• District of Columbia: Last week, President Trump cut two HHS advisory committees that were originally established under the Biden administration: one on long COVID and another on health equity at CMS. According to Fierce Healthcare, the executive order aims to eliminate "unnecessary" programs at federal agencies to lower both government waste and inflation. In a separate executive order issued earlier this month, Trump ordered federal funding to be withheld from schools and universities with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. According to the New York Times, it's not clear how much of an impact the executive order will have since no states currently require K-12 students be vaccinated against COVID-19. In addition, only 15 colleges still require COVID-19 vaccines for their students as of late last year. (Beavins, Fierce Healthcare, 2/20; Mueller, New York Times, 2/14; Binkley, Associated Press, 2/14)
• Georgia: Emory Healthcare Network and CVS Health's MinuteClinic are partnering to offer more patients primary care services in Georgia. Under the new partnership, MinuteClinic will offer in-network primary care services at all of its 35 clinics in the state for most payers through Emory's integrated network. Patients will also be able to access Emory's network of acute care, specialty care, labs, radiology, and diagnostic services. According to a CVS spokesperson, the partnership with Emory is the first time MinuteClinic has expanded into primary care services with a health system. "Both Emory and CVS deeply believe that we have a lack of access to primary care in general, much less good primary care, and by combining our forces together we have an opportunity to actually serve more patients," said Creagh Milford, CVS' president of retail health. (Hudson, Modern Healthcare, 2/20)
• New York: On Monday, Pfizer announced Patrizia Cavazzoni as the company's new CMO and EVP. Most recently, Cavazzoni served as director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research from 2020 until January. Before joining FDA in 2018, she held several leadership positions at Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi. According to The Hill, Cavazzoni's return to Pfizer has led to renewed criticisms about the "revolving door" between FDA and the pharmaceutical industry, which critics worry could lead to favoritism and quid pro quo behavior. "Cavazonni's move demonstrates that the revolving door between the FDA and the industries it regulates is alive and well and continues to undermine the FDA's credibility as a public health agency," said Robert Steinbrook, health research group director of the watchdog organization Public Citizen. However, others argue that since FDA regulates products that make up a quarter of the U.S. economy, it's difficult for former agency employees to completely avoid potential conflicts. (Weixel, The Hill, 2/24; Masson, Fierce Biotech, 2/24; Herper, STAT+ [subscription required], 2/24)

Healthcare organizations that don't have an effective succession planning process face two risks. First, these organizations may fail to achieve their strategic priorities because critical roles are vacant. Second, senior leaders may select future leaders who aren't necessarily the talent the organization needs for tomorrow's challenges. Access our infographic to help you build an effective succession planning process.