• District of Columbia: President Joe Biden on Monday issued an executive order boosting government research into women's health. The order directs federal agencies to develop and strengthen research and data standards on women's health, prioritize funding for and encourage innovation in women's health, and assess any gaps in federal funding for women's health research. According to Biden, the executive order is "the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to improve women's health." In addition to Biden's order, NIH is launching an agency-wide initiative to reduce gaps in women's health research, which will be supported by $200 million in funding beginning in fiscal year 2025. (Frieden, MedPageToday, 3/18)
• Georgia: According to a new CDC report, U.S. life expectancy increased for the first time in two years. The new report is based on final mortality data for 2022; previously, CDC released a similar report with provisional data. In 2022, U.S. life expectancy was 77.5 years, up from 76.4 years in 2021 and 77 years in 2020. This increase in life expectancy was due in part to a decrease in deaths from COVID-19. Between 2021 and 2022, the age-adjusted death rate for COVID-19 fell by more than half, and the virus dropped from being the third leading cause of death to the fourth. However, even with the U.S. life expectancy increase, it still falls short of pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, U.S. life expectancy was 78.8 years. Life expectancy in the United States also continues to be lower than the life expectancy in other peer countries, many of which saw more significant recoveries since the pandemic. "Put simply, the fact that life expectancy in 2022 was lower than in 2019 means that Americans continue to die at higher rates than they did before the pandemic, despite the rebound," said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health. "We are hardly out of the woods." (Cirruzzo, Politico, 3/21; McPhillips, CNN, 3/21)
• Illinois: Walgreens' primary care provider VillageMD announced on Wednesday that it sold 11 of its clinics in Rhode Island to Arches Medical Partners. The deal included eight offices and three urgent care clinics and allows Arches to establish a presence in the Providence metropolitan area. The clinics employ 50 primary care physicians and cover around 75,000 patients. "We are excited about establishing new solution for our patients and creating this nucleus of primary care in Rhode Island," said Arches CEO Chris Kryder. "We expect to grow organically and quickly." According to Modern Healthcare, this is the first time VillageMD has sold its clinics to another company instead of closing them as part of a broader cost-cutting measure at Walgreens. So far, VillageMD has closed or plans to close over 80 clinics in several states this year. (Hudson, Modern Healthcare, 3/20; Business Wire, 3/20)

How and where Americans die has drastically changed over time. Use our infographic as a guide for the conversations providers, patients, and caregivers should be having about end-of-life care.