year omnibus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the first day of the Milken Future of Healthcare conference, Ben Leonard talks with Steve Posnack, the Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, about what he thinks the biggest barriers are to people getting access to their health data. Plus, over on Capitol Hill, lobbying reporter Megan Wilson attended a Q&A with Jack Resneck, the president of the American Medical Association, who is in town to push lawmakers to avert nearly 8.5 percent in Medicare payment cuts that doctors face in January unless Congress acts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Leonard talks with Erin Banco about her investigation into why the FDA team overseeing licensed vaccines is overwhelmed by high turnover and a backlog of inspections. Also, Shawn Zeller provides a preview of the Milken Institute’s Future of Health Summit, which starts today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices