Billy Wynne

Federal Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration Appeal to Limit SNAP Funding During Shutdown Late Sunday night, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a 29-page opinion denying the Trump administration’s request to block a lower court order requiring full November funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the ongoing government…

Trump Administration Moves to Tighten Public Charge Standards Amid New Visa Health Guidance U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) that could significantly reshape the public charge standard used to determine whether certain immigrants are inadmissible to the United States. Logged on November…

Agency Issues Information Bulletin to States on Supporting Implementation of HR 1 Medicaid and CHIP Duplicative Enrollment Provisions The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new information bulletin entitled “Ensuring Medicaid Eligibility Integrity by Addressing Concurrent Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Enrollment Across States.” This publication represents the latest publication…

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Fully Fund This Month’s SNAP Benefits by November 7 Today, Judge John J. McConnell of the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for November by Friday, November 7 after sharply criticizing the Trump for defying…

Trump Administration Announces MFN Agreements for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, Previews CMMI Model for Medicare Coverage of GLP-1s for Obesity President Trump announced new Most-Favored Nation (MFN) agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, including steps to make their GLP-1 products more affordable across all markets. Additional details follow. New to the MFN agreements…

Agency Highlights 2025 Top Unimplemented Recommendations with Billions in Potential Savings The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released the top unimplemented recommendations, highlighting opportunities for savings and operational improvements within several programs. As of October 2025, OIG identified 22 priority unimplemented recommendations, distributed as follows: 18 directed to…

Agency Finds Medicare Improperly Paid for Medical Equipment and Supplies Provided to Enrollees During Inpatient Stays In an October 28 report, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that Medicare improperly paid $22.7 million from 2018 to 2024 to suppliers for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and…

Sen. Cassidy Introduces Health Information Privacy Reform Act, Extending Health Privacy Protections to Digital Health Technologies that Fall Outside HIPAA’s Current Reach Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the Health Information Privacy Reform Act (S.3097), which aims to significantly expand federal health privacy protections to cover consumer health technologies, such as mobile health apps, wearables, and…

Agency Will Pay Half of November SNAP Benefits Using the Contingency Fund; Adds More Tariff Funding for WIC The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will deplete its $4.65 billion contingency fund to pay half of eligible households’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in November, according to new court documents. USDA was ordered to use the contingency fund…

Trump Administration Finalizes Rule Narrowing Public Service Loan Forgiveness Eligibility Last week, the Department of Education issued a final rule amending the definition of “qualifying employer” under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program (fact sheet; press release). Under the new rule, effective July 1, 2026, organizations that the agency deems as having a “substantial…