Washington’s Latest Developments on Health Care

Thursday, January 29, 2026 | 1 – 2PM ET

Congress is set to pass bipartisan health policy legislation this week, including new rules for pharmacy benefit managers aimed at reducing drug prices, and an extension of flexibilities permitting Medicare patients to have virtual appointments. The package is a win for pharma, which has led the push for regulation of the PBMs, and for hospitals, doctors and health tech companies that want certainty around telehealth coverage.

Lawmakers are also set to finalize the Department of Health and Human Services’ fiscal 2026 budget, four months into the fiscal year. While the measure would preserve the status quo at HHS after a year of upheaval, it gives Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. something of a windfall. The spending bill also rejects Kennedy’s plans to reorganize his department.

Please join POLITICO on Thursday, January 29 at 1pm ET, for a discussion that will examine several parts of the health care agenda and whether Kennedy’s ambitions to reorient his agencies around his Make America Healthy Again agenda will be hamstrung.