Summary
The Biden Administration recently released its Spring 2023 Unified Agenda, which outlines regulatory plans for federal agencies over the coming year. The Unified Agenda reflects the Biden Administration’s continued priority on policies addressing health. In our regulatory outlook, we highlight rulemaking on coverage and payment, public health and safety, social drivers of health, and cross-cutting topics, including behavioral health and drug pricing, among others.
- What it is. The Spring 2023 edition of the semiannual unified agenda contains regulatory actions that federal agencies plan to undertake in the next 12 months. The Unified Agenda includes annual regulatory updates (e.g., Medicare payment policies); regulations implementing newly enacted laws, such as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022; and regulations implementing Executive Orders and other priorities, such as regulatory proposals in the President’s Budget. Most of the entries were included in the Fall 2022 edition and may have been updated with new timetables.
Each entry is organized by federal agency and its stage in the rulemaking process – prerule stage (e.g., Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking), proposed rule stage (e.g., Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), final rule stage, long-term actions, and completed actions. We include entries from most agencies at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); Department of Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS); several agencies at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Our regulatory outlook highlights federal regulatory actions by the following policy areas:
| A. Coverage and Payment | B. Cross-Cutting Topics | C. Public Health and Safety | D. Social Drivers of Health |
| 1. Medicaid
2. Medicare 3. Private Insurance |
1. Behavioral Health
2. Drug Pricing 3. Health IT and Digital Health 4. Mergers 5. Nondiscrimination Protections |
1. Food and Drug Administration
2. Public Health
|
1. Housing
2. Nutrition 3. Social Services |
- Why it is important for you. As a roadmap of the Biden Administration’s regulatory priorities, the Unified Agenda enables stakeholders to anticipate and prepare for rulemaking. Stakeholders can participate by requesting an EO 12866 meeting with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and/or submitting public comments. Projected dates for regulatory actions may shift, but they are helpful guides for advocacy planning.
- Next steps. Impact Health will flag regulatory actions as they move through the process, specifically when they reach OMB for review and when regulatory review is completed. We include these updates in our Weekly sent on Mondays. For each policy area, we note the lead Impact Health team member that can answer any questions or provide additional assistance.