Axios

The Biden administration and U.S. agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars — part of an effort to fight childhood obesity and other diet-related diseases.

Driving the news: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the proposed standards at the USDA Conversation on Healthy School Meals Roundtable, and said in a statement that the goal is “keeping kids healthy and helping them reach their full potential.”

The majority of Americans (57%) support a ban on the sale of all tobacco products and even more support blocking sales of menthol cigarettes (62%), a CDC study published in Preventing Chronic Disease found.

Driving the news: Researchers asked nearly 6,500 people in 2021 about what extent they might support prohibiting tobacco sales.

There were more than 35 million prior authorization requests to Medicare Advantage insurers in 2021, according to an analysis from KFF.

Why it matters: Drawn by promises of capped out-of-pocket costs, vision and dental benefits, and perks like fitness classes, Medicare Advantage plans make up around half of the plans seniors are choosing for their coverage.

More states are working out differences over what medical services non-doctors can provide in order to ease stubborn workforce shortages plaguing health systems.

Why it matters: The pandemic prompted states to waive certain licensure requirements which allowed providers to more easily practice in other states or to expand the services they were allowed to provide to patients, including via telehealth.

Medicare Advantage plans are in line for a 2.09% rate increase in 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a notice on Wednesday.

Why it matters: The adjustment is driven by growth in Medicare fee-for-service costs. But analysts said the bump is offset by other policy changes that would translate into a net reduction of 2.27%.

• The notice comes as private Medicare plans continue to draw enrollees away from traditional Medicare with promises of capped out-of-pocket costs, vision and dental benefits, and perks like fitness classes.
• The average change in revenue for Medicare Advantage plans will be 1.03% next year, CMS said.

Yes, but: Plans are concerned about the notice, and the final rates that will be published no later than April 3

• "CMS should not finalize payment policies that increase costs and/or reduce benefits for MA enrollees, especially when health care cost and inflationary pressures remain high," Matt Eyles, president and CEO of AHIP, the insurer trade group, said in a statement.
• "There is no real way to sugar coat this as anything other than a bad rate update for MA plans," Raymond James & Associates' note on the policy says.
• Cowen analysts predicted plans will reduce benefits to protect their margins.

Go deeper: Beyond the rate adjustment, CMS will implement changes brought by the Inflation Reduction Act, including a cap on out-of-pocket spending on insulin and the elimination cost-sharing for recommended preventive vaccines.

• It also reflects changes the IRA brought to Medicare's Part D drug program, such as the elimination of cost-sharing for Part D prescription drugs in the catastrophic phase expanded eligibility for premium subsidies.

Between the lines: CMS in the notice proposed a series of technical updates to the Medicare Advantage risk adjustment model, to improve payment accuracy.

• The moves comes the same week the agency finalized a plan to increase audits of Medicare Advantage insurers and claw back about $4.7 billion in overpayments.

Of note: CMS again proposed to use the minimum required rate for adjusting diagnostic coding in the Medicare Advantage program.

• Experts, including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, say increasing the adjustment factor would ease coding abuse problems in Medicare Advantage that have cost the federal government billions of dollars.

Families with kids fighting cancer in the U.S. will soon have clinical and patient navigation support to help them find optimal care, connecting with research trials and more portable, shareable health records under a partnership being launched by the National Cancer Institute.

Why it matters: It's among a series of actions directed at cancer care and prevention the Biden administration plans to announce today to mark the first anniversary of the revived Cancer Moonshot, the White House shared first with Axios.

Public school districts that received a windfall of COVID relief funds for mental health services are confronting a new dilemma: How to sustain counseling, screenings, teletherapy and other programs when the money runs out.

Why it matters: The youth mental health crisis is not getting better, and schools are increasingly being pressed into service as first responders amid rising rates of suicidal ideation, overdoses and gun violence.