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New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. disclosed Tuesday that he was being treated for depression during his unexplained four-month absence from the House, suggesting in a brief floor speech that he remained silent about his condition until now because he is a “private person by nature.” Depression, Kean said, “is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.” (Catalini and Cappelletti, 6/30)

During his two decades in the New Jersey Senate, Kean consistently opposed paid sick leave for his constituents. He voted against New Jersey’s historic Earned Sick Leave Act, which mandates 5 paid sick leave days per year for New Jersey workers. He also voted against New Jersey’s No Surprise Medical Bills act and two of its paid family leave laws, in 2008 and 2018. For Yarrow Willman-Cole of the nonprofit New Jersey Citizen Action, who organized for the Earned Sick Leave Act in 2018, Kean’s four-month absence is bitterly ironic. “He’s been able to rely on things he directly voted against,” Willman-Cole said. (Hurwitz and Métraux, 6/30)

Depression is staggeringly common in the United States, with more than one in four adults reporting having been diagnosed with the condition in their lifetimes. In a given year, more than 8 percent of U.S. adults might report a major depressive episode. And there are more than 500,000 hospitalizations for a depressive disorder each year. Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a Republican from New Jersey, announced on Tuesday that he had joined the ranks of those who had been hospitalized for depression. (Goldstein and Smith, 6/30)

Physician practices participating in a Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) may have an easier time submitting quality data to Medicare if a bill passed Monday by the House becomes law. H.R. 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act, would allow Medicare ACOs to continue to collect quality data through three types of measures -- electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), Merit-Based Incentive Payment System clinical quality measures, and Medicare clinical quality measures -- through performance year 2029. Previously, ACOs were supposed to begin using only eCQMs starting last year, according to a regulation issued by CMS in 2024. (Frieden, 6/30)

Concern over healthcare consolidation is growing on Capitol Hill, but the private equity firms that some lawmakers blame for intensifying industry concentration have mostly escaped legislative attention. That may be about to change. Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee pledged last Thursday to work on bipartisan draft legislation that would require extensive reporting of private equity investors’ healthcare holdings. (McAuliff, 6/30)

Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of the Senate but have pulled within striking distance of enough Republican-held seats to put the majority in play this fall, according to new New York Times/Siena polls in six Senate battleground states. Republicans are hampered by the unpopularity of President Trump and his diminished standing on the economy, while most of the Democratic candidates are so far running ahead of their party’s own struggling brand, the polls show. (Goldmacher, Igielnik and Baker, 7/1)