We've told you about prominent health care staffers on the Hill, but some key policy experts elsewhere in town could influence PBM legislation, price transparency measures, site-neutral policies and other unfinished business in the session's homestretch, Peter reports.

• We broke it down by whom Republicans and Democrats tend to rely on, though the experts themselves aren't all partisan, and some talk to both parties.

The Democrats' brain trust includes:

Richard Frank, director, Brookings Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy

The emeritus professor of health economics at Harvard is well known from his stint as an assistant health secretary in the Obama administration.

• He provided expertise in drug pricing when Medicare drug negotiations were being crafted. A more recent focus is drug shortages, including a CMS payment system that would reward hospitals that mitigate them.

Gerard Anderson, professor of health policy and management, Johns Hopkins

Another drug pricing expert, Anderson provided policy advice on the IRA as it was being drafted, including the periods of exclusivity for synthetic and biologic drugs before price negotiations begin.

Sarah Lueck, vice president for health policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

CBPP does a lot of work on Medicaid, which puts it at the center of the action as the continuous-coverage provision from the pandemic is unwound and millions start to lose coverage.

• Lueck has also written recently to push back on House legislation to expand association health plans and health savings accounts.

Edwin Park, research professor, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families

Park is a go-to source on Medicaid and has recently analyzed how the program would fare under Senate PBM legislation and a House drug shortage proposal.

• The Georgetown center is also closely tracking the data from the Medicaid unwinding.

Aaron Kesselheim, Harvard Medical School professor and director of its Program on Regulation, Therapeutics and Law

Kesselheim focuses much of his work on drug prices, including looking at why the U.S. pays more for medicines than other developed countries.

• His work has attracted the attention of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who even floated his name for NIH director this year, the Washington Post reported.

Congressional Republicans have their own health policy brain trust ready to weigh in on provider issues, budgetary matters and entitlements, Victoria reports. The members include:

Brian Blase, president, Paragon Health Institute

Blase is a Hill and Trump administration alum with extensive GOP contacts and his own think tank.

• This year, he's worked with House Ways and Means on employer insurance bills, Education and the Workforce on association health plans and all three House health committees on price transparency.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president, American Action Forum

Holtz-Eakin served as Congressional Budget Office director and chief economic policy adviser for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. He's also testified before Congress numerous times over the last decade.

• He notes that once-niche issues like ERISA, 340B and PBMs are becoming a big deal, adding that Medicare insolvency should be getting aired out more.

Brian Miller, nonresident fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Miller is a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital who also does policy research on Medicare payments, FDA regulatory policy and health care competition at AEI.

• He wrote an op-ed with Sen. James Lankford opposing the ACA ban on physician-owned hospitals and recently went on Rep. Dan Crenshaw's podcast to discuss AI and health care.

Marty Makary, professor of surgery, Johns Hopkins

The high-profile academic became an even bigger name during the pandemic by questioning the effectiveness of masks and the necessity of COVID boosters for children and asserting that COVID-19 originated with a lab leak.

• He testified this year in front of the COVID select subcommittee and in front of Senate HELP Committee on PAHPA reauthorization.

Russ Vought, president, Center for Renewing America

Vought advised the House Freedom Caucus on debt ceiling negotiations and stood apart from some other conservatives by urging Congress not to touch Medicare.

• His think tank's FY23 budget proposal, however, would significantly cut Medicaid spending, implement Medicaid work requirements and eliminate ACA subsidies.

1. Warren-Jayapal letter to FDA: Although the start of Medicare drug price negotiations was getting all the attention yesterday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Pramila Jayapal fired off a letter asking FDA Commissioner Robert Califf to write tighter rules around how drug patents are listed in the agency's "Orange Book."

2. NIH nominee ethics pledge: Biden's NIH director nominee, Monica Bertagnolli, agreed to ethics commitments sought by Warren, including not to work for a large pharmaceutical company for four years after leaving the post. Read her letter to Warren here.

3. CMS nursing home staffing study: This KFF Health News piece noted that a CMS study concluded there was no specific staffing level that would ensure good health care at nursing homes, although it did say higher staffing levels in general are better. (An editor's note says CMS took the study down after the story was published.)

4. Generative AI and health care: HCA Healthcare and Google Cloud say they're going to use generative AI for tasks like taking notes on doctor-patient conversations for use in the electronic health records, per Healthcare IT News.

5. COVID-19 funding: One thing that left us a bit puzzled was White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's non-response Monday when reporters asked for more details after Biden told reporters last week that he would be requesting more funding from Congress related to a new COVID-19 vaccine. "I don't have anything new to say or to add," she said.