The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is planning to file a food additive petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking that it revoke its decades-old approval of fluorine-treated polyethylene for food packaging, a move that would increase pressure on the agency to ban PFAS in products that contact food.

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) on Friday (Jan. 27) voted to recommend Congress grant states the ability to impose Medicaid coverage limitations on drugs approved by FDA that lack full evidence of efficacy and for which CMS restricts Medicare coverage as more evidence is gathered on whether the drugs work.

FDA on Friday (Jan. 27) published draft guidance that proposes eliminating the 3-month deferral on blood donations for men who have sex with men in an attempt to move toward a gender-inclusive, individual risk-based approach to assessing blood donor eligibility, after years of calls from some lawmakers, LGBTQ advocates, and medical and policy experts who argued the agency’s deferral policy is discriminatory against gay and bisexual men.

The number of Medicare Advantage plans offering Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill and Expanded Primarily Health-Related Benefits continued to rise meteorically for the 2023 year, according to new insights from ATI Advisory, but with MA oversight in CMS’ crosshairs and stakeholders anxiously awaiting the final version of a 2018 risk adjustment rule that cleared the White House Thursday (Jan. 26), the announcement comes at a moment strained by potential upheaval.