Policy Digest — July 27, 2026
The administration told a court how it cancelled research grants and told the country what it wants funded instead, while CMS moved to squeeze the provider taxes that finance Medicaid.
The administration told a court how it cancelled research grants and told the country what it wants funded instead, while CMS moved to squeeze the provider taxes that finance Medicaid.

The week belonged to CMS: the CY2027 Physician Fee Schedule lands with a pay cut, an ACO overhaul, and a surprise remote-monitoring vendor ban, while the Medicaid work-requirement fight moves to court and the Senate grills Trump’s CDC and ASPR nominees over vaccines.

A light news week defined by new HHS activity under RFK Jr., fresh Medicare ACO data, and a Senate rattled by the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s month-long absence.

This week: CMS’s draft 2027 outpatient rule takes aim at 340B and site-neutral pay, Medicare’s GLP-1 coverage era begins, and the Medicaid work-requirement fight lands in court.

This week: the 340B drug discount program faces a reckoning from every direction — Eli Lilly’s hospital cutoffs, a Cassidy overhaul bill, litigation over the patient definition, and hospital associations calling for federal intervention, all arriving in the same week.

CMS proposed the most significant expansion of Medicare TAVR coverage since the program launched, moving to extend access to asymptomatic patients and revise the volume requirements that have governed structural heart programs since 2012.
Receive our Policy Digest in your email inbox each week.
Savage Health Policy
csavage@shpconsulting.llc
(276) 221-8300
Please provide your contact information below and we will reply to you shortly.