RISE summarizes recent regulatory-related headlines and reports.
Tentative bipartisan deal in place to avoid government shutdown but barriers remain
Senate Democrats have reached a deal with the administration on a bipartisan funding package but it’s unclear whether the it will stop a partial government shutdown before Friday’s midnight deadline, CNN reports. The agreement separates the Department of Homeland Security from a series of bipartisan spending bills to fund agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through September. The Senate may vote on the deal today but if it passes, the bill needs to go to the House of Representatives, which is not due to return to Washington until Monday after a week-long recess.
Unlike the last government shutdown, the dispute doesn’t center on health care subsidies but on reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal agents shot and killed a Minneapolis man last weekend, The Washington Post reports. However, there are implications for the health care industry in the event of a prolonged government shutdown, according to Modern Healthcare. Funding would end for community health centers as would the legal authority for Medicare coverage of telehealth and hospital-at-home services. HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have yet to announce their protocols for a potential shutdown.
CMS releases latest ACA marketplace enrollment stats
CMS announced that 23 million consumers signed up for individual market health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace during open enrollment, compared to 24.2 million signs up during the same time period in 2025. The latest data, which reflects enrollments through January 15, include 3.4 million consumers new to the marketplace and 19.6 million consumers who had active 2025 coverage and either selected a plan for 2026 or were automatically reenrolled.
The failure of Congress to extend enhanced ACA subsidies, which helped make insurance coverage affordable for millions of Americans who enrolled in plans on the marketplace, is a factor in the drop of this year’s enrollment. Premiums for millions of people doubled on average as the result of the expiration of the subsidies at the end of December 2025.
The latest statistics from CMS include selections in 30 states that use the federal platform. Some states have their own independent exchanges with extended open enrollment deadlines so the final enrollment numbers may change.
KFF poll: Americans top economic concerns are health care costs
The cost of health care tops the public’s economic anxieties and more than 4 in 10 voters say the issue will have a major impact on their vote, according to a new KFF Health Tracking poll.
The poll, which was conducted January 13-20, included 1,426 adults in the United States. Among the findings:
- Given a list of household expenses that families worry about, a third (32 percent) say that they are “very worried” about their ability to afford health care for them and their families–more than say the same about affording food and groceries (24 percent), rent or mortgage (23 percent), monthly utility bills (22 percent), or gasoline and other transportation costs (17 percent).
- A majority (56 percent) of the public expect health care costs for their family to become less affordable in the coming year. About 1 in 5 say that their health care costs have increased more quickly than other necessities such as monthly utilities (23 percent) and food and groceries (21 percent).
CMS proposes rule on organ procurement oversight
CMS this week released a proposed rule this week that aims to strengthen federal oversight of organ procurement organizations (OPO). The proposed rule would enhance performance measures and tighten documentation, define and deter unsafe practices, maximize use of medically complex organs, increase accountability and smart competition, and remove a barrier to new OPOs. Click here for a fact sheet about the proposal.
Medicare announces next round of drugs up for price negotiations
The third cycle of Medicare Drug Price Negotiations will include 15 drugs and for the first time, Medicare Part B drugs, according to CMS. The negotiations will take place this year for prices that take effect in 2028. Among the drugs on the list: Botox and Trulicity.
The negotiations were approved under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which gave the agency the authority to negotiate prices on costly prescription drugs. The prices for drugs from the first round of negotiations went into effect this year.
Between November 2024 and October 2025, approximately 1.8 million people with Medicare Part D or Medicare Part B coverage used the 15 drugs selected for initial negotiation to treat a variety of conditions, including cancer, psoriatic arthritis, and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection, CMS said. These drugs accounted for approximately $27 billion in total prescription drug spending under Medicare Part B and Part D, representing about 6 percent of total Part B and Part D spending.
CMS said that in the second cycle of negotiations, Medicare reached agreement with participating manufacturers on all 15 selected drugs. Those prices will take effect January 1, 2027. If those new prices had been in effect in 2024, they would have saved an estimated $8.5 billion in net covered prescription drug costs (inclusive of Coverage Gap Discount Program Spending), which would have amounted to approximately 36 percent lower net spending in aggregate.