Editorial note: The Read on Washington is a monthly column on happenings in DC that affect the field of health services research. In addition, AcademyHealth recently began offering ad hoc updates via the Situation Report series. The Situation Report can be found on our blog and is also emailed directly to our members. All of AcademyHealth’s advocacy work is supported by member dues.
AHRQ and other federal health agencies in the DOGE crosshair
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is at risk of functional elimination by Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts. Insiders say that DOGE aims to reduce AHRQ staff by 80% to 90%. That’s based on what agency leaders were told by DOGE representatives at an in-person meeting on March 11, one current employee and one former employee said. AcademyHealth has been focused on providing HHS, DOGE, and Congress with the evidence they need to protect this Agency, including highlighting the importance of AHRQ in reducing the burden of chronic health conditions, a key priority of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We have developed a tool kit (here) that we will be continually updating for supporters of AHRQ to communicate to policymakers. We will also keep our field up to date with our Situation Reports (here). To join the Friends of AHRQ, email us at Advocacy@AcademyHealth.org.
HHS nominations to be confirmed this week
Final Floor voters are expected this week for Dr. Marty Makary’s nomination for FDA Commissioner, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for NIH Director, and Michael Kratsios to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Additionally, the Senate Finance Committee will vote to endorse Dr. Mehmet Oz for CMS Administrator this week, setting up a Floor vote in the next week or so.
CMS continues to cancel stakeholder meetings and webinars
Despite the rapid pace of executive orders and Administration policy change, opportunities to engage with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been limited. Though the agency hasn’t canceled all public conferences—it still held its annual open payments webinar on March 13, for instance—it has axed at least ten forums since 2025 began, leaving just a few Q&A opportunities on the docket. The most recent switch-up? On March 13, CMS announced its postponing its 2025 Conference for Building a Healthier America, a free hybrid conference previously set for April 23–24 in Bethesda, Maryland, hosted by the CMS Office of Minority Health. The conference was originally called the 2025 CMS Health Equity Conference: Building a Healthier America, but its name was shortened and the office’s name was removed in the postponement email. Another casualty: open door forums. CMS has held these public forums regularly over the last two decades. CMS began canceling these webinars en masse starting Jan. 31, when the agency sent out a two-sentence email to anyone on the Open Door Forum mailing list that read: “The February Open Door Forums 2025 has been canceled. We’ll be in touch with updates as available.”
Researchers sue over removal of articles mentioning LGBTQ from government websites
Two physicians are suing the Trump administration over the removal of two research papers from a government website, because they included the terms “LGBTQ” and “trans(gender).” The suit is being filed by two physicians at Harvard Medical School, Gordon Schiff and Celeste Royce, over the removal of two articles from the Patient Safety Network (PSNet), which is run by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The researchers, who are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union Massachusetts and the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, are arguing that AHRQ’s action amounts to a violation of the freedom of speech.
Steve Posnack named acting assistant secretary of technology policy at HHS
Steve Posnack, a career health technology official of nearly 20 years, has been tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS') health IT arm as acting assistant secretary of technology policy, according to an HHS website. Posnack has served under eight National Coordinators of Health IT since the position was created by President George Bush in 2004. Posnack started as a policy analyst at ONC and has held the titles of director of the federal policy division, director of the office of standards and technology, executive director of the office of technology and, most recently, deputy national coordinator of health IT.
Republican efforts to slash Medicaid remain gridlocked
With the closing out of the FY25 appropriations process with the passage of a year long continuing resolution, Congressional Republicans are focusing again on the budget reconciliation process, which they intend to use to pass priorities including tax cuts for the wealthy, increased border funding, and potentially deep cuts to Medicaid. The current impasse is over the baseline that they will rely on, with Senate Republicans preferring a “current policy” baseline that would mean they would not have to pay for the $4 trillion in tax cuts versus the House Republicans insisting that the tax cuts be offset by spending cuts, with Medicaid as a primary source. Speaker Johnson has called for passing the legislation by Memorial Day, months later than his original goal of March 1.
Federal purge of data experts raises alarms
The Trump administration has dismissed advisers to key statistical agencies behind major economic reports, sparking warnings that the cuts will jeopardize the quality of data critical to policymakers and Wall Street investors. Economists, academics and corporate officials serving on a board of unpaid advisers to the Labor Department’s statistical bureau were told this week they were no longer needed, two of the former members told POLITICO. Similar committees that advised the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau have also been let go. And the Federal Housing Finance Authority placed workers who assisted with its widely cited home price index on administrative leave Wednesday.
What we’re reading
As we watch the Trump Administration freeze and claw back billions of dollars in NIH research grants, it helps to remember how integral these grants are in the creation of new cures. A 2023 study by Cleary et al in JAMA Health Forum found that between 2010-2019, NIH funding contributed to the development of 99.4 percent of FDA approved drugs.
As private equity investments continue into mental health and substance abuse centers, concerns rise about the risk of diminished quality of care. Leading researchers are calling for a greater focus on quality of care and patient experience. Dr. Sasha Zabelski, a former AcademyHealth Health Policy Fellow, has noted that “it is critical that researchers start examining the quality and effectiveness of care provided by these facilities [so we can] begin to paint a picture of the potential harm that private equity may have on vulnerable individuals experiencing mental health and/or substance use concerns.”