Top 10 Moments from Healthcare Day 2023: Insights, Discussions & Analysis on Issues and Policy

On Global Healthcare Spending

“In terms of budgets, what we are seeing so far is still relatively solid and robust fiscal spending on healthcare. Some of that is driven by the very fact that normalization of care means there are more resources needing to get pushed because of demand-driven dynamics. Also, even though many feared that the entire COVID-19 budgets would just be reverted back to something else, in many of these countries, that pressure point around the healthcare system requires a lot of funding. Even if they wanted to cut, in many cases, they're having a very hard time doing so now.”

— Antonio Martinez Castillo, managing director of global healthcare research at FrontierView (listen to the full conversation)

On Persistent Backlogs

“As an example using FrontierView’s data looking at neurosurgery in England, unfortunately, the numbers show that these services are still stagnating and have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. For cancer patient treatment in Brazil, although the numbers are slightly above the pandemic levels and follow the projected trend line, it's unclear if they have addressed any existing backlog. These examples highlight the significant challenges faced in healthcare systems, not only in these specific therapy areas but across the board. Similar trends can be observed in other countries such as Australia, France, and Colombia. It's evident that these issues are deep-rooted and will persist for the foreseeable future.”

— Alec Lee, managing director of healthcare research at FrontierView (listen to the full conversation)

On Healthcare Policies on the Horizon

“One of the things that I'm seeing in a lot of state legislatures now is an interest in data privacy, depending on their political orientation and depending on the state. That's something that I think we're going to see more of, especially with all of the federal focus on AI and the recent FDA rulemaking related to clinical decision support and medical device regarding AI and predictive analytics.”

— Vatsala Kapur, senior director of external affairs and state strategy at Bamboo Health (listen to the full conversation)

On Workforce Issues

“A lot of what we're seeing with workforce issues is not something that can be solved overnight. There's no bill that can just change anything automatically. It's building the pipeline for folks that might burn out or retire. And I think one of the issues that we've had with a lot of the bills that we've seen in the broader women's health and reproductive space has been the back and forth of not being able to agree. I think it would be a little bit more difficult to carve something out for building the healthcare workforce pipeline in Congress. It it's tricky because you have to find consensus on something like that, and it's a tough time to build that right now in Congress.”

— Sandhya Raman, health policy staff writer for CQ Roll Call (listen to the full conversation)

On Drug Pricing

“The biggest hurdle to action on this drug pricing package is that there's no concrete plan or a deadline. We know Congress loves to act on a deadline; that's really what they need (and then they love to push that deadline and make us all miss our flights home for Christmas). So we don't have a deadline or a concrete plan on this and we also don't fully know what the appetite is in the House yet. It seems that a lot of the momentum is coming from the Senate.”

— Ariel Cohen, health care reporter at CQ Roll Call (listen to the full conversation)

On Opportunities & Challenges in Healthcare Advocacy

“Before our fly-in, we always do a geofencing campaign… to target Hill staff and offices. This year, we did that through Twitter, and we got a lot of comments when we were on the Hill saying, ‘I saw that ad,’ ‘I knew you guys were coming,’ ‘Thanks, we knew what you were going to talk about before you even got here.’” Using technology through social media has been helpful to us.” 

— Jeanne Slade, senior director of political affairs and advocacy at the American College of Emergency Physicians (listen to the full conversation)

On Staying Ahead of EU Health & Pharmaceutical Policy Initiatives

“The currency in Brussels is information, and for staying up to date and monitoring EU policy, we use EU Issue Tracker. It helps keep you updated on files, not just those you work with on a day-to-day basis, but files that may be on the periphery of your industry. A tool like EU Issue Tracker can help you be aware of those changes and prepare for the future. Especially in healthcare, if you’re not prepared, usually, we see the transition periods to respond and implement changes can be very short and challenging.” 

— Adrien Samson, healthcare policy & public affairs senior manager at EuropaBio (listen to the full conversation)

On Tracking Public Health Data in the EU

“It’s a busy time for EU healthcare, with many different developments in practically all aspects of health and pharmaceutical policy. We see a lot of very technical developments, where the smallest changes to a text can have huge impacts on stakeholders. At the same time, these texts are continuously being amended throughout the legislative process. It’s extremely important for organisations to monitor these changes to be able to anticipate their impacts. For instance, a very technical file like the European Health Data Space would have huge consequences on both citizens and organisations. Yet crucial details of the text are constantly being amended both in the Council and the European Parliament.

— Jelle Verheij, policy analyst for health and pharmaceuticals policy at EU Issue Tracker (listen to the full conversation)

On Aging Population

“The demographic changes are also a very important aspect of the future of healthcare. Population aging and how do you make sure that you maintain the quality of healthcare while having more and more people needing a high level of therapy? Those elements enter a bigger framework of policy, macro level of inferences, recovery from the pandemic, inflation aspects, dynamics at the macroeconomic level that will drive and guide policymaking for a long time.”

— Maxime Sierro, junior analyst at FiscalNote Professional Services (listen to the full conversation)

On Keeping Track of Healthcare Legislation & Regulation

“Our company touches the 50 states and the U.S. territories, as well as the federal government. The volume of legislation that I am required to keep track of, especially at this time of year, feels pretty insurmountable at times. The weekly emails that I receive from FiscalNote really are helpful for me not having to spend hours culling through literally thousands of pieces of legislation across the country that might touch our business. Those summary emails have been a good go-to source for me to anticipate things and figure out where I can track things in a more detailed way.” 

— Jeani Frickey Saito, system director of government relations and policy at Intermountain Healthcare (listen to the full conversation)

Build a Successful Healthcare Government Affairs Strategy

More than 46,000 healthcare-related bills have been introduced so far in 2023 at the U.S. federal and state level, according to FiscalNote data. At the local level, FiscalNote’s local monitoring service, Curate, has recorded more than 20,000 discussions related to healthcare topics in the U.S. in the same period.

With a high volume of legislation and regulation at all levels of government, changes that affect the healthcare industry can prove difficult to monitor. FiscalNote’s solutions can provide policy information and custom analysis at the global, federal, state, and local levels when you need it, so you can craft and execute a successful government affairs strategy that keeps your team and wider organization in the know.

FiscalNote’s powerful suite of tools including CQ, FrontierView, and VoterVoice, allows you to create monthly reports, manage stakeholders and advocates, and provides advanced analytics to forecast a bill’s likelihood of passage and determine which issues need your attention.