WASHINGTON WIRE
July 31, 2009
Issue 210
HOUSE COMMITTEE AIMS TO FINISH MARK UP OF HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL BY WEEKEND
SENATE FINANCE PUSHES HEALTHCARE MARKUP TO SEPTEMBER
HOUSE APPROVES FOOD SAFETY BILL
CMS ANNOUCES RULE TO INCREASE HOSPICE AND HOME HEALTH RATES
HHS RELEASES ARRA FUNDS FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES HHS-LABOR-ED SPENDING BILL
HOUSE COMMITTEE INCLUDES CHRONIC CARE BILL IN HEALTHCARE REFORM LEGISLATION
Top Story
HOUSE COMMITTEE AIMS TO FINISH MARK UP OF HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL BY WEEKEND
On Friday, July 31, the House Energy and Commerce continued to mark up healthcare reform legislation and Chairman Henry Waxman's (D-CA) goal was to complete the mark up by Friday night. The House Education and Labor and Ways and Means Committees have already passed their versions of H.R. 3200, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
The Committee is expected to vote on Blue Dog and Liberal compromise amendments. Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) offered and then withdrew an amendment that would have stricken the bill's restrictions on physician-owned hospitals. Barton withdrew the amendment after gaining reassurances from Waxman that he would work to assuage his concerns.
The Committee mark up was previously delayed due to objections from fiscally conservative Blue Dog members. Waxman had worked on a compromise with the Blue Dogs, who had threatened to vote against the bill, and the mark-up restarted Thursday. Details on the compromise have yet to be released, but it is expected that the agreement will include more cost savers. Blue Dogs had expressed deep concern with the cost of the bill, which CBO scored at $1 trillion.
Reportedly, the Blue Dogs are in favor of strengthening MedPAC - or creating another independent commission that would be given significant influence in setting Medicare payment rates - and other cost cutting measures such as exempting more small business from pay-or-play requirements and reducing subsidy levels in the health insurance exchange.
Health Care News
SENATE FINANCE PUSHES HEALTHCARE MARKUP TO SEPTEMBER
The Senate Finance Committee will not mark up healthcare legislation before the Senate recesses on August 7, pushing back the timeline even further for a floor vote. Before the full chamber can vote on a bill, the Senate HELP and Finance Committees must merge their bills. The Senate HELP Committee was the first congressional committee to complete its mark up of healthcare reform legislation, on July 15.
President Obama had been pushing Congress to complete floor votes on the bills prior to the August recess, and to have a bill on his desk by October. That timeline for a final bill now is unrealistic, and stakeholders predict a final bill will not emerge until the end of the year.
In an attempt to reach a bipartisan agreement, Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has hosted a series of meetings between select Republican and Democrat members of the Senate Finance Committee. However, an August schedule for a continuation of the negotiations has not been released, leaving some to speculate how much progress can be made during the recess. Democrats have the option of using budget reconciliation to pass a healthcare reform bill in the Senate with only 51 votes.
Earlier last week, Baucus indicated that the CBO scored a partial draft bill at less than $900 billion over 10 years and found that it would cover 95 percent of Americans by 2015. The bipartisan group that has been negotiating has also reportedly found agreement on what role MedPAC should play in healthcare reform and has agreed to impose a free rider penalty instead of an employer mandate.
HOUSE APPROVES FOOD SAFETY BILL
On Thursday, July 30, the House passed HR 2749, a food safety bill that would require regulations that would make it easier to track food products and create more strict facility inspection standards, including mandatory food quarantines. The bill is in part a response to a spate of recent recalls of food products, including peanut butter, tomatoes and spinach. The legislation went straight to the floor instead of first being sent to the Agriculture Committee, which upset some committee members in both parties.
Partly because the Committee was skipped before the first floor vote on Wednesday, the bill failed to pass the House under a rule that restricted debate and amendments in exchange for needing two-thirds to pass the bill. The legislation later passed on Thursday under a closed rule that allows for passage by simple majority.
CMS ANNOUCES RULE TO INCREASE HOSPICE AND HOME HEALTH RATES
CMS announced a rule on Thursday, July 30, that would increase payments for home health agencies by 2.2 percentage points in FY 2010 if agencies submit quality data, and that FY 2010 payments could be decreased by 0.2 percentage points if agencies fail to submit the data. Under the rule, Hospices would receive a 1.4 percent increase in FY 2010 payments, after a 2.1 percent increase is decreased by a phase out of the budget neutrality factor. The rule will be published in the Federal Register on August 6.
HHS RELEASES ARRA FUNDS FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
On July 28, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that $200 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding is now available for the training and financial support of health care professionals. The $200 million will be used for scholarships, loans, grants, primary care training programs, and increasing diversity of the professional workforce, among other areas. The HHS will be using a competitive process to determine how to allocate funding and financial awards. A remaining $300 million in ARRA workforce funds will be used to expand and develop HRSA's National Health Service Corps.
SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES HHS-LABOR-ED SPENDING BILL
On Thursday, July 30, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its $730 billion fiscal 2010 spending bill for health, education, and labor programs. The bill will allocate 163.1 billion in discretionary funding, $3.2 billion more than fiscal 2009 and $2.1 billion more than the House version of the bill. The NIH will be allocated $30.8 billion for biomedical research and the bill allots $217 million for nursing education, $13.8 billion for title I grants to local education agencies, and $311 million for Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC).
PPSV in the News
HOUSE COMMITTEE INCLUDES CHRONIC CARE BILL IN HEALTHCARE REFORM LEGISLATION
On Thursday evening the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved an amendment including the Independence at Home Act as a part of the health reform bill. The IAH Act, crafted by attorneys at Powers, Pyles, Sutter and Verville, establishes a chronic care coordination benefit under Medicare for the highest cost Medicare beneficiaries suffering from two or more high cost chronic conditions. The program allows providers and practitioners to enter into agreements with the Secretary under which they pledge to achieve a 5% reduction in the cost to Medicare for these beneficiaries and are paid 80% of any savings beyond 5%.
The IAH Act is modeled on hundreds of physician house call programs across the country that have reduced the cost of health care for this patient population by from 25% to 60%. The IAH Amendment was introduced by Congressmen Ed Markey (D-MA) and Michael Burgess (R-TX). Documents released so far by the Senate Finance Committee indicate that the Independence at Home Act will also be included in the Finance Committee health reform bill. The IAH Act (S. 1131, H.R. 2560) has broad bipartisan sponsorship on the Senate as well as the House.
Upcoming Events
Hearings
Tuesday, Aug. 4
HELP Nominations
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Full Committee Markup
Time TBA, location TBA
Defective Medical Devices
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Full Committee Hearing
2:30 p.m., 430 Dirksen Bldg.
For More Information
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