WASHINGTON WIRE
June 9, 2006
Issue 100
In this issue, you'll find:
- House Subcommittee Passes Health Information Technology Bill
- Agreement Reached on Emergency Supplemental with Health Spending Cap
- MedPAC Data Finds Higher Costs of Medicare Advantage
- PPSV in the News
- Hearings
Top Story
House Subcommittee Passes Health Information Technology Bill
On
Thursday, June 08, 2006, the House Energy & Commerce Health
Subcommittee met to mark up a Health Information Technology (HIT) bill,
legislation similar to that approved by the House Ways and Means Health
Subcommittee two weeks ago. The two committees share jurisdiction over
the HIT issue.
Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Nathan Deal (R-GA) introduced "The Better Health Information System Act," which would place the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services as well as create national standards for medical data storage and sharing.
Like the Ways and Means Committee's legislation, the Energy and Commerce bill would also construct a new system for national interoperability of data and put in place a new set of 120,000 diagnosis codes (ICD-10 codes) to be used by hospital and physicians. However, unlike the Ways and Means legislation, the bill would not require a transition to updated Medicare coding by 2009, thereby giving health plans more time to move from the ICD-9 codes to ICD-10 codes.
The Ways and Means version of the legislation has been criticized by Democrats and outside organizations that fear the bill does not go far enough in protecting patient privacy. However, Chairman Deal's legislation does not include a contentious provision included in the Ways and Means' version that would change the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to preempt state privacy laws within three years.
Chairman Deal's changes to Ways and Means' legislation were praised by many of the patient advocates who had been lobbying both Committees to incorporate greater privacy protections.
The
full Energy & Commerce Committee will markup their version of HIT
legislation on Tuesday, June 13, 2006. No date has been set for a mark
up by the Ways & Means Committee but House leaders would like to
vote on HIT legislation during their "Health Week" the week of June 19,
2006.
Health Care News
Agreement Reached on Emergency Supplemental with Health Spending Cap
On
Thursday, June 8, 2009, House and Senate conferees approved a $94.5
billion emergency supplemental appropriations bill that would provide
emergency funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and Hurricane
Katrina recovery. The legislation also includes $2.3 billion for
pandemic flu preparation.
Although conferees were hoping to sign off on the conference report earlier this week, debate ensued as Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) introduced a resolution that would cap Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) fiscal year (FY) 2007 appropriations at the President's requested $873 billion cap.
Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) did not vote for the conference report, maintaining their support for the a $7 billion increase in L-HHS funding for FY 2007. However, the supplemental conference report was approved by the conference committee with the support of Democrat Senators Mary Landrieu (LA), whose state is receiving a large amount of money from the bill for hurricane recovery, and Daniel Inouye (HI), who reiterated the need to fund the Department of Defense programs. The full House and Senate plan to vote on the measure early next week.
In
a related story, the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
Subcommittee passed its FY 2007 appropriations bill without amendment
this week. Under the bill, discretionary spending would total $141.9
billion, a slight increase over the FY 2006 appropriation and $4.1
billion over the President’s budget proposal. One billion dollars of
the discretionary spending would go toward specific projects requested
by members. The Department of Health and Human Services would receive
$477.5 billion, including mandatory spending, representing a cut of
less than one billion dollars from last year, but almost $2 billion
more than the President’s request.
The full House
Appropriations Committee plans on marking up the bill next week and
lawmakers stated that they would offer amendments to the legislation at
that time.
MedPAC Data Finds Higher Costs of Medicare Advantage
On
Tuesday, June 6, 2006, the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC)
released new data showing that Medicare pays 11 percent more per
beneficiary enrolled in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program than for
the standard fee-for-service Medicare beneficiary.
MA
beneficiaries enroll in Medicare Parts A and B and do not face the
"gap" in payment that traditional Medicare beneficiaries encounter.
Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) stated that the MA program does not lower
prices through competition as claimed and that Congress should pass
legislation that would pay MA at the same rate as traditional Medicare.
Supporters of MA state that the program does save money for
beneficiaries and provides better coverage of services than traditional
Medicare.
PPSV in the News
PPSV's Barbara Straub Williams published "Jurisdictional Issues Related to PRRB Appeals" in the May 2006 issue of Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFM) Magazine.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Health Information Technology
House Energy and Commerce Committee
Full Committee Markup
Time TBA, 2123 Rayburn Bldg.
Fiscal 2007 Appropriations: Labor/HHS/Education
House Appropriations Committee
Full Committee Markup
Time TBA, 2359 Rayburn Bldg
Information Technology and Federal Employee Health Program
House Government Reform - Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization
Subcommittee Hearing
2 p.m., 2154 Rayburn Bldg.
How NIH Handles Human Tissues
House Energy and Commerce - Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Subcommittee Hearing
2 p.m., 2123 Rayburn Bldg (and June 14, 10 a.m.)
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Non-Consensus Standards in Workplace Health and Safety
House Education and the Workforce - Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
Subcommittee Hearing
10:30 a.m., 2175 Rayburn Bldg.
Medicare Drug Benefit
House Ways and Means Committee
Full Committee Oversight Hearing
10:30 a.m., 1100 Longworth Bldg.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Social Security Disability Determination Process
House Ways and Means - Subcommittee on Social Security
Subcommittee Oversight Hearing
11 a.m., B-318 Rayburn Bldg.
Disabled Services in the District of Columbia
House Government Reform Committee
Full Committee Hearing
10 a.m., 2154 Rayburn Bldg.
For More Information
For further information on any topics discussed or publications listed, or to get copies of anything mentioned in this alert, please call (202) 466-6550 and ask for the Legislative Practice Group.
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