The start of the Trump Administration has ushered in a wave of new healthcare regulatory changes that will affect healthcare providers across the care spectrum. The most immediate changes impacting healthcare providers are the following:
Affordable Care Act Enrollment
President Trump’s Executive Order 14148 rescinded a Biden Administration order that extended enrollment periods and provided funding for third parties—navigators—to assist Americans in enrolling in ACA marketplace plans. Providers should expect these actions to reduce the number of patients covered by marketplace plans. For CY 2025, more than 23.6 million Americans had obtained healthcare coverage through a Marketplace plan.
Drug Spending
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) was developing three new models to lower drug costs. President Trump issued Executive Order 14148, which stopped these programs. Providers may find patients less compliant with medication regimens due to increased consumer prices and should plan accordingly.
Medicaid
The fate of the Medicaid program is currently in peril as Congressional Republicans contemplate reported massive cuts and changes to the Medicaid program. House Republicans passed a budget resolution that directed the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in program cuts through 2034. While the resolution does not specifically call out the Medicaid program or give specifics on how these cuts would be achieved, these levels of cuts cannot be attained without reductions to Medicaid. Providers need to stay informed about these new healthcare regulatory changes.
AI in Healthcare
On January 23, 2025, President Trump rescinded Executive Order 14410, Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. This Executive Order issued by the Biden Administration established government-wide efforts to guide responsible AI development. It established a framework that Federal agencies and others could use to evaluate various AI programs’ safety and security, potential bias, consumer protections that may be needed, and privacy considerations. Given how heavily regulated healthcare providers’ patient data remains, healthcare organizations should establish and maintain their own AI evaluation, adoption, and implementation policies that guard against these threats.
Medical Research
On February 7, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates, which caps the number of indirect costs a research institute can claim at 15% of total grant amounts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These costs cover items such as support staff, human subject research protections, hazardous waste disposal, facilities, and utility costs needed to conduct highly complex medical research. Some institutions’ indirect cost rate can be as follows: 50% of grant funding. The NIH is the single largest funder of biomedical research in the world. A Federal judge has issued a temporary stay, preventing the cuts from taking place for now. However, healthcare entities with significant biomedical research operations should begin planning for how such cuts could be absorbed and how to accomplish administrative and compliance activities with reduced funding and potential staffing cuts.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary on February 13, 2025. Mr. Kennedy has signaled that the following areas will be priorities within DHHS:
- Focusing on the causes of chronic childhood diseases.
- Reducing the Federal Health Agency workforce.
- Reevaluating the childhood vaccine schedule.
- Assessing the risks of anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medications.
- Reviewing other public health measures, such as fluoridating public water supplies.
Such actions could have wide-ranging and long-lasting impacts on the health of provider’s patient populations in varied ways. Providers in areas with lower vaccination rates should plan for potential increases in diseases previously eradicated, such as measles.
If you have questions about how these regulatory changes could affect your practice, please contact the Dean Dorton healthcare team today.
